Bibliography of the United States Constitution

Their works were routinely cited by James Madison, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and other Founding Fathers before and during the drafting of the U. S. Constitution, and during the ratification process.

[29][ae] Historian Jack P. Greene maintains that by 1776 the early Americans drew heavily upon Magna Carta and the later writings of "Enlightenment rationalism" and English common law, while also citing David Hume, an eighteen century Scottish philosopher,[af] who advanced the idea that the lower class was a better judge of character when it came to choosing their representatives.

It was Madison who gave the Constitution its basic shape, its essential conservatism, and yet flexibility sufficient to meet the changing needs of future times.

[57][am] During this time Madison also corresponded with John Adams, in London,[59][an] George Washington,[61] James Monroe,[62] and others, about general developments during the convention and other related matters.

[68][67] So deep was the division that it threatened the Constitution's passage, in fact, the union itself, and over the next 70 years, slavery would grow into the nation's defining issue, eventually resulting in a bloody civil war.