Chapter+9+Outlines

Chapter 9 The Confederation and the Constitution

l. Pursuit of Equality a. All men are created equal Proclaimed Declaration of Indpendence b. Separation of church and state 1. Congregational - still ran parts of New England 2. The Angelican church was tainted by the association with the British Crown 3. The hardest separation of church and state was in Virginia and happened in 1786 c. 1775 Quakers founded the first anti-slavery society II. Constitution Making in the States 1. The Continental Congress of 1776 asked the colonies to make new constitutions-articles of confederation a. Massachusetts gave one idea when it called a special convention to draft its constitution and made it so that the constitution could only be changed through another called constitutional convention. b. Many states had written documents that represented a fundamental law. c. Many had a bill of rights and also required election of legislators. d. All of them created weak executive and judicial branches because britain abused its e. In most states, the legislative branch was given sweeping powers, though some people, like Thomas Jefferson, warned that 173 despots would surely be as oppressive as one. 2. states moved westward, like New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. III. Economic Crosscurrents 1. After the Revolution, loyalist land was taken. 2. Americans manufactured their own products because of loss of contact with england. 3. Still, America remained mostly farmers. 4. Americans traded freely. . 5. However were hated; the rich had become poor, and the new rich were viewed with suspicion; disrespect of private property became often. IV. A Shaky Start Toward Union 1. While the U.S. had to create a new government, the people were far from being one. 2. In 1786 Britain flooded America with cheap products, greatly hurting American industries. 3. However, the states all did share similar constitutions, shared many similarities with britain. V. Creating a Confederation 1. Even during the war, the states had created their individual currencies and tax barriers. 2. The Articles of the Confederation was finished in 1777, but in was finally completely ratified (that was needed) by the last state, Maryland, on March 1, 1781. 3. A major dispute was that states like New York and Virginia had huge tracts of land west of the Alleghenies that they could sell off to pay off their debts while other states could not do so. a. As a compromise, these lands were given to the federal government, which promised to use them for the common good of the union (states would be made). b. The Northwest Ordinance later confirmed this. VI. The Articles of the Confederation: America’s First Constitution 1. The Articles had no executive branch (hence, no single leader), a weak Congress in which each state had only one vote, required 2/3 majority on any subject of importance, and a fully unanimous vote for amendments. 2. Also, Congress was weak, and could not regulate commerce or enforce tax collection. 3. Congress could only call up soldiers from the states, which weren’t going to help each other. 4. However, it was a model of what a loose **con**federation should be, and was a significant stepping-stone towards the establishment of the U.S. Constitution. 5. The states had too much power. VII. Landmarks in Land Laws 1. The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided the acreage of the Old Northwest should be sold and that the proceeds be used to pay off the national debt. . 2. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 made admission into the union a two stage affair: a. There would be two evolutionary territorial stages, during which the area would be subordinate to the federal government b. When a territory had 60,000 inhabitants, Congress as a state might admit it. c. It worked so well to solve a problem that others had plagued many other nations. VIII. The World’s Ugly Duckling 1. However, Britain still refused to repeal the Navigation Laws, and closed down its trading to the U.S.; it also sought to annex Vermont to Britain with help from the Allen brothers and continued to hold a series of trading posts on U.S. soil. a. One excuse used was that the soldiers had to make sure the U.S. honor its treaty and pay back debts to Loyalists. 2. In 1784, Spain closed the Mississippi River to American business. 3. It also took a large area near the Gulf of Mexico that was ceded to the U.S. by Britain. . 4. Both Spain and England tried encouraging Indian tribes to be annoying, prevented the U.S. from controlling half of it territory. 5. Even France demanded payment of U.S. debts to France. 6. The pirates of the North African states, including Dey of Algiers, destroyed U.S. ships in the area and enslaved Yankee sailors; America was too weak to stop them. IX. The Horrid Specter of Anarchy 1. States were refusing to pay taxes, and national debt was mounting as foreign credibility was slipping. 2. Boundary disputes became small battles while states taxed goods from other states. 3. Shays’ Rebellion, which flared up in western Massachusetts in 1786, attacked tax collectors, and caused all sorts of violence. a. Shay was convicted but later pardoned. 4. People were beginning to doubt republicanism and this Articles of the Confederation. 5. However, many supporters believed that the Articles merely needed to be strengthened. 6. prosperity was beginning to emerge, Congress was beginning to control commerce, and overseas shipping was regaining its self X. A Convention of "Demigods" 1. An Annapolis, Maryland convention was called, but only five states were represented. 2. On May 25, 1787, 55 delegates from 12 states Rhode Island wasn’t there met in Philadelphia to fix the articles. a. Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin, and Madison. b. However, people like Jefferson, John and Sam Adams, Thomas Pain, Hancock, and Patrick Henry were not there (for various purposes). XI. Patriots in Philadelphia 1. The 55 delegates were all well-off and young, and they hoped to preserve the union XII. Hammering Out a Bundle of Compromises 1. Some people decided to totally scrap the Articles and create a new Constitution. a. Virginia’s large state plan called for Congressional representation based on state population, while New Jersey’s small state plan called for equal representation from all states (in terms of numbers, each state got the same number of reps.) b. Afterwards, the "Great Compromise" was worked out so that Congress would have two houses, the House of Representatives, where reps were based on population, and the Senate, where each state got two reps. i. All tax bills would start in the House. 2. Also, there would be a strong, independent executive branch with a president who would be military commander in chief and could veto legislation. 3. Another compromise was the election of the president through the Electoral College 4. Also, slaves would count as 3/5 of a person a. the Constitution enabled a state to shut off slave importation if it wanted after 1807. XIII. Safeguards for Conservatism 1. The delegates at the Convention all believed in a system with checks and balances, and the more conservative people made safeguards against excesses of mobs. 2. Federal chief justices were appointed for life. 3. However, the people still had power, and government was based on the people. 4. on Sept. 17, 1787 end of convention, only 42 of the original 55 were still there to sign the Constitution XIV. The Clash of Federalists and Antifederalists 1. Knowing that state legislatures were certainly veto the new Constitution, the Founding Fathers sent copies of it out to state conventions, where it could be debated and voted upon. 2. The American people were shocked, because they had expected a patched up Articles of the Confederation and had received a whole new Constitution (the Convention had been VERY well concealed and kept secret). 3. The federalists were against the antifederalists, who were opposed. a. The antifederalists were mostly the poor farmers, they couldn’t read, and states’ rights believers; it was basically the poorer classes. b. The federalists were more respectable and generally embraced the intelligent 4. Antifederalists cried that it was made by aristocratic elements and was therefore antidemocratic. 5. They decried the dropping of annual elections of congressional reps and the erecting of what would become Washington D.C., and the creation of a standing army. XV. The Great Debate in the States 1. Elections were run to elect people into the state conventions. 2. Four small states quickly ratified the Constitution, and Pennsylvania was the first large state to act. 3. In Massachusetts, a hard fought race between the supporters and non-supporters, and Massachusetts finally ratified it after a promise of a bill of rights to be added later. a. Had this state not ratified, it would have brought the whole thing down. 4. Three more states ratified, and on June 21, 1788, the Constitution was officially adopted after nine states except Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island had ratified. XVI. The Four Laggard States 1. Virginia, knowing that it could not be an independent state, so it finally ratified by a vote of 89 to 79. 2. New York was swayed by //The Federalist Papers//, written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, and finally surrendered after realizing that it could prosper apart from the union. 3. North Carolina and Rhode Island finally ratified after intense pressure from the government. XVII. A Conservative Triumph 1. The minority had won again, and the transition had been peaceful. 2. Only about ¼ of the adult white males in the country (mainly those with land) had voted for the ratifying delegates. 3. Conservationism was victorious, as the safeguards had been erected against mob-rule excesses. 5. Federalists believed that every branch of government represented the people, unlike antifederalists who believed that only the legislative branch did so.