Events
1790
First Indian Intercourse Act is passed
1793
Citizen Genêt affair causes outrage
Washington issues Neutrality Proclamation
1794
Whiskey Rebellion is quashed
Jay’s Treaty is signedBattle of Fallen Timbers ends in Native American
defeat
1795
Pinckney’s Treaty is signed
1796
Washington reads Farewell Address
Key People
-
John Jay
Supreme
Court chief justice who negotiated Jay’s Treaty with Britain
-
George Washington
First U.S. president; advocated neutrality; warned
against factionalism
-
Citizen Genêt
French
ambassador who violated Washington’s Neutrality Proclamation
Tensions with Native Americans
Problems in the West plagued Washington during his presidency. Since
the end of the French and Indian War, American settlers had pushed
farther and farther westward into the Ohio Valley.
Although the Land Ordinance of 1785 and
Northwest Ordinance of 1787 paid
lip service to the notion that Native Americans should receive fair
treatment from settlers, little was done to ensure that this was the
case. By the end of the eighteenth century, relations between settlers
and Native Americans, who were angry that they received no compensation
for their lands, were tense.
In 1790,
Congress passed the first of the Indian Intercourse Acts to
resolve the situation peacefully. These acts stipulated that the United
States would regulate all trade with Native Americans and that it
would acquire new lands in the West only via official treaties. In
reality, the acts had little real weight; most American farmers ignored
them, and bloody clashes continued. Ultimately, settlers gained
the upper hand after U.S. forces routed many of the most powerful
tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.
Many whites generally looked down on Native Americans
as savages who didn’t use the land properly; as a result, they had
few qualms about taking native lands. Meanwhile, Democratic-Republicans
and their expansionist Jacksonian successors usually turned a blind
eye to the suffering of Native Americans in the hopes of winning
the support of more rural supporters.
Threats from Spain
Washington also felt pressure in the West from Spain,
which controlled the Louisiana Territory and Florida and
areas from British Canada north of the Ohio Valley. Spain was highly
suspicious of the new United States and feared that American settlers’
thirst for new western lands would prompt Congress to annex portions
of Spanish territory.
As a result, Spain denied American farmers access to the Mississippi
River, which was necessary for shipping grain to the East
via the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. They also allied themselves with
many Native American tribes in the region.
Threats from Britain
Britain also feared American expansion. Although
the Treaty of Paris that had ended the Revolutionary War stipulated
that the Ohio Valley was American territory, British
troops remained stationed in the region to protect their old trade
interests. They also feared another attempt to invade Canada. Worse,
however, was the British navy’s continued seizure of American trade
ships and cargos in the Caribbean and Atlantic.
