Revolution to Constitution

Articles of Confederation

• Americans feared centralized power for its potential for “tyranny”

• 1781: Articles of Confederation– “confederacy of states,” each

republic with own government

– Legislature of representatives elected by state legislatures

– National taxes would need unanimous approval; congress could request money from states

– No president: instead committees did jobs of government

– No national court system to enforce national laws

Shays’s Rebellion and Difficulties• States set high taxes to repay war

debts

• Shortage of gold and silver– Stores and banks’ refused to accept

paper currency

– People owned value (land, crops) but had little actual money

– People could not get new loans or pay back old loans

• Sheriffs began to auction off peoples’ farms and houses to pay taxes and debts

• Daniel Shays, a former military officer, led 2,000 farmers against Massachusetts government, but were put down

• Shays and followers were elected to state legislature in 1787: they cut taxes and pardoned Shays

• Nation learned: stronger national government needed to keep order

Need for a National Government

• Federation proved too weak

• Needed a stronger national government to:– Provide national

enforcement & avoid “mobocracy” of Shays’s Rebellion

– Create national tax to pay war debts in all states, not just wealthier states like Virginia

– Create tariffs to protect industries, and negotiate trading privileges abroad

– Negotiate for land rights with Native Americans so colonies could expand westward

George Washington addressing the Constitutional Convention

Constitution, Virginia & New Jersey Plans

• Representatives from each state met to create Constitution– National government could veto

state laws, use army against states

– National taxes– Separation of Powers– Checks and Balances

• Key question: should large states have same power as small ones?– Virginia Plan: Upper and lower

houses in congress, with states having seats according to population

– New Jersey Plan: Houses in congress to have equal number of seats

– How to count the slaves?

Compromise Created Agreement on the Constitution

• Constitution– Strong central government

with three separate branches: executive, judicial, legislative

• Bicameral legislature (“The Great Compromise”)– States have proportional

representation in House of Representatives based on population

– States have equal representation in Senate

• 3/5 Compromise:– Slaves to be counted as 3/5

of a man, but have no vote Independence Hall in Philadelphia where the Constitution was written