“When people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.” By 1787, the enlightened statesmen began to understand and accept the flaws of the Articles of Confederation. It was too weak and did not allow the new nation’s economy to thrive. The system under these articles failed to create a strong central government and even lacked a court system. One major weakness of the central government was that they could not tax the states and this lead to an uneven distribution of power, and the states became overwhelmingly powerful. The challenge was to write a new constitution that was strong enough to hold the country and states together, secure the rights of the people, and not allow a single …show more content…
The judicial branch also has the job of deciding the application of a law and protecting laws form passing that are unconstitutional. Another separation of power was put into place in the legislative branch to solve the problem of big states vs small states. This problem would be solved by having two parts of congress, the senate and the House of Representatives. The senate would consist of two representatives or senators from each state, while the house representatives would vary from state to state according to population. The small states were happy in the senate because they had the same say as larger states, whereas in the house, larger states were happy because they had more votes. This protected against tyranny because not one state or representative could gain absolute power. Having three branches with separate powers defends against tyranny simply because instead of having one power such as the king of England, who made all of the decisions, there are multiple parts of the government working together to come to an agreeable solution. (Document B, D) The Separation of powers on its own could not prevent tyranny. Although, the branches of power we distinct and unique, they “[Were not to be] so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” The
“While the authors of the United States Constitution are frequently portrayed as noble and idealistic statesmen who drafted a document based upon their conception of good government, reality is that the constitution reflects the politics of the drafting and ratification process. Unfortunately, the result is a document that is designed to produce an ineffective government, rather than a government that can respond to issues in a timely fashion.” In support of this conclusion, the issues of slavery, The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, and the civil rights struggle keenly demonstrate the ways in which our constitution hinders the expediency and effectiveness of America’s government. The constitution’s provisions towards voting eligibility and
“When the people fear the government there is tyranny; when the government fears the people there is liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson. In May of 1787, 55 people decided that the Articles of Confederation was useless and restricted. The Articles of Confederation was unable to provide a court system, a chief executive and way to make the central government able to force states to pay taxes. The Constitution was falling apart and these people did not want this Constitution to be inequitable. The truth about tyanny in Maddison eyes is ¨The accumulation of all powers in the same hands, weather of one, a few or many (is) the defintion of tyranny.¨
After the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the United States Government was reorganized under the Constitution. This gave the federal government far more power than did the Articles of Confederation, which invested power within the states. Basically, the Constitution created three branches of government (Executive, Judicial, and Legislative) which would work together to run the government. To make sure that there was an equal balance of power among the branches, a system of checks and balances was devised so that each branch could limit the power of the others. It is important to note that "the doctrine of separation of powers is not established by any constitutional provision [but] rather it emerges from he framers'
When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution in 1787, the United States just had 13 states. The Founding Fathers believed that more states would want to join the Union in the future. They saw that it would be significant for new states to have the same form of government as the original states had. Since then there are now over 50 states that have similar characteristics which were developed centuries ago; although, resembling the creation of new ideas and inventions, current state government had many problems from being the way it is today, it also has many important features that benefit many people, as well as plays an important role in how American democracy and government works.
Considering the unsuccessful Articles of Confederation, it was vital to construct a better statute under which government would function. This new law would have to incorporate values of a Republic, and the ultimate goal of unifying the nation through the creation of a stronger national government, while still acknowledging states’ rights. James Madison, who is accredited for being the “father of the Constitution,” paved the road for the development of the modern Constitution. However, many feared this strong central government would inevitably turn into a tyranny, much like the one they had just fought to escape from. Eventually, after many conventions, the Constitution, which incorporated compromises between states, was finally adopted, and calculated into it were several ways a tyrannical government could be prevented.
In the initial years of the United States a meeting of delegates appointed by the several states met for the sole purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. The result of this meeting was the creation of the U.S. Constitution that would soon become the ultimate directive for both Federal and State Governments. Since its birth it has been revised, amended, and ratified in order to solidify the allocation of power between the separate branches of government. Although this may be the case, distribution of the powers has been disputed ever since the formation of the Constitution. These political, legal, and quasi-legal constitutional disputes triggered civil unrest and led to explicit acts of opposition involving nullification and
Compare the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of confederation to those of the Constitution. Which document did a better job at protecting liberties? Running a government? Explain your answer with specific examples.
In 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the framers of the Constitution of the United States of America worked together to identify the best way to elect the President (Patterson, 2013). The ideas suggested varied and ranged from selection by members of congress chosen by lottery, to a popular vote of the people. By the end of the Convention the matter had yet to be settled as the framers fore saw that many of the suggestions were prone to corruption, error, and were very chaotic. The issue was passed down to the Committee on Postponed Matters, who in turn created the system that is used today and is commonly known as Electoral College (Kazin, 2011). The Electoral College was outlined by the Committee to up hold the views of the founding fathers, who were the framers of the Constitution.
Based on your interpretation of the course text, explain the framers’ (framers’ of the U.S. Constitution) position on the Presidency:
The US Constitution states “We The People of the United states in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for more common defense, promote the General Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” The main purpose of the U.S Constitution is to establish the basic rights of all American Citizens. This follows that every United States Citizens have equal rights. Belonging to a minority group because of culture, religion or race does not assert that one is unconstitutional. In times of war, evacuation of minority groups only in NOT constitutional; however, evacuation of ALL United
A constitution is a written document that sets forth the fundamental rules by which a society is governed. Throughout the course of history the United States has lived under two Constitutions since the British-American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776. First in line was the Articles of Confederation (1789-1789) followed by the Constitution of United States of America (1789-present). The Articles of Confederation was the first formal written Constitution of America that specified how the national government was to operate. Unfortunately, the Articles did not last long. Under the words of the Article’s power was limited; Congress could make decisions, but had no power to enforce them. Also the articles stated
The constitution of the United States of America is the founding document on which the government of America is built. It currently has twenty-seven amendments. It lines out the specific government practices as well as the system of check and balances. It was first drafted July, 1787 after the first form of government, the articles of confederation, had proven very inefficient to a point where it became almost redundant to have them in place. After a large amount of debate the acting continental congress decide to completely revise the current system. The constitution was efficient and fair and it kept the parts of government in place while not giving too much power to one or more branches.
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
issues of all kind. The country I was born in did not guarantee freedom of
The Constitution of the United States was written in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention, where it was held in Philadelphia. It was written by a group of people known as “Farmers,” or the “Founding Fathers,” and few of the most famous Founding Fathers were George Washington (The first president of the USA), Thomas Jefferson (The first vice president and the third president of the USA) James Madison (The fourth president of the USA), Samuel Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. The old government, the Articles of Confederation was not working as it supposed to be, it was vulnerable and cannot secure and defend the new born nation and for that reason the constitution of the united states saw the light.