Securing the Republic Study Notes

Securing the Republic 1791–1815

Chapter 8 focuses on the divisive politics of the 1790s, competing views of freedom, the achievements and failures of Jefferson’s presidency, and the causes and results of the War of 1812.
George Washington became the first president on April 30, 1789, in New York City.
- Elected unanimously by all sixty-nine electors.
- Washington emphasized the importance of the American experiment in self-government, calling it an experiment of enormous historical importance.
- The House of Representatives recognized Americans as "the freest people on the face of the earth."
- Early leaders prioritized political harmony and sought to avoid organized political parties, fearing they would cause division and disloyalty.
Despite intentions, national political parties emerged quickly from Congress and spread to the populace.
- The 1790s were characterized by intense passion and questioning of loyalty between parties according to one historian.

Key Events

1789: Inauguration of George Washington; French Revolution begins
1791: First Bank of the United States; Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures; Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man
1791–1804: Haitian Revolution
1792: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
1793: First federal fugitive slave law
1794: Whiskey Rebellion; Jay’s Treaty
1797: Inauguration of John Adams
1798: XYZ affair; Alien and Sedition Acts
1800: Gabriel’s Rebellion
1801: Inauguration of Thomas Jefferson; First Barbary War (1801–1805)
1803: Louisiana Purchase
1804–1806: Lewis and Clark expedition
1809: Inauguration of James Madison
1812–1814: War of 1812
1814: Treaty of Ghent; Hartford Convention

Politics in an Age of Passion

President Washington symbolized national unity whereas Vice President John Adams was respected for his role in independence.
Washington's cabinet included prominent leaders such as Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton and appointed a Supreme Court led by John Jay.
Political divisions soon emerged in the cabinet.

Hamilton’s Program

Developed in 1790–1791, the program aimed to establish financial stability, gain support from powerful financial interests, and encourage economic development.
Hamilton aimed to make the United States a major commercial and military power, modeling his plan on Great Britain.
The program had five parts:
- Establish the nation’s creditworthiness by ensuring repayment of national and state debts at full face value.
- Create a new national debt by issuing interest-bearing bonds to creditors, incentivizing them to support the nation's stability.
- Establish a Bank of the United States, modeled on the Bank of England, to serve as the nation's main financial agent, holding public funds, issuing banknotes, and making loans to the government.
- Impose a tax on whiskey production to raise revenue.
- Impose a tariff on imported foreign goods and government subsidies to encourage domestic manufacturing as outlined in a Report on Manufactures delivered to Congress in December 1791.
Hamilton also proposed creating a national army to suppress uprisings.

Emergence of Opposition

Hamilton's vision was supported by financiers, manufacturers, and merchants, while others were alarmed.
James Madison and Thomas Jefferson favored westward expansion of an agrarian republic focused on free trade, fearing government favoritism towards commercial capitalists.
Critics saw Hamilton’s plans as a threat to freedom and a source of corruption enriching speculators at the expense of ordinary citizens.
The whiskey tax was seen as unfairly targeting backcountry farmers.

The Jefferson–Hamilton Bargain

Initial opposition to Hamilton's program came from the South because they had the least diversified economy with the least interest in manufacturing development.
Southern states, that had paid off their debts, didn't see why they should suffer to benefit states that had not.
Hamilton invoked the Constitution’s “general welfare” clause for his plans.
Southerners became “strict constructionists,” advocating for federal powers specifically listed in the Constitution.
Jefferson considered the national bank unconstitutional.
A compromise was brokered at a 1790 dinner – the South accepted Hamilton’s fiscal program (excluding manufacturing subsidies) in exchange for the national capital being located on the Potomac River, which they hoped would amplify their influence in government.
Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant designed the “federal city” after European urban centers and Benjamin Banneker assisted in the job of surveying.
Slaves were used to construct public buildings.

Impact of the French Revolution

The French Revolution initially gained widespread American support but became divisive after 1793 due to the execution of King Louis XVI and the war between France and Britain.
Jefferson and his followers supported the Revolution, while Washington and Hamilton feared anarchy and favored closer ties with Britain.
The rivalry between Britain and France complicated American politics.
Washington declared American neutrality in 1793.
French envoy Edmond Genet sought American support, and American admirers organized welcomes, but Genet’s commissioning of American ships to attack British vessels led to his recall.
Britain seized American ships trading with the French West Indies and resumed impressment.
John Jay negotiated Jay's Treaty in 1794, to address these issues, but it was widely criticized for failing to address impressment and favoring Britain, sharpening political divisions, ultimately resulting in the formation of an organized opposition party.

Political Parties

By the mid-1790s, the emerged coherent parties emerged: Federalists and Republicans.
Federalists, supporting Washington, favored Hamilton’s program and ties with Britain, appealing to merchants and leaders with an elitist view.
Republicans, led by Madison and Jefferson, sympathized with France, emphasizing democratic self-government and social equality, garnering support from planters and farmers.
Each accused the other of conspiracy and betraying American freedom.
The Whiskey Rebellion was motivated by citizens of the western country, who considered the tax as repugnant to liberty, [and] an invasion of those privileges which the revolution bestowed upon them.
Washington dispatched 13,000 militiamen to western Pennsylvania, and the "rebels'"vigorous response was motivated in part byconcern for "the impression" the restoration of public order "will make on others"-the Europeans who did not believe the American experiment in self-government could survive.
Federalists feared that the “spirit of liberty” unleashed by the American Revolution was degenerating into anarchy and “licentiousness."
Washington received mounting abuse.

An Expanding Public Sphere

The debates of the 1790s led to increased political participation, wider circulation of printed materials, and growth of the American press, all enabling more citizens to participate in public affairs.
Democratic-Republican societies, influenced by Jacobin clubs, formed to support French Revolution and criticize Washington, advocating for equal rights and government watchfulness.
Despite being blamed for the Whiskey Rebellion and disappearing by 1795, they legitimized political expression and participation.
Republicans gained support from immigrants inspired by Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man.

The Rights of Women

The era inspired renewed discussion about women’s rights in 1792 after Mary Wollstonecraft published her extraordinary pamphlet, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which asserted that the “rights of humanity” should not be “confined to the male line.”
American editions of Wollstonecraft’s work appeared; women began expressing thoughts in print, such as Hannah Adams, the first American woman to support herself as an author.
Judith Sargent Murray advocated for equal educational opportunities for women in her essay “On the Equality of the Sexes”.
The extent to women being a part of the new body politic was questioned due to the Constitution's use of the word “he” to describe officeholders but the use of male language reflected an assumption that politics was a realm for men.
Debates on women status popularized the language of rights, stirring political consciousness despite not envisioning ordinary citizen involvement in state affairs.

The Adams Presidency

Washington retired in 1796, setting a precedent, and advised against the party spirit, and international power politics.
The 1796 election was the first contested election, with John Adams, with Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina, representing the Federalists, and Thomas Jefferson, with Aaron Burr of New York, for the Republicans.
John Adams assumed leadership of a divided nation beset by crises, as the country was nearly dragged into the ongoing European war.
The XYZ affair poisoned America’s relations with its former ally, and by 1798, the United States and France were engaged in a “quasi-war” at sea.
Unrest continued in many rural areas; in 1799, farmers in southeastern Pennsylvania obstructed the assessment of a tax on land and houses in Fries’s Rebellion, and Adams dispatched units of the federal army to the area.
The greatest crisis of the Adams administration arose over the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 caused the “Reign of Witches.