Chapter 10: Launching The New Ship Of State Flashcards
How long did it take for Americans ppl had risen up and thrown overboard both British yoke and art of confederation?
12 yrs
What was not the best training
for government making?
A decade of lawbreaking and constitution smashing
why was Finances of the infant government
precarious?
Revenue was very small yet the debt was mounting due to interest.
Hard (metal) money was scarce and the paper money was worthless.
The financial situation was the number 1 problem the new nation faced.
When did the Constitution be in effect?
1789
What happened to the population?
Population was doubling about every twenty-five
years
What did the the first official census of 1790 recorded?
4 million people
What were the largest populous cities? in order
Philadelphia numbered 42,000 New York 33,000 Boston 18,000 Charleston 16,000 Baltimore 13,000
What percent was rural?
90%
What percent lived east of the Appalachian Mountains?
5%
What states were heavily concentrated in the trans-Allegheny?
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, all
of which were welcomed as states within fourteen
years.
What did foreigners thought of America?
Foreigners thought the Americans were rough and crude people due to the primitive pioneer lifestyle.
Who was elected president?
General Washington, the esteemed war hero, was unanimously drafted as president by the Electoral College in 1789—the only presidential nominee ever to be honored by unanimity.
How did Washington command his followers?
he commanded his followers by strength of character rather than by the arts of the politician.
What was the the temporary capital?
New York City
When did GW took the oath of office?
April 30, 1789
What does GW establish?
THE Cabinet
What department served under the president?
Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson,
Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton,
Secretary of War Henry Knox.
Why did many antifederalists had sharply criticized the Constitution drafted at Philadelphia?
for its failure to provide guarantees of individual rights such as freedom of religion and trial by jury.
Why did many states ratify the Constitution?
on the understanding that it would soon be amended to include such guarantees.
How could Amendments to the Constitution could be proposed
in either of two ways?
by a new constitutional convention requested by two-thirds of the states or by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress.
Why did James Madison determined to draft the
amendments himself?
Fearing that a new convention might unravel the narrow federalist victory in the ratification struggle
How was Madison becoming a leading figure?
his intellectual and political skills
What are the Bill of Rights?
Adopted by the necessary number of states in 1791, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, popularly known as the Bill of Rights, safeguard some of the most precious American principles.
What does the Bill of Rights comprise of?
Among these are protections for freedom of religion, speech, and the press; the right to bear arms and to be tried by a jury; and the right to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. The Bill of Rights also prohibits cruel and unusual punishments and arbitrary government seizure of private property.
What was the ninth amendment?
It declares that specifying
certain rights “shall not be construed to deny
or disparage others retained by the people.”
Why was the ninth amendment put in place?
To guard against the danger that enumerating such rights might lead to the conclusion that they were the only ones protected
What was the tenth amendment?
reserves all rights not explicitly delegated or
prohibited by the federal Constitution “to the States
respectively, or to the people.’’
How was the federalist pendulum swinging back in the anti-federalist direction?
By preserving a
strong central government while specifying protections
for minority and individual liberties
What was Judiciary Act of 1789
It created effective federal courts
The act organized the Supreme Court, with a chief justice and five associates, as well as federal district and circuit courts, and established the office of attorney general.
Who became the first chief justice of the United States
New Yorker John Jay, Madison’s collaborator on The Federalist papers and one of the young Republic’s most seasoned diplomats
Who was the key figure in the new government>
Alexander Hamilton
What was Hamilton’s goal/striving for?
Hamilton set out immediately
to correct the economic vexations that had
crippled the Articles of Confederation.
What was Hamilton’s plan?
His plan was
to shape the fiscal policies of the administration in
such a way as to favor the wealthier groups.
Why did Hamilton’s plan favored the wealthier people?
They, in
turn, would gratefully lend the government monetary
and political support. The new federal regime
would thrive, the propertied classes would fatten,
and prosperity would trickle down to the masses.
What was Hamilton’s first objective?
to
bolster the national credit.
Hamilton could not secure the funds to his risky schemes without what?
Without public confidence
in the government
What is “Funding at par’’?
“Funding at par’’ meant that the federal government
would pay off its debts at face value, plus
accumulated interest—a then-enormous total of
more than $54 million.
How did the people felt about “Funding at par’’
believe infant Treasury incapable of meeting those obligations that government bonds had depreciated to ten or fifteen cents on the dollar.
What was the national debt?
$21.5 million.
What is Assumption?
In Assumption, the federal government would assume the states’ debts, or in other words, the states would simply give their debts over to the federal government.
What was the benefit Assumption?
he reason for assuming state debts was to tie the states together in a common endeavor—to jointly pay off the debt.
What was Massachusetts view on Assumption?
States burdened with heavy debts, like Massachusetts,
were delighted by Hamilton’s proposal.
What was Virginia view on Assumption?
States with small debts, like Virginia, were less
charmed.
What was the compromise on Assumption?
The bargain said that Massachusetts would get the Assumption clause passed. Virginia would see the new national capital on the Potomac River—the site of Washington D.C.
Hamilton was determined to pay what?
the full $75 million debt, plus interest.
What was Hamilton’s view on national debt?
He believed that within
limits, a national debt was a “national blessing’’—a
kind of union adhesive.
The more creditors to whom
the government owed money,____________
the more people
there would be with a personal stake in the success
of his ambitious enterprise.
What was Hamilton’s answer to: Where was the money to come from to pay
interest on this huge debt and run the government?
Hamilton’s first answer was customs duties, derived
from a tariff. Tariff revenues, in turn, depended on a
vigorous foreign trade, another crucial link in Hamilton’s
overall economic strategy for the new Republic.
Hamilton proposed that revenue be made through a tariff (tax on imports).
What was the first tariff law passed by Congress in 1789?
The first tariff law, imposing a low tariff of about
8 percent on the value of dutiable imports, was
speedily passed by the first Congress in 1789, even
before Hamilton was sworn in.
The revenue was designed to erect what?
a low protective wall around infant industries,
which bawled noisily for more shelter than they
received.
What was Hamilton’s view on industry and manufacturing?
Hamilton had the vision to see that the
industrial revolution would soon reach America,
and he argued strongly in favor of more protection
for the well-to-do manufacturing groups—another
vital element in his economic program.
What was the additional internal revenue?
in 1791 secured
from Congress an excise tax on a few domestic
items, notably whiskey.
What was the whiskey tax?
An excise tax on whiskey was imposed to raise a bit more money. This whiskey tax on 7 cents/gallon hit the whiskey-makers in the backwoods who often used whiskey as money.
Hamilton created what?
Bank of the United States
he took as his model the Bank of England.
The Bank of America comprised of what?
a powerful private institution, of which the
government would be the major stockholder and in
which the federal Treasury would deposit its surplus
monies.
how was there a a sound and stable
national currency?
The bank would also print urgently needed
paper money
