Ratify

Ratification in the United States Constitution

Article VII of the Constitution of the United States describes the process by which the entire document was to become effective. It required that conventions of nine of the thirteen original States ratify the Constitution. If fewer than thirteen states ratified the document, it would become effective only among the states ratifying it. New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify, doing so on June 21, 1788, but, as a practical matter, it was decided to delay implementation of the new government until New York and Virginia could be persuaded to ratify. Congress intended that New York City should be the first capital, and that George Washington, of Mount Vernon, Virginia, should be the first President, and both of those things would have been somewhat awkward if either New York or Virginia were not part of the new government. Ratification by those states was secured—Virginia on June 25 and New York on July 26—and the government under the Constitution began on March 4, 1789.