Electoral College

The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.

The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress.

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators.

Each candidate running for President in your state has his or her own group of electors. The electors are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party, but state laws vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are. 

Precedent

A legal decision that serves as an authoritative rule or pattern in future similar cases or situations.

Judiciary Act of 1789

 Established the organization of the U.S. federal court system, which had been sketched only in general terms in the U.S. Constitution. The act established a three-part judiciary—made up of district courts, circuit courts, and the Supreme Court—and outlined the structure and jurisdiction of each branch.

The Judiciary Act of 1789, officially titled “An Act to Establish the Judicial Courts of the United States,” was principally authored by Senators Oliver Ellsworth and William Paterson and signed into law by Pres. George Washington on September 24, 1789. 

The act divided the country into districts with one court and one judge in each, along with attorneys responsible for civil and criminal actions in their districts. The act also created the office of attorney general of the United States; the attorney general, a member of the cabinet, is appointed by the president and is head of the Department of Justice.

Circuit courts—which make up the middle tier of the federal court system—were created to serve as principal trial courts. They also exercise limited appellate jurisdiction. A local district judge and two Supreme Court justices preside over the circuit courts.

The act established that the Supreme Court would be composed of one chief justice and five associate justices and that all decisions of the Supreme Court would be final. The act also vested in the Supreme Court the power to settle disputes between states and provided for mandatory Supreme Court. Review of the final judgments of the highest court of any state in cases

Alexander Hamilton

Served as Washington’s secretary of treasury. Was responsible for the financial concerns of the US. His job was to develop a financial plan for the new national government.

His plan included:

1. Dealing with the after war debt

2. Create a national bank

3. Create a national currency.

National Debt

The biggest concern of the new country was the money the US owed from the Revolutionary War. The US owed about 12 million to foreign countries (like France) and 40 million to the American people.

Bonds

During the war, the government sold bonds to help raise money. Bonds are certificates of debt that carry a promise to buy back the bonds at a higher price. The US could not afford to keep this promise.

French Revolution

The storming of the Bastille was one of the first acts of the French Revolution—a rebellion of French people against their king in 1789. The French people overthrew their king and created a republican government.

Many French citizens had been inspired to take action by the American Revolution. Many Americans, in turn, supported the French Revolution. They thought that France was creating the same kind of democracy as the United States.

Some Americans worried about the French Revolution’s violent riots and attacks on traditional authority. Revolutionaries shocked many Americans by beheading King Louis XVI in January 1793 and Queen Marie-Antoinette later that year.

French revolutionaries storm the Bastille.

A few years after the French Revolution started, France and Great Britain went to war. Some Americans supported the French, while others backed the British. Some wanted to remain neutral.

Neutrality Proclamation

This Neutrality Proclamation stated that the United States would not take sides with any European countries that were at war. Washington believed his plan was the safest for the long run, but not everyone agreed.

Some members of Congress criticized Washington’s ideas. James Madison believed that the president had gone beyond his authority. He questioned Washington’s right to issue the proclamation without the approval of Congress.

Privateer

 Private ships hired by a country to attack its enemies.

Jay’s Treaty

In late 1793 the British seized ships carrying food to the French West Indies. Hundreds of the ships were neutral American merchant ships. Also, British officers were helping Native Americans fight settlers.

Washington wanted to prevent another war with the British. He sent Chief Justice John Jay to London to work out a compromise. In November 1794 the two sides signed Jay’s Treaty. Jay’s Treaty settled the disputes that had arisen between the United States and Great Britain in the early 1790s. The British would pay damages on seized American ships and abandon their forts on the northwestern frontier. The United States agreed to pay debts it owed the British.

Jay’s Treaty sparks protest throughout the United States in November 1794.

The treaty was unpopular and sparked violent protests. Citizens and congressional leaders thought the treaty hurt trade and did not punish Britain enough for some of its actions. Southerners were especially angry that the treaty did not ask Britain to repay them for slaves that Britain had set free during the Revolutionary War. Washington did not like the treaty but believed it was the most that could be done. At his urging, the Senate approved the treaty.

Pickney’s Treaty

The Spanish disputed the border between the United States and Florida. Spain closed the port of New Orleans to U.S. trade in 1784. This hurt the American economy because all goods moving down the Mississippi to places in the East or overseas had to pass through New Orleans.

Washington asked Ambassador Thomas Pinckney to meet with Spanish officials to discuss the problem and create a treaty.

Under the treaty, Spain agreed to recognize the U.S. southern boundary as 31° north latitude. Spain’s government also reopened the port at New Orleans to American ships and gave them the right of deposit. Because it opened the frontier to more expansion, Washington and most other Americans believed that Pinckney’s Treaty was a successful compromise.

Battle of Fallen Timbers

Americans continued to settle the Northwest Territory despite Native Americans’ protests. Supplied by British traders with guns, Native Americans went to war. The final conflict in this war was fought at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

General Anthony Wayne fought against several Native tribes that banded together.

On August 20, 1794, Native Americans fought Wayne’s troops in the Battle of Fallen Timbers and were defeated. The battle was named for an area where many trees had been destroyed by a tornado. Wayne’s forces burned Native Americans’ villages and fields. The strength of Native American forces in the region was broken.

Treaty of Greenville

In August 1795 Native American leaders signed the Treaty of Greenville, which gave the United States claim to most Indian lands in the Northwest Territory. The treaty also guaranteed the safety of citizens there. In exchange, Native Americans received $20,000 worth of goods and an acknowledgment of their claim to the lands they still held.

Whiskey Rebellion

 A tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government. It became law in 1791, and was intended to generate revenue for the war debt incurred during the Revolutionary War. The tax applied to all distilled spirits, but American whiskey was by far the country's most popular distilled beverage in the 18th century, so the excise became widely known as a "whiskey tax". Farmers of the western frontier were accustomed to distilling their surplus rye, barley, wheat, corn, or fermented grain mixtures into whiskey. These farmers resisted the tax. In these regions, whiskey often served as a medium of exchange. Many of the resisters were war veterans who believed that they were fighting for the principles of the American Revolution, in particular against taxation without local representation, while the federal government maintained that the taxes were the legal expression of Congressional taxation powers.

Federalists Party

The country’s first political party. Alexander Hamilton helped found the party, which called for a strong national government that promoted economic growth and fostered friendly relationships with Great Britain, as well as opposition to revolutionary France. The Federalists chose John Adams and Thomas Pinckney as candidates. Adams knew he was not well liked in the South or the West, but he hoped people would support him after they thought about his years of loyal public service.

Democratic-Republican Party

Jefferson and Madison founded the party in opposition to the Federalist Party, which was led by John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and John Marshall, who fought for a strong federal government and supporting policies that favored the wealthy. The primary difference between the Democratic-Republican Party and the Federalists was Jefferson's belief in the authority of local and state governments. 

"Jefferson's party stood for rural agricultural interests urban commercial interests represented by Hamilton and the Federalists," wrote Dinesh D'Souza in Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party.

The Democratic-Republican Party was initially just a "loosely aligned group that shared their opposition to the programs introduced in the 1790s," wrote University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. "Many of these programs, proposed by Alexander Hamilton, favored merchants, speculators, and the rich."

Federalists including Hamilton favored the creation of a national bank and the power to impose taxes. Farmers in the western United States strongly opposed taxation because they worried about not being able to pay and having their land being bought up by "eastern interests," Sabato wrote. Jefferson and Hamilton also clashed over the creation of a national bank; Jefferson did not believe the Constitution permitted such a move, while Hamilton believed the document was open to interpretation on the matter.

Jefferson initially founded the party without the prefix; its members were initially known as Republicans. But the party eventually became known as the Democratic-Republican Party. Jefferson initially considering calling his party the "anti-Federalists" but instead preferred to described its opponents as "anti-Republicans," according to the late New York Times political columnist William Safire.

XYZ Affair

One of Adams’s first goals as president was to improve the relationship between the United States and France. With Great Britain and France still at war, the French had begun harassing and seizing U.S. ships. Adams sent U.S. diplomats to Paris to smooth over the conflict and to negotiate a treaty to protect U.S. shipping.

When the diplomats arrived in France, they learned that French foreign minister Talleyrand would not speak to them. Instead, they had a strange and secret visit from three French agents. Shockingly, the agents said that Talleyrand would discuss a treaty only in exchange for a $250,000 bribe. The French government also wanted a loan of $12 million. The amazed diplomats refused these demands.

In March 1798 President Adams told Congress that the peace-seeking mission had failed. He described the French terms, substituting the letters X, Y, and Z for the names of the French agents. Upon hearing the disgraceful news, Federalists in Congress called for war with France.

Alien and Sedition Acts

Many Democratic-Republicans continued to sympathize with France. Federalists, angered by their stand, called them “democrats, mobocrats, and all other kinds of rats.”

In 1798 the Federalist-controlled Congress passed four laws, known together as the Alien and Sedition Acts. These laws were said to protect the United States, but the Federalists intended them to crush opposition to war. The most controversial of these laws was the Sedition Act, which forbade anyone from publishing or voicing criticism of the federal government. In effect, this canceled basic protections of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Louisiana Purchase

Jefferson wanted to expand the borders of the United States. One problem that the young nation faced was that it had no ports on the Gulf of Mexico. Farmers in western areas had to ship their crops on boats down the Mississippi River to the port of New Orleans. The port of New Orleans was controlled by Spain. In 1801 in a secret treaty, Spain gave the Louisiana Territory back to France. The Louisiana Territory was a huge area to the west of the Mississippi that included New Orleans.

Jefferson feared that France would close New Orleans to American trade. So he sent James Monroe to Paris to try to purchase New Orleans. The French, however, offered to sell all of the Louisiana Territory to the United States for just $15 million. Monroe quickly agreed. Finalized in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase more than doubled the size of the United States.

The Louisiana Purchase was a remarkable bargain. However, it raised many questions. The U.S. Constitution made no mention of buying foreign lands. As a strict constructionist, Jefferson was troubled that he might be overstepping his power.

Lewis & Clark

Jefferson wanted Americans to learn more about the lands of the Louisiana Purchase. He asked his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an expedition to gather information about the territory. Lewis invited experienced frontiersman William Clark to join him as co-leader. In May 1804 Lewis and Clark led about 30 frontier soldiers from their camp in St. Louis northwest up the Missouri River. By October the group, called the Corps of Discovery, had reached what is now North Dakota. One member of the Corps was York, an enslaved African owned by William Clark. York was a very skilled scout and hunter.

Sacagawea

 A Lemhi Shoshone woman who is known for her help to the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory.

Sacagawea traveled with the expedition thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean. She helped establish cultural contacts with Native American populations in addition to her contributions to natural history.

Marbury v. Madison

A landmark case by the United States Supreme Court which forms the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States under Article III of the Constitution. The landmark decision helped define the boundary between the constitutionally separate executive and judicial branches of the American form of government.

The case resulted from a petition to the Supreme Court by William Marbury, who had been appointed Justice of the Peace in the District of Columbia by President John Adams but whose commission was not subsequently delivered. Marbury petitioned the Supreme Court to force the new Secretary of State, James Madison, to deliver the documents. The Court, with John Marshall as Chief Justice, found firstly that Madison's refusal to deliver the commission was both illegal and correctible. Nonetheless, the Court stopped short of ordering Madison (by writ of mandamus) to hand over Marbury's commission, instead holding that the provision of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that enabled Marbury to bring his claim to the Supreme Court was itself unconstitutional, since it purported to extend the Court's original jurisdiction beyond that which Article III established. The petition was therefore denied.

The Marbury v. Madison decision expanded the power of the Supreme Court in general, by announcing that the 1789 law which gave the Court jurisdiction in this case was unconstitutional. Marbury thus lost his case, which the Court said he should have won, but, in explaining its inability to provide Marbury the remedy it said he deserved, the Court established the principle of judicial review, i.e., the power to declare a law unconstitutional

Judicial Review

Power of the Supreme Court that was established by the landmark case Marbury v. Madison. Gave the Supreme Court the power to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional. Eventually made the courts a much stronger part of the national government.