Answer to Question #203181 in History for Khomotso

Question

Explain why the Americans constitution entrenched a cultureof democacy and freedom amongst white Americans while protecting the institution of slavery.

Answer 1

 American Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Because it is a liberal constitution, one whose first purpose is to protect individual freedom, the supreme law of the land avoids taking a stand on the supreme issues. It does not aim to instruct people on the virtues, or the content of happiness, or the path to salvation. That’s not because it supposes that virtue is irrelevant, happiness has no content, or salvation is a delusion. Rather, the Constitution presupposes that the people, as individuals and through the various associations and groups they form, will pursue these goods. And it lays down a framework within which we, as a people, can maintain a society where each has the liberty to pursue, consistent with a like liberty for others, virtue, happiness, and salvation in the way each regards as fitting. This constitutional framework consists of the enumeration of government powers and the elaboration of individual rights. It establishes minimum requirements and imposes outer boundaries on state action and personal conduct while largely leaving substantive judgments about morals and policy to individuals and democratic politics.

To recognize the role of constitutional law in establishing a culture of freedom takes nothing away from the formative role played by economic life, popular entertainment and the arts, friendship and family, love and war, religious faith, and faith in reason. Our opinions about freedom, as well as our capacities to enjoy its blessings and maintain its material and moral preconditions, are formed by many forces. The supreme law of the land, however, is of special interest. By establishing authoritative limits, by proclaiming, with the backing of the coercive power of the state, what is forbidden, what is permitted, and what is required, it creates comprehensive background conditions for and sets a tone that reverberates throughout, all spheres of our lives.

Thus, the American constitution has expressly the right to protect the freedom of everyone including white Americans, and also free from slavery. It has clear guidelines on labor laws.