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The cooperation that existed among the States during their struggle for Independence began to evaporate as the euphoria over victory dissipated. Independence had been won, but it did not meld thirteen independent states into one; it solidified their individual independence. The Continental Congress had to find ways to pay off the costs of the War under the framework created under the Articles of Confederation, implement the Peace Treaty, treat with foreign nations, and deal with constantly emerging conflicts and civil unrest within and among the newly liberated states. The Articles, however, did not provide a mechanism for dealing effectively with foreign trade, nor was there any mechanism for enforcing compliance with the treaty of peace. It became apparent to Congressional and state leaders alike that some form of national government that could exercise power over national issues was necessary if the country was to survive. So, a call went out for a convention of delegates to meet in Philadelphia in the Summer of 1787 to take into consideration the situation of the United States, and devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union. All the states except Rhode Island answered the call, and from late May to the middle of September, 1787, fifty-five of the Countrys most creative minds engaged in the most remarkable exercise in constitution-making the world had ever seen. The Ten Political Compromises that Produced the United States Constitution chronicles the circumstances that led to the Philadelphia Convention, the competing state and federal interests that had to be accommodated there, and explains why multiple compromises were required to produce the document, which may not have been the best that could have been produced, but, perhaps, the only one that could have been produced under the circumstances.