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How Did the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny?

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With a broken system in place, why was it important that a group of wealthy, white men from the thirteen original states, except for Rhode Island, frame a government that would be strong enough to serve the new nation, but not create any form of tyranny? The first constitution, The Articles of Confederation, was an agreement among all thirteen states that was drafted on July 12, 1776 and completed its formal ratification in March of 1781. It allowed thirteen states to set up central organizations to oversee the domestic and foreign affairs, but many believed it was not working and needed to be changed. In the summer of 1787, the group of men, including James Madison, gathered at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia because they were concerned about the future of the nation. The Articles of Confederation was intended to discourage oppression, but failed to accomplish this because it lacked a chief executive, a court system, and the central government could not force a state pay taxes. James Madison was primarily concerned with how they framed the document to assure that tyranny did not have a chance to resurface. They drafted the new constitution in hopes that it would keep the country from falling apart. James Madison and his fellow delegates framed the constitution to protect the country from tyranny by any one individual, group of individuals, branch, or level of government from gaining too much power by including the areas of Federalism, separation of powers, a system of checks and balances, and big states versus small states.
Federalism was a major component in guarding against tyranny in the Constitution. James Madison described it as a “compound republic of America” that focused on the division of the central government and the states. (Doc A) The governments were given individual powers and also shared other powers. This system provides dual

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