The American constitution, which was written in Philadelphia en 1787, defines the basis of the American government; it’s also the highest law of the country. It created the republic, the democracy where the power belongs to the American people by means of their representatives.

1/ founding principles of the constitution:

The people who founded the constitution were people with large knowledge about politic, philosophy and history, and had a precise idea about what should be a “government”.
Several great thinkers and great ideas influenced these men who wanted to create the best society as possible.
There were speaking about natural law that already was in centre of the independence declaration. The principle of the natural law was an idea develop by the English philosopher john Locke who explain that in the natural state, without government, there also some laws which oblige each not to hurt the others, in their health, in their freedom…
A fair and legitimate government can exists provided that the people is agree and control it. To create a government, people have to give up their right to make everything to win in return in security.
Another philosopher influenced the constitution. Montesquieu, French philosopher thought that the English government was one of the best examples of republic thanks to the division of the powers and their balance between the king and the parliament because the interest of everybody was represented. The idea of republic creates important ideas, which are: the function of the government is limited and the largest number of people must elect the representative.

2/the structure of the constitution:

The preamble shows us that the text can be divided in tree parts: The introduction, the seven articles and the bill of rights.
In the introduction, it defines the principal goals that the government have to carry on:
To form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, promote the general welfare