Three Ratification Contests: The Fate of the Union in the Balance

Abstract

The smaller states, very pleased with their enhanced status under the Constitution, hastened to ratify. The larger states—Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York—postponed their ratifying conventions until later. Antifederalists in each of these states hoped to restore the state-over-nation formula to the Constitution. Massachusetts was the key. Two men, Governor John Hancock and Samuel Adams, agreed to accept a promise to add a bill of rights to the Constitution, rather than making it a condition precedent for ratification. This model enabled Madison to overcome Patrick Henry’s oratory in Virginia and convince a majority in the state Convention to ratify. In New York, Hamilton and Jay persuaded sufficient state delegates that the state stood to lose more than it would gain by remaining outside the Union.