The Founding Documents

Something that both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution have in common is the focus on a just government, ruled by the people, not by a singular royal. The Declaration outlines the need for this government, while the Constitution actually goes on to set up such a government. This desire for what will become modern democracy is stated in the Declaration with the line: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.” To avoid the tyranny of the previous regime, the Constitution enhanced this democracy by breaking up the government into separate bodies, such as “a Senate and House of Representatives.” In addition, the Constitution establishes the process by which a leader is selected by the people in Article II of the document. The founding documents can be seen as very similar, as the central goal of each is the establishment of a new government system- democracy. One of the fist lines of the Declaration, shown above, states in the founding father’s desire for a government run by those it governs. This idea is only reinforced by the Constitution, which, in its various beginning articles, outlines how the different members of the political system are to be elected by the people. In addition, the Constitution also calls for the new government to be broken up into several branches. Although this breakup is not specified in the Declaration, the reasoning behind the split is, however, found in the Declaration. The Declaration’s argument is against tyranny, and breaking up the power between separate government bodies is an effective way of doing so. So it can clearly be seen that the founding documents are fundamentally similar.