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Delegates to the Constitutional Convention

Who Were These Men?
Delegates hailing from all the original states except Rhode Island gathered in the Pennsylvania State House in 1787 to participate in the Constitutional Convention. Many of the delegates had fought in the American Revolution and about three-fourths had served in Congress. The average age was 42.

The delegates named George Washington presiding officer and spent four months, from May to September, behind closed doors, hammering out the framework of a new, more powerful national government. Of the 55 original delegates, only 41 were present on September 17, 1787, to sign the proposed Constitution. Three of those present (George Mason and Edmund Randolph of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts) refused to sign what they considered a flawed document. An ailing John Dickinson of Delaware was unable to attend the Convention’s final session but had fellow delegate George Read sign his name in absentia, for a total of 39 signers.

To learn more about a Delegate*, click on a name below or a state from the map.

Connecticut Oliver Ellsworth William Samuel Johnson Roger Sherman Delaware Richard Bassett Gunning Bedford Jr. Jacob Broom John Dickinson George Read Georgia Abraham Baldwin William Few William Houstoun William Leigh Pierce Maryland Daniel Carroll Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer Luther Martin James McHenry John Francis Mercer Massachusetts Elbridge Gerry Nathaniel Gorham Rufus King Caleb Strong Virginia John Blair James Madison George Mason James McClurg Edmund Randolph George Washington George Wythe

New Hampshire Nicholas Gilman John Langdon New Jersey David Brearley Jonathan Dayton William Churchill Houston William Livingston William Paterson New York Alexander Hamilton John Lansing Jr. Robert Yates North Carolina William Blount William Richardson Davie Alexander Martin Richard Dobbs Spaight Sr. Hugh Williamson South Carolina Pierce Butler Charles Pinckney Charles Cotesworth Pinckney John Rutledge Pennsylvania George Clymer Thomas Fitzsimons Benjamin Franklin Jared Ingersoll Thomas Mifflin Gouverneur Morris Robert Morris James Wilson

	The delegate biographies are excerpted with the generous permission of Carol Berkin, author of A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution (Harcourt). Copyright © 2002 by Carol Berkin.

The bronze statute images that you see on these pages are based on the National Constitution Center Signers' Hall exhibit. This exhibit features life-size bronze statutes of 42 men: the 39 delegates who signed the Constitution on September 17, 1787, as well as the three who refused.