Transcript After much debate, the Continental Congress approved the first

 As citizens drafted state governments, the
Continental Congress was drafting a plan for the
nation as a whole.
 Delegates believed that the colonies needed to
be united by a national government in order to
win independence.

It was very hard to write a constitution that
all state would approve. Why?
 After much debate, the Continental Congress
approved the first American constitution in 1777.
 The Articles of Confederation created a very
loose alliance of 13 independent states.
 Under the Articles of Confederation, the states
sent delegates to Congress. Each state had one
vote.
 Congress could declare war, appoint military
officers and coin money. It was also responsible
for foreign affairs.
 Very limited powers
EX– Congress could pass laws, but nine states
had to approve a law before it could go into
effect.
EX- Congress could not regulate trade between
states or foreign countries.
EX- Congress did not have the power to tax.
EX – Articles included no president to execute
laws.
EX – There was no system of courts to settle
conflicts between states.
 Disputes continued to rise among the states.
 For example, both New Hampshire and New
York claimed Vermont.
 The Articles did not give the central government
power to resolve such conflicts.
BECAUSE OF THE WEAKNESSES OF THE ARTICLES…..
- THE POWER TO TAX  After the revolution, the United States owed
millions of dollars to foreign nations. Without the
power to tax, Congress had no way to repay these
debts.
 - COINING MONEY –
In addition the Continental currency was not
backed by gold, therefore it was next to worthless.
 States then began to print money causing
confusion.
 - FOREIGN RELATIONS  Britain also refused to withdrawal its troops
from the Ohio Valley. Spain closed its ports in
New Orleans to American shipping.
 Congress passed laws about how to govern the
Northwest Territory.
 These lands lay north of the Ohio River and east
of the Mississippi.
 The Land Ordinance of 1785 set up a system for
settling the Northwest Territory.
 The law called for the land to be surveyed and
divided into townships.
 Congress planned to sell sections to settlers for
$640 apiece. (WAY TO RAISE $)
 One section in every township was to be set
aside to support public schools.
 The primary effect of the ordinance was
the creation of the Northwest Territory as the
first organized territory of the United States.
 It established the precedent by which the
United States would expand westward
across North America by the admission of
new states, rather than by the expansion of
existing states.
 The banning of slavery in the territory had
the effect of establishing the Ohio River as
the boundary between free and slave
territory in the region between the
Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi
River.
 This division helped set the stage for the
balancing act between free and slave states
that was the basis of a critical political
question in American politics in the 19th
century until the Civil War.