From Washington's Cabinet to Lake Erie, 1789–1814
1When George Washington took office in 1789, almost every choice he made could become a model for later Presidents. He chose a small group of advisers, later called the Cabinet, including Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State and Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury. The new nation also owed large debts from the Revolution. Hamilton persuaded Congress to have the national government take over the debts the states still owed, and in 1791 Congress created the Bank of the United States with a 20-year charter. Jefferson argued that the Constitution did not give Congress the power to create a bank. Hamilton answered that the Constitution allowed laws that were "necessary and proper" for carrying out Congress's listed powers.
2Supporters of Hamilton's ideas became known as Federalists. Supporters of Jefferson and James Madison called themselves Republicans; historians today call them Democratic-Republicans. Washington disliked the growing split. He served two terms and then went home to Virginia in 1797, starting a two-term custom that later Presidents followed for well over a century.
3The Bank's charter ran out in 1811, and Congress voted not to renew it. Meanwhile Britain and France were at war. Britain's navy stopped American merchant ships, seized cargoes and took sailors off American ships, claiming they were British subjects, a practice called impressment. In the Northwest, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa had built an alliance of Native nations to stop American settlers from taking more of their land. In November 1811, troops led by William Henry Harrison, governor of Indiana Territory, fought warriors of this alliance at Tippecanoe. Many Americans blamed British officials in Canada for supplying the alliance with guns.
4On June 1, 1812, President Madison sent Congress a message about Britain's actions and left the decision about war to Congress. The House voted 79 to 49 for war, and the Senate 19 to 13. Most Federalists voted no, especially those from New England, where many merchants depended on trade by sea. Without the Bank, the government had trouble borrowing the money it needed to pay for the war.
5In August 1812 British forces captured Detroit. To win back the Northwest, the United States needed control of Lake Erie. Oliver Hazard Perry's sailors built a small fleet at Erie, Pennsylvania, and on September 10, 1813, they defeated a British squadron near Put-in-Bay. Harrison's army then crossed into Upper Canada (today Ontario) and won the Battle of the Thames, where Tecumseh was killed, and his alliance broke apart. The Treaty of Ghent ended the war in December 1814 without changing borders. Today the Shawnee people are organized as three tribal nations based in Oklahoma.