Transcript 1_George_Washington

George Washington
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1789 Judiciary Act
Neutrality Act
Bill of Rights
Assumption Bill
Jay Treaty
Pickney Treaty
• Battle of Fallen
Timbers
• Treaty of Greenville
• National Bank
• Whiskey Rebellion
• Farewell Address
1789 Judiciary Act
• Initiated the development of the judicial
branch.
• A Supreme Court was created, headed by a
chief justice and originally five associate
justices, who were chosen by the President
and approved by Congress.
• A network of district courts was also
established.
Neutrality Act
• June 5, 1794 - Congress passed the Neutrality
Act, prohibiting Americans from enlisting in
the service of a foreign power; first instance of
municipal legislation in support of the
obligations of neutrality, and a remarkable
advance in the development of international
law
Bill of Rights
• Congress sent the President ten amendments
to the Constitution that became known as the
Bill of Rights; these amendments
strengthened civil liberties.
Assumption Bill
• Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton
has proposed that the national government
assume responsibility for paying the debts of
all 13 states as well as the debts of the
national government.
• This is called the “Assumption” plan. The
money to pay the debts will come from
national revenue
Jay Treaty
• Although the Treaty of Paris (1783)
ended the American War for
Independence, the years following saw
relations between America and England
deteriorate precipitously.
• England refused to evacuate the frontier
forts in the Northwest Territory; in
addition, she seized American ships,
forcing American sailors to serve in
England's war against France.
• The United States, for her part, passed
navigation laws that were potentially
damaging to Great Britain. It was
apparent that a commercial war
between the two countries would
undermine the health of the American
economy.
• The American statesman John Jay, pressed
into service as special envoy, went to England
to negotiate disagreements between the two
governments.
• On November 19, 1794 Jay's Treaty was
signed, averting the threat of war.
• The Treaty eliminated British control of
western posts within two years, established
America's claim for damages from British ship
seizures, and provided America a limited right
to trade in the West Indies.
Pickney Treaty
• The Pickney Treaty between Spain and the
United States played a major role in the
expansion of the infant nation's boundaries.
• Preceded by the acquisition of lands set forth by
the Northwest Ordinance eight years earlier, and
soon-to-be followed by the Louisiana Purchase
eight years later, the Pickney Treaty opened up
the Mississippi River to American navigation.
• Negotiated by Thomas Pinckney,
America's special envoy to Spain, the
agreement also allowed western settlers
the "right to deposit" their exports in
New Orleans and to engage in
commercial transactions within that city.
• This was of vital importance to the more
than 100,000 westerners who lived in
Kentucky and Tennessee, and to the
many thousands of settlers who lived in
what is now Ohio.
• Under the treaty Spain officially recognized
the southern and western boundaries of the
U.S. as the 31st parallel and the Mississippi
River.
• The treaty thus allowed the U.S. to gain
access to the area now known as the states of
Mississippi and Alabama.
Battle of Fallen Timbers
• In 1791, Washington learned that an
American force had been defeated by a
Native American uprising in the
Northwest Territory (present-day Ohio)
that killed over 600 American soldiers
and militia.
• The President ordered the Revolutionary
War veteran General "Mad" Anthony
Wayne to launch a new expedition
against a coalition of tribes led by Miami
Chief Little Turtle.
• Wayne spent months training his troops to
fight using forest warfare in the style of the
Indians before marching boldly into the
region.
• After constructing a chain of forts, Wayne and
his troops crushed the Indians in the Battle of
Fallen Timbers (near present-day Toledo) in
the summer of 1794.
• Defeated, the seven tribes -- the Shawnee,
Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, Iroquois, Sauk, and
Fox -- ceded large portions of Indian lands to
the United States and then moved west.
Treaty of Greenville
• After General Anthony Wayne's decisive
defeat of the Ohio Indian tribes at the Battle
of Fallen Timbers, leaders of the Indian
nations joined with Wayne on August 3, 1795
in signing A Peace Treaty.
• This was an important event in the life of the
infant nation since the Treaty established a
definite boundary between Indian lands and
those lands open to white settlement. For the
first time in its young history the U.S. was able
to govern all its territories.
• It was no secret that President Washington
was eager to clear the Ohio Valley of Native
Americans. By opening up the Northwest
Territory to immigration the country would be
able to expand its borders, with the resulting
increase in trade and commerce.
• The Treaty was signed by Wayne and
representatives from a dozen Indian nations
and tribes at Greenville, northwest of the
Ohio River on August 3, 1795.
National Bank
• The young country had severe financial problems.
There were both domestic and foreign debts from
the war, and the issue of how to raise revenue for
government was hotly debated.
• Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton laid plans
for governmental financing via tariffs, or
surcharges on imported goods, and a tax on
liquor.
• Much of this revenue was to be used to pay off
war debts.
• Hamilton proposed a national bank to
centralize the nation's financial base and
urged the new government to assist in
developing a manufacturing sector of the
economy.
• He traded his support for Secretary of State
Thomas Jefferson's plan to locate the nation's
permanent capital near Virginia, with
Philadelphia serving as a temporary capital,
for Jefferson's support of his policies.
Whiskey Rebellion
• A tax on whiskey -- production of which had
increased dramatically in the 1790s -- was one of
the key elements of Hamilton's fiscal program.
• This taxation enraged many citizens, and in 1794,
resistance to the whiskey tax boiled over in
western Pennsylvania with attacks on tax
collectors and the formation of several wellarmed resistance movements.
• Washington was alarmed by the Whiskey
Rebellion, viewing it as a threat to the nation's
existence.
• In an extraordinary move designed to
demonstrate the federal government's
preeminence and power, the President ordered
militia from several other states into
Pennsylvania to keep order.
• The insurrection collapsed quickly with little
violence, and the resistance movements
disbanded. Later, Washington pardoned the men
convicted of treason in the matter.
Farewell Address
• Washington closed his administration with a thoughtful
farewell address. Written with the help of Hamilton
and Madison, the address urged Americans to be a
vigilant and righteous people.
• "It is of infinite moment that you should properly
estimate the immense value of your national union to
your collective and individual happiness," he said. "The
very idea of the power and the right of the people to
establish government presupposes the duty of every
individual to obey the established government."
• It was as if he saw the great challenges to come in the
next decades and begged his fellow citizens to remain a
unified nation.
• He warned his fellow citizens against "the baneful
spirit of faction," referring to the party spirit that
had disrupted his administration, and he warned
against "foreign entanglements."
• But he could not prevent the formation of
parties, nor did his warning against "foreign
entanglements" prevent his successors from
engaging in active diplomacy with European
nations, often leading to de facto alliances.
• To this day, Washington's farewell address is read
aloud every year in both houses of Congress as a
tribute to his service and foresight.