Founding Fathers Response Paper The Founding Fathers: A Reform Caucus in Action, written by John P. Roche, addressed the difficulty that the Founding Fathers had in constructing the U.S. Constitution because of the high level of stress they received and the limited amount of time that they had to carry out the formation of this document while keeping the best interest of the country as a priority. John P. Roche starts of by commenting on why the creation of the Constitution was so effective and how the Articles of Confederation benefitted the ratification of the new U.S. Government. As it turns out, the delegates elected to attend Pennsylvania were mainly people who had served in Congress and had experience in the weakness of the Articles in granting too little power to the national government. In addition, the delegates were appointed by the state legislatures, not by the people, as justified by the Articles of Confederation.
Essay #1, Question 2 Large vs. Small Republic America is an incredibly vast, diverse country, and has been this way for hundreds of years. The sheer size of America, even when it was only composed of thirteen states with a total population of nearly three million people (Brutus, essay 1, p. 64), concerned many Americans in the 1780s, due to this inquiry: was America simply too large for a republican style government to work? Many anti-federalists claimed that republics could only work on a small scale, while the federalists believed that having a large republic was the only way to go and would be beneficial to the public good. Before this time, history furnished no examples of a well-functioning republic as big as America, so the federalists and anti federalists were stepping into a completely new untouched territory.
Abstract Word Count: 263 Introduction Two hundred twenty-five years ago, on September 19th, 1789, the Constitution of the United States of America took on the responsibility of becoming the supreme law of the newly founded United States. As one of the most unique documents ever penned by man, it established a government “Of the people, by the people and for the people,” with “equal justice for all.” 1 The document makes no hesitation to establish power, as the first three words state “We The People,”2 thus placing the supreme power of government not in the hands of those elected, but in the peoples’ hands.
My Responsibility to America When our country was in its infancy and the freedom hard-earned in the American Revolution was in jeopardy of crumbling, representatives of the people met with the purpose of creating a “more perfect union” – a government that could stand the test of time. The story
This era was pivotal to the establishment of many new governmental The Constitution placed a great deal of power back into the hands of a strong, central government much like that of a monarchy. “The extraordinarily powerful national government that emerged from Philadelphia possessed far more than the additional congressional powers that were required to solve the United States’ difficulties” (Wood 151). The U.S. government was extremely revolutionary though, in the way that it viewed and handled sovereignty. “Unlike the British in relation to their House of Commons, the American people never surrendered to any political institution…their full and final sovereign power” (Wood 160). Throughout the entire American struggle to establish a suitable government, the citizens maintained their ability to influence policy in a way that the British never could.
Liz Mairena Survey of U.S. History; Section 28 Dr. Marlin Due date: 04/29/16 Greece and Rome: Models for The U.S. Constitution The United States Constitution was carefully crafted by a group of deliberate and thoughtful individuals; each having their own unique and particular ideas about government, and the people it may govern. As this supreme foundation for government was molded, each founding father put forth their learned beliefs and philosophies to be integrated into this modern document. All of the crafting members were both well-read and thoroughly educated, allowing for deep and extended discussions on past governments, their efficiencies, and their deficiencies. Through their readings and philosophical discussions, it became apparent that two previously governing bodies stood, in their opinions, above the rest: The Greek and Roman empires. Their governmental practices and virtues were key in the development of the Constitution, as they were dissected, and eventually, emulated by this country’s founding members.
The Founding Fathers were not selfless and flawless human beings without any imperfections or personal bias. They were actually members of a political elite that were faced with a crumbling country that was suffering from a myriad of internal and external problems. The political environment after the Revolutionary War forced the new nation to either reform its ineffective government and address the critical issues of the time or else face complete destruction. Consequently, the Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution, which created a far stronger and resilient political structure that prevented the United States from disbanding. However, this document was not the ultimate form of democracy that brought freedom to the Western world. Instead,
Joseph J. Ellis is a well-known historian. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from the college of William and Mary, and his masters and Ph.D. at the University of Yale. Ellis is currently a full time professor of the Commonwealth at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Did you ever wonder how the United States’ founders envisioned America to be in the years to come? America’s founding fathers were tasked with the difficult challenge of finding a balance between preserving individual rights and forming a strong, long-lasting union. There are many examples of how the founding fathers found a balance. Some examples of this are showcased in the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and A New American Nation.
When debating the Constitution, the Founding Fathers were concerned with factions and their impact on society. Many feared that the government would not effectively mitigate the effects of factions. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and other Federalists argued in support of a confederate republic because direct democracies would not be
In the early 1800s, the United States of America was still an infant country trying to figure out the best way to run its government. The Founding Fathers did not want to form a monarchy like in Great Britain, so they wanted to form some form of representative government. There were two main theories of how representative government should be run: democracy and republicanism. Democracy is the direct government by the people, where the citizens of the country vote directly for the government officials, who should be common people, no matter how esteemed the office. Republicanism is a more controlled form of democracy, where the citizens vote for representatives who then vote for the more esteemed positions in the government, such as the President
In Document A, James Madison states that we are a compound republic. “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments…” He wanted to divide power between our central government and state government. This system is also known as federalism. The central government could rule over everybody where we needed it in areas such as trade, foreign relations, defense, and money printing. The states could handle things within their own individual states. They could set up their own governments, hold elections for these governments, start schools, and take care of their own in-state business. Both groups could borrow money, tax, and make and enforce laws. This guards against tyranny because it gives both groups power over separate things and also has them sharing certain powers. The groups can also check each other’s decisions. Federalism has us sharing our power among ourselves, which is the opposite of tyranny where one person or group has all the power and
How the Constitution Guarded Against Tyranny Have you ever wonder the process that the Founding Fathers of America had to go through to create our system of government? One of the vital pieces to establishing this government was the famous document known as the Constitution. The Constitution was a highly argued
Richard Hofstadter, in the Chapter one, “The Founding Fathers: An Age of Realism,” of his book, “The American Political Tradition,” expresses his ideas of the conflicts that the Founding Fathers of US may have had when they created the Constitution of United States. Right from the beginning of the Chapter, Hofstadter starts with a quote from Horace White that the Constitution of United States “assumes that the natural state of mankind is state of war, and that the carnal mind is at enmity with God.” It is no wonder that Hofstadter, who understood Founding Father’s pain, used such quote. In Hofstadter’s view, the Founding Fathers, torn between democracy and monarchy, the two extremities, set out to create a government in which both could be applied and satisfy both the mobs and the elites of society.
Constitutional Republic Between 1787 and 1791 the Framers of the US Constitution established a system of government upon principles that had been discussed and partially implemented in many countries over the course of several centuries, but never before in such a pure and complete design, which we call a constitutional republic.