The United States Constitution   Term Paper ID:27596 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines the philosophical & structural foundations of the Constitution. Special attention is given to the Constitution's authors & critics, to the ideas of Federalism & Anti-Federalism.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines the philosophical & structural foundations of the Constitution. Special attention is given to the Constitution's authors & critics, to the ideas of Federalism & Anti-Federalism. Paper Introduction: INTRODUCTION The shape of the U.S. Constitution as it was developed at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia was certainly influenced by such factors as the colonial experience, the revolt against British rule, and the failure of the earlier Articles of Confederation. Yet, the ideas embodied in the Constitution had been taking shape for some time before any of these elements had come into being. Indeed, the ideas expressed in the Constitution derived from European theorists such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, though the manner in which these ideas were adopted by the colonists was influenced by the various elements of the colonial experience. The colonists had fled Europe precisely to avoid many of the legal features against which the Constitution would be written, such as Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. The Antifederalists also wantedadditional separation of powers and checks and balances to eliminate thethreat of tyranny, and the Federalists agreed to a compromise thataccommodated these concerns, leading to the adoption of the Bill of Rights. The question facing the ConstitutionalConvention was if it would be possible that a republic could be ruled in amanner that provided for personal safety only by a form of government thatwas too strong for individual liberty. They saw society as amixture of many different elements and classes of people, all equal to oneanother. Among the supposed Antifederalist writers were Samuel Bryan,Eleazar Oswald, "John De Witt," George Mason, and Richard Henry Lee. Madison and Hamilton were clearly allies in this endeavor,but they diverged on a number of points concerning their philosophies ofgovernment and what they wanted to see in the Constitution. The republicthat resulted was not fully democratic, however, and did not provide forfull equality as a result. New York: Mentor, 1982.Locke, John, Two Treatises of Government. The promise of future amendments, a way tofurther promote democracy and equality, was essential to gaining the neededsupport of the Antifederalists for the Constitution. Even the elections for the First Congress in 1788 revealed the practical realities of American democratic life that contradicted the Federalists' class republican dreams of establishing a government led by disinterested educated gentlemen (Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution 259). The Articles were to be the instrument of the union of thethirteen colonies. Works CitedCommager, Henry Steele. In passing this document, the delegates were uncertainwhether it would be effective for the purposes for which it was designedand whether it would stand the strain of opposing interests and views. In this state of nature, there wasalso a state of equality. Documents of American History. Underlying thearticles of Confederation was a similar concept of sovereignty as would beembodied in the Constitution. Wood points out that there were a number of Antifederalistssuch as George Mason and Richard Henry Lee who feared centralized power butwho did not want to challenge the social order, while there were otherssuch as Melancton Smith and William Petrikin who shared the fear and didwant to challenge the social order of the time. Americans have an innate sense of justice that generally goesunexamined, but it has been derived form the values that are promoted bythe Constitution, values of equality, balance, and fairness. CONCLUSION The two groups--the Federalists and the Antifederalists--were largelyfrom different social classes. In the end, the Antifederalists won thisconcession, and the Bill of Rights was added as the first ten amendments tothe Constitution in 1791. They weredrafted in 1777 by the Continental Congress and ratified by the 13 statesin 1781. . An examination of certain documents referring to the periodcan be used to assess the general effectiveness of government under theArticles of Confederation. All thirteen had to agree to any amendmentof the Articles themselves. In America, John Adams was thepremier theorist of conservatism. As asolution they suggested the creation of two bodies, with the smallerelected as a council from the larger. As the two groups debated the issuessurrounding the writing of the Constitution, the Antifederalists wanted toprotect their individual, local interests from any encroachment by thefederal system being promoted by the Federalists. . Theissue of balance was raised, and this issue and the various compromisesworked out around the constitution involve the sense of justice that wouldbecome part of the new nation. Over the nextseveral years, they diverged even more on the issue of centralization.Both advocated a strong national government at the time of ratification,but Hamilton wanted an even stronger central government, while Madisonfavored a middle course between centralization and states' rights. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1969.Wood, Gordon S. Yet, the ideasembodied in the Constitution had been taking shape for some time before anyof these elements had come into being. New York: Alfred A. He also recommended the creation of a balance of powersbetween the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. This was then an innovation in Westernpolitical theory and practice, and it would be highly influential over thenext two centuries, as it continues to be today. TheAntifederalists still feared that the Constitution would be used as aninstrument of political power to the advantage of the wealthy and powerful,so they opposed any consolidation of power over the states and promoted theconcept of "sovereignty" in the states. The Federalist Papers were written by AlexanderHamilton, John Jay, and James Madison as a defense of the developingConstitution. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1981.Wood, Gordon S. 47: The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.The Federalists also recommended the creation of a balance of powersbetween the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Themost important consideration at the time was that the Articles be effectivein allowing for the prosecution of the war and the achievement ofindependence. Yet, ultimately, both points ofview were represented in some degree in the final document and in thegovernment it created. The right to vote initially was limited towhite property-owning males. 39of The Federalist Papers, Madison asked whether the new government would bestrictly republican: It is evident that no other form would be reconcilable with the genius of the people of America; with the fundamental principles of the revolution; or with that honorable determination, which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments in the capacity of mankind for self-government.Madison concluded that the proposed government was indeed republican inform, modified for the size of the territory: "The proposed Constitutiontherefore is in strictness neither a national nor a federal constitution;but it is a composition of both." CRITICS Gordon S. Constitution as it was developed at theConstitutional Convention in Philadelphia was certainly influenced by suchfactors as the colonial experience, the revolt against British rule, andthe failure of the earlier Articles of Confederation. The Constitution itself would become the means to test the firstfederal system in the modern world. The Federalists believed that a singleassembly was inherently dangerous and subject to all manner of vices andfrailties. The Federalist Papers. Indeed, the ideas expressed in theConstitution derived from European theorists such as John Locke, ThomasHobbes, David Hume, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, though the manner in whichthese ideas were adopted by the colonists was influenced by the variouselements of the colonial experience. Article II states, Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled (Commager 111). 1 led the charge against theproposed Constitution, and he found the proposed government to be wantingin a number of respects. PROBLEMS AND AUTHORS OF THE CONSTITUTION The Articles of Confederation were in many ways a prototype for theConstitution to come, with certain elements proving valuable and othersfalling by the wayside in the shift to a new form of government. The basic issue both faced was the ratification of theConstitution, with the Federalists supporting this document and the federalform of government it would represent and the Anti-Federalists opposing thedocument and the underlying philosophy. FEDERALIST SOLUTIONS A republic in strictest terms is a form of government in which thepeople exercise their power through elected representatives, whiledemocracy is a form of government in which the people exercise their powerdirectly or through elected representatives. There was also a tendency to degenerate into a democracy, whichmeant little more than mob rule. There is a law that controls thestate of nature, and that law is reason, which teaches that "no one oughtto harm another in his Life, health, Liberty, or Possessions" (Chapter II,section 6). Thedifferences between the two constitute a debate that has continued to thisday over federal power and states' rights. To protect individual rights from the tyranny of the majority and topromote more fully the ideal of democracy, the Antifederalists insisted onthe addition of a bill of rights which the Federalists had deliberatelyomitted as unnecessary, as noted. INTRODUCTION The shape of the U.S. Madison pointed out that Americansfound a way of applying a republic to an extended territory. This was part of a state of freedom which Lockeemphasizes was not a state of license. In terms of the developing debate over the Constitution, thisAntifederalists considered a single assembly to be inherently faulty andsubject to all the vices and frailties an individual might evince. As noted, the Federalists wanted a strong national government, and theAntifederalists wanted protection from a strong national government. Madisonhimself studied ancient and modern confederacies to understand the meaningof a federal government: Later embodied in The Federalist Papers, Numbers 18, 19, and 2 , Madison's studies pointed up the fundamental weaknesses of mere confederations composed of independent states, forming a nerveless whole that was threatened from without and torn by popular convulsions from within (Wood, The Creation of the American Republic 472).Madison became a thorough nationalist and wanted to subordinate the statesas much as possible to the sovereignty of a central government. The Republic was founded by men seeking to find a way toaccommodate and include both clusters, and the Constitution was developedwith concessions to both. The Constitution would become a written version of the socialcontract by which human beings agree to form a government for mutualprotection, with the government so formed deriving its power from thepeople. The FoundingFathers forged their sense of justice in the arguments that took placebetween the Federalists and the Antifederalists, and what emerged was thesystem of checks and balances that were intended to prevent any onefaction, institution, or governmental body from gaining ascendancy over allothers. The men who gathered inPhiladelphia to consider the formation of a new government had a largelyshared education in ancient history, with varied education in the historiesof Britain and Europe, and these men also shared a knowledge ofjurisprudence, the law of nations, the law of contracts and the origins ofsociety, and on political science and morality. The colonists had fled Europeprecisely to avoid many of the legal features against which theConstitution would be written, such as star-chamber proceedings, restrictedspeech and press, and inherited rule instead of democratic selection ofleaders. The Continental Congress was empowered to wagewar, make treaties and alliances, decide disputes between the memberstates, negotiate loans, coin money, regulate weights and measures, manageIndian affairs, and operate a post office, among other functions. Legislation could be passed by approvalof a minimum of seven states. The Federalists can be consideredaristocrats, and the Antifederalists were democrats, state-centered menwith local interests and loyalties. Samuel Bryan in Antifederalist No. Wood notes that the Antifederalists lost their battle over theConstitution even as they won the war over the kind of national governmentthe United States would have: Their popular understanding of American society and politics in the early Republic was too accurate and too powerful to be put down--as the Federalists themselves soon came to appreciate. This meant that no individual could speak for the interests ofall these diverse classes: The occupations and interests of the society were so diverse and discrete that only individuals sharing a particular occupation or interest could speak for that occupation or interest. In this state of nature, saysLocke, all men were in a state of perfect freedom to order their ownactions, dispose of their property as they saw fit, "without asking leave,or depending upon the Will of any other Man" (The Second Treatise ofGovernment, Chapter II, section 4). The solutions offered by the Federalists were opposed by theAntifederalists, and in the end each group had some influence in shapingthe government and institutions developed in the Constitution. . It wasJohn Adams who particularly promoted the republic as the best ofgovernments. Knopf, 1992. The Complete Anti-Federalist. Only an explicit form of representation that allowed Germans, Baptists, artisans, farmers, and so on each to send delegates of its own kind into the political arena could embody the democratic particularism of the emerging society of the early Republic (Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution 258- 259).In this sort of statement are to be found the roots of American pluralismand American interest-group politics. To wage war and pass certain other measures,the requirement was nine votes. Federalism presents anumber of problems that political theorists have wrestled with for sometime, and the arguments of the Federalists and the Antifederalists were thebeginning of this discussion in the American context. The Articles ultimately had to be scrapped in favor of aConstitution which was designed to accomplish what the Articles had failedto accomplish. TheAntifederalists argued that there should be a bill of rights embodyingthese different freedoms, assuring them to all citizens. New York: New American Library, 1965.Storing, Herbert J. over which it is not necessaryfor a good government to have control." COUNTER SOLUTIONS The ratification of the Constitution was complicated by thedifferences between the Federalists and the Antifederalists, and part ofthe compromise was the creation of a republican form of government in whichthe people exercise their power through elected representatives. In No. The final document is acompromise on both sides, creating a republican form of government thatprotected the interests of both. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. . The two major clusters in American political thought fromthe founding of the Republic had been centered on popular sovereignty andnatural rights. When it came time to write a Constitution, the problems either createdby or unsolvable by the Articles of Confederation were apparent and led tobattles in Philadelphia over how to write the new document so as to addressthese concerns. They therefore suggested the creation of two bodies and aseparation of powers, as Madison indicated in Federalist No. Heargued in particular that there were no provisions for specific freedoms hesaw as vital to the people, notably freedom of the press. New York: Appleton- Century-Crofts, 1963.Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. He stated what would be needed for a republicanform of government to succeed--the body of the people must be virtuous, andproperty must be equally divided: In such a government the people are the sovereign and their sense or opinion is the criterion for every public measure; for when this ceases to be the case, the nature of the government is changed, and an aristocracy, monarchism or despotism will rise on its ruin.Bryan saw the proposed central government to be the formation of anaristocracy devoid of all responsibility to the people. They also recommended the creationof a balance of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicialbranches. The two groups can be described as beingmade up of different types of politicians with different agendas andinterests: the Federalists represented the urbane and cosmopolitan element,and the Antifederalists more parochial interests. He saw the republic as the best ofgovernments. John Locke saw human nature as essentially good, and therefore he sawthe social contract as a matter of choice based on a rational perception ofself-interest and of the advantages that accrue from such an association.Locke refers to the state of nature, the prepolitical condition ofhumankind that existed prior to the social contract and the development ofgovernment, and Locke finds that even in the state of nature there werecertain rights held by every person simply because they existed, thoserights being life, liberty, and property. The two aforementioned clusters of thought developed the Americanconstitutional system in a spirit of compromise, as seen in the argumentsof the Federalists on one side and the Anti-Federalists on the other.These forces continued to clash through the early years of the Republic.Liberalism and republicanism were both involved in the creation of theAmerican government and the development of the Constitution that would bethe framework for that government, and the two approaches were discussed,compared, and argued in the debate between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787. The Federalistarguments won the day, though the Antifederalists had an influence andcontributed to the sense of empowerment of different groups in society thatwould prevail over the next century and beyond. The main body of the Constitution was designed by the Federalists, andthus it is clear that the Federalists and the upper class they representedbenefited immediately from the passage of the Constitution. They knew the history ofrepublics, which had in fact had a very poor track record for survivalbecause they had an inherent tendency to become unstable both from thethreat of external enemies and from defects in their political and economicstructure. TheContinental Congress did not have the power to levy taxes. The argumentsdeveloped from earlier theorists and experiences and continued after theConstitution was ratified. There was no provision in the Articles for a truly sovereign nationalgovernment, and instead the government consisted of a single-house congresswith each state having one vote. As thePennsylvania Minority stated, such a bill of rights would establish "thoseunalienable and personal rights of men. 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