Supporters of the Constitution often appeal to the rights that this document bestows and protects. However, there is doubt as to whose interests the Framers are so furiously promoting. As noted by Richard Henry Lee (1788a), the clauses of the Constitution are based more on the monarchic sentiments of the aristocrats than on the principles of freedom and equality. In fact, there are so few representatives of the States in Congress that they cannot defend the interests of all of their diverse inhabitants.
The Constitution promotes the rights of the Government but does not emphasize the primacy of human rights. Moreover, the general power given to it by the document “reaches to every thing that concerns human happiness” (Brutus, 1787b, para. 7). While the Government protects its interests, it ignores the needs of the community of free American citizens, omitting the declaring rights that are particularly important to them (Lee, 1788b). The Constitution deprives people of the protection of individual rights, which are the foundation of a free society. Instead, the Framers sought a unified Government in the hands of a few, destroying the principles of the confederation of the American States.
Ultimately, the document allows Congress to have unlimited power over the formation of public institutions and their operations. As Brutus notes in Article 1, “the poser given by this article are very general and comprehensive” (Brutus, 1987a, para. 10). In fact, Congress has the right to make people the laws they want, which opens the door to manipulation. Thus, the document rather vaguely limits the power of the new unified Government, which hardly represents the core interests of the free inhabitants of the United States of America.
References
Brutus. (1787a). Brutus I. Teaching American History. Web.
Brutus. (1787a). Brutus II. Teaching American History. Web.
Lee, R. H. (1788a). Federal Farmer IX. Teaching American History. Web.
Lee, R. H. (1788b). Federal Farmer XVI. Teaching American History. Web.