E Pluribus Unum

The Formation of the American Republic

1776 - 1790

Vital Questions of 1776

Could war be averted?Could the empire be held together?● Colonial Patriots had seized control of the military● Royal governors had fled● Local assemblies had established themselves as de facto

governing bodiesPractical Question:● Shall independence be declared immediately?

Underlying Question:● Is man rational and virtuous or is he evil?● Can man be trusted or not?

Original Sin

Republicans

Man is good and can be trusted.

Two basic groups● New Englanders (John Adams, Sam Adams, John Hancock)

● Southerners (Richard Henry Lee, Arthur Lee, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson)

● Considered themselves as the part of Congress possessing “forwardness and zeal”

● Thomas Paine: “… give the people the truth, and freedom to discuss it, and all will go well.”

Original Sin

NationalistsMan is evil and cannot be trusted to do right.

Three basic groups● Pennsylvania (Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson)●New York● South Carolina low country (John Rutledge, Thomas

Lynch)●Considered themselves as “the sensible part” of

Congress●Alexander Hamilton: “… the safest reliance of every

government” is not the goodness of the people, but “men’s interest.”

Republicanism or Nationalism

1763 – 1773 Nationalists led the resistance against the British.

With the beginning of hostilities, by 1776, the Republicans replaced the Nationalists as leaders and declared British authority as nonexistent.

The Republicans did nothing to create a union or a government.

Pendulum begins to swing back and forth between the two groups for the next eleven years.

Republicans

Early American republicanism was a political theory based on the traditional idea of Republican Virtue. Men such as Thomas Jefferson, John and Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry believed that the individual citizen should be willing to sacrifice himself and his personal good for the good of others. They believed that people were basically good and, given the truth and freedom to discuss the truth, that they would do what was right. Republicans believed in the concept of a nation only secondarily.

Nationalists

Early American nationalism was a political theory based on the idea of a strong central governing authority. Men such as Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, John Rutledge and Alexander Hamilton believed that men would always revert to seeking their own interests first. They believed that man was basically selfish and self-centered – evil. Therefore men required a strong governing body to force them to live peaceably with one another and follow the established law of the land. They believed in the nation first and in republicanism only secondarily.

Threats to Nationalism

On 7 June 1776 Richard Henry Lee moved that Congress declare independence.Militarily this was a sound decision because British troops did not occupy a single foot in the colonies.Politically, however, the colonies were themselves in disarray because of:● State Jealousy●Absence of a quorum in Congress● Patriotism depended on the nearness of the enemy●Varied Colonial goals

State Jealousy

John Dickinson proposed a draft of Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union which led to the debate concerning several points between various groups of states.●Voting in Congress – equal or proportional voting● Taxation – should tax quotas be based on population or

land●Colonial boundaries – should Congress be able to limit

the bounds of the colonies and therefore dispose of all western lands separated from the states “for the general benefit of all.”

Quorum

Even the debates over state jealousy had to be suspended after a month because of a lack of a quorum.

Seven to eight months would pass before Congress could count on a regularly assembled quorum.

During those months more urgent matters precluded consideration of the formation of a permanent government.

Patriotism

When threatened by the close proximity of the enemy interest in a government peaked in an effort for that government to do something – anything.

With General Howe’s evacuation of Boston, rage and enthusiasm around Boston declined.

New York, occupied from September 1776 to November 1783, proved consistently nationalistic.

The Carolina’s were dedicated advocates of state sovereignty until the British invasion of 1779-80.

The Article of Confederation

Each state retained “sovereignty, freedom, and independence”

Structure:Unicameral legislature (1 vote per state)No executive to carry out laws (president)

No judiciary

Major decisions required super majority of 9 statesPowers limited to those necessary to carry on war:

Declare warConduct foreign affairs

Make treaties

Could not levy taxes or regulate tradeAmendments required unanimous consents of all states

Colonial Claims

The Northwest Ordinance

Established stages of settlement

Called for creation of 3 - 5 new states• Admitted when

population reached specified size

• Territorial expansion and self-government would grow together

Prohibited slavery in Old Northwest

America’s Advantages

Vast size

Isolation from Europe’s struggles

Youthful, dynamic population

Broad distribution of property & literacy among white population

America’s Disadvantages

Did not have effective control of much of its vast territory

Population concentrated along Atlantic coast

Western lands remained in Indians’ hands

Primitive communication & transportation networks

Overwhelmingly rural population

Unity difficult due to population’s diversity

Profound Questions

What course of development should the U.S. follow?

How would competing claims be balanced?

Who should be considered full-fledged members of the American people?

Institutional Inequalities

Society (many believed) depended on power of:●Rulers over subjects

●Husbands over wives

● Parents over children

● Employers over servants and apprentices

● Slaveholders over slaves

Divergent Voices

“It is ridiculous to think that every silly clown and illiterate mechanic deserves a voice in government.” – a conservative elite

“We are all, from the cobbler up to the senator, become politicians.” – a Boston artisan

“Suffrage is a right essential to and inseparable from freedom.” – disfranchised North Carolinians

The Right to Vote

Least democratic change (Southern states)●VA & SC retained property qualification for voting

●VA & SC, legislature chose governor

●MD high property qualifications for office holders

Most democratic change (Northern states)●VT removed all property & tax qualifications

● PA removed property qualifications

Civic Virtue

Thomas Jefferson“No nation can expect to be ignorant and free.”

Early Calls for Emancipation

Benjamin Rush (1773) – “Advocates of American liberty must espouse the cause of . . . general liberty. Slavery is a national crime that will one day bring national punishment.”

Thomas Jefferson (1779) – “Slavery every day imposes on its victims more misery, than ages of that which we rose in rebellion to oppose.”

Varied Colonial Goals

While all – or at least most – espoused the rights of Englishmen and the rights of man, different colonies supported the revolution while pursuing different goals.

Failure to obtain the individual colonial goals Union and Independence would be a barren gain at best.

Ownership of western lands, more than anything else, blocked ratification of the Articles.

Pennsylvania and Maryland were limited by their charters and both felt a need for addition territory.

Following the revolution sectionalism and individualism characterized the outlook of the newly recognized states.

Middle StatesNew York: strong, energetic and

ably led with a sound economy – ready to secede

Pennsylvania: should have prospered but was internally fractured on again and off again

New Jersey: divided between east and west, economy in shambles – ready for a strong union\

Delaware: little debt but dependent on New York and Pennsylvania – strongly union

Southern StatesMaryland: strongly

nationalistic because of potential gains

Virginia: unconcerned as long as Virginia was dominant

North Carolina: indifferentSouth Carolina: tended to

nationalism though it had little to gain

Georgia: indifferent

New EnglandMassachusetts: Shrewd traders, with no place

to trade following the war; split between Bostonians and westerners; Bostonians wanted energetic government, westerners did not

New Hampshire: Who knows??? Most interested in being left alone – State Constitution passed by default – Two men in charge: winner nationalistic but no one really cares

Rhode Island: Different, prosperous, secessionist and ostracized – concerned mainly with Rhode Island.

Connecticut: Highly nationalistic largely because the state economy and future prospects were in the dumps

Congressional Concerns

Beginning in 1785 Congress began to address three problem areas:● Public Debts● Public Lands●Regulation of Commerce.

All three play into the hands of the nationalists.●New Board of Treasury made up entirely of

nationalists●Massachusetts debt ridden and internally divided●Virginia dreamed of becoming a tobacco planters

haven

Mt. Vernon ConferenceSpring 1785 – Virginia and Maryland appoint commissioners to draw up a bistate agreement

concerning the use of the Potomac and Pocomoke Rivers and Chesapeake Bay.This conference weakened the quest for a stronger union.

● Worked outside the Confederation to settle interstate commercial problems● Five participants were not enthusiastic about the union.

o Samuel Chase – Marylando Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer – Marylando Thomas Stone – Marylando Alexander Henderson – Virginiao George Mason – Virginia

Moved from Alexandria Virginia to Washington’s home at Mount Vernon.Participants agree to:

● Bi-state control of the waterways● Recommend to their respective state governments that another convention be held to establish a

state navy on the Chesapeake and –● Schedule a uniform, state enacted tariff for the area.

Both Virginia and Maryland ratify the agreement by November 1785.Maryland then proposes another multi-state compact with Pennsylvania and Delaware.Meanwhile, between October 1, 1785 and January 31, 1786 Congress can conduct business on

only 10 days because of a lack of quorum – there were never more than seven states represented at any one time during this period.

Between October 1, 1785 and April 30, 1786 the minimum required state representatives (9) were present only three days.

Annapolis Convention

By September 1786, the Congress had ceased to function and on the 11th the Annapolis Convention opened.

With no quorum present nationalists prevented a quorum from being permitted.

This small band of men had previously decided to declare efforts to repair commercial difficulties hopeless and then call for a full-fledged constitution convention.

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Dickinson conspired to work around a congress that did not trust its own members and would never call for a convention to revise the Articles because they feared stronger general government control yet despised the states and guarded their own prerogative even though they had no power.

New England in an UproarEconomic woes on New England during 1786

proceed from bad to worse spreading from Massachusetts to New Hampshire.

Shay’s RebellionLate 1786-early 1787

Led by Daniel Shays, a rev. war veteran

Debt-ridden farmers

Closed courts to prevent land foreclosures

MA governor used army to suppress

Stoked fears of “excess liberty”

Thomas Jefferson:“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. …God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.”