Chapter 9: The Confederation and the Constitution

The American Revolution was not a revolution in the sense of a radical or total change The revolution affected social customs, political institutions, and ideas about society, government and even gender roles. 80000 substantial Loyalists robbed the new ship of state of conservative ballast. This weakening of the aristocratic upper crust, with all its culture and elegance, paved the way for new, Patriot elites to emerge.
Also cleared the field for more egalitarian ideas to sweep across the land

The Pursuit of Equality

All men are created equal the Declaration of Independence proclaimed and equality was everywhere the watchword.
Most states reduced (but usually did not eliminated altogether) property-holding requirements for voting

Most Americans ridiculed the loudly pretensions of Continental Army officers who formed an exclusive hereditary order, The society of the Cincinnati, Social democracy was further stimulated by the growth of trade organizations for artisans and laborers.
Eliminated primogeniture, awarded all of a fathers property to the eldest son.

A protracted fight for separation of church and state resulted in notable gains.
Well entrenched Congressional Church continued to be legally established in some New England states, The Anglican Church, tainted by association with the British crown, was humbled. De-anglicanized, it reformed as the Protestant Episcopal.

The struggle for separation between religion and government proved fiercest in Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson and his co-reformers, including Baptists, won a complete victory with the passage of the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom.

Philadelphia Quakers in 1775 founded the worlds first anti-slavery society

Hostilities hampered the noxious trade in black ivory and the Continental Congress in 1774 called for the complete abolition of the slave trade, a summons to which most of the states responded positively.
Some Northern States went further and either abolished slavery outright or provided for the gradual emancipation of blacks

No States south of Pennsylvania abolished slavery, and in both North and South, the law discriminated harshly against freed blacks and slaves alike. Emancipated African-Americans could be barred from purchasing property, holding certain jobs, and educating their children. The fledging idealism of the Founding Fathers was sacrificed to political expediency Incomplete was the extension of the doctrine of equality of women.
Some women did serve (disguised as men) in the military, and New Jerseys new constitution in 1776 even, for a time, enabled women to vote.

Abigail Adams teased her husband John in 1776 that the Ladies were determined to foment a rebellion of their own if they were not given political rights, m ost of the women in the Revolutionary era were still doing traditional womens work. Central to republican ideology was the concept of civic virtue the notion that democracy depended on the unselfish commitment of each citizen to the public good. The selfless devotion of a mother to her family was often cited as the very model of proper republican behavior The idea of republican motherhood thus took root, elevating women to a newly prestigious role as the special keepers of the nations conscience
Republican women gained more educational opportunities Republican women now bore crucial responsibility for the survival of the nation

Constitution Making in the States

The Continental Congress in 1776 called upon the colonies to draft new constitutions. In effect, the Continental Congress was actually asking the colonies to summon themselves in to being as new states.

The sovereignty of these new states according to theory of republicanism would rest on the authority of the people.

Massachusetts contributed one especially noteworthy innovation when it called a special convention to draft its constitution and then submitted the final draft its constitution and then submitted the final draft directly to the people for ratification. Once adopted in 1780, the Massachusetts constitution could be changed only by another specially called the constitutional convention
This procedure was later imitated in the drafting and ratification of the federal constitution

The newly penned state constitutions had many features in common.

Their similarity, as it turned out, made easier the drafting of a workable federal charter when the time was ripe.

In British tradition, a constitution was not a written document but rather an accumulation of laws, customs and precedents
What Americans drafted were contracts that defined the powers of government, as did the old colonial charters, but they drew their authority from the people not from the royal seal of a distant king

As written documents the state constitutions were intended to represent a fundamental law superior to the transient whims of ordinary legislature. Most of the documents included bills of rights, specifically guaranteeing long-prized liberties against later legislative encroachment. Most of them required the annual election of legislators who were thus forced to stay in touch with the mood of people. A generation of quarreling with His Majestys officials had implanted a deep distrust of despotic governors and arbitrary judges. In all the new states of governments, the legislatures, as presumably the most democratic branch of government, were given sweeping powers
Thomas Jefferson warned 173 despots [in a legislature] would be as oppressive as one. Many Americans agreed

The democratic character of the new state legislature was vividly reflected by the presence of many members from the recently enfranchised poorer western districts.

Their influence was powerfully felt in their several successful movements to relocate state capitals from the haughty eastern seaports into the less pretentious interior. In the revolutionary era, the capitals of New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia were all moved westward These geographical shifts portended political that deeply discomfited many m ore conservative Americans.

Economic Crosscurrents
Economic changes begotten by the war were likewise noteworthy but not overwhelming.
States seized control of former crown lands, and although rich speculators had their day many of the large loyalist holdings were confiscated and eventually but up into small farms.

The frightful excesses of the French Revolution were avoided, partly because cheap land was easily available People do not chip off heads so readily when they can chop down trees.
It is highly significant that in the United States, economic democracy, broadly speaking, preceded political democracy

A sharp stimulus was given to manufacturing by the prewar nonimportation agreements and later by the war itself. Goods that had formerly been imported from Britain were mostly cut off and the ingenious Yankees were forced to make their own. America remained overwhelmingly a nation of soil-tillers. The Coveted commerce of Britain was still reserved for the loyal parts of the empire.
American ships were now barred from British and British West Indies harbors. Fisheries were disrupted and bounties for ships stores had abruptly ended. In some respects the hated British Navigation Laws were more disagreeable after independence than before

Americans could now trade freely with foreign nations, subject to local restrictions a boon they had not enjoyed in the days of mercantilism.

In 1784 the Empress of China, carrying a valuable weed (ginseng) that was highly prized by Chinese herb doctors as a cure for importance, led the way into East Asian Markets. War had spawned demoralizing extravagance speculation, and profiteering, with profits for some as indecently high as 300% Runaway inflation had been ruinous to many citizens, and Congress had failed in its feeble attempts to curb economic laws.
The average citizen was probably worse off financially at the end of the shooting than the start

The whole economic and social atmosphere was unhealthy A newly rich class of profiteers was noisily conspicuous, whereas many once-wealthy people were left destitute The controversy leading to the Revolutionary War had bred a keen distaste for taxes and encouraged disrespect for the majesty of the law generally. John Adams had been shocked when gleefully told by a horse-jockey neighbor that the courts of justice were al closedplight that proved to be only temporary.

A Shaky Start toward Union

It was difficult to set up a new government and doubly difficult to set up a new type of government. The picture was further clouded in America by leaders preaching natural rights and looking suspiciously at all persons clothed with authority. America was more a name than a nation, and unity ran little deeper than the color on the map. The departure of the conservative Tory element left the political system inclined toward experimentation and innovation. Patriots had fought the war with a high degree of disunity but they had a least concurred on allegiance to a common cause. British manufacturers with dammed-up surpluses began flooding the American market with cut-rates goods.

War-baby American industries, in particular, suffered industrial colic from such ruthless competition. The thirteen sovereign states were basically alike in governmental structure and functioned under similar constitutions.

Creating a Confederation
Shortly before declaring independence in 1776, the congress appointed a committee to draft a written constitution for the new nation. The finished product was the Articles of Confederation.
Adopted by congress in 1777 it was translated into French after the Battle of Saratoga so as to convince France that America had a genuine government in the making. The Articles were not ratified by all thirteen states until 1781, less than eight months before the victory at Yorktown.

The chief apple of discord was western lands. Six of the jealous states, including Pennsylvania and Maryland had no holdings beyond the Alleghany Mountains. Seven Notably New York, and Virginia, were favored with enormous acreage in most cases on the basis of earlier charter grants. A major-complaint was that the land-blessed states could sell their transAllegheny tracts and thus pay off pensions and other debts incurred in the common cause. Unanimous approval of the Articles of Confederation by the thirteen states was required and land-starved Maryland held out until March 1.
Maryland gave in when New York surrendered its western claims and Virginia seemed about to do so.

It further agreed to carve from the new public domain not colonies but a number of republican states, which in time would be admitted to the Union terms of complete equality with all the others. This extraordinary commitment faithfully reflected the anti-colonial spirit of the Revolution and the pledge was later fully redeemed in the famed Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

Fertile public lands thus transferred to the central government proved to be an invaluable bond of union

The Articles of Confederation: Americas First Constitution

The Articles of Confederation some have said Articles of Confusion provided for a loose confederation or firm league of friendship
13 independent states were thus linked together joint action in dealing with common problems such as foreign affairs.

No executive branch The vital judicial arm was left almost exclusively to the states. Congress had no power to regulate commerce and this loophole left the states free to establish conflictingly different laws regarding tariffs and navigation Congress could not enforce its tax collection program
It established a tax quota for each of the states, it could not command or coerce or control

The central authority a government by supplication was lucky if in any year it received one-fourth of its requests The feeble government could not command, coerce or control
It could not act directly with individual citizens of a sovereign state it could not been protect itself against gross indignities

The Articles of Confederation were weak but they proved to be landmark in government. They were a model of what a loose confederation ought to be. Confederation was praiseworthy as confederations went the troubled times demanded not to loosely woven confederation but a tightly knit federation. This involved yielding by the states of the sovereignty to a completely recast federal govt which in turn would leave them free to control their local affairs A of C were significant stepping stone toward the present Constitution .
Made treaties and establishing a postal service

The Articles kept alive the flickering ideal of union and held the states together until such time as they were ripe for the establishment of a strong constitution by peaceful evolutionary methods

Landmarks in Land Laws

Land Ordinance of 1785- stated that the acreage of the Old Northwest should be sold and the proceeds should be used to help pay off the national debt. Northwest Ordinance of 1787- a uniform national land policy; created the Northwest Territories and gave the land to the government, the land could then be purchased by individuals; when a territory had 60,000 people, it might be admitted by Congress as a state, with all the privileges of the 13 other states.

The World's Ugly Duckling

Britain declined to make any commercial treaty with the colonies or to repeal its Navigation Laws. Lord Sheffield argued in his pamphlet that Britain could win back America's trade. The British remained in the Americas where they maintained their fur trade with the Indians. The American states did not honor the treaty of peace in regard to debts and Loyalists. The British stayed primarily to keep the Indians on the side of the British so to defend against future attacks on Canada by the Americans. Spain was openly unfriendly to the Americans. It closed off the Mississippi river to commerce in 1784.

The Horrid Specter of Anarchy

Shay's Rebellion- in western Massachusetts in 1786; when impoverished back-country farmers, who were losing their farms through mortgage foreclosures and tax delinquencies, attempted to enforce their demands of cheap paper money, lighter taxes, and a suspension of property takeovers; led by Captain Daniel Shays. The uprising was crushed but it left fear in the propertied class of mobs.

A Convention of "Demigods"
In 1786, Virginia called for a convention at Annapolis, Maryland. There, Alexander Hamilton saved the convention from collapsing - delegates from only 5 states showed up. He called upon Congress to summon a convention to meet in Philadelphia the next year, not to deal with just commerce, but to fix then entire fabric of the Articles of Confederation. Alexander Hamilton was an advocate of a super-powerful central government. On May 25, 1787, 55 representatives from all of the states except for Rhode Island were sent to Philadelphia to talk of the government in the future of the country. (Constitutional Convention) George Washington was elected as the leader.

Patriots in Philadelphia
The delegates hoped to save the revolutionary idealism and make it into a strong political structure.

Hammering Out a Bundle of Compromises

Some of the delegates decided they would scrap the old Articles of Confederation, contradicting instructions from Congress to revise it. The "large-state plan" was proposed by Virginia and was first pushed forward as the framework of the Constitution. It said that the arrangement in Congress should be based upon a state's population. New Jersey presented the "small-state plan." It centered on equal representation in Congress without regards to a state's size or population. The "Great Compromise" of the convention was hammered out and finally agreed upon. It called for representation by population in the House of Representatives, and equal representation in the Senate. Each state would have 2 senators. The new Constitution also called for a President. Because of arguments over if the slaves would count towards the general population of the state, the "three-fifths compromise" was created. The new Constitution also called for the end of the slave trade by the end of 1807. All new state constitutions except Georgia's forbade overseas slave trade. Rhode Island was not present at the Constitutional Convention.

Safeguards for Conservatism

The members of the Constitutional Convention agreed economically-demanded sound money and the protection of private property; and politically-favored a stronger government with 3 branches and with checks and balances among them.

The Clash of Federalists and Anti-federalists

The Anti-federalists were led by Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee. The followers consisted of states' rights devotees, back country dwellers, and one-horse farmers - in general, the poorest class. Federalists were led by George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Most of the Federalists lived in the settled areas along the seaboard. Overall, they were wealthier than the Anti-federalists, more educated, and better organized. They also controlled the press.

The Great Debate in the States

Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and New Hampshire were the first 9 states to sign the Constitution. Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island were the only states to not sign it. (4 Laggard States)

The Four Laggard States

Virginia, New York, and North Carolina all ratified the Constitution before it was put into effect. Rhode Island was the last state to ratify it and it did so only after the new government had been in operation for a few months. These 4 states did not ratify the Constitution because they wanted to but because they had to. They could not safely exist outside the fold.

A Conservative Triumph
The architects of the Constitution contented that every branch-executive, judiciary, and legislative-effectively represented the people. By imbedding the principle of self-rule in a self-limiting system of checks and balances among these 3 branches, the Constitution settled the conflicting doctrines of liberty and order.