Week 6: State vs.
Federal
A well-educated woman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton married abolitionist lecturer Henry Stanton in 1840. She, too, became active in the anti-slavery movement and worked alongside leading abolitionists of the day. In 1848, Stanton and Mott held the first Woman’s Rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York. Stanton authored, “The Declaration of Sentiments,” which expanded on the Declaration of Independence by adding the word “woman” or “women” throughout. This pivotal document called for social and legal changes to elevate women’s place in society and listed 18 grievances from the inability to control their wages and property or the difficulty in gaining custody in divorce to the lack of the right to vote.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Seneca Falls Convention 1848
Vocabulary Words:
Nullification: Nullification is the act of cancelling
something.
In government it means: “Nullification, in United States
constitutional history, is a legal theory that a state has the right to
nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed
unconstitutional with respect to the United States Constitution (as opposed to
the state's own constitution).” wikipedia
orator: great persuasive speaker
We learned about 3 orators:
Henry Clay
1
Daniel Webster
3
John Cahoun
Timeline
Dates:
1803-1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson
1820’s – 1830’s – Transcendentalism Movement
1782-1852 – Daniel Webster
1782-1850 – John C. Calhoun
Scholar
Challenges:
1. Write the opening paragraph of a persuasive essay
expressing your opinion of states’ rights vs. the authority of the federal
government. Be sure to use a quote for your hook and fully develop your
thesis statement.
2. Complete timeline assignment.
3. Finish reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Complete the book dossier for Uncle Tom’s
Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Be ready to discuss this book next week.
4. Continue your memorization work.
5. Read over the “Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln.
This should be very familiar by now.
This week we learned about persuasive essays. You will write persuasive essay on your
opinion of
The Power of the Federal Government.
Seven Ways to Hook an Audience and Begin an Introductory Paragraph
1) An interesting fact or surprising statistic
2) A thought-provoking question
3) A short but interesting and applicable quote
4) An attention-grabbing statement
5) A short, interesting story (can be a personal experience)
6) Historical background
7) Vivid description
Thesis Statement: the sentence in the introductory
paragraph that introduces the argument of your essay. A strong thesis statement should take a
stand, express ONE main idea, and be specific.
Quotes
regarding states’ rights for use as hook in opening paragraph of your
persuasive essay:
The State governments possess inherent
advantages, which will ever give them an influence and ascendancy over the
National Government, and will forever preclude the possibility of federal
encroachments. That their liberties, indeed, can be subverted by the
federal head, is repugnant to every rule of political calculation.
- Alexander
Hamilton
The powers delegated by the proposed
Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which
are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.
- James Madison
If we stuck to the Constitution as
written, we would have: no federal meddling in our schools; no Federal Reserve;
no U.S. membership in the UN; no gun control; and no foreign aid. We would have
no welfare for big corporations, or the "poor"; no American
troops in 100 foreign countries; no NAFTA, GAT, or "fast-track";
no arrogant federal judges usurping states’ rights; no attacks on private
property; no income tax. We could get rid of most of the agencies, and most of
the budget. The government would be small, frugal, and limited.
-Ron
Paul
The several states composing the United
States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to
their general government
-Thomas Jefferson
Abortion is a states' rights issue.
Education is a states' right issue. Medicinal marijuana is a states' rights
issue. Gay marriage is a states' rights issue. Assisted suicide- like
Terri Schiavo- is a states' rights issue. Come to think of it, almost
every issue is a states' rights issue. Let's get the federal government out of
our lives.
-Wayne Allyn Root
Virginia States' rights, as our
forefathers conceived it, was a protection of the right of the individual
citizen. Those who preach most frequently about states' rights today are
not those seeking the protection of the individual citizen, but his
exploitation. The time is long past — if indeed it ever existed — when we
should permit the noble concept of states' rights to be betrayed.
-Robert Kennedy
My friends, to those who say that we are
rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late.
To those who say that this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’
rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic
Party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into
the bright sunshine of human rights.
-Hubert H. Humphrey
For states' rights advocates, the
Constitution is like a contract that is openly violated by one party with
impunity. On paper, the states remain sovereign powers, while in reality the
federal government appears able to dictate everything from the ingredients of
school lunches to speed limits. Congress now routinely collects taxes in order
to return the money to the states with conditions on their conforming to
federal demands.
-Jonathan Turley
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning
of the people by the people for the people.
-Oscar Wilde
The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement
of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their
Nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same
people. If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the contract,
it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so.
-Alexis de Tocqueville
There is no Constitutional issue here.
The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong
- deadly wrong - to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this
country. There is no issue of States' rights or National rights. There is only
the struggle for human rights.
-Lyndon B. Johnson
The rights of some must not be enjoyed
by denying the rights of others. Neither can we permit states' rights at the
expense of human rights.
-George W. Romney
Federalism isn’t about states’ rights.
It’s about dividing power to better protect individual liberty. -Elizabeth Price Foley
States’ Rights died at Appomattox.
-Salmon P. Chase
