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" This government, the offspring of your own choice. . . . adopted upon investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, and containing, within itself, a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and respect."--PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S Farewell Address to the People of the United States, September 17, 1796.
(1789-1861)
THE FEDERALIST PARTY IN POWER
GEORGE WASHINGTON (FEDERALIST)
199. Washington elected President (Two
Terms, 1789-1797); his Inauguration. We have seen (§196)
that the Federalists and Anti-Federalists held opposite views
about the Constitution. But both agreed that Washington should be
placed at the head of the new government. They accordingly united
and unanimously elected him the first President of the United
States (1789-1793), and when his term of office expired he was
reelected (1793-1797). In both cases John Adams was chosen Vice
President. New York City was then the capital of the country, but
Philadelphia was made so a little later (1790), and ten years
afterward the city of Washington became so permanently (1800).
Washington was to be inaugurated on March 4 (1789), the day the
new Constitution went into operation; but the ceremony was delayed
until April 30. The President took his
1 Reference
Books (Washington to John Adams, inclusive). A. B. Hart's
"Formation of the union," ch. 7-8; W. C. Bryant and Gay's "United
States" (revised edition), IV, ch. 5-6; J. S. Bassett's "The
Federalist System"; A. B. Hart's "American History by
Contemporaries," III, ch. 12-15; A. B. Hart's Source Book," ch.
II; J. Schouler's "United States," I, 74-500; J. B. McMaster's
"United States," II, 540-604; II, 25-533; F. A. Walker's "Making
of the Nation," ch. 5-8. See also the classified List of Books in
the Appendix.
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stand on the balcony of the old Federal Hall in Wall
Street where Congress met. |
"I
do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully
execute the office of President of the United States, and
will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and
defend the Constitution of the United States."
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1789-1790 ] |
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States. These men did not all agree with Washington in
political matters; but they all reverenced him, and they were
ready, like him, to do their utmost to promote the welfare and
prosperity of the country.
The new government began its great work with an
empty treasury; but a government can no more hope to live and pay
its bills without money than you or I can. In order to obtain
funds, Congress passed the first Tariff Act (1789). It imposed a
moderate duty or tax on many foreign goods entering our ports.
Another act levied a tonnage tax on foreign
merchant ships coming to the United States. For instance, if a
French vessel of six hundred tons loaded with wine came into New
York, the owners would have to pay a duty of fifty cents a ton --
or three hundred dollars on the vessel, and eighteen cents a
gallon on the wine. Other articles, such as tea, silk, and sugar,
were charged different rates.
201. Paying Our Just Debts. Hamilton, who
was Secretary of the Treasury (§ 200), got permission from
Congress (1790) to use all the money obtained by the Tariff and
Tonnage Acts, not needed for the expenses of the government, to do
three things:
1. To pay back to France and to other countries
what we had borrowed of them during the Revolution.
2. To pay the debts we owed at home to our
soldiers, and to those who had lent money to the government during
the war.
3. To pay the debts which the different states
were owing to their own citizens for expenses which they had
incurred in fighting the battles of the Revolution.
Hamilton's wise and honest dealing put the
credit of the United States on a sure foundation; it enabled us to
pay debts amounting to nearly $6,000,000, and to provide for the
payment of many millions more. From that day to this, we have
always been able to borrow all the money we wanted.
202. Counting the People in 1790; the First
United States Bank; the Mint. Meanwhile the first census was
taken. It was a work of great importance, since it determined the
number of representatives that could be elected to sit in
Congress. The
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[1790-1792 |
number was fixed at 1 in every 33,000. It is now 1 in over
200,000. (See Appendix, Table of Representation.)
That census showed that we had a total
population of not quite 4,000,000, or far less than New York City
has now. It showed, too, that nearly all the people lived on a
narrow strip of country along the Atlantic coast and that most of
them were farmers. Since then our population has grown to over
100,000,000, and it has moved steadily westward.
Next Hamilton (§ 201) persuaded Congress to
establish the first Bank of the United States at Philadelphia
(1791). Congress also established the first United States mint at
the same place
MOVEMENT WESTWARD OF THE CENTER OF POPULATION FROM 1790 TO 1910
In 1790 the center of population (that is, the
geographical point where the population is
equal in number in all directions) was about twenty-five miles
east of Baltimore. It
has since moved westward, on nearly the same parallel, at the rate
of about forty-
seven miles every ten years. (The centers of population are shown
by stars.)
(1792). The Bank supplied the country with paper money, which
could be used throughout the states. This was an immense help to
all business men.
With the opening of the mint we began our
decimal system of coinage, -- ten cents make a dime, ten dimes a
dollar; no system could be simpler or more convenient.
203. The Rise of Political Parties; Arrival
of "Citizen" Genêt; Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality.
The discussion in Congress over the question of establishing
the Bank of the United States (§ 202) gave rise to the first
two regularly organized political parties -- the Federalist and
the Republican,
ALEXANDER
HAMILTON
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The members of the last-named party later called themselves
Democratic-Republicans, but finally took the name Democrats, which
name they still retain. (The Republican party of the present day
did not come into existence until nearly sixty years after the
death of Washington.) Alexander Hamilton led the Federalist party
and Thomas Jefferson the Republican or, as we should say, the
Democratic party.
The Federalists believed in establishing a
powerful national government, in order to keep the new-formed
Union together. They thought that the proposed Bank of the United
States would help this.
The Republicans believed that the liberty of the
people could best be preserved by strengthening the state
governments. They feared that the national government, advocated
by the Federalists, might lead to a monarchy. For this reason they
strenuously, but vainly, opposed the establishing of the Bank of
the United States.
During Washington's second presidency
(1793-1797) France was engaged in a terrible revolution. The
people had declared themselves a republic and beheaded their King.
This led to a war between France and England. The French sent a
minister to this country (1793) to get help to fight the English.
He was styled "Citizen" Genêt, for, having abolished all
titles of honor and respect, the French could not endure even so
simple a title as Mr. He came here expecting to obtain ships,
money, and aid from the government. Thousands of our people
welcomed him with wild enthusiasm. But Washington feared that if
"Citizen" Genêt had his own way he would speedily drag the
country into a new war with England.
The President therefore issued a proclamation of
neutrality (1793), stating that we should take no part in European
quarrels. This proclamation so maddened the excitable Genêt
that he endeavored to stir up a mob in Philadelphia, to pull
Washington from his seat of office, and overturn the government of
the United States. The result was that, at Washington's protest,
France recalled her minister, and nothing more was heard of
him.
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204. Emigration to the West;
Cincinnati. Meanwhile, a great movement of population
had begun toward the country west of the Alleghenies, --
that section in which Washington had so deep an interest
(§ 138). Sevier, Robertson, and other pioneers from
the Carolinas had built |
cabins
in the Tennessee country; and Daniel Boone, the famous
hunter from the same region, followed by his bold
companions, had chopped a narrow path across the
wilderness to Kentucky; by the beginning of the
Revolution the Americans had got a firm foot hold in that
fertile region.
