James Lincoln Collier - Building a New Nation: The Federalist Era: 1789 - 1801

T HE D RAMA OF A MERICAN H ISTORY

BUILDING a NEW NATION: the FEDERALIST ERA

1789-1801

Christopher Collier

James Lincoln Collier

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The authors wish to thank Stanley M. Elkins, Sidham Clark Parsons Professor Emeritus of History, Smith College, for his careful reading of the text of this volume of The Drama of American History and his thoughtful and useful comments. This work has been much improved by Professor Elkins's notes. The authors are deeply in his debt but, of course, assume full responsibility for the substance of the work, including any errors that may appear.

Photo research by James Lincoln Collier.

COVER PHOTO: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg

PICTURE CREDITS: The photographs in this book are used by permission and through the courtesy of:

Chapter I: Independence National Historic Park Independence Hall, Second Street in Philadelphia. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg: Turning family farm.

Chapter II: Corbis-Bettman: 1884 Republican National Convention, George and Martha Washington, Edmund Randolph, gold doubloons, recruiting poster, water mill, steam engine factory.

Chapter III: Corbis-Bettman: tarring and feathering a whiskey inspector, Indians battling American troops, General Anthony Wayne.

Chapter IV: Corbis-Bettman: British Parliament, Lafayette and Washington, beheading of Louis XVI. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: wealthy English family. Independence National Historic Park: John Jay.

Chapter V: Corbis-Bettman: 1844 election ribbons, 20th century campaign buttons, books in Latin, German & French. Independence National Historic Park: Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Walnut Street Jail. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: George Washington.

Chapter VI: Corbis-Bettman: Washington on his plantation, Mount Vernon, 1815 election in Philadelphia.

Chapter VII: Corbis-Bettman: Battle of the Nile, corrupt French officials, Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold. Independence National Historic Park: John Adams, Oliver Ellsworth, William R. Davie.

Chapter VIII: Corbis-Bettman: Samuel Slater, cotton-spinning mill. Independence National Historic Park: Robert Morris.

Chapter IX: Corbis-Bettman: Brown v. Board of Education, lines outside the Supreme Court, 1988 Supreme Court Justices. Independence National Historic Park: John Marshall.

1999 Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holders.

First ebook edition 2012 by AudioGO. All Rights Reserved.

Trade ISBN 978-1-62064-503-1

Library ISBN 978-0-7927-9551-3

BUILDING a NEW NATION: the FEDERALIST ERA

1789-1801

C ONTENTS

P REFACE

OVER MANY YEARS of both teaching and writing for students at all levels, from grammar school to graduate school, it has been borne in on us that many, if not most, American history textbooks suffer from trying to include everything of any moment in the history of the nation. Students become lost in a swamp of factual information, and as a consequence lose track of how those facts fit together and why they are significant and relevant to the world today.

In this series, our effort has been to strip the vast amount of available detail down to a central core. Our aim is to draw in bold strokes, providing enough information, but no more than is necessary, to bring out the basic themes of the American story, and what they mean to us now. We believe that it is surely more important for students to grasp the underlying concepts and ideas that emerge from the movement of history, than to memorize an array of facts and figures.

The difference between this series and many standard texts lies in what has been left out. We are convinced that students will better remember the important themes if they are not buried under a heap of names, dates, and places.

In this sense, our primary goal is what might be called citizenship education. We think it is critically important for America as a nation and Americans as individuals to understand the origins and workings of the public institutions that are central to American society. We have asked ourselves again and again what is most important for citizens of our democracy to know so they can most effectively make the system work for them and the nation. For this reason, we have focused on political and institutional history, leaving social and cultural history less well developed.

This series is divided into volumes that move chronologically through the American story. Each is built around a single topic, such as the Pilgrims, the Constitutional Convention, or immigration. Each volume has been written so that it can stand alone, for students who wish to research a given topic. As a consequence, in many cases material from previous volumes is repeated, usually in abbreviated form, to set the topic in its historical context. That is to say, students of the Constitutional Convention must be given some idea of relations with England, and why the Revolution was fought, even though the material was covered in detail in a previous volume. Readers should find that each volume tells an entire story that can be read with or without reference to other volumes.

Despite our belief that it is of the first importance to outline sharply basic concepts and generalizations, we have not neglected the great dramas of American history. The stories that will hold the attention of students are here, and we believe they will help the concepts they illustrate to stick in their minds. We think, for example, that knowing of Abraham Baldwin's brave and dramatic decision to vote with the small states at the Constitutional Convention will bring alive the Connecticut Compromise, out of which grew the American Senate.

Each of these volumes has been read by esteemed specialists in its particular topic; we have benefited from their comments.

C HAPTER I : S ETTING U P A N EW H OUSE

WHEN AN ARCHITECT draws up a plan for a house, he has a pretty good idea of what the house will be like. He knows how it will look from the outside, where people will hang their coats when they come in, whether the sun will shine on the breakfast table. Indeed, with modern computer equipment, he can actually make pictures of the rooms to show to his clients.

This is not so with a plan for a government. An architect can predict how a house will look because it is made with materials he knows all about. A democratic government is made up of people, chosen by other people, to act upon peopleof the people, for the people, by the people, as the famous saying goes. And people are not nearly as predictable as wood and stone.