Report of the
Committee of Detail

Broadside annotated in the hand of
William Samuel Johnson.
Philadelphia: Claypoole and Dunlap,
August 6, 1787
Manuscript Division
Gift of the Johnson Family, 1911 (4.7)

On July 24, 1787, the Federal Convention appointed a five-man Committee of Detail, chaired by John Rutledge of South Carolina, to prepare a draft constitution that encompassed the results of deliberations up to that point. On August 6, the Committee submitted the document (as a printed broadside). There were substantial differences between this draft and the later version written by the Committee of Style, which was charged with fashioning the final draft. Perhaps the most dramatic change is what follows the opening the line of "We the People."