The First Experiments
State constitutions favoured legislatures
- Many new state constitutions placed power in the hands of the legislative branch and maintained property qualifications for voting and citizenship.
- Two features in one sentence, pointing opposite ways: legislative power widened participation, property qualifications restricted it.
- Maintained is the key verb for the second — the restriction was carried over, not invented.
Select both features of many new state constitutions.
Two features pointing opposite ways.
The Articles: unity with limited power
- The Articles of Confederation unified the newly independent states, creating a central government with limited power.
- After the Revolution, difficulties over international trade, finances, interstate commerce, foreign relations, and internal unrest led to calls for a stronger central government.
- Five named difficulties — and each one is a thing a weak centre cannot do, which is the argument for 3.8.
Select all the difficulties that led to calls for a stronger centre.
Each is a thing a weak centre cannot do.
The Northwest Ordinance did three things
- As settlers moved westward during the 1780s, Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance for admitting new states; the ordinance promoted public education, the protection of private property, and a ban on slavery in the Northwest Territory.
- A procedure for admitting new states is a constitutional design decision: the republic is built to grow.
- And the CED names three substantive provisions, of which the ban on slavery in the Northwest Territory is the most consequential for later units.
State constitutions, the Articles, or the Northwest Ordinance?
Sort each element of the first experiments.
Select all three provisions of the Northwest Ordinance the CED names.
Plus a procedure for admitting new states.
The Articles were a deliberate design, not an oversight. A generation that had just fought a distant strong government created a central government with limited power on purpose — the five difficulties are evidence about what a weak centre cannot do, and the CED's own frame for the period is experiments.
The Articles' limited central power is best described as...
The CED's frame for the period is 'experiments'.
Why the Articles are an experiment, not a failure
- A generation that had just fought a distant strong government designed a weak one on purpose.
- The five difficulties are evidence about what a weak centre cannot do, not evidence that the design was foolish.
- 3.1's word — experiments — is the frame the CED chose, and using it keeps the analysis honest.
A procedure for admitting new states means the republic was built to ____.
A constitutional design decision.
Forms of government developing and changing
- The objective is how different forms of government developed and changed as a result of the Revolutionary Period.
- Developed: state constitutions favouring legislatures, a confederation with limited power, and a procedure for growth.
- Changed: five difficulties produced calls for a stronger centre, which 3.8 and 3.9 answer.
Ask a builder who has just escaped a fire to design a house and you will get one with many doors. It is not a bad house; it is a house shaped by the last emergency, and it will be tested by a different one.
Many new state constitutions placed power in the hands of the legislative branch and maintained property qualifications for voting and citizenship. The Articles of Confederation unified the newly independent states, creating a central government with limited power, and difficulties over international trade, finances, interstate commerce, foreign relations, and internal unrest led to calls for a stronger central government. The Northwest Ordinance provided for admitting new states and promoted public education, the protection of private property, and a ban on slavery in the Northwest Territory.