E Pluribus Unum: The Union Is Completed

The Constitution of the United States was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. However, a number of steps were required for it to become the law of the land. It first had to be reviewed and voted upon by the Continental Congress sitting under the Articles of Confederation; this was done and Congress approved. Then it had to be submitted to the 13 states; the approval of nine states was needed for it to come into effect. In the few months before 1787 was up, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey ratified the Constitution. By February 1788 Georgia, Connecticut and Massachusetts had. That made 6. The next group of states – Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia and New York – ratified in the April-July 1788 time frame. So then there were 11 states, more the the 9 required, and the Constitution came into effect. But Rhode Island had feared all along the idea of an authoritarian Federal government and failed to attend the Constitutional Convention, and now she and North Carolina were concerned that the Constitution contained no Bill of Rights to protect individual freedoms; they held out all through 1788. When the United States Government was established in March-April 1789, they took no part and were not represented. But a Bill of Rights was introduced in Congress by James Madison, and it passed Congress and was sent to the states on September 25, 1789. So satisfied with that result and under pressure from neighbors Virginia and South Carolina, North Carolina held a convention and ratified the Constitution in November 1789. Now just Rhode Island held out.

By March 10, 1790, 8 states had ratified the Bill of Rights amendments, which was not enough for the Amendments to become part of the Constitution. The vote of Rhode Island could make the difference between their passage or failure. Moreover, it was becoming increasingly untenable for the state to carry on as a sole hold-out, and there was talk of the U.S. treating Rhode Island trade as foreign trade and imposing tariffs if it remained outside the Union. Rhode Island is a maritme state, and trade was its life blood; a tariff against it could have devastating results. These were all powerful considerations, and on May 29, 1790, Rhode Island ratified the Constitution of the United States, becoming the last of the original 13 states (and indeed colonies) to do so. Just 8 days later it ratified the Bill of Rights, making its ultimate adoption almost certain.

But the work was not all on the Rhode Island side. It remained for the United States to extend its jurisdiction into Rhode Island (and complete the nation as 13 states under one law), to establish courts, and to fill Federal offices. And it did just that, using the expedient of amending the Judiciary Act of 1789 that established the Federal judiciary. Act of the Congress of the United States, signed as Secretary of State, also signed in type by George Washington as President, New York, June 23, 1790.

This act provides that the Judiciary Act “shall have the like force and effect within the state of Rhode Island…as elsewhere within the United States.” E Pluribus Unum. It went on to establish Rhode Island as one Federal court district, with the situs of the court alternating between Providence and Newport, and to provide for a Federal judge whose salary would be paid by the United States Treasury Department. A search of auction records for the past 35 years does not disclose another signed copy of this act having been offered for sale.