Henry Lanrens of South Carolina, Nov. 1, 1777; John Jay of New York, Dec. 10, 1778; Samuel Huntington of Connecticut, Sept. 28, 1779; Thomas McKean of Delaware, July 10, 1781; John Hanson of Maryland, Nov. 5, 1781; Elias Boudinot of New Jersey, Nov. 4, 1782; Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania, Nov. 3, 1783; Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, Nov. 30, 1784; Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts, June 6, 1786; Arthur St. Clair of Pennsylvania, Feb. 2, 1787; Cyrus Griffin of Virginia, Jan. 22, 1788. The first congress under the constitution was long without a quorum; the house did not organize till March 30, 1789, nor the senate till April 6. The electoral votes were then counted, when Washington, having received the entire number (69), was declared elected president, and John Adams, who had received the next highest number (34), was declared elected vice president. Adams took his seat as president of the senate on April 21, and Washington was inaugurated in New York on April 30. The president appointed Jefferson secretary of state, Hamilton secretary of the treasury, Henry Knox of Massachusetts secretary of war, and Edmund Randolph of Virginia attorney general, those officers then constituting the whole of the cabinet. North Carolina ratified the constitution on Nov. 21, 1789, and Rhode Island on May 29, 1790, completing the list of the original states. Ten amendments in the nature of a bill of rights, suggested by the conventions in some of the states, and adopted by the first congress, became a part of the constitution in 1791. An eleventh amendment, taking from the federal courts jurisdiction of actions prosecuted against a state by citizens of another state, became operative in 1798, and a twelfth, changing the method of electing the president and vice president, in 1804. No further amendments were made for more than 60 years. The seat of government was removed to Washington in 1800, the first session of congress held there commencing on Nov. 17. The previous seats of government were as follows, the dates being those of the opening of sessions of congress: Philadelphia, May 10, 1775; Baltimore, Dec. 20, 1776; Philadelphia, March 4, 1777; Lancaster, Pa., Sept. 27, 1777; York, Pa., Sept. 30, 1777; Philadelphia, July 2, 1778; Princeton, N. J., June 30, 1783; Annapolis, Md., Nov. 26, 1783; Trenton, N. J., Nov. 1, 1784; New York, Jan. 11, 1785, where the constitutional government was organized in 1789; and Philadelphia, Dec. 6, 1790. The beneficial influence of the new government was immediately felt in the restoration of public confidence, the revival of commerce, and the general prosperity of the country. A system of finance, advocated in an able report by Hamilton, was adopted, and the debts of the late confederacy and of the individual states were assumed by the general government. A bank of the United States was incorporated in 1791, and a mint was established at Philadelphia in 1792. In the summer of 1790 an Indian war broke out with the tribes of the northwest, who, after inflicting defeats on Gens. Harmar and St. Clair, were finally quelled by Gen. Wayne, and peace was restored in August, 1795. The great revolution in France, which broke out at the beginning of Washington's administration, was powerfully felt in its principles and effects in this country. Two parties had already been formed: the federalists, composed of those who favored the maintenance of the constitution just as it was; and the republicans or democrats, who desired to introduce amendments to limit the federal power, and to increase that of the states and the people. Washington, Adams, Hamilton, and Jay were accounted among the federalists; while Jefferson, Madison, Gallatin, and Edward Livingston were among the leaders of the republicans. The federal party on the French question advocated a strict neutrality, while the republicans freely avowed their sympathy for France, and their willingness to aid the French republic in its struggle with the European monarchies. Party spirit ran high on this point, yet at the second presidential election in 1792 Washington again received the unanimous votes (132) of the electoral colleges. Adams was re-elected vice president, receiving 77 votes, while George Clinton, the republican candidate, received 50 votes, and 5 were cast for others. The feeling against Great Britain existing since the revolution was strongly stimulated by the obnoxious conduct of the British government in retaining possession of forts in the west to which its title had been ceded by the treaty of 1783, and in seizing American vessels and impressing American seamen. After in vain remonstrating against these outrages, the president sent John Jay as a special envoy to England, where, in November, 1794, a treaty was concluded, which was regarded by the republicans as so favorable to England that the requisite confirmation by the senate was obtained with difficulty, and its promulgation among the people raised an extraordinary clamor against Jay and the president, which however soon subsided. In pursuance of this treaty the forts were surrendered in 1796. Its ratification exasperated the French government, which openly showed its displeasure by decrees under which American commerce suffered continual annoyances and losses. Among the important domestic events of Washington's administration were the admission into the Union of the new states of Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), and Tennessee (1796), and the whiskey insurrection against an unpopular excise law, which in 1794 threw western Pennsylvania into confusion, but was energetically suppressed by the president, who called out 15,000 militia. On the approach of the third presidential election, Washington positively declined to be a candidate, and the two great parties at once arrayed themselves against each other with a bitterness of zeal never since equalled. The federalists
