Ahhh, good old American History, a topic many of us either thoroughly enjoyed or slept through during our school days. While many say that American history is boring compared to the history of other places, such as Europe, let’s just say you can’t compare apples to oranges. Even though American history doesn’t go back as 
far as European history does, it’s still a subject that a lot of people know very little about. Sure we know the basics: we gained freedom from Great Britain after being colonies, our first president was George Washington, there was a huge Civil War, then Reconstruction hit, then progressivism, imperialism, WWI, and so on. But, long before WWI and even before the Civil War, there is a lot of history and cool factoids that the average Joe more than likely knows nothing about. Let’s start back at the basics during the time that the United States was formed.
Not Every State Was “Yay” On Ratifying The Constitution
Despite how movies or history books portray it, the ratification of the U.S. Constitution wasn’t all flowers and butterflies. In fact, there were several states that, if given the chance to, more than likely would have never voted for the passing of the Constitution.
The Constitution was first introduced to the states on September 28, 1787. On December 7, 1787, Delaware become the first state to ratify the document with 0 votes against it. But just a few days later and a couple hundred miles away, voters in Pennsylvania ratified the constitution as well, but with 23 votes against it. Then, on May 29, 1790 Rhode Island ratified the Constitution with an extremely close vote of 34 for, 32 against. In the end all of the colonies opted to ratify the constitution, but it wasn’t a easy feat.
As explained by Dr. Don Lowrance, a San Antonio dentist, and amateur history buff, “During the state legislatures, the ones who came to the ratification conventions, sometimes it was just one vote or two votes, and sometimes the state would have voted not to ratify it, like New York, if they felt like they could have gone it alone.” States had to ask themselves if they had enough economic clout as a state to exist by themselves without the others. Some of the states ratified the Constitution because, “Well, we can’t go it alone, so we might as well join the rest and hope for the best,” Dr. Lowrance paraphrased, “But they all had the feeling that it was giving the central government too much power and not protecting individual liberties and that the individual needed more protection than was written in the constitution and several of the states, even though it was presented to them as a thumbs up or thumbs down vote with no changes, only ratified it by saying that there has to be, within the next five years, a bill of rights, and that’s where the 10th Amendment came from.”
The Tenth Amendment protects the natural rights of human beings and states that the government is not allowed to meddle with such rights, even if they are not listed formally within the Constitution. While our Founding Fathers and those within the Federalist and Anti-Federalist parties slated out a Constitution that fit the time, as of now the Constitution has undergone 27 official additions, each of which tend to reflect the ever-changing society and political views and ideas.
What If…
Though the “what if…” game obviously can’t change past events, it’s still interesting to consider what would have happened to a state that decided not to ratify the Constitution. The outcome would have differed somewhat by state, depending upon a lot of different factors, but in the end, none would have fared too well. As Dr. Lowrance explained, “They may have been okay initially. A state like Virginia, being the oldest colony and having the most clout of all the others, may have made it okay for a while, but they wouldn’t have been able to protect themselves with a standing army of any significant number. They wouldn’t be able to trade freely with the protection of tariffs and things like that. They would eventually have had to come under the constitution whether they initially voted for it or not.”
While Virginia did ratify the Constitution on June 25, 1788, with only a 20 vote difference between being for or against ratification, it’s safe to say that no matter how a state originally voted for or against the Constitution, that state would have eventually needed to become part of the Union. Though the Constitution for many states was a daunting piece of legislation to pass, in the end it has set the standard for our country and continues to be the focal point of justice and the rules the government must adhere by, even today.
Other Interesting Factoids
- Paul Revere wasn’t alone, in fact it is said that 40 other men too were riding horseback when news was to be spread about the quickly approaching British troops who were looking to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington.
- Technically speaking, the 4th of July should be celebrated on the 2nd of July. On July 2, 1778, the 13 colonies legally separated from Great Britain. Ironically, July 4, 1776 was merely a day of approving the semantics and wording of the Constitution, and in the end the document wasn’t officially signed until August 2, 1776 and even then some of the most notable signers didn’t sign the Constitution until as late as January 18, 1777.
- John Hancock was the first one to sign the Constitution, and he really left his mark. His signature was signed smack dab in the middle of it all since he was the President of the Congress. Others who signed the legislation signed starting in the upper right of the page in one column and, by the end of it all, there were 5 separate columns of signatures. The columns were arranged per each state’s location, the most northern being first and those within the southern region last, so New Hampshire was first, and Georgia last.
- The Constitution didn’t have a safe resting place for a long time. It was signed in Philadelphia but due to British threats was immediately moved to Baltimore, Maryland until March 1777 when it returned back to Philadelphia. The document continued to move wherever the Constitutional Congress moved and by 1800 it was located in Washington, DC. In 1814 the U.S. was threatened by war and the Constitution was taken to Virginia to be protected. That same year, during the burning of the White House, it was taken to Leesburg, Virginia and then returned to D.C. in September of 1814. Since September 1814, with the exception of a few trips for ceremonial purposes, the Constitution resides in the Nation’s capital.
Hopefully, these “Did you know?” items have whet your patriotic appetite. The more we learn about our nation’s history, the more likely we are to avoid past mistakes and, as a body, make better future decisions.
Ashley Page writes for Off-Topic Media. Special thanks to Dr. Don Lowrance. Dr. Lowrance treats sleep apnea in the Corpus Christi area. He can be reached at:
Don H. Lowrance, DDS
4707 Everhart Road #101
Corpus Christi, TX 78411
(361) 851-8274