Washington and Adams

The Search for Stability

• Washington careful – setting precedents, places public good over personal interest
• sets up first cabinet with best people, not like minds – party diffs out of this

Hamilton’s Economic Policies

• Boom in Agriculture, lots of improved roads, and boom in banking
• Consolidates national debt to pay at full value (speculators make mad cash) – requires taxation
• Assumes state debts (asserting federal power) debt will bind together
• Establishes First Bank of the United States with 20 year charter (fear of bankers running economy
• Works to boost US manufactures (subsidies and tariffs)
• Whiskey Rebellion in response to unpopular tax – Wash puts down with troops

Conflicts of the 1790s

• Confederation of Indian tribes fights to resist western expansion and is defeated
• Spreads terror of Indians & image as enemies (scalping, etc.)
• France & England at war by 1793 – Washington issues Neutrality, tough to maintain trade, Jay’s treaty splits congress
• Successful slave revolution in Haiti

Federalists and Republicans

• Election of 1796 – split between VP Jefferson (F) & Pres Adams (GB), Hamiltonian cabinet sets policy
• The XYZ Affair stirred up antagonism between Fs & Rs
• Alien and Sedition Acts make it illegal to criticize gov’t