What founding document was written in 1787?

Why this is the answer

The founding document written in 1787 is the Constitution of the United States, and "the Constitution" on its own is a full answer. It replaced an earlier framework of government. After the Revolutionary War, the national government worked under the Articles of Confederation, and many leaders, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison among them, concluded that it was not strong enough while the states kept clashing over trade, taxes and other laws. Delegates met in Philadelphia from May to September 1787, officially to amend the Articles. Every state except Rhode Island sent people, fifty-five delegates in all. Instead of patching the old system, they decided to write a new document with a stronger national government, and they worked in secret for four months so they could argue freely. On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine of them signed the finished text. George Washington's signature comes first, marked "Presidt and deputy from Virginia." What they produced was short: a Preamble and seven articles. The last article said that ratification by nine states would be enough to put it into effect. Delaware ratified first, on December 7, 1787, and New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify in 1788. The Constitution took effect on March 4, 1789, when Congress met for the first time, and George Washington became President the same year. By 1790 all thirteen states had ratified. Twenty-seven amendments have been added since, and the USCIS study guide calls it the oldest written constitution in the world. At the interview the date is the trap. The Declaration of Independence is the other founding document people name, but it was adopted in 1776, eleven years earlier. The Articles of Confederation tempt applicants who know a little more history, yet they already existed in 1787 and were what the Convention set out to fix. If you remember 1787 as the summer of the Convention in Philadelphia, the answer follows from it.