History of the United States

by John Clark Ridpath

Inauguration of Washington.

The Financial Policy.

4. The war debt of the United States, including the revolutionary expenses of the several States, amounted to nearly eighty million dollars. Hamilton adopted a broad and honest policy. His plan proposed that the debt of the United States due to American citizens, as well as the debt of the individual States, should be assumed by the general government, and that all should be fully paid. By this measure the credit of the country was vastly improved. Hamilton's financial schemes were violently opposed by Jefferson and the anti-Federal party. In 1791 the Bank of the United States was established by an act of Congress.

Admission of Vermont.

5. The question of fixing the seat of government was discussed; and it was agreed to establish the capital for ten years at Philadelphia, and afterwards at some locality on the Potomac. The next measure was the organization of the territory southwest of the Ohio. On the 4th of March, 1791, Vermont, which had been an independent territory since 1777, was admitted into the Union as the fourteenth State. The census of the United States, for 1790, showed a population of three million nine hundred and twenty-nine thousand.

Indian Troubles in the N.W. Territory.

6. In 1790 a war broke out with the Miami Indians. These tribes went to war to recover the lands which they had ceded to the United States. In September General Harmar, with fourteen hundred men, marched from Fort Washington, on the present site of Cincinnati, to the Maumee. On the 21st of October the army was defeated, with great loss, at a ford of this stream. General Harmar retreated to Fort Washington.

7. After the defeat of Harmar, General St. Clair, with two thousand men, set out from Fort Washington to break the power of the Miamis. On the 4th of November he was attacked in the southwest angle of Mercer County, Ohio, by more than two thousand warriors. After a terrible battle, St. Clair was completely defeated, with a loss of half his men. The fugitives retreated precipitately to Fort Washington. The news of the disaster spread sorrow throughout the land. St. Clair was superseded by General Wayne, whom the people had named Mad Anthony.

Admission of Kentucky.