Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0387/03877.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 27KB | 465 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03877}
$Pretitle{444}
$Title{United States of America
Chapter 3A.   The Formation of a National Government}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{United States Information Service}
$Affiliation{United States Government}
$Subject{states
government
new
state
constitution
congress
united
national
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$Date{1991}
$Log{}
Country:     United States of America
Book:        An Outline of American History
Author:      United States Information Service
Affiliation: United States Government
Date:        1991

Chapter 3A.   The Formation of a National Government

     "Every man, and every body of men on earth, possess the right of
self-government."

Thomas Jefferson, 1790

     The success of the Revolution gave Americans the opportunity to give
legal form to their political ideals as expressed in the Declaration of
Independence, and to remedy some of their grievances through state
constitutions. Today, Americans are so accustomed to living under written
constitutions that they take them for granted. Yet the written constitution
was developed in America and theirs is among the earliest in history. "In all
free states, the constitution is final," wrote John Adams, second President of
the United States. And Americans everywhere demanded "a standing law to live
by."

     As early as May 10, 1776, Congress had passed a resolution advising the
colonies to form new governments "such as shall best conduce to the happiness
and safety of their constituents." Some of them had already done so, and
within a year after the Declaration of Independence every state but three had
drawn up a constitution.

     Most of the new constitutions showed the impact of democratic ideas. None
made any drastic break with the past, since all were built on the solid
foundation of colonial experience, English practice, and French political
philosophy. But it is significant that it was in the actual drafting of these
state constitutions that the American Revolution was accomplished.

     Naturally, the first objective of the framers of the constitutions was to
secure those "unalienable rights" whose violation had caused the former
colonies to repudiate their connection with England. Thus each constitution
began with a declaration or bill of rights. Virginia's, which served as a
model for all the others, included a declaration of principles, such as
popular sovereignty, rotation in office, freedom of elections, and an
enumeration of the fundamental liberties-moderate bail and humane punishment;
a militia instead of a standing army; speedy trial by jury; freedom of the
press and of conscience; the right of the majority to reform or alter the
government; and the prohibition of general warrants.

     Other states enlarged the list of liberties to include freedom of speech,
of assembly, and of petition, and frequently included such rights as the right
to bear arms and the right to a writ of habeas corpus, to inviolability of
domicile, and to equal protection under the law. Moreover, all the
constitutions paid allegiance to the three-branch structure of
government-executive, legislative, and judiciary, each checked and balanced by
the others.

     While the thirteen colonies were being transformed into states and were
adjusting themselves to the conditions of independence, new commonwealths were
developing in the vast land stretching westward from the seaboard settlements.
Lured by the richest land yet found in the country, pioneers poured over the
Appalachian Mountains and beyond. By 1775, the far-flung outposts scattered
along the waterways had tens of thousands of settlers. Separated by mountain
ranges and hundreds of kilometers from the centers of political authority in
the east, the inhabitants established their own governments. Settlers from
all the tidewater states pressed on into the fertile river valleys, hardwood
forests, and rolling prairies of the interior. By 1790, the population of the
trans-Appalachian region numbered well over 120,000.

Problems Confront the New Nation

     With the end of the Revolution, the United States again had to face the
old unsolved western question-the problem of "empire," with its complications
of land, fur trade, Indians, settlement and government of dependencies. Before
the war, several colonies had laid extensive and often overlapping claims to
land beyond the Appalachians. To those without such claims this rich
territorial prize seemed unfairly apportioned.

     Maryland, as spokesman of the alter group, introduced a resolution that
the western lands be considered common property to be parceled by the Congress
into free and independent governments. This idea was not received
enthusiastically. Nonetheless, in 1780, New York led the way by ceding her
claims to the United States. She was soon followed by the other colonies and,
by the end of the war, it was apparent that Congress would come into
possession of all the lands north of the Ohio River and probably of all west
of the Allegheny Mountains. This common possession of millions of hectares was
the most tangible evidence of nationality and unity that existed during these
troubled years and gave a certain substance to the idea of national
sovereignty. Yet it was at the same time a problem which pressed for solution.

     The Articles of Confederation, a formal agreement that had loosely
unified the colonies since 1781, offered a solution. Under the Articles, a
system of limited self-government (set forth in the Northwest Ordinance of
1787) provided for the organization of the Northwest Territory, initially as
a single district, ruled by a governor and judges appointed by the Congress.
When this territory should contain 5,000 male inhabitants of voting age, it
was to be entitled to a legislature of two chambers, itself electing the lower
house. In addition, it could at that time send a nonvoting delegate to
Congress.

     No more than five nor fewer than three states were to be formed out of
this territory, and whenever any one of them had 60,000 free inhabitants, it
was to be admitted to the Union "on an equal footing with the original states
in all respects." Six "articles of compact between the original states and the
people and states in the said territory" guaranteed civil rights and
liberties, encouraged education, and guaranteed that "there shall be neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory."

     Thus a new colonial policy based upon the principle of equality was
inaugurated. The new policy repudiated the time-honored concept that colonies
exist for the benefit of the mother country and are politically subordinate
and socially inferior. That doctrine was replaced by the principle that
colonies are but the extension of the nation and are entitled, not as a
privilege but as a right, to all the benefits of equality. The enlightened
provision of the Ordinance thus laid the basis for America's public land
policy and enabled the United States to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean
and to develop, with relatively little difficulty, from 13 to 50 states.

     In the solution of other problems the Articles of Confederation proved
disappointing. A notable shortcoming was their failure to provide a genuine
national government for the 13 states, which had been tending toward
unification since their delegates first met in 1774 to resist encroaching
British power.

New Concept of Government Emerges

     The struggle with England had done much to change the colonial attitude
of 20 years earlier. Then local assemblies had rejected the Albany Plan of
Union, refusing to surrender even the smallest part of their autonomy to any
other body, even one they themselves had elected. But in the course of the
Revolution, mutual aid had proved effective, and the fear of relinquishing
individual authority had lessened to a large degree.

     The Articles went into effect in 1781. Though they constituted an advance
over the loose arrangements provided by the Continental Congress system, the
governmental framework they