The Constitution of the United States was formed 223 years ago. Since 1787, a lot has changed. We grew as a country, technology advanced, and we elected 43 different presidents. One of witch, being the first African-American President in history. Due to its age, some may argue that the Constitution is irrelevant to today’s problems. However, the Constitution is relevant. The Constitution is still relevant today because, it guarantees rights and freedoms to citizens, gives our country guidelines, and prevents a government from having too much power. America’s past, present, and future are bound and kept free by the Constitution. That is what makes the Constitution relevant. In a few words, the Constitution is the United States.
- Declaration of Independents
When the United States won it independence from England on July 4, 1776, most Americans did not want to create a strong government to witch they have little control over. This fear for a tyranny led to the creation of the Articles of Confederation.
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The first article of the Constitution says "ALL legislative powers...shall be vested in a Congress." The second article then reads "the executive power...in a President." The third article gives the "judicial power of the United States in one Supreme Court" and "in such inferior Courts as the Congress...may establish." The Constitution is still relevant today because it separates the power each branch of government has in the United States. The separation of powers serves several purposes. The separation prevents concentration of power, seen as the form of tyranny, and provides each branch with weapons to fight off encroachment by the other two branches. As argued by James Madison in the Federalist Papers (No. 51), "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition." James Madison created the separation of powers to maximize
In the battles that occurred in South Carolina during the American Revolution, South Carolinians heavily affected the outcome of the battle. For example, during the battle of Kings Mountain, the battle was only fought between the local militia and the British forces; the Continental Army wasn’t even involved in the battle, which ended in a Patriot win. Also, in the battle of Charleston, Fort Moultrie, the fort that appeared to absorb the cannonballs from British battleships, was built by South Carolinians. However, those two battles weren’t the only two battles where South Carolinians had a major role in a battle. In the Battle of Camden, the patriot force was exhausted after marching for miles with few supplies over the night, and fought
The Constitution shaped America into who we are today. It started with the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was “the nation’s first constitution and was written to create a firm league of friendship between the thirteen states”(Crouse, Slide 5). Eleven years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, the United States Constitution was created(Weatherman). After the United States finally won their independence from Great Britain, they spent their early years governed by the Articles of Confederation.
James Madison, founding father and fourth president of United States wrote the federalists paper number 10 in favor of the constitution. He believes that constitution is the only way to keep balance and control any problem this country faces. He uses faction as an example and talks about how it can cause problems but most importantly how to deal with the problems. He defines faction as groups of people who came together to promote their own interests and opinions. He said that these groups take advantage of the public and violate their rights.
‘The Constitution reflects the time when it was written in a number of ways. Generally, these aspects of the Constitution show us how people at time were worried about different issues than we are today and that they had different sensibilities than we have. The authors of the constitution seemed to agree that no one wanted another monarch, but they had little idea how the government would actually make it without a king or an aristocrat. The constitution is called a "living document", meaning that it changes as the country changes. Through a system of checks and balances, amendments and Supreme Court rulings, the constitution has not been carved in stone, as it has been in time and in the environment.
Slavery in the U.S. Constitution After the Unites States declared Independence from Great Britain in 1776, they greatly feared a strong national government that would be like a monarchy like the one Great Britain had. To prevent this tyrannical government from happening in the U.S., a convention of delegates from all thirteen states were brought together to create the U.S.’s first written constitution: the Articles of Confederation. This convention was called the Continental Congress. The Articles of Confederation focused on having a federal government, or a loose alliance of the states.
In 4 different ways, the constitution helped guard against tyranny. With Federalism, Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, and Big States and Small States Compromise. All of these ways are all very important, because they all help guard against tyranny in their own way. With the constitution and all of these different ways, there is a very, very slim chance that we will become a dictatorship like North
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.
The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution is the outline our founding fathers created to describe the nature and functions of government. Its first three articles consist of a doctrine of the separation of powers, which divides the federal government into three branches: the legislative, consisting of Congress; the executive, consisting of the President; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. The constitution is meant to govern the federal government while the bill of rights is meant to govern the
DBQ Essay The United States Constitution is a document that or founding fathers made in order to replace the failing Articles of Confederation (A of C). Under the Constitution, the current government and states don’t have the problems they faced when the A of C was in action. The Constitution was created in 1788, and held an idea that the whole nation was nervous about. This idea was a strong national government, and the Federalist assured the people that this new government would work. The framers of the Constitution decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state governments because the A of C had many problems, there was a need for the layout of new government, rights, and laws, and there was a need for the Federal
The Constitution of the united states of America means to me my rights as an American citizen. The constitution makes me feel safe from the government because it protects my rights. It lets me know the government power over the people, and the laws they can make and the laws they can not make. The Constitution ensures my freedom as an American. It is a very important document for the United States of American for the president to follow.
(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
On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed and The United States of America declared itself a separate and independent nation. On June 21, 1788 the United States Constitution was made official, replacing the Articles of Confederation. Since its ratification, the Constitution has been amended several times in order to better apply to current times and situations the Founding Fathers could not have predicted. Despite all the changes the Constitution has gone through, its core principles remain.
The Constitution gave Americans the freedom and rights that have become the hallmark of the country. It organized the foundations of America that would eventually evolve to become one of the most powerful and influential nations in the
Federalism helped the Constitution guard against tyranny by specifying which powers belong to the Federal government and which ones belong to the State government. This separation leads to a double security so that the state government can watch the federal government and the federal can watch the state. James Madison states in his Federalist Papers #51(Document A), “power surrendered by the people is first divided between two
The government today is based off a document written over 200 years ago called the Constitution. This document helped form the government and country we live in today.. The United States Constitution is still relevant today because it formed the way this great nation would be run, from checks and balances, separation of powers and the rule of law structuring the way the government will function. At the end of the American Revolution the founding fathers wrote and signed a document called the Declaration of Independence. This document was written to tell the sovereignty of great britain that they will not be under his rule.