Chapter 3

Articles of Confederation and the Constitution

Central government=Congress (no president, no courts)Congress replaced the role that King/Parliament had

played during colonial timesEach state had 1 vote: problems?Most decisions required 9 out of 13 state approval:

problems?Amending the Articles required unanimous approval:

problems?Could not tax, could not regulate trade

Why not? Who could do these things?Had control over foreign policy, the national military,

post office, western lands, Indian affairs (foreign policy)

Articles of Confederation: 1781(1783)-1788

Technically the government that won the war vs. the most powerful country in the world (Britain)

Land PolicyGot the states to cede most of their land claims to

the central governmentNorthwest Ordinance of 1785 (new states, not new

colonies)State governments held most of the power

(almost every law/tax of any importance was passed by the state governments not the federal government) the PEOPLE had a lot of control over the state governments

Successes/Pros of the Articles

Foreign ProblemsIndian attacks on the frontier (often supplied

by British/Spanish)British/Spanish occupied large parts of US

territory (Northwest US, Southwest US)Spanish refused to allow Americans access to

Mississippi RiverUS government couldn’t pay back Loyalists

from Revolutionary War—Treaty of ParisNorth African Pirates (Barbary Pirates)

Crisis Period? Problems with the Articles

Domestic ProblemsDebate about Vermont (claimed by both NY and NH)Couldn’t pay off debts from the war: why?Couldn’t regulate trade (different states had different

rules, states passing trade restrictions against each other)

States passing paper money (had no value [couldn’t buy anything with it], but could be used to pay off debts)

Economy suffered—British imports killed US industry, US lost access to British markets (Caribbean)

Shays Rebellion—indebted Massachusetts farmers closed down the state courts, stopped foreclosures—anarchy???!!!

Crisis Period? Problems with the Articles

Domestic ProblemsUS/State governments not paying off

loans/debtsWhat type of person did this hurt?

Problems regulating tradeWho did this hurt?

Worthless paper money made it easy to pay off debtsWho did this hurt?

Bad economy, damaged industryWho did this hurt?

Shays RebellionWho did this concern?

Problems with the Articles: A Closer Look

Articles of Confederation losing support (especially among the upper class/business leaders)Shays Rebellion 1786-1787

Philadelphia Convention 1787Revise the Articles of ConfederationMake changes or completely replace???

From Articles to Constitution

Basic Structure3 Branches: legislative (congress), executive

(president), judicial (supreme court)Federal System: power shared between state

governments and the national (federal) government Problems

Congress: How many houses 2 (Virginia Plan) or 1 (New Jersey

Plan) (bicameral or unicameral)Representation based on population (VA) or equal (NJ)

SlaveryAllow slavery?Allow the slave trade???How do you count slaves for the purposes of voting?

Conflicts and Compromises at Philadelphia

Connecticut Compromise2 house congressHouse of Representatives (lower house)

Representation based on populationElected by the people every 2 years

Senate (upper house)2 representatives per state regardless of sizeElected by the state legislatures every 6 years*

3/5ths CompromiseFor purposes of determining population for House

of Reps every 5 slaves would count as 3 peopleWhat type of precedent did this establish/what did this

say about the status of African Americans in the eyes of the US govt?

Compromises

Constitution Much Less “democratic” than ArticlesStates had less power—less easy for the people

to influence their government (Federalist #10)Senators elected by state legislatures NOT by

popular votePresident elected by Electoral College NOT by

popular voteSupreme Court Justices appointed by the

President and confirmed by the Senate NOT elected by the people

How Democratic is Our Constitution? Is This a Bad Thing?

National (federal) government now had the power to:TaxRegulate interstate and international commerceBorrow moneyCoin moneyNecessary and proper clause Art I, Sect 8, Clause 18

State governments could no longerMake paper moneyMake their own trade regulations/ban trade from

another stateConstitution was the supreme law of the land

Constitutionfederal laws/treatiesstate laws

Articles vs Constitution: Changes

Amendment ProcessAmendments needed to pass both houses of

Congress by a 2/3rds majority¾ of the States needed to ratify them

Presidency1 decisive leaderHad the power to veto laws, congress could

override the veto with 2/3 majorities in both houses

Supreme CourtJustices served for life, appointed by President

Articles vs Constitution: Changes

Constitution would take effect when 9 out of 13 states ratified it What would happen to the other 4 who didn’t?

Federalists in favor, antifederalists opposed Federalists: by the coast, in the big cities, merchants, factory

workers, the wealthy, bankers, creditors Antifederalists: backcountry, rural, farmers, poorer, debtors

September 1787 Constitution finished Dec 1787 first state ratified it (Delaware) 1788 9 states had ratified—Constitution took effect VA, NY, NC, and RI hadn’t, US needed these states (especially

NY and VA) Promise to draft a national Bill of Rights won over most of the

holdouts (RI didn’t ratify until after the completion of the Bill of Rights 1790)

Ratification Process

Political Cartoon

Problem:How do you keep the national government from gaining

too much power?Rely on people’s good nature not to abuse their power?Rely on people’s bad nature to seek as much power for

themselves as they can?Solution:

People will seek as much power for themselves as they can so construct the government so that in order for one branch to gain power they must take it from another

Greedy individuals in all 3 branches will constantly undercut one another’s power (check) and this will result in no one branch growing too powerful (balance)

Checks and Balances

Checks and Balances