Ch 10: Launching the New Ship of State (1789-1800)
Disunity and the Impossibility of the American Republic
A) The Leaders
1. 1789 George Washington unanimously elected President
2. 1791 Madison’s Bill of Rights ratified by enough states(Amendments I-X)
B) Hamilton Revives Public Credit
1. Master Plan:
-Bargain: VA to vote for assumption in exchange for national capital at DC
3. Why Hamilton wanted the fed govt to shoulder fed & state (+interest): political motives
5. 1791 Hamilton establishes Bank of the United States
6. Reactions to Hamilton’s policies:
- Jeffersonians founded Democratic-Republican Party in response to AHam’s policies which they regarded as encroachment on states’ & individual rights
→Although opposition to govt was seen as disloyalty, the two-party system has proved to be one of the indispensable ingredients of a sound democracy.
C) The French Revolution & Washington Legacy
1. Fr Rev breaks out few weeks after Wash’s inauguration 1789Early stages peaceful, but: 1792, Fr declares war on Austria; 1793 Reign of Terror
-Antifed argued that aristocratic lives must be sacrificed for human freedom
2. After Great Britain is sucked into conflict, Wash proclaims neutrality
3. British irritate Americans, but Wash still tries to avert war w. Great Britain
-Brit seized 300 Am merchant ships in W. Indies & impressed Am sailors
-sold weapons to the Miami Confederation (Natives who harassed Ams)
1. 1789 George Washington unanimously elected President
- Swore in at NYC, the temporary capital
- Cabinet- Secretary of State (TJeff), Treasury (AHam), War (Henry Knox)
2. 1791 Madison’s Bill of Rights ratified by enough states(Amendments I-X)
- I-VIII: safeguard precious freedoms
- IX: the people retain their rights even though not enumerated here
- X: powers not delegated to fed govt are reserved to states & people
- Organized Supreme Court→ 1 chief justice + 5 associates
- Federal district & circuit courts
- Established office of attorney general
- Favored strong fed gov to unify infant nation & encourage industry
B) Hamilton Revives Public Credit
1. Master Plan:
- Shape fiscal policies to favor wealthier groups
- These beneficiaries would lend money & support to new fed govt in exchange
- New fed gov & propertied class would thrive→ prosperity would trickle down
- Funding national debt: fed govt pay off debts (face value & accumulated interest)
- Assumption: fed govt assume state debts
-Bargain: VA to vote for assumption in exchange for national capital at DC
3. Why Hamilton wanted the fed govt to shoulder fed & state (+interest): political motives
- Nat’l debt now $75 mn, but AHam believed nat’l debt to be “blessing” w/in limits
- The more creditors to whom the govt owed money, the more ppl there would be w. a personal stake in the success of his ambitious enterprise.
- He made debt (ordinarily a liability) an asset for vitalizing financial system & govt
- Customs Duties: source of revenue as well as means of protecting infant industries
- Excise Taxes: domestic products, mostly whiskey
- Miscellaneous Revenue
5. 1791 Hamilton establishes Bank of the United States
- AHam uses “loose construction” & “proper & necessary” to argue for national bank
- Result: set precedent for enormous federal powers
6. Reactions to Hamilton’s policies:
- 1794 Whiskey Rebellion: minor insurrection in PA against AHam’s whiskey tax which was suppressed by military force. Message: if Ams wanted to change the law, they had to do so peacefully (or else)
- Emergence of political parties:
- Jeffersonians founded Democratic-Republican Party in response to AHam’s policies which they regarded as encroachment on states’ & individual rights
→Although opposition to govt was seen as disloyalty, the two-party system has proved to be one of the indispensable ingredients of a sound democracy.
C) The French Revolution & Washington Legacy
1. Fr Rev breaks out few weeks after Wash’s inauguration 1789Early stages peaceful, but: 1792, Fr declares war on Austria; 1793 Reign of Terror
- Fr Rev shows differences b/w Democratic-Republicans & Federalists
-Antifed argued that aristocratic lives must be sacrificed for human freedom
2. After Great Britain is sucked into conflict, Wash proclaims neutrality
- Tho Dem-Reps favored honoring Fr-Am alliance 1778, GWash believed in avoiding war at all costs since Am was militarily weak, econ shaky, politically disunited
- “Enlightened procrastination”: Things were improving, so Am could avoid engagement w. superior force until the passage of time made victory possible.
- Proclamation of Neutrality 1793: declared Am impartial witness to ongoing Old World conflict
- Edmund Genet, emissary of new Fr republic, embarked upon un-neutral activity not authorized by alliance; as a result, Wash demanded his withdrawal
- What this all shows: “no nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest”; there is no such thing as permanent alliance, only perm’t nat’l interests
3. British irritate Americans, but Wash still tries to avert war w. Great Britain
- London govt’s grievances against America:
-Brit seized 300 Am merchant ships in W. Indies & impressed Am sailors
-sold weapons to the Miami Confederation (Natives who harassed Ams)
- D-reps cry for war with Great Brit, but AHam’s hopes for economic development depended on trade with the world’s mightiest commercial empire
- Jay sent to negotiate bargain/prevent war→ Jay’s Treaty 1795: pro-Eng neutrality
- Result:
-Pinckney’s Treaty 1795: Spain, fearing alliance, granted Ams everything they demanded—free navigation of MS & large disputed territory north of FL
4. George Washington’s legacy (1789–1797)
- 2-term precedent becomes 22nd Amendment (1951)
- Kept US out of overseas & foreign wars→ est precedent for foreign policy
- Now that fed gov fiscally sound, power could be passed to less impressive figure
D) John Adams Takes Office 1797
1. Difficulties for Adams
- Won by mere 3 votes & TJeff becomes VP
- Not appealing to the masses despite being one of the ablest statesman
- No successor could hope to do as well as GWash
- Hated by AHam who forms High Federalists (included ppl in Adams’ cabinet)
- Inherited violent quarrel w. France
- Fr, infuriated by Jay’s Treaty, start to seize defenseless Am merchant vessels
- Paris refused to receive Am’s newly appted envoy & threatened to arrest him
- XYZ Affair: Adams tries to avoid war, so appts diplomatic commission of 3 men, including John Marshall, who hope to meet Fr foreign minister Talleyrand. Hwvr, they are secretly approached by 3 go-betweens (referred to as X, Y, Z) who demand loan of 32 mn florins & $250,000 to talk w. Talleyrand
- Am (w. aid from Gt Brit) and Fr fight on sea near W. Indies for 2½ yrs
- Fr didn’t want another enemy so Talleyrand says he would receive new minister
- Adams knew that if full-fledged war & conquest of FL & LA, he could bring plaudits to Feds, but war must be avoided, so he appted new minister to Fr.
- Eager to free hands of potential enemy, Napoleon signed Convention of 1800; annulled Fr-Am alliance & called for Fr to pay damage claims of Am shippers
- Taking advantage of anti-Fr frenzy, Feds pass laws to minimize Jeffersonian foes
- Most Eur immigrants not rich→ scorned by aristocratic Feds, welcomed by DReps
- Alien Laws:
-empowered pres to deport/imprison dangerous aliens in time of peace/war
- Sedition Law: anyone who impeded policies of govt/falsely defamed officials would be liable to heavy fine & imprisonment
- Result: many turned Antifed, but most (anti-Fr) supported it
- VA & KY Resolutions: penned by TJeff & JMad and passed only in KY & VA
- Stressed the compact theory: 13 sovereign states had created a fed govt. Thus, this govt was subordinate to the state govts.
- Hwvr, the fed govt had exceeded its const powers and the states had the right to refuse to accept the Alien & Sedition Acts.
- Feds argued that it was up to the Supreme Court (not states) to nullify unconst laws; this practice was adopted by the Supreme Court in Marbury v Madison 1803
- Tho TJeff & JMad wrote these resolutions to preserve the union, they were eventually used by southerners to support secession
E) The Presidential Race of 1800 Exposed the Large Differences B/w Parties
1. Hamilton (Federalist) v. Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
2. Hamiltonians were for the elites→govt should protect lives & estates of the wealthy, promote foreign trade, support (but not interfere) with private enterprises
5. Conflicts over domestic politics & foreign policy undermined the unity of the Revolutionary Era and called into question the very viability of the American experiment in democracy.
2. Hamiltonians were for the elites→govt should protect lives & estates of the wealthy, promote foreign trade, support (but not interfere) with private enterprises
- Strong central govt w. power to crush democratic excesses like Shays’s Rebellion
- Distrusted full-blown democracy
- Foreign policy: assert & expand Am’s commercial interests; therefore called for good relations w. British
- Best govt=one that governs least; central authority=necessary evil limited thru strict interpretatn of Const; bulk of power in states (ppl can watch public servants)
- Universal education before universal suffrage
- Foreign policy: protect & strengthen democracy at home rather than flex Am’s muscles abroad; called for support of liberal ideals of Fr Revolution
5. Conflicts over domestic politics & foreign policy undermined the unity of the Revolutionary Era and called into question the very viability of the American experiment in democracy.
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