New Republic & Rise of Parties (1789-1800)

New Republic and The Rise of Parties (1789-1800)

• Senator William Maclay of Pennsylvania documented George Washington's inauguration as the first U.S. president in New York City, April 30, 1789
• The Constitution established a national government framework
• Pressing issues necessitated refining it
• Revenue was urgently needed to address Revolution debt and unstable Western conditions
• Establishing the new republic's legitimacy was key to resolving these issues
• Most Americans were wary of centralized authority
• Governing realities would soon dissolve the nonpartisan ideal at the Constitution's ratification

Political Parties

• Two political parties formed by the end of Washington's first term
• The Federalist party included Washington and Adams, who favored a strong central government
• The Jeffersonian Republicans, supported by Senator Maclay, arose from disagreements over financial policy, the US response to the French Revolution, excessive central power.
• Federalists governed until 1800 and aimed to show a world ruled by monarchs that American republicanism could work.
• Federalists doubted the Republicans' loyalty, viewing parties as factions
• The Federalist's attempt to suppress the Republicans led to the critical election of 1800
• Jefferson's victory ended Federalist rule, marking the republic's first major internal crisis

Population

• A simple answer to who Washington would lead is elusive
• Americans identified themselves by race, sex, class, ethnicity, religion, and freedom degree
• The variation in climate and soil divided the country into regions/sections
• The hodgepodge tested the idea that a national government could govern Americans

New England

• The 1790 census counted nearly 4 million Americans; one in four lived in New England
• New England was largely closed off to outsiders, whose poor soils and cold winters inhibited cash crops
• New Englanders did not need indentured servants or slaves, which combined Puritan values and a harsh environment to make them religiously and ethnically uniform
• Most were descended from 17th-century English immigrants
• Small Quaker, Baptist, Catholic pockets gained worship rights by the 1720s, but Congregationalism remained the state-supported religion in Connecticut and Massachusetts
• Black people and Indians were barely 3% of New England's population and Indians lived on inferior reservations, working as servants or day laborers
• New Englanders considered slavery incompatible with natural rights and abolished it in the 1780s.
• Slavery was always marginal to New England's economy
• Women outnumbered men due to the pressure of population expansion, division of family farms among male heirs, with young men to migrate west for cheap land
• Women in New England remained subordinate to men despite their increasing numbers
• Republican ideology emphasized prepping women to raise virtuous, public-spirited children

Education and Society

• Massachusetts became the first state allocate funds for only girls elementary education in 1789
• Liberalized divorce laws in New England allowed women to seek legal separation
• Politics in New England was rooted in the Puritan past
• Age, property, and reputation determined status in a culture that valued social order
• The moral code promoted curbs on individual behavior, and they subscribed to a version of republicanism that favored strong government
• This was unlike most other Americans, who embraced individualistic liberty and suspected government power

Mid-Atlantic

• New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were the most diverse states in the nation
• People of English descent were less than 40% of the population
• The Dutch and Scots-Irish were in New York and Germans and Scots-Irish in New Jersey and Pennsylvania
• Unlike Puritan New England, the Middle Colonies offered freedom of worship to attract settlers
• Newcomers found economic opportunities were much greater than in New England, making the mid-Atlantic a breadbasket
• African slaves met the demand for labor, which was never economically vital in the mid-Atlantic
• Wheat, the main cash crop, needed seasonal labor, which was not in slaves
• Pennsylvania in 1780, New York in 1799, and New Jersey in 1804 passed laws of gradual emancipation
• Laws did not free adult slaves, but children born of a slave mother to be freed at ages ranging between 18 and 28
• African Americans experienced enduring white racism
• Diversity created a complex political environment
• Some groups, including financial and commercial leaders/farmers, favored a strong central government for economic development and maintain authority.
• Other groups wanted to keep government weak and foster republican equality that would promote individual freedom

The South

• Climate and soil conditions favored production of cash staples for markets in Maryland and Delaware to Georgia
• Southern planters relied on African slaves, whose numbers made the South the most populous region; just under 40% of all Southerners were slaves, and concentration varied
• The free black population in the South grew rapidly during the 1780s
• Thousands of slaves would flee behind British lines for freedom, and patriots freed others for enlisting services
• Revolutionary equality and ethics led slave owners to question slavery's morals
• In the Upper South, laws were passed making it easier to free slaves
• In Virginia alone, ten thousand slaves were freed in the 1780s
• Slavery remained the foundation of the economy, and no state embarked on emancipation
• Economic conditions in the South stamped the region's culture and politics, as tidewater planters of English descent
• Piedmont farmers were more likely to be Scots-Irish Presbyterians and Baptists
• Backcountry Baptists denounced planters for arrogance and luxury due to evangelical religions and simpler habits
• Planters understood liberty to mean unchecked white males to rule others
• The only acknowledged check on this power was to adhere to an idealized code befitting a gentleman and a man of honor, and backcountry farmers guarded liberties

The West

• Between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River stretched the most rapidly growing region, and during the 1780s, the white population exploded from less than 10,000 to 200,000
• Indians and white settlers generally marked tense ties and sporadic violence, and the Native-American population was about 150,000
• For example, when James Boone was killed by Indians, a group of white settlers sought vengeance, they strung up a pregnant Mingo woman, "sliced open her belly with a tomahawk, and impaled her unborn child on a stake."
• Most white migrants in Kentucky and Tennessee were the rural poor from seaboard slave states.
• The West offered opportunity to claim farms and economic independence free from planters
• The West offered land, economic competition of slave labor, and opportunity, speculating in vast tracts
• Western settlements: mortality was high; travelers described crude squalid cabins; acceptance of brawl violence
• Many were squatters, occupying land in the hopes of someday gaining title to it
• Aligned with landowners, squatters spearheaded the movement for political separation from Virginia gain statehood for the territory in 1792
• The ultimate political allegiance of the West was uncertain in 1790
• They wanted freedom to control their affairs and outlets for crops
• They were willing to strike a deal with any power, including the British/Spanish offering these needs

New Government

• The Congress that assembled had to give form to the new national government and executive departments had to be established, and the federal judiciary was organized
• Sources of revenue were found, international trade and foreign policy were worked, and a bill of rights to the Constitution was honored
• Supporters easily carried the first national elections in 1788 and possessed majorities
• People brought admin talents, some were clumsy politicians w/ egalitarian sensibilities
• By 1792, they faced growing political opposition

Mr. President and The Bill of Rights

• The first problem was deciding how the chief executive should be addressed
• The more democratically inclined argued against titles and grudgingly accepted "Mr. President"
• Washington was intent on surrounding the presidency in respect
• He set guidelines for presidential etiquette, strict rules for public interactions, and met with visitors twice a week
• Meanwhile, Congress had to deal with the promise of the Bill of Rights
• The Bill of Rights has been one of the first Congresses enduring legacies
• To allay the fears of Antifederalists and protected individual rights/liberties for the rights of states
• Madison kept the focus on personal liberties and submitted nineteen amendments, and Congress soon settled on twelve
• The first eight amendments concerned individual rights and guarantee religious freedom, freedom of expression, and safeguarding of individuals/property against legal proceedings
• Washington traveled outside New York in a luxurious coach pulled by six horses, and at all times he carried himself with stern reserve.
• Only three amendments speak of state interests
• Citing militia necessity, the Second Amendment guarantees the right of the people to keep and bear Arms
• The 9th and 10th Amendments stipulate that the powers not granted to the national government in the Constitution are retained by the people and the states
• The Bill of Rights broadened government support and North Carolina (1789) and Rhode Island (1790) overcame objections
• Bill of Rights had also assured central government would not try to impose a uniform national culture

Departments and Courts

• The summer of 1789 first executive departments were authorized
• State Department for foreign affairs, the Treasury for finances, and the War Department for defense
• The departments existed under the Articles of Confederation
• The debate concerned presidential control over the officials
• The Constitution was silent on whether or not the president could dismiss an official without the Senate's consent
• Setting an important precedent that bolstered presidential power, and department heads would now be closely bound to the president
• As a group, they would evolve into the cabinet, the president's chief advisory body
• Creating a judiciary had greater controversy
• Constitution called for "one Supreme Court" but left it up to Congress to set up lower courts because Antifederalists and proponents of states' rights did not want national courts enforcing a uniform judicial system
• The Judiciary Act of 1789 created a compromise that balanced Antifederalists/states' rights with nationalists
• It created a hierarchical national judiciary of thirteen federal district courts and appeals were to be heard in one of three circuit courts
• The Supreme Court was to have the final say in contested cases
• However, jurisdiction in federal courts was limited to legal issues from the Constitution and the laws/treaties of the government

Revenue and Trade

• The most pressing need was for revenue, and Madison put the finances on a great footing
• Nearly everyone agreed that the government's chief source of income should be a tariff on goods
• The United States imported most of its manufactured goods, and foreign-owned ships accounted for nearly half of entering tonnage
• The Tariff Act of 1789 levied a duty of 5% on imported goods and imposed duties of as high as 50% on some items
• The debate provoked some sectional sparring
• Manufacturers in the North requested high tariffs for protection against foreign competition
• Farmers and planters in the South wanted low tariffs to keep down manufactured costs
• Madison had hoped to use tonnage duties not only to raise revenue but also to strike at Great Britain
• The duties failed to pass Congress, defeated by a coalition of sectional interests
• Southerners feared they would permit New England merchants to give monopoly on carrying trade, Northern merchants wary of disrupting Britain trade
• The Tonnage Act of 1789 treated all foreign ships equally

Revolution War Debt

• The Treasury was the largest and most important new department
• Alexander Hamilton of New York had the task of bringing order
• The basic problem was the huge debt left over from the Revolution
• Debt reached $52 million, and he presented a plan to address the War debt
• The creditors benefited from his plan

Hamilton's Reports

• In his second report, Hamilton called for an excise tax (a tax on a commodity's consumption) on distilled whiskey produced to raise revenue on the interest payments and internal taxes on its citizens
• The third report recommended chartering an English model, Bank of the US
• The bank would serve as agent of the government providing a stable currency
• Hamilton's final report on industry recommended the United States never become great if goods are imported
• He advocated protective tariffs for industries and direct subsidies for startup costs, fosters interregional economy

Reaction and Opposition

• Hamilton's program invited opposition
• About half of congress owned some of the nation's debt, agreed that it should be paid
• Some had concern for the fact that they would be selling to speculators for less
• Some didn’t want a permanent debt
• Opposition to Hamilton's proposal to have the federal government assume state debts reflected sectional differences
• With limited exceptions, the southern states had already paid off war debts

Compromise

• Reached in 1790 where southerners agreed to fund while Virginians had the nation's capital on Potomac River
• Bank bill passed on a vote that divided on sectional lines
• Madison protested the constitution allowed not to explicitly a bank
• Washington sought more opinion
• Thomas Jefferson sided with Madison
• He argued all powers not expressly delegate to the national government were reserved to the states and Hamilton won Washington by arguing Article 1 section 8
• Hamilton's won, bank was chartered for 20 years with 25% tax

Emergence of Parties

• Americans were dividing into 2 camps
• On one side were Federalists
• Supporters of Hamilton's plan, drawn into market economy
• Jefferson and Madison named Republicans that meant to identify with liberties
• Republics that Hamilton imposed had British system
• Committed to agrarian America, Washington was still unified

The French Revolution

• The French Revolution began and Americans applauded
• Revolution: supporters confiscated property/enemies, Federalists drew back and the French stood apart
• Jefferson supported
• New French Ambassador Genet hoped to involve British shipping, so Washington pushed neutrality

Washington’s Statement

• Washington accepted Hamilton's argument on neutrality
• Politics because more open and aggressive
• • Named Democratic Societies had feeling Hamilton supported for the rich

Securing the Frontier

• West remained elusive goal Miami Confederacy pushed back and westerners felt abandoned

Fallen Timbers

• Fed wanted submission
• Wayne defeated tribal people and in created treaty Greenville
• Tribal ceded Ohio for 9500 annual Whiskey Rebellion

Pennsylvania

• Hamilton was determined to enforce tax
• Washington called for forces but was not opposed
• Fed revealed division for American freedom; Jefferson used the treaty (known as Jay’s Treaty) to stop the British
• Spain did the same as known Pinckeny Washington had more than enough and announced retirement, calling for his followers to do what was necessary.
• Adams won but Jefferson was still vice.

Elections

• Adams Admin had rocky start
• Quasi war of 1798 was first real test
• Alien/Sedition Acts occurred which would make one side look good during the election but no

Nullification

• Nullification: what was considered unconstitutional would be void
• Washington would leave and the battle of 1800 is drawn