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Historical Background

The Formative Years—Visions and Prospects of Nationhood (continued)

THE CONFEDERATION: AN INTERIM GOVERNMENT

Between 1776 and 1789 the United States did not have a strong National Government. During this interim period the threat of British military power and the "firm league of friendship" created by the Articles of Confederation held the 13 independent States together. The Confederation won the war with Britain and laid some foundations for the future, but as time went on many Americans came to believe that it could not solve national problems. Many leaders clearly recognized that the United States must form a truly national government. As Alexander Hamilton phrased it, Americans needed to learn to think "continentally."

In the 1780's many Americans favored a national government of very limited powers. According to a widely held belief of the time, "republican," or representative, government would not succeed in large geographical areas. In 1776 colonists had rebelled against interference in their local affairs by a government that claimed superiority to their legislatures. Having repudiated the authority of the Crown, they were wary of erecting in its place a potentially tyrannical national government.

Many believed that the preservation of individual life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness could more safely be entrusted to 13 independent republics than to a single central government. At the same time it was advantageous for the 13 republics to act in unison in military, diplomatic, and financial affairs. In 1781, when the last State ratified the Articles of Confederation, the States, at least on paper, surrendered certain powers to the Continental Congress. Each State, regardless of its population, had only one vote. Congress, acting upon instructions from the States, could make war, negotiate loans, regulate currency, manage Indian affairs, and operate an interstate postal service. It could not coin money or collect taxes. It could requisition money from the States, but had no power to enforce payment. The Articles did not establish a national executive or a system of Federal courts. The passage of national laws was difficult. The support of 7 States was enough to enact some laws, but 9 had to approve matters of war and all 13 consent to any changes in the Articles themselves. In a time of crisis, such a government could not act quickly or forcefully. The people placed their faith in the State governments, which could levy taxes and import duties, maintain militia, regulate commerce, and, when necessary, use force to maintain order.

The Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall), Philadelphia, in 1799. From a drawing and engraving by William Birch and Son. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

The State governments accomplished much during the Confederation period. In most States, during the war, committees of leading citizens drew up new constitutions. Incorporated into these documents were principles that have been part of our system of government ever since. The British constitution was not and is not a written document. However, most of the American Colonies had begun with royal charters, and the colonial legislatures had evolved from governments under these charters. Americans, therefore, were firm believers in written constitutions. They viewed them as contracts or agreements between the people and the governments of the States that were drawn to promote understanding of the laws, define responsibility, and provide a measure for evaluating disputes between liberty and authority.

In the constitutions several of the States incorporated lists of the rights of individual citizens. Most notable of these was George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, which later became the basis of the U.S. Bill of Rights. The constitutions generally encouraged government more responsive to the will of the people. Many reduced property qualifications for voting and outlawed titles of nobility. The Southern States abolished two feudal institutions, primogeniture and entail, that theoretically encouraged the preservation of large family estates from generation to generation. The idea of the separation of church and state found expression in State constitutional provisions that allowed citizens to specify which Protestant church their taxes would support. Virginia went further and passed a law, the Statute of Religious Freedom (1786), written by Jefferson, that declared in ringing words: "Almighty God hath created the mind free" and "no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever."

The individual States faced the difficult problems of rebuilding after the war, paying off war debts, providing for defense, and improving transportation. Attempts to solve these problems met with limited success. By 1790 a few of the States had managed to pay most of their war debts, and some of them had undertaken road, canal, and bridge building. Yet progress was slow and cooperation between the States was less than perfect.

In one area the States and the Continental Congress, working together, achieved substantial success. They created a national domain west of the Appalachians and outlined a means of settling it. The first step in the process was to untangle the snarl of conflicting State claims to Western lands, which were based on the old colonial charters. Georgia claimed much of what is today Alabama and Mississippi—as did Spain—and North Carolina claimed Tennessee. Virginia, possessing the oldest charter, claimed almost all the rest of the Western United States. North of the Ohio River, her claims conflicted with those of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York.

The Western claims were a potential source of national disunion. Rhode Island, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire had no such claims. These "land1ess" States feared that the "landed" States would sell their western lands to pay off debts or, worse, develop the lands and grow so large and powerful that they would threaten the independence of their neighbors. The landless States urged that, for the future of the Union, the landed States surrender their Western claims to Congress to administer for the benefit of all. South of the Ohio River, State land claims would not be completely settled until 1802. By 1786, however, New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut had surrendered sufficient lands north of the Ohio to give the Continental Congress clear title and allow it to begin the organization of Western settlement.

Settlers were eager to enter the old Northwest, and in a series of ordinances during the period 1784-87 Congress laid down rules for orderly settlement. These rules, somewhat modified, served as the Federal pattern for organizing westward expansion until the Civil War. The short-lived Ordinance of 1784 established the principle that temporary governments under Congress should govern Western Territories until they attained sufficient population for statehood. The Ordinance of 1785 spelled out the means of disposing of the lands to land companies and individual settlers. To avoid disputes over ownership, Government surveyors would divide the land into 6-mile-square townships made up of 36 sections. One section, consisting of 640 acres, in each township was to be set aside for the support of public education, and the remaining sections would be sold at $1 per acre.

Baltimore, Maryland, from Federal Hill, in the 1830's. From an aquatint by W. J. Bennett, after his painting. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 outlined the political path from wilderness to statehood. An appointed Governor and three judges would rule a Territory until the population reached 5,000. At that time, the citizens could elect a legislature, and, when the population numbered 60,000, the Territory could apply for admission to the Union as a State on a basis of full equality with the Original Thirteen. Other significant provisions of the ordinance guaranteed the protection of liberty, property, and religious freedom and also prohibited slavery.

Though the Continental Congress contributed to the organization of the West, in other fields it was less successful. After the war, the problems of political, social, and economic readjustment caught up with it. People blamed it for failure to solve problems that would have tried stronger governments. But the weaknesses of the Continental Congress were real—particularly in foreign affairs, national defense, mediation of interstate disputes, and fiscal matters.

Other nations showed contempt for the United States. In 1785 Great Britain received Minister John Adams, but not until 7 years later did she send a diplomatic representative in return. She refused to grant trade concessions needed by the United States if prewar outlets for American goods were to be restored, and she did not evacuate military posts in the Northwest Territory as called for in the peace treaty of 1783. As grounds for refusal to abandon the Western posts, the British contended that the United States had already violated the treaty by failing to pay Loyalist claims for confiscated property. Congress could not solve the problem, lacking as it did the military power to drive the British out of the Northwest and the authority to force States to pay the Loyalist claims.

France remained friendly and hoped to establish trade with the United States, but the trade amounted to little because the traditional and practical outlet for American raw materials was industrial Britain. Since the French Foreign Minister, the Comte de Vergennes, at the peace negotiations in 1783, had shown a willingness to sacrifice the American Western territory to the interests of French diplomacy, relations between the two countries had cooled.

Spanish-American relations had never been warm, even when Spain was an ally during the War for Independence. She did not recognize U.S. claims to portions of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and disputed the location of the boundary between Florida and the United States as defined by the Treaty of 1783. She also used her control of New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi to attempt to persuade Western settlers to forswear the United States and join her. Seeking accommodation, Congress authorized John Jay to negotiate with the Spanish. After 1 year of inconclusive talks, in 1785-86, he failed to obtain for U.S. shipping the right to pass freely through the mouth of the Mississippi.

In the meantime, Mediterranean pirates plundered and exacted tribute from U.S. ships on the high seas, and the Continental Congress did nothing about it.

The Congress also failed to provide an adequate national defense. In the Newburgh Addresses of March 1783, Army officers, with civilian support, brought pressure to bear on Congress to dispense backpay and pensions. Congress had no money to pay the men, but George Washington used his authority and prestige to calm them and avert a crisis. A few months later, when several hundred mutinous soldiers demonstrated outside Congress Hall demanding backpay and redress of grievances, Congress moved from Philadelphia to Princeton, N.J.

Under the Confederation, at the very time that westerners were clamoring for protection from the Indians and action against the British in the Northwest, the Army was in a weak and dissatisfied state. In 1783, in response to frontiersmen's pleas, the best Congress could do was call for an increase in the size of the Regular Army from 80 men to 700. Before the adoption of the Constitution, the goal was never reached, but enough State militiamen volunteered for Regular Army service to erect and garrison a few forts in the Ohio country and provide token evidence of U.S. authority. From 1784 until 1789 the Army consisted only of the Western garrisons, small detachments at West Point, N.Y., and the Springfield, Mass., and Pittsburgh supply depots. The "navy" of the War for Independence had almost disappeared. After the war, ships were sold and sailors discharged. Not until 1794 would there be a U.S. Navy and not until 1798 a separate Navy Department.

The failure of Congress to provide for national defense stemmed mainly from its reliance on State militia and from financial difficulties. To finance the War for Independence, it had issued more than $240 million in paper currency. It had also borrowed heavily from foreign investors, chiefly in the Netherlands, and the States were reluctant to provide enough money even to pay the interest on the foreign loan. Furthermore, by 1784 inflation had made Continental currency almost worthless. The Nation had no uniform currency, and Continental paper, State paper, bills of exchange, and foreign coins circulated freely. Creditors claimed that debtors were ruining them by paying old debts in worthless money. But many debtors were too poor to pay in any kind of money. Soldier-farmers had returned from the war to find their farms mortgaged. Heavy State taxes resulting from the war caused many to lose their farms. As a result, debtor political factions arose that advocated laws to prevent foreclosures and print more paper, or "cheap," money. Congress could do little to alleviate the situation.

In disputes among the States, Congress was no more successful. Lacking the power to enforce its decisions, it hesitated to make many. It could not regulate interstate commerce or, for example, prevent New York from passing restrictive measures against the importation of Connecticut firewood and New Jersey produce. When the "State of Franklin" (1784-88) claimed independence from North Carolina and a faction within the "state" sought annexation to Spain, Congress was powerless to resolve the issue. And it could not settle the conflicting claims of New Hampshire and New York to the Vermont area, at a time when Ethan, Ira, and Levi Allen were said to be discussing with the British Vermont's possible separation from the United States and annexation to Canada. By the mid-1780's many of the men who had been leaders in the War for Independence had reached the conclusion that the United States needed a stronger National Government.

During the course of a conference and two conventions, in the years 1785-87, a movement developed for change in the National Government and resulted in the Constitution. The first, the Mount Vernon Conference, made no effort to amend the Articles, but it led to the Annapolis Convention. This convention began as an interstate discussion of commercial matters, but ended in a call for another convention, in Philadelphia, to amend the Articles of Confederation. The Convention in Philadelphia wrote the Constitution.

The Mount Vernon Conference of March 1785 resulted from efforts to establish commercial ties between the East and the trans-Appalachian West. George Washington and others recognized that the rivers that flowed through the mountains could become commercial arteries. Washington considered the matter urgent, for, as he wrote, the West was "on a pivot" and a "touch of a feather" would, he feared, turn it toward Spain. He, therefore, took the lead in an attempt to cement the East and the West. He became the first president of the Patowmack Co., which attempted to make the Potomac River navigable above the fall line by dredging a channel in the river and building a series of short canals around the rapids. Because Washington's company had a Virginia charter and Maryland held title to the Potomac River, the two States needed to agree before the project could begin. The Mount Vernon Conference cleared the way for free navigation of the Potomac, and its success led to a call for another conference, to which all the States were invited.

The Maryland State House, Annapolis, in the 1780's. From an engraving in Columbian Magazine, 1789. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

The second conference convened at Annapolis, Md., in September 1786, for the purpose of seeking a national solution to commercial problems. Nine of the Thirteen States sent delegates. Travel being what it was, however, delegates from only five of the States arrived in time to take part. The participating States—New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware—made little progress toward a national solution of commercial problems. They did, however, through the efforts of Alexander Hamilton and other nationalists, agree to request the Continental Congress to invite all the States to another convention, to begin at Philadelphia in May 1787. Its purpose was to discuss all matters necessary to make the Articles of Confederation strong enough to meet the needs of the Nation. When the delegates rode away from the Annapolis Convention, they could not be sure that the meeting at Philadelphia would take place. The public seemed apathetic. But Shays' Rebellion convinced many people that a change was necessary.

Shays' Rebellion dramatized the weakness of the National Government. In the fall of 1787 farmers in western Massachusetts, many of them debtors, rose against the State government. They demanded abolition of the "aristocratic" upper house of the Massachusetts legislature and lower taxes, lawyers' fees, and court costs. The legislature reacted by calling up the militia. The rebels, choosing a veteran of the War for Independence, Daniel Shays, as their leader, took up arms. In February 1787, after some inconclusive military action, Gen. Benjamin Lincoln and the Massachusetts Militia defeated the Shaysites and crushed the revolt. Yet the episode gave many men pause. Debtors were dissatisfied in other States, and Congress had aided neither in putting down the rebellion nor in alleviating its causes. On February 21, 1787, Congress acted on the recommendation of the Annapolis Convention and resolved to call a convention at Philadelphia to discuss changes in the Articles of Confederation.