Delaware Ratifies the US Constitution and is the First State Admitted to the Union

We the Deputies of the People of the Delaware State, in Convention met, having taken into our serious consideration the Federal Constitution proposed and agreed upon by the Deputies of the United States in a General Convention held at the City of Philadelphia on the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven, Have approved, assented to, ratified, and confirmed, and by these Presents, Do, in virtue of the Power and Authority to us given for that purpose, for and in behalf of ourselves and our Constituents, fully, freely, and entirely approve of, assent to, ratify, and confirm the said Constitution.

Done in Convention at Dover this seventh day of December in the year aforesaid, and in the year of the Independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In Testimony whereof we have hereunto subscribed our Names-
Sussex County

JOHN INGRAM
JOHN JONES
WILLIAM MOORE
WILLIAM HALL
THOMAS LAWS
ISAAC COOPER
WOODMAN STORKLY
JOHN LAWS
THOMAS EVANS
ISRAEL HOLLAND
Kent County

NICHOLAS RIDGELEY
RICHARD SMITH
GEORGE TRUITT
RICHARD BASSETT
JAMES SYKES
ALLEN MCLANE
DANIEL CUMMINS senr
JOSEPH BARKER
EDWARD WHITE
GEORGE MANLOVE
New Castle County

JAs LATIMER, President
JAMES BLACK
JNo JAMES
GUNNING BEDFORD senr
KENSEY JOHNS
THOMAS WATSON
SOLOMON MAXWELL
NICHOLAS WAY
THOMAS DUFF
GUNNG BEDFORD Junr

To all whom these Presents shall come Greeting, I Thomas Collins President of the Delaware State do hereby certify, that the above instrument of writing is a true copy of the original ratification of the Federal Constitution by the Convention of the Delaware State, which original ratification is now in my possession. In Testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the Delaware State to be hereunto an'exed.

THOs COLLINS

On September 17, 1787, a majority of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention approved the documents over which they had labored since May. After a farewell banquet, delegates swiftly returned to their homes to organize support, most for but some against the proposed charter. Before the Constitution could become the law of the land, it would have to withstand public scrutiny and debate. The document was "laid before the United States in Congress assembled" on September 20. For 2 days, September 26 and 27, Congress debated whether to censure the delegates to the Constitutional Convention for exceeding their authority by creating a new form of government instead of simply revising the Articles of Confederation. They decided to drop the matter. Instead, on September 28, Congress directed the state legislatures to call ratification conventions in each state. Article VII stipulated that nine states had to ratify the Constitution for it to go into effect.

Beyond the legal requirements for ratification, the state conventions fulfilled other purposes. The Constitution had been produced in strictest secrecy during the Philadelphia convention. The ratifying conventions served the necessary function of informing the public of the provisions of the proposed new government. They also served as forums for proponents and opponents to articulate their ideas before the citizenry. Significantly, state conventions, not Congress, were the agents of ratification. This approach insured that the Constitution's authority came from representatives of the people specifically elected for the purpose of approving or disapproving the charter, resulting in a more accurate reflection of the will of the electorate. Also, by bypassing debate in the state legislatures, the Constitution avoided disabling amendments that states, jealous of yielding authority to a national government, would likely have attached.

Ratification was not a foregone conclusion. Able, articulate men used newspa...

Following the American Revolution, statesmen from Delaware were among the leading proponents of a strong central United States with equal representation for each state. Once the Connecticut Compromise was reached—creating a U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives—the leaders in Delaware were able to easily secure ratification of the U.S. Constitution on December 7, 1787, making Delaware the first state to do so.

George Washington to James Madison Jr., December 7, 1787

The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799. John C. Fitzpatrick, Editor.

Mount Vernon, December 7, 1787.

My dear Sir: Since my last to you, I have been favored with your letters of the 28th. of October and 18th. of November. With the last came 7 numbers of the Foederalist, under the signature of Publius, for which I thank you. They are forwarded to a Gentleman in Richmond for republication; the doing of which in this State will I am persuaded, have a good effect as there are certainly characters in it who are no friends to a general government; perhaps I should not go too far was I to add, who have no great objection to the introduction of anarchy and confusion.

The Sollicitude to discover what the several State Legislatures would do with the Constitution is now transferred to the several Conventions. the decisions of which being more interesting and conclusive is, consequently, more anxiously expected than the other. What Pennsylvania and Delaware have done, or will do must soon be known.72 Other Conventions to the Northward and Eastward of them are treading closely on their heels; but what the three Southern States have done, or in what light the new Constitution is viewed by them, I have not been able to learn. North Carolina it has been said (by some accts. from Richmond) will be governed in a great measure by the conduct of Virginia. The pride of South Carolina will not I conceive suffer this influence to work in her councils; and the disturbances in Georgia will or I am mistaken show the people of it the propriety of being United, and the necessity there is for a general Government. If these with the States Eastward and Northward of us, should accede to the Foederal Government, I think the citizens of this State will have no cause to bless the opposers of it here if they should carry their point. A paragraph in the Baltimore Paper has announced a cha...

The document that makes Delaware “The First State”.

After the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia completed their work on the new United State Constitution, it was presented to each of the states for ratification (approval). Delaware’s legislature directed that ten delegates from each county be selected at a special election held on November 26, 1787, and that these delegates meet the following week in a ratification convention. Because the State House was not yet constructed, the convention’s sessions were held in Battell’s Tavern, located on the north side of the Dover Green. The thirty delegates quickly and unanimously approved the new constitution. The convention clerk hand-scripted their approval on a large piece of parchment, now called the Ratification Document, and the delegates signed it on Friday, December 7, 1787. The clerk made a duplicate copy, including signatures, and sent it to the national government. This action on December 7th made Delaware the First State to officially approve the new United States Constitution.