Yes, we had a different form of government before the
Constitution
 What type of government do you think Americans
would want to create after breaking away from Great
Britain?
The Big Question
 What should the relationship be between the new
states and the national government?
 This proved to be very difficult to define
Back Before/During Revolution
 Colonies had their own distinct governors, councils,
and colonial assemblies
 They thought of these colonies as the primary political
unit
 (Remember when John Adams referred to
Massachusetts as his “country”?)
Republic
 Americans at this time worried about establishing a
democracy – why do you think this would be?
 So they decided to set up a republic – a government in
which the citizens rule through elected representatives
 Republicanism – idea that the government should be
based on the consent of the people
State Constitutions
 Each state created its own constitution
 Guaranteed rights: freedom of speech, religion, and
the press
 Emphasized liberty rather than equality
 Reflected fear of centralized government
State Constitutions
 Differed widely
 African Americans generally not allowed to vote
 Some states granted voting to all white males
 Other states (like Maryland) – property ownership also
a requirement
New Jersey!
 Women had been denied right to vote in most states
 But NJ gave voting rights to all free property owners
but neglected to specify males!
 Some NJ women gained right to vote as a result
 But in 1807 this right was revoked 
Again so the main concern
 US didn’t know how to balance concerns of state and
national governments
 There were no political systems that could serve as
models (unless they wanted to look back to the Roman
Empire and Italian city-states of the Renaissance)
 What do you think the Continental Congress decided
to do?
Delegates had to Answer 3
Questions
 Representation by Population or by State?
 Does each state receive just 1 vote or should they be
given # votes based on population?
 Supreme Power: Can it be Divided?
 Should there be a strong centralized government or
should separate states have more power?
 Western Lands: Who Gets Them?
 What happens to the land west of the Appalachians?
Representation by Population or
State?
 Members of Continental Congress saw themselves as
representing independent states.
 Each state would have one vote regardless of
population!
 This will probably cause problems later down the line…
Supreme Power: Can it be Divided?
 Articles of Confederation – new form of govt
 Adopted on November 15, 1777
 Enforced from March 1, 1781 to 1789.
 2 levels of government shared fundamental powers
 State govts supreme in some matters, while national
govt supreme in others
 New natl govt power to declare war, make peace, and
sign treaties, borrow $, set standards for coins,
establish postal service, and deal with Native
Americans
Problem
 There was no separate executive department to carry
out and enforce acts of Congress and no national court
system to interpret the meanings of laws!!!!
Articles had a lot of problems…
 Economic issues like taxation and dealing with
national debt
 Political issues like nature of Congressional
representation
 Foreign-relations problems that Confederation
powerless to solve
Lacked National Unity
 This was the most serious problem
 Each state looked out for its own interest rather than
the best interest of the country
 Georgia had population of 23,375; Massachusetts
235,308 – each had 1 vote
 Is that fair?
 Articles could not be amended without the approval of
every single state!
More Problems
 What happens when we have war?
 Answer: There’s a lot of accumulated debt
 Revolutionary War cost $190 million
 Continental Currency was worthless
 Congress lacked power to tax (!!!) so Congress
requested approval to impose a tariff, or tax on
imported goods
 How do you think the Congress responded to this call
for help?
Well…
 They had wanted to use money from proposed tariff to
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


pay off foreign loans
But…
One state (Rhode Island) rejected the proposed tax
So it wasn’t adopted 
Confederation Congress had no control over interstate
or foreign trade
Creditors
vs.
Debtors
 Creditors (lenders of $); debtors (borrowers)
 After war – wealthy people who lent $ to states favored
high taxes so states could pay them back
 High taxes put farmers in debt
 Debtors and creditors disagreed over usefulness of
paper $
 Debtors wanted to increase money supply to lesson its
value and so they could pay off debts
 Creditors wanted to keep supply of money low to keep
its full value
Foreign-Relations Problems
 British refused to evacuate its military forts on Great
Lakes since US could not repay its debts to British
merchants (when did they promise they would pay
back these debts?)
 1784 – Spain closed Mississippi River to American
navigation
 This hurt farmers substantially
One good thing did happen
 Remember that 3rd thing the Articles needed to
address:
 Western Lands: Who Gets Them?
 Well – they actually figured out a solution to this, and it
was a good one. So pay attention to the next slide!
Land Ordinance of 1785
 Lands west of the Appalachians – made these land




parcels small and affordable
Government would survey the land, dividing it into
townships of 36 square miles
Each township would be divided into 36 sections of 1
square mile, or about 640 acres, each. You could
purchase 1 section
Typical farm – equal to ¼ section (160 acres)
Minimum price was $1
Continued
 Section 16 would be used for school buildings
 Local people used the sale of this land to build a
school and hire a teacher
 Centrally located so students wouldn’t have to travel
far
 Yay school!
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
 Congress provided procedure for dividing land into
territories
 Set requirements for becoming a state (they overlook
Native American interests as usual)
 3 basic stages for becoming a state:
 Congress would appoint territorial governor and judges
 When there were 5,000 voting residents – settlers could
write temp constitution and elect own govt
 When 60,000 free inhabitants – settlers could write state
constitution which had to be approved by Congress
before statehood granted.
So…
 Land Ordinance of 1785 – Established plan for dividing
unclaimed land in the west
 Northwest Ordinance of 1787 – How a territory would
become a state
To Sum This Up…
 Americans’ fear of giving too much power to national
government resulted in government that lacked
sufficient power to deal with nation’s problems.
 The forthcoming Constitutional Convention would
change all this though!
Your Turn
 Please compose a list of the weaknesses of the Articles
of Confederation (and any strengths if you can think
of them)