-
Constitution
-
George Washington's Inauguration
*Unanimously elected by the Electoral College
*Established a diverse cabinet:
a. Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson
b. Secretary of the Treasury: Alexander Hamilton
c. Secretary of War: Henry Knox -
Period: to
George Washington's Presidency
-
Judiciary Act of 1789
*Created effective federal courts
*John Jay became the first chief justice of the U.S. -
Bill of Rights
-
The Bank of the United States was created by Congress
*Chartered for 20 years
*Located in Philadelphia
*Capital of $10 million -
Washington's Reelection
-
The Citizen Genet Affair
*Edmond Genet, a French representative, had arrived in Charleston, South Carolina
*He was cheered by Jeffersonians and came to believe, wrongly, that the Neutrality Proclamation didn't really reflect the U.S.
*He equipped privateers to plunder British ships and to invade Spanish Florida and British Canada.
*He even threatened to appeal over the head of Washington to the sovereign voters.
*Then he was kicked out of the U.S. -
Neutrality Proclamation
*Issued by Washington warning Americans to stay out of the war between France and Britain -
Whiskey Rebellion
*Western Pennsylvania
*A response by farmers to Hamilton's excise tax on liquor
*Washington sent 13,000 troops, but no need-the rebels had already scattered -
Battle of Fallen Timbers
*General "Mad Anthony" Wayne crushed the Miamis -
Jay's Treaty
*Between the U.S. and Britain
*Britain would repay the lost money from recent merchant ship seizures called “impressment”, but it said nothing about future seizures or supplying Indians with arms
*America would pay off its pre-Revolutionary War debts to Britain
*Jeffersonians from the South were furious-they would have to pay the debts, while the North got paid -
The Treaty of Greenville
*The Indians ceded Ohio to the U.S. -
Pinckney's Treaty
*Between the U.S. and Spain
*Spain gave Americans free navigation of the Mississippi and the large disputed territory of western Florida
*Spain was lenient in response to Jay's Treaty--Spain didn't want the U.S. being friendly with Spain's enemy, England -
Washington's Farewell Address
*Warned against:
1) political parties
2) building permanent alliances with foreign nations -
Adams becomes President
*Most of his support in New England
*Jefferson, the runner-up, becomes vice-president -
Period: to
John Adams's Presidency
-
XYZ Affair
*Adams sent three diplomatic envoys to France
*They were approached by three agents, who demanded a huge bribe just to talk to Talleyrand
*The envoys refused and returned to the U.S.
*Unofficial war mostly confined to the sea commenced (Quasi War) -
Alien Laws
*Residence requirements for immigrants who wanted to become citizens raised from five to fourteen years
*Let the president deport dangerous aliens during peacetime and jail them during times of war -
Sedition Act
*Anyone who impeded the policies of the government or falsely defamed its officials, including the president, would be liable to a heavy fine and imprisonment.
*Passed by the Federalist majority in Congress and upheld in the court because of the majority of Federalists there too
*Written to expire in 1801 to prevent the use of it against
themselves if they lost the next election -
The Virginia (Madison) and Kentucky (Jefferson) Resolutions
*Stressed the compact theory (a.k.a. nullification): the states had made the federal government, which makes laws, but
since the states made the federal government, the states reserve the right to nullify those federal laws
*Made in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts
*Adopted only by Virginia and Kentucky
*Federalists argued that it was up to the Supreme Court to nullify legislation -
Convention of 1800 signed in Paris
*Annuled the 1778 alliance
*U.S. agreed to pay the damage claims of American shippers -
Napoleon gets Spain to cede Louisiana to France
-
Election of 1800
*Jefferson won over Adams, but in a technicality he and Aaron Burr tied for presidency
*The vote went to the Federalist-dominated House of Representatives
*Many wanted to vote for Burr because they hated Jefferson, but Adams and Hamilton finally persuaded them to change their minds -
Judiciary Act of 1801
*Packed newly created judgeships with Federalist midnight judges so as to prolong the Federalist legacy -
Thomas Jefferson's Inauguration "The Revolution of 1800"
*Peaceful transfer of power -
Period: to
Thomas Jefferson's Presidency
-
Tripolitan War begins
*Between the U.S. and the North African Barbary States
*The pasha of Tripoli informally declared war -
Spain withdraws the right of deposit guaranteed to the U.S. by Pinckney's Treaty
-
Marbury vs. Madison
*William Marbury (a midnight judge) had been named justice of peace for D.C. When he discovered that Secretary of State James Madison was shelving the position, he sued for its delivery
*Chief Justice John Marshall dismissed the case and said that the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional (suggested that the Supreme Court could decide the constitutionality of laws, a.k.a. judicial review) -
Louisiana Purchase
*U.S. got Louisiana for ~$15 million from France
*Negotiated by Robert Livingston -
Jefferson urged the House to impeach Samuel Chase, a Supreme Court judge
*Chase was acquitted because there weren't enough votes in the Senate to indict him -
Jefferson sends William Clark and Meriwether Lewis to explore the new territory
*Corps of Discovery
*They are accompanied by a Shoshone woman, Sacajawea
*Go all the way to Oregon and the Pacific before returning
*Spend two-and-a-half years
*Make scientific observations -
Jefferson's Reelection
-
Tripolitan War ends
*Secured a treaty at the price of only $60,000, which represented the ransom payments for captured Americans -
London issues Orders in Council
*Closed ports under French continental control to foreign shipping, including American, unless they stopped at a British
port first.
*Likewise, Napoleon ordered the seizure of all ships, including American, which entered British ports. -
Chesapeake Affair
*A British royal frigate confronted the U.S. Chesapeake, and the British captain ordered the seizure of four alleged deserters. When the American commander refused, the U.S. ship received three devastating broadsides that killed 3 Americans and wounded 18.
*Britain was in the wrong, but Jefferson still avoided war -
Embargo Act
*Forbade the export of all goods from the United States to any
foreign nation
*Hurt New England more than it hurt France or Britain
*People resorted to smuggling again -
Embargo Act replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act
*Reopened trade with all nations except France and England -
Madison's Inauguration
-
Period: to
James Madison's Presidency
-
Fletcher vs. Peck
*Georgia fraudulently granted 35 million acres in Mississippi to privateers and repealed it after public outcry, but Marshall ruled
that it was a contract, and that states couldn’t impair a contract -
Macon's Bill No. 2
*Permitted American trade with the whole world, and promised American restoration of trade to France and/or England if either dropped their commercial restrictions and restore the embargo against the nonrepealing nation -
Napoleon "lifts" his restrictions
*Announced that French commercial restrictions had been lifted, and Madison, desperate for recognition of the law, declared France available for American trade.
*Napoleon had manipulated America into entering European affairs against Great Britain -
Battle of Tippecanoe
*American general William Henry Harrison advanced upon
Tecumseh’s headquarters at Tippecanoe and burned the camp to the ground -
War of 1812 declared by Congress against Britain
*Causes:
1) “Freedom of the seas” – The U.S. wanted the right to sail and trade without fear.
2. Possibility of land – The U.S. might gain Canada or Florida.
3. Indian issues – Americans were still upset about British guns being giving to Indians North: against the war
South & West: for the war -
Battle of the Thames
*Tecumseh killed while fighting the British -
Battle of Horseshoe Bend
*Andrew Jackson crushed the Creek Indians -
The British burn Washington D.C.
-
Captain Thomas MacDonough forces the British to retreat from the Lake Champlain route
-
Treaty of Ghent
*At first the British made sweeping demands for a neutral Indian buffer state in the Great Lakes region, control of the Great Lakes, and a substantial part of conquered Maine, but the Americans refused
*Finally, it was an armistice, acknowledging a draw in the
war and ignoring any other demands of either side. Each side simply stopped fighting. The main issue of the war, impressment, was left unmentioned. -
Hartford Convention
*Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island secretly met in Hartford to discuss their grievances and to seek redress for their wrongs
*Most wanted financial assistance from Washington to compensate for lost trade, and an amendment requiring a 2
/3 majority for declarations of embargos
*Three special envoys from Massachusetts went to D.C. only to find news of peace; they sank away in disgrace
*Proved to be the death of the Federalist Party -
Battle of New Orleans
*Andrew Jackson led the Americans to a victory -
Tariff of 1816
*20-25% tariff on dutiable imports
*For protection -
Congress votes to distribute $1.5 million to the states for internal omprovements, but Madison vetoes it
-
Monroe's Inauguration
-
Period: to
James Monroe's Presidency
-
Era of Good Feelings begins
*Not really true-sectional troubles were beginning
*The South disliked:
1) The tariff because it only benefited the North and made the South pay higher prices
2) The internal improvements linking the North and West—the South didn’t see any benefits in paying taxes for roads and canals in other states. -
Rush-Bagot Treaty
*Limited naval armament on the Great Lakes -
Anglo-American Convention of 1818 (Treaty of 1818)
*Put the northern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase at the 49th parallel and provided for a 10-year joint occupation of the Oregon Territory with Britain, without a surrender of rights or claims by either Britain nor America -
Panic of 1819
*Marked the end of the Era of Good Feelings
*One major cause: overspeculation in land prices -
Florida Purchase Treaty
*Spain ceded Florida and shadowy claims to Oregon in
exchange for Texas.
*The U.S. paid $5 million to Spain for Florida -
Tallmadge Amendment
*A proposed bill which provided that no more slaves be brought into Missouri and also provided for the gradual emancipation of children born to slave parents already in Missouri
*Shot down in the Senate -
McCulloch vs. Maryland
*Maryland was trying to destroy the Bank of U.S. by taxing its currency notes
*Marshall denied Maryland's right to tax the bank and gave the doctrine of loose construction -
Dartmouth College vs. Woodward
*Dartmouth had been granted a charter by King George
III, but New Hampshire had tried to change it
*Marshall ruled that the original charter must stand -
Missouri Compromise
*Missouri was admitted as a slave state while Maine was admitted as a free state, thus maintaining the balance
*All new states north of the 36°30’ line would be closed to slavery, new states southward would be open to slavery -
Land Act of 1820
*Allowed a buyer to purchase 80 acres of land at a minimum of $1.25 an acre in cash
*The West -
Monroe's Reelection
-
Cohens vs. Virginia
*The Cohens had been found guilty by Virginia courts of illegally selling lottery tickets, had appealed to the Supreme Court, and had lost
*Marshall asserted the right of the Supreme Court to review the decisions of the state supreme courts in all questions involving powers of the federal government -
Gibbons vs. Ogden
*When New York tried to grant a monopoly of waterborne commerce, Marshall struck it down, saying that only Congress could control interstate commerce