More issues facing Washington

Another war with Britain?

• This was a huge question. How would the U.S. deal with their former mother country / enemy / friend / ancestor / trading partner / enemy of France that also happened to be the world’s largest military power?�
• You can see why this was complicated.

Another war with Britain?

• Britain was throwing its weight around pretty hard and trying to restrict trade with France.
• Washington sent John Jay to negotiate a treaty with England.
• However --- Alexander Hamilton had already told the English that the big threat – a trade alliance with Denmark and Sweden wouldn’t happen.
• So – Jay couldn’t negotiate much of a treaty.
• Washington accepted Jay’s treaty and the Senate approved it, but it was not generally well liked.

Another war with Britain?

• Washington wanted to remain neutral in the war between France and England.
• However things were still pretty much not happy between the U.S. and England.

Another war with Britain?

• Here’s why
• British exports flooded U.S. markets, while American exports were blocked by British trade restrictions and tariffs.
• The British occupied northern forts that the British Government had agreed to vacate in the Treaty of Paris (1783) Recurrent Native American attacks in these areas also frustrated Americans.
• Britain’s impressments of American sailors and seizure of naval and military supplies bound to enemy ports on neutral ships.

What happened?

The only concessions Jay obtained were:

• British surrender of the northwestern posts (already agreed to in 1783)
• Great Britain that granted the United States “most favored nation” status, but seriously restricted U.S. commercial access to the British West Indies. All other outstanding issues, including the Canadian-Maine boundary, compensation for pre-revolutionary debts, and British seizures of American ships, were to be resolved by future agreement and compromise. Jay even conceded that the British could seize U.S. goods bound for France if they paid for them and that Britain could confiscate without payment French goods on American ships.

What happened?

Otherwise the British pretty much told America to be a good little country, and we agreed.

Spain and the Treaty of San Lorenzo (Pinckney’s Treaty)

The southern and western borders of the U.S. were in question.

Remember that this area was under Spanish control form the colonial days.

The Spanish were willing to grant all sorts of access if the U.S. would enter into alliance with them.

Pinckney said no and threatened to leave the negotiations.

The biggest issue was access to the Mississippi River.

Spain and the Treaty of San Lorenzo (Pinckney’s Treaty)

The Spanish agreed to Pinckney’s demand and granted access shown on the map.

They also agreed to stop helping Native Americans in the area fight American settlement in the region.

This was a very big deal. Spain was basically giving up on its plans to keep a buffer between America and Spain. Remember – Florida was not a state at this time.

Pinckney was a Federalist and this treaty made the Federalists look very good.