Shays’ Rebellion further underlined to Washington and other American leaders the weakness of the Articles of Confederation. Although plans for a Constitutional Convention were already under way, the uprising in Massachusetts led to further calls for a stronger national government and influenced the ensuing debate in Philadelphia that led to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution in the summer of 1787.
According to Edward J. Larson, author of “The Return of George Washington,” the rebellion “haunted Washington” and was “perhaps an essential, final straw” in pulling him out of retirement to serve as president of the Constitutional Convention. “Regardless of their cause, the commotions sufficiently shocked Washington to set him on the road to Philadelphia,” Larson writes.
