Article VII set the terms for bringing the Constitution to life: approval by conventions in nine of the thirteen states. Routing ratification through special conventions elected by the people, rather than the state legislatures whose power the document reduced, grounded the Constitution's authority directly in popular consent. Delaware ratified first, on December 7, 1787; New Hampshire's ratification on June 21, 1788 was the ninth that put the Constitution into effect.
The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.
done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven
One sentence that quietly replaced a government. The Articles of Confederation required unanimous consent to amend; the framers set the bar at nine states and sent the document to popularly elected conventions instead of legislatures. The gamble worked: ratification took ten months, and the promise to add a bill of rights sealed it. The convention finished its work on September 17, 1787, the date now observed as Constitution Day.
