David Foner The Way Things Works

As a child, I grew up reading The Way Things Work by David Macaulay. It was my favorite book because of the illustrations that broke down a certain machine. Not only was it entertaining, it fed my visual learning style. This essay will attempt to do something similar. It will attempt to paint a picture in the reader’s mind while answering the following questions; What were the nature and basic structure of the government created by the United States Constitution? How did debates about the Constitution's (including the Bill of Rights) and Declaration of Independence's meanings and intentions shape political developments from the revolutionary period to 1828? With the questions being presented, I want to move into the basic structure of the government.

The Legislature is the lawmaking entity. The executive is the Presidential cabinet and office. The judiciary is the interpreter of the law. Foner then went on to say that, “Congress would have the power to raise money without relying on the states” (Foner 202). This allowed for taxation. The key factor was a limitation. To tax is fine, but to tax without limits becomes dangerous. Henceforth, Eric Foner showed that “States would be prohibited from infringing on the rights of property. And the government would represent the people” (Foner 202). This structure protected both the citizens and the states from being powerless. This concept is often noted as the “separation of powers”. In Give Me Liberty, Foner went on to state that, “The “separation of powers,” and the system of “checks and balances,” refers to the way the Constitution seeks to prevent any branch of the national government from dominating the other two. To prevent an accumulation of power dangerous to liberty, authority within the government is diffused and balanced against itself” (Foner 204). The concept of checks and balances is still seen today. Many people enjoy their freedoms because they know the government can’t reign unchecked.

John Adams assumed that “Liberty was Power”. Eric Foner described this best when he said, “At a time when many Americans felt that government authority posed the greatest threat to freedom, Adams astonished many listeners with the bold statement, “liberty is power.” Adams proposals alarmed all believers in strict construction of the Constitution. His administration spent more on internal improvements than those of his five predecessors combined, and it enacted a steep increase in tariff rates in 1828. But the rest of Adam’s ambitious ideas received little support in Congress” (Foner 294). Instead of trying to put the government down, Adams attempted to have people realize that the greatest power was in fact liberty. Henceforth, the arguments for both sides were made. Another great controversy of that time was the separation of political parties. A man noted in that area was Van Buren. In chapter 10 of Foner’s book, he said, “But Van Buren did have a compelling idea. Rather than being dangerous and divisive, as the founding generation had believed, political parties, he insisted, were necessary and desirable. Party competition provided a check on those in power and offered voters a real choice in elections” (Foner 295). It wasn’t until that time period had people thought of parties as a positive. As we see today, political parties are in fact essential to the voting process. Even though many people have