THE BICENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY done in Convention . . . the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth ARTICLE VII THE CONVENTION How the Deed Was Done When 55 men spent a hot summer arguing their way to greatness
Some of the notables invited to the convention in that summer of 1787 simply refused to come. One, Virginia's Patrick Henry, said of the gathering in Philadelphia that he "smelt a rat." Others came and found the impassioned arguments profoundly dispiriting....