168 Chapter 5 The Federalist Era: Nationalism Triumphant
Great Compromise Resolved the differences
between the New Jersey and Virginia delegations
to the Constitutional Convention by providing for
a bicameral legislature: the Senate, with equal rep-
resentation for each state, and the House of
Representatives, apportioned by population, 149
Jay’s Treaty Named after John Jay, the American
negotiator, and ratified in 1795, this treaty eased
tensions with Great Britain. By its provisions
Britain agreed to evacuate forts on the United
States’ side of the Great Lakes and submit ques-
tions of neutral rights to arbitrators, 162
judicial review A crucial concept that empowered
the Supreme Court to invalidate acts of Congress.
Although not explicitly propounded in the U.S.
Constitution, Chief Justice John Marshall affirmed
inMarbury v. Madison(1803) that the right of
judicial review was implicit in the Constitution’s
status as “the supreme Law of the Land,” 148
Kentucky and Virginia Resolves Political decla-
rations in favor of states’ rights, written by
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, in opposi-
tion to the federal Alien and Sedition Acts.
These resolutions, passed by the Kentucky and
Virginia legislatures in 1798, maintained that
states could nullify federal legislation they
regarded as unconstitutional, 166
New Jersey Plan The proposal to the
Constitutional Convention of 1787 by New Jersey
delegate William Paterson to create a federal legis-
lature in which each state was represented equally.
The concept became embodied in the United
States Constitution through the Senate, in which
each state has two representatives, though this was
counterbalanced by the House of Representatives,
in which each state’s representation is propor-
tional to its population, 147
Shays’s rebellion An armed rebellion of western
Massachusetts farmers in 1786 to prevent state
courts from foreclosing on debtors. Nationalists
saw such unrest as proof of the inadequacy of the
federal government under the Articles of
Confederation, 145
Three-Fifths Compromise The provision in the
Constitution that defined slaves, for purposes of
representation in the House of Representatives
and state tax payments, not as full persons, but as
constituting only three-fifths of a person, 148
Virginia Plan An initiative, proposed by James
Madison of Virginia, calling on the Constitutional
Convention to declare that seats in the federal leg-
islature would be proportionate to a state’s popu-
lation, a concept that caused smaller states to
propose a New Jersey plan in which each state
would have the same number of representatives.
The controversy was resolved in the Great
Compromise, 147
Whiskey Rebellion A violent protest by western
Pennsylvania farmers who refused to pay the
whiskey tax proposed by Alexander Hamilton. In
1794, the rebels threatened to destroy Pittsburgh;
by the time the Union army had arrived, the
rebels had dispersed, 161
XYZ Affair A political furor caused by French diplo-
mats who in 1797 demanded a bribe before they
would enter into negotiations with their American
counterparts; someFederalists, furious over this
assault on national honor, called for war, 165Review Questions
1.The Articles of Confederation are famously known
to have been “ineffective.” What were their
strengths?
2.Who were the winners and losers in the political
compromises that resulted in the Constitution?
3.How did the Constitution expand the powers of
the federal government?
4.The rise of the Federalists and Republicans consti-
tuted what some historians call the “First
American Political Party System.” What were the
key points of dispute? Agreement?
5.How did the Alien and Sedition Acts exacerbate
political tensions?
6.Did Washington succeed in bringing the country
together, or was his toleration of division within
his own administration a reason for the rise of
political factions?