Report of the
Committee.

Constitution of the United States the absolute
sovereignty of the several States was universally
conceded.
The Constitution was framed by delegates of
only twelve of the thirteen States of the Confed-
eration. By the terms of the Constitution the
ratification of nine States was sufficient for the
establishment of the Constitution between the
States so ratifying the same, eleven States ratified
the Constitution, elected a Congress, President and
Vice President, and on the 30th of April, 1789,
President Washington was sworn into office, and the
government then went into full operation in all its
departments. North Carolina had refused to rati-
fy the Constitution without previous amendments
and declaration of rights, and Rhode Island had
declined to call a convention to consider the ques-
tion of ratification. Thus, the present Union,
under the Constitution, consisted originally of
eleven States. North Carolina became a member
of this Union in 1789, about seven months after
the Government had gone into full operation in
all its departments, and Rhode Island in May,
1790, more than a year after the organization of
the Government. From the date of the organiza-
tion of the Government to the time of their ratify-
ing the Constitution, respectively, North Carolina
and Rhode Island were considered as foreign na-
tions. This fact is stated in the preface to an edi-
tion of the Federalist, published in Washington
in 1818. Thus, when the Constitution was rati-
fied, Rhode Island and North Carolina, from hon-
est but mistaken convictions, for a moment with-
held their assent. But when Congress proceeded
solemnly to enact that the manufactures of those
States should be considered as foreign, and that
the acts laying a duty on goods imported, and on
tonnage, should extend to them, they hastened
with a discernment quickened by a sense of inter-
est, and at the same time honorable to their patri-
otic views, to unite themselves to the Confedera-
tion."
Political parties divided under the administra-
tion of the first Adams, upon the constitutionality
of the Alien and Sedition laws. In 1798, under
the lead of Madison and Jefferson, Virginia and