Who presided over the opening of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia?
May 25, 1787 – Four years after the United States won the War of Independence, the Constitutional Convention opened in Philadelphia under George Washington, then a delegate from Virginia.
With 55 delegates present, the plan was to amend the Articles of Confederation. Instead, the delegates used that document as a rough blueprint for drafting the new Constitution, a task that took three months.
On Sept. 17, 1787, the Constitution was signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present, effectively creating our new government. The first 12 amendments to the Constitution — the Bill of Rights — were not adopted by Congress until 1789.
Sources
Words of Wisdom
All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.