The New Republic

Study Guide Identification’s

• Benjamin Franklin• Benjamin Rush• Thomas Jefferson• 1790 Immigration Act• Buffalo Party• Treaty of Greenville• Tenskwatawa• Tecumseh

Northwest OrdinanceTreaty of Fort StanwixElitistsDemocratsShays RebellionAnnapolis ConventionArticles of ConfederationFederal ConventionFederalistsAnti-federalists

Study Guide Focus Questions

• What considerations did founding fathers debate when deciding how to structure the new government?

• What events led leadership to reconsider the Articles of Confederation and devise the Constitution?

• What political factions arose out of this debate and whose interests did they serve?

Post war & Westward Expansion

• Crisis averted- postwar coup– 1787 promise of life pensions to officers– 1783 converted to bonus, 5 yrs. of pay for officers, 3

months for common soldiers

• 1784 congress extended national authority over the west – Land Ordinance 1785, 1787

• Established governments, divided land for sale– Treaties of Fort Stanwix (1784) & Fort McIntosh (1785)

• divested northwestern nations of land

Local Identity

• National government distant– Social & political identity located in local communities &

states rather than the American nation• New Democratic ideology– 1774-1775 political mobilization broadened participation– Mass meetings– Greater numbers voted– Democratic position taken by farmers, artisans & ordinary

people and challenged colonial Tory position of the purpose of government

Who would Rule America?

• Elitists or conservatives– later the Federalists• Constituency: Wealthier, better educated • Residents of Urban areas, commercially oriented towns,

agricultural districts• Franchise limited to property holders/wealthy elite

– Maintain power and wealth of the elite

• Democrats or Radicals– later the Democratic Republicans or Anti-Federalists

• Constituency: Small farmers who predominated in America• Believed common man capable of self-government

– The essential task of government was to preserve the liberties of the people from greed and corruption of those who wielded power

1776-77 State Constitutions

• 1776 Constitutional Convention– check the power of government to ensure liberty

& safeguard against Tyranny– Weakened executive authority– Increased power of legislature– bill of rights to limit interference in citizens lives

State Constitutions

• First post-revolution debates focused on an appropriate governmental structure for the new states– Democrats believed the ideal form of government• community or town meeting, • people set their own tax rates, • Militia• schools & churches• regulated the local economy

– State government only needed for coordination among communities

Conservative/Whig position

• Need for balanced government• The “unthinking many” should be checked by

strong executive and an upper house– Insulated from popular control by property

qualifications and long terms in office• Greatest danger was majority tyranny, which

might lead to violation of property rights and “dictatorship”

Virginia State Constitution• “Declaration of Rights” 1776– Written by wealthy planter, democrat & political

philosopher George Mason• “All men are by nature equally free and independent, and have

certain inherent rights, namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”

• Sovereignty resided in the people, the government was a servant of the people and the people had a right to reform, alter or abolish that government

• Guarantees of due process, trial by jury in criminal prosecutions,• Prohibitions against excessive bail & “cruel and unusual

punishment”• People assured of the free exercise of religion, according to the

dictates of conscience• Freedom of the press guaranteed as “one of the great bulwarks of

liberty”

New Jersey

• 1776 granted all inhabitants of full age, who resided there 12 months minimum & worth 50 pounds the right to vote

• Enfranchised single women who voted en massed and who were outspoken on political issues– After males protests, the legislature passed new

law limiting the right to vote to free white male citizens (1807)

Articles of Confederation

• Drafted in 1777 by the Continental Congress

• Established a “firm league of Friendship” between and among the 13 states• Reflected wariness by the states of a strong central

government• Vested the largest share of power in individual states• Denied Congress the power to collect taxes, regulate

interstate commerce and enforce laws.

1776 - 1780

• 13 states adopted constitutions• Shaped by the debate between radicals,

conservatives, democrats & Whigs

– Pennsylvania adopted the most radically democratic constitutions • assembly would be elected annually by all free male taxpayers

– North Carolina, Georgia, Vermont followed this model» Vermont adopted universal male suffrage

– South Carolina & Maryland created conservative institutions designed to maintain disparity between classes

Crisis of the 1780s

• Depression that produced political protests, • Shay’s Rebellion generated a strong nationalist

sentiment among elite circles– August 29, 1786– Revolutionary veteran, Daniel Shay led an armed

rebellion against the harsh taxes placed upon farmers in which the arsenal at Springfield, Mass. Was threatened.

– significance: elite wanted a re-evaluation of the Articles of Confederation, to create a government that could effectively manage peoples rebellions

Replacing the Articles of Confederation• Powerful political

movement dedicated to strengthening national government

• Annapolis Convention, 1786– 12 Delegates, 5 of 13

States– No quorom– Called for national

convention to revise articles of confederation

• Federal ConventionPhiladelphia 1787– Centralization in favor of

merchants, bankers, planters & conservatives

The Federalist Papers• Written between 1787-88 by nationalists

• James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay

– 85 articles arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution

• Primary source for the interpretation of the constitution• Outline the philosophy and motivation for the proposed

system of government• Most people believed the constitution granted too much

power to the central government, weakening the autonomy of local communities and states

Federalist Papers

• Federalist No. 10• Advocates for a large, strong republic to guard against

“factions," groups of citizens with interests contrary to the rights of others or the interests of the whole community.• Federalist No. 84 – opposition to Bill of Rights

• Anti-Federalist Papers• Collection of articles written in opposition to the

ratification of the 1787 Constitution of the United States – in favor of Bill of rights

Bill of Rights 1791Legacy of Anti-federalists

Robert Yates • Freedom of religion• Freedom of assembly• Freedom of Speech• Freedom of the press• Right of Petition• Right to bear Arms• Restrain government from unreasonable searches or seizures• Guaranteed traditional legal rights under common law

– Prohibition of double jeopardy– Right not to be compelled to testify against oneself– Due process of law before life, liberty, or property could be taken– Unremunerated rights of people protects– Powers not delegated to federal government were reserved for the states

The Constitution, 1787

• Admirers– Laid the foundation for the democratization and

expansion of the Republic

• Critics– Undermines democratic principles of the

Declaration of Independence in order to safeguard the interests of the wealthy

The United States

• George Washington – 1789– New Government: planters, merchants,

financiers• Organized Americas export based on foreign

trade

• Composition of American Population– 9 0f 10 Americans lived on farms– Non Citizens

• Lived under patriarchal government of men• 1/5 of Americans were African American

Post Revolution White Men

• 60-85% White men owned land = Political access

• 25% other– Unskilled laborers and mariners– Working poor – indentured servants– Walking poor – vagrants & transients• Jailed, confined to work houses, auctioned out for labor

Women Post Revolution• Limited gains in exchange for war time participation– Slightly less restrictive divorce laws– Greater access to educational & business opportunities– Perception of women’s moral status rose• 1787: Benjamin Rush Thoughts Upon Female Education• Birth of Republican Motherhood

– Common law: Femme Coverture– women surrendered all property rights at marriage• Economically and politically subordinate to men – full

control over women and children’s lies• Some protest – most women socialized to accept

position

African Americans

• Thousands of black fighters and their families left America and resettled

• Samuel Johnson in 1775 asked “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?”

• 30,000 fled Virginia alone– West Indies– Canada– Liberia, Africa

Africans in the South

• Growth of Free black communities– Shift in religious and intellectual climate• Principles of liberty and equality & evangelical notions

of human fellowship• Weakening of tobacco farming in the Chesapeake

colonies

• Freedom gained – 200,000 free by the end of the 1700s– Military service– Fleeing north

Africans in the North

• Gradual Emancipation Program in the North• 1777-1784 northern states ended slavery– Vermont 1777, Mass. 1780, N Hampshire 1784,

Penn, CT, RI. • Children of slaves would be freed at Birth

– 1810 30,000 remained enslaved in the North

• Due to racism and Prejudice – Discrimination in housing, jobs, political system

and education– Churches & self-help organizations formed

African American Intellectuals• Benjamin Banneker– born free in MD most accomplished mathematician &

Astronomer of his time• Jupiter Hammon– NY Slave, took up contemporary issues in poems and

issues• “Address to the Negroes of the State of New York” 1787

• Phyllis Wheatley– Boston Slave, “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and

Moral”• In every human breast God has implanted a principle, which we

call love of freedom; it is impatient of oppression, and pants for deliverance. The Same Principle lives in us– Written to Mohegan Indian Minister Samuel Occom in 1774

Who would be included?

• Benjamin Rush & Diseases of the Mind – Father of Psychiatry– Established first asylums– Intellectual– “slave holder & white nationalist

• Benjamin Franklin – The “Lovely White”

• Thomas Jefferson– Repatriation

“Lovely White”• Benjamin Franklin argued in Observations

Concerning the Increase of Mankind that the number of purely white people in the world was very small and he wished there were more of them. – “And while we are…scouring our planet, by clearing

America of woods, and so making this side of our globe reflect a brighter light to the eues of inhabitants in mars or venus, why should we in the sight of superior beings, darken its people? Why increase the sons of Africa, by planting them in America, where we have so fair an opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely white…?

Jefferson’s Homogenous White Society

• Member of the House of Burgesses – supported an effort for the emancipation of slaves and in Notes on the

State of Virginian • recommended the gradual abolition of slavery and the elimination of “principles

inconsistent with republicanism”

• During the 1780s after the enactment of the Virginia Manumission law, 10,000 people gained their freedom,– his 200 slaves were not among them . – He viewed women as breeders and children as profit, and would only

in theory be willing to make the sacrifice of freeing all his slaves if they would be removed from the United States.

Repatriation• 25 years, during which the population would double – 600 million dollars – cost of removal would be 300 million.

• He argued for the deportation of future generations. • Black infants would be taken from their mothers, trained in

industrious occupations until they reached an appropriate age for deportation. – This would reduce the loss of revenue from 37.5 million because

infants were only worth 25.50$. » The old stock would eventually die off until no blacks remained

in America

• Jefferson recommended Sierra Leone and the west Indies for relocation

1790 Congressional debate

• affirmed its commitment to the “pure principles of Republicanism and its determination to develop a citizenry of good and useful men, a homogenous society.”

• Only the worthy part of mankind should be encouraged to settle in the new republic and be eligible for citizenship.

1790 Naturalization & Immigration Act

• Congress in 1790 restricted naturalization to “White Persons”– This racial prerequisite to citizenship endured until 1952– From 1907 – 1920 one million people gained citizenship

under the racially restrictive naturalization laws, many more were rejected.

• Pre-requisite cases 1878-1952 constructed race• Marriage to a non white alien by an American

woman was skin to treason against the country• While a traitor lost his citizenship after trial, a

woman lost it automatically

Maintaining the “lovely white”

• The laws governing the racial composition of this country’s citizenry came bound up with and exacerbated by sexism

• Women were doubly bound by racial laws, restricted as individuals, and less than because they were wives (femme coverture)

Little Turtle’s War1790

• Military confederacy of Shawnee, Delaware & others under Miami war chief Little Turtle

• Successfully launched against General Josiah Harmar in 1790 and then against another American force in 1791 killing 900 Americans

Whiskey Rebellion

• Congress places a tax on distillation of whiskey for increased revenue– Many farm families produced from surplus corn

• Farmers protested “internal taxes upon consumption are dangerous to the civil rights of freemen, and must in the end destroy the liberties of every country in which they are introduced”– 13,000 federal army troops ordered to occupy Mingo

Creek, Western Pennsylvania

Indian Policy of the United States : Original Foreign Policy

Buffalo Party and Federal policy

American Indian Policy1780 -1820

• Centralized control of Indian policy– State and local officials challenged the right of congress to

administer Indian policy on a national level, often arguing that national politicians were too soft on former enemies of the united states.

• Buffalo Party – Policy of extermination of all Indians. – greatly swayed public opinion resulting in the election of

many more officials that hated Indians.

Land

• A New York editor, Brackenridge • rather than whites acknowledging Indian title

to any land he believed that they had surrendered their claim having “not made better use of it” and by not doing so “forfeited all pretense to a claim.”

Western Indian Confederacy• War along the Ohio

continued throughout the 1780s and 1790s

• Shawnee leader, Tecumseh – Forming diplomatic

relationships among southern tribes.

– Confederacy designed to unite several native nations in a political and military movement in an effort to drive whites from their lands. 1791-92 Indian State

Battle of Fallen Timbers, 1794

American General, Wayne Anthony

Treaty of Greenville, 1795 12 nations forced

to surrender a portion of eastern Indiana and all of Ohio

Opened millions of acres of land to settlement

Promised to end to British alliance

Rise of a Prophet

• Lalawetheka & 1805 Tenskwatawa or Open Door

Doctrine of active resistance against white expansion and institutions.

End alcohol consumptionEnd adoption of white cultureUnite people against a common

foe

Tenskwatawa

• 1806 Indiana territorial governor Harrison – wrote to the Delaware "if he is really a prophet,

ask him to cause the sun to stand still, the moon to alters its course, the rivers to cease to flow"

• Tenskwatawa accepted the challenge– Pointed out the day in which he would blot out

the sun and assembled numerous followers on June 16, 1806.

– total eclipse of the sun occurred.• His stock as a spiritual leader soared and hundreds of

people joined his resistance movement.

Tecumseh• Tecumseh - military and political solution to

white expansion

• Meeting with Governor Harrison 1810

– No Indian or tribe has the right to sell even to each other much less to strangers that land was held in trust by all native Americans

– “This land that was sold, and the goods that were given for it was only done by a few“

– He was threatening Harrison not to crowd the people out of their country or it would produce trouble between them

• 1811 – Tecumseh informed Harrison of the Confederacy

– If you want to avoid war, move off Indian lands

– Enlisting support of Shawnees, Kickapoo's, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Muscogee…

– “War now, war forever, war upon the living, war upon the dead”

– “The only hope of the red man is a war of extermination against all whites”

• War of 1812

– English “Alliances”

Battle of Moravian town/Thames in 1813

– 1813 Britain’s betrayal ended in Tecumseh’s death and the failure of the confederacies

– Resistance continued, some factions of the same tribes that fought with the British sided with the Americans only to be turned on after the war. Some Delaware's, Shawnees, Seneca's, Wyandot, Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muscogee

War of 1812• The war had two major causes: repeated

British violations of American sovereignty, and American expansionism, which was later expressed as manifest destiny.

• 1812-1815

• Ended with the• Treaty of Ghent