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As a long-time foreign correspondent, I've worked in lots of places, but nowhere is

important to the world as China. I'm Jane Perlase, former Beijing Bureau Chief for the New York

Times. On face-off, the U.S. versus China will explore what's critical to this important global

relationship, Trump and Xi Jinping, AI, TikTok, and even Hollywood. New episodes of Face Off are available

now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

This week, episode 345, planning a constitutional convention. We last left off with the nationalists in episode 341. In that episode, the

Annapolis Convention took place in September 1786. It resulted in a poor showing of delegates

and a report that, well, they should try again

the following year. Many Americans did not want them to try again. While the existing situation

between the states might not have been optimal, many feared that handing over more power to a central

government would make things even worse. For them, things were good enough

the way they were. States could work out their issues through the Continental Congress.

Another overarching and more powerful government risked the freedoms they had won from

Britain in the Revolutionary War. There was, of course, another faction that disagreed with

that school of thought.

They saw the states as slowly drifting apart, politically and economically. The war that had

forced the states to unite was over. People were returning to their parochial interests.

To these men, this seemed like a huge mistake. The states themselves were fighting over issues of trade,

borders, and other things. Foreign powers in Europe were already trying to divide the states

in order to gain war influence with them. For example, shortly after the war ended,

...