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How Does The Constitution Protect Against Tyranny

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Protection Against Tyranny
“If tyranny and oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of a foreign enemy”, stated by James Madison. Which is why the people of the United States wrote the Constitution, to prevent tyranny from coming into their country. A constitution is a document that describes the powers and duties of the government and grants certain rights to the people. The Constitution was written as a replacement for The Articles of Confederation, which was not supporting the government. With fifty-five delegates gathered in Philadelphia, they got to work on The Constitution. The subject they worried most about was tyranny. Tyranny, in James Madison’s words is, “the accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether of one, …show more content…

The two pieces that make up James Madison’s compound government are central government and state government. This compound government provides “double security” to the people.“The different governments will control each other, at the same time each will be controlled by itself” (Federalist paper #51). For example, the central government has the power to regulate trade,but they do not have the power that the state government has in state business. This makes the central government not have control over all regulations, but still letting them have a balance of power. Federalism has somewhat of a pattern, the central government seems to have more worldwide powers as compared to the states, their powers are smaller and more intimate. Whereas the central government has a worldwide power, the power to declare war, state government has the power to pass marriage and divorce laws,which is more intimate. Federalism guards against tyranny by dividing or separating power up between central and state government so that neither of them have more power than each …show more content…

In Federalist paper #51, James Madison states “… the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that they may check on each other… (the three branches)should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” The main idea in this quote from the Federalist paper is that the three branches of government should be separated, but no so far apart to not have control over each other. An example of how this system works is, the Legislature can check the power of the chief executive (Executive branch) by being able to override his veto. Another example of this is how the Supreme Court ( Judicial branch) can declare laws Congress tries to pass unconstitutional, declaring that the law does not abide the rules of the constitution and will not become an actual law. Overall, the framers of The Constitution reassured that tyranny would not happen by making sure each branch can check each other and assure that no branch is over abusing their powers by using checks and

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