Editing Constitutional Convention (section)

== Background and Causes ==

By the mid-1780s, the inadequacies of the Articles of Confederation had become apparent to many American leaders. The national government lacked the power to tax, depending on requisitions from the states that were frequently ignored. It could not regulate interstate or foreign commerce, leading to trade disputes among states and disadvantageous terms with foreign nations. It had no executive branch to enforce its decisions and no national judiciary to resolve disputes. Each state had one vote in Congress regardless of population, and amendments required unanimous consent of all thirteen states—a nearly impossible threshold. The government that had won independence seemed incapable of governing in peacetime.<ref name="rakove">{{cite book |last=Rakove |first=Jack N. |title=Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution |year=1996 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York}}</ref>

Specific crises illustrated these structural weaknesses. Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts (1786-1787), an armed uprising of debt-ridden farmers, demonstrated the national government's inability to assist states facing internal disorder. Interstate disputes over navigation rights on the Potomac River and commercial regulations threatened to fragment the union. Foreign nations, observing American disunity, treated the United States with contempt—Britain refused to evacuate western forts as required by the peace treaty, while Spain closed the Mississippi River to American navigation. The prospect of the American experiment failing prompted nationalists to push for a convention to strengthen the government.<ref name="wood">{{cite book |last=Wood |first=Gordon S. |title=The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 |year=1969 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill}}</ref>