Ratifying the Constitution: Democracy in action

On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the proposed Constitution. This was an act for the ages, because it not only marked the technical implementation of the new law of the land but, in the words of James Madison, written on April 6, 1796, the "instrument"-the Constitution-"was nothing more than a draught of a plan, nothing but a dead letter, until life and validity were...