Part 22 (2/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S WRITING-TABLE]
[Sidenote: Federal Officers.]
[Sidenote: Jay, Chief Justice.]
196. Appointments to Office.--The President now appointed the necessary officers to execute the national laws. These were mostly men who had been prominent in the Revolutionary War. For instance, John Jay (p. 126) was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and General Lincoln (p. 134) was appointed Collector of Customs at Boston. It was in having officers of its own to carry out its laws, that the new government seemed to the people to be so unlike the old government.
Formerly if Congress wanted anything done, it called on the states to do it. Now Congress, by law, authorized the United States officials to do their tasks. The difference was a very great one, and it took the people some time to realize what a great change had been made.
[Sidenote: t.i.tles. _Higginson_, 222.]
197. The Question of t.i.tles.--The first fiercely contested debate in the new Congress was over the question of t.i.tles. John Adams, the Vice-President and the presiding officer of the Senate, began the conflict by asking the Senate how he should address the President. One senator suggested that the President should be ent.i.tled ”His Patriotic Majesty.” Other senators proposed that he should be addressed as ”Your Highness, the President of the United States and Protector of their Liberties.” Fortunately, the House of Representatives had the first chance to address Was.h.i.+ngton and simply called him ”Mr. President of the United States.”
[Sidenote: Ceremonies. _Higginson_, 222-224.]
[Sidenote: Monarchical appearances.]
198. Ceremonies and Progresses.--Was.h.i.+ngton liked a good deal of ceremony and was stiff and aristocratic. He soon gave receptions or ”levees” as they were called. To these only persons who had tickets were admitted. Was.h.i.+ngton stood on one side of the room and bowed stiffly to each guest as he was announced. When all were a.s.sembled, the entrance doors were closed. The President then slowly walked around the room, saying something pleasant to each person. In 1789 he made a journey through New England. Everywhere he was received by guards of honor, and was splendidly entertained. At one place an old man greeted him with ”G.o.d bless Your Majesty.” This was all natural enough, for Was.h.i.+ngton was ”first in the hearts of his countrymen.” But many good men were afraid that the new government would really turn out to be a monarchy.
[Sidenote: Struggle over protection, 1789. _Source-Book_, 183-186.]
199. First Tariff Act, 1789.--The first important business that Congress took in hand was a bill for raising revenue, and a lively debate began. Representatives from New England and the Middle states wanted protection for their commerce and their struggling manufactures.
Representatives from the Southern states opposed all protective duties as harmful to agriculture, which was the only important pursuit of the Southerners. But the Southerners would have been glad to have a duty placed on hemp. This the New Englanders opposed because it would increase the cost of rigging s.h.i.+ps. The Pennsylvanians were eager for a duty on iron and steel. But the New Englanders opposed this duty because it would add to the cost of building a s.h.i.+p, and the Southerners opposed it because it would increase the cost of agricultural tools. And so it was as to nearly every duty that was proposed. But duties must be laid, and the only thing that could be done was to compromise in every direction. Each section got something that it wanted, gave up a great deal that it wanted, and agreed to something that it did not want at all. And so it has been with every tariff act from that day to this.
[Sidenote: The first census.]
[Sidenote: Extent of the United States, 1791.]
[Sidenote: Population of the United States, 1791.]
200. The First Census, 1791.--The Const.i.tution provided that representatives should be distributed among the states according to population as modified by the federal ratio (p. 142). To do this it was necessary to find out how many people there were in each state. In 1791 the first census was taken. By that time both North Carolina and Rhode Island had joined the Union, and Vermont had been admitted as the fourteenth state. It appeared that there were nearly four million people in the United States, or not as many as one hundred years later lived around the sh.o.r.es of New York harbor. There were then about seven hundred thousand slaves in the country. Of these only fifty thousand were in the states north of Maryland. The country, therefore, was already divided into two sections: one where slavery was of little importance, and another where it was of great importance.
[Sidenote: Vermont admitted, 1791.]
[Sidenote: _Higginson_ 229.]
[Sidenote: Kentucky admitted, 1792. _Higginson_, 224-230.]
201. New States.--The first new state to be admitted to the Union was Vermont (1791). The land which formed this state was claimed by New Hamps.h.i.+re and by New York. But during the Revolution the Green Mountain Boys had declared themselves independent and had drawn up a const.i.tution. They now applied to Congress for admission to the Union as a separate state. The next year Kentucky came into the Union. This was originally a part of Virginia, and the colonists had brought their slaves with them to their new homes. Kentucky, therefore, was a slave state. Vermont was a free state, and its const.i.tution forbade slavery.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CENTER OF POPULATION]
[Sidenote: Origin of the National Debt. For details, see _McMaster_, 198-200.]
[Sidenote: Bonds.]
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