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Vermont's Ratification


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Vermont was admitted to the United States on March 4, 1791. On February 9, 1791, the Congress received the state's transmission to Congress its intent to hold a convention for the purposes of ratifying the United States Constitution and the results of that convention. The notice and the ratification announcement of the convention can be found below.


An Act to authorize the People of this State to meet in Convention, to deliberate upon and agree to the Constitution of the United States.

Whereas, in the opinion of this legislature, the future interest and welfare of this state render it necessary that the Constitution of the United States of America, as agreed to by the Convention at Philadelphia, on the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, with the several amendments and alterations, as the same has been established by the United States, should be laid before the people of this state for their approbation, —

It is hereby enacted, by the General Assembly of the state of Vermont, That the first constable in each town shall warn the inhabitants, who, by law, are entitled to vote for representatives in General Assembly, in the same manner as they warn free men's meetings, to meet in their respective towns on the first Tuesday of December next, at ten o'clock, forenoon, at the several places fixed by law for holding the annual election; and when so met they shall proceed, in the same manner as in the election of representatives, to choose some suitable person, from each town, to serve as a delegate in a state convention, for the purpose of deliberating upon and agreeing to the Constitution of the United States as now established; and the said constable shall certify to the said convention the person so chosen in the manner aforesaid. And,

It is hereby further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That the persons so elected to serve in state convention, as aforesaid, do assemble and meet together on the first Thursday of January next at Bennington, then and there to deliberate upon the aforesaid Constitution of the United States, and if approved of by them, finally to assent to and ratify the same, in behalf and on the part of the people of this state, and make report thereof to the governor of this state for the time being, to be by him communicated to the President of the United States, and the legislature of this state.

State of Vermont. Secretary's Office, Bennington, Jan. 21, 1791.

The preceding is a true copy of an act passed by the legislature of the state of Vermont, the twenty-seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety.

ROSWELL HOPKINS, Secretary of State.


In Convention of the Delegates of the People of the State of Vermont.

Whereas, by an act of the commissioners of the state of New York, done at New York, the seventeenth day of October, in the fifteenth year of the independence of the United States of America, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, every impediment, as well on the part of the state of New York as on the part of the state of Vermont, to the admission of the state of Vermont into the Union of the United States of America, is removed; in full faith and assurance that the same will stand approved and ratified by Congress, —

This Convention, having impartially deliberated upon the Constitution of the United States of America, as now established, submitted to us by an act of the General Assembly of the state of Vermont, passed October the twenty-seventh, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, — Do, in virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, fully and entirely approve of, assent to, and ratify, the said Constitution; and declare that, immediately from and after this state shall be admitted by the Congress into the Union, and to a full participation of the benefits of the government now enjoyed by the states in the Union, the same shall be binding on us, and the people of the state of Vermont, forever.

Done at Bennington, in the county of Bennington, the tenth day of January, in the fifteenth year of the independence of the United States of America, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one.

In testimony whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names.

THOMAS CHITTENDEN, President.

Signed by one hundred and five members — dissented four.

Attest. Roswell Hopkins, Secretary of Convention.



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