# 1301.5c - Moving to Amend the Articles of Confederation **Channel:** Chad Tomaselli **Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46GjxGiZCAM **Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/46GjxGiZCAM ## Chapters - 0:00 — Early Attempts to Fix Articles - 1:12 — Annapolis Convention and Low Attendance - 3:05 — Shays Rebellion Changes Everything - 4:54 — Philadelphia Convention Rules and Limits - 6:09 — Why the Articles Mattered Historically ## Transcript **[0:00]:** The problems of the Articles of Confederation were immediately apparent to everyone involved. And some states tried to find solutions to those issues. The first example of this is the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785. Representatives from Virginia and Maryland met to discuss trade regulations specifically concerning the Potomac River. That is most of their border. **[0:22]:** And that's Potomac river is Potomac. This is they. They held the Mount Vernon Conference here in 1785. This is, well, George Washington's Mount Vernon. This is his plantation mansion, basically, and that is the Potomac river behind. **[0:40]:** And then the land on the other side is Maryland. So there's actually a visual representation of what they were dealing with. So they met to discuss trade regulations. They attempted to make uniform state laws in each state to match their laws to improve trade. It worked. **[0:59]:** And some, and not only those states, but other states began to think more of this was needed. I mean, surprise, surprise, cooperation was better than fighting one another. Who would have thought? **[1:12]:** So they decided to hold another conference a year later to discuss not specific issues like the Potomac river and the border, but just a more general version of this, of the states working together, of the problems of the Articles. And so they tried to organize a meeting for the next year, which was called the Annapolis convention here in 1786. Annapolis, Maryland, all states. All 13 states were invited, but only five of them showed up. And there was a variety of reasons why the other eight did not show up. I like to think Rhode island got the invitation in the mail, and because they were printing so much money, they just stuck it into their paper printing money and started printing money on that. Like, there was one guy standing at a printing press and, like, never got the chance to leave. Like an Amazon worker where they. **[2:04]:** If they didn't print so much money, they'd be fired, right? You know, having to go to the bathroom and ye old jar next to him. So you can't accomplish anything significant when you have five of the 13 states. **[2:22]:** For a lot of them, it just. They didn't see any reason to. Right. There were problems, yes, but they didn't need anything dramatic like the Annapolis Convention. So they're gonna try again the next year to hold a meeting in 1787. **[2:36]:** And this will become known as the Philadelphia Convention or the Constitutional Convention. The goal was to discuss amendments and reforms of the articles of confederation. **[2:51]:** 12 of the 13 states sent delegates or representatives. The only one who didn't was Rhode Island. Again, they probably printed money on the letters and invitations. **[3:05]:** Why did the attendance jump from 5 the year before for Annapolis to 12 out of 13? Shays rebellion the revolt scared a lot of state leaders across the country. **[3:20]:** More specifically, and your other 2 significances for Shays Rebellion. It convinced the states to attend the Philadelphia Convention to discuss the problems and fixes for the Articles. **[3:37]:** Second, it convinced the Confederation Congress to actually listen to the Convention's ideas on how to fix the Articles. Because this is once again a bunch of dudes meeting in Philadelphia. They don't have any actual authority. So they could have met and come up with ideas. But if the Confederation Congress didn't listen to them or try to act on them, then it was all for naught. **[4:06]:** So why Shays Rebellion is significant in this regard is it convinced the states to show up after they had not the year before at Annapolis to discuss the problems and fixes for the Articles. And it convinced the Confederation Congress to actually listen to the Convention ideas. We cannot say for certain if this Convention would have even started without Shays Rebellion. So we likely owe the Constitutional the Constitution to Daniel Shays and the farmers of Massachusetts. So those are your two other significances for Shays Rebellion. And I hope you understand why I split it. Because you needed that other context of Mount Vernon and Annapolis for those two things to make proper. **[4:54]:** What are the details of this Philadelphia Convention? Well, the person that they put in charge of it, that they elected to lead the Convention was George Washington, which gave it also gave it more legitimacy. Washington was trusted. He was the General, the man who had won the Revolutionary War. **[5:15]:** Another detail of how this works is that each state had one vote if anything was brought to to that point. So no matter if they sent, just like the Confederation Congress, if they sent five delegates, 10 delegates or one delegate, each state only had one vote. **[5:34]:** But there were problems with that legitimacy. **[5:39]:** The Convention had no legal right to change the Articles. They could only come up with specific plans and ideas and submit them to the Confederation Congress. Shays had made it so, as I mentioned, Shays had made it so the Confederation Congress would actually listen and consider those ideas. But even if they came up with the greatest ideas of all time, if the Confederation Congress didn't vote for them, then it wouldn't have mattered. **[6:09]:** So before we continue the Convention, we're going to say goodbye to the Articles. **[6:17]:** The significances of the Articles. This was a critical time. The 1780s were a make or break decade for the new nation. The world and some Americans were not sure that the United States would survive. Remember when I discussed the significances of the Revolution, those principles laid down in the Declaration would only be significant. **[6:37]:** This would only be a significant a significant event as it is today. If the American experiment worked, and it had not to this point, this was a critical decade. Many in the world had viewed US independence as a temporary situation. They would either be taken over by another country or disintegrate on its own. And many in Britain thought that they would eventually return to being a colony. **[7:07]:** The Articles were a weak government that did not bind the states together as a nation. **[7:14]:** You might even say probably not just could, but should even say that the Articles were the pinnacle of a states rights style government. As we will see later with what people typically think of incorrectly with states rights style government. The Confederacy in the U.S. civil War was not about states rights at all. That was a lie. They perpetuated the Articles. Government was what happens when the states are left to their own devices. **[7:49]:** With all that said, it was believed in by many of the traditional founding Fathers. They wrote it, they supported it, they participated in it to some degree. Washington, Hamilton Adams, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, James Madison, John Jay, all of the heavy hitters of the Founding Fathers were involved in this and they believed in it. And just a final point here to reiterate. All the things I've said or I've said multiple times over, history and government are full of plenty of trial and error. **[8:25]:** And this was one pretty big error. But at least they realized it and tried to fix it before things got too far gone, before they got too bad. So what did the Philadelphia Convention come up with? **[8:42]:** I mean, obviously you know, the U.S. constitution. And that's what we're going to spend the remaining time talking about in the remaining videos or in class time, whatever structure your class is. **[8:55]:** What a terrible ending to a video.