The Constitution With the Changing Needs and Realities of the People - Essay Example

29 June 1787 Constitution: In Support of the American Revolution When Nationalists, soon d as Federalists, called forthe revision of the Articles of Confederation, Anti-Federalists rose to challenge them. Anti-Federalists argued against a stronger and more energetic national government that Federalists pursued. Anti-Federalists argued that instead of expanding central government powers, these powers must be further controlled (51). They asserted that the people did not behave tyrannically, and instead, they only guaranteed American liberty (51). Anti-Federalists are wrong because the 1787 Constitution did not betray the American Revolution because it reflected changing American beliefs about self-governance and democracy, wherein democracy is not about civil freedoms of the majority alone, but the freedom to shape socio-economic and political affairs according to the changing needs, realities, and sentiments of their times. Before the argument is supported, the ideals of the American Revolution should be explained first, wherein it is fought because of the goal of self-governance, or self-determination with little interference from the Empire, or a central government. Benjamin Franklin answered the Members of the Parliament’s (MPs) question on how Americans felt three years before the Imperial government repealed the Stamp Act in 1776. Franklin stressed that before 1773, Americans greatly loved and respected their mother country; however, because of controls on colonial trade, ban on colonial money, and additional stamp taxes, Americans became dissatisfied with the latter (34). They fought back the British because they believed that not only independence would be favorable for them, but that the possibility of a “new social and political order” that relies on the will of the people would also provide limitless opportunities for development (36). The Prohibitory Act further cut the ties between America and Britain, and it even affected minority loyalists. The law declared all Americans as outlaws whom the King would no longer protect (36). The same unfair central-control problems happened before Shay’s rebellion. During this time, state governments were the ones exerting high taxes on the people. Shay started a rebellion that wanted to stop creditors from confiscating the land of farmers who could no longer pay their debts. These issues show that the American Revolution basically aimed to ensure the interests of the public through limiting the control of the government over their economic conditions. The Anti-Federalists are wrong because the 1787 Constitution did not betray the American Revolution’s essence of self-governance, where self-governance means the willingness to share power with the national government that will support national interests. The American Revolution supports self-governance, or the ability of the people to govern their lives through electing people who will fight for their interests. Self-government must be connected with reality, however. Public sentiments about the laws changed because realities changed. Wood is saying that rotation of public officers, before the 1787 Constitution, supports the ideals of the American Revolution for self-governance; however, it has its drawbacks. The 1787 Constitution is aligned with the aspirations of the American Revolution because it reflects the distrust of the people against an authoritarian central government. In order to prevent the expansion of executive powers, term limits were provided before the Constitution was made. Wood cites the Maryland Constitution: “A long continuance in the first executive departments of power or trust is dangerous to liberty. A rotation, therefore, in those departments is one of the best securities of permanent freedom.” Americans fought for their freedom to govern themselves with little control from the government, and so they enacted this law. Problems with office rotation arose though. Wood explains that the people realized the problems with too much rotation when they experienced “a flood of ill-drafted and unjust legislation.” They understood that “stability and experience seemed to be what was most needed” (Wood). Sentiments changed: “[Reformers took out rotation and asserted that] “the privilege of the people in elections is so far infringed as they are thereby deprived of the right of choosing those persons whom they would prefer” (Wood). The shift in beliefs about the purpose of job rotation and elections stresses that people change as they experience the limitations of their government. The 1787 Constitution reflects these changes because people come to understand that the solution to their political issues is not job rotation, but the election of experienced and responsive lawmakers. Aside from self-governance, the 1787 Constitution supported the principles of democracy. Democracy is not pure freedom to govern oneself and to have civil freedoms, but the ability to know that civil rights equate to civil responsibilities. Individual rights are important, but national interests are also significant to the development and stability of the entire nation, and this is what the Federalists aimed for- a greater balance between the self and the nation. Washington noted the problems during the 1780s because of high taxes imposed on the people that made them angry with state governments. He said: “the commotions and temper of numerous bodies in the [north-] Eastern states” is “melancholy proof…that mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government” (48). The Articles of Confederation needed to be overhauled, as Shay’s rebellion showed, because it does not empower the central government enough to protect the state from the tyranny of the majority and the people required a stronger Constitution that would look after national versus state-only interests. America needed a strong central government that can handle the nation’s problems at that time. These problems included inflation rate, trade problems, national debt, the power to compel states to follow national laws, and the absence of a national army. Without the 1787 Constitution, the states could not handle these problems because they were divided. Naturally, they looked after state interests only. If the legislators belonged to a certain class and livelihood, they would tend to promote those interests too. Federalists are only right to underscore that there must be a larger and more powerful body that would unite these divided states into one. They are correct that the country needed a strong national government that has an army of its own, can manage and respond to the national debt, and can supervise money and trade matters. Only a national government that looks after national interests and has the power and the money to do so can promote these interests. What is democracy without a strong central government? It will be a body of divided states which will be vulnerable to attacks from other countries and various other internal problems. In addition, the Constitution included a Bill of Rights that resolved concerns with violation of individual rights. It enshrined individual rights, so that the government will not abuse its power. The Bill of Rights protected individual rights over state and national rights. Hence, the 1787 Constitution reinforces the ends of the American Revolution, including democracy. The 1787 Constitution does not violate the ideals of self-government and democracy that the American Revolution fought for. Instead, it balanced pure self-government with the reality of a social contract, where the people must trust their national government as a body that would respect their individual rights, while promoting the economic, social, and political security and stability of the nation. With the Bill of Rights, the Constitution further asserts that it does not want to take away the rights of the people, but to make the government responsible for promoting individual civil freedoms. Hence, the Constitution represented the changing needs and realities of the people, the people who remained the center of the national government. Works Cited Wood, Gordon. “Founding Amateurs.” The New York Times, 2 May 2010. Web. 27 June 2013. Read More