In May of 1787, fifty-five men met at Independence Hall in Philadelphia gathered to address the weak and ineffective national government formed under the Articles of Confederation. These men were tasked with creating an institution of democracy that would not infringe on the liberties of the American people and preserve the independent American spirit (Collier and Collier 2007). The Constitutional Convention is responsible to creating a sustainable form of democracy that was able to speak to the people of the eighteenth century and grow with every generation born after. While the Constitution and American society are not perfect, democracy is still standing in the United States and his can be attributed to the uniqueness of the creation of the American government and the perseverance and the preservation of the American spirit. American society during the creation of the new nation defines the spirit of the people as well as the problems that immediately arose after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The new nation still faced the problem of communication over a vast piece of land comprised of a collection of regions which had different economies, religions, attitudes, customs, ethnic mixes as well as languages (Collier and Collier 2007). Land has always been a source of wealth and power and the Americans had a lot of land to claim. The majority of the country was rural land with a few smaller cities. 90% of the men populating this land were farmers and many of those living on large parcels of land very separate from their neighbors. The American population grew to be “dependent on their own resources to a far greater degree than most human beings ever had been or are today” (Collier and Collier 2007). This self-reliant and independent atmosphere is part of the reason the Articles of Confederation were too weak to control the new nation. After the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 the delegates from the Continental Congress created the Articles of Confederation in an attempt to govern the thirteen states. Unfortunately, the underlying principle of the Articles of Confederation was that each state would remain sovereign which made it impossible to create a coordinated response to national and political problems among the thirteen different political communities. The state governments easily disregarded most legislature passed by the Congress. Requests for taxes meant the states sent what they thought they could spare instead of what the Congress requested. A few states refused to pay taxes which led other states to protest paying until all thirteen contributed and the Congress was too weak to force the states to abide by these legislative demands (Collier and Collier 2007). The economy of the new nation was in such disarray and the states held so much power that the government was unable to shape a cohesive economic policy. There was very little finite currency in America as the war was financed by bonds from states and individuals. Some states took it upon themselves to print their own currency which had no national backing and ultimately upset foreign trade. The state of Massachusetts levied their own state tax on the citizens in an attempt to create a flow of currency to pay off their debts from the war. The state government levied a heavy tax on their farmers who were sentenced by the courts. When the people of Massachusetts realized their government was indifferent to their welfare and the legislature would do nothing to help them they began a rebellion. Bands of framers rose up to close courts and auctions and isolated incidences became a movement with a leadership under Daniel Shays. Shays’ Rebellion was suppressed by state militia troops because the national government