The Constitution of the United States of America: 1787 (Annotated) #47132

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution originally consisted of seven Articles. The first Amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.

The first three Articles embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, whereby the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislature, consisting of the bicameral Congress; the executive, consisting of the President; and the judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. The fourth and sixth Articles frame the doctrine of federalism, describing the relationship between State and State, and between the several States and the federal government. The fifth Article provides the procedure for amending the Constitution. The seventh Article provides the procedure for ratifying the Constitution.

The Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ratified by conventions in eleven States.

The Documents that Shaped America. Proposed, Debated and Drafted at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in the Summer of 1787. The meetings of the Convention took place at Independence Hall. The Constitutional Convention began its deliberations on May 25, 1787. All of the delegates were convinced that an effective central government with a wide range of enforceable powers must replace the weaker Congress established by the Articles of Confederation.