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In February 1787, Congress decided that a convention should be convened to revise the Articles of Confederation, the nation’s first constitution. In May, 55 delegates came to Philadelphia, and the Constitutional Convention began. Debates erupted over representation in Congress, over slavery, and over the new executive branch. The debates continued through four hot and muggy months. But eventually the delegates reached compromises, and on September 17, they produced the U.S. Constitution, replacing the Articles with the governing document that has functioned effectively for more than 200 years.
In 1781 in the midst of the Revolutionary War, the 13 states had agreed to establish a new central government under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The Articles created a confederation of states: Each state retained “its sovereignty, freedom, and independence.” The weak central government consisted of Congress, a single house in which each state had only one vote. No other branch of government existed: no executive or judiciary. And the Congress had no power to regulate trade or to levy and collect taxes.
By 1787, debts from the Revolutionary War were piling up, and many states had fallen behind in paying what they owed. States were imposing tariffs on each other and fighting over borders. Britain was angry because pre-war debts were not being paid, and it was refusing to honor the treaty that had ended the war (the Paris Treaty of 1783). Recognizing that things were not going well, Congress declared, on February 21, 1787, “that there are defects in the present Confederation” and resolved that a convention should be held in Philadelphia “for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation . . . and to render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union.”
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