January to May 1788
Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and South Carolina
Georgia, which wants federal help against the Creek, ratifies at Augusta on 2 January 1788 by 26 votes to none. Connecticut follows at Hartford on 9 January, 128 to 40.
Massachusetts is the first close contest. The convention at Boston sits for a month, and the Anti-Federalists may hold a majority when it opens. John Hancock and Samuel Adams help negotiate a compromise: the state ratifies and recommends amendments at the same time. On 6 February the vote is 187 to 168, and ratifying with recommended amendments becomes the pattern for later states.
John Hancock, president of the Massachusetts ratifying convention, portrait by John Singleton Copley, 1765Wikimedia Commons, John Singleton Copley, Public domain (John Hancock painting (cropped3) (cropped).jpg)
Samuel Adams, portrait by John Singleton Copley, about 1772Wikimedia Commons, John Singleton Copley, Public domain (Samuel Adams by John Singleton Copley.jpg)
Maryland ratifies at Annapolis on 28 April, 63 to 11, and South Carolina at Charleston on 23 May, 149 to 73. Eight states have ratified. The Constitution will take effect among the ratifying states when a ninth does.
Sources
- Pauline Maier, Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787–1788 (2010).
- Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (1969).
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