Thirty-nine delegates signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787, a founding document remembered by America250.
The signing occurred on September 17, 1787, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Constitutional Convention had met. The 39 signers represented 12 states; Rhode Island declined to send delegates to the convention.
The convention had originally gathered to revise the Articles of Confederation, but it produced an entirely new framework for a federal government. The Constitution established the structure of Congress, the presidency, and the federal judiciary, while leaving ratification to conventions in the states.
Not every delegate who attended the convention signed the final document. George Mason, Edmund Randolph, and Elbridge Gerry were among those who refused to sign. The number 39 therefore refers specifically to delegates who endorsed the final Constitution at the convention's closing.