Madison's Compromise

With the fate of the Constitution in the balance, Madison and other Federalists agreed to a list of amendments that would be proposed as a “bill of rights” after the first new Congress convened. This compromise was enough to win the support of many Anti-federalist sympathizers.

If a bill of rights could secure ratification and, perhaps, contribute to the preservation of liberty, it was a compromise the Federalists were willing to make. Madison also speculated that the Bill of Rights, once incorporated into the Constitution, would provide a legal basis for the judiciary to protect the rights and liberties of the people. Indeed, the Supreme Court has played a significant role in interpreting and applying the Bill of Rights.

The Ratification Process

Article VII of the Constitution outlined the procedure by which the document was to be ratified. Instead of submitting the Constitution to the legislatures of the several states, ratification votes were to be held in special ratifying conventions, with the delegates selected by the state legislatures. Doing away with the unanimity requirement that had plagued efforts to change the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution would be “established” if nine of the thirteen states ratified it.

Delaware, one of the smaller states, was the first to ratify the Constitution on December 7, 1787, followed by Pennsylvania on December 12 of the same year. One of the narrowest successful ratification votes came in Massachusetts on February 7, 1788. After a heated debate and the Federalists’ compromise on adding a bill of rights after ratification, the Massachusetts convention affirmed their support for the new Constitution by a vote of 187 to 168.

On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution. However, no one believed the union would be a success without Virginia and New York. While they were the home states, respectively, of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, both states were Anti-federalist strongholds. In the face of imminent defeat, the Anti-federalists redoubled their efforts to defeat the Constitution and demanded in Virginia that a bill of rights be included in the document before it was ratified. Madison, a Virginian, refused to accept such a condition and forced a vote. Virginia ratified the Constitution by a vote of 89 to 79 on June 26, 1788, and New York followed a month later by a margin of only three votes. North Carolina and Rhode Island did not ratify the Constitution until after George Washington had been inaugurated as the first President of the United States of America. Their tardiness notwithstanding, ratification in these two states made the union complete.