Week 6: State vs. Federal

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