Chapter 8
The Federalist Era
President Washington takes charge
• Sworn in: April 30th, 1789
• First Duties– Create a bureaucracy to help create
laws– Provide for a judiciary– Raise money for operating expenses
and paying off debt
Bill of Rights Adopted
• List of Freedoms that the new federal government could not take away from the people.– Thomas Jefferson supported.– States would not ratify the Constitution
unless they were provided.
• Sept. 1789-Congress approves 12 Amendments– 10 are ratified
The Judicial and Executive Branches are Organized
• Organizing the Judiciary– Judiciary Act of 1789
• Established a supreme court w/ chief justice and 5 associate justices
• Establishes 16 lower federal courts• Prosecuting attorneys and marshals to
enforce court decisions
– First Census in 1790– Office of Attorney General
Organizing Departments and the Cabinet
• Three Executive Departments created
– Department of State- deals with foreign affairs
– Department of War- military affairs
– Department of Treasury- to handle financial problems
Washington’s Cabinet
• Thomas Jefferson- Secretary of State
• Alexander Hamilton- Secretary of the Treasury
• Henry Knox- Secretary of War
• Edmund Randolf- Attorney General
Hamilton Shapes Economic Policies
• Paying off Foreign Debts– Debt in 1790=80 million
• Most debt incurred during the Revolution– Government Bonds– Borrowed money from foreign countries
• Funding Domestic Debts– Funding- issue new bonds in exchange
for old ones.