ipl-logo

Essay On How Did The Constitution Guard Against Tyranny

998 Words4 Pages

How Did the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny? When the Framers of the Constitution were writing the document that would lead our nation, they had the responsibility of tackling a very big issue: tyranny. They had to create a government that was strong enough to serve its people but limited enough to prevent a tyranny. Fifty-five delegates from eleven states participated in shaping the Constitution. They were all white, male, and mostly rich. Their goal was to create a document that would help guide the government in building a stronger nation- a much needed fix after the Articles of Confederation left the country in its damaged state. Also, they wanted to ensure that they solved the grievances listed against King George III. In the end, …show more content…

Republicanism is the idea that citizens have the right to elect political representatives to express their views within the government. An important figure during the writing of the Constitution, James Madison's goal was to design a representation system that would satisfy both large and small states. He was trying to prevent the large states from accumulating too much power due to their increased representation, which in turn was a result of their larger populations. He suggested that Congress be broken up into two houses: the Senate and House of Representatives. In the House of representatives, the representation of each state can be determined by its population, and in the Senate, each state will have exactly two representatives. This solution was implemented by our government (Congress), as currently, Congress is made up of two houses. Because of this system, the larger states have never drastically tipped the scales due to their …show more content…

After establishing each branch and determining its purpose, his goal was to arrange them in a way that they would be able to limit and have appropriate constitutional control over each other. By doing so, he was able to prevent one branch from following through with a plan without approval from the remaining branches of government. "...(The three branches) should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other." (James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788). In this quote, James Madison is basically stating the that each branch should be limited by as well as have constitutional control over the other two branches. This solution was implemented into the articles of the Constitution. Our government was built this way and has stayed in that formation ever since. So far, due to the principles of Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances,, we have never come close to becoming a tyranny. As previously mentioned, our government has three different, distinct branches, and tyranny can only happen if absolute power is in the hands of one political group or

Show More
Related
795 Words | 4 Pages

Over 200 years ago during the summer of 1787, our great American leaders discussed, argued and compromised to create the constitution that we have today. After the failed Articles of Confederation, a weak government that had no power to tax, a new form of government was in order. Congress decided instead of changing the Articles of Confederation, they would create a brand new government at the Constitutional Convention. In this ongoing meeting 55 delegates built a constitution from scratch Many compromises were created that strengthened the constitution including the Great Compromise, separation of powers, and the amendments, however it is argued that the 3/5 Compromise weakened the constitution (Appleby). One of the major compromises

Read More
476 Words | 2 Pages

How did the constitution guard against tyranny? In May 1787 55 individuals responded to the call for the constitutional convention. They were mostly wealthy and white males. Tyranny is the “accumulation of all powers in the same hands weather one, a few, or many.” This was written by James Madison.

Read More
703 Words | 3 Pages

Also, the Senate and House guard against tyranny by giving the small states the same amount of say in the Senate and the large states have more representation in the house. Our Constitution guarded against tyranny very

Read More
768 Words | 4 Pages

The first method that guarded against tyranny was the separation of powers which means divide the government

Read More
570 Words | 3 Pages

One way the constitution prevented tyranny was federalism. Federalism is the power given to the states or system of the government. Document A states that the central government can conduct foreign relations, regulate trade, and declare war. The central government and state governments have enough power that they don't get power hungry and want to take over. The central government covers the countries needs and the state government controls the state's needs.

Read More
827 Words | 4 Pages

It was believed that our central shouldn’t have as much power as it did. The Federalist No. 10 papers were initially written to make sure that no branch has too much power, and thus, our Constitution was created and ratified. There are three types of branches in

Read More
371 Words | 2 Pages

The constitution protected against tyranny with federalism, the separation of power, and checks and balances. Federalism prevents against tyranny by dividing the power between the federal and state government.

Read More
455 Words | 2 Pages

How did the Constitution guard against one person or group having all the power? The constitution guarded against tyranny in two ways, the separation of powers in our government and the system of checks and balances. One way the constitution protected against tyranny is the separation of power. The separation of power in our government is power split up into three branches. The power between the branches is absolutely equal the three branches are the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branch.

Read More
706 Words | 3 Pages

The first guard against tyranny was federalism. Federalism is a system of government which calls for a strong national government, but still leaves power in the hands of the individual states. In Document A James Madison states, “in the compound republic of America, the power surrendered

Read More
501 Words | 3 Pages

Madison’s essay reflects the fear many had of a tyrannical government and the desire to ensure that the country didn’t revert back to that which it had just escaped from. He notes the necessity to prevent any one faction or group from gaining too much power and oppressing those in the minority. The separation of powers was set in place to ensure that this could not happen. Even if one group decides they want something, the other two have the equal authority to prevent it should it not represent the country as a whole.

Read More
455 Words | 2 Pages

A tyrant is a powerful meteor destroying everything in its path. In Philadelphia 1787 men were facing problems of their existing constitution and the problem they had was tyranny. So James Madison and his fellow delegates created a new constitution that guards against tyranny over cities. Tyranny is a group that has too much power over citizens. Tyranny is an organization that has too much power over people.

Read More
910 Words | 4 Pages

James Madison directly explains the purpose of dividing the powers among the three branches to protect against tyranny, “...the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that they may be a check on the other...” By separating the powers and creating a system of checks and balances to guard against tyranny, the framers of the United States constitution directly aimed to protect the constitutional rights and liberties of individual citizens and the future of the nation. Just as the creators of the constitution sought to protect the citizens of the United States against tyranny with the separation of powers and checks and balances, the framers of the constitution also protected the rights of states with larger and smaller populations. To protect the rights of larger states and smaller states, the framers created a bicameral legislature system with the house of representatives and the senate. The members of the house of representatives are determined based on each states population, while the senate has 2 members per state, allowing for both large and small states to have equal

Read More
300 Words | 2 Pages

James Madison was proposing the plan of splitting the government into three groups, the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative. This would give each branch an equal amount of power with each branch doing a different job. Federalism prevents one branch from becoming too powerful and this is

Read More
719 Words | 3 Pages

Madison brings up that it isn’t possible to divide power absolutely equally and “In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.” (2). And so, the legislative branch will be divided even more to try and combat the unbalance of power. Madison thought this system was a good method because he believed that it was part of human nature to have conflicting ideas and wants, and so each branch could keep the others in line and therefor no one power is above the others. Furthermore, Madison believes a bigger government with multiple branches is better because then it becomes difficult for one

Read More
928 Words | 4 Pages

It makes sure that the power of the Country is evenly divided into the three branches so that one branch cannot try to take all the power into their hands and turn the country into a tyranny. As James Madison said in the Federalist Paper #47, “Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” The legislative branch includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. They write laws, confirm presidential applications, and ratify treaties, appropriate money, creates and collects taxes, and declares wars. The executive branch includes the President, Vice President, and the Cabinet.

Read More

More about Essay On How Did The Constitution Guard Against Tyranny

Open Document