The Pros And Cons Of The Jay Treaty

The Federalist Papers is a treatise on free government in peace and security. As described by the article, FEDERALIST PAPERS, “These are a series of eighty-five letters written to newspapers in 1787-1788 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, urging ratification of the Constitution.” The work of essentially Madison and Hamilton can be parceled into two rule parts; the fundamental discussing the defects of the present government, the Articles of Confederation, and the second looking at the new constitutions assorted fragments of the lawmaking body, official, and

The Revolutionary War effectively ended on October 17th, 1781. Having successfully won independence, that task shifted to maintaining independence. The newly independent ‘United’ States, faced an array of issues, and proved to be anything but united under the existing Articles of Confederation. In hindsight, analyzing the arguments against the articles, as well as the

The Articles of Confederation provided a decent initial transition of the new country from a multitude of British colonies into a unified landmass of American citizens during the 1780s. It was drafted by John Dickinson, a statesman from Pennsylvania, who was also known for writing the “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania”. The greatest achievement of the Articles was winning the Revolutionary War and negotiating the Treaty of Paris. Without such achievements, the United States would still be under British control. Other notable achievements of the Articles include the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. These land acts helped provide for the peaceful and systematic admittance of new states from initial claims on land put forth by the original thirteen states into the

More Editor Thomas Frazier expresses in document 1 that there is distress and agony in every part of the country, no person is happy. The ratification would allow for the government to correct its ways and ensure the fairness and content of its people, so that America could maintain its reputation. More Document 3 gives a personal insight into the confidences between George Washington and John Jay. Washington agrees with Jay that the government they created is not perfect, as they had expected the Americans to be more well-behaved than they ended up being. A simple fix to this would be the ratification, as it would give the government better control to enforce the laws of the country and create a more unified nation as a whole. The ratification was not meant to take away rights, but unify America and create more justice throughout the

2. Robert Longley, “The Great Compromise of 1787”, http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/greatcomp.html, September 23, 2004, October 10, 2010

During the year 1820, the Missouri Compromise was established in the USA. Missouri was a slave state to start with but the North wanted to push it towards a free state. Although the North outnumbered the South in population and in the House of Representatives (105-81), and the ratio between states were 11:11, no new legislation could be made. If the state of Missouri became a free state, the ratio between free states and slave states would be 12:10 which would mean that the North could pass any legislation without fear of it being blocked. Vice versa with the South because it would give the South more political power. There was much controversy surrounding this issue and someone had to try and fix it. The man who first try and fix the problem was James Tallmadge who wanted to get rid of slavery in Missouri which outraged the South into blocking it. A man named Henry Clay proposed that Missouri would be a slave-holding state, Maine would now be a free state (23 state added), and there would be no slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Territory north of latitude 36°30'

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are two significant documents that transformed the history of the United States. The people of the “New World” went from being ruled by British law and living in the thirteen colonies, to becoming an independent nation with a democratic government. The Declaration was written to ensure that all official ties with its mother country, Great Britain, were suspended indefinitely. It then went on to describe the concepts and ideologies behind a just and fair government. The Constitution, however, outlined how the newly democratic government would operate. In 1776, after the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, a verdict was made that the only constructive way to ensure independence as a nation would be to declare independence from King George III, Parliament, and Great Britain. The colonists sought to fashion a clear, detailed document, known as the Declaration of Independence, which stated why the people chose to move in this direction as well as providing several arguments to support their case. This world-renown document is a symbol of the unity between the 13 colonies during their fight for independence during the American Revolutionary War.

Washington signed the Neutrality Proclamation to maintain neutral stance on foreign relationships, especially between war countries, Britain and France, albeit that France still accessed trade benefits from the U.S. Thus, these circumstances led to the ratification of Jay’s Treaty to give fair trade rights to Britain. In 1796, George Washington peacefully stepped down and was replaced by John Adams (“Unit IV” 9). Personal differences in views and rivalries had consequently resulted in two political factions, namely the Federalists (supported by Adams, Hamilton, John Jay) and the Democratic-Republicans (supported by Jefferson, Madison and others). That is, the two political groups became the strong foundation of the U.S crisis as they would also resultantly divide the unity of the whole nation (10).

Tensions were high in the united states during 1788. There were two sides as to what the union should do to move forward. After everybody realized that the Articles of Confederation isn’t going to be work for the country, there was a need for a plan. The plan was to get rid of the Articles of Confederation and replace it with the Constitution. There were many factors in the Constitution that hesitated people to ratify it. The main issue was that the new national government under the new constitution would have a lot more power than the one under the Articles of Confederation. Therefore, it created two different sides; people who wanted the ratification of the new constitution, or federalists, and those who does not, Anti-federalists. To convince the Anti-federalists to change their minds, federalists wrote a series of essays to convince them, known as the federalists’ papers. I agreed with the arguments expressed in the federalists’ papers.

Between the years 1787 and 1788 John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison wrote a series of eighty-five papers in order to convince people to ratify the United States Constitution. During this time period there were two different sides. The Federalist, who wanted a more centralized government and to achieve ratification of the constitution to help manage the debt and tensions following the American Revolution. The support of this group was strongly centralized

The Federalists believed that a strong national government would be most efficient in leading the country, and would put an end to the challenges that America was currently facing. As described in Document 3, and efficient, protecting and new government was needed to end the distress and complaints of American citizens. The Federalists also believed that the independence that they had just fought for would be lost without a stronger government, with Document 4 describing independence as a blessing that would cease to exist without a strong and efficient government. The Federalists promoted the ratification of this new constitution by explaining that it originated from common citizens. John Jay explains that “The constitution comes reccomended to you by men and fellow citizens who...love their liberty and their country.” (Doc 5). Jay encouraged others to support the ratifcation of this new constitution by appealing to citizen’s love for their country, and that if you love your country and liberty, then this constitution would help to preserve

An example of the United State's struggle for foreign dominance can be seen in revolutionary John Jay's 1785 letter to the US minister to Great Britain in which Jay demands "in a respectful but firm manner" the "return of frontier posts on US territory" controlled by the British and the end of British restrictions on US trade(Doc D). Britain took these demands simply as suggestion, seeing as how the British did not leave Western posts until June of 1796, 11 years later, and US trade with the British West Indies did not resume until the early 1830's. This example proves the political weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. Not only did the United States endure political territorial battles with Great Britain, but the young country also dealt with confrontations by Spain, as John Jay explained in his speech to Congress on April 6th, 1786 (Doc F).

This abuse of American soil angered colonists, and many demanded to impose importation restrictions upon Britain. The Articles of Confederation could not control commerce, and states could not agree on the same tariff policies. Ultimately, Britain had “restrictions on our trade to incapacitate our merchants” and that the United States should “be put… into possession of all the posts and territories within their limits” (Doc D). After the Treaty of Paris, the British should not have control over American land that the United States were promised nor American commerce. Spain had a similar relationship to America, with disputes over land as well as trade. Spain closed the Mississippi River, and in response, John Jay wanted to solve both

The new government did not meet any of the needs of the people. This apparent lack of unity made some state leaders more and more nervous because they could sense the people growing angry and discontent. In mid-1786, John Jay wrote a letter to George Washington explaining his deepest concerns with the Articles, and how the people who were content would begin to grow angry with the ne government and its lacking policies (Doc G). Leaders were weak and did not help the people with the problems of the time. With the list of dilemmas prominently increasing, leaders thought adding to the Articles would be helpful to the United States and its struggling people. Some feared getting rid of the Articles would be detrimental, like Rawlin Lowndes. He just wanted to add to the ARticles to make them more efficient (Doc H). This proved to be very difficult. As the Articles were looked at, the list of changes and edits became mountainous. The list included switching the balance of power to a central government, an increase in militia requirements, better trade regulation, a working court system, and the formation of a legislature and executive. As one problem was addressed, multiple others surfaced. With all of

In the end, Washington’s signature on Jay’s treaty strengthened the U.S and the foreign policy by securing the ability to import and export goods, under British rule, and improving the U.S’s economic value; Overall, removing potential barriers that would choke the U.S’s ability to grow and