Meantime, two States were standing, as we have seen, unquestioned and
unmolested, in an attitude of absolute independence. The Convention of
North Carolina, on August 2, 1788, had rejected the proposed
Constitution, or, more properly speaking, had withheld her ratification
until action could be taken upon the subject-matter of the following
resolution adopted by her Convention:
"_Resolved_, That a declaration of rights, asserting and
securing from encroachment the great principles of civil and
religious liberty, and the unalienable rights of the people,
together with amendments to the most ambiguous and exceptionable
parts of the said Constitution of government, ought to be laid
before Congress and the Convention of the States that shall or
may be called for the purpose of amending the said Constitution,
for their consideration, previous to the ratification of the
Constitution aforesaid on the part of the State of North
Carolina."
More than a year afterward, when the newly organized Government had been
in operation for nearly nine months, and when--although no convention of
the States had been called to revise the Constitution--North Carolina
had good reason to feel assured that the most important provisions of
her proposed amendments and "declaration of rights" would be adopted,
she acceded to the amended compact. On November 21, 1789, her Convention
agreed, "in behalf of the freemen, citizens, and inhabitants of _the
State of North Carolina_," to "adopt and ratify" the Constitution.
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