George Washington

A

2

Violation of Neutral Rights

In late August 1793 a dispatch arrived from the American diplomat in London, Thomas Pinckney. It informed Washington of a British order in council of June 8, 1793, that directed British warships to seize cargoes of grain or flour bound for France in neutral ships. This was, from the British viewpoint, a perfectly logical act. To Americans, however, the British order was an outrageous invasion of neutral rights. When the news spread, angry mobs demonstrated near Washington’s house in Philadelphia. However, these riots ended with the sudden outbreak of yellow fever in the city. Washington took a house in Germantown for his temporary use and carefully considered whether he had the constitutional right to ask Congress to meet in any place other than that appointed by law.

A

3

Jefferson Retires

The last days of 1793 brought the end of Jefferson’s service as secretary of state. His desire to retire from public life could no longer be denied. He was succeeded by Edmund Randolph, who had developed into Washington’s closest adviser after the breach between Jefferson and Hamilton became complete. William Bradford, a Pennsylvanian, took over Randolph’s post as attorney general.

A

4

Threat of War

In the spring of 1794 the danger of war with Britain increased. British warships were seizing all neutral vessels trading with the French West Indies, and Washington approved a 30-day embargo on all sailings from U.S. ports to avoid further encounters. However, a report soon came that the British government had rescinded the order affecting trade with the French West Indies. This dangerous situation had produced one desirable result: Congress agreed to authorize the construction of six frigates. These were the first additions to the navy since the revolution.

Tensions still ran high, and a constructive effort to preserve the peace seemed urgent. Washington resolved to send a special envoy to London to try to find some basis of agreement with the British ministers. His choice fell on Chief Justice John Jay. There were immediate protests from Jeffersonians, and Secretary of State Randolph insisted that Jay should not be empowered to negotiate a commercial treaty. Washington stood firm and left Jay free to use his own judgment, though he himself seems to have laid strong emphasis on securing British agreement to evacuate the northern frontier posts.

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Jay sailed from New York on May 12, 1794. A week later came news that the British commander at Detroit, one of the posts in question, had sent troops to erect a fort on the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio. Farther south, the frontier difficulties followed familiar patterns: Kentuckians were clashing with the Spaniards in the Mississippi River Valley, and Georgian squatters were pushing ever deeper into territory that by treaty belonged to the Creek.

B

Whiskey Rebellion

Bad news also came from western Pennsylvania, where three of Genêt’s democratic societies had become focal points of rebellion over the excise tax on whiskey. Officers collecting the tax met with increasing resistance. The house of the district inspector of excise was burned, and gatherings of armed people took place. Washington could not “suffer the laws to be trampled upon with impunity, for there is an end to representative government.” He saw the threat of western uprising as “the first formidable fruit of the democratic societies.” Governor Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania reported that the state could not muster enough militia to suppress the rebellion. Washington therefore summoned the militias of New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, providing a total force of some 15,000. When these troops moved into the affected area, resistance immediately collapsed. The Whiskey Rebellion was over by the end of November.

C

Fallen Timbers

Meanwhile, Washington was cheered by the news that Major General Anthony Wayne won a decisive victory over a coalition of northwestern Native American peoples at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, near the present site of Toledo, Ohio, on August 20, 1794. This battle and the systematic devastation of their fields and villages that followed broke the power of these nations for a generation.

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