THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Hancock were signers of the Declaration of Independence . George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin were signers for the Constitution.
Washington was serving as the Commander of the Continental Army in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was being prepared, and was not present at the creation. The more youthful, Madison and Hamilton were not members of the Continental Congress at the time. The Declaration of Independence was prepared by the 2nd continental congress working in Philadelphia. John Hancock was the president of the body-which partly explains why he signed his name much larger then the others. The document itself was drafted by a committee made up of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston.
Thomas Jefferson, wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence and is often given credit for writing the document, but it was edited by the the committee , and then edited again by the whole Congress. Fifty-six members of Congress signed it.
THE CONSTITUTION and THE BILL OF RIGHTS
The United States Constitution, a longer document, was written in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787, by the Philadelphia Convention , a body appointed for that purpose, to replace the Articles of Confederation -which were the United States' original ,unworkable founding documents. George Washington, presided over the body.
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| The original hand written Constitution. |
The writing of the actual text of the Constitution was a group effort with much of the work done by two committees. One committee, the Committee of Detail did much of the initial writing. The members of that committee were Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts, Edmund Randolph of Virginia, John Rutledge of South Carolina and James Wilson of Pennsylvania.
A second committee, the Committee of Style Arrangement was responsible for the final draft. That committee included Alexander Hamilton of New York, William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, Rufus King of Massachusetts, James Madison of Virginia, and Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania It is said that Gouvenour Morris is responsible for the phrase "we the people" . Hamilton, Madison and John Jay were responsible for the Federalist Papers a series of essays , that explained and defended the constitution. Madison later was the primary writer of the Bill of Rights, which were the first ten amendments to the constitution which were written in 1789. Because of Madison's key role -he is typically labeled as the father of constitution.
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| The original Bill of Rights |
Why were Jefferson and Adams not involved in drafting the constitution? They were overseas serving as an ambassadors in 1787 during the Constitutional convention. Only six founders signed both documents:George Clymer, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, George Read, James Wilson, and Roger Sherman. Thus Benjamin Franklin, was the the only well known founder found on US currency who was involved in both documents.
