PRACTICING DEMOCRACY

By: Gissel Amaya, Erika Sanchez, Maribel Carrillo, Jose Bermudez

QUESTION:

ANALYZE THE FIRST FEDERAL ELECTIONS AND THE

ADOPTION OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS

• New Hampshire and Virginia voted to approve the constitution, it became the law of the land.

• The old congress, local, and state officials in the 13 states needed to conduct elections.

• After the new congress was elected, it created and enacted the bill of rights, 10 amendments that many thought should’ve been part of the original document.

• Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury laid the foundation for the nations economic system.

• John Adams and Thomas Jefferson eventually became rivals who’s arguments represented different directions for the country.

CONGRESS AND PRESIDENT WASHINGTON: SETTING TO WORK

• The senate and presidential electors were to occur in the early 1789.

• No one had conducted elections like these before, it took time to work out the process.

• On April 14, Charles Thomson, the secretary of congress, arrived at mount Vernon to officially inform George Washington of what he already knew.

• George Washington was elected as the president of the United States and John Adams as vice president by a smaller amount of votes.

CONTINUATION…

• washington steered a middle course, insisting on formal state dinners and fairly relationships with those who came to call on him.

• Washington was called “mr. president” instead of “your highness.”

• He never lived in the white house, although he helped design it.

• African slaves did most of the work building it.

THE BILL OF RIGHTS• On may 4, 1789 James madison told the house that he would soon

fulfill his promise and propose amendments to the constitution.

• Washington said “Some of them, in my opinion, are importantly necessary, others, though of themselves not very essential, are necessary to quiet the fears of some respectable characters as well-meaning men.”

• Madison promised to add a bill of rights to the constitution guaranteeing citizens rights under a federal government.

• Without a promise for those added rights, key states would not have ratified the constitution.

• Antifederalists sought more far-reaching changes.

• Theodorick Bland proposed a second convention to consider “the defects of this constitution.

CONTINUATION…• Madison proposed for new clauses to be included

throughout the body of the constitution and decided to propose amendments to be added at the end of the documents.

• The house initially passed 17 amendments to the states for ratification.

The 10th amendment was the most important to those who worried about federal intervention in the institution of slavery in which said,

“The powers not delegated to the united states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRTFk9Dc8Tg

2ND QUESTION:

ANALYZE THE ENDURING ARGUMENT BEGUN BY

HAMILTON’S ECONOMIC VISION FOR THE UNITED STATES AND

ALTERNATIVE VISION OF JEFFERSON AND MADISON.

CREATING AN ECONOMY: ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND THE US ECONOMIC

SYSTEM

• President Washington went though many harsh problems, most of them were economic problems.

• The federal government under the Articles of Confederation to collect taxes meant that the federal debts were not being paid and that the financial status of the united states was in serious trouble.

• Also, tension grew in Britian because Britain had to not move the troop from western forts as mention in the Treaty of Paris.

BACKGOUND

• In the united states, people bought and sold with a great amount of paper notes and coin all over the world, as in the Spanish gold and silver. This solve the financial crisis and regulting the currency was essential for national prosperity.

• In 1789, congress adopted a five percent of taxes on all imports into the united states, this gave a solid financial for a new government.

• This created a system of federal courts, with executive branch: secretaries of state, war, and the treasury, and an attorney general.

-this is also called “the first presidential cabinet”

POSITION

• Washington appoint Thomas Jefferson as his secretary of state

• General Henry Knox as secretary of war

• Edmund Randolph as attorney general

• The powerful position, it had all of the nation’s financial problems. This job was given to New Yorker Alexander Hamilton

DEBT AND TAXES

• As Hamilton look at the debt that the nation was from the revolution- $54 million in federal debt and $25 million from state debts- this led him to take action

• The government could not finance activities as creation of a army.

• Private business couldn‘t restart commerce which have been frozen due to the revolution.

• Hamilton saw a solution. He needed to assume all the revolutionary war debt and promise to pay it all off.

• While establishing a tax policy that would show observers that government would meet its obligations.

CONT….

• Hamilton’s plan to create a national government that was too big, it would raise too much in taxes, keep a standing army and shift from farmers to urban and commercial interest.

• In the spring, 1790, the house, led by Madsion, rejected the proposals each of four times

THE FIRST BANK OF THE US

• In December 1790, Hamilton submitted a report to congress that called for creating a bank of the united states.

• He wanted to use Britain’s economic model to build a nation that would become as powerful as Britain.

• Jefferson feared that banks would keep the poor in poverty and enrich those were already wealthy off of gains based on speculation rather then hard work.

• Once the bill was passed Washington had o decide whether to sign it.

• For Madsion who had been working as Washington’s spokesperson at the time said that the bank was as unconstitional extension of federal power, and argued for Washington to veto.

• Hamilton secretary of the treasury, however said that the bank was essential and the constitution gave congress the authority to go everything “necessary and proper” for the not to function.

• Washington signed the bill in February 1791 and the united states now ha a bank and deeper political division than preciously imagined.

HAMILTON VS. JEFFERSON

• Hamilton’d critics, led by Thomas Jefferson and James madsion, feared an activist government and thought his plans were an anti-democratic government and thought his plans were an anti-democratic effort to strengthen the power of financial elite and political allies.

• Where Hamilton wanted the federal government to foster manufacturing and commerce

• Jefferson and his supporters wanted passive federal government that stayed out of people.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KnPB37YB7I

SETTING THE PLACE: THE WASHINGTON

ADMINISTRATION • The Key of Liberty, is argue that “ friends to liberty and

free government”

• Washington was especially worried the the neww nation would lose the land west of the 13 colonies. Although Britain had claim to land east of the Mississippi river and the indian lived in the huge territory had not agreed.

• When Washington took office, the tribes were considerably stronger than the US army.