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Tariff of 1789
The Tariff Act of 1789, was the first major Act passed in the United States under its present Constitution of 1789 and had two purposes as stated in Section I of the Act. -
Judiciary Act
It established the U.S. federal judiciary. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution prescribed that the "judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court," and such inferior courts as Congress saw fit to establish. It made no provision, though, for the composition or procedures of any of the courts, leaving this to Congress to decide -
Philadelphia as the nation’s capital, 1790
In 1790, Philadelphia was named the national capital for a ten-year period while the Federal City (now Washington, D. C.) was under construction. Morris volunteered the house to serve as President Washington's residence. -
First Bank of United States , 1791-1811 (Report on Public Credit, Report on Manufactures)
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Edmund Randolph argued that the power to incorporate was not available unless explicitly prescribed by the Constitution, then Alexander Hamilton retorted that a power was not unavailable unless so stated in the Constitution. Washington accepted Hamilton’s logic and signed the bill on February 25, 1791 to create the national Bank. -
The Bill of Rights, 1791
The first 10 amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. Written by James Madison in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties, the Bill of Rights lists specific prohibitions on governmental power. -
Fugitive Slave law, 1793
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was an Act of the United States Congress to give effect to the Fugitive Slave Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3 Note: Superseded by the Thirteenth Amendment) guaranteed the right of a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave. The Act's title was "An Act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters" and created the legal mechanism by which that could be accomplish -
French Revolution - Citizen Genet, 1793
President Washington attempted to steer a neutral course between these two opposing views. He believed that joining Great Britain or France in war could subject the comparatively weak United States to invasion by foreign armies and have disastrous economic consequences. President Washington issued a proclamation of neutrality on April 22, 1793. -
Eli Whitney granted patent for the cotton gin, 1794
A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. The fibers are processed into clothing or other cotton goods, and any undamaged seeds may be used to grow more cotton or to produce cottonseed oil and meal. -
Whiskey Rebellion, 1794
The Whiskey Rebellion, or Whiskey Insurrection, was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791, during the presidency of George Washington. The rebellion was provoked by the imposition of an excise tax on distilled spirits. Although the tax applied to all distilled spirits, whiskey was by far the most popular distilled beverage in 18th-century America so the excise became widely known as a "whiskey tax." -
Jay’s Treaty with England, 1795
The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and The United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and also as Jay's Treaty, the British Treaty, and the Treaty of London of 1794, was a 1795 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that is credited with averting war, resolving issues remaining since the Treaty of Paris of 1783 (which ended the American Revolution), and facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the United S -
Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain, 1795
Pinckney's Treaty, also known as the Treaty of San Lorenzo or the Treaty of Madrid, was signed in San Lorenzo de El Escorial on October 27, 1795 and established intentions of friendship between the United States and Spain. -
Farewell Address, 1796
George Washington's Farewell Address is a letter written by the first American President, George Washington, to "The People of the United States of America". Washington wrote the letter near the end of his second term as President, before his retirement to his home Mount Vernon. -
XYZ Affair, 1797
The XYZ Affair was a political and diplomatic episode in 1797 and 1798, early in the administration of John Adams, involving a confrontation between the United States and Republican France that led to an undeclared war called the Quasi-War. The name derives from the substitution of the letters X, Y and Z for the names of French diplomats in documents released by the Adams administration. -
Naturalization Act, 1798
The Naturalization Act, passed by the United States Congress on June 18, 1798 (1 Stat. 566), increased the period necessary for immigrants to become naturalized citizens in the United States from 5 to 14 years. -
Alien Act, Sedition Act, 1798
The Alien and Sedition Acts were four (4) bills that were passed by the Federalists in the 5th United States Congress and signed into law by President John Adams in 1798, the result of the French Revolution and during an undeclared naval war with France, later known as the Quasi-War. -
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, 1798
The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (or Resolves) were political statements drafted in 1798 and 1799, in which the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures took the position that the federal Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional. The resolutions argued that the states had the right and the duty to declare unconstitutional any acts of Congress that were not authorized by the Constitution. In doing so, they argued for states' rights and strict constructionism of the Constitution. -
"Midnight Appointments"/Judiciary Act of 1801
The Midnight Judges Act (also known as the Judiciary Act of 1801; 2 Stat. 89, or the Midnight Appointments) represented an effort to solve an issue in the U.S. Supreme Court during the early 19th century.
