Transcript File

The Articles of Confederation:
The First Government of
the United States
• When the guns fell silent in 1781 at Yorktown,
VA the British stopped fighting the war.
• When the British and Americans signed the
Treaty of Paris in 1783 the war was officially
over, but was the American Revolution?
• Questions existed in America – what type of
government should we have, type of economics
and what type of society.
Did a “complete revolution”
take place
• The new governments did not try to make radical
changes – the wealthy were still in power –
South – Planters still ran society – North –
wealthy merchants and shippers
• One thing that the revolution did do was change
the institution of slavery from a national to a
regional (southern) phenomenon because most
northerners gave up slaves at this time (this was
mostly an economic
Forming a central government
• Two part problem 1). Changing the individual colonial
governments into governments free of England, and 2).
Even more difficult, creating a central government that
would be a proper substitute for the English system.
• In forming a central governments Americans looked to
Democratic ideals of the Greeks and Romans, the
morals of the Jewish and Christian writers of the Bible,
the English history of having a Parliament
(representative body) as set forth in the Magna Carta
and the English Bill of Right, as well as the
Enlightenment and the Mayflower Compact.
The Creation of State Governments
• In place of colonial charters, each state adopted
a constitution.
• All constitutions were different, although each
has an elected legislature (representative
bodies), an executive (governor) and a system
of courts.
• What was most important was that the people
were establishing the rules by which political life
was to be organized and run.
• People could change their government
peacefully through voting.
The States: Experiments in
Republicanism
• The people demand written constitutions
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Each state had its own (13 separate republics)
provide clear definition of rights
describe clear limits of government
• Revolutionary state constitutions serve as experiments in
republican government
• State constitution writers insist on preparing written documents
• State constitutions guarantee cardinal rights
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freedom of religion
freedom of speech
freedom of the press
private property
Forming a Central Government
• Started with the Albany Plan of Union (1754) Benjamin
Franklin
• Stamp Act Congress – people came together to air
grievances which continued at the First Continental
Congress
• Second Continental Congress was our first government
– it ran the country on a day to day basis- continual
existence
• SCC did the following – appointed generals, negotiated
treaties with France and Spain, set budget for the war,
borrowed money from other countries, operated postal
service and drafted the declaration of independence
The Articles of Confederation
• By November 1777, the Congress drafted a
written constitution called the A. O. C.
• Stressed the independence of the states
declaring the United States as being a “league
of Friendship” or alliance they did not make a
permanent country
• A. O. C. gave each state one vote in Congress
• All laws had to be approved by at least 9 of 13
states
• The articles could not be amended unless all
states agreed
A. O. C. Continued
• The government did not have the power to tax
people or states – what they rebelled against
• Under A. O. C. all colonies, later states, agreed
to give up western lands (west of Appalachian
Mts.) Upon Maryland’s demand because her
charter was not a coast to coast charter
therefore Maryland did not have claims to
western lands.
• Treaty of Paris – 1782 – 1783 – Official end of
Revolutionary War
Giving up the western holdings
• 1781—Virginia takes lead in ceding
Western claims to Congress
• Other states cede claims to Congress
• Congress gains ownership of all land west
of Appalachians
New State Boundaries
The Northwest Ordinance
• A plan to govern lands bounded by the
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and the Great
Lakes while they grew from territory to
statehood. The ordinance provided that
the land be divided into territories. When a
territory consisted of 60,000 people the
voters could write a constitution and
become a state. Northwest includes the
modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan and Wisconsin.
Slavery in the Northwest
• The new territories agreed to ban slavery
before they could become states. So we
must acknowledge that the Northwest
Ordinance was the first time that the
United States attempted to regulate
slavery.
The Northwest Ordinance
continued
Problems
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Congress unable to address inflation, debt
Congress has no power to tax
Failure to pay soldiers
Unanimous vote to amend articles
• ECONOMIC CRISIS
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Recession hits—economic slowdown
Paper money worthless
No employment
Little gold/silver
How can you pay state taxes?
Economic and Trade Problems
• Economic problems due to disruption of
farming and trade – some states refused
to pay the central government for
protection because they did not have the
money.
• Americans were now on the opposite end
of the Navigation Acts and liked it less –
their shippers could not trade with the
English.
Trade Problems
• British sold manufactured goods in the
U.S. cheaper than the U.S. could produce
and sell them (this is called dumping)
Taxes on imported goods (called tariffs
could have solved this problem but the
government did not have the power to tax)
Inflation
• With a shortage of money, congress
printed tons of Continental Dollars inflation –due to too much money and no
confidence in the money – not backed by
gold.
• Due to inflation – merchants in Rhode
Island refused to accept the seemingly
worthless Continental Dollars.
Weak Central Government
Diplomatic Humiliation
• England keep troops on U.S. soil after
1783
• Spain closes New Orleans to American
commerce in 1784
– John Jay to negotiate reopening Mississippi
– instead signs treaty favoring Northeast
– West and South denounce, Congress rejects
Jay-Gardoqui Treaty
Annapolis Convention
• Sept. 1786—discuss economic problems
• Only 5 states send delegates (nothing can
be done)
• Alexander Hamilton draws resolution for
Congress (Set up another meeting)
– Representatives from all states
– “Revise the Articles of Confederation”
Shays Rebellion
• The state governments had the right to tax
the people
• Massachusetts tried to pay off their
Revolutionary War debt quickly
Shays Rebellion Continued
• Because the economy was so bad in the
United States, and people did not have
enough money to pay their taxes some
refused to do so. Daniel Shay led a
rebellion of 1,200 men (many veterans of
the Revolution) they were prepared to take
over the government because it was
taxing them just as the British had done.
The group was defeated in 1787.
Shays Rebellion
Quotes concerning the rebellion
• “If they have real grievances, redress them; if
not employ the force of the government
against them at once” G. Washington
• “A little rebellion now and then is a good
thing. The tree of liberty must be refreshed
from time to time with the blood of patriots
and tyrants” T. Jefferson
Federalist Papers
• 85 articles that appeared in newspapers
from late 1787-1788
• Explanation of the Constitution
• Alexander Hamilton
• John Jay
• James Madison
Federalist Paper # 51
—Written by Madison
A. How should power be divided in a republic?
• 1. separate and distinct
2. each department should have a voice
of its own
3. drawn from the people (popular vote)
a. exception—Judicial
Branch—appointed
WHY? 1. qualifications
2. permanent
position
Where did he get this idea from???
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU
(1689-1755) Wrote Spirit of Law
1. Believed that all things were made up of rules or
laws that never
changed.
2. Best governments have power balanced among
three groups of
officials.
(separation of powers)
3. His ideas about separation of powers became the
basis for the
United States Constitution
• Checks and Balances
1. Ambition must counter act ambition
2. First government must control the
governed, then government must
control itself
Legislative Branch—The strongest branch in a
republican government—needs to be weakened
HOW?
divide it—bicameral
different term length—rotating
election
Executive Branch—Needs more power
How is this accomplished?
1. Theory of the small republic
a. Homogeneity—same ideas,
values, religion
2. Theory of the large republic
a. Heterogeneity—diversity
b. Multiplicity of interests
3. Faction
a. Majority
b. Minority
Federalist #10
Problem—FACTION
1. Tyranny of the majority
2. Minority
Solution—Both are unsuitable
1. Remove the cause of faction
a. destroy liberty—“Liberty is to faction
what air is to fire”
b. theory of the small republic—social
homogeneity—“giving every citizen
the same opinions, the same passions,
and the same interests.”
Reasons the solutions are
unsuitable
1. To destroy liberty is oppression
2. Infallibility of reason —people are not
always virtuous
3. Passions of opinion —people’s opinions
differ on everything
4. Diversity of faculties —people have
different capabilities
Real solution—Factions cannot be removed—
but its effects can be controlled!!!!
HOW??
Protection of natural rights is the first objective of government
THEORY OF THE LARGE REPUBLIC
A. prevent the majority from having the same passions,
opinions, and interests
B. elect representatives from a more diverse population will
result in a coalition of different opinions
C. protect the rights of the minority
The Genius of James Madison
• Stronger central government gains support
• James Madison persuades Americans that
large republics could be free and
democratic
The Philadelphia Convention
• Convenes May 1787
• 55 delegates from all states except Rhode
Island
• Delegates possess wide practical
experience
Revise the Articles of Confederation
Anti-Federalists
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Thomas Jefferson
George Mason
James Monroe
Richard Henry Lee
Samuel Adams
Patrick Henry
• All warned against the problems that a big and
powerful government could create.
Anti-Federalist and why they did
not want the US Constitution
• The Anti-Federalists did not want to ratify the
Constitution. Basically, they argue that:
• It gave too much power to the national
government at the expense of the state
governments.
• There was no bill of rights.
• The national government could maintain an
army in peacetime.
• Congress, because of the `necessary and
proper clause,' wielded too much power.
• The executive branch held too much power.
Presidents of the United States
prior to George Washington
Peyton Randolph of Virginia (17231775)
• When delegates gathered in Philadelphia
for the first Continental Congress, they
promptly elected the former King's
Attorney of Virginia as the moderator and
president of their convocation.
Henry Middleton (1717-1784)
• America's second elected president was
one of the wealthiest planters in the South,
the patriarch of the most powerful families
anywhere in the nation. His public spirit
was evident from an early age. He was a
member of his state's Common House
from 1744-1747. During the last two years
he served as the Speaker.
John Hancock (1737-1793)
• The third president was a patriot, rebel leader, merchant
who signed his name into immortality in giant strokes on
the Declaration of Independence. The boldness of his
signature has made it live in American minds as a
perfect expression of the strength and freedom—and
defiance—of the individual in the face of British tyranny.
As President of the Continental Congress during two
widely spaced terms—the first from May 24 1775 to
October 30 1777 and the second from November 23
1785 to June 5, 1786—Hancock was the presiding
officer when the members approved the Declaration of
Independence.
Henry Laurens (1724-1792)
• The only American president ever to be
held as a prisoner of war by a foreign
power, Laurens was heralded after he was
released as "the father of our country," by
no less a personage than George
Washington.
John Jay (1745-1829)
• America's first Secretary of State, first Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, one of its first ambassadors, and
author of some of the celebrated Federalist Papers, Jay
was a Founding Father who, by a quirk of fate, missed
signing the Declaration of Independence—at the time of
the vote for independence and the signing, he had
temporarily left the Continental Congress to serve in
New York's revolutionary legislature. Nevertheless, he
was chosen by his peers to succeed Henry Laurens as
President of the United States—serving a term from
December 10, 1778 to September 27, 1779.
Samuel Huntington (1732-1796)
• An industrious youth who mastered his
studies of the law without the advantage of
a school, a tutor, or a master—borrowing
books and snatching opportunities to read
and research between odd jobs—he was
one of the greatest self-made men among
the Founders. He was also one of the
greatest legal minds of the age—all the
more remarkable for his lack of advantage
as a youth.
Thomas McKean (1734-1817)
• During his astonishingly varied fifty-year career in public
life he held almost every possible position—from deputy
county attorney to President of the United States under
the Confederation. Besides signing the Declaration of
Independence, he contributed significantly to the
development and establishment of constitutional
government in both his home state of Delaware and the
nation. At the Stamp Act Congress he proposed the
voting procedure that Congress adopted: that each
colony, regardless of size or population, have one vote—
the practice adopted by the Continental Congress and
the Congress of the Confederation, and the principle of
state equality manifest in the composition of the Senate.
John Hanson (1715-1783)
• In 1775 he was elected to the Provincial
Legislature of Maryland. Then in 1777, he
became a member of Congress where he
distinguished himself as a brilliant administrator.
Thus, he was elected President in 1781. He
served in that office from November 5, 1781 until
November 3, 1782. He was the first President to
serve a full term after the full ratification of the
Articles of Confederation—and like so many of
the Southern and New England Founders, he
was strongly opposed to the Constitution when it
was first discussed.
Elias Boudinot (1741-1802)
• He was not renowned for his legal mind or
his political skills. He was instead a man
who spent his entire career in foreign
diplomacy.
• He served as president from November 4,
1782 until November 2, 1783.
Thomas Mifflin (1744-1800)
• November 3, 1783 to November 29, 1784.
Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794)
• His resolution "that these United Colonies are,
and of right ought to be, free and independent
States," approved by the Continental Congress
July 2, 1776, was the first official act of the
United Colonies that set them irrevocably on the
road to independence. It was not surprising that
it came from Lee's pen—as early as 1768 he
proposed the idea of committees of
correspondence among the colonies, and in
1774 he proposed that the colonies meet in what
became the Continental Congress.
Nathaniel Gorham (1738-1796)
• President from June 6, 1786 to February
1, 1787.
• It was during this time that the Congress
actually entertained the idea of of
establishing a constitutional monarch in
America.
Arthur St. Clair (1734-1818)
• He was elected President in 1787—and he
served from February 2 of that year until
January 21 of the next.
Cyrus Griffin (1736-1796)
• It was during his term in the office of the
Presidency—the last before the new
national compact went into effect—that
ratification was formalized and finalized.
He served as the nation's chief executive
from January 22, 1788 until George
Washington's inauguration on April 30,
1789.