Article 7 - Legal Status

This article has one sentence - 9 states are needed to ratify the Constitution. This shows how fragile the acceptance process actually was. Even with the huge concessions relating to slavery that the Northern states gave to the Southern states, there was a possibility that not all of the 13 states would ratify. In fact, when George Washington was inaugurated as President in 1789 - two years after the Constitutional Convention of 1787 - there were still two states (Rhode Island and North Carolina) had not ratified the Constitution. Imagine what would have happened if they ultimately decided not to.

Listen to Article 7.