Ratifying The Constitution Dbq

The ratification of the US Constitution in 1787 sparked a ferocious and spiteful debate between two large groups of people, those who supported the ratification and those who did not. Both sides were very passionate about their ideas yet they were so divergent, as one believed that the ratification could create a more powerful, unified country, while others worried about the government gaining perhaps too much control. The supporters and opponents equally had various strong reasons in their beliefs regarding the ratification of the US Constitution, the most common for the supporters being that the current government was heading badly, and a ratification would fix all the mistakes made originally and set the course for a successful government. On the other hand, the biggest concern for the opponents was that the ratification would give the government too much power, and there would be no controlling force to keep the government in its place.

The English Bill of Rights was a British law passed by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1689. The bill declared the rights and liberties of the people. The bill had a massive influence on the colonies in North America and the Constitution of the United States. It established a limited constitutional monarchy in Great Britain. It clearly established that the monarchy could not rule without the consent of Parliament.

The Constitution was originally called the Virgina Plan and was wrote by James Madison. It then went to the Constitutional convention and was modified by fifty-five delegates ordered by George Washington. The Constitution was first signed by William Jackson, and there was thirty-nine more people who followed in Jackson's steps. There were twelve states that sent people to the convention. Rhode Island did not send anyone to the convention.

To further strengthen the rights of the people, The Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791. With only the first ten amendments, it is no accident that two amendments, 9 and 10, specifically define the Constitutions purpose to protect rights, given to the government from the people; and the powers of the government are “only those delegated to it by the Constitution on behalf of the people” (Spalding, Page 145).

The passing of the English Bill of Rights ushered in a new age for England, giving the power of the Monarchy to the Parliament, and banning the Monarch from adjourning Parliament or going against the opinion of its majority. The Bill lists that many tyrannical actions that had previously been made by many kings, such as levying money and suspending/revoking laws were illegal without the consent of Parliament (Document 3), essentially giving Parliament control of the direction of English law. The English Bill of Rights was ratified by William in 1689, which directly stated multiple times that the ruler’s power was to be checked by Parliament, thus inhibiting them from exercising full power over the people, preventing tyranny. He states in Document 2 that he and his wife Mary will “concur in everything that may procure the peace and happiness of [the] nation, which a free and lawful Parliament shall determine… [and support] the securing of the whole nation the free enjoyment of all their laws, rights, and liberties,

The Constitution wasn’t fair and was poorly made so they had to create a new one. The Congress started off by adding improvements but it needed too many improvements they had to start over. If they hadn't started over the Constitution Would not have been as good, and there would still be poorly written parts. The new constitution was called the Constitutional Convention. People complained that their Liberty was being taken away and they wanted it back the Congress thought about the complaints and decide to consider revising the Constitution. The revising turned into the Constitutional Convention.

They were not immediately ratified because there were land disputes and there had to be a unanimous decision. Everybody hat wanted and claimed more land than they had. New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware all had no claims. These states were the ones who initially refused to ratify the Articles; they were not prepared to ratify a constitution which gave them no say in any matters. The larger states on the other hand felt that they were underrepresented. They were hoping for more equality in size (document E). Eventually, Maryland changed their minds about ratifying the constitution because they ceded the land.

After the Founding Fathers of America wrote our Constitution there was one more step they had to each achieve in order for it to go into effect: ratifying it. In order to ratify the Constitution nine out of the thirteen states had to agree to adopt it. The process of ratifying the Constitution turned into a debate between two groups: the Federalists and the Anti Federalist.

At the Annapolis Convention, Hamilton and Madison, along with others, realized that changes needed to be made to the Articles of Confederation and made plans to meet later in Philadelphia with representatives from each state. It was there that the Constitution was written after many long months of consideration and compromising. On December 7, 1787 Delaware unanimously voted to ratify, with most states following shortly after. It was ratified early in 1788. Although

Every state but Rhode Island elected a ratifying convention in 1787-1788, and only North Carolina's adjourned (August 2, 1788, by a vote of 185-84) without voting on the Constitution. (Rhode Island submitted the Constitution to its town meetings; on March 24, 1788, in a vote boycotted by most Federalists, the voters rejected it, 2,708-237.) The first five ratifications took

The English had two main colonies in the new world, Jamestown and Plymouth. The first colony was Jamestown, established in Virginia in 1607.Jamestown was settled by Captain John Smith, and was named by after King James I. And Plymouth is in Massachusetts it was the second English settlement in North America. The Englishmen were attempting to settle in the new area they encountered many struggles along with sickness and hunger.

In Delaware, the U.S. Constitution was unanimously ratified by all thirty delegates, therefore making Delaware the First State of the United States. The Constitution was sent to the states for ratification, however, the Constitution would become binding once nine of the former thirteen colonies would ratify the Constitution. In addition, Delaware led the process. Ever since 1933, the governors of Delaware have made December 7th as Delaware Day in honor of the state being the first to ratify the federal constitution on December 7th, 1787. Since 1781, the Articles of Confederation had been the constitution of the U.S., however, it gave the individual states so much political power, the national government was rendered unimportant. The constitution was an entirely new document that that gave considerable power to the national government. In many states, the supporters of the articles worked hard to try and stop the constitution, but, in Delaware there was no overt opposition, therefore, all of Delaware's normally combative political factions favored the new constitution. “In essence, the Delaware counties had taken their stand with the congress and against the king.”(John A. Munroe, Colonial Delaware, copyright 2003, page

As written by David Shi and George Tindall, “In the wake of Shays Rebellion, many public officials agreed with Virginian James Madison that the crisis is arrived. It was time to empower the national government to bring order and stability to the new nation” (Shi & Tindall 189). The constitution was first written during the

When interviewed three delegates of the Constitutional Convention told their contribution to the convention and even what side they they gave their vote to. The three delegates, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Roger Sherman said the following. James Madison agreed with ratification of the old constitution and the development of the new one, he was the chief recorder making notes of the entire convention, along with contributing the ninth state to vote for the ratification which was the amount of votes needed to make the new constitution become the law of the land.

After the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, it was voted that Constitution would become the new foundation of the national government, not the Articles of Confederation. At the time, there were thirteen individual states that had to vote to ratify or reject the Constitution. Within these thirteens states, there were two groups that consisted of the Federalists and the Antifederalists. The Federalists supported the Constitution; however, the Antifederalists opposed the Constitution.