American Government
Marshall High School
Mr. Cline
Unit One BE
We the People…..
The Failings of the Articles of Confederation
and the Solutions of the Constitutional Convention
Article Four
• “Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and
judicial Proceedings of every other state.”
• This is known as the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution, and basically
means that the laws, court rulings, legal contracts and official documents of one
State will be good in another.
• Article Four also allows for the protection of your rights as a citizen of the United
States, so you cannot be treated differently in any other State because you are not
a resident of it.
Article Five
• Article Five describes how changes to the United States Constitution can occur
• A change to the United States Constitution is called an Amendment
• Amendments can be suggested in the following manners:
1.) When 2/3rd’s of Congress shall vote to do so
2.) When 2/3rd’s of all State legislatures request Congress call a national
convention to consider amendments to the Constitution
• Amendments can then be ratified in the following manners:
1.) ¾’s of all State legislatures pass the proposed amendment
2.) ¾’s of all Conventions called in each state pass the proposed amendment
Article Six
• In Article Six you will find The Supremacy Clause
• The Supremacy Clause states that three items should be considered “The Supreme
Law of the Land,” and that all courts and States must adhere to these things in
determining court cases, and establishing law.
1.) The Constitution itself
2.) Federal Law, and;
3.) Foreign Treaties
Article Seven
• The final clause of the United States Constitution states that it will only take the
ratification of the conventions of nine states to establish this Constitution as the
foundational document of our national government.
RATIFICATION?
• There was a lot of heated debate in the thirteen states over the proposed new
Constitution, and there was doubt as to whether it would be ratified by even
nine states
• The man most responsible for the drafting of the Constitution, known today as The
Father of the Constitution, James Madison, along with John Jay and Alexander
Hamilton, wrote a series of articles supporting and defending the new Constitution,
known as The Federalist Papers.
• The Anti-Federalists argued that this new Constitution, by creating a strong
national government with a singular executive, and a supreme judiciary, would
grow too powerful, and force the people to give away basic rights such as freedom
of speech and religion, or even force them to give up their weapons, quarter
soldiers, and even be tried without a jury, or be held against their will for long
periods of time. All things they had experienced under the strong national
government of Britain when they were colonies.
RATIFICATION?
• The Anti Federalists demanded that changes be made to the Constitution to
protect these rights.
• At first Madison was opposed to this, because he did not want to limit the
Constitutional government’s abilities to deal with whatever may come, but as
time wore on he began to see their point of view, and wrote 12 Amendments
referred to as The Bill of Rights to add to the Constitution once it was ratified.
• This convinced most Anti-Federalists to finally support the Constitution, and
the required nine states eventually passed it, putting our new government
into effect.
• At the meeting of the very first Congress of the United States of America,
Madison proposed the Constitution be amended with the Bill of Rights, and
the issue was sent to the thirteen states for approval.
• Only ten of the amendments he suggested were approved at that time, and
they became what today we call the Bill of Rights