The Key to the Protection Against Tyranny in the American Constitution

There are also checks and balances between these three branches. Checks and balances are a system of each branch monitoring an... ... middle of paper ... ...re than one government’s protection. The state governments protect their own states while the federal government protects the whole country. In addition, the Great Compromise guarded against tyranny by making sure the larger states would not have more power than the smaller states. The Great Compromise was an agreement to create a two-house legislature composed of a House of Representatives and a Senate.

Because of their experience with Great Britain, the 13 states feared a powerful central government. For this reason, the Articles of Confederation, written in 1777, gave the states more control than the government. The Continental Congress had been careful to give the states as much independence as possible and to specify the limited functions of the federal government. “The national government would consist of a single house of Congress, where each state would have one vote. Congress had the power to set up a postal department, to estimate the costs of the government and request donations from the states, to raise armed forces, and to control the development of the western territories.

The article was written in the early part of the American Revolution by the committee of the second continental congress, because of the wars with Great Britain and the experience they have had with them. They wanted to give the states as much independence as possible, and this independence greatly limited the power of the federal government. The articles helped the struggling states in the process and exercise of self-government. During the articles, the national government consisted of a single house of congress. There was no judicial branch of government, only authority to mediate.

This system allowed for a national government to exist alongside state governments. This was accomplished through a system of checks and balances. The concept of checks and balances is a constitutional grant of powers and responsibilities that enables each of the three branches of government to check the actions of the others to ensure that no branch can dominate the other, thus limiting the powers of all aspects of the government including the national level. Federalism is a constitutional arrangement in which power is distributed between a central government and states. This gives state and local governments numerous responsibilities and powers, such as the power to collect taxes and to pass and enforce laws.

After the Constitution was written, the new born nation was immediately split into two political sides, the federalists and the anti-federalists, over the ratification. Federalists, southern planters or people that tended to hold interest in trade, advocated a strong executive. On the other hand, anti-federalists, back country people or people involved in business but not in the mercantile economy, opposed the ratification of the constitution. The two sides, after much debate, were able to come to a compromise after the Bill of Rights was included into the Constitution. When the new Constitution was drafted, the ratification, the official approval by the people of the United States, sparked a national debate.

Tyranny is possessing absolute power, so how did the constitution defend against it? In Philadelphia, 1787, James Madison and his fellow delegates assembled to construct a government without any kind of tyranny. They desired one that was stable enough to provide for the needs of the new nation, at the same time, one that would not produce an absolute ruler. To prevent tyranny from materializing, the constitution framed the government using these ideas: federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances. Federalism aided in contributing to extra protection against tyranny.

The 13 states needed a strong central government that will unite the states, while not giving too much power to congress or the president. So the founding fathers created a new frame of government called the Constitution in Philadelphia, on the May of 1787. The constitution, then guarded against tyranny through federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and the Great Compromise. The constitution guarded against tyranny through federalism. [Federalism is

The United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787 by the constitutional convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the supreme law of the United States. After declaring its freedom from Great Britain after the Revolutionary War, America was in need of creating a government separate from the rule of the king. This task was not an easy one to accomplish. The first attempt at constitution, the Articles of Confederation, failed miserably.

This reform came in the form of the Constitution of 1789. Commensurate representation was the first issue faced by the Confederation Congress. The Articles mandated a continuation of the structure used during the Revolutionary War, whereby each state had one vote in Congress, but some of the states disagreed. “If distance made unreasonable the notion that the thirteen colonies could be well governed from London, distance made almost equally far-fetched the notion that the thirteen states could be well governed by a single national government” (McDonald). Thus, the large states advocated a form of repres... ... middle of paper ... ...ver be passed and creating an inflexible government.

The founders of the U.S. were very focused on limiting state power, and therefore created many checks to prevent states from rising above the federal government. This includes Article VI, which states how federal law is the, “Supreme Law of the Land.” This means that any federal law put into legislation, or stated in the Constitution, trumps any state law. Therefore, the states have to obey and respect federal law. This was necessary because this made a statement to each state after the Articles of Confederation. It portrayed that states no longer had the explicit power to operate separately from the federal government, but were rather joining into a Union under one law.