Thirty-Thousand.org Forum

[JEQuidam]

With the exception of Delaware, every state that ratified articles three through twelve (as the first ten amendments to the Constitution) also ratified Article the first. Presumably many of the state legislatures that initially ratified it did not realize its formulation contained a fatal flaw that was not in the earlier version (which the states' legislators would have previously read in the press).

The table below summarizes the ratification history of all twelve articles relative to the first twelve states to do so.[1]



On December 15, 1791, when 14 states comprised the Union, Virginia became the eleventh state to affirm the third through twelfth articles thereby ratifying them as the first ten amendments to the Constitution. During that same time, ten of those eleven states had also affirmed Article the first; one less than required for ratification. On June 4, 1792, Kentucky became the eleventh (and final) state to affirm Article the first but, by that time, amending it to the Constitution would have required ratification by one additional state.

Footnotes:
[1] Connecticut, Georgia, and Massachusetts did not ratify any of the twelve amendments during this time frame. It was not until 1939 that those three states ceremonially ratified the third through twelfth articles to mark the 150th anniversary of the passage of the Bill of Rights.
[2] These ratification dates are derived from the Documentary History of the Constitution (Bulletin of the Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State). Washington: Department of State. 1895

[julen132]

Article the first was never formally ratified because it didnt achieve the required number of votes. While its wording might have seemed reasonable in the context of the original proposals it ultimately proved too controversial to gain full acceptance by all the states. The rest of the amendments however received broader support

[JEQuidam]

The reason that Article the first was never ratified by the states is that it contained an unexpected defect in its formulation which effectively rendered it nonsensical and then inconsequential. That is explained here: https://thirty-thousand.org/article-the ... of-rights/

[jtpocean]

Do the states ratify the text that is sent to them or the text that was proposed by Congress? Are you advocating that the text that was ultimately proposed and voted on by Congress is the defective text or the intended text? If the intended text was proposed/voted by Congress but a committee (or whoever) sent the defective text to the states for ratification then even if the states ratified the defective text they were sent would it still count as a ratification vote for the intended text?

[JEQuidam]

The states' legislatures deliberated upon the version that was sent to them, which really flummoxed them when they identified the mathematical defect. I cannot provide a short answer to your other questions, as they are worded. All of that is explained in the forthcoming elaboration. The website also has a contact form to ask me questions, but that is also the purpose of this forum.