Unit 3
Northwest Territory:
Location - The region south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River (modern-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin)
Settlement expectations -
Orderly Grid System: Land was grid-surveyed into square townships (36 square miles) to prevent chaotic land claims. Section 16 of each township was reserved to fund public education.
Path to Statehood: Established a 3-stage process for territories to achieve statehood on equal footing with the original 13 states once they reached 60,000 free inhabitants.
Civil Liberties & Prohibitions: Guaranteed trial by jury and freedom of religion. Crucially, it banned slavery north of the Ohio River, setting the first federal geographic boundary on the institution.
Articles of Confederation:
structure of government - A unicameral (one-house) legislature. There was no executive branch (no president to enforce laws) and no national judiciary to settle interstate legal conflicts.
importance of Congress - Congress was the sole body of national power. Each state received exactly one vote, meaning small states held equal power to large states
Weaknesses -
No power to tax: Congress could only request money from states.
No power to regulate commerce: Led to interstate tariff wars.
Rigid thresholds: Passing major laws required a 9/13 supermajority; amending the Articles required a 13/13 unanimous vote.
No standing national army: Left the government defenseless against foreign threats or domestic rebellion.
Shay’s Rebellion:
Causes - Western Massachusetts farmers (many Revolutionary War veterans) faced heavy state taxes, severe post-war economic depression, and foreclosures on their farms by coastal merchants and courts. Led by Daniel Shays, they shut down debt courts.
Outcomes - The weak central government was unable to raise an army to suppress the rebellion; a privately funded state militia finally stopped it. This exposed the profound weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, spreading fear of "mobocracy" among elites and directly prompting the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
Whiskey Rebellion:
Causes - Poor western Pennsylvania farmers protested an excise tax on whiskey enacted by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to pay off national war debts. Whiskey was used as currency and a primary way to market surplus grain.
Unique elements - Unlike Shays' Rebellion, President George Washington invoked his new constitutional powers and personally led a massive federalized militia of 13,000 troops to crush the insurrection.
Effects - Demonstrating the immense contrast with Shays' Rebellion, it proved that the new federal government under the Constitution possessed the executive power to enforce federal laws and suppress domestic insurrections. It solidified federal authority but alienated westerners, bolstering the nascent Democratic-Republican opposition.
Structure of US Government under Constitution –
separation of power - Legislative (makes laws), Executive (enforces laws), and Judicial (interprets laws)
checks and balances - A system allowing branches to limit the actions of others. Examples: The President can veto congressional legislation; Congress can override a veto or impeach the President; the Senate must approve judicial nominations.
Federalism - The constitutional division and sharing of political power between the national (federal) government and the individual state governments.
popular sovereignty - The principle that political power resides with the people, who sustain government legitimacy through consent via elected representatives.
supremacy clause - Article VI; Establishes that the U.S. Constitution, federal laws, and treaties constitute the "supreme law of the land," overriding conflicting state laws.
Issue of slavery:
who supported - Southern delegates (e.g., South Carolina, Georgia) fiercely protected slavery as vital to their agrarian, plantation economies.
who opposed - Many Northern delegates opposed slavery or its expansion, but prioritized national unity and economic concessions over immediate abolition.
position taken by the Founders - The Founders chose pragmatic compromise over moral resolution to keep the Southern states in the Union. They conspicuously avoided using the words "slave" or "slavery" in the text but protected the institution through:
Three-Fifths Compromise: Counted 60% of a state’s enslaved population for both congressional representation and federal taxation.
Slave Trade Clause: Prohibited Congress from banning the international slave trade for 20 years (until 1808).
Fugitive Slave Clause: Required free states to return escaped enslaved laborers to their owners.
Concepts debated by Federalist and Anti-Federalists during and after Washington’s presidency; be familiar with people associated with each party
Era/Context
Federalists
Anti-Federalists/Democratic-Republicans
Ratification Debate (1787-1788)
Supported the Constitution. Wanted a strong central government to maintain order. Written defenses: The Federalist Papers.
Opposed the Constitution. Feared a strong central government would mimic British tyranny and squash individual rights. Demanded a Bill of Rights.
First Party System (1790s)
Federalist Party
Democratic-Republican Party
Key Leaders
Alexander Hamilton, John Adams.
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison.
Constitutional Interpretation
Loose constructionism (broad use of the "elastic/necessary and proper" clause).
Strict constructionism (the federal government only has powers explicitly stated in the Constitution).
Core Vision
Urban, commercial, manufacturing hub; pro-British foreign policy; favored a National Bank.
Agrarian republic of independent farmers; pro-French foreign policy; opposed the National Bank.
John Adams’ Domestic and Foreign Policy – Naturalization Act, Alien and Sedition Acts, XYZ Affair
XYZ Affair (1797): French privateers began seizing American merchant ships. Adams sent diplomats to Paris, where three French agents (dubbed X, Y, and Z) demanded massive bribes before negotiating. This sparked anti-French outrage across America and triggered the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war.
Naturalization Act (1798): Increased the residency requirement for American citizenship from 5 to 14 years. This was designed to target French and Irish immigrants, who heavily voted Democratic-Republican.
Alien and Sedition Acts (1798):
Alien Act: Authorized the president to deport any non-citizen deemed dangerous to national peace.
Sedition Act: Made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its officials. Adams used it to jail Democratic-Republican newspaper editors.
Marbury v. Madison, McCullough v. Maryland
Marbury v. Madison (1803): Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that a section of the Judiciary Act of 1789 conflicted with the Constitution. This established the doctrine of Judicial Review, cementing the Supreme Court's power to declare federal laws unconstitutional.
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819): Maryland attempted to tax the Second Bank of the United States. The Marshall Court ruled that:
The Bank was constitutional via the Implied Powers of the Necessary and Proper Clause.
States cannot tax federal institutions ("the power to tax involves the power to destroy"), reaffirming Federal Supremacy.
Short Answer: (These are all straight from google overview, just as an fyi)
a) Explain the concerns for the nation Washington expressed in his Farewell Address and how they became issues during and immediately following his terms in office.
In his 1796 Farewell Address, George Washington explicitly warned the young nation against two main existential threats: the rise of factions (political parties) and entering into permanent foreign alliances.
Despite his warnings, both issues immediately fractured the nation during and after his presidency. Domestically, the fierce ideological rift between Alexander Hamilton’s Federalists and Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans hardened into America’s first permanent political party system. Externally, the ongoing geopolitical conflict of the French Revolution forced America to take sides. While Washington issued a Neutrality Proclamation in 1793, foreign entanglements escalated under John Adams, whose administration was consumed by the XYZ Affair and the resulting Quasi-War with France.
b) Evaluate the issues associated with Adams’ Alien and Sedition Acts.
The primary constitutional and political issue of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 was their weaponization for partisan suppression, which directly violated civil liberties. The Sedition Act explicitly restricted freedom of speech and the press by criminalizing criticism of the federal government, drawing widespread condemnation for violating the First Amendment.
Furthermore, Federalists utilized these acts to aggressively target their political opponents, arresting Democratic-Republican editors who criticized Adams’ anti-French foreign policies. In response to this perceived federal tyranny, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison anonymously penned the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. These documents introduced the radical constitutional theory of nullification, arguing that sovereign states had the right to declare federal laws null and void within their borders, setting a dangerous precedent for future states' rights crises.
LEQ – Be able to analyze the 4 areas of concern presented at the Constitutional Convention, including the arguments made by Federalists and Anti-Federalists, as well as the agreements reached that were included in the Constitution.
Thesis Statement:
Although delegates at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 originally gathered to revise the weak Articles of Confederation, deep regional divides over representation, state power, and economic structure forced intense debates between Federalists and Anti-Federalists. Ultimately, the framework of the new Constitution succeeded because delegates forged pragmatic compromises over congressional representation, executive authority, the preservation of slavery, and federal taxes.
Area of Concern 1: Congressional Representation (Large vs. Small States)
Debate: Large states favored the Virginia Plan (proportional representation based on population); small states demanded the New Jersey Plan (equal representation per state).
Agreement: The Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise) established a bicameral legislature. The House of Representatives based representation on population, while the Senate granted two seats per state.
Area of Concern 2: Counting the Population (Northern vs. Southern States)
Debate: Southern states demanded enslaved individuals be counted to boost their legislative seat totals but excluded for federal tax purposes. Northern states argued this was unjust since enslaved populations lacked civil rights.
Agreement: The Three-Fifths Compromise dictated that three out of every five enslaved individuals would be counted for both representation and taxation.
Area of Concern 3: Executive Branch Power
Debate: Anti-Federalists feared a strong executive would morph into a monarchy. Federalists argued a strong executive was vital to enforce laws and avoid the chaos seen in Shays’ Rebellion.
Agreement: The creation of a single executive (the President) checked by congressional override powers, impeachment processes, and elected indirectly via the Electoral College.
Area of Concern 4: Central Power vs. Individual Rights (The Ratification Pivot)
Debate: Anti-Federalists refused to ratify the document because it centralized immense power under the Supremacy Clause without explicitly protecting individual liberties. Federalists argued that separation of powers inherently protected individuals.
Agreement: Federalists promised to add a Bill of Rights immediately upon ratification, which James Madison drafted during the First Congress to safeguard civil liberties against federal overreach.
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