1. Articles of Confederation
Needs:
Manage trade and solve disputes among states
Unite states in diplomatic and trade relations
Help states cooperate in struggle against British army and navy
Perform all the activities of government
Difficulties:
Fear of a strong national government
Fear that some states would dominate others in a national government
Solutions:
Create a weak national government with a central legislature and no executive or judicial branches. Restrict the authority of the central legislature by giving it little power over the states and its citizens
Give each state one vote in Congress, regardless of its population. On important maters, like declaring war, require nine states to agree, thus preventing the smaller states from outvoting the larger states.

2. Articles of Confederation
Advantages
Disadvantages
To the states
To the national government
Article II
states retained sovereignty and independence. They retained every power not expressly delegated to Congress.
Since the states retained their independence, Congress could not pass laws governing their behavior. Since the states retained sovereignty, Congress did not have any power over any person in a state
Article V
Issues decided by majority vote.
Article VIII
States assessed fees in proportion to the value of its land. Only the state legislatures could levy taxes to pay for the national government. Limited the spending authority of the national government to common defense and general welfare.
Depended on the states to supply money for the national government. Congress had no power to tax. State legislatures decided whether, and what money, to pay to support the national government. Congress could spend money only for the common defense and the general welfare.
Article IX
States could seek the assistance of Congress in settling their disputes. States did not have to accept the decisions of Congress.
Judicial questions to be settled by Congress, a political body. No appeal for disputes between states and other nations or between citizens of different states.
Congress did not have the power to make states or their citizens live up to their agreements.
States could continue to issue their own currency.
Made it difficult to conduct commerce among the states.
Congress could only regulate the value of its own currency and that of the states. It did not have the power to prevent states from issuing their own currency.
Article XIII
Could not be changed without the consent of the states.
Since every state had to agree, it would be extremely difficult to change.

3. Weaknesses of the Articles
No money and no power to get it
No power over state governments
Unfair competition among the states
Threats to citizens’ right to property (tyranny of factions and majority)
Inflexible

4. Anarchy Shays’ Rebellion - in western Massachusetts in 1786
Impoverished back-country farmers:
Losing their farms through mortgage foreclosures and tax delinquencies
Attempted to enforce their demands:
Cheap paper money, lighter taxes, and a suspension of property takeovers

5. “Good God!…Not withstanding the boasted virtue of America, we are far gone in every thing that is ignoble and bad.” —George Washington
Men Fighting During Shays‘ Rebellion

6. Shays’ Rebellion Daniel Shays - Am. Rev. veteran
“What a triumph for our enemies…to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves.”
Shays’ Rebellion
Daniel Shays - Am. Rev. veteran
4,000 member militia called out to contain
6+ people killed, dozens wounded, 2 hanged
"You talk, my good sir, of employing influence to appease the present tumults in Massachusetts. I know not where that influence is to be found, or, if attainable, that it would be a proper remedy for the disorders. Influence is not government. Let us have a government by which our lives, liberties, and properties will be secured, or let us know the worst at once."
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
the rural disturbances and the inability of the central government to fund troops in response made "the inefficiency of the Federal government [become] more and more manifest."

7. “We are either a united people or we are not
“We are either a united people or we are not. If the former, let us act as a nation. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it.”
Shays’ Rebellion was crushed but it created fear (esp. in the propertied class) of mobs

8. Calls for Action Delegates from only 5 states showed up!
Hamilton called for Congress to summon a convention to meet in Philadelphia the next year
Not to deal with just commerce, but to fix then entire fabric of the Articles of Confederation
On May 25, 1787, 55 representatives (12 states) met in Philadelphia to discuss government - 
Hoped to save the revolutionary idealism and make it into a strong political structure