The Making of the Constitution of U.S.A. in the First Stage : A Study on the First American Constitutions and the Creation of the American Values

Article

The Constitution of U.S.A. has two layers. The State Constitutions and the Federal Constitution compose it. In Japan everyone knows the Federal Constitution, but nobody knows the State Constitutions except a few who has ever studied U.S.A. And also U.S.A. is widely regarded as the Constitution-dominated Polity. With that in mind, I will now take a look at how the State Constitutions were made on what kinds of the political principles in early America in order to understand totally U.S.A.. So firstly I check the political position of the Constitution-makers and then clarify about the making-process of three types of State Constitutions of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The results obtained from clarified above shows that the common traits of all State Constitutions are the followings: 1, it is a written Constitution. 2, it consists of two parts, the one the Bills of Rights, the other several principles of Frame of Government. 3, The universal political ideas which is indicated in the Bills of Rights like the Civil rights, the Popular Sovereignty, the Separation of the Powers and others are the political ideas of Whig’s Radicals in England which was transformed through the Enlightenment. When we compare the contents of the first American Constitutions with those of Constitutions of the modern liberal democratic countries, we will find out that the First American Constitutions are the prototype of the latter. And it is worth noting that this universal political Ideas will become the American values. Secondly, I am very impressed that the Constitution-makers hoped to escape the cycle of government which they had learned from Aristotle’ books and prepared for the worst. The Scheme which they prepared are the principles of rotation in office and the accountability of elected official, not to mention the separation of powers. Lastly it is necessary to keep in mind that the reason why U.S.A. is regarded as the Constitution-dominated Polity can be found in this First American Constitution. Because it is clearly written in Constitutions that the first objective of government is to protect both the rivate property and the basic rights of the individuals even against the decision of the majority. In short, in U.S.A. to protect both the private property and the basic rights of the individuals prevails over the state-power. Therefore U.S.A. is regarded as the Constitution-dominated Polity.