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
Department | Who | Job |
---|---|---|
State | Thomas Jefferson | secretary |
Treasury | Alexander Hamilton | secretary |
War | Henry Knox | secretary |
Justice | John Jay | the attorney general (top cop + lawyer) |
Postmaster | Samuel Osgood (?) | communication (post-offices) |
- 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
Assumption: the federal government must repay both federal and state debts by buying old bonds with new ones
- 77 mil debt was for the fed. gov. to deal with
- Virginia didn’t agree because they already paid their debt (they didn’t have as much debt as others)
Funding at Par: U.S must repay all debts so it won’t lose investors’ trust
- Madison: speculators would be awarded and they didn’t deserve it
- 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