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Online Tutoringhttps://www.homeworkping.com/Lecture notes drawn from Eric Foner, Give Me LibertyUnit One: Colonial through Early National PeriodDr. Price/HIST1100

Introduction: Freedom: An Analytical Framework A. What are the meanings of freedom and how have they changed over time?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that their Creator with certain unalienable Rights endows them, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. (Declaration of Independence) Deeply embedded in our culture is the idea that the United States has a mission to demonstrate the superiority of free institutions and to spread freedom throughout the world.Nineteenth-century Americans, for example, defined freedom in part as economic autonomy, achieved through owning a farm or small business. This was perfectly compatible with lack of freedom for those dependent on the male head of household, including the women in a family and, in the South, slaves.For much of the 20th century, many Americans thought economic security for ordinary citizens essential to freedom. In the 1960's, the civil rights and feminist movements redefined freedom as equality for those long held down by the larger society, and the counterculture called for freedom in lifestyle and culture.A second point to remember is that freedom is more than a set of ideas. It must be embodied in institutions, popular values, and the law, and these only develop over time.

1. American Revolution = community’s right to political self-determination2. Antebellum era = political democracy, or white male suffrage3. 20th century personal freedom = individual “ability to choose”4. Economic freedom = evolves over time from early notion of economic autonomy and glorification of independent producers, to free wage labor, to liberty of contract, to mass consumption

B. What are the social conditions that make freedom possible?1. Colonial through antebellum era = provide land for economic autonomy2. Gilded Age = secure liberty of contract3. New Deal = guarantee economic security4. Contemporary America = support mass consumption in a market economy

B. What are the boundaries of freedom?

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The boundaries of freedom can come from 1. Is the American creed universal or particular? 2. Who is an American? Who enjoys the right to freedom?3. Lines circumscribing freedom = race, gender, class, religion, and ethnicity4. Ongoing struggle by excluded and their supporters for inclusion and equality

I. British Roots of American Political Thought:A. Freedom in England was not understood as a single, "universal" idea but rather as a "particular" collection of distinct rights and privileges, many held by only small groups of people. Christian freedom, for example, was understood as abandoning a life of sin to embrace the teachings of Christ; obedience to authority was the rule, not religious toleration, and dissenters were prosecuted for endangering public order. Civic freedom consisted of secular obedience to higher authority. Liberty was secured by knowing one's social place and fulfilling the duties appropriate to one's social rank. Kings claimed to rule by authority of God and the aristocracy demanded deference from social inferiors. Within English families, men exercised authority over wives, children, and servants through such devices as covertures (a married woman surrendered her legal identity to her husband) and dower rights (widow's right to 1/3 husband's property if he died first, but at death family property goes to male heirs). Although people of wealth enjoyed more liberties than commoners, certain Rights of Freeborn Englishmen applied to all within the kingdom. The Magna Carta was seen as embodying English freedom and the king was subject to the rule of law, not absolute in his power. All persons enjoyed security of person and property established in the common law, including the rights of habeas corpus (or protection against imprisonment without legal charge), the right to face one's accuser in court, and the right to trial by jury.

B. The Rights of Freeborn Englishmen were rooted in the widespread conviction that liberty was the unique possession of the British. Freedom was seen as rule of law, parliamentary legislation by consent of the governed, restraints on arbitrary exercise of political authority, and rights held in common under the law. Liberty was protected by a balanced constitution or by a system of checks and balances between the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the King. No real concept of universal freedom existed in England during the early 17th century. Freedom was seen as uniquely British and Protestant (thus anti-Catholic and intensely nationalistic), and compatible with wide gradations in personal rights. As such, liberties were understood as privileges particular to one's social station (or class) rather than universal or existing in nature liberty, although a gradual trend toward the latter became apparent as the century progressed. Increasingly, power and liberty were also viewed as being in antagonism.

C. Two key sets of political ideas flourished in Anglo-American world:1. Republicanism: republicanism (literally government without a king) celebrated active participation in public life by economically independent citizens as the essence of liberty;

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a man reached his highest fulfillment in public service but only property-owning citizens possessed virtue--defined as a moral quality but also as willingness to subordinate self-interest to the pursuit of the public good. Key belief = luxury and political manipulation results in loss of virtue and liberty. 2. Liberalism: whereas republicanism focused on civic and social obligations as fundamental to preservation of freedom, liberalism defined freedom as essentially individual and private. In Two Treatises on Government (ca 1680) John Locke argued for government by mutual agreement among equals, or for a social contract whereby the many surrender part of their individual liberty to enjoy the benefits of rule of law (or protection from power of the few). Natural rights predate formation of political authority. Government exists to protect life, liberty, and property, which were universal rights of mankind rather than privileges defined by social position. Preserving freedom required shielding private life and personal concerns, such as family relations, religious preferences, and economic activity, from the state. Key ideas from Locke--individual rights, consent of the governed, and right of rebellion against unjust or oppressive government--had a large impact on understanding of liberty in British mainland colonies. The notion that liberty follows property, however, denied freedom to large numbers of people, although the language of Lockean liberalism also provided the poor, women, and slaves a platform from which to mount future challenges to their exclusion.

II. The Southern Colonies: The English founding of Jamestown in 1607 occurred during a time of heightened European involvement in North America (French, Dutch, and Spanish). English North America was a place where entrepreneurs sought fortunes, religious minorities hoped to worship without governmental interference and to create societies based on biblical teachings, and aristocrats dreamed of recreating feudalism where the "lower orders would occupy the same less than fully free status as in England." For ordinary men and women, emigration provided opportunity to escape lives of deprivation and inequality. The charter granted by James I in 1606 to the Virginia Company promised colonists would enjoy "all liberties" of those residing in England. Over time, English settlers acquired more liberty than colonists of other empires, especially land ownership, although many degrees of freedom existed from slave, to indentured servant, to independent landowner. The Southern plantation colonies, which eventually included Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, developed plantation economies that produced staple crops like tobacco, rice, indigo, and cotton for export and utilized slave labor. By 1700 southern society was characterized by a small planter (large slaveholding) elite, a white majority yeomanry (or small non-slaveholding farmers), and a large slave work force.

A. The Jamestown Colony in Virginia (1607) experienced very rocky beginnings, including a high death rate, inadequate supplies and labor. In response, the Virginia Company took strong measures to stabilize the colony, symbolized by Captain John Smith’s edict “He that will not work, shall not eat.” The Virginia Company also instituted a Headright system which granted 50 acres of land to any colonist paying his own way or another’s passage, and issued a "charter of grants and liberties" establishing a House of Burgesses (1619), the first representative assembly. An initial period of

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cooperation and trade between Indians and Jamestown settlers was followed by sporadic conflict and War in 1622 when Opechancanough (Powhatan’s brother and successor) attacked settlers and wiped out one quarter of population of 1,200. The settlers retaliated and instituted land seizures and an expulsion policy of gradual removal of surviving Indians to reservations. In 1624 Virginia Company surrendered its charter and Virginia became the first royal colony. The key to eventual success in Virginia and later in Maryland was tobacco, which enriched an emerging class of planters and colonial governing elite, profited the crown via customs duties, and attracted by mid-17th century an influx of new immigrants with ample financial resources.

B. Producing tobacco stimulated a spiraling demand for labor initially met by indentured servants but ultimately met by slavery. Chesapeake planters saw many advantages to African slaves, including lack of protection of English common law, permanent terms of service (therefore fewer unruly landless men when indentures expire), and children’s inheritance of their mother’s status rather than their father’s. Skin color rapidly became an indicator of servant status in the late 17th century. The English also viewed alien peoples such as the Irish, Native Americans, Africans as savage, pagan, and uncivilized. Anti-black stereotypes and economic exploitation gradually led to rigid racial divisions.

III. The New England Colonies:Whereas many settlers came to the new world in search of material reward, a large number came in pursuit of religious freedom. Two main strands of religious reform stood out in 17th-century England. The larger group, known as the Puritans, sought to cleanse the Anglican church of a number of ceremonies and rituals that had survived the separation from the Catholic Church during the initial stages of the Reformation. A second, smaller group, known as Separatists (or Pilgrims) fled to Holland in 1608 only to find life there unsuited to their needs and temperament. A distinctive culture soon emerged in the New England colonies (eventually consolidated into Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire) based on town-based self-government, Puritan religion, small family farming, fishing, commerce, and production of naval stores. In the early years of settlement, ministers played a leading role in the life of the New England colonies, although eventually merchants based in Boston rose to prominence.

A. Several years after their arrival in Holland, the Pilgrims were authorized by the London Company to settle in Virginia, sailing on the Mayflower and arriving at Plymouth on Cape Cod in November 1620. Prior to their landing, forty-one of the settlers signed a written contract creating “a civil Body Politick,” otherwise known as the Mayflower Compact, which outlined the principles on which the government of their colony would rest. With the help of two English-speaking Indians named Squanto and Samoset, the small Pilgrim colony at Plymouth survived and prospered.

B. Back in England, King Charles I gave another group of Puritans permission to form a joint-stock company in 1629 called the Massachusetts Bay Company and settle a new colony north of Virginia. John Winthrop was chosen to lead the well-financed Great Migration of more than 1000 men, women, and children on 17 ships, which left England in May 1630. Proclaiming “We shall be as a City upon a Hill,” the Puritans sought to

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create a model society for the reform of the Anglican Church back in England. Believing that they had formed a covenant with God, the Puritans sought to build a society based on the teachings of the Bible. Church, state, family, and individuals were bound together into a new religious commonwealth. Within a few years the population of the colony numbered 20,000. Religious dissenters such as Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Thomas Hooker, however, were not tolerated in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Fleeing Puritan persecution, dissenters established new colonies in Rhode Island and Connecticut. The Puritans defined religious liberty as acceptance of religious authority and did not practice religious toleration.

IV. The Middle Colonies:Economic life in the Middle Colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware) was characterized by mixed farming (wheat, corn, and vegetables), the fur trade, and commerce radiating outward from New York City and Philadelphia to the southern colonies and West Indies. The middle colonies offered more religious liberty and the population was quite diverse compared to both New England and the colonies to the South. The Dutch in New York and Germans in Pennsylvania added a strong flavor to the cultural life of their respective colonies.

A. After Charles II initiated a successful war with England’s commercial rival Holland over the Dutch colony of New Netherland, he gave all the land between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers, including Manhattan Island and its wonderful port at the mouth of the Hudson River, to his brother James the Duke of York, who renamed the colony New York. The Duke of York assumed he could continue the authoritarian style of government practiced earlier by the Dutch, but his governor encountered widespread resistance. Charles II also granted a large land grant to William Penn to settle an old debt. Penn established Pennsylvania in 1681 as a haven for persecuted Quakers. The colony was remarkable for its liberality and diversity. In addition to treating Indians with dignity and justice, Penn offered land at extremely low prices to people of all nationalities, including Dutch, Welsh, Swedish, French, German, and English emigrants. The colony grew rapidly into the most populous and prosperous of all of the English colonies.

V. The Rise of Colonial Governments:Over a relatively short period of time, the English colonies in America developed three forms of government: Royal (or Crown), Corporate (or Charter), and Proprietary. Although they differed in some particulars, they also shared common characteristics. Each colony had a governor who represented the king, the proprietor, or the corporation that held its charter. The governor enforced all English laws passed by Parliament or policies devised by the King’s Privy Council. But in purely local matters the governors enjoyed wide discretion and were advised by resident landowners. The Crown policy of salutary neglect (or weak application of imperial authority) during the early colonial period resulted in a high level of self government by colonial assemblies under the leadership of colonial merchants, large landowners, and lawyers, who used their power of the purse or control over finance to limit power of governors and councils. Republican writings of the English country party, which emphasized the tension between liberty and

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political power and the danger of executive influence on legislature, enjoyed wide appeal among leaders of colonial assemblies. Level of popular participation in colonial governments reinforced the principle of popular consent to government.

VI. Mercantilism: Mercantilism was the dominant economic philosophy of the colonial era. According to mercantilist theory, the government should regulate economic activity to promote national power by: encouraging manufacturing and commerce via special bounties, monopolies, and legislative action (Navigation Acts); controlling trade to increase gold and silver within the country (exports should exceed imports; and establishing colonies to serve interests of mother country by producing raw materials and importing manufactured goods from home. But in direct violation of the Navigation Acts, New England shippers and merchants developed a series of triangular trade routes between England and the European Continent, Africa, the West Indies, and North America.

VII. The Seven Years’ War (or French and Indian War):The Middle Ground or Ohio Valley served as a flashpoint for imperial rivalries involving the British, French, rival Indian communities (especially the Algonquin and Iroquois), and British settlers. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and evolved into a larger imperial struggle in Europe and abroad (the Seven Years War). British victory (Treaty of Paris in 1763) removed the French from North America and eliminated the balance of power politics that had previously worked to the advantage of Indian nations. Pontiac's Rebellion, a pan-Indian uprising resulted. In the aftermath of the war British authorities implemented a policy of financial reform designed to give them greater control over their colonies in North America.

VIII. The American Revolution, 1763-1783:The revolutionary crisis began when the British initiated a policy of imperial reform after the Seven Years War to alleviate war debt and help finance maintenance of overseas possessions, but efforts to make colonies share cost of empire resulted in widespread colonial resistance to the perceived loss of freedom. Examples of British determination to enforce existing Navigation Acts (and end the policy of salutary neglect) and implement new policies included: the Proclamation of 1763 which forbid further settlement west of the Appalachians; the Sugar Act of 1764 which reduced the tax on molasses imported from French West Indies but established machinery to end widespread smuggling and also strengthened admiralty courts where accused smugglers were tried without trial by jury; the Revenue Act which placed new items (wool and hides) on the enumerated list of trade goods required to be shipped through England to markets; and the Currency Act which reaffirmed the ban on colonial assemblies issuing paper as legal tender.

A. The Stamp Act Crisis: The Stamp Act of 1765 represented a new policy of direct taxes in colonies rather than indirect taxation via regulation of trade. The act required a stamp on all sorts of printed material (newspapers, books, court documents, commercial papers, land deeds, etc.). The purpose was to help finance imperial expenses such as stationing troops in North America without seeking revenue from colonial assemblies.

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The direct tax offended all free colonists, the prospect of a standing army generated widespread alarm, and implementation of the tax without consent of colonial assemblies was seen as a direct affront to the rights of freeborn Englishmen (no taxation without representation). Conflicting ideas of empire began to coalesce. Colonial leaders saw the British empire of an association of equals protected by rights enjoyed by all Englishmen. The British government viewed the empire as consisting of unequal parts subject to the authority of Parliament. The issue became direct representation, or consent of the governed, versus "virtual representation.” The Virginia House of Burgesses approved resolutions by Patrick Henry that colonists enjoyed the same "liberties, privileges, franchises, and Immunities" and that the right to consent to taxation was a cornerstone of British freedom. The Stamp Act Congress in October affirmed the actions of the Virginia assembly and colonial merchants initiated a boycott of British goods, which was the first time that American colonists had united in resistance. Symbols of liberty (Liberty Tree in Boston, Liberty Pole in New York City) spread and Committees of Correspondence resulted in creation of widespread networks of communication. The Sons of Liberty organized direct (sometimes violent) public resistance such as destruction of stamps and public parades. Under pressure from British merchants, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act but tried to save face with the Declaratory Act, which rejected the colonial claim that only their elected representatives could levy taxes.

B. The Road to Revolution: After the British government reluctantly responded to demands by British merchants and colonial leaders to repeal the Stamp Act, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend convinced Parliament in 1767 to impose new taxes on goods imported into the colonies and created a new board of customs commissioners to collect them and suppress smuggling. Gradually resistance grew and resulted in a boycott of British goods in several colonies and the creation of extralegal local committees to enforce compliance to nonimportation. The most dramatic incident, the so-called Boston Massacre, occurred on March 5, 1770. Again under pressure by British merchants, the British government repealed the Townshend duties except for a tax on tea. In 1773 Parliament adopted the Tea Act. Although the act actually lowered the price of tea in the colonies, it threatened to undercut colonial merchants and smugglers and the authority over taxation claimed by the colonial assemblies. Again resistance followed with the most dramatic incident occurring on December 16, 1773 with the so-called Boston Tea Party. This time the British authorities responded quickly with the so-called Intolerable Acts by closing the Boston port, radically altering the Massachusetts charter to curtail town meetings, authorizing the governor to appoint members of his council, and empowering military commanders to quarter (or house) soldiers in private homes. Parliament also passed the Quebec Act which extended the southern boundary of Canada to the Ohio River and granted religious toleration to Catholics in the province. Coordinated resistance to the Intolerable Acts led to the First Continental Congress (only Georgia absent) and the creation of Committees of Public Safety (or shadow governments) to enforce its boycott of British trade. Opposition to the Crown and Parliament spread among elites and commoners alike. When the Second Continental Congress convened in May 1775, war with Great Britain (Lexington and Concord) had already begun. Key issue remains: were the colonists fighting for their rights as freeborn Englishmen within the empire or for independence?

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Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense argued for the latter in January 1776 by attacking the principles of hereditary rule and monarchial government. Speaking directly to the population at large, Paine offered a new vision of America as an "asylum of liberty," or a refuge from tyranny and a model for the rest of the world.

C. The Declaration of Independence: Two days after declaring the United States an independent nation, Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. The key phrase in Thomas Jefferson's preamble stated that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." The declaration asserted the right to revolution when government violated the social contract. Freedom was defined as a universal entitlement not a particular set of liberties. Individual self-fulfillment unimpeded by government had become a central element of American freedom.

IX. The Revolution Within:From the beginning, the war for liberation from the British was also a struggle over the meaning, social conditions, and boundaries of freedom within the colonies--slaves, servants, women, Indians, and propertyless men seized the opportunity to reconsider their own political rights (or lack thereof) and place in society. By celebrating equality and opportunity in the same universal language of liberty used to assert independence from the British, the lower classes asserted a new standard by which to challenge the legitimacy of colonial elites and homegrown institutions. Though women and slaves did not achieve full political equality, new state constitutions revealed a dramatic expansion of democracy for common white men. Many states such as Pennsylvania (but not all) expanded the franchise, abolished property qualifications for office holding, and guaranteed freedom of speech and religious liberty. Every state except South Carolina provided for annual legislative elections to ensure that representatives remained accountable to the people. For common white men the Revolution thus expanded the meaning of freedom beyond economic autonomy to include self ownership.

A. Slavery and the Revolution: African-Americans (20% of the total population) seized the ideals of the Revolution to assert their claim on freedom. The issue became slavery as reality versus slavery as metaphor, the latter used by colonial writers as shorthand for denial of personal and political rights by arbitrary government. Obstacles to abolition nonetheless remained strong. Jefferson himself owned over 100 slaves and Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia remained adamantly opposed to abolition. Some patriots argued that slavery for blacks made freedom possible for whites. But by defining freedom as a universal right, leaders of the Revolution gave slaves a weapon against bondage. "Freedom petitions" were delivered to New England's courts and legislatures. Many slaves ran away during war or tried to pass as freeborn, while others served in racially integrated companies in state militias or under George Washington in the continental army. Except for South Carolina and Georgia, military service in the southern colonies often resulted in emancipation. Nearly 100,000 slaves, including one quarter of all slaves in South Carolina and Georgia, deserted their owners and fled to British lines. Nearly every state prohibited or discouraged further importation of slaves

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during the war. Considerable number of slaveholders in Maryland and Virginia voluntarily emancipated their slaves, but abolition did not take root in South Carolina and Georgia. Between 1777 (Vermont) and 1804 (New Jersey), every state north of Maryland took steps toward emancipation, although property rights limited emancipation to children born to slave mothers after they served an apprenticeship. Still, the Revolution established a clear line between free and slave states. Abolition in the North, voluntarily emancipation in the Upper South, and the self-liberation via flight of thousands created a sizable free black population in the United States. Free black communities with their own churches, schools, and leaders presented a direct ongoing challenge to the legitimacy of slavery. Nonetheless, slavery survived the revolution and grew rapidly thereafter through natural increase in the South--by 1790 the first national census revealed that the slave population had grown to 700,000--200,000 more than in 1776. B. Daughters of Liberty: Women contributed to the patriot cause in numerous ways ranging from direct military participation and spying, to crowd action against merchants accused of profiteering, to fundraising and other forms of political activism. Yet independence did not alter family law or the principle of coverture and politics remained a man's game because a woman lacked economic autonomy via property ownership or full control of her own person. The Ideology of Republican Motherhood spawned by the revolution nonetheless indirectly elevated women's political status by assigning them the role of training future citizens. The foundation of national morality was widely seen as being rooted in familial relationships. Educational opportunities expanded for many women because of their new responsibility for instructing sons on the principles of liberty and government. The revolution also accelerated movement toward the idea of companionate marriage, or voluntary union based on affection and mutual dependency rather than male authority.

X. The Articles of Confederation: After a lengthy and difficult war the colonies achieved independence and the territorial expanse of the new nation was expanded dramatically by the Treaty of Paris of 1783. A key issue quickly surfaced. Was the minimalist government of the wartime articles of Confederation sufficient to govern the new nation in a dangerous world? How could the competing claims of local self-government, sectional interests, and national authority by balanced? Who should be considered full-fledged members of the American people, entitled to the blessings of liberty? The Articles of Confederation, the United States’ first written constitution, was drafted by Congress in 1777 and approved in 1781. The Articles government purposed to balance the need for a coordinated national war effort with fear of centralized power. The first government of the United States was a "confederation" or treaty for mutual defense between thirteen sovereign states, consisting of a one-house congress/each with one vote, no president, and no judiciary, and requiring nine states needed to approve major decisions. The Articles included the power to declare war, conduct foreign affairs, and make treaties, but provided Congress with no

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financial power via taxation or regulation of commerce. Amendments to Articles required universal consent.

A. Establishing national control over contested western lands and rules for settlement proved to be the Articles of Confederation era’s greatest accomplishment. Congress ruled that aiding the British in the war justified forfeiture of land claims by Indians. A series of peace conferences also resulted in major land acquisitions. The issue then became how to govern and settle western lands in an orderly fashion. Jefferson's Ordinance of 1784 established stages of self-government but Congress rejected by one vote prohibition of slavery in all western lands. The Ordinance of 1785 regulated land sales north of the Ohio River (Old Northwest);, although a minimum purchase ($640) policy favored large land speculators over settlers. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided for establishment of three to five states north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River. Jefferson's notion of an "empire of liberty" established the principle of creation of new states as equal partners rather than colonies. In the new republic self-government became firmly linked to territorial expansion. Although slavery was prohibited in the Old Northwest, it was permitted in the Southwest. The Articles of Confederation's weaknesses nonetheless became evident during the growing economic crisis caused by war debts, exclusion from British markets, and competition from imported goods. Establishment by individual states of separate economic policies increasingly was seen by creditors and nationalist minded leaders as major threat to preservation of independence.

B. Shay's Rebellion: Debt-ridden farmers led by Daniel Shays closed down courts in late 1786 in western Massachusetts to prevent land seizures for failure to pay debts. Governor James Bowdoin dispatched troops and suppressed the rebellion in January 1787, but the incident revealed widespread disaffection by small farmers and craftsmen throughout the states. Fear of revolutionary potential inherent in support for debt relief in state legislatures convinced many influential nationalists such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton that the central government needed to be strengthened. When delegates from every state except Rhode Island assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787, they elected to scrap the Articles government altogether.

XI. A New Constitution: The 55 men who gathered in constitutional convention (Jefferson and Adams were away serving as diplomats in Europe) were drawn from the nation's propertied and highly educated elite. They differed in many ways but shared the conviction that the central government must be strengthened to protect the property rights of the minority from "the excesses of democracy."

A. Federalism and Separation of Powers: The problem centered around achieving constitutional balance between the federal and state governments while resolving the conflicting interests of large and small states. The new government included a much strengthened executive, a powerful national judiciary, and a bicameral legislature. Members of the House of Representatives were apportioned by population and elected directly every two years by popular vote. Members of the Senate were elected indirectly

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every six years by state legislatures. The new government rejected direct election of federal judges (Supreme Court judges were to be appointed to life terms by the president) and the President (to be chosen by the Electoral College or House of Representatives), and charged the Executive with enforcing the law and commanding the military. Congress was given vastly increased authority over economic affairs, including power to levy taxes, borrow and coin money, regulate international commerce via tariffs on imports, and power over interstate commerce. Individual states were barred from issuing paper money, impairing contracts and otherwise interfering with property rights, and levying import and export duties. Each branch of the national government was empowered to "check and balance" the powers of other two branches.

B. The Constitution and Slavery: A major stumbling block arose over finding a way to reconcile the differences between slaveholders and abolitionists. The words slave and slavery do not appear in the Constitution, but three major compromises over slavery surfaced in the final document: Congress was prevented from abolishing the African slave trade for twenty years; inclusion of the principle of extraterritoriality later resulted in a federal fugitive slave law requiring states to return runaways to owners; and the three-fifths clause stated that slave population would be counted in determining each state's proportionate representation in the House of Representatives. All three compromises were considered necessary to preserve national unity but deeply embedded slavery into American life and politics. Plus the Constitution gave the federal government no power to interfere with slavery within individual states. The three-fifths clause gave the South disproportionate influence in national government; twelve of the first sixteen presidential elections put a southern slaveholder in the White House.

C. The Ratification Debate: The battle to secure approval from nine of the thirteen states shifted to thirteen special ratifying conventions. Known as the Federalists because of their advocacy of a stronger central government, Alexander Hamilton (50), James Madison (30), and John Jay (5) composed a series of 85 essays (later collected as The Federalist Papers) in defense of the new Constitution. Hamilton sought to disabuse Americans of their fear of political power, arguing for a perfect balance between liberty and power. Madison sought to resolve conflict between popular government and the threat of "dangerous enthusiasms" of the poor majority to minority property rights, arguing that the sheer size of the nation would lessen the danger of factions to the republic. Known as the Anti-Federalists, opponents of ratification argued that the Articles of Confederation simply needed to be amended and that the Constitution shifted the balance of state and individual liberty too far toward national power. State politicians and revolutionary heroes such as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Patrick Henry maintained that only the states could check the tyrannical dangers inherent in strong central government and the rising power of merchants and creditors. Many small farmers, the majority, saw their freedom as arising from land ownership and feared loss of their power as the majority at the state level. Popular government presumably flourished best in small communities and liberty should be grounded in local, democratic institutions. Lack of a Bill of Rights protecting individual liberties was also seen as a major weakness in the Constitution. Madison helped turn the tide toward ratification by promising that the first Congress would enact a Bill of Rights.

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D. The Bill of Rights of 1791: The First Amendment prohibited Congress from legislating with regard to religion or infringing on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or the right of assembly. The Second Amendment upheld the people's right to "keep and bear arms" in conjunction with "a well-regulated militia." Other amendments provided protection against arrests without warrants (due process and habeas corpus), the right to trial by jury, prohibition against excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishments. The Ninth Amendment stated that rights not specifically mentioned in the Constitution were retained by the people, while the Tenth Amendment reserved to the states powers not delegated to the national government or specifically prohibited to the states. Today, the first ten amendments are viewed as foundational to American freedom, but they were all but ignored for decades.

XII. The Rise of Political Parties, 1790-1815:With the approval of the Constitution and the election of George Washington as President and John Adams as Vice President, the United States entered a new era. Although the founding fathers as good republicans saw political factions as a threat to liberty, political parties soon arose and the level of political rancor rapidly escalated. Washington, "a model of self-sacrificing republican virtue," ironically may have helped to fuel the divisiveness by bringing the leaders of the opposing factions (Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the Treasury and Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State) into his cabinet.

A. Hamilton's Program: Conflict surfaced immediately over Hamilton's financial plan, which sought to establish the nation's financial stability, align powerful financial interests with the government, encourage economic development, and ultimately make the United States a major commercial and military power modeled after Great Britain. The plan won strong support from financiers, manufacturers, and merchants and included: establishing the nation's credit by assumption at par (or full face value) the national war debt and outstanding debts of the states; creating a new national debt by selling interest-bearing bonds to men of economic substance to make them stakeholders in the new government; chartering a Bank of the United States modeled on the Bank of England, or a private corporation that held public funds, issued bank notes, and made loans to the government; raising revenue via an excise tax on whiskey; and encouraging manufacturing via a tariff on imported goods and government subsidies (a form of mercantilism). Hamilton also recommended the creation of a standing national army. B. The Jeffersonian Opposition: Jefferson and Madison rejected the notion that the nation’s future success hinged on closer collaboration with Great Britain and looked westward to a republic of independent farmers marketing grain, tobacco, and other products to entire world in a free trade system; feared the growing power of commercial interests in the national government; considered a standing army a danger to liberty; cautioned that a national bank and assumption of state debts would lead to corruption; and rejected the excise (or luxury) tax on whiskey (which they saw as a necessity) as harmful to backcountry farmers. Both thought that Hamilton had exceeded his constitutional authority, raising the issue of a loose versus strict construction of the Constitution.

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C. Political Parties Emerge by the mid-1790s:1. Federalist Party: Led by Washington, Adams, and especially Hamilton, the Federalists supported the Washington administration, Hamilton's financial plan, and stronger ties with Great Britain. Elitist in outlook, they saw society as a fixed hierarchy wherein public office was reserved for the better sort and deference was shown to traditional authority, and feared the Revolution's "spirit of liberty" as leading to anarchy and licentiousness.2. Republican Party: Led by Jefferson and Madison, the Republicans were more sympathetic to France, had more faith in democratic self-government, saw agriculture (southern planters and ordinary farmers) as the foundation of future success rather than commercial and industrial growth, rejected excessive social and economic inequality, and accepted broad democratic participation as essential to freedom.

D. After Washington completed his second term, John Adams assumed the presidency in early 1797. The key issue of his presidency was navigating the international turmoil unleashed by the French Revolution and the ongoing wars between Great Britain and France that followed. American neutrality was made problematic by the "permanent" alliance signed between the United States and France in 1778 during the Revolution and the Federalist Party's pro-British leanings. To silence Republican opposition, the Federalists pushed through the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which included a new Naturalization Act extending residency requirements for citizenship from five to fourteen years, an Alien and Alien Enemies Act allowing deportation of persons from abroad deemed dangerous by the federal authorities, and a Sedition Act (aimed primarily at Republican newspaper editors) authorizing prosecution of virtually any public assembly or publication critical of the federal authorities. Madison and Jefferson responded with the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions calling the Alien and Sedition Acts unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment. Jefferson also advanced the doctrine of interposition by which states had the right and obligation to nullify federal law and the right to secede if necessary.

E. The slogan "Jefferson and Liberty" helped the Republicans mobilize popular support for Thomas Jefferson's presidential campaign in 1800. President Jefferson attempted to smooth over the antagonism between the two parties by proclaiming in his inaugural address, “We are all Republicans; we are all Federalists.” Ironically, the so-called Revolution of 1800 was made possible by the three-fifths clause. Jefferson and James Madison concluded that the slavery question was so divisive that it must be kept out of national politics, but in 1793 Congress approved a fugitive slave law. Once in power, Jefferson also moved quickly to reverse Federalist policies by reducing the size of the federal government, reducing the size of the army and navy, abolishing all taxes (including the whiskey tax) except the tariff, and paying off a large part of the federal debt. Perhaps the greatest irony of Jefferson's presidency was his purchase of the Louisiana territory from France in 1803 in spite of his belief in strict construction of the Constitution. Fearing that Napoleon would close New Orleans to American trade, the Louisiana Purchase in one stroke doubled the size of the United States for the cost of $15 million. Jefferson then sent Lewis and Clark to survey the territory. Although promised

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that the liberties they enjoyed under Spanish and French civil codes would be preserved, women and free blacks in New Orleans nonetheless gradually saw their freedom erode.

F. Judicial Review: Jefferson distrusted the unelected federal judiciary but under the leadership of John Marshall, the Supreme Court expanded its power in the federal system. Marbury v. Madison (1803), a landmark case that dealt with John Adams so-called "midnight judges," established the Supreme Court's power of judicial review of acts of the federal Congress. Fletcher v. Peck (1810), which was decided during the presidency of James Madison and dealt with the so-called Georgia Yazoo land fraud case, established the Supreme Court's power of judicial review over acts of the State legislatures.

G. War of 1812: Jefferson tried to remain neutral in the French and British war by imposing an embargo on trade with either power, but his embargo devastated the economies of port cities, especially in New England, and revitalized Federalist opposition. Continued British impressment of American sailors and seizure of American ships led Jefferson's handpicked successor, James Madison, to declare war on Great Britain in 1812. Overall, the war proved a disaster for the United States, including the burning of the White House in Washington D. C. and the failure to acquire Canada, but American naval victories by the Constitution (built from Georgia live oaks) and by Oliver H. Perry on the Great Lakes, the successful defense of Fort McHenry, and Andrew Jackson's victory over the British at New Orleans in 1815 (ironically after the Treaty of Ghent had ended the war) resulted in a groundswell of nationalistic pride and the rapid demise of the Federalist Party.

XIII. The Market Revolution:Following the War of 1812 the young nation experienced a sweeping economic transformation that many historians call the Market Revolution. Steamboats, canals, railroads, and telegraph lines opened new lands to settlement, lowered transportation costs, and stimulated economic growth by facilitating the movement of goods, services, and communication. Robert Fulton's Clermont demonstrated the feasibility of upstream commerce on the Hudson River, setting an example for rapid development of the steamship trade on the nation's major rivers and the great lakes. Completion by the state of New York in 1825 of the 363-mile Erie Canal linked New York City with the Great Lakes and quickly made New York City the nation's leading commercial, manufacturing, and financial center. The success of Erie Canal spawned a nationwide canal building boom that lasted until the economic depression of 1837. Over 3000 miles of canals connected waterways and created a network linking the Atlantic states with the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, which drastically reduced transportation costs. A railroad boom between 1830 and 1860 opened up the vast interior of the United States to development, created interest in further westward expansion, and stimulated growth of mining of coal for fuel and manufacture of iron for locomotives and rails. By 1860, the nation’s railroad network consisted of 30,000 miles. The telegraph invented by Samuel F. B. Morse was put into commercial operation in 1844. Use of Morse code messages over electric lines helped to speed the flow of information and bring uniformity to prices throughout the nation. Taken together, these innovations in transportation and communication unleashed

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a torrent of entrepreneurial energy that resulted in the creation of an integrated national market economy along sectional lines.

A. Rise of the West: The revolution in transportation and communications gave rise to the West as a self-conscious region. An estimated 4.5 million people crossed the Appalachians, usually traveling in groups, and established new communities. Six new states entered the nation between 1815-1821 (Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Maine). One stream of population extended the cotton plantation system into the Southwest, another stream moved into the southern regions of the Midwest states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, while a third moved from New England across New York into the Upper Northwest region of northern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and Michigan and Wisconsin. Territorial expansion put tremendous pressure on foreign controlled territory in Florida, Texas, and Oregon.

B. The Cotton South: The market revolution and westward expansion also heightened sectional divisions between the North and the South. The North witnessed an early industrial revolution centered on textile production, whereas the South saw the rise of the so-called cotton kingdom based on plantation slavery. Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793 at Mulberry Grove near Savannah revolutionized American slavery by making short staple cotton profitable. After Congress abolished the international slave trade in 1808, a massive national slave market developed between the Upper South and Deep South; ultimately an estimated one million slaves were forcibly moved westward. Cotton production grew from 5 million pounds in 1793 to nearly 170 million pounds in1820, and continued to grow thereafter. Though the South was well integrated into the Atlantic world’s commercial economy, it maintained an overwhelmingly agricultural economy, focusing on plantation production of staple crops and investment in slaves rather than on building a diversified town-based industrial economy. In 1860, 80% of the South's population worked the land.

C. The Industrializing North: The market revolution and westward expansion resulted in the creation of an integrated economy of commercial farms and manufacturing cities. The Northeast rapidly emerged as the nation’s center of commerce and banking. The transportation network and credit system drew farmers into the market economy by encouraging production of food crops and livestock for urban consumption and purchase of manufactured goods previously produced by farm families at home. The 1840s and 1850s witnessed a shift to new fertilizers and the use of agricultural machinery in the Northwest, including a steel plow invented by John Deere in 1837 and a horse-drawn wheat harvester invented by Cyrus McCormick. American wheat production nearly tripled between 1840 and 1860. In some industries, especially textiles, a factory system replaced traditional craft production. Rather than goods being manufactured in homes or small shops, factories concentrated large numbers of workers working with power-driven machinery under central supervision. The factory system emerged first in Waltham, Massachusetts and expanded into Lowell. The earliest factories were all located on the "fall line" because of water power but the advent of steam power in 1840s resulted in expansion of factories into cities like Philadelphia and Chicago because of immense local markets. Soon the “American system of manufactures” based on mass production of

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interchangeable parts began to take shape. Eli Whitney led the way in small-arms production. The market revolution also transformed Americans' conception of time as clocks became an integral part of daily life and work time and leisure time became distinctive. Workers in a republican society that equated self independence with freedom often experienced the shift to wage work as a loss of freedom. Consequently, native-born men initially resisted factory work and employers turned first to female and child labor, then eventually to immigrant labor. Increasingly, the world of work and politics was seen as a male sphere. Middle class women, no longer needed to produce things at home, embraced a new definition of femininity that said a woman's place was in the home, where her role was to sustain non-market values like love, friendship, and mutual obligation and to provide her family with a haven in a heartless world. A new Cult of Domesticity gradually began to supplant the earlier Ideology of Republican Motherhood, with virtue becoming less associated with civic mindedness and more as a personal quality among women associated with sexual innocence, beauty, frailty, and dependence on men. The private sphere was thus gradually redefined as woman's domain, the public sphere as man's.

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