Ratification Day: NC became 12th state in the Union on Nov. 21, 1789

Exactly 235 years ago, on November 21, 1789, North Carolina ratified the Constitution to become the twelfth state in the Union.

Interestingly, North Carolina was the only state to have two ratification conventions. The reason? The Old North State was holding out for a Bill of Rights.

In 1788, delegates at the Hillsborough convention decided neither to reject nor approve the Constitution because it lacked those critical protections against government tyranny. Once assured that a Bill of Rights would be added, delegates reconvened in Fayetteville in 1789. There, the Constitution was approved by a vote of 195 to 77, and North Carolina became the twelfth state.

The North Carolina ratification debates, both in Hillsborough and Fayetteville, are considered to be some best captures of the intellectual back and forth between Federalists and Anti-Federalists during our nation’s genesis.

“James Madison, the ‘Father of the Constitution,’ remarked more than once that the state ratifying conventions provide the key to unlocking an understanding of the Constitution’s meaning,” writes Dr. Troy Kickler fore the NC History Project. “That said, many historians consider North Carolina’s ratification convention minutes to be the most revealing and balanced regarding the debate between Federalists and Anti-Federalists.”

The arguments between the Hillsborough and Fayetteville conventions illuminated the core of constitutional debate during that time period, according to Kickler.

“In North Carolina, Edentonian James Iredell, using the pseudonym Marcus, explained the Constitution’s meaning and pointed out the necessity of its adoption,” Kickler writes. “Tar Heel Federalists, such as Iredell and William Davie, believed the ‘general government’ needed more ‘energy,’ such as more authority to tax and be able to have an army to defend the fledgling nation.”

“A strong Anti-Federalist sentiment, however, remained in North Carolina,” he continues. “Many North Carolinians remembered the Parliamentary abuses before the Revolutionary War and questioned giving more authority to what would become the federal government. Tar Heel Anti-Federalists, including the influential yet somewhat reticent Willie Jones and the vocal and somewhat bumbling Judge Samuel Spencer, questioned handing any more power from the individuals and the states to the general government.”

In the end, the Bill of Rights inclusion and primacy on the Constitution created a compromise for a majority of Federalist and Anti-Federalists to agree on; and the rest is history!

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