Wayne County, NC - Heritage Series Reprinted with permission of the Mount Olive Tribune and cannot be reproduced without permission. The North Carolina Ratification Conventions "Our Heritage" By Claude Moore August, 25, 1989 The Constitution of the United States was drawn up at a convention which met in Philadelphia from May until September in 1787. It was a result of many compromises & many of those who signed it had doubts about some of its provisions. The constitution was submitted to the states for ratification & it was to go into effect after two-thirds (nine) of the 13 states ratified it. North Carolina called for the election of delegates to a convention. The convention met in Hillsborough from July 21st to August 4th, 1788. The Honorable Samuel Johnston of Chowan County was elected President of the convention. He was later governor of the state & was a nephew of Mrs. Thomas Kenan of Duplin County. There was much debate in the convention. The Federalists favored ratification & the Anti-Federalist were opposed. Opposition arose because there was no Bill of Rights in the Constitution & there was fear that the Federal Government would be too powerful & would not be responsive to the will of the people. The Hillsborough Convention was made up of 270 of the leading citizens of the state. The convention voted against ratification 169 to 101. The delegates from Wayne County were Dr. Andrew Bass of Waynesborough, James Handley, Richard McKinne, Burwell Mooring & William Taylor. The delegates from Duplin County were William Dickson, James Gillespie, James Kenan, Francis Oliver & Charles Wood. The delegates from Sampson County were Richard Clinton, David Dodd, Hardy Holmes, Lewis Holmes & Curtis Ivey. All the delegates from these three counties voted against ratification. The Constitution was ratified by two-thirds of the states by the summer of 1788. In 1789 North Carolina called another ratification convention to meet in Fayetteville from November 16th to November 23rd, 1789. The delegates from Wayne were David Cogdell, James Handley, Josiah Jernigan, Richard McKinne & Burwell Mooring. Jernigan, Handley & McKinne voted for ratification, Cogdell & Mooring voted against it. The delegates from Duplin were Robert Dickson, James Gillespie, James Kenan, James Pearsall & Levin Watkins. All the delegates from Duplin voted against ratification. The delegates from Sampson were Richard Clinton, Hardy Holmes, William King, James Spiller & Capt. James Thomson. All the delegates from Sampson voted against ratification except James Spiller. Ratification was passed at the Fayetteville Convention by a vote of 914 to 77. The Legislature met in Fayetteville at the same time & chartered the University of North Carolina. ============================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. The electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Guy Potts ==============================================================