Chapter 6: ESTABLISHING NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY

Objectives: • Identify the diplomatic

crises the United States faced during it first decade, and the government’s response to these crises.

• Describe the “Revolution of 1800” and evaluate just how it constituted a “revolution.”

Joe_1:6 For a nation is come up upon

my land, strong, and without number,

whose teeth are the teeth of a lion,

and he hath the cheek teeth of a great

lion.

ESTABLISHING NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY:

• The Federalist consolidated

their position, and for a time

attracted wide public support

for the new national

government.

ESTABLISHING NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY:

• Dealing effectively with two problems the old confederation had been unable fully to resolve.

• They helped stabilize the nation’s western lands, and they strengthened America’s international position.

Securing the Frontier:

• In 1794, farmers in Western Pennsylvania raised a major challenge to Federal authority when they refused to pay a whiskey excise tax and began terrorizing tax collectors (similar to the time of the stamp act)

• But the federal government did not leave settlement of the so-called Whiskey Rebellion to Pennsylvania, as the Confederation Congress had left Shays’ Rebellion to Massachusetts.


• At Hamilton’s urging Washington called out the militias of three states raised an army of nearly 15,000 (a larger force than he had commanded against the British during most of the Revolution)

• Personally led the troops into Pennsylvania.

• As the militiamen approached Pittsburgh, the center of the resistance, the rebellion quickly collapsed.


• The Federal Government won the allegiance of the whiskey rebels by intimidating them.

• It won the loyalties of other frontier people by accepting their territories as new states in the Union.

• The last of the original thirteen colonies joined the Union once the Bill of Rights had been amended to the Constitution.

• North Carolina in 1789 and Rhode Island in 1790.

Native Americans and the New Nation:

• The Constitution barely mentioned Native Americans.

• Article I excluded “Indians not taxed” from being counted in the population totals that determined the number of seats states would receive in the House of Representatives;

• It gave Congress the power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes.


• Article VI bound the new government to respect treaties negotiated by the Confederation, most of which had been with the tribes.

• But none of this did very much to clarify the precise legal standing of Indians or Indian nations within the U.S.


• The Constitution seemed to recognize the existence of the tribes as legal entities.

• On the other hand, it made clear that they were not “foreign nations.”

• In the same sense that European countries were.

• Nor were their members citizens of the U.S.


• The Tribes received no direct representation in the new government.

• Above all, the Constitution did not address the major issue that would govern relations between whites and Indians: land.

• Indian nations lived within the boundaries of the U.S., yet they claimed (and the white government at times agreed) that they had some measure of sovereignty within their own lands.


• But neither the Constitution nor

common law offered any clear guide to

the rights of a “nation within a nation”

or to the precise nature of tribal

sovereignty, which ultimately depended

on control of land.

• Thus a series of treaties, agreements,

and judicial decision in a process that

has for more than 200 years.

Maintaining Neutrality:

• Not until 1791, eight years after the end of the Revolution, did Great Britain send a minister to the U.S. and then only because Madison and Republicans were threatening to place special trade restrictions on British Ships.

• When the new French Government created by the revolution of 1789 went to war with Great Britain and its allies.

• Both the president and the congress took steps to establish American neutrality in this conflict.

• But the neutrality quickly encountered severe tests.


• The first challenge was from revolutionary France and its first diplomatic representative to America, Edmond Genet.

• Instead of landing at Philadelphia and presenting himself immediately to the president, Genet disembarked at Charleston.

• Genet made plans to use American ports to outfit French warships encourage American ship owners to serve as French privateers.

• His actions caused Washington and the Federalists to be upset.

• Washington demanded that the French government recall him but his party was out of power in France and he was given asylum.


o Second challenge was from Great Britain.

o Early in 1794, the Royal Navy began seizing hundreds of American ships, engaged in trade in the French West Indies, outraging public opinion in the U.S.

o Anti-British feeling rose still higher at the report of the governor general of Canada delivering a warlike speech to the Indians on the northwestern frontier encouraging them to challenge the U.S. dominance there.

o Hamilton was deeply concerned.

o War would mean an end to imports from England, and most of the revenue for maintaining his financial system came from duties on those imports.

Jay’s Treaty and Pinckney’s Treaty:

• Hamilton did not trust the State Department to reach a settlement with Britain.

• Jefferson had resigned as secretary of state in 1793 to devote more time to his political activities, but his successor Edmund Randolph was even more pro French than Jefferson.


• Hamilton persuaded Washington to name a special commissioner to England: John Jay, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and a staunch NY federalist.

• Jay was instructed to secure compensation for the recent British assaults on American shipping, to demand with-drawl of British forces from the frontier posts, and to negotiate a new commercial treaty.


• Jay’s treaty in 1794 failed to meet these goals but it did accomplish something.

• It settled the conflict with Britain and helped prevent what seemed likely to become a war between the two nations.

• It established undisputed American sovereignty over the entire Northwest.

• And it produced a reasonably satisfactory commercial relationship with Britain whose trade was important to the U.S.


• The terms brought bitter opposition for failing to have extract enough promises from the British.

• Nearly all Republicans and some federalists went to great lengths to defeat the ratification in the Senate.

• But the senate ratified it.

• Among other things the treaty made possible a settlement of America’s conflict with the Spanish, because it raised fears in Spain that the British and the Americans might now join together to challenge Spanish possessions in North America.


• When Thomas Pinckney arrived in Spain as a special negotiator, he had no difficulty gaining nearly everything the U.S. sought from the Spaniards for more than decade.

• Pinckney’s Treaty (1795) recognized Spain’s right to America to navigate the Mississippi to its mouth and deposit goods at New Orleans for reloading on oceangoing ships;


• Agreed to fix the northern boundary of Florida where Americans always had insisted it should be.

• Along the 31st parallel; and required Spanish authorities to prevent the Indians in Florida from launching raids across the border.

THE DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALISTS:

• The Federalists impressive

triumphs did not ensure

continued dominance,

• Success seemed to

produce problems of its

own, problems that led to

their downfall.


• Since almost all Americans in the

1790s agreed that there was no

place in a stable republic for an

organized opposition.

• The emergence of the

Republicans as powerful

contenders for popular favor

seemed to the Federalists as a

grave threat to national stability.


• Federalists could not resist the

temptation to move forcefully against

the opposition.

• Facing what they believed was a stark

choice between respecting individual

liberties, and preserving stability, the

Federalists chose stability.

• The result was political disaster.


• After 1796 the Federalists never won

another election.

• The popular respect for the institutions of the federal government, which they had worked so hard to produce among the people, survived.

• But the Federalists themselves gradually vanished as an effective political force.

The Election of 1796:

• Washington insisted on retiring from

office in 1797 even though there was strong pressure from many his admirers to run a third term.

• In 1796, Jefferson was uncontested candidate of the Republicans.

• The Federalists faced a more difficult choice.

• Hamilton the personification of Federalism, had created too many enemies to be a credible candidate.


• So Vice President John Adams, who had been directly associated with the none of the unpopular Federalist measures became his party’s nominee for president.

• The Federalists were still clearly the dominant party, and there was little doubt of their ability to win a majority of the presidential electors.

• But without Washington to mediate they fell victim to fierce factional rivalries that almost led to their undoing.


o Hamilton and many other Federalists,

especially from the South, favored Thomas Pinckney over Adams.

o This resulted in Adams defeating Thomas Jefferson by three electoral votes and becoming his Vice President.

o (Until the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution adopted in 1804, Constitution gave the candidate with the second highest electoral votes to become Vice President).

o This resulting in rival parties holding the two highest offices of the land.


• Adams assumed the presidency over a divided party and strong and resourceful Republican opposition.

• Adams himself was not a dominant figure within his own party.

• Hamilton remained the most influential Federalist.

• Adams was one of the most skillful diplomats of the nation but he was not a good politician.

• He was austere, rigid, aloof, he had little talent at conciliating differences, soliciting support, or inspiring enthusiasm.

• He seemed that his own virtue and correctness of position was enough to carry him.

The Quasi War with France:

• Americas relations with Spain and

Great Britain improved as a result of

Jay’s and Pinckney’s treaties.

• But its relation with revolutionary

France became tense.

• French vessels captured American

ships on the high seas and at times

imprisoned their crews.


• Some of Adams advisers favored war

but Hamilton recommended

conciliation which Adams agreed.

• In an effort to stabilize relations,

Adams sent Charles C. Pinckney, John

Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry, a

Massachusetts Republican and a

friend of the president to negotiate

with France.


• When the Americans arrived in Paris,

three agents of the French Foreign Minister demanded a loan for France and a bribe for French officials before any negotiations could begin.

• This upset the Americans and Adams sent a message to congress to prepare for war.

• The diplomats were code named XYZ in the congressional report and caused widespread public outrage.


• It led to an undeclared war with France.

• Adams persuaded Congress to cut off all trade with France and authorized American vessels to capture French armed ships on the high seas.

• In 1798, Congress created a Department of the Navy and appropriated money for the construction of new war ships.

• The navy soon won a number of duels with French vessels and captured a total of eighty-five ships including armed merchantmen.


• The U.S. also began cooperating with

British and became virtually an ally of Britain in the war with France.

• In the end, France chose to conciliate the U.S. before the conflict grew.

• Adams would end up sending another delegation this time with the new French Government headed by Napoleon and the conflict came to a peaceful end.

Repression and Protest:

• The Federalists increased their

majorities in Congress in 1798.

• Armed with this new strength, they

began to consider ways to silence

the Republican opposition.

• The result was some of the most

controversial legislation in

American History.

• The Alien and Sedition Acts.


• This placed new obstacles in the

way of foreigners who wished to

become American citizens and it

strengthened the president’s

hand in dealing with aliens.

• The Sedition Act allowed the

government to prosecute those

who engaged in “sedition”

against the government.


• In theory only libelous or

treacherous activities were subject to prosecution; but since such activities were open to widely varying definitions, the law made it possible for the federal government to stifle almost any opposition.

• The Republicans interpreted the new laws as an attempt to destroy the Republican Party.


• Adams singed the new law but was

cautious in implementing them.

• He did not deport any aliens and he

prevented the government from launching

a major crusade against the Republicans.

• But it was still repressive.


• The Alien Act helped discourage immigration and encouraged some foreigners already in the country to leave.

• And the administration made use of Sedition Act to arrest and convict ten men, most of them Republican Newspaper editors whose only crime had been to criticize the Federalists in government.

The Revolution of 1800:

• Adams and Jefferson ran against each

other again.

• Although the two were cordial to each other, their supporters were not so much.

• Adams was portrayed as a tyrant that conspired to be King and Jefferson was portrayed as a dangerous radical that would lead to a reign of terror comparable to the French.


• It was at this time where Jefferson’s romantic

involvement with Sally Hemmings a slave and half sister of his wife came to light.

• The election was close.

• And ended with a deadlock between Jefferson and Aaron Burr the Vice President candidate.

• Because the new congress was not in session with the newly elected representatives, the lame duck Federalist congress decided on the most experienced Jefferson to end the deadlock.


• The only branch after 1800 that was

in federalist control was the judiciary.

• The Judiciary Act of 1801 passed by the lame duck Congress, reduced the number of Supreme Court Justiceships by one but greatly increased the number of federal judges as a whole.


• Adams quickly appointed Federalists to the

newly created positions.

• There were rumors that he stayed until midnight on the last day in office to sign the new judge commissions.

• They were known as midnight appointments.

• The Republicans believed that a new revolution was started that would undo some of the federalists policies and return America back to what they felt were the true principles it was founded on.

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