Presents the lives, deaths, and scandals involving the thirty-nine signers of the United States Constitution, including Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and James McHenry.

A constitutional cheat sheet -- A constitutional time line -- New Hampshire. John Langdon : the signer who picked up the tab ; Nicholas Gilman : the most handsome signer -- Massachusetts. Nathaniel Gorham : the signer who considered a monarchy ; Rufus King : the signer who always ran (and never won) -- Connecticut. William Samuel Johnson : the signer who lived the longest ; Roger Sherman : the signer who knew how to compromise -- New York. Alexander Hamilton : the signer who died in a duel -- New Jersey. William Livingston : the signer-poet ; David Brearley : the signer who proposed erasing state boundaries and starting over ; William Paterson : the son of a door-to-door salesman ; Jonathan Dayton : the signer who stole $18,000 from Congress -- Pennsylvania. Benjamin Franklin : the signer known throughout the world ; Thomas Mifflin : the signer who was ruined by drink ; Robert Morris : the signer who went to debtors' prison ; George Clymer : the signer whose home was destroyed by the British ; Thomas FitzSimons : the signer who loaned away his fortune (and never got it back) ; Jared Ingersoll : the signer who couldn't keep up with fashion ; James Wilson : the signer-turned-fugitive ; Gouverneur Morris : the playboy with the wooden leg -- Delaware. George Read : the signer who signed twice ; Gunning Bedford Jr. : the signer who trusted no one ; John Dickinson : the signer who never signed ; Richard Bassett : the signer who overcame religious discrimination ; Jacob Broom : the invisible signer -- Maryland. James McHenry : the signer immortalized by the Star-Spangled Banner ; Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer : the signer with the mysterious middle name ; Daniel Carroll : the signer who helped create Washington, D.C. -- Virginia. George Washington : the President of the Constitutional Convention ; John Blair : the underachieving signer ; James Madison Jr. : the father of the Constitution -- North Carolina. William Blount : the signer who-- oh, there's no way to dance around the issue, this guy was a crook ; Richard Dobbs Spaight : the other signer who died in a duel ; Hugh Williamson : the signer who believed in aliens -- South Carolina. John Rutledge : the signer who attempted suicide ; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney : the signer who wouldn't bribe the French ; Charles Pinckney : the ghost writer of the Constitution? ; Pierce Butler : the signer who turned coat on the king -- Georgia. William Few : the signer who lived the American dream ; Abraham Baldwin : the signer who pinched pennies -- Appendix I. The U.S. Constitution. Text of the U.S. Constitution ; Text of the Bill of Rights ; Additional amendments -- Appendix II. A constitutional miscellany. Preserving the Constitution ; The penman of the Constitution ; William Jackson, the fortieth signer ; Will the real Constitution printer please stand up? ; Who signed the Bill of Rights? ; By the numbers ; They came, they saw, they didn't sign ; Immigrant signers.