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.
See for the text of the Article.
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