Constitution Dbq

863 Words2 Pages

After the American Revolution, America had earned it’s freedom from Britain. In order to govern this new country the Articles of Confederation was created. This document was flawed by the colonists fear of putting too much power into a central government. Knowing the document needed to be fixed a constitutional convention was called. The document created at this convention has been our constitution ever since. But even the Constitution was meet with criticism. One major concern when writing the constitution was how to protect the citizens rights. The Constitution did this through the preamble, the legislative process, the limit of presidential terms, the judicial branch, and the bill of rights. The Constitution is composed of 3 major parts. The first of which is the preamble. As the opening statement of the Constitution it outlines the goals the American people have for the country. In the preamble the people are assured the laws of the land would apply to all and be fair to all by this line “establish justice” (Doc 1). Peace and order in the nation along with the providing of defence for the people of America are also promised by the line “insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense.” (Doc 1). People were also assured their well being and their freedom as long as they lived in the law,Page 42R “promote the general, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (Doc 1). The preamble sets the tone for the rest of the document and declares the document the “...Constitution for the United States of America.” (Doc 2) After the preamble the second part of the Constitution is the seven articles which describe the elements of the Constitution. One of the articles gives the legislativ... ... middle of paper ... ...be added. They felt that if the rights of the people were not listed they would be infringed.Page 66R An example of a right they thought would be infringed upon was stated in Document 5 by Mercy Otis Warren, “There is no security in the system [under the proposed new U.S Constitution] either for the rights of [people with different ideas] or the liberty of the press”. This fear was directly addressed in the first amendment in which the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition are protected.Page 46R All these freedoms are used to express one’s self and express different ideas which means the first amendment prevents the government from suppressing ideas they do not agree with. The bill of right protects many basic rights and includes the 9th amendment in which it is stated that rights not listed in the Constitution are still retained by the people.

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