Educator Resource
Chapter 4: 1789-1800 Inquiry Organizer
How can a nation stay unified despite divisions?

Founding Principles
Civic Virtue, Natural/Inalienable Rights, Individual Responsibility, Private Virtue, Checks and Balances, Civil Discourse, Consent of the Governed, Due Process, Equal Protection, Equality, Federalism, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Liberty, Limited Government, Property Rights, Rule of Law, Separation of Powers
In this organizer
- Lesson10
- Narrative8
- Primary Source11
- Point-Counterpoint2
- Decision Point3
Compelling question
How can a nation stay unified despite divisions?
Chapter objectives
- Students will be able to analyze the foreign and domestic policies of the Washington and Adams administrations and evaluate the constitutional basis for those policies and the opposition to them.
- Students will be able to describe and compare the shaping of a unified American identity across various regions, the reasons for continued regional differences, and the effects of unity or differences in responses to national issues.
Supporting questions and resources
The filter narrows the resources under every question. Each card opens the resource.
Supporting question 1
What unified the thirteen former colonies as a new nation in 1789?
- LessonGeorge Washington in American Art
- NarrativeJames Madison and the Bill of Rights
- LessonActions of the First Congress
- Decision PointThe Compromise of 1790
- Primary SourceThomas Jefferson on the Compromise of 1790
- Primary SourceGeorge Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789
- Primary SourceThe Judiciary Act of 1789
Supporting question 2
What political, social and cultural issues caused internal divisions in the new nation?
- NarrativeBenjamin Franklin and the First Abolitionist Petitions
- NarrativeEli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
- LessonThe Founder’s Failure to End Slavery
- NarrativeAlexander Hamilton and the National Bank
- Point-CounterpointStrict” or “Loose”: Was the National Bank Constitutional?
- LessonThe National Bank Debate
- Decision PointRobert Carter and Manumission
- Primary SourceThomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, Writings on the National Bank, 1785-1792
- LessonMethods of Slave Resistance DBQ
Supporting question 3
How was the new nation challenged in its interactions with other nations?
- LessonThe Global Impact of the American Revolution DBQ
- Decision PointGeorge Washington and the Proclamation of Neutrality
- NarrativeThe Battle of Fallen Timbers
- NarrativeThe XYZ Affair and the Quasi-War with France
- NarrativeThe Jay Treaty
- Primary SourceThe Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Treaty of New York, 1790
- Primary SourceThe Jay Treaty, 1795
- Primary SourcePinckney’s Treaty, 1796
- Primary SourceCartoon Analysis: Property Protected—à la Françoise, 1798
- Primary SourceCartoon Analysis: Congressional Pugilists
Supporting question 4
How did the Washington and Adams Administrations respond to challenges?
- Primary SourceGeorge Washington, Farewell Address, 1796
- NarrativeThe Alien and Sedition Acts
- Primary SourceKentucky and Virginia Resolutions, 1798 and 1799
- Point-CounterpointThe Whiskey Rebellion: Unjust taxation or enforcing the rule of law?
- LessonBe Washington: Whiskey Rebellion
- Chapter 4 Introductory Essay: 1789-1800
- BRI Homework Help Video: Partisanship
- LessonUnit 2 Civics Connection: An Apple of Gold in a Frame of Silver
- LessonGeorge Washington’s Views on Slavery
- LessonUsing Political Cartoons to Understand History









