Copy of the US Constitution

The Original Copy of the US Constitution

The original Copy of the US Constitution is held at the National Archives, in Washington, D.C.

When the United States made the declaration to separate itself from Great Britain in 1776, there was no written constitution at that time. Each of the thirteen colonies had their own sovereignty and each had separate rules of law.

The idea was that the United States would act as one nation was still uncertain and undefined.

The Continental Congress was assembled to make the attempt to draft the nation's first constitution, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. They were ratified in 1781, the same year that the Revolutionary War against Britain came to an end at Yorktown, Virginia.

The Articles of Confederation allowed each state its own "sovereignty, freedom and independence" (art. II). It proved to be an ineffective national constitution didn’t recognize a strong federal, or central, government did not provide the federal government the power to tax or regulate commerce.

The weak federal government along with insufficient funds for operation led to a number of problems in the 1780s: divisive economic warfare between states, inadequate national commercial treaties with foreign countries, and no ability to fund an army for opposition to British troops assembled in the Northwest Territory.

The overall weakness of the Confederation was fully exposed when there was no federal response to Shays's Rebellion in 1786-87 an armed uprising by debtor farmers in western part of Massachusetts against courts of law.

George Washington expressed his strong desire for a better union of the states:

“I am mortified beyond expression when I view the clouds that have spread over the brightest morn that ever dawned upon any country. You talk of employing influence to appease the present tumults in Massachusetts. Influence is no government. Let us have a government by which our lives, liberties and properties will be secured; or let us know the worst at once.”

The Continental Congress called for the Constitutional Convention to address the inadequacies of the Articles of Confederation and create a better foundation for a union between the states.

On May 25, 1787, the convention began in Philadelphia with the intention of amending the standing Articles of Confederation. Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and George Washington had other ideas and made plans for an entirely new constitution.

Fifty-five delegates representing twelve states (all but Rhode Island) debated different plans for a more effective federal government. Their overall agreement led to a government consisting of three separate branches, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. By instituting a system of checks and balances, it would restrain one branch from becoming too powerful.

However, they disagreed strongly over the particulars... two opposing plans for representation in a national legislature competed for the loyalty of delegates.

Edmund Randolph presented the “Virginia Plan, designed by James Madison, which called for a bicameral, or two-house, legislature. Representation in the lower house would be proportional to the population, then, representation in the upper house would be elected by those in the lower house.

Delegates from small states rightfully felt that this plan would give far too much power to large states. They favored the New Jersey Plan, designed to provide for a unicameral legislature with equal representation to each state.

The issue was settled when delegates voted for a compromise plan called The Great Compromise, or the Connecticut Compromise with the establishment of a Senate that gave each state two representatives and a House of Representatives that granted each state a number of representatives proportional to their population.

On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates signed the final draft of the Constitution. From there the document went before each of the thirteen states for ratification. The ratification process became a highly spirited debate on the merits of the Constitution. The Federalists, supported ratification while those opposed to the Constitution were called the Anti-Federalists.

The Federalist leaders, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison made their eloquent arguments on behalf of the Constitution in a series of newspaper essays published as The Federalist Papers.

The ratification process, as defined in Article VII of the Constitution, required that nine of the thirteen states approve the Constitution independently, in special conventions. Ten months after the Constitution was completed, ten of the states had ratified it. Rhode Island was the last of the thirteen states to finally ratify the Constitution, on May 29, 1790, the date that officially made the Constitution the highest law of the land.