Describe the four major influences on American Constitutionalism

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Madalynn Jensen

History

7 November, 14:12

Describe the four major influences on American Constitutionalism

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Kassidy Beasley · Answer 1

1. The Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights of 1689

2. The Declaration by John Locke's writings on the consent of the governed

and by a document close to home for Thomas Jefferson,

3. The draft version by George Mason of Virginia's Declaration of Right

Explanation:

1. Magna Carta was widely held to be the people's reassertion of rights against an oppressive ruler, a legacy that captured American distrust of concentrated political power.

2. John Locke had the idea of natural rights and social contract. Thomas Jefferson used the idea of natural rights (life, liberty and property), and changed them into life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The purpose of government to Locke was to protect the natural rights.

3. George Mason of Fairfax County, Virginia, wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, on which the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights are modeled. Mason refused to support the original Constitution because it failed to protect essential liberties.