Chapter 7 Section 1: The Articles of Confederation

Chapter 7 Section 1: The Articles of Confederation

I. Thirteen Independent States (Pages 192?193)

A. Independent States 1. Americans needed to establish their own government and gain Britain's respect. 2. This brought new challenges. 3. The British believed the new government was weak and ineffective.

B. State Constitutions 1. States organized their governments and adopted their own state constitutions. 2. The writers wanted to prevent abuses of power and also wanted to keep power in the hands of the people. 3. State constitutions limited the power of the governor to avoid giving one ruler too much power. a. Pennsylvania replaced the office of governor with an elected council of twelve members.

C. Limiting Power 1. States divided functions between the governor (Pennsylvania's council) and the legislature. a. The legislature was the more powerful branch because of the limited powers of the governor. Most states had a bicameral, or two-house, legislature. This further divided the power. b. Legislatures were popularly elected and elections were frequent. State legislatures had many disagreements about how to make taxes fair. c. In most states only white males who were 21 years of age could vote. They also had to either be property owners or pay a certain amount of taxes. In some states free African American males could vote.

II. Forming a Republic (Pages 193?195)

A. Planning a New Government 1. Americans agreed that the country should be a republic, which is a government with elected representatives. a. What they could not agree on was the origin and powers of the new republic. 2. At first most Americans favored a weak central government with the powers being given to the states to function independently except for the power to wage war and handle relations with other countries.

C. The Articles of Confederation 1. In 1777 the Articles of Confederation were adopted to provide for a central government. a. At the time the country needed a central government to fight the war against Britain. 2. The Articles were America's first constitution. a. The states, though, gave up little of their power. b. Each state kept "its sovereignty, freedom, and independence."

D. Powers of Congress 1. Under the Articles of Confederation, the government, which was the Confederation Congress, had the authority to: a. conduct foreign affairs b. maintain armed forces c. borrow money d. issue currency

Chapter 7 Section 1: The Articles of Confederation

E. Limitations on Congress 1. The government did not have the authority to a. regulate trade b. force citizens to join the army c. impose taxes 2. Congress needed to ask state legislatures to raise money and provide troops. 3. The government did not have a chief executive.

G. Representation in Congress 1. Each state had one vote in Congress. a. State population did not matter, although larger, more populated states believed that they should have more votes.

H. Westward Claims and Ratification 1. States also argued about whether or not they claimed land in the West. 2. Maryland refused to ratify the Articles of Confederation until states abandoned their land claims. 3. Finally all 13 states approved the Articles on March 1, 1781. a. The Confederacy formally became the government of the United States.

I. The Confederation Government 1. The Confederation government had its weaknesses, but it won Americans their independence, expanded foreign trade, and provided for new states in the West. a. It had limited authority. b. It could not pass a law unless nine states voted for it. c. To change the Articles of Confederation, all 13 states had to give consent. 2. It was difficult, therefore, for Congress to pass laws when there was any opposition.

III. New Land Policies (Pages 195?197)

A. Organizing the West 1. The Articles of Confederation had no provision for adding new states. 2. Congress realized it had to extend its authority over the frontier and bring order and stability to the territory where western settlers reached almost 120,000 by the 1790. 3. The Western ordinances had a large impact on Western expansion and development of the United States. 4. In 1784 Congress divided the Western territory into self-governing districts. a. When the number of people in a district reached the population of the smallest existing state, that district could apply for statehood.

C. Ordinance of 1785 1. In 1785 the Confederation Congress established a new law that divided the Western territories into larger townships and smaller sections. a. Each smaller section would be sold at auction for at least $1 an acre. Land speculators bought large pieces of land cheaply.

Chapter 7 Section 1: The Articles of Confederation

D. The Northwest Ordinance 1. The Northwest Ordinance was passed in 1787 and it: a. It created a Northwest Territory out of the lands north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River. b. It divided the lands into three to five smaller territories. c. It stated that when the population of a territory reached 60,000 citizens, that territory could apply for statehood. Each new state would enter as an equal to the original 13 states. d. It included a bill of rights to protect the settlers that guaranteed freedom of religion and trial by jury. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude were permitted in the new territories.

IV. Trouble on Two Fronts (Pages 197?198)

A. Financial Problems 1. The Confederate government had trouble with finances, and with Britain and Spain over landholdings and trade. 2. Many Americans felt the country needed a stronger government to better deal with the problems. 3. The government had a large debt from fighting the war. 4. Congress had borrowed money from American citizens and foreign governments. a. It owed soldiers their wages. b. But because Congress had no power to tax, it did not have a way to raise revenue and pay off this debt. 5. Money was almost worthless. a. The paper money printed during the Revolutionary War had fallen in value, while the prices of food and other goods soared. In Boston, for example, high prices led to food riots. 6. Because Congress had no power to tax, it and the states issued paper money. 7. Because there were so many bills in circulation, the value of the money fell. a. No gold or silver backed these bills.

B. Robert Morris's Import Tax 1. To help solve the financial problems, the Confederacy created a department of finance. 2. Robert Morris, a Philadelphia merchant, headed the department. 3. Morris proposed a plan that called for collecting a 5 percent tax on imported goods to help pay off the national debt. a. Because of Rhode Island's opposition, the measure did not pass. b. A second effort also failed five years later. The country's financial situation worsened.

C. Problems with Britain 1. The problems with Britain concerned landholdings and trade. a. British troops remained in several strategic forts in the Great Lakes Region even though Britain had promised to withdraw all troops under the Treaty of Paris. b. British merchants closed Americans out of the West Indies and other profitable British markets. c. John Adams went to London in 1785 to discuss these issues. The British claimed that because Americans had not paid Loyalists for the property taken from them during the war, as agreed to under the Treaty of Paris, they were not willing to talk. Congress recommended payment, but the states refused.

Chapter 7 Section 1: The Articles of Confederation

D. Problems with Spain 1. The problems with Spain were worse than those with England. a. Spain closed the lower Mississippi River to American shipping in 1784 in hopes of halting American expansion into their territory of Spanish Florida and lands west of the Mississippi River. b. A compromise was reached with an agreement in 1786 that limited American shipping on the Mississippi. In return for this, Spain promised to accept the border between Georgia and Spanish Florida proposed by the Americans. Representatives from the South rejected the agreement because it did not include the right to use the Mississippi River.

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