The federal government assembled in New York City on April 30, 1789, when Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. With his urging, the new Congress formalized the “dual-army” tradition of the American republic. The national forces mixed regulars with militia, albeit for limited periods of service. That summer, Knox assumed responsibility for administering the War Department. In the first annual message to Congress, the commander-in-chief proclaimed: “To be prepared for war is the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
Legion
The Constitution equipped the federal government with powerful tools for securing the nation. The checks and balances demanded that national leaders hold fast to their republican tenets while governing military affairs. By giving Congress power to levy taxes, the states no longer withheld resources and personnel from the armed forces. Under the authority of the executive branch, the War Department forged what Knox called the “sword of the republic.”
Knox pressed Congress to create a uniform militia in order to meet any possible combination of enemies. Even the most ardent anti-militarists recognized that amateurs only complemented professionals in performing many tasks. Officers and enlisted men were needed to construct, to maintain, and to garrison coastal and inland fortifications. They thwarted the intrigues of Indian militants as well as British and Spanish agents. Militiamen enrolled separately by the various states, concluded Knox, seemed unprepared “to carry on and terminate the war in which we are engaged with honor and success.” Instead, national security in civil society required the organization of a more “energetic national militia.” To perform their assigned duties in military campaigns beyond the states, an armed citizenry needed “a competent knowledge of the military art.” He drafted a sweeping plan for the “General Arrangement of the Militia of the United States” and submitted it to Congress in early 1790.
That fall, Knox ordered General Josiah Harmer to “extirpate utterly, if possible,” the Indian threats in the Northwest Territory. Little Turtle, a Miami leader, rallied the Shawnee, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi to defend villages north of the Ohio River. To coerce the Indians of the Miami Confederacy into signing a treaty, Harmer led a force of 1,453 regulars and militiamen northward from Fort Washington. Their punitive march ended in a military disaster, which resulted in more than 214 casualties at Indian hands.
The following year, the governor of the Northwest Territory, General Arthur St. Clair, took command of a larger force. His command targeted the Indian village of Kekionga near the Wabash River. American troops erected new forts amid the woods and swamps. On November 4, 1791, Indian warriors attacked a military camp at dawn and caught them off guard. After two hours of fighting, St. Clair ordered a headlong retreat to Fort Washington. In the Battle of the Wabash, at least 623 soldiers perished and another 258 were wounded. Scores of camp followers and civilian contractors died as well. Nearly one-quarter of the entire army disappeared that day. The humiliating loss buoyed British efforts to block American expansion across the Ohio River, while the morale of service members in the scattered outposts fell. In the wake of St. Clair's defeat, a congressional investigation blamed the fiasco on the “want of discipline and experience in the troops.”
On May 2, 1792, Congress passed the Calling Forth Act to further refine the force structure. If the U.S. faced an invasion or an imminent threat from a foreign nation or an Indian tribe, then the commander-in-chief received blanket authority to call out the militia in an emergency. In case of “insurrections in any state,” the militiamen entered federal service under certain provisions for no more than three months in any one year.
Six days later, Congress passed the Uniform Militia Act. As the basic militia law for more than a century, it required all able-bodied men from the ages of 18 to 45 to enroll for service. Even though the law incorporated much of Knox's plan, it revealed several shortcomings. It permitted states to add numerous exemptions for service requirements in the militia. It did not provide for a select corps from each state, as Knox previously envisioned, or for federal control of officer training. In fact, most troops provided their own weapons and accouterments when called to duty. While the states seldom complied fully with the federal mandates, the notion of a citizen soldier remained vital to national defense.
Many volunteers joined the Legion of the United States, the nation's primary force thereafter. Invoking the ancient Roman system, Knox organized 5,280 officers and enlisted men into unique formations. The Legion involved four sub-legions, each commanded by a brigadier general and consisting of two battalions of infantry, a battalion of riflemen, a troop of dragoons, and a company of artillery. In a model for flexibility and efficiency, all combat arms served under a unified command.
The Washington administration selected General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, whom the president called “active and enterprising,” as the new commander. Though critics called for an end to the war against the Indians, policymakers refused to accept British proposals for the establishment of an Indian buffer state. Under the direction of the War Department, peace commissioners opened separate negotiations with Indian leaders. At the same time, Wayne prepared the Legion to mount a military expedition to crush them. He made his headquarters near Pittsburgh, where deserters from camp faced death by firing squad. After months of drilling and training in a place he named Legionville, the commander moved his best troops down the Ohio River to Fort Washington. Eventually, Knox ordered Wayne “to make those audacious savages feel our superiority in arms.”
In late 1793, Wayne marched the Legion into the heart of Indian country. While advancing slowly and methodically, troops erected Fort Greenville and Fort Recovery for winter quarters. Owing to the arrival of Kentucky volunteers, their numbers in the campaign grew to over 3,500 effectives. Reinforced by militiamen from Canadian provinces, Little Turtle gathered thousands of Indian warriors to confront them. The next summer, the Legion reached the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers. After building Fort Defiance, Wayne secured his supply lines before approaching Fort Miamis – a British outpost on American soil.
On August 20, 1794, Wayne awaited an Indian attack within a clearing called Fallen Timbers. The Legion held their ground after the first wave, eventually breaking through with a bayonet charge. Troops maneuvered with skill while forcing their foes to flee the battlefield. They marched around Fort Miamis, insulting the Royal officers inside. Because the British refused to engage them, they proceeded to raze Indian villages and to destroy food supplies near Lake Erie. During the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the Americans lost 33 killed in action with another 100 suffering wounds.
Wayne moved to the headwaters of the Wabash, where the Legion erected Fort Wayne. The next year, Indian leaders from 12 tribes capitulated to American might. By signing the Treaty of Greenville, they ceded much of their homeland in exchange for annuity payments. Thanks to a smashing victory, the Legion secured federal control over the Northwest Territory.
With the Legion preoccupied by Indian threats, farmers in western Pennsylvania rebelled against the federal government. Mobs opposed the federal excise tax on whiskey, which Congress passed in order to fund the national debt. While treating the tax collectors with contempt, they regarded a revenue policy that singled out a specific commodity as unfair. Moreover, the courts in the region ceased functioning. The Washington administration declared a state of emergency and called forth militia from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland. In the fall of 1794, more than 12,500 troops marched toward Pittsburgh. The commander-in-chief actually rode with them, though he turned over command to General Henry “Light Horse” Lee, the governor of Virginia. That October, the Whiskey Rebellion collapsed without a fight. After arresting 20 rebels for treason, the federal government sentenced two to death. Washington pardoned both of them, because the show of force by the American military effectively ended the insurrection.
Congress enacted other measures to strengthen the American military. In
1794, a new law authorized the “erecting and repairing of arsenals and magazines.” To manufacture and to stockpile weapons, the federal government established national armories in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, wanted the U.S. to procure arms from domestic sources rather than to acquire them from Europe.
With European powers embroiled in another war, Washington decided “to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” The Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, expressed affinity for France, but the president proclaimed American neutrality. He dispatched Jay, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, to resolve outstanding issues with London. Ratified by the Senate during 1795, Jay's Treaty facilitated commercial relations between the U.S. and Great Britain. Moreover, the latter vowed to evacuate forts on American soil within a year. Thomas Pinckney, a U.S. envoy to Spain, concluded a deal for navigating the Mississippi that allowed Americans to store goods in New Orleans. Furthermore, Pinckney's Treaty set the boundary for Spanish Florida in 1796. With its mission to secure the territories largely accomplished, the Legion shrank to a handful of regiments that year.
A Quasi-War
Congress funded the construction of six frigates with the Naval Act of 1794, but it took time to build the nation's first line of defense. The cost of the 44-gun warships rose above $300,000 for each, which created a minor scandal for the War Department. After retiring from office three years later, Washington bequeathed the administrative problems of an unfinished navy to his successor, John Adams, a Federalist.
To command respect for the U.S. flag, a deep-water fleet of warships was necessary in an age of sail. Joshua Humphreys of Philadelphia, a naval architect, designed American vessels to outrun and to outfight their European counterparts. Among the best materials available, white pines harvested from the Maine wilderness formed the masts and spars. For the hull, beams of live oak measured about 2 feet in width and around 1 foot in thickness. The incurving sides placed the weight from the heavy guns upon the keel itself, thereby improving hydrodynamic efficiency. A three-layer construction method laid the planks horizontally across the ribs, which made a crossing or checkerboard pattern to absorb the blows of a rival. U.S. shipyards finished building the Constitution, the United States, and the Constellation during 1797.
While the U.S. built more warships, France challenged American neutrality that year. The French Directory reasoned that food supplies and military stores shipped to the British Empire represented contraband of war. By decree, it denounced the principle that “free ships make free goods.” The French instead plundered hundreds of American merchantmen and broke off diplomatic relations with their former ally. As General Napoleon Bonaparte gained power, Paris ordered the U.S. ambassador to leave the country.
The French government refused to meet U.S. envoys, demanding a bribe to open negotiations. France's Foreign Minister, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, directed three agents labeled anonymously as X, Y, and Z to insist upon advance payment. “No, no, not a sixpence,” the U.S. envoys retorted. The American press sensationalized the XYZ affair, which inspired a Federalist slogan: “Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute.” In a huff, Adams asked Congress to consider a “naval establishment.” France soon closed its ports to neutral shipping and declared any vessels carrying trade with their enemies subject to capture. Word spread across the Atlantic that France planned to invade the U.S.
In 1798, Federalists in Congress resolved to preempt the aggression of France. Even the Republican opposition in the House of Representatives and the Senate expected war, though Vice President Jefferson remained a Francophile. While authorizing the capture of French vessels, the legislative branch appropriated substantial funding for harbor fortifications and cannon foundries. Other measures armed merchant ships and abrogated previous French treaties. To maintain “wooden walls” beyond the continental shoreline, they established a Navy Department separate from the War Department. Benjamin Stoddert, a merchant from Georgetown, was appointed the first Secretary of the Navy. Another law formally organized the Marine Corps, which provided security guards and boarding parties for U.S. warships. Under the Adams administration, the Navy expanded to 50 vessels and more than 5,000 officers and sailors. Although Congress did not declare war on France, the federal government enacted over 20 bills to put the U.S. on a wartime footing.
Legislation to expand the Army sailed through the federal government as well. Initially, Congress authorized the raising of a 10,000-man Provisional Army composed of volunteers. A few months later, another law permitted the commander-in-chief to raise the New Army, which included 12 infantry regiments and six dragoon companies. An even larger force, the Eventual Army, prepared for mobilization in case of an emergency. Federalists wanted to amass sufficient might to repulse a French invasion or possibly to conquer Florida and Louisiana. Some eyed the far-flung Spanish colonies in the Americas as potential prizes. Adams nominated Washington to take command of the regiments, while Hamilton became his second-in-command.
Adams endorsed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which attempted to silence critics of the Quasi-War. One provision outlawed speeches or writings intended to defame governmental authorities. Preparing to oppose the incumbent in the next presidential election, Jefferson decried the “reign of witches” that threatened civil liberties. His partisans noted that Hamilton excluded Republicans from the officer corps of the swollen military.
Military expansion exacerbated fears of standing armies and navies across the country. To raise $2 million in funding for national defense, the federal government imposed a tax on houses, land, and slaves and apportioned the cost to the states. When assessors reached eastern Pennsylvania, John Fries, an itinerant auctioneer, organized mobs of German-speaking farmers to drive them away. During 1799, Adams ordered 1,000 regulars and militiamen to quell the unrest. After troops captured Fries and his associates, the Adams administration pardoned them the next year. Federalists boasted about suppressing an insurrection, whereas Republicans lamented the rise of military despotism in America.
In Virginia, a slave named Gabriel plotted an insurrection the next year. His lieutenants hammered swords out of scythes while shouting “death or liberty.” In all likelihood, they hoped to take advantage of a rumored French invasion of the tidewater. James Monroe, the Republican governor in 1800, called out the state militia, which squelched their plot. Gabriel and 26 other slaves were executed by hanging.
Meanwhile, American and French ships clashed upon the high seas. In the West Indies, the two most noteworthy battles involved the Constellation. Commanded by Truxtun, the frigate's superior speed allowed him to maneuver and to rake L'Insurgente with fire. Truxtun's triumph in early 1799 elated the nation. Nearly a year later, the Constellation encountered the 52-gun frigate La Vengeance. During a five-hour battle at night, the French warship suffered damage but escaped in the darkness. Assisted by the maritime supremacy of the Royal Navy, American vessels hunted down French privateers and pirates from the Windward Passage to the north coast of South America. The Navy lost only one warship to enemy actions while safeguarding the carrying trade.
Because Adams pressed the Quasi-War, peace talks opened with France. The two nations agreed to end hostilities by signing the Convention of Mortefontaine in 1800. In return for abandoning claims of indemnity from maritime losses, the U.S. won recognition of neutrality from the French. The agreement formally terminated the Franco-American alliance and avoided the broadening of the naval conflict into a full-scale war. The wartime hysteria that had engulfed America quickly subsided.
The Shores of Tripoli
The U.S. capital relocated to the new federal city of Washington D.C., where a small array of buildings surrounded Capitol Hill and the executive mansion. After taking office in 1801, President Jefferson vowed to reduce the power of the federal government. He appointed Madison as the Secretary of State while promising “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all n
ations.” Working with the Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, he slashed the War Department's budget by half and the Navy Department's budget by two-thirds. His military policy left national defense to “a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them.”
To provide security along the shores of North America, the Jefferson administration touted a “mosquito fleet” of shallow-draft gunboats. The naval shipyards discontinued work on new frigates, while Congress initially authorized the construction of 15 gunboats with one or two masts. No more than 80 feet long and 20 feet across, the lightly armed craft navigated through coastal waters with ease. A handful of citizen sailors appeared sufficient to man them in peacetime. However, most officers disliked the smaller vessels but preferred to serve aboard the warships that sailed for deep waters. Because Republicans appreciated their low cost and simple design, gunboats became central to national defense for years to come.
Even before Republicans cut spending on national defense, the North African regencies of Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, and Tripoli plundered maritime commerce in the Mediterranean Sea. Motivated by the lure of booty, the Barbary pirates regularly demanded tribute payments in exchange for allowing commercial ships to pass unmolested. If they captured a ship's crew, then they held the men for ransom or sold them into slavery. They accumulated great sums of money, ships, and arms from foreign governments. Prior to 1800, the U.S. paid tribute to protect American ships and sailors from harassment.
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