THE NEW CONSTITUTION

During the war Benjamin Franklin had said, “We must all hang together or we shall all hang separately.”  The states had “hung together” sufficiently to win the war; but the wise men of the time now saw the need for a government so organized and with such powers as to secure effective cooperation among all the states and all the people at all times for the welfare of the entire Union, while leaving each state free to manage its own local affairs.  Therefore a convention of delegates from all the states was called together at Philadelphia in 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation.  The result was our present Constitution under which our present national government went into effect in 1789.

Investigate and report: 

The nature and causes of the confusion during “the critical period” of American history.

The leading men of the Constitutional Convention.

How the states ratified the Constitution.

Which of the original thirteen states did not ratify the
Constitution until after it had gone into effect.

The number of states required to ratify before the Constitution went into effect (Constitution, Art.  VII).

POPULAR CONTROL THROUGH THE CONSTITUTION

“We, the people of the United States” “ordained and established” the Constitution (see the Preamble).  It was also “ordained” in the Constitution (Art.  V) that it could be amended only by methods designed to give the people control over the matter—­greater control than they have over ordinary lawmaking.  A great many amendments have been proposed in the course of time, but only eighteen have so far been adopted,[Footnote:  A nineteenth amendment is at this writing before the states for ratification—­ the woman suffrage amendment.] ten of these having been adopted in the very beginning as a condition on which the states would accept the Constitution at all.  None of these amendments changed the form of our government except with respect to the methods of electing the President and United States senators (Amendments xii and XVII).

Explain the two methods of proposing, and the two methods of ratifying, amendments (Constitution, Art.  VII).

Has there ever been a national constitutional convention called by the states?

Which of the two methods of ratifying was used in the case of the last amendment adopted? [Footnote:  Ohio by a referendum in 1919 submitted the eighteenth amendment to the people of the state for their vote, after it had been ratified by the legislature.  This was the first time in our history that an amendment to the Constitution was submitted to popular vote for ratification.]

Did your state vote to ratify or to reject the last amendment?

If any amendment is now before the states for ratification, watch the newspapers for the action of the various states.