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Article: Constitution of the United States
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
The Constitution, which has served since 1789 as the basic frame of government of the republic of the United States, was the work of a constitutional convention that sat at Philadelphia from late May 1787 until mid-September of that year. The convention had been called into being as the culminating event of a lengthy campaign for constitutional reform staged by a number of nationalistic political leaders, above all James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, both of whom had long been convinced that the Articles of Confederation were hopelessly deficient as a frame of government. By 1786, the growing somnolence of the ...