The winter of 1788-1789 saw the dissolution in the United States of an inefficient form of government and the inauguration in its stead of a stronger union. Much that transpired in the preceding years showed that the change was necessary. The heavy debt of the nation was running up and thus begetting contempt for America abroad and serious discontent at home.
The states were growing openly jealous of one another, and it seemed likely that the breaches which had been made would become wider rather than narrower. There were serious foreign problems which the older authorities had not been able to settle, among them the execution of the British treaty of 1783, and the right to navigate the Mississippi River. The weakness of the central authority was evident to all, and to none more than to those who attempted to exercise it. England also was fully conscious of how things were going, and felt a lively satisfaction in a hope of taking back singly the colonies lost through their united resistance. Out of these dangers there was no other way than to create a government strong enough to manage the finances, restrain local antagonisms, and uphold the national dignity abroad. Such a way was found in the constitution which was framed in the summer of 1787 and adopted in the twelve months following. The old government went out of existence quietly. While the constitutional convention was sitting. Congress, then in session in New York, rallied enough strength to pass, July 13, 1787, the Northwest Ordinance, one of the most important of its enactments. After that it sank into supineness, feeling, no doubt, that it ought to attempt no matter of moment till the issue of the convention was decided. When in the summer of 1788 adoption became certain, the members of Congress began to steal away from New York City in order to take some steps at their homes towards the organization of the new government. One matter, however, aroused their interest: they spent two months debating the location of a permanent capital. No agreement could be made on the point, and it was dropped, after first ordering that the new Congress should meet in New York.
The Confederation rendered important service to the nation. Weak as it seemed, it was as strong as the nature of the situation warranted when it was formed. It took time and the peril of disintegration and foreign interference to induce the states to surrender an additional portion of their individuality and to form that "more perfect union" which at the close of 1788 was about to be placed in power. Per-haps at no other time in American history was there as rapid an advance in the nationalizing forces.
The president of the Continental Congress, on July 2, 1788, rose in his seat and announced that nine states had ratified the Constitution of the United States, and that it behooved the body before him to take steps to put the new government into operation. The Congress took the matter into consideration, and ordered that the states should choose presidential electors on the first Wednesday in January, 1789; that the electors should vote for president and vice-president on the first Wednesday in February; and that the new Congress should assemble in New York on the first Wednesday in March. Thus the old government bowed its youthful successor to the scene of action.
For president, all eyes turned to Washington. Never was a rich personal character worth more to a nation than Washington's now proved to be. His name gave strength to the Union at home and abroad. In Europe, even in England, he was highly esteemed for honor, sagacity, and mental balance. In America he was trusted as the one force who could command the respect of both of the parties which had violently disputed about the adoption of the Constitution. His election was unanimous.
Washington hesitated before he made up his mind to accept the presidency. He had a genuine love of retirement; he had served his country so long that he needed rest for a strong body which had already begun to show the effects of fatigue; his private affairs were in want of his supervision; he had a strong personal attachment for the fine old mansion of Mount Vernon; and he had been so active in securing the adoption of the Constitution that he feared that people would say, if he now became president, that he had been seeking his own advancement. To many friends he urged these things as reasons why he should not receive the honor they proposed for him; but all insisted that he was necessary to the success of the Union, and he ceased to object.
For vice-president it was felt that a New England man ought to be taken, lest sectional jealousy should crop out in the very beginning. Hancock and Samuel Adams, whose past services had made them preeminent among New Englanders, had recently been anti-Federalists, and it was thought unwise to put into high office men who had opposed the Union. The choice fell, therefore, on John Adams. He was a scholarly man, a patriot, and a Federalist. He had served many years as American minister in Europe, where his exclusive tastes had been stimulated by association with cultivated people. He was not in close sympathy with American democracy. His enemies declared that he was squeamish, unsocial, and priggish; and his friends have not denied that he was lacking in tact, sympathy, and resourcefulness. Yet he was honest and above party trickery. In his writings he seemed to approve of the dominance of "the rich, the well-born, and the capable." Consequently, he was proclaimed by his opponents an aristocrat and a monarchist.
The first Wednesday in March, 1789, was the fourth of the month. It was the day for the meeting of Congress. In New York there had been much hurrying of workmen lest the fine City Hall at the corner of Wall and Nassau streets should not be ready for the use of the expected body; but the day came without a Congress. Of the twenty-two senators only nine were in their seats, and of the fifty-nine representatives only thirteen were present. The short period which had elapsed since their election, the unseasonable time of the year, and the difficulties of the roads were given as excuses for the delay. But to Washington, chafing at Mount Vernon, it seemed due to a lack of interest in the government, and it made him a little apprehensive of the future. It was not till April 2 that the House had a quorum and began to transact business, and not till April 5 that the Senate was organized, John Langdon, of New Hampshire, being chosen president pro tempore. April 6 the electoral returns were counted and messengers sent to notify Washington and Adams that they were elected president and vice-president respectively of the United States of America.
Adams set out from Braintree, Massachusetts, at once. He was given an ovation as he went up to the seat of government; for he was to the people the first visible embodiment of the power and dignity of the new government, and their joy was unrestrained. He arrived in New York on April 22, repeated the oath of office, and took his seat as presiding officer of the Senate.
Charles Thomson, since 1774 the secretary of the Continental Congress, the messenger to Washington, arrived at Mount Vernon on April 14. In the drawing room of the old mansion, while the family stood around, he presented the letter of Congress announcing Washington's election. Two days later the president-elect set out for New York. A mile from his home he was met by an escort from Alexandria; at the Potomac's bank he was turned over by these to an escort from Georgetown; and thus he was passed on by Georgetown to Baltimore, thence to Philadelphia, thence through New Jersey to New York; so that he was never, during the whole journey, without a suitable guard of honor. Children and women strewed flowers in his road, the dignitaries of the towns through which he passed met him with speeches, from which he was led away to dinners, and at the dock on Manhattan Island he was received with the wildest expressions of joy.
Congress had already concerned itself about the inauguration. Ceremonies in general were giving that body much trouble, and the Senate especially was disposed to take for itself much of the dignity of the old colonial council, which had in most of the colonies acted as the upper house of the legislatures. Among the disputed matters was the manner in which the Senate should receive a messenger from the House. A plan marked by elaborate formality was reported to the Senate, and was tabled because it was objectionable to the House and to some of the senators as well. Meanwhile, April 30, the day fixed for inauguration, arrived.
The occasion was made a holiday in the city. At 9 A.M. all the church bells in New York were rung, and the people assembled to pray for the government which was about to be inaugurated. From the churches throngs turned to the City Hall, where the two Houses of Congress met at eleven o'clock. The Senate was particularly conscious of its importance, and the face of every member wore an air of expectancy; but none of them knew just how to take the part assigned to them. John Adams was much excited. "Gentlemen," he said, with a nervous air, "I wish for the direction of the Senate. The president will, I suppose, address the Congress. How shall I behave? How shall we receive it? Shall it be standing or sitting?"
Thereupon men fell to discussing. Adams, Izard, of South Carolina, and Lee, of Virginia, instinctively came back to the only precedent they knew, the king addressing Parliament. But Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, pertinently observed that the custom of Parliament was nothing to an American legislature. Here the wordy discussion was interrupted by the announcement that a messenger from the Lower House was at the door to say that the representatives were about to join the Senate in order to witness the coming ceremonies.
This produced a new confusion; for how should a messenger be received? There was a hurried consultation; some one moved to take up the report of the committee on receiving communications, a new debate was started, and the anxieties of the vice-president were left unsatisfied. Then more words were spent. Suddenly it was whispered that the representatives were at the door. Let them wait — the debate went on. The situation was becoming ludicrous, when by some chance the door was opened and the expectant Lower House crowded in and took seats without any announcement. They sat on one side of the broad aisle which ran from the chair of the presiding officer to the door, and the Senate sat on the other.
For a moment there was a pause: men had forgotten what came next. Then it was remembered that it was time for the appearance of Washington; but the committee on ceremonial, who had arranged to go for him, had neglected that duty in order to take part in the wrangle over ceremony. Hastily taking their hats, they thrust themselves through the expectant crowds in the streets and hurried to the residence of the president-elect. The two Houses awaited their return for over an hour, gazing silently at one another across the central aisle.
Finally the shouts of the multitude told of the approach of Washington. A moment later he entered the chamber. His tall, solemn figure was clad in a suit of deep brown, with white stockings; a sword was at his side, and his hair was dressed in a bag-wig. In his face there was a slight trace of embarrassment, but he walked firmly down the room, bowing to the right and the left, and took a seat by the side of the vice-president. In a moment Adams arose and said to Washington that the oath of office should now be administered. Out to the balcony which overlooked the street passed the parties concerned, and there Livingston, chancellor of the state of New York, administered the prescribed oath. A second later he turned to the crowd and shouted, "Long live George Washington, president of the United States!" and the vast throng reechoed his words.
Within the Senate chamber, a few minutes later, the president read his inaugural address. He was visibly agitated, as one not trained to public speaking. His words voiced the simple virtues, for which he was preeminent. He pleaded that "local prejudices" and "party animosities" should be forgotten, that harmony and magnanimity should continually be practised, and he implored the blessings of Heaven on the new government. He stressed an idea which was rarely absent from the most patriotic men of his day, the fact that the eyes of the world were watching us to see what we should make of our experiment of liberty. He did not know that six days later at Versailles there was going to be inaugurated another great movement in government, another experiment in liberty. The address delivered, the entire Congress went on foot to St. Paul's church where they heard prayers.
These scenes were characteristic of the times and the men who participated in them. A new state had been hewn from the side of an old one; it needed time to find itself, to develop its own purposes, and to discard the ideals which had dominated it in former days. The men into whose hands were thrust its destiny were to have many struggles among themselves before they should hammer out a national policy. It was a conflict in which personal reputations were made and lost, in which party hatreds were nourished, in which the cruder ideals of society were to attack the higher ideals, and in which there was to be, nevertheless, a continual progress towards a powerful organization of democracy.
The first duties of the government were those of organization. Congress had to provide for all the ordinary tasks of government and many of the extraordinary ones. The provision of a revenue, the creation of great executive departments, the establishment of a judicial system, the regulation of foreign intercourse, and the adjustment of an intricate system of subordinate administration were only a few of the things which demanded immediate attention. The president had duties equally numerous. He must fill the great offices with the men best fitted to administer them and most likely to satisfy the various local prejudices which might prove a menace to the new government. With the advice of these he must fill a multitude of lower offices with the same care and wisdom. Each step taken, either by the legislature or the executive, must be carefully watched lest it give to some organ powers which might in future prove to be too great or too small, and lest it be twisted into an undesirable precedent. The slow and measured steps by which the men of the day proceeded have at times been pronounced pedantic. They were rather the outcome of the extreme caution of men who were zealously guarding the ideals which they believed to be right, and the tenacity with which these ideals were defended ought to be held as one of the best things of the day.
The first care of Congress was to provide a revenue. The initiative under the Constitution was in the House, which on April 8, 1789, proceeded to a discussion. Madison, the chief author of the Constitution, whom the hostility of the Virginia anti-Federalists had kept out of the Senate, appeared as leader in the great measures before the representatives. He enjoyed at that time the intimate confidence of Washington, and went hand in hand with Hamilton, in conjunction with whom he had given the world, with some aid from Jay, the best-written defence of the principles of the Union. It was he who led the first great debate in the American Congress.
The organization of the new Congress was simple. The Senate chose its president pro tempore, elected its secretary and other officers, and awaited business from the other House. It was disposed to look on itself as an upper, or revising, branch of the legislature, somewhat like the old colonial councils. It believed itself, also, to be entitled to higher respect and greater remuneration than the lower House. It began its business in secret sessions with much chatter about titles and ceremonies. In the House of Representatives proceedings from the first were more business like. For speaker, Frederick A. Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania, was chosen, a man who had made a reputation for presiding over a deliberative body. It was not till 1791 that the office became a political affair. The speaker had much power, although he had not through the appointment of many standing committees the authority which he later obtained. Most of the business was done, as in the old Congress, in the committee of the whole, the chairman of which was appointed by the speaker.
No sooner had Madison proposed his scheme of taxation than there appeared a division of sentiment which was destined to play a great part in the future debates of Congress. It was desired by him and many others that a revenue bill suitable to the present year should be passed quickly, so that it might be made to apply to the spring importations. Such an act, it seemed, ought to be passed in a few days. But the trading classes of Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, and other places rallied against the measure; for, in anticipation of such a tariff, they had already ordered large quantities of goods from Europe, and strove to delay the bill till their ships had come to port. They fought so well that the first tariff bill was not approved till July 4, and it contained a clause to defer its operation till August 1st. Some people considered this sheer trickery, and later remembered it as the first instance of a series in which the action of government turned in favor of the moneyed class. They observed that the merchants were shrewd enough to raise the prices of goods in expectation of the new tariff, so that, while the delay cost the treasury the benefit of taxes, the people were, nevertheless, forced to pay them to the merchants. One of the critics declared that by this means the revenue was diminished a million and a quarter.
The tariff was hurried out of the way to make opportunity for the consideration of the great departments of government. May 19, 1789, the House took up the matter and decided that there should be created departments of foreign affairs, treasury, and war. Bills for each were then considered, and July 27 a state department was created, August 7 a war department, and September 2 a treasury department. In the judiciary bill, which passed September 24, provision was made for an attorney-general. It was not intended that this officer should rank as one of the great executive heads, but the very nature of his duties was such that he was soon brought within that classification.
The Constitution provided for no official advisers of the president. Some persons feared that this function would be assumed by the Senate, and they
thought that this union of executive and legislative powers would be a menace to liberty. It was, however, not the Senate, but the heads of the departments which took the position of a presidential council. Washington had little experience in administrative affairs, and leaned on the men who knew more about them than he. The secretaries and the attorney-general were freely consulted; they were assembled frequently for the consideration of general matters, and when Washington was absent from the seat of government they were given a temporary control of the public business, subject to the president's oversight.
For secretary of state, Washington turned to Jefferson, then minister of the old government in Paris. Next to Franklin, who was weak with age, and Adams, who was vice-president, Jefferson was the American most successful in dealing with foreign courts. He possessed mental acuteness, social capacity, and cosmopolitan tastes — all qualities proper for one who must deal with the representatives of foreign nations in America. His service in Paris, also, had acquainted him with the habits of diplomacy, and this could not fail to be serviceable in forming the practices of the new department. He was in good repute in France, and this was important; for it seemed to most Americans that the young republic must for some time keep close under the strong wing which had in the recent crisis so well protected it.
The appointment was tendered to Jefferson in a letter dated October 13, 1789. At that time he had already left Paris for a temporary visit in Virginia. He received the offer soon after he arrived at Norfolk, and wrote, December 15, to say that he preferred to return to France, but that if Washington considered his services necessary to the success of the administration he would sacrifice his inclination and accept. Between the two men a cordial friendship existed, and Jefferson, although he criticised some minor points in the Constitution, was loyal to the government erected under it. Washington did not, in his reply, make a definite decision; but Jefferson thought that his inclinations were plainly discernible, and in February, 1790, he accepted the proffered office. As soon as his personal affairs were in order he set out for the north, going by way of Richmond; and on March 21, 1790, he was at New York. John Jay, head of foreign affairs under the old Congress, had retained the place till the new secretary should arrive. He now turned over the papers of his office and became, according to his own choice, the first chief-justice of the United States.
For secretary of the treastiry, Washington chose Alexander Hamilton, and the selection had the approval of all the supporters of the Union. At that time he had not developed those principles of government which later made him a signal of party dissension. To Washington, who had known him well in the Revolutionary army, he recommended himself by his strong mind, practical energy, fascinating personality, and frank and forceful patriotism. He was known to be an adept in the science of finance as then understood; and the chaotic condition in which this branch of the public business was left by the impotent Confederation demanded a master hand to restore it to order.
For secretary of war, Washington chose General Henry Knox, of Massachusetts, then holding over in a like office under the Confederation; and for attorney - general, Edmund Randolph, of Virginia. Knox was a man of fair ability, quite equal to the task of looking after an army which numbered no more than 840 men, together with the supervision of public lands and the watching of the Indians on the frontiers. Randolph was influential in Virginia, where he had been governor; he was a good lawyer and a popular man of fashion. Unfortunately, neither of the two was a man of strong personality; it was their fate to fall at times into the hands of one or the other of the two forceful characters who held the leading places under Washington. These four men made up the president's cabinet. - During the debate on the law to create the office of secretary of state, the question of the right of removal from office came up. Some members thought that it was incident to the appointing power, and others declared that it gave too much authority into the hands of the president. The decision was in favor of the former contention, and the principle became established that the president might remove all officers whom he appointed.
In the mean time, Congress was proceeding to its own tasks. Many other things remained to be done before the government was fairly launched, among them the establishment of a federal judiciary system. The Constitution had declared that there should be a supreme court and subordinate federal courts, all of which were to be constituted by Congress. The determination of the organization, jurisdiction, and powers of these courts was a very difficult matter. The greatest care must be taken to define the respective rights of states and of the Union, lest the one should encroach on what was deemed the just sphere of the other. Two schools of ideas, national and state rights, came out strongly in the debates. The latter, jealous lest the subordinate federal courts should prove more that equal rivals with the state courts, declared openly against the proposed system of lower federal courts. Was it not enough, they said, to give to the state courts cognizance of all subordinate cases under the federal law, with appeal to the higher court? But the men who believed that the Union should be strong enough to take care of itself insisted that the federal law should have an entirely distinct system of courts, and they were able to carry the two Houses of Congress. A chief-justice and five associates were to hold the supreme court, below which were created four circuit and thirteen district courts.
Other matters vital to the organization of the government were the erection of light-houses, the fixing of salaries for the various officers of government, the designation of a form of territorial government, the making of appropriations for ordinary expenses, the regulation of shipping, the formulation of an Indian policy, and the establishment of a post-office. All were duly provided for by appropriate statutes, and on September 29, 1789, Congress adjourned till January. It had been a laborious session. The members had performed a duty which many wise men predicted could not be successfully accomplished. They took all their powers under an instrument which was full of compromises, and which had never been interpreted by competent authority. Yet they did their work so well that it pleased the people to whom it was referred, secured the approval of posterity, and is in considerable parts still in force.
One of the most important matters which came before this Congress was the amendments to the Constitution suggested in the state conventions, in order to win to the support of the Constitution some delegates who were halting between their hopes and fears.
When in Congress days and weeks passed without any action on these amendments, it seemed that the distrust of the anti-Federalists was justified. In Virginia, where Patrick Henry, the most implacable of the anti-Federalist flock, was supreme, this state of affairs was deeply resented. He had been able to defeat the great Madison for the Senate, and to press him so hard in the race for the House that it was only by announcing that he would support the amendments in good faith that Madison came in ahead of his opponent. When, therefore, it began to be whispered about in Virginia that Madison, the leader of the House, had done nothing to redeem his promise, unfavorable murmurings arose.
Then Madison bestirred himself. Seventy-eight amendments had been offered by various states. From these he selected a certain number which, on June 8, he asked the House to consider. Two weeks later he got his motion referred to a committee. The House with evident unwillingness decided, on August 22, to recommend seventeen amendments for adoption by the states. This number was reduced to twelve by the Senate, and of these ten were ratified by the states.
When the anti-Federalists saw the amendments framed by Congress, they felt added disappointment. They had demanded in the conventions certain changes in the organs of government and certain guarantees of right as well, such as were embodied in many state bills of rights. But Madison and the Congress sedulously cut out all the suggested changes in the powers of government, and the amendments as submitted were merely a supplementary bill of rights. To the majority of the people the question had already lost much of its significance; but there was a respectable minority who considered themselves foully dealt with, and the feeling remained as a source of bitterness in their memories for a long time. In Virginia the disappointed ones were numerous and put Madison in a rather uncomfortable situation; but he was adroit enough to win back his lost popularity when Hamilton's assumption scheme was proposed to Congress.
In the autumn of 1789, Washington made a tour through New England, journeying as far north as Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In all places he was received with marked honor by the enthusiastic people. Reports of this trip kindled the ardor of patriots everywhere, and it served to deepen the general confidence in, and respect for, the government over which the popular idol presided. In Boston, John Hancock, governor of the commonwealth, tried by a half disguised ruse to force Washington to call on him first, thinking thus to exemplify the greater dignity of the state as compared with the Union. Washington was of all men the last to sacrifice what he considered the just dignity of an office intrusted to him. He gave a plain intimation of his views, and Hancock dared not risk public opinion by ignoring them. To such high Federalists as Fisher Ames it did a world of good to see their old anti-Federalist antagonist, rich in worldly goods, proud in spirit, and tenacious of his political doctrines, standing, in spite of his gout, with cap in hand, at the door of the highest officer in the land.
The strength of the Union was well illustrated in this same autumn when North Carolina, who had deferred her ratification of the Constitution in accordance with anti-Federalist plans, called another convention and declared for the Constitution by a vote of 193 to 75. Rhode Island held out till the next spring, but when Congress threatened to pass a bill to cut her off from the privileges of trade, she resisted no longer. Thus all the original thirteen that had fought side by side in the great struggle for independence were at length brought safely under the protection of the great federal state which had sprung up out of the blood which their sons had shed.
The second session of Congress began shortly after New Year's, 1790. It enacted the chief parts of Hamilton's great project for fiscal reforms, a subject which is reserved for the next chapter. Of measures of less note which it adopted, a naturalization law, a census law, an act to fix the punishment of crimes against the United States, an act receiving Tennessee from North Carolina, an act organizing "The Territory South of the Ohio River," and a copyright law may be mentioned. A third session of Congress began on December 6, 1790, and continued till March 3, 1791. It was chiefly occupied by the discussion of Hamilton's projects.
During the recess of 1790, Washington made a journey to Rhode Island, where his presence went far to put in good temper many who were loath to accept the dominance of the Union. In the spring of 1791 he completed what many fancied an obligation by making a tour through the states south of Virginia. He went as far as Savannah, going by way of Newbern, Wilmington, and Charleston, and returning by way of Columbia, Charlotte, Salem, and Hillsboro. The whole distance — eighteen hundred miles from Mount Vernon and back to it — was covered in three months with his own horses, and with hardly a change in the itinerary which he had planned before leaving Philadelphia. It was a thing characteristic of the methodical Washington. He had been told that there was much discontent in the back parts of these states, but the warm reception he received convinced him that the report was not true. He returned convinced that the south was both satisfied and prosperous.