Did the Constitution Establish a Just Government? The United States would lose its name and stand divided if the Constitution did not bring the thirteen colonies into one body. Within this governing body, fears arise from the difficulty of controlling power in a central government, while still trying to keep unity between the states. Understanding that the United States was formed based on the people’s irritation with the corruption of the control of power in England, the Constitution reassured the people that their freedoms were going to be kept, but it required their trust. The founders of the United States Constitution established a just government through encompassing equal representation, with the people as the foundation, and protecting the injustices that could arise with the misuse of power. First, a government’s ability to “control the governed” is essential in a democracy. The first constitution, The Articles of Confederation, was chaotic because of its inefficient communication and lack of unity. “But the confederation itself is defective and requires to be altered; it is neither fit for war, nor peace. The idea of an uncontrollable sovereignty in each state, over its internal police, will defeat the other powers given to Congress, and make our union feeble and precarious.” The founders of the Constitution understood the need for the government to be limited in order to “control itself.” Separating power in the government protects the nation from the fear of
When our founding fathers came together to construct a Constitution that would establish a government that could serve the people, they outlined their overall goals of this Constitution within the Preamble. The first task listed in this famous preliminary statement is to “establish Justice.” The position of this objective within the Constitution demonstrates just how significant Justice is to a government. Justice is a principle that demands equality for all in their opportunity, rights, and in a court of law. A just government would ensure minority rights and limit its power so that it cannot become too powerful. However, our Constitution does not do these things to the extent that it could be considered just. The original document denied a minority group equality by directly supporting slavery, allowed congress nearly unlimited power through the necessary and proper clause, and contains the Supreme Court, an institution that goes against the spirit of democracy. Therefore, the Constitution did not establish a just government.
Speaking against the ratification of the Constitution, Patrick Henry says, "If a wrong step be now made, the republics may be lost forever. If this new government will not come up to the expectation of the people...their liberty will be lost and tyranny must and will rise..." The leaders of the country created the U.S. Constitution due to an immense dissatisfaction with the system of government stated in the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation support a government in which there is only one branch, but it's power would be limited in order to protect the people's liberty and rights. Although the Articles of Confederation establish a better system of government than when the states were under British rule, some weaknesses were found and amended in a new document called the United States
Upon considering whether the Constitution in its current form should be ratified, four main points of consideration come into focus: the four main arguments determining the future for the United States and its people. Under the current form of government, the Articles of Confederation, a question of whether a stronger central government is needed is asked. This question is followed by if the United States would be more prosperous under a confederation of loosely governed states, and if a powerful national government consolidates the states. Next, the question of whether the Constitution provides a fair, honest system of representation for all classes of people, and finally, whether the document supports natural and
In 1787, the Constitution of the United States was just written on September 17th. During this time, the common man was still under the power of the Articles of Confederation, a weak document that loosely connected the 13 former colonies. Although the Articles didn’t give the United States of America the strong centralized power that it needed, opposers to the new Constitution would argue that the Constitution took away the rights of the common man and gave that power, that the individual once had, to the federal government. Although this statement is correct, the federal government’s newly given power was used to protect the fundamental rights and liberties of its citizens and create a powerful government in the hopes that it would benefit
After the American Revolutionary War, the men in the Second Continental Congress were faced with a monumental challenge, creating a document that would democratically frame the new United States government in the spirit of liberty and freedom. While they spent much time and effort writing and ratifying this document, they were hindered by past experiences and prejudices against their previous mother country, Great Britain. The memories of imperial Britain, still fresh in the minds of the ex-colonists, caused them to include certain concepts of the Articles of Confederation that would prove detrimental to the functionality of the federal government. Although the American people desired to retain state sovereignty, they fashioned a form of government that bestowed excessive powers to the states, so severely that the national government could not effectively govern them
First, federalism helped to protect against tyranny by having federalism. According to James Madison, “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments” (Document A). The quote is explaining the idea of federalism government is divided into a central and state government that controls each other and themselves. This quote demonstrates how the Constitution guards against tyranny.
The Constitution was created in the 1700’s to unify a growing nation and to ensure the basic rights of all citizens. However, as time went on, it seemed as if the large ideas in which our nation had been based upon, began to diminish and after the Mexican-American War, the nation began to face a large split in opinions mainly when regarding slavery. By the 1850’s the largely different interpretation of the Constitution caused such tension between citizens (northerners vs. southerners; those who were for slavery vs. those who opposed slavery), that the constitution could be described as an instrument of destruction that would lead to one of the darkest periods in this country’s history. The Constitution may have built up the union, but it ultimately contributed to its failure as well. The Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, the different interpretations of the constitution and the Dred Scott case, all contributed to the failure of the union the Constitution had created.
Whenever decisions are made, there are always those who favor the decision, and those who oppose it. Things were no different with the Constitution. When the Constitution was written, the founders underwent a long process in order to explain how and when the Constitution would be applied. As a result of these discussions among the founders, two diverse groups were formed. One group favored a loose interpretation of the Constitution, and they believed that the government could use implied powers and that they were entitled to any powers that the Constitution did not explicitly forbid. These people wanted a stronger national government with more power. On the contrary, strict constructionists believed that the Constitution should be
Did the constitution establish a just government? Even though there were positive aspects Of the constitution, the government it created was unjust because it greatly limited democracy and protected slavery. One of my reasons is that there can’t be a king. Also the south and north has to be equal. When slavery was protected by the constitution it gave them no right to do anything.
High taxes. High tension. A society breaks away from an absolute leader who has been ruthlessly running their lives with cruel and unjust tactics. A government built on bribery of judges and occupation of populated villages begins to crumble as the one wearing the crown of absolute power loses his colonist pawns and they become independent and determined to found their own country and defend what they believe in. Tyranny is what drove our great nation to be formed, and what drove the most appreciated American patriots to make sure it could never be probable in their young new country. How did they do it? They created The Constitution. This document was written to establish a structured framework for the government of their country. It was
The subject of how did the constitution create a strong government while limiting itspower and still protect the rights of the people has been covered intensively by the world pressover the past decade. In depth analysis of how did the constitution create a strong governmentwhile limiting its power and still protect the rights of the people can be an enriching experience. Until recently considered taboo amongst polite society, how did the constitution create astrong government while limiting its power and still protect the rights of the people is featuringmore and more in the ideals of the young and upwardly mobile. Inevitably feelings run deepamongst the upper echelons of progressive service sector organizations, whom I can say nomore about due to the legal restrictions. Complex though it is I shall now attempt to provide anexhaustive report on how did the constitution create a strong government while limiting itspower and still protect the rights of the people and its numerous industries.
The Articles of Confederation, a written agreement that ensured each state’s sovereignty, freedom and independence, led America to victory over the British centralized government. During the late eighteenth century, the empowered government terrified the Americans, hence the thirteen colonies decided to spread governance powers equally to all functional states. The states had absolute dominance over the Congress due to the Articles of Confederation. While the localized power of states seemed to be promising, the system posed great threat to the major components of a democratic government, which are coercion, revenue, and legitimacy (Lecture 1 - The Roots of Government). The system of localized power did not ensure legitimacy, which referred to people’s recognition of national government. Congress’s lack of power to control each state’s actions caused great chaos. Eventually, national government’s lack of power and inability to unify the states exposed multiple flaws in the Articles of Confederation; consequently, a new supreme law, the Constitution was established by the founding fathers. The new supreme law successfully altered the imbalanced system into a novel democratic government.
Correspondingly, the constitution was written during the American revolution to limits the national government's power and keep the general population free. Since the country has been founded under beliefs of freedom, it is natural for them to value the right to own an arm if they want to. Also, the revolution was mainly citizens of the colony bearing arms and fighting against the English soldiers. When they became their own country, Americans feared to be limited once more by the government if it had too much power (DeBell 1). On the contrary, Japan has an history of banning multiple arms. In 1588, the emperor banned all swords and fire-arms to the general population. Since citizens could not use any firearms or sword, they had to find a
Any nationwide endeavor across the world over is always faced with a myriad of challenges when one factor in, the interest of different individuals or groups. During the early years of the USA, there were many problems that politicians at the time faced when trying to create and strengthen the country’s Constitution. In the early 1780’s the young country was in a deep depression, and this played a key role in influencing the exercise as it ultimately led to a heated debate about the powers of the National and State governments. Most of the conservative politicians at the time preferred a stronger federal government while state radicals believed that states should have more power since it was in a better position to determine what was best for their citizens (Jilson, 2009). More sticking points divided the founding fathers which threatened the stability and establishment of the USA, such as slavery and federalism.
The introduction of the federal government and the constitution implied that the people would have to obey the rules of the ruling body so that they would forego some of the freedom and rights that they enjoyed in the past. On the other hand, restoring power to the people implied that the government would not become successful. However, the government had to become implemented, and the people had to obey the law (Brauch, 2009). The American citizens were not satisfied with the changes and always looked for ways through which they could have some power which they could use in making their lives better. However, after the establishment of the constitution, the only power that the American citizens acquired was the democratic rights and their involvement in the national decision making of the president of the