o come, depended on the soundness of the foundations they laid.
The first draft of the new government, the Articles of Confederation, was brilliant in its own way, but the trial run proved that its system was not good enough. Hence, the founding fathers calmly reassembled and created a much more careful second draft. Some aspects of the Constitution are routinely praised: the separation and balance of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicial functions; the compromise that created the bicameral legislature; the balance of power between the states and the federal government; the guarantees of individual rights. However, the most fundamental aspect of the Constitution is almost always overlooked.
This fundamental aspect is the fact that the statement setting forth the political philosophy underlying the Constitution is not within it. Instead, it is in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, where Jefferson, paraphrasing Locke, asserts that while people should not change governments lightly, they always have the right to abolish an inadequate government and create a new one to better meet their needs. Knowing this, and knowing they could not foresee the future, the founding fathers created a Constitution that is extremely flexible. Perhaps they were hoping to emulate what was most glorious about EnglandÆs Glorious Revolution: that it was peaceful, that the government could be reformed without anyone even being injured.
In some ways the Constitution is not so much a blueprint for government as it is a plan for how to continually reform, revise, and recreate the government, so that neither a violent revolt nor a new Constitution woul
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