Whiskey, Treaties, and Sedition: Testing the Constitution, 1787–1800

In this episode, we trace how the fragile new republic was pushed to its limits. From Hamilton’s ambitious financial revolution to farmers rebelling on the frontier, foreign powers testing American neutrality, and Congress silencing dissent with the Sedition Act, this decade reveals how theory met reality. As Federalists and Democratic-Republicans battled for the nation’s soul, the “Revolution of 1800” proved something extraordinary: Americans could transfer power peacefully—by ballots, not bullets—and the Constitution, though vague, could endure its first great test.