Articles Of Confederation And Tyranny Essay

Why does our country run the way it does? Obviously, because of the Revolutionary War. We did not want any kind of ruler that had all the power, all at once. So, why is that? What did the found fathers of our country come up with in the 1700’s to protect the colonies from tyranny? After the war, none of us wanted to go back to the kind of monarchy that England had. But, the government we had established-- known as the Articles of Confederation -- had no central government at all. So, the delegates had to figure out how to guard the country against tyranny, while also forming a stable, working government. The founding fathers established a non-tyrannical government by setting up a separation of powers, establishing checks and balances, and splitting up the power held by big and little states.

The delegates were able to set up a separation of powers by realizing that, if all powers were run by a sole people/person, it would become corrupt. As James Madison said in the Federalist
As said in the constitution; article 1, section 2 The House of Representatives. “Representatives shall be apportioned according to [population]. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative..” This may not seem very beneficial to the prevention of tyranny, but it’s fair, right? If the big states had gotten all that they wanted, we would have had tyranny; and vice versa. The point is also continued in article 1, section 3 Senate. “The senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislatures… each senator shall have one vote.” In this excerpt, it negates the population of any state entirely. Every senator is equal in the sense that no one’s vote is more powerful than another because of their