American YAWP Chapter 6

A New Nation

Introduction

• Following 1778 there was a lot of celebration of success and hope for the new nation of The United States of America

• Although many wanted the country to be very unified, it very rarely was

• Constitution had been controversial and was adopted to strengthen the government in order to withstand internal conflicts

• Less than two years before national celebrations of 1788 and 1789 the country faced the threat of collapse

Shays’ Rebellion

• In 1786 and 1787 thousands of farmers in western Massachusetts suffered from debt

• Struggles worsened from weak local and national economies

• Many believed the Articles of Confederation were at fault

• Farmers wanted government to protect them from creditors, but state supported the lenders

  • Creditors threatened foreclosure of property

• Many farmers, which included Revolutionary War veterans, took up arms for their cause

• Daniel Shays was veteran that led rebellion, Shaysites, that used patriot tactics used in Revolution

  • Blockades around courthouses

  • Believed they were protecting their rights

• Governor James Bowdoin saw them as rebels who wanted to lead through mob violence

  • January 1787 more than one thousand Shaysites were arrested

  • Daniel Shays and other leaders indicted for treason and some sentenced to death, but eventually Shays and most followers received pardons

• Rebellion generated intense national debate

  • Madison used it as proof of why we needed a strong central government

  • Jefferson thought a little rebellion every once in a while helped keep the country free

  • Some feared the nation was becoming an anarchy

The Constitutional Convention

• Delegates from twelve of the thirteen states met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787

  • Only Rhode Island declined to send a representative

• Maine issue was federal government's inability to levy taxes

  • Burden of paying back debt from Revolutionary War fell on the states

• William Patterson’s New Jersey Plan sought to keep representation for the states in congress the same, with each state getting one vote

• Madison intended to product a completely new constitution, instead of simply revising the Articles of Confederation

  • Virginia Plan was a form of republican government with strong central government; creating an “extended republic”

  • Three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial

  • Congress would be made up of two houses, where each state was represented based on population or tax base

  • National legislature would be able to veto state laws

• Most agreed the Articles of Confederation had failed, but couldn’t agree on what government should replace them

  • Representation in Congress caused major disagreement

• Roger Sherman made compromise that had one chamber, House of Representatives, based off of population, and another chamber, Senate, where each state had equal number of votes

  • Created the 3/5 compromise for the enslaved population

• June 1st, James Wilson recommended a single leader of the executive branch, but many were worried after Great Britain

  • In early September they agreed the president would be elected by the electoral college

Ratifying the Constitution

• Constitution needed approval from special state ratification conventions

• Constitutional Convention voted down proposal for Bill of Rights from Virginia's George Mason, who wrote Virginia's state Declaration of Rights

• Anti-federalists were afraid of losing personal liberties because of power of the federal government

• Federalists argued that Bill of Rights was redundant and dangerous because it could limit future citizens from adding new rights; rights not specifically listed would be at risk of being abused

• Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison wrote the Federalist papers that got published in New York Newspapers in 1787 and 1788

• Massachusetts narrowly approved the Constitution in 1788, they also approved a number of proposed amendments; many states also ratifies the Constitution but attached amendments they wanted

• June 17787 in Richmond, Virginia, there was debates between famous Federalists and Anti-Federalists

  • Virginia was America's most populated state

  • Success of the new government relied on Virginia

  • After nearly a month of debate, Virginia voted 89 to 79 in favor of ratifying the Constitution

• July 2nd 1788, Congress announced that a majority of the states ratified the Constitution and that it was now in affect

  • North Carolina, New York, and Rhode Island had not completed their ratification conventions

  • Anti-Federalists still argued that the Constitution would lead to a tyranny

  • New York ratified the Constitution by three votes, and finally Rhode Island by two a full year after Washington was inaugurated as President

Rights and Compromises

• Washington becoming president cemented the Constitution's authority

• Ten amendments added in 1791 became the Bill of Rights

  • Madison supported the amendments as a compromise

  • Women had no protection under the Bill of Rights

  • Slavery was still protected by the Constitution

  • Many states only let property owning men vote

• Constitution counted each Black person as 3/5 of a person for representation in government, giving states with enslaved populations more influence

• Constitutional Convention in 1787 had the “dirty compromise" - constitutional provision that protected foreign slave trade for twenty years, in exchange for southern states supporting a constitutional clause that made it easier for Congress to pass commercial legislation

  • Atlantic slave trade resumed until 1808, when it was outlawed for three reasons

    • Britain was in the process of outlawing slave trade in 1807 ( didn't want them to be morally better)

    • Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) - Successful slave revolt against French colonial rule in the West Indies

    • Haitian Revolution ended France's plans to expand American presence

• Ban on slave trade lacked effective enforcement measures and funding

  • Instead of freeing illegally imported Africans, the states decided what would happen to them

  • Ban preserved the concept that the slaves were property

Hamilton’s Financial System

• Washington's cabinet choices reflected continuing political tensions over the size and power of the federal government

• Washington struggled to reconcile the factions within his own administration

• Hamilton believed the government should harness the citizens desire for property so that both private individuals and the state would benefit

• Hamilton believed inequality was a fundamental distinction in society

• Hamilton wanted to tie the economic interests of wealthy Americans to the federal government's financial health

• Hamilton proposed an ambitious financial plan

  • Federal government took on state debts from the Revolutionary War - totaled about $25 million

  • Congress creates a bank - Bank of the United States

  • State creditors would return their old notes (IOU) to the treasury and receive new federal notes of the same face value

    • Many taxpayers objected paying the full face value of old notes (IOU) as they had fallen in market value (sold for lower price)

    • Hamilton countered that government debts (IOU) must be honored in full or the government would lose trust

    • Southerners argued they already paid their debts and didn't want to be forced to pay them again

    • Washington and Congress accepted Hamilton's argument and by the end of 1794, 98% of the country’s domestic debt had been converted into new federal bonds

  • Jefferson argued that a bank was unconstitutional since the Constitution didn't give Congress the power to create a bank

  • Bank would be depository for federal funds, print paper banknotes, control inflation, give wealthy people interest federal government’s finances

  • In 1791, Congress approved a 20 year charter for the Bank of the United States.

  • In order to pay debt the government needed a reliable source of tax revenue

  • In 1791, Hamilton proposed federal tax on the production, sale, and consumption of a number of goods, including whiskey

The Whiskey Rebellion and Jay’s Treaty