We have not a government
Subtitle: the Articles of Confederation and the road to the Constitution
By: George William van Cleve
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 390
ISBN-13: 9780226480503
Subjects: Constitutional history; Politics and government; United States; History
Description: In 1783, as the Revolutionary War came to a close, Alexander Hamilton resigned in disgust from the Continental Congress after it refused to consider a fundamental reform of the Articles of Confederation. Just four years later, that same government collapsed, and Congress grudgingly agreed to support the 1787 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, which altered the Articles beyond recognition. What occurred during this remarkably brief interval to cause the Confederation to lose public confidence and inspire Americans to replace it with a dramatically more flexible and powerful government? We Have Not a Government is the story of this contentious moment in American history.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The confederation's final years: a chronology; title: Introduction; title: The search for national identity; title: War's aftermath; title: America's postwar debts: public faith or anarchy?; title: Republic and empire: the struggle over confederation taxes; title: Protecting American commerce in an imperial world; title: Western expansion strains; title: "Astonishing" emigrations and western settlement conflicts; title: The Spanish-treaty impasse and the union's collapse; title: Internal divisions : state social conflicts; title: Economic relief, social peace, and republican justice; title: Shays's rebellion: the final battle of the American revolution?; title: Confederation collapse and its consequences; title: "The truth is, we have not a government" : confederation stalemate and the road to the Philadelphia convention; title: Conclusion: the birth of the American empire.