Constitutional Convention convenes

On May 25, 1787, delegates from twelve states assembled in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation, and George Washington was chosen to preside. James Madison arrived with the Virginia delegation prepared to propose a new national framework, while Benjamin Franklin, Gouverneur Morris, and other delegates joined a secret deliberation that lasted through September. By September 17, 1787, the Philadelphia convention had produced an entirely new Constitution rather than a revision of the Articles.

The Philadelphia meeting addressed the central constitutional crisis of the 1780s: the Articles of Confederation could not supply effective national authority over taxation, commerce, or executive enforcement. Large states and small states, free states and slave states, and nationalists and defenders of state sovereignty all battled inside the convention over representation and power. The convention therefore became the decisive forum where Americans argued over what kind of republic could preserve liberty without repeating the weakness of the Confederation.

The Constitution drafted in Philadelphia went next to state ratifying conventions under Article VII and immediately prompted the Federalist and Anti-Federalist debate. The convention's work also led to the first federal government under George Washington and, after ratification pressure from several states, to the Bill of Rights.