Articles of Confederation: The Swiss Cheese

Government

Our ObjectiveWe will examine

the basic weaknesses (holes) of the

Articles of Confederation

BackgroundBackground• With the signing of the Declaration

of Independence, America declared itself a free, independent country

• Without British rule, there was NO government in place

• The Second Continental Congress formed a committee to write a plan of government

State Constitutions• The state legislatures (Virginia, Maryland, North

Carolina etc.) had all written constitutions for their own states before the Articles of Confederation were approved.

• Virginia’s State Constitution – noteworthy because it contained the Virginia Declaration

of Rights (right to fair trial, free speech etc)– Written by George Mason

Legislature/ Legislative- law-makingConstitution- a document that sets up the law, principles and organization

of a government.

More BackgroundMore Background• The committee didn’t want to create a

government that was too powerful nor did it want to establish a powerful leader like King George III (WHY???)

• The government created by the committee was called the Articles of Confederation

• A Confederation is a very loose association of strongstrong, independentindependent parts

• Under the Articles of Confederation, the states had most of the power, while the central government had very little power

If our School Ran like the Articles Did

Example: Each homeroom (state) would have more say in school decisions than the SCA (central government) would.

• Explanation: even though each class (state) may elect an SCA representative (delegate), the homerooms, under this type of government, would be more powerful than the people they sent to the SCA

Even More Even More BackgroundBackground• The new government was ratified in

1781• Maryland and Virginia

• Maryland was last to ratify the Articles because the state delegates wanted Virginia to give up its claims to land that was to the west of both states. Click on this link to take you to the map and answer the next question.

Ratify- to approve• Almost from the beginning, it was clear

that there were many weaknesses (holes) in this new government

Weakness (Hole) #1

•Provided for a weakweak nationalnational government

Weakness (Hole) #2

• Gave congress NONO power to tax or to regulate commerce (trade) among states

Weakness (Hole) #3

•Provided for NO common currency (money)Printing own Money

Weakness (Hole) #4

•Gave each state ONEONE vote regardless of size (population)

Weakness (Hole) #5

• Provided for NONO Executive branch (President)

& NO Judicial branch (court system)

Video ClipFact vs. Fiction Artcles

Break Time

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• Scatter Game

Key Event Illustrating Failure of Articles

1. Military Coup

By 1783, the Continental Army was near the point of mutiny *over Congress' failure to pay them. In March, Continental Army officers, camped at Newburgh, N.Y., considered military action against the Confederation Congress. On Mar. 15, Washington strode in. "Do not open the flood gates of civil discord,*" he told them, "and deluge* our rising empire in blood." Washington strongly believed that the military needed to be subordinate to civilian authority*.

On a 90-degree June day in 1783, former Revolutionary War soldiers, carrying muskets, marched on the Philadelphia statehouse where Congress was meeting. They threatened to hold the members hostage until they were paid back wages. When Congress asked Pennsylvania to send a detachment of militia to protect them, the state refused, and the humiliated Congress temporarily relocated, first in Princeton, N.J., and later in Annapolis, Md., and New York City, N.Y.

Key Event Illustrating Failure of Articles

2. Economic Depression The Revolution was followed by a severe economic depression* in

1784 and 1785. To raise revenue*, many states imposed charges on goods from other states. By the mid-1780s, Connecticut was levying heavier duties* on goods from Massachusetts than on those from Britain.

The national government was on the verge of bankruptcy*. The Dutch and French would lend money only at exorbitant interest rates. A shortage of hard currency made it difficult to conduct commercial transactions*..

Lacking the protection of the British flag, sailors were seized from American ships by North African corsairs and sold into slavery. In 1785, Algerian pirates boarded an American merchant ship sailing off the coast of Portugal, seized its 21 member crew, and enslaved them for 21 years. Over the next 8 years, a hundred more Americans became captives.

Key Event Illustrating Failure of Articles

3. Tyrannical State Legislatures By the mid 1780s, many of country's most influential leaders became

convinced that state legislatures had become the greatest source of tyranny* in America. In the decade after independence, the state legislatures passed more acts than in the previous century. The nation's leaders were particularly distressed by the kinds of laws the legislatures adopted. These included stay laws--postponing repayment of debts--and paper money bills-- allowing debtors to repay debts with worthless paper currency--in violation of the rights of creditors*.

Pennsylvania's government, run by a one-house assembly, was notorious for violating individual rights. It disfranchised* and even imprisoned Quakers (who, as pacifists, had refused to fight in the Revolution). The legislature also arbitrarily* removed judges.

Several states established special trading relationships with European nations and negotiated treaties with Indian nations.

Key Act Illustrating Success of Articles

• Northwest Ordinance-Set up a government for the Northwest Territory- guaranteed basic rights to settlers-and outlawed slavery there. - New way to admit states

- must have 60,000 settlers

*Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were created from the Northwest Territory

Key Event Illustrating Failure of Articles

• . Shay’s Rebellion

In 1786, nearly 2,000 debtor farmers in western Massachusetts were threatened with foreclosure of their mortgaged property. The state legislature had voted to pay off the state's Revolutionary War debt in three years; between 1783 and 1786, taxes on land rose more than 60 percent. Desperate farmers demanded a cut in property taxes and adoption of state laws to postpone farm foreclosures. When lower courts started to seize the property of farmers such as Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary War veteran, western Massachusetts farmers temporarily closed the courts and threatened a federal arsenal. Although the rebels were defeated by the state militia, they were victorious at the polls. A new legislature elected early in 1787 enacted debt relief.

Shay's Rebellion

A Call for a Change

• It was becoming quite obvious to America’s founders that if the country’s victory over the British was to truly be a success, a stronger, more powerful government was needed.

• In 1787, delegates from all 13 states joined back together in Philadelphia and created a government that set apart, and still sets apart, America from the rest of the world.

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