American Discussion Question Apush

Unit 2 Discussion Questions

1. Americans decided to draft a new constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation. This new constitution had executive, judicial, and legislative branches that were separate unlike the Articles of Confederation.

2. Alexander Hamilton thought that our nation should have National Bank, federal assumption of states war debts that would be split up, and wanted to equalize the economy through taxation. This angered Thomas Jefferson because he didn’t feel the National Bank was constitutional and James Madison disagreed because his home state of Virginia had already paid off most debts.

3. The two political parties of the 1790’s were the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The Federalists wanted a strong central government with the states underneath it; the Anti-Federalists opposed the Federalists on the grounds that the states were being asked to give up too much power to the National government. The two parties agreed that something needed to be done about the Articles of Confederation, but disagreed about the basis of the new constitution.

4. The Federalists responded to seem to overreact to the Republicans power by passing the Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts were in response to the undeclared naval war with France and the Republicans responded by passing resistance laws such as the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.

5. Relations with England, Spain, and France affected both the Federalist but also the democratic republicans. From France, we gained the Louisiana Territory, from Spain we gained the state of Florida, and we had very strong economic ties with the British.

6. Jefferson’s vision of America was that every citizen would have rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Cultural life in the 1800’s reflected this because people were open to new opportunities and were gaining new freedoms as the country progressed.

7. The medial field in the early 1800’s lacked and extent of medical knowledge. This...