The Constitution (AMSCO Topic 3.9) — Outside-Research EditionThe Constitution (AMSCO Topic 3.9) — Outside-Research Edition

AP US HISTORY · UNIT 3

The Constitution

AMSCO Topic 3.9

AP US History Study Guide — Outside-Research Edition

Learning Objective: Explain the continuities and changes in the structure and functions of the government with the ratification of the Constitution. Thematic focus (College Board framework): Politics and Power (POL) · American and National Identity (NAT) This guide keeps AMSCO's own content as its backbone and expands it with outside research. Every fact beyond what AMSCO Topic 3.9 says is tagged the moment it appears: OUTSIDE SOURCE — Beyond AMSCO: [claim] — [source]. Only sources actually found this session are cited. Nothing below is invented.

Historical thinking skills this guide targets: continuity/change (Articles vs. Constitution; 1791 Bill of Rights vs. its 20th-century application), causation (why Madison believed structure, not virtue, protects liberty), and comparison (the Bill of Rights' original scope vs. its scope today).

Big Picture

The men who wrote the newly ratified Constitution hoped it would both follow the ideals of the Enlightenment and provide a working system to guide the new republic. They wanted to correct the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation (Topic 3.7) without creating a government with excessive power — the exact anxiety that had shaped the Articles in the first place. To guard against tyranny, they divided power vertically (between the federal and state levels) and horizontally (among three branches). As a further step toward keeping government power in check, and to fulfill a promise made during the ratification debates (Topic 3.8), one of the first tasks of the new Congress was to propose a Bill of Rights.

Federalism

The writers of the Constitution (the Framers) divided power between the federal government and state governments. The federal government would handle issues that affected the entire country, such as national defense and foreign affairs, and issues that crossed state boundaries, such as interstate commerce and a postal service. States would be in charge of issues that affected only their state, such as schools and local elections.

As changes in transportation, communication, and the economy have increased the interactions among people across state lines, the federal government has become more powerful. Further, constitutional amendments added specific powers to the federal government. For example, the 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, gave Congress the power to protect the right of women to vote. By the 21st century, the government accounted for around 40 percent of the gross domestic product of the country. The federal government was usually responsible for over half of all public expenditures, paying for programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and the military, and transferring money to state and local governments. However, most public employees worked for state or local governments, with the largest number employed in schools and universities.

Continuity and change for an essay: the document's text on federalism has barely changed since 1788, but the practical balance of federal vs. state power has shifted enormously — a strong essay distinguishes formal/legal continuity (the words of Article I and the 10th Amendment) from practical/functional change (the federal government's actual role and size today) rather than treating "the Constitution created federalism" as a static, one-time fact.

Separation of Powers

The Framers also divided powers among three main branches of government: - legislative: Congress makes laws, passes taxes, and allocates spending - executive: led by the president, it recommends and carries out laws and federal programs - judicial: it consists of the Supreme Court and all lower federal courts; it interprets the laws and the Constitution

The Constitution provided each branch of government ways to limit the power or at least influence the other two branches: - Congress can pass laws, but the president can veto laws and the Supreme Court can rule them unconstitutional. - The president can make treaties, but they must be ratified by Congress. - The president can enforce the laws, but the Supreme Court can stop those actions if it finds that they violate the Constitution. - The Supreme Court interprets the laws, but Congress can write new laws. - The Supreme Court can order a president to enforce a law, but a president has the power to appoint justices.

AMSCO APUSH Unit 3 2 of 4

OUTSIDE SOURCE — Beyond AMSCO — Madison's own explanation of why this design exists: In Federalist No. 51, Madison wrote the single most-quoted line in the whole ratification debate: "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." His actual point isn't that people are evil — it's that any workable design has to assume people in power will act in their own self-interest, so the fix has to be structural, not moral: "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition." Each branch's officeholders are given the personal incentive to jealously guard their own branch's power against the others, so the system polices itself without depending on anyone being virtuous. This is the single best quote to use for any essay on why the Framers chose structure over trust. — James Madison, Federalist No. 51 (1788), Bill of Rights Institute and Teaching American History primary source collections, accessed 2026. Judicial review is a notable absence worth knowing: the Constitution's text never explicitly gives the Supreme Court the power to strike down a law as unconstitutional — the Court effectively claimed that power for itself in Marbury v. Madison (1803, outside this unit's date range but essential context), a genuinely important continuity/change point: the "checks and balances" system as it functions today includes a power the document doesn't literally spell out.

The Bill of Rights