Crash Course US History #9, Where US Politics Came From — notes and timestamps

Updated 2026-10-11 · Video: CrashCourse, published 2013-04-04 · 14 min

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Episode 9 of John Green’s Crash Course US History picks up right after the Constitution is ratified and asks the next question: what kind of country should the United States be? Green’s answer is that two men gave two very different replies. Alexander Hamilton imagined a trading, manufacturing nation run by a strong government and an educated elite. Thomas Jefferson imagined a nation of small farmers with as little central government as possible. Their supporters became the first American political parties, even though the founders had hoped to avoid parties altogether. The episode follows that fight through Washington’s two terms and John Adams’s one, from Hamilton’s financial plan and the Whiskey Rebellion to the Jay Treaty, the XYZ Affair and the Alien and Sedition Acts. These notes follow the episode’s order, mark the jokes, and add short corrections where the quick version leaves something out. Episode 8 (the Constitution and the Federalist Papers) is useful background.

Key takeaways

American politics was divided almost from the start. The founders disliked parties, but within a few years of the Constitution two organized sides had formed (0:00).
Hamilton’s America was commercial and industrial, with a strong federal government, rule by the “rich and well-born”, and close ties to Britain (1:00).
Jefferson’s America was a republic of small farmers with a small, local government, more trust in ordinary voters, and sympathy for France (2:07).
“More democratic” is complicated. Jefferson’s Republicans championed free speech and the common man, but many owned slaves, and many cheered the French Revolution even during the Terror (3:31).
Hamilton’s financial plan built the new government’s credit: paying the war debts, assuming state debts, a national bank, a whiskey tax and a tariff. Republicans said much of it was not in the Constitution (5:08).
Foreign policy split the parties too. Federalists leaned toward Britain, Republicans toward France, and both Genêt’s privateers and the Jay Treaty became party fights (7:32).
Under Adams, fear of France led to the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions raised the idea that states could reject federal laws, an idea that returns before the Civil War (11:17).

Chapter notes

0:00 – 1:00 Politics, the real national pastime

Green opens by saying that now there is a Constitution, the course is finally “United States” history. The subject of the day is the national pastime, which is not baseball, football or eating but politics. His point is serious under the jokes: American politics has been a contest between opposing sides almost from the beginning, even though many founders thought organized parties were dangerous and hoped the new republic would do without them. Last episode’s argument, the Constitution against the Articles of Confederation, was the first big fight. As soon as it was settled, a deeper one began over what the country should become.

Black-and-white photograph of a baseball game in a crowded old stadium — 0:08 — The first of the "national pastimes" Green rules out. Baseball as the national game is a later, 19th-century idea; the episode's real subject is politics.

Two soldiers in camouflage uniforms with their faces in plates of food during an eating contest — 0:11 — Eating, the third rejected pastime. Pure humor; nothing here to note.

“Me from the past” then pipes up that the US is supposed to be the world’s policeman, and Green tells him that does not start until 1823. That is a joke with a misleading label. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 told European powers not to start new colonies or interfere in the Western Hemisphere; it said nothing about policing the rest of the world, and the United States had little power to enforce it at the time.

John Green in a Liverpool T-shirt sitting at a student desk beside a globe, playing his younger self — 0:45 — "Me from the past", the eager student who stands in for the viewer's oversimplifications.

Patriotic poster with the word AMERICA over a waving flag and the slogan Ignoring the Monroe Doctrine since 1823 — 0:55 — The joke poster for the "policeman of the world" line. The Monroe Doctrine was a warning to Europe about the Americas, not a plan for global intervention.

1:00 – 2:07 Hamilton’s America

The first vision belongs to Alexander Hamilton. He had been Washington’s aide during the Revolutionary War and became the first Secretary of the Treasury. Green says he would probably have been president himself if he had not been born in the British West Indies. That is not quite right. The Constitution let anyone who was a citizen when it was adopted become president, so Hamilton was eligible; what stopped him was politics, the many enemies he made, and his death in 1804 after a duel with Aaron Burr.

Pop-art 'Murica Moment card of Alexander Hamilton on a star-patterned background, captioned Fig 9.1 Alexander Hamilton — 1:00 — Hamilton's 'Murica Moment card. Keep him in mind as the central figure of the first half of the episode.

Painting of the British surrender at Yorktown, with American officers on horseback and a small circle labelling Hamilton among them — 1:03 — The surrender at Yorktown in 1781, with Hamilton marked in the crowd. He commanded an infantry assault at Yorktown after years as Washington's aide.

Bronze statue of Hamilton in front of the columned Treasury Department building — 1:05 — Hamilton's statue at the Treasury Department in Washington, a reminder of the job that made him powerful: running the new government's finances.

Lake and mountain under sunbeams, labelled Nevis, Hamilton's birthplace — 1:08 — Nevis, the small Caribbean island where Hamilton was born. As an immigrant from the West Indies he was an outsider in the founding generation.

Hamilton’s plan for the country had several parts. He wanted it to be mercantile, deeply involved in world trade. He wanted it to manufacture goods, not just buy and sell them. He backed a project at Paterson, New Jersey, meant to become an American manufacturing center. Green says it failed “because New Jersey”. The company Hamilton backed did struggle in its early years, but the joke hides that Paterson later became one of the great industrial cities of the 19th century, famous for its silk mills.

Animated map of the Atlantic with sailing ships on dotted routes between North America and Britain, labelled Hamilton's America — 1:20 — Hamilton's America as a trading nation, its ships tied to Britain and the wider Atlantic economy.

Animated map of the northeastern United States with a smoking factory placed in New Jersey — 1:33 — The factory on the map marks Paterson, the planned manufacturing town on the falls of the Passaic River.

Colored bird's-eye print of a large red-brick mill complex with smokestacks beside a river — 1:35 — A 19th-century industrial mill. Hamilton hoped for American factories like this decades before they became common.

To grow industry, Hamilton thought the country needed a strong national government that could build roads and canals and protect inventors with patents. This fits with his work on the Federalist Papers: he wrote most of the 85 essays, with James Madison and John Jay writing the rest.

Collage of a stone road mile marker, a patent drawing of a machine, and the title page of The Federalist on a green engraved background — 1:43 — Infrastructure, patents and the *Federalist Papers*: three signs of the strong central government Hamilton wanted.

Hamilton also expected the country to be run by an elite. His side, which became the Federalist Party, was associated with the phrase “the rich, the able and the well-born”. Green jokes that if the Federalists had survived, America might have ended up with family dynasties of presidents, and then shows the Bushes and Kennedys. Finally, Hamilton wanted the US firmly tied to Great Britain, the country’s main trading partner, which fits both his love of commerce and his trust in an elite.

Animated quote card reading The rich, the able and the... with cartoon icons above the words — 1:53 — The phrase that summed up the Federalists for their enemies. It shows an attitude, that capable, well-off men should lead, more than a party slogan.

Cut-out photographs of George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and the Kennedy brothers next to Green, with an on-screen note — 1:59 — The dynasties joke. The show's own note admits only one Kennedy became president; two Bushes did, and both were Republicans of a much later party, not Federalists.

2:07 – 3:31 Thought Bubble: Jefferson’s America

The opposing vision is linked to Thomas Jefferson. In the Thought Bubble, Jefferson’s ideal America is a land of small, independent farmers. They feed their families and sell a little surplus locally. There are no factories, and Green says no international trade either. That last part goes too far: Jefferson’s farmers were expected to export wheat and tobacco, and his party favored freer trade. What Jefferson feared was big cities, factories, debt and banks, not trade itself.

Animated title banner reading Sec 9.0 Emerging Politics, with a row of founding-era figures above it — 2:11 — The Thought Bubble title card. The lineup of founders previews the cast of the party fight.

Animated farm with a log house, green fields, baskets of apples, a goat and Jefferson standing in front — 2:19 — Jefferson's America: an independent family farm. Jefferson believed farmers who owned their land were the best citizens, because no employer or landlord could control them.

A small, local economy would need only a small, local government. So Jefferson’s sympathies lay with the Anti-Federalists, although Green notes that he did well under the new Constitution, since he became president. Jefferson called himself a democrat in the sense that he was suspicious of privilege and of power gathered in few hands, and he trusted ordinary people could largely govern themselves. For him, a powerful government and concentrated wealth were bigger threats to liberty than a majority acting badly.

Animated small town square with a modest brick hall, crates and a horse cart, with Jefferson in the street — 2:24 — Local government in a small town, the scale of government Jefferson trusted most.

Animated ballot boxes floating above a town with a crowd of silhouetted citizens in front — 2:30 — Ballot boxes above the town: Jefferson's faith that ordinary voters could run their own affairs.

Animated assembly hall with a Federalist banner on the left, a Republican banner on the right, and Jefferson standing by the Republican side — 2:35 — The two sides take their places. These are the first parties: the Federalists and Jefferson's Republicans.

Animated Hamilton and Jefferson facing each other, each in front of a crowd of supporters — 2:47 — Hamilton and Jefferson, each backed by a crowd. The two had served together in Washington's first cabinet, Hamilton at the Treasury and Jefferson as Secretary of State.

Animated eagle sitting on bags of gold between Hamilton and Jefferson, with a dark crowd at the bottom — 2:54 — Concentrated economic power, drawn as an eagle on bags of gold. Jefferson saw this, not mob rule, as the main danger to liberty.

Jefferson also loved France. He had lived in Paris in the 1780s as the American minister (the episode says ambassador), France had been America’s ally in the Revolutionary War, and he welcomed the French Revolution that began in 1789. Green says he liked the way the French treated their aristocrats, “brutally”. That is a joke, but it points at something true: Jefferson kept defending the Revolution after it turned violent.

Animated Jefferson lounging in a chair at a café in a Paris square, labelled Paris, 1780s — 2:58 — Jefferson in Paris. He left France in 1789, just as the Revolution was starting, so he saw its hopeful first months, not the Terror.

Animated French revolutionaries with muskets running past Jefferson in the Paris square — 3:05 — Revolutionaries in the streets. Many Americans first saw the French Revolution as a sequel to their own.

Animated grand Paris palace under a red sky, with small figures and silhouetted crowds — 3:11 — The palace under a blood-red sky signals the Revolution's turn against the aristocracy and the king.

Jefferson’s supporters called themselves Republicans. Many textbooks call them Democratic-Republicans to avoid confusing them with today’s Republican Party, which was founded in 1854 and has no direct link to them; today’s Democratic Party actually traces its roots to Jefferson’s side. The Republicans preferred France just as the Federalists preferred Britain. That mattered because Britain and France fought a long series of wars between 1740 and 1815. Green says they were at war “pretty much constantly”; in fact there were gaps of peace between the wars, but from 1793 to 1815 the fighting was almost continuous, and America was caught in the middle.

Animated assembly hall with a British flag over the Federalist side and a French flag over the Republican side — 3:20 — Party politics as foreign policy: the Federalists under the British flag, the Republicans under the French one.

Red, smoky animated battle scene with ships and silhouetted soldiers — 3:28 — War between Britain and France, the background to almost every foreign-policy fight in this episode.

3:31 – 4:36 Which side was more democratic?

Back at the desk, Green ties the two visions to two more questions: how democratic should the country be, and how much free speech should it allow? The Republicans wanted more of both, “sort of”. During Washington’s presidency, Democratic-Republican Societies sprang up to criticize the government. Green calls them the first opposition parties; they were really local political clubs, but they did help build the Republican opposition. In 1794 the Pennsylvania society declared that free speech and a free press were the safeguards of liberty. The Federalists, in contrast, saw too much democracy and free speech as a threat.

Animated quote card ending ...through the medium of the press, are the safeguards of our liberties with a small cartoon icon — 4:04 — The 1794 address of the Democratic-Republican Society of Pennsylvania. Free speech was a live, contested idea, not a settled one.

So were the Republicans the “better democrats”? Green says it is more complicated, for two reasons. First, many Republicans, Jefferson included, were slaveholders, and slavery is the opposite of democracy. Second, many kept supporting the French Revolution after 1793, when the Reign of Terror under Robespierre sent thousands to the guillotine before Robespierre himself was executed in 1794.

Painted portrait of Thomas Jefferson with gray hair and a dark coat — 4:18 — Jefferson, champion of the common man and owner of more than 600 people over his lifetime. Green uses him to show why "more democratic" is a complicated label.

Painting of street fighting in revolutionary Paris, with smoke, fire and bodies in the foreground — 4:23 — Violence in revolutionary Paris. The longer the Revolution went on, the harder it became for Americans to cheer it.

Engraving of a large crowd and soldiers gathered around a scaffold in a Paris square — 4:28 — A crowd at a public execution. Executions like this turned many Federalists firmly against France.

'Murica Moment card of Maximilien Robespierre in a powdered wig and pink cravat, captioned Fig 9.3 — 4:30 — Robespierre, leader of the Terror of 1793–94. His card's joke is that he lost his head twice: figuratively, then literally.

Colored print of a guillotine on a scaffold with an executioner holding up a head before rows of soldiers — 4:33 — The guillotine at work. Supporting the Revolution "after 1793" meant supporting this.

4:36 – 5:08 Washington’s presidency

The first presidential election had no parties and no real campaign. George Washington was elected unanimously by the electoral college; Green notes that he did not run for office, he “stood” for it, which was the polite ideal of the time. His presidency mattered for the precedents he set. He served only two terms, a custom that held until Franklin Roosevelt and became law with the 22nd Amendment in 1951. He also wore civilian clothes as president even though he was a general, a sign that the military would answer to civilians.

Colored print of Washington on a white horse waving his hat, surrounded by cheering crowds and women in white — 4:41 — Washington greeted as a hero by cheering crowds. That popularity is why no one ran against him.

Green adds that Washington was not the real policy brain of his administration; Hamilton was. Washington probably would not have called himself a Federalist, but he supported Hamilton’s plan for a stronger nation.

5:08 – 6:20 Hamilton’s five-point plan

Green presents Hamilton’s program as a “five-point plan”, a joke about modern politicians. Historically it came as a series of reports to Congress in 1790 and 1791, but the five points are a good summary.

Establish the nation’s credit-worthiness. The new country had to pay its debts, most of them from the war, if anyone was to lend to it again. Hamilton proposed that the federal government assume the debts of the states.
Create a national debt. Green notes that no politician says this today. Hamilton wanted new interest-paying bonds so that wealthy Americans who bought them would want the government to succeed.
Create a Bank of the United States. It would be privately owned and profitable for its shareholders, but it would hold government money and issue notes that circulated as currency.
A whiskey tax. An excise on whiskey would raise money, and it fell hardest on small farmers, for whom distilling grain into whiskey was the most profitable use of a crop.
A tariff to encourage manufacturing. Green’s jab is at anyone who thinks the US was founded on free trade. A fair footnote: Congress did pass tariffs, but they were set mainly to raise revenue; Hamilton’s 1791 Report on Manufactures, which asked for stronger protection and subsidies for industry, was mostly ignored.

Orange title card reading Point 1: Establish the nation's credit-worthiness, with a card-reader icon — 5:10 — Point 1, credit-worthiness. The card-reader icon showing "denied" is the joke: a country with unpaid debts could not borrow.

Turquoise title card reading Point 2: Create a national debt — 5:25 — Point 2, a national debt. Hamilton saw a well-managed debt as a tool that tied wealthy creditors to the government.

Orange title card reading Point 3: Create a Bank of the United States — 5:35 — Point 3, the national bank. It was chartered in 1791 for twenty years.

Photograph of a marble building with tall columns and a triangular pediment among trees — 5:40 — The First Bank of the United States building in Philadelphia, which was then the capital. It still stands.

Orange title card reading Point 4: A whiskey tax, with an icon of a still and bottles — 5:49 — Point 4, the whiskey tax of 1791, the most explosive part of the plan.

Painting of a crowded country tavern with men drinking, talking and arguing around a table — 5:55 — Americans drinking in a tavern. Whiskey was everyday drink and, on the frontier, close to a form of money.

Landscape painting of a farm with trees, a pond and white farm buildings — 6:02 — A small farm. For farmers far from markets, whiskey was easier to ship and sell than bulky grain.

Dark engraving of men working around a still in the woods at night — 6:06 — A backwoods still. This is who paid the whiskey tax, which is why it set off a rebellion.

Pink title card reading Point 5: Imposing a tariff, with an Uncle Sam icon holding a money bag — 6:16 — Point 5, the tariff. A tax on imports protected American makers and raised federal revenue at the same time.

6:20 – 7:32 Strict construction, the capital deal and the Whiskey Rebellion

The Republicans, who wanted a farming republic with freer trade, disliked nearly all of this. They also argued that none of it was in the Constitution, and Green says they were right. Reading the Constitution so that the government can do only what the text clearly allows is called strict construction. Hamilton answered with the opposite reading, later called loose or broad construction: the Constitution’s “necessary and proper” clause gave Congress implied powers, such as creating a bank. Washington sided with Hamilton.

Portrait of Jefferson set in front of a painting of a farm with cattle and a thatched barn — 6:23 — Jefferson against the farm landscape he idealized.

Jefferson and Hamilton portraits on either side of a farm painting, with a factory complex appearing in the middle — 6:26 — The two visions side by side: Jefferson's farm, with Hamilton's factories pushing into it.

Close-up of the handwritten Constitution showing We the People and Article 1 — 6:28 — The text of the Constitution. Strict and broad construction are two ways of reading these same words.

Green says the Republicans “shaved” the plan to four points in a bargain in 1790: Southern Republicans accepted points one to four in exchange for a permanent capital on the Potomac River, in the South, instead of the temporary capitals in New York and Philadelphia. This compresses the story. The Compromise of 1790, worked out by Hamilton, Jefferson and Madison, was a trade of federal assumption of state debts for the southern capital. The bank came separately in 1791, over Madison’s and Jefferson’s objections. Either way, the Hamiltonian economy won, at least for a while.

Animated map of the East Coast with labels for New York, Philadelphia and Washington — 6:57 — The capitals: New York first, then Philadelphia, and from 1800 the new city of Washington on the Potomac.

The most controversial point was the whiskey tax. Farmers turned their grain into whiskey, and whiskey into income. In 1794 farmers in western Pennsylvania took up arms against the tax. Washington led a force of about 13,000 militiamen, at least part of the way, to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. Green calls him the only sitting president to lead troops in the field, a claim usually made about this event. The rebels melted away without a battle, and the federal government had shown it could enforce its laws. America, Green adds, has taxed alcohol ever since.

Painting of a lively tavern with a fiddler, dancing couples, and drinkers — 7:06 — More drinking in a tavern. Green's running joke: Americans liked to drink, then as now.

A whiskey bottle drawn over a photograph of a wheat field — 7:11 — Grain into whiskey: the conversion that made the excise tax so painful for frontier farmers.

Painting of Washington on a white horse reviewing long lines of militia troops in a valley — 7:25 — Washington reviewing the army raised against the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. The force was large on purpose, to make resistance pointless.

7:32 – 8:37 Foreign policy: France, Britain, Genêt and Jay

In foreign affairs, Green jokes, there was “much more agreement”, then admits he is kidding. Hamilton wanted close ties with Britain for trade. But Britain was constantly at war with France, and the US had a permanent alliance with France, signed in 1778 during the Revolution. Green lists why Americans felt they owed France: it helped win the Revolution, and, in a joke out of order, it gave the Statue of Liberty (in 1886) and the actress Marion Cotillard. The French Revolution complicated things further, because Republicans liked it and the more conservative Federalists feared it.

Painting of a sea battle between large sailing warships with smoke and broken masts — 7:42 — A naval battle of the British-French wars. American merchant ships had to sail through these wars, and both sides seized them.

Engraving of Washington shaking hands with an officer in a hall full of gentlemen and ladies — 7:46 — A formal meeting of Washington and fellow officers, used here for the French alliance of 1778, which still bound the US in the 1790s.

Photograph of the Statue of Liberty against a blue sky — 7:47 — The Statue of Liberty, part of the "debts to France" joke. It arrived almost a century after this episode's events.

Painting of an armed crowd, many of them women, marching with pikes and muskets — 7:51 — A revolutionary crowd in France. Federalists saw this kind of popular uprising as exactly what they feared at home.

In 1793 the French envoy Edmond-Charles Genêt, “Citizen Genêt”, arrived and began hiring American ships to attack British ones. A step Green skips: Washington had just issued a Proclamation of Neutrality, and Genêt’s campaign broke it so openly that Washington’s government asked France to recall him. (Genêt stayed in America instead, since going home during the Terror was dangerous.)

8:02 — Citizen Genêt, the French envoy who tried to recruit Americans into France's war with Britain.

Britain responded by impressing American sailors: seizing them from American ships and forcing them to serve in the Royal Navy. Green takes a moment to explain that this has nothing to do with impressing anyone with mermaid tattoos. Washington sent John Jay to London. The resulting Jay Treaty (1794) improved trade with Britain and got British troops to leave forts in the Northwest, but it said nothing about impressment or neutral shipping rights. It was deeply unpopular, and protesters burned Jay in effigy. For the rest of his term, Washington mostly left the problem alone, which Green calls the start of another tradition: passing big foreign-policy problems to the next president. Impressment was one of the causes of the War of 1812.

Engraving of a press gang of sailors seizing men in the street while women try to pull them back — 8:13 — A press gang at work. Impressment meant being kidnapped into the navy, and the British took some sailors who were American citizens.

'Murica Moment card of John Jay in robes holding a pocket watch, captioned Fig 9.5 John Jay — 8:16 — John Jay, who negotiated the treaty. His card's joke is about how boring the treaty sounds; its politics were anything but.

A printed copy of the Jay Treaty next to an engraving of an angry crowd parading an effigy — 8:21 — The treaty and the protests against it. Republicans saw it as a surrender to Britain, and the fight over it hardened the two parties.

Faded engraving of a jostling crowd in the street — 8:26 — Another street protest. The Jay Treaty fight brought party politics out of Congress and into the streets.

Green at his desk next to a pop-up icon of Washington kicking something down the road — 8:34 — The "kick the can down the road" icon, for Washington's choice to leave impressment unresolved.

8:37 – 9:20 Washington’s farewell warning

By the end of his second term, Washington was tired of politics. In his Farewell Address, he told Americans that, apart from slight differences, they shared the same religion, manners, habits and political principles, so they had no need for parties. He warned against the “spirit of party”, which he said stirred up false alarms, set one group against another, led to riots, and opened the door to foreign influence. Two footnotes: the address was published in a newspaper in 1796 rather than given as a speech, and Hamilton helped write it. It also warned against permanent foreign alliances.

Animated quote card from Washington: With slight shades of difference, you [Americans] have the same religion, manners, habits and political principles — 8:49 — Washington's call for unity. It was already more hope than description; the parties were organized by 1796.

Old newspaper page headed The Address of Gen. Washington to the People of America on his declining the Presidency — 8:51 — The Farewell Address in print. Washington's refusal of a third term was itself one of his precedents.

'Murica Moment card of John Adams with a wig and a stern look, captioned Fig 9.6 John Adams — 9:11 — John Adams, the second president. Green calls him "diminutive"; he was short and stout, and the jokes about his size go back to his own time.

Green starts to sum up the parties as elitist Federalists against freedom-loving Republicans, then gets interrupted by the Mystery Document, which is his way of saying the summary is too neat.

9:20 – 10:44 Mystery Document: an argument for women’s equality

The rules: Green guesses the author, and if he is wrong he gets shocked. The document addresses men as the “lordly” and “haughty” sex and argues that women’s souls are by nature equal to men’s. It then adds a playful twist: if physical strength counted for anything, nature, being fair, would have given women stronger minds to make up for weaker bodies. But the writer waives that advantage and asks only for equality.

Green sitting in the gold chair beside the fireplace under the Mystery Document banner, with his desk and globe behind — 9:25 — The Mystery Document set. A wrong guess means a shock from the "shock pen".

Scroll-style quote card beginning Yes, ye lordly, ye haughty sex, our souls are by nature equal to yours — 9:36 — The opening of the document. The argument rests on religion: if God gave both sexes equal souls, they are equal.

Scroll-style quote card ending for equality only we wish to contend, with cartoon sketches of a muscleman and a woman — 9:59 — The close of the document. The writer claims a possible advantage for women, then gives it up to ask only for equality, which is both clever and sarcastic.

Green rules out Elizabeth Cady Stanton as too young (she was born in 1815) and guesses Sarah Grimké, an abolitionist and women’s rights writer of the 1830s. Wrong: the author is Judith Sargent Murray, whose essay “On the Equality of the Sexes” was published in 1790. Green’s lesson is that once ideas like liberty and equality were let loose in the Revolution, they spread to places that neither Federalist nor Republican men intended.

'Murica Moment card of Judith Sargent Murray in an 18th-century gown, captioned Fig 9.7 — 10:28 — Judith Sargent Murray, a Massachusetts essayist and one of the first American writers to argue in print for women's equality and education.

Green lit up by a cartoon electric shock, arms raised and grimacing — 10:35 — The wrong-answer shock. Grimké was a good guess in spirit, since she made similar arguments about forty years later.

10:44 – 11:17 The 1796 election and the electoral college

Adams’s election in 1796 exposed a flaw in the original Constitution. Each elector cast two votes, and the runner-up became vice president. In 1796 that was Jefferson, so the president and vice president came from opposing parties. The rule was changed by the 12th Amendment (1804), but only after the next election produced another mess: in 1800 Jefferson tied with his own running mate, Aaron Burr, and the House of Representatives had to pick the president.

Portrait of John Adams over a handwritten tally of electoral votes by state — 10:53 — Adams over the electoral tally of 1796. He won narrowly, 71 electoral votes to Jefferson's 68.

Portraits of Jefferson and Adams side by side over the electoral tally — 10:58 — Jefferson and Adams, rivals who ended up as president and vice president together under the original rules.

Green then adds a side note: the electoral college has distorted the popular vote, most famously in 1876, 1888 and 2000, when the winner of the popular vote lost, and in a milder way in every election, because it exaggerates the winner’s margin. An update for readers today: the same thing happened again in 2016, after this video was made.

Green at his desk next to an on-screen note listing the 1876, 1888 and 2000 elections — 11:12 — The show's note: Tilden in 1876, Cleveland in 1888 and Gore in 2000 all won more popular votes and lost the presidency.

11:17 – 12:24 The Quasi-War, the XYZ Affair and the Alien and Sedition Acts

At home, Adams continued Hamilton’s policies. His presidency is remembered more for problems with France, and Green says the administration “totally overreacted”. Because the US was trying to stay on good terms with Britain, France, its supposed eternal ally, began seizing American ships, and the two countries slid into the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war from 1798 to 1800. Americans were also nervous about the increasingly violent Revolution.

Engraving of a large sailing ship flying the American flag — 11:35 — An American ship. Adams expanded the navy to protect merchant shipping from French attacks.

Dark painting of a city burning at night, with flames and smoke over the water — 11:40 — Fire and war, standing in for the fear of France and its Revolution that swept American politics in 1798.

Then came the XYZ Affair (1797–98). Three French agents told American diplomats they had to pay a bribe before they could even meet the French foreign minister. Adams’s government released the diplomats’ reports with the agents’ names replaced by X, Y and Z. Public opinion swung sharply against France; Green calls the reaction “somewhat hysterical”.

A box of fries labelled Freedom Fries next to Green at his desk — 11:56 — The Freedom Fries joke, borrowed from 2003, when some Americans renamed French fries because France opposed the Iraq War. The point: anti-French panics have happened more than once.

Adams used the mood to sign the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. The Alien laws lengthened the wait for citizenship (from five years to fourteen) and let the president deport foreigners he considered dangerous. Green says the Sedition Act made it a crime to criticize the government. More precisely, it banned “false, scandalous and malicious” writing against the government, Congress or the president, but in practice it was used against Republican newspaper editors and politicians. The best-known case was Matthew Lyon, a Vermont congressman jailed for writing that Adams was a poor president. He won re-election from his jail cell, which shows how unpopular the law was.

Printed text of an act of the Fifth Congress, whose session began in Philadelphia in November 1797, titled An Act concerning aliens — 11:59 — The Alien Act of 1798 in print. It gave the president power to expel foreigners without a trial.

'Murica Moment card of Matthew Lyon on a purple star background, captioned Fig 9.8 — 12:11 — Matthew Lyon, jailed under the Sedition Act and re-elected anyway.

12:24 – 13:24 Nullification and an unsettled young democracy

The acts were so unpopular that the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia passed resolutions against them in 1798. Two details the episode leaves out: Jefferson secretly wrote the Kentucky Resolutions, and Madison wrote Virginia’s. They argued that the acts violated Americans’ liberties and that states could judge, and even nullify, federal laws they thought unconstitutional. Green warns that this idea will return. It did, in South Carolina’s Nullification Crisis of 1832 and in the states’ rights arguments that led to the Civil War.

Colored print of a Civil War battle at a stone bridge, with Union soldiers advancing through smoke — 12:38 — A Civil War battle, the image Green pairs with "it will return". States' rights arguments that started with the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions ended here.

Green closes with some perspective. The Sedition Act expired in 1801 and Jefferson pardoned those convicted under it. The laws never led to mass arrests of people who called Adams a tyrant. They did not destroy the Federalist Party either, although no Federalist was elected president after Adams. Their importance is what they show: in the country’s first decade, even a basic right like freedom of speech was still up for grabs. Green says that is worth remembering when looking at new democracies today. And Jefferson’s victory in 1800 did not settle everything, which is where the next episode begins.

Skip list

0:18 – 0:26 Theme music.
0:43 – 1:00 “Me from the past” and the Monroe Doctrine joke poster.
7:47 – 7:50 The Statue of Liberty and Marion Cotillard aside.
10:13 – 10:36 Green’s guessing and the shock.
13:24 – 13:56 Credits, comments request and end card.

Key terms

Federalists — Hamilton’s party: strong central government, commerce and manufacturing, a national bank, and closer ties to Britain.
Democratic-Republicans (Republicans) — Jefferson’s and Madison’s party: an agrarian republic, limited government, strict construction and sympathy for France. Not the same as today’s Republican Party.
Mercantile economy — in this episode, an economy built on overseas trade, which Hamilton wanted.
Agrarian republic — Jefferson’s ideal of a nation of independent, landowning farmers.
Assumption — the federal government taking over the states’ Revolutionary War debts, part of Hamilton’s plan.
Bank of the United States — the national bank chartered in 1791, privately owned but holding government funds and issuing notes.
Excise tax — a tax on a particular product made or sold at home, such as the 1791 tax on whiskey.
Protective tariff — a tax on imports meant to shield home industries from foreign competition.
Strict construction — the view that the federal government can do only what the Constitution clearly allows; its opposite is loose or broad construction.
Compromise of 1790 — the deal that traded southern support for assumption for a permanent capital on the Potomac.
Whiskey Rebellion (1794) — the armed protest in western Pennsylvania against the whiskey tax, put down by federal militia.
Impressment — the British practice of seizing sailors, including Americans, and forcing them into the Royal Navy.
Jay Treaty (1794) — the trade treaty with Britain that ignored impressment and set off fierce party conflict.
Farewell Address (1796) — Washington’s published warning against the spirit of party and permanent foreign alliances.
XYZ Affair — the 1797–98 scandal in which French agents demanded a bribe from American diplomats.
Quasi-War — the undeclared naval war between the US and France, 1798–1800.
Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) — laws that lengthened the path to citizenship, allowed deportation of foreigners, and punished criticism of the government.
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (1798) — statements by two state legislatures that the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional.
Nullification — the claim that a state can declare a federal law void within its borders.

Review questions

Why does Green call politics, not baseball, the American national pastime, and what did the founders hope about parties?
What were the main features of Hamilton’s vision for America, and why did he want close ties with Britain?
What were the main features of Jefferson’s vision, and why did he sympathize with France?
Why does Green say it is too simple to call the Republicans the “better democrats”?
What precedents did Washington set as president?
What were the five parts of Hamilton’s financial program, and what was each meant to achieve?
What is the difference between strict and broad construction of the Constitution, and how did it apply to the national bank?
What did the South get in the Compromise of 1790, and what did Hamilton get?
Why did the whiskey tax lead to a rebellion, and what did Washington’s response show about the new government?
How did the wars between Britain and France divide American politics in the 1790s?
What does Judith Sargent Murray’s essay suggest about how the Revolution’s ideas spread?
What flaw in the original electoral system did the 1796 election reveal, and how was it fixed?
Why were the Alien and Sedition Acts passed, and why does Green think the reaction to them matters for the future?

FAQ

What were the main differences between Hamilton and Jefferson?

Alexander Hamilton wanted a commercial and manufacturing nation with a strong central government, a national bank, a funded national debt, protective tariffs and close ties to Britain, led by a capable elite. Thomas Jefferson wanted a republic of independent small farmers with a limited, mostly local government, distrusted banks, debt and concentrated wealth, read the Constitution strictly, and sympathized with France. Their followers became the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, the first two parties in the United States.

What was Hamilton's financial plan?

As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton proposed in 1790–91 that the federal government pay its war debts in full and take over (assume) the states' debts, fund that debt with interest-bearing bonds so the wealthy had a stake in the new government, charter a Bank of the United States, raise money with an excise tax on whiskey, and encourage manufacturing with tariffs. Congress passed assumption, the bank and the whiskey tax; his more ambitious plan to protect and subsidize manufacturing was largely not adopted.

What was the Whiskey Rebellion?

A protest by farmers in western Pennsylvania against the federal excise tax on whiskey passed in 1791. For frontier farmers, turning grain into whiskey was the easiest way to get a crop to market, so the tax hit them hard. In 1794 some of them attacked tax collectors. President Washington called out about 13,000 militiamen and rode with them for part of the way; the rebels scattered without a battle. The episode showed that the new federal government could enforce its laws.

What were the Alien and Sedition Acts?

Four laws passed in 1798, during the undeclared Quasi-War with France, under President John Adams. They raised the residency period for citizenship from five to fourteen years, let the president deport foreigners he judged dangerous, and made it a crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing against the government, Congress or the president. Critics, mostly Republicans, were prosecuted, including Congressman Matthew Lyon. Jefferson and Madison answered with the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which argued that states could judge federal laws unconstitutional.

What did Washington warn against in his Farewell Address?

In his Farewell Address, published in a newspaper in September 1796 rather than delivered as a speech, Washington warned Americans against the 'spirit of party', meaning political factions, which he thought would stir up jealousy, riots and foreign meddling. He also urged the country to avoid permanent alliances with foreign nations. By then the Federalists and Republicans were already organized as rival parties.

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