Chapter 7 Section 3 “Where did ideas from the Constitution come from?”

The Founding Fathers When the founding fathers (people who laid the foundation for our American government) were writing the constitution, they looked to several places for examples of how to organize their government. The founding fathers had long before decided that we wanted to create a republic (a government in which citizens rule through elected representatives).

Where did they look for ideas? The delegates to the convention looked at many different documents, governments, and ideas when writing the constitution. They studied ancient Rome, because Rome had been a republic. They also looked at English Government. Even though they had broken away from England, they still valued some of the laws (Magna Carta and English Bill of Rights) and traditions. The founding fathers also looked at representative governments that the United States had created like the House of Burgesses and the Mayflower Compact and also the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. This constitutional candy is delicious!!

Where else did we get ideas? We also got ideas from our own documents like the Declaration of Independence. We knew what we didn’t want our government to turn into. They also drew from enlightenment thinkers (like Montesquieu who said we should have 3 branches of government) and used philosophy to create the constitution.

To sum it up In the end, the new system of government found in the Constitution was not quite like anything that came before it.

Quick Write The most important influence on the Constitution was (other republics, English documents, colonial governments, or Declaration of Independence) because