| American Government |
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| Sections: Introduction | Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Section 4 | Section 5 |
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Government : Origins : Section Four Establishing the First Government Once the former colonies had declared their independence and considered themselves a new nation, they needed to create a government to rule their nation. Many Americans at the time felt that power should rest in the hands of the individual states – that a strong central government would only put them in a situation like they were in under British rule. They decided to create a confederate form of government. You will recall from Unit 1, this is a government in which the states have the majority of power, and a weak central government exists primarily to unite the states as one nation. The first governing document the colonialists created for their new nation was called the Articles of Confederation. The document, which was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, combined the states in a loose confederate union in which the majority of the power rested with the states. The 13 individual states did not wish to give up any of their sovereignty to the central government. The Articles created a unicameral legislature that had very few powers bestowed upon it. Congress had the power to appoint military officers and to settle disputes among states. Each state was given one vote in Congress, and their Congressional representative was selected by their state legislature. There were many flaws within the Articles. See the boxes below:
Although the Articles had many flaws, the Confederation Congress did accomplish some important things in the early days of the United States. It created policies for how western lands would be surveyed and organized into territories, and established a process for how territories could enter the union as states. The Confederation Congress also brought the states together by creating a policy of “full faith and credit.” This means that each state would recognize legal acts of another state, and citizens of one state would be considered citizens of the whole United States. These ideas were later used in the writing of the Constitution.
The Revolutionary War ended in 1783, and with it came many struggles for the new nation. Some of these new problems were too much for the weak Congress under the Articles to handle. Individual states began creating their own laws regarding taxation and they printed their own currency. They also refused to provide financial support to the central government. The economy was not in good shape – prices were rising, debts were growing, and individuals did not have the money to pay off their debts. In some cases, violence erupted when groups of people were not able to pay their debts. In Massachusetts, a farmer and Revolutionary War veteran named Daniel Shays found himself in economic hard-times and could not pay his debts. The government was going to foreclose on his property because of this, and he would not be able to make a living without his farm land. Shays and many other western Massachusetts farmers in a similar situation armed themselves and forced the closing of several courts in order to prevent the foreclosures from occurring. They wanted the state legislature to pass laws allowing them to keep their farms during the economic depression and to work off their debts. Authorities in Massachusetts responded by raising a small army to crush the movement, so Shays and 1,200 men headed for the federal arsenal in the city of Springfield. The state militia was there in Springfield to put down the rebellion, but nonetheless, the event known as Shays’ Rebellion made an impact. It made clear to those in power that the Articles were not working, and citizens were suffering and willing to resort to desperate acts of violence. The weak central government was not prepared to suppress such uprisings. An increased demand for a more powerful central government grew out of such events. Groups such as creditors, large property owners, and merchants – those in the upper classes who were most threatened by this economic and political instability – led the charge to strengthen the government. In order to address the weaknesses of the Articles, a meeting was held in Philadelphia which would later become known as the Constitutional Convention.
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Play this game to test your understanding of the problems of the Articles of Confederation.
Now it’s time to take the quiz on section 4. When you are finished, proceed to section 5