Lesson 1: Government in Transition

Lesson Focus

After the Revolution, American leaders faced a new challenge: building a government from scratch. This lesson explores their first attempts, from creating new state constitutions to establishing a national government under the Articles of Confederation.

People to Know

John Dickinson, Thomas Jefferson

Learning Objectives

• Describe the governments created by the new state constitutions.
• List the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.

After royal authority collapsed, the newly independent states created their own governments. Reflecting their experience with the king, they wrote constitutions that established strong bicameral legislatures but weak governors with no veto power. While these constitutions included bills of rights to protect citizens, the franchise, or right to vote, was generally restricted to white male property owners, showing the limits of revolutionary democracy in this early period.

The ideals of the Revolution led many to question slavery. As a result, every northern state provided for emancipation by 1804. Progress also occurred in religious freedom as some states disestablished their official churches. However, these changes were incomplete. Slavery remained essential to the South’s economy, and full political and religious equality was not yet a reality for women, African Americans, and non-Protestants across the new nation.

To legally unite the states, the Second Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Confederation. However, the states had to ratify, or approve, the plan. The process stalled until 1781 because Maryland refused to sign until states with large western land claims agreed to turn that territory over to the national government as public land. Once Virginia finally agreed, the Articles were approved, creating the first official government of the United States.

Fearing a powerful central government, the states created a weak one under the Articles. The government consisted of a unicameral (one-house) Confederation Congress, where each state had a single vote. While Congress could declare war, make treaties, and run a postal service, it had very limited authority. Note that this design intentionally kept most power with the individual states, reflecting a deep distrust of centralized rule similar to what they experienced under Britain.

The Articles of Confederation had critical weaknesses that made the national government ineffective. The Confederation Congress lacked the power to tax the states or regulate commerce, forcing it to beg for funds. Furthermore, there was no executive branch to enforce laws and no national court system to interpret them. This powerless structure meant Congress could not solve national problems, pay its debts, or command respect, proving it was a “shadow without substance.”