Transcript Slide 1

American Stories:
A History of the United States
Second Edition
Chapter
6
The Republican
Experiment
1783–1788
American Stories: A History of the United States, Second Edition
Brands • Breen • Williams • Gross
Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences The
Library Company of Philadelphia commissioned this
painting by Samuel Jennings in 1792. The broken
chain at the feet of the goddess Liberty is meant to
demonstrate her opposition to slavery. (Source:
The Library Company of Philadelphia.)
The Republican Experiment
1783–1788
• Defining Republican Culture
• Stumbling Toward a New National
Government
• “Have We Fought for This?”
• Whose Constitution? Struggle for Ratification
A New Political Morality
• During 1780s individual states intent on
local interest rather than national
welfare
• Washington, Madison concluded the
U.S. needed a strong central
government
• Their quest for solutions brought forth
new and enduring constitution
Defining Republican Culture
Defining Republican Culture
• Republicanism—new core ideology
 Uncompromising commitment to liberty
and equality
 Evangelical notions of high public morality
Defining Republican
Culture (cont’d)
• Post-Revolutionary divisions
 Balancing individual liberty with social
order
 Balancing property rights with equality
• Varying answers resulted in variety of
republican governments
Social and Political Reform
• Cincinnatus Crisis
• Changes in laws of inheritance to erase
feudal elements
• Property qualifications for voting
reduced
• Capitals moved to enable better
representation for frontier settlers
• Separation of church and state
Questions of Equality in the New
Republic In this illustration, which
appeared as the frontispiece in the 1792
issue of The Lady’s Magazine and Repository
of Entertaining Knowledge, the “Genius of
the Ladies Magazine” and the “Genius of
Emulation” (holding in her hand a laurel
crown) present to Liberty a petition for the
rights of women. (Source: The Library
Company of Philadelphia.)
African Americans
in the New Republic
• Abolitionist sentiment spread in wake of
the Revolution
• African American intellectual success
made it hard to deny their equality
African Americans
in the New Republic (cont’d)
• African American intellectual success
made it hard to deny their equality
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Benjamin Banneker, math and astronomy
Phyllis Wheatley, poetry
By 1800, slavery legally dying in North
Racism and segregation remained
• Southerners debated abolition
Phillis Wheatley This engraving of Wheatley
appeared in her volume of verse, Poems on Various
Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), the first book
published by an African American.
The Challenge of Women’s Rights
• Pre-Revolutionary trend ended tyranny
in the family
 Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning
Education
• Women demanded the natural right of
equality
The Challenge of Women’s
Rights (cont’d)
• Nurtured proper values through
“Republican Motherhood”
• Women more assertive in divorce,
economic life
• Denied political and legal rights
Abigail Adams Benjamin Blyth painted this
portrait of Abigail Adams, wife of the future
President John Adams, c. 1766.
The States: Experiments in
Republicanism
• States create constitutions, 1776
 Rhode Island, Connecticut already had
republican governments
 Some later rewritten
• Basic assumptions
 Constitutions must be written
 Premised on natural rights
• Most state constitutions had declarations
of rights
Stumbling Toward a New
National Government
Stumbling Toward a New
National Government
• War for independence required
coordination among states
• Central government first created to
meet wartime need for coordination
Articles of Confederation
• Plan for central government
• Severely limited central government’s
authority over states
• No executive, taxing power
• Amendments required unanimity
• Expected to handle foreign, Native
American relations
• No western lands
Western Land:
Key to the First Constitution
• Native Americans lost out when
British left
• Maryland’s ratification of Articles
delayed for Virginia’s renunciation of
western claims
Western Land: Key to the First
Constitution (cont’d)
• 1781—Virginia took lead in ceding
western claims to Congress
• Other states ceded claims to Congress
• Congress gained ownership of all land
west of Appalachians
Northwest Ordinance: The
Confederation’s Major Achievement
• Northwest Ordinance, 1787
 Created three to five new territories in
Northwest
 Population of 5,000 may elect Assembly
 Population of 60,000 may petition for
statehood
• Bill of Rights, slavery outlawed
• Daniel Boone and Kentucky
Map 6.1 Northwest Territory The U.S.
government auctioned off the land in the Northwest
Territory, the region defined by the Ohio River, the
Great Lakes, and the Mississippi River. Proceeds
from the sale of one section in each township were
set aside for the construction of public schools.
“Have We Fought for This?”
“Have We Fought for This?”
• By 1785, the country seemed adrift
• Washington: “Was it with these
expectations that we launched into a
sea of trouble?”
Map 6.2 Western Land Claims ceded by the
states after winning the war, the major issue facing
the Continental Congress under the Articles of
Confederation was mediating conflicting states’
claims to rich western land. By 1802, the states
had ceded all rights to the federal government.
The Genius of James Madison
• Recognition by 1780s of shortcomings
in small state republics
 Ordinary citizens not virtuous enough for a
republic
 Majority did not preserve the property
rights of the minority
The Genius of James Madison
(cont’d)
• Stronger central government gained
support
• James Madison persuaded Americans
that large republics could be free and
democratic
 Competing factions would neutralize each
other
 Federalist #10
Constitutional Reform
• May 1786—Annapolis Convention
agreed to meet again, write a new
constitution
• Shay’s Rebellion, 1787
 Tax revolt of indebted veterans
 Symbolized breakdown in law and order as
perceived by propertied classes
• Crisis strengthened support for new
central government
Shays’s Rebellion This 1787 woodcut portrays
Daniel Shays with one of his chief officers, Jacob
Shattucks. Shays led farmers in western
Massachusetts in revolt against a state government
that seemed insensitive to the needs of poor
debtors. Their rebellion frightened conservative
leaders, who demanded a strong new federal
government.
The Philadelphia Convention
• Convened May 1787
• Fifty-five delegates from all states
except Rhode Island
• Delegates possessed wide practical
experience
• Secrecy rule imposed
• Vote by state, needed only a majority
instead of nine states
Inventing a Federal Republic
• Central government may veto all state
acts
• Bicameral legislature of state
representatives
 One house elected, the other appointed
 Larger states would have more
representatives
• Chief executive appointed by Congress
• Small states objected to large-state
dominance
Compromise Saves the
Convention
• Each state given two delegates in the
Senate—a victory for the small states
• House of Representatives based on
population—a victory for the large
states
 All money bills must originate in the House
• Three-fifths of the slave population
counted toward representation in the
House
The Last Details
• July 26—Committee of Detail formed to
prepare rough draft
• Revisions to executive
 Electoral College selects president
 Executive given a veto over legislation
 Executive may appoint judges
• Decision that Bill of Rights unnecessary
We the People
• Convention sought to bypass vested
interests of state legislatures
• Power of ratification to special state
conventions
• Constitution to go into effect on
approval by nine state conventions
• Phrase “We the People” made
Constitution a government of the
people, not the states
Whose Constitution?
Struggle for Ratification
Whose Constitution?
Struggle for Ratification
• Supporters recognized the Constitution
went beyond the Convention’s mandate
• Document referred to states with no
recommendation
Federalists and Antifederalists
Federalists supported the Constitution
The Federalist Papers
Antifederalists opposed the Constitution
Suspected the new Constitution favored
the rich and powerful
• Their ideas later reflected in the age of
Andrew Jackson
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TABLE 6.1 Revolution or Reform? The Articles of
Confederation and the Constitution Compared
Adding the Bill of Rights
• The fruit of anti-Federalist activism
• Adding Bill of Rights forestalled Second
Constitutional Convention
• Purpose was to protect individual rights
from government interference
Adding the Bill of Rights (cont’d)
• Rights included:
 Freedom of assembly, speech, religion,
the press, and bearing arms
 Speedy trial by a jury of peers
 No unreasonable searches
• First ten amendments added by
December 1791
Map 6.3 Ratification of the Constitution
Advocates of the new Constitution called
themselves Federalists, and those who opposed its
ratification were known as Antifederalists.
Conclusion: Success Depends on
the People
Conclusion: Success Depends
on the People
• Some Americans complained that the
new government had a great potential
for despotism
• Others were more optimistic and saw it
as a great beginning for the new nation
Timeline