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American Literature: Why, I Do Declare 2070 Views


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We hope you have a strong constitution, because today, we're checking out The Constitution. We're also retiring from ever telling jokes again, because wow , was that a stinker. 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

constitution relief... we get the joke... [Pill falls into glass of water]

00:16

.....okay here we go well a little birdie tells me you've got

00:21

a bad case of Constitution... don't worry I'll add some bra to your

00:26

intellectual diet here most of us have at least heard of the Constitution if

00:31

you haven't run you probably just stepped off the spaceship from Mars [Spaceship crashes into field]

00:35

welcome to Earth by the way... well the Constitution is the founding

00:40

document of the United States it lays out all the principles that have guided

00:44

the US government for the past quarter millennium and serves as a primary guide

00:49

for the supreme laws of the land yet back in the 18th century people didn't [Woman baking cookies]

00:53

just use parchment paper for baking cookies they used it to write some

00:57

really important stuff so yes the Constitution is a big deal

01:00

because it frames our entire system of government and it's helped to make

01:04

America the superpower that it is today and isn't that the bomb... anyway the [TV screen of bomb exploding]

01:08

Constitution is a hugely significant work of historical nonfiction,

01:13

historical nonfiction that's a book that's been gathering cobwebs in an old [Person takes constitution book covered in cobwebs]

01:18

library for hundreds of years right... nice try historical in that it was

01:23

written in the past and you know was based on precepts widely held by the

01:28

framers of the document at that time and nonfiction in that there are no elves or [Girl dressed as elf in a field]

01:34

dwarves or space aliens or young boys training to be wizards or Jedi so in

01:39

this respect it's definitely worth studying in an American literature class

01:43

as any officer of the US Court system will tell you words are important the

01:48

justices on our Supreme Court ie the highest court in the country which is in

01:52

charge of making all sorts of major decision relied daily on the specific [Judge in court]

01:56

wording in our Constitution to make determinations about whether someone or

02:00

something is guilty of violating our most sacred national doctrine well [Dog speaking in court]

02:05

sometimes it's just the difference of a single word here or there that will make

02:09

the difference in a decision there have been some pretty nasty social

02:12

media battles waged over just such a single word so the Constitution in

02:17

addition to providing the nation's unassailable laws serves as an excellent

02:21

illustration of the importance of language so that's why we're here [Magnifying glass inspecting language]

02:25

studying it so carefully would be nice if it had some literal illustrations

02:29

though people anyway let's get a bit of historical context before we begin to

02:33

analyze the text itself how did the Constitution well come to be, who wrote

02:38

it is it available on Kindle well for starters the Declaration of Independence [Jefferson sat with declaration of independence]

02:42

didn't establish any laws at all...It just you know declared US independence

02:46

from Britain who originally owned us it explains why the colonists wanted

02:50

freedom so badly the first semblance of a constitution in

02:54

the US was the Articles of Confederation which was ratified or

02:59

approved in 1781 the same year the Revolutionary War ended..It had some good

03:04

ideas many of which found their way into the current US Constitution but it was [Declaration of independence parts cut out with scissors]

03:09

rough think of it as the first draft of an essay that the framers had to write

03:14

the night before it was due what carried over into the Constitution hmmm this

03:18

stuff limitation of the central government's power like before there was

03:22

a president or a court system Congress could just come up with whatever bill [Men laughing in congress]

03:26

they wanted and boom it was law the establishment of the idea that each

03:30

colony was a sovereign state, the state that could create its own laws as long

03:35

as it didn't violate any federal laws like you can open carry a loaded weapon

03:41

in Pennsylvania but not in New York and of course there's you know Taco Tuesdays

03:45

but with the war ended and everyone kind of settling into their new way of life [Woman with a baking tray]

03:49

with all their newfound freedoms well some problems came to light and suddenly

03:53

the Articles of Confederation seemed awfully shaky and in need of revision so [Paper airplane hits a wall]

03:58

in 1787 a bunch of state delegates got together to powwow hoping for a good 2.0

04:03

they knew they needed a stronger central government one with a system of checks

04:08

and balances in other words they wanted to protect against any one person or

04:12

group of people going power crazy and enforcing their will on everyone else so [North Korea leader holding a rocket]

04:18

the delegates improved upon the Congress established by the Articles of

04:21

Confederation by changing it to a bicameral

04:27

Congress - A bicameral Congress is one with two chambers or houses, one checks

04:30

in on the other to be sure it's behaving in the current US Congress there's both

04:35

a Senate and a House of Representative one house or the other might totally

04:39

love a particular bill but if the other house doesn't love it too well the bills [House of Representatives give thumbs down to bill]

04:44

going to stall and not pass which is why free lifetime passes to Disney World for

04:49

US senators has never become a thing the delegates also decided they needed an

04:53

executive branch of their new government ultimately consisting of a president

04:58

vice president and cabinet of appointed officers to the president that's the

05:02

executive branch well they were over having one of those King thingies but as [Person takes crown off King]

05:06

long as the system of checks and balances was in place they knew it would

05:10

be helpful to have one fella more or less guiding the nation but with a whole

05:14

lot of input from others but we're really just getting warmed up here all

05:18

right we're only through article two well, the Constitution goes on to

05:22

provide rules and regulations for just about every major facet of our [Shmoop-o-lax bottle talking about constitution]

05:25

government a person could think of there's the establishment of the

05:28

judicial branch including the Supreme Court an explanation of the respective

05:32

powers of the state and the federal government the guarantee of certain

05:36

rights and freedoms of the American people provisions for amending or

05:40

changing the Constitution down the road and well you know a whole lot more but

05:44

will save it for you for Civics 101 What we're interested in here is [Person picks up framed copy of Constitution]

05:48

how the framers of the Constitution did their framing who created this

05:53

awe-inspiring enduring, beautifully written text and what was their

05:58

background who was the intended audience what is the Constitution's purpose and

06:03

what was this sense of urgency in writing it did the writers have any

06:07

potential biases or prejudices like journalists do today what was happening

06:11

in the US at the time the Constitution was written but why is the Constitution

06:16

significant and what can we learn about literature by examining it in detail

06:21

okay so let's take these questions one at a time and do our best to answer first

06:25

if you haven't already go ahead and read this sucker it's a bit too long for us [Constitution on paper]

06:29

to slap onto the screen so find a nice quiet nook somewhere come back when

06:33

you're ready.... alrighty first up who created this text

06:37

and what was their background... while the writing of the

06:39

Constitution was truly a joint effort if it was up for an award it would win best [Person holding best ensemble award]

06:43

ensemble hands down there were 55 delegates who attended the Philadelphia

06:48

Convention representing 12 states, a little-known guy you've probably never

06:52

heard of named what was his name oh yes George Washington presided over the

06:57

drafting of the document after politely declining an offer to become the new [Person puts crown on Washington's head]

07:01

king while a few other political superstars including James Madison,

07:05

future 4th US pres and Alexander Hamilton, future duel loser but Tony Award

07:12

winner did their part to steer the delegates [Delegates driving with Madison and Hamilton]

07:14

toward drafting a brand new government rather than merely making a few tweaks

07:18

to be old no kingly oriented one well the framers of the Constitution

07:22

came from a variety of backgrounds but most were serious and highly [Resumes appear on desk]

07:26

intellectual political minds a lot of state governors members of the

07:30

Continental Congress and them likes... right well Thomas Jefferson referred to the

07:34

men gathered yeah sorry ladies, it was men only....

07:40

Most of the writers had taken part in the

07:43

revolution directly so they weren't just a bunch of stuffy guys in suits who were [Man firing rifle]

07:46

afraid to get their hands dirty they've gotten down in the muck and fought quite

07:50

literally for their freedom so yeah they had plenty of skin in the game okay well

07:56

who was the intended audience European soccer fans, socialites in Russia, the

08:00

cast of stranger things no it was the American people the Declaration of

08:05

Independence may have been written as an official view to England and that's a

08:10

fare-thee-well you but by the time the Constitution was written the war was [US flag hoisted]

08:15

long over and freedom for Americans was pretty much in the bag what the country

08:19

still needed though was a solid system of government that would be built to

08:23

stand the test of time and not crumble or fall back into the hands of a monarch [Person plants British flag]

08:27

or dictator years later when times got tough

08:30

well depending on whom you ask we're doing okay so far....

08:34

what's the Constitution's purpose and what was the sense of urgency in writing

08:39

it well the Constitution was written to clearly outline the government's role in

08:42

civilian affairs like saying that it can collect taxes, regulate commerce and

08:48

clean money establish the relationship between the

08:50

federal government and the states like if a criminal flees [Car driving between states]

08:53

from one state to another that state has a responsibility to apprehend and return

08:57

the criminal kind of stuff and Institute all kinds of checks on those in power to

09:01

make sure nobody goes absolutely bonkers with power....well what was the

09:06

sense of urgency though, well there wasn't exactly a you'd better have this

09:10

thing on my desk by Monday sort of vibe to it but the delegates who assembled at [Man demanding constitution on his desk by Monday]

09:14

the convention thought it was awfully urgent they felt that the longer they

09:18

waited to fix the problems they saw in the Articles of Confederation the more [Articles of Confederation wall leaking with water]

09:21

weakened the nation would be and the tougher time it would have finding it

09:25

sea legs.... well you want to do all that you

09:29

can as soon as you can give it the best chance of survival right give her plenty [Baby crying and person gives baby a bottle of milk]

09:33

of milk, keep her warm, check her vitals, wipe that crusty stuff out of her eyes

09:36

shield her from the gangster rap you know, all the usual well you don't want to

09:40

just say put all that stuff on the back burner so you can paint her nails and [Baby's nails painted]

09:45

read her the latest issue of Good Housekeeping which in a roundabout way

09:48

is how our founding fathers felt they knew the US was still nursing and could [Uncle Sam drinking bottle of milk]

09:52

stand to wait a few decades before getting its nails done they knew that

09:56

there were myriad conflicts coming which they couldn't possibly predict they

10:00

wanted a system to be in place give smart flexibility to those who govern so [Walls paved over and leak stops]

10:04

they could adjust on the fly.... next, did the writers have any potential

10:08

biases or prejudices well good question yeah probably I mean everyone has

10:13

certain biases or prejudices don't they yeah well bias isn't always a bad thing [Pete's Pizza store]

10:18

maybe you have a bias toward helping small business owners because well your

10:22

dad owns a pizza parlor or maybe you're prejudiced against someone who demonizes

10:26

women and thinks they shouldn't have equal rights or maybe you're biased [Steam comes out of woman's head]

10:30

against DC Comics because Marvel kicks their patootie....Point being

10:34

everyone has their own stuff they're passionate about or that they value

10:38

above other issues and that diversity of thought and opinion is part of what

10:41

makes democracy work so yeah we weren't in the room but it's safe bet those [Delegate holding the constitution]

10:45

delegates fought and argued and scraped and clawed their way to the Constitution

10:49

that achieved the ideal compromise between everyone's interests by doing so

10:53

they ensured that the founding document would cover and represent a wide swath

10:57

of people and not just the opinions and personality of a single individual

11:01

looking at you there King George the third [King George stood in Britain]

11:03

...next what was happening in the US at the time the Constitution

11:07

was written well a lot but considering the war had ended a half dozen years

11:11

earlier it seemed relatively quiet one major thing that happened however was

11:15

that Congress under the Articles of Confederation enacted to the Northwest

11:19

Ordinance which enabled the government to form new states further out west in

11:23

addition to the 13 original states, so maybe that had something to do with the [Men on horses travelling west]

11:27

urgency the framers of the Constitution felt with regard to getting their new

11:30

federal government up and running what do you think well if the country was

11:33

getting bigger it was only going to get more complex to manage and more [US states entering a machine]

11:37

confusing now it's the time to create the nation they wanted so any new states

11:41

that came along would have to adhere to the already established laws of the

11:45

federal government yeah I can see how that might get the digestive juices

11:49

pumping you're sure I can't interest you in a spoonful and I'm also available

11:53

in tablet form all right suit yourself last question why is the Constitution [Shmoop-o-lax bottle with bowl of bran flakes]

11:58

significant and what can we learn about literature by examining it in detail...

12:03

Since you're taking a literature class after all we should

12:07

probably talk about the Constitution's contribution to American literature and

12:11

not just to American government well here are a few things that might jump

12:14

out at us check out the organization notice how the entire document isn't one

12:19

big block of text if it was it'd be a pain in the derriere to read understand [A censored image appears]

12:23

but framers of the Constitution recognize that human

12:27

brains don't work that way everything is sectioned off in clear easy to

12:31

comprehend bite-sized nuggets each is labeled with its own article or section [Articles and sections highlighted on constitution]

12:35

number which makes it much easier on a legislator or member of the court when

12:40

they have to reference some aspects of our Constitution you know article 1 [Dog in court with judge]

12:43

section 2 boom you're there another thing we notice is the large

12:47

number of capitalized words we wouldn't usually capitalize words like power or

12:52

office or person but the Constitution uses capitalization like it's going out

12:56

of style the fact is to capitalizing non proper nouns was in style back then

13:01

but it's really a way to draw attention to concepts the framers viewed is

13:05

especially important like normally you might blow right past a phrase like "journal[Phrase highlighted in textbook]

13:10

of its proceedings" but when you see the

13:13

phrase each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings it causes you to you

13:18

know sit up and take notice maybe this journal thing is something [Woman reading journal]

13:21

worth my attention it's what it says well not to mention that it makes the

13:24

house feel really good about themselves who wants to have a lowercase Journal of

13:28

proceedings... but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the preamble

13:32

to the Constitution as well well the preamble is this short

13:35

paragraph here that leads into the rest of the document rather than laying out [Preamble of constitution]

13:40

any specific laws or rules the preamble is intended to serve as an introduction

13:44

to all that follows and as the framers way of expressly stating the purpose of

13:49

their Constitution it's super short so let's give it a read...

14:09

It starts right out of the gate with we the people not we the

14:13

politicians or we the statesmen or we the folks with the fancy pens.. the

14:17

writers wanted it to be immediately clear that America was to be a country [Delegates standing together]

14:21

for everyone not just for the rich and powerful like it was when England held

14:25

the reins from there the preamble touches briefly on all the stuff the

14:28

framers of the Constitution thought were most important to establish justice well

14:33

sure there needs to be fairness and equality in all matters to ensure

14:37

domestic tranquility if you want to keep peace and not have your home be a

14:41

continual battlefield to provide for the common defense ie create, maintain a

14:47

military that will keep everyone safe from foreign threats....Thank You NRA to

14:51

promote the general welfare yeah because you don't want your fellow countrymen to

14:56

be sick or dying or starving in the streets and to secure the blessings of [Examples of the framer constitution beliefs]

15:01

liberty at liberty freedom all that good stuff you just got done fighting a war

15:05

over so it should be clear that we're reading a piece of writing that wasn't

15:08

thrown together overnight the framers took four long months to get this puppy

15:13

exactly right every word in terms of the phrase had to be perfect the entire

15:17

document had to be perfect and as any big fan of the US Constitution will tell

15:22

you it is... so now you know more about the [Man celebrating US Constitution wearing a foam finger]

15:24

historical context of the Constitution and should have a better idea about how

15:28

it is contributed so greatly to American literature the drafting the Constitution

15:32

wasn't just a writing project it was a movement on that subject, if you're ever

15:37

having trouble starting a movement of your own well you can give me a call I'm

15:41

always here if you need to you know clear your mind or anything else [Tablet dropped into glass of water and dissolves]

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