New Hampshire’s ratification became the ninth approval needed to put the United States Constitution into effect.
New Hampshire ratified the Constitution on June 21, 1788, at its convention in Exeter. Article Seven required approval from conventions in nine of the thirteen states, so New Hampshire’s vote met the constitutional threshold for the new framework of government.
The result did not immediately bring every state into the Union under the new system. Virginia ratified five days later, New York followed in July, and North Carolina and Rhode Island waited until after the federal government had begun operating. The Constitution’s practical implementation was therefore a process rather than a single nationwide vote.
New Hampshire is sometimes confused with Delaware, the first state to ratify, or with Pennsylvania, the second. It is also different from Rhode Island, which was the last original state to ratify, on May 29, 1790. The ninth-ratification rule came directly from Article Seven of the Constitution.