Ongoing Undeclared Naval War
During the administration of President John Adams, the United States was engaged in an ongoing, undeclared naval war with France over neutral shipping rights. French naval vessels and privateers seized hundreds of American vessels, like the frigate Philadelphia pictured here, while the United States struggled to build a navy capable of defending its commerce.
William Birch & Son. Preparation of War to Defend Commerce from The City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, As it Appeared in the Year 1800. . . . Hand-colored engraving. Springland, Pennsylvania: William Birch and Son, 1800. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
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The Partisan Effects Of War And Peace With France
Jeffersons prediction was accurate: Adams presidency turned out to be one long and thankless struggle to settle American differences with France. In the end, Adams was successful in his efforts to make peace, but his hopes to keep the presidency above party battles were disappointed, since his efforts were rewarded with electoral defeat in 1800 by Jefferson, who was willing, by then even eager, to make the presidency subject to all the vices;and virtues of the new kind of partisanship. Adams presidency was the first one-term presidency in American history. Indeed, it was the only one-term presidency until his son John Quincy matched this experience in 1825-1829.
Adams never had illusions about the chances for successful republican government in France. He judged these to be about as great as the chances of a snowball surviving a week in the streets of Philadelphia under a burning sun. But in his Inaugural Address, Adamsin addition to reassuring everyone that he harbored no desire to change the presidency or Senate into more permanent offices clearly stated his intention to engage France in amicable negotiation. And Adams persisted in this intention throughout his four years in office, even in the face of the French governments maritime aggressions and insulting and duplicitous treatment of American diplomats.
Chapter : Foreign Affairs Delay The Republican Victory
Republicans believed they had won the House elections of 1792, and hoped that this would be sufficient to achieve their goal of ridding the federal government of anti-republican policies, and therefore that principled partisanship would not need to be repeated. But things did not work out that way, so Republicans not only had to repeat their victory of 1792 in later House elections, but also had to gain control of the presidency and the Senate, before they could achieve this aim. From 1793 to 1800, foreign policy disputes and their domestic repercussions erupted onto the scene even before the Republican-controlled House produced by the elections of 1792 convened. This eruption showed that the Republicans had to make a more sustained and more comprehensive partisan challenge to Federalist control of the federal government. The events of 1793-1800 had the effect of making this partisanship seem more necessary, even though these events also made both parties more deeply and bitterly opposed to each other.
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The Significance Of Jays Treaty
Jays Treaty of 1794 would have great significance in shaping the United States over the subsequent years. Although the Jeffersonians were defeated in their opposition to the treaty, the group showed organization and coordination on levels unseen before.
Many historians believe the outcry and protests over Jays Treaty are what moved the political sides further away from each other. Whereas before political parties were loosely defined and unorganized, the treaty provided the grounds for partisan divisions and for the political parties to become more organized.
The timing also coincided with the 1796 presidential election, the first one without George Washington. Though Washington warned against a two party system in his farewell address, the dissatisfaction with Jays treaty is believed to have aided in the establishment of the long-lasting dynamic.
While the uproar over the initial terms of the treaty were somewhat justified, the arbitration commissions appeared to work out quite well for the United States.
It would take nearly a decade, but Britain would eventually pay the US ~$11.7M for the interference in American shipping. The US also agreed to pay Britain ~600,000 pounds for pre-revolution debts. The northeast boundary was also officially settled in 1802.
Jays Treaty also had severe ramifications for the US relationship with France. The treaty all but nullified the American alliance with France signed in 1778 following the 1777 Battle of Saratoga.
The Citizen Gent Affair And Jays Treaty
In 1793, the revolutionary French government sent Edmond-Charles Genêt to the United States to negotiate an alliance with the U.S. government. France empowered Genêt to issue letters of marquedocuments authorizing ships and their crews to engage in piracyto allow him to arm captured British ships in American ports with U.S. soldiers. Genêt arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, amid great Democratic-Republican fanfare. He immediately began commissioning American privateer ships and organizing volunteer American militias to attack Spanish holdings in the Americas, then traveled to Philadelphia, gathering support for the French cause along the way. President Washington and Hamilton denounced Genêt, knowing his actions threatened to pull the United States into a war with Great Britain. The Citizen Genêt affair, as it became known, spurred Great Britain to instruct its naval commanders in the West Indies to seize all ships trading with the French. The British captured hundreds of American ships and their cargoes, increasing the possibility of war between the two countries.
Jays Treaty confirmed the fears of Democratic-Republicans, who saw it as a betrayal of republican France, cementing the idea that the Federalists favored aristocracy and monarchy. Partisan American newspapers tried to sway public opinion, while the skillful writing of Hamilton, who published a number of essays on the subject, explained the benefits of commerce with Great Britain.
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V Rights And Compromises
Although debates continued, Washingtons election as president cemented the Constitutions authority. By 1793, the term Anti-Federalist would be essentially meaningless. Yet the debates produced a piece of the Constitution that seems irreplaceable today. Ten amendments were added in 1791. Together, they constitute the Bill of Rights. James Madison, against his original wishes, supported these amendments as an act of political compromise and necessity. He had won election to the House of Representatives only by promising his Virginia constituents such a list of rights.
There was much the Bill of Rights did not cover. Women found no special protections or guarantee of a voice in government. Many states continued to restrict voting only to men who owned significant amounts of property. And slavery not only continued to exist; it was condoned and protected by the Constitution.
The ban on the slave trade, however, lacked effective enforcement measures and funding. Moreover, instead of freeing illegally imported Africans, the act left their fate to the individual states, and many of those states simply sold intercepted enslaved people at auction. Thus, the ban preserved the logic of property ownership in human beings. The new federal government protected slavery as much as it expanded democratic rights and privileges for white men.14
The Partisan Effects Of The Jay Treaty
Confounding Jeffersons assurance, the long delay between the elections and the resulting congress again introduced a new issue that weakened Republicans both in congress and in the country. A furious public outcry against the Jay Treaty began even before the Senate had approved it and its contents were fully leaked to the Republican press in June 1795. For several months, the treaty was very unpopular, because its settlement of issues between Britain and America seemed too favorable to British interests, and because it ruled out the Republicans favored option of starting a trade war with Britain. Threatening crowds assembled around Washingtons house in Philadelphia, demanding war with England and support for France. Other cities witnessed similar passionate scenes. Jays effigy and copies of the Treaty were burned; rioters attacked the British ministers house; Hamilton was hit by a stone when he spoke in favor of the Treaty. The Senates approval of the Treaty was condemned as proof of the existence of an American aristocracy organized on the basis of Hamiltons funding system.
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Us Response And Politics
The American public was outraged, especially by Britains seizure of American ships, cargo, and impressment of sailors. In Congress, Thomas Jefferson demanded the passage of a declaration of war. James Madison, however, called for a trade embargo on all British goods as a more moderate response. At the same time, British officials made matters even worse by selling rifles and other weapons to the First Nations Indian tribes near the CanadianAmerican border and telling their leaders that they no longer needed to respect the border.
American political leaders were bitterly divided on how to respond. Led by Jefferson and Madison, the Democratic-Republicans favored aiding the French in its war with Britain. However, Hamiltons Federalists argued that negotiating for peaceful relations with Britainespecially trade relationscould turn the British into a lasting and powerful ally. President George Washington agreed with Hamilton and sent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Jay to London to negotiate an all-encompassing treatyJays Treaty.
Jays Treaty And Indian Rights
Article III of Jays Treaty granted all Indians, American citizens, and Canadian subjects the perpetual right to freely travel between the United States and Canada, then a British territory, for purposes travel or trade. Since then, the United States has honored this agreement by codifying its provision in Section 289 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended. As a result of Jays Treaty, Native Indians born in Canada are therefore entitled to enter the United States for the purpose of employment, study, retirement, investing, and/or immigration. Today, Article III of Jays Treaty is cited as the basis of many legal claims filed against the U.S. and Canadian governments by Indians and Indian tribes.
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What Were Thomas Jefferson And Alexander Hamiltons Views On How The Us Should Develop
Thus they favored states rights. They were strongest in the South. Hamiltons great aim was more efficient organization, whereas Jefferson once said, I am not a friend to a very energetic government. Hamilton feared anarchy and thought in terms of order; Jefferson feared tyranny and thought in terms of freedom.
The French Revolutions Caribbean Legacy
An 1802 portrait shows Toussaint LOuverture, Chef des Noirs Insurgés de Saint Domingue , mounted and armed in an elaborate uniform.
Unlike the American Revolution, which ultimately strengthened the institution of slavery and the powers of American slaveholders, the French Revolution inspired slave rebellions in the Caribbean, including a 1791 slave uprising in the French colony of Saint-Domingue . Thousands of slaves joined together to overthrow the brutal system of slavery. They took control of a large section of the island, burning sugar plantations and killing the white planters who had forced them to labor under the lash.
In 1794, French revolutionaries abolished slavery in the French empire, and both Spain and England attacked Saint-Domingue, hoping to add the colony to their own empires. Toussaint LOuverture, a former domestic slave, emerged as the leader in the fight against Spain and England to secure a Haiti free of slavery and further European colonialism. Because revolutionary France had abolished slavery, Toussaint aligned himself with France, hoping to keep Spain and England at bay.
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Republican Party Christened By James Madison
In September 1792, James Madison coined the term Republican Party in an essay, A Candid State of Parties, published in the National Gazette of Philadelphia. Although the Jeffersonian-Republican Party drew strength from the Anti-Federalists, no one had more claim to the authorship of the federal Constitution than did Madison, one of the founders of the Jeffersonian-Republican Party.
. A Candid State of Politics. National Gazette , September 22, 1792. Serial and Government Publications Division Library of Congress
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Vindication Of The Constitutionality Of Alien And Sedition Laws
A large minority in the Virginia legislature opposed the passage of the Virginia Resolutions asserting a states right to declare a federal law unconstitutional and specifically declaring the Alien and Sedition Laws unconstitutional. That group of state legislators published this statement as a vindication of the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws.
The Awful Crisis which has arrived Must be felt by us all. . . . : T. Nicholson, 1799. Pamphlet. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
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Effects Of The Treaty
Traditionally considered a diplomatic failure or a bad bargain by most scholars, Jays Treaty has never seemed to overcome its initial unpopularity. Recently, however, historians have argued that Jays Treaty was a notable attempt by America to avoid war and long-term instability until the nation was prepared for it. As a fledgling republic, the United States had no effective navy and only a small standing army, and was isolated from the entanglements in Europe that had led to wars and violence throughout the Atlantic. Indeed, the controversial aspects of the treaty revolved not around the give-and-take terms that were to be expected from any diplomatic compromises, but rather around the outbreak of political hostilities between Federalists and Democrat-Republicans. Their polarized views of Americas foreign presence proscribed any agreement on international conduct during this tumultuous period.
George Washington Commander In Chief
George Washington , a Virginia planter and veteran of America’s frontier wars, was revolutionary America’s only commander of all military forces throughout the eight-year war for independence. His leadership during the Revolution led to his election as the first president of the United States .
Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Mémin. George Washington. Charcoal on tinted paper, ca. 1800. , Library of Congress
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International Issues Driving Jays Treaty
After the American Revolutionary War ended, tensions between the United States and Great Britain remained understandably high. Specifically, three main issues remained unresolved even after the 1783 Treaty of Paris had ended military hostilities:
- Goods exported from America were still being blocked by Britains wartime trade restrictions and tariffs. At the same time, British imports were flooding American markets, leaving the U.S. facing a significant trade deficit.;;
- British troops were still occupying several forts on U.S.-claimed territory from the Great Lakes region to modern-day Ohio, which they had agreed to vacate in the Treaty of Paris. The British occupation of the forts left American frontier settlers living in those territories open to recurrent attacks by Indian tribes.
- Britain continued to seize American ships carrying military supplies and force or impress the American sailors into the service of the British Royal Navy to fight against France.
When France went to war with Great Britain in 1793, the long period of global peace that had helped the newly-independent United States flourish in both trade and revenue ended. Americas intent to remain neutral in the European war was tested when between 1793 and 1801, the British Royal Navy, without warning, captured nearly 250 American merchant ships carrying goods from French colonies in the West Indies.
Georgetown: Suburb Of The New Federal City
Within a decade of deciding to move the new federal capital to the banks of the Potomac River, what became known as Washington, District of Columbia began to emerge out of partisan politics and a tidal marsh. The federal city had just begun to take shape when the government moved here in 1800. This engraving provides a view of the waterfront at Georgetown, then a suburb of Washington.
George Isham Parkyns. View of the Suburbs of the City of Washington, . Aquatint. , Library of Congress
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Honoring George Washington At His Death
Political harmony suffered a serious blow with the death of the nationâs father figure, George Washington, on December 14, 1799. Residents of Ulster County, New York, were provided a detailed account of Washingtonâs death and the many events eulogizing Americaâs fallen leader in this January 4, 1800, edition, one of only two copies in existence. This newspaper includes John Marshallâs eulogy delivered before the House of Representatives. Marshall concluded his remarks with the now famous phrase, First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.
Ulster County Gazette, January 4, 1800. Kingston, New York: Samuel S. Freer & Son. Newspaper. Serial and Government Publications Division Library of Congress
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Amending The Body Of The Constitution
A committee of the House of Representatives appointed by James Madison originally envisioned that amendments on individual rights would be incorporated into the body of the Constitution, not appended as a supplement. This July 28, 1789, committee report presented by John Vining of Delaware clearly shows the incorporation plan with the rights scattered throughout the Constitution.
Congress of the United States, in the House of Representatives, . . . from the Committee of Eleven. New York: Thomas Greenleaf, 1789. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
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Impact And Legacy Of Jays Treaty
Historians generally agree that in terms of modern international diplomacy, Jay got the short end of the stick, by having achieved only two minor immediate concessions from the British. However, as Historian Marshall Smelser points out, Jays Treaty did achieve President Washingtons primary goalpreventing another war with Great Britain, or at least delaying that war until the United States could become financially, politically, and militarily able to fight it.;
In 1955, historian Bradford Perkins concluded that Jays treaty brought the United States and Great Britain from within a swords point of war in 1794 to the brink of the true and lasting friendship and cooperation that endures today. Through a decade of world war and peace, successive governments on both sides of the Atlantic were able to bring about and preserve a cordiality which often approached genuine friendship, he wrote.;
