Friday, March 7, 2008

Chapter 8 Confederation to Constitution (1776-1791)

Chapter 8: Confederation to Constitution 1776-1791
Section 1: The Confederation Era
Main Idea: The Articles of Confederation were too weak to govern the nation after the Revolutionary War ended. In 1775, Daniel Boone and 30 others helped to build the Wilderness Road, which ran westward over the Appalachian Mountains into Kentucky. Native Americans hunted, fished, and lived in the Kentucky region. The movement of settlers there led to violence between the Native Americans and the settlers. Nevertheless, by 1790, about 100,000 settlers lived there. After the colonies became independent, each state created its own government. Some states created governments with separate branches. Some included a bill of rights as part of the constitution. All the states set up republican forms of government, with representatives chosen by the people. In 1776, the Continental Congress agreed on a plan called the Articles of Confederation. It gave much power to the states and little power to the national government. The government was run by a Confederation Congress. Each state had one vote. Under the Articles of Confederation, taxation and most other important powers were left to the states. The states also controlled the Western lands. In 1778, eight states had ratified the Articles of Confederation. But some of the small states that did not have Western territories refused to sign. They felt that states that had Western territories would have an advantage. But by 1781, all of the states had given up the Western claims and accepted the Articles. Congress passed laws on how to divide and govern the Western lands. The Land Ordinance of 1785 staked out six-mile square plots, called townships. These lands later became the Northwest Territory. It included land that formed the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. The Northwest Ordinance described how the Northwest Territory was to be governed. It also established settlers’ rights. This law set an important pattern for the orderly growth of the United States. The Confederation Congress faced problems, especially debt. The Congress had borrowed large amounts of money during the Revolutionary War. Much of the money was owed to soldiers of its own army. Because Congress did not have the power to levy taxes, it depended on the states to send money. But the states had little money to send. In Massachusetts, farmers fell deeply into debt. Taxes in Massachusetts were very high. Those who could not pay their debts lost their land and were jailed. In 1787, farmers in Massachusetts asked the state legislature for relief from their debts. The legislature refused. The farmers rebelled, led by Daniel Shays. The rebellion became known as Shays’s Rebellion. The Massachusetts militia killed four protesters. The protesters were defeated, but won the sympathy of many Americans. Many people felt that the nation needed to have a stronger national government to help solve its problems.
Section 2: Creating the Constitution
Main Idea: The states sent delegates to a convention to solve the problems of the Articles of Confederation. In September 1786, delegates from five states met in Annapolis, Maryland. They wanted to create national trade laws, which first required amending the Articles of Confederation. The following May, 12 states sent delegates to Philadelphia. Fifty-five delegates came to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. About 3/4 had been representatives to the Continental Congress. America’s most famous men were there—George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison. Madison had studied thoroughly to prepare for the meeting. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were not at the meeting because they were overseas. Patrick Henry refused to go because he opposed the Convention. No women, African Americans, or Native Americans were invited to participate in the Convention. The first order of business at the Convention was to elect a president. Every single delegate voted for George Washington. Next, the delegates had to decide on the rules for the Convention. The delegates decided that in order for everyone to speak freely and not be pressured by the politics of the time, the discussions would remain secret. The first speaker at the Convention, Virginia’s Edmund Randolph, proposed the Virginia Plan. It called for three branches of government. The legislature would be made up of two houses. The number of representatives from each state would be based on the state’s population. The larger states supported the plan. The smaller states opposed it, because they believed that the larger states would have more power. New Jersey delegate William Paterson presented an alternative plan. The New Jersey Plan called for a one-house legislature in which each state would have one vote. After some debate, the Virginia Plan won. The Great Compromise solved the problem of representation. According to the compromise, the House of Representatives would be based on state populations. In the Senate, each state would have an equal number of votes. Next the Convention had to decide who would be counted in the population of each state. After some debate, the delegates reached the Three-Fifths Compromise. It said that 3/5 of the slave population would be counted to determine representation in the legislature and to determine taxation. The Convention also agreed that Congress could not ban the slave trade until 1808. The delegates gave the national government the power to regulate trade. The national government could pass laws on how goods could be exported. On September 15, 1787, all but three of the delegates voted to support the revised Constitution. Washington sent it to the Confederation Congress and Congress sent it to the states to be ratified.
Section 3: Ratifying the Constitution
Main Idea: Americans across the nations debated whether the Constitution would produce the best government. The framers of the Constitution knew that the Constitution would cause controversy. They began to campaign for its ratification. They explained that the new Constitution was based on federalism, a system in which the national government and state governments share power. The people who supported ratification were known as Federalists. Those who opposed the Constitution were known as Anti-federalists. The Federalists wrote and published essays in support of the Constitution. The best known essays are The Federalist papers, later published as a book called The Federalist. The authors of The Federalist papers were Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Most of the newspapers supported the Constitution. As a result, they gave more publicity to the Federalists than to the Anti-federalists. Even so, opposition to ratification was strong in many areas. By late June 1788, nine states had ratified the Constitution. At Virginia’s convention, Patrick Henry and George Mason refused to sign the final document without a bill of rights. James Madison was also at Virginia’s convention. He suggested that Virginia ratify the Constitution and recommended that a bill of rights be added. New York followed Virginia’s example by ratifying the Constitution while calling for a bill of rights. Rhode Island became the last state to ratify the Constitution in 1790. By then, the new Congress had already written a bill of rights and submitted it to the states. James Madison, a member of the new Congress, proposed a set of amendments to the Constitution. Congress first edited, and then accepted, the amendments. As with the Constitution, three-fourths of the states had to ratify the amendments for them to take effect. In 1791, ten amendments were ratified and became law. They became known as the Bill of Rights.