New nation

As the first president of United States, George Washington governed in a federalist style. Under his government a national bank was set up. The fiscal measures were designed to encourage investment and to persuade business interests to support the new government.

In 1797, Washington was succeeded by another Federalist, John Adams, who became involved in an undeclared war with France. The repression ended in 1801, when Thomas Jefferson was elected president. Although he wanted to limit the power of the president, political realities forced Jefferson to exercise that power vigorously . In 1803, he bought the huge Louisiana territory from France for $ 15 million.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice John Marshall was ascertaining its authority. In the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison, Marshall affirmed that the Court would declare void any act of Congress “repugnant to the Constitution” That ruling established the most fundamental idea in American constitutional law – that the Supreme Court makes the final decision in interpreting the Constitution and can, if the justices determine a law to be unconstitutional, declare the law void, although it was enacted by the Congress and signed by the president.

During the Napoleonic Wars, British and French warships harassed American merchant ships. Jefferson responded by banning American exports to Europe, England merchants protested that their trade was ruined by that embargo. In 1812, President James Madison went to war with Britain.

After the war, the United States enjoyed a period of rapid economic expansion. A national network of roads and canals was built, steamboats travelled the rivers, and the first steam railroad opened in Baltimore, Maryland in 1830. The Industrial Revolution had reached America: textile mills, iron foundries, rubber goods factories, sewing machine, shoes, clothing, farm implements, guns and clocks.

The frontier of settlement was pushed west to the Mississippi River and beyond. In 1828, Andrew Jackson became the first man born into a poor family and born in the West, to be elected president. Jackson and his new Democratic Party, heirs to the Jeffersonian Republicans, promoted a creed of popular democracy and appealed to the humble members of the society. He made land available to western settlers – mainly by forcing Indian tribes to move west of the Mississippi.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 955