The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were revolutionaries. Some would even call them extremists. One of their mottos, when it came to tyrannical governments, was "Don't Tread On Me."
When the Pilgrims came to America, they did so for religious freedom. Back in England The King was not only the head of a strong, overpowering, centralized government, but had also set himself up as the head of the church. In doing so, he declared all religions other than his own, the Church of England, illegal. The Church of England was the National Religion.
The first footprint on Plymouth Rock signified a break from tyranny, but the colonists were not sure what kind of government they desired. Many forms of government were attempted throughout America's young history, and nearly all of them failed.
Over the course of the next hundred years, or so, among the forms of government attempted, one attempt was a socialist-style form of government, in which the neighborhood, or community, was much like a commune type setting. The members of the community provided for the entire community by adding what they produced into the public coffer. This style of government did not succeed, however, because they found that human nature caused some colonists to not pull their full weight.
Eventually, the form of government that worked best was when the people were able to keep what they produced, taking care of their families first, and then taking to market the remainder so as to acquire other goods and services they may need for their family that they were unable to produce on their own. This was the beginning of the free market system that would eventually evolve into the Capitalism that would make this nation prosperous, and the greatest economic power in the world.
Most of the colonies, in the beginning, were run in a theocratic manner. The first colonists, after all, came to America seeking religious freedom. Unfortunately, at the time, the only religious freedom they sought was for their own religion. As a result, each state became mini versions of the English theocracy they came from, minus The King. Connecticut, for example, was a Puritan State, controlled completely by the Puritans. To hold political office, one must be a Puritan. The Baptists in the state, for example, were treated as a minority, and had few rights when it came to the running of the State of Connecticut. This is what prompted the Danbury Baptists to write a letter to Thomas Jefferson after the United States became a nation. They felt unfairly overpowered by the Puritans. Jefferson wrote back detailing that the Federal Government couldn't get involved. It was a state issue.
The Colonists wrote their first constitution with the goal of limiting the federal government first and foremost in their mind. That first constitution was called The Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation made each state an independent entity, loosely confederated together for the purpose of protection.
After the Revolution, and a few years under their belt as an independent nation, the Founding Fathers realized that the Articles of Confederation actually made the federal government too weak, making the new nation teeter on a fulcrum that could lead to anarchy. The federal government had too few powers, and this needed to be resolved.
In 1787 the Founding Fathers gathered together for the purpose of fixing The Articles of Confederation. This gathering became known later as the Constitutional Convention. The original intent was not to write a new constitution.
James Madison provided a framework that was followed, for the most part, when the patriots realized that The Articles of Confederation could not be fixed, and they needed a new constitution.
For five months the founders toiled over this new constitution. The understood that the law of the land needed to be able to withstand the rigors of time. They intended it to stand up indefinitely. However, they did realize that they did not know everything, and times would change, so they did provide the opportunity for the people to change the Constitution through amendments. Fearing changes made at a whim, however, they made the rules for amendments difficult so as to assure that amendments did not come easy.
Though educated men, and many of them were well versed in legal matters, the founders desired that the United States Constitution to be a document by the people, of the people, and for the people. They understood that a strong, central government could become tyrannical. They knew this, partly, by simply watching the Motherland. The founders also studied past civilizations. Rome and Greece were especially studied.
From all of their research, the Founding Fathers realized that the best form of government for the United States was a Representative Republic. Democracies, they noticed by studying history, were quick to become mob-rule, and eventually deteriorated into dictatorships. Monarchies gave an individual, or a group of individuals, too much power - and power in the hands of the federal government was one thing the founding fathers determined needed to remain under control. Therefore, the founders realized the best way to control power is to divide it. This meant leaving most of the governing duties up to the states. After all, who better to understand local issues than a local government?
Through the Constitution, the states were given rights, and the federal government was purposely limited. This is not to say the federal government had no power. After all, that was the problem with The Articles of Confederation.
Article one, section eight of the United States Constitution, grants to the federal government its powers. Article one, section ten tells the states what they cannot do. The Tenth Amendment then indicates all other things are state issues by default. Specifically, the amendment says: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution (referring to Art. 1, Sect. 8), nor prohibited by it to the States (Art. 1, Sect. 10), are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. The States, as far as the Founding Fathers were concerned, needed to have enough rights to run their own local government without some faceless bureaucrats in Washington DC making decisions for them.
On the same token, the Founding Fathers not only wished to ensure that the federal government was limited in its scope of powers, and that the states should carry sovereign rights, but also that the United States Constitution was written in such a way that it was easily understandable. The United States Constitution did not, and does not, belong to the government. The United States Constitution belongs to the people. The United States Constitution being of the people, by the people, and for the people, is the primary reason the first three words of The Preamble is "We The People."
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
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