PUBLIUS
THE 39 SIGNERS

Who signed the Constitution?

Thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution on September 17, 1787 — thirty-eight in person, one by proxy, with George Washington's name first. Here is every signer, state by state, plus the three men who stayed in the room and refused.

What happened that dayThe Declaration's 56 signers
Thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution at the Pennsylvania State House on September 17, 1787. Fifty-five had attended the Convention at some point that summer; 41 were in the room at the end; three of those — Elbridge Gerry, George Mason, and Edmund Randolph — refused to sign. John Dickinson, home sick in Delaware, signed by proxy. Below are all 39 names, grouped by state as on the parchment, with the refusals and the myths explained.

The signing, briefly

The Convention had argued from May 25 to September 15, then handed its finished text to the engrosser. On the morning of September 17 the parchment was read aloud, Benjamin Franklin's closing speech was delivered for him by James Wilson, and the delegations came forward table by table, north to south. Washington signed first — "President and deputy from Virginia" — and the state groups followed.

The signatures do not read as personal oaths. Gouverneur Morris designed the signing formula — "Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present" — precisely so that a delegate with doubts could sign as a witness to his state's assent rather than as an endorser of every clause. Not a unanimous endorsement. A carefully worded witness statement. Franklin, who had watched the wording do its work, told the room he consented "because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best."

One name on the parchment belongs to a man who was not a delegate at all: William Jackson, the Convention's secretary, signed to attest the document — which is why a list of 39 signers sits under 40 names.

All 39 signers, by state

The names below follow the National Archives transcription of the engrossed parchment, north to south. Washington signed alone at the head as President of the Convention; his fellow Virginians appear with their delegation. Rhode Island appears nowhere — it never sent a delegate.

President of the Convention

New Hampshire (2)

Massachusetts (2)

Connecticut (2)

New York (1)

New Jersey (4)

Pennsylvania (8)

Delaware (5)

Maryland (3)

Virginia (2)

North Carolina (3)

South Carolina (4)

Georgia (2)

Attesting (not a delegate)

Signers worth knowing

George Washington

Presided all summer and barely spoke in debate — his only recorded speech on a substantive question came on the final day, backing a change to make House districts smaller. Then he signed first.

Benjamin Franklin

The oldest signer at 81, and one of only six men to sign both the Declaration and the Constitution. Too frail to deliver his own closing speech, he had James Wilson read it while he sat.

Alexander Hamilton

The only New York signature — his two colleagues had walked out in July. By Madison's account Hamilton admitted no plan was further from his own ideas, and urged signing anyway.

James Madison

Sat front and center every day taking the notes that became our record of the Convention. He later rejected the "Father of the Constitution" title: it was, he said, the work of many heads and many hands.

Gouverneur Morris

The Committee of Style's penman. The final prose — including "We the People of the United States" — is largely his, compressed from twenty-three draft articles into seven.

Jonathan Dayton

The youngest signer at 26. The New Jersey delegate later gave his name to Dayton, Ohio — and was later still indicted, though never tried, in the Burr conspiracy.

The three who refused

Three delegates sat through the whole summer, stayed for the final vote, and would not sign. George Mason of Virginia objected that the document had no bill of rights — he had drafted Virginia's own — and left Philadelphia, by Madison's account, in an exceeding ill humor. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts feared the new government would swallow the states. Edmund Randolph of Virginia, who had introduced the Virginia Plan that started the whole design, wanted a second convention — then reversed himself and backed ratification at Virginia's convention the next June.

Their refusals were not footnotes. Mason's bill-of-rights objection became the Anti-Federalists' strongest argument, and forced the first ten amendments onto the new government's agenda within two years. The men who would not sign shaped the document almost as much as the men who did.

Absent, not opposed — and opposed, not present: Thomas Jefferson (in Paris) and John Adams (in London) never had the chance to sign — a point worth remembering every time a list of "framers" includes them. Patrick Henry had the chance and refused it, declining his appointment because, he reportedly said, he "smelt a rat in Philadelphia."

Myths about the signers

The most common confusion is between the two parchments. The Declaration of Independence (1776) has 56 signers; the Constitution (1787) has 39. Only six men signed both: Franklin, Roger Sherman, James Wilson, Robert Morris, George Clymer, and George Read. Jefferson signed only the first; Washington signed only the second. And Roger Sherman of Connecticut holds a record no one else touches — he is the only man who signed the Continental Association, the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.

The second confusion is what a signature meant. September 17 did not make the Constitution law — it sent a proposal to thirteen skeptical states, where ratifying conventions would fight over it for nine months. The signers knew that. Several of them signed the parchment in the morning and started the ratification campaign that same week.

What to read next

What happened on September 17, 1787?Signing day hour by hour — Franklin's speech, the last-minute change, the rising sun. Constitution DayWhy September 17 is on the calendar, and the law that put it in every school. Who were the delegates?All 55 who attended — including the 16 who did not sign. What was the Constitutional Convention?The four months of argument behind the signatures. Why did George Mason refuse?The bill-of-rights objection that outlived the signing. Why did Patrick Henry oppose it?The most famous opponent never even went. How was the Constitution ratified?What the 39 signatures actually set in motion. Who signed the Declaration?The other signers list — and the six names on both.

Primary sources and further reading

Related pages on the signing and ratification

Why did George Mason refuse to sign?The bill-of-rights objection made in the room itself. Constitution DayWhy September 17 is the date on the national calendar. How was the Constitution ratified?The nine-month state-by-state fight the signing set off. What happened on September 17, 1787?The Convention's last day, hour by hour. What is the Constitution?The document the signatures sent out into the world.

Know the names. Then meet the argument.

Publius teaches the founding generation one person at a time — Madison's designs, Hamilton's ambitions, Franklin's doubts, in short lessons built from primary sources. Thirty-nine men signed; the interesting question is what each one thought he was signing. That question is where the lessons start.

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