NEW NATION IN CRISIS: THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
Lecture Guide # 11
I. RESULTS OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION
A. OUTCOMES OF TREATY OF PARIS, 1783
1. Independence
2. Expanded Boundaries
3. Liberalization of Republican Practices
4. Some States change Status of Slavery
B. REPUBLICANISM AS LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT = World’s FIRST Republican Government -> ? HOW Does it ACT?
II. NEW TYPE GOVERNMENT BEING ESTABLISHED DURING REVOLUTION
A. 2 GOVERNMENTS
1. 2nd Continental Congress – 1776 - 1781
2. Articles of Confederation Government – 1781 - 1789
B. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION Proposed 1777, effective 1781
1. Many Changes of Government during Revolutionary Period
2. ARTICLES CONGRESS CAN war, diplomacy, borrow, ask for money; CAN’T Tax, regulate commerce, enforce authority
3Weaknesses: (8)
a NO Executive
b Cannot MAKE Laws
c No Power to Tax
d Cannot Regulate Commerce
e Weak in Foreign Affairs
f Weak in Internal Security
g NO Judiciary
h UNANIMOUS Consent Required to Amend
3. PROBLEMS FACED BY AoC GOV’T
a. Demobilization
b. Economic Depression
c Currency Difficulties
4. SUCCESSES / ACCOMPLISHMENTS of AoC GOV’T
a. Functioned as National Gov’t from 1781to 1789
b. Concluded Peace of Paris, 1783
c. Organized Old Northwest
1) Ordinance of 1785
2) Northwest Ordinance of 1787
d. Established Beneficial Domestic Policies
1) Opened Up Western Lands
2) Lasting Provisions for Statehood
e. Created Government Bureaucracy
f. Successfully Liquidated National Debt
III. MOVEMENT TOWARD CONSTITUTION
A. NEED for STRONGER Government
1 Need Widely Apparent
2 –> Move to Call Convention to Amend
3 James Madison = Linchpin
a Took it on self to Study Governments of History
b Came to Philadelphia with Agenda: Scrap Articles, Write New Document
B. 1787, PHILADELPHIA = ARTICLES REVISION CONVENTION
1. R.I. not present
2. Became “CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION”
3. UNCOMMON Men with IDEAS in Common
a. Federalism
b. Republicanism
c Puritanism
C. DISPUTED ISSUES
1. SMALL STATES VS. LARGE STATES: New Jersey Plan vs. Virginia Plan
2. Northern vs. Southern ECONOMIES
3. WESTERN TERRITORY
4. What Kind of EXECUTIVE?
D. COMPROMISES OF SUMMER OF 1787
1. Great Compromise: Representation
2. 3/5 Compromise: Counting Slaves (for population and for taxes)
3. Executive Branch Compromise
E. ANSWERS TO SPECIFIC PROBLEMS: Constitutional Congress given Power to
1. tax
2. Make war
3 regulate commerce
4 expect enforcement of laws
5 have some say in foreign affairs
6 create a Judiciary
IV. CONCLUSION: 2 YEARS OF RATIFICATION STRUGGLES til 1789
A. CONSTITUTIONAL GOV’T OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
B FIRST “SAT” – MARCH 1789
1 “It’s the best we can do and I’m not sure it’s not the best that can be done” B.Franklin
2 A Government “so little liable to well-founded objections” Lafayette
