"On September 17, 1787, the Constitution was signed. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states. Beginning on December 7, five states--Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut--ratified it in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document, as it failed to reserve undelegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. In February 1788, a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. In June, Virginia ratified the Constitution, followed by New York in July.
On September 25, 1789, the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution--the Bill of Rights--and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments were ratified in 1791. In November 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Rhode Island, which opposed federal control of currency and was critical of compromise on the issue of slavery, resisted ratifying the Constitution until the U.S. government threatened to sever commercial relations with the state. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island voted by two votes to ratify the document, and the last of the original 13 colonies joined the United States.
Today, the U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution in operation in the world." (History)
We also discussed the impact for foreign policy in this election. Barry has a new post about it:
"The economy is still the number one matter on voters’ minds. The
election will be decided in states where economies have suffered in the
current downturn. But the fragile condition of U.S. foreign policy in
the face of international fiscal and military challenges has taken on a
new urgency. In 1952, it was former General Dwight Eisenhower who
won on the promise he would “go to Korea,” presumably to solve the
Truman policies of a prolonged Korean War. President Eisenhower
seemed in command in the face of the Hungarian and Suez Canal
crises of 1956. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson was able to portray
his opponent Barry Goldwater as a foreign policy extremist in the
Cold War, but four years later, Richard Nixon made a comeback
exploiting the public dissatisfaction with Johnson’s policy in
Viet Nam. In 1980, Ronald Reagan won a last-minute landslide victory
against President Jimmy Carter whose policy to return U.S. hostages
in Iran was failing."
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