Launching+the+New+Government

=**Washington Takes Office**=

=In February 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States. The inaugural ceremony was performed on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street before a large crowd. After he took the oath of office he went inside to read his inaugural address to Congress. The evening celebration featured the firing of 13 cannons and 13 skyrockets.= = = =**Washington had a difficult job**= =**a. He headed a government with no money and a deeply divided Congress**= =**b. There were unanswered questions about how the government should be run**= = **Problem # 1 What should the president be called?** = = **Problem # 2 How should the executive branch be organized?** = = **The First Cabinet** = =**1. A State Department to carry on relations with other nations**= =**( Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson )**= =**2. A Department of War - to defend the nation**= =**( Secretary of War Henry Knox )**= =**3. A Treasury Department - to handle the governments money**= =**( Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton )**= =**4. An Attorney General's office - to serve as the president's legal advisor**= =**( Attorney General Edmund Randolph )**= =**5. Postmaster General's Office - to run a postal system**= =**(Postmaster General Samuel Osgood)**= =**Today there are 14 members of the President's cabinet.**= = **Problem #3 How should the judicial branch be organized?** = =**The Federal Court System**= =**The Judiciary Act 1789 created a national court system with three levels**=

=**Supreme Court**= =**Circuit Court of Appeals**= =**District Courts**= =**John Jay was appointed the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court**=

= **Problem # 4 Funding the New Government** = =**There is no money in the treasury**= =**Congress agreed to raise funds through tariffs, which are taxes on imports.**=

= **Problem # 5 What imports should be taxed?** = =**Southerners wanted a tariff on molasses brought from the West Indies**= =**Northerners needed the molasses to make rum**=

=**Congress did pass a tariff but it was much lower than Hamilton wanted**=

= **Problem # 6 Where should the nation's capital be located?** = = Should it be in the North or the South? = = **Problem # 7 How should could they reduce the national debt?** = =**The states and the Continental Congress borrowed money from foreign nations and ordinary citizens to pay for the Revolutionary War**= =**Congress issued bonds to patriots and foreign banks that lent it money**= =**A bond is a piece of paper given in exchange for money.**= =**The bond promised to repay the loan plus interest by a certain date**= =**Congress had no money to pay off its bonds**= =**People desperate for money sold their bonds to speculators for less than they were worth**= =**Speculators, people who take a risk on buying something, in hopes that it will rise in value bought the bonds were going to make a fortune on the bonds if the government repaid its debts**= = = =**Hamilton had a two part plan**= =**1. Federal Debt Repay all the bonds at full value**= =**2. State Debt**= =**Northern States - large debts**= =**Southern States - debts had been paid**= =**Hamilton proposed that the US government repay all the state debts**= =**Southern states were opposed to Hamilton's plan**= =**Jefferson and Madison were the leaders of the opposition**= =**Hamilton invited Jefferson and Madison to dinner and suggested that if they agreed to his plan to repay state debts the capital would be located in the South along the Potomac River**= =**Hamilton's plan was approved**= = **Problem # 8 Where should the government keep the tax funds that it collected?** = = Hamilton wanted to create a national bank = = Some people questioned this = = Who would benefit form the bank? = = Was it constitutional? = = = = = = = = = = =

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 * George Washington Takes Oath of Office**

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Washington DC