This Sucks, Change It

1
This Sucks, Change It

• From the Articles of Confederation to the
  Constitution, 1783-1787

2
Articles of Confederation

• System of government that had arisen during
  Revolution and continued after
• Ad hoc creation
• Lots of problems

• No executive
• No judiciary
• No taxing power
• Change requires all thirteen to agree
• Theres always Rhode Island

3
Practical Problems of Independence

• Finances. There are none.
• Robert Morris and Bank of North America
• Killed by Rhode Island
• Right Modern Rhode Island Population Density
  Map, Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce

4
Practical Problems of Independence

• The army. Still mobilized and waiting to be
  paid.
• Morris and Alexander Hamilton
• Newburgh Conspiracy
• Right Alexander Hamilton, by Daniel Huntington
  from John Trumbull, 1865

5
Practical Problems of Independence

• Debt is a problem. A growing problem.
• 11 million to 28 million
• States have their own debts
• National government running a deficit each year

6
Practical Problems of Independence

• Only tangible asset is land
• Disagreement about how to use this asset
• Disagreement about who should benefit
• Right Thomas Cole, The Oxbow, 1836

7
Northwest Ordinance (1787)

• Lands carved up into territories and opened to
  settlement
• Colonial relationship with central government
• 60,000 can petition for statehood
• Slavery banned north of the Ohio

8
Practical Problems of Independence

• Economic depression outside of the mercantilist
  system.
• Little hard currency to facilitate trade and
  credit
• British prices now higher
• Thirteen different trading policies toward UK
• States soon turn on one another

9
Practical Problems of the Revolution

• What was this all about anyway?
• Home rule and who rules at home.
• Democratic promise of declaration.

10
Conservative Elites Increasingly Besieged

• Massachusetts as an example
• Conservatives dominate state legislature because
  of urban voting strength
• Right Modern Photo of Old State House, Boston, MA

11
Massachusetts Troubles

• Want balanced budget
• Oppose paper currency and debt relief
• Balance the budget with taxes
• Land tax
• Poll tax
• Right State Seal of Massachusetts

12
Shayss Rebellion

• Daniel Shays leads western Massachusetts in
  revolt
• Attack Springfield arsenal, but dispersed in 1786
• Scares elites in Boston and elsewhere

13
Bringing Order to Chaos

• Early 1787, Congress calls for convention in
  Philadelphia to revise Articles
• People happy with Articles are suspicious
• Relief and enthusiasm from those who want change
• Meeting convenes in July and is known as
  Constitutional Convention

14
Constitutional Convention

• Slow to get started
• States delay sending people OR
• Decided not to send anyone at all
• Once convened realize Articles a mess
• Modern Photo of Independence Hall, Philadelphia,
  PA by Dan Smith

15
Constitutional Convention

• Agreed to go beyond their mandate
• Tight security and secrecy
• No formal written record

16
Constitutional Convention

• Main debates are over the question of
  representation
• Founders not democrats, they favor a republic
• Agreed with conventional wisdom about mixed
  government to prevent tyranny
• Intellectual descendants of Locke and Hobbes

17
Two main ideas, one compromise

• Virginia Plan
• Bicameral
• Based on population
• New Jersey Plan
• Unicameral
• Based on equal representation per state
• Connecticut Compromise
• Upper house equal representation
• Lower house by population
• Right Flag of Connecticut

18
So what is representation anyhow?

• White male government
• Constitution leaves voting requirements to states
• Landowning a common requirement
• Desire to have people of property more powerful
  than common man
• Slavery, though, an emerging wedge

19
Three-fifths Compromise

• North cries foul
• South threatens not to play ball
• Compromise reached
• Direct taxation of slave property
• Slaves counted toward representation
• Gives artificial power to the South

20
Creation of the Presidency

• Intellectual and practical conundrum
• Madison considerable pause
• Created presidency, but worried about its power
• Also limited power of people to choose Electoral
  College

21
Creation of the Courts

• Almost an afterthought
• Not spelled out, though likely that English
  conception of their role dominant among founders
• Supreme Court, with Congress creating lesser ones
• Right United States Supreme Court, Washington, DC

22
Separation of Powers

• Mixed government again
• Also, Hobbes again
• Powers unique to branches and not exercised by
  others
• Powers unique even to houses of Congress

23
Checks and Balances

• Congress v. President
• President v. Congress
• Both against the courts
• Courts against the other two?
• Bill of Rights as a sticking/selling point