Unit 05.1: Launching the Ship of State

2/6/23

5.1.1 Notes

• Washington wasn’t scared of battle but scared of being president
  • messed up being pres. = might be last pres.
  • the idea of a pres. hasn’t been attempted
• Washington
  • knew everything he did would be looked back upon
  • didn’t want to be seen as a king
  • when people think of a head of a nation, they think of a king
    • made himself available to citizens
    • had a simple inauguration
    • wore casual clothes but not too casual with his horse
      • NY gave him a nice cart with a white, clean, horse
      • Washington didn’t want it because it’s what a king would have
        • NY put together money and whatever they had to get this cart and horse for him
        • Washington felt bad so he took it
    • No parties for him being sworn into office
  • needed cabinet members
  • wanted them to be good thinkers and not just tell him what he wanted to hear

Departments of the Cabinet

• State Department
  • Jefferson didn’t agree with Washington a lot of times
  • Experienced with country and foreign policy
• Treasury Department
  • wasn’t 1st choice
  • ambitious
  • father-son relationship
• War Department
  • no ambition, instead he was loyal and trustworthy
• Judiciary Act
  • Set up a federal court system
  • John Jay → Chief Justice
• Didn’t run for a 3rd term - people needed to learn to say bye (Washington)
  • 1940 - presidents sought a 3rd term because the country was possibly going into war
• Nation’s Debt
  • there was no economy
  • $4.2 mil to run the gov.
    • $4.4 mil created from taxes
    • $77 mil owed to others

2/7/23

• Nation’s Debt cont.

  • Credit: quantification of trust
  • Highest credit score possible: 850
  • Hamilton needed to fix the 77 mil debt

• Hamilton’s Plan

  • National and state gov. issued bonds to borrow money
  • caused debt
  • 2 solutions

  1. Assumption: the federal government must repay both federal and state debts by buying old bonds with new ones

     1. 77 mil debt was for the fed. gov. to deal with
     2. Virginia didn’t agree because they already paid their debt (they didn’t have as much debt as others)

  2. Funding at Par: U.S must repay all debts so it won’t lose investors’ trust

     1. Madison: speculators would be awarded and they didn’t deserve it
     2. Northern states agreed but the south didn’t
  • a new government capital needed to be placed
  • the first capital was in PA
    • Washington’s presidency = NY
    • People thought they should just both contribute land but both states didn’t want to spare land
  • Rule of Propinquity
  • idea that if you’re close to the gov. you must be important
    • southern states worried about this
  • Hamilton, Madison, and Jefferson had a secret dinner
    • they made a compromise between the South and North
    • nation’s capital would be in the South and southerners would agree to repay state debts

2/9/23

• Americans thought about what gov. govs most
  • people thought of it as the state gov. even today
• Assumption + Funding at Par = important people care about the Federal gov. because they need it to survive
  • they needed their money back
  • People worked harder to support the Federal gov. and it made the country a stronger republic
    • like the Roman republic
• Hamilton needed to actually pay back the money
  • Bank of United States encouraged economic growth
  • Fed. gov. put money in the bank
  • Hamilton looked back to the British and did what they did which was to have good credit scores
    • Tariffs were made to pay off debts
    • Bank-issued money to pay gov. bills and make loans
    • Jefferson didn’t like this because the Constitution didn’t mention a bank as an enumerated power in article 1 (amendment 10 also left the power not listed in the Constitution to the states)
      • Also known as strict construction/interpretation
      • If the Constitution doesn’t say you can, you can’t
      • Jefferson suggested state banks because people depended on the state powers
    • Loose construction/interpretation
    • Hamilton: if it isn’t listed in the constitution, then you can as long as it’s necessary and proper
      • Washington agreed with Hamilton and the national bank was created

2/10/23

• tax money was the primary source of money
• more tax money = faster to pay off debt + more trust
  • a high tariff needed to be created to get more tax money - Hamilton
  • a protective tariff needed to be created so that imported goods were more expensive than American goods to make America become more industrialized and sell more
    • made cloth cheaper to buy than make (should’ve been the opposite)
    • cloth was a huge moneymaker and was important
  • British was dumping (selling something for way cheaper than what the country sells it for)
  • Virginia didn’t like this plan (and other southern states)
  • Southerners were impacted the most
  • New England colonies raised prices to match the new price and to pay off debt faster
• Hamilton “lost” because he got a tariff, but not a protective tariff
  • the tariff was lower than what he wanted to protect American goods
  • now he needs a new way of getting money

Whiskey Rebellion

• Hamilton taxed liquor from the U.S because lots of Americans drank alcohol (especially whiskey) (tax was passed by Congress)
  • alcohol ≠ poo water } people thought it was “medicinal”
  • taxed western states because they weren’t states yet so they couldn’t vote
• backcountry grew lots of corn and it was hard to get it over the Appalachian mountains
  • they could send it down the Mississippi river, but it would take too long and it was too expensive
  • they turned corn into whiskey which made it easier and cheaper to transport
  • whiskey became popular and a currency in the west
  • didn’t like the tax so they rebelled, tarred and feathered tax collectors, screamed “no taxation without representation”, and protested
  • Washington got an army in response and Hamilton was in charge of that army

2/13/23

• Washington sends militia and leads halfway into PA
  • Hamilton becomes in charge
  • Hamilton wasn’t a general and also was secretary of treasury, not war
  • tax is adjusted because they talked it out (shots weren’t fired and no executions)
    • force just showed up and stopped the rebellion from getting worse (showed the national government could act firmly in a time of crisis and violence isn’t tolerated)
• Note: Henry Knox was upset about the rebellion and what was happening so Washington didn’t make him in charge. Hamilton was ambitious and always wanted to be a general so he was appointed.
• compromise for all the money problems: nation’s capital
• creating a foreign policy
  • Americans were excited to see Europe following in their footsteps
  • French Revolution
  • 1789: French rebelled against their king
  • peasants and the middle class paid heavy taxes while nobles didn’t have to pay any taxes
  • reformers wanted a constitution to limit the king’s power and protect basic rights
  • Americans knew the struggle to fight for liberty
  • France was America’s first ally
  • other European powers wanted to help the king get back in control and stop the idea of democracy from spreading in Europe
  • America admired Layette who fought in America
  • Jefferson: French is allowed to use violence to win freedom
  • “tree of liberty must be refreshed time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”

2/14/23

• Hamilton & Adams: America wasn’t in good shape to go to war again
  • Adams: Democracy can’t be created through widespread violence
• these two opinions divided the country
• situations were different so America didn’t actually know how it was
  • Ex. America wanted to be left alone while France was being suppressed
• Hamilton & Adams argued a democracy couldn’t be created in France’s situation while Jefferson and Madison argued it could be created
• Washington needed to decide if he should join another world war because England vs France put America at risk
  • he couldn’t cut off ties with Britain because he depended on them to pay off the debt
  • Washington decided on a foreign policy
  • America would be neutral
    • issued the Neutrality Proclamation
    • Good for business but not for relationship with France
    • wouldn’t favor any side or aid any side
    • Washington agreed with Hamilton
• Citizen Edmond Genêt
  • landed in Charleston, SC from France
  • trying to understand where Americans stand on the French Revolution and convince them to agree and fight in it
  • he went to Philly and was cheered on by the pro-french/team jefferson
  • he wanted to overrule Washington and no one agreed with him because everyone liked Washington
  • handed out marques (turned a pirate into a privateer) to get American ships to help out with the French Revolution ad invade Spanish Florida and British canada
  • Washington tried to kick him out of the country but he got a letter saying to send Genêt back to France for execution
  • Genêt stays in America and stops being a jerk
• if America were to help France…
  • Caribbean islands wouldn’t starved
• France was mad at the U.S
  • France didn’t call didn’t on the treaty so America couldn’t have helped

2/15/23