United States History Student Edition

G

Complete Your Inquiry EVALUATE SOURCES AND USE EVIDENCE Refer back to the Compelling Question and the Supporting Questions you developed at the beginning of the lesson. 1. Comparing Identify two sources that supported the ratification of the Constitution. What reasons did each source provide for this point of view? 2. Evaluating Which source in this lesson do you find to be the most persuasive? Why? 3. Gathering Sources Which sources helped you answer the Supporting Questions and the Compelling Question? Which sources, if any, challenged what you thought you knew when you first created your Supporting Questions? What information do you still need in order to answer your questions? What other viewpoints would you like to investigate? Where would you find that information? 4. Evaluating Sources Identify the sources that helped answer your Supporting Questions. How reliable is each source? How would you verify the reliability of each source? COMMUNICATE CONCLUSIONS 5. Collaborating Work with a partner to discuss the concerns that arose about the Constitution during the ratification process. How do these sources represent the issues and concerns of the country at this point in its history? Share your conclusions with the class. TAKE INFORMED ACTION Writing an Editorial Politicians and citizens today often explain their political views or comment on important current issues by writing editorials to appear in newspapers or online. Choose a current issue that interests you, such as the environment, education, health care, or the economy. Search newspapers, online news sources, and politicians’ websites for opinions related to your chosen issue. Summarize the viewpoints you have discovered. Then write a newspaper editorial on your issue and what actions the government might take to address it. While you are expressing an opinion, make sure your argument is fact based and remains civil, not attacking those who might disagree with you.

Slavery and the New Constitution

The Constitution’s treatment of slavery was controversial with some Americans, including some state ratifying conventions. The following excerpt describes a debate that occurred at the Massachusetts Convention. PRIMARY SOURCE: MEETING RECORD “ Mr. NEAL (from Kittery) [repeated the objection] that the slave trade was allowed to be continued for twenty years. His profession, he said, obliged him to bear witness against any thing that should favor the making merchandise of the bodies of men, and, unless his objection was removed, he could not put his hand to the Constitution. Other gentlemen said, in addition to this idea, that there was not even a proposition that the negroes ever shall be free; and Gen. THOMPSON exclaimed, Mr. President, shall it be said that, after we have established our own independence and freedom, we make slaves of others? O! [George] Washington, what a name has he had! How he has immortalized himself! But he holds those in slavery who have as good a right to be free as he has. ” — From A Concise Guide to the Records of the State Ratifying Conventions as a Source of the Original Meaning of the U.S. Constitution EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Identifying What specific objections to the Constitution’s treatment of slavery are mentioned in this discussion? 2. Analyzing Points of View What argument is presented against the continuation of slavery that is allowed in the Constitution? Why does the speaker mention George Washington in his argument? obliged legally or morally bound immortalized given lasting fame

Maggs, Gregory E. A Concise Guide to the Records of the State Ratifying Conventions as a Source of the Original Meaning of the U.S. Constitution. Illinois Law Review, Vol. 2009, No. 2. Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois College of Law, 2009.

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