The%20Nation

1
The Nations First Government
Goal 1.05 Identify the major domestic problems
of the nation under the Articles of Confederation
and assess the extent to which they were resolved
by the new Constitution
2
The Structure of STATE CONSTITUTIONS
The States decided to create three branches of
governments, each having a specific job but done
being more powerful than the others.
Governor Enforce the laws
Legislature Creates laws
Judges and Courts Interprets Laws
Remember At this point we no longer call them
colonies because they are independent from Great
Britain and now have their own form of government
3
Each state made sure they focused on two things..

• Preserving individual rights
• ( The Bill of Rights)
• -Trial by jury and protection of personal
  property
• Preventing another powerful government (Great
  Britain)
• The PEOPLE would have more power than the
  government

4
Uniting the States

• BACKGROUND FACTS
• The 13 states knew that individually they could
  not raise and maintain a large army to fight off
  the British.
• They began to realize that they are stronger in
  numbers so joining all the states together became
  the goal
• They did not want this united government to be
  stronger than the individual states because each
  state wanted its own freedoms
• After much debate the 13 states ratified (passed)
  the Articles of Confederation

THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION Confederation A
group of individual state governments that band
together for a common purpose
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What the Articles of Confederation said.

• There will be a one house (unicameral)
  legislature

• Each state had 1 vote regardless of the size

• There would be a Confederation Congress
• Has control over the army
• Has the power to deal with foreign countries

6
The accomplishments of the Articles of
Confederation

• Ordinance of 1785
• Divided the acquired territory into section to
  sell

• Northwest Ordinance
• Laid the foundation for organizing new territory
  and set a policy for admitting new states

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Weakness of the Articles
Lack of Power and Money Congress had no power to
collect taxes, regulate trade, or enforce its
laws
Rules too Rigid It took a unanimous vote of all
13 states to amend (change) new laws Congress
could not pass laws w/o the approval of 9 states
Lack of Central Power No single leader or group
directed government policy No national court
system existed
These powers were added because the states felt
that these were the powers that the king abused
when they were colonies. That situation left them
very bitter.
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END OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

• With the signing of the Treaty of Paris to end
  the revolutionary war the states were officially
  independent!
• However, the fight for independence left the
  states in HUGE debt (owing a lot of money)
• The individual states turned to their citizens as
  a source to collect this money by placing taxes
  on them, taxes they could not afford or had any
  say-so about (sound familiar?)

Helpful Reminder The Declaration of independence
did not make the colonist independent, it only
Declared their intentions to be freethey still
had to fight for it.
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• -Americans began feeling as though their
  government could not protect them and were
  becoming just what the King was
• Riots began starting all over the U.S. One major
  riot was the Daniel Shays rebellion.

SHAYS REBELLION

• Daniel Shays was a farmer who had fallen into
  debt because of heavy state taxes
• The Courts threatened to take his farm for
  payment
• He said the state had NO RIGHT because the
  taxes were outrageous
• Led an army of 1,200 farmers towards an attack on
  the federal arsenal
• Ended quickly
• Sent a wake-up call that the articles need to be
  revised!!

10
The birth of the constitution
The delegates met again in Philadelphia to
revise the Articles of Confederation, but what
they quickly realized was that the Articles had
too many flaws and it was easier to start over
than to correct them.