Download B. The New American House 2. The New Nation Takes Form i

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B. The New American House
2.
The New Nation Takes Form
i. Purpose: Through a combination of their own research, key terms, primary
documents, and the lecture, students will shape their own understanding of how
the Constitution’s ratification positively affected the new nation’s development.
Particular attention will be paid to the search for stability that characterized the
1790s, as well as the numerous important changes that were happening in areas
such as agriculture, finance, and commerce. Also, relations with Indians,
Europeans, and between Americans shall be investigated, with a special
emphasis on the formation of political parties for the first time in American
history.
ii. Background Website:
1.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/subtitles.cfm?titleID=20
iii. Key terms:
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The First Bank of the United States
The Whiskey Rebellion
The Neutrality Proclamation
The XYZ Affair
The Alien and Sedition Acts
iv. Key Concepts:
1.
How did the Whiskey Rebellion demonstrate the resolve of the new
country?
2.
To what extent did events external to America influence the formation
of political parties?
3.
In which way did Alexander Hamilton desire the country to develop?
4.
Why was the Sedition Act unconstitutional?
5.
What is significant about the responses to the Sedition Act?
v. Document:
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The Sedition Act
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/statutes/sedact.htm
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Lecture on the New Nation Takes Form
I.
The Search for Stability
a. The Bill of Rights
"...a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or
particular, and what no government should refuse or rest on inference."
Thomas Jefferson
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Seven states had bills of rights protecting fundamental freedoms from government
infringement. Among the rights that were guaranteed were freedom of the press, of
speech, and of religion, and the right to a jury trial.
However, some people thought the Constitution should have been prefaced with a Bill of
Rights, but others, for example, James Madison, feared that by specifying certain rights
for protection might suggest that other rights might be tampered with.
But there was a huge swell of pressure for a Bill of Rights. State ratification conventions
proposed more than two hundred proposed amendments. From these proposals, Madison
produced 19 possible amendments, 12 of which the Congress accepted, and 10 of which
the states approved:
I.
II.
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VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
Freedom of religion, speech, and the press, and the right of assembly and to
petition government
Right to bear arms
Quartering of troops
Searches and seizures
Rights in criminal cases
Rights to a fair trial
Rights in civil cases
Bails, fine, and punishments
Rights retained by the people
Powers retained by the states and the people
b. The Right to Vote
Significantly, no one complained about the fact that the right to vote had been omitted from the Bill of
Rights…
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The Constitution deliberately left all decisions about defining voters to the individual
states (in order to promote stability)
Most states upheld property requirements to be able to vote as it was thought that only
property owners would be independent enough to vote in perfect freedom
This left out: slaves, servants, apprentices, tenants, children, wives, and a new and
growing class of propertyless wage laborers at the lower end of the social scale
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c. The Republican Wife and Mother
The exclusion of women from politics did not mean that they had no civic role or responsibility….Writers,
both male and female, in the 1790s reevaluated courtship, marriage, and motherhood in light of republican
ideals. Unlimited, tyrannical power in the rule, whether king or husband, was now declared a thing of the
past. Affection, not duty, bound wives to their husbands and citizens to their government.
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The power relations of republican marriage were supposed to mirror the power relations
of civil society. Specifically, the writers claimed that women had the capacity to reform
the manners and morals of men.
By upholding public virtue, women bolstered political liberty (sexual chastity promoting
good morals!)
Republican ideals cast motherhood in a new light as well, centering on the importance of
mothers as the teachers of virtuous sons
d. Counting on progress
Concern over the potential failure of the “Great Experiment” led some people to adopt empirical
reasoning to prove the progress of the new nation
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II.
The popularity of data collection was grounded in the assumption that progress was
measurable and that bigger meant better
“Statistics” became the new word that came to describe such data collection
As an outgrowth of this obsession with numbers, came the reform of the country’s
money system: English, state, continental, and foreign money were all being used
(commercial nightmare!) – Thomas Jefferson came up with the decimalized
system which made things a lot simpler and allowed average people to participate
more fully in the widening world of commerce.
Sources of Economic Change
Following a decade of severe economic instability, the 1790s ushered in a period of prosperity and
sustained economic growth. New agricultural opportunities, transportation improvements, and innovations
in finance were beginning to transform not only the economy but the way ordinary men and women thought
about their work and their chances for bettering their lives. The simplified monetary system and serious
attention to arithmetic training allowed many more people to participate confidently in the world of
commercial exchange….
a. Commercial Agriculture
From at least the mid-18th century, most farmers had participated in market transactions at local stores
and in nearby towns. Self-sufficiency was simply not possible in a society where a taste for some of the
luxuries of life had taken hold….
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Grain production soared in 1790’s America and became a very valuable export
However, the single-most-important invention in 18th century agriculture came in the
cotton industry.
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In 1793 Eli Whitney, a clever young Yale graduate, invented the cotton gin, which meant
that cotton could be cleaned up to 50 times faster than by hand
In the south, cotton production skyrocketed: In 1792, approximately 140,000 pounds of
cotton were grown; by 1800 this figure had reached 35 MILLION pounds!
Cotton fever had gripped the South, with momentous and chilling consequences for the 1
million enslaved black Americans living there
b. Transportation
In the 1790s, east-to-west road building commenced….
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The lack of decent roads was hindering the nation’s commercial development, so private
companies, under charter by state governments, started building turnpike roads
Western roads greatly facilitated the migration of settlers, but they were too slow to allow
an economical movement of heavy, bulky agricultural products like grain.
Consequently, western farmers usually opted to distill their surplus into a much more
compact form—wheat and rye whiskeys—for transport to eastern markets (for example
Jack Daniels in TN)
c. Merchants and Capital
The surge in the overseas grain and cotton trades stimulated the growth of the commercial classes in the
seacoast cities of the new nation.
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III.
The surge in the overseas grain and cotton trades stimulated the growth of the
commercial classes—the merchants—in the seacoast cities of the new nation, and helped
them become very rich
Related to this was the growth in the number of banks (there were 3 in 1790 and over 100
by 1810) as the banks helped merchants and speculators invest in expensive and
potentially lucrative projects
Hamilton’s Political Economy
In the 1790s there were growing political rifts, and Alexander Hamilton, the new nation’s head of the
Treasury, was at the center of the escalating controversy
a. The Public Debt and Taxes
“A national debt if not excessive will be to us a national blessing; it will be a powerful cement of our union
Alexander Hamilton
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Owing to the financial instability and political insecurity of the 1780s, America found
herself with a public debt worth some $52 million – the big question of the 1790s was
what to do about it
Hamilton’s plan basically meant that the US would issues new bonds and promise to pay
back the money within 40 years
He also took the much bolder step of adding another $25 million to the national debt!
The clever thing about Hamilton’s plan was that only about 2% of the white population
held the largest portions of the debt; therefore, now these influential men would have a
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direct stake in the government, support that Hamilton regarded as essential to the
government’s stability.
In order to be able to make the interest payments on the debt, Hamilton raised the taxes
on whiskey by 25%
He intended for the nation to drink down the national debt!
b. The First Bank of the United States
Believing that banks were the “nurseries of national wealth,” Hamilton modeled his plan on the Bank of
England: a private corporation that worked primarily for the public good.
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Hamilton’s 1790 plan for a national bank was for it to help stabilize the economy, exert
prudent control over credit, interest rates, and the value of the currency
c. The Report on Manufactures
The third component of Hamilton’s plan was set out in December 1791 in the Report on Manufactures, a
proposal to encourage the production of American-made goods
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Manufacturing was in its infancy in 1790, as a result of years of dependency on British
imports
Hamilton recognized that a balanced and self-reliant economy required the US to produce
its own cloth and iron products
The Report on Manufactures was the one Hamiltonian plan not approved by Congress.
The plan sought to impose tariffs and impose subsidies to encourage the growth of local
manufacturing
d. The Whiskey Rebellion
Hamilton may have been a financial genius, but he still could make serious political mistakes, as his excise
tax on whiskey showed.
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The Whiskey Rebellion, 1794, was an uprising in the Pennsylvania counties west of the
Alleghenies, caused by Alexander Hamilton's excise tax of 1791.
The settlers, mainly Scotch-Irish, for whom whiskey was an important economic
commodity, resented the tax as discriminatory and detrimental to their liberty and
economic welfare.
There were many public protests, and rioting broke out in 1794 against the central
government's efforts to enforce the law.
Troops called out by President Washington quelled the rioting, and resistance evaporated.
Nevertheless Hamilton sought to make an example of the settlers and illustrate the newly
created government's power to enforce its law; many were arrested.
President Washington pardoned the two rebels who were convicted of treason.
This rebellion was very important because it proved that the new government had the
power and the will to enforce its laws
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IV.
Conflicts West and East
Washington’s second term began in 1793, after a smooth and again unanimous reelection. But as the
Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated, the widespread admiration for the individual man did not translate to
complete domestic tranquility.
a. To the West: Indians
By the Treaty of Paris of 1783, England had given up all land east of the Mississippi River to the United
States. But unfortunately this land was not entirely England’s to give….
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A doubled American population, from 2.5 million in 1770 to 5 million in 1790, created
an insistent pressure for western land
Bloody frontier raids and skirmishes between settlers and Indians led the US to expand its
military forces north of the Ohio River
Things came to a head, and so in the fall of 1791, General Arthur St. Clair led a force of
2,000 soldiers against some Miami an Shawnee Indians…they got totally beaten, losing
over half their number
It was the worst defeat in the entire history of US-Indian wars
The grisly tales of St. Clair’s defeat served to increase and the level of sheer terror that
Americans had of the “barbaric” Indians, and only strengthened their resolve to
exterminate them
But, a couple of years later, the Americans returned to defeat the confederated Indian
tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, and made a peace terms that saw most of presentday Ohio ceded to the US
b. Across the Atlantic: France and England
In 1793 and 1794, while the nation battled Indians in Ohio, other conflicts stirred far to the east, across the
Atlantic. Ever since the French Revolution of 1789, when the Sans Culottes had overrun the Bastille in the
name of liberty, equality, and fraternity, England had been looking over at France with some distaste; after
1793, however, the two countries were at war with each other. The fledgling American nation could not
afford to get involved in any “entangling alliances” with either of the two world super powers at the time…
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Until 1793, support for the French Revolution could remain a matter of personal
conviction, but afterwards the question of French vs. British loyalty turned into a very
delicate and critical foreign policy issue
Because of the Franco-American alliance signed in 1778, the US was obliged to aid
France in the war, but it still had very important economic ties to England, which it
couldn’t afford to risk. Therefore, America went against its treaty with France and tried to
remain neutral
In May 1793, President Washington issued the Neutrality Proclamation with friendly
assurances to both sides, but no promise of aid to either
The Proclamation was good in theory, but in practice American merchants were still
trading with the French which very much angered the British, so the British seized 300
American ships and took their cargoes
This made for a big crisis; John Jay, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, was sent to
England to hammer out some kind of a treaty
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c. The Jay Treaty
John Jay returned from his diplomatic mission to England with a treaty that almost no one liked.
V.
Jay's negotiations with the British were not particularly successful.
The British agreed to vacate the western forts, and to compensate American ship owners.
In compensation, the British got most-favoured-nation trading status from the Americans.
The British refused to give any more compensation, however, unless the United States
provided compensation for the vast amounts of United Empire Loyalist property seized
after the revolution.
The British also refused to allow trade between the U.S. and the Caribbean
However the treaty failed to deal with two other issues between the nations, the
impressment of sailors and the debts owed by way of compensation to Loyalists
The Treaty was ratified in 1796, but the American people were very displeased with this
settlement, and there were many protests against Jay and his treaty (Jay was burned in
effigy and Hamilton was stoned while he tried to make a speech).
Alexander Hamilton, however, convinced Washington it was the best treaty that could be
expected, and Washington agreed to sign it.
This action caused Thomas Jefferson to start forming an active and open opposition
group to Hamilton and his associates.
They began to call themselves Republicans
Federalists and republicans
The assumption that a division into political parties was a sign of failure was soon put to a severe test. In
Washington’s second term, consistent voting blocs first appeared on economic issues. By the time of the
Jay Treaty, party labels—Federalist and Republican—had come into use, and rival newspapers were
beginning to identify with one or the other label.
a. The Election of 1796
After two presidential terms, George Washington stepped down from the nation’s premier post, thus
precipitating a contest between the Federalists and the Republicans to secure the presidency…
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George Washington, worn-out, stung by criticism and yearning for the pleasures of
Mount Vernon, refused to consider a third term. He supported his vice president, John
Adams, a Federalist, but thought it unseemly to campaign on behalf of any candidate.
The Constitution in 1796 required presidential electors to place the names of two
individuals on their ballots; the candidate with the highest vote count, if a majority,
became the president and the runner up the vice president
There were 8 main candidates, and the results were not anticipated by anyone. Adams
won with 71 electoral votes, but was followed by Thomas Jefferson with 68 votes
The president was a Federalist, but the vice president was the leader of the Republican
opposition – an untidy situation.
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b. John Adams’ Presidency
Adams had desperately wanted to be president, but now he was uneasy about managing the job….
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Adams’ first mistake was to retain the same cabinet members in office at the end of
Washington’s administration. He had hoped continuity would be a good thing; however,
these men were mediocre politicians and were pretty much in the pocket of Alexander
Hamilton
Thus Hamilton, a private citizen, exercised a great deal of power in the Adams
presidency
The relationship with the VP was a rocky one, and soon Jefferson withdrew from active
counsel of the president, not wishing to be associated with what he regarded as bad
policies
c. The XYZ Affair
Foreign policy lay at the heart of the rift between Adams and Jefferson and between Federalists and
Republicans…
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The pro-British Federalists pushed for war against France following the recent French
seizure of American ships
Despite the strained President Adams, however, was determined to avoid war. Adams
sent a three member commission to Paris in order to avoid a conflict.
Several weeks later, the three diplomats met with three French agents, known only as X,
Y, and Z. The three agents demanded $250,000, a loan from the United States, and a
formal apology for comments made by Adams in order for negotiations to occur. The
American delegates found this bribery unacceptable
The U.S. offered France many of the same provisions found in Jay's Treaty with Britain,
but France countered with an order that Marshall and Pickney should leave the country,
refusing any proposal that would involve these two. Gerry remained in France, thinking
he could prevent a declaration of war, but did not negotiate any further
President Adams released the report of the affair two weeks later. Many Americans,
especially anti-French Federalists, were furious. In 1798, a declaration of war almost
came about, but Adams prevented it from passing, preferring to stay with the diplomatic
route. Adams appointed new diplomats including William Murray to handle the growing
conflict, and eventually averted a war.
At home, though, relations between Federalist and Republican supporters were
particularly strained, even violent sometimes. A leading federalist newspaper declared
that “he who is not for us is against us”
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d. The Alien and Sedition Acts
In June and July 1798, Congress hammered out a two-part Sedition Act that mandated a heavy fine or jail
sentence for anyone engaged in conspiracies or revolts against the government….
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VI.
Ratified in 1798, these were four laws enacted by the Federalist-controlled U.S.
Congress, allegedly in response to the XYZ Affair, but actually designed to destroy
Thomas Jefferson’s Republican party, which had openly expressed its sympathies for the
French Revolutionaries
Depending on recent arrivals from Europe for much of their voting strength, the
Republicans were adversely affected by the Naturalization Act, which postponed
citizenship, and thus voting privileges, until the completion of 14 (rather than 5) years of
residence, and by the Alien Act and the Alien Enemies Act, which gave the President the
power to imprison or deport aliens suspected of activities posing a threat to the national
government.
President John Adams made no use of the alien acts. Most controversial, however, was
the Sedition Act, devised to silence Republican criticism of the Federalists. Its broad
proscription of spoken or written criticism of the government, the Congress, or the
President virtually nullified the First Amendment freedoms of speech and the press
Prominent Jeffersonians, most of them journalists, were tried, and some were convicted,
in sedition proceedings.
The Alien and Sedition Acts provoked the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and did
much to unify the Republican party and to foster Republican victory in the election of
1800. The Republican-controlled Congress repealed the Naturalization Act in 1802; the
others were allowed to expire (1800–1801).
Parties Nonetheless
During the crisis of 1798-1799, a strong sense of peril gripped the nation, and out of that arose the initial
acknowledgment of the existence of political parties
Federalists:
- grew out of the main core of supporters for the Constitution in 1788
- Under Hamilton’s urgings, they supported economic plans to develop commerce and
enhance the strength of the federal government
- They were pro-British, pro commerce, and ever concerned about the potential excesses of
democracy
Republicans:
- They had the Antifederalist suspicion of a powerful federal government i.e. the Sedition
Act
- For the most part, the Republicans were pro-France and to a point supported their radical
republicanism