The Framers And The Constitution

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Firstly, The framers wrote the Constitution with the original intent that the philosophy of interpreting it would be strict. They wanted to clearly state exactly how the government will be set up and how the powers of it will be evenly distributed. If the framers were going to make a document that completes so many great objectives and perfects the flaws of the Articles of Confederation, why would they want the people who read the Constitution to interpret it loosely? Such a philosophy would defeat the purpose of writing a Constitution all together. The framers wanted the people who read and interpret the Constitution to understand that everything said in the document is exact and that there are no implied powers within it. The idea of…show more content…
John Dickinson can be used as a model for how these delegates wanted the Constitution to be viewed mainly because he was a delegate himself and also becasue he wrote the first draft of the Articles of Confederation. Since he wrote the Articles, it is safe to say that he would know the issues with it, especially since he was also on board with the ratification of the Constitution. Dickinson did not like the fact that the British taxing the colonies so much, just as most every American didn’t like it; however, Dickinson decided to write about his view and complaints in a series of essays entitled, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania. In the letters/essays published over the years of 1767-1768, he talks about British policies and unjust laws that the British were making, as well as urging people to resist said laws. Through these letters, one can determine fairly easily that Dickinson did not approve of a monarchy, or even a very strong centralized government for that matter. Therefore, Dickinson would have never approved of any implied powers given in the Constitution as he believed that a strong centralized government was not good because it would resemble the monarchy of Britain in which he despised. Secondly, Hamilton’s philosophy of constitutional interpretation must be found and derived from the documents that he wrote or was affiliated with. The first of these documents was written entirely by
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