Unit 7: The Federalist Era Lesson 1: Establishing the New Government

Soon after the Constitution was ratified, elections were held for members of the new gov’t  Then, members of the electoral college voted for 2 people The person with the most electoral votes became President The person with the second-most votes became Vice President

Electors Select Washington The electors overwhelmingly favored George Washington as President  Why was he such a favorite?  As a military hero, & as president of the Constitutional Convention, he earned the respect, trust, & admiration of Americans & foreigners alike  good point!

Who became the Vice President? John Adams, a lawyer & patriot leader from Massachusetts

Other National Elections At the same time as the electoral college elected the president, members of Congress were also elected

Ok, so what were we talking about? When the electoral college elected the president, members of Congress were also being elected

Members of the House were elected by the people, as they are today Members of the Senate were chosen by the state legislatures  This practice continued until 1913, when the Constitution was amended to have senators elected by the people as well What else happened in 1913??? Don’t whine. I put Derek Jeter in this Powerpoint, didn’t I?

Problems these new gov’t officials faced: The U.S. was a weak country  Its army was small  It had no navy  Frontier settlements were being attacked by Native Americans  Pirates constantly threatened American trade  The U.S. owed money, with no way to raise it

Washington had his job cut out for him And he wasn’t even thrilled to accept the job as our first President Why not?  He had no models to follow  He had to establish the President’s role in the U.S. gov’t & organize the executive department  Almost everything he did in his 1 st term established a model that later presidents followed

The biggest problem Washington faced: The national debt: the total amount a gov’t owes on money it has borrowed  To pay for the Revolutionary War, the gov’t had borrowed millions of dollars from other countries & individual citizens  Many states were also in debt from the war

Alexander Hamilton comes up with a plan for the economy Hamilton was a lawyer & a New York delegate to the Continental Congress He was a Federalist because he wanted a strong federal gov’t  He disagreed openly with many members of Congress, including Thomas Jefferson, who favored strong state gov’ts

Hamilton’s Plan He became secretary of the treasury in Washington’s Cabinet His plan to fix the national debt called for the federal gov’t to pay the debts owed by both the nation & the states

Many Southerners, especially James Madison, didn’t like his plan because… many Southern farmers had sold their gov’t bonds to Northern merchants at low prices because they needed cash Under Hamilton’s plan, federal money would go to the new owners of the bonds So the money that used to belong to the South would go to the Northerners that now had the bonds

Another reason why many Southerners opposed Hamilton’s plan was… they didn’t want the power of the state gov’ts to be weakened by being dependent on the federal gov’t

Compromise Jefferson & his Southern followers agreed to let the federal gov’t pay state debts if… the gov’t promised to put the new national capital in the South

The new capital would be built along the Potomac River, between MD & VA This separate territory, the District of Columbia, was created so that no one state could claim the capital city  While waiting for the new Capitol to be built, Congress made Philadelphia the capital

Another part of Hamilton’s financial plan was to have a national bank He proposed that the bank have the following 4 duties: 1. handle the federal gov’t’s money 2. help collect tax money 3. issue paper money 4. give out loans to help the growth of business  Speaking of “Banks”  Can you think of anyone else with the last name Banks?

Why some people opposed having a national bank: Some said that, because the Constitution didn’t give the gov’t the power to establish a national bank, the gov’t couldn’t set one up

Also, many Southerners argued that the bank would create a wealthy upper class, because it would be helping wealthy Northern merchants and hurting some Southern farmers

Despite these oppositions, Bankers, investors, & Congress liked Hamilton’s plan and in 1791, Congress passed a bill creating the Bank of the United States

Remember the first part of Hamilton’s plan? To fix the national debt by having the federal gov’t pay the debts owed by both the nation & the states  With Hamilton’s plan now accepted, the gov’t needed a plan to raise money to pay these war debts

The national gov’t also needed money for improvements such as bridges & highways  Name the bridge

How did the gov’t raise this money? Hamilton wanted to have an excise tax: a tax placed on goods made, sold, & used within the country He also wanted to have import tariffs: taxes on certain manufactured goods brought into the country

A Bonus from the Import Tariff In addition to raising money, it would make foreign goods more expensive to buy  This would encourage the growth of American industries because…  more people would want to buy the cheaper American-made goods, creating more business for the American manufacturers

So the excise tax & the import tariff were passed in 1791 & 1792

The new taxes led to the Whiskey Rebellion The new excise tax, which included a tax on whiskey that was made in the US, angered farmers in the West

How? Because of bad roads, it was hard for farmers who grew crops like corn & rye to ship them to market  So instead, they came up with the plan to turn their crops into whiskey, which they could sell locally

The new excise tax on whiskey, though, made it harder for Americans to afford it, & thus the farmers couldn’t sell as much of it  The farmers thought that this new tax was as unfair as the British taxes had been

What did the farmers do about it? In 1794, farmers in western PA who refused to pay the tax started to fight with the local gov’t agents  Several people were killed

Why is the Whiskey Rebellion important? It was a test of the new federal gov’t’s power, & it passed! Washington, angry at the farmers who thought they could disobey the gov’t, sent in the militia, & the revolt was over

Washington’s next concern had to do with the formation of political parties They began to develop by the end of his second term  His major fear was that the differences between the parties would tear the country apart