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in this video you're going to get a
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basic social studies lesson on the
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Constitution of the United States of
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America if you're new here to my channel
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then welcome my name is Parker I'm the
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founder of test prep champions and you
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can hit subscribe down below for more
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videos like this in the future thank you
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for joining me so my purpose for making
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this video is to provide you with an
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introduction in an overview to the
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Constitution of the United States of
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America and if you read the document for
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yourself you'll see that there's a lot
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of depth to it and so like I said this
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is only an introduction and an overview
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so I want to start off by talking about
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where and when the Constitution was
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written and also who are some of the
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main people that you should know about
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who were involved in the drafting and
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signing of this constitution so the
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Constitution was written during the
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Philadelphia Convention in you guessed
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it Philadelphia Pennsylvania so the
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Constitution was written and signed in
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Philadelphia Pennsylvania in the
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Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State
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House which is now known as Independence
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Hall and right now I happen to work in
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Center City Philadelphia so I Drive by
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Independence Hall quite often and it's
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very beautiful and the Constitution was
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written during what was then called the
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Philadelphia Convention and it's now
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called the Constitutional Convention
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which convened from May 25th to
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September 17 1787 now that's just a
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fancy way of saying basically that the
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Constitution was written and then signed
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from May 25th to September 17 1787 and
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it was signed on September 17 1787 so
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who are some of the major players
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involved in the United States
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Constitution well there are many many
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people that we could discuss in this
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video so like I said we're not going to
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go super in-depth here but some of the
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most famous people are number one James
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Madison
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so James Madison is often called the
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father of the Constitution and the
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reason is because he played a huge role
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in writing the US Constitution and
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Madison went on to become the fourth
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President of the United States and he
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served between 1807 to 1817 before
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died of congestive heart failure in 1836
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so again James Madison is often
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considered the father of the
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Constitution for having a huge role in
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writing the Constitution now another
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major figure is Alexander Hamilton and
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we can think of him as the father of the
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US financial system and the reason is
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because after the Constitution he went
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on to become the first secretary of the
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US Treasury under President George
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Washington and he created many of
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President Washington's economic policies
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before he was shot in 1804 and George
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Washington who was the first president
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of the United States is famous for being
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the first president of the United States
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and also for his military accolades
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because he was a great military general
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and George Washington also played a role
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in the drafting in signing of the United
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States Constitution so the last major
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figure who had a role in the
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Constitution that we're gonna discuss in
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this video is Benjamin Franklin and
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Benjamin Franklin is famous for many
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things one of which being he was a
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founding father of the United States and
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in throughout the world Benjamin
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Franklin is famous also especially in
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Philadelphia and Philadelphia there's
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the Benjamin Franklin bridge which is
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obviously named after Benjamin Franklin
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which connects Philadelphia to Camden
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New Jersey and he founded the University
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of Pennsylvania which I was fortunate
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enough to have attended from for about a
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year and a half and he just did many
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things he's also famous for for becoming
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an advocate for abolishing slavery
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almost a hundred years before the u.s.
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Civil War was fought and he was a slave
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owner at one point in his life but he
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did free his slaves he wrote many essays
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and did a lot of other things to
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advocate for abolishing slavery and this
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was well ahead of time almost a hundred
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years before the u.s. Civil War was even
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fought so he's famous for many things
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and one of which is his role in the US
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Constitution so those are some of the
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major actors and like I said we could go
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on and on and on and I could film for a
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couple hours talking just about the
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other people who were involved but we're
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not going to do that because right now I
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want to give you some of the main
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highlights and if we could just distill
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everything that the Constitution
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contains and everything that it
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represents down to two points it would
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probably be an impossible time
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here but to try to help us put simplify
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this I want to give two main highlights
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here that I think really really embody
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what the Constitution is so it's a
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document that gives power to the people
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and the Constitution it creates a
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government that puts power in the hands
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of the American people and hopefully as
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we go through the different articles in
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the Constitution in just a minute or two
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you're gonna see clearly how the
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Constitution creates this government
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that puts the power in the hands of the
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people so the other thing that the
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Constitution does is it lays out the
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goals and the vision that the founding
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fathers had for the nation so like I
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said two of the main highlights of what
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the US Constitution is all about is that
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it gives power to the people and it
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states the goals of the nation as the
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founding fathers envisioned it and so
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the Constitution starts off with the
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preamble and the preamble is basically
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an introduction so it's an introductory
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statement and in it we see the purpose
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and some of the guiding principles that
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the founding fathers had in mind here so
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the preamble goes like this we the
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people of the United States in order to
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form a more perfect union establish
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justice ensure domestic tranquility
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provide for the common defense promote
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the general welfare and secure the
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blessings of liberty to ourselves and
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our posterity do ordain and establish
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this constitution of the United States
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of America so if you really want to
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memorize the preamble without doing much
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work the best way to do that is to go
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listen to the schoolhouse rock song
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where they recite the preamble which
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I'll listen to you down below and I know
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almost every word of the preamble
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word-for-word by memory because I've
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heard that song so many times when I was
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in elementary school I had to recite the
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preamble and my teacher played the
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schoolhouse rock song every day for you
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know several weeks I heard it and so it
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got stuck in my head I did kind of get
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tired of hearing the song after a while
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but it is a catchy song and it will help
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you memorize the preamble if you want to
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memorize it so after the preamble are
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the original seven articles of the
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Constitution now I'm going to go down
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through the main important points of
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each article here but as I've said at
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the beginning of the video if you go
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read the Constitution for yourself
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they'll see that there's a lot of depth
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to each of these articles that I'm not
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going to discuss in this video so let's
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get into the most important points here
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so article one established the
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legislative branch and the legislative
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branch is in charge of making the laws
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and the legislative branch consists of
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the Congress which is the House of
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Representatives in the Senate and the
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representatives in the Senators are
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elected by the people through voting and
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here's a quote about article 1 from the
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Constitution it says all legislative
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powers herein granted shall be vested in
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a Congress of the United States which
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shall consist of the Senate and House of
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Representatives
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so article 2 establishes the executive
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branch and the executive branch is the
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president of the United States and the
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executive branch is responsible for
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enforcing the laws of the land among
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other functions but that's the most
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important one and it's not just the
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president it's also the vice-president
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and also different advisers and
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different people but the main takeaway
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message about article 2 is that it is
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the President of the United States
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so as an analogy here if you think about
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a company we would say well the company
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executive runs the company well if you
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think of the United States kind of like
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a company we would say well the
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executive of the company is the
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president of the United States and just
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like the legislative branch the
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president is elected by the people for
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voting
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so from article 2 we see a quote that
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reads the executive power shall be
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vested in a president of the United
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States of America so moving on to
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article 3 here article 3 establishes the
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judicial branch which consists of the
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Supreme Court and unlike the first two
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articles which we see that the Senators
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and the Representatives and the
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president we see that these people were
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elected by the people through voting the
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Supreme Court justices are appointed by
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the President and confirmed by the
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Senate so here we see a quote that reads
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the judicial power of the United States
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shall be vested in one Supreme Court and
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in such inferior courts as the Congress
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may from time to time ordain and
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establish so the next article here
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states the relationship between the
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states in the federal government and in
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the United States we now have 50 states
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here and that's what article 4 describes
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and defines and so here's a quote about
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that Full Faith and Credit shall be
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given in each state to the public acts
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records and judicial proceedings of
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every other state
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and we're going to be talking a little
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bit more about the difference between
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state and federal laws in just a minute
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so the next article is the amendment so
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article 5 is the amendments and an
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amendment is a change so the word amend
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it means change ok roughly speaking so
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the article 5
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it gave future generations the right to
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amend or change the constitution when
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needed now it's not such a simple
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process though because an amendment must
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be supported by two-thirds majorities in
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the House of Representatives in Senate
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and it must be ratified by three-fourths
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of the states and right now we have 27
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amendments in the first 10 amendments
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are what we call the Bill of Rights and
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the Bill of Rights consists of
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amendments that give Americans the
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freedom of speech religion freedom of
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the press also the right to remain
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silent and the right to keep and bear
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arms and I'll have a separate video
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where I talk about the Bill of Rights
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more in depth so article 6 is the
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supreme law which really the supreme law
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is it basically states that's when state
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law has conflict with federal laws then
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the federal laws are going to take
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priorities so the Constitution of the
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United States is the supreme law of the
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land and we see that article 6 it
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establishes this and so basically what's
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the difference between federal law and
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state law well a federal law federal
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laws are laws that apply in all 50
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states in US territories whereas state
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laws only apply in particular States so
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these are the two basic levels in the US
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legal system we've got the federal laws
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and the state laws and as I've already
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said when they conflict the federal laws
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are to take priority and so we see here
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as an example seatbelt laws so one major
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difference is that is the seatbelt law
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right so in states like New York
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Pennsylvania Vermont okay if you drive
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without a seatbelt on you are breaking
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state law however in New Hampshire this
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is not a state law so you can drive in
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New Hampshire without a seatbelt on and
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you might get pulled over and you might
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get punished for speeding or for
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something else but the seatbelt law is
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not a state law in New Hampshire it's
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not enforced in New Hampshire so if you
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however drive across the border of New
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Hampshire and going to Vermont without
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your seatbelt on you are breaking state
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law in Vermont so the exam
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here is the difference between state
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laws and federal laws so seatbelt laws
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are not federal laws so in New Hampshire
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you don't need your seatbelt on you
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won't get in trouble
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okay and that's because that's a state
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law or I should say lack thereof in New
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Hampshire it's not enforced in New
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Hampshire but if you drive across the
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border into a different state without
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your seatbelt on you are technically
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breaking state law so that's the
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difference between state law and federal
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law so now let's move on to the next
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article article 7 which is ratification
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which it's basically it details
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everybody who signed the Constitution
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and ratification it basically just means
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signing and making valid and that's was
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that article so here's a quote from that
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part of the Constitution we see that
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ratification of the conventions of nine
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states shall be sufficient for the
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establishment of the Constitution
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between the states so ratifying the same
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and so like I said
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note that the original Constitution
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didn't directly play out the citizens
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rights like in the Bill of Rights where
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we have this freedom of speech and the
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other freedoms here that came later in
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the Bill of Rights and I will be talking
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about that in a separate video here so
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you'll want to make sure that you're
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subscribed for that video when it does
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come out and so really I'm really glad
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that you made it through this
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presentation here I hope that this was
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helpful for you as you further your
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study into the US Constitution here and
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I made this this presentation here I
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made it for free with slides carnival so
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I want to give a shout out to slides
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carnival they've got really awesome
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templates which I used one of them to
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make this video so thanks again for
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watching I'd really appreciate a thumbs
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up down below if you found this helpful
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and good luck to you with your studies
