GEORGE WASHINGTON

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Indian Affairs. In 1791 President Washington dispatched forces under General Arthur St. Clair to subdue the Indians who had been resisting white settlement of the Northwest Territory. St. Clair failed, having been routed by Miami Chief Little Turtle on the Wabash River. Washington then turned to Revolutionary War veteran "Mad" Anthony Wayne, who before launching the expedition spent many months training regular troops in Indian warfare. He marched boldly into the region, constructed a chain of forts, and on August 20, 1794, crushed the Indians under Little Turtle in the Battle of Fallen Timbers near present-day Toledo, Ohio. Under the terms of the Treaty of Greenville (1795), the defeated tribes ceded disputed portions of the Northwest Territory to the United States and moved west. Through diplomacy, President Washing­ton tried with limited success to make peace with the Creeks and other tribes in the South. In 1792 the president entertained the tribal leaders of the Six Nations confederation, including Seneca Chief Red Jacket, whom Washington presented with a silver medal, a token that the Indian treasured the rest of his life. Red Jacket, who had led his warriors against Washington's army during the Revolution, rallied to the American cause during the War of 1812.

Proclamation of Neutrality, 1793. In the war between France, on one side, and Britain, Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, and the Netherlands, on the other, President Washington in 1793 declared the United States to be "friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers." Although he avoided using the word neutrality, his intention was clear. Critics denounced the proclamation as reneging on the U.S. commitment to its first ally, France. However, it kept the nation out of a war it was ill-prepared to fight. The French minister to the United States, Edmond Genet, pointedly ignoring Washington's policy, foment­ed pro-French sentiment among Americans and arranged for American privateers to harass British ships—activities that prompted President Washing­ton to demand his recall.

Whiskey Rebellion, 1794. To help pay off the national debt and put the nation on a sound economic basis, President Washington approved an excise tax on liquor. Pennsylvania farmers, who regularly converted their corn crop to alcohol to avoid the prohibitive cost of transporting grain long distances to market, refused to pay it. On Hamilton's advice, Washington ordered 15,000 militia to the area and personally inspected troops in the field. This show of strength crushed this first real challenge to federal authority.

Jay'5 Treaty, 1795. Washington was roundly criticized by Jeffersonians for this treaty with Great Britain. To forestall further conflict with the former mother country and impel Britain to withdraw its forces from outposts in the Northwest Territory, as it had promised under the terms of the Treaty of Paris concluding the American Revolution, Washington relinquished the U.S. right to neutrality on the seas. Any American ship suspected of carrying contraband to the shores of Britain's enemies was subject to search and seizure by the British navy. And Britain regarded as contraband virtually any useful product, including foodstuffs. Moreover, Jay's Treaty failed to resolve one of the key disputes standing in the way of rapprochement with Britain—impressment. Britain's policy of "once an Englishman, always an Englishman" meant that even after renouncing allegiance to the crown and becoming a duly naturalized U.S. citizen, a British immigrant was not safe from the king's reach. If while searching an American ship for contraband, the British spotted one of their own among the crew, they routinely dragged him off and pressed him into the Royal Navy. But for all this, and despite the added strain on relations with France in the wake of Jay's Treaty, the pact did postpone the inevitable conflict with Britain until 1812, when America was better prepared militarily. After the Senate ratified the treaty, the House asked the president to release all pertinent papers relating to its negotiation. Washington refused on the constitutional ground that only the upper chamber had approval rights over treaties. He thereby set the precedent for future presidents to resist such congressional petitions.

Pinckney's Treaty, 1795. Under its terms, Washington normalized relations with Spain by establishing the boundary between the United States and Spanish Florida at the thirty-first parallel. Even more importantly for the future of American commerce, the pact granted U.S. vessels free access to the entire length of the Mississippi River and to the port of New Orleans for the purpose of export.

In other acts of lasting importance, President Washington signed into law bills creating or providing for:

1789 Oaths of allegiance to be sworn by federal and state officials

First tariffs to protect domestic manufacturers

Department of State and War and the Treasury

Office of postmaster general

Supreme Court, circuit and federal district courts, and position of

attorney general (Judiciary Act). Washington, of course, appointed

all the first judges to these courts.

1790 First federal census

Patent and copyright protection

Removal of the capital to Philadelphia in December 1790 and to Washington

10 years later

1791 Bank of the United States

1792 Presidential succession, which placed the president pro tempore of the

Senate and the Speaker of the House next behind the vice president in

line of succession to the presidency

U.S. Mint of Philadelphia

1795 Naturalization law, which lengthened residency requirement from two to

five years

Farewell Address, 1796 President Washington announced his retirement in his celebrated Farewell Address, a pronouncement that was printed in the Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser on September 17, 1796, but never was delivered orally. In it he warned against the evils of political parties and entangling alliances abroad. Throughout his term he had tried to prevent the rise of partisanship, but he had succeeded only in postponing such division by serving a second term. The Federalists under Hamilton and Adams and the Democratic-Republicans under Jefferson joined battle soon after he announced his retirement. Washington's warning to remain aloof from European struggles Was better heeded. "The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations," he advised, "is, in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop." Isolationism remained the dominant feature in American foreign policy for the next 100 years.

States Admitted to the Union. Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), Tennessee (1796).

Constitutional Amendments Ratified. Bill of Rights (first 10 amendments, 1791): (1) Freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, to assemble and petition for redress of grievances. (2) Right to bear arms. (3) Restrictions on quartering soldiers in private homes. (4) Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. (5)Ban on double jeopardy and self-incrimination; guarantees due process of law. (6) Right to speedy and public trial. (7) Right to trial by jury. (8) Ban on excessive bail or fines or cruel and unusual punishment. (9) Natural rights unspecified in the Constitution to remain unabridged. (10) Individual states or the people retain all powers not specifically delegated to the federal government or denied to states by the Constitution. Eleventh Amendment (1795): A citizen from one state cannot sue another state.

SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENTS: (1) John Jay (1745-1829), of New York, served as chief justice 1789-1795. As the first chief justice, he established court procedure. While on the bench he negotiated Jay's Treaty (see "Administra­tion"). He resigned to serve as governor of New York. (2) John Rutledge (1739-1800), of South Carolina, served as associate justice 1789-1791. His appointment as chief justice in 1795 was rejected by the Senate. (3) William Gushing (1732-1810), of Massachusetts, served as associate justice 1789-1810. He was the only Supreme Court justice to persist in wearing the formal wig popular among British jurists. (4) James Wilson (1742-1798), of Pennsylvania, served as associate justice 1789-1798. A Scottish immigrant, he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Speaking for the Court in Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), he ruled that a citizen of one state was entitled to sue another state, a decision so unpopular that it prompted passage of the Eleventh Amendment (1795), specifically nullifying it. (5) John Blah- (1732-1800), of Virginia, served as associate justice 1789-1796. A friend of Washington—they had served together as Virginia delegates to the Constitutional Convention—he brought to the bench many years of experience on Virginia state courts. (6) James Iredell (1751-1799), of North Carolina, served as associate justice 1790-1799. An English immigrant, he was at 38 the youngest member of the original Supreme Court. His lone dissent in Chisholm v. Georgia (1793) formed the basis of the Eleventh Amendment (1795). (7) Thomas Johnson (1732-1819), of Maryland, served as associate justice 1791-1793. A friend of Washington since the Revolution, he served as the first governor of Maryland and chief judge of the state's General Court. He resigned from the Supreme Court for health reasons. (8) William Paterson (1745-1806), of New Jersey, served as associate justice 1793-1806. He helped draft the Judiciary Act of 1789 creating the federal court system. In Van Home's Lessee v. Dorrance (1795) he established the Court's authority to strike down as unconstitutional a duly enacted state law, a precedent that anticipated judicial review of federal laws. (9) Samuel Chase (1741-1811), of Maryland, served as associate justice 1796-1811. Irascible and acid tongued, his gratuitous attacks on President Jefferson in 1803 led the House to impeach him, but the Senate fell four votes short of the two-thirds necessary for conviction. He was the only Supreme Court justice to be impeached. Speaking for a unanimous Court in Ware v. Hilton (1796), he established the supremacy of national treaties over state laws. (10) Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807), of Connecticut, served as chief justice 1796-1800. He was the principal architect of the Judiciary Act of 1789, creating the federal court system. In United States v. La Vengeance (1796), he spoke for the majority in extending federal authority to all inland rivers and lakes.