Name:

Unit 6 First Look

Directions: answer the questions for each station in about 5-6 minutes. The stations will rotate around to you. This does NOT have to be in complete sentences.

Station 1:

1. (document A)Are there any problems you can see with bicameralism?

2. (document A) Are there any problems you can see with unicameralism?

3. (document B) What is the meaning of this political cartoon? How does this pertain to the idea of unicameralism or bicameralism?

4. HONORS: What problems are demonstrated in this political cartoon? What is this political cartoon depicting when each party controls a different chamber?

Station 2:

1. (document A) In this cartoon, why is the Treaty of Versailles in the wastebasket?

2. (document B) In this cartoon, which branch of the government is President Franklin D. Roosevelt trying to change?

3. How do these examples show the interaction of the president and congress’ powers?

4. HONORS: do you think that power is evenly balanced between the President and Congress? Explain your answer.

Station 3:

1. (document A) According to Richard H. Kohn, what was the significance of the Whiskey Rebellion?

2. (document B) According to Alexander Hamilton, what action is President George Washington ordering in response to the Whiskey Rebellion?

3. (document B) According to Alexander Hamilton, what is one reason President Washington gave this order?

4. HONORS: what are two domestic issues that the presidents have dealt with in the past 20 years? How did the presidents address those problems?

Station 4:

1. (document A) According to this document, what foreign policy did President Harry Truman support?

2. (document A) What type of assistance did President Truman think the United States should provide to free peoples?

3. (document B) According to this document, what are two reasons President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Vietnam?

4. HONORS: what are two foreign policy issues that the presidents have dealt with in the past 20 years? How did the presidents address those problems?

Station 5:

1. Which 5 parts of the President’s Cabinet do you think are the most important? Why?

2. Which one do you think was added most recently and why?

3. What are independent agencies?

4. HONORS: brainstorm a couple examples of independent agencies. What organizations do you think should be protected from partisan and pressure politics?

Station 6:

1. What does bureaucracy mean?

2. What are the messages being conveyed in the two political cartoons?

3. Do you agree with the messages? Why or why not?

4. HONORS: if you were going to make a political cartoon showing a positive message about the federal bureaucracy, what would you draw?

Station 1: Congress’ structure

Document A

One Chamber or Two? Deciding Between a Unicameral and Bicameral Legislature.

Advantages of a bicameral legislature:

Advantages of a unicameral system:

Formally represent diverse constituencies (e.g., state, region, ethnicity, or class);

Facilitate a deliberative approach to legislation;

Hinder the passage of flawed or reckless legislation;

Provide enhanced oversight or control of the executive branch.

The potential to enact proposed legislation rapidly (since only one body is needed to adopt legislation thereby eliminating the need to reconcile divergent bills);

Greater accountability (since legislators cannot blame the other chamber if legislation fails to pass, or if citizen's interests are ignored);

Fewer elected officials for the population to monitor;

Reduced costs to the government and taxpayers

Document B

Station 2: Congress’ powers

Document A

Document B

Station 3: the President and domestic policy

Document A

. . . The [whiskey] rebellion has long been interpreted as a milestone in the creation of federal

authority, and in most respects that is its chief significance. Certainly to the Federalists, who had

long been striving for a strong national government, it was a major test: the new government

successfully crushed organized and violent resistance to the laws. As Hamilton put it, the

rebellion “will do us a great deal of good and add to the solidity [stability] of every thing in this

country.”. . .

Source: Richard H. Kohn, “The Washington Administration’s Decision to Crush the Whiskey Rebellion,”

The Journal of American History, December 1972

Document B

To Major-General Lee

Sir:—I have it in special instruction from the President [George Washington] of the United

States, now at this place, to convey to you the following instructions for the general direction of

your conduct in the command of the militia army, with which you are charged.

The objects [reasons] for which the militia have been called forth are:

1st. To suppress the combinations [groups] which exist in some of the western counties in

Pennsylvania, in opposition to the laws laying duties upon spirits distilled within the United

States, and upon stills.

2nd. To cause the laws to be executed.

These objects are to be effected in two ways:

1. By military force.

2. By judiciary process and other civil proceedings.

The objects of the military force are twofold:

1. To overcome any armed opposition which may exist.

2. To countenance [approve] and support the civil officers in the means of executing the laws….

Your obedient servant,

Alexander Hamilton

Source: Alexander Hamilton to Major-General Henry Lee, October 20, 1794,

Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Volume VI,

G.P. Putnam’s Sons (adapted)

Station 4: the President and foreign policy

Document A

. . . I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted [control] by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes. . . .

—Harry Truman’s request for funds to support Greece and Turkey against communism, Message to Congress, 1947

Document B

Why are we in South Vietnam? We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since 1954 every American President has offered support to the people of South Vietnam. We have helped to build, and we have helped to defend. Thus, over many years, we have made a national pledge to help South Vietnam defend its independence. And I intend to keep our promise. To dishonor that pledge, to abandon this small and brave nation to its enemy, and to the terror that must follow, would be an unforgivable wrong. . . .

— Lyndon B. Johnson, April 26, 1965 5

Station 5: the Bureaucracy: executive departments

Station 6: the Bureaucracy: independent organizations