In order for the Constitution to become a law, nine out of thirteen states had to ratify it. The people who wrote the Constitution knew that it would only have "real power" if all thirteen of the states were on board with it. This was a bitter battle of two years, and divided the people into Federalists and Antifederalists. The Federalists wanted a strong central government to hold the nation together. The Antifederalists thought that the Constitution gave too much power to the federal government. The Federalists feared too much democracy, and so they advocated limited popular election of federal officials. The Antifederalist however, feared that the Constitution took too much power away from the people. The Federalists believed that the states are ultimately subordinate to the federal government, while the Antifederalists believed that the states should hold more power than the federal government because the states are closer to the people. A large debate between the two groups was the Bill of Rights. The Federalists were against it while the Antifederalists were very much for it. Eventually, the Federalists agreed to having the Bill of Rights. Soon after there were enough states that had ratified the Constitution, and it went into effect in 1789. All is well that ends well.
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/constitution-day/ratification.html
No comments:
Post a Comment