Constitutional Creation

12 Pages 2978 Words

fic purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation,” (Text, 52) but after three months, they had made a new system of government.
The 55 men who wrote the constitution were all white, wealthy, and educated; they made a system that best met their needs and the needs of people like them. “All the men at the convention were creditors who represented the conservative interests of the creditor class” (Text, 55). They had studied the writing of John Locke, who in his theories about government expressed that the goal of government was to protect private property, and those who hold no property deserved no vote (Text, 56). In fact the delegates made exactly such a system, by giving congress the power to create an army (which mainly serves to protect property,) and imposing property qualifications to vote. By imposing property qualification to vote, they were able to protect the government from the have-nots, who had no property and therefore could not vote.
The selection process of national government officials also removed the poor from decision making in the national government. The Constitution created a selection process in which only one institution is directly selected by the voters, the House of Representatives. Other institutions are indirectly selected: the Senators are chosen by States Legislatures, who are chosen by the people; the President is chosen by the Electoral College, which is selected by the State Legislatures; and the Supreme Court Justices are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. In each institution, as the selection process gets more removed from the people, the power of that institution increases. For example, the House cannot do anything without the Senate, and the Senate can barely create laws without the approval of the President. The Supreme Court is always the most powerful institution and protects the haves form the have-nots, through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Supr...