Political situation 1781-7

Congress - where was it based

Up to 1783 Philadelphia → withdrew to escape angry soldiers (demanding back pay)

Moved to Princeton, Annapolis

Settled in New York 1785

When did AoC come into effect?

1781

When AoC came into full effect, what three executive departments were set up?

Foreign Affairs, War, Finance

Problems for Confederation government

• No coercive power over states or individuals

• Once independence achieved → states absorbed in own affairs → exercised rights they had specifically relinquished + didn’t respond well to congressional requisitions

• Most ambitious politicians → served within states rather than Congress

• Most decisions → state level

1780s flood of people into which region

The trans-Appalachian region

1790 populations of Kentucky and Tennessee

Kentucky - almost 74,000

Tennessee - over 35,000

When did Congress resolve that the west would eventually be organised into new states + admitted to Union as equals

1779

What was decided on in 1785 regarding land

The 1785 Land Ordinance

Problem that 1785 Land Ordinance aimed to solve

Sale of northwest land, to limit disputes among land purchases, speed up process of selling land

What was solution of 1785 Land Ordinance

• Outlined a surveying system for the sale of northwest land

• Government surveyors divide land into townships, which were divided into sections of one square mile

• Sections of each township set aside for different things e.g. as bounty land for ex-soldiers, maintenance for schools

• Rest - auctioned

What was decided in 1787

The 1787 Northwest Ordinance

What did Northwest Ordinance 1787 aim to solve

Needed to organise and admit to statehood acquired territories

Solution of 1787 Northwest Ordinance

• During first phase of settlement - territory not self governing → would have a governor and judges appointed by Congress

• When had 5000 adult male inhabitants → elect legislature with limited powers, and elect non-voting representatives to congress

• 60,000 population → constitutional convention and apply to Congress for admission as a state on equal terms with others

Britain kept some frontier posts after ToP - where + why

• South of the great lakes

• To safeguard the fur trade + maintain contact with the northwest Native Americans

Clauses of the ToP that USA failed to meet

• Repayment of pre-war debts

• Restoration of loyalist property

• Britain cited these

• Although Congress urged states to place no obstacle in way of British merchants recovering pre-war debts, states ignored advice, and did same for return of loyalist property

What did John Adams have to do 1785

Sent to London 1785 with instructions to demand the evacuation of the frontier posts and seek a commercial treaty → rebuffed

Spain opposed American westward expansion - actions

• Strengthened ties with southwest Native Americans

• Schemed to create a Native American buffer state to protect its own possessions

• Huge advantage → controlled entire area south of the Great Lakes

• 1784 seized Natchez on eastern bank of the Mississippi, closed river to American navigation → deprived western colonists of vital outlet for their goods

• Fear that colonists in Tennessee and Kentucky → transfer allegiance to Spain

1786 what did Foreign Secretary John Jay do?

• Initiated treaty with Spain → in return for limited access to Spanish markets, USA agreed to give up for 25 years right to use the Mississippi

• 5 southern states opposed (required 9) → could not be ratified

1784-1786 USA imported from Britain British goods worth how much?

Over £7.5 million

How much did USA sell to Britain?

Less than 1/3 of what they had imported

What helped to depress trade and slow economic recovery?

• American debt

• Flow of specie outside the country to meet the trade deficit

What weakened the USA’s bargaining position? Example?

• Fact that control over commercial matters → retained by individual states

• When Massachusetts tried to prevent dumping of British goods in America → New Hampshire eagerly absorbed them

1784 there were demands for what regarding Congress?

Articles should be amended to allow Congress to regulate both international and American trade

Each area had different interests - examples

• Mercantile and industrial interests New England and middle states → wanted protective tariff against British competition

• Southern states → exporters of agricultural products → preferred free trade

US population grew from what in 1780 to what in 1790?

From 2.75 million to 4 million

Other positives for USA economically

• Prospect of western expansion

• New markets available in Europe and Far East

• Many of British trading restrictions could be evaded e.g. by trading in the West Indies

• Barriers to interstate trade dismantled during 1780s

What was NATIONAL DEBT in 1783

$41 million

Foreign debt in 1783

Nearly $8 million

Domestic debt 1783

Nearly $33 million

Interest on debt a year

$2.4 million

Winter of 1782-3 army officers

• Unable to pay soldiers → led to rioting

• Army officers met in Newburgh, New York, pressed hard for back pay and half-pay pensions

• Coup possibility of a coup, but defused by Washington

• Followed by June 1783 soldiers surrounding Pennsylvania State House → Congress abandons Philadelphia

Who was appointed superintendent of finance in 1781?

Robert Morris, a Philadelphia merchant who had made huge profits during the war

Morris believed that needed strong essential national government with powers to do:

• Set up a national bank

• Secure control of public debt (instead of parcelling it out to the individual states)

• Levy import duties

Morris ideas - The Bank of America

• Privately financed

• Servicing the outstanding loan obligations of the government and affording it credit

• Not very successful - government severed connection with it in 1784

Morris ideas - public debt

• Wanted national government to secure control of public debt

• Taxing power to raise money

• Not very successful → states preferred to assume responsibility for servicing directly the part of debt held by own citizens, 1786 incorporated large part of the national debt into their state debts

Morris ideas - import duties

• Give congress authority to levy 5% duty on all imports

• Necessary unanimity proved unattainable

1784 what did Morris do

Resign

By 1786 Congress had levied how much in requisitions from states, and how much had been paid

By 1786 Congress had levied over $15 million in requisitions from states, but only $2.5 million had been paid

Only major source of independent income for national government and how much did this yield before 1788?

• Sale of western land - developed slowly

• Yielded only $760,000 before 1788

In effort to reduce war debts, what did state governments do?

Impose heavy taxes

What happened to paper currency by 1783? What did debtors demand in response?

• Ceased to circulate, some states stopped issuing paper currency

• Lacking specie necessary to pay taxes and meet debts, debtors demanded an increase in paper money → opposed by creditors as said paper money would just lead to more inflation

By 1787 how many states issuing paper money

7

Rhode Island and paper money

• Not only legal tended but compelled creditors to accept it

• Value of paper money here depreciated sharply

• Creditors fled state to avoid having to accept it

September 1786 what happened in New Hampshire

Governor of New Hampshire had to call out 2000 militiamen to disperse farmers threatening legislative assembly after it went back on a on promise to issue paper money

When was Shay’s Rebellion

January-February 1787

Where was Shay’s Rebellion?

Massachusetts

Lead up to Shay’s Rebellion

• Massachusetts state legislature (controlled by men from commercially orientated eastern counties) rejected demand for paper money - taxes paid in scarce SPECIE

• Farmers lost land as unable to pay taxes, some imprisoned

• By summer of 1786 Western Massachusetts → discontent

• State legislature adjourned without heeding farmers’ demands for paper money → rioting, preventing courts from hearing debt cases

Shay’s Rebellion

• Daniel Shays, a bankrupt farmer who had been a captain in the war, led this

• January 1787 led several hundred armed men towards federal arsenal in Springfield

• Rebels dispersed by 1000 militiamen led by Benjamin Lincoln

• By February insurgency put down