SC POLI 201 - Logic6eCh02Outline (26 pages)

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2 The Constitution The Road to Independence A Legacy of SelfGovernance Role of popularly elected legislature control of purse strings dominance of other institutions Politicians experienced in negotiating collective agreements Knowledge of constitutional writing Home rule experience with local affairs but not collective action between colonies strains during French and Indian War 17541763 Albany Congress 1754 The Road to Independence Dismantling Home Rule Britain broke by end of French and Indian War colonists required to share burdens taxes Britain asserted power to impose taxes Britain began to violate home rule in colonies Stamp Act of 1765 imposed taxes on all printed material first non self imposed tax on the colonies inspired the colonists to organize and demonstrate The Road to Independence The Continental Congresses First Continental Congress Declaration of American rights reasserted home rule and endorsed agreement to ban trade with Britain until it rescinded unwanted taxes and regulations committees of observation enforced boycotts against possible free riding provided a base for statewide conventions that became de facto governments collected taxes raised militias passed laws forbidding the judiciary from enforcing British decrees and selected delegates to Second Continental Congress The Road to Independence The Continental Congresses Second Continental Congress war broke out in Spring 1775 Lexington and Concord acted as a national government but lacked legal authority to conduct war instructed the conventions to reconstitute themselves as state governments based on republican principles most states adopted bicameral legislatures and created governorships issued the nation s first bonds and established a national currency The Road to Independence The Declaration of Independence Thomas Paine s Common Sense was published in January 1776 Richard Henry Lee called for the creation of a new nation separate from Britain in June 1776 The committee of delegates