This painting, which was created in 1940 by Howard Chandler Christy is called Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States and can be viewed at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.
bly, was tasked with engrossing the Constitution. (Engrossing a document involves copying it out on parchment in a large, elegant, legible hand.) He began engrossing the Constitution on Saturday, September 15, 1787, and had it ready for delegates to sign on the final day of the convention, Monday, September 17, 1787. Only thirty-nine of the fifty-five delegates who had attended the Constitu- tional Convention ultimately signed the document. The US Constitution was first revealed to the public on Wednes- day, September 19, 1787, when it was printed in Dunlap and
The Signing of the US Constitution
to the convention had already left Philadelphia. Luther Martin, of Mary- land, for example, had left the convention because he was discontented with the proceedings. At one point, when he heard Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, another Maryland delegate, say that he believed Maryland would ratify the Constitution, Martin is reported to have said: “I’ll be hanged if ever the people of Maryland agree to it.” In response, Jenifer is believed to have replied: “Then I advise you to stay in Philadelphia, lest you be hanged.” Martin later called the actions taken at the convention illegal and claimed that George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were the leaders of a plot “to subvert the liberties of the United States.” Even among those who did remain at the Constitutional Convention until it was over, there were those who ultimately decided not to sign the Constitution. Three such men were George Mason, Edmund Randolph, and Elbridge Gerry. That left thirty-eight delegates who would sign the Constitution, including one delegate, George Read, who signed the docu- ment twice—once for himself and once for John Dickinson, who left the convention early because he fell
N ill. Of these thirty-eight men, six of
them—George Clymer, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, George Read, Roger Sherman, and James Wilson—held the distinction of having also signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. —MARTIN D. TULLAI
52 M A Y 2 0 1 3
OT EVERYONE who attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787 signed the Constitution. By the time the document was ready to be signed on September 17, 1787, a number of delegates
PHOTO: © POODLESROCK/CORBIS
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