Description

In 1787, an effort to revise the Articles of Confederation turned into a constitutional convention that dramatically altered the way that the young United States of America would be governed. On October 25, 1787, Massachusetts called a convention to debate the new constitution, and five months later on February 6, 1788 the Massachusetts convention adopted the Constitution. Four volumes of The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution are devoted to the public and private debate surrounding ratification of this state which played a key role in the acceptance of the Constitution. These four volumes encompass over 1,800 pages of legislative and executive records, personal accounts by convention participants and observers, newspaper extracts, pamphlets and broadsides, as well as convention sources housed in the Massachusetts State Archives. The Massachusetts volumes chart the dialogue beginning in early September, 1787 before the Constitution was signed by the delegates in Philadelphia, and continue to cover the aftermath of ratification in Massachusetts.