New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, bringing it into effect before America250.
New Hampshire approved the Constitution on June 21, 1788. Article Seven specified that ratification by conventions in nine states would be sufficient to establish the Constitution among the states ratifying it. New Hampshire’s decision therefore reached the required threshold.
The vote was not unanimous: New Hampshire’s convention approved the Constitution 57–47. Virginia ratified four days later, and New York followed in July. North Carolina and Rhode Island remained outside the new constitutional system for longer and ratified later.
The ninth-ratification milestone did not mean every original state had immediately accepted the Constitution. North Carolina ratified in November 1789, while Rhode Island became the final original state to ratify in May 1790. This sequence is separate from the 1776 Declaration celebrated by America250, though both belong to the country’s founding era.