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The Founders shared many ideas about government. We often focus our attention on conflict in the Convention of
1787 and the compromises reached by the participants, but the really important story of the Constitution is the consensus
that was shared by these men of influence.
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The Founders had read John Locke and absorbed his idea that the purpose of government is to protect individual liberty
and property. They belived in a natural law, superior to any human-made laws, that endowed each person with certain inalienable
rights, the rights to life, liberty, and property. They believed that all people were equally entitled to these rights. Most
of them, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, understood that the belief in personal liberty conflicted with
the practice of slavery and found the inconsistency troubling.
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Although most of the world's governments in 1787 were hereditary monarchies, the Founders believed the people should
have a voice in choosing their own representatives in government. They opposed hereditary aristocracy and titled nobility.
Instead, they sought to forge a republic Republicanism meant government by representatives of the people. The Founders
expected the masses to consent to be governed by their leaders. THe Founders believed the people should have only a limited
role in directly selecting their representatives: they should vote for members of the House of Representatives, but senators,
the president, and members of the Supreme Court should be selected by others more qualified to judge their ability.
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Curtousy of Politics in America by Thomas R. Dye
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