Covers the key events leading up to and immediately following the ratification of the United States Constitution: the debate between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, the disagreements over the necessity of a Bill of Rights, and the Constitutional terms that denied full citizenship to Native Americans, African Americans, and American women.

1. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 1: Colonialism and Nationhood
Part 20: The Constitutional Convention (II)

3. EXECUTIVE LEGISLATURE JUDICIARY
President
and Cabinet
Power over
international relations.
Veto power over
laws passed by
the legislature.
Power to make
nominations to
the judiciary.
Elected every
four years.
Congress
Power to create laws.
Power to approve or
deny executive
nominations and
appointments.
Supreme Court
and Federal Courts
Nine justices
appointed for life.
Nominated by the
executive, approved
by the legislature.
Power to overturn
laws passed by
the legislature
and approved by
the executive,
depending on their
constitutionality.
House
Made up of
representatives
from each state,
435 in total,
elected every
two years
proportionate
to population of
electoral district
at last census.
Senate
Made up of
representatives
from each state,
100 in total,
elected every
six years, on a
two-year rolling
basis, with a
fixed number of
two per state.

4. THE DEBATE
BEGINS
• In September 1787, following
completion of the United States
Constitution, the text was sent to
each of the states for ratification.
• However, opposing voices began
to criticize the Constitution.
• Opponents objected to the
concentration of national power
in a single national body rather
than the distribution of power
amongst the states. They worried
that this situation would put the
United States back where it was
before the revolution, with too
much power in executive hands.

5. THE FEDERALIST
• Opponents of the Constitution
were known as Anti-Federalists.
They aimed to raise enough
objections to the Constitution for
the states to refuse ratification.
• Those who argued in favor of
the Constitution were known as
Federalists. Throughout 1787
and 1788, three prominent
Federalists who had helped to
write the Constitution published
a series of articles explaining its
virtues. These were James
Madison, Alexander Hamilton,
and John Jay (pictured).

6. FEDERALIST #10
• Written by James Madison in
response to Anti-Federalist
fears that small cultural and
religious factions would accrue
too much governmental power.
• Madison argued that because
the United States was a large
and geographically diverse
republic, no one faction could
seize too much power because
they would have to compete for
power with all the other
factions. The factions would
therefore cancel each other out.

7. FEDERALIST #51
• Written by James Madison in
response to Anti-Federalist
fears that too much executive
power could come to rest in the
hands of one person.
• Madison argued that the
Constitution contains sufficient
checks and balances to make
sure that no one person can
accrue too much power. Each
of the three branches of
government can override some
of the actions of the others.

8. A BILL OF RIGHTS?
• States began ratifying the
Constitution in December 1787.
• The foremost concern of the
Anti-Federalists now was that
the Constitution did not clearly
spell out the rights and liberties
of the people. They argued that
the failure to enumerate these
things opened the way for
people in power to curtail them.
They began to propose that the
Constitution be amended with a
Bill of Rights that made these
rights explicitly inviolable.

9. FEDERALIST #84
• Written by Alexander Hamilton
in response to Anti-Federalist
urges for a Bill of Rights.
• Hamilton argued that the rights
and liberties of the people were
already implicitly safeguarded
in the Constitution.
• He worried that if they were
enumerated in a Bill of Rights,
future generations would
believe that they were the only
rights to be guaranteed.

10. THE MASSACHUSETTS
COMPROMISE
• In February 1788,
Massachusetts ratified the
Constitution only after
Federalists and Anti-Federalists
came to an agreement.
• The Anti-Federalists would
consent to ratification only if the
Federalists would support them
in recommending a federal Bill
of Rights as an amendment to
the Constitution.
• This deal was known as the
Massachusetts Compromise.

11. LEFT BEHIND:
NATIVE AMERICANS
Native Americans were effectively
denied citizenship, and were not to
be counted in the Census for
purposes of political representation,
unless they paid taxes (Article I).

12. LEFT BEHIND:
AFRICAN SLAVES
Slaves were given sub-human
status, with the Census counting
each slave as only three-fifths of a
full human being. This weakened
the federal power of slaveholding
states, however, by reducing the
overall number of citizens entitled
to proportional representation in
the United States Congress.

13. LEFT BEHIND:
AMERICAN WOMEN
Abigail Adams to John Adams, 1776
I long to hear that you have declared an
independancy — and by the way in the
new Code of Laws which I suppose it
will be necessary for you to make I
desire you would Remember the
Ladies, and be more generous and
favourable to them than your ancestors.

14. LEFT BEHIND:
AMERICAN WOMEN
Do not put such unlimited power
into the hands of the Husbands.
Remember all Men would be tyrants
if they could. If perticuliar care and
attention is not paid to the Laidies
we are determined to foment a
Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves
bound by any Laws in which we
have no voice, or Representation.

15. LEFT BEHIND:
AMERICAN WOMEN
American women were denied
property rights and voting rights,
being entirely dependent on their
husbands if married or a male
relative if unmarried.

16. AMERICA BEGINS
• George Washington was
unanimously elected President
on January 10, 1789.
• The Constitution came into
effect on March 4, 1789, and the
United States of America was
born, evolving from a scattering
of British colonies into a nation-
state that took on the essential
qualities of its present form.
• In the first session of the United
States Congress in June 1789,
James Madison introduced ten
amendments to the Constitution
which became the Bill of Rights.

18. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 1: Colonialism and Nationhood
Part 20: The Constitutional Convention (II)