<P> By 1787 Congress was unable to protect manufacturing and shipping . State legislatures were unable or unwilling to resist attacks upon private contracts and public credit . Land speculators expected no rise in values when the government could not defend its borders nor protect its frontier population . </P> <P> The idea of a convention to revise the Articles of Confederation grew in favor . Alexander Hamilton realized while serving as Washington's top aide that a strong central government was necessary to avoid foreign intervention and allay the frustrations due to an ineffectual Congress . Hamilton led a group of like - minded nationalists, won Washington's endorsement, and convened the Annapolis Convention in 1786 to petition Congress to call a constitutional convention to meet in Philadelphia to remedy the long - term crisis . </P> <P> Congress, meeting in New York, called on each state to send delegates to a Constitutional Convention, meeting in Philadelphia . While the stated purpose of the convention was to amend the Articles of Confederation, many delegates, including James Madison and George Washington, wanted to use it to craft a new constitution for the United States . The Convention convened in May 1787 and the delegates immediately selected Washington to preside over them . Madison soon proved the driving force behind the Convention, engineering the compromises necessary to create a government that was both strong and acceptable to all of the states . The Constitution, proposed by the Convention, called for a federal government--limited in scope but independent of and superior to the states--within its assigned role able to tax and equipped with both Executive and Judicial branches as well as a two house legislature . The national legislature--or Congress--envisioned by the Convention embodied the key compromise of the Convention between the small states which wanted to retain the power they had under the one state / one vote Congress of the Articles of Confederation and the large states which wanted the weight of their larger populations and wealth to have a proportionate share of power . The upper House--the Senate--would represent the states equally, while the House of Representatives would be elected from districts of approximately equal population . </P> <P> The Constitution itself called for ratification by state conventions specially elected for the purpose, and the Confederation Congress recommended the Constitution to the states, asking that ratification conventions be called . </P>

Why did the states begin to write the constitution in 1776
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