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An Excellent Constuon
Joshua Marshall
HIS 108
Lauren Lintz
How inuential is the Bill of Rights in your life? Some take this long-
standing document for granted. Memorizing the amendments is so common
that the emphasis of the words can easily be forgo$en. These rights are given to
us at birth; travelling abroad is required to experience a world lacking the Bill of
Rights. However, America hasn’t always been this way. Anti-federalists had to
give their all in order to ensure our Bill of Rights. Federalists almost rati-ed a
Constitution without the Bill of Rights which would have given the central
government too much authority. Had the federalists rati-ed a Constitution
lacking the Bill of Rights, we would have re-written the Constitution already or
accepted an America no di/erent than other countries. The permanence of the
U.S. Constitution is only possible through the tremendous amount of e/ort given
by members of The Great Debate. In fact, without anti-federalist opposition
during The Great Debate, the Constitution would not be as strong and long-
lasting as it is.
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The U.S. Constitution was rati-ed in 1788, 228 years ago. The process of
rati-cation was not an easy one though. Originally, the Constitution did not
include the Bill of Rights and caused great controversy. This led to the Great
Debate which was another long and brutal process but extremely important to
the success of our nation. Why is this a big deal though? When compared to the
rest of the world, America o/ers a copious amount of freedom and that makes us
superior to other countries.
In 1785 it was established between Virginia and Maryland that a meeting
should be held to discuss various problems with commerce. In 1786 when the
meeting was supposed to take place, only 5 representatives showed up, none
from Maryland. Due to lack of participation it was decided that no changes
would be made, but the idea of centralization was brought up. Alexander
Hamilton was there and stated that America required drastic centralization to
prevent itself from disintegrating. The group agreed to meet at the Philadelphia
State House in 1787 to debate amending the Articles of Confederation.
Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey elected delegates for the
constitutional convention before 1787. In January and February of 1787, North
Carolina, New Hampshire, Delaware and Georgia elected delegates for the
convention. On February 1st it was declared that the revisions to the Articles of
Confederation would be discussed on May 14th. Rhode Island was the only state
to not elect delegates for the convention and sent a le$er to the convention
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mentioning its regret. Although scheduled for May 14th, the convention was
postponed to the 25th since not enough delegates had arrived. It was decided
that George Washington would be the president of the convention, William
Jackson the secretary, and that Alexander Hamilton, George Wythe and Charles
Pinckney would decide rules.
There were many intricate plans proposed in the Great Convention. John
Adams said the Constitutional Convention was “a time when the greatest
lawgivers of antiquity would have wished to live…to form and establish the
wisest and happiest government that human wisdom can contrive.” The Large
State Plan and Pinckney Plan were presented on May 29th. On June 15th, William
