The United States 1796-1804

Match the belief with the political party and its leader
1. Called for weak central government____
2. Supported by Northern Businessmen____
3. Favored Agriculture____
4. Interpret constitution strictly____
5. Pro-British____
6. Small peacetime military____
7. Aid business and industry____
8. Strong state governments____
9. Pro-French____
10. Strong central government____
11. Large peacetime military____
12. Opposed tariffs____
13. Loose interpretation of constitution____
A. Democratic-Republicans led by Jefferson
B. Federalists led by Hamilton
Why was the election of 1800 considered a revolution? / A New President
  • Vice President John Adams was the Federalist choice to run for President
  • Thomas Jefferson was the Democratic Republicans choice to run for President
  • Adams won by 3 electoral votes
  • Jefferson became Vice President
President Adams
  • XYZ Affair
  • Alien/Sedition Acts
•VA and Kentucky Resolutions
  • Two political parties begin to form
•Federalists led by Adams and Hamilton
•Democratic Republicans led by Jefferson and Madison
Election of 1800/Revolution of 1800
  • Federalists rapidly lost support
  • Adams was unpopular president
  • High taxes and unpopular Alien and Sedition Acts swept them from power
  • Democratic-Republicans took also took control of both houses of Congress
  • The change was from Federalist control to Democratic-Republican control.
  • Jefferson and Burr both get 73 electoral votes, so the House of Representatives decided who won the Presidency
  • Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated March 4, 1801
Judiciary Act of 1801/Midnight Judges Act
  • Judiciary Act was signed into law on February 13, 1801
  • At midnight prior to Jefferson being inaugurated, President Adams quickly filled as many of the newly created circuit judgeships as possible.
  • Jeffersonian Republicans accused the Federalists of packing the courts following their defeat in the elections of 1800.
  • The Act reduced the number of seats on the Supreme Court from 6 to 5, effective upon the next vacancy in the Court.
  • The Act also created 16 new judgeships that Adams rapidly began to fulfill the last weeks of his presidency.
  • These judges came to be known as the "Midnight Judges."
  • It reorganized the circuit courts doubling them from three to six.
  • It also reorganized the district courts, creating ten.
  • It gave the circuit courts jurisdiction to hear cases involving federal question jurisdiction (a civil case based on a violation of the US Constitution, federal law, or a treaty to which the US is a party.
Jefferson and the Courts
•Chief Justice is John Marshall
•Federalist
•Strong role for fed. Gov’t, judicial branch
•Marbury v. Madison
•SC does not have power to issue writs
•JUDICIAL REVIEW – SC has power to rule acts unconstitutional (final say)
•Legacy
•Expands power of both fed gov’t & judicial branch
Challenges during Jefferson’s Presidency
•Conspiracies:
•High Federalists in 1804 try to form pro-British confederation of NE, NY, part of Canada
•Federalists use Aaron Burr as inside man
•Plan crumbles after Alex. Hamilton denounces Burr
•TJ furious at John Marshall
•Yazoo land scandal
•A massive real-estate fraud in the 1790s by the GA governor and the GA General Assembly. GA politicians sold large tracts of land in what are present day Alabama and Mississippi, to political insiders at very low prices.
•The following year reformers overturned the law enabling the sales.
•It was challenged in the US Supreme Court, Fletcher v. Peck, 1810. The Court ruled that the contracts were binding and the state could not retroactively invalidate the earlier land sales.
•It was one of the first times the Supreme Court overturned a states law.
Foreign Affairs during Jefferson’s Presidency
  • Problems
•British impressment (again)
•British blockade of France
•Orders in Council
•Chesapeake affair (military ship)
•French seizure of ships
•Solution?
•Embargo Act of 1807 – prohibits US exports to foreign nations (really aimed at Britain & France)
•Later replaced by Non-Intercourse Act – opens US exports to everyone except Britain and France (until they stop naval violations)
•“peaceable coercion” – American neutrality
  • Positive
•More $$$ funneled into manufacturing
•Cotton mills boom
  • Reactions to the Embargo Act
•Congressreplaced the act with a weaker Non-Intercourse Act
•Also ineffective, harmful to US econ.
•That replaced by weaker Macon Bill #2 – also ineffective
•Promised that if either England or France stopped interfering w/ US trade, US would stop trade with the other offender
Indian Affairs
  • Problems:
•Shawnees blocking settlement in Indiana
•Obstructing Indiana statehood
  • Solution:
•William Henry Harrison – general & governor of Indiana – Treaty of Ft. Wayne
•Exploits starving Indians for cheap land
•Shawnees (Tecumseh & The Prophet) lead resistance
•Tippecanoe – Harrison defeats The Prophet
  • Results:
•Harrison nat’l hero
•Tecumseh seeks alliances w/ British
•Alliances w/ British help lead to US war w/ Britain
The Economy
Describe each picture and the impact it had on the American Economy at this time