In the early 1790s the United States had a pitifully small army incapable of defending the frontier from Indian attack and no navy to defend American shipping. Economic success depended on foreign trade to provide tariff revenue and markets for American commerce. President George Washington, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton agreed that it was vital to maintain friendly commercial relations with European nations while remaining neutral in their political disputes. Behind this apparent agreement serious differences between Jefferson and Hamilton had surfaced during debate over Hamilton's financial program. Hamilton believed that a realistic foreign policy recognized that American economic success depended on maintaining good relations with Britain. British trade provided nearly all of the nation's tariff revenue, and, as the world's strongest naval power, Britain could enforce commercial restrictions against the United States. Jefferson, in conjunction with James Madison, developed another.....
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