Bill of Rights Ratification

The original Constitution as submitted to the states for ratification contains some protection for citizens against government tyranny, but not enough to suit the delegates to the state ratification conventions.   Only a promise to include these rights enabled a sufficient number of states to ratify it.   At the first session of Congress, James Madison, proposed 19 draft amendments he extracted and reformulated from the recommendations of 5 states and the Virginia Declaration of Rights.   Congress reduced these to 12 amendments.   Slaves and Amerindians were excluded.   Women were not mentioned.   The last ten of these amendments were ratified by at least three-fourths of the states by December 15, 1791 ("Bill of Rights day"), and became the what we known as the Bill of Rights.   The first proposed amendment was never adopted, while the second proposed amendment became the 27th amendment.

The dates of the state ratifications were as follows: ^{Kaminski, xxii}

1. New Jersey November 20, 1789
2. Maryland December 19, 1789
3. North Carolina December 22, 1789
4. South Carolina January 19, 1790
5. New Hampshire January 25, 1790
6. Delaware January 28, 1790
7. New York February 27, 1790
8. Pennsylvania March 10, 1790
9. Rhode Island June 11, 1790
10. Vermont November 3, 1791
11. Virginia December 15, 1791 ("Bill of Rights day")
12. Massachusetts March 2, 1939
13. Georgia March 24, 1939
14. Connecticut April 19, 1939

The Bill of Rights became effective with Virginia's ratification of December 15, 1791, because it constituted at least three-fourths of the 14 states.   The last three states ratified during the sesquicentennial of the Bill of Rights.