The thirteen ORIGINAL colonies! Together again! One night only! The children of Forest Lake Elementary School trod the boards in a dramatic reenactment of how the United States Constitution came to be. After the Revolution, the young United States was anything but united. The states acted like thirteen separate countries, with their own governments, laws, and currencies. It took bravery, smarts, and a lot of compromises to create a workable system...

In May 1787 delegates from across the country--including George Washington, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin--gathered in Philadelphia and, meeting over the course of a sweltering summer, created a new framework for governing: the Constitution of the United States.