On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates signed the United States Constitution at the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Presided over by George Washington, the convention had begun in May and spent four demanding months debating how to replace the weak Articles of Confederation with a new framework for federal government. The resulting document established the basic structure of American government that endures today.
The delegates who framed the Constitution were closely connected to the struggle for independence. Most had participated in the Revolutionary movement, and thirty of the convention’s fifty-five delegates had performed active military service—seventeen in the Continental Army and thirteen in militia units. Six men—George Clymer, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, George Read, Roger Sherman, and James Wilson—signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, creating a direct link between the nation’s declaration of independence and its new governing charter.
Signing the Constitution did not make it law. Instead, it began a contentious ratification campaign in which specially elected state conventions considered whether the proposed government struck an acceptable balance between national authority and individual liberty. That debate helped produce the Bill of Rights and shaped the political divisions of the early republic.
Americans have repeatedly commemorated the signing as a defining national milestone. Philadelphia’s 1887 Constitutional Centennial included civic and industrial processions, a major military parade, and ceremonies attended by President Grover Cleveland. The 150th anniversary in 1937 prompted a nationwide commemoration, while President Ronald Reagan marked the bicentennial at Independence Hall on September 17, 1987.
Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
