Constitution paper

History
C Block
Robin Madan

In 1787 after the Revolutionary War America had gained independence. It was

broken up into a confederation of states. The system of government was the Articles of

Confederation. The Articles of Confederation were good but they had their problems.

They did not regulate trade. They did not have the power to tax, and if the Articles were

to change there had to be a unanimous agreement. America needed a stronger system of

government. A meeting was called in Philadelphia and the states sent delegates who were

supposed to revise the Articles of Confederation. Instead, the delegates came up with the

Constitution. This was a set of “supreme” laws meant to govern the people as well as the

government. The Constitution took power from the states and gave it to the government.

In this, as well as other ways the Constitution was a transfer of power from the many to

the few.

The Constitution created a strong central government. It restricted the number of

people making decisions to the three branches: the legislative branch, which is made up

of congressmen and senators, the judicial branch, which are the courts, and the executive

branch which is the president and vice president. Taking power from the individual states

and putting it into this central government transferred power from the many to the few.

A lot of power was also given to the president. Instead of a bunch of people

making decisions, the president was given the power to: appoint judges, can veto laws,

and is the ultimate leader of the military. Giving the president these powers was a
transfer from the many to the few because it took power from the individual states and

placed it into the central government.

To choose a president the Electoral College was used. The delegates thought that

the common people were not well enough informed to choose the president. So the

people would elect people who would elect the president. Each state was given a certain

amount of electoral votes depending on the population of the state. Whichever

candidate got the majority of votes in a state received all of the states electoral votes.

This greatly restricted the number of people making decisions making it a transfer of

power from the many to the few.

Each state was given two senators regardless of the population. The state

legislature elects the senators. This gives the senators a large amount of power because

they are just two people representing an entire state. This transfers the decision making

power from the many people in the state to the two senators who are part of the central

government.

Having the senators elected by the state legislature and not by the people is a

transfer of power from the many to the few. The senators are helping to represent the

state in the central government. Having them be elected by the legislature transfers the

power to elect them from the many people to fewer people in the government. This

decreases the number of people making decisions for the state.

The Constitution did exactly what it was meant to do. It took power from the

people and the states and planted it in the much-needed strong central government. It

restricted the number of people the made decisions by giving lots of power to the

president, making an indirect voting system, giving states senators and representatives,
and having these senators elected by a state legislature. In all these ways the Constitution

was a transfer of power from the many to the few.