5.1 – Experimenting With Confederation

1. 5.1 – Experimenting With Confederation • Main Idea • Why it Matters Now The reaction to the weak Articles of Confederation led to a stronger central government that has continued to expand its power

2. Objectives

3. Americans Debate Republicanism • The task of creating a new government proved to be a great challenge. The relationship between state governments and the national government was hard to define • British settlers had found 13 separate colonies with very different identities. Residents were taught to think of the colony as the primary political unit • Citizen’s allegiance was to the colony first, the nation second • The Revolutionary War temporarily united the colonies, but as a group they had little else in common • The fear of recreating a Monarchy in the US made states reluctant to unite under a strong central government • Framers of the new Government were faced with the challenge of balancing national interests with state and local interests • The Framers –

4. State Constitutions • State constitutions defined the idea of a Republic differently sharing only a few similar ideals • Limiting power of political leaders • Guaranteeing freedoms such as freedom of speech • States differed greatly on a wide range of issues • Usage of slavery • The right to vote amongst all citizens • Framers were divided on issue of a national government • Framers thought that Americans needed to put the good of the nation above their own interests • Other Framers, influenced by Adam Smith, thought that government should allow citizens to pursue their own economic and political interests • Wealth of Nations –

5. Political Precedents • The Framers feared direct rule by the mostly uneducated masses, choosing to create a Republic instead of a Democracy • Republic – • All major industrialized nations in the world had a Monarch. The framers looked to the past to find precedents to serve as a model for the new Republic • Greece • Rome • Mid 17th century English Commonwealth

6. Continental Congress Debates

7. Deciding major issues • Representation: The Continental Congress saw themselves as representing independent states and therefore each state got one vote • Supreme Power: The Continental Congress proposed a new government where each state retained its sovereignty and every other power not expressly delegated to the national government • Confederation – • Articles of Confederation – • John Dickinson –

8. Powers of the National Government

9. Governing Western Lands • Central Government assumes unclaimed lands • 1 • 2 • Land Ordinance of 1785 was a law that established a plan for surveying and selling the federally owned lands west of the Appalachian Mountains • Northwest Ordinance of 1787– • Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan are established

11. The Confederation Encounters Problems • Economic problems: each state had its own currency, making it difficult to determine value • Central government could not collect taxes, US could not pay back debt that had collected during the Revolutionary War • Political problems: disputes broke out between states because each had their own interests instead of national interests • 9 out of 13 states needed to agree to make a new law • All 13 states needed to agree to amend the Articles of Confederation • Foreign-Relations Problems: with Britain and Spain on its borders, the US lacked a central government strong enough to negotiate with foreign powers

12. Weakness of the Articles of Confederation