Congress a new Constitution.
Furthermore, while the Articles specified that no amendments should be
effective until approved by the legislatures of all the States, the
Philadelphia Convention suggested that the new Constitution should
supplant the Articles of Confederation when ratified by conventions in
nine States. For these reasons, it was feared that the new Constitution
might arouse opposition in Congress.

Three members of the Convention--Madison, Gorham, and King--were also
Members of Congress. They proceeded at once to New York, where Congress
was in session, to placate the expected opposition. Aware of their
vanishing authority, Congress on September 28, after some debate,
decided to submit the Constitution to the States for action. It made no
recommendation for or against adoption.

Two parties soon developed, one in opposition and one in support of the
Constitution, and the Constitution was debated, criticized, and
expounded clause by clause. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote a series of
commentaries, now known as the Federalist Papers, in support of the new
instrument of government.[n] The closeness and bitterness of the
struggle over ratification and the conferring of additional powers on
the central government can scarcely be exaggerated. In some States
ratification was effected only after a bitter struggle in the State
convention itself.

Delaware, on December 7, 1787, became the first State to ratify the new
Constitution, the vote being unanimous. Pennsylvania ratified on
December 12, 1787, by a vote of 46 to 23, a vote scarcely indicative of
the struggle which had taken place in that State. New Jersey ratified on
December 19, 1787, and Georgia on January 2, 1788, the vote in both
States being unanimous. Connecticut ratified on January 9, 1788; yeas
128, nays 40. On February 6, 1788, Massachusetts, by a narrow margin of
19 votes in a convention with a membership of 355, endorsed the new
Constitution, but recommended that a bill of rights be added to protect
the States from Federal encroachment on individual liberties. Maryland
ratified on April 28, 1788; yeas 63, nays 11. South Carolina ratified on
May 23, 1788; yeas 149, nays 73. On June 21, 1788, by a vote of 57 to
46, New Hampshire became the ninth State to ratify, but like
Massachusetts she suggested a bill of rights.

By the terms of the Constitution nine States were sufficient for its
establishment among the States so ratifying. The advocates of