The same disinterested spirit which had appeared in the general, was shown in the president. Having, at his entrance on the military service, renounced every pecuniary compensation, he now ‘declined any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department;’ and requested that the pecuniaryestimates for the station in which he was placed, might, during his continuance in it, ‘be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.’
The government being now completely organized, and a system of revenue established,the president proceeded to make appointments of suitable persons to fill the offices which had been created.[143] After a laborious and important session, in which perfect harmony subsisted between the executive and the legislature, congress adjourned on the 29th of September to the first Monday in the succeeding January.
At the next session of congress, which commenced in January, 1790, Mr. Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury, made his celebrated report upon the public debts contracted during the revolutionary war. Taking an able and enlarged view of the advantages of public credit, he recommended that not only the debts of the continental congress, but those of the states arising from their exertions in the common cause, should be funded or assumed by the general government; and that provision should be made for paying the interest, by imposing taxes on certain articles of luxury, and on spirits distilled within the country. The report of the secretary was largely discussed, and with great force of argument and eloquence. In conclusion, congress passed an act for the assumption of the state debts, and for funding the national debt. By the provisions of this act, twenty-one millions five hundred thousand dollars of the state debts were assumed in specific proportions; and it was particularly enacted, that no certificate should be received from a state creditor which could be ‘ascertained to have been issued for any purpose other than compensations and expenditures for services or supplies towards the prosecution of the late war, and the defence of the United States, or of some part thereof, during the same.’
Thus was the national debt funded upon principles which considerably lessened the weight of the public burdens, and gave much satisfaction to the public creditors. The produce of the sales of the lands lying in the western territory, and the surplus product of the revenue, after satisfying the appropriations which were charged upon it, with the addition of two millions which the president was authorized to borrow at five per cent., constituted a sinking fund to be applied to the reduction of the debt. The effect of these measures was great and rapid. The permanent value thus given to the debt produced a result equal to the most favorable anticipations. The sudden increase of monied capital derived from it invigorated commerce, and consequently gave a new stimulus to agriculture.
It has already been stated, that when the new government was first organized, but eleven states had ratified the constitution. Afterwards North Carolina and Rhode Island, the two dissenting states, adopted it; the former in November, 1789, the latter in May, 1790. In 1791, Vermont adopted it, and applied to congress to be admitted into the Union. An act was also passed, declaring that the district of Kentucky, then part of Virginia, should be admitted into the Union on the 1st day of June in the succeeding year.
During the year 1790, a termination was put to the war which, for several years, had raged between the Creek Indians and the state of Georgia. Pacific overtures were also made to the hostile tribes inhabiting the banks of the Scioto and the Wabash. These being rejected, an army of fourteen hundred men, commanded by general Harmer, was despatched against them. Two battles were fought near Chillicothe, in Ohio, between successive detachments from this army and the Indians, in which the latter were victorious. Emboldened by these successes, they continued to make more vigorous attacks upon the frontier settlements, which suffered all the distressing calamities of an Indian war.
In the course of this year was completed the first census or enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States. They amounted to three millions nine hundred twenty-one thousand three hundred and twenty-six, of which number six hundred ninety-five thousand six hundred and fifty-five were slaves. The revenue, according to the report of the secretary of the treasury, amounted to four millions seven hundred and seventy-one thousand dollars; the exports to about nineteen, and the imports to about twenty millions. A great improvement in the circumstances of the people began at this period to be visible. The establishment of a firm and regular government, and confidence in the men whom they had chosen to administer it, gave an impulse to their exertions which bore them rapidly forward in the career of prosperity.
Pursuant to the authority contained in the several acts on the subject of a permanent seat of the government of the United States, a district of ten miles square for this purpose was fixed on, comprehending lands on both sides of the river Potomac, and the towns of Alexandria and Georgetown. A city was laid out, and the sales which took place produced funds for carrying on the necessary public buildings.
The war in Europe had embraced those powers with whom the United States had the most extensive relations. The French people regarded the Americans as their brethren, bound to them by the ties of gratitude; and when the kings of Europe, dreading the establishment of republicanism in her borders, assembled in arms to restore monarchy to France, they looked across the Atlantic for sympathy and assistance. The new government, recalling the minister whom the king had appointed, despatched the citizen Genet, of ardent temper and a zealous republican, to supply his place. In April, 1793, he arrived at Charleston, in South Carolina, where he was received by the governor and the citizens, in a manner expressive of their warm attachment to his country, and their cordial approbation of the change of her institutions. Flattered by his reception, and presuming that the nation and the government were actuated by similar feelings, he undertook to authorize the fitting and arming of vessels in that port, enlisting men, and giving commissions to cruise and commit hostilities on nations with whom the United States were at peace; captured vessels were brought into port, and the consuls of France assumed, under the authority of M. Genet, to hold courts of admiralty on them, to try, condemn, and authorize their sale. The declaration of war made by France against Great Britain and Holland reached the United States early in the same month. The president, regarding the situation of these states, issued his proclamation of neutrality on the 9th of May. In July, he requested the recall of M. Genet, who was soon afterwards recalled, and succeeded by M. Fauchet.
After the defeat of St. Clair by the Indians, in 1791, general Wayne was appointed to command the American forces. Taking post near the country of the enemy, he made assiduous endeavors to negotiate a peace. Failing in these, he marched against them at the head of three thousand men. On the 20th of August, 1794, an action took place in the vicinity of one of the British garrisons, on the banks of the Miami. A vigorous charge roused the savages from their coverts, and they were driven more than two miles at the point of the bayonet. Broken and dismayed, they fled without renewing the combat. In this decisive battle, the loss of the Americans in killed and wounded, including officers, was one hundred and seven. After remaining on the banks of the Miami three days, general Wayne returned with the army to Au Glaize, having destroyed all the villages and corn within fifty miles of the river. The Indians still continuing hostilities, their whole country was laid waste, and forts were erected in the heart of their settlements. The effect of the battle of the 20th of August was instantly and extensively felt. To the victory gained by the Americans is ascribed the rescue of the United States from a general war with the Indians north-west of the Ohio.