In 1787, representatives of the thirteen original states met in Philadelphia to draft the first articles of what would eventually become the United States Constitution.

Double Jeopardy Part 14
Philadelphia ConstitutionThe so-called Charter of Confederation which had been governing the U.S. since the end of the Revolutionary War was increasingly being viewed as inadequate to meet the needs of what was even then a vast and steadily growing country; former Continental Army commander-in-chief George Washington was one of the first major public figures to advocate replacing the Charter with a more explicit delineation of the federal government's rights and responsibilities.

Later that spring the ten amendments which would form the cornerstone of the Constitution began to be ratified by the states. These amendments, collectively known as "the Bill of Rights", would later come to be seen as the most significant guarantee of individual liberties since the English Magna Carta was signed in 1215; the last of the ten would be ratified in early 1788. The Quebec Republic would use the U.S. Constitution as a guideline when its parliament revised Quebec's own constitution in the 1790s.
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