What state was the first to ratify the constitution?

On September 17, 1787, a majority of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention approved the documents over which they had labored since May. After a farewell banquet, delegates swiftly returned to their homes to organize support, most for but some against the proposed charter. Before the Constitution could become the law of the land, it would have to withstand public scrutiny and debate. The document was "laid before the United States in Congress assembled" on September 20. For 2 days, September 26 and 27, Congress debated whether to censure the delegates to the Constitutional Convention for exceeding their authority by creating a new form of government instead of simply revising the Articles of Confederation. They decided to drop the matter. Instead, on September 28, Congress directed the state legislatures to call ratification conventions in each state. Article VII stipulated that nine states had to ratify the Constitution for it to go into effect.

Beyond the legal requirements for ratification, the state conventions fulfilled other purposes. The Constitution had been produced in strictest secrecy during the Philadelphia convention. The ratifying conventions served the necessary function of informing the public of the provisions of the proposed new government. They also served as forums for proponents and opponents to articulate their ideas before the citizenry. Significantly, state conventions, not Congress, were the agents of ratification. This approach insured that the Constitution's authority came from representatives of the people specifically elected for the purpose of approving or disapproving the charter, resulting in a more accurate reflection of the will of the electorate. Also, by bypassing debate in the state legislatures, the Constitution avoided disabling amendments that states, jealous of yielding authority to a national government, would likely have attached.

Ratification was not a foregone conclusion. Able, articulate men used newspapers, pamphlets, and public meetings to debate ratification of the Constitution. Those known as Antifederalists opposed the Constitution for a variety of reasons. Some continued to argue that the delegates in Philadelphia had exceeded their congressional authority by replacing the Articles of Confederation with an illegal new document. Others complained that the delegates in Philadelphia represented only the well-born few and consequently had crafted a document that served their special interests and reserved the franchise for the propertied classes. Another frequent objection was that the Constitution gave too much power to the central government at the expense of the states and that a representative government could not manage a republic this large. The most serious criticism was that the Constitutional Convention had failed to adopt a bill of rights proposed by George Mason. In New York, Governor George Clinton expressed these Antifederalist concerns in several published newspaper essays under the pen name Cato, while Patrick Henry and James Monroe led the opposition in Virginia.

Those who favored ratification, the Federalists, fought back, convinced that rejection of the Constitution would result in anarchy and civil strife. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay responded to Clinton under the pen name Publius. Beginning in October 1787, these three penned 85 essays for New York newspapers and later collected them into 2 volumes entitled The Federalist, which analyzed the Constitution, detailed the thinking of the framers, and responded to the Antifederalist critics.

They successfully countered most criticism. As for the lack of a bill of rights, Federalists argued that a catalogued list might be incomplete and that the national government was so constrained by the Constitution that it posed no threat to the rights of citizens. Ultimately, during the ratification debate in Virginia, Madison conceded that a bill of rights was needed, and the Federalists assured the public that the first step of the new government would be to adopt a bill of rights.

It took 10 months for the first nine states to approve the Constitution. The first state to ratify was Delaware, on December 7, 1787, by a unanimous vote, 30 - 0. The featured document is an endorsed ratification of the federal Constitution by the Delaware convention. The names of the state deputies are listed, probably in the hand of a clerk. The signature of the President of Delaware's convention, Thomas Collins, attests to the validity of the document, which also carries the state seal in its left margin. Delaware's speediness thwarted Pennsylvania's attempt to be first to ratify in the hope of securing the seat of the National Government in Pennsylvania.

The first real test for ratification occurred in Massachusetts, where the fully recorded debates reveal that the recommendation for a bill of rights proved to be a remedy for the logjam in the ratifying convention. New Hampshire became the ninth state to approve the Constitution in June, but the key States of Virginia and New York were locked in bitter debates. Their failure to ratify would reduce the new union by two large, populated, wealthy states, and would geographically splinter it. The Federalists prevailed, however, and Virginia and New York narrowly approved the Constitution. When a bill of rights was proposed in Congress in 1789, North Carolina ratified the Constitution. Finally, Rhode Island, which had rejected the Constitution in March 1788 by popular referendum, called a ratifying convention in 1790 as specified by the Constitutional Convention. Faced with threatened treatment as a foreign government, it ratified the Constitution by the narrowest margin (two votes) on May 29, 1790.

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National Archives and Records Administration General Records of the U.S. Government

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Roughly a decade after the United States declared independence, the United States Constitution was created to replace the failing Articles of Confederation. At the end of the American Revolution, the founders had created the Articles of Confederation, which set forth a governmental structure that would allow states to keep their individual powers while still benefiting from being part of a larger entity.

The Articles had gone into effect on March 1, 1781. However, by 1787, it became clear that this structure of government was not viable in the long term. This had especially been apparent during the 1786 Shay's Rebellion in western Massachusetts. The rebellion protested rising debt and economic chaos. When the national government tried to get states to send a military force to help stop the uprising, many states were reluctant and chose not to get involved.

In this period, many states realized the need to come together and form a stronger national government. Some states met to try and deal with their individual trade and economic issues. However, they soon realized that individual agreements would not be enough for the scale of problems that were arising. On May 25, 1787, all the states sent delegates to Philadelphia to try and change the Articles to deal with the conflicts and problematic issues that had arisen.

The Articles had a number of weaknesses, including that each state only had one vote in Congress, and the national government had no power to tax and no ability to regulate foreign or interstate trade. In addition, there was no executive branch to enforce nationwide laws. Amendments required a unanimous vote, and individual laws required a nine-vote majority to pass.

The delegates, who met in what was later called the Constitutional Convention, soon realized that changing the Articles would not be enough to fix the issues facing the new United States. Consequently, they began the work of replacing the Articles with a new Constitution.

James Madison, often called "the Father of the Constitution," set to work. The framers sought to create a document that would be flexible enough to ensure that states retained their rights, but that would also create a national government strong enough to keep order among the states and meet threats from within and without. The 55 framers of the Constitution met in secret to debate the individual parts of the new Constitution.

Many compromises occurred over the course of the debate, including the Great Compromise, which tackled the thorny question of the relative representation of more and less populous states. The final document was then sent to the states for ratification. In order for the Constitution to become law, at least nine states would have to ratify it.

Ratification did not come easily nor without opposition. Led by Patrick Henry of Virginia, a group of influential colonial Patriots known as the Anti-Federalists publicly opposed the new Constitution in town hall meetings, newspapers, and pamphlets.

Some argued that the delegates at the Constitutional Convention had overstepped their congressional authority by proposing to replace the Articles of Confederation with an “illegal” document—the Constitution. Others complained that the delegates in Philadelphia, being mostly wealthy and “well-born” landowners, had proposed a Constitution and federal government that would serve their special interests and needs.

Another often-expressed objection was that the Constitution reserved too many powers to the central government at the expense of “state’s rights.” Perhaps the most impactful objection to the Constitution was that the Convention had failed to include a Bill of Rights clearly enumerating the rights that would protect the American people from potentially excessive applications of government powers.

Using the pen name Cato, New York’s Governor George Clinton supported the Anti-Federalist views in several newspaper essays. Patrick Henry and James Monroe led the opposition to the Constitution in Virginia.

Favoring ratification, the Federalists responded, arguing that rejection of the Constitution would lead to anarchy and social disorder. Using the pen name Publius, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay countered Clinton’s Anti-Federalist Papers.

Beginning in October 1787, the trio published 85 essays for New York newspapers. Collectively titled The Federalist Papers, the essays explained the Constitution in detail, along with the framers’ reasoning in creating each section of the document.

To the lack of a Bill of Rights, the Federalists argued that such a list of rights would always be incomplete and that the Constitution as written adequately protected the people from the government. Finally, during the ratification debate in Virginia, James Madison promised that the first act of the new government under the Constitution would be the adoption of a Bill of Rights.

The Delaware legislature became the first to ratify the Constitution by a vote of 30-0 on December 7, 1787. The ninth state, New Hampshire, ratified it on June 21, 1788, and the new Constitution went into effect on March 4, 1789.

Here is the order in which the states ratified the U.S. Constitution.