Imagine oneself back at the constitutional convention in seventeen eighty-seven. All of the brightest minds and most respected people in one place, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the southeast of the state, near New York. Because it is May, and just beginning to be summer, it is hot, and because all the windows are closed in the interest of secrecy, it is stifling as well. Fifty-five well known thinkers of the age, all white males, have come. They range in age from James Madison, an up-and-comer and a prodigy who is twenty five to Benjamin Franklin, a wise, venerable, learned man who is eighty one. Delegates from eleven states are present, New Hampshire not turning up until July, and Rhode Island not at all, thinking to veto the proceedings by their absence. The problem that had caused these proceedings was that the Articles of Confederation, the current system of government was too weak. although the Northwest Ordinance resulted of it, and it fixed the fear of a strong central government and dominance by large states, there were unfair competition among states, unenforceable trade agreements, no power over states governments, no president, no judicial branch and the government could not pay debts because they could not force states to pay taxes. As the cons out-weighed the pros, it was clear that something had to be done. The framers decided to create a new government completely. The question was; How do we give the government the power it needs while preventing tyranny? This essay will address the many and varied was the constitution guards against tyranny. In this essay, the word tyranny refers to James Madison’s definition, which states, “The accumulation of all powers…in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” (James Madison, Federalist Paper #47, Hook Document). The constitution addresses tyranny in four main ways: the balance of powers between national and state…
Constitution. The Federalist interpretation of the Constitution was that it was flexible and that the…
The evolution of Federalism in the United States was a gradual event that had definitions of federal government being given in federalist 46 and 28 which gave definitions of a federalist government to the United States. As stated by James Madison one of the architects of the federal kind of government, “the state and national governments are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, constituted with different powers." The purpose of such a kind of government was to protect the rights of the people in all its earnestness.…
8.3.6: Describe the principles of federalism, dual sovereignty, separation of powers, checks and balances, the nature and purpose of majority rule, and the ways in which the American idea of constitutionalism preserves individual rights.…
Throughout English and Anglo- American history, the idea of checking and placing limits on political power became necessary after a history of a central government with too much control. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the English Bill of Rights and Federalist 10 were written in hopes of limiting political authority while still placing sufficient power in the hands of the government to maintain order. While both documents outlined power of the central government, they differed in terms of who’s voices mattered in politics. However, both documents focused on how a strong national legislature served as a check against tyranny.…
In the book The Conscious of the Constitution, the author Timothy Sandefur argues the merits of using the Declaration of independence as a legal document in the legal fight to keep the government out of the lives of the american citizen and thus control how the government expands. This book is a heavy read that while bias toward a small government is a must read when wanting to understand the debate that takes place between the right and the left. The book answers and raises questions about the constitution that make it an important pillar to base constitutional debate.…
The U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence present many ideas which can be traced back to the time of classical antiquity. Many of the concepts within the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence can be linked to ideas that were present in ancient Greece and Rome. These ideas and concepts have helped form our society into what it is today. In Article 1 of the Constitution it states that, the House of Representatives and the Senate have all legislative powers. They have the power to pass the laws that control and influence our society. In history, the Romans had a system similar to this. Their government consisted of an Assembly, Senate and a Consul which controlled their society. A second concept can be found within the first amendment in the Bill of Rights, it states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (amend. I). This grants United States citizens religious freedom. Despite of the fact that the Roman Empire was not religiously tolerant until the reign of Constantine the Great, there was a point where Roman citizens had religious freedom. Another parallel between America’s government and the worlds of classical Greece and Rome would be in the Writ of Habeas Corpus. It is a common idea that was first instituted by Emperor Justinian can be found in the sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Another idea found within the Declaration of Independence, the idea that, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,” (line 7, Declaration of Independence) also finds its roots in the classical world. The concepts within this quote mirror some of the component of Greek Stoicism. They believed that all men were created equal and because of that we are all brothers. The last concept deals with the right of the people to alter or…
Alexander Hamilton, the leader of the Federalists, and his party believed in a loose interpretation of the Constitution. This means they think that certain powers not specifically given to the federal government was more or less implied. Hamilton says “The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right.” He and the Federalists think the government needs more control to run its…
The debates over ratification of the Constitution represent the most important and intellectually sophisticated public debates in American history. On the one side, the supporters of the Constitution, or "Federalists," argued that the nation desperately needed a stronger national government to bring order, stability and unity to its efforts to find its way in an increasingly complicated world. Opponents of the Constitution, or "Antifederalists," countered that the the governments of the states were strong enough to realize the objectives of each state. Any government that diminished the power of the states, as the new Constitution surely promised to do, would also diminish the ability of each state to meet the needs of its citizens. More dramatically, the Antifederalists argued that the new national government, far removed from the people, would be all to quick to compromise their rights and liberties in the name of establishing order and unity.…
The Federalist Papers are a collection of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay advocating the validation of the United States constitution. The series of articles were first published in 1787 - 1788 in the Independent Journal, the New-York Packet and the Daily Advertiser. At the time of publication, it was unclear who the author’s were, since Hamilton, Madison and Jay used the pseudonym “Publius”, in respect to Roman diplomat Publius Valeria Publicola. It wasn’t until Hamilton’s death in 1804 that it was clear as to who were the creator’s of the “incomparable exposition of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer” (Federalist Papers). The Federalist Papers drafted a basic form of American federalism, meaning the papers served as a justification of the document that would soon become the constitution. The federalist’s promoted a divided federal government, a system of checks and balances where there was “division of power across the local, state and national levels of government” and a system for judicial review (William Bianco). At first, the Federalist Papers were received as unfinished and exaggerated, as many Americans were cynical of a contradiction of the bill of rights. Despite first impressions, the Federalist Papers have survived well into the 21st century, and are still used today by lawyers, judges, and jurors as a tool to interpret the Constitutional laws.…
Our founding father, Patrick Henry, said, “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” Our founding fathers created a strong government for the people of the United States in order to protect their rights. They established a framework that our contemporary government is supposed to adhere to. Today, the American government has drifted away from the ideas embedded in our Constitution. The contemporary American government fails to work the way our founding fathers intended because of the representative government we have today.…
In the beginning before the Constitution was drafted, the founding founders were concerned about how to solve the issue of a weak central government. The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists had different ideology and views in regard to the issues at hand, but had the common goal of ensuring the government would be protected against any assembly having the ability to become overpowered by another.…
The drafting of the new federal Constitution for the infant United States drew many staunch lines between federalists and antifederalists. These differences proved to be vast and in most cases complex, the antifederalists opposed the newly drafted constitution, while the federalists pushed for its ratification. These two primary views of how the United States government should function, made the ratification of the Constitution by no means a guarantee in 1787. Thus, the criticisms made by the antifederalists and the retorts returned by the federalists echoed the uncertainty of the United States in its infancy, plus these arguments demonstrated the blurred views on the “good society” and developed the Constitution into a document that preserved…
Several documents have helped carve the United States government from the beginning into what we know it as today…the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence…to name a few. One of the most important of those documents was The Federalist Papers. It is a series of 85 articles/essays that were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, between 1787 and 1788. This paper will focus on the purpose of the Federalist Papers, who the intended audience was, and why another document – the Articles of Confederation – written after the American Revolution, failed in the wake of the Constitution being drafted and ratified. (Peacock, n.d.)…
At one point it was expected, that the Congress would pass laws, the President would execute them, and the Supreme Court would interpret them in individual cases. This was the framework for the Separation of Powers; established by the Constitution, and stuck to it for the greater part of our history. The Founding Fathers were well-acquainted with a long-held tenet of government: the accumulation of power by a single person or body of government is the greatest threat to liberty. In fact, a celebrated feature of the…