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Title: The%20Ratification%20Debates

1
The Ratification Debates
2
Topics

The Historical Context
The Role of the Federalist Papers during
ratification
Federalist Justifications for the Constitution

3
The Ratification Debates in Historical Context

The Ratification debates addressed two questions
Should the Articles of Confederation be replaced?
If the Articles should be replaced, what should
be the features of the new constitution?

4
Arguments against the Articles of Confederation

The national government did not have the power to
enforce its own laws-Congress could not
effectively regulate trade among states, collect
taxes, or try individuals who broke national
laws.
The federal government was not given sole power
to coin money causing inflation.
Government was unresponsive to changing
circumstances. New laws required supermajorities
(9 of the 13 states) that were slow and costly to
form.
Amendments required unanimity

5
The Constitution fixed the Articles, but at
what cost?

Anti-Federalists argued that the new Constitution
provided insufficient protection for the rights
of individuals and states from the powerful new
federal government.
Anti-Federalists preferred either
To scrap the national government entirely, or
Keep the Articles as they stood.

6
What was the basis for Anti-Federalist Opposition?

In general, the Anti-Federalists viewed the
Constitution as a threat to five cherished values
Law
Political Stability
The Principles of the Declaration of Independence
To Federalism
Anti-Commericalism

7
The Constitution and Federalism

At the time, federalism was the idea that the
states are primary, that they are equal and that
they possess the main weight of political power.
The Constitution consolidation of power in the
national government was inconsistent with
voluntary cooperation among the states.

8
Whats so special about states rights?

Anti-Federalists believed that effective
administration could only exist in states with a
small territory with a homogenous population.
In large, diverse republics, many significant
differences in condition, interest, and habit
have to be ignored for the sake of uniform
administration.
A large national government would impose uniform
rules despite American diversity, resulting in
hardship and inequity in many parts of the
country.

9
States Protect Liberty 1

Only a small republic can enjoy the affective
attachment of the people to the government and
voluntary obedience to the law.
Elections are not sufficient to ensure public
perceptions of governmental accountability.
In a large republic, the people will not have
confidence in their legislature because they are
too far removed from the individuals who govern
them.

10
States Protect Liberty 2

Small republics ensure representative
policymaking.
Representation depends on similarities between
legislatures and citizens.
Federal elections presented voters with a choice
among representatives from the well-known elite,
or the natural aristocracy. State elections
ensured the inclusion of the yeomanry.
The yeomanry looked after the best interest of
the public at large.

11
States Protect Liberty 3

The Constitution did not include protections for
jury trials.
Whereas elections provide representation in
policymaking, juries ensure representation in
administration.
Juries allow the public to stand as guardians of
each others rights, and to restrain tyrannical
authorities who might infringe upon those rights.

12
The Constitution and natural aristocracy

All government is aristocratic in some
respects-government is inherently the rule of the
few over the many.
The Constitution, however, prevents the many from
effective control over the few. The Senate, in
particular, with 6-year terms, absence of term
limits, and the widest-ranging policy-making
powers in the national government, was believed
to set the stage for the development of an
aristocracy.

13
The Ratification Controversy

Ratification was closely contested nationally
during 1787 and 1788
Any nine of the thirteen states were sufficient
for ratification
But rejection by any of the four most prominent
states-Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, or
Virginia would have doomed the Constitution

14
New York was special

New York City was the seat of the national
government during ratification
New York state had a powerful executive branch.
The governor would lose power if a strong
national government formed.
Alexander Hamilton was from New York and led its
Federalist faction.

15
Hamiltons Problem

The Anti-Federalists were led by His
Excellency, Governor George Clinton.
Clinton had a vested interest in preventing the
formation of a strong national government.
Clintons popularity as father of New York made
him a formidable rival.

16
Hamiltons Strategy

Hamilton focused on behind the scenes political
manipulation to build support among political
elites.
He also proposed a series of essays designed to
persuade the public of the Constitutions value.
These essays served as a debaters handbook.

17
The Federalist Papers

A set of essays, written by Hamilton, James
Madison, and John Jay, and published in New York
newspapers under the pseudonym Publius.
During the ratification controversy, these essays
were circulated nationally.
The essays linked opposition to the new
Constitution with hot-headed liberals (Patrick
Henry) and those with a vested interest in
maintaining a weak government (George Clinton).

18
Four Themes of the Federalist Papers

An explanation of the blessings of national
government
An indictment of the Articles of Confederation
for failing to provide such a government at the
national level
An analysis and defense of the Constitution as an
instrument of federalism and governance
An exposition of the costs and benefits of
freedom.
? They are essays designed to persuade

19
Federalist 10, Madison

This essay explains how the Constitution protects
against a tyranny of the majority, without resort
to dictatorship.
The key to understanding Madisons argument is
that the tyrant is an individual or group who, if
given power, would harm others in pursuit of
self-interest.
A faction is the term to describe an individual
or group seeking that power.

20
Federalist 10. Factions

There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of
faction the one, by removing its causes, the
other, by controlling its effects.
To control the causes of faction, it would be
necessary to either destroy liberty or to give
every citizen the same opinions and interests.
Because destroying freedom is unacceptable and
controlling opinions impossible, to cure the
mischiefs of factions, it is necessary to
control their effects.

21
Federalist 10. Enlightened Statesmen

It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen
will be able to adjust these clashing interests
and render them all subservient to the public
good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be
at the helm. Nor, in many cases, can such an
adjustment be made without taking into view
indirect and remote considerations, which will
rarely prevail over the immediate interest which
one party may find in disregarding the rights of
another or the good of the whole.

22
Federalist 10. Minority Factions

A minority faction can be controlled through
elections.
The minority may clog he administration, it may
convulse the society but it will be unable to
execute and mask its violence under the forms of
the Constitution.

23
Federalist 10.Majority Factions

When a majority is included in a faction, the
form of popular government, on the other hand,
enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or
interest both the public good and the rights of
other citizens.
To control such a majority, factions must be
rendered, by their number and local situation,
unable to concert and carry into effect schemes
of oppression.
An extended republic is better able to control
factions than a set of smaller republics, because
it is more difficult to gain a majority.

24
Importance of Federalist 10

Faction Party
Federalist 10 can be interpreted as an essay on
how difficult it is to put together a national
party.
Gives rise to the notion of parties as umbrella
organizations, or coalitions of individuals with
distinct interests and without a common agenda.
Madisons Behavioral Assumptions
Note that Madisons assumptions about human
behavior closely parallel those of rational
choice theorists.

25
Federalist 51, Madison

Why do we need the separation of powers?
Because individuals given power will use it for
personal advantage.
If men were angels, no government would be
necessary.

26
Federalist 51.

A constitution must balance two aims sufficient
capacity for governance and effective control
over the leadership.
In framing a government which is to be
administered by men over men, the greatest
difficulty lies in this you must first enable
the government to control the governed and in
the next place oblige it to control itself. A
dependence on the people is, no doubt, the
primary control on the government but experience
has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary
precautions.

27
Federalist 51, Checks and Balances

A system of checks and balances was what
Montesquieu meant, rather than a strict
separation of powers.
To function effectively, the system of checks and
balances requires multiple branches of
government.
Each branch must be independent from the others.
Each branch must sufficient power to hold the
others in check.

28
Federalist 51. Conditions for Independence

Each department should have a will of its own
and consequently should be so constituted that
the members of each should have as little agency
as possible in the appointment of members of the
others.
But, some deviations from this principal could be
tolerated, especially for the judiciary whose
lifetime appointments ameliorate any dependency.

29
Federalist 51.

But the greatest security against a gradual
concentration of the several powers in the same
department consists in giving to those who
administer each department the necessary
constitutional means and motives to resist
encroachments of the others, the provision for
defense must in this, as in all other cases, be
made commensurate to the danger of attack.
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
The interest of the man must be connected with
the constitutional rights of the place.

30
Federalist 51. Legislative Power

In a democracy, legislative authority is
predominant.
The division of the Congress into two different
branches curbs the power of the legislature.
Each branch has a different constituency-Senators
answers to their state, the House to their
district.
Senators have longer terms in office making them
less responsive to their constituents, House
members have shorter terms making them more
responsive.

31
Importance of Federalist 51

Status Quo Bias System of checks and balances
protects minorities when out of power and not
already oppressed however, checks and balances
also limit opportunities for change.
Exacerbated by super-majorities needed to achieve
cloture in the Senate (filibuster)
Makes Accountability Difficult if multiple
sources for responsibility, who is accountable
for good and bad times?
Responsible parties no ticket-splitting creates
disciplined national parties and unified partisan
control of government offer a vehicle to overcome
system of checks and balances.

32
Federalist 51. Executive Power