The Constitution Embodies The Spirit Of 1776

The success of the American Revolution is conventionally viewed as the foundation of the American democratic spirit. However, was this really the case or was it actually a betrayal of the goals of the Revolution? The idea that the Constitution embodies the true spirit of 1776 is not very convincing because it rejected many of the most important things for which the American people were fighting. The colonists wished to gain freedom from the near-tyrannical British government and create a nation that was more decentralized where local governments drove key decisions, including tax policy. However, in the Constitution, these goals of the revolution were ignored. The authors of the Constitution did not fully trust the American people to govern

Most importantly, it recreated a strong, central government. The aim of the Revolution was to give power to the people rather than having one large body control all the power. However, the Constitution did just the opposite by creating three central bodies of power: the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. Moreover, the writers of the Constitution enacted many other laws that further centralized power such as providing for a standing army. The authors of the Constitution argued that America needed a standing army to ensure the country could defend itself and would otherwise be powerless. However, the colonists detested the notion of an occupying military, which reminded them of the days of the British rule. For instance, the Colonists hated the Quartering Act enacted under British rule and wanted it removed immediately after they gained independence. Instead, the decision to maintain a standing army led the American citizens to fear the federal government rather than feel united by it. The overbearing nature of the Constitution left the rights of the American people as less important than the certainty that the federal government had the necessary power to control the

It did not sufficiently acknowledge America’s working class people, embodied in the farmers of Shay’s Rebellion, let alone the country’s African-American slave community. In the late 1780s, American farmers fought against their respective states’ enforcement of taxes and debts in Shay’s Rebellion. These farmers believed they had just won the Revolutionary War to eliminate the overbearing nature of the British government. The farmers believed the higher taxes of the new U.S. government, along with an economic depression and bad harvests, was threatening their well-being. As a result, they decided to rebel against the leaders of America. However, the authors of the Constitution decided to maintain many of the policies that actually contradicted the desires of the American people and the farmers of the Shay’s