What was the ratification debate?

The ratification debate was the public and political contest between Federalists who supported and Anti-Federalists who opposed the proposed Constitution, conducted in newspapers, pamphlets, taverns, courthouses, and 13 state ratifying conventions between September 1787 and May 1790. Article VII of the proposed Constitution required nine states to ratify before the document took effect, and ratification had to occur in special conventions of delegates elected by the people, not in existing state legislatures, to vest the new government with popular sovereignty.

The Constitutional Convention sent the signed Constitution to Congress on September 17, 1787 and Congress transmitted it to the states on September 28, 1787. The first ratifying convention met in Pennsylvania in November 1787 and approved on December 12 by a vote of 46 to 23. Delaware had moved more quickly with a unanimous vote on December 7, 1787, becoming the first state. New Jersey ratified December 18, 1787, Georgia January 2, 1788, and Connecticut January 9, 1788.

Massachusetts saw the first major contest, with Anti-Federalists led by Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and rural delegates worried about the absence of a Bill of Rights. Federalists won by 187 to 168 on February 6, 1788 only after agreeing to recommend amendments that the new Congress should consider. Maryland ratified April 28, 1788, South Carolina May 23, 1788, and New Hampshire became the ninth state on June 21, 1788, formally launching the new government.

But the great prizes remained Virginia and New York. In Virginia, Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Monroe led opposition while James Madison, John Marshall, Edmund Randolph, and George Washington (working quietly) led the Federalist effort. After fierce debate at Richmond from June 2 to June 27, 1788, Virginia ratified by 89 to 79 with recommended amendments. New York's convention at Poughkeepsie was hostile, with the Federalist minority depending on news from Virginia and the threat that New York City might secede from the state. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison's Federalist Papers, plus the news of Virginia's vote, produced a 30 to 27 ratification on July 26, 1788.

North Carolina rejected the Constitution in August 1788 but ratified in November 1789 after the Bill of Rights was promised. Rhode Island, which had refused to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention, finally ratified on May 29, 1790 by 34 to 32 only after the new federal government threatened to treat it as a foreign power. The debate produced the great political literature of the founding and forced the Federalists to commit to a Bill of Rights, which Madison drafted in the First Congress in 1789.