Pennsylvania’s Ratification

Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Pennsylvania, December 12,
1787. Pennsylvania was the second state to do so. Pennsylvania’s ratification
message was short and to the point. The following text is taken from the
Library of Congress’s copy of Elliot’s Debates.

In the Name of the People of Pennsylvania.

Be it known unto all men, that we, the delegates of the people of the
commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Convention assembled, have assented to
and ratified, and by these presents do, in the name and by the authority of the
same people, and for ourselves, assent to and ratify the foregoing Constitution
for the United States of America. Done in Convention at Philadelphia, the
twelfth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and
eighty-seven, and of the independence of the United States of America the
twelfth. In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names.

FREDERICK A. MUHLENBERG, President.

George Latimer,
Benjamin Rush,
Hilary Baker,
James Wilson,
Thomas M’Kean,
To. Macpherson,
John Hunn,
George Gray,
Samuel Ashmead,
Enoch Edwards,
Henry Wynkoop,
John Barclay,
Thomas Yardley,
Abraham Stout,
Thomas Bull,
Anthony Wayne,
William Gibbons,
Richard Downing,
Thomas Cheney,
John Hannum,
Stephen Chambers,
Robert Coleman,
Sebastian Graff,
John Hubley,
Jasper Yeates,
Henry Slagle,
Thomas Campbell,
Thomas Hartley,
David Grier,
John Black,
Benjamin Pedan,
John Arndt,
Stephen Balliat,
Joseph Horsefield,
David Dashler,
William Wilson,
John Boyd,
Thomas Scott,
John Nevill,
John Allison,
Jonathan Roberts,
John Richards,
James Morris,
Timothy Pickering,
Benjamin Elliot.

Attest. James Campbell, Secretary.