United States Constitution: A stroke of genius
The American Constitution was drafted and ratified in 1787 after the first attempt to establish a national government ineptly failed. The preamble set out the broad goals and purposes, including establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty.
They knew the greatest threat to liberty was an all-powerful centralized government, where the few dictate to the many. They also knew that rule of the mob would lead to anarchy and, in the end, despotism.
The framers understood a delicate balance would need to be established. The concentration of power into too few hands had always led to Tyranny. As James Madison observed “…if men were angels, no government would be necessary” and that “if angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”
The challenge faced was therefore to “…first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.”
To accomplish this, the Constitution separated the powers of government into three branches, granting legislative power to Congress, executive power to the president, and judicial power to the courts.
They believed this separation of powers would ensure that no one person or group of persons would be able to create, administer and enforce the laws, and that each branch would be a check on the power of the other two branches.
Most importantly, it was well understood that the states and their citizens would give specific unambiguous powers to the Federal Government, not vice versa. The central theme was to limit the Federal Government’s power so that it would never be in a position to threaten the sovereignty of the individual states or their citizens.
So in constructing the Constitution, the specific powers of the central government were limited, and by the Tenth Amendment, all other powers were “reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The sad highlights of a survey was conducted for the 200th anneversary of America’s founding follow. This was nearly 40 years ago! Imagine what the results might look like today.
Together, the links at the top of this page provide a comprehensive start for learning all things about this remarkable document. In addition, under the Books & PDFs menu tab you will find many more resources to further your education.
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