Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.
1. The United States became a nation in seventeen seventy-six. Less than a century later, in the eighteen sixties, it was nearly torn apart. A civil war took place, the only one in the nation's history. States from the North and the South fought against each other.
2. The conflict involved the right of the South to leave the Union and deal with issues -- especially the issue of slavery -- its own way.
This week in our series, Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs describe how the Constitution survived this very troubled time in American history.
3. America's Civil War lasted four years. Six hundred thousand men were killed or wounded. In the end, the slaves were freed, and the Union was saved.
4. Abraham Lincoln was president during the Civil War. He said the southern states did not have the right to leave the Union. Lincoln firmly believed that the Union of states was permanent under the Constitution. In fact, he noted, one of the reasons for establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect Union. His main goal was to save what the Constitution had created.
5. One cannot truly understand the United States without understanding its Constitution. That political document describes America's system of government and guarantees the rights of all citizens. Its power is greater than any president, court or legislature.
6. In the coming weeks, we will tell the story of the United States Constitution. We will describe the drama of its birth in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven. And we will describe the national debate over its approval. Before we do, however, we want to tell how that document provides for change without changing the basic system of government.
7. If you ask Americans about their Constitution, they probably will talk about the Bill of Rights. These are the first ten changes, or amendments, to the Constitution. They contain the rights of all people in the United States. They have the most direct effect on people's lives.
8. Among other things, the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech, religion, and the press. It also establishes rules to guarantee that a person suspected of a crime is treated fairly.
9. The Bill of Rights was not part of the document signed at the convention in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven. The delegates believed that political freedoms were basic human rights. So, some said it was not necessary to express such rights in a Constitution.
10. Most Americans, however, wanted their rights guaranteed in writing. That is why most states approved the new Constitution only on condition that a Bill of Rights would be added. This was done, and the amendments became law in seventeen ninety-one.
11. One early amendment involved the method of choosing a president and vice president. In America's first presidential elections, the man who received the most votes became president. The man who received the second highest number of votes became vice president. It became necessary to change the Constitution, however, after separate political parties developed. Then ballots had to show the names of each candidate for president and vice president.
12. There were no other amendments for sixty years. The next one was born in the blood of civil war. During the war, President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. That document freed the slaves in the states that were rebelling against the Union. It was not until after Lincoln was murdered, however, that the states approved the Thirteenth Amendment to ban slavery everywhere in the country.
13. The Fourteenth Amendment, approved in eighteen sixty-eight, said no state could limit the rights of any citizen. And the Fifteenth, approved two years later, said a person's right to vote could not be denied because of his race, color, or former condition of slavery.
14. By the eighteen nineties, the federal government needed more money than it was receiving from taxes on imports. It wanted to establish a tax on earnings. It took twenty years to win approval for the Sixteenth Amendment. The amendment permits the government to collect income taxes.
Vocabulary
- against each other = uns contra os outros
- Amendments = emendas
- Among other things = entre outras coisas
- annou
- Added = acrescentado(a)
- nced = anunciou
- Approval = aprovação
- Ask = perguntar
- Ballots = cédula para eleição
- ban = banir, proibir
- Became = tornou-se (presente = “become”)
- Birth = nascimento
- blood = sangue
- Citizens = cidadãos
- Contain = conter
- deal with = lidar com
- denied = negado
- describe = descrever
- Done = feito
- during = durante
- Early = antigo(a)
- earnings = ganhos
- establishes rules = estabelece regras
- fairly = justamente
- former = ex, anterior
- fought = lutaram (presente = “fight”)
- freed = libertado
- Freedom = liberdade
- Guarantees = garante
- However = contudo
- human rights = direitos humanos
- In fact = na verdade
- In the coming weeks = nas próximas semanas
- Income = rendimento
- issues = questões
- It took = levou (tempo)
- its own way = do seu próprio jeito
- killed = morto, assassinado
- lasted = durou
- leave= deixar, sair
- Less than = menos de
- main goal = objetivo principal
- murdered = assassinado
- Nearly = quase
- One cannot = não se pode
- Parties = partidos
- Power = poder
- Press = imprensa
- Provides for= proporcionar
- Reasons = razões
- right = direito
- signed = assinado
- slavery = escravidão
- slaves = escravos
- Speech = ato de falar, discurso
- such = tais
- survived = sobreviveu
- taxes = impostos
- That is why = é porisso que
- took place = aconteceu (presente = “take place”)
- torn apart = dilacerado, separado à força
- treated = tratado(a)
- Truly = verdadeiramente
- under = sob
- until = até
- very troubled = verdadeiramente complicado(a)
- was born =nasceu
- Win = vencer
- Without = sem
- Wounded = ferido
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