The Problems of the Convention
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sweep away the Articles altogether and substitute an entirely new Constitution.
Whether under the old Articles or through some new instrument of
government, the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention were expected
to devise means for improving the operation of the Articles of Confederation. Fundamentally, the Convention was called to accomplish the following objectives:
(1) Put the general government on a sound financial footing.
(2) Remove trade barriers, both with foreign countries and among the
several States, and improve the flow of commerce.
(3) Provide sound money for the country, and improve both public
and private credit.
(4) Set up means for strengthening the United States in the conduct
of foreign policy—including enforcement of Britain’s obligations to the
United States under the terms of the Peace of Paris, concluded in 1783
at the end of the War of Independence.
(5) Obtain a greater degree of cooperation among the thirteen States,
and require the State legislatures to protect the rights of property owners.
(6) Maintain good order under a republican form of government by
preventing rebellions and mob violence when the State governments
might be incompetent for that important task.
(7) Give the whole country such advantages as uniform bankruptcy
laws, copyrights and patents, a postal service, management of western
territories and Indian relations, naturalization of immigrants, and in general provide important services that the State governments could not.
These tasks seemed sufficiently formidable, but as the Convention
delved into its business, many delegates decided that they must do more
than alleviate the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. In the short
Preamble to the seven articles of the new Constitution, as the document
took shape, the drafters of this new frame of government expressed their
larger aims:
‘‘. . . to form a more perfect union . . .’’ That would require satisfying
both the large States and the small States, and reassuring people who
dreaded the powers of a central government. It meant, in short, effective
federalism and a new relationship between the national government and
the State governments.