Illinois Constitutional History. Mrs. Frickenstein using information collected from isba.net

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1 Illinois Constitutional History Mrs. Frickenstein using information collected from isba.net

2 Illinois Illinois is a state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 5th most populous state, and is often noted as a microcosm of the entire country. It was granted statehood in Illinois government is modeled after the Federal government and the U.S. Constitution. To be admitted to the Union, Illinois had to adopt its own constitution. Capital: Springfield Statehood granted: December 3, 1818 Population: million (2012) State flower: Viola Motto: State Sovereignty, National Union Nicknames: The Prairie State, Land of Lincoln

3 Having a Constitution. The influence of the constitution may be seen around us daily. If you are in a public school, the school district you are in traces its right to exist to the constitution. The constitution may influence non-public schools by prohibiting the direct use of public funds for religious purposes. Every day our lives are influenced by laws regulating traffic, our family, the house or apartment we live in, and even the air we breathe.

4 We the People In article 1, section 23, our constitution reminds us that citizens have a duty to participate in government by stating that, The blessing of liberty cannot endure unless the people recognize their corresponding individual obligations and responsibilities. Each of us has an obligation to understand governmental processes and to exercise our votes responsibly.

5 The Preamble In addition to creating a framework of government as it exists today, the constitution identifies several goals that we as a society would like to achieve. The preamble, which resembles the Preamble of the United States Constitution, contains many of these goals.

6 Our First Constitution 1818 The first Illinois Constitution was written during the summer of 1818 at a convention in Kaskaskia on the banks of the Mississippi River. Kaskaskia had been the territorial capital and was the state capital of Illinois from 1818 through The constitution was adopted as part of the process Illinois had to follow to be admitted into the Union. The convention members who drafted the constitution met for only twenty-one days and produced a constitution that was relatively short. It was modeled after the U.S. Constitution and the state constitutions of Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. One of the main issues when the 1818 Constitution was drafted was that of slavery.

7 Our Second Constitution 1848 The 1818 Constitution governed Illinois for a thirty year period from admission as a state until 1848 when the second constitution was adopted. This was a period of rapid growth and development when the state was changing from a sparsely populated pioneer state to one of the most populated states in the Union.

8 Growing.. Most pioneer families lived a rugged, independent life style, relying on other family members and neighbors rather than government for assistance and services. Government kept the official records of the state, provided courts to resolve disputes and passed laws which regulated private activities. There was little business to regulate, virtually no transportation system to maintain, and even less in the way of education and social services to oversee.

9 Growing. The 1848 Constitution was three times longer than the 1818 Constitution. The increased length was due to greater responsibilities being delegated to the executive and judicial branches of government and restrictions placed on the legislative branch. (We will learn more about these later ) Local government duties were also more thoroughly identified.

10 Our Third Constitution 1870 This constitution governed Illinois for the next 100 years. The constitution reflected the continuing growth and changing nature of Illinois. During that 100 years the population of the state continued to increase. Chicago tripled in size during the 1860 s and became a city of 300,000.

11 Our 4th and Final Constitution 1970 Interestingly, the Illinois Constitutional Convention grappled with many of the same topics that caused the Founding Fathers to meet for the Constitutional Convention in The federal convention of 1787 was called because of the widely held belief that the central government was inadequate to raise sufficient revenue or regulate commerce, and that there was a need to adjust the relationship between the state and national levels of government. In Illinois, the 1970 convention debated taxes and revenue, the role of government in a modern society, and the relationship between the state government and local governmental units. This is the constitution we still use today!