Articles of Confederation The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation in 1777 as the colonies’ first form of centralized government –First “Constitution” of the United States –Ratified in 1781 The Articles were planned to create a loose union that would be under the authority of the Continental Congress

Why the Articles failed -The Articles were designed to be weak because the colonies did not want a powerful central government (Why?)  Wanted the power to be with the states But the Articles proved to be too weak The central government was too limited in what it could and couldn’t do

Examples: Provision: Congress has no power to regulate taxes Problem: Weak currency and growing National Debt Provision: Congress has no power to enforce treaties Problem: Foreign countries angry when treaties are not honored  Ex: British soldiers could remain in America Provision: Every state, despite size, has one vote Problem: Populous state not equally represented Provision: Congress has no power to regulate trade Problem: High tariffs imposed on all of states Provision: Amendment requires unanimous vote of states Problem: Difficult to adapt articles to changing needs of a country

Shays’ Rebellion To pay off war debts from the Revolution, Massachusetts raised taxes, which heavily affected farmers –Under the Articles of Confederation, Massachusetts didn’t need approval from Congress to raise taxes The state began taking farms from farmers who couldn’t pay the high taxes

Daniel Shays, a Massachusetts farmer and former captain in the Continental Army, led a short lived rebellion against the state in protest against the taxes Over one thousand men arrested; four killed in action

Shays’ Rebellion and changes to the Articles Though unsuccessful, Shays’ Rebellion caused widespread concern for those in power –What if all the states take property from citizens who cannot pay taxes? There needed to be a centralized and national set of guidelines that the states could establish their laws from

Shays’ Rebellion helped display the weaknesses of the Articles and convinced the Confederation Congress that the states needed to meet and revise the Articles In May 1787, delegates met in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention to revise the Articles

Constitutional Convention The delegates in Philadelphia decide not to revise the Articles, but rather to write an entirely new document The delegates kept the meetings a secret to have outside pressure and opinions put upon them

Creating the United States Constitution One of the biggest arguments that arose was how all of the states would be represented The Great Compromise: settled how states would be represented in the new government The Great Compromise was a merger of the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan

Legislative Branch Virginia Plan: Created the House of Representatives –The number of Representatives was determined by the state’s population New Jersey Plan: Created the Senate –Each state has the same amount of elected Senators (2) *House of Representatives + Senators = Congress

In order to prevent one section of the government from having more power than another, the Continental Congress separated the powers Separation of Powers: Created the 3 branches of government. This prevents the concentration of power, and provides and checks and balances

-Legislative: made up of the 2 houses of Congress, would make the laws -Executive: headed by the president, would implement and enforce the laws passed by Congress -Judicial: a system of federal courts, would interpret the laws

Limited Government The framers of the Constitution feared the abuse of power The framers listed what powers the federal government does and does not have in Article I of the Constitution

Checks and Balances Checks and Balances is a system that each of the three branches of government can check the power of another to make sure there is a balance between them. Ex: Congress writes a bill, it then goes to the President. If President agrees, he signs bill and it becomes a law. Once it is a law, the people test it through the court system. If unfair, then a lawsuit can be filed.

The Three-Fifths Compromise Southern states wanted to count slaves as part of their population in determining representation in the House –The larger a state’s population, the more representation they would have in the House Northerners opposed this because slaves could not vote or pay taxes

A solution to the slavery representation issue was reached with the Three-Fifths Compromise Every five enslaved people would be counted as three free persons for taxes and representation in the House

The Issue of Slavery Southerners also wanted the Constitution to forbid government interference in the slave trade and limit Congress’ power to regulate trade As a compromise, the delegates decided: -The new Congress could not tax imports *Slaves were imported -Could not ban the slave trade until 1808

Constitutional Convention In September 1787 the Confederation Congress approved the new Constitution Though it was passed, it would not go into effect until at least nine of the thirteen state governments ratified or approved the document

Ratifying the Constitution In order for the Constitution to take effect, nine of the thirteen states had to ratify, or vote in favor of it Two groups emerged in the ratification debate: -The Federalist, who supported ratifying the Constitution -The Anti-Federalist, who opposed the Constitution

The Federalists Supported the Constitution Believed that the system of checks and balances would protect the rights of the people The President would be the leader of the new government, but would have power checked by the legislative branch’s power to impeach

Believed that, though the national government would have supreme power, the states would retain many of their powers Alexander Hamilton was one of the most popular Federalists A. Hamilton

The Anti-Federalists They believed in the need for a national government, but were concerned over who would retain the supreme power to rule –the states’ or the national government??? Made up mostly of western farmers Thomas Jefferson was an Anti-Federalist

The Federalist Papers The Federalist Papers is a collection of 85 essays written to educate the country’s population about the constitution  aka The New Constitution –The papers were originally written to persuade people to vote “yes” for the ratifying of the Constitution Which political group do you think wrote the FEDERALIST papers??? –Federalists were FOR the constitution

The Federalist Papers were first published in NY newspapers between Oct – Sept.1788 –Still used today to assist in interpreting the Constitution’s laws

Alexander Hamilton wrote 51 articles –Later became First Secretary of U.S. Treasury James Madison wrote 26 articles –Later became 4 th President of U.S. –Wrote the Bill of Rights  “Father of Constitution” John Jay wrote 5 articles –Later became First Chief Justice of Supreme Court John Jay

Ratifying the Constitution Five states ratified the Constitution within a month, however many Anti-Federalists were holding out until a bill of rights was added **Remember Nine out of Thirteen required** To sway Anti-Federalist, Federalists promised to add a bill of rights if the Constitution was ratified By May 1790 all thirteen states had ratified the Constitution

The Bill of Rights The Bill of Rights, drafted by James Madison, are the first 10 Amendments (or changes) to the Constitution They were added as part of an agreement between the Federalist and Anti-Federalist

1 st Amendment The 1 st Amendment serves as an example of how people’s rights are protected from the federal government The 1 st Amendment lists the Freedom: -of religion -of press -of speech -to assemble -to petition

The first 8 Amendments protect the right’s of individuals from the federal government The 9th Amendment, states that the people have other rights not listed The 10th Amendment states that powers not given to the federal government are reserved, or given to the states