On June 18 called the British government "the best in the world" and proposed a model strikingly similar. The erudite New Yorker, however, later became one of the most ardent spokesmen for the new Constitution. On June 18 Alexander Hamilton presented his own ideal plan of government. Erudite and polished, the speech, nevertheless, failed to win a following. It went too far. Calling the British government "the best in the world," Hamilton proposed a model strikingly similar an executive to serve during good behavior or life with veto power over all laws; a senate with members serving during good behavior; the legislature to have power to pass "all laws whatsoever.
Some members of the convention fully expected the country to turn in this direction. Hugh Williamson of North Carolina, a wealthy physician, declared that it was "pretty certain. Alexander Hamilton on June 18 called the British government "the best in the world" and proposed a model strikingly similar.
Strongly militating against any serious attempt to establish monarchy was the enmity so prevalent in the revolutionary period toward royalty and the privileged classes.
Some state constitutions had even prohibited titles of nobility. In the same year as the Philadelphia convention, Royall Tyler, a revolutionary war veteran, in his play The Contract, gave his own jaundiced view of the upper classes:.
Exult each patriot heart! Most delegates were well aware that there were too many Royall Tylers in the country, with too many memories of British rule and too many ties to a recent bloody war, to accept a king. As the debate moved into the specifics of the new government, Alexander Hamilton and others of his persuasion would have to accept something less.
By the end of June, debate between the large and small states over the issue of representation in the first chamber of the legislature was becoming increasingly acrimonious. Delegates from Virginia and other large states demanded that voting in Congress be according to population; representatives of smaller states insisted upon the equality they had enjoyed under the articles. With the oratory degenerating into threats and accusations, Benjamin Franklin appealed for daily prayers.
Dressed in his customary gray homespun, the aged philosopher pleaded that "the Father of lights. On June 29 the delegates from the small states lost the first battle. The convention approved a resolution establishing population as the basis for representation in the House of Representatives, thus favoring the larger states. On a subsequent small-state proposal that the states have equal representation in the Senate, the vote resulted in a tie. With large-state delegates unwilling to compromise on this issue, one member thought that the convention "was on the verge of dissolution, scarce held together by the strength of an hair.
By July 10 George Washington was so frustrated over the deadlock that he bemoaned "having had any agency" in the proceedings and called the opponents of a strong central government "narrow minded politicians. A tiger in debate, not content merely to parry an opponent's argument but determined to bludgeon it into eternal rest, Martin had become perhaps the small states' most effective, if irascible, orator. The Marylander leaped eagerly into the battle on the representation issue declaring, "The States have a right to an equality of representation.
This is secured to us by our present articles of confederation; we are in possession of this privilege. Also crowding into this complicated and divisive discussion over representation was the North-South division over the method by which slaves were to be counted for purposes of taxation and representation. On July 12 Oliver Ellsworth proposed that representation for the lower house be based on the number of free persons and three-fifths of "all other persons," a euphemism for slaves.
In the following week the members finally compromised, agreeing that direct taxation be according to representation and that the representation of the lower house be based on the white inhabitants and three-fifths of the "other people.
Roger Sherman had remarked that it was the wish of the delegates "that some general government should be established. For the next few days the air in the City of Brotherly Love, although insufferably muggy and swarming with blue-bottle flies, had the clean scent of conciliation.
In this period of welcome calm, the members decided to appoint a Committee of Detail to draw up a draft constitution. The convention would now at last have something on paper. During the adjournment, Gouverneur Morris and George Washington rode out along a creek that ran through land that had been part of the Valley Forge encampment 10 years earlier.
While Morris cast for trout, Washington pensively looked over the now lush ground where his freezing troops had suffered, at a time when it had seemed as if the American Revolution had reached its end.
The country had come a long way. On Monday August 6, , the convention accepted the first draft of the Constitution. Here was the article-by-article model from which the final document would result some 5 weeks later. As the members began to consider the various sections, the willingness to compromise of the previous days quickly evaporated.
The most serious controversy erupted over the question of regulation of commerce. The southern states, exporters of raw materials, rice, indigo, and tobacco, were fearful that a New England-dominated Congress might, through export taxes, severely damage the South's economic life.
Pinckney declared that if Congress had the power to regulate trade, the southern states would be "nothing more than overseers for the Northern States.
On August 21 the debate over the issue of commerce became very closely linked to another explosive issue--slavery. When Martin of Maryland proposed a tax on slave importation, the convention was thrust into a strident discussion of the institution of slavery and its moral and economic relationship to the new government.
Rutledge of South Carolina, asserting that slavery had nothing at all to do with morality, declared, "Interest alone is the governing principle with nations. Mason of Virginia expressed concern over unlimited importation of slaves but later indicated that he also favored federal protection of slave property already held. This nagging issue of possible federal intervention in slave traffic, which Sherman and others feared could irrevocably split northern and southern delegates, was settled by, in Mason's words, "a bargain.
In exchange for the New Englanders' support for continuing slave importation for 20 years, the southerners accepted a clause that required only a simple majority vote on navigation laws, a crippling blow to southern economic interests. The bargain was also a crippling blow to those working to abolish slavery.
Congregationalist minister and abolitionist Samuel Hopkins of Connecticut charged that the convention had sold out: "How does it appear. On August 31 a weary George Mason, who had 3 months earlier written so expectantly to his son about the "great Business now before us," bitterly exclaimed that he "would sooner chop off his right hand than put it to the Constitution as it now stands. He was concerned that a "bill of rights," ensuring individual liberties, had not been made part of the Constitution.
Mason called for a new convention to reconsider the whole question of the formation of a new government. Although Mason's motion was overwhelmingly voted down, opponents of the Constitution did not abandon the idea of a new convention. It was futilely suggested again and again for over 2 years. One of the last major unresolved problems was the method of electing the executive.
A number of proposals, including direct election by the people, by state legislatures, by state governors, and by the national legislature, were considered.
The result was the electoral college, a master stroke of compromise, quaint and curious but politically expedient. As Benjamin Franklin left the Pennsylvania State House after the final meeting of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, , he was approached by the wife of the mayor of Philadelphia. She was curious as to what the new government would be. Franklin replied, "A republic, madam. If you can keep it. On March 24, , a popular election was held in Rhode Island to determine the ratification status of the new Constitution.
The vote was in favor and 2, opposed! The members of the first Congress of the United States included 54 who were delegates to the Constitutional Convention or delegates to the various state-ratifying conventions. The number also included 7 delegates who opposed ratification.
Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, , at the age of The 20, mourners at his funeral on April 21, , constituted the largest public gathering up to that time. Vermont ratified the Constitution on January 10, , even though it had not yet become a state. There was a proposal at the Constitutional Convention to limit the standing army for the country to 5, men. George Washington sarcastically agreed with this proposal as long as a stipulation was added that no invading army could number more than 3, troops!
John Adams referred to the Constitution as "the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen" and George Washington wrote to the Marquis de Lafayette that "It the Constitution appears to me, then, little short of a miracle. The Pennsylvania State House where the Constitutional Convention took place was where George Washington was appointed the commander of the Continental Army in and where the Declaration of Independence was signed in It was also where the Articles of Confederation were adopted as our first constitution in Rhode Island was the only state not to send delegates to Philadelphia in At that time the state legislature was controlled by the agrarian party and was fearful that a stronger central government would demand that debts be paid in specie hard money.
It was the last state to ratify the Constitution on May 29, over a year after President George Washington's inauguration by a vote of The delegates were involved in debates from 10 a.
It contains 7, words including the 27 amendments. The Constitution was ratified by specially elected conventions beginning in December Daniel Webster , of Massachusetts, has been called the "Expounder of the Constitution". From to there were no amendments added to the Constitution until the end of the Civil War when the Thirteenth amendment was added that abolished slavery.
This was the longest period in American history in which there were no changes to our Constitution. The text of the Constitution was printed by John Dunlap and David Claypoole in Philadelphia to then be sent to the various state constitutional conventions for debate and discussion. As evidence of its continued flexibility, the Constitution has only been changed seventeen times since !
The main reason for the meeting in Philadelphia was to revise the Articles of Confederation. However, the delegates soon concluded that it would be necessary to write an entirely new Constitution. Written in , the Constitution was signed on September Constitution was prepared in secret, behind locked doors that were guarded by sentries.
Some of the original framers and many delegates in the state ratifying conventions were very troubled that the original Constitution lacked a description of individual rights. In , Americans added a list of rights to the Constitution. On September 25, , Congress adopted 12 of the amendments and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights , were ratified and became part of the Constitution on December 10, The Bill of Rights guarantees individuals certain basic protections as citizens, including freedom of speech, religion and the press; the right to bear and keep arms; the right to peaceably assemble; protection from unreasonable search and seizure; and the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury.
To date, there have been thousands of proposed amendments to the Constitution. The most recent amendment to the Constitution, Article XXVII, which deals with congressional pay raises, was proposed in and ratified in Through all the changes, the Constitution has endured and adapted. Constitution Day is observed on September 17, to commemorate the date the document was signed. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Even before the U. Constitution was created, its framers understood that it would have to be amended to confront future challenges and adapt and grow alongside the new nation. In creating the amendment process for what would become the permanent U.
Constitution, the framers The First Amendment to the U. Constitution protects the freedom of speech, religion and the press. It also protects the right to peaceful protest and to petition the government. The amendment was adopted in along with nine other amendments that make up the Bill of On March 6, , the U.
Supreme Court ruled in McCulloch v. Maryland that Congress had the authority to establish a federal bank, and that the financial institution could not be taxed by the states. But the decision carried a much larger significance, because it helped By the late s, prohibition movements had sprung up across the United States, driven by religious groups who considered alcohol, specifically drunkenness, a threat to the nation.
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