United States Constitution

May 1787 marked the beginning of a contentious Federal Convention charged by Congress with reviewing and revising the Articles of Confederation which had been signed into law March 1, 1781. Once sufficient delegates arrived in Philadelphia for the Convention, discussions began which lasted through a long, hot summer into September - when the Pennsylvania legislature returned to claim its meeting space.

While the mandate Congress gave the delegates (many of whom were also members of the Conferation's Congress) to the Convention, they came to realize that the Articles needed to provide a more defined form of government for the new Nation that spelled out clearly how that would happen, the rights and responsibilities of both the government and, in general terms, its citizenry. The delegates also sought to give more credibility through these definitions to trade and diplomatic dealings with other nations.

Even after the Constitution was released from the Convention for ratification, there was doubt the requisite approval would be forthcoming from 9 of the 13 states. Three men, under the pen name Publius (Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay), wrote a series of 85 essays to persuade New York in particular to ratify the new Constitution. This collection of essays is collectively known as "The Federalist Papers".

Others were less supportive of the new Constitution and gave public voice to their doubts in an effort to sway the States against ratification. While the "Anti-Federalists" were unsuccessful, their opposition was nonetheless important as the individual states met in Convention or legislative chamber to vote aye or nay on the document that ultimately replaced the Articles of Confederation. Their thoughts have been collected as "The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates".

Both the Federalists and Anti-Federalists brought out matters that would be considered in later years as the nation grew, with the first twelve amendments sent to the states for ratification in 1789. Of those twelve, ten would be ratified and become known as the "Bill of Rights".

In testimony to the timeliness and timelessness of the Constitution, since its ratification by 11 states 1788, the Constitution has only seen the Bill of Rights and seventeen additional amendments ratified as of January 10, 2017. Most of the seventeen additional amendments addressed the changes the nation had seen as it grew, as well as various matters that needed to be addressed.

In summary, the framers of the Constitution, through debate and reasoned consideration, gave the United States a document that was well suited for their time and ready to meet the needs of the future that were well beyond anything they might have anticipated in 1787.