CHAPTER XVIII. THE NEW GOVERNMENT

3. Import and excise duties were laid, a national bank was chartered, and a mint was established for coining United States money.

4. In Washington's second term as President (1793-97) there was war between Great Britain and France, and it was with difficulty that our government succeeded in remaining neutral.

5. Treaties were made with Great Britain and Spain, whereby these powers withdrew from the posts they held in our country, the right of deposit at New Orleans was secured, and peace was preserved.

6. A five years' Indian war in the Northwest Territory was ended by Wayne's victory (1794) and the treaty of Greenville (1795).

7. The people of western Pennsylvania resisted the excise tax on whisky, but their insurrection was easily suppressed by a force of militia.

8. Differences on questions of domestic and foreign policy had resulted in the growth of the Federalist and Republican parties, but party organization was imperfect. In 1796 Adams (Federalist) was elected President, and Jefferson (Republican) Vice President.

9. The British treaty and the election of Adams gave offense to the French government, which made insulting demands upon our commissioners sent to that country. A brief naval war in the French West Indies was ended by a treaty made by a new French government in 1800.

10. The passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts brought out protests against them in what are called the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798-99, one of which claimed the right of a state to nullify an act of Congress which it deemed unconstitutional.

11. In the next presidential election (1800) the Republicans were successful; but as Jefferson and Burr had each the same number of votes, the House of Representatives had to decide which should be President and which Vice President. After a long contest Jefferson was given the higher office, as the Republicans had wished.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Washington appointed John Jay the first Chief Justice, and gave the newly created secretaryships of State, Treasury, and War to Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Henry Knox respectively. These men were intended to be heads of departments; but Washington soon began to consult them and the Attorney General on matters of state and thus made them also a body of advisers known as "the Cabinet." All the Secretaries and the Postmaster General and the Attorney General are now members of the Cabinet.

[2] These ten amendments form a sort of "bill of rights," and were intended to remove objections to the Constitution by those who feared that the national government might encroach on the liberties of the people.

[3] For the different kinds of debt, see p. 211. The Continental money was funded at $1 in government stock for $100 in the paper money; but the other forms of debt were assumed by the government at their face value. All told, - state debts, foreign debt, loan-office certificates, etc., - these obligations amounted to about $75,000,000. To pay so large a sum in cash was impossible, so Congress ordered interest-bearing stock to be given in exchange for evidence of debt.

[4] As first laid out, the District of Columbia was a square ten miles on a side, and was partly in Virginia and partly in Maryland. But the piece in Virginia many years later (1846) was given back to that state.

[5] After these two states were admitted each was given a star and a stripe on the national flag. Until 1818 our flag thus had fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, no further change being made as new states were admitted. In 1818 two stripes were taken off, the number of stars was made the same as the number of states, and since then each new state has been represented by a new star.

[6] Alexander Hamilton was born in 1757 on the island of Nevis, one of the British West Indies. He was sent to New York to be educated, and entered King's College (now Columbia University). There he became an ardent patriot, wrote pamphlets in defense of the first Congress, and addressed a public meeting when but seventeen. He was captain of an artillery company in 1776, one of Washington's aids in 1777-81, distinguished himself at Yorktown, and (in 1782) went to Congress. He was a man of energy, enthusiasm, and high ideals, was possessed of a singular genius for finance, and believed in a vigorous national government. As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton proposed not only the funding and assumption plans, but the national bank and the mint.

[7] The coins were to be the eagle or ten-dollar piece, half eagle, and quarter eagle of gold; the dollar, half, quarter, dime, and half dime of silver; and the cent and half cent of copper. The mint was established at once at Philadelphia, and the first copper coin was struck in 1793. But coinage was a slow process, and many years passed before foreign coins ceased to circulate. The accounts of Congress were always kept in dollars and cents. But the states and the people used pounds, shillings, pence, and Spanish dollars, and it was several years before the states, by law, required their officers to levy taxes and keep accounts in dollars and cents (Virginia in 1792, Rhode Island and Massachusetts in 1795, New York and Vermont in 1797, New Jersey in 1799).

[8] A single letter in those days was one written on a single sheet of paper, large or small, and the postage on it was 6 cents for any distance under 30 miles, 8 cents from 30 to 60, 10 cents from 60 to 100, and so on to 450 miles, above which the rate was 25 cents. In all our country there were but 75 post offices, and the revenue derived from them was about $100,000 a year.

[9] Read McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., Vol. II, pp. 189-204.