United States History 1301 Exam 2 Chapter 7

This is part 3 of 4

Chapter 7 - Review 1: Explain George Washington's first responsibility as President.

Washington's first responsibility was to make the new constitutional government legitimate and functional. He had to establish precedents, appoint trustworthy officials, define the presidency's role, and build public confidence without appearing monarchical.

Chapter 7 - Review 2: Describe how Congress expanded the executive branch in 1789.

Congress created the Departments of State, Treasury, and War and established the office of attorney general. Their secretaries advised Washington and gradually formed the president's cabinet, while Congress recognized the president's authority to remove executive officials.

Chapter 7 - Review 3: Describe how Congress expanded the judicial branch in 1789.

The Judiciary Act of 1789 created a six-member Supreme Court, federal district and circuit courts, and the office of attorney general. It defined federal jurisdiction and allowed certain state-court decisions involving federal law to be reviewed.

Chapter 7 - Review 4: Discuss the background and political beliefs of Alexander Hamilton.

Hamilton was a Caribbean-born immigrant, Revolutionary officer, Washington aide, lawyer, and committed nationalist. He distrusted mass democracy and favored a strong central government, public credit, banking, manufacturing, commercial ties with Britain, and a broad or loose interpretation of the Constitution.

Chapter 7 - Review 5: Discuss the background and political beliefs of Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson was a Virginia planter, enslaver, author of the Declaration, diplomat, and secretary of state. He favored an agrarian republic of independent white farmers, limited federal authority, states' rights, strict constitutional interpretation, low debt, and sympathy toward revolutionary France.

Chapter 7 - Review 6: Describe the four parts of Alexander Hamilton's financial plan in his three Reports.

Hamilton proposed funding the national debt at full face value, federal assumption of state Revolutionary debts, creation of the Bank of the United States, and government support for manufacturing through protective tariffs, subsidies, and economic development.

Chapter 7 - Review 7: Name the opponents of the National Bank.

Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Democratic-Republicans, strict constructionists, and many southern and agrarian interests opposed the bank.

Chapter 7 - Review 8: Explain how Alexander Hamilton convinced Congress to accept the National Bank.

Hamilton argued that the necessary and proper clause gave Congress implied powers to create a bank as a useful means of taxing, borrowing, regulating commerce, and managing public funds. Political bargaining and Washington's acceptance of Hamilton's constitutional argument secured enactment.

Chapter 7 - Review 9: Name the portion of Hamilton's financial plan Congress defeated.

Congress rejected most of Hamilton's Report on Manufactures, particularly its plan for broad industrial subsidies and protective government support.

Chapter 7 - Review 10: Name the event that touched off debate on American foreign policy.

The French Revolution and the outbreak of war between revolutionary France and Britain in 1793.

Chapter 7 - Review 11: Explain the basic beliefs of the Democratic-Republican Party in 1791.

Democratic-Republicans favored limited federal power, states' rights, strict constitutional interpretation, an agrarian economy of independent farmers, sympathy for France, and distrust of banks, standing armies, public debt, and concentrated wealth.

Chapter 7 - Review 12: Explain the basic beliefs of the Federalist Party in 1791.

Federalists favored a strong national government, loose constitutional interpretation, public credit, a national bank, commerce and manufacturing, close economic relations with Britain, maintenance of order, and leadership by educated property holders.

Chapter 7 - Review 13: Describe George Washington's foreign policy in 1793.

Washington issued the Neutrality Proclamation and attempted to keep the weak United States out of the European war. He resisted French envoy Edmond Genet's efforts to recruit Americans and established a precedent of avoiding entanglement while defending American commerce.

Chapter 7 - Review 14: Discuss the results of Jay's Treaty in 1794.

Britain agreed to evacuate frontier forts and submit some debt and seizure disputes to commissions. The treaty failed to end impressment or fully protect neutral shipping, angered many Americans, narrowly passed the Senate, hardened party divisions, and helped produce Spanish concessions in Pinckney's Treaty.

Chapter 7 - Review 15: Describe the origins and results of the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.

Western farmers resisted Hamilton's 1791 excise tax because whiskey was economically important and difficult to tax fairly on the frontier. After violence against officials, Washington mobilized a large militia and the resistance collapsed, demonstrating federal power while deepening Republican fears of centralized coercion.

Chapter 7 - Review 16: Name the winners of the national election of 1796.

Federalist John Adams became president, while Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson became vice president under the original electoral system.

Chapter 7 - Review 17: Describe the state of French-American relations in 1797.

Relations were near crisis because France viewed Jay's Treaty as pro-British, seized American merchant ships, and refused to receive American diplomats. The XYZ Affair intensified anger and led to the undeclared Quasi-War at sea.

Chapter 7 - Review 18: Explain the real purpose of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Although defended as national-security laws, their political purpose was to weaken the Democratic-Republicans by restricting immigrant political influence, allowing action against foreign critics, and punishing opposition newspapers and speakers.

Chapter 7 - Review 19: Describe the Democratic-Republican responses to the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Jefferson and Madison secretly wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, arguing that the federal government had exceeded its delegated powers and that states could interpose against unconstitutional acts. Republicans also organized voters, defended the press, and used the controversy in the election of 1800.

Chapter 7 - Review 20: Name the winners of the national election of 1800.

Thomas Jefferson became president and Aaron Burr became vice president after the House of Representatives resolved their Electoral College tie. The election produced a peaceful transfer of power from the Federalists to the Democratic-Republicans.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: Alien and Sedition Acts

Four Federalist laws passed in 1798 that lengthened naturalization, empowered the president against certain aliens, and criminalized some criticism of the federal government. They were used mainly against Republican opponents.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: Bank of the United States

The national bank chartered in 1791 to hold federal funds, issue reliable currency, make loans, and support government finance and commerce.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: Farewell Address

Washington's 1796 public message urging national unity, warning against destructive parties and permanent foreign alliances, and emphasizing morality, public credit, and independence in foreign policy.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: French Revolution

The revolution beginning in 1789 that overthrew France's monarchy and divided Americans between Republicans sympathetic to France and Federalists alarmed by radical violence.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: Implied Powers

Federal powers not stated word for word in the Constitution but inferred from enumerated powers and the necessary and proper clause, as Hamilton argued in defending the national bank.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: Jay's Treaty

The controversial 1794 agreement in which Britain evacuated western forts and addressed some claims but did not stop impressment or fully respect American neutral rights.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

The 1798-1799 statements written by Jefferson and Madison declaring the Alien and Sedition Acts unconstitutional and asserting a state role in resisting federal overreach.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: Nullification

The theory that a state may declare a federal law unconstitutional and refuse to recognize or enforce it within the state.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: Quasi-War

The undeclared naval conflict between the United States and France from 1798 to 1800, fought mainly through attacks on shipping in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: Whiskey Rebellion

The 1794 western Pennsylvania resistance to the federal whiskey excise. Washington's militia response demonstrated that the new federal government could enforce its laws.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: XYZ Affair

The 1797-1798 diplomatic scandal in which French intermediaries demanded money before negotiations with American envoys, producing anti-French outrage and the slogan that Americans would spend money for defense but not tribute.

Chapter 7 - Key Term: Report on Public Credit

Hamilton's 1790 proposal to fund federal securities at full value and have the national government assume state Revolutionary debts in order to establish credit and bind wealthy investors to the new government.