Constitution Dbq

A few hundred years ago, a large group of men gathered in one big room to establish a Constitution that would lay down the basic set up of the United States of America. This new constitution covered everything from government to the rights of all the citizens of America. Thomas Jefferson, who was not part of the creation of the Constitution, said that all the good that is in the new Constitution was accomplished by amending the Articles of Confederation. Shortly after the Articles of Confederation was created, the creators of the document realized that the newly found country was running as smoothly as planned.The Articles did not cover everything necessary to ensure a well balanced country. With thirteen states independent, rebellion started to break out. So when they got together to write the Constitution, they had to look at the faults in the Articles and determine what needed to change. Whether it was giving Congress more power, establishing a military, or having the states only hold enough power to deal with local matter, if this country wanted to prosper, the Articles of Confederation had to be amended.The writers of the Constitution didn't want too much power to go to a single group in the government, so they set up a three branch system to ensure that not one branch had to much power. After the Articles were written, states were using their power to try to gain more and the balance was broken, so by amending the Articles, the balance could be restored. The first branch was the Legislative branch, which was made of of the Congress. The problem was that congress had been set up with proportional representation and the smaller states weren't happy about that.So it was decided that Congress be split into two branches, House of Representatives (which was based on proportion) and the Senate (which every state had representatives in) and this satisfied all the states, big and small. The reason that all these compromises had to be made was because the Articles did not give everyone equal share so the states were not happy and therefore they rebelled. With the Constitution being written to help every state equally, a well balanced government was put into play. The second branch of the government that they set up was the Executive ranch, which was made up of the newly founded President and Vice President. This was different from the Articles because originally there was no figurehead in government, but the Constitution out in play the role of a man who would control one branch of the government and balance out the shaky governmental issues. The role of the President is to veto laws made by the legislative branch of the government, he appoints other positions in the government and also deals with foreign treaties. This was an amendment to the Articles that would not strike rebellion or unsettle the states.The final branch of government that was set up by the constitution was the Judicial branch. This was the branch that interprets the law up on those in the country who break them. It was a court system set up by smaller courts that dealt with minor or local crimes and then the supreme court that dealt with crimes to the government, or serious affairs. The reason that this was a good thing to change from the Articles, was now that there are laws set, there is also a system in which to punish those who feel the need to break them.With this three branch system, the government would be very strong, and would not anger the United States. The writers of the Constitution knew that, like the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution would not be a perfect document and that problem with the way it is set up might appear in the future so they wrote it very loosely. The Constitution was set up so that amendments could be made, the same way they were made to the Articles. If something in the constitution needed to be amended, the Legislative branch would create the amendment, then if the Executive branch didn't agree, they would veto it.If all went well then the amendment would be made and the Judicial branch would interpret the amendment to the country. The Constitution was well thought out when being written. The last thing that was added to the constitution was the Bill of Rights, which ten of the most important rights given to Americans. Whether it was the freedoms of speech, press, or religion, the writers of the Constitution wanted all men to have their rights to living in freedom. Giving set rights of Americans was never established in the original Articles of Confederation.The Articles of Confederation were created very loosely and with many flaws. It was not well thought out and had many issues that would bring the citizens of America to unrest. When writing the Constitution, the writers had to look back on the Articles of Confederation and review the problems in the construction of the document, and assessed the issues in it. The Constitution was such a success because it amended the unsuccessful Articles of Confederation. Constitution Dbq DBQ: How Did the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny? Americans desperately fought against tyranny with the best weapon they had, the Constitution. During the colonial times, King George III demanded many things from the colonists that were living in the Americas. This was caused by the aftermath of the French and Indian War. This caused increasing debts for the King and England; therefore the King was forced to raise the taxes of America and England. This increase in tax made the Americans angry which caused more events to unravel.After many different battles between King George III and America, America declared its independence on July 4, 1776. After this declaration, many things began to heat up over the representation in government. Tyranny was mentioned many times during the course of these events, causing the creation of the Constitution. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways: federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and big states versus small stat es/The Great Compromise. One part of the Constitution that helped the Americas was federalism.Document A shows that the first step the framers of the Constitution took to protect the Americas from tyranny was using a form of government called Federalism. James Madison’s idea for division of power between central and state governments is known as Federalism. (Doc A). From the chart in Document A, you will notice that this clearly prevents tyranny from happening. The powers that are needed to run a country are given to the federal government such as declaring war, coining money, and conducting foreign relations. (Doc A).Also, powers that are needed for a state are given, such as holding election and regulating in-state businesses. (Doc A). Powers that are needed by both state and federal law are shared. This prevents tyranny from happening because the states can’t take control of federal powers, and the federal government can’t take control of state powers. They c an only take the power shared and the powers that each of them own. The second step the framers took to protect us from tyranny was to divide the central government into three branches.The section in Document B taken from the Constitution shows the three branches of government and their powers. James Madison said, â€Å" 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 elected, may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny. † (Doc B). The Constitution clearly does not put the powers of legislative, executive, and judiciary in one or many hands.All branches have split power. The legislative branch can only have the powers of Congress. (Doc B). The executive branch has powers vested within the president. (Doc B). Lastly, the judicial branch has its powers vested in the highest court of the nation, the Supreme Court. As you can see, the Constitution preve nts any branch to gain power from other branches. The framers of the Constitution created a clever way to prevent tyranny of one branch over other branches, with a system of check and balances.James Madison said, â€Å"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. † (Doc C). The diagram shows the branches have checks on each other. If the president tries to take power of another branch, the legislative branch can then impeach the president. (Doc C). This is the check of the legislative branch on the executive branch. Each branch has a check of every other branch, so if one branch is doing something wrong, another branch can check the wronged branch, and fix the problem.This explains how another branch can’t take full control and there is always going to be equal checks and balances. One of the last things the framers of the Constitution did to make sure no tyranny would arise was to make sure th e smaller states got a fair vote in Congress. In the Constitutional Convention, two plans were proposed called the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan was favored by the large states and was based on population. The New Jersey Plan favored the small states and gave each state an equal amount of votes.Eventually after all the arguing, they came up with something called the Great Compromise. This proposed Congress would be composed of the Senate and The House of Representatives. The House of Representatives is based on population, which provides fairness to large states. (Doc D). On the other hand, the Senate has two representatives from each state, which provides fairness to the smaller states. (Doc D). Unquestionably, this provides fairness among both large and small states, taking a closer step to ridding tyranny.To sum it up, the framers of the Constitution protected us from the evil of tyranny using the four methods, Federalism, dividing the government into t hree branches, a system of checks and balances, and preventing large states from creating tyranny over the small states in Congress. James Madison said, â€Å"The accumulation of power in the same hands whether of one, a few, or many, is the very definition of tyranny,† and the Constitution does a great job of preventing that. The framers succeeded in creating a strong built Constitution because all four methods have created security that no tyrant or tyranny would arise.