On September 17 the members [of the Constitutional
Convention] met for the last time, and the venerable Franklin
had written a speech that was delivered by his colleague James
Wilson. Appealing for unity behind the Constitution, Franklin
declared, "I think it will astonish our enemies, who are
waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded
like those of the builders of Babel; and that our States are on
the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose
of cutting one another's throats." With Mason, Gerry, and
Randolph withstanding appeals to attach their signatures, the
other delegates in the hall formally signed the Constitution,
and the convention adjourned at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Weary from weeks of intense pressure but generally satisfied
with their work, the delegates shared a farewell dinner at City
Tavern. Two blocks away on Market Street, printers John Dunlap
and David Claypoole worked into the night on the final imprint
of the six-page Constitution, copies of which would leave Philadelphia
on the morning stage. The debate over the nation's form of government
was now set for the larger arena.
As the members of the convention returned home in the following
days, Alexander Hamilton privately assessed the chances of the
Constitution for ratification. In its favor were the support
of Washington, commercial interests, men of property, creditors,
and the belief among many Americans that the Articles of Confederation
were inadequate. Against it were the opposition of a few influential
men in the convention and state politicians fearful of losing
power, the general revulsion against taxation, the suspicion
that a centralized government would be insensitive to local
interests, and the fear among debtors that a new government
would "restrain the means of cheating Creditors."
The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists
Because of its size, wealth, and influence and because it was
the first state to call a ratifying convention, Pennsylvania
was the focus of national attention. The positions of the Federalists,
those who supported the Constitution, and the anti-Federalists,
those who opposed it, were printed and reprinted by scores of
newspapers across the country. And passions in the state were
most warm. When the Federalist-dominated Pennsylvania assembly
lacked a quorum on September 29 to call a state ratifying convention,
a Philadelphia mob, in order to provide the necessary numbers,
dragged two anti-Federalist members from their lodgings through
the streets to the State House where the bedraggled representatives
were forced to stay while the assembly voted. It was a curious
example of participatory democracy.
On October 5 anti-Federalist Samuel Bryan published the first
of his "Centinel" essays in Philadelphia's Independent
Gazetteer. Republished in newspapers in various states,
the essays assailed the sweeping power of the central government,
the usurpation of state sovereignty, and the absence of a bill
of rights guaranteeing individual liberties such as freedom
of speech and freedom of religion. "The United States are
to be melted down," Bryan declared, into a despotic empire
dominated by "well-born" aristocrats. Bryan was echoing
the fear of many anti-Federalists that the new government would
become one controlled by the wealthy established families and
the culturally refined. The common working people, Bryan believed,
were in danger of being subjugated to the will of an all-powerful
authority remote and inaccessible to the people. It was this
kind of authority, he believed, that Americans had fought a
war against only a few years earlier.
The next day James Wilson, delivering a stirring defense of
the Constitution to a large crowd gathered in the yard of the
State House, praised the new government as the best "which
has ever been offered to the world." The Scotsman's view
prevailed. Led by Wilson, Federalists dominated in the Pennsylvania
convention, carrying the vote on December 12 by a healthy 46
to 23.
The vote for ratification in Pennsylvania did not end the rancor
and bitterness. Franklin declared that scurrilous articles in
the press were giving the impression that Pennsylvania was "peopled
by a set of the most unprincipled, wicked, rascally and quarrelsome
scoundrels upon the face of the globe." And in Carlisle,
on December 26, anti-Federalist rioters broke up a Federalist
celebration and hung Wilson and the Federalist chief justice
of Pennsylvania, Thomas McKean, in effigy; put the torch to
a copy of the Constitution; and busted a few Federalist heads.
In New York the Constitution was under siege
in the press by a series of essays signed "Cato."
Mounting a counterattack, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay enlisted
help from Madison and, in late 1787, they published the first
of a series of essays now known as the Federalist Papers.
The 85 essays, most of which were penned by Hamilton himself,
probed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and the
need for an energetic national government. Thomas Jefferson
later called the Federalist Papers the "best commentary
on the principles of government ever written."
Against this kind of Federalist leadership and determination,
the opposition in most states was disorganized and generally
inert. The leading spokesmen were largely state-centered men
with regional and local interests and loyalties. Madison wrote
of the Massachusetts anti-Federalists, "There was not a
single character capable of uniting their wills or directing
their measures. . . . They had no plan whatever." The anti-Federalists
attacked wildly on several fronts: the lack of a bill of rights,
discrimination against southern states in navigation legislation,
direct taxation, the loss of state sovereignty. Many charged
that the Constitution represented the work of aristocratic politicians
bent on protecting their own class interests. At the Massachusetts
convention one delegate declared, "These lawyers, and men
of learning and moneyed men, that . . . make us poor illiterate
people swallow down the pill . . . they will swallow up all
us little folks like the great Leviathan; yes, just as the whale
swallowed up Jonah!" Some newspaper articles, presumably
written by anti-Federalists, resorted to fanciful predictions
of the horrors that might emerge under the new Constitution
pagans and deists could control the government; the use of Inquisition-like
torture could be instituted as punishment for federal crimes;
even the pope could be elected president.
One anti-Federalist argument gave opponents some genuine difficulty—the
claim that the territory of the 13 states was too extensive
for a representative government. In a republic embracing a large
area, anti-Federalists argued, government would be impersonal,
unrepresentative, dominated by men of wealth, and oppressive
of the poor and working classes. Had not the illustrious Montesquieu
himself ridiculed the notion that an extensive territory composed
of varying climates and people, could be a single republican
state? James Madison, always ready with the Federalist volley,
turned the argument completely around and insisted that the
vastness of the country would itself be a strong argument in
favor of a republic. Claiming that a large republic would counterbalance
various political interest groups vying for power, Madison wrote,
"The smaller the society the fewer probably will be the
distinct parties and interests composing it; the fewer the distinct
parties and interests, the more frequently will a majority be
found of the same party and the more easily will they concert
and execute their plans of oppression." (Federalist
No.10) Extend the size of the republic, Madison
argued, and the country would be less vulnerable to separate
factions within it.
Ratification
By January 9, 1788, five states of the nine necessary for ratification
had approved the Constitution — Delaware, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut. But the eventual outcome
remained uncertain in pivotal states such as Massachusetts,
New York, and Virginia. On February 6, with Federalists agreeing
to recommend a list of amendments amounting to a bill of rights,
Massachusetts ratified by a vote of 187 to 168. The revolutionary
leader, John Hancock, elected to preside over the Massachusetts
ratifying convention but unable to make up his mind on the Constitution,
took to his bed with a convenient case of gout. Later seduced
by the Federalists with visions of the vice presidency and possibly
the presidency, Hancock, whom Madison noted as "an idolater
of popularity," suddenly experienced a miraculous cure
and delivered a critical block of votes. Although Massachusetts
was now safely in the Federalist column, the recommendation
of a bill of rights was a significant victory for the anti-Federalists.
Six of the remaining states later appended similar recommendations.
When the New Hampshire convention was adjourned by Federalists
who sensed imminent defeat and when Rhode Island on March 24
turned down the Constitution in a popular referendum by an overwhelming
vote of 10 to 1, Federalist leaders were apprehensive. Looking
ahead to the Maryland convention, Madison wrote to Washington,
"The difference between even a postponement and adoption
in Maryland may . . . possibly give a fatal advantage to that
which opposes the constitution." Madison had little reason
to worry. The final vote on April 28 63 for, 11 against. In
Baltimore, a huge parade celebrating the Federalist victory
rolled. through the downtown streets, highlighted by a 15-foot
float called "Ship Federalist." The symbolically seaworthy
craft was later launched in the waters off Baltimore and sailed
down the Potomac to Mount Vernon.
On July 2, 1788, the Confederation Congress, meeting in New
York, received word that a reconvened New Hampshire ratifying
convention had approved the Constitution. With South Carolina's
acceptance of the Constitution in May, New Hampshire thus became
the ninth state to ratify. The Congress appointed a committee
"for putting the said Constitution into operation."
In the next 2 months, thanks largely to the efforts of Madison
and Hamilton in their own states, Virginia and New York both
ratified while adding their own amendments. The margin for the
Federalists in both states, however, was extremely close. Hamilton
figured that the majority of the people in New York actually
opposed the Constitution, and it is probable that a majority
of people in the entire country opposed it. Only the promise
of amendments had ensured a Federalist victory.
Excerpted from "A More Perfect Union:
The Creation of the U.S. Constitution" at the National
Archives web site.
