chapter 6 quiz review

Land Ordinance of 1784

- drafted by Thomas Jefferson - urged the states to drop their competing claims to Indian-held territory west of the Appalachian Mountains, north of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River -> the vast, unmapped area could be divided into as many as seventeen NEW states

Judith Sargent Murray

- essayist , playwright, and poet in Gloucester, Massachusetts - predicted the dawn of "a new era of female history" after the Revolution - argued that the rights and liberties fought for by Patriots belonged not just to men but to women - essay "On the Equality of the Sexes" written in 1779 but not published until 1790

Senate

- representing the state legislatures - the "upper house" of Congress - more elite group - elected for six-year terms, not by voters directly but by state legislatures - was to be a conservative force, using its power, when necessary, to overrule either the House of Representatives or the president - more prestigious: explained Madison, would help "protect the minority of the opulent against the majority"

House of Representatives

- representing the voters at large - the "lower house" of legislature/Congress - designed to be closer to the voters, who elected its members every two years (under the articles of confederation, voters had not elected the members of congress; they had been chosen by state legislatures) - James Madison argued that allowing individual citizens to elect at least one house of the new legislature was "essential to every plan of free government"

Mercy Otis Warren of Massachusetts

- the most prominent woman in the new nation towrite regular political commentary warned that the proposed constitution would put "shackles on our own necks" she + other anti-Federalists emphasized the absence of a bill of rights to protect individuals and states from the growing power of the national government

Constitutional Convention (1787)

1787: the Confederation Congress called for a special convention to gather in Philadelphia's Old State House (now Independence Hall) for the "purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation" - 12/13 states participated (no Rhode Island) - 29 delegated began meeting on May 25, 1787 (altogether 55 men served as delegated at one time or another) - after 4 months of deliberations carried out in stifling heat behind closed windows and locked doors, 39 delegates signed the new federal constitution on September 17, 1787 - only 3 refused to sign what has become the LONGEST-FUNCTIONING WRITTEN CONSTITUTION IN THE WORLD (durability of the ideas and institutions contained in it reflects the abilities of the men who made it)

Articles of Confederation

1st Constitution of the U.S. 1781-1788: A weak constitution that governed America during the Revolutionary War weaknesses = first national gov under THIS had only one component, a one-house (unicameral) congress + no president, no executive branch, no separate national judiciary (court system) + no power to tax, no power to regulate trade drafted in 1776-1777 and approved by the states in 1781 + had created not so much a united nation as a LOOSE ALLIANCE ("confederation") of thirteen independent states by design crucially important in supporting the political concept of "republicanism"

Virginia Plan

James Madison drafted the framework for the initial discussions at the Constitutional Convention: his proposals were called THIS + started with a revolutionary suggestion: that the delegates scrap their original instructions to REVISE the Articles of Confederation and instead create an entirely NEW federal constitution - called for a new Congress divided into two houses: a lower House of Representatives and an upper house, to be called Senate - states with larger populations, such as Virginia and Pennsylvania, would have more representatives in Congress than the smaller states

Bill of Rights

after considerable discussion and debate, Congress approved 12 amendments in September 1789 -> by the end of 1791, the necessary 3/4 of teh states had approved 10 of the 12 proposed amendments: - protecting individual rights vs the power of the state = first 10 amendments to the US Constitution, adopted in 1791 to guarantee individual rights and to help secure ratification of teh Constitution by teh states -were written in broad language that seemed to exclude no one, but in fact, they technically applied only to property-owning white males - whole groups of americans were officially left out of its protections - native americans were entirely outside the constitutional system, defined as an "alien people" in their own land - like the Constitution itself, they gave no protections to enslaved Americans - instead on constitutional rights: they were governed by state "slave codes" that regulated virtually every aspect of their lives

The Great Compromise

after intense debate over the two plans, dispute over the Virginia Plan vs the New Jersey Plan was resolved by THIS (sometimes called the Connecticut Compromise) - used elements of both plans in creating a new legislative structure for the national government - the more populous states won apportionment (the number of delegates representing each state) by population in te proposed House of Representatives, while the delegates who sought to protect states' power won equality of representation in the Senate, where each state would have two members the legislative branch shall be bicameral - a senate and a house of representatives. in the senate, each state shall be equally represented. in the house of representatives, the number of members from each state shall be in proportion to the number of free inhabitants in that state: senate equally represented and number of members depends on number of citizens

- 80%of households were involved in agricultural production - Republicans were mostly southerners like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison who wanted America to remain a nation of small farmers and few large cities

describe how in 1790 the US was predominantly a rural society

spared surprisingly little debate: - Constitution called for a national supreme court headed by a chief justice - role of the national judiciary was not to make laws (which was reserved to Congress) or execute or enforce the laws (which was reserved to the presidency) but to interpret the law as applied to specific cases and to ensure that every citizen received equal justice under the law

describe the Judiciary (Court System)

failure: regulation of interstate commerce and foreign relations - seven years of warfare against Great Britain had nearly bankrupted the new nation - plantation economies of the southern states were hard hit by the escape of tens of thousands of enslaved workers during and after the war - national economy was devastated by the loss of its trading network with the British Empire, which before the Revolution was the primary source of American prosperity: British decision after the war to close its Caribbean island colonies such as Bermuda, Jamaica, and Barbados to American trade eliminated what had been a thriving market for timber, wheat, and farm products

describe the complex economic issues that the confederation government struggled to manage

- surprisingly young: avg age = 42, and the youngest was 26 - most of the framers of the Constitution were members of the nation's political and economic elite - nearly all were considered "gentlemen" or "natural aristocrats" - political men of experience, tested in the fires of the Revolutionary War - most had been members of the Continental Congress, and 8 had signed the Declaration of Independence - summer 1787: they gathered in Philadelphia "to form a more perfect union" as the preamble to the new Constitution asserted Thomas Jefferson called them "an assembly of demi-gods"

describe the convention delegates

- by design: the original Constitution never mentions the word SLAVERY - instead it speaks of "free persons" and "all other persons" and of persons "held to service of labor" under the 1787 Constitution: - national gov had no authority to deal with slavery in teh states - success of southern delegates in getting slaves counted for purposes of calculating a state's representation in teh House of Representatives and the Electoral College would give the southern states disproportionate power in the Congress by increasing the number of southern votes in the House of Representatives -> increased southern influence in teh Electoral College since the number of each state's electors was to be the total of its senators and representatives -> no accident that in the nation's first sixteen presidential elections (1788-1848) all but four chose a southern slaveholder

describe the failure to deal with slavery (limitation)

- NO NATIONAL CURRENCY and only a handful of banks = failure - farmers who had profited during the war now found themselves squeezed by lower crop prices and mounting debts and taxes - creditors (ppl who loaned money to others) demanded that debtors (mostly farmers) pay back their loans or mortgages in gold or silver coins, which were always in short supply

describe the financial issues that further threatened the stability of the new nation

as a result of the Great Compromise, the delegates at the Constitutional Convention embossed te concept of a separation of powers in the new Congress, for it would have two "houses," each intended to counterbalance the other: House of Representatives + the Senate

describe the new Legislature (Congress)

delegates struggled over the design of this: - most expected the Congress to be the dominant branch - by contrast, ALEXANDER HAMILTON wanted the president to serve for life, but the delegates eventually decided that the president should stand for election every four years

describe the new executive (president)

to the nation's first political parties: Federalists and Republicans (aka Democratic Republicans or Jeffersonian Republicans) two political parties came to represent two very different visions of America's future development

during the 1790s, the debates between Federalist and anti-Federalists gave birth to what? what did they come to represent?

given a balanced federal gov, a large republic could work better than a small one "extend the "geographic" sphere" he wrote "and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens"

how did Madison argue against the ideas of what would happen to large republics

1. Congress would appoint a territorial governor and other officials to create a legal code, keep the peace, and administer justice 2. when the territorial population of adult males reaches 5000, a legislature would be elected 3. when a territory's population reached 60000 "free inhabitants," it could create a state constitution and apply to Congress for statehood in 1803: Ohio = first

how did the Northwest Ordinance arrange for future states to enter the Union? which state was the first territory to be granted statehood in this way

by highlighting the dangers of placing more power in teh hands of the central government + they predicted that the federal government would eventually grow corrupt and tyrannical

how did the anti-Federalists oppose the new Constitution

- during and after the Revolutionary War, there were many declarations of independence, many forms of resistance to old ways of doing things, indeed many personal "revolutions" some successful, some not just as the Revolutionary War enabled African Americans to seize their freedom, it led to some brave women to demand political equality for themselves limitation: no political rights for women

how did women stray away from their traditional subordinate role

by evading the issue of slavery, the farmers of teh Constitution unwittingly allowed growing tensions over the expansion of slavery to reach the point in 1861 where there could be no political solution (only civil war)

how was the Constitution flawed from the beginning, just as the nation was flawed

- since the size of state delegations in the proposed House of Representatives would be based on population, southern delegated argued that slaves should be counted along with whites - northerners said it made no sense to count slaves for purposes of political representation when slaves were not treated as people but as property -> delegates finally agreed to a compromise proposed by JAMES WILSON of Pennsylvania: 3/5 of "all other persons" (the enslaved) would be included in a state's population count as a basis for apportioning a state's congressional delegation

how were slaves to be counted if they were not to be freed or their rights to be acknowledged?

Confederation Congress

national legislative body formed by the Articles of Confederation: - members appointed by state legislatures: each state, regardless of size or population, had ONE vote (all states had same power in Congress) deliberately weak central gov: THIS was weak by design so as not to violate the rights of the thirteen states - had little authority or resources -> George Washington call it "a half-starved, limping government, always moving upon crutches and tottering at every step" - could neither regulate trade between the states or with other nations nor pay off the country's large war debts - could approve treaties with other nations but had no power to enforce their terms - could call for the raising of an army but could not force men to serve - had no power to enforce its own laws and ran up a budget deficit every year of its existence in spite of its limitations, it somehow managed to survive the difficult war years and to lay important foundations for the new government: successes = support of "republicanism" and negotiation of Treaty of Paris (1783)

"Electoral College"

number of "electors" in each state would vary depending upon the combined number of congressional representatives and US senators ("electors" chosen by "the people") = a compromise between those wanting the president elected by a vote in Congress and those preferring election by a popular vote of qualified citizens

anti-Federalists

opponents to the Federalists opponents of the Constitution as an infringement on individual and states' rights, whose criticism led to the addition of a Bill of Rights to the document many of THESE later joined Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican party

Land Ordinance of 1785

outlined a plan of land surveys that would stamp a rectangular pattern on what was called the Northwest Territory (the sprawling area that would become the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin) (success = creation of land ordinances) land divided into a series of townships, which were split up into farms for auction: wherever Indian lands were purchased (or taken) they were divided into six-mile-square townships laid out along a grid of lines running east-west and north-south -> each township was in turn divided into four farms + the 640-acre sections of "public lands" were to be sold at auctions, the proceeds of which went into the national treasury

Jeffersonian Republicans

political party founded by Thomas Jefferson in opposition to the Federalist party led by Alexander Hamilton and John Adams; also known as the Democratic-Republican party promoted a strict interpretation of teh Constitution, while Federalists believed that the language of teh Constitution should be interpreted broadly to enable the new federal gov to take decisive action when necessary

separation of powers

strict division of the powers of government among three separate branches (executive, legislative, judicial), which in turn check and balance each other

the New Jersey Plan

submitted by critics of the Virginia Plan as an alternative written by William Paterson - sought to keep the existing structure of equal representation of the states in a unicameral (one-house) Congress but gave Congress the power to levy taxes and regulate commerce and the authority to name a chief executive as well as a supreme court

James Madison

the most active in the debates: - ablest political theorist in the group and the central figure at the convention -Virginia attorney - arrived in Philadelphia with trunks full of books about political theory and a head full of ideas about how to strengthen the Confederation - had an agile mind, a huge appetite for learning, and a lifelong commitment to public service - was determined to create a new constitution that would ensure the "supremacy of national authority" - logic of his arguments + willingness to support repeated compromises -> proved decisive in shaping the new constitution "every person seems to acknowledge his greatness"

growing political divisions, foreign troubles, and courageous statesmanship

the period from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, through the creation of the new national constitution in 1787, and ending with the election of Thomas Jefferson as president in 1800 was an especially turbulent time during which the new nation experienced WHAT?

Federalists

those supporting the new Constittion were called THIS in teh fierce ten-month-long debate

imposed tariffs (taxes on imports) on British goods British responded by sending their goods to states whose tariffs were lower result: states ended up competing against each other for foreign trade -> by 1787, a clear need had emerged for the national government to regulate interstate trade and foreign relations

what did some state governments impose in an effort to force the British government to end its restrictions on American commerce how did the British respond what was the result

safeguards for individual rights of speech, assembly, and the press; the right to own firearms; the right to refuse to house soldiers; protection from unreasonable searches and seizures; the right to refuse to testify against oneself; the right to a speedy public trial, with an attorney present, before an impartial jury; and protection against "cruel and unusual" punishment

what did the other original amendments to teh Constitution provide safeguards for

meant that the American Republic would be governed not by monarchs or aristocrats but "by the authority of the people"

what did the political concept of "republicanism" mean?

created powerful tensions that gave birth to the first national political parties and, to this day, continue to complicate the American experiment in federalism

what did the process of forming a new republic create in the end?

the seeds for America's enduring two-party political system

what did the two factions (federalists and anti-federalists) form

political leaders to design a new national constitution and federal government in 1787 both of which proved to be more effective (and lasting) than the Confederation government

what did the weaknesses of the Confederation government in dealing w the turmoil after the end of the revolutionary war in 1783 lead to?

focused on the new American government created under the Articles of Confederation -> after war end in 1783: riots and rebellions protesting gov policies erupted with growing frequency

what did the widespread distrust of centralized government power (originally directed at the British monarchy) focus on during the 1780s?

the union of states formed in 1776

what was a wartime alliance of necessity that, politically and economically, often functioned poorly

seizure of Loyalist property (homes, farms, plantations, slaves, businesses, etc) by Patriots during and after the war british government demanded that the United States pay the Loyalists for their losses

what was another major irritant in US-British relations + what did the british government demand from the US

self-destruct as a result of warring factions

what was it thought would happen to large republics

they had no access to the legal system: they could not go to court, make contracts, or won property (same for women who could not vote in most state and national elections)

what were some restrictions of slaves under "slave codes"

they were mostly older figures who forged an effective opposition group

what were the anti-Federalist leaders by contrast of teh Federalists (Virginians Patrick Henry, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and future president James Monroe; George Clinton of New York; Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, and Mercy Otis Warren of Massachusetts; and Luther Martin and Samuel Chase of Maryland)

disputed southern boundary of the United States along the Gulf of Mexico and the right of Americans to send boats or barged filled with their crops and products down the Mississippi River to the valuable Spanish-controlled port of New Orleans -> 1784: the Spanish governor in New Orleans closed the lower Mississippi River to Americans, thus cutting off settlers in Tennessee and Kentucky from world commerce

what were the chief issues with Spain? what was the response from the Spanish governor?

discuss, debate, and decide by a peaceful vote how they would be governed

what were the diverse peoples making up a large nation able to do for the first time in world history

"Founding Fathers"

what were the framers of the Constitution later dubbed?

1. they had a concrete proposal: their opponents had nothing to offer instead of teh Constitution but criticism 2. many of the Federalist leaders had been members of the Constitutional Convention who were familiar with the disputed issues in te document 3. the Federalists were more unified, better organized, and better able to manage the national debate

what were the several advantages of teh Federalists (aka nationalists) in the debate over the Constitution

1. Land Ordinance of 1784 2. Land Ordinance of 1785 3. Northwest Ordinance of 1787(

what were the three major land policies created by the Confederation Congress

1. that the national government must have direct authority over the citizenry rather than governing the people only through the state governments 2. that the national government must derive its "sovereignty" (powers) directly from the people rather than from the state governments

what were the two basic and interrelated assumptions that guided the Constitutional Convention

the promise of adding a bill of rights to teh Constitution to specify protections of individual rights

what won over Virginia and NY to ratify

tax revenues Dissenters

when the Billl of Rights was ratified, most states still used what to support a single established religion what were the members of other churches who were tolerated but forced to pay taxes for the state-supported religion + were often prohibited from voting or holding political office called?

Continentals

when the states didn't provide sufficient contributions to pay for the national government, the Confederation Congress resorted to printing PAPER MONEY called THIS value plummeted as more were printed, leading to the joking phrase, "Not worth a ___________"

September 28, 1787

when was the final draft of the Constitution submitted to the states for approval (ratification)

when a western territory's population equaled that of the smallest existing state (Rhode Island)

when would a territory be eligible for statehood?

the Tenth Amendment

which amendment addressed the widespread demand that "powers not delegated to teh US by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"

New York City

which city was selected by the Confederation Congress as the temporary national capital upon notification that New Hampshire had become the ninth state to ratify the Constitution (only 9 needed but needed support of Virginia and NY for new gov to succeed) -> they also fixed the date for the first national elections in 1788-1789

question of SLAVERY: - many of the framers viewed slavery as an embarrassing contradiction to the principles of liberty and equality in the Declaration of Independence and the new Constitution ("utterly inconsistent with the principles of Christianity and humanity") delegates from the southern states strenuously defended slavery: - 18th century: agricultural economies of Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia had become dependent upon huge numbers of enslaved laborers, and delegates from those states were determined to protect the future of slavery - caught in the middle: Virginia slaveholders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison (told teh Convention that the "distinction of color" had created "the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man"), who hated slavery but saw no way to eliminate it without civil war

which of all the issues that emerged during the Constitutional Convention was the most explosive

Massachusetts

which states, still sharply divided in the aftermath of Shays's Rebellion, was the first state legislature in which the outcome was close, approving the Constitution by a vote of 187 to 168.

Virginia and Ny

which two states we vital to success in ratification + both states included strong opposition groups who were eventually won over by the same pledge as had been made in Massachusetts

Patriots faced the overwhelming task of creating the world's first large republic

who created what after the American victory in the Revolutionary War

US Supreme Court

who had final authority in interpreting the US Constitution as well as in adjudicating disputes arising from the various states constitutions

George Washington

who served as presiding officer of the Constitution Convention but participated little in the debates

they were determined to protect freedom of religion from government interference and coercion

why did the men who drafted and amended the constitution make no direct mention of God

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams no participate bc they were serving as diplomats in Europe

why didn't Jefferson and Adams participate in the constitutional convention

because the southern delegates would have walked out of the convention

why didn't the framers even consider abolishing slavery, nor did some of them view slaves as human beings with civil rights?

because revising the Articles of Confederation required a UNANIMOUS vote of both the Congress and the thirteen state legislatures

why were the articles of confederation never amended?

urban and commercial growth: Hamilton became the champion of northern efforts to promote trade, banking, finance, and manufacturing as the most essential elements of America's future economy

led by Alexander Hamilton, what did the Federalists embrace as opposed to a rural society

Treaty of Paris (1783)

the Confederation government also concluded WHAT with Great Britain in 1783, ending the Revolutionary War -> recognized the independence of the American colonies doubled the size of the United States

proposed a cluster of constitutional amendments designed to protect individual rights as Thomas Jefferson explained: a "bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse" = the Bill of Rights

- bc of the spirited resistance the newly adopted Constitution faced, inMay 1789 James Madison proposed what to the new Congress

Eliza Yonge Wilkinson

- born in 1757 to a wealthy plantation family living near Charleston, South Carolina - lost husband early in teh war - june 1780: after she was assaulted and robbed by "inhuman" british soldiers during their forty-day siege of Charleston -> she became a fiery Patriot who "hated Tyranny in every shape" - her "saucy" personality led her to be openly critical of teh British during their 18-month occupation of te city - "we may be LED, but we never will be DRIVEN!" - showed great courage and resilience in helping American prisoners of war while managing her family's plantations during the war - such unconventional experiences led her to expect greater freedom for women after the war: "The men say we have no business [with politics]," she wrote to a friend. "It is not our sphere! I won't have it thought that because we are the weaker sex as to bodily strength, my dear, we are capable of nothing more than minding the dairy, visiting the poultry-house, and all such domestic concerns."she demanded more. "They won't even allow us the liberty of thought, and that is all I want."

president (chief executive)

- could veto acts of Congress, subject to being overridden by a two-thirds vote in each house - became the nation's chief diplomat as well as the commander in chief of the armed forces and was responsible for teh execution of the laws limited powers in key areas: - could neither declare war nor make peace (only Congress could exercise those powers) - unlike british monarch, could be sacked: House of Representatives could impeach (put on trial) the chief executive and other civil officers on charges of treason, bribery, or "other high crimes and misdemeanors" + if impeached, could be removed from office if 2/3 of teh Senate voted for conviction - to preserve the separation of teh 3 branches: THIS PERSON would be elected not by the Congress but by "electors" chosen by "the people" in local elections

The First Amendment

- declared that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof": this statement has since become one of the most controversial principles of American government prohibited the federal gov from endorsing or supporting any religion or interfering with the religious choices that people make Thomas Jefferson later explained: it erected a "wall of separation between Church and State"

New Hampshire

June 21, 1788: which state became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, thereby meeting the minimum number of states needed for approval but the new Constitution and teh gov it created could hardly succeed without the approval of Virginia, the largest, wealthiest, and most populous state, or New York, which had the third-highest population and occupied a key position geographically

the insistence on the authority of "the people": for by declaring the Constitution to be the voice of "the people," the founders authorized the federal government to limit the powers of the individual states

What was the most important political innovation since the Declaration of Independence

alexander hamilton

a delegate from NY who was a celebrated attorney and the former chief of staff for General George Washington during the revolution help form new executive branch

"the Federalist Papers"

among the supreme legacies of teh dramatic debate over the Constitution: - a collection of 85 essays published widely in newspapers in 1787 and 1788 - written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in support of adopting the proposed (new) US Constitution: defended the principle of a strong national government

issued three major policies, called ORDINANCES, providing for the orderly development of the vast territories west of the thirteen original states these documents created the procedures that the United States would follow in its eventual westward expansion all the way to the Pacific

between 1784 and 1787, the Confederation Congress issued WHAT and what did these provide for what did these documents (among the most important in American history) create

farmers saw adding paper currency as a simple way to raise prices for their crops and livestock and thereby help them pay their debts and taxes -> (1785-1786) seven states began issuing their own paper money to help farmers and to pay the cash bonuses promised to war veterans -> Rhode Island legislature issued so much paper money that creditors fled the state to avoid being paid in paper currency of such unstable value

describe how demands that states print new paper currency to supplement scarce coins became the single most divisive issue in politics by 1785

collect taxes, borrow and issue money, regulate interstate commerce and international relations, fund an army and navy, and make laws binding upon individual citizens suggested to them that the states must be stripped of certain powers: to print paper money, take treaties with other nations, wage war, and levy taxes on imported goods

experience with the Articles of Confederation had persuaded the delegates that an effect national government needed new authority to do what? what did experience also suggest to them?

- France and Spain were officially ROman Catholic nations - great brit was Anglican

give examples as to how the US was virtually alone among nations in not declaring a single "established" religion funded by government in teh late 18th century

both European nations kept trading posts and forts on American soil

how did Great Britain and Spain violate the Treaty of Paris (1783)

- at the Constitutional Convention inPhiladelphia, there was never any formal discussion of women's rights, nor does the Constitution even include the word WOMEN - Founding Fathers still defied politics and government as realms for men only - writing from Paris, Thomas Jefferson expressed hope that American "ladies" would be "contended to soothe and calm the minds of their husbands returning ruffled from political debate" rather than getting involved themselves - neither Jefferson nor most Americans, were "prepared" to support women holding elected office

how were women left out of government?

"On the Equality of teh Sexes"

in this: Murray, like Eliza Wilkinson, challenged the prevailing view that men had greater intellectual capacities than women + insisted instead that whatever differences existed between the knowledge displayed by men and women resulted from prejudice and discrimination that prevented women from having access to formal education and worldly experience

federalism

innovation + another major contribution of the new American republic to the rest of the world: concept of dividing governmental authority between the national government and the states came to be called THIS

Northwest Ordinance (1787)

land policy for ew western territories in the Ohio Valley that established the terms and conditions for self-government and statehood while also banning slavery from the region (third major land policy created by the Confederation Congress) outlined two key principles: - the new western territories could become states that would be treated as equals rather than as colonies - slavery was banned from the western region (but slaves already there would remain slaves) - included a promise (which would be repeatedly broken) that Indian lands "shall never be taken from them without their consent" - specified that a new territory would become a state through a three-stage process

a stronger national government and less powerful state governments a New Hampshire delegate: "saw no more reason to be afraid of the central (national) government than of the state governments"

most delegates agree with Madison that their young nation needed what

established the basic principles of land distribution and territorial government that would guide America's westward expansion for decades to come

perhaps most important: what did the Confederation establish?

would not end in 1787 -> it became a defining dispute in American politics thereafter

regardless of teh voices on each side, the tension between preserving states' rights and expanding federal authority at the center of teh debate over ratification would not end in 1787 -> what would it become

Shay's Rebellion (1786-1787)

storming of the Massachusetts federal arsenal in 1787 by (39 year old) Daniel Shays (who had served as captain in teh Revolutionary War) and 1200 armed farmers seeking debt relief from teh state legislature through issuance of paper currency and lower taxes - hard-pressed farmers in teh western part of the state, many of them military veterans who hadn't received their promised pay during the war, urged the state to issue new paper money and demanded more time to pay teh taxes owed on their lands - when Massachusetts legislature ignored such demands, 3 rural counties erupted in revolt - led by Daniel, armed groups of angry farmers forced judges to stop farm foreclosures + he urged them on yelling "Close down the courts!" - state gov responded by sending 4400 militiamen armed with cannons to end the rebellion -> scattered Daniel's debtor army with a single volley that left 4 farmers dead -> farmers ran and HE fled to Vermont rebels won a victory of sorts: state legislature decided to eliminate some of the taxes and fees on farmers most important consequence = spread panic among wealthy americans -> led many public officials to agree with Virginian James Madison that the "crisis is arrived" + it was time to empower the national gov to bring order and stability to the new nation

created a "federal" structure in which each citizen is governed by both a state government and the national government to prevent power from being abused: each branch of the new national government (executive, legislative, judicial) was given a separate sphere of authority as well as the responsibility to counterbalance the other branches (=separation of powers) to keep any one of the three branches of the government from growing too powerful

the delegates at the 1787 Constitutional Convention were preoccupied with POWER: who should have it and how it would be used -> what did the new constitution create + how did they structure the federal government to prevent power from being abused?

there were important groups of Americans left out of teh Constitution's protections: - NATIVE AMERICANS could not be citizens unless they paid taxes, which very few did - the Constitution declared that Native American "tribes" were not part of the United States but instead were separate "nations" - only the US Congress, not the states or individuals, could negotiate treaties with the Indian nations - not until 1924 would Native Americans qualify for American citizenship

the men who drafted the new constitution claimed to e representing all teh American people, but what was really the case?

"We the people"

what are the words that begin the Constitution

Article VI of te Constitution

what declared that the federal Constitution, federal laws, and treaties are "the supreme Law of the Land": when federal laws and state laws conflicted, the federal law would triumph

argued that the size an diversity of te expanding nation would make it impossible for any single faction to form a dangerous majority that could dominate the federal government contradicted the conventional wisdom of teh time, which insisted that republics could survive only in small nations like Switzerland

what did James Madison argue in perhaps the most famous Federalist essay (No. 10)

"perfect statesmen" and "great Politician(s)"

what did more and more women like Wilkinson call themselves

state legislatures in Delaware, New Jersey, and georgia s

which state legislatures voted unanimously in favor of ratification