2 quasi-related questions about statehood

[mongrel_8]

http://www.fujisan.demon.co.uk/USPresidents/plist5.htm#newstates

There were 2 things I noticed on that page that gave me questions:

1. Why did some of the states (Delaware, New Jersey, Georgia) vote unanimously to accept the constitution and some states had quite a few dissenters like Massachusetts and Virginia, which I think of as being greater players in our independence more that Delaware, New Jersey, or Georgia?
2. Why were Georgia’s representatives to congress unseated on March 5, 1869? (It says this at the very bottom of the page.) I assume it had something to do with being allowed back into the Union after the Civil War, but why would they be let in only to be kicked out?

[The_Peyote_Coyote]

Mongrel: In answer to Question No. 1, as I understand it from my high school history, a lot of the smaller states (and Georgia would have been small in population at the time) favored the Constitution because it put checks on the bigger states. I think at the time some of the states’ original charters gave them boundaries that extended to the Pacific Ocean. Virginia springs to mind as an example. Virginia, Massachusetts and New York had enough wealth and population to be countries in their own rights, and some of their inhabitants did not want to give up claims to western lands.

No idea about your second question.

[RedNaxela]

In answer to question #2, U.S. Grant summarized it quite well in his first message to Congress, Dec. 6, 1869 (full text here):

Seven States which passed ordinances of secession have been fully restored to their places in the Union. The eighth (Georgia) held an election at which she ratified her constitution, republican in form, elected a governor, Members of Congress, a State legislature, and all other officers required. The governor was duly installed, and the legislature met and performed all the acts then required of them by the reconstruction acts of Congress. Subsequently, however, in violation of the constitution which they had just ratified (as since decided by the supreme court of the State), they unseated the colored members of the legislature and admitted to seats some members who are disqualified by the third clause of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution*–an article which they themselves had contributed to ratify. Under these circumstances I would submit to you whether it would not be wise, without delay, to enact a law authorizing the governor of Georgia to convene the members originally elected to the legislature, requiring each member to take the oath prescribed by the reconstruction acts, and none to be admitted who are ineligible under the third clause of the fourteenth amendment.

[sub]* Which bars those who had “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Union, by serving in the Confederate legislature or armed forces, from holding any federal office.[/sub]

Congress duly enacted such a law on Dec. 22 of that year, so the state was readmitted in 1870.
RedNaxela

[BobT]

I can respond to part 1.

Delaware loved the new Constitution. The Delawarians got the protections they needed with the creation of the Senate. They weren’t too concerned with the lack of a Bill of Rights. Pennsylvania wanted to be the first state to ratify, but they had trouble getting its legislature to act, so Delaware sneaked in.

[2sense]

Constitutional Ratification links offered without commentary:

National Archives
“Jacob Trusty” of Pennsylvania
Jerry Fresia
New Hampshire

The last link is connected with an interesting but unfinished alternative history of the ratification.
Also, the page mongrel_8 linked to makes an error. The vote totals given are not from the legislatures but rather from the ratification conventions.