Article VII: Ratification

Article VII is a single sentence: the ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same. The framers made two choices that shaped its legitimacy. They required ratification by specially elected conventions rather than state legislatures, so the Constitution would rest on the people's authority, and they required only nine of the thirteen states, though the Articles of Confederation required all states to approve any amendment.

Delaware ratified first, on December 7, 1787, and New Hampshire became the ninth state on June 21, 1788. Because the union could hardly function without them, ratification by Virginia on June 25 and New York on July 26, 1788, was equally important, and the debates in those states produced the Federalist Papers and calls for a bill of rights. The Confederation Congress set the schedule for the new government, which began on March 4, 1789. North Carolina ratified in November 1789, after the Bill of Rights was proposed, and Rhode Island, which had rejected the Constitution in a popular referendum, ratified last on May 29, 1790.

The article is followed by the attestation stating that the document was done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present on September 17, 1787, and by the delegates' signatures. Historians and legal scholars have long debated whether the framers exceeded their mandate, which was to revise the Articles, and whether bypassing the unanimity rule was lawful. Defenders say the people, acting through conventions, held the ultimate authority to adopt a new government. The ratification debates remain a key source for interpreting the Constitution.