Signing the Constitution

After winning independence, the young country needed a rulebook so all the states could work together.

So 55 delegates met in the same room in Philadelphia — Independence Hall — all through the hot summer of 1787, with the windows closed so nobody could hear them argue.

They wrote a document called the Constitution, which set up a President, a Congress, and courts, all keeping an eye on each other.

On September 17, 1787, 39 of the delegates signed their names to it.

As they signed, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin pointed to a sun carved on Washington's chair and said he was finally sure it was a rising sun, not a setting one.