Jump to: Background Suggestions for Teachers Additional Resources They met in Philadelphia in May 1787. Fifty-five men from 12 different states gathered, intending to revise the Articles of Confederation. As they began their meetings, however, Virginia Governor Edmund Randolph presented a plan prepared by James Madison. The plan outlined a design for a new, centralized, strong national government. Thus began the Constitutional Convention – the four-month process of secret argument, debate and co