Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/509

 GEORGE WASHINGTON 489 had procured the adoption of the constitution, were in favor of measures that would give efficiency to the central power, and make the Union a reality instead of a name. The lat- ter party was represented in the cabinet by Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury, sup- ported by the secretary of war, Gen. Knox; the former by Jefferson, the secretary of state, sustained by Randolph, the attorney general. Neither of these latter gentlemen, however, had opposed the adoption of the constitution. On the contrary, Randolph had vigorously sup- ported it in the Virginia convention, and Jef- ferson, being in France at the time, had taken no active part on the question of its adoption. Washington exerted all his influence to mod- erate between the diverging tendencies of his cabinet councillors. The details of the fund- ing system, the assumption of the state debts, and the establishment of the bank of the United States were the measures which re- vealed in all its strength this division of opin- ion in the cabinet, the legislature, and the country. All of every party were, or pro- fessed to be, in favor of some measure for funding the national debt and creating a sol- vent treasury ; but the details of the measures necessary to this end afforded much occasion for controversy. Washington listened with the utmost candor and patience to the opposite opinions of the members of his cabinet, but eventually gave his support to the general views of the secretary of the treasury. The conflict was most violent on the subject of assuming to a limited extent the revolutionary debt of the individual states. This was large in some of the states, and small or null in others. The states of the latter class, princi- pally those of the south, were unwilling that the common treasury should assume a burden from which no benefit would accrue to them. The fact that these state securities, like those of the Union, had passed from the hands of the original holders at a greatly depreciated rate, was the ground of a popular objection to the entire policy of assumption. Congress was about equally divided on the subject, as also upon a measure which was contemporane- ously under discussion, that of a permanent seat for the general government. The first congress met at New York and the second at Philadelphia. A majority of the members from the northern and middle states were desirous of making the latter city the perma- nent metropolis of the Union. An arrange- ment was finally made in reference to the two questions, in virtue of which the state debts were assumed to the amount of $20,000,000, and the seat of the federal government was established on the banks of the Potomac. It was understood that this settlement was in full concurrence with the wishes of the presi- dent. In fact, no object was nearer his heart than to prevent the growth of an embittered party spirit, especially when it assumed the form of a sectional, division. His official course, as far as possible, tended to check this great evil, and the most earnest and affection- ate appeals were made by him in private to the two great leaders of the opposite parties in his cabinet. From an early period there was a great resort of visitors to the seat of government. The president held a reception for men on Tuesday, on Friday afternoon Mrs. Washington received both sexes, and on Thurs- day there was a dinner party for invited guests. Washington was sensitive to the cavils of which his receptions were the subject, and bestowed more attention perhaps than they deserved on the attempt to show their injustice. He prob- ably cared little for them in themselves, but regarded them as indications that in time his hold on the public confidence might be shaken with reference to matters of greater impor- tance. These feelings, and a growing wish to return to the tranquil enjoyments of private life, determined him, as the close of his first administration approached, to announce the purpose of declining a reelection. With this object he requested the assistance of Mr. Madi- son in preparing a valedictory address to the people. But his purpose was overcome by the warm dissuasions of personal and political friends of all parties, and in the autumn of 1792 he was unanimously reflected. Adams was reflected vice president. The great rivals in the cabinet gave place to men of inferior ability, but pursuing the same line of policy as their predecessors. Decisive measures were adopted in reference to foreign relations. The proclamation of neutrality rescued the country from the imminent peril of being drawn into the vortex of the French revolution. (See GENEST, EDMOND CHARLES.) The treaty nego- tiated with England by Chief Justice Jay set- tled several of the subjects of controversy with that country. The victory of Wayne broke the power of the Indians in the north- west, and the treaty of Greenville and the surrender of the western posts under Jay's treaty assured the peace of the western fron- tier. The general tranquillity was for a sea- son disturbed by the " whiskey insurrection " in the western counties of Pennsylvania ; but a body of 15,000 of the militia of the neigh- boring states was called out by President Washington, and the insurrection was crushed in one short campaign, without an effu- sion of blood. It might have been hoped that in thus scattering the clouds of foreign war, giving safety to a vast unsettled frontier, infusing life into every branch of industry, and conducting the country step by step in the path of an unexampled prosperity, the popularity of the president, which indeed could not have been augmented, would at least have been sus- tained. At no period of his life, however, was it so materially impaired as in the last years of his second administration, and nowhere BO much as in Virginia. Early in 1796 he formed the irrevocable purpose of retiring, and took counsel with Hamilton, no longer his official