The Framers refers to the body of representatives who collaboratively authored the Constitution at a convention held in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall during the summer of 1787. The states, except for Rhode Island, nominated 70 delegates. Fifty-five delegates attended, and 39 signed the Constitution. Many of these men had played significant roles in the American Revolution and securing independence from the British crown. They included Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and others.

The Framers sought to create a government for the United States founded on Enlightenment ideas such as sovereignty of “the people,” natural rights, the belief that government should protect those rights and the prerogatives of individual liberty, and the idea that a careful division of government powers could systematically thwart the abuse of power. They thought, too, that a written Constitution could represent the will of the people and constitute said government, all without a monarch or other source of legitimacy and power. Their ideas were drawn from a variety of sources, from the classical world to John Locke to Montesquieu and Rousseau to the philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment. The Framers produced in the US Constitution a document of global historical importance. It was the first of its kind, establishing a new form of government, and it led to the creation of similar constitutions around the world.