New Hampshire - February 14, 1788 - A majority of the delegates to the New Hampshire Ratifying Convention were opposed to ratification, and so the delegates to the convention voted to postpone until June 18, at which time they would take up the issue of ratification again. [http://teachingamericanhistory.org/ratification/stagethree/ ]
Rhode Island - March 24, 1788 - Rhode Island rejected the call for a state ratifying convention; the state had no intention of even considering a new constitution.
Maryland - April 26, 1788 - Maryland ratified 63-11. [http://teachingamericanhistory.org/ratification/stagefour/#maryland ]
South Carolina - May 23, 1788 - South Carolina ratified, 149-73, with 5 Declarations and Resolves. [http://teachingamericanhistory.org/ratification/tansill/ratification-southcarolina/ ]
New Hampshire - June 21, 1788 - New Hampshire ratified 57-47, with 12 proposed amendments. [http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/new-hampshire-ratifies-57-47-with-12-proposed-amendments/ ]
Virginia - June 25, 1788 - Virginia ratified 89-79, with 20 Bill of Rights and 20 proposed amendments. [http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/virginia-ratifies-89-79-with-20-proposed-amendments/ ]
On July 2, 1788, the Confederation Congress (still under the Articles of Confederation at the time), adopted the ratification of the US Constitution. The old union (13 colonies-turned-states) was dissolved at that point and a new union, comprising the states that had ratified up until this point (DE, PA, NJ, GA, CT, MA, NH, MD, SC, and VA) was formed.
New York - July 25-26, 1788 - New York ratified on July 26, after debating the day before whether to ratify with amendments or not. It ratified by a slim margin, 30-27, with 25 Bill of Rights and 31 proposed amendments. [http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/new-york-ratifies-30-27-with-31-proposed-amendments/ ]. The first three Bill of Rights read:
(1) That all Power is originally vested in and consequently derived from the People, and that Government is instituted by them for their common Interest Protection and Security.
(2) That the enjoyment of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are essential rights which every Government ought to respect and preserve.
(3) That the Powers of Government may be reassumed by the People, whensoever it shall become necessary to their Happiness; that every Power, Jurisdiction and right, which is not by the said Constitution clearly delegated to the Congress of the United States, or the departments of the Government thereof, remains to the People of the several States, or to their respective State Governments to whom they may have granted the same; And that those Clauses in the said Constitution, which declare, that Congress shall not have or exercise certain Powers, do not imply that Congress is entitled to any Powers not given by the said Constitution; but such Clauses are to be construed either as exceptions to certain specified Powers, or as inserted merely for greater Caution. [= "RESUMPTION CLAUSE." This condition to ratification, as the states of Virginia and Rhode Island also exercised this condition, is critical to understanding the reserved right of a state to secede from the Union].
(4) That the People have an equal, natural and unalienable right, freely and peaceably to Exercise their Religion according to the dictates of Conscience, and that no Religious Sect or Society ought to be favored or established by Law in preference of others.
(5) That the People have a right to keep and bear Arms; that a well-regulated Militia, including the body of the People capable of bearing Arms, is the proper, natural and safe defense of a free State;
North Carolina - August 2, 1788 - North Carolina voted 184-84 against ratification. [http://teachingamericanhistory.org/ratification/elliot/vol4/northcarolina0802/ ]
On September 13, 1788, the Confederation Congress prepared for the new government to take its place. On January 7, 1789, presidential electors were selected, and on February 4, the first election was held to select representatives to the new government under the US Constitution. The candidates receiving the top votes for president were George Washington and John Adams, and so they became the country's first president and vice-president, respectively. James Madison was elected to the first US Congress from the state of Virginia. The first US Congress was inaugurated on March 4, and finally, on March 30, Washington was inaugurated. He delivered what would become one of the most memorable and often-cited Inaugural addresses.
The first government created by the US Constitution was installed.
North Carolina - November 21, 1789 - North Carolina ratified 194-77, with 20 Bill of Rights and 21 proposed amendments
Rhode Island - May 29, 1790 - Rhode Island ratified 34-32, with 18 Bill of Rights and 21 proposed amendments. [Reference: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/ratification/tansill/ratification-rhodeisland/ ]
*** Timeline of Ratification of the US Constitution, Reference: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/bor/timeline/. By clicking on the State Ratifying Convention, you can pull up the debates, the votes, and the proposed amendments associated with each state's vote. Also, I have included, in the Appendix at the end of this article, the proposed Bill of Rights and/or proposed amendments proposed by the certain states in their ratifications].
Having co-written The Federalist Papers to help secure ratification in New York, James Madison left the state for Virginia, to take up the battle there. [The Virginia Convention would be held before the New York Convention, two weeks before, but as it turned out, they would continue simultaneously]. Back in Virginia, Madison would have to face Patrick Henry, George Mason, Edmund Randolph, James Monroe, Richard Henry Lee (one-time president of the Continental Congress) and William Grayson (VA representative in the Continental Congress). George Mason had authored the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights and the state constitution (chief author, at least) so he would clearly be a forceful authority on the necessity of a Bill of Rights. Mason and Lee would mount the most strenuous opposition to the proposed Constitution, in favor of amending it to include a Bill of Rights. Patrick Henry would oppose it on states' rights grounds as well. He urged that Virginia hold out for amendments.
Virginia elected its delegates to the Convention in March 1788, and many men - many prominent men - ran for a seat. Interestingly, some of the more prominent men who chose not to run, or who did not win, included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Beverley Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, and a few others. The most prominent men who were elected included James Madison, Patrick Henry, George Mason, Governor Edmund Randolph, James Monroe, William Grayson, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George Nicholas, former VA Governor Benjamin Harrison V, and John Marshall (who would go on to become our most influential Supreme Court Chief Justice). Of the 168 delegates, the majority were anti-Federalists.
In his book James Madison and the Making of America, Gutzman goes into detail with respect to Mason's objections to the proposed Constitution. He wrote:
On October 7, Mason sent a letter to [George] Washington including his objections to the Constitution. An amended version of notes he had made during the Philadelphia Convention, this document essentially repeated complaints Mason had raised then: There was no Declaration of Rights, and the Supremacy Clause meant state declarations would be unavailing; the House was too small; the Senate had money powers, although it did not represent the people; the combination of legislative and executive powers in the Senate endangered liberty' the federal judiciary would swallow up the state judiciaries and thus allow the rich to oppress the poor; the president lacked an executive council, which meant he would be led by the Senate; and the vice-president, in limbo between the Senate and the executive branch, was a dangerous personage - besides which he would give one state three Senate votes, which was unfair.
In addition to these objections, Mason also went public with his Philadelphia Convention prediction that the Commerce Clause would empower the eight northern states to abuse the five southern ones. There would be a tendency for Congress to read almost anything into the Necessary & Proper Clause, which threatened both states' rights and individuals' rights.
Virginia's Convention met from June 2 - June 27. The Convention would end up pitting Patrick Henry against James Madison, with the former spending much more time on the floor speaking. Henry was Madison's most formidable antagonist in the ratification fight. Henry was perhaps our most passionate founding father, being known for his fiery speeches and his imagery. He was the voice of the revolution. As Gutzman wrote: "He was the great guardian of Virginians' self-government and inherited rights. He was also an orator without parallel, one who could cause hair to stand up on the necks even of his most devout opponents." He did not disappoint at the Convention.
On June 8, he took to the floor to accuse the proposed government created by the Constitution of being a consolidated one. His position was that a confederated government (under the Articles) was being replaced by a consolidated government. He objected to the introductory phrase "We the People...," claiming that it conjured up the notion that the government would be a consolidated national one. He wanted the language changed to "We the States..." In his speech that day, he said:
"It is said eight States have adopted this plan. I declare that if twelve States and a half had adopted it, I would, with manly firmness, and in spite of an erring world, reject it. You are not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you are to become a great and powerful people, but how your liberties can be secured; for liberty ought to be the direct end of your Government. Having premised these things, I shall, with the aid of my judgment and information, which, I confess, are not extensive, go into the discussion of this system more minutely. Is it necessary for your liberty that you should abandon those great rights by the adoption of this system? Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings-give us that precious jewel, and you may take every thing else: But I am fearful I have lived long enough to become an fellow: Perhaps an invincible attachment to the dearest rights of man, may, in these refined, enlightened days, be deemed old fashioned: If so, I am contented to be so: I say, the time has been when every pore of my heart beat for American liberty, and which, I believe, had a counterpart in the breast of every true American: But suspicions have gone forth-suspicions of my integrity-publicly reported that my professions are not real. 23 years ago was I supposed a traitor to my country; I was then said to be the bane of sedition, because I supported the rights of my country: I may be thought suspicious when I say our privileges and rights are in danger."
One of the more contentious days came on June 24; the Convention was winding down. George Wythe opened the day's proceedings with a speech in favor of ratifying the Constitution before amending it. Madison followed, emphasizing many of the same themes he and Hamilton and Jay had addressed in The Federalist essays. Just as the elderly Benjamin Franklin had urged his fellow delegates in Philadelphia to quit their bickering and work together for the greater good at, Madison essentially tried to make the same point in Richmond. As to the position that amendments should be added before Virginia ratified, Madison argued that it was unreasonable. He didn't think it was reasonable to expect the other states (eight of them) to retract their unconditional ratifications in order to accommodate Virginia's demand that the Constitution be first amended, and particularly to include a Bill of Rights. Up until that point, Madison had remained relatively quiet at the Convention. And even when he spoke, he came across as meek. But he was never one to project very well. When he spoke on the 24th, it was in a strained, quiet tone. But he spoke articulately and rationally, and he addressed the many concerns of the anti-Federalists.
When he concluded, he yielded the floor to Henry. From Gutzman's book:
An account given by Federalist Archibald Stuart proves the point. Henry concluded his speech by calling attention to 'the awful dangers" attendant upon their vote. "I see beings of a higher order, Henry thundered, "anxious concerning our decision." "Our own happiness alone is not affected by the event - All nations are interested in the determination. We have it in our power to secure the happiness of one half of the human race...." [James Madison and the Making of America, pg. 233]
The Convention was getting ready to take a vote when an obscure delegate endorsed Patrick Henry's call for a list of amendments. "The delegate said that he could not vote for ratification until he was assured that amendments protecting Virginians' historic rights would be recommended. Madison answered that he would not oppose any 'safe' amendments (but continued to assert that he believed it unnecessary, and perhaps even dangerous.'" [Ibid, pg. 235]
Ultimately, on June 25, the delegates voted against first proposing amendments to the other states prior to Virginia's ratification (ie, having the other states recall their unconditional ratification and re-consider ratification after amendments were added) and voted 89-79 in favor of ratification, with proposed amendments. On June 27, the Convention adopted a set of 40 proposed amendments. A committee, headed by law professor George Wythe, drafted the amendments - 20 enumerated individual rights (Bill of Rights) and the other 20 enumerated states' rights. The amendments were forwarded to the Confederation Congress. [Virginia's Ratification is provided in the Appendix at the end of this article. Take note of its Bill of Rights - it includes a "Resumption Clause"].
