OUR CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER IS BORN: On this day in 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution. With that ratification, the Constitution went into effect. Further states could join, of course, but with nine states, we were going to have a union of at least those nine no matter what.

New Hampshire, like several other states, suggested some amendments to the Constitution in its ratification message, some of which it got when the Bill of Rights was subsequently proposed and ratified and some of which it did not get. Among its proposals:

“Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.”

“Congress shall erect no company of merchants with exclusive advantages of commerce.”