A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil WarPart 1: George Washington

WASHINGTON’S MAJOR ISSUES

Securing the sovereignty of the republicAdvocating an isolationist foreign policy

THE WHISKEY REBELLION (1794)

• Two years after he was elected president, George Washington faced another popular uprising over the issue of revenue.

• Until 1791, the new American federal government collected revenue via customs duties on goods imported from overseas.

• In December 1790, Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury, decided that customs duties had reached their limit and created the new nation’s first tax on domestic products.

THE WHISKEY REBELLION (1794)

• Hamilton imposed a new tax on whiskey, believing it to be a tax on a luxury item.

• The tax met with fierce opposition on the western frontier. This opposition reached its peak in 1794,when widespread protests turned into an armed rebellion.

• Washington responded by personally leading a federal government militia against the rebels to end the uprising.

PARTY POLITICS

• George Washington did not belong to any political party.

• Alexander Hamilton created the Federalist Party in 1789, largely to organize support for his initiative to create the First Bank of the United States.

• The Democratic-Republican Party was created in 1791 to oppose the Federalist Party.Its founders were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, both of whom disapproved of Hamilton’s economic policies.

WASHINGTON’S RESIGNATION

Washington was reluctant to accept a second term as president. At the end of his second term, he refused popular demands for a third term and stepped down. In his farewell address, he urged future presidents to focus on maintaining at least neutral relations with all foreign nations.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1796: JOHN ADAMS VS. THOMAS JEFFERSON

• John Adams, Washington’s Vice President, ran for election to the presidency against Thomas Jefferson, Washington’s former Secretary of State.

• Adams ran for the Federalist Party.

• Jefferson ran for the Democratic-Republican Party.

• Adams narrowly won the election in the Electoral College. Jefferson won the second-highest number of Electoral College votes. The result was a President from one party and a Vice President from another.

• The rivalry between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans in the 1790s marks the beginning of the United States’ ‘First Party System.’

A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil WarPart 1: George Washington