Devising a constitution

The 13 colonies were now "free and independent states"—but not yet one united nation. Since 1781, they had been governed by the Articles of Confederation, a constitution that set up a very weak central government. The American people had just rebelled against a parliament in distant London, and they did not want to replace it with a tyrannical central authority at home. Under the Articles of Confederation, congress, comprised of representatives of the people, could not make laws or raise taxes. There was no federal judiciary and no permanent executive. The individual states were almost independent: they could even set up their own tax barriers.

In May 1787, a convention met in Philadelphia with instructions to revise the articles of Confederation. The delegates— among whom were George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison— went beyond their mandate and drafted a new and more workable Constitution. It established a stronger federal government empowered to collect taxes, conduct diplo­macy, maintain armed forces, and regulate foreign trade and commerce among the states. It provided for a Supreme Court and lesser federal courts, and it gave executive power to an elected president. Most importantly, it established the principle of a 'balance of power" to be maintained among the three branches of government—the executive, the legislative and the judicial.

The Constitution was accepted in 1788, but only after much bitter debate. Many Americans feared that a powerful central government would trample on the liberties of the people, and in 1791, 10 amendments—the Bill of Rights—were added to the Constitution. This document guaranteed freedom of religion, a free press, free speech, the right of citizens to bear arms, protection against illegal house searches, the right to a fair trial by jury and protection against "cruel and unusual punishments."

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights thus struck a balance between two conflicting but fundamental aspects of American politics—the need for a strong, efficient central authority and the need to ensure individual liberties. America's first two political parties divided along those ideological lines. The Federalists favored a strong president and central government; the Democratic Republicans defended the rights of the individual states, because this seemed to guarantee more "local" control and accountability. This party appealed to small farmers; the Federalist party was the party of the prosperous classes, and it would die out by 1820.

New nation

As the first president of the United States. George Washington governed in a Federalist style. When Pennsylvania farmers refused to pay a federal liquor tax, Washington mobilized an army of 15,000 men to put down the "Whiskey Rebellion." Under his Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, the federal government took over the debts of the individual states and set up a national bank. These fiscal measures were designed to encourage investment and to persuade business interests to support the new government.

In 1797, Washington was succeeded by another Federalist, John Adams, who became involved in an undeclared naval war with France. In an atmosphere of war Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. These measures permitted the deportation or arrest of "dangerous" aliens, and they prescribed fines or imprisonment for publishing "false, scandalous, and malicious" attacks on the government. Ten Republican editors were convicted under the Sedition Act, which was bitterly denounced by Virginia lawyer and main author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.

The repression which occurred under the Alien and Sedition Acts ended in 1801, when Thomas Jefferson was elected president. As a Republican, Jefferson was an informal, accessible chief executive. Although he wanted to limit the power of the president, political realities forced Jefferson to exercise that power vigorously. In 1803, he bought the huge Louisiana territory from France for $15 million: now the United States would extend as far west as the Rocky Mountains. When North African pirates attacked American ships, Jefferson sent a naval expedition against the state of Tripoli.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice John Marshall, was asserting its own authority. In the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison, Marshall affirmed that the Court could declare void any act of Congress "repugnant to the Constitution." That ruling established the most fundamental idea in American constitutional law—that the Supreme Court makes the final decision in interpreting the Constitution and can, if the justices determine a law to be unconstitutional, declare the law void. although it was enacted by the Congress and signed by the president.

During the Napoleonic Wars, British and French warships harassed American merchant ships. Jefferson responded by banning American exports to Europe, but New England merchants protested that their trade was ruined by the embargo, which Congress repealed in 1809. In 1812, however, President James Madison went to war with Britain over this issue.

During the War of 1812. American warships had some impressive victories, but the vastly superior British Navy blockaded American ports. Attempts to invade British Canada ended in disaster, and British forces captured and burned Washington, the nations new capital city. Britain and the United States agreed on a compromise peace in December 1814: neither side won any concessions from the other. Two weeks later, General Andrew Jackson routed a British assault on New Orleans. News of the peace treaty had not yet reached the soldiers.

After the war, the United States enjoyed a period of rapid economic expansion. A national network of roads and canals was built, steamboats traveled the rivers, and the first steam railroad opened in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1830. The Industrial Revolution had reached America: There were textile mills in New England; iron foundries in Pennsylvania. By the 1850s, factories were producing rubber goods, sewing machines, shoes. clothing, farm implements, guns and clocks.

The frontier of settlement was pushed west to the Mississippi River and beyond. In 1828. Andrew Jackson became the first man born into a poor family and born in the West, away from the cultural traditions of the Atlantic seaboard, to be elected president. Jackson and his new Democratic party, heirs to the Jeffersonian Republicans, promoted a creed of popular democracy and appealed to the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics and laborers. Jackson broke the power of the Bank of the United States, which had dominated the nation's economy. He rewarded inexperienced but loyal supporters with government jobs. He made land available to western settlers—mainly by forcing Indian tribes to move west of the Mississippi.