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How Did The Constitution Guard Against Tyranny

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When our country’s founding fathers first came together, they disagreed on many things. However, there was one thing they all agreed on. They had to protect against tyranny. Tyranny is when a person or a group of people, deny rights to another group of people. For examples, Britain taxed the colonies without their representation, which took away some key unalienable rights, which are rights that everyone is entitled to. So in all, the government of Britain held a reign of tyranny over the colonists. Because the colonists had such a bad background with tyranny, they wanted to set the brand new stage so that tyranny could never overtake America, and so they put systems in the Constitution to protect against tyranny. The Constitution guarded …show more content…

In Federalist Paper #51, James Madison argued for the Constitution by explaining checks and balances, saying “…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….”. What he means when he says this, is that the three branches all have certain powers which make them pretty powerful, however the other branches have certain powers that allows them to check on one another, which in turn, balances out the power, and makes sure that one branch of government never becomes too powerful, which could lead that branch into tyranny. Also, in that same Federalist Paper, James Madison also states, “ [The three branches] should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.”James Madison adds to this thought by pretty much saying that these checks and balances also ensure that they work together, and aren’t far from each other, because through this they are able to check each other’s work, which would make sure that every branch is working, and they would be able to balance the responsibilities of a certain task easier. Also, according to the chart on Document D, an example of checks and balances would be that while a president can nominate people to the cabinets, the Congress would still have to approve these people. As the Legislative branch (Congress), checks on the Executive

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One of the ways that the United States guarded against cruel and oppressive government or rule was that they made the three branches of government. These three branches were the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. This helped guard against cruel and oppressive government or rule because “they were separate and distinct powers.” (Doc B) This would help to guard against cruel and oppressive government or rule because all of these powers were separated so there wasn’t one overpowering government.

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US Constitution Essay: How does the Constitution guard against Tyranny? “Imagine if the Constitution of the United States of America wasn’t even a thing.” There would be so much chaos happening in our country. So much back and forth movement of disagreements, war, people dying because of no homes, food, water, or a leader. Tyranny would then come up a lot if there were no Constitution.

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Constitution DBQ What is tyranny and how do you guard against it? Tyranny is most often defined as harsh, absolute power in the hands of one individual - like a king or a dictator. The constitution was created May of 1787, in Philadelphia. “The accumulation of all powers … in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” It was made to replace the old constitution, the Articles of Confederation (Background Essay).

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The Executive branch executes laws and is the president. The Judicial branch judges laws and is the Supreme Court. The Legislative branch creates laws and is the House of Representatives and Senate. James Madison said in Federalist Paper #47 Document B, “the accumulation of all powers...in the same hands...may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” This helps protect from tyranny because the Separation of Powers prevents all power from being in the same hands.

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“The constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that they may be a check in the other.” (Federalist Paper #51) (Doc C) The branches had some control of each other, so they can’t overpower each other. This helped balance the power so one branch doesn’t become an overpowered beast compared to the other branches.

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However this idea was eventually scrapped and they wrote a whole new constitution. This constitution would protect America from tyranny, so they could keep a civilized and united country. The Constitution that was made helped defend America from almost all types of tyranny and is still helping us hundreds of years later. One way the Constitution prevented tyranny is by supporting Federalism.

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United States is one of many countries that isn’t under a tyranny, but do you know how it remains like that? On the year of 1787 the people who wrote what now is the Constitution met in philadelphia to write a new Constitution because the Articles of Confederation were not successful. How does the Constitution guard against tyranny? The Constitution protects against tyranny because the principles of Federalism, Separation of Powers, and Check and Balances all divide powers.

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In Federalist 51, he focuses on how the Constitution divides the power of the government into three branches and so no one branch would have too much power. This was done by using the checks and balances system. Madison believes that each branch should be, for the most part, independent, but, to avoid any branches from abusing its power, no branch should have too much power in choosing the members of another. He says that to follow this rule strictly, the people of the United States would choose all members of all branches, but difficulties would arise as the people may not be aware of the best qualifications for each position. So, the branches check one another and the people elect the members other than in the judicial branch, whose members are chosen by the executive branch.

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Through Checks and Balances, each branch of government controls the other two in some regard and is also controlled by the other two. In Article I, the Constitution states that “The Senate shall have the sole power to try all Impeachments,” meaning that the Legislative branch has the power to impeach the President, head of the Executive branch. In return, as written in Article I Section 7, the President has power to veto bills put forward by Congress, who can, in turn, overrule his veto with a two-thirds majority vote. The same goes for the Executive branch and the Judicial branch and for the Judicial branch and the Legislative branch. According to Article 2 Section 2, the President has the power to appoint judges to the Supreme Court and the power to pardon those convicted, but the Supreme Court has the power to declare Presidential acts unconstitutional.

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He called this Checks and Balances. Checks and Balances are where each branch can check each other if one branch gets too powerful. For example the legislative branch can remove the president (head of the executive branch) while the president can choose the judicial branch judges, while the judicial branch can declare laws unconstitutional. The framers of the constitution agreed to keep the powers separated between each branch, where also each branch can check on other branches and veto laws if

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Usually, rights for people were written by the government, such as the rights of Englishmen, but the idea of the government protecting rights that were already endowed to humans was supported by American colonists who were against the idea of the numerous violations of the Rights of Englishmen, which included taxation without consent. These taxes later popularized the famous slogan, “no taxation without representation,” first said by James Otis; most colonists believed that

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Madison thought that the government needed a better form of money income for the government, so he had created the system of checks and balances. Checks and balances are designed so that the power in the government is separated between different branches specifically designed so that one branch does not have too much power over other forms of government and the people. He had made it so that the constitution specifically states what powers each branch has, this way the branches are unable to take too much power and overcome the government. Having the checks and balances gives each department their own field so that others don’t impinge on their decisions creating conflict in the governmental

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The Checks and Balances are the ways that the three branches of government check each other to make sure each one doesn’t go crazy with power. Legislative Branch checks the Judicial Branch, Judicial Branch checks the Executive Branch, and the Executive Branch checks the Legislative Branch. (Document C). This helps guard against tyranny because each of the branches can check the other one to make sure the branches don’t get too much power. The final way that the constitution helped guard against tyranny was the Big States and Small States Compromise.

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James Madison wrote Federalist 51 over 200 years ago, yet its words still impact today’s government in 2016. When writing Federalist 51, Madison had two main objectives in mind; he wanted a government with a separation of powers, and he also wanted minorities to be protected. Both of his objectives have been accomplished and continue to be present in today’s American government with the latter objective being more present in today’s government even more so than in the past. To begin with, power is separated in today’s government, preventing a single person or group from having absolute power since, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” according to John Dalberg-Acton. The American government is composed of three branches which power is separated amongst.

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(The Three Branches) should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” In conclusion, the constitution protected us from tyranny using the three methods,Equal Representation from all the States, Federalism, and the system of checks and balances. The framers succeeded in creating a well built constitution because all three methods have created security that no tyrant, or tyranny would

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