By the mid-1780s, the United States existed more in name than in practice. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress could not levy taxes, regulate trade, or enforce its own laws. Each state had one vote regardless of population, and any amendment required unanimous approval -- giving every state an effective veto. Rhode Island blocked a federal import tax in 1782. New York killed a second attempt in 1785. States imposed customs duties on each other's goods. Britain, France, and Spain restricted American commerce while the country could not coordinate a response. When Massachusetts farmers, crushed by debt, rose up under Daniel Shays in 1786, the federal government had no army to send. Massachusetts put down the rebellion with troops funded by private citizens. In September 1786, delegates from five states met at the Annapolis Convention and called for a broader gathering in Philadelphia. The Confederation Congress endorsed it in February 1787 -- but only to revise the Articles, not to replace them.

James Madison of Virginia reached Philadelphia eleven days early. He had spent months studying every republic and confederacy in history -- ancient Greece, the Swiss cantons, the Dutch Republic -- and arrived with a document titled "Vices of the Political System of the United States." His blueprint called for a supreme national government with compulsory taxation, power over commerce, and a bicameral legislature apportioned by population. When the convention achieved a quorum of seven states on May 25, the delegates unanimously elected George Washington as president. Virginia governor Edmund Randolph then presented Madison's framework, the Virginia Plan, as fifteen resolutions proposing not repairs to the Articles but their wholesale replacement. On May 30, the delegates voted that "a national government ought to be established consisting of a supreme Legislative, Executive and Judiciary" -- and crossed the point of no return.

The Virginia Plan thrilled large states and horrified small ones. Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, home to more than half the population, supported proportional representation. Delaware's delegates threatened to walk out if equal representation was abolished. William Paterson of New Jersey offered an alternative that preserved one vote per state. Alexander Hamilton went further still, proposing a president and senators who served for life, essentially modeling the government on Britain's -- a plan so radical it was never even debated. Beneath the argument over representation lay the deeper fracture of slavery. Southern states wanted enslaved people counted for apportioning congressional seats; northern states objected that people denied the vote should not inflate their captors' political power. James Wilson and Roger Sherman brokered the Three-Fifths Compromise on June 11, counting three-fifths of the enslaved population for representation. The large states gained proportional seats in the House; the slave states gained at least a dozen additional congressmen and electoral votes.

Progress stalled until mid-July, when the Grand Committee -- one delegate from each of the eleven states present -- forged the Connecticut Compromise. The House would have proportional representation; the Senate would give each state two votes. Benjamin Franklin, at 81 the oldest delegate, proposed that only the House could originate revenue bills, sweetening the deal for large states. The vote on July 16 was close, but it held. Other questions consumed the remaining weeks. Should the president be elected by Congress, state legislatures, or the people? Wilson proposed what became the Electoral College. How should an unfit president be removed? The delegates settled on impeachment. Should judges be appointed by the Senate or the executive? Nathaniel Gorham proposed presidential appointment with the "advice and consent" of the Senate. Behind every clause lay negotiation, and behind every negotiation lay the recognition that failure meant dissolution of the union.

The Committee of Detail produced a first draft in early August. The Committee of Style, including Gouverneur Morris and Hamilton, refined the language into its final form. On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine of the fifty-five delegates signed. Rhode Island had refused to send anyone. Two of New York's three delegates had abandoned the convention in July, leaving Hamilton to sign alone for his state. Three delegates present -- Randolph, George Mason, and Elbridge Gerry -- refused, each for different reasons. As the last signatures were placed, Benjamin Franklin gazed at the carved sun on the back of Washington's chair. He told the delegates nearby that painters had always found it difficult to distinguish a rising sun from a setting one. "I have the happiness to know," Franklin said, "that it is a rising and not a setting Sun." The Constitution was printed and sent to the states for ratification -- but the summer's work in that sealed room had already remade the world.