CHAPTER 5: COLONIAL AMERICA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Growth and development
- 1700 population - 250,000 colonists
-1770 population - 2,000,000+ colonists
- Economic diversity
- Diversity of background and religion
Great Awakening
- Religious revivalism
- Issues
- Denominational diversity
- Role of religion in colonial life
- People
- Jonathan Edwards
- George Whitefield
Enlightenment Political Philosophy
- General ideas of the Enlightenment period or the 'Age of Reason'
- Rene Descartes (d. 1650): "I think; therefore, I am."
- Deism and empiricism
- Political thought of Thomas Hobbes (d. 1679)
- Leviathan -"the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
- Humans driven to leave the state of nature (war of all against all)
-Political association is not natural
-Politics arise from instinct for self-preservation; fear
-Authoritarian government is the solution
Political thought of John Locke (d. 1704)
-Two Treatises on Government
"The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions."
-Accepted Hobbes' state of nature and drive for self-preservation
-Explicated individual natural rights and enlightened self-interest
-Social contract to protect natural rights is the solution
Political thought of the Baron de Montesquieu (d. 1755)
-The Spirit of Laws
"The political liberty of the subject is a tranquillity of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another."
- Accepted Hobbes' state of nature and Locke's social contract
- Social contract constructed with separation of powers
-Executive, Legislative, Judicial
J. - J. Rousseau (d. 1778)
-Social Contract - "Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains."
- Man is free in an Eden-like state of nature
-Noble savage
-Morality is created to balance interests between individuals and government
-Links to Romanticism
Colonial government on the eve of revolution
-The colonial governor
-The colonial assembly
-American colonists and their English counterparts
CHAPTER 6: THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND COLONIAL CRISIS
French & Indian War a.k.a. Seven Years' War, 1754-63
- British versus French for control of North America
- French/Algonquian ~ British/Iroquois
- Change in leadership
1757: William Pitt, Prime Minister
1760: King George III
Outcome of the war for England
- English control of North America
Outcome of the war for the colonies
- Greater sense of unity
- Power for colonial assemblies
- Increased desire for westward expansion
Outcome of the war for Native Americans
Spanish claims - Florida and New Orleans
Road to Revolution - 1764-75
- England's financial policies toward the colonies
-Sugar Act 1764
-Reduced tax on molasses
-Resistance in New England
-Stamp Act 1765
-Tax on all printed materials
-Colonial wide resistance
-Stamp Act Congress: "No taxation without representation."
-Quartering Act 1765
-Colonists forced to house and feed Army
-Declaratory Act 1766
-Repealed Stamp Act
-Declared Parliament as equal to King in colonial administrative matters
-Townshend Duties 1767
-Taxes on tea, glass, lead, etc.
Colonial reactions
-Formation of Sons and Daughters of Liberty
-Committee of Correspondence
-Boycott of English goods
-Boston Massacre 1770
-Paul Revere and the power of the press
-Repeal of most of the Townshend Duties 1770
-Tax on tea remained in effect
-Tea Act 1773
-Gave monopoly to East India Tea Company
-Reduced tax on tea
-Colonial reaction to Tea Act
-Boston Tea Party
-Coercive Acts 1774
-Closed Port of Boston
-Suspended Massachusetts' General Court
Moving closer to war
-1st Continental Congress - Fall 1774
-Colonists attempted to unite in the face of what was happening in New England with mixed results
-Lord North's Conciliatory Propositions - Spring 1775
-Bad timing
-Lexington and Concord
-"shot heard 'round the world" - April 19, 1775
Revolution and slavery
-Lord Dunmore's Proclamation in Virginia
CHAPTER 7: THE WAR FOR AMERICA
Second Continental Congress
-Formation of the Continental Army
-George Washington appointed general
-Regular Army and local militias
-Siege of Boston 1775-early 1776
Declaring Independence
-Common Sense by Thomas Paine
-Encouraged Congress to formally declare separation
-Declaration of Independence
-Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams
Early diplomacy
-St. Eustatius
-Spain
-France
British leadership
-Gen. Howe - New York
-Gen. Clinton - Carolinas
-Gen. 'Gentleman Johnny' Burgoyne - Canada
Significant events during the Revolutionary War
-1776 - Evacuation of Manhattan
-1776 - Trenton, New Jersey
-1777 - Saratoga, New York
-1778 - Franco-American Treaty
-Spies and traitors: Benedict Arnold, Peggy Shippen Arnold and John Andre
-1788-81 - Carolina campaigns
-1781 - Yorktown, Virginia
Women and the Revolution
-Phillis Wheatley: poet
-Abigail Adams: "remember the ladies"
-Deborah Sampson: soldier
-Mercy Otis Warren: historian
-Sarah Franklin Bache and Esther Reed: Philadelphia Ladies Aid Association
Peace Treaty of 1783
-Mississippi River set as western boundary of United States
-Joint fishing rights off Canadian coast
-Compensation to loyalists
CHAPTER 8: BUILDING A REPUBLIC
The Articles of Confederation
-Agreed to by Congress Fall of 1777; ratified and in effect Spring 1781
- Strengths of A of C
- Provided a national government
- Implemented Locke's social contract theory
- Weaknesses of A of C
-Each state remained sovereign
- No true separation of powers
- No power to tax
- Document itself and any amendments required unanimous ratification
- Other provisions
- Unicameral legislature with each state having one vote
- Congress had authority to declare war and peace
-Congress had authority to coin money
- Canada would be welcome to join United States
State Constitutions
-Suffrage: WMPO 21+; for a short time WFPO 21+ could vote in NJ
-Composition of government: weak governor, strong legislature, small judiciary
-Separation of church and state
-Jefferson's bill for religious freedom
-Declarations of civil rights
Western Land Claims
-Land Ordinance of 1785
-16th section land
-Northwest Ordinance of 1787
-Creation of 3 to 5 territories
-Administered by a Congressionally appointed governor with absolute veto power
-When population reached 5,000 assembly formed
-When population reached 60,000 application for statehood made
-Slavery prohibited in the Northwest Territory; fugitive slave law enacted
Post-revolution instability
-Economic problems
-Newburgh Conspiracy 1783
-Shays's Rebellion 1786-87
Annapolis convention 1786
-Challenge: how to make the Articles of Confederation work
-Call for convention in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to amend A of C
Constitutional Convention 1787
-Philosophical issues
-How to balance energy (power) between federal government and states and people
-How to extend a republican form of government to a large nation
-Specific issues
-Representation
-Taxation and slavery
-Separation of powers
-Course of the convention
-Madison's Virginia Plan
-Bicameral legislature, both houses chosen on basis of proportionality
-National legislature to have veto over state law
-National legislature to choose executive
-Judiciary to settle disputes between states
-Paterson's New Jersey Plan
-Unicameral legislature, maintaining equality of state votes
-Protection of small states
-Compromise - role of Roger Sherman
-Dual method of representation
-House of Representatives
-Based on population
-Elected by the people
-Senate
-Appointed by state legislatures
-Maintained equality of state representation
-Taxation and slavery
-How to count slave population for representation and taxation?
-Importation of slaves - limits?
-Fugitive slave law?
-Compromise
-Slaves counted 3/5 for purposes of representation and taxation
-Prohibition on importing slaves from Africa after 1808
-Fugitive slave clause accepted
-Debate on the executive
-One or committee?
-Electoral college - George Wilson
-Person with most votes - president
-Person with second most votes - vice-president
-Debate on the judiciary
-Supreme Court
-Congress given power to create lower courts
-Separation of powers
-The details
-Supremacy Clause
-Article VI, Section 2
"This constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding."
-September 17, 1787 - Constitution Day
-Ratification
-9 states needed
-Arguments of the Federalists
-Need a strong central government
-Articles of Confederation cannot keep nation together
-Separation of powers and regular vote will protect the people
-Arguments of the Anti-federalists
-Philadelphia convention was not supposed to create a new constitution
-Too much power given to central government
-Bill of Rights needed
-George Mason and Virginia's bill of rights
-Federalist Papers
-James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay