\Vashington was unanimously chosen the first President of the United States and took the oath of office on 30 April 1789. Congress had already assembled and begun important tasks of legislation. There was a crying need for reve nue, and a tariff bill was soon passed. The government was quickly put into working or der; necessary executive departments were established; a Supreme Court and inferior tri bunals were founded. Washington made Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State, Alexander Hamil ton Secretary of the Treasury and Henry Knox Secretary of War. The first two repre sented different tendencies in American life, and about them are crystallized the two lead ing parties of the country; about Hamilton the Federalists, who were strong supporters of his policy, and about Jefferson the Republicans, who believed that Hamilton was intent upon establishing monarchical institutions. Not for some time, however, were these ties really organized, and the word organization seems hardly applicable to the political parties of 120 ago when compared with those of the present time. Jefferson had faith in the peo ple and was responsive to the impulse of demo cratic America; Hamilton had rare talent for organization and administration, and repre sented the conservative forces of the time. The Federalists advocated a broad and liberal in terpretation of the Constitution; the Republi cans favored a strict interpretation, fearing that the Federalists would make use of their power to injure State rights or individual liberty. In the determination of the political affiliations, Hamilton's financial policy had much to do. He advocated the funding of the public debt and the assumption of the State debts with the un derstanding that the creditors should be paid in full. He also proposed the establishment of a national bank and the levying of an excise tax, and raising adequate revenue by a tariff so arranged as to offer also support to American manufactures. All of these measures were adopted, and he thus brought to his support the holders of the public debt and, as a rule, the commercial and more substantial classes in the community.
The difficulties of Washington's first admin istration centred chiefly in domestic affairs. Just before the beginning of his second admin istration war broke out between England and France, and for the next 20 years American politics and interests were much affected by European conditions. The Federalists, on the whole, sympathized with England, whereas the Republicans, having different industrial inter ests, were more inclined to sympathize with France. Difficulties of various kinds reached their climax in 1794, when the stability of the government was in danger. An insurrection against the whisky tax had broken out in western Pennsylvania; the Indians had for some years been waging war in the Northwest, and two armies sent to suppress them had been defeated; the English, indignant at the way in which Genet, the French Minister to America, had been allowed to use our ports, were giving evidences of hostility and there was imminent danger of war. American commerce was ill used by the British, who were not willing to see the Americans profiting by the contest be tween England and France. These serious
difficulties were finally disposed of by prompt and discreet action on the part of Washington's government. An army sent to western Pennsyl vania suppressed the insurrection; General Wayne overwhelmed the Indians at the battle of Fallen Timbers; and John Jay, despatched as a special envoy to Great Britain, succeeded in making a treaty which, for a time, recon ciled the two countries and did something to allay the ill-feeling that had been near bringing on open war. When Washington's second ad ministration ended the government was well founded; there were strong evidences of na tional patriotism and, despite the high degree of partisan bitterness, there was no reasonable ground for fear that the country would relapse into the state of confusion such as existed eight years before.
John Adams was the second President of the United States. He inherited, as his chief trouble, the French dissatisfaction with the Jay treaty and with the way in which the United States had received France's claims to special consideration. The French, too, were not con siderate in their treatment of American com merce. Adams, hoping to arrange affairs ami cably, sent a commission to Paris with authority to treat. This commission was treated with contumely by the Frenchmen and was given to understand by messengers sent from Talley rand that America must furnish money and offer bribes if she would have her interests considered. When this story was told in the United States, the people were righteously in dignant; an army was organized, Washington was put at the head of the troops, hostile en gagements actually occurred between ships of the two countries at sea and it was fully ex pected that war would ensue. Adams, however, listening to intimations that came in a round about way from Talleyrand, appointed a new commission and succeeded in coming to terms with France. In the meantime the Federalists, influenced by the prevailing excitement, had passed two measures of dangerous tendency— the Sedition Act and the Alien Act, against which the Republicans, under the lead of Madi son and Jefferson, strongly protested. Vir ginia drew up the famous Virginia resolutions of 1798 and 1800, which were the handiwork of Madison, while Kentucky presented similar res olutions, portions of which were prepared by Jefferson. These documents declared against the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws; the Virginia resolution declared that in case of a plain violation of the Constitution by the central government, the State was duty bound to interpose' ; in the Kentucky res olutions of 1799 it was announced that "nulli fication° (q.v.) was the rightful remedy. To explain what was meant by these resolutions would require much more space than the pres ent article allows, and we must content our selves with saying that there was evident peril in resolutions which purported to put forth the opinion of a State as over against that of the national government, and, moreover, that the resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky were used in later years to support a more extreme doctrine of State sovereignty, nullification and secession.