foreign policy problems of the 1790’s heightened the differences that separated Jeffersonians and Hamiltonians and helped create the first two major political parties.

In 1790 America's foreign relations were in a state of utter chaos. Spain was still in control of the mouth of the Mississippi and refused to let Americans unload in New Orleans. Britain continued to encumber American trading efforts and refused to abandon her western posts in North America. Even France, America’s staunch ally during the revolution was beginning to restrict American trading efforts. In 1789 the French revolution initially met with positive reviews in America. Some saw it as ‘spark from the altar flame of liberty on this side of the Atlantic, which alighted in the pinnacle of despotism in France and reduced the immense fabric to ashes in the twinkling of an eye.’ President Washington even received a key to the Bastille as a link between the American and French struggles against tyranny. But with the execution of the French monarchy, the reign of terror against the revolution’s enemies, confiscation of noble’s property, and attacks against the church Federalist...