Approving the Constitution

The Constitution was signed by 39 men on September 17, 1787

On the day of the signing, Ben Franklin said….

“There are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them…. I doubt to whether any other Constitution we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution…. It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies.”

The Constitution did not become the law of the land on the day it was signed… It had to be ratified by the states (ratified – approved & adopted; goes into effect)

The approval of nine states was required for ratification.

Copies of the Constitution were sent out to all 13 states.

Debates were held in each of the states Should we ratify the new Constitution or not?

Not everyone supported the new Constitution!

Let’s start with the supporters of the Constitution

Those who supported the Constitution were called Federalists

Supporters were called federalists because the Constitution created a federal system of government

A federal system (or federalism)… one in which power is shared between the national government (called federal government) and the state governments

Remember, Under the Articles of Confederation, there was no sharing of powers The states had the power! The states were independent & sovereign

Leading federalists (supporters) of the Constitution were: 1) James Madison 2) Alexander Hamilton 3) John Jay

James Madison

Of course, Madison was going to be in favor of the Constitution Madison’s “Virginia Plan” basically became the Constitution (with a few tweaks and modifications)

Madison later becomes the 4th president of the United States

Madison was the shortest president in history… 5’4” and never weighing more than 100 pounds!

Alexander Hamilton

Remember, Hamilton was in favor of a strong central government He wanted to do away with state sovereignty Congress could veto any state law Governors would be appointed by Congress

Of course, Hamilton would be in favor of the Constitution (It gave much more power to the federal government than did the Articles of Confederation)

Hamilton was never a president, but one of the most influential of our Founding Fathers…

First Secretary of the Treasury

Hamilton… Chief of Staff to George Washington Founder of our nation’s financial system Founder of the first political party

John Jay

First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

What did the Federalists believe and why did they support the Constitution?

A strong national government can best represent the interest of all the people

A strong national government can protect all citizens against foreign nations

A strong national government can pay the nation’s debts and keep the value of American money stable

Under the Constitution, a strong national government would protect citizen’s rights

Those who opposed the Constitution were called anti-federalists opponents of the Constitution

The Anti-Federalists felt… the Constitution took too much power from the states and gave it to the federal government

The leading anti-federalists were… 1) Thomas Jefferson 2) Patrick Henry 3) James Monroe

Thomas Jefferson (author of the Declaration of Independence and 3rd president of the United States)

Patrick Henry Henry led the opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765 and is remembered for his "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech. 

James Monroe 5th president of the United States

A central government is too removed from citizens to understand their needs

Vague wording in the constitution might lead to an abuse of power by the national government

A strong national government might swallow up state governments

A Bill of Rights is necessary to ensure that citizen’s rights are protected

Main Point To Remember Federalists agreed with a strong central (federal) government Anti-Federalists agreed with rights of the states

The Debate in the states…

The federalists wrote a series of essays and articles that were published in leading newspapers throughout the states in support of the Constitution

There were 85 of them in total

They were written by Hamilton (he wrote 51 of them), Madison (26), and Jay (5).

They are now called the Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers were very influential in swaying public opinion in favor of ratification of the Constitution

The Federalist Papers

A big turning point came when the federalists agreed to add a Bill of Rights

The FIRST state to ratify the Constitution was Delaware on Dec. 7, 1787

The NINTH state to ratify the Constitution, thus making it the law of the land, was New Hampshire on June 21, 1788

North Carolina was the TWELTH state to ratify the Constitution

The LAST state to ratify it was Rhode Island on May 29, 1790