Unlike his first term, which was dedicated primarily to domestic affairs, Washington's second term was dominated by foreign affairs.
The French Revolution	In 1789, King Louis XVI called a meeting of the French nation assembly, the Estates General, in Paris, for the purpose of raising new taxes.  Initially, membership in the assembly was structured to give the interests of the nobility the upper hand in all decisions.  However, inspired by the example of the American Revolution, the members of the "third estate"--i.e., those who were not of aristocratic birth--took control of the assembly, voted to increase their membership, then set about reducing the power of the monarchy in France and create a constitutional monarchy similar to that which existed in Great Britain.  Widespread dissatisfaction with the king and the French government spread beyond the meeting of the Estates General.  Mobs of Parisians took to the street to demand reform.  On July 14, 1789, a Parisian mob stormed the fortress of the Bastille, symbol of royal power, tore down its walls, and liberated the political prisoners within.  The leaders of the French Revolution eventually formed a committee to govern France, an brought the king from his palace at Versailles into Paris where he remained under house arrest.  Proclaiming "Liberté!  Equalité!  Fraternité!" the Revolutionaries determined to bring democratic rule to France. Yet the unfettered power of democracy proved difficult to control.  Men of reason soon fell out of favor to powerful demagogues, who stirred up the hatred of the mobs to their own political ends.  Soon, many leaders of the Revolution fell victim to the mob, were imprisoned, and even executed.  People whose only "crime" was to have been born into the aristocracy were automatically suspected of being enemies of the Revolution and arrested.  Soon, demands for blood reached even the highest levels.  In 1791, King Louis attempted to flee his house arrest.  He was brought to trial in December of 1792, and executed (along with his queen, Marie Antoinette) on January 21, 1793. The Committee of Public Safety and the Revolutionary Tribunal were instituted immediately after the execution of the King.  The Reign of Terror, during which the ruling faction ruthlessly exterminated all potential enemies, of whatever sex, age, or condition, began in September of 1793 and lasted until the fall of Robespierre on July 27, 1794: during the last six weeks of the Terror alone (the period known as the "Red Terror") nearly fourteen hundred people were guillotined in Paris alone. The Convention was replaced in October of 1795 with the Directory, which was replaced in turn, in 1799, by the Consulate.  Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor in May of 1804. The specter of revolution provoked fear from France's European neighbors, which sought to take advantage of the situation by invading France. In September 1792, in the face of the advance of the allied armies of Austria, Holland, Prussia, and Sardinia, the French Legislative Assembly was replaced by the National Convention, which proclaimed the French Republic.  Then, in January of 1793 the revolutionary government declared war on Britain--a war for world dominion which had been carried on, with short intermissions, since the beginning of the reign of William and Mary, and which would continue for another twenty-two years. (1)
America's Response	Initially, many Americans greeted the news of the French Revolution with acclaim.  President Washington pronounced himself "pleased" to be identified with the new struggle for the "rights of man."  Francophone's like Thomas Jefferson (who was in Paris at the time) and Benjamin Franklin (who died in 1790) also expressed appreciation for the Revolution.  However, as the Revolution turned increasingly violent, American applause turned to dismay in many quarters as mob rule ran amok.  With Europe now at war, the issues of the Franco-American alliance became problematic.  It was still operative, and as an ally, many Americans felt the United States should enter the war on the side of France.  After all, hadn't they come to our aid when we fought for our rights and liberties?  Many of those who held this view were Democratic-Republicans, the followers of Jefferson.  Others, however, pointed out that the alliance with France had been made with the government of Louis XVI, which no longer existed.  They counseled that we remain neutral, at the very least, while others believed we should enter the war on the side of England.  After all, England was our greatest trading partner, and our economy stood to benefit from such a change in alliances.  The leading advocates of this point of view were in the Federalist camp, and followers of Alexander Hamilton. With two members of his cabinet aligned on opposite sides of the issue, Washington found himself in a difficult position.  He still needed to resolve issues with the British remaining from the Revolutionary War.  For example, the British had not yet abandoned their frontier forts, in effect leaving an armed foreign power on American soil.  For their part, the British said the United States had failed to do its part in helping recover the pre-war debts Americans owed to British interests.  Until America met this obligation, Britain would refuse to budge.  Thus, a "feint" in the direction of France could conceivably have forced Britain to be more compliant at the bargaining power.  To this end, President Washington sent diplomat John Jay to England to help resolve these and other issues.  During Jay's absences, however, Alexander Hamilton managed to prey on Washington's cautious sensibilities.  America was a young nation, Hamilton reasoned, and unable, even if willing, to grant aid, either in the form of military or economic resources, to its embattled ally, France.  Hamilton thus convinced Washington to issues his Neutrality Proclamation (1793) which stated that the U. S. would remain neutral in any conflict between France and its enemies. The Jeffersonians were outraged by this foul treatment of our staunchest ally.  They blamed Hamilton and his cohorts, the commercial and trading interests of the Northeast, for producing this shameful response from the president.  Worse, however, was the effect of the Neutrality Proclamation on John Jay's mission in England.  By the time he got there, his own government had taken away the one "card" he had to play in his diplomatic game with England--i.e., the threat the the United States would honor its alliance with France.  Still, Jay did his best, but the treaty he negotiated amounted to little more than a reiteration of the terms of the Treaty of Paris, with the exception that the treaty got Britain to pay compensation for American ships and cargo seized by the Royal Navy, which was then engaged in a blockade of France. Jay's Treaty, nevertheless, managed to further alienate the Democratic-Republicans.  Comprised mostly of southerners and westerners, these Americans owed the most in pre-war debts to Great Britain.  They felt they owed nothing to their former imperialist oppressors.  And yet Jay had managed to gain favorable treatment for the commercial and trading interests (who were the ones being compensated for shipping losses)--allies of Hamilton.  More than any other factor, Jay's Treaty served to make the split between Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans and the Hamiltonian Federalists a permanent one.  Out of this split emerged the nation's first party system. The Washington administration also had to deal with other diplomatic issues during its second term.  One of these involved continuing concerns about American trade along the Mississippi River.  As more and more Americans pushed into the trans-Appalachian west, they depended upon the Mississippi River as route to the port of New Orleans, where they could sell their goods in the international market.  (For example, farmers in Kentucky would sail flatboats down the Ohio River into the Mississippi, and thus down to New Orleans.)  Although the Treaty of Paris (1783) included a clause whereby Spain guaranteed Americans access to the port or New Orleans.  Nevertheless, Americans worried about their ability to access the port of New Orleans.  American diplomat Charles Pinckney negotiated a treaty with Spain guaranteeing Americans free access to the port of New Orleans.  In spite of this assurance contained in Pinckney's Treaty, though, Americans continued to worry about their vulnerability with respect to the West in general and the Mississippi River in particular.
The Whiskey Rebellion	American fears of rebellion were not isolated Europe during these early years.  Resistance to elements of Hamilton's financial plan stirred uncomfortable reminders of the Stamp Act Crisis two decade previous. The Constitution allowed the Congress (directed by the Treasury Department) to levy excise taxes on certain goods traded within the United States.  Hamilton had therefore placed excises taxes on certain "luxury" items, one of which was whiskey.  To a New Yorker like Hamilton, whiskey might indeed have been a luxury, but to thousands in the back country areas of states like Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, whiskey was a vital element of trade.  Without access to banks and currency, back country residents used barrels of whiskey (refined from the corn they grew) as barter.  Now, to have a tax placed upon it seemed unfair.  Restive westerners soon took to erecting "liberty poles" and wearing "liberty hats" to symbolize their dislike of the tax.  Soon revenue collectors were also harassed as they tried to collect the taxes. Word reached President Washington of a rebellion in the backwoods of Pennsylvania.   This put Washington in a delicate position:  should he take the safe route and let the governor of Pennsylvania handle it--i.e., hide behind the states' rights amendment?  Or should he take direct action?  Washington decided upon the latter course.  Since the actions involved a federal tax, and actions had been taken upon representatives of the federal government, he felt it was necessary for the federal government to respond.  Therefore, he summoned up the Pennsylvania militia and ordered them into the back country to put down the rebellion. As it turned out, there was no "rebellion"--only ordinary discontent with taxes.  The repercussions of Washington's decisive actions, however, loomed large over the emerging political divisions within the new nation.  The Federalists applauded Washington's strong assertion of federal power over the states, while anti-Federalists (Democratic-Republicans) viewed the same incident with alarm as an example of the tyranny inherent in centralized power.
Washington's Farewell Address	As Washington's second term drew to a close, the nation's first president made a momentous decision:  he would not run for a third term.  Throughout his time in office, Washington had been very aware of the importance of his example to his successors.  In his choices and in his personal conduct, he conducted himself with great care, aware that his actions would serve as a precedent for future presidents.  Thus, in choosing to refuse a third term, Washington established the "two-term" precedent that would stand as an unwritten rule to all future presidents until Franklin Roosevelt's election to a third term in 1940.  (After Roosevelt's death in 1945, Congress passed the 23rd Amendment limiting a president to to terms or not more than 10 years in office.) Before leaving office, Washington established another precedent by composing a "farewell address" to the nation.  Reflecting the nation's difficult experiences with respect to the French Alliance, Washington advised Americans in future to avoid any entangling alliances with foreign powers, and a plea for a return to the republican unity of earlier days.
Sources	Proceed to Next Lecture (1) David Cody, "The French Revolution," The Victorian Web, http://www.victorianweb.org/history/hist7.html.

© Kahne Parsons 2007-08