Page 175 - American Stories, A History of the United States

6.1 Read the Document The Articles of Confederation (1777)

6.2

6.3

6.4

cOMMeMOratiVe staMp in 1977, the U.S. Postal Service issued this stamp to commemorate the
bicentennial of the drafting of the nation’s first constitution—the Articles of Confederation. The Second
Continental Congress appointed a thirteen-man committee (one man from each state) to draft the document,
although only five figures are shown here.

foreign relations, military and Indian affairs, and interstate disputes. They did not
award Congress ownership of the lands west of the Appalachians.
The new constitution sent to the states for ratification met apathy and hostility.
Most Americans were far more interested in local affairs than in the acts of Congress.
When a British army marched through a state, creating a need for immediate mili-
Quick Check tary aid, people spoke positively about central government, but as soon as the threat
During the Revolution, why did passed, they sang a different tune. During this period, even the slightest encroachment
Congress not create a stronger on state sovereignty rankled republicans who feared centralization would promote
federal government?
corruption.

Western Land: Key to the First Constitution

The major bone of contention with the Articles, however, was the disposition of the
vast, unsurveyed territory west of the Appalachians. Although various states claimed
the region, most of it actually belonged to Native Americans. In land grabs that federal
negotiators called treaties, the U.S. government took much of modern Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, and Kentucky. Since the Indians had put their faith in the British during the
war, they could do little to resist these humiliating agreements. As John Dickinson,
then serving as the president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, told
the Indians, since Britain has surrendered “the back country with all the forts . . . that
they [the Indians] must now depend upon us for the preservation.” If they dared to
resist, “we will instantly turn upon them our armies . . . and extirpate them from the
land where they were born and now live.”
Some states, such as Virginia and Georgia, claimed land from the Atlantic
Ocean to the elusive “South Seas,” in effect extending their boundaries to the Pacific
coast by virtue of royal charters. State legislators—their appetites whetted by aggres-
sive land speculators—anticipated large revenues through land sales. Connecticut,
New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina also announced intentions to seize
western land.

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