The War Over Ratification

The framers wrote into article seven that only nine of 13 states needed to ratify for the constitution to take effect. They prescribed that the process of ratification would run through state conventions specifically called to decide the issue. Opponents of ratification were a diverse lot and not at all unified, so they quickly fell prey to a clever bit of political labelling. The federalists had to somehow prove that rhetoric had been fine in its time, but we need to survive as an independent nation now, and it's time to get real. That sounds like congress is just going to be able to get their hands into everything.