Article VII
Ratification
Full Text
Section 1
The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.
History and Context
The final article is a masterstroke of political strategy. The framers knew that getting unanimous approval from all thirteen states, as required by the Articles of Confederation, was impossible. Rhode Island hadn't even bothered to send a delegate to the Convention. So, they changed the rules. Article VII declared that the Constitution would go into effect once it was ratified by just nine of the thirteen states. This was a bold, and arguably illegal, move. They were bypassing the existing government's rules to create a new one. It was a gamble that the momentum of nine ratifying states would be too powerful for the remaining holdouts to resist. The gamble paid off, and a new nation was born.