Lesson
Unit 3 Civics Connection: Liberty and Union
A review lesson for Unit 3 (1800-1844) that discusses the different ways that the Founding principles were interpreted during the nation's first fifty years.
Objectives:
- Analyze excerpts from documents related to sectional controversies in order to trace debates about the nature of the Union.
- Recognize Founding principles and analyze the effects of competing interpretations of those principles in crafting national policy during the nation’s first fifty years.
Materials
- Handout A: Student Document Packet
- Document Pair 1: Articles of Confederation, 1781; U.S. Constitution, 1787
- Document Pair 2: Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798; Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, 1798–1799
- Document Pair 3: Tariff of 1828; South Carolina Exposition and Protest, 1828
- Document Pair 4: Webster-Hayne Debate, 1830
- Document Pair 5: Tariff of 1832; South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification, 1832; Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, 1832
- Document 6: “Slavery as a Positive Good” Speech, 1837
- Handout B: Principles and Virtues Glossary
- Handout C: Principles and Virtues Graphic Organizer
Lesson plan
115 minClick a phase to open it
More Information
If this is the first time your students have considered constitutional principles, have them begin by focusing specifically on rule of law, consent, and federalism. Note that this lesson takes places over two class periods.
Standards
Advanced Placement
- Topic 4.3 · Politics and Regional Interests
- Topic 4.5 · Market Revolution: Industrialization
- Topic 4.11 · An Age of Reform
- Topic 4.13 · The Society of the South in the Early Republic
- Theme · Work, Exchange, and Technology
- Theme · Geography and the Environment
- Theme · Politics and Power
- Theme · American and Regional Culture
- Learning Objective · Unit 4C
- Learning Objective · Unit 4E
- Learning Objective · Unit 4K
- Learning Objective · Unit 4M
- Historical Development · 4.2.III.B
- Historical Development · 4.3.II.B.i
- Historical Development · 4.3.II.B.ii
- Historical Development · 4.3.II.C
- Reasoning Skill · Developments and Processes
- Reasoning Skill · Sourcing and Situation
- Reasoning Skill · Source Claims and Evidence
- Reasoning Skill · Contextualization
- Reasoning Skill · Making Connections
- Reasoning Skill · Argumentation
- Reasoning Process · Comparison
- Reasoning Process · Continuity and Change
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Related materials
VideoThe Underlying Principles of the Founding | Dr. Nicholas Cole | BRI’s Constitutional Conversations
Dr. Nicholas Cole, Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford and lead designer on the Quill Project, help us understand what founding principles were universally held at the founding.
