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Carolinas showed Spain how much unpopularity her policy was developing in our back country, and her tone became more conciliatory. Washington seized the opportunity to quicken the currents of diplomacy, and the result was a treaty arranged by Thomas Pinckney, our minister, with Godoy, a liberal Spaniard, on October 27, 1795. It confirmed the secret clause of the treaty of 1783 relative to the Florida boundary, gave the Americans the right to use the river, and allowed them to deposit in New Orleans products intended for exportation. Kentucky and Tennessee thus got easy access to outside markets, Georgia acquired a better title to the southern half of her Western lands, and the national government closed an annoying dispute with Spain.

Attitude of
Americans.

THE UNITED STATES AND THE EUROPEAN WAR

In 1793 France beheaded her king, and almost immediately was at war with England and Spain. The year before she had begun a war with Austria and Prussia. The South generally was enthusiastic in her behalf, as well as the farmers and ordinary townsmen of the Middle states. But the trading class everywhere, closely dependent on England, felt otherwise, and they were supported by the rural New Englanders, who, under the influence of the congregational clergy, hated a republic which had enthroned a Goddess of Reason. Washington feared that the ardent French partisans would, by some rash action, bring on war with England, and issued a proclamation of neutrality. Inasmuch as the treaties of 1778 (see page 199) were still in force, the French party took this for British partisanship. The proclamation was roundly denounced in the newspapers of the newly founded republican party and defended in those of the federalists. At this time our politics became divided in accordance with the division in Europe, and from this situation they did not emerge until Napoleon was definitely defeated and France ceased to be at war against the powers around her.

Neutrality Proclamation.

Genêt's
Arrival.

April 8, 1793, Genêt, first minister from the French republic, arrived at Charleston. The merchants and great planters received him coolly, but the populace were mad with joy. Carried away by his reception, he raised troops for operations against Spain and commissioned privateers against England. Departing for Philadelphia by land, he was received enthusiastically by the farmers of the Carolinas and Virginia and became convinced that the American people were in sympathy with France. Washington received him with reserve, and Genêt grew angry and informed his government that the American people did not approve the neutrality proclamation. He described the president as a weak old man, under British influence. Many of his deeds were as foolish as his words. The republicans gave him encouragement at first, and he

GENËT DISCREDITED

267

formed the intention of getting congress to force Washington to act in behalf of France. Finally, he talked openly about his appeal to the people. The federalists attacked him from the beginning, and they made so much of his ill-advised attitude toward the administration that even the republicans began to forsake him. No calm patriot would tolerate an open attempt by a foreigner to influence the internal policy of the country.

the French

Washington was rarely moved by popular clamor, and he intended to preserve neutrality. The treaties of 1778 provided that the French might bring their prizes into our ports and that enemies of France might not fit out privateers there. Genêt inter- Interpreting preted this to mean that French prizes brought in might Treaties. also be sold, and that France might fit out privateers in American ports. His view was brought before the cabinet, where Hamilton opposed it totally and Jefferson would allow as much of it as would not bring us into war with England. Washington held the balance. He would do all the treaties required; and it was decided that France might fit out privateers in our ports but send them away at once and not use our ports as a base of operation, or send in and sell prizes captured at sea. Genêt complied unwillingly. He had already licensed fourteen privateers which had taken eighty prizes.

Genêt's

Last Of

fense.

A month later, July, 1793, it was known that he was fitting out a prize, The Little Sarah, with cannon and was about to send her to sea. When approached, he became angry and talked of appealing to the people; but when he learned that the ship was about to be seized, he agreed that she would not sail without notice. Ten days later the promise was violated. Washington was outraged. "Is the minister of the French republic," he said, "to set the acts of this government at defiance with impunity?" He convened the cabinet, which decided to ask France to recall Genêt. It also determined to exclude French prizes and privateers in the future. The demand caused no dissatisfaction in Paris, where a fresh revolution of party had left the luckless Genêt in danger of his life. In fact, Fauchet, his successor, was instructed to arrest Genêt and send him home for trial. He owed his safety to Washington, who generously refused to allow him to be extradited. He remained in America, married a daughter of Governor Clinton of New York, and died in that state at an old age.

THE WHISKY INSURRECTION

Hamilton's excise law, passed in January, 1791, was very unpopular in the western counties of Pennsylvania and the states southward, a region through which the Scotch-Irish were widely settled. They brought with them the habit of making whisky out of grain, and by 1791 their stills on every farm furnished so much of the liquor that it superseded the New England rum, which

The Excise
Opposed.

in colonial times was the common tipple throughout the colonies. The tax was not large, but it was resented because it was inquisitorial. The opposition reached actual violence only in Pennsylvania, where four counties had been organized in the valley of the Monongahela, all lying to the south of Pittsburgh. The people there were near enough to the new settlements in the Ohio valley to feel much of that spirit of independence which had caused some men to fear a separation of the West from the East at no distant day.

Violence in Pennsylvania.

In 1791 popular meetings began to be held to urge the inhabitants to defy the excise law. The leaders were in a violent mood, and threatened to deal with officers collecting the tax. Albert Gallatin, later to have a distinguished career in national politics, lived in the region, attended the meetings, and sought to check the trend to violence. His efforts were futile; for the angry farmers listened more willingly to the harangues of the men of action. They paid no attention to a proclamation of warning which Washington, at Hamilton's suggestion, issued in 1792, and continued to hold meetings, threaten the revenue officers, and cut up the stills of those who obeyed the objectionable law. In 1794 fifty warrants were drawn for persons concerned in these outrages and made returnable to the federal court in Philadelphia.

The People

in Arms.

Trouble arose when they were served. A mob surrounded the house of Neville, an inspector, to make him give up his commission, and six men were wounded and one killed by shots fired from his house. The people flew to arms, and Neville fled for his life. The leader of discontent was now Bradford, a noisy demagogue, who summoned the counties to send delegates to a general meeting at Parkinson's Ferry in the following August. In the excitement of the time the mail was robbed and the discontented ones assembled in great numbers near Pittsburgh, probably to overawe the small garrison there. But the leaders lost courage and contented themselves with marching through the town as a demonstration of their power.

It was high time for the forces of order to assert themselves, but Governor Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, feared to make himself unpopular with the farmers, and refused to call out the militia. Then Troops Called Out. Washington decided to interfere. He sent out a proclamation against the rioters and called for fifteen thousand men from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, to march by the first of September. Meanwhile, he sent commissioners to visit the back counties to see if the people could be persuaded to submit to

Insurgents
Submissive.

the law. They arrived, with two commissioners appointed by Mifflin, while the Parkinson Ferry meeting was in session. The quick response of the militia was by this time known in the West and caused the people to hesitate. Gallatin took advantage of the lull to urge moderation, and it was decided to

DISORDER SUPPRESSED

269

appoint a committee to treat for peace. Bradford raised the cry that the enemy was winning through the use of money. There was much dissension in the back counties themselves, but the onward march of the army gave powerful support to those who wished peace. It was finally decided to send men across the mountains to ask Washington for better terms.

the Insur

Meanwhile, two divisions of troops were converging on the disaffected region, one by way of Carlisle and Bedford, the other by way of Cumberland and the old Braddock road. They met at Parkinson Ferry on November 8, but no force showed Collapse of itself against them. At the demand of the military rection. power the people now submitted and took oaths of loyalty; and 2500 troops were left in the country for the winter. Hamilton, who accompanied the army in a civil capacity, secured the arrest of such leaders as did not flee westward, and eighteen of them were sent to Philadelphia for trial. Of these only two were convicted, and they were pardoned by Washington. No further opposition was made to the excise, but it was still denounced by the republicans and was repealed when Jefferson became president.

Significance

The force called out against the four counties in insurrection was larger than the number of men of military age in their limits. It was larger than most of the revolutionary armies, and larger than any army under Washington before the French of the Army. alliance. It was only one thousand men smaller than the allied American army which captured Cornwallis with 7000 men at Yorktown. A thousand men could have suppressed the insurrection. In calling for 15,000 Washington followed the suggestion of Hamilton, who wished to demonstrate the power of the government; and in this respect the plan succeeded. But his opponents denounced it as showing the tendency of the federalists toward militarism. Hamilton's general policy of a strong government, which could intimidate the unruly, suited England, which he thought the best-governed country in the world. But it was a mistake in a country in which the unruly all had the ballot, for it tended to make them the political opponents of the party in power.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT UNDER WASHINGTON

and Party.

Washington was elected president without regard to party. During the revolution all whigs stood together and division in the ranks was deplored. The first cabinet and the first congress were composed of men who had favored the adoption of the Washington constitution; for it was not probable that men should be selected to organize a government which they had not wished to establish. Washington's first appointments in the civil service were generally from the same class. When North Carolina and Rhode

Island gave in their tardy submission to the constitution, he removed the antifederalist revenue officers within their borders and appointed successors who were federalists. Nobody objected, for the antifederalist group had no occasion to continue its existence and immediately disappeared. Washington hoped that his supporters would remain undivided and was distressed when he saw them forming parties.

This process began with the introduction of Hamilton's financial plan, which pleased the property-owning class and the advocates of a strong central government. Hamilton thought wealth The Federal- and intelligence would rule, partly because they could ist Party. act promptly and with bold initiative, and partly because they would ever have great influence over less competent classes. Washington sympathized with this view and supported it when occasion arose throughout his administration. Thus was organized the Hamiltonian party, which took the name federalist because it sought to promote nationality. It was strongest in the trading cities, most of which were north of the Potomac, and among the large planters of the South. It was conservative and mildly aristocratic. Opposed to these views was Jefferson, who had ever rejected a privileged class and who believed in democracy. He had great organizing ability, but was not a good public speaker. He realized The Repub- that the middle and lower classes were a vast majority of lican Party the voters and might control the government if they could be organized into an effective party. The superior classes had their own organization; he must make one. They had influence over the mass of voters; he must break down that influence. He found many men who disliked Hamilton, never a considerate man to those who differed with him, others who held, as Jefferson, to the democratic theory, others who feared the concentration of national power, and still others who wished to make careers for themselves as leaders of a great party. Jefferson was able to select the best men of these groups, unite them in a common cause, restrain their passions, and furnish them with successful campaign issues. He founded newspapers which, in seeking to destroy the prestige of the federalists with the masses, accused them of many harsh purposes. They even attacked Washington, pronouncing him a monarchist. By these fierce onslaughts, and by taking advantage of every mistake of their adversaries, they slowly increased their power, and in 1800 obtained control of the government. They were known as republicans.

Forming.

Feeling in the States.

There was some discontent in interior New England, but Republican the power of the seaports overwhelmed it, and here the republicans had little hope. Hamilton's enemies in New York, headed by Clinton, came readily into the movement. In Pennsylvania the country people were opposed to the ruling class in Philadelphia and became republicans gladly. In Virginia

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