Exploration
The US Constitution was written and ratified in 1787. It is over 200 years old. People think that this document has always been honored, but this is not true. There were many people who supported this Constitution who they were called the Federalists and people who opposed it who were called the Antifederalists. Ratification of this Constitution involved many arguments in which the Antifederalists feared an absolute power and a too powerful government. They were fearful because only years earlier they had fought a war against a too powerful central government. Which side had a better argument will be discussed in this essay of ratification of the constitution.The ratification of the Constitution wasn't as easy as the delegates thought it would be. The reason for this is that Antifederalists had many arguments and opposed the Constitution. There were many other reasons. They feared that the government will have too much power and that this Constitution would be more like monarchy. When the Constitution was written and ready to be ratified by the states, that's when the problems showed up. The framers called each state to hold a Special Convention in which votes would elect the delegates wh
o then would vote to accept or reject the Constitution. The ratification required at least nine out of ten states to approve it. The Antifederalists opposed because they feared abuses of power by a strong central government. They feared that the government would serve the interests of the privileged minority and ignore the rights of the majority. The leading argument however centered on the constitution's lack of protection of individual rights. Leading Antifederalists Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee wrote "Letter from the Federal Farmers" in which he listed what rights should be protected in the Constitution such as freedom of press and religion, guarantees against unreasonable searches, and trial by jury. All of these rights were listed in the Bill of Rights, those were citizen's rights and freedoms. At the end they added the Bill of Rights but only if the Antifederalists agreed to sign the Constitution first. Nine states were required to sign it but 11 ratified it because the last two were large states. (Doc. 2,4,5,6) Antifederalists had the Bill of Rights added to the constitution, that listed the individual rights and freedoms. They also knew they couldn't trust
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 808
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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