1. What Is the Proper Role of Government?
Topic #4
Establishing the New Nation

2. Opposing views that influence government ideas
Government should be in the hands of the people
View:
Common people can’t govern and the colonial system needs to be preserved
versus
Democracy Ideas
Unicameral (single house) Legislature
Bicameral (two house) Legislature
Members are elected by the people
Weak or no governors
A counter balance system Senate and House of Representatives
Power mostly in hands of the people

3. Union Under the Articles of Confederation
In 1777, the Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Confederation
(a league of states that work together).
Federal Government
Foreign Policy
Taxation
Commerce
Made Congress the governing body of the federal government.
Gave Congress the power to issue bills of credit.
Gave Congress the power to sign treaties.
Gave Congress the power to declare war
Gave states the power to tax.
Gave states the power to impose duties and tariffs on trade with other states.
Gave states the power to regulate commerce.
Gave states, rather than federal government, the power to settle disputes.
Northwest Territory (north of Ohio River, west of Pennsylvania to the Mississippi River)
In the Land Ordinance of 1785, the Congress designed a system for dispensing and
distributing, public lands using grid lines and creating townships.

4. Northwest Territory (north of Ohio River, west of
Pennsylvania to the Mississippi River)
In the Land Ordinance of 1785, the Congress designed a system for dispensing and
distributing, public lands using grid lines and creating townships.
The Northwest Ordinance A government for these territories was created based on Thomas Jefferson’s ideas. Congress would appoint a governor until the territory had a population of 60,000 at which time the people could request admission to the Union.
It also barred slavery from the territories which meant that the 5 new states would enter the Union as free states rather than as slave states.

5. Articles of Confederation

6. Constitutional Compromises
The Constitutional Convention (led by George Washington)
By 1787, most Americans agreed that the Articles of Confederation were flawed and
needed at least two major changes:
1. Almost everyone wanted Congress to have the power to regulate interstate and International commerce.
2. Most Americans also supported granting Congress the power to tax people
Constitutional Compromises

7. Compromising on Slavery
During the debates over the Constitution, the delegates discovered that their
greatest division pitted the southern against the northern delegates. The south
feared a nation dominated by northern, free states.
The Result:
1. The Constitution forbade Congress from blocking the importation of slaves for 20 years.
2. The Three Fifths Compromise was to count each slave as 3/5th of a person when counted
in representation for the House of Representatives.
(This gave the South more representation)
3. The Constitution committed all states to return fugitive slaves to their owners.
In other words, running away to a free state did not free a slave.

8. Ratification of the Constitution
Samuel Adams
John Hancock
George Clinton
Patrick Henry
James Madison
John Hamilton
John Jay

9. Constitutional Principles
Passing of The Constitution = Federalist Victory
Passing of the Bill of Rights ( 1789)= Anti-Federalist Victory
Constitutional Principles
The Constitution of the United States became a symbol of freedom to not only Americans
but also to countries in Europe and Latin America. It established a representative government.
The Constitution abides by the principle of popular sovereignty, in which all government power comes from the people.

10. The Constitution mandated the separation of powers within the federal government and
created a system of checks and balances.
The Constitution created the Electoral College System- a group of persons chosen from each state that would indirectly elect the President.
The Constitution became the supreme law of the land but remained a living, flexible document that can and has been amended over time.