The concentrating these in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one. 173 despots would surely be as oppressive as one. Let those who doubt it turn their eyes on the republic of Venice. As little will it avail us that they are chosen by ourselves. An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.” (The Founders' Constitution, 2000)
There was another problem for the new nation: the Articles of Confederation; where the war of independence had been fought under these and it worked essentially as a loose league of independent states. The whole authorities that were vaguely granted to the Confederation were held in reserve to the states in which the Articles specifically noted that the states retained their “sovereignty, freedom and independence” (Jones, 1995, p.