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