Well hey there and welcome back to Heimler’s History. We’ve been going through Unit 3 of the AP U.S. History curriculum and in this video we’re going to look at how America’s new Constitution was put into practice in the presidencies of George Washington and John Adams. And buckle up because this is gonna be a beefy one, so let’s get to it. So in the last couple of videos we’ve talked about the ratification of the Constitution and the content of the Constitution. And now we need to see how that new Constitution actually worked itself out in our fledgling nation. So our boy George Washington was unanimously elected as the first president of the United States, and to bring order to his administration, Washington established executive departments. He established the treasury department, the war department, the state department, and the justice department, each headed by a secretary. These secretaries made up Washington’s cabinet who advised him on issues related to their departments. And that precedent has continued to this day. Now let’s talk about Alexander Hamilton who served as Washington’s secretary of the treasury. One of his most significant policies was the establishment of a National Bank. And his reasoning went like this: if we establish a national bank, then it will unify the states and improve the credit of the United States. And the means by which he proposed to improve U.S. credit was by absorbing each state’s debts from the Revolutionary War into a national debt. That would enable the U.S. to borrow money from other nations and it would increase the dependence of states upon the federal government. Now this policy was hotly contested, especially by the states that had little or no debt to speak of. Furthermore, Hamilton’s opponents argued that there was nothing in the Constitution that allowed for a national bank. But Hamilton argued back that the “necessary and proper” clause, otherwise known as the elastic clause allowed for this kind of thing. And in case you’re shaky on your Constitutional provisions, here’s what that clause says: [The Congress shall have Power . . .] To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. In other words, yes, there are specific powers granted to Congress in Article I Section 8 of the Constitution, but at the end there’s this clause which gives some room to wiggle. Hamilton invoked this clause to get his National Bank going. And as it turned out, it worked. It did everything he said it would while also stabilizing the shaky national economy. Did I just go through that whole section without a single reference to the Hamilton musical? Well, it’s over now, I guess I threw away my shot. ANyway, it wasn’t just domestic issues that the new government had to contend with, there were also international issues, and for this we got to talk about the French Revolution which happened to break out during Washington’s presidency. And the issue on the line was whether the United States would aid the French in their wars with other European nations, especially Britain. Washington took the line against Thomas Jefferson that the U.S. was simply too fledgling a nation to get involved in a European war. And so Washington, to Jefferson’s great consternation, issued the Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793. And as a result of that France’s minister to the United States, a man by the name of Edmond Genet, objected strongly and went directly to the American people to get them to support the French. Now this is not the kind of behavior a foreign minister should have been engaging in, and so Washington went ahead and brought the boot down on Citizen Genet. He appealed to France to recall him, but he actually ended up staying and becoming an American citizen. Huh, well isn’t that a happy ending? Now even though Washington had issued the statement of neutrality, the British continued seizing American ships and impressing American sailors who were bound for France. So in order to rectify this Washington sent Chief Justice of the Supreme COurt John Jay to go slap the wrists of those British agitators. The result of said wrist slapping was Jay’s Treaty. Interestingly the treaty didn’t really address the seizure of American ships, but in it the British did agree to give up its posts on the western frontier of the American territory. Now as a result of THAT action, the Spanish who still occupied much of the territory on the western half of the North American continent got a little twitchy because it looked like America was getting a little too cozy with their enemy, namely, Britain. So Spain worked to consolidate their holdings in the west which they had been doing by expanding their mission settlements, especially in California. And so as a result, the American minister to Spain, Thomas Pinckney negotiated the Pinckney Treaty in 1795. The two most important provisions of this treaty were as follows. First, Spain agreed to let Americans use the port at New Orleans for trade along the Mississippi River, and second, they agreed that the southern border of the United States would fall along the 31st parallel. And now back on the domestic front let’s talk about some troubles brewing back home. It was very difficult to stop land-hungry Americans from moving west and settling in the Ohio River Valley. And not surprisingly this led to seemingly unceasing conflicts with the American Indians who also claimed that land. And to further add to the trouble, there were rumors going around that the British were supplying arms to these Indians and encouraging them to attack westward moving Americans. And so in 1794 we get the Battle of Fallen Timbers in which the U.S. Army clashed with a confederacy of American Indian tribes and defeated them. The effect of this battle was essentially the Indian surrender of all lands in the Ohio Valley, which, of course, opened them for American settlement. Another domestic issue you should know about is the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. Hamilton persuaded Congress to pass a bill to tax whiskey, and that was an odious thing to western farmers who were, in general, poor, and who, general, loved their whiskey. So when a group of Pennsylvania farmers began attacking federal tax collectors instead of paying them, it was an affront to the freshly born federal government. Now, remember what happened in Shays’s Rebellion under the Articles of Confederation. Massachusetts farmers rose up and threatened order, but there was no federal help to be had because the Articles provided for no president and no national army. But now we under the Constitution, baby, and here comes president George Washington riding in with the U.S. Army to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, which he did. So this was a key moment in the early life of the Republic where it was proven that the new Constitution was actually doing its job. Of course, that action was not without its critics, Thomas Jefferson being among the loudest, but wrong or right, Washington’s actions were effective. Now all these issues that I’ve just mentioned like the National Bank and France and the Whiskey Rebellion, all of these issues had a way of firing up political rivalries in the halls of power. And here’s where I tell you about the emergence of the two party political system of America. The two factions had their roots in the Federalist/Anti-Federalist debates around the Constitutional Convention. So the parties that emerged in these first few years of the republic were as follows. The Federalists were led by Alexander Hamilton, and they were proponents of a strong central government. They favored urban and elite interests. The Democratic Republicans were led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and were champions of states rights. And they favored rural and agricultural interests. Now, after two terms in office, Washington did not seek re-election. And upon stepping down from office, he gave a magnificent speech known as Washington’s Farewell Address. In it he warned against the dangers of factions and political parties, at which time Hamilton and Jefferson performed the world’s first known awkward turtle at the very same time. He also warned against the dangers of getting involved in entangling alliances with European nations. And so now, who on earth could ever replace him? Well, it was his vice president John Adams, and you know, poor guy, it’s not easy to follow GEORGE WASHINGTON. Now Adams, like Washington, was a Federalist, and as such, he was pro-British. Almost immediately after he became president, war broke out between Britain and France. Even though Adams insisted that America would remain neutral in the conflict, the French had a nasty habit of seizing American trade ships that were going to Britain. So Adams sent a delegation to France to negotiate some kind of settlement, but the three Frenchmen who met them on behalf of the French government demanded a bribe before they would even sit down at the table. When this report was made public in the U.S. the three French diplomats were only identified as X, Y, and Z, and thus it became known as the XYZ Affair. Now the outrage against this was shared among Federalists and Democratic Republicans. Now unity among the parties is something to be happy about, but our boy Adams is about to poo poo all over any newfound unity. Adams encouraged Congress to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Alien Acts made it possible for the government to imprison or deport any non-citizen they pleased. And this was especially aimed at Irish and Scottish immigrants who were critics of the government’s pro-British leanings. And if you know anything about the Irish and the Scottish, they are not, in general, big fans of Great Britain. The sedition Acts made it illegal to criticize the government publicly. And so these two pieces of legislation taken together enraged the Democratic Republicans who saw it as a gross overreach of federal power and a fundamental violation of Constitutional rights. Their response came in the form of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions which essentially said that the states had a right to nullify any law passed by the federal government in which it went beyond the powers explicitly granted to it by the Constitution. So anyway, Adams, due to his rocky career as the president, was not elected to a second term, and in the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson took the post instead. Okay that’s what you need to know about Unit 3 Topic 10 of the AP U.S. History curriculum. If you need help getting an A in your class and a five on your exam in May, making these videos, then go ahead and subscribe so I know you want me to keep going. Heimler out.