<P> The convention took place from May 14 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . Although the Convention was purportedly intended only to revise the Articles, the intention of many of its proponents, chief among them James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York, was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one . The convention convened in the Pennsylvania State House, and George Washington of Virginia was unanimously elected as president of the convention . The 55 delegates who drafted the Constitution are among the men known as the Founding Fathers of the new nation . Thomas Jefferson, who was Minister to France during the convention, characterized the delegates as an assembly of "demi - gods ." Rhode Island refused to send delegates to the convention . </P> <P> On September 12, George Mason of Virginia suggested the addition of a Bill of Rights to the Constitution modeled on previous state declarations, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts made it a formal motion . However, the motion was defeated by a unanimous vote of the state delegations after only a brief discussion . Madison, then an opponent of a Bill of Rights, later explained the vote by calling the state bills of rights "parchment barriers" that offered only an illusion of protection against tyranny . Another delegate, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, later argued that the act of enumerating the rights of the people would have been dangerous, because it would imply that rights not explicitly mentioned did not exist; Hamilton echoed this point in Federalist No. 84 . Because Mason and Gerry had emerged as opponents of the proposed new Constitution, their motion--introduced five days before the end of the convention--may also have been seen by other delegates as a delaying tactic . The quick rejection of this motion, however, later endangered the entire ratification process . Author David O. Stewart characterizes the omission of a Bill of Rights in the original Constitution as "a political blunder of the first magnitude" while historian Jack N. Rakove calls it "the one serious miscalculation the framers made as they looked ahead to the struggle over ratification". </P> <P> Thirty - nine delegates signed the finalized Constitution . Thirteen delegates left before it was completed, and three who remained at the convention until the end refused to sign it: Mason, Gerry, and Edmund Randolph of Virginia . Afterward, the Constitution was presented to the Articles of Confederation Congress with the request that it afterwards be submitted to a convention of delegates, chosen in each State by the people, for their assent and ratification . </P> <P> Following the Philadelphia Convention, some leading revolutionary figures such as Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, and Richard Henry Lee publicly opposed the new frame of government, a position known as "Anti-Federalism". Elbridge Gerry wrote the most popular Anti-Federalist tract, "Hon . Mr. Gerry's Objections", which went through 46 printings; the essay particularly focused on the lack of a bill of rights in the proposed constitution . Many were concerned that a strong national government was a threat to individual rights and that the president would become a king . Jefferson wrote to Madison advocating a Bill of Rights: "Half a loaf is better than no bread . If we cannot secure all our rights, let us secure what we can ." The pseudonymous Anti-Federalist "Brutus" wrote, </P>

Who would not sign the constitution until the bill of rights was added
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