History of America following the end of the American Revolution. The focus is on the Articles of Confederation and events (Shay's Rebellion), debt, etc., that led to the Constitution.

1. 2014 History 1301-12

2. Articles of Confederation
• Wary of strong central governments after
their interactions with Britain, delegates at
the Second Continental Congress made
certain that the new national congress
created under the Articles of
Confederation would have very little
authority over state legislatures. Instead,
drafters hoped that the congress would act
as a collective substitute for a monarch, or
a multiperson executive.

3. The Articles stipulated that the
Congress could do the following:
• Negotiate treaties, declare war, and make peace
• Coin money
• Issue loans
• Maintain an army and a navy
• Operate a postal service
• Negotiate treaties with Native Americans
• Resolve disputes among the states
• Govern western territories for the benefit of all
states

4. Continental Dollars and
Depression
• The new Congress immediately set to printing paper
currency in order to pay for the Revolutionary War. The
money became the standard currency in the United
States during the war, but when hard times hit and
inflation skyrocketed, these Continental dollars became
“not worth a Continental.” Many Americans, especially
farmers, faced hardship as the economy slid into
depression. Congress requested that states increase
taxes to help pay for a new national currency, but most
states refused and printed their own paper money
instead. This, too, quickly succumbed to inflation, and by
the end of the war Americans had fistfuls of a variety of
worthless money.

5. This much was very clear
• The individual states reserved all powers
not specifically granted to congress.
• The new national government had no
taxing authority.

6. The issue of Taxes
• Representative governments in the states
would levy their own taxes and then use a
percentage of the duties collected to pay
their share of national expenditures.
• Did this work? Not hardly. Many states
refused to pay…can you imagine that?

7. Governing Western Lands
• The Land Ordinance of 1785, which helped the
government survey western lands. The law created
townships, each six miles square, that were divided into
thirty-six square-mile sections and auctioned to the
highest bidder so that any American could settle in the
West.
• The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which
stipulated that a western territory could apply for full
statehood as soon as it had the same number of people
as the least populous of the original thirteen states. The
ordinance made certain that new states would receive
equal footing with older states and that all citizens of the
territories would have the same rights as the citizens of
the states.

8. Effects of Actions
• England had attempted to restrict
westward expansion to appease the
Indians, the new central government
sought ways to promote settlements in the
American West via land laws and Indian
policies.
• Both ordinances were popular because
they opened land to settlers and the
possibility of profits for speculators.

9. FTM
• Income from land sales promised to help
reduce the national debt.
• Slaves in the area could stay, but no new
ones.
• Made area attractive to white farmers who
feared cheap labor.
• Southerners did not complain because
there was still a lot of land.

10. Faulty Assumptions
• During the postwar years the
Confederation acted as if the Indians of
the interior were “conquered” peoples,
allies of England who had lost the war and
thus came under U.S. control.
• Land treaties were imposed. Ft. Stanwix
Treaty in 1784 ceded Iroquois Land.Indian
tribes dwindled, 2 years later repudiated.

11. Indian Raids Started
• Devastating Indian raids now greeted new
settlers. Speculation fell, but land still was
needed.

12. European presence
• Congress also failed to resolve problems
because of Spain in Florida and Gulf
Coast and areas of Mississippi.
• Spanish agents were urging residents to
break away.
• Washington warned that they might. “The
Touch of a feather would turn them away.”

13. National Debt
• Congress was unable to effectively deal with the
$35 Million War Debt. Much owed to French and
Dutch Bankers. Congress had to borrow
additional money to just pay the interest.
• Owed Soldiers.
• By 1780, with the outcome of the war still very
much undecided, the central government had
run out of money and was essentially
BANKRUPT! As a result the paper money it
issued was basically worthless.

14. Robert Morris-1781
• Robert Morris appointed
as Supt. of Finance. He
forged a solution to this
dire dilemma. Morris
expanded existing
government power and
secured special privileges
for the BANK OF NORTH
AMERICA in an attempt
to stabilize the value of
the paper money issued
by the Congress. He went
beyond authorized
powers but stemmed
runaway inflation.

15. Morris
• Urged states to stop issuing paper money and
persuaded Congress to demand that the states
pay their requisitions in gold and silver coin.
(specie)
• Took steps to make Federal Bonds more
attractive to investors.
• In 1781, Congress requested $8 million from the
States. 2 1/2 years later they got less than $1.5.
States would not come through. By 1784 Morris
resigned.

16. Would the Great Experiment
Survive?
• We won the war, but Britain, France and
Spain stood circled like Vultures harboring
imperial ambitions. They had not gone far.
• Britain was still in Canada.
• Spain in Mississippi and South.
• France had proven to be a very
untrustworthy friend.
• Times were tough.

17. Farmers upset
• Frustration with the economic depression boiled
over in 1786. Farmers throughout the colonies
were suffering intensely after the revolution,
mainly due to the worthless Continentals they
were forced to use as money. Most of the state
legislatures refused to provide any assistance to
these impoverished farmers and, in some cases,
even raised taxes. Unable to find any relief, and
still intoxicated from their success in the
Revolution, many farmers grabbed their muskets
once again and marched on the various state
capitals to demand new governments.

18. Shay’s Rebellion
• The most notorious of these small uprising was
Shays’s Rebellion. Led by the Revolutionary
war hero Daniel Shays, protesters attacked
Massachusetts’s courthouses to prevent local
judges from foreclosing on farms. The state
legislature ultimately used militia troops to crush
the uprising. Still, Shays’s Rebellion awakened
legislators in Massachusetts and throughout the
states to the inadequacies of the existing
political system.

19. Daniel Shays in Massachusetts
• “the spector of
debtors jail…
hovered close by.”
• 1787 Shays led
1200 men, mostly
debtors and
veterans toward the
federal arsenal.
• Defenders fired
killing four.
• Shays and others
later forgiven.

20. Go with the French, but
It gets complicated
• Franklin, Jay, and others are pressing for
colonial demands for recognition.
• We can’t trust the French or the British.
• The negotiations for a final settlement
were complicated by considerations
involving France, Spain, and the
Netherlands.
• The American and British peace
commissioners, however, reached a
secret preliminary agreement in
November, 1782. Their final agreement,
the Treaty of Paris, was signed September
3, 1783.

21. Tough Times, Buy American
• Not everyone suffered equally. Artisans
and clothing manufacturers did well.
• Government contracts still paid.
• Times were tough, like now.

22. Congress had to Act
• But what to do, my my, what to do?

23. Two Party System
• The passing of time had created people
who saw the need for a strong national or
federal government. These were soon
called the Federalists.
• Those who feared and opposed a strong
national government wanted power to be
vested in the states. They were called
Anti-Federalists.

24. Enter the Federalists who
Wanted:
• A strong government. Danger rose from
“excessive liberty” that was a threat.
• “We have probably had too good an
opinion of human nature. Experience has
taught us that men will not adopt and carry
into execution the measures best
calculated for their own good, without the
intervention of a coercive power.” G.W.

25. What America Needs:
• A Strong Government, ably
administered. (we know what we
don’t want.)
• A new national government
capable of extending Am. Trade
spurring the economy and
protecting the National Interest.

26. What National Interest?
• Barbary Coast-We
could not protect our
merchant vessels.
• 1785: USA pays
$60,000 as tribute to
Algiers, in order to
free two ships and
the crew, and would
continue to pay $1
million per year.

27. What National Interest?
• Areas around the Mississippi were
controlled by Spain. The “Spanish
Conspiracy” involved getting a small group
of western adventurers to consider leaving
the union and making a separate treaty
with Spain.

28. Indian Claims
• Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and
Chickasaw claims in what is now
Mississippi and Alabama and the
contiguous fringes of Tennessee and
Georgia.
• Spain made treaties and provided
subsidies of munitions and firewater.

29. 7 British Fortified Posts
• Great Britain had held successfully during the
Revolution seven fortified posts south of the
river and lake boundary between the U.S. and
Canada including Lake Champlain, St.
Lawrence, Lake Ontario, Detroit and others.
• Peace treaty with Great Britain, April 9, 1784,
called for her to leave “with all convenient
speed.”
• Secret Order issued by Great Britain the night
before directed the Governor-General of Canada
not to evacuate the posts until further
instructions.

30. British kept them 12 more years
• Forbade navigation of the Great Lakes by
American merchant ships.
• British customs officer at Oswego, N.Y.,
shut off American goods from that post
and the lakes.
• Continued activities among Indian tribes
far within the territory of the United States.

31. How could they do this?
• Under what pretext could they do this?
• 1-Machiavelli
• 2-Pre war debts were confiscated into
treasuries of various states who really did
not want to return them.
• Congress could ask, but had no authority
to make them.
• John Jay felt the retention of the posts
was not unjustified given the
circumstances.

32. Gee, there’s a lot of stuff…
• Posts, debts, Loyalists, evacuated slaves,
trade, boundaries-none of these issues
need have existed had the United States
been a power capable of resolutely
defending its rights against all comers.
• Lacking union with France, a nation only in
name, with no army, no navy, no
executive, no national courts, no control
over national commerce was powerless.

33. What Federalist dreamed:
• Federalists shared a vision of an
expanding the commercial republic, its
people spreading across the rich lands of
the interior, its merchant ships connecting
America with the markets of Europe and
beyond. This vision, so rich in promise,
seemed clearly at risk! (cue the music)

34. Who were the Federalists?
• Men who had experience in the
Continental Army and Congress and had
a national vision.
• George Washington-(kind of)
• James Madison
• Alexander Hamilton
• John Jay

35. George Washington
• After the war G.W.
found himself in an
“acute” financial
situation. While still an
outstanding farmer, he
had western land where
Indians threatened
settlement.

36. Washington
• After the Revolutionary War ended,
Washington simply wanted to go home.
• He had served his country well and even if
never became “President” he would have
been well remembered by historians for
being able to keep the Continental Army in
tact during war with the British.

37. Alexander Hamilton
An aide to Washington during
the Revolution.
He became acutely aware of the
economic and political troubles
that were hindering the
American army's ability to wage
war, and was especially critical
of the Continental Congress's
inefficiency in managing the
military.
He Knew firsthand the
shortcomings of the government

38. Alexander Hamilton
• Only a "talented few" -- understood to mean men
drawn from the wealthy and aristocratic strata of
society -- had the wisdom and dispassionate
foresight to implement the measures necessary
for the public good.
• The great majority of people, in Hamilton's eyes,
operated primarily out of self-interest and could
not be trusted to think or act judiciously in
matters of state power.
• Proposed elected President serve for life.
• He had an elite-est side to him, perhaps an ego?

39. Alexander Hamilton
• The second major distinguishing feature of
Hamilton's political philosophy was its emphasis
on energetic government.
• He believed that the government should be
proactive in economic and military affairs, have
the power the supersede lower governments (as
at the state level), and be able to exercise
authority directly on the people.
• Only an energetic government would be able to
provide the stability and order necessary to
secure the blessings of liberty for the people,
especially over such a large geographical area
as the United States.

40. John Jay
• Although he did not
initially favor separation
from Britain, he was
nonetheless among the
American
commissioners who
negotiated the peace
with Great Britain that
secured independence
for the former colonies.

41. John Jay
• He was Secretary for Foreign Affairs under the
Articles of Confederation, a contributor to the
Federalist, the first Chief Justice of the United
States, negotiator of the 1794 "Jay Treaty" with
Great Britain, and a two-term Governor of the
State of New York.
• Often represented us in Europe. He returned
once to find he’d been appointed Secretary for
Foreign Affairs and later he returned to find he
had been elected Governor of New York.

42. James Madison
• He participated in the
framing of the Virginia
Constitution in 1776, served
in the Continental Congress,
and was a leader in Va.
• Madison made a major
contribution to the ratification
of the Constitution by writing,
with Alexander Hamilton and
John Jay, the Federalist
essays. In later years, when
he was referred to as the
"Father of the Constitution,"
Madison protested that the
document was not "the off-spring
of a single brain," but
"the work of many heads and
many hands."

43. Forming a More Perfect Union
• With Congress’s permission, and
spurred by Hamilton, delegates met in
Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786, but 4 states
were not represented. With too many no
shows they agreed to meet again in
Philadelphia in 1787 to discuss revising
the Articles of Confederation. Shays
rebellion help spur attendance in Philly.
• Why would they want Congress’s
permission?
• More than a revision was going on.

44. Constitutional Convention
• The fifty-five men who gathered at the
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
came from the upper echelons of society.
Most had attended college and had become
wealthy planters, lawyers, and merchants but
generally understood that they served all
classes of Americans. On the other hand, the
delegates did want the new government to
protect individuals’ rights to acquire and hold
wealth.
• Most all of the attendees had not been
heavily involved in the revolution: Thomas
Jefferson, John Adams, Samuel Adams,
and Patrick Henry were all absent.
Nevertheless, most did have experience
writing their own state constitutions.

45. A who’s who of founding fathers
• Robert Morris, perhaps the richest man in
America.
• Thomas Jefferson was in Paris, but
Madison had corresponded with him.
Madison was the best prepared.
• Benjamin Franklin, older, but still able to
inspire.
• George Washington, whose attendance
may have made it happen.

46. Where?
• Independence Hall where the Declaration
of Independence had been signed a little
more than a decade earlier.
• These were heady times, exciting times.
Things were about to really change.

47. Virginia Plan Introduced
• Debate focused first on the Va. Plan which
outlined a potentially powerful national
government, a bicameral Congress, and a
President who would be named by
Congress. It also included a National
Judiciary and a Council of Revision to
review the Constitutionality of Federal
laws.

48. The Virginia Plan
• Designed and presented by Madison, with
the advice of Jefferson, it called for the
creation of a bicameral national
legislature, or a new Congress with an
upper and lower house, in which the
number of representatives per state would
be apportioned based on that state’s
population. Many of the more populous
states supported this “large state plan”
because it would give them more power.

49. Virginia Plan
• In addition it recommended the creation of
a "national executive" to be chosen by
Congress for a single limited term. It
proposed that the powers of the executive
include all of those powers "vested in
Congress by the Confederation." The
executive would also have the power to
"negative" or veto bills, which could still
become laws if re-passed by Congress.

50. New Jersey Plan
• Introduced because Virginia Plan seemed
to favor big states, proposed keeping
Articles of Confederation as basic
structure of government and adding
powers to tax and regulate foreign and
interstate commerce.

51. New Jersey Plan
• A "federal executive" to be chosen by
Congress, consisting of more than one
person. As in the Virginia Plan, the
executives would serve only a single term
in office.
• Unlike the Virginia Plan, the executives
would not have a veto power, and would
be impeachable by Congress on the
request of a majority of state governors.

52. Virginia Plan as basis
• After three days of heated debate, by a
vote of 7-3 the Virginia Plan was adopted
as the basis for moving forward.
• A much stronger national government was
coming, but how strong would it be.

53. 100 Years later….
• This guy would
come along, a
young engineer
named Willis
Carrier. But in the
summer of 1787 it
was hot in Philly.
What did Willis
invent?

54. Hamiliton’s Exit
• Nobody likes rejection. Hamilton had proposed a
“Supreme Executive,” a President elected for
life and a federal government so strong that the
states were merely administrative. His idea was
rejected, he felt rejected and left for a while.
• Luther Martin of Maryland was an ardent Anti-
Federalist who opposed anything that
threatened state sovereignty or smacked of
aristocracy. He left too. Other Anti-Federalists
were Patrick Henry, John Hancock and Sam
Adams. Weaker National/Stronger States.

55. Issues debated for 4 months
• Conflicting interests of large and small
states
• Balance of power-national and state
governments.
• Strong Executive, but not too strong.
• Slavery? Slave trade? –Passions on both
sides North and South.

56. The Great Compromise
• Compromise struck by Franklin, Roger
Sherman of Connecticut and others.
• 3/5 Compromise for House of Reps.
Northern delegates did not want slaves
counted at all.
• States would have equal votes in Senate.
• Electoral College-see your notes

57. Checks and Balances
• A) spotters at a gymnastic meet.
• B) Accountant helpers.
• C) Circus Performers
• D) East European Scales
• E) Powers that the three branches of
government have over each other in order
to keep any one branch from gaining too
much power.

58. Other points
• Judicial Review-Supreme Court may
review and decide if a law is constitutional
or not. Power is implied.
• Elastic Clause has gotten very elastic.
• Ratification-Needed 9 states to come into
effect.
• Senators elected indirectly by State
Legislators. 1913 Changed to direct
election by the people.

59. Slave Trade
• Slave trade would not formally end for
another 20 years. Slavery and slave trade
were not mentioned, but the meaning of
the wording used was clear lawyer-eze
setting a high standard for political double
talk to come…not prohibiting the
“Migration or importation of such persons
as any of the states now existing shall
think proper to admit.”

60. And more
• They also added convoluted language that
provided federal sanction for the capture
and return of runaway slaves.
• At the time it seemed a small price for
unity and harmony, but would later haunt
northern colonies as the fugitive slave
clause.

61. National Government
• Levy and collect taxes
• Regulate commerce with foreign nations
and between the states.
• Devise uniform rules for naturalization.
• Administer national patents and copyrights
• General Welfare and make all laws
necessary became elastic clauses.

62. Whew, that’s finally over!
• After all the business was concluded, 3 of the 42
remaining delegates refused to sign the
document. The other 39,however, affixed their
names and forwarded it to the Confederation
Congress along with the request that it be sent
on to the states for approval.
• On Sept. 17, the Grand Convention adjourned.
• When nine agreed, it was a deal. If the others
agreed, they could join.
• The next battle would be ratification.

63. Effective selling is not arguing but
giving more information.
• The treatment of government power.
Federalists argued that power was not the
enemy of liberty but its guarantor.
• Factions have developed. Federalists
argued that political divisions were the
inevitable accompaniment of human
liberty.
• “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire,
element without which it instantly expires.”
To suppress faction would bring the
destruction of liberty itself

64. The Federalists Papers
• The Federalist Papers were written and
published during the years 1787 and 1788
in several New York State newspapers to
persuade New York voters to ratify the
proposed constitution.
• In total, the Federalist Papers consist of
85 essays outlining how this new
government would operate and why this
type of government was the best choice
for the United States of America.

65. The Federalists Papers
• All of the essays were signed "PUBLIUS" and
the actual authors of some are under dispute,
but the general consensus is that Alexander
Hamilton wrote 52. James Madison wrote 28
and John Jay contributed the remaining five.
• Publius, whose name is translated Friend of the
people, was a Roman counsul who lived in 500
B.C.E. The Federalist Papers remain today as
an excellent reference for anyone who wants to
understand the U.S. Constitution.

66. General Introduction
• AFTER an unequivocal experience of the
inefficiency of the subsisting federal
government, you are called upon to
deliberate on a new Constitution for the
United States of America.

67. Results
• Where Federalists knew they had a
majority, they pressed quickly for a vote.
• In states like New York they delayed and
educated.
• It took less than a year to secure approval
by the necessary nine states. Federalists
leaders had to agree to a set of
amendments outlining a federal bill of
rights. (Adams and Hancock joined now.)

68. Federalist/Anti Federalist Areas

69. Results
• Virginia and New Hampshire ratified by
ten votes, New York passed by three and
Rhode Island by only two.
• How did the Federalists prevail?

70. The “Living”Constitution
• Political philosophers around the world have
hailed the Constitution as one of the most
important documents in world history.
• It established the first stable democratic
government and inspired the creation of similar
constitutions around the world.
• Past historians have waxed lyrical about the
Founding Fathers’ incredible foresight when
writing the Constitution.

71. Or… a bundle of
compromises ?
• Many contemporary historians, however,
tend to see the Constitution more as a
bundle of compromises rather than a
document they knew would change the
world. Either way, the Constitution
established a much stronger federal
government and has since become the
oldest living written constitution in the
world.

72. Importance of a vote
• Only 39 signed it originally.
• It passed by slim margins.
• How could so few have had such a
mighty impact on so many?

73. GEORGE NOT JAMES MASON
THIS GUY NOT THIS GUY

74. GEORGE MASON
• Mason had earlier written the Va. Declaration of
Rights that strongly influenced Thomas
Jefferson in writing the first part of the
Declaration of Independence. He left the
convention bitterly disappointed, however, and
became one of the Constitution's most vocal
opponents. "It has no declaration of rights," he
was to state. Ultimately, George Mason's views
prevailed. When James Madison drafted the
amendments to the Constitution that were to
become the Bill of Rights, he drew heavily upon
the ideas put forth in the Virginia Declaration of
Rights.

75. Bill of Rights
• During the debates on the adoption of the
Constitution, its opponents repeatedly charged
that the Constitution as drafted would open the
way to tyranny by the central government. Fresh
in their minds was the memory of the British
violation of civil rights before and during the
Revolution. They demanded a "bill of rights" that
would spell out the immunities of individual
citizens. Several state conventions in their
formal ratification of the Constitution asked for
such amendments; others ratified the
Constitution with the understanding that the
amendments would be offered.

76. Bill of Rights
• Rights for U.S. Citizens.
• Limitations on the national
government.

77. Bill of Rights
• On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of
the United States therefore proposed to the state
legislatures 12 amendments to the Constitution
that met arguments most frequently advanced
against it. The first two proposed amendments,
which concerned the number of constituents for
each Representative and the compensation of
Congressmen, were not ratified. Articles 3 to 12,
however, ratified by three-fourths of the state
legislatures, constitute the first 10 amendments
of the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights.

78. BILL OF RIGHTS
• 1. Freedom of speech, freedom of the
press, freedom of assembly, freedom of
religion, freedom of petition.
• 2. Right to Bear Arms.
• 3. Freedom from quartering soldiers.
• 4. Protection from unreasonable search
and seizure.
• 5. Right to indictment, protection from self
incrimination.

79. Bill of Rights
• 6. Right to trial by jury in criminal cases.
• 7. Right to trial by jury in civil cases.
• 8. Protection from cruel and unusual
punishment.
• 9. Any rights we left out.
• 10. States Rights Amendment. Any rights
not specifically awarded to the federal
government shall be reserved to the
states

80. What to back it with?
• Franklin pointed out that gold and silver
are of no permanent value and so paper
monies linked to or backed by gold and
silver, as with bank paper money in
Europe, are of no permanent value.
• Land is a more certain and steady asset
with which to back paper money. Most
importantly, land cannot be exported from
the provinces as gold and silver can.

81. Land Banks and Stability
• A properly run land bank will never loan
more paper money than the landed
security available to back it, and so the
value of paper money, through this limit on
its quantity, will never fall below that of
land.
• Franklin also favored private banks
backed by gold and silver.

82. James Madison
• Madison helped write the
Federalist papers with
Alexander Hamilton and
John Jay. In later years,
when he was referred to
as the "Father of the
Constitution," Madison
protested that the
document was not "the
off-spring of a single
brain," but "the work of
many heads and many
hands."

83. Alexander Hamilton
• Fought alongside
George Washington.
• A cabinet member
under Washington
• Later would go head
to head with
Jefferson.