How Did The Constitution Prevent A Tyranny

During the Constitutional Convention, James Madison and his fellow delegates were trying to write a new document known as the Constitution, which would change the way the government would run for the future years of the nation. There were fifty-five white male individuals that joined the call for a Constitutional Convention in the town of Philadelphia in May of 1787. While gathered, the members found multiple problems with their current constitution, known as the Articles of Confederation. These problems included not having a chief executive, a court system, and the central government was very weak and limited. The members agreed to create a new constitution, to make the central government stronger, but try not to create a tyranny, like the harsh power of King George III. But the question remains, “How did the Constitution prevent too much power from getting into the hands of one person or group?” The Constitution was defended from tyranny through a variety of different ways while being made at the Constitutional Convention by using federalism, having a separation of powers in government, having a system of checks and balances, and having a
small state-large state compromise.
Federalism was one of the first ways the Constitution prevented a tyranny was by forming a government where the division of power was between the central and state governments, which would be able to control each other and itself.
The central government's powers include conducting foreign relations, providing an army and navy, and declaring war while the state government's powers include setting up local governments, holding elections, and establishing schools. The two governments’ shared power, includes being able to tax, borrow money, set up courts, make laws, and enforce laws (DOC A). As shown, the central government and state government has specific power divisions where the central government is responsible for matters that help the country while the state government is responsible for more local matters within each
state.
Next, is the idea of separation of powers where there are three branches of government that each has separate and distinct powers. The legislative branch is given power through Congress, which is comprised of a Senate and a House of Representatives, the executive branch is given power through a president and vice-president, and the judicial branch is given power through a Supreme Court and other inferior courts (DOC B). Since each branch of government has different and separate powers, it prevents any branch from becoming too powerful and overtaking each other.
Third, the system of checks and balances is a guard against tyranny because it enables each branch of government to be separate, but still have constitutional control over one another by checking each other. The President can veto Congressional legislation, but Congress can override a President’s veto (DOC C). The President can nominate judges, but the court can declare the President’s acts unconstitutional (DOC C). The following show that the system of checks and balances guards against tyranny because it keeps one branch from getting more powerful than the others since all the branches can check each other, which counterbalances all of the branches of government.
Finally, having a small state-large state compromise would guard against tyranny because it caused smaller states to be just as powerful as larger states though representation. The number of representatives are appointed according to population, though each state has at least one representative, for the House of Representatives (DOC D). Each state gets two senators to represent them in the Senate, with each senator having one vote (DOC D). This evidence shows that there is equal representation in the Senate, which protected smaller states from being dominated by larger states that were more populous, plus more populous states had unequal representation to les populous states to be protected from being neutralized by a minority.
The several ways that the framers of the Constitution guarded against tyranny was through federalism, having a separation of powers, using a system of checks and balances, and having a small state-large state compromise. If tyranny was to subdue us, we would be under the rule of a tyrant, such as a dictator without the Constitution being able to create a strong, yet limited central government. It is important to know how the Constitution was one of the key components in making our government work effectively for the past few hundred years since its creation. As you may know now, the Constitution protected tyranny in various ways.