Things in England have been the same for hundreds and hundreds of years. The King or Queen is the figurehead while the Prime Minister and Parliament run the nation. The have a House of Lords and a House of Commons. There is no written document. There is not system of checks and balances. Common law is the way the judicial system works. Those our nation's fathers fled from for religious freedom were used as a point of inspiration and influence. Yet, somehow, our constitution turned out to be unique.
The first difference between our inspiration and our reality is, our constitution is down on paper. As the Anti-federalist and the Federalist battled out the pros and cons of this document, and as people were making decisions, Thomas Jefferson placed these infinite words on paper. He did not allow the foundation of our new nation to be a weight bared by the minds and memories of the people whom it created intended.
The Articles of Conferderation, ratified in 1781. ...
The Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781. T...
The Articles of Conferderation, ratified in 1781. ...He understood the dangers and problems that may or have occurred. Thomas Jefferson read his Bible enough to see how God wrote His commands down, so that no one could construe them. He also saw how without accountability to those rules set in stone, the people might falter and crack.
Our system of checks and balances also makes our constitution unique. The document that was a prelude the Constitution was the Articles of Confederation. The man who was in charge of that document was John Dickinson. He initially proposed a strong central government, with control over the western lands, equal representation for the states, and the power to levy taxes. Nevertheless, that was quickly done away with; the delegates remembered how well that turned out in England all to well. Our Constitution outlined three distinctive branches. This way we...