The Articles of Confederation & Shay's Rebellion or Hey this country isn't working what else can we do???

History teacher confession time: I did not know what the Articles of Confederation were until college. I am sure that some teacher made a misguided attempt to make sure that I "understood the importance and historical significance" or something like that. But, for the life of me I just can't remember hearing about it before I had a "what the heck are they talking about" moment in my sophomore US History course at WKU.

So, for your reading pleasure, I submit to you the important stuff you need to know about the Articles!

The Articles of Confederation are the first stab at forming a national government. In July of 1776 the Continental Congress up and decided to let their boy Thomas Jefferson write a nice little note to the leadership of Great Britain. In no uncertain terms the note said "Sorry, It's not us it's you. I think we should see other people..." So they write up The Articles of Confederation. The states all ratify it and in 1781 they go into effect.

From the get go the Articles are doomed to failure. While it does give congress the power to sign treaties, declare war, settle peace, and some other important things, it doesn't give them the ability to raise taxes to pay for it. With no money the government is powerless to really make any meaningful change.

The articles really showed how useless they were when a man named Daniel Shays led a rebellion near the town of Springfield Massachusetts. Long story short, Shays owed money and the terrible economy of the states he was unable to pay it. He and others with debt problems closed courthouses and generally caused a ruckus in their corner of Massachusetts. Things were going "okay" for Mr. Shays until he had the bright Idea to attack a National Armory and take some of the weapons.

The congress, who had no money or army, had nothing they could do about it. Massachusetts decided they should probably stop someone from taking all of their guns and ammo and ordered a militia raised. The milita got to the armory as fast as possible and arrived before Shay's troops. After the militia fired 2 of the cannons on the rebels, the rebels fled. Shay's Rebellion showed a lot of people that the government had no power and was unable to cope with crisis. Many of the important people in many of the states decide that something needed to change...

So! What options do the leaders of the United States in 1787 have?