A School History of the United States

by John Bach McMaster

[Illustration: The first Bank of the United States]

%225. "Federalists" and "Republicans."%—When the Constitution was before the people for acceptance or rejection in 1788, they were divided into two bodies. Those who wanted a strong and vigorous federal government, who wanted Congress to have plenty of power to regulate trade, pay the debts of the country, and raise revenue, supported the Constitution just as it was and were called "Federalists."

Others, who wanted the old Articles of Confederation preserved and amended so as to give Congress a revenue and only a little more power, opposed the Constitution and wanted it altered. To please these "Anti-Federalists," as they were a large part of the people, Congress, in 1789, drew up twelve amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states.

With the ratification of ten of these amendments, opposition to the Constitution ceased. But as soon as Congress began to pass laws, difference of opinion as to the expediency of them, and even as to the right of Congress to pass them, divided the people again into two parties, and sent a good many Federalists into the Anti-Federalist party.

A very large number of men, for instance, opposed the funding of the Continental Congress debt at its face value, because the people never had taken a bill at the value expressed on its face, but at a very much less value; some opposed the assumption of the state debts, because Congress, they said, had power to pay the debt of the United States, but not state debts; others opposed the National Bank because the Constitution did not give Congress express power in so many words to charter a bank. Others complained that the interest on the national debt and the great salary of the President ($25,000 a year) and the pay of Congressmen ($6 a day) and the hundreds of tax collectors made taxes too heavy. They complained again that men in office showed an undemocratic fondness for aristocratic customs. The President, they said, was too exclusive, and owned too fine a coach. The Justices of the Supreme Court must have black silk gowns, with red, white, and blue scarfs. The Senate for some years to come held its daily session in secret; not even a newspaper reporter was allowed to be present.

As early as 1792 there were thus a very great number of men in all parts of the country who were much opposed to the measures of Congress and the President, and who accused the Federalists of wishing to set up a monarchy. A great national debt, they said, a funding system, a national bank, and heavy internal taxes are all monarchical institutions, and if you have the institutions, it will not be long before you have the monarchy. They began therefore in 1792 to organize for election purposes, and as they were opposed to a monarchy, they called themselves "Republicans." [1] Their great leaders were Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Randolph, and Albert Gallatin.

[Footnote 1: This party was the forerunner of the present Democratic party.]

%226. The Whisky Rebellion, 1794.%—One of the taxes to which the Republicans objected, that on whisky, led to the first rebellion against the government of the United States. In those days, 1791, the farmers living in the region around Pittsburg could not send grain or flour down the Ohio and the Mississippi, because Spain had shut the Mississippi to navigation by Americans. They could not send their flour over the mountains to Philadelphia or Baltimore, because it cost more to haul it there than it would sell for. Instead, therefore, of making flour, they grew rye and made whisky on their own farms. This found a ready sale. Now, when the United States collectors attempted to collect the whisky tax, the farmers of western Pennsylvania drove them away. An appeal was then made to the courts; but when the marshal came to make arrests he, too, was driven away. Under the Articles of Confederation this would have been submitted to. But the Constitution and the acts of Congress were now "the supreme law of the land," and Washington in his oath of office had sworn to see them executed. To accomplish this, he used the power given him by an act of Congress, and called out 12,900 militia from the neighboring states and marched them to Pittsburg. Then the people yielded. Two of the leaders were tried and convicted of treason; but Washington pardoned them.

The insurrection or rebellion was a small affair. But the principles at stake were great. It was now shown that the Constitution and the laws must be obeyed; that it was treason to resist them by force, and that if necessary the people would, at the call of the President, turn out and put down rebellion by force of arms.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. II., pp. 189-204; Findley's History of the Insurrection in Pennsylvania.]