Humanities 221
Think about the following when you read The Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and The Anti-Federalist Documents
1. What echoes of John Locke do you hear in Thomas Jefferson's Declaration? Cite two examples.
2. Jefferson combines "deductive" and "inductive" argumentation strategies in The Declaration. Reduce the deductive argument to a syllogism: "given the responsibilities of those who govern, given the way we are being governed, therefore…." Flesh this out.
3. How does he compose the "inductive" part of the argument?
4. Madison wrote the two Federalist Papers in our document packet (others were written by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay). The Federalist Papers are a collection of essays published in newspapers urging support of ratification of the new Constitution of the United States of America. The Anti-Federalist Documents are collected from speeches given by people who were hesitant to form a strong union among states that had very different characteristics in terms of size, culture (agricultural vs. urban), economy (slave vs. non-slave), etc. What arguments does Madison use to defend a strong federal government for protecting minority interests? ("Minority" interests are any interests not held by a majority). How can a "majority" seem tyrannical?
5. The objections to the draft of the Constitution by the anti-Federalists resulted in the Bill of Rights, the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. What kinds of objections do the anti-Federalists raise to the idea of a strong "federation"?