This chapter covers the first three decades of the Republic's existence under the new Constitution. It opens with the conflict over the whiskey tax between General John Neville, a tax inspector in western Pennsylvania, and his fellow citizens to show the divisions that emerged over the role of the federal government in the lives of American citizens. The chapter focuses on the fragility of the new nation during this period and the difficulties both of convincing other nations to respect its sovereignty and its borders and of balancing the interests of a socially and economically diverse population at home.

A Social and Political Portrait of the New Republic

As the new government began operation in 1789, the country was overwhelmingly rural and young, with a population that was growing rapidly based almost entirely on natural increase rather than immigration. The most basic division within the country was between semisubsistence and commercial ways of life. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur celebrated the life of semisubsistence farm families, where wealth remained fairly evenly distributed and where people tried to provide as much of their own food and wants as they could. They had only limited contact with regions beyond their local community, seldom saw cash, and functioned in a largely barter economy. Benjamin Franklin, by contrast, came to symbolize the world of commerce. In his writings, he praised the marketplace and upheld the commercial side of America; he showed how urban economies and commercial farm families had become tied to larger markets that sold specialized goods or services were sold and created increased social distance between the rich and the poor.

Americans who participated in the commercial economy held different attitudes about wealth and opportunity than did those who lived in semisubsistence areas. Urban merchants and workers—as well as commercial farmers—generally supported the Constitution during the debate over ratification, while semisubsistence farmers tended to oppose it, fearing too much concentration of power in the hands of aristocrats and urban merchants.

Americans put their faith in George Washington, who more than any individual personified the Republic. Washington organized the executive branch into departments and created a cabinet of advisors. The most important positions in the cabinet went to Alexander Hamilton, as secretary of the treasury, and Thomas Jefferson, as secretary of state. A strong nationalist, Hamilton emerged as the dominant figure in the cabinet. He worked to strengthen the power of the federal government by assuming the states' remaining revolutionary war debts and funding, or paying, the outstanding federal debt. This process became known as funding and assumption. Congress finally approved these policies once Hamilton agreed to the compromise of locating the permanent capital on the Potomac River. Eager to tie the wealthy to the new government, Hamilton also proposed that Congress charter a national bank to aid the Treasury in its transactions, a protective tariff to stimulate manufacturing, and a series of internal or excise taxes, including the controversial one on whiskey. Congress eventually approved most of Hamilton's recommendations. His argument that the Constitution gave the national government implied as well as explicit powers, and that legislators and executives should interpret the document loosely, persuaded Washington to sign the bill creating the national bank.

While these ideas appealed to citizens active in the commercial life of the nation, they stimulated fears among other Americans. Gradually, the two opposing sides organized into political parties; the Republican party, organized by James Madison and headed by Thomas Jefferson, opposed the policies of the Federalists, led by Hamilton and Vice President John Adams. Republicans feared that a corrupt aristocracy would come to dominate American society, that financial speculators, wealthy bankers, and unprincipled politicians would gain power, as had happened in Great Britain with the powerful Bank of England. They endorsed a strict construction of the Constitution, and wanted a less active federal government.

The Emergence of Political Parties

Most of the leaders of the revolutionary generation had hoped political parties would not take root in the United States because they feared such groups would place selfish interests above the public good. However, the broadening of suffrage made parties an effective instrument for determining the interests of the large electorate. Moreover, party ideologies mirrored the basic divisions in American life. While the Federalists, who received their strongest support among Americans most deeply tied to the nation's commercial economy, were remarkably forward-thinking in their economic ideas, the Republicans, who gained much of their support from semisubsistence farmers, were more farsighted in matters of equality and personal liberty.

While domestic issues had first split the nation's political leaders, it was the French Revolution of 1789 that hastened the growth of parties in the United States. While most Americans initially supported the Revolution, the escalating violence and execution of the king and queen created deep divisions within the United States, with the Republicans continuing to support France and the Federalists desiring to seek an alliance with Great Britain. Washington attempted to steer a neutral course but gradually drew closer to the Federalist position. As long as Washington remained president, the Federalists retained a huge advantage because few Americans were willing to oppose the hero of the Revolution. However, when John Adams succeeded Washington in 1796 after defeating Thomas Jefferson in the first contested presidential election in American history, infighting among the political elite set the stage for four years of bitter political conflict.

Differences of opinion over America's role in European affairs continued to fester during the administration of Federalist John Adams. The major events of these years—the XYZ Affair, the Quasi-War with France, the Federalist-sponsored Alien and Sedition Acts, and the Republican response in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions—all became part of the debate over America's diplomatic course. They also demonstrated the violence and bitterness in politics during the 1790s.

The Federalists increasingly lost support because of their suppression of civil liberties and their aristocratic disdain for the masses. An increasingly fierce personal feud between Adams and Hamilton also hurt the party. Thus in 1800, Jefferson defeated Adams (although the House had to break the tie between him and his vice-presidential running mate, Aaron Burr). Despite the threat of violent tumult and even civil war, power passed peacefully from one administration and party to another for the first time in American history.

Before leaving office, though, the Federalists attempted to shore up their power by expanding the size of the federal judiciary through a series of moves that would culminate three years later in the Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison , which established the right of the Supreme Court to exercise judicial review over congressional statutes. This decision was a bitter defeat for President Jefferson at the hands of his cousin, Chief Justice John Marshall, and it served as an indication that while control of the government had shifted to the Republican party, many of the principles of government established by the Federalists during the 1790s would continue to endure.

Despite these continuities, the belief on both sides that their opponents were a threat to the survival of the nation led to a political culture marked by verbal and, at times, political violence. These divisions also encouraged ordinary Americans to take an interest in politics, leading to the rise of grand political festivals to celebrate patriotism and party loyalties. Newspapers, most of which adopted a partisan perspective, also fueled interest in politics through accounts of these festivals designed to appeal to both white men and white women. African Americans were generally blocked from participating in this culture, but persisted in their efforts to gain full citizenship through festivals of their own and submission of writings to sympathetic white printers.

The Republicans in Power

The Republican party, with its sympathy for agrarian ideals, endorsed strict construction of the Constitution, wanted a less active federal government, and harbored a strong fear of aristocracy. The growing political engagement of ordinary white Americans played an important role in electing Thomas Jefferson to the presidency. He later referred to his election as "the Revolution of 1800."

A complex individual, Jefferson combined a fondness for making seemingly radical pronouncements with a large dose of political realism. Jefferson had a strong faith in the people and a belief in limited government. Convinced that agriculture nurtured the values necessary to preserve republicanism, he wanted to keep commerce and urbanization distinctly subordinate in the American economy.

Jefferson found, however, that he confronted different problems in power than in opposition. On economic questions he increasingly compromised. In particular, he failed to dismantle Hamilton's economic program, opposition to which had largely caused the original formation of the Republican party.

Jefferson viewed western expansion as a blessing. He believed that it would preserve his republic of liberty by keeping agriculture and the values of the semisubsistence economy dominant. Yet as white settlement increased, tensions between whites and Indians steadily grew across the Ohio valley. During the 1790s, the Miami confederacy had handed the Americans their worst defeat in the history of the Indian wars, but economic and political motivations led Jefferson to continue to promote western expansion. When France suddenly offered to sell the entire Louisiana region to the United States, Jefferson leapt at the chance to double the size of the country, even though he believed that the federal government lacked the power under the Constitution to acquire territory. Once again, as with his economic policies, practical politics prevailed over ideological purity. Jefferson dispatched an expedition under the leadership of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the new territory, find a route to the Pacific, and strengthen American claims to Oregon.

As whites poured across the Appalachian Mountains into the Ohio valley, a series of revivals broke out on the frontier. These revivals marked the beginning of the Second Great Awakening and were characterized by strong displays of emotion. The camp meetings offered social outlets for isolated pioneer families and offered an emotional release from the hard life on the frontier, while the revivalists preached a message of hope and the ability of individuals to gain salvation.

White encroachment on Indian lands and disputes over Indian trade with whites led to cultural disorder among the northwestern tribes. In this situation, some Indian leaders urged adoption of white culture. Most of the tribes in the region, however, rallied behind a religious movement promoted by the Shawnee leader Tenskwatawa, who was known as the Prophet, much as frontier families turned to the revivalism of camp meetings. The Prophet sought to revitalize Indian cultures by limiting contact with whites, rejecting white goods, and preserving tribal lands. His movement, however, proved unable to prevent further land cessions. As the Prophet's prestige declined, his brother Tecumseh assumed leadership of the western tribes. Tecumseh advocated combining western and southern tribes into a political and military alliance to protect their lands and way of life.

The Second War for American Independence

Increasingly, foreign affairs dominated American politics as overseas threats endangered the political unity within the federal government that the Jeffersonians had worked so hard to achieve. When the Barbary pirates of North Africa demanded increased tributes to ensure protection of American goods from seizure and sailors from impressments, Jefferson refused to give in to the threats of a Muslim nation. However, when he sent a fleet to force a settlement, the pirates captured one of the navy's largest frigates, which caused the Federalists to mock the president's inability to maintain a strong military. Similarly, when war resumed between Britain and France in 1805, neither power proved willing to respect the United States' rights as a neutral nation, and began to raid American shipping on the high seas and impress American sailors. American grievances were stronger against Britain, which had the more powerful navy. Reluctant to resort to force, Jefferson tried to use peaceful coercion by imposing an embargo on American trade with both countries. Some areas, especially New England, openly flouted the law, and eventually the Republican party had to abandon this policy.

James Madison, Jefferson's successor, came under mounting pressure from younger nationalistic Republicans, who grew increasingly indignant over British interference with American shipping and meddling with western Indians. When renewed efforts at peaceful coercion and negotiation failed, the U.S. finally declared war on Britain in order to preserve American rights and uphold national independence.

Americans proved woefully ill-prepared for war, however. Efforts to invade Canada failed dismally, the British occupied Washington and burned a number of government buildings, and only Andrew Jackson's victory at New Orleans redeemed American pride. Meanwhile, Tecumseh allied his followers with the British, seeing such an alliance as the western tribes' best chance to safeguard their lands. His death in battle ended his Pan-Indian movement. Federalist leadership incited New England states to refuse to support the war, and the region's opposition culminated in the Hartford Convention of 1814, which rejected calls for disunion but proposed several constitutional amendments to reduce the South's political influence.

Despite the country's many military failures, the war produced several long-term consequences. It broke the power of Tecumseh's movement, opening the way for white settlement of the Northwest. It destroyed the Federalist party, which suffered irreparable damage due to its opposition to the war. Finally, it led to a groundswell of American nationalism.

This postwar nationalism emerged in the foreign policy of President James Monroe. The Transcontinental Treaty established the principle of American expansion to the Pacific, while the Monroe Doctrine proclaimed the New World's independence from Europe. American relations with Britain improved dramatically after 1815, as the two nations reached agreement on a number of long-standing differences. Britain's recognition of American sovereignty ended the threat of foreign interference in American affairs, bringing to a close the quest for independence from British control and interference that had begun with the Revolution. However, the Missouri crisis of 1819-1821, which brought the issue of slavery to the forefront of national politics for the first time, offered an example of the formidable challenges that remained for the American republic and its leaders.