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cornwallis's defeat at Yorktown and the resignation of Lord British prime minister signal and the colonies 7 years struggle with Great Britain the fall of the north government meant that peace negotiations would begin Richard Oswald was sent to Paris to negotiate was Benjamin Franklin with John Jay Henry Lawrence was supposed to be part of the negotiations but he's been captured by the British and was in the tower in London Jefferson had been appointed but he didn't get over there so really Franklin and Jay did the bulk of the negotiate which Richard Oswald this was a very fascinating experience because of course they have been told to do all of the Association in consultation with very Jen and the French government but shrewd people that they were they Garnet these instructions from Congress don't make peace without our active involvement in the process are basically the French wanted the sword stop and the Spanish didn't want to until we taken Gibraltar have been pretty since very early in the 18th century and so this gets a French off the hook if the Americans are going to make A Separate Peace with Great Britain I answered Britain actually didn't want to detach the United States from the French and the Spanish it meant that they were willing to make a lot of concessions to the Americans like the Mississippi as a western boundary in 1782 November the preliminary articles were signed and then the final peace treaty in September 1783 Independence was won a large chunk of territory with one and Franklin even had the guts to go back to version having gone is back and say by the way it's going to cost a little more money than I thought and would you give us another loan and bear Jen Jen said yes tell me was a brilliant diplomatic maneuver even after the revolution has exceeded the long-term prospects for the American colonies as a union to the United States were very much all through the 1780s and 90s you can see lots of anxiety turn off the precariousness of of the Union because of internal difficulties and also because the threats from abroad the surface  Jefferson and Adams and Franklin and Washington and all the others had different Recollections not you disagree on everything by far but they had different takes on the Revolution and sometimes got quite angry with each other let's remember to what ought to be remembered very stable very predictable the leaders of the country in many elements in the country were quite sensibly worried that was one thing to break away I'm England quite another matter to keep the separate colonies working together which the fighting over and the peace treaty signed the true cost of War become a parent and turn the cost of the war those who had been loyalists or who respected it being on my list or who were insufficiently patriotic and they're sent to also faced certain kinds of disabilities someone into Exile songs face the prospect of having their property confiscated the war has a fact on other minorities as well especially African-Americans who have witnessed first-hand the struggle for freedom First of all the war itself is destructive of slavery it allows the many slaves to run away to both armies where they find shelter and eventually freedom of the ideology of the American Revolution the notion that all men are created equal is very corrosive to the institution of slavery she's now independent countries have come to believe that the rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence is really talking about them to that what are also entitled to the rights of man to freedom in quality in fulfillment and during the course of conflict many volunteers to fight the the armies of the revolution is the Continental Army and there is an expectation as the British or finally beaten toward withdrawal make that slavery is coming to an end the white people need to wipe that system away as incompatible with this new definition Freedom by had played in Charleston South Carolina went to the street shouting Liberty while I was enough to send Shivers food screw the Christmas has always the abstraction that sense of the biggest most philosophical understanding of Frida went together with a whole series of subterranean qualifications so there is a tremendous sense of shock and I think disappointment among blacks when that for many flights the elimination slave was not what they were talking about that the rights and close they were pursuing work for them so you have a black community that begins to feel very critical of the disappointments that that come about from The Revolution and there is a small who's educated black that begin a fierce critique what they will outlines apocracy white Americans in terms of being unwilling ought to be slaves to other people but quite comfortable enslaving other groups of people and it's that the opposition of slaves find the with the ideology combined with the war which will eventually a set of the north on this pastor to a gradual emancipation Haitian now the same forces are at work that at the solstice in the South as well and although they're not strong enough to overthrow slave in the southern states they are strong enough to allow many of black people to gain their freedom  mini Native American so cute the American Revolution was skepticism most tribes chose to stay out of the war a few have not same too many Indian people especially the Mohawk said that the British were so powerful and the Americans so wait that's the Americans were going to lose so it made good sense call Mini Iroquois people to side with the the British which turned Americans even more so against Indian people is it happened earlier 1756 c's with the French and Indian War and then it occurred again during the American Revolution there was a lingering hatred for Indy too excited with the British even though there were Native people who sided with the Americans they seem to forget this and and it played into American politics in the post-war. Engines were not represented at the peace of Paris but of course Indians had no idea that they lost the revolution because happened but they didn't figure in the negotiations into Americans after the war believed that that because of the Peace they had a claim to all of Indian country by the right of Conquest because they had won the war and conquered their enemies at the same time chickens were struggling to win their independence on the battlefield they were also struggling to create new institutions of government for themselves they found it much easier institution to decide on a form for their national government would have their assemblies contribute to writing the new state constitutions cuz I was the first process that actually began even before the war was over is new States having thrown off the Royal Authority had to constitute new Authority within each colony and State John Adams wrote the state constitution for Massachusetts in 1779 it have to be submitted to be ratified by every town in couple of hundred and then when the ratification came back with great revisions and changes he rewrote his and said and then had to be resubmitted things about this if we have the responses of the towns of Massachusetts there over 200 of them what they wrote back and you have the picture at least in Massachusetts but is true in many other places as well of groups of people Farm people in taverns preachers whatever getting together and writing back their considerations on the closets of the Constitution so you get it is really quite remarkable you got a bunch of farmers in Amesbury Massachusetts maybe had 300 people in it right back very severe comments on the Clause relating to the Supreme Court I mean I don't think they do anything about the Supreme Court but they felt the obligation to comment on this the public document that was being imposed on them in The Cauldron of the Revolutionary movement they begin to imagine what we now think the Rights of Man and therefore could not be taken away and we're in alienable and died no one had talked in this language in a serious way to start them for the movement before next song to think would just leave it at that argument that's good at a particular moment does not have to stick around but by embedding this in the Declaration of Independence that's generation made it a piece of the Cornerstone of the language of American democracy in a way that did not been done before Constitution writing and thinking about it and envisioning the world as they wanted it to be was a very exciting one but also one too many unknowns a difficulty and disagreements of the Condit you expect so that was exciting and highly fertile and interesting. And political can an employer participation under the Articles adopted in 1781 is confronted with even more daunting challenges there were unsettled issues the British did not Evacuate the Northwest Fort since they were supposed to the Fisheries question with nothing sing me soft and British did not give compensation for slaves that they have taken with them and freed in the south there were a number of lingering issues  despite economic problems social conflict within the country  problems with the British in their Spanish neighbors problems with the Indians that it became manifest at the Articles of Confederation we're too weak they want to write balance point  in 1784 Congress send John Adams to London to resolve these but Adams makes no Headway with the English the Young Nation experiences similar difficulties with Spain what kind of shady characters in your possession of movement in Southwest what was in the Southwest Spain controlled Mississippi close the port of New Orleans that this was going to country than trying to get back on his feet economically and restore trade what is Major blow fish the United States especially in the Confederation was far from over on International powers and they weren't any respect from these questions given the power to regulate trade they start they don't have the power to tax and it's there for a very weak government and why is it that we could government and I think it's really the cause sovereignty resides with the states not with United States that's the Paradox of the Articles Confederation they were good for the war but they were impossible during time of Peace it's simply the reason for that is the United States didn't in 1780 you become truly independent of the world there were lots of outstanding problems that had to be negotiated mainly commercial treaties of the European powers of State American Prosperity depended on European trade one of the things that Americans desperately wanted was a favorable commercial treating with the British which was not and nobody took the American seriously after the peace of Paris because they had no leverage in the international balance of power the considerations most significant accomplishment during the 1780s is the resolution of at least some of the controversies related to Western lands people regular folks and in the 80s who are looking around thinking I'm not getting what I thought I was going to get out of there would be easier access to land well on the frontier turns out to the lot of the land was bought up by large Proprietors or by land speculation companies and turn out of weather for you to eat your hands on this land quantities and they're looking to resell it and they're looking to resell it as as high a price as possible and one of the things they then do a course is send out lots of propaganda extolling the incredible virtues plan so that you get descriptions of places Weatherby Kentucky or Century later Nevada course the problem is not just the quality of land that is available but sometimes that that plan has been pulled away by people who have connections and make it impossible for people to get Secured Title the ordinance of 1784 divide the Western territory into self-governing districts each district can petition Congress for Safeway when its population free inhabitants of the smallest state the following year Congress creates a grid system for surveying and selling Western lands I think some Indians upon seeing the migration many of them were themselves refugees from places for the reef and had moved West in order to create a buffer between themselves and land-hungry settlers to some extent for them this was a repetition and some seeing the can Americans especially by the mid 1770 decided to move further west and moved into what was then Spanish territory west of the Mississippi River others and thought that they could reach some accommodation with the Americans others especially seeing how difficult it was to accommodate Americans thought that the best policy to come together and fight and of course that turns the Ohio Valley Frontier Into the Dark and Bloody ground but it becomes known as during the 1770s and 1780s and of course what generation comes with Kentucky in the Ohio country and it was only in the 1790s that the balance of power in Ohio tipped for the Americans at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 if the consideration experiences modest success in dealing with western expansion it clearly failed to deal with the nation's mounting debts a lot of people holding currency and also questions about how to read establish the comic system and how to get things going the hero really under the eye list of Confederation is Robert Morris the Secretary of Samantha's and he all along struggled against what he what was fast that is a strong centralized government and the realities that the states were not going to meet the requisition  to preserve the financially the new nation lobbies for a 5% Duty on imported goods and it was an attempt to create a somewhat more powerful  federal government in which there were continue to be this balance between State sovereignty and National sovereignty but significant Powers with move out of the states and would move into this federal government did the basic hurdle of the requirement under the Articles of Confederation it all amendments had to be approved for buying an **** this phone to the 13 state legislatures so you didn't improve the real to fertile  without a national solution the debt problem remains with the state's all they can do is raise the song Western Massachusetts results circumstances of the little people being crowded out by larger you can on again political interest and so many people have black or better turn my call the more kind of conservative or concern from Law and Order type to Shays rebellion and said this Republic business who's already complicated this is exactly the kind of thing that we were worried about this is too much for this patient too much democracy which was a negative word 1789 democracy was next door to mob action and that's what many people saw the message of Shays Rebellion Washington when he was how to change your belly instead hats we have had to favorable view of human nature in forming our government so this gave just a Keysha can an impetus to moving toward a government that would have more protections for the proper classes for to order and stability as opposed to worrying quite so much about protecting against the encroachments of power to central government discontented America producing things like Shays Rebellion in Massachusetts so ordinary people when they do talk about where we're going to go over it really seem look at all the resources if we can't preserve this Union this is not going to be the heaven on Earth that you think it is if we split up into rival confederation so will then each one will want to get the advantage of Western resources for itself and they may start arming against one another we stay united we might keep European power out of most of North America in any very active way if we divided we become just part of their balance of power I am the clock to us will be really enormous and to the major argument for constitutional reform then became we you tonight so that the other powers of the world will take us seriously if we don't those very same powers are going to take advantage of our divisions and this will be the opening wedge for Comfort Revolution November questions that might seem very important to us now it was about whether they would be a free house as opposed to a monarch or dictator would there be secret conspiracy to overthrow the legitimate power because the name was in the world in which these were not untoward on it became increasingly clear that the Articles of Confederation had to go they had to be replaced by something else however there was so much nervousness about even bringing this up for debate that people agreed that who would not Institute a new government but they would only modify the Articles of Confederation for both of them some men like Madison John Dickinson Robert Morris Alexander Hamilton John Jay and try to put together some kind of strategy who would enable the Articles of Confederation to be ratified in the kind of Peace me away and I think the basic idea was to try to get one Amendment adopted and then other than to demonstrate did you go to actually strengthens a national government without creating a tyranny on the other hand they were most concerned to erect all kind of Vengeance against tyranny they didn't want please and Cindy 86th inexpedient of calling the Annapolis convention ruin is independent body not quite at the congressman's being tainted pause the Perceptions in the 1780s to go there 5 stage show up so they don't really have enough of a quorum to do anything but they do want an intern empty-handed so they proposed the general convention to be following me what's a good saying that Annapolis didn't succeed because then that allowed these energetic Visionary nationalist take the next step because turn the argument was always that if the union fails then Anarchy is the next result and so every successive failure in efforts to amend the Articles also led to this escalating concern about the future of the Union end of the revolution in the months immediately reading at the Philadelphia in May 1787 is the recognition that the time is come not only to save Congress from the states the name of the national government act independently of the states not to be dependent upon their compliance with all its recommendations and requisitions and resolutions and supposes in the lights but also the save the space for themselves  as delegates to the Constitutional Convention begin their journey to Philadelphia in the spring of 1780 some may recognize that the Articles of Confederation did play a significant role in the under the yard Confederation we survived designation say we're not invaded by our former enemies we learned what it was play create a government we learned that the states were going to have to work with each other that they didn't have the where to unite them anymore so that they had to find other ways to do it and they got a lot of practice in governing so I think the Articles of Confederation conserve a very useful purpose and were an excellent transition to the Constitution. People thinking about what it how to form a government so when they met force in Annapolis and them in Philadelphia they could get down to the serious work of turtle The Unfinished Nation is 52 part American history series for more information about this program in a company materials call +1-800-576-2988 or visit us online at www.org

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