The Commonwealth of Virginia ratifies the Constitution for the united States (89-79). This brings the balance, in the Senate, of free States and slave States to four free and six slave. Virginia ratifies only after anti-federalists Patrick Henry and George Mason receive assurances that amendments will be added to protect individual rights.
[restored 10/5/2021]
Alexander Hamilton, using the pseudonym “Publius,” publishes “Federalist Essay number 81,” paragraph four of which claims that the proposed Constitution for the united States is NOT intended to be used by the Federal judiciary to constrain the States:
[T]here is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution, or which gives them any greater latitude in this respect than may be claimed by the courts of every State. I admit, however, that the Constitution ought to be the standard of construction for the laws, and that wherever there is an evident opposition, the laws ought to give place to the Constitution.
[added 10/5/2021] Thanks to Jim Lorenz for this entry.
Subsequent Events:
Authority:
References:
“Chronology of Events, 1774-1804,” from The Debate on the Constitution, two volumes, Bernard Bailyn, ed., (New York: Library of America, 1993), 2:1067-68.
Calvin D. Linton, ed. The Bicentennial Almanac: 200 Years of America, 1776-1976, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 1975), 42.
Nullification Revisited
www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=57
Current U.s. National Debt:
