Instructor Note: Some spellings, terminology, and passages of this book have been updated or clarified.

When the English government acknowledged the independence of the United States, in 1783, there remained still in the hands of English troops certain military posts in the American Indian country which were within the territory of the United States. In violation of the treaty, the English government retained these posts among the American Indians, and, by the encouragement given to the tribes, kept alive the American Indian War. When General "Mad" Anthony Wayne defeated the American Indians on the Maumee River in Ohio, he found Canadians fighting on the side of the American Indians, and he drove them before him under the very guns of a fort held by the English, who did not dare to aid the American Indians and their allies. There was also much anger in America against the English government on account of the illegal seizure of American vessels by British cruisers.

To prevent a new war with Great Britain, the first American President, George Washington, sent John Jay to England in 1794 to make a treaty. "Jay's Treaty," as it was called, was very unpopular in America, especially with the members of the Republican party, who thought that it yielded too much to England. But it was confirmed by Washington and the Senate, for, according to the Constitution, every treaty made with a foreign nation must be agreed to by the Senate. It provided for the surrender of the Western forts by England, and it prevented a war with Great Britain, which would have been a misfortune to so weak a country as ours was at that time. When a war with England came at last, in 1812, the United States had nearly twice as many people as it had when the Jay treaty was made.

This treaty with Great Britain was exasperating to the French government, which was then engaged in war with England. As France had helped the United States to gain its independence, the French expected the assistance of America in their new war with England. Washington wisely kept this country free from alliances with either of the contending nations.

In 1796 John Adams, the candidate of the Federalist party, was chosen to be the second American President over Thomas Jefferson, who was the candidate of the Republicans, or Democrats.

John Adams was the son of a farmer. He was born in Braintree, Mass., in 1735. He graduated at Harvard, taught school for two years, and began the practice of law when he was twenty-three years of age. He took an active part in the Stamp-Act agitations from 1765 onward. He removed to Boston in 1768, and soon became a leading lawyer and a chief of the Revolutionary party. Adams was one of the foremost people in the Congress of 1774 and 1775, and was one of the committee to prepare the Declaration of Independence. He was one of the commissioners to negotiate the treaty of peace with England, and was minister at London for three years. He was Vice President during the whole of Washington's presidency, and in 1796 was elected to succeed Washington as President. He was an able and courageous person, honest and true to his convictions, but vain, irritable, and somewhat quarrelsome. His peculiarities had something to do with his unpopularity and his defeat when he ran for the presidency a second time. He died on the 4th of July, 1826, exactly fifty years after the Declaration of Independence.

The administration of Adams was mostly occupied with the difficulties with France. That country, after the great Revolution that overthrew the monarchy in 1789, had now fallen into the hands of a government called the "Directory." It was composed of five directors. The successes which their armies achieved under the command of the rising young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, made the Directory very overbearing. When the United States sent a new minister to Paris, the French government refused to receive him, and presently ordered him to leave the country.

In 1797, President Adams, who desired to avoid a war if possible, sent three envoys to France, having assurances that they would be received with honor. But the American envoys were informed that, in order to secure a peace, the United States must make a loan to the French government and pay secret bribes to the members of the Directory.

The envoys refused this dishonorable demand, and, when it was known in America, the popular cry became, "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute! "The tricolored cockade was no longer worn, but a black cockade was put on by those in favor of a war with France. "Hail, Columbia," then a new song, became universally popular. Ships were built, an army was raised, and Washington was made commander-in-chief.

But the French did not wish a war, and Napoleon Bonaparte, who had now overthrown the French Directory, made a new agreement with the United States in September, 1800. Thus the infant country again escaped a foreign war.

In the year 1800 the government was removed from Philadelphia to Washington city. In 1790 Congress had resolved to fix the permanent capital on the Potomac River, and the selection of the site was left to Washington himself. When the government moved there, in 1800, the place was almost a wilderness. The few people living in the new town were scattered over the whole region, and one sometimes had to go one or two miles through a forest to see his next-door neighbor, though both were living within the "Federal City," as Washington had named it.

It was thought desirable that the national capital should not be within the jurisdiction of any State. A tract ten miles square was given by Virginia and Maryland to form the District of Columbia. But the portion taken from Virginia was afterward ceded back to that State. The District of Columbia is governed wholly by laws made in Congress, in which its inhabitants have no representative.