Chapter 7 Section 4
Ratification of the Constitution & the Bill of Rights
We need 9 of 13 to agree!!!
• The delegates of the
Constitutional Convention
decided that 9 of the 13 states
needed to ratify the
constitution in order to make it
law.
• As the Constitution was
released to the public, there
were mixed views. Supporters
of the Constitution called
themselves Federalists
because they favored a strong
federal, or national
government. They called the
people who opposed the
Constitution Antifederalists.
Federalists & Antifederalists
I think this
new
government
is too
strong!
•
•
I think
it’s just
right!
•
Federalists argued that this new
government fixed the problems
with the articles of
confederation. They said that
now the federal government had
enough power to do what it
I think Antifederalists
we
needed.
argued
thatneed
the government
had too much
an
power,
and
that the president
alarm to
keep
could easily become a king.
out that
Antifederalists were also worried
Goldilocks!
because
the new Constitution did
not contain a bill of rights. A bill
of rights would spell out many of
the important rights that citizens
wanted to make sure that they
had.
It took some time and some
convincing to get many of the
states to ratify the constitution.
But, after it was promised that we
would add a bill of rights, all 13
states ratified the constitution.
People celebrated in the streets.
George Washington Becomes
President
• After it was approved,
George Washington
was elected our first
president, our first
congress was
elected, and we got
down to the business
of writing a bill of
rights.
The Bill of Rights
• The Framers of the constitution
had established a way to amend,
or change the constitution, but is
wasn’t easy. If you want to
change the constitution, threefourths of the states have to
approve the change. Twelve
amendments were proposed with
the bill of rights. Three-fourths of
the states approved ten of those.
Those ten amendments became
our bill of rights.
• With the Bill of Rights in place, the
new framework of government
was complete. The constitution
has endured for more than 200
years because it contains
timeless principles, yet can be
amended.