Formation of the Union
by
Albert Bushnell Hart
Part 3 out of 5
53. FINANCES (1781-1788).
[Sidenote: Financial status.]
[Sidenote: Requisitions.]
The financial condition of the Confederation was throughout deplorable (§
43). The Revolution imposed upon the country a heavy debt. The accounts of
the government were so badly kept that to this day it is impossible to
state the amount; but it was probably about thirty millions, with an
annual interest charge of about two millions. The necessary expenditure
for the support of Congress, of the army on a peace-footing, and of the
executive and judicial boards and departments, called for about half a
million more. The continental currency had practically been repudiated,
and no more could be floated; Congress had no power to lay either direct
or indirect taxes; the post-office had an income of about $25,000 a year,
all of which was expended upon the service. Hence Congress fell back on
requisitions apportioned on the States: one of its principal functions was
each year to calculate the amount necessary for the public service, and to
call upon the State legislatures for their quota. The total sum required
from 1781 to 1788 was about $16,000,000. Of this there had actually been
paid during the seven years $3,500,000 in specie, and $2,500,000 in
certificates of national indebtedness. The annual cash income of the
government was therefore about half a million, which was entirely absorbed
by the necessary running expenses of the government, leaving nothing for
the payment of interest.
[Sidenote: Morris's administration.]
This condition of virtual bankruptcy might have been avoided had Robert
Morris been able to carry out the reforms which he proposed when he became
superintendent of finance in 1781. He found the financial administration
complicated and corrupt. He attempted to substitute business methods and
punctuality of payment. While the war lasted, however, the only financial
system possible was to squeeze every source of revenue, and to pay only
what could not be avoided. When peace returned, the States would provide
no better system. To keep up the credit of the government the first
necessity was the prompt payment of interest: the payment of interest
required money; money must come from taxes, and the State declined to levy
the taxes. In 1784 Morris resigned in despair, and thenceforward a
Treasury Board mismanaged the finances of the nation.
[Sidenote: Bank of North America.]
May 26, 1781, Congress had taken the important step of chartering the Bank
of North America. The United States was to furnish part of the capital,
and to make the bank its financial agent. Its notes were to be receivable
in the duties and taxes of every State in the Union. Morris asked Jay to
get specie from Spain to start the bank. "I am determined," said he, "that
the bank shall be well supported until it can support itself, and then it
will support us." Its connection with the government practically ceased
after the retirement of Morris in 1784, although it remained under a State
charter a prosperous and useful institution, and is still in existence, a
sound and healthy bank.
[Sidenote: The currency.]
Another financial measure was the attempt to correct the currency. After
the end of the war there was found in circulation an extraordinary mixture
of gold and silver coins of all nations, especially the Spanish milled
dollar, which had been accepted by the Continental Congress as the unit of
its issues. All the currency was badly counterfeited, defaced, and
clipped. In 1782 the quartermaster-general, Timothy Pickering, who was
about to pay out a part of the French subsidy in coin, wrote as follows:
"I must trouble you for the necessary apparatus for clipping. 'Tis a
shameful business and an unreasonable hardship on a public officer.... A
pair of good shears, a couple of punches, and a leaden anvil of two or
three pounds weight. Will you inquire how the goldsmiths put in their
plugs?" The Confederation, upon Jefferson's report, July 6, 1785, adopted
the dollar as its unit, and provided for a decimal ratio; but a few tons
of copper cents made up the only national currency put into circulation.
[Sidenote: Foreign loans.]
Towards the end of its existence the Confederation found itself on the
brink of a default of interest on debts due to foreign governments and
bankers. France in 1783 made a final loan of six hundred thousand francs;
and from 1783 to 1788 Dutch bankers were found who had sufficient
confidence in the government to advance it $1,600,000 on favorable terms.
With the proceeds of these loans the government was able to pay the
accumulated interest on the foreign loans, and thus to keep its credit
above water in Europe.
54. DISORDERS IN THE STATES (1781-1788).
[Sidenote: State financial legislation.]
The finances of the States were little better than those of the Union. The
States controlled all the resources of the country; they could and did
raise taxes, but they appropriated the proceeds to their own pressing
necessities; and the meagre sums paid to Congress represented a genuine
sacrifice on the part of many States, particularly Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts. Unfortunately the States exercised unlimited powers over
their own currency and commercial relations. Times were hard, debts had
accumulated, property had been destroyed by the war. State after State
passed stay laws delaying the collection of debts; or "tender laws" were
enacted, by which property at an appraised value was made a legal tender,
Cattle, merchandise, and unimproved real estate were the usual currency
thus forced upon creditors. After peace was declared, a second era of
State paper-money issues came on, and but four of the thirteen States
escaped the craze.
[Sidenote: Weakness of the States.]
[Sidenote: Proposed new states.]
[Sidenote: Insurrections.]
These remedies bore hard on the creditors in other States, created a
feeling of insecurity among business men, and gave no permanent relief.
The discontented, therefore, sought a remedy for themselves. The
Revolutionary War had left behind it an eddy of lawlessness and disregard
of human life. The support of the government was a heavy load upon the
people. The States were physically weak, and the State legislatures
habitually timid. In several States there were organized attempts to set
off outlying portions as independent governments. Vermont had set the
example by withdrawing from New York in 1777, and throughout the
Confederation remained without representation either in the New York
legislature or in Congress. In 1782 the western counties of Pennsylvania
and Virginia threatened to break off and form a new State. From 1785 to
1786 the so-called State of "Franklin," within the territory of what is
now eastern Tennessee, had a constitution and legislature and governor,
and carried on a mild border warfare with the government of North
Carolina, to which its people owed allegiance. The people of Kentucky and
of Maine held conventions looking toward separation. The year 1786 was
marked by great uneasiness in what had been supposed to be the steadiest
States in the union. In New Hampshire the opposition was directed against
the legislature; but General Sullivan, by his courage, succeeded in
quelling the threatened insurrection without bloodshed. In Massachusetts
in the fall of 1786 concerted violence prevented the courts from sitting;
and an organized force of insurgents under Captain Shays threatened to
destroy the State government. As a speaker in the Massachusetts convention
of 1788 said, "People took up arms; and then if you went to speak to them
you had the musket of death presented to your breast. They would rob you
of your property, threaten to burn your houses; obliged you to be on your
guard night and day.... How terrible, how distressing was this!... Had any
one that was able to protect us come and set up his standard, we should
all have flocked to it, even though it had been a monarch." The arsenal at
Springfield was attacked. The State forces were met in the open field by
armed insurgents. Had they been successful, the Union was not worth one of
its own repudiated notes. The Massachusetts authorities were barely able
to restore order, and Congress went beyond its constitutional powers in an
effort to assist.
55. SLAVERY (1777-1788).
[Sidenote: Anti-slavery spirit.]
[Sidenote: Emancipation acts.]
[Sidenote: Southern sentiment.]
One evidence that the States were still sound and healthful was the
passage of Emancipation acts. The Revolutionary principles of the rights
of man, the consent of the governed, and political equality, had been
meant for white men; but it was hard to deny their logical application to
the blacks. New anti-slavery societies were formed, particularly in
Pennsylvania; but the first community to act was Vermont. In the
Declaration of Rights prefixed to the Constitution of 1777 it was declared
that since every man is entitled to life, liberty, and happiness,
therefore "no ... person born in this country, or brought here over sea,
ought to be holden by law to serve any person as a servant, slave, or
apprentice" after he arrives at the age of maturity. A few years later
this was supplemented by an act abolishing the institution of slavery
outright. The number of slaves in Vermont was inconsiderable, but in 1780
two States, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, took similar action, affecting
several thousand persons. The Massachusetts constitution of 1780 declared
that "all men are born free and equal." This clause was a few years later
interpreted by the courts to mean that after 1780 no person could legally
be held as a slave. In Pennsylvania in the same year a gradual
Emancipation Act was passed, under which persons then in bondage were to
serve as slaves during their lives; their children, born after 1780, were
eventually to become free; and no person was to be brought into the State
and sold as a slave. Within four years New Hampshire and Connecticut
passed similar Emancipation Acts. In Rhode Island the number of slaves,
3,500, was considerable in proportion to the population, and that State
therefore made a distinct sacrifice for its principles by its act of 1785.
Thus at the expiration of the Confederation in 1788, all the States north
of Maryland, except New York and New Jersey, had put slavery in process of
extinction; those two States followed in 1799 and 1804. Many Southern
statesmen hoped that the institution was dying out even in the South.
Jefferson in 1787 wrote: "Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect
that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever." Some steps
were taken, particularly in Virginia and Kentucky, for the amelioration of
the condition of the blacks; and the slave-trade was forbidden in most of
the States of the Union during this period.
56. FOREIGN RELATIONS AND COMMERCE (1781-1788).
[Sidenote: Relations with England.]
In no respect, not even in finance, was the weakness of the Confederation
so evident as in the powerlessness of Congress to pass commercial laws,
and its consequent inability to secure commercial treaties. In 1785 John
Adams was sent as minister to Great Britain, and was received with
civility by the sovereign from whom he had done so much to tear the
brightest jewel of his crown; but when he endeavored to come to some
commercial arrangement, he could make no progress. It is easy now to see
that the best policy for Great Britain would have been in every way to
encourage American commerce; the Americans were accustomed to trade with
England; their credits and business connections were established with
English merchants; the English manufactured the goods most desired by
America. When the Whigs were driven out of power in 1783, the last
opportunity for such an agreement was lost. July 2, 1783, an Order in
Council was issued, restraining the West India trade to British ships,
British built; and on March 26, 1785, the Duke of Dorset replied to the
American commissioners who asked for a treaty: "The apparent determination
of the respective States to regulate their own separate interests renders
it absolutely necessary, towards forming a permanent system of commerce,
that my court should be informed how far the commissioners can be duly
authorized to enter into any engagement with Great Britain which it may
not be in the power of any one of the States to render totally useless and
inefficient."
[Sidenote: Loyalists.]
[Sidenote: British debts.]
[Sidenote: Posts.]
There were other reasons why the British continued to subject American
ships in English ports to discriminations and duties from which the
vessels of most other powers were exempt. The treaty of 1783 had provided
that Congress would recommend to the States just treatment of the
loyalists; the recommendation was made. Most of the States declined to
comply; men who had been eminent before the Revolution returned to find
themselves distrusted, and sometimes were mobbed; their estates, which in
most cases had been confiscated, were withheld, and they could obtain no
consideration. This was unfriendly, but not a violation of any promise.
The action of the States in placing obstacles in the way of collecting
debts due to British merchants before the Revolution was a vexatious
infraction of the treaty. Five States had passed laws for the partial or
complete confiscation of such debts, and even after the treaty
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts passed similar Acts. As an offset, the
British minister in 1786 declared that the frontier posts would not be
surrendered so long as the obstacles to the collection of British debts
were left standing.
[Sidenote: The Spanish treaty.]
The only other power with which the United States desired commercial
relations without possessing them was Spain. The Eastern States were very
anxious to obtain privileges of trade. The Spanish were willing to grant
them, but made it a condition that the Americans should not have the right
of free navigation of the lower Mississippi. Jay, acting under the
instruction of Congress, in 1786 negotiated a treaty in which he agreed to
the Spanish conditions. Instantly the West was aroused, and violent
threats were made by the people of Kentucky and the adjacent region that
if that treaty went into effect they would withdraw from the Union. "The
tendency of the States," said Madison, a few months later, "to violations
of the laws of nations and treaties ... has been manifest.... The files of
Congress contain complaints already from almost every nation with which
treaties have been formed."
57. DISINTEGRATION OF THE UNION (1786, 1787).
[Sidenote: The Confederation violated.]
[Sidenote: Danger of anarchy.]
The year 1786 marks a crisis in the development of the Union. The
inefficiency of Congress was reflected in the neglect of constitutional
duties by the States: Rhode Island recalled her delegates, and refused to
appoint new members; New Jersey felt so much injured by a New York tariff
that an act was passed taxing the lighthouse established by New York on
Sandy Hook; Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia
already had raised troops on their own account and for their own purposes,
in violation of the Articles of Confederation. Davie, of North Carolina, a
little later declared that the "encroachments of some States on the rights
of others, and of all on those of the Confederation, are incontestable
proofs of the weakness and imperfections of that system." Of the
requisition of that year for $2,000,000 in specie, only about $400,000 was
paid. Some States offered their own depreciated notes, and New Jersey
refused to make any contribution until the offensive New York Acts were
withdrawn. In May, 1786, Charles Pinckney on the floor of Congress
declared that "Congress must be invested with more powers, or the federal
government must fall."
58. REORGANIZATION ATTEMPTED (1781-1787).
[Sidenote: Five percent scheme.]
[Sidenote: Revenue scheme.]
Before the Articles of Confederation had gone into effect, Congress had
already proposed a radical amendment; and within three years it suggested
two others. The first proposition, made February 3, 1781, was that the
States allow Congress to levy an import duty of five per cent, the
proceeds to be applied "to the discharge of the principal and interest of
the debts already contracted ... on the faith of the United States for
supporting the present war." In the course of about a year twelve States
had complied with this reasonable request. Rhode Island alone stood out,
and the plan failed. Forthwith Congress presented another financial
scheme, which was called a "general revenue plan." April 12, 1783, it
asked the States to allow Congress to lay low specific import duties for
twenty-five years, to be collected by officers appointed by the States.
The States were further recommended to lay some effective taxes, the
proceeds to be set aside for government requisitions. The effect was
precisely the same as before. Twelve States agreed; but the opposition of
New York prevented the first part of the plan from being carried out. Not
a single State had condescended to pay attention to the second request.
[Sidenote: Commerce amendment.]
Apparently abandoning any hope of an adequate revenue, Congress, on April
30, 1784, proposed a third amendment, that the States should permit it to
pass commercial laws discriminating against foreign powers which refused
to make commercial treaties. This was aimed at Great Britain. Washington
urged the measure in vigorous language. "We are," said he, "either a
united people, or we are not so. If the former, let us in all matters of
national concern act as a nation which has a national character to
support." Yet he could not bring even Virginia to agree to the plan, and
it quickly failed.
[Sidenote: Schemes of revision.]
A poor constitution, which could be amended only by unanimous vote, was
likely to stifle the nation. A few feeble suggestions were heard that the
experiment of republican government be given over; others urged that the
Americans be brought within one centralized government. Alexander Hamilton
would have established a government "controlling the internal police of
the States, and having a federal judiciary." Upon the last of his three
schemes, dated 1783, is written: "Intended to be submitted to Congress,
but abandoned for want of support." Even Washington's vastly greater
influence had no effect. In a circular letter to the governors, dated
June, 1783, he says: "It is indispensable to the happiness of the
individual States that there should be lodged somewhere a supreme power to
regulate and govern the general concerns of the confederated republic."
Yet not a State would take the initiative in reforming the constitution.
From 1784 to 1786 pamphlets began to appear in which more definite
suggestions were made for a new government. Pelatiah Webster proposed a
government with enlarged powers, and a legislature of two houses. "If they
disagree," said he, "let them sit still until they recover their good
humor." The method in which the new government was to enforce its powers
was put in a quaint and incisive form. "My principle is," said Webster,
"the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Every person ... who shall disobey
the supreme authority shall be answerable to Congress." The idea that the
constitution needed radical amendment had at last found a lodgment in the
public mind.
CHAPTER VI.
THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION (1787-1789).
59. REFERENCES.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--P. L. Ford, _Bibliography and Reference List of the
Constitution_; Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, VII.
256-266; W. E. Foster, _References to the Constitution_, 15, 21; Channing
and Hart, _Guide_, §§ 154-156; A. B. Hart, _Federal Government_, §§ 38,
469.
HISTORICAL MAPS.--As in § 48 above, § 69 below.
GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--J. B. McMaster, _People of the United States_, I.
416-524; R. Hildreth, _United States_, III. 482-546; T. Pitkin, _United
States_, II. 218-316; H. C. Lodge, _Washington_, II. ch. I.; J. Story,
_Commentaries_, §§ 272-372; J. Schouler, _United States_, I. 31-70; Geo.
Tucker, _United States_, I. 347-383; Justin Winsor, _Narrative and
Critical History_, VII. ch. iv.; H. Von Hoist, _Constitutional History_,
I. 47-63; J. S. Landon, _Constitutional History_, 59-96; F. A. Walker,
_Making of the Nation_, chs. ii., iii.
SPECIAL HISTORIES.--G. T. Curtis, _Constitutional History, I. chs. xv.-
xxxvi. (_History of the Constitution_, III. 232-604); Geo. Bancroft,
_United States_, last revision, VI. 195-462 (_History of the
Constitution_, I. 267-278, II. 1-47, 144, 350); William C. Rives,
_James Madison_, II. 313-633; H. L. Carson, _One Hundredth Anniversary of
the Constitution_; J. B. McMaster, _Pennsylvania and the Federal
Constitution_; John Fiske, _Critical Period_, 183-350; S. H. Gay,
_Madison_, 88-127; J. C. Hamilton, _Republic_, III. 236-569; J. H.
Robinson, _Sources of the Constitution_; S. B. Harding, _Federal
Constitution in Massachusetts_; C. E. Stevens, _Sources of the
Constitution_; C. Borgeaud, _Adoption and Amendment of Constitutions_;
the various State histories.
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--Journal of the Convention, Madison's notes,
Yates's notes, Luther Martin's letter, proceedings of State conventions,--
all in _Elliot's Debates_ (5 vols.); H. D. Gilpin, _Papers of James
Madison_, vols. II., III.; brief references in the works of Washington,
Madison, Hamilton, and Jefferson; letters in the biographies of Madison,
Hamilton, Rufus King, Gerry; _The Federalist_.--Reprints in P. L. Ford,
_Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States_, and _Essays on the
Constitution; American History told by Contemporaries_, III.; _Library of
American Literature_, VI.
60. THE FEDERAL CONVENTION ASSEMBLED (1787).
[Sidenote: A convention suggested.]
[Sidenote: Annapolis Convention.]
[Sidenote: Action of Congress.]
That Congress did not possess the confidence of the country was evident
from the failure of all its amendments. It had, therefore, been suggested
first by Hamilton in 1780, later by Tom Paine in his widespread pamphlet
"Public Good," that a convention be specially summoned to revise the
Articles of Confederation. The initiative in the movement was finally
taken by the States. In 1786 the intolerable condition of internal
commerce caused Virginia to suggest to the sister States that a conference
be held at Annapolis. The few delegates who appeared separated, after
recommending that there be held "a convention of delegates from the
different States ... to devise such further provisions as shall appear to
them necessary to render the constitution of the federal government
adequate." Congress was no longer able to resist the movement: on Feb. 1,
1787, it resolved that a convention be held "for the sole and express
purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to
Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions
therein as shall, when agreed to by Congress and confirmed by the States,
render the federal government adequate to the exigencies of government and
the preservation of the union."
[Sidenote: Convention assembled.]
By May, 1787, delegates to the proposed convention had been chosen in all
the States except New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Many of the ablest and
most experienced public men were included. Among them were Francis Dana
and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, Alexander Hamilton of New York,
Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and James Madison and George Washington
of Virginia. The convention was the most distinguished body which had ever
assembled in America; if its work could not command public confidence,
there was no hope for the Union.
61. DIFFICULTIES OF THE CONVENTION (1787).
[Sidenote: Task of the convention.]
When on May 25, 1787, the convention assembled at Philadelphia, its task,
under the call of Congress, was limited to the preparation of amendments
to the old Confederation. The first formal resolution to which it came
after organization reads as follows: "That a national government ought to
be established, consisting of a supreme legislature, executive, and
judiciary." The convention from the beginning was evidently resolved to
recommend a new, elaborate, and powerful form of government. The key to
this action is found in the history of the twelve years from 1775 to 1787.
The country had tried a revolutionary, irresponsible, form of government,
and it had not worked well. It had tried a union of sovereign States;
neither the Union nor the States had prospered. The time had come to
change the government in form, in powers, and in the means of carrying out
its powers. The States must be held to their duties; Congress must be
restrained; local quarrels must cease; revenue must be secured, commerce
protected, and treaties guaranteed; the West must be saved, and
insurrections put down. The first duty of the convention was to repair the
errors of the Confederation.
[Sidenote: Want of authority.]
Americans have become accustomed to look upon the Constitution as a kind
of political revelation; the members of the convention themselves felt no
sense of strength or inspiration. They had no authority of their own.
Their work must be submitted for the ratification of States which had been
unable to agree upon a single modification of the articles. They must
encounter the jealousy of Congress and the prejudices of the people. While
the convention sat, a rumor went abroad that they would report in favor of
a monarchy.
In order to bring the discussion to a focus, the Virginia delegates had
agreed upon a plan drawn by Madison, who had been in communication with
Washington; it was presented by Edmund Randolph. This plan in the end
formed the basis of the constitution as adopted.
[Sidenote: Divisions.]
No sooner had debate actually begun than the convention proved to be
divided into many factions. Some members, like Patterson, were on
principle opposed to a strong government; others, like Hamilton, desired
to break down the State boundaries, and to create a centralized republic.
Still more distinct was the opposition between the large States and the
small: the former inclined to a representation based on population; the
latter insisted that the States should be equal units. Again, the trading
States--New England, New York, and Maryland--were inclined to grant large
powers over commerce; the agricultural States, particularly Virginia,
wished to see commerce regulated still by the States in part. Another line
of division was between the slaveholding and the non-slaveholding States;
here the champions were Massachusetts on one side, and South Carolina on
the other. Throughout the convention these various elements combined and
recombined as their interests seemed affected. Although there were no
permanent parties, the members of which regularly voted together, there
was disagreement and disappointment from the beginning to the end.
62. SOURCES OF THE CONSTITUTION.
[Sidenote: American experience.]
Another popular delusion with regard to the Constitution is that it was
created out of nothing; or, as Mr. Gladstone puts it, that "It is the
greatest work ever struck off at any one time by the mind and purpose of
man." The radical view on the other side is expressed by Sir Henry Maine,
who informs us that the "Constitution of the United States is a modified
version of the British Constitution ... which was in existence between
1760 and 1787." The real source of the Constitution is the experience of
Americans. They had established and developed admirable little
commonwealths in the colonies; since the beginning of the Revolution they
had had experience of State governments organized on a different basis
from the colonial; and, finally, they had carried on two successive
national governments, with which they had been profoundly discontented.
The general outline of the new Constitution seems to be English; it was
really colonial. The President's powers of military command, of
appointment, and of veto were similar to those of the colonial governor.
National courts were created on the model of colonial courts. A
legislature of two houses was accepted because such legislatures had been
common in colonial times. In the English Parliamentary system as it
existed before 1760 the Americans had had no share; the later English
system of Parliamentary responsibility was not yet developed, and had
never been established in colonial governments; and they expressly
excluded it from their new Constitution.
[Sidenote: State experience.]
They were little more affected by the experience of other European
nations. Just before they assembled, Madison drew up an elaborate abstract
of ancient, mediĉval, and existing federal governments, of which he sent a
copy to Washington. It is impossible to trace a single clause of the
Constitution to any suggestion in this paper. The chief source of the
details of the Constitution was the State constitutions and laws then in
force. Thus the clause conferring a suspensive veto on the President is an
almost literal transcript from the Massachusetts constitution. In fact,
the principal experiment in the Constitution was the establishment of an
electoral college; and of all parts of the system this has worked least as
the framers expected. The Constitution represents, therefore, the
accumulated experience of the time; its success is due to the wisdom of
the members in selecting out of the mass of colonial and State
institutions those which were enduring,
[Sidenote: Novelties.]
The real boldness of the Constitution is the novelty of the federal system
which it set up. For the first time in history an elaborate written
constitution was applied to a federation; and the details were so
skilfully arranged that the instrument framed for thirteen little
agricultural communities works well for forty-four large and populous
States. A second novelty was a system of federal courts skilfully brought
into harmony with the State judiciary. Even here we see an effect of the
twelve years experience of imperfect federation. The convention knew how
to select institutions that would stand together; it also knew how to
reject what would have weakened the structure.
63. THE GREAT COMPROMISES (1787).
[Sidenote: State sovereignty.]
It was a long time before a compromise between the discordant elements
could be reached. To declare the country a centralized nation was to
destroy the traditions of a century and a half: to leave it an assemblage
of States, each claiming independence and sovereignty, was to throw away
the results of the Revolution. The convention finally agreed that while
the Union should be endowed with adequate powers, the States should retain
all powers not specifically granted, and particularly the right to
regulate their own internal affairs.
[Sidenote: Representation of States.]
The next great question all but led to the breaking up of the convention.
The New Hampshire delegate had not yet appeared, and Rhode Island was
never represented in the convention; the large states had therefore a
majority of one. On June 13 it was voted that the ratio of representation
in both branches of the legislature should be in proportion to the
population. Two days later, Patterson of New Jersey brought forward a plan
satisfactory to the small States, by which the old plan of vote by States
was to be retained, and the Confederation practically continued. For many
days the two parties were unable to agree; the crisis was so serious that
on June 28 Franklin, who was not renowned for piety, moved that
thenceforward the sessions be opened with prayer. The deadlock was finally
broken by the so-called Connecticut Compromise, adopted July 7: equal
representation was to be preserved in the upper house, and proportional
representation was to be granted in the lower.
[Sidenote: Representation of slaves.]
When it was proposed to levy taxes on the same basis, the Southern members
objected that their negroes were not equal to freemen as producers of
wealth. On July 12, the matter was adjusted by a compromise: the
Southerners agreed to count slaves only at three fifths of their number,
in apportioning both representatives and direct taxes. Since direct taxes
have been but three times assessed in the history of the United States,
the practical advantage was on the side of the North.
[Sidenote: Slave trade.]
It was otherwise in the third difficult question. Near the end of the
convention the commercial and the agricultural States came into a
disagreement. New England was anxious that Congress should have power to
pass Acts protecting American shipping; on the other hand, the South
desired to continue the slave-trade. Pinckney declared that "South
Carolina can never receive the plan if it prohibits the slave-trade;" and
Sherman of Connecticut cynically remarked, "The slave-trade is iniquitous;
but inasmuch as the point of representation was settled, he should not
object." On August 24 a third compromise left to Congress the power of
passing Navigation Acts, but forbade it to prohibit the slave-trade during
twenty years.
64. DETAILS OF THE CONSTITUTION (1787).
[Sidenote: Difficult questions.]
These difficult points out of the way, the convention arranged the details
of the new government. One of the principal minor questions was the method
of presidential election. Many members inclined towards an executive
council; instead, it was agreed that there should be a President elected
by Congress; but almost at the last moment, on September 7, the better
plan of indirect election by the people was adopted. At one time the
convention had agreed that Congress should have the right of veto upon
State laws; it was abandoned, and instead was introduced a clause that the
Constitution should be the supreme law of the land, and powerful courts
were created to construe the law.
[Sidenote: Simplicity of the Constitution.]
In making up the list of the powers of Congress, the convention used brief
but comprehensive terms. Thus all the difficulties arising out of the
unfriendly commercial legislation of States, and their institution, with
foreign treaties, were removed by the simple clause: "The Congress shall
have Power ... to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the
several States, and with the Indian Tribes." The great question of
taxation was settled by fourteen words: "The Congress shall have Power ...
To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises."
[Sidenote: Omissions.]
In a few respects the Constitution was deficient. It did not profess to be
all-comprehensive, for the details of the government were to be worked out
in later statutes. There was, however, no provision for future annexations
of territory. No safeguards were provided for the proper appointment and
removal of public officers. The growth of corporations was not foreseen,
and no distinct power was conferred upon Congress either to create or to
regulate them. Above all, the convention was obliged to leave untouched
the questions connected with slavery which later disrupted the Union.
[Sidenote: The work finished.]
On Sept. 17, 1787, the convention finished its work. To the eloquent and
terse phraseology of Gouverneur Morris we owe the nervous English of the
great instrument. As the members were affixing their signatures, Franklin
remarked, pointing to the picture of a sun painted behind the President's
chair: "I have often and often,... in the vicissitudes of my hopes and
fears, looked ... without being able to tell whether it was rising or
setting; but now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a
rising and not a setting sun."
65. DIFFICULTIES OF RATIFICATION (1787, 1788).
[Sidenote: Action of Congress.]
[Sidenote: Action of legislatures.]
The text of the Constitution was printed and rapidly distributed
throughout the Union. It was still but a lifeless draft, and before it
could become an instrument of government the approving action of Congress,
of the legislatures, and of State conventions was necessary. Congress, on
Sept. 28, 1787, unanimously resolved that the Constitution be transmitted
to State legislatures. The federal convention had determined that the
consideration of its work should not depend, like the Articles of
Confederation, upon the slow and unwilling humor of the legislatures, but
that in each State a convention should be summoned solely to express the
will of the State upon the acceptance of the Constitution. It had further
avoided the rock upon which had been wrecked the amendments proposed by
Congress; when nine State conventions should have ratified the
Constitution, it was to take effect for those nine. On the same day that
Congress in New York was passing its resolution, the Pennsylvania
legislature in Philadelphia was fixing the day for the election of
delegates; all the State legislatures followed, except in Rhode Island.
[Sidenote: The Constitution attacked.]
The next six months was a period of great anxiety and of national danger.
The Constitution was violently attacked in every part of the Union: the
President, it was urged, would be a despot, the House of Representatives a
corporate tyrant, the Senate an oligarchy. The large States protested that
Delaware and Rhode Island would still neutralize the votes of Virginia and
Massachusetts in the Senate. The federal courts were said to be an
innovation. It was known that there had been great divisions in the
convention, and that several influential members had left, or at the last
moment had refused to sign. "The people of this commonwealth," said
Patrick Henry, "are exceedingly uneasy in being brought from that state of
full security which they enjoyed, to the present delusive appearance of
things." A special objection was made to the lack of a bill of rights,
such as existed in State constitutions. The reply was that the framers of
the Constitution had deliberately omitted it because Congress was in no
case to have powers not conferred upon it by the Constitution. The
argument was not conclusive: Rev. Mr. Caldwell, in the North Carolina
convention, declared that "unalienable rights ought not to be given up if
not necessary;" and another member of the same convention objected that
"if there be no religious test required, Pagans, Deists, and Mahometans
might obtain offices, And ... the senators and representatives might all
be pagans." It was even suggested as a serious danger that the Pope of
Rome might eventually be elected president.
[Sidenote: Federalists and Antifederalists.]
The friends of the measure, in order to deprecate the charge that they
aimed at centralization, took upon themselves the name of Federalists.
Their opponents called themselves antifederalists, corresponded with each
other, and formed a short-lived national party. A shower of pamphlets on
both sides fell upon the country. Of these the most famous and most
efficacious was the "Federalist," successive numbers of which were
contributed by Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay. With a calmness of spirit,
a lucidity of style, and a power of logic which make it to this day one of
the most important commentaries on the Constitution, the "Federalist"
strove to show that the Constitution was safe for the people and
advantageous for the States.
66. STATE CONVENTIONS (1787, 1788).
[Sidenote: First nine states.]
As the State conventions assembled, the excitement grew more intense. Four
States alone contained within a few thousands of half the population of
the Union: they were Massachusetts, Virginia, New York, and North
Carolina. In the convention of each of these States there was opposition
strong and stubborn; one of them--North Carolina--adjourned without
action; in the other three, ratification was obtained with extreme
difficulty and by narrow majorities.
The first State to come under the "New Roof," as the Constitution was
popularly called, was Delaware. In rapid succession followed Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut. In Massachusetts, the sixth State,
there was a hard fight; the spirit of the Shays Rebellion was still alive;
the opposition of Samuel Adams was only overcome by showing him that he
was in the minority; John Hancock was put out of the power to interfere by
making him the silent president of the convention. It was suggested that
Massachusetts ratify on condition that a long list of amendments be
adopted by the new government: the friends of the Constitution pointed out
that the plan was simply to ratify a part of the Constitution and to
reject the rest; each succeeding State would insist on a list of
amendments, and the whole work must be done over. Feb. 6, 1788, the
enthusiastic people of Boston knew that the convention, by a vote of 187
to 167, had ratified the Constitution; the amendments being added, not as
a condition, but as a suggestion. Maryland, South Carolina, and New
Hampshire brought the number up to nine.
[Sidenote: Virginia and New York.]
Before the ninth ratification was known, the fight had been won also in
Virginia. Among the champions of the Constitution were Madison, Edmund
Randolph, and John Marshall. James Monroe argued against the system of
election which was destined twice to make him President. In spite of the
determined opposition of Patrick Henry, and in spite of a proposition to
ratify with amendments, the convention accepted. New York still held off.
Her acquiescence was geographically necessary; and Alexander Hamilton, by
the power of his eloquence and his reason, changed the vote of a hostile
convention and added the eleventh State.
67. EXPIRATION OF THE CONFEDERATION (1788).
[Sidenote: The old Congress.]
During the session of the convention in Philadelphia Congress had
continued to sit in New York, and the Northwest Ordinance was passed at
this time (§ 52). On Sept. 13, 1788 Congress voted that the Constitution
had been ratified, and that elections should proceed for the officers of
the new government, which was to go into operation the first Wednesday in
March, 1789.
[Sidenote: Seat of government.]
[Sidenote: Congress expires.]
Since Congress and the President must meet somewhere, it became the duty
of the old Congress to fix, at least temporarily, the seat of government,
Trenton, Lancaster, Princeton, and New York were suggested. Baltimore was
voted; then, with its usual inconsistency, two days later Congress voted
for New York. An attempt was made to settle the accounts of Congress; but
all that could be ascertained was that they were in great confusion, and
that vouchers had not yet been turned in for the expenditure of large
sums. On October 23 is the last official record: "Two States attended."
During the next five months the only evidences of national life were the
perfunctory service of a few executive officers, the feeble movements of
the army, now reduced to about six hundred men, and the steady
accumulation of unpaid interest.
[Sidenote: Rhode Island and North Carolina.]
What, meantime, was the situation of the two States, Rhode Island and
North Carolina, which had not ratified the Constitution, and which were,
therefore, not entitled to take part in the elections? They had in 1781
entered into a constitution which was to be amended only by unanimous
consent; their consent was refused; legally they had a right to insist on
the continuance of the old Congress. The new Constitution was, strictly
speaking, unconstitutional; it had been ratified by a process unknown to
law. The situation was felt to be delicate, and the States were for the
time being left to themselves. North Carolina came into the Union by a
ratification of Nov. 21, 1789. It was suggested that the trade of States
which did not recognize Congress should be cut off, and Rhode Island
yielded. May 19, 1790, her ratification completed the Union.
68. WAS THE CONSTITUTION A COMPACT?
[Sidenote: The Constitution irregular.]
The third attempt to form an organic union was now successfully carried
out. The irregular authority of the Continental Congress had been replaced
by the legal but inefficient Confederation; to this was now to succeed an
organized government, complete in all its departments, and well endowed
with powers. How had this Constitution been adopted? What was the
authority which had taken upon itself to diminish the powers of the
States, and to disregard the clauses which required unanimous consent to
amendments? Was the new Constitution an agreement between eleven States,
or was it an instrument of government for the whole people? Upon this
question depends the whole discussion about the nature of the Union and
the right of secession.
[Sidenote: Compact theory.]
The first theory is that the Constitution was a compact made between
sovereign States. Thus Hayne in 1830 declared that "Before the
Constitution each state was an independent sovereignty, possessing all the
rights and powers appertaining to independent nations.... After the
Constitution was formed, they remained equally sovereign and independent
as to all powers not expressly delegated to the federal government.... The
true nature of the Federal Constitution, therefore, is ... a compact to
which the States are parties." The importance of the word "compact" is
that it means an agreement which loses its force when any one of the
parties ceases to observe it; a compact is little more than a treaty.
Those who framed the Constitution appeared to consider it no compact; for
on May 30, 1787, Mr. Randolph moved that "-no treaty or treaties among the
whole or part of the States, as individual sovereignties, would be
sufficient." In fact, the reason for the violent opposition to the
ratification of the Constitution was that when once ratified, the States
could not withdraw from it.
[Sidenote: Constitution theory.]
Another view is presented by Webster in his reply to Hayne: "It is, sir,
the people's Constitution, the people's government, made for the people,
made by the people, and answerable to the people. The people of the United
States have declared that this Constitution shall be the supreme law." It
is plain that the Constitution does not rest simply upon the consent of
the majority of the nation. No popular vote was taken or thought of; each
act of ratification set forth that it proceeded from a convention of the
people of a State.
[Sidenote: Basis of the Constitution.]
The real nature of the new Constitution appears in the light of the
previous history of the country. The Articles of Confederation had been a
compact. One of the principal reasons why the Confederation was weak was
that there was no way of compelling the States to perform their duties.
The new Constitution was meant to be stronger and more permanent. The
Constitution was, then, not a compact, but an instrument of government
similar in its origin to the constitutions of the States. The difference
was that, by general agreement, it was not to take effect until it was
shown that in at least nine States the people were willing to live under
it. Whatever the defects of the Confederation, however humiliating its
weakness to our national pride, it had performed an indispensable service;
it had educated the American people to the point where they were willing
to accept a permanent federal union. As the "Federalist" put it, "A nation
without a national government is an awful spectacle."
CHAPTER VII.
ORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT (1789-1793).
69. REFERENCES.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--W. E. Foster, _References to Presidential
Administrations_, 1-5; _References to the Constitution_, 18, 19; Justin
Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, VII. 299-309, 323-329, 413-418,
446, 454, VIII. App.; P. L. Ford, _Bibliotheca Hamiltonia_; Channing and
Hart, _Guide_, §§ 157-161.
HISTORICAL MAPS.--Nos. 1 and 3, this volume, and No. 1 in W. Wilson,
_Division and Reunion_ (_Epoch Maps_, Nos. 6, 7, and 8); T. MacCoun,
_Historical Geography_; Scribner, _Statistical Atlas_, Plate 13.
GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--J. B. McMaster, _People of the United States_, I.
525-604, II. 1-88; R. Hildreth, _United States_, IV. 25-410; J. Schouler,
_United States_, I. 74-220; H. Von Holst, _Constitutional History_, I. 64-
111; T. Pitkin, _Political and Civil History_, II. 317-355; Gen. Tucker,
_United States_, I. 384-503; J. S. Landon, _Constitutional History_, 97-
119; Bryant and Gay, _Popular History_, IV. 100-123.
SPECIAL HISTORIES.--George Gibbs, _Memoirs of the Administrations of
Washington and Adams_, I. 28-88; J. C. Hamilton, _History of the
Republic_, IV.; W. G. Sumner, _Alexander Hamilton_; H. C. Adams,
_Taxation in the United States_ (1789-1816); W. G. Sumner, _Financier and
Finances of the American Revolution_, II. chs. xvii.-xxxii.; J. T. Morse,
_Life of Hamilton_, I. chs. vii.-xii.; M. P. Follet, _Speaker_; H. C.
Lodge, _Hamilton_, 88-152, and _Washington_, II. 1-128; J. T. Morse, _John
Adams_, 241-264, and _Jefferson_, 96-145; S. H. Gay, _Madison_, 128-192.
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--W. Maclay, _Journal_ (1789-1791) (a racy account
of the Senate in the First Congress); Thomas Jefferson, _Anas_, in
_Works_, ix. 87-185 (confessedly made up twenty-five years later); William
Sullivan, _Familiar Letters on Public Characters_, 36-47 (written in reply
to Jefferson); Joel Barlow, _Vision of Columbus_, 1787 (an epic poem);
correspondence in works of Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, and
John Jay; newspapers, especially the _Columbian Centinel_, _Gazette of the
United States_, _National Gazette_.--Reprints in _American History told
by Contemporaries_, III.
70. GEOGRAPHY OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1789.
[Sidenote: Boundary questions.]
What were the physical, social, and political conditions under which the
new government was to be established? In 1789 the exterior boundaries of
the country were loosely defined by treaty (§ 46), but were not yet marked
out, and there were several serious controversies. From the mouth of the
St, Croix River to the head of the Connecticut the boundary was in
confusion, and no progress had been made towards settling it. The water-
line through the St. Lawrence and the Lakes was still unadjusted. It was
found that the headwaters of the Mississippi lay to the south of the Lake
of the Woods, so that there was a gap on the northwest. On the south Spain
disputed the right of Great Britain to establish the boundary, insisted
that her own undoubted settlements lay within the territory claimed by the
United States, and declined to grant the free navigation of the lower
Mississippi to the sea. Still more humiliating was the presence of British
garrisons at Fort Niagara, Detroit, and other points within the undisputed
boundaries of the United States.
[Sidenote: Interior boundaries.]
The interior boundaries of the country were in a like unsettled condition.
Neither North Carolina nor Georgia had yielded up their western claims (§
52). Vermont had not yet been recognized by New York as outside of her
jurisdiction, and the Western Reserve lay along the southern shore of Lake
Erie as an outlying part of Connecticut. No territorial government had
been established for the Northwest territory, although settlement had
begun to pour in. The southern territory was in complete confusion:
Kentucky and the Tennessee valley were practically independent
communities; and Georgia claimed the whole region south of them.
71. THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1789.
[Sidenote: Population.]
A census taken in 1790 gives us the number of inhabitants as a little
under 4,000,000. Of these, 750,000--nearly one-fifth of the whole
population--were negroes. Of the 3,170,000 whites, the ancestors of eight-
tenths were probably English, and most of the others spoke English and
were a homogeneous part of the community. Counting by sections, the States
north of Maryland had a population of 1,968,000, and those south of
Pennsylvania had 1,925,000; the States which were to be permanently slave-
holding contained, therefore, a population about equal to that of New
England and the Middle States. Only a small part of this population was to
be found west of the mountains. Settlement was working into central New
York, southwest Pennsylvania, the neighboring parts of Virginia, and the
upper waters of the Tennessee; but the only considerable western community
was in Kentucky. These distant settlers had an important influence on the
Union, since they lay within easy reach of the Spanish settlements, and
occasionally threatened to withdraw.
[Sidenote: Intellectual life.]
The intellectual life of the people was little developed. Schools had not
sensibly improved since colonial times. The graduating classes of all the
colleges in 1789 count up to about 170. There were but two schools of
medicine in the country, and no regular school of law. In one department
of literature alone were the Americans eminent: the state papers of public
men such as Washington, Hamilton, and Jefferson are written with the force
and directness of the best school of English. Poetry there was; its
character may be judged by a single quotation from Barlow's "Vision of
Columbus," a favorite epic, published in 1787:--
"There stood stern Putnam, seamed with many a scar,
The veteran honours of an earlier war;
Undaunted Stirling, dreadful to his foes,
And Gates and Sullivan to vengeance rose;
While brave McDougall, steady and sedate,
Stretched the nerved arm to ope the scene of fate."
[Sidenote: Economic conditions.]
In economic conditions the United States were little more advanced than
had been the colonies. The country abounded in natural resources: timber
clad the whole Appalachian range, and spread far into the Mississippi
valley; the virgin soil, and particularly the rich and untouched prairies
of the West, were an accumulation of unmeasured wealth. Yet it was little
easier to get from the sea to Lake Erie or to the Ohio than it had been
forty years before. It seemed impossible that a country could be held
together when it was so large that a courier might be two months on his
way from the seat of government to the most distant frontier; and
Jefferson predicted that it would be a thousand years before the country
would be thickly settled as far west as the Mississippi. The chief
resource of the country was agriculture; almost every State raised its own
food, and there were considerable exports, particularly of wheat and
flour. Manufactures were chiefly imported from England, the only widely
known American industry being the distilling of New England rum. The chief
source of wealth was still commerce; in 1790 the exports and imports were
about twenty million dollars each, or five dollars per head of the
population. The movement of vessels to foreign ports was tolerably free,
but the vexatious restrictions and taxes imposed by England tended to
throw an undue part of the profit into the hands of the English merchants.
Business of every kind was much hampered by the want of bank capital and
by the state of the currency.
72. POLITICAL METHODS IN 1789.
[Sidenote: Current political theories.]
The chief intellectual interest of the people was in politics. The State
and the national constitutions both protected freedom of speech, and
Americans were accustomed freely to discuss public men and public
measures. Public opinion was, however, created by a comparatively small
number of persons,--the leading planters of the South, merchants and great
families in the Middle States, the gentlemen and clergy in New England.
Already two different schools of political thought had appeared. The one
is typified by John Adams's elaborate work, "The Defence of the American
Constitutions," published in 1787. "The rich, the well-born, and the
able," he says, "... must be separated from the mass and placed by
themselves in a senate." The leading spirit in the other school was Thomas
Jefferson. He wrote in 1787: "I am persuaded that the good sense of the
people will always be found the best army. They may be led astray for a
moment, but will soon correct themselves." The accepted principle of
republican government was nevertheless that there should be a limited
number of voters, following the lead of experienced statesmen of a higher
social class.
[Sidenote: Political methods.]
A few symptoms of a change in political methods were visible. In 1788 a
nominating convention was held in Harrisburg; this method of selecting
candidates by representatives of the voters of their party was rapidly
extended. In 1789 the secret Columbian Order, or Tammany Society, was
formed in New York. At first benevolent and literary, the correspondent of
the Massachusetts Historical Society, by 1800 it had become a political
organization and was controlling local elections. In several States, and
particularly in New York, factions had grown up about leading families of
public men; in a few years they became political machines subject to the
direction of a few leaders. Buying of votes was almost unknown, but there
was much disorder at elections.
[Sidenote: Respect for authority.]
In many respects both the State and national governments were weak. The
legislatures had, during the Revolution, been accustomed to ride roughshod
over the minority, and they were still inclined to grant charters and
privileges only to party friends; Federalist legislatures would charter
only Federalist banks. Americans enjoyed their individual liberty, but
resented the use of force either for collecting taxes or for upholding the
authority of government; and the States were not accustomed unhesitatingly
to accept the action of Congress. On the other hand, the Anglo-Saxon
respect for law was recovering from the shock of the Revolution. There was
a strong feeling of loyalty to the State governments, and the beginning of
national interest and patriotism. By common consent the new Constitution
was put quietly into effect by those who expected its success.
73. ORGANIZATION OF CONGRESS (1789).
[Sidenote: First congressional election.]
The first step in the organization of the government was to elect senators
and representatives. The Senate was small, and was expected to be a kind
of executive council. In due time John Adams was chosen vice-president,
and became chairman. The Senate sat for several years in secret session;
but from the journal of William Maclay, senator from Pennsylvania, we
learn many interesting details, and know that the casting vote of the
chairman was often necessary to settle important questions. The time and
manner of electing members of the House was left to the States. In some
cases all the members from a State were elected on one general ticket; in
others the State was divided into districts. Among the distinguished
members were Theodore Sedgwick and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts,
Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut, and James Madison of Virginia. From the
first, the custom obtained that a member of the House should be a resident
of the district from which he was chosen.
[Sidenote: Organization of Congress.]
The House organized April 6. In the Speaker appeared an officer until now
unknown in the Federal system. At first he was only a moderator; after
about a year he was given the power to appoint committees; and from that
time dates the growth of those powers which have made him second in
influence only to the President of the United States. The procedure was
modelled partly on that of the old Congress, and partly upon that of the
State legislatures: it is noticeable, however, that the system of
permanent committees so familiar during the previous twelve years was not
immediately readopted; It began to come in about 1794. The first act on
the statute book was passed June 1, 1789, and prescribed a form of oath.
Congress voted itself a moderate per diem of six dollars. The only other
important question relative to the form of Congress was that of
apportionment. On April 5, 1792, a bill allotting the members of the House
to the States was the subject of the first executive veto.
[Sidenote: Amendments.]
One important function was performed before Congress adjourned, by
submitting to the States twelve amendments to the Constitution. These were
made up by comparison of the propositions submitted by the States at the
time of ratification, and practically constituted a brief bill of rights.
In due time all but two unimportant clauses were ratified by the States,
and the great objection to the Constitution was thus removed.
The importance of the First Congress was that the general forms adopted
for the transaction of its business have continued without serious change
to the present day. Its officers have increased, its powers have
developed, its political importance has expanded; but its parliamentary
procedure is still much the same as in 1789.
74. ORGANIZATION OF THE EXECUTIVE (1789, 1790).
[Sidenote: The first President.]
While the senators and representatives were being selected, Presidential
electors were also chosen in all the eleven States except New York. The
States exercised their constitutional discretion: in some the electors
were chosen by the legislatures, in others by general ticket, and in
others by districts. In one thing they agreed: when quorums of both houses
were obtained, so that the votes could be counted, April 6, 1789, it was
found that every elector had cast a ballot for George Washington. On April
30 he took the oath of office in Federal Hall on Wall Street, New York,
and Maclay records for the benefit of posterity that "he was dressed in
deep brown, with metal buttons with an eagle on them, white stockings, a
bag, and sword." As the presidency was an entirely new office, there was
much difficulty and some squabbling over the details of his place. The
question of title was raised; and it was understood that Washington would
have liked to be called "His High Mightiness, the President of the United
States and Protector of their Liberties." No action was taken, and the
simple title of "Mr. President" was by common consent adopted.
[Sidenote: Executive departments.]
[Sidenote: Treasury Department.]
The duties of the President were clearly defined by the Constitution. It
now became necessary to make some provision for subordinate executive
officers. Here for the first time the importance of the legislation of the
First Congress is visible. They had it in their power to put flesh and
blood upon the dry bones of the Constitution: they might surround the
President with a vigorous, active, and well-centred body of subordinates;
or they might go back to the practice of the old Congress, and create
executive officers who should be practically the servants of Congress.
They resolved to trust the President. The first executive department to be
established was the Department of Foreign Affairs, of which the name was a
little latter changed to the Department of State. In due time Thomas
Jefferson was appointed Secretary of State; among his successors have been
John Marshall, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay,
Martin Van Buren, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, James Buchanan, and
William H, Seward. The War Department bill passed August 7, and Henry
Knox, who had been the head of the army under the old system, was
reappointed. In establishing the Treasury Department a strong effort was
made to create a Secretary of the Treasury as an agent of Congress rather
than as the officer of the President. The details of the office were
therefore carefully regulated by the statute, and specific duties were
assigned to the Secretary. He was, however, appointed by the President,
and the question was raised whether he was also removable by the
President. The Senate insisted that the removal should not be valid
without its approval; the House insisted that the President should be
unrestrained by the casting vote of the Vice-President the latter system
was adopted. The first Secretary of the Treasury was Alexander Hamilton.
[Sidenote: Relations with Congress.]
Then came the question of the relations of cabinet officers to Congress.
Maclay records that on August 22, 1790, the President appeared in the
Senate with Knox, and intimated that the Secretary of War would explain a
proposed Indian treaty. The only remark that Knox seems to have made was:
"Not till Saturday next;" but Maclay was convinced that he was there "to
overawe the timid and neutral part of the Senate." With some displeasure,
the Senate referred the matter to a committee. Hamilton desired an
opportunity to address the House; but it was not accorded, nor does it
appear that the privilege has ever been granted to any cabinet officer.
Knox's speech is the nearest approach to the Parliamentary system which
has been known in Congress.
75. ORGANIZATION OF THE COURTS (1789-1793).
[Sidenote: The Judiciary Act.]
By the Constitution there was to be a supreme court and such inferior
courts as Congress should create. By the Act of Sept. 24, 1789 the federal
judicial system was organized substantially as it now stands. Following
the precedent of some of the States, two grades of inferior courts were
created,--the district and the circuit. The judicial business of the
country was small, and for the time being the supreme justices were to
hold the circuit courts. Prosecuting officers and marshals were appointed,
and here is to be found the germ of the present system of limited terms
for public officials: they were to have commissions which should run four
years; it seems to have been tacitly understood that they would be
reappointed. A few brief clauses defined the manner in which suits could
be appealed from the State courts to the national. This statute has made
it possible to apply federal law in the same way throughout the Union:
errors of construction, and divergencies of judgment involving the
national Constitution, laws, and treaties, are corrected through this
power of appeal to one central supreme tribunal. A little later an Act was
passed defining crimes against the United States. The courts were speedily
organized, and John Jay of New York was made the first chief justice.
[Sidenote: Important decisions.]
For a few years no important decisions were made by the court; but in
February, 1793, a suit was entertained against the State of Georgia; soon
after, one was entered against the State of Massachusetts. Georgia replied
by passing a statute punishing with death any United States marshal who
might attempt to serve a process upon her. Massachusetts urged the passing
of an eleventh constitutional amendment; it was duly adopted in 1798, and
prohibited suits before a federal court against a State, by a citizen of
another State or of a foreign country.
76. REVENUE AND PROTECTION (1789-1792).
[Sidenote: Revenue scheme.]
The first necessity of the new government was to lay the taxes authorized
under the new Constitution for its own support, for the payment of
interest, and eventually for sinking the principal of the public debt. Two
days after the House organized, Madison introduced a scheme, which
eventually passed into the first tariff act. On May 13, 1789, after
agreeing to a duty on "looking-glasses and brushes," it was moved to lay a
tax of ten dollars each on imported slaves. A Georgia member protested
against the tax as intended for the benefit of Virginia, and "hoped
gentlemen would have some feeling for others;" the proposition failed.
[Sidenote: Question of protection.]
Another amendment, however, raised the most important political question
connected with taxation. April 9, 1789, a Pennsylvania member wished to
increase the list of dutiable articles, so as "to encourage the
productions of our country and to protect our infant manufactures." A
South Carolina member at once objected. Two days later a petition from
Baltimore manufacturers asked Congress to impose on "all foreign articles
which can be made in America such duties as will give a just and decided
preference to our labors." New England opposed the proposed duties because
molasses, hemp, and flax were included; molasses was a "raw material" for
the manufacture of rum; and hemp and flax were essential for the cordage
of New England ships. Lee of Virginia moved to strike out the duty on
steel, since a supply could not be furnished within the United States, and
he thought it an "oppressive, though indirect, tax on agriculture."
[Sidenote: The first tariff.]
The act as passed July 4, 1789, bore the title of "An Act for the
encouragement and protection of manufactures;" yet the highest ad valorem
duty was fifteen per cent. To be sure, the high rates of freight at that
time afforded a very large additional protection; but no general revenue
act ever passed by Congress has imposed so low a scale of duties.
[Sidenote: Hamilton's scheme.]
By the time the revenue had begun to come in under this Act, Secretary
Hamilton had worked out in his mind a general financial system, intended
to raise the credit and to strengthen the authority of the Union. The
first step was to provide a sufficient revenue to pay running expenses and
interest. Finding that the first tariff produced too little revenue, in
1790 and again in 1792 it was slightly increased, at Hamilton's
suggestion. The second part of his scheme was to lay an excise, an
internal duty upon distilled spirits. In 1791 a tax, in its highest form
but twenty-five cents a gallon, was laid on spirits distilled from foreign
or domestic materials. The actual amount of revenue from this source was
always small; but Hamilton expected that the people in the interior would
thus become accustomed to federal officers and to federal law. The effect
of the revenue Acts was quickly visible: in 1792 the annual revenue of the
government had risen to $3,600,000.
77. NATIONAL AND STATE DEBTS (1789, 1790).
[Sidenote: The debt funded.]
The third part of Hamilton's scheme was to fund the national debt into one
system of bonds, and to pay the interest. When he assumed control of the
Treasury he found, as nearly as could be calculated, ten millions of
foreign debt with about two millions of accrued interest, and twenty-nine
millions of domestic debt with eleven millions of accrued interest,--a
total of more than fifty-two millions. So far as there was any sale for
United States securities they had fallen to about twenty-five per cent of
their par value. Jan. 14, 1790, Hamilton submitted one of a series of
elaborate financial reports; it called on Congress to make such provision
for principal and interest as would restore confidence. By this time an
opposition had begun to rise against the great secretary, and Madison
proposed to inquire in each case what the holder of a certificate of debt
had paid for it; he was to be reimbursed in that amount, and the balance
of the principal was to be paid to the original holder. Hamilton pointed
out that in order to place future loans the Treasury must assure the
public that bonds would be paid in full to the person holding a legal
title. Congress accepted Hamilton's view, and an act was passed by which
the interest was to be promptly paid, and an annual sum to be set apart
for the redemption of the principal. The securities of the United States
instantly began to rise, and in 1793 they were quoted at par. The credit
of the government was reestablished.
[Sidenote: Assumption proposed.]
Now came a fourth part of Hamilton's scheme, upon which he laid great
stress: he proposed that the outstanding State debts should likewise be
taken over by the general government. The argument was that the States had
incurred their debts for the common purpose of supporting the Revolution.
There was strong opposition, particularly from States like Virginia, which
had extinguished the greater part of their own debt. The House showed a
bare majority in favor of the assumption project; on the appearance of
members from North Carolina, which had just entered the Union, that
majority was, on April 12, 1790, reversed.
[Sidenote: The seat of government.]
[Sidenote: Compromise.]
Meanwhile the old question of the permanent seat of the federal government
had been revived, and, as in the days of the Confederation, it seemed
impossible to agree. It was expected that the capital would lie somewhere
in the Northern States; at one time Germantown was all but selected. The
Virginia members suddenly took fire, and Lee declared that "he was averse
to sound alarms or introduce terror into the House, but if they were well
founded he thought it his duty;" and Jackson of Georgia declared that
"this will blow the coals of sedition and injure the Union." The matter
was laid over until the middle of 1790. It was evident that the friends of
assumption were in a small minority, and the friends of a Northern capital
in a small majority. Hamilton worked upon Jefferson to secure a
compromise. The matter was adjusted at Jefferson's table: a few Northern
votes were obtained for a Southern capital, and two Virginia members
agreed to vote for assumption. By very narrow majorities it was therefore
agreed that the national capital should be placed on the Potomac River,
and that State debts amounting to $21,500,000 should be assumed. A few
months later the President selected the site of the present national
capital, and in due time the debts were taken up.
78. UNITED STATES BANK (1791, 1792).
[Sidenote: A bank proposed.]
Having thus reorganized the finances of the country, Hamilton now proposed
the fifth part of his scheme,--the establishment of a national bank. In a
report of Dec. 14, 1790, he presented the subject to the attention of
Congress. He urged that it would benefit the public by offering an
investment, that it would aid the government in making loans and by
collecting taxes, and that its notes would be a useful currency. Hamilton
drafted a bill, which was an adaptation of the charter of the Bank of
England. The capital of $10,000,000, and the management of the bank, were
to be private; but the government was to be a stockholder, and to have the
right of requiring periodical statements of the bank's condition.
The Senate passed the bill without a division, substantially as drawn by
Hamilton. Apparently it was on the point of going through the House, when
Smith of South Carolina objected, and Jackson of Georgia declared that he
had never seen a bank bill in the State of Georgia; "nor will they ever
benefit the farmers of that State or of New York;" and he called it an
unconstitutional monopoly.
[Sidenote: The question of implied powers.]
After a week's debate on the question whether the bank was authorized by
the Constitution, it passed the House by a vote of 39 to 20, and was sent
to the President. He called for the opinions of the members of his cabinet
in writing, and the answers submitted by Hamilton and Jefferson are still
among the most important documents on the construction of the
Constitution. Jefferson's standpoint was simply that, since the
Constitution nowhere expressly authorized the creation of a bank, Congress
had gone beyond its powers. Hamilton asserted that if the bank were
"necessary and proper to carry out any of the specific powers, such as
taxation and the borrowing of money, then Congress might create a bank, or
any other public institution, to serve its ends." The President accepted
Hamilton's view, and the act was signed. The capital of the bank was
speedily subscribed, and it immediately entered on a prosperous and useful
career.
79. SLAVERY QUESTIONS (1789-1798).
[Sidenote: Anti-slavery memorials.]
The question of the extent of the powers of Congress had already once been
raised. On February 11 and 12, 1790, there were presented to Congress two
memorials, the one the "Address of the People called Quakers, in their
Annual Assembly convened;" the other the "Memorial of the Pennsylvania
Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery." These memorials asked
Congress to "exert upright endeavors, to the full extent of your power, to
remove every obstruction to public righteousness," particularly in the
matter of slavery. The motion to commit instantly roused Southern members.
Jackson of Georgia said that "any extraordinary attention of Congress to
the petition would hold their property in jeopardy." The matter was sent
to a subcommittee, composed chiefly of Southern members. On March 8th that
committee reported the principles under which Congress acted during the
next seventy years. They said that Congress had no power to interfere with
slavery or the treatment of slaves within the States; they might pass laws
regulating the slave-trade, but could not then stop the importation of
slaves from foreign countries into the United States. Another resolution,
to the effect that Congress would exercise its powers for the humane
principles of the memorial, was struck out by the House. The anti-slavery
organizations from which these memorials had proceeded kept up a brisk
fusillade of petitions. In some cases the House refused to receive them,
but Congress did pass several laws reducing the evils of the slave-trade.
[Sidenote: Fugitive slaves.]
In 1793 the question came up, how fugitive slaves should be restored if
they had fled and taken refuge in another State. An act was passed by
which the United States assumed authority in the matter; the claimant was
simply to satisfy any national or State magistrate that he was entitled to
the person claimed. The act had hardly gone into effect before a fugitive
was apprehended in Massachusetts. Josiah Quincy, who was employed to
defend him, tells us that he "heard a noise, and turning round he saw the
constables lying sprawling on the floor, and a passage opening through the
crowd, through which the fugitive was taking his departure, without
stopping to hear the opinion of the court." From the very first,
therefore, we find in vigorous action the paraphernalia of the later anti-
slavery movement,--societies, petitions, laws, and deliberate violation of
laws.
80. THE SUCCESS OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT.
[Sidenote: The government established.]
The end of Washington's first administration in March, 1793, saw the
government completely organized, and accepted throughout the Union. The
distinction between friends and opponents of the Constitution had entirely
disappeared. There was no longer any suggestion of substantial amendment.
Two Congresses had gone through their work, and had accustomed the people
to a national legislature. The President had made appointments, sent
ambassadors, commanded the army, and vetoed bills, and yet there was no
fear of a monarchy. The national courts were in regular and undisturbed
session. The Union was complete, and two new States, Vermont and Kentucky,
had been admitted.
This remarkable success was due in considerable part to the personal
influence of a few men. Washington's great popularity and his
disinterested use of his new powers had taken away a multitude of fears.
The skill of Hamilton had built up a successful financial system. In
Congress Madison had been efficient in working out the details of
legislation. Washington, with his remarkable judgment of men, had selected
an able staff of officials, representing all the sections of the country.
[Sidenote: Prosperity]
Yet, as Washington himself had said, "Influence is not government." One of
the chief elements of the Union's strength was that it pressed lightly
upon the people. For the first time in the history of America there was an
efficient system of import duties. They were almost the sole form of
taxation, and, like all indirect taxes, their burden was not felt. Above
all, the commercial benefits of the new Union were seen from North to
South. Trade between the States was absolutely unhampered, and a brisk
interchange of products went on. The country was prosperous; its shipping
increased, and foreign trade was also growing steadily.
[Sidenote: Relations with the States.]
So far the Union had met no violent resistance either from insurgents or
from the States. In the Virginia convention of 1788 Patrick Henry had
said: "I never will give up that darling word 'requisitions;' my country
may give it up, the majority may wrest it from me, but I never will give
it up till my grave." Nevertheless, when the requisitions on the States
were given up, the chief cause of dispute in the Union was removed. Up to
this time the only distinctly sectional legislation had been the
assumption of the State debts and the fixing of the national capital; and
these two had been set off against each other. If peace continued, there
was every prospect of a healthy growth of national spirit.
CHAPTER VIII.
FEDERAL SUPREMACY (1793-1801).
81. REFERENCES.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--W. E. Foster, _References to Presidential
Administrations_, 1-8; Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_,
VII. 294-314, 319, 320, 329-336, 454-456, 513-519; Channing and Hart,
_Guide_, §§ 162, 166.
HISTORICAL MAPS.--Nos. 1, 4, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, Nos. 7, 9);
MacCoun, _Historical Geography_; Scribner, _Statistical Atlas_, Plate 13;
J. Morse, _American Geography_.
GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--J. B McMaster, _United States_, II. 89-557; H. Von
Holst, _Constitutional History_, I. 112-167; J. Schouler, _United States_,
I. 221-501; R. Hildreth, _United States_, IV. 411-704; V. 25-418; T.
Pitkin, _United States_, II. 356-500 (to 1797); George Tucker, _United
States_, I. 504-628, II. 21-145; Bryant and Gay, _Popular History_, IV.
123-144; Bradford, _Constitutional History_, 125-201.
SPECIAL HISTORIES.--Standard lives of Washington, especially Sparks,
Marshall, and Irving; C. F. Adams, _Life of John Adams_; Henry Adams,
_Albert Gallatin_; H. C. Lodge, _Washington_, II. 129-269; J. T. Morse,
_Jefferson_, 146-208, and _John Adams_, 241-310; G. Pellew, _John Jay_,
262-339; S. H. Gay, _Madison_, 193-251; George Gibbs, _Administrations of
Washington and Adams_, I., II.; W. H. Trescott, _Diplomatic History_; T.
Lyman, _Diplomacy_; J. C. Hamilton, _Republic_, V., VI.
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--Thomas Jefferson, _Anas_ (_Works_, IX. 185-203);
William Sullivan, _Familiar Letters on Public Characters_, 48-187 (written
in reply to Jefferson); Works of Washington, Jefferson, Fisher Ames, John
Jay, Rufus King, Arthur St. Clair, John Adams, Madison, and Gallatin;
Abigail Adams, _Letters_; W. Winterbotham, _Historical View_ (1795); T.
Cooper, _Some Information respecting America_ (1793, 1794); Rochefoucault-
Liancourt, _Voyage dans les États-Unis_ (1795-1797) (also in translation);
J. Weld, _Travels through the States_ (1795-1797); newspapers, especially
_General Advertiser_ and _Aurora, Boston Gazette_.--Reprints in Alexander
Johnston, _American Orations_, I.; _American History told by
Contemporaries_, III.
82. FORMATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES (1792-1794).
[Sidenote: Origin of parties.]
During the four uneventful years from 1789 to 1793 two political parties
had been slowly developed. Some writers have imagined that these two
parties were a survival of the Revolutionary Whigs and Tories; some have
traced them back to the debate on the assumption of State debts. John
Adams, years later, went to the heart of the matter when he said: "You say
our divisions began with Federalism and anti-Federalism. Alas! they began
with human nature." The foundation for the first two great national
parties was a difference of opinion as to the nature and proper functions
of the new government.
During the second Congress, from 1791 to 1793, arose an opposition to
Hamilton which gradually consolidated into a party. It came chiefly from
the Southern and Middle States, and represented districts in which there
was little capital or trade. Arrayed among his supporters were most of the
representatives from New England, and many from the Middle States and
South Carolina: they represented the commercial interests of the country;
they desired to see the debt funded and the State debts assumed; they
began to act together as another party.
[Sidenote: Hamilton and Jefferson.]
The final form taken by these two parties depended much upon the character
of their leaders. Hamilton, a man of great personal force and of strong
aristocratic feeling, represented the principle of authority, of
government framed and administered by a select few for the benefit of
their fellows. Jefferson, an advocate of popular government extended to a
point never before reached, declared that his party was made up of those
"who identified themselves with the people, have confidence in them,
cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the
most wise depositary of the public interest." Between two such men
controversies were certain to arise. In May, 1792, Jefferson wrote that
Hamilton had introduced speculation and a dangerous construction of the
constitution; and Hamilton wrote that Jefferson was at the head of a
hostile faction dangerous to the Union. Washington attempted to make
himself an arbiter of this quarrel, but was unable to reconcile the two
men. They both urged him to accept a second term for the presidency, and
he was again unanimously elected in 1792. The quarrel between the two
great chiefs had by this time got abroad. Hamilton was said to be a
monarchist. His administration of the Treasury was attacked, and an
investigation was held early in 1793; but no one was able to find any
irregularity.
[Sidenote: Party names.]
By this time the followers of Jefferson had begun to take upon themselves
the name of Republicans. They held that the government ought to raise and
spend as little money as possible; beyond that they rested upon the
principles first definitely stated in Jefferson's opinion on the bank (§
96) that Congress was confined in its powers to the letter of the
Constitution; and that the States were the depositary of most of the
powers of government. The other party took upon itself the name of
Federal, or Federalist, which had proved so valuable in the struggle over
the Constitution. Among its most eminent members were Hamilton, John Jay,
Vice-President John Adams, and President Washington.
[Sidenote: Newspaper organs.]
Both parties now began to set in motion new political machinery. The
"Gazette of the United States" became the recognized mouthpiece of the
Federalists, and the "National Gazette," edited by Philip Freneau,
translating clerk in Jefferson's department, began to attack Hamilton and
other leading Federalists, and even the President. At a cabinet meeting
Washington complained that "that rascal Freneau sent him three copies of
his paper every day, as though he thought he would become a distributer of
them. He could see in this nothing but an impudent design to insult him."
83. WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND (1793).
[Sidenote: French Revolution.]
[Sidenote: War.]
So far the parties had been little more than personal followings; the
mighty movements in Europe were now to crystallize them. Early in 1789 a
revolution had come about in France; in 1791 a constitution was put in
force under which the king became a limited monarch; in 1792 war broke out
between France and a Prussian-Austrian alliance. Disasters on the frontier
were followed by the overthrow of the monarchy, and in January, 1793,
Louis the Sixteenth was executed. The anarchical movement, once begun,
hurried on until the government of France fell into the hands of men
controlled by the populace of Paris. On Feb. 3, 1793, the French Republic
declared war against England: the issue was instantly accepted. As the two
powers were unable conveniently to reach each other on land, great efforts
were made on both sides to fit out fleets. The colonies of each power were
exposed to attack, and colonial trade was in danger.
[Sidenote: Interest of America.]
From the first the sympathy of the United States had naturally been with
France. The republic seemed due to American example; Jefferson was our
minister at Paris in 1789, and saw his favorite principles of human
liberty extending to Europe. The excesses of the Revolution, however,
startled the Federalists, who saw in them a sufficient proof that
Jefferson's "people" could not be trusted. The war brought up the question
of the treaty of 1778 with France, by which the Americans bound themselves
to guarantee the colonial possessions of France in case of defensive war.
[Sidenote: Danger to America.]
For the United States to enter the war as ally of either side meant to
lose most of the advantages gained by the new Constitution: the Indians on
the frontier had opposed and defeated a large body of United States
troops; the revenue of the country derived from imports would cease as
soon as war was declared; American ships would be exposed to capture on
every sea. Trade with the West Indies, which proceeded irregularly and
illegally, was now likely to be broken up altogether. The question was no
longer one of international law, but of American politics: the Democrats
were inclined to aid France, by war or by indirect aid,--such as we had
received from France at the beginning of the Revolutionary War; the
Federalists leaned toward England, because they wished English trade, and
because they feared the spread of anarchical principles in America.
84. AMERICAN NEUTRALITY (1793).
[Sidenote: Neutrality proclamation.]
On April 5, 1793, the news of the outbreak of war was received at
Philadelphia. Washington at once summoned his cabinet for the most
important discussion which it had yet held. Was the United States to
consider itself bound to enter the war and to defend the French West
Indies against Great Britain? Should the President declare that the United
States stood neutral in this contest? The question was new. For the first
time in history there was an independent American power,--a nation so far
removed by distance and by interest from European conflicts that it might
reasonably ask that it should not be drawn into the struggle. Hamilton was
inclined to hold the treaties abrogated by the change of government in
France; Jefferson insisted that they were binding; both agreed that the
President ought to issue a proclamation announcing that the United States
would take no part on either side. The neutrality proclamation, issued
April 22, was therefore an announcement to the world that the United
States stood outside the European system, and might continue friendly
relations with both belligerent powers.
[Sidenote: Genet's mission.]
This attitude was anything but what France had expected. On April 8 a
French minister, Genet, landed in Charleston, armed with a quantity of
blank commissions for privateers. He was a man twenty-eight years old,
whose diplomatic experience had culminated in the disruption of one of the
weaker neighbors of France. He had no doubt that the sympathy of the
American people was with his country. He proposed, therefore, to act as
though he stood upon his own soil: men were enlisted; privateers were
commissioned; prizes were taken in American waters and brought into
American ports for condemnation. Genet advanced northward in a kind of
triumphal procession. Throughout the South and West, Democratic clubs were
organized, modelled on the French Jacobin and other revolutionary clubs.
[Sidenote: Genet and Washington.]
He reached Philadelphia, to be confronted by the Neutrality Proclamation
and by the firmness of the President. His privateers were checked. He does
not appear to have demanded of the United States a fulfilment of the
treaty of 1778, but he did ask for advance payment of money due to France,
and for other favors. To his chagrin, Congress was not to meet until
December, and he insisted in vain that there should be an extra session.
In July Genet proceeded to fit out a captured British vessel, the "Little
Sarah," as a privateer; and, contrary to the remonstrances of the
government and his own implied promise, she was sent to sea. Encouraged by
this success, he determined to make a public appeal to the people to
override the President. His purpose was made known, and his career was at
an end. When the United States asked for his recall, it was cheerfully
accorded by the French government. In three months Genet had contrived to
offend the principal officers of government and to insult the nation. The
current of feeling was thus set toward England.
85. THE JAY TREATY (1794-1796).
[Sidenote: American grievances.]
[Sidenote: Neutral rights.]
Once more the English government neglected the favorable moment for
securing the friendship of the United States. The grievances so much
resented under the Confederation (§ 56) were continued: the Western posts
were still occupied by the British; American vessels still paid
unreasonable duties in British ports; the West India trade was still
withheld. The war at once led to new aggressions. France and England
throughout sought to limit American commerce by capturing vessels for
violations of four disputed principles of international law. The first was
that provisions are "contraband of war," and hence that American vessels
carrying breadstuffs, the principal export of the United States, were
engaged in an unlawful trade: the United States insisted that only
military stores were "contraband of war." The second limiting principle
was that, after notice of the blockade of a port, vessels bound to it
might be taken anywhere on the high seas: the United States held that the
notice had no validity unless there was an actual blockading force outside
the port. The third principle was the so-called "Rule of 1756," that where
a European country forbade trade with its colonies in time of peace it
should not open it to neutrals in time of war: the United States denied
the right of Great Britain to interfere in their trade with the French and
Spanish colonies. The fourth principle was that a ship might be captured
if it had upon it goods which were the property of an enemy. The United
States asserted that "Free ships make free goods," that a neutral vessel
was not subject to capture, no matter whose property she carried.
[Sidenote: Aggressions on the United States.]
[Sidenote: Impressment.]
[Sidenote: Danger of war.]
On May 9, 1793, the French ordered the capture of vessels loaded with
provisions, although expressly excepted by the treaty of 1778. On June 8
the British issued a similar order; and in November the rule of 1756 was
again put in force by the British government. Captures at once began by
both powers; but the British cruisers were more numerous, did more damage,
and thus inclined public sentiment in the United States against England.
The pacific Jefferson now came forward as the defender of American
interests: Sept. 16, 1793, he sent to Congress a report in which he set
forth the aggressions upon American commerce, and recommended a policy of
retaliation. Meantime a new grievance had arisen, which was destined to be
a cause of the War of 1812. In time of war the commanders of British naval
vessels were authorized to "impress" British seamen, even out of British
merchant vessels. The search of American merchantmen on the same errand at
once began, and was felt by the United States government to be humiliating
to the national dignity. The whole country was outraged by the frequent
seizure of native Americans, on the pretext that they were English born.
Public feeling rose until on March 26, 1794, a temporary embargo was laid,
forbidding vessels to depart from American ports. On April 17, a motion
was introduced to cut off commercial intercourse with Great Britain. On
April 19, therefore, the President appointed John Jay, Chief Justice of
the United States, as a special envoy to make a last effort to adjust
matters in England. Nevertheless, the non-inter course bill passed the
House, and was defeated only by Adams's casting vote in the Senate.
[Sidenote: Jay's Treaty.]
Fortunately it was a time when communication with Europe was slow. Not
until June did Jay reach England. A treaty was negotiated on November 19,
but was not received by Washington until after the adjournment of Congress
in March, 1795. The treaty had indeed removed some old grievances: the
posts were to be evacuated; commissions were to settle the northeast
boundary, and to adjust the claims for the British debts; but Jay got no
indemnity for the negroes carried away by the British in 1783. The
commercial clauses were far less favorable: the discriminating taxes
against American shipping were at last withdrawn; but Jay was unable to
secure any suitable guarantee for neutral trade, and could obtain no
promise to refrain from searching American merchantmen, or seizing
English-born sailors found thereon. Above all, the West India trade, which
the United States so much desired, was granted only with the proviso that
it should be carried on in vessels of less than seventy tons burden. In
return for these meagre concessions, granted only for twelve years, the
United States agreed not to export to any part of the world "molasses,
sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton."
[Sidenote: Excitement in the United States.]
A special session of the Senate was summoned in June, 1795. and with great
difficulty the necessary two-thirds majority was obtained. The twelfth
article, containing the West India and the export clauses, was
particularly objectionable, and the Senate struck it out. During the
remainder of the year there was the fiercest popular opposition; the
commercial and ship-building interest felt that it had been betrayed; Jay
was burned in effigy; Hamilton was stoned at a public meeting; State
legislatures declared the treaty unconstitutional. Washington was attacked
so fiercely that he said the language used "could scarcely be applied to a
Nero, to a notorious defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket." When
Congress met in 1795 an effort was made to prevent the necessary
appropriations for carrying out the treaty. It was only the great personal
popularity of Washington that saved the country from a repudiation of the
treaty and a war with England. Once in force, the treaty was found
moderately favorable. Our commerce increased, and captures were much
diminished.
86. THE WHISKEY REBELLION (1794).
[Sidenote: The excise unpopular.]
[Sidenote: Outbreak.]
During this year of excitement a serious outbreak had occurred in
Pennsylvania. Ever since the first Excise Act in 1791 (§ 76), there had
been determined opposition to the collection of the whiskey tax. The
people of southwestern Pennsylvania were three hundred miles from tide-
water; and whiskey was the only commodity of considerable value, in small
bulk, with which they could purchase goods. The tax, therefore, affected
the whole community. In 1792 the policy pursued at the beginning of the
Revolution was brought into action: mobs and public meetings began to
intimidate the tax-collectors. In 1794 the difficulties broke out afresh,
and on July 17 the house of Inspector-General Neville was attacked by a
band of armed men; one man was killed, and the house was burned. Great
popular mass meetings followed, and a few days later the United States
mail was robbed.
[Sidenote: Suppression.]
As this violence was directed against the revenue laws, Hamilton made it
his special task to suppress it. On September 25 the President called out
the militia from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia.
Hamilton himself accompanied the troops, fifteen thousand in number; they
marched over the mountains, and reached the disaffected country at the end
of October. The insurgents made no stand in the field, and the troops
returned, after making a few arrests.
The matter now went to the courts. Six persons were indicted for treason,
of whom two, Vigol and Mitchell, were convicted. They were rough and
ignorant men, who had been led into the outbreak without understanding
their own responsibility, and Washington pardoned them both. In July,
1795, a general amnesty was proclaimed.
[Sidenote: Effect.]
The effect of the whole movement was to make it evident throughout the
nation that the United States had at its disposal a military force
sufficient to put down any ordinary insurrection. In his message on the
subject on Nov. 19, 1794, Washington alluded to "combinations of men who
have disseminated suspicions, jealousies, and accusations of the whole
government." The Senate applied these words to "self-created societies."
The allusion was to the Democratic clubs, founded in 1793 when Genet came
to the country (§ 84), and still in existence. The effect of Washington's
criticism was to break down the societies and to check a movement which
looked toward resistance to all constituted government. The opposition
were compelled to take a less objectionable party name, and began to call
themselves Republicans.
87. ELECTION OF JOHN ADAMS (1796).
[Sidenote: Washington retires.]
[Sidenote: Nominations.]
On Sept. 17, 1796, Washington, in a public address, announced that he
should not accept a re-election. The presidency had been irksome to
Washington, and the personal attacks upon himself had grieved him; but he
retired with the admiration and respect of the whole country. The
selection of a successor at once became a party question. Jefferson, who
had resigned the office of Secretary of State at the end of 1793, was the
natural leader of the Republicans. John Adams, then Vice-President, had
the largest Federalist following; but Hamilton hoped, by an electoral
trick, to bring T. Pinckney, the candidate for Vice-President, in over his
head. Adams candidly expressed his opinion of this intrigue: "That must be
a sordid people indeed, a people destitute of a sense of honor, equity,
and character, that could submit to be governed and see hundreds of its
most meritorious public men governed by a Pinckney under an elective
government."
[Sidenote: Adams and Jefferson.]
The danger was not, however, from Pinckney, but from Jefferson. When the
votes were counted it was found that Adams had received the vote of the
Northern States, with Delaware and a part of Maryland; but that Jefferson
had received almost the whole vote of the South and of Pennsylvania. Adams
became President by a vote of seventy-one, and Jefferson Vice-President by
a vote of sixty-eight. The two men had been associated in early years, and
were not unfriendly to each other. There was even a hint that Jefferson
was to be taken into the cabinet. As soon as the administration began, all
confidence between them was at an end. The same set of elections decided
the membership of Congress to serve from 1797 to 1799; the Senate remained
decidedly Federalist; in the House the balance of power was held by a few
moderate Republicans.
[Sidenote: Adams's cabinet.]
Adams considered himself the successor to the policy of Washington, and
committed the serious mistake of taking over his predecessor's cabinet.
Hamilton retired in 1795; he had been replaced by his friend and admirer,
Oliver Wolcott; the Secretary of State was Timothy Pickering of
Pennsylvania: both these men looked upon Hamilton as their party chief.
The administration began, therefore, with divided counsels, and with
jealousy in the President's official household.
88. BREACH WITH FRANCE (1795-1798).
[Sidenote: Monroe's mission.]
While the war-cloud with England was gathering and disappearing, new
complications had arisen with France. The Jay treaty was received by that
power as an insult, partly because it was favorable to her rival, partly
because it removed the danger of war between England and the United
States. In 1795 the first period of the Revolution was over, and an
efficient government was constituted, with an executive directory of five.
James Monroe, appointed minister to France, had begun his mission in
September, 1794, just after the fall of Robespierre; he appeared in the
National Convention, and the president of that body adjured him to "let
this spectacle complete the annihilation of an impious coalition of
tyrants." During Jay's negotiations he continued to assure the French of
the friendship of America, although the Directory speedily declared that
Jay's treaty had released France from the treaty of 1778. As Monroe made
no effort to push the American claims for captured vessels, he was
recalled in disgrace in 1796, and C. C. Pinckney was appointed as his
successor.
[Sidenote: Pinckney rebuffed.]
Three weeks after his inauguration Adams received a despatch from Pinckney
announcing that he had been treated as a suspected foreigner, and that
official notice had been given that the Directory would not receive
another minister from the United States until the French grievances had
been redressed. A special session of Congress was at once summoned, and
the President declared that "the action of France ought to be repelled
with a decision which shall convince France and the world that we are not
a degraded people, humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear and sense of
inferiority." Headstrong behavior on the President's part would have
immediately brought on war; but he had already made up his mind to send a
special mission to France. In June, 1797, John Marshall and Elbridge
Gerry, a Republican, but a personal friend of the President, were sent out
to join Pinckney in a final representation.
[Sidenote: X. Y. Z. affair.]
It was nearly a year before news of the result was received. On April 2,
1798, the President communicated the despatches revealing the so-called
"X. Y. Z. affair." It appeared that the envoys on reaching Paris, in
October, 1797, had been denied an official interview, but that three
persons, whose names were clouded under the initials X. Y. Z., had
approached them with vague suggestions of loans and advances; these were
finally crystallized into a demand for fifty thousand pounds "for the
pockets of the Directory." The despatch described one conversation.
"'Gentlemen,' said X., 'you do not speak to the point. It is money. It is
expected that you will offer money.' We said that we had spoken to that
point very explicitly, that we had given an answer. 'No,' he replied, 'you
have not. What is your answer?' We replied, 'It is No, no, no; not a
sixpence.'" The President concluded with a ringing paragraph which summed
up the indignation of the American people at this insult. "I will never
send another minister to France without assurances that he will be
received, respected, and honored as the representative of a great, free,
powerful, and independent nation."
[Sidenote: Naval war with France.]
The Republican opposition in Congress was overwhelmed and almost silenced.
A succession of statutes in April, May, and June hurried on military and
naval preparations, and on July 7, 1798, American vessels of war were
authorized to attack French cruisers. On Feb. 9, 1799, the "Constellation"
took the French frigate "Insurgente," and American cruisers and privateers
had the satisfaction of retaliating for the numerous captures of American
vessels by preying on French commerce. Measures were taken to raise land
forces; but here again the rift in the Federal party appeared. Washington
was made titular commander-in-chief. It was expected that operations would
be directed by the second in command, and Hamilton's friends insisted that
he should receive that appointment. With great reluctance Adams granted
the commission, the result of which was the resignation of Knox, who had
been third on the list.
89. ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS (1798).
[Sidenote: Triumph of the Federalists.]
[Sidenote: Alien Act.]
For the first and last time in his administration John Adams found himself
popular. From all parts of the country addresses were sent to the
President approving his patriotic stand. The moderate Republicans in the
House were swept away by the current, and thus there was built up a
compact Federalist majority in both houses. It proceeded deliberately to
destroy its own party. The newspapers had now reached an extraordinary
degree of violence; attacks upon the Federalists, and particularly upon
Adams, were numerous, and keenly felt. Many of the journalists were
foreigners, Englishmen and Frenchmen. To the excited imagination of the
Federalists, these men seemed leagued with France in an attempt to destroy
the liberties of the country; to get rid of the most violent of these
writers, and at the same time to punish American-born editors who too
freely criticised the administration, seemed to them essential. This
purpose they proposed to carry out by a series of measures known as the
Alien and Sedition Acts. A naturalization law, requiring fourteen years
residence, was hurried through. On April 25 a Federalist introduced a
temporary Alien Act, for the removal of "such aliens born, not entitled by
the constitution and laws to the rights of citizenship, as may be
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