On this day, September 17th, 1787, delegates from all over the former British colonies in North America gathered at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to overthrow and replace the United States government.
The one they replaced—the Articles of Confederation—had failed so thoroughly as to be a non-entity by the time the delegates gathered at Philadelphia. The one they replaced it with— the United States Constitution—was the result of an intense summer of complex debate surrounding one question: how can we build a functional, authoritative government that does not eventually trend toward autocracy?
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