John+Rutledge-2

Brianna Moran**__John Rutledge __** **Born:**  September 17, 1739 Charleston, South Carolina ** Died: ** June 21, 1800 (age 60) Charleston, South Carolina, USA

__**Part One:**__ John Rutledge was a statesman and a judge, and was the 31st person to sign The Declaration of Independance. He was also once the governor of South Carolina.

John Rutledge led a good life before he started his carreer in law. He was born in Charleston, and had a big family. He had a English mother, his father was a physician, and he had six younger siblings. He recieved an education from his father, until he passed away, and his siblings were taught by an Anglican preist. Rutledge was always interested in law in his youth. He would "play lawyer" with his brothers and sisters, and finally when he was 17, he started reading law under James Parsons. He went on to study law at London's Middle Temple, and throughout his studies, won many cases in English courts. He was very invloved in law before he made it to the Constitutional convention. In the Constitutional Convention, John Rutledge was a delegate who represented the state of South Carolina. He was present 86 days, and absent only three. He played a major role in the Constitutuion. Rutledge served on five committes. He came up with the idea that one single person would be able to make a wise choice and said choice would be more succesful. He thought the president should make a final choice versus having him co-incide with a "co- president." This is a very important idea, because if he didn't come up with this thought, the government would be shaped a lot differently.

__**Part Two: Constitution DBQ **__

Creating the constitution was a long and challenging process taken to create a strong central government without letting any one person, or group of people, get too much power. The constitution makes all American citizens equal, so we wouldn’t want one person to have more power than the rest of us. The constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways. Those four was are federalism, a separation of powers, a checks and balances system, and small and large states. The first guard against tyranny was federalism, which means there is power shared between state and central governments. There are many ways federalism guards against tyranny. For example, the Venn Diagram in document A shows that taxes, borrowing money, setting up courts, making laws, and enforcing laws, are all powers shared between state and central government. If all of these powers are shared, then no one group can gain too much power. Also stated in document A, "In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself." The second guard against tyranny was separation of powers, which means there is a system of vesting in separate branches the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of a government. "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny .... (L)iberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct." [Doc B] This alone clearly states how important separating powers is. Document B also mentions that in the Constitution. Article 1, Section 1, says that "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives." This means that the power will be shared between these three parts of government, thus creating equal power between the three. If one of these groups got too much power, they could lead with a tyrannical force and take over the government completely. Separation of powers is very important to guarding against tyranny because without it, one of the three branches of government could easily be given too much power and take over. The third guard against tyranny was checks and balances which means each three branches of government balances their power by checking on each other. Document C explains the importance of this by stating "...the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that they may be a check on the other .... (The three branches) should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other." There is also a chart in document C that shows how the three branches of government check each other. It shows that congress can approve presidential nominations, override a President’s veto, and impeach the President and remove him/her from office. This is especially important to guarding against tyranny because this way, there are separated powers that check each other to maintain a civilized lifestyle, and follow the Constitution correctly. The fourth guard against tyranny was large states versus small states which means that states receive the number of representatives they have based on it’s population. Article 1, Section 2, of the Constitution states "Representatives ... shall be apportioned ... according to ... (population) .... The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative" (Doc D) This explains that representatives will be based off of population. This is important to guarding against tyranny because certain small states could have a lot of representatives, making it easier for them to become a large tyrannical force. The constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways; federalism, a separation of powers, a checks and balances system, and small and large states. This is very important to our government and to how we live our everyday lives so civilly. This is so important to understand because without the Constitution, there would be complete chaos and no order. This is important today because the Constitution shapes our government. This is why the Constitution is so important, and how it guards against tyranny.

This reinforces the idea that a shared government does not give either group the majority of the power, and that it is evenly divided. Federalism helps guard against tyranny because of the shared power between the two major governmental groups.

__** Part Three: Attendace Record ** __ Constitutional Convention Attendance Record
 * || ** Present ** || ** Absent ** || ** Do Not Know ** || ** Probably Present ** || ** Probably Absent ** ||
 * ** Act 1 ** || 21 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 ||
 * ** Act 2 ** || 30 || 2 || 0 || 0 || 0 ||
 * ** Act 3 ** || 20 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 ||
 * ** Act 4 ** || 15 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 ||
 * ** Totals ** || 86 || 3 || 0 || 0 || 0 ||
 * ** % ** || 97% || 3% || 0% || 0% || 0% ||

__** Citations: **__ "John Rutledge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." //Main Page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. . "Picture." //www.sciway.com//. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. <www.sciway.net/hist/governors "The Constitutional Convention as a Four Act Drama." //TeachingAmericanHistory.org -- Free Seminars and Summer Institutes for Social Studies Teachers//. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. <http://www.teachingamericanhistory "Picture." //Revolutionary War//. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. [|www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/image-files/constitutional-convention-large.jpg]. []