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Guard Against Tyranny Dbq

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Without the Constitution, the United States would not be a land of liberty. The Constitution was written in Philadelphia, May 1787. Its purpose was to help shape the United States so that the states and people were held together, without letting any one person, group, branch, or level of government gain too much control. How did the Constitution guard against tyranny? Tyranny is when there is too much power in the hands of one person or group. The Constitution guards against tyranny in four ways which are federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and the big states - small states compromise. The first guard against tyranny is federalism which means the division of power between the central and state government. According to James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788 (Document A), “..the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments [state and federal]”, and “The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.”. The venn diagram (Document A) shows the powers given to the central government such as “Declare war, make immigration …show more content…

According to James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788 (Document C), “[The three branches] should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.”. The diagram (Document C) shows ways the branches can check each other’s power, for example, “Congress can impeach the President and remove him or her from office”, “The President nominates judges”, and “The court can declare laws unconstitutional.”. Checks and balances protect against tyranny because the three branches can check each other’s power to prevent one branch from having too much power. Checks and balances also make sure that each branch relies on each other, as if one branch did not exist, then the system would not work at

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