Article VII — Ratification

Verbatim

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth. In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names.

Plain English

When the conventions of nine states ratify this Constitution, it takes effect among those states.

This Constitution was completed in Convention by the unanimous consent of the states present on September 17, 1787 — the twelfth year of American independence. The signers' names follow.

About

Article VII set the rule for how the Constitution would come into force. It is the shortest article and was the most procedurally important at the moment of the founding. The article established that the Constitution would take effect once nine of the thirteen states ratified it — not all thirteen.

This was a significant choice. The Articles of Confederation, which the Constitution replaced, required unanimous consent from all thirteen states for any change. The founders knew unanimity would be impossible. By setting the threshold at nine states, they created a path forward that did not require every state's agreement, while still requiring a substantial supermajority.

The Constitution was ratified by nine states by June 21, 1788, when New Hampshire became the ninth. It took effect for those nine states. Virginia ratified four days later, New York a month after that. North Carolina ratified in November 1789, after the Bill of Rights had been proposed. Rhode Island, the last holdout, ratified in May 1790, three years after the Constitution had been written.

The article also records the date the Constitutional Convention completed its work — September 17, 1787 — which is now observed as Constitution Day in the United States. The signers' names follow this article in the original document, including George Washington (as President of the Convention) and 38 other delegates from twelve states. Rhode Island sent no delegates to the Convention.

The phrase "Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present" is technically accurate but somewhat misleading. Several delegates who attended the Convention refused to sign the final document, including Edmund Randolph and George Mason of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. The "unanimous consent" referred to the state delegations as voting blocs, not to every individual delegate.