D.) The Bill of Rights
1.) Americans feared strong central
governments and they wanted the Constitution
to include guarantees of personal liberties.
* now remember they wanted to rule by the
people, not another king
2.) Congress passed 10 Amendments that
limit the powers of government and protect the
rights of individual liberty; they were called The
Bill of Rights.
3.) The Bill of Rights was added to the
Constitution in 1791.
II. Financial Problems
A. The National Debt
1.) The national debt is the amount of
money that the U.S. government owes.
B. Hamilton’s Plan
1.) The Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander
Hamilton, wanted to pay off the national debt the money owed by the Confederation
government to other countries and to individual
American citizens.
* The only time the U.S. bill were paid and there
was no national debt was with Alexander
Hamilton after his plan was passed by George
Washington and Congress
2.) Alexander Hamilton believed that since
the states had fought for the nations
independence in the Revolutionary War,
that the nation / the federal government
should pay the states back for the cost of
their help. He believed that if the nation /
the federal government paid the states’
debts that the states would want the
success of the national government.
C.) Opposition to the Plan
1.) Congress agreed to pay back the money
that the U.S. owed to other nations that
helped the U.S in the American
Revolution. (i.e. France)
2.) When the government borrowed money
during the American Revolution, it had
issued bonds - paper notes promising to
repay the money in a certain amount of
time – to regular people such as;
shopkeepers, farmers and soldiers.
3.) Many people who bought the bonds
got impatient waiting for the bonds to
be repaid, so they sold them to
speculators – people who risk money to
make a big profit – so the speculators
would be the ones to get repaid under
Hamilton’s plan, and this made the original
bond holders mad.
4.) The Southern states were not happy with
Hamilton’s plan because they had
accumulated less debt than the northern
states and they complained that they would
have to pay more than their share.
* Every state would have to pay the same
amount of money to pay back the bonds
5.) People liked Hamilton’s plan to pay back
nations but they didn’t like his plan to pay
back states.
* Mostly the South didn’t like it because they
felt that they had little invested in the bonds
so they shouldn’t have to repay them
D.) Compromise results in a Capital
1.) To win support for his plan, Hamilton agreed to
a proposal from the Southern leaders to move the
capital of the United States to the South – it was
moved to a special district between Virginia and
Maryland along the banks of the Potomac River. It
became Washington D.C.
*The land was donated by Virginia and Maryland so
that the capitol could be on neutral ground. This
is why Washington is; Washington in the District
of Columbia – Washington D.C. is not a state—so
the government can not favor the people of one
state or another.
Compare with: FOR or AGAINST
ISSUES
NATIONAL
BANK
PROECTIVE
TARIFF
NATIONAL
TAXES
HAMILTON
JEFFERSON
III Building the Economy
• Alexander Hamilton wanted to
build a strong national
economy. He asked congress
to create a national bank and
call it The Bank of the United
States. This Bank Still exists
today.
A) The Fight Over the Bank
1) In 1792 there were only 8 other banks in
the U.S. and they were states banks.
2) Madison and Jefferson said the bank
was unconstitutional-that the Constitution
had no provisions creating such an
institution.
3) The president (George Washington)
agreed with Hamilton and signed the bill
creating the National Bank.
B) Tariffs and Taxes
1) At the time most Americans were farmers.
2) Alexander Hamilton thought that the
development of manufacturing (factories)
would make America’s economy stronger.
3) Hamilton proposed a tariff- a tax on
imports-to encourage people to buy
American products and protect American
industry from foreign competition.
*An example would be buying silk from China and furniture
from Europe.
*Hamilton said buy American
4) Hamilton did not get support for the
protective tariffs because the South did not
have a lot of industry and opposed the
protective tariff, but he won support in
Congress for some low tariffs to raise
money.
5) By the 1790’s the revenue-money-from
tariffs provided 90% of the national
governments income.
6) Alexander Hamilton’s economic program
gave the government new financial
powers, but split the Congress and the
people of the U.S. because there were
many people including Thomas Jefferson
and James Madison who feared a national
government with strong economic powers
that was dominated by the wealthy class.
• U.S. needed a stronger national
government than they previously had with
the Articles of Confederation
• Constitution gave foundation for a strong
national government
• Too strong~ like a king
• Too little authority~ no control
• They wanted the people of the U.S. to have
an equal say in the money and politics of
the U.S. --Democracy
• Thomas Jefferson was afraid that a neutral
government with strong economic powers
that was run/dominated by the wealthy
class would not consider the poor and
middle class people or treat them fairly in
being taxed
Pg. 262
Analyzing Primary Sources
Hamilton said about Washington,
“He consulted much, pondered
much, resolved slowly, resolved
surely.”
Question: Did this make
Washington a good first
president? Explain.
Section 2: EARLY CHALLENGES
• Neutrality- a position of not taking sides in
a conflict
• Impressment- forcing people into service,
as into the navy
• Surplus-extra,excess
• Barter-trade,exchange
Whiskey
Rebellion
• Hamilton’s taxes led to rebellion in
Western Pennsylvania
– Surplus of corn
– Produce Whiskey from corn
– Live off of bartering
– Taxed
– How could they pay when they had no cash?
Peaceful resistance until 1794
-Federal officers began to make a greater
effort to collect the taxes
-People resisted
-Tax collectors were attacked with
pitchforks, guns, swords, etc…
-Tax collectors houses were burned down
• Government leaders became alarmed at
the armed protest
• Washington and his advisors sent and
army to crush the rebellion
• This action placed new procedures into
play
How to handle disagreement…
“Washington served notice to those who
opposed government actions. If citizens
wished to change the law, they had to do
so peacefully, through constitutional
means. Government would use force
when necessary to maintain the social
order.” p264
THINK?????
How did the Whiskey
Rebellion affect the way
government handled
protesters?
Struggle Over the West
• Native Americans living between the Appalachian
Mountains and the Mississippi River said that the U.S.
had no authority over them.
• Turn to pg. RA3 in front of book—put your finger on
the space between the Appalachian Mountains an the
Mississippi River-----• Catskills, NY~ Poconos, N.J. PA ~ Adirondacks,
upstate NY ~ Blue Ridge Mountains VA……All part of
the Appalachian Mountains
• Turn to pg. RA6 to see what was ours ( the United
States in 1787)
• Great Britain and Spain helped the Native
Americans go against the United States because
Great Britain and Spain wanted to settle the
Northwest territory
• Washington signed treaties with the Native
American tribes to weaken the influence of Great
Britain and Spain
• Washington did his best to stop the Native
Americans from running to Spain and Great Britain
for help.
• American settlers ignored treaties and moved onto
the lands that had been promised to the Native
Americans
• Fighting broke out between the groups
• Washington sent an army under General Arthur
St. Clair to restore order in the Northwest territory.
• The British still had forts in the region an they
wanted to keep their profitable fur trade
• The British were worried that the French would
help the Americans and in 1794 the British told
the Native Americans to destroy American
settlements west of the Appalacians.
Battle of Fallen Timbers
• The Native Americans demanded that all
settlers north of the Ohio river leave the
territory
• Washington sent an army, led by General
Anthony Wayne, to challenge their
demands and in August 1794 his army
defeated over 1,000 Native Americans at
the Battle of Fallen Timbers
• As a result of the Battle of Fallen Timbers,
the U.S. and the Native Americans signed
a treaty, The Treaty of Greenville, in 1795,
in which the Native Americans agreed to
give most of the land in present day Ohio
to the United States.
Problems with Europe
• The French Revolution began in 1789 and because the
French had helped the Americans in the American
Revolution many people in America were happy for the
French-they compared it to the American Revolution
• By 1793 the French Revolution turned bloody when leaders
of the revolution executed the King and Queen of France
along with thousands of French citizens
• The violence in the French Revolution, it’s attack on religion
and attack on individual liberties offended many Americans
and public opinion in the Unites States started to dividenothing like the American Revolution
• Britain and France went to war in 1793
• Some Americans, mainly in the south
sympathized with France
• Some Americans, especially manufacturers
and merchants, who traded with the British
favored the British
• Hamilton, Adams and their supporters
were pro-British, but Jefferson was proFrench, because he thought that if the
French won, that it would help drive the
British out of America
• George Washington wanted the nation to
stay neutral and not take sides
Washington Proclaims Neutrality
• In April 1793 the French sent a diplomat,
Edmond Genet to the United States to recruit
American volunteers to attack British ships
• On April 22 George in Washington issued a
proclamation of neutrality that forbid American
citizens from fighting the war and barred French
and British warships from American ports
• A few hundred Americans signed up to serve on
French ships before Washington’s proclamation of
neutrality
• The French ships with Americans on them seized
British ships and stole their cargoes, (before
Washington closed the American ports) and because
of this the British became enraged and started
capturing American ships that traded with the French.
They sometimes forced their crews to join the British
Navy (this is called impressment)
• Impressment infuriated Americans, and
combined with the British and Indian
challenge in the West, pushed America
closer to war with Great Britain
Controversial Treaty
• President Washington sent John Jay,
Chief Justice of the supreme court, to
negotiate a treaty with Great Britain.
• The British were willing to listen to Jay’s
proposal, because war with the United
States would make it harder to carry on
the war with France and the United States
was Britain’s best market for trade
• In Jay’s Treaty the British agreed to leave
America, to pay damages for ships they had
seized, and to allow some American ships to
trade with British colonies in the Caribbean
• The treaty allowed for debts from before 1776
to be settled
• Not many Americans liked Jay’s treaty because
it did not deal with impressment and it did not
deal with interference with American trade
Treaty With Spain
• In 1795 Thomas Pinckney went to Spain
to make a treaty with them
• Pinckney’s treaty allowed Americans to
travel the Mississippi freely and the right to
trade at the port of New Orleans.
Washington’s Farewell
• Washington set a precedent by choosing
to serve only two terms
• Washington left office, afraid of the growth
of political parties and U.S. involvement in
foreign affairs
• Washington’s opinions can be summed up
in the quote on pg. 266
I.
The First Political Parties
A. Opposing Views
1) Americans today call George Washington,
‘America’s Greatest Leader’, but during his two
terms there were harsh attacks on his policies
and his personality in newspapers.
2) By 1796 Americans were beginning to divide
into political parties.
3) Hamilton and Jefferson often took opposing
sides on political issues.
4) Washington usually supported Hamilton
B. Political Parties emerge
1) By the mid-1790’s two distinct political parties had
emerged
2) The parties were the Federalist and DemocraticRepublicans
3) The Federalist stood for a strong central
government
4) The Democratic-Republicans wanted to limit
government’s power
5) The Federalists: admired the British and
distrusted the French; favored banking and
shipping interests; had strong support in the
Northeast, especially New England, and from
wealthy plantation owners in the South.
6) The Democratic-Republicans: supported the
French; their supporters were small farmers
and urban workers, especially in the Middle
Atlantic states and the South.
C. Views on the Constitution
1) Hamilton believed in a more liberal
interpretation of ‘implied’ powers than
Jefferson and Madison.
2) Hamilton believed that the ‘implied
powers’ were those powers not expressively
forbidden by the Constitution.
3) Jefferson and Madison believed that
‘implied powers’ should only be used to
carry out the expressed powers of the
Constitution.
D. The People’s Role
1) The Federalists supported representative
government
2) The Democratic-Republicans supported a
direct government
E. Washington’s Dilemma
1) Washington respected both Hamilton and
Jefferson, and he tried to get them to work
together.
2) In 1793 Hamilton resigned as Secretary of
the Treasury and Jefferson resigned as the
Secretary of State.
F. The Election of 1796
1) The presidential election of 1796 was the first one
where candidates for office came from different
parties.
2) The Federalists and the (Democratic) Republicans
held meetings called caucuses to elect the
candidate from their party.
3) John Adams and Charles Pinckney ran for
president and vice-president for the Federalists
4) Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr ran for president
and vice-president for the Republicans
5) The man with the highest number of
votes won the presidency, and the man
with the second highest number of votes
won the vice-presidency, and so John
Adams was elected president and Thomas
Jefferson was elected vice-president.
II. President John Adams
REMEMBER: John Adams was an active
patriot and former ambassador to France
and Great Britain. He helped to negotiate
The Treaty of Paris that ended the
American Revolution and he served two
terms under president George Washington
as vice-president.
A. The XYZ Affair
1) REMEMBER: The French thought that ‘Jay’s
Treaty’ of 1794, was an American to attempt to
help the British in the war with France, so they
were seizing American ships that carried British
cargo.
2) Adams wanted to avoid war with France so he sent
a delegation to Paris to try to work out a
compromise.
3) The French foreign minister, Charles de
Talleyrand, refused to meet with the Americans
and instead he sent three agents who demanded
a bribe and a loan for France from Americans.
4) John Adams was furious and he told
Congress to prepare for war.
5) The incident became known as
The XYZ Affair.
B. Undeclared War With France
1) In response, in 1798, Congress established the
Navy Department, set aside money for building
warships, and increased the size of the army.
2) Congress appointed George Washington as the
commanding general.
3) United States and France vessels clashed
between 1798 and 1800.
4) War was never formally declared, but in 1800
John Adams’ America and France made an
agreement that ensured peace.
5) REMEMBER: The Republican party
previously supported France and they
were reluctant to turn on them, so in the
election of 1798 many Republicans were
voted out of office.