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Several important recent developments in both American and Europe led to Washington’s Neutrality Proclamation. The French Revolution turned more radical when it beheaded King Louis XVI in January 1793. Ten days later, revolutionary France, already fighting Austria and Prussia, declared war on England, Holland, and Spain, embroiling the entire European continent in conflict. Lastly, on April 8, 1793 the new French minister, Edmond Genet, arrived in Charleston, South Carolina. Genet was an instant hit with the American people who flocked in large numbers to greet the ebullient Frenchmen as he made his way north to the capital in Philadelphia. More ominous, however, was the fact that Genet, armed with commissions and letters of marque from his government, actively recruited Americans to fight for revolutionary France. Deeply concerned with Genet’s infectious popularity and his direct appeals to the American people to aid France, and
unsure The Proclamation ignited a fire storm of criticism. Much of the American population sympathized with the cause of revolutionary France. In a series of letters written under the pseudonym of Pacificus, Alexander Hamilton took up the task of defending the administration in the press by arguing that neutrality was in the best interest of the United States. Furthermore, Hamilton asserted that the 1778 Treaty of Alliance was a defensive arrangement that was not applicable in 1793 because France had declared war on its enemies, an offensive act. Aggravated by Hamilton’s claims of broad executive power and frustrated by the language of Randolph’s final draft of the Proclamation, Thomas Jefferson organized a response to Pacificus. At the pleading of his friend and secretary of state, Hamilton’s former Federalist Papers collaborator Congressman James Madison took up the cause of the opposition in a series of letters under the pen name of Helivicus that countered the arguments of Pacificus. Madison and Hamilton provided each side of the growing partisan chasm between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans with powerful talking points. The controversy moved from the pages of newspapers to the courts when the federal government charged Gideon Henfield, an American citizen who joined a French privateer crew, for violating the Neutrality Proclamation when he sailed a captured British prize vessel into port at Philadelphia. Minister Genet championed Henfield’s cause and funded a highly talented legal team to defend him. The jury ruled that Henfield was not guilty because the defendant had violated no statute. In other words, the jury considered the Proclamation as a statement of policy that failed to carry the weight of law. Attorney General Randolph wasted no time in voicing the administration position that despite the embarrassing outcome of the trial, the increasingly unpopular policy of neutrality still stood. The tide of public opinion shifted dramatically in July 1793 when Genet refused to recognize the authority of the federal government by converting a captured British vessel into a French warship in the United States. In a meeting with secretary of state Genet even threatened to appeal directly to the American people to act against Washington. Hamilton leaked this damaging information to political allies in New York who published it. Genet had gone too far. Popular sentiment rallied around in favor of the president. Congress remedied the situation of the Proclamation’s legal limbo in 1794 by passing the Neutrality Act, which gave President Washington’s policy the force of law. The Act marked an acknowledgment by the legislative branch that foreign policy resided largely in the constitutional domain of the executive. With the legal and constitutional questions settled, the partisan contentions over the French Revolution and foreign policy channeled into other issues, such as the even more bitter debate over Jay’s Treaty the following year. On July 7, 1798, during the Quasi-War crisis in the presidency of John Adams, Congress formerly annulled the twenty-year-old Treaty of Alliance with France. Gregory J. Dehler Sources Hamilton, Alexander and James Madison. The Letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793. Washington, D.C.: J & G.S. Gideon, 1845. McDonald, Forest. The Presidency of George Washington. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1974. Patrick, Christine S. and John C. Pinheiro, eds. The Papers of George Washington: The Presidential Series. Vol 12. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005. Young, Christopher J. “Connecting the President and the People: Washington’s Neutrality, Genet’s Challenge, and Hamilton’s Fight for Public Support.” Journal of the Early Republic 31 (Fall 2011): 436-466. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Why did George Washington issue the proclamation of neutrality?Although the United States owed France a debt for assistance in the American Revolution and had promised to help France in any future conflicts, Washington felt that the United States was not prepared to enter another war and that it was important for the country to insist on its own national identity.
What impact did Washington's presidency have on the power of the federal government?Washington's presidency was significant beyond the fact that he was the first president. His actions established a strong central government and helped put in place a plan to fix the problem of the national debt.
What was the effect of George Washington's decision not to run for a third time?What was the effect of George Washington's decision not to run for a third term? a. Power was transferred peacefully.
What problem did George Washington face when he was president?Among the many challenges George Washington faced as the first President of the US, one of the most pressing was the national debt incurred during the Revolutionary War. When Washington took office, the federal government was essentially bankrupt, and its bonds nearly worthless.
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Why would George Washington not have the power to make this proclamation under the previous government?
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