WITH A PARTNER, READ PAGES 182-187

As you read, complete questions 1 and 2 on the

guided reading.

CHAPTER 7, SECTION 1Articles of

Confederation

Strengths Weaknesses

Articles of Confederation

LIMITS ON POWER In May 1776, before declaring independence, the

Continental Congress asked each state to organize their governments by crafting state constitutions. They wanted to avoid a single ruler so they limited the powers of

state governors. States also divided power between the governor (or council) and

the legislature. Most states set up two-house, or bicameral legislatures to

divide the work of government even further. The first state constitutions aimed to keep power in the

hands of the people. For example, voters chose the state legislators, and states held

elections often. In most states, only white males who were at least 21

years old could vote. These men also had to own a certain amount of property or pay

a certain amount of taxes. Some states allowed free African American males to vote.

The legislatures became the most powerful branch of government.

Why do you think?

A NEW REPUBLIC In addition to forming state governments, the

American people had to form a national government.

People agreed the new country should be a republic, a government in which citizens rule through elected representatives. They could not agree, however, on what powers the

new republic's government should have. At first, most Americans wanted a weak central

government. The states would rely on a central government

only to wage war and handle relations with other countries.

Do you

think

this

would

work?

THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

In 1776 the Second Continental Congress appointed a committee to draw up a plan for a new central government.

The Articles of Confederation established a weak central government. The states kept most of their power.

For the states, the Articles of Confederation were "a firm league of friendship" in which each state retained "its sovereignty, freedom and independence.“

Congress could conduct foreign affairs, maintain armed forces, borrow money, and issue currency.

Congress did not have the power to regulate trade, force citizens to join the army, or impose taxes.

If Congress needed to raise money or troops, it had to ask the states. States were not required to contribute.

Strength or

Weakness?

ARTICLES (CONTINUED) The new central government had no chief executive. All the states had to approve the Articles and any

amendments to it. Under the new plan, each state had one vote regardless of

population. States with large populations believed they should have

more votes. Disputes over land also threatened to block approval

of the Articles. Maryland refused to approve the Articles until New York, Virginia, and other states abandoned their land claims west of the Appalachian Mountains.

By the 1780s, seven of the original states lay claim to areas in the West. All states finally abandoned their claims. On March 1, 1781, the Confederation formally became the

government of the United States of America after Maryland finally approved (Ratified) the Articles.

THE CONFEDERATION GOVERNMENT The weak Congress could not pass a law

unless nine states voted in favor of it. Changing the Articles required the approval

of all 13 states. This made it hard for Congress to pass new laws

and changes to the articles when there was any disagreement.

Even with these challenges, the new government managed some key achievements. Under the Confederation government, Americans

negotiated a peace treaty with Britain and expanded the country’s foreign trade.

Strength or

Weakness?

POLICIES FOR WESTERN LANDS

The Articles of Confederation did not propose a way to add new states to the United States. Yet there were settlers living west of the Appalachian

Mountains, outside the existing states. These Western settlers wanted to organize their

lands as states and join the Union. Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, the British

gave up control of much of the western lands. The new United States government had to establish

policies for settlement of these western lands. Another challenge was to come up with an orderly

process by which new territories could achieve the status of statehood.

Strength or

Weakness?

THE ORDINANCE OF 1785 In 1785 the Confederation Congress passed an

ordinance, or law, that set up a process to survey and sell the lands north of the Ohio River.

The new law divided this large area into townships 6 miles long and 6 miles wide.

These townships were to be further divided into 36 sections of 640 acres.

The government would sell each section at public auction for at least a dollar an acre.

Congress drafted another law to protect the interests of hardworking settlers.

THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE The Northwest Ordinance, passed in 1787, created

a single Northwest Territory from lands north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River.

The lands were to be divided into three to five smaller territories.

When a territory had 60,000 residents, the people could seek statehood. Each new state would have the same standing as the

original 13 states. The Northwest Ordinance had a bill of rights for the

settlers in the territory. It guaranteed freedom of religion and trial by jury. It also stated, "There shall be neither slavery nor

involuntary servitude in said territory."

LAND ACT OF 1800 The Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest

Ordinance attempted to make possible and encourage the settlement of the Northwest Territory in a peaceful and orderly way.

In 1800 Congress passed the Land Act. This law made it easier for people to buy land in the

territory. For example, the act made it possible for people to

pay for land a little at a time. Under the terms of this law, a person was

required to buy at least 320 acres of land at a price of $2 per acre. The buyer could pay half of the money at the time of

purchase and the rest in four yearly payments.

In the 1780s, the Continental Congress faced a large debt.

During the Revolutionary War, Congress had borrowed money from American citizens and foreign governments.

It still owed Revolutionary soldiers pay for their military service.

Without the power to tax, the Confederation could not easily raise money to pay its debts.

The Continental Congress asked the states for money, but it could not force the states to pay.

In fact, the states provided less than half of the money the federal government asked them to contribute.

PROBLEMS AT HOME AND ABROAD

PLAN FOR IMPORT TAX Congress faced a collapse of the country's finances. In 1781 it created a department of finance led by

Philadelphia merchant Robert Morris. While serving in Congress, Morris had proposed a 5

percent tax on imported goods to help pay the national debt.

The plan required a change to the Articles of Confederation.

Twelve states approved the plan, but Rhode Island opposed it. Under the Articles, the single "no” vote was enough to

block the plan. A second effort in 1783 also failed to win approval

by all the states.

RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN Trouble with foreign governments also revealed the

weaknesses of the American government. For example, American merchants complained that the British

were blocking Americans from the West Indies and other British markets.

In the Treaty of Paris of 1783, Britain had promised to withdraw from the lands east of the Mississippi River.

In 1785 Congress sent John Adams to London to discuss these problems.

Adams found the British unwilling to talk. They pointed to the failure of the United States to honor its

promises made in the Treaty of Paris. The British claimed that Americans had agreed to pay

Loyalists for the property taken from them during the Revolutionary War. Congress had proposed that the states pay the Loyalists. The states simply refused, and Congress could do nothing about

it.

How did this relationship

with Britain display

weaknesses in the government?

RELATIONS WITH SPAIN The United States had even greater problems with Spain. This European power, which controlled Florida as well as

lands west of the Mississippi River, wanted to stop American expansion into its territory.

Western settlers could no longer use the Mississippi River, which they relied on to ship goods to market.

In 1786 American diplomats reached a new trade agreement with Spain. Representatives from the Southern states, however, blocked the

agreement because it did not include the right to use the Mississippi River.

The weakness of the Confederation and its inability to deal with problems worried many leaders, including George Washington. Americans began to agree that the country needed a stronger

government.

How might this

affect western settlers?

JOURNAL 30What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation? How did the affect Americans daily lives?

January 30th, 2013

HOMELEARNING1. Achieve 3000- Is this the Clue

They Need? due on Friday!2. Guided Reading- Agreeing to

Compromise worksheet3. Study for vocabulary quiz

next class!

CHAPTER 7, SECTION 2Forging a

New Constitution

Leader RoleGeorge Washington

Edmund Randolph

James Madison

Roger Sherman

William Paterson

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

THE NEED FOR CHANGE

Wartime damage to Southern plantations led to a sharp drop in rice exports.

Trade also fell off when the British closed the West Indies market to American merchants.

The little money the government did have went to pay debts to foreign countries.

This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.

SHAY’S REBELLION Farmers who could not pay their taxes and debts

Government seizes land and farmers are arrested. Some began to view the new government as just

another form of tyranny. Like when? In 1786 angry farmers in Massachusetts led by

former Continental Army captain Daniel Shays forced courts in the western part of the state to close. The goal was to stop judges from legally taking away

farmers' lands.

SHAY’S REBELLION (CONT.) In January 1787, Shays led a force of about

1,200 supporters toward the federal arsenal, or weapons storehouse, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The farmers wanted to seize guns and ammunition.

The state militia ordered the advancing farmers to halt and then fired over their heads. The farmers did not stop. The militia fired again, killing four farmers.

Shays and his followers fled, and the uprising was over. The

Effect?

THE EFFECT Concern grew that the

government could not handle unrest and prevent violence.

On hearing of the rebellion, George

Washington wondered whether "mankind,

when left to themselves, are unfit

for their own government."

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION Leading Americans supporting reform were James

Madison, a Virginia planter, and Alexander Hamilton, a New York lawyer.

In September 1786, Hamilton called for a convention, or meeting, in Philadelphia to discuss, and the changes he felt were necessary.

News of Shays' Rebellion made Washington attend the convention.

The Convention began in May 1787 . The 55 delegates included planters, merchants, lawyers,

physicians, generals, governors, and a college president. Three of the delegates were under 30 years of age, and one

was over 80. Many of the delegates were well educated. At a time when few people went to college, 26 of the delegates

had college degrees.

THE CONVENTION ORGANIZES

The delegates chose George Washington to lead the meetings. Madison is often called the "Father of the Constitution"

because he was the author of the basic plan of government that the Convention adopted.

Delegates also decided that each state would have one vote on all questions.

Decisions would be based on a majority vote of the states present.

Sessions were not open to the public.

THE VIRGINIA PLAN

Edmund Randolph proposed the Virginia Plan that called for a strong national government.

The plan, which was largely the work of James Madison: created a government with three branches

a two-house legislature a chief executive chosen by the legislature a court system.

The legislature would have powers to tax, regulate trade, and veto state laws.

Voters would elect members of the lower house of the legislature.

The members of the lower house would then choose members of the upper house.

In both houses the number of representatives would be proportional, or corresponding in size, to the population of each state.

THE NEW JERSEY PLAN

Delegates from the small states preferred a system in which all states had equal representation.

Opponents of the Virginia Plan rallied around William Paterson of New Jersey.

On June 15, he presented a plan that amended the Articles of Confederation, which was all the Convention had the power to do.

Under this plan, the legislature would have a single house, with each state having one vote.

Paterson argued that the Convention should not deprive smaller states of the equality they had under the Articles.

The New Jersey plan gave Congress the power to set taxes, regulate trade, and elect an executive branch made up of more than one person.

The New Jersey Plan favored a more powerful government than existed under the Articles—but a less powerful government than the Virginia Plan proposed.

SLAVERY By 1786, 11 states—all except South Carolina and

Georgia—outlawed or taxed the importation of enslaved people.

Before then, slavery existed and was legal in every state but was not a major source of labor in the North.

In 1774 Quakers in Pennsylvania founded the first American antislavery society, and six years later Pennsylvania passed a law that provided for the gradual freeing of enslaved people.

By1804, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey passed laws that gradually ended slavery there. They were barred from many public places. Only a few states gave them the right to vote. Most of their children had to attend separate schools from white children.

The plantation system depended on slave labor, and many white Southerners feared their economy could not survive without it.

That fear did not stop a number of slaveholders from freeing enslaved people.

The number of free African Americans increased in Virginia after that state passed a law that encouraged manumission.

THE GREAT COMPROMISE The states voted to work toward a new

constitution based on the Virginia Plan. They still had to deal with the difficult

issue of representation that divided the large and small states.

Roger Sherman of Connecticut suggested what would later be called the Great Compromise.

Sherman's compromise proposed different representation in the two-house legislature. In the upper house each state would have two members. In the lower house the number of seats for each state would vary based on the state's

population. Delegates from the South and North disagreed on whether— and how—to count

each state's enslaved population. As a solution to this dispute, delegates agreed to what was called the Three-Fifths

Compromise. Every five enslaved persons would count as three persons in the state's population total.

Northerners agreed to keep the new Congress from interfering with the slave trade until 1808.

BILL OF RIGHTS State constitutions such as those of Virginia and

Massachusetts had a listing of key rights and freedoms. These are known as a declaration of rights, or a bill

of rights. At the Convention, some delegates worried that

without a bill of rights, the new national government might abuse its power.

George Mason of Virginia proposed a bill of rights to be included in the Constitution. The delegates defeated this idea. Most of the

delegates believed that the Constitution carefully defined government powers and provided enough protection of individual rights.

APPROVING THE CONSTITUTION

On September 17, 1787, the delegates assembled to sign the Constitution they had created.

Three delegates refused to sign: Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts George Mason of Virginia

Gerry and Mason would not sign because the Constitution did not have a bill of rights.

Edmund Randolph felt the final document strayed too far from his own beliefs.

The other delegates did sign the document. Under the Articles of Confederation, all 13 states would

have had to accept any change. The drafters of the new Constitution decided that the

document would go into effect with the approval of just 9 of the 13 states.

Speaker Who is the speaker or creator of the source? (primary or secondary source?)When was it created? Where was it created?

Occasion What was happening that caused this to be created?

Audience Who is supposed to see, hear, use, or pay attention to this? 

Purpose Why was it created?What was the intent of the creator? Why is it important?

Subject What is the subject of the source?Tone What attitude(s) is/are conveyed in the writing?

How will the attitude(s) of the writing make the words in the source more effective?

S.O.A.P.S.Tone

A MORE PERFECT UNION-

VOCABULARY QUIZI STUDIED FOR ____

MINUTES

NameFebruary 4th, 2013

Period 6

YOU WILL BE CREATING TWO EDUCATIONAL POSTERS ON THE

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.

Strengths Weaknesses Examples of powers Effect on Americans

(Shay’ s Rebellion)

Significant Leaders Plans Issues Compromises

Articles of Confederation

Constitutional Convention

JOURNAL 31What were some of the issues that were brought up at the

Constitutional Convention? What compromises were reached in the new Constitution? Do you think it was enough to satisfy

both sides? Explain.

February 6th, 2013

HOMELEARNING1. Achieve 3000- Three People

Who Changed the World due on Friday!

SUBJECT SELECTION Volunteer Hours School Hours  Academic Probation ( we are a college prep school, it is

expected our students perform well.  In order to be able to graduate HS, they need a min of 2.0)

Disciplinary Probation Uniform Policy ( same as this year, nothing will change) Cell Phone Policy ( not only will they have their phone

confiscated, they will also receive a referral) Clubs, Sports, and Organizations- It looks very good on

college application; be involved, open up a club, etc. Early College Academy/Early Admissions Program Community Service Hours for HS are 100

CHAPTER 7, SECTION 3A New Plan

for Government

THE CONSTITUTION’S SOURCES

The delegates who wrote the document studied the history of political thought in an effort to avoid the mistakes of the past. Many ideas found in the Constitution came from

European political institutions and writers. They valued the individual rights guaranteed by

the British judicial system. Although the Americans

broke away from British rule, they respected many British traditions, or cultural beliefs and practices.

The English Magna Carta (1215) placed limits on the power of the monarch. Parliament, England's lawmaking body, became a force

that the king or queen had to depend on to pay for wars and the royal government.

The English Bill of Rights of 1689 was another model for Americans.

The Enlightenment was a movement of the 1700s that promoted knowledge, reason, and science as a means of improving society.

EUROPEAN INFLUENCES

The English philosopher Locke wrote that all people have natural rights- life, liberty, and property.

He wrote that government is based on an agreement, or contract, between the people and the ruler.

The Framers viewed the Constitution as a contract between the American people and their government. The contract protected people's natural rights by

limiting government power. The French writer Montesquieu declared in

that the powers of government should be separated and balanced against each other.

This separation would prevent any one person or group from gaining too much power.

FEDERALISM & CHECKS AND BALANCES

Federalism- the sharing power between the federal and state governments, is one of the key features of the United States government.

Under the Constitution, Congress could also pass laws that were "necessary and proper" for carrying out its responsibilities.

The states kept the power to control trade inside their borders. Set up local governments and schools and establish

marriage and divorce laws. Both federal and state governments would have

the power to tax and to establish criminal justice. Checks and balances- Each branch of

government has ways to check, or limit, the power of the other branches. With this system, no single branch can gain too much

power in the government.

GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE

Article I of the Constitution declares Congress to be the legislative branch, or lawmaking branch, of the government.

Congress is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The powers of Congress include establishing taxes, coining money, and regulating trade.

Article II of the Constitution sets up the executive branch, to carry out the nation's laws and policies. At the head of this branch are the president and vice president. A special group called the Electoral College elects the president and vice

president.. Article III deals with the judicial branch, or court system.

The nation's judicial power resides in "one supreme Court" and any lower federal courts Congress creates.

The Supreme Court and other federal courts hear cases involving the Constitution, federal laws, and disputes between states.

Federalists- People who supported the new Constitution. They took this name to stress that the

Constitution would create a system of federalism.

Among them were George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay.

Federalist Papers- A series of essays explaining and defending the Constitution, making a powerful argument in favor of ratification.

Anti- Federalists- Those who opposed the Constitution. Anti-Federalists argued that a strong

national government would take away liberties.

They warned that the government would ignore the will of the states and favor the wealthy few over the common people.

Anti- Federalists favored local government that was controlled more closely by the people.

A BILL OF RIGHTS

The strongest criticism of the Constitution may have been that it lacked a bill of rights to protect individual freedoms.

George Mason expressed the problem: "There is not a declaration of rights, and the laws of the general  government being paramount to the laws and constitutions of the several States, the declarations of rights in the separate States are no security.”

-from "Objections to This Constitution of Government," September 1787

RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION On December 7, 1787,

Delaware became the first state to approve the Constitution.

By June 21, 1788, the ninth state, New Hampshire, ratified it.

However, without the support of the largest states, New York and Virginia, the new government could not succeed.

In Virginia, Patrick Henry claimed the Constitution did not place enough limits on government power.

Still, Virginia did ratify the document after promises that there would be a bill of rights amendment (this promise was met in 1791).

In July 1788, New York ratified the Constitution, followed by North Carolina in November 1789 and Rhode Island in May 1790.

JOURNAL 32Chapter 8 Vocabulary

February 12th, 2013

HOMELEARNING1. Achieve 3000- America Says

“Thank You” due on Friday!2. Study for

Chapter 8 Vocabulary Quiz on Friday!