History in 5 Marathon | PragerU Kids

Before we start this episode, you should know that History in 5 is a series that teaches about America's greatest ideas in a fun, conversational, age-appropriate style for tweens. From civics to history to our U.S. Constitution and beyond. Enjoy more free videos like this for kids of all ages on our website. And for parents and teachers, subscribe for free to PragerUKids.com. America declared its independence from England in 1776. I mean, who doesn't know that, right? We celebrate it every 4th of July with hot dogs and things that explode. But what happened after America got its freedom? What would we do with it? Imagine finally graduating high school and then it hits you. What am I actually going to do with my life? Things could get a lot better or a lot worse. All depending on how you handle this new freedom. So what would the founders do? People like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, you know, the guys you see on money and statues and stuff. It was up to them to establish a new government. No pressure. They wanted freedom, but not anarchy. What's anarchy? Imagine if there were no rules in your school and everyone did whatever they wanted. Now that may sound fun, but it wouldn't be long until things started looking like The Walking Dead. Nothing would get done, a lot of things would get broken, and a lot of people would get hurt. You need rules and authority, like teachers and a principal, to keep things from going, well, crazy. A country is the same way. The founders knew that we needed a strong government with the ability to enforce rules, but not so strong that it would become corrupt and abuse the people, like basically every other country since the beginning of time. Some people wanted a monarchy with George Washington as king. He was flattered, but he refused and thought they were nuts for asking. He believed that that was too much power in the hands of one man, even if that one man was him. What a cool guy. So the founders studied every form of government throughout history. The one that seemed to work the best was called a republic. This system made the government strong enough to be effective and the people free enough to live their lives. Everybody wins. There was just one minor issue with republics. They always ended up collapsing and being replaced with a tyrant. It's a big minor issue. So the founders came together in 1787 to figure out how to create a republic that would work and last. They were trying to solve a problem that had never been solved in all of human history. Yeah, they were that bold. After a whole lot of arguing, some wig snatching, and a few miracles, they came up with a document that changed the whole world. And it's the reason we're living in a free country right now. They created a constitution, which is the blueprint for how our government works. Over 200 years later, we're still using it. And countries all over the world follow its example. So what made the constitution so successful? The whole document is built on one very important idea. Power corrupts. Think of it this way. Imagine you have one piece of pie to split between you and your sibling. Whoever has the knife to split the pie has the power. We all know siblings can't be trusted. We're going to cut their half bigger than yours. Of course, it's no different with government. Those with power are likely to use it to their own advantage, at the expense of everyone else. It's just what humans do. So what's the answer? Well, in the case of your knife-wielding sibling and the pie, you could do this. One of you gets to cut the pie, and the other one gets to choose which piece they want. You're dividing the power between both of you evenly to keep each other in check. The founders used a similar strategy. First, they divided the government into three separate branches. A legislative branch that makes the laws, an executive branch that makes sure those laws are followed, and a judicial branch that solves arguments about the law. This way, no single branch could get too bossy. Anytime one branch started to take too much power, the other two would stop it. The founders gave this system a cool name, checks and balances. Just like the pie, it's simple, but genius. Secondly, they made sure to give lots of power to the states and their own local governments. So not only is the power divided into three branches, it's spread out across the entire country. This brings the power closer to the people, where it should be. Imagine if some guy five states away made all of the decisions for your school. Meanwhile, he's never even visited. You're the one who knows that the cafeteria pizza needs more cheese. You don't expect someone halfway across the country to know that, or care. The people know what's best for their own communities. And that's exactly what the founders wanted. A government of the people. The constitution is a great blueprint, but it only works if the people are involved. That's why Benjamin Franklin said, we have a republic if we can keep it. And that is where you come in. You and I, we are the people. It's up to us to understand the constitution and keep this republic working. In 1783, America won its war for independence, breaking free from England, the greatest empire on earth. It was about as likely as Green Arrow beating Superman. No offense, Green Arrow, you're just a dude with a bow. Even though it was a great victory, it was just a step toward a greater goal. Think of it this way. If you want to become a doctor, graduating high school is a big accomplishment. But it's only the beginning. You still have years of college and med school. When America became independent, it wasn't automatically a strong and unified country. Every state had its own government, its own culture, and most of all, its own ideas. And every state valued its independence. Bringing everyone together under one national government would be very difficult. Some even thought impossible. Imagine trying to create a new board game and having to get every single student in your school to agree on what the rules should be. The stress, the arguing, the breakups. The founders were in a similar situation, only with millions of people and something as controversial as a new government. It would have been far easier to let every state go its own way. But then you wouldn't have one strong country, you'd have 13 weak countries. That'd make it easy for England to come right back and pick them off one by one. Founders like George Washington and James Madison knew that this would be a disaster. So they sent out a call to all 13 states. Send us your smartest guys to create a national government. In May 1787, 55 men showed up to Philadelphia, my hometown. They called this meeting the Constitutional Convention. Many thought it was pointless and would never succeed. Like trying to use a stick to kill Thanos. Everyone knows you use stones. But despite the skepticism, these men were determined. They locked themselves in a room for 113 days. Just imagine taking the hardest test of your life for almost four months straight in a hot room without air conditioning. And also you're wearing tights and a wig. Finally, on September 17th of 1787, they finished the Constitution. The blueprint for our government we still use today. They didn't just defeat the odds. The document they wrote turned out to be the most successful of all time. So how did they do it? Well, let's start with this. They knew the stakes. If they failed, there would be no country. Americans sacrificed too much in the war for independence to let it go to waste. Despite their differences, they all had a common goal. Create a unified nation where freedom would be protected for future generations. Second, these 55 men were really smart. They understood history, science, and philosophy. They were also students of the Bible. They knew scripture and how to apply its principles to government. Third, they were prepared to compromise. Well, maybe. Agreeing on everything would be impossible. Just like getting everyone in your school to agree on all the rules of a new game. They had to accept they wouldn't get everything they wanted. And on top of that, they had a living cheat code. George Washington. He led America to victory in the war for independence. And now, he was leading the Constitutional Convention. He was the guy that no one would mess with and everyone respected. You know, like He-Man. He didn't say much. He didn't have to. They all knew what he was thinking. Let's get this done! And nobody wanted to let him down. But even with Washington's leadership, just when they thought they had a deal, everything fell apart. All that they achieved looked like it would come to nothing. Just what many had predicted. But then, the oldest guy in the room, Benjamin Franklin, suggested that they ask God for help. Some say this was a turning point. With the new spirit of compromise, the 55 delegates decided to give it one more try. And this time, they succeeded. America had a new Constitution. We the people. Those are the first three words of the American Constitution. Maybe they don't sound that exciting. But those three words created one of the greatest mic drops in history. Imagine standing up in front of your whole school and saying something so cool, so revolutionary, that it changed not just your school, but schools across the entire world. The founders were standing up in front of every country and flipping the script for how governments had always been. The norm throughout all of history was for a king or emperor to call the shots. The American Constitution turned that upside down. Instead of the people being powerless peasants, it made the people king, or at least like the final boss. But how do you give the people the power without reverting to mob rule, where everyone runs around with pitchforks making demands? This is where the Constitution is genius. Let's take a look. It's composed of seven parts called articles. In this episode, we'll focus on Article 1, which has 10 sections. Article 1 is all about the branch of government that makes the laws. They called this branch the legislature. Sometimes you hear it referred to as Congress. It has multiple names, kind of like Darth Vader and Anakin are the same dude. Section 1 says that Congress is made up of two squads, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Even within Congress, they wanted to divide the power. Section 2 says who can be members of the House of Representatives. You must be a citizen of the US, live in the state you're representing, and be at least 25 years old. That's it. You don't have to be super rich or powerful. It was radical. America invented the idea of the citizen politician. Section 2 also says how many representatives each state will have, and that's based on their population. The more people you have, the more representatives you get. Here, things get tricky. The Constitution mentions counting three-fifths of all other persons when determining representation. What does that mean? Who are these persons? Well, they were the slaves. The word slave is not used in the Constitution, but everyone knew what they were talking about. Some people say that this means the founders didn't think the slaves were full people. But here's what was really going down. The southern slave states wanted more power. They knew that if they had a larger population, they would have more representatives, and therefore more power. So they wanted to count the slaves as whole persons, even though they wouldn't let them have any say in how the country was run. The northern states knew the game the southern states were playing. They were against slavery and didn't want to give the slave states more representatives. The northern and southern states argued like siblings over the front seat. They finally settled on counting slaves as three-fifths of a person. It was a compromise that kept the states from splitting, and allowed them to form a country that would eventually abolish slavery. That was a lot, but we got through it. Section 3 is about the second legislative branch, the Senate. Senators would need to be at least 30 years old, and would be chosen by each state government. They would serve six-year terms. Each state would have two senators, no matter the population of the state. This way, unlike the House of Representatives, in the Senate, each state would have equal representation, no matter its size. Sections 4, 5, and 6 lay out rules for how Congress should operate. Things like how often to meet, or what to do if a senator crashes out, or tries to take over the galaxy. You know, things happen. Section 7 lays out how laws are actually made. The founders didn't want it to be easy to make laws, because laws restrict freedom. And the founders were kind of fond of freedom. For a bill to become a law, it must be approved by a majority of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. But it doesn't stop there. The president also has to approve it. If he doesn't like a bill, he can shoot it down. That's called a veto. Hasta la veto, baby. But to keep the president from having too much power, Congress can override the veto if they get at least two-thirds to vote in favor of the law. The founders went through a lot of trouble to make sure there were thorough checks and balances, all designed to protect your freedom. Section 8 lists all the responsibilities of Congress, which includes things like arming the military and collecting taxes. Sections 9 and 10 do a bunch of additional stuff. Most importantly, they make sure our rights are protected, even during emergencies. That's how much the founders cared about protecting freedom. We. The. People. Just three words, but the founders put them into action. It was a big experiment. But here we are, over 200 years later, and it still works. How much power should the president have? That was a big question on the minds of the writers of the Constitution. Imagine choosing the principal of your school and getting to decide how much power he should have. That's a weird situation. The founders knew that without a strong president, you end up with a government that's too weak to do its job. But if you give the president too much power, it'll probably become a tyrant. After all, the entire Constitution is built on the idea that power corrupts. They needed the president to have just enough power to do his job without becoming a bully, which, as we all know, everybody hates. So let's see what they did. You'll remember in Article 1, they gave Congress the job of making the laws. So now they would need someone to make sure those laws were followed. They gave that job to the president in Article 2. Unlike Congress, the president's responsibilities are a little broader and less clearly defined. This gives the president the ability to exercise authority in any situation that might arise, like when aliens invade planet Earth or, you know, anything unexpected. In Sections 2 and 3, the president's powers are laid out. First, the president is the commander-in-chief. That's a fancy way of saying he's the head honcho in charge of the military. If there's a war, somebody has to call the shots. That's the president. Secondly, the president controls foreign policy, determining how our country interacts with other countries. Just like people have relationships, so do countries. Think of your classmates. Some become close friends, some you don't really know, and others, well, it can get a little sketchy. You have to stand up for yourself, but you don't want to provoke fights if you can avoid it. The president also appoints his own cabinet, which is just a way of saying he can pick the people on his team. Some of these people have big titles, like secretary of state or secretary of defense. They give him advice and help him carry out his decisions on all sorts of things, like healthcare, education, and the economy. Stuff that affects your everyday life, like how much you paid for those sour straws. One of the president's most important responsibilities is appointing judges to federal courts, the third branch of government. That includes the nation's highest court, the Supreme Court. Judges can be in their jobs for decades at a time, so appointing a judge is a big deal, as we'll see in the next episode. At this point, it's pretty clear the president has a lot of power. So how did the founders make sure the president didn't become a tyrant? First, they built in a big catch. The president doesn't have power to spend any government money. In fact, the president can't even buy a light bulb for his own office without the approval of Congress. It's like trying to get some chips in the vending machine and needing your mom's permission. Also, even though the president is commander-in-chief, only Congress has the authority to declare war. And crazy enough, Congress can impeach the president. In other words, fire him. However, they can only do this if the president does something really off the rails, or illegal. And last, the founders gave the people the ultimate say, by allowing us to vote the president out after his first four years. The president is unique in another way. He's not elected directly by the people, even though the people play the biggest role. He's elected by something called the Electoral College, which is explained in Article 2, Section 1. It's a little technical, but they did it for good reason. If the presidential election was strictly based on who got the most votes, candidates would just campaign in the big cities, because obviously that's where most of the votes are. The small states and rural areas would just be ignored. But with the Electoral College, small states can play a big role in the outcome of the election. This forces candidates to value people across the entire country, not just the highly populated cities. Genius. The amount of work that the founders put into the Electoral College shows they knew how important the president was. And he is important and powerful, but not more important or powerful than the Constitution. Out of the three branches of government, which is the most powerful? The legislative, executive, or judicial? It's like choosing between Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Thor. You need to understand their powers, and more importantly, their limitations. We've already looked at the legislative and executive branches, but what about the judicial? When the Constitution was written, Alexander Hamilton thought the judicial branch was by far the weakest. We're talking like Hawkeye compared to Thor. I mean, that's not much of a fight. But now, many say the judicial branch is the most powerful. What the heck happened? And what even is the judicial branch? Let's look at Article 3 of the Constitution. Section 1 says that the judicial branch is the Supreme Court and lower courts in the federal system. Basically, the judicial branch is made of judges, the people you see in movies, holding gavels and wearing robes. Courts are the places where judges sit and, well, judge people. The Constitution allows federal judges to keep their positions for life, assuming they don't do anything crazy. This means judges can hold power for multiple decades at a time, till they look like Master Oogway. This gives them a power that not even the president has. It seems strange to not have term limits, but there was a reason. The founders wanted judges to be above politics, not swayed by trends or popularity. But what do these judges really do, other than look intimidating? According to Section 2, they're supposed to settle legal arguments between people, between states, and between states and people. Just like a referee, someone has to make sure the game is being played fairly. There are federal courts all around the country. Some are called district courts, others are called appellate courts. But the highest court, where the most difficult cases end up, is called the Supreme Court. It's currently made of nine judges, the final bosses of the judicial branch. The Constitution doesn't specify how many Supreme Court justices there should be. Originally, it was six. Which is funny, because with an even number, you don't have a tiebreaker. Weird, I know. But the greatest power the founders gave the judicial branch was the ability to declare laws unconstitutional. If Congress passes a law that doesn't pass the sniff test, the judicial branch can shut it down. Now, if you read Article 3, and you should, you won't find this power explicitly stated. But it's there between the lines. At least that's what the Supreme Court said in 1803. This was all part of the founders' genius system of checks and balances to keep any one branch from abusing power. Just like the pie from Episode 1. But, unfortunately, power always finds a way to grow. And the judicial branch has taken its power to a level that the founders never intended. It's the reason the judicial branch went from being known as the weakest to the most powerful. It's like Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk when in doubt, let the Supreme Court settle it. That's the way most people think. The court now rewrites laws to fit its own interpretation of the Constitution, essentially giving it the power to make laws, something only Congress is supposed to do. It'd be like the referee joining the game, taking the ball and shooting a three-pointer. So, which of the three branches is the most powerful? Well, the answer is supposed to be jump ball. If someone asked you to describe what's in the Constitution, what would you say? You'd probably say a bunch of rights. Like the freedom to say whatever you want and believe whatever you want. These are all great answers, but funny enough, not actually in the original Constitution. Here's the story. The guys who wrote the Constitution thought it was pretty close to perfect. But to their surprise, a whole lot of people said, it's not good enough. Where were all our freedoms? They said. Where's our freedom of speech? Where's our freedom of religion? Where's our right to a fair trial? Founders like Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and James Monroe worried that if they weren't clearly spelled out, what would stop the government from violating those rights? The answer the authors gave was, just because the right isn't listed, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The whole Constitution, after all, was designed to limit the government's power and protect freedom. But the critics didn't buy it. They knew if rights weren't listed clearly in the rules, the government would find loopholes. Like when the teacher says no talking in class, so you pass notes instead. I mean, technically you're not talking, but come on, let's be real. Jefferson, Henry, and Monroe wanted to make sure there was zero room for cheating. After giving it some thought, James Madison, the main writer of the Constitution, admitted they did have a point. He agreed to add 10 amendments. The result is what we call the Bill of Rights. It's these 10 amendments that have been the true superheroes of freedom in America. Like the OG Avengers. It's important we know what they are. The first amendment starts off with the basics. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. These rights might seem obvious, but that's only because we've grown up in a world where the Bill of Rights exists. Kind of like toasters and Pop-Tarts seem obvious. But if you asked a kid 100 years ago to toast up a Pop-Tart, he'd probably be like, and then eat a biscuit. The second amendment is the right to bear arms. And no, this has nothing to do with bears. Or arms. Or bear arms. The right to bear arms simply means the right to own guns. This has become pretty controversial, but think of it this way. The most sacred of all rights is your right to be alive. The founders believed that people not only had a right to defend themselves and their loved ones, but a moral obligation. And not just from bad guys, but also from bad governments. Whether they be foreign or even our own. The third and fourth amendment protect your right to feel safe in your own home. The government, including police and soldiers, can't just barge into your house and search your stuff without good reason. The fifth amendment is the one you hear in movies where the guy says, I plead the fifth. That just means you don't have to say anything that might get you in trouble. Even if you are in trouble. But what does that actually mean? When you've been accused of a crime, you don't have to actually say anything until your lawyer shows up. Or like the cool cop always says, You have the right to remain silent. This ties directly into the sixth, seventh, and eighth amendments. The right to a lawyer, a speedy trial, and to be judged by a jury. In other words, a group of regular people. Not just a guy in a robe. The eighth amendment makes sure that if you are convicted of a crime, the punishment won't be excessive or cruel. Like if you jaywalk, you probably shouldn't be tarred and feathered in the streets. You know. The ninth and tenth amendments are basically insurance policies against big government. The ninth amendment says that just because a right isn't written in the constitution, doesn't mean the people don't have it. You have the right to swim and breathe air. And the tenth makes sure that any power not specifically given to the national government automatically belongs to the states. Which, as we've seen in other episodes, is another way to keep power distributed and close to the people. The constitution is great. The constitution with the Bill of Rights is even greater. And it's why we're still enjoying our freedoms today. As we've already seen, the first three articles of the constitution explain the three branches of government. The legislative, executive, and judicial. Surely that's enough, right? So why are there still four more articles in the constitution? What else is there to talk about? Well, there was an elephant in the room. A few actually. And it took articles four through seven to wrangle those elephants and send them home. When the constitution was being written, every state already had its own government. And they just finished a tough and messy war to win their independence. Giving that independence up to a new national government would be like finally saving up enough money to buy your first car and then handing the keys to your little brother. I know, it's a little crazy. But the states knew they couldn't go it alone. They needed a national government to hold it all together. Still, figuring out how much power to give that government? Now that was tricky. Enter articles four through seven. Article four lays out how people from one state must be treated in another state. If you're from Maryland and you go to Montana, you still have the same rights in Montana that you had in Maryland. Think about it this way. If you go from social studies class to math class, you're still a student in the school. The same rules apply in both places. Of course, the presence of slavery made things complicated. As it always did. What if a slave runs away to a free state? Does that free state have to follow the same law as the slave state and send them back? This was one of the big fights they had at the Constitutional Convention. The southern states said that they would not sign on to the Constitution unless their runaway slaves were returned. Most of the founders looked forward to the day when slavery would end. But to keep the country together, they reluctantly agreed to the South's demands. Article five is all about how to update the Constitution if needed. But the founders didn't want to make it too easy. If you could change the rules whenever you felt like it, the whole system would fall apart. Imagine playing a game of football where the rules change every quarter. The frustration, the chaos. It wouldn't be long before throwing passes turned into throwing punches. In order to amend the Constitution, you need a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives and Senate. Or a special meeting called by the states to propose a change. And then you need three-quarters of the states to approve it. But no matter how many times we amend the Constitution, one thing will never change. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. That's what article six is all about. Obeying the Constitution is not optional. Just like taking one vegetable at lunchtime isn't optional. And last, article seven explains how the Constitution would be approved. The people would have to vote for it, state by state. This was unique in human history. Never before had a nation come together to set down rules to govern itself. That's pretty cool. And something every American can be proud of. The Constitution couldn't take effect without the people's permission. It had to be a document of the people, by the people, and for the people. And that's exactly what it became. America's founding was epic. But it wasn't all fireworks and cool poses. There was a ticking time bomb haunting the founders. You probably already guessed it. Slavery. Guys like Benjamin Franklin and John Adams pushed to end slavery from the beginning. Thomas Jefferson too. Jefferson? Didn't he own slaves? He was the one who wrote in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. Jefferson and the other founders knew that it was just a little hypocritical to allow slavery in a nation built on freedom. It was a problem. The kind that keeps you up at night. Like when you've stared at the same math equations so long, you forget your own name. No matter what they tried, the founders were not able to agree on a solution. The problem was, if the country was going to survive, they needed all 13 states working together. Kind of like Mario and Luigi, they need each other to save Princess Peach. The South's entire economy and lifestyle were dependent on slavery. Bottom line, they weren't just going to give it up. So the framers of the Constitution had to make a decision. Compromise on the issue of slavery or throw the whole nation project out the window. They decided to compromise. To stick together. In other words, save Princess Peach. They punted the problem of slavery and focused on creating a Constitution that would make it possible to end slavery in the future. And the ticking time bomb, it didn't go away. It just got louder. And in 1861, it finally went off. The Civil War between the North and the South. And the reason? You guessed it. Slavery. In 1863, just two years into the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Just a fancy way of saying, no more slavery. But even though Lincoln said the slaves were free, the North would have to win the war to make it a reality. As I'm sure you've heard, the North did finally win. But not without a lot of sacrifice. 360,000 Northern soldiers died. It even cost Abraham Lincoln his own life. But what does all this have to do with the Constitution? Well, remember the last episode? The founders gave us a way to add amendments. To update the rulebook. And that's exactly what happened over the next few years with the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. So what did they do? The 13th Amendment abolished slavery. It wasn't just the proclamation anymore. It was in the Constitution. However, just because they were free, didn't mean they were treated equally. They weren't. The 14th Amendment declared that every state must honor the rights of every American, no matter their race. The 15th Amendment took it even further, making sure that people couldn't be stopped from voting just because of the color of their skin. So these amendments made everything perfect, right? No. It took a lot more struggle before the rights of black Americans would be fully guaranteed. But these three amendments ensured that they eventually would be. Yes, the ticking time bomb of slavery did finally blow. But America came out of it stronger and closer to its ideals of freedom and equality for all. As you know by now, the Founders made sure that we had a way to update the Constitution. We call these updates amendments. Guess how many amendments have been proposed since the Constitution was approved? Over 11,000. Imagine the Constitution changing 11,000 times. It'd be like playing a board game and having the rules changed every time you roll the dice. It'd be impossible to play with all the confusion, arguing, and fighting. Fortunately, the Founders saw this coming. So they made it possible to make changes, but not easy. Out of the 11,000 amendments proposed, guess how many actually passed? 27. Yeah, 27. I mean, with those odds, passing an amendment is about as likely as finding two matching socks and then immediately winning the lottery. Yes! So these 27 amendments must be pretty special, right? Well, yes and no. Some were just tweaks that needed to be made to make things work better. And some were a pretty big deal. Let's find out which was which. We already know the first 10 amendments are the Bill of Rights. These protect our basic freedoms. As we saw in the last episode, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments freed the slaves and protected their rights after the Civil War. So what about the rest of the amendments? This is gonna get a little nerdy, but hey, being smart is fun. So back to the amendments that nobody knows. They fall into three categories, allowing more people to vote, giving more power to the government, and solving President stuff. We'll start with the first, allowing more people to vote. The 17th amendment allows senators to be elected directly by the people, rather than being appointed by state officials. Yeah, that's how it used to be done. Now, ordinary voters get to decide. The 19th amendment gave women the right to vote. It might sound strange to you, but this is a relatively new thing. For most of history, women didn't have this right. And now, they do. The 23rd amendment gave Washington D.C. electoral votes, just like the states. This way, the votes of people who live there could have a real impact on elections. The 24th amendment banned states from making people pay if they wanted to vote. This was called a poll tax, and was used in the South to keep black Americans from voting. Yeah, that was really bad, but this fixed it. The 26th amendment lowered the legal voting age from 21 to 18. If you're old enough to go to war and die for your country, you're old enough to vote. Next are the amendments that gave the government more power. The 16th amendment gave the government the power to collect income tax. Ouch. The 18th amendment banned the making and selling of alcoholic beverages. Yep, beer was banned. But wait, alcohol isn't banned now, right? Yeah, this one didn't last long. The 21st amendment undid the 18th. People wanted their beer. And last, amendments that fixed issues related to the office of the president. The presidential stuff. The 20th amendment said that presidents take office in January instead of March. It sounds minor, but it allowed new presidents to get to work faster. The 22nd amendment limited the president to two terms. George Washington set the example. Two terms was enough. Every president after him agreed. Until Franklin D. Roosevelt got a little carried away and served four terms. Double Washington. Kind of like that friend who doesn't know when to leave and eats all your chips. Dude, you've been here like three days. The 25th amendment gave the vice president the authority to take over for the president in case he goes crazy or gets really sick and can't do his job. The founder's plan to make changes possible but difficult turned out to be really smart. After about 250 years and over 11,000 amendments proposed, only 27 have been added. So what does that tell you? The founders were humble enough to know that changes would be necessary, but smart enough to know that too many changes would lead to chaos. Genius. America was founded on some awesome ideas like life, liberty, and equality. But ideas are one thing. Living up to them is another. It's popular today to attack the founders and the founding documents like the constitution. After all, many of the founders owned slaves. So how could they talk about liberty? Seems hypocritical, right? Yes, it was. And the founders, and this might surprise you, knew it. They knew slavery was wrong and it tormented them. Unfortunately, slavery was a normal part of society throughout all of history. If you think that slavery only existed in America, well, you've been misled. Slavery had been around for thousands of years before anyone had even heard of America. Making the statement that all men are created equal like Thomas Jefferson did in the Declaration of Independence was bold. Revolutionary. Martin Luther King said by making that promise, the country would one day have to live up to it. The truth is humans are complex. They aren't simply just good or bad. One moment, your sibling might be calling you names and kicking you while you're down. Later, they're defending you from the class bully, standing up for you when no one else will. It's important that we don't define people entirely by their mistakes. You have to look at the whole picture, the good and the bad. Unfortunately, people's criticism toward the founders has made its way to the founding documents. The entire founding of America, really. When you don't like someone, it's easy to attack their every move. Kind of like when someone's mad at you. They criticize everything you do, even when it's good. Just because the founders were flawed men doesn't mean the documents they wrote were equally flawed. It's possible for an imperfect person to make a perfect statement, or get a perfect score on a test, or create a perfect pizza. You don't throw out something good just because the person who did it is imperfect. That would be like throwing out the law of relativity just because Einstein didn't know how to comb his hair. As we've already discovered, the constitution for all of its complexity is based on a few basic principles. Power corrupts. All men are born to be free. And everyone is equal before the law. And the thing about these principles is that they don't go out of date. They're not bound by time or location. Two plus two equals four. In America, in China, and in Egypt 4,000 years ago. Oppression is bad wherever it happens. People have God-given rights. Power corrupts. Principles like these will always be true. That's why the founding documents are just as good today as they were 200 years ago. Yes, the founders were flawed men. But despite falling short of their own ideals, they believed they could make the world a better place. Not a perfect place, but a better one. Anyone who tells you they can make the world perfect is selling something or just doesn't understand the world. Sometimes making something good and actually getting it done is better than trying to make something perfect and failing altogether. And that's exactly what the founders did. They got us started. They built a ladder for future generations to climb. Something that had never been done. And no, they didn't make it to the top to see the stars for themselves. But they made a way for us too. And they believed we could. Thank you so much for watching this episode of History in 5. You can watch the full series and more on our website. And parents, make sure you subscribe at PragerUKids.com to never miss an episode.