Chapter 7: Politics and Society in the New Republic

The Political Crisis of the 1790s

The 1790s brought a division to the Federalists, splitting them into
two irreconcilable factions over the issues of financial policy and then later the
French Revolution.
The views offered by Jefferson hoped that the United States
remain an agricultural nation governed by local and state officials.
The views offered by Alexander Hamilton, on the other hand,
hoped that the United States would become a strong national government and an
economy based on manufacturing.
The Federalists Implement the Constitution
American political life now included choosing national leaders as
well
In the first national elections, the Federalists swept
the election of 1788, winning 44 seats in the first House of
Representatives, while only 8 Anti Federalists won election.
George Washington was also selected by the Electoral College to
become the first President of the United States, whilst John Adams was selected
to be Vice President.
George Washington adopted many of the administrative practices
of the Confederation and asked Congress to reestablish the existing executive
departments: Foreign Affairs, Finance, and War
He also selected the following people for the
following positions
Thomas Jefferson Head of the
Department of State
Alexander Hamilton Secretary of
the Treasure
The Constitution had created a Supreme Court, but it left the task
of establishing the rest of the national court system to Congress.
The Federalists also kept their promise of creating a Bill of Rights,
which was written by James Madison, in which they were originally 13, but only
10 were ratified
This eased some of the Anti Federalists concerns.
Hamiltons Financial Program
Hamilton devised bold policies to enhance national authority and
to favor wealthy financiers and merchants.
He outlined his plans in three groundbreaking reports to
Congress; on public credit (Jan. 1790), on a national bank (Dec. 1790), and on
manufactures (Dec. 1791)
These programs laid out a program of national mercantilism, a
system of state-assisted economic development.
Report on the Public Credit
Hamilton proposed a system of national debt, in which he had two
plans; the redemption plan and the assumption plan.

In the redemption plan, Hamilton called on Congress to redeem at

face value the millions of dollars issued by the Confederation during the
Revolutionary War
Hamilton recognized that the US was heavily
dependent on Dutch and British Loans and needed good credit to survive
financially
However, this plan would allow enormous profits to
a small percentage of Americans, and this offended a large number of
Americans.
In the assumption plan, Hamilton proposes that the national
government enhances the public credit by paying off the war debts of the states
A problem with this, however, was that some states
were already debt free, and Hamilton revised this plan so that those
states would be reimbursed.
Hamilton was a financial genius when he proposed these two
plans, because they complemented each other very well, and a large majority of
American citizens supported them.
A National Bank
The idea of a National Bank was proposed by Hamilton in
December of 1790.
The idea was that the bank would be jointly owned by private
stockholders and the national government, and that the bank would provide
financial stability to the country by making loans to merchants, handling
government funds, and issuing bills of credit.
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison opposed this initiative,
because while they both had opposed the redemption and assumption plans
because of the corrupt speculation that occurred, they thought this was not a
power delegated to the United States by the Constitution.
Revenue and Tariffs
This was the final element to Hamiltons financial system: revenue
to pay off the newly created national debt.
To do this, Hamilton convinced Congress to impose a number of
domestic taxes, including a duty on American whiskey, which would raise about
$1 million a year.
To raise another $4-5 million, he proposed higher tariffs on foreign
imports. These tariffs he proposed were not protective tariffs (which would
exclude foreign competition), but they were revenue tariffs that would pay the
interest on the debt and defray the expenses of the national government.
These plans worked brilliantly and as American trade increased,
so did the revenue brought in by it, which allowed the treasury to implement
Hamiltons redemption and assumption plan.
An unforeseen result of Hamiltons financial system was an
increased migration to the west
This was because the national government could
afford to sell lands at much lower prices because of all the revenue being
brought in from trade.

Jeffersons Agrarian Vision

Hamiltons financial policies split the Federalist party into two
irreconcilable factions.
Most northern federalists followed the faction headed by Hamilton,
whilst most southern federalists followed the faction headed by Jefferson and
Madison.
Jefferson had an agrarian vision for America, in which the
Enlightenment was heavily included
His democratic vision of America was an
agricultural society based on free labor (although he owned slaves
himself).
His vision did come close to reality, when turmoil in Europe in the
shape of the French Revolution, which created new opportunities for farmers
As war disrupted European farming, prices of crops
skyrocketed, brought huge profits to Chesapeake and Middle Atlantic
farmers.
Simultaneously, increases in the export of cotton, through the aid
of the cotton gin, brought revenue to Georgia and the Carolinas.
As Jefferson had hoped, European markets brought prosperity to
American farmers and planters.
The French Revolution Divides Americans
The Proclamation of Neutrality, which was issued by President
Washington in 1793, allowed for American merchants to trade with both sides
during the French Revolution.
It didnt take long before American merchants came to dominate
the lucrative sugar trade between France and its West Indie islands.
Incredible amounts of profit were being made, averaging $20
million in the 1790s. This allowed for substantial upgrades in housing styles and
life styles, as some Americans began to enjoy their luxuries.
Ideological Conflicts
The French Revolution brought about ideological conflicts
between many Americans.
The French established a democratic republic, which many
Americans disagreed with; however, the people that did agree with their political
system started to act similarly
They began to address each other as citizen, and
started hundreds of democratic political clubs.
The Whiskey Rebellion was mounted in western Pennsylvania in
1794. They were in protest of Hamiltons excise tax on spirits, which had raised
the price and cut the demand in the corn whiskey they bartered for eastern
manufactures
Similar to the Sons of Liberty, they attacked tax
collectors and the authority of a distant government.
To uphold national authority and deter secessionist movements
along the frontier, President Washington raised an army of 12,000 troops to
disperse of the Whiskey Rebellion.

Jays Treaty
In November of 1793, the British seized about 250 American ships
in British ports that were carrying French sugar.
Washington dispatched John Jay to Britain in order to protect
American property, and he returned with a controversial treaty.
This treaty acknowledged Britains right to remove French property
from neutral ships, rejected American merchants claim that Free ships make
free goods.
It also demanded that the U.S. government repay
British merchants for all pre-revolutionary debts.
In return, the agreement allowed American merchants to submit
claims of illegal seizure to mediation, and most important, it required the British to
remove their military garrisons from the American Northwest Territory
Lastly, it forced the British to end their alliances with
any and all American Indians.
Jays Treaty was barely ratified, with not much more than the bare
minimum 2/3 of Congress voting to pass.
It appeared that as long as Hamilton and his federalist allies were
in power, the United States would have a pro-British policy.
The Rise of Political Parties
The rise of the Federalists and Republicans marked a new stage
in American politics, what is know as the First Party System.
Most people thought that political parties were unnecessary and
borderline open opposition of the national government.
Most merchants, creditors, and urban artisans supported the
Federalists, while the emerging Republican coalition was far more diverse
The republicans include, tobacco and rice planters,
western farmers, Germans and the Scots-Irish in the southern
backcountry, whilst also including the subsistence farmers in the
Northeast.
Federalist candidates triumphed in the national elections of 1796,
winning a majority in Congress and electing John Adams to the presidency.
Constitutional Crisis, 1798-1800
The 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, which authorized the
deportation of foreigners and prohibited the publican of insults or malicious
attacks on the president or members of congress, respectively.
These resolutions brought forth a debate about states rights to
interpret the Constitution individually for each state
The states argued that they had a right to judge
the legitimacy of national laws.
After Adams first term was over, a civil war almost broke out.
Jefferson had defeated Adams by a vote count of 73-65, but Aaron Burr had also
received 73 votes from the Electoral College
The Constitution specified that in case of a tie, it
would be up to the House of Representatives to decide the next
president.

 Alexander Hamilton, although his views clashed with Jeffersons in

numerous aspects, became a huge advocate for him
This was because he saw Burr as the most unfit
man in the United States for the officer of president.
Jefferson called this the revolution of 1800, although it was
bloodless
This was an extremely important point in American
history because it showed how America could transfer power in an orderly
way, even in times of bitter partisan conflict.
The Westward Movement and the Jeffersonian Revolution
Beginning in the 1780s, thousands of the more confident farmers
undertook the trek into the west.
George Washington noted that the former members of the Sons of
Liberty had become the lords and proprietors of a vast tract of continent.
Unfortunately for Washington, the majority of these
western farmers supported Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans.
The Expanding Republic and Native American Resistance
In the Treaty of Paris, Britain relinquished its claims on the land
west of the Appalachians
This left the Indians with which they had held peace
with, to the care of their [American] neighbors.
There were two sides when it came to the issue of the Indians.
One side, composed of white Americans (including some very influential men)
wanted to destroy native communities and their crops
The other, more rational side, sought to assimilate
them into Euro-American society.
Conflict Over Land Rights
This conflict is referring to the one that occurred between white
Americans and Indians.
U.S. commissioners used the threat of military action to force the
pro-British Iroquois to relinquish much of their land in NY and PA in the Treaty of
Fort Stanwix (1784).
The Greenville Treaty of 1795 was signed after the Battle of Fallen
Timbers occurred, and in which Americans forces handily defeated a
confederation of Indian Tribes
As a result, Indian peoples ceded the majority of
their lands, whilst they were also placed under the protection of the
United States, and no other Power whatever.
Another result of the Greenville Treaty was that it sparked a new
wave of white migration
By 1805, Ohio, a state just two years old, had more
then a 100,000 residents.
Assimilation Proposed and Rejected
To alleviate tensions between western farmers and Indians, the
U.S. government proposed assimilation of the Indians into American culture.

However, most Indians rejected this, sticking to traditional

ancestral values.
Many Indians tried to find a middle ground, blending traditional
values with elements of Christianity
However, when American missionaries attempted
to convert warriors into farmers, and women into domestic helpmates,
many Indians refused.
Migration and the Changing Farm Economy
Native resistance slowed, but did not stop, American migration
westward.
This migratory surge transformed Americas farm economy.
Movement out of the South
From 1790-1820, two huge streams of migrants left the South.
The first stream was comprised mostly of white tenant farmers
and struggling yeomen families, migrated through the Cumberland Gap into
Kentucky and Tennessee
These farmers were fleeing planter societies and
hoped to prosper by growing cotton and hemp, which were in great
demand.
The second stream of migrants refers to a group dominated by
slave-owing planters and their enslaved African Americans
They migrated along the coastal plain toward the
Gulf of Mexico from the Carolinas
They moved to the Old Southwest, the future states
of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Exodus from New England
As migration occurred out of the south, a population exodus
occurred out of New England around the same time.
Previously, generations of farm families from MA and CO had
migrated north and east into New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine
However, now, they began to migrate west, seeking
land for their children. Hundreds of thousands moved to New York and
settled there, whilst a minority of them migrated even further into Ohio.
Agricultural Change in the East
To pay their debts, farmers (who recently migrated there from New
England) in central NY, exported wheat to the east, forcing major changes in
agriculture there.
Because they sold wheat at such low prices, New England
farmers switched to high yielding and nutritious POTATOES
And to compensate for their decreasing number of
workers, New England farmers bought farm equipment that was more
advanced and brought about higher production, even with fewer workers.
Farmers also discovered that they could double their yields by
rotating crops
Yeomen farmers also diversified production by
raising sheep and selling wool to textile manufacturers.

In this new agricultural economy, families worked harder and

longer, but their efforts were rewarded with higher output and a better standard of
living.
The Jeffersonian Presidency
From 1801-1825, three Republicans from Virginia served two
terms of Presidency
These three chronologically were Thomas
Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe.
Jefferson was the first president to reside in the White House.
Jefferson also inherited a judiciary system that was filled with
Federalist appointees. They were midnight appointees that were appointed by
previous President John Adams just before he left office.
The Chief Justice, John Marshall, sought to increase the power
held by the Judiciary Branch
This was seen in Marbury v. Madison - the result of
this case assetted that the Court had power to review congressional
legislation and to interpret the meaning of the Constitution.
Implementing the Revolution of 1800
Jefferson set out to reversing many of the Federalist policies.
Under the Jefferson administration, the Alien Act and the Sedition
Act were branded unconstitutional and they were not reenacted.
His administration also sought to bring the power of the
government down a bit, because it had been significantly expanded under the
Federalists rule.
However, Jefferson governed tactfully, he allowed many
competent Federalists to retain their posts
All-in-all he removed only 69 of 433 Federalist
officeholders (apart from some midnight appointees).
Jefferson and the West
Jefferson was the champion of encouraging western settlement,
and this was continued when he became president.
Jefferson led the push to cheapen land prices for yeomen farmers
and all western settlers.
The Louisiana Purchase
The French were seeking to establish an empire in Europe and
America, and they were being ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte.
As Napoleon sought to sell New Orleans, Jefferson warned
Americans that if they did end up selling New Orleans, that they must marry
themselves to (form an alliance with) the British, in case of war.
Jeffersons diplomacy yielded a magnificent prize: the entire
territory of Louisiana, which Napoleon had sold because France now had large
amounts of debt
They had sold the entire territory of Louisiana for
$15 million (about $500 million today).
Explorers Lewis and Clark sought to explore this new expanse of
land, and were sent forth by Jefferson himself.
Threats to the Union: Aaron Burr

 Although the Louisiana Purchase, was undoubtedly a stunning

accomplishment, because it doubled the size of the nation
It caused many Federalists to fear that the power of
their states would be diminished.
These Federalists were led by Aaron Burr, who was accused of
participating in a conspiracy to destroy the Union by Alexander Hamilton
Eventually, Burr challenged Hamilton to a pistol
duel, although they were illegal in most northern states because Hamilton
didnt support the idea of a northern confederacy
Hamilton died as a result.
The War of 1812 and the Transformation of Politics
Trouble was brewing in Europe, where war had broken out again
in 1802
For the next decade, the American government
sought to safeguard themselves against war.
However, this effort eventually failed, and when it did it set in
motion a series of dramatic political changes that destroyed the Federalist Party,
and split the Republicans into the National and Jeffersonian factions.
Conflict in the Atlantic and the West
The Napoleonic Wars that ravaged Europe between 1802 and
1815 endangered American commerce.
This was because naval blockades were established in several
European countries
In Britain, hundreds of ships were seized, searched
and possibly confiscated
This was done so they could search
for British deserters. However, these navy raids were meant to
replenish British forces, a practice known as impressment.
The Embargo
This was a diplomatic decision enacted by President Jefferson
and his Secretary of State James Madison.
The Embargo Act of 1807 prohibited American ships from leaving
their home ports until Britain and France repealed their restrictions on U.S. trade.
However, the American government overestimated Frances and
Britains dependence on American goods.
This ended up being a terrible decision economically. American
exports plunged dramatically from $108 million in 1806 to $22 million in 1808,
which hurt all American classes.
Tenskwatawa And Tippecanoe
Tenskwatawa was an Indian Chief in the Indiana territory
He sought to return his peoples to traditional Indian
customs.
Bolstered by British guns and supplies, they sought to repel
American settlers out of the Indiana territory.
When Tenskwatawa brought together a significant number of
people near Tippecanoe, the American governor of the territory was forced to
recognize them as a threat.

William Henry Harrison, the governor, mobilized a force of one

thousand troops and militiamen for a preemptive strike on the holy city of
Prophetstown (the town created by Tenskwatawa), and they burned it to the
ground in November 1811.
Republican War Hawks
Many Republicans were pressuring President Madison toward war
because of the British aided Indians in the west, and the seizing of American
ships in the Atlantic.
In response to this, Madison demanded respect for American
sovereignty in the west and for neutral rights on the Atlantic
When the British were slow in their response,
Madison asked Congress for a declaration of war.
In June of 1812, the Senate voted 19-12 for war, and the House of
Representatives concurred with a vote of 79-49 for war.
Historians have reasoned that the causes for the war were
actually a western war with eastern labels.
The War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a war declared by the United States against
Great Britain (and its Empire), lasting from June 18, 1812 to February 18, 1815.
The causes involved American grievances against Britain for
suppressing American trade, impressing (seizing) sailors with U.S. papers, and
inciting hostile Indian raids in the west
Britain, tied down by a much larger war with
Napoleon's France, acted too late diplomatically to head off the conflict.
The war followed a series of failed efforts by the U.S. to use
economic pressure through the Embargo of 1807.
The Federalist Legacy
The Federalist legacy refers to the fact that after The War of 1812,
the Federalist Party dissipated.
The Republican party split into two factions
The National Republicans, which was led by Henry
Clay was one of them.
The Federalist party was effectively finished. Republicans
outnumbered them 37 to 7 in the Senate and 156 to 27 in the House
Westward expansion and the success of
Jeffersons Revolution of 1800 had ended both the Federalists and the
First Party System.
John Marshalls Jurisprudence
John Marshall remained an influence on American politics until his
death in 1835. He was committed to judicial authority, the supremacy of national
laws, and traditional property rights.
After Marshall claimed the right of judicial review for the Court in
1803, in Marbury v. Madison, the doctrine evolved slowly
Although the Supreme Court did not void another
congressional law until the Dred Scott decision in 1857, the Marshall
Court frequently overturned state laws that infringed on the U.S.
Constitution.

Property Rights
This refers to controversy involving property rights. Marshall and
the largely Federalist Supreme Court vowed to void any law that would [impair]
the rights of people to their property.
This could be seen in Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819).
Dartmouth College was a private institution established by a royal charter, and
when New Hampshire sought to convert it into a public university, the Dartmouth
trustees opposed this and hired Daniel Webster to plead their case
Arguing the constitutionality of the legislations
actions, the Supreme Court agreed and upheld the rights of the college.
The Rise of John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams political career started at a young age.
Although his father, former president John Adams, was a federalist, he had joined
the Republican Party before the War of 1812.
He came under the national spotlight for his role in negotiating the
Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war. He then served brilliantly as Secretary of
State under James Monroe for two terms.
The Republican Party however was soon to be split into two
factions.
The first faction was the National Republicans, led by Henry Clay
and John Quincy Adams.
The second faction was the Jeffersonian Republicans, led by the
aging Jefferson, and soon to be led by Martin Van Buren and Andrew Jackson.
By the early 1820s, one cycle of American politics and economic
debate had ended, and another was about to begin.