How Did The Constitution Guard Against Tyranny Essay

In May, 1787, 55 men from 11 states gathered in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention. The object of the meeting was to frame a government that was strong enough to hold the states and people together, but also could guard against tyranny. At the time, the Articles of Confederation was in use, but it wasn’t working. So the framers were stuck with a big question. How could the new constitution guard against tyranny? Now, we know that the constitution guards against tyranny because it has federalism, checks and balances, separation of powers, and how representation is set up.
First, Federalism helps guard against tyranny because it lets both governments control each other, it prevents state governments from attacking other states, and it separates powers.“In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments” (Federalist Paper 51, Doc A). This is saying that the state government and the federal government share power and have different abilities. The two governments can act as checks on each other and the different things that they can do balances the power out so there cannot be tyranny. Not allowing states from having their own military prevents tyranny because if
“The senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislatures…” (US Constitution, Article 1 Section 3 Clause 1, Doc D). This is very important in making sure there isn’t tyranny in the US because if the senators were chosen by population, the bigger states would have power over small states. This could end in tyranny. The big states would have more power over the smaller states because senators make big decisions and since the bigger states would have more votes, they would be able to do whatever they wanted to