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Chapter 2 - Federalists, Republicans, and Popular Politics in the Early 1790s
- University of Massachusetts Press
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35 Federalists,Republicans,and PopularPoliticsintheEarly1790s In many important ways, the debate over the Jay Treaty was an extension of a conflict long since underway. Federalists and Republicans—though not always organized or named as such—had already struggled over a great many issues, dating from the battle for ratification of the Constitution down to the outbreak of the Jay treaty clamor in 1795. From earlier campaigns a consistent pattern of activity emerged which was repeated and embellished in the Jay Treaty struggle. In the clashes over the Neutrality Proclamation and the Citizen Genet affair of 1793, as well as the Whiskey Rebellion and the Democratic Societies controversy in 1794, Federalists and Republicans engaged in the poltics of public opinion, taking their cases before the public through the use of newspapers, public meetings, and organized rallies in an effort to press their case and win converts to their side. This chapter will explore two seminal political conflicts which preceded and provided a crucial context for the treaty debate. In both cases, the two sides articulated thoughts and took actions which foreshadowed what they would do in the later conflict. Many of the same approaches which Federalists used to great advantage in 1793 and 1794 they turned to again during the treaty debate. In each instance, Federalists proved able to blunt criticism of their positions by reframing the debate in ways which decisively favored their stances. In other words, in appealing to the public, Federalists persuaded some citizens and calmed others by articulating themes and positions which stood them in good stead throughout Washington ’s presidency. Federalist success in these earlier struggles provides a 2 36chaptertwo vital context for understanding the battle over the treaty. Likewise, Republicans used many of the same arguments and tactics during the three contests . In some ways their critique of administration policies and tactics was entirely consistent and stemmed from the same ideological sources. This chapter will explore the connections between the neutrality and Genet crisis , the Whiskey Rebellion/Democratic Societies issue, and the Jay Treaty debates by examining the way each side engaged the public and endeavored to shape public opinion in early 1790s political culture. One of the caveats offered in the Introduction bears repeating here. The state of political development was obviously not static in the 1790s. Political parties did not exist initially; they were decried and denied, even as partisans were organizing and acting in ways conducive to the formation of parties. Because party development was an evolutionary process, neither Federalists nor their opponents were as well established or organized in 1793 as they were three years later. Neither side was as far along the road toward party competition (or even toward recognizing that parties were developing) in the early 1790s as would be the case in the early nineteenth century. Certainly, at the time of the ratification contest, the term “Federalist” had a very different meaning (and could in fact be applied to James Madison) than it came to hold by 1796. So, in this chapter as elsewhere in the book, when I speak of Federalists and Republicans, I do so while recognizing that the parties were embryonic, still developing, and only slowly being recognized and accepted by some. My use of such terms is a shorthand to describe what were, by the time of the treaty debate, clearly developing political interests, factions, or proto-parties, however one wishes to define them. It is not meant to suggest that fully formed parties had already cohered early in that decade. Nor is it meant to deny or misrepresent the gradual process of party development which took place in the course of, and was greatly exacerbated by, each of the conflicts of the decade.1 France’s declaration of war on Great Britain, Holland, and Spain in 1793 put the United States in a difficult position. While the U.S. was generally warmly sympathetic to its ally from the American Revolution, reality dictated that the country was in no position to fight a war. Strong sentiment existed in some ranks for the nation to join the conflict on the side of France, but it was offset by countervailing pressures arising from the [3.90.187.11] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 00:22 GMT) federalists,republicans,andpopularpolitics37 cultural and economic connections to England. With Alexander Hamilton firmly against engaging in any conflict, least of...