Constitutional Convention Research Paper

The Constitutional Convention was held in the beginning of 1787 to fix the Articles of Confederation which had failed. Although, they ended up creating a social contract called the United States Constitution that forms the making of our government today. This was the next attempt of a government in the United States. , before the Articles of Confederation was modified, it had many flaws. A meeting called The Constitutional Convention was held to fix the Articles of Confederation. The United States Constitution was influenced by past issues such as the Enlightenment, their Colonial Experiences, and the failures of the Articles of Confederation.

The Enlightenment was a period of time where the founders and the citizens began to question the world

Four of which is life, living, liberty, and freedom. John Locke believed in natural rights which is now known as individual rights in the US constitution. Those natural rights. Some of which include Life, liberty and property. In the United States Constitution, one of the seven principles are individual rights. This principle was based off of John Locke's idea of natural rights. For example, for example, one of the individual rights that each citizen of the United States has, is life. This is something that cannot be taken away. Natural rights and individual rights are very similar in terms of what their purpose is. When natural rights were put into place, they served as a way to let citizens get some of their rights back from the king. Similarly, when individual rights were put into place, it was so people could have rights that could not get taken away from them. John Locke's idea of natural rights can connect to many of the seven principle found in the constitution. For instance, one of the principles is individual rights. Acknowledgingly,, Baron de Montesquieu also agreed Locke as well as had his own ideas about the government. Baron de Montesquieu introduced idea of checks and balances as well as recognizing the idea of natural rights,

The Spirit of Laws. 1748. He states, “To prevent this abuse, it is necessary, from the very nature of things, that power should be a check to power...“ (Document D). This evidence explains that checks and balances because it talks about checking powers. There will be a lot of unfairness and government will not work properly.the legislative and executive branch cannot work against each other they must work together. One of the seven principles of the United States Constitution is checks and balances. For example, the president checks on the congress by signing and vetoing the laws. Also,, we have the branches check on each other. The legislative branch should not be solely responsible only making the laws so we have other branches approve the laws. Montesquieu introduces separation of powers by using Locke's idea on natural rights and using it to create separation of powers. He also shows checks and balances and limited government. Montesquieu's ideas is represented by what we now know as checks and balances. Not only did John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu influenced- the United States Constitution, but Voltaire did as well. Voltaire had a concept of separating religion from government. This is now known as