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302 Final Articles of the Constitution. [i787 The postponement was agreed to, and Madison's proposition adopted, after an amendment proposed by Rutledge, to add to it the words, " provided that no amendments, which may be prior to the year 1808, shall in any manner affect the" provision that Congress should not interfere with the African slave-trade before that year. The subject was completed by the addition of the words, that "no State, without its consent, should be deprived of its equality in the Senate." And the whole passed accordingly, after certain verbal changes, from the com- mittee of detail into the Constitution, where it appears as Article V. (11) ARTICLES VI AND VII OF THE CONSTITUTION. Two articles of the Constitution remain, so much a matter of course that to state the substance of them will be enough. Article VI provides for the debts of the country, already created ; that the Constitution and laws of the United States, and all treaties, shall be the supreme law of the land ; that senators and representatives in Congress, members of the State legislatures, and executive and judicial officers of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution ; and that no religious test shall be required as a qualification to office under the United States. Article VII provides that ratification of the Constitution by nine States shall be sufficient to establish it between such States. The Constitution was signed by thirty -nine out of forty-two deputies then present; and the Convention was dissolved on September 17, after a session of nearly four months. RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS. The proceedings were now to be reported, in accordance with the action of the Convention, to the Congress then in session; afterwards the Constitution was to be submitted to conventions in the several States, to be composed of persons chosen by the people, whose Constitution it professed to be. All this was done ; and the question of adopting the Constitution was before the country. Ratification was voted for without difficulty by some of the conven- tions ; by others, not witnout the most persistent opposition. Delaware, the smallest State in importance in the Union, with everything to gain, was the first to act, accepting the Constitution on December 7, 1787 ; Rhode Island, the smallest in territory, with much to lose, was the last, not voting for ratification until May 29, 1790. New Hampshire, voting on June 21, 1788, was the ninth to ratify, thus making up the