Lesson 9: The Difficult Road to Ratification
In this lesson, we will talk about the two sides when it came to getting the
Constitution ratified by the States – the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists.
We will then look at the road to ratification as the states ratified the new
Constitution one-by-one. Finally, we will discuss the Bill of Rights that was
drafted as a concession to the Anti-Federalists.
The Constitution had been drafted,
but it was not ratified yet. The Federalists were going to have to push for it
to be accepted.
A Federalist was an individual who was in
favor of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and the creation of a federal
union with a strong central government.
In order to get the Constitution ratified,
it was going to
take some convincing. That is when the Federalist Papers started being published.
Under pseudonyms, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay,
and James Madison wrote 85 essays expounding on what the Constitution means and
how the three branches work together to form a strong central government.
Of course, there was opposition to this new radical idea, and
it came in the form of the Anti-Federalists.
Anti-Federalists were individuals who opposed the ratification of the new
Constitution in 1787. They were opposed to a strong central government.
Such Anti-Federalists as Patrick Henry and
Samuel Adams argued that
a strong central government would take precedence over personal liberties.
The ratification process took time, but it progressed steadily. Connecticut,
Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania approved the Constitution with
strong majorities.
Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina would soon follow.
Then,
New Hampshire ratified the Constitution. It was not long before Virginia and
New York followed suit.
However,
the Anti-Federalists had made some strong points in
their rebuttals of the Federalist Papers. They wanted certain specific
liberties to be guaranteed to the people.
James Madison was tasked with drafting the Bill of Rights and he had to
comb through over 200 suggestions from the States. He was masterful in making
sense of it all and coming up with the first Ten Amendments that guarantee
individuals fundamental rights and liberties.