April 30, 1789 - On the balcony of New York's Federal Hall, George Washington, at age 57, is sworn in as the first President of the United States. He then enters the Senate chamber to deliver his inaugural address.

July 4, 1789 - Congress passes its first tax, an 8.5 percent protective tax on 30 different items, with items arriving on American ships charged at a lower rate than foreign ships.

July 20, 1789 - Congress passes the Tonnage Act of 1789 levying a 50 cents per ton tax on foreign ships entering American ports, 30 cents per ton on American built but foreign owned ships, and 6 cents per ton on American ships.

July 27, 1789 - Congress begins organization of the departments of government with the establishment of the Department of Foreign Affairs, later renamed the Department of State. Followed by the War Department (Aug. 7) Treasury Dept. (Sept. 2) and Postmaster General under the Treasury Dept. (Sept. 2).

September 22, 1789 - The Federal Judiciary Act passed by Congress establishes a six-man Supreme Court, attorney general, 13 federal district courts and 3 circuit courts. All federal cases would originate in the district court and, if appealed, would go to the circuit court and from there to the Supreme Court.

September 25, 1789 - Congress submits 12 proposed constitutional amendments to the states for ratification. The first ten will be ratified and added to the Constitution in 1791 as the Bill of Rights.

September 29, 1789 - The U.S. Army is established by Congress. Totaling 1000 men, it consists of one regiment of eight infantry companies and one battalion of four artillery companies.

November 26, 1789 - A Day of Thanksgiving is established by a congressional resolution and a proclamation by George Washington.

March 1, 1790 - A Census Act is passed by Congress. The first census, finished on Aug. 1, indicates a total population of nearly 4 million persons in the U.S. and western territories. African Americans make up 19 percent of the population, with 90 percent living in the South. Native Americans were not counted, although there were likely over 80 tribes with 150,000 persons. For white Americans, the average age is under 16. Most white families are large, with an average of eight children born. The white population will double every 22 years.

The largest American city is Philadelphia, with 42,000 persons, followed by New York (33,000) Boston (18,000) Charleston (16,000) and Baltimore (13,000). The majority of Americans are involved in agricultural pursuits, with little industrial activity occurring at this time.

July 10, 1790 - The House of Representatives votes to locate the national capital on a 10 square-mile site along the Potomac, with President George Washington choosing the exact location.

George Washington was an aristocrat, but in contrast with the British, he was a democrat.

He believed, however, that the President must guard his office from the free−and−easy want of decorum

he asked the advice of John Adams, John Jay,Hamilton, and Jefferson, and he listened to many of their suggestionsNext in importance were the financial measures proposed by the Secretary of the Treasury. Washington chose for his 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 the Treasury; General Henry Knox,Secretary of War; and Edmund Randolph, Attorney−General. Of these, Hamilton had to face the most bitteropposition. Throughout the Revolution the former Colonies had never been able to collect enough money topay the expense of the war and the other charges of the Confederation. The Confederation 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 the United States Government shouldassume these various State debts, which would aggregate $21,000,000 and bring the National debt to a total of$75,000,000. Hamilton's suggestion that the State debts be assumed caused a vehement outcry. Its opponentsprotested that no fair adjustment could be reached. The Assumptionists retorted that this would be the onlyfair settlement, but the Anti−Assumptionists voted them down by a majority of two. In other respects,Hamilton's financial measures prospered, and before many months he seized the opportunity of making abargain by which the next Congress reversed its vote on Assumption. In less than a year the members ofCongress and many of the public had reached the conclusion that New York City was not the best place to bethe capital of the Nation. The men from the South argued that it put the South to a disadvantage, as its ease ofaccess to New York, New Jersey, and the Eastern States gave that section of the country a too favorablesituation. There was a strong party in favor of Philadelphia, but it was remembered that in the days of theConfederation a gang of turbulent soldiers had dashed down from Lancaster and put to flight the Conventionsitting at Philadelphia. Nevertheless, Philadelphia was chosen temporarily, the ultimate choice of a situationbeing farther south on the Potomac.

In the Second Congress The Cabinet was completed by the appointment of Jefferson as Secretary of State and Edmund Randolph as Attorney−General The Supreme Court was organized with John Jay as Chief Justice, and five Associate Justices

A fundamental difference in the ideas of the Americans sprang from their views in regard to National and Staterights. Some of them regarded the State as the ultimate unit. Others insisted that the Nation was sovereign.These two conflicting views run through American history down to the Civil War, and even in Washington'stime 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. He had had too much evidence during theRevolution of the weakness of uncentralized government, and yet his Virginia origin and training had plantedin him a strong sympathy for State rights

Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State, though born in Virginia of high aristocratic stock, was the most aggressive and infatuated of Democrats. Alexander Hamilton believed that the educated and competent few must inevitably govern the incompetent masses. The foremost of Hamilton's measures, however, for good or for ill, was the protective tariff on foreign imports.

Two other financial measures are to be credited to Hamilton. The first was the excise, an internal revenue ondistilled spirits. It met with opposition from the advocates of State rights, but was passed after heated debate.

The last was the establishment of a United States Bank. All of Hamilton's measures tended directly tocentralization, the object which he and Washington regarded as paramount.

One of the earliest difficulties which Washington's administration had to overcome was the hostility of the Indians.Washington determined to beat down the Indians into submission. He sent out a first army under General St. Clair, but it was taken in ambush by the Indians and nearly wiped out−−a disaster which caused almost a panic throughout the Western country. . He organized a second army, gave it to General Wayne to command, who finally brought the Six Nations to terms.

_Events in France inevitably drove that country into war with England. Washington and his chief advisers believed that the United States ought to remain neutral as between the two belligerents. In the spring of 1793 the French Republic appointed Edmond Charles Genêt, familiarly called "Citizen Genêt," Minister to the United States. Edmond Genêt, appealed to the American public for a military alliance with revolutionary France—an indiscretion that made Washington decide to remain neutral in the war between Britain and France. Edmond Genêt attempted to force the United States to give arms and munitions to the French. Receiving cool answers to his demands, he lost patience, and intended to appeal to the American People, over the head of the Government. He was too wary, however, to return to France which he had served so devotedly. He preferred to remain in this country, to become an American citizen, and to marry the daughter of Governor Clinton of New York.After leaving office, Jefferson was disturbed by the administration's increasing friendliness to Great Britain and by other policies promoted by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton

THE JAY TREATY

His first important act in his new administration was to issue a Proclamation of Neutrality on April 22d.Although this document was clear in intent and in purpose, and was evidently framed to keep the UnitedStates from being involved in the war between France and England, it gave offence to partisans of eithercountry. They used it as a weapon for attacking the Government, so that Washington found to his sorrow thatthe partisan spites, which he had hoped would vanish almost of their own accord, 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 outmost to render this unachievable.

In the autumn of 1793 Jefferson insisted upon resigning as Secretary of State. Washington used all hispersuasiveness 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 he could not go on forever acting asan important member of an administration which pursued a policy diametrically opposed 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 he remained in seclusion, not whollyinnocuous, until the end of 1796.

Jay's Treaty, negotiated in 1794 to resolve differences between the United States and Great Britain that were still outstanding after the American War of Independence. The treaty was drafted by the American statesman and jurist John Jay and the British foreign secretary Baron William Grenville. The agreement was intended both to settle long-standing differences between the United States and Great Britain and to secure American neutrality during the time of the French Revolution in Europe.

Anglo-American differences arose in part from violations of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which had ended the American War of Independence. The Jay treaty provided for the evacuation of British posts on the north-western frontier of the United States and for the appointment of arbitration commissions to define boundaries between the United States and Canada. It also provided for a commission to determine America's compensation from Britain for the illegal seizure of ships and for the payment by Americans of pre-war debts owed to British

merchants. The treaty failed to resolve a dispute over American trade with the British West Indies, and provisions granting Britain favourable trading terms prevented the United States from strengthening its own commerce by restricting British shipping and goods.

The treaty aroused great opposition among the public and in the Congress. It was ratified by a very narrow margin in the US Senate in June 1795; the House of Representatives then waged a lengthy, but unsuccessful, campaign to withhold appropriations for its implementation. Its ratification was critical in the formation of the first national political parties in the United States. Despite its unpopularity, the treaty has long been regarded as the best the United States could have obtained under the circumstances. American neutrality was preserved and commerce flourished under its terms until it expired in 1805.