Rules Before the Constitution:
What rules did the thirteen states have before the Constitution? The thirteen states knew they couldn't fight a revolution without helping each other. Right in the middle of the Revolution they wrote a set of rules. These were the Article of Confederation. Under the Articles of Confederation the thirteen states elected a Congress, a group of people to make laws and each state had one vote. The Article could not be changed unless every state agreed.
The rebel government needed money to fight the war, but there was no way to make the states pay up. If the fighting was in New York, the states far away would not send money. General Washington had to go to Congress again and again to beg for bullets, food, and clothes for his rebel soldiers.
James Madison from Virginia was a young rebel congressman. He wanted to help Washington and his soldiers. He decided that the Articles of Confederation did not work, because Congress could not make the state's tax people to pay for the war. When the Revolutionary was won, the newly free states enjoyed making their own rules. England had lost the war, but refused to leave the forts in the West after the peace treaty was enacted. In 1886 Daniel Shays, a hero of the Revolution led a group of farmers in a revolt against the state of Massachusetts. They wanted to keep their farms and get help for their debts. Shays' Rebellion didn't get very far. Shays and his men were defeated. Four people were killed, and most of the rebel farmers fled into the woods. But news of Shays' Rebellion scared people. They were afraid the revolt of the farmers would spread. The new national government had not been able to help Massachusetts. Shays' Rebellion lead to the writing of the Constitution. George Washington and other leaders of the Revolution wanted to see a stronger united nation. They wanted this nation to have only one money system and a nation that would trade with other governments, there was a need for one nation.
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