Becoming America: The Constitutional Convention of 1787

By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 1/3/2022 - 5 minute read

If anyone can be identified as an eyewitness, indeed an involved participant, in the birth of the United States as an independent, sovereign nation, it is John Adams. Although he defended British soldiers charged with killing Americans during the Boston Massacre, he devoted his life to the cause of American independence as a patriot, ambassador, author of the constitution of Massachusetts, vice president and president of the United States.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 12/20/2021 - 4 minute read

Months before delegates from twelve of the thirteen States convened in Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation, James Madison had already begun preparing proposals for a stronger government to address a wide array of complex issues threatening the very viability of the new nation. In fact, whether the former British colonies could even be considered a nation was doubtful. Delegates invariably used the term “my country” to refer to their own State, not the United States. 

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 12/13/2021 - 4 minute read

By the end of April 1789, a new Congress of the United States had convened, and the nation’s first President inaugurated. But the government would not be complete until a national judiciary was established.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 12/6/2021 - 4 minute read

In the waning days of the Confederation Congress, it decided that members of the Electoral College would meet in their respective States on “the first Wednesday in February” to participate in choosing a President and a Vice President of the United States. 

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 11/29/2021 - 5 minute read

The last official day of Congress under the Articles of Confederation was March 3, 1789. To mark the occasion, thirteen cannon were fired at Fort George, located at the end of Broadway in New York City where Congress had met from 1785. But the old Congress did not “go out with a bang;” it did not even end with a whimper. Unable to muster a quorum since October 1788, it simply faded away.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 11/22/2021 - 5 minute read

On September 9, 1788, the Pennsylvania Mercury demanded to know why Congress had not acted to organize the new government under the Constitution. It had been adopted not only by nine States, the required number for adoption, but by eleven. “The great voice of the people has not been respected by our rulers,” it complained. “The impending ruin which has long threatened to overwhelm the United States, instead of rousing them to action, seems to have thrown them into a lethargy.”

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 11/15/2021 - 5 minute read

The Constitution was officially adopted on June 21 when New Hampshire became the ninth State to vote for ratification, followed by Virginia and New York by the end of July. North Carolina and Rhode Island were the outliers, still refusing to join their sister States and choosing, at least temporarily, to remain outside the union. Complicating matters were the circular letter sent by New York to the States and the practical details of transitioning from the Articles of Confederation to the new Constitution.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 11/8/2021 - 4 minute read

On June 24, news had arrived in New York that the ninth State required to adopt the new Constitution had been achieved by New Hampshire’s ratification, followed only days later by Virginia. At that point, the ultimate question facing the New York ratifying convention was whether to join the “more perfect union” or to go it alone. But for more than a month, delegates gathered in Poughkeepsie kept at it, proposing amendment after amendment and debating whether New York could ratify “conditionally.”

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 11/1/2021 - 4 minute read

Anti-Constitutionalist delegates to the New York ratifying convention continued to offer amendments to the proposed new form of government on a daily basis; in effect, attempts to re-write the document they zealously sought to defeat. On July 2 alone, a dozen amendments were proposed, ranging from requiring a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress for the federal government to borrow money, to assuring that “the power of Congress to establish post offices and post-roads is not to be construed to extend to the laying out, making, altering, or repairing highways, in any state, without the consent of the legislature of such state.”

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 10/25/2021 - 4 minute read

Robust debate at New York’s ratifying convention began just days before New Hampshire ratified the Constitution on June 21 and a week before Virginia ratified four days later. But news of New Hampshire’s ratification did not arrive in New York until June 24. In the meantime, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison maintained a constant flow of correspondence between them, well aware of the fragility of their cause.

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