Article Seven of the United
States Constitution
Article Seven of the United States Constitution
describes the process by which the entire document is to
be ratified and take effect. Upon its ratification by
conventions from at least nine states of the thirteen
existing at the time, the Constitution would take effect
among those states.
This process posed a danger: if nine states ratified,
but not all thirteen, the states would be split among two
possibly incontiguous countries. When New Hampshire
became the ninth state to ratify in 1788, Virginia, New
York, North Carolina and Rhode Island remained: the
former two were the most populous and most wealthy
American states, respectively. Congress, as established
under the Articles of Confederation, chose March 4, 1789
as the day "for commencing proceedings under the
Constitution." Virginia and New York ratified the
constitution before that time; North Carolina and Rhode
Island ratified later, after the new government took
power in the remaining eleven states.
References
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