Confederation & Taxation Continental Congress’ next task, creating a written document that would specify what powers the congress had and by what authority it existed By late 1777, congressmen reached agreement on the Articles of Confederation, defining the union as a loose confederation of states existing mainly to foster a common defense

The problem with Western Lands – demonstrated powerful interests divided the 13 new states Running the new government – initiated in 1781 yet the congress continued to dispute with each other and were more concerned with their state governments State Constitutions - In May 1776, the congress recommended that all states draw up constitutions based on “the authority of the people”

Political writers in the late 1770s embraced the concept of republicanism as the underpinning of the new governments Who are “the people”? & How far would the principle of democratic government extend? Equality & Slavery – the case of the Cuffe brothers, Elizabeth Freeman (Mum Bett), & Quok Walker The Confederation’s Problems – paying down the war debt, making peace with the Indians, & dealing with western settlement

This advertisement for the sale of 100 slaves from Virginia to states farther south appeared in a Richmond newspaper only a few months after the signing of the Constitution

Total Population and Black Population of the United States, 1790

Land Ordinances & the Northwest Territory Congressman Thomas Jefferson plan – Ordinance of 1784 The Ordinance of 1785 – revised from the original yet with land dispute issues with the Indian tribes who lived in the area Northwest Ordinance of set forth a three stage process by which settled territories would advance to statehood

Western Ordinances, 1785–1787

Slavery’s Cotton Frontiers In the 1790s, southern planters developed two new cash crops, sugar, and cotton, that secured the future of slavery and turned the South into a growing Slave Power Shay’s Rebellion ( ) – caused leaders throughout the country to worry about the confederation’s ability to handle civil disorder

The Virginia & New Jersey Plans The Virginia Plan set out a three-branch government composed of a two chamber legislature, a powerful executive, and a judiciary The New Jersey Plan, as it was called, maintained the existing single-house congress of the Articles of Confederation in which each state had one vote

Democracy vs. Republicanism The delegates in Philadelphia made a distinction between democracy and republicanism Democracy = Dangerous, Republicanism = Safe The delegates created a government that gave a direct voice to the people only in the House and that granted a check on that voice to the Senate, a body of men elected not by direct popular vote but by the state legislature

Ratification of the Constitution

The Federalists - The pro-Constitution forces Anti-federalists – opponents of the Constitution The Anti-federalist campaign – much of their strength came from backcountry areas long suspicious of eastern elites The Federalists generally agreed that the elite would be favored for national elections & they did not envision a government constituted of every class of people The big holdouts: Virginia and New York

This satirical engraving by Amos Doolittle depicts some of the issues in the debate over the ratification of the Constitution

The Signing of the Constitution

In this late-eighteenth-century engraving, Americans celebrate the signing of the Constitution beneath a temple of liberty