Between the time the Magna Carta was created and the time our country was founded, almost 300 years had passed. In that span of time, the liberties that were founded in the Magna Carta were liberties that people expected to have. These freedoms became not just American freedoms, but freedoms for anyone who came to this country to start a new life. When these liberties were threatened by the oppressive rule of England, the colonists fought to hold on to them. In doing so, they formed the great country that became the United States of America.
Jefferson wanted a government that did not have all the power. He believed the states should rule their own destiny. After election, Jefferson planed to mold the country in a way he saw fit and a way that would set the country up for success in the future. One way this was planned was through education. Jefferson believed all white men should have the chance to receive a free education.
The new American settlers brought with them a desire for democracy and openness. They left behind a history of tyranny and official control of information. Using this experience as their guide, the constitutional fathers wrote into their new Constitution a Bill of Rights, which contained the First Amendment. This Amendment was created so that the people would have the freedom to express themselves without worrying. Disagreement to the ratification of the Constitution was partly based on the Constitution's need of satisfactory guarantees for civil liberties.
The world is your destiny. The community wanted a more fair and equal government. However, the king was not expressing equal freedom fairly. Unfortunately, the king wanted to make all the rules while the whole community had to abide by and follow them without conflict. However, the citizens wanted to make their own rules to follow, sensible and understandable rules.
Thus separation of church and state came into play, with hopes of keeping public morality and avoiding corrupting embrace from the government. Throughout the new nation people had started disestablishing their churches that had deprived peoples from public funding and special legal privileges. The revolution enhanced the different types of American Christianity and widely expanded the idea of religious liberty. This gave people of different beliefs a safe and nonjudgmental environment to express their religion but also threatened the rights of those who undermined church
Monroe was extremely active as an anti-federalist delegate and helped prevent ratification of the United States Constitution stating it gives too much power to central government. In 1790 Monroe was elected to the Senate of the United States Congress and had many success including helping negotiate the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Later during the War of 1812 Monroe held many critical positions including Secretary of State and Secretary of War under the then current President James Madison. 1816 being the next election year, Monroe ran for President of the United States and won with over 80 percent of the electoral vote. James Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States.
4 Pg. 1) It is clear the writers of the constitution used views on natural law when they put in, “governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The makers of the constitution wrote this because they believed the people of the colonies were not being treated fairly by British government and they were not happy. They believed this gave the citizens of the colony every right to overthrow the government based on natural law when they said, “it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government,
Each party has their own beliefs on why or why not these documents should or should not be passed and what power is justified. It is these different ideas which helped shape the future of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Anti-Federalists, such as Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, were against ratification of the Constitution. They believed that the closer the government was to the people, the easier it was for the people to keep it in check and making it harder for the government to become tyrannical. Anti-Federalist tried to appeal to western settlers with ideas of voting right to everyone and not just rich land holders.
On top of that, direct democracy is achieved as the people will have a direct say and influence on the critical issue and it can prevent unpopular decision from being made by the government. Referendum provides the most direct form of political participation and since political participation is one of the fundamental pillars of democracy, referendum strengthens democracy in a nation. This grants the people sovereignty, commonly referred to as popular sovereignty. Although the outcome of a referendum is not binding on Parliament due to legal sovereignty in theory, more often than not, the government will respect the verdict of the people, thus making the referendum binding in a minimal sense in practice. However, the people’s sovereignty will unavoidably undermine parliamentary sovereignty as Parliament is supposed to hold the power to make laws or to overrule laws.
By voting and being active within our government we can continue limiting the power to our advantage and by involving those who don’t; we can begin creating more citizens that help create a better nation. Thoreau did exactly this, he believed that the government was over expanding their power and taking away natural rights from people based on their aboriginality. He believed that people were followers of one central belief and if you could convince them that what they were doing was wrong, you could sway them to begin a movement. Thoreau saw potential in civil disobedience and by refusing to pay taxes it would stop the funding for slavery.