1. Building the New republic B. The New American House i. Purpose: Through a combination of their own research, key terms, primary documents, and the lecture, students will shape their own understanding of the major people, events, and ideas during the period immediately after the War for American Independence. Students will be exposed to the tension and strife that characterized life in the fledgling United States. Particular attention will be paid to the Constitutional Convention and how it sought to remedy the problems that had rendered the Articles of Confederation-bound-Congress impotent ii. Background Websites: iii. Key terms: 1. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/subtitles.cfm?titleid=54 2. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/subtitles.cfm?titleid=55 1. The Articles of Confederation 2. The Northwest Ordinance 3. Shays Rebellion 4. The 3/5 Compromise 5. The Federalist Papers iv. Key Concepts: v. Document: 1. What ideas/ideals influenced the creation of the Articles of Confederation? Why, as a result of these ideas/ideals, was the federal government so ineffective? 2. Was the Constitutional Congress comprised of similar people with related interests or dissimilar people with competing interests? 3. Why did the framers create a system of checks and balances? 4. What is the Bill of Rights? Why and why/how was it included in the Constitution? 5. Under president George Washington, was the United States of America more democratic or republican? 1. George Washington s Farewell Address, 1796: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/washing.htm
I. The Articles of Confederation The struggle with England had done much to change colonial attitudes. Local assemblies had rejected the Albany Plan of Union in 1754, refusing to surrender even the smallest part of their autonomy to any other body, even one they themselves had elected. But in the course of the Revolution, mutual aid had proved effective, and the fear of relinquishing individual authority had lessened to a large degree. a. Congress and Confederation The Continental Congress adopted the "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union" in November 1777, and they went into effect in 1781, having been ratified by all the states. The new national government was more like a league of friendship than the strong central government we know today. The governmental framework established by the Articles had many weaknesses; it lacked the authority: 1. to set up tariffs when necessary 2. to regulate commerce and to levy taxes 3. of sole control of international relations (a number of states had begun their own negotiations with foreign countries) 4. Nine states had organized their own armies, and several had their own navies 5. There was a curious hodgepodge of coins and a bewildering variety of state and national paper bills, all fast depreciating in value 6. Also, each state had the right to veto any legislation nothing got done! b. The Problem of Western Lands With the end of the Revolution, the United States again had to face the old unsolved Western question -- the problem of expansion, with its complications of land, fur trade, Indians, settlement and local government Lured by the richest land yet found in the country, pioneers poured over the Appalachian Mountains and beyond. By 1775 the far-flung outposts scattered along the waterways had tens of thousands of settlers. Separated by mountain ranges and hundreds of kilometers from the centers of political authority in the East, the inhabitants established their own governments. By 1790 the population of the trans-appalachian region numbered well over 120,000. Before the war, several colonies had laid extensive and often overlapping claims to land beyond the Appalachians. In 1780 New York led the way in stating that the western lands be considered common property to be parceled by the Congress into free and independent governments by ceding its claims to the United States. In 1784 Virginia, which held the grandest claims, relinquished all land north of the Ohio River. Other states ceded their claims, and it became apparent that Congress would come into possession of all the lands north of the Ohio River and west of the Allegheny Mountains. This common possession of millions of hectares was the most tangible evidence yet of nationality and unity, and gave a certain substance to the idea of national sovereignty.
c. Running the New Government Day-to-day activities were often hampered by a lack of people turning up. The Articles required representation from 7 states to conduct business, with a minimum of 2 men for each state s delegation. But some days fewer than 14 men showed up. The new government sputtered along. It didn t help either that the Congress had no permanent home! Before 1776, the cream of political talent in the country was attracted to the Continental Congress, but b/w 1776 and 1780, the talent flowed to the state governments II. The Sovereign States Every man and every body of men on Earth possess the right of self-government." Thomas Jefferson, 1790 a. The State Constitutions The success of the Revolution gave Americans the opportunity to give legal form to their ideals as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, and to remedy some of their grievances through state constitutions. As early as May 10, 1776, Congress had passed a resolution advising the colonies to form new governments "such as shall best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents." Some of them had already done so, and within a year after the Declaration of Independence, all but three had drawn up constitutions. The new constitutions showed the impact of democratic ideas. None made any drastic break with the past, since all were built on the solid foundation of colonial experience and English practice. But each was also animated by the spirit of republicanism, an ideal that had long been praised by Enlightenment philosophers. b. Who Were the People? The state constitutions had some glaring limitations, particularly by more recent standards. Constitutions established to guarantee people their natural rights did not secure for everyone the most fundamental natural right equality. The colonies south of Pennsylvania excluded their slave populations from their inalienable rights as human beings. Women had no political rights. No state went so far as to permit universal male suffrage, and even in those states that permitted all taxpayers to vote (Delaware, North Carolina and Georgia, in addition to Pennsylvania), officeholders were required to own a certain amount of property. No matter how poor, a free person was entitled to life, liberty, property, and freedom of conscience. Unfree people, however, were another matter. The colonies south of Pennsylvania excluded their slave populations from their inalienable rights as human beings.
III. The Critical Period a. Financial Chaos and Paper Money The Revolution was followed by a severe economic depression in 1784 and 1785. To raise revenue, many states imposed charges on goods from other states. By the mid-1780s, Connecticut was levying heavier duties on goods from Massachusetts than on those from Britain. The national government was on the verge of bankruptcy. The Dutch and French would lend money only at exorbitant interest rates. A shortage of hard currency made it difficult to conduct commercial transactions. Inflated paper money issued by the individual states was virtually worthless. Many of the new nation's infant industries were swamped by a flood of British imports. Economic problems were especially pronounced in the South: Planters lost about 60,000 slaves during the Revolution, including about 25,000 in South Carolina and 5,000 in Georgia. New British trade regulations prohibited the sale of many American agricultural products in the British West Indies, which had been one of the South's leading markets. b. Land Ordinances and the Northwest Territory Under the Articles, a system of limited self-government (set forth in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787) provided for the organization of the Northwest Territory, initially as a single district, ruled by a governor and judges appointed by the Congress. When this territory had 5,000 free male inhabitants of voting age, it was to be entitled to a legislature of two chambers, itself electing the lower house. In addition, it could at that time send a non-voting delegate to Congress. No more than five nor fewer than three states were to be formed out of this territory, and whenever any one of them had 60,000 free inhabitants, it was to be admitted to the Union "on an equal footing with the original states in all respects." The Ordinance guaranteed civil rights and liberties, encouraged education and guaranteed that "there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory." The new policy repudiated the time-honored concept that colonies existed for the benefit of the mother country and were politically subordinate and socially inferior. That doctrine was replaced by the principle that colonies are but the extension of the nation and are entitled, not as a privilege but as a right, to all the benefits of equality. These enlightened provisions of the Northwest Ordinance formed the basis for America's public land policy. c. Shays Rebellion In 1786, nearly 2,000 debtor farmers in western Massachusetts were threatened with foreclosure of their mortgaged property. The state legislature had voted to pay off the state's revolutionary war debt in three years; between 1783 and 1786, taxes on land rose more than 60 percent. Desperate farmers demanded a cut in property taxes and adoption of state laws to postpone farm foreclosures. The lower house of the state legislature passed relief measures in 1786, but creditors persuaded the upper house to reject the package. When lower courts started to seize the property of farmers such as Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary war veteran, western Massachusetts farmers temporarily closed the courts and threatened a
federal arsenal. Although the rebels were defeated by the state militia, they were victorious at the polls. A new legislature elected early in 1787 enacted debt relief. By the spring of 1787, many national leaders believed that the new republic's survival was at risk. The threat of national bankruptcy, commercial conflicts among the states, Britain's refusal to evacuate military posts, Spanish intrigues on the western frontier, and armed rebellion in western Massachusetts underscored the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. The only solution, many prominent figures were convinced, was to create an effective central government led by a strong chief executive. IV. The Federal Constitution George Washington wrote of the period between the Treaty of Paris and the writing of the Constitution that the states were united only by a "rope of sand." Disputes between Maryland and Virginia over navigation on the Potomac River led to a conference of representatives of five states at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786. One of the delegates, Alexander Hamilton, convinced his colleagues that commerce was too much bound up with other political and economic questions, and that the situation was too serious to be dealt with by so unrepresentative a body. a. The Constitutional Convention Washington advocated calling upon all the states to appoint representatives for a meeting to be held the following spring in Philadelphia. The Continental Congress was at first indignant over this bold step, but its protests were cut short by the news that Virginia had elected George Washington a delegate. During the next fall and winter, elections were held in all states but Rhode Island. The Constitutional Convention took place in the nation's largest and most diverse city, Philadelphia Attended by a number of social notables, the state legislatures sent leaders with experience in colonial and state governments, in Congress, on the bench and in the army. George Washington, regarded as the country's outstanding citizen because of his integrity and his military leadership during the Revolution, was chosen as presiding officer. The delegates, 55 in all, but never more than 30 or 35 at once, sealed themselves inside a room no bigger than a large schoolroom in Philadelphia's state House. Over four months, the delegates hammered out compromises that established a system flexible to withstand more than two centuries of change. The delegates' goals were contradictory: to strengthen the national government and to limit its power. The objective of the Constitution was to create a system of government that would control men's lust for power and safeguard individual liberty. To prevent concentrations of power, the framers established a system of checks and balances. Authority was divided between the federal and state governments and was further divided among the three branches of the federal government. There was some disagreement how to go about this, however. b. Big Plan, Little Plan, then Compromise The Virginia plan was the first plan of union proposed at the Constitutional Convention in 1787; it called for strong central government. A bicameral plan, it would have had representation enumerated by population meaning the biggest, most populous states would dominate. The NJ plan was introduced in opposition to the Virginia Plan; it emphasized the dominance of the states. A unicameral plan, it called for equal representation meaning the smaller states would have as much of a say so as the big states.
The Great Compromise was the agreement (or compromise) to accept representation by population in the House and by States (equal) in the Senate. c. Are We More Democratic or Republican? At the Constitutional Convention, pure democracy was taken to be a dangerous thing. As a Connecticut delegate put it, the people should have as little to do as may be about the Government. They lack information and are constantly liable to be misled. Widespread agreement supported the concept of a republican government, one in which the people are sovereign and government leaders derive their power and authority from the people. The debate was the degree of that democracy of the amount of direct control of government by the people. The delegates did not like pure democracy! The delegates claimed to favor republican institutions, but they created a government that gave direct voice to the people only in the House and that granted a check on that voice to the Senate, which would be composed of men more removed from the control of the people. The senators would hold office for 6 years (a long time) and would be elected by the state legislatures, not the people. The president would be elected by the Electoral College, whose only function was to elect the president and VP. Each state s legislature chose the electors, amounting in number to the sum of representatives and senators for each state. What resulted was a president who owed his office not to the Congress, the states, or the people, but to an ephemeral body of distinguished citizens who could vote their own judgment on the candidates V. The Ordeal to Ratify the Constitution a. The Federalists Were very much for the Constitution being ratified Probably the best known Federalists (under the pen name of Publius) were Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, all of whom contributed works to produce the Federalist Papers - which is considered the finest defense and explanation of the Constitution. The Federalists stressed the importance of the union of the states, demonstrated the weakness of the Articles of Confederation, justified and clarified the provisions of the Constitution, and explained the omissions of provisions such as the BOF. b. The Antifederalists Were afraid of a central government that was too strong and so were against the Constitution s ratification Among this group were people like Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and Patrick Henry who were concerned with centralized authority and infringement on personal freedoms. Though they repudiated the Constitution, they did not oppose a federal form of government, objecting to it on the grounds that it was attempting to replace true federalism with centralization. They are generally credited with the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution
c. The Big Holdouts: Virginia and New York In less than 12 months, the US Constitution was both written and ratified. An amazingly short time by twentieth century standards, it is equally remarkable for the late 18 th century with its horse powered transportation and hand printed communications. The Federalists had faced a formidable task, but by building momentum and assuring a bill of rights, they had carried the day The Federalists finally won Virginian support with a carefully worded resolution declaring certain individual rights and republican principles inviolate in the new government. The Anti-Federalists escape clause was an assertion that, when a government derives its power from the people, the people can always take back any power the federal government used to injure them. By a 10 vote margin out of 168 votes cast, the Federalists got their ratification. New York Anti-federalists didn t see the need in a state as large and powerful as it to relinquish so much authority to the new federal government. But NY was also home to some very persuasive Federalists: Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. Together they wrote and published a series of 85 essays in New York newspapers in 1787 and 1788 urging ratification of the Constitution. In Federalist #10 Madison takes up the idea of faction, by which he means any single group that tries to dominate the political process. He argues that faction cannot ever be eliminated from politics but it can be controlled in a republican a (representative) system. Madison favored a large and diverse nation; if there were many groups, no one faction would ever be able to dominate. In Federalist #51 Madison articulated the separation of powers. In this federalism he argued for power to be separated among different departments, or branches of government, independent from one another. Then, power will be divided between the national and state levels. Ambition must counteract ambition. VI. Decade of Decision Thus ended one of the most intellectually tumultuous and creative decades in American history. Americans experimented with ideas and drew up plans to embody their evolving and conflicting notions of how a society and a government ought to be formulated. In the 1790s and beyond, the twin concepts of republicanism and democracy would be tested in real life.