As Carey became part of Jefferson and Madison’s emerging Democratic-Republican Party, each president of the new republic grappled with safeguarding America’s international trade while Britain and France waged the war that began February 1793.

The United States had four distinct regions: New England, the Mid-Atlantic, the South and the West. Carey travelled throughout the United States, and was familiar with the politics and economies of New England and the South. As events unfolded, he noted with increasing alarm the profits and perils of New England’s merchants and its merchant marine.

Presidents George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison all struggled to avoid war and maintain neutrality. Despite their efforts, foreign and domestic affairs became hopelessly entangled revealing sharp divides between New England and the South.

First, the French Revolutionary War immediately followed by the Napoleonic wars disrupted America’s trading relationships, the safety of its ships and sailors.   Second, the United States had unresolved economic issues with Britain stemming from the peace treaty of the American Revolution. John Jay tried to negotiate a treaty to remedy the situation. Jay’s concessions to the British caused a political uproar. Third, the United Irishmen fomented a rebellion in Ireland, expecting support from the French when the French and Americans faced off in a quasi-war at sea.

 

TRANSITION TO PUBLISHER | The Economic Turmoil of the Anglo-French Wars

[1] Edward C. Carter II, The Political Activities of Mathew Carey, Nationalist, 1760-1814, Bryn Mawr College PhD. Dissertation, 1962, 208.

[2] Madison advocated retaliation in a document entitled “Commercial Propositions.” See Carter, Political Activities of Mathew Carey,” 208.