'We the People of the United States' was a last minute inclusion to the Constitution. It was previously slated to be 'We the people of the States of ...' (the names of states).

The Constitutional Convention was initially scheduled for May 14, 1787, but was deferred to May 25, as only the delegates from two states―Pennsylvania and Virginia―turned up on the scheduled day. It was alternately known as the Philadelphia Convention and the Grand Convention at Philadelphia―for obvious reasons―and the Federal Convention. During the first few days, rules were established for the proceedings, and George Washington was elected the president of the Convention. Of the 74 delegates invited for the convention, only 55 turned up. Of these, only 30 delegates stayed back for the entire duration. Among those present were George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Oliver Ellsworth, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, John Dickinson, John Rutledge, etc. While the purpose of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was to revise the Articles of Confederation, to ensure a stronger central government, a few days into it, the delegates came to a consensus that it was better to write a new constitution from scratch, instead of revising the existing document. Some delegates like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton were strong proponents of this idea from the beginning. The problem though was the divide between the big states and small states. Serious business began with the proposal of James Madison's Virginia Plan by Edmund Randolph, the Governor of Virginia. In response to James Madison's plan, William Paterson, representing the state of New Jersey, introduced the New Jersey Plan, but the same was rejected by the delegates. Even Alexander Hamilton and Charles Pinckney, representing New Hampshire and South Carolina respectively, had presented their plans at the convention. After three months of deliberations, Roger Sherman of Connecticut put forth the proposal that every state would have equal representation in the Senate, and in the House of Representatives, it would be proportional. It was as good as finding the middle path between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. This came to be known as the Great Compromise, or Connecticut Compromise. Slavery was yet another issue of contention that left the Northern and Southern states divided at the Constitutional Convention. The question was whether slaves should be taken into consideration when determining the population of a particular state, which, in turn, would affect its political representation ... and if yes, how should they be counted. To resolve the issue, James Wilson―one of the delegates from Pennsylvania―proposed the Three-Fifth Compromise, which stated that three-fifth of the slave population would be considered when determining the political representation of the state. In September, the final draft came for voting for adoption. On September 17, 1787, the Constitutional Convention voted in favor of the Constitution, with 39 of the participating 55 delegates signing it. The state of Rhode Island had not sent any representative, while two of the three delegates from New Hampshire left the proceedings midway, leaving Alexander Hamilton as the only delegate from the Granite State. Thus, Washington quipped that the Constitution was signed by 11 states and Colonel Hamilton.