What Did the Framers Have in Mind While Writing the Constitution?
Written by James Madison and ratified by all 13 states by 1790, the Constitution of the United States is one of the most profound and influential legal documents ever penned. Yet while the founding fathers deserve much credit for its development, none of the ideas in the Constitution was considered new or radical. In fact, several factors, including historical precedent, contemporary political theory and the experience of the American Revolution, greatly influenced the content of the Constitution.
Other People Are Reading
-
Historical Precedent
-
The idea of limited government was not new when the Constitution was in development. Several founding fathers drew precedent for the concept from the checks and balances to tyrannical power that helped sustain, for a time, the early Roman Republic. In addition, the English had themselves pioneered new experiments in limited government. Two English documents that influenced the framing of the Constitution were the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights.
Enlightenment Thinking
-
The works of several enlightenment thinkers also had profound influence on the American founding fathers. The French philosopher Charles Montesquieu's famous treatise on political theory, "The Spirit of Laws," emphasized the importance of the concept of the separation of powers within government. English philosopher John Locke's emphasis on the rights of individuals also factored heavily in the development of the Constitution. Locke and Montesquieu both argued that some form of representative government was the best method to protect people's rights and avoid tyrannical rule.
-
Clear Principles
-
Several clear principles provided the foundation for the structure of government proposed in the Constitution. Popular sovereignty, for example, meant that the people provided the main source of authority for any government. The separation of powers concept was meant to curb the ability of any one branch of government to assume too much power. The founders also held to the principle of individual rights, meaning that each person had certain freedoms that must be respected.
American Experience
-
In the years before the Constitution was written, the American people had successfully endured a long, bloody struggle for their political independence from Britain. The driving motivation behind the war for independence was the belief that the British government had overstepped its limitations when dealing with the American colonies. Many of the American people, and especially the founding fathers, strongly believed that their rights were slowly being stripped away illegally. Of paramount importance in the minds of those developing the Constitution was the need to ensure that American government could not perpetrate the same injustices.
-
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/liquidlibrary/Getty Images
