Early American Republic

The constitution was released on September 17, 1787 with a 2 house legislature, a small state, big state compromise and was ratified by 1788, but not without the states making addendums of their own, most of them for a Bill of Rights. Because the federalists did not include a Bill of Rights, the Anti-Federalists won it after ratification. Washington became the first president, unanimously elected in 1789, and as soon as the 9th state, New Hampshire ratified it elections and the construction of the government took place. The Bill of Rights was added 1791.

The First Congress was generally conservative. They met in April 1789, were mostly Federalist, and passed the Revenue Act of 1789 which created a 5% tariff on imports, a Proposed Bill of Rights, adopted in 1791, the Judiciary Act of 1789, and they accepted Washington’s right to set up his own Cabinet.

The Whiskey Excise Tax was established to pay for states’ war debt and was Hamilton’s idea. His deal included a new capital that would be in South, in the District of Columbia and was signed in March of 1791. The Whiskey Tax was a “sin tax” on distilled beverages at between 7 to 12¢ per gallon. The tax was especially unfair to westerners who used whiskey as currency. The issue set off a serious popular insurrection. A significant number of the population did not like this tax. It was not only unfair, it was unenforceable; roads did not generally run that far west. To protest it, westerners used the ideals and the methods of the Revolutionary War. The tax quickly created animosity in the west that outlasted the rebellion.

Shays’ Rebellion occurred in 1786 and the resistance to the 1791Whiskey Excise spread throughout whole backcountry by 1793. Its participants were generally Antifederalists and many federalists were burned in effigy, including Hamilton and Jay, but never Washington. Revolutionary-style demonstrations appeared, and the revolt also tied to unhappiness with new Constitution. Protestors stopped the mail, closed courts, attacked tax collectors and refused to sit on juries. The federal government was too weak to enforce order in these areas. Once Pennsylvania rebels attacked a federal marshal, the state was declared in insurrection, but there was generally no ability for even the states to enforce the government either.

A Yellow Fever epidemic hits the capital in the summer and the fall. Generally America did not suffer from epidemics because its population was spread out, but at this point we were no longer immune and the capital shut down due to rampant sickness. “Deaths are now about 30 a day. It is in every square of the city. All flying who can. Most of the offices are shut or shutting. The banks shut up this day. Al my clerks have left me but one: so that I cannot go on with business.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 12 September 1793

Americans problems with England continued even into our emergence as a country. They were seizing American ships in Caribbean, had not evacuated their US forts, and they refused commercial treaties and slave reimbursement. They never abided by the Treaty of Paris, breaking many of its stipulations and put many of our ships in unfamiliar waters because they closed our trade networks. To remedy this problem and avoid war Chief Justice John Jay was sent to England in 1794 to negotiate a trade treaty. This was an underground action; he was sent by George Washington on his executive authority, congress was not informed, and as he returned home the treaty was rumored to be a bad one, and those who spread the gossip were correct. The Jay Treaty of 1794, was more favorable to Britain than America, and gave them most favored nation status, but it averted a new war. It was secretly adopted but then published in a newspaper and became quickly unpopular. It put a dent in George Washington’s popularity as many believed he overstepped his authority as a president, and it was just a band-aid on the broken arm that would become the War of 1812.

By late 1794, Pennsylvania was exploding. Georgia was about to go to war with the Indians. George Rodgers Clark was taking law into own hands in Ohio valley. Charles Pinckney was finally sent to Spain and signed the Pinckney Treaty, alternately the Treaty of San Lorenzo, which was a renewable 3-year water rights treaty on the Mississippi River. It was a great treaty, allowing the Spanish to rent the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans. At this point they needed our alliance, we were held hostage because we needed the use of the river, but they had a weak king, needed money and had no allies.

The French were angered by Jay’s Treaty, which violated America’s Revolutionary War agreements with France. In response, French seized 300 American ships and to curb this, Adams sent a delegation to France. Our ships at this point were vulnerable, and this number taken by the French was a much larger total than all of our issues with the Barbary Nations combined. The delegation sent were approached by unofficial envoys of the foreign minister Talleyrand who demanded bribes to negotiate. The bribe price went as high as 21 million dollars and would have had the US use its credit to support France. This was a belligerent approach and the French threatened war and to use agents that they had placed in the US to overthrow the government from within and through press connections. “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!”

The Alien and Sedition acts were passed in the peak of Federalists’ popularity, during the Quasi-War. They were used to remove Democratic-Republicans from power but specifically exempted Jefferson. Adams changed the naturalization residency requirement from 5 to 14 years, as new immigrants supported Jefferson. The president received the power to deport troublemaking aliens. It was a crime to “defame” government. These acts were triggered by Democratic-Republican political clubs and went after printers and newspaper editors. As a response Madison and Jefferson penned the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, the beginning of the Nullification Debate.

A second Yellow Fever epidemic swept through Philadelphia.

As a response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, Madison and Jefferson penned the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, the beginning of the Nullification Debate.

Although these threats were not said outright, they were implied and Adams released the correspondence in the newspaper for all Americans to read. This led to the US and France naval battles wherein American ships began to shoot back, the Quasi-War from 1798 to 1800. Jefferson looked foolish for his support of the French and Adams decided to build up the army. He requested the help of George Washington who appointed Hamilton as general; Adams worst nightmare. By the end of his presidency, Adams had reversed this decision and reduced the size of the army.

To defuse the overwhelming fear of war Adams' sent an envoy once again to negotiate with France.

From 1801 to 1805 Jefferson participated in the Tripolitan War, the U.S.’s first foreign war.

The George Washington was seized in 1800. In 1803 the Philadelphia captained by William Bainbridge was captured along with its crew of over 300 men, when he sailed it into the shoals and without waiting for the tide to recede, surrendered with all hands. In 1804 Stephen Decatur’s came in with a night raid and burned down the Philadelphia, and in 1805 Commander William Eaton’s attacked Derna and took it, the first foreign city to be captured by the US, although later it was returned in the peace treaty. All of these actions played as stands for republican virtues in the papers. In 1805 the U.S. and Tripoli made peace, and the US paid $60,000 for the return of its captives.

In 1800 Spain gave Louisiana to France, but not without first closing her ports to us.

Napoleon had wanted a Caribbean Empire, by his plan was foiled by the Haitian Revolution of 1800. His attack on Haiti had failed, by 1800 they had become a Black Republic and Napoleon has his sights on the Caribbean Jewel. He sent 90,000 soldiers to retake Haiti and the majority of them died from Yellow Fever. At this point, due to the failure, Haiti became unreachable and Louisiana became useless to Napoleon.

In 1802 U.S. access to New Orleans was revoked and a series of representatives were sent to negotiate for the port’s purchase. They got more than they bargained for when Napoleon, in his great need for the cash, offered Louisiana to Jefferson for 15 million dollars, a mere 13¢ an acre and Jefferson was forced to purchase the land on his own authority going against his stated views of government; he didn't think he had the executive power to make the purchase, but the deal was too good to pass up and it doubled the size of the country which was good for Jefferson’s agrarian ideas.

The Marbury versus Madison case came about over midnight appointments made by Adams, which Jefferson’s administration refused to recognize. At the end of everything, the issue was unimportant, but the case established judicial review and the power of the Supreme Court, as final judge of congressional laws. The Supreme Court was given the power to judge federal and state laws “unconstitutional.” In doing this it nullified the Judiciary Act of 1789 because that act violated the checks and balances put into place by the constitution. This would come up again later with the Nullification Crisis that the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions had brought to light. Although the Alien and Sedition acts had come and were disposed of, the resolutions that followed challenged this new judiciary system with shouts of States’ Rights.

In 1807 the HMS Leopard fired on the USS Chesapeake, as they were both warships, this was an act of war, and very close to US waters. In response, as Jefferson still didn’t want to go to war, he enacted the Embargo Act that banned Americans vessels from foreign ports, to protect them. Unfortunately, the Embargo hurt America worse than England would have and was a bad political mistake. It ruined the economic prosperity that Jefferson’s time in office had enjoyed and created greater hostility between us and other foreign nations and between him and Federalists. He also stopped some land trading with Britain in Canada.