Ratifying the Constitution

On September 17th, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention finished their work, signed the document and sent it to Congress.  The first hurdle to ratification was getting passed Congress. the delegates had been tasked to revise the Articles of Confederation and had way over stepped their charge by creating a whole new government.  For two days Congress debated on whether to censure the delegates and throw out the new constitution or forward it on the the state legislatures for ratification. The decision was finally made to drop the issue with the delegates and on September 28th the Congress send the constitution to the states for ratification.  It would only take 9 states to ratify the new Constitution for to take effect.  Each state called a ratification convention to discuss the proposed constitution and new government.

The Constitutional convention had worked in secrete on the new constitution, so the ratification convention served not only as a forum for debate on the constitution but a platform to explain the provisions for the new government. The process also faced challenges from those who thought the process was illegal under the Articles of Confederation.  The New Constitution provided for citizen of each state to ratify at state conventions, however the Articles of Confederation could only be amended by unanimous approval from the state governments.  There were also claims that the new constitution was written by the elite for the elite and was an attempt to take power away from the states and into the hands of a few powerful men.  The lack of a Bill of Rights was also a mark against the new constitution.

Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution on December 7th, 1787.  The next states to ratify the Constitution were Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut.  When the first amendment was proposed securing the rights to freedom of speech, religion and press (Part of the Massachusetts Compromise) the states of Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina and finally New Hampshire pushing them over the 9 states required for the Constitution to go into effect.

Eventually all of the 13 original states would ratify the Constitution and join the United States of America.  The last to do so was Rhode Island, faced with the possibility of going it alone and being treated as a foreign power by the other states, they ratified the Constitution on May 29th, 1790 by only 2 votes.