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On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire, the ninth state, approved, and it became effective in March 1789.
Notable among the document's many innovative features is the separation of powers among the legislative (Congress), executive (President), and judicial branches of government.
Also important is that the Congress was split into two houses, the upper house (originally in the upper floor of adjoining Congress Hall), and the lower house (main floor of Congress Hall); the first gave equal power to all the states regardless of size and the second gave proportional representation according to size.
You have to imagine the debates between the large and small states each attempting to form a government favouring them. You also have to marvel that this compromise was reached at all - a tribute to the extraordinary minds that were working together to make a new nation that could survive and renew itself in the face of unforeseeable obstacles.
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