After 38 of the 41 delegates signed it on September 17, 1787, the U.S. Constitution was sent to the Continental Congress in New York where a vote was taken to pass the document to the 13 states for ratification. The process began with a struggle in Congress between those who favored the document, or the Federalists, and those who opposed it, or the Antifederalists, and the battle continued at the states' conventions for ratification. Delaware was the first state to ratify the new government with Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut soon following. None of the remaining eight states promised such easy victory. Through political maneuvering by the Federalists, the document passed in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, and South Carolina. The Antifederalists focused their arguments against the documents in Virginia and New York, from where the strongest opposition had come during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, but these states soon joined the others. Only North Carolina and Rhode Island refused to call conventions and sustained from ratification until the new government was already functioning. (DJC)