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US History Lecture 12 — Transcript

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0:00Hello and welcome to this new lecture in
0:02our US history survey. When we left off
0:05last time, we saw the end of the
0:08American Revolution and the United
0:09States emerging as a new nation onto the
0:13scene. And not just a new nation, but a
0:15nation founded on very revolutionary
0:18principles in many ways spearheading the
0:22concept of democracy in the modern
0:24western world.
0:26This however came with some problems
0:28because there was debate within the
0:30United States about just how much
0:33democracy was healthy and because one of
0:36the fears was that while the concept of
0:39democracy may seem obvious to us and
0:42sound like yeah of course one of the
0:45concerns was democracy could turn into
0:48mob rule where a solid majority may
0:51decide to just oppress minorities
0:55not necess necessarily in the name of
0:56something that is correct or just but
0:59purely because they can because they
1:00have 51% of the votes. So there was a
1:03whole argument of how much should the
1:06government just be in the hands of the
1:08majority. How much should it be directed
1:12by professional politicians who will
1:15keep an eye on things make sure that
1:16things don't get out of hand. In one
1:20case, however, you don't move too far
1:21from the aristocratic system that they
1:24just broke away from. In another case,
1:26there was the fear of mob rule. So,
1:29different states were experimenting,
1:31trying to figure out as they created
1:33their own constitutions. They were
1:34trying to figure out where exactly to
1:36draw the line.
1:38A few started
1:41including within their constitution
1:43certain rights like freedom of the
1:45press, freedom of religion and basically
1:47things that will later be included in
1:49the bill of rights.
1:51A few, you know, because again nothing
1:54was written in stone. This was an
1:55experiment. A few started
1:58pushing the notion that women should
2:01have the right to vote.
2:03Now,
2:05that idea didn't go too far because like
2:08for example, there was a case of a lady
2:09who refused to pay taxes because she
2:12said, "I'm not represented in
2:13government. I can't even vote. So, why
2:16should I be taxed in a government in
2:18which I have no representation?" Which
2:20is kind of the same thing that, you
2:22know, was the basic argument laid out
2:25for the American Revolution. The problem
2:28was she didn't have an army, so the
2:30government took her house and tough luck
2:32for her.
2:33So, you know, there's there are
2:35arguments being made back and forth. For
2:37example, northern states begin to
2:39abolish slavery as soon as the
2:41revolution is over. Um, partially is
2:44because they did not need it for their
2:47economy as much as the south did. So,
2:50you start seeing northern states
2:52abolishing slavery, southern states very
2:54much keeping it alive. So again, there
2:57are arguments about issues such as
2:59slavery, and as we'll see, that argument
3:02is going to grow exponentially more
3:04important in the 1800s.
3:07There was also a period of economic
3:10depression that hit at the beginning of
3:13uh the United States.
3:16Because of the fighting, exports had
3:18been reduced,
3:20but people were still importing a lot of
3:22goods. So there was a trade deficit.
3:25Many people had fallen into depth. So as
3:28a result of this, something known as
3:31Sha's rebellion took place led by Daniel
3:34Sheayes
3:35which was basically designed to free the
3:38people who are heavily in dabbed from
3:40their creditors. This happened in 1786.
3:45However, again, the militia
3:48came in to crush them. You know, the
3:50government said, "Yeah, sorry. We are
3:52not going to just because we're a
3:54democracy doesn't mean that this is mob
3:56rule. So we are going to crack down hard
3:58on that. A couple of the rebels were
4:00hanged
4:02and these convinced many people were on
4:05the fence that uncheck democracy was
4:07dangerous and they would need a stronger
4:10government. Um they they needed a strong
4:13central government in order to prevent
4:15these things from happening. Or at least
4:18whether you agree or not that's what
4:20they believed.
4:22There was also a question that was
4:23interesting for the English side. What
4:25to do with all the African-Americans who
4:28had joined the English side. Now that
4:30the war was over, you know, you couldn't
4:33really leave them in US or they would be
4:34reinslaved,
4:36but they didn't want them in England
4:38either for racist reasons. So, initially
4:41they placed them in Novascia, you know,
4:43Eastern Canada. They were not very well
4:46received there because of again racist
4:49reasons. So after a few years quite a
4:52few of them were relocated on the
4:53African coast in what was Sierra Leon.
4:58So that's one of the thing that happened
5:00to the African-Americans who had fought
5:03on the English side.
5:06Part of the existing debate
5:10regarding the new American system, what
5:12kind of political system should it be
5:15like,
5:16revolve around one key issue that is
5:19still debated endlessly when it comes to
5:21constitutional rights and that was the
5:23idea of how much power should go to the
5:26federal government versus how much power
5:29should go to the states.
5:31People like Alexander Hamilton who had
5:34been Washington s a very much in favor
5:37of strong central government. Other
5:41people like Thomas Jefferson very much
5:43were for the notion of state rights.
5:47In 1787,
5:49various representatives from the
5:53different states got together for the
5:55constitutional convention
5:58where essentially 55 men from 12 states,
6:02all by the way, no surprise there, but
6:04all upper class white males
6:07got together to decide what should the
6:10Constitution of the United States look
6:12like.
6:15The idea was
6:19some states were against
6:22the idea of a strong government because
6:24they felt that if the federal government
6:26was too strong and they were from a
6:28small state they would lose influence
6:32if uh representation was proportional to
6:35the population.
6:37So as a compromise they push the idea of
6:40proportional representation based on
6:42population in the House of
6:44Representatives
6:45and instead the representation by state
6:48within the Senate.
6:50So the south most southern states agreed
6:54to this compromise but only if slaves
6:57would be counted as part of the
7:00population for the purposes of
7:01representation
7:03but were not counted for the purposes of
7:05taxation.
7:07So eventually they agreed to count
7:10five slaves as equal to three to three
7:13free men. So that was the compromise
7:17they reached. They also
7:20received the promise that runaway slaves
7:22going to free states will be returned to
7:25the slave states. Something that made
7:27many abolitionists in the north very
7:29unhappy.
7:31But they felt that it was worth agreeing
7:33to this in order to keep the union
7:35together.
7:38So because of fear of mob rule,
7:43the founding fathers decided to create
7:44the electoral college to give
7:48people the power to select the people
7:50who would be part of the electoral
7:52college and then they would select the
7:54president.
7:56So all in all the constitution was
7:58finished and sent to congress for
7:59approval in September of 1787.
8:03Now the two main uh factions
8:08arguing about you know which essentially
8:12they weren't parties yet but they were
8:14coalition of groups following different
8:16political philosophies. You had the
8:18federalists on one side who are
8:20supporting the new constitution
8:22and the power of the federal government
8:25versus the anti-federalists who felt
8:27that there was the constitution gave too
8:29much power to the central government and
8:31not enough to the states.
8:34So here are some of the key figures
8:37within uh the American political system
8:40were debating back and forth and you
8:43know these this debate was was not going
8:46to be settled anytime soon and in many
8:48ways it won't be settled for generations
8:51to come.
8:52One thing that was added to the
8:54constitution is that some states wanted
8:57specific rights to be included in the
9:00constitution. So they proposed some 200
9:02amendments to add to the constitution.
9:06Eventually they agree to put together a
9:10few that were ratified specifically
9:13there were 10 of these amendments which
9:15were ratified to become the bill of
9:17rights in 1791.
9:20And this is when you hear things about
9:22the first amendment, the second
9:23amendment and so on. These were all
9:25parts of the bill of rights. Uh the
9:27first amendment for example prohibited
9:30the establishment of an official
9:32religion for the state. They were in
9:34favor of freedom of speech, freedom of
9:35the press. Others were about the right
9:38to bear arms or leave limit government
9:41power to quarter troops in private
9:43homes,
9:45double jeopardy, due process, things
9:48like that.
9:49So basically all these amendments were
9:52designed to limit the government's
9:54power. Uh very much what the
9:57anti-federalist had wanted.
10:00For the first few years there was no
10:03president of the United States. You know
10:05between 1783
10:07and 1789
10:09there was nobody. But in the first
10:12election,
10:13George Washington was elected president
10:15in 1789
10:18and was reelected in 1792.
10:21Uh so he served until 1796
10:26and he appointed
10:28both federalist and anti-federalist in
10:31his cabinet. You know, Jefferson would
10:32become secretary of state, Hamilton
10:35would head the treasury.
10:38Um Washington in many way was uh the way
10:43he handled government was he didn't take
10:46too many he wasn't as radical as what
10:49some people would have liked him to be.
10:51He didn't take as much of a break from
10:53the previous system as some people would
10:55have loved and in many ways Washington
10:58was being pulled in different
10:59directions.
11:01You know, for example, since the
11:02government was economically broke from
11:04the revolutionary war, they imposed a
11:06tariff in 1789, which was a tax on
11:09imported goods.
11:12They also under the influence of
11:14Hamilton.
11:15Congress agreed to pay back the debts
11:18that they had incurred and establish a
11:21central bank of the United States, which
11:23were two measures to help fix the
11:25economy by inspiring foreign confidence.
11:28But they were also measures that would
11:29strengthen the power of the central
11:31government.
11:33Something else to divide the different
11:35factions. In 1789, the French Revolution
11:38took place, getting rid of the French
11:42royalty and replace it with what
11:44eventually would become a democracy, not
11:46so much at the beginning. Now, many
11:48Americans were sympathetic because they
11:50felt that France was following the US
11:53leads in becoming a democracy. But
11:56within a few years by 1793
11:59a faction of French revolutionaries took
12:02power and started what became known as
12:04the reign of terror which was a massacre
12:07of political opponents execution of the
12:10king and this began a war yet another
12:14war between England and France.
12:17Hamilton wanted to the US to stay
12:19neutral. He was actually more pro-
12:21England because that was the main
12:23trading partner.
12:25But regardless, he wanted the US to stay
12:27out of it. Whereas people like Thomas
12:29Jefferson or Madison argued that the
12:32United States needed to be more
12:34independent of England and should
12:36support France.
12:38But Hamilton and some of the more
12:40conservatives, including Washington
12:42himself, were afraid of the
12:44anti-aristocratic violence in France.
12:47And so in 1793, Washington declared
12:50American neutrality on the topic, which
12:52made Hamilton very happy. and Jefferson
12:55quite upset.
12:57So there was even though there were no
13:00political parties at this stage, there
13:02were definitely politicians with
13:04radically different ideas arguing quite
13:07a bit with one another.
13:10Now let's look at something else in
13:13regard to the culture of the United
13:15States at its founding.
13:18An ideology that was very much present
13:21from the start was what something for
13:24lack of a better term would refer to as
13:26manifest destiny. Now nobody had used
13:28the words manifest destiny yet. It will
13:30it will not be until decades later. But
13:33the concept of manifest destiny if not
13:35the actual wording was very much there.
13:38And what the concept of manifest destiny
13:40was is pretty simple. is the notion that
13:42the United States had a god-given right
13:45to take over all the land from the east
13:47coast to the west coast because it was
13:50right for quote unquote superior
13:52civilization to take over the land of
13:54quote unquote inferior civilizations.
13:58How do you define superior and inferior?
14:00Well, basically being white Christian, a
14:03farmer that was superior and being
14:05native non-Christian, a hunter that was
14:08inferior.
14:10Now today if you speak of manifest
14:13destiny I mean unless you hang out with
14:16the KKK or something most people would
14:18acknowledge that manifest destiny was an
14:20insanely racist ideology
14:22but back then it's very much accepted.
14:25Most people were fully in favor of it.
14:27There were probably about five people in
14:29US who disagreed.
14:31So this idea that the US would be in a
14:34constant state of expansion, constantly
14:36pushing westward and adding more states
14:39and more lands was very much there. I
14:42mean eventually we'll end up with 50
14:44states. At the beginning you add barely
14:47over a dozen. So you know this will be a
14:50process that will last for decades and
14:53it starts right from the beginning of
14:55the United States.
14:58However, here is the problem. The
15:02wanting to expand westward and being
15:06able to expand westwards. Well, those
15:08are two different things. And in some
15:11way, there was a a conflict of interest
15:14between
15:16this desire to expand westward and one
15:19of the rationale for the American
15:20Revolution, which was less taxes.
15:22Because guess what you need in order to
15:24expand westward and wage wars against
15:26American Indian tribes? You need a
15:29strong army. How do you get a strong
15:31army? By putting a lot of money into it.
15:33And how do you get that? Through heavy
15:35taxes.
15:37So many Americans wanted the strong army
15:40but didn't want to pay which is you know
15:43clearly something is doesn't quite work.
15:47So early on
15:49around 1790
15:52a underfunded American army was sent
15:54westward to try to defeat tribes such as
15:57the Shai, the Miami, the Delaware
16:01to crush them and open up that part of
16:05the territory to westward expansion.
16:09However, in 1790, the army was badly
16:12beaten in the worst defeat suffered by
16:15the US Army at the hands of Native
16:16Americans until that point with the
16:19Miami and Shai crushing them in battle.
16:23This was blamed on the fact that the
16:26army commander had been a guy who had
16:28been reported to be royally drunk by the
16:30time the battle started. So they figure
16:32maybe if we put a different guy, a new
16:34general who is not crazy drunk, maybe
16:38we're going to have better chances. So
16:40in 1791
16:42under a new general Arthur Sinclair, the
16:45American army against goes out to fight
16:48the Shai Potawati, Miami, Delaware, and
16:51a few other tribes.
16:53And again, they got beat horrendously
16:55bad with hundreds of dead. and you know
16:59the
17:00the battle going as bad as it could
17:03possibly go for the US army.
17:07So with that in mind, the US by 1794 was
17:12facing a crisis. What's probably named
17:15the 1794 crisis center on a few
17:18different issues.
17:21One, this inability to beat natives. You
17:24know, many Americans wanted western
17:26expansion and yet the American army
17:28could not deliver. So that was problem
17:31number one.
17:33Another problem that upset some people
17:35was that British for traders from Canada
17:38were still very active in the west and
17:40competing with Americans.
17:42So many people didn't like that either.
17:45Add to this the fact that the Spaniards
17:48still control the Mississippi River. So
17:53many Americans were not able to access
17:55the Mississippi River and they were
17:57upset with the federal government about
17:59that. But all of these things they could
18:02tolerate. The one thing that drive them
18:04over the edge was when Alexander
18:07Hamilton pushes attacks on whiskey. Now
18:10natives beating up the army. Okay. Not
18:13happy but fine. British for traders and
18:16their competition. Not happy but fine.
18:19Spaniard control in the Mississippi.
18:21Yeah, less than ideal. But attacks on
18:24whiskey. Are you kidding me? That's the
18:27one thing that really drive them over
18:29the edge and start what become known as
18:31the whiskey rebellion.
18:34Washington sent
18:37troops to squash the these whiskey
18:40riots.
18:42And this was a demonstration of
18:43Washington's commitment to use force
18:46against any perceived threat to the
18:48Union.
18:51But one thing that gave the government a
18:54breath of fresh air was in 1794
18:57a third American general sent out
18:59against the tribes was successful and
19:02was able to defeat this confederacy of
19:05tribes push them westward and gain a
19:07bunch of land uh in much of what would
19:10be today Ohio and Indiana in exchange of
19:13promises of lasting boundaries which of
19:16course they would be broken
19:18But that's that's how it's going to play
19:21out. So that's going to be a success for
19:23most Americans, clearly not Native
19:25Americans, but for American citizens at
19:27this time.
19:29So these help quite a bit to start
19:31resolving the 1794 crisis.
19:35Also the US got into a commercial treaty
19:38with England at this time known as Jay's
19:41treaty which made Hamilton very happy
19:44and again Jefferson quite mad because it
19:47signaled American friendliness to
19:49England and hostility to France.
19:53And people like Thomas Jefferson and his
19:55supporters were arguing that President
19:57Washington was selling the United States
20:00out and its republican principles
20:03by getting a little too cozy with
20:06England.
20:09Something else, however, that helped
20:10resolve the 1794 crisis is that Spain
20:13and France were involved in a conflict
20:15at this time
20:17and Spain found itself losing. So they
20:20figure it would be better to be friendly
20:22to the United States for fear that you
20:25know if they couldn't afford to have a
20:27second war with not only against France
20:29but one against the US. So they granted
20:32Americans access to the Mississippi
20:34River. So you know the natives were
20:37defeated. The Spaniards are no longer
20:39such an issue. The whiskey riot had been
20:41put down.
20:43However with the constant criticism
20:46coming from every side. Washington
20:49decided not to run again. He was done.
20:52He didn't want to be in politics no
20:54more. And in his farewell address, he
20:58argue for the necessity for the United
21:01States to remain as detached as possible
21:03from European affairs.
21:07Now
21:08during this time, as I mentioned a few
21:10minutes ago, there were no political
21:12parties and in some way this was
21:14intentional. You know the some of the
21:16framers of the constitution felt that
21:20separate political parties would give
21:22rise to factionalism
21:24where people would defend even bad ideas
21:28as long as they have been proposed by
21:29someone from their own party and by the
21:31same token they would oppose even really
21:34good ideas if it came from a rival
21:36politician.
21:38something that I guess should be quite
21:41familiar to us if we look at the
21:42political landscape around us today
21:45and the framers of the constitution very
21:47much wanted to avoid it so they did not
21:50want to create separate parties
21:53however the political conflict you know
21:55despite this sweet intention that didn't
21:58last more than a few years so very
22:01quickly there were two parties that
22:03emerged
22:05at the head of one was medicine and it
22:08became became known as the Democratic
22:09Republican Party. Again, some weird
22:12today because we have the Democratic and
22:13Republican parties being separate. But
22:16what was known as the Democratic
22:17Republican Party wanted limited federal
22:20power, was in favor of alliances with
22:22Fran with France. He was more tied to
22:25agrarian and farming interest.
22:28Whereas on the other hand you had the
22:30federalists headed by Hamilton who are
22:34pro- British, pro- central power of the
22:37federal government, more tied to urban
22:41upper classes.
22:43So the two clearly were very very
22:45different from one another.
22:48In the election of 1796,
22:51Washington's vice President John Adams
22:54defeated Thomas Jefferson.
22:57The way the constitution was set up, the
22:59runner up, whoever got the second person
23:01to receive the most votes, they would
23:03become the vice president. So you had
23:05John Adams winning the presidency and
23:07his rival Thomas Jefferson being the
23:09vice president.
23:12At this time,
23:15Adam started flexing his political
23:18muscle by passing a bunch of laws were
23:22known as the 1798 acts. They very much
23:26limited some of the rights that
23:28Americans had just gained. The 1798 acts
23:32limited freedom of speech, freedom of
23:34the press, limited immigration.
23:38The naturalization act extended from 5
23:41to 14 years of residence as the
23:43requirement before one could apply for
23:45citizenship.
23:47The Alien Act and the Alien Enemies Act
23:51authorized the president to order jail
23:54or deportation of suspected aliens
23:56during wartime.
23:59And the Sedition Act imposed heavy fines
24:02and jail for writing, publishing or
24:04speaking
24:06anything essentially that was considered
24:09scandalous against go the government or
24:11its officials.
24:13Now, the sedition act in particular was
24:15designed to be a weapon that Adams could
24:18wield against his political opponents,
24:20the Democratic Republicans.
24:22It was kind of a way to say if you
24:24criticize the government, you are guilty
24:27of sedition and I can silence you and
24:30throw you in jail. So clearly these are
24:32borderline dictatorial measures that
24:35Adams was pushing and he used them to
24:38throw quite a few Democratic Republicans
24:41into prison.
24:44Jefferson Madison and some of those guys
24:47were disgusted with it and argue that
24:50you know states should not be forced to
24:53follow such clearly terrible laws.
24:57But Jefferson will have his own chance
25:00at
25:02getting power because in the 1800
25:06presidential election,
25:08Jefferson ran again
25:11and he
25:14so it was kind of a repeat of the 1796
25:18election. You had Adams versus Jefferson
25:21one more time. But whereas the first
25:23time Jefferson had been handily
25:24defeated, the second time around is a
25:27different story. The Federalists were
25:29divided among one another. You know,
25:31they tried to unite by waging a very
25:33negative campaign against Jefferson.
25:35They accused him of being an atheist,
25:38which wasn't too far from the truth. I
25:40mean, Jefferson clearly was not a
25:42Christian in a classical sense. He he
25:45had actually rewritten the Bible
25:46striking out all the parts involving
25:49miracles and stuff that to him was like
25:51fairy tales and he he basically turned
25:54it into the philosophy of Jesus as
25:56opposed to so you know somebody rewrites
25:58the Bible that would ruffle a few
26:00feathers. So he was accused of being an
26:02atheist
26:04of being a French sympathizing radical.
26:07He was accused of being the father of
26:09Mulatto kids because of his relationship
26:12with some of the enslaved
26:14African-Americans on his plantation
26:16which was true.
26:19So you know they kind of trying to
26:22really vilify him in the press in every
26:24way possible despite this Jefferson was
26:27winning handily in the south and in the
26:29west. This, by the way, was the last
26:32time where that rule I mentioned a
26:34minute ago where the runner up would
26:36become vice president, that was done.
26:39That's no longer the case. So, actually
26:41Jefferson had picked a guy to run with
26:43him on the on the ticket. Aaron Bour
26:47would become the vice president of
26:49United States.
26:52So what we have here and by the way when
26:56we speak of democracy let's remember
26:57again in the elections ethnic minorities
27:00couldn't vote women couldn't vote in
27:02many cases poor white people couldn't
27:04vote because you needed to have a
27:06certain amount of property so
27:09realistically the people who were voting
27:10was maybe half of the male white
27:13population could vote. So it's democracy
27:16but clearly limited democracy not
27:18extended to everybody.
27:21Some states were pushing for no
27:23restriction on the voting of white
27:25males. Others wanted to lessen the
27:28property requirement.
27:30Uh in either case Jefferson won the
27:32election. One of the first thing he did
27:35was to try to limit the power of the
27:36sedition acts and increase freedom of
27:40the press and freedom of speech.
27:43around this time by the time Jefferson
27:46come into power the US population is
27:48about 5.3 million people which you know
27:53compared to today that's less than
27:54nothing I mean the population of Los
27:56Angeles today is more than that and back
27:58then this was the entire population of
28:00the United States
28:02but entering the new century we have a
28:07change in leadership from this more
28:10federalist approach that Adam supported
28:15to this less central government and more
28:18state rights that Thomas Jefferson
28:20supported.
28:22And that's basically a wrap for where I
28:25wanted to take the material for the time
28:27being. We take it to the 1800 election,
28:30Thomas Jefferson winning it, and we'll
28:33leave it at that. All the material after
28:35this will be the second half of the
28:38course where we're going to focus we're
28:40going to go a lot slower and focus in
28:44considerable more detail about what
28:47happens throughout the 1800s. So with
28:50that wish you guys a very good day.

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