The Articles of Confederation were deeply flawed, could
not tax to pay the nation's $4 million war debt, could not easily pass laws, required
unanimous consent for amendments, and could not raise an army for security. After
Shays' Rebellion ravaged the Massachusetts countryside largely unchecked, reformers
called for the convention to replace the Articles with something more
effective.
The problem was that many of the revolutionaries
still feared government power, and saw any attempt to increase it as dangerous to
democracy, states rights and the Revolution. They would attend the convention in force,
opposed to the very idea of reform, and try to sabotage the effort from the beginning.
They would be very difficult to convince to support the Constitution, and their support
was crucial to uniting a country under the new form of
government.
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