After defeating the British and declaring America’s independence, the atmosphere was full of joy and shock. As the new nation had acquired its independence, a new government would have to be created to keep everyone and everything organized. Some of the first actions as a new nation were the Land Ordinance of 1785, which structured the way land would be bought and sold among the land west of the Apache Mountains. Although this decree was optimal, the new nation was about to collapse as quickly as it had been created. The first constitution of the United States was the Articles of Confederation, crafted in 1781. It proved too weak to control the powerful state governments since it was unable to directly tax people. The confederation lacked its
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After a long and intense political debate between the Federalists and the Antifederalists in state ratification conventions, eleven of the thirteen states ratified the new Constitution in 1787 and 1788. The laggard two would join within the following three years, once promised a bill of rights to amend the Constitution. When the newly elected Congress and President gathered to implement the Constitution, the federal government benefitted from the leadership chosen. President George Washington was respected and elected for commanding the Revolutionary army to victory over the British Empire. George Washington knew he couldn’t handle governing a nation by him self, so he carefully manufactured the first “Cabinet” of people to aid him …show more content…
On the frontier, the only practical way to transport and sell surplus corn was to distill it into whiskey. Frontier farmers regarded a tax on whiskey in the same way as American colonists had regarded Britain's stamp tax. By 1794, western Pennsylvanian farmers were overwhelmed by the tax. Some 7,000 frontiersmen marched on Pittsburgh to stop collection of the tax. Determined to set a precedent for the federal government's authority, Washington gathered an army of 15,000 militiamen to disperse the rebels. In the face of this overwhelming force, the uprising collapsed. The new government had proved that it would enforce laws enacted by
After a long and intense political debate between the Federalists and the Antifederalists in state ratification conventions, eleven of the thirteen states ratified the new Constitution in 1787 and 1788. The laggard two would join within the following three years, once promised a bill of rights to amend the Constitution. When the newly elected Congress and President gathered to implement the Constitution, the federal government benefitted from the leadership chosen. President George Washington was respected and elected for commanding the Revolutionary army to victory over the British Empire. George Washington knew he couldn’t handle governing a nation by him self, so he carefully manufactured the first “Cabinet” of people to aid him …show more content…
On the frontier, the only practical way to transport and sell surplus corn was to distill it into whiskey. Frontier farmers regarded a tax on whiskey in the same way as American colonists had regarded Britain's stamp tax. By 1794, western Pennsylvanian farmers were overwhelmed by the tax. Some 7,000 frontiersmen marched on Pittsburgh to stop collection of the tax. Determined to set a precedent for the federal government's authority, Washington gathered an army of 15,000 militiamen to disperse the rebels. In the face of this overwhelming force, the uprising collapsed. The new government had proved that it would enforce laws enacted by