Chapter 6: Launching the New Nation
Section 1: Washington Heads the New Government
The New Government Takes Shape
-As a hero of the revolution, Washington was the unanimous choice in the first presidential ballot.
-Although the Constitution provided a strong foundation, it was not a detailed plan for governing.
-With no judicial system set up, Washington and the Congress came up with the
*Judiciary Act of 1789- this law provided for a Supreme Court consisting of a chief justice and five associate justices.
-It also setup 3 federal circuit courts as well as 13 federal district courts spread throughout the country.
-Section 25 of the act allowed state court decisions to be appealed to the federal court, when constitutional issues were raised- thus, guaranteeing that federal laws remained
“the supreme law of the land,” as stated in the Constitution.
-The executive branch was shaped next.
-Washington needed help to make policies and carry out the laws passed by Congress.
-Three executive departments were created:
-The Department of War led by Henry Knox, to handle military matters.
-The Department of State led by Thomas Jefferson, to deal with foreign affairs.
-The Department of Treasury led by Alexander Hamilton, to manage finances.
-These departments soon became the president’s Chief Advisers, or *Cabinet.
Hamilton and Jefferson Debate
-Political divisions in the new nation were great.
-No two men embodied these differences more than Hamilton and Jefferson.
-Hamilton believed in a strong central government led by the educated elite of the upper class.
-Jefferson distrusted a strong central government and the rich. He favored strong state and local governments rooted in popular participation. (Contrasting views page 185)
-Hamilton’s Economic Plan
-He proposed to pay off the foreign debt and issue new bonds to soldiers who had received them during the war as certificates that promised payment plus interest.
-Hamilton also proposed that the federal government assume the debts of the states.
-He reasoned that this would give creditors (the people who originally loaned the money) an incentive to support the new federal government.
-This plan made many Southern states furious because many had already paid off most of their debts.
-Plans for a National Bank
-Hamilton believed that there should be a national bank that would be funded by both the federal government and the wealthy private investors.
*The Bank of the United States- would issue paper money and handle tax receipts and other government funds.
-Opponents of the National Bank, such as James Madison, claimed that it would forge an unhealthy alliance between the government and the wealthy business interests.
-Madison also argued that since the Constitution made no provision for a national bank so Congress had no right to authorize it.
-This argument began the debate between those who favored * “strict” interpretation of the Constitution – one in which the federal government has very limited powers and *“loose” interpretation, which favors greater federal powers.
-People in favor of loose interpretation appealed to the so-called *Elastic Clause of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 18) which gives Congress the authority to do whatever is “necessary and proper” to carry out its specific enumerated powers such as regulating commerce.
-In the end, Hamilton had convinced Washington and much of the Congress to accept his views, and the federal government established the Bank of the United States.
The First Political Parties and Rebellion
-As the differences between Hamilton and Jefferson grew, their conflict divided the Cabinet and fueled a growing division in national politics.
The Split
-The two parties formed around one of the key issues in American history- the power and size of the federal government in relation to the state and local governments.
*Federalists- were those who shared Hamilton’s vision of a strong central government.
-Those who supported Jefferson’s vision of strong state governments called themselves Republicans. (No relation to today’s Republican Party)
-Later, they became *Democratic-Republican. (This party will become today’s Democratic Party)
-Washington was opposed to different parties. He felt that they were a danger to national unity.
-Despite the criticism, the two parties continued to develop, and the *Two- Party System- was established.
The Whiskey Rebellion
-In 1789, Congress passed a *protective tariff- an import tax on goods produced in Europe.
-It was meant to encourage American production, but brought in a great deal of revenue.
-Hamilton wanted more money so he pushed through an *excise tax- a tax on the products manufacture, sale, or distribution – to be levied on the manufacturers of whiskey.
-Whiskey was the main source of cash for the frontier farmers, so they were furious about this tax.
-In 1974, farmers in western PA refused to pay the tax and even threatened to secede from the Union.
-Washington set out 15,000 militiamen to put this rebellion down without the loss of one single life.
-This marked the first major challenge to the federal government.
Section 2: Foreign Affairs Troubled the Nation
US Response to Events in Europe
-Most Americans initially supported the French Revolution because, like the American Revolution, it was inspired by the ideal of Republican rule.
-The alliance between France and the United States was made though the Treaty of 1778.
-After the French Revolution began, America was left to face one of its most important foreign-policy questions.
-Washington would issue a declaration of *neutrality in April 1793. This stated that the US would not support either France or England in the conflict.
*Edmond Genet- was sent to America from France to win support. He violated American neutrality by trying to recruit Americans for their war against Great Britain.
-Treaty with Spain- the United States wanted to secure land claims west of the Appalachian Mountains, and to gain shipping rights on the Mississippi River.
-Spain agreed to meet with the US minister to Great Britain, *Thomas Pickney, and in October 1795, both sides agreed to a treaty known as *The Treaty of San Lorenzo- it included virtually every concession that the American desired. (Spain would keep Florida.)
Native Americans Resist White Settlers
-As Americans settlers moved west, Native Americans often attacked them.
-The native forces led by *Little Turtle would defeat the American Army twice in its struggle for Ohio.
-Finally, in August 1794, the American Army was victorious.
Jay’s Treaty
*John Jay- the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was in London to negotiate a treaty about the Northwest Territory.
-A treaty was signed in November 1794 after the British heard about the American victory over the Native Americans.
-The treaty still allowed the British to continue their fur trade on the American side of the US-Canadian border.
-Many Western settlers were angry at its terms because it took money away from them.
Adams Provokes Criticism
-The presidential election of 1796 was between Adams and Jefferson.
-Adams won the most electoral votes and Jefferson came in second.
-At the time, the Constitution stated, the runner-up should become the VP.
-The election underscored the growing danger of *sectionalism- placing the interest of one region over those of the nation as a whole.
-Adams was soon faced with his first crisis, a looming war with France.
-France regarded the Jay Treaty (US-GB) as a violation of the French-American alliance.
-The French refused to receive the new American ambassador and began to seize American ships bound for Britain.
-Adams sent three key men to delegate a negotiation.
-France sent three low-level officials, who Adams called “X, Y, & Z”- to demand a bribe from the US diplomats. This became known as the *XYZ Affair, and provoked a wave of anti-French feeling at home.
-In 1789, Congress created a Navy Department and authorized American ships to seize the French vessels.
-The Congress authorized the creation of an Army of 50,000 troops and brought Washington out of retirement to be Lt. General and Commander in Chief of the Army’s.
-War with France was never declared, but the undeclared naval war between France and the US raged on for two years.
-To counter the growing suspicion that the French agents were plotting to overthrow the government, the Federalists pushed the *Alien and Sedition Acts through Congress in 1798.
-The Alien Acts raised the residence requirement for American citizenship from five years to 14 years and allowed the president to deport or jail any and all he considered undesirable.
-The Sedition Act set fines and jail terms for anyone trying to hinder the operation of the government.
-Under this act, the federal government prosecuted and jailed a number of Democratic- Republican editors, publishers, and politicians.
*Virginia and Kentucky adopted resolutions opposing that Alien and the Sedition Acts.
-The Kentucky resolutions, in particular, asserted the principle of *nullification- that states had the right to nullify, or consider void, any acts of the Congress that they deemed unconstitutional.
-The issue would soon die out after the 1800 of elections.
Section 3: Jefferson Alters the Nation’s Course
-Jefferson would defeat Adams in the election of 1800.
*Aaron Burr- Jefferson’s running mate, received the same number of electoral votes as Jefferson.
-The House of Representatives decided who would be president and vice president.
-This deadlock revealed the flaw in the electoral process as spelled out by the Constitution. As a result, Congress passed the *12th Amendment- which called for electors to cast separate ballots for president and vice president.
-Although Jefferson was a Democratic-Republican, the judicial branch remained mainly made up of Federalists.
*John Marshall, a staunch federalist, was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
-Before Adams left office, he pushed through Congress, *The Judiciary Act of 1801 which increased the number of federal judges by 16.
-Because Adams was leaving office he wanted to make sure that there were as many Federalists as possible on the bench.
-The judges were called *midnight judges because Adams signed their appointments late on the last day of his administration.
-Since the documents authorizing some of the appointments had not been delivered by the time Adams left office, Jefferson argued that these appointments were invalid.
-This argument led to one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of all time:
*Marbury v. Madison (1803)- where the Supreme Court ruled that it had the power to abolish legislative acts by declaring them unconstitutional. This became known as the *judicial review.
The United States Expands West
*The Louisiana Purchase- in 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte of France persuaded Spain to return to the French, the Louisiana territory, which it had received from France in 1762.
-Americans reacted with alarm. Jefferson feared that a strong French presence there would force the US into an alliance with Britain.
-Jefferson wanted to buy the territory- as it turned out, Bonaparte had to abandon his hope for an American Empire, and so he decided to sell the US the territory for $15 million. The size of the US would more than double.
Lewis and Clark
-Jefferson was eager to explore the new territory.
-Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were ordered to take command of the expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific Coast.
-50 men started on the journey, later, a Native American woman *Sacajawa who served as n interpreter and guide was added.
-The expedition took two years and four months and recorded much information about the western territories.
Section 4: The War of 1812
The War Hawks Demand War
-After the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson was reelected in 1804.
-During this time, renewed fighting between France and Britain threatened American shipping.
-Napoleon decided to exclude British goods from Europe, or seal up its ports and prevent ships from entering or leaving.
-By 1807, Britain seized more than 1,000 American ships and confiscated their cargoes while France had seized about half that number.
-Although both France and Britain engaged in these acts of aggression, Americans focused their anger on the British.
-One main reason was the British policy of *impressment- the practice of seizing Americans at sea, and “impressing”, or drafting them into the British Navy.
-In 1807, Jefferson convinced Congress to declare an *embargo- a ban on exporting products to other countries.
-This ended up hurting America more than Britain.
-In 1809, Congress lifted the ban on foreign trade…except to France and Great Britain.
-In 1809, General *William Henry Harrison- the Governor of the Indiana territory sat down with many Native America chiefs and persuaded them to sign away 3 million acres of tribal land to the US government. Not all chiefs were happy about this.
-The Shawnee Chief, *Tecumseh, believed that the only way to protect their homeland was to form a Confederacy, a United Native American Nation.
-For the next few years, Tecumseh traveled the Midwest and the South trying to win followers to his confederacy.
-He also began negotiations with the British for assistance in what seemed like an inevitable war with the Americans.
-Tecumseh’s brother led the Shawnee in an attack against Harrison. Tecumseh was unaware that this had occurred and Harrison came out victorious.
-This battle became known as the Battle of Tippecanoe (1811).
-It was soon discovered that the Native American Confederation was using arms from British Canada.
-This made a group of young Congressmen from the South and the West, known as the *War Hawks, call for war against Britain.
The War Brings Mixed Results
*James Madison- who was another Democratic-Republican, won the election of 1808.
-By spring of 1812, Madison decided to go to war against the British. Congress would soon approve.
-The American military was in no way prepared for this war.
-Many Native Americans fought with the British, while others fought for the US. Each depended on their relationship prior to the war.
-In 1813 Tecumseh was killed by the US forces at the Battle of Thames. This would lead to the collapse of Native American support for the British.
-At sea, the US was badly outnumbered, with only 16 ships.
-Britain began a blockade of Chesapeake and the Delaware bays.
-Even though the US was holding its own, they were also being bottled up at port as the British extended their blockade of the East Coast. (p.204)
-In August of 1814, the British burned the capital, the White House, and other public buildings in retaliation from when American troops burned the upper Canadian capital after victory at the Battle of York.
-During this time, a general from Tennessee named *Andrew Jackson was gaining national fame for victories in the south and for destroying the military power of the Southern Native Americans.
-Jackson’s biggest victory would come at the *Battle of New Orleans (1814), where he was well outnumbered by British troops.
-Unknown to General Jackson, British and American diplomats had already signed a peace agreement. The *Treaty of Ghent was signed on Christmas Eve 1814. It declared an *armistice- or and end to fight.
-Although it did not address every issue, they would be sorted out over the next few years.
-The two nations would also agree to a 10-year joint occupation of the Oregon Territory.
-At home Americans were unable to resolve differences that had already begun to divide the nation.
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