privately circulated among them, appealing to their passions, and designed to stir them up to violent measures. 3. At this crisis, the virtues of Washington shone forth with peculiar and unrivalled lustre. He assembled the officers; exhorted them to moderation in demanding their arrears; promised to exert all his influence in their favor; and conjured them, "as they valued their honor, as they respected the rights of humanity, and as they regarded the military and national character of the American States, to express their utmost detestation of the men who were attempting to open the flood-gates of civil discord, and deluge their rising empire with blood." 4. These words, coming from one whom they had been ac customed to reverence, were weighty and decisive. After his speech, the officers voted him an address of thanks, and resolved that they continued to have an unshaken confidence in the justice of congress and their country. Congress had but little money, and no effectual means of raising it; but they put the accounts of the army in a train for settlement; and decreed, that the officers should receive, after the end of the war, five years' additional pay, and each soldier eighty dollars besides his wages. 5. The 3d of November was fixed upon for disbanding the army: the day preceding, Washington issued his farewell or ders to his troops, replete with friendly advice and affectionate wishes for their present and future welfare. Having afterwards taken an affecting leave of his officers, he repaired to Annapolis, where congress was then sitting, delivered to the president his military commission, and declared that he was no longer invested with any public character. After this declaration, he retired, followed by the gratitude of his country and the applause and admiration of the world, to his estate at Mount Vernon, and addicted himself to his favorite pursuit of agriculture. 6. At the close of the war, when the States were released from the presence of danger, the government, under the Arti. cles of Confederation, was found to be weak, and wholly insufficient for the public exigencies. The authority of congress was reduced to a mere name; a large public debt had been contracted, but no provision had been made for paying either the principal or the interest. As congress had no revenue, they could give no effectual value to their paper currency; and the public securities fell to a very small proportion of their nominal value, as it was regarded as extremely doubtfui whether the government would ever be able to redeem them. 7. In this state of affairs, most of the army notes were sold for about a sixth or an eighth of their nominal value, so that the brave men who had fought the battles of their country, and endured hardships, cold, and hunger, and who had repeatedly received of congress solemn assurances of recompense for their toils and dangers, were at last forced to sell their securi ties for a mere trifle, in order to keep their families from dis tressing want. 8. The necessity of a more efficient general government was, at length, extensively felt; and, in accordance with a proposition of the legislature of Virginia, commissioners from several of the States met, in 1786, at Annapolis, to form a general system of commercial regulations. But, judging that their authority was too limited to accomplish any desirable purpose, they adjourned, with instructions to advise the States to appoint delegates with more ample powers to meet the next year at Philadelphia. 9. Accordingly, delegates from the different States assem bled in that city, in May, 1787, and elected General Washing ton, who was a member of their body from Virginia, for their president. After four months' deliberation, the Federal Constitution was, on the 17th of September, unanimously agreed to by the members of the convention; and, being presented to congress, it was, by that body, transmitted to the several States for their consideration. Being accepted and ratified, in 1788, by eleven members of the confederacy, it became the consti tution of the United States. The two dissenting States were North Carolina and Rhode Island; the former adopted it in 1789, the latter in 1790. 10. According to the constitution, the several States elected their delegates to congress; and, by a unanimous vote, Wash ington was chosen the first president. When the appointment was officially announced to him, although unwilling to leave his retirement, he yielded to the unanimous voice of his coun try; and bidding adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity, he proceeded, without delay, to New York, where congress was assembled. In his progress to that city, he was met by numerous bodies of people, who hailed him as the father of his country; triumphal arches were erected to commemorate his achievements; aged women blessed him as he passed; and virgins, strewing flowers in his way, expressed their hope that he, who had defended the injured rights of their parents, would not refuse his protection to their children. 11. On the 30th of April, he was inaugurated President of the United States. The ceremony was performed in the open gallery of the City Hall, in New York, where the oath was administered to him, in the presence of a countless multitude of spectators. The importance of the act, the novelty of the scene, the dignity of the general's character, the gravity of his manner, and the reverence with which he bowed to kiss the sacred volume, impressed upon the transaction a solemnity never before witnessed in America. 12. The joy of the nation at the establishment of the new government, with Washington at its head, was scarcely exceeded by that of any preceding event. His personal influence was such as to give the government a character bctn at home and abroad; and he possessed the inestimable talent of collecting the wisest counsellors, and of selecting the best opinions for the direction of his own conduct. At the same time that he was elected president, John Adams, who had borne a distinguished part in the revolution, was chosen vice-president. The other principal officers, at the first organization of the government, were Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State; Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; Henry Knox, Secretary of War; Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General; Samuel Osgood, Postmaster-General; and John Jay, Chief Justice of the United States. 13. The beneficial effects of the new government, as administered by Washington and his assistants, were soon felt. Public confidence was restored; commerce revived; the national debt, incurred during the revolutionary war, was funded, and brought, at once, to its par value; and the United States suddenly rose from a state of embarrassment and depression to a high degree of national prosperity. 14. In 1790, the country was involved in a sanguinary war with the Indians to the north of the Ohio, who obtained a victory over General Harmer, and another in the following year (1791) over General St. Clair; but General Wayne, who succeeded to the command of the army, completely routed the savages, and negotiated a treaty of peace, in 1795, at Greenville. 15. While the United States were engaged in war with the Indians, they were also involved in new difficulties by the convulsions of Europe. The French revolution had commenced, and that nation was under the wild misrule of the Directory. Claims were made on this country for assistance; the feelings of a large portion of the community were warmly enlisted on the side of France, and would have urged the nation into hostilities with England. But it was the policy of Washington's administration to remain neutral; yet this course of the gov ernment met with opposition, and increased the hostility of the two parties into which the country had begun to be divided. 16. Washington, having been twice unanimously elected president, and having administered the government with great advantage to the country, near the close of his second term of four years, declined a reëlection, in a valedictory address to the people, replete with maxims of political wisdom, and breathing sentiments of the warmest affection for his country. At the expiration of his term, he again withdrew to his residence at Mcunt Vernon, and was succeeded in office, in 1797, by John Adams. 17. During Mr. Adams's administration, the French revolu tionary government, disappointed in its object of engaging the United States in the war with England, pursued a course of insult and aggression towards them, which ended in open hostilities. The American government, at length, adopted measures of defence and retaliation; the navy was increased and a provisional army was raised, of which General Washington was appointed commander-in-chief. A few months afterwards, the directory government of France was overthrown, and the disputes between that country and this were amicably adjusted. 18. Not long after, having accepted the command of the army, Washington died suddenly, at Mount Vernon, on the 14th of December, 1799, in the 68th year of his age. The news of the death of the great American general, statesman, and patriot, produced an impression that is without a parallel in America. The people of the United States, in accordance with the recommendation of congress, wore crape on the left arm thirty days, as a token of spontaneous and unaffected grief; eulogies were delivered, and funeral processions celebrated, throughout the country,- thus exhibiting the affecting and sublime spectacle of a nation in mourning for the loss of one whom they had been accustomed to regard as the father of his country. 19. For several years, the nation had been much agitated by the conflicts of parties. At the time of the adoption of the federal constitution, those in favor of it were styled Federal ists, and those against it, Anti-federalists; but the two parties were afterwards generally designated by the names of Feder alists and Democrats or Republicans. These parties differed from each other, both with regard to the foreign relations of the country, and on various subjects of domestic policy. The federalists accused the republicans of an undue partiality for France; and the latter charged the former with a similar partiality for Great Britain. A commercial treaty with Great Britain, negotiated by Mr. Jay, in 1794, was severely cenBured by the republicans, and increased the animosities of the parties. 20. Many of the measures of Mr. Adams's administration relating both to foreign and domestic policy, met with much opposition. Some of the acts which excited the most dissat isfaction, were those of raising a standing army, imposing a direct tax, and enacting the "alien and sedition laws." In 1801, a revolution took place in the administration of public affairs; and the republican party, having become the majority, succeeded in elevating their candidate, Thomas Jefferson, to the presidency, in opposition to Mr. Adams. SECTION VI. Jefferson's Administration: Madison's Administration; War with Great Britain: Monroe's Administration: Adams's Administration. From A. D. 1801 to 1829. 1. The great measure of the first term of Mr. Jefferson's administration was the acquisition and annexation to the United States of the great country of Louisiana, which was purchased of France for the sum of $15,000,000. This country was first colonized by the French in 1699. In 1762, it was ceded by France to Spain; and, in 1800, it was ceded back by Spain to France. 2. At the time when Mr. Jefferson was raised to the presi dency, the state of the country was highly prosperous, and it so continued during his first presidential term. The conflicts between the two great political parties, which had greatly agitated the country during the preceding administration, still continued; but the party which sustained Mr. Jefferson increased in strength to such a degree, that he was reëlected by an al most unanimous vote. 3. The war which had, for a number of years, been raging between Great Britain and France, had involved nearly all the nations of Europe. Anierica endeavored to maintain a neutrality towards the belligerents, and peaceably to carry on a commerce with them. Being the great neutral trader, she had an interest in extending the privileges of neutrality, which the belligerents, on the contrary, were inclined to contract within the narrowest limits. In 4. In May, 1806, the British government declared all the ports and rivers, from the Elbe in Germany to Brest in France to be blockaded, and all American vessels, trading with these interdicted ports, were liable to seizure and condemnation. the ensuing November, 1806, the Emperor of France issued his Berlin Decree, declaring the British islands in a state of blockade, and prohibiting all intercourse with them. Next |