Us Constitution Dbq

Pierre Young

January 12, 2012

Period 1

The Constitution Guards Against Tyranny

We shall no longer tolerate people overpowering us! Tyranny has become a BIG issue, and powers should be equal between us individuals. Our plan to guarding the constition against Tyranny is to make the government a federalist government, have seperation of powers, have checks & balances, and have big states vs. small states.

Federalism would be a good idea for the government. Different governments will each control each other, at the same time control themselves. Also, having a federalist government would also mean dividing the power so 1 group cannot have all of the power. (Doc A) This will definitely help out with people abusing their power

James Madison quoted "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 be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny.... (L)iberty requires that the three great departments of power should be seperate and distinct." (Doc B) The main idea of Madison's quote was that even many people with that much power would still be recognized as tyranny. Seperation of powers would help Tyranny by seperating the Central government into three branches.

Checks & Balances is another attempt to protect our government from Tyranny. The main idea of Checks & Balances is to divide and arrange the several offices, also giving all of the offices power to check each other. For example, the legislature can check the power of the cheif executive by overiding a president's veto. The president can check the power of the Supreme Court by nominating the judges. And the Supreme Court can check the Senate by declaring laws unconstitutional.