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● Articles
of Confederation
● Constitution
● Legislative
Branch
● Executive
Branch
● Judicial
Branch
● Checks and Balances
● Bill
of Rights
● Political Parties
Text
 The
peace treaty of 1783 recognized the independence of the United States
and the former 13 British colonies along the east coast of the Atlantic
became 13 states of the new nation. These 13 states were: Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire in New England in the
Northeast; Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, and New Jersey
in the Mid-Atlantic, and Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina
and Georgia in the South. Although the Declaration of Independence
proclaimed that 13 united colonies "are, and of right ought
to be, free and independent states", they were not very clear
about the future political system of the United States and about
the relationships between the states and the government of the new
nation. A constitution was badly needed.
Articles of Confederation
When
the War of Independence was over, the United States was not one
unified nation as it is today. Each
new state had its own government and was organized very much like
an independent nation. Each made its own laws and handled
all of its internal
affairs. During the war, the states had agreed to work together
by sending representatives to a national congress patterned
after the "Congress of Delegates" that conducted
the war with England. After
the war was won, the
Congress would handle only problems and needs that the individual
states could not handle alone. It would raise money to
pay off debts of the war, establish a money system and deal with
foreign nations in making treaties. The
agreement that set this plan of cooperation was called the
Articles
of
Confederation.
The
Articles of Confederation failed because the states did not cooperate
with the Congress or with each other. When the Congress needed money
to pay the national army or to pay debts
owed to France and other nations, some states refused to contribute.
The Congress had been given no authority to force any state to do
anything. It could not tax any citizen. Only the state in which
a citizen lived could do that.
Many
Americans worried about the future. How could they win the respect
of other nations if the states did not pay their debts? How could
they improve the country by building roads or canals
if the states would not work together? They believed that the Congress
needed more power.
The
Congress asked each state to send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia,
the city where the Declaration of Independence had been signed,
to discuss the changes which would be necessary to strengthen the
Articles of Confederation.
The
smallest state, Rhode Island, refused, but delegates from the other
12 states participated. The meeting, later known as the Constitutional
Convention, began in May of 1787. George Washington, the military
hero of
the War of Independence, was the presiding
officer. 54 other men were present. Some wanted a strong, new government.
Some did not.
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