State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Differing Opinions
 Elite republicans – welcomed hierarchical rule, not based on heredity. Feared democracy as mob rule.
 Working & poor people - worried that propertied elites prospered at their expense
 Rural Colonist – emphasized decentralization of power as much as possible

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 From Colonies to States
 Emphasis of State Governments during
Revolutionary War
 Intensification of prewar struggle between more radical democratic elements and elites who would minimize popular participation
 New states continued to retain colonial precedents that favored the wealthiest elites

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 From Colonies to States
 Colonial Practices in New State
Constitutions
 11 had bicameral legislatures
 Few questioned property requirements for voters and elected officials
 Representatives should use independent judgment (not just vote the will of the people)
 Candidates campaigned on basis of personal reputation and fitness for office not policies.
 1770’s & 1780”s equal distribution of legislative seats between cities and counties

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 From Colonies to States
 Colonial Practices in New State
Constitutions (checks on Power)
 Colonist changed – previously British constitutions were body of customary arrangements and practices
 Colonists now saw Constitution – as written compacts that defined and limited the powers of rulers
 Constitutions were adopted by popular ratification and could only be changed if voters decided to amend.

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 From Colonies to States
 Colonial Practices in New State
Constitutions (checks on Power)
 Revolutionary Constitutions spelled out citizens’ fundamental rights as final check on government
 1784 all states included Bill of Rights in state constitutions

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 From Colonies to States
 After newness of Revolution
 Wealthier landowners, bankers, merchants, and lawyers, reasserted their desires for centralized authority and political prerogatives of wealth.
 Apportionment according to property values
 Governor with powers to appoint and vetoing legislation
 1790 Georgia and Pennsylvania substituted unicameral legislature
 Other states raise property qualifications
 Making room for “Wisdom, remarkable integrity”

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 From Colonies to States
 After newness of Revolution
Thomas Paine – 1782
The American Revolution was intended to ring in “a new era and give a new turn to human affairs.”

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 1776 John Dickinson drafted a proposal for the national Constitution
 Congress adopted a weakened version of his proposal

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Ratified by all thirteen states in 1777, reserved to each state “its sovereignty, freedom and independence” and was a very weak and ineffectual government.
 Americans were citizens of state first and nation second
 1776 Whigs never considered consolidating this vast continent under one National Government
 Confederacy of States, each must have a separate government

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Structure of Government
 Executive – there was none
 Congressional Committees oversaw financial, diplomatic, and military affairs
 Judicial – there was none
 No system to compel allegiance to its laws
 Legislative – all authority held by
Congress

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Structure of Government
 Legislative – all authority held by Congress
 Unicameral congress
 One vote per state (regardless of the number of delegates sent by each state or population)
 No power to tax (without every state’s approval), had to request money from states
 No power to regulate interstate or foreign commerce

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 War-related political issues
 Funding the military
 Establishing military alliance with France
 Negotiating a Treaty

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Postwar issues
 Robert Morris – U. S. Superintendent of Finance
 U.S. had borrowed funds form abroad and printed paper money (continentals)
 Lack of faith in government destroyed value – 98% loss 1776-
1781
 Attempted passage of the Import Duty of 1782 – Rhodes
Island voted against
 State versus national control of war debt debate (and the need to establish financial credit, attract capital, and establish a strong national government)

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Postwar issues
 Newburgh Conspiracy – 1783 – Robert Morris and
Alexander Hamilton
 Persuaded army officers, to threaten a coup d’etat unless the treasury obtain the taxation authority needed to raise their pay
 George Washington stopped the plot
 1783 war ends and contributions from states decreasing
 Late 1780’s states 80% behind requested funds to operate and honor national debt

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Postwar issues
 Economic Depression 1784
 North East hit the hardest – poor land for farming, high taxes, and tightening credit
 Mid-Atlantic ship farm goods to Europe (famine)
 Southern Planters switch crops (hemp)
 1770 2/3 of exports originated in the South
 1790 less than ½ came form the South
 British Trade restrictions – Confederation could not pry trade concessions from Great Britain
 Before war 60% of Northern exports went to West Indies
 Half of all American exports went to Great Britain or its colonies
 Great Britain had halted trade during the war

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Postwar issues
 Western territories – Northwest Territories states surrendered claims to more that 160 million acres north of the Ohio River, 1780-1786
 Ordinance of 1785 – Congress established uniform procedures for surveying this land
 Law established a township six miles square as a basic unit of settlement.
 Etc.
 Northwest Ordinance of 1787 – congress defined the steps to become a state
 it forbade slavery while a territory, but after becoming a state it could be legalized
 These two ordinances laid procedures for territory farther west

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Postwar issues
 Indian Affairs – Dec of Ind. Described the natives as “merciless Indian savages”
 Most available land from Appalachians to
Mississippi River was occupied by Native
Americans
 1789 divided into more than 80 tribes – 150,000 people
 Confederation commissioners declared “You are a subdued people…we claim the country by conquest.”

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Postwar issues
 Indian Affairs –
 Northwestern Indians gave in under threats of continued warfare
 Iroquois lost about ½ of their land in NY and
Pennsylvania in the second treaty of Fort Stanwix,
1784
 Delaware & Shawnee leaders were forced to recognize American sovereignty over their lands at
Fort McIntosh Treaty, 1785 and Fort Finny Treaty,
1786

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Postwar issues
 Indian Affairs –
 Most Indians reacted with outrage
 Repudiated Treaties
 Natives felt British still present in the west, would supply arms to resist
 Mohawk Joseph Brant
 Leader of Indian resistance
 Translated book of Mark and Anglican Prayers
 Became minor celebrity in London

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Postwar issues
 Shays’s Rebellion 1786
 Jay – Gardoqui Treaty -
 opened up valuable Spanish markets to eastern merchants
 Renounced Spanish claims to disputed southwestern lands
 Relinquished American export rights through New
Orleans for another 20 years
 Treaty rejected by Americans

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Postwar issues
 Shays’s Rebellion 1786
 The depression of the 1780’s in New England – not fully recovered
 Competing political interests in the issue of national government powers:
 New England Farmers – taxes, etc
 Mid-Atlantic and southern farmers – open markets for goods,
 Massachusetts bankers – strong government for confidence
 Merchants and shippers – secure shipping abroad to ensure economic stability and America’s standing in Atlantic Econ
 Land speculators – more activist policy against Spain, Britain and Natives
 Western settlers – more activist policy against Spain, Britain, and Natives
 Urban artisans – Gov’t that would impose a uniformly high tariff as protection from foreign competition

State Constitutions & Articles of
Confederation
 Articles of Confederation
 Postwar issues
 Shays’s Rebellion 1786
 Daniel Shays and the farmers protest
 Created fear of “mobocracy” vulnerability
 Rumored threats by Spanish
 Widespread public awareness of the weaknesses of the national government
 The Annapolis Convention and the call for a convention to revise the Articles of Confederation