South Carolina, to confront British 1781, after being trapped at York-
forces led by General Charles Corn- town near the mouth of Chesapeake
wallis . But Gates’s makeshift army Bay, Cornwallis surrendered his
panicked and ran when confronted army of 8,000 British soldiers .
by the British regulars . Cornwallis’s
Although Cornwallis’s defeat
troops met the Americans several did not immediately end the war —
more times, but the most signifi- which would drag on inconclusively
cant battle took place at Cowpens, for almost two more years — a new
South Carolina, in early 1781, where British government decided to pur-
the Americans soundly defeated sue peace negotiations in Paris in
the British . After an exhausting but early 1782, with the American side
unproductive chase through North represented by Benjamin Franklin,
Carolina, Cornwallis set his sights John Adams, and John Jay . On April
on Virginia .
15, 1783, Congress approved the fi-
nal treaty . Signed on September 3,
VICTORY AND
the Treaty of Paris acknowledged the
INDEPENDENCE
independence, freedom, and sover-
I
eignty of the 13 former colonies,
n July 1780 France’s King Louis now states . The new United States
XVI had sent to America an expe- stretched west to the Mississippi
ditionary force of 6,000 men under River, north to Canada, and south
the Comte Jean de Rochambeau . In to Florida, which was returned to
addition, the French fleet harassed Spain . The fledgling colonies that
British shipping and blocked re- Richard Henry Lee had spoken of
inforcement and resupply of Brit- more than seven years before had fi-
ish forces in Virginia . French and nally become “free and independent
American armies and navies, total- states .”
ing 18,000 men, parried with Corn-
The task of knitting together a
wallis all through the summer and nation remained .
9
into the fall . Finally, on October 19,
64
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
The American Revolution had a significance far beyond the North American continent. It attracted the attention of a political intelligentsia throughout the European continent. Idealistic notables such as Thaddeus Kosciusko, Friedrich
von Steuben, and the Marquis de Lafayette joined its ranks to affirm liberal
ideas they hoped to transfer to their own nations. Its success strengthened the concept of natural rights throughout the Western world and furthered the Enlightenment rationalist critique of an old order built around hereditary monarchy and an established church. In a very real sense, it was a precursor to the French Revolution, but it lacked the French Revolution’s violence and chaos
because it had occurred in a society that was already fundamentally liberal.
The ideas of the Revolution have been most often depicted as a triumph
of the social contract/natural rights theories of John Locke. Correct so far as it goes, this characterization passes too quickly over the continuing importance
of Calvinist-dissenting Protestantism, which from the Pilgrims and Puritans on had also stood for the ideals of the social contract and the self-governing community. Lockean intellectuals and the Protestant clergy were both important
advocates of compatible strains of liberalism that had flourished in the British North American colonies.
Scholars have also argued that another persuasion contributed to the
Revolution: “republicanism.” Republicanism, they assert, did not deny the
existence of natural rights but subordinated them to the belief that the main-
tenance of a free republic required a strong sense of communal responsibility
and the cultivation of self-denying virtue among its leaders. The assertion of individual rights, even the pursuit of individual happiness, seemed egoistic by contrast. For a time republicanism threatened to displace natural rights as the major theme of the Revolution. Most historians today, however, concede that
the distinction was much overdrawn. Most individuals who thought about such
things in the 18th century envisioned the two ideas more as different sides of the same intellectual coin.
Revolution usually entails social upheaval and violence on a wide scale.
By these criteria, the American Revolution was relatively mild. About 100,000
Loyalists left the new United States. Some thousands were members of old
elites who had suffered expropriation of their property and been expelled;
others were simply common people faithful to their King. The majority of
those who went into exile did so voluntarily. The Revolution did open up and
further liberalize an already liberal society. In New York and the Carolinas,
large Loyalist estates were divided among small farmers. Liberal assumptions
became the official norm of American political culture — whether in the dis-
establishment of the Anglican Church, the principle of elected national and
state executives, or the wide dissemination of the idea of individual freedom.
Yet the structure of society changed little. Revolution or not, most people remained secure in their life, liberty, and property.
65
66
C H A P T E R
4THE
FORMATION
OF A
NATIONAL
GOVERNMENT
George Washington
addressing the
Constitutional Convention
in Philadelphia, 1787.
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
“Every man, and
every body of men on Earth,
possesses the right of
self-government.”
Drafter of the Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson, 1790
STATE CONSTITUTIONS
solid foundation of colonial experi-
T
ence and English practice . But each
he success of the Revolution gave was also animated by the spirit of re-
Americans the opportunity to give publicanism, an ideal that had long
legal form to their ideals as expressed been praised by Enlightenment phi-
in the Declaration of Independence, losophers .
and to remedy some of their griev-
Naturally, the first objective of
ances through state constitutions . the framers of the state constitu-
As early as May 10, 1776, Congress tions was to secure those “unalien-
had passed a resolution advising able rights” whose violation had
the colonies to form new govern- caused the former colonies to repu-
ments “such as shall best conduce diate their connection with Britain .
to the happiness and safety of their Thus, each constitution began with
constituents .” Some of them had al- a declaration or bill of rights . Virgin-
ready done so, and within a year af- ia’s, which served as a model for all
ter the Declaration of Independence, the others, included a declaration of
all but three had drawn up constitu- principles: popular sovereignty, rota-
tions .
tion in office, freedom of elections,
The new constitutions showed and an enumeration of fundamental
the impact of democratic ideas . liberties: moderate bail and humane
None made any drastic break with punishment, speedy trial by jury,
the past, since all were built on the freedom of the press and of con-
68
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
science, and the right of the majority nia), office-holders were required to
to reform or alter the government .
own a certain amount of property .
Other states enlarged the list of
liberties to freedom of speech, of as-
THE ARTICLES OF
sembly, and of petition . Their con-
CONFEDERATION
stitutions frequently included such
provisions as the right to bear arms, The struggle with England had
to a writ of habeas corpus, to invio- done much to change colonial atti-
lability of domicile, and to equal pro- tudes . Local assemblies had rejected
tection under the law . Moreover, all the Albany Plan of Union in 1754, re-
prescribed a three-branch structure fusing to surrender even the smallest
of government — executive, legisla- part of their autonomy to any other
tive, and judiciary — each checked body, even one they themselves had
and balanced by the others .
elected . But in the course of the Rev-
Pennsylvania’s constitution was olution, mutual aid had proved ef-
the most radical . In that state, Phila- fective, and the fear of relinquishing delphia artisans, Scots-Irish frontiers- individual authority had lessened to
men, and German-speaking farmers a large degree .
had taken control . The provincial
John Dickinson produced the
congress adopted a constitution that “Articles of Confederation and Per-
permitted every male taxpayer and petual Union” in 1776 . The Conti-
his sons to vote, required rotation in nental Congress adopted them in
office (no one could serve as a rep- November 1777, and they went into
resentative more than four years out effect in 1781, having been ratified
of every seven), and set up a single- by all the states . Reflecting the fragil-chamber legislature .
ity of a nascent sense of nationhood,
The state constitutions had some the Articles provided only for a very
glaring limitations, particularly by loose union . The national govern-
more recent standards . Constitu- ment lacked the authority to set up
tions established to guarantee people tariffs, to regulate commerce, and to
their natural rights did not secure levy taxes . It possessed scant control
for everyone the most fundamental of international relations: A number
natural right — equality . The colo- of states had begun their own nego-
nies south of Pennsylvania excluded tiations with foreign countries . Nine
their slave populations from their states had their own armies, several
inalienable rights as human beings . their own navies . In the absence of
Women had no political rights . No a sound common currency, the new
state went so far as to permit univer- nation conducted its commerce with
sal male suffrage, and even in those a curious hodgepodge of coins and a
states that permitted all taxpayers to bewildering variety of state and na-
vote (Delaware, North Carolina, and tional paper bills, all fast depreciat-
Georgia, in addition to Pennsylva- ing in value .
69
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
Economic difficulties after the reinforcements from Boston and
war prompted calls for change . The routed the remaining Shaysites,
end of the war had a severe effect on whose leader escaped to Vermont .
merchants who supplied the armies The government captured 14 rebels
of both sides and who had lost the and sentenced them to death, but ul-
advantages deriving from participa- timately pardoned some and let the
tion in the British mercantile system . others off with short prison terms .
The states gave preference to Ameri- After the defeat of the rebellion,
can goods in their tariff policies, but a newly elected legislature, whose
these were inconsistent, leading to majority sympathized with the reb-
the demand for a stronger central els, met some of their demands for
government to implement a uniform debt relief .
policy .
Farmers probably suffered the THE PROBLEM OF EXPANSION
most from economic difficulties
following the Revolution . The
With the end of the Revolution,
supply of farm produce exceeded the United States again had to face
demand; unrest centered chiefly the old unsolved Western ques-
among farmer-debtors who wanted tion, the problem of expansion,
strong remedies to avoid foreclosure with its complications of land, fur
on their property and imprison- trade, Indians, settlement, and lo-
ment for debt . Courts were clogged cal government . Lured by the rich-
with suits for payment filed by their est land yet found in the country,
creditors . All through the summer pioneers poured over the Appala-
of 1786, popular conventions and chian Mountains and beyond . By
informal gatherings in several 1775 the far-flung outposts scat-
states demanded reform in the state tered along the waterways had tens
administrations .
of thousands of settlers . Separated
That autumn, mobs of farmers in by mountain ranges and hundreds
Massachusetts under the leadership of kilometers from the centers of
of a former army captain, Daniel political authority in the East, the
Shays, began forcibly to prevent inhabitants established their own
the county courts from sitting and governments . Settlers from all the
passing further judgments for debt, Tidewater states pressed on into
pending the next state election .
the fertile river valleys, hardwood
In January 1787 a ragtag army of forests, and rolling prairies of the
1,200 farmers moved toward the interior . By 1790 the population of
federal arsenal at Springfield . The the trans-Appalachian region num-
rebels, armed chiefly with staves bered well over 120,000 .
and pitchforks, were repulsed by a
Before the war, several colonies
small state militia force; General had laid extensive and often over-
Benjamin Lincoln then arrived with lapping claims to land beyond the
70
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Appalachians . To those without would be formed as the territory was
such claims this rich territorial prize settled . Whenever any one of them
seemed unfairly apportioned . Mary- had 60,000 free inhabitants, it was
land, speaking for the latter group, to be admitted to the Union “on
introduced a resolution that the an equal footing with the original
western lands be considered com- states in all respects .” The ordinance
mon property to be parceled by the guaranteed civil rights and liberties,
Congress into free and independent encouraged education, and prohib-
governments . This idea was not re- ited slavery or other forms of invol-
ceived enthusiastically . Nonethe- untary servitude .
less, in 1780 New York led the way
The new policy repudiated the
by ceding its claims . In 1784 Virgin- time-honored concept that colonies
ia, which held the grandest claims, existed for the benefit of the mother
relinquished all land north of the country, were politically subordi-
Ohio River . Other states ceded their nate, and peopled by social inferiors .
claims, and it became apparent that Instead, it established the principle
Congress would come into posses- that colonies (“territories”) were an
sion of all the lands north of the extension of the nation and entitled,
Ohio River and west of the Allegh- not as a privilege but as a right, to all
eny Mountains . This common pos- the benefits of equality .
session of millions of hectares was
the most tangible evidence yet of na-
CONSTITUTIONAL
tionality and unity, and gave a cer-
CONVENTION
tain substance to the idea of national
sovereignty . At the same time, these By the time the Northwest Ordi-
vast territories were a problem that nance was enacted, American leaders
required solution .
were in the midst of drafting a new
The Confederation Congress es- and stronger constitution to replace
tablished a system of limited self- the Articles of Confederation . Their
government for this new national presiding officer, George Washing-
Northwest Territory . The Northwest ton, had written accurately that the
Ordinance of 1787 provided for its states were united only by a “rope of
organization, initially as a single sand .” Disputes between Maryland
district, ruled by a governor and and Virginia over navigation on
judges appointed by the Congress . the Potomac River led to a confer-
When this territory had 5,000 free ence of representatives of five states
male inhabitants of voting age, it at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786 .
was to be entitled to a legislature One of the delegates, Alexander
of two chambers, itself electing the Hamilton of New York, convinced
lower house . In addition, it could at his colleagues that commerce was
that time send a nonvoting delegate bound up with large political and
to Congress . Three to five states economic questions . What was re-
71
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
quired was a fundamental rethink-
Massachusetts sent Rufus King
ing of the Confederation .
and Elbridge Gerry, young men of
The Annapolis conference issued ability and experience . Roger Sher-
a call for all the states to appoint man, shoemaker turned judge, was
representatives to a convention to be one of the representatives from
held the following spring in Philadel- Connecticut . From New York came
phia . The Continental Congress was Alexander Hamilton, who had pro-
at first indignant over this bold step, posed the meeting . Absent from the
but it acquiesced after Washington Convention were Thomas Jefferson,
gave the project his backing and was who was serving as minister repre-
elected a delegate . During the next senting the United States in France,
fall and winter, elections were held in and John Adams, serving in the same
all states but Rhode Island .
capacity in Great Britain . Youth pre-
A remarkable gathering of no- dominated among the 55 delegates —
tables assembled at the Federal the average age was 42 .
Convention in May 1787 . The state
Congress had authorized the
legislatures sent leaders with expe- Convention merely to draft amend-
rience in colonial and state govern- ments to the Articles of Confedera-
ments, in Congress, on the bench, tion but, as Madison later wrote, the
and in the army . Washington, re- delegates, “with a manly confidence
garded as the country’s first citizen in their country,” simply threw the
because of his integrity and his mili- Articles aside and went ahead with
tary leadership during the Revolu- the building of a wholly new form
tion, was chosen as presiding officer . of government .
Prominent among the more active
They recognized that the para-
members were two Pennsylvanians: mount need was to reconcile two
Gouverneur Morris, who clearly saw different powers — the power of
the need for national government, local control, which was already
and James Wilson, who labored in- being exercised by the 13 semi-in-
defatigably for the national idea . dependent states, and the power of
Also elected by Pennsylvania was a central government . They adopted
Benjamin Franklin, nearing the end the principle that the functions and
of an extraordinary career of public powers of the national government
service and scientific achievement . — being new, general, and inclusive
From Virginia came James Madison, — had to be carefully defined and
a practical young statesman, a thor- stated, while all other functions and
ough student of politics and history, powers were to be understood as be-
and, according to a col eague, “from longing to the states . But realizing
a spirit of industry and application . . that the central government had to the best-informed man on any point have real power, the delegates also
in debate .” He would be recognized generally accepted the fact that the
as the “Father of the Constitution .”
government should be authorized,
72
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
among other things, to coin money, representation in proportion to the
to regulate commerce, to declare population of the states in one house
war, and to make peace .
of Congress, the House of Represen-
tatives, and equal representation in
DEBATE AND COMPROMISE
the other, the Senate .
T
The alignment of large against
he 18th-century statesmen who small states then dissolved . But al-
met in Philadelphia were adherents most every succeeding question
of Montesquieu’s concept of the
raised new divisions, to be resolved
balance of power in politics . This only by new compromises . Northern-
principle was supported by colo- ers wanted slaves counted when de-
nial experience and strengthened termining each state’s tax share, but
by the writings of John Locke, with not in determining the number of
which most of the delegates were fa- seats a state would have in the House
miliar . These influences led to the of Representatives . Under a com-
conviction that three equal and co- promise reached with little dissent,
ordinate branches of government tax levies and House membership
should be established . Legislative, would be apportioned according to
executive, and judicial powers were the number of free inhabitants plus
to be so harmoniously balanced that three-fifths of the slaves .
no one could ever gain control . The
Certain members, such as Sher-
delegates agreed that the legislative man and Elbridge Gerry, still smart-
branch, like the colonial legislatures ing from Shays’s Rebellion, feared
and the British Parliament, should that the mass of people lacked suf-
consist of two houses .
ficient wisdom to govern themselves
On these points there was una- and thus wished no branch of the
nimity within the assembly . But federal government to be elected di-
sharp differences also arose . Repre- rectly by the people . Others thought
sentatives of the small states — New the national government should be
Jersey, for instance — objected to given as broad a popular base as
changes that would reduce their in- possible . Some delegates wished to
fluence in the national government exclude the growing West from the
by basing representation upon popu- opportunity of statehood; others
lation rather than upon statehood, championed the equality principle
as was the case under the Articles of established in the Northwest Ordi-
Confederation .
nance of 1787 .
On the other hand, representa-
There was no serious difference
tives of large states, like Virginia, on such national economic ques-
argued for proportionate represen- tions as paper money, laws concern-
tation . This debate threatened to go ing contract obligations, or the role
on endlessly until Roger Sherman of women, who were excluded from
came forward with arguments for politics . But there was a need for
73
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
balancing sectional economic in- system with separate legislative, ex-
terests; for settling arguments as to ecutive, and judiciary branches,
the powers, term, and selection of each checked by the others . Thus
the chief executive; and for solving congressional enactments were not
problems involving the tenure of to become law until approved by the
judges and the kind of courts to be president . And the president was to
established .
submit the most important of his ap-
Laboring through a hot Philadel- pointments and all his treaties to the
phia summer, the convention finally Senate for confirmation . The presi-
achieved a draft incorporating in dent, in turn, could be impeached
a brief document the organization and removed by Congress . The ju-
of the most complex government diciary was to hear all cases arising
yet devised, one that would be su- under federal laws and the Con-
preme within a clearly defined and stitution; in effect, the courts were
limited sphere . It would have full em