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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
- Magna Carta was the result of the Angevin king's disastrous foreign policy and overzealous financial administration.
- Heirs shall be married without disparagement, yet so that before the marriage takes place the nearest in blood to that heir shall have notice.
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Petition of Right
- A statement of civil liberties sent by the English Parliament to Charles I.
- Arbitrary arrest and imprisonment for opposing these policies had produced in Parliament a violent hostility to Charles and George Villiers.
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English Bill of Rights
- By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, without consent of parliament.
- By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates, for humbly petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said assumed power.
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Albany Plan of Union
- Aware of the strains that war would put on the colonies, English officials suggested a union between Royal, Proprietary & Charter Governments.
- Franklin anticipated many of the problems that would ruin the government, created after independence, such as finance, dealing with the Indian tribes, control of commerce, and defense.
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Boston Massacre
- The Boston Massacre was a street fight between a patriot mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers.
- Several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry.
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Boston Tea Party
- The Tea Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain.
- A related objective was to undercut the price of tea smuggled into Britain's North American colonies.
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First Continental Congress
- All of the colonies except Georgia sent delegates.
- These were elected by the people, by the colonial legislatures, or by the committees of correspondence of the respective colonies.
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Second Continental Congress
- The delegates of the 13 colonies gathered in Philadelphia to discuss their next steps.
- There were several new delegates including: John Hancock from Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and Benjamin Franklin from Pennsylvania.
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Declaration of Independence
- Drafted by Thomas Jefferson.
- He expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people.
- The political philosophy of the Declaration was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had already been expressed by John Locke and continental philosophers.
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Articles of Confederation
Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence.
Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts. -
Shay's Rebellion
- A crucial period in our nation's founding when the survival of the republican experiment in government was neither destined nor assured.
- Shays' Rebellion had a great influence on public opinion.
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Philadelphia Convention
- Although the Convention was intended to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents, was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one.
- The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the Convention.
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Virginia Plan
- Drafted by James Madison, and presented by Edmund Randolph to the Constitutional Convention.
- Proposed a strong central government composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.
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New Jersey Plan
- Founded 2 weeks after the virginia plan.
- Patterson's ideas amounted to no more than a simple reshaping of the Articles of Confederation.
