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The Americans attempted to stay neutral during the French Revolution. Britain did not honor this and barred American shipping from the West Indian trade routes. Hamilton felt that since Great Britain had such a strong navy that we should appease the “mother country” instead of forcing them to accept America’s neutrality in their war with the French. He secretly let Britain know that America would agree to just about anything so when Jay attempted to bring about a treaty with Britain it was not as successful as it might have been. He was only able to “persuade the British to abandon their frontier posts and to allow small American ships to trade in the British West Indies, but they rejected out of hand the U.S. position on neutral rights (Divine p. 207).”
Jay’s Treaty was not a popular result with the American people after it was ratified by Washington and caused even more in the way of political strife. Whether you were a Federalist or a Republican it was felt that these separate parties were a very serious threat to national stability and showed a lack of unity, or common purpose between the peoples of the USA that was felt during the American Revolution. As such the popular writers of the day equated these parties with factions and a “conspiracy to overthrow legitimate authority (Divine p. 211).”
Political clubs arose which were modeled after the clubs in France in the early years of the French Revolution. There were at least twenty four of them holding regular meetings by 1794. The Republican’s and the Federalist’s each thought the other were conspiring against the U.S. Government during the Whiskey Rebellion. Today a tax on whiskey might be met with minor grumblings, but at the time it was just another confirmation of a conspiracy against our independent status. “The clubs and newspapers … fanned these anxieties (Divine p. 211) ” felt among the American peoples.
Such political strife was also prevalent throughout John Adams’ presidency. Fear, paranoia, suspicion, and conspiracy theories abounded during this decade. You were either attempting to appease the mother country or in league with the French. Such fear led to the very unconstitutional Sedition Acts in the summer of 1798 where one could not question or criticize the U.S. government without fear of fines or imprisonment. If you said anything negative about the government you were likely a “traitor” looking to overthrow the government.
Just from these few events we see that while we were an independent country we were not isolated. The French copied us, we copied them, we were horrified by their extreme violence, they were upset with Jay’s Treaty at least just as much as we were. We influenced each other. That in itself is such an amazing thing since information was not so readily available and communication took so much time before the twentieth century. I’ve heard people today say that what happens in another country does not effect us or our freedoms. Just from this snippet of history I beg to differ. In fact, because we have so much more in the way of available information and fast communication I’d say that we (America, France, Canada, Great Britain and other countries), for good or ill, influence each other far more than ever before.
*Divine = America: Past & Present Vol. 1 8th Edition
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