The Critical Period in American History 1781-178 The Articles of Confederation

• Articles of Confederation and the Perpetual Union of the Colonies
  • Why did it take so long to get approved?
    • Benjamin Franklin proposed the AOC in 1775 and John Dickinson rewrote it in 1777.
    • The main thing that took the A of C so long to be approved was land claims The landed states were ones with claims on the land across the Appalachian, the landless were ones who did not. Landed states included Massachusetts, Virginia, and North Carolina. The leader of landless states was Maryland. The reason states wanted land was to pay off all their debts without having to raise taxes.
    • The Articles were finally ratified in 1782.
  • Structure of The Articles
    • unicameral legislature
    • Confederation Congress
    • No executive branch or president
    • no judicial system
    • all states got one vote regardless of size
  • State Resonsibilitise
    • states had their own trade and taxes and monetary system
  • Positive Aspects
    • Sometimes you learn whats good through the bad
    • Land Ordinance of 1785: surveyed the land into little square blocks called townships.
      • The government would then sell these little squares to people for $1 an acre. The government reserved four blocks in every township. The square system helped with border disputes.
      • Land speculators would buy the land and then let the farmers buy it and pay it back slowly with interest in order to make a living.
      • Every town had to reserve block 16 for a school house
    • Northwest Ordinance of 1787: agreed that the land north of the Ohio river would be divided up into 5 territories: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
      • All the governors of the territories had to have previous experience in the army. William Henry Harrison started off as the territorial governor of Indiana. Andrew Jackson also started off as a territorial governor of Florida.
      • Needed a governor, 3 Judges, 5,000 men (voters), and now they can elect a territorial legislature. After all this then they could be a proper territory. After 60,000 people (women and children too this time) you can write a state constitution and apply for state ship. Slavery was also illegal under the NW Ordinance.
      • State constitutions had to have: a bill of rights, freedom of worship, no slavery, and a public school system.
      • All of the new states were given what is called "equal footing." All states had the exact same rights as the original 13.
  • Negative Aspects
    • Diplomacy
      • Anglo-American: The British continued to occupy forts in America in order to trade fur with the Indians.
        • The forts were especially to trade in New York with the Iroquois indians.
        • They said that they would leave when the Loyalists were given their land back when the war ended, which the Americans promised in the Treaty of Paris of 1783. It turns out that the Americans lied about that.
        • Another reason the British didn't leave because the Southerners owed a lot of money to British factors. The British people really ticked off the Southerners when they would burn cities and emancipate the slaves and called themselves the "great emancipators."
        • In short, neither side was honoring the Treaty of Paris of 1783.
        • Vermont was a separate country for a while. Ethan Allan was the leader of the Green Mountain Boys, and they negotiated between the US and Canada to see who wanted the land the most. Eventually joined the colonies (obviously). Fun fact the Green Mountain State is on the Vermont license plate today.
      • Spanish-Americans:
        • The Spaniards wouldn't let us use New Orleans docks as a Right of Deposit.
        • They also gave the Indians liquor and guns and told them to go kill the white people in Georgia
        • The land just above the 31º N was disputed between, and even though the Americans had better claims to it, the Spanish took it
        • refused to let the US use the Mississippi
        • Don Diego de Gardoqui: the Spanish foreign secretary. John Jay intentionally appeared weak in front of the Spanish, in order to make the Articles look like an embarrassment.
      • Franco-American:
        • The French were going through the French Revolution, and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette desperately needed money. They wanted the Americans to pay them back.
        • The Americans promised that the French could be a part of all the peace treaties after the war. John Jay heard that the French were going to ask for all the land west of the Appalachian Mountains in order to stop our westward expansion, SO the Brits and Americans held the Treaty of Paris of 1783 IN PARIS but without the French. This made the French very very angry.
      • Barbary Pirates: the 4 barbary countries were: Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco. They pirated for a living. This was never a problem before because they were always under British predictions.
    • General Problems: items in bold are what the textbook says are the biggest problems
      • Functional problems with the Articles
        • General Inflation: prices freaking skyrocketed, because the paper money was absolutely worthless.
        • Unicameral Congress with one vote per state
        • 9/13 states had to agree for a law to be passed, and it took 13/13 states to alter the Articles of Confederation.
        • Representatives often didn't even show up
        • Central Government could not tax!! They would just have to beg for money from the states.
        • Could not raise troops
        • A major weakness was inability to regulate commerce.
        • No executive to sign or enforce the law
        • No judicial branch to settle fights between the states
      • Shay's Rebellion: in western Massachusetts in 1787, led by Daniel Shays, small farmers were angered by crushing debts and taxes. They started to attack courthouses to prevent the people from giving out foreclosures until the next election, where they hoped to elect someone who would help them.
        • The Farmers demanded:
          • Stay Laws: there was no grace period. if you missed one payment by one day they would kick you out of your farm
          • Tinder Laws: the farmers wanted paper money, or more of it
          • To end imprisonment for debt
        • The rebellion was put down by a private army paid for by wealthy Boston merchants. The soldiers just came from poor people who were willing to fight for money.
        • The significance of this event was that the central government couldn't protect the country.
        • "Mobocracy," somewhat similar to anarchy. The mobs would rule the streets and rule the country.
  • Summary of the Articles of Confederation: They could not protect the country effectively. Foreign Policy was a joke. Shay's Rebellion proved that we needed to act quickly.