Main Ideas
Utilize the Lovejoy and Smith cases to illustrate the observations de Tocqueville made about the tyranny of the majority. Examine how rights have developed or continued to develop as a result of conflicts similar to these two cases. Compromises and changes, like those evident in the Fourteenth Amendment, various Civil Rights Acts, and court decisions like the Gitlow Case (in Gitlow vs. New York (1925) the U.S. Supreme Court used the Fourteenth Amendment to protect citizens from actions of the states) have extended individuals' rights along the lines envisioned in the Bill of Rights.

Connection with the Curriculum
Appropriate for social studies classes, this material could be used to teach Illinois history as well as U.S. history, geography, and language arts.

Teaching Level

Grades 6-12

Materials for Each Student

• A copy of this article's content portion

• Handouts 1 through 3

Objectives for Each Student
• Explore principles contained in the Bill of Rights.

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• Examine the development of individual rights under federal and state constitutions.

• Determine the ways in which rights have been extended to all citizens since Illinois became a state.

• Investigate the role that states have played in the protection of individual rights.

• Compare and contrast the view of rights in the early American Republic with those of the twentieth century.

• Analyze documents for historical content to include comparing and contrasting 1818 Illinois Constitution with the U.S. Constitution.

Opening the Lesson
• Have students read the content portion of this article.

• Assign the activities to the students.

Developing the Lesson
• The first activity is a variation of the concept of a "dramatic moment" for opening historical units. This dramatic moment focuses indirectly the fact that Nauvoo had a larger population at its peak than did Chicago at the same time. Comparing a photograph of Nauvoo in the 1840s with one of Nauvoo in the 1990s should stimulate thinking and enable students to generate hypotheses about how early Nauvoo grew and what might have happened there to cause its demise.

• The second activity is designed to develop student abilities to read passages in a way that includes more than the literal meaning. This sample deals with the tyranny of the majority and is an adaptation of a passage taken from de Tocqueville. Several words have been underlined because they are terms that may need to be explained to students. Students completing the exercise should be asked to justify their answers to each question by using the text of the passage.

• The third activity is designed to be used as an alternative assessment prompt for students. Each of the open-ended questions is intended to assess what students might learn during a study of rights and individual freedoms using cases from the early years of Illinois statehood. Teachers should note that the timeline is a prompt and that no questions about the timeline are actually asked.

Concluding the Lesson
Teachers might choose to discuss the four dangers of democracy mentioned by Gagnon. Work with students as the class tries to summarize the points in everyday language. Students could work in groups as they look to the cases for examples that defend or refute the dangers.

Another way to conclude these lessons is to ask students to list examples of these or other rights that have been extended to all citizens since Illinois became a state.

Students can also be asked to evaluate whether our rights have been extended equally and evenly throughout our history. This could also be applied to current events such as the censorship of music lyrics.

Extending the Lesson
Have students choose a person they think is important in the expansion of our rights and report on him or her. Students should be encouraged to search for those involved in historical examples of minority versus majority rights in conflict.

Middle level students may be interested in conducting an oral history project on the expansion of rights. Questions that might be answered could include whether rights were equally extended to all during these events. This could also be an activity that brings students in closer contact with parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who have interesting stories to share.

Assessing the Lesson
Activity three of this article is designed to serve as a prompt for alternative assessment of students' learning about the extension of our rights. While it would be possible to construct traditional test items about the content, alternative assessment techniques such as this example should be tried. However, it is important to assess the social education objectives built into the unit and not just the students' writing. This activity uses a timeline of key events related to the development of our rights to prompt student answers to open-ended questions.

Nauvoo was the largest city in Illinois in 1844. The pictures above show Nauvoo in 1845 and in 1994.

BRIEFLY - write your answers:

Why might Nauvoo have been so large in the 1840s?

What might have happened to cause the changes between the two photographs? Why do you think so?

How could that be tested?

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During the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler, visited the United States and wrote his observations about American life and politics. These were published as Democracy in America. Read the following passage from Democracy in America and answer the questions about the passage.

When an individual. . . is wronged in the United States, to whom can he apply for redress? If to public opinion, public opinion constitutes the majority: if to the legislature, it represents the majority, and . . . obeys it; if to the executive power, it is appointed by the majority, and serves as a passive tool in its hands. The public force consists of the majority under arms; the jury is the majority invested with the right of hearing .. . . cases; and in certain states the judges are elected by the majority.

Adapted from Richard D. Heffner, ed., Democracy in America (1956). What did the author say about the role?

What did the author mean?

What is the principle involved?

1791 -

Bill of Rights

1818 -

First Illinois Constitution

1831-1832 -

Alexis de Tocqueville in America

1837 -

Lovejoy Case, Alton, Illinois

1844 -

Joseph and Hyrum Smith Assassinated, Carthage, Illinois

1845 -

"Carthage Conspiracy" Trial, Carthage, Illinois

1868 -

Fourteenth Amendment (extended equal protection to all citizens)

1875 -

Civil Rights Act (gave equal rights to African-Americans in public accommodations and jury duty)

1925 -

Gitlow Case extended first amendment protection and due process to the states

1964 -

Civil Rights Act (banned discrimination in voting, jobs, public accommodations, etc.)

The events on this timeline illustrate the development of individual rights in Illinois and the United States.

1. Classify each of these events with respect to the freedoms or the rights involved in the event.

2. How might the Illinois Constitution have been used to protect the rights of individuals during the 1830s and the 1840s?

3. Which items on the timeline would make the greatest difference if an event like those in Alton or Nauvoo were to happen today?

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