Blog 2 – Chapter 2
Melissa Joseph
06/27/2023
US Constitution the road to Democracy
In this chapter, the Enlightenment and John Locke’s ideas of natural rights caught my attention for many reasons. The US Constitution was designed following the failure of the first revolutionary, therefore an absolute change was necessary to prevent history from repeating itself. First, John Locke’s political ideas that the “relationship between government and natural rights, which were believed to be God-given rights to life, liberty, and property”. His idea adopted in the making of the constitution gave the people an opening to participate in their country’s politics, and understand that there should be a relationship between the government and the people and put and to monarchy.
This thinking diminishes the Monarch’s power, and the reign of only a successor can be a political figure. Eventually, the idea is that the King owns the land and the people the king can decide someone’s fate. On the contrary, the king should be working with the people. The foundation of the Constitution was to bring all the states together to protect the country from the British. Evidently, their own disagreement, and the weakness found in the tax imposition, make the National government unstable and underfunded. The state’s official ideas are to protect their states, therefore they were not willing to cooperate or obey Government requests. In the drafting of the Articles the Confederation after the American Revolution they had freed themselves from the British abuse and were fighting for their right as citizens. Many of them were not satisfied and they were worried that a government representative elected by the people might become overbearing. They wanted to be self-governing to protect themselves while together they will be stronger. However, the framers of the Articles of Confederation created an alliance of sovereign states that held them together.
This reading of the Us Constitution demonstrates how a group of strong-minded individuals were able to free themselves from Britain and Create a new nation based on human rights, and freedom. Even Though they had disagreements on the rule every state was protecting themselves they were able to Draft a Constitution so powerful and meaningful that 225 years later is being used, and rule the United States that we know now.
.
2 replies on “Us Constitution chapter 2”
The antifederalist forgot how they got their right to self-govern in the first place. That being together fighting for the colonies to separate from the British government. Their newfound power was not easy to let go of. Even with those disagreements, they were able to unite for the better of our government’s establishment. Which again was only possible through compromise and providing knowledge to persuade those against it. Truly powerful indeed.
Your analysis of the influence of the Enlightenment and John Locke’s theories of natural rights in forming the US Constitution is one that I agree with. To create a government that upheld and defended its citizens fundamental rights, Locke’s political values had to be written into the constitution.The idea that these rights are inherent and not granted by any specific ruler or government was founded on Locke’s concept of natural rights, which included the rights to life, liberty, and property.