the federalist era

Chapter 8

The Federalist Era

President Washington takes charge

• Sworn in: April 30th, 1789

• First Duties– Create a bureaucracy to help create

laws– Provide for a judiciary– Raise money for operating expenses

and paying off debt

Bill of Rights Adopted

• List of Freedoms that the new federal government could not take away from the people.– Thomas Jefferson supported.– States would not ratify the Constitution

unless they were provided.

• Sept. 1789-Congress approves 12 Amendments– 10 are ratified

The Judicial and Executive Branches are Organized

• Organizing the Judiciary– Judiciary Act of 1789

• Established a supreme court w/ chief justice and 5 associate justices

• Establishes 16 lower federal courts• Prosecuting attorneys and marshals to

enforce court decisions

– First Census in 1790– Office of Attorney General

Organizing Departments and the Cabinet

• Three Executive Departments created

– Department of State- deals with foreign affairs

– Department of War- military affairs

– Department of Treasury- to handle financial problems

Washington’s Cabinet

• Thomas Jefferson- Secretary of State

• Alexander Hamilton- Secretary of the Treasury

• Henry Knox- Secretary of War

• Edmund Randolf- Attorney General

Hamilton Shapes Economic Policies

• Paying off Foreign Debts– Debt in 1790=80 million

• Most debt incurred during the Revolution– Government Bonds– Borrowed money from foreign countries

• Funding Domestic Debts– Funding- issue new bonds in exchange

for old ones.