University of Wisconsin Center for the Study of the American Constitution, New Jersey Ratifies the Constitution, 18 December 1787

At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the New Jersey delegation wanted to amend, rather than replace, the Articles of Confederation. They proposed the New Jersey Amendments, which would balance power between large and small states with equal representation, and expand the power of Congress to regulate trade, collect taxes, and pay the debts of the United States. After the Constitutional Convention agreed to equal representation of the states in the Senate, the New Jersey delegates acquiesced to the writing of a new constitution, which would come to embody much of what they had been advocating throughout the preceding decade. New Jersey's state convention unanimously ratified the Constitution on December 18, 1787.