The New Nation

The New Nation — page 7 — 12 THE NEW NATION a common postal service and diplomats abroad So the Articles created a perpetual union not merely a war alliance and declared that the name of the nation should be the United States of America The main problem in drafting the Articles was that of dividing the powers of government between the states and Congress Britain had formerly supplied the navy the postal service the military and the diplomatic agencies for America Accordingly the Articles gave Congress the power to raise and maintain an army and a navy to make war and peace to negotiate treaties to ﬁx standards of coinage and of weights and measures and to provide a postal service On the other hand the patriot leaders had objected to Britain’s claims that Parliament could tax the colo nies regulate their trade and currency interfere in their local concerns and manage relations with the Indians Therefore the Articles did not allow Congress any con trol over the domestic affairs of the states Nor could it levy taxes it could only ask the states for funds Congress could make commercial treaties and also superintend Indian affairs if these did not conﬂict with state laws Each of the 13 states was to have only one vote in Congress though it might send from two to seven del egates and nine of the 13 votes were required before Congress could act The enforcement of all laws and the administration of justice were left to the states The Articles could be changed only by unanimous vote of the Confederation Any power not speciﬁcally granted to Congress was reserved to the states

The New Nation — page 8 — A NEW NATION ARISES 13 STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF CONFEDERATION The Articles were adopted by Congress on November 15 1777 and submitted to the states for ratification The smaller states especially Maryland objected to the claims of Virginia Massachusetts the Carolinas Georgia New York and Connecticut to the lands west of the Appalachians Maryland felt that if these states had all the land they claimed they might become too powerful Only when the states with western claims agreed to turn over these lands to Congress for the use of all the states would A 1784 map of the United States shows the 13 American colonies offset in color in contrast to the western frontier which would eventually be settled and split up into new states

The New Nation — page 9 — 14 THE NEW NATION Maryland ratify the Articles It finally signed them on March 1 1781 Thus the Articles which had been laid before the states in 1777 and which were intended to help win the war did not come into effect until a few months before the close of the war The new Congress had only to keep the armies in the ﬁeld until the war was won It provided four executive ofﬁces to superintend foreign affairs ﬁnance war and marine At the end of the war Congress negotiated the Treaty of Paris Congress worked out important policies with reference to the western lands ceded by the states The Ordinance of 1785 divided these lands into town ships of 36 square miles 93 square kilometers The townships in turn were subdivided into sections of one square mile 640 acres each These lands were then sold at auction at a minimum price of one dol lar an acre Many settlers were able to buy farms of their own The Ordinance of 1787 also known as the Northwest Ordinance opened the territory to settle ment and outlined the representative government later used for all the continental territories It prom ised that the region should eventually be divided into new states that would enter the Union on an equal footing with the original 13 After the American Revolution the states refused to pay taxes requested by Congress hence the gen eral government could not pay the public debt or even the interest on it The navy was inadequate to

The New Nation — page 10 — A NEW NATION ARISES 15 protect foreign commerce Now that the states were out of the British Empire they could not trade freely with England and its West Indies colonies Western settlers needed an outlet for their produce down the Mississippi Spain however held the mouth of the river and blocked American shipping from New Orleans The map depicts the Northwest Territory and the ﬁve states eventually created from it Also shown are the ﬁrst land purchase by the Ohio Company of Associates and the method of dividing the land into townships

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