George Washington's Presidency
Members of the first Congress under the Constitution were elected in 1788 & began their first session in March 1789 in NY City.
(This was the nation's temporary capital). George Washington would be the Electoral College's unanimous choice for president.
He took the oath as the first U.S. president on April 30, 1789. Checks & balances saw the decisions of Congress as the legislative
branch, the president as the head of the executive branch, & the Supreme Court as the top federal court in the judicial branch.
Organizing the Federal Government
Executive departments
- As chief executive, Washington's main task was to organize new departments of the executive (law-enforcing) branch
- The Constitution authorizes a president to appoint chiefs of departments, provided the nominees are confirmed by the _____
- Washington appointed four heads of departments: Thomas Jefferson as Sec. of State, Alexander Hamilton as Sec. of Treasury,
Henry Knox as Sec. of War, & Edmund Randolph as Attorney General
- These four men formed a cabinet of advisers with whom President Washington met regularly to discuss major policy issues
- He began the practice of presidents calling _______________ for getting advice & info. from key leaders in the administration
Federal court system
- The only federal court mentioned in the Constitution is the ____________________________________
- Congress was given power to create other federal court with less powers & determine how many justices on Supreme Court
- One of Congress' first laws was Judiciary Act (1789), which created a Supreme Court with ______________________________
- This highest court was empowered to rule on the constitutionality of decisions made by state courts
- The act also provided for a system of 13 district courts & 3 circuit courts of appeals
Hamilton's Financial Program
- One of the most pressing problems faced by Congress under the Articles had been the government's financial difficulties
- Sec. of Treasury Alexander Hamilton presented to Congress a plan for putting U.S. finances on a firm & ___________________
- He proposed the following remedies for the government's financial plight:
1. Pay off the ____________________ at face value & have the federal government assume the _________________________
2. Protect the young nation's new industries & collect revenues at the same time by imposing ___________ on imported goods
3. Create a ___________ for depositing gov't funds & printing banknotes that would provide the basis for a stable U.S. currency
- Support for this program came chiefly from _________________, who would gain directly from high tariffs & a stable currency
Opponents of Hamilton's Financial Program
- Opponents of his plan included Anti-Federalists who feared that states would lose power & the central gov't gained power
- Jefferson led southern Anti-Federalists who viewed Hamilton's program as benefiting the ____ at expense of indebted ______
- After much political bargaining, Congress finally adopted the three major parts of Hamilton's plan in modified form
Debt
- Jefferson's supporters agreed to Hamilton's plan that the gov't pay off national debt & assume payment of war debts of states
- In return for Jefferson's support on this aspect of his plan, Hamilton agreed to Jefferson's idea to establish the nation's
_____________________________along the Potomac River which after Washington's death would be named Washington, D.C.
Tariffs & excise taxes
- The tariff rates set by Congress were lower than Hamilton had wanted
- To raise revenue to pay the gov'ts debts, Hamilton persuaded Congress to pass excise taxes, particularly on the sale of ______
National Bank
- Jefferson argued that the Constitution did not give Congress the power to _______________________________
- Hamilton took a broader view of the Constitution, arguing the ____________________________ authorized Congress to do
whatever was necessary to carry out its enumerated powers
- President Washington supported Hamilton on the issue, and the proposed bank was voted into law
- Although chartered by the federal government, the Bank of the United States was __________________________________
- As a major shareholder of the bank, the federal gov't could print paper currency & use federal deposits to stimulate business
Foreign Affairs
Washington's first term as president coincided with the outbreak of revolution in France, an event that touched off wars
between the French Republic & the monarchies of Europe. Washington's entire 8 years as president, as well as the 4 years of his
successor, John Adams, were taken up with the question of whether to give U.S. support to France, her enemies or neither side
The French Revolution
- Most Americans supported France's desire to establish a republic, but horrified by reports of mob hysteria & ______________
- U.S.-French alliance remained in effect, although it was an alliance with the French monarchy, not with revolutionary republic
- Jefferson & his supporters sympathized with the revolutionary cause & they also argued that because Britain was seizing
American merchant ships bound for French ports, the U.S. should join __________________ in its defensive war against Britain
Proclamation of neutrality of 1793
- President Washington believed our young nation was not strong enough to engage in a European war
- Resisting the popular clamor, in 1793 he issued a proclamation of U.S. ____________________________ in the conflict
- ___________________________________ resigned from the cabinet in disagreement with Washington's order
Citizen Genet
- Objecting to Washington's policy, "Citizen" Edmond Genet, the French minister to the U.S., broke all the normal rules of
diplomacy by appealing directly to the American people to support the _______________________
- So outrageous was his conduct that event Jefferson approved of Washington's request that France ______________________
- Recalled by his government, Genet chose to remain in the U.S., where he married and became a U.S. citizen
The Jay Treaty in 1794
- Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay on a special mission to Britain to talk that country out of its offensive practice of
searching & seizing American ships and ____________________________________ into the British navy
- After a year of talks, Jay brought back a treaty in which Britain agreed to evacuate its posts on the U.S. ___________________
- The treaty said nothing about British ________________ of American ________________________
- Narrowly ratified by the Senate, the unpopular Jay Treaty __________ American supporters of France
- The treaty, however, did maintain Washington's policy of neutrality which kept the U.S. at peace
The Pinckney Treaty in 1795
- Totally unexpected was the effect that the Jay Treaty had on Spain's policy toward its territories in the Americas
- Seeing the treaty that the U.S. might be drawing closer to Britain, Spain decided to its consolidate holdings in North America
- Thomas Pinckney (minister to Spain) made a treaty where Spain agreed to open lower Miss. River & New Orleans to U.S. ____
- It granted Americans the right to transfer cargoes in ___________________ without paying duties to the Spanish government
- Spain agreed to accept the U.S. claim that Florida's northern boundary should be at the ____________ & not north of the line
Domestic Concerns
Along with coping with foreign challenges, stabilizing the U.S. credit & organizing a new gov't, the U.S. faced domestic problems
Native Americans
- During the late 1790s, settlers crossed the Alleghenies & moved the frontier westward into the _________________ & beyond
- Settlers encroached on the lands of Native Americans, who resisted the westward movement as a threat to their existence
- Americans on the frontier were angry that Britain was supplying ________________ & encouraging them to attack the settlers
- In 1794, the U.S. army led by Gen. Anthony Wayne defeated several Indian tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in _________
- In 1795, the chiefs of the defeated tribes agreed to the _______________________________
- The treaty saw the defeated Indian tribes surrender claims to the Ohio Territory & promised to open it up to settlement
The Whiskey Rebellion (1794)
- Was the new federal gov't strong enough to deal successfully with rebellion against its own laws?
- In western Penn., the refusal of a group of farmers to pay the federal __________________ posed a challenge to the U.S. gov't
- The rebelling farmers could not afford to pay a tax on the whiskey that they distilled from surplus corn
- Rather than pay the tax, they defended their "liberties" by attacking the ____________________
- Washington responded to this crisis by federalizing 15,000 state militiamen & placing them under ______________________
- The show of force had its intended effect, causing the Whisky Rebellion to collapse without any bloodshed on either side
- Some people liked his leadership, contrasting it with the previous govt's helplessness to do anything about ________________
- To westerners, the military action was resented & condemned as unwarranted _______________ against the common people
- The govt's chief critic, ________________________________, gained in popularity as a champion of the western frontier
Western lands
- In the 1790s, with the Jay Treaty & Battle of Fallen Timbers victory, the gov't gained control of huge _____________________
- Congress encouraged the rapid settlement of these lands by passing the _____________________ in 1796 which established
orderly procedures for dividing & selling federal lands at reasonable prices
- Adding new states went smoothly as _______ became first new state (1791), followed by _______ (1792) & _________ (1796)