Sept. 17 is Constitution Day, when Americans commemorate the signing of the US Constitution by delegates gathered in Philadelphia in 1787. But Sept. 17, 1787, was just the beginning of a rocky road to a new government. And North Carolina’s path was particularly bumpy.
Nine of the 13 states (former colonies) had to ratify the constitution for it to become the law of the land. That happened 10 months later, and the United States of America became official. But North Carolina did not join the new union until more than two years after the signing — on Nov. 21, 1789! Only Rhode Island waited longer.
Why the resistance? The new constitution was controversial because it would create a much stronger national government than the Articles of Confederation had. Although debate took place throughout most of the states, the fierce independence of many North Carolinians made the conflict especially divisive.
After all, North Carolina had been the first colony (then called a province) officially to recommend that all colonies declare independence from Great Britain. That occurred with the Halifax Resolves of April 12, 1776. Almost a year earlier, one county, Mecklenburg, had prepared itself for a war of independence.
And as far back as the 1760s, a group of westerners (North Carolinians in the Piedmont) had engaged in rebellion. They opposed heavy taxes and fees and what they viewed as unfair treatment by William Tryon, North Carolina’s colonial governor, and the corruption of the judges he had appointed. These “Regulators” were defeated in the Battle of Alamance in 1771. Six men were executed, and the survivors remained suspicious of powerful governments.
Thus, fear of too much political control permeated North Carolina in July 1788, when the first state convention to consider ratifying the Constitution was held in Hillsborough. Although strong supporters of the Constitution — the Federalists — were present, the Anti-Federalists were there in even greater numbers. The convention concluded with a decision to neither ratify nor reject the Constitution — by a vote of 184 to 84.
One of the leading Anti-Federalists was Willie (pronounced Wiley) Jones. He was a wealthy eastern landowner himself, but he shared other North Carolinians’ resistance to overweening power. His opposition to the Constitution had a major impact on North Carolina’s decisions — and on the Constitution itself. At the Hillsborough Convention, Willie Jones held up a list of rights and said that they should be in the Constitution.
“North Carolina was one of the last states to ratify,” writes historian Kyle Scott, “and in part because North Carolina held out as long as it did, James Madison was forced to usher a bill of rights through the First Congress. North Carolina required a bill of rights as a condition of ratification.”
So, on June 8, 1789 (almost a year after the Hillsborough Convention), Madison introduced 12 amendments to the Constitution. Congress reduced them to 10 and adopted them. Although the amendments still had to be ratified by the states, North Carolinians were now confident that the protection of basic rights would be part of the Constitution.
So, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Nov. 21, 1789, the state’s delegates voted to ratify the US Constitution by a vote of 194 to 77. The national government would be strong, yes, but thanks in large part to North Carolina, the Bill of Rights would provide protection that we rely on to this day.
