45 pages • 1 hour read
Constitution of United States of America
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Articles 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Article 6 Summary
Debts accrued by the Union before the Constitution’s ratification remain valid. The Constitution is the nation’s “supreme law” which judges across states are bound to uphold.
Members of Congress, state legislators, judicial officials, and executive officials at the state and federal levels take an “Oath or Affirmation” to uphold the Constitution. Officials are not subject to a religious test to serve in office.
Article 7 Summary
The Constitution is ratified by a minimum of nine states at their conventions.
The text makes notes of revisions or corrections to the previous article, like an erasure made in the 15th line of the first page of the original document and is “attested” by Secretary William Jackson. It is dated as having been completed in convention with the “unanimous consent” of the states present on September 17, 1788, and is signed by George Washington, the first president, and delegates from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.
Articles 6-7 Analysis
The Constitution’s last two articles finalize much of what is outlined by the previous five. Article 6 makes allowance for what happens to the Union’s debts as the United States transitioned from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution: they remained valid. The Constitution is the highest law of the nation to which all judges and officials are bound and to which they must take an oath of allegiance when they assume office. The text also specifies that there is no national religion and that individuals cannot be denied office based on a religious requirement. The Constitution became law when at least nine of the 13 state legislatures ratified it. The Framers and first president of the United States, who had been elected when the Articles of Confederation were in place, George Washington signed the document.
Much debate over the Constitution ensued in the states leading up to its ratification. Two political factions formed in response to the tensions over the issues of freedom and constraint: the Federalists and the anti-Federalists. The Federalists (James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton) published a serial in several prominent newspapers known as the Federalist Papers to garner support for the Constitution’s ratification. In these papers, they explained the details of the Constitution and warned against political fracturing. Anti-Federalists were concerned about the lack of specification regarding civil liberties in the Constitution, which led to the passage of the Bill of Rights, the first 10 constitutional amendments, in 1791. The Bill of Rights secures liberties like freedom of speech and right to due process.
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