"When the delegates left the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September 1787, the new Constitution they had written was no more than a proposal. Elected conventions in at least nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify it before it could take effect. There was reason to doubt whether that would happen. The document we revere today as the foundation of our country’s laws, the cornerstone of our legal system, was hotly disputed at the time. Some Americans denounced the Constitution for threatening the liberty that Americans had won at great cost in the Revolutionary War.

"The Debate on the Constitution charts the course of the bloodless revolution that created the government of the United States and the world’s oldest working political charter. Here, on a scale unmatched by any previous collection, is the extraordinary energy and eloquence of our first national political campaign.

"The Debate on the Constitution charts the course of the bloodless revolution that created the government of the United States and the world’s oldest working political charter.