Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. While the convention was initially intended to revise the league of states and the first system of federal government under the Articles of Confederation, leading proponents of the Constitutional Convention, including James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York, sought to create a new frame of government rather than revise the existing one. Delegates elected George Washington of Virginia, former commanding general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and a proponent of a stronger national government, to serve as president of the convention. While the Constitutional Convention has been the only Federal one, the fifty states have held 233 constitutional conventions. The 1787 convention ultimately debated and ratified the Constitution of the United States, making the convention one of the most significant events in American history.

The convention took place in Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. The convention was not referred to as a constitutional convention. It was contemporarily known as the Federal Convention, the Philadelphia Convention, or the Grand Convention at Philadelphia. Most delegates did not arrive intending to draft a new constitution. Many assumed that the convention's purpose was to discuss and draft improvements to the existing Articles of Confederation, and would not have agreed to participate otherwise. Once the convention began, however, most of the delegates—though not all—came to agree in general terms that the goal would be a new system of government, not simply a revised version of the Articles of Confederation.