constitutionday.civiced.org september 17

RECOMMENDED FOR GRAD

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HistoricalAnalysis ofConstitutionalAmendments

HistoricalAnalysis ofConstitutionalAmendments

ABOUT CONSTITUTION DAYIn 1952, President Harry S. Truman signed a bill that moved I Am an American Day from the third Sunday in Mayto September 17. Truman did so in order for the holiday to coincide with the date of the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787.Congress renamed the holiday Citizenship Day. A joint resolution passed in 1956 requested that the president proclaim the weekbeginning September 17 and ending September 23 each year as Constitution Week.

In 2004, Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia entered an amendment to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005 tochange the name of the September 17 holiday to Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. The purpose of Constitution Day andCitizenship Day is to commemorate the creation and signing of the supreme law of the land and to honor and celebrate the priv-ileges and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship for both native-born and naturalized citizens.

Byrd’s amendment, known as Public Law 108–477, requires that all schools receiving federal funds hold an educational program fortheir students on September 17 of each year.This lesson, which is adapted from curricular materials on the Constitution produced bythe Center for Civic Education, is designed to assist schools and federal agencies to meet the requirements of the law.

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Senator Robert C. Byrd

“I invite all Americans to take the time on September17th to read, analyze, and reflect on the Constitution.It is a learned and dynamic document. Brilliant inits brevity, it remains extraordinary in its wisdom.It is my hope that citizens of every State in theUnion, including children, will be inspired toorganize local celebrations on Constitution Day.”senator robert byrd

Such was the sentiment and passion thatspurred Senator Robert Carlyle Byrd into seekingfederal legislation to designate September17 as Constitution and Citizenship Day. Thelongest-serving U.S. senator and member ofCongress in the history of the United Statesdied on June 28, 2010. His dedication to hisoffice, his country, and the Constitution isevident in his tireless service in public office.Elected first to the House in 1952 and then tothe Senate in 1958, his colleagues elected himto more leadership positions than any of hispredecessors.

Senator Byrd will be remembered for his dedi-cation to his work, his wide range of talents,and for his dedication to the U.S. Constitutionas a living, breathing document at the core ofour political and civil lives.

The Center for Civic Education dedicatesthis year’s Constitution Day lessons to SenatorByrd. In providing these lessons to teachers,students, and all who visit this site, we join inSenator Byrd’s invitation to study the marvelthat is the U.S. Constitution.

DEDICATED TO SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD

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Lesson Overview

The U.S. Constitution is, at once, an historicaland dynamic document. It has been amendedtwenty-seven times since its adoption in 1787.Those amendments are often studied in isolation,with most of the attention being devoted tothe specific language and significance of aparticular amendment. Examining a few keyamendments in concert while considering thecontext of each can prove to be a useful exercisein historical analysis that will help form con-nections between the origins and impact of anamendment, as well as between the amend-ments themselves. Students will analyze oneof six amendments to the U.S. Constitutionthrough the framework of its economic, political,social or cultural, and international contexts.Using the information that they gather, studentsare instructed to create timelines that encompassboth the amendment and pertinent eventsbefore, during, and after adoption of the amend-ment. These timelines will then be combinedso that students can more fully evaluate andinterpret how the U.S. Constitution has evolvedin the historical context of our democracy.

Suggested Grade Level

Grade 12, honors or Advanced Placement

Estimated Time to Complete

Approximately two class periods

Lesson Objectives

After completing this lesson, students willbe able to

� identify at least six key amendmentsof the U.S. Constitution;

� determine how specific events and influ-ences can serve to trigger a constitutionalamendment;

� distinguish between different types ofhistorical themes and milieus (economic,political, social or cultural, and interna-tional) through contextual analysis;

� describe the impact of a constitutionalamendment and factors that mightenhance or diminish such an impact.

Materials Needed

� Handouts 1–8

� Chart paper and colored markersor highlighters

� Additional resources:Amending the U.S. Constitution:http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution/

Before the Lesson

� The teacher should determine howto build the history grid (using thewhite board, a transparency, etc.).

� Review all student handouts.

Lesson ProcedureDayOne

1. Opening activity. Review the amendmentprocedures articulated in Article V of theU.S. Constitution and present a list of alltwenty-seven amendments with the datethat each amendment was approved (seeHandout 1). Highlight the followingamendments: First, Thirteenth, Eigh-teenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-second, andTwenty-sixth.

TEACHER’S GUIDE

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economic, political, social or cultural, andinternational) corresponding to the amend-ment assigned to their group (for instance,a student might be assigned the categoryof “international” events for the NineteenthAmendment). They should look for oneto two key events that occurred prior to theamendment’s proposal, one to two key eventsthat occurred during the amendment’sdebate period, and one or two events thatoccured after the amendment’s approval.The events should be directly relatedto the amendment, but if the student hasdifficulty finding such events, he or shemay also include indirectly related events,so long as there is a connection. Theseevents should be listed in a chronologyand described in one to three paragraphs(the “historical context description”).

DayTwo

7. Creating the historical timeline for eachamendment. Students should meet in theiramendment groups upon entering theclass and begin working on Handout 8.Teachers should circulate among the groupsto ensure students understand the handout’sdirections and facilitate each group increating their outline. Please distribute chartpaper and colored markers to each group.

8. Sharing the timelines. Each group shouldpresent their timeline to the class. In sodoing, ensure that they use their answersfrom Handout 8. After each group haspresented, ask students—either in a classdiscussion or in a written assignment—fortheir perspective on the historical influencesthat shaped the passage of constitutionalamendments.

2. Using these amendments, set up a “historygrid” with the students. In Column 1, list thesix amendments. In Column 2, list the corre-sponding dates of approval. Ask students toname events that occurred around the timeof each amendment’s acceptance. Theseevents should populate Column 3 of the grid.Have students categorize each of the eventsas one or more of the following: general,economic, political, social or cultural, andinternational. Note the categories that theevents fall under in the fourth column ofthe grid. Please note that “general” is usedto indicate the historical context categorythat applies to the specific history of anamendment, such as its proposal and adoption.

3. Introduce the lesson topic and review thelesson objectives with students.

4. Studying the language and rationale of theamendment. Divide the class into six groupsand assign one amendment to each group(Handouts 2–7). Student groups will studytheir assigned amendment and explain itto the rest of the class.

5. The teacher will call on groups, one by one,to present an explanation of their assignedamendments to the class, based on theinstructions on each front sheet.

Ask the students to consider why theamendments they just discussed were notadopted sooner than they were. Return tothe history grid to help students understandhow some amendments may not have beenadopted until later due to the historicalcircumstances that existed prior to adoption.

6. Homework assignment: researching context.Assign each student in the amendmentgroup one historical context category (general,

Article V

The following article of the Constitution explains the process for proposing constitutional amendments:

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall proposeAmendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of theseveral States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall bevalid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislaturesof three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one orthe other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendmentwhich may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Man-ner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State,without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

Proposal and Ratification Dates of Constitutional AmendmentsAmendment Date Proposed Date Adopted

First through Tenth September 25, 1789 December 15, 1791

Eleventh March 4, 1794 February 7, 1795

Twelfth December 9, 1803 June 15, 1804

Thirteenth January 31, 1865 December 6, 1865

Fourteenth June 13, 1866 July 9, 1868

Fifteenth February 26, 1869 February 3, 1870

Sixteenth July 12, 1909 February 3, 1913

Seventeenth May 13, 1912 April 8, 1913

Eighteenth December 18, 1917 January 16, 1919

Nineteenth January 9, 1918 August 26, 1920

Twentieth March 2, 1932 January 23, 1933

Twenty-first February 20, 1933 December 5, 1933

Twenty-second March 21, 1947 February 27, 1951

Twenty-third June 16, 1960 March 29, 1961

Twenty-fourth September 14, 1962 January 23, 1964

Twenty-fifth July 6, 1965 February 10, 1967

Twenty-sixth March 23, 1971 July 1, 1971

Twenty-seventh September 25, 1789 May 7, 1992

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HANDOUT 1: ARTICLE V AND AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION

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Learning about Amendments

Directions: Your group has been assigned oneof the following amendments to the Constitution:the First, Thirteenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth,Twenty-second, or the Twenty-sixth.

Your group is responsible for explaining youramendment to the rest of the class. Using thisamendment fact sheet, answer the followingquestions. These will help you presentinformation about your amendment to the class.

1. Identify the amendment and in onesentence and describe its main focus.

2. Briefly explain why the amendmentwas needed.

3. Give one example for each of the economic,social or cultural, political, and interna-tionalcontexts of the amendment.

Learning about Amendments

Congress shall make no law respectingan establishment of religion, orprohibiting the free exercise thereof;or abridging the freedom of speech,or of the press; or the right of the peoplepeaceably to assemble, and to petitionthe Government for a redress ofgrievances. [Emphasis added]

Description of AmendmentThe First Amendment articulates five rightsand freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom ofspeech; freedom of the press; the right to freeassociation (assembly); and the right to petitionthe government for redress of grievances(includes various forms of lobbying). Here,

we will deal only with freedom of the press,recognizing, however, that this freedom isclosely related to freedom of speech.

Freedom of the press, today, includes all formsof publication, not only those that are printedor printed on presses.Today, “the press” includesradio and television broadcasting, the Internet,and mobile phone communications, amongothers.These modern forms of communicationare also often classified as forms of speech.For this reason, issues regarding speech and thepress often overlap.

SomeHistorical Background

Limits to freedom of the press:

LibelNo freedom, save freedom of conscienceand belief, is absolute. Freedom of the pressdoes not, for example, include the freedomto commit libel, i.e., to negligently publishfalse statements that injure the reputationof private persons. Statements attackingpolitical figures and public policy, however,are subject to a different standard thatmakes it harder to prove a claim of libel.

The American colonists cherished freedomof the press. By the 1720s, they chafedunder British laws that required publishersto be licensed by the British colonialgovernment. This requirement gave gov-ernmental authorities the opportunity tocensor material prior to its publication.

In 1735, New York printer John PeterZenger was the defendant in what provedto be a seminal case in the history of freedomof the press in colonial America. Both inEngland and in America, the British Crown

HANDOUT 2: FIRST AMENDMENT FACT SHEET

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had restricted criticism of the governmentby declaring writings that it disliked to be“seditious libel.” Proving that one’s writingwas true did not prevent a writer frombeing found guilty of the offense of sedition.But Zenger’s defense attorney successfullyargued that truth was an exculpatorydefense against charges of libel or, in thisinstance, seditious libel.

In 1798, the U.S. Congress took a page outof colonial history and, once more, passeda controversial Sedition Act that outlawedpublication of “false, scandalous, andmalicious” statements against the govern-ment or Congress. At least ten persons,two newspaper editors and a writer, wereconvicted. But the law expired in 1801and the new president, Thomas Jefferson,pardoned those prosecuted. As a result, thebroader legal definition of press freedomprevailed.

A landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisionin the mid-twentieth century furtherexpanded protections against conviction oflibel (or defamation of character). In NewYork Times v. Sullivan (1964), the Courtestablished that the untruth of publishedcriticism of public figures was insufficientto prove a claim of libel. The Court ruledthat “actual malice” or “reckless disregardfor the truth” was also required for conviction.As a result, proving the offense of libelagainst public figures became significantlymore difficult.

Prior restraint and government censorshipAnother curb on freedom of the press is“prior restraint” of publication by governmentas well as compulsory government censorshipof publications. Courts have upheld press

freedom on both issues.While press censor-ship was practiced in World War II, itwas voluntary.

More recently, U.S. Supreme Court rulingshave sharply reduced the possibility ofprior restraint. For instance, in the famous“Pentagon Papers” case of 1971 (New YorkTimes Co. v. United States), the Court ruledthat government could not restrain top-secret government papers on the VietnamWar from being leaked to the New YorkTimes by a disaffected former governmentofficial unless it satisfied a very heavyburden of proof.

Economic contextAt the time of the ratification of the FirstAmendment and the immediate years there-after, there were hundreds of newspapers inthe United States. By the end of the 1790s,Massachusetts had 121 newspapers, New Yorkand Pennsylvania had 124, and Virginia 64.Although newspapers were important in publiclife as conveyors of news and comment,they were not the enormous businesses thatthey later became.

By the late twentieth century, newspaper,broadcast, Internet, magazine, and journalbusinesses were multi-billion dollar industries.In these circumstances, questions often ariseabout whether certain media companies orindividuals have excessive power throughownership of multiple newspapers, radio andtelevision stations, and other print andelectronic media.

Social, cultural, or political contextIn the era of the American Revolution, freedomof the press was high on the list of the libertiesAmericans demanded.The Virginia Declarationof Rights, adopted on June 12, 1776, for example,

stated that “the freedom of the press is one ofthe greatest bulwarks of liberty and can neverbe restrained but by despotic governments.”Many state constitutions written after 1776began with bills of rights that included freedomof the press. The New Hampshire constitutionof 1784, for example, identified “free speech”and “liberty of the press” as “essential to thesecurity of freedom of the state”; and otherstate constitutions used similar language. Theseprovisions recalled the colonists’ outrage at theBritish tax on newspapers in the Stamp Act of1765, denounced as an infringement on freedomof the press.There is little wonder that protectionof freedom of the press was made part of thefirst ten amendments to the 1789 Constitution.

From the beginning of life under the Bill ofRights there were conflicts over what limitsmight be placed on freedom of the press. From1791 until well into the twentieth century,provisions of the Bill of Rights applied only tothe federal government (“Congress shall makeno law…” the First Amendment reads,unconditionally). In 1925, in Gitlow v. NewYork, the U.S. Supreme Court began a processof applying parts of the Bill of Rights, includingfreedom of the press, to state law. This process,known as “incorporation,” is based on “theequal protection of the laws” provision of theFourteenth Amendment.

That a deeply held respect for freedom of thepress and expression is still an ingrained aspectof American society can be seen in fiercely heldviews on current issues of government regulationof new forms of publishing. These includeattempts to regulate the Internet, including thegrowing forms of social networking, as well asmobile communications devices.Whether orto what extent government can legitimatelyregulate or even tax the content of new forms

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of electronic publication and communicationare questions that loom large in future debateover freedom of the press.

International contextThe roots of freedom of the press in Americaare found in England. In the seventeenthcentury, English scientist Frances Bacon saidthat the effects of printing were as vast as theinventions of gunpowder and the compass forhaving “changed the appearance and state ofthe world.” Also in the seventeenth century,famed English poet John Milton penned alimited but historic pamphlet attacking thepractice of government licensing of printingpresses. A century later, English jurist WilliamBlackstone asserted that freedom of the pressincluded the absence of prior governmentrestraint on publication. However, Blackstonebelieved that the press could be held responsiblefor what the law defined as abuse of its freedom.

From the nineteenth century onward, asEuropean colonies started to gain theirindependence,many nations entered the industrialage demanding the liberal freedoms associatedwith democracy. These freedoms prominentlyincluded freedom of the press. In the twentiethcentury, international organizations were createdto champion freedom of the press and ofexpression generally. International PEN, aworldwide association of writers, for example,was founded in London in 1921.

After World War II, writers, publishers, andothers concerned with freedom of the presshave continued to organize and operate at theinternational level. A great deal of “free press”activism concerns government interferencewith individuals’ access to the enormous bodyof information found on the Internet.

Learning about Amendments

Directions: Your group has been assigned oneof the following amendments to the Constitution:the First, Thirteenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth,Twenty-second, or the Twenty-sixth.

Your group is responsible for explaining youramendment to the rest of the class. Using thisamendment fact sheet, answer the followingquestions. These will help you presentinformation about your amendment to the class.

1. Identify the amendment and in onesentence and describe its main focus.

2. Briefly explain why the amendmentwas needed.

3. Give one example for each of the economic,social or cultural, political, and interna-tionalcontexts of the amendment.

Thirteenth Amendment

Section1 Neither slavery nor involuntaryservitude, except as a punishment forcrime whereof the party shall havebeen duly convicted, shall exist withinthe United States, or any place subjectto their jurisdiction.

Section 2 Congress shall have powerto enforce this article by appropriatelegislation.

Description of AmendmentThe Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slaveryor “involuntary servitude” throughout theUnited States and its territories, thereby finishingthe work begun by President Abraham Lincoln’sEmancipation Proclamation of 1862–63. The

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Emancipation Proclamation abolished slaveryin the states that were members of theConfederacy, but not elsewhere.

The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified inDecember 1865, said nothing about citizenshipand equal civil rights for the former slaves,especially their right to vote. These matterswere later taken up by the Fourteenth (1868)and Fifteenth Amendments (1870), respectively.

General historical contextCongress passed the Thirteenth Amendment inJanuary 1865, a few months before the close ofthe Civil War, and the Amendment was ratifiedthe following December. The formal reasonfor the war was the unwillingness of the Unionto allow eleven states, all of them economicallydependent on slave labor, to secede from it andform a separate nation, the Confederate Statesof America. The underlying cause of the war,however, was growing Northern opposition toslavery and its expansion, and the unwillingnessof the South either to abolish it, howevergradually, or to agree to stop its spread.

The slavery issue, present at the nation’s foundingin 1776, became increasingly pressing in thenineteenth century with the nation’s expansion.As the population pushed westward, initiallyforming territories under federal law and thennew states that were admitted to the Union,the question continually arose whether slaverywould be permitted in these new lands. Thisquestion led to a series of political crises andattempted permanent compromises that neversettled the issue.

HANDOUT 3: THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT FACT SHEET

The landmarks on the road to the bloodiestwar in American history include the following:

� The 1787 Northwest Ordinance thatbanned slavery in the Northwest Territory.

� The Missouri Compromise of 1820,admitting Maine as a free state andMissouri as a slave state.

� John Quincy Adams’s proposal of aconstitutional amendment outlawingslavery in 1839.

� The Compromise of 1850, which settledcomplex questions regarding slavery inthe Southwest.

� The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) repealedthe Missouri Compromise of 1820 andleft to a vote of the inhabitants of newlands whether slavery would be permitted.Fighting over the slavery questionfollowed in Kansas until 1858.

� John Brown’s October 1859 attempt toignite a slave rebellion in Virginia culminatedin his execution, making him a martyr tomany Northerners.

� In December 1860, a South Carolinaconvention passed an ordinance of secessionfrom the Union, followed by more secessionsby Southern states in January 1861.

� The outbreak of war on April 12, 1861,when Confederate forces fired on Ft.Sumter, South Carolina.

Economic contextWhen the CivilWar erupted in 1861, differencesbetween the economies of North and Southwere directly relevant to the slavery issue. Thesouthern economy was built around a singlecrop, cotton—known as “King Cotton.” After

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the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, thedemand for slave labor greatly increased.The economy of the North by 1860, on theother hand, was becoming less rural and moreindustrialized, providing 90 percent of its manu-factured items, with little need for slave labor.Slaves composed just 2 percent (400,000) ofits population. The cotton-based economy ofthe South, by contrast, depended on 3.5 millionslaves, who made up more than 38 percentof its inhabitants.

TheThirteenth Amendment—and the previousmeasures, such as the Emancipation Proclamation,that sought to liberate the slave labor on whichthe South depended—constituted a frontalassault on the Confederacy’s economy, and soon its ability to resist the will of the North. Theimmediate end to slavery, combined with theabsence of compensation to those who claimedslaves as property, constituted a final blow tothe South’s economy.

Social or cultural contextThe institution of slavery was in flat contradictionto the founding principles and animating spiritof the American republic born on July 4, 1776.The nation’s birth certificate, the Declarationof Independence, stated that, “all men are createdequal, that they are endowed by their Creatorwith certain unalienable rights,” among them“life” and “liberty.” The Declaration’s author,Thomas Jefferson, himself a slave owner,acknowledged this contradiction in the draft hesubmitted to Congress by denouncing slavery,which violated “the most sacred rights of lifeand liberty.”

Abhorrence of slavery had deep roots in theAmerican colonies. Although the practice laterreturned, Rhode Island abolished slavery in1652. In 1688, Quakers in Germantown,

Pennsylvania, wrote a tract denouncing slavery;and in 1700, Samuel Sewall of Boston protestedit in his The Selling of Joseph. Other movementsto abolish slavery were formed during theRevolutionary era. A society to give legalassistance to enslaved blacks was founded byPennsylvania Quakers as early as 1775 andsoon evolved into the Pennsylvania AbolitionSociety. Not yet a state, Vermont abolishedslavery in 1777; and in 1780, Pennsylvaniabecame the first state to legislate slavery’s gradualabolition. New York followed suit in 1799.

A key social and cultural factor in the anti-slaverymovement was Protestant Christianity, with itsemphasis on the equality of every human beingin the sight of God. So much is implied by the1780 Pennsylvania law, which stated that “itis not for us to enquire why in the creation ofmankind, the inhabitants of the several parts ofthe earth were distinguished by a difference infeature or complexion. It is sufficient to knowthat all are the work of an Almighty Hand.”The Second Great Awakening, an evangelicalChristian revival movement in the early decadesof the nineteenth century, stimulated manyreform movements, including abolitionism.

A social culture of reform in pre-Civil WarAmerica was the fertile soil in which a varietyof movements against slavery were formed thatwould lead to the passage of the ThirteenthAmendment. In 1816, an American ColonizationSociety was formed to send freed slaves toLiberia. Among the most important abolitionsocieties was the American Anti-SlaverySociety, founded in Philadelphia in 1833 byWilliam Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan.The Society espoused the immediate,uncompensated abolition of slavery. Garrison

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championed Frederick Douglass, the brilliantformer slave abolitionist, who became the fore-most African American voice opposing slavery.

Abolition societies attracted many womenactivists, although men sometimes opposedwomen’s participation, causing abolitionistorganizations to split apart. Even thoughtraditionalist men might oppose their activism,women succeeded in playing significant rolesin organizations opposing slavery.

Political contextAlthough a number of states had secededfrom the Union and fighting had begun whenLincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861,the president and others hoped to preventfull-scale war from breaking out. To placate theSouth, Congress passed and Lincoln originallysigned an earlier version of the ThirteenthAmendment that would have, in actuality,permitted slavery in the slave states in perpetuityby outlawing any future amendments aimed atabolishing slavery or otherwise interfering with“states rights.” Both houses of Congress passedthis amendment but only one state (Illinois)ratified it before large-scale fighting made itirrelevant. Consequently, this version of theThirteen Amendment, which guaranteedslavery, was never adopted.

Lincoln’s attitude to the slavery issue wascomplex. There is no doubt that he hated it.“If slavery is not wrong,” he wrote in 1864,“nothing is wrong.” He had campaigned for thepresidency in 1860 on a platform of banningslavery from new states and territories. Butwhen elected president, he assured the Southin his First Inaugural Address that he would notinterfere with slavery where it existed. Thepurpose of the Civil War was not abolition ofslavery, but preservation of the Union. This

purpose was paramount for Lincoln because hethought that if democracy failed in the UnitedStates, it would die as an ideal throughout theworld. Thus, he proclaimed in the GettysburgAddress (November 1863) that a Union victorywas required so that “government of the people,by the people, for the people, shall not perishfrom the earth.” Earlier, in an address to Congressin 1862, he called the Union and its form ofgovernment “the last best hope of earth.”

Lincoln believed that, however much heloathed slavery, his powers as president werelimited by the Constitution. At the outset ofthe Civil War, public opinion in the North wasgenerally unfavorable to immediate abolition.Some favored the status quo; others favoredgradual emancipation. Those demandingcomplete and immediate abolishment ofslavery (“abolitionists”) were a minority. Others,content with outlawing slavery in the territoriesand newly admitted states, would leave it inplace in the South.These were known as “FreeSoilers” after a political party that advocatedthis solution to the slavery issue.

As the Civil War proceeded, policy towardslavery became part of the North’s war strategy.Not long after the outbreak of war, Congresspassed the Confiscation Act of 1861 thatforbade the Union military from returningslaves to their masters. In July 1862, it passedas second such act, emancipating all slavesowned by rebel masters that came under Unionjurisdiction. By then, Lincoln was secretlydevising a two-part executive order, the Eman-cipation Proclamation, that would attack theConfederacy by liberating its slaves, althoughnone in Union territory. At the beginning ofthe war, Lincoln would allow slavery in the

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South in order to save the Union; but since theSouth had persisted in secession, he now soughtto free its slaves to deprive it of labor powerin order to destroy it and preserve the Union.

In September 1862, Lincoln announced thefirst part of the Proclamation, which stated thatthe slaves in any of the Confederate states thatdid not return to the Union by the followingJanuary would be freed. The second part, theofficial Emancipation Proclamation, was issuedon January 1, 1863. Lincoln called it, “thecentral act of my Administration.” Althoughthe Proclamation was generally popular in theNorth, the South did have sympathizers,especially among immigrant Irish workers whofeared labor competition from former slaves.After Congress passed draft laws, serious riotsoccurred, especially in New York City in July1863. Order was restored, however, and thedraft proceeded.

By the end of 1864, Lincoln had moveddecisively toward a new version of theThirteenthAmendment, which embraced outright abolition.Early in 1865, he pushed the Amendment throughCongress, and it was sent to the states forratification. Although Lincoln was assassinatedin April, by the end of the year the Amendmentwas ratified, and slavery in the United Statesof America had come to a complete andpermanent end.

International contextThe international movement to abolish theslave trade and the practice of slavery began inBritain and elsewhere in Europe in the eighteenthcentury. Slavery was outlawed in Portugal andPortuguese India (now Goa) in 1761. It wasattacked by philosophers of the FrenchEnlightenment, and declared illegal in Englandin a 1772 court case. Scotland soon followed

suit. In 1787, English parliamentarian WilliamWilberforce began a Committee for the Abolitionof the Slave Trade; in 1807, the Committeesucceeded in banning the African slave tradethroughout the British Empire. In 1827, Britaindeclared slave trading to be piracy, punishableby death. (By 1860, the Royal Navy had freedsome 150,000 slaves.) Slavery remained legalin British colonies until 1833, when a SlaveryAbolition Act was passed. Prior to the end ofthe Civil War, slavery was abolished in Mexico,and in much of South America, and was bannedin Denmark, France, and the Netherlands.

The Emancipation Proclamation greatlyenhanced the Union’s diplomatic position,especially in Britain, which had previouslyaided the Confederacy but had not recognizedit diplomatically. Public opinion in Britainand in Europe swung in the North’s favor, andthe danger of further British support forthe Confederacy passed.

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Learning about Amendments

Directions: Your group has been assigned oneof the following amendments to the Constitution:the First, Thirteenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth,Twenty-second, or the Twenty-sixth.

Your group is responsible for explaining youramendment to the rest of the class. Using thisamendment fact sheet, answer the followingquestions. These will help you presentinformation about your amendment to the class.

1. Identify the amendment and in onesentence and describe its main focus.

2. Briefly explain why the amendmentwas needed.

3. Give one example for each of the economic,social or cultural, political, and interna-tionalcontexts of the amendment.

Eighteenth Amendment

Section 1 After one year from theratification of this article themanufacture,sale, or transportation of intoxicatingliquors within, the importation thereofinto, or the exportation thereof fromthe United States and all territory subjectto the jurisdiction thereof for beveragepurposes is hereby prohibited.

Section2 The Congress and the severalStates shall have concurrent powerto enforce this article by appropriatelegislation.

Section3 This article shall be inoperativeunless it shall have been ratified as anamendment to the Constitution bythe legislatures of the several States, as

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provided in the Constitution, withinseven years from the date of thesubmission hereof to the States bythe Congress.

Description of AmendmentThe Eighteenth Amendment, ratified January1919, inaugurated the era of Prohibition byoutlawing the “manufacture, sale, or trans-portation of intoxicating liquors” in the UnitedStates. The amendment refers to furtherlegislation that would specify the means bywhich it would be enforced, since the amendmentitself was brief and required further explanationregarding, among other matters, precisely whatwas being outlawed.

General historical contextThe Eighteenth Amendment was passed byCongress in December 1917, during the latterpart of World War I. The United States hadentered the war in April 1917, after several ofits ships had been attacked by Germany. Thetiming of the amendment’s passage was notaccidental, since some of the most vocal oppositionto it came from German immigrants, who hada tradition of brewing beer. As America wentto war against Germany, these immigrants losttheir influence in the national debate overbanning alcohol. Additionally, people morereadily accepted government controlsduring wartime.

When the amendment was ratified in January1919, the war had already officially ended withthe signing of the Versailles Treaty in Paris theprevious year. During the summer and autumnof 1919, the nation debated ratification of theTreaty, which included U.S. membership inthe League of Nations. In November, just twomonths before Prohibition began, the U.S.

HANDOUT 4: EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT FACT SHEET

Senate refused to ratify the Treaty. Prohibitionand woman suffrage were debated during thesame period; many women who supported one,supported the other. Soon after Prohibitioncame into effect, Congress passed the womansuffrage amendment and sent it to the statesfor ratification, which occurred in August 1920.Now at peace, the nation set out on a decadeof social experiment, with far-reachingconsequences.

Economic contextAs a result of banning the sale of alcohol,thousands of illegal nightclubs that servedalcohol, known as “speakeasies,” opened aroundthe country. Chicago alone had 10,000; by 1925,New York had between 30,000 and 100,000.Providing them with alcohol became a boomingindustry, typically tied to criminal organizationssuch as Al Capone’s notorious Chicago gang.

Legal exceptions to Prohibition had wideeconomic consequences. Medically prescribedalcohol led to brisk trade among physiciansand pharmacies, as thousands of new “patients”found alcohol medically necessary. Farmerswere allowed to make fruit wines, leading to arevolution in grape production in California,where acreage dedicate to grape vines increasedseven-fold by 1925. Government expenditurefor Prohibition skyrocketed, with a largeproportion of the federal budget spent on itsenforcement.

Social or cultural contextProhibition was an agent of profound socialchange. One such change was the integrationof the sexes and the social liberation of womenin the context of the speakeasy. Before the1920s, women were rarely seen in saloons; butin speakeasies they could mingle freely withmen and were sometimes referred to as

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“flappers,” women flaunting their rejection ofsocial convention.

Speakeasies also influenced racial attitudes andbehaviors, as talented black musicians such asLouis Armstrong emerged from the South toplay in whites-only nightclubs—often run byorganized crime syndicates—in New York City,Chicago, and elsewhere. Prohibition helpedinaugurate the “Harlem Renaissance” of the1920s and 1930s in New York, as black musiciansand patrons gathered in renowned speakeasyhaunts such as the Cotton Club (where DukeEllington performed), transforming social life.

Other changes were at first less nationally visible,but stock car racing, which evolved into today’sNASCAR, had its origins in Prohibition-erademand for getaway vehicles so that alcoholtransporters could outrun the law. Finally,widespread opposition to Prohibition may havelessened respect for the law, as rum-running“bootleggers” serviced the public’s unquenchablethirst for intoxication. Although it was advertisedas necessary to curb drinking and crime,Prohibition mostly failed at both. By the mid-1920s, this failure had become conspicuousenough to attract organized efforts at repeal;and, at least on the national level, by 1933Prohibition had ended.

Political contextProhibition had its roots in the late eighteenthand early nineteenth centuries, with the formationof “temperance” (anti-alcohol) groups inConnecticut, New York, and Virginia. Beginningin the 1840s, religious groups, especiallyMethodists, attacked alcohol consumption.In 1869, a Prohibition Party was founded,followed by the influential Woman’s ChristianTemperance Union in 1873 and the Anti-SaloonLeague 1893.

Prohibition was closely linked with the growthof women’s entrance into politics, especiallythe Woman Suffrage movement. Many womenwho supportedWoman Suffrage also supportedProhibition. In the South, the Ku Klux Klansupported Prohibition as a means of controllingAfrican Americans.

International contextProhibition in the twentieth century was notunique to America. Movements to ban alcoholhad arisen in nineteenth century Europe aswell. At various times between 1907 and 1932,alcohol was banned in Russia (and later in theSoviet Union), Hungary, Iceland (which bannedbeer until 1989), and parts of Australia, Canada(Prince Edward Island retained Prohibitionuntil 1948), and Scandinavia.

The international context of Prohibition includesmany organizations and philosophies developedaround the world, especially in Europe, seekingsocial improvement. The harmful effects ofexcessive alcoholic consumption on industrializingsocieties were apparent to reformers, oftenmotivated by religion. Banning alcohol was aremedy that readily suggested itself.

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Learning about Amendments

Directions: Your group has been assigned oneof the following amendments to the Constitution:the First, Thirteenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth,Twenty-second, or the Twenty-sixth.

Your group is responsible for explaining youramendment to the rest of the class. Using thisamendment fact sheet, answer the followingquestions. These will help you presentinformation about your amendment to the class.

1. Identify the amendment and in onesentence and describe its main focus.

2. Briefly explain why the amendmentwas needed.

3. Give one example for each of the economic,social or cultural, political, and interna-tionalcontexts of the amendment.

Nineteenth Amendment

The right of citizens of the United States to voteshall not be denied or abridged by the UnitedStates or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce thisarticle by appropriate legislation.

Description of AmendmentThe Nineteenth Amendment, ratified August1920, secured women’s right to vote in allelections—local, state, and national. Theamendment specified that neither state norfederal governments could legally deny womenthe vote nor could they “abridge” this right.In other words, they could not place obstaclesin the way of women’s exercise of theirconstitutional right to enfranchisement (theright to vote).

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General historical contextAmerican entrance into World War I in 1917provides the immediate backdrop to passageof the Nineteenth Amendment. By this time,“suffragists” (supporters of women’s suffrage)were determined to pressure Congress toapprove a constitutional amendment.Women’ssuffrage had been passed over in the FifteenthAmendment, and bills for a women’s suffrageamendment had been introduced to Congresswithout success since 1878. Opponents such asthe National Association Opposed toWomen’sSuffrage (founded 1871) were active, especiallyin the South.

American involvement inWorldWar I, however,heightened demands for women’s suffrage.President Wilson announced that the purposeof the war was to establish democracy. Suffragistwomen countered that the United States washardly a democracy if half its population wasdenied the right to vote. When PresidentWilson spoke in public, he found audiencemembers wanting to know why, if he favoreddemocracy around the world, he opposed “thenational enfranchisement of woman.” Finally,on January 9, 1918,Wilson changed his positionand spoke favorably of women’s suffrage. TheHouse of Representatives passed the amendmentthe following day, but the Senate refused todeal with it until October, when it failed bythree votes.

The following year, supporters urged men toelect pro-women’s suffrage candidates at theNovember 1918 mid-term election. The newCongress was at last composed predominantlyof supporters and by the late spring of 1919,both chambers had overwhelmingly passed theNineteenth Amendment. In August it was

HANDOUT 5: NINETEENTH AMENDMENT FACT SHEET

sent to the states for ratification. A year later,passage by the thirty-sixth state, Tennessee,made women’s suffrage the law of the land.

Economic contextIn the early nineteenth century, Americanwomen generally lived on farms and produceditems for home use.Women enjoyed a certainstatus as home producers, but this status changedas the century progressed and more outsideproducts were bought for home use. By the endof the century and first decades of the next,the economic roles of significant numbers ofwomen had undergone marked transformation.Nearly 25 percent were in the labor force. Some,who were factory workers, formed unions ledby women. Other women could be found inroles previously reserved for men.Thus, womenwere physicians and surgeons, astronomers,physicists, and biologists, as well as architectsand civil engineers. Women also took on therole of successful inventors—the windshieldwiper, for example, was invented in 1903 byAlabaman Mary Anderson.

The economic context of World War I gavefurther impetus to women’s suffrage, as womentook their places in war industries. This newsituation gave their leaders firmer foundationsfor their demands for equal rights with men.Opportunities for women were, however,constrained by social class and race, with blackwomen suffering most.

Social or cultural contextThe course of the nineteenth century sawthe emergent role of women outside the homeand the founding and growth of women’sorganizations devoted to addressing the most

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pressing public issues of the day. Theseprominently included the abolition of slavery,the evils of alcohol abuse, and women’scivil rights.

After the Civil War, the nation’s growingindustrialization saw women assuming socialroles previously denied them. At the turn ofthe twentieth century, white women wereincreasingly attending college.Women hadlong participated in the nation’s cultural life asartists, poets, novelists, playwrights, andmusicians. The growth of a class of educatedand accomplished women gave momentum tothe movement for civil rights, especially theright to vote. Shortly before passage of theNineteenth Amendment, a woman, JeannetteRankin, had been elected to Congress as arepresentative of Montana.

Political contextWomen’s suffrage had its roots in nineteenthcentury organizations to abolish slavery andcurtail alcohol abuse—“temperance” societiessuch as the Woman’s Christian TemperanceUnion founded in Illinois in 1873. In theseorganizations women learned the arts of politicalorganizing, pamphleteering, speaking, anddemonstrating. (Liquor interests stronglyopposed women’s suffrage because they rightlysuspected that women would vote for Prohibition.)While participating in such efforts,Womenlearned first hand about gender discrimination,which helped galvanize early leaders to pressthe case for women’s rights. In the 1830s, forexample, women’s anti-slavery associations wereopposed inMassachusetts because men believedwomen should not speak publicly on the issue.

Similarly, in 1840, Lucretia Mott and ElizabethCady Stanton were banned from participatingin the World Anti-Slavery Convention in

London on account of gender; but they latertranslated their outrage into organizing theSeneca Falls Convention (1848), the first publicpolitical meeting in the nation that dealt withwomen’s issues. At the Seneca Falls Convention,Stanton advocated the radical positionof women’s suffrage, an idea that was widelyridiculed, at first, but later adopted by theConvention following the intervention of theabolitionist Fredrick Douglass. Other conventionsfollowed annually in the next decade. Perhapsthe most famous suffragist leader, Susan B.Anthony, was also active initially in anti-slaveryand temperance causes. She, too, was barredfrom speaking at a temperance convention andtook up women’s rights as a result.

The constitutional amendments that followedthe Civil War fractured the women’s movement.The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) explicitlyprovided for “male” suffrage, the first constitutionaluse of the word. But debate over the FifteenthAmendment (1870) reopened the suffrage andgender issue, splitting the women’s movement.Should women’s rights take precedence overblack men’s rights? Most women activistsseemed to agree that the focus should be onblack civil rights and that women’s suffragewould have to wait.When Susan B. Anthonyvocally disagreed and was perceived as placingthe rights of white women above black men,she was charged with racism.

In 1869 Anthony and Stanton founded theNational Woman Suffrage Association(NAWSA), which advocated pressing for aconstitutional amendment on suffrage. In thesame year, the American Woman SuffrageAssociation (AWSA), which stood for lobbyingstate legislatures to amend state constitutions,was formed. Five years later, on the onehundredth anniversary of the Declaration of

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Independence, Susan B. Anthony read a“Declaration of the Rights of Women” beforethe Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. In 1878,the first of what became annual bills for awomen’s suffrage amendment was introducedin Congress.

The advocacy of suffragists was publicly visiblethroughout the remainder of the century.Women secured the franchise in WyomingTerritorial elections in 1869, though they wereunsuccessful in South Dakota in 1890. Theywon in Colorado in 1893, however, as well as inIdaho in 1896. During this period, womenorganized numerous protest demonstrations, suchas in 1886, when women were excluded fromdedication ceremonies for the Statue of Liberty.

In 1890, NAWSA and AWSA buried theirdifferences and merged to form a singleorganization. Increasingly well organized, thesuffragist movement saw a new generationof leaders emerge, as Carrie Chapman Catttook the helm of NAWSA. In the years beforeWorld War I, moreover, suffragists weresuccessful in a succession of states. In 1913,Alice Paul and Lucy Burns founded theCongressional Union for Woman Suffrage(renamed the National Woman’s Party [NWP]in 1917), splitting off from NAWSA toconcentrate on a national constitutionalamendment.

The political struggle for suffrage was notwithout its dangers and difficulties, as illustratedby events in 1913. In that year, Alice Paul ledan enormous parade down PennsylvaniaAvenue in Washington, D.C., the day beforeWoodrowWilson’s presidential inauguration.The parade turned into a riot as thousands ofmale opponents blocked the marchers’ way.After male supporters came to the women’s

rescue, troops had to be called to restore order.Hundreds of women were hospitalized, butno one was arrested for assaulting them.

In 1917, moreover, when women formeda twenty-four hour vigil (“Sentinels of Liberty”)for a constitutional amendment for women’ssuffrage around Woodrow Wilson’s WhiteHouse, nearly five hundred were arrested(illegally, it was later determined). One hundredsixty-eight demonstrators were sent to prison,where they were treated harshly, and were notreleased until early 1918. But by then PresidentWilson had changed his position andendorsed women’s suffrage.

International contextBy the time that the Nineteenth Amendmentwas ratified in the United States, a numberof other countries or states within them hadsecured women’s suffrage. The roots of modernwomen’s suffrage are found in eighteenth-century Europe. At various times, certain womencould vote in Sweden, the island republic ofCorsica, and in parts of France.Women in thePitcairn Islands in the Pacific voted after 1838.In 1869, the famed English philosopher JohnStuart Mill, aided by his suffragist partnerHarriet Taylor, gave the international movementan important intellectual foundation inpublishing his On the Subjugation of Women.

In England after 1869, unmarried femalehouseholders were allowed to vote in localelections; and from 1893, New Zealandallowed women unrestricted voting, thoughthey could not hold public office. Two yearslater, South Australia, a self-governing colony,allowed women both to vote and to hold office;and from 1901, women’s suffrage furtherexpanded in Australia. Between 1906 and 1918,the following European countries inaugurated

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women’s suffrage: Finland, Norway, Denmark,Canada (except Quebec), Germany, Austria,Ireland (with restrictions), Poland, the BalticRepublics, and Britain (women over 30). In1919, the Netherlands, among other Europeancountries, followed suit. In the decade thatfollowed, the process continued in Europe andin several countries in Asia and Latin America.

Learning about Amendments

Directions: Your group has been assigned oneof the following amendments to the Constitution:the First, Thirteenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth,Twenty-second, or the Twenty-sixth.

Your group is responsible for explaining youramendment to the rest of the class. Using thisamendment fact sheet, answer the followingquestions. These will help you presentinformation about your amendment to the class.

1. Identify the amendment and in onesentence and describe its main focus.

2. Briefly explain why the amendmentwas needed.

3. Give one example for each of the economic,social or cultural, political, and interna-tionalcontexts of the amendment.

Twenty-second Amendment

Section 1 No person shall be electedto the office of the President morethan twice, and no person who has heldthe office of President, or acted asPresident, for more than two years ofa term to which some other person waselected President shall be elected to theoffice of the President more than once.But this article shall not apply to anyperson holding the office of Presidentwhen this article was proposed by theCongress, and shall not prevent anyperson who may be holding the officeof President, or acting as President,during the term within which this articlebecomes operative from holding theoffice of President or acting as Presidentduring the remainder of such term.

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Section2 This article shall be inoperativeunless it shall have been ratified asan amendment to the Constitution bythe legislatures of three-fourths of theseveral States within seven years fromthe date of its submission to the Statesby the Congress.

Description of AmendmentThe Twenty-second Amendment, passed byCongress on March 24, 1947, and ratified onFebruary 27, 1951, barred presidents frombeing elected to more than two terms in office.The amendment also provided that a presidentcould be elected only once, if he or she hadserved for more than two years of the term ofhis or her predecessor. These restrictions didnot apply, however, to President Harry S.Truman,who was president when the amendment wasproposed; nor would it have applied to PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower had the amendmentbeen ratified when he was president. Since itwas passed while Truman was still in office, hewas the only president who could have beenelected three or more times.

General historical contextWhile most of Europe had succumbed todictatorship during the Great Depression ofthe 1930s, democracy in the United Stateshad survived. Franklin D. Roosevelt had beenpresident during the entire period of theDepression in which these dictatorships stormedtheir way to power. By 1940, he had done soby breaking long-established American customby successfully running for election anunprecedented three times.

The circumstances of his running for a third,then a fourth term were unique in the nation’shistory. The Depression had still not run its

HANDOUT 6: TWENTY-SECOND AMENDMENT FACT SHEET

course in 1940, when Roosevelt announcedhis candidacy for a third term; but moreimportantly, war had broken out in Europe in1939. Imperial Japan had invaded China in1937 and threatened the whole of East Asia.Clearly, these forces of lawless power opposednot just democracy but also human decencyitself, although opinion was divided over howto deal with this danger. In the face of publicopposition to direct involvement in World WarII, Roosevelt’s administration oversaw anunprecedented build up of American militaryand naval power in the late 1930s.

In such circumstances, it seemed to Rooseveltand his advisors, as well as to many Americans,that this was not the time for an untried new-comer to occupy the White House. And so thepresident ran for election for a third time. Fouryears later, the nation was in the midst of thewar that was merely looming in 1940. SurelyRoosevelt (who hid the seriousness of hisdeteriorating health from the public) mustrun for a fourth term.

To some, however, Roosevelt’s breaking withtradition by seeking a third, then a fourth termwas alarming. The executive power of theAmerican republic looked as if it was beingtransformed into presidency for life—a form ofmonarchy or worse.However noble or necessaryRoosevelt’s reasons for his decisions, theTwenty-second Amendment was an affirmation of afundamental principle of American democracy,which instinctively distrusted power, especiallyexecutive power. The concentration of powermust be limited and checked, and that is whatthe Amendment sought to accomplish.

Economic contextFranklin Roosevelt was first elected presidentin 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression.

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His calm and optimistic demeanor, as expressedin a series of radio broadcasts known as “firesidechats,” combined with public polices thatsought to provide jobs and economic securityto millions of impoverished victims of theDepression, had endeared him to large numbersof the American people. Although these policiesdid not bring the nation out of its deep economicslump, Roosevelt’s personal following wasenormous, notwithstanding his many detractors.The context of economic depression was keyto Roosevelt’s reelection in 1936, which put himin a position to run for a third term in 1940.By then, however, World War II had brokenout in Europe and Asia, providing much of therationale for the president’s break with traditionin seeking a third term.

The American economy sprang to life afterthe nation’s entrance to the war in the wakeof Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, onDecember 7, 1941. As the war came to a closeless than four years later, many economists fearedthe economy would return to its depressed1930s condition. But this did not occur.Whilethe fact of economic stability had no direct effecton passage of the Twenty-second Amendment,indirectly it helped to provide an underlyingcontext in which the nation could seek to returnto its customary checks on executive power,shoring up the foundations of a democracy thatinstinctively shrank from even the appearanceof monarchical power.

Social or cultural contextWith the ringing words of the Declaration ofIndependence that “all men are created equal,”the United States was born an egalitariannation.This meant, for one thing, that the nation’sfundamental principles rejected the idea ofa hereditary aristocracy and affirmed the civicequality of citizens. This rejection is written

into the U.S. Constitution’s ban on titles ofnobility. At the same time, the nation’s politicalculture was anti-monarchist from the time ofthe American Revolution onwards.The Americanshad defeated a reviled British king and set theirnew country upon a republican path that rejectedmonarchy as decisively as it did formal aristocracy.

Political contextFranklin D. Roosevelt was born into a wealthy,socially prominent family. His cousin,TheodoreRoosevelt, had been president in the early twentiethcentury. By the end of his life, Roosevelt’s longtenure in office, his election to the presidencyfour times—in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944—was twice the number of terms of any previouspresident. Although Roosevelt was a much-beloved president, he was also a much-hatedpresident. Not a few Americans thought thathe should not have been elected to a third termin office, and more objected to a fourth term.These events seemed to point to his becomingpresident for life—a quasi-monarch.

Although the U.S. Constitution did not providefor term limits for any elective office, includingthe presidency, from the beginning of governmentunder the Constitution no president had servedfor more than two terms. (Ulysses S. Grant had,however, sought a third term.) GeorgeWashington had declined to serve a third term,as had Presidents Thomas Jefferson, JamesMadison, and James Monroe. Grant’s counter-example notwithstanding, by the twentiethcentury, presidential term limits was an engrainedcustom. The strength of this custom in thenation’s collective judgment was the foremostcircumstance surrounding the proposal andratification of the Twenty-second Amendment.

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Added to distrust of power in general was theundeniable fact of the growth of the powerof the presidency in the twentieth century.The fact of increasing presidential power becameespecially apparent in the wake of war anddepression. Besides the powers exercised byFranklin Roosevelt were those wielded by PresidentTruman at the close of World War II, when hewas forced to decided whether to use the atomicbomb. The colossal powers of the Americanpresidency were now apparent for all to see.

International contextThe Twenty-second Amendment was proposedjust eighteen months after the end of WorldWar II. Imperial Japan had surrendered to theAllies on September 2, 1945, just four monthsafter Nazi Germany. The forces of fascism laybroken and lifeless on battlefields around theworld, but by 1947, when Congress proposedthe Twenty-second Amendment, a new threathad arisen. In March 1946, at a college inMissouri, then-former British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill had delivered his famous“Iron Curtain” speech, in which he denouncedthe takeover of Eastern Europe by the agentsof the Soviet Union, headed by totalitariandictator Josef Stalin. Communism had suddenlybecome a threat to Western Europe and there-fore also to the United States. Here, again, newfacts of international life formed part of thecontext in which Americans sought to haverecourse to the nation’s founding principles,especially the idea that the preservation ofliberty requires limits on government.

Learning about Amendments

Directions: Your group has been assigned oneof the following amendments to the Constitution:the First, Thirteenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth,Twenty-second, or the Twenty-sixth.

Your group is responsible for explaining youramendment to the rest of the class. Using thisamendment fact sheet, answer the followingquestions. These will help you presentinformation about your amendment to the class.

1. Identify the amendment and in onesentence and describe its main focus.

2. Briefly explain why the amendmentwas needed.

3. Give one example for each of the economic,social or cultural, political, and interna-tionalcontexts of the amendment.

Twenty-sixth Amendment

Section 1 The right of citizens of theUnited States, who are eighteen yearsof age or older, to vote shall not bedenied or abridged by the United Statesor by any State on account of age.

Section 2 The Congress shall havethe power to enforce this article byappropriate legislation.

Description of AmendmentThe Twenty-sixth Amendment mandates thatfederal and state legislatures not interfere withthe right to vote of citizens eighteen years ofage or older in federal, state, and local elections.

General historical contextThe Vietnam War provides the immediatecontext for passage of the Twenty-sixth

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Amendment. Congress sent the amendmentto the states for ratification onMarch 23, 1971,at the war’s height. The amendment wasratified the following July 1, just 107 days later,the fastest ratification in American history.

The VietnamWar was the paramount forcemotivating the states to take up the ratificationprocess with a sense of urgency. The nation wasbadly split over both the justice and the wisdomof the war. Frequent anti-war demonstrationsand acts of civil disobedience were common.Opponents objected to the morality of how thewar was being fought, in addition to its beingfought at all.

The voting age issue had been raised for anumber of years, since young men were subjectto be drafted into the army at age eighteen.However, before 1970, with two exceptions,they could not vote until age twenty-one. Therewas a high probability that draftees would beforced to fight in a highly controversial war bya government that they had no voice in choosing.Accordingly, they were being forced to risktheir lives to support a policy and a politicalsystem in which they had no electoral input.

Lowering the voting age was an obvious remedyto the glaring contradiction between the nation’sfundamental political principles and itsinstitutional practices. In 1970, therefore,Congress passed a law lowering the voting ageto eighteen in both federal and state elections.But some states objected to the law. Believingthat state powers had been unconstitutionallyinfringed upon, Oregon sued. In Oregon v.Mitchell (1970), the U.S. Supreme Court foundthat Washington did have the power to set thevoting age for federal elections, but not for stateelections. It was in this context that supporters

HANDOUT 7: TWENTY-SIXTH AMENDMENT FACT SHEET

of lowering the voting age pushed for aconstitutional amendment to create a singlenational standard for all elections.

Social or cultural contextAmerican involvement in the VietnamWarbegan in the 1950s, but combat troops did notarrive until spring 1965, in the midst of America’sown cultural revolution. This social fermentwas a youth revolt against conformity to thestandard social rules, customs, and tastes ofmiddle class life in music, dress, manners,politics, and lifestyle. Tension between adultsand youth was extreme, and outbreaks ofraucous argument were commonplace.

Because women were subject neither to thedraft nor to combat as members of the armedforces, they were not directly part of the “oldenough to fight, old enough to vote” argument.Different voting ages for men and women,however, was never seriously considered sinceone of the key principles of America’s politicalculture is civic equality.

Political contextThe battle cry for lowering the voting age toeighteen was “Old enough to fight, old enoughto vote.” This meant that young men belowage of twenty-one were fighting and dying inthe VietnamWar, often against their will, sincethey had been conscripted. This was especiallysignificant since the hallowed Declaration ofIndependence proclaimed in 1776 that, “thejust powers of government are derived fromthe consent of the governed.”

“Old enough to fight” originated during WorldWar II and had persuaded two states, Kentuckyand Georgia, to lower the voting age to eighteen.After the war, President Dwight Eisenhowersupported lowering the voting age in his 1954State of the Union address. However divisive

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the nation’s involvement in the VietnamWarmight have been, virtually no one objected toyoung people being allowed to vote. Those whofavored the war wished to place the legitimacyof drafting eighteen-year-olds beyond debate.Those who opposed the war hoped youngpeople would vote against it.

Influential in setting the political context forthe amendment were two tragic events. Lessthan a year before the amendment was sent tothe states, on May 4, 1970, four anti-wardemonstrators were killed and nine woundedat Kent State University, Ohio, by NationalGuardsmen who fired into a crowd. Ten dayslater, in a similar incident at Jackson StateUniversity, Mississippi, police killed two andwounded twelve anti-war demonstrators.These events shocked the nation and providedfurther momentum for measures aimed atmoderating anti-war divisiveness.

International context

In 1946, Czechoslovakia became the first countryto lower the voting age to eighteen. Othercountries adopted the same policy at about thesame time as the United States. Britain, forexample, did so in 1970. In the same year,Canada also changed the voting age in federalelections to eighteen.ManyWestern democraciesfollowed suit in the 1970s. India did so in 1989,while Switzerland lowered the voting age fromtwenty to eighteen in 1991. Today, the vastmajority of countries maintain a voting age ofeighteen, though a few, such as Austria andBrazil, have set the minimum age at sixteen;a few retain a minimum age of twenty-one.

Directions: In your amendment group, sharethe content of the homework assignment. Eachgroup member should briefly explain why sheor he chose the events they cited. Once everyonein the group has contributed, do the following:

1. Compare the events chosen. Determineif they fit properly into the context theywere chosen for.

2. Eliminate redundancy. If an event has beencited by more than one member for multiplecontext categories, try to decide whichcategory is pertinent, and place it there.Try to avoid placing the same event inmore than one unless absolutely necessary.

3. Create a timeline for your amendment.

a. Place all your events on a timeline.

b. Make sure the ratification of theamendment is prominent.

c. Determine how you will distinguishbetween the context categories.

d. Include a key that helps make thetimeline reader friendly.

4. Sharing the timeline. Once completed,your group will share the timeline with therest of the class. Reflect on the followingquestions both individually and as a group.Use the answers to help present thetimeline to the class.

a. Which context (general, economic,political, social or cultural or interna-tional) do you believe had the greatestinfluence on the passage or ratificationof the amendment?

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b. What do you think has been theamendment’s greatest impact sinceratification?

HANDOUT 8: CONSTRUCTING A TIMELINE

This Constitution and citizenship lesson iscosponsored by The American Association of SchoolAdministrators. AASA, founded in 1865, is theprofessional organization for more than 14,000educational leaders across America and in many othercountries. AASA’s mission is to support and developeffective school system leaders who are dedicated tothe highest quality public education for all children.AASA’s major focus is standing up for public education.For more information, visit www.aasa.org.

The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit, nonpar-tisan educational corporation dedicated to fostering thedevelopment of informed, responsible participation incivic life by citizens committed to the values and prin-ciples fundamental to American constitutional democ-racy. The Center specializes in civic and citizenshipeducation and international education exchange programsfor developing democracies. For additional informationon the Center’s programs and curricula, visitwww.civiced.org.

We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution is di-rected by the Center for Civic Education and fundedby the U.S. Department of Education under the Ed-ucation for Democracy Act approved by the UnitedStates Congress. The program was established in 1987under the Commission on the Bicentennial of the UnitedStates Constitution. This lesson is funded by the U.S.Department of Education Grant Q929A040001.

© 2010, Center for Civic Education. All rights re-served. Permission is granted to freely reproduceand use this lesson for nonprofit, classroom use only.Copyright must be acknowledged on all copies.

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Image Credits

Writing the Declaration of Independence, Prints andPhotographs Division, Library of Congress,LC-USZC4-9904.

CREDITS

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