American Government › Section B · The Constitution › Topic B.4
Ratifying the Constitution
Signing the Constitution in September 1787 did not make it law. It still had to win approval in the states, and the national argument that followed, between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, produced some of the most important writing in American political thought.
In this topic
- Article VII: the ratification rule
- Why conventions, not legislatures?
- The Federalists
- The Anti-Federalists
- The Federalist essays
- Worked example: Federalist No. 10 against Brutus
- The ratification contest
- Worked example: why the amendment promise worked
- From promise to Bill of Rights
- Who decided?
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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