Chapter 7

1. Chapter 7 Launching the New Republic 1788-1800

2. Introduction • 1.) Which points in Hamilton’s economic program were the most controversial and why? • 2.) What was the impact of the French Revolution on American politics? • 3.) What principal issues divided Federalists in the election of 1800? • 4.) On what basis were some Americans denied full equality by 1800?

3. Constitutional Government Takes Shape, 1788-1796 • Introduction • Although the Constitution had replaced the Articles of Confederation as the law of the land, the first test of its effectiveness was yet to come. • It passed that test following the holding of the 1st national elections; the beginnings of legislative, executive, and judicial activity at the federal level; and the passage of a bill of rights

4. Implementing Government • The first elections under the Constitution were in the fall of 1788 • Federalist sweep in Congress • An electoral college met in each state on Feb. 9, 1789 • Each elector voted for 2 presidential candidates • Electors in every state designated George Washington as one of their choices

6. Implementing Government (cont.) • The Constitution mentions executive departments only in passing • Through legislation Congress established the first cabinet • It consisted of 4 departments • Secretary of state- Thomas Jefferson • Secretary of treasury- Alexander Hamilton • Secretary of war- Henry Knox • Attorney general

8. The Federal Judiciary and the Bill of Rights • The Constitution authorized Congress simply to provide federal courts below the level of the Supreme Court • Judiciary Act of 1789 • Created a federal district court in each state • Established the Supreme Court • Guaranteed federal laws would remain “SUPREME”

9. The Federal Judiciary and the Bill of Rights (cont.) • James Madison led the drafting of the 1st 10 amendments • “Bill of Rights” • Ratified by the states in Dec. 1791 • 1st 8 protected individual rights • Freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion, and procedures for a fair trial and punishment

10. The Federal Judiciary and the Bill of Rights (cont.) • 9th and 10th Amendments reserved to the people and the states powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution • Bill of Rights

11. Hamilton’s Domestic Policies, 1789-1794 • Hamilton and His Objectives • Alexander Hamilton • Sec. of treasury • Emerged as the leading figure in Washington’s administration • Strong nationalist • Little faith in the common man

12. Hamilton and His Objectives (cont.) • He advocated creating a strong central govt. • An economic environment attractive to investment • Private ambitions would serve the public welfare • Believed in a LOOSE interpretation of the law and IMPLIED POWERS

13. Establishing the Nation’s Credit • “Report on the Public Credit”- Hamilton’s report • Sent to Congress in Jan. 1790 showing America was in millions of dollars in debt. 2/3 from Fed. Gov’t and 1/3 states • A plan to establish the country’s credit while at the same time gaining support of the upper class • Wanted to assume all State to help UNITE the Nation

14. The Whiskey Rebellion • To fix state debts, Congress imposed a federal excise tax on domestically produced whiskey • March 1791 • Western PA farmers • earned a little cash income by turning their surplus grain (which was too bulky to ship) into compact corn liquor for sale • viewed the excise tax as an unfair levy • July 1794- A mob of frontier farmers attacked U.S. marshals who had come west to serve summonses on 60 people for nonpayment of the tax

15. The Whiskey Rebellion (cont.)

16. The Whiskey Rebellion (cont.) • Washington and Hamilton decided to crush this Whiskey Rebellion forcefully • Demonstrate that citizens must obey federal law • Almost 13,000 militiamen marched west and rounded up rebellious farmers • 20 were sent to Philadelphia for trial • 2 received death sentences • Later Washington pardoned them

17. The United States in a Wider World, 1789-1796 • Introduction • After 1793, the political polarization created by Hamilton’s financial policies became even more pronounced as Americans argued over foreign policy • FEDERALITST Vs. DEMONCRATIC- REPUBLICANS

18. Spanish Power in Western North America • In the late 18th century, Spanish ambitions to dominate much of North America revived • Spain had “REGAINED” Florida after the Revolution and the TREATY of PARIS • Spain built new presidios in what is now northern Mexico, NM, and TX • Stationed more troops throughout the area • It also spread its settlements from Mexico up the coast of CA • Spain hoped to control trade with Asia • Also hoped to possess the Pacific Northwest • Both of which were being challenged by the Russians, British, and Americans

19. Spanish Power in Western North America (cont.) • What may have helped the most was the unwitting spreading of epidemic diseases • Reduced native populations from about 72,000 in 1770 to about 1,800 by 1830

20. Challenging American Expansion, 1789-1792 • The greatest dangers to the United States in the trans-Appalachian west lay in British and Spanish assistance to Native Americans • Native Americans were resisting settlers moving in • Spain and G.B. were attempting to detach the region from the rest of the United States • Between 1791 and 1796, VT, KY, and TN were admitted as new states • A way to counter the Spanish and British

21. Challenging American Expansion, 1789-1792 (cont.) • Both whites and Native Americans rejected Washington’s efforts to “civilize” and integrate the eastern tribes into white society • The govt. instead continued to pressure the Indians to cede their lands and move farther west

22. France and Fractional Politics, 1793 • 1789=French Revolution began • Almost all Americans were initially sympathetic • When the revolution became more radical and France went to war with GB, Spain, and other European monarchies, opinion in the USA divided • Western settlers and southern land speculators hoped a French victory would leave GB and Spain too weak to keep stirring up Indians on America’s frontier • Northeastern merchants, shippers, and seamen were dependent on trade with England and feared a pro-French foreign policy would lead to British retaliation against U.S. commerce

23. France and Fractional Politics, 1793 (cont.) • These differences of opinion were voiced by the Republican and Federalist parties respectively • the French ambassador, Edmond Genet, was actively recruiting Americans to fight for France • Instead of abiding by the 1778 treaty of alliance, Washington in 1793 proclaimed U.S. neutrality

24. Diplomacy and War, 1793-1796 • To discourage the pro-French activities of some Americans, the British began seizing U.S. merchant ships and impressing seamen • The British also stepped up their incitement of the Indians in the Ohio Valley • The Spanish also increased their incursion on American western lands

25. Diplomacy and War, 1793-1796 • To halt the drift into war, Washington dispatched John Jay to England and Thomas Pinckney to Spain

26. Diplomacy and War, 1793-1796 (cont.) • Jay’s Treaty with England won few concessions. • Failures: Britain did not promise freedom of the seas, and Britain demanded they could remove FRENCH supplies from American Ships • Success: British promise to evacuate their western forts • Much of this decision was because of Anthony Wayne’s victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers • Most southerners and westerners denounced Jay’s Treaty, but a Federalist-dominated Senate ratified it to avoid war

27. Diplomacy and War, 1793-1796 (cont.) • Pinckney’s dealing with Spain resulted in the Treaty of San Lorenzo • Much more satisfactory than Jay’s • It opened full use of the port of New Orleans to western farmers • Disagreements about foreign policy, especially ratification of Jay’s Treaty, furthered the partisan split

28. Parties and Politics, 1793-1794 • Ideological Confrontations, 1793-1794 • Intensifying radicalism of the French revolution • Federalist grew more suspicious of the common people and of unchecked democracy • Jeffersonian Republicans retained their sympathy for revolutionary France • And they did not fear popular participation in politics

29. Ideological Confrontations, 1793-1794 (cont.) • Jefferson and Madison sought the support of ordinary citizens against Federalist policies by encouraging the publication of anti-administration newspapers like the National Gazette • They also approved of the democratic societies that were springing up in various locations

30. The Republican Party, 1794-1796 • By 1793, President Washington was clearly identified with the Federalists and Jefferson had resigned from the cabinet to lead the opposition • Republicans attacked the Federalists’ pro-British leanings and won a slight majority in the House of Rep. • Federalist and Republican newspapers were engaged in a press war of exaggerated charges and countercharges

31. The Republican Party, 1794-1796 (cont.) • Washington decided to retire after 1796 • Stung by partisan criticism • In his Farwell Address, he warned Americans to avoid political parties and entangling alliances with European countries • Washington’s decision not to run opened the presidential election of 1796 to the first partisan contest

32. The Election of 1796 • Republicans Thomas Jefferson • Federalists John Adams • Federalists won control of Congress • Adams won presidency

33. The Election of 1796 (cont.) • As the 2nd highest vote-getter in the electoral college, Jefferson became the VP • Adams- 71 Electoral Votes • Jefferson-68 Electoral Votes • The 12th amendment would change the process of the selection of the VP

34. The French Crisis, 1798-1799 • The French were angered by America’s signing of Jay’s Treaty with the British • The French began to seize U.S. merchant ships • Hoping to avoid war with France, President Adams sent a peace commission to Paris to negotiate

35. The French Crisis, 1798-1799 (cont.) • XYZ Affair • Agents of the French government demanded a bribe as the price of negotiations • This outraged Americans and provoked an anti-French and anti-Republican backlash • Republican candidates were defeated in the 1798 congressional elections • An undeclared naval war broke out against the French • Adams- To create a ANTI- French sentiment in America he published this in the Newspapers and “dubbed” the French diplomats as XYZ

37. The Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798 • Federalist idea • Aimed at silencing the opposition press and in other ways weakening the Republican Party (mostly immigrants) • Gave the Gov’t the right to deport any immigrant who was felt to be “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States” • 14-year wait for citizenship • Hurt the Republicans by eliminating their Irish-American supporters

38. The Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798 (cont.) • Sedition Act • Made it a crime to speak, write, or print anything unfavorable about the government or the president that would bring him “into contempt or disrepute” or that was deemed as “malicious” • Federalist prosecuted and jailed a number of Republican journalists and political candidates

39. The Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798 (cont.) • Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions • Madison and Jefferson anonymously wrote • Passed by VA and KY in 1798 • Claimed that state govts. could interpose themselves between their residents and the enforcement of unconstitutional federal laws such as the Alien and Sedition Acts • The resolutions set a precedent for the later states’ rights positions that states were the proper judges of federal actions and could nullify unconstitutional statues

40. The Election of 1800 • Republicans nominated Jefferson as President and Aaron Burr as VP • Federalist nominated Adams • The election took place in an atmosphere of tense and bitter partisanship • Adams reopened negotiations with France (hurt his own election prospects) • Quieted war scare on which Federalists fortunes had thrived • The negotiations eventually patched things up with France and spared an unnecessary war

41. The Election of 1800 (cont.) • The Republicans won the election • Jefferson and Burr ended up tied for president (under the Constitution as originally written, electors did not vote separately for president and VP) • The tie threw the election into the House of Representatives • It took 36 votes to name Jefferson president

43. Economic and Social Change • Producing for Markets • In colonial America, the vast majority of whites lived and produced on small family-owned farms • Husbands, wives, children, and sometimes hired hand and/or servants grew and consumed their own food • Also they made almost everything else they needed • Whatever little surplus the farm family accumulated, they traded with neighbors or merchants for items they could not produce

44. Producing for Markets (cont.) • By the 1780’s, New England farms with their thin, rocky soil were insufficient to support growing families • Grown sons and young couples moved west • Remaining daughters, wives, and sometimes husbands began supplementing their income by home manufacturing • Weaving cloth, sewing garments and shoes, and making nails

45. Producing for Markets (cont.) • Merchants traveling into the countryside supplied them with the raw materials and later collected their output, paying them by the piece • This putting-out system was the forerunner of the industrial revolution • The merchants behind these innovations were also in the 1780’ and 1790’s, opening the first banks and stock exchanges • Preached the need for the U.S.A. to industrialize • Supported Hamilton’s economic policies which they saw as good for business

46. White Women in the Republic • The Revolution brought little change in the status of women • A few advanced thinkers did call for women’s equality • Larger economic role that women played in the 1790’s • Republican ideology • NJ briefly allowed women to vote • Women were generally permitted to chose their own husbands • A small but increasing number of wives requested and were granted divorces

47. White Women in the Republic (cont.) • More educational opportunities opened for white women • These were justified by the argument that women had to be educated so they could inculcate republican virtues in their sons and daughters • But the organized fight for women’s rights did not begin until the 19th century

48. Land and Culture: Native Americans • Indian Trade and Intercourse Acts • To halt the fraudulent land purchases obtained by many Americans • Regulated the conduct of non-Indians on lands still under tribal control • But by 1795, eastern Indians had suffered devastating losses of land and population • Indian culture was buckling under the strain of continual frontier warfare

49. Land and Culture: Native Americans (cont.) • Amongst the broken survivors, some sank into alcoholism • Others simply moved • Others were absorbed into other Indian populations • Most still clung to their traditional ways • The Seneca prophet Handsome Lake and other reformers attempted to combat liquor and convince Iroquois men to become farmers • However, many Native Americans resisted further social change

50. African-American struggles • As the revolutionary idealism that had eased out slavery in the North and won some rights for free black lessened in the 1790’s, the position of African-Americans deteriorated • In the late 1790’s and early 1800’s • DE, MD, KY, NJ rescinded the vote to freedmen • Congress protected southern masters with the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law- Allowed Slave owners the right to collect RUN AWAY slaves