Emre Karatas

AP US History
10/28/10
Mr. Fitzgerald

Examine the validity of the following statement: The Constitution was a continuance of the
Revolution. Disagree or agree with the statement, and provide historical examples and your own
analysis to develop your own viewpoints
.
The Constitution, the backbone of American political thought, was a document written to

carry the country from revolutionary success to future prosperity. However, as a whole, this

“revolutionary” document was more of a counter revolution than a democratic breakthrough. The

volatile period of American politics that spurred the writing of the Constitution came to define

the document and its statutes. When implementing the Constitution, the strong nationalistic

government that developed established pro-British sentiments that directly opposed the

Revolution. With its new found, sovereign power, the central government was able to unfairly

exact its authority on the people of the United States. The constitution’s attempt to provide a

reliable framework of government for the fledgling nation challenged the republican ideals that

Americans had fought so hard for during the war.

The first attempt at effective legislation, the Articles of Confederation, embodied the

thoughts of the American public, who sought a very weak central government. Once the

implementation of a weak federal government proved futile, the founding fathers came together

in order to save their republican experiment and ultimately emerged with the Constitution. This

new framework of government allowed for a few revolutionary ideas to prevail, but mostly anti-

democratic thoughts dominated the minds of those at the Constitutional Convention. Many of the

most important revolutionaries, such as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Patrick Henry

Lee, did not even attend the Constitutional Convention. Soon after the Constitution was ratified,

a barrier between the three branches of government and the people developed. In the executive
and legislative branches, a large gap arose between the representatives and the less

knowledgeable population that voted for them. The third and final branch, the judicial branch,

was chosen directly by the president without any consent from the populace. The supposed

republican triumph of a system of checks and balances was concerned little with the majority of

the people they governed. A newly established federal government would seek to consolidate

power under an allegedly revolutionary document

With the federalists in control of all three branches of government, counter

revolutionary ideas dominated politics. Hamilton, one of the leaders of the Federalist Party and

an obvious anglophile, began to push strongly for his financial plan, which would only

strengthen nationalistic policies. The constitution, which allowed the federal government to

perform any deeds that were “necessary and proper” to maintain order, provided the platform for

Hamilton to execute his plan. His attempt to create a strong National Bank, similar to the English

system, caused much resistance among the American revolutionaries who had just overthrown

the tyrannical British government. Another one of his fiscal plans, the assumption of state debt

by the national government, attempted to further use constitutional authority to increase the

power of government. With each state bound together by debt, the federal government could

greatly influence the economy of the country. Increasing the anti-revolutionary feelings during

the 1790’s was also the Jay Treaty, which allowed for increased trade between Britain and the

United States. Pushed through a weak and federalist dominated senate, the treaty neglected the

position of neutrality, which was an important republican idea, and damaged relationships with

France, a country that many revolutionaries. The events of the time period strengthened the ever

increasing power of the national government that came to define anti-democratic ideals.
 The power of the Federal government led to many other events in opposition of the

freedom and liberty of the American people. During the Whiskey Rebellion, a protest by farmers

in Pennsylvania against Hamilton’s plan to fund national debt, the government showed its ability

to enforce its laws, no matter how unjust the public believed they were. George Washington, the

hero of the American Revolution, marched an army of 13,000 soldiers on farmers who were

protesting much like they had done during the revolutionary years. This first test of the authority

of the national government emphasized the power a standing army had during peacetime, a

practice that sparked rage before the Revolution. The government’s most blatant act to limit the

freedom of the people was the Alien and Sedition Acts, which attempted to protect the United

States from immigrants of enemy countries and limit rebellious acts that would weaken the

government. In these acts it states that anyone who publishes "false, scandalous, and malicious

writing" is subject to punishment. By prohibiting freedom of the press, one of the most cherished

values of American freedom, the Republicans damaged the very foundations of the democratic

government. The fact that such an unconstitutional act was even passed through Congress and

the Senate represents the crippling effects of federal power that caused the decline of

revolutionary ideals in the country.

When the founding fathers drafted the Constitution, the Revolutionary war was clearly

still in their thoughts. While developing the framework of the government, they simply did not

throw out the ideas that had led them to break away from Britain. What good was a war for

independence if the country would only become another monarchy? On the other hand, those at

the constitutional convention realized that true democracy would be impossible. The constitution

depicted a national government strong enough to correct the problems the nation faced, but

flexible enough to react to the changing times. When the foreign powers of the world believed
the United States would crumble under its fairytale government, the Constitution spurred

progress in the nation. Learning from the mistakes of past democratic governments, and even

from the British monarchy they went to war with, the Constitutional Convention established a

framework that would protect both man from man, and man from its government