of certain provisions of the
Constitution which were considered liable to misconstruction. The
twelfth article is the amendment changing the mode of electing the
President and Vice-President.

In the differences of opinion between the friends and opponents of the
Constitution originated the two great political parties into which the
people were divided during a period of about thirty years. It is
generally supposed that the term "Federalist" was first applied to those
who advocated the plan of the present Constitution. This opinion,
however, is not correct. Those members of the convention who were in
favor of the old plan of union, which was a simple confederation or
federal alliance of equal independent States, were called "Federalists,"
and their opponents "Anti-Federalists." After the new Constitution had
been submitted to the people for ratification, its friends, regarding
its adoption as indispensable to union, took the name of "Federalists,"
and bestowed upon the other party that of "Anti-Federalists," intimating
that to oppose the adoption of the Constitution was to oppose any union
of the States.

The new Constitution bears the date September 17, 1787. It was
immediately transmitted to Congress, with a recommendation to that body
to submit it to State conventions for ratification, which was
accordingly done. It was adopted by Delaware, December 7th; by
Pennsylvania, December 12th; by New Jersey, December 18th; by Georgia,
January 2d, 1788; by Connecticut, January 9th; by Massachusetts,
February 7th; by Maryland, April 28th; by South Carolina, May 23d; by
New Hampshire, June 21st, which, being the _ninth_ ratifying State, gave
effect to the Constitution. Virginia ratified June 27th; New York, July
26th; and North Carolina, conditionally, August 7th. Rhode Island did
not call a convention.

In Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York the new Constitution
encountered a most formidable opposition, which rendered its adoption
by these States for a time extremely doubtful. In their conventions were
men on both sides who had been members of the national convention,
associated with others of distinguished abilities. In Massachusetts
there were several adverse influences which would probably have defeated
the ratification in that State had it not been accompanied by certain
proposed amendments to be submitted by Congress to the several States
for ratification. The adoption of these by the convention gained for the
Cons