IB History of the Americans: Chapter 10

- 1789-1800

-The American population was doubling every 25 years in the late 1700s

- Washington for President

- he was unanimously elected as president by the Electoral College in 1789

- took the oath of office on April 30, 1789

- Washington's cabinet consisted of: Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, and Secretary of War Henry Knox.

- James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights and helped get them passed by Congress in 1791

- The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the federal court system (including the Supreme Court, and office of attorney general)

- John Jay became the first Chief Justice

- Alexander Hamilton wanted to fix the financial system

- first objective was to strengthen national credit

- he pushed for fuding at par, meaning the federal government would pay off its debts at face value plus interest

- also pushed for assumption in which the federal government would pay states' debts

- Large states with debt like Massachusetts accepted this proposal while small debt like Virginia did not like it

- Hamiltons plan was passed by Congress in 1790 in a deal that placed the District of Columbia on the Potomac River

- Hamilton believed that national debt was good for the country: the more creditors to whom the government owed money, the more people there would be with a personal stake in the success of the government

- Hamilton supported the first tariff law (1789), which imposed taxes on certain imports. This brought in revenue for the government and protected infant industries

- In 1791, Congress passed an excise tax on a few domestic items, including whiskey

- Alexander Hamilton proposed a Bank of the United States that could print paper money and provide a stale national currency (also a place where the Treasury could deposit monies) 

- Thomas Jefferson strongly opposed and felt the state had the right to manage their own money

- most of the opposition came from the south and the most of the support come from the north

- Hamilton prevailed and the 1st Bank of the United States was created in 1791

- Its charter lasted for 20 years and was located in Philadelphia. 

- The Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania in 1794 was lead by distillers who strongly opposed the 1791 excise tax on whiskey

- ended when President Washington sent in federal troops

- Although the troops faced no opposition, a strong message was sent by the government stating that it would enforce the law

- Political parties had not existed in America when George Washington took office

- The feud between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton turned into a political rivalry

- In the 1790s, Jefferson and Madison organized their opposition to the Hamiltonian program but confined it to Congress

- In due time, this organized opposition grew and the two-party system emerged.

- After Washington's first administration ended in1793, two political groups emerged: Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans and Hamilton Federalists

-  Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans: supported states' rights and a smaller government

- Hamilton Federalists: supported a powerful federal government

- The French Revolution started in 1789 and began fairly peacefully but entered a violent phase when Frace declared war on Austria in 1792

- Things started to get worse when King Louis XVI was beheaded in 1793, the church was attacked, and the head-rolling Reign of Terror was begun. 

- Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans wanted to supposrt the French in their war against Britain

- Federalsits opposed

- Washington issued the Neutrality Proclamation of 1793 stating the country's neutrality from the Britain-France war. 

- He was backed by Hamilton.

- For years, the British had retained the frontier posts on U.S. soil, all in defiance of the peace treaty of 1783

- The London government did not want to abandon the valuable fur trade in the Great Lakes region, and British agents openly sold firearms to the Miami Confederacy, an alliance of 8 Indian nations who terrorized Americans.

- Jeffersonians felt that Americans should fight Britain in defense but Federalists opposed because they wanted to keep economic development with trade with Britain

- to avoid war, Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to London in 1794 to negotiate

- Opposed by Democratic-Republicans, Jay hammered out a treaty, Jay's Treaty, in which the British promised to evacuate the chain of posts on U.S. soil and pay for damages for the seizures of American ships. 

- Britain did not agree to anything about future maritime seizures or about supplying arms to Indians.  The treaty also called for the U.S. to continue to pay the debts owed to British merchants on pre-Revolutionary War accounts.

- The treaty also called for the U.S. to continue to pay the debts owed to British merchants on pre-Revolutionary War accounts.

- Jay's Treaty caused Spain (feared an Anglo-American alliance) to strike a deal with the US called the Pinckney's Treaty of 1795 in which Spain granted American free navigation of the Mississippi River and the large disputed territory north or Florida

- In Washingtons farewell address, he urged against permanent alliances 

- he left office in 1707

- John Adams (Washington vice) beat Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1797

- Hamilton became leader of the Federalist Pary (aka "High Federalists")

- France was not happy about Jay's Treaty so started to capture American merchant ships

- President John Adams sent John Marshall to France to negotiate in 1797

- Hoping the meet Talleyrand (the French foreign minister) Adams's envoy was secretly approached by 3 go-betweens, later referred to as X, Y, and Z (Mme de Villette, Jean Conrad Hottinguer, and Lucien Hauteral)

- The French spokesmen demanded a bribe of $250,000 just to talk to Talleyrand but angered by the intolerable terms, Marshall and the envoy returned to the U.S.

- Infuriated with the XYZ Affair, America began preparations for war:  the Navy Department was created; the three-ship navy was expanded; the United States Marine Corps was re-established. 

- France didn't want another enemy so said if America sent another negotiator then they would receive respect

- Napoleon Bonaparte was the dictator of France

- eager to free his hand of another potential enemy he signed the Convention of 1800 with John Jay (American rep.)

- It annulled the alliance between France and America that had existed since the Revolutionary War

- The convention also called for France to return captured American ships and for the U.S. to pay the damage claims of American shippers (damages were caused by France)

- to lower the number of pro-Jeffersonians the federalist Congress a series of oppressive laws

                - aimed at "aliens" or foreigners who came to America and supported Jefferson

               - these Alien Laws raised the residence requirements for 'aliens' to wanted to be citizens from 5 to 14 years

               - also stated that the President could deport or jail foreigners in times of peace or hostilities

               - the Sedition Act stated that anyone who impeded the policies of the government or falsely defamed its officials would be liable to heavy fine and imprisonment

- Kentucky and Virginia passed resolutions that stated that the states had the right to refuse laws created by the government

- Virtually no other state followed the two states' resolutions

- Hamilton Federalists supported a strong central government

                - believed that the gov. should support private enterprise, not interfere with it

                - they also supported the British

- Jeffersonian anti-Federalists demanded a weak central government and supported states' rights