Editorial Note

Congress reconvened for its second session on 4 January. Deadlocked over two entwined issues—the federal assumption of state debts and the site of the American capital—John Adams and his Senate colleagues passed waves of legislation defining naturalization, patents, and copyrights, and establishing national entities like the U.S. Coast Guard. Members of the House labored to craft an economic system that would create and collect revenue while observing the constitutional limits of federal and state power. An antislavery petition, submitted by Benjamin Franklin and others in early February, wrenched the debates anew, intensifying regional factionalism. Like many New England Federalists, Abigail Adams hoped for the adoption of the state debts, anxious that “there will be sufficient courage in the Legislature to take so desicive a step . . . it is one of the main pillars upon which the duration of the Government rests.”

During this session John Adams’ tie-breaking power crested in the Senate. Between 21 May and 28 July he invoked it a dozen times to modify various bills’ phrasing and to keep dialogue flowing. It was a busy spring and summer for the vice president, who balanced Senate duties with a new set of social obligations and the publication of his Discourses on Davila. Meanwhile, the congressional membership expanded to welcome representatives from the final two states to ratify the Constitution, North Carolina and Rhode Island. Though he was deeply committed to public service, Adams’ early enthusiasm for his post notably flagged amid the partisan rivalry of Congress. “Whether in public or private Life, I live and die a zealous active friend to my Country. There are many Things which want Attention. Many Things wrong, which cannot be set right but by Correspondence or Consultation among Men of Knowledge— Our Morals, Our Commerce, our Governments all want Reformation,” he wrote to John Trumbull on 2 April (NIC:Moses Coit Tyler Coll.).

George Washington delivered his annual message to both houses of Congress on 8 January. Lawmakers crowded the Senate chamber in Federal Hall to hear the president’s report on his first nine months in office. Washington hailed North Carolina’s ratification of the Constitution and celebrated the “rising credit and respectability of our Country—the general and increasing good will towards the Government of the Union.” He urged a number of key improvements, namely, the establishment of naturalization protocols, a uniform currency, and a postal service. In a speech that was widely reprinted in the American press, Washington championed the advancement of arts, sciences, and literature. He also advised greater attention to military preparedness and a stronger defense of the southern and western frontiers. Singling out the members of the House, who were mulling how to manage the federal debt, the president stressed that “support of the public Credit” was “a matter of high importance to the national honor and prosperity.”

When John Adams and the Senate drafted their 11 January reply to Washington, they laid out a long agenda of domestic policy goals. Foremost were issues of domestic order, in the form of raising “indispensable” military troops; addressing relations with Native American tribes on the western frontier; improving communication through the creation of a post office and mail routes; and launching a uniform system of weights and measures. But the dilemma of how to generate and sustain revenue underpinned the session’s debates. Determined to succeed where the Continental Congress had stumbled, John Adams and his congressional colleagues tried to hammer out an economic plan that appeased all rising factions.

Both of the main unresolved issues found their way to Thomas Jefferson’s dinner table in late June. At a private supper hosted by the secretary of state, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton brokered a bargain, accepting the federal assumption of state debts in exchange for siting the national capital on the Potomac River. The Residence Act of 16 July articulated southern power in shaping congressional progress and, within a few months, uprooted John Adams and his family for Philadelphia. The exact location of the capital on the banks of the Potomac River was undefined. Philadelphia, meanwhile, would serve as the federal seat for the next decade.

On the legislative front, an equally significant measure of the second session was the reduction by $3.5 million of the assumption figures listed in the Funding Act of 4 August, which benefited larger states like Massachusetts and Virginia. When the members wrapped up business on 12 August, John Adams was pleased with Congress’ new momentum. But he was weary of the partisan struggle festering in the legislature, the president’s cabinet, and the press. “If you meddle with political subjects, let me Advise you to never loose sight of Decorum. Assume a Dignity above all Personal Reflections: and avoid as much as possible a Party Spirit. The true Interest and honour of your Country should be your only Object,” John Adams wrote to John Quincy on [ante 8] September (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963–. description ends , 9:3, 106; Bickford and Bowling, Birth of the Nation description begins Charlene Bangs Bickford and Kenneth R. Bowling, Birth of the Nation: The First Federal Congress, 1789–1791, Washington, D.C., 1989. description ends , p, 55–73; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, ed. W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Jack D. Warren, Mark A. Mastromarino, Robert F. Haggard, Christine S. Patrick, John C. Pinheiro, David R. Hoth, and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1987–. description ends , 4:543–549; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism description begins Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism, New York, 1993. description ends , p, 155–156, 159–160; Madison, Papers, Congressional Series description begins The Papers of James Madison: Congressional Series, ed. William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, and Robert Allen Rutland, Chicago, 1962–1991; 17 vols. description ends , 13:245).