Chapter 7

Essential Question

I. Washington Leads a New Nation

• Honest leader and hero of the Revolution

• Electoral College: a body of electors who represent the people’s vote in choosing the president

Organizing the Government

• Everything Washington was doing was a precedent:

• Created the Cabinet (department heads)

• Judiciary Act of 1789:

Expectations

• Most Americans lived in countryside and worked on farms – wanted fair taxes, settle western lands, and no interference from government in daily lives

• Merchants wanted simpler • Manufacturers wanted protection from

foreign competition• New York City =

II. Hamilton and National Finances• Alexander Hamilton:

brilliant Secretary of the Treasury

• Needed to control the national debt:

and bonds: certificates of debt that carry a promise to buy back the bond at a higher

price

Settling the Debt

• Hamilton wanted to pay off foreign debt immediately and gradually pay off the total debt of the bonds

• Pay off state debts for Revolutionary War expenses to increase business and trade, and put money back into economy –

• Move the capital to the South in what is now

Jefferson Opposes Hamilton• Hamilton– Strong central

government– Did not trust “the

masses”

– Wanted to promote manufacturing, business, high tariffs, Bank of the U.S.

• Jefferson– Protect powers of the

states– More trust in the people– Wanted to promote

farming because they didn’t depend on others to make a living

III. Challenges for the New Nation

• 1789 – French Revolution – rebellion of French people against their king

• France and Great Britain went to war • Neutrality Proclamation:

• Jefferson was pro-French – Hamilton was pro-British – Jefferson resigns in 1793

Jay’s Treaty and Pinckney’s Treaty

• Jay’s Treaty (1794)– Washington wanted to

avoid war with Britain – send Chief Justice John Jay to negotiate treaty

– In the treaty, the British would pay damages on seized American ships and Americans would pay debts owed by Britain

• Pinckney’s Treaty (1795)– Spain shut off New

Orleans to American trading, hurting American businesses and had border dispute in Florida

– In the treaty, Spain and U.S. agreed to southern border and reopened New Orleans

Northwest Territory

• Conflicts with Native Americans over settling Northwest Territory (Ohio)

• Washington sent General Anthony Wayne to settle disputes – defeats Native Americans at Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794)

• Treaty of Greenville:

Whiskey Rebellion

• Whiskey tax – created by Hamilton –• Western Pennsylvania farmers were angry at the tax

because whiskey was used as a form of money –

• President Washington feared the rebels threatened federal government authority – personally led an army to put down rebellion

• Rebellion ended

Washington Says Farewell

• Washington chose not to run for President in 1796 –

• In farewell address, he warned about political conflicts, forming permanent ties with foreign nations, and

IV. John Adams’s Presidency

• Despite Washington’s warning, political parties developed in 1796 election

• Federalists: wanted a strong federal government and supported industry and trade – John Adams and Thomas Pinckney

• Democratic-Republicans: wanted to limit the federal government’s power – Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr

Election of 1796

• City and business people supported Federalists – Farmers and rural areas supported Democratic-Republicans

• Adams elected President,

XYZ Affair

• Adams’s first goal was to better relations with France – sent diplomats to negotiate a treaty to protect American shipping

• Talleyrand, the French foreign minister, wanted a $250,000 bribe and $12 million loan to discuss treaty – diplomats were outraged

Adams’s Reaction

• Adams asked Congress to increase size of the navy and begin keeping a peacetime army, but

• Federalists not happy with Adams for not going to war – French signed treaty with Americans and further

Congress’s Reaction

• In 1798, the Federalist-controlled Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts:

• The Sedition Act forbade anyone from publishing or voicing criticism of federal government, canceling freedom of speech or press

Democratic-Republican Reaction

• Thomas Jefferson and James Madison viewed these acts as a misuse of government power

• They wrote resolutions in 1798 and 1799 known as Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions:

- first time states challenged federal government