What concerns were on the minds of the authors of the Constitution when they were writing it? What were the outcomes directly related to these concerns?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The revolutionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution knew that the new government they were about to create couldn't survive without the support of most of the people. They also realized that it was going to be some time before this new republican form of government took hold among the people. The people's allegiance would be especially important to the newborn nation's survival in the early years following the Revolution, a time of gigantic threats from enemies inside and outside the new country. These threats led the authors of the Constitution to take a tough stand against individuals who broke their allegiance in the face of these dangers. However, many of the drafters' ancestors had fled to the colonies for the very purpose of escaping persecution for heresy and prosecution for treason. They were traitors themselves under English law. English treason consisted either of levying war against the king or giving aid and comfort to the king's enemies. Everything they did to further the interests of the colonies was done under threat of prosecution for treason. Thomas Jefferson referred to the English law of treason as a "deadly weapon in the hands of tyrannical kings" and "weak and wicked Ministers which had drawn the blood of the best and honest men in the kingdom" (Jefferson 1853, 1:215). The existing law of treason in England defined "treason" as "adherence to the enemy.". Such a vague law could lead to attacks on thoughts and feelings. The worries that treason law would be abused, boiled down to two concerns: (1) that peaceful opposition to the government, not just rebellion, would be repressed and (2) that innocent people might be convicted of treason because of perjury, passion, and/or insufficient evidence. The authors of the Constitution were determined that disloyal feelings or opinions and the passions of the time wouldn't be a part of the law of treason. By the time the Constitution was adopted, the new government and current thinking among the governing class came to limit treason to two disloyal behaviors: (1) levying war against your own country and (2) giving aid and comfort to the enemy.