Chapter 6 - The Constitution 9/22/2013 · · 2013-09-22The Constitutional Convention, 1787 The Constitution of 1787 1. ... In the adoption of the new constitution in its present
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Chapter 6 - The Constitution 9/22/2013
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American History: Connecting with the Past14th Edition
CHAPTER 6
The Constitution and the New Republic
Alan Brinkley The States: Experiments in Republicanism
1. Revolutionary state constitutions served as experiments in republican government
2. Insights gleaned from state experiences later applied to constructing central government
3. State constitution writers insisted on preparing written documents
4. Precedents in colonial charters, church covenants
5. Major break with England’s unwritten constitution
Natural Rights and theState Constitutions
1. State constitutions guaranteed natural rights:
Freedom of religion
Freedom of speech
Freedom of the press
Private property
Trial by jury
Advocates of Centralization
1. In 1780s, wealthy and elite groups began clamoring for stronger national government to deal with economic problems.
Traders/Merchants class
Land speculators / Property owners
Investors
Lacking the power to tax
2. By 1787, how drastic should we change the Articles of Confederation?
3. Alexander Hamilton – a powerful voice and political genius
The Constitutional Convention, 1787 The Constitution of 1787
1. The Rise of a Nationalist Faction Money Debates
2. The Philadelphia Convention Representation?
Slavery?
National Authority?
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Inventing a Federal Republic:The Virginia Plan
1. Central government may veto all state acts
2. Bicameral legislature of state representatives One house elected, the other appointed
Larger states would have more representatives
3. Chief executive appointed by Congress
4. Small states objected to large‐state dominance
Inventing a Federal Republic:The New Jersey Plan
1. Congress given greater taxing and trade regulation powers
2. Each state would have one vote in a unicameral legislature
Compromise Saves the Convention
1. Each state given two delegates in the Senate—a victory for the small states
2. House of Representatives based on population—a victory for the large states
All money bills must originate in the House
3. Three‐fifths of the slave population counted toward representation in the House
Compromising on Slavery
1. Issue of slavery threatened Convention’s unity Northerners tended to be opposed
Southerners threatened to bolt if slavery weakened
2. Slave trade permitted to continue to 1808
3. “Great as the evil is, a dismemberment of the Union would be worse.”
—James Madison
We, the People
1. Convention sought to bypass vested interests of state legislatures
2. Power of ratification to special state conventions
3. Constitution to go into effect upon approval by nine state conventions
4. Phrase “We, the People” made Constitution a government of the people, not the states
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Signing of the Constitution Who Are the Federalists?
1. Supported the Constitution
2. Name suggests they supported less of a strong central government than they did
3. Well‐organized
4. The Federalist Papers (written by J. Madison, A. Hamilton and John Jay)
Who are the Antifederalists?
1. Opposed the Constitution
2. Distrusted any government removed from direct control of the people
3. Suspected the new Constitution favored the rich and powerful
4. Their ideas later reflected in the age of Andrew Jackson
Patrick Henry Condemns the Centralization of Government (1788)
...This Constitution is said to have beautiful features; but when I come to examine these features. Sir, they appear to me horridly frightful: Among other deformities, it has an awful squinting; it squints towards monarchy: And does not this raise indignation in the breast of every American? Your President may easily become King: Your Senate is so imperfectly constructed that your dearest rights may be sacrificed by what may be a small minority; and a very small minority may continue forever unchangeably this Government, although horridly defective: Where are your checks in the Government?
Anti‐Federalist Essay
IT is proper you should be reminded that most of you have taken an oath to support the present [state] government consistently with the [state]
constitution. By that constitution all the power of the government is vested in the general assembly, the governor, and the chief judges. It is now
proposed to you to adopt a new system which gives every essential part of that power, that is, all legislative, executive, judicial, military, and pecuniary [financial] authority to a Congress who will sit at or near Philadelphia, 4 or
500 miles from you. —This I understand to be subverting our government . . . And therefore a plan which ought to be opposed by every citizen. . . .
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐The Independent Gazetteer and The Freeman's Journal, Philadelphia, Nov. 1787‐April 1788
Anti‐Federalist Essay
…In the adoption of the new constitution in its present form, we will lose more than all that we have fought for and gained in a glorious and successful war of seven years. Yea, and still more than this, our very character of citizens
and freemen will be changed to that of subjects and slaves…
…the Congress and President are to have an absolute power over the standing army, navy, and militia; and the President, or rather Emperor, is to
be commander in chief.
Video: Federalists and Anti‐Federalists
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐The Independent Gazetteer and The Freeman's Journal, Philadelphia, Nov. 1787‐April 1788
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A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand
p176
Washington’s Cabinet
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
(Dept. of State)
Alexander Hamilton
(Dept. of Treasury)
Henry Knox
(Sec. of War)
John Adams
1. The Federalists Implement the Constitution
2. Devising the New Government
3. The Bill of Rights4. Judiciary Act of 1789
Hamilton’s Financial Program
1. Public Credit: Redemption and Assumption
2. Creating a National Bank
3. Raising Revenue through Tariffs
Conflict Over The National Bank
1. National bank privately owned, partly funded by federal government
2. Would serve as main depository of U.S. government
3. Would issue currency acceptable in payment of federal taxes ‐‐money would maintain value
4. Jeffersonians opposed because it might “perpetuate a large moniedinterest” and brought corrupt British system to America
5. Jefferson opposed it as unconstitutional
6. Hamilton defended constitutionality through doctrine of “implied powers”
7. Congress chartered bank, 1791
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Conflicting Visions: Jefferson v. Hamilton
[Jefferson is] a man of profound ambition and violent passions (1792).
Hamilton was honest as a man, but as a politician, believed in the
necessity of either force or corruption to govern man (1811)
Conflicting Visions: Alexander Hamilton
Washington’s aide-de-camp in Revolution War
Secretary of the Treasury Wanted stronger ties to Britain Believed strong central government
preserves national independence Believed that elites should run
government Envisioned U.S. as an industrial power Feared anarchy more than tyranny
Conflicting Visions: Thomas Jefferson
Secretary of state under Washington Believed limited government preserves
liberty Envisioned U.S. as an agrarian nation Trusted the common people, not the
merchant / elite class Believed in honest nature of agrarian
people. Feared tyranny of central gov. Against large debt
Watch Jefferson v. Hamilton (“John Adams” HBO)
Conflicting Visions: Jefferson v. Hamilton
“Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. … for the general operations of manufacture, let our workshops remain in Europe. It is better to carry provisions and materials to workmen there, than bring them to the provisions and materials, and with them their manners and principles.”
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIX (1787)
“Not only the wealth, but the independence and security of a country, appear to be materially connected with the prosperity of manufactures….Ideas of a contrariety of interests between the Northern and Southern regions of the Union, are, in the main, as unfounded as they are mischievous”
Alexander Hamilton, “Report of Manufactures” (1791)
Watch “Hamilton‐02.mp4”
Establishing National Sovereignty
1. Whiskey Rebellion, 1794
Establishing National Sovereignty
1. Native American Relations
2. Treaty of Greenville, 1795
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p192
Maintaining Neutrality
1. Citizen Genet
2. Jay’s Treaty
3. Pinckney’s Treaty
The Formation of Political Parties
1. The Federalist Party
2. The Republican Party
The Federalists and The Hamiltonian Idyll
The Republicans and The Jeffersonian Idyll The French Revolution Divides Americans
Ideological Politics
Washington issued Proclamation of U.S. neutrality
Thomas Jefferson disagreed and resigned from cabinet.
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Washington’s Farewell Address, 1796
1. "Let me now take a more comprehensive view, & warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally."
Adams Becomes President, 1796
Adams beat Jefferson by 3 votes!
Unofficial Fighting with France
1. Jay’s Treaty prompted France to treat U.S. as unfriendly nation
2. Quasi‐war: French seized U.S. ships
3. Diplomatic mission failed when three French officials (X, Y, and Z Affair) demanded bribe ‐> Provoked anti‐French outrage in U.S.
Repression and Protest
1. Purpose was to silence Republicans
2. Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798 ‐first civil liberties crisis: Alien Enemies Act and Alien Act gave
the president power to expel any foreigner
The Naturalization Act required U.S. residency of fourteen years for citizenship
Sedition Act criminalized criticism of the government
p197
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The Virginia (Madison) and Kentucky (Jefferson) Resolutions
1. Republicans saw Alien and Sedition Acts as dire threat to liberty
2. Argued that the federal government had been formed by a “compact” or contract among the states (John Locke)
3. Whenever the federal government exercised any undelegated powers, its acts were “unauthoritative, void, and of no force.”
4. If the parties to the contract, the states, decided that the central government had exceeded those powers, the Kentucky Resolution claimed, they had the right to “nullify” the appropriate laws (Such claims emerged again in the
South in the decades before the Civil War).
Adams’s Finest Hour
1. 1799—Adams broke with Hamilton
2. Sent new team to negotiate with France
3. War hysteria against France vanished
4. Hamilton’s army now seen as a useless expense
Map 11-1 p204
Jefferson Elected President, 1800
1. Hamilton’s Federalists led campaign to replace Adams with Pinckney -> Adams (Federalist) lost anyway.
2. Still, Republicans Jefferson and Burr tied.
3. Lame duck Federalist House of Representatives would break the tie. On the 36th ballot, the House elected Jefferson.
4. In 1804, 12th Amendment ratified and required separate votes for president and vice president to avoid repeat of this situation.
The Peaceful Revolution: The Election of 1800
1. Adams and the “midnight judges”
Chief Justice John Marshall
2. Jefferson’s inaugural: “We are all republicans, we are all federalists”
3. Federalists lost touch with public
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Table 10-2 p186
Peaceful “Revolution” of 1800
1. Peaceful transition of power from one rival party to another
2. Greater symbolism The Constitution survives its test of endurance.
Nation averted ideological civil war
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