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and the most moderate for amendments of what had been ratified. Two states, North Carolina and Rhode Island, by refusing an acceptance of the constitution, were not within the pale of its operations.

Animosities prevailed to a great degree, between the United States and Great Britain. Each charged the other with a breach of the late treaty. In support of these charges, one party urged the severities practised towards the loyalists, and also that some of the states had interposed legal impediments to the recovery of debts due to British subjects. The other recriminated, by alleging, that the British, on their departure from the United States, had carried off with them several thousands of negroes belonging to the Americans; and continued to possess sundry posts within the acknowledged limits of the United States; and that from these posts they encouraged and instigated the neighbouring Indians to make war on their north-western frontier settlements.-Spain, from the circumstance of her owning the land on each side of the mouth of the Mississippi, claimed the exclusive navigation of that river; while the western inhabitants of the United States looked to their country for a vindication of their common right to the use of this highway of nature. The boundaries of the United States, towards the territories of Spain in the south, and towards those of Britain in the northeast, were both unsettled and in dispute.-The whole regular effective force of the United States, was less than six hundred men. Their trade was restricted much more than when they formed a part of the British empire. They had neither money to purchase, nor a naval force to compel the friendship of the Barbary powers; and were, therefore, exposed to capture, whenever they ventured to trade in the Mediterranean, the coasts of which offered the best markets for some of their valuable commodities."

The military strength of the northern Indians who inhabited the country between the Lakes, the Mississippi, and the Ohio, was computed at five thousand men, and of these, fif teen hundred were at open war with the United States. The Creeks, in the southwest, who could bring six thousand fighting men into the field, were at war with Georgia.

These were but a part of the embarrassments under which the United States laboured, when General Washington was

called to the helm. The redress of most of them required legislative interference, as well as executive aid. To point out the particular agency of the president, in removing these embarrassments, and generally ameliorating the condition of the United States, is peculiarly the province of the biographer of Washington.

Congress having organized the great departments of government, it became the duty of the president to designate proper persons to fill them. In discharging this delicate and difficult trust, Washington kept himself free from every engagement, and uniformly declined giving decisive answers to applicants, having previously resolved to nominate persons to offices with a sole view to the public good, and to bring forward those who, upon every consideration, and from the best information that he could obtain, were, in his judgment, most likely to answer the great end.

Under these impressions, he placed colonel Hamilton at the head of the treasury department. At the head of the department of foreign affairs, he placed Mr. Jefferson. General Knox was continued in the department of war, which he had filled under the old congress; and the office of attorney-general was assigned to Mr. Edmund Randolph.

Those composed the cabinet-council of the first president.

The judicial department was filled as follows:

John Jay, of New York, chief justice; John Rutledge, of South Carolina; James Wilson, of Pennsylvania; William Cushing, of Massachusetts; Robert Harrison, of Maryland; and John Blair, of Virginia; associate judges.

The officers who had been appointed by the individual states to manage the revenue, which, under the old system, was paid into the state treasury, were re-appointed to corresponding offices under the new constitution, by which the revenue had been transferred from the local to the general treasury of the union.

It was amongst the first cares of Washington, to make peace with the Indians. General Lincoln, Mr. Griffin, and colonel Humphreys, very soon after the inauguration of the president, were deputed by him to treat with the Creek Indians. These met with M'Gillvray, and other chiefs of the nation, with about two thousand men, at the Rock Landing,

on the frontiers of Georgia. The negotiations were soon broken off by M'Gillvray, whose personal interest and connexion with Spain, were supposed to have been the real cause of their abrupt and unsuccessful termination.-The next year brought round an accomplishment of the president's wishes, which had failed on the first attempt. Policy and interest concurred, in recommending every prudent measure for detaching the Creek Indians from all connexion with the Spaniards, and cementing their friendship with the United States. Negotiations carried on with them in the vicinity of the Spanish settlements, promised less than negotiations conducted at the seat of government.-To induce a disposition favourable to this change of place, the president sent colonel Willet, a gallant and intelligent officer of the late army, into the Creek country, apparently on private business, but with a letter of introduction to M'Gillvray, and with instructions to take occasional opportunities to point out the distresses which a war with the United States would bring on the Creek nation, and the indiscretion of their breaking off the negotiations at the Rock Landing; and to exhort him to repair with the chiefs of his nation to New York, in order to effect a solid and lasting peace. Willet performed these duties with so much dexterity, that M‘Gillvray, with the chiefs of his nation, were induced to come to New York, where fresh negotiations commenced, which on the 7th of August, 1790, terminated in the establishment of peace.

By his incessant application to public business, and the consequent change of active for sedentary habits, the constitution of the president seemed much impaired; and, during the last session of congress, he had, for the second time since entering upon the duties of his present station, been attacked by a severe disease, which reduced him to the brink of the grave. Exercise and a temporary relief from the cares of office, being essential to the restoration of his health, he determined, during the short interval afforded by the recess of congress, to retire from the metropolis, and from the fatigues of public life, to the tranquil shades of Mount Vernon. After returning from a visit to Rhode Island-which state not having then adopted the American constitution, had not been included in a tour lately made by him through New England,

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