8. US History - US Constitution is Drawn Up (1787) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01Okay, so we now have a fully independent
2. 0:04country. Um, and we're moving on to the
3. 0:06section of history that we've entitled
4. 0:07early independence. Um, why did we uh
5. 0:11section this off from the rest of
6. 0:13history, let's say? Um, because this is
7. 0:16where you see that this new country is
8. 0:19going to need some to function. Um,
9. 0:21the first thing that they do is draw up
10. 0:23a constitution. Um, according to that
11. 0:26constitution, the country should be run
12. 0:27by a president. So then they elect
13. 0:28George Washington to be that first
14. 0:30president in uh 1791. They also ratify a
15. 0:34specific section of the constitution uh
16. 0:36entitled the bill of rights and then um
17. 0:39they live in semi peace until in 1830
18. 0:43they decide to then kick out the
19. 0:45natives. All right let's start with uh
20. 0:49the constitution.
21. 0:51So in 1787 a US constitution is drawn
22. 0:55up.
23. 0:57This is what it looks like. Uh first I
24. 1:00want to discuss some W questions. The
25. 1:01first of which being why why would they
26. 1:04need a constitution? Well before this
27. 1:06there were obviously laws as well. The
28. 1:09only thing they really had that even
29. 1:11came close uh to a constitution was a
30. 1:13document called the articles of
31. 1:15confederation. However, these articles
32. 1:17specify that almost all the political
33. 1:19power was uh with the states rather than
34. 1:21with the federal government. So that
35. 1:24makes the federal government pretty
36. 1:25weak. It also means that there's pretty
37. 1:28much no centralized power. And that
38. 1:30means that for example um when let's say
39. 1:32the UK is still pissed off about losing
40. 1:35its colony and then they come back and
41. 1:37they want to fight there's no co no one
42. 1:39coordinating the military effort for the
43. 1:41whole country. So if this country is to
44. 1:44stand a chance as a newly formed federal
45. 1:46nation, they very much needed a
46. 1:48constitution. That's the why of it all.
47. 1:51Moving on to when um in 1787, a group of
48. 1:55men fiercely debated about what should
49. 1:57and should not be in this new
50. 1:59constitution from May to September of
51. 2:011787.
52. 2:03The next one would be the where where
53. 2:05did they do that? Uh that's an easy one.
54. 2:07It's in Philadelphia, which is in
55. 2:09Pennsylvania.
56. 2:11Um fourthly, the who of it all who wrote
57. 2:15up this constitution. Um you can see
58. 2:19here uh this Mary coupe of men uh who
59. 2:22are now known as the founding fathers.
60. 2:24They wrote the constitution. Uh the most
61. 2:26famous of these are probably George
62. 2:28Washington uh who led the constitutional
63. 2:31convention. Then there's also Benjamin
64. 2:33Franklin. That's the guy that's on the
65. 2:35$100 bill. if ever, like in a rap song
66. 2:38or something. You hear that people want
67. 2:39Benjamins, that means they want $100
68. 2:41bills. And then somebody else you might
69. 2:43have heard of is this one. His name is
70. 2:46Alexander Hamilton. Um, why would you
71. 2:48have heard of this one? Especially if
72. 2:50you're a fan of musicals. Uh, well,
73. 2:52because he is the titular character of
74. 2:54the musical Hamilton, which also
75. 2:56discusses a lot um about this
76. 2:59convention. Uh, so the musical discusses
77. 3:01this convention. If you're a fan,
78. 3:03definitely go check it out. It's wildly
79. 3:05popular. So uh tickets will not be easy
80. 3:07to come by but it's definitely worth
81. 3:08your while. Um the fifth thing or the
82. 3:11fifth W question I want to discuss is
83. 3:13the what as in what would be in this
84. 3:16constitution.
85. 3:18Um first of all there are uh 10
86. 3:21amendments. The first 10 amendments are
87. 3:23in Dutch articul uh they list specific
88. 3:27rights and freedoms that the citizens
89. 3:29have. for example, the right to freedom
90. 3:31of speech that's in the first amendment
91. 3:33or the right to a fair trial and so on
92. 3:35and so on. These 10 amendments are known
93. 3:37collectively as the bill of rights. So
94. 3:39when somebody says bill of rights, what
95. 3:41they mean is simply the 10 first
96. 3:43amendments
97. 3:45of the constitution, but we'll talk more
98. 3:47about those uh later. Secondly, it also
99. 3:51contains a bunch of contains a bunch of
100. 3:52decisions that specify the form of
101. 3:54government. For example, it says that
102. 3:56this country is to be a federal country,
103. 3:58which is kind of like Belgium. There's a
104. 4:01federal government and then there's a
105. 4:02bunch of lower level governments for the
106. 4:04states, for the counties, for the cities
107. 4:06and so on and so on. Uh, another example
108. 4:08of what it says about the form of
109. 4:10government is that there will be a
110. 4:12bicamal congress. That simply means that
111. 4:14Congress consists of two chambers. In
112. 4:16the case of the United States, there's a
113. 4:18chamber called the House of
114. 4:19Representatives and then there's a
115. 4:21chamber called the Senate. Um, another
116. 4:24thing that this document specifies about
117. 4:26the um, politics of the country is that
118. 4:29they want to separate their powers into
119. 4:32an executive branch which is headed by
120. 4:33the president, a legislative branch
121. 4:35which is pretty much Congress and the
122. 4:37judicial branch which consists of the
123. 4:39Supreme Court and all of the lower
124. 4:40courts. Um, I'm going over this pretty
125. 4:42quickly because we'll discuss this um,
126. 4:45in way more detail when we discuss US
127. 4:46politics in the next section of unit
128. 4:48one. So um those were some W questions
129. 4:53uh in order. We discussed why did they
130. 4:55need a constitution at all, when was it
131. 4:57written, where was it written, who wrote
132. 4:59it and what is in it. Um the second
133. 5:02thing, the second large thing I want to
134. 5:04discuss is what is wrong with it?
135. 5:06Because just like the declaration of
136. 5:08pendant of independence, the
137. 5:09constitution has some notable flaws. I
138. 5:12want to discuss two. Number one, how
139. 5:14racist is this document? And number two,
140. 5:17how difficult is it to change anything
141. 5:19in this document?
142. 5:21All right, let's start with number one,
143. 5:23racism. If you take a closer look at the
144. 5:26pictures of the uh the picture of the
145. 5:28founding fathers, by now you must have
146. 5:30noticed that these are all old white
147. 5:32dudes. Uh so what's wrong with the
148. 5:34constitution? Pretty much the same thing
149. 5:36that's wrong with all the documents that
150. 5:37they make in this era. the whole we the
151. 5:40people which you can see at the top of
152. 5:43the document right here. Um
153. 5:48these very important words um that would
154. 5:51have to indicate that it goes for all
155. 5:54the people never really goes for all the
156. 5:56people. Um
157. 5:59we can scratch that and just like for
158. 6:01the Declaration of Independence um
159. 6:03change it by we all landowning white
160. 6:06men. Those are the only people that
161. 6:08these rights um that are listed in the
162. 6:10constitution apply to. Um
163. 6:14an example of how racist this document
164. 6:16is and this is pretty bad is something
165. 6:18called the three-fifths compromise.
166. 6:21Um we I think discussed this a little
167. 6:24bit already. Um this is the idea and and
168. 6:27this is real. I'm not making this up
169. 6:29that black people count as three-fifths
170. 6:31of a whole person. So they are not
171. 6:33considered full citizens. They are
172. 6:35considered three-fifths of an actual
173. 6:37person. Why is that exactly? It has to
174. 6:40do with representation in government. So
175. 6:42as a state, how much you have to say in
176. 6:44the federal government is based on your
177. 6:46population. Are you a state that has
178. 6:48more people? Then you will have more
179. 6:50representatives for your state in the
180. 6:52federal government. So more people means
181. 6:54more power. So if your enslaved people
182. 6:56are simply not counted, that uh means
183. 6:59that your state has fewer people. So
184. 7:01that means you have fewer
185. 7:03representatives. If your enslaved people
186. 7:05are counted, then the state has more
187. 7:07people, so more representatives. That's
188. 7:10great if you're a landowning white male
189. 7:11because the slaves count as three-fifths
190. 7:13of a person. However, they can't vote.
191. 7:16So, that gives you white men uh more
192. 7:19power in that state. Why is this called
193. 7:22the three-fifths compromise? Because the
194. 7:24northern states did not have slavery, so
195. 7:26also not any slaves. So, they didn't
196. 7:28want to count black people at all.
197. 7:30Southern states on the other hand have a
198. 7:32lot of slavery. So they definitely
199. 7:33wanted to count these people. For some
200. 7:35reason they then came up with a
201. 7:37compromise that these people are now
202. 7:38counted as three-fifths of a person.
203. 7:40Hence the title the three-fifths
204. 7:42compromise. The se this section is still
205. 7:45in um the constitution but it became
206. 7:48irrelevant when they added the 13th
207. 7:49amendment to the constitution after the
208. 7:51civil war. That's the amendment that
209. 7:53abolishes slavery. So this three-fifths
210. 7:55compromise it's still in there but it
211. 7:57doesn't apply anymore luckily.
212. 7:59of the second flaw I wanted to discuss
213. 8:04um has to do with the ERRA
214. 8:07um
215. 8:08and it specifies or it's it's a good
216. 8:11example of how difficult it is to amend
217. 8:13the constitution. So to change anything
218. 8:14in the constitution if you want to
219. 8:17change something in the constitution you
220. 8:18need to jump through some pretty
221. 8:20impossible hoops. Firstly you need a
222. 8:22twoth3 majority in the house of
223. 8:24representatives.
224. 8:25Uh so twothirds of the house has to
225. 8:28agree with whatever you want. You
226. 8:30secondly also need a two-thirds majority
227. 8:32in the senate. And if by some miracle
228. 8:35you manage to get that then you also
229. 8:37need 38 states or 3/4s of the states. In
230. 8:40this case there are 50 states so that
231. 8:41would be 38 states to ratify whatever
232. 8:44you want to change in the constitution.
233. 8:46Um this is absolutely impossible
234. 8:48nowadays because both the house of
235. 8:50representatives and the senate are
236. 8:51divided straight across the middle. So
237. 8:53half of them is Republican, half of them
238. 8:55is Democrat. And I honestly can't even
239. 8:57remember the last time they agreed on
240. 8:59anything really, let alone um have
241. 9:02twothirds of one of these houses agree
242. 9:04on one thing. A good example, as I
243. 9:06mentioned already, um of how it has
244. 9:09become almost impossible to amend the
245. 9:10constitution has to do with the ERRA
246. 9:14um or equal rights amendment. Women have
247. 9:16been lobbying to uh get this amendment
248. 9:19uh included in the constitution since
249. 9:22forever. This amendment simply states
250. 9:25that the women are considered equal to
251. 9:27the men under the law, which does not
252. 9:30seem all that big of a deal because we
253. 9:33we all know that that's true. Um, the
254. 9:36amendment was first proposed in 1923,
255. 9:391923,
256. 9:41and somehow it has still not ended up in
257. 9:44the Constitution. So, it's 102 years
258. 9:47later, and they still haven't managed to
259. 9:50get 2/3 majorities in the House of
260. 9:52Representatives, 2/3 majorities in the
261. 9:54Senate, and 3/4s of the state to agree
262. 9:56that women are equal to men. Just to
263. 9:59give you an idea of what a nightmare
264. 10:01this document can sometimes be.