Politics and Society in the New Republic 1787–1820
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Chapter 7 Politics and Society in the New Republic 1787–1820 Teaching Resources sisted that only the president could re- move them. Chapter Instructional Objectives 3. The Judiciary Act of 1789 created a hierar- chical federal court system with a federal After you have taught this chapter, your students district court in each state as well as three should be able to answer the following questions: circuit courts to hear appeals. 4. The Judiciary Act permitted constitutional 1. What were the differences between Hamilton’s and matters to be appealed to the Supreme Jefferson’s visions of the operation and the role of Court, which had the final say. government? 5. The Federalists added the Bill of Rights to 2. What effects did the French Revolution have on the Constitution, which safeguarded cer- American policy and decision making? tain fundamental rights and mandated certain legal procedures to protect the in- 3. How and why did public policy and economic in- dividual. centives inspire settlers and speculators to migrate B. Hamilton’s Financial Program westward? What were the consequences of this mi- 1. The Federalists divided into two irrecon- gration for Native Americans? cilable factions over financial policy, with 4. What was Jefferson’s vision for the future of Amer- Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jeffer- ican government and society? How did he imple- son defining contrasting views of the ment his beliefs during his presidency? American future. 2. Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the 5. What were the policies of the Republican presi- Treasury, devised bold and controversial dents between 1801 and 1820? How did they con- policies to enhance the authority of the trast with the Federalist programs of the 1790s? national government and to favor finan- 6. How and why was the War of 1812 fought? What ciers and seaport merchants. was the significance of its outcome? 3. Hamilton’s Report on the Public Credit asked Congress to redeem millions of dol- Chapter Annotated Outline lars in securities issued by the Confedera- tion, providing windfall profits to specula- I. The Political Crisis of the 1790s tors and creating a permanent national A. The Federalists Implement the Constitution debt owned mostly by wealthy families. 1. Federalists swept the election of 1788; 4. The House rejected James Madison’s pro- members of the Electoral College chose posal for helping the shopkeepers, farm- George Washington as president, and John ers, and soldiers who were the original Adams became vice president. owners of the Confederation securities. 2. The Constitution gave the president the 5. Congress approved Hamilton’s second power to appoint major officials with the proposal that the national government as- consent of the Senate, but Washington in- sume the war debts of the states (which 101 102 Chapter 7: Politics and Society in the New Republic, 1787–1820 unleashed a flurry of speculation and 4. The ideological conflicts sharpened the some government corruption) after debate over Hamilton’s economic policies Hamilton agreed to reimburse those states and brought on disruptions such as the that had already paid off much of their Whiskey Rebellion, a protest against new war debt and supported locating the per- excise taxes on spirits. manent national capital along the banks 5. In 1793 the Royal Navy began to prey on of the Potomac. American ships bound for France from 6. Hamilton asked Congress to charter the the West Indies. Bank of the United States, to be jointly 6. To avoid war, John Jay was sent to Britain owned by private stockholders and the na- and returned with a treaty that Republi- tional government. cans denounced as too conciliatory. 7. Washington signed the legislation creating 7. As long as the Federalists were in power, the bank, although Jefferson and Madison the United States would have a pro-British charged that a national bank was uncon- foreign policy. stitutional because the Constitution did E. The Rise of Political Parties not specifically provide for one. 1. State and national constitutions made no 8. At Hamilton’s insistence, Congress im- provisions for political parties because posed a variety of domestic excise taxes they were considered unnecessary and and modestly increased tariffs on foreign dangerous. imports. Hamilton did not support a high 2. Merchants, creditors, and urban artisans protective tariff that would exclude com- favored Federalist policies, while the Re- peting foreign productions. Instead, he fa- publican coalition included support from vored revenue tariffs that would pay the farmers and planters. interest on the debt and defray the ex- 3. During the election of 1796, the Federalists penses of the national government. celebrated Washington’s achievements, and 9. Increased trade and customs revenue al- Republicans invoked the egalitarian princi- lowed the treasury to pay for Hamilton’s ples of the Declaration of Independence. redemption and assumption programs. 4. Federalists elected John Adams as presi- C. Jefferson’s Agrarian Vision dent, and he continued Hamilton’s pro- 1. By 1793 most northern Federalists ad- British foreign policy. hered to the political alliance led by 5. Responding to the XYZ Affair, the Feder- Hamilton and most southerners to a rival alist-controlled Congress cut off trade group headed by Madison and Jefferson, with France and authorized American pri- the Republicans. vateers to seize French ships, which ex- 2. Jefferson pictured a West settled by farm tended party conflict begun over Hamil- families whose grain and meat would feed ton’s economic policies to foreign affairs. Europeans in exchange for clothing and F. Constitutional Crisis, 1798–1800 other comforts. 1. To silence their critics, Federalists enacted 3. During the 1790s, Jefferson’s vision was a series of coercive measures—the Natu- fulfilled as warfare disrupted European ralization Act, the Alien Act, and the Sedi- farming. tion Act—which created a constitutional 4. Simultaneously, a boom in the export of crisis. raw cotton boosted the economy of the 2. Republicans charged that the Sedition Act lower South. violated the First Amendment’s prohibi- D. The French Revolution Divides Americans tion against abridging the freedom of 1. American merchants profited from the speech or of the press. European war because a Proclamation of 3. At Republicans’ urging, the Kentucky and Neutrality allowed American citizens to Virginia legislatures declared the Alien trade with both sides. and Sedition Acts to be void, resolutions 2. The American merchant fleet increased that set forth a states’ rights interpreta- dramatically, commercial earnings rose, tion of the Constitution. and work was available to thousands of 4. Republicans strongly supported Jefferson’s Americans. bid for the presidency in 1800. 3. Even as they prospered from the European 5. Adams rejected the advice of Federalists to struggle, Americans argued passionately declare war on France and instead negoti- over its ideologies and events. ated an end to the fighting. Chapter 7: Politics and Society in the New Republic, 1787–1820 103 6. Jefferson won a narrow 73 to 65 victory in depleted soils and planter elite of the the Electoral College, but Republicans also Chesapeake region. gave 73 votes to Aaron Burr, sending the 3. Though poor migrants to Kentucky and election to the House of Representatives. Tennessee believed they had a customary 7. Federalists in the House blocked Jeffer- right to occupy “waste vacant lands,” the son’s election until Hamilton, declaring Virginia government allowed them to pur- Burr “unfit” for the presidency, persuaded chase up to 1,400 acres of land at reduced key Federalists to vote for Jefferson. prices but sold or granted estates of 8. The bloodless transfer of power demon- 20,000 to 200,000 acres to wealthy indi- strated that governments elected by the viduals and partnerships. people could be changed in an orderly 4. A second stream of migrants, dominated way, even amidst bitter partisan conflict by slave-owning planters and their en- and foreign crisis. It was therefore termed slaved workers, moved along the coastal by Jefferson the “Revolution of 1800.” plain of the Gulf of Mexico into the future II. The Westward Movement and the Jeffersonian states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Revolution Louisiana. A. The Expanding Republic and Native Ameri- 5. Cotton financed the rapid settlement of can Resistance this region as well as the expansion of 1. Invoking the Treaty of Paris and viewing slavery into the Old Southwest as techno- Britain’s Indian allies as conquered peoples, logical breakthroughs increased the de- the United States government asserted its mand for raw wool and cotton. ownership of the trans-Appalachian west; 6. Seeking land for their children, a third Native Americans rejected this claim and stream of migrants flowed out of the over- pointed out that they had not signed the crowded communities of New England treaty and had never been conquered. into New York, Indiana, and Ohio. 2. In 1784 the United States used military 7. In New York, speculators snapped up threat to force the pro-British Iroquois much of the best land and attracted ten- peoples to sign the Treaty of Fort Stanwix ants to work it by offering farms rent-free and relinquish much of their land in New for seven years, after which they charged York and Pennsylvania. rents. Many New England yeomen pre- 3. Farther to the west, the United States in- ferred the Holland Land Company, which duced Indian peoples to give up most of allowed settlers to buy the land as they the future state of Ohio. worked it, but high interest rates and the 4. The Indians formed a Western Confeder- lack of markets initially mired thousands acy to defend themselves against aggres- of these freeholders in debt. sive settlers and forced a compromise 8. Unable to compete against low-priced peace in the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.