Early National History 1789-1824

What: Hamilton’s plan submitted to Congress in order to bring about healthy change in a debt-ridden and somewhat disjointed nation. His plan included arguments for public credit (funding and assumption)—this is Report on Public Credit #1; a national bank—this is Report on Public Credit #2; and the encouragement of manufacturing and internal improvements—this is Report on Manufacturing.

Sig: This plan would bind the country together through a nation-wide public scheme, instead of the states wallowing in their own economic ruin, Hamilton suggested the new federal government take control and pass legislation that would favor all relatively wealthy Americans throughout the nation. He did not have a solely right-side vision: His plan for promoting manufacturing and internal improvements, while not approved by Congress, when linked to his public credit and bank reports, which were approved by Congress, would have created an integrated national economy favoring all sections of the nation, including the south and west.

Who: Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of Treasury

What: This first part of the plan was aimed at public credit. Split into two parts, “funding at par” and assumption, it restored the value of the dollar and relieved state debts, respectively. With “funding at par,” the government was to pay all national debts at face value with accumulated interest by levying taxes on items such as whiskey (see Whiskey Rebellion) and imposing a tariff for revenue purposes. With assumption, the national government would “assume” the debts of the states. Funding favored speculators and the wealthy who held national government notes. Assumption favored states that had not paid off their debts.

Sig: This plan served the purpose of restoring public credit and binding both the wealthy and the states to a financially stable and viable national government.

Who: Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of Treasury

What: The second part of the plan was Hamilton’s recommendation to establish a national bank to help standardize banking. Congress agreed and created the 1st BUS, with a twenty year charter.

Sig: Tied the states closer together in economic exchange, gave the vital power of money to the federal government, and pulled the U.S. out of a confusing era of debt. Bank and anti-bank forces rallied to form first two political parties (Federalists and Jeffersonian Democrats).

Who: Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of Treasury

What: The third part of the plan is a plea to Congress to encourage manufacturing in America through bounties (payments to encourage manufacturing) and temporary protective tariffs. Based on his observation of Europe, he also called for roads and canals. Hamilton listed the supposed benefits of industry, which, among other things, included the self-reliance of the nation (important for military purposes), the benefit of all the social classes, and cooperation with the already-sprawling agriculture. This was a spectacular vision that Hamilton had for an integrated national economy that would bind all regions of the country together

Sig: This part of Hamilton’s plan was the only part to fail in Congress. Its ideas were to be brought to life, though, by the mid-1800s.

Who: Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton

What: Hamilton’s financial successes created some political liabilities, which lead to a full-blown political rivalry with Jefferson. The parties that developed during this time were the Jeffersonian Republicans and Hamiltonian Federalists.

Sig: The two-party system has existed in the United States ever since. (Place the early Jeffersonians in the strict construction camp and the Federalists in the loose construction camp—this is a major point of departure for the two parties.)

What: With the American Revolution accomplished and the Republic underway, women were assumed to have the role of instilling civic virtue into their sons by proper education. The idea of civic virtue is to subordinate individual selfish interests to the public good. Women would be the special keepers of the American conscience and as educated wives and mothers they would cultivate in their sons the civic virtues demanded by the new Republic. With government in the hands of the people, the people (especially sons, because only males could vote or hold political office) had to be well educated, and “Republican motherhood” was the answer.

Sig: Elevates the role of the woman in American society after the Revolution. (Note that Republican motherhood does not apply to poor, working class women or to slave mothers. Thus Republican Motherhood can be cast in terms of class, gender, and race.)

Who: President Washington

What: When war broke out between France and Britain, Washington proclaimed the government’s official neutrality and warned Americans to be impartial towards both armed camps.

Sig: This was America’s first formal declaration of aloofness from Old World quarrels (called “isolationism). The problem was the U.S. was still married to the French in the Franco-American alliance of 1778 which obligated the U.S. to defend French possessions in the Caribbean (the alliance was cancelled in 1800 with the Convention of 1800).

What: In 1793, Whitney invented the Cotton Gin that removed the seeds from cotton. Previously, the seeds were removed by hand, which took much more time. The Gin allowed plantation owners to remove seeds from cotton more efficiently (50 to 1), creating a demand for even more slave labor. In 1798, he also developed the process of interchangeable parts for mechanical items (primarily muskets).

Sig: The invention of the Cotton Gin promoted cotton culture and slavery throughout the south. The invention of interchangeable parts paved the way for mass production. Note how Whitney contributed to both the economic growth and separation of the north and the south.

Where: Western Pennsylvania farmers and President Washington

What: A tax of 9 cents per gallon was imposed by Congress (initiated by Hamilton) on whiskey in 1791, in order to pay national debts. Outraged farmers, who would ferment and distill their grain into whiskey to get it to the market, rioted in 1794. The Militia Act of 1792 was invoked, and the militia was called out.

Sig: The smashing of the rebellion demonstrated the power of the new Constitution versus the Articles of Confederation.

Who: Americans, British, John Jay

What: The United States and Britain were arguing over frontier forts still held by the British in the Northwest, navigation laws, and the seizure of American ships. The American statesman John Jay was sent over to negotiate. He compromised with a treaty. The senate ratified the treaty in 1795.

Sig: It averted war, Britain finally evacuated the posts, and while Britain agreed to compensate for U.S. ship losses, Britain did not agree to stop seizing the ships. The Jay Treaty was criticized in the U.S. but it was an alternative to war and did prompt the Spanish to negotiate the Pinckney Treaty.

Who: Spain, U.S.

What: Spain granted the Americans free navigation of the Mississippi and a large disputed territory north of Florida (from 31º to 32º28'--see the “Area disputed by Spain and U.S.” on map on page 175)

Sig: Free navigation of the Mississippi was essential for the economic life of the west. The U.S. could not afford to have Spain block access to the Gulf of Mexico by denying shipping privileges at the mouth of the Mississippi. Pinckney’s Treaty was serendipity (unanticipated good thing) for the U.S. after the humiliating Jay Treaty. Spain feared an Anglo-American rapprochement (renewal of friendly relations) and dealt kindly with the Americans.

What: Little Turtle, chief of the Miamis defeated the U.S. Army in 1790 and 1791, but lost in 1794 at the Battle of Fallen Timbers to American General Mad Anthony Wayne. The British refused to shelter the fleeing Indians. The Indians signed the Treaty of Greenville. The U.S. gained tracts of the Old Northwest (basically Indiana and Ohio); the Indians received $20,000 lump sum and $9,000 a year, as well as the right to hunt the lands they had ceded and the recognition of their sovereign status.

Sig: Demonstrates the continuing problem with the Indians and how the Indians generally lost, both militarily and politically.

Who: French Foreign Minister Talleyrand; agents X, Y, Z

Where: France

What: The French had been furious over Jay's Treaty, condemning it as the first step toward an alliance with Britain. They further protested that the pact was a flagrant violation of the Franco-American Treaty of 1778. In response, French warships began to seize defenseless American merchant vessels, about 300 by mid-1797. President Adams sent three men to France to settle these disputes. The envoys eventually reached Paris in 1797, hoping to meet Talleyrand. Instead, they were secretly met by three go-betweens, otherwise known as X, Y, and Z. The French spokesmen demanded a bribe of $250,000, for the privilege of merely speaking with Talleyrand.

Sig: As the result of the XYZ Affair, anti-French sentiments rose, and an undeclared naval war between the US and France was ignited with both sides seizing ships.

What: Insulted by the XYZ Affair, the three American envoys returned home. Pro-war sentiment gradually descended upon the US. War preparations were made. The Navy Department was created; the 3-ship Navy was expanded; the US Marine Corps was officially formed. War was confined to the sea, notably to the West Indies. In 2 1/2 years of undeclared hostilities, the new navy captured over 80-armed French vessels. Only a slight push might have plunged both nations into a full-fledged war. This uproar moved President John Adams to suspend all trade with the French, and American ship captains were authorized to attack and capture armed French vessels. Congress created the Department of the Navy, and war seemed inevitable. In 1800, the French government, now under Napoleon, signed a new treaty, the Convention of 1800 (which “annulled the marriage” of 1778), and peace was restored.

Sig: The US Navy was expanded. War with France could have resulted in loss of lives to either side. Suspension of French trade could have harmed the economy. It was also good that the war was still undeclared. If America had waged war on France in 1800, Napoleon would have not sold Louisiana to Jefferson on any terms whatsoever in 1803. Therefore, the Louisiana Purchase might not have occurred.

Who: The Federalists and the Adams administration

What: Manipulating the anti-French sentiments, the pro-British Federalists, in 1798, managed to pass laws designed to silence or minimize their Jeffersonian foes. The first of these laws was aimed at the supposedly pro-Jefferson "aliens." Most Europeans immigrants, lacking wealth, were scorned by the aristocratic Federalist Party. But they were welcomed as voters by the less prosperous and more democratic Jeffersonians. The Federalist Congress thus raised the residence requirements for aliens who desired to become citizens from 5 years to 14. The Sedition Act, on the other hand, restricted the freedom of speech and freedom of the press as guaranteed in the Constitution by the Bill of Rights (1st Amendment). This law provided that anyone who impeded the policies of the government or falsely defamed its officials, including the president, would be liable to a heavy fine & imprisonment.

Sig: The Alien Act infringed the traditional American policy of open-door hospitality and speedy assimilation. The Sedition Act, meanwhile, infringed in the rights guaranteed to all American citizens in the 1st Amendment and prompted the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.

Who: James Madison (for Virginia) and Thomas Jefferson (for Kentucky)

What: Republican leaders were convinced that the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional, but the process of deciding on the constitutionality of federal laws was as yet undefined. Jefferson and Madison decided that the states should have that power, and they drew up a series of resolutions, which were presented to the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures. They proposed that the state bodies should have the power to "nullify" federal laws within those states. These resolutions were adopted, but only in these states, and so the issue died.

Sig: The theoretical argument in these resolutions, that the U.S. was a compact among sovereign states, was used later as part of the nullification controversy of the 1830's and ultimately in the secession crisis of 1860-1861.

What: Beginning in 1792 and continuing to 1804, slaves were rebelling in Haiti (St. Domingue or Santa Domingo). That rebellion, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, was successful. Not successful but terrifying were slave revolts in the U.S. (Gabriel Prosser, Virginia, 1800; Denmark Vesey, South Carolina, 1822; Nat Turner, Virginia, 1831).

Sig: These revolts caused great anxiety and fear among whites and plantation owners, who responded with increasingly harsh restrictions on the ability of slaves to communicate, learn, and travel. Free blacks were restricted too, and even whites could be held accountable if they challenged the slave system (because that might give slaves encouragement to resist). While the plantation economy provided many benefits for many owners, the scepter of slave rebellion was a continuing and haunting fear among southerners.

What: Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both ran as Jeffersonian Republicans against John Adams and Charles Pinckney for the Federalists in the election of 1800. The candidate winning the second-highest number of electoral votes would become vice-president. Jefferson and Burr received the highest and same number of electoral votes, so the selection went to the House of Representatives. After a long deadlock, Alexander Hamilton threw his support to Jefferson, and Burr had to accept vice-presidency. (The 12th amendment in 1804 required that electors vote once for president and once for vice-president, thus solving this problem.) Jefferson called his election a “revolution” in that he would halt and reverse the growth of government power and the decay of civic virtue that occurred under the Federalists. But this was no popular “revolution” because Jefferson barely won the election.

Sig: The election pitted two parties who were bitterly opposed to each other. The election was peaceful; the transition of power was peaceful. Thus the U.S. established the fact that a democratic nation, even with bitterly divided political loyalties, could effect a peaceful transition of power. This was the only “revolution” that occurred in 1800.

What: Jefferson was president from 1801 to 1809. He called his election a revolution, but he did not dismantle the Bank of the United States or otherwise attack Hamilton’s financial structure. He did lower the debt, but that is hardly a revolution. His purchase of Louisiana was very important, even though he did not think he was constitutionally empowered to buy it. He fought a war with the Navy against Tripoli, even though he did not want to fight a war. (He supported limited government and desired only a small navy.) He represented agrarian interests against the monied and merchant class of the North, and yet he was a Virginia planter “aristocrat.”

Sig: Jefferson’s presidency time and again reflected the realities of the times and not his strict constructionist agrarian ideals.

Who: Jefferson and France (Napoleon I)

Where: The huge territory of Louisiana, stretching from the Canadian border to
the Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.

What: In the early years of the United States, Louisiana was of concern chiefly because it bordered the Mississippi River, which was vital to U.S. trade. In 1762 France had ceded Louisiana to Spain, which was too weak to offer a serious threat to American Commerce. In 1800, however, rumors spread that Spain was about to cede Louisiana back to France. Jefferson was alarmed. Relations between the United States and France were still unfriendly, and France had the power to cut off American shipping at Louisiana's capital, New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi. There was, said Jefferson, "one single spot" on the globe, "the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans through which the produce of three eighths of our territory must pass to market." In 1803, Talleyrand made Livingston a startling offer. Napoleon I was willing to sell the entire territory for $15 million. At the end of June, news of the treaty reached the United States. Jefferson was very eager to acquire the entire territory, but, viewing it from his strict-construction point of view, he did not think the purchase was constitutional. His remedy for the purchase was a constitutional amendment (which was never proposed).

Sig: The Louisiana Purchase has been called Jefferson’s “chief achievement”
during his administration. It allowed for much expansion and exploration into the West. It
also showed that Jefferson was strict in principle but loose in practice. Obviously, the purchase also finally resolved the important issue of control of New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi.