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1 Men Prone to Wonder: America Before 1600
2 The European Settlement of North America: The Atlantic Coast to 1660
3 Empires (1660-1702)
4 Benjamin Franklin's World: Colonial North America (1702-1763)
5 Toward Independence (1764-1783)
6 Inventing the American Republic: The States (1776-1790)
7 Inventing the American Republic: The Nation (1776-1788)
8 Establishing the New Nation (1789-1800)
9 The Fabric of Change (1800-1815)
10 A New Epoch (1815-1828)
11 Political Innovation in a Mechanical Age (1828-1840)
12 Worker Worlds in Antebellum America
13 The Age of Improvement: Religion and Reform (1825-1846)
14 National Expansion, Sectional Division (1839-1850)
15 A House Dividing (1851-1860)
16 Civil War (1861-1865)
17 Reconstruction (1865-1877)
18 The Rise of Big Business and the Triumph of Industry (1870-1900)
19 An Industrial Society (1870-1910)
20 Politics and the State (1876-1900)
21 A New Place in the World (1865-1914)
22 The Progressive Era (1900-1916)
23 The Great War (1914-1919)
24 A Conservative Interlude: The 1920s
25 The Great Depression and the New Deal (1929-1940)
26 Whirlpool of War (1932-1941)
27 Fighting for Freedom (1942-1945)
28 A Troubled Peace (1945-1953)
29 Eisenhower, Affluence, and Civil Rights (1954-1960)
30 Reform, Rage, and Vietnam (1960-1968)
31 Revival of Conservativism (1969-1980)
32 "The Cold War is Over" (1981-1992)
33 Innovations and Divisions in a Globalizing Society (1970-2000)
34 The Politics of Division (1993-2001)
35 At War Against Terror

Chapter 7: Inventing the American Republic: The Nation (1776-1788)

Chapter Outline

  1. The Articles of Confederation, 1781-89
    1. Congressional Approval of John Dickinson's Draft (1777)
    2. Ratification by the States (1777-81)
      1. Uniform representation: one vote per state
      2. Requisitions based on population
      3. Cession of western territories from states to national government
    3. Achievements
      1. Creation of a national market
      2. Executive departments: war, foreign affairs, and finance
      3. National post office
      4. Northwest Ordinance of 1785
        1. western land sales at $1 per acre
        2. township system (thirty-six square miles)
      5. Northwest Ordinance of 1787
        1. government for the West
        2. states, not colonies
        3. five states: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan,Wisconsin
        4. three stages of government:
          1. unorganized territory (fewer than 5,000 people)
          2. organized territory (5,000 to 60,000 people)
          3. statehood (60,000 or more people)
    4. Weaknesses
      1. Amendments required unanimous consent
      2. Lack of power to regulate international commerce
      3. Diplomatic weakness against European powers
      4. Three-fourths vote required to ratify treaties
      5. Lack of a regular quorum in Congress
      6. Delinquent requisitions from the states
      7. League of sovereign states without popular ratification
      8. No power to suppress insurrections
      9. Little authority over states
    5. Nationalists
      1. Alexander Hamilton of New York
      2. James Madison of Virginia
      3. Annapolis Convention (1786)
      4. Congressional endorsement of Philadelphia Convention
    6. Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts (1786-87)
  2. The Constitutional Convention (1787)
    1. Philadelphia, summer of 1787
      1. Pennsylvania State House
      2. Fifty-five delegates from twelve states (all but Rhode Island)
      3. Secret deliberations
      4. George Washington, president of the Constitutional Convention
      5. One vote per state
      6. James Madison's "Notes"
    2. The Virginia Plan
      1. Virginia governor Edmund Randolph
      2. Three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial
      3. Bicameral legislature
      4. Proportional representation
      5. Popular ratification
    3. The New Jersey Plan
      1. Unicameral legislature
      2. Uniform representation
      3. National power to tax, regulate trade, enforce laws
    4. Legislative Branch
      1. Representation
        1. proportional representation: big states
        2. uniform representation: small states
      2. Adoption of Virginia Plan with compromise on representation
        1. Senate with uniform representation (two per state)
          1. elected by state legislatures
          2. six-year terms
        2. House of Representatives with proportional representation
          1. three-fifths of slaves counted for representation in House
          2. authority to originate all taxation and appropriations
    5. Executive Branch
      1. Extensive presidential powers
      2. Four-year terms with reelection
      3. Electoral college
    6. Judicial Branch
      1. Supreme Court
      2. Inferior courts
      3. Appointment with life tenure
    7. Ratification Procedure
      1. Three-fourths approval (nine states)
      2. Special state ratifying conventions
    8. Rejection of a Bill of Rights
  3. Ratification of the Constitution (1787-88)
    1. Antifederalist Objections
      1. National government was too powerful and reminiscent of England
      2. The United States was too large for a republic to hold together
      3. Recommended adoption of a bill of rights
      4. George Mason, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee
    2. Federalist Arguments
      1. The Federalist Papers: James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay
      2. Federalism: two levels of sovereign power (state and nation)
      3. Representative officials with fixed terms
      4. Representative democracy supported a large nation

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