AP U.S. History
Chapter 10: Launching the New Ship of State: 1789-1800
Focus Question
When Washington resigned his command of the Continental Army, Jefferson said: "The moderation and
virtue of one man probably prevented this Revolution from being closed by a subversion of the liberty it
was intended to establish." Yet when Washington became president, Jefferson believed he was too
conservative. Did Washington ultimately preserve or limit the spread of liberty in America?
Learning Objectives
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State why George Washington was pivotal to inaugurating the new federal government.
Describe the methods and policies Alexander Hamilton used to put the federal government on a
sound financial footing.
Explain how the conflict between Hamilton and Jefferson led to the emergence of the first
political parties.
Describe the polarizing effects of the French Revolution on American foreign and domestic
policy and politics from 1790 to 1800.
Explain the rationale for Washington’s neutrality policies, including the conciliatory Jay’s Treaty
and why the treaty provoked Jeffersonian outrage.
Describe the causes of the undeclared war with France, and explain Adams’s decision to seek
peace rather than declare war.
Describe the poisonous political atmosphere that produced the Alien and Sedition Acts and the
Kentucky and Virginia resolutions.
Describe the contrasting membership and principles of the Hamiltonian Federalists and the
Jeffersonian Republicans, and how they laid the foundations of the American political party
system.
Questions
1. What were the various views early Americans held regarding central authority?
Growing Pains (
2. What were the demographic factors--population numbers, locations, growth, urban-rural mix, etc.--of
the United States at the time of the 1790 census?
Washington for President (
3. Why did Washington decide to create a cabinet despite there being no mention of it in the
Constitution, and who were his cabinet members?
The Bill of Rights (
4. Why was it deemed necessary for the first U.S. Congress to add a Bill of Rights to the new
Constitution? What was the purpose of the Bill of Rights in the opinion of its supporters? What
rights does it guarantee?
5. Why were the Ninth and Tenth Amendments included in the Bill of Rights?
Hamilton Revives the Corpse of Public Credit
6. Why did Alexander Hamilton inspire respect and admiration from some, and distrust and hatred from
others? What were his political strengths and weaknesses? What were his major contributions?
7. Why was Alexander Hamilton's financial program for the economic development of the United States
controversial?
8. As secretary of the treasury, what was Alexander Hamilton's first objective? What were Hamilton's
arguments in support of his funding and assumption programs?
Customs Duties and Excise Taxes
9. What were the provisions of Alexander Hamilton's economic program? What was the most
controversial aspect of it? Why did Hamilton support a limited national debt? How did Hamilton
propose to pay the interest on the national debt?
Hamilton Battles Jefferson for a Bank
10. What happened to Alexander Hamilton's proposal for the Bank of the United States? On what
example did Hamilton model his proposal? What were Jefferson's arguments against the
constitutionality of the Bank?
11. How did Hamilton's major programs seriously infringe on states' rights?
Mutinous Moonshiners in Pennsylvania (
12. What were the causes and effects of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794? Where did it take place, and
who were its supporters?
The Emergence of Political Parties (
13. Why did the Founders not envision the existence of permanent political parties? What factors
nevertheless caused such parties to form?
14. What was the political party in power, and what was the opposition party, during the 1790s?
The Impact of the French Revolution
15. Why and how did the French Revolution leave a deep scar on American political and social life?
Washington's Neutrality Proclamation (
16. What did the Franco-American alliance of 1778 obligate the United States to do when France and
Britain went to war in 1793? Why did President Washington nevertheless issue the Neutrality
Proclamation? On what calculations did Washington base his policy of neutrality?
17. How did the rivalry and warfare between France and Britain plague America during its first quartercentury as a nation?
18. How did Washington's Neutrality Proclamation illustrate the truism that self-interest is the basic
cement of alliances?
Embroilments with Britain (
19. What were the causes and effects of the Treaty of Greenville, signed in August 1795 between the
United States and the Miami Confederation?
20. How and why did Britain make neutrality difficult for the United States during the French and British
conflicts of the 1790s? What factors caused Hamilton to favor Britain rather than France?
Jay's Treaty and Washington's Farewell
21. How did Hamilton's actions affect the negotiation of Jay's Treaty? What were provisions and the
results of this treaty?
22. What were the causes and effects of Pinckney's Treaty?
23. What were of George Washington's major contributions as president? What were the effects of
Washington's decision to retire from the presidency in 1797? What was the significance of his
Farewell Address in 1796?
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John Adams Becomes President
24. What were the issues and candidates of the election campaign of 1796? How did the election results
lead to the enactment of Twelfth Amendment?
25. What handicaps did John Adams face upon assuming the presidency? How did Hamilton and the
High Federalists work to undermine his efforts?
Unofficial Fighting With France
26. How did the French reaction to Jay's Treaty lead to the "XYZ Affair"? What other factors caused
relations between the United States and France to deteriorate in the late 1790s?
27. What was the immediate cause of the undeclared war between the United States and France?
Adams Puts Patriotism Above Party
28. Why did President Adams seek a peaceful solution to the growing crisis in relations with France?
How was the United States able finally to negotiate a peace settlement with France in 1800?
The Federalist Witch Hunt
29. What was the main purpose of the Alien and Sedition Acts? What were the different targets of the
two acts? How did the Sedition Act threaten First Amendment freedoms?
The Virginia (Madison) and Kentucky (Jefferson) Resolutions (
30. What was the Jeffersonian response to the Alien and Sedition Acts? What did Jefferson and Madison
advocate in their compact theory?
31. What did the Federalists argue about judging the unconstitutionality of legislation passed by
Congress?
Federalists Versus Democratic-Republicans
32. Whom did the Federalists believe should rule? Why did the Federalists strongly support law and
order?
33. What policies did Hamilton and the Federalists advocate during the 1790s? What policies did the
Jeffersonian Republicans advocate?
34. What sort of man did the Jeffersonian Republicans see as the ideal citizen of a republic? To what
groups did the Jeffersonians appeal?
35. What qualifications for voting did Jefferson support? Why did he argue that continuing slavery
would help prevent the growth of a landless class of voters? Why did Jefferson fear landlessness?
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