• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Chapter 2. The Politics of the American Founding

Exercises

Test your knowledge of the American Revolution

1. Go to the web site for the PBS documentary Liberty! The American Revolution.
2. Click on the "Road to the Revolution Game" link at the top of the page.
3. Answer the questions. When you answer a question correctly, you have the opportunity to peruse a historical document or watch a video of a historian describing the importance of the event or issue at question. Real Player is needed to view the commentary.

Understand the documents that led to the Constitution

1. Go to the web site for the Constitution Center.
2. Click on the "Explore the Constitution" tab at the top of the page.
3. Click on the "Founding Documents" option in the left-hand column.
4. Pick three of the documents listed, and answer the following questions:
   • What aspects of the documents were incorporated into the Constitution?
   • What parts of the documents were not incorporated in the Constitution? Why do you think these were left out?
   
   
   
5. Be sure to check out the "Interactive Constitution" option under the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Reconstruction Amendments. See excerpts from the original Constitution side-by-side with explanations of these excerpts from The Words We Live by award-winning author and journalist Linda Monk.

Amending the Constitution

As the chapter illustrates, it is difficult to amend the Constitution of the United States. There have been twenty-seven amendments, but the first ten were passed as the Constitution was ratified and are known as the Bill of Rights. Three other amendments address resolutions to end divisions after the Civil War(13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments), and two cancel each other out (the 18th Amendment's prohibition against alcohol and the 21st Amendment's repeal of this prohibition). This demonstrates the difficulty with successfully amending the Constitution.

1. Go to the U.S. House of Representative's United States Constitution web page (or use the copy of the Constitution in the appendix of your book). Scroll down to Article 5 where it describes how to amend the Constitution. Also look at the different amendments. Some are rather brief while others are longer. Is there an amendment that you would like to see passed? Lately a number of issues have led some people to promote amending the Constitution.
   
   
   
2. A popular amendment that has passed the U.S. House of Representatives numerous times over the years is an amendment to ban the burning of the American flag. The Supreme Court has ruled that burning the flag is a protected form of free speech. Read a history of the court's ruling on the PBS web site dedicated to Thomas Jefferson's ideals. It discusses the Supreme Court case U.S. vs. Eichman and provides the Court's logic on why flag burning should be allowed.
   • Would you support an amendment that outlawed flag burning?
   • How would such an amendment read?
   
   
   
3. Other popular possible amendments concern whether same-sex marriage should be banned. Supporters of such an amendment (see NoGayMarriage.com) argue that it would supercede any state being able to allow gay marriage, and those against such an amendment (see DontAmend.com) view it as discriminatory.
   • Would you support such an amendment?
   • How would such an amendment be written?