the Articles of Confederation, which had required the
consent of every State in the Union. At the time the committee of detail
made its report, the Convention was ready to agree that the consent of
all the States was not necessary, and it eventually decided that, when
ratified by the conventions of nine States, the Constitution should go
into effect between the States so ratifying.

It was not within the province of the Convention to determine what the
course of procedure should be in the individual States; so it simply
transmitted the Constitution to Congress and in an accompanying
document, which significantly omitted any request for the approval of
Congress, strongly expressed the opinion that the Constitution should
"be submitted to a convention of delegates chosen in each state by the
people thereof." This was nothing less than indirect ratification by the
people; and, since it was impossible to foretell in advance which of the
States would or would not ratify, the original draft of "We, the People
of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,..." was
changed to the phrase "We, the People of the United States." No man of
that day could imagine how significant this change would appear in the
light of later history.

Congress did not receive the new Constitution enthusiastically, yet
after a few days' discussion it unanimously voted, eleven States being
present, that the recommendations of the Convention should be followed,
and accordingly sent the document to the States, but without a word of
approval or disapproval. On the whole the document was well received,
especially as it was favored by the upper class, who had the ability and
the opportunity for expression and were in a position to make themselves
heard. For a time it looked as if the Constitution would be readily
adopted.

The contest over the Constitution in the States is usually taken as
marking the beginning of the two great national political parties in
the United States. This was, indeed, in a way the first great national
question that could cause such a division. There had been, to be sure,
Whigs and Tories in America, reproducing British parties, but when the
trouble with the mother country began, the successive congresses of
delegates were recognized and attended only by the so-called American
Whigs, and after the Declaration of Independence the name of Tory,
became a reproach, so that with the end of the war the Tory party
disappea