Honors U.S.

History 2009/2010 Name:

Mr. Irwin
PRP2, Week 8 Period:

Lecture 8
Politics Shapes The New Nation

First President, 1789 - 1797

GEORGE WASHINGTON – Our first president, he is the only president in our nation’s
history who had no affiliation with a political party.

Washington appointed Alexander Hamilton to be Secretary of Treasury. Hamilton

believed that the government of the U.S. should have strong national power. He set out
to raise money to pay off our nation’s Revolutionary War debt by getting Congress to
pass some new taxes. At first some of the Southern states didn’t want to go along with
Hamilton’s plan, but when he offered to try to put a deal together to move our nation’s
capital to the South, Hamilton got the support that he had been seeking. As the result,
the following three events are all related:

• A 1789 tariff on imported goods.

• The Whiskey Tax, passed in 1791.

• The new capital of the United States would become the District of Columbia,
located on the Potomac River between Virginia and Maryland.

In 1791, under Secretary Hamilton’s lead, the Bank of the United States was
established.

Upon leaving the office of the president, George Washington gave what has become a
famous farewell address in which he warned America:

• To steer clear of foreign wars.

• To remain free of foreign attachments.

• To put aside political differences and work for the good of the whole country.

Second President, 1797 - 1801

JOHN ADAMS – A Federalist, Adams had been Vice President under George
Washington. Adams served as president for one term. The election of 1796 became
an election between political parties, the Federalists vs. the Democratic–Republicans.
This election also brought to light the issue of “sectionalism, ” as almost all of the
electors from the Southern states voted for Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, while all the
electors from the Northern states voted for Adams, who was from Massachusetts.

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Key events or issues during the Adams administration were:
• Friction with France over control of the Northwest Territory.

• The seizure of Europe-bound American ships by the French.

• The XYZ Affair.

• America begins seizing French ships.

• The Federalists want to declare war against France, but Adams seeks a
diplomatic solution.

• Friction between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans

• The Aliens and Seditions Acts

• The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

• The concept of nullification was born

Third President, 1801 - 1809

THOMAS JEFFERSON - During the presidential election of 1796, Thomas Jefferson, of
the Democratic-Republican Party ran against Federalist, John Adams. Adams received
71 electoral votes, while Jefferson received 68 electoral votes. At that time, the
Constitution stated that the person who obtains the largest number of electoral votes
shall become president, and the person who obtains the second largest number of
electoral votes shall become vice-president.

The result of this election was that:

• The country wound up with a Federalist president in Adams, and a
Democratic-Republican vice president in Jefferson.

• Both men respected each other, but because of their differences in political
philosophy, they would not always agree on matters of government.

• Congress, began to believe that it would be preferable to have a president

and vice president in office, who shared the same political philosophy.

• After the unusual events of the election of 1800, which revealed a flaw in the
Constitution relating to electing a president, Congress drafted the 12th
Amendment to the Constitution (ratified in 1804), which states that it must be
indicated on voter ballots which candidate is running for president and which
candidate is running for vice president.

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THE ELECTION OF 1800 – In the election of 1800, John Adams ran for reelection, and
Thomas Jefferson, once again, ran against Adams.

• This time, Jefferson received more electoral votes than Adams, and therefore
kept Adams from obtaining a second term as president.

• Even though Jefferson beat Adams in the election of 1800, Jefferson, due to a
technicality, ended up tied for the presidency with Aaron Burr, who was actually
running for the office of vice president!

• Jefferson and Burr were the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the
Democratic-Republican party. The original intent was that Jefferson would be
running for the office of president and that Burr would be running to become
Jefferson’s vice-president.

• According to the Constitution (at the time of the election), should two candidates
receive the same amount of electoral votes and therefore end up tied with more
votes than any other candidate, the matter would be sent to the House of
Representatives to be resolved.

• The House of Representatives ultimately broke the tie between Jefferson and
Burr, in favor of Thomas Jefferson.

• Once this tie was broken, Burr still ended up with more electoral votes than
Adams, so according to the Constitution (at that time), Burr became vice
president under Jefferson.

• The events of the election of 1800 caused the 12th Amendment to be written
(Ratified in 1804). This Amendment says that there will be distinct ballots to
indicate whether a person is running for president or vice president.

• The 12th Amendment goes on to state that the person receiving the highest
number of presidential votes will be declared the president, and that the person
who receives the highest number of vice presidential votes will be declared vice
president.

• Today we use the “party ticket” approach to presidential ballots. These ballots
instruct voters to choose one pair of candidates of the same political party. On
the ballot, it is clearly indicated which person is running for president and which
person is running for vice president.

JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANISM – Jefferson believed that people should control

government. He believed that a simple government best suited the needs of the
people.

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MIDNIGHT APPOINTMENTS – Upon taking office in 1801, Jefferson discovered that in
the final days of the Adams presidency, Mr. Adams had signed a number of presidential
orders that appointed several individuals to become federal judges.

• For some reason, the orders had not been properly delivered.

• Jefferson, not wanting these appointments of a Federalist president to be

consummated, intervened and instructed his Secretary of State, James Madison,
to withhold delivery of these appointments.

MARBURY v MADISON (1803) - Jefferson’s refusal to allow the Midnight Appointments

to be consummated, resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court Case, Marbury v Madison
(1803), which we will study in detail.

- End of Lecture -

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