The Beginning of Our United States
The British government had enormous problems after the enduring victory over France in the Seven Years War. The Seven Years War had virtually doubled the national public debt, and the attainment of half the territory in North America had vastly compounded the problems of controlling the empire. These circumstances required new revenues for the empire, and the ruling circles in Great Britain believed that the colonists were best able to provide the necessary funds to re-pay the national public debt (American History [Vol. 1] p.123). Accordingly, measures to secure enforcement of the Navigation Acts, which excluded all non-British ships from the colonial carrying trade, were adopted by the British Parliament in 1764. In order to obtain additional revenue, Parliament in 1765 replaced the Molasses Act with a Stamp Act, requiring Americans to validate various documents, transactions, and purchases by buying and applying stamps issued by the royal government (Encarta: Sugar & Molasses Act, 1999). There was a widespread anger among the American colonists with the passage of the Stamp Act, especially in states such a
Thorpe, F.N. "New England Articles of Confederation (1643)." American Charters, Constitutions and Organic Laws, Vol. I, pg. 77-81, (1995). Brinkley, Alan, American History: A Survey, Vol. 1: to 1877, Tenth Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999. From 1776 to 1781 the states had been governed by the Continental Congress, which assumed certain executive powers, such as raising an army, borrowing money from foreign countries, and concluding treaties with Great Britain (Grolier: Articles of Confederation, 1993). These powers in effect made the Congress a replacement for the king. They were relieved shortly after independence, in an agreement known as the Articles of Confederation which was the first constitution of America (Encarta: Articles of Confederation, 1999). The articles were approved by the Congress in 1777 and were ratified successfully by the various states, ending with Maryland in 1781 (Grolier: Articles of Confederation, 1993). Maryland was slow to ratify because it lacked a colonial charter, and feared that other states that claimed vast western reserves would dominate the union because of their size. It agreed to enter the confederation only if all the states concerned ceded to the Union their western claims. The states involved eventually agreed. Beginning with New York in 1781 and ending with Georgia in 1802, all made the necessary cessions (Encarta: Articles of Confederation, 1999). Under the Articles of Confederation, the states' explicitly retained their power, which meant that their individual legislature remained supreme in matters of taxation and administration of justice, as provided by their own constitutions. Congress was a body in which only the states, not the people, were represented. It functioned as a large plural executive, not as a legislature (Grolier: Articles of Confederation, 1993). Therefore, Congress could only ask the states for money to run the government, and depending on the states feelings toward the issue at hand might or might not contribute funds to the government. Although Congress had power to issue its own currency and to borrow money on behalf of the United States, it had no authority over the internal finances of the states, which issued currency and borrowed money on their own. In the unstable financial climate of the post-revolutionary America, these limitations on its power prevented the Congress from keeping domestic peace (Encarta: Articles of Confederation, 1999). Knowledge Adventure, Inc. (1998): Boston Tea Party: A tax on tea? Never! [On-line]. Available: http://www.letsfindout.com/subjects/america/tea.html The more devoted nationalists, including Madison and Hamilton, believed that the Articles of Confederation would most likely have to be discarded. The delegates tricked the Congress in 1787 by telling them they were going to propose amendments to the Articles of Confederation, even though the delegates were planning on writing a new Constitution (Grolier: Constitution, 1993). Meeting at Philadelphia from May to September 1788, in which the delegates picked George Washington as their president, the convention drew up the Constitution of the United States of America (Encarta: Wash
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Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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