History 1301- Ch. 7 - Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! Seagull Edition, ISBN 9780393614176 PDF

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History 1301- U. History 1Chapter SevenI. Introduction: Ratification CelebrationsA. Parades celebrating the ratification of the Conssocial classes. titution in 1787 included a variety of AmericanII. America Under the Confederation A. The Articles of Confederation 1. The first written constitution of...

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History 1301- U.S. History 1 Chapter Seven I. Introduction: Ratification Celebrations A. Parades celebrating the ratification of the Constitution in 1787 included a variety of American social classes. II. America Under the Confederation A. The Articles of Confederation 1. The first written constitution of the United States a. One-house Congress b. No president c. No judiciary 2. The only powers granted to the national government were those for declaring war, conducting foreign affairs, and making treaties. a. Amending required unanimous state approval. b. No proposed amendment ever passed. 3. Congress established national control over land to the west of the thirteen states and devised rules for its settlement. B. Congress and the West 1. In the immediate aftermath of independence, Congress took the position that by aiding the British, Indians had forfeited the right to their lands. 2. Congress faced conflicting pressures from settlers and land speculators regarding western development. C. Settlers and the West 1. Peace brought rapid settlement into frontier areas. a. Taking possession of land was seen as an essential element of American freedom. b. Settlers ignored Indian titles to land and urged low prices for land. 2. Leaders feared that the unregulated flow of settlement across the Appalachian Mountains could provoke constant warfare with the Indians. D. The Land Ordinances

1. The Ordinance of 1784 established stages of self-government for the West. 2. The Ordinance of 1785 regulated land sales in the region north of the Ohio River and established the township system there. a. One section was set aside to provide funds for education. 3. Like the British before them, American officials found it difficult to regulate the thirst for new land. a. Private companies and speculators benefited most from the land sales. 4. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established a policy that admitted the area’s population as equal members of the political system. a. Prohibited slavery E. The Confederation’s Weaknesses 1. The war created an economic crisis that the Confederation government could not adequately address. 2. With Congress unable to act, the states adopted their own economic policies. F. Shays’s Rebellion 1. Facing seizure of their land, debt-ridden farmers closed the courts in western Massachusetts in 1786. a. They modeled their protests on those of the Revolutionary era, using liberty trees and liberty poles. 2. The rebellion was put down by the Massachusetts governor in 1787, and more than 1,000 were arrested. 3. Shays’s Rebellion convinced many of the need for a stronger central government to protect property rights (a form of private liberty) from too much power in the hands of the people. G. Nationalists of the 1780s 1. Nation builders like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton called for increased national authority. 2. The concerns voiced by critics of the Articles found a sympathetic hearing among men who had developed a national consciousness during the Revolution. 3. Economic concerns played a part, too, as bondholders feared not being paid by the national government, artisans wanted tariff protection, and merchants desired access to British markets. 4. At a meeting in Annapolis (September 1786), delegates called for a convention to amend the Articles of Confederation in order to avoid anarchy and monarchy. III. A New Constitution A. The Structure of Government

1. Prominent wealthy and well-educated men took part in the Constitutional Convention. 2. Delegates quickly agreed that the Constitution would create a legislature, an executive, and a national judiciary. 3. The key to stable, effective republican government was finding a way to balance the competing claims of liberty and power. 4. A compromise about the shape of Congress emerged from debates over the Virginia and New Jersey Plans. a. Virginia Plan (favored by more populous states): two-house legislature in which a state’s population determined its representation in both houses b. New Jersey Plan (favored by smaller states): one-house legislature in which each state cast one vote c. Compromise: two-house Congress consisting of Senate (each state had two members) and House of Representatives (apportioned according to states’ populations) B. The Limits of Democracy 1. The Constitution left the determination of voter qualifications to the states. 2. The new government was based on a limited democracy and the assumption that only prominent men would hold office. 3. Federal judges would be appointed by the president. 4. The president would be elected by an electoral college, or, in the case of a tie in that body, by the House of Representatives. a. Delegates wanted indirect election because they did not trust ordinary voters. C. The Division and Separation of Powers 1. The Constitution embodies federalism and a system of checks and balances. a. Federalism refers to the relationship between the national government and the states. 2. States could not issue money, impair contracts, interfere with interstate commerce, or levy import or export duties, but dealt with most other daily affairs, such as education and law enforcement. a. The separation of powers, or the system of checks and balances, refers to the way the Constitution seeks to prevent any branch of the national government from dominating the other two. D. The Debate over Slavery 1. Slavery divided the delegates. 2. The words "slave" and "slavery" did not appear in the Constitution, but it did protect slavery. 3. The South Carolina delegates proved very influential in preserving slavery within the Constitution.

a. It threatened disunion if the Atlantic slave trade was banned immediately. 4. Nonetheless, the Constitution did provide a basis for later antislavery political movements. a. Many of the framers, including Upper South slaveholders, hoped that the institution would die out. b. They successfully resisted efforts to place a national recognition of property in man in the document. c. Slavery remained an institution created by state, not national, law. E. Slavery in the Constitution 1. The Constitution prevented Congress from prohibiting the slave trade until 1808. 2. The fugitive slave clause made clear that the condition of bondage remained attached to a person even if he or she escaped to a free area, and it required all states to help police the institution of slavery. 3. The federal government could not interfere with slavery in the states. a. Slave states had more power due to the three-fifths clause. 4. Twelve of the first sixteen presidents were southern slaveholders. F. The Final Document 1. Gouverneur Morris put finishing touches on the final draft, adding in the preamble that the new national government would "establish justice," promote "general welfare," and "secure the blessings of liberty." 2. Delegates signed the final draft on September 17, 1787. 3. The Constitution created a new framework for American development. 4. Voices of Freedom (Primary Source document feature) a. David Ramsay, former member of the Continental Congress from South Carolina, commends representative government in The History of the American Revolution (1789). IV. The Ratification Debate and the Origin of the Bill of Rights A. The Federalist 1. Nine of the thirteen states had to ratify the document. a. It was not a given that ratification would occur. b. Each state elected delegates to a special convention. 2. The Federalist was published to generate support for ratification. a. Hamilton argued that government was an expression of freedom, not its enemy. B. "Extend the Sphere" 1. Madison had a new vision of the relationship between government and society in Federalist no. 10 and no. 51.

2. Madison argued that the large size of the United States was a source of stability, not weakness. 3. Madison helped to popularize the liberal idea that men are generally motivated by selfinterest and that the good of society is a product of the clash of these private interests. C. The Anti-Federalists 1. Anti-Federalists, who opposed ratification, argued that the republic had to be small and warned that the Constitution would result in an oppressive government. 2. "Liberty" was the Anti-Federalists’ watchword. a. They argued for a Bill of Rights. 3. Federalists tended to be men of substantial property, urban dwellers seeking prosperity, and rural residents tied to the commercial marketplace. 4. Anti-Federalists drew support from small farmers in more isolated rural areas (e.g., New York’s Hudson Valley, western Massachusetts, the southern backcountry). 5. Federalists dominated the press, which helped them carry the day. 6. Madison won support for the Constitution by promising a Bill of Rights later. 7. By mid-1788, the required nine states had ratified. 8. Only Rhode Island and North Carolina voted against ratification, but they eventually joined the new government. 9. Voices of Freedom (Primary Source document feature) a. Anti-Federalist author James Winthrop, under the pseudonym "Agrippa," argues against ratification in a public letter (1787). D. The Bill of Rights 1. Madison believed the Constitution would protect liberty without the addition of a Bill of Rights. 2. Still, to satisfy the Constitution’s critics, Madison introduced a Bill of Rights to the first Congress. a. In a sense, the Bill of Rights defined the "unalienable rights" of the Declaration of Independence. 3. Some rights, such as the prohibiting of excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishments, reflected English roots, while others, such as the recognition of religious freedom, were uniquely American. 4. Not until the twentieth century would the Bill of Rights be revered. 5. Among the most important rights were freedom of speech and freedom of the press, vital building blocks of a democratic public sphere. V. "We the People" A. Who Belongs? The Constitution and American Citizenship

1. National identity rests on "an imagined political community" whose borders are intellectual and geographic. 2. The Constitution was initially vague on the qualifications for citizenship and allowed states to define it. 3. The framers established that the president must be born in the United States. 4. In the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Mexican War (1848), the federal government offered citizenship to the population in the purchased and conquered territories. 5. White men born in the United States were citizens with protected rights, but white female citizens often lacked rights. 6. Although slaves and Indians were noncitizens, the rights of free blacks remained in question. a. Northern states increasingly allowed for free black citizenship, but southern states did not. b. After the Civil War, a clear statement was added to the Constitution affirming "birthright citizenship." B. National Identity 1. The Constitution identifies three populations inhabiting the United States: a. Indians b. "Other persons," which meant slaves c. "People," who were the only ones entitled to American freedom 2. American nationality combined aspects of both civic and ethnic nationalisms. a. The political principles of the Revolution held Americans together. b. For most of U.S. history, citizenship has been defined by blood as well as political allegiance. 3. Who Is an American? (Primary Source document feature) a. In Letters from an American Farmer (1782), French tourist Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur defines American identity as a new nationality forged from the diverse populations of Europe. C. Indians in the New Nation 1. Indian tribes, seen by most white Americans as savages, had no representation in the new government. 2. The treaty system was used with Indians, and Congress forbade the transfer of Indian land without federal approval. 3. The U.S. victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers led to the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. a. Under this treaty, twelve Indian tribes ceded most of Ohio and Indiana to the United States.

b. The treaty established the annuity system—yearly grants of federal money to Indian tribes that led to continuing U.S. government influence in tribal affairs. 4. Some prominent Americans believed that Indians could assimilate into society. a. Assimilation meant transforming traditional Indian life through tools and changing gender roles. b. Most Indians rejected these changes. D. Blacks and the Republic 1. The status of citizenship for free blacks was somewhat indeterminate. 2. During the era of the Revolution, free blacks enjoyed some of the legal rights accorded to whites, including, in most states, the right to vote. 3. Many white Americans excluded blacks from their conception of the American people. a. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited naturalization (the process by which immigrants become citizens) to "free white persons." E. Jefferson, Slavery, and Race 1. John Locke and others maintained that reason was essential to having liberty. a. Many white Americans did not consider blacks to be rational beings. b. Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia claimed that blacks lacked self-control, reason, and devotion to the larger community. 2. Jefferson did not think any group was fixed permanently in a status of inferiority. 3. He did not believe black Americans should stay in America. a. Freeing the slaves without removing them from the country would endanger the nation’s freedom. 4. Jefferson saw the slave trade as immoral and tried to avoid selling his own slaves. a. Ironically, upon his death, more than 200 of his slaves were sold to pay his large debts. F. Principles of Freedom 1. The Revolution widened the divide between free Americans and those who remained in slavery. 2. "We the people" increasingly meant white Americans. 3. James Madison, the father of the Constitution, acknowledged the wrong of slavery but also owned slaves. a. He hoped abolition would come but did not free slaves in his will. b. Like Jefferson, he believed the end of slavery must be coupled with colonization....