Elizabeth Michie

Mrs. Hatch
December 16, 2015
Constitutional Speech

The Constitution of the United States of America is the central

instrument for government and the supreme law of the land and has been for
over 200 years. This document lays the framework for which our government
is set. From this document, our Representative Republic began. It defines the
roles and powers of each branch of government and is the supreme law in
our country. The Constitution has provided a basis for a stable government
that gives its citizens many freedoms and rights, but that requires a large
amount of responsibility from its citizens. This document owes some of its
success to its simplicity of language and flexibility to be amended.
The path to the Constitution was neither straight nor easy. This
document that has formed this great nation was the product of a trial and
error process of the colonists. The fight for what this document stands for
began earlier than our country. This governments powers have been
separated into three branches; the judicial, the executive, and the legislative.
Each of these branches have a separate and equal role in the process of
lawmaking. The Constitution allows for checks and balances between these
powers in the process of lawmaking and in governing the country. All of these
branches of the government derive their power from the governed. The
people elect representatives for the legislative branch and the executive
branch and both of these branches determine the judges for the judicial
branch. This process is fundamental in a representative republic and ensures
that the peoples voices arent lost to the majority. The founding fathers

structured our government this way to avoid a tyranny of a monarchy as well

as to avoid the chaos of a true democracy.
The Constitution, when drafted, was the result of previous failures in
governance on this continent. The founding fathers wanted to improve and
expand on the intentions of previous experimental government. The ideas
behind the constitution, those of individual freedoms and a voice for
everyone, was the fuel behind all of the boycotts and arguments with Britain.
For example, No taxation without representation is eliminated in Article 1
of the Constitution which states, Representatives and direct taxes shall be
apportioned among the several states which may be included in this union.
The Constitution made up for areas where in the Articles of Confederation
lacked the power to regulate the essential foundations of a nation. Article 6
of the Constitution clarifies its power by stating that it is the Supreme Law
of the Land which ensures that we have a strong central government.
Without the constitution there would be no civic virtue and without
civic virtue the Constitution would no longer be relevant. Civic virtue is the
dedication of the citizens to the common welfare of their community even at
the costs of their individual interests. An example of the relationship between
the constitution and civic virtue is a citizens responsibility to participate in
government. This could be choosing to vote and educating themselves about
politics on a local and national level. If a citizen chooses not to be
responsible or demonstrate their civic virtue, then that citizen is giving up
the right to representation that the constitution offers. The Constitution gives
us individual freedoms. In order to maintain these freedoms, citizens must
act responsibly with civic virtue. This means, that as citizens of this country,
we have certain rights and responsibilities. The Constitution ensures that our
government is protecting our individual rights, but the Constitution also
contracts that as citizens with these freedoms that we will be held
responsible to the laws that govern our nation.

The Constitution is an amazing document because it was able to lay

the foundation for a form of government that worked for 13 small colonies
during the 1700s and still works for all 50 states and over 300 million people
today and has been able to transform this nation into a world super power.
The reason it was able to do this is because the founding fathers instilled
mechanisms into the Constitution that allowed for continued change and
improvement through the amendment process. As our country developed
and faced challenges to the union, the amendment process allowed the
Constitution to change and develop rights. In total, 26 Amendments have
been added since the adoption of the constitution. These amendments have
expanded the rights of the citizens and defined further the power of the
federal government. The language of the Constitution is significant in that
the founders wrote it very concisely to avoid large scale interpretation of
powers that are not specifically enumerated in the constitution. The fact that
the Constitution was written and provided the process for amending itself
and that it is so concise is the reason that this document is still relevant
today.
In conclusion, the Constitution lays out the structure of our
government which is a Representative Republic and defines the distribution
of powers between the state and central government. The Constitution gives
citizens individual rights and freedoms that the citizens must be aware of
and engage in, in order to maintain those rights. The Constitution is still
relevant today because of the way the founders set up the constitutions own
amendment process. The amendments allowed room for improvement and
flexibility in the document as our nation and society changed. The
Constitution has governed and will govern our nation as long as the citizens
of this country are aware of their rights and freedoms are willing to live
within the framework of the Constitution.