3.6: Ratification

After the Constitution was written and signed, it was the states’ turn to decide to accept or reject it. Article VII of the Constitution specified that the new American government would not be officially established until nine states had ratified the Constitution. Twelve states — with Rhode Island again being the exception — elected delegates to statewide ratifying conventions to vote on whether they should approve the new plan for American government.

The ratification debate was a crucial moment in American history. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention had clearly not kept to their stated purpose of proposing amendments to the Articles of Confederation. Instead, they had designed an entirely new system of government and were essentially asking the states to secede from the old system and join the new one. What they were attempting was nothing short of a rebellion against the existing government — a bloodless rebellion with noble intentions, but a rebellion nonetheless.

Leading the fight in favor of ratifying the Constitution was a faction calling themselves the Federalists, which included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. The Federalists had supported a stronger national government during the Constitutional Convention and were generally satisfied with the final document the convention produced. They believed separation of powers and checks and balances would prevent the new American government from using its new powers in a tyrannical fashion.

Tourists visit the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., where America’s founding documents are displayed beneath a mural of 25 signers of the Constitution.

Opposing ratification and the Federalists were the Anti-Federalists, including Samuel Adams, George Clinton, Patrick Henry and George Mason. To the Anti-Federalists, the Constitution represented a major power grab by the national government that would strip the states of their sovereignty and leave America back where it started: with an oppressive government and no safeguards for the rights of the people. Their perspective was informed by historical examples of countries, such as the Roman Republic, that had attempted large-scale democratic government only to fall back on imperial or monarchic systems instead.

The Federalists and Anti-Federalists waged a war of words at the state ratifying conventions and in the press. After the Constitutional Convention, essays by Anti-Federalists began appearing in New York newspapers criticizing the new Constitution and urging the states to reject it. The authors of these essays often wrote pseudonymously, using pen names such as “Cato” and “Brutus” to underscore their argument that the Constitution would lead to tyranny. (Cato was a Roman senator who committed suicide rather than live under Julius Caesar’s dictatorial rule; Brutus was one of the senators who eventually stabbed Caesar.)

In response, three Federalists — Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay — wrote 85 essays (known today as the Federalist Papers) defending the Constitution, using the shared pen name “Publius” in honor of one of the founders of the Roman Republic. The Federalist Papers responded directly to the Anti-Federalists’ arguments by explaining and justifying each part of the Constitution. Hamilton wrote the most essays and Jay the fewest, but the ones written by Madison (particularly Federalist No. 10 and No. 51) eventually became the most famous and widely read.

In the end, the Federalists won the ratification battle. Anti-Federalist contingents at state ratifying conventions were convinced to support the Constitution on the condition that amendments be made to it to secure certain liberties, a condition that would eventually lead to the creation of the Bill of Rights. One by one the states accepted the Constitution, until New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it in June of 1788. This ninth ratification satisfied the requirement in Article VII, and America’s second — and, so far, last — constitution went into effect a year later in 1789.