The ideals of the American Revolution and those of the
Constitution were broadly similar. However, the Revolutionary ideals were, not
surprisingly, rather more radical than those which are embodied in the
Constitution.
The ideals of the Revolution had to be
relatively radical so as to attract a larger body of supporters. Therefore, the
Revolution's ideals were extremely democratic. They called for a system in which all
men would be equal. They stressed the idea that the government should be democratic and
should reflect the will of the common people. This is a logical thing to tell the
common people when you need them to support you.
The ideals
of the Constitution are still fairly democratic. It does set up a government that is
ultimately responsible to the people. There is no monarch and the government is limited
in what it is allowed to do to the people. However, the Constitution sets up a system
that is designed to limit the impact of the common
people.
The Constitution sets up a system in which much of
the government is insulated from popular control. The president and the Senate were
elected, but not directly by the people. The Supreme Court was not elected at all and
the only people involved in the selection of justices were the (not directly elected)
president and Senate. Only the House of Representatives was elected directly by the
people.
In addition, the federal government was made
superior to the state governments in most ways. Its laws were the supreme law of the
land. This took power from the level of government closest to the people and gave it to
the level that was farther away.
After the Revolution, the
leaders wanted to back away from the radical ideas of that era. They returned to a
somewhat more elitist vision when they created the Constitution. Of course, this did
not last and America ended up being much more democratic than the Framers of the
Constitution would have liked.
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