Articles of Confederation Articles of Confederation o Created

Articles of Confederation

Articles of Confederation o Created by the Second Continental Congress o First attempt at a constitution for the United States of America o A constitution is a set of basic principles and laws that states the powers and duties of the government

Ideas behind the Articles o Limited government: to keep individuals from gaining to much power, laws apply to EVERYONE (Magna Carta) o Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: no person could be forced to attend church, no tax dollars could be used for churches (separation of church and state)

Details: Articles of Confederation o Passed on 11/15/1777 (this means it was passed during the War for independence!!) o ONE branch of government: Legislative o Congress could: issue coins, borrow money, make treaties, ask the states for money and soldiers

Weaknesses of the Articles o Set-up a confederacy (weak national government) o No President! No National Court System! o Each state had one vote (HUGE Virginia had same # of votes as TINY Rhode Island o States could refuse to send money and soldiers to help during wars

Northwest Territory o Congress had two problems they needed to solve: o 1: decide what to do with all the land won in the War for Independence o 2: Pay off war debt

Northwest Territory o Solution: Land Ordinance of 1785 o Congress sold the land to pay off war debt and organized the land into towns

Northwest Territory

Northwest Territory o To form a political system for this new region they passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 o The ordinance, or law created a system for bringing new states into the Union o If a territory had a population of 60, 000, they could draft a state constitution & ask to join the Union