When the U.S. Constitution was written and signed by the delegates to the Constitutional convention on 9/17/1787, in which order did the delegates sign it?

On September 17, 1787, as the delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered to affix their names to the historic document, they followed a specific and deliberate protocol. Rather than signing in a random or alphabetical order, the delegates organized themselves by the geographic location of their states. The signing proceeded from the northernmost state represented, New Hampshire, down the Atlantic coast to the southernmost, Georgia. This methodical approach placed John Langdon of New Hampshire at the top of the list and Abraham Baldwin of Georgia at the very end.

This north-to-south arrangement was a practical diplomatic custom of the era, intended to prevent any squabbles over which state was more important or should have precedence. By using geography as an impartial guide, the framers sidestepped potential arguments about a state's size, population, or economic power. The signatures on the actual document are arranged in two columns, but they still follow this geographic progression. George Washington, as president of the convention, signed first to attest to the document's adoption, but his signature stands apart from the state delegations that followed in their established geographical order.