Notes

Problems with the Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation provided for a weak central government. As a result, the nation consisted of a loose alliance (union) of independent states. This alliance was called a “league of friendship” among states. The central government consisted of a Congress in which the representative of each state had one vote. Each state was expected to honor the laws of the other states. But there was no central court to handle disputes among the states. There was no president or executive branch.

The Congress had the power to declare war and enter into treaties with foreign powers. It could establish a postal service and coin money. However, the Congress couldn’t levy taxes. Money for the central government depended on donations from the states, based on how much land they controlled. In other words, the Congress couldn’t fund an army without hoping that money would be provided from the states. It could do little to control the western lands, since money might not be available for that purpose. The weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation are summarized in the figure below. Let’s take a closer look at some of these flaws.

Illustration listing the problems with the Articles of Confederation

As the new independent nation began to apply the Articles of Confederation, they soon recognized its weakness.

Levy is a term generally used to refer to taxes. To levy taxes means to impose or collect the taxes.

Congress's Inability to Collect Taxes
Congress couldn’t levy taxes. Think about what that meant. The central government could send bills to the states for the services it provided. However, that didn’t mean that the states would always pay—or always pay on time. If you were trying to make a budget for the central government, how would you go about it? With no firm idea about revenues or taxes coming in, you could make no firm plans. You couldn’t be sure how many cannons to buy for the army. For that matter, you couldn’t be sure there would be money to pay the soldiers. These types of events actually did happen.

This weakness almost caused the end of the United States, just as it began. The British crossed boundaries into the United States in violation of the Treaty of Paris of 1783. The Spanish also violated the borders of southern states. The central government could do nothing about it because the states didn’t pay requested taxes.

Who Will Enforce the Laws?
As mentioned, states and individuals sometimes ignored laws sent to them by the federal government. When that happened, what could the government do? Send a nasty letter? The central government had no real power to enforce laws. It couldn’t even use the army without the unanimous consent of all the states.

In 1786, a bankrupt farmer named Daniel Shays led an uprising in Massachusetts. The incident is called Shays Rebellion. Shays had fought in the American Revolution. He resigned from the army in 1780 because he hadn’t been paid. At home, he faced a mountain of debt. To make matters worse, the Massachusetts legislature in Boston was coming down hard on debtors. Poor farmers were often sent to debtor’s prison. Others had their property unfairly confiscated and sold. Shays organized a rebellion made up of Continental Army veterans. Massachusetts sent its militia to restore order, but many of them ended up joining the rebels. The state militia was finally able to end Shays Rebellion when the group tried to take weapons from the federal armory.

Through it all, the central government could do nothing. It couldn’t act to override Massachusetts laws that were unfair. It could do nothing to restore order. Even though the Shays Rebellion was unsuccessful in itself, it did have one useful outcome. It encouraged national leaders to seek alternatives to the Articles of Confederation.

Paris, France, January 30, 1787

In a letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson wrote this thought:

“I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people who have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of the government.”

Basically, Jefferson is saying that rebellions, if they’re unsuccessful, sometimes give the government more control in certain areas.

Who Will Regulate Commerce?
Under the Articles of Confederation, the central government had no power to regulate trade. If a group of Connecticut dairy farmers wanted to protect prices on goods it produced within that state, they might ask their legislature to charge a tariff on out-of-state cheese. They would want to keep cheese prices high in neighboring states, such as New York, so that citizens of Connecticut would buy cheese from Connecticut producers.

A tariff is a tax on goods that one nation (or state) buys from another nation (or state).

Now let’s say that Connecticut townsfolk have been selling textile goods to people in New York. The New York legislature could respond to the cheese tariff by placing a tariff on Connecticut textiles. The result could be a battle over tariffs. Meanwhile, because the central government couldn’t control interstate trade, it could do nothing about the tariff problem. This cheese and textile example may seem trivial, but it should help you get an idea of one of the problems created by the Articles. There were also much bigger problems. For example, states were freely making trade agreements with foreign powers. In this way, if one state set a price for an export, it might drive competing states out of the foreign market for the same export. Because the central government couldn’t regulate foreign trade, it was powerless to solve this problem.

Interstate trade refers to trade from one state to another. New York sending cheese into New Jersey is an example of interstate trade.

An export is a product taken from one country to another for the purpose of trade.

No Courts and No President
The Articles of Confederation served as the law for the entire nation. However, it made no provision for a president or a central court system. With no central court, there was no way to interpret that law. Without a central court, there was no way to manage legal disputes between the states. And, of course, with no president, there was no one to lead or enforce the laws passed by the Congress.

IMAGINE THAT IT’S 1786.
While on a tour of Italy, you’re in a restaurant in Rome. After finishing your meal, you begin to write a letter home. A curious waiter notices that you’re writing in English. His name is Giuseppe and his knowledge of the New World is sketchy.

“Ah,” he says, “you are English?”

“No,” you reply, “I’m an American.”

“Ah yes, America. Such a big place, America. You come from Canada?”

“I come from Virginia.”

Giuseppe looks puzzled. “Oh, yes. Virginia. Who is leader of your Virginia?”

“The governor. He holds office in a town called Williamsburg.”

Giuseppe still looks puzzled. “But I read in a newspaper that there is a revolution in America and now there is a new country.”

“Yes,” you say, “the United States of America. Virginia is part of the United States.”

“Oh,” Giuseppe says, “and who is leader of United States of America?”

You think about that for a moment before you say, “No one person. We have a Congress in Philadelphia. Each state has one vote in the Congress.”

“Then who is leader of this Congress?” Giuseppe wants to know.

“No one person. Each state sends delegates to the Congress. But no delegate is the leader of the United States.”

“Ah,” Giuseppe replies. “This is strange to me. You live in Virginia. Virginia is in the United States of America. Virginia has a governor. But the United States has no governor.”

You nod. “That’s right.”

Giuseppe shrugs. “So, this United States is not really a country. It cannot be a country because it has no leader. It is just a lot of states.”

You have no answer to that. If you had been in contact with someone back home, you could tell Giuseppe what has been happening.

In January of 1786, a group of Virginians called a meeting in Annapolis, Maryland. They wanted to have a national convention to discuss problems with the Articles of Confederation. Since only five states sent delegates to the convention, no work could be done. Therefore, plans were made to assemble in May of 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation. Little did those delegates who met in 1787 know at the time that they would end up drafting the Constitution of the United States—a document that has survived over 200 years. If you go back to Rome in 1790, you can tell Giuseppe that the United States now has a leader. He’s a fellow Virginian named George Washington. Let’s take a look at how the Constitution of the United States came about.

A delegate is a person who represents others at a meeting.

The Constitutional Convention of 1787
During the summer of 1787, delegates from all of the 13 states, except Rhode Island, met in Philadelphia. Originally, they planned to revise the Articles of Confederation to eliminate the problems it contained. However, once the delegates began to meet, they decided the problems were too big to simply revise the Articles. They instead discarded the Articles and started from scratch. This was a significant decision because it was outside of the rules that Congress gave the delegates. In doing what they did, they could have been charged with treason. This was one of the reasons that the delegates worked in secret and stayed silent when they left each day. This also allowed the delegates to speak freely without fearing what others outside the building would say. We only know about the debates in the convention because of writings from delegates published later on.

To learn more about the meeting place for the convention, access this link and take the virtual tour.

The Constitutional Convention had a president and a number of different committees. The president of the convention was George Washington. He had little part in actually drafting the Constitution. Instead, he saw his job as overseeing the proceedings and keeping the people focused on the job at hand.

Most of the committees were created to discuss particular issues that needed correction in the Articles of Confederation, The style committee was responsible for the final draft of the Constitution. A member of the style committee, Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, was responsible for the final format of the document. Another member of the committee, James Madison, was responsible for the Constitution’s language.

Over 100 working days, they completed a constitution that all the delegates could agree on. But getting to that agreement wasn’t easy. The delegates came from states with different interests. Some states, like Georgia, Virginia, and New York, were large. Other states, like New Jersey, Delaware, and New Hampshire, were small. States of the South wanted to protect their plantation economy and maintain slavery. States of the North were interested in protecting the interests of their small farmers, while at the same time encouraging the growth of thriving cities that were developing manufacturing and trade. Delegates from each state brought different political philosophies as well. But there was one thing most of the delegates clearly understood: The Articles of Confederation were flawed. They didn’t allow the United States to function as a single nation. A government that can’t collect taxes or regulate commerce is too weak to gain the respect of foreign powers. A central government that can’t enforce its laws is hardly a government at all.

The delegates to the Constitutional Convention held their meetings in secrecy. Though it was hot that summer in Philadelphia, they kept the windows closed and the doors sealed. They allowed no newspaper reporters behind those closed doors. The delegates wanted secrecy so they could speak their minds freely. Maybe that was a good idea. But we can wonder what would have happened if the proceedings had been broadcast on C-SPAN.

Learn more about the Constitutional Convention of 1787 by visiting this link.

Two Plans
Because the delegates to the convention represented states with different interests, the men soon split into two groups over how states should be represented in the new Congress. As you probably remember, the Articles of Confederation had one chamber of Congress with one vote per state. Each group had its opinions about what form of government was appropriate for the new nation. Out of this division came two separate plans.

The Virginia Plan
James Madison of Virginia presented to the convention a proposal called the Virginia Plan. Madison’s plan called for a strong central government with three branches, or divisions—an executive branch (president), a legislative branch (Congress), and a judicial branch (a federal court system). The powers and duties of the government were to be divided among these three branches. This arrangement is known as separation of powers. In addition, the Virginia Plan provided for a system of checks and balances. That is, each branch had enough power of its own to keep the other branches from becoming too powerful.

James Madison, at 29, was the youngest delegate at the Constitutional Convention. Ben Franklin, at 81, was the oldest.

According to the Virginia Plan, the legislature was to be bicameral. That is, it was to have two houses, like the Parliament of Great Britain. At that time, the British Parliament consisted of a House of Lords, which represented the nobility, and a House of Commons, which represented the people of the towns and counties. In the Virginia plan, the bicameral legislature would consist of a lower and an upper house. The upper house would be selected by the lower house. The president would be elected by the legislature. The number of representatives that each state would have in the legislature was to be based on the population of the state. The larger the population of a state, the more representatives it would have in Congress. The figure below illustrates the government described in the Virginia Plan.

Diagram of the Virginia Plan
The Virginia Plan called for a strong central government and three separate branches.
The New Jersey Plan
William Paterson of New Jersey was the leading spokesman for the New Jersey Plan. He offered it to the convention in response to Madison’s Virginia Plan. Paterson was concerned for the rights of the small states—like New Jersey. He wanted to make sure those states would have equal representation in the Congress. Basically, advocates of the New Jersey Plan wanted to revise the Articles of Confederation. They agreed with Madison’s idea of three branches of government. However, they felt that a strong president would be too much like a king. They suggested having several executives, each with limited authority. They also wanted a legislature in which each state had a single vote. In addition, they agreed that the central government should be able to regulate commerce between the states.

The Compromise
After both plans had been presented, debate stormed through the convention for many days. Supporters of the Virginia Plan debated with supporters of the New Jersey Plan. The two main areas of disagreement were

Representation
Slavery
After much debate, it was agreed that representation in the lower house of Congress would be based on population. The upper house, however, would be composed of two delegates from each state. In that way, the lower house represented the people, and the upper house represented the states. This agreement is known as the Great Compromise. Two things made this compromise great. First, it assured the political power of the small states. Second, it committed the delegates to a new form of government. The Articles of Confederation would be abandoned.

Once the representation problem was resolved, the issue of slavery reared its head. The first debate was over whether slavery would be allowed. Some northern delegates wanted to take the opportunity to abolish slavery altogether. Other northerners and most southern delegates argued that slavery was too large of an issue to be argued there and worried that abolition would have a negative affect on the economy.

The second question was whether slaves should be considered as property or citizens. In this case, southerners believed that slaves should be considered people, and not just property, so they would have more representation in Congress. At that time, about 70 percent of the population in South Carolina was represented by slaves. Some delegates felt that South Carolina, and the rest of the Southern states, would have unfair representation if slaves were counted as population. Northerners, though many were anti-slavery, tried arguing that slaves should be considered only property and not counted as people to be represented.

To resolve that issue, the delegates agreed to a compromise. First, they agreed that the legality of slavery would be addressed in 20 years and Congress would be given the power to outlaw the international slave trade. As for representation, each slave would count as three-fifths of a person. In determining the population of a state, five slaves would count as three persons. This agreement was called the Three-Fifths Compromise.

The basic structure of the completed Constitution was fairly close to Madison’s Virginia Plan. However, the Constitution was also shaped by the compromises.

THE RISING SUN
Illustration of Benjamin Franklin
At the Constitutional Convention, Franklin was often consulted between sessions. As a diplomat, his contributions to the new nation were greatly respected. He was also well known for his wisdom and common sense. During sessions, however, he seemed content to be mainly an observer.

When the Constitution had at last been drafted, Ben Franklin rose to speak. He said there were parts of it he could never approve. Even so, he asked the delegates to sign it. He said the new government would be a blessing for the people if it was conducted well and honestly.

While the framers were signing the Constitution, Franklin studied a picture of the sun on the back of the president’s chair. It was the chair George Washington used. He commented to some delegates sitting nearby, “I have often . . . in the course of the session . . . looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know it is a rising and not a setting sun.”

Ratifying the Constitution
Photo of the Constitution
The Constitution was completed in 1787 and sent to the states for ratification. (National Archives and Records Administration)
The Constitution was completed in September 1787. The next step was to send it to the states for ratification. The delegates to the convention decided that each state should hold a ratification convention.

Ratification is the process of approving something by a vote.

Before the Articles of Confederation went into effect, all 13 states had to ratify the document. It took four years for this to happen. In 1787, the American nation was in crisis. The delegates knew that the nation couldn’t wait four years for a new government. Therefore, they decided that only 9 of the 13 states must ratify the Constitution before it would replace the Articles of Confederation and become the law of the nation.

As people in the states began to examine the Constitution, they became divided into two groups:

The Federalists supported the Constitution.
The Anti-Federalists opposed the Constitution.
One problem was that many people didn’t identify themselves as Americans. They identified themselves with their states, considering themselves to be New Yorkers, Pennsylvanians, and Georgians, for example. The Anti-Federalists were suspicious of the strong central government of the Constitution.

Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution. It was quickly followed by Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Finally, on June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution. It officially went into effect on that date. The figure below lists the 13 colonies along with the dates on which they voted to ratify the new Constitution.

Table listing the dates each state ratified the United States Constitution
It took nine months for the necessary nine states to ratify the Constitution. It took almost three years for all of the states to ratify it.
The Constitution is called the “supreme law of the land.” This means that no state can make any laws that contradict the Constitution. If they do, those laws have no effect.

As you can see in the figure above, New York was one of the last states to ratify the Constitution. To gain support for the Constitution, mainly in New York, a group of three men wrote a series of articles arguing for federalism—that is, for the Constitution. The articles were published in newspapers under the pseudonym Publius. (A pseudonym is a false, or fictitious name.) These articles eventually became known as The Federalist Papers, or The Federalist.

The men who authored these articles were James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. James Madison became the fourth president of the United States. Alexander Hamilton, who represented New York at the Constitutional Convention, became the nation’s first secretary of the treasury. John Jay was the nation’s first chief justice of the Supreme Court. There were 85 federalist essays written during this period. Here are a few of the topics addressed in these articles:

Political differences among people at the time were mainly due to economic conflicts—not the conflict of large states versus small states.
Since slavery was vital to the southern economy, many of the articles touched on this issue.
Some articles explained how a strong constitution would help to reduce the conflicts between northern and mid-Atlantic states over trade and manufacturing.
The publication of The Federalist Papers helped turn the tide in some states in favor of the Federalists.

TWO ENEMIES WHO BECAME FRIENDS
Collage depicting Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
Two famous patriots who weren’t present at the convention were Thomas Jefferson of Virginia and John Adams of Massachusetts. Both were on diplomatic missions in Europe. However, each had made crucial contributions to the founding of the American nation. And, of course, both men took a strong interest in the convention taking place at Philadelphia. John Adams became our nation’s second president, and Thomas Jefferson, our third.

Jefferson and Adams had bitter disputes. They had different visions of American government. They had different visions of the place of the United States in history. Yet, in the end they became great friends. An interesting note is that both men died on the same day. That day was July 4, 1826, precisely 50 years after July 4, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed.

About the Authors
In this section, you’ll study some highlights of just a few of the better-known participants in the development of the United States Constitution.

James Madison. James Madison is often called the “Father of the Constitution.” He was a Virginian and a wealthy landowner. Madison was a brilliant student of history, public law, and political theory. Indeed, he arrived at the Constitutional Convention with two long essays outlining the ideas he would present as the Virginia Plan. He was a small, intense man. His friends called him the “Great Little Madison.”

James Madison served first as a member of the House of Representatives, and then as secretary of state during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. He served as president of the United States from 1809 to 1817.

Gouverneur Morris. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania was the most active debater of the convention. He delivered 173 speeches during the course of the convention. Like many of the able statesmen at the convention, he distrusted the common people. He thought they were too easily misled. The electoral college system for electing the president reflects the influence of those who thought rule by educated aristocrats was important. (You’ll read about the electoral college later in this unit when you study Article II of the Constitution.)

While 55 delegates assembled in Philadelphia, only 39 of them actually signed the Constitution.

Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton served on the style committee with Morris. Because Hamilton was often absent from the convention on legal business, his direct contribution to the document was less than it might have been. On the other hand, Hamilton played a vital role in getting the Constitution ratified in New York. Hamilton saw trade and manufacturing as the key to America’s future power. As secretary of the treasury, he helped create a financial system that would make America a powerful industrial nation.

William Paterson. William Paterson led the Anti-Federalists by proposing the New Jersey Plan. His ideas helped to force the compromises needed to adopt the Constitution. The city of Paterson, New Jersey, is named after him.

Roger Sherman. Roger Sherman of Connecticut was the delegate who proposed the ideas for compromise that were eventually adopted. He was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In the new government, he served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

FIRST IN WAR, FIRST IN PEACE
Photo of a painting of George Washington
After his death, George Washington was described as “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” He was, indeed, a key figure in the birth of the American nation. Washington had little respect for government under the Articles of Confederation, which he called “a mere shadow without substance.” Yet, as president of the Constitutional Convention, he kept his opinions to himself. For one thing, there was already serious talk of making him the first American president. Washington was not at all sure he wanted that post. Therefore, he refused to make a show of himself during the convention. Later, though, he fought hard to get the Constitution ratified in Virginia.