Bell Ringer, Feb. 16 “… there are important defects in the system of the Government… the defects, upon a closer examination, may be found greater and more numerous, than even these acts imply, from the embarrassments which characterize the present State of our national affairs, foreign and domestic…” J. Madison, 9/1786 Under what plan of government is Madison referring to?

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union The Critical Period

Structure of Government Articles created a unicameral legislature-the only branch of government States selected 2-7 delegates for purposes of representation but each state had only one vote regardless of the size of its population. Powers of this Congress included: make war and peace, regulate a postal system, weights and measurements, enter into treaties, appoint military officers, send and receive ambassadors, raise and equip a navy and create an army with financial support coming from the states, regulate Indian affairs, decide disputes among the states

Accomplishments Ended the war with the British negotiating the Treaty of Paris 1783 Created a plan for the development of lands west of the Appalachian Mountains -Land Ordinance 1785: a plan for the surveying of lands and the division of western lands -Northwest Ordinance 1787: established the principle that territories could be developed for statehood on an equal basis with the other established states.

“Congress had the right to regulate all forms of American currency, the Articles failed to call for a singular form of currency. This meant that the national government could print money, but each state could as well. Consequently, America had no uniform system of currency which made trade between the states, and with foreign entities, much more difficult and less efficient.” Brackemyre, Ted. "America’s First Failure at Government." US History Scene. 10 Apr Web. 14 Feb

“Maryland and Virginia have bickered over control of the Potomac River since the 1700s. The roots of the dispute reach even farther back in time: Virginia’s claims go back to a 1609 charter from King James I and a 1688 patent from King James II, both of which included the Potomac. Maryland’s claim dates to a 1632 charter from King Charles I, which also included the Potomac. In its 1776 constitution Virginia recognized the validity of the 1632 charter, but reserved the rights of “navigation and use” of the Potomac. Maryland’s constitutional convention shortly afterward passed a resolution rejecting Virginia’s reservation.”

“The United States maintained that tribes had forfeited their rights to the land by fighting on the side of the British. However, Native people stated that they had not been defeated during the war as Great Britain had and refused to bow to American demands to vacate their lands”.

“Lacking the protection of the British flag, sailors were seized from American ships by North African corsairs and sold into slavery. In 1785, Algerian pirates boarded an American merchant ship sailing off the coast of Portugal, seized its 21 member crew, and enslaved them for 21 years. Over the next 8 years, a hundred more Americans became captives.” htm

“To pay a war debt, France gave up control of Louisiana to Spain, who controlled the colony from 1763 until 1803.” /spanish.html American trade was closed to the port of New Orleans in 1784 and the Mississippi River

“…Britain refused to evacuate its military posts in Detroit, Otswego, N.Y., and elsewhere in the old Northwest because the states refused to restore loyalist property that had been confiscated during the Revolution. ” eration-regular-2011.htm

BOTTOM LINE NO POWER OVER STATES; STATES RETAINED THEIR SOVEREIGNTY ARTICLES COULD NOT PROTECT CITIZENS’ PROPERTY RIGHTS

a “Shays’ Rebellion is the name given to a series of protests in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. Although farmers took up arms in states from New Hampshire to South Carolina, the rebellion was most serious in Massachusetts, where bad harvests, economic depression, and high taxes threatened farmers with the loss of their farms. The rebellion took its name from its symbolic leader, Daniel Shays of Massachusetts, a former captain in the Continental army.”