Worksheet # 45 Home Questions Puzzle Links Next

IDEAS IN ACTION IN THE U.S. CONSTITUTION:

LIMITED GOVERNMENT & FEDERALISM

Now, to walk in the shoes of those who did frame

Our nation’s blueprint, The Constitution by name,

Is to toe a fine line by reason’s pure light,

With chaos at your left and tyranny on your right.

Indeed, folks were wary of power’s temptations,

-- What deeds might be done and what ramifications.

For they say power corrupts and soon hungers for more,

And is like giving a thief the keys to the store.

Hence a limit to law was cheered all around,

While a center of strength had yet to be found.

(Since the law needs muscle too, or else will it fail

To give folks the chance to live freely and well).

And to forge a fine union, neither too strong nor too weak,

A federal system their efforts did wreak.

-- Which means they took care to order the powers

Of both the Nation and States in this land of ours.

Some tasks were there given for each state to decide:

Like the laws for the marriage of a groom to a bride.

And to hire police and to charter town schools,

Each state is quite free to set its own rules.

While other due powers, the ones called concurrent,

Are held both by the states and the central government:

-- The creation of courts and the collection of taxes

Are for both levels acceptable practices.

But still other duties are not to be shared,

Such as interstate commerce and foreign affairs.

Decisions like these are for a central source only,

-- States may not refuse nor call them bologna!