E Pluribus Unum

1
E Pluribus Unum

• The Formation of the American Republic
• 1776 - 1790

2
Vital Questions of 1776

• Could war be averted?
• Could the empire be held together?
• Colonial Patriots had seized control of the
  military
• Royal governors had fled
• Local assemblies had established themselves as de
  facto governing bodies
• Practical Question
• Shall independence be declared immediately?
• Underlying Question
• Is man rational and virtuous or is he evil?
• Can man be trusted or not?

3
Original Sin

• Republicans
• Man is good and can be trusted.
• Two basic groups
• New Englanders (John Adams, Sam Adams, John
  Hancock)
• Southerners (Richard Henry Lee, Arthur Lee,
  Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson)
• Considered themselves as the part of Congress
  possessing forwardness and zeal
• Thomas Paine give the people the truth, and
  freedom to discuss it, and all will go well.

4
Original Sin

• Nationalists
• Man is evil and cannot be trusted to do right.
• Three basic groups
• Pennsylvania (Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson)
• New York
• South Carolina low country (John Rutledge, Thomas
  Lynch)
• Considered themselves as the sensible part of
  Congress
• Alexander Hamilton the safest reliance of
  every government is not the goodness of the
  people, but mens interest.

5
Republicanism or Nationalism

• 1763 1773 Nationalists led the resistance
  against the British.
• With the beginning of hostilities, by 1776, the
  Republicans replaced the Nationalists as leaders
  and declared British authority as nonexistent.
• The Republicans did nothing to create a union or
  a government.
• Pendulum begins to swing back and forth between
  the two groups for the next eleven years.

6
Republicans

• Early American republicanism was a political
  theory based on the traditional idea of
  Republican Virtue. Men such as Thomas Jefferson,
  John and Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee and
  Patrick Henry believed that the individual
  citizen should be willing to sacrifice himself
  and his personal good for the good of others.
  They believed that people were basically good
  and, given the truth and freedom to discuss the
  truth, that they would do what was right.
  Republicans believed in the concept of a nation
  only secondarily.

7
Nationalists

• Early American nationalism was a political theory
  based on the idea of a strong central governing
  authority. Men such as Benjamin Franklin, John
  Dickinson, John Rutledge and Alexander Hamilton
  believed that men would always revert to seeking
  their own interests first. They believed that
  man was basically selfish and self-centered
  evil. Therefore men required a strong governing
  body to force them to live peaceably with one
  another and follow the established law of the
  land. They believed in the nation first and in
  republicanism only secondarily.

8
Threats to Nationalism

• On 7 June 1776 Richard Henry Lee moved that
  Congress declare independence.
• Militarily this was a sound decision because
  British troops did not occupy a single foot in
  the colonies.
• Politically, however, the colonies were
  themselves in disarray because of
• State Jealousy
• Absence of a quorum in Congress
• Patriotism depended on the nearness of the enemy
• Varied Colonial goals

9
State Jealousy

• John Dickinson proposed a draft of Articles of
  Confederation and Perpetual Union which led to
  the debate concerning several points between
  various groups of states.
• Voting in Congress equal or proportional voting
• Taxation should tax quotas be based on
  population or land
• Colonial boundaries should Congress be able to
  limit the bounds of the colonies and therefore
  dispose of all western lands separated from the
  states for the general benefit of all.

10
Quorum

• Even the debates over state jealousy had to be
  suspended after a month because of a lack of a
  quorum.
• Seven to eight months would pass before Congress
  could count on a regularly assembled quorum.
• During those months more urgent matters precluded
  consideration of the formation of a permanent
  government.

11
Patriotism

• When threatened by the close proximity of the
  enemy interest in a government peaked in an
  effort for that government to do something
  anything.
• With General Howes evacuation of Boston, rage
  and enthusiasm around Boston declined.
• New York, occupied from September 1776 to
  November 1783, proved consistently nationalistic.
• The Carolinas were dedicated advocates of state
  sovereignty until the British invasion of 1779-80.

12
The Article of Confederation

• Each state retained sovereignty, freedom, and
  independence
• Structure
• Unicameral legislature (1 vote per state)
• No executive to carry out laws (president)
• No judiciary
• Major decisions required super majority of 9
  states
• Powers limited to those necessary to carry on
  war
• Declare war
• Conduct foreign affairs
• Make treaties
• Could not levy taxes or regulate trade
• Amendments required unanimous consents of all
  states

13
Colonial Claims
14
The Northwest Ordinance

• Established stages of settlement
• Called for creation of 3 - 5 new states
• Admitted when population reached specified size
• Territorial expansion and self-government would
  grow together
• Prohibited slavery in Old Northwest

15
Americas Advantages

• Vast size
• Isolation from Europes struggles
• Youthful, dynamic population
• Broad distribution of property literacy among
  white population

16
Americas Disadvantages

• Did not have effective control of much of its
  vast territory
• Population concentrated along Atlantic coast
• Western lands remained in Indians hands
• Primitive communication transportation networks
• Overwhelmingly rural population
• Unity difficult due to populations diversity

17
Profound Questions

• What course of development should the U.S.
  follow?
• How would competing claims be balanced?
• Who should be considered full-fledged members of
  the American people?

18
Institutional Inequalities

• Society (many believed) depended on power of
• Rulers over subjects
• Husbands over wives
• Parents over children
• Employers over servants and apprentices
• Slaveholders over slaves

19
Divergent Voices

• It is ridiculous to think that every silly clown
  and illiterate mechanic deserves a voice in
  government. a conservative elite
• We are all, from the cobbler up to the senator,
  become politicians. a Boston artisan
• Suffrage is a right essential to and inseparable
  from freedom. disfranchised North Carolinians

20
The Right to Vote

• Least democratic change (Southern states)
• VA SC retained property qualification for
  voting
• VA SC, legislature chose governor
• MD high property qualifications for office
  holders
• Most democratic change (Northern states)
• VT removed all property tax qualifications
• PA removed property qualifications

21
Civic Virtue

• Thomas Jefferson No nation can expect to
  be ignorant and free.

22
Early Calls for Emancipation

• Benjamin Rush (1773) Advocates of American
  liberty must espouse the cause of . . . general
  liberty. Slavery is a national crime that will
  one day bring national punishment.
• Thomas Jefferson (1779) Slavery every day
  imposes on its victims more misery, than ages of
  that which we rose in rebellion to oppose.

23
Varied Colonial Goals

• While all or at least most espoused the
  rights of Englishmen and the rights of man,
  different colonies supported the revolution while
  pursuing different goals.
• Failure to obtain the individual colonial goals
  Union and Independence would be a barren gain at
  best.
• Ownership of western lands, more than anything
  else, blocked ratification of the Articles.
• Pennsylvania and Maryland were limited by their
  charters and both felt a need for addition
  territory.
• Following the revolution sectionalism and
  individualism characterized the outlook of the
  newly recognized states.

24
Middle States

• New York strong, energetic and ably led with a
  sound economy ready to secede
• Pennsylvania should have prospered but was
  internally fractured on again and off again
• New Jersey divided between east and west,
  economy in shambles ready for a strong union\
• Delaware little debt but dependent on New York
  and Pennsylvania strongly union

25
Southern States

• Maryland strongly nationalistic because of
  potential gains
• Virginia unconcerned as long as Virginia was
  dominant
• North Carolina indifferent
• South Carolina tended to nationalism though it
  had little to gain
• Georgia indifferent

26
New England

• Massachusetts Shrewd traders, with no place to
  trade following the war split between Bostonians
  and westerners Bostonians wanted energetic
  government, westerners did not
• New Hampshire Who knows??? Most interested in
  being left alone State Constitution passed by
  default Two men in charge winner nationalistic
  but no one really cares
• Rhode Island Different, prosperous, secessionist
  and ostracized concerned mainly with Rhode
  Island.
• Connecticut Highly nationalistic largely because
  the state economy and future prospects were in
  the dumps

27
Congressional Concerns

• Beginning in 1785 Congress began to address three
  problem areas
• Public Debts
• Public Lands
• Regulation of Commerce.
• All three play into the hands of the
  nationalists.
• New Board of Treasury made up entirely of
  nationalists
• Massachusetts debt ridden and internally divided
• Virginia dreamed of becoming a tobacco planters
  haven

28
Mt. Vernon Conference

• Spring 1785 Virginia and Maryland appoint
  commissioners to draw up a bistate agreement
  concerning the use of the Potomac and Pocomoke
  Rivers and Chesapeake Bay.
• This conference weakened the quest for a stronger
  union.
• Worked outside the Confederation to settle
  interstate commercial problems
• Five participants were not enthusiastic about the
  union.
• Samuel Chase Maryland
• Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer Maryland
• Thomas Stone Maryland
• Alexander Henderson Virginia
• George Mason Virginia
• Moved from Alexandria Virginia to Washingtons
  home at Mount Vernon.
• Participants agree to
• Bi-state control of the waterways
• Recommend to their respective state governments
  that another convention be held to establish a
  state navy on the Chesapeake and
• Schedule a uniform, state enacted tariff for the
  area.
• Both Virginia and Maryland ratify the agreement
  by November 1785.
• Maryland then proposes another multi-state
  compact with Pennsylvania and Delaware.
• Meanwhile, between October 1, 1785 and January
  31, 1786 Congress can conduct business on only 10
  days because of a lack of quorum there were
  never more than seven states represented at any
  one time during this period.
• Between October 1, 1785 and April 30, 1786 the
  minimum required state representatives (9) were
  present only three days.

29
Annapolis Convention

• By September 1786, the Congress had ceased to
  function and on the 11th the Annapolis Convention
  opened.
• With no quorum present nationalists prevented a
  quorum from being permitted.
• This small band of men had previously decided to
  declare efforts to repair commercial difficulties
  hopeless and then call for a full-fledged
  constitution convention.
• Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Dickinson
  conspired to work around a congress that did not
  trust its own members and would never call for a
  convention to revise the Articles because they
  feared stronger general government control yet
  despised the states and guarded their own
  prerogative even though they had no power.

30
New England in an Uproar

• Economic woes on New England during 1786 proceed
  from bad to worse spreading from Massachusetts to
  New Hampshire.

Shays Rebellion Late 1786-early 1787 Led by
Daniel Shays, a rev. war veteran Debt-ridden
farmers Closed courts to prevent land
foreclosures MA governor used army to
suppress Stoked fears of excess liberty
Thomas Jefferson A little rebellion now and
then is a good thing. God forbid we should ever
be twenty years without such a rebellion.