Confederation and Constitution, 1781-1789

Forrest McDonald, Ellen Shapiro McDonald

University of South Carolina Press, 1968 - History - 222 pages

This volume presents historical documents from the period of time between the U.S. Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution, providing readers with a higher level of understanding and appreciation of the evolving nature of the U.S. Constitution and its relevance to contemporary societal issues. This work begins with a history of that period and of the documents that were generated. A chronology of events from the Annapolis Convention of 1786 through Virginia's ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791 follows along with a presentation of 27 documents, including: (1) the Articles of Confederation; (2) the Northwest Ordinance; (3) letters written by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson; (4) transcripts of various debates; (5) the Virginia and the New Jersey plans for Union; (6) the Constitution of the United States; (7) some of the papers from "The Federalist"; (8) amendments proposed by Massachusetts and Virginia; and (9) the Bill of Rights. A bibliographical essay suggests 29 items for further reading. An appendix offers high school lesson plans for three of the documents presented: (1) the Virginia plan for Union; (2) debate on executive power; and (3) debate on the judiciary, the veto, and the separation of powers.

Contents

• Contents: 19
• The Crisis at Newburgh and Its Aftermath 1783: 33
• Washingtons Circular Letter to the Governors 1783: 39

About the author

Forrest McDonald was born in Orange, Texas on January 7, 1927. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and received a doctorate there in 1955. He taught history at Brown University, Wayne State University, and the University of Alabama, where he retired in 2002. He wrote more than a dozen books including Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution, The American Presidency: An Intellectual History, and biographies of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. He died of heart failure on January 19, 2016 at the age of 89.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Confederation and Constitution, 1781-1789; Documentary history of the United States; Volume 1396 of Harper torchbooks
• Editors: Forrest McDonald, Ellen Shapiro McDonald
• Compiled by: Forrest McDonald, Ellen Shapiro McDonald
• Publisher: University of South Carolina Press, 1968
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Sep 18, 2008
• ISBN: 0872491269, 9780872491267
• Length: 222 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / General