Excerpt from The American Nation, a History, Vol. 2: The Federalist System; 1789-1801 Bassett's first three chapters are devoted to an account of the creation of the machinery of govern ment, the erection of a stable financial system, and the sudden appearance of rival political parties. The years from 1789 to 179 3 make up a period of construction hardly less important and less perma nent in its results than the years from 1787 to 1789. Having thus seen the substructure securely laid, the author next attacks, in chapters iv.-vii., the complicated subject of a national foreign policy, taking up in succession the relations with England, Spain, and France. These powers, all of them occupying American colonies in the neighborhood Of the United States, two of them holding strips of territory claimed by this country, were brought into complex relations among themselves by the outbreak of European wars in 1793. It has been the province of the author to unravel the threads Of American diplomacy and to Show where the interests of the United States lay and how they were subserved by Washington's administration. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.