Origins of the
Constitution
Monday, Wednesday,
Friday
Keene-Flint 105
Professor:
Elizabeth
Dale
Keene Flint 224
Office
hours: M: 8:30-9:15
W: 8:30-9:15 & 10:45-11:45
F: 8:30-9:15
and by appointment
Required materials:
Jack Greene, Peripheries and Center
Gordon Wood, The Creation of the
Saul Cornell, The Other Founders
Woody Holton, Unruly Americans
Also required: articles listed in
syllabus and cases/statutes that are linked to below. Articles are not linked
to (for reasons of copyright), these articles are all accessible online through
the UF library system. (Note: all materials listed below are required.)
Assignments:
Notes:
1. Your participation grade will not
be fulfilled by attending class (though failure to attend class regularly may
lower your participation grade). Participation means adding to the discussion.
2. Plagiarism will be punished. Anyone
caught plagiarizing will fail the assignment and be subject to university
sanctions. Please review the university policies on plagiarism (on my website).
Schedule:
Week 1:
Wed, Jan. 5th:
Introduction to the course
Friday: Magna Charta
Week 2:
Monday, Jan. 12: Mass Bay Charter,
Carolina Charter,
Pennsylvania Charter
***First assignment handed out***
Friday: Greene, Peripheries and Center
Week 3:
Monday, January 19:
NO CLASS
Wed: Locke , excerpts
from the Second Treatise
Friday: Blackstone, excerpts
from Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. 1; Samuel Adams, article
in the Boston Gazette, February 1769
***first assignment due***
Week 4:
Monday, Jan. 26: Declaration
of Independence
Wed: Wood, Part I
Friday: Pennsylvania
Constitution of 1776’
Week 5:
Monday: Feb. 2: Wood,
Part II
Wed::
Wood, Part III
Friday: Articles of
Confederation; Jefferson on the
Articles of Confederation
Week 6:
Monday Feb 9:
Alexander Hamilton on failures of the Confederation, Letter 1;
Letter
2
Wed: Robert Morris on
Congressional power under the articles, Doc 1;
Doc 2
Friday: James Madison
on the vices
of the political system of the United States
Week 7:
Monday: Feb. 16:
Holton, Unruly Americans
Wed: Annapolis
Convention
***second
assignment handed out***
Friday:
Correspondence on another convention: John Jay;
George
Washington; Edmund
Randolph; James
Madison
Week 8:
Monday: Feb. 23:
Wood, part IV
Wed: The Virginia Plan
Friday: The Pickney Plan
***second assignment due***
Week 9:
Monday: March 2: The Patterson Plan
Wed: The Hamilton Plan
Friday: Excerpts
from Records of the Federal Convention
Week 10: Spring
break, no class
Week 11:
Monday: March 16: The
Constitution of the United States
Wed:
Friday:
Week 12:
Monday: March 23: James
Wilson Speech at the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention;
Wed: John Smilie at Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention; Robert Whitehill at Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention
***Third assignment handed
out***
Friday: Minority
Dissent at the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention; Ratification by
Pennsylvania
Week 13:
Monday: March 30: Patrick
Henry at Virginia Ratifying Convention; Edmund
Randolph at Virginia Ratifying Convention
Wed: George
Mason at Virginia Ratifying Convention; Iredell’s Response to Mason’s Objections
(excerpts)
Friday: Virginia
Ratifying Convention, Proposed Amendments
***Third assignment due***
Week 14:
Monday: April 6: Ratification by New
Jersey; Ratification
by Georgia
Wed: Massachusetts
Ratification and Proposed Amendments
Friday: Cornell, The Other Founders
Week 15:
Monday: April 13: James
Madison on Ratification and Amendment
Wed: Report
of the Select Committee on Amendments; Debate
in the House on Amendments
***Final exam assignment handed out***
Friday: House
Amendments; Senate
Amendments
Week 16:
Monday: April 20:: last class: Amendments
submitted to the states for ratification
Week 17: finals week,
papers due