Georgia ratifies the U.S. Constitution as the fourth state
On this day · 2 January 1788
A unanimous convention in Augusta made Georgia the first Southern state to bind itself to the new federal charter.
On January 2, 1788, delegates meeting at a special convention in Augusta voted to ratify the proposed United States Constitution, making Georgia the fourth state to join the new federal union — and the first Southern state to do so.
The vote was unanimous. Georgia’s leaders had pressing reasons to embrace a stronger central government: the state was thinly settled, financially strained, and wary of conflict on its frontier. A more capable national defense looked like a bargain worth signing for.
Georgia followed Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, each of which had ratified in the closing weeks of 1787. Nine states were needed to put the Constitution into force; that threshold would not be reached until New Hampshire ratified in June 1788.
The ratification document itself, preserved in the public record, fixes the date plainly as “the second day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight” — a quiet, decisive entry into the founding republic.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
