Completion of ratification on December 15, 1791

Having been approved by the requisite three-fourths of the several states—there being fourteen states in the Union at the time, as Vermont had been admitted on March 4, 1791—the ratification of Articles Three through Twelve was completed and they became Amendments One through Ten of the Constitution. Virginia ratified Articles Two through Twelve on December 15, 1791, after failing to ratify the twelve amendments during its 1789 legislative session. The ratified amendments add specific guarantees of personal freedoms, such as freedom of speech, the right to publish, practice religion, possess firearms, and to assemble.