Unit 3 - Period Review (Part B)
Part B - A Nation is Born
As they snapped their political bonds with England, the colonials constructed a new government to replace the monarchy. The product of this effort, the Articles of Confederation, was written in 1777 and ratified in 1781, after long wrangling over western land claims.
The new government was “a firm league of friendship“ that maintained individual state equality and sovereignty. Each state had one vote in Congress regardless of its size or population. In theory, the unicameral legislature could conduct foreign affairs, settle disputes between the states, and regulate commerce. Yet, in reality, the central government had very little authority, with true power remaining at the state level. There was no executive officer, and the government possessed neither the power of the purse nor of the sword. Its armed forces were minimal, and the government did not have direct taxing power. In addition, the Articles were inflexible. They required all thirteen states to approve major governmental change. Overall, the government created by the Articles lacked the powers necessary to protect the domestic tranquility or to conduct foreign relations.
Problems with the Articles
The inadequacies of the Articles became apparent shortly after the Revolution ended. A severe depression hit America and the per capita GNP declined over 50 percent in the 1780s. The country was awash in paper money, with all the states and the central government issuing currency to pay their debts. This lack of a stable monetary system retarded interstate commerce. Moreover, the central government was unable to negotiate agreements on international trade policy. Europe took advantage of America’s divisions to close its markets and flood the United States with European goods.
In foreign relations, Britain refused to evacuate forts around the Great Lakes, Spain closed the Mississippi River, and the Barbary Pirates made the Mediterranean Sea a war zone for American shipping. All this added to America’s economic woes and degraded its image abroad.
Most alarming to many, the government seemed unable to maintain order and protect the property of its citizens at home. A series of domestic disturbances in the mid-1780s culminated with Shays’s Rebellion in 1786–1787. When the central government was unable to put down Shays and his rebels, many leaders became convinced the Articles must be radically changed.
Successes of the Articles
The Confederation government was not a complete failure, however. The Congress created a systematic land policy for the national domain west of the Appalachian Mountains. With the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, a process to organize and admit new territories to full statehood was established and the nation’s future growth assured. In addition, the Northwest Ordinance provided steps to limit the spread of slavery. Finally, the Articles outlined on paper the general powers a central government should possess.
Changing the Articles
By the mid-1780s, national-minded leaders such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton became convinced the Articles of Confederation must be replaced with a stronger central government. Starting at the Annapolis Convention in 1786, the nationalists began a campaign to revise the Articles of Confederation. With Shays’s Rebellion reverberating through the land, all the states except Rhode Island agreed to meet, and in May 1787, fifty-five delegates convened in Philadelphia to revise the Articles.
The delegates were national-minded as they quickly discarded the Articles and established a stronger central government. Both the Virginia Plan, favored by the large states, and the New Jersey Plan, favored by the small states, greatly enhanced the powers of Congress. The disagreement between the two proposals was not whether Congress should have more powers but whether the big states or the small states would control its agenda. These lawyers, landholders, and slave owners wanted a government that could preserve the union, protect property, provide sound money, and promote liberty. They opposed universal suffrage and believed that owning property as a requirement for voting was a bulwark against anarchy.
The areas of greatest debate were over congressional representation, slavery, and the presidency. All were resolved by compromise. Congress would have two houses—one favoring large states and one favoring small states; slavery would not be touched; the slave trade would continue for twenty years; and the president would serve a four-year term and be eligible for reelection.
Putting the Constitution in Place
Ratification of the Constitution divided the nation into factions. The Federalists, who supported the document, lived mainly around mercantile centers and owned substantial property. The Anti-Federalists, who opposed the Constitution, feared the powers of the new government and were less commercial-minded. While the Constitution was approved, the Anti-Federalists did manage to get a Bill of Rights added to protect the people’s liberty.
First president George Washington confronted an immediate financial crisis. The combined national debt was $75 million, and the people had a long aversion to taxation. Washington tapped Alexander Hamilton to address the nation’s financial problems. In a series of controversial moves, Hamilton proposed a tariff, excise taxes, and a National Bank.
Thomas Jefferson organized opposition to Hamilton’s plan. Specifically, he objected to the National Bank. As a strict constructionist, Jefferson believed the new Constitution did not give Congress the powers to establish a bank. Hamilton, a loose constructionist, argued the Constitution’s “necessary and proper” clause provided the authority for the bank’s creation.
This dispute, along with disagreements over levying the excise taxes, crushing the Whiskey Rebellion, and funding the national debt, gave rise to the nation’s political party system. Jefferson’s Democratic Republican Party supported limiting the powers of the central government. Hamilton’s Federalist Party believed the government must have significant taxing and governmental authority.
Foreign Problems
A war between France and Britain in the 1790s further divided the nation. Jefferson argued that the United States should support France; however, Hamilton believed America needed Britain’s commercial support. Washington decided to remain neutral, and both nations retaliated by seizing American ships. He further angered the French and the Democratic Republicans by sending John Jay to England in 1794 to resolve problems over British forts in the Great Lakes region and shipping difficulties. The French, outraged over Jay’s Treaty, stepped up their interference with U.S shipping. Before leaving office, Washington issued a Farewell Address, in which he advised the nation to maintain its commercial ties to Europe, to avoid entangling military alliances, and to reject divisive political parties at home.
John Adams inherited Washington’s foreign problems. As the undeclared naval war with France intensified, Adams attempted a diplomatic solution. The French, however, humiliated the American delegation in the XYZ Affair, and the two nations went to the brink of war. Adams dampened the war fever with a preparedness campaign, another diplomatic mission, and a series of repressive domestic measures highlighted by the Alien and Sedition Acts. While Adams avoided war and abrogated the American-French alliance of 1778, his actions cost him reelection in 1800.