172 CHAJYfER9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776-1790

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TERRITORY

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_ Boundary of territory cededby New York, 1782

D Territory cededby Virginia, 1784

D Territory cededby Georgia, 1802

c:=J Other claims

DOriginal thirteen statesafter their cessions Western Land

Cessions to theUnited States.1782-1802

Gulf of Mexico D States without land claims

Fertile public lands thus transferred to the centralgovernment proved to be an invaluable bond of union.The states that had thrown their heritage into thecommon pot had to remain in the Union if they were toreap their share of the advantages from the land sales.An army of westward-moving pioneers purchased theirfarms from the federal government, directly or indirectly,and they learned to look to the national capital, ratherthan to the state capitals-with a consequent weakeningof local influence. Finally, a uniform national land policywas made possible.

The Articles of Confederation:America's First Constitution

The Articles of Confederation-some have said "Articlesof Confusion" -provided for a loose confederation or"firm league of friendship." Thirteen independent stateswere thus linked together for joint action in dealing withcommon problems, such as foreign affairs. A clumsyCongress was to be the chief agency of government.

There was no executive branch-George III had left abad taste-and the vital judicial arm was left almostexclusively to the states.

Congress, though dominant, was securely hobbled.Each state had a single vote, so that some sixty-eightthousand Rhode Islanders had the same voice as morethan ten times that many Virginians. All bills dealingwith subjects of importance required the support ofnine states; any amendment of the Articles themselvesrequired unanimous ratification. Unanimity was almostimpossible, and this meant that the amending process,perhaps fortunately, was unworkable. If it had beenworkable, the Republic might have struggled along witha patched-up Articles of Confederation rather thanreplace it with an effective Constitution.

The shackled Congress was weak-and was pur-posely designed to be weak. Suspicious states, havingjust won control over taxation and commerce fromBritain, had no desire to yield their newly acquiredprivileges to an American parliament-even one of theirown making.

Two handicaps of Congress were crippling. It hadno power to regulate commerce, and this loophole leftthe states free to establish different, and often conflicting,laws regarding tariffs and navigation. Nor could Congressenforce its tax-collection program. It established a taxquota for each of the states and then asked them pleaseto contribute their share on a voluntary basis. Thecentral authority-a "government by supplication"-was lucky if in any year it received one-fourth of itsrequests.

The feeble national government in Philadelphiacould advise and advocate and appeal. But in dealingwith the independent states, it could not command orcoerce or control. It could not act directly upon theindividual citizens of a sovereign state; it could not evenprotect itself against gross indignities. In 1783a group ofmutinous Pennsylvania soldiers, whose pay was inarrears, marched to Philadelphia and made a threateningdemonstration in front of Independence Hall. AfterCongress appealed in vain to the state for protection,its members fled to safety at Princeton College in NewJersey.The new Congress, with all its paper powers, waseven less effective than the old Continental Congress,which wielded no constitutional powers at all.

Yetthe Articles of Confederation, weak though theywere, proved to be a landmark in government. Theywere for those days a model ofwhat a loose confederationought to be. Thomas Jefferson enthusiastically hailedthe new structure as the best one "existing or that everdid exist."Tocompare it with the European governments,he thought, was like comparing "heaven and hell."

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A Crippled Confederation 173

Stotehouse in 1778,from a drawing by CharlesWillson Peale, by William L.Breton, c. 1830Originally built in the 1730sas a meeting place forthe Pennsylvania colonial assembly, this buildingwitnessed much history: here Washington was givencommand of the Continental Army, the Declaration ofIndependence was signed, and the Constitution washammered out. The building began to be called"Independence Hall" in the 1820s.

But although the Confederation was praiseworthy asconfederations went, the troubled times demanded nota loosely woven confederation but a tightly knit federa-tion. This involved the yielding by the states of theirsovereignty to a completely recast federal government,which in turn would leave them free to control theirlocal affairs.

In spite of their defects, the anemic Articles ofConfederation were a significant steppingstone towardthe present Constitution. They clearly outlined thegeneral powers that were to be exercised by the centralgovernment, such as making treaties and establishing apostal service. As the first written constitution of theRepublic, the Articles kept alive the flickering ideal ofunion and held the states together-until such timeas they were ripe for the establishment of a strongconstitution by peaceful, evolutionary methods. Withoutthis intermediary jump, the states probably wouldnever have consented to the breathtaking leap from theold boycott Association of 1774 to the Constitution ofthe United States.

174 CHAPTER9 TheConfederationand the Constitution, 1776-1790

Landmarks in Land LawsHandcuffed though the Congress of the Confederationwas, it succeeded in passing supremely farsightedpieces of legislation. These related to an immense partof the public domain recently acquired from the statesand commonly known as the Old Northwest. This areaof land lay northwest of the Ohio River, east of theMississippi River,and south of the Great Lakes.

The first of these red-letter laws was the Land Ordi-nance of 1785. It provided that the acreage of the OldNorthwest should be sold and that the proceeds shouldbe used to help payoff the national debt. The vast areawas to be surveyed before sale and settlement, thusforestalling endless confusion and lawsuits. It was to bedivided into townships six miles square, each of whichin turn was to be split into thirty-six sections of onesquare mile each. The sixteenth section of each town-ship was set aside to be sold for the benefit of the publicschools-a priceless gift to education in the Northwest.The orderly settlement of the Northwest Territory,wherethe land was methodically surveyed and titles dulyrecorded, contrasted sharply with the chaos south of theOhio River, where uncertain ownership was the normand fraud was rampant.

Even more noteworthy was the Northwest Ordi-nance of 1787,which related to the governing of the OldNorthwest. This law came to grips with the problem ofhow a nation should deal with its colonies-the sameproblem that had bedeviled the king andParliament inLondon.The solutionprovidedby the NorthwestOrdinancewas a judicious compromise: temporary tutelage, thenpermanent equality. First, there would be two evolu-tionary territorial stages, during which the area wouldbe subordinate to the federal government. Then, when aterritory could boast sixty thousand: inhabitants, itmight be admitted by Congress as a state, with all theprivileges of the thirteen charter members. (This isprecisely what the Continental Congress had promisedthe states when they surrendered their lands in 1781.)Theordinance also forbade slavery in the Old Northwest-apath-breaking step, though it exempted slaves alreadypresent. .

The wisdom of Congress in handling this explosiveproblem (feserves warm praise. If it had attempted tochain the new territories in permanent subordination, asecond American Revolution almost certainly wouldhave erupted in later years, fought this time by the Westagainst the East. Congress thus neatly solved the seem-ingly insoluble problem of empire. The scheme workedso well that its basic principles were ultimately carriedover from the OldNorthwest to other frontier areas.

Surveying the Old Northwest Sections of a township under the Land Ordinance of 1785.

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The World"sUgly Duckling

Foreign relations, especiallywith London, remained trou-bled during these anxious years of the Confederation.Britain resented the stab in the back from its rebelliousoffspring and for eight years refused to send a minister toAmerica's "backwoods" capital. London suggested, withbarbed irony, that if it sent one, it would have to sendthirteen.

Britain flatly declined to make a commercial treatyor to repeal its ancient Navigation Laws. Lord Sheffield,whose ungenerous views prevailed, argued persuasivelyin a widely sold pamphlet that Britain would win backAmerica's trade anyhow. Commerce, he insisted, wouldnaturally follow old channels. So why go to the Ameri-cans hat in hand? The British also officially closed theirprofitable West Indies trade to the United States, thoughthe Yankees, with their time-tested skill in smuggling,illegallypartook nonetheless.

Scheming British agents were also active alongthe far-flung northern frontier. They intrigued with thedisgruntled Allen brothers of Vermont and sought toannex that rebellious area to Britain. Along the northernborder, the redcoats continued to hold a chain oftradingposts on U.S. soil, and there they maintained their furtrade with the Indians. One plausible excuse for remain-ing was the failure of the American states to honor thetreaty of peace in regard to debts and Loyalists. But themain purpose of Britain in hanging on was probably tocurry favor with the Indians and keep their tomahawkslined up on the side of the king as a barrier againstfuture American attacks on Canada.

Allthese grievances against Britain were maddeningto patriotic Americans. Some citizens demanded, withmore heat than wisdom, that the United States force theBritish into line by imposing restrictions on theirimports to America. But Congress could not controlcommerce, and the states refused to adopt a uniformtariff policy. Some "easy states" deliberately loweredtheir tariffs in order to attract an unfair share of trade.

Spain, though recently an enemy of Britain, wasopenly unfriendly to the new Republic. It controlledthe mouth of the all-important Mississippi, down whichthe pioneers of Tennessee and Kentucky were forcedto float their produce. In 1784 Spain closed the river toAmerican commerce, threatening the West with stran-gulation. Spain likewise claimed a large area north ofthe Gulf of Mexico, including Florida, granted to theUnited States by the British in 1783. At atchez, on

Troubled Foreign Relations 175

BRITISH CANADA

D Area disputed bySpain and U.S.

..- British influence

..- Spanish influence

Main Centers of Spanish and British InfluenceAfter 1783 This map shows graphically that theUnited States in 1783achieved complete inde-pendence in name only, particularly in the areawest of the Appalachian Mountains. Not untiltwenty years had passed did the new Republic,with the purchase of Louisiana from France in1803,eliminate foreign influence from the areaeast of the Mississippi River.

disputed soil, it held an important fort. It also schemedwith the neighboring Indians, grievously antagonizedby the rapacious land policies of Georgia and NorthCarolina, to hem in the Americans east of theAppalachians. Spain and Britain together, radiatingtheir influence out among resentful Indian tribes, pre-vented America from exercising effective control overabout half of its total territory.

Even France, America's comrade-in-arms, cooledoff now that it had humbled Britain. The Frenchdemanded the repayment of money loaned during thewar and restricted trade with their bustling West Indiesand other ports.

Pirates of the North African states, including thearrogant Dey of Algiers, were ravaging America's

176 CHAPTER9 TheConfederationand the Constitution, 1776-1790

Mediterranean commerce and enslaving Yankee sailors.The British purchased protection for their own subjects,and as colonists the Americans had enjoyed this shield.But as an independent nation, the United States was tooweak to fight and too poor to bribe. AfewYankeeshippersengaged in the Mediterranean trade with forged Britishprotection papers, but not allwere so bold or so lucky.

John Jay, secretary for foreign affairs, derived somehollow satisfaction from these insults. He hoped theywould at least humiliate the American people into framinga new government at home that would be strongenough to command respect abroad.

The Horrid Specterof Anarchy

Economic storm clouds continued to loom in the mid-1780s. The requisition system of raising money wasbreaking down; some of the states refused to pay any-thing, while complaining bitterly about the tyranny of"KingCongress."Interest on the public debt was piling upat home, and the nation's credit was evaporating abroad.

Individual states were getting out of hand. Quarrelsover boundaries generated numerous minor pitchedbattles. Some of the states were levying duties on goodsfrom their neighbors; NewYork,for example, taxed fire-wood from Connecticut and cabbages from New Jersey.A number of the states were again starting to grind outdepreciated paper currency, and a few of them had

Social tensions reached a fever pitch duringShays's Rebellion in 1787. In an interviewwith a local Massachusetts paper, instigatorDaniel Shays (1747-1825) explained how thedebt- ridden farmers hoped tofree themselvesfrom the demands of a merchant-dominatedgovernment. The rebels would seize arms and"march directly to Boston, plunder it,and then ... destroy the nest of devils,who by their influence, make the Courtenact what they please. burn it and laythe town of Boston in ashes."

Debtors Protest, 1787 This drawing done on the eveof the writing of the U.S. Constitution features a farmerwith a plough, rake, and bottle complaining, "Takesall to pay taxes." The discontent of debt-rich andcurrency-poor farmers alarmed republican leadersand helped persuade them that the Articles ofConfederation needed to be replaced with anew constitution.

passed laws sanctioning the semiworthless "rag money."Asa contemporary rhymester put it,

Bankrupts their creditors with rage pursue;No stop, no mercy from the debtor crew.

An alarming uprising, known as Shays's Rebellion,flared up in western Massachusetts in 1786.Impoverishedbackcountry farmers, many of them Revolutionary Warveterans, were losing their farms through mortgage fore-closures and tax delinquencies. Led by Captain DanielShays, a veteran of the Revolution, these desperatedebtors demanded that the state issue paper money,lighten taxes, and suspend property takeovers. Hundredsof angry agitators, again seizing their muskets, attemptedto enforce their demands.

Massachusetts authorities responded with drasticaction. Supported partly by contributions from wealthycitizens, they raised a small army. Several skirmishesoccurred-at Springfield three Shaysites were killed, andone was wounded-and the movement collapsed. DanielShays, who believed that he was fighting anew againsttyranny,was condemned to death but was later pardoned.

Shayss followerswere crushed-but the nightmarishmemory lingered on. The Massachusetts legislature

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soon passed debtor-relief laws of the kind Shays hadchampioned, seemingly confirming Thomas Jefferson'sfear of "democratic despotism." "Anelective despotismwas not the government we fought for," Jefferson wrote.The outbursts of Shays and other distressed debtorsstruck fear in the hearts of the propertied class, whobegan to suspect that the Revolution had created amonster of "mobocracy." Unbridled republicanism, itseemed to many of the elite, had fed an insatiableappetite for liberty that was fast becoming license. Civicvirtue was no longer sufficient to rein in self-interestand greed. It had become "undeniably evident," oneskeptic sorrowfully lamented, "that some malignantdisorder has seized upon our body politic." If republi-canism was too shaky a ground upon which to constructa new nation, a stronger central government wouldprovide the needed foundation. A few panicky citizenseven talked of importing a European monarch to carryon where George III had failed.

How critical were conditions under the Confedera-tion? Conservatives, anxious to safeguard their wealthand position, naturally exaggerated the seriousness ofthe nation's plight. They were eager to persuade theirfellowcitizens to amend the Articles of Confederation infavor of a muscular central government. But the poorerstates' rights people pooh-poohed the talk of anarchy.Many were debtors who feared that a powerful federalgovernment would force them to pay their creditors.

Yet friends and critics of the Confederation agreedthat it needed some strengthening. Popular toasts were"Cement to the Union" and "Ahoop to the barrel." Thechief differences arose over how this goal should beattained and how a maximum degree of states' rightscould be reconciled with a strong central government.America probably could have muddled through some-how with amended Articles of Confederation. But theadoption of a completely new constitution certainlyspared the Republic much costly indecision, uncertainty,and turmoil.

The nationwide picture was actually brighteningbefore the Constitution was drafted. Nearly half thestates had not issued semiworthless paper currency,and some of the monetary black sheep showed signs ofreturning to the sound-money fold. Prosperity wasbeginning to emerge from the fog of depression. By1789overseas shipping had largely regained its place inthe commercial world. If conditions had been as grim in1787as painted by foes of the Articles of Confederation,the move for a new constitution would hardly haveencountered such heated opposition.

The Constitutional Convention 177

A Conventionof "Demigods··

Control of commerce, more than any other problem,touched off the chain reaction that led to a constitu-tional convention. Interstate squabbling over this issuehad become so alarming by 1786 that Virginia, takingthe lead, issued a call for a convention at Annapolis,Maryland. Nine states appointed delegates, but onlyfive were finally represented. With so laughable ashowing, nothing could be done about the ticklishquestion of commerce. A charismatic New Yorker,thirty-one-year-old Alexander Hamilton, brilliantlysaved the convention from complete failure by engi-neering the adoption of his report. It called uponCongress to summon a convention to meet inPhiladelphia the next year, not to deal with commercealone; but to bolster the entire fabric of the Articles ofConfederation.

Congress, though slowly and certainly dying in NewYorkCity,was reluctant to take a step that might hastenits day of reckoning. But after six of the states had seizedthe bit in their teeth and appointed delegates anyhow,Congress belatedly issued the call for a convention "forthe sale and express purpose of revising" the Articlesof Confederation.

Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) clearlyrevealed his preference for an aristocraticgovernment in his Philadelphia speech (1787):"All communities divide themselvesinto the few and the many. The firstare the rich and wellborn, the otherthe mass of the people .... The peopleare turbulent and changing; they seldomjudge or determine right. Give thereforeto the first class a distinct permanentshare in the government. They will checkthe unsteadiness of the second, and asthey cannot receive any advantage bychange, they therefore will ever maintaingood government."