Research Paper Example: US Constitution as a Revolutionary Document

📌Category: Government, History, History of the United States
📌Words: 1148
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 03 June 2022

The United States Constitution, though seemingly old and outdated, holds its relevance even today.  One could even go as far as to describe this crucial document as revolutionary. Revolutionary is a term used to reveal the significance of the Constitution in its ways of properly dealing with and governing many of the numerous amounts of American people for over 230 years. Not only has the creators of the constitution worked to completely dismantle and create a different system than what was in effect in England at the time, but also added in many philosophers' ideas and a Bill that would protect each citizen's rights from being violated in given situations. With this in mind, a document was created that changed the fate of the United States entirely. Nevertheless, through compromise, citizens of a newborn country set forth a government for the people, by the people, that matured with the country because it handled previous and upcoming issues presented. 

One of the many great things about the U.S.Constitution includes that it was founded based on many philosophers and political figures from around the world's ideologies. Three prominent figures that greatly influenced the creation of the U.S. Constitution were John Locke, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, and François-Marie Arouet, whose pen name and most widely known name was Voltaire. John Locke, a very influential philosopher expressed his beliefs surrounding “natural rights”. Locke had three principles involving life, liberty, and property and believed each citizen has a right to those three things. A quote from an article written about John Locke's ideologies states Locke's beliefs involving natural rights states, “so far as possible, the rights to life, liberty, health and property of its citizens, and to prosecute and punish those of its citizens who violate the rights of others and to pursue the public good even where this may conflict with the rights of individuals”(Stanford Encyclopedia). This excerpt describes John Locke's thoughts on each citizen's rights and what would be the consequence if one were to violate another citizen’s rights. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution puts Lockes reasonings into paper and sets his perspectives on the rights of each citizen. To add on, another famous theologian known as Montesquieu also has a prominent feature in the development and influence of the U.S. Constitution. He was a known supporter and influencer for the idea of separation of powers. The United States adopted the idea of separation of powers to create a strong government without one specific power being able to gain control and take over otherwise known as tyranny. While attempting to describe the necessity of separation of powers against tyranny, Montesquieu said, “For we can not abuse power, must, by the arrangement of things, power checks power” (the-philosophy.com/montesquieu-quotes). The three branches of the U.S. government describe perfectly the effects of Montesquieu’s ideas. Each branch of government holds a certain job and powers. For example, the legislative branch will make the laws, the executive branch will carry out the laws and the judicial branch will evaluate the laws if necessary. This separation of powers stops one person or group from making decisions on behalf of everyone, further creating a position of abusive power resulting in a tyrannical government. The last most prominent influential philosopher in the constitution is François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire. Voltaire believed in freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Much like the English government, each individual followed the catholic church and the Church and the State were related in many ways. The creators and founders of the first 13 colonies that made up the United States, which we now call it, descended from England because they disagreed with policies like the combination of the state and church. Voltaire's ideas were for each citizen to have a right to say and express how they feel without being punished for it as well as every citizen able to practice their religion and ideas. It is seen in the first amendment of the US Constitution his ideas of freedom of speech are being replicated and used in the new government created. The United States Government was founded on a base of philosophers from all over the world's perspectives and ways to govern. In a way that makes the United States even greater to be able to combine outside thoughts to create a system of government able to govern millions of people for over 230 years. 

Along with the new creation of a constitution came the idea of a Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is a set of the first ten amendments that gives each citizen rights of protection in a given situation. For example, the first amendment, freedom of speech, give’s each citizen the right to express how they feel about the president and the government without being penalized for it. Not only does it protect your rights it restricts the government as well. Under the first amendment, the Legislative branch can not make a law establishing a respective religion within the country. Unlike many other countries such as England, where the government controls the religion one is mandated to follow, the United States has created a system that is utilized in the Bill of Rights to protect against that. The Bill of rights was created due to major political leaders like George Mason would not sign the constitution because of the lack of a Bill of Rights which he believed without it, the people of the United States would be taken advantage of given they did not have a set of rights protecting them against the central government. Once the Bill of rights was created it ensured protection for the people and made the Constitution stronger and more democratically organized because it gave people power in the sense that the government was now more limited on what they could do to the people. Furthermore, the bill of rights protecting each citizen’s natural rights makes the constitution a stronger, more comprehensive document overall.  

Admittedly the US Constitution originally was seen by many as an issue because it created a strong central government that took away a lot of power each state government held. Individual state governments were better as the main strong, central power because they catered to the problems of each state seeing as many states geographically, politically, and economically were different from one another. However, with the states as the main government, it created a divide and a weakness because there was no connection between each state, so it was each state out for themselves. When the US constitution was created, on top of the state government was a central government that connected the US powers. Under the new Constitution, there were now multiple, divided-up powers that gave states, and the federal government separate powers within the country to deal with the matter in a more focused, communicative way.  

To conclude, although the US Constitution has had its ups and downs overall the pivotal document created through countless people and compromises has grown with the emerging, popular new country and all its issues presented along the way. The constitution withheld the test of time and is still working to control the powers of each government and control the people while still all having protected rights and securities. Based on all the information presented, the US Constitution is certainly a revolutionary document that has changed the face of government for many other countries and more to come.

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