George Washington

• 1789 Judiciary Act• Neutrality Act• Bill of Rights• Assumption Bill• Jay Treaty• Pickney Treaty

• Battle of Fallen Timbers

• Treaty of Greenville• National Bank• Whiskey Rebellion• Farewell Address

1789 Judiciary Act

• Initiated the development of the judicial branch.

• A Supreme Court was created, headed by a chief justice and originally five associate justices, who were chosen by the President and approved by Congress.

• A network of district courts was also established.

Neutrality Act

• June 5, 1794 - Congress passed the Neutrality Act, prohibiting Americans from enlisting in the service of a foreign power; first instance of municipal legislation in support of the obligations of neutrality, and a remarkable advance in the development of international law

Bill of Rights

• Congress sent the President ten amendments to the Constitution that became known as the Bill of Rights; these amendments strengthened civil liberties.

Assumption Bill

• Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton has proposed that the national government assume responsibility for paying the debts of all 13 states as well as the debts of the national government.

• This is called the “Assumption” plan. The money to pay the debts will come from national revenue

Jay Treaty• Although the Treaty of Paris (1783)

ended the American War for Independence, the years following saw relations between America and England deteriorate precipitously.

• England refused to evacuate the frontier forts in the Northwest Territory; in addition, she seized American ships, forcing American sailors to serve in England's war against France.

• The United States, for her part, passed navigation laws that were potentially damaging to Great Britain. It was apparent that a commercial war between the two countries would undermine the health of the American economy.

• The American statesman John Jay, pressed into service as special envoy, went to England to negotiate disagreements between the two governments.

• On November 19, 1794 Jay's Treaty was signed, averting the threat of war.

• The Treaty eliminated British control of western posts within two years, established America's claim for damages from British ship seizures, and provided America a limited right to trade in the West Indies.

Pickney Treaty• The Pickney Treaty between Spain and the

United States played a major role in the expansion of the infant nation's boundaries.

• Preceded by the acquisition of lands set forth by the Northwest Ordinance eight years earlier, and soon-to-be followed by the Louisiana Purchase eight years later, the Pickney Treaty opened up the Mississippi River to American navigation.

• Negotiated by Thomas Pinckney, America's special envoy to Spain, the agreement also allowed western settlers the "right to deposit" their exports in New Orleans and to engage in commercial transactions within that city.

• This was of vital importance to the more than 100,000 westerners who lived in Kentucky and Tennessee, and to the many thousands of settlers who lived in what is now Ohio.

• Under the treaty Spain officially recognized the southern and western boundaries of the U.S. as the 31st parallel and the Mississippi River.

• The treaty thus allowed the U.S. to gain access to the area now known as the states of Mississippi and Alabama.

Battle of Fallen Timbers• In 1791, Washington learned that an

American force had been defeated by a Native American uprising in the Northwest Territory (present-day Ohio) that killed over 600 American soldiers and militia.

• The President ordered the Revolutionary War veteran General "Mad" Anthony Wayne to launch a new expedition against a coalition of tribes led by Miami Chief Little Turtle.

• Wayne spent months training his troops to fight using forest warfare in the style of the Indians before marching boldly into the region.

• After constructing a chain of forts, Wayne and his troops crushed the Indians in the Battle of Fallen Timbers (near present-day Toledo) in the summer of 1794.

• Defeated, the seven tribes -- the Shawnee, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, Iroquois, Sauk, and Fox -- ceded large portions of Indian lands to the United States and then moved west.

Treaty of Greenville• After General Anthony Wayne's decisive

defeat of the Ohio Indian tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, leaders of the Indian nations joined with Wayne on August 3, 1795 in signing A Peace Treaty.

• This was an important event in the life of the infant nation since the Treaty established a definite boundary between Indian lands and those lands open to white settlement. For the first time in its young history the U.S. was able to govern all its territories.

• It was no secret that President Washington was eager to clear the Ohio Valley of Native Americans. By opening up the Northwest Territory to immigration the country would be able to expand its borders, with the resulting increase in trade and commerce.

• The Treaty was signed by Wayne and representatives from a dozen Indian nations and tribes at Greenville, northwest of the Ohio River on August 3, 1795.

National Bank• The young country had severe financial

problems. There were both domestic and foreign debts from the war, and the issue of how to raise revenue for government was hotly debated.

• Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton laid plans for governmental financing via tariffs, or surcharges on imported goods, and a tax on liquor.

• Much of this revenue was to be used to pay off war debts.

• Hamilton proposed a national bank to centralize the nation's financial base and urged the new government to assist in developing a manufacturing sector of the economy.

• He traded his support for Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson's plan to locate the nation's permanent capital near Virginia, with Philadelphia serving as a temporary capital, for Jefferson's support of his policies.

Whiskey Rebellion• A tax on whiskey -- production of which had

increased dramatically in the 1790s -- was one of the key elements of Hamilton's fiscal program.

• This taxation enraged many citizens, and in 1794, resistance to the whiskey tax boiled over in western Pennsylvania with attacks on tax collectors and the formation of several well-armed resistance movements.

• Washington was alarmed by the Whiskey Rebellion, viewing it as a threat to the nation's existence.

• In an extraordinary move designed to demonstrate the federal government's preeminence and power, the President ordered militia from several other states into Pennsylvania to keep order.

• The insurrection collapsed quickly with little violence, and the resistance movements disbanded. Later, Washington pardoned the men convicted of treason in the matter.

Farewell Address• Washington closed his administration with a

thoughtful farewell address. Written with the help of Hamilton and Madison, the address urged Americans to be a vigilant and righteous people.

• "It is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness," he said. "The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government."

• It was as if he saw the great challenges to come in the next decades and begged his fellow citizens to remain a unified nation.

• He warned his fellow citizens against "the baneful spirit of faction," referring to the party spirit that had disrupted his administration, and he warned against "foreign entanglements."

• But he could not prevent the formation of parties, nor did his warning against "foreign entanglements" prevent his successors from engaging in active diplomacy with European nations, often leading to de facto alliances.

• To this day, Washington's farewell address is read aloud every year in both houses of Congress as a tribute to his service and foresight.