THE CONFEDERATION AND THE CONSTITUTION

1
THE CONFEDERATION AND THE CONSTITUTION

• Chapter 9

2
Changes In Society Caused By Revolution

• Exodus of loyalists/conservatives
• New Patriot elite
• Ethic of democracy
• Gains in separation of church and state
• Slavery started to be challenged
• More equality for women
• Republican Motherhood

3
Early Emancipation in the North
4
Constitution Making In The States

• 1776, Continental Congress called on colonies to
  draft new constitutions
• Why?
• Common features of state constitutions
• Intended to represent fundamental law
• All deliberately had weak executive and judicial
  branches
• All legislatures had great powers
• Most legislatures elected annually

5
Economic Crosscurrents

• Most Americans worse off economically
• Runaway inflation
• Heavy state and national debt
• Economic Democracy.
• Manufacturing stimulated. Why?
• New Markets
• Empress of China

6
A Shaky Start Towards Union

• America was much more a name than a real country.
  
• ChallengeBind the 13 states together
• Economy didnt help
• Hopeful signs
• Similar governments
• Similar culture
• Great Leaders

7
Articles of Confederation

• Nature of Second Continental Congress
• Locus of Sovereignty.
• in 1776, Congress appointed a committee to draft
  a written constitution for the new nation
• Articles of Confederation was the result
• adopted by Congress in 1777
• ratified by all 13 colonies in 1781
• Western Land Dispute holds up ratification

8
Western Land Cessions
9
Defects in the Articles

• Articles of Confederation destined for failure.
• States no longer completely independent, but
  central government had little power over them.
• National government dealt only with common
  affairs such as trade and foreign relations.
• What are major defects?

10
Landmarks In Land Laws

• Art. of Confed. Congress passed important
  legislation that dealt with the Old Northwest.
• Territory of Ohio Valley ceded by the states to
  Nat. government.
• Land Ordinance of 1785
• Survey and Sale
• Northwest Ordinance of 1787
• governance

11
Land Ordinance of 1785

• Old Northwest to be sold and the proceeds used to
  pay off the national debt.
• Land surveyed.
• Land divided into townships 6 miles squared.
• Each split into 36 sections of 1 square mile each
  (640 acres).
• Land to be sold for not less than 1 an acre.
  Had to buy a minimum of 640 acres (1 section).
• 16th section of each township was set aside to be
  sold with proceeds used for benefit of public
  schools.

12
Surveying the Old Northwest
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Northwest Ordinance of 1787

• Divided the land into five areas (Ohio, Illinois,
  Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana).
• Basic premise Could become states equal to
  original 13.
• Two evolutionary territorial stages
• When territory had 60,000 inhabitants, it could
  draft state Constitution and petition for
  admission as state by Congress
• Slavery prohibited

14
The Worlds Ugly Duckling

• England a thorn in US side. How?
• refused to enter into a trade treaty,
• Refused to repeal the navigation Laws.
• shut off their West Indian trade from the U.S.
• refused to abandon its forts in NW along border.
• Reasons stated
• Real reasons
• Why doesnt Congress impose trade restrictions?

15
Spain and France

• Spain was also hostile to United States.
• New Orleans right to deposit issue
• Spain and South Eastern Indians
• Disputed Territory
• France also getting hostile over debt.
• North African pirates raid our shipping

16
The Horrid Specter Of Anarchy

• During the mid-1780s, the economic situation in
  America was in dire straits. Examples
• Nations credit was going bad.
• Interest on debt accumulating.
• States not paying their share of taxes.
• Fed. Govt broke.
• Other problems?
• States try two things to raise money.
• Create inflation by printing more dollars
• Raise property taxes

17
Shays Rebellion

• Shays Rebellion
• Who is most frightened by Shays Rebellion and
  other outbreaks?
• What are their concerns?
• Fear of Mobocracy.
• Need stronger federal government.
• Perception that civic virtue not working
• Perception that civil authority not sufficient to
  control the people.
• Perception that government too closely controlled
  by the people is ineffective.

18
Prelude to Constitution

• What power did conservatives most want national
  government to have?
• Annapolis Convention 1786
• Only 5 states showed up
• Alexander Hamilton saves with his report calling
  for a Constitutional Convention the next year to
  amend the Articles.

19
Constitutional Convention

• Congress not eager to call a constitutional
  convention
• Finally called a convention for the sole and
  express purpose of revising the Articles of
  Confederation
• Every state but Rhode Island chose a
  representative
• 55 delegates from 12 states met in Philadelphia
  on May 25, 1787
• All selected by the state legislatures who
  themselves were chosen only by landowners
• Sessions held in complete secrecy. Why?

20
Constitutional Convention

• Nature of the Delegates
• George Washington was unanimously elected
  chairman
• Ben Franklin was the elder statesman and the
  oldest at 81
• James Madison dubbed Father of Constitution
  because of his contributions to the constitution.
  

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Characteristics of Delegates

• Delegates were conservative and well off
• Young but experienced statesmen
• Nationalists
• Wanted a strong government so that could have
  unified trade laws
• Wanted to stop unrestrained democracy

22
Hammering Out A Bundle Of Compromises

• Decided to completely scrap Articles and start
  fresh
• Most significant issue?
• Large States Plan (Virginia Plan)
• Small States Plan (New Jersey Plan)
• Great Compromise (Connecticut Plan)
• Revenue Bills
• Presidency
• 3/5 Compromise
• Slave Trade Compromise

23
Safeguards For Conservatism

• Delegates agreed that unbridled democracy should
  be limited.
• Constitution was designed to be a bulwark against
  Mobocracy. Examples
• Federal judges were to be appointed for life
• President elected indirectly by Electoral College
  
• Senators to be chosen indirectly by state
  legislatures
• House the only part of federal government chosen
  directly by the people

24
Checks On The Power Of Government

• People voted
• Powers of National Government were limited.
• It could only exercise power in those areas that
  the constitution specified.
• All other governmental functions reserved to
  states.

25
Signers of the Constitution
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Federalists And Anti-federalists

• Framers knew that would be difficult to get
  national acceptance of the Constitution.
• Number of states necessary to ratify?
• Ratification through state conventions. States
  themselves decided how delegates to convention
  selected.
• Why were many people against the Constitution?

27
Federalists And Anti-federalists

• Federalists
• Anti-Federalists
• Characteristics of Federalists
• supported a strong central govt. and, thus, the
  Constitution.
• more respectable, mostly propertied people,
  educated
• lived in settled areas along seaboard mostly
  conservative
• George Washington, James Madison, John Marshall.

28
Anti-federalists

• Characteristic of Anti-Federalists
• Advocates of states rights
• Believed that strong central government was a
  threat to individual liberty
• Back country people, less educated, and
  illiterate.
• Wanted a bill of rights to protect the few
  individual freedoms they had.
• believed that state sovereignty was being
  submergedIt was!!

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The Struggle over Ratification
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Great Debate In The States

• Four states accepted right away Delaware
  (first), Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, then
  Connecticut
• Massachusetts was 6th but VIP. Why?
• Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire next
• New Hampshire made it official with nine

31
Four Laggard States

• Even though Nine had ratified, two most populous
  states, New York and Virginia, had not.
• These states were critical to the new nation
• New York the toughest battle. Convention had an
  anti-federalist majority.
• Federalist papers written to try to turn the tide
  in New York

32
Federalist Papers

• Written by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, James
  Madison.
• Written anonymously
• 85 Federalist papers give lasting insights into
  the meaning of the constitution by those who
  drafted it.

33
Ratification

• New York Ratified in part because of federalist
  papers, in part because Va. and New York
  recognized that it couldnt go it alone.
• North Carolina and Rhode Island, the two
  cantankerous states, are the last to ratify.

34
A Conservative Triumph

• Sovereignty still with people, but now checks on
  mobocracy
• Moved power from the states, where embodied in
  one strong branch of government, to the national
  government were embodied equally in three
  branches of government
• All 3 branches represent the people, and the
  system of checks and balances protects them.
• Constitution as peaceful counter-revolution.