is
well understood. But for our little state of four million people such a
start was difficult to secure. The contentions which grew out of the
ratification of the Constitution in the different states had left bitter
feelings behind them, and these domestic troubles were heightened by our
intimate relations with foreign countries. We touched England, France,
and Spain at delicate points, and the infancy of our nation was passed
during the turmoil of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. In
our midst there was an English and a French party. Moreover, in the
judgment of the world the experiment of the new government was
foredoomed to failure. Wrote Sir Henry Maine, "It is not at all easy to
bring home to the men of the present day how low the credit of republics
had sunk before the establishment of the United States." Hardly were
success to be won had we fallen upon quiet times; but with free
governments discredited, and the word "liberty" made a reproach by the
course of the French Revolution, it would seem impossible.

Washington's prescience is remarkable. Recognizing, in October, 1789,
that France had "gone triumphantly through the first paroxysm," he felt
that she must encounter others, that more blood must be shed, that she
might run from one extreme to another, and that "a higher-toned
despotism" might replace "the one which existed before." Mentally
prepared as he was, he met with skill the difficulties as they arose, so
that the conduct of our foreign relations during the eight years of his
administration was marked by discretion and furnished a good pattern to
follow. During his foreign negotiations he determined a constitutional
question of importance. When the Senate had ratified and Washington,
after some delay, had signed the Jay treaty, the House of
Representatives, standing for the popular clamor against it, asked the
President for all the papers relating to the negotiation, on the ground
that the House of Representatives must give its concurrence. This demand
he resisted, maintaining that it struck at "the fundamental principles
of the Constitution," which conferred upon the President and the Senate
the power of making treaties, and provided that these treaties when made
and ratified were the supreme law of the land. In domestic affairs he
showed discernment in selecting as his confidential adviser, Alexander
Hamilton, a man who had great constructive talent; and he gave a
demonstration of the ph