• Title = Who is us?
• What characteristics
or ideals of the
American people
have we learned
about so far this year
(from colonialism to
1783) that you feel
connect to the
American people of
today?
• Evaluate the political
structure of the Articles
of Confederation and
motives behind it
• Analyze why the
Articles of the
Confederation will fail
• Analyze the impact of
Shay’s Rebellion on
the direction of the
government in the
USA
♫ Articles of Confederation and why they fail
♫ Convention facts and who is there
♫ 2 Compromises in the Convention
♫ Principles – Federalism, Checks and Balances,
Separation of Powers
♥ 7 Articles, powers for each branch
♥ How a Bill Becomes a law
♥ How to make an Amendment
♥ Electoral College
♥ Ratification – Feds vs Antifeds
♥ Bill of Rights
♥ Supreme Court
•
•
•
•
The Newburgh Conspiracy
To Coup or not to Coup
Officers not paid for months
Promises broken
Government unable to fix the
issues
• Articles to weak
• First signs of issues
• What happens? ↑
• “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in
the world” – King George III (is he right?)
• GW didn’t want to follow others in history…
– and take advantage of colonies (King)
• GW and his image (Past-Present-Future)
• Whig Ideology
– Power Dispersal?
– Liberty/Order
Spectrum?
– We also be virtuous too!
• Past Practice…when?
– What other past
republics?
• “Americans” ♥ states
– States be as separate
as possible
– States have as much
power as possible
• First forms of
republicanism put to
practice (for decades)
– Suffrage (voting) rights
– Civic Rights (1st Amend)
• Models for the 2nd
Constitution later on
– Will have better gov
structures that the
federal gov will
emulate/follow
• Adopted 1777
• Approved 1781
– War…attention diverted…
• What kind of gov was 
created?
– “The said states hereby
severally enter into a firm
league of friendship”…
• How was power shared?
• A rough draft
• What could it do?
– Conduct Wars
– Conduct Foreign
Relations
– Make Laws…
– Borrow $$$...
– Set Coin Standards
– Run postal service
• What could it not do?
– Tax (why???)
• Had to petition states
for $$ (lucky to get ¼)
– Regulate Trade
• Foreign or Interstate
Commerce (Tariffs)
– Raise an army
• States formed their
own militias
– Can’t enforce laws on
the states
• No Executive Branch (to execute the laws)
– Still a bitter taste of George III
– President of Congress was like Prime Minister
• Samuel Huntington, Thomas McKean, John Hanson,
Elias Boudinot, Thomas Mifflin, Richard Henry Lee, John
Hancock, Nathaniel Gorham, Arthur St. Clair, Cyrus
Griffin
• No Judicial Branch (to defend & interpret laws)
– No National Court System…only State Courts
a. # Reps Per State
– You pick!!!
b. # Votes Each State
Has
– ONE
• Problems?
– 23K GA = 230K MA
– 68K RI = 680K VA
c. To pass any law or
money measure,
you need ___ of 13
states to approve
d. To make any
amendment to the
Articles of
Confederation, you
need ___ of 13
states to approve
• Problems with both
answers?
• 1785 = Land
Ordinance
– Set rules for how
western lands will
be surveyed &
divided
• 1787 = Northwest
Ordinance
– forced states to
give up claims to
western land
– 10 territories that
eventually
became states
• Who is  from 
• Rules for
NW
Territory…
• No slavery
in NW
Ordinance
Territory!!
– This will be
important
later on!!
• System
used later
on as USA
expanded
• 36-square-mile
townships
– What is #16?
• Who is  from 
– Gov…(?)
• Use the $$$ to
pay off…
– Rich land
developers
– Common folk…
• What ideas does
this system
reflect?
• What is wrong with the
structure of the gov?
– Too chaotic (spectrum)
– Nobody shows up! (Jay )
• Whig Ideology…if you
want liberty, you also need
– VIRTUE!!! And are we
showing enough of it?
• Is a good Federal Gov
solution available?
What is
happening
here?
– can’t raise the $$$...
– can’t regulate trade between
states…to be continued
– can’t regulate trade w/other
countries!!!!
– can’t protect merchant boats
• State Govs do what?
– Some print too much $$$...
– Tariffs/Duties/Taxes on each
other…NY vs CT & NJ
• “Important” people realizing
Articles of Conf can’t work
(spectrum)
• Europe rooting
against us
– USA’s Republic
struggling = ?
• Europe’s actions…
– GB…trade
restrictions &
assisting Indians…
– Spain…closed Miss
River & Indians
– North African
States...pirates
enslaving US
merchants
• Think too much power has been given to..
– States
• #6-a-b-c-d is evidence why it is a bad idea
– Ordinary Citizens
• Why is this bad?
– Not
or
enough
– Will make bad decisions…mobocracy
a. Who…
– GW, Madison,
Hamilton
– Mainly wealthy
elite
b. Wanted…
– Stronger
national gov
c. Issues…
– Chaos =
Tyranny
– Chaos can lead
to Tyranny
(Roman
Republic)
• They still liked the Articles of Confederation
– Parliament’s actions from 1754-1775 and the
American Revolution was still fresh in their minds
• Megalomania…we are meant to do great things
• One-hit wonder “Rock Band” 
– 1st album is a hit
– 2nd album a dud
– 3rd album…
• Philosophes =
cook book
writers
• Nationalists =
great bakers of
the world?
• 1st cake
(Articles of
Confed) is about
to do what?
• 2nd cake better
work
Annapolis Convention (1786)
12 representatives from 5 states
[NY, NJ, PA, DE, VA]
GOAL  address barriers that
limited trade and commerce between
the states.
Not enough states were represented
to make any real progress.
Sent a report to the Congress to call
a meeting of all the states to meet
in Philadelphia to examine areas
broader than just trade and
commerce.
• USA is in bad Debt…so are some states
• Some states create an unfair solution
– Raise taxes and payment conditions…
• Farmers in western parts of states (many are
Rev War vets ) can’t make the payments
– Choose…Go to jail (debtor’s prison) or lose home
• East vs West…
• Poor farmers = 
– Capt Daniel Shays is 
• Shays leads revolt of
hundreds of farmers
• Rebels’ Goal = Help us!
– Cheap paper money,
lighter taxes, suspension
on mortgage forclosures
• Escalation of anger
– Drove off tax collectors
– Shut down courts
(militias  to them!!!)
• “In monarchies, the
crime of treason
and rebellion may
admit of being
pardoned or lightly
punished, but the
man who dares to
rebel against the
laws of a republic
ought to suffer
death.”
• RI and NY have copycat rebellions
• Why doesn’t Congress stop this????
• Large MA Army is raised by the Governor
asking the rich to pay for it
• Shay’s rebellion squashed in January 1787
• “Justice” served months later (Shays pardoned)
• Congress = too weak (2 ways!)
– Problem1  Shays  Problem2
• What is needed?
– Stronger National/Federal Gov
– States have to give up power to
a binding/unifying entity
• 2nd Revolution?
– People mad & have power to act!
– Rich worry about social
revolution!
• May 1787…2nd
Constitution
Convention
meets
– Shays’s
Rebellion almost
squashed
• Shays’s
Rebellion made
the elite even
more scared of
“Mobocracy”
– Especially GW
• “there are
combustibles in
every State
which a spark
might set fire
to…I feel
infinitely more
than I can
express for the
disorders which
have arisen.
Good God!”
– When GW
announces he is
going, the
Convention
gains legitimacy
• “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a
good thing, and as necessary in the political
world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful
rebellions, indeed, generally establish the
encroachments on the rights of the people
which have produced them. An observation of
this truth should render honest republican
governors so mild in their punishment of
rebellions as not to discourage them too much.
It is a medicine necessary for the sound health
of government.”
• January 30, 1787…Letter to James Madison
• What country before ever existed a century & a
half without a rebellion? & what country can
preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not
warned from time to time that their people
preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take
arms. The remedy is to set them right as to
facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few
lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty
must be refreshed from time to time with the
blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural
manure.
• Nov 13, 1787…Letter to Colonel William Smith