alists had retorted that it had to be accepted or rejected as it was. Under the Massachusetts compromise, the delegates recommended amendments to be considered by the new Congress, should the Constitution go into effect. The Massachusetts compromise determined the fate of the Constitution, as it permitted delegates with doubts to vote for it in the hope that it would be amended. All subsequent state conventions but Maryland's recommended amendments as part of their decisions to ratify: Maryland, April 28, 1788 (63-11); South Carolina, May 23, 1788 (149-73); New Hampshire, June 21, 1788 (57-47); Virginia, June 25, 1788 (89-79); and New York, July 26, 1788 (30-27). By that date, eleven states had ratified, including all four critical states. The lists of recommended amendments and the Federalists' promise to work for amendments (particularly a bill of rights), set in motion the process by which the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution in 1789-1791. In turn, the First Congress's proposing of amendments in 1789 induced the hold-out states to elect conventions that ratified the Constitution - North Carolina, November 21, 1789 (195-77) and Rhode Island, May 29, 1790 (34-32). The struggle for ratification of the Constitution was both a direct, unabashed contest for votes and a complex, impressive argument about politics and constitutional theory. It was the first time that the people of a nation freely determined their form of government. It was also the first national political controversy in American history; the people of all thirteen states for the first time debated and decided the same issue. Ratification was a Ratification debatescatalyst for the creation of a national political community, transforming the ways Americans thought of themselves and encouraging the growth and popularity of nationalloyalties. The political discourse generated by the ratification controversy continues to this day within the mat...
