In President Washington’s First Annual Message to Congress on 8 January 1790 he said,
I embrace with great satisfaction the opportunity which
now presents itself of congratulating you
on the present favorable prospects of our public affairs.
The recent accession of the important state
of North Carolina to the Constitution of the United States
(of which official information has been received),
the rising credit and respectability of our country,
the general and increasing good will toward the government
of the Union, and the concord, peace, and plenty with which
we are blessed are circumstances auspicious
in an eminent degree to our national prosperity.
In resuming your consultations for the general good
you can not but derive encouragement from the reflection
that the measures of the last session have been
as satisfactory to your constituents as the novelty
and difficulty of the work allowed you to hope.
Still further to realize their expectations and to secure
the blessings which a gracious Providence has placed
within our reach will in the course of the present
important session call for the cool and deliberate exertion
of your patriotism, firmness, and wisdom.
Among the many interesting objects which will engage
your attention that of providing for the common defense
will merit particular regard.
To be prepared for war is
one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined;
to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite;
and their safety and interest require that
they should promote such manufactories
as tend to render them independent of others
for essential, particularly military, supplies.
The proper establishment of the troops
which may be deemed indispensable
will be entitled to mature consideration.
In the arrangements which may be made respecting it,
it will be of importance to conciliate the comfortable support
of the officers and soldiers with a due regard to economy.
There was reason to hope that the pacific measures
adopted with regard to certain hostile tribes of Indians
would have relieved the inhabitants of our southern
and western frontiers from their depredations,
but you will perceive from the information contained
in the papers which I shall direct to be laid before you
(comprehending a communication
from the Commonwealth of Virginia)
that we ought to be prepared to afford protection to those
parts of the Union, and, if necessary, to punish aggressors.
The interests of the United States require that
our intercourse with other nations should be facilitated
by such provisions as will enable me to fulfill my duty
in that respect in the manner which circumstances
may render most conducive to the public good,
and to this end that the compensation to be made
to the persons who may be employed should,
according to the nature of their appointments,
be defined by law, and a competent fund
designated for defraying the expenses
incident to the conduct of foreign affairs.
Various considerations also render it expedient that
the terms on which foreigners may be admitted
to the rights of citizens should be speedily
ascertained by a uniform rule of naturalization.
Uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures
of the United States is an object of great importance,
and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to.
The advancement of agriculture, commerce,
and manufactures by all proper means will not, I trust,
need recommendation; but I can not forbear intimating
to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement
as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions
from abroad as to the exertions of skill and genius
in producing them at home, and of facilitating
the intercourse between the distant parts of our country
by a due attention to the post-office and post-roads.
Nor am I less persuaded that you will agree with me
in opinion that there is nothing which can better deserve
your patronage than the promotion of science and literature.
Knowledge is in every country
the surest basis of public happiness.
In one in which the measures of government receive
their impressions so immediately from the sense of
the community as in ours it is proportionably essential.
To the security of a free Constitution it contributes
in various ways: by convincing those who are entrusted
with the public administration that
every valuable end of government is best answered
by the enlightened confidence of the people,
and by teaching the people themselves
to know and to value their own rights;
to discern and provide against invasions of them;
to distinguish between oppression
and the necessary exercise of lawful authority;
between burthens proceeding from a disregard
to their convenience and those resulting
from the inevitable exigencies of society;
to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness,
cherishing the first, avoiding the last, and uniting a speedy
but temperate vigilance against encroachments,
with an inviolable respect to the laws.
Whether this desirable object will be best promoted
by affording aids to seminaries of learning already
established, by the institution of a national university,
or by any other expedients will be well worthy
of a place in the deliberations of the legislature.Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I saw with peculiar pleasure at the close
of the last session the resolution entered into by you
expressive of your opinion that an adequate provision
for the support of the public credit is a matter
of high importance to the national honor and prosperity.
In this sentiment I entirely concur;
and to a perfect confidence in your best endeavors
to devise such a provision as will be truly with the end
I add an equal reliance on the cheerful cooperation
of the other branch of the legislature.
It would be superfluous to specify inducements
to a measure in which the character and interests
of the United States are so obviously so deeply concerned,
and which has received so explicit
a sanction from your declaration.Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:
I have directed the proper officers to lay before you,
respectively, such papers and estimates as regard
the affairs particularly recommended to your consideration,
and necessary to convey to you that information
of the state of the Union which it is my duty to afford.
The welfare of our country is the great object
to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed,
and I shall derive great satisfaction from a cooperation
with you in the pleasing though arduous task of insuring
to our fellow citizens the blessings which they have a right
to expect from a free, efficient, and equal government.1
Washington indicated his support of the public credit and asked for funds
to provide for the common defense, notably against hostile Indians
on the southern and western frontiers.
He aimed to facilitate intercourse with other nations for
the public good with compensation for those employed in diplomacy.
He recommended advancing agriculture, commerce and manufacturing,
and he encouraged using inventions from abroad and developing them at home.
He advised attending to the post office and improving post-roads.
He asked for promotion of science and literature
because knowledge leads to public happiness.
The President called for a sense of the community and for trust
in public administration so that the government may have the confidence
of the people by teaching them to know and value their rights.
He suggested cherishing liberty and avoiding licentiousness while
having temperate vigilance against encroachments by respecting the laws.
Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton’s private Bank of New York
was successfully paying dividends of 7%, and banks were becoming popular.
He quickly began preparing reports on the economy,
and he was eager to expand currency and credit.
Congress requested his “Report on the Public Credit” that on 14 January 1790
criticized the idea of repudiating the national debt, and he proposed that the
federal government should assume the states’ debts too;
those presently holding the securities would be compensated.
The United States owed $11,710,387 to foreign countries and $42,414,085 to Americans.
Hamilton also proposed assuming the state debts of
about $21 million, making a total debt of about $75 million.
He believed that a well-funded national debt would
be a foundation for paper money and loans.
Competition between states and the national government
for tax resources would be divisive and less efficient.
The report calculated that the interest on the debt would
be $2,839,163 plus $600,000 for governmental operations
which could be raised from duties on imports and tonnage.
With revenues Hamilton established a sinking fund
to pay off the national debt at about 5% per year.
This new revenue law and his report stimulated
speculative purchases of government securities.
Gouverneur Morris estimated that Dutch bankers had purchased £3 million
of government certificates for about five shillings per pound.
Hamilton’s opponents complained about the speculative bubble
and leaks by his Assistant Secretary William Duer that helped the wealthy.
Hamilton found that the total debt of the United States was $77.1 million
from a foreign debt of $11.7 million, a federal debt of $40.4 million,
and the state debt of $25 million.
Washington wrote to Thomas Jefferson this letter on January 21:
I had the pleasure to receive duly your letter dated
the 15th of December last; but I thought proper to
delay answering or mentioning the contents of it
until after the arrival of Mr. Madison,
who I understood had been with you.
He arrived yesterday, and I now take the earliest
opportunity of mentioning to you the result of my
reflections; and the expediency of your deciding,
at as early a period as may consist with your
convenience on the important subject before you.
Previous to any remarks on the nature of the Office
to which you have been recently appointed, I will premise,
that I feel such delicacy & embarrassment in consequence
of the footing on which you have placed your final
determination, as to make it necessary for me to recur
to the first ground on which I rested the matter.
In confidence therefore I will tell you plainly that I wish
not to oppose your inclinations; and that, after you shall
have been made a little farther acquainted with the light
in which I view the Office of Secretary of State,
it must be at your option to determine relative to your
acceptance of it or continuance in your Office abroad.
I consider the successful Administration
of the general Government as an object of
almost infinite consequence to the present and
future happiness of the Citizens of the United States.
I consider the Office of Secretary for the Department
of State as very important on many accounts:
and I know of no person who in my judgment
could better execute the Duties of it than yourself.
Its duties will probably be not quite so arduous &
complicated in their execution, as you might have
been led at the first moment to imagine.
At least, it was the opinion of Congress, that after the
division of all the business of a domestic nature
between the Department of the Treasury, War and State,
that those which would be comprehended in the latter
might be performed by the same Person, who should have
the charge of conducting the Department of foreign Affairs.
The experiment was to be made; and if it shall be found
that the fact is different, I have little doubt that a
farther arrangement or division of the business in
the Office of the Department of State will be made,
in such manner as to enable it to be performed, under
the superintendence of one man, with facility to himself,
as well as with advantage & satisfaction to the Public.
These observations, however, you will be pleased
to remark are merely matters of opinion.
But in order that you may be the better prepared
to make your ultimate decision on good grounds,
I think it necessary to add one fact, which is this,
so far as I have been able to obtain information
from all quarters, your late appointment has given
very extensive and very great satisfaction to the Public.
My original opinion & wish may be
collected from my nomination.
As to what you mention in the latter part of your letter,
I can only observe, I do not know that any alteration
is likely to take place in the Commission from the
United States to the Court of France.
The necessary arrangements with regard to our
intercourse with Foreign Nations have never yet been
taken up on a great scale by the Government: because
the Department which comprehended affairs of that nature
has never been properly organized, so as to bring the
business well and systematically before the Executive.
If you should finally determine to take upon yourself
the duties of the Department of State, it would be
highly requisite for you to come on immediately,
as many things are required to be done while Congress is in
Session rather than at any other time; and as, in that case
your presence might doubtless be much better dispensed
with after a little time than at the present moment.
Or in all events it will be essential that I should be informed
of your conclusive option so that if you return to France,
another Person may be at as early a day as possible
nominated to fill the Department of State.2
The United States Supreme Court held its first session on February 1.
Madison opposed the assumption of all the debts on February 11
because many had been purchased at low cost by speculators;
but Hamilton argued that the debts should be honored and that
it was too difficult to determine which ones should be denied.
On February 22 the House defeated Madison’s proposal 36-13.
Madison, Hamilton, and Jay and worked together on the Federalist Papers in 1788.
The Federalist Hamilton and Madison came to realize they were in different parties
as Madison and Jefferson founded the Democratic Republican Party.
On February 22 the United States began celebrating Washington’s birthday
as a national holiday, and in March they began minting coins with his image on one side.
Quakers raised the issue of slavery, and in the debate
Madison argued that it is a state issue and not a federal prerogative.
Attorney General Randolph advised Washington that Pennsylvania
had a law that any slave who resided there for six months could demand emancipation.
The capital had been moved there in 1790 for ten years.
Washington did not want to lose his trusted slaves Hercules and Paris,
and he had Lear and Martha take them back to Mount Vernon for a while.
Jefferson had returned from being Minister to France for over four years.
He did not agree to become Secretary of State until February,
and he was confirmed on March 22.
He shared information he had gained about how to get the
barbary pirates to release the captured American seamen.
Jefferson proposed that they adopt the metric system of
measurements used by France, but the Congress voted it down.
The Senate ordered him to reduce the foreign service.
Only France had a minister plenipotentiary.
Madrid and Lisbon had chargés d’affaires,
and London and The Hague each had a consular agent.
The State Department’s budget was only $40,000 a year.
Elderly Benjamin Franklin was president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society
and supported Quaker petitions that were quickly rejected.
Franklin died on 17 April 1790, and George Washington,
who admired him greatly, decided not to start a precedent of giving him special honors.
Washington suffered from a mysterious fever that was infecting many,
and he was quite ill for several months.
Doctors said his case was hopeless on May 16.
Yet on May 27 Jefferson announced that Washington
was “well enough to resume business.”
Washington did not resume writing in his diary until June 24.
Congress authorized the first census on March 1, and the 1790 census
counted 3,699,525 people in the United States with 697,624 African slaves
and 59,557 free Africans; tens of thousands of Indians were not counted.
Massachusetts and Vermont had no slaves.
New York City with 33,131 people was second to Philadelphia’s 42,444,
followed by Boston with 18,028, Charleston’s 16,359, and Baltimore’s 13,503.
New York City as the first capital and growing financial center
included 2,400 slaves and 1,100 free persons of color.
On March 17 a delegation of Quakers presented to the
House of Representatives a memorial asking that slavery be abolished.
Southern Congressmen were very angry, and a motion to give Congress
authority to end slavery was defeated 29-25.
The Congress was prohibited from ending the slave trade
before 1808 because of the Constitution.
The American patent system was established on April 10
That month Hamilton asked for boats to protect the security of the revenue
against smuggling, and Congress authorized two revenue cutters
that years later were expanded into the Coast Guard.
In May 1790 Treasury Secretary Hamilton proposed a federal tax on whiskey.
The debate in the House was more controversial as Anti-Federalists
such as
James Jackson of Georgia warned of
“imposing this enormous and iniquitous debt” that would
“beggar the people and bind them in chains.”
Madison moved away from the Federalist party as he led the opposition that
defeated Hamilton’s proposal for the assumption of debts in the House on April 12.
States with little debt would be helping those with large debts,
and they worked out a compromise that provided compensation
for the low-debt states of Delaware, North Carolina, and Virginia.
Southerners criticized Hamilton’s plans for favoring Easterners.
A majority was opposing Hamilton’s plans,
and the new delegation from North Carolina increased the Anti-Federalists.
Hamilton hired the manufacturing expert Tench Coxe
to replace Duer as assistant secretary in May.
President Washington caught pneumonia on May 10
and nearly died on the 15th before beginning a recovery.
By May 20 the doctors agreed he was out of danger.
On June 3 he wrote to Lafayette that he is being “supported by able coadjutors”
and that he is harmonizing the opposing views of Jefferson at the State Department
with those of Hamilton at Treasury and Knox in the War Department.
Knox usually sided with Hamilton while Attorney General Edmund Randolph,
who was from Virginia, would support Jefferson.
Washington was striving to be President of all the people,
but as a Federalist he usually was closer to Hamilton.
In early June the House of Representatives passed
Hamilton’s bill to fund assuming the states’ debts.
Jefferson agreed with Madison and said that the
policy was like that of the British Empire.
Hamilton agreed to support Philadelphia as a temporary capital
and the Potomac as the permanent one.
These tactics persuaded the Senate to pass an assumption of the debts
in the Residence Act, though the House had refused to include the debts
in its funding bill, putting the Congress at an impasse.
On June 4 President Washington congratulated
Governor Arthur Fenner of Rhode Island for completing
the ratifying of the Constitution, and he wrote,
Having now attained the desirable object of uniting
under one general Government all those States
which were originally confederated,
we have a right to expect, with the blessing
of a divine providence, that our Country will afford us
all those domestic enjoyments of which a free people
only can boast—and at the same time secure
that respectability abroad which she is entitled to
by nature and from circumstances.
Since the bond of Union is now complete,
and we once more consider ourselves as one family,
it is much to be hoped that reproaches will cease
and prejudices be done away; for we should all remember
that we are members of that community
upon whose general success depends our particular
and individual welfare—and, therefore,
if we mean to support the Liberty and Independence
which it has cost us so much blood & treasure to establish,
we must drive far away the demon
of party spirit and local reproach.3
On June 15 Washington wrote a fairly long letter to the physician
and politician David Stuart complaining about the Congress.
On June 19 the President sent letters and documents from
Gouverneur Morris to Secretary of State Jefferson.
Washington also allowed Jefferson to see his private letters from the
Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Paine because they were related to French affairs.
Washington felt that he was being well supported by Jefferson at State,
Jay in the Judiciary, Hamilton at the Treasury,
and his good friend Henry Knox in the War Department that also included Indian Affairs.
At a presidential dinner on June 20 Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson
invited Hamilton and Madison for dinner and mediated a compromise between them
to pass the assumption of debt by locating the capital more centrally by the Potomac River,
a project Jefferson had been planning for years and which
would please Washington because it could be near Mount Vernon.
Massachusetts and South Carolina had the most to gain by assumption of the debt,
and their representatives at Hamilton’s request agreed to vote for
locating the permanent capital on the banks of the Potomac near Georgetown.
The capital would be in Philadelphia for ten years while the federal city was being built.
The Continental debt, which had been 6%, was funded at 4%,
and the Continental currency was retired at the rate of 100-1 rather than 40-1.
The Residence Act included a provision to provide $600,000 a year for government
expenses, and it passed the Senate 14-12 on July 1 and the House 32-29 on the 9th.
President Washington signed it into law on July 16.
Philadelphia would be the capital for ten years.
By then the federal district called “Columbia” and the city of “Washington” would be built.
Congress passed the resolution for Funding and Assumption of debts on August 4.
Many speculators became richer when more than $60 million in state
and federal certificates, which had been practically worthless,
were raised almost to face value.
The new bonds soon circulating amounted to ten times the specie in the United States,
providing what Hamilton called “an engine of business”
and “an instrument of industry and commerce.”
The national debt suddenly increased to more than $80 million.
During the next ten years paying the interest on this debt accounted for
more than 40% of national revenue which was averaging more than $6 million
by the mid-1790s compared to $500,000 direct tax revenue in all the states.
The states all together spent more than $1 million a year,
and the Federal Government in 1795 would spend $7.5 million.
On August 4 and 12 Congress authorized the United States Treasury
to borrow $14 million in Europe as it held its last session in New York.
Hamilton negotiated loans of three million florins from
the Dutch bank of Willinks, Van Staphorsts and Hubbard.
During the year that ended on 30 September 1790 the United States
exported at least $20 million of mostly agricultural goods while importing
more than $15 million worth of largely manufactured products.
Nearly half the exports went to England and less than a quarter to France.
In Newport, Rhode Island a Jewish merchant Moses Seixas,
who was also a fellow Mason, talked with him.
On August 18 Washington wrote in this letter to the Hebrew Congregation:
The Citizens of the United States of America have a right
to applaud themselves for having given to mankind
examples of an enlarged and liberal policy:
a policy worthy of imitation.
All possess alike liberty of conscience
and immunities of citizenship.
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of,
as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that
another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.
For happily the Government of the United States,
which gives to bigotry no sanction,
to persecution no assistance requires only that
they who live under its protection
should demean themselves as good citizens,
in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
It would be inconsistent with the frankness
of my character not to avow that I am pleased
with your favorable opinion of my Administration,
and fervent wishes for my felicity.
May the Children of the Stock of Abraham,
who dwell in this land, continue to merit
and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants;
while everyone shall sit in safety
under his own vine and fig tree,
and there shall be none to make him afraid.
May the father of all mercies scatter light
and not darkness in our paths,
and make us all in our several vocations useful here,
and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.4
Washington wanted to travel to all the states to get to know the people,
and on October 15 he went with Gov. George Clinton of New York,
Jefferson, and others on a tour of the northeast.
At this time the United States had nearly 100 newspapers, though only eight were dailies.
They printed foreign and national news and could fill them with political debates.
Benjamin Bache, the grandson of Benjamin Franklin, had started the
General Advertiser in October 1790 to oppose the Federalist administration,
and it later became the Aurora.
On November 27 Washington moved to Philadelphia to live in
the mansion of Robert Morris that had been prepared for him.
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton on 1 December 1790
had submitted his second report on a national bank.
He proposed an excise tax on whiskey and other
domestically distilled alcoholic beverages.
The capital was moved from New York to Philadelphia as
Congress reconvened in Philadelphia’s Congress Hall on 6 December 1790.
On the 8th President Washington gave this Second Annual Address to Congress:
In meeting you again I feel much satisfaction in being able
to repeat my congratulations on the favorable prospects
which continue to distinguish our public Affairs.
The abundant fruits of another year
have blessed our Country with plenty,
and with the means of a flourishing commerce.
The progress of public credit is witnessed by a considerable
rise of American Stock abroad as well as at home.
And the revenues allotted for this
and other national purposes, have been productive
beyond the calculations by which they were regulated.
This latter circumstance is the more pleasing as it is
not only a proof of the fertility of our resources,
but as it assures us of a further increase
of the national respectability and credit; and let me add,
as it bears an honorable testimony to the patriotism and
integrity of the mercantile and marine part of our Citizens.
The punctuality of the former in discharging
their engagements has been exemplary.
In conforming to the powers vested in me by acts
of the last Session, a loan of three millions of florins,
towards which some provisional measures
had previously taken place, has been completed in Holland.
As well the celerity with which it has been filled,
as the nature of the terms,
(considering the more than ordinary demand
for borrowing created by the situation of Europe)
gives a reasonable hope that the further execution
of those powers may proceed with advantage and success.
The Secretary of the Treasury has my directions
to communicate such further particulars
as may be requisite for more precise information.
Since your last Sessions, I have received communications
by which it appears, that the District of Kentucky,
at present a part of Virginia, has concurred in certain
propositions contained in a law of that State;
in consequence of which the District
is to become a distinct member of the Union,
in case the requisite sanction of Congress be added.
For this sanction application is now made.
I shall cause the papers on this very important transaction
to be laid before you.
The liberality and harmony, with which it has been
conducted will be found to do great honor
to both the parties; and the sentiments of warm attachment
to the Union and its present Government expressed
by our fellow citizens of Kentucky cannot fail to add
an affectionate concern for their particular welfare
to the great national impressions under which
you will decide on the case submitted to you.
It has been heretofore known to Congress, that
frequent incursions have been made on our frontier
settlements by certain banditti of Indians
from the North West side of the Ohio.
These with some of the tribes dwelling on and near
the Wabash have of late been particularly active
in their depredations; and being emboldened
by the impunity of their crimes, and aided by such parts
of the neighboring tribes as could be seduced
to join in their hostilities or afford them
a retreat for their prisoners and plunder, they have,
instead of listening to the humane overtures
made on the part of the United States, renewed
their violence with fresh alacrity and greater effect.
The lives of a number of valuable Citizens
have thus been sacrificed, and some of them
under circumstances peculiarly shocking;
whilst others have been carried into a deplorable captivity.
These aggravated provocations rendered it essential
to the safety of the Western Settlements that
the aggressors should be made sensible that
the Government of the Union is not less capable
of punishing their crimes, than it is disposed
to respect their rights and reward their attachments.
As this object could not be effected by defensive measures
it became necessary to put in force the Act,
which empowers the President to call out the Militia
for the protection of the frontiers.
And I have accordingly authorized an expedition
in which the regular troops in that quarter are combined
with such drafts of Militia as were deemed sufficient.
The event of the measure is yet unknown to me.
The Secretary of war is directed to lay before you
a statement of the information on which it is founded,
as well as an estimate of the expense
with which it will be attended.
The disturbed situation of Europe, and particularly
the critical posture of the great maritime powers,
whilst it ought to make us more thankful for the
general peace and security enjoyed by the United States,
reminds us at the same time of the circumspection
with which it becomes us to preserve these blessings.
It requires also that we should not overlook the tendency
of a war and even of preparations for a war,
among the Nations most concerned in active Commerce
with this Country, to abridge the means, and thereby
at least enhance the price of transporting
its valuable productions to their proper markets.
I recommend it to your serious reflection how far
and in what mode, it may be expedient to guard
against embarrassments from these contingencies,
by such encouragements to our own Navigation
as will render our commerce and agriculture
less dependent on foreign bottoms, which may fail us
in the very moments most interesting
to both of these great objects.
Our fisheries, and the transportation
of our own produce offer us abundant means
for guarding ourselves against this evil.
Your attention seems to be not less due
to that particular branch of our trade
which belongs to the Mediterranean.
So many circumstances unite in rendering the present state
of it distressful to us, that you will not think
any deliberations misemployed,
which may lead to its relief and protection.
The laws you have already passed
for the establishment of a Judiciary System have opened
the doors of Justice to all descriptions of persons.
You will consider in your wisdom, whether improvements
in that system may yet be made; and particularly whether
a uniform process of execution on sentences issuing,
from the federal Courts
be not desirable through all the states.
The patronage of our commerce,
of our merchants and Seamen, has called for
the appointment of Consuls in foreign Countries.
It seems expedient to regulate by law the exercise
of that Jurisdiction and those functions
which are permitted them, either by express Convention,
or by a friendly indulgence in the places of their residence.
The Consular Convention too with his most Christian
Majesty has stipulated in certain cases, the aid of the
national authority to his Consuls established here.
Some legislative provision is requisite
to carry these stipulations into full effect.
The establishment of the Militia; of a mint;
of Standards of weights and measures;
of the Post Office and Post Roads are subjects which
(I presume) you will resume of course, and which
are abundantly urged by their own importance.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
The sufficiency of the Revenues you have established
for the objects to which they are appropriated,
leaves no doubt that the residuary provisions
will be commensurate to the other objects
for which the public faith stands now pledged.
Allow me, moreover, to hope that it will be a favorite
policy with you not merely to secure a payment
of the Interest of the debt funded, but, as far and as fast
as the growing resources of the Country will permit,
to exonerate it of the principal itself.
The appropriation you have made of the Western Lands
explains your dispositions on this subject.
And I am persuaded the sooner that valuable fund
can be made to contribute along with other means
to the actual reduction of the public debt,
the more salutary will the measure be to every public interest,
as well as the more satisfactory to our Constituents.5
Washington reported that the economy was recovering well,
and he obtained a loan of three million florins from Holland.
The district of Kentucky was applying to be admitted as a state,
and he advised the Congress to approve.
Some Indian bandits northwest of the Ohio plundered and took prisoners.
As President he called out the militia.
Conflicts in Europe brought about the need to protect American commerce.
At home the establishing of the judicial system was bringing justice to more people.
Washington hoped that additional revenues from selling western land
could help pay down the national debt.
The Yazoo companies had already started selling the land in January 1790,
and Georgia legislators were bribed to cancel the New York treaty
and ignore the President’s proclamation.
General Knox came to Congress in February and asked for $1,152,000
to raise an army of 5,040 men to fight the Creek Indians.
In early spring in 1790 Miami and Wabash tribes had attacked boats
on the Ohio River
near the Scioto, and their raids in Kentucky involved massacre and arson.
Washington ordered the Northwest Territory Governor St. Clair
to summon the militia to support the regulars.
About 1,500 troops assembled at the new Fort Washington
on the Ohio that later became Cincinnati.
In May 1790 North Carolina ceded its territory in the Tennessee Valley
to the federal government, and Congress organized the land
south of the Ohio River as the Southwest Territory.
This would bring people into contact with the Cherokees and the Chickasaws.
On June 8 President Washington appointed the North Carolina commissioner
William Blount to govern the newly created Southwestern Territory,
and he did that until March 1796.
Washington also made John Sevier and James Robertson brigadier generals
in the western army and James Wilkinson a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army.
Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham had bought six million acres from
Massachusetts in the west for £300,000 on 1 April 1788 over three years,
and in July 1789 Gorham persuaded the Senecas to sell 2,500,000 acres
by the Genesee River for $5,000 and a $500 annuity.
In March 1790 Phelps and Gorham gave back to Massachusetts the western two-thirds,
and on November 18 they sold the other third for £30,000 to Robert Morris
who eventually sold most of it to English and Dutch speculators.
On July 22 the Congress put the principles of
Washington and Knox into the Trade and Intercourse Act.
In a message to the Chickasaws in December the President urged them
to respect the Hopewell Treaty that the Cherokees had made on 28 November 1785.
In the South the state of Georgia had ratified the Constitution
on 2 January 1788 because of its conflicts with the Creeks.
After Benjamin Lincoln’s commission failed to make a treaty with the Creeks,
Henry Knox managed to negotiate a treaty with them on July 20.
After the ship America brought goods and entertainment to the Creeks and Washington,
they agreed on a treaty with a secret article that
the President presented to the US Senate on August 4.
Washington sent a peace emissary south in the spring of 1790
to the Creek leader Alexander McGillivray, and in the summer
they came back with 26 chiefs to New York and were welcomed
with lavish dinners and ceremonies for weeks.
In a treaty signed on August 7 the Creeks ceded two-thirds of the land
claimed by Georgia, and a secret clause made McGillivray an agent of
the United States and a brigadier general with
an annual salary of $1,200 and gave him a trade monopoly.
President Washington proclaimed that no one should encroach on the Creek territory.
In the summer Washington invited the Muscogee and Creek leader McGillivray
and 26 chiefs for several weeks of diplomatic ceremonies and official dinners.
A Creek Treaty they signed included two secret provisions that provided McGillivray
with $1,200 a year to replace what he had got
from Spain which benefited from the fur trade.
On August 7 Washington sent this treaty to the Senate with this message:
I lay before you a treaty between the United States
and the Chiefs of the Creek Nation, now in this city,
in behalf of themselves and the whole Creek Nation,
subject to the ratification
of the President of the United States,
with the advice and consent of the Senate.
While I flatter myself that this treaty will be productive
of present peace and prosperity to our Southern frontier,
it is to be expected that it will also in its consequences
be the means of firmly attaching the Creeks and the
neighboring tribes to the interests of the United States.
At the same time it is to be hoped that it will afford
solid grounds of satisfaction to the State of Georgia,
as it contains a regular, full and definitive relinquishment
on the part of the Creek Nation, of the Oconee Land, in
the utmost extent in which it has been claimed by that State
and thus extinguishes the principal cause of those hostilities
from which it has more than once
experienced such severe calamities.
But although the most valuable of the disputed Land
is included, yet there is a certain claim of Georgia
arising out of the treaty, made by that State at Galphinston
in November 1785 of Land to the Eastward of a new
temporary line from the forks of the Oconee and Oakmulgee
in a southwest direction to the St. Mary’s River, which tract
of Land the Creeks in this City absolutely refuse to yield.
This Land is reported to be generally barren, sunken,
and unfit for cultivation, except in some instances
on the margin of the rivers, on which by improvement
rice might be cultivated, its chief value depending on
the timber fit for the building of Ships,
with which it is represented as abounding.
While it is thus circumstanced on the one hand,
it is stated by the Creeks on the other to be
of the highest importance to them, as constituting
some of their most valuable winter hunting ground.
I have directed the Commissioner, to whom the charge
of adjusting this treaty has been committed to lay
before you such papers and documents,
and to communicate to you such information
relatively to it as you may require.6
Washington on August 11 in a letter to the Marquis de Lafayette wrote,
Congress, after having been in session ever since last fall,
are to adjourn in two or three days.
Though they have been much perplexed and delayed
in their proceedings on some questions
of a local and intricate nature;
yet they have done a great deal of important business,
and will leave the public affairs in as satisfactory a state
as could reasonably have been expected.
One of the last acts of the executive has been the
conclusion of a treaty of Peace and Friendship
with the Creek Nation of Indians, who have been
considerably connected with the Spanish Provinces
and hostile to the Georgian frontiers
since the war with Great Britain.
McGillivray and about thirty of the Kings
and Head Men are here:
This event will leave us in peace
from one end of our borders to the other;
except where it may be interrupted
by a small refugee banditti of Cherokees and Shawnees,
who can be easily chastised
or even extirpated if it shall become necessary:
But this will only be done in an inevitable extremity;
since the basis of our proceedings with the
Indian Nations has been, and shall be justice,
during the period in which I may have anything
to do in the administration of this government.7
The Congress adjourned on August 12, and the next day
the final ceremonies on the Creek treaty were held.
President Washington proclaimed that no one should encroach on the Creek territory,
and on August 14 he issued this Proclamation of 1790:
Whereas a Treaty of peace and friendship
between the United States and the Creek nation,
was made and concluded on the seventh day
of the present month of August,
And whereas I have,
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate,
in due form ratified the said Treaty.
Now therefore to the end that the same may be
observed and performed with good faith
on the part of the United States,
I have ordered the said Treaty to be herewith published;
and I do hereby enjoin and require all officers
of the United States, civil and military,
and all other citizens and inhabitants thereof,
faithfully to observe and fulfil the same.
GIVEN under my hand and the seal of the United States,
in the city of New York, the fourteenth day of August,
in the year of our Lord
one thousand seven hundred and ninety,
and in the fifteenth year of the sovereignty
and independence of the United States.8
The Creeks claimed they had about 6,000 warriors.
Cherokees had 2,000, the Choctaws 5,000, and the Chickasaws 500.
On 22 August 1790 Washington sent this letter to the United States Senate
on a treaty with the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks:
To conciliate the powerful tribes of Indians
in the southern district, amounting probably
to fourteen thousand fighting men,
and to attach them firmly to the United States,
may be regarded as highly worthy
of the serious attention of government.
The measure includes, not only peace and security
to the whole southern frontier, but is calculated to form
a barrier against the Colonies of an European power,
which, in the mutations of policy,
may one day become the enemy of the United States.
The fate of the southern States therefore,
or the neighboring Colonies,
may principally depend on the present measures
of the Union towards the southern Indians.
By the papers which have been laid before the Senate
it will appear that in the latter end of the year 1785
and the beginning of 1786,
treaties were formed by the United States
with the Cherokees, the Chickasaws and Choctaws.
The report of the Commissioners will show the reasons why
a treaty was not formed at the same time with the Creeks.
It will also appear by the papers that the States
of North Carolina and Georgia, protested
against said treaties, as infringing their legislative rights,
and being contrary to the Confederation.
It will further appear by the said papers,
that the treaty with the Cherokees has been
entirely violated by the disorderly white people
on the frontiers of North Carolina.
The opinion of the late Congress
respecting the said violation, will sufficiently appear,
by the proclamation which they caused
to be issued on the first of September 1788.
By the public newspapers it appears that
on the 16th of June last, a truce was concluded
with the Cherokees by Mr. John Steele
on behalf of the State of North Carolina, in which
it was stipulated that a treaty should be held
as soon as possible, and that in the mean time
all hostilities should cease on either side.
As the Cherokees reside principally
within the territory claimed by North Carolina,
and as that State is not a member of the present Union,
it may be doubted whether any efficient measures
in favor of the Cherokees could be
immediately adopted by the general Government.
The Commissioners for negotiating
with the Southern Indians may be instructed to transmit
a message to the Cherokees, stating to them,
as far as may be proper, the difficulties arising
from the local claims of North Carolina,
and to assure them that the United States
are not unmindful of the treaty at Hopewell,
and as soon as the difficulties which are at present
opposed to the measure, shall be removed,
the Government will do full Justice to the Cherokees.
The distance of the Choctaws and Chickasaws
from the frontier settlements seems to have prevented
those tribes from being involved
in similar difficulties with the Cherokees.
The Commissioners may be instructed to transmit
messages to the said tribes containing assurances
of the continuance of the friendship of the United States,
and that measures will soon be taken for extending a trade
to them agreeably to the treaties of Hopewell.
The Commissioners may also be directed to report a plan
for the execution of the said treaties respecting trade.
But the case of the Creek nation is of the highest
importance and requires an immediate decision.
The cause of the hostilities between Georgia and the Creeks
is stated to be a difference in Judgment
concerning three treaties made between the said parties,
to wit—at Augusta in 1783, at Galphinton in 1785
and at Shoulderbone in 1786.
The State of Georgia asserts, and the Creeks deny
the validity of the said treaties.
Hence arises the indispensable necessity of having
all the circumstances respecting the said treaties critically
investigated by Commissioners of the United States,
so that the further measures of Government
may be formed on a full knowledge of the case.
In order that the investigation be conducted
with the highest impartiality, it will be proper, in addition
to the evidence of the documents in the public possession,
that Georgia should be represented at this part
of the proposed treaty with the Creek Nation.
It is however to be observed, in any issue of the enquiry,
that it would be highly embarrassing to Georgia
to relinquish that part of the lands,
stated to have been ceded by the Creeks,
lying between the Ogeeche and Oconee rivers;
that State having surveyed and divided the same
among certain descriptions of its citizens who settled
and planted thereon until dispossessed by the Indians.
In case, therefore, the issue of the investigation
should be unfavorable to the claims of Georgia,
the Commissioners should be instructed to use
their best endeavors to negotiate with the Creeks,
a solemn conveyance of the said lands to Georgia.
By the report of the Commissioners who were
appointed under certain acts of the late Congress,
by South Carolina and Georgia, it appears that they have
agreed to meet the Creeks on the 15th of September ensuing.
As it is with great difficulty the Indians are collected together
at certain seasons of the year, it is important that
the above occasion should be embraced, if possible,
on the part of the present government,
to form a treaty with the Creeks.
As the proposed treaty is of great importance
to the future tranquility of the State of Georgia,
as well as of the United States,
it has been thought proper that it should be conducted
on the part of the general government,
by Commissioners whose local situations may free them
from the imputation of prejudice on this subject.
As it is necessary that certain principles should be fixed
previously to forming instructions for the Commissioners;
the following questions arising
out of the foregoing communications,
are stated by the President of the United States,
and the advice of the Senate requested thereon.
1st
In the present state of affairs between North Carolina,
and the United States, will it be proper
to take any other measures for redressing the injuries
of the Cherokees, than the one herein suggested?
2nd
Shall the Commissioners be instructed to pursue
any other measures respecting the Chickasaws
and Choctaws than those herein suggested?
3rd
If the Commissioners shall adjudge that the Creek nation
was fully represented at the three treaties with Georgia,
and that the cessions of land were obtained with the full
understanding and free consent of the acknowledged proprietors,
and that the said treaties ought to be considered as just and valid.
In this case shall the Commissioners be instructed to insist
on a formal renewal and confirmation thereof?
And in case of a refusal, shall they be instructed to inform
the Creeks that the arms of the union shall be employed
to compel them to acknowledge
the Justice of the said cessions?
4th
But if the Commissioners shall adjudge that
the said treaties were formed with an inadequate
or unauthorized representation of the Creek Nation,
or that the treaties were held under circumstances
of constraint or unfairness of any sort,
so that the United States could not with Justice and dignity
request or urge a confirmation thereof.
In this case shall the Commissioners,
considering the importance of the Oconee lands to Georgia,
be instructed to use their highest exertions
to obtain a cession of said lands?
If so shall the Commissioners be instructed,
if they cannot obtain the said cessions on better terms,
to offer for the same, and for the further great object
of attaching the Creeks to the Government
of the United States, the following conditions.
1st
A compensation in money or goods to the amount Dollars,
the said amount to be stipulated to be paid by Georgia,
at the period which shall be fixed,
or in failure thereof by the United States.
2nd
A secure port on the Altamaha or St Marys rivers,
or at any other place between the same as may be
mutually agreed to by the Commissioners and the Creeks.
3rd
Certain pecuniary considerations to some,
and honorary military distinctions to other influential Chiefs,
on their taking oaths of Allegiance to the United States.
4th
A solemn guarantee by the United States, to the Creeks,
of their remaining territory, and to maintain
the same if necessary by a line of military posts.
5th
But if all offers should fail to induce the Creeks
to make the desired cessions to Georgia,
shall the Commissioners make it an ultimatum?
6th
If the said cessions shall not be made an ultimatum,
shall the Commissioners proceed and make a treaty,
and include the disputed lands within the limits,
which shall be assigned to the Creeks.
If not, shall a temporary boundary be marked,
making the Oconee the line,
and the other parts of the treaty be concluded?
In this case shall a Secure port be stipulated,
and the pecuniary, and honorary considerations granted?
In other general objects, shall the treaties
formed at Hopewell, with the Cherokees, Chickasaws
and Choctaws, be the basis of a treaty with the Creeks?
7th
Shall the sum of twenty thousand Dollars appropriated
to Indian expenses and treaties, be wholly applied,
if necessary, to a treaty with the Creeks?
If not, what proportion?9
On August 26 Washington issued the following Proclamation:
Whereas it hath at this time become peculiarly necessary,
to warn the citizens of the United States
against a violation of the treaties, made at Hopewell,
on the river Keowee, on the third and tenth days of January,
in the year of our lord 1786, between the United States,
and the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations of Indians;
and to enforce the act, entitled “an act
to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes,”
copies of which treaties and act are hereto annexed.
I have therefore thought fit to require,
and do by these presents require, all officers
of the United States, as well civil as military,
and all other citizens and inhabitants thereof,
to govern themselves according to the treaties and act
aforesaid; as they will answer the contrary at their peril.10
On 29 December 1790 the President Washington in Philadelphia
gave this speech to Chiefs of the Seneca Nation:
I, the President of the United States, by my own mouth,
and by a written speech signed with my own hand,
and sealed with the seal of the United States,
speak to the Seneca Nation, and desire their Attention,
and that they would keep this speech
in remembrance of the friendship of the United States.
I have received your Speech with satisfaction,
as a proof of your confidence
in the justice of the United States,
and I have attentively examined the several objects
which you have laid before me,
whether delivered by your Chiefs at Tioga point
in the last month to Colonel Pickering,
or laid before me in the present month
by the Cornplanter and the other Seneca Chiefs
now in Philadelphia.
In the first place I observe to you, and I request
it may sink in your minds, that it is my desire,
and the desire of the United States that all the miseries
of the late war should be forgotten and buried forever.
That in future, the United States and the six nations
should be truly brothers, promoting each other’s
prosperity by acts of mutual justice & friendship.
I am not uninformed that the six nations
have been led into some difficulties
with respect to the sale of their lands since the peace.
But I must inform you that these arose
before the present government of the United States
was established, when the separate States,
and individuals under their authority, undertook to treat
with the Indian tribes respecting the sale of their lands.
But the case is now entirely altered.
The general government only has the power to treat
with the Indian nations, and any treaty formed
and held without its authority will not be binding.
Here then is the security for the remainder of your lands.
No state nor person can purchase your lands,
unless at some public treaty
held under the Authority of the United States.
The general Government will never consent
to your being defrauded.
But it will protect you in all your just rights.
Hear well, and let it be heard by every person
in your nation, that the President of the United States
declares, that the general government considers itself
bound to protect you in all the lands secured to you
by the treaty of Fort Stanwix, the 22d of October 1784,
excepting such parts as you may since have fairly sold
to persons properly authorized to purchase of you.
You complain of John Livingston and Oliver Phelps
have obtained your lands, assisted by Mr. Street of Niagara,
and they have not complied with their agreement.
It appears, upon enquiry of the Governor of New York,
that John Livingston was not legally authorized
to treat with you, and that everything he did with you
has been declared null and void,
so that you may rest easy on that account.
But it does not appear from any proofs yet
in the possession of government,
that Oliver Phelps has defrauded you.
If, however you should have any just cause
of complaint against him,
and can make satisfactory proof thereof,
the federal Courts will be open to you for redress,
as to all other persons.
But your great object seems to be the security
of your remaining lands, and I have therefore
upon this point, meant to be sufficiently strong and clear.
That in future you cannot be defrauded of your lands.
That you possess the right to sell,
and the right of refusing to sell your lands.
That, therefore, the sale of your lands in future,
will depend entirely upon yourselves.
But that when you may find it for your interest to sell
any parts of your lands, the United States must be present
by their Agent, and will by your security that
you shall not be defrauded in the Bargain you may make.
It will, however, be important, before you make
any further sales of your land,
that you should determine among yourselves,
who are the persons among you that shall give sure
conveyances thereof as shall be binding upon your nation,
and forever preclude all disputes
relative to the validity of the sale.
That besides the before mentioned security for your land,
you will perceive by the law of Congress,
for regulating trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes,
the fatherly care the United States
intend to take of the Indians.
For the particular meaning of this law,
I refer you to the explanations given thereof
by Colonel Pickering at Tioga, which with the law,
are herewith delivered to you.
You have said in your Speech that
the game is going away from you,
and that you thought it the design of the great spirit,
that you should till the ground.
But before you speak upon this subject,
you want to know whether the United States
meant to leave you any land to till?
You know now that all the lands secured to you
by the treaty of Fort Stanwix, expecting such parts
as you may since have fairly sold are your’s,
and that only your own Acts can convey them away;
speak therefore your wishes
on the subject of tilling the ground.
The United States will be happy to afford you
every assistance in the only business
which will add to your numbers and happiness.
The murders that have been committed
upon some of your people, by the bad white men,
I sincerely lament and reprobate,
and I earnestly hope that the real murderers
will be secured and punished as they deserve.
This business has been sufficiently explained to you here
by the Governor of Pennsylvania, and by Colonel Pickering
on behalf of the United States, at Tioga.
The Senecas may be assured, that the rewards offered
for apprehending the murderers,
will be continued until they are secured for trial,
and that when they shall be apprehended,
that they will be tried and punished
as if they had killed Whitemen.
Having answered the most material parts of your speech,
I shall inform you, that some bad Indians,
and the outcast of several tribes
who reside at the Miamee Village,
have long continued their murders and depredations
upon the frontiers laying along the Ohio.
That they have not only refused to listen to my voice
inviting them to peace, but that upon receiving it,
they renewed their incursions and murders
with greater violence than ever.
I have therefore been obliged to strike those bad people,
in order to make them sensible of their madness.
I sincerely hope they will harken to reason,
and not require to be further chastised.
The United States desire to be the friends of the Indians,
upon terms of justice & humanity.
But they will not suffer the depredations
of the bad people to go unpunished.
My desire is that you would caution all the Senecas
and six nations to prevent their rash young men
from joining the Miamee Indians.
For the United States cannot distinguish the tribes
to which bad Indians belong,
and every tribe must take care of their own people.
The merits of the Cornplanter and his friendship
for the United States are well known to me,
and shall not be forgotten.
And as a mark of the esteem of the United States,
I have directed the Secretary of War to make him
a present of Two hundred and fifty dollars,
either in money or goods, as the Cornplanter shall like best.
And he may depend upon the future care
and kindness of the United States.
And I have also directed the Secretary of War
to make suitable presents to their other Chiefs
present in Philadelphia—and also that
some further tokens of friendship to be forwarded
to the other Chiefs now in their nation.
Remember my words, Senecas, continue to be
strong in your friendship for the United States,
as the only rational ground of your future happiness,
and you may rely upon their kindness and protection.
An Agent shall soon be appointed to reside
in some place convenient to the Senecas and six nations.
He will represent the United States.
Apply to him on all occasions.
If any man brings you evil reports of the intentions
of the United States, mark that man as your enemy,
for he will mean to deceive you, and lead you into trouble.
The United States will be true
& faithful to their engagements.11
Notes
1. Washington Writings, p. 748-751.
2. Ibid., p. 784-786.
3. The Writings of George Washington from Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799,
Volume 31 ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, p. 48.
4. Washington Writings, p. 767.
5. Ibid., p. 768-772.
6. The Writings of George Washington from Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799,
Volume 31, p. 76-77.
7. Washington Writings, p. 765.
8. Proclamation, 14 August 1790 (online).
9. The Writings of George Washington from Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799,
Volume 30, p. 385-390.
10. Ibid., Volume 31, p. 99.
11. Washington Writings, p. 772-776.
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