With the assent of prominent attendees such as Washington and Benjamin Franklin, the delegates agreed in a secret session that the abrogation of the Articles and the creation of a new constitution was a plausible option and began scheduling the process of debating its ratification in the individual states.[63] As a compromise between small and large states, large states got a proportional House, while the small states got equal representation in the Senate.[64]
After the Philadelphia Convention ended in September 1787, Madison convinced his fellow congressmen to remain neutral in the ratification debate and allow each state to vote upon the Constitution.[65] Throughout the United States, opponents of the Constitution, known as Anti-Federalists, began a public campaign against ratification. In response, Hamilton and Jay began publishing a series of pro-ratification newspaper articles in New York.[66] After Jay dropped out of the project, Hamilton approached Madison, who was in New York on congressional business, to write some of the essays.[67] Together, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote the 85 essays that became known as The Federalist Papers in six months, with Madison writing 29 of them. 