Thus voting was still the province of land-holding elites rather than all the people under the rule of constitutional, national, and state law. The fact that Senators were appointed by the state legislature not only allocated more rights to the states as desired by Southerners, but also further filtered the popular voice, as expressed in the House of Representatives. The Electoral College system also filtered access to power via the voting box when it came to voting for the executive authority. "The large states got proportional strength in the number of delegates, the state legislatures got the right of selecting delegates, and the House the right to choose the president in the event no candidate received a majority of electoral votes." (NARA, 2004)
The Electoral College system again underlines the republican, or filtered rather than pure democratic system of governance, as a chief executive could lose the popular vote but still win the Electoral College. Theoretically, one of the elected 'electors' could change his mind after judicious consideration and refuse to vote for the chief executive 'he' was expected to elect. The theoretical principle of equality of all human beings upheld in the Declaration of Independence thus did not mean as a point of fact, in the Constitution, that all had equal access to power, as a way of tempering the will of the people and individual rights for the common good.
The framing of the Constitution thus is and was a compromise of individual and collective rights, and of Southern desire for state's rule and Northern desires for federal dominance that could more effectively negotiate with other nations....
In addition it was agreed that issues of federal budget, revenue and taxation would originate with the House of Representatives. The Great Compromise issued in a spirit of success to the convention and essentially ended the division between the small and large states. However, it did nothing to alleviate the pending debate between the Federalist and the Anti-Federalist. Decisions on how much power to give to the people and to
Constitution There were a variety of political and economic factors that made the ratification of the U.S. Constitution a difficult and lengthy process. Of these, one of the largest areas of contention centered around the debate between the Federalists and the Antifederalists. The Federals supported ratification because they believed it was necessary to have a strong central authority. But the Antifderalists were concerned that the Constitution would give the president too
As a result, the Bill of Rights was implemented into the Constitution, to address the concerns of anti-federalists. While at the same time, it gave the federalists a strong central government that could adjust with: the various changes. This is significant, because it shows how the Constitution is a working document that seeks to provide a balance between: personal freedoms and the need to protect the nation. In many ways,
Constitution The United States Constitution is based on the self-interest view of human nature. It was created to provide people with a large number of freedoms. When the Founding Fathers sat down to write it, they carefully considered all the issues that they and their fellow countrymen had faced when they were still in England, before they came to America to have the freedoms they wanted (Billias, 2009). Because they knew
Each state and many banks eventually developed their own currencies, greatly complicating trade and issues of security, both through increased potential for fraud and a lack of reliable knowledge about the strength of a particular currency at any given time. These issues were seen as largely responsible for a series of financial crises in the nineteenth century, and even in part for the Great Depression. The establishment of a
The truth is that the forefathers were actually quite surprised at the effect that the signing of the Constitution had created in America; at the democratic society and government that resulted after the ratification of the Constitution. The ratification in itself was a long one, and it involved in essence the perusal of the written Constitution by each state for ratification purposes, for which each state was required to create
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now