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A Post Revolutionary History of North America – a study to a disunited continent. 1787 - 2000


Introduction

Today there are 18 different nations on the North American continent, however the independence of many of these states, if not all of them, has never been assured, especially for much of the early history of the continent, immediately after the Revolutionary War of the thirteen colonies against the British Empire. Indeed after the colonial victory against the redcoats of the British regulars, the thirteen colonies were grouped together as a ‘United States of America’, operating under a loose legal arrangement called the Articles of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation lacked provisions any modern state would deem necessary for survival. The Congress of the Confederation was not provided with taxing authority, strict military control, an ability to impose coherent laws and even had its authority in foreign affairs usurped by the individual state governors on occasion. Its failure was never in doubt. The fact that is lasted til the outbreak of the Ohio War between Pennsylvania and Virginia in 1791, and survived the Vermont annexation crisis of 1790 still astounds many American political-historians.

Perhaps however the ultimate failure can be attributed to the failure of the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. Several omens to the future were perhaps first glimpsed at Philadelphia, most importantly the unwillingness of the individual states to compromise for the greater good of all.

After the failure in 1787, the next 20 years sees the North American continent see the birth of several new independent nations, some strong, some weak, some liberal, other authoritarian. Indeed by 1810, with the British sale of Newfoundland to the United Commonwealths of New England, all memory of the promise the United States once held had been expunged from the public mind of all North Americans.

The nineteenth century sees the settlement of the continent, the gold rushes of the west and the following collapse in public order as the existing public systems collapse under the influx of people from around the world. The 19th century also sees the first Oriental-majority nation in Asoukou on the Pacific Coastline of the North American continent, after the discovery of gold in California and the migration the 1848 discovery launched.

The growing awareness of the world continues apace in the North American continent during this time as well. The New England colony in Africa of ‘Liberty’ is attributed to this growing sense of equality with Europe. Indeed by the dawn 20th century many North American nations were matches for all but the very strongest European nations.

In the final third of this essay we study the tumultuous 20th century. Through the three world wars that the world has endured, the rise of Marxist-Lincolnist thought, the Great Influenza Outbreak and the Cold War that slammed an iron curtain across the entire continent and divided its peoples even more so. With the birth of the modern era, can this divided continent put its blood-stained past behind it and strive towards new beginnings?


Chapter One – The Failure of the Articles of Confederation

After the defeat of General Cornwallis at Yorktown, and the British acceptance of American independence, the individual thirteen colonies that had fought and won the revolutionary war, struggled to establish a coherent and united front to the world through the ill-fated Articles of Confederation.

In late 1786 delegates from seven of the thirteen colonies attended the Annapolis Convention, obtaining a quorum to call a general constitutional convention in Philadelphia, which convened on May 25th 1787 with all colonies, but Rhode Island sending delegates. Virginian, and Revolutionary General, George Washington presided over the Convention, while several plans were put forward as possible constitutions for the confederation. However for the months, delegates of the larger states struggled to compromise with the smaller states on how to divide power in the new legislature, what the new executive would have power to do and how to separate the powers of government.

This lack of compromise was further compounded by the delay in proceedings in early July when Conneticut delegate, Roger Sherman was found murdered in his rented rooms in Philadelphia. Many political-historians have later come to believe that Sherman could of forced a suitable compromise through his own personality and good standing and was formulating a plan to do just that when killed. His killed, a Seamus McKinley, a recent immigrant from Ireland, was captured, tried and hanged in early 1789 after boasting in a Pittsburgh tavern.

By late October it was clear the convention had failed with support almost equally divided amongst those who supported the Virginia Plan, which based representation on population (the larger states) and the New Jersey Plan, who many believe was a direct reaction against the Virginia Plan, which based representation on the states themselves (smaller states). This impasse in the negotiations eventually forced Washington to declare an end to proceedings in Philadelphia on November 5 1787, with only a promise to meet again in mid-Spring in Fredricksburg, Virginia.

At Fredricksburg, the following April, eleven of the thirteen colonies attended the convention, (Rhode Island and New Jersey failed to send delegates), to discuss the fourteen amendments to the Articles of Confederation. The convention was presided by Thomas Jefferson, newly returned from a European trip and a staunch anti-Unionist, thus this influenced the convention and restricted the scope available for effective debates. By late May all fourteen amendments had been defeated by quick and efficient votes, and the convention failed. Many now believe Jefferson intended this to happen however it cannot be proven due to the lack of existing records of the Fredricksburg Convention due to the great fire of Fredricksburg in 1835 that burnt four-fifths of the city including the city museum that housed the artefact.

The final ‘pro-Union’ push started by Alexander Hamilton of Massachusetts started in Boston during July 1789, but failed to reach a quorum of delegates and only attracted six colonies to send representatives, all from the northern states, (the delegates were from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey). The delegates to the Boston Convention made speeches on the ‘gradual fracturing of the Confederation’ and professed friendship and co-operation between those in attendance, ending with the Boston Accords that led to the basis of both the Federated Republics of America and the United Commonwealths of New England.

The Articles faced their first full test when New York annexed the Vermont Republic in Feburary 1790. The Confederation Congress in Philadelphia proved powerless to act, which was especially disappointing to several states considering the negotiations for Vermont to join the Confederation that had been ongoing. Indeed the delegation from South Carolina temporarily withdrew from the Congress for three weeks in August to protest the annexation. However in November with the ascension of Cyrus Griffin to the Presidency of the Congress for a second time, the Congress itself was forced to accept the fait acompli of the New Yorker annexation, which had fully absorbed Vermont by Janurary 1791 with the final defeat and surrender of the Vermont Rangers to the New Yorker General Shuyler, who was appointed military governor of the conquered territory.

By the start of 1791, the Articles of Confederation were on their last legs. Increasingly several states were acting with no reference at all to the enfeebled Congress in Philadelphia, as it lost more and more credibility with the handling over the Vermont issue. To make matters worse a ‘New England Assembly’ had begun meeting at Concord with representatives from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island in attendance. This Assembly convened on May 7, 1791, and was presided over by Alexander Hamilton.

The final straw broke in early June when Virginia State milita troopers opened fire on Pennsylvanian settlers in the Ohio Valley, starting the Ohio Wars. On June 26th Pennsylvania declared war against Virginia in direct violation of the Articles of Confederation, whilst declaring the members of the Virginian delegation to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, persona non grata.

Cyrus Griffin, President of the Congress tried in vain to keep the peace, and even shifted the Continental Congress to Baltimore on June 30th, however the Pennsylvanian, the New Yorker and the New Jerseyians elected to remain in Philadelphia, while the New England states withdrew from the Congress altogether. Over the next five weeks, the Carolinas formed a joint assembly in Colombia, South Carolina while simultaneously withdrawing from the Congress at Baltimore, and the Virginian delegation was recalled to Richmond before it reached Baltimore to rejoin the Congress.

A broken man and in front of the two remaining delegations, (Maryland and Delaware), along with four renegade delegates from states no longer wishing representation, President Cyrus Griffin ended the last session of the Continental Congress, dying in March 1793, less than two years after the death of the United States. On this deathbed, President Griffin claimed the failure of the Continental Congress in 1791, ‘his greatest failure and personal regret one man shall ever have to face’. The United States had lived for only seventeen years.

Comments are welcome on this thread or the ideas thread. More chapters will be posted as I write them.
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