Delegates begin arriving in Philadelphia during a brutal heat wave, struggling to reach a quorum for the Convention.

Washington is unanimously elected president of the Convention, accepting the role with characteristic grace and modesty.

Edmund Randolph stuns the Convention by presenting the Virginia Plan, proposing a new national government with three branches.

The Convention approves the Virginia Plan's call for a bicameral legislature over competing proposals.

William Paterson presents the New Jersey Plan, offering a rival template centered on state sovereignty and equal representation.

Alexander Hamilton breaks his silence and speaks for six hours, proposing a president elected for life with an absolute veto.

Madison dismantles the New Jersey Plan in debate, and the Convention votes strongly to return to the Virginia Plan.

The Convention falls into a dangerous deadlock over how to apportion representation in the legislature.

The Convention approves Sherman's compromise, granting proportional representation in the House and equal state votes in the Senate.

The Convention adjourns and appoints a Committee of Detail to organize its resolutions into a cohesive draft document.

The Three-Fifths Compromise is reached, counting three-fifths of enslaved people for purposes of congressional representation.

The Committee of Style produces the Constitution's final text, including Morris's opening phrase 'We the People of the United States.'

Randolph, Gerry, and Mason refuse to sign the Constitution; the remaining delegates sign and send it to Congress.

Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the Constitution, followed quickly by Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut.

Virginia ratifies the Constitution by a thin margin, with celebrations erupting and remaining holdout states losing their leverage.

The Constitutional Convention opened in Philadelphia with delegates struggling through a brutal heat wave to establish a quorum. Virginia's Edmund Randolph launched substantive debate by presenting the Virginia Plan, which proposed a completely new national government with three branches. After rival plans were rejected, the Convention's most dangerous crisis emerged over the apportionment of representation in the legislature. Roger Sherman's Connecticut Compromise finally broke the deadlock, splitting the legislature into a proportional House and an equal-representation Senate. The delegates then addressed slavery and executive power before sending the final text to a Committee of Style, and a majority signed the finished document. Delaware led a wave of ratifications, and Virginia's eventual approval secured the Constitution's survival despite fierce opposition.

The headline events that created the United States Constitution.

Madison arrives in Philadelphia days early, having studied Jefferson's personal library to prepare ideas for a new government.

Rhode Island refuses to send any delegates to the Convention, the only state not to participate.

Washington arrives in Philadelphia and pays a call to Benjamin Franklin, whose presence lends enormous gravitas to the proceedings.

Washington breaks his characteristic silence to reprimand a delegate for carelessly misplacing his Convention notes.

James Wilson moves to give the national legislature power to invalidate state laws; the Convention defeats the motion.

The Convention agrees with little debate that state legislatures, rather than the voters, should elect members of the Senate.

Luther Martin of Maryland delivers a lengthy speech defending state sovereignty and denouncing plans for federal encroachment.

Franklin calls for daily morning prayers to guide the delegates; the Convention is embarrassed to discover it cannot pay a clergyman.

Land speculator Manassah Cutler arrives in Philadelphia to lobby delegates on protecting western land interests in the new Constitution.

Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance, allowing territories to enter the union on an equal footing with the original states.

The Convention agrees that foreign-born citizens may serve in Congress after sufficient residency, but bars them entirely from the presidency.

The Convention agrees to establish a federal capital in a dedicated district of no more than ten square miles.

The Convention defines treason as levying war against the United States, setting a high evidentiary standard and refusing to punish offenders' children.

The Convention agrees that ratification by nine states will be sufficient to put the new Constitution into effect.

Samuel Adams reverses his opposition to the Constitution, urging Massachusetts skeptics to support it alongside promises of future amendments.

While the headline debates shaped the Constitution's broad structure, many crucial moments unfolded in the margins. Madison arrived days early to prepare his plans, while Rhode Island's refusal to participate and the difficulty of enforcing secrecy tested the Convention's integrity from the start. Key procedural battles were settled with little fanfare, including how senators would be elected and what threshold of states would be needed for ratification. The western land lobby arrived to ensure the new Constitution would protect expansion, while debates over foreign-born officeholders and the location of a federal capital settled important practical details. As the Constitution moved to the states for approval, Samuel Adams's reversal helped tip Massachusetts toward ratification, proving that prominent skeptics could be won over with promises of future amendments.

Behind the scenes at Philadelphia and the road to ratification.

Madison and Hamilton use the Annapolis conference to expose the absurdity of each state operating its own commerce rules.

Shays' Rebellion in western Massachusetts demonstrates the dangers of weak federal authority and strengthens the case for a new government.

The Convention adopts rules allowing delegates to revisit and reverse previous decisions by a majority vote.

The Convention affirms the supremacy of federal law over state laws, though how to enforce it remains undefined.

The proposal for a plural executive representing different regions is debated and rejected in favor of a single chief executive.

Madison proposes that the president may veto legislation, but two-thirds of both houses of Congress can override that veto.

Roger Sherman of Connecticut first proposes a compromise giving the lower house proportional representation and the upper house equal state votes.

The Convention replaces the word 'national' with 'government of the United States,' explicitly acknowledging the continued importance of the states.

Gunning Bedford of Delaware threatens that small states will seek foreign alliances if the Convention continues to favor large states.

Washington visits the old Valley Forge encampment during the Convention's adjournment, evoking the Continental Army's darkest wartime struggle.

Southern states secure an agreement prohibiting federal interference with the importation of enslaved people for at least twenty years.

Hamilton, Madison, and Morris are appointed to the Committee of Style to draft the Constitution's final authoritative language.

Franklin urges all delegates not to publicly air their objections, arguing that an appearance of unity is essential for the new nation.

Edmund Randolph shocks the Virginia convention by reversing his refusal to sign and declaring support for the Constitution.

Dr. Benjamin Rush declares 'we have become a nation' as Philadelphia holds its celebratory parade after ratification is secured.

The road to the Constitution was built on specific turning points that repeatedly redirected the Convention's course. Pre-Convention crises like Shays' Rebellion and the Annapolis conference created the political urgency that finally brought the delegates to Philadelphia. Early internal decisions — establishing flexible debate rules, affirming federal supremacy, and settling on a single executive — set the stage for harder battles over representation and slavery. Gunning Bedford's explosive threat to seek foreign alliances shocked the Convention into recognizing the full cost of failure, while Washington's quiet visit to Valley Forge during the adjournment offered a more somber reminder of what was at stake. The final phase brought its own dramatic reversals, including Edmund Randolph's stunning declaration of support at the Virginia convention and the jubilant moment when an observer declared that America had finally become a unified nation.