Chapter 8: The Republic Launched

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Chapter 8 The Republic Launched

• Preview In 1789 Americans could be divided into
  those who were rural, largely self-sufficient
  farmers and those tied more closely to the world
  of commerce. Politics in the early republic was
  rooted in this fundamental social division.
• The Highlights
• 1789 A Social Portrait
• The New Government
• Expansion and Turmoil in the West
• The Emergence of Political Parties
• The Presidency of John Adams

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The Republic Launched (8)

• Setting the Agenda
• Establishing Government
• Jefferson Hamilton
• Hamiltons Grand Design
• The Reports
• Foreign Affairs
• The French Revolution
• European War
• U.S. Neutrality
• Jays Treaty

Storming the Bastille Paris, 1789
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The Republic Launched (8)

• The West
• Miami Confederacy
• The Whiskey Rebellion
• Popular Political Culture Political Parties
• Adams Presidency
• Crisis abroad XYZ Affair
• Suppression at home
• Alien and Sedition Acts
• Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
• The Election of 1800

Thomas Jefferson
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Learning Outcomes Republic

• Understand the division between the
  semisubsistence economy and the commercial
• Be able to explain the differences between the
  Federalists and the Republicans
• Understand the way the French Revolution shaped
  United States foreign policy
• Be able to describe the impact of the election of
  1800

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The Founding of New England

• 1789 A Social Portrait
• First federal census (1790) about 4 million
  Americans
• Population will double every 22 years, mostly
  from natural increase
• Poor transportation and few newspapers mean that
  the movement of people, goods, and ideas is slow

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• The Semisubsistence Economy of Crèvecoeurs
  America
• In 1783 French writer and traveler to rural
  America, Hector St. John Crèvecoeur, publishes
  his Letters from an American Farmer
• he argues that American societys distinguishing
  characteristic is equality
• Fairly broad distribution of wealth
• Barter economy predominates

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• The Commercial Economy of Franklins America
• East more tied to commerce than the backcountry
• Greater inequality of wealth
• Values of commercial economy and of backcountry
  in conflict
• The Constitution and Commerce
• Urban and rural American differ on the role of
  government in the economy

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The New Government

• Washingtons Character
• Washington is controversial for the pomp he
  brings to the presidency
• A tough historical figure to penetrate because of
  enormous attention by historians
• Organizing the Government
• Washington creates a cabinet of advisors
• Judiciary Act of 1789 defines the judicial system

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• The Bill of Rights
• By 1791, 10 amendments guaranteeing basic
  freedoms were ratified
• Hamiltons Financial Program
• Alexander Hamilton, Washingtons secretary of the
  treasury, promotes ambitious plan for the federal
  governments role in the economy
• Wants to link the interests of the wealthy
  commercial class to the government
• 1791 first Bank of the United States created

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The passage of Hamiltons program caused a
permanent rupture among supporters of the
Constitution.

• Opposition to Hamiltons Program
• Madison and Jefferson become leading opponents to
  Hamilton and the Federalists
• Fear of a financial aristocracy and a system of
  corruption
• The Specter of Aristocracy
• In spite of fears, Hamiltons program is an
  economic successinflation ends, the currency is
  stabilized, and the governments credit restored

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Expansion Turmoil in the West

• The Resistance of the Miami
• Federal government tries to buy Indian titles to
  land in order to promote white settlement in the
  Ohio River Valley
• Treaty of Greenville (1795) Miami Confederacy
  cedes two-thirds of the area between Lake Erie
  and the Ohio River

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• The Whiskey Rebellion
• Westerners irritated over new excise tax (1791)
  on distilled liquors
• Pockets of unrest all over the backcountry
• Resistance collapses with Washingtons deployment
  of the army
• Pinckneys Treaty
• 1796 establishes 31st parallel as the southern
  boundary of the United States
• Gives Americans free navigation of the
  Mississippi River

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The Emergence of Political Parties

• Americans and the French Revolution
• Most Americans welcome news of the revolution in
  France in 1789
• Hamilton and the Federalists, however, see the
  French Revolution as leading to anarchy
• The event becomes a defining issue between the
  Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans

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• Washingtons Neutral Course
• Washington proclaims American neutrality and
  moderates Jeffersons attempts to support France
• Jays Treaty (1795) illustrates Americas
  secondary position to Britain
• The Federalists Republicans Organize
• By the mid-1790s, most politicians have aligned
  themselves with one of the two major parties

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In his Farewell Address, Washington warned
against the dangers of parties and urged a return
to the earlier nonpartisan system. But that
vision had become obsolete parties were an
effective way of expressing the interests of
different social and economic groups within the
nation.

• The 1796 Election
• John Adams defeats Jefferson, who, because of a
  quirk in the Constitution, becomes vice-president
• Federalists political base is the more
  commercial Northeast the Jeffersonian
  Republicans is the West
• Federalist Republican Ideologies
• Federalists believe in a strong central
  government - fear mob rule
• Republicans believe in weaker central government
  - fear corruption by the aristocracy

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The Presidency of John Adams

• The Naval War with France
• French raiding of American shipping becomes a
  major issue for Adams
• 1797 Adams sends diplomats to France to
  negotiate, and the French demand bribes
• This event, known as the XYZ Affair, aggravates
  tensions with France and between the two
  political parties
• Political Violence in the Early Republic
• Political tensions threaten to devolve into armed
  conflict
• Ideology of republicanism makes activists
  vigilant protectors of liberty
• Federalists achievements capped by strengthening
  stability order of nations society foreign
  affairs

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• Suppression at Home
• Federalists try to suppress disloyalty at home
  with the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)
• Persecuted Republicans enlarge their
  interpretation of the freedom of the press
• Virginia Kentucky Resolutions demand an end to
  federal governments abuse of authority
• The Election of 1800
• Jefferson and Adams run again Jefferson wins

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The Election of 1800
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Keywords and Terms (8)

• public opinion
• Bank of the United States
• Neutrality Proclamation
• Treaty of Greenville, 1794
• XYZ Affair
• Virginia Kentucky Resolutions
• Aaron Burr
• Election of 1800 -- A Revolution ?

• Judiciary Act of 1789
• French Revolution, 1789
• Thomas Pinckney
• Whiskey Rebellion
• Alien Sedition Acts
• 12th Amendment

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Learning Outcomes Republic

• Understand the division between the
  semisubsistence economy and the commercial
• Be able to explain the differences between the
  Federalists and the Republicans
• Understand the way the French Revolution shaped
  United States foreign policy
• Be able to describe the impact of the election of
  1800