Chapter 8: The Early Republic

• US founded on the principle of a democratic republic

The New American Nation

• ⅕ of pop were enslaved blacks

• Land sales west of the Appalachian Mountains soared in the 1800s ⇒ population soared

• Westward migration = conflict with natives (who succumb)

• White people less concerned about Indians and slavery and more about seizing

• personal opportunities

• European demand for cotton caused prices to soar

• Restless spirit of enterprise, experimentation, and expansion

Jeddersonian Simplicity

• Thomas Jefferson

• First president to be inaugurated in Washington D. C.

• Took pain to avoid the “monarchical” pom

• Revolution of 1800 (name for election)

• 1802: abolished the circuit judgeships

• Marbury v Madison (1803): 1st in which the Supreme Court declared a federal

• law unconstitutional

• Chief Justice John Marshall

• Virginia

• Federalist

• Critic of Jefferson

• Domestic Reforms

• “Wise and frugal government”

• Jefferson believed that a large federal debt would bring higher taxes and

• government corruption

• 1807: signed the outlaw of importing of enslaved Africans (South Carolina exempt)

• Ohio joins the union

• Barbary Pirates

• Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli promoted piracy of Euro and US ships

• Enslaved crew

• Small, fast ships used by pirates ⇒ Corsairs

• Lieutenant Stephen Decatur: slipped into Tripoli harbour at night and set fire to the

• Philadelphia (which was held hostage)

• 1803 ⇒ Louisiana Purchase was a brilliant diplomatic coup

• Robert R. Livingston: US minister to France

• James Monroe goes to help Livingston

• Napoléon wanted to sell the territory after his troops in Haiti died of revolt and yellow fever

• “Noble” bargain and constitutional dilemma

• Jefferson becomes a hypocrite in order to get the purchase

• 1810: American settlers stage a rebellion against Spain to get West Florida

• Louisiana (18th state)

• Meriwether Lewis and Willian Clark: lead the expedition of the Louisiana Territory

• “Corps of Discovery” ≈50 people set out from St. Louis to explore

• Sacagawea

• Shoshone women

• Guide, translator, and negotiator

• Fort Clatsop: pacific coast

• Oregon country America gets through discovery and exploration

• Federalist scheme to link New York with New England

• Aaron Burr (Vice President): kills Hamilton in a dual

• Hamilton ⇒ shot and killed by Aaron Burr

• Jefferson and George Clinton win vs Pinchkey and Rufus King

Divisions in the Republican Party

• ≈ ¼ of congress was federalist

• John Randolph (Virginia) of Roanoke: spokesman for the “New Republicans”

• Burr conspiracy

• Burr tries to conspire against the US with General James Wilkinson

• Maybe it was to separate the West (Lousiana Territory) from the Union so he can

• be the ruler of it

War in Europe

• Britain vs France starts to affect neutral countries

• Impressment

• Great Britain kidnaps men in the British ports to serve in the navy

• Armed men = press-gangs

• 22 June 1807: Great Britain’s Leopard vs US’s Chesapeake → war

• Embargo Act: stopped US exports

• 1808: James Madison (Virginia) becomes president

• Macon’s Bill #2: reopened trade with the warring powers

• Madison declares war on Britain

• Protest against Great Britain for trade interference

• To stop impressments

• End British encouragement of Indian attacks

War of 1812

• Main cause → trade + Indian revolts

• Tecumseh (Shawnee leader) + Tenskwatawa (brother)

• Tecumseh realised the importance of unity amongst Indian tribes

• William Henry Harrison: governor of Indiana Territory

• Battle of Tippecanoe: Tecumseh loses and flees to British protection in Canada

• Ontario, Canada becomes the new target

• “War hawks”: name for the boys in charge of ridding the Canadians

• Henry Clay (Kentucky)

• Young

• Speaker of the house

• Like Andrew Jackson

• Combative temperament and propensity for duelling

• US was ill-prepared for war both financially and militarily

• US navy held the war

• Battle of New Orleans (1815): led by Andrew Jackson (Tennessee)

• The Canadian-American war

• 3 prolonged assaults on Canada

• Henry Dearborn (route to Montreal)

• Stephen van Rensselaer (along the Niagara River)

• William Hull (Detroit to Upper Canada)

• General Hull surrenders Detroit and causes a bunch of chaos

• 28 years old Oliver Hazard Perry takes control of Lake Erie and gains US ground

• Battle of the Thames (5 October)

• Attack if Fort Mims: sparked Andrew Jackson’s rage

• 27 March 1814

• Creek War battle at Horshoe Bend (Tallapoosa River, Alabama)

• US vs Creek (Indians)

• Treaty of Fort Jackson: Natives give up land (August 1814)

• British try to stop up the Mississippi river

• Commodore Thomas Macdonough

• defeat the British at the Battle of Lake Champlain (Battle of Plattsburgh)

• Commander of US Naval squadron on Lake Champlain

• British troops burn down Washington D.C. 

• Copy of the Declaration of Independence and George Washington’s portrait were saved

• Francis Scott Keys (D.C. Lawyer and poet) watch the siege on Baltimore and wrote

• “Star-Spangled Banner”

• Christmas Eve 1814: diplomats reach an agreement to end the war (Treaty of Ghent)

• 8 January 1815: Battle of New Orleans forced the British and Americans to ratify the Treaty of Ghent

• The Hartford Convention

• New England's dissatisfaction with Madison’s war

• Got together and wrote laws to limit Republican power

• Intense patriotism

• American Manufacturing booms

• Republicans and Federalists switch roles

Timeline:

• 1802: Abolished the circuit judgeships

• 1803: 

• Marbury v Madison

• Lousiana Purchase

• 1807:

• outlawed importation of enslaved Africans (SC exempt)

• Leopard vs Chesapeake → war

• 1808: James Madison

• 1810: Rebellion against Spain

• 1814:

• Creek War

• Treaty of Fort Jackson

• Treaty of Ghent

• 1815: Battle of New Orleans

Chapter 9