Vermont’s Ratification

Vermont was admitted to the United States on March 4, 1791. On February 9,
1791, the Congress received the state’s transmission to Congress its intent to
hold a convention for the purposes of ratifying the United States Constitution
and the results of that convention. The notice and the ratification
announcement of the convention can be found below.

An Act to authorize the People of this State to meet in Convention, to
deliberate upon and agree to the Constitution of the United States.

Whereas, in the opinion of this legislature, the future interest and welfare
of this state render it necessary that the Constitution of the United States of
America, as agreed to by the Convention at Philadelphia, on the seventeenth day
of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and
eighty-seven, with the several amendments and alterations, as the same has been
established by the United States, should be laid before the people of this
state for their approbation, —

It is hereby enacted, by the General Assembly of the state of Vermont, That
the first constable in each town shall warn the inhabitants, who, by law, are
entitled to vote for representatives in General Assembly, in the same manner as
they warn free men’s meetings, to meet in their respective towns on the first
Tuesday of December next, at ten o’clock, forenoon, at the several places fixed
by law for holding the annual election; and when so met they shall proceed, in
the same manner as in the election of representatives, to choose some suitable
person, from each town, to serve as a delegate in a state convention, for the
purpose of deliberating upon and agreeing to the Constitution of the United
States as now established; and the said constable shall certify to the said
convention the person so chosen in the manner aforesaid. And,

It is hereby further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That the persons
so elected to serve in state convention, as aforesaid, do assemble and meet
together on the first Thursday of January next at Bennington, then and there to
deliberate upon the aforesaid Constitution of the United States, and if
approved of by them, finally to assent to and ratify the same, in behalf and on
the part of the people of this state, and make report thereof to the governor
of this state for the time being, to be by him communicated to the President of
the United States, and the legislature of this state.

State of Vermont. Secretary’s Office, Bennington, Jan. 21, 1791.

The preceding is a true copy of an act passed by the legislature of the
state of Vermont, the twenty-seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord
one thousand seven hundred and ninety.

ROSWELL HOPKINS, Secretary of State.

In Convention of the Delegates of the People of the State of Vermont.

Whereas, by an act of the commissioners of the state of New York, done at
New York, the seventeenth day of October, in the fifteenth year of the
independence of the United States of America, one thousand seven hundred and
ninety, every impediment, as well on the part of the state of New York as on
the part of the state of Vermont, to the admission of the state of Vermont into
the Union of the United States of America, is removed; in full faith and
assurance that the same will stand approved and ratified by Congress, —

This Convention, having impartially deliberated upon the Constitution of the
United States of America, as now established, submitted to us by an act of the
General Assembly of the state of Vermont, passed October the twenty-seventh,
one thousand seven hundred and ninety, — Do, in virtue of the power and
authority to us given for that purpose, fully and entirely approve of, assent
to, and ratify, the said Constitution; and declare that, immediately from and
after this state shall be admitted by the Congress into the Union, and to a
full participation of the benefits of the government now enjoyed by the states
in the Union, the same shall be binding on us, and the people of the state of
Vermont, forever.

Done at Bennington, in the county of Bennington, the tenth day of January,
in the fifteenth year of the independence of the United States of America, one
thousand seven hundred and ninety-one.

In testimony whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names.

THOMAS CHITTENDEN, President.

Signed by one hundred and five members — dissented four.

Attest. Roswell Hopkins, Secretary of Convention.