- Trial Court Law Libraries
During and for some time after the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the thirteen American states were bound together in common cause by the Articles of the Confederation (finalized by Congress in 1777, in force 1781-1789). After the war was won, it became clear to many that the new country needed a Constitution creating a federal government equal to the challenges of governing. A Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787 and produced a Constitution, which would then need to be ratified by at least nine out of the thirteen states to be implemented.
Massachusetts had a strong role in both the creation of the Constitution, and its final ratification. It was clear to many that even if enough states ratified the Constitution to make it the law of the land, if Massachusetts, with its important role in both the Revolution and as a model for the U.S. Constitution, did not ratify it, the new government’s legitimacy would be in question.
In the years 1787 and 1788, there was much debate over whether or not to ratify a constitution for the United States. “ ‘In-doors’ in the State Houses in the various states . . . over 1600 elected delegates debated the merits of the Constitution and ‘out of doors’, the world witnessed the largest outpouring ever of pamphlets, newspapers, broadsides, and letters in favor and against the ratification of the Constitution.”1
The debates in the state conventions to ratify the Constitution were intense. Anti-Federalists like Thomas Jefferson were suspicious of a strong central government, and concerned about a lack of a Bill of Rights. (Jefferson himself was serving as the U.S. minister to France at the time, so did not attend his state convention.) Federalists, were in favor of a strong central government with a balance of powers between the various branches. Massachusetts’ own John Adams was a leading figure of the Federalist movement which began with those who supported the ratification of the Constitution in the late 1780s and later formally organized as a party in the 1790s. John Adams, the main author of the Massachusetts state Constitution (1780), felt strongly that the U.S. Constitution needed the balance of powers and the structure provided by 3 branches of government, which must include an independent judiciary. The Federalists convinced the Anti-Federalist doubters by promising amendments which would add a Bill of Rights once the Constitution was adopted. Massachusetts led the way, for after the highly publicized Massachusetts convention, other states followed Massachusetts’ example and began proposing amendments that mirrored the declarations of rights in their state constitutions. The Constitution was finally ratified by enough states in the summer of 1788, and on March 4, 1789, the Constitution became law. As promised, several amendments were submitted to the states for approval (on September 25, 1789). The states of North Carolina and Rhode Island held off ratifying the U.S. Constitution until after these amendments had been sent to the states, the latter state finally ratifying the Constitution in 1790. Ten amendments were ratified by the states in 1791. These first 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution are now known as the Bill of Rights.
The Federal Pillars: Visualizing the Union
A series of prints collectively titled “The Federal Pillars” were published in The Massachusetts Centinel encouraging the ratification of the federal Constitution, with pictures of each state as it was potentially added to the prospective United States of America. The states, represented as pillars, are arranged left to right by order of ratification. In each print, a hand reaches out from a cloud to set upright a new pillar to add to the federal edifice.
Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 7, 1787. Massachusetts voted to ratify it on Feb. 6, 1788 (the final “Form of Ratification” was signed by the president and vice-president of the convention on February 7), becoming the sixth state to ratify it.
On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, the ninth “pillar, as the phrase now is, to the Federal Temple”, to quote James Madison. Rhode Island, the last state to do so, ratified it on May 29, 1790. All thirteen states ratified the Constitution.
The Federalist Papers
Alexander Hamilton, together with John Jay and James Madison, writing under the pseudonym “Publius”, wrote a series of eighty-five essays which later came to be known as the Federalist Papers. Scholars have determined that Hamilton was the probable author of fifty-one of these essays, and their purpose was to encourage ratification of the U.S. Constitution, specifically in New York. The essays were originally published individually in New York newspapers. Bound editions soon followed. In The Forging of the Union, historian Richard B. Morris categorizes the Federalist Papers as “an incomparable exposition of the Constitution…unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer.”
Selected Print Sources in the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries
Debates and proceedings in the Convention of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, held in the year 1788, and which finally ratified the Constitution of the United States, printed by authority of Resolves of the legislature, 1856.
The debates in the several state conventions on the adoption of the federal Constitution, as recommended by the general convention at Philadelphia in 1787, 2nd ed., with considerable additions, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1881, 5 v.
The Federalist papers, Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), Chicago, IL: American Bar Association, 2009.
On Monday (September 22nd), Massachusetts Law Libraries’ Blog: "Bowdoin's Role in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 and the U.S. Constitution of 1787."
Authored by Gary Smith.
Footnote
- TeachingAmericanHistory.org: Ratification of the Constitution: Introduction to the Ratification Web Site.