Pennsylvania ratified the U.S. Constitution

On December 12, 1787, delegates meeting at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia voted 46 to 23 to ratify the new federal Constitution. The vote made Pennsylvania the second state to ratify, trailing tiny Delaware by just five days.

The margin masked a bruising fight. Pennsylvania was the first large, powerful state to confront a serious Anti-Federalist challenge, and its convention became a model for the contentious debates that followed elsewhere. Federalists, led by James Wilson, pushed for swift approval; opponents warned that a strong central government threatened individual liberty and demanded a bill of rights.

The losing minority issued a stinging dissent that helped shape the case for the Bill of Rights.

That dissent circulated nationally and previewed many protections later added in the first ten amendments. Tensions ran so high that, weeks after the vote, Anti-Federalist rioters in Carlisle burned Federalist leaders in effigy. Pennsylvania’s early ratification gave the Constitution crucial momentum toward the nine states needed to take effect.