CONFEDERATION: The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government

CONFEDERATION
Questions of 1776: government & society
republicans by default
creating republican government & society
What is a republic?
Interpretive problems of the period
conflate Revolution & Constitution
Goldilocks & 3 bears interpretation

“Free and independent STATES”
where government lay
congress & confederation
What is a confederation?
federal vs. confederal
purposes: war/diplomacy/trade
mediation
examples: city-states & Dutch republic
confederations & republics
vs. monarchies & empires
consensus
vs. authority
vs. democracy

The states:
1. questions of legitimacy
rump legislatures/legislatures/constitutions
2. governmental theories
“whig”/republican/democratic republican
3. What was wrong with democracy?
4. examples:
whig – Massachusetts/Virginia: balance & limits
republican: Pennsylvania & Paine
The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776:
unicameral
` plural executive
balance vs. popular control
5. representation: actual & virtual
6. democratization
government
society
What did republicanism mean?
equality of persons
religion & antislavery
Confederation: the Articles (1781-88)
lack of urgency
western lands
Were Articles a failure?
Difficulties:
economy?
revenue?
the impost
security?
Successes?
borders
assets of the federal government
Why replace?
Annapolis Convention
Madison & “The Vices of the Political System”