AIM:
The Debate Over Ratification
As the Constitutional Convention drew to a close, a Committee on Style worked out the wording of
the final draft. When it was time to sign the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin urged the meeting to
“act heartily and unanimously” and try to make it work:
“I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am
not sure I shall never approve them. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of
being obliged to change opinions even on important subjects…It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find
this system approaching so near to perfection as it does…Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution
because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best.”
How would you describe Benjamin Franklin’s feelings towards the Constitution?
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In all, 39 delegates from 12 states signed the Constitution. Then the Constitutional Convention
adjourned on Monday, September 17, 1787. Now it was time for the American people to approve
the document. When the Constitution was finally published, the drastic changes surprised and
angered some people. Many people remembered British tyranny and feared the idea of a toopowerful national government. Supporters and opponents of the new Constitution immediately
began to present their arguments.
In this corner:
In this corner:
Federalists
-Supporters of the Constitution
(said Constitution would create a federal
system-power split btwn. central & state govts.)
-Large landowners, merchants, & artisans
-Lived in large coastal cities
Key Leaders
James Madison, John Dickinson, Alexander
Hamilton, George Washington, Ben Franklin
Anti-Federalists
-Opponents of the Constitution
(said state governments should be supreme)
-Western farmers living far from the coast
-Self-sufficient & suspicious of
wealthy/powerful
Key Leaders
John Hancock, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams
“These lawyers and men of learning, and moneyed men, that talk so finely, and gloss over matters so
smoothly, to make us poor, illiterate people swallow down the pill, expect to get into Congress
themselves; they expect to be managers of this Constitution, and get all the power and all the money
into their own hands, and then they will swallow up all us little folks, like the great Leviathan, Mr.
President; yes, just like the whale swallowed up Jonah.”
Would this person be considered a Federalist or Anti-Federalist? Why?
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It is evident that…the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the
same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary
constitutional means and personal motives to resist [intrusions] of the others. The constant aim is to
divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other.
Would this person be considered a Federalist or Anti-Federalist? Why?
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Nothing can be more evident, than that an exclusive power of regulating elections for the national
government, in the hands of the state legislatures, would leave the existence of the union entirely at
their mercy. They could at any moment annihilate it, by neglecting to provide for the choice of persons
to administer its affairs.
Would this person be considered a Federalist or Anti-Federalist? Why?
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My political curiosity…leads me to ask, who authorized them to speak the language of, We, the
People, instead of We, the States?...The Federal Convention ought to have amended the old system—
for this purpose they were solely delegated. Here is a resolution as radical as that which separated
us from Great Britain. Our rights and privileges are endangered, and the sovereignty of the states will
be relinquished.
Would this person be considered a Federalist or Anti-Federalist? Why?
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Although many influential American leaders opposed the new Constitution, several factors worked
against the Anti-Federalists. First of all, their campaign was a negative one. The Federalists
presented a definite program to meet the nation’s problems, while the Anti-Federalists simply
complained that the Constitution failed to protect basic rights, but had nothing to offer in its place.
The Federalists’ arguments for ratification were summarized in The
Federalist—a collection of 85 essays written by James Madison, Alexander
Hamilton, and John Jay. Under the pen name Publius, the three men
published most of the essays in New York newspapers in late 1787 and
early 1788 before collecting them in a single book.
Based on the map to the left:
1. Which states do you think would be the
first to ratify the Constitution?
2. Which states do you think would put up
the biggest fight against ratification?
On December 7, 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution, and within a few
weeks, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut had joined the Union. With some
hesitation, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and New Hampshire had also ratified the
Constitution by June 1788. The Federalists had reached the minimum number of states required
to put the new Constitution into effect, but without New York and Virginia, many feared the new
government would not succeed. To James Madison’s great relief, Virginia narrowly approved the
Constitution by the end of June 1788; however, this was only after Madison had promised to add a
bill of rights. In New York, the vote was even closer, but the state eventually ratified the document
in the interest of its economy. Once the new Congress was elected, it needed to add that bill of
rights in the form of amendments to the Constitution. Article V of the Constitution details how
amendments can be proposed and accepted.
Student-Teacher Contract
The undersigned hereby agrees to willfully submit to the hegemony of Mr. Carmody and capitulate
all dispensations when in his propinquity. Mr. Carmody reserves the right to interminably
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discretion.
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