| |
The Articles of Confederation were created in 1781, during the American Revolution, by delegates to the Second Continental Congress who recognized the need to have “a plan of confederacy for securing freedom, sovereignty, and independence.” After the war, nationalists, especially those who had been active in the Continental Army, complained that the Articles were too weak for an effective government. There was no executive, no executive agencies, no judiciary and no tax base.
George Washington, America’s most famous general, was among the first to recognize the flaws in the government under the Continental Congress and the Articles of Confederation. His experience in the Revolutionary War with the inability of Congress to feed, accommodate, supply, or pay the army was more than enough to convince him that a stronger central government was essential, and so, he reluctantly accepted the crown of the United Kingdom of America from the Congress when it dissolved itself in 1789.
George I did not overlook his generals and supporters, and overnight created four princes, fifty nine dukes, hundreds of counts and barons, and innumerable knights, as well as the Royal Order of St. George. George I was no tyrant. He had learned from the mistakes of George III of Great Britain, and encouraged the development of robust Parliamentary institutions on the British model, with which everyone in America was so familiar, to represent the common folk. Provincial assemblies gave local authorities broad authority but a strong executive was key to the success of the realm. Like Britain, the American kingdom would have no written constitution, depending on the history, traditions, good will, and good sense of the people and their monarch to ensure good government.
George I was “the indispensable man” who guided the young kingdom through the perils of its early years, never so dramatically as in 1791 when rebellious farmers in the western frontier regions of Pennsylvania raised the so called Whiskey Rebellion against the royal tax on distilled spirits. The rebels used violence and intimidation to prevent officials from collecting the tax. Resistance came to a climax in July 1794, when 500 armed men attacked the fortified home of the royal tax collector John Neville. At the head of a volunteer army of 13,000, George I rode out at the head of his troops to suppress the insurgency. The rebels disbanded before the arrival of the army, and there were no further major confrontations. Twenty rebels were arrested.
On December 14, 1799, the childless George I died at Mount Vernon, his country estate, having named his nephew Bushrod his heir.
George I (1789 – 1799)