Virginia, 89 to 79, and New York, 30 to 27. It should also be noted that
the last two ratifications were only made after the ninth State (New
Hampshire) had ratified, and when it was certain that the Constitution
would go into effect with or with-out the ratification of Virginia or
New York. North Carolina did not ratify until 1789, and Rhode Island not
until 1790.

The division between North and South also appeared in the convention. In
order to carry over the Southern States to the support of the final
compromise, it was necessary to insert a guarantee of the slave trade
for twenty years, and a provision that three fifths of the slaves should
be counted in estimating the population for State representation in
Congress. But these provisions, so far as we can judge from the debates
of the time, had no influence against the ratification of the
Constitution; the struggle turned on the differences between the
national leaders, aided by the satisfied small States, on one side, and
the leaders of the State party, aided by the dissatisfied States, large
and small, on the other. The former, the Federalists, were successful,
though by very narrow majorities in several of the States. Washington
was unanimously elected the first President of the Republic; and the new
government was inaugurated at New York, March 4, 1789.

The speech of Henry in the Virginia House of Delegates has been chosen
as perhaps the best representative of the spirit which impelled and
guided the American Revolution. It is fortunate that the ablest of the
national leaders was placed in the very focus of opposition to the
Constitution, so that we may take Hamilton's argument in the New York
convention and Madison's in the Virginia convention, as the most
carefully stated conclusions of the master-minds of the National party.