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Why was the Constitutional Convention held?
To amend the Articles of Confederation
Why did leaders call for the constitution convention?
The Constitutional Convention was called to amend the Articles of Confederation, the rules for the United States' first independent government. But when the fifty-five delegates attempted to amend the plan, they realized the task was impossible. The delegates scrapped the Articles of Confederation and secretly began working to devise an entirely new framework for government, the US Constitution.
Why was the purpose of the Philadelphia Convention changed after Congress met?
Congress realized the Articles of Confederation were not working for the people of the United States, so they called for a Constitutional Convention to revise the Articles. They hoped that it would be possible to revise the Articles of Confederation to better unite the country through legal means. However, once the convention began, it became clear that the Articles were beyond repair, so the Constitution was created to replace them.
Why did the writers of the Constitution feel it was necessary to create a new plan of government?
The Framers wrote the Constitution because they were thoroughly displeased with the system of government established by the Articles of Confederation, which as the name implies was theoretically a federation of independent states. They wanted to radically change the government and thus they did not use the Articles of Confederation as a starting point. In addition, the terms of the Constitution's ratification were different than those of the Confederation: for it to come into effect, only 9 states had to ratify for the Constitution. Since it can be argued that ultimately all the states eventually ratified the Constitution, this was apparentlly a legitimate amending of the Articles of the Confederation under the rules of the Articles. If 9-12 states approved, the Constitution would still come into effect in violation of the Articles rules forbidding any other alliance between states. One of the reasons for this is that if 9 or more states formed their own alliance, the other states would become fully independent and lose the trade and defense benefits of the Confederation, and this put additional pressure on the last ratifying states.
Why were the articles of confederation so unsuccessfull for the US?
It established a weak national government with few powers. The only true power the government had under the Articles was to run the post office. A farmers' revolt called Shays' rebellion ended up proving the Articles were way too weak.
