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A committee of the Second Continental Congress created a plan for government after independence.

The plan created a confederation among the thirteen states with no strong central government.

The plan for the central government included no national court system, no president or king.

Each state could send two to seven delegates to Congress

Each state had one vote in Congress

Congress ran all aspects of the central government and had only those powers specifically mentioned in the Articles.

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After the war, the thirteen states saw themselves as independent from each other.

States had different currencies which made trade among them hard

The states did not think the national debt was their problem.

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Congress couldn't do much if a state refused its request to provide money.

With no army and no power to regulate trade, the union looked weak to other countries.

Congress passed few laws because each bill could only become a law if delegates from 9/13 of the states voted for it.

lack of a court system made it difficult for the central government to settle disputes.

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The Confederation signed a peace treaty with Britain

Established a fair and consistent policy for settling and developing the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Land Ordinance of 1785

One section of each township was reserved for public education and the other sections would be sold at auction.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Congress also set up the departments of Foreign Affairs, War, Marine, and the Treasury.

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In Massachusetts, the state government increased taxes  to pay the state’s war debt.

An economic depression and bad harvest left many farmers and merchants angry and in debt.

Some farmers were forced to give their property to the government or went to prison.

Armed groups of farmers marched to several courts and closed them down.

Daniel Shays led a group of men and closed the Massachusetts Supreme Court and advanced on a federal arsenal in Springfield.

The rebellion spread to several states.

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Delegates from the states began meeting to propose changes to the Articles of Confederation.

They LEFT the Articles of Confederation and decided to create an entirely new government with the Constitution.

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The delegates reached an agreement on many basic issues of forming a new government.

They favored the ideas of limited and representative government and agreed that the powers of the national government should be divided through 3 branches.

They agreed that they should strengthen the national government.

The great debates of the convention were over how to put these ideas into practice.

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Virginia delegation proposed a plan for a strong national government.

The plan proposed a government based on three principles.

A strong national legislature with two chambers. The lower one to be chosen by the people and the upper chamber to be chosen by the lower chamber.

The number of legislators would vary from state to state and would be determined by population.

National government would have the power to bar any state laws it found unconstitutional.

A strong executive would be chosen by the national legislature and a national judiciary would be appointed by the legislature.

Issues surrounding this plan was that largely populated states would have more power.

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The delegates for the small states made a counterproposal.

The New Jersey Plan included   two major features of the Articles of Confederation.

The government would have a unicameral legislature with one vote for each state.

The nation would continue as a confederation of sovereign states.

Congress would be strengthened by having the power to impose taxes and regulate trade.

A weak executive would be elected by Congress, and a national judiciary with limited power would be appointed by the executive.

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A special committee designed a compromise called the Great Compromise.

The compromise suggested that the legislative branch have two houses, a House of Representatives and a Senate.

The House of Representatives would be based on population while the Senate would have two members for each state.

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There was further debate over whether the president should be elected.

As a compromise, the delegates finally settled on the Electoral College system.

In this system, voters from each state select electors to choose the president.

The president’s four-year term was a compromise between those who wanted a longer term and those who feared a long term would give a president too much power.

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There was debate about how to count slaves into taxes.

1/3 of the people living in the Southern states were enslaved African Americans.

Delegates from the south wanted slaves to be counted the same as free people to give the South more representation in Congress.

At the same time, the Southern states did not want enslaved persons counted at all for the purpose of levying taxes.

The Northern states wanted enslaved persons counted for tax purposes but not for representation.

The Three-Fifths Compromise stated only three-fifths of a slaved person were to be counted for both tax purposes and for representation.

This was followed until the 13th amendment and the 14th amendment were passed.

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A third compromise solved a dispute over commerce and continuation over the slave trade.

The Northern states wanted the federal government to have complete control over trade with other nations

The Southern states were afraid that the federal government would interfere with the slave trade.

The Southern states also feared that business interests in the North would have enough power to hurt the trade in the South.

The delegates determined that Congress would have the power to regulate both interstate commerce and commerce with foreign countries.

Congress could not ban the slave trade before 1808.

To protect the South’s exports, Congress was also prohibited from imposing export taxes.

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Federalists favored the Constitution and was led by many of the Founders.

Their support typically came from merchants and others in the cities and coastal regions.

Anti-Federalists opposed the new Constitution and drew much of their support from the inland farmers and laborers, who feared a strong national government.

The Anti-Federalists criticized the Constitution for having been drafted in private.

The Anti-Federalists’ strongest argument was that the Constitution lacked a bill of rights to protect citizens from their own government.

They demanded that the new Constitution clearly guarantee the people’s freedoms.

The Federalists claimed that only a strong national government could protect the nation from enemies abroad and solve the country’s internal problems.

The Federalists also pointed out that eight states already had bills of rights in their state constitutions.

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The legislatures in Virginia and New York had not yet held a vote on the new Constitution.

Without the support of those two large and powerful states, the Constitution would not succeed.

To help win the battle in New York, vocal supporters published more than 80 essays defending the new Constitution known as the Federalist Papers.

On July 26, 1788, the Federalists in New York won by three votes.

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Once the new government was established, George Washington was elected president and John Adams vice president.

Voters also elected senators and representatives.

On March 4, 1789, Congress met for the first time in Federal Hall in New York City.

James Madison introduced a set of amendments during the first session.

Congress approved 12 amendments and the states ratified 10 of them which is known as the Bill of Rights.