Drafting the Final Document

After two months of debate and revisions, the delegates had agreed on the basic framework of the new government that would replace the Confederation. On July 26, 1787, they were ready to put it in writing. The Convention selected a “Committee on Detail” to put all of the decisions of the convention into one cohesive document. Having done so, the Convention adjourned for two weeks.

The members of the Committee took their work seriously. Armed with the various resolutions presented throughout the Convention, the Articles of Confederation, the constitutions of the several states and assorted other documents, they convened to write the Constitution of the United States of America. Edmund Randolph wrote the first draft, which the committee then discussed and modified. Another draft was written by James Wilson and copies were printed for all of the Convention delegates.

Five weeks later, on September 17, the Convention appointed a “Committee of Style” to write the final version of the Constitution. Most of the final writing was done by Gouverneur Morris, often referred to as the “penman of the Constitution.” In mid-September, after making some last modifications, the Convention approved the Constitution and the delegates signed it. It was then sent, along with a Letter of Transmittal, to the Confederal Congress which quickly forwarded it to the state legislatures for ratification. It was not a foregone conclusion, however, that the Constitution would be ratified. The same arguments that threatened to derail the Convention itself would soon resurface as opponents of the document tried to prevent its ratification.