The Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence (1776) and the Con­sti­tu­tion of the Unit­ed States (1787) were both signed in this build­ing in Philadel­phia. The uni­ver­sal prin­ci­ples of free­dom and democ­ra­cy set forth in these doc­u­ments are of fun­da­men­tal impor­tance to Amer­i­can his­to­ry and have also had a pro­found impact on law-mak­ers around the world.