Page 191 - American Stories, A History of the United States

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7.1

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7.2 MyHistoryLab Video Series: Key Topics in U.S. History.

1 new national republic, Washington and his advisors
7.3 The first Presidency As the first president of the
shouldered the task of interpreting and applying the
principles of the Constitution. Washington created an
7.4
executive bureaucracy, including the Departments
of Treasury, War, and State; he also established the
convention that the President would not serve more
7.5 than two terms. Coming from a military background,
although he is now often considered to have been
a federalist, President Washington, like many in the
founding generation, denounced party politics. The subsequent presidencies of John Adams and Thomas
Jefferson saw the development and institutionalization of a two party system.
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the son of a merchant and shop owner who served in the Continental Army before going on to head the 2
hamilton and Jefferson’s Conflicting Visions Alexander hamilton and Thomas Jefferson held opposing
perspectives on what role the federal government should play in the lives of its citizens. hamilton was

new Department of the Treasury under President Washington, he wished to establish the United States
as a dominant commercial power, believing that a strong federal government would lead to a secure
social order. Jefferson, by contrast, came from an agrarian background, served the United States as a
statesmen during the revolution, and became Secretary of State under Washington. Jefferson opposed
the concentration of power among political and economic elites. his vision for the United States
focused on individuals holding a personal stake in the land.
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3 The Development of Political Parties Much to the dismay of Washington, the rise of two political
factions, or parties, was apparent by the end of his first term in office. Partisan differences between
the federalists and the republicans resulted in the particularly bitter election of 1796, won narrowly
by federalist John Adams. four years later, Thomas Jefferson, the leader of the republicans, secured a
razor-thin victory over Adams. The transfer of power from a federalist to a republican administration,
however, was admirably peaceful and orderly.
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The Adams Presidency The Presidency of John Adams was dominated by partisan politics both
domestically and in matters of international diplomacy. The beliefs of Adams, a federalist, correlated 4
with the British perspective of a strong central government controlled by political elites. The
Jeffersonians, or republicans, by contrast embraced the spirit of the french revolution and argued for
a populist approach. In 1798 republicans drafted the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions that declared
the rights of individual states to interpret federal law. The Alien Acts in the late 1790s restricted
personal freedoms in the name of protecting citizens in the event of war.

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announced that pretentious European titles were ill-suited to the “genius of the people” and
“the nature of our Government.” Thomas Jefferson, who was then working as a diplomat in
Paris, could not comprehend what motivated the vice president. in private correspondence,
he repeated benjamin Franklin’s judgment that Adams “means well for his country, is always
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