• In this essay, I will present 3 or more reasons, citing textual evidence that answers the essential question, “What should government do?”, and close with how it relates to today. 

     

    First, as the nation’s first President, George Washington shaped the role of Presidency for future Presidents. American History book, page 235, “As the first president, Washington showed strong leadership and set an example for future generations.”   Everyone knows George Washington; he was a renowned leader and president. As the nation’s most loved general, Washington was inaugurated as President of the United States in April of 1789. Washington very soon took account of his responsibilities, greatly shaping the nation we have today.  Washington’s Presidency was very influential to future presidents, for example, the limit in power, with the cabinet, the terms in office, and setting up the Judicial Branch. Washington could’ve easily been the President for as long as he lived, but instead chose to have a limited Presidency, to let other people influence the future of the country. But before this, he knew he needed people to help him carry out his duties well and for the benefit of the people above all.  In 1789, Congress set five executive departments for the Cabinet. Those which are the departments of state, treasury, and war and offices of Attorney General and Postmaster General. He knew he needed people to help him and give him and the Congress more ideas to help the country. The Judiciary Branch is crucial to helping limit the power, and having individual rights, along with separation of powers and checks and balances of the government today, to make sure the government’s actions are Constitutional and are to benefit the people. Another huge struggle of the early republic Washington and his team helped combat was the national debt. Because they had just come out of a war, they used a lot of bonds, a loan essentially with interest and a certain due date to pay it by to help get the supplies they needed. Now that they won the war, they needed to repay the debt owed, to help combat this, Alexander Hamilton (secretary of the treasury in the Cabinet) proposed that the government impose tariffs to help pay this. Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson’s views were very different, Hamilton believed that the wealthy and educated should control the government, on the other hand, Jefferson believed that ordinary people should represent the government, this was the start of the political parties, something that George Washington warned as dangerous and shaped much of how the country developed over time. 

    Second, as the nation’s new President, John Adams strived to avoid war with European affairs as a part of his foreign policy, American History book, page 252 “Despite strong pressure, Adams refused to ask Congress to declare war on France. Like Washington, he wanted to keep the country out of European affairs.” As the political parties grew so did the views on who should be the new President. As Washington’s Presidency came to an end, the election soon came. The political parties drew up their candidates and it was decided that John Adams was the new President, and the Vice President was Thomas Jefferson. As soon as Adams came into the Presidency, he was soon burdened with yet again more conflict with France. The French came attacking American ships, raising what we call the X, Y, Z affair (X, Y, and Z being unnamed French agents). The French demanded money from the United States and was soon shut down, the United States, although some demanded it was in no condition to go to war and swept up into European affairs, thus why Adams like Washington decided to keep them out of this war. Soon, however, there would be passed the Alien and Sedition Acts. Under such an act the President would be able to expel any “Alien” or foreigner that may be dangerous to the country however, it also made it harder for immigrants to become citizens, making them wait 14 years to become citizens. This Act further kept many democratic Republicans from voting, beneficial to federalists (Adams being one). Just as they’d thought the worst of it was here, Congress passed the Sedition Act. The Sedition Act called for citizens to be fined or imprisoned when the government or its officials were to be criticized. Because of this, it made many Republicans very angry, stating how it violated the First Amendment, freedom of speech and press. Soon came a lot of opposition with the help of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, the states of Kentucky and Virginia set resolutions. They claimed that States should have more say in what is right and if a law should be Constitutional or not in such a state. Adam’s Presidency was soon coming to an end, the election of 1800 was coming and with the unpopular Alien and Sedition and Sedition Act, the Democratic-Republicans got the popular vote with Thomas Jefferson as their candidate.

     

    Third, despite disagreements, Jefferson promoted popular sovereignty and peace between all political parties. American History book, page 257 “The minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect,’ he told the nation. He called for an end to the political disputes of the past few years. ‘We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists,’ the President concluded.” Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States soon faced a lot of troubles. Unlike Adams, Jefferson promised to minimize government as small as possible, he started by implying laissez-faire. Laissez-faire is an economic belief of a free market economy, free competition for everyone. Though Jefferson was most definitely a Democratic republican, he reassured Federalists by letting them keep their spots in Congress and showing new aspects showing that it was a free country, letting Federalists keep their spot in government but also letting Republicans in, something I hadn’t seen in previous Presidents. One of the final things Jefferson promised to do was to get rid of the much-hated Alien and Sedition Acts, and the Sedition Act. Soon after the issues between Marbury and Madison arose. When limiting Federal government Jefferson also, of course, limited the Judicial branch, however John Marshall, Chief Justice argued that the Judicial branch didn’t have enough power in comparison to the other branches, Marshall soon appointed William Marbury for this case, Adams appointed Marbury on his last night in office, Congress opposed this “midnight act”, Madison did not go through with it. This made Marbury sue Madison, Marshall argued for Marbury stating that the Judiciary branch didn’t have the power to have cases brought against federal officials, and along came the judicial review one of the main and most important powers of the judicial branch today. As the economy began to grow so did the American's need for the country to do so as well. After much negotiation, America finally agreed with the French to purchase Louisiana for $15,000,000 for it. This purchase was huge for Americans, more than doubling the country and because of that, trade. Though an exciting time, very few Americans knew the slightest bit about these lands so, Thomas Jefferson sent Merriweather Lewis, and William Clark to lead a team of explorers to help map and keep note of what was to hold in these foreign lands, as well as potential major traders, the Native Americans. As the explorers started up the Missouri River from St. Louis, they came to become friends with various tribes, trading and giving gifts to show trust. They came upon the Mandan, and with them, they took Sacajawea to help them on their travels, navigate them, and show them how to live. Sacajawea, from the Shoshone tribe, navigated them, translated, and showed those explorers their way of life all with a baby on her back.

     

    Fourth, regardless of the setbacks the US faced in the War of 1812, the lionized American Spit and tactic helped them establish peace between their once rivals. Page 279, American History textbook “Following the British Attacks on Washington and Baltimore, African American volunteers helped defend Philadelphia against a possible British attack,”.  Right as James Madison, our beloved 4th President of the United States became President he was burdened with conflicts between Native Americans and soon British and France. After a while Native Americans were sick of dealing with American settlers on their lands, hunting the animals, taking their lands, that trading was disrupting their old ways, they ignored the treaties and started to fight back. Many Native American tribes revolted against the new American settlers, so much so that Americans came to settle with the treaty of Greenville, giving them some of their lands back, and traded that for money. However, this wasn’t all, this might’ve resolved the issue for certain tribes, but other tribes still opposed the American customs that opposed their own. With the leader Tecumseh, Native American tribes started at battle one of the biggest battles that set the tide for the future war was the battle of Tippecanoe, a suprise attack from American settlers. This battle made the relations between Britain and the US unstable, though Britain had an alliance with the US, they also had major trade with the Native Americans. The ban on trade between the main alliances of the US was soon to expire. James Madison, the new President suggested that they commence trade between each other as long as they keep true to not seizing either counties ships. France was soon to agree to this deal; however Britain wasn’t responsive. As the battles commenced more and more, so did the war cries from so called “War Hawks”. The war hawk that was most outspoken was Henry Clay, of Kentucky. The war hawks had very headstrong beliefs about nationalism, or devotion to one’s country. The War Hawks thought winning such war would bring lasting safety to new settlers from the frontier. Soon conflict between American ships became a huge issue and Madison along with Congress gave into the war fever and finally declared war on Britain. The war was a struggle to overcome for both countries, Britain had conflict of their own when it came to France, on the other hand the US was overcame by the limited amount of military because of previous President Jefferson, and with that the money was a struggle as well. One of the US’s goals was to further conquer Canda’s lands, a failed goal, however their spirits were higher when they encountered their victory at the battle of lake erie. Soon after that, leader of many of the Native American, Tecumseh died leaving the Indian confederation to fall apart. Andrew Jackson soon came to New Orleans leading his soldiers to victory, soon making the US and Britain sign yet another peace treaty. Such treaty was the treaty of Ghent, the treaty made both countries restore to prewar conditions

     

    Fifth, The Monroe Doctrine set up the US’s foundation for the foreign policy for the next 100 years.  American History textbook page 288, “In the case of McCulloch v. Maryland *(1819), the Court ruled that states has no right to interfere with federal institutions within their borders. The ruling strengthened federal power,”. As soon as the election time came around the corner, the votes were definite in one favor, Monroe being a founding father and part of the more favorable party in that time in cause of a Hamilton’s death was definite to become the elected fifth President. One of Monroe’s biggest goals was to set a sense of national unity among the states. People’s split opinions on sections of the US, or sectionalism was the big reason for this. Three men represented these different sections, fueling the main roles in Congress for the next 30 years. These men were no other than John C. Calhoun, speaking for the south, Daniel Webster in favor of the North, and Henry Clay, of the West. Each sectional leader had varying opinion, Calhoun of the south for example, was a Federalist, he believed in a strong central government, and loved standing up for the nation’s economic issues. Denial Webster, like Calhoun believed in many Federalist beliefs, however unlike Calhoun, Webster was against the war of 1812 and slavery. Lastly, Henry Clay had many of the same beliefs that Webster had, he had a very active role in a strong central government. One thing they did all agree on was their economic state. After the war of 1812, the US was in undeniable debt, to help combat this, leaders, like Calhoun, Webster, and Clay worked together to help the effort against this new debt. The main contributors to this debt was the lack of the bank of the United States, and in contrast the overwhelming amount of foreign competition.. The first bank of the United States faltered because it was declared unconstitutional, however, like the first bank which was successful in debt investing and circulating, the government decided to print more money, with more money in the economy, the prices only grew, giving the economy free will to do with it what they please. A huge factor in this new debt was foreign trade, Britain, now a trading partner had a lot of manufacturing companies and factories. Because the US was a newer Country, it was a lot more expensive to buy new factories and machines with the limited money they had. Because of this, the American factories had to raise prices, however Britain was a much older and rich Country with preexisting factories that could allow them to sell the same goods at a fraction of the price, making more consumers buy their products. To combat this, Congress passed the Tariff of 1816, a tariff on imports from foreign countries. Though this was amazing for Northern States with more factories, this backfired those South. The Southern States bought many British goods, because of this Tariff, it made the goods a lot more expensive than American’s, making their pockets more and more empty. This is when the American System was born, the plan was to keep the imports, but to buy crops for the Southern states, so both sides, and their wallets were happy.  The last 

    Key element of Monroe’s Presidency was his doctrine, stating how the US, though an ally to Britain, will not accept any of the preexisting treatment from before the US was in existence.

     

    In conclusion the first 5 Presidents set many new precedents that we still use today. Washington’s Presidency was very influential because not only did he set many of the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, and from the Constitution, he influenced the United States, and the world with how great of a leader he is. One of the many things that stood out to me was his farewell address, where he stated how important it is to stay neutral, stay out of war, and generally stay peaceful among one another. Though Washington warned of the many disadvantages of political parties, interfering, and interfering with foreign affairs, future Presidents, like James Monroe and John Adams disobeyed his wishes, those choices influenced a lot of what our Country today looks like. Through Jefferson’s Presidency, the Country started to really blossom, with the economy getting better, he made the Louisiana Purchase, which made the Country double in size, and increased trade by a lot. Along with the Louisiana Purchase, came the Lewis and Clark, and the Pike expeditions in which were significant factors in American history. Something very important learned in Madison’s Presidency was to not limit the military too much yes, it is important that the military doesn’t control the people and the government, however the war of 1812 awoke the US government because they realized that their military was too weak to go into war, which although they won, dent them into a lot of debt and trouble. Monroe’s Presidency greatly focused on the nation’s economy because of that debt and was influential to the economy even now. This relates to today because the political parties, much of what separated the Country even from the beginning is still in play now. Because, as I said before, Adams and every President after disobeyed and went against Washington’s wishes, the US is split, the candidates being the richest and people in power, not actually we the people determining who is the best candidate, more like who is the lesser of two evils or just based on strict which political party each are in.