Unit II Part 4

							 Unit II
 Part 4
Post-War America
    The Revolution Within America
   LOYALISTS
   Were looked upon as traitors
   Generally belonged to the wealthier classes
   Were barred from teaching, legal, medical
    professions
   Had to take oaths of loyalty to vote
   Some banished, tarred and feathered, killed by
    mobs
                    Loyalists
   Some went to Canada
   Some went to Britain

   They will NOT be compensated for their losses
    in spite of what the Treaty of Paris said

   BUT other than the loyalists, there was no
    revolution in America (no class warfare)
                     Indians
   Some uprisings
   Some fought with the British
   More disunity among tribes

   Colonial resentment because some DID fight
    for the British
   Some (Jefferson) paternalistic toward natives
   Called them “noble Savages” (Columbus)
     Women: War had no Impact
   Some ran things at home very well
   Others lost the farm
   Some were camp followers
   Some in combat
   Judith Murray worked for more educational
    opportunities for women
   Abigail Adams: Remember the ladies
   Overall: no real change
                    Slaves
   1782 Virginia Law: slave owners COULD free
    their slaves if they wished

   The Revolutionary War = END OF SLAVERY
    IN THE NORTH
   Most through Compensated Emancipation
   1783 Mass. Supreme Ct. under the new State
    Constitution: ownership of human beings was
    illegal
Who Suffered as a Result of the War?
   The Anglican Church (Loyalists)
   Anyone on a fixed salary
   Town Wage earners
   Continental Soldiers
   Creditors: went into hiding to avoid being paid back
    with worthless currency
   Some states had wage and price controls
   By 1777 Continental Congress had wage and price
    controls
      Who Profited from the War?
   The Catholic Church due to the French alliance
   Farmers: produce was in demand
   Merchants and Privateers
                      Overall
   Other than oppressed Loyalists, internal
    revolution was non violent

   Lack of class distinction in America
   No class of oppressed peasants
   Wide distribution of property
      Influence of the Revolution
   Gave hope to oppressed in Europe
   Endangered monarchies everywhere
   Endangered privileged classes everywhere
   French Revolution 1789
   Growth of American Nationalism
   Lack of British trade inspired more American
    manufacturing
      Influence of the Revolution
   Discredited George III
   Parliament took steps to limit monarch’s power
   Britain’s other colonies given more self-
    government
   Catherine the Great: Rather than have granted
    America her independence as my brother
    monarch, King George has done, I would have
    fired a pistol at my own head!
      New State Governments and
    Constitutions (not Conn. And RI)
   Drawn up by state Constitutional Conventions;
    not by state legislatures
   Included Locke’s ideas:
     Governments should serve the people
     Distrust of a strong executive (most governors in for
      one year terms
     Right to vote depended on property ownership

     More restrictions for holding office
          New National Heroes
   Washington, Jefferson, Franklin
   John Paul Jones
   Francis Marion, Nathan Hale
   New Patriotic songs
   John Trumbull: Patriotic painter
   Noah Webster: unique American Speller
   John M’Cullock: first American History Book
   Morse: American Geography Book
   Kings College renamed Columbia
      The Articles of Confederation
                1781-1789
   As early as 1775 Benjamin Franklin proposed
    The Articles of Confederation and perpetual
    Union
   It was rejected by several colonies and the
    Second CC
   June 1776: Second CC established a committee
    of 13 to draft a constitution
   Leaders: Dickenson, J. Adams, Rutledge,
    Sherman, Livingston
The Articles completed in one month
   Borrowed some from Franklin’s plan
   Would go into effect when all 13 states signed
    on

   Large states did not like the one-house
    legislature
   Small states feared being overwhelmed by states
    with western land claims
By 1779 Twelve states had signed on
   Maryland held out for two years
   Wanted the states with western claims to give up
    the claims to the federal government
   When they did, Maryland signed on
         Structure of the Articles
   No Executive Branch: Representatives feared a
    strong central government (like Britain)
   No Judicial Branch: so no final authority if State
    Supreme Courts disagreed
   Unicameral Legislature: One representative
    from each state (so the small states were over
    represented)
        Powers of the Legislature
   To wage war and Peace
   To make treaties and alliances (commercial too)
   To establish a postal system
   To handle Indian Relations
   To coin money
   To establish standard weights and measures
   States respected each others public acts: wills,
    licenses, no passports between states needed
    BUT…Powers were empty because
   There was no power to tax or draft troops!

   How could the government make war or
    enforce treaties?
   How could the government buy Indian land or
    take it from them?
   How do we pay postal workers?
   Disaster!
              Other problems…
   9 states were needed to pass laws so few passed
   Could not control interstate commerce
   Had no specie so no national currency
   States had their own currencies so interstate
    trade cam to a standstill since all $ of different
    values!
   Could not even keep the peace at home without
    a national army (no draft or $ to pay soldiers)
     Foreign Affairs under the Articles
   We did not want to become involved in European
    problems BUT
   We needed foreign trade
   Treaties were needed to make boundaries with Spanish
    Florida and British Canada
   Congress could not make binding commercial treaties
    because it could not control interstate commerce
   Congress could not enforce treaties with other
    countries without an army
                           Britain
   Both America and England violated the Treaty of Paris
   Brits did not compensate slave owners
   Brits would not vacate the forts in America and even built
    new ones!
   We could not MAKE them leave without an army
   Brits would not trade with us…planned a trade war…we were
    banned from the British West Indies!
   Brits would not even see John Adams (our ambassador)
   We could only enter British ports with ships from home states
                         Spain
   Spanish felt threatened by our extended boundaries
    (the West and Spanish Florida)
   They armed the Indians against us
   We really needed the Right of Deposit at the mouth of
    New Orleans for our western trade
   Jay-Gardoqui Treaty: Spain would let us trade with
    the Spanish West Indies if we gave up our claim to the
    Right of Deposit
   We did NOT ratify treaty. Would have sacrificed the
    West for the sake of New England trade
                     France
   We could not pay them back
   Was embarrassing (especially to Jefferson…our
    ambassador)
   Our lack of payment probably DID contribute
    to the French Revolution
   They did not enjoy much of our trade
   We were trading with Brits by 1789 like there
    had never been a war
           The Barbary Pirates!
   Remember: to err is human. To AARRGH is
    Pirate.
   The US could not pay tribute to pirates on the
    coast of North Africa
   While we were British colonies, the Brits paid the
    tribute for us
   Americans who were caught trading in
    Mediterranean were kidnapped and held for
    ransom which we could not pay…embarrassing!
   We had no navy!
                   The West
   First hunters and trappers
   Then temporary homesteads
   Finally permanent settlers: Saloons, Brothels
    then schools, churches mills
   By 1790 120,000 were west of the Appalachians
              Western Problems
   Starvation, disease, temperature extremes
   British in forts, Indians, right of deposit needed
   No money to move Brits, fight Indians (or buy
    their land) to MAKE Spain give up the right of
    deposit

   Absentee landowners (speculators)
   Some talk of succession
     BUT Articles did take care of
   Land survey and sale with The Land Ordinance
    of 1785

   And the political development of Western land
    with the Northwest Ordinance
      The Land Ordinance of 1785
   Provided for land survey and sale (the only $
    that the Articles were bringing into the federal
    treasury)

   Land to be measured first and then sold
   Adopted the New England method
   Land was divided into 6 square miles called
    townships then redivided into 36 sections
         Land Ordinance of 1785
   Four sections reserved as federal land BUT one
    of those could be sold to provide for a school

   Other 32 sections were redivided and sold for $1
    an acre and you had to buy at least 640 acres
    (pricey)
   Most of the best of it went to land speculators
The land belonged to the Indians!
   Some Indians signed agreements willingly, some
    were coerced, some fought

   Don’t forget…Spanish AND British were giving
    Indians weapons to use against us

   General St. Clair was fighting Indians in the NW
    territory unsuccessfully…could not pay army
    and no $ for ammo, horses, etc.
The Northwest Ordinance (1787)
   Provided for the political development of the
    land between the Ohio River, the Great Lakes
    and the Mississippi
   No fewer than 3 states but no more than 5
   When the white male population reached 5,000
    a territorial government could be set up: people
    could elect a legislature but the federal
    government would provide for a governor and a
    secretary and 3 judges
        The Northwest Territory
   When the population reached 60,000 the
    territory could apply to become a state if…
   … the state constitution guaranteed freedom of
    speech, freedom of religion and if the
    constitution forbade slavery

   NOTE: the NW Ordinance was the first federal
    legislation that forbade slavery.
        The Articles failed to handle
           domestic problems:
   Boundary disputes: Conn v Penn, Mass. v NY
    v NH

   Oyster Wars : Virginia and Maryland The
    governors were in row boats shooting at each
    other!

   Currencies of states were different so little trade
             Inflation and Debt
   Money flowed out of the country for finished
    goods
   Huge debt to foreigners, citizens and soldiers
   Many lobbied for import duties: Hamilton,
    Madison, Morris but too much opposition
   State taxes were heavy
   Soldiers who WERE NOT PAID returned to
    their farms and lost them because they could not
    pay the state taxes
   Farmers were lost unless currency was inflated
          Shays’s Rebellion 1786
   Was the last straw
   Proof that the government needed to be
    stronger to keep domestic peace

   Background: In Mass. The wealthy took over
    state government
   Wanted to clear out state debt
   Really heavy taxes on farmers (who had not
    been paid as soldiers)
                  Daniel Shays
   Had been a continental soldier
   Lafayette awarded Shays his own jewel-
    encrusted sword for his valiant fighting!
   His wife had somehow hung on to the farm
   Shays sold his sword for food
   Many farmers in Mass lost their farms or were
    jailed because they could not pay their taxes to
    the state
              Shays’s Rebellion
   Shays and another 1,000 unhappy farmers tried
    and failed to take the arsenal (Mass.)
   Demanded: paper money (for inflation), tax
    relief, a moratorium on debts, and wanted the
    state capital moved

   Mass. Militia was able to put down the rebellion.
   The Federal government had no troops
         Too Much Democracy?
   Many of the wealthy, propertied people thought
    that Shays Rebellion was proof of too much
    democracy
   Believed that the Federal government needed to
    be stronger
   EVERYONE believed that at the very least, the
    Articles of Confederation needed revision
   BUT in the end we will form a brand new
    government under the Constitution that we have
    today.
           The Question:

The Articles of Confederation
 provided for an effective
 government in the years 1781-
 1789.

Assess the validity of the above.
                      Think
   Did the Articles of Confederation help us with
    our dealings with foreign countries and peoples?
   Britain…forts and trade
   Spain…right of deposit and Jay-Gardoque
    Treaty
   France…debt
   Barbary Pirates…tribute and ransome
                 Think Again:
   Did the Articles of Confederation allow us to
    deal with domestic problems effectively?

   Indians …General St. Clair
   Economic issues…currency issues
   Post office
   Shays’s Rebellion…too much democracy?
   Interstate rivalry…boundaries and Oyster Wars
                  Think Again
   Were the Articles of Confederation flawed in
    their structure?
     No executive and judicial
     Unicameral legislature

     Could not tax or draft

     Needed 9 state to pass laws

     Smaller states were over represented
     Okay…they were NOT effective
                BUT
   What DID they do effectively?

   They provided for the survey and sale and
    political development of Western Lands:
     The Land Ordinance of 1785
     The Northwest Ordinance (1787)