revolutionary war

revolutionary war

---- THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION ----  


In 1783 the Revolutionary war was over. Many soldiers were left without food,
shelter and money. The government had not paid these men for their services and now
many had been lowered   to the level of peasant. George Washington wrote about them
as people who had "shed their blood or lost their limbs in the service of their country,
without a shelter, without a friend, and without the means of obtaining any of the
necessaries or comforts of life, compelled to beg their daily bread from door to door."

The reason that congress had not paid these men was that congress had no
money to pay. In 1777 congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, a plan for
solving the problems that faced the new government. This document that contained 13
separate articles became the first constitution of the United States. One article gave
Congress the power to ask states for contributions to pay the wages of the soldiers and
other government expenses. This sounded fine, but because Congress had no power to
demand the contributions, many states failed to make them. There was little Congress
could do about it.

In May 1787, 55 men arrived in Philadelphia for a meeting. Some came on
horseback, some by coach and others by ship. Selected by different states as delegates,
they came to discuss how the Articles of Confederation might be changed in order to
make the government work better. The men who came to this meeting were some of the
most talented leaders in the country. Alexander Hamilton was a lawyer from New
York. He had been caught up in the revolution by his late teens. In 1776 Hamilton had
commanded a New York artillery company and had won Washington's admiration for
coolness under fire and skill for handling both men and guns.

Benjamin Franklin, 81 years old and a resident of Philadelphia served as a
Pennsylvania delegate. Franklin had earned his reputation before the Revolution...