On this day in 1787, the Constitutional Convention concluded and presented their results to the States for Ratification.
After being ratified by a majority of the States in 1788, the Constitution became the law of the land in 1789. By 1790, the two remaining States to not ratify it beforehand, Rhode Island and North Carolina, finally ratified the document as well.
The document was controversial at first, especially in New York. In response, New York's delegates (John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton) wrote 85 newspaper editorials extolling the document's virtues to the citizens using the sobriquet 'Publius'. These editorials have since become known as the Federalist Papers. Those papers have also been quite informative to numerous SCOTUS decisions since then, often cited as evidence of the Framers' original intent/interpretation of Constitutional Law.
The document was quickly amended by the first Congress and President Washington with the first 10 Amendments in 1791. This had the effect of both codifying a citizen's rights into law and addressing the concerns of the Anti-Federalist movement.
References:
U.S. Constitution - Archives.gov
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution
U.S. Constitution - Wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution
U.S. Constitution - White House.gov
https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/constitution
U.S. Constitution - Government Publishing Office
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CDOC-110hdoc50/pdf/CDOC-110hdoc50.pdf
The Bill of Rights - Archives.org
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights
Amendments 11-27 - Archives.org
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27
The Federalist Papers - Congress.gov
https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/The+Federalist+Papers
Anti-Federalist Papers - The Federalist Papers.org
http://thefederalistpapers.org/anti-federalist-papers
Constitution Day
http://www.constitutionday.com/
Publius Valerius Publicola - Wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publius_Valerius_Publicola
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