AP Government -Chap 2 Module 2-

Articles of Confederation

• Idea of organizing a unified government was not a new idea
  
  • Proposed during French and Indian war
    
• Ben Franklin proposed Albany plan of Union:
  
  • Annual congress of delegates for all 13 colonies
    
    • Organize military
      
    • Regulate trade
      
    • Collect taxes
      
  • Had support of people at meeting, but no colony ratified it and Britain would not endorse it
    
  • Laid ground for future America
    
• During revolutionary war a unified government was established
  
• Articles of Confederation:
  
  • Adopted in 1777
    
  • Enacted in 1781
    
  • Established a league of friendship for security and defense
    
  • Limited power to government
    
  • Each state held power and freedom
    
  • Colonies had a national identity
    
  • Allowed passage of Northwest Ordinance of 1787
    
    • New state creation
      
    • Outlawed slavery in territory
      
    • Set aside land for education
      
    • Encouraged development of land
      
  • National gov. with no real power was ineffective
    
  • Unable to regulate commerce, economic rivalry between states occurred while the government could do nothing
    
  • Led to territorial conflicts and civil unrest
    
  • Armed uprising: Shay's Rebellion
    
    • Led to debt relief being approved
      
    • This and other rebellions led to showing the weakness of the Articles
      

      
      

  The State of Constitutions:
  

• Colonies drafted their own state constitutions
  
  • Combined Britain's legal respect for status, fairness, and due process with American inclusions such as individualism
    
  • Checks and balances in legislative government; division of power
    
    • Executive veto, judicial review, and legislative confirmation of appointments
      
  • Civil liberties protected
    
  • Legal voting requirements, lower requirements for political offices
    
  • Women excluded in the constitutions, slaves were not human beings
    
  • Farmers would appeal to state legislatures for relief from debt
    
    • Series of funding denials followed=Caused frustrations
      
      • Shay's Rebellion
        
  • Continental congress could not help, they did not have power over states
    
    • Congress was busy with debts from the Revolution
      
    • Depression in colonies were making things worse
      
    • France and Spain restricted trade and closed ports to American trade
      

  
  

  The U.S. Constitution
  

• 1786 :
  
  • Depression
    
  • Convention in Maryland arranged in hopes of finding a solution
    
    • Only 5 states sent delegates
      
    • Actions put off until all states were represented
      
  • May:
    
    • Philadelphia convention
      
      • 12 delegates; RI did not show up
        
      • Began writing a new doc
        
      • All goals were different
        
        • Discussions were unfocused
          
        • Talked about sovereignty, land protection, right protection
          
      • Agreed on the dangers of factions and parties and the need to control them
        
      • Found common ground on several issues:
        
        • State of human nature
          
        • Causes of political conflict
          
        • Objects of government
          
        • Nature of a republican government
          
      • Legislative Rep.
        
        • Two Proposals:
          
          • New Jersey Plan:
            
            • Equal representation regardless of population
              
          • Virginia Plan:
            
            • Representation based on population
              
        • Sherman and Johnson proposed The Great Compromise
          
          • Would have a…
            
            • Senate: two members from each state
              
            • House of Reps.: Based on population
              
      • Slavery:
        
        • Those who wanted to abolish it met great conflict with Southern reps.
          
        • Decided congress could limit future importation
          
        • South wanted slaves to be counted for reps.
          
          • North replied that if they were being represented then they should be counted for taxation
            
          • Met with the 3-5ths Compromise: 3 of 5 slaves counted
            
      • Stronger executive braches with national court system
        
      • Agreed to allow:
        
        • Regulation of nations commerce and economy
          
        • Power to levy taxes
          
        • Pay debts
          
        • Borrow money
          
        • Create money and regulate its value
          
        • Regulate domestic and international commerce
          
        • Establish bankruptcy laws
          

        
        

  TERMS TO KNOW:
  

  Albany Plan of Union: Proposal by Ben Franklin that called for an annual congress of delegates with the authority to organize military forces, regulate trade, and collect taxes. Not ratified.
  

  Articles of Confederation: Adopted in 1777 and enacted in 1781, the Articles of Confederation created a model for what later became the United States Government by instituting a government with a unicameral legislature and leaving most authority with the state legislatures.
  

  Check and Balances: An important part of the Madisonian model designed to limit government's power by requiring that power be balanced among the different governmental institutions. These institutions continually restrict or check one another's activities, reflecting Madison's goal of setting power against power.
  

  Connecticut Compromise: The compromise reached at the Constitutional Convention that established two houses of Congress: the House of Representatives, in which representation is based on a state's share of the U.S. population, and the Senate, in which each state has two representatives. Also known as the "Great Compromise."
  

  Factions: Interest groups that develop from the unequal distribution of property or wealth. Today's parties or interest groups are what James Madison had in mind when he warned in Federalist Paper No. 10 of the instability in government caused by factions.
  

  Jew Jersey Plan: Proposed at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the New Jersey Plan called for equal representation of each state in Congress, regardless of the state's population.
  

  Northwest Ordinance: Officially titled ''An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North-West of the River Ohio,'' the Northwest Ordinance was passed on July 13, 1787. It encouraged development of the area that eventually became the states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and it established a method for new state creation, outlawed slavery in the territory, and set aside land for education.
  

  Philadelphia Convention: In May of 1787, delegates representing 12 of the 13 states attended a convention in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. However, the delegates chose to write a new document, which became the United States Constitution.
  

  Shay's Rebellion: A series of attacks on courthouses by a small group of farmers led by Revolutionary War captain Daniel Shays to block farm foreclosure proceedings.
  

  3-5ths Compromise: Compromise between the Northern and Southern states at the Constitutional Convention stipulating that 3 of every 5 slaves would be counted for purposes of representation and taxation.
  

  Virginia Plan: Proposed at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the Virginia Plan called for representation of each state in Congress in proportion to that state's share of the U.S. population.