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Eleven years
after the Declaration of Independence announced the birth
of the United States, the survival of the young country seemed
in doubt. The War for Independence had been won, but economic
depression, social unrest, interstate rivalries, and foreign
intrigue appeared to be unraveling the fragile confederation.
In early 1787, Congress called for a special convention of
all the states to revise the Articles of Confederation. On
September 17, 1787, after four months of secret meetings,
the delegates to the Constitutional Convention emerged from
their Philadelphia meetingroom with an entirely new plan of
government–the U.S. Constitution–that they hoped
would ensure the survival of the experiment they had launched
in 1776.
They proposed a strong central government made up of three
branches: legislative, executive, and judicial; each would
be perpetually restrained by a sophisticated set of checks
and balances. They reached compromises on the issue of slavery
that left its final resolution to future generations. As for
ratification, they devised a procedure that maximized the
odds: the Constitution would be enacted when it was ratified
by nine, not thirteen, states. The Framers knew they had not
created a perfect plan, but it could be revised. The Constitution
has been amended twenty-seven times and stands today as the
longest-lasting written constitution in the world.
On September 17, 1787, two days after the final vote, the
delegates signed the engrossed parchment shown in the Rotunda's
centerpiece case.
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First printed
draft of the Constitution, August 6, 1787, selected pages
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The Scene at
the Signing of the Constitution, oil painting (reproduction)
by Howard Chandler Christy, 1940 learn
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