5 The Early Republic

Building the federal government

The Constitution took effect in 1789, creating a stronger national government than the one under the Articles of Confederation. George Washington became the first president on April 30, 1789.

The First Congress gave practical form to the new government. It established executive departments, organized a federal court system through the Judiciary Act, and imposed duties on imported goods to raise revenue. Congress also proposed amendments to protect individual liberties and help address fears that federal power might threaten personal freedoms or state authority. Ten amendments were ratified in 1791 as the Bill of Rights.

Economic policy and political parties

The new government faced Revolutionary War debts and a weak financial system. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton proposed that the federal government fund its debt and assume state debts, collect revenue through tariffs and an excise tax, and create a national bank. He argued that these measures would strengthen public credit and support commerce.

Hamilton’s program raised a constitutional question: could Congress take steps not expressly listed in the Constitution if they helped carry out its stated powers? Supporters of a broad interpretation generally favored the program. Critics feared that it concentrated too much power in the federal government and favored an economy based more on independent farmers.

Emerging political parties

Disputes about economic policy and foreign affairs helped produce the first political parties. Federalists, associated with Hamilton and John Adams, generally supported a stronger national government and commercial development. Democratic-Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, generally emphasized limited federal power and the interests of farmers. These were emerging coalitions, not the modern political parties that later took their names.

The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 tested the new government’s authority after resistance to the federal excise tax on whiskey. Washington called out militia forces, demonstrating that federal laws could be enforced. The episode also revealed the political costs of taxation.

Diplomacy and the transfer of power

The United States sought to protect its trade while avoiding entanglement in wars between European powers. Washington’s administration declared neutrality in the conflict between Britain and revolutionary France. The Jay Treaty with Britain in 1794 and Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain in 1795 addressed trade and access to key routes, though the Jay Treaty was sharply contested at home.

Tensions with France escalated into the XYZ Affair and an undeclared naval conflict, the Quasi-War. The Convention of 1800 restored peace. Arguments over these foreign-policy choices deepened partisan divisions.

In the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams, and power passed from one party to another without violence. This peaceful transfer was an important precedent for the young republic.

Territorial growth and its conflicts

In 1803, the United States purchased Louisiana from France for 15 million dollars. The acquisition roughly doubled the country’s territory and secured American access to the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans. Jefferson sent the Lewis and Clark expedition west to explore and map parts of the new territory. The land was already home to Indigenous nations, and U.S. expansion brought increasing pressure on their lands and sovereignty.

Trade disputes with Britain and France continued. Congress tried to apply economic pressure through the Embargo Act of 1807, which barred U.S. ships from trading with foreign nations. The policy harmed American commerce and failed to end violations of neutral rights. The War of 1812 with Britain ended in the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, which restored prewar boundaries. In 1819, the Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain transferred Florida to the United States and defined the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase.

Expansion, slavery, and political power

As settlement spread west, the nation’s economy and population grew, but expansion intensified conflicts over slavery and political power. Cotton cultivation expanded in the South, where enslaved people were forced to labor on plantations; the growth of slavery was bound to the development of the cotton economy.

Each new territory raised disputes about whether slavery would be permitted there and how free and slave states would be balanced. The early republic grew in size and strength while carrying unresolved conflicts that would shape its future. Expansion also intensified the dispossession of Indigenous peoples.