He was a federalist at heart, thus campaigned for a strong central government. In the Virginia Plan, he expressed his ideas about forming a three-part federal government, consisting of executive, legislative and judicial branches. These three branches are not independent of one another because the Constitution set up a system of checks and balances to help ensure that no one branch became too powerful. Each branch has powers that it can use to check and balance the operations and power of the other two branches. Following is a look at the specific checks that each branch has been given.
The governing document during this time, the Articles of Confederation, had multiple weaknesses including that there was no tax authority, no chief executive, and no judicial system. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 ultimately allowed for a functional, united governing system. The Federalists argument was more valid than the Anti-Federalist 's argument because they argued for an adequate government to preserve the union, a strong and energetic government, political prosperity, and the protection of life and liberty. In order to understand why the Federalist 's argument is stronger, we must examine the Anti-Federalist 's perspective. An Anti-Federalist is someone who opposed the ratification of the United States Constitution.
The original text of the Constitution contained very little about the protection of natural rights. With the addition of the Bill of Rights, the people’s rights became clear. The first Congress passed twelve amendments to the Constitution guaranteeing freedom and justice to all people. This settled uncertainty about the central government taking away the power of the people (Doc. F).Farmers from Massachusetts remind their state, “... the people may, and will rise to arms to prevent it (injustice)... to keep our liberties in our own hands…” (Doc.
They were scared of tyranny, especially pertaining to the fact that under the new Constitution, the national government, or Congress, would be able to make decisions without even asking for the states’ permission. (Anti-Federalist 1: Brutus). Even though the Constitution called for checks and balances, Anti-Federalist Patrick Henry, was convinced that the president would be the one making all the decisions, not unlike a king. (Bianco and Canon, 44). The national supremacy clause in the Constitution even stated that national law supersedes any state law when there is conflict.
Since the foundation of this country its people have identified more with their State and local government than the Federal Government. The Federal Government is look upon with suspicion and distrust. When the Constitution of the United States was written, the Founding Fathers were very careful to create a government that will not dominate and obliviate the local governments. The Revolutionary War was indeed a Civil War fought against a tyrannical centralized government. The founders of this country wanted to be sure that this tyranny was not present in the laws and functions of this new nation.
Although Congress has many responsibilities, the main duties of the United States Congress is to make and enact laws, declare war, investigate some federal matters, and perhaps the most important duty of the Legislative Branch is to maintain checks and balances over the Executive Branch. The Legislative Branch has the ability to impeach the President of the United States, they may override presidential vetoes by 2/3 vote, approve treaties and approve presidential appointments. Although the Legislative Branch ensures the Executive branch does not hold too much power, it also maintain checks and balances over the Judicial Branch. The Legislative Branch has the ability to remove federal judges through the power of
Articles of Confederation vs. U.S. Constitution The Articles of the Confederation and the U.S. Constitution are two articles that where written and accepted by the United States as a foundation for their new government. They are both very important documents that have similarities and differences. Some of the main things the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution have in common is that they addressed the needs of its constituencies. Both of these Documents were created with the mind set to provide the foundation for a unified, centralized government. Even though the confederation only lasted from 1781-1789, it was still seen to be valuable with its belief that sovereignty belongs to every state.
Contemporary of the first British revolution that led to the fall of Charles I, Hobbes strongly believes that the civil war was due to the division of power between the King and the Parliament. Thus, his vision of power and sovereignty is not objective, but influenced by his own experience. To him, only a single authority which can control the governmental powers would be able to achieve
The first essay he talks about the importance for the judiciary system to be separated from the legislative and executive, while the second was his conclusion of how the system should work. He concluded that the judiciary system should be empowered to enforce the laws passed by the congress. In Hamilton’s vision, the judiciary was the weakest of the three branches of the government, through this idea, this branch should be independent, and avoiding the corruption or interference of the other branches in the decisions, according to Hamilton the branch had "neither force nor will but merely judgment." The idea of separating branches in a government makes it work in a better way. That does not mean that there will be interference between branches, but ensure a fairer relation.
So if there is no law, any magistrate becomes a tyrant, because nothing prevents him from using the power on his hands. As he refers, whenever power given by the authority of government of the people and the preservation of their properties, and is then diverted from that purpose and used to impoverish, harass, or subdue the people to the arbitrary and irregular commands of those that have the power, then that immediately becomes tyranny, whether the power-holders are one or many (Locke, 201) Therefore, to avoid the emergence of tyranny through legislation power, Locke promoted a system which controls and checks the system of government. According to him, there are three aspects of government, which are legislative, executive, and federative. If these three conditions occur into the state, no one use the power for their own