From the retreat of Lexington, April 19, 1775, to the surrender of Yorldown, Oct. 19,1781. in 24 engagements, including the surrender of two armies, the British losses in the field were not less than 25,000 men, while those of the Americans were about 8,000.
The states were free, but exhausted,. with a foreign debt of $8,000,000, a domestic debt of $30,000,000, an army unpaid and discontented, a paper currency utterly worth less, and a bankrupt treasury. The states were called upon to pay their share of the necessary expenditures, but they were also in debt, and there was no power to compel them to pay, or to raise money by taxation. In these difficulties, and the failure of the articles of confederation, a convention was summoned by congress in 1787 to revise these articles. The task was so difficult that the convention resolved to propose an entirely new constitution, granting fuller powers a to federal congress and executive, and one which should act upon the people individually as well as upon the states. The consti tution was therefore framed, whose provisions have already been stated, and which is still the basis of the government; and though strongly opposed by many, who believed that the extensive powers granted by it to congress and the executive woad be dangerous to the liberties of the people, it was, in 1787-88, adopted, in some cases by small majori ties, in 11 state conventions, and finally by the whole 13 states, chiefly through the exer tions and writings of James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton. Virginia ratified the constitution with the declaration that she was at liberty to withdraw from the union whenever its powers were used for oppression: and New York, after Hamil ton had declared that no state could ever be coerced by an armed force. The country was at this period divided into two parties: the federalists, who were in favor of a strong centralized government, and the anti-federalists, who held to the sovereignty and rights of the independent states. George Washington and John Adams, standing at the head of the federalist party, were elected president and vice-president of the United States. The president took the oath to support the constitution in front of the city hall in New York ; and the government was organized with Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state; Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury; gen. Knox, secretary of war; and John Jay, chief justice of the supreme court. Congress assumed the war debts of the several states, and chartered the hank of the United States, though its constitutional right to do so was strenuously denied by the republican or states' rights party. 'Washington was re-elected to the presidency in 1792;but party spirit increased, excited oy the events of the French revolution. Citizen Genet, who represented the French republic in America, fitted out privateers against England, and his recall was demanded by the president. The federalists took the side of England in the great European contest, while the repub licans sympathized with the revolution. There grew up also difficulties between the English and American governments. The Americans accused the English of carrying off large numbers of negroes and other property at the close of the war, while the English accused the Americans of sequestrating the property of loyalists, which they hail engaged by treaty to restore to them. These controversies were happily settled by Mr. Jay.
In 1796 Washington, worn and irritated by partisan conflicts and criticisms, refused a third electiou, and issued his farewell address to the people of the United States, warning them against the dangers of party-spirit and disunion, and giving them worthy of one who was said to be first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." John Adams was elected president: and Thomas Jefferson, the sec ond choice of the people for the presidency, became, according to the rule at first adopted, vice-president. In 1798 the commercial regulations of France, and the asser tion of the right to search and capture American vessels, nearly led to a war between the two republics. In 1799 the nation, without distinction of party, mourned the death of Washington; and, in the following year, the seat of government was removed to the city he had planned for a capital, and which bears his name. The partiality of Mr. Adams for England, the establishment of a federal army, and the passing of the alien and sedition laws, by which foreigners could be summarily banished, and abuse of the government, by speech or the press, punished, caused great political excitement, and such an increase of the republican, or, as it was afterward called, the democratic party, that the president failed of a re-election in 1801; and there being no election by the people, the house of representatives, after thirty-five bidlotings, chose Thomas Jef ferson, the republican candidate, with Aaron Burr for vice-president; and the offices of the country were transferred to the victorious party. Internal duties, which a few
years before had led to an insurrection in Pennsylvania, called the whisky insurrec tion, were abolished, and the alien and sedition laws repealed. Tennessee, Kentucky, Vermont, and Ohio had now been organized as states, and admitted into the union. In 1803 the area of the country was more than doubled by the purchase of Louisiana—the whole region between the Mississippi and Rocky mountains—from France for $15,000,000. The infant navy waged a successful war with Tripoli. In 1805 Mr..Jefferson was elected for a second term; but Mr. Burr, having lost the confidence of his party, engaged in a conspiracy to seize upon the Mississippi valley, and found a new empire, with its capital at New Orleans. He was tried for treason, but not convicted. The commerce of America was highly prosperous, her ships enjoying much of the carrying trade of Europe; but in May, 1806, England declared a blockade from Brest to the Elbe, and Bonaparte, in November, decreed the blockade of the coasts of the United Kingdom. American vessels were captured by both parties, and were searched by British ships for British subjects; and those suspected of having been born on British soil, were, in accordance with the doctrine, once a subject always a subject, impressed into naval service. Even American men-of-war were not excepted from this process. The British frigate Leopard meeting the American frigate Chesapeake, demanded four of her men, and on refusal fired into her, and the surprised Chesapeake struck her flag. British ships were hereupon forbidden U. S. harbors 31r. Jefferson, following the example of Washington, declined a third election; and; in 1809, James Madison became president. The French decrees, prejudicial to neutral commerce, were revoked in 1810; but the English continued, a source of loss and irrita tion, while hundreds of American citizens were lu forced service in British vessels. The feeling was increased by a night-encounter between the American frigate President and the British sloop-of-war Little Belt, May 16, 1811. In April, 1812, an embargo was again declared by congress, preparatory to a declaration of war against Great Britain; July 19, for which congress voted to raise 25,000 enlisted soldiers, 50,000 volunteers, and 100,000 militia. Gen. Hull, with 2,000 men at Detroit, invaded Canada; but ou being met by a small force of British and Indians, under gen. Brock, recrossed the river and made a shameful surrender; and was sentenced to death for his cowardice, but par doned by the president. A second invasion of Canada was made near Niagara Falls by gen. Van Reussalaer. One thousand American militia stormed the heights of Queens town, and the British gen., Brock, was killed; but re-enforcements arriving.opportunely, the heights were retaken, anti nearly all the Americans were killed or driven into the Niagara, while the American gen. was in vain imploring a large body of militia on the opposite bank to cross over to the support of their brethren in arms. They refused, upon the ground that the government had uo constitutional right to send the militia across the frontier. The federal party, opposed to the war. defended this doctrine, and gen. Van Renssalaer resigned in disgust. American disasters on the land were, however, compensated by victories at sea. Aug. 19 the U. S. frigate Constitution captured the ' British frigate Guerriere; Oct. 18 the Wasp took the. Frolic; Oct. 25 the frigate United States captured the Macedonian; Dec. 29 the Constitution took the Jara. The Ameri cans iu most cases had the larger ships and heavier ordnance; but the immense dis parity in losses showed also superior seamanship and gunnery. American privateers took 300 British vessels and 3,000 prisoners. In 1813 gen. Proctor crossed the Detroit river with a considerable force of British and Indians, and defeated gen. Winchester, with the results of savage warfare. In April an American army of 1700 men cap tured York (now Toronto). and about the same time another American force of 800 men was Iefeated with great loss by the Indians under Tecumseh; but the remainder of this campaign was wholly favorable to the Americans. The attempt of the British gen., Prevost, ou Sackett's Harbor was repulsed; the squadron on lake Eric, consisting of 6 vessels, 63 guns, was captured by commodore Perry at the head of an American flotilla a 9 vessels, 54 guns; and this latter success enabled gen. Harrison to invade Canada, where he defeated gen. Proctor in the battle of the Thames, in which the great Indian warrior-chief Tecumseh was killed. In 1813 another invasion of Canada was attempted; and York (now Toronto) was taken by gen. Dearborn ; and an unsuccessful attempt was made to take Montreal. Villages were burned on both sides. The British also destroyed American shipping in Delaware bay. At the same period gen. Jackson defeated the Creek Indians in Alabama and Georgia, who had been excited to make war upon the frontier settlements.