Fifty-five delegates attended at least part of the Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia beginning on May 25, 1787. Chosen by their state legislatures, they received instructions from Congress to revise the failing Articles of Confederation. After a summer spent debating and drafting, the Framers arrived at the final text for a new framework of government, which they signed on September 17, 1787.

The National Archives aptly points out that "the Constitution acted like a colossal merger, uniting a group of states with different interests, laws, and cultures. Under America’s first national government, the Articles of Confederation, the states acted together only for specific purposes. The Constitution united its citizens as members of a whole, vesting the power of the union in the people. Without it, the American Experiment might have ended as quickly as it had begun."