At the time the Constitution of 1787 was written, America had just won its independence from the monarchy of England. In England, the king and the aristocracy controlled the land and the money at the expense of the people. This limited the people's chances for economic advancement. When these oppressed people broke away from English rule, the newly founded country was based on the principle "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (Declaration of Independence, Page 100 in Documents of American History). With freedom from England, Americans now had the chance for economic equality. However, the more educated and prosperous Americans now controlled an unequal amount of land and money. As a result, they wanted to keep their wealth and not be overly taxed for the sake of democracy. This situation posed a dramatic contradiction in that these rich Americans were acting in a very similar manner to the English aristocracy which they had fought against to eventua

lly gain their independence. These Americans were the same people who wrote the Constitution of 1787 of the United States. However, they wrote the Constitution in such a way that they would confuse the common people and allow the wealthy to constitutionally retain their riches.

The Federalist papers were written by some of the same people who helped establish the Constitution of 1787. Federalist Paper No.10 outlined the wealthy authors' economic interests. Therefore, the Constitution of the United States also includes the interests of these upper class Americans. However, as seen in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, Mason emphasized the same Republican conclusion: give the states the right to have a small group of representatives, some from each state, which vote for the large groups of people in those states. So the Constitution, finally, appears to form a compromise between the economic interests of the majority and of the minority. Therefore, the Constitution displays the least democratic way of controlling the economy, but still appearing to be in the best interest of the common man.

It is apparent that the Federalist Paper is defended the upper class, but during the Debate in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, George Mason expressed a similar emphasis for levying taxes by emphasizing state's rights. He first states that by giving the federal government the right to tax, it is diminished the state government power and thus created one central, "despotic" government. "The assumption of this power of laying direct taxes does, of itself, entirely change the confederation of the states into one consolidated government...The very idea of converting what was formerly a confederation to a consolidated government, is totally subversive of every principle which has hitherto governed us. This power is calculated to annihilate totally the state government

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Approximate Word count = 1266
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)