3.7 Creation of State and Federal Governments After the American Revolution
The Emergence of State-Level Governance and Initial Constitutions
Following the declaration of independence in , each state in the New World was tasked with drafting and ratifying a new constitution to establish its own state-level government.
During the American Revolution, the states were governed by the Continental Congress, which possessed very limited power. Consequently, state governments bore the primary responsibility for conducting the war for independence.
Virginia’s constitution served as a foundational template for many other states. It included a Bill of Rights protecting several key liberties:
Freedom of the press.
The conduct of free elections.
The right to form militias.
The right to a speedy trial.
States commonly banned titles of nobility and various social symbols of aristocracy. This reflected the Enlightenment-era rejection of arbitrary, hereditary power.
Voting Rights and Social Structures in the States
The franchise, or the right to vote, was generally restricted to white male property owners.
The rationale for property requirements was explained using an analogy to the stock market:
If an individual purchases shares in a company, they receive voting rights because they are personally invested in the company's financial success.
Conversely, if someone does not own shares, their opinions are not considered because they have no skin in the game.
Similarly, landowners were viewed as having a physical investment in society, making them the only ones who could be trusted to vote on societal outcomes.
Regarding the institution of slavery, most state constitutions did almost nothing to eradicate it, with the notable exception of Vermont.
Some states enacted measures for gradual emancipation, with Pennsylvania serving as the primary example of this approach.
The Structure of State Governments and Legislative Dominance
State constitutions intentionally concentrated the vast majority of political power in the legislature—the representative body of the people.
This was a direct reaction against executive authority; states were wary of governors, having just escaped what they deemed the tyranny of British executive power.
Nearly all state representative bodies were bicameral (consisting of two houses), emphasizing a desire to decentralize and distribute power as much as possible.
The Articles of Confederation: The First Federal Constitution
The United States’ first federal constitution was the Articles of Confederation, drafted by the Continental Congress in .
The structure of the Articles reflected a profound distaste for centralized and executive power, often described as a "monarchy hangover" from the colonial era.
The resulting central government was intentionally designed to be exceedingly weak, described metaphorically as being as threatening as a "soft-boned toddler who likes warm hugs."
Under the Articles, the state governments retained far more political power than the federal government.
Legislative Achievements: The Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Arguably the greatest achievement of the federal government under the Articles of Confederation was the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of .
Its purpose was to organize and regulate the unsettled western territory acquired by the United States through the Treaty of Paris.
Key provisions of the Northwest Ordinance included:
The mandate that specific portions of land be reserved for public schools.
The absolute ban of slavery within the new territory.
The establishment of formal rules and procedures for how territories in the western region could eventually become official states.
Structural Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation
The federal government consisted of only a single body: a unicameral legislature. There was no federal executive branch and no federal court system.
The government lacked several essential powers:
It had no power to tax the states unless all states gave unanimous consent.
It had no authority to create a unified national currency.
It had no power to raise or maintain a national army.
The Five "Seats" on the Constitutional Struggle Bus
Seat 1: International Trade Problems
Post-revolution, Great Britain terminated trade between the United States and the British West Indies.
Spain prohibited American merchant ships from accessing the Mississippi River via Louisiana.
Pirates off the Barbary Coast of North Africa attacked U.S. ships.
Without a navy or centralized power, the federal government was helpless to intervene.
Seat 2: Federal Finances and Debt
Congress could not pay its significant war debts. Because it lacked the power to tax, it had to ask states for money individually.
In , a resolution was proposed to grant Congress the power to collect a tax on imported goods. While states approved, Rhode Island and Virginia rejected it. Since the law required a unanimous vote, it failed, leaving Congress broke.
Seat 3: Interstate Commerce Disputes
States functioned more like independent nations, competing for economic gain.
States imposed tariffs on one another, which severely hampered free trade within the republic.
The federal government had no authority to settle these inter-state disputes or manage a national economy.
Seat 4: Foreign Relations and Frontier Conflict
Great Britain maintained military forces in several forts along the Western Frontier.
The British provided firearms to American Indian groups and encouraged them to attack frontier settlers to obstruct westward expansion.
The federal government was powerless to enforce the terms of the peace treaty or protect settlers because it could not raise an army.
Seat 5: Internal Unrest and Shays' Rebellion
The lack of payment for Revolutionary War veterans led to significant suffering and anger.
In Massachusetts, Daniel Shays led a group of farmers in an armed uprising, attacking local courthouses and storming a federal arsenal.
While the Massachusetts state militia eventually suppressed the rebellion, the event highlighted a critical failure: the federal government could do "precisely squat" about the crisis.
The rebellion stoked fears that more uprisings would follow since there were unpaid veterans throughout the states. The realization that the federal government could neither pay the veterans nor raise an army to stop them proved that a new constitution was necessary.