Framed by Congress 1776-1777.
|Adopted by the states 1777-1781. 
Articles of        |In force March 1, 1781. 
Confederation    —­|Kind of government.
|Defects.   Result of the defects.
|Trade convention at Annapolis.
\Constitutional convention called.

Proceedings of the convention.
|The three compromises. 
Constitution of    |Sources of the Constitution.
the United States.-|Original features.
|Derived features.
| Ratification by the states.
\The Constitution in force.

Land claims of seven states.
|Demands for the surrender of   \
|the western territory.         |
The Territories. —­|The cessions by the states.    |—­The Public
|Ordinance of 1785.             |  Domain.
|Ordinance of 1787.             |
\Territorial government created.

The President. Manner of electing.
                   \Inauguration of Washington.

The Congress. Organization of the First
                   \under the Constitution.

The Supreme Court
The Judiciary. —­|The Circuit Court
\The District Court

Secretary of State
The Secretaries. —­|Secretary of Treasury
|Secretary of War
|The Attorney-general.
\Origin of the “Cabinet.”

CHAPTER XIV

OUR COUNTRY IN 1790

%185.  The States.%—­What sort of a country, and what sort of people, was Washington thus chosen to rule over?  When, he was elected, the Union was composed of eleven states, for neither Rhode Island nor North Carolina had accepted the Constitution.[1] Vermont had never been a member of the Union, because the Continental Congress would not recognize her as a state.

[Footnote 1:  The states ratified the Constitution on the dates given below: 
1.   Delaware         Dec.  7, 1787
2.   Pennsylvania     Dec. 12, 1787
3.   New Jersey       Dec. 18, 1787
4.   Georgia          Jan.  2, 1788
5.   Connecticut      Jan.  9, 1788
6.   Massachusetts    Feb.  7, 1788
7.   Maryland        April 28, 1788
8.   South Carolina    May 23, 1788
9.   New Hampshire    June 21, 1788
10.  Virginia         June 26, 1788
11.  New York         July 26, 1788
12.  North Carolina   Nov. 21, 1789
13.  Rhode Island      May 29, 1790]

[Illustration:  The %UNITED STATES% March 4, 1789]

%186.  Only a Part inhabited.%—­Three fourths of our country was then uninhabited by white men, and almost all the people lived near the seaboard.  Had a line been drawn along what was then the frontier, it would (as the map on p. 177 shows) have run along the shore of Maine, across New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, then south to the Mohawk valley, then down the Hudson River, and southwestward across Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, then south along the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Altamaha River in Georgia, and by it to the sea.  How many people lived here was never known till 1790.  The Constitution of