Ratifying The Constitution Of The 18th Century

“The Constitution was established by America’s national government and fundamental laws”, and guaranteed basic rights for American citizens. The constitution was made by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and John Adams – George Washington had the responsibility of seeing the Constitutional Convention that took place in Philadelphia between May 5th, 1787 and September 17th, 1787.In order for the Constitution to be a part of the law, it had to be accepted by 9 of the 13 states. However, Massachusetts, Maryland and South Carolina refused to ratify it because it lacked protection of basic rights. In February 1788, an agreement was reached which Massachusetts and the two other states would agree to ratify the Constitution if amendments would be proposed. The Constitution was then ratified by Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire was the last state to ratify the Constitution. The Constitution would then begin on March 4, 1789. The inauguration of George Washington to become president would take place soon after.
House of Representatives, made 19 amendments to add to the Constitution. On September 25, 1789, Congress adopted 12 of the amendments and then sent them to the states for ratification. Ten out of the twelve amendments were accepted and called the “Bill of Rights”. They were ratified and became a part of Constitution on December 10, 1791. The Bill of Rights provides basic protection as an American citizen. For James Madison helping writing the drafting of the Constitution he became the “Father of the Constitution”. To today, there have been hundreds of proposed amendments to the Constitution. However, only 17 amendments have been ratified in addition to the Bill of rights making only 27 amendments in