United States History

Written Test (online) - Rubric/Key

McLean

December 2020

Part I: Identification (4% each / 20% of test total)

1. Founding Fathers
The so-called ‘Founding Fathers’ were the 55 men who met in Philadelphia at the request of Alexander
Hamilton and James Madison in the summer of 1787 to write a new constitution for the United States
and create a new government. The Founding Fathers were all male, white, wealthy, educated, and
represented the aristocrats of American society in the late 18th century. The Founding Fathers included
George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. 12 of 13
states sent delegates to the convention; only Rhode Island did not.

2. Article VII of the Constitution

Article VII of the Constitution of the United States is the last of the 7 parts (articles) of the document
which created the current government of the U.S. Article VII is very short and states how the
constitution is to be ratified. For this, Article VII states that at least 9 states have to ratify by special
convention before this constitution and government was effective. However, it was clear that of the nine
states that ratified, it would be necessary that the leading states of Massachusetts, New York,
Pennsylvania and Virginia would have to be included.

3. Anti-Federalists
The Anti-Federalists were those people who were opposed to the ratification of the new Constitution
created at the convention in 1787 and to be ratified by at least nine states in 1788. Anti-Federalists were
a mixed group of people who were primarily concerned about protecting their liberty. Many Anti-
Federalists believed that the creation of a new, powerful and sovereign national government (which is
what the Constitution established) would create a new tyranny and that it would be similar to living under
British rule once again. Important Anti-Federalists included Samual Adams and Patrick Henry.

4. Excise Tax
An excise tax is a luxury tax or a tax on things that people need not necessarily buy, like tobacco
products, alcohol, expensive luxury items, etc. Hamilton included an excise tax on whisky in his 5-point
Economic Plan. Excise taxes are generally popular because people can choose not to purchase such
items and not pay the tax. Hamilton’s excise tax on whisky, however, led to a rebellion of farmers in
Western Pennsylvania.

5. Battle of New Orleans

Although the War of 1812 had officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on December 24,
1814, the news of the agreement did not reach the U.S. until after the Battle of New Orleans had been
fought. Andrew Jackson organized the defense of the city against a British invasion of experienced
soldiers and officers that were released from war in Europe after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.
Jackson defended the city behind bales of cotton using guns borrowed from pirates and with volunteers
from Kentucky and Tennessee. It was such an overwhelming success, that many Americans began to
feel the the entire war had been a success and started calling it the Second American Revolution.
Because of this victory, Jackson became a hero and was later elected to be President.

Part II: Essays (40% each / 80% of test total)

Essay 1 - Choose one of the following essay topics to write on:

A. Discuss the distribution of power between the federal government and the states as
established by the Constitution ratified in 1788
A good essay should include discussion of the following points:

1. Federalism - definition: the division of political power between two or more levels of government

2. Article I, Section 8, Clauses 1-18 - the delegated powers. These were the political powers given
directly to the government of the United States by the Constitution. These included powers that were
exclusive (only the federal government had them) and concurrent (powers shared by both the federal
and state governments)

3. Amendment X: Amendment 10 is called the reserved powers clause because it states that any
powers not specifically given the federal government and not prohibited to the states are the reserved
powers of the states. Amendment 10 does not say what these powers are; it simply means that all
powers not given the federal government belong to the states.

4. Article I, Section 8, Clause 18, the ‘elastic clause’ This final clause states that if necessary and proper
to do so, the federal government can expand its powers to carry our the delegated powers 1 through
17. This is necessary, but leads to direct conflict between the federal government and the states. A
good example of this was whether or not the Bank of the U.S., proposed by Hamilton, was
constitutional or not. Hamilton claimed it was by the elastic clause; Jefferson and Madison said it was
not by Amendment X.

B. Explain the constitutional issue of the case of Marbury v. Madison and how Chief Justice John
Marshall resolved this issue in his decision.
A good essay should include the following points:
Constitutional Issues:
- The powers of a ‘lame duck’ President (Adams after loosing the election of 1800)

- Whether a political party should influence the judicial branch by trying to get as many of their
supporters into it as possible after losing the election to the other party.

- Whether a write of mandamus is Constitutional or not due to the question as to whether the judiciary
system can force the executive to act or if this would be a violation of the separation of powers
principle that is written into the Constitution. Marshall knew that if he gave Marbury his wish, he would
have to issue a write of mandamus to Jefferson and then Jefferson would refuse, claiming it was a
violation of separation of powers between the three branches (Montesquieu). If he didn’t, then he
would not be supporting his own Federalist Party.

Marshall’s decision:

- Marshall decided that Marbury should not get his position

- This, because he said writs of mandamus were in violation of balance of power

- By doing this, Marshall claimed the power to declare an act of Congress as unconstitutional

- This is the power of judicial review which is the highest power. the power to decide if government
actions are constitutional and how the Constitution is to be interpreted for meaning.

C. Discuss the way in which the original Constitution declared that presidents should be elected
and what problems resulted from this process between 1788 and 1800.
The original Constitution was very brief when it came to explaining how the President and Vice
President

should be elected. Basically, the electors were to write two names on a piece of paper and submit
these; whoever got the most votes, provided it was a majority, was the President. Whoever
received the second highest number of votes would be Vice-President.

in 1796, two political parties had developed and the Constitution said nothing about them.

In the election of 1796, the Federalists voted for John Adams, the Jeffersonian-Republicans voted for
Jefferson. Adams got the most votes and was President, Jefferson got the second highest number
 of votes and became Vice-President.

In 1800 Jefferson and the man who was supposed to be Vice President, Aaron Burr, both tied because
one elector for the Jeffersonian-Republicans didn’t ‘throw away’ a vote for someone else and all of
the electors voted for both Jefferson and Burr.

In 1800, the Constitution required that when there is a tie, it goes to the House of Representatives to
decide who is President. Hamilton held up the vote for Jefferson for several months because of
this.

The 12th Amendment was created and ratified after the election of 1800 to prevent these problems
from occurring again. Now, Presidents and Vice-Presidential candidates are listed together and
only one vote is cast by the electors.

Essay 2 - Choose one of the following essay topics to write on:

D. Discuss how each of the first three presidents dealt with the foreign policy problem caused by
the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars that followed it.
The French Revolution began during the first year that the Constitution and the new U.S. government
was put in place. Washington, Adams and Jefferson all had to deal with the problems caused by the
revolution and Napoleon who took control afterwards.

a. Washington

- Declared neutrality and did not want to get involved even though Jefferson thought the U.S. should
support the French people because France had supported the U.S. in the Revolution. Hamilton
thought that since the government that had signed an alliance with France was no longer in power,
Washington did not have to consider the alliance as law and did not have to support either side in the
revolution. Hamilton thought that getting involved would risk America’s independence and ruin
America’s growing economy.

- Washington also had to deal with Citizen Genet who was in the U.S. trying to get ships and sailors to
support the revolution in France. Washington did not support this and eventually allowed Genet to
stay in America when he was called back to France, likely to meet his death.

b. Adams

- Adams found himself trapped between the British and the French. Many of France’s ships were
attacking American ships on the high seas and the New England states were demanding action. The
Federalists, led by Hamilton, also wanted war. Instead, Adams sent three American ambassadors to
Paris to try and speak with Tallyrand, the French Foreign Minister, to work out a compromise and stop
the attacks. Tallyrand demanded a bribe to speak with him and the American ministers came back to
the U.S. empty-handed. This was the XYZ affair. Instead of declaring war, Adams decided to ask
Congress to spend the money to build a new, modern navy that could protect American neutral ships.
Congress agreed, but Adams was attacked by his own party as well as Jefferson’s party. He lost re-
election in 1800 to Jefferson.

c. Jefferson

- Jefferson had problems with the French and British attacking American ships and decided to make the
Embargo Act os 1807 which stopped all American trade with all foreign nations. This ruined American
shipping and, especially New England’s trade economy.

- After Jefferson left the presidency in 1808, the Embargo Act was changed to stopping trade only with
Britain or France. Also, whichever of these two nations agreed to protect American shipping would
receive exclusive trade with the U.S. Napoleon agreed immediately and the British then stepped up
their attacks and impressments of American sailors. This situation would eventually lead to a
declaration of war against Britain in 1812.

E. Discuss three of Hamilton’s 5-point Economic Plan and what aspects of these caused the split
into the first two political parties.
Any of the five points of Hamilton’s plan can be discussed:

Assumption of all federal debts

Hamilton’s plan included assuming (paying off) all of the U.S. government’s debts. Some were to foreign
nations and banks, some of these debts were to individuals and most were to people who had
individually purchased war bonds to assist the government during the crisis. Hamilton’s party thought
that the war bonds should be paid in full. Jefferson and Madison thought they should not because many
of the bonds had been sold to speculators who were Federalists and were not the original owners of the
bonds. This split Congress into the first two political parties.

Assumption of all state debts

The southern states had paid off their war debts, primarily by taxing their citizens and refused to pay
again to the federal government to relieve the debts of the middle and northeastern states. Southerners
would then be required to pay a proportionately larger share of the debt since the Constitution stipulated
that the federal government can only tax the citizens and states equally. The southerners were strong
supporters of the Jeffersonian-Republicans and the Federalists wanted to get the nation’s finances in
order. Finally a compromise between the party leaders (a dinner party with Jefferson, Madison and
Hamilton) came to a compromise whereby if the South accepted the payment of taxes, they would get
the new nation’s capital.

An excise tax
Farmers across the Appalachians were against the excise tax on whisky because the only way they
made profit on their grain crops was to distill it and transport it across the mountains. Farmers were
egalitarian and supported Jefferson and Madison. Hamilton and the Federalists wanted a demonstration
of the power of the new federal government to put down revolts and Hamilton himself put on his uniform
and led troops into western Pennsylvania.

A protective tariff
Southerners, who supported Jefferson and Madison, were against a protective tariff. The Federalists
wanted to create a strong, independent economy and thought that protection through tariffs (from
cheap, imported British goods) would be one of the best ways to accomplish this. Protective tariffs,
however, generally raise the prices of all goods for consumers across the board and, eventually there
was no majority in Congress for this measure.

A Bank of the U.S.

The primary split between the Jeffersonian-Republicans and the Federalists was over their interpretation
of the Constitution (broad or strict) which was revealed by the proposal of a new national bank by
Hamilton. The Constitution does not give the federal government the power to create such a bank (Art.
I, Sec. 8, Cl. 1-18) but it does say that the government can stretch its powers when it is necessary to
carry out the duties it is given. The Jeffersonian-Republicans were in favor of limiting the federal
government’s power so that it did not become a tyranny like the British government before the war.
They relied on Amendment X that stated that any powers not given the federal government were the
powers of the states alone. This caused a deep split between two political parties who had two very
different and conflicting views of the Constitution and the powers of the states versus the federal
government.

F. Discuss whether or not Hamilton’s Bank of the U.S. was constitutional or not.

A good essay should include the following points:

- Why Hamilton wanted the bank

- The proposed structure and ownership of the bank

- The proposed authority the bank would have

- Hamilton’s belief that the right of property was supreme and that those who knew how to secure and
increase the nation’s finances should be in charge of it

- What the Delegated Powers Section of Article I of the Constitution says about the federal government’s
powers and what ‘necessary and proper’ means

- What Amendment X states and what it implies

- What the final outcome of the debate was, how this created two opposing political parties and how
this reflected the question of what form of republicanism the United States should establish.