Knowt
Chapter 11: Establishment of New Political Systems (1787–1800)
Important Keywords
Virginia Plan: During debate over the Constitution, the plan proposing a bicameral legislature with representatives determined by proportional representation.
New Jersey Plan: During debate over the Constitution, the plan proposing one legislative body for the country, with each state having one vote.
Great Compromise: Connecticut plan stated that one house of Congress would be based on population while in the other house all states would have equal representation.
Electoral College: Procedure for electing the president and vice-president of the United States as outlined in the Constitution; electors from each state, and not the popular vote, ultimately elect the president.
Three-Fifths Compromise: As the Constitution was being created, the plan stated that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a free person when determining a state’s population for tax purposes and electing members of the House of Representatives.
Federalists: Party in the first years of the republic that favored a larger national government; was supported by commercial interests. Federalists were opposed by Jeffersonians, who wanted a smaller national government.
Alien and Sedition Acts: Proposed by President John Adams, gave the president power to expel “dangerous” aliens and outlawed “scandalous” publications against the government.
Key Timeline
1787: Constitutional Convention ratifies U.S. Constitution
1788: U.S. Constitution ratified by states
1789: Washington sworn in as first president
1790: Hamilton issues plans proposing to protect infant U.S. industries
1791: Establishment of First National Bank Ratification of the Bill of Rights
1793: Democratic-Republican clubs begin to meet
1794: Whiskey Rebellion begins
1795: Jay’s Treaty with England/Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain
1796: John Adams elected president, Thomas Jefferson, vice-president (each from a different political party)
1798: XYZ Affair Sedition Act of John Adams issued Kentucky and Virginia Resolves
1800: Convention of 1800 Thomas Jefferson elected president
The Constitutional Convention
After Shays' Rebellion, nationalists convinced Congress to authorize a convention to revise the Articles of Confederation.
On May 25, 1787, delegates from all 13 states met in Philadelphia.
George Washington, who became convention president, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison were delegates.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both ambassadors in Europe, missed the convention.
The new government needed more powers to tax, regulate trade and interstate commerce, and create a military.
Large and small states disagreed on representation in a future national legislature.
Small states wanted to keep the Articles of Confederation's one-vote Congress.
Large states wanted representation determined by population.
Slavery caused north-south divisions.
Contention and Compromise
James Madison's Virginia Plan dominated the Constitutional Convention debate.
Madison's framework called for a federal government with legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
He proposed a proportional-representation bicameral Congress.
He led the Convention and is known as the "Father of the Constitution."
The Virginia Plan worried smaller state delegates that larger states would rule the nation.
They supported the New Jersey Plan, which proposed a unicameral, one-vote Congress.
The advocates of the two competing plans argued until Connecticut delegates proposed the Great Compromise.
The Connecticut proposal called for proportional representation in the lower house and two upper house seats for each state.
The delegates at the Constitutional Convention were not believers in pure democracy.
They believed an unchecked majority could be as tyrannical as a king.
To avoid this, they decided that an Electoral College, whose members were chosen by the states, would elect the president.
The people directly elected House members, but state legislatures elected senators.
Slavery
Constitutional Convention debated slavery.
In the 1780s, many Americans thought slavery would end for economic reasons.
Southerners, who relied on slaves, defended slavery.
For southern support of the Constitution, delegates compromised on slavery.
After 20 years, the federal government could regulate or outlaw the slave trade in 1808.
Northern delegates opposed southerners' congressional representation of slaves.
The delegates settled on the Three-Fifths Compromise, which allocated House seats based on a state's slave population.
The Ratification Battle
The finished Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787.
The delegates decided that the new Constitution would take effect if nine state ratifying conventions approved it.
The Constitution strengthened the national government, so its supporters were called Federalists.
The Federalists believed the new federal government would meet national needs and protect American liberties.
Anti-Federalists were unwilling to trust a stronger central government.
They remembered the British's tyranny and believed that a strong national government would weaken the states, the best protectors of people's rights.
They pointed out that the proposed Constitution had no bill of rights.
Federalists were willing to accept Constitutional amendments protecting American citizens to win in Virginia and New York.
New York became the eleventh state to ratify the Constitution on July 26, 1788.
Congress ratified the Constitution on September 13.
Rhode Island ratified the Constitution last on May 29, 1790.
The first US president, George Washington was inevitable. The Electoral College unanimously elected him.
As president, Washington set important precedents.
He respected his office and emphasized his role as a government policy administrator.
The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights reconciled anti-Federalists to the Constitution.
It has become a symbol of American freedoms like religion, speech, and assembly.
It protected the right to bear arms and prohibited soldiers from living in homes.
It also protected defendants with jury trials and a ban on "cruel and unusual punishments."
The Bill of Rights last two amendments supported the Revolutionary War idea that rights belong to the people and federalism in the new government system.
The Ninth Amendment states that listing rights in the Constitution does not "disparage" others held by the people.
The Tenth Amendment gives states and people all powers not granted to the federal government or forbidden to them by the Constitution.
Madison and the other Founding Fathers valued the Bill of Rights Amendments' power balance.
The Birth of the Party System
Washington staffed his cabinet with brilliant men.
Thomas Jefferson served as secretary of state.
Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the treasury.
These two men had competing visions of America’s future.
Hamilton wanted the US to be a commercial and manufacturing power.
He wanted to adopt British economic policies, including mercantilism to boost American trade.
He believed the federal government had unspecified powers and supported a "loose" Constitutional interpretation.
Thomas Jefferson favored an agrarian America, predominantly made up of independent yeoman farmers.
He saw manufacturing as "a handmaid to agriculture" in America.
He supported free trade to lower farmers' manufacturing costs instead of Hamilton's protective tariffs.
Jefferson advocated a "strict" interpretation of the Constitution, which limited federal power to its text.
James Madison joined Jefferson in his opposition to Hamilton’s program.
Hamilton and Jefferson's disagreements and supporters created a two-party system.
Hamilton’s followers called themselves Federalists.
Jefferson's followers were Republican or Democratic-Republicans.
Federalists supported an activist government that fostered business.
Republicans focused on agriculture and defended laissez-faire economic principles.
Their appeal was especially strong in the rural areas of the south and west
Hamilton’s Economic Program
Hamilton realized that the US's chaotic finances had to be addressed if it was to become a great commercial and manufacturing power.
His Report on Public Credit proposed a bold plan to stabilize the US economy.
Hamilton proposed redeeming all Articles of Confederation government notes at face value.
He suggested the federal government assume state debts.
He advocated for a national bank to streamline federal financial transactions and boost American business investment.
Hamilton wanted federal policies to promote business growth.
He proposed a high tariff on foreign goods to pay for his economic program.
Jefferson and Madison disliked Hamilton's activist government and business bias.
They believed Hamilton was sacrificing America's agrarian majority to commercial interests.
Hamilton's public credit system with a national bank and tariffs survived their opposition.
Effects of the French Revolution
The French Revolution began in summer 1789, just months after George Washington became president.
The French Revolution from constitutional monarchy to Reign of Terror fascinated and horrified Americans.
Jefferson and the Republicans supported the revolutionaries because they believed in democracy and Enlightenment ideals.
Hamilton and the Federalists detested the Revolution's defiance of authority and violence.
By 1793, revolutionary France was at war with most of Europe, including Great Britain.
President Washington issued a Declaration of Neutrality.
He hoped the US could avoid joining the world war.
In a time of poor roads and transportation, western farmers could distill their grain into alcohol to sell it.
Hamilton placed a tax on whiskey to help pay for his economic program.
Western farmers, who sympathized with Jefferson's agrarian outlook, were furious.
Farmers in western Pennsylvania rebelled in the spirit of the French Revolution.
Washington's militia easily put down the rebellion.
Washington’s Foreign Policy
In 1794, the British began searching and seizing American ships trading with the French West Indies.
The British were also plotting with Native Americans in the Northwest Territory.
Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to London to resolve these issues.
They insisted on removing French goods from American ships and rejected the freedom of the seas.
British troops left western American military posts.
General Anthony Wayne's Battle of Fallen Timbers victory over a Native American coalition made these posts untenable.
In the US, Jay's Treaty was unpopular.
After much debate and political maneuvering by Alexander Hamilton, the Senate ratified the treaty.
Thomas Pinckney negotiated with Spain to open the Mississippi River to American navigation.
Western and southern farmers needed a waterway to get their crops to New Orleans, so Pinckney's Treaty was popular.
Washington set a precedent by declining a third presidential term. He gave his Farewell Address before leaving office.
Citizens received policy advice from him. Washington was alarmed by Federalist-Republican animosity and warned against political parties' divisiveness.
He advised the US to avoid "foreign entanglements" and alliances.
The Presidency of John Adams
John Adams served two terms as Washington’s vice president. In the election of 1796, he ran as a Federalist.
His opponent was Thomas Jefferson, the Republican candidate.
Adams received the most votes in the Electoral College, but under the rules of the time, Thomas Jefferson, who came in second, became the vice-president.
This made the president and vice-president's political parties awkward.
Adams wasn't as famous as Washington, but he managed a major crisis well as president.
Adams led by letter for most of his presidency in Quincy, Massachusetts.
In 1800, he became the first president to live in the Executive Mansion.
Crisis in France
The French resented the US's failure to uphold the 1778 alliance with the overthrown royal government.
In 1798, Adams sent three diplomats to France to attempt a negotiated settlement.
The French foreign minister, Charles Talleyrand, was notoriously corrupt.
He sent three agents to the Americans demanding bribes before talking.
American public opinion supported the Americans' indignant refusal.
The "XYZ Affair" was named after Talleyrand's emissaries' codes.
Washington started building a small but effective navy.
From 1798 to 1800, American ships won most warship battles. US and French naval wars were undeclared.
By 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte had taken control of France, and diplomacy resumed.
In the Convention of 1800, the French paid the Americans for the merchant ships they had seized, ending the alliance of 1778.
The Alien and Sedition Acts
Federalists used the war with France to crush the Republican Party.
In 1798, they passed two laws to curb their opponents' intemperate journalism.
The Alien Act allowed the president to imprison or deport "dangerous" aliens.
The Sedition Act allowed the president to prosecute "malicious" administration critics.
This act resulted in the prosecution and imprisonment of journalists and others.
Republicans denounced the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Kentucky and Virginia passed the Kentucky and Virginia Resolves, stating that states were not required to obey unconstitutional laws.
Jefferson wrote the Kentucky Resolves and Madison the Virginia Resolves.
These resolutions laid the groundwork for nullification and states' rights in American history.
The Alien and Sedition Acts hurt John Adams' 1800 campaign.