Exam #2 Question #1: The Constitution

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Professor’s Name

Course

Date

Exam #2 Question #1: The Constitution

The constitution is referred to as the rule of the book for the state. The constitution sets up major standard roles that do not favor any party through which the state is governed (Bowie, 2019). It describes major state institutions of the state and demonstrates the relations between these major institutions, which include the legislature, executive, and judiciary. The constitution was established as a product of political compromise after long and malicious debates over major issues like representation, states’ rights, and slavery (Bowie, 2019). Researchers have agreed that the United States Constitution is the longest-surviving written charter of the government across the globe (Asma & Douche, 2022). Researchers indicate the constitution of the United States is based on the principle of founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, John Jay, George Washington, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin. However, despite many contributors to the constitution’s development, the seven founders mentioned above were the major ones (Rodgers, 2014). Historical research shows that these seven founding fathers played significant roles in maintaining the American nation’s independence from Great Britain and securing the government of the United States. Historical research indicates that the founding fathers played significant roles that helped create the state. For instance: Thomas Jefferson contributed when he wrote the declaration of independence, John Adams contributed by arguing for American independence, James Madison contributed through participation at the Constitutional Convention, and John Jay contributed by becoming the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Rodgers, 2014). This paper focuses on characteristics of the American Constitution that were agreed upon by various scholars, uses a historiographical approach to trace some schools of thought about the motive of those who were for the ratification of the constitution, and the conclusions about the motive on what is referred to as ‘original intent.’

The constitution is a minority document that authors or the founding fathers used to represent minority opinions in their commitment to nationalism. And securing the United States of American independence from Great Britain consists of some features or characteristics agreed upon (Wald, 1994). This means that constitution was drafted as a compromise document that resulted from the founding fathers’ commitment to nationalism based on representation, states’ rights, and slavery by putting into the constitution particular localization compromises to get it endorsed by the localization majority. Some of the United States constitution characteristics agreed upon by most scholars in ratification by the founding fathers include representation of the people in government, protection of the fundamental human rights of citizens, separation of powers of the government, responsibility, and accountability, among others (Madison, 1787). Historical scholars indicate that the constitution was outlined and established to create a free nation of America, create a just government, and ensure peace and adequate national defense for its citizens.

Researchers indicate that the historiographical approach can be used to trace different schools of thought concerned with motive/motives of the founding fathers who were for constitution ratification. The historiographical approach is the study of history writing based on the critical assessment of sources, consideration of particular information from authentic materials in the assessed sources, and synthesizing retrieved information into a narrative that stands the test of critical examination (Onuf, 1989). Through historiography approach, researchers state it is an effective approach in historical analysis. Through this historiography approach, learners can trace various schools of thought concerning with motives of the founding fathers who advocated for constitution ratification. The history of the United States indicates that it was constructed in the 17th century, that is, on Sep 17th, 1787 few months of conflicting and clashing ideologies and heated debates that led to compromise and insightful reconsiderations (Onuf, 1989). Historical analysis through the historiography approach indicates that Harvard College was a school of thought that had constitution ratification supporters. For instance, Brooks Adams, an American historian who was a History Department faculty member at Harvard College, supported the constitution’s ratification (Rabban, 2011). Because he actively participated in questioning the success of the United States’ democracy by relating the march of civilization to the westward movement of trade centers. In 1895, Brooks Adams published his Law of Civilization and Decay, which detailed and explained his theory of history. That claimed that the center of trade had dependably adhered to the westward movement for a long since ancient crossroads, as per the law concerned with population density, and there was a need to develop new and centralized trade and industry techniques or strategies (Williams, 1952).

Through the use of the historiography approach, I identified a book titled “The Education of Henry Adams” by a popular historian author Henry Adams who studied and graduated from Harvard. In his book, which many may think the author focuses on in his biography, the author supported constitution ratification since the book illustrates how he was introduced to education impressions. However, he supported constitution ratification by explaining how the democracy that the constitution would bring would be important. He portrays the example of Charles Francis Adams, who could not side with enslavers despite his family’s former ties to the Whigs. Instead, he joined the anti-slavery party that opposed the slavery trade fugitive slave law. This indicates that he supported constitution ratification to uphold freedom, rights, and democracy (Young, 2001).

The conclusion that can be made from the motives concerning constitutional ratification, referred to as the original intent, is that the founding fathers positively impacted the constitution and government of the United States, which benefited Americans. This is because the founding fathers showed how selfless they were despite being appointed delegates to represent each state’s welfare. Since they enlightened the public and showed a progressive sense of nationalism. For instance, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison wrote Federalist papers which consisted of various essays arguing that the decentralization of power as indicated under the Articles of Confederation was an obstacle to the new nation from being independent and overcoming internal insurrections like Shay’s Rebellion (Derthick, 2004). Therefore, they advocated for American constitution ratification that had been initially debated and drafted at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

References

Asma, R., & DOUCHE, B. (2022). Justification of Bicameralism in the USA: A Historical–Analytic Study.

Bowie, N. (2019). Why the Constitution Was Written Down. Stan. L. Rev., 71, 1397.

Derthick, M. (2004). Keeping the compound republic: Essays on American federalism. Brookings Institution Press.

Madison, J. (1787). The federalist no. 10. November, 22(1787), 1787-88.

Onuf, P. S. (1989). Reflections on the Founding: Constitutional Historiography in Bicentennial Perspective. The William and Mary Quarterly: A Magazine of Early American History and, 341-375.

Rabban, D. M. (2011). Melville M. Bigelow: Boston University’s Neglected Pioneer of Historical Legal Scholarship in America. BUL Rev., 91, 1.

Rodgers, P. (2014). United States constitutional law: An introduction. McFarland.

Wald, P. (1994). Constituting Americans. In Constituting Americans. Duke University Press.

Williams, W. A. (1952). Brooks Adams and American Expansion. New England Quarterly, 217-232.

Young, J. P. (2001). Henry Adams: The Historian as Political Theorist. American Political Thought (Un.