Roundtable Project

Presentation Day – Ex Day, Tues., Sept. 30

However ugly and vituperative people think politics is today, it has nothing on the politics of the early days of our Republic. The ideological conflicts between the Federalists and Republicans gave birth to mutual accusations of selling out to foreign powers, lying, and plotting to ruin the young Republic. The newspapers were firmly aligned with the emerging political parties and would hurl partisan charges at the other side while praising deeply their own side. We will be bringing those issues and accusations to life in this project.

You will be working in small groups to make an 8 to 12 minute presentation to the class on a certain period in American history. For the purposes of this project, you will pretend that you are presenting a Crossfire-style roundtable TV show as if smash-mouth cable TV news existed back in the early days of the United States. Each group should have at least two people represent the key people of your assigned period. The rest of the group should pretend to be either political operatives or partisan journalists for the two parties. You may also have individuals who pretend to be political pundits from this time period. A pundit is a political expert, usually associated with a newspaper, who gives his or her opinion on political issues. Pundits can pretend to be non-partisan or be associated with one of the two parties. The background you have in this period from The Founding Brothers should be of great help as you prepare.

Your group will debate and ask questions and analyze the political, economic, and foreign policy issues of the day. Arguing and insults are fine if they give us a sense of verisimilitude; however, you must be sure to comprehensively cover your period and not just descend into purposeless name-calling. Members of a group paired with yours will ask questions of the participants when you are finished. You must stay in character for this question and answer session.

As we work through this unit, think carefully and take notes about the issues you will need to explore and what you will want to say about these items. Your group will receive a group grade for how well you cover the issues and how accurately you portray the historic figures and the partisan positions of the time. Each person will receive an individual grade on how well you personally portray your part and on the quality of your question to your paired group. The combined grade will count as a test grade. This is a grand opportunity for those not happy with their test scores to raise their averages.

Roundtable Discussions

1. Domestic issues during Washington’s presidency. (Members of this group will also ask questions of group #2)

2. Foreign policy issues during Washington’s presidency. (Members of this group will also ask questions of group #1)

3. Adams presidency, including the elections of 1796 and 1800. (Members of this group will also ask questions of group #4)

4. Jefferson’s presidency (Members of this group will also ask questions of group #3)

Possible Participants

George Washington Alexander Hamilton John Adams Abigail Adams John Fenno (editor of the Gazette, a pro- Federalist newspaper)

Thomas Jefferson James Madison Aaron Burr Philip Freneau (editor of the National Gazette, a pro-Republican newspaper) James Callender (an anti-Adams pamphleteer who later turns on Jefferson)

Rubric

	Possible Points	Your Grade
Group Grade	50
Individual Grade for Presentation	40
Individual Grade for your question of group paired with yours	10
TOTAL	100