The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States

Above is the first page of the working draft of the Constitution, submitted for debate at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in August 1787. Below is the first page of the U.S. Constitution as it was finally published (this is Benjamin Franklin's signed copy). Where the draft's opening reflects the sense of the thirteen states as separate entities, the final version's "We the People of the United States" invokes the Hamiltonian vision of a united nation.

A champion of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton authored nearly two-thirds of the Federalist Papers of 1787-88, which are universally viewed as the factor that turned public opinion in favor of ratification.

GLC 03585, page 1. A working draft of the U.S. Constitution

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