The Convention adjourned from July 26th to August 6th to allow
the Committee of Detail – composed of John Rutledge of South
Carolina, Edmund Randolph of Virginia, Nathaniel Gorham of
Massachusetts, Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, and James Wilson
of Pennsylvania – to prepare a rough draft of a constitution,
based on the series of resolutions the delegates had debated,
amended, and debated again. When the Convention re-convened, the
Committee of Detail presented its report, made up of twenty-
three articles. The Convention spent the remainder of August
reviewing and further revising these articles. We the People of…
Delegates quickly agreed to accept the Committee of Detail’s
preamble and Articles I and II, affirming the new government
would be called the Unites States of America and consist of
Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches. This agreement
masked the critical issue that the Convention had debated
throughout – was this to be a union of states or of people? The
Committee of Detail’s constitution