THE FEDERALIST ERA:
NATIONALISM
TRIUMPHANT
Chapter 5
The American Nation,
12e
Mark. C. Carnes
John A. Garraty
Mount Vernon photo by Tom Kralidis
http://www.kralidis.ca/misc/pics/gbltbal
tphilly020308/
Skim through the reading “First
among the Founders”
• Analyze the phrase “Washington was
less brilliant than either Hamilton or
Jefferson but wiser.”
• What did Washington understand the
most that made him wiser?
BORDER PROBLEMS
Britain:
• Withdrew troops from settled portion of
United States
• Set up string of seven military posts
• British worked to stir up Indian tribes
– Held on to posts because said U.S. failed to
live up to treaty terms re: debts and loyalist
compensation
BORDER PROBLEMS
Spain:
• Had been co-belligerent but not ally
• Won Florida and Gulf Coast region east of
New Orleans
• Refused to turn over Natchez which it had
captured during war but was far north of
boundary
• 1784 Spain closed the lower Mississippi
River to American commerce (soon
reopened subject to modest tariff)
FOREIGN TRADE
• U.S. could now trade directly with Europe
– Negotiated a number of commercial treaties
– Exclusion from British imperial trade hurt
• British exported large quantities of
cheap goods to U.S.
• 1784-1786 U.S. suffering post war
depression
• Cash shortage
– Effort to give Congress power to pass tariffs
(Rhode Island refused so measure failed)
THE SPECTOR OF INFLATION
• Depression and unfavorable balance of trade
led to pressure to print money and pass debt
relief measures
• Before war had dealt with cash shortage by
– declaring various staple products to be legal
tender
– deliberately overvaluing foreign coins to
discourage their export
– making it illegal to ship coins abroad
– printing paper currency
THE SPECTOR OF INFLATION
• After war some states tried to restore credit
by imposing heavy taxes and severely
restricting new issues of money
• Resulted in lowered prices and wages and
cries for debt relief
• A majority of the states printed more money
between 1785 and 1786
– Successful in South Carolina, New York and
Pennsylvania
– Rhode Island unsuccessful
DANIEL SHAYS’ “LITTLE
REVOLUTION”
• Massachusetts legislature determined to
maintain sound currency and pay off debt
– Levied heavy taxes especially on those with moderate
income
– Many farmers lost their farms to foreclosure
• Led to foreclosures
• Under leadership of Daniel Shays, rebels
marched on capital to keep supreme court from
meeting
• Most well-to-do Americans saw Shays’
Rebellion as liberty gone mad
• They saw the answer as greater authority vested
in the central government
Shays’ Rebellion: 1786-7
Daniel Shays
Western MA
Small farmers angered by crushing
debts and taxes.
Shays’ Rebellion: 1786-7
There could be no
stronger evidence of
the want of energy in
our governments than
these disorders.
-- George Washington
TO PHILADELPHIA, AND THE
CONSTITUTION
• March 1785: representatives of Virginia
and Maryland,, suggested conference to
discuss commerce problems
• January 1786: Virginia legislature sent out
formal call for meeting in Annapolis in
September—failed
• Alexander Hamilton suggested another
meeting to discuss Articles of
Confederation
• All but Rhode Island attended meeting in
Philadelphia, May 25, 1787
THE GREAT CONVENTION
• Most delegates agreed
– Federal system
– Independent state
governments
– National government with
limited powers to handle
matters of common interest
– Republican government
drawing power from the
people
– No one group should have
unrestricted authority
• Proceedings were secret
Madison, James. Painting (bust) by Gilbert Stuart. 148-CC-13-9
National Archives
THE COMPROMISES THAT
PRODUCED THE CONSTITUTION
• May 30, 1787: agreed a national
government should be established
with separated judicial, executive,
and legislative branches
• There remained two big questions:
1. What powers should this national
government be granted?
2. Who should control the national
government?
QUESTION 1
•
Relative agreement on governmental
powers
– Right to levy taxes and regulate interstate and
foreign commerce
– Power to raise and maintain an army and
navy and to summon the militia of the states
to enforce national laws and suppress
insurrections
– States were deprived of right to issue money,
to make treaties, and to tax either imports or
exports without the permission of Congress
QUESTION 2
•
Large vs. Small
– Larger states wanted representation based on
population (Virginia Plan)
– Smaller states wanted equal representation
(New Jersey Plan)
•
Great Compromise: House of
Representatives would have proportional
representation (elected by popular vote)
and Senate would have equal
representation (elected by state
legislature)
QUESTION 3
•
North vs. South
–
–
•
•
•
North wanted to include slaves for tax purposes
South wanted to exclude them for tax purposes but
include to decide representation in House
Three Fifths Compromise: slaves would count
for both purposes as three-fifths of free people
(term slave was not used in Constitution)
Congress could not outlaw African slave trade
before 1808
Regulation of commerce caused sectional
difficulties—banned export taxes to get
Southerners to drop their demand that 2/3 both
houses be required to regulate foreign
commerce
THE COMPROMISES THAT
PRODUCED THE CONSTITUTION
• Constitution signed September 17, 1787
– Legislature of two houses
• House of Representatives: represented ordinary citizen,
could introduce revenue bills
• Senate seen as advisory council whose consent was
required for treaties and major presidential
appointments
– Executive branch
• President with wide ranging powers
• Vice President who presided over Senate
– Judicial Branch
• Supreme Court
• Inferior courts as necessary
PRESIDENT
•
•
•
•
•
General responsibility for executing the laws
Commander in chief of the armed forces
General supervisor of foreign relations
Appointed federal judges and other officials
Could veto any law of Congress (could be
overridden by two-thirds majority in both
houses)
• Deliver annual “State of the Union” addresses
• Recommend necessary measures
PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTION & COURTS
• Each state would choose electors equal to its
representation in Congress
• Electors would meet in own states to vote for
two people for president
• If no one got majority, House of
Representatives (each state having one vote)
would choose president from among leading
candidates
• Courts were established to adjudicate disputes
and came to exercise right of “judicial review”
RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION
• Constitution to be ratified by special state
conventions
• When three-fourths of states pass, it would be law
• Those who favored Constitution: Federalists; those
against: Anti-Federalists
– Federalists: generally substantial individuals, members of
the professions, well-to-do, active in commercial affairs,
somewhat alarmed by Revolutionary changes—wanted
orderly and efficient government
– Anti-Federalists: more often small farmers, debtors,
others who valued free choice over power and resented
those who favored latter
RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION
• Agreements: wanted national debt
paid off, opposed unstable
currency, favored uniform trade
policies, wanted to protect states
• Much of opposition disappeared
when agreed to add “bill of rights”
protecting civil liberties of the
people
RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Delaware ratified December 7, 1787
Pennsylvania followed with 2 to 1 majority
New Jersey approved unanimously December 18
Georgia approved unanimously January 2, 1788
Connecticut approved a week later, 128 to 40
Massachusetts approved in February in a close
vote of 187 to 168
7. Maryland accepted in April, 6 to 1
8. South Carolina approved in May, 149 to 73
9. June 21, 1788, New Hampshire approved 57 to 47
RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION
10. Virginia, vital to success, voted for it 89 to 79
on June 25, 1788
11. New York (third largest state) had antifederalist majority in convention but
Alexander Hamilton (who with John Jay and
James Madison wrote Federalist Papers)
brilliantly defended Constitution: approved
30 to 27
12. North Carolina ratified in November 1789
13. Rhode Island ratified in May 1790
THE FEDERALIST PAPERS
WASHINGTON AS PRESIDENT
Washington, George, the Virginia Colonel. Painting (¾
length) by C. W. Peale, 1772. 148-GW-46 National
Archives
• Elections January and
February 1789
• Congress underway in New
York by April
• April 6, George
Washington elected
President, John Adams
elected vice-president
(person with second largest
number of votes)
• April 30, 1789: Washington
sworn in as president
Inauguration of Washington, by
Ramon de Elorriaga
WASHINGTON AS PRESIDENT
• Did not believe in introducing legislation to
Congress
• Believed veto only for unconstitutional
laws
• Established precedent for Cabinet
• Believed in competent appointees
– Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson
– Secretary of Treasury: Alexander Hamilton
– Secretary of War: Henry Knox
– Attorney General: Edmund Randolph
Washington shapes the Executive Branch-Advisors Disagree……………..
Two of the most important advisors were Thomas
Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. They often were
in bitter opposition to each other.
Jefferson
Hamilton
CONGRESS UNDER WAY
• By September 1789 Congress had
– Created State, Treasury, and War
departments
– Passed Judiciary Act of 1789
• establishing 13 federal district courts and 3 circuit
courts of appeal
• Setting supreme court justices at 6
• John Jay named chief justice by Washington
• Bill of Rights (first 10 amendments)
prepared by Congress and ratified
Judiciary Act of 1789
HAMILTON AND FINANCIAL
REFORM
• Tariff Act of 1789
– 5% tariff (hemp, glass, and nails subject to higher
tariff)
– Heavy tonnage duties on all foreign shipping
• U.S. debt large and credit shaky
• Created plan to borrow money to pay all
federal and state debts
• Beneficiaries were speculators who had
bought government bonds for pennies on the
dollar from farmers, soldiers, and merchants
desperate for cash
HAMILTON AND FINANCIAL
REFORM
• Hamilton’s plan seemed to
favor the North
– Northern citizens held 4/5 of
national debt
– Southern states had mostly
already paid their debt
– COMPROMISE: South votes
Yes, capital located on
Potomac River
• Plan extremely successful
and capital poured in
Hamilton, Alexander. Painting (bust) by John Trumbull. 148-CP-6
National Archives
NATIONAL BANK
• Hamilton proposed a national bank which
– would provide safe storage for government
funds
– serve as an agent for the government in the
collection, movement, and expenditure of tax
money
– Finance new and expanding business
enterprises
– Issue bank notes
• Was to be partly owned by the
government, but 80% of $10 million in
stock was to be sold to private individuals
NATIONAL BANK
• First Bank of the United States approved by
Congress February 1791
• Washington was not sure it was constitutional
– Hamilton argued it was covered by “implied” powers
– Jefferson, a strict constructionist, said no
– Washington signed the bill
• Difference in positions depended on whether
one stressed proper or necessary in clause
granting Congress power to pass “all Laws
which shall be necessary and proper”
• 1819, Supreme Court backed Hamiltonian stress
on “proper”
HAMILTON AND FINANCIAL
REFORM
• Bank was a big success with bank notes
accepted at face value and state chartered
banks climbing from 3 in 1791 to 32 in
1801
• 1791 Report on Manufactures called for
tariffs, subsidies, and awards to
encourage American manufacturing
• Report was set aside though most of tariffs
passed in 1792
THE OHIO COUNTRY: A DARK
AND BLOODY GROUND
• Americans moved into Ohio country in large
numbers and Indians struck out against them
– 1790 Little Turtle defeated General Josiah
Harmar
– 1791 Little Turtle defeated General Arthur St.
Clair
– Congress authorized a regular army of 5,000
men
– By 1792 Indians had driven whites into restricted
areas and frontiersmen blamed British for
inciting them and U.S. government for doing
nothing
WHISKEY TAX
• Westerners also upset about government
taxes
– 8 cents a gallon on whiskey
– Westerners liked to drink and hated tax
collectors
– Much of crop became whiskey to avoid high
transportation costs
• Resistance was especially strong in
western Pennsylvania
REVOLUTION IN FRANCE
• 1789 French Revolution started
• 1792: war broke out between France and
Great Britain & Spain
• What were U.S. obligations under Treaty
of 1778?
– Required U.S. to defend French West Indies
• April 1793 George Washington issued
Declaration of Neutrality
REVOLUTION IN FRANCE
• Edmond Charles Genet sent to U.S. to
seek support which seemed likely since, at
least until 1792, Americans were
enthusiastic about French Revolution
• Genet landed in April 1793
– Began to plan violation of neutrality by
licensing American vessels to operate as
privateers and to grant French military
commissions to Americans who would attack
Spanish and British in North America
REVOLUTION IN FRANCE
• Genet ignored Washington’s orders to stop
illegal activity
• Washington demanded his recall but revolution
had evolved and Genet forced to seek asylum in
U.S. to avoid guillotine
• U.S. vessels were seized by both sides in
European war
– British attacks were more damaging because fleet
larger
– 1793: British secret orders turned British navy loose
on neutral shipping headed for French West Indies
REVOLUTION IN FRANCE
• British seized 250
American vessels
• Americans also
distressed by continued
British presence in
Northwest
• Also upset by British
restrictions on trade with
British West Indies
• To avoid war,
Washington sent Chief
Justice John Jay to
London to arrange
settlement
Jay, John. Painting (3/4 length) by Gilbert Stuart. 148-GW-735a
National Archives
FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLICANS:
THE RISE OF POLITICAL PARTIES
• Political Parties coalesced around the
differences between Thomas Jefferson
and Alexander Hamilton
– Jefferson and Madison became nucleus of
Republican Party
– Hamilton was nucleus of Federalist party
• Political controversies tended to be
personal with each side suspecting the
other of attempting to undermine the
system
FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLICANS:
THE RISE OF POLITICAL PARTIES
• Among the issues causing divide
– Bank of U.S.: Republicans saw as
benefiting a few merchants at expense of
agriculture
– French Revolution: with radical Terror,
conservative Federalists opposed while
shocked Republicans nonetheless
defended
– Federalists, in turn, became very fond of
Britain
Disagreements lead to the
formation of two political parties
On a sheet of paper –
Contrast the views of Jefferson and Hamilton and their
political parties………..
Two Political Parties Form
Hamilton--Federalists
Jefferson--Democratic
Republicans
Govt
Constitution
Economy
Supporters were:
Govt
Constitution
Economy
Supporters were:
1794: CRISIS AND RESOLUTION
• Whiskey Rebellion
– In western Pennsylvania, tax collectors unable to
collect excise tax
– Late July 1794: 7,000 “rebels” converged on
Pittsburgh, threatening to burn the town
– Turned away by federal artillery and liberal
dispensation of whiskey
– August: Washington mustered 13,000 militiamen
• At same time, Battle of Fallen Timbers: “Mad”
Anthony Wayne defeated Indians and opened
the way for settlement of the region
How is this picture typical of
Washington?
George Washington reviews the troops near Fort
Cumberland, Maryland, before their march to suppress the
Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania
JAY’S TREATY
• British agreed to evacuate posts in the West
• Promised to compensate American ship owners
for seizures in West Indies and to open colonies
in Asia to America ships
• No concessions on neutral rights
• West Indies provision had so many caveats that
U.S. refused to accept
• Jay agreed U.S. would pay pre-Revolutionary
debts owed British merchants
• Nothing said about British recompense for
“stolen” slaves
1795: ALL’S WELL
THAT ENDS WELL
• Senate ratified Jay’s Treaty in June 1795
• Marked step toward regularizing
relations with Britain and got British
out of western forts
• 1790s: Spain had allied with Creek,
Cherokee and other southern tribes
• 1795: Spain wanted out of European war
so wanted to improve relations with U.S. to
protect North American holdings
1795: ALL’S WELL
THAT ENDS WELL
• Treaty of San Lorenzo (Pinckney
Treaty)
– Named after U.S. envoy to Spain, Thomas
Pinckney
– Granted U.S. free navigation of Mississippi
River and right of deposit in New Orleans
– Ratified by Senate June 1795
• 12 Ohio Valley Indian tribes signed
Treaty of Greenville leading to vast
western settlement
WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL
September 1796 “Farewell Address”
• DOMESTIC: deplored partisan
politics and warned against parties
• FOREIGN: warned against
permanent foreign political alliances
– Temporary alliances OK
– Commerce good
THE ELECTION OF 1796
• Republicans ran Thomas Jefferson
• Federalists considered Hamilton too
controversial so chose John Adams for
President and John Pinckney to run for
Vice President
• Result of Hamilton’s attempt to maneuver
in favor of Pinckney was Adams won
electoral college 71 to 68 over Jefferson
(became vice president)
THE XYZ AFFAIR
• French were attacking American shipping
so Adams sent Charles Pinckney, John
Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry to France to
negotiate a settlement
• French foreign minister sent an agent (X)
to demand a bribe
• He was followed by two additional agents
(Y and Z) with same request
• Talks failed and Adams released
commissioners’ report in April 1798
1797 XYZ Affair
THE XYZ AFFAIR
• Americans were incensed
• Congress
– Unilaterally abrogated French alliance
– Created Navy Department
– Appropriated enough money to build 40 odd
warships and triple size of army
– Washington came out of retirement ot lead
forces, Hamilton second in command
– U.S. privateers attacked French shipping
THE ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS
• June and July 1798: Alien and Sedition Act
– Naturalization Act: foreigner had to live in U.S.
14 years, instead of 5, for naturalization
– Alien Enemies Act: president had power to
arrest or expel aliens in time of “declared war”
– Alien Act: president could expel all aliens he
thought dangerous
– Sedition Act: crime to impede any law or
attempt to instigate a riot, to publish or utter any
“false, scandalous and malicious” criticism of
high government officials
THE KENTUCKY AND
VIRGINIA RESOLVES
• Republicans believed Alien and Sedition Acts
violated first amendment rights
• Kentucky Resolution: written by Jefferson
– Each state could judge for itself when Constitution
was violated and declare the law unconstitutional
• Virginia Resolution: written by James Madison
(similar position)
• France changed mind, Adams sent new
ministers, Napoleon drove hard bargain and
Franco-American treaties of 1778 were
abrogated
WEBSITES
• George Washington at Home
http://www.mountvernon.org
• George Washington
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwhome.html
• Biographies of the Founders
http://www.colonialhall.com
• The Federalist Papers
http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/federalist
• The Continental Congress and the Constitutional
Convention, 1774-1798
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bdsds/bdsdhome.html
WEBSITES
• The Constitution and the Amendments
http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/usconst.html
• The George Washington Papers
http://www.virginia.edu/gwpapers
• Archiving Early America
http://earlyamerica.com
• Alexander Hamilton
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/hamilton/hamilxx.htm
• The XYZ Affair
http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=042592000&templatename=/article/article.html