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Chapter 07 - Founding a Nation, 1783-1789

  1. America under the Articles of Confederation
    1. The Articles of Confederation
      1. Origins
        1. Drafting
        2. Ratification
      2. Structure
      3. Extent and limits of powers
    2. Disposition of the West
      1. Competing agendas
        1. Indians
        2. Settlers
        3. Land companies and speculators
      2. Congressional measures
        1. Acquisition of Indian lands
          1. Northern
          2. Southern
        2. Ordinance of 1784
        3. Ordinance of 1785
        4. Sale of frontier lands to private groups
        5. Northwest Ordinance of 1787
          1. Plan for future states
          2. Recognition of Indian claim to land
          3. Prohibition of slavery in region
    3. Confederation government under fire
      1. Points of controversy
        1. Unredeemed wartime bonds
        2. Glut of imported goods
        3. State tariffs
        4. State debt relief measures
        5. State issuance of paper money
      2. Shays's Rebellion
        1. Objectives and spirit
        2. Suppression
        3. Upper-class alarm
      3. Nationalist impulse
        1. Concerns
          1. Lack of national economic policy
          2. Popular infringement on property rights
          3. Social disorder
        2. Leading figures
          1. James Madison
          2. Alexander Hamilton
        3. Main sources of support
          1. Bondholders
          2. Large landholders
          3. Merchants
          4. Urban artisans
        4. Initial mobilization
  2. A new constitution
    1. Delegates to Constitutional Convention
      1. Elite backgrounds
      2. Shared experience in struggle for independence
      3. Shared aims
        1. Stronger national authority
        2. Curbs on "excesses of democracy"
    2. Structure of government
      1. Points of agreement
        1. Creation of legislative, executive, and judicial branches
        2. Congressional power to raise revenue
        3. Protection of property rights from state infringement
        4. Middle ground between excessive central power and excessive democracy
      2. Debate over structure of Congress
        1. Underlying issues
          1. Balance between state and federal power
          2. Balance between large and small state interests
        2. Competing proposals
          1. Virginia plan
          2. New Jersey plan
        3. Compromise solution
    3. Extent and limits of democracy
      1. Expansions of democracy
        1. Popular election of House of Representatives
        2. Absence of property qualifications for voting
      2. Limits of democracy
        1. Small size of House of Representatives
        2. Indirect election of Senate
        3. Indirect election of president and vice-president
        4. Life appointments to Supreme Court
    4. Division of powers; federalism
      1. Expanded national authority
        1. Presidential powers
        2. Congressional powers
        3. Supremacy of national over state legislation
      2. Remaining areas of state power
    5. Separation of powers; checks and balances
    6. The slavery question
      1. Controversy over
      2. Outcomes
        1. Absence of mention in constitution
        2. Slave trade clause
        3. Fugitive slave clause
        4. Three-fifths clause
    7. Conclusion of Constitutional Convention
      1. Approval of final draft
      2. Transmission to states for ratification
  3. Ratification debate and Bill of Rights
    1. Federalists
      1. Mobilization
        1. Leadership of Madison, Hamilton, Jay; The Federalist
        2. Support among urban and commercial agricultural interests
      2. Positions
        1. Strong national government as guarantor of liberty
        2. Urgency of balancing democracy and property rights
        3. Securing rights by "extending the sphere"
        4. "Liberal" self-interest over "republican" virtue
    2. Anti-Federalists
      1. Mobilization
        1. Diffuse leadership
        2. Support among small farmers, state politicians
      2. Positions
        1. Strong national government as threat to liberty
          1. Specter of domination by elite interests
          2. Specter of denial of rights
        2. Locally based democracy over "extended sphere"
    3. Ratification
    4. Bill of Rights
      1. Impetus behind
      2. Key provisions
      3. Significance and legacy
  4. National identity in the new republic
    1. Ethnic vs. civil criteria
    2. Indians in the new nation
      1. Conflicting approaches of white Americans
        1. Exclusion
        2. Incorporation
      2. Early national policies
        1. Marginalization of Indians in constitution
        2. Appropriation of Indian lands under treaty system
        3. Ohio Valley conflicts and Treaty of Greenville
          1. Indian relinquishment of Ohio and Indiana lands
          2. Establishment of "annuity system"
        4. Program to encourage American-style agriculture
          1. Prescriptions for "male" and "female" labor
          2. Widespread rejection by tribes
    3. Blacks in the new nation
      1. Access to rights of citizenship
        1. Ambiguous status of free blacks
        2. Unambiguous exclusion of enslaved blacks
        3. Explicit denial of black eligibility for naturalization
      2. Growing view of blacks as inassimilable
        1. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer
        2. Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia

 

Subject: 
US History
Subject X2: 
US History

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