Why was Montesquieu important to the founders?

0:04[Music] Montesquieu was huge for them he was the most read of any of the political thinkers. Montesquieu's book Spirit of the laws is is a difficult book to read. Montesquieu is clever and Brilliant and he doesn't want to tell us everything he's thinking because he tells us I'm going to raise this question but I'm not going to answer it because dear readers I want you to have something to do and think about for yourselves so he he almost gives us puzzles sometimes but he's real clear on on one thing in particular so here's this French Aristocrat who's probably his wine seller was bigger than my house he loved Liberty and so while he didn't invent the idea of separation of powers he's the one

0:53who promoted it and turned it into a political truism for the Modern Age and he wrote about this in spirit of the laws and the whole idea of separation of powers checks and balances is for the preservation of Liberty that any government in which the powers are accumulated in this one person or even in one group of people for example A large group of majority if you have all the power then realistically speaking no one who is being ruled by those people is free so he wanted to have these institutional Arrangements you know this by separating the powers into three branches of government [Music]