AHIS 100
We the People?
Dr. Kane
mkane2@albany.edu
Office Hrs: W 10:30-11:30 & F 11:30-12:30
Social Science 60S
maevekane.net/ahis100/lecture-slides
October 14
where we left off Monday
- fundamental tensions over land, labor and identity
- Solution 1: Articles of Confederation
- Solution 2: Constitution
- tensions over passage of the Constitution
Economic Solutions or Economic Problems?
- American default on British and French debts ruined credit
- our friend Alexander Hamilton vs. Thomas Jefferson
- is American identity attached to land or labor?
- Bank of the United States secures the credit of the nation but goes beyond Constitutional powers
- southern colonies on the hook for northern debts
why is everything happening in 1794?
- internal political and economic issues settled, social issues not settled
- Second Great Awakening
- Iroquois peace treaty and Northwest Indian War
- Whiskey Rebellion
- French Reign of Terror
- Haitian Revolution
- emergence of political parties
Northwest Ordinance 1787
- creation of new states
- federal and not state purview
- recognized Native title if peaceful and legalized erasure of Native title to their lands if resisted militarily
- determined what the west was going to look like - no slavery
- callback to Proclamation of 1763
- 1794 Iroquois peace treaty
What did Shays' Rebellion (1786) and the Whiskey Rebellion (1794) have in common?
(more than one right answer)
- A. Both began with political protests like petitions before turning to armed resistance
- B. Both used the language of liberty and "no taxation without representation" of the American Revolution
- C. Both protested the strong federal government imposed by the new Constitution
- D. Both sought to overthrow the state or federal government
- E. Both resulted in greater American unity after the rebellions were suppressed
- New England veteran tenant farmers default on debts to landowners
- internal fear of strong state govt and state govt elected by property owners
- state can't deal with this - contributes to collapse of Articles
- first federal tax - why whiskey?
- regressive tax vs progressive tax
- US Army deployed for the first time since Revolution
- Shays' Rebellion 1786
- Whiskey Rebellion 1794
There Are No Americans in America - John Adams
- What responsibility do Americans owe each other?
- What kinds of resistance are permissible under the Constitution?
- Who is "We the People"?
- Is this a government OF the people or BY the people?
global revolutions
- American Rev = legitimate bc restrained and civilized
- French Rev = illegitimate bc erasure of social boundaries and inclusion of women
- Haitian Rev = fear of a successful slave rebellion
Why did most Americans, including Washington, fear the development of political parties?
(discuss with a neighbor, more than one right answer)
- A. They feared that one party would seize power and dominate the central government
- B. They feared that minority political voices would be drowned out by the majority political parties
- C. They feared that formalizing political divisions would drive the new nation even further apart
- D. They feared the entry of unsuitable lower class men into party politics
Washington's Farewell Address
the party system
- strict vs broad construction of Constitutional powers
- John Adams - Alien and Sedition Acts - aimed at suppressing French influence
- Jefferson - state's rights to nullification of federal law
- 9th and 10th Amendments
- 3/5ths clause crucial to election of Jefferson in 1800
Who is "We the People"?
- What is the role of women politically, socially and religiously?
- What financial and political responsibility do Americans owe each other?
- What kinds of resistance are permissible under the Constitution?
- What is the right of Native Americans and enslaved African-Americans to armed resistance? (none)
- Is this a government OF the people or BY the people?