SHORT RESPONSE
Chapter 7 (p.214-226)
Answer the following questions in at 3-4 sentences.
You will have 4 minutes.
How did events abroad during the 1790s sharpen
political divisions in the United States?
Answer
The French Revolution produced ideological
conflict over religion and politics, and created
economic prosperity for merchants, slave owners,
and farmers as a result of high food prices in
Europe. Ideological conflicts increased political
divisions within American society, particularly the
domestic debate over Hamilton’s economic policies,
which helped create a domestic insurrection in
western Pennsylvania. Party identity of Federalists
and Republicans crystallized as well.
Political Crisis of the
1790s
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Federalists Implement the
Constitution
•
Devising the New Government
•
Washington received the highest number of votes from the electoral
college and was elected president in 1788
•
John Adams was elected vice president
•
Washington insisted that only the president had the right to remove
appointed government officials
•
He appointed a cabinet: T. Jefferson (head of Dept. of State), A.
Hamilton (head of Treasury Dept.), and H. Knox (Sec. of War)
•
Judiciary Act of 1789 established a federal district court in each state
with three circuit courts to hear appeals
•
Supreme Court would have final judicial say
Federalists Implement the
Constitution
•
The Bill of Rights
•
Added to the Constitution
•
Madison submitted 19 amendments
•
10 were approved by 1791
•
These 10 consisted the nation’s first Bill of Rights to protect
individual citizens against an oppressive national government
Hamilton’s Financial Plan
•
Public Credit: Redemption and Assumption
•
Was extremely controversial because it would create a permanent
national debt
•
Suggested that Congress redeem at face value the $55 million in
Confederation securities held by foreign and domestic investors to
create good credit
•
Critics said this policy would unfairly increase the profits of
speculators
•
Hamilton wanted to improve public credit by having the national
government assume the war debt of the states
Hamilton’s Financial Plan
•
Creating a National Bank
•
Hamilton argued that a national bank would be jointly owned by
private stockholders and the national government
•
Bank would make loans to merchants, handle government funds,
and issue bills of credit
•
Jefferson and Madison opposed a national bank (preferred a strict
interpretation of Constitution) on the grounds that the government
did not have the right/power to create such an institution
Hamilton’s Financial Plan
•
Raising Revenue Through Tariffs
•
Hamilton’s “Report on Manufactures” (December 1791) urged the
expansion of American manufacturing
•
Called for Congress to impose excise taxes to pay the interest on the
national debt
•
Advocated moderate revenue tariffs and not protective tariffs
Jefferson’s Agrarian Vision
•
Southern Planters and Western Farmers
•
By 1793, the Federalists had split over Hamilton’s financial plans for the
nation
•
Southern Federalists supported Jefferson and Madison (called themselves
Democratic Republicans or simply Republicans), while northerners
supported Hamilton (Federalists)
•
Jefferson argued that the wage-labor of the North could not sustain a
republican nation
•
Therefore, he focused instead on yeoman farmers and their families, whose
work he argued could support the nation as well as European countries
•
The French Revolution’s disruption of European farming lent credibility
to Jefferson’s ideas
French Revolution Divides
Americans
•
Ideological Politics
•
Americans made large profits from the French Revolution but
argued over the ideologies that led to the revolution
•
Some Americans supported the Jacobin ideas of social egalitarian/
democratic society
•
Americans with strong Christian beliefs disliked the Jacobins
closing the churches and feared a similar social rebellion in the U.S.
•
Still other Americans were critical of the revolution’s bloodshed
•
In 1794, western Pennsylvania farmers mounted the Whiskey
Rebellion to protest Hamilton’s excise tax on alcohol
French Revolution Divides
Americans
•
Jay’s Treaty
•
Disagreements between the British and Americans over shipments
to France led to Jay’s Treaty (1793/1794), accepting Britain’s right
to stop neutral ships
•
In return, Americans could make claims to the British for illegal
seizures and required the British to remove their troops and Indian
agents from the Northwest Territory
•
W
French Revolution Divides
Americans
•
The Haitian Revolution
•
Saint-Domingue was a French plantation colony in the West Indies
•
Elite planters ruled a population of 40,000 free whites
•
Some 28,000 free blacks were excluded from white privileges
•
Half million black slaves worked the sugar plantations
•
French Revolution intensified conflicts on the island and inspired a massive
slave uprising that aimed to abolish slavery
•
Toussaint L’Ouverture seized control of the country and in 1803 proclaimed
the independent nation of Haiti, the Atlantic World’s first black republic
•
Haitian refugees flood into the U.S.
•
Many Americans saw Haiti as a perversion of the republican ideal
Rise of Political Parties
•
Public interest
•
Many Americans believed organized political parties were
dangerous because they feared that they did not serve the public
interest
•
Debate over Hamilton’s financial policies led to further divide
among politicians
•
By the 1796 election, the two groups were holding public festivals
and processions to celebrate their perspectives and candidates
•
Adams was elected president
•
M
Rise of Political Parties
•
The Naturalization, Alien, and Sedition Acts of 1798
•
Federalists took a hard line against Republic critics
•
They passed Naturalization Act (lengthened residency requirement for American
citizenship from five to fourteen years), Alien Act (authorized deportation of
foreigners), and Sedition Act (prohibited publication of insults or attacks on
president or members of Congress), which limited individual rights and
threatened the fledgling party system
•
Federalist prosecutors arrested many Republican newspapers editors and
politicians and jailed some of them
•
Resulting constitutional crisis led Kentucky and Virginia legislatures to declare
Alien and Sedition Acts to be “unauthoritative, void, and of no force”
•
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions set forth a states’ rights interpretation of
the Constitution, asserting that the states had a “right to judge” the legitimacy of
national laws
Rise of Political Parties
•
The “Revolution of 1800”
•
The presidential election of 1800 was an intense partisan contest
•
Federalists attacked Jefferson as an irresponsible radical
•
Election was contested, but Federalist Hamilton supported
Jefferson, leading in new Republican era
•
Bloodless transfer of power showed that popularly elected
governments could be changed in an orderly way, even in times of
bitter partisan conflict
Short Answer
Why did Jefferson consider his election in 1800 to be
revolutionary?