AF-separation-of-powers-Digital-20 - Flipbook - Page 4
An Experiment in Exceptionalism
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“What is government itself but
the greatest of all reflections on
human nature? If men were
angels no government would be
necessary. If angels were to
govern men, neither external
nor internal controls on
government would be necessary.
In framing a government which
is to be administered by men
over men, the great difficulty
lies in this: you must first enable
the government to control the
governed; and in the next place
oblige it to control itself.”
Federalist No 51
February 6, 1788
Pictured here is James Madison, the Fourth
President of the United States and celebrated
as the Father of the Constitution. He is likely
the author of Federalist No 51, but it may have
been co-authored with Founding Father
Alexander Hamilton.
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n accordance with its own terms inscribed in Article VII,
the United States Constitution was ratified on June 21,1788,
when New Hampshire became the ninth and final
necessary state to approve the document. On that historical
date, the Constitution became the law of our land, setting
into motion America’s dynamic and enduring system of
governance, deeply rooted in the quest for “ordered
liberty” that is, to live in a decent and civil society whereby
maximum individual freedoms are enjoyed by all and may
only be limited by society’s necessity for order. Both the
final text of the Constitution and documents of the Framers
dated during the drafting of the Constitution establish that
America stands for this principled philosophy.
For nearly 250 years, America has successfully managed a
system of government in the form of a Constitutional
Republic. The notion of this new nation was first formally
expressed in the Declaration of Independence when
delegates from all thirteen colonies signed the document
affirming that the colonies are now independent states,
breaking free from all ties with the British Crown. The
famous document is considered one of the country’s
founding documents and ultimately led to the Constitution.
In between and following the Revolutionary War, another
document called the Articles of Confederation bound the
states
states together.
together.
The vision of our Founders to create a free nation can be
seen during this historical period of time as they realized
the Articles of Confederation lacked the structure needed to
bring the states together under a central or federal
government to do such things as should the new nation
declare war or to issue a national currency. Under the
Articles of Confederation, taxation was left to the states, and
each state could issue its own currency. Essentially, it was
the chaos of such an arrangement, on the one hand, caused
by the states