Article 2 of 9 · 1787–1791
1787–1791: The Constitution, its compromises & the Bill of Rights
Individuals: James Madison (1751–1836), George Mason (1725–1792), Roger Sherman (1721–1793), Gouverneur Morris (1752–1816), Patrick Henry (1736–1799)
In Philadelphia, the delegates tried to make government strong enough to act yet limited enough to resist capture. Their plan passed only after arguments about power, slavery and individual liberty that shaped the Republic for generations.
Who should govern a continent of unequal states?
Virginia arrived at the 1787 convention with a proposal associated with James Madison and presented by Edmund Randolph: national institutions should represent the population, and the national government should have wider authority than Congress had possessed under the Articles. Delegates from smaller states feared that their people would be permanently outvoted. William Paterson advanced an alternative preserving equal state representation. The resulting Connecticut Compromise tied the House to population and the Senate to equal representation. It was an agreement about power, not proof that every citizen would be represented equally.
Gouverneur Morris helped shape the Constitution’s final wording, including the opening in the name of the people rather than a list of sovereign states. But the delegates also negotiated protections for slavery. The three-fifths formula increased slaveholding states’ representation by counting three-fifths of the enslaved population for apportionment, although enslaved people could not vote. The Constitution also protected the transatlantic slave trade from federal prohibition before 1808 and included a fugitive-slave provision. These concessions helped form the Union while embedding a conflict between republican principle and human bondage.
A charter changes what officeholders can claim
The finished Constitution did not authorize Congress to do whatever a temporary majority might desire. Article I described legislative powers; Article II created an executive obliged to carry the laws into effect; Article III established a federal judiciary. Article VI made the Constitution and lawful federal measures supreme over conflicting state law, while Article V supplied a demanding procedure for amendment. The separation was never complete: a president can veto legislation, the Senate participates in appointments and treaties, Congress controls money and impeachment, and courts decide cases involving federal law.
Opponents pointed to missing guarantees. George Mason refused to sign the Constitution in September 1787, concerned in part that it contained no bill of rights. Patrick Henry warned the Virginia ratifying convention in June 1788 that a remote national authority could overwhelm liberty. Federalists argued that divided institutions and limited enumerated powers would supply protection, but the debate showed that many Americans did not accept structural safeguards as sufficient on their own.
Ratification did not end the argument
Hamilton, Madison and John Jay published essays known as The Federalist during 1787–1788, arguing that the larger Union and its institutions could manage disputes that had weakened the Confederation. Madison’s discussion of competing factions recognized that a government claiming to speak for the majority could still injure minorities. States voted through special conventions, and several ratified while proposing amendments. New Hampshire became the ninth ratifying state on June 21, 1788; Virginia and New York followed.
In the First Congress, Madison introduced proposed amendments on June 8, 1789. Ten were ratified by December 15, 1791, becoming the Bill of Rights. They protected religion, speech, press, assembly, petition, due process and other liberties against federal interference as then understood. Their later application against state governments developed through constitutional amendment and judicial decisions. The first achievement was narrower but fundamental: political disagreement over the Constitution produced revisions through an authorized process rather than a second war.
Dates & decisions
- May–September 1787: Delegates bargain over representation, federal power and slavery.
- September 17, 1787: Constitution signed; George Mason declines to sign.
- 1787–1788: Hamilton, Madison and Jay defend ratification in The Federalist.
- June 21, 1788: New Hampshire becomes ninth state to ratify.
- June 8, 1789: Madison introduces proposed amendments in Congress.
- December 15, 1791: Ten amendments ratified as the Bill of Rights.