Presented by: Stanley & Naomi Yavneh Klos Delegates from the United Colonies of America first caucused at the City Tavern in Philadelphia on September 4, 1774 The progression of the United States of America from thirteen British colonies into its current republic was a complex political process that spanned nearly 15 years. Many governmental institutions, such as the United States Department of State and the Smithsonian Institute,1 dichotomize the U.S. Republic’s founding into two simple governmental components, the Continental Congress and the current U.S. tripartite system: The United States House of Representatives and Senate in Congress Assembled (U.S. Congress), The President of the United States of America (U.S. President), United States Supreme Court (U.S. Supreme Court). Some historians have been more thorough and expanded this dichotomy by dividing the Continental Congress Era into three different phases, the First Continental Congress, The Second Continental Congress, and the Congress of the Confederation.2 Other historians use the Articles of Confederation term, the United States in Congress Assembled,3 rather than the Congress of the Confederation for the March 1, 1781 to March 3, 1789 U.S. Founding period. 1 Department of State, Common Core Document of the United States of America ... “In 1783 the Continental Congress voted to establish a federal city, and the specific site was chosen by President George Washington in 1790,” Washington D.C., 2012 http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/179780.htm AND Smithsonian Institute, Traveling exhibit: "A Glorious Burden, The American Presidency,” “John Hanson was the First President of The Continental Congress," http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/home.html 2 Kenneth R. Bowling, 'A Tub to the Whale': the Founding Fathers and Adoption of the Federal Bill of Rights. Journal of the Early Republic 8 (Fall 1988): 225 3 Stanley L. Klos, President Who? Forgotten Founders, Estoric.com, Carnegie, PA, 2004, 127 © America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos In addition to the U.S. Republic’s stages and nomenclature challenges, even casual readers on this period are besieged by conflicting dates, facts, and supporting evidence in works, ranging from academic to Wikipedia articles, that cloud fundamental issues such as discerning the true date of U.S. Independence4 or identifying the first U.S. “Head of State”5 or even determining what body of law was the first U.S. Constitution.6 The U.S. Founding convolution is ubiquitously apparent in everything from school text books to Library of Congress exhibits.7 Even the U.S. Supreme Court, in its opinions,8 does not recognize the difference between the Continental Congress and the Articles of Confederation’s United States in Congress Assembled. These misunderstandings stem from the failure of historians and politicians to establish a sound framework and nomenclature for the early United American Republics that eventually formed the current U.S. Republic. The goal, therefore, of this exhibit and subsequent lectures is to propose a generally acceptable framework and nomenclature for illuminating the 13 Colonies and State Republics that governed from 1774 to 1789, eventually forming the current U.S. Republic. Before identifying the key junctures in the evolution of the United States and its democracies, much consideration was given to defining the word “republic” in its 18th-century American context. One of the most important works on the classifications of political systems during the 18th Century was Baron de Montesquieu’s, The Spirit of Laws. Montesquieu defined three kinds of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic. Specifically, regarding a confederation republic, he wrote: This form of government is a convention by which several smaller states agree to become members of a larger one, which they intend to form. It is a kind of assemblage of societies that constitute a new one, capable of increasing, by means of new associations, till they arrive to such a degree of power as to be able to provide for the security of the united body.9 From the inception of the United Colonies of America in 1774 to the Revolutionary War’s concluding Definitive Treaty of Peace in 1784, the 13 Original Colonies and States formed confederation republics 4 White House, “Our Government,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/our-government and US Department of State, “Federal Holidays July 4, 1776,” http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/resources-et/celebrate/federal-holidays.html 5 Smithsonian Institute, Traveling exhibit: "A Glorious Burden, The American Presidency,” 6 Robert Goldwin, James Madison's "Sagacious, Powerful, and Combining Mind” “The Articles were not a true constitution but a self-described treaty of alliance among the states.” http://www.loc.gov/loc/madison/goldwin-paper.html Library of Congress, 2012. 7 See, for example, Alan Brinkley, who declares, “The first elections under the Constitution took place in the early months of 1789. Almost all of the newly elected congressman and senators had favored ratification.…” New York: McGraw Hill, 2007, p. 168 and Library of Congress Creating the United States Exhibit: “Confederation Congress Elects Its First President John Hanson” Charles Thomson to George Washington, November 5, 1781 letter, Manuscript,. 8 United States Supreme Court, "Appreciation of the Continental Congress’s incapacity to deal with this class of cases was intensified by the so called Marbois incident of May 1784 ..." SOSA v. ALVAREZ-MACHAIN, Opinion of The Court, Page 22 9 Secondat, Charles de - Baron de Montesquieu, De l'esprit des lois, translated by Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist IX, Independent Journal, November 21, 1787, New York © America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos that had “such a degree of power as to be able to provide for the security of the united body.”10 Therefore, a colonial republic began with their formation of an association titled, Continental Congress: United Colonies of America. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist IX went further by defining the United States of America confederacy stating: The definition of a confederate republic seems simply to be "an assemblage of societies," or an association of two or more states into one state. The extent, modifications, and objects of the federal authority are mere matters of discretion. So long as the separate organization of the members be not abolished; so long as it exists, by a constitutional necessity, for local purposes; though it should be in perfect subordination to the general authority of the union, it would still be, in fact and in theory, an association of states, or a confederacy. The proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal government.11 United States in Congress Assembled Delegate, James Madison, also defined the word republic, in Federalist No XXXIX writing: … we may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good behavior. It is essential to such a government that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for their government the honorable title of republic. It is sufficient for such a government that the persons administering it be appointed, either directly or indirectly, by the people; and that they hold their appointments by either of the tenures just specified …12 Now, with the word republic defined by Hamilton, Madison and Montesquieu, the present book puts forth the proposition that there were three distinct republics that led to a fourth which is the current government of the United States. Each Republic is so delineated because each marks a divergent stage in the U.S. 10 Ibid 11 Hamilton, Alexander, the Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection, Independent Journal, November 21, 1787, New York. 12 Madison, James, Conformity of the Plan to Republican Principles, Independent Journal, January 16, 1788, New York. © America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Founding’s political system. The names designated to each period were derived from the republic’s founding resolution or constitution and are as follows: First United American Republic: United Colonies of America13fashioned under the First Continental Congress: 14 September 4, 1774 to July 1, 1776; Second United American Republic: The United States of America:15 “Free and Independent States”16 formed by the Second Continental Congress: July 2, 1776 to February 28, 1781; Third United American Republic: The United States of America: “The Perpetual Union”17