Foreign Affairs in the
Early American Period
Washington--Adams
Washington Faces Multiple Woes
 Native Americans
 French Revolution (split in cabinet)
Native American Troubles
 Population doubled
between 1770 and 1790
 Need more space
 Washington sends
troops to subdue tribes
in Ohio.
 Attempt I: Josiah
Harmar
Josiah Harmar
 Stunning defeat at the
hands of hief Little turtle
 1/8 of force was killed.
 Eventually court
martialed for his failure
Round 2: Arthur St. Clair
 Little Turtle this time in
manages to stage a
surprise attack that kills
55% of St. Clair’s army.
 “The savages seemed
not to fear anything”
 “The ground was
covered with the dead”
Mad Anthony Wayne
 Washington sees the
need to double troop
presence in Ohio.
 Appoints M.A. Wayne
as commander
 Results are
encouraging for
Washington.
Battle of Fallen Timbers
 Wayne wins a huge
victory
 British assistance?
Treaty of Fort Greenville
 Terms: 25K in calico
shirts, alcohol, axes,
knives, and blankets…for
Ohio.
 “This liqour among us is
to be more feared than
the gun or the
Tomahawk.”
Problem II: Across the Atlantic
 Beheading of Louis XVI
led to a change of
attitude for everything
French. Including our
alliance with them.
 Jefferson/Hamilton?
 Neutrality Proclamation
of 1793
 “secret societies”
English Response
 Seizure of vessels in Atlantic.
 Impressment of crew
 Confiscation of cargo
 Washington dispatches John Jay
Jay’s mission
 Secure safety of ships
and men
 Return lost property and
$$$ to Southerners
 Get the British out of
Ohio
 Hamilton’s role?
John Jay’s Treaty
 Jay accomplishes
nothing…
 Results….
Jay’s Treaty
 No agreement to stop
 “Damn John Jay, Damn
seizing ships
 No agreement to leave
the Ohio Valley (agreed
to extend window by 18
months)
 US had to repay British
debts
 Ummm…
any man who won’t
damn John Jay, Damn
any man who won’t stay
up all night damning
John Jay.” Popular
song of the day
 “I imagine I could find
my way home (NY) by
following the fires of
burning effigies” Jay
Election of 1796
Federalist ticket for 1796
Republican strategy
 A key opportunity: they feared that the
country after the success of Washington who
most considered a Federalist…would lead to
a monarchy of sorts for the Federalists.
 So they nominated their most popular
Candidate available to them and that was
Thomas Jefferson.
The First Modern Election:
Electoral Attacks!
 Benjamin Franklin's grandson, Benjamin
Bache, a Republican, insisted that
Washington had "debauched" and corrupted
the nation.
 Another prominent Republican, William
Duane, thought Washington's final address to
the nation was "fraught with incalculable
evils,"
Federalist Attacks
 Federalist description of the Jeffersonians
proclaimed that they were "cut-throats who
walk in rags and sleep amidst filth and
vermin,"
 In their attacks of Secretary Jefferson, they
commonly referred to him as atheistic,
anarchistic, and cowardly, claiming he who
would rather plunge into bloody French chaos
then push forward with a strong central
government
Results: a political catastrophe!
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Order of finish:
Adams-71
Jefferson-68
Followed by Pinckney, and Aaron Burr
A political calamity…the Constitution called for
candidates 1, 2 to finish Pres. And then VP.
 However, the Constitution did not account for the
partisan nature of the new system.
 So we have a federalist president, and republican
VP.
XYZ AFFAIR
 Continuation of problems with France
 Outraged by Jay’s treaty
 French began siezing US vessels
 Negotiation team sent to avoid war
 Bribery and deception
 Issue now becomes…do we go to war or not
 Adams was able to secure peace without
having to go to war but is was still a hated
act?
Adams and
Washington…problem:
 Both refused to accept themselves as
“political beings”…viewed themselves above
Partisan politics.
 This is not possible.
 Adams was our first president to be
criticized…and he got it bad from the
Republicans.
 Adams takes it to the extreme! Alien and
Sedition Acts
Alien and Sedition Acts
•
•
Under the threat of war with France, Congress
in 1798 passed four laws in an effort to
strengthen the Federal government. Known
collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts, the
legislation sponsored by the Federalists was
also intended to quell any political opposition
from the Republicans, led by Thomas
Jefferson.
A series of Four Acts
Four Acts:
•
•
The first of the laws was the Naturalization Act, passed by
Congress on June 18. This act required that aliens be
residents for 14 years instead of 5 years before they
became eligible for U.S. citizenship.
Congress then passed the Alien Act on June 25,
authorizing the President to deport aliens "dangerous to
the peace and safety of the United States" during
peacetime.
•
•
The third law, the Alien Enemies Act, was enacted by
Congress on July 6. This act allowed the wartime
arrest, imprisonment and deportation of any alien
subject to an enemy power.
The last of the laws, the Sedition Act, passed on July 14
declared that any treasonable activity, including the
publication of "any false, scandalous and malicious
writing," was a high misdemeanor, punishable by fine
and imprisonment. By virtue of this legislation twentyfive men, most of them editors of Republican
newspapers, were arrested and their newspapers
forced to shut down.
The effected!
•
•
One of the men arrested was Benjamin
Franklin's grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache,
editor of the Philadelphia DemocratRepublican Aurora. Charged with libeling
President Adams, Bache's arrest erupted in a
public outcry against all of the Alien and
Sedition Acts
The arrest of Franklin-Bache caused a public
outrage that threatened the legitimacy of our
Constitution and the presidency of Adams
Impacts of the Alien and
Sedition Acts:
 Set the US on a very dangerous political
course!
 Threatened the future of American Party
Politics and it’s greatest gift: DISCOURSE
 Further enhanced the bubbling sectional
conflict that has been brewing since pre
revolutionary days…why? Let’s look at this
again:
The Virginia and Kentucky
Resolutions:
 Led by our two main
Democratic Republican
forefathers: Madison and
Jefferson.
 A movement in southern
legislatures that
denounced the acts as
unconstitutional and
their role as parties to the
constitution gave them
the power to
nullify…exercise their
rights of social contract!
 James Madison
Further impact
 The acts encouraged other states to follow
their lead and declare the acts of congress
null and void however fortunately none did
so…with the weakness of our court system at
this time this could have torn apart the
country.
 A second harbinger to events of the civil
war…why?
Election of 1800:
A very modern election for
1800!
 Adams: “those who
 Jefferson a defender of
own the country ought
to govern it!”
 Elitist, violator of civil
rights.
 An ally of Britain
liberty
 A heretic in the eyes of
federalists
 An unpopular ally of
France
Results and Worry?
 Worry:
 The sectional partisan
election was so hotly
contested the fear was
that it could serve to
tear the country apart!
 Result:
 Jefferson-73
 Adams-65
 Only problem-Burr the VP
candidate for Jefferson also
got 73 votes!
 Federalist congress has to
break tie between
Republicans!
An unlikely result
 Jefferson: saved by the unlikely contribution of his
hated adversary: Alexander Hamilton! Why: he hated
Burr more!