The Constitutional Convention: September 17, 1787

On September 17, 1787 The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia came to an end. During the convention there was a debate over whether or not there should be a list of things the government couldn’t do to the states or individuals. The delegates thought back to the declaration of independence and the concept of inalienable rights. George Mason, the author of the Virginia declaration of rights, provided the delegates with two reasons to question the concept of having this list of rights. His first argument was that these rights didn’t come from the governments and he warned that if the delegates listed these inalienable rights, it would suggest that these rights came from the government and thus they could take them away. His second grievance

An argument made by anti-federalists at some of these conventions was that the constitution gave too much power to this new national government. Manu pf the men attending these ratification conventions hadn’t known about the constitutional convention that took place in Philadelphia over the last 4 or 5 months. Getting 9 out of 13 states to ratify this new constitution was a difficult thing to accomplish. The fear of losing the ratification in new york sparked Hamilton, John J, and Madison to write essays, later called the federalist papers, to make a case for this constitution. When new york finally made it through the ratification process, it sent a list of do’s and don’t’s along with its ratification vote. Other states such as Massachusetts, Virginia, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island followed new yorks lead. The founding fathers didn’t want to reopen the constitutional convention so they concluded that the best way to address the state's grievances would be to promise that when Congress first met, they would introduce amendments to the constitution based on a number of issues raised but the