Growth of a Nation
Articles of Confederation to
Revolution of 1800
Unit 3

Articles of Confederation 1777
 13 Colonies joint action for foreign affairs
 No power to regulate commerce (tariffs and navigation)
 Could not tax
 One branch
 No president

Landmarks in Land Laws
 Land Ordinance of 1785- land should be sold to pay off debt
 Northwest Ordinance 1787- surveyed, created territories, statehood

What was Shay’s Rebellion?
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Side A: working-class, frontier farmers, inner-city laborers, servants, freed African-Americans, small merchants
Side B: “haves”, land owning, slave holding gentry, and international merchants

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Economic depression (separate currencies)
Continental bonuses (barred from holding office/voting)
Farms were seized
Angry mobs
Militia refused to defend the debt courts
Daniel Shays + 700
Sam Adams-Riot Act
Shay's Army disintegrated

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Minor event
Did not spread armed insurrection across the states
Their was no ability for the government to control the rebellion
Foreign attack (Spain and England, Natives)
Nor could the states handle overseas trade or financial issues of the country

What was the Constitutional
Convention?
 Annapolis Convention
 1787 Philadelphia
 Four months, 55 delegates
 George Washington
Two views: “the greatest, the best, and the most enlightened of our citizens”
“An assembly of demigods...the well-bred, well-fed, well-read, and the well-wed”
 Delegates

“The Great Compromise”
 Virginia Plan- large state
 New Jersey- small state
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 Branches of Government
 Bicameral legislative
 Upper/lower
 Senate/ House of Representatives
 2 per state/population
 Three-fifths compromise

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Basic powers and checks

What are checks and balances?

What three-letter word is not in the
Constitution?
Christians
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Protestants***
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Methodist, Presbyterians, Quakers
Catholics
Episcopal (Anglican)
Congregational (Puritan and Separatists)
Atheist
Enlightenment (age of reason and science)

What does e pluribus unum mean?
Benjamin Franklin
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
1776
1873

Who were the Federalists and what were the Federalist Papers?
• Strong central government (Alexander Hamilton,
John Jay, James Madison, George Washington, Ben
Franklin)
• Weak central government (strong states’ rights)
Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, George Clinton,
Richard Henry Lee
Federalist Papers
• Individual liberties
• Liberty v. equality
• Bill of Rights

What was the Bill of Rights?
•Defined?
•Found?
•What is and amendment?
•Living document?
•James Madison 1791
Amendment 1 Freedoms, Petitions,
Assembly
Amendment 2 Right to bear arms
Amendment 3 Quartering of soldiers
Amendment 4 Search and arrest
Amendment 5 Rights in criminal cases
Amendment 6 Right to a fair trial
Amendment 7 Rights in civil cases
Amendment 8 Bail, fines, punishment
Amendment 9 Rights retained by the
People
Amendment 10 States' rights

Amendment 11 Lawsuits against states
Amendment 12 Presidential elections
Amendment 13 Abolition of slavery
Amendment 14 Civil rights
Amendment 15 Black suffrage
Amendment 16 Income taxes
Amendment 17 Senatorial elections
Amendment 18 Prohibition of liquor
Amendment 19 Women's suffrage
Amendment 20 Terms of office
Amendment 21 Repeal of Prohibition
Amendment 22 Term Limits for the Presidency
Amendment 23 Washington, D.C., suffrage
Amendment 24 Abolition of poll taxes
Amendment 25 Presidential succession
Amendment 26 18-year-old suffrage
Amendment 27 Congressional pay raises
9/18/11

Who elected George Washington the first president?
Electoral College
Elected unanimously
538 citizens – the "electors"
270
535 (435/100)

9/18/11

The First Administration Under the
Constitution
• President Washington/ Vice President John Adams
• Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson
• Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton
• Secretary of War Henry Knox
• Chief Justice John Jay
• Difficulties over the political and economic foundations
• First political parties established (Federalists/Democratic-Republicans)
• Achievements: Bill of Rights and Hamilton’s financial system
(assuming state debts, imposing customs and excise taxes, and establishing the First Bank of the United States, Judiciary Act)

The 1790 Census
3, 929, 625 population
700,000 slaves
60,000
1/2 south
Virginia 820,000
Cities: NYC 33,000 and Philly 42,000

Why didn’t Jefferson like Hamilton?
“No other statesman has personified national power and the rule of the favored few so well as Hamilton, and no other has glorified self-government and the freedom of the individual to such a degree as Jefferson”
Dumas Malone
Jefferson- despised monarchy (weak government and democracy of farmers and workers)
Hamilton- government control by the merchant and banking class

Financial disaster (foreign and domestic)
France and the Netherland
Excise taxes (whiskey) and tariffs
Two Key Plans
1.
Report on Public Credit
-Federal Government assume the debt of the states (national debt)
-Securities
2. National Bank (federal funds, collect and dispense tax money, print money)
80% private investors

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Asset
5 years highest credit rating

Interpretation of the Constitution:
Strict v. Loose
Jefferson-National bank unconstitutional
1791, 20 year charter in Philadelphia

• Hamilton and Washington felt the protest was a test for the Federal government (can it maintain itself)
• 12000 men to Pennsylvania
• Resistors had no army, simply went back to farms
• Back to Philadelphia with no true victory
• Significance?

Jefferson (south)
Hamilton (North)
Two-party system emerged
Democratic-Republicans and the Federalist

The French Revolution
• Created a political division over foreign policy
• Washington’s neutrality proclamation angered
Democratic-Republicans, who wanted to aid revolutionary France.
• Washington’s policy ( Neutrality Proclamation Act) was tested by the British, who violated American neutrality
• Hamilton-British
• Jefferson-France

Jay’s Treaty
• Washington sent John Jay to Britain to settle a commerce treaty, loose ends after revolution
• Treaty was lopsided with benefits to England
• Hamilton left cabinet returned to law
• Washington decided not to run for a 3rd term

Washington’s Farewell Address

Was George Washington killed by his doctors?

• 1 st true presidential race
Federalists-
Adams, Hamilton
• Democratic Republicans-
Jefferson, Aaron Burr
President John Adams / Vice President Jefferson
Issue?
9/18/11

John Adams: Issues
• First major challenge: foreign policy
• By 1796- American support for French low because of the “Reign of Terror’
• American trade was vulnerable to the naval power of France’s adversary, the British
• British were seizing American ships, presuming they were aiding the French

XYZ Affair:
“Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute”
• The French, as a response to Jay’s Treaty, also began seizing
American ships WHY?
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Adams sent Charles Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge
Gerry to meet and negotiate with the French Directory
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The 3 French negotiators stated that things would run smoothly with an immediate payment of $240,000
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Adams sent a summary of the event to congress, and replaced the names of the French officials with X, Y, Z
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Congress authorized-seizure of French ships direct tax to bulk up the U.S. Navy
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Undeclared naval war-quasi war

Alien and Sedition Acts
• Naturalization Act- increase the amount of time it took to become a citizen. (to keep power away from people born in other countries)
• Sedition Act-potential traitors: imprisonment or fines for writing or speaking with intent to defame the president or congress
• Jefferson and Madison secretly drafted resolutions to these acts and they were approved by the state legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky (Virginia and
Kentucky Resolutions), used the powers of the Tenth
Amendment
• Pressure to repeal 1799

Why a Revolution????