Omar Bennett
The United States Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, by 38 of the 41 delegates present. The document was not binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 existing states. The Federalists, who believed in a strong central government, faced opposition from the Anti-Federalists, who fought against the Constitution as it lacked a bill of rights. The first state to ratify was Delaware on December 7, 1787, and on June 21, 1788, the Constitution became official when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it. The Bill of Rights was not ratified until 1791.
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What You'll Learn
The Articles of Confederation
The Articles were ratified by 12 states by February 1779, 14 months into the process. Maryland was the lone holdout, refusing to ratify until the other states ceded their claims to lands west of the Ohio River. Maryland finally ratified on February 2, 1781, and Congress was informed on March 1, officially proclaiming the Articles of Confederation to be the law of the land.
However, the Articles of Confederation soon proved inadequate in governing the growing nation. The central government lacked the power to regulate commerce, tax, or effectively support a war effort. Disputes over territory, war pensions, taxation, and trade threatened to tear the country apart. As a result, a Constitutional Convention was assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787 to revise the Articles. Instead, the delegates decided to completely redesign the government, drafting a new Constitution that was signed on September 17, 1787.
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The Constitutional Convention
Alexander Hamilton of New York, along with James Madison and George Washington, played a key role in convincing Congress to organize the Constitutional Convention. The delegates to the convention, representing different interests and views, engaged in intense debates over the course of three months. They ultimately decided to create a new form of government rather than simply revising the Articles of Confederation.
Near the end of the convention, a Committee of Style and Arrangement was tasked with condensing the decisions into a final document. On September 17, 1787, 38 delegates signed the Constitution, with George Reed signing on behalf of the absent John Dickinson of Delaware, bringing the total to 39 signatures. The Constitution proposed a powerful central government, balancing the desire for centralized power with loyalty to individual states.
The process of ratifying the Constitution was challenging. The founders bypassed the state legislatures and called for special ratifying conventions in each state, requiring ratification by 9 of the 13 states. The Federalists, who supported a strong central government, faced opposition from the Anti-Federalists, who were concerned about the concentration of power and the absence of a bill of rights. The Massachusetts Compromise, which stipulated that amendments protecting rights would be proposed immediately, helped secure ratification in several states. On June 21, 1788, with New Hampshire becoming the ninth state to ratify, the Constitution became the official framework of the United States government.
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The Federalist Papers
The authors of The Federalist Papers attempted to hide their identities due to Hamilton and Madison's attendance at the Constitutional Convention. However, their identities were correctly discerned by astute observers. After Hamilton's death in 1804, a list emerged claiming that he alone had written two-thirds of the essays. However, it is now believed that several of the essays were written by Madison.
The high demand for the essays led to their publication in a more permanent form. On January 1, 1788, the New York publishing firm J. & A. McLean announced that they would publish the first 36 essays as a bound volume. This volume was released on March 22, 1788, and was titled "The Federalist Volume 1". New essays continued to be published in newspapers, with the last eight papers (Nos. 78–85) republished in the New York newspapers between June 14 and August 16, 1788.
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Ratification by 9 of 13 states
The process of making the Constitution official was a long and arduous one. The founding fathers set the terms for ratifying the Constitution, bypassing the state legislatures and calling for special ratifying conventions in each state. This was because they recognised that state legislature members would be reluctant to give up power to a national government.
The Constitution would become official once it was ratified by 9 of the 13 states. This was a challenging task, as only 6 of the 13 states reported a pro-Constitution majority. The Federalists, who believed in a strong central government, needed to convert at least three more states. The Anti-Federalists, on the other hand, fought hard against the Constitution, arguing that it created a powerful central government that reminded them of the one they had just overthrown, and that it lacked a bill of rights.
The ratification campaign was a close call. The tide turned in Massachusetts, where the "vote now, amend later" compromise helped secure victory. This eventually led to success in the final holdout states. On June 21, 1788, the Constitution became the official framework of the government of the United States of America when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.
The first state to ratify the Constitution was Delaware on December 7, 1787, followed by Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut. After Massachusetts, Maryland and South Carolina also ratified the Constitution before New Hampshire.
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The Bill of Rights
The United States Constitution is one of the longest-lived and most emulated constitutions in the world. It was signed on September 17, 1787, by 38 delegates, with George Reed signing on behalf of John Dickinson of Delaware, bringing the total number of signatures to 39. The Constitution was then ratified by 9 of the 13 states, enacting the new government.
The Third Amendment (1791) prohibits the federal government from forcing individuals to provide lodging to soldiers in their homes during peacetime without their consent. The Fourth Amendment (1791) protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures of either self or property by government officials.
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Frequently asked questions
The Constitutional Convention was assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation, which gave the Confederation Congress the power to make rules and request funds from the states but lacked enforcement powers, the ability to regulate commerce, and the ability to print money. However, the delegates at the convention decided to completely redesign the government.
The delegates at the convention engaged in heated debates over three months. A Committee of Detail was appointed to put the decisions in writing, and a Committee of Style and Arrangement condensed 23 articles into seven. On September 17, 1787, 38 delegates signed the Constitution, with George Reed signing for the absent John Dickinson of Delaware, bringing the total to 39 signatures.
The founders set the terms for ratifying the Constitution, bypassing the state legislatures and calling for special ratifying conventions in each state. Ratification by 9 of the 13 states was required to enact the new government. Hamilton and Madison led lobbying efforts, and "The Federalist Papers" were published in newspapers nationwide to explain and defend the proposed government. Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution on December 7, 1787.
The Constitution became the official framework of the government of the United States on June 21, 1788, when New Hampshire became the ninth state out of 13 to ratify it. However, it was not ratified by all states until May 29, 1790, when Rhode Island approved the document.
