4. The war debt of the United States, including the revolutionary
expenses of the several States, amounted to nearly eighty million
dollars. Hamilton adopted a broad and honest policy. His plan proposed
that the debt of the United States due to American citizens, as well
as the debt of the individual States, should be assumed by the general
government, _and that all should be fully paid_. By this measure the
credit of the country was vastly improved. Hamilton's financial schemes
were violently opposed by Jefferson and the anti-Federal party. In 1791
the BANK OF THE UNITED STATES was established by an act of Congress.
[Sidenote: =Admission of Vermont.=]
5. The question of fixing the seat of government was discussed; and
it was agreed to establish the capital for ten years at Philadelphia,
and afterwards at some locality on the Potomac. The next measure was
the organization of the territory southwest of the Ohio. On the 4th of
March, 1791, Vermont, which had been an independent territory since
1777, was admitted into the Union as the fourteenth State. The census
of the United States, for 1790, showed a population of three million
nine hundred and twenty-nine thousand.
[Sidenote: =Indian Troubles in the N.W. Territory.=]
6. In 1790 a war broke out with the Miami Indians. These tribes went to
war to recover the lands which they had ceded to the United States. In
September General Harmar, with fourteen hundred men, marched from Fort
Washington, on the present site of Cincinnati, to the Maumee. On the
21st of October the army was defeated, with great loss, at a ford of
this stream. General Harmar retreated to Fort Washington.
7. After the defeat of Harmar, General St. Clair, with two thousand
men, set out from Fort Washington to break the power of the Miamis. On
the 4th of November he was attacked in the southwest angle of Mercer
County, Ohio, by more than two thousand warriors. After a terrible
battle, St. Clair was completely defeated, with a loss of half his
men. The fugitives retreated precipitately to Fort Washington. The
news of the disaster spread sorrow throughout the land. St. Clair was
superseded by General Wayne, whom the people had named Mad Anthony.
[Sidenote: =Admission of Kentucky.=]
8. The population of Kentucky had now reached seventy-three thousand.
Seventeen years before, Daniel Boone, the hardy hunter of North
Carolina, had settled at Boonesborough. Harrodsburg and Lexington
were founded about the same time. During the Revolution the pioneers
were constantly beset by the savages. After the expedition of General
Clark, in 1779, thousands of immigrants came annually. On the 1st of
June, 1792, Kentucky was admitted into the Union. At the presidential
election of 1792, Washington was again unanimously chosen; as
Vice-president, John Adams was reelected.
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