the first american president2

7/30/2019 The First American President2

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in what had been the Colonies, still their dominant characteristic was British.According to the socialtraditions of Virginia, George Washington was an aristocrat, but in contrast withthe British, he was a

democrat.He believed, however, that the President must guard his office from thefreeandeasy want of decorum

Accordingly, in the matter of receiving the public and in grantinginterviews and of ceremonials at the Presidential Residence, he asked the adviceof John Adams, John Jay,

Hamilton, and Jefferson, and he listened to many of their suggestions

Congress transacted much important business at this first session. It determinedthat the President should havea Cabinet of men whose business it was to administer the chief departments and

to advise the President.Nextin importance were the financial measures proposed by the Secretary of theTreasury. Washington chose forhis first Cabinet Ministers: Thomas Jefferson, who had not returned from Paris,as Secretary of State, orForeign Minister as he was first called; Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of theTreasury; General Henry Knox,Secretary of War; and Edmund Randolph, AttorneyGeneral. Of these,

Hamilton had to face the most bitter

opposition. Throughout the Revolution the former Colonies had never been ableto collect enough money to

pay the expense of the war and the other charges of the Confederation. TheConfederation handed over aconsiderable debt to the new Government. Besides this many of the States had

paid each its own cost ofequipping and maintaining its contingent. Hamilton now proposed that theUnited States Government shouldassume these various State debts, which would aggregate $21,000,000 and bring

the National debt to a total of


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$75,000,000. Hamilton's suggestion that the State debts be assumed caused avehement outcry. Its opponents

protested that no fair adjustment could be reached. The Assumptionists retortedthat this would be the only

fair settlement, but the AntiAssumptionists voted them down by a majority oftwo. In other respects,Hamilton's financial measures prospered, and before many months he seized theopportunity of making a

bargain by which the next Congress reversed its vote on Assumption. In lessthan a year the members ofCongress and many of the public had reached the conclusion that New YorkCity was not the best place to bethe capital of the Nation. The men from the South argued that it put the South toa disadvantage, as its ease ofaccess to New York, New Jersey, and the Eastern States gave that section of thecountry a too favorablesituation. There was a strong party in favor of Philadelphia, but it wasremembered that in the days of theConfederation a gang of turbulent soldiers had dashed down from Lancaster and

put to flight the Convention

sitting at Philadelphia.Nevertheless, Philadelphia was chosentemporarily, the ultimate choice of a situation

being farther south on the Potomac.

In the Second Congress The Government was now settling down into whatbecame its normal routine. The Cabinet was completed bythe appointment of Jefferson as Secretary of State and Edmund Randolph asAttorneyGeneralThe Supreme Court was organized with

John Jay as Chief Justice, and five Associate Justices. At first the natural divisions consisted of the Federalists, who believed inadopting the Constitution, and those who did not. As soon as the thirteen Statesvoted to accept theConstitution, the AntiFederalists had no definite motive for existing. Their

place was taken principally by theRepublicans over against whom were the Democrats. A few years later these

parties exchanged names. Afundamental difference in the ideas of the Americans sprang from their views in

regard to National and State


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rights. Some of them regarded the State as the ultimate unit. Others insisted thatthe Nation was sovereign.These two conflicting views run through American history down to the CivilWar, and even in Washington's

time they existed in outline.Washington himself was a Federalist,believing that the Federation of the formerColonies should be made as compact and strongly knit as possible. Hehad had too much evidence during theRevolution of the weakness of uncentralized government, and yet hisVirginia origin and training had plantedin him a strong sympathy for State rights. In Washington's own Cabinetdwelt side by side the leaders of thetwo parties: Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State, though born in Virginia ofhigh aristocratic stock, wasthe most aggressive and infatuated of Democrats. Alexander Hamilton, born inthe West Indies and owingnothing to family connections, was a natural aristocrat. Hebelieved that theeducated and competent few mustinevitably govern the incompetent masses. His enemies suspected that he leanedstrongly towards monarchyand would have been glad to see Washington crowned king.

The foremost of Hamilton's measures, however, for good or for ill, was the

protective tariff on foreign imports.Experience has shown that protectionhas been much more than afinancial device.It has caused many American citizens to seek fortariff favors from the Government.

The highest duties it exacted on foreign imports were fifteen per cent, while theaverage was onlyeight and a half per cent. And yet it had not been long in force when theGovernment was receiving $200,000a month, which enabled it to defray all the necessary public chargesWashingtonhimself believed that the tariff should so promote industries as to provide forwhatever the country needed intime of war.Two other financial measures are to be credited to Hamilton. The first was theexcise, an internal revenue on


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distilled spirits. It met with opposition from the advocates of State rights, butwas passed after heated debate.The last was the establishment of a United States Bank. All of Hamilton'smeasures tended directly to

centralization, the object which he and Washington regarded as paramount.

One of the earliest difficulties which Washington's administration had toovercome was the hostility of theIndians. Indian discontent and even lawlessness had been going on for years,with only a desultory andineffectual show of vigor on the part of the whites. Washington, who detestedwhatever was ineffectual andlacking in purpose, determined to beat down the Indians into submission. Hesent out a first army under

General St. Clair, but it was taken in ambush by the Indians and nearly wipedouta disaster which caused

almost a panic throughout the Western country. Washington felt the lossesdeeply, but he had no intention of

being beaten there. Heorganized a second army, gave it to General Wayne tocommand, who finally broughtthe Six Nations to terms.The Indians in the South still remained unpacified andlawless.Washington made another prolonged trip, this time through the Southern States ,

which greatly improved hishealth and gave an opportunity of seeing many of the public men, and enabledthe population to greet for thefirst time their President. Meanwhile the seeds of partisan feuds grew apace, asthey could not fail to do wheretwo of the ablest politicians ever known in the United States sat in the sameCabinet and pursued withunremitting energy ideas that were mutually uncompromising. ThomasJefferson, although born of the old

aristocratic stock of Virginia, had early announced himself a Democrat, and hadled that faction throughoutthe Revolution. His facile and fiery mind gave to the Declaration ofIndependence an irresistible appeal, and itstill remains after nearly one hundred and fifty years one of the most contagiousdocuments ever drawn up.

Hamilton harbored the anxiety that the UnitedStates under their new Constitution would be too loosely held together. He

promoted, therefore, every


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measure that tended to strengthen the Central Government and to save it fromdissolution either by thecollapse of its unifying bonds or by anarchy. In the work of the first two years ofWashington's administration,

Hamilton was plainly victorious. The Tariff Law, the Excise, the National Bank,the National Funding Bill, allcentralizing measures, were his. Washington approved them all

As secretary of state from 1789 to 1794 in the administrations of George Washington,Jefferson revived a proposal he had originated as a member of Congress in 1783 to establishreciprocal trade agreements with continental European nations and, in the face of Britishrestrictions on American commerce, to deny such benefits to the British. The proposal died inCongress. His hopes for at least an evenhanded American approach to Britain and Franceevaporated when the French envoy, Edmond Gent, appealed to the American public for amilitary alliance with revolutionary Francean indiscretion that made Washington decide toremain neutral in the war between Britain and France.

Events in France inevitablydrove that country into war with England. Washington and his chief advisers believed that the UnitedStatesought to remain neutral as between the two belligerents.But neutrality was difficult. In spite of theirhorror atthe French Revolution, the memory of our debt to France during our own Revolution made a verystrong bondof sympathy, whereas our long record of hostility to England during our Colony days, and since theDeclaration of Independence, kept alive a traditional hatred for Great Britain. While it was easy,therefore, topreach neutrality, it was very difficult to enforce it. An occurrence which could not have been foreseenfurtheradded to the difficulty of neutralityIn the spring of 1793 the French Republic appointed EdmondCharles Gent, familiarly called "CitizenGent," Minister to the United States. He was a young man, not more than thirty, of very quick parts,who had

been brought up in the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, had an exorbitant idea of his own importance, andmight bedescribed without malice as a master of effrontery.

Citizen Gent continued his campaign unabashed. He attempted to force theUnited States to give arms andmunitions to the French. Receiving cool answers to his demands, he lost

patience, and intended to appeal tothe American People, over the head of the Government. He sent his

communication for the two Houses of


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Congress, in care of the Secretary of State, to be delivered. But Washington,whose patience had seemedinexhaustible, believed that the time had come to act boldly. By his instructionJefferson returned the

communication to Gent with a note in which he curtly reminded theobstreperous Frenchman of a diplomat'sproper behavior. As the American Government had already requested the Frenchto recall Gent, his amazinginflation collapsed like a pricked bladder. He was too wary, however, to returnto France which he had servedso devotedly. He preferred to remain in this country, to become an Americancitizen, and to marry thedaughter of Governor Clinton of New York. Perhaps he had time for leisure,during the anticlimax of hiscareer, to recognize that President Washington, whom he had looked down uponas a novice in diplomacy,knew how to accomplish his purpose, very quietly, but effectually.

After leaving office, Jefferson was disturbed by the administration's increasingfriendliness to Great Britain and by other policies promoted by TreasurySecretary Alexander Hamilton

THE JAY TREATY

His first important act in his new administration was to issue a Proclamation ofNeutrality on April 22d.Although this document was clear in intent and in purpose, and was evidentlyframed to keep the UnitedStates from being involved in the war between France and England, it gaveoffence to partisans of eithercountry. They used it as a weapon for attacking the Government, so thatWashington found to his sorrow thatthe partisan spites, which he had hoped would vanish almost of their ownaccord, were become, on thecontrary, even more formidable and irritating.

neutrality, between England and France was therefore the only rational course;

but the American partisans ofthese rivals did their utmost to render this unachievable.


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In the autumn of 1793 Jefferson insisted upon resigning as Secretary of State.Washington used all his

persuasiveness to dissuade him, but in vain. Jefferson saw the matter in its true

light, and insisted. Perhaps itat last occurred to him, as it must occur to every dispassionate critic, that hecould not go on forever acting asan important member of an administration which pursued a policy diametricallyopposed to his own. After all,even the most adroit politicians must sometimes sacrifice an offering to candor,not to say honesty. At the endof the year he retired to the privacy of his home at Monticello, where heremained in seclusion, not wholly

innocuous, until the end of 1796.

the first american president2

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