Signing the Constitution

Our Constitution’s birthday is Sept. 17. On that day in 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the document that they had worked on for nearly four months.

Ben Franklin’s speech

Ben Franklin was 81 years old. He did not have the strength to stand and make a speech at this meeting. He asked another delegate to read one he had written.

Franklin said he did not agree with everything in the Constitution. But he doubted another convention would write a better one. He urged all delegates to sign and support it.

Not everyone signed

Some delegates would not or could not support the Constitution. Three of the delegates at the final meeting refused to sign it.

• George Mason of Virginia did not sign because it did not have a bill of rights.

• Edmund Randolph, also of Virginia, thought it gave the president too much power.

• Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts thought it gave the central government too much power.

After it was signed

After the Constitution was signed, it became part of a six-page report that the convention sent to the Congress, which was meeting in New York City.

Congress received the package containing the Constitution, a resolution, and a letter from George Washington on Sept. 20, 1787. In less than a week, Congress considered it and sent it to the states for ratification, or approval. It was ratified by nine of the 13 states by July 1788.

This mural of the Constitution’s signers hangs in the rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., near the original Constitution. It was painted by Barry Faulkner in 1936 and is almost 14 feet tall and 35 feet long.