Volume II, Ratification by the States: Pennsylvania
Edited by Merrill Jensen
Associate Editors John P. Kaminski
and Gaspare J. Saladino
Pennsylvania was the first state to call for a
convention to debate ratification of the Constitution in
September, 1787. Pennsylvania elected delegates on
November 6 for the convention which was held from
November 20 to December 15, 1787. On December 12
Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the
Constitution, following the first state Delaware by only
five days. Pennsylvania was the first large and
populous state to ratify the Constitution, and the
state's quick action on the constitution motivated the
other states to action. The second volume of
The Documentary History of the Ratification of the
Constitution is devoted to the dialogue concerning
ratification in Pennsylvania. The volume
encompasses well over seven-hundred pages of
Pennsylvania legislative records, personal papers and
records, newspapers, magazines, Journals of the
Pennsylvania Convention, notes taken by delegates and
private reporters, and pamphlets and broadsides printed
both at government expense and by private printers.
Volume II, Ratification by the States:
Pennsylvania
779 pp., ISBN 0-87020-159-X, Hardcover $75.00
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