Study Notes for Seton History 5 Chapter 2

1. The First Cabinet
Thomas Jefferson
Secretary of State
• In charge of foreign affairs
• Helped work out treaties &
agreements with other
countries
• Became the 3rd president
Edmund Randolph
Attorney General
• Advises the president on
legal matters
• Attorney for the
government

2. The First Cabinet
Henry Knox
Secretary of War
• In charge of the Army & the
Navy
• Later this post would be
called Secretary of Defense
Alexander Hamilton
Secretary of the Treasury
• Oversee financial affairs
• Pay off war debts
• Brilliant in money matters

3. Washington D.C.
(District of Columbia)
• Located in the South between Maryland & Virginia
• Thomas Jefferson & Alexander Hamilton worked this
compromise out
• The Southern states agreed to help pay the war debts

4. Taxes
Tariff
• Hamilton proposed a tax on
imported goods
• Hoped to raise money & help
establish American business
• Did not produce enough
revenue
Excise Tax
• When the tariff failed to
produce enough money,
Hamilton proposed an excise
tax
• This would products made in
America

5. Early Treaties
The Jay Treaty
• Washington sent Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court John Jay
to England
• England agreed to withdraw
its troops and give up its forts
around the Great Lakes.
• It didn’t deal with the issue of
England taking American
sailors.
The Pinckney Treaty
• The coast of the Gulf of Mexico
belonged to Spain
• Spain controlled trade along the
Mississippi River
• Spain signed a treaty with
Thomas Pinckney settling the
area in the Florida panhandle and
making New Orleans a free port

6. John Adams
• Became the 2nd
president
• Ran as a Federalist
• Ran against Thomas
Jefferson who was a
Democratic-Republican
• Jefferson became his
Vice President
• They had once been
friends but now
disagreed over many
things

7. The XYZ Affair
America refused to pay a bribe to France.

8. Unpopular Laws
• President given power
to expel any foreigner
with the Alien Act
• Freedom of speech and
freedom of the press
were taken away with
the Sedition Act