U4L1 A New Nation

Question 1

Who was the first president of the United States?

Answer 1

George Washington

Question 2

Who was George Washington’s Vice President?

Answer 2

John Adams

Question 3

What party was Washington in?

Answer 3

The Federalist Party

Question 4

What were federalists’ view on political participation?

Answer 4

For Federalists, political participation was dependent upon property. To them, government was to be controlled by the elite, the educated, and the wealthy.

Question 5

Who did federalists view social roles?

Answer 5

Federalist also believed that the American Revolution did not fundamentally change the social roles between men and woman, or between whites and other races.

Question 6

How strong did Federalists think the national government should be?

Answer 6

Federalists believed that the government should be strong. This meant that it had more power than individual states and could have a direct role in areas such as the economy.

Question 7

What was the cabinet?

Answer 7

A cabinet of advisors and department leaders was created to help run the government. It included the posts of secretary of state, secretary of the treasury, secretary of war, and attorney general.

Question 8

What was the Judiciary Act of 1789?

Answer 8

It created a Supreme Court made up of six justices.

Question 9

Who made the cabinet and the Judiciary Act of 1789?

Answer 9

Washington and his federalist supporters

Question 10

Why was debt a problem in Washington’s presidency?

Answer 10

When Washington took office, the United States was deep in debt. Both the federal government and the states owed millions of dollars to foreign nations as well as people in the United States. Since, 1780, the U.S. had not repaid these debts and was considered a credit risk, meaning it was difficult for the country to borrow additional funds.

Question 11

Who did Washington pick to be his Secretary if the treasury?

Answer 11

Alexander Hamilton

Question 12

Who was the leader of the Federalists?

Answer 12

Alexander Hamilton

Question 13

What three steps where in Hamilton’s Financial Program?

Answer 13

1. Guarantee all debt will be paid back
2. Create a bank
3. Raise taxes

Question 14

Why did Hamilton think a Bank of the United States would help the economy?

Answer 14

At the time, several different currencies were being used throughout the country. A national bank could print money and be the place where the federal government deposited its funds.

Question 15

How was the Bank of the United States an implied power of the constitution?

Answer 15

Even though the Constitution said nothing about a bank, Hamilton believed the power was “implied” in Article I Section 8.

Question 16

Hamilton promised taxes. What was the excise tax?

Answer 16

Tax on the purchase of specific goods

Question 17

Hamilton promised taxes. What is a tariff?

Answer 17

Tax (in this case tax on imports)

Question 18

How did Hamilton view manufacturing in America?

Answer 18

Hamilton also believed it was vital that America develop manufacturing so it would not have to rely on European goods. The tariffs, as well as additional government incentives, were meant to jump-start American industry.

Question 19

What problems did Thomas Jefferson and his followers have with Hamilton’s policies?

Answer 19

• They made the government too powerful.
• They were unconstitutional.
• They favored businesspeople and easterners at the expense of farmers.

Question 20

What party did Thomas Jefferson form?

Answer 20

The Democratic-Republican party.

Question 21

What did the Democratic-Republican party stand for?

Answer 21

They stood for limited government and believed that politics should be open to more people.

Question 22

How did Democratic-Republicans view the power of the national government and the constitution?

Answer 22

Democratic-Republicans also believed the states should have more power than the federal government. One way to ensure this was to strictly follow the Constitution. This meant that the federal government could do things only if they were spelled out in the text. Thus, if the Constitution said nothing about creating a bank, it could not be done. This ran against Hamilton’s argument that the Constitution implied things.

Question 23

What is the criticism of the bank?

Answer 23

The criticism is that the bank will enable a connection between government and finances. This would lead to corruption and the enrichment of the already wealthy and powerful.

Question 24

What was the cause of the Whiskey Rebellion?

Answer 24

As part of Hamilton’s financial program, an excise tax on whiskey was passed in 1791. This tax was particularly unpopular in western Pennsylvania, where many farmers made their living making whiskey. These farmers viewed the tax as proof that the government favored the interests of commercial classes in the east over those of small western farmers.

Question 25

What was the Whiskey Rebellion?

Answer 25

In the summer of 1794, angry farmers rose up in an event known as the Whiskey Rebellion. They used violence and intimidation against federal tax officials to protest the policies. There was even talk the region might secede from the country. They saw the tax as part of a large Federalist plot to destroy individual liberty.

Question 26

Which party did the people who partook in the Whiskey Rebellion aline with?

Answer 26

Because the rebels emphasized personal freedoms, they aligned themselves with the Democratic-Republicans.

Question 27

Who did Washington handle the Whiskey Rebellion?

Answer 27

The president responded by creating a 13,000-man militia to put down the rebellion. This action signaled, both home and abroad, that the new United States was not afraid to flex the strength of a strong central government. Federalists had made it clear they would not tolerate the actions of the mob.

Question 28

How was the French Revolution like the American Revolution?

Answer 28

At first it appeared the French Revolution was like the American Revolution. In both cases, a republic replaced a monarchy.

Question 29

What was the Reign of Terror?

Answer 29

During this period, there was extreme violence, such as public beheadings, against supposed enemies of the revolution.

Question 30

What effect did the French Revolution have on America?

Answer 30

• It furthered the divide between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Federalists saw the French Revolution as something that should be feared. They worried the violence and mob rule could come to the U.S. Democratic-Republicans viewed the events with more optimism. They thought the horrors of the revolution were an unfortunate, but necessary, part of eliminating the monarchy.
• Slave rebellions began in the Caribbean, including one in the French colony of what is now Haiti. In 1794, France outlawed slavery throughout its empire. Many American slaveholders feared the same could happen in the U.S.
• France declared war on Britain. France then asked the U.S. to repay its Revolutionary War debts. If the U.S. repaid the debts, Britain would consider it a hostile act. Democratic-Republicans declared their support for France and urged war against Britain. President Washington declared neutrality, a policy where the United States would not support either side in the war.

Question 31

Why does Washington believe involvement in foreign affairs will divide Americans at home?

Answer 31

He thinks it will cause people in the U.S. to take sides. This will cause Americans to turn on one another.

Question 32

Why does Washington believe the U.S. should have little political connection with Europe?

Answer 32

Europe has her own political concerns and issues that are not relevant to America.

Question 33

What does Washington think of alliances?

Answer 33

They should be avoided.

Question 34

Who was the second president of the United States?

Answer 34

John Adams

Question 35

How was John Adam’s presidency influenced by George Washington?

Answer 35

John Adams’s presidency was shaped by the foreign policy issues that arose under Washington.

Question 36

What was the XYZ Affair?

Answer 36

Believing the United States was not prepared for war, Adams wanted a diplomatic solution. He sent representatives to negotiate a deal with France. The French sent emissaries—known as X, Y, and Z—to meet the American representatives. But instead of a deal, the French told the Americans they must repay all debts, lend France a substantial sum of money, and pay a bribe.

Question 37

Who did the XYZ Affair affect Americans’s view on France and government parties in the U.S.?

Answer 37

Outraged the Americans and turned public opinion against France. To many, it appeared as though the pro-French Democratic-Republicans had been wrong all along.

Question 38

Why was the Alien and Sedition Act passed?

Answer 38

The surge in anti-French sentiment led Congress to act.

Question 39

What were the Alien and Sedition Acts?

Answer 39

The acts aimed to increase national security against France.

Question 40

What controversial provisions did the Alien and Sedition Act use?

Answer 40

• The president was given the power to deport new arrivals who were seen as a threat.
• It became illegal to write or speak “in a scandalous or malicious manner” against the government.

Question 41

What did Vice President Thomas Jefferson (he was Vice President of John Adams) and James Madison do in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts?

Answer 41

They led the response to the acts by anonymously writing a series of statements known as the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.

Question 42

What was the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions?

Answer 42

These documents argued the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional. Importantly, the resolutions introduced the idea of nullification.

Question 43

What is nullification?

Answer 43

Nullification is the theory that states had the ability to decide whether a law was constitutional. If the law was deemed unjust, states could nullify or overturn it.

Question 44

Why was the election of 1800 sometimes called the Revolution of 1800?

Answer 44

It was the first time in U.S. history that power went from one political party to another. It was also a nonviolent change of government—at that time a rarity in world history.

Question 45

Who won the election is 1800?

Answer 45

Thomas Jefferson

Question 46

What was yeoman farmers?

Answer 46

small farms raising crops without the use of slaves

Question 47

What did Jefferson want for government participation?

Answer 47

When Jefferson took office, his ideas for the direction of the country differed sharply from his predecessors. He wanted to allow more people to participate in democracy, namely white yeoman farmers. He believed the interests of these farmers should be stressed, rather than those of the coastal business classes favored by the Federalists.

Question 48

How did Jefferson view the federal government during his presidency?

Answer 48

Jefferson supported states’ rights and insisted the federal government should take a limited role in people’s lives. He believed in a small military and slashed the size of the navy.

Question 49

What did the case of Marbury v. Madison decide?

Answer 49

The case concerned one of John Adams’s last-minute government appointments. In the decision, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that portions of the Judiciary Act of 1789 were unconstitutional. This finding started an important precedent known as judicial review.

Question 50

Jefferson was the first in a string of Democratic-Republican presidents. However, there was one place Federalist power lingered—the Supreme Court.

Answer 50

Idk how do turn that into a question

Question 51

Who was John Marshall?

Answer 51

The Chief Justice

Question 52

What was the Judicial Review

Answer 52

This is the idea that the Supreme Court is the only body that has the right to decide if a law is constitutional.

Question 53

How do you think Jefferson felt about the Marbury v. Madison decision? Why?

Answer 53

Jefferson would have opposed the decision. In the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, he argued that states had the right to nullify laws. Marbury v. Madison gave this right to the Supreme Court.

Question 54

How did Marbury v. Madison expand the power of the federal government?

Answer 54

The decision gave the power of judicial review to one of three branches of the federal government rather than the states. Thus, it made the federal government stronger, and the states weaker.

Question 55

Who did the Louisiana Purchase?

Answer 55

Jefferson

Question 56

What criticism did Jefferson get for the Louisiana Purchase despite its popularity?

Answer 56

As a champion of limited government, Jefferson had long argued that the federal government could act only in ways explicitly allowed by the Constitution. However, nowhere in the Constitution did it state that a president could add land the way it was done in the Louisiana Purchase. In addition, many northerners feared the new territory would lead to more slave states, resulting in a loss of power for northern states.

Question 57

What was the Alexis and Clark Expedition?

Answer 57

The Lewis and Clark Expedition was a scientific expedition authorized by Jefferson to study the people, lands, and animal and plant species of the North American continent across the Louisiana Territory and to the Pacific Coast.

Question 58

What did the Lewis and Clark expedition do to the Native Americans?

Answer 58

One of their directives was to establish friendly relationships with Native Americans, introduce them to American trade goods, and encourage them to make peace.

Question 59

What was impressment, and how did Britain use it to affect the America?

Answer 59

They captured American sailors and forced them to join the Royal Navy. When the British fired upon and boarded the American ship Chesapeake to force the American sailors into impressment.

Question 60

How did Jefferson respond to Britain’s impressment?

Answer 60

He passed the Embargo Act of 1807.

Question 61

What did the Embargo Act of 1807 do?

Answer 61

This law banned Americans from trading with any country until both France and Britain agreed to stop seizing American ships. But the law backfired.

Question 62

How did the Embargo Act of 1807 backfire?

Answer 62

While the policy did have a small effect on Britain, American farmers could no longer sell their goods overseas. Seaport cities faced severe unemployment. The law also led to widespread smuggling as Americans attempted to avoid the embargo.

Question 63

What was the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809?

Answer 63

The policy softened the original law (the Embargo Act of 1807) by allowing trade with any country except France and Britain.

Question 64

How did Jefferson receive some back last for the Embargo Act and Non-Intercourse Act?

Answer 64

To some, it also seemed like Jefferson’s embargo was a betrayal of his Democratic-Republican principles. After all, Jefferson was a supporter of limited government and a strict reading of the Constitution. But the embargo enabled the government to take a direct role in economic policy. In addition, nowhere in the Constitution was the president given the ability to shut down commerce.