About

Between 1787 and 1789 Americans argued in public about whether to adopt the proposed Constitution. This site holds that argument: the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, the 1787 Constitution, the Bill of Rights, all 85 Federalist essays, and 44 writings against ratification. Brutus, the Federal Farmer, and Cato are here complete, along with George Mason’s objections, Luther Martin’s address to the Maryland legislature, and the Pennsylvania minority’s dissent. Three other founding-era writings on slavery sit alongside them, none of them part of the ratification argument.

The opposition writings are a selection. Several important writers aren’t here yet, and the collection says so rather than implying otherwise. What is here is here in full. Nothing is excerpted or summarized in place of the original.

Every document comes from a named digital edition and keeps its original spelling and punctuation, apart from mechanical handling that its own page describes. Where a second independent copy could be found, this text has been compared against it. Four have no such comparison; the sources page names them and says why. Sources and methodology →

The connections between documents are made by hand, and each one says what kind it is. A counterpoint means two writers took up the same question independently. A documented response means the record shows one writer answering another, and there are six of those. The difference is never blurred.