ability of the Unites States to survive as a country (Grolier: Articles of Confederation, 1993). Some states, such as Rhode Island, inflated their currencies to ease the condition of their farmers, who were suffering in the depression that had followed the American Revolution. A few states like Massachusetts refused to ease the troubles of the debtor class and raised taxes as a way of protecting themselves from inflation (Encarta: Articles of Confederation, 1999). In Massachusetts, this high-tax policy led directly to a revolt by the farmers, who initially resisted the authority of the state by closing the country courts, and later took up arms under the leadership of a Continental Army veteran, Captain Daniel Shays (Encarta: Shays’ Rebellion, 1999).The Massachusetts state government put down the uprising, but Shay’s Rebellion convinced many nationalists that there could be no security for people or property without a central government to exert authority over, and within, the states (Encarta: Shays’ Rebellion, 1999). The Confederation Congress was capable of governing within the sphere it had been permitted as demonstrated by the Ordinance of 1787, which organized the national domain, known as the Northwest Territory, between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes (Encarta: Articles of Confederation, 1999). In the aftermath of Shay’s Rebellion, nationalists petitioned for revision of the Articles in order to expand the government’s authority over the states (Encarta: Shays’ Rebellion, 1999).The more devoted nationalists, including Madison and Hamilton, believed that the Articles of Confederation would most likely have to be discarded. The delegates tricked the Congress in 1787 by telling them they were going to propose amendments to the Articles of Confederation, even though the delegates were planning on writing a new Constitution (Grolier: Constitution, 1993). Meeting at Philadelphia from May to...
