Chapter 6 The Republican Experiment: A New Political Morality.
-
Upload
godfrey-tucker -
Category
Documents
-
view
219 -
download
2
Transcript of Chapter 6 The Republican Experiment: A New Political Morality.
Chapter 6
The Republican Experiment:
A New Political Morality
A New Political Morality
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Defining Republican Culture
• Republicanism—new core ideology– Uncompromising commitment to liberty and equality– Evangelical notions of high public morality
• Post-Revolutionary divisions– Balancing individual liberty with social order– Balancing property rights with equality
• Varying answers resulted in variety of republican governments
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Living in the Shadow of Revolution
• Revolution introduced unintended changes into American society
• Challenged hierarchical social relations
• Raised fundamental questions about the meaning of equality
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Social and Political Reform
• Cincinnati Crisis
• Changes in laws of inheritance to erase feudal elements
• Property qualifications for voting reduced
• Capitols moved to enable better representation for frontier settlers
• Separation of church and state
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
African Americans in the New Republic
• Abolitionist sentiment spread in wake of the Revolution– John Woolman
• African Americans embraced Declaration’s stress on natural rights
• African American intellectual success made it hard to deny their equality– Benjamin Banneker, math and astronomy
– Phyllis Wheatley, poetry
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
African Americans in the New Republic: Phillis Wheatley
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
African Americans in the New Republic
• Northern states– By 1800, slavery was legally dying in North– Racism and segregation remained
• Southerners debated abolition– Some individuals freed slaves– Economic motives overcame republican ideals – Cotton gin breathed new life into slavery
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
African Americans in the New Republic
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Challenge of Women’s Rights
• Pre-Revolutionary trend ended tyranny in the family– Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education
• Women demanded the natural right of equality
• Nurtured proper values through “Republican Motherhood”
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Challenge of Women’s Rights
• Women more assertive in divorce, economic life
• Denied political and legal rights
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Challenge of Women’s Rights:Abigail Adams
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The States: Experimentsin Republicanism
• Revolutionary state constitutions served as experiments in republican government
• Insights gleaned from state experiences later applied to constructing central government
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Blueprints for State Government
• State constitution writers insisted on preparing written documents
• Precedents in colonial charters, church covenants
• Major break with England’s unwritten constitution
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Natural Rights and theState Constitutions
• State constitutions guaranteed natural rights:– Freedom of religion– Freedom of speech– Freedom of the press– Private property– Trial by jury
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Natural Rights and theState Constitutions
• Governors weakened
• Elected legislatures given most power
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Power to the People
• Procedure for adoption of Constitution pioneered by Massachusetts – Constitution written by a special convention – Ratification by referendum of the people
• Dangers to the new constitutions– Population succumbed to material temptation
and greed– Personal liberty threatened property
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Stumbling Toward a New National Government
• War for independence required coordination among states
• Central government first created to meet wartime need for coordination
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Articles of Confederation
• John Dickinson’s plan for central government– Proposed cession of West to Congress
opposed– Proposed equality in state representation
opposed
• Articles of Confederation severely limited central government’s authority over states
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Articles of Confederation
• Each state had one vote– Could send two to seven representatives
• No executive
• No taxing power
• Amendments required unanimity
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Articles of Confederation
• In charge of foreign and Native American relations, military, and disputes between states
• No western lands
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Articles of Confederation
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Western Land: Key to the First Constitution
• Native Americans lost out when British left
• Maryland’s ratification of Articles delayed for Virginia’s renunciation of western claims
• 1781—Virginia took lead in ceding western claims to Congress
• Other states ceded claims to Congress
• Congress gained ownership of all land west of Appalachians
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Western Land ClaimsCeded by the States
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Northwest Ordinance: The Confederation’s Major Achievement
• Land Ordinance– Orderly division of land into sections and
townships– One section set aside to finance school
system– Land to sell for minimum of $1 gold per acre
• Speculation– Manasseh Cutler and the Ohio Company
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Northwest Ordinance: The Confederation’s Major Achievement
• Northwest Ordinance, 1787– Created three to five new territories in
Northwest– Population of 5,000 may elect Assembly– Population of 60,000 may petition for
statehood– Bill of rights provided– Slavery outlawed
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Northwest Ordinance: The Confederation’s Major Achievement
• South of the Ohio River
• Settlement more chaotic– Daniel Boone and Kentucky– State of Franklin
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Northwest Territory
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Land Ordinance of 1785
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Strengthening Federal Authority
• Dissatisfaction with Confederation
• Economic recovery after the Revolution slow
• People thought stronger central government would restore economic growth
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Nationalist Critique
• Restoration of trade with Britain caused trade deficit and hard currency shortage
• Congress unable to address trade, inflation, and debt
• Congress had no power to tax
• Nationalists versus localists
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Nationalist Critique
• Failure to pay soldiers sparked “Newburgh Conspiracy” (squelched by Washington)
• Failure of reform caused nationalists to consider Articles hopelessly defective
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Diplomatic Humiliation
• Congress failed to get states to collect debts owed British merchants
• In retaliation, British refused to evacuate Ohio River Valley
• 1784—Spain closed New Orleans to American commerce– John Jay to negotiate reopening Mississippi – Instead, signed treaty favoring Northeast– West and South denounced, Congress rejected Jay-
Gardoqui Treaty
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
“Have We Fought for This?”
• By 1785, the country seemed adrift
• Washington: “Was it with these expectations that we launched into a sea of trouble?”
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Genius of James Madison
• By 1780s, recognition of shortcomings of small state republics– Ordinary citizens not virtuous enough for a
republic– Majority did not preserve the property rights of
the minority
• Support for stronger central government
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Genius of James Madison
• James Madison persuaded Americans that large republics could be free and democratic– Competing factions would neutralize each
other– The Federalist No. 10
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Constitutional Reform
• May 1786—Annapolis Convention agreed to meet again, write a new constitution
• Shay’s Rebellion, 1787– Tax revolt of indebted veterans– Symbolized breakdown in law and order as
perceived by propertied classes
• Crisis strengthened support for new central government
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Constitutional Reform: Shay’s Rebellion
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Philadelphia Convention
• Convened May 1787
• Fifty-five delegates from all states except Rhode Island
• Delegates possessed wide practical experience
• Secrecy rule imposed
• Vote by state, needed only a majority instead of nine states
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Inventing a Federal Republic:The Virginia Plan
• Central government may veto all state acts
• Bicameral legislature of state representatives– One house elected, the other appointed
– Larger states would have more representatives
• Chief executive appointed by Congress
• Small states objected to large-state dominance
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Inventing a Federal Republic:The New Jersey Plan
• Congress given greater taxing and trade regulation powers
• Each state would have one vote in a unicameral legislature
• Articles of Confederation otherwise untouched
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Inventing a Federal Republic:William Patterson
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Compromise Saves the Convention
• Each state given two delegates in the Senate—a victory for the small states
• House of Representatives based on population—a victory for the large states
– All money bills must originate in the House
• Three-fifths of the slave population counted toward representation in the House
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Compromising on Slavery
• Issue of slavery threatened Convention’s unity– Northerners tended to be opposed– Southerners threatened to bolt if slavery
weakened
• Slave trade permitted to continue to 1808
• “Great as the evil is, a dismemberment of the Union would be worse.”
—James Madison
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Compromising on Slavery
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Last Details
• July 26—Committee of Detail formed to prepare rough draft
• Revisions to executive– Electoral College selects president– Executive given a veto over legislation– Executive may appoint judges
• Decision that Bill of Rights unnecessary
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
We, the People
• Convention sought to bypass vested interests of state legislatures
• Power of ratification to special state conventions
• Constitution to go into effect upon approval by nine state conventions
• Phrase “We, the People” made Constitution a government of the people, not the states
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Whose Constitution?Struggle for Ratification
• Supporters recognized the Constitution went beyond the Convention’s mandate
• Document referred to states with no recommendation
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Federalists and Antifederalists:Federalists
• Supported the Constitution
• Name suggests they supported less of a strong central government than they did
• Well-organized
• The Federalist Papers
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Federalists and Antifederalists:Antifederalists
• Opposed the Constitution
• Distrusted any government removed from direct control of the people
• Suspected the new Constitution favored the rich and powerful
• Their ideas later reflected in the age of Andrew Jackson
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Federalists and Antifederalists:Progress of Ratification
• No clear correlation between social status and support for Constitution
• Succeeded in winning ratification in eleven states by June 1788
• November 1789—North Carolina ratified
• May 1790—Rhode Island ratified
• Americans closed ranks behind the Constitution
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Ratification of the Constitution
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Elusive Constitution:Search for Original Intent
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Adding the Bill of Rights
• The fruit of Antifederalist activism
• Adding Bill of Rights forestalled Second Constitutional Convention
• Purpose was to protect individual rights from government interference
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Adding the Bill of Rights
• Rights included: – Freedom of assembly, speech, religion,
the press, and bearing arms– Speedy trial by a jury of peers– No unreasonable searches
• First ten amendments added by December 1791
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Adding the Bill of Rights
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Success Depends on the People
• Some Americans complained that the new government had potential for despotism
• Others were more optimistic and saw it as a great beginning for the new nation
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.