CHAPTER 7 Founding a Nation, 1783–1791
This chapter concentrates on the making of the U.S. Constitution and begins with a description of some of the
colorful celebrations held in cities to honor the ratification of the Constitution. The chapter explains the strengths
and weaknesses of the first written constitution, the Articles of Confederation. A key success of the Confederation
Congress was its western land policy, including the Northwest Ordinance, while its inability to deal with financial
and economic problems weakened the government. Those weaknesses as well as Shays’s Rebellion convinced many
leading Americans of the need for a stronger central government. Their push for greater national authority resulted
in the meeting of the Constitutional Convention (May–September 1787). The chapter covers the Convention’s
debates on separation of powers, division of powers, and slavery. Ratification of the document was not a foregone
conclusion. Federalists such as James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay worked hard at promoting
support for ratification by writing a series of essays called The Federalist. The Anti-Federalists, concerned that the
Constitution endangered liberty because it contained no Bill of Rights, opposed them. The chapter concludes with a
discussion about who was included in “We the People.” Whites clearly did not consider Indians and enslaved blacks
to be part of “the people,” and the liberties and freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution were not extended to those
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Introduction: Ratification Celebrations
A. Parades celebrating the ratification of the Constitution in 1787 included a variety of American social
classes.
II. America Under the Confederation
A. The Articles of Confederation
1. The first written constitution of the United States
a. One-house Congress
b. No president
c. No judiciary
2. The only powers granted to the national government were those for declaring war, conducting foreign
3. Congress established national control over land to the west of the thirteen states and devised rules for its
settlement.
B. Congress and the West
1. In the immediate aftermath of independence, Congress took the position that by aiding the British,
Indians had forfeited the right to their lands.
2. Congress faced conflicting pressures from settlers and land speculators regarding western development.
C. Settlers and the West
1. Peace brought rapid settlement into frontier areas.
a. Taking possession of land was seen as an essential element of American freedom.
b. Settlers ignored Indian titles to land and urged low prices for land.
2. Leaders feared that the unregulated flow of settlement across the Appalachian Mountains could provoke
constant warfare with the Indians.
D. The Land Ordinances
1. The Ordinance of 1784 established stages of self-government for the West.
2. The Ordinance of 1785 regulated land sales in the region north of the Ohio River and established the
township system there.
a. Prohibited slavery
E. The Confederation’s Weaknesses
1. The war created an economic crisis that the Confederation government could not adequately address.
2. With Congress unable to act, the states adopted their own economic policies.
F. Shays’s Rebellion
1. Facing seizure of their land, debt-ridden farmers closed the courts in western Massachusetts in 1786.
a. They modeled their protests on those of the Revolutionary era, using liberty trees and liberty poles.
developed a national consciousness during the Revolution.
3. Economic concerns played a part, too, as bondholders feared not being paid by the national government,
artisans wanted tariff protection, and merchants desired access to British markets.
4. At a meeting in Annapolis (September 1786), delegates called for a convention to amend the Articles of
Confederation in order to avoid anarchy and monarchy.
III. A New Constitution
A. The Structure of Government
4. A compromise about the shape of Congress emerged from debates over the Virginia and New Jersey
Plans.
a. Virginia Plan (favored by more populous states): two-house legislature in which a state’s population
determined its representation in both houses
b. New Jersey Plan (favored by smaller states): one-house legislature in which each state cast one vote
c. Compromise: two-house Congress consisting of Senate (each state had two members) and House of
Representatives (apportioned according to states’ populations)
B. The Limits of Democracy
1. The Constitution left the determination of voter qualifications to the states.
2. The new government was based on a limited democracy and the assumption that only prominent men
would hold office.
3. Federal judges would be appointed by the president.
4. The president would be elected by an electoral college, or, in the case of a tie in that body, by the House
of Representatives.
a. Delegates wanted indirect election because they did not trust ordinary voters.
C. The Division and Separation of Powers
1. The Constitution embodies federalism and a system of checks and balances.
a. Federalism refers to the relationship between the national government and the states.
2. States could not issue money, impair contracts, interfere with interstate commerce, or levy import or
export duties, but dealt with most other daily affairs, such as education and law enforcement.
a. The separation of powers, or the system of checks and balances, refers to the way the Constitution
seeks to prevent any branch of the national government from dominating the other two.
D. The Debate over Slavery
1. Slavery divided the delegates.
E. Slavery in the Constitution
1. The Constitution prevented Congress from prohibiting the slave trade until 1808.
2. The fugitive slave clause made clear that the condition of bondage remained attached to a person even if
he or she escaped to a free area, and it required all states to help police the institution of slavery.
3. The federal government could not interfere with slavery in the states.
a. Slave states had more power due to the three-fifths clause.
4. Twelve of the first sixteen presidents were southern slaveholders.
F. The Final Document
1. Gouverneur Morris put finishing touches on the final draft, adding in the preamble that the new national
government would “establish justice,” promote “general welfare,” and “secure the blessings of liberty.”
2. Delegates signed the final draft on September 17, 1787.
IV. The Ratification Debate and the Origin of the Bill of Rights
A. The Federalist
1. Nine of the thirteen states had to ratify the document.
a. It was not a given that ratification would occur.
b. Each state elected delegates to a special convention.
2. The Federalist was published to generate support for ratification.
a. Hamilton argued that government was an expression of freedom, not its enemy.
B. “Extend the Sphere”
1. Madison had a new vision of the relationship between government and society in Federalist no. 10 and
no. 51.
2. Madison argued that the large size of the United States was a source of stability, not weakness.
3. Madison helped to popularize the liberal idea that men are generally motivated by self-interest and that
the good of society is a product of the clash of these private interests.
C. The Anti-Federalists
1. Anti-Federalists, who opposed ratification, argued that the republic had to be small and warned that the
Constitution would result in an oppressive government.
2. “Liberty” was the Anti–Federalists’ watchword.
a. They argued for a Bill of Rights.
government.
9. Voices of Freedom (Primary Source document feature)
a. Anti-Federalist author James Winthrop, under the pseudonym “Agrippa,” argues against ratification
in a public letter (1787).
D. The Bill of Rights
1. Madison believed the Constitution would protect liberty without the addition of a Bill of Rights.
2. Still, to satisfy the Constitution’s critics, Madison introduced a Bill of Rights to the first Congress.
a. In a sense, the Bill of Rights defined the “unalienable rights” of the Declaration of Independence.
3. Some rights, such as the prohibiting of excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishments, reflected English
roots, while others, such as the recognition of religious freedom, were uniquely American.
V. “We the People”
A. Who Belongs? The Constitution and American Citizenship
1. National identity rests on “an imagined political community” whose borders are intellectual and
geographic.
2. The Constitution was initially vague on the qualifications for citizenship and allowed states to define it.
3. The framers established that the president must be born in the United States.
lacked rights.
6. Although slaves and Indians were noncitizens, the rights of free blacks remained in question.
B. National Identity
1. The Constitution identifies three populations inhabiting the United States:
a. Indians
b. “Other persons,” which meant slaves
c. “People,” who were the only ones entitled to American freedom
2. American nationality combined aspects of both civic and ethnic nationalisms.
a. The political principles of the Revolution held Americans together.
American identity as a new nationality forged from the diverse populations of Europe.
C. Indians in the New Nation
1. Indian tribes, seen by most white Americans as savages, had no representation in the new government.
2. The treaty system was used with Indians, and Congress forbade the transfer of Indian land without
federal approval.
3. The U.S. victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers led to the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.
b. Most Indians rejected these changes.
D. Blacks and the Republic
1. The status of citizenship for free blacks was somewhat indeterminate.
3. Many white Americans excluded blacks from their conception of the American people.
a. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited naturalization (the process by which immigrants become
citizens) to “free white persons.”
E. Jefferson, Slavery, and Race
1. John Locke and others maintained that reason was essential to having liberty.
2. Jefferson did not think any group was fixed permanently in a status of inferiority.
3. He did not believe black Americans should stay in America.
a. Freeing the slaves without removing them from the country would endanger the nation’s freedom.
4. Jefferson saw the slave trade as immoral and tried to avoid selling his own slaves.
a. Ironically, upon his death, more than 200 of his slaves were sold to pay his large debts.
F. Principles of Freedom
1. The Revolution widened the divide between free Americans and those who remained in slavery.
2. “We the people” increasingly meant white Americans.
3. James Madison, the father of the Constitution, acknowledged the wrong of slavery but also owned
slaves.
SUGGESTED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• What were the primary weaknesses and strengths of the Articles of Confederation?
• Why was ratification of the Constitution not a foregone conclusion? What were the basic arguments for and
against ratification put forth by Federalists and Anti-Federalists?
• Were the fears of the Anti-Federalists realistic? How did the Federalists deal with the Anti-Federalists’
concerns?
• What does “republicanism” mean? Why was America a republic and not a democracy?
• How did the Constitution define American citizenship prior to the Reconstruction era?
• Have the students write a constitution for the classroom, school, or university. Based on the ideas put forth by
the Federalists and Anti-Federalists and drawing on who “the people” are, have the students defend their
document while the class analyzes its strengths and weaknesses.
SUPPLEMENTAL WEB AND VISUAL RESOURCES
The Articles of Confederation
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/artconf.asp
This site is produced by Yale University and contains the Articles of Confederation as well as the discussions and debates
surrounding it.
The Bill of Rights
https://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/bill-of-rights/
African-Americans, Slavery, and the Constitution
Slavery and the Making of America (PBS, 240 minutes, 2005)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/
This PBS documentary film series focuses on the role of slavery in U.S. history, including the constitutional era.
Africans in America: America’s Journey through Slavery (PBS, 240 minutes, 1998)
This documentary film series traces the impact of slavery on African-American people and the United States.
African-American Odyssey
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/
Part of the American Memory series created by the Library of Congress, this site contains many documents that deal with
African-American history in the era after the Revolution.
SUPPLEMENTAL PRINT RESOURCES
Amar, Akhil Reed. America’s Constitution: A Biography. New York: Random House, 2005.
Hunt, Lynn. Inventing Human Rights: A History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.
Klarman, Michael, The Framers’ Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution. New York: Oxford University Press,
2016.
McCormick, Richard. “The ‘Ordinance’ of 1784.” William and Mary Quarterly 50, no. 1 (1993): 112–122.
Newman, Simon. Parades and Politics of the Streets: Festive Culture in the Early American Republic. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.
Rakove, Jack. “Smoking Pistols and the Origins of the Constitution.” Reviews in American History 22, no. 1 (1994): 39–44.
Wilentz, Sean. No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding. Boston: Harvard University Press, 2018.
INTERACTIVE INSTRUCTOR ACTIVITIES
1. Group Debate between Federalists and Anti-Federalists
• Use Chapter 7 in Give Me Liberty!, including the “Agrippa” essay by James Winthrop.
• Find more Anti-Federalist arguments at http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_faf.html.
Federalists
1. Where do most Federalists live? What are their occupations?
2. How will the new Constitution affect the economic situation in the United States?
3. Will the new government be able to protect political rights?
4. How do Federalists feel about the Constitution’s position on slavery?
5. From a Federalist perspective, how will the new government treat Native Americans? How will the new government
deal with foreign relations?
Anti-Federalists
1. Where do most Anti-Federalists live? What are their occupations?
2. What are the primary fears of the Anti-Federalists about the Constitution?
3. Why do the Anti-Federalists prefer the Articles of Confederation?
4. How do Anti-Federalists feel about the Constitution’s position on slavery?
5. From an Anti-Federalist perspective, how will the new government treat Native Americans? How will the new
government deal with foreign relations?
Discussion Activities:
After each group presents, give the other a few minutes to provide rebuttals. Follow up the debate with a summary that
includes the following general questions:
2. Group Website Analysis:
Design an assignment whereby each student is asked to locate three websites and annotate them as homework to turn in the
following week. The websites should reveal different aspects/ideas/concepts of the constitutional era. How do the websites
connect to the main ideas of the chapter? After the students have turned in their websites, break the class into small groups and
1. How does this website connect to the main ideas of the chapter?
2. Which websites are your favorites for revealing the main ideas of the chapter?
3. Which websites do you feel require improvement? How so?
4. Are any subjects in the chapter not covered by the websites we have looked at today?