CONSTITUTION

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress issued a Declaration of Independence, primarily written by Thomas Jefferson, a farmer and lawyer from the colony of Virginia. This document listed many grievances against the king and declared that from that time the "United Colonies" were no longer colonies of England. The Declaration described them as "free and independent states" and officially named them the United States of America.

Besides declaring the colonies to be a new nation, the Declaration of Independence set forth some of the principles of American democracy. The document says that all people are created equal, that all have the right to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," and that governments obtain their powers from "the consent of the governed." The Declaration, and the Constitution after it, combined America's colonial experience with reflection upon the thought of political philosophers such as John Locke to produce the new concept of a democracy governed by the people's representatives for the purpose of protecting the rights of individuals.

In May 1787, a meeting, later known as the Constitutional Convention, began in Philadelphia. George Washington, the military hero of the War of Independence, was the presiding officer.

In the course of the Convention, the delegates designed a new form of government for the United States. The plan for the government was written in very simple language in a document called the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution set up a federal system with a strong central government. A federal system is one in which power is shared between a central authority and its constituent parts, with some rights reserved to each. The Constitution also called for the election of a national leader, or president. It provided that federal laws would be made only by a Congress made up of representatives elected by the people. It also provided for a national court system headed by a Supreme Court.

In writing the Constitution, the delegates had to deal with two main fears shared by most Americans.

One fear was that one person or group, including the majority, might become too powerful or be able to seize control of the country and create a tyranny. To guard against this possibility, the delegates set up a government consisting of three parts, or branches the executive, the legislative and the judicial. Each branch has powers that the others do not have and each branch has a way of counteracting and limiting any wrongful action by another branch.

Another fear was that the new central government might weaken or take away the power of the state governments to run their own affairs. To deal with this the Constitution specified exactly what power the central government had and which power was reserved for the states. The states were allowed to run their own governments as they wished, provided that their governments were democratic.

To emphasize its intent, the Constitution opens with a statement, called a Preamble, which makes it clear that the government is set up by "We, the People" and purpose is to "promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" (descendants).

Representatives of various states noted that the Constitution did not have any words guaranteeing the freedoms or the basic rights and privileges of citizens. So, a "Bill of Rights" was added to the Constitution.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 922