In the consequential Revolutionary era of 1789-1799, America survived through the art of the compromise. In this Revolutionary era, there were three outstanding conflicts that had profound impacts on the consolidation of federal power, slavery, and the country’s continuing political debates. The ability of the state and federal governments to join to form a true national treasury was tested through Alexander Hamilton’s enactment of federal assumption of state debts. The Congressional and Constitutional battle over slavery and the enactment of the three fifths compromise threatened the fracturing of the Union. A treaty with the British Empire set the tone for American politics in centuries to come. In summary, these key three tensions have shaped America and are still present today.

The assumption of state debts by the federal government facilitated by Hamilton was a dramatic shift towards Federalist policy and sparked vast opposition from the  Democratic-Republican wing of Congress. Notably, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were vehemently opposed to it at first, and saw it as a perverse expansion of federal power and a turn towards Wall Street corruption. To add to the outrage, in order pay for his proposals, Hamilton called for an tax on whiskey and a tariff on imported goods. Since most manufactured goods at that time were imported, most consumers opposed the tariff. Western farmers who used whiskey as a pseudo-currency were also opposed to the tax. If the tensions that emerged between the Democratic-Republicans and Federalists over the assumption of state debts was the kindle, then the federal tax on whiskey was the spark needed to start one of America’s first internal conflicts: the Whiskey Rebellion. Lasting three years and ending with a cataclysmic government victory, the Whiskey Rebellion was the uprising that afforded the new U.S. government its first opportunity to establish federal authority by military means within state boundaries. It also enforced the idea that the newfound central government had the right to pass and enforce laws impacting all states. A modern parallel to this is Obamacare’s enaction in 2010. When the federal healthcare law was signed, state lawsuits were quickly filed contesting that the federal government’s exercise of forcing citizens to pay the individual mandate (if they refused to hold health insurance) was unconstitutional and did not qualify as a “tax”. However, when the case reached the Supreme Court, it was affirmed that Congress had to power to use and enforce the individual mandate as a tax. In short, both tensions over the power of the federal government to influence state policy shaped the ability of all three branches of government to expand federal power.

The Constitution was ratified in 1789 only through painful, antagonizing, and delicate compromise between the Northern and Southern states. When the issue of slavery was brought before the Founding Fathers, a long, repudiated silence was necessary to form the Union. The Three-Fifths Compromise was an example of undeniable acceptance of slavery as the right of the states in the Constitution, and the embargo on banning the importation of slaves into the United States for twenty years after ratification was a horrible wound left on the integrity of the Founding Fathers, for the sole purpose of Unionfication. Only a year later in 1790 would debate break out over the Quaker’s petitioning of Congress to outlaw slavery at the federal level. South Carolina and Georgia made threats to secede if the matter was put to a vote in the House of Representatives, the conflict only resolving with a Southern political victory that entailed the reaffirmation that the Constitution prohibited the banning of the importation of slaves. Although Congress eventually enacted a federal ban on the importation of foreign slaves in 1808, the enslaved population continued to expand through natural reproduction.

In many ways, the history of the U.S. is the history of race relations. The tension of the legacy of slavery in the U.S. has existed since the very founding of the nation. While the climax over Southern slavery would eventually be reached in the Civil War, the history still influences social tension between the affected races in America today. The scars of the Civil War caused multiple nationwide protests over Confederate symbols. In Charlottesville, Virginia demonstrations over Confederate monuments nearly two hundred years later culminated in the death of an activist, and movements protesting injustice towards African Americans such as Black Lives Matter are all rooted in the nation’s history of slavery. In this way, the tension over the ethicacy of slavery in a nation founded upon the idea of freedom as a God given right serves as a distasteful irony in the face of the Founding Fathers.

As the Revolutionary War came to a close in 1783 and America gained its independence from Britain, the American economy was still linked together with the Empire in an iron bond, dependant on merchant sales from to and from Europe. President Washington, a Federalist, needed to strike a bargain with the British in order to protect American trade and prevent another costly conflict. In this deal, called the Jay Treaty per the negotiator John Jay, the U.S. was required to pay back its debts to Britain and maintain tariffs on American exports, in exchange for protection of merchant ships by the British Navy and the expedition of British troops Northwest from the Colonies. The treaty, being a success, prevented war with Britain until the War of 1812. Since the U.S. Armed Forces grew from 1,800 in 1796, the year the Jay Treaty was enacted, to 12,600 with in 1812, the War of 1812 would’ve most likely been unwinnable if it hadn’t been for the vast economic growth the treaty substantiated in the U.S. Regrettably, the great amount of concessions to Britain caused the public and the Democratic-Republicans to become furious, seeing the Treaty as a betrayal of American independence, and a successful attempt by Britain to strong-arm the U.S. Notably, Jefferson spoke of the treaty as “a treaty of alliance between England and the Anglomen of this country against the legislatures and citizens of the United States”. Jefferson and the rest of the Democratic-Republicans thought that Washington was using his presidential power to repeat history, allowing Britain to abuse the Colonies the same ways it did before America gained independence. While President Washington would eventually pass the Jay Treaty through Congress, it was a notable burst of an isolationist attitude that still continues to reside in American politics today.

In fact, isolationism versus interventionism is one of the most important tensions in modern American politics. An overwhelming amount of Americans agree that the US shouldn't have a major role in the war against terror overseas, or any war for that matter, and non interventionist politicians are on the rise as of the recent, competing well in both party primaries for many election cycles in the last decade. One that particularly stood out in the 2016 elections was then presidential candidate Donald Trump, who’s long list of campaign promises encompassed a ban on Muslims entering the US, a withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, and US troop withdrawals in Afghanistan. 67 percent of Americans in 2018 want less involvement in the Middle East, and 71 percent of registered voters say they’d be more inclined to vote for a candidate that would pull US troops out of the Middle East. In summary, it's no doubt that the tension of isolationism versus interventionism is prevalent in American politics today.

The portraits of the Founding Fathers have left behind their legacies today to influence American politics for centuries. Their conflicts of ideologies have shaped the U.S. government dramatically, producing tensions over the consolidation of federal power, slavery, and the country’s continuing political debates. The creation of national debt and taxes in 1790 expanded federal power drastically, leaving precedent for the Supreme Court to use decide on major cases today. The political battle over slavery and the enactment of the three fifths compromise threatened the fracturing of the Union, while sparking civil rights movements and protests hundreds of years later. Lastly, a test of diplomacy with the British Empire set the tone for political debate over foreign policy in modern American politics. Concluding, in the consequential Revolutionary era of 1789-1799, tensions that nearly broke the Union shaped the nation forever, with the art of the compromise instilled in America’s core.