His 221 Exam 2

In April 1775, British General Thomas Gage, stationed in Boston, dispatched an expedition to

confiscate the stockpile of colonial military supplies at Concord.

At dawn on April 19, several hundred British troops encountered a force of approximately 70

colonial militiamen at Lexington; after a brief exchange of fire, eight Americans lay dead.

A larger confrontation at the North Bridge in Concord killed three British troops and wounded

nine; the first British bloodshed in the conflict.

Ongoing gun battles as the British retreated resulted in 272 British casualties, including 70

deaths, and just 93 American casualties.

These battles marked the outbreak of war.

Start of the war

Following Lexington and Concord, Boston was besieged by patriot militia.

In May 1775, American forces captured British garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point in

upper New York, gaining gunpowder and cannons for the siege of Boston.

In June, colonists seized Breed’s Hill (now Bunker Hill) in Boston.

− British troops staged a frontal assault on the hill.

− Colonial troops mowed them down until they ran out of gunpowder and had to retreat.

The standoff lasted for nearly a year, as food and fuel ran low, and disease ravaged the city.

Ticonderoga and Bunker Hill

Rebels, meanwhile, invaded Canada in early 1776.

− Americans believed incorrectly French Canadians would join them in rebellion.

− One American column captured Montréal, but a subsequent assault on Quebec failed, and Americans

retreated in disarray.

• British Prime Minister Lord North and his American secretary, Lord George Germain, made three

central assumptions about the war they faced, all of which would turn out to be wrong.

− Patriot forces could not long withstand the assaults of trained British regulars, and thus, the 1776

campaign would be decisive.

− Capturing major cities would defeat the rebel army.

− A clear-cut military victory would regain the colonies’ allegiance.

Rebels and Canada

Great Britain dispatched the largest fighting force it had ever assembled to the colonies.

− It included 32,000 troops, 73 naval vessels, and 13,000 sailors.

− Among the troops were professional German soldiers, many from the state of Hesse.

• Britain’s leaders never fully appreciated they were not fighting a conventional European war but

instead were engaged in the first modern war of national liberation.

• The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in May 1775 and assumed the mantle of

intercolonial government.

• The Congress authorized the printing of money, oversaw relations with foreign countries,

strengthened the militia, and ordered the construction of ships for a new Continental navy.

Second Continental Congress

Congress also unsuccessfully beseeched the king to halt the conflict in the so-called Olive

Branch petition, issued July 5, 1775.

Congress selected George Washington to lead the 20,000 colonial “Minute Men” surrounding

Boston.

Washington, 43, had never served above the rank of colonel and would lose more battles than he won.

He possessed powers of leadership and strength of character.

The selection of Washington, from Virginia, was also a political choice to appease the largest

and most populous of the colonies.

Olive Branch Petition

Since its first meeting in 1774, Congress was strongly influenced by republican thought.

• Three definitions of republicanism animated Congress’s thinking and jockeyed for preeminence

in the new United States.

− The ancient histories of Greece and Rome suggested that republics fared best when small and

homogeneous, with a “natural aristocracy” determined by merit rather than birth.

− Another version, flowing from Adam Smith's ideas, posited that republican virtue would be achieved

through the pursuit of private interests.

− A third notion was more egalitarian and envisioned a government that responded directly to the needs

of ordinary folk.

• The most prominent advocate of the third variety was the radical English printer Thomas Paine.

In January 1776, Thomas Paine challenged the widespread hesitancy to fully break with Britain

in his pamphlet Common Sense.

− He insisted that America’s independence was inevitable.

− He rejected the idea that a balance among monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy could preserve

liberty, calling monarchs “ridiculous” and aristocrats greedy and corrupt.

− With its bold message and simple language, Common Sense became a bestseller.

• Paine argued not only for independence but for a republic where power flowed from the people.

• Common Sense helped convince Americans that their true cause was independence rather than

reconciliation with Britain.

Thomas Paine and Common sense

After passing a motion declaring independence on July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress

approved the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4.

− It made a universal appeal by invoking the “natural rights” of mankind.

− Jefferson argued the king had flouted those rights, justifying the colonies’ choice to

break away.

− He then detailed the king’s transgressions.

• Written in a lofty style, the Declaration is regarded as a magnificently persuasive statement that

has inspired countless revolutionary movements in the centuries since its publication.

The Declaration enabled the rebels to more successfully solicit foreign assistance.

• It committed the rebels to their cause and to one another.

Declaration of Independence

In 1776, the Continental Congress called on colonies to draft new constitutions.

• Connecticut and Rhode Island made few changes to their colonial charters, but others

undertook efforts to capture republican ideology in new forms of government.

• Massachusetts called a special convention to draft a constitution and then submitted it to a vote

of the people for ratification, a practice later used for the federal constitution.

In 1776, the Continental Congress called on colonies to draft new constitutions.

• Connecticut and Rhode Island made few changes to their colonial charters, but others

undertook efforts to capture republican ideology in new forms of government.

• Massachusetts called a special convention to draft a constitution and then submitted it to a vote

of the people for ratification, a practice later used for the federal constitution.

The new state constitutions shared many features in common:

− Unlike the British constitution, these were written contracts.

− They drew their authority from the people.

− They were meant to represent a fundamental law superior to those passed by legislatures.

− Most included a bill of rights.

− Most called for annual elections of legislators and weak executive and judicial branches.

• The Second Continental Congress was little more than a conference of ambassadors from the

states and had no constitutional authority.

− The states were sovereign.

− Each coined its own money, raised its own army and navy, and erected tariff barriers.

State Constitutions

In 1777, Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the new nation’s first constitution, but it

was not ratified by all 13 states until 1781.

• The main sticking point centered on inequalities in western land claims.

− Six states had no landholdings west of the Alleghenies, and seven had extensive lands they could sell

to raise revenue.

− Finally, all the land-rich states agreed to surrender their claims to the new federal government.

− Congress pledged to distribute these lands “for the common benefit” and to carve from them new

republican states.

• The Articles of Confederation provided for a loose confederation, or “firm league of friendship,”

among the 13 independent states.

− Each state had one vote, limiting the powers of more populous ones.

− All important bills required the support of nine states to pass.

− Any amendment to the Articles themselves required unanimous support for ratification.

• Congress was purposely designed to be weak under the Articles of Confederation, as states had

no desire to yield newly won powers to an American parliament.

• Two limitations were particularly crippling:

− Congress had no power to regulate commerce, leaving the states to establish different, and often

conflicting, laws on tariffs and navigation.

− Congress could not enforce its tax-collection program but could only ask each state to contribute its

share.

In all dealings with the independent states and their citizens, Congress lacked the power to

enforce its will.

• Nevertheless, the Articles of Confederation succeeded in outlining the general powers to be

exercised by a central government and served as a stepping stone to the present Constitution.

Articles of Confederation

Funding the war proved to be the most persistent challenge for state and national governments. Congress borrowed what it could from both domestic and foreign sources, which ultimately funded about 10 percent of war costs.

• Congress and the states also began printing paper money, which dramatically lost value as the

war dragged on.

• On its paper money, medals, seals, and uniforms, Congress experimented with symbols to unify

the diverse former British subjects seeking a common identity as Americans.

Funding the war

American rebels, who called themselves patriots, fought not only British soldiers, or redcoats,

but also colonists loyal to the king, or loyalists.

• Loyalists were also called Tories, and patriots were also called Whigs, aligning each with

factions in Britain.

• Many colonists were apathetic or neutral in the conflict, leading to a struggle by both sides for

the allegiance of the civilian population.

− The rebels proved far more persuasive than the redcoats.

− They convinced those uninspired by independence that the British army was unreliable.

Loyalists comprised about 16 percent of the population and were more numerous among the

older generation.

− They included the king’s officers and other beneficiaries of the Crown.

− The Anglican clergy

− Many residents of aristocratic New York City and Charleston, as well as Quaker Pennsylvania and

New Jersey

• Loyalists sought to defend their existing political rights and their economic positions against an

uncertain future.

• Many families split over the question of revolution.

• Rebels were numerous in Congregational and Presbyterian regions, most notably New England.

Before the Declaration of Independence, persecution of loyalists was generally mild, though

some were subjected to tarring and feathering and riding astride fence rails.

• After the Declaration, persecution became harsher, as hundreds were imprisoned and a few

were hanged.

• About 80,000 of the king's most loyal supporters fled or were driven out of the colonies, and

some of their estates were confiscated and sold to finance the war.

• Hundreds of thousands of “mild” loyalists were permitted to stay.

− About 50,000, at some point, bore arms for the British.

− Others served as spies, negotiated with Native American nations, or compelled patriot soldiers to stay

home to protect their families.

Rebels and Loyalists

Before the Declaration of Independence, persecution of loyalists was generally mild, though

some were subjected to tarring and feathering and riding astride fence rails.

• After the Declaration, persecution became harsher, as hundreds were imprisoned and a few

were hanged.

• About 80,000 of the king's most loyal supporters fled or were driven out of the colonies, and

some of their estates were confiscated and sold to finance the war.

• Hundreds of thousands of “mild” loyalists were permitted to stay.

− About 50,000, at some point, bore arms for the British.

− Others served as spies, negotiated with Native American nations, or compelled patriot soldiers to stay

home to protect their families.

Many Native Americans were predisposed to favor the British over the colonists in the war.

• Initially, both the British and the patriots urged Native Americans to remain neutral and sought to

keep Native warriors out of the conflict.

• Without the ability to play empires against one another, Native leaders no longer concurred on a

single course of action, and many communities fractured.

• Regardless of the state of the revolutionary struggle, warfare between settlers and Native

Americans continued in the backcountry.

Native Americans and Loyalists

Revolutionary ideology exposed the contradictions of slavery in colonial society, and the

pervasive talk of liberty added fuel to Black people's struggles for freedom.

• In New England, many Black people joined the patriot ranks.

• In most colonies, though, enslaved Black people offered to assist the British army in exchange

for freedom.

• In April 1775, several enslaved people in Williamsburg, Virginia, sent word to the royal governor,

Lord Dunmore, that they were prepared to “take up arms” on his behalf.

• In November, Dunmore issued a proclamation offering to free any Virginia enslaved people or

indentured servants who abandoned their patriot slaveholders to join the British.

In the months that followed, approximately 2,500 enslaved people, including women and

children, took up Dunmore’s offer.

− The men were organized into the British Ethiopian Regiment.

− Over time, perhaps 30 to 40 thousand freedom-seeking enslaved people joined the British war effort.

− Those who survived to the end of the war left with the redcoats.

• Patriots, meanwhile, turned fears of enslaved uprisings to their own advantage, promising to

protect slaveholders when the British would not.

Slaves and the Revolution

With Boston evacuated in March 1776, the British centered their operations in New York.

• A British fleet of 500 ships and 35,000 men arrived in New York in July 1776.

• Washington, in comparison, commanded only 18,000 ill-trained troops.

• In the summer and fall of 1776, the Americans were routed at the Battle of Long Island.

− Washington barely escaped to Manhattan Island.

− He retreated northward across the Hudson to New Jersey and finally across the Delaware.

− New York City remained in British hands for the remainder of the war.

Battle of Long Island

Despite Washington’s defeat at Long Island, the British commander, General William Howe, did

not pursue him.

− He remembered the slaughter of British soldiers at Bunker Hill.

− He was reluctant to risk becoming overextended in the winter.

• Washington stealthily recrossed the Delaware River into New Jersey.

• On December 26, 1776, he captured a thousand surprised Hessians (German soldiers) sleeping off their Christmas

celebration at Trenton.

• A week later, his forces defeated a small British detachment at Princeton.

• These two victories resuscitated the American cause after its near-destruction.

Trenton

In 1777, London officials settled upon a plan to capture the Hudson River Valley, thus severing

New England from the rest of the colonies and paralyzing the American cause.

• The main invading force, led by General John Burgoyne, would push down Lake Champlain

from Canada, and General Howe’s troops from New York could meet him at Albany.

• Burgoyne finally began his invasion after much delay but moved slowly while General Howe

invaded and occupied Philadelphia in a bid to distract Washington’s forces.

• Burgoyne, bogged down and without Howe’s aid, was defeated and surrendered his entire

command to American general Horatio Gates in the Battle of Saratoga on October 17, 1777.

The victory revived the patriot cause and made possible vital foreign aid from France that helped

win the war.

Battle of Saratoga

On the western frontier, two nations in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Oneidas and the

Tuscaroras, sided with the Americans.

• The Senecas, Mohawks, Cayugas, and Onondagas all joined the British, who paid bounties for

American scalps.

− Mohawk chief Joseph Brandt, a convert to Anglicanism, argued a victorious Britain would restrain

American expansion.

− Native American and British forces ravaged western New York and Pennsylvania from 1777 to 1779

until restrained by American forces

in 1784, Americans forced pro-British Haudenosaunee to sign the Treaty of Fort Stanwix.

− It was the first treaty between the United States and the Haudenosaunee.

− It forced the Haudenosaunee to cede most of their land.

Treaty of Fort Stanwix

France, seeking revenge against Great Britain, was eager to aid the American colonists.

• The Continental Congress, though, insisted on a new model for international diplomacy.

− They wanted an end to colonialism and mercantilism.

− They hoped to substitute the rule of law for reliance on raw power.

They believed a bond of mutual commercial interest could guarantee peaceful relations among states.

• Benjamin Franklin arrived in Paris in 1776 as an embodiment of these ideals.

− He refused to wear a ceremonial sword or ermined robes.

− He dressed instead in homespun garments, with a plain walking stick and a simple cap of marten fur.

• After their humiliation at Saratoga, Britain offered the Americans home rule within the empire.

• Franklin instead negotiated a strong treaty of alliance with France, winning recognition of

American independence on the world stage

In 1778, with the formal alliance between the Americans and the French, the war became global.

− Spain and Holland entered the fray against Britain in 1779.

− Lesser naval powers, led by Russia, practiced passive resistance to Britain through a pact of Armed

Neutrality.

• From 1778 to 1783, the French provided the rebels with guns, money, and equipment, as well as

about half of America’s armed forces and nearly all its naval power.

• In response to the French threat, the British evacuated Philadelphia to concentrate their strength

in New York City

French Aid

Militia units were dominant in the patriots’ war effort only in the early months of the conflict.

• Subsequently, Congress established the Continental Army by following European, and

especially British, models.

− The officer corps was made up of gentlemen, or men of property, who exercised strict control over

their men.

− Ordinary soldiers sacrificed liberties like the right to trial by jury.

The Continental army’s officer corps was tight-knit and developed an intense sense of pride and

commitment to the revolutionary cause.

The Continental Army

Life in the army was difficult for everyone, especially ordinary soldiers.

− Wages were low, and the army often didn’t meet payroll.

− Rations did not always appear, forcing men to forage for food.

− Punishments for desertion, theft, and assault were harsh.

• Disease, especially dysentery and smallpox, was a constant feature of camp life.

− European soldiers were more likely to have immunity to smallpox.

− In early 1777, Washington ordered the whole regular army and new recruits to be vaccinated, a risky

procedure that could kill or incapacitate.

• American soldiers and sailors held as British prisoners suffered horrible conditions, and nearly

half died as a result

Civilian populations suffered plundering at the hands of both British and American soldiers.

• Shortages of basic goods were widespread, and inflation was extreme.

• Women had to take on both their own and their absent husbands’ roles on many farms.

Life in the army

The British devised a plan to conquer the colonies from the South, where loyalists were more

numerous.

• British forces overran Georgia from 1778 to 1779, and

• Charleston, South Carolina, fell in 1780.

− The British captured 5,000 men and 400 cannons.

− It was a heavier loss to the Americans, in relation to existing strength, than Burgoyne’s loss at

Saratoga had been to the British.

• Warfare next intensified in the Carolinas, where patriots and loyalists fought bitterly.

• The tide turned in late 1780, with American victories at King’s Mountain and Cowpens and the

subsequent clearing of British troops from most of the Carolinas and Georgia

British takeover of the South

After failed actions in Virginia, British general Cornwallis fell back to Yorktown on the

Chesapeake Bay in 1780 to receive supplies and reinforcements by sea.

• French admiral de Grasse, with a fleet in the West Indies, offered to join with Americans in an

assault on the British at Yorktown.

• Washington quickly marched his men 300 miles from New York and joined with French general

Rochambeau’s forces for a land attack.

• Cornered by land and sea, Cornwallis surrendered his entire force of 7,000 men on October 19,

1781.

− The French had provided all the sea power and half the land forces.

− Fighting continued for more than a year after Yorktown, but the war was essentially won.

Battle of Yorktown

With the United States lost, British officials turned their attention to Jamaica, the most valuable

of all its American possessions.

• The overriding focus was on the French threat to the Caribbean island, which produced two-

fifths of Britain’s sugar and nine-tenths of its rum with the labor of over 200,000 enslaved people.

• British forces defeated the French at the Battle of the Saintes in April 1782.

• Though fighting continued after Yorktown, many Britons were weary and ready to come to terms.

Battle of Saintes

Three Americans—Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay—gathered in Paris for peace

negotiations.

− Congress had instructed them to make no separate peace but to consult with French allies.

− France had its own obligations to Spain, which coveted the trans-Allegheny lands of North America.

− Meanwhile, the French wanted to limit American expansion.

− Sensing this conflict of interest, American negotiators struck their own agreement with London.

• Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

− Britain recognized the independence of the United States, with boundaries extending to the Mississippi

River, the Great Lakes, and Spanish Florida.

− Loyalists were not to be further persecuted; Britain requested their confiscated property be returned

and debts owed to British creditors be repaid.

• The peace terms were liberal almost beyond belief, as the entire trans-Appalachian region was

thrown open to American expansion.

− Britain was trying to seduce Americans away from the French.

− The short-lived Whig ministry sought to reopen trade and avoid future wars with the United States.

• France, though disturbed at not being consulted, approved the terms of the peace.

• America emerged with not only massive territorial gains but also an ideology of freedom.

Treaty of Paris

After the war, many of the large loyalist landholdings were confiscated and cut up into small

farms, helping to broaden property ownership.

• The nonimportation agreements and the war itself had also stimulated a nascent manufacturing

sector in the new country.

• Commerce with Britain ceased, as American merchants now found themselves outside of the

mercantilist system.

• But new commercial opportunities, particularly on the Baltic and China Seas, arose.

• On the whole, though, the general economic picture after the war was challenging.

− The war had spawned extravagance, speculation, and profiteering.

− Some state governments had accumulated large debts.

− Runaway inflation proved ruinous for many citizens.

Life after the war

Foreign relations with a resentful Britain remained troubled during the years of the

Confederation.

• Along the northern border, redcoats held a chain of trading posts on U.S. soil from which they

carried on the fur trade with Native Americans.

• The British likely sought to maintain alliances with Native Americans as a shield against

American encroachment into Canada.

• Some Americans insisted the United States retaliate by raising tariffs to restrict British imports.

− However, Congress had no power to regulate commerce or impose taxes on trade.

− Some states, in fact, lowered their tariffs to attract a larger share of British trade.

British Relations after the war

Spain, like Britain, was openly unfriendly to the United States in the Confederation years.

• In 1784, leveraging its control of the mouth of the Mississippi River, Spain closed the entire

waterway to American commerce.

• As the river was the only trade route through which American settlers in Kentucky and

Tennessee could sell their produce, the move threatened to strangle the West.

• In a large area north of the Gulf of Mexico, Spain allied with southeastern Native American

groups to stymie American control over its western territory.

• As with disputes with Britain farther north, there was little the hobbled Confederation Congress

could do to retaliate.

Spanish relations after the war

Following the Treaty of Paris, Congress initiated negotiations with northern and southern Native

peoples to secure land cessions.

• American diplomats negotiated the Treaty of Fort Stanwix with chiefs who claimed to represent

the Haudenosaunee in 1784.

• They did the same with Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee emissaries at Hopewell, South

Carolina, in 1785.

• American settlers poured into the West, displacing Native people who had not been party to the

treaties.

Expansion West

Congress passed two significant pieces of legislation related to land northwest of the Ohio River

recently acquired from the states, known as the Old Northwest.

• The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided that the land should be sold to help pay off the national

debt.

− Land would first be surveyed into a grid pattern of square mile sections and 36-section townships.

− One section of each township was set aside for the benefit of public schools

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 concerned the governing of the Old Northwest.

− The law stipulated two evolutionary territorial stages for designated areas, during which time they

would be under the authority of the federal government.

− Once an area contained 60,000 residents, it could be admitted by Congress as a state in all ways

equal to the original 13 states.

− The Northwest Ordinance also outlawed slavery in the Old Northwest.

Land Ordinance

In 1786, economic distress sparked an uprising known as Shays’s Rebellion in western

Massachusetts.

− Backcountry farmers began losing their farms due to mortgage foreclosures and tax delinquencies.

− Led by Revolutionary War veteran captain Daniel Shays, they demanded the state issue paper money,

reduce taxes, and suspend property takeovers.

− Seizing their muskets, they attempted to enforce their demands with force.

• Massachusetts responded by raising a small army and, in several skirmishes that killed three

Shaysites and wounded one, crushed the rebellion.

• Nevertheless, the episode struck fear into the propertied classes, who argued republican liberty

would soon devolve into “mobocracy.”

Shay’s Rebellion

In 1787, Congress, driven by pressure from several states frustrated by ongoing squabbles over

regulation of commerce, called a convention to revise the Articles of Confederation.

• Every state but Rhode Island sent representatives, ultimately forming a select group of 55

propertied men who convened in Philadelphia.

− Many of them were experienced in constructing state constitutions.

− They included some eminent national figures from the Revolutionary era, including George

Washington, who was elected chairman, and Benjamin Franklin, but most others were absent.

• Sessions were held in complete secrecy, with sentinels stationed at the doors.

Convention delegates were conservative and wealthy.

− They included merchants, shippers, land speculators, and money lenders.

− There were no representatives from the poorer classes, who were often debtors.

− Their average age was 42, and most were experienced in government.

− They were nationalists whose priority was to preserve and strengthen the Republic.

• Delegates sought to invest the central government with genuine power so that the United States

could negotiate advantageous commercial treaties with foreign powers.

• They worked to protect the American experiment from the perceived dangers of “mobocracy.”

− This meant preserving the union, forestalling anarchy, and ensuring the security of life and property.

Haunted by Shays’s Rebellion, they worked to curb unrestrained democracy.

Convention to revise the articles of confederation

Upon reaching Philadelphia, a group of delegates resolved to scrap and replace, rather than

revise, the Articles of Confederation.

• In this context, the delegation from populous Virginia proposed the Virginia Plan.

− The plan called for representation in both houses of a new bicameral legislature based on population.

− It would favor large states.

• New Jersey responded with the New Jersey Plan.

− This called for equal representation for each state in a unicameral legislature, just as it currently

existed under the Articles of Confederation.

− The plan would favor small states.

After bitter and prolonged debate, delegates agreed upon the Great Compromise.

− Larger states received representation by population in the House of Representatives.

− Smaller states received equal representation in the Senate.

− To further appease large states, delegates agreed that all tax or revenue measures must originate in

the House.

• The new Constitution also provided for a strong, though restrained, executive in the presidency.

• On the whole, the Constitution was a short document, providing a flexible guide to broad rules of

procedure rather than a fixed set of detailed laws.

The Great Compromise

The process for electing a president outlined in the Constitution was a product of compromise.

• Rather than selecting a president through a direct vote, the Electoral College apportioned

electors to each state based on the total of their representatives plus their senators.

• This gave large states an advantage in the first round of popular voting.

• If no candidate received a majority of electoral votes, the election would be thrown to the House

of Representatives, where, in this case only, each state would have one vote.

• The framers expected elections to land in the House frequently, but it has only happened twice,

in 1800 and 1824.

Electing the President

Sectional jealousy, particularly concerning slavery, played a central role in convention debates.

• Southern delegates argued that their enslaved residents should be counted as persons in

apportioning direct taxes and determining representation in the House of Representatives.

• Northern delegates, fearing the South would claim outsized power in the federal government,

argued only citizens should count.

• The three-fifths compromise stipulated, arbitrarily, that each enslaved state resident would count

as three-fifths of a person.

Most delegates desired an end to the international slave trade within the United States.

− South Carolina and Georgia objected, arguing they relied on the trade for their labor needs.

− A compromise stipulated that the federal government could end the trade after 1807, which it did.

• The framers wrote the federal government’s ability to halt the international slave trade into the

Constitution, but the domestic slave trade remained and grew.

• In the case of slavery, the idealism of the framers was sacrificed to political expediency.

• A fight over slavery, it was feared, would have fractured the national unity needed as a new

government came into shape.

3/5 compromise

Despite heated debates, wide areas of agreement existed among the delegates.

− Economically, they favored sound money and the protection of private property.

− Politically, they sought a stronger government of three branches, with checks and balances among

them.

− Delegates were nearly unanimous in opposing universal manhood-suffrage democracy.

• They designed a representative republic rather than a fully participatory democracy.

• Yet, the new Constitution reflected two republican principles:

− Legitimate government was based on the consent of the governed.

− The powers of government should be limited.

The framers knew nationwide acceptance of the Constitution would be difficult to obtain.

− They stipulated that the states call specially elected conventions.

− When nine of the state conventions approved, the Constitution would be in effect in those states.

• In the debates that followed, Federalists supported the Constitution and the stronger federal

government it created, while Antifederalists opposed it.

− Federalists tended to be wealthier and live in settled areas along the seaboard.

− Antifederalists were more mixed, but many were devoted to states’ rights, carried significant debts,

and/or were of the poorer classes.

Federalists included commanding figures like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin and

had control over most of the country’s newspapers.

• Antifederalists argued the Constitution had been crafted by aristocratic elements and was

antidemocratic.

• They charged that the sovereignty of the states was being destroyed and that the freedoms of

individuals were imperiled by the absence of a bill of rights.

• They criticized the abandonment of annual elections for congressional representatives as

existed under the Articles of Confederation.

• They opposed the creation of a new federal capital outside the boundaries of any of the states

and the creation of a standing army.

Federalist vs. Antifederalist

Many Antifederalists opposed the Constitution because it failed to guarantee individual rights.

• Several states had ratified it with the understanding that such guarantees would promptly be

added through the amendment process.

• James Madison drafted the amendments and guided them through Congress to garner the

necessary two-thirds vote of each chamber.

• The first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, were approved by the

required number of states in 1791.

• Madison’s amendments preserved a strong central government while addressing the

Antifederalist critique by enumerating protections for minority and individual liberties.

Creation of the bill of rights

First ten amendments of the constitution

• 1st: Guarantees freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

• 2nd: Protects the right to keep and bear arms.

• 3rd: Restricts the quartering of soldiers in private homes.

• 4th: Protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

• 5th: Ensures due process, prohibits double jeopardy, and protects against self-incrimination.

• 6th: Guarantees rights to a speedy trial, counsel, and to confront witnesses.

• 7th: Guarantees a jury trial in civil cases.

• 8th: Prohibits excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment.

• 9th: Clarifies that rights not specifically listed are still retained by the people.

• 10th: Reserves powers not delegated to the federal government to the states or the people

Bill of Rights

In 1789, Congress decided to retain the three administrative departments established under the

Articles of Confederation and add two lesser posts.

− The retained departments were War, Foreign Affairs (renamed State), and Treasury.

− The new offices were attorney general and postmaster general.

• Congress also passed the Judiciary Act of 1789.

− It defined the jurisdiction of the federal judiciary.

− It established a six-member Supreme Court, thirteen district courts, and three appellate courts.

− It allowed appeals from state to federal courts when cases raised certain constitutional questions.

• In its first decade, the Court handled few cases of importance

Judiciary Act of 1789

The Electoral College unanimously selected George Washington as the country’s first president.

• He was sworn in on April 30, 1789.

• Washington put his stamp on the government by establishing the cabinet.

− The Constitution does not mention a cabinet, only that the president “may require” written opinions

from the heads of executive branch departments.

− Because written reports proved cumbersome, Washington initiated cabinet meetings instead.

− Washington’s cabinet consisted of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury

Alexander Hamilton, and Secretary of War Henry Knox.

First President George Washington

Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton urged Congress to fund the national debt at par.

− The government would pay debts at face value plus interest.

− The debt then totaled $54 million, but government bonds had been trading at steep discounts.

• Hamilton also argued for the federal government’s assumption of the states’ debts.

− These totaled more than $21 million, most of which was incurred while fighting the war.

• These policies secured the government’s creditworthiness and favored the wealthy.

− In turn, the rich would lend the central government monetary and political support.

− Prosperity would then trickle down to the masses and strengthen the country.

Alexander Hamiltion

Hamilton turned the national debt into a political asset by giving creditors an interest in the

government’s and the country’s success.

• To pay interest on the debt, Congress passed a tariff in 1789.

− This was an eight percent tax on dutiable imports.

− It was designed to raise revenue and protect infant domestic industries from foreign competition.

− Hamilton argued for higher protective tariffs, but agricultural interests objected.

• In 1791, Hamilton secured an excise tax on a few domestic items, especially whiskey.

− The seven cents per gallon tax fell mostly on backcountry distillers.

− Distilling bulky grain into concentrated whiskey was efficient in an era of poor roads.

Whiskey was thus vital to the rural economy.

To tie together his fiscal reforms, Hamilton proposed a bank of the United States.

− The federal government would be the primary stockholder and would deposit surplus money.

− This would stimulate the economy by keeping federal money in circulation and allow the bank to issue

a stable national currency.

− Congress created the Bank of the United States in 1791 with a 20-year charter.

• Thomas Jefferson argued against the bank for not being authorized by the Constitution.

− He argued all powers not specifically granted to the federal government were reserved to the states.

− He insisted the Constitution should be read literally, known as “strict construction.”

A national bank was necessary and proper to carry out those powers.

− This was a broad reading of the Constitution, known as “loose construction.”

Start of Hamiltion vs. Jefferson

Hamilton’s excise tax on whiskey enraged rural residents of southwestern Pennsylvania.

• They saw it as an undue burden placed on a product that was an economic necessity and a

medium of exchange.

• In the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion, they attacked revenue officers and blocked tax collections.

President Washington, alarmed, summoned the militias of several states.

− 13,000 men answered the call.

− Rebels mostly dispersed before the troops even arrived.

− Three were killed and two arrested, then pardoned.

• By drawing troops from multiple states and overawing the rebels, the episode proved

Washington’s government commanded respect.

Whiskey Rebellion

America’s early politics featured factions around particular issues but no permanent political

parties.

• To the framers, opposition to a democratically elected government suggested disloyalty.

• Many Americans saw Hamilton’s early successes in strengthening the central government as an

assault on states’ rights.

− A bitter political rivalry began to build around what had formerly been a personal feud between

Hamilton and Jefferson on these issues.

− Jefferson and James Madison initially confined their opposition to Hamilton’s program to Congress.

− With the help of the press, it developed into the foundation of the country’s first political parties.

Creation of political parties

In the early weeks of Washington’s first presidential term in 1789, the French Revolution began.

− Its first phase was a relatively peaceful and successful attempt to limit the powers of King Louis XVI,

garnering widespread praise and pride from the American people.

− A few conservative Federalists expressed fears of “leveling” and “mobocracy.”

• In 1792, Revolutionary France prevailed in its war against Austria as Americans cheered.

• The next year, the Reign of Terror began in France.

− The king and other aristocrats, religious leaders, and opponents of revolution were beheaded.

− The Hamilton-aligned Federalists quickly solidified their opposition to the French Revolution.

• In 1791, the 10-year Haitian Revolution began.

− Formerly enslaved people successfully rose up, defeated, and ousted French and Spanish forces.

− Slaveholding Americans became terrified their enslaved people might do the same.

French Revolution

As France and Great Britain went to war, first in the West Indies, the 1778 Franco-American

alliance was still in force.

• Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans favored honoring the alliance.

− They were inspired by the liberal ideals of the French Revolution.

− They argued that America owed France its freedom and must now repay that debt.

Washington, backed by Hamilton, believed war must be avoided at all costs.

− The country was too weak militarily, economically, and politically.

− Another generation of development was needed before America could assert itself internationally.

• In 1793, Washington issued a Neutrality Proclamation.

− It proclaimed the government’s neutrality and warned American citizens to remain neutral.

− It enraged pro-French Democratic-Republicans and heartened pro-British Federalists.

Neutrality Proclamation

For ten years since the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the British had maintained a string of northern

frontier forts on U.S. soil.

− Britain profited from the lucrative fur trade.

− The British government hoped to build up a Native American buffer state to contain Americans.

− British aid, especially firearms, had helped Little Turtle prevail at the 1791 Battle of the Wabash.

• In 1794, a better-prepared U.S. army routed the Miamis at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

− The British refused to shelter the fleeing Native American fighters.

− Little Turtle’s confederacy was forced to negotiate with the Americans.

In 1795, they signed the Treaty of Greenville.

− The confederacy gave up vast tracts of the Old Northwest, including present-day Indiana and Ohio.

− They received annual annuities, rights to hunt on ceded land, and recognition of their sovereign status.

Treaty of Greenville

In 1794, President Washington sent John Jay to London in an effort to avert war.

• Jay’s Treaty won few concessions for the United States.

− The British promised to evacuate forts on U.S. soil and to pay damages for recently seized American

ships and their crews.

− Britain refused to pledge to refrain from aiding Native Americans or seizing maritime assets in the

future.

− Jay agreed the U.S. would pay pre-Revolutionary debts to British merchants

Jay’s Treaty enraged the Democratic-Republicans.

− They called it a surrender to Britain.

− Southern planters would pay most of the debts, while northern shippers collected most of the

damages.

John Jay’s Concessions

John Adams won the presidency by a margin of three electoral votes, and Jefferson became vice

president.

Second President

Jay’s Treaty infuriated the French.

− They considered it the beginning of an American alliance with Britain and a violation of the 1778

Franco-American Treaty.

− French warships began to seize American merchant vessels, and the French government refused to

receive the U.S. envoy to France.

President Adams appointed a three-man diplomatic commission to travel to Paris.

− Before they could meet with the French foreign minister, unnamed go-betweens demanded a bribe.

− The Americans refused and returned home.

− The events, known as the XYZ Affair, fanned flames of war hysteria.

XYZ Affair

War preparations proceeded quickly in the United States.

• An undeclared war mostly fought in the West Indies, the Quasi-War, lasted from 1798-1800.

• In 1798, capitalizing on anti-French sentiment, Federalists passed a series of laws intended to

hobble their Democratic-Republican rivals.

− The first raised the residence requirement for immigrants to become citizens from five years to

fourteen.

The Sedition Act provided heavy fines and imprisonment for anyone who impeded the policies of

the government or falsely defamed its officials.

− Several Jeffersonian editors were indicted, and ten were convicted.

− The act appeared to violate the First Amendment of the Constitution, but Federalists on the Supreme

Court declined to review it.

• Three Alien Laws targeted immigrants, who tended to gravitate to the Democratic-Republicans.

• The French did not want a full-fledged war with the United States

They were already fighting other foes in Europe.

− The Quasi-War was bringing American and Britain closer together.

Quasi War

In 1799, Adams proposed reopening diplomatic relations with France.

− The so-called war-hawk faction of the Federalists, led by Hamilton, was enraged.

− Most of public opinion sided with Adams.

• After haggling, American and French diplomats signed the Convention of 1800.

− It annulled the 1778 Franco-American Treaty.

− The U.S. paid damage claims of American shippers.

Convention of 1800

Many believed the end of British rule opened land west of the Appalachians to settlement.

• Some Americans purchased land from speculators; others simply cleared and settled on

unclaimed land.

• In the Great Lakes region, Miami war chief Little Turtle gathered Miami, Shawnee, and Kickapoo

followers to declare the Ohio River the northwestern boundary of the United States.

− His warriors defeated the American army in 1790 and again in 1791 at the Battle of the Wabash.

− In 1794, a U.S. force under General Anthony Wayne defeated the confederacy at the Battle of Fallen

Timbers

ayne and Native leaders then negotiated the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.

− The United States gained the right to settle land that would become the state of Ohio and formally

recognized the principle of Native sovereignty over land not ceded.

− That same year, Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain established the border between the U.S. and Florida.

• As independent Native peoples came within the orbit of American influence, the nation’s stated

goal became to “civilize” them.

• Following Secretary of War Henry Knox's recommendation, the government passed the Indian

Trade and Intercourse Act of 1793.

− Knox declared the government’s goal to “impart our knowledge of cultivation and the arts” and to

promote “a love for exclusive property

The government gave livestock and training in agriculture to people in Native communities.

• The plan reflected federal officials’ blindness to the realities of Native people’s lives.

− It assumed the traditional commitment to communal landholding could be easily overcome.

− It ignored Native people’s centuries-old agricultural practices.

− It focused only on men.

• Many Indigenous communities reacted cautiously, seeking ways to retain their autonomy.

Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1793

Male and female authors began to discuss and define the “rights of women” in the early republic.

• For several decades, female property-holders, as well as free Black people, could vote in New

Jersey.

− Female suffrage in New Jersey was revoked in 1807.

Female Suffrage in New Jersey

Slavery was gradually abolished in the North in the country’s early years.

• At the federal level, the power of large slaveholders remained entrenched, and Congress

declared itself unable to halt imports of enslaved people before 1808 or emancipate enslaved

people at any time.

The number of free people of African descent grew dramatically after the Revolution, making up

10 percent of the Black population by 1800.

• Freedpeople often made their way from rural areas to port cities, where employment

opportunities were more plentiful.

• White people did not accept free Black people as equals, and several states passed laws

limiting their civil and political rights.

• To survive and prosper, Black people relied on collective effort.

Meanwhile, to defend slaveholding in the context of evolutionary theory, slaveholders developed

racist theories, identifying those of African descent as less than fully human.

− The concept of “race” began to be applied to groups defined by skin color.

− Laws from the 1770s onward linked male citizenship rights to “whiteness.”

Slavery after 1800

To finance the Quasi-War against France, Congress taxed land, houses, and legal documents.

• German American farmers in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, led by Revolutionary War veteran

John Fries, saw the taxes as a threat to their liberties and livelihoods.

− In 1798–1799, they raised liberty poles, petitioned Congress, and barred assessors from their homes.

− A federal judge ordered the arrest of 20 resistors, after which Fries led 120 militiamen to Bethlehem,

where they surrounded a tavern holding the prisoners.

− Fries and many of his neighbors were arrested; Fries and two others were convicted of treason and

sentenced to hang but were pardoned by President Adams.

Uprising in Pennsylvania

Meanwhile, enslaved Virginia blacksmith Gabriel planned a revolution of enslaved people.

− He and his followers planned to attack Richmond on August 30, 1800.

− The plan was discovered, and Gabriel and 25 other rebels were hanged.

Enslaved Uprising

The presidential election of 1800 once again pitted John Adams against Thomas Jefferson.

• Adams and the Federalists faced an uphill climb.

− The Alien and Sedition Acts had garnered enemies.

− The Hamiltonian wing of the party split openly with Adams after he refused to wage war with French.

− Preparations for a potential war with France now seemed unnecessary and extravagant to the public.

Federalists responded with a “whispering campaign,” spreading rumors about Jefferson having

robbed a widow and fathered mixed-race children.

• Religious leaders in New England accused Jefferson of atheism.

• Jefferson won the election by a vote of 73 electoral votes to Adams’s 65.

• Adams would be the country’s last Federalist president, as the party faded away in subsequent

years.

• Jefferson described the election as the “Revolution of 1800.”

− He meant it was a return to what he considered the original spirit of the Revolution.

− In his eyes, Hamilton and Adams had betrayed the ideals of 1776 and 1787.

− He perceived a mission to restore the republican experiment, check the growth of government power,

and halt the country’s decay of virtue.

• Also revolutionary was the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another on the

basis of an election recognized by all as legitimate.

Third president Thomas Jefferson

In his inaugural address, Jefferson eloquently expressed democratic principles.

− To allay Federalist fears of radicalism, he declared, “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”

− In foreign affairs, he promised friendship with all nations but no entangling alliances.

• Rustic Washington was a contrast to the elegance of Federalist Philadelphia, the former

temporary capital.

• Jefferson inaugurated the practice of “pell-mell,” or seating without regard to rank, at official

dinners.

• He began a precedent of sending messages to Congress to be read by a clerk rather than going

in person to avoid monarchical pretensions.

Despite the fears of Federalists, Jefferson replaced few sitting public officials for political

reasons.

• Jefferson articulated a separation of church and state as a core component of his vision of

limited government.

− New England Baptists hailed him as a hero.

− For Federalists, who had accused Jefferson of atheism during the election, his position confirmed their

worst fears.

• Religious revivals, particularly among Baptists and Methodists, emphasized that all humans

were equal in God’s eyes, encouraging a growing democratic political culture.

• The electorate, however, remained largely limited to property-holding men.

Partisan newspapers, part of a growing print culture, provided a forum for sustained political

conversation.

• Jefferson was eager to undo the damage caused by the Alien and Sedition Acts.

− The acts themselves had already expired.

− He pardoned those serving sentences under the Sedition Act and remitted many fines.

− In 1802, Jeffersonians in Congress passed a new naturalization law, reducing the years of residence

required to claim citizenship back down to five.

• He convinced Congress to rescind the excise tax, reducing the government’s revenue.

• His Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin reduced the national debt while balancing the budget.

Otherwise, Jefferson left the Hamiltonian fiscal framework largely intact.

• By absorbing major Federalist programs, he demonstrated that a change of regime need not

devastate the defeated party, thus helping cement the two-party system.

Jefferson in office

The Judiciary Act of 1801 was one of the final laws passed by the expiring Federalist Congress.

− It created 16 new federal judgeships and other judicial offices.

− President Adams filled these posts before leaving office, some on his last day.

− Known as the Federalist “midnight judges,” they aroused bitter resentment from Republicans.

• A year later, the Republican Congress repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801, removing the judicial

posts it had created.

Republicans could do little about Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall.

− He was a committed Federalist appointed by Adams in the last days of his administration.

− He served as chief justice for the next 34 years.

• One of the “midnight judges” was William Marbury, whom Adams had named justice of the

peace for the District of Columbia.

• New Secretary of State James Madison, however, refused to deliver Marbury’s commission,

denying him the post.

• Marbury sued for the delivery of his commission.

• Chief Justice Marshall dismissed Marbury’s suit, but in his explanation, said that the part of the

Judiciary Act of 1789 upon which Marbury relied was unconstitutional.

In dismissing Marbury v. Madison, then, Marshall established the power of the Supreme Court to

determine the meaning of the Constitution, a power known as judicial review

Marbury v. Madison

In 1800, France acquired the trans-Mississippi territory of Louisiana, including New Orleans.

• This move threatened American farmers who depended on free access to the Mississippi.

• In 1803, Jefferson sent two envoys to Paris with instructions to purchase New Orleans and as

much land to the east of it as they could for no more than $10 million.

• Napoleon suddenly decided to sell all of Louisiana to the United States and negotiated treaties

to do so for $15 million.

Jefferson was shocked and conflicted.

− As a strict constructionist, he knew there was no constitutional provision allowing him to more than

double the size of the United States and incorporate tens of thousands of new inhabitants.

− Yet, he also perceived the vast land could secure American democracy into the future.

− He ultimately swallowed his conscience and submitted the treaties to the Senate, which quickly

approved them.

• With the Louisiana Purchase, the United States had acquired the western half of the richest river

valley in the world.

Louisianna Purchase

Jefferson’s ideal of a great agrarian republic could now be realized in this “Valley of Democracy.”

− He hoped new generations of Americans would take up western farms rather than crowd eastern

cities.

− To Jefferson, only self-sufficient farmers could make the disinterested decisions a healthy democracy

required.

• The acquisition set precedents of expansion through purchase of territory and incorporation of

new peoples on a basis of equality, or imperialism with a democratic face.

• This ideal of an “empire of liberty” did not extend to Native Americans, who would face violence

and forced displacement.

Empire of Liberty

By removing a potentially hostile neighbor from North America, the purchase enabled American

ideals of isolationism to be more fully realized.

• In the Spring of 1804, Jefferson assigned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the

northern part of the Louisiana Purchase as leaders of the Corps of Discovery.

• The journey lasted two and a half years.

• It yielded scientific observations, maps, and knowledge of Native American groups.

• It demonstrated the viability of an overland trail to the Pacific, bolstering America’s future

continental claims.

Two Shawnee brothers in the Great Lakes region, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, concluded it

was time to stop the onrushing Americans.

− They welded together a far-flung confederacy of all tribes east of the Mississippi.

− They inspired a vibrant movement of unity and cultural renewal that rejected European influences.

− Tecumseh urged his supporters to never cede land to white people unless all tribes agreed.

• Frontier settlers and war hawks in Congress were convinced the British were behind Native

American renewal and were paying for American scalps.

In 1811, William Henry Harrison led an army to Tecumseh’s headquarters.

− Tecumseh was absent.

− Tenskwatawa, known to white people as “the Prophet,” led an ill-advised attack and was routed in the

Battle of Tippecanoe.

− Tenskwatawa was discredited, and Tecumseh formed an alliance with the British.

Battle of Tippecanoe

As president, Jefferson significantly reduced the country’s military establishment.

• He hoped to set an example for the world by replacing military force with “peaceful coercion.”

• Pirates of the North African Barbary states challenged these ideals.

− The pirates had long plundered merchant ships in the Mediterranean.

− Federalist administrations had purchased protection for American ships by paying tribute to the

pirates.

− In 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli, unhappy with his share of protection money, declared war on the United

States.

Reluctantly, Jefferson sent the U.S. Navy to fight the pirates.

• After four years of fighting, he secured a treaty with Tripoli in 1805 after paying $60,000 in

ransom for captured American sailors.

Peaceful Coercion

After selling Louisiana to the United States, Napoleon’s France provoked war with Britain.

• France achieved dominance on Europe’s land, while Britain’s navy ruled the seas.

• In 1806, Britain issued a series of Orders in Council.

− These closed all European ports under French control to foreign shipping, including American, unless

the vessels first stopped at a British port.

− Napoleon, in turn, ordered the seizure of all merchant ships, including American, that entered British

ports.

Britain also practiced impressment, the forcible enlistment of sailors, including Americans, into

the Royal Navy.

• In 1807, at Jefferson’s urging, Congress passed the Embargo Act.

− It forbade the export of all goods from the United States, whether on American or foreign ships.

− It embodied Jefferson’s strategy of “peaceable coercion” to force Britain and France to respect

America’s neutral shipping rights.

• The American economy suffered dramatically under the embargo.

− By 1808, an enormous illicit trade developed, especially along the Canadian border.

− The public seethed with anger at the damage imposed by Jefferson’s government.

Britain and France found alternative sources of goods in Europe and Latin America.

• Congress repealed the Embargo Act in 1809, replacing it with the weaker Non-Intercourse Act.

• Jefferson had miscalculated Europe’s reliance on American goods and the American reaction to

the halt in trade.

Embargo Act

With Jefferson’s encouragement, Congress voted to abolish the international slave trade as of

January 1, 1808.

• In anticipation of higher prices, traders withheld enslaved people from the market in the months

after the law’s passage.

• Many enslaved Black people detained by traders died in filthy holding cells, and illegal imports of

enslaved people continued after the ban took effect.

The traffic in human beings helped to galvanize the abolitionist movement among both Black

and white Americans.

• Many white people uncomfortable with slavery supported the colonization movement, seeking to

relocate enslaved people in America to Africa or the Caribbean.

Abolished Slave Trade

The Non-Intercourse Act, a weaker version of Jefferson’s embargo aimed only at Britain and

France, was due to expire in 1810.

• Congress replaced it with Macon’s Bill Number 2.

− It reopened American trade with all the world.

− If either Britain or France repealed its commercial restrictions, America would reimpose its embargo on

the nonrepealing nation.

President James Madison saw it as a shameful capitulation to European powers.

• Napoleon’s government suggested it would lift its restrictions if Britain did the same.

− Madison accepted the French offer, hoping Britain would also lift its restrictions.

− British officials did not, and Madison was forced to impose an embargo on Britain only.

− He feared this was a final step towards war with Britain.

• By the spring of 1812, Madison believed war with Britain to be inevitable.

− The British were arming Native Americans in the West.

− War hawks in his party applied constant pressure.

− Southern expansionists eyed Florida, which was held by British ally Spain

Madison hoped war would restore confidence in the republican experiment.

• Congress responded to Madison’s request and declared war on Britain in June 1812.

− Support for war came from Republicans and from the South and the West.

− Federalist, pro-British New Englanders largely opposed it.

− Some New England Federalists supplied the British with gold and food.

Leading up to the War of 1812

America’s army was small, scattered, and poorly prepared for war with Britain in 1812.

• Military officials chose to invade Canada first because the British forces were weakest there.

− American forces made a three-pronged attack, which diluted their strength, and all were beaten back.

− British forces captured the American fort of Michilimackinac, giving them control of the upper Great

Lakes and areas to the south and west.

− American invasions were hurled back again in 1813.

On the water, American forces did much better.

− American sailors were more skilled and motivated than their British opponents.

− Crews led by Oliver Hazard Perry built ships and captured a British fleet on Lake Erie, and then

retreating British and Native Americans were defeated at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.

− A small naval force led by Thomas Macdonough turned back a large British invasion on Lake

Champlain in 1814.

• A British force landed at Chesapeake Bay in 1814, then marched on Washington and set fire to

the Capitol and the White House.

• American forces held firm at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, however, and the British failed to take

the city

War of 1812

An imminent British assault on New Orleans threatened the Mississippi Valley in late 1814.

− Andrew Jackson led a hodgepodge defense force of several thousand.

− Overconfident British forces made a frontal assault in January 1815.

− The British lost 2,000 killed and wounded in half an hour, as compared to 70 Americans.

• Victory in the Battle of New Orleans made Jackson a national hero and stimulated a wave of

nationalism and self-confidence among Americans.

Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans

Treaty negotiations began in Ghent, Belgium, in 1814.

− Britain demanded a Native American buffer state in the Great Lakes, control of the Great Lakes, and a

portion of Maine.

− Americans flatly refused.

− News of British reverses, combined with war-weariness, led to compromise.

• The Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve of 1914, was essentially an armistice.

− Both sides agreed to stop fighting and restore conquered territory.

− No mention was made of America’s original grievances.

− Neither side was able to impose its will on the final agreement.

• Americans could only boast they had not given up an inch of territory to the British.

Treaty of Ghent

New England prospered during the war due to illicit trade with the enemy and the absence of a

British blockade until 1814.

• Federalists, nonetheless, vocally opposed the war, and a small group proposed secession from

the Union or a separate peace with Britain.

• In late 1814, when British capture of New Orleans seemed imminent, Massachusetts called for a

convention of New England delegations at Hartford, Connecticut.

− Its final report called for reforms to balance New England’s interests with those of the growing South

and West.

− Presented during the national celebration of the victory at New Orleans and news of the treaty, the

Hartford Convention’s demands appeared petty at best and treasonous at worst.

• Federalists would never again mount a successful presidential campaign.

Death of the federalists

In a war without a clear winner, Native Americans were the clear losers.

− In the North, Tecumseh’s death at the Battle of the Thames ended his dream of a Native American

confederacy.

− In the South, militant Creeks, known as the Red Sticks, entered into the Creek War with the U.S. Army.

− Andrew Jackson’s forces defeated the Red Sticks in March 1814.

− He illegally forced them to cede 20 million acres of land, including half of the current state of Alabama.

Native American and the war of 1812

For the United States, the war inaugurated a new generation of leaders and prosperity.

− Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison were war heroes who would become presidents.

− American industry prospered and became more independent behind British blockades.

• More confident and more independent, Americans largely turned their backs on the old world

after the war.

• The war spurred heightened nationalism—a spirit of nation-consciousness or national oneness

in the United States.

− It stimulated a national literature based on distinctly American scenes and themes, including the works

of Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper.

− New American textbooks, magazines, and artistic styles emerged.

Congress revived the Bank of the United States in 1816.

• A new, more handsome national capital was constructed.

• The military expanded and the navy triumphed over North African pirates.

Effects of the war of 1812

Before the War of 1812, most Americans practiced mixed agriculture, raising a variety of crops

and livestock and trading any surpluses with neighbors or local merchants.

− Family members comprised the main source of labor, sometimes supplemented with indentured

servants or enslaved people, and work divided along gender lines.

− Little money changed hands.

• Most artisans, meanwhile, lived in seaports, where they oversaw workshops employing

apprentices and journeymen.

− The master craftsman's wife and daughters cooked, cleaned, and sewed for the workers.

− The relationship between a master craftsman and the workers was often familial.

• Men, women, and children worked long days on farms and in workshops, but the pace of work

was generally uneven and unregimented.

Industry before 1812

By the time of the War of 1812, a putting-out system developed in the Northeast.

− Women and children continued to produce goods, but in larger quantities and for broader

consumption.

− A merchant provided them with raw materials, paid a price for each finished piece produced, and sold

the goods in distant markets.

• The earliest factories grew up in tandem with the putting-out system, as early textile and shoe

factories sent work out to rural homes.

• Americans relied on British technology to bring together the many steps of textile manufacturing.

• Early industrialization also relied upon the southern slave system as a source of capital

investment and raw materials, particularly cotton.

Early Industrialization

American manufacturing increased during the War of 1812, and a nascent factory system grew

in American cities.

− British producers dumped their goods on the American market after the war, partly in an attempt to

prevent the development of American manufacturing.

− Congress responded with the Tariff of 1816, a protective tariff of 20 to 25 percent.

Tariff of 1816

Congressman Henry Clay promoted an economic philosophy known as the American System.

− A strong banking system would provide easy and abundant credit.

− A protective tariff would enable eastern manufacturing to flourish.

− A network of roads and canals would knit the country together economically and politically

The public was particularly enthusiastic about better roads.

− Republicans regarded federal funding for transportation as unconstitutional.

− States funded improved transportation themselves, as with the Erie Canal.

American System

A widespread and painful financial panic struck in 1819.

• Among many factors, the largest was overspeculation in western lands.

− Ordinary farmers of the West were saddled with large mortgages on overpriced land.

− The Bank of the United States pressured “wildcat” western banks and foreclosed on many mortgages.

− These actions caused resentment among western debtors.

Financial Panic 1819

As the West's population continued to grow, nine frontier states joined the original thirteen

between 1791 and 1819.

• This was, in part, a continuation of a generations-old westward movement.

• The promise of cheap land attracted European immigrants, and land became exhausted in older

tobacco states.

• More immediate events lured people west as well.

− Economic distress during the embargo years made the West more attractive.

− The crushing of Native American resistance opened up new lands.

− New highways and steamboats eased transportation.

• Westerners received cheap acreage in the Land Act of 1820, which authorized a buyer to

purchase 80 virgin acres at a minimum price of $1.25 an acre in cash.

West after 1812

Sectional tensions between the free state North and the slave state South increased as

Americans pushed West.

• In 1819, Missouri applied for admission to the Union as a slave state.

− The House of Representatives passed the Tallmadge Amendment, stipulating that no more enslaved

people be brought to Missouri and providing for the gradual emancipation of enslaved children.

− Enraged Southerners defeated the amendment but saw in it an ominous threat to sectional balance.

• The North was growing faster than the South in wealth and population.

− Northern states held a majority in the House of Representatives.

− Northern and southern states held equal seats in the Senate, allowing Southerners to veto antislavery

bills.

• A small but growing number of antislavery agitators in the North began to assert the evils of

slavery.

• Henry Clay broke the deadlock over Missouri’s statehood application with the Missouri

Compromise, or the Compromise of 1820.

• Congress admitted Missouri as a slave state.

• At the same time, Maine (formerly part of Massachusetts) was admitted as a free state, thus

preserving an equal balance of free and slave states.

• Outside of Missouri, all future slavery was prohibited in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase

north of 36°30’, or the southern border of Missouri.

Although denounced by extremists on both sides, neither the North nor the South was acutely

displeased or entirely happy with the politically evenhanded compromise.

Missouri Compromise

James Monroe, the fourth Virginian to hold the office, was nominated by the Republicans and

elected president in 1816.

• He undertook a goodwill tour in 1817, ostensibly to inspect military defenses.

− He received a warm reception even in Federalist New England.

− A Boston newspaper announced an “Era of Good Feelings” had been ushered in.

• Despite the complacency, issues of the tariff, the bank, internal improvements, the sale of public

lands, sectionalism, and slavery were all bubbling toward the surface of national politics.

James Monroe

The Supreme Court, dominated by Chief Justice John Marshall, bolstered the power of the

federal government at the expense of the states.

• In 1819, McCulloch v. Maryland involved Maryland's attempt to destroy a branch of the Bank of

the United States by taxing its notes.

− Marshall declared the bank constitutional by invoking the Hamiltonian doctrine of implied powers.

− Striking at state infringements on federal authority, he also denied the right of Maryland to tax the

bank.

• Marshall’s ruling became the most famous formulation of the doctrine of loose construction.

McCulloch v. Maryland

In Cohens v. Virginia (1821), Marshall asserted the right of the Supreme Court to review

decisions of the state supreme courts.

Cohens v. Virginia

In Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), he reinforced the Constitutional principle that Congress alone has

the right to regulate interstate commerce.

Gibbons v. Ogden

Another collection of Marshall’s rulings protected property rights.

• Fletcher v. Peck (1810) concerned 35 million acres in the Yazoo River area of Mississippi.

− The Georgia legislature had succumbed to bribery and granted the land to a group of speculators.

− The next legislature, responding to public outcry, canceled the crooked transaction.

Marshall and the Court ruled that the original transaction, despite its fraudulent origins, was

nonetheless a contract, and the Constitution forbids states from impairing contracts.

− The ruling also asserted the Court’s right to invalidate state laws in conflict with the Constitution.

Fletcher v. Peck

In Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), Marshall ruled the state of New Hampshire could not

change a charter granted to the college by King George III in 1769, as it was a contract.

Dartmouth College v. Woodward

In 1818, the Monroe administration negotiated the Anglo-American Convention with Britain.

− It enabled Americans to share the Newfoundland fisheries with Canadians.

− It set the northern limits of the Louisiana Purchase along the 49th parallel from Minnesota to the Rocky

Mountains.

t provided for a 10-year joint occupancy of Britain and the United States in the Oregon Country.

Anglo-American Convention

In 1818, General Andrew Jackson led an invasion of Spanish Florida in pursuit of suppressing

Seminole raids, but also seized two Spanish posts and deposed the Spanish governor.

Secretary of State John Quincy Adams picked up the initiative and negotiated the Adams-Onís

Treaty with Spain.

− Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

− The U.S. abandoned its murky claims to Texas.

Us and the Spanish

After defeating Napoleon, Europe’s recrowned autocrats resolved to roll back the advances of

democracy.

− They smothered popular rebellions in Italy and Spain.

− Rumors abounded that Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France would send fleets to the newly created

republics in Spanish America and restore the rule of the autocratic Spanish king.

− Alarmed Americans feared for the future of republicanism and the security of the United States.

• Great Britain, enjoying profitable trade with newly independent republics, declined to join the

continental European powers.

Instead, in 1823, Britain proposed that it and the United States issue a joint declaration.

− They would renounce any interest in acquiring Latin American territory.

− They would warn European powers not to interfere in the new republics.

• Secretary of State John Quincy Adams suspected the British proposal of a joint declaration to be

a trap to block future American expansion.

• He also believed that a joint declaration was unnecessary because Britain would use its vast

naval power to keep the markets of South America open with or without the United States.

Europe Joint Declaration

Instead, in 1823, Adams convinced Monroe to unilaterally proclaim the Monroe Doctrine, which

the president did in his annual message to Congress.

− Speaking primarily to Russia, Monroe warned that the era of European colonization in the Americas

was over.

− Speaking primarily to Europe’s other major powers, Monroe warned against European intervention in

the Western Hemisphere.

• The Monroe Doctrine angered and offended Europe’s monarchs, but the main force keeping

them from any prospective advance on the Americas was Britain.

• Monroe’s declaration made little impact on the republics to the south, as they also recognized

Britain as the major power that could determine their fate.

The Russians had already decided to retreat from most of North America and, in 1824,

negotiated the Russo-American Treaty, setting their southernmost limit at 54°40’.

• The Monroe Doctrine’s greatest significance is as an expression of the American nationalism of

its era.

Monroe Doctrine

Aside from slavery, the pre-Civil War South shared much in common with the rest of the country.

− The geographic sizes of the South and the North were roughly similar.

− The South and the North shared the same heroes from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

− Southerners spoke the same language and worshiped the same God as Northerners.

− They lived under the same Constitution and shared a common mixture of nationalism and localism in

their attitudes toward government.

• Some of the most eloquent visions of America as a land of yeoman farmers came from a

Southerner, Thomas Jefferson.

The two regions shared the same economic booms and busts, and the distribution of wealth and

property was nearly identical between the two on the eve of the Civil War.

• The South’s climate and longer growing season gave it a rural and agricultural destiny, and the

South’s people developed an intense attachment to place.

• The region developed as a biracial society of brutal inequality, where the liberty of one race

depended directly on the enslavement of another.

• Population density in the South was low, making it difficult to finance schools, churches,

libraries, inns, and restaurants.

• The South never developed banking or shipping capacity to any degree and lagged behind the

North in any measure of industrial growth, leading to far lower rates of immigration.

Rise of the South

In contrast to those in the North, evangelical Christians in the South tended to focus on personal

rather than social improvement.

• At the heart of the southern proslavery argument was a deep and abiding racism.

• Despite some brief, post-Revolution, antislavery sentiment in the Upper South, by the 1820s,

Southerners began to argue for slavery as a positive good.

− They claimed slavery was supported by the authority of the Bible and the wisdom of Aristotle.

− The argument was slavery was good for Black people because they were lifted from barbarism and

blessed with Christian civilization.

− White apologists insisted slaveholder-enslaved relationships were like those of a family.

• Others defended slavery with the language of property rights.

Still others turned natural-law doctrine to their purposes, arguing that the natural state of

humankind was not equality, but inequality of ability and condition.

• Slavery and race affected all aspects of life in the South.

• The South was also interdependent with the North, the West, and even Europe in a growing

capitalist market system.

• Nevertheless, Southerners rejected several elements of this system, including urbanism, the

wage labor system, a broadening right to vote, and any threat to their racial and class order.

Anti Slavery

Following Eli Whitney’s 1793 invention of the cotton gin, cotton production increased

dramatically.

• Large and quick profits drew planters to the bottomlands of the Gulf states.

− As long as the soil was fertile, output and economic returns were high.

− Planters became locked into a cycle of buying ever more land and enslaved people.

• Northern shippers also profited by selling cotton in England and purchasing manufactured goods

to sell in the United States.

• Cotton accounted for half the value of all American exports after 1840.

− The trade provided capital for American economic growth.

− The U.S. provided half of the world’s cotton

Economies of other countries, particularly Britain, depended upon American cotton.

Cotton Gin

Westerners demanded easy access to land for settlement and removal of Native Americans.

• In the Southeast, white settlement encroached on the lands of the so-called “Five Civilized

Tribes,” Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole.

− They controlled large territories in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi.

− Emulating neighboring white people, they practiced agriculture and raised animals, and some of them

enslaved people.

− Many practiced Christianity, and the Cherokee had developed an alphabet for their language, written a

constitution, and published a newspaper.

Despite evidence of “civilization” among these Native American nations, southern states pushed

hard for their removal, resisting efforts of the federal government to act on the Native Americans’

behalf.

• More than 125,000 Native Americans lived in the forests and prairies east of the Mississippi in

the 1820s.

• Many white Americans respected and admired Native Americans and believed they could be

assimilated into white society, spurring the efforts of missionaries.

• Settlers, though, sought Native American land, even from the arguably assimilated and

Christianized “Five Civilized Tribes.”

• In 1828, the Georgia legislature declared the Cherokee government illegal and asserted its own

jurisdiction over Native American affairs and lands.

The Cherokee appealed to the Supreme Court.

− Three times, the Court upheld the Native Americans’ rights.

− Jackson, who wanted to open Native American lands to white settlement, refused to recognize the

Court’s decisions.

• Some Cherokee saw ongoing settler incursions as inevitable and struck treaties with the

government to move to the West.

• The majority, though, practiced passive resistance, resolving to stay in their Georgia homeland.

• Jackson proposed moving the remaining eastern tribes to new homelands west of the

Mississippi.

Removal of Native Americans

In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act.

− It provided for removing all Native American tribes east of the Mississippi to the West.

− In subsequent years, countless Native Americans died on forced marches west, such as the Cherokee

people’s Trail of Tears, to the newly established Indian Territory.

• U.S. troops defeated resistant Sauk and Fox warriors from Illinois and Wisconsin in the bloody

1832 Black Hawk War, forcing their removal farther west.

Indian Removal Act

Only one-quarter of southern white households were slaveholders, and two-thirds of these

enslaved fewer than ten people.

− Smaller slaveholders did not enslave a majority of the enslaved people, but they made up a majority of

the slaveholders.

− Aside from enslaving humans, their lives more closely resembled those of northern farmers than

wealthy southern planters.

• Most southern white people were poor farmers who were not slaveholders.

− Subsistence farmers who were pushed out of rich lands by the wealthy raised corn and hogs and

barely participated in the market economy.

− The wealthy scorned them as listless, shiftless, and misshapen.

− The prospect of one day buying an enslaved person and their social status above Black people kept

them invested in the slave system.

• There were about 250,000 free Black people in the South by 1860.

− Some in the Upper South had been emancipated just after the Revolutionary War.

− Throughout the South, some had purchased their freedom.

− Many, particularly in New Orleans, owned property.

• Free Black people in the South were resented and detested by defenders of the slave system.

− Many were the products of slaveholders’ sexual assaults on enslaved women.

− They were forbidden from working in certain occupations and from testifying against white people.

− They were vulnerable to being abducted and enslaved.

• There were also about 250,000 free Black people in the North in 1860.

− They faced constant discrimination and were often denied the right to vote or attend school.

− Many Irish immigrants saw them as labor competition and resented them.

Social Pyramid in the South