In 1786 and early 1787, thousands  of men in central and western Massachusetts, many of whom were community leaders and veterans of the American Revolution, again took up arms against what they saw as a tyrannical and unrepresentative government.  This time, however, that government was not a king but the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and its fiscal policies.  They shut down courts and even attacked the United Staes arsenal in Springfield. The United States government was powerless to stop them, and the governor was forced to hire a private army of mercenaries to restore order, with the help of some loyal militiamen.  The national attention this uprising received prompted George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and other leaders meet in Philadelphia that summer and write a new Constitution for the country, giving the United States its present system of government.