OUR GROWING

GOVERNMENT

Chapter 2 Sections 3, 4, 5

Articles of Confederation Colonies (States)= sovereign

Coined money Raised armies and navies Raised tariffs Most claimed land beyond their “colonial” borders

Confederation Congress= central government Declare war Make treaties Manage Indian affairs Maintain the army and navy Regulate weights and measures Establish postal services

What is missing? Power to tax Power to regulate trade

Articles to Constitution: Causes

Foreign Problems: France was

demanding repayment of war debts.

Spain closed the Mississippi River.

Britain still attempting to regulate trade; maintain posts in the West; encourage Native Americans.

Articles to Constitution: Causes

Economic Problems: Congress had no power to regulate interstate

commerce. National credit was worsening. Could not repay French War debts. Interest was piling up.

Articles to Constitution: Causes

Interstate Quarrels: Boundary disputes

over western lands.

States taxed each others’ interstate commerce.

States were issuing worthless money for payments in debts.

Annapolis Convention

5 states show Pledge to meet in one year Sought Congress’s

approval Purpose: To revise the

Articles of Confederation

Philadelphia Convention

Philadelphia – May 25th, 1787 Sole purpose was revising the Articles of

Confederation. 55 delegates from 12 states

(except Rhode Island) Sessions were surrounded by secrecy

Locked doors Guards in the halls Windows closed-hot summer Letters censored as well as Ben Franklin Most delegates were wealthy property owners and many

were lawyers Most had experience- (i.e. state constitutions or Articles) 42 was the average age

Important People

George Washington- President of Convention

Secretary of Convention- William Jackson Ben Franklin- oldest delegate- 82 yrs old James Madison- “Father of the Constitution”

Wasn’t absent a single day for four months shorthand/recopied notes at night into long hand agreed not to release the notes until all delegates were

dead last one to die- James Madison in 1840, 53 years after

the convention “assembly of demi-god” “convention of the well-bred, the well-fed, the

well-read and well wed.”

GW at the Constitutional Convention

“A Bundle of Compromises”

1. The Virginia Plan2. The New Jersey Plan3. The Connecticut Compromise4. The Three-Fifths Compromise5. The Commerce and Slave Trade

Compromise

Ratification

Ratify- Approve 9 states needed to ratify the constitution

for it to become law…it was close in many of the states, but the FEDERALISTS beat out the ANTIFEDERALISTS and won ratification.

Federalists & Anti-Federalists

Anti-federalists -- states' rights advocates, backcountry farmers, poor farmers, and the ill-educated- “common man”.

Federalists -- Well educated and propertied class. Most lived in settled areas along the seaboard.

Federalists

National government needed to be strong in order to function.

Strong national government needed to control uncooperative states.

Men of experience and talent should govern the nation.

National government would protect the rights of the people.

Constitution and state governments protected individual freedoms without bill of rights.

More sympathetic to separation of church and state.

Anti-Federalists

The Articles of Confederation were a good plan.

Opposed a strong central government. Strong national government threatened

state power. Strong national government threatened

rights of the common people. Constitution favored wealthy men and

preserved their power. Constitution lacked a bill of rights. Opposed omitting any reference to God.

Assignment

Using pages 51-53 in your textbook, define the following compromises on a sheet of paper…

1. The Virginia Plan2. The New Jersey Plan3. The Connecticut Compromise4. The Three-Fifths Compromise5. The Commerce and Slave Trade

Compromise