US History/Contents/Constitution Early Years
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
Contents |
[edit] Early Immigration to the Americas as of 1790
According to the source, The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy by Kory L. Meyerink and Loretto Dennis Szucs, the following were the countries of origin for new arrivals coming to the United States up to 1790. The regions marked * were part of Great Britain: None of these numbers are definitive and only "educated" guesses. The ancestry of the 3.9 million population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names in the 1790 census and assigning them a country of origin. Needless to say this is also a somewhat uncertain procedure. Particularly when it comes to Scot-Irish, Irish and English names which can often be the same. The Irish in the 1790 census are mostly Irish Protestants, the French Huguenots. The total U.S. Catholic population in 1790 was probably less than 5%.
| Group | Immigrants before 1790 | Population 1790 |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | 360,000 (most as slaves) | 800,000 |
| England* | 230,000 | 1,900,000 |
| Ulster Scot-Irish* | 135,000 | 300,000 |
| Germany | 103,000 | 270,000 |
| Scotland* | 48,500 | 150,000 |
| Ireland* | 8,000 | (Incl. in Scot-Irish) |
| Netherlands | 6,000 | 100,000 |
| Wales* | 4,000 | 10,000 |
| France | 3,000 | 50,000 |
| Jews | 1,000 | 2,000 |
| Sweden | 500 | 2,000 |
| Other | --- | 200,000 |
Some, such as author James Webb, have argued that not enough credit is given to early Scots-Irish for the role they played in early American history, as they formed a full 40% of the American Revolutionary army and their culture is now dominant in the American South, Midwest and Appalachian Region.
[edit] The Constitutional Convention
In 1787, a Convention was called at Philadelphia with the declared purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, however many delegates intended to use this convention for the purpose of drafting a new constitution. All states except for Rhode Island sent delegates, though all delegates did not attend. At the convention, the primary issue was representation of the states. Under the Articles, each state had one vote in Congress. The more populous states wanted representation to be based on population (proportional representation). James Madison of Virginia crafted the Virginia Plan, which guaranteed proportional representation and granted wide powers to the Congress. The small states, on the other hand, supported equal representation through William Paterson's New Jersey Plan. The New Jersey Plan also increased the Congress' power, but it did not go nearly as far as the Virginia Plan. The conflict threatened to end the Convention, but Roger Sherman of Connecticut proposed the "Great Compromise," (or Connecticut Compromise) under which one house of Congress would be based on proportional representation, while the other would be based on equal representation. Eventually, the Compromise was accepted and the Convention saved.
After settling on representation, compromises seemed easy for other issues. The question about the counting of slaves when determining the official population of a state was resolved by the Three-Fifths Compromise, which provided that slaves would count as three-fifths of persons. In another compromise, the Congress was empowered to ban the slave trade, but only after 1808. Similarly, issues relating to the empowerment and election of the President were resolved, leading to the Electoral College method for choosing the Chief Executive of the nation.
The Convention required that the Constitution come into effect only after nine states ratify, or approve, it. The fight for ratification was difficult, but the Constitution eventually came into effect in 1788.
[edit] Federalist & Anti-Federalist Parties
The Federalists were those who supported ratification, while the Anti-Federalists opposed it. Noted Federalists Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison published The Federalist Papers, a series of essays defending the Constitution. Anti-Federalists such as Patrick Henry argued that the Constitution did not provide for a Bill of Rights protecting the people, nor did it guarantee against abuse of power by the federal government directed against the states.
Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and New Hampshire ratified the Constitution, in that order, by summer 1788. Before the new government was elected and came into existence, Virginia and New York also ratified the Constitution. The new Congress then passed a Bill of Rights to allay any remaining fears regarding the new nation. Having few arguments remaining, the Anti-Federalists lost in North Carolina and Rhode Island, which eventually ratified the Constitution. The ratification of the Constitution, was, under the provisions of the Articles of Confederation, invalid, as the new government took power before the constitution had been ratified by all 13 states, a requirement to pass a law or amend the Articles.
[edit] The Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans
In 1788, the Electors unanimously chose George Washington as the first President of the United States. Washington helped bring the government together, but rivalries arose between his closest advisors, reflecting important domestic and international developments. Out of these developments evolved two new political parties: The Federalists, who shared the same name as the earlier pro-ratification party, and the Republican Party, also known as the Democratic - Republican Party or the Jeffersonian party.
Washington was the first President of the United States. He was also the Commander-in-Chief of the American forces during the American Revolution.George Washington (February 22, 1732–December 14, 1799) was the successful Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783, and later became the first President of the United States, an office to which he was twice elected unanimously (unanimous among the Electoral College), and held from 1789 to 1797.
Washington first served as an officer during the French and Indian War and as a leader of colonial militia supporting the British Empire. After leading the American victory in the Revolutionary War, he refused to lead a military regime, though encouraged by some of his peers to do so. He returned to civilian life at Mount Vernon.
In 1787 he presided over the Constitutional Convention that drafted the current United States Constitution and, in 1789, was the unanimous choice to become the first president of the United States. His two-term administration set many policies and traditions that survive today. After his second term expired, Washington again voluntarily relinquished power, thereby establishing an important precedent that was to serve as an example for the United States and also for other future republics.
Because of his central role in the founding of the United States, Washington is often called the "Father of his Country". Scholars rank him with Abraham Lincoln among the greatest of United States presidents.
[edit] Domestic Issues: Strong or Weak Central Government?
Within Washington's first Cabinet - Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox - Jefferson and Hamilton opposed each other on most issues. Hamilton was soon to become a leader of the Federalist Party, while Jefferson would help to found the Republican Party.
The first major conflict involved how to pay off Revolutionary War debts. Hamilton wanted to put state debts and federal debts into one huge national debt. When the new federal government succeeded in paying off this debt, it would increase confidence in the stability of the central government, encouraging foreign governments to loan the US money. Hamilton also proposed the creation of a national bank designed to help stabilize the national economy. This Bank of the United States, although a private institution, would serve as a place to put the government's money, thus increasing central financial power and economic control.
Jefferson, on the other hand, did not agree with Hamilton's idea of national bank. Unlike Hamilton, who wanted to increase trade and investment, Jefferson believed America's best direction lay in teaching people to be self-sufficient farmers, and he wanted the federal government to stop interfering in state matters.
Despite Jefferson's opinion, the government adopted Hamilton's program. Some evidence suggests that Jefferson did in the end support Hamilton's plan for paying off state debts in exchange for Hamilton's agreement to locate the government's permanent capital in the South, specifically, on the Potomac River (Washington D.C.). On the whole, however, it soon became clear that the Hamiltonian program was the one that both President Washington and Congress favored, and Jefferson eventually resigned as secretary of state.
[edit] Foreign Affairs: The French Revolution
In 1789, a few months after the Constitution went into effect, the French Revolution began. At first, as France overthrew the monarchy and declared itself a republic, many Americans supported the revolution, believing that their own revolt against England had now spurred France to embrace republicanism. But as the reign of terror began and thousands of French aristocrats went to the guillotine, many Americans were shocked at the revolution's excesses. By the mid-1790s, as France went to war against neighboring monarchies, the revolution polarized American public opinion. Federalists viewed England--France's traditional enemy-- as the bastion of stable government against a growing tide of French anarchy. Members of the emerging Republican Party, on the other hand--which took its name in part from the French Republic--believed the Terror to be merely a temporary excess, continuing to view England as the true enemy of American liberty.
President Washington's policy was one of neutrality. He knew that either England or France, as well as Spain, would be only too happy to assimilate American resources and territory if given the chance. His hope was that America could stay out of European conflicts until it was strong enough to withstand any serious foreign threat to its existence--a strength that the United States lacked in the 1790s. Unfortunately, both England and France would try to play American resources off against the other.
Here, too, Hamilton and Jefferson clashed. Hamilton argued that the mutual defense treaty that the United States had concluded with France in 1778 was no longer binding, since the French regime that had made that treaty no longer existed. Jefferson disagreed, but Washington sided with Hamilton, issuing a formal Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793.
That same year, Citizen Edmund Charles Genêt arrived as the French minister to the United States, and he soon began issuing commissions to captains of American ships who were willing to serve as privateers for France. This blatant disregard of American neutrality angered Washington, who demanded and got Genêt's recall.
[edit] English and Spanish Negotiations
The Royal Navy, meanwhile, began pressing sailors into service, including sailors on American merchant ships. Many English sailors had been lured into the American merchant service by high wages and comparatively good standards of living, and England needed these sailors to man its own fleet, on which England's national security depended. This violation of the American flag, however, infuriated Americans, as did the fact that England had not yet withdrawn its soldiers from posts in the Northwest Territory, as required by the Treaty of Paris of 1783.
In response, President Washington sent Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay to negotiate a treaty with England. But Jay had little leverage with which to negotiate: the final treaty did require immediate English evacuation of the frontier forts, but it said nothing about the matter of impressment. The Jay Treaty provoked an outcry among American citizens, and although the Senate ratified it narrowly, the debate it sparked was the final blow which solidified the Federalist and Republican factions into full-scale political parties, Federalists acquiescing in the treaty, and Republicans viewing it as a sell-out to England (and against France).
Spain, meanwhile, viewed the Jay Treaty negotiations with alarm, fearing that America and England might be moving towards an alliance. Without being certain of the treaty provisions, Spain decided to mollify the United States and give ground in the southwest before a future Anglo-American alliance could take New Orleans and Louisiana. Spain thus agreed to abandon all territorial claims north of Florida and east of the Mississippi, with the exception of New Orleans, and to grant the United States both the right to navigate the Mississippi and the right of commercial deposit in New Orleans. This would give westerners greater security and allow them to trade with the outside world. This Treaty of San Lorenzo, also called Pinckney's Treaty after American diplomat Charles Pinckney, was signed in 1795 and ratified the following year. Unlike Jay's treaty, it was quite popular.
If Jay's Treaty alarmed Spain, it angered France, which saw it as a violation of the Franco-American mutual defense treaty of 1778. By 1797, French privateers began attacking American merchant shipping in the Caribbean.
[edit] Election of 1796
George Washington won a second term with the unanimous approval of the Electoral College, but he refused to run for a third term, setting a precedent for future Presidents that would last until 1940. In 1796, Washington's Federalist Vice President John Adams, and Republican Thomas Jefferson ran against each other in an election that marked the influence of political parties. Also, the Federalist Thomas Pinckney and the Republican Aaron Burr ran, intending to become Vice President if the other candidate from the party gained the Presidency.
The original system of the Electoral College required that Electors chosen by the states cast two votes for President. The President would be the winner of the election, while the Vice President would be whoever came in second place. Due to this system, John Adams won the required majority, but Thomas Jefferson came in second place, leading to a President and Vice President from opposing parties. This awkward situation resulted in Jefferson's isolation from the administration, and he did not play a significant role in governing over the next four years.
[edit] The XYZ Affair
Newly-elected President John Adams resolved to negotiate a settlement with France, and sent a delegation to Paris. The delegates, however, made no headway, finding it impossible even to secure an appointment with Talleyrand, the French foreign minister. The delegates were then approached by three minor functionaries, who insisted that the Americans must pay a bribe in order to inaugurate negotiations, warning them of "the power and violence of France" if they refused. The delegates did in fact refuse ("The answer is no; no; not a sixpence," one of them retorted. This was popularly rendered as "Millions for defense, not a penny for tribute."), and reported back to Adams. When Adams made the correspondence public (after replacing the names of the French functionaries with X, Y, and Z), American sentiment swung strongly against France. Congress, strongly under the control of the Federalists, initiated a military buildup, fielding several excellent warships and calling Washington out of retirement to head the army. (Washington agreed, but only on condition that he not assume actual command until the army took the field, which never occurred.)
The result was the Quasi-war, or the undeclared naval war with France. It consisted of ship-on-ship actions, mostly in the Caribbean, from 1798 to 1800. Eventually the United States and France agreed to end hostilities and to end the mutual defense treaty of 1778. Adams considered this one of his finest achievements.
[edit] Alien and Sedition Acts
Under Adams, the Federalist-dominated congress pushed passage of a series of laws that openly justified to battle dangerous "aliens" but in reality was used to hush political opponents. The Alien and Sedition Acts generally refer to four acts:
- The Alien Act authorized the president to deport an alien deemed "dangerous."
- The Alien Enemies Act authorized the president to deport or imprison any alien from a country that the United States was fighting a declared war with.
- The Sedition Act made it a crime to criticize government officials and publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its agents.
- The Naturalization Act changed the residency requirements for aliens to become citizens from 5 to 14 years.
Although it was openly deemed to be a security act, it provided powerful tools to the ruling Federalist party to quiet opposition from the growing Democratic-Republican Party. By extending the time required to become a citizen, they decreased the number of new voters that might choose to support the minority party.
However, these acts were rarely enacted against political opponents due to the possibility of conflict such actions could create.
[edit] Review Questions
Use the content covered in this chapter and/or from external sources to answer the following questions. Remember to properly cite any sources used.
1. Identify or explain the significance of the following people:
(a)James Madison (b)William Paterson (c)Alexander Hamilton (d)Patrick Henry (e)Thomas Jefferson (f)Edmund Genet (g)Charles Pinckney
2. What was accomplished during the Consitutional Convention in terms of states' representations in the national government?
3. How did Congress take measures to ensure the ratification of the Constitution?
4. On what issues did Jefferson and Hamilton differ? How did this affect policies during the Washington administration?
5. What did Jay's Treaty and Pinckney's Treaty accomplish?
6. How did the United States respond to the French Revolution?
7. What was the XYZ Affair? What was its result?
8. What was the original purpose of the Alien, Sedition, and Naturalization Acts? How did their purpose change?
