Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Bibliography Series Page

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

The Reestablishment of the Navy, 1787-1801
Historical Overview and Select Bibliography

Politics, Policies, and Establishment of the Navy

Albion, Robert G. Makers of Naval Policy, 1798-1947. Edited by Rowena Reed. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1980. 737 pp.

Anderson, William G. "John Adams and the Creation of the American Navy." Ph.D. diss., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1975. 192 pp.

-----. "John Adams, the Navy, and the Quasi-War with France." American Neptune 30 (April 1970): 117- 32.

Bolander, L. H. "An Incident in the Founding of the American Navy." United States Naval Institute Proceedings 55 (June 1929): 491-94.

A caucus in January 1794 at which several senators and representatives and Secretaries Hamilton and Knox discussed a plan for establishing a national navy.

Calkins, Carlos Gilman. "The American Navy and the Opinions of One of Its Founders, John Adams, 1735-1826." United States Naval Institute Proceedings 37 (June 1911): 453- 83.

Carter, Edward C., II. "Mathew Carey, Advocate of American Naval Power, 1785-1814." American Neptune 26 (July 1966): 177-88.

A Philadelphia publisher who supported the Naval Act of 1794.

Frost, Holloway H. "How We Got Our Navy." United States Naval Institute Proceedings 59 (January 1933): 43-48.

Hayes, Frederic H. "John Adams and American Sea Power." American Neptune 25 (January 1965): 35-45.

Henrich, Joseph G. "The Triumph of Ideology: The Jeffersonians and the Navy, 1779-1807." Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1971. 420 pp.

Kelly, John Joseph, Jr. "The Struggle for American Seaborne Independence as Viewed by John Adams." Ph.D. diss., University of Maine, 1973. 396 pp.

O'Connor, Raymond G. Origins of the American Navy: Sea Power in the Colonies and New Nation. Lanham, Md.,: University Press of America, 1994. 125 pp.

Rogers, George C. Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1758-1812). Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1962. 439 pp.

Smith served in Congress from the First Congress until 10 July 1797 when he resigned to become minister to Portugal. He advocated a strong American naval force in the Mediterranean to keep the Barbary powers in check.

Rohr, John A. "Constitutional Foundations of the United States Navy: Text and Context." Naval War College Review 45 (Winter 1992): 68-84.

The debate between Federalists and Anti-Federalists over the constitutional basis of a navy.

Sharrer, G. Terry. "The Search for a Naval Policy, 1783- 1812." In In Peace and War: Interpretations of American Naval History, 1775-1984, 2d ed., edited by Kenneth J. Hagan, 27-45. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1984.

Smelser, Marshall. The Congress Founds the Navy, 1787- 1798. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1959. 229 pp.

Sofaer, Abraham D. "John Adams and Undeclared War as National Policy." In War, Foreign Affairs and Constitutional Power: The Origins, 131-61. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, 1976.

Sprout, Harold, and Margaret Sprout. The Rise of American Naval Power, 1776-1918. 1939. Reprint. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1990. 448 pp.

Symonds, Craig L. Navalists and Antinavalists: The Naval Policy Debate in the United States, 1785-1827. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1980. 252 pp.