chapter 9: launching the new ship of state (1789 - 1800) - part 1

part 1 (9.1 - 9.10)

What problems did the new government face in 1789?

• Americans had just overthrown two governments, so they distrusted central authority.

• Revenue was tiny, the public debt was huge, and worthless paper money was everywhere.

• Traditional political theory said a republic could not work across such a large territory.

What did the first census (1790) show about the United States?

• The population was almost 4 million and doubled about every twenty-five years.

• Nearly 700,000 were enslaved Black people, mostly in the southern states.

• About 90 percent of people were rural, and all but 5 percent lived east of the Appalachians.

Why was the loyalty of western settlers in doubt around 1789?

• Spain controlled the mouth of the Mississippi River, which westerners needed to ship their goods.

• Spanish and British agents moved among the settlers and offered money and promises of independence.

How did George Washington become president?

• The Electoral College chose him unanimously in 1789. He is the only president ever elected unanimously.

• He took the oath of office on April 30, 1789, in New York City, the temporary capital.

• He led through strength of character more than political skill.

What was Washington's cabinet, and who were its first members?

• The Constitution does not mention a cabinet. It grew out of Washington's meetings with his department heads.

• Thomas Jefferson was secretary of state.

• Alexander Hamilton was secretary of the treasury.

• Henry Knox was secretary of war.

Why was a bill of rights added to the Constitution?

• Antifederalists had criticized the Constitution for not guaranteeing individual rights.

• Many states ratified it only on the understanding that these guarantees would be added.

Why did James Madison write the Bill of Rights himself?

• Amendments could come from a new constitutional convention or from a two-thirds vote of Congress.

• Madison feared a new convention might undo the federalist victory.

• He drafted the amendments and guided them through Congress.

What is the Bill of Rights (1791)?

• It is the first ten amendments to the Constitution, adopted in 1791.

• It protects freedom of religion, speech, and the press, and the right to assemble and petition.

• It protects the right to bear arms and to be tried by a jury.

• It bans cruel and unusual punishment and arbitrary government seizure of private property.

What do the Ninth and Tenth Amendments say?

• The Ninth says that listing certain rights does not deny other rights kept by the people.

• The Tenth reserves all powers not given to the federal government to the states or to the people.

• The Tenth was meant to reassure supporters of states' rights.

What did the Judiciary Act of 1789 do?

• It organized the Supreme Court with a chief justice and five associate justices.

• It created federal district and circuit courts and the office of attorney general.

• John Jay became the first chief justice.

What was Alexander Hamilton's overall strategy as treasury secretary?

• He wanted to fix the financial problems that had crippled the Articles of Confederation.

• He shaped policy to favor wealthier groups, so they would give the government money and political support.

• He expected prosperity to trickle down to everyone else.

What was funding at par?

• The federal government would pay off its debts at face value plus interest, a total of more than $54 million.

• Government bonds had dropped to ten or fifteen cents on the dollar because people doubted they would be paid.

• Speculators bought up bonds cheaply from farmers, veterans, and widows who had not heard the news.

What was assumption, and why did Hamilton want it?

• The federal government would take over the states' war debts, about $21.5 million.

• Hamilton believed it would tie the states and their wealthy creditors more closely to the federal government.

How did Hamilton get assumption through Congress?

• States with large debts, like Massachusetts, liked the plan. States with small debts, like Virginia, did not.

• Hamilton persuaded Jefferson to line up votes for assumption.

• In return, the new federal district, now the District of Columbia, would be placed on the Potomac River. The deal passed in 1790.

Why did Hamilton call the national debt a "national blessing"?

• The debt had grown to about $75 million after funding and assumption.

• Hamilton believed that the more creditors the government owed, the more people had a stake in its success.

• He turned the debt into an asset that united the country.

How did Hamilton plan to raise money to pay the debt?

• His first source was customs duties from a tariff, which depended on healthy foreign trade.

• The first tariff law in 1789 put a low tax of about 8 percent on imports.

• His second source was an excise tax in 1791 on a few domestic items, mainly whiskey.

How did Hamilton want to use the tariff besides raising revenue?

• He wanted it to protect young American industries from foreign competition.

• He saw that the Industrial Revolution would reach America and argued for more protection for manufacturers.

• Congress was still dominated by farming and commercial interests, so it voted only small increases.

Why did the excise tax on whiskey hit backcountry farmers hardest?

• The tax was seven cents a gallon and was paid by the distillers.

• Bad roads forced backcountry farmers to turn their bulky grain into whiskey to transport it.

• Whiskey was so common on the frontier that people used it as money.

What was Hamilton's plan for a Bank of the United States?

• It was modeled on the Bank of England. It would be a private institution with the government as the main stockholder.

• The federal Treasury would deposit its extra money there, which would stimulate business.

• It would print paper money and provide a sound and stable national currency.

What is strict construction, and how did Jefferson use it against the bank?

• Strict construction means reading the Constitution literally.

• Jefferson said the Constitution gave no specific power to create a bank.

• He argued that all powers not granted to the federal government were reserved to the states, so only states could charter banks.

What is loose construction, and how did Hamilton use it to defend the bank?

• Loose construction means reading the Constitution broadly. Hamilton said that what it did not forbid, it permitted.

• He pointed to the "necessary and proper" clause, also called the elastic clause.

• Congress could collect taxes and regulate trade, so a bank was an "implied power" needed to carry out those tasks.

What was the Bank of the United States (1791)?

• Washington accepted Hamilton's argument and signed the bank into law.

• Congress chartered it for twenty years and located it in Philadelphia.

• It had $10 million in capital, and the federal government owned one-fifth.

Which regions supported and opposed the Bank of the United States?

• The commercial and financial centers of the North supported it.

• The agricultural South opposed it most strongly.

Why was the West a source of conflict in the 1790s?

• Land was the young nation's greatest resource, and thousands of Americans rushed across the Appalachians.

• The Peace of Paris gave the United States the land east of the Mississippi, but most of it was still in Native hands.

• Settlers moving onto Native land set off a cycle of violence and revenge.

Who was Little Turtle, and what happened at the Battle of the Wabash (1791)?

• Little Turtle was a Miami war chief who led a confederacy of the Miami, Shawnee, Kickapoo, and others.

• They declared the Ohio River the northwestern boundary of the United States.

• In 1791, they crushed an American army and killed more than six hundred soldiers.

• It was the worst defeat Native Americans ever inflicted on U.S. forces.

What was the Whiskey Rebellion (1794)?

• Backcountry farmers in southwestern Pennsylvania rose up against Hamilton's excise tax on whiskey.

• They saw it as a tax on an economic necessity and a medium of exchange, not on a luxury.

• They put up whiskey poles, cried "Liberty and No Excise," and tarred and feathered tax collectors.

How did Washington respond to the Whiskey Rebellion?

• With Hamilton's encouragement, he called up the militias of several states.

• An army of about 13,000 marched to western Pennsylvania and found no rebellion left.

• Washington pardoned the two men who were convicted.

Why was the Whiskey Rebellion significant?

• It was small, but it showed the new government could enforce its laws, and the government gained respect.

• Critics condemned the use of such a large force, saying it was like using a sledgehammer to crush a gnat.

How did Hamilton's financial program lead to political parties?

• His plans for funding, assumption, the excise tax, and the bank cut into states' rights.

• Organized opposition grew out of resentment against these policies.

• The personal feud between Hamilton and Jefferson turned into a bitter political rivalry.

Why didn't the Founders expect permanent political parties?

• Earlier groups like Whigs and Tories or federalists and antifederalists were temporary factions, not parties.

• Organized opposition to a government based on popular consent seemed disloyal.

• Jefferson and Madison first organized their opposition only in Congress and did not plan a lasting popular party.

Why did the two-party system turn out to be good for democracy?

• The party out of power acts as the "loyal opposition."

• It keeps politics from drifting too far from the wishes of the people.

How did Hamilton and Jefferson differ in their views of human nature?

• Hamilton said the people are "a great beast" who seldom judge or decide rightly.

• Jefferson said he had great confidence in the common sense of mankind.

How did Americans react to the early French Revolution?

• At first, most Americans cheered it as a continuation of their own Revolution.

• Only a few ultraconservative Federalists were hostile from the start.

• When France declared itself a republic in 1792, Americans celebrated.

What was the Reign of Terror, and how did it change American opinion?

• The French king was beheaded in 1793, the church was attacked, and thousands were executed by guillotine.

• Federalists turned against the French Revolution almost overnight.

• Jeffersonians regretted the bloodshed but saw it as a necessary price for liberty.

How did Americans react to the Haitian Revolution?

• Enslaved people in the French colony of St. Domingue rose up in 1791 under Toussaint L'Ouverture.

• American slaveholders were terrified that the revolt would spread to their own enslaved workers.

• Jeffersonians excused the violence in France but made no such excuses for the Haitians.

Why did the American and French Revolutions turn out so differently?

• France faced a powerful landed nobility, the Catholic Church, and hostile neighboring monarchs.

• To succeed, the French Revolution needed a powerful state and turned to violence.

• America had no real aristocracy, no dominant church, and no threatening neighbors, so it could limit government power instead.