2.1 The New Republic

Main Ideas
The United States established a federal government, created the Bill of Rights, and witnessed the first political parties.
During the Jefferson administration, the Supreme Court established judicial review, and the country doubled in size.
After the War of 1812, Americans focused on policies that brought the nation together. New industries and railroads transformed the North in the early 1800s, while slavery expanded in the South.

Vocabulary
cabinet, enumerated powers, implied powers, judicial review, nativism, labor union

Reading Objectives

1. Describe the rise of political parties, nationalism, and the Supreme Court.
2. Explain why industrialization thrived in the North and cotton dominated the Southern economy.

The Early Years of the Republic

• In 1789 Congress created the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of War, and the Office of the Attorney General. Washington then chose his cabinet—the individuals who would head these departments and advise him.
• The judicial branches as well as the first federal judges were established with the Judiciary Act of 1789. John Jay became the first chief justice of the United States.
• In 1791 ten amendments to the Constitution went into effect. These amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, offered safeguards for individual rights against actions of the federal government. The Ninth Amendment states that people have rights other than the ones listed. The Tenth Amendment states that any powers not specifically listed to the federal government would be reserved for states.
• To help ease the debt amassed by the Continental Congress, Alexander Hamilton wanted the federal government to take responsibility for the states’ debt and create a national bank.
• Opponents of a national bank said that establishing such a bank was not an enumerated power—a power specifically mentioned in the Constitution. Alexander Hamilton said the “necessary and proper” clause created implied powers, or powers not listed in the Constitution but necessary for the government to function. A national bank was needed to collect taxes, regulate trade, and provide for defense.
• In 1791 Hamilton’s proposed high tax on the manufacture of American whiskey passed in Congress. Western farmers were outraged by the 25 percent tax, and in 1794 the Whiskey Rebellion began. Washington sent in 13,000 troops to stop the rebellion.
• The split in Congress over Hamilton’s financial plan resulted in the formation of two political parties.
• The Federalists, led by Hamilton, wanted a strong national government in the hands of the wealthy. They believed in manufacturing and trade as the basis of wealth and power. Artisans, merchants, manufacturers, and bankers supported the Federalist Party.
• Madison and Jefferson led the Democratic-Republicans. Their party was referred to as the Republicans. The group supported agriculture over trade and commerce. They favored the rights of states against the power of the federal government. The rural South and West tended to support Republicans.
• Washington was succeeded after two terms as president by fellow Federalist John Adams.
• The Federalists, in a move to silence Republican criticism against them, passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. It was now a crime to criticize the federal government and federal officials. Also, the laws made it harder for aliens, who typically voted Republican, to gain citizenship.
• In 1798 and 1799, the laws were challenged by Kentucky and Virginia, who stated they were unconstitutional.
• The election of 1800 was closely contested and revealed a flaw in the system for selecting a president. Each state chooses electors that are sent to the Electoral College to vote for the president. In the election of 1800, two candidates, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, each had the same number of electoral votes. According to the Constitution, the House of Representatives votes for president when there is a tie. However, there was also a tie in the House of Representatives. Finally, Jefferson became president by one vote.
• The election of 1800 proved that despite disagreements between political parties, power in the United States could be peacefully transferred.

The Republicans Take Power

• Thomas Jefferson wanted to limit the scope of government. He began paying off the federal debt, cut government spending, and did away with the whiskey tax. He also trimmed the armed forces.
• On his last day in office, Adams appointed dozens of Federalist judges and court officers. Jefferson asked the new Republican Congress to not allow the last-minute appointments. The Supreme Court agreed with Jefferson.
• In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court asserted its right of judicial review, or the power to decide whether laws passed by Congress were constitutional and strike down laws that were not.
• By 1803 Napoleon began plans to conquer Europe. Short on funds, Napoleon agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory as well as New Orleans to the United States. On April 30, 1803, the United States purchased Louisiana from France for $11.25 million, and took on French debts of about $3.75 million. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States.
• When Madison took office in 1809, he faced growing tensions with Great Britain. The British were seizing American ships and kidnapping American sailors, and they were accused of inciting Native Americans to attack white settlers.
• Economic sanctions were beginning to work, but too late—Congress had declared war, and the War of 1812 began.
• The British marched into Washington D.C. and burned the White House and Capital, but faced strong opposition in Baltimore.
• The Treaty of Ghent, signed on December 24, 1814, restored prewar boundaries, generated patriotism and national unity, and destroyed the Federalist Party, whose members had opposed the war.

The Growth of American Nationalism

• Republican president James Monroe was greeted with a spreading sense of nationalism and political harmony. The focus shifted to domestic issues.
• Congress prepared an ambitious economic program. Their program included creating a new national bank, protecting American manufacturers from foreign competition, and improving transportation in order to link the country together.
• Between 1816 and 1824, Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, ruled in several cases that established the power of the federal government over the states.
• In the 1819 decision of McCulloch v. Maryland, Marshall said that the Second Bank was constitutional because the “necessary and proper” clause meant that the federal government could use any method for carrying out its powers, as long as the method was not expressly forbidden in the Constitution. He also ruled out that state governments could not interfere with an agency of the federal government exercising its specific constitutional powers within a state.
• n the 1824 decision of Gibbons v. Ogden, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution granted the federal government control over interstate commerce. Marshall’s decisions expanded federal power with the help of the “necessary and proper” clause and the interstate commerce clause.
• Nationalism in the United States influenced the nation to expand its borders and assert itself in world affairs.
• In the early 1800s, Spanish-held Florida angered many Southerners because runaway slaves fled there and because the Seminoles often clashed with American settlers across the border in Georgia. In 1818 General Andrew Jackson seized Spanish settlements in Florida. In the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, Spain ceded all of Florida to the United States.
• Many of Spain’s colonies on the American mainland were declaring independence. Some European monarchies proposed helping Spain regain control of its overseas colonies. In response, President Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine. This policy declared that the United States would prevent other countries from interfering in Latin American political affairs.

A Growing Nation

• In the early 1800s, a transportation revolution and the Industrial Revolution helped the North become a major manufacturing center.
• In 1806 Congress funded a major east-west highway called the National Road.
• Steamboats made river travel more reliable and upstream travel possible.
• Railroads appeared in the 1800s. Trains helped settle the West and expand trade among regions.
• The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the 1700s. The revolution consisted of several developments in business and industry.
• The United States industrialized quickly. The key factor may have been the American system of free enterprise based on private property rights.
• Industrialization began in the Northeast. Eli Whitney popularized the use of interchangeable parts which led to factory-based production.
• Samuel F. B. Morse perfected the telegraph and developed Morse code, which sped communication.
• Industrialization and the search for higher-paying jobs drew thousands from rural areas into the cities.
• Immigrants by the millions poured into the United States between 1815 and 1860. Some immigrants became farmers; others provided a steady stream of cheap labor.
• Some Americans organized against the newcomers. These nativists had a preference for native-born people and wanted to limit immigration. They formed the American Party, which became known as the Know-Nothings.
• Factory workers, which included women and children, were poorly paid and worked under horrid conditions. Some workers began to organize into labor unions, or groups of workers who press for better working conditions and member benefits.
• Despite industrialization, agriculture remained the country’s leading economic activity, especially in the South. In the South, cotton was king and accounted for nearly two-thirds of U.S. exports. However, the South accounted for only about 16 percent of U.S. manufacturing.
• The success of cotton and the growth of plantations greatly increased the demand for slave labor. The slave trade was outlawed in 1808, but a high birthrate among enslaved women kept the population growing. By 1850 enslaved Africans comprised 37 percent of the total Southern population.
• All enslaved persons suffered indignities ranging from a complete lack of citizenship and political rights to extreme violence and murder.
• Free African Americans lived in both the North and the South. They were not embraced in either region but, in the North, they could organize their own churches and associations and earn money from jobs.