Cobbs-Hoffman Elizabeth, Blum Edward J., Gjerde Jon. Major Problems in American History, Volume I, 3 edition (ENG)
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of the Revolution—abolition of slavery; full citizenship for all free people; greater
women’s rights; the integrity of Native American land and political sovereignty;
the entitlements of laboring people on farms and in cities; more equitable taxes;
public education; religious toleration—reemerged in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. Some of these planks in the radical platform, such as strict
limits for legislators or gender equality, are still agenda items today….
FURTHER READING
Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British
North America, 1754–1766 (2001).
T. H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Inde-
pendence (2004).
Edward Countryman, The American Revolution (1985).
Marc Egnal, A Mighty Empire: The Origins of the American Revolution (1988).
David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (1995).
Sylvia Frey, Water from the Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age (1991).
Linda K. Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America
(1997).
Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (1998).
Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (1982).
Gary B. Nash, The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the
Struggle to Create America (2006).
Mary Beth Norton, Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women,
1750–1800 (1980).
Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character,
1775–1783 (1996).
Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1993).
Alfred F. Young, Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier
(2004).
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 133
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CHAPTER 5
The Making of the Constitution
In late May 1787, George Washington called to order a convention of fifty-five delegates
in Philadelphia. Throughout a hot, steamy summer, this group deliberated and argued until
it arrived at a plan to restructure the government of the United States. The Constitution, as
it was called, was a controversial reform, and it was not ratified by the nine states necessary
for it to take effect until the summer of 1788. Yet the Constitution continues to be the
framework of the United States, one of the oldest frameworks of government still in place
in the twenty-first century. Many Americans at the time, however, were not convinced of
the wisdom of the Constitution or optimistic about its meaning for the future of the United
States.
The Constitution was not the first framework of government for the country; the
Articles of Confederation, which offered a less centralized government than the Constitution
proposed, had been ratified in 1781. The central government under the Articles had lim-
ited powers: it had no power to tax, it could not compel the states to contribute to financing
its operations, and it could not enforce a uniform commercial policy. Its structure was weak
as well. It had no executive branch and no separate judiciary; instead, it relied on a legis-
lature in which each state had equal representation. Given the United States’s recent ex-
periences with a monarchy, many Americans were satisfied with a decentralized
government. And the Articles period was not without its successes. Perhaps its most notable
achievement was the Northwest Ordinance, which laid the groundwork for the method by
which new states would enter the Union. Still many Americans soon concluded that the
government was inadequate to meet the country’s needs.
The shortcomings of the Articles were exacerbated by the crises that the new nation
encountered. An economic depression wracked the nation shortly after the conclusion of
war in 1781, and this was accompanied by a monetary crisis as the value of paper money
declined. The phrase “not worth a Continental” came into usage, indicating the declining
value of the new nation’s currency. These difficulties were compounded by diplomatic and
commercial failures. The British continued to occupy western forts on American territory,
and Congress could not establish a national commercial policy because federal tariffs could be
passed only if all the states agreed to them. As the postwar depression worsened, Americans
began to pressure their government for relief. In western Massachusetts, farmers pleaded for
lower taxes and a larger supply of money. When the state government rejected all of their
134
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requests in 1786, a group of farmers began forcibly closing down the courts in which debtors
were tried. Under the leadership of Daniel Shays, this rebellion spread throughout western
Massachusetts, and it was ended only by calling out the state militia. Once Shays’s Rebel-
lion was put down, John Adams, who years before had led his own revolution, called these
rebels “ignorant, restless, desperadoes, without conscience or principles.” Many Americans
concluded that the limited government under the Articles was a failure.
Given these concerns, the members of the Constitutional Convention sought to restruc-
ture the national government. Their deliberations resulted in a government with three
branches, including an executive and a judiciary, as well as a legislature. The legislative
branch was bicameral, with one house providing equal representation to all states and the
other providing proportional representation based on population. The president was elected
by the electoral college, in which the number of electors from each state was equal to the
number of that state’s senators and representatives. Perhaps most controversial was the
three-fifths compromise, which included three-fifths of the slave population in a state’s head-
count; this increased the power of the states in which slavery existed.
The framers provided that the Constitution had to be ratified by nine of thirteen state
conventions before it would become the law of the land. The national debate quickly divided
the Federalists, who favored ratification, from the Antifederalists, who did not. The latter
group argued that the Constitution was an exercise in elitism that would lead to rule by a
wealthy, unrepresentative minority. They lauded the Revolution that had just been won
and warned that the Constitution might lead to a return to “despotism” and “tyranny, ”
pointing to the absence of a Bill of Rights to support their claim. In contrast, the Federalists,
most brilliantly represented by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in The
Federalist Papers, argued that the United States was in crisis and that the Constitution
would preserve the republic and promote economic prosperity. When Jay and Hamilton
pledged to support a Bill of Rights should the Constitution be ratified, they undercut much
of the Antifederalist argument. By 1788, ratification was complete and the course of the
United States changed yet again.
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
Would the United States have survived as a nation if the Articles of Confedera-
tion had remained the framework of government? How would government and
society have differed if the Articles had not been replaced by the Constitution?
Was the framing and ratification of the Constitution “counterrevolutionary”?
Compare and contrast the focus upon religious freedom and physical enslave-
ment. How did the United States justify slavery, but accept freedom of religion?
How important was slavery in this chaotic time?
DOCUMENTS
Document 1, an abridgement of the Articl es of Confederation, illustrates the
power of states and the weakness of the national government. Pivotal ques-
tions, ranging from the place of religion in the republic to the status of slavery,
THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION 135
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had to be decided by the new nation, as the next four documents illustrate.
Document 2 is a petition from Cato, “apoornegro,” to the Pennsylvania
Assembly, urging it to reject conservative attempts to repeal a law that set in
motionanendtoslavery.SlaveholdersinVirginiasoughttoprotectslaveryin
document 3. With petitions, they urged the retention of slavery. Document 4
is a proposal authored by Thomas Jefferson that provides for the formal protec-
tion of religious freedom in Virginia. Documents 5 and 6 describe Shays’s
Rebellionin1787whenthemilitiawascalledouttoputdownanuprising
of farmers. The next two documents explore the debates surrounding the Con-
stitution. Document 7 includes excerpts from The Federalist Papers, aseriesof
eighty-five essays written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay
in 1787 and 1788 to explain and defend the Constituti on. In contrast, Patrick
Henry, in documen t 8, condemns the Con stitution as creating a government
that is too c entralized. Finally, George Washington, in document 9, commits
his nation to religiou s freedom in his letter to a Jewish congregation in Rhode
Island. T his is the first public declaration that Jews in the United States would
be guaranteed religious freedom.
1. The Articles of Confederation Stress
the Rights of States, 1781
Preamble
To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the
States affixed to our Names send greeting.
Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the States of
New Hampshire, Massachusetts bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
Article I. The Stile of this Confederacy shall be “The United States of
America.”
Article II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and
every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly
delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
Article III. The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friend-
ship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties,
and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other,
against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on ac-
count of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.
Article V. For the most convenient management of the general interests of
the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the
legislatures of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday
The Articles of Confederation (1777, ratified and in force 1781).
136 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each State to recall its
delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their
stead for the remainder of the year….
In determining questions in the United States in Congress assembled, each
State shall have one vote….
Article VIII. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred
for the common defense or general welfare, and allowed by the United States in
Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be
supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of all land within each
State, granted or surveyed for any person, as such land and the buildings and
improvements thereon shall be estimated according to such mode as the United
States in Congress assembled, shall from time to time direct and appoint.
The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority
and direction of the legislatures of the several States within the time agreed upon
by the United States in Congress assembled.
Article IX.…The United States in Congress assembled shall never engage in a
war, nor grant letters of marque or reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any trea-
ties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the
sums and expenses necessary for the defense and welfare of the United States, or
any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the United States,
nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war, to be built or
purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a com-
mander in chief of the army or navy, unless nine States assent to the same: nor shall
a question on any other point, except for adjourning from day to day be determined,
unless by the votes of the majority of the United States in Congress assembled.
2. Cato, an African American, Pleads for the Abolition
of Slavery in Pennsylvania, 1781
Mr. PRINTER.
I AM a poor negro, who with myself and children have had the good for-
tune to get my freedom, by m eans of an act of assembly passed on the first of
March 1780, and should now with my family be as happy a set of people as any
on the face of the earth; but I am told the assembly are going to pass a law to
send us all back to our masters. Why dear Mr. Printer, this would be the
cruellest act that ever a sett of worthy good gentlemen could be guilty of. To
make a law to hang us all, wou ld be merciful, when compared with this law.…
I have read the act which made me free, and I always read it with joy—and I
always dwell with particular pleasure on the following words, spoken by the
assembly in the top of the said law. “We esteem it a particular b lessing granted
to us, that we are enabled this day to add one more step to universal civilization,
by removing as much as possible the sorrows of those, who have lived in
From collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Obtained from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h73t.
html.
THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION
137
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undeserved bondage, and f rom which, by the a ssumed au thority of the kin gs of
Great Britain, no effectual legal relief could be obtained.” Seeitwastheking
of Great Britain that kept us in slavery before.––Now surely, after saying so, it
cannot be possible for them to make slaves of us again––nobody, but the king
of England can do i t ––and I sincerely pray, that he may never have it in his
power.… [W]hat is most serious than all, what will our great father think of
such doings? But I pray that he may be pleased to tern the hearts of the honour-
able assembly from this cruel law; and that he will be pleased to make us poor
blacks deserving of his mercies.
CATO.
3. Slaveholders in Virginia Argue Against
the Abolition of Slavery, 1784–1785
Gentlemen,
When the British parliament usurped a Right to dispose of our Property
without our consent we dissolved the Union with our parent country and estab-
lished a … government of our own. We risked our Lives and Fortunes, and
waded through Seas of Blood … we understand a very subtle and daring attempt
is made to dispossess us of a very important Part of our Property … TO WREST
US FROM OUR SLAVES, by an act of Legislature for general emancipation.
It is unsupported by Scripture. For we find in the Old Testament… slavery
was permitted by the Deity himself.…It is also exceedingly impolitic. For it in-
volves in it, and is productive of Want, Poverty, Distress, and Ruin to FREE
citizens, Neglect, Famine and Death to the black Infant.… The Horrors of all
Rapes, Murders, and Outrages which a vast multitude of unprincipled unproper-
tied, revengeful and remorseless Banditti are capable of perpetrating … sure and
final Ruin to this now flourishing free and happy Country.
We solemnly adjure and humbly pray that you will discountenance and
utterly reject every motion and proposal for emancipating our slaves.…
Some men of considerable weight to wrestle from us, by an Act of the leg-
islature, the most valuable and indispensable Article of our Property, our
SLAVES by general emancipation of them.… Such a scheme indeed consists
very well with the principles and designs of the North, whose Finger is suffi-
ciently visible in it.… No language can express our indignation, Contempt and
Detestation of the apostate wretches.…It therefore cannot be admitted that any
man had a right … to divest us of our known rights to property which are so
clearly defined.… To an unequivocal Construction therefore of this Bill of rights
we now appeal and claim the utmost benefits of… in whatever may tend… to
preserve our rights … secure to us the Blessings of the free….
And we shall ever Pray….
Petitions submitted in several Virginia counties in 1784 with almost 300 signatures and in Lundenburg County in 1785
with 161 signatures, from collections of the Library of Virginia. Obtained from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/
2h65.html.
138 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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4. Thomas Jefferson Proposes the Protection
of Religious Freedom in Virginia, 1786
Whereas, Almighty God has created the mind free; that all attempts to influence
it by temporal punishment, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to
beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the
Holy Author of our religion, who, being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose
not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do;
that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiasti-
cal, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed do-
minion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of
thinking as the only true and infallible and as such endeavoring to impose them
on others, have established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of
the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of
money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyran-
nical, and even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own reli-
gious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his
contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern,
and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing
from the ministry those temporary rewards which, proceeding from an approba-
tion of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unre-
mitting labors, for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no
dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics
or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy of the public
confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust
and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is
depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in com-
mon with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right; that it tends only to corrupt
the principles of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a mo-
nopoly of worldly honors and emoluments, those who will externally profess
and conform to it; that though indeed, those are criminal who do not withstand
such temptation, yet, neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way;
that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion,
and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their
ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty,
because he, being of course judge of that tendency, will make his opinions the
rules of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they
shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful
purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere, when principles break
out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great
and will prevail, if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist
to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition
Thomas Jefferson, The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786).
THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION
139
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disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be
dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them:
Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that no man shall be compelled to fre-
quent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall he
otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall
be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion,
and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.
And though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the people for the
ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of suc-
ceeding assemblies constituted with powers equal to our own, and that, there-
fore, to declare this act to be irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are
free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural
rights of mankind; and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the pres-
ent, or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.
5. Daniel Shays and Followers Declare Their Intent
to Protect Themselves Against “Tyranny,” 1787
Pelham, January 15th, 1787.
Sir,
According to undoubted intelligence received from various parts of this Com-
monwealth, it is determined by the Governour and his adherents, not only to sup-
port the Court of Common Please and General Sessions of the Peace, to be holden
at Worcester next week, by point of sword, but to crush the power of the people at
one bold stroke, and render them incapable of ever opposing the cruel power,
Tyranny, hereafter, by bringing those who have stepped forth to ward off the evil
that threatens the people with immediate ruin, to an unconditional submission, and
their leaders with an infamous punishment. Notwithstanding it is thought prudent,
by a number of officers and others, convened at Pelham on the 15th Jan.… to
consult on the exigencies of the present times, that the people of the country of
Hampshire immediately assemble in arms, to support and maintain, not only the
rights and liberties of the people, since our opponents, by their hasty movement,
refuse to give opportunity to wait the effect of their prayers and petitions. This is
therefore to desire you to assemble the company under your command, well armed
and equipped, with ten days provision, and march there in season, to be at or near
Dr. Hind’s in Pelham, by Friday the 19th instant, there to receive further orders.
(Signed)
D. Shays
J. Powers
R. Dickinson
J. Bordwell
J. Billings
The Worchester Magazine (1787)
http://www.nps.gov/spar/historyculture/shays-reb-regulator-and-mil-docs.htm
140 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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6. Generals William Shepard and Benjamin Lincoln Regret
the Disorder That Characterized Shays’s Rebellion, 1787
General Shepard to Governor Bowdoin
Springfield
January 26, 1787
The unhappy time is come in which we have been obliged to shed blood.
Shays, who was at the head of about twelve hundred men, marched yesterday
afternoon about four o’clock, towards the public buildings in battle array. He
marched his men in an open column by platoons. I sent several times by one
of my aides, and two other gentlemen, Captains Buffington and Woodbridge,
to him to know what he was after, or what he wanted. His reply was, he wanted
barracks, and barracks he would have and stores. The answer returned was he
must purchase them dear, if he had them.
He still proceeded on his march until he approached within two hundred
and fifty yards of the arsenal. He then made a halt. I immediately sent Major
Lyman, one of my aides, and Capt. Buffington to inform him not to march his
troops any nearer the arsenal on his peril, as I was stationed here by order of your
Excellency and the Secretary at War, for the defence of the public property; in
case he did I should surely fire on him and his men. A Mr. Wheeler, who ap-
peared to be one of Shays’ aides, met Mr. Lyman, after he had delivered my
orders in the most peremptory manner, and made answer, that was all he
wanted. Mr. Lyman returned with his answer.
Shays immediately put his troops in motion, and marched on rapidly near
one hundred yards. I then ordered Major Stephens, who commanded the artil-
lery, to fire upon them. He accordingly did. The two first shots he endeavored
to overshoot them, in hopes they would have taken warning without firing
among them, but it had no effect on them. Major Stephens then directed his
shot through the center of his column. The fourth or fifth shot put their whole
column into the utmost confusion….
Had I been disposed to destroy them, I might have charged upon their rear
and flanks with my infantry and the two field pieces, and could have killed the
greater part of his whole army within twenty-five minutes….
I have received no reinforcement yet, and expect to be attacked this day by
their whole force combined.
General Lincoln to Governor Bowdoin
Head Quarters, Springfield
January 28th, 1787
… On my arrival, I found that Shays had taken a post at a little village six
miles north of this, with the whole force under his immediate command, and
Letter 1 Collections of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, Volume 5 (1883): 93–94.
Letter 2 “Documents,” in The American Historical Review, Volume 2 (1897): 695.
THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION
141
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that Day had taken post in West Springfield, and that he had fixed a guard at the
ferry house on the west side of the river, and that he had a guard at the bridge
over Agawam river. By this disposition all communication from the north and
west in the usual paths was cut off.
From a consideration of this insul t on Government, that b y an early move
we should instantl y convince the insurgents of its ability and determination
speedily to disperse them; that we wanted the houses occupied by these men
to cover our own troops; that General Patterson was on his march to join us,
which t o obstruct was an object with them; that a su ccessful movement would
givespiritstothetroops;thatitwouldbesowasreducedtoasgreatacertainty,
as can be had in operations of this kin d; from these considerations, Sir, with
many others, I was induced to order the troops under arms at three o’clock in
the afternoon, although the most of th em had been s o from one in the
morning.
We moved about half after three.… They made a little show of force for a
minute or two near the meeting house, and then retired in the utmost confusion
and disorder. Our horse met them at the west end of the village, but the insur-
gents found means by crossing the fields and taking to the woods to escape them;
some were taken who are aggravatedly guilty, but not the most so.
7. The Federalist Papers Illustrate the Advantages
of Ratification of the Constitution, 1787–1788
Factions and Their Remedy (James Madison, No.10)
To the People of the State of New York:
Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union,
none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and
control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments, never finds
himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates
their propensity to this dangerous vice….
By a faction I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a ma-
jority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common
impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the
permanent and aggregate interests of the community….
The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man, and we see
them every where brought into different degrees of activity, according to the
different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning
religion, concerning Government and many other points, as well of speculation
as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for
pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes
have been interesting to the human passions, have in turn divided mankind
Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, The Federalist Papers (New York: Random House, 1961), Nos. 10,
51, and 69.
142 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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