In the beginning of the nation, after the Constitutional Convention and and before Washington’s first administration, the people of the United States had lived through both glory and hardship. As Dickens would write later, it was literally the best of times and the worst of times, all in one lifetime. Years from now, people would tell their stories of the first days, and their memories of the war and constitution-creating, in the early republic.
BEGINNING THE NEW GOVERNMENT (250) Washington becomes the first president. Did people in the new nation vote him into office? Not really. The Electoral College appoints him to the post. As it turns out, no one ran against him. Well, that’s an easy contest, right? Notice the rest of the section? It focuses on titles and ceremonies. So much of history is filtered through images and visuals. How do we ‘perceive’ the past? That’s the key. Still to this day, there’s so much fascination with the office of the presidency that I think its fair to say that many Americans focus on that rather than substance or policy. What do you think?
THE BILL OF RIGHTS (251) It’s almost sacrilegious to say so at this point, but the Bill of Rights were not a given in the early days of the republic. Madison threw them together to get calls for another convention quieted. Here’s a copy of the first draft of the original Bill of Rights. Some got dropped obviously. If you take a look at the news today, there is an article concerning how the upcoming Supreme Court cases could change our view of the Bill of Rights. Even today, there is still interpretation of these 10 amendments. How has the Supreme Court decided on cases concerning the Bill of Rights in the past? Check out this list here. It’s super-comprehensive. Wonder how the Bill of Rights affects you? You should. You never the know the true value of something until its gone…
THE PEOPLE DIVIDE (251) Whether you agree with him or not, Hamilton was a man of incredible intelligence and energy. Check out his Report on Public Credit and his Report on Manufactures. It’s deep stuff and you should study key components of them. They shaped the development of this nation in profound ways. So, how should we look at this development? How does Congress do business in the early republic? Notice that lines are already being drawn concerning sectional divisions? What about class division as well? Hamilton wanted to do 3 bold things: 1) he wanted to assume the debts of the states, 2) he wanted to impose internal taxes and 3) he wanted to put tariffs on European imports. All of these were so controversial that the only way they became supported was through Hamilton’s persuasive logic and political will. He got the president to sign them and they became laws. Now for the fallout.
THE WHISKEY REBELLION (254) How would Hamilton get taxpayers to pay this Whiskey tax? Umm… How about at gunpoint? He led an army (the first united army) of over 13,000 to Pennsylvania to enforce the law. How’s that for guts? He’s Secretary of the Treasury for bleepin’ sake! How would that go down today? After that incident, there would be no more repeats of Shays’s Rebellion – and whiskey was taxed.
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