Covers key events in the presidency of George Washington, including the Whiskey Rebellion, the development of the First Party System, and the issues raised in Washington's farewell address.

1. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil War
Part 1: George Washington

2. WASHINGTON’S
MAJOR ISSUES
Securing the sovereignty of the republic
Advocating an isolationist foreign policy

3. THE WHISKEY
REBELLION (1794)
• Two years after he was elected
president, George Washington
faced another popular uprising
over the issue of revenue.
• Until 1791, the new American
federal government collected
revenue via customs duties on
goods imported from overseas.
• In December 1790, Alexander
Hamilton, Washington’s
Secretary of the Treasury,
decided that customs duties
had reached their limit and
created the new nation’s first
tax on domestic products.

4. THE WHISKEY
REBELLION (1794)
• Hamilton imposed a new tax on
whiskey, believing it to be a tax
on a luxury item.
• The tax met with fierce
opposition on the western
frontier. This opposition
reached its peak in 1794,
when widespread protests
turned into an armed rebellion.
• Washington responded by
personally leading a federal
government militia against the
rebels to end the uprising.

5. PARTY POLITICS
• George Washington did not
belong to any political party.
• Alexander Hamilton created the
Federalist Party in 1789, largely
to organize support for his
initiative to create the First
Bank of the United States.
• The Democratic-Republican
Party was created in 1791 to
oppose the Federalist Party.
Its founders were Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison,
both of whom disapproved of
Hamilton’s economic policies.

7. WASHINGTON’S
RESIGNATION
Washington was reluctant to
accept a second term as president.
At the end of his second term, he
refused popular demands for a
third term and stepped down. In
his farewell address, he urged
future presidents to focus on
maintaining at least neutral
relations with all foreign nations.

8. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1796: JOHN ADAMS VS. THOMAS JEFFERSON
• John Adams, Washington’s Vice President, ran for
election to the presidency against Thomas Jefferson,
Washington’s former Secretary of State.
• Adams ran for the Federalist Party.
• Jefferson ran for the Democratic-Republican Party.
• Adams narrowly won the election in the Electoral
College. Jefferson won the second-highest number of
Electoral College votes. The result was a President
from one party and a Vice President from another.
• The rivalry between the Federalists and the
Democratic-Republicans in the 1790s marks the
beginning of the United States’ ‘First Party System.’

9. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil War
Part 1: George Washington