The Age Of Enlightenment And The American Government

1.) How did both Classical Republicans and the natural rights philosophers influence the Founders’ views about government? In the beginning stages of what we know today as our system of government, the Founders were combing through numerous sources in order to inquire about past entities and were in constant debate over how the United States was to be set up and how it was to run more smoothly than previous examples. The Founders were profoundly interested in the works of two different ideologies: Classical Republicanism, which was inspired by the political writings of Greek philosophers, Aristotle and Polybius, and Roman philosopher Cicero; and Natural Rights Philosophy, which came to the forefront by many political philosophers including

During the early years of our nation, there was struggle to finding a government that worked for the people. In the late 18th century philosophers began to strongly criticize the governments that were being dominated by monarchy and imperialism. The new beliefs in democracy, freedom for individuals of society, and the importance of human interactions led to the makings of the Constitution. Even though the ideas coming from everyone was far from an agreement, they were certain on their admiration of direct democracy and the restraints on that democracy. Their challenge in creating a government, was to strike a balance between liberty and order. Many documents built the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Declaration of Rights. For example, Second Treatise of Civil Government, The Spirit of Laws, Social Contract, The Virginia Declaration of Rights, and Common Sense.

In the 1600s-1700s, the Enlightenment helped to serve as the basis for American government in the late 18th century. Writers like Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau's had various views on government that heavily influenced Thomas Paine and writers of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. To add, several pieces of writing such as; The Second Treatise of Civil Government, The Spirit of Laws, The Social Contract, Common Sense, the Virginia Declaration of Rights and The Declaration of Independence, had served as philosophical underpinnings to what would become the government of the United States of America.

During the Age of Absolutism, views of how government should have been run were drastically different that the views of Enlightenment thinkers. The fundamental difference between these two views of government – absolutism and Enlightenment – was that, in an absolute view of government, it stated that it should be run by a monarch – such as a king or a queen – and that he or she should have complete and unquestionable authority over everything, whereas the Enlightenment resulted in the development of new ideas, many of which criticized absolute monarchies, such as the idea that the fundamental function of government was to protect it's people's rights. The Enlightenment thinkers all had different ideas, and all to varying degrees, but the

The Articles of Confederation established the first national government of the United States after it declared independence from England. The American Revolution heavily influenced this document, as the American people refused to have another tyrant rule their country. From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation provided the United States with an ineffective government because of its lack of power to tax, raise an army, or regulate trade; however, it redeemed itself with the creation of the land ordinances of 1785 and 1787, and keeping the states united after the American Revolution.

The US Constitution, written in Philadephia in 1787 by the Founding Fathers was the product of the revolutionary war of independence, with it’s foundations strongly influenced by the works of political theorists such as Montesquieu and Locke. The Founding Fathers favoured a government that prevented any individual or particular group becoming tyrannical. Furthermore, they strongly opposed the notion of excessive government power, seen as the potential threat to individual freedom, wanting to protect minorities as well as the population as a whole, from arbitrary or unjust rule. Consequently, the Founding Fathers outlined main provisions within the US constitution in order to avoid tyranny: the separation of powers, a federal structure of

After the American colonies won their freedom from Great Britain needed to create a new government. The Articles of Confederation were developed, bestowing America with its first official government. The Articles were composed of many restrictions creating an inadequate body of government. One of the main reasons the articles didn't work was from the lack of a strong central government the states received too much liberty and freedom, and on the other hand congress was weak and restricted. The government did not have enough power to govern all the states efficiently under the articles of confederation, it couldn't tax or regulate trade . From the time period when the Articles were constructed in 1781, to when they were discarded in 1789, the

During the years 1781 to 1789, the Articles of Confederation was the bases of the current government. This confederation was set up to create a weak government, leaving main power in the state legislatures. The people of the new United States did not foresee having a strong central government in fear of a monarchy such as that of Great Britain's. To a significant extent, the government under these articles were ineffective due to the lack of power in Congress and control of foreign relations. A contribution to the downfall of the Articles of Confederation is the insufficiency of it.

The foundations of the American government were forged during the colonial period because America’s founding fathers based most, if not all, laws and ideas on the premise of the nations that colonized America. Every nation that helped to colonize and make the New World known has had some impact on what is established in their respected jurisdiction. The Enlightenment also had a major impact on how the American government would decide to rule its people. Since the Enlightenment began shortly before the Revolution of America, the idea that philosophy could act as a legitimate source of authority was fairly new (Princeton.edu), any nation who implemented this would have been greatly influenced by the colonists. Devotion to England and her people also helped mold America into what it soon became.

In 1781, the United States ratified the Articles of Confederation - the first system of government to be adopted by Americans. The Articles were seriously flawed, granting little power to national government and allocating most of it for the states. Its short lifespan of 8 years and multitude of problems are clear signals that it mostly did not provide the United States with an efficient government.

The first organized government in the U.S. was under the Articles of Confederation, thirteen states created a confederation that had many weaknesses causing many problems in which caused many leaders come together for a constitutional convention which created in secret the Constitution of the United States. After the American Revolution, two political sides emerged, those arguing for greater states rights ands those arguing that federal governments should have more control. Important leaders such as Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were not present for the constitutional convention and they were considered strong proponents of the states rights. They felt that the new constitution ignored the independence of each state as well as they should

The United States started out as 13 colonies and slowly expanded to a country with its own governing system. The founding fathers started brainstorming for this government even before the Revolutionary War; however, our independence from Britain was a big help in establishing the United States. Not only did they have the opportunity to expand and grow, they could finally make decisions as a country. There were big decisions made to form the country we see in 1870, for example: slavery. If the issue was never addressed early, it would have been harder to pass the fifteenth amendment. Not only was there more freedom, but the U.S. Had gotten bigger, due to the new states joining the Union.

Developing a country and its principals comes with many debates, arguments, and many decisions to be made. In the end of the eighteenth century the Founding Fathers of the newly established America dealt with the difficulties of creating a country with strong political, social, and economic power. With the writing of the Articles of Confederation the country had now developed a national government, but was weak and ineffective. The top leaders of the country knew the flaws of the Articles and gathered together to rewrite the draft. When these decisions makers met in Philadelphia for the Convention the Constitution of the United States was written. This Constitution developed the foundation of the American governmental system. Along with

American History In September 1789, Thomas Jefferson, the American Minister to France who was to become the President of United States in the future was preparing to return home with his family; wrote a paper which was of immense importance to the people of his nation as well as abroad. This periodical was published in Paris, and the basic purpose of the paper was to explain to the French people and in turn to all the other Europeans about the American "age of experiments in government". The paper included key features of the new state and federal constitutions and the nature of the argument over the adoption of the federal Constitution. The objective was simple because America was emerging as the new world and everyone wanted to know more about it. France has aided United States throughout especially in the War of Independence and the major contingency of the people and residents of the region were French, Hispanic, British and German by origin. It was the first nation of the world that was so democratic in its approach and it was a true democracy by all norms. At the time the two of the leading nations in the world were England and France. England was the one, which lost the most when the America gained independence. England was a mixed blend of monarchy and Democracy but the democracy was not in full swing whereas France just had a monarch ruling the nation and the ministers managed most of the issues. American Constitution was unique in the context that it was the

This fresh, new foundation came in the form a document that outlined the way the government would work. Unlike the way Europe was governed before the Enlightenment period, Americans, since they had recently liberated themselves from the British throne, wanted to establish a government in such a way that would prevent tyrannical monarchy. By this time, they still were faced with the challenge of a republican self government. But again, we see the influence of Locke’s ideas from his Treatise, where he proposed that people had the right to establish their own government for their own protection of their natural rights. As a result of this idea, the preamble to the Constitution was created. This section provided analysis as to what the whole Constitution was about; improvement on the current government (to ensure that they are just) and protection for its citizens.