DBQ: How did the Constitution Guard against Tyranny? Did you know that the constitution was actually kinda written on accident? Originally 55 wealthy, white, males came together in Philadelphia in 1787 to fix and make corrections to the Articles of Confederation. They specifically needed to fix no chief executive, no court system, stronger government, and many more things. This meeting was later called the Constitutional Convention. With trying to fix all these problems, they all agreed on one thing, no tyranny. Tyranny is a cruel and oppressive government or rule. An example of this would be king George. He was not giving the colonists their unalienable rights. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in many ways. These include federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and The Great Compromise. The Constitution guarded against tyranny through federalism. Federalism is the federal principle or system of government. James Madison wrote about federalism. He wrote about it because he wanted to get people to ratify the constitution. Doc A is an excerpt from Madison’s Federalist Paper 51. Federalism guarded against tyranny because as Madison put it “Liberty requires that the three great departments should be separate and distinct” (Madison, Federalist Paper #47). The evidence says it all. We MUST have the three departments …show more content…
Separation of powers is where the power of the country is split up into three parts. Madison wrote about the separation of powers, again, to convince the people to ratify the Constitution. According to Madison, “...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.” (Madison, Federalist Paper #51). The government separated the power between three branches. This makes it so nobody is too powerful. This is also for the fact that they can check on each other to be extra sure that doesn’t