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Pennsylvania's constitution
Pennsylvania was an example and was one of the first states to write a new constitutions. This was made to place some of the power of government into the hands of the common citizen. This made it so the wealthy and the elite had the same say as the common citizen. This constitution went through many changes. -
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A New Nation
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Problems of the New Government
The Articles of confederations were adopted by the states in1781. This was made to give most of the power in the government into the states. The founding fathers made it this way so their country would not end up like Britain. The problem was that the government could not get much done and they could not get money unless they asked the states because they could not tax them. Another problem is that a tariff war started between the states and the government couldn’t do anything. -
The articles of confederation
They were finally adopted in 1781. They were made to put most of the power of the government into the states. The founding fathers made it this way because they did not want there country to end up like Great Britain. -
A New constitution for the Nation
With all of the problems in the nation the states and government started to realize that this was not working out so they planned to meet in independence hall. They meet and decided that they needed to make some changes to it. Their were so many changes that they were going to make they decided that they needed to writ a whole new constitution. -
A new state constitution 1790
Pennsylvania’s constitution had many weaknesses. The weaknesses were beginning to upset the people. One of the weaknesses was that if the state of Pennsylvania had a crisis then he would not be able to act as quickly because it did not have much power. The second constitution was written and so it was split into three different branches of government. -
The First Political parties
There were two parties at the time they were the Federalists and the democratic Republicans. The Federalist party leader was Alexander Hamilton. They wanted the a strong government. The other Party was led byThomas Jefferson. They wanted the common people to have the same say as the wealthy. -
The whiskey Rebellion
This was a tax on whisky and many opposed this. Some of the people this tax are the farmers. They did not like this because It increased the price of whisky and not as many people were buying this product and the farmers started a small army of protesters . One of their main leaders was David Bradford. They threatened to march on Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania Maryland and New Jersey sent out 12000 men to suppress the army. The rebels ran away when they heard that an army was coming. -
The war of 1812
The revolutionary war was officially over and the Paris peace treaty was signed but British still harassed the British and the U.S. did not like that so another war started. Pennsylvania was required to raise 14000 men for the war but they raised almost three times that. They strongly supported the war. -
Battle of Lake Erie
The United States were losing the war and there was word that the British were going to attack on Lake Erie. Oliver parry was the commander of the United States fleet on Lake Erie and he beat the British for a much needed win. This drove the British out of Lake Erie -
The Peace Treaty of Ghent.
This treaty marked the end of the war of 1812. The treaty was slow to get to some places and the British marched on New Orleans. General Jackson defeated a large portion of the troops and the county celebrated over their victory.
