How Did the Framers Guard Against Tyranny?

Have you ever wondered what the US would be like if our government was a tyranny? Well, thanks to our founding fathers for creating a strong constitution, we don’t have to worry about that. The constitution was written in 1787 in Philadelphia. The problem was that the existing government that was under the Articles Of Confederation wasn’t very successful. Therefore, the fifty-five delegates representing twelve out of the thirteen states came together to tweak our constitution to create a strong government without allowing one person, or group of people to have too much power. The framers used the Constitution to protect against Tyranny in three ways federalism, separation of powers, and

This book tells the story of the Philadelphia convention, in the summer of 1787. Throughout, Stewart uses descriptive language to portray the delegates, both remembered —such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton— and forgotten —such as James Wilson and George Mason— in the turmoil of creating the United States constitution. It illustrates both the great conflicts and high-stake compromises that those delegates faced, all ultimately dominated by one inelegantly polarizing issue: slavery. With calculated endorsement by influential delegates such as Franklin and Washington, who

Madison in Federalist No. 10 (Page 131) also supports the view of the Framers to have “great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the State legislatures”. Madison expounds further in Federalist No. 39 (Page 135) about the constitutional limits of government to “certain enumerated objects only,” and the states being delegated the remaining “objects”. Federalism was created in the Constitution and while it seems a difficult concept U.S. Attorney General, Edwin Meese’s definition is very simply put “institution design was to divide sovereignty between two different levels of political entities, the nation and the states”. (American Vision and Values, Page 62).

Federalism is the division of power between national and state government. Federalism was supported by Doc A, an excerpt of The Federalist Papers; A series of essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in support of the Constitution. The following quote is an excerpt from Federalist Paper #51, written in 1778 by James Madison. “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among districts and separate departments.” In the aforementioned quote, James Madison is referring to the national state governments. Due to federalism, power is split between local and federal governments, preventing all power being controlled by one group. As a result, the two governments each have their own powers, which prevents total rule from a national or state government. Additionally, the power in these branches are split into three more branches. This prevents any one branch of government from having total power, which guards against

Madison’s idea of a division between central and state governments is compound. A “compound” is two or more pieces. The two pieces that fabricate Madison’s compound government is the “central” federal government and state government. Another word for this compound government is federalism. This compound government provides “double security” to the people because the governments (state and federal) check and balance each other so that one doesn’t get too powerful. Power given to the states have smaller influences i.e. that the state only impact the states, is patterned in the power the Constitution reserved for the state governments. Federalism guards against tyranny by dividing power between groups so that no one group has more control and power. James Madison, in the Federalist Paper #47, says “The accumulation of all powers, Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny....(L)iberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” The main idea of Madison’s quote is that accumulative powers should be separate yet distinct. Madison hints towards a possible tyranny in a democracy because the “accumulation of all powers....whether of one ...and

Federalism was the first guard against tyranny. The central government and states both had their own powers but also shared a few. They had trading, conducting foreign relations, declaring war, making immigration laws etc. Local state governments got elections, establishing schools, passing marriage and divorce laws, and regulating in-state business. “The different governments will control each other and at the same time it will be controlled by itself,” said James Madison in the federalist paper #51.

When forming the three branches, James Madison knew they each had to be separated, but have equal power, thus giving different jobs to each and solving the issue of one possibly gaining too much power(Document B). The job given to the legislative branch is to illustrate, or make, laws and consists of the Senate and House of Representatives(Ibid). The executive branch now enforces those laws and the power is in the hands of the President(Ibid). The judicial branch is powered by the Supreme Court and has the job of forming courts and making sure laws are dealt with correctly(Ibid). This separation of powers guards against tyranny by balancing power so one branch is not higher than

Federalism is a compound way of governing, with a central government, also known as a federal government, and a local government. Each government had their own powers, but to accomplish the bigger goals the key was to have cooperation and teamwork to solve the issue. The federal government’s powers were solely focused on war, money and relations with other countries and states outside of the United States. In accordance, the local government took care of the more specific things going on in that certain state. For example, they took care of things such as elections, constructing schools, and passing laws for marriage and divorce. This helps to guard against having a government ruled over by a tyrant by having the more sizable powers given to the higher-up individuals in the government, and the locals governments dealt with the laws that pertained to their specific state. “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments” (Document A). The governments are ruled this way because if one government had all the power, they would surely use it unfairly, as all that power would get to their head. “Hence a double security rises to the rights of the people” (Document A). This would in fact raise the rights that the people had because they would have a

Federalism helped to protect against tyranny by dividing the power between two governments: states and federal. According to James Madison, Founding Father, “The different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” This quote, from the text Federalist Paper #51 refers to how the state and federal have individual responsibilities, but are also connected enough to keep other’s powers in check. This quote reminds the readers that the Constitution formed the separate state and federal governments to provide a double security against tyranny by splitting the power between two governments, making sure that the decisions made were the best for the citizens. Ultimately, federalism prevented tyranny by separating the power between two governments, which guarded against a possible tyranny in the

The government is divided into three branches. Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. James Madison states in his Federalist papers, “Liberty requires that the great departments of powers should be separate and distinct.” Legislative writes the laws for and consists of the House of Representatives and Senate. Executive branch passes the laws the legislative branch makes and the President is the head of this branch. Judicial branch decides if laws are constitutional or not and consists of the Supreme Court. This keeps one branch from getting too much power.

In document a james madison states that power “is first divided two distinct government states and federal” . this decides the process of federalism where state and federal government share power regulate trade, foreign relations, provide army, declare war, make money, post offices, make laws and states controle local government, elections, schools, marriage

In this DBQ The following question to be answered is how did the constitution guard against tyranny. To answer that question, I have to read the following documents A, B, C & D. After that proceed to cite textual evidence while evaluating the questions. First, I had to answer the background questions. My thesis statement is that they guarded tyrannies from the constitution by using federalism & framers. In Philadelphia may 1787 the constitution was written. During that time two of the weaknesses of the articles of confederation were no chief executive & no court system. James

55 delegates of twelve states wrote the Constitution at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787 and in 1788 the states ratified it. That gathering at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall brought nearly all of the nation’s most prominent men together, including Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and George Washington. Several of the men appointed had records of service in the army and in the courts and others were experienced in colonial and state government. When Thomas Jefferson found out who had been appointed he wrote “It is really an assembly of demigods” to John Adams. That summer in Philadelphia, the men, drew out a document defining the distinct powers for the the president, the federal courts and the Congress. This division of authority that was established is known as the principle of separation of powers, and it ensures that none of the branches of government can overstep their boundaries.

In order to protect against tyranny, a system of checks and balances was designed to keep any one of the three branches from gaining more power than another branch. According to James Madison, “the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that they may be a check on the other…(The three braches) should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” (Doc C) He thought each of the three braches could watch one another and keep them in check. They have the ability to control portions of the other branches. If one branch does something unacceptable, another branch can step in and overrule the branch in question. An example of this is that the President has the ability to veto legislation if Congress passes a law that is too extreme. At the same time, the Legislative branch has the power to override a veto by the President or even impeach the President. (Doc C) Without a system of checks and balances, one of the three branches could gain control over the others allowing tyranny. This structure framed into the constitution gave assurance that the powers would oversee each other and not allow major shifts among

The three branches of government also known as the legislative, judicial, and executive, helped guard against tyranny, by separation of powers. The main idea of a quote by James Madison states that, all three branches of government lean on each other, yet have separate but equal powers. (Document B) Separation of powers, created by the three branches of government, helped guard against tyranny, by allowing the three divisions to lean on each other, so that if one group did something that went out of hand, they could do something about it. In James Madison’s Federalist Paper #47, he states that, “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny… (L)iberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” The beginning of the quote defines the outcome of what would happen if one person or group were to accumulate all the powers of the legislative, executive, and judiciary. The ending of the quote states that if liberty is wanted, the three