Pros And Cons Of The Articles Of Confederation

852 Words4 Pages

of the Constitution to the states for consideration. To amend the Articles of Confederation had required unanimous approval of the states. The delegates agreed to change the approval process for the Constitution so only nine of the thirteen states had approved. After this, the new government of the United States would come into existence. Though the delegates at Philadelphia had produced the Constitution, it still had to be accepted by the people. Before the Constitution could go into effect, nine states needed to ratify it. To get people more used to the idea of the Constitution, state legislatures set up special ratifying conventions to consider the document. By late 1787 these conventions started to meet, however Rhode Island stood apart. Its leaders opposed the Constitution from the beginning and therefore …show more content…

Rhode Island’s leaders were considered Antifederalists or people who didn’t approve the Constitution. Antifederalists criticized the Constitution because it lacked a bill of rights to protect individual freedoms and believed that no government could be trusted to protect the freedom of its citizens. Several state conventions took a stand and announced that they would not ratify the Constitution without the addition of a bill of rights. One Antifederalist named Mercy Otis Warren expressed the problem faced by many Antifederalists and admitted the need for a strong government but feared it. But the Constitution still had supporters called Federalists. Three of the nation’s most gifted political thinkers ,James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, also backed the Constitution. They all worked together to write a series of essays explaining and defending the Constitution. These essays, called the Federalist Papers, appeared in newspapers around the country and were widely read. The Federalist Papers were later published as a book and sent to delegates at the remaining ratifying conventions.