The Confederation and the Constitution

1. The Confederation and the Constitution

2. Constitution Making in the States • In 1776, the Continental Congress called upon the colonies to draft new constitutions. The sovereignty of these new states, according to the theory of republicanism, would rest on the authority of the people. Somecolonies simply reworked and edited their colonial charters while many others drafted a new document. • The newly written state constitutions had many features in common. Their similarity made it easier to draft the Constitution when the time came. The British “constitution” was not a written document, but rather an accumulation of laws, customs, and precedents.

3. Constitution Making in the States • Americans invented something different. The documents they drafted were contracts that defined the powers of government and drew their authority from the people. All of the state constitutions deliberately created weak executive and judicial branches and gave sweeping powers to the legislative branch.

4. A Shaky Start • Americans were forced to try to create a viable government under difficult circumstances during the Revolutionary War. Prospects for establishing a lasting government were far from bright. America was a name more than a nation. Patriots had fought the war with a great degree of disunity even though they agreed on a common cause. There were hopeful signs that unity among the states was possible.

5. Articles of Confederation • Shortly before declaring independence in 1776, Congress appointed a committee to draft a written constitution for the new nation. The product was the Articles of Confederation that were adopted in 1777 by the Congress. The Articles were not ratified by all 13 states until 1781 (8 months before Yorktown). The Articles provided for a loose confederation among the states. The states were linked together for joint action in dealing with common problems such as foreign affairs. Congress was to be the chief agency of government. There was no executive branch and the judiciary was left almost exclusively to the states. • In Congress, each state had a single vote. To pass legislation, nine of the 13 needed to vote for it and to amend the Articles all 13 had to support it. The Congress was purposely designed to be weak. Suspiciousstates, having just won control over taxation and commerce from Britain, had no desire to yield their newly acquired privileges to an American Parliament.

6. Articles of Confederation • Congresshadtwo handicaps: It had no power regulate commerce which left the states free to establish conflictingly different laws regarding tariffs and navigation. Congress also had no power to tax the states. Congress had to politely ask each state to contribute its “fair share”. Congress was lucky if it received ¼ of its tax requests. • In spite of their defects, the Articles were a significant stepping-stone toward the present constitution. They clearly outlined the general powers that were to be exercised by the central government and they kept alive the ideal of union and held the states together until they were ready for a strong constitution.

7. Confederation Congress Lawmaking • The Confederation Congress wasn’t completely ineffective. They passed two landmark laws dealing with western lands. • The first of these laws was the Land Ordinance of 1785. It said that the acres of the Old Northwest should be sold and that the proceeds should be used to pay off the national debt. The entire area was to be surveyed before sale and settlement. It would be divided into townships six miles square, each of which in turn was to be split into 36 sections of one square mile each. The 16th section was set aside to be sold for the benefit of public schools. This law provided for the orderly settlement of the area. • The second noteworthy law was called the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 which dealt with the government of the Old Northwest. More specifically, this law determined what to do with territories (colonies) out west. The answer was temporary guidance then permanent equality.

8. Confederation Congress Lawmaking • There would be two territorial stages until a state could count 60,000 permanent residents. Once that level had been reached, the territory could apply to Congress for admission as a state. The ordinance also forbade slavery in the Old Northwest. The scheme worked so well that its basic principles were carried over to other frontier areas. • Confederation Congress Foreign Relations • Foreign relations, especially with Britain remained troubled during the years of the Confederation. Britain flat refused to make a commercial treaty or to repeal its ancient Navigation Laws. The British also officially shut off their profitable West Indies trade from the United States.

9. Confederation Congress Lawmaking • British agents were also active along the northern frontier. Along the northernborder, the redcoats continued to hold a chain of trading posts on U.S. soil, and there maintained their fur trade with the Indians. One excuse for remaining was the American failure to honor the treaty of peace regarding debts and Loyalists. But the main purpose of Britain remaining was probably to curry favor with the Indians and keep them on the side of the King as a barrier against future American attacks on Canada. • Spain was openly unfriendly to the new republic. It controlled the mouth of the Mississippi down which the pioneers of Tennessee and Kentucky floated their produce. In 1784, Spain closed the river to American commerce, threatening the West with strangulation. Spain also schemed with Indian tribes against the American settlers. • Spain and Britain together prevented America from exercising effective control over about half of its total territory.

10. Shay’s Rebellion • In western Massachusetts in 1786, impoverished rural farmers were losing their farms through mortgage foreclosures and being delinquent on their taxes. Many of these farmers were Revolutionary War veterans. These desperate farmers were led by Captain Daniel Shays, also a war veteran. • Shays and the farmersdemanded cheap paper money, lighter taxes, and a suspension of foreclosures on property. Hundreds of these protesters picked up their muskets and attempted to enforce their demands.

11. Shay’s Rebellion • Massachusetts authorities responded by raising a small army to bring in Shays and end the rebellion. Several small skirmishes occurred ending with three of Shays supporters being killed and one being wounded and the movement collapsing. • Even though therebellion did not accomplish much, it sent a shockwave throughout the rest of the nation especially among the wealthy. The elite felt that republicanism had led to an insatiable appetite for liberty, whatever the cost. Many felt that a stronger central government was needed to put an end to further “rebellions”. • Many felt that the Articles of Confederation did need some strengthening. The problem lay with how much strengthening to do. It ended up being a struggle to balance states’ rights and a strong central government.

12. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 • In late 1786, Alexander Hamilton of New York called upon Congress to summon a convention to meet in Philadelphia the following year to deal with amending the Articles of Confederation. • On May 25, 1787, 55 delegates representing all of the colonies, except Rhode Island, met in Philadelphia in the small state house (Independence Hall). Sessions were held in secret with guards posted at the doors. The delegates knew that they might have very heated differences and they did not want to leak those differences to the public and cause further problems. • Most of the delegates were lawyers with previous experience with constitution making in their own states. George Washington was elected to be the chairman of the convention. Most of the Revolutionary leaders were absent (Jefferson, Adams, Thomas Paine, and Patrick Henry).

13. Convention 1787 • Delegates were determined to preserve the unionand ensure security of life and property against dangerous uprisings by the “mobocracy.” Above all they sought to curb the unrestrained democracy rampant in the various states. • The “Bundle of Compromises” (The Constitution) • Some of the delegates decided that the best way to fix the Articles of Confederation was to get rid of them entirely. One of those delegates was James Madison of Virginia. Madison proposed what became known as the Virginia Plan or the “large state plan.”

14. Convention 1787 • The VirginiaPlancalledfor (large state plan) a bicameral Congress (two-house) with representation in those houses based on a states population. This would give the large states a huge advantage. • The small states interests were defended by the New Jersey Plan or the “small state plan.” This plan called for equal representation in a unicameral (one-house) Congress. • These two competing plans threatened to tear the convention apart unless a compromise could be worked out. After much debate the “Great Compromise” was hammered out and agreed upon. • In the Compromise, there would be a bicameral Congress with representation in the lower house (House of Representatives) based on a states population. In the upper house (Senate) each state would be represented equally, and each state would have two Senators.

15. Convention 1787 • The slave states agreed to a three-fifths compromise for counting their slaves. The importation of slaves was also set by the convention to end in 1807. • On September 17, 1787, only 42 of the original 55 members of the convention remained to sign the Constitution. No members of the convention were completely happy about the new document.

16. Federalists and Antifederalists • The framers of the Constitution knew that unanimous ratification of the Constitution would be nearly impossible. • Each state was to hold a special ratifying convention. The framers stipulated that when 9 of the 13 states ratified the Constitution it would become the law of the land and the Articles of Confederation would cease. • When the new Constitution was announced, the public were astonished. They had expected to have the Articles revised, not scrapped. The nation quickly divided in to two main groups, Federalists who supported the new document and a stronger central government and Antifederalists who were against it.

17. Federalists and Anti-Federalists • The antifederalists were led by revolutionaries like Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry. Their followers were primarily farmers and states-rights advocates and those of the poorest social classes. Many of these thought that the federal government would force them to pay off their debts. • Antifederalists declared that state sovereignty was being challenged. Their biggest complaint was that the Constitution as it was drafted had no bill of rights. • The federalists had the support of people like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. They consisted of those with more education and more wealth. They were also better organized and they controlled the press.

18. State Debates and Ratification • Delaware was the first state to ratify the new constitution with three other small states following closely (NJ, GA, CT). Pennsylvania was the second state to ratify and the first large state. By June 21, 1788 New Jersey became the ninth state to ratify and the constitution became law. All but Virginia, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island had ratified. Debate raged in the two large states with Virginia providing the most antifederalist opposition. • Washington, Madison, and John Marshall lent support and pushed through the ratification 89-79. In New York, Alexander Hamilton influenced the debates in the convention with his eloquent speeches in favor of the document. New York ratified shortly after Virginia and the new government was secured. • Hamilton, Madison and John Jay were also influential with their combined authorship of The Federalist (Federalist Papers). These articles which appeared in newspapers around the nation explained how the new constitution and government would work.

19. State Debates and Ratification • Independent minded Rhode Island and North Carolina finally ratified the Constitution and joined the nation only after the new government had been in operation for some months. The last four states to ratify did it because they had to, not because they wanted to. They could not safely exist outside of the new nation.