Chapter Study Outline

  • I. The Confederation Government
    • A. Called the “critical period“
    • B. Nature of congressional administration during the war
      • 1. Limitations
      • 2. Accomplishments
    • C. Financial problems of the government
      • 1. Robert Morris, secretary of finance
      • 2. Use of public debt to secure support for the nation
      • 3. Failed scheme for a national bank
      • 4. Newburgh Conspiracy
      • 5. Growth of domestic debt
    • D. Development of a land policy
      • 1. Direct congressional authority prevailed
      • 2. Early land ordinances
      • 3. The Northwest Ordinance
      • 4. The Ohio Company of Associates
      • 5. Indian treaties made to gain claim to western lands
    • E. Effects of the war on the economy
      • 1. Commercial agriculture suffers downturn
      • 2. Mercantile adjustments
      • 3. Trade treaties opened new markets
      • 4. Commerce and exports in “critical period“ compared to colonial era
    • F. Diplomacy
      • 1. Problems with Britain
        • a. British retained forts along the Canadian border
        • b. Americans refused to pay pre-war debts to British
        • c. Treatment of Loyalists
      • 2. Problems with Spain
        • a. Southern boundary
        • b. Right of United States to Mississippi River
    • G. Efforts of states to exclude imperial trade
    • H. Effects of shortage of cash
      • 1. Demands for legal paper currency
      • 2. Depreciation of paper currency varied
      • 3. Paper money chaos in Rhode Island
    • I. Shays’s Rebellion
      • 1. Farmers demands paper money
      • 2. Militia responds
      • 3. Legislature lowers taxes
      • 4. Conflicting responses
    • J. Demands grow for central authority
  • II. Adopting the Constitution
    • A. Preliminary steps to the convention
      • 1. Mount Vernon meeting of 1785
      • 2. Annapolis meeting of 1786
      • 3. Call for the Constitutional convention
    • B. Nature of the convention
      • 1. Delegates
      • 2. James Madison
      • 3. Political philosophy represented at the convention
    • C. Major issues of dispute
      • 1. Basis for representation
        • a. Virginia plan
        • b. New Jersey plan
        • c. Great Compromise
      • 2. Disputes between North and South
        • a. The three-fifths compromise
        • b. African slave trade protected
      • 3. Women’s rights not addressed
      • 4. Congress to control naturalization
    • D. Principles incorporated into the Constitution
      • 1. Separation of powers
      • 2. Nature of the office of president
      • 3. Nature of the judicial branch
      • 4. Countervailing forces in the government
      • 5. The amendment process
      • 6. Ratification provisions
  • III. The fight for ratification
    • A. Federalists vs. anti-Federalists
    • B. Charles Beard’s argument
    • C. Arguments of The Federalist
    • D. Federalists and anti-Federalists
    • E. Ratification
      • 1. Several smaller states act first
      • 2. Massachusetts the first close vote
      • 3. New Hampshire is ninth state
      • 4. New York and Virginia approve
    • F. Transition to a new government
    • G. A flexible and resilient Constitution