Creating the New Nation

Creating the New Nation Articles of Confederation Through Constitutional Convention

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 A. The State Constitutions: How Much Democracy? 1. Republicanism – During 1776, many states wrote constitutions under the encouragement of the Second Continental Congress; many states desired to reject anything that was similar to monarchy or put too much power in the hands of the wealthy.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 A. The State Constitutions: How Much Democracy? 2. Pennsylvania’s Controversial Constitution – In 1776, all taxpaying men were granted the right to vote and hold office. The Pennsylvania constitution of 1776 created a unicameral (one-house) legislature with complete power, no governor, elementary education, and no imprisonment for debt; many Patriots criticized this new government without a governor. In 1776, John Adams published Thoughts on Government encouraging a mixed government with shared powers—executive, judicial, and legislature.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 A. The State Constitutions: How Much Democracy? 3. Tempering Democracy – Conservatives, including John Adams, countered Pennsylvania’s constitution with arguments for mixed government; New York and South Carolina constitutions instituted property qualifications for voting and holding office.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 B. Women Seek a Public Voice 1. Postwar demands – Postwar women wanted an end to restrictive customs and laws; some advocated property rights for women; women were largely ignored, except in New Jersey; in the 1790s, Massachusetts granted girls an equal right to education under the state constitution.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 C. The War’s Losers: Loyalists, Native Americans, and Slaves 1. Financial gains and losses – Nearly 100,000 Loyalists left after the war; most lost large sums of money and/or property; some sought compensation from the new government but got very little if any; in some states, the Loyalists’ property was seized and auctioned to highest bidder. In urban areas, Tories were replaced by Patriot merchants; republican-minded entrepreneurs now replaced traditional elites whose money had come from land ownership.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 C. The War’s Losers: Loyalists, Native Americans, and Slaves 2. Native Americans – The Revolution raised yeomen’s hopes of acquiring land in the West, requiring new incursions onto Native American land.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 C. The War’s Losers: Loyalists, Native Americans, and Slaves 3. Slaves – Southern slaveholders fought the Revolution to secure property rights, including slave property; protecting the property rights of whites prevented widespread emancipation of slaves.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 D. The Articles of Confederation 1. Approved in Congress November 1777 – The Articles provided for a loose union in which each state had one vote regardless of size, population, or wealth; no chief executive; no judiciary; Congress could declare war, make treaties, adjudicate disputes between states, borrow and print money, seek money from the states for common defense.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 D. The Articles of Confederation 2. Continuing Fiscal Crisis – Government had no power to tax the people; in 1780, the new central government was nearly bankrupt. The Bank of North America was established in Philadelphia as a private institution whose notes were meant to stabilize the economy; Congress desired to sell western lands to raise revenue.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 D. The Articles of Confederation 3. The Northwest Ordinance (1787) – Created territories that would eventually become Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin; prohibited slavery; earmarked funds from land sales to establish schools; specified when population reached 5,000 men, the citizens could elect a territorial legislature; when the population reached 60,000, the legislature could devise a republican constitution and apply to join the Confederation.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 E. Shays’s Rebellion 1. State governments – Eastern states suffered tremendously after war; shipping industry had been crippled; war debts were enormous; creditors wanted state governments to repay loans quickly; states did not want to tax the people and instead authorized new paper money.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776–1787 E. Shays’s Rebellion 2. Rebellion in Massachusetts – State would not enact debtor-relief, and instead imposed high taxes to pay off wartime debts; farmers began protesting the tax rate and property seizures. Led by Captain Daniel Shays, mobs of farmers closed the Massachusetts courts by force; rebellion was put down by force. Although Shays’s Rebellion failed, it made clear to the new government that the times ahead would be difficult.

IV. The Constitution of 1787 A. The Rise of a Nationalist Faction 1. Money debates – Money questions—debts, taxes, and tariffs—dominated the postwar political agenda as a new constitution was debated; some wanted a strong central government (national perspective), including creditors in the South.

IV. The Constitution of 1787 B. The Philadelphia Convention 1. The Virginia and New Jersey Plans – In May 1787, fifty-five delegates arrived in Philadelphia; Rhode Island opposed increasing central authority and did not send representation. Most were strong nationalists; forty-two had served in the Confederation Congress. They were also educated and propertied: merchants, slaveholding planters, and “monied men.” George Washington was elected as the presiding official. The delegates considered the Virginia Plan (proposed by James Madison), which rejected state sovereignty for national authority, called for national government to be established by the people, and proposed a three-tier election system. Smaller states liked the New Jersey Plan, which gave power to raise revenue, control commerce, and make binding requisitions on the states to the Confederation; it preserved the states’ control of their own laws and guaranteed their equality.

IV. The Constitution of 1787 B. The Philadelphia Convention 2. The Great Compromise – Debate between large and small states continued. The Connecticut delegates suggested that the Senate have two members from each state, while the House have representation by population; after bitter debate, delegates accepted this “Great Compromise.”

IV. The Constitution of 1787 B. The Philadelphia Convention 3. Negotiations over Slavery – Gov. Morris of New York condemned slavery at the convention, arguing that it was a “nefarious institution”; slaveholders recognized contradictions between slavery and republicanism but only supported an end to the slave trade and not slavery itself. Slave trade would not be regulated by Congress until 1808. Delegates developed a fugitive slave clause but also excluded the words slave and slavery from the Constitution. Ultimately, delegates agreed that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a free person for purposes of taxation and representation.

IV. The Constitution of 1787 B. The Philadelphia Convention 4. National Authority – Created powerful, pro-creditor national government with powers of taxation, military defense, external commerce; all but three present at the convention signed the document.

IV. The Constitution of 1787 C. The People Debate Ratification 1. The Antifederalists – Required ratification by nine of the thirteen states; “Federalists” supported a federal union; “Antifederalists” opposed the Constitution, feared that states would lose power, and desired states to remain sovereign. In New York, where ratification was hotly contested, James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton defended the proposed constitution in a series of 85 essays The Federalist published by James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton.

IV. The Constitution of 1787 C. The People Debate Ratification 2. Federalists Respond – James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton defend the proposed Constitution in a series of essays, collectively titled The Federalist; these papers influenced political leaders throughout the country and won acclaim as an important treatise of practical republicanism.

IV. The Constitution of 1787 C. The People Debate Ratification 3. The Constitution Ratified – People in coastal areas tended to be Federalists; backcountry population tended to be Antifederalists.

Creating the New Nation