The Land Ordinance and The
Northwest Ordinance
The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided for surveying and dividing territories west of the colonies into towns 6 miles square, and selling 640 acre chunks at public auctions for a minimum of $1 per acre.
The Northwest Ordinance established a way to create no less than three and no more than five new states. It established a three-stage process based on population for new states to be created and join the Confederation of colonies. It also specified what type of government the new territories and states must have, a requirement that would later become part of the U.S. Constitution.
The Result
The following new territories became new states due to the success of the Northwest Ordinance :Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837), Wisconsin (1848), and Minnesota (1858).
The Constitutional
Convention
summer of 1787
Key participants :James Madison, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton , Benjamin Franklin, George Washington
the Connecticut Compromise: Congress would have one house with equal representation and one house with representation based on population. (part of the Constitution, and today Americans have both the House of Representatives and the Senate).
The "Three-Fifths Compromise“
Sept. 17, 1787 – Constitution day
George Washington's
Presidency
the Judiciary Act of 1789, which established federal court system.
1791 Hamilton was successful in persuading Congress to establish the First Bank of the United States
"Washington's Neutrality Proclamation,"
"Executive Privilege" of President
The Bill of Rights passed in 1791 to limit the federal government
an unwritten tradition of a maximum of two terms for presidents
+Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin = ‘King Cotton’
The Presidency of John
Adams
served from 1797-1801
The Alien & Sedition Acts – blatantly unconstitutional
"lame duck" action: case of Marbury v. Madison (1803), where the Supreme Court held in Jefferson's favor by declaring a federal law to be unconstitutional: the first time the new Supreme Court declared an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional and thus void.
The formation of political
partiesTariffs + North/South friction
The Federalist Party - a strong national government, friendly dealings with England, a liberal interpretation of the Constitution (known as "loose constructionism),
Democratic-Republican Party - the opposite: a weak national government (keeping the power at a local level, which Virginia preferred), friendly dealings with France, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution ("strict constructionism").
"Revolution of 1800," victory by Jefferson and Burr against Adams was a victory for limited government and a "strict constructionist"
Jefferson Administration
Monroe : $11.25 million to France for all of the property (which translates to only a few pennies per acre), not merely West Florida and New Orleans. This enormous tract of land was as large as the entire United States at the time.
In 1812, Louisiana because the first state admitted to the United States from this new territory. Only one additional state joined the United States during Jefferson's presidency: Ohio, in 1803. Jefferson is credited with eliminating unnecessary taxes such as the whiskey tax and decreasing the size of the federal government.
The War of 1812
England invaded D.C. itself and burned down the Capitol and the White House
Francis Scott Key - the Star-Spangled Banner; In 1931, over 100 years later, it became the official National Anthem.
Treaty of Ghent (negotiated by the Czar of Russia!) arranged for the long, open Canadian-U.S. border that remains to this day
The Conservative President:
James Monroe
In 1820, the successful "Missouri Compromise" : 11 free states and 11 slave states
So the Missouri Compromise added Maine as a free state (which would side with the North), and Missouri as a slave state (which would side with the South until the Civil War, when it refused to join the southern Confederacy). The other new states to be added from the Louisiana Purchase (once they had enough population) would be free: slavery was banned by this Compromise above the latitude of 36 degrees, 30 minutes.
The most lasting contribution of James Monroe - "Monroe Doctrine" in 1823 – Which? Works to this day.
Jacksonian Democracy
1828 was a triumph of democracy
the "spoils system,"
the "Indian Removal."
the powerful tools of the modern presidency: vetoing bills of Congress to prevent them from becoming law (Jackson vetoed more bills than all the presidents before him combined), removing people from office when the President disagreed with them, and using executive orders as President to give his views the power of law.
“the president was not merely a member of the government's symphony: he was its conductor”