Pennsylvania Ratifies the Constitution

(Library of Congress) - On December 12, 1787, delegates to the Pennsylvania ratifying convention meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) voted to ratify the Constitution of 1787. Five days earlier, Delaware had become the first state to adopt the work of the Constitutional Convention. Pennsylvania's early approval of the proposed document helped create momentum for ratification in the rest of the thirteen states. In Pennsylvania, however, opponents of the Constitution bitterly opposed the legislature's hasty action. "The Address and Reasons of Dissent of the Minority of the Convention…," signed by twenty-one of the twenty-three members of the state legislature who voted against ratification, outlines the grievances of the anti-Federalists. Continued