Search on such words as treason, speech, press, religion in the Constitution. Look at the sorted list on powers.
Date |
What’s the Situation? |
What’s the Problem? What’s the Solution? |
1777 |
Articles of Confederation – Congressional approves. Basic rules: - unanimous vote to change the system – that’s 13 of 13 - can’t tax, but can print money and borrow |
¾ These are the
beginning points for the government, but they are not the only beginning
points. Quakers had been the main religious group opposing slavery and they
continue. Appropriately, the state of PA is the first one to abolish slavery. |
1777+ |
State governments What do they do about executive branch? |
The state
governments are a practice ground for future national patterns. The initial
experiment is anti-executive branch—a view coming from their recent anti-king
experience. They find placing all power in the legislature is equally
troublesome. The solution: an executive branch must exist. |
1779 |
Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom (does not pass) Who wrote it? |
Called for no
established church. Click here for the change. Who wrote it? Thomas
Jefferson |
1781 |
Articles of Confederation – States ratify |
¾ |
1781, 1783… |
No support for “impost” (5% on imports to fund nation) Note: impost = tariff, a tax collected at
port, for revenue |
No income meant no ability to pay such things as the money owed soldiers
(next line). The solution: Congress must be able to tax and Congress must be able to pass laws (something true for all below) by shifting - from 2/3 (66+%) vote of the states (Click here for the Articles of Confederation) - to just being more than 50% vote of the representatives with the Constitution |
1783 |
|
The solution: Congress must be able to tax. |
1783 |
Treaty of - US to protect Loyalists, pay debts (US doesn’t) - British to leave |
These become part of
the problems. |
1783 |
1st (of many) state begins to pass protective tariffs Note: This tariff is meant to keep out products
that are cheaper than those that can be made in the Also protective
tariffs are usually in the interests of manufacturers, not in the interests
of those exporting agricultural products for global markets (such as the
South). If you don’t know why, please
ask. |
2 issues for
national well-being: 1. Click here for the British example. 2. Imagine this
pretend, simplified example: 2 neighboring states in the Crafty citizens in the .10 cent state haul
imported widgets across the state line and then sell them for say $2.75—THUS
wiping out the usefulness of the protective tariff while making a .65 personal profit per widget. The solution: Congress must be able to regulate interstate
(between states) commerce. |
1784 |
|
Americans in the west
can only cheaply market their grains if they can put their crops on barges in
the rivers that feed the Mississippi River and float downstream to the Gulf
and New Orleans and thus to the great global markets. The solution: Congress must be able to get passable
treaties. |
1784 |
Post-war economic recession, beginning of |
|
|
The British refuse
to make a commercial treaty with us, saying they’d have to make 13 treaties
not 1. BUT Americans are used to British goods and want such a trading
relationship to exist. The solution: Congress must be able to regulate commerce
and be able to get passable treaties. |
|
1784 |
-Who writes the first draft? |
The Northwest
Ordinance is usually talked about as the only positive action of the Articles
of Confederation era. It setup: Process for full statehood (not continuing
colonial status as the British did) where an area became a territory with
appointed governor, then when it had enough population wrote a state
constitution and asked to be admitted, and finally when admitted had equal
voting rights with any other state (no matter how old) No slavery No solution required. Who wrote the first
draft? Thomas Jefferson |
1785 |
“Memorial and Remonstrance” against a bill to provide tax support for support of religion by James Madison |
Virginia votes for separation of church and state, the model for the
nation. |
1785 |
Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom (does pass) - This time submitted to the |
|
1785 |
Failure to pass treaty with Spain over the Mississippi
“forbear[ing]” US use for 25+ years(Jay-Gardoqui) |
Jay negotiated a
treaty favorable to one section, his own. The 1 state-1 vote Congress
rejected it. The solution: Some organization other than Congress must
negotiate treaties and we must be able to get passable treaties. |
1785 |
States governments (PA, SC, NC, NY, RI, NJ, GA) issuing paper money |
Paper money not
backed by real assets leads to deadly inflation. The solution: Only Congress must be the only level of
government that can print or coin money. |
1786 |
|
-- The solution: Congress must be able to regulate interstate
(between states) commerce. |
1786 |
Daniel Shays’s Rebellion |
See your textbook on
this rebellion, but the implication is that we are powerless to stop it
nationally. The solution: Congress must guarantee that mobs (even well
intentioned) can’t take over government. |
1787-05 -09 |
- Who’s often called the “Father of the Constitution”? |
James Madison of |
- Why a convention? |
The states had
experimented with this method. Reason: 1.
Think
for a minute. If 2.
Conventions
of representative citizens for the purpose of writing a Constitution,
move the process offline and make the document not comparatively temporary
legislation, but permanent. The solution: Write the Constitution in a convention. |
|
- Who are the factions there? - Big state/small state |
Like most arrangements in the Constitution, this splits
the difference: The House of Representatives and
representation based on the number of people in the state pleased big states
like PA and NY. The Senate with 2 votes per state pleased
small states like NJ. |
|
- Slave owners |
Slave owners got: 3/5 of slaves counted toward their
representation in the House of Representatives (and taxation) Fugitive slave return No ending of the slave trade until 1808 If you click on the
Constitution tool on the page Preparing for Class, you can see these
provisions side by side in the sorted section of the Constitution. |
|
1787-07 |
Northwest Ordinance passes |
Click here for this ordinance. |
1787-1788 |
Federalists and Federalist Papers - Who writes it? |
Federalists = name that
minimizes the strong central government desired by the framers and maximizes
attention on the 2 levels of government (central and state) that existed in
the plan. Federalist Papers =
Publications in newspapers to try to convince states to ratify the Constitution. Who writes it? = James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay.
You can read several of these papers at the -
If you
don’t know those words, look them up. -
If you
want to be sure of their support for the republic, go into the Constitution Study
Tool and enter the letters repub.
Then try the first letters of the other 3 forms of government listed. The
only one you’ll find is republic |
Anti-Federalists - Why? |
Anti-Federalist? =
men such as Patrick Henry, Sam Adams, John Dickinson Why? Such issues as: -
Secrecy
of the convention. -
That the
focus of government shifted from the states to the central government. -
That
there was no statement of rights preserved to the people and the states
(Click here for more.) -
Method
used to replace the Articles of Confederation (Click here
for its method and here
for the Constitution’s. |
|
Constitution What’s the method of approval? |
Method of approval = 9 of 13 states 5 states asked for a
Bill of Rights. Federalists had
argued against that saying it was unnecessary. Do notice IN FUTURE
MATERIALS what the Federalist are doing by 1798 with the Alien and Sedition
Laws to evaluate how wrong they were. |
|
Bill of Rights |
In running for a
seat in the House of Representatives, |
Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2005 |
WCJC
Department: |
History
– Dr. Bibus |
Contact
Information: |
281.239.1577
or mailto:cjb_classes@yahoo.com |
Last
Updated: |
2005 |
WCJC
Home: |