who pushed for a constitutional convention at philadelphia in 1787 and why?

Answer 1

That would James Madison, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and George Washington. America had been struggling to govern itself under the Articles of Confederation which did not have a provision for a coast guard. In 1786, George Washington and James Madison called a convention to meet in Annapolis to discuss amending the Articles to address issues of national defense (piracy was a rampant problem), but not enough delegates showed up. So they resolved to meet again the following year in Philadelphia and work on getting all the states to send delegations.

During that year, James Madison starting drafting changes to the Articles, but he soon decided to throw out the whole thing and start over, so when the delegations arrived in Philadelphia, they were presented with a draft for an entirely new constitution instead of amendments to the Articles, and the rest is history...

By the way, I am an American History teacher.

Answer 2

By 1787, it became clear to many in the United States the Articles of Confederation was not providing an adequate structure for our government. The structural flaws in form of government the Articles provided for became evident soon after its ratification. States often went there own ways, and the Federal government was too weak to be effective. People such as James Madison, Ben Franklin, and George Washington began calling for a new form of government with a stronger national government.

Answer 3

This is an excellent question.

Two points:
1) A number of collective problems were occurring within and between colonies that could not be resolved by the Articles of Confederation. These problems ranged from inter colony commerce, to protection of the frontiers, to protection of our harbors, to internal from strife (Shay's Rebellion). In addition, colonist's continued migration to the west were creating new problems. No one person drove the convention although leading figures from NY, Virginia, and PA (the more powerful colonies at the time) promoted its formation.

2) Hey History School Teacher - Get your facts straight or are you one of those liberal history revisionists we hear about all the time? For starters, Washington had just finished leading the war effort and had no interest in a full-time political career. His name and endorsement was an effective use of marketing hype at the time. Madison was not attempting to improve the Articles, he set out specifically to replace them in total with a new form of government.

Answer 4

Many of the founding fathers, due to the fact that the Articles of Confederation was not doing its jobs, and they wanted to rectify its defects.