• One vote for each State, regardless of size

• Congress powerless to lay and collect taxes or duties

• Congress powerless to regulate foreign and interstate commerce

• No executive to enforce acts of Congress

• No national court system

• Amendment only with consent of all States

• A 9/13 majority required to pass laws

• Articles only a "firm league of friendship"

Shays rebellion

Shays' Rebellion or Shays Rebellion was an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts from 1786 to 1787. The rebels, led by Daniel Shays and known as Shaysites (or Regulators ), were mostly small farmers angered by crushing debt and taxes . Failure to repay such debts often resulted in imprisonment in debtor's prisons or the claiming of property by the state. Though initial reactions were peaceful, the farmers eventually forcibly attempted to prevent courts in Western Massachusetts from sitting. The rebellion started on August 29 , 1786 . A Massachusetts militia that had been raised as a private army defeated the main Shaysite force on February 3 , 1787 . There was a lack of an institutional response to the uprising, which energized calls to reevaluate the Articles of Confederation and gave strong impetus to the Constitutional Convention which began in May 1787.