Though independence had been won, the struggle over political power and control of the revolutionary heritage continued. As Benjamin Rush, Philadelphia physician and revolutionary patriot, explained: "The American War is over, but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the great drama is closed. It remains [for us] . . . to establish and perfect our new forms of government." Events would soon demonstrate how difficult, and how important to the nation's future, that task would be. Controversy between Federalist supporters of the national government and the emerging Jeffersonian Republican opposition first erupted over domestic policies designed to stabilize the nation's finances and promote its economic development. Those policies revealed deep-seated conflicts between economic interests and raised urgent questions of how the new constitution should be interpreted. What was the proper balance of power between state and national governments? How should governing authority be allocated between the executive branch and Congress? Much depended on the answer to those troubling questions. Within a few years, international events further roiled American politics. The French Revolution and a successful revolt by black Haitians against French colonial power in the Caribbean-the two most dramatic events in a larger web of democratic insurgencies against established authorities that reached from Europe to the Americas-inflamed congressional politics and roused the people at large. By the last years of the 1790s, the prospect of war with France and Federalist security measures such as the Alien and Sedition Acts brought the nation to the brink of political upheaval. That prospect was narrowly avoided by the Federalists' defeat and Thomas Jefferson's election as president in 1800. Having captured the presidency and control of Congress, the Jeffersonian Republicans set about the task of refashioning the government. At home, they dismantled the Federalists' war program, reduced the national debt, promoted westward expansion, and emphasized state rather than national authority. Abroad, they struggled less successfully to protect American commerce on the high seas and avoid embroilment in European war. Adding to the political crisis was widespread anxiety over the nation's novel and still unproven "experiment" in creating a sprawling, diverse republic. The absence of fully developed political parties skilled in forging compromise among leaders at the nation's capital and organizing the surging political energy among the people compounded the problem. By the time Thomas Jefferson left the presidency in 1809, it was apparent how fragile, and yet how resilient, America's new government was proving to be.
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