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Chapter 6. A Strong Start For the Nation. The First President. When congress opened the ballots from the states on April 6, 1789, the unanimous choice for President was George Washington . Washington doubted his abilities and feared the people would think he wanted to be king .
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Chapter 6 A Strong Start For the Nation
When congress opened the ballots from the states on April 6, 1789, the unanimous choice for President was George Washington. • Washington doubted his abilities and feared the people would think he wanted to be king. • The first order of business was to add a protection of individual liberties to the constitution to limit the power of the central government.
The Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791 and it guaranteed U.S. citizens specific rights. • Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, which established a federal district court for each state. • During its first session Congress also created three departments to assist the President, and the President appointed heads of these departments to serve as his advisors.
Lawmakers turned to Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton for help. • Hamilton believed that the nation’s future depended on a strong federal government controlled by the wealthy. • Hamilton’s views supported capitalism – an economic system based on a free market and private ownership of property.
Hamilton's Proposals 11,809,829,732,034.67
Hamilton advised Congress to strengthen the nation’s credit by beginning to pay off the national debt. • The total national and state debt was estimated to be a staggering 77 million, reflecting the heavy costs of the revolutionary war. • Hamilton proposed that the national government take over state debts.
Hamilton asked Congress to create the Bank of the United States consisting of a central bank with branches in major U.S. cities. • Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson believed the proposed bank was illegal and the government can only do what the constitution specifically allows, which is called strict construction. • Hamilton supported the philosophy of constitutional interpretation called loose construction.
In June 1794 Congress passed a bill authorizing the collection of a whiskey tax. • 500 men attacked federal officials, tarring and feathering some. • The protesters then organized a larger militia that included residents of Pittsburgh, this was called the Whiskey Rebellion.
American settlers continued to enter the territory that American Indians believed they had the right to use. • Some 1500 members of various tribes joined together in a loose confederation to defend their homes. • Miami Chief Little Turtle led his warriors to defeat the U.S. troops.
Revolutionary war hero Anthony Wayne organized and led U.S. forces. • In the summer of 1794 Wayne’s army and the Confederation fought in the Battle of Timbers, Wayne won. • The Confederation entered into negotiations, the Treaty of Greenville, which gave the U.S. title to American Indian lands making up Ohio and part of Indiana.
The French Revolution • France had been experiencing economic difficulties throughout the 1700’s. • By the 1780’s unemployment ran high, and a terrible crop failure in 1788 resulted in food shortages. • Many French people felt that their King, Louis XVI, and Marie-Antoinette, didn’t care about their problems.
On July 14, 1789, French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, a royal prison that was a hated symbol of oppression. • During the period known as the Reign of Terror (1793-94), revolutionaries beheaded thousands of men and women, including Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. • European monarchs feared that this revolutionary split would spread beyond France’s borders.
The European conflict disrupted American trade and threatened to draw the U.S. into war. • Both France and Britain ignored the U.S. declaration of neutrality and seized American vessels. • Britain's policy of impressment, or kidnapping, of American sailors aroused American hostility.
In 1793 Edmond Genet, a French diplomat, arrived in the U.S. and hoped to start revolutionary clubs. • On April 22, 1793, Washington issued a proclamation forbidding U.S. support for any nation at war. • The French defied the neutrality policy.
The British agreed to abandon their northwestern forts in Jay’s Treaty. • But Britain didn’t stop arming Indians, impressing American sailors, or seizing American ships. • Many Americans accused Jay of selling out to the British.
Pinckney’s Treaty (1795) recognized the southern boundary of the U.S. with Spanish Florida. • The Treaty also guaranteed U.S. navigation right on the Mississippi River. • It also gave Americans the right of deposit – the right to temporarily unload goods at New Orleans without paying a duty to Spain.
In 1796 President Washington, who was re-elected easily in 1792, announced that he would not seek a third term. • This set an informal precedent that was not broken until 1940.
The Rise of Political Parties • In the 1790’s sectionalism, or loyalty to a particular part of the country, emerged. • The Federalist Party was led by Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. • The Democratic-Republican Party was led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Republicans feared a strong national government and tended to be supportive of the French. • Merchants, manufacturers, church leaders and lawyers from New England tended to support the Federalist Party.
Federalists John Adams and Thomas Pinckney faced off against Republicans Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. • According to the Constitution, whoever received the most electoral votes became president, the runner up became vice president. • When the votes were counted, Adams was President, was Vice President.
French privateers began to seize American ships bound for British ports. • France’s foreign minister presented demands. • President Adams – published these demands with x, y, and z substituted for the ministers agents.
In 1798 Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts authorized the President to imprison or expel aliens. • The Sedition Act made it possible for anyone to be arrested who wrote anything false about the government, the Congress, or the President. • The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions denounced the Alien and Sedition Acts as unconstitutional.
The Republicans pitted Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr against the Federalists John Adams and Charles Pickney for President. • Jefferson and Burr received the same number of electoral votes for President, the Constitution made it clear, that if there is a tie, the President would be chosen by the House. • Congress then created the twelfth amendment which requires electors to vote for president and vice president on separate ballots.
Federalists pushed through the Judiciary Act of 1801 which created a number of new circuit courts and federal judgeships. • John Marshall was selected as Chief Justice of the U.S. and established the judicial review which gave the power of the courts to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional. • The court first exercised this right in 1803 with the case of Marbury vs. Madison.
In 1803 Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris to assist with negotiation for a U.S. Port at the mouth of the Mississippi. • The U.S. completed the Louisiana Purchase by paying $15 million for all of Louisiana. • Napoleon wanted to sell the territory because he held no foothold in the West Indies from which to protect Louisiana.
President Jefferson assigned the task of mapping the new territory to two skilled frontiersmen, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. • Lewis and Clark hired a French-Canadian fur trader and his Shoshoni wife, Sacagawea. • The Lewis and Clark expedition traveled up the Missouri River, crossing the Rocky Mountains, and canoed down the Snake and Columbia rivers to the Pacific Ocean.
The Importance of the Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase added all or part of future states to the nation. This vastly increased size made the U.S. moreimportant in the eyes of other countries. It also made the interior of the continent open to American settlement.
The Perils of World Trade • In 1807 Great Britain passed the Orders in Council, which forbade neutral vessels from trading with France or entering ports under French control. • Jefferson urged Congress to pass the Embargo Act (1807) which stopped shipments of food and other American products to all foreign ports. • Congress then passed the Non-Intercourse Act, which prohibited U.S. trade with Britain and France.
Shawnee leader Tecumseh had become convinced that American Indians ‘ best hope for survival rested in a military alliance among the Indian nations. • At dawn on November 7, 1811, the Indians initiated an attack on an army camp. • Although General William Harrison’s forces sustained heavy losses, the Battle of Tippecanoe ended in defeat for the Indians.
Congress Declares War • The British had supplied Tecumseh’s forces with weapons. • To reduce tensions, the British repealed the Orders in Council in June 1812. • After some debate, both houses of Congress voted to support the declaration of war.
