What happened at the Constitutional Convention?

At the Constitutional Convention 55 delegates from 12 states met at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787 and drafted a new framework of government to replace the failing Articles of Confederation. The Annapolis Convention of September 1786 had recommended the gathering, and Congress endorsed the call on February 21, 1787 with the limited mandate of revising the Articles. Once delegates assembled, they quickly decided to scrap the Articles and write a new constitution. Rhode Island refused to send delegates.

The most prominent figures were George Washington, who presided unanimously elected; James Madison of Virginia, often called the Father of the Constitution for his Virginia Plan and detailed notes; Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania at age 81 the elder statesman; Alexander Hamilton of New York; Roger Sherman and William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut; James Wilson and Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania; John Rutledge and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina; George Mason and Edmund Randolph of Virginia; and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. The convention adopted strict secrecy, posted guards, sealed the windows despite Philadelphia's summer heat, and James Madison's notes became the chief source for what was said.

The Virginia Plan introduced by Edmund Randolph on May 29, 1787 proposed a strong national government with three branches and a bicameral legislature in which both chambers would be apportioned by population. The New Jersey Plan introduced by William Paterson on June 15, 1787 proposed equal state representation in a single chamber. The Connecticut Compromise (also called the Great Compromise) brokered by Roger Sherman and adopted on July 16, 1787 split the difference: a House of Representatives apportioned by population and a Senate with two members per state.

The convention also adopted the Three-Fifths Compromise on July 12, 1787 counting three fifths of enslaved people for representation and direct taxation, postponed any ban on the Atlantic slave trade until 1808, created the Electoral College for selecting the President, separated powers among Congress, the President, and a Supreme Court, and established a process for ratification by special state conventions.

Three delegates refused to sign on September 17, 1787: Edmund Randolph, George Mason, and Elbridge Gerry, mostly because the document lacked a Bill of Rights. Thirty-nine of the remaining 42 delegates present that day signed. Benjamin Franklin's closing speech, read by James Wilson, urged unanimous signing for the sake of the country. The signed Constitution was sent to Congress, which transmitted it to the states for ratification.