From the very inception of the Articles of Confederation, many Americans felt that it was inadequate to serve as the country’s first constitution. Metaphorically speaking, it was felt that “the shattered fabric of the original …
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The Magical Number Nine and the Ratification of the Constitution
Revolutionary-era Americans were a constitution-making people. On several occasions during the debate over the ratification of the Constitution of 1787, it was said that Americans knew more about the nature of government and liberty than …
Jeopardy! and the Signing of the Constitution
In January 1967, while in New York City doing research on my master’s thesis, I tried out for Jeopardy! The popular morning TV game show, then hosted by Art Fleming, had originated in 1964. I …
The Necessary and Proper Clause: Implementing Delegated Powers or a New Imperial Declaratory Act
With the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the British Parliament initiated a new imperial policy that so alienated its North American colonies that within little more than a decade they seceded …
Locating the Conventions
Article 7 of the Constitution provides that once nine state conventions ratified the Constitution it would be implemented among the ratifying states. This was controversial because it violated the provisions in Article 13 of the …
Population and Constitution-Making, 1774–1792
Estimates of population were an issue in politics and constitution-making throughout the Revolutionary Era. In the First Continental Congress in 1774, the Virginia delegates, whose colony contained about twenty percent of the population of the …
Pseudonyms and the Debate over the Constitution
The most prolific and profound public debate in American history occurred over ratifying the Constitution in 1787–1790. Much of this debate occurred in the print media—newspapers, broadsides, and pamphlets. Thousands of anonymous essays signed with …
Newspapers and the Debate over the Ratification of the Constitution
Newspapers played a critical—perhaps a determinative—role in ratifying the Constitution. Between 1787 and 1790 ninety-five newspapers were printed throughout the United States—sixty-nine in Northern states and twenty-six in Southern states. Additionally four monthly magazines were …
Method of Electing the First U.S. Senators
In Article I, section 3, the Constitution provides that U.S. Senators were to be chosen by their state legislature. The legislatures had to decide exactly how they would elect their Senators. Under the Articles …
Publication and Sale of The Federalist, Volume I
One of the most important parts of the debate over the ratification of the Constitution occurred on 22 March 1788 when the first thirty-six essays in The Federalist series were published as a separate volume. …