Kennedy Ellis
Mr. Comer
Honors Government
December 3, 2012
The Founding
Fathers’ Anthropology of Man: The Articles of Confederation, the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights
Based
on the Articles of Confederation, the Founding Fathers of America found Man to
be good; however, based on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the fathers
found that Man was evil and needed to be controlled. The independent government
set up by the Articles of Confederation shows the amount of trust the Founding
Fathers had in the nature of man. The more restrictive and law-abiding
government set up by the Constitution and enforced by the Bill of Rights shows
that the Founding Fathers were skeptical of Man’s nature and found it necessary
to instill more boundaries to restrict man from its natural state of chaos.
The
independent government set up by the Articles of Confederation shows that the
Founding Fathers found man to be virtuous. In the midst of the American
Revolution, Congress was in desperate need of a government of that was strong
enough to defeat Britain; however, its’ fear of central authority led Congress
to draft The Articles of Confederation. The Articles present a government that
weakens the control of a strong national government and puts more of the power
into the hands of the people. In fact, article one states that each state shall
“retain [its own] sovereignty,
freedom, and independence” (ibid.). The authors of the Articles believed that
in order to be successful in the fight for their independence against Britain
would be create a government that was the exact opposite of Britain’s, a
government built around and for the people instead of a government built to
control the people. The states that have complied with the Articles of
Confederation “hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with
each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and
their mutual and general welfare” (ibid.). Based on the first and second
articles, the Founding Fathers found man to be beyond honorable, trusting them
to defend not only themselves but also defend their fellow men in any time of
need. While the Articles of Confederation accredit the man to be reputable, the
Constitution and Bill of Rights find man to be cruel and in need of control.
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are testaments to the true nature of man. After events like Shay’s Rebellion where
the people abused the power they were given only proved the weakness of the
Articles of Confederation and the need for a strong central government. The
Constitution strips the people of all the power the Articles gave them and
grant “all
legislative Powers [to the] Congress of the United States” (ibid.). Once the
Founding Fathers realized that man was actually corrupt and evil, they
instituted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to ensure that man would be
controlled. While the Constitution details the duties of Congress, the Bill of
Rights details the rights of the people, including the freedom of religion. Although
the Constitution brings all the power back to Congress and out of the hands of the
people, the Bill of Rights allows man the freedoms necessary to ensure that
they are not completely controlled by the government.
The
Founding Fathers originally found man to be good, but after close examining,
they found man to be chaotic and in need of a supreme authority. The Articles
of Confederation created the thirteen colonies with a government similar to
that of the city-states in Athens, a government that allowed the colonies to be
in control of their government. However, once the Founding Fathers saw that man
was rampageous, they instituted the Constitution to create rules for man to
abide by and the Bill of Rights to create rights that allowed the colonies to still
feel their sense of freedom.
