Unit 5A -- Early National Period (1789 to 1800)

1. Washington’s First Administration – creating a New Government

1. How should the new President Act? What were his day to day duties? Should he have any say in formulating policy for America? After all, he’s supposed to execute the laws, not initiate them.
2. How should he be called? Settled on Mr. President, a title with dignity, but not royalty
3. Washington was the perfect choice for president – Adams V.P (34 of 69 electoral)

1. national hero
2. commanded great personal respect, even from political enemies
3. hated partisanship and politics – felt the best men should rule

1. Offices under Washington’s First Administration (He held things together)

1. Secretary of War (later Defense) – Henry Knox – holdover from the Confederation government
2. Attorney General – Edmund Randolph – Virginia planter and slaveholder and a strong Federalist
3. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court – John Jay (Federalist Papers)
4. Secretary of the Treasury – Alexander Hamilton – (Federalist Papers)

1. Economic Genius
2. Program for putting the American Govt. on sound financial footing (later to become the Federalist Platform)

1. funding the federal war bond debt at face value – even to speculators
2. full funding of remaining state debts
3. National Bank to fund the first two programs – funding the people’s debt with the people’s money – Govt. put up 20% of the money for the bank, but got to use all of it.
4. Strong federal tariffs to keep out cheap foreign goods
5. Really relied on rich businessmen who would have a stake in the new government

1. Strong advocate of peace and trade with the British – loved the monarchy and aristocracy

1. Secretary of State – Thomas Jefferson – back from France (Revolution – make sure the kids understand the phases of the French Revolution)

1. Not a Federalist – called the convention an "assembly of demigods"
2. Loves the French, especially after the Revolution (moderate phase)
3. Prominent slaveholder in Virginia
4. Believed the common man – America built by "yeoman farmers"
5. Brilliant architect and inventor
6. Deist – "Watchmaker theory" – ultimate humanist and enlightened thinker
7. Will eventually team with Madison and will come to formulate and lead a political philosophy opposed to Hamilton – Republicanism

1. States-rights
2. Yeoman farmers
3. Strict interpretation of the constitution

1. 1792 – Washington wins a unanimous reelection – no one ran against him – he didn’t want to run, but Madison, Adams, Hamilton and Jefferson ask him to help keep the country united
2. Washington will be the only president ever elected unanimously by the Electoral College
3. John Adams remains V.P. – not much real opposition this time
4. Washington’s 2^nd Administration (1793 to 1797)

1. marked by almost constant battle by Federalists (Hamilton) and Republicans (Jefferson)
2. France played a key role in determining foreign policy

1. January 1793 – Louis XVI executed – Reign of Terror begins (Jacobin phase) – War with Britain and Austria soon follows
2. Technically, because of the Alliance of 1778, we were obligated to defend French interest in the Caribbean
3. No one in Washington’s government wanted to go to war – Washington issued a declaration of neutrality

1. Britain remained a problem, but northeastern shippers needed British trade. Ironically, Boston will quickly become the center of Federalism
2. Impressment – a policy adopted by the British navy of kidnapping American Sailors and forcing them to join the British Navy
3. John Jay was sent to England to negotiate a treaty and is told to "settle all major issues"
4. Jay’s Treaty (1794) – settled no major issues

1. British will evacuate posts in the old Northwest by 1796
2. British will pay damages for seizures of American ships in 1793 and 1794
3. American debts to British merchants will be paid by the American Government
4. Failed to gain access for American shippers in the British West Indies
5. American Public was outraged – British appeared to be treating us like colonies again
6. Republicans criticized the abandonment of American rights to the British – especially Jefferson who hated the British anyway
7. Jay is supposed to have said that he could "traveled across the country by the light of his burning effigies"

1. Whiskey Rebellion (1794)

1. Tax on Whiskey levied in 1791
2. Farmers converted grain to whiskey to transport across long distances. The profit from Whiskey far outstripped the profit from grain
3. Farmers saw Hamilton’s plan as an unfair scheme to enrich the wealthy and pick the pockets of the poor.
4. Backcountry farmers from Pennsylvania began to grumble
5. Summer 1794 – Pennsylvania western farmers launch into open rebellion

• Washington used force to suppress the Rebellion – reverse of the response to Shays
• General Henry Lee (Robert E. Lee’s Grandfather) led 13000 troops into Western Pennsylvania
• The Rebellion crumbled quickly
• End results – strengthened Central Government, but weakened Federalists – Republicans scored heavily in the Congressional elections of 1794 and will be strong for 1796.

1. Pickney’s Treaty (1795)

1. Shifting Balance of Power in Europe led Spain to be more conciliatory with America
2. By 1795, Thomas Pickney, the American Ambassador to Spain, was able to sign a new treaty

1. acceptance of the 31^st Parallel as the boundary (Natchez to the US)
2. free navigation of the Mississippi
3. right of deposit at New Orleans
4. commission to settle new differences between the two nations
5. promise by each side to refrain from inciting the Indians to attack

1. treaty ran into no opposition and was quickly ratified by the Senate

1. By 1796 – 64 year old Washington decides that two terms is enough, thereby setting a standard that would not be broken until 1940
2. Record of Achievement under Washington (1789 to 1797)

1. Organization of the national government
2. Establishment of the National Bank and Credit Policy
3. Settlements with Britain and Spain
4. Stabilization of the Northwestern Frontier
5. Admission of three new states (Vermont – 1791, Kentucky – 1792, Tennessee 1796)

1. Washington’s Farewell Address (studied by politicians ever since) – 17 Sep 1796

1. Made sure that Washington was out of the race for 1796
2. warned against partisan politics
3. warned against entangling America in international alliances

1. 04 March 1797 – George Washington steps down and retires to Mount Vernon – first head of state ever to step down peaceably
2. By the end of Washington’s 2^nd term, however, the country had split into two camps

1. Federalists – Hamilton, Adams, Pickney, John Jay (Washington) – strength in South Carolina and New England
2. Democratic-Republicans (now the Democrats) – Jefferson, Madison, Aaron Burr (NY and a rival of Hamilton), -- strength in Virginia, South outside South Carolina, Pennsylvania, NY outside NYC

1. Election of 1796

1. Federalists – J. Adams and Thomas Pickney (back from Spain)
2. Dem-Reps – Jefferson and Aaron Burr
3. In the election, the Federalists controlled the Electoral College, but a scheme by Hamilton to throw the election to Pickney (Hamilton personally hated Adams) backfired and Jefferson became the Vice President (Adams 71 / Jefferson 68)

1. obviously the election of 1796 backfired for Adams, as he now had to deal with his political rival (Thomas Jefferson) as Vice President
2. Jefferson would work for 4 years to win the Election of 1800
3. Problems with France – as a result of Jay’s treaty and Washington’s proclamation of neutrality, our ally thought that we had reneged on our end of the Alliance of 1789

1. Jefferson was pro-French
2. By the time Adams was sworn in, the French had broken relations with the US
3. Oct 1797 – Charles Pickney (Federalist), John Marshall (Federalist) and Elbridge Gerry (Republican) sail to France to try to aviod war
4. The three American representatives were delayed for weeks. Finally three French agents of Foreign Minister Talleyrand approached them and demanded a bribe.
5. Bribes were common in the diplomatic world of 1797, but when the news of the XYZ Affair broke, even Republicans called for war with France.
6. XYZ – designations for the three French agents
7. 1798 to 1800 – undeclared naval war between US and France allows J. Adams to press for a bigger navy and tighter nationalism

1. Alien and Sedition Acts

1. passed in 1798 in the wake of the undeclared war with France
2. actually 4 separate acts
3. Three Alien Acts dealt with immigrants, many of whom became Republicans
4. Sedition Act – forbade speaking out against the government – since the government was Federalist, the law specifically targeted Republicans

1. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

1. written by Madison (VA) and Jefferson (KY) in response to the Alien and Sedition acts
2. spelled out the Compact Theory of Government – independent sovereign states willfully join the Union, but still retain their individuality (States-Rights)
3. Spelled out Nullification – right of a state to nullify a federal law within the boarders of that individual state

1. the resolutions would later be used by southerners, especially South Carolinians to justify Secession
2. In reality, the resolutions were meaningless, since the Republicans gained a majority in Congress and the presidency before the Alien and Sedition acts could really be enforced.
3. Outside New England – Almost no Federalist Support
4. Election of 1800