popular term for the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution; secure key rights for individuals and reserve to the states all powers not explicitly delegated or prohibited by the constitution (1791)
Bill of Rights
organized the federal legal system, establishing the Supreme Court, federal district and circuit courts, and the office of the attorney general
Judiciary Act of 1789
payment of debts, such as government bonds, at face value; Alexander Hamilton proposed that the federal government pay its Revolutionary war debts in full in order to bolster the nation's credit
Funding at Par
transfer of debt from one party to another; in order to strengthen the union, federal government did this to states' Revolutionary War Debts in 1790, thereby tying the interests of wealthy lenders with those of the national government
Assumption
tax levied on imports; traditionally, manufacturers support this as a protective and revenue-raising measures, while agricultural interests, dependent on world markets, oppose high []
Tariff
tax on goods produced domestically; a highly controversial component of Alexander Hamilton's financial program (Whiskey)
Excise Tax
Chartered by Congress as part of Alexander Hamilton's financial program, it printed paper money and served as a depository for Treasury funds; drew opposition from Jeffersonian Republicans, who argued that the this was unconstitutional (1791)
Bank of the United States
popular uprising of whiskey distillers in southwestern Pennsylvania in opposition to an excise tax on whiskey; Washington put down this uprising with militia drawn from several states (1794)
Whiskey Rebellion
ten month period of brutal repression when some 400,000 individuals were executed as enemies of the French Revolution; Federalists withdrew their already lukewarm support once this commenced (1793-1794)
Reign of Terror
issued by George Washington, it proclaimed America's formal neutrality in the escalating conflict between England and France, a statement that enraged pro-French Jeffersonians (1793)
Neutrality Proclamation
decisive battle between the Miami confederacy and the U.S. Army; British forces refused to shelter the routed Indians, forcing the latter to attain a peace settlement with the United States (1794)
Battle of Fallen Timbers
under the terms of this treaty, the Miami Confederacy agreed to cede territory in the Old Northwest to the United States in exchange for cash payment, hunting rights, and formal recognition of their sovereign status (1795)
Treaty of Greenville
negotiated in an effort to avoid war with Britain, the treaty included British promise to evacuate outposts on U.S. soil and pay damages for American vessels, in exchange for which he bound the U.S. to repay pre-revolutionary war debts and to abide by Bri
Jay's Treaty
signed with Spain which, fearing an Anglo-American alliance, granted Americans free navigation of the Mississippi and the disputed territory of Florida (1795)
Pinckney's Treaty
George Washington's address at the end of his presidency, warning against "permanent alliances" with other nations; Washington did not oppose all alliances but believed that the young, fledging nation should forge alliances only on a temporary basis, in e
Farewell Address
diplomatic conflict between France and the United States when American envoys to France were asked to pay a hefty bribe for the privilege of meeting with the French foreign minister; many in the U.S. called for war against France, while American sailors a
XYZ Affair
agreement to formally dissolve the U.S.'s treaty with France, originally signed during the Revolutionary War; difficulties posed by America's peacetime Alliance with France contributed to Americans' longstanding opposition to entangling alliances with for
Convention of 1800
Acts passed by a Federalist Congress raising the residency requirement for citizenship to fourteen years and granting the president the power to deport dangerous foreigners in times of peace (1798)
Alien Laws
enacted by the Federalist Congress in an effort to clamp down on Jeffersonian opposition, the law made anyone convicted of defaming government officials or interfering with government policies liable to imprisonment and a heavy line; act drew heavy critic
Sedition Act
statements secretly drafted by Jefferson and Madison for the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia; argued that states were the final arbiters of whether the federal government overstepped its boundaries and could therefore nullify, or refuse to accept, n
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
an esteemed war hero who was unanimously drafted as president by the Electoral College in 1789; his Farwell Address his dislike toward permanent alliances ; at the beginning of his presidency he was welcomed by everyone, but by the end everyone was ready
George Washington
Secretary of the Treasury; set out to correct the economic vexations that he crippled the Articles of Confederation by favoring the wealthier groups; belief in assumption would chain the states more tightly to the "federal chariot"; imposed tariffs and an
Alexander Hamilton
an impetuous, thirty-year-old representative of the French Republic who undertook to fit out privateers and otherwise take advantage of the existing Franco-American alliance; recruited armies to invade Spanish Florida and Louisiana, as well as British Can
Edmond Genet
the war chief of the Miamis, who gave notice that the confederacy regarded the Ohio River as the United States' northwestern, and their own southeastern boarder
Little Turtle
a general who routed the Miamis at the Battle of Fallen Timbers
Mad Anthony" Wayne
Madison's collaborator on The Federalist papers and one of the republic's most seasoned diplomats, who became the first chief of justice of the U.S.; was extremely unpopular after his treaty with Britain
John Jay
became the second president of the U.S. after being the vice president for George Washington; a tactless and prickly intellectual aristocrat, with no appeal to the masses and with no desire to cultivate any
John Adams
the crafty French foreign minister who wanted $250,000 from the U.S. in order to talk to him; realized that to fight the U.S. would merely add one more foe to his enemy roster so he let it be known that if the Americans would send a new minister, he would
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand