For most of the past 240 years, Americans' consent was rarely in any real doubt, except under our first, failed constitution, the Articles of Confederation. People lost faith because the articles created a federal government that simply was not up to the task of governing. This came to a head with Shay's Rebellion, a farmers' uprising in Massachusetts in 1786. The threat to the nation was so great that George Washington came out of retirement to help steer the young nation back to political health, something that could only be accomplished by writing a new constitution.