Farrand traces the troubled years after independence: the peace treaty, collapsing trade, a feeble Confederation and the Northwest Ordinance, through the darkness of the mid-1780s to the Federal Convention of 1787 and ratification. The appendix prints the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance and the Constitution itself.
A clear short history by a leading scholar of the Convention, from the Chronicles of America series. Download the free EPUB.