Digital History
Conflict Over Ratifying the Constitution
Interpreting Primary Sources
Reading 1:
These lawyers, and men of learning, and moneyed men, that talk so finely, and gloss over matters so smoothly, to make us poor illiterate people swallow down the pill, expect to get into Congress themselves...and then they will swallow up all us little folks, like the great Leviathan.
Amos Singletary, 1788
Reading 2:
I am a plain man, and get my living by the plough....I have lived in a part of the country where I have known the worth of good government by the want of it. There was a black cloud [Shays' Rebellion] that rose in the east last winter, and spread over the west....It brought on a state of anarchy and that led to tyranny. I say, it brought anarchy. People that used to live peaceably, and were before good neighbors, got distracted, and took up arms against government....
Our distress was so great that we should have been glad to snatch at anything that looked like a government. Had any person that was able to protect us come and set up his standard, we should all have flocked to it, even if it had been a monarch, and that monarch might have proved a tyrant.
Jonathan Smith, Massachusetts farmer
Reading 3:
A little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical....It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson, 1787
Reading 4:
It cannot be denied with truth, that this new constitution is, in its first principles, most highly and dangerously, oligarchic.
Richard Henry Lee, 1787
Reading 5:
Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction....Complaints are every where heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty; that our governments are too unstable; that the public good is disregarded in the conflict of rival parties; and that measures are too often decided, not according to rules of justice, and the rights of the minor party; but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority....
The Federalist, 1799
Questions To Think About
1. Why did opponents object to the Constitution?
2. How did supporters of the Constitution defend the new plan of government?
3. Which quotations do you find most persuasive--those that argue that the Constitution represented a threat to the liberties of the people and an attempt to impose aristocratic rule or those that argue that the Constitution gives expression to republican values?
Interpreting Statistics
Politics and Society in Post-Revolutionary America
| Composition of State Assemblies in the 1780s | |||||
| State | Farmers | Large Landowners | Artisan | Professional | Merchant |
| Massachusetts | 47 | 1 | 12 | 13 | 20 |
| New York | 37 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 19 |
| Pennsylvania | 37 | 2 | 22 | 15 | 20 |
| South Carolina | 14 | 32 | 3 | 15 | 13 |
| Virginia | 20 | 36 | 3 | 21 | 10 |
Questions To Consider
1. Which occupational groups were most highly represented in the new state legislatures?
2. What differences can you identify between the occupational make-up of the various state legislatures?
| Changes in Wealth of Elected Officials | |||
| Over 5,000 pounds sterling | 2,000-5,000 pounds sterling | Under 2,000 pounds sterling | |
| North | |||
| 1765-75 | 36 % | 47 % | 17 % |
| 1783-90 | 12 % | 26 % | 62 % |
| South | |||
| 1765-75 | 52 % | 36 % | 12 % |
| 1783-90 | 28 % | 42 % | 30 % |
Questions To Think About
1. What changes took place in the wealth of elected officials over time?
2. In what respects did the wealth of elected officials in the North and South differ?
Differences between Federalists and Antifederalists
| Political Alignments of State Senators by Wealth | ||
| Federalist | Antifederalist | |
| Wealthy | 82 % | 18 % |
| Well-to-do | 65 % | 35 % |
| Moderate means | 42 % | 58 % |
Questions To Think About
1. Were state senators who supported the Constitution wealthier or poorer than opponents of the Constitution?
2. What conclusion might you draw about support for and opposition to the Constitution?
| Votes of Delegates to Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire Ratifying Conventions, by Occupation | ||
| Federalist | Antifederalist | |
| Merchants, manufacturers, doctors, lawyers, ministers, large landholders | 84 % | 16 % |
| Artisans, innkeepers, surveyors | 64 % | 36 % |
| Farmers | 46 % | 54 % |
Questions To Think About
1. Which occupational groups were most likely to support ratification of the Constitution?
2. Which occupational groups were least likely to support ratification?
Study Aid
The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution
Deficiencies in the Articles of Confederation
| The Bill of Rights | |
| First Amendment | Freedom of religion, speech, the press, peaceable assembly, and petition |
| Second Amendment | The right to keep and bear arms |
| Third Amendment | Prohibits quartering of troops in citizens' homes |
| Fourth Amendment | Protection against unreasonable searches and seizures |
| Fifth Amendment | Rules against taking of life, liberty, or property without due process of law Protection against self-incrimination |
| Sixth Amendment | A person accused of a crime has a right to a defense lawyer, speedy and public trial, the right to hear charges, call witnesses, and be present when witnesses speak in court |
| Seventh Amendment | The right to trial by jury |
| Eighth Amendment | Protection against excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishments |
| Ninth Amendment | The rights enumerated in the Constitution are not a person's only rights |
| Tenth Amendment | Powers not delegated to the U.S. nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or to the people |
| Checks and Balances | |
|
| can veto laws |
| can call special sessions of Congress | |
| controls enforcement of laws | |
| nominates judges | |
| can pardon people convicted of federal crimes | |
|
| can impeach President and other high officials |
| Senate approves Presidential appointments | |
| Senate approves treaties | |
| can override presidential vetoes | |
| exercises power of the purse | |
|
| can declare laws or presidential actions unconstitutional |
| lifetime appointments | |