Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/508

 488 a meeting in Philadelphia the following May, under the sanction of the continental congress. Washington warmly approved these proceed- ings, though from some motive of personal delicacy, perhaps as a riparian proprietor on one of the rivers whose navigation was the original cause of the movement, he declined to serve as a delegate to the preliminary meet- ing ; but he was a member of the convention which met at Philadelphia in May, 1787, and framed the constitution of the United States. Washington was unanimously elected its presi- dent ; but, as is usual in deliberative bodies of this kind, most of the business was transacted in committee of the whole, Nathaniel Gor- ham of Massachusetts being placed by Wash- ington from day to day in the chair. On Sept. 17, 1787, the fruit of the labors of this patriotic body was given to the people of the United States, with an official letter from the president of the convention; and having been ratified by the requisite number of states, it went into operation in 1789. This con- stitution, though not deemed perfect in every point by Washington, was regarded by him as the best that could be hoped for, the only alternative for anarchy and civil war. It was far from being warmly or generally wel- comed; and it is doubtful whether it would have been ratified but for the transcendent popularity of Washington, who was instinc- tively marked out by public expectation as the first president. He was chosen by the unani- mous vote of the electoral colleges, New York alone not having taken interest enough in the organization of the government to appoint elec- tors. John Adams was elected vice president. Another striking proof of the stagnation of interest in the new constitution may be seen in the fact that, although the 4th of March, 1789, was fixed upon for the meeting of the first congress, a bare quorum of the house of rep- resentatives did not assemble till the 1st of April, nor of the senate till the 6th ; and it was not till the 30th that President Washing- ton was inaugurated. In the summer the newly elected president had a dangerous fit of illness at New York, then the seat of gov- ernment. His disease was a malignant car- buncle in the thigh, which was cured by a surgical operation skilfully performed by Dr. Bard the younger. In the autumn of this year the president made a tour through the eastern states, travelling with his own horses and carriage. A similar journey was made through the southern states in the following spring. These tours were attended with an unbroken series of ovations. The constitution of 1789, as far as the objects are concerned for which the Union was framed, created a government as complete as the government of Great Britain or France; and Washington was called to put this newly framed and untried government into operation. He called to his cabinet Mr. Jefferson for the department of state, Mr. Hamilton for the treasury, and Gen. Knox for the department of war. There was for some years no navy or naval department. Foreign affairs were in an unsatisfactory con- dition. England allowed eight years to pass from the treaty of 1783 before she sent a min- ister to the United States, although a minister was early sent to London by the congress of the confederation. In the mean time active causes of irritation existed between the two countries: on the part of the United States, the obstacles thrown by state legislation in the way of recovering debts duo to British sub- jects; on the part of England, the detention of the western posts and the impressment of American seamen. The states general met in France the same year that the constitution of 'the United States went into operation. Our relations with that country soon fell into in- extricable confusion. A considerable debt was due to France and Holland. General apathy, distrust, and uneasy expectation reigned at home. Out of this chaos order was speed- ily educed by the administration, guided by Washington's own consummate prudence, and notwithstanding the existence in the cabinet* itself of early developed elements of discord. The discussions with Great Britain after the arrival of the first minister in 1791 were skil- fully and patiently conducted by Mr. Jeffer- son. The insults of the French envoys were mildly repelled or borne with a stoical equa- nimity, in remembrance of the services ren- dered to us by France in the hour of trial. The genius of Hamilton gave us the funding system, and with it revenue and credit. The assumption of the state debts created living capital out of the ashes of revolutionary bank- ruptcy. Our commerce, protected by a na- tional fiag and emancipated from the colonial restrictions of Great Britain, began to whiten every sea; and the vacant lands in the western counties of the Atlantic states filled up with a rapidly increasing population. The settlement of the territories on the right bank of the Ohio was prevented, during the first administration of Washington, by the non-surrender of the western posts. Their detention by Great Brit- ain gave strength and audacity to the Indian tribes, and entailed upon the frontier the dis- asters of two unsuccessful campaigns, that of Harmer in 1790, and especially that of St. Clair in 1791. The first measures of the administra- tion in the organization of the government, the establishment of the courts of justice and the machinery for collecting duties on imports, were not attended with serious political em- barrassment. Little was required to be done by the president but to give his official sanc- tion to the acts of congress. There were, however, not only in that body, but in the cabinet, conflicting tendencies. The party which had opposed the adoption of the con- stitution, and were thence known as anti-fed- eralists, were now opposed to the system of policy which was designed to strengthen the general government ; while the federalists, who