The 1790s The CRITICAL PERIOD

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The 1790sThe CRITICAL PERIOD

• Washington, Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson

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• The Political Crisis of the 1790s
• Washingtons Presidential Precedents
• Hamiltons Financial Program
• Foreign Policy Issues - Crises
• The Rise of Political Parties
• Constitutional Crises, 17981800

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Washingtons Presidency (1789-1797) Defining
the Executive Office

• Unanimous Electoral College vote
• Inaugurated March, 1789 in New York
• Organized new departments (His cabinet
• Thomas Jefferson - State
• Alexander Hamilton - Treasury
• Henry Knox - War
• Edmund Randolph - Attorney General
• Judiciary Act of 1789 - established the Supreme
  Court, 13 district courts and 3 Appellate courts

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Implementing the Constitution
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Alexander Hamilton

• Born on Caribbean island of Nevis, adopted state
  - New York
• Revolutionary War - Gen. Washingtons
  aide-de-camp
• Brilliant and (perhaps) a little arrogant
• First Secretary of the Treasury
• Ardent Nationalist

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Alexander Hamiltons Financial Plan

• Three parts
• 1790 Report on Public Credit - Pay off debt
• 1791 Report on Manufactures - Protect industry
  and impose high tariffs
• 1790 Report on a National Bank
• Congress adopted all three with some
  modifications
• Debt - Fed govt assumed state debts.
• Tariffs - Too low so AH pressed for internal
  excise tax on whiskey
• Bank - privately owned, US govt major
  shareholder, common US currency could be printed

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Alexander Hamilton

• Hamiltons interpretation of the Constitution
  regarding the bank was broad (meanings could be
  interpreted more freely)
• His financial expertise and vision were highly
  successful but also very divisive politically
• Attempted to connect wealthy citizens to
  government

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Hamiltons Financial StructureSupported by
Revenues (Incomes)
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• Figure 7.2 Hamiltons Fiscal Structure, 1792 (p.
  211)

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Hamiltons Financial Plan
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The Whiskey Rebellion - July 1794

• Hamiltons plan included an excise tax on
  domestic whiskey
• Western Pennsylvania farmers - excise tax too
  burdensome
• Washington raised militia of 13,000 to put down
  the rebellion.
• Rebels dispersed when Washington reached the
  Appalachians.
• Washington asserted national authority over
  regional issues

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American Posts Held by the British After 1783
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Spanish British Influence After 1783
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Jays Treaty - 1794 (w/ Britain)

• US protested British practice of impressment
  (capturing and forcing sailors into the BR navy)
• Actual treaty did nothing about this
• BR agreed to evacuate western forts
• Very unpopular - but maintained American
  neutrality

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Pinckneys Treaty - 1795 (w/ Spain)

• Treaty with Spain
• Opened port of New Orleans to American shipping -
  duty free
• Spain accepted US claim to Floridas N boundary
  (present day Mississippi, Alabama and parts of
  several other states)

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Native Americans in the Ohio Valley

• British instigating and providing weapons to
  tribes
• 1794 - General Mad Anthony Wayne Battle of
  Fallen Timbers
• Shawnee, Wyandot tribes defeated
• Chief Little Turtle defeated
• 1795 - Treaty of Greenville
• Natives surrendered claims to the Ohio Valley
• Opened Old Northwest to settlement

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US ExpansionNew States admitted in the 1790s

• Vermont - 1791
• Kentucky - 1792
• Tennessee - 1796

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French Revolution - Citizen Genet

• 1789-1794
• G.Washington issues Proclamation of Neutrality
  (1793)
• To keep the young country out of war
• Federalists oppose USsupport of FR Revolution
• Jeffersonian Republicans support FR Revolution
• Citizen Genet controversy - French Minister to US
  appealed to US people directly to support FR Rev

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Regarding the French Revolution
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Election of 1796

• John Adams (Federalist party) - president (most
  electoral votes)
• Thomas Jefferson (Democratic Republican party)
  - vice-president (second most electoral votes)

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John Adams - 2nd President

• Massachusetts
• Revolutionary generation
• Founding Father
• 1796-1800
• Federalist - favored a strong central government
  and promotion of national interests.

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The XYZ Affair - 1798

• US Pro-British policy
• French seized American merchant vessels
• Talleyrand (FR ambassador) solicited a loan and
  bribe in order for FR to stop
• FR agents X, Y, and Z under authority from
  Talleyrand
• 1798 Congress cut off trade w/ France
• Beginning of an undeclared naval war with
  France (aka the Quasi-War)

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The XYZ Affair

• Millions for defense, not one cent for Tribute!

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Quasi-War with France (1798-1800)

• Undeclared naval war for control of the Caribbean
• US forces seized 93 French privateers pirates
  in the Caribbean --- US lost just one ship.
• French - nuisance at sea but no longer a serious
  threat by 1799.

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Alien and Sedition Acts

• Federalist proposals to protect national security
  in war with France
• Adams deferred to Federalist leaders who wanted
  these laws.
• 4 laws total - Sedition Act most controversial
• Republicans claimed these were to silence the
  opposition in the press

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Summary of Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)
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Summary of Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)
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Justification for Alien Sedition Acts

• The United States . . . were threatened with
  actual invasion . . . and had then, within the
  bosom of the country, thousands of aliens, who,
  we doubt not, were ready to cooperate in any
  external attack.

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Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions 1798-99

• Response to the Alien and Sedition Acts
• Articulated the doctrine of States Rights
• Madison (anonymously) wrote the Virginia
  Resolution
• Jefferson (anonymously) wrote the Kentucky
  Resolution
• Introduced the idea of interposition and
  nullification - states could nullify federal
  laws deemed objectionable
• First muted thoughts of secession by a state

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Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans (1798)
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Election of 1800 - The Revolution of 1800

• Jefferson wins
• Vice President Aaron Burr
• We are all Federalists, we are all Republicans.
• Adams concedes - Peacefully
• Tense and highly charged election
• Revolutionary - peaceful transfer of power from
  one party to another - without bloodshed and war
• Led to 12th amendment

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Election of 1800