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Declaration of Independence
The Second Continental Congress began to meet in 1775 after the violence at Lexington in Concord. It served as a sort of temporary government that organized the war effort and eventually produced both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.
The Declaration of Independence was created to formally explain the reasons for the colonists’ decision to break with Great Britain. It was drafted by Thomas Jefferson and edited by the Second Continental Congress. The first part of the document was heavily influenced by Enlightenment ideas, describing the government as a social contract and charged with protecting inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The second part of the document included a long list of grievances (complaints) addressed to the king, unsurprisingly focusing on taxation without representation, keeping a standing army in the colonies in a time of peace and violation of due process.
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation were the first constitution of the United States, in effect from 1777 to 1787. Considering that the new Americans had just revolted against a very strong, centralized government, it’s not surprising that their new government would be set up very differently.
The articles established a weak military alliance among the 13 states; the federal government had very little power. It was composed of one branch, Congress, whose powers included declaring war and conducting foreign relations. It could not regulate trade, draft troops, or levy taxes. There was no court system, no way to compel states to deposit money into the national treasury, and no power to enforce laws or treaties. In Congress, each state had one vote, and to approve any kind of important measure, nine states had to agree. To amend the articles, all 13 states had to vote unanimously.
Naturally, this disorganized government ran into trouble very quickly. The money supply in the colonies had always been inadequate, and each state was free to issue its own currency. Some states printed paper money that became essentially worthless, while other states (like Massachusetts) simply ignored the need for more currency. Problems with taxation and debt collection led to a revolt in Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays. The rebels used force to stop courts from sitting and tried to seize weapons from a Springfield arsenal. Though the state militia eventually put down Shays's Rebellion, it became very clear that the Articles of Confederation were not adequate for the government.
Constitution
Delegates from 12 states (Rhode Island did not attend) met in Philadelphia in May 1787, originally intending to revise the Articles of Confederation. Eventually, they agreed that the articles were too flawed and set out to write a completely new constitution.
George Washington presided over the convention, but James Madison made major contributions toward drafting the Constitution. The Constitution set up a republican form of government—meaning that it created a republic, or a representative democracy, through Congress. The Enlightenment influence of the Baron de Montesquieu is evident in the structuring of the government into separate branches. This principle, called separation of powers, vests different powers (making laws, enforcing laws, and interpreting laws) in different branches of the government. Montesquieu argued that such separation allowed for checks and balances and discouraged tyranny.
The Constitution also embodies the principle of federalism—the sharing of power between national and state governments. Article IV of the Constitution lays out the specific rights and powers of the states, and the Tenth Amendment stipulates that any power not specifically listed as a power of the national government is considered a power of the states.
Throughout the convention, the framers of the Constitution encountered several conflicts that required them to compromise. The first was the issue of representation in Congress. Larger states wanted representation to be based on population, while smaller states wanted each state to have the same number of representatives. The Great Compromise provided a solution to this problem by creating a bicameral, or two-housed, legislature. In the Senate, the upper house of Congress, all states have two representatives. In the House of Representatives, the lower house, representation is based on the population.
This led to another question: how would slaves be accounted for in counting the population of a state? While at this time there were slaves in all 13 colonies, there were far fewer in the north, as its economy was not suited to plantation agriculture. Southerners wanted slaves to count toward their states’ populations, while Northerners did not. This resulted in the Three-Fifths Compromise, which caused three-fifths of a state’s slaves to count toward its population.
Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers
For the Constitution to take effect, nine states had to ratify it. Unfortunately, two factions had formed—the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The Federalists supported the Constitution as it was, because they believed in a strong national government. However, the Anti-Federalists insisted that a bill of rights should be added to protect individual liberties and states’ rights. Both groups wrote a series of essays, the “Federalist Papers” and “Anti-Federalist Papers,” to argue their positions.
The Bill of Rights
Finally, the two groups were able to reconcile with the addition of the Bill of Rights or the first ten amendments to the Constitution. These amendments covered civil liberties, which protect people from unjust government interference, due process, which ensures that a person accused of a crime is treated fairly, and states’ rights. By June 1788, nine states had ratified the Constitution, and it officially went into effect.
