The Founding of the American Rebpublic 19; C. Carson

It was scheduled to begin with its sessions on March 4, 1789 in the city of New York. But only a few members of either house had ar rived by that date. Historian Claude Bowers describes the fur ther difficulties of Congress this way: "A week after the date set for the opening of Congress but six Senators had appeared, and a Dr. Carson, noted lecturer and author, is Chairman of the Department of History at Hillsdale College in Michigan. The articles of this series will be published as a book by Arlington House. 85 86 THE FREEMAN February circular letter was sent to the others urging· their immediate at tendance. Two weeks more and neither House nor Senate could muster a quorum .... 'The people will forget the new government before it is born,' wrote [Fisher] Ames. 'The resurrection of the infant will come before its birth.'" This was· unduly pessimistic, how ever, for the houses had the nec essary quorums for organizing to do business on April 6.

A few days later, April 16, George Washington set out by carriage from Mount Vernon to make the journey to New York City to be inaugurated as the first President of the United States. The electors were unanimous in selecting him to the post, though their unanimity dissolved when it came to selecting John Adams as Vice-President. Along the way on his journey north, Washington was greeted with pomp. and cere rnony and by throngs of people. The Governor of Pennsylvania, Thomas Mifflin, greeted Washing ton at the border of his state with a troop of calvary and escorted the President-elect into Philadelphia where his arrival was celebrated by thousands of inhabitants. Tren ton, New Jersey, however, pro vided him the most effusi ve welcome. "There a triumphal arch composed of thirteen flower...; bedecked pillars straddled the road. In front of it stood thirteen maidens in white, each with a flower basket on her arm. As the great man, now astride a white horse, rode into view the maidens burst into song."

Virgins fair and matrons grave, Those thy conquering arm did save, Build for thee triumphal bowers; Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers Strew your hero's way with flowers.! Republican simplicity had not yet replaced monarchical pomposity in A.merica, but it is doubtful that any monarch was ever so genu inely admired, loved, a,nd re spected as the hero chosen to be chief of state of this Republic. Inauguration in New York City Quite a spectacle was prepared in New York City for Washing ton's arrival. The inauguration day was set for April 30. A splen did procession formed at Wash ington's residence to escort him to the place of inauguration, Fed eral Hall. He took the oath of office in public view, and then went into the Senate chamber to de liver his inaugural address to both houses of Congress there assem bled. Washington had taken great care in preparing this address and had practiced the delivery of it before he had left Mount Vernon.

Even so, he appears to 'have had great difficulty with giving it ut1973 ESTABLISHING THE GOVERNMENT 87 terance. Fisher Ames noted that the President was "grave, almost to sadness; his modesty, actually shaking; his voice deep, a little tremulous, audso low as to call for close attention."2 Senator Wil liam Maclay of Pennsylvania de clared that "this great man was agitated and embarrassed more than ever he was by the leveled cannon or pointed musket. He trembled, and several times could scarce make out to read."3 It is certain that Washington was no orator, nor was he com fortable in attempting to fulfill that office. But there was good reason aside from that for him to approach the highest office in the land tremulously. There is evi dence that he entertained doubts as to his capabilities for the task ahead. One historian says that "Washington in some respects was a humble man, despite that mas sive outer shield of dignity which served to freeze the overfamiliar and even to awe his closest friends.

He knew his own limitations. He had a sufficient faith in his pow ers as a military strategist and commander in the field; he had no such confidence in his abilities as a statesman in time of peace."4 But even a man lacking his mod.;, esty might well have blanched be fore the prospect of the difficulties he would face. Indeed, all those who undertook leading roles in the new government had their work cut out for them. Starting from Scratch L. D. White, who made ex tensive studies of the early ad ministrations, says that when Washington became "the first President under the new Constitu tion, he took over almost nothing from the dying Confederation. There was, indeed, a foreign of fice with John Jay and a couple of clerks to deal with correspondence . . .; there was a Treasury Board with an empty treasury; there was a 'Secretary at War' with an authorized army of 840 men; there were a dozen clerks whose pay was in arrears, and an unknown but fearful burden of debt, almost no revenue, and a prostrate credit.

But one could hardly perceive in the winter of 1789 a government of the Union." Indeed, the problems of getting an effective government underway in early 1789 were greater than even the above would suggest. The population of the country was not so great, of course. The census of 1790 showed it to be just under 4,000,000. But it was spread over a vast area. Though the bulk of the population was on or near the Atlantic seaboard, that fact hardly indicated that the population was concentrated. The seaboard itself stretched for perhaps 1500 miles 88 THE FREEMAN February from Maine through Georgia. Along this great stretch of coast population was located mostly in clumps here and there, and these were frequently separated from one another by considerable dis tances. Back of the seaboard was a vast area, split by the Appa lachians, much of it inhabited by Indians, by and large still in its primeval condition, and most of it as yet unsurveyed. Travel from one place to another was often an unpleasant adventure, and from some parts of the country to others a virtual impossibility overland.

Differences to Contend With Although the preponderance of the population, save for the Blacks, was British in background 8nd tradition, there were many differences among the people in any given area as well as many regional differences. Americans as a whole had not yet been gov erned by a real government lo cated on this continent, and even British rule had not bound them together; that had held them only to the mother country as best it could. There were differences of religion: they were Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Con gregationalists, Episcopalians, Quakers, and members of a multi tude of small sects, though, again, Americans were usually Protestanto The middle states differed decidedly from the New England, and the Southern ones from all the rest. These diversities made any union by government appear un likely, if not impossible. The financial situation of the government of the United States was so precarious that it might well be said that the new govern ment was receiver for the bank rupt Confederation. Even after the repudiation of the Continental currency the debts of the states and the Union which were left over from the war were large and growing, for in many instances not even the interest was being paid. In 1790, Alexander Hamil ton estimated that the United States owed to foreign creditors $11,710,378, of which $1,640,071 was interest. The principal of the domestic debt he declared to be $27,383,917, to which would be added interest arrears to the amount of $13,030,168. 5 States had debts, too, which had been con tracted during the war and which might be charged to the United States government.

Complex Foreign Affairs To these difficulties were added those of dealing effectively with foreign powers. The United States had not yet earned the respect or fear of foreign countries. British troops still held sway in the Old 1973 ESTABLISHING THE GOVERNMENT 89 Northwest from forts on the Great Lakes. The Spanish dominated much of the Mississippi River as ,veIl as egress from it. As if this were not enough, on July 14, 1789, only two-and-a-half months after Washington's inauguration, a mob in Paris stormed the Bastille, sig nalling the onset of the French Revolution. There were undoubt edly many in Americawho thought that the early events of that rev olution were a good augury for the United States. Much of the rhetoric of the revolutionaries bore a family resemblance to that just used by Americans. (This was neither entirely coincidence nor attributable to the Zeitgeist alone; Thomas Paine devoted him self to the French cause as he had lately done to the American one.) This was to be a revolution in de fense of the rights of man, so Americans heard, and were glad dened. Moreover, the French pro claimed a republic in 1792, and Americans welcomed company in that aspiration.

But out of the French Revolu tion grew such activities, contests, and, eventually, wars that all of Europe was caught up in them and repercussions reached to many other parts of the world. If George Washington, in preparing his inaugural address, had fore seen the trial that the wars and disturbances surrounding the French Revolution would be to the United States, he might have giv en up in despair, though it was hardly in his character to do so. War broke out in Europe in 1793, receded and expanded, but con tinued until 1815 with only one intermission of peace for about a year. It involved not only all the European powers at one time or another, and most of them several times, but also their empires in the rest of the world and any neutral nations trading with Europe. The American Republic. . needed peace very much for the development of unity; instead it was pressed toward war and torn between the warring parties of Europe.

Puffing Ideas to Practice To contend with these difficulties in 1789, the United States govern ment had a Constitution - a piece of paper - consisting of a few articles setting forth a plan of government. The United States was a vision in 1789, its govern ment was a dream, and a mere hope was its dominion over the vast continental territory vouch safed to its keeping. Americans had proved themselves masters of rhetoric: they could pen declara tions, draw up constitutions, add to them bills of rights; they had even fought a war succesfully; but it was still very much in doubt 90 THE FREEMAN February that they could effect a permanent union, would submit· to the nec essary taxation to retire their debts, could govern the domain, and could take their place as a nation among nations. Words are wonderful things; ideas move men; and plans con tain the necessary patterns for human endeavor. But there is a missing link between words on paper - though they compose a constitution or some other· noble document - and the realities of unity,government, stability, and liberty. That missing link, if it is supplied, is supplied by men. Man is a frail reed, but his proposals are evanescent without his ener gies. It was men who breathed the breath of life into the govern ment, who provided the flesh to the bones of the Constitution, who in their contests with one another held the government in check, and who gave impetus and direction to it. But it was neither the gener ality of men who did this nor even all of those who held office in the government. Madison's comment 'after looking over the roll of those elected to the first Congress may have been somewhat harsh, but it was much to the point: he said that there were few members who would take an active hand "in the drudgery of the' business."6 That part would be played, as it usually is, by a few men with the tenacity, the ambition, the drive, and the determination to make the govern ment work. Critics abound; lead ers who get things done are few.

The Greatest of These . .. The number of the men who played the leading roles in making the new government work were few and can be named on the fingers of a single hand - almost. Of course, there were others who played important parts, and no government could succeed without widespread support from the pop ulace (and the social base which their activities provide); b-ut given all these things, it still re quired and had the leadership of a remarkable set of men. ,The ones that stand out above all the other~ in the early years of the Republic are: George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and John Marshall. Americans were jealous of their rights and' loath to grant that power over their lives and for tunes which is necessary even for limited government. Nor was it easy to reconcile them to' the po tential concentration of power that was vested in the office of President. If such power had to be vested in men, .even many of those at the Constitutional. Con vention thought, it would be bet ter imparted to three men than 1973 ESTABLISHING THE GOVERNMENT 91 one. What made it finally accepta ble to Americans to have but one man as President was that the man would be George Washington at first. Washington's reaction to all this is summed up by a biographer: Even before the Constitution was adopted, public opinion had fixed on Washington as the first president. He repelled the suggestion when it was made to him and opposed it wherever he decently could. Fame he had never coveted and the purely military am bition of his youth had long since been burned out, as he had gained close ac quaintance with the scourge of war.

At the age of fifty-six he had no "wish beyond that of living and dying an honest man on my own farm."7 It was this modesty, this lack of personal ambition, this humility, and his sense of stewardship and honor that made him so right for the. post. Washington could be trusted, that was the key: trusted to stick to his post until he had accomplished the goal, trusted to do the honorable thing, trusted with the affairs of the people, and trusted to think in terms of the Union. He would not be expected to achieve daring coups, to make risky innovations, or to use his office for purely personal ambi tions. He would and did bring dig nity to the office and make of it a symbol of unity for a people. James Madison Wispy James Madison is a strange choice for one of· the es sential leaders in establishing the government. Historians and bi ographers did not make the choice, though it should be said that they have affirmed it. Nor could it be said that for most of his career he was the choice of the people.

With his quiet voice, his unassum ing manner, and his small stature, he was not one to .be picked for leadership. The Virginia legisla ture passed over him for one of their Senators, and he had to make do with being a member of the House of Representatives. In a sense, Madison must have chosen himself for the role. He had it, at any rate, because of his cultivated intellect, his determination to have a national government, and be cause he spoke with such cogency and authority on the Constitution. Where others doubted or vacil lated, he was certain and deter mined. He was the man who had so much to do with drawing the Constitution, getting it adopted, making a Bill of Rights, and guid ing through the House the early legislation by which the govern ment was established. Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton was, and has remained, a controversial fig ure in the history of the early 92 THE FREEMAN Februa,ry years of the Republic. Given his brilliance, his audacity, his drive, and his ambition, it probably could not have been otherwise. He was the man with a plan, a plan he intended to see adopted, and a plan over whose merits men were sharply divided. Perhaps what he achieved could have been accom plished without the acrimony he aroused, but we may doubt it. He wanted an energetic government which men would look upon as the government, and any program to achieve it was bound to stir up deep animosities. Hamilton was a nationalist; much less than any other leading figure of th.ese times was he associated by allegiance with any state. He was born and partially educated in the West Indies. He came to Boston in 1772 or 1773, at the age of 15-18,de pending on which birth date is accepted and which year he ar rived. Shortly, he moved to New York for such local base as he ever had for his political ambi7"

tions. He had hardly arrived wheI). he entered the lists of pamph leteers against British measures. He served in the army during the war, was appointed an aid to Gen eral George Washington and at that post learned much about the country. He was instrumental,both in getting the Constitutional Con vention called and less so in help ing with its work~ He was, however, a leading figure in securing its ratification in New York. Washington appointed Hamil ton to what many considered the most important post in the new government, that of Secretary of the Treasury. If it was not the most important, he acted as if it were, and from it he proceeded to the establishment of a financial system for the United States. His overall achievement has been aptly described this way: He created as from a void a firm public credit; he strengthened the government by not merely placing it on a sure financial foundation, but also uniting great propertied inter ests behind it ... He saw the impor tance of what he called "energy in the administration" ..., and if only be cause he went further than any other member of the government in exercis ing the powers of the Constitution, he must rank as one of the boldest and most farsighted of the founders of the nation. s Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson has had the loftiest of reputations among the Founders. There was something somewhat Olympian about him; he had more skills and abilities than any man ought: he was archi tect, inventor, lawyer, statesman, writer, and linguist, among other accomplishments. But his Olym pian position may owe more to his 1973 ESTABLISHING THE GOVERNMENT 93 absence from the center of most continental and national efforts during the crucial years of the late 1770's and the 1780's. When other prominent men were en gaged in· the War for Indepen dence he was serving ineptly as Governor of Virginia. While the new Constitution was being drawn and ratified he was serving as Minister to France. While others were engaged in the heat of the contest for ratification or altera tion, he could and did write calm and judicious letters about the document. Even after he was brought to the center of affairs in Washington's Administration as Secretary of State, he remained in the shade of the more energetic and imaginative Hamilton; and it would have been a sensible judg ment that he was unsuited to the rough and tumble of politics. It is ironic, then, that he' is included among the list of men who estab lished the government for his role in partisan politics. Jefferson did grasp the nettle of involvement in the exercise of power, forge a political party which attracted a large national following, establish what became a succession of Pres idents, and bring republican sim plicity to government as well as make political parties another in strument in the balance and con tainment of power in America. He hardly wished to be remembered as a partisan politician, or even a politician for that matter; yet he adorns history· books largely in that role, and in the largest vie,w this is as it should be. It is in the rough and tumble of politics that ideas are tested along with the mettle of those who advanced them. To be founder of a political party appears to be' a lesser thing than to be "Father of the Consti tution," butJ efferson's reputation has been more secure than that of James .Madison. (Lest someone remind me that Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, I note again that indeed he did, and maintain also that this authorship would have given him a secure place in American history but it would probably have no more'made him a Founder than did Paine's authorship of Com,mon Sense and The Crisis.) John Adams Why include John Adams in the list of eminent establishers of the government? There is no doubt, of course, that he should have' a secure niche among the Founders for his service over the years in working for independence and for his dogged diplomacy in Europe.

Moreover, he was the' first Vice President of the United States and the second President. These latter activities are the ones that give trouble, however, for he has 94 THE FREEMAN February frequently been adjudged a weak and ineffective President, one who inherited from Washington and kept a cabinet which he could not dominate, and who lacked the au thori ty to keep the Federalists in line. The consensus of historians has sometimes been more generous with him, however. About twenty years ago historian Arthur M. Schlesinger queried over half a hundred prominent· historians and political scientists asking them to evaluate the Presidents on a scale ranging from Great to Failures. John Adams finished in the top ten, and was rated as near Great. 9 Perhaps, if the reason for rating him so high must be simplified it is that as President he steered the United States on a course of neu trali ty and independence in the world, averted both serious in ternal troubles and a major for eign conflict, and achieved out of it an· accord with France.

John Marshall John Marshall came late to the role of establishing the govern ment. He did take part in the war and in politics during the 1770's and 1780's but in positions that did not bring him to the forefront of the attention of Americans. He was prominent in the Virginia convention which took up the ques tion of ratification of the Consti tution and debated in favor of adoption. But he only emerged as a major national figure in 1800 when John Adams appointed him Secretary of State. And, in 1801 he was made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a position which he occupied until his death in 1835. It was, of course, as Chief Justice that he distinguished him self and played a prominent part in giving stability to the United States government. Marshall does not exactly fit our image of an eminent jurist. He was not particularly well stocked with formal education; his academic training in the law was restricted to a few lectures by George Wythe which he attended.

A contemporary said he was "'tall, meagre, emaciated,' loose jointed, inelegant in 'dress, atti tudes, gesture,' of swarthy com plexion, and looking beyond his years,· with a countenance 'small in proportion to his height' but pervaded with 'great good humour and hilarity . . .' "10 Even so, he came to dominate the court in fairly short order, a fact which is the more remarkable because he was a Federalist, and the men ap pointed to be his brothers on the court over the years were Repub licans. He had a mind which could go the nub of the matter; he was unencumbered by any great knowledge of the law; and he would carry the field with' the 1973 ESTABLISHING THE GOVERNMENT 95 force of an argument. His great strength "lay in his devotion to the Constitution and his determina tion to have it hold"sway regard less of what there might be in ordinary law to the contrary. Thf impact of his "opinions on the Constitution raised that document far above the realm of" ordinary law and did much to make the Constitution into a Higher Law.

As Justice Story said in the dedi cation of his Commentaries to Marshall: Your expositions of constitutional law enjoy a rare and extraordinary authority. They constitute a monu ment of fame far beyond the ordinary memorials of political and military glory. They are destined to enlighten, instruct, and convince future genera tions; and can scarcely perish but with the memory of the constitution itself. 11 Building from the Blueprint The great task which confronted the men who would establish the government of the United States at the outset, aside from getting respect for it, was to flesh out the very general outline for a gov ernment contained in the Consti tution. Their work can be likened to that of a master carpenter who has .the task of constructing a house from a blueprint. The blue print indicates what the house should be' like, but it rarely tells in any detail how the effects are to be achieved. That is the task of the builder. So it was with the men who took the reins of the government. Moreover, they had the momentous job of deciding .which way, among numerous ways, things should be done in the knowledge that once away was chosen it would be a precedent for the future. The writers of a con stitutional history text comment on this point in the following way: The decisions made by the sta tes men who launched the new govern ment were of especial importance, for the institutions they erected and the policies they inaugurated established precedents that were certain to affect profoundly the entire subsequent de velopment of the constitutional sys tem.l 2 The Setting of Precedents There were many such prece dential decisions in the early years, some trivial, or apparently so~others momentous. For exam ple, the Senate spent some little time over what the proper form of addressing the President should be. A Senate committee actually recommended that Washington be addres'sed as "His Highness~ the President of the United States of America, a:o..d Protector of their Liberties." Many in the Senate were outraged, and under Madi son's leadership in the House, that 96 THE FREEMAN Februa,ry body insisted that he be addressed as the Constitution implies he should, namely, as "the President of the United States," and so he has been ever since. 13 There was considerable discus sion over· whether or not heads of departments should be permitted to appear before the houses of Congress to present and discuss legislation. The decision was against it. President Washington appears to have been uncertain himself as to how he was to get the "advice and consent" of the Senate to treaties. He came in person to the Senate to present his first treaty. He was so disgruntled at the proceedings there, however, that he vowed after a second visit over this same treaty that he would never return on a similar errand, and he did not. Since that time, Presidents have caused trea ties to be drawn, have sent them along to the Senate for approval, amendation, or rejection, and have considered themselves to be thus complying with the Constitution.

How Many-Terms as President? Perhaps the best example of a precedent being set which men adhered to for a very long time was in the matter of the number of terms a President would serve. There had been considerable con cern when the office was set up that election to the office once would amount to election for life, for a President might be expected to be reelected time after time. No doubt some even hoped that this would be the case. George Washington, however, decided to retire after his second term. His example carried such weight that every other man who had the op portunity stepped down voluntar ily after two terms for the next 144 years. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first President to attempt to succeed himself for a third term. The precedent was still so highly valued, however, that the two-term limi t has since been made part of the fundamental law. Duties 01 Congress The Congress had the most im mediate task of getting the gov ernment underway. It had to pass legislation that would call into being powers and functions that had been authorized by the Con stitution. The first order of busi ness was to provide revenue for the government. The first act, then, was the Tariff Act passed July 4, 1789. Though there were some protectionist features to it, the average duties laid were only 8 per cent, making it an act for revenue primarily. On July 20, a Tonnage Act was passed, levying a tax on goods unloaded in Ameri can ports. The rate was to be 50 cents a ton on foreign shipping 1973 ESTABLISHING THE GOVERNMENT 97 and 6 cents a ton on domestic.

These duties,· while not prohibi tive, did obviously discriminate in favor of American ships. These things done, the Congress busied itself much in the next couple of months with creating departments of the government. The first de partments called into being were State, War, and Treasury, in that order, and these were followed shortly by authorizations for a Postmaster General and an At torney General, though these dig nitaries did not yet oversee de partments. A Federal Judiciary Act was passed on September 24, which provided for a Supreme Court with a chief justice and five associates. Three circuit courts were authorized, each of which was to have the attention of two Supreme Court justices. And Con gress established 12 district courts. Though that body had been em powered by the Constitution to establish such courts, it .was a discretionary power. The bringing of the lower courts into being was a decisive measure by the Con gress and set the United States in the direction of having two dis tinct court systems, those of the United States and those of the states.

The leadership in originating and pressing through much of this legislation was taken by James Madison. With respect to part of the .legislation, one his torian says; "In the formulation of the fiscal policies of the new government, James Madison as serted over Congress the same high order of leadership that he had exercised over the Consti tu tional Convention."14 Presidential Coordination It was now President Washing ton's turn to take the necessary actions to get all this functioning. Men had to be appointed to high offices with the consent of the Senate,and others had to be ap pointed to the more mundane jobs. Washington was finally able to persuade Thomas Jefferson to serve as the first Secretary of. State. He got his old comrade at arms, Henry Knox, to become Sec retary of War, which involved for him, mainly, continuing. the post he occupied under the Confedera tion. Hamilton was the first Secre tary of the Treasury, Edmund Randolph the first Attorney Gen eral, and John Jay the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Department heads were not at first thought· of as composing the President's Cabinet. They began to be convened as a cabinet, how ever, when Washington found it more convenient to have their opinions in concert rather than individually on certain matters. However, the Cabinet, as such, has 98 THE FREEMAN February only such power and influence as the President accords it. With Washington this was considerable. "He surveyed his Cabinet with justifiable complacency. All were men of ability, and two were men of genius. With such as these, he wrote, 'I feel myself supported by able Co-adjuto~ who harmonize well together."'15 This estimate, however, turned out to be much too optimistic. With these things done, the government began slowly to func tion. Some of the most basic laws had been passed, men appointed to posts, and the tasks of perform ing functions assigned. The three branches of government were act ing or ready to act, their separate functions becoming more clearly delineated, the· relationships among them being sorted out.

What had been a dream and a hope only a few months before was by 1790 becoming a reality. , • FOOTNOTES • 1 Nathan Schachner, The Founding Fathers (New York: Capricorn Books, 1954), p. 6. 2 Ibid., p. 11. 3 Ibid., p. 12. 4 Ibid., pp. 3-4. 5 Curtis P. Nettels, The Emergence of a National Economy (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962) ,p. 115. 6 Schachner, op. cit., p. 33. 7 John C. Fitzpatrick, "George Wash ington," The American Plutarch, Edward T.James, ed. (New York: Scribner's, 1964), p. 5l. 8 Allan Nevins, "Alexander Hamilton," ibid., p. 113. 9 Morton Borden, ed., America's Ten Greatest Presidents (Chicago: Rand Mc Nally, 1961), p. 4. 10 Edward S. Corwin, "John Marshall," James, op. cit., p. 164. 11 Ibid., pp. 171-72. 12 Alfred H. Kelly and Winfred A. Harbison, The American Constitution (New York: Norton, 1955, rev. ed.), p. 167. 13 Schachner, Ope cit., pp. 46-47. 14 John C. Miller, The Federalist Era (New York: Harper and Row, 1960), p.

15. 15 Schachner, Ope cit., p. 63. Next: Steering a Course for the Nation.