Creating Republican Governments, 1776–1790
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Creating Republican Governments , FIGURE John Trumbull , Washington , painted this wartime image of Washington on a promontory above the Hudson River , Just behind Washington , enslaved William Billy Lee has his eyes fixed on his slaveholder . In the tar background , British warships tire on an American tort . CHAPTER OUTLINE Common Sense From Monarchy to an American Republic How Much Revolutionary Change ?
Debating Democracy The Constitutional Convention and Federal Constitution INTRODUCTION After the Revolutionary War , the ideology that all men are created equal failed to match up with reality , as the revolutionary generation could not solve the contradictions of freedom and slavery in the new United States . Trumbull 1780 painting of George ' Fi ) hints at of these con . What attitude do you think Trumbull was to convey ?
Why did Trumbull include Billy Lee , a person whom Washington enslaved , and what does Lee represent in this painting ?
During the and 17805 , Americans took bold steps to ' equality . Each state held constitutional conventions and crafted state constitutions that how government would operate and who could participate in political life . Many elite revolutionaries recoiled in horror from the idea of majority basic principle of that it would effectively create a mob rule that would bring about the ruin of the struggle for independence . Statesmen everywhere believed that a republic
166 Creating Republican Governments , should replace the British monarchy a government where the important affairs would be entrusted only to representative men of learning and . Common Sense From Monarchy to an American Republic LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to Compare and contrast monarchy and republican government Describe the tenets of republicanism Continental , Massachusetts Constitution States draft Congress , farmers rise up is debated revolutionary Articles of in Shays across constitutions Confederation ' I ' Rebellion country 1781 I 1787 , Northwest Philadelphia 00 Ordinances Constitutional ni ' mu lands federal government A FIGURE While monarchies dominated Europe , American revolutionaries were determined to an alternative to this method of government . Radical pamphleteer Thomas Paine , whose enormously popular essay Common Sense was published in January 1776 , advocated a republic a state without a king . Six months later , Declaration of Independence the break with England but did not suggest what form of government should replace monarchy , the only system most English colonists had ever known . In the late eighteenth century , republics were few and far between . Genoa , Venice , and the Dutch Republic provided examples of states without monarchs , but many European Enlightenment thinkers questioned the stability of a republic . Nonetheless , after their break from Great Britain , Americans turned to republicanism for their new government . REPUBLICANISM AS A POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Monarchy rests on the practice of dynastic succession , in which the monarchs child or other relative inherits the throne . Contested dynastic succession produced chronic conflict and warfare in Europe . In the eighteenth century , monarchs ruled most of Europe and , according to tradition , were obligated to protect and guide their subjects . However , by the , many American colonists believed that George III , the king of Great Britain , had failed to do so . Patriots believed the British monarchy under George III had been corrupted and the king turned into a tyrant who cared nothing for the traditional liberties afforded to members of the British Empire . The disaffection from monarchy explains why a republic appeared a better alternative to the revolutionaries . American revolutionaries looked to the past for inspiration for their break with the British monarchy and their Access for free at .
Common Sense From Monarchy to an American Republic 167 adoption of a republican form of government . The Roman Republic provided guidance . Much like the Americans in their struggle against Britain , Romans had thrown off monarchy and created a republic in which Roman citizens would appoint or select the leaders who would represent them . CLICK AND EXPLORE Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art ( to see a bust of George Washington , complete with toga . In 1791 , Italian sculptor Giuseppe visited Philadelphia , hoping the government might commission a monument of his creation . He did not succeed , but the bust of Washington , one of the ones he produced to demonstrate his skill , illustrates the connection between the American and Roman republics that revolutionaries made . While republicanism offered an alternative to monarchy , it was also an alternative to democracy , a system of government characterized by majority rule , where majority of citizens have the power to make decisions binding upon the whole . To many revolutionaries , es wealthy landowners , merchants , and planters , democracy did not offer a good replacement for monarchy . Indeed , conservative themselves in opposition to democracy , which they equated with anarchy . In the tenth in a series of essays later known as The Federalist Papers , Virginian James Madison wro Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths . Many shared this perspective and worked hard to keep democratic tendencies in . It is easy to understand why democracy seemed threatening majority rule can easily overpower minority rights , and the wealthy few had reason to fear that a hostile and envious majority could seize and their wealth . While many now assume the United States was founded as a democracy , history , as always , is more complicated . Conservative believed in government by a patrician class , a ruling group composed of a small number of privileged families . Radical broadening the popular participation in political life and pushed for democracy . The great debate after independence was secured centered on this question Who should rule in the new American republic ?
REPUBLICANISM AS A SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY According to political theory , a republic requires its citizens to cultivate virtuous behavior if the people are virtuous , the republic will survive . If the people become corrupt , the republic will fall . Whether republicanism succeeded or failed in the United States would depend on civic virtue and an educated citizenry . Revolutionary leaders agreed that the ownership of property provided one way to measure an individual virtue , arguing that property holders had the greatest stake in society and therefore could be trusted to make decisions for it . By the same token , holders , they believed , should have very little to do with government . In other words , unlike a democracy , in which the mass of holders could exercise the political right to vote , a republic would limit political rights to property holders . In this way , republicanism exhibited a bias toward the elite , a preference that is understandable given the colonial legacy . During colonial times , wealthy planters and merchants in the American colonies had looked to the British ruling class , whose social order demanded deference from those of lower rank , as a model of behavior Old habits died hard . DEFINING AMERICAN Benjamin Franklin Thirteen Virtues for Character Development In the 17805 , Benjamin Franklin carefully thirteen virtues to help guide his countrymen in maintaining a virtuous republic . His choice of thirteen is telling since he wrote for the citizens of the thirteen new American republics . These virtues were
168 Creating Republican Governments , Temperance . Eat not to dullness drink not to elevation . Silence . Speak not but what may others or yourself avoid trifling conversation . Order . Let all your things have their places let each part of your business have its time . Resolution . Resolve to perform what you ought perform without fail what you resolve . Frugality . Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself , waste nothing . Industry . Lose no time be always employ in something useful cut off all unnecessary actions . Sincerity . Use no hurtful deceit think innocently and justly , and , if you speak , speak accordingly . Justice . Wrong none by doing injuries , or that are your duty , Moderation . Avoid extremes forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve . 10 . Cleanliness . Tolerate no uncleanliness in body , or habitation . 11 . Tranquillity . Be not disturbed at trifles , or at accidents common or unavoidable , 12 . Chastity , Rarely use venery but for health or offspring , never to dullness , weakness , or the injury of your own or another peace or reputation , 13 . Humility , Imitate Jesus and Socrates . Franklin thirteen virtues suggest that hard work and good behavior will bring success . What factors does Franklin ignore ?
How would he likely address a situation in which children inherit great wealth rather than working for it ?
How do Franklin values help to define the notion of republican virtue ?
CLICK AND EXPLORE Check how well you are demonstrating all thirteen of Franklins virtues ( on , where you can register to track your progress . George Washington served as a role model par excellence for the new republic , embodying the exceptional talent and public virtue prized under the political and social philosophy of republicanism . He did not seek to become the new king of America instead he retired as commander in chief of the Continental Army and returned to his Virginia estate at Mount Vernon to resume his life among the planter elite . Washington modeled his behavior on that of the Roman aristocrat , a representative of the patrician or ruling class , who had also retired from public service in the Roman Republic and returned to his estate to pursue agricultural life . The aristocratic side of the belief that the true custodians of public virtue were those who had served in the expression in the Society of the Cincinnati , of which Washington was the president general ( Figure . Founded in 1783 , the society admitted only officers of the Continental Army and the French forces , not militia members or minutemen . Following the rule of primogeniture , the eldest sons of members inherited their fathers memberships . The society still exists today and retains the motto Omnia ( relinquished everything to save the Republic ) Access for free at .
How Much Revolutionary Change ?
169 FIGURE This membership for the Society of the Cincinnati commemorates the great Event which gave Independence to North How Much Revolutionary Change ?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to Describe the status of women in the new republic Describe the status of people in the new republic Elite republican revolutionaries did not envision a completely new society traditional ideas and categories of race and gender , order and decorum remained entrenched among members of their privileged class . Many Americans rejected the elitist and aristocratic republican order , however , and advocated radical changes . Their efforts represented a groundswell of sentiment for greater equality , a part of the democratic impulse unleashed by the Revolution . THE STATUS OF WOMEN In America , as in Great Britain , the legal status of married women was as coverture , meaning a married woman ( or feme covert ) had no legal or economic status independent of her husband . She could not conduct business or buy and sell property . Her husband controlled any property she brought to the marriage , although he could not sell it without her agreement . Married women status as covert did not change as a result of the Revolution , and wives remained economically dependent on their husbands . The women of the newly independent nation did not call for the right to vote , but some , especially the wives of elite republican statesmen , began to agitate for equality under the law between husbands and wives , and for the same educational opportunities as men . Some women hoped to overturn coverture . From her home in , Massachusetts , Abigail Adams ( Figure ) wrote to her husband , Whig leader John Adams , in 1776 , In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make , I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestor . Do not put such unlimited power in the husbands . Remember , all men would be tyrants if they could . Abigail Adams ran the family homestead during the Revolution , but she did not have the ability to conduct business without her husband consent . Elsewhere in the famous 1776 letter quoted above , she speaks of the of running the homestead when her husband is away . Her frustration grew when her husband responded in an April 1776 letter As to your extraordinary Code , I can not but laugh . We have been told that our Struggle has loosened the bands of Government every where . That Children and Apprentices were schools and were grown Indians slighted their Guardians and Negroes grew insolent to their Masters . But your Letter was the Intimation that another Tribe more numerous and powerfull than all the rest were grown discontented . Depend on it , We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems .
170 Creating Republican Governments , FIGURE Abigail Adams ( a ) shown here in a 1766 portrait by Benjamin Blythe , is best remembered for her eloquent letters to her husband , John Adams ( who would later become the second president of the United States . Another privileged member of the revolutionary generation , Mercy Otis Warren , also challenged gender assumptions and traditions during the revolutionary era ( Figure . Born in Massachusetts , Warren actively opposed British reform measures before the outbreak of in 1775 by publishing works . In 1812 , she published a history of the Revolution , a project she had started in the late . By publishing her work , Warren stepped out of the female sphere and into the otherwise sphere of public life . Inspired by the Revolution , Judith Sargent Murray of Massachusetts advocated women economic independence and equal educational opportunities for men and women Figure 75 ) Murray , who came from a family in Gloucester , questioned why boys were given access to education as a birthright while girls had very limited educational opportunities . She began to publish her ideas about educational equality beginning in the , arguing that God had made the minds of women and men equal . FIGURE John Singleton Copley 1772 portrait of Judith Sargent Murray ( a ) and 1763 portrait of Mercy Otis Warren ( show two of America earliest advocates for women rights . Notice how their silk dresses telegraph Access for free at .
How Much Revolutionary Change ?
171 their privileged social status . Murray more radical ideas championed woman economic independence . She argued that a woman education should be extensive enough to allow her to maintain her there was no male breadwinner . Indeed , Murray was able to make money of her own from her publications . Her ideas were both radical and traditional , however Murray also believed that women were much better at raising children and maintaining the morality and virtue of the family than men . Adams , Murray , and Warren all came from privileged backgrounds . All three were fully literate , while many women in the American republic were not . Their literacy and station allowed them to push for new roles for women in the atmosphere of unique possibility created by the Revolution and its promise of change . Female authors who published their work provide evidence of how women in the era of the American Revolution challenged traditional gender roles . Overall , the Revolution women roles by undermining the traditional expectations of wives and mothers , including subservience . In the home , the separate domestic sphere assigned to women , women were expected to practice republican virtues , especially frugality and simplicity . Republican motherhood meant that women , more than men , were responsible for raising good children , instilling in them all the virtue necessary to ensure the survival of the republic . The Revolution also opened new doors to educational opportunities for women . Men understood that the republic needed women to play a substantial role in upholding republicanism and ensuring the survival of the new nation . Benjamin Rush , a Whig educator and physician from Philadelphia , strongly advocated for the education of girls and young women as part of the larger effort to ensure that republican virtue and republican motherhood would endure . THE MEANING OF RACE By the time of the Revolution , slavery had been in place in America for over one hundred years . In many ways , the Revolution served to reinforce the assumptions about race among White Americans . They viewed the new nation as a White republic Black people were enslaved , and Native Americans had no place . Racial hatred of Black people increased during the Revolution because many enslaved people their enslavers for the freedom offered by the British . The same was true for Native Americans who allied themselves with the British Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that separation from the Empire was necessary because George III had incited the merciless Indian savages to destroy the White inhabitants on the frontier . Similarly , Thomas Paine argued in Common Sense that Great Britain was guilty of inciting the Indians and Negroes to destroy us . For his part , Benjamin Franklin wrote in the that , in time , alcoholism would wipe out the Natives , leaving the land free for White settlers . MY STORY On Being Brought from Africa to America ( Figure was born in Africa in 1753 and sold to the family of Boston her African name is lost to posterity . Although most enslaved people in the eighteenth century had no opportunities to learn to read and write , achieved full literacy and went on to become one of the poets of the time , although many doubted her authorship of her poems because of her race .
172 Creating Republican Governments , FIGURE This portrait of from the frontispiece of Poems on various subjects , religious and the writer at work . Despite her status as an enslaved person , her poems won great renown in America and in Europe . poems reflected her deep Christian beliefs . In the poem below , how do her views on Christianity affect her views on slavery ?
Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land , Taught my benighted soul to understand That there a God , that there a Saviour too Once I redemption neither sought nor knew . Some view our sable race with scornful eye , Their colour is a diabolic Remember , Christians , Negroes , black as Cain , May be , and join th angelic train . On Being Brought from Africa to America Slavery Slavery offered the most glaring contradiction between the idea of equality stated in the Declaration of Independence ( all men are created equal ) and the reality of race relations in the late eighteenth century . Racism shaped White views of Black people . Although he penned the Declaration of Independence , Thomas Jefferson enslaved more than one hundred people , of whom he freed only a few either during his lifetime or in his will ( Figure . He thought Black people were inferior to White , dismissing by arguing , Religion indeed has produced a but it could not produce a Some White slaveholders raped the people they enslaved , or forced them into sexual relationships , as most historians agree that Jefferson did with Sally . Together , they had several children . Access for free at .
How Much Revolutionary Change ?
ii ! FIGURE This page , taken from one of Thomas Jefferson record books from 1795 , lists his the people he held . CLICK AND EXPLORE Browse the Thomas Jefferson Papers ( at the Massachusetts Historical Society to examine Jefferson farm books , in which he kept records of his land holdings , animal husbandry , and enslaved people , including references to Sally . Jefferson understood the contradiction fully , and his writings reveal racist assumptions . In his Notes on the State of Virginia in the , Jefferson urged the end of slavery in Virginia and the removal of Black people from that state . He wrote It will probably be asked , Why not retain and incorporate the blacks into the state , and thus save he expense of supplying , by importation of white settlers , the vacancies they will leave ?
Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites ten thousand recollections , by the blacks , of the injuries they have sustained new provocations the real distinctions which nature has made and many other circumstances , will divide us into parties , and produce convulsions which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or me other race . these objections , which are political , may be added others , which are physical and mora . Jefferson envisioned an empire of liberty for White farmers and relied on the argument of sending Black people out of the United States , even if doing so would completely destroy the slaveholders wealth in their human property . Many Southerners strongly to Jefferson views on abolishing slavery and removing Black people from America . When Jefferson was a candidate for president in 1796 , an anonymous Southern Planter wrote , If this wild project succeeds , under the auspices of Thomas Jefferson , President of the United States , and three hundred thousand slaves are set free in Virginia , farewell to the safety , prosperity , the importance , perhaps the very existence the Southern States ( Figure . Slaveholders and many other Americans protected and defended the institution . 173
174 Creating Republican Governments , FIGURE This 1796 broadside to the Citizens of the Southern States by a Southern Planter argued that Thomas Jefferson advocacy of emancipation in his Notes on the State of Virginia posed a threat to the safety , the prosperity , and even the existence of the southern states . Freedom While racial thinking permeated the new country , and slavery existed in all the new states , the ideals of the Revolution generated a movement toward the abolition of slavery . Private , by which slaveholders freed the enslaved , provided one pathway from bondage . Slaveholders in Virginia freed some ten thousand people . In Massachusetts , the family in 1773 when she was . Other revolutionaries formed societies dedicated to abolishing slavery . One of the earliest efforts began in 1775 in Philadelphia , where Benjamin Rush and other Philadelphia Quakers formed what became the Pennsylvania Abolition Society . Similarly , wealthy New Yorkers formed the New York Manumission Society in 1785 . This society worked to educate Black children and devoted funds to protect free Black people from kidnapping . Slavery persisted in the North , however , and the example of Massachusetts highlights the complexity of the situation . The 1780 Massachusetts constitution technically freed all enslaved people . Nonetheless , several hundred individuals remained enslaved in the state . In the , a series of court decisions undermined slavery in Massachusetts when several people , citing assault by their enslavers , successfully sought their freedom in court . These individuals refused to be treated as having slave status in the wake of the American Revolution . Despite these legal victories , about eleven hundred people continued to be held in the New England states in 1800 . The contradictions illustrate the difference between the letter and the spirit of the laws abolishing slavery in Massachusetts . In all , over thousand people remained enslaved in the North , with the highest concentrations in New Jersey and New York . New York only gradually phased out slavery , with the last individuals emancipated in the late . Native Americans The 1783 Treaty of Paris , which ended the war for independence , did not address Native peoples at all . All lands held by the British east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes ( except Spanish Florida ) now belonged to the new American republic Figure ) Though the treaty remained silent on the issue , much of the territory now included in the boundaries of the United States remained under the control of Native Access for free at .
How Much Revolutionary Change ?
peoples . Earlier in the eighteenth century , a middle ground had existed between powerful Native groups in the West and British and French imperial zones , a place where the various groups interacted and accommodated each other . As had happened in the French and Indian War and Pontiac Rebellion , the Revolutionary War turned the middle ground into a battle zone that no one group controlled . Territorial Divisions in North America , 1783 Newfoundland Nova Louisiana sums of British Territory French Territory Florida New Spain FIGURE The 1783 Treaty of Paris divided North America into territories the United States and several European countries , but it failed to address Native lands at all . During the Revolution , a complex situation existed among Native groups . Many villages remained neutral . Some native groups , such as the Delaware , split into factions , with some supporting the British while other Delaware maintained their neutrality . The Iroquois Confederacy , a longstanding alliance of tribes , also split up the Mohawk , Onondaga , and Seneca fought on the British side , while the and supported the revolutionaries . Ohio River Valley tribes such as the Shawnee , Miami , and Mungo had been for years against colonial expansion west these groups supported the British . Some native peoples who had previously allied with the French hoped the conflict between the colonies and Great Britain might lead to French intervention and the return of French rule . Few Native Americans sided with the American revolutionaries , because almost all revolutionaries in the middle ground viewed them as an enemy to be destroyed . This racial hatred toward Native peoples found expression in the American massacre of Christian in 1782 . Most of the dead were women and children . After the war , the victorious Americans turned a deaf ear to Native American claims to what the revolutionaries saw as their land , and they moved aggressively to assert control over western New York and Pennsylvania . In response , Mohawk leader Joseph Brant helped to form the Western Confederacy , an alliance of native peoples who pledged to resist American intrusion into what was then called the Northwest . The Northwest Indian War ( ended with the defeat of the Natives and their claims . Under the Treaty of Greenville ( 1795 ) the United States gained dominion overland in Ohio . RELIGION AND THE STATE Prior to the Revolution , several colonies had , churches . After the Revolution , some questioned the validity of churches the limitation of public to those of a particular faith and the payment of taxes to support churches . In other states , especially in New England where the older Puritan heritage cast a long shadow , religion and state remained intertwined . During the colonial era in Virginia , the established church had been the Church of England , which did not 175
176 Creating Republican Governments , tolerate Catholics , Baptists , or followers or other religions . In 1786 , as a response against the privileged status of the Church of England , Virginia lawmakers approved the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom , which ended the Church of England hold and allowed religious li . Under the statute , no one could be forced to attend or support a church or be prosecuted for his or her beliefs . Pennsylvania original constitution limited in the state ure to those who professed a belief in both the Old and the New Testaments . This religious test Jews from holding that , as the New Testament is not part of Jewish belief . In 1790 , however , Pennsylvania removed this from its constitution . The New England states were slower to embrace freedom of religion . In the ormer Puritan colonies , the Congregational Church ( established by Puritans ) remained the church of most inhabitants . Massachusetts , Connecticut , and New Hampshire all required tie public support of Chris ian churches . Article III of the Massachusetts constitution blended the goal of re with the goal of promoting Protestant Christianity . It reads As the happiness of a people , and the good order and preservation of civil government , essentially de upon piety , religion and morality and as these can not be generally diffused hrough a community , but by the institution of the public worship of GOD , and of public instructions in piety , religion and morality Therefore , to promote their happiness and to secure the good order and preservation of their government , the peop of this Commonwealth have a right to invest their legislature with power to authorize and require , and the legislature shall , from time to time , authorize and require , the several towns , parishes , precincts , and other , or religious societies , to make suitable provision , at their own expense , for the institution of the public worship of GOD , and for the support and maintenance of public protestant teachers of piety , religion and mora ity , in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily . And every denomination of Christians , demeaning themselves peaceably , and as good subjects of the Commonwealth , shall be equally under the protection of the law And no subordination of any one sec or denomination to another shall ever be established by CLICK AND EXPLORE Read more about religion and state governments at the Religion and the Founding of the American Republic exhibition page on the Library site . What was the meaning of the term nursing fathers of the church ?
Debating Democracy LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to Explain the development of state constitutions Describe the features ofthe Articles of Confederation Analyze the causes and consequences of Shays Rebellion The task of creating republican governments in each of the former colonies , now independent states , presented a new opportunity for American revolutionaries to themselves anew after casting off British control . On the state and national levels , citizens of the new United States debated who would hold the keys to political power . The states proved to be a laboratory for how much democracy , or majority rule , would be tolerated . THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS In 1776 , John Adams urged the thirteen independent to be write their own state constitutions . Enlightenment political thought profoundly Adams and other revolutionary leaders seeking to create viable republican governments . The ideas of the French philosopher , who had Access for free at .
Debating Democracy 177 advocated the separation of powers in government , guided Adams thinking . Responding to a request for advice on proper government from North Carolina , Adams wrote Thoughts on Government , which many state legislatures . Adams did not advocate democracy rather , he wrote , there is no good government but what is republican . Fearing the potential for tyranny with only one group in power , he suggested a system of checks and balances in which three separate branches of , legislative , and maintain a balance of power . He also proposed that each state remain sovereign , as its own republic . The state constitutions of the new United States illustrate different approaches to addressing the question of how much democracy would prevail in the thirteen republics . Some states embraced democratic practices , while others adopted far more aristocratic and republican ones . CLICK AND EXPLORE Visit the Avalon Project ( to read the constitutions of the seven states ( Virginia , New Jersey , North Carolina , Maryland , Connecticut , Pennsylvania , and Delaware ) that had written constitutions by the end of 1776 . The 1776 Pennsylvania constitution and the 1784 New Hampshire constitution both provide examples of democratic tendencies . In Pennsylvania , the requirement to own property in order to vote was eliminated , and if a man was or older , had paid taxes , and had lived in the same location for one year , he could vote Figure . This opened voting to most free White male citizens of Pennsylvania . The 1784 New Hampshire constitution allowed every small town and village to send representatives to the state government , making the lower house of the legislature a model of democratic government . FIGURE The 1776 Pennsylvania constitution , the first page of which is shown here , adhered to more democratic principles than some other states constitutions did initially . Conservative , who distrusted the idea of majority rule , recoiled from the abolition of property for voting and holding in Pennsylvania . Conservative Whig John Adams reacted with horror to the 1776 Pennsylvania constitution , declaring that it was so democratical that it must produce confusion and every evil work . In his mind and those of other conservative , this constitution simply put too much power in the hands of men who had no business exercising the right to vote . constitution also eliminated the executive branch ( there was no governor ) and the upper house . Instead , Pennsylvania had a . The Maryland and South Carolina constitutions provide examples of efforts to limit the power of a democratic majority . Maryland , written in 1776 , restricted holding to the wealthy planter class . A man had to own at least worth property to be the governor of Maryland , and possess an estate worth
178 Creating Republican Governments , to be a state senator . This latter excluded over 90 percent of the White males in Maryland from political . The 1778 South Carolina constitution also sought to protect the interests of the wealthy . Governors and lieutenant governors of the state had to have a settled plantation or freehold in their and each of their own right of the value of at least ten thousand pounds currency , clear of debt . This provision limited high in the state to its wealthiest inhabitants . Similarly , South Carolina state senators had to own estates valued at . John Adams wrote much of the 1780 Massachusetts constitution , which his fear of too much democracy . It therefore created two legislative chambers , an upper and lower house , and a strong governor with broad veto powers . Like South Carolina , Massachusetts put in place requirements To be governor under the new constitution , a candidate had to own an estate worth at least . To serve in the state senate , a man had to own an estate worth at least and have at least in total wealth . To vote , he had to be worth at least sixty pounds . To further keep democracy in check , judges were appointed , not elected . One limit was the establishment of the state capitol in the commercial center of Boston , which made it for farmers from the western part of the state to attend legislative sessions . THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION Most revolutionaries pledged their greatest loyalty to their individual states . Recalling the experience of British reform efforts imposed in the 17605 and , they feared a strong national government and took some time to adopt the Articles , the first national constitution . In June 1776 , the Continental Congress prepared to announce independence and began to think about the creation of a new government to replace royal authority . Reaching agreement on the Articles of Confederation proved as members of the Continental Congress argued over western land claims . Connecticut , for example , used its colonial charter to assert its claim to western lands in Pennsylvania and the Ohio Territory ( Figure . Connecticut Western Land Claims , a , a , FIGURE Connecticut , like many other states , used its state constitution to stake claims to uncharted western lands . Members of the Continental Congress also debated what type of representation would be best and tried to out how to pay the expenses of the new government . In lieu of creating a new federal government , the Articles of Confederation created a league of friendship between the states . Congress readied the Articles in 1777 but did not approve them until 1781 ( Figure . The delay of four years illustrates the of getting the thirteen states to agree on a plan of national government . Citizens viewed their respective states as sovereign republics and guarded their prerogatives against other states . Access for free at .
Debating Democracy 179 ARTICLES . Perpetual Union . A I . and FIGURE The first page of the 1777 Articles of Confederation , printed by Alexander , emphasized the perpetual union between the states . The Articles of Confederation authorized a unicameral legislature , a continuation of the earlier Continental Congress . The people could not vote directly for members of the national Congress rather , state legislatures decided who would represent the state . In practice , the national Congress was composed of state delegations . There was no president or executive of any kind , and there was no national judiciary ( or Supreme Court ) for the United States . Passage of any law under the Articles proved . It took the consensus of nine states for any measure to pass , and amending the Articles required the consent of all the states , also extremely to achieve . Further , any acts put forward by the Congress were states had the option to enforce them or not . This meant that while the Congress had power over Native American affairs and foreign policy , individual states could choose whether or not to comply . The Congress did not have the power to tax citizens of the United States , a fact that would soon have serious consequences for the republic . During the Revolutionary War , the Continental Congress had sent requisitions for funds to the individual former colonies ( now revolutionary states ) These states already had an enormous burden because they had to pay for militias as well as supply them . In the end , the states failed to provide even half the funding requested by the Congress during the war , which led to a national debt in the tens of millions by 1784 . By the , some members of the Congress were greatly concerned about the health of the republic , and they argued that the national government needed greater power , especially the power to tax . This required amending the Articles of Confederation with the consent of all the states . Those who called for a stronger federal government were known as nationalists . The nationalist group that pushed for the power to tax included Washington chief of staff , Alexander Hamilton Virginia planter James Madison Pennsylvania wealthy merchant Robert Morris ( who served under the Confederation government as superintendent of in the early ) and Pennsylvania lawyer James Wilson . Two New Yorkers , Morris and James Duane , also joined the effort to address the debt and the weakness of the Confederation government . These men proposed a percent tax on imports coming into the United States , a measure that would have yielded enough revenue to clear the debt . However , their proposal failed to achieve unanimous support from the states when Rhode Island rejected it . Plans for a national bank also failed to win unanimous support . The lack of support illustrates the Americans deep suspicion of a powerful national government , a suspicion that originated from the unilateral and reform efforts that the British Parliament imposed on the
180 Creating Republican Governments , colonies in the and . Without revenue , the Congress could not pay back American creditors who had lent it money . However , it did manage to make interest payments to foreign creditors in France and the Dutch Republic , fearful that defaulting on those payments would destroy the republic credit and leave it unable to secure loans . One soldier in the Continental Army , Joseph Plumb Martin , recounted how he received no pay in paper money af er 1777 and only one month payment in specie , or hard currency , in 1781 . Like thousands of other so , Martin had fought valiantly against the British and helped secure independence , but had not been paid for his service . In the 17805 and beyond , men like Martin would soon express their profound dissatisfaction with their treatment . Their anger found expression in armed uprisings and political divisions . Es workable foreign and commercial policies under the Articles of Confederation also proved dificult . Each state could decide for itself whether to comply with treaties between the Congress and foreign countries , and there were no means of enforcement . Both Great Britain and Spain understood the weakness of the Confederation Congress , and they refused to make commercial agreements with the United States because they doubted they would be enforced . Without stable commercial policies , American exporters found it dificult to do business , and British goods flooded markets in the 17805 , in a repetition of the economic imbalance that existed before the Revolutionary War . The Confederation Congress under the Articles did achieve success through a series of directives called land orc , which established rules for the settlement of western lands in the public domain and the admission of new states to the republic . The ordinances were designed to prepare the land for sale to citizens and raise revenue to boost the failing economy of the republic . In the land ordinances , the Confederation Congress created the Mississippi and Southwest Territories and stipulated that slavery would be permitted there . The system of dividing the vast domains of the United States stands as a towering achievement of the era , a blueprint for American western expansion . The Ordinance of 1784 , written by Thomas and the first ofwhat were later called the Northwest Ordinances , directed that new states would be formed from a huge area of land below the Great Lakes , and these new states would have equal standing wi the original states . The Ordinance of 1785 called for the division of this land into rectangular plots in order to prepare for the government sale of land . Surveyors would divide the land into townships of six square mi es , and the townships would be subdivided into plots of 640 acres each , which could be further subdivided . The price of an acre of land was set at a minimum of one dollar , and the land was to be sold at public ion under the direction of the Confederation . The Ordinance of 1787 officially turned the land into an incorporated territory called the Northwest Territory and prohibited slavery north of the Ohio River I . The map of the 1787 Northwest Territory shows how the public domain was to be divided by the national government for sale . Townships of square miles were to be surveyed . Each had land set aside for schools and other civic purposes . Smaller parcels could then be made a section could be ed into of 160 acres , and then again into sixteen sections of 40 acres . The geometric pattern established by the ordinance is still evident today on the American landscape . Indeed , much of the western United States , when viewed from an airplane , is composed of an orderly grid system . Access for free at .
Debating Democracy 181 Key Points dine or 1757 Northwest Territory of 1787 man 34 states . Eligible tar moon settlers . Religious , the right uy , tree access In the major rivers 12 ! His region 3630241312 3529231711 . slavery River miles square 34 29 22 15 10 33212115 3225211143 31251313 . miles square 35 plats . plat 540 acres ( mile square ) eventually became the states or , Michigan , am Wisconsin miles FIGURE The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 created territories and an orderly or the admission of new states . CLICK AND EXPLORE Visit Window Seat ( to explore aerial views of the grid system established by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 , which is still evident in much of the Midwest . The land ordinances proved to be the great triumph of the Confederation Congress . The Congress would appoint a governor for the territories , and when the population in the territory reached thousand free adult settlers , those citizens could create their own legislature and begin the process of moving toward statehood . When the population reached sixty thousand , the territory could become a new state . SHAYS REBELLION Despite Congress victory in creating an orderly process for organizing new states and territories , land sales failed to produce the revenue necessary to deal with the dire economic problems facing the new country in the . Each state had issued large amounts ofpaper money and , in the aftermath of the Revolution , widespread internal devaluation of that currency occurred as many lost in the value of state paper money and the Continental dollar . A period of extreme set in . Added to this dilemma was American citizens lack of specie ( gold and silver currency ) to conduct routine business . Meanwhile , demobilized soldiers , many of whom had spent their formative years rather than learning a peacetime trade , searched desperately for work . The economic crisis came to a head in 1786 and 1787 in western Massachusetts , where farmers were in a position they faced high taxes and debts , which they found nearly impossible to pay with the worthless state and Continental paper money . For several years after the peace in 1783 , these indebted citizens had petitioned the state legislature for redress . Many were veterans of the Revolutionary War who had returned to their farms and families after the ended and now faced losing their homes . Their petitions to the state legislature raised economic and political issues for citizens of the new state . How could people pay their debts and state taxes when paper money proved unstable ?
Why was the state government located in Boston , the center of the merchant elite ?
Why did the 1780 Massachusetts constitution cater to the interests of the wealthy ?
To the indebted farmers , the situation in the seemed hauntingly familiar the revolutionaries had routed the British , but a new form of seemingly corrupt and government had replaced them . In 1786 , when the state legislature again refused to address the petitioners requests , Massachusetts citizens took up arms and closed courthouses across the state to prevent foreclosure ( seizure of land in lieu of overdue loan payments ) on farms in debt . The farmers wanted their debts forgiven , and they demanded that the 1780 constitution be revised to address citizens beyond the wealthy elite who could serve in the legislature . Many of the rebels were veterans of the war for independence , including Captain Daniel Shays from Pelham Figure . Although Shays was only one of many former in the Continental Army who took part in the revolt , authorities in Boston singled him out as a ringleader , and the uprising became known as Shays
182 Creating Republican Governments , Rebellion . The Massachusetts legislature responded to the closing of the courthouses with a of legislation , much of it designed to punish the rebels . The government offered the rebels clemency if they took an oath of allegiance . Otherwise , local were empowered to use deadly force against them without fear of prosecution . Rebels would lose their property , and if any militiamen refused to defend the state , they would be executed . FIGURE This woodcut , from Boston of 1787 , depicts Daniel Shays and Job . Shays and were two of the leaders of the rebels who rose up against the Massachusetts government in 1786 to 1787 . As Revolutionary War veterans , both men wear the uniform of of the Continental Army . Despite these measures , the rebellion continued . To address the uprising , Governor James raised a private army of hundred men , funded by wealthy Boston merchants , without the approval of the legislature . The climax of Shays Rebellion came in January 1787 , when the rebels attempted to seize the federal armory in , Massachusetts . A force loyal to the state defeated them there , although the rebellion continued into February . Shays Rebellion resulted in eighteen deaths overall , but the uprising had lasting effects . To men of property , mostly conservative , Shays Rebellion strongly suggested the republic was falling into anarchy and chaos . The other twelve states had faced similar economic and political , and continuing problems seemed to indicate that on a national level , a democratic impulse was driving the population . Shays Rebellion convinced George Washington to come out of retirement and lead the convention called for by Alexander Hamilton to amend the Articles of Confederation in order to deal with insurgencies like the one in Massachusetts and provide greater stability in the United States . The Constitutional Convention and Federal Constitution LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to central issues of the 1787 Constitutional Convention and their solutions Describe the conflicts over the ofthe federal constitution The economic problems that plagued the thirteen states of the Confederation set the stage for the creation of a strong central government under a federal constitution . Although the original purpose of the convention was to amend the Articles of Confederation , not moved quickly to create a new framework for a more powerful national government . This proved extremely controversial . Those who attended the convention split over the issue of robust , centralized government and questions of how Americans would be represented in the federal government . Those who opposed the proposal for a stronger federal government argued that such a plan betrayed the Revolution by limiting the voice of the American people . Access for free at .
The Constitutional Convention and Federal Constitution 183 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION There had been earlier efforts to address the Confederation perilous state . In early 1786 , Virginia James Madison advocated a meeting of states to address the widespread economic problems that plagued the new nation . Heeding Madison call , the legislature in Virginia invited all thirteen states to meet in Annapolis , Maryland , to work on solutions to the issue of commerce between the states . Eight states responded to the invitation . But the resulting 1786 Annapolis Convention failed to provide any solutions because only states sent delegates . These delegates did , however , agree to a plan put forward by Alexander Hamilton for a second convention to meet in May 1787 in Philadelphia . Shays Rebellion gave greater urgency to the planned convention . In February 1787 , in the wake of the uprising in western Massachusetts , the Confederation Congress authorized the Philadelphia convention . This time , all the states except Rhode Island sent delegates to Philadelphia to confront the problems of the day . The stated purpose of the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 was to amend the Articles of Confederation . Very quickly , however , the attendees decided to create a new framework for a national government . That framework became the United States Constitution , and the Philadelphia convention became known as the Constitutional Convention of 1787 . men met in Philadelphia in secret historians know of the proceedings only because James Madison kept careful notes of what transpired . The delegates knew that what they were doing would be controversial Rhode Island refused to send delegates , and New Hampshire delegates arrived late . Two delegates from New York , Robert Yates and John Lansing , left the convention when it became clear that the Articles were being put aside and a new plan of national government was being drafted . They did not believe the delegates had the authority to create a strong national government . CLICK AND EXPLORE Read Reasons for Dissent from the Proposed Constitution ( I in order to understand why Robert Yates and John Lansing , New York delegates to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention , did believe the convention should draft a new plan of national government . THE QUESTION OF REPRESENTATION One issue that the delegates in Philadelphia addressed was the way in which representatives to the new national government would be chosen . Would individual citizens be able to elect representatives ?
Would representatives be chosen by state legislatures ?
How much representation was appropriate for each state ?
James Madison put forward a proposition known as the Virginia Plan , which called for a strong national government that could overturn state laws ( Figure . The plan featured a bicameral or legislature , with an upper and a lower house . The people of the states would elect the members of the lower house , whose numbers would be determined by the population of the state . State legislatures would send delegates to the upper house . The number of representatives in the upper chamber would also be based on the state population . This proportional representation gave the more populous states , like Virginia , more political power . The Virginia Plan also called for an executive branch and a judicial branch , both of which were absent under the Articles of Confederation . The lower and upper house together were to appoint members to the executive and judicial branches . Under this plan , Virginia , the most populous state , would dominate national political power and ensure its interests , including slavery , would be safe .
184 Creating Republican Governments , FIGURE James Madison Virginia Plan , shown here , proposed a strong national government with proportional state representation . The Virginia Plans call for proportional representation alarmed the representatives of the smaller states . William introduced a New Jersey Plan to counter Madison scheme , proposing that all states have equal votes in a unicameral national legislature . He also addressed the economic problems of the day by calling for the Congress to have the power to regulate commerce , to raise revenue though taxes on imports and through postage , and to enforce Congressional requisitions from the states . Roger Sherman from Connecticut offered a compromise to break the deadlock over the thorny question of representation . His Connecticut Compromise , also known as the Great Compromise , outlined a different bicameral legislature in which the upper house , the Senate , would have equal representation for all states each state would be represented by two senators chosen by the state legislatures . Only the lower house , the House of Representatives , would have proportional representation . THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY The question of slavery stood as a major issue at the Constitutional Convention because slaveholders wanted enslaved residents to be counted along with White people , termed free inhabitants , when determining a state total population . This , in turn , would augment the number of representatives accorded to those states in the lower house . Some northerners , however , such as New York Morris , hated slavery and did not even want the term included in the new national plan of government . Slaveholders argued that slavery imposed great burdens upon them and that , because they carried this liability , they deserved special consideration enslaved people needed to be counted for purposes of representation . The issue of counting or not counting enslaved people for purposes of representation connected directly to the question of taxation . Beginning in 1775 , the Second Continental Congress asked states to pay for war by collecting taxes and sending the tax money to the Congress . The amount each state had to deliver in tax revenue was determined by a state total population , including both free and enslaved individuals . States routinely fell far short of delivering the money requested by Congress under the plan . In April 1783 , the Confederation Congress amended the earlier system of requisition by having the enslaved population count as of the White population . In this way , slaveholders gained a tax break . The delegates in Philadelphia adopted this same formula in the summer of 1787 . Access for free at .
The Constitutional Convention and Federal Constitution 185 Under the compromise in the 1787 Constitution , three out of every enslaved people would be counted when determining a state population . Article , Section stipulated that Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several states . according to their respective Number , which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free Persons , including those bound for service for a Term of Years White servants , and excluding Indians not taxed , three of all other persons . Since representation in the House of Representatives was based on the population of a state , the compromise gave extra political power to slave states , although not as much as if the total population , both free and enslaved , had been used . no direct federal income tax was immediately imposed . The Sixteenth Amendment , in 1913 , put in place a federal income tax . Northerners agreed to the compromise because the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 , passed by the Confederation Congress , banned slavery in the future states of the northwest . Northern delegates felt this ban balanced political power between states with enslaved people and those without . The compromise gave an advantage to slaveholders they added of their human property to their states population , allowing them to send representatives based in part on the number of people they enslaved . THE QUESTION OF DEMOCRACY Many of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention had serious reservations about democracy , which they believed promoted anarchy . To allay these fears , the Constitution blunted democratic tendencies that appeared to undermine the republic . Thus , to avoid giving the people too much direct power , the delegates made certain that senators were chosen by the state legislatures , not elected directly by the people ( direct elections of senators came with the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution , in 1913 ) As an additional safeguard , the delegates created the Electoral College , the mechanism for choosing the president . Under this plan , each state has a certain number of electors , which is its number of senators ( two ) plus its number of representatives in the House of Representatives . Critics , then as now , argue that this process prevents the direct election of the president . THE FIGHT OVER RATIFICATION The draft constitution was in September 1787 . The delegates decided that in order for the new national government to be implemented , each state must hold a special ratifying convention . When nine of the thirteen had approved the plan , the constitution would go into effect . When the American public learned of the new constitution , opinions were deeply divided , but most people were opposed . To salvage their work in Philadelphia , the architects of the new national government began a campaign to sway public opinion in favor of their blueprint for a strong central government . In the debate that erupted , the two sides articulated contrasting visions of the American republic and of democracy . Supporters of the 1787 Constitution , known as Federalists , made the case that a centralized republic provided the best solution for the future . Those who opposed it , known as , argued that the Constitution would consolidate all power in a national government , robbing the states of the power to make their own decisions . To them , the Constitution appeared to mimic the old corrupt and centralized British regime , under which a government made the laws . argued that wealthy aristocrats would run the new national government , and that the elite would not represent ordinary citizens the rich would monopolize power and use the new government to formulate policies that their development that would also undermine local state elites . They also argued that the Constitution did not contain a bill of rights . New York ratifying convention illustrates the divide between the Federalists and . When one delegate named Smith took issue with the scheme of representation as being too limited and not reflective of the people , Alexander Hamilton responded It has been observed by an honorable gentleman Smith , that a pure democracy , if it were practicable , would be the most perfect government . Experience has proven , that no position in politics is more false than this . The ancient democracies , in which the people themselves deliberated , never possessed one feature of good
186 Creating Republican Governments , government . Their very character was tyranny their deformity When they assembled , the of debate presented an ungovernable mob , not only incapable of deliberation , but prepared for every enormity . In these assemblies , the enemies of the people brought forward their plans of ambition systematically . They were opposed by their enemies of another party and it became a matter of contingency , whether the people subjected themselves to be led blindly by one tyrant or by The Federalists , particularly John Jay , Alexander Hamilton , and James Madison , put their case to the public in a famous series of essays known as The Federalist Papers . These were published in New York and subsequently republished elsewhere in the United States . James Madison on the Benefits of Republicanism The tenth essay in The Federalist Papers , often called Federalist No . 10 , is one of the most famous . Written by James Madison ( Figure , it addresses the problems of political parties ( factions ) Madison argued that there were two approaches to problem of political parties a republican government and a democracy , He argued that a large republic provided the best defense against what he viewed as the tumult of direct democracy . Compromises would be reached in a large republic and citizens would be represented by representatives of their own choosing . FIGURE John 1816 portrait depicts James Madison , one of the leading Federalists who supported the 1787 Constitution . From this view of the subject , it may be concluded , that a pure Democracy , by which I mean a Society consisting of a small number of citizens , who assemble and administer the Government in person , can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction . A common passion or interest will , in almost every case , be felt by a majority of the whole a communication and concert result from the form of Government itself and there is nothingto check the inducements to the weaker party , or an obnoxious individual . Hence it is , that such Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention have ever been found incompatible with personal security , or the rights of property and have in general been as short in their lives , as they have been violent in their deaths . Theoretic politicians , who have patronized this species of Government , have erroneously supposed , that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights , they would , at the same time , be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions , their opinions , and their passions . A Republic , by which I mean a Government in which the scheme of representation takes place , opens a different prospect , and promises the cure for which we are seeking . Let us examine the points in which it varies from pure Democracy , and we shall comprehend both the nature of the cure , and the which it must derive from the Access for free at .
The Constitutional Convention and Federal Constitution 187 Union . The two great points of difference , between a Democracy and a Republic , are , first , the delegation of the Government , in the latter , to a small number of citizens elected by the rest Secondly , the greater number of citizens , and greater sphere of country , over which the latter may be extended . Does Madison recommend republicanism or democracy as the best form of government ?
What arguments does he use to prove his point ?
CLICK AND EXPLORE Read the full text of Federalist No . 10 ( I on . What do you think are Madison most and least compelling arguments ?
How would different members of the new United States view his arguments ?
Including all the state ratifying conventions around the country , a total of fewer than two thousand men voted on whether to adopt the new plan of government . In the end , the Constitution only narrowly won approval Figure . In New York , the vote was thirty in favor to opposed . In Massachusetts , the vote to approve was 187 to 168 , and some claim supporters of the Constitution resorted to bribes in order to ensure approval . Virginia by a vote of to , and Rhode Island by to two . The opposition to the Constitution the fears that a new national government , much like the British monarchy , created too much centralized power and , as a result , deprived citizens in the various states of the ability to make their own decisions . 33 I . FIGURE The first page ofthe 1787 United States Constitution , shown here , begins We the People ofthe United States , in Order to form a more perfect Union , establish Justice , insure domestic Tranquility , provide for the common defence , promote the general Welfare , and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity , do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America .
188 Key Terms Key Terms those who opposed the 1787 Constitution and favored stronger individual states bicameral having two legislative houses , an upper and a lower house checks and balances the system that ensures a balance of power among the branches of government Connecticut Compromise also known as the Great Compromise , Roger Sherman proposal at the Constitutional Convention for a bicameral legislature , with the upper house having equal representation for all states and the lower house having proportional representation conservative the politically and economically elite revolutionary class that wanted to limit political participation to a few powerful families coverture the legal status of married women in the United States , which included complete legal and economic dependence on husbands democracy a system of government in which the majority rules Electoral College the mechanism by which electors , based on the number of representatives from each state , choose the president Federalists those who supported the 1787 Constitution and a strong central government these advocates of the new national government formed the ruling political party in the majority rule a fundamental principle of democracy , providing that the majority should have the power to make decisions binding upon the whole manumission the releasing of an enslaved person by his or her owner monarchy a form of government with a monarch at its head proportional representation representation that gives more populous states greater political power by allowing them more representatives radical revolutionaries who favored broadening participation in the political process compromise the agreement at the Constitutional Convention that three out of every five enslaved persons would be counted when determining a state population for purposes of representation unicameral having a single house ( of legislative government ) Summary Common Sense From Monarchy to an American Republic The guiding principle of republicanism was that the people themselves would appoint or select the leaders who would represent them . The debate over how much democracy ( majority rule ) to incorporate in the governing of the new United States raised questions about who was best to participate in government and have the right to vote . Revolutionary leaders argued that property holders had the greatest stake in society and favored a republic that would limit political rights to property holders . In this way , republicanism ed a bias toward the elite . George Washington served as a role model for the new republic , embodying the exceptional talent and public virtue prized in its political and social philosophy . How Much Revolutionary Change ?
After Revolution , the balance of power between women and men and between White , Black , and Native American people remained largely unchanged . Yet revolutionary principles , including the call for universal in the Declaration of Independence , inspired and emboldened many . Abigail Adams and others pressed for greater rights for women , while the Pennsylvania Abolition Society and New York Manumission Society worked toward the abolition of slavery . Nonetheless , for Black people , women , and Native peoples , the ideals of equality fell far short of reality . In the new republic , full the right to not extend to people or to women . Debating Democracy The la and witnessed one of the most creative political eras as each state drafted its own Access for free at .
Review Questions 189 constitution . The Articles of Confederation , a weak national league among the states , the dominant view that power should be located in the states and not in a national government . However , neither the state governments nor the Confederation government could solve the enormous economic problems resulting from the long and costly Revolutionary War . The economic crisis led to Shays Rebellion by residents of western Massachusetts , and to the decision to revise the Confederation government . The Constitutional Convention and Federal Constitution The economic crisis of the , shortcomings of the Articles , and outbreak of Shays Rebellion spurred delegates from twelve of the thirteen states to gather for the Constitutional Convention of 1787 . Although the stated purpose of the convention was to modify the Articles of Confederation , their mission shifted to the building of a new , strong federal government . Federalists like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton led the charge for a new United States Constitution , the document that endures as the oldest written constitution in the world , a testament to the work done in 1787 by the delegates in Philadelphia . Review Questions . To what form of government did the American revolutionaries turn after the war for independence ?
republicanism monarchy democracy oligarchy . Which the following was not one of Franklin thirteen virtues ?
sincerity em mercy . Wha de ined republicanism as a social philosophy ?
Which the following did challenge the status of women in the early American ?
Abigail Adams Phil is Mercy Otis Warren Sargent Murray . Which ate had the clearest separation of church and state ?
A . New Hampshire Virginia New York . How would you characterize Thomas Jefferson ideas on race and slavery ?
Which of the following states had the most democratic constitution in the ?
Pennsylvania Massachusetts South Carolina Maryland 190 Critical Thinking Questions . 10 . 11 . 12 . Critical Thinking Questions 13 . 14 . 15 . 16 . 17 . 18 . Under the Articles of Confederation , what power did the national Confederation Congress have ?
the power to tax the power to enforce foreign treaties the power to enforce commercial trade agreements the power to create land ordinances What were the primary causes of Shays Rebellion ?
Which plan resolved the issue of representation for the Constitution ?
the Rhode Island Agreement the New Jersey Plan the Connecticut Compromise the Virginia Plan How was the Constitution ra ?
by each state at special ratifying conventions ion of 1787 ion at the Constitutional at the Confederation by popular referendum in each state Explain the argument that led to he rule and the consequences of that rule . Describe the state constitutions tiat were more democratic and those that were less so . What effect would these different constitutions have upon those states ?
Who could participate in government , whether by voting or by holding public office ?
Whose interests were represented , and whose were compromised ?
In what ways does the United Sta es Constitution manifest the principles of both republican and democratic forms of government ?
In what ways does it deviate from those principles ?
In this chapter discussion of New York ratifying convention , Alexander Hamilton takes issue with Federalist delegate Smith assertion that ( as Hamilton says ) a pure democracy , if it were practicable , would be the most perfect government . What did by a pure democracy ?
How does this compare to the type of democracy that represents the modern United States ?
Describe popular attitudes toward African Americans , women , and Native Americans in the wake of the Revolution . In what ways did the established social and political order depend upon keeping members of these groups in their circumscribed roles ?
If those roles were to change , how would American society and politics have had to adjust ?
How did the process of creating and ratifying the Constitution , and the language of the Constitution itself , the positions of African Americans , women , and Native Americans in the new republic ?
How did these roles compare to the stated goals of the republic ?
What were the circumstances that led to Shays Rebellion ?
What was the governments response ?
Would this response have or negated the grievances of the participants in the uprising ?
Why ?
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