Directions: Study the source and then answer the questions.

Signers of the Constitution: Historical Background

The system of checks and balances, which the framers utilized to prevent the dominance of any one branch of the Government over any other and to maintain stability between the States and the national Government, was traceable to the ideas of the French political theorist Baron Charles D. Montesquieu and to the English conception that a balance of power among the King, the aristocracy, and the House of Commons prevented the undue ascendancy of any one group or majority. Also affecting the Constitution were other aspects of English law and thought, especially the ideas of John Locke. Included among those was the belief of apostles of the Enlightenment that natural laws governed man as well as the universe. Various additional European influences and Greek and Roman political concepts also made their mark on the Constitution.

Within that framework, however, the instrument was the product of a body of men who were experienced in self-government and were practical politicians. Confronting a definite and unique situation, for the most part they shunned abstract political speculation, though they drew on the lessons of history and political theory. Principle, expedience, and compromise all played roles, and their interplay was incredibly complex. A new frame of government was created that in its totality embodied much that was unprecedented and that has served as a model for constitutions since established by various other countries.

Considering all the difficulties they encountered in fashioning the Constitution, its makers could not conceivably have covered all basic topics nor treated those they did without ambiguity. In many cases, the ambiguity was deliberate to prevent further disagreement in the Convention.

National Park Service, July 2004