Delaware Decides

In early December 1787, thirty delegates to Delaware’s ratifying convention spent five days deciding whether to approve the new, stronger central government proposed at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia the previous summer. On December 7, 1787, they unanimously ratified the United States Constitution, making Delaware the first state to do so. The convention gathered at The Golden Fleece Tavern in Dover, where the state assembly sometimes met. Gunning Bedford, Jr., Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom, John Dickinson, and George Read had been delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, and Bassett and Bedford also served among the delegates to the ratifying convention in Dover.

Dover, Delaware · United States