VIRGINIA RATIFIES THE CONSTITUTION As reported in the July3, 1788 edition of The Pennsylvania Mercury, and Universal Advertiser , 4pp. folio, [Philadelphia]. A third of page two and most of page three are dedicated to this important event: "Richmond...June 26. Yesterday the grand question came on before the Honorable the Convention of his state for the ratification of the Federal Constitution, when the ayes and noes being taken, there appeared for the ratification 89 votes, and against it 79. After the vote of ratification a committee of 17 or 18 members was appointed to prepare such subsequent amendments as it may be thought necessary to recommend for future adoption... " Page three bears the closest thing to a "headline" one can find in an eighteenth century newspaper: "THE TENTH PILLAR. Important Intelligence from VIRGINIA...RATIFICATION of the New Constitution, by the Convention of Virginia... " The article notes "There will be a discharge of artillery, from Federal-Hill, at 7 o'clock, and a display of fireworks, from the Court-House Hill, at 9 ". The ratification by Virginia, "fixes the fate and ensured the happiness of AMERICA. The three states which have not yet ratified the Federal Constitution, will find irresistible inducements to join the confederacy... " Little did the newspaper know, but the on June 26, the State of New York had also ratified the Constitution, leaving only North Carolina and Rhode Island to approve the compact. They would prove the holdouts, neither ratifying the document until the First Federal Congress had been sitting in New York for some time. North Carolina approved it on November 21, 1789. Rhode Island held out until May 29, 1790! An important newspaper issue celebrating the cementing of the Union under the federal constitution. Very lightly toned at margins, light dampstain at one corner, a few light creases, otherwise very good condition. $700-900