By 1786 many Americans observed that the Articles of Confederation were not working. George Washington himself agreed that the United States was really "thirteen small countries pulling against each other." By spring of 1787, Washington joined delegates from Virginia and 11 other states who gathered on Philadelphia to address this problem. Rhode Island decided not to participate. The delegates came for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. We began by reviewing the weaknesses in the the Articles of Confederation - the first form of federal government in the new U.S. that governed the 13 states from 1776 - 1787.