The Constitution

What is The Constitution?

• The U.S. Constitution established America's national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens
• It was signed in September 17, 1787 by delegates to the constitutional convention in Philadelphia, supervised by George Washington
• At the 1787 convention, delegates devised a plan for a stronger

Why Do We Need a New Constitution?

• Americas first constitution, the articles of confederation, was ratified in 1781, a time when the nation was a loose confederation
• Articles of confederation gave congress the power to govern foreign affairs, conduct war and regulate currency; however, in reality these powers were sharply limited because congress had no authority to enforce its requests to the states for money or troops

Did You Know?

• George Washington was initially reluctant to attend the constitutional convention

Forming a More Perfect Union

• On May 25, 1787, the constitutional convention opened in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania state house, now known as the independence hall, where the declaration of independence had been adopted 11 years earlier
• The delegates were well educated group that included merchants, farmers, bankers and lawyers.
• At age of 81, Benjamin Franklin was the oldest delegate.

Debating The Constitution

• a system of checks and balances was put into places so that no single branch would have to much authority
• delegates from larger states wanted population to determine how many representatives a state could send the congress, while small states called for equal representation
• another topic was slavery, although some northern states had already started to outlaw the practice, they went along with the southern states' insistence that slavery was an issue for individual states to decide and should be kept out of the constitution

Debating The Constitution

• A system of checks and balances was put into places so that no single branch would have to much authority
• Delegates from larger states wanted population to determine how many representatives a state could send the congress, while small states called for equal representation
• Another topic was slavery, although some northern states had already started to outlaw the practice, they went along with the southern states' insistence that slavery was an issue for individual states to decide and should be kept out of the constitution

Ratifying The Constitution

• By September 1787, the conventions five-member committee of style had drafted the final text of the constitution, which consisted of some 4,200 words
• James madison and alexander hamilton, with assistance from john jay, wrote series of essays to persuade people to ratify the constitution

The Bill of Rights

• In 1789, madison, then member of there newly established U.S. house of representatives, introduced 19 amendments to the constitution
• September 25, 1789, congress adopted 12 of the amendments and sent them to the states for ratification
• Bill of Rights, were ratified and became part of the constitution on December 10, 1791

The Constitution Today

• In the more than 200 years since the constitution was created, america has stretched across an entire continent and its population and economy have expanded more than the documents farmers likely ever could have envisioned
• Benjamin Franklin said on the closing day of the convention in 1787

The U.S. Constitution
www.history.com/topics/constitution.
2009. A&E Networks.
October 13, 2015


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October 13, 2015

Remy-Patrick-Saffell-Clayton
Building Citizenship, Civics and Economics,
Bothell, WA-Chicago, IL-Columbus, OH-New York, NY
Mc Graw Hill,
2014.