The Articles of Confederation
At the same time that Thomas Jefferson was drafting the Declaration of Independence,
members of the Continental Congress were developing a plan of a government, or constitution,
for the new country. This plan was detailed in a document known as the Articles of
Confederation, the first constitution of the United States. This confederation was a group of 13
independent states that allowed a central government to have a limited amount of
responsibilities, such as forming an army.
The government under the Articles set up a one house legislature, called Congress, and
each state could have up to seven representatives. However, only one representative from each
state could vote, no matter the size or population of the state. Most importantly, each state
maintained its sovereignty, or independent power, to manage its own affairs.
Congress was given several powers under the Articles of Confederation. For example,
Congress had the authority to maintain communications with other countries, known as foreign
affairs, borrow money, issue currency, and maintain armed forces. However, as a result of their
experiences with Britain, the states did not want to give Congress two important powers, the
power to enforce laws and the power to tax.
It became clear soon after the ratification, or approval, of the Articles that there were
major weaknesses. First, Congress could not pass any laws unless nine out of the thirteen states
approved the law. Second, the Articles could only be amended, or changed, by unanimous vote
of all states. These restrictions made it difficult for Congress to accomplish anything. A third
weakness was that any laws passed by Congress could not be enforced because there was no
executive branch to make sure the laws were being followed. Therefore the states could ignore
the laws passed by Congress without consequences. Finally, if a dispute arose between two
states there was no judicial branch or courts to mediate the problem.
Despite these weaknesses, the government under the Articles of Confederation was able
to achieve some important tasks. One of these achievements was a plan for lands west of the
Appalachian Mountains. In 1785, Congress passed an ordinance that established a procedure for
surveying and selling these lands. Two years later, the Northwest Ordinance was passed. This
created a single Northwest Territory from the lands north of the Ohio River and east of the
Mississippi River. This law was significant because it guaranteed certain rights to people living
in the territory. These rights included the freedom of religion, property rights, and the right to
trial by jury. In addition, the Northwest Ordinance stated that, “there shall be neither slavery or
involuntary servitude” in the territory. This was the first attempt to stop the spread of slavery.
Though the United States had a government, there were other major problems. For
example, many soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War against Great Britain were not
paid and people who lent the government money for the war had not been paid back. Also,
plantations in the South had been damaged in the war and it was difficult to trade with the
Caribbean islands because of British restrictions. In order for the states to pay their debts from
the Revolutionary War, the state governments had raised taxes on farmers. Since farmers could
not sell their crops they were not able to pay higher taxes. Therefore, states began to seize, or
take, the farmers’ land. As a direct result of this action, farmers in Massachusetts, led by Daniel
Shays, marched to seize arms and ammunition. It appeared as though some parts of the country
were ready to rebel so troops were sent to stop the farmers and ended up shooting at them. This
incident was known as Shay’s Rebellion.
These events frightened colonial leaders enough that a meeting was called to address the
crisis. Fifty-five colonial delegates met in Philadelphia to rewrite the Articles of Confederation.
The delegates elected George Washington as President of the convention. James Madison, who
would be known later as the “Father of the Constitution”, and Benjamin Franklin also attended.
The Foundation of the New Government
Soon after the meeting began, the delegates decided to create a new strong national
government instead of changing the Articles of Confederation. James Madison came up with a
plan for this new government by using some of the traditions of the English and ancient Greek
governmental systems. He knew that Americans would not tolerate a strong leader with power
similar to a king. To avoid this, he used the idea of shared power that was in the Magna Carta
in which the King shared power with Parliament. Madison proposed that the government would
have three parts; a legislative branch which would make laws, an executive branch that would
enforce the laws and a judicial branch that would interpret laws. All three branches would share
power so that one branch would never become too powerful.
He also pointed out that the new nation should use the ideas of self-government from the
Mayflower Compact. Another important part of the government would be to make sure that the
rights of citizens would be protected, as they were under the English Bill of Rights. Some of the
same rights included in that document, such as trial by jury, would later be part of the U.S.
Constitution’s Bill of Rights. Finally, in order to make sure that the states kept some power,
Madison used the concept of federalism, where the state and federal governments shared power.
Two Possibilities of Government
Edmund Randolph, a delegate from Virginia, proposed Madison’s plan. The new
government would be composed of a two-house legislature, a court system, and an executive
chosen by the legislature. In both houses of the legislature, the number of representatives would
be proportional, or corresponding to the population of each state. A large state like Virginia,
which had the largest population of any state, had an advantage under this plan. This plan
became known as the Virginia Plan.
Smaller states, such as New Jersey, objected this plan since they saw it as a grab for
power by the larger states. The small states favored the government under the Articles of
Confederation, where all states were represented equally. To counter the Virginia Plan, William
Paterson of New Jersey proposed keeping the one house legislature with one vote for each state
that was in the Articles of Confederation, but also changed the Articles to include a weak
executive branch elected by Congress. This plan, known as the New Jersey Plan, also gave the
legislative branch two new powers, the power to tax and regulate trade.
This disagreement over representation in Congress almost caused the convention to end.
Eventually, the states agreed on using the three branches model of government but were not able
to agree on how the number of representatives from each state would be decided. Another major
point of disagreement was slavery and how slaves would be counted in the population.
Compromise at the Convention
The only way the convention could continue was if there was a compromise, or an
agreement in which both sides agree to give up something in order to gain something, between
the small states and large states. Roger Sherman of Connecticut proposed a compromise where
the legislative branch was divided into two houses. The upper house, known as the Senate,
would be made up of two members from each state. Representation in the lower house, called
the House of Representatives, would be based on the population from each state. After much
debate among the delegates, Sherman’s plan was approved and was known as the Great
Compromise.
The other major issue that divided the delegates was slavery. Since the Southern states
had the majority of the slave population, delegates from the South wanted slaves to be included
in the population count so they could have more representatives in the House of Representatives.
Northern states objected to having slaves count as a full person. They realized that if states such
as Virginia, which had over 290,000 slaves, were allowed to fully count slaves, the Northern
states would lose political power. Moreover, some Northern delegates argued that since slaves
were considered to be property they should only be counted for tax purposes, not representation.
Once again the “Grand Committee”, which was a group of delegates seeking to work out
a compromise over issues, struck a deal with the states. The committee’s solution was to count
each enslaved person as three-fifths of a person for both taxation and representation purposes. In
other words, every five slaves would be equal to three free people.
Some delegates from the North also wanted to stop the spread of the slavery by
abolishing the slave trade, or the buying and selling of slaves. Southern states were
economically dependent on the slave trade and were against any proposal that would interfere
with the slave trade. Some Southern delegates threatened to leave if the slave trade was
prohibited. In order to keep the support of the Southern states, the Northern delegates agreed
that Congress would not interfere with the slave trade for twenty years, until 1808.
The final controversy arose after some delegates proposed that a bill of rights be included
in the Constitution. After their experience with the British monarchy, they believed that citizens
should be guaranteed protections from the government. If these protections were not included,
then the strong central government would abuse it power and take freedoms from the people.
However, most delegates did not want a bill of rights because they felt that the powers of the
government were clearly defined in the Constitution.
After four months the work was finished. The document was signed on September 17,
1787 by most of the attending delegates. The next step was ratification, or approval, by the
states. Since changing the Articles of Confederation required all 13 states to approve any
changes, the delegates agreed to change this process so that only nine states had to approve the
new constitution.
Ratification of the Constitution
Supporters of the ratification were known as Federalists. Three men, Alexander
Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison developed a plan to convince the nine states to ratify the
Constitution. Their plan consisted of working together and writing a series of essays defending
the Constitution, called the Federalist Papers. In Federalist #47, the three Federalists defended
the division of government into three branches by writing:
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and
judiciary, in the same hands, whether one, a few, or many…may
justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
The group that opposed ratification was known as the Antifederalists. These men, led
by George Mason of Virginia, criticized the document largely because it did not include a bill of
rights to protect individual freedoms. Antifederalists feared that a strong central government
would oppress people, or take away, the freedoms that had been fought for during the
Revolutionary War. The idea of having a strong central government similar to England was not
an idea they would consider. Once again, compromise prevailed. By promising to include a bill
of rights after the Constitution was ratified, many Americans favored the new form of
government. The Constitution was finally approved after Rhode Island voted in favor of it in
May 1790. The Bill of Rights would be added later in 1791. The work of governing the new
nation now began.