Fifty-five delegates from 12 of the original 13 states (only Rhode Island sent no delegates) met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. Their plan was to amend a document that had been finalized 10 years before, called the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. This was an agreement among the states that laid out rules for maintaining friendly relations between them and defining, as the name indicates, a “perpetual union” among them. The delegates included prominent figures like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Gouverneur Morris.

The representatives quickly decided to draft an entirely new document framing a new scheme of government for the states. The Articles of Confederation established a confederation of sovereign states, but the Constitution is conceived as “institut[ing] a new Government,” to borrow words from the Declaration of Independence, “forming a more perfect Union” among the “People of the United States.” The Articles of Confederation outlined the powers of the already-existing Continental Congress to accomplish things that the federated states felt needed coordination—such as establishing a postal service, a navy, and so on; the Constitution, by contrast, describes a significantly more elaborate structure for federal government.

One important goal of the delegates was to balance power between the states and the new national government.