--- title: US Constitution: Interactive Shows Changes Between Drafts description: This new interactive from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia provides an easy way to see how the document evolved. canonical: https://time.com/4777130/compare-drafts-us-constitution/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-12T16:42:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:53:52.556Z article:section: Politics og:title: US Constitution: Interactive Shows Changes Between Drafts og:description: The National Constitution Center highlights the changes between drafts of the document og:url: https://time.com/4777130/compare-drafts-us-constitution/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7568d28461d5d817/6988cd1aa988ca69a36bc328/gettyimages-95469323.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5120 og:image:height: 2880 og:image:alt: Preamble to American Constitution og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: US Constitution: Interactive Shows Changes Between Drafts twitter:description: The National Constitution Center highlights the changes between drafts of the document twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7568d28461d5d817/6988cd1aa988ca69a36bc328/gettyimages-95469323.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Interactive Tool Traces the Evolution of the U.S. Constitution > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 12, 2017 4:42 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 12, 2017 4:42 PM UTC The National Constitution Center has launched a new [interactive](http://treasures.constitutioncenter.org/) tool that makes it easy to see the changes between drafts of the [U.S. Constitution](http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20110704,00.html) produced during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 and the final product signed on Sept. 17, 1787. Lines that changed the most are highlighted, so users can click on them and see how they compare to the final version of the Constitution. For instance, a six-year term of the president was proposed in the July 24, 1787, draft. One of the changes most apparent in the drafts, proposals, and committee reports on the site are the multiple variations of the Preamble. It started out as “That the Government of the United States,” evolved to “We the people of the States of…” listing the 13 colonies, and finally became the now iconic phrasing, “We the people of the United States.” The person responsible for that change was [James Wilson,](http://time.com/4558510/electoral-college-history-slavery/) who would become a Supreme Court Justice in 1789. “He is under-appreciated, but his huge contribution to the Constitution was to insist that the people, rather than the states, were sovereign,” says Jeffrey Rosen, CEO of the National Constitution Center. “And that change was so important that Lincoln invoked Wilson when he said that the South had no constitutional authority to secede from the Union. The Southern states said, ‘we are sovereign states, we can leave the Union if we want,’ and he said they’re not because James Wilson explained that ‘we the people of the U.S. as a whole are the ultimate source of authority,’ therefore a majority of the people of the U.S. has to agree before that can be changed in any way.” The interactive corresponds with an exhibit of these documents at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, the first time these seminal documents have been displayed together outside of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4777130/compare-drafts-us-constitution/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4777130/compare-drafts-us-constitution/"},"headline":"New Interactive Tool Traces the Evolution of the U.S. Constitution","datePublished":"2017-05-12T16:42:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:53:52.556Z","description":"The National Constitution Center highlights the changes between drafts of the document","url":"https://time.com/4777130/compare-drafts-us-constitution/","keywords":["politics","Law"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7568d28461d5d817/6988cd1aa988ca69a36bc328/gettyimages-95469323.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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