Articles of Confederation to
Revolution of 1800Unit 3
Kenneth C. Davis
Growth of a Nation
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?
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
Leading up to the Rebellion
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
So, who cares...what does it all mean?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
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
Basic powers and checks
What are checks and balances?
What three-letter word is not in the Constitution?
Christians
Protestants***
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, AssemblyAmendment 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
9/18/11
Amendment 11 Lawsuits against statesAmendment 12 Presidential electionsAmendment 13 Abolition of slaveryAmendment 14 Civil rightsAmendment 15 Black suffrageAmendment 16 Income taxesAmendment 17 Senatorial electionsAmendment 18 Prohibition of liquorAmendment 19 Women's suffrageAmendment 20 Terms of officeAmendment 21 Repeal of ProhibitionAmendment 22 Term Limits for the PresidencyAmendment 23 Washington, D.C., suffrageAmendment 24 Abolition of poll taxesAmendment 25 Presidential successionAmendment 26 18-year-old suffrageAmendment 27 Congressional pay raises
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
Alexander Hamilton
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
Asset
5 years highest credit rating
Interpretation of the Constitution: Strict v. Loose
Jefferson-National bank unconstitutional
1791, 20 year charter in Philadelphia
Whiskey Rebellion
• 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?
Political Parties
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?
9/18/11
John Adams
• 1st true presidential race
Federalists-
Adams, Hamilton
• Democratic Republicans-
Jefferson, Aaron Burr
President John Adams / Vice President Jefferson
Issue?
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?
• Adams sent Charles Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry to meet and negotiate with the French Directory
• The 3 French negotiators stated that things would run smoothly with an immediate payment of $240,000
• Adams sent a summary of the event to congress, and replaced the names of the French officials with X, Y, Z
• Congress authorized-seizure of French ships
direct tax to bulk up the U.S. Navy
• 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
“revolution of 1800”: Thomas Jefferson
Why a Revolution????