Revolution to

New Nation

Articles of Confederation

• Committee appointed to draft this “constitution” before the Declaration of Independence

• Adopted by Congress 1777

• Finally ratified by all 13 states in 1781

• Conflict between “land-rich” and “land-hungry” states

• Agreement to turn western lands to “common cause”; provision to create new “republican states,” NOT colonies

Articles of Confederation-

-Weaknesses

• No executive branch

• Judicial branch in state governments

only

• Each state had equal votes in Congress,

regardless of population

• Amendment by unanimous vote only

• Congress could not regulate commerce; states had

conflicting laws and were printing their own money

• No means of enforcing tax collection (or many other things)

Articles of Confederation-

-Strengths

• Congress could make and enforce

treaties

• Congress could establish a postal

service

• Effectively held states together from

Continental Congress to Constitution

• Land Ordinance of 1785, Northwest

Ordinance of 1787 provided a

process for admitting new states

Domestic

Issues/Circumstances

• Country is growing

• Conflict: Shays’

Rebellion (poor

western farmers in

MA, protesting taxes)

Constitution

• Constitutional Convention: May-September 1787

• Secret proceedings

• 55 delegates, 12 states (not Rhode Island)

• Conservative, wealthy, educated

• Goal: Preserve and strengthen new nation; ensure security (foreign and domestic)

• Articles of Confederation required unanimous ratification to be amended. Therefore, framers stipulated creation of new document, not amendment. When 9 states ratified, Constitution became supreme law in those states.

Constitution--Agreement

• Stronger government than that provided by Articles

• Three branches, checks and balances

• Opposition to universal manhood suffrage

• Popular sovereignty

• Limited government

Constitution--Controversies

• Virginia Plan vs. New Jersey Plan

• Great Compromise

• Direct election of President

• Electoral College; if tie decision by House of Representatives

• Should slaves be counted in population?

• 3/5 Compromise

• Abolition of slave trade

• Postponed to 1807

Constitution--Ratification

• Debate between federalists (Washington, Franklin,

Madison, Hamilton—wealthy, educated, organized) vs.

anti-federalists (Samuel Adams, R.H. Lee, Patrick

Henry—poorer classes, debtors)

• Federalist Papers (see # 10): “Extensive Republic”

Ratification--Antifederalists

Opposed ratification (Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson)

• Gov’t will be too big—• Population too large for everyone’s interests to be

represented

• Too diverse--U.S. has different climates, economic interests

• Republics should be composed of people with similar interests, beliefs

●When republics expand, they become tyrannical

● Impossible to protect the “public good” if the community is too large

Ratification: Federalists

Favored Ratification (Hamilton, Madison, John Jay)

• Federalist Papers

• Factions—political group; small or large group of citizens who

share ideas, “adverse to the rights of other citizens” or to the

interests of the community

• Republic vs. Democracy—Democracy requires smaller, more

exclusive group in order to function. Republic allows

representation of everyone

• Extensive Republic—larger population allows broader range of

ideas

Summary

• Antifederalists—It is better to

have 13 small republics; the US

is too big to function as one

republic; the government will

become tyrannical

• Federalists—Only a strong

central government can prevent

the development of factions and

protect the interest of the

community as a whole

• Bill of Rights=compromise: it

protected individuals from

tyranny by the government

Constitution--Ratification

• Bill of Rights—demanded by antifederalists;

promised by federalists

• Four states (VA, NY, NC, RI)—realized they

could not stand alone outside the new United

States

• Liberty vs. Order OR Liberty plus Order

America 1750

Maps 1754-1763

U.S. 1800

International

Issues/Circumstances

• No longer able to depend on British products, so US must

increase domestic production

• Spain closed access to Mississippi River (1784)

• Britain still enforcing Navigation Laws until Jay’s Treaty

(1794)

• French Revolution (1789-99), opposed by federalists;

antifederalists were sympathetic

• Washington issued Neutrality Proclamation (1793), which kept

US out of conflict between France and Britain (supported by

Federalists)

Social Outcomes--Women

• Women could not vote in national elections; could vote in some states for a little while

• Women could not own land unless inherited, but then it transferred to husband

• More equality in marriage than earlier, but still husbands had far more power

• Abigail Adams— “republican motherhood”

• Fewer children

• Greater responsibility for welfare of family and education of children

• Preserving virtue

Social Outcomes--

Minorities

• Slaves not given citizenship

• Slaves considered 3/5 person for census purposes

• No individual rights

What the Constitution

doesn’t say

• Bill of Rights

• 9th Amendment

• “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not

be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the

people.”

• 10th Amendment

• The powers not delegated to the United States by the

Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to

the States respectively, or to the people

Washington’s Farewell

Address (1796)

• Set precedent of no more than two terms for executive

• Urged patriotism—loyalty to country above region or

faction (including political parties)

• Urged avoidance of international entanglements

Washington’s Farewell

Address

• The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

• But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.

Factions

• Political Parties—crystallized by 1796:

• Federalists:

• Washington, Hamilton, Jay

• Merchants, creditors, Tidewater slaveholders

• Democratic-Republicans:

• Jefferson, Madison

• Tobacco/rice producers, western farmers, small farmers

Party Conflicts

• XYZ Affair

• Federalists—pro-British/anti-French?

• Attempted bribery of American diplomats by French

• Congress cut off trade with France, authorized privateering

• Naturalization, Alien and Sedition Acts

• Lengthened residency requirements for citizenship

• Authorized deportation of foreigners

• Prohibited publication of insults or malicious attacks on President or members of Congress

• Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

Revolution of 1800

• Presidential election

• Jefferson (Democratic-Republican) vs. Adams

(Federalist)

• Aaron Burr (D-R)—Jefferson’s running mate

• Tie vote in electoral college

• House of Representatives decides

• 35 rounds of voting

• Hamilton finally convinced Federalists to choose Jefferson over

Burr

Attack Ads 1800