1790: Rhode Island Ratifies

On This Day in Politics: May 29, 1790

On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island ratified the United States Constitution by a vote of 34 to 32. The decision made it the last of the original thirteen states to accept the new framework of government. The federal system was already operating, and George Washington had been president for more than a year. Rhode Island’s vote therefore did not bring the Constitution into effect for the first time. It ended the state’s prolonged resistance to joining the constitutional union and completed a process that had exposed deep disagreements over national authority, state independence, economic interests, and the protection of individual rights.

Rhode Island had been the only state to send no delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. It initially put the ratification question to towns rather than calling the convention requested under the new plan. Opponents feared that a stronger central government would reduce state power and interfere with established economic practices, including the issuance of paper money. Religious freedom also mattered in a state whose political traditions placed special weight on liberty of conscience. Commercial communities and rural interests viewed the proposed system differently. These divisions help explain why resistance lasted well after other states had accepted the Constitution and begun participating in the new government.

By 1790, the costs of remaining outside that system were becoming harder to ignore. Merchants worried about trade restrictions, and pressure from within Rhode Island combined with threats from Congress. On May 18, the Senate passed a measure aimed at stopping commercial intercourse with the state. Providence, Newport, and Bristol also threatened separation from Rhode Island. Such pressures did not produce broad agreement, as the final two-vote margin demonstrates. The outcome was a narrow political choice made under difficult conditions. Ratification resolved the immediate question of participation in the Union, but it did not mean that concerns about concentrated power had disappeared.

The ratification document preserved those concerns in a declaration of rights and a series of proposed amendments. It affirmed liberty of conscience, protections for criminal defendants, freedom of expression, and the right to petition. It also urged restrictions on federal taxation and military authority. The delegates instructed the state’s future representatives to seek constitutional changes through the amendment process. This combination of acceptance and demands for safeguards gives the event its lasting interest. Rhode Island joined the new order while continuing to argue about its boundaries. May 29 illustrates that the founding settlement emerged through disagreement and negotiation, and that joining a political system could coexist with efforts to revise and restrain it.