HIUS 313 A1 Business and Technical Week 5 The Ratification Debates Paper

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HIUS 313

A1 Business and Technical College

HIUS

Description

SHORT PAPER ASSIGNMENT

HIUS 313 - THE AMERICAN FOUNDING

Topic: Short Paper: State Ratification Assignment

MODULE/WEEK 5 -- The Ratification Debates

Overview

This assignment will allow you to research and better understand the ratification conventions for the U.S. Constitution that occurred at the state level. The assignment’s purpose is to enhance the historian’s grasp of the early American founding era by investigating and interpreting primary and secondary source evidence.

Instructions

Using primary source documents located in the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution resource, which is available online through the Jerry Falwell Library, you will write a Turabian style 2-page short research paper about the Federalists and Anti-Federalists debates at the state ratifying conventions. The paper must use a minimum of 3 primary sources from the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution resource. Additional secondary sources are encouraged and must be appropriately cited if used.

The paper must be a full 2 pages but must not exceed 2 ¼ pages with footnotes applied. So be concise in your writing and verify proper citations, including the use of footnote Ibid. And shortened versions.

Overall, you must:

  • Select 1 of the 13 state ratifying conventions
  • Provide a well-written narrative analyzing the following three things about that state’s convention:
    • The initial position of the Federalists in the chosen state convention.
    • The fears of the Antifederalists.
    • The Federalist promises were made to relieve those fears.
  • Also, include very brief biographical material of the people involved.

Your paper’s body must include an identifiable introduction with a well-crafted thesis statement and summative conclusion. The title page and bibliography do not count toward the 2-2 ¼ page requirement. No headings should be used (except on the Bibliography page). Also, the paper must be written in the third person. You should utilize the template from the LU Online Writing Center – Writing Style Guide website.

NOTE: The citation guide provided at the bottom of each webpage on the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution website is not accurate! Therefore, each speech by a delegate should be cited as a separate source in footnote form as follows:

1 George Mason, “Speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention,” 19 June 1788, in Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, Volume X: Virginia, ed. John P. Kaminski, et al. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009), 1391.

Gathering information for this citation is easy. Locate the author of the speech by name in the proceedings of the debates. Each speech will have the same title as listed above: “Speech at the <State> Ratifying Convention.” Identify the date of the speech, then use the “Original source” citation information at the bottom of the webpage to locate the volume number and state for the source. Then add the page number found within the body of the recording debate in brackets [xxxx] at the end of the citation. The page number will always come after the material you quote, paraphrase, or otherwise use as your source.

For the "Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution" - https://www.liberty.edu/library/databases/?l=D - scroll down to the bottom; however, I don't know if it gives access or not.

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Explanation & Answer

View attached explanation and answer. Let me know if you have any questions.

State Ratification Conventions:
Delaware

Student name
Course
Date

2
The state chosen for the state ratification convention analysis is Delaware. Delaware’s
Constitutional Convention was signed on December 7, 1787. The signing represented an
admission by Delaware as the First State to the United States and subject to other nine
colonies that joined the United States Constitution. The present constitution in Delaware
State, which is ultimately the fourth constitution, was adopted in 1897. However, it was
adopted for the first time on September 20, 1776. Thus, the initial or rather first constitution
referred to the state as “The Delaware State.” In its quest to achieve Articles of
Confederation constitutional amendments, Delaware sent five delegates to Philadelphia’s
Constitutional Convention. 1 These delegates were George Read, Richard Basset, Jacob
Broom, John Dickson and Gunning Bedford, Jr. Those who favored the convention were
referred to as federalist, while those who strongly opposed it were regarded as AntiFederalists. This paper explores the Delaware Constitutional Convention, putting into
consideration the controversial debate between the federalists and antifederalists.
The initial position of the federalists with regard to the Delaware convention was to offer
amendments to the Articles of Confederation unanimously. The five delegates from
Delaware were instructed to consider rending the Federal Constitution adequate to the
Exigencies of the Union. Therefore, these federalist delegates could not alter the one state,
one vote approach or framework for the Articles. John Dickson, one of the five delegates,
had been mandated to propose a solution that would help address the proposal that the

1
George Read, “Speech at the Delaware Ratifying Convention,” 7 December 1787, in Documentary
History of the Ratification of the Constitution, Volume III: Delaware, N...

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