Ratified the Constitution

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-five: 
Hardly a man is now alive 
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town tonight,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal light,
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country-folk to be up and to arm." 

The immortal words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) give us the beginning of the American struggle for independence from the British.  However, it would be another 15 months, until July 4, 1776, when the leaders of the independence movement openly declared it in a document published in Philadelphia.

The British rulers set out to crush the rebellion militarily (unlike the Portuguese monarchy in Brazil 46 years later).  However, after six years of fighting and dying without victory in sight, the British gave up and started negotiating a diplomatic solution.  The result was the Treaty of Paris signed on September 3, 1783 which gave independence to each of the thirteen former North American colonies.

Those thirteen newly independent States soon discovered they needed to create a better form of governmental union than what they had originally devised (The Articles of Confederation).  Representatives from all the States met again in Philadelphia and crafted a new document.

Such new document, the United States Constitution, was adopted on September 17, 1787.  Article Seven states, "The ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same."

In December 1787, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey ratified the Constitution.  In January 1788, Georgia and Connecticut followed suit.  In February, Massachusetts joined the fold.  Maryland in April and South Carolina in May.  Eight down, only one more to go.

On June 21, 1788 (232 years ago today), New Hampshire ratified the Constitution, the ninth to do so, fulfilling Article Seven, thus creating the United States of America.  

At that point, the States of Virginia, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island were considered foreign countries.  However, Virginia ratified the Constitution four days after New Hampshire and New York one month after Virginia.  North Carolina ratified the Constitution in 1789 and finally Rhode Island in 1790.  All thirteen of the original British colonies were now part of the new United States of America.

Happy June Twenty-First!  And happy father's day!