Creation of the American Constitution

"All men would be tyrants if they could." You would have seen this on many bumper stickers in 1776 if there were such things.

How did the Revolutionary generation address this problem of power? How did they create a system which would protect individual liberty, but also permit government action? We consider these problems, and others, as we explore the creation of constitutions in the American Revolutionary period, and the development of the American government up to the Civil War.