Those opposed to slavery brought up issues of morality. Ultimately, the delegates who strongly opposed slavery realized that pressing against it would make it impossible for the states to come together. They worked out a compromise with the Southern states. They agreed that Congress could not tax exports and that no law could be passed to ban the slave trade until And in a final concession to the South, the delegates approved a fugitive slave clause.
The delegates had been meeting for almost four months when the Committee of Style presented a final draft of the Constitution on September The draft contained a new provision, requiring trial by jury in criminal cases tried in the new federal court system.
Trial by jury was considered one of many basic rights, and George Mason stood up and proposed including a full bill of rights, listing the basic individual rights that the government could not violate.
Eldridge Gerry agreed and moved for a committee to prepare a bill of rights. Mason seconded his motion, but it was defeated, by a vote of 10 to 0. Each state had one vote, and only 10 states were represented for that vote. It is not clear why the motion failed. Eight states already had constitutions that included a bill of rights, so one might have been drafted quickly. Three months after the Constitution was signed, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Madison saying that it had been a big mistake to omit a bill of rights.
When the Constitution was being ratified by the states, many people opposed the Constitution just because it did not contain a bill of rights. In Massachusetts, and in six other states, the ratifying conventions recommended adding a bill of rights to the Constitution. And soon after the first Congress convened in, it responded to the request of the seven states and approved 10 constitutional amendments drafted by James Madison that became the Bill of Rights.
On Monday, September 17, when the delegates met to sign the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin had prepared a speech. When the document was presented to Congress and to the country, it surprised everyone. In fact, it provoked controversy in many states. But by July , nine states had ratified it, and it went into effect.
Elections were held, and on March 4, , the first Congress and president, George Washington, took office under the new U. Compromises had been necessary at every point, and in some cases produced unforeseen results. But the Constitution succeeded beyond even the hopes of its strongest advocates. We have become a nation. Why do you think the delegates voted to keep their discussions secret?
Do you think they should have? What were the major debates over the Constitution? What compromises were reached in each?
If you had been a delegate, would you have agreed to each of these compromises? One of the major compromises in the Constitutional Convention was between the small states and big states.
During three months of debate, the delegates devised a brilliant federal system characterized by an intricate system of checks and balances. The convention was divided over the issue of state representation in Congress, as more populated states sought proportional legislation, and smaller states wanted equal representation.
The problem was resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, which proposed a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the lower house House of Representatives and equal representation of the states in the upper house Senate.
On September 17, , the Constitution of the United States of America was signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the convention.
As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states. Beginning on December 7, five states— Delaware , Pennsylvania , New Jersey , Georgia , and Connecticut —ratified it in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts , opposed the document, as it failed to reserve un-delegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press.
In February , a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, , New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.
Constitution would begin on March 4, Constitution—the Bill of Rights—and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments were ratified in As one historian noted, it was a "Convention of the well-bred, the well-fed, the well-read, and the well-wed. Other prominent Americans of the time, who might be expected to have been in Philadelphia, did not attend for various reasons.
Prominent non-attendees include John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The links below offer more information on the delegates. The Theory Behind Madison's Plan James Madison James Madison believed that protection for liberty lay in the structure of government, not in a listing of "parchment" guarantees.
As he saw it, the primary threat to liberty in the past had come from oppressive majorities capturing the reigns of power. Madison's solution, as he proposed it in Philadelphia, was to "enlarge the sphere" by transferring much power to the federal government. Because the nation is comprised of many more and more diverse communities of interests than are individual states, it becomes much more difficult for any one interest group to become a majority and capture control of power.
Rather than see competing factions as a danger, Madison saw the saving multiplicity of interests as a protection for liberty: "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Even if a majority were to capture one branch, Madison reasoned, it could only do limited harm if the other branches remained out of its domination. Battle for Ratification: The Federalists vs the Anti-Federalists Ratification came only after a hard-fought battle between those favoring adoption of the new Constitution the Federalists and those opposed the Anti-Federalists.
The Anti-Federalists had many complaints. They argued that the national government, and especially the president, had too much power. They complained that the six-year terms of senators were far too long. They demanded to know why delegates failed to include a declaration of individual rights. The Federalists tried to answer each of these objections, and one such attempt to do so, The Federalists Papers, stands as major work of political philosophy.
After easy victories in a few states, the Federalists carried the day by winning close votes for ratification in Massachusetts with the able assistance of Samuel Adams, in Virginia over the strenuous arguments of Patrick Henry, and in New York Gouverneur Morris, the delegate from Pennsylvania with a name hard to forget, is credit with writing the Preamble:.
However, for more than years it had been "lost to history," a United States Constitutional legend. In late , the unthinkable happened. Researcher Lorianne Updike Toler discovered the missing copy amongst Wilson's papers in the vault of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. It had never been lost, just misplaced. On September 17, for one day only , this rare copy of Wilson's four page draft was put on display in Philadelphia in honor of the th anniversary of the adoption of the U.
However, because of the Documents' sensitivity to light and temperature, they remain under lock and key in the vault, only to emerge under special occasions. Call to order: or order pocket constitution books online. All rights reserved. Oak Hill Publishing Company.
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