1301 Topic Seven: The Young Republic
I. A New Republic
In this topic, we need to discuss the creation the United States of America. In
reality, winning the revolution was the easy part. Creating a working
government, a state, from the ground up, was the really difficult part. The
questions and arguments that the founders encountered are still relevant
today. What are the benefits of a republic vs. a democracy? How do we
balance state vs. federal power? What should the nature of government be,
and should it be large or small? What exactly is the role of government, at all
levels? And who are “the people”? Were the framers of the Constitution “the
people” or even representative of the people? How are the rights of the
minority balanced vs. the will of the majority (again, back to the question of
a republic vs. a democracy, which are not the same thing)?
The founding fathers, in creating a new state, faced several contradictions,
and they were well aware this. First, the Revolution was a successful attempt
to overthrow “big government” and was presented to everyday Americans as
such. Yet to govern a country the size of the United States, a large central
government was necessary, even in 1783. To be a world power, you would
have to have an even larger federal government. The United Stated wouldn’t
face that problem in the late 18th century, but…
Furthermore, Revolutionary documents stated that “all men are created
equal”, yet all of the founding fathers were rich and white and male. There
seems to be an inconsistency between the Declaration of Independence and
the Constitution.
So the founders of our country had to create a strong central government,
yet limit the powers of that government so it wouldn’t become a tyranny.
They had to juxtapose the powers of the former individual colonies, now
states, with the power of the new federal government. They had to ensure
that a republican form of government would remain the rule of law (Article
IV, Section 4).
Americans, everyday Americans, came out of the Revolution with a sense
that they had a special destiny that needed to be preserved. Citizens
subscribed to public morality and a civic sense of duty. After all, it was what
led them to rebel against Britain in the first place. But there was a sense that
what they could create was a something new, something special. And so, in
the new United States, no aristocracy was allowed, no law of primogeniture
or entail was allowed. Even today, the appearance of equality is important to
Americans, even when inequality is apparent. Voting requirements were
lowered, or even abolished. Since the majority of white males could vote,
these laws were mostly symbolic. Suffrage was not expanded to women,
African-Americans, or the very poor however.
Westward migration changes voting patterns too. As more people moved
west and the frontier expanded, state capitals moved away from the east
coast into the interior of states to make it easier for new state
representatives to travel to their legislatures. The frontier representatives
also signified a shift away from the wealthy elite of the eastern seaboard
counties.
There was a concerted effort to keep the affairs of religion and government
separate. This was as much to keep government out of religion, as to keep
religion out of government. Also, the close ties between the British
aristocracy and the state religion, Anglicanism, made the founding fathers
wary of establishing an official state religion in the United States.
This was a revolution for white males. Although the northern states moved to
outlaw slavery, the southern states kept their “peculiar” institution. And in
1793, the cotton gin made cotton the premier crop of the South, and ensured
the continuation of slavery. The status of women didn’t change after the
Revolution either. Although they had a special status as “republican”
mothers, women were not allowed political, economic or legal power.
II. The Articles of Confederation
The first government of the United States operated under the Articles of
Confederation, which was ratified in November 1777. The Articles created a
loose collection of 13 independent states, with a weak central government. A
unicameral Congress was elected annually, with each state having only one
vote. Amending the Articles required a unanimous vote. Congress had no
economic power whatsoever; that was given over to the states. There was no
executive officeholder.
The Articles of Confederation did pass one piece of legislation that was
important to the future of the United States. The Land Ordinances of 1785
and 1787 determined how future territories would become states. Not only
did these laws survey western land, but they established that future states
would become equal to the original thirteen, not colonies thereof.
Furthermore, money from public land sales was set aside for public
education.
As important as the issue of western land management was, the failures of
the Articles of Confederation were huge. The central government was
massively in debt. It couldn’t raise revenue, couldn’t regulate the economy, it
couldn’t force the states to pay it’s voluntary dues to the treasury. In foreign
policy, the United States was helpless to evict the British from the Northwest
Territory, and to negotiate with the Spanish over the closing of the port of
New Orleans to American farmers. Obviously something had to be done.
III. The Constitution
When delegates arrived in Philadelphia in May of 1787 for a Constitutional
Convention, their intent was to rework the Articles of Confederation. As they
locked the doors behind them, they decided to completely start over. By the
way, they didn’t tell anyone about their decision, and to protect themselves
from outside influence, kept their deliberations secret throughout the four
months they worked in their conference room. They debated, ran through
ideas, and eventually drafted a framework for the government we still
operate under today. The writers of the Constitution decided that as soon as
nine states ratified this new document, this new government, it would be
implemented.
When the delegates emerged in September of 1787, there was much anger.
After all, they were supposed to fix the Articles of Confederation, not draft a
whole new government. And the battle for ratification was not easy. There
was much opposition to the Constitution; Virginia ratified it by ten votes,
New York by only two. New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify the
Constitution in June of 1788, and immediately a presidential election was
held. George Washington was unanimously elected the first president of the
United States.
The Constitution of the United States has held for over two hundred years. In
some ways, it is a “living document”, in that it was meant to be interpreted
and interpretable. Although it was meant to address the failures of the
Articles of Confederation, the Constitution was not without weaknesses itself,
the most important of which was the failure to address the institution of
slavery. Or maybe it was the failure of the founders themselves, and not the
document, that caused a civil war less than a century after the founding of
the United States.
IV. The First Administration: George Washington
The Constitution was/is really only the barest framework of government. The
first Congress and President had to work out the details of this new
government, all from scratch. How would the president be addressed? At
what rate would the national tariff rate be set at? How would the federal
court system be set up? Congress quickly set to work.
Five cabinet departments were created by Congress to round out the
executive branch: Departments of State, Treasury, War, the Attorney
General’s Office and the Postmaster General. The men appointed by
President Washington for these posts were, in order, Thomas Jefferson
(State), Alexander Hamilton (Treasury), Henry Knox (War), Edmund
Randolph (Attorney General), and Samuel Osborne (Postmaster General).
The Judiciary Act of 1789 was passed which created the Federal Court
system. The Supreme Court, the highest court of the land, was formed with a
chief justice and associate justices. John Jay was our first chief justice. In
addition, 12 federal district courts and 3 circuit courts were created. Federal
judges were appointed and served for life, a fact that disturbed Thomas
Jefferson. He felt it gave them too much power.
The Tariff of 1789 was passed, which raised import duties. The Bill of Rights
was also approved, in order to quell suspicions that the federal government
would take away the rights of the people.
Once more, the Constitution only provided an outline for government. It was
up to these first leaders to set precedent and procedure for the future. And
so, President Washington created the role of a president who would not be
just a figurehead for the United States. Instead, the president played, and
still plays, an active role in the executive branch. Washington directed his
cabinet members, worked with Congress, made foreign policy, and provided
the guide for future presidents. He gave the first farewell address after two
terms as president.
Washington also had to contend with two cabinet member who had
competing visions of the future of United States, Alexander Hamilton and
Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton saw a future United States with a strong central
government, modeled after the British system in which American merchants
carried U.S. manufactured goods all over the world. With a strong national
economy that included a central bank, the United States could maintain a
standing army and a federal bureaucracy. On the other hand, Thomas
Jefferson believed in an agrarian democracy, with power kept closer to the
people. Jefferson feared that a standing army could “suppress the liberties of
the people”. He wanted the United States to support the French in their new
revolution. Historians sometimes make the argument that Hamilton
represented northern, urban, mercantile/trade interests and Jefferson
represented southern, rural, agrarian interests: a foreshadowing of the Civil
War.
The largest problem that the new country faced was the economy. Secretary
of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton calculated that the U.S. owed $54 million
to its creditors. He designed a plan that not only solved the debt problem of
the U.S. (in a way), but allowed the country to borrow even MORE money.
Hamilton proposed that Congress pass legislation called Funding and
Assumption. In Funding and Assumption, the United States promised to pay
off its debts fully, i.e. it would be funded. How? Treasury would issue new
bonds that would earn interest, say 4%, that bond holders would collect. Old
bonds could be traded in for new bonds. The government wouldn’t pay the
principal, only the interest, on these bonds. In addition, the bonds could be
used as security for private loans. Assumption said that the federal
government would assume the foreign debt of state government and pay
them off, again through the issue of bonds. This would tie investors to the
federal government, not the states.
There was debate in Congress over Hamilton’s proposal. One, it would
benefit the wealthy. Two, it seemed to reward states who had already paid
off their debts. And three, it would increase the power of the federal
government (you would have to put treasury officials all over the United
States to sell bonds). Opposition came especially from James Madison and
Thomas Jefferson. A deal was brokered however, to put the new nation’s
capital in the south, on the Potomac River, and Madison got the southern
votes needed for Funding and Assumption to pass through Congress.
Overnight, the United States’ credit rating went from dismal to sound, and
the economy turned around.
Hamilton then asked Congress to created a central bank, the Bank of the
United States. This bank would hold government money, collect taxes, issue
currency, and issue bonds. Again, Madison and Jefferson opposed Hamilton,
saying that the Constitution did not give the government the power to create
a bank. Hamilton responded with the “doctrine of implied powers”. Since the
Constitution gave the federal government the power to regulate the
economy, it had the power to create a financial institution. Washington
signed the bank bill, and the Bank of the United States was chartered for
twenty years.
Hamilton issued a third recommendation to Congress, the Report on
Manufacturing. The Secretary of the Treasury asked Congress to pass high
tariffs to protect American industry, to stimulate the growth of manufacturing
with grants and subsidies and to finance internal improvements such as
transportation systems to aid in commerce. Thomas Jefferson attacked
Hamilton’s plan on moral grounds. Since commerce and industry depend on
cities, Jefferson proclaimed that all immorality and vice occurred in cities. In
reality, an industrial United States was opposite of Jefferson’s vision of an
agrarian country. Following Jefferson’s warning, Congress ignored Hamilton’s
recommendations and the United States remained primarily agricultural for
the next seventy years.
The political battles between Hamilton and Jefferson led to the creation of the
first two political parties in the United States. The Federalists, led by
Hamilton, believed that the Republicans, led by Jefferson, would ally the
country with the French and their topsy-turvy revolution. The Republicans
(NOT the same party as today) believed that the Federalists wanted to
recreate the aristocratic British system here in the United States. The biggest
conflict between the two parties was not over the economy, but over foreign
policy.
In 1789, the French Revolution started. It soon involved the other nations of
Europe, who declared war on the new French government. Since the French
had helped the United States during its own revolution, by treaty, the U.S.
was bound to ally with the French. On the other hand, you could make the
legal case that that government (the French monarchy) had been
overthrown. The Federalists took the side of Britain and the Republicans took
the side of France, even though the official U.S. position was one of
neutrality.
The British Navy, however, was stopping American merchant ships and
seizing cargo headed for France. Furthermore, the British refused to vacate
forts in the Northwest Territory and move to Canada. Chief Justice John Jay
was sent to London to negotiate a deal with the British government. The
treaty he came home with however, aptly named Jay’s Treaty, was not very
favorable to the Americans. The British would leave the Northwest Territory
and pay for American ships. They would also let the Americans trade with
British colonies. But the British rejected the American stance on neutral
rights. Jay’s Treaty was ratified by the Senate only because President
Washington pressured them to do so.
George Washington retired after two terms of office. While his
presidency remained in living memory, no one would dare serve more than
two terms. He reminded Americans of the legend of Cincinnatus (Google it).
His Farewell Address was not spoken but printed in newspapers. Since he
warned of the dangers of making treaties with foreign nations, it set the
foreign policy of Isolationism for almost one hundred years.
V. John Adams and the Second Administration
John Adams was elected the second president of the United States by three
electoral votes. Because of backstage shenanigans by Alexander Hamilton,
Thomas Jefferson was his vice-president. Adams was handicapped by the fact
that his VP was from a different political party, he was at odds with the
leader of his own party and he kept much of Washington’s cabinet out of
respect for the retired leader, and they had more loyalty to Hamilton than
they did for Adams.
The crisis of Adams' entire administration was what was happening in
Europe. Although the United States had declared its neutrality, and had an
ocean separating it from that warring continent, Adams found himself in a
“Quasi-War” with the French. The French were unhappy with Jay’s Treaty,
and they themselves started seizing American ships. When Adams sent
negotiators to France, the foreign minister Talleyrand refused to meet with
Americans. Instead, three emissaries were sent and they demanded bribes
and a loan from the Americans. Incensed, the Americans went home. The
whole episode is known as the XYZ Affair, since the three French emissaries
were simply named as Mr. X, Mr. Y and Mr. Z in the official report to
Congress.
The XYZ Affair provoked a desire for war in the United States, but President
Adams refused to ask Congress for a declaration. Since the Federalists
controlled Congress, they did authorize a standing army. In addition, the
Alien and Sedition Acts were passed. These acts raised the probationary
period before immigrants could become citizens, gave the president the
power to deport or arrest suspicious foreign citizens and made it a criminal
act to speak out against the government.
The Republicans bitterly denounced the Quasi-War and the Alien and
Sedition Acts. Madison and Jefferson wrote the Virginia and Kentucky
Resolves, which said that the states must protect the rights of the people
against the power of the federal government. The Virginia and Kentucky
Resolves also asked if state legislatures had the power to overturn a federal
law. Although it was political grandstanding at the time, the Virginia and
Kentucky Resolves later became one of the center points of the states’ rights
arguments of the South.
John Adams lost the Election of 1800 to Thomas Jefferson. Did he lose
because of the Alien and Sedition Acts? Or did he lose because in September
of 1800 the Treaty of MorteFontaine was signed with the French, ending the
Quasi-War? Either way, when Jefferson was inaugurated in 1801, it was a
smooth process between one political party to another, and has been ever
since.
During his lame duck months, Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1801 and
Adams appointed several federal judges to the bench, the so-called
“midnight appointments”. The most important of these was Chief Justice John
Marshall.