To What Extent Did The First Guard Against Tyranny Dbq

1163 Words5 Pages

You may have wondered how the founders of our country made the Constitution so it would be able to defend against Tyranny. They made the Constitution in May of 1787 in Philadelphia. The purpose of the Constitution was to replace the old one because the Articles of Confederation, just wasn’t working, there was no court system, there was no way for the central government to force a state to pay taxes, so they made a new Constitution. How did the writers of the Constitution keep one person or a group of people from getting too much power? The meaning of tyranny is a cruel and oppressive government or rule.The Constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways which were, Federalism, Separation of powers, Checks & balances, and Small & large States. The first guard against tyranny was federalism, which means a system of government in which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government. In Doc A it shows how Federalism guards against tyranny, "How they guard …show more content…

In Doc C they show the powers the branches use to check each other, an example is that the president can veto laws made by Congress, but Congress can override the veto. This shows that the checks and balances work to protect against tyranny by making sure every branch can cancel out the other. In Doc C they said “.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. [The three branches] should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” This quote shows how the branches were made to check and control one another in order to defend against tyranny. Checks & balances protects against tyranny because it is the powers that the branches have and how they can use them to check the branches and balance the government in order for tyranny to not