Congress had exclusive power for a number of purposes, but had no ability
to execute any of them. They were empowered to make and conclude
treaties, but they could only recommend the observance of them. They
could appoint ambassadors, but they could not defray their expenses.
They could borrow money in their own name on the faith of the Union,
but they could not pay a dollar. They could coin money, but they could
not import a single ounce of bullion. They could make war and could
determine upon the number of troops necessary, but they could not raise
a single regiment. In short, they could declare everything, but could do
nothing. This was the more unfortunate, as no country ever more required
a well-ordered government than the United States immediately after the
Revolutionary war. Trade and commerce were destroyed ; agriculture had
decayed; manufactures were ruined, and the inhabitants of the country
were so impoverished that many of them were nearly destitute of clothing.
As if to shoot a "Parthian shaft" when relinquishing this country, imme-
diately after the peace was announced the British sent over a great quan-
tity of cloths of an inferior quality, which were sold at an exorbitant
price. In this manner almost all the money of the country was collected
and carried abroad. "Disordered finance, prostrate commerce and ruined
credit" called for a work of organization, the completion of which was
reserved for —
I'": BURLET'S UNITED STATES
THE SECOND DECADE [1786-1796],
President, George Washington [1789-1797].
I\ S< ptember, 17 v »'>, commissioners from New York, New Jersey, Penn-
sylvania, Delaware and Virginia met at Annapolis, Md., to consider the
state of the trade of the United States, and to digest and report such mea-
sures a- would enable Congress effectually to provide for the same.
Nothing was done with reference to the special object of the meeting, for
it was seen that the evils which infested the body politic were too deeply
pield to mild measures. Radical constitutional treatment was
evidently required. The Annapolis Convention therefore advised a r< visal
of the constitution of the federal government, to render it adequate to the
acies of the Union. To secure this revisal a second convention was
proposed, to, which all the States should he invited to appoint commis-
sioners, to meet at Philadelphia in the following May. This invitation
was accepted, and thus originated the government which gave stability and
3perity to the young republic.
The convention was originally called together by a resolution adopted
I »ress Feb. 21, 17*7 , and met on the appointed day i May 14, 1787 .
in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, which was thus given another claim
in he considered the cradle of the nation; but a quorum was not present
until the 25th of May. George Washington was unanimously chosen to
side over the deliberations of this body, in which all of the thirteen
original States were represented except Rhode Island and New'Hanip-
shire. The former State did not -end any delegation, but commissioners
from New Hampshire began to attend on the 23d of July. As particular
remarks on the Constitution adopted and the subsequent amendments
tin ivt,, are reserved by our plan for another article [see GOVERNMENT
am- Laws], we shall mention some of the propositions which were rejected,
some of them by a small majority: That the president and members of
the senate Bhould hold office "during good behavior;" that there should be
more than one chief magistrate, to prevenl the possibility of the incum-
oingan elective king; that the President should be elected by
national legislature, "because the people would never concur in a
irity, hut would generally vote for a citizen of theif own State." All
of these propositions were successively voted down, though the last— viz.,
the election of the President by the national legislature— was at first
adopted by a vote f seven States to four, while the present method, by
at first negatived by six votes to five. On the 17th
ember, after nearly four months of deliberation and of debates
which were, at times, so warm thai it was doubtful whether the members
'â– ' come to anj tent or not, the present federal Constitution was
CENTENNIAL GAZETTEER AND GUIDE. 107
adopted. Perhaps its best recommendation was that it did not fully sat-
isfy any party, but a spirit of mutual forbearance was shown which was
worthy of all praise. Mr. Hamilton, for instance, expressed his anxiety
that every member should sign. " No man's ideas were more remote from
the plan than his own, but he could not hesitate between anarchy and
convulsion and the chance of good to be expected from the plan." The
conventions of the requisite number of States (nine) had ratified the Con-
stitution by the 21st of June, 1788, though not without earnest debate.
It is remarkable that a system deemed so imperfect, not only by the mass
of its framers, but by many eminent men throughout the country, should
have been found to answer so fully the purposes of its formation as to
require during a period of seventy years no essential alteration. The first
eleven amendments were mere additions, and the twelfth only changed the
method of electing the President and Vice-President. The workings of
this instrument have been so beneficial that it has deserved the title given
it by an eminent legal authority, who styles it "the great charter of our
national renown."
At the first election under the Constitution, George Washington received
the unanimous vote of the electors (sixty-nine in number), which made him
President. Each elector at that time voted for two persons, without des-
ignating the office, and the one who received the highest number of votes
became President ; and the one standing next on the list, or, rather, whose
vote was the greatest after the President was chosen, became Vice-President.
John Adams, therefore, though he had not received a majority ( his vote
was 34), was elected Vice-President. The vote was counted by Congress
(April 6, 1789), Washington was officially notified (April 14), and he was
inaugurated (April 30) at Federal Hall, New York, which was on the site
of the present custom-house. New York had become the "federal city" in
January, 1785, when Congress (which, after leaving Philadelphia in June,
1783, had successively tried Princeton, N. J., Annapolis, Md., and Trenton,
N. J.) first met there. Thomas Jefferson was appointed Secretary of For-
eign Affairs (his title was changed to Secretary of State in September, 1789) ;
Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; and Henry Knox, Secre-
tary of War. The offices of Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of the
Interior were not yet created, and the Postmaster-General and Attorney-
General were not members of the cabinet. Though some historians count
the latter official in when giving the first cabinets, he was first considered
a cabinet-officer, according to Hildreth, in 1814, but according to another
authority, not before Tyler's administration (1841-1845).
During the first portion of Washington's administration, the work of
organizing under the new Constitution was vigorously prosecuted, and two
political parties made their appearance, viz., Federalists, who wished to make
the general government as powerful as was possible without abolishing the
108 BUBLEY'S UNITED STATES
State governments; and Republicans, who wished the g< oeral government
to have a- little power as was possible, without rendering it so weak as to
be utterly inefficient Washington, Adams, Hamilton and Jay were reck-
oned with the Federalists, and Jefferson, Madison, Gallatin and Edward
Livingston were accounted among the Republicans, h is, however, an act
of Bimple justice to state thai Washington was never a partisan, and that
he was called a Federalist simply on account of his known view-, ami not
ise he was a party standard-bearer. The unanimous vote in his favor
at t\\<> presidential elections is a proof of the truth of tin- assertion.
Hamilton's office imposed upon him the difficult task of adjusting the
national finances. The Continental Congress had incurred a debt of fifty-
four millions of dollars, and the debt of the State-, incurred in the same
cause, amounted to twenty-five millions of dollars. Hamilton advocated
the assumption of both of these debts by the general government — a course
which was adopted by Congress after a spirited debate. On the 28th oi
.lime, 17!'(i. an act of Congress was passed removing the seal of government
to Philadelphia, where it was to remain until the year 1800, at which time
it was to he permanently fixed at some place on the Potomac, to he -elected
by the President within certain specified limits. In 17<ss Maryland had
ceded sixty square miles to the United States, and in 1789 Virginia had
ceded forty square mil'-, within the limits mentioned. The Virginia por-
tion was returned to the State in 1846. Washington performed the duty
of selecting the place in the following year, -when he was making a tour
through the South. In 1700 trouble arose with the Indians of the North-
General Ilarmar was defeated near Chillicothe, Ohio, and in the
following \ear i Nov. 4, 1791 i ( Seneral St. ( 'lair was also beaten, with great
in a battle fought eighty miles north of the present city of Cincinnati.
General Wayne, the "Mad Anthony" of the Revolution, was given the
command of all the troops engaged against the north-western Indians, and
by his bravery in the field and his skilful diplomacy, he succeeded in
Securing a peace which lasted many years. In 1791 (March 4) Vermont
was admitted into the Qnion,and in 1792 (June 1) Kentucky was received
into the confederation, making the numher of States fifteen. A new appor-
tionment of presidential electors was made in accordance with the first
is, which had been taken in 1790. The presidential election of 17!»2
;-d in the unanimous re-election of "Washington, and in the re-election
of Adam- a- Vice-President, by a majority of nine electors; the whole num-
being L32.
Iii April. 17'.'-"., information was received of the declaration of war by
France against Great Britain, Spain and Holland. The general sympathy
of the American people was in favor of the sister-republic, but Washington
had the wisdom and firmness to issue a neutrality proclamation. In spite
of this decided measure, Citizen Genet, the minister from the French re-
CENTENNIAL GAZETTEER AND GUIDE. 109
public, began to fit out privateers in American ports, and threatened to
appeal to the people. This action was, of course, deemed an insult to
our government, and Washington promptly demanded and obtained the
recall of Genet. In 1794 an insurrection broke out in Western Pennsyl-
vania, caused by an attempt to collect a tax upon domestic distilled liquors,
imposed by an act of Congress passed in 1791. This outbreak, which is
known in history as the " Whisky Insurrection," was promptly quelled by a
force of militia ordered out by the President. In 1795 treaties were con-
cluded with Great Britain and Spain. That with Great Britain was not
very satisfactory, and Air. Jay, the minister who negotiated it, was burned
in effigy. The treaty with Spain secured the navigation of the Mississippi
to its mouth, and settled the boundary-line between the United States and
the Spanish possessions. On the 1st of June, 1796, Tennessee was admitted
into the Union, making the number of States sixteen.
THE THIRD DECADE [1796-1806].*
Presidents, George Washington, John Adams [1797-1801], Thomas
Jefferson [1801-1809].
In September, 1796, Washington issued a farewell address, in which he
laid before the nation his views respecting its true policy. This parting-
advice, which is full of wisdom and patriotism, has ever been regarded by
the people of the United States as one of the most valuable legacies left
them by the Father of his Country. Had the warnings against party
spirit and sectional feeling which are contained in this admirable valedic-
tory been heeded, much subsequent trouble might have been avoided. As
the only man upon whom the whole nation could unite was about to retire
from public life, the presidential election of 1796 gave an opportunity for
the first great struggle between the Federalists and the Republicans. The
former nominated John Adams, and the latter Thomas Jefferson, for the
presidency. Of the electoral votes Adams received 71 and Jefferson 69.
By the provisions of the Constitution as it was, Adams therefore became
President and Jefferson Vice-President; and it was seen that among the
inconveniences attendant upon that method of election was the strong-
probability that the President and Vice-President would always be opposed
to each other in politics — a circumstance not calculated to secure harmo-
nious action in the administration of the national government.
President Adams was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1797, and
adopted the cabinet of Washington as his own. The first important
matter requiring the attention of the government was a difficulty with
* As the first decade began with the 4th of July, the history of each subsequent
decade will, of course, begin and end with that date ; but that of the last decade, for
obvious reasons, will be incomplete.
110 BURLEY'S UNITED STATES
France arising out of the refusal of the United States to act with Prance
I Britain. < '. C. Pinckney, the American minister, was ordered
to leave France, and the government of that country authorized depreda-
tions upon our commerce. A special session of Congress was therefore
convened May 1">. 1797), and in .July, Pinckney, Elbridge Gerry and
John Mar-hall were appointed envoys extraordinary to adjust all diffi-
culties. They were refused a hearing unless a large sum of money should
first be paid into the French treasury, and were told that the refusal to
de to this demand would bring uu a war. " War be it, then!" replied
Pinckney; "millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute!" .Marshall
and Pinckney were ordered to have France, Gerry being permitted to
remain because he belonged to the Republican party, the members of
which were more favorably disposed toward France than the Federalists
w< re. Seeing that negotiation was in vain, Congress authorized a large
army (May, 1798), and appointed Washington it- commander-in-chief.
A naval department was now formed in the government, with Benjamin
Stoddard, of Maryland, as the first Secretary of the Navy, and hostilities
were actually commenced on the water, several ships being captured on
either side. These spirited measures brought the French government to
terms; the Directory made overtures for peace, but went out of power
before the American envoy- arrived. Napoleon Bonaparte, who held the
reins of government as First Consul, readilv received the United States
ambassadors, and a treaty was concluded (Sept. 30, 1800) by which all
disputed matters were satisfactorily adjusted. The army was disbanded;
hut before the news of peace had come its revered commander-in-chief had
gone to his iv-t Dec. 14, L799). Impressive funeral services were held
throughout the country, eulogies were delivered, and Congress recommended
that the people of the United States should wear a badge of mourning for
thirty days.
The presidential election of 1800 was warmly contested. The "Alien
and Sedition acts" (of which one empowered the President to order out of
the country alien- who were conspiring against the peace of the United
1 1 i 1 < • the other restrained the liberty of speech and of the press)
rendered the Federalist administration unpopular. These acts had been
d at the time when a war with France seemed imminent, and were
justified by the Federalists with the plea that the emissaries of the French
government were endeavoring to incite an insurrection, and that many of
the newspapers were conducted by refugees and adventurers from Great
Britain. President Adam- was renominated by the Federalists for the
idency, with < '. < '. Pinckney as candidate for the vice-presidency.
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were the nominees of the Republicans.
As '.eli elector voted for two persons without designating the office, and
a- Jefferson and Burr each received ~:\ votes, the contest for the presi-
CENTENNIAL GAZETTEER AND GUILE. Ill
dency was really between them, although Burr had been nominated as a
candidate for the vice-presidency. Each had a majority of the 138 elec-
toral votes ; but as Congress was not bound to take any notice of the inten-
tion of the party who had nominated them, it was considered a tie vote
between them for the presidency, and the election went, for the first time,
to the House of Representatives. A number of the Federalist Congress-
men voted for Burr; but after a close contest, which extended through
36 ballots, Jefferson was elected President, and Burr Vice-President. This
difficulty caused the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment to the Consti-
tution, which obliges the electors "to name in their ballots the person
voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-
President." This amendment was announced as adopted and ratified
Sept. 25, 1804, it having been approved by 13 of the 16 States.
Jefferson's cabinet consisted of James Madison, Secretary of State;
Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War; Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the
Treasury; and Robert Smith, Secretary of the Navy. On the 10th of
June, 1801, the bashaw of Tripoli, a petty prince of one of the Barbary
States, in the North of Africa, declared war against the United States.
The insolence of the Mediterranean pirates had been for a long time
scarcely endurable. Ships of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and Morocco cap-
tured American vessels ; and not satisfied with ordinary piratical plunder-
ing, they reduced the crew and passengers of the captured vessels to a
condition of servitude. Captain Bainbridge was ordered to cruise in the
Mediterranean in order to protect American commerce; but no further
notice was taken of the declaration of war until 1803, when Commodore
Preble was sent to Tripoli with a large squadron. On the 31st of October,
Captain Bainbridge was sent into the harbor of Tripoli to reconnoitre.
His vessel (the Philadelphia, of 44 guns) advanced too far in eager pur-
suit of a small Tripolitan gunboat, and struck on a rock. The officers
were treated as prisoners of war, but the crew were made slaves. In Feb-
ruary, 1804, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur sailed from Syracuse, Sicily, in
a small schooner, having on board but 76 men, entered the harbor of
Tripoli undiscovered, and recaptured the Philadelphia, which was anchored
under the guns of a powerful battery. As it was impossible to lake her
out, she was set on fire and abandoned, Lieutenant Decatur and his party
making their escape without the loss of a single man, and with only four
wounded. This exploit, one of the most brilliant recorded in the annals
of naval warfai-e, greatly exalted the reputation of the American arms
throughout all the piratical States. Tripoli was bombarded several times,
a severe action was fought with the Tripolitan gunboats (Aug. 3), but an
honorable conclusion to the war was attained by an enterprise directed
from another quarter, and conceived with a boldness which was equalled
only by the skill and perseverance displayed in its execution. William
1 12 BURLEY'S UNITED STATES
I !i, who had been a captain in the army, was at this time the United
States consul al Tunis. He there became acquainted with Samel Cara-
inanlv, the elder brother of the bashaw of Tripoli, who had usurped the
em men < and had driven Hamet into exile. With the latter. Captain
I m planned an expedition against the reigning bashaw, then returned
to tlif United States to obtain permission and means to undertake it. With
these secured, he started from Alexandria (March (i, 1805) with seventy
American seamen, Hamet and his followers, and a hand of mounted Arabs.
His march lay across a thousand miles of desert, yet it was accomplished,
with indescribable fatigue and suffering, in fifty days. On the 25th of
April he arrived before Derne, aTripolitan city, which he took by assault,
then defended ii successfully against an army ten times as numerous as his
own. On the 1 5th of June he again defeated the Tripolitan forces, and
threatened to advance upon the capital; but in the mean time (June 4)
• had been made with the reigning bashaw, who was thoroughly
tened by this unexpected attack. Hamet's claims were disregarded,
much to his disgust and to that of Eaton, who had hoped to play the part
of a " king-maker," and who felt that the deposed prince had deserved
better treatmenl at the hands of our government.
< in the 1-th of July, 1804, Hamilton died of a wound received in a duel
with Aaron Burr on the previous day. As Burr was the aggressor, and
Hamilton, who had accepted the challenge with great reluctance, had fired
in the air, the affair was justly deemed a murder, and Burr was forced into
concealment. At the presidential election which took place in the following
autumn. G rge < ilinton was nominated for the vice-presidency, and Jeffer-
Bon was renominated for the presidency. Since the previous election, Ohio
had been admitted into the Union (1802), and a new allotment of presi-
dential electors had been made in accordance with the census of 1800.
i ctoral vote was 176, of which Jefferson and Clinton received 162,
ami Pinckney and Kin-, the Federalist candidates, obtained only 14.
The population of the United States by the first census, which was taken
in 1790, was 3,929,214. At the expiration of ten years, it was found, upon
taking thesecond census, that the population was 5,318,483, an increase
â– per cent. In L806 Aaron Burr began plotting to carry out a plan
which he had < ceived during the previous year, the description of which,
a- the arrest of Burr took place in L807, we reserve for the history of —
Till. FOURTH DKCADE [1806-1816].
Thomas Jefferson [1^)1-1809], James Makison
[1809-1817].
A- . arlv a- the winter of 1805 6, Burr had begun to talk of his designs
1 aptain William Eaton, the hen. of the Tripolitan war, encouraged by
CENTENNIAL GAZETTEER AND GUIDE. 113
the latter's well-known ill-humor on account of the treatment which he and
Hamet Cararaanly had received. As noted above, the claims of Hamet
had been disregarded when a peace was arranged between the United
States and the usurping bashaw. Burr had come, however, to the wrong
man. Satisfied that Burr was a dangerous person, Eaton went to the
President and suggested the appointment of the conspirator to some foreign
mission, giving as a reason that if he were not so disposed of there would
be an insurrection, if not a revolution, in the West. The President did
not think that such a danger was imminent ; and as Eaton's relations with
the government were not friendly, he did not press the matter further, but
related Burr's conversations with him to several congressmen, who regarded
Burr's projects as too chimerical and his circumstances as too desperate to
furnish any ground for alarm. Burr was arrested at Fort Stoddart, on
the Tombigbee River, in the present State of Alabama (Feb., 1807), when it
was discovered that Eaton's warning had been dictated by fears which were
only too well grounded. During the year 1806 the ex-Vice-Presideut had
been endeavoring to attract to his cause all who were discontented, for any
reason whatever, with the government ; and though he was acquitted at his
trial on account of the lack of proper legal evidence, there is little doubt
that he contemplated the establishment of an independent government,
either in the south-western part of the United States or in one of the rich
provinces of Mexico.
In 1806 the struggle between England and France caused serious trouble
to the commercial interests of this country. The British government, by
an "order in council," declared the whole coast of Europe, from the Elbe
River in Germany to the port of Brest in France, to be in a state of block-
ade. Napoleon retaliated by issuing (Nov. 21) the "Berlin decree," de-
claring a blockade of all the ports of the British islands. Another British
order in council prohibited all coast trade with France. American vessels
were, therefore, seized by both French and English cruisers — by the French
for trading with England, and by the English for trading with France.
Our commerce, which had been remarkably prosperous on account of the