Chapter 7 Summary - Reading Questions

1.      How did the debate over the balance between liberty and order influence the formation of political parties?

People who wanted a strong National Government were on the Federalist side and believed the unification of the states under one authority would make the nation strong while also aided financiers and merchants, whereas people who didn’t want a strong national government and wanted the states to retain the most power and were also scared of the nation government turning into a monarchy if some sort were on the Anti-Federalist side. Hamilton’s financial system drove a wedge between him and his fellow federalists Jefferson and Madison. Hamilton’s financial measures had split the Federalists into bitterly opposed factions, northern Federalist supported treasury secretary while southern federalists joined a group headed by Madison and Jefferson by 1794 the factions had names, the Hamiltonians remained the Federalists (supported by merchants, creditors and wheat-exporting slaveholders)  and allies of Madison and Jefferson called themselves the Democratic-Republicans or simply Republicans (supported by southern tobacco and rice planters, debt-conscious western farmers, Germans and Scots-Irish in southern back country, and subsistence farmers in the Northeast).

2.      Why did Hamilton believe a national debt would strengthen the United States and help to ensure its survival?

The US as an underdeveloped nation needed good credit to secure loans from Dutch and British Financers, wanted Congress to redeem at face value the $55 million in Confederation securities held b foreign and domestic investors, also wanted interest-bearing securities to pay not holders which would create a permanent national debt (tied interests of wealthy creditors to the survival of the nation). With the national debt needed ways to pay it, stuff like excise taxes that would bring in $1 million a year, and to raise another $4-$5 million wanted higher tariffs on foreign imports, he also urged American manufacturing expansion. This all led to a great increase of American trade, causing customs revenue to rise steadily and pay down the national debt.

3.      How did the French Revolution challenge the United States in domestic and foreign policy?

America declared its neutrality which allowed it to trade with both sides during the war. This allowed American merchant ships through the British Naval blockade of French ports, and American firms took over the lucrative sugar trade between France and its West Indian island (commercial earnings rose to $20 million annually in the 1790’s and merchant fleet rose from 335,000 tons in 1790 to 1.1 million tons in 1808), all of which helped shipbuilders and merchants who provided work for shipwrights, sailmakers, dockhands, and seamen. Carpenters, masons and cabinetmakers in, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia found work building warehouses and town houses.

4.      How did events abroad during the 1790s sharpen political divisions in the United States?

The argument over the ideologies of the French Revolution, many supported it originally because of its abolishment of feudalism and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy but when the First French Republic was formed that’s where controversy was. Many embraced the democratic ideology of radical Jacobins, but Americans with strong religious beliefs condemned new French government for closing Christian churches a promoting a rational religion based on “natural morality” the reign of terror was also proof for many that the revolution had gone too far. People who feared a social revolution at home condemned Robespierre and followers for executing King Louis XVI and 3,000 aristocrats, Hamilton’s economic policies sparked a domestic insurgency (whiskey rebellion) which sort of solidified fears, the rebels used the French revolutionary slogan of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” Britain’s maritime strategy also intensified political division in America, many southern Jeffersonians rejected Jay’s treaty, but it was still ratified as the Federalists retained power.

5.      Why did Jefferson consider his election in 1800 to be “revolutionary”?

It showed that popularly elected government could be changed in an orderly way, due to the bloodless transfer of power that was the election of 1800, even in bitter times with conflict. Jefferson even praised the achievement saying that we are all republicans and we are all federalists, basically meaning everyone in America is an American, they are all one. (reversed many Federalist policies and actively supported westward expansion, ended after Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe all served 2 terms, each were from Republicans Virginia).

STOP END OF PERIOD 3!!!!!!

6.      Why did the United States go to war against western Indigenous nations so quickly after the Revolution?

Wanted to expand the land they had and the Native Americans resisted, started with sham treaties like the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784) which ceded large portions of land in New York and PA from Haudenosaunee nations (land speculators used liquor and bribes to take million mor acres and confined Haudenosaunee to reservations),  along with Treaties of Fort McIntosh (1785) and Fort Finney (1786) which many of the Natives repudiated saying they were made under duress, American negotiators arranged for comprehensive agreement at Fort Harmar (1789) Native American leaders refused to attend, many Native American tribes joined together to defend their land (Western Confederacy). With dear of Western Confederacy allying with British in Canda, Washington doubled size of the Army, General Wayne led a new expedition and defeated the confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, but continued resistance forced a compromise (Treaty of Greenville).

7.      How did the migration of Americans in the federal period help to establish new forms of national culture and form new ideas about national identity?

Lots of poorer or landless white men moved and settles into the Illinois, Ohio and Indiana areas wanting to get away from places like Kentucky where the elite owned almost 1/4^th of all land and the majority of the population were landless. Some people wanted to get away from slavery itself too. (however, the land distribution was just as uneven). Other southerners and enslaved African Americans from the Carolinas settled to the interior or Georgia and South Carolina, while others moved into future states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Cotton was a big reason for this migratory surge. Other people moved from overcrowding in New England they used t settle New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, now they moved west, many went to New York then Ohio and Indiana. Many New Englanders had a sort of homestead ethic, and preferred to buy farms. Because of the new farm economy in settled places New England farmers switched to potatoes, and to make up for family who moved away they used better farm equipment, also adopted progressive farming methods and began to dedicate land a resources to livestock production. People rotated fields, sometimes used a year-round cycle (corn in spring for animal fodder and planting winter what in September for market sale) women and girls also took advantage of new urban markets by milking family cows and making butter and cheese to sell in growing towns and cities. Started to inspire secessionist schemes in both New England and Southwest.

8.      What were some causational factors that led to the US declaring war on Britain in 1812?

British kept seizing American ships and impressing sailors (forcing them to work for their own fleet) under the guise that they were British deserters. American anger boiled over in 1807 after a British warship attacked U.S navy vessel Chesapeake, killed three, wounded eighteen, and seized four. Britian continued trading with Native Americans which was in violation of the Treaty of Paris and Jay’s Treaty. Britian violated its commercial rights as a neutral nation, also because of Madison’s presidency, called a “western war with eastern label” as federalists in the north voted against the war.

9.      How did the Supreme Court influence the debate over the powers of the federal government versus state governments in the federal period?

Jeffersonian Republican principles argued that the national government lacked he constitutional authority to fund internal improvements, Marshall was able to strongly influence the court decisions until 1835 when he died, three principles he believed in were judicial authority, the supremacy of national laws, and traditional property rights, was able to claim the right of judicial review for the supreme court in Marbury v Madison in 1803, and the court frequently used that power to overturn state laws that in its judgement violated the Constitution. Some still argued that Congress lacked the constitutional authority to charter a national bank and even if it was legitimate states could tax activities in the state, both arguments rejected. Federal govt also had authority over interstate commerce due to the Gibbons v Ogden 1824 case.

10.   Why do historians think the decisions of the Marshall Court constitute a “Federalist legacy”?

Marshall used the constitution to uphold Federalist notions of judicial authority, supremacy of national laws, and property rights. Kept reasserting power of the nation, a central authority. Limited state power in Fletcher v Peck 1810 trial and bolstered vested property rights a federalist ideal. Also defended property rights in Dartmouth College v Woodward 1819.

11.   How did the foreign policy initiatives of John Quincy Adams expand control over North America and support and independent global presence for the United States?

In the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 persuaded Spain to cede the Florida Territory to the US in return for Spain’s claim on Texas and set a western boundary for the state of Louisiana. Also convinced President Monroe to declare American national policy to respect the Western Hemisphere in the Monroe doctrine, which discouraged colonization, and pledged the US would not interfere in internal concerns of European nations, which asserted US diplomatic leadership and won international acceptance of northern and western boundaries.