AMSCO 3.10 Shaping a New Republic

Overview

AMSCO Topic 3.10, "Shaping a New Republic," covers the presidencies of George Washington (1789-1797) and John Adams (1797-1801), when the new United States had to prove the Constitution could actually work. The chapter walks through Hamilton's financial program, the foreign policy crises sparked by the French Revolution, conflicts with American Indians on the western frontier, the rise of the first political parties, and the Alien and Sedition Acts. This is the payoff topic of Period 3 (1754-1800): everything from the Constitution gets tested in real life here.

Big picture for the AP exam: this chapter answers two questions. How did competition (with Britain, Spain, France, and American Indian nations) intensify conflict? And why did political parties form even though the framers assumed they never would?

Washington's Presidency and Organizing the Government

Washington was the unanimous choice of the Electoral College and took the oath of office on April 30, 1789, in New York City (the temporary capital). Almost everything he did set a precedent, because the Constitution left the details of governing vague.

The First Cabinet

Washington appointed four department heads, confirmed by the Senate, and met with them regularly as a cabinet of advisers (a practice presidents still follow):

• Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state
• Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury
• Henry Knox, secretary of war
• Edmund Randolph, attorney general

Notice Jefferson and Hamilton in the same room. Their clashes inside this cabinet basically created the two-party system.

The Judiciary Act of 1789

The Constitution only mentions one federal court, the Supreme Court. Congress filled in the rest with the Judiciary Act of 1789, which:

• Set the Supreme Court at one chief justice and five associate justices
• Empowered the Court to rule on the constitutionality of state court decisions
• Created 13 district courts and three circuit courts of appeals

Hamilton's Financial Program

Hamilton's plan to stabilize U.S. finances had three parts, and each one became a political fight:

1. Pay the national debt at face value and have the federal government assume state war debts
2. High tariffs on imports to protect "infant" American industries and raise revenue
3. A national bank to hold government funds and print banknotes for a stable currency

Northern merchants loved it (tariffs and stable currency helped them directly). Jefferson and southern Anti-Federalists hated it, arguing it enriched the wealthy at the expense of indebted farmers. Congress passed the plan in modified form, with tariffs lower than Hamilton wanted.

The Compromise of 1790 (Debt for a Capital)

Jefferson agreed to support full debt payment and assumption of state debts. In exchange, Hamilton agreed to put the nation's capital in the South, along the Potomac River. That site later became Washington, D.C.

The Bank Fight: Strict vs. Loose Interpretation

This is the constitutional debate the AP exam loves:

• Jefferson (strict interpretation): the Constitution never gives Congress the power to create a bank, so it can't.
• Hamilton (loose interpretation): the "necessary and proper" clause lets Congress do whatever it needs to carry out its enumerated powers.

Washington sided with Hamilton, and the Bank of the United States became law. It was chartered by the federal government but privately owned, with the government as a major shareholder.

Foreign Affairs: Staying Out of Europe's Wars

The French Revolution broke out during Washington's first term and triggered wars between revolutionary France and Europe's monarchies. The central foreign policy question for both Washington and Adams: back France, back Britain, or stay out?

Proclamation of Neutrality (1793)

Americans were torn. Many supported France's republican experiment; many were horrified by the mass executions. The old U.S.-French alliance technically still existed, but it had been made with the French monarchy. Jefferson's faction wanted to side with France, especially since Britain was seizing American merchant ships bound for French ports.

Washington decided the young nation was too weak for a European war and issued the Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793. Jefferson resigned from the cabinet in protest.

"Citizen" Genêt: the French minister to the U.S. appealed directly to the American people to support France, ignoring diplomatic norms so badly that even Jefferson backed Washington's request for his recall. Genêt stayed in the U.S. anyway, married, and became a citizen.

Jay Treaty (1794) with Britain

Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to negotiate over British posts on the western frontier and Britain's seizure of American ships and impressment of sailors. The result: Britain agreed to evacuate its frontier posts, but the treaty said nothing about impressment. It was unpopular, angered pro-French Americans, and barely passed the Senate. But it kept the peace and preserved neutrality.

Pinckney Treaty (1795) with Spain

The Jay Treaty had an unexpected bonus. Spain, worried the U.S. was cozying up to Britain, negotiated with Thomas Pinckney and agreed to:

• Open the lower Mississippi River and New Orleans to American trade
• Grant Americans the right of deposit in New Orleans (transfer cargo without paying Spanish duties)
• Accept the 31st parallel as Florida's northern boundary

For western farmers who shipped crops down the Mississippi, this was huge.

Domestic Crises: The Frontier and the Whiskey Rebellion

American Indian Resistance in the Ohio Valley

As settlers pushed across the Alleghenies into the Ohio Valley, the Shawnee, Delaware, Iroquois, and other tribes formed the Northwest (Western) Confederacy under the Miami war chief Little Turtle. They won early victories over settler militias, and reports that the British were arming them enraged Americans.

In 1794, General Anthony Wayne defeated the Confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in northwestern Ohio. In the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, the defeated tribes surrendered their claims to the Ohio Territory and opened it to settlement.

The Whiskey Rebellion (1794)

To replace revenue lost from the lower tariffs, Hamilton got Congress to pass excise taxes, including one on whiskey. Western Pennsylvania farmers who distilled whiskey from surplus corn refused to pay and attacked revenue collectors.

Washington federalized 15,000 state militia under Hamilton's command, and the rebellion collapsed with almost no bloodshed. The contrast with Shays's Rebellion under the Articles of Confederation is the point: the new government could actually enforce its laws. Westerners resented the show of force, though, and Jefferson's popularity as their champion grew.

Western Lands and New States

The Jay Treaty and Fallen Timbers gave the federal government control of vast western lands. The Public Land Act (1796) set orderly procedures for dividing and selling federal land at moderate prices. New states entered smoothly: Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), and Tennessee (1796).

The First Political Parties

The Constitution never mentions political parties, and the framers assumed none would form. They were wrong within a few years. The Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist ratification debates previewed the split, and in the 1790s (the "Federalist era") parties organized around Hamilton and Jefferson. The French Revolution hardened the divide.

Washington's Farewell Address (1796)

Retiring after two terms, Washington (with Hamilton's help) published a farewell message warning against:

• Involvement in European affairs
• "Permanent alliances" in foreign policy
• Political parties
• Sectionalism

Presidents mostly followed the foreign policy warnings for the next century. The party warning was already obsolete when he gave it. His voluntary retirement also created the two-term tradition, unbroken until Franklin Roosevelt won a third term in 1940, after which the 22nd Amendment (ratified 1951) made the two-term limit constitutional.

John Adams' Presidency

In the election of 1796, Federalist John Adams beat Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson by three electoral votes. Under the original Constitution, the runner-up became vice president, so Adams got his rival Jefferson as VP. (The 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804, fixed this by having president and vice president run as a team.)

The XYZ Affair

French warships and privateers were seizing U.S. merchant ships. Adams sent a delegation to Paris, where French ministers (identified only as X, Y, and Z) demanded bribes before negotiations could begin. The Americans refused, and when the story broke, the public clamored for war: "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." Hamilton's faction wanted war to grab French and Spanish lands in North America. Adams, knowing the army and navy were too weak to fight a major power, resisted and sent new ministers to Paris instead. War avoided.

The Alien and Sedition Acts

Anti-French anger gave the Federalists a majority in both houses of Congress in 1798, and they used it against the Democratic-Republicans:

• Naturalization Act: raised the citizenship wait from 5 to 14 years (most immigrants voted Democratic-Republican)
• Alien Acts: let the president deport "dangerous" aliens and detain enemy aliens in wartime
• Sedition Act: made it illegal for newspaper editors to criticize the president or Congress, with fines or imprisonment for violators

The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (1798)

Democratic-Republicans argued the acts violated 1st Amendment rights, but the Supreme Court hadn't yet established judicial review (the power to strike down unconstitutional laws). So they fought through the states. Jefferson wrote the Kentucky resolution; Madison wrote Virginia's. Both argued the states had formed a "compact," so a state could nullify a federal law that broke it. Only those two states adopted resolutions, but the compact theory resurfaced in the nullification controversy of the 1830s.

The crisis faded after the Federalists lost Congress in the election of 1800. The new Democratic-Republican majority let the acts expire or repealed them, and in 1803 the Marshall Court asserted the power of judicial review.

Key Terms to Know

Practice and Next Steps

Pair these notes with the Topic 3.10 Shaping a New Republic course study guide for the College Board framing, then continue to AMSCO 3.11 Developing an American Identity. You can find the rest of the chapter notes on the APUSH AMSCO notes page.

To check yourself, run through APUSH guided practice questions on the 1790s, look up unfamiliar vocab in the key terms glossary, and try an essay on the rise of political parties with FRQ practice and instant scoring. The Hamilton vs. Jefferson divide is one of the most-tested comparisons in Unit 3, so make sure that table is solid before moving on.