On September 17, 1787, the Constitutional Convention signed the newly created Constitution of the United States and sent it to Congress for consideration. The U.S. Constitution was in fact the second national constitution; the Articles of Confederation, enacted in 1781 as the first national constitution, provided for a weak central government that was little more than a league of friendship. A small group of nationalists had wanted a more powerful central government, but their efforts in the drafting of the articles had failed, as did their efforts to amend them and to give the Congress of the Confederation additional powers. When a postwar depression created political turmoil, social unrest, and violence, leading political figures throughout the country grew worried and agreed to amend the Articles of Confederation by means of a general convention of the states.

The Constitutional Convention convened in 1787 and deliberated in secret for four months. Controversy raged between delegates from the large and small states, between delegates from the northern and southern states, and between those who were nationalists and those who supported merely strengthening the existing confederation. Several compromises were eventually made, and a unique new form of government was presented to the states for ratification. After almost a year of public debate, the new U.S. Constitution was adopted, and Congress called for the first federal elections. Two years later the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, taking away one of the primary fears of the document’s opponents—that it would reduce individual freedoms. Without the Constitution, the United States might have progressed much differently. The country could have developed a parliamentary system of government, adopted a monarchy, returned into the British Empire, or divided into multiple regional confederacies. Instead, the Constitution helped develop a large, powerful, and prosperous federal republic. However, since it failed to resolve the slavery issue, the Constitution aggravated the country’s preexisting sectionalism and ultimately led to civil war.

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