Author: Anonymous

“Another sign of our times, also marked by an analogous political movement, is the new importance given to the single person… “The scholar is that man who must take up into himself all the ability of the time, all the contributions of the past, all the hopes of the future.  He must be a university of knowledges… The world is nothing, the man is all; in yourself is the law of all nature, and you know not yet how a globule of sap ascends; in yourself slumbers the whole of Reason… We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe.  The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, imitative, tame… We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds… A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar,” 1837In the above passage, Emerson is calling for

“All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that through the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. “We have called by different names brethren of the same principle.  We are all [Democratic-] Republicans, we are all Federalists.  If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it… “Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.”-Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801Jefferson’s call to avoid entangling alliances is similar to the advice of

“We hold…that on their separation from the Crown of Great Britain, the several colonies became free and independent States, each enjoying the separate and independent right of self-government; and that no authority can be exercised over them…but by their consent… It is equally true, that the States…that the government created by it is a joint agency of the States, appointed to execute the powers enumerated and granted by that instrument; that all its acts not intentionally authorized are of themselves essentially null and void, and that the States have the right… to pronounce, in the last resort, authoritative judgement on the usurpations of the Federal Government… Such we deem to be inherent rights of the States.”-John C. Calhoun, statement adopted by a convention in South Carolina, 1832Which of the following was the immediate cause of the publication of the statement in this excerpt?

“Each public officer who takes an oath to support the Constitution swears that he will support it as he understands it, and not as it is understood by others.  It is as much the duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of the President, to decide upon the constitutionality of any bill or resolution which may be presented to them for passage or approval, as it is of the Supreme Judges when it may be brought before them for judicial decision.  The opinion of the Judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the Judges; and, on that point, the President is independent of both.  The authority of the Supreme Court must not, therefore, be permitted to control the Congress or the Executive when acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only such influence as the force of their reasoning may deserve.”-Andrew Jackson, veto message, July 10, 1832The Jackson presidency is most noted for which of the following?

“Resolved, that the several States composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government, but that by compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for specific purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force… “That this would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen, and to live under one deriving its powers from its own will, and not from our authority; and that the co-States, recurring to their natural right in cases not made Federal, will concur in declaring these acts void and of no force.”-Thomas Jefferson [anonymously], Kentucky Resolutions, November 16, 1798The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were issued in reaction to the

“Art. VIII. The Taxes for paying that Proportion shall be laid and levied [imposed] by the Authority and Direction of Legislatures of the several States, within the Time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. “Art. IX. All Controversies concerning the private Right of Soil claimed under different Grants of two or more States, whose Jurisdictions, as they may respect such Lands… shall, on the Petition of either Party to the Congress of the United States, be finally determined…Articles of Confederation, November 1777 The primary reason the articles of Confederation restricted the power of the federal government was fear

“I have this morning witnessed one of the most interesting scenes a free people can ever witness.  The changes of administration, which in every government and in every age have most generally been epochs of confusion, villainy and bloodshed, in this our happy country take place without any species of distraction, or disorder.”-from a letter by a Philadelphia woman to her sister-in-law about the pride she felt on the occasion of Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration as third president of the United States in 1801Based on the sentiment expressed in the quote, why might Jefferson believe it necessary to claim, “we are all [Democratic-]Republicans, we are all Federalists,” in his inaugural address?

“Each public officer who takes an oath to support the Constitution swears that he will support it as he understands it, and not as it is understood by others.  It is as much the duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of the President, to decide upon the constitutionality of any bill or resolution which may be presented to them for passage or approval, as it is of the Supreme Judges when it may be brought before them for judicial decision.  The opinion of the Judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the Judges; and, on that point, the President is independent of both.  The authority of the Supreme Court must not, therefore, be permitted to control the Congress or the Executive when acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only such influence as the force of their reasoning may deserve.”-Andrew Jackson, veto message, July 10, 1832Jackson’s message seems to be challenging which of the following constitutional principles?

“There is on the globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy.  It is New Orleans, through which the produce of three eighths of our territory must pass to market, and from its fertility it will ere long yield more than half of our whole produce and contain more than half of our inhabitants… Not so can it ever be in the hands of France:  the impetuosity of her temper, the energy and restlessness of her character, placed in a point of eternal friction with us, … render it impossible that France and the U.S. can continue long friends, when they meet in so irritable a position… The day that France takes possession of New Orleans…we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.”Thomas Jefferson, 1802In order to effect control of New Orleans, Jefferson had to

“It is not denied that there are implied as well as express powers, and that the former are as effectually delegated as the latter. “It is conceded that implied powers are to be considered as delegated equally with express ones.  Then it follows, that as a power of erecting a corporation [such as a bank] may as well be implied as any other thing, it may as well be employed as an instrument or means of carrying into execution any of the specified powers… But one may be erected in relation to the trade with foreign countries, or to the trade between the States…because it is the province of the federal government to regulate those objects, and because it is incident to a general sovereign or legislative power to regulate a thing, to employ all the means which relate to its regulation to the best and greatest advantage.”-Alexander Hamilton, Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States, 1791Hamilton’s constitutional argument was based on which of the following types of powers?