Ratifying the Constitution

Federalistsvs.

Anti-Federalists

Articles of Confederation

Article XIIIEvery State shall abide by the determination of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them; unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State.

Constitution of the United States

Article VIIThe ratification of the conventions of nine states, shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same.

Continental Congress

Received the Constitution and a resolution & letter of transmittal from the Philadelphia Convention on September 20, 1787.

Nationalistically dominated – 18 of 33 members present had come from Philadelphia

Republicans attempted to attach amendments letting the states choose the original or the congressional versions. This was to be followed by another convention to work out a compromise in the various votes cast by the states.

Though the Federalists probably had the votes to carry whatever motion they wanted they choose not to create a noisy & time consuming fight over the proposed amendments..

Continental Congress

Federalists recognized the danger of the attached amendments (to ratification) but realized that any debate would detract from the illusion of unanimity they were trying to create.

Federalists also realized they needed to get the document to Pennsylvania as quickly as possible.

On 28 September Congress chose to compromise sending the Constitution and the Report of the Convention to the states without any congressional recommendation.

Once the resolution passed it was “leaked” to the newspapers in such a way that readers received the impression that the unanimous vote on the compromise had meant unanimous approval of the Constitution.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania had – in September 1787 – a sitting legislature that was nationalist dominated but it was legally required to end on September 29.

Nationalists wanted to get the Constitution before the Pennsylvania legislature for its approval: the legislature could then call for a vote concerning ratification almost immediately.

The quicker elections could be called, the less likely the Constitution would be available in print to the western back country where most of the opposition to the Constitution and to a national government was centered.

If a delay occurred and a new legislature were to vote on the Constitution ratification could not be guaranteed and at the least would be delayed by several critical months.

PennsylvaniaNationalists in the Continental Congress provided a special courier to

speed the Constitution to Philadelphia where the courier arrived Friday night hours before the legislature was to adjourn.

Nineteen anti-nationalist members of the legislature – in an attempt to prevent a quorum and thus approval of a ratification election disappeared.

A huge band of men was sent to scour the city searching for the missing representatives.

Just minutes prior to the expiration of the legal assembly time, two of the missing member were found, seized and forcibly dragged to the House.

With a quorum achieved with the two anti-nationalists, the motion for a special ratification election in early November was passed.

Federalists concentrated on Philadelphia and the surrounding county with its large swing vote.

Ratification07 December 1787 Delaware 30 – 0 We, the deputies of the people of the Delaware

12 December 1787 Pennsylvania 46 – 23 delegates of the people … of Pennsylvania

18 December 1787 New Jersey 38 – 0 we, the delegates … of New Jersey, chosen by the people

09 January 1 1788 Connecticut 128 – 40 In the Name of the People of the State of Connecticut

02 February 1788 Georgia 26 – 0 we, the delegates of the people of the state of Georgia

06 February 1788 Massachusetts 187 – 168 in the name … of the people of … Massachusetts

28 April 1788 Maryland 63 – 11 We, the delegates of the people of the state of Maryland

23 May 1788 South Carolina 149 – 73 In Convention of the people of the state of South Carolina, by their representatives

21 June 1788 New Hampshire 57 – 47 In Convention of the Delegates of the People of the State of New Hampshire

25 June 1788 Virginia 89 – 79 WE the Delegates of the people of Virginia

26 July 1788 New York 30 – 27 We, the delegates of the people of the state of New York

21 November 1789 North Carolina 194 – 77 Resolved, … in behalf of the freemen, citizens and inhabitants of the state of North Carolina,

29 May 1790 Rhode Island 34 - 32 We, the delegates of the people of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

First ElectionFall 1788

Despite the fights and splits surrounding the Philadelphia Convention and the struggle for ratification the elections in the fall of 1788 were uneventful and were held amidst an overall spirit of unity rivaling that of Seventy-Six.

New York, however, faced some extreme difficulties. One faction controlled the upper house of the state legislature while the rival faction controlled the lower. As a result the two could not agree on a method of choosing electors for the Electoral College and thus New York had no electors for president.

In Virginia anti-Federalists Patrick Henry continued to dominate the state legislature and both candidates to the US Senate were anti-Federalists – Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson. So influential was Henry that James Madison was placed in a district that almost denied him a seat in the House of Representatives.

First Election

George Washington was chosen as the first president and John Adams was selected as the first vice-president despite promises made to John Hancock during the ratification process.

All states except Virginia and New York sent delegations to the first congress who were supporters of the Constitution.

New York could not agree on a delegation and thus was not represented in the first US Congress.

North Carolina and Rhode Island had not ratified the Constitution and they also had no delegation in Congress.

The first Congress then consisted of over thirty Federalists and less than a dozen anti-Federalists.

First Congress

March 4 was the day set for the first meeting of the First Congress.

Both Houses failed to attain a quorum and five weeks would pass before Congress had enough members present to conduct business.

The first order of business:the proper form of address for the president.

First Congress

Despite the gaining momentum of the anti-Federalists during the ratification process concerning a bill of rights the first congress continued to ignore the issue and began to consider the raising of a revenue by levying import duties, itself a critical issue.

James Madison who truly appreciated the momentum of the anti-Federalists gave notice on May 4 that he would propose certain amendments to the Constitution on May 25.

The Bill of Rights

Federalists opposed the idea of a Bill of Rights mainly because they thought such amendments as unnecessary: if the Constitution laid out the powers of the government why enumerate the rights of the people.

Anti-Federalists supported the amendments during the ratification but once congress met they realized that any chance of a second convention to “redo” the constitution would be lost if such amendments passed turned against the idea.

Because many Federalists recognized that Madison was attempting to prevent just such a convention, his proposal passed with the support of the Federalists.

The Bill of Rights

Madison took all the proposals made by the nine states concerning amendments to the Constitution except North Carolina and Rhode Island.

Once completely assembled Madison had 186 amendments: 210 if one includes the preamble amendments forwarded from New York.

The Bill of Rights

Madison combined duplicates cutting the number to 80 proposals that he considered substantive.

By dismissing the least popular and most impractical Madison cut the number to nineteen amendments.

On June 8, the House sent the proposed amendment to a committee who returned 17 amendments differing little from Madison’s originals and including applicability to the states as well as the national government.

On September 2 the Senate took up the issue of the proposed amendments and immediately removed the applicability to the states but otherwise largely concurred with the House.

The Bill of Rights

On September 25 a joint committee of the House and Senate met to resolve the differences in the two versions and further consolidated the proposed amendments to twelve – the first two concerning the number and salaries of congressmen were never approved.

North Carolina ratified the Constitution on November 21, 1789 and five months later Rhode Island followed its sisters into the union.

On December 15, 1791 ten amendments were ratified and became the Bill of Rights, part of the Constitution.

With that, the momentum for a new convention lost all significance and collapsed.