Subject: Re: 2 Questions about the Constitution
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 16:36:19 -0500
From: "Alic" alic@nara.gov
To: mikalac@worldnet.att.net

Dear Mr. Mikalac:

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding the constitution, which has been referred to ALIC: Archives Library Information Center.

The date of ratification and the date of admission for these states, like the first 11, are one and the the same and can be verified using an encyclopedia or almanac. Therefore North Carolina entered the Union on November 21, 1789, and Rhode Island on May 29, 1790.

Historians Forrest McDonald and Charles Warren count a total of 19 delegates who were elected or appointed by their state legislature or governor, either declined the honor or simply refused to attend. They are listed by state below.

CONNECTICUT - Erastus Wolcott
GEORGIA - George Walton, Nathaniel Pendleton
MARYLAND - Robert Hanson Harrison, Charles Carroll, Thomas Sims Lee, Thomas Stone, Gabriel Duvall
MASSACHUSETTS - Francis Dana
NEW HAMPSHIRE - John Pickering, Benjamin West
NEW JERSEY - John Neilson, Abraham Clark
NORTH CAROLINA - Richard Caswell, Willie Jones
SOUTH CAROLINA - Henry Laurens
VIRGINIA - Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Nelson

For more information on these individuals, see the following resources.

Warren, Charles. The Making of the Constitution. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1929.

McDonald, Forrest. We the People: The Economic Origins of the Constitution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.

These books can be found in a college or university library in your area and can probably be ordered via inter-library loan from your local public library.

I hope that this information is of use to you. Once again, thank you for your interest in the National Archives and Records Administration.

Sincerely,
Randall Fortson
Librarian ^{Fortson n.p.}