The Constitution Flashcards
Weak government
During the years the Confederation was in operation (1781-89), the USA can barely be described as having a national government. Congress met intermittently and had no fixed home. It was common for states to be unrepresented at sessions.
In 1781 3 executive departments were established: foreign affairs, finance, war, but they functioned poorly as they had no coercive power over the states.
Once independence was achieved the Confederation was weakened further; the states attached less importance to unity and became absorbed in their own affairs. States exercised rights they were meant to have relinquished, and often ignored Congressional requisitions.
Western policy
The Treaty of Paris gave Americans control over a huge area south of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi. During the 1780s pioneers flooded into the west. By 1790 the new territory of Kentucky had a population of over 70,000, while Tennessee had a population over 35,000. Congress needed a coherent policy on western land distribution, and the 1785 Land Ordinance established a surveying system for the sale of northwest land.
Congress also feared that new territories might declare independence from the USA, and so resolved that the west must be organised into new states, to be admitted to the Union as equals. The 1787 Northwest Ordinance prescribed the procedures for admitting new territories as states.
Relations with Britain
Britain broke the promise to evacuate American territory by maintaining frontier posts south of the Great Lakes, in order to safeguard the fur trade and maintain contact with northwest Native Americans. Britain justified this by citing American failures to repay pre-war debts and restore loyalist property. Congress had instructed the states to honour these promises, but the states had ignored them.
In 1785 John Adams was sent to London to demand the evacuation of the frontier posts, but the British refused to negotiate when Congress was clearly unable to compel the states to implement its treaties.
Relations with Spain
Spain opposed American western expansion, resolving to support the creation of a Native American buffer state between the USA and its American possessions. In 1784 Spain seized Natchez on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, and closed the river to American navigation. Congress feared western settlers in Tennessee and Kentucky might transfer their allegiance to Spain to regain access. In 1786 Foreign Secretary John Jay initiated a treaty with Spain: in return for limited access to Spanish markets, the USA agreed to give up the right to use the Mississippi for 25 years. However, 5 southern states blocked ratification of the treaty. Western settlers were furious at Jay’s willingness to sacrifice their interests in favour of merchants in the seaboard states.
Tensions with the army
The government could not pay its soldiers. Winter 1782-3: army officers met at Newburgh to demand back-pay and pensions. A military coup seemed possible, until George Washington intervened. June 1783: dissatisfied soldiers surrounded the Pennsylvania State House, forcing a humiliated Congress to abandon Philadelphia.
Morris’ aims
Wanted the Confederation to: establish a national bank, control the national debt, levy import duties. But the states rejected the plan and Morris resigned in 1784.
Financial chaos
By 1786 Congress had requisitioned $15 million, but received only $2.5 million. The sale of western lands was a source of income but was developing slowly. There was a huge national debt ($41 million), and Congress could not pay the annual interest. By 1783 the paper continental currency was worthless and ceased to circulate. To reduce war debts, the states imposed heavy taxes. Lacking specie to pay their taxes and debts, debtors demanded an increase in paper money. Creditors opposed this, arguing it would lead to rampant inflation. By 1787 seven states were issuing paper money, and some (like RI) passed laws forcing creditors to accept it. Conservatives feared that the republican experiment was giving way to anarchy.
Agricultural tension
September 1786
The governor of New Hampshire called out 2000 militiamen to disperse several hundred farmers threatening the legislative assembly after it failed to keep a promise to issue paper money. There were similar disturbances led by farmers in Vermont, Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia.
Shays’ rebellion 1786-87: cause
The Massachusetts legislature rejected the demand for paper money and insisted that taxes be paid in scarce specie. Their insistence on this was unsurprising; the Massachusetts legislature was controlled by wealthy men from the eastern counties. Many farmers were unable to pay their taxes and lost their land as a result.
Shays’ rebellion 1786-87: course
By the summer of 1786 Massachusetts was seething with discontent. When the state legislature adjourned, without acting on the farmers’ demands for paper money, riotous mobs formed. The mobs roamed from place to place, preventing the courts from hearing debt cases.
By the Autumn of 1786 Daniel Shays had emerged as the leader of the mob. Shays was a bankrupt farmer and former army captain. In January 1787 Shays led a several hundred armed men toward Springfield, with the aim of seizing the federal arsenal.
The Confederation Congress tried and failed to raise the Massachusetts militia to confront the rebels, but the militia refused the request. Next, Congress requisition the state for half a million dollars to establish a militia, but Virginia was the only state to contribute.
Eventually, it fell to a group of wealthy Massachusetts merchants to raise a private militia. The rebels were dispersed by 1000 militiamen led by Benjamin Lincoln, and by February the insurgency had been suppressed.
Shays’ rebellion 1786-87: aftermath
However, Shays’ rebellion alarmed conservatives across the union. The rebellion coincided with the paper money scandal in Rhode Island. It seemed the threat of anarchy was once again looming, and gave impetus to the movement to strengthen the national government’s power. In February 1787 Congress called on the states to send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia in May 1787, ‘for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation’.
Conservative nationalism
Many members of the elite were nationalists who envisaged a unified and strong republic. They were horrified by the new men who occupied many of the state legislatures, and even more horrified by the legislation they passed. They supported much of the revolution’s ideology, such as popular sovereignty, but lacked faith in the ability of common people to exercise sound judgement, and were horrified by what they saw as excessive democracy in state government. They favoured the creation of a strong national government, with power vested in the hands of the wealthy and well-educated.
Support for the Articles of Confederation
Other Americans believed that the Articles were functioning well. They equated local state government with liberty, and feared that a strong central government would replicate British tyranny.
Interstate disharmony
There was considerable tension between the states in the 1780s, caused by boundary disputes, western issues, and tariff policy.
Mount Vernon Conference, 1785:
In 1784 James Madison proposed that commissioners from Virginia and Maryland meet to resolve a dispute over navigation on the Potomac River. The dispute was resolved at Mount Vernon and the delegates then suggested that their states should co-operate on financial and customs policy, and that Pennsylvania should be invited too. Madison, who was a disillusioned member of Congress, hoped that interstate cooperation might lead to constitutional reform. Following the meeting he proposed a resolution to the Virginia Assembly for a national convention to discuss commercial regulations.
