The founders professedly attempted to construct a nation governed by law, not by men.
Did they succeed? Either way, what were the ramifications for American society?
I will discuss the belief that America was founded on the principals of law. These laws
were created to control those that created them. Albeit most of the Founding Fathers
thought that individuals given the chance to liberty and freedom will naturally protect
those people that would naturally be taken advantage of. It is my belief that the idealic
notions of the founding fathers of our nation sought to create a society in which the
common man could rise through anyone of various institutions and structures.
Government was necessary for an orderly distribution of resources and protection. Hobbes
warned without government, "life would basically be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and
short--a constant struggle to survive against the evil of others." (7, O'Connor)
And in examining the Revolutionary war and the creating of our Constitution we must
look to the factions that characterized the issues this new young country faced. There is
debate on whether the Federalist that helped construct the Constitution had virtuous,
disinterested motivation in furthering the transformation of the colonies into a land of
The other side of the debate states that the Anti-Federalist actually saw the future chasms
that America would face if the Federalist aristocracy was instituted. "The Anti-federalist . .
. saw it all very diferently. Instead of seeing enlightened patriots simply making a
Constitution to promote the national good, they saw groups of interested men trying to
foist an aristocracy onto republican America. (93, Wood)
In 1913, the highly respected political scientist and historian Charles Beard argued 'that
the 1780s were a critical period not for the nation as a whole, but rather for businessmen
who feared th...