Troubles in the New American Nation 1781-1789

The period between 1781 and 1789 in American history has often been referred to as a critical period, perhaps the most critical, in the development of American democracy. The passage of the Articles of Confederation following the end of the Revolutionary War reflected the tensions between the revolutionaries-turned-politicians in the new nation. The British had given the Americans an example of an antithetical government to personal freedom, one in which the bureaucratic system was large, impersonal, and against the ideals of political power inherent within the American Declaration of Independence. The political development of the confederated American states reflected this lesson and state governments were given more power than the federal government.

The state constitutions of all of the former colonies exhibited similar characteristics. The states, much like the federal government, gave the legislatures far more power than the executive and judicial branches. This was an homage to the constitutional congresses that helped free America and an indictment of the strong executive idea, which was seen as a promotion of monarchy. As well, the states included in their constitutions a “Bill of Rights,” which guaranteed certain rights for citizens such as free assembly and free speech. Such legal groundwork would lead to the addition to ten amendments to the American Constitution in 1787. In response to the Anglican Church’s dominance in England, the states refused a state church in favor of a secular government. These constitutions also included manumission laws, which made it legal for slave owners to free slaves, including some states abolishing the slave trade and loosening the slave codes that dictated slave behavior. Finally, the states tried to create an intellectually sound environment by encouraging writing, the arts, and science in state schools and universities.

The Articles of Confederation promoted some very liberal policies but did not bind the states in any significant way. The idea was a “firm league of friendship” that allowed states to maintain sovereignty and help other states when necessary (mostly common defense of the American confederacy). The federal legislature, however, was a weak body that relied on the dictates of state and local governments. Each state legislature determined the delegates that would go to the federal legislature and each state received one vote, with a two-thirds majority necessary to pass federal laws. However, federal laws were limited to taxation, trade, currency, and diplomacy (military power was left to state militias). The weakness of a mandate for the federal government led to several problems. The economy was heavily reliant on British imports and had trouble convincing other European nations to take them seriously as a world power. The foreign relations capacity of the state delegates was limited and without a strong executive, the British were able to neutralize American efforts at diplomacy and trade, the Spanish were antagonistic to states along the western and souther borders, and the French were reluctant partners that wanted to keep an American nation at bay.

These problems were soon resolved with the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The convention, beginning in Annapolis in 1786 to resolve a trade issue between Maryland and Virginia, began to address the major problems and the states resolved to meet and reconstitute the American government. The state legislatures agreed that the Confederate Congress would meet to amend the Articles on May 25, 1787. The Philadelphia convention led to the trashing of the Articles, compromise on issues such as taxation (3/5 compromise), the balance of federal powers, and the creation of an Electoral College. A bicameral legislature, a Supreme Court, and an executive office were created, along with an entirely new Constitution based on the principles common between supporters and opponents of a strong federal government: freedom, liberty, and sound government.