7th-­‐8th U.S. History Liberty Baptist School Chapter 9 Project Choices 1. In 1796 Adams was chosen to succeed Washington as president. The first
signs of factionalism appeared early in Washingtonʼs presidency, and a two
party system had emerged by Adamsʼ presidency. On one side were the
Federalists, who promoted a centralized national government that would help
merchants and manufacturers.
• On the other side, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and
Congressman James Madison had launched an opposition party
called Anti-Federalist or Democratic Republican with Jefferson as the
acknowledged leader. This party sought to give property-owning
citizens greater control over their lives in an agrarian nation in which
government would be small and weak.
• Write a platform for each party.
• List the well-known members in each party.
2. As originally written, the framers of the Constitution did not distinguish
between votes for the president and vice president. Having not anticipated the
development of parties, they gave each elector two votes. Adams, a
Federalist, received the most votes and became president. Republican
Jefferson, not Pinckney, Adamsʼ vice presidential running mate, received the
second most votes to become Vice President. The 1792 election was the only
time in history the county had executives of two different parties.
• Research the campaign timetables and budgets of modern
presidential elections and compare them to the election of 1796. 3. Jay's Treaty between the United States and Great Britain angered the French
as well because they undid former American agreements with France. French
privateers began seizing American ships. Charles Pinckney, the new US
minister to France was refused diplomatic relations by the French foreign
minister, Charles Maurice Talleyrand. President Adams then appointed John
Marshall and Elbridge Gerry to join Pinckney and negotiate a new treaty with
France. On their arrival in Paris in October, 1797, the commissioners were
visited by three French agents, called X,Y and Z, who suggested that the
United States must loan France $12,000,000 and pay a bribe of $250,000 to
Talleyrand. The commissioners John Adams was plagued with foreign affairs
problems throughout his presidency. He inherited the unpopular treaty
negotiated by Supreme Court Justice John Jay in 1794 with Britain. The
conflicts with Britain concerned:
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British occupation of a number of forts western US territory
American compensation for goods, slaves, and ships confiscated during the war
Seizure of American merchant ships and the impressments of American sailors
Merchants also wanted the British West Indies reopened to American trade
Page 1 of 8 7th-­‐8th U.S. History Liberty Baptist School Chapter 9 Project Choices The Jay Treaty aroused such intense anger among the American people that
Jay resigned from the Supreme Court and later remarked he could have
traveled the length of the country by the light of bonfires burning his effigy.
• Define impressing.
• Explain British grounds for impressing US sailors.
• Locate the British West Indies on a map.
4. Jay's Treaty between the United States and Great Britain angered the French
as well because they undid former American agreements with France. French
privateers began seizing American ships. Charles Pinckney, the new US
minister to France was refused diplomatic relations by the French foreign
minister, Charles Maurice Talleyrand. President Adams then appointed John
Marshall and Elbridge Gerry to join Pinckney and negotiate a new treaty with
France.
On their arrival in Paris in October, 1797, the commissioners were visited by
three French agents, called X,Y and Z, who suggested that the United States
must loan France $12,000,000 and pay a bribe of $250,000 to Talleyrand.
The commissioners refused these terms. After the XYZ Affair was made
public, the President convinced Congress to stop trade with France, while
many Americans began to call for war.
• Describe the situation that set up the French agents looking for a
loan for France. 5. Following the XYZ Affair, an undeclared war existed with France. During this
tense atmosphere, the Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which
stated any alien or foreigner who criticized the president could be thrown out
of the country, and any American who spoke against the government could
be thrown in jail. The Acts also made it more difficult for an immigrant to
become a US citizen. Though Vice President Thomas Jefferson, a
Democratic-Republican, furiously pointed out that this violated the First
Amendment, freedom of speech, but the acts were not repealed, until
Jefferson became president.
• Define sedition. • Compare the Alien Sedition acts with todayʼs Patriot Act. Page 2 of 8 7th-­‐8th U.S. History Liberty Baptist School Chapter 9 Project Choices 6. Preparing for possible war with France, Congress appropriated money for the
completion of three new frigates and additional ships, breathing new life into a
Navy, which had been disbanded following the Revolution War. Although
President Adams did not call for a declaration of war, hostilities began at sea.
At first, American shipping was almost defenseless against French privateers,
but by 1800 US warships and armed merchantmen were protecting
Americans at sea. Despite several brilliant naval victories, war fever
subsided. Word came to Adams that France desired peace and would receive
an envoy with respect. Negotiations ended the conflict.
• Determine how the formation of a Navy in Adams term is analogous
with the statement “Speak softly but carry a big stick,” made by
President Teddy Roosevelt years later.
7. In the campaign of 1800 the Republicans were united and effective while the
Federalists were badly divided. Nevertheless, Jefferson beat Adams to
become President. This made Adams a lame-duck president. Yet, Adams
wanted the Federalists policies to continue, right before he left office, Adams
appointed a large number of Federalist judges, which included John Marshall
as Supreme Court Justice. These last minute actions were known as the
Midnight Appointments.
• Define lame-duck.
• Explain the difficulties of a lame duck president.
8. Between the time he wrote the Declaration and the time he became our third
President, Thomas Jefferson was Governor of Virginia, Minister to France,
Secretary of State, and Vice President.
• Review your knowledge about Jefferson and his wealth of
experiences.
• Find a modern resume format at the library and plug in Jeffersonʼs
job experiences.
9. The first thing Jefferson did as president was to repeal the Alien and Sedition
Acts, declaring them unconstitutional. Another legal issue involved a case
called Marbury vs. Madison. When John Adams made his Midnight
Appointments for new judges, there was not time to deliver one commission
to appointee William Marbury. When Jefferson took office, his Secretary of
State, James Madison, refused to deliver the commission. Marbury sued.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, also an Adams appointee,
declared a section of the Judiciary Act, which allowed the new executive to
ignore the commission, unconstitutional. This was a monumental decision. It
was the first time that the judiciary branch of our government was tested. It
set precedent that the Supreme Court could void an act of Congress if the law
Page 3 of 8 7th-­‐8th U.S. History Liberty Baptist School Chapter 9 Project Choices in question violated the Constitution. It firmly established the idea of judicial
review.
• Read more about the Marbury vs. Madison Case.
• Define judicial review.
• Find out how many times the Supreme Court has used judicial
review to rule a law unconstitutional.
• Define judicial activism.
• Discuss how the Marbury vs Madison case has become a tool
for the 21st century court.
10. The Barbary pirates operated off the coasts of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and
Tripoli in North Africa. For hundreds of years, they had been attacking sailors
and demanding payment for safe passage. By 1801, the US had paid
$2,000,000 in tribute. Tripoli increased the yearly tribute demand, and
Jefferson refused to oblige. Tripoli declared war on the US. Pirates captured
our ship the Philadelphia and then turned her guns on the other American
ships. A young lieutenant named Stephen Decatur made a daring raid,
destroyed the Philadelphia saving the other American ships. By 1805, the war
ended and a peace treaty was signed bringing peace for the first time
between the Barbary pirates and a foreign entity. The young US had been
able to accomplish what no European nation had yet been able to do.
From that war came a lasting reminder in “The Marinesʼ Hymn.” The words,
“From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli...” remind us of the
Barbary pirates. President John Adams invited the Marine Band to play in the
unfinished White House on New Year's Day 1801. The following March, the
band performed for the inaugural of Thomas Jefferson and has performed for
every Presidential inaugural since. Thomas Jefferson gave the band the title,
"The President's Own."
• Find and draw and representation of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis,
and Tripoli from a world map or globe.
• Sing “The Marinesʼ Hymn” for the class.
11. The French Emperor Napoleon was winning victories in Europe. France
forced Spain to turn over many of her North American colonies and, thereby,
gained control of the Mississippi River and what was known later as the
Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson feared Napoleon would prohibit travel on the
Mississippi, damaging the frontier economy so, he sent a delegation to
France to buy New Orleans. Surprisingly, the French foreign minister
Talleyrand offered the entire Louisiana Territory. Jefferson was shocked and
excited, yet he did not have the Constitutional authority to make the purchase.
Now, he took advantage of the "implied powers" of the office he had
Page 4 of 8 7th-­‐8th U.S. History Liberty Baptist School Chapter 9 Project Choices previously fought against so bitterly. The diplomats Robert Livingstone and
James Monroe exceeded their instructions by agreeing to pay $15,000,000
for the land. This was four cents per acre. Suddenly, the US had doubled in
size.
• Explain how the acquisition of land at the Louisiana Purchase fit
in with Jeffersonʼs political ideals of an agrarian society.
• Discuss how the purchase was technically unconstitutional.
12. Jefferson chose his personal secretary of two years, Meriwether Lewis, to
lead an expedition exploring the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis chose his fellow
army officer, William Clark, to help him. The Corps of Discovery set off to
explore areas completely unknown to the Americans. Jefferson, an avid
naturalist, asked the Corps to record all the information they could about the
land, plants, animals, and native Indian tribes. George Drewer was the
expert scout and interpreter. A French Canadian, Toussaint Charbonneau
and his wife, Sacagawea, joined them along the way. Sacagawea proved an
invaluable asset to the expedition. The trip was very difficult but a tremendous
success.
• Read the Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark by Rhoda
Blumberg.
• Walk out into the woods with a nature notebook and journal your
"expedition." Try to draw the animals and plant life exactly as
seen. Record where specimen were found and in what kind of
conditions they grew.
• Dramatize or tell a narrative story about this expedition taking
scenes from Blumbergʼs book. Be sure to include the following
points:
o Secret mission costing $2,500 … Trinkets, medals, certificates, flag … Portable soup … Keelboat 55 feet long … 40 men, slave named York … Matches, Rush’s thunder bolts, collapsible boat … Seaman dog …Badger, prairie dog, white pelican, pronghorn … antelope, buffalo, coyote, grizzly bear … Trader Charbonneau and wife Sacagawea … Baby Pomp born with aid of two crushed rattlesnake … Sioux, Arikara, Mandan, Hidatsa, Shoshoni, Nez Perse, Chinook … National hug … Ate candles and bear oil … Ate salt and whale blubber … Split into two groups on return trip … Sited future Yellowstone National Park
13. The map study lists the camps of the Lewis & Clark expedition and other
places of interest.
Part 1:
• Map the outline of the Louisiana Purchase.
• Map the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Page 5 of 8 7th-­‐8th U.S. History Liberty Baptist School Chapter 9 Project Choices Part 2:
Zebulon Pike is best remembered today for discovering the peak in Colorado
which bears his name. He led two expeditions as an army officer for the US
government. In 1805 he explored to find the headwaters of the Mississippi
and to negotiate peace treaties with the Indian tribes. Pike and his team
traveled 2,000 miles by boat and on foot from St. Louis up to northern
Minnesota. Pike wrongly thought he had discovered the source of the
Mississippi when he reached Leech Lake, MN.
In 1806 Pike led another expedition, this time to the southwestern borders of
the Louisiana Purchase. He had orders to explore the Arkansas and Red
Rivers, and to obtain information about nearby Spanish territory. It was on this
trip that he tried, unsuccessfully, to climb the mountain peak later named for
him. His party headed south from Colorado, ending up in what is now
northern New Mexico, where they were charged with illegal entry into Spanish
territory.
Pikeʼs published account of this last expedition stirred businessmen and
politicians into expanding to Texas. He also helped establish the myth of the
"Great American Desert" which retarded growth into the Great Plains.
• Place Pike's Peak on your map.
• Trace the route of Pikeʼs travels.
14. During the election of 1800, Jefferson and Burr had tied in electoral votes.
When the tie was broken by the House of Representatives, the Federalist
party almost voted to make Burr president over Jefferson. Under the original
Constitution, electors voted only for the office of President rather than for both
President and Vice-President. The person receiving the greatest number of
votes, as long as it was a majority of electors, would be President, while the
individual who was in second place became Vice President.
• Research how these problems were solved.
15. While Jefferson ran for re-election in 1804, Vice President Burr ran for
governor of New York. He and his followers conspired to have New York
secede from the union. Alexander Hamilton was shocked to hear the plan.
Although he did not like Jefferson, he did love his country and started to work
against Burr. Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel and on July 11, 1804, shot
and killed him. Burr fled to the South, but when murder charges were
dropped, he returned to Washington DC to fulfill his vice-presidential term
until 1805. Burr lost the election for New York governor but continued his
treasonous activities in the Burr Conspiracy, where he asked for $500,000
from the British minister and help from the British navy to take over the
Page 6 of 8 7th-­‐8th U.S. History Liberty Baptist School Chapter 9 Project Choices Louisiana Territory. In 1807 he was arrested for treason and tried by Chief
Justice John Marshall and the Supreme Court. He was acquitted, because
according to Marshall's strict interpretation of the Constitution, he had not yet
broken any laws. Although found innocent, he was completely discredited.
• Review how the charges of treason are interpreted in the
Constitution.
• Burr was a bitter person. We have met another bitter man who
turned against his country. Compare Burr and Benedict Arnold.
• Read about the protocol of duels and dramatize the
Hamilton/Burr duel with water pistols.
16. With continuing war in Europe, the US had difficulty remaining neutral. The
English continued impressing the US Navy men. On June 22, 1807, the
British ship Leopard fired upon the US Chesapeake, killing 21 sailors and
impressing four. One of the impressed sailors was a deserter from the Royal
Navy, but the other three were US citizens. State legislators all over the
country demanded war with Great Britain. Jefferson, in order to avoid war,
urged Congress to pass the Embargo Act, whereby all US goods were
withheld from all European ports. He felt by withholding goods, Great Britain
and France would respect the United States' stance on neutrality.
The embargo was disastrous for the Americans. Crops rotted in storage,
many businesses closed and sailors and shipbuilders lost their jobs. A year
later, Jefferson and Congress repealed it three days before Jefferson left
office.
• One critic said that Jefferson was “trying to cure the corns by
cutting off the toes.” Explain what this meant.
17. Thomas Jefferson has been called a Renaissance Man. Monticello is the
Neoclassical home sitting on a five farm 5,000 acre estate that Thomas
Jefferson designed himself. The dome, pedimont, frieze and portico make
Monticello Neoclassical.
• Define Renaissance man.
• Define Neoclassical, pedimont, frieze, and portico.
• Tell what Monticello means in Italian.
• Tell where Jefferson was trained as an architect.
Go to the Monticello website and take a virtual tour of Monticello. Be sure to
click all of the Related Material for each room to read about items in each
room.
•
List the items in the entry hall and tell how each item reveals
an interest or a fact of Jefferson the person.
Page 7 of 8 7th-­‐8th U.S. History Liberty Baptist School Chapter 9 Project Choices The room next to Jeffersonʼs bedroom was his cabinet.
• Define cabinet.
• Tell the number of books Jefferson owned and what happened
to those books.
• Explain what Jefferson designed for his legs, his wrists, his
writing table, and his letter press.
The parlor had 48 paintings hanging on the wall.
• List who the paintings in Jeffersonʼs parlor were of and why he
choose them.
From the entry hall to the parlor to the dining room to Jeffersonʼs bed chambers
are furniture pieces worth noting.
• Research and describe and the origin of Windsor and
Campeachy chairs.
• Explain an alcove bed.
• Sketch a dumbwaiter, Canterbury music rack, and a fall front
desk.
Numerous ingenious devices were designed by Jefferson.
• Explain the Seven Day Great Clock, the stew stove in the
kitchen, the revolving bookstand, the polygraph, the dumb
waiter, and the weathervane compass.
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