AP U.S. History · Lesson 3

The Articles, the Constitution and the new republic

Know Know it

The Articles of Confederation (ratified 1781) created a one-house Congress in which each state had one vote, with no executive and no national courts. Congress could not tax or regulate trade, and changing the Articles took all thirteen states. Its great success was western policy: the Land Ordinance of 1785 surveyed western land into townships, and the Northwest Ordinance (1787) set a path to statehood and banned slavery north of the Ohio River.

Weakness showed in debts, trade disputes between states and Shays' Rebellion (1786 to 1787), a revolt of indebted Massachusetts farmers. In 1787 delegates met in Philadelphia and wrote a new Constitution. The Great Compromise made a House by population and a Senate with two members per state. The Three-Fifths Compromise counted three-fifths of enslaved people for representation and direct taxes, and the slave trade could not be banned before 1808.

Ratification split Federalists, who backed a stronger national government (Madison, Hamilton and Jay wrote the Federalist essays), from Anti-Federalists, who feared a distant, powerful government and demanded a bill of rights. The Constitution took effect in 1789, and the Bill of Rights was added in 1791.

Under Washington, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton proposed paying the war debt in full, taking over state debts and chartering a national bank. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison objected, and the first parties formed: Federalists (Hamilton, Adams), who favored commerce and closer ties to Britain, and Democratic-Republicans (Jefferson, Madison), who favored farmers, states' rights and France. Washington faced the Whiskey Rebellion (1794), and his Farewell Address (1796) warned against parties and permanent foreign alliances.

Under John Adams, the undeclared naval Quasi-War with France led Federalists to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798). Jefferson and Madison answered with the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, arguing that states could judge federal laws unconstitutional. Jefferson won the election of 1800, and power passed peacefully between parties.

Trap Shays was a symptom, not the whole cause

Shays' Rebellion alarmed leaders, but it is one example of a larger problem: a Congress that could not tax, pay its debts or regulate trade. On a causation question, name the structural weakness and use Shays as the evidence, not as the only cause.

Worked example Easy

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 is best known for

  1. letting each state seize the lands of Loyalists who had fled
  2. a path to statehood and a ban on slaveryAnswer
  3. creating the first national bank
  4. giving Congress the power to tax imports

How to solve it

  1. Remember the ordinance's subject: the western territory north of the Ohio River.
  2. Its two famous provisions were the path to statehood and the ban on slavery.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. Seizures of Loyalist lands were state actions during and after the war, not part of this ordinance.
  • B. Correct. It set out how territories north of the Ohio could become equal states, and it banned slavery there.
  • C. Incorrect. The first national bank was chartered in 1791 under the Constitution, on Hamilton's plan.
  • D. Incorrect. The Confederation Congress never gained the power to tax imports; the ordinance dealt with western lands.

Explain Explain it

Task verbs: explain, compare

To explain a disagreement, give each side's position and the reason behind it, then say what was really at stake. Hamilton wanted a bank because a strong national credit system would tie wealthy creditors to the government; Jefferson opposed it because the Constitution did not list a power to charter banks and because it favored merchants over farmers. The real question was how strictly to read the Constitution.

Worked example Medium

Jefferson and Madison opposed Hamilton's national bank mainly because they believed

  1. the states had no debts left to pay
  2. the bank would lower taxes on wealthy merchants
  3. the Constitution did not list that powerAnswer
  4. France would refuse to trade with the bank

How to solve it

  1. Recall the two ways of reading the Constitution: strict and loose.
  2. Jefferson and Madison read it strictly, so an unlisted power was not allowed.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. States did carry war debts, which is why Hamilton proposed taking them over; this is false.
  • B. Incorrect. Their complaint was that the bank favored merchants and creditors, not that it would lower taxes on them.
  • C. Correct. They read the Constitution strictly and found no listed power to charter a bank.
  • D. Incorrect. Relations with France were not the reason they opposed the bank.

Explain Your turn

Shays' Rebellion (1786 to 1787) and the Whiskey Rebellion (1794) were both armed protests by farmers. For each one, say who put the uprising down. Then explain what the difference shows about the power of the national government under the Constitution compared with the Articles.

Write it, then compare. Nothing you type here is saved or graded.

Compare with a model answer

A full answer does this

  • Says Massachusetts, not the national government, put down Shays' Rebellion
  • Says the national government under President Washington put down the Whiskey Rebellion
  • Says the national government could enforce its laws or put down uprisings under the Constitution but could not under the Articles

Model answer

Shays' Rebellion was put down by Massachusetts, using a militia paid for largely by Boston merchants, because Congress had almost no money and could not raise troops to send. The Whiskey Rebellion was ended by the national government: President Washington called out about 13,000 militiamen, and the rebels scattered. The difference shows that under the Constitution the national government could enforce its own laws and put down an uprising, which it could not do under the Articles.

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