U.S. on world stage to the emergence of party politics enduring vision notes

The United States in a Wider World, 1789-1796

•       Introduction

o   After 1793, the political polarization created by Hamilton’s financial policies became even more pronounced as Americans argued over foreign policy

•       Spanish Power in Western North America

•       In the late 18th century, Spanish ambitions to dominate much of North America revived

o   Spain built new presidios in what is now northern Mexico, NM, and TX

•       Stationed more troops throughout the area

o   It also spread its settlements from Mexico up the coast of CA

•       Spain hoped to control trade with Asia

•       Also hoped to possess the Pacific Northwest

–      Both of which were being challenged by the Russians, British, and Americans

o   What may have helped the most was the unwitting spreading of epidemic diseases

•       Reduced native populations from about 72,000 in 1770 to about 1,800 by 1830

•       Challenging American Expansion, 1789-1792

o   The greatest dangers to the United States in the trans-Appalachian west lay in British and Spanish assistance to Native Americans

•       Native Americans were resisting settlers moving in

•       Spain and G.B. were attempting to detach the region from the rest of the United States

o   Between 1791 and 1796, VT, KY, and TN were admitted as new states

•       A way to counter the Spanish and British

o   Both whites and Native Americans rejected Washington’s efforts to “civilize” and integrate the eastern tribes into white society

o   The govt. instead continued to pressure the Indians to cede their lands and move farther west

•       France and Fractional Politics, 1793

o   1789=French Revolution began

•       Almost all Americans were initially sympathetic

•       When the revolution became more radical and France went to war with GB, Spain, and other European monarchies, opinion in the USA divided

–      Western settlers and southern land speculators hoped a French victory would leave GB and Spain too weak to keep stirring up Indians on America’s frontier

–      Northeastern merchants, shippers, and seamen were dependent on trade with England and feared a pro-French foreign policy would lead to British retaliation against U.S. commerce

o   France and Fractional Politics, 1793 (cont.)

o   These differences of opinion were voiced by the Republican and Federalist parties respectively

•       the French ambassador, Edmond Genet, was actively recruiting Americans to fight for France

o   Instead of abiding by the 1778 treaty of alliance, Washington in 1793 proclaimed U.S. neutrality

•       Diplomacy and War, 1793-1796

o   To discourage the pro-French activities of some Americans, the British began seizing U.S. merchant ships and impressing seamen

o   The British also stepped up their incitement of the Indians in the Ohio Valley

o   The Spanish also increased their incursion on American western lands

o   To halt the drift into war, Washington dispatched John Jay to England and Thomas Pinckney to Spain

o   Jay’s Treaty with England won few concessions except a British promise to evacuate their western forts

•       Much of this decision was because of Anthony Wayne’s victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers

o   Most southerners and westerners denounced Jay’s Treaty, but a Federalist-dominated Senate ratified it to avoid war

o   Pinckney’s dealing with Spain resulted in the Treaty of San Lorenzo

•       Much more satisfactory than Jay’s

•       It opened full use of the port of New Orleans to western farmers

o   Disagreements about foreign policy, especially ratification of Jay’s Treaty, furthered the partisan split

Parties and Politics, 1793-1794

•       Ideological Confrontations, 1793-1794

o   Intensifying radicalism of the French revolution

o   Federalist grew more suspicious of the common people and of unchecked democracy

o   Jeffersonian Republicans retained their sympathy for revolutionary France

•       And they did not fear popular participation in politics

o   Jefferson and Madison sought the support of ordinary citizens against Federalist policies by encouraging the publication of anti-administration newspapers like the National Gazette

o   They also approved of the democratic societies that were springing up in various locations

•       The Republican Party, 1794-1796

o   By 1793, President Washington was clearly identified with the Federalists and Jefferson had resigned from the cabinet to lead the opposition

o   Republicans attacked the Federalists’ pro-British leanings and won a slight majority in the House of Rep.

o   Federalist and Republican newspapers were engaged in a press war of exaggerated charges and countercharges

o   Washington decided to retire after 1796

•       Stung by partisan criticism

•       In his Farwell Address, he warned Americans to avoid political parties and entangling alliances with European countries

o   Washington’s decision not to run opened the presidential election of 1796 to the first partisan contest

•       The Election of 1796

•       Republicans: Thomas Jefferson

•       Federalists : John Adams

•       Federalists won control of Congress

•       Adams won presidency

•       The Election of 1796 (cont.)

•       As the 2nd highest vote-getter in the electoral college, Jefferson became the VP

–      The 12th amendment would change the process of the selection of the VP

•       The French Crisis, 1798-1799

–      The French were angered by America’s signing of Jay’s Treaty with the British

•       The French began to seize U.S. merchant ships

–      Hoping to avoid war with France, President Adams sent a peace commission to Paris to negotiate

–      XYZ Affair

•       Agents of the French government demanded a bribe as the price of negotiations

•       This outraged Americans and provoked an anti-French and anti-Republican backlash

–      Republican candidates were defeated in the 1798 congressional elections

–      An undeclared naval war broke out against the French

•       The Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798

–      Federalist idea

–      Aimed at silencing the opposition press and in other ways weakening the Republican Party

•       14-year wait for citizenship

•       Hurt the Republicans by eliminating their Irish-American supporters

–      Sedition Act

•       Made it a crime to speak, write, or print anything unfavorable about the government or the president that would bring him “into contempt or disrepute”

•       Federalist prosecuted and jailed a number of Republican journalists and political candidates

–      Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

•       Madison and Jefferson anonymously wrote

•       Passed  by VA and KY in 1798

•       Claimed that state govts. could interpose themselves between their residents and the enforcement of unconstitutional federal laws such as the Alien and Sedition Acts

•       The resolutions set a precedent for the later states’ rights positions that states were the proper judges of federal actions and could nullify unconstitutional statues

•       The Election of 1800

–      Republicans nominated Jefferson as President and Aaron Burr as VP

–      Federalist nominated Adams

–      The election took place in an atmosphere of tense and bitter partisanship

–      Adams reopened negotiations with France (hurt his own election prospects)

•       Quieted war scare on which Federalists fortunes had thrived

•       The negotiations eventually patched things up with France and spared an unnecessary war

–      The Republicans won the election

–      Jefferson and Burr ended up tied for president (under the Constitution as originally written, electors did not vote separately for president and VP)

–      The tie threw the election into the House of Representatives

•       It took 36 votes to name Jefferson president