New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, making it take effect for the ratifying states.
New Hampshire approved the Constitution on June 21, 1788, by a vote of 57–47. Article Seven specified that ratification by nine states was sufficient to establish the Constitution among the states that had ratified it.
The vote did not mean that all 13 original states had immediately joined the new constitutional system. Virginia and New York ratified shortly afterward, while North Carolina and Rhode Island waited longer. Rhode Island was the final original state to ratify, in 1790.
New Hampshire’s action was therefore a constitutional threshold rather than the final step in the entire ratification process. It enabled the new federal government to move toward operation under the Constitution, a key part of the historical story remembered during America250.