The Critical Period
• End of the Revolutionary War doesn’t
guarantee success.
• Following Treaty of Paris, Washington
resigns his commission
– Significance: Not a Caesar!
The Critical Period
• Phrase coined to describe the transition
from the winning of independence to the
creation of the Constitution of 1787.
• Nation organized under Articles of
Confederation
• Faces political, economic, and diplomatic
hurdles
Articles of Confederation
• America’s “first” constitution - 1778
• A “confederation” – league of independent states, with a
central gov’t for dealing with issues that effect all.
• Forms a deliberately weak government.
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No executive branch
No judicial branch
One vote per state  representatives of states, not people.
Supermajorities: 9 votes to pass ; 13 to amend
No taxing power
No power over interstate commerce (states imposing tariffs)
No courts to settle interstate disputes (e.g., border disputes)
• Earns nickname  Articles of CONFUSION!
Articles of Confederation
• Successes
– Secures foreign aid during the war
– Holds nation together through war and
aftermath
– Negotiates a favorable peace
– Deals with western lands
Dealing with Western Lands
• US is “land rich” and “cash poor.”
• Congress convinces states to give up
claims and turn over to the national gov’t.
• Issues:
– How to make land available?
– Sell to speculators v. small landowners?
• Land Ordinance of 1785
Surveys NW into
• 6X6 m² townships
• 36 sections
• Education!
• Religion?
NW Ordinance 1787
• Establishes the process
for bringing in new
states.
• When population hits
60,000 a territory can
draft a constitution and
submit to Congress for
approval.
• No colonies!
• No slavery in the NW
Territory (OH-IN-MI-ILWI)
Failures: Foreign Affairs
• The US is not respected by foreign nations.
• Britain
– Still has forts on US soil
– “Dumping” cheap goods on the American market, hurting US
manufacturers
– Refuses to send an ambassador
– Disputed border claims
• Spain
– Disputed land claims in southwest
– Controls access to the Mississippi River (New Orleans)
– Cuts of the “right of deposit” in 1784.
• North Africa
– American shipping is being raided by “Barbary Pirates”
(Morrocco, Tripoli, Tunisia, and Algiers)
– No navy / gov’t to protect Yankee shipping.
Failures: Domestic
• Economy
– Debt and post-war hardship
– Paper Money
• States issuing paper money
• Values fluctuate & vary between states, some won’t accept
dollars from other states
– Interstate trade
– Shay’s Rebellion
• 1200 farmers in Western Massachusetts
• Many are former Rev War soldiers, paid in paper money.
• Unable to pay taxes and debts (hard cash)…ask for paper
money to be accepted as tender for payment of taxes and
land debts.
• Court foreclosures of property  rebels close courts.
Framing a New Gov’t
• Reaction to Shay’s varies
– Hamilton, Washington, Madison – see rebellion as
“mobocracy”
– T.J. – “a little rebellion now and again is a good thing…the
tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots
and tyrants”
• Gives steam to a movement to form a stronger
government
– Mt. Vernon Convention – Md / Va
– Annapolis Convention
– Philadelphia Convention
Constitutional Convention
• Delegates
– Who’s there? James Madison,
Alexander Hamilton, George
Washington, Ben Franklin
– Who’s not? Patrick Henry,
Samuel Adams, Rhode Island!
– Thomas Jefferson calls it a
“convention of demi-gods.”
– Significance: a group of men
declare the existing gov’t
bankrupt and ineffective and
draft a new one, and submit it to
the people for a year of debate
without bloodshed!
Compromises
– Three “Plans”
• VA
• NJ
• Hamilton
– Representation:
• Va Plan / NJ Plan / Great Compromise
– Slavery
• Slave Trade
• 3/5 Compromise
• Protections for….fugitives; suppression of rebellions
– Executive
• Nature…
• The Rule of Secrecy – why? Isn’t it “undemocratic?”
• The Va Plan –
– Bi-cameral legislature (proportional representation in lower
house; lower house elect upper house); national executive (7
years); national courts.
• NJ Plan
– Equal representation in a unicameral house.
– Feels the Va Plan over-reaches the power of the convention and
would not be adopted
– Tradition: the states have had equal representation in every
gov’t since 1776; Dec of Independence and Treaty of Paris
recognize state independence
• Hamilton Plan
– Proposes a president elected for life!
– Contrary to popular view that “Where annual elections end,
tyranny begins”