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fandomhigh2006-02-06 01:23 pm
professor-lyman.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2006-02-06 01:23 pm
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US History (Monday, February 6, 7th period)
Josh stopped playing with spreadsheets full of Montana voter information when the history class began arriving.
"Good to see you all looking so awake and eager to learn. Or faking it really well." He waved his hands. "Whichever. Doesn't really matter to me. Bit of housekeeping. A few of you missed the test we had last Wednesday. I'll be holding office hours this week--on Wednesdays, as usual--if you need to make it up."
He picked up his notes. "Enough of that. On with the show."
"Now that we're finished with the Revolutionary War, we'll begin talking about the first attempt the US made at governing itself." He scrawled Articles of Confederation in big letters then turned back around.
"Short version: wow, did this not work. Longer version will take a little more explanation. At the end of the Revolutionary War, the thirteen states were certainly nothing that could be thought of as 'united.' Eleven states had their own navies. The Continental Congress was trying to run a national government, and it had a navy, too--but one that was smaller than Virginia's. Every state was printing its own money, in addition to the stuff the federal government was putting out, which devalued everyone's currency and made it all worthless." He grinned. "Although very collectable nowadays if you're into that sort of thing."
He looked back at his notes. "The states were also taxing each other's stuff. New York and New Jersey were taxing goods coming across their states' borders. Virginia and Maryland were having boundary disputes. The people in England were placing bets on how long it would be before we were begging to be a colony again." He scowled. "The bastards."
He cleared his throat. "Anyway. People realized that this wasn't working. Our first attempt at setting things straight was the Articles of Confederation." He smiled. "And a piece of trivia for you--the first president of the United States wasn't actually George Washington. It was John Hanson who became president under the Articles of Confederation. This'll win you money in bar bets if you have friends like mine who are obsessed with politics." He looked around. "Of course normal people might think you're weird, so let's just move on, okay? So, the people in the new United States were rightfully a little worried about a hugely powerful federal government. That's what they had been fighting against, after all--a central power who made all the rules and had no accountability. The Articles went way too far in the other direction, though. Every decision had to be agreed to unanimously by the states." He smirked. "Think of yourself and a dozen friends. Remember how long it takes you to agree on what to order from a Chinese restaurant. Now imagine trying to run a country based on unanimous consent. Yeah. Bad idea.
"The Congress--which under the Articles was the only branch of government: the President of the United States was the guy who was in charge of Congress--was denied the power of taxation. They could only request money from the states, who ignored them. This led to the truly humiliating 'chased out of Philadelphia by their own army' incident in 1783 because the Congress hadn't been able to pay them." He shrugged. "Something had to give--we weren't really a nation yet. People thought of themselves first as a citizen of the state they came from. Hell, we hadn't decided on what the country was called yet. There were a few speed bumps to go over."
He gave the class a wry smile. "Which is something to remember when watching other countries going through nation-building. It took us six years to come up with a workable government. These sorts of things don't happen overnight."
He put his notes down. "That's it for today. Next class we tackle the Constitution, which tried to fix a lot of the problems of the Articles of Confederation."
"Good to see you all looking so awake and eager to learn. Or faking it really well." He waved his hands. "Whichever. Doesn't really matter to me. Bit of housekeeping. A few of you missed the test we had last Wednesday. I'll be holding office hours this week--on Wednesdays, as usual--if you need to make it up."
He picked up his notes. "Enough of that. On with the show."
"Now that we're finished with the Revolutionary War, we'll begin talking about the first attempt the US made at governing itself." He scrawled Articles of Confederation in big letters then turned back around.
"Short version: wow, did this not work. Longer version will take a little more explanation. At the end of the Revolutionary War, the thirteen states were certainly nothing that could be thought of as 'united.' Eleven states had their own navies. The Continental Congress was trying to run a national government, and it had a navy, too--but one that was smaller than Virginia's. Every state was printing its own money, in addition to the stuff the federal government was putting out, which devalued everyone's currency and made it all worthless." He grinned. "Although very collectable nowadays if you're into that sort of thing."
He looked back at his notes. "The states were also taxing each other's stuff. New York and New Jersey were taxing goods coming across their states' borders. Virginia and Maryland were having boundary disputes. The people in England were placing bets on how long it would be before we were begging to be a colony again." He scowled. "The bastards."
He cleared his throat. "Anyway. People realized that this wasn't working. Our first attempt at setting things straight was the Articles of Confederation." He smiled. "And a piece of trivia for you--the first president of the United States wasn't actually George Washington. It was John Hanson who became president under the Articles of Confederation. This'll win you money in bar bets if you have friends like mine who are obsessed with politics." He looked around. "Of course normal people might think you're weird, so let's just move on, okay? So, the people in the new United States were rightfully a little worried about a hugely powerful federal government. That's what they had been fighting against, after all--a central power who made all the rules and had no accountability. The Articles went way too far in the other direction, though. Every decision had to be agreed to unanimously by the states." He smirked. "Think of yourself and a dozen friends. Remember how long it takes you to agree on what to order from a Chinese restaurant. Now imagine trying to run a country based on unanimous consent. Yeah. Bad idea.
"The Congress--which under the Articles was the only branch of government: the President of the United States was the guy who was in charge of Congress--was denied the power of taxation. They could only request money from the states, who ignored them. This led to the truly humiliating 'chased out of Philadelphia by their own army' incident in 1783 because the Congress hadn't been able to pay them." He shrugged. "Something had to give--we weren't really a nation yet. People thought of themselves first as a citizen of the state they came from. Hell, we hadn't decided on what the country was called yet. There were a few speed bumps to go over."
He gave the class a wry smile. "Which is something to remember when watching other countries going through nation-building. It took us six years to come up with a workable government. These sorts of things don't happen overnight."
He put his notes down. "That's it for today. Next class we tackle the Constitution, which tried to fix a lot of the problems of the Articles of Confederation."
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