The American Journey © 2009

Chapter 7: A More Perfect Union

Chapter Overviews

Section 1: The Articles of Confederation

After rejecting British rule, the states’ first task was to establish their own political institutions. Most states quickly adopted constitutions that limited the governor’s power and established a strong legislature. On a national level, the Articles of Confederation established a weak central government and strong states’ rights.

As people moved west, the country needed a process for new states joining the Union. In 1785 Congress passed an ordinance to survey and publicly auction off the western lands north of the Ohio River. The Northwest Ordinance, passed in 1787, created territories within the area that could petition for statehood once the population reached 60,000.

Congress faced other challenges, including a collapse of the country’s finances, and disputes with Britain and Spain. These issues revealed the serious weaknesses of the Confederation government.

Section 2: Convention and Compromise

Frustrated that the Confederation government was too weak to deal with the nation’s economic depression and other problems, many Americans wanted to change the Articles of Confederation. In 1787 Daniel Shays led angry farmers in a rebellion that the Massachusetts state militia was not able to control. The issue of whether slavery should be abolished also divided and unsettled the new country.

National leaders gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 for a convention to reshape the government. George Washington presided over the meetings, in which state delegates considered the Virginia and New Jersey Plans. The Great Compromise settled how states would be represented, and the Three-Fifths Compromise declared that—for purposes of taxation and representation—an enslaved person counted as three-fifths of a free person. Although three delegates refused to sign, a draft of the new Constitution was approved.

Section 3: A New Plan of Government

As the Framers wrote the Constitution, they borrowed ideas from other political systems and philosophers of the Enlightenment. The Constitution created a federal system that divided powers between the national government and the states. Disputes between the two levels of government would be settled by the federal courts, using the Constitution as the final and supreme authority. In a further effort to decentralize power, the Framers divided government between three branches—legislative, executive, and judicial—and built in a system of checks and balances. After many heated debates that took place throughout the country, nine of the thirteen states ratified the Constitution.

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