The Articles
of Confederation
After declaring independence from Britain in 1776,
the delegates at the Second Continental Congress immediately
set to the task of creating a government. In 1777,
Congress submitted the nation’s first constitution, the Articles
of Confederation, to the states, who finally ratified it
a few years later.
Problems Under
the Articles
Congress proved unable to manage the country’s economic
affairs under the Articles. Because most state currencies had become
useless due to wartime inflation, Congress printed
its own continental dollars to keep the economy alive, but these
faltered as well. Congress also proved unable to raise enough money
from the states, because the federal government had no way of forcing
the states to pay taxes. Most states also ignored Congress’s attempts
to resolve numerous interstate disputes that arose.
In addition, many Americans became fed up with their incompetent
state legislatures and demanded debt relief and cheaper money. A
few even revolted, as in Shays’s Rebellion in 1786–1787,
which culminated in Daniel Shays leading 1,200 western
Massachusetts farmers in an attack on the federal arsenal at Springfield.
Although the rebellion was quickly dismissed, it convinced many
American leaders that change was needed if the U.S. were to survive.
Drafting the
Constitution
To resolve these problems, delegates from most of the
states met at the Annapolis Convention in 1786.
When nothing was resolved, they agreed to reconvene in 1787 at
a Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. At this
second convention, it was quickly decided that an entirely new constitution
was needed rather than just a revision to the Articles.
A major point of contention was the structure of the new legislative branch.
Small states supported the New Jersey Plan, under which all
states would have equal representation in the legislature. Large states
advocated the Virginia Plan to create a bicameral (two-house) legislature
in which representatives would be appointed according to population.
The Great Compromise among the states created a bicameral
Congress in which states would be equally represented in the Senate and
proportionally represented in the House of Representatives.
The framers of the Constitution believed strongly in checks
and balances and separation of powers to prevent
any one branch of government from ever becoming too powerful. As
a result, the new government would also have a strong executive branch
and an independent judiciary branch.
The
Federalist Papers and the
Bill of Rights
When the delegates submitted the Constitution to the states
for ratification, heated debates erupted between the Federalists,
who supported the Constitution, and the Anti-Federalists,
who thought it gave the federal government too much power. Federalists Alexander Hamilton, John
Jay, and James Madison coauthored the Federalist Papers in 1787–1788 to
convince Anti-Federalist Americans, especially in New York, that
the Constitution was necessary. Eventually, the Anti-Federalists
conceded on the condition that a Bill of Rights be written
to preserve liberties, such as freedoms of speech and religion and
the right to trial by jury.
Strict
vs. Loose Constructionism
The Electoral College unanimously chose George Washington to
be the first president, with John Adams as vice president.
Soon after, the new secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton,
wanted to repair the national credit and revive the economy by having
the federal government assume all the debts of the individual states.
He also wanted to establish a national Bank of the United
States. The Constitution said nothing about a
national bank, but Hamilton believed that the Constitution allowed
many unwritten actions that it did not expressly forbid. Thomas
Jefferson, the secretary of state and a strict constructionist,
believed that the Constitution forbade everything it did not allow. These
ideological differences within Washington’s cabinet formed the basis
of what later became full-fledged political parties—the Hamiltonian
Federalists and the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans.
Domestic
Unrest in the 1790s
Despite the passage of the Indian Intercourse Acts,
beginning in 1790,
Native Americans frequently raided American settlements west of
the Appalachians until federal troops crushed several tribes in
the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.
Later, when farmers in western Pennsylvania threatened
to march on Philadelphia to protest the excise tax on
liquor in 1794, Washington
dispatched 13,000 federal
troops to crush the insurgents. The Whiskey Rebellion,
however, ended without bloodshed.
Washington and
Neutrality
Events in Europe also affected the United States.
The French Revolution of 1789 and
France’s subsequent war with Britain split American public opinion:
some wanted to support republican France, while others wanted to
help England. However, under the Franco-American alliance of 1778,
the United States was obligated to assist France.
Unprepared for another war, Washington issued the Neutrality Proclamation
of 1793. Citizen
Genêt, the French ambassador to the United States, ignored the proclamation
and, immediately upon his arrival in the United States, began commissioning
privateers and planning to use U.S. ports in the French campaign
against Britain. Outraged over the Citizen Genêt affair,
Washington requested Genet’s recall.
Meanwhile, Spain threatened to block Americans’
access to the vital Mississippi River, while Britain still refused
to withdraw from American territory in the Ohio Valley. These issues
were not resolved until Jay’s Treaty with Britain in 1794 and Pinckney’s Treaty in 1795.
Finally, in his famous Farewell Address in 1796,
Washington warned against entangling alliances with European powers
and potential political factions in the United States.
Adams’s Term
In 1797,
Washington was succeeded by his Federalist vice president, John
Adams, who faced continued challenges from Europe. When Adams
sent an ambassador to Paris to restore Franco-American relations,
three French officials demanded a bribe before they would speak
with him. This incident, the XYZ Affair, shocked Americans and
initiated two years of undeclared naval warfare.
To prevent unwanted French immigrants from entering the
country, Adams and a sympathetic Congress passed the Alien
Acts in 1798.
They also passed the Sedition Act, which banned public
criticism of the government in an attempt to stifle political opposition and
wipe out the Democratic-Republicans. Thomas Jefferson and James
Madison responded with the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, which
nullified the Sedition Act in those states. They argued that because
the states had created the Union, they also had the right to nullify
any unconstitutional legislation.
The Election of 1800
The Democratic-Republicans defeated the Federalists in
the election of 1800.
Despite years of mutual hatred, the Federalists relinquished the
government to their political enemies in a peaceful transfer of
power. Thomas Jefferson, champion of western and southern
farmers, became president and immediately advocated a reduction
in the size and power of the federal government.
Increases in
Federal Power
In reality, federal power increased in
many ways during Jefferson’s eight years in office. The Supreme
Court reasserted its power of judicial review in the 1803Marbury
v. Madison decision. Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase more
than doubled the size of the country despite the fact
that the Constitution said nothing about new land purchases.
The Embargo Act
Jefferson continued to face challenges from Europe, as
neither Britain nor France respected American shipping rights as
a neutral country. Both countries seized hundreds of American merchant
ships bound for Europe, and British warships impressed (captured
for forced labor) thousands of American sailors. To end these practices, Jefferson
and Congress passed the Embargo Act in 1807,
closing all U.S. ports to export shipping and placing restrictions
on imports from Britain. Unfortunately, the boycott backfired, and
the U.S. economy slumped as Britain and France found other sources
of natural resources.
The
Non-Intercourse Act and
Macon’s Bill No. 2
Congress repealed the Embargo Act in 1809 but
replaced it with the Non-Intercourse Act, which banned
trade only with Britain and France. A year later, with James
Madison in office as president, the American economy still
had not improved, so Congress passed Macon’s Bill No. 2,
which restored trade relations with all nations but promised
to revive the Non-Intercourse Act if either Britain or France violated
U.S. shipping rights.
The War of 1812
Meanwhile, War Hawks in Congress from the
West and South pressed Madison for war against the British and Tecumseh’s
Native American Northwest Confederacy. Tecumseh’s forces
were defeated at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.
Since the British were still seizing American ships and impressing
American sailors, Congress declared war on Britain in 1812.
The War of 1812was
primarily a sectional conflict supported by Americans in the West
and South and condemned by those in the Northeast. In 1814,
delegates from the New England states met at the Hartford
Convention to petition Congress and redress grievances. By
the time Congress received their complaint, however, the war had
ended and the Treaty of Ghent had been signed.
