Confederation to Constitution 221

ONE AMERICAN’S STORYIn 1775, Daniel Boone and 30 woodsmen cut

a road over the Appalachian Mountains into

Kentucky. After about 250 miles, they arrived

in a meadow along the banks of the

Kentucky River. Felix Walker, a member of

Boone’s party, described what they saw.

A VOICE FROM THE PAST

On entering the plain we were permitted to view avery interesting and romantic sight. A number ofbuffaloes . . . between two and three hundred,made off. . . . Such a sight some of us never sawbefore, nor perhaps ever may again.

Felix Walker, quoted in The Life and Adventures of Daniel Boone

In the late 1700s, most Americans thought of Kentucky as the wild

frontier. Some, like Boone, looked at the frontier and saw a world of

opportunity. Exploring and governing these lands was one of the many

challenges facing the new government of the United States.

Moving WestThe trail into Kentucky that Daniel Boone helped build was called theWilderness Road. This road was not easy to travel. It was too narrow forcarts or wagons, but it became the main road into Kentucky. The settlerscame on foot or on horseback. Settlers were drawn to Kentucky’s richriver valleys, where few Native Americans lived. But some NativeAmericans, such as the Shawnee, did live, hunt, and fish in the area.

Tensions between Native Americans and settlers led to violent con-frontations. But the settlers did not stop coming. By the early 1790s, about100,000 Americans lived there. While settlers headed into the Westernterritories, the people in the East began to create new state governments.

The Confederation Era

11

MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW TERMS & NAMES

The Articles of Confederation were

too weak to govern the nation after

the war ended.

The weakness of the Articles of

Confederation led to the writing of

the U.S. Constitution.

Wilderness Road

republic

Articles ofConfederation

Land Ordinance of 1785

Northwest Territory

Northwest Ordinance

Shays’s Rebellion

Problems

Western lands

Postwar depression

Representation in the new government

Slavery

Taking Notes

Use your chart to take notes about the western lands andpostwar depression.

Detail of Daniel BooneEscorting Settlers Through

the Cumberland Gap byGeorge Caleb Bingham.

CALIFORNIA STANDARDS

8.2.2 Analyze the Articles ofConfederation and theConstitution and the success ofeach in implementing the ideals ofthe Declaration of Independence.

8.3.1 Analyze the principles andconcepts codified in state constitu-tions between 1777 and 1781 thatcreated the context out of whichAmerican political institutions andideas developed.

8.3.2 Explain how the ordinances of1785 and 1787 privatized nationalresources and transferred federallyowned lands into private holdings,townships, and states.

8.3.5 Know the significance ofdomestic resistance movementsand ways in which the central gov-ernment responded to such move-ments (e.g., Shays' Rebellion, theWhiskey Rebellion).

8.9.2 Discuss the abolition of slaveryin early state constitutions.

8.9.3 Describe the significance of theNorthwest Ordinance in educationand in the banning of slavery innew states north of the Ohio River.

New State GovernmentsOnce the American colonies declared independence, each of the states setout to create its own government. The framers, or creators, of the stateconstitutions did not want to destroy the political systems that they hadhad as colonies. They simply wanted to make those systems more demo-cratic. Some states experimented with creating separate branches of gov-ernment, giving different powers to different branches. By creatingseparate branches, Americans hoped to prevent the government frombecoming too powerful.

Nearly all states tried to weaken the executive branch. Terms of officewere usually short, and elections were held frequently. Most states madeproperty ownership a requirement for holding office or voting. Some statesbegan passing laws gradually abolishing slavery. In 1783 a court decisionruled that Massachusetts’s 1780 Constitution effectively outlawed slaveryby declaring that “all men are born free and equal.” By 1786 five states hadabolished slavery.

Some states included a bill of rights in their constitutions as a way tokeep the government under control. The idea of a bill of rights camefrom the English Bill of Rights of 1689. This was a list of rights that thegovernment guaranteed to English citizens.

Although not all the states had a bill of rights, all of them did have arepublican form of government. In a republic, the people choose repre-sentatives to govern them.

The Articles of ConfederationWhile the states were setting up their governments, Americans also dis-cussed the form of their national government. During the RevolutionaryWar, Americans realized that they needed to unite to win the waragainst Britain. As Silas Deane, a diplomat from Connecticut, wrote,“United we stand, divided we fall.”

In 1776, the Continental Congress began to develop a plan for anational government. Congress agreed that the government should be arepublic. But the delegates disagreed about whether each state shouldhave one vote or voting should be based on population. They also dis-agreed about whether the national government or the individual statesshould control the lands west of the Appalachians.

The Continental Congress eventually arrived at a final plan, called theArticles of Confederation. In the Articles, the national government hadfew powers, because many Americans were afraid that a strong governmentwould lead to tyranny, or oppressive rule.The national government was runby a Confederation Congress. Each state had only one vote in theCongress. The national government had the power to wage war, makepeace, sign treaties, and issue money.

But the Articles left most important powers to the states. Thesepowers included the authority to set taxes and enforce national laws.The Articles proposed to leave the states in control of the lands west ofthe Appalachian Mountains.

222 CHAPTER 8

BackgroundTwo states,Connecticut andRhode Island,kept their oldcolonial chartersas their constitu-tions. The other11 states wrotenew constitutions.

A. Reading aMap Look at themap on page 223to see whichstates claimedterritories in the West.

The Continental Congress passedthe Articles of Confederation inNovember 1777. It then sent theArticles to the states for ratification, orapproval. By July 1778, eight stateshad ratified the Articles. But some ofthe small states that did not haveWestern land claims refused to sign.

These states felt that unless theWestern lands were placed under thecontrol of the national government, theywould be at a disadvantage. The stateswith Western lands could sell them topay off debts left from the Revolution.But states without lands would have dif-ficulty paying off the high war debts.

Over the next three years, all thestates gave up their claims to Westernlands. This led the small states to ratifythe Articles. In 1781, Maryland becamethe 13th state to accept the Articles. Asa result, the United States finally had anofficial government.

The Northwest OrdinanceOne of the most important questions that the Confederation Congressfaced was what to do with the Western lands that it now controlled.Congress passed important laws on how to divide and govern theselands—the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance(1787). (See Geography in History on pages 226–227.)

The Land Ordinance of 1785 called for surveyors to stake out six-mile-square plots, called townships, in the Western lands. Each town-ship was to set aside a square-mile section of land for schools, markingthe first time the national government promoted public education.These lands later became known as the Northwest Territory. TheNorthwest Territory included land that formed the states of Ohio,Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin and part of Minnesota.

The Northwest Ordinance (1787) described how the NorthwestTerritory was to be governed. As the territory grew in population, itwould gain rights to self-government. When there were 60,000 people,they could apply to become a new state.

The Northwest Ordinance also set conditions for settlement in theNorthwest Territory and outlined the settlers’ rights. Slavery was out-lawed, but indentured servitude still existed, and slaves already in theterritories were not automatically freed. Fugitives were to be returned.The rivers were to be open to navigation by all. Freedom of religion andtrial by jury were guaranteed.

Confederation to Constitution 223

Original 13 statesArea of Westernland claims

0

0

250 Miles

500 Kilometers

40°N

70°W

80°W90°W

30°N

Mis s issippi

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.

A T L A N T I CO C E A N

G u l f o fM e x i c o

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SPANISHPOSSESSIONS

GEORGIA

VA.

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GA.

GA., SPAIN

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VA., N.Y.

VA., N.Y.,

MASS.

N.Y.,N.C.

N.Y.,N.H.

VA.,MASS.

VA., CONN. VA., CONN., N.Y.

DEL.PA.

S.C.

N.C.

N.J.

NEWYORK

N.H.

MASS.

CONN.

MAINE(MASS.)

R.I.MASS.CONN.

MD.

VA.N.Y.

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Maps1. Location Which of the original 13 states had Western

land claims?2. Location To what geographic feature did the

Western land claims extend?

Western Land Claims, 1781

B. Finding MainIdeas Why didthe states with-out Western landclaims want theother states togive up theirclaims?B. Answer Thestates withoutclaims feared thatthe states withclaims would bericher andstronger thanthem.

BackgroundAccording to theNorthwestOrdinance, NativeAmericans wereto be treatedfairly, and theirlands were not to be taken from them.

SkillbuilderAnswers 1. Virginia, NewYork, Massachu-setts, Connecticut,North Carolina,South Carolina,Georgia, and NewHampshire2. Mississippi River

BackgroundAs settlers movedinto the NorthwestTerritory, theycleared thousandsof acres of forest.See the GeographyHandbook,page 17.

The Northwest Ordinance was important because it set a pattern forthe orderly growth of the United States. As the nation grew, it followedthis pattern in territories added after the Northwest Territory. The deci-sion to ban slavery in the Northwest Territory contributed to the grow-ing division between North and South over the practice.

Weaknesses of theArticlesAside from its handling of landissues, however, the ConfederationCongress had few successes. Bythe end of the Revolutionary War,the United States faced seriousproblems, and the ConfederationCongress did not have enoughpower to solve them.

Debt was a critical problem forthe government. Congress had bor-rowed large sums to pay for theRevolutionary War. Much of thatmoney was owed to soldiers of itsown army. Upset at not being paid,several hundred soldiers sur-rounded the Pennsylvania StateHouse where Congress was meet-ing in June 1783. The soldiersthreatened the legislators, thrustingtheir bayonets through the win-dows. The delegates were forced toflee the city. The event was a clearsign of Congress’s weakness.

Even if Congress wanted to paythe soldiers, it did not have the

power to levy taxes. The national government depended on the states tosend money to Congress. But the states sent very little money.

Congress was not alone in facing economic crises. People throughoutthe nation faced hard times. In Massachusetts, the economy was so badthat people rose up in arms against the government.

Shays’s RebellionIn the mid-1780s, Massachusetts faced economic problems, as did otherstates. People had little money, but the state continued to levy high taxes.The average family owed $200 in taxes per year—more money than mostfarmers made. Many Massachusetts farmers fell deeply into debt. Debtlaws at the time were strict. Anyone who could not repay his debts wouldhave his property auctioned off. If the auction didn’t raise enough moneyto settle the debts, the debtor could be put in jail. In western

224 CHAPTER 8

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Charts1. What do you think was the greatest success of the

Confederation Congress?2. What do you think was the greatest weakness of the

Articles of Confederation?

U.S. Government, 1776–1787

Weaknesses of the Articlesof Confederation

Successes of the Confederation Congress

Skillbuilder Answers1. Possible ResponseGoverning thenation during theRevolutionary War,because if the warwas lost, therewould be no nation.

2. PossibleResponses Somestudents might saythe lack of thepower to tax,because it meantthe governmentcould not pay forwhat it wanted todo. Others mightsay the require-ment for all 13states to agree,because it couldparalyze Congress.

C. AnalyzingCauses How diddebt cause prob-lems for the U.S.governmentunder theArticles ofConfederation?C. AnswerCongress couldnot raise moneyto pay its debts,even to the sol-diers who hadfought the war.

Lacked power to enforce laws

Lacked power to levy taxes

Lacked power to regulate tradeamong the states

Required all 13 states to approvechanges in the Articles

Governed the nation during theRevolutionary War

Negotiated the Treaty of Paris at theend of the war

Passed the Land Ordinance of 1785

Passed the Northwest Ordinance(1787)

•

•

••

•••

•

Massachusetts, many jails were packed with debtors.Farmers asked the Massachusetts legislature to

provide debt relief. But the legislature refused—and the farmers rebelled. One of the leaders of therebellion was a Revolutionary War veteran named Daniel Shays. Hecommanded a group of about 1,500 men.

In January 1787, Shays and his men marched on a federal arsenal, aplace to store weapons. The arsenal was defended by 900 soldiers from thestate militia. The militia quickly defeated Shays’s men. But even thoughthe militia put down Shays’s Rebellion, as the uprising came to be known,the farmers won the sympathy of many people. America’s leaders realizedthat an armed uprising of common farmers spelled danger for the nation.

Some leaders hoped that the nation’s ills could be solved by strength-ening the national government. In the next section, you’ll read howAmericans held a convention to change the Articles of Confederation.

BackgroundIn 1788, DanielShays was pardoned for his actions.

2. Using GraphicsUse a diagram like the onebelow to list some of thechallenges Americans faced inshaping a new government.

Which challenge do you thinkwas the toughest? Why? (HI1)

3. Main Ideasa. What issues affected theWestern territories between1775 and 1787? (8.2.2)

b. What were three successesof the Continental Congress?(8.2.2)

c. What were the strengthsand weaknesses of theArticles of Confederation?(8.2.2)

4. Critical ThinkingForming and SupportingOpinions Which side wouldyou have supported duringShays’s Rebellion—the farm-ers or the officials who calledout the militia? Why? (REP4)

THINK ABOUT• the farmers’ problems• the farmers’ march on

the arsenal• the job of the government

1. Terms & NamesExplain the

significance of:• Wilderness Road• republic• Articles of

Confederation• Land Ordinance

of 1785• Northwest Territory• Northwest

Ordinance• Shays’s Rebellion

Section Assessment

ACTIVITY OPTIONS

CIVICSGEOGRAPHY

Write an opinion article about how the United States should govern the Westernterritories or draw a map showing how you would have divided the lands. (REP5)

1

Challenges

Shays’s rebels takeover a Massachu-setts courthouse.A stone markerrests on the spotof the rebellion.

Confederation to Constitution 225