We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of
men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in
democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to
escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a
Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787. (Obama’s speech)