THE INFANT REPUBLIC
George Washington
was unanimously
elected President in
1789.
Washington established the tradition of the
presidential cabinet, appointing Henry
Knox Secretary of War, Thomas Jefferson
Secretary of State, & Alexander Hamilton
Secretary of the Treasury.
Hamilton
established a threepart plan to
strengthen the new
nation’s finances.
Hamilton advocated assuming all debts of
the states, and paying those as well as the
national debt in full in order to establish the
nation’s credit-worthiness.
Hamilton planned to
generate revenue to
pay off the debt via
an 8% tariff as well
as with several
excise taxes.
Hamilton also argued for the
First Bank of the United States, to regulate
the availability of money in the new nation.
Thomas Jefferson took a
strict constructionist view in arguing
against the Bank, while
loose constructionist Alexander Hamilton
successfully invoked the
“necessary & proper” (elastic) clause to
justify federal investment in the bank.
The disagreement between the viewpoints
of Jefferson and Hamilton led to the
creation of the nation’s
first political parties, the Federalists and the
Democratic-Republicans.
Another unintended consequence of
Hamilton’s plan was the
Whiskey Rebellion, a Pennsylvania
uprising against the excise tax which
crumbled against the threat of the federal
military.
President Washington also
hoped to forestall bloodshed
by issuing the Neutrality
Proclamation of 1793,
endeavoring to remain outside
the war raging between France
and Great Britain.
The US did go to war with the Miami,
Shawnee, and Wyandot Indians, achieving
victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers
which gave the nation control of the land
between the Ohio River and the Great
Lakes thanks to the Treaty of Greenville.
The Washington
administration also
negotiated a much less
popular agreement with
Great Britain known as
Jay’s Treaty, which
promised payment for
seized American ships in
exchange for US payment
of pre-Revolutionary War
debts.
Pinckney’s Treaty
of 1795 granted
the United States
free navigation of
the Mississippi
and disputed land
between Georgia
and Spanish
Florida.
President Washington warned against
partisanship, permanent alliances and
involvement in European affairs in his
Farewell Address, at which time he
established the precedent of a President
serving no more than two terms.
The election of 1796 saw Vice President
John Adams narrowly defeat
Thomas Jefferson to become the
last Federalist President, with
Jefferson serving as Vice President.
Adams burnished his reputation with his
handling of the XYZ Affair in which he
refused to bribe the French government,
still angered over Jay’s Treaty,
to meet with American emissaries.
Adams’ stance led to the
Convention of 1800, which
ended the Franco-American alliance
in exchange for the US paying damages
inflicted upon American vessels by the
French Navy.
The emboldened Federalists tried to
capitalize on their political gains by passing
a trio of repressive laws.
1. The Naturalization Act increased the waiting
time for immigrants to become citizens from
5 to 14 years.
2. The Alien Acts allowed for the detention or
deportation of “dangerous” foreigners.
3. The Sedition Act made criticism of the
federal government in the press illegal.
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
anonymously crafted the
Kentucky & Virginia Resolutions in
response to these laws, asserting the belief
that the US was a compact of states
conferring authority upon the national
government, and that states possessed the
right of nullification to ignore unjust
federal legislation.
The DemocraticRepublicans capitalized on
growing animosity toward
Federalist policy to win
control of both the
presidency and Congress in
the election of 1800,
setting a precedent for the
peaceful transition of
power from one party to
another.
The newly-elected
President Jefferson sought to ease the
Federalist imprint upon government policy,
but with conflicting results.
Jefferson engineered a
repeal of federal excise taxes and a
reduction of the national debt.
However, . . .
Chief Justice John
Marshall authored a
number of Supreme
Court decisions which
cemented Federalist
policy in spite of the
change in political
power.
Marbury v. Madison
(1803)
Established the power of judicial review,
which gave the US Supreme Court the
power to determine the constitutionality of
congressional legislation.
Fletcher v. Peck
(1810)
Dartmouth College
v. Woodward (1819)
Established the
sanctity of contracts
and protected them
from state
interference.
McCullough v. Maryland
(1819)
Established the doctrine of
implied powers and protected
the federal government from
taxation by the states, stating
“the power to tax is the
power to destroy.”
Cohens v. Virginia (1803)
Established the power of the
US Supreme Court to review the verdicts
of state supreme courts.
Gibbons v. Ogden (1821)
Reinforced federal control of interstate
commerce.
In spite of his strict constructionist belief that
the federal government lacked the constitutional
authority to do so, in 1803 Jefferson purchased
the Louisiana Territory from France for
$15,000,000, ensuring access to the Mississippi
and doubling the territory of the United States.