Although the Constitution went into effect following ratification by New Hampshire, four states still remained outside the newly formed union. Two were the wealthy, populous states of Virginia and New York. Other Virginia delegates were swayed by the promise that a bill of rights similar to the Virginia Declaration of Rights would be added after the Constitution was ratified.
On June 25, , Virginia became the tenth state to grant its approval. The approval of New York was the last major hurdle. Facing considerable opposition to the Constitution in that state, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote a series of essays, beginning in , arguing for a strong federal government and support of the Constitution.
Later compiled as The Federalist and now known as The Federalist Papers , these eighty-five essays were originally published in newspapers in New York and other states under the name of Publius, a supporter of the Roman Republic. Figure 3. These essays, which originally appeared in newspapers, were collected and published together under the title The Federalist in They are now known as The Federalist Papers.
The essays addressed a variety of issues that troubled citizens. For example, in Federalist No. The federal system, in which power was divided between the national and state governments, and the division of authority within the federal government into separate branches would prevent any one part of the government from becoming too strong.
Other essays countered different criticisms made of the Constitution and echoed the argument in favor of a strong national government. In Federalist No. An aristocracy would not arise, and if it did, its members would have been chosen by lesser men.
Figure 4. James Madison a played a vital role in the formation of the Constitution. He was an important participant in the Constitutional Convention and authored many of The Federalist Papers. Despite the fact that he did not believe that a Bill of Rights was necessary, he wrote one in order to allay the fears of those who believed the federal government was too powerful. Alexander Hamilton b was one of the greatest political minds of the early United States.
Americans need not fear the power of factions or special interests, he argued, for the republic was too big and the interests of its people too diverse to allow the development of large, powerful political parties.
For those who worried that the president might indeed grow too ambitious or king-like, Hamilton, in Federalist No. Electors from each state would select the president. Indeed, Hamilton argued in Federalist No. Making decisions alone, the president could decide what actions should be taken faster than could Congress, whose deliberations, because of its size, were necessarily slow. The Anti-Federalists also produced a body of writings, less extensive than The Federalists Papers , which argued against the ratification of the Constitution.
However, these were not written by one small group of men as The Federalist Papers had been. A collection of the writings that are unofficially called The Anti-Federalist Papers is also available online. The arguments of the Federalists were persuasive, but whether they actually succeeded in changing the minds of New Yorkers is unclear. Once Virginia ratified the Constitution on June 25, , New York realized that it had little choice but to do so as well.
If it did not ratify the Constitution, it would be the last large state that had not joined the union. A year later, North Carolina became the twelfth state to approve. Alone and realizing it could not hope to survive on its own, Rhode Island became the last state to ratify, nearly two years after New York had done so.
Those who opposed a strong central government argued that this failure could allow a handful of powerful men to gain control of the nation and rule it for as long as they wished. Although the framers did not anticipate the idea of career politicians, those who supported the Constitution argued that reelecting the president and reappointing senators by state legislatures would create a body of experienced men who could better guide the country through crises.
A president who did not prove to be a good leader would be voted out of office instead of being reelected. Only in , after Franklin Roosevelt had been elected four times, was the Twenty-Second Amendment passed to restrict the presidency to two terms.
Are term limits a good idea? Should they have originally been included in the Constitution? Why or why not? Are there times when term limits might not be good? Anti-Federalists objected to the power the Constitution gave the federal government and the absence of a bill of rights to protect individual liberties. The Federalists countered that a strong government was necessary to lead the new nation and promised to add a bill of rights to the Constitution.
The Federalist Papers , in particular, argued in favor of ratification and sought to convince people that the new government would not become tyrannical. Finally, in June , New Hampshire became the ninth state to approve the Constitution, making it the law of the land.
The large and prosperous states of Virginia and New York followed shortly thereafter, and the remaining states joined as well. Skip to main content. Delaware was the first State to ratify, on December 7, After New Hampshire became the ninth State to ratify, on June 22, , the Confederation Congress established March 9, as the date to begin operating under the Constitution.
One of the principal points of contention between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists was the lack of an enumeration of basic civil rights in the Constitution. Many Federalists argued, as in Federalist No. In several States, however, the ratification debate in some States hinged on the adoption of a bill of rights. The solution was known as the Massachusetts Compromise, in which four States ratified the Constitution but at the same time sent recommendations for amendments to the Congress.
James Madison introduced 12 amendments to the First Congress in Ten of these would go on to become what we now consider to be the Bill of Rights.
One was never passed, while another dealing with Congressional salaries was not ratified until , when it became the 27th Amendment. Based on the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the English Bill of Rights, the writings of the Enlightenment, and the rights defined in the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights contains rights that many today consider to be fundamental to America. The First Amendment provides that Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise.
It protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. The Third Amendment prohibits the government from quartering troops in private homes, a major grievance during the American Revolution. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizure. The government may not conduct any searches without a warrant, and such warrants must be issued by a judge and based on probable cause.
The Fifth Amendment provides that citizens not be subject to criminal prosecution and punishment without due process. Citizens may not be tried on the same set of facts twice and are protected from self-incrimination the right to remain silent.
The amendment also establishes the power of eminent domain, ensuring that private property is not seized for public use without just compensation. The amendment also provides the accused the right to compel testimony from witnesses, as well as the right to legal representation. The Seventh Amendment provides that civil cases preserve the right to trial by jury.
The Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishments. The Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia in May of The delegates shuttered the windows of the State House and swore secrecy so they could speak freely.
Although they had gathered to revise the Articles of Confederation, by mid-June they had decided to completely redesign the government. There was little agreement about what form it would take. One of the fiercest arguments was over congressional representation—should it be based on population or divided equally among the states? The framers compromised by giving each state one representative for every 30, people in the House of Representatives and two representatives in the Senate.
They agreed to count enslaved Africans as three-fifths of a person. Slavery itself was a thorny question that threatened to derail the Union.
It was temporarily resolved when the delegates agreed that the slave trade could continue until After three hot summer months of equally heated debate, the delegates appointed a Committee of Detail to put its decisions in writing.
Near the end of the convention, a Committee of Style and Arrangement kneaded it into its final form, condensing 23 articles into seven in less than four days.
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