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Locate Palo Alto Point Isabel Resaca de la Palma Matamoras Monterey Buena Vista Vera Cruz Puebla Cerro
Gordo The Cordilleias Contieras Mexico Cuba Havana]
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. Finances.-By the advice of Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury,
Congress agreed to assume the debts contracted by the States during the Revolution, and to pay the national
debt in full. To provide funds, taxes were levied on imported goods and the distillation of spirits. A mint and
a national bank were established at Philadelphia. By these measures the credit of the United States was put
upon a firm basis.
[Footnote: The credit of these plans belongs to Hamilton. Daniel Webster has eloquently said of him,  He
smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of revenue burst forth. He touched the dead
corpse of public credit, and it sprang upon its feet. ]
Whisky Rebellion (1794). Great opposition was made to raising money by taxation. In western Pennsylvania
it was agreed that no tax should be paid on whisky. The rioters were so numerous and so thoroughly
organized that fifteen thousand of the militia were ordered out to subdue them. Finding the government in
earnest, the malcontents laid down their arms.
EPOCH IV. DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATES. 79
 A Brief History of the United States
[Illustration: ALEXANDER HAMILTON]
Indian Wars. Two armies sent against the Indians of the northwest were defeated. At last General
Wayne  Mad Anthony  was put in command. Little Turtle, the Indian chief, now advised peace, declaring
that the Americans had  a leader who never slept. But his counsel was rejected, and a desperate battle was
fought on the Maumee (Aug. 20, 1794). Wayne routed the Indians, chased them a great distance, laid waste
their towns for fifty miles, and at last compelled them to make a treaty whereby they gave up all of what is
now Ohio and part of Indiana.
[Footnote: He told them, it is said, that if they ever violated this agreement he would rise from his grave to
fight them. He was long remembered by the western Indians.]
FOREIGN AFFAIRS. England. Hardly had the war closed when complaints were made in England that
debts could not be collected in America. On the other hand the Americans charged that the British armies had
carried off their negroes, that posts were still held on the frontier, and that our seamen were impressed. Chief
Justice Jay was sent as envoy extraordinary to England. He negotiated a treaty, which was ratified by the
Senate (1795), after violent opposition.
[Footnote: This treaty enforced the payment of the English debts, but did not in turn forbid the impressment
of American seamen. Its advocates were threatened with personal violence by angry mobs. Hamilton was
stoned at a public meeting. Insults were offered to the British minister, and Jay was burned in effigy. The
more quiet people expressed their indignation by passing resolutions condemning the action of the Senate.]
Spain and Algiers. The same year a treaty was made with Spain, securing to the United States the free
navigation of the Mississippi, and fixing the boundary of Florida, still held by that nation. Just before this, a
treaty had been concluded with Algiers, by which our captives were released and the Mediterranean
commerce was opened to American vessels.
France. The Americans warmly sympathized with France, and when war broke out between that country
and England, Washington had great difficulty in preserving neutrality. He saw that the true American policy
was to keep free from all European alliances. Genet (je-nay), the French minister, relying on the popular
feeling, went so far as to fit out, in the ports of the United States, privateers to prey on British commerce. He
also tried to arouse the people against the government. At length, at Washington's request, Genet was
recalled. But, as we shall see, the difficulty did not end.
POLITICAL PARTIES. During the discussion of these various questions two parties had arisen. Jefferson,
Madison, and Randolph became leaders of the republican party, which opposed the United States Bank, the
English treaty, and the assumption of the State debts. Hamilton and Adams were the leaders of the federalist
party, which supported the administration.
[Footnote: John Randolph of Roanoke was not prominent in the republican party until a later administration,
being elected representative in 1799. He was a descendant of Pocahontas, of which fact he often boasted, and
was noted for his keen retorts, reckless wit, and skill in debate. His tall, slender, and cadaverous form, his
shrill and piping voice, and his long, skinny fingers pointing toward the object of his invective made him
a conspicuous speaker. For thirty years, says Benton, he was the  political meteor of Congress.] [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]