What event of the 1790's has left the deepest scar on American political and social life?

Question

What event of the 1790's has left the deepest scar on American political and social life?

Answer 1

Don't know which one in particular, but...

1793: The largest yellow fever epidemic in American history killed as many as 5,000 people in Philadelphia—roughly 10% of the population

1798-1800: Quasi-War between the United States and France.

Those are really the only bad things that happened in the U.S. then...

Answer 2

Without a doubt President Adams' response to the quasi-war with France, and more specifically, passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.  While successful in avoiding war that may have crippled the nation in its infancy, the Adams Administration with the full blessing of Congress showed little respect for a) the free speech protections of the first amendment, b) the immigrant history of the new nation whose future would be aptly styled as one of inviting opportunity for immigrants.

With regard to both, their probable unconstitutionality prompted then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson to draft the Kentucky Resolution, with his friend and protege James Madison authoring similar language in the Virginia Resolution.  The gravitas of both resolutions is essentially the same:  namely, that states have the final (or at least coequal authority with the federal government) on questions of constitutionality under the federal Constitution.  Furthermore, Jefferson's endorsement of a state check against allegedly unconstitutional acts of the federal government, together with his support for a compact theory amongst the states that tended to revive the view of the US as more of a confederation than a federal constitutional republic, was one of the early steps leading to disunion and the war between the states some sixty years later.  Picked up on by Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina in protest of tariffs harming the southern colonies during the Jackson Administration, and cited by secessionist in the lead-up to hostilities in the Civil War, the positions of these early resolutions not only threatened the stability of the federal government in their own time, but gave powerful support to those claiming Jefferson and Madison as their intellectual forebearers in US constitutional theory.

Furthermore, the history of limiting free speech during times of war gave support to those who would later argue for limiting Constitutional protections during times of supposed crisis.  Rightly or wrongly, that view has threatened our Constitutional stability throughout our history.

Finally, the outright xenophobia of the Alien Act sewed the seeds for discrimination in future wars.  From Latin-Americans in our wars in the Southwest, to our treatment of Native Americans right up until the 20th century, and perhaps most notably internment of Japanese citizens during WWII, the early support for stereotyping and marginalizing those of specific foreign descent in times of war had its unfortunate roots in the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.

Answer 3

This is when the country, newly reformed under the Constitution--the Articles of Confederation having been scuttled--was in its infancy and toddlerhood. So, all things associated with that.

Answer 4

Several possibilities:

The beginning of the continuing rift between the left, proto-Democrats of Jefferson, and the right, the proto-Republicans of Hamilton.

One issue they split over was the assumption and funding of debt.  The Confederation government and the states had all issued lots of paper during the Revolution, all of which was some form of indebtedness, and, by its terms redeemable in actual money, which meant coins made of precious metals then.   Some recipients of these included the soldiers of the Continental Army, who were rarely paid anything during their service, and were sent away at war's end with only a "certificate of indebtedness" showing the amount they were owed.  Nobody was sure if, or when, these might be paid.  But the soldiers were penniless after years of winning their country's independence, and many needed some cash.  Speculators quickly appeared, willing to give these men three cents, or maybe five cents on the dollar for what they were owed, and the soldiers had to take anything they could get, endorsing their certificates over to these speculators.  Many Americans prominent in history books were among these speculators, including Abigail Adams.  When the issue arose in Washington's first term, the question was whether to pay the speculators only what they had paid for the certificates plus a little bit more for their trouble and maybe some interest, or, should they get the entire face amount.  Hamilton and his faction were for full face value payment.  Hamilton was frank in stating he thought it would be good for the country to have capital concentrated in the hands of this few, so they might undertake large projects.  Hamilton's argument that carried the day, though, was that payment at full face value was important to the credit of the new nation.  So they were paid off at full value, creating an immediate class of new wealthy people, and leaving the soldiers to whom we owe our existence as a nation impoverished.

The Whiskey Rebellion.  Seen on the one hand as a validation of the rule of law, and the viability of the new nation.  On the other hand, backwoods dwellers were there to start with because they did not get to America in time to get the good land near the coast, there were no roads or transportation to the east over the mountains, the Mississippi was in Spanish hands and so there was no outlet for trade in that direction.  A farmer living near the city could market his bushels in town.  A backwoodsman could only distill his, and carry it in jugs by mule, with one bushel yielding about a gallon.  So he had to do extra work to get his product into a form where he could transport it to market, and for doing so, he now owed a tax.  Additionally the tax favored a wealthy individual, who could pay a large sum up front, on his still capacity. If a distiller could only pay by the gallon as he made whiskey, the tax was twice the amount.