the State of Connecticut_, we, the delegates of
_the people of the said State_, in General Convention assembled,
pursuant to an act of the Legislature in October last ... do assent to,
ratify, and adopt the Constitution reported by the Convention of
delegates in Philadelphia."

In Massachusetts there was a sharp contest. The people of that State
were then--as for a long time afterward--exceedingly tenacious of their
State independence and sovereignty. The proposed Constitution was
subjected to a close, critical, and rigorous examination with reference
to its bearing upon this very point. The Convention was a large one, and
some of its leading members were very distrustful of the instrument
under their consideration. It was ultimately adopted by a very close
vote (187 to 168), and then only as accompanied by certain proposed
amendments, the object of which was to guard more expressly against any
sacrifice or compromise of State sovereignty, and under an assurance,
given by the advocates of the Constitution, of the certainty that those
amendments would be adopted. The most strenuously urged of these was
that ultimately adopted (in substance) as the tenth amendment to the
Constitution, which was intended to take the place of the second Article
of Confederation, as an emphatic assertion of the continued freedom,
sovereignty, and independence of the States. This will be considered
more particularly hereafter.

In terms substantially identical with those employed by the other
States, Massachusetts thus announced her ratification:

"In convention of the delegates of _the people of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts_, 1788. The Convention having
impartially discussed and fully considered the Constitution for
the United States of America, reported [etc.] ... do, in the
name and in behalf of _the people of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts_, assent to and ratify the said Constitution for
the United States of America."

This was accomplished on February 7, 1788.

Maryland followed on the 28th of April, and South Carolina on the 23d of
May, in equivalent expressions, the ratification of the former being
made by "the delegates of _the people of Maryland_," speaking, as they
declared, for ourselves, and in the name and on the behalf of _the
people of this State_; that of the latter, "in convention of _the people
of the State of South Carolina_, by their representatives, ... in the
name and behalf of