CHAPTER IV


ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS

The Shakespearian stage direction which heads this chapter appropriately
describes the course of administrative experience while Washington was
trying to get from Congress the means of sustaining the responsibilities
with which he was charged by his office. Events did not stand still
because for a time anything like national government had ceased. Before
Washington left Mount Vernon he had been disquieted by reports of Indian
troubles in the West, and of intrigues by Great Britain--which still
retained posts that according to the treaty of peace belonged to the
United States,--and by Spain which held the lower Mississippi. Washington
applied himself to these matters as soon as he was well in office, but he
was much hindered in his arrangements by apathy or indifference in
Congress. He noted in his diary for May 1, 1790, communications made to
him of a disposition among members of Congress "to pay little attention to
the Western country because they were of the opinion it would soon shake
off its dependence on this, and, in the meantime would be burdensome to
it." From a letter of Gen. Rufus Putnam, one of the organizers of the Ohio
company, it appears that in July, 1789, Ames of Massachusetts put these
queries to him: "Can we retain the western country with the government of
the United States? And if we can, what use will it be to them?" Putnam
wrote a labored article to the effect that it was both feasible and
desirable to hold the West, but the character of his arguments shows that
there was then a poor prospect of success. At that time no one could have