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

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