Founding America: Documents from the Revolution to the Bill of Rights (32 page)

ARTICLE XI. Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into and entitled to all the advantages of this union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine states.

ARTICLE XII. All bills of credit emitted, monies borrowed and debts contracted by, or under the authority of Congress before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged.

ARTICLE XIII. Every State shall abide by the determinations of the United States, in Congress assembled, on all questions which, by this confederation, are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State.

These articles shall be proposed to the legislatures of all the United States, to be considered, and if approved of by them, they are advised to authorize their delegates to ratify the same in the Congress of the United States; which being done, the same shall become conclusive.

AFTER CONGRESS COMPLETED THE Articles in November 1777, it hoped that the thirteen state legislatures would quickly ratify the Confederation. Only eight had done so, however, by June 1778, when the first French minister to the United States arrived in Philadelphia. Nearly three years passed before Maryland, the last holdout state, gave its assent, finally allowing the Articles of Confederation to begin operation as the country’s first national constitution. Maryland’s opposition was based on the failure of the Articles to empower Congress to limit the extravagant land claims of states like Virginia, which relied on its original seventeenth-century charter to claim much of the territory west of Pennsylvania and north of the Ohio River. Nevertheless, by 1780 a movement was afoot to give Congress jurisdiction over this same territory, not by amending the Articles, but through the voluntary cessions of individual states. This movement began with New York. Its own claims in the Ohio Valley rested on the dubious theory that the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy were both overlords of other Indian nations further west and legally dependent on New York through previous treaties negotiated with the former colonial government as long ago as 1701. What New York leaders like Philip Schuyler and Governor George Clinton really wanted was to assert their state’s jurisdiction over the area between Lake Ontario and the northern boundary of Pennsylvania. At the same time, they hoped that a cession by New York would induce other states to follow suit. By early 1781 there was good reason to think that Virginia would cede its claims as well, and this was a factor in Maryland’s decision to ratify the Confederation.

Even as the Articles neared ratification, however, criticisms of their potential shortcomings were being voiced. Three years of war had exposed serious gaps between the assumptions of 1776 and 1777 and the difficulties Congress now faced. Under the Articles, Congress had no authority to raise its own revenue, but had to rely instead on the contributions of the states. It had the authority to direct the war, but lacked the resources to keep its army fully manned and provisioned. Its shortcomings were painfully evident to the of ficer corps of the Continental Army, including the young artillery officer Alexander Hamilton, who was serving as General Washington’s aide-de-camp when he provided the New York delegate James Duane with a sweeping critique of the Articles.

As soon as the Confederation was ratified in the winter of 1781, Congress asked the states to approve its first amendment: a proposal to grant Congress a 5 percent impost (duty) on foreign imports. Opposition from Rhode Island doomed this amendment to rejection. In 1782 Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris issued a major report on public credit, which he hoped would persuade Congress to propose a new set of amendments to the Articles. But the delegates were deeply divided on Morris’s plan, and instead finally adopted a compromise set of amendments over his objections. These were sent to the states in April 1783. A year later Congress proposed two further amendments, designed to give it limited authority to regulate foreign commerce. None of these proposals ever overcame the hurdle of unanimous state ratification. Congress briefly considered one last set of amendments in 1786. But by then, reformers like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton were beginning to think about a different strategy of constitutional reform.

One significant change to the Articles of Confederation did take place, however, outside the rules for its amendment. This involved the creation of a national domain, north of the Ohio River, through the voluntary cessions of states with claims to this territory. That process began with the New York cession of 1780, but the key development was the decision by the Virginia legislature in 1781 to cede its claims as well. Another three years passed before the terms of the Virginia cession were fully accepted by Congress, but when they were, the federal union was vested with the authority and responsibility to regulate the development of the trans-Appalachian West. This substantial expansion of its authority had occurred through the actions of individual states, but without the unanimous approval of the thirteen legislatures that the Articles required.

Once this national domain existed, Congress had to ask how it would be governed. Its solution to this problem was found in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which Congress, then sitting in New York, adopted while the constitutional convention was simultaneously meeting in Philadelphia. Rather than treat the interior of the continent as a subordinate region to be exploited and colonized by the existing seaboard states, the Northwest Ordinance envisioned the creation of new states, to be admitted to the Union with the same rights and powers as its original thirteen members.

ALBANY JANUARY 29TH 1780.

GENTLEMEN,

Concieying it my duty as a Servant of the State to advise the Legislature of any Occurrences in Congress which may immediately af fect either the Honor or the Weal of the State, I beg Leave to inform the honorable Houses in which you respectively preside of some Matters which I intended to have conveyed thro’ his Excellency the Governor, supposing that to be the proper Channel of Communication : but was prevented by his leaving the City, and as I humbly concieve the Subject worthy the immediate Attention of the Legislature and that Evils may possibly arise from Delay, I have taken the Liberty to address myself to you, trusting that his Excellency’s Candor and that of the Legislature will excuse the Impropriety if it should be deemed one.

Deeply impressed with a Sense of the extensive Advantages which would probably result to the United States in general, and this in particular, from a perfect and permanent Reconciliation with an Enemy so formidable to a weak and extensive Frontier as fatal Experience has evinced the Indians to be, to whom Distance of Situation seems no great Obstacle to prevent or retard their Incursions; reflecting, with the most anxious Concern, on the Desolation and Variety of Distress incident on a Savage War; apprehensive that they would consider themselves without any Alternative but that of recommencing Hostilities; dreading the Effects of a consequent Desperation on their part; firmly believing that the greatly deranged State of the public Finances would render it exceedingly difficult to procure the necessary Supplies for that Army only which must keep the Enemy’s Force on the Sea Board in Check; doubtful whether Detachments of sufficient Force to protect the Frontiers could be spared from our Army whilst the British retained their present position ; aware of the Distresses and Expence incident on calling forth the Militia for the purpose; convinced that an Obstacle of very interesting Importance would be removed if Events should happily arise which would permit us to turn our Attention to the Reduction of Canada or the Enemies Fortresses in the interior parts of the Country ; persuaded that no farther offensive Operations could be prosecuted against the Savages with any probable prospect of adequate Advantage I embraced the earliest Opportunity to advise Congress of the Overtures made by the Cayugas, and took the Liberty strongly to point at the Necessity of an Accommodation with all the Savages: but not being honored with an Answer as early as the Importance of the Object seemed to require, and wishing to improve the Advantage which the first Impulse occasioned by the Disaster the Indians had experienced would probably afford us, I hastened to Congress to sollicit their Determination which was obtained on the __ November last, Copy whereof I have the Honor to enclose.

Whilst the Report of the Committee in the Business I have alluded to was under Consideration a Member moved in Substance “That the Commissioners for Indian Affairs in the Northern Department should require from the Indians of the six Nations, as a preliminary Article, a Cession of part of their Country, and that the Territory so to be ceded should be for the Benefit of the United States in general and grantable by Congress.” A Measure so evidently injurious to this State exceedingly alarmed and chagrined those whose Duty it was to attend to its Interests. They animadverted with Severity on the unjustifiable principle held up in the Motion; the pernicious Consequence of divesting a State of its undoubted property in such an extrajudicial Manner was forcibly urged: the Apprehensions with which it would fill and affect the Minds of a people who had been as firm in the present glorious Contest; who had made more strenuous and efficacious Exertions to support it; had suffered more and still suffered as much as any were strongly painted. The Improbability that the Indians would acceed to a Reconciliation when such a preliminary was insisted upon was observed by many Members and urged on a Variety of Considerations. The Gentlemen in Favor of the Motion attempted to support it on the general Ground that what was acquired or conquered at the common Expence ought to enure to the common Benefit; that the Lands in Question, altho’ they might be comprehended within the Limits of the State of New York (which however was not acknowledged) was not the property of the State; that being either in the Natives or by Right of Conquest in the United States. The Motion was nevertheless after some farther desultory Debate rejected: but from what drop’d in the Debate we had Reason to apprehend that several who were opposed to the Motion founded their Opposition on the Necessity of a Reconciliation with the Indians, against which, they imagined the Spirit of the Motion would militate. And we had a few Days after a convincing proof that an Idea prevailed that this and some other States ought to be divested of part of their Territory for the Benefit of the United States, when a Member afforded us the perusal of a Resolution for which he intended to move the House purporting “that all the Lands within the Limits of any of the United States, heretofore grantable by the King of Great Britain whilst these States (then Colonies) were in the Dominion of that prince, and which had not been granted to Individuals should be considered as the joint property of the United States and disposed of by Congress for the Benefit of the whole Confederacy.” The Necessity and propriety of such an Arrangement was strenuously insisted upon, in private Conversation, and even supported by Gentlemen who represented States in Circumstances seemingly similar to our’s with Respect to the Object of the intended Resolution. It was observed that if such States whose Bounds were either indefinite or were pretended to extend to the South Seas would consent to a reasonable Western Limitation that it would supercede the Necessity of any Intervention by Congress other than that of permanently establishing the Bounds of each State: prevent Controversy and remove the Obstacle which prevented the Completion of the Confederation. As this State would be eminently affected by such a Measure it was deemed of Importance as fully to investigate their Intentions as could be done consistent with that Delicacy and prudence to be observed on so interesting an Occasion and a Wish was accordingly expressed, as arising from mere Curiosity, to know their Idea of a reasonable Western Limitation. This they gave by exhibiting a Map of the Country, on which they drew a Line from the North west Corner of Pennsylvania (which in that Map was laid down as in Lake Erie)
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thro’ the Strait that leads to Ontario and thro’ that Lake and down the St. Lawrence to the forty fifth Degree of Latitude for the Bounds of this State in that Quarter. Virginia, the two Carolinas and Georgia they proposed to restrict by the Allighany Mountains, or at farthest by the Ohio to where that River enters the Missisippi and by the latter River to the South Bounds of Georgia. That all the Territory to the West of those Limits should become the property of the Confederacy. We found this Matter had been in Contemplation some Time; the Delegates from North Carolina having then already requested Instructions from their Constituents on the Subjects, and my Colleagues were in Sentiment with me that it should be humbly submitted to the Legislature, if it would not be proper to communicate their pleasure in the premisses by Way of Instruction to their Servants in Congress.