Nick JJJJR 1-17

Theme: first ladies + domestic affairs

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House: Mount Vernon

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surveyor for William Fairfax (Shenandoah Valley and Culpeper County, VA)

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left mainland North America for the first and only time to accompany his brother Lawrence to Barbados, hoping the climate would cure his tuberculosis; contracted smallpox, which left his face slightly scarred

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appointed by Robert Dinwiddie to military positions during the French and Indian War (special envoy, lieutenant colonel of Virginia Regiment)

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aide to General Edward Braddock during the French and Indian War

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wife: Martha Dandridge Custis (widow of Daniel Parke Custis, a wealthy plantation owner)

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daughter Patsy suffered from epileptic attacks

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attended First Virginia Convention, selected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress; attended Second Continental Congress, nominated as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army

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initially banned the enlistment of Black soldiers in the Continental Army, later overturned his ban when the British promised freedom to slaves if they joined the British forces

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presided over the Constitutional Convention

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Executive precedents: inaugural address, messages to Congress, cabinet

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selected the first justices for the Supreme Court

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Department of State, Department of War, Department of Treasury created

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exercised restraint in using veto power ("I give my Signature to many Bills with which my Judgment is at variance.")

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Residence Act: decided the location of the permanent capital

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Bill of Rights passed

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initially planned to retire after first term (infighting in his cabinet, partisan critics, wife not wanting him to run, nephew managing his estate critically ill)

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Whiskey Rebellion: Pennsylvania revolt against liquor taxation

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Northwest Indian War: conflict between White settlers and Native Americans who were supported by the British; American troops defeated Native American forces at the Battle of Fallen Timbers

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Jay Treaty: normalized trade relations with Britain, removed British from western forts, resolved financial debts remaining from the Revolution

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British opened the British West Indies to American merchants

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Treaty of San Lorenzo: negotiated with the Spanish by Thomas Pinkney; settling the border between the US and Spanish territory, guaranteed American navigational access to the Mississippi River

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Farewell Address: stressed national identity, warned against political parties and entangling foreign alliances with domestic affairs, stressed the importance of religion ("I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which [my unintentioned errors] may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence, and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.")

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retired and became a land speculator

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served as commanding general of the Quasi-War until his death

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cause of death is disputed, likely died from severe epiglottis complicated by treatments given (bloodletting)

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wife burned her correspondences after his death to protect their privacy, though five letters between the couple are known to have survived

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freed all personally owned slaves upon his wife’s death

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had no children but adopted his widowed wife’s children (John and Martha)

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suffered from severe tooth decay and lost all teeth except one; painful growth in his thigh early in his first presidential term; life-threatening bout of pneumonia from which he never fully recovered

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pictured on the nation’s first postage stamp and has since appeared on more US postage stamps than anyone else

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Harvard College: graduated with an AB degree

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began reading law under James Putnam

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wrote political essays for Boston newspapers under the pen name “Humphrey Ploughjogger”

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cousin of Samuel Adams

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wife: Abigail Smith (third cousin)

first met through friend Richard Cranch who was courting Abigail’s sister; initially not impressed with Abigail and her sisters, writing that they were not "fond, nor frank, nor candid"; married despite the opposition of Abigail’s mother

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fell in love with Hannah Quincy; poised to propose but was interrupted by friends and the moment was lost

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Children: Abigail “Nabby”, John Quincy, Susanna (died at age one), Charles, Thomas, Elizabeth (stillborn)

all three sons became lawyers; Charles and Thomas were largely unsuccessful and became alcoholics

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defended accused soldiers of the Boston Massacre

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attended the First Continental Congress and Second Continental Congress (organized a committee to draft the Declaration of Independence); sat on 90 committees and chaired 25 committees, an unmatched workload

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comissioner to France, ambassador to the Dutch Republic, and ambassador to Great Britain

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negotiated the Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War

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“His abilities are undoubtedly equal to the mechanical parts of his business as ambassador, but this is not enough. He cannot dance, drink, game, flatter, promise, dress, swear with the gentlemen, and small talk and flirt with the ladies; in short, he has none of those essential arts or ornaments which constitute a courtier. There are thousands who, with a tenth of his understanding and without a spark of his honesty, would distance him infinitely in any court in Europe.”

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argued about the president’s title: Highness, Excellency, etc.

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nickname: “His Rotundity”

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"My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."

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vice president: John Adams

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vice president: Thomas Jefferson

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House: Peacefield

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XYZ affair: French Foreign Minister Talleyrand’s agents demanded enormous bribes to France and Talleyrand personally

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Alien and Sedition Acts (Naturalization Act, Alien Friends Act, Alien Enemies Act, and Sedition Act): targeted immigrants, increased citizenship requirements, made it a crime to public writings against the government or its officials

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Quasi-War: naval conflict with France

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created Department of Navy

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Fries’ Rebellion: John Fries led a riot in response to the Direct Tax of 1798, which instituted a progressive land value tax; Fries was sentenced to hang but this president pardoned him

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established the Library of Congress

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moved into the President’s Mansion (later known as the White House)

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did not attend successor’s inauguration

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Midnight Judges Act: created a set of federal appeals courts, which he filled the vacancies with Federalist judges

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after the presidency, he supported the War of 1812, Louisiana Purchase, and James Madison for president

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buried in United First Parish Church

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drafted the Constitution of Massachusetts

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vice presidents: Aaron Burr, George Clinton

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wife: Martha Wayles Skelton (third cousin)

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House: Monticello

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College of William and Mary: member of the Flat Hat Club, the nation’s oldest secret society

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wrote “A Summary View of the Rights of British America” in which he argued that people have the right to govern themselves

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children: Martha “Patsy”, Jane Randolph, Mary “Polly”, Lucy Elizabeth

only Martha and Mary survived to adulthood

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drafted the Declaration of Independence

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minister to France, where he fell in love with Maria Cosway

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wrote the Kentucky Resolution against the Alien and Sedition Acts

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obtained the same number of electoral votes as his vice president

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Marbury v. Madison: asserted judicial review over executive branch actions

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Military Peace Establishment Act: founded West Point

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First Barbary War: first foreign war fought by the US

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Louisiana Purchase: purchased from Napoleon

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Corps of Discovery: expedition lead by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore new land from the Louisiana Purchase

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Embargo Act: triggered economic chaos and was strongly criticized

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commanding general James Wilkinson received bribes from the Spanish in exchange for information on American boundary plans

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attempted to annex West Florida from Spain

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founded the University of Virginia

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fathered children with his slave Sally Hemmings

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member of the American Philosophical Society

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inventor of the swivel chair

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many species of plants and one species of ground sloth is named after him

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vice presidents: george clinton, elbridge gerry

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wife: Dolley Payne Todd, widow of John Todd (Quaker farmer)

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nickname: “Father of the Constitution”

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house: Mount Pleasant, Montpelier

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siblings: Francis, Ambrose, William, Nelly, Sarah, Frances

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College of New Jersey (classmates with Aaron Burr and William Bradford)

studied under Donald Robertson and the Reverend Thomas Martin

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probably suffered from epilepsy, bouts of mental exhaustion and short-term incapacity after periods of stress

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wrote The Federalist papers

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helped Washington write his first inaugural address

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House of Representatives: took the lead in advocating for the Bill of Rights

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led the Democratic-Republican Party along with Jefferson

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never had children but adopted wife’s one surviving son, John “Payne”

may have had children with his enslaved half-sister Coreen; no DNA evidence

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wrote the Virginia Resolution against the Alien and Sedition Acts

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unjustly refused to deliver federal commissions to individuals who had been appointed by the previous administration (midnight judges’ appointments)

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“war hawk” Congress led by Henry Clay and John Calhoun

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war of 1812: Battle of the Thames, USS Constitution