Preview

How Does The Constitution Guard Against Tyranny

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
892 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does The Constitution Guard Against Tyranny
Imagine the United States being lead by a power-hungry air head. The US 's current situation isn't very far off. Luckily, our Constitution prevents the situation of them being all power full. In the year of 1787, 55 delegates from the first states gathered together and created a document that gave birth to a thriving nation. Some had no idea what was to take place, but eventually, all decided the Articles of Confederation no longer were fit enough to help them prosper. Some may wonder how the Constitution accomplishes the task of guarding against tyranny. Tyranny is when a ruler or rulers have too much power. The Constitution implicates federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and big states vs small states in order to guard against …show more content…
This allows the power of making decisions to be split up between the central government and state governments. The central government deals with foreign affairs, the military, and our economy. The state government deals with things such as school, roads,and everyday affairs. Then, they come together and have jobs they both can do. In short, "the different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself," (James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788). Federalism protects against tyranny because it does not allow one government to have too much power. The central government and state government have enough power to make important decisions, yet not enough to have total control. They rule over each other while being able to rule over themselves. It's written in such a brilliant manner where everything is …show more content…
They each need each other in order to complete certain tasks. In the constitution, it allows branches to do certain things to check each other. For example, the Legislative branch makes laws, but the president (Executive branch) can veto them. In return, the Legislative branch can impeach a president. The Executive branch appoints the supreme court judges, but the Legislative branch must approve. All three branches can check each other, which balances them. James Madison believes, "[The three branches] should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other," (James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788). Checks and balances guards against tyranny because while separation of powers separates the three branches, checks and balances allows them to also be closely related. They are apart, yet they all affect each other. This stops the one branch from gathering too much

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Without the decisions the government made together we would've never came into an equal equality, without solving the world’s biggest problems. In the summer of 1787 , fifty five delegates representing twelve of the thirteen states met in philadelphia to fix the national gov’t. The problem was that the government under the articles of confederation, the challenge was to create a strong central government without letting anyone get too much power. How did the Constitution Guard against Tyranny? In further reading you will see how they divided the powers that were given to them to help the nation and states around the world, that fills up the world’s problems.…

    • 630 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the year of 1787, delegates met in Philadelphia to write the Constitution. Tyranny, a type of government with an absolute ruler was a fear. They were currently under the ARticles of COnfederation. There was a problem with this though. In the background essay, it states that “there was no chief executive, there was no court system, there was not even a way for a central government to force a state to pay taxes.”. They were in much need of a new Constitution if they were going to be an independent nation. The hard part was making the new government tyranny free. Eventually in 1787 the new Constitution is created.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Constitution guarded against tyranny through checks and balances. Checks and Balances is where the three branches work together to make sure no one branch has too much power. Each branch receives control over the other branches. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay wrote the federalist papers in 1787 and 1788. According to Doc. C, and Federalist paper number 51,” Constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices is in such a manner… check on the other.” James Madison, is explaining how the government got split into three branches. Next he explained that the three branches were framed/setup to check on each other…

    • 162 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The U.S Constitution had four different ways of guarding against tyranny. In the late eighteenth century the American Colonies thrust off an oppressive Tyrannical Government. The four different way that the U.S Constitution Guard against Tyranny were, Federalism, the separation of power, Checks and Balances, and by ensuring representation of large and small states. Each of these processes had something important to do with Tyranny. You might ask what even is Tyranny, Tyranny is cruel and oppressive government or rule.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Abraham Lincoln was Born on February 12, 1809 in Kentucky. Lincoln Died on April 15, 1865 at the age of 65 Lincoln’s Formal education was limited to 18 months of schooling. Prior to politics Lincoln was a lawyer Lincoln served as an Illinois state legislator, member of the House of Representatives and was an unsuccessful candidate for the Senate. Elected President in 1860; Lincoln served from 1861-1865 as the 16th President of the United States.…

    • 5601 Words
    • 23 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    After the revolutionary war between the Americas and Great Britain came to an end in 1783, the people who lived in the American nation faced a difficulty. As they have just recovered from the unjust use of governmental power by the British, they had to find ways to guard the nation from the possibility of tyranny reoccurring. It is important to learn about how the constitution they developed helped guard against tyranny since it is a big part of the United States history, and it helps to know why the Americans made the decisions that they made. The actions the constitution took to guard against tyranny were, developing federalism, separating the power, checks and balances and developing a big state vs. small state compromise. Through the constitution…

    • 147 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Tyrany can be compared to one of the most harsh's thing's to be brought up for law…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Their was way too much power in the constitution. It had to be divided. The first one it was divided into was federalism, which…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Each of these three branches has different duties they must complete. The legislative branch includes a Congress, House of Representatives, and a Senate. The executive branch includes the President, and Executive and Cabinet departments. The judicial branch includes all of the courts, Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and the District Court. “Liberty requires that the three great departments should be separate and distinct.” (Document B) Separation of powers guards against tyranny because all three branches have equal but different power. The three branches are separate and distinct but they work together to form our government in a process called checks and…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Also, he stated that, “The different governments will control each other, while each will be controlled by itself.”. These quotes in themselves state furthermore that Federalism helped protect against Tyranny all throughout history. All in all, federalism allows to apply protection against tyranny by distributing the…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As soon as the Americans first broke away from Britain, they wanted their government to not resemble Britain’s at all. By doing this, they adopted the Articles of Confederation that had no national executive branch. However, because the government under the Articles of Confederation had about no power because it couldn’t raise money through taxes, the people who led the national government came to realize that a more centralized government was needed. As the constitution was written and it was in the process of being ratified by all the states, the federalist papers written mostly by Alexander Hamilton were written. In one paper by James Madison, he writes “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition” (Doc I), which shows the concept of checks and balances could be used to keep the national government in line and controlled. The Constitution, finally ratified, was similar to Britain’s government but also different in its more active system of checks and balances.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First, Federalism helps guard against tyranny because it lets both governments control each other, it prevents state governments from attacking other states, and it separates powers.“In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments” (Federalist Paper 51, Doc A). This is saying that the state government and the federal government share power and have different abilities. The two governments can act as checks on each other and the different things that they can do balances the power out so there cannot be tyranny. Not allowing states from having their own military prevents tyranny because if…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This helps to prevent one branch from becoming more powerful than another. Each branch has their own responsibilities and role in government. The three branches are the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. The legislative branch is in charge of making laws for our country. The executive branch of government makes sure that the laws of the United States are obeyed. This is where the president comes in also. Lastly, the judicial branch is made up of the court system. Courts decide arguments about laws, how they are applied, and whether they break the rules of the Constitution or not. The Legislative branch is made up by Congress which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. The executive branch includes the president and vice president. Lastly, the Judicial Court includes the Supreme Court. Each of these branches are important to the constitution and play a major…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Ivan the Terrible (Ivan the fourth.) All these men were tyrants, I wonder how the Constitution prevents us from tyrants or tyranny. The Constitution was written in Philadelphia along with the declaration of independence, it was written along the time of May 25,1787 to September 17 of 1787. The Constitution states four safeguards written to prevent tyranny. Federalism(a system that the central government has a powers and the smaller regional governments have power), Separation of Powers(powers that are split into three different systems to keep each other from gaining too much power), Checks and Balances(A political system in which each branch can limit power to the other), and Large and Small state compromise(also known as the great compromise, it said that just because some states were smaller doesn't mean they didn't get to have just as much power as the larger states.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anti Federalism Dbq

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages

    It may not sound very American to say, but the constitution has it’s flaws. The checks and balances of the federal government are only as strong as the integrity of the officials in the three branches. A group with similar ideas can take over all three and make deals amongst themselves. The state governments need more power to keep a check on the National government.Another issue with a strong centra government is that people in different states have vastly different beleifs and ideologies, and many of them even if held by an entire state, may not make it to the federal government. Richard Henry Lee said “In this congressional legislature, a bare majority of votes can enact commercial laws; so that the representatives of the seven Northern States, as they will have a majority, can, by law, create the most oppressive monopoly upon the five Southern States, whose circumstances and productions are essentially different from those of theirs, although not a single man of these voters are the representatives of, or amenable to, the people of the Southern States.“ And that was just with differences in opinion between the limited number of states that existed them. Now, with 50 states and an ever rising population, there are more differences than ever. A stronger state government would result in more diversity between states, laws more fitting to the beliefs of individual states opinion. Then the small federal government would make sure that these…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays