r h I 1 t ' • ' frX' ^> 4 I* poi,* wa I m'h.'\ ' <' 1 VtA , i V I, '1' I YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OE AMEEICA, BY RICHARD HILDRETH. VOL. V. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 82 CLIFF STREET. 1851. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, by Harper & Brothers, in the Clerli's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. [A complete Analytical Index will be found at the end of the third Toliime.] CHAPTER X. RETROSPECT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. INAU GURATION OF THE NEW PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRES IDENT. RELATIONS WITH FRANCE. CALLED SESSION OF THE FIFTH CONGRESS. EXTRAORDINARY MISSION TO FRANCE. Page Jefferson's Views of the State of Affairs 25 Proposed Coalition with Adams 27 Jefferson's Ideas on that Subject 28 Contrast of Character in Jefferson and Adams 29 Adams's Letters pending the Presidential Election 30 .Political Views of the new President 33 Inaugural Ceremonies 35 Adams's inaugural Speech 36 Retirement of Washington ; Exultation of the Aurora .... 42 Course of that Paper toward Washington and Adams .... 44 Policy of Adams 45 Pinckney's Dispatches 46 French Compliments to Monroe .' 48 Affairs of France ; Departure of Pinckney 49 French Depredations on American Commerce 50 Congress called together ; Change in public Opinion .... 52 Jefferson's Mazzei Letter 53 iNew Decree against American Commerce 55 Alarming Position of the "United States 56 Views of Hamilton as to a new Mission 57 f iews of Wolcott 58 Hamilton's Reply to Wolcott 58 Views of the Opposition 62 vi CONTENTS. Page Opinions in the Cabinet ^^ Fifth Congress ^3 President's Speech "^ Disapjointraent of the Oppositioa - • • • 67 Answers to the Speech " ' Debate on the Answer in the House 68 Matthew Lyon ^0 Alarming Information from Europe 82 Measures adopted by Congress 83 Opposition to these Measures ¦ • • • 84 Measures defeated 85 Spanish Evasions and Intrigues 86 Charges against Senator Blount 88 Violence of Party Spirit 90 ''Jefferson's Views of the Course of Affairs 91 Envoys to France '.'. 94 Other diplomatic Appointments 96 CHAPTER XL Monroe's return, slanderous attack on Hamil ton. ADVENTURES OF THE SPECIAL MISSION TO FRANCE.. Monroe's Reception at Philadelphia 97 French Policy as developed by Merlin 97 Monroe demands the Reasons of his Recall 98 His Correspondence with Pickering on that Subject 98 Monroe's Object in this Application 100 His Political Views 101 Hatred of England 102 Partiality for France 103 Slanderous Attack upon Hamilton 104 Hamilton's Correspondence with Monroe 113 Hamilton's published Vindication 118 WiLLiam Cobbett ; Porcupine's Gazette 120 Singular Experiment upon Washington 121 Jefferson's real Feelings toward Washington 125 Envoys to France — their Instructions 125 State of Affairs in France 128 CONTENTS. vii Page Talleyrand's unofficial Communications 129 Dispatches to America 140 Official Reapplication to Talleyrand 140 Further unoffi^cial Communications. 141 Further Dispatches to America 142 Gerry's diplomatic Dinner 142 His private Visits to Talleyrand 143 Memorial of the Envoys 143 Violent Decree against Neutral Commerce 144 Secret Threats and Inducements to- Gerry 144 Interviews of the Envoys with Talleyrand 145 Talleyrand's Reply to the Memorial 147 Observations on this- Manifesto 153 Rejoinder to it by the Envoys 155 Talleyrand's Proposal to treat with Gerry alone 158 Departure of Marshall and Pinckney 159 CHAPTER XII. FEDERALISM IN VIRGINIA. YRUJO, m'kEAN, AND COB BETT. LAW OF LIBEL. SECOND SESSION OF THE FIFTH CONGRESS. MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. PREP ARATIONS FOR DEFENSE. ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS. FOURTH CONSTITUTION OF GEORGIA- Politics- of Vermont 160 Of Maryland 160 Presentation of the Virginia Grand Jury 160 Anti-Federal Suggestions of Jefferson 161 Yrujo and Cobbett 163 M'Kean and Cobbett 165 M'Eean's Charge — Law of Libel 166 Remarks thereon 167 M'Kean's Attack on Cobbett 171 Apology for Cobbett 17& Cobbett, Rush, and the Yellow Fever 173 Second Session of the Fifth Congress 174 Accounts from France 175 President's Message 175 viii CONTENTS. Page 17 7 Answer of the House ; Lyon duaker Anti-slavery Petition 1 ' ' 1 78 Debate thereon Mississippi Territory — Slavery therein 181 Private Bills— Relief to the Daughters of De Grasse 186 French Immigrants — La Fayette 186 Foreign Intercourse ; Blount's Impeachment 187 Griswold and Lyon ; Breach of Decorum 187 Motion for Lyon's Expulsion 189 Griswold's Revenge '¦^^ Messages from the President 191 Policy of Jefferson and the Opposition 193 Position of the Federalists 194 Movements in Philadelphia 195 Measures for Defense 195 Sprigg's Resolutions ; Debate thereon 196 Communication of the Dispatches 202 Effect of their Publication 203 Triumph of the Federalists ; Acts passed 205 Apologies for France 207 Addresses ; the Black Cockade ; Patriotic Songs 207 New York Election ; Political Excitement 208 President's Replies to Addresses ; Fast 209 The Opposition wavers 209 Presses of the Opposition ; CaUender 210 State of Parties in the House ; Gallatin 211 Provisional Army 212 Authority to capture depredating armed Vessels 213 Character of the Immigration from Europe 213 Suspected Intrigues by Aliens 215 Amendment of the Naturalization Law ; Alien Acts .... 216 Suspension of Commercial Intercourse with France 217 Retum of Marshall ; Declaration of the President 217 Extra Copies of Dispatches 217 Talleyrand and the Aurora 218 Logan's Visit to France ; United Irishmen 219 Motives of the Opposition 219 Sentiments of the Federalists toward Great Britain 220 CONTENTS. ix Page Views taken of Gerry's Conduct 221 Merchant Vessels authorized to resist Search or Seizure . . 221 Additional Ships of War 221 French Treaties declared void 222 Authority to capture armed French Vessels 222 Additional Naval Armament ; Marine Corps ; Navy .... 222 Increase of the Army 223 B"i^nces ; Land Tax ; Loan 224 Sedition Law 225 American Newspapers 228 Criminal Jurisdiction ofthe Federal Courts 230 Policy of, and Reasons for, the Sedition Law 231 Party Violence ; Jefferson on the Union 232. Rising Spirit of Support to the Administration 235 -Debtors of the United States 236 Hospital Money ; Marine Hospitals 236 Presents to Ministers abroad : 237 Revised Constitution of Georgia ; Slavery 237 CHAPTER XIII. ARMY APPOINTMENTS. INTERNAL AFFAIRS. PROSECU TIONS UNDER THE SEDITION LAW. GERRY AND LO GAN. AMERICAN SQUADRONS IN THE WEST INDIES. NULLIFICATION. RESOLUTIONS OF KENTUCKY AND VIRGINIA. THIRD SESSION OF THE FIFTH CONGRESS. NEW MISSION TO FRANCE. Washington Commander-in-chief 240 Subordinate Army Appointments 241 Adams and his Cabinet 242 Rank of the Major Generals ; Hamilton and Knox 243 Failures 244 Defense of New York 245 Yellow Fever ; Duane, of the Aurora 245 New Treaty with the Cherokees 246 Mississippi Territory 247 Eastern Boundary of the United States 247 Prosecution of Lyon ; his Re-election to Congress 248 ^ CONTENTS. Page Maryland Election 250 Gerry's Correspondence with Talleyrand 250 The X, Y, Z Explosion 253 Concluding Correspondence between Gerry and Talleyrand 253 Departure of Gerry ; Further Concessions by France .... 259 Logan at Paris ; Communication opened with Murray ... 261 Various Views as to Gerry's Conduct 261 Retum of Pinckney; Military Arrangements 264 Return of Logan ; his Interview with Washington 264 Honors to the President 267 American Cruisers — their Collisions with the British. . . . 267 Affairs of St. Domingo 269 Squadrons in the West Indies ; Private armed Vessels ... 270' Affairs of Guadaloupe 270 Secret History of the Kentucky Resolutions 272 Jefferson's original Draught 273 Kentucky Resolutions as adopted 275 Virginia Resolutions 276 Third Session of the Fifth Congress ; President's Speech 277 Secret History of this Speech 279 Answers thereto ; Logan Act 280 Blount's Impeachment 281 Documents laid before Congress 282 Bills passed ; Navy and Army 283 Nomination of Murray as Minister to France 284 Occasion of that Nomination 284 The President's Motives therefor 287 Made without the Privity of the Cabinet 290 Dissatisfaction at it 291 Ellsworth and Henry nominated as Colleagues to Murray 291 Negotiations with Russia, Turkey, and Toussaint 292 Davie appointed in place of Henry 292 Activity of Jefferson 292 His Letters to Gerry, Pendleton, and Madison 293 Lyon in the House — Motion for his Expulsion 295 Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions not responded to 296 Attempt to repeal the Alien and Sedition Laws 297 Ground of Opposition to the Sedition Law 298 CONTENTS. xi Page General Considerations on the Law of Libel 298 Narrowness ofthe Objections taken to the Sedition Law 301 Rules for the Navy ; Navy Hospitals 302 duarantine ; Increase of Salaries 302 Finances ; Revolutionary Balances 303 Capture of a French Frigate 304 Reopening of the Trade with St. Domingo 304 CHAPTER XIV. VIRGINIA, NEW YORK, PENNSYLVANIA. REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY. JUDICIAL DECISIONS. NULLIFICATION. EMBARKATION OF THE ENVOYS TO FRANCE. DIVISION OF THE FEDERAL PARTY. COM MISSIONS UNDER THE BRITISH TREATY SUSPENDED. FIRST SESSION OF THE SIXTH CONGRESS. DEATH OF WASHINGTON. INDIANA TERRITORY- NAVAL AFFAIRS. Election Canvass in Virginia 306 Washington's Letter to Patrick Henry 306 Washington's estimate of the Opposition 309 Elections in Virginia and the Southern States 310 Abolition of Slavery in New York 310 Manhattan Company 311 Connecticut Settlers in Pennsylvania 312 Fries's Insurrection 312' Assault upon Duane ofthe Aurora 313 Gubernatorial Election in Pennsylvania . . , 314 Revised Constitution of Kentucky 315 Slavery in Kentucky, Maryland, and Pennsylvania 316 Case of Nash, or Jonathan Robbins 316 Case of Isaac WiUiamS; — Doctrine of Expatriation 317 Criminal Jurisdiction ofthe Federal Courts 318 Doctrine of Nullification 319 Kentucky Resolutions of 1799 319 Madison's Report on State Rights 320 Monroe Governor of Virginia 321 The new Mission to France 321 Instructions to the Envoys 322 xii CONTENTS. Page Reverses of the French Republic 323 The President directs the departure ofthe Envoys 323 Breach between the President and his Cabinet 324 Objections to the Renewal of the Negotiation 325 "Reaction against France 326 Good Policy of the Course pursued by the President 327 Imputations occasioned by it 328 True Character of that Transaction ; Parallel of Adams and Dickinson 329 Commissions under Jay's Treaty suspended 331 State of the Finances 332 Members of the Sixth Congress 333 President's Speech 334 Wolcott's Account of the State of Parties 335 Answer to the Speech 336 Death of Washington ; his Character 337 Great Loss to the Federal Party 338 Honors to his Memory 339 Petition to Congress from colored Men 341 Nicholas's Resolution ; John Randolph 342 His Letter to the President 343 The President's Message thereon 344 Proceedings in the House 344 Appropriations ; Loans and Taxes 345- Bankrupt Law 346 Connecticut Reserve ; Connecticut Gore 347 Territory of Indiana 348 Sales of public Lands 348 Amendment of the Land System 349 Govemment of Indiana 349 Mississippi Territory 35O Act against Tampering with the Indians 350 Unsuccessful Attempt to repeal the Sedition Law 350 Action on the Case of Nash or Robbins 351 Privileges of the Senate ; Duane 352 Grovidng Differences among the Federalists 353 Dissatisfaction with Adams 354 Intrigue against him 355 CONTENTS. xiii Page Prospects of the Presidential Election 355 Plans of the ultra Federalists 357 Caucus Nominations 357 Reduction of the Army ; Navy 358 Truxton engages another French Frigate 358 CHAPTER XV. PENNSYLVANIA, MASSACHUSETTS, NEW YORK. STATE TRIALS. CHANGES IN THE CABINET- STRUGGLE BE TWEEN ADAMS AND HIS FEDERAL OPPONENTS. CON VENTION WITH FRANCE. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS. REMOVAL OF THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT TO WASH INGTON. SECOND SESSION OF THE SIXTH CONGRESS. JUDICIARY ACT. PROJECT FOR MAKING BURR PRES IDENT. DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERAL PARTY. Politics of Pennsylvania ; Governor M'Kean 360 Massachusetts Election 362 New York Election ; Governor Jay 363 Trials of Holt and Cooper 365 Second Trial of Fries ; his Pardon 367 Trial of CaUender 367 Rush's Verdict against Cobbett 368 Cobbett's Revenge ; his English Career 369 Changes in the Cabinet ; Character of Pickering 370 Wolcott ; Reconstruction of the Cabinet 372 The Dismissals justified 373 Progress of the Intrigue against Adams 373 Retort of Adams ; the Essex Junto 375 Gtualified Truth of Adams's Charges 376 The Tench Coxe Letter ; Adams and the Pinckneys .... 378 Hamilton's Pamphlet against Adams 383 Envoys to France ; their cordial Reception 386 Obstacles to the Negotiation 387 Convention as agreed to 388 Presidential Electors 389 Removal ofthe Seat of Government to Washington 391 Burning of public Offices 395 Second Session of the Sixth Congress — President's Speech 395 xiv CONTENTS. Page Resignation of Wolcott ; State ofthe Treasury 396 Poverty of Wolcott and Pickering 396 . ^Q7 Monument to Washington ^»' Modified Ratification of the French Convention 398 Captures of French Cruisers 398 French Convention as finally Ratified 399 New Judiciary Act ^^^ Appointment of Judges 4^1 Tie between Burr and Jefferson in the, Electoral Colleges 402 State of Parties in the House of Representatives 402 Project for making Burr President • •403 Hamilton's opposition to it ' 404 The Project persevered in 405 Protracted Balloting in the House > . 405 Great Excitement 406 Federal Caucus ; Terms secured from Jefferson 407 Election of Jefferson 407 Expiration of the Sedition Act 408 Organization of the District of Columbia 408 Navy 409 Reports of Congressional Debates ; Sedgwick and Smith . 410 Ex-president Adams 412 Retirement of Jay 413 Causes of the Fall ofthe Federal Party 414 CHAPTER XVI. INAUGURATION OF JEFFERSON. STATE ELECTIONS. AP POINTMENTS AND REMOVALS. HOSTILITIES WITH TRIPOLI. SEVENTH CONGRESS. CENSUS AND APPOR TIONMENT. RETRENCHMENTS. REPEAL OF THE JU DICIARY ACT. TERRITORIES. CESSION OF LOUISIANA TO FRANCE. CALLENDER. JEFFERSON AND THE CLERGY. REPUBLICAN DIVISIONS IN NEW YORK. SECOND SESSION OF THE SEVENTH CONGRESS. STATE OF OHIO. Fortunate Crisis of Jefferson's Accession 419 Inaugural Ceremonies 420 Jefferson's Inaugural Address 42i CONTENTS. XV Page Newspaper Organ — National Intelligencer 421 Cabinet and Diplomatic Appointments 422 Politics of the States ; New York 424 New Jersey ; the Southern States ; New England 425 Removals and Appointments 426 Case of the New Haven CoUectorship 429 Statistics of Office-holding 431 Levees and Speeches abolished 431 Circular to the Cabinet Officers 432 Relations with the Barbary Powers ; Bainbridge 432 Squadron sent to the Mediterranean 434 Members of the Seventh Congress 435 President's Message 437 Census and Reapportionment of Representatives 438 Reductions Civil and Military 438 Navy and Mint 439 Repeal of Adams's Judiciary Act 440 Reorganization of the Federal Courts 441 Repeal of the Internal Taxes ; French Claims 442 Naturalization Act 444 Territory Northwest of the Ohio ; Land Grants 445 City of Washington 445 British Debts ; Revolutionary Balances 446 - Pennsylvania Intrusion Act 446 Compact with Georgia ; Indian Treaties 446 Intercourse with the Indians 448 New Squadron sent to the Mediterranean ; Truxton 448 Retrocession of Louisiana to France 449 -Jefferson's View ofthe State of public Affairs 450 - Congressional Attack on the late Administration 451 Wolcott's Reply ; Federal Newspapers 452 CaUender attacks Jefferson 453 Proceedings against CaUender ; Boston Palladium 455 Attacks upon Jefferson's religious Opinions 456 Free-thinking in America 456 Jefferson's Relations to the rehgious Sects ofthe South. . 457 Political Grounds of the New England Church EstabUsh- ments , 459 ^y-^ CONTEINTS. Page Jefferson's Hatred ofthe New England Clergy 459 Basis of their political Influence 4:60 No more uitolerant than Jefferson himself 461 Strongly inclined to Conservatism 461 Safeguard against Fanaticism 462 Religious Enthusiasm in the South and West 462 Co-operation of Free-thinkers and Enthusiasts 463 Decline of pohtical Enthusiasm 4:64 Progress and Effects of religious Enthusiasm 465 The Republican Party in New England 465 Republican Dissensions ; Politics of New York 466 French Colonies — Louisiana 468-, Withdrawal of the right of Deposit at New Orleans 470 Second Session of the Seventh Congress — Message 470 Proceedings respecting the right of Deposit 471 Other Proceedings of Congress 473 Mississippi Lands ; Yazoo Claims 473 State of Ohio. 475 New York Politics ; Banks 476 CHAPTER XVII. PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. TRIPOLITAN WAR. EIGHTH CONGRESS, FIRST AND SECOND SESSIONS. COMMIS SION ON BRITISH SPOLIATIONS. TERRITORIES OF OR LEANS, LOUISIANA, AND MICHIGAN. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. IMPEACHMENTS. PENNSYLVA NIA, NEW YORK, AND NEW ENGLAND. BURR AND HAMILTON. RE-ELECTION OF JEFFERSON. IMPRESS MENTS. DIFFICULTIES WITH SPAIN. JEFFERSON's SCHEME OF DEFENSE. YAZOO CLAIMS. INDIAN CES SIONS. Livingston at Paris 478 Instructions to Livingston and Monroe 479 Bonaparte's Offer to sell Louisiana 479 The Sale as arranged 480 Monroe succeeds King at London 481 Constitutional Scruples 481 CONTENTS. xvii Page Cession by the Indians of Southern Illinois 482 Tripolitan War ; the Philadelphia taken 482 Members of the Eighth Congress 484 President's Message 486'"- Ratification of the French Treaty 486 Proceedings of the House in relation thereto 487 Close of the Commission under Jay's Treaty 488 Sum of Money recovered by Maryland 489 duestion as to the Boundaries of Louisiana 490 Delivery of New Orleans to the Americans 492 Independence of Hayti 493 Opinions as to the Acquisition of Louisiana 494 Territory of Orleans; Edward Livingston 495 District of Louisiana 497 - New Surveys and Land Offices 497 Attempt to introduce Slavery into Indiana 498 Slavery in Louisiana 499 Revival of the Slave Trade by South Carolina 500 Proposed Tax on Slaves imported 500 Abolition of Slavery by New Jersey 504 Mississippi Territory ; Lewis and Clarke 505 New England Mississippi Company 505 Amendment of the Constitution proposed 506 Mediterranean Fund 506 Exploit of Decatur 507 Repeal of the Bankruptcy Act 508 Impeachment of a District Judge 509 Proposed Impeachment of Chase 510 This Proceeding imitated from Pennsylvania 511 Impeachment of Addison in that State 612 Impeachment of the Pennsylvania Judgess 514 Division of the Pennsylvania Republicans 515 Projects in relation to the Seat of Government 515 Jefferson nominated for Re-election 516 Politics of New York ; Burr 517 Freedom of the Press in New York 618 Result of the Gubernatorial Election 519 Disappointment of Burr 519 v.— B xviii CONTENTS. Page He forces a Gluarrel on Hamilton 520 Correspondence on that Occasion 521 ChaUenge and Duel ^23 Sentiment at his Death ; his Funeral 525 His Character ^26 Indignation against Burr ; his Flight 527 Bombardment of Tripoli 528 Cessions by the Northwestern Indians 529 Discontent at the Virginia Ascendency 530 Amendment of the Constitution adopted 531 Republican Triumph in Massachusetts and New Hamp shire 53 1 Politics of Connecticut 531 Of Delaware and Maryland 532 Jefferson's triumphant Re-election 532 Public Prosperity 533 . Belligerent Insolences 634 Impressment ; Negotiations respecting it 534 Attempted Legislation thereon 636 Difficulties with Spain 536 Collision with Yrujo 637 Jefferson's Plan of Sea-board Defense ; Gun-boats 538 Second Session of the Eighth Congress 539 Articles of Impeachment against Chase 640 Debate on the Yazoo Claims 541 Trial and Acquittal of Chase 642 Disappointment of his Prosecutors 543 Duane ; the public Printing 544 Effect ofthe Proceedings against Chase 644 Territory of Orleans 544 Territories of Louisiana and Michigan 645 Territorial Governors 545 District of Columbia ; Slavery therein 546 Trade with St. Domingo 546 Act respecting Foreign Ships of War 547 Vote ofthe electoral Colleges; Jefferson's inaugural Speech 548 Politics of New York — Bank Charters ; Merchants' Bank . 548 New Breach in the Repubhcan Party 55O CONTENTS. xix Page New York School Fund 550 Livingston and Humphreys ; Steam-boats ; Plaster of Par is ; Merinoes 651 Joel Barlow 551 Acquittal of the Pennsylvania Judges 552 Proposed Convention to remodel the Constitution of Penn sylvania 562 Conservative Alarm 563 New Arrangement of Parties in Pennsylvania 663 Criminations and Recriminations 654 Liberty of the Press ; Dennie ; Thomas Paine 655 Gubernatorial Election 656 Affairs of Virginia 556 Cessions by the Indians 656 CHAPTER XVIII. EATON AND HAMET. CARRYING TRADE. FIRST SESSION OF THE NINTH CONGRESS. SECRET APPROPRIATION FOR THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. SCHEME FOR CO ERCING GREAT BRITAIN. MIRANDa's EXPEDITION. QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSORSHIP. AFFAIRS OF PENNSYLVANIA, NEW YORK, CONNECTICUT, AND MAS SACHUSETTS. Eaton and Hamet 568 Their Plan of a Land Attack on Tripoli 559 Their Arrival near Derne 560 Capture of Derne 561 Peace with Tripoli 661 Relations with Tunis 562 American carrying Trade ; Belligerent Annoyances . . . 563 Great Extension of the carrying Trade ; British Envy . . . 563 New Doctrines of the British Admiralty Courts 564 Outcry in America against these Doctrines 565 Members of the Ninth Congress 565 Contest for Speaker ; John Randolph 666 President's Message 666 Changes in the Cabinet 667 Cabinet Project for purchasing Florida ; Secret Session . . 668 j-X CONTENTS. Page Randolph's Report 569 Debate thereon ; Bill passed • 570 Open War between Randolph and the Administration ... 571 Collision with Yrujo 571 Madison's Correspondence with Listen ; Impressments ... 672 Neutral Rights ; Non-importation 573 Origin of this Scheme 573 Smith's Project 574 Views of Randolph 574 War not intended by the Administration 676 Germ of a War Party 676 Randolph's Reply to Crowninshield 676 Other Points urged by Randolph 677 Non-importation Act as passed 577 Views of the Federalists 578 Fortifications ; Gun-boats ; the Navy 679 Death of Pierce ; Jefferson's disproportionate Views .... 660 Internal Improvements ; Cumberland Road 581 Tax on Slaves imported 581 Return of Baton ; Relief to Hamet 681 Tunisian Embassador ; Mediterranean Fund 682 Suspected Intention to bribe France 683 Trade with Hayti prohibited 583 Miranda's Expedition 684 Trials growing out of it 685 Failure of the Expedition 686 Jefferson's View of Affairs 686 Mission to Spain 587 Jefferson's Account of the Composition of Congress 688 Pinkney joint Minister to England 589 Q,uestion as to the Succession ; Richmond Enquirer 589 Rival Claims of Monroe and Madison 690 Randolph's Attack upon the Administration 690 Affairs of Pennsylvania ; Prosecutions for Libel 691 Affairs of New York 592 Indictments for Libel in Connecticut 592 Politics of Massachusetts 592 Spanish Encroachments on Louisiana 593 CONTENTS. xxi CHAPTER XIX. burr's mysterious ENTERPRISE. AFFAIRS OF KEN TUCKY. SECOND SESSION OF THE NINTH CONGRESS. ABOLITION OF THE FOREIGN SLAVE TRADE. BONA- PARTe's CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. BERLIN DECREE. REJECTION OF THE TREATY WITH GREAT BRITAIN. burr's trial, affair of THE CHESAPEAKE. ALARM ING STATE OF FOREIGN RELATIONS. Page Position of Burr 594 His Projects and Movements 595 Voyage down the Ohio 696 Visits to Nashville and New Orleans 597 Interview with Wilkinson at St. Louis 599 Return to Philadelphia 599 Communications to Eaton 600 Eaton's Interview with the President 602 Burr's Applications to Truxton, Decatur, and others 602 His second Western Journey 603 His Purchase of the Bastrop Grant 603 Preparations for an Expedition 604 Burr's Letter to Wilkinson 606 Wilkinson's Determination 607 Swartwout's Communications 608 Wilkinson's Express to the President 609 His Orders sent to New Orleans 610 Arrangement with the Spaniards 610 More Letters ; Wilkinson at Natchez 611 His Letter to Governor Claiborne 612 Proceedings at New Orleans ; Arrests 612 Excitement in Kentucky 613 Spanish Pensioners 614 Rumors against Wilkinson ; Jackson's Letter 616 State of Opinion in Kentucky 616 Proceedings against Burr ; his Triumph 616 Mission of Graham 617 Ohio Legislature ; Seizure of Burr's Boats 618 .^xii CONTENTS. Paga Tyler's Flotilla 619 Kentucky Legislature 619 Burr at the Mouth of the Cumberland 620 His Voyage down the Mississippi 620 Arrival near Natchez 621 His Arrest ; Proceedings against him 622 His Flight and second Arrest 623 State of Affairs and Proceedings at New Orleans 624 Second Session of the Ninth Congress ; Habeas Corpus . 625 Case of BoUman and Swartwout 625 Adair ; Revulsion of Feeling 626 Discussion in the House ; Act passed 627 Abolition of the Slave Trade ; Discussion thereon 628 Provisions of the Act 639 Randolph's Bravadoes 640 Number of Africans recently Imported 641 Subsidence of the Anti-slavery Sentiment 642 Reaction in the South ; Free Negroes 643 Coast Survey 644 Prosecutions for Libel 644 Judicial Appointments 645 Suspension of the Non-importation Act 645 Relations with Spain ; Yrujo and Turreau 646 Bonaparte's Continental System 646 Berlin Decree 647 Explanations by Champagny to Armstrong 648 Measures of Defense 649 Appropriations for Indian Treaties 660 Gun-boat Appropriation defeated 651 Jefferson's Letter to Nicholas 651 Composition of Congress ggo Negotiation at London ggo The Gluestion of Impressment 653 The Treaty as agreed to ggy British Protest against the Berlin Decree 658 Order in Council respecting the Coasting Trade 658 Reasons for Ratifying the Treaty 659 Its Rejection notwithstanding cc^ CONTENTS. xxiii Page Reasons given for that Rejection 662 Monroe's Answer thereto 662 Pacific Intentions of Jefferson 663 Suspicions as to his Motives 663 Probable Grounds of his Conduct 664 Politics of New England 665 Politics of Pennsylvania 666 Politics of New York 666 ProceedLugs against Burr 668 Subsequent Fortunes of Burr 673^ The Driver Sloop of War 674 British Naval Deserters 674 Admiral Berkeley's Circular 676 Search of National Ships 677 Affair of the Chesapeake 678 Measures taken in consequence 681 Obstacles in the Way of an Arrangement 683 Proclamation for the recall of British Seamen 684 Canning's Reply to the Proposition for remodeling the late Treaty 685 Threatening State of British Relations 685 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER X. RETROSPECT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. INAUG URATION OF THE NEW PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESI DENT. RELATIONS WITH FRANCE. CALLED SESSION OF THE FIFTH CONGRESS. EXTRAORDINARY MISSION TO FRANCE. T y HILE the "result of the presidential election still re- ghaptes mained in doubt, Jefferson had written to Madison to ex- press his desire, should he and Adams have an equal vote, 1796. that Adams might be preferred as president. " He has ^°'^- ^^ always been my senior, from the commencement of our public life, and the expression of the public will being equal, this circumstance ought to give him the prefer ence." This haste to provide for a double contingency, an equal vote in. the electoral colleges, and an equal vote in the House of Representatives, without which Jeffer son's declination in favor of Adams could not come into play, might seem a little premature. The offer was also perfectly safe, since there was not the least danger that Jefferson's political friends would incline to indulge him in this amiable weakness. Yet there is reason to be lieve that on this occasion, for once at least, Jefferson was sincere. " I am really anxious," the letter adds, " to see the speech" — meaning Washington's speech at the opening of the session of Congress. " It must ex hibit a very different picture of our foreign affairs from 26 HISTORY OF THE UNITED ST ATES. CHAPTER that presented in the adieu"— Washington's FareweU ^- Address—" or it will little correspond with my views of 1796. them. I think they never wore so gloomy an aspect since the year 1783. Let those come to the helm who thin| they can steer clear of difficulties. I have no confidence in myself for the undertaking." Dec. 27. In a letter to Edward Rutledge, written some ten days after, and when the result of the election was bet ter known, he denies, " on his salvation," the having had any thing to do with his having been voted for as presi dent ; at the same time dexterously hinting that Rut ledge hiraself, had he chosen to take part in public af fairs, might have been the candidate. He then protests " before his God" his joy at not being chosen. " I have no ambition," he adds, "to govern men, no passion which would lead me to delight to ride in a storm. The news papers will permit me to plant my corn, pease, &c., in hills or drills, as I please (and my oranges, by-the-by, when you send them), while our Eastern friend will be struggling with the storm which is gathering over us, perhaps be shipwrecked in it. This is certainly not a moment to covet the helm." Had Jefferson been chosen president, he could not but have found himself in a most embarrassing situa tion ; one even more perplexing than that of which, in his intercourse as Secretary of State with Genet, he had already had a bitter experience. To have satisfied the expectations of the ultra French faction in the United States, and of the French goverilment itself, which had taken so affectionate an interest in his election, con sistently with his own honor and that of his country, would have been difficult indeed. Here was a crisis, especially considering Jefferson's peculiar situation in reference to it, which might well make a bolder man RETROSPECT OP THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 27 quail ; and he might reasonably prefer to leave the helm chapter to Adams, a man not accustomed to quail at any thing ; especially if matters could be so arranged as to destroy 1796. the influence of Hamilton with the administration, and to bring Adams to depend for congressional support, in part at least, on the late opposition. That such an in trigue was really on foot appears from two letters writ ten by Jefferson, the one to Adams himself, the other to Madison, sketches of which are published in Jefferson's Correspondence, written out from memory, as he had omitted to retain copies. In the letter to Adams, dated the day after that to Rutledge already quoted, and con- Dec. 28 taining a repetition of many of the same sentiments, the following side-thrust at Hamilton appears : " It is pos sible, indeed, that even you may be cheated of your suc cession by a trick worthy the subtlety of your arch-friend of New York, who has been able to make of your real friends tools for defeating their and your just wishes. Probably, however, he will be disappointed as to you, and my inclinations put me out of his reach." This letter to Adams was inclosed in another to Madison (who was authorized to deliver it or not, according to his discre tion), in which was developed Jefferson's plan of opera tions. " If Mr. Adams," said this letter, " could be in duced to administer the government on its true princi ples, quitting his bias for an English constitution, it would be worthy of consideration whether it would not be for the public good to come to a good understanding with him as to his future elections. He is the only sure barrier against Hamilton's getting in." Madison thought it not best to deliver the letter to Adams — why, we are left to conjecture. Jefferson had stated, in his letter to Madison, as a reason why hitherto he had delayed writing to Adams, " a despair to make 28 HISTORV OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter him believe me sincere." Perhaps Madison shared the ^ same discouragement; perhaps he was not so sanguine 1797. as Jefferson of being able to divide the Federal party ; or, if that could be accomplished, of reconciling the op position to the support of Adams, so long held up to their abhorrence as an Anglo-man and a monarchist. Pos sibly he thought that any arrangement which might se cure Adams's re-election and the succession of Jefferson would not only look a little too much like taking things out of the hands of the people, but might be putting off his own hopes of preferment to a period almost too in definite. Whatever might have been the reasons for keeping back the letter, oral advances were made to Adams, which, so far as compliments were concerned, he seemed well disposed to reciprocate ; and this, perhaps, was the real reason why Jefferson's letter was not delivered, the object of it having been otherwise and more safely ac- Jaii. 22. complished. " My letters," so Jefferson presently wrote to Madison, " inform me that Mr. Adams speaks of me with great friendship, and with satisfaction in the pros pect of administering the government in concurrence with me. I am glad of the first information, because, though I saw that our ancient friendship was affected by a little leaven, produced partly by his constitution, partly by the contrivance of others, yet I never felt a diminu tion of confidence in his integrity, and retain a solid af fection for him. His principles of government I know to be changed, but conscientiously changed. As to my par ticipating in the administration, if by that he means the executive cabinet, both duty and inclination will shut that door to me. I can not have a wish to see the scenes of 1793 revived as to myself, and to descend daily into the arena like a gladiator, to suffer martyrdom in every con- CONTRAST BETWEEN ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 29 flict." Warned by a bitter experience, Jefferson decid- chapter edly preferred, if he were to act the part of counselor at all to the new administration, the post of back-stairs ad- 1797. viser, an influence which, according to his estimate of Adams's character, could not but be very powerful. " I sincerely deplore," adds the same letter, " the situation of our affairs with France. War with them,, and con sequent alliance with Great Britain, will completely com pass the object of the executive council from the com mencement of the war between France and England, taken up by some of them from that moment, by others more latterly. I still, however, hope it will be avoided. I do not believe Mr. Adams wishes war with France, nor do I believe he will truckle to England as servilely as has been done. If he assumes this front at once, and shows that he means to attend to self-respect and national dignity with both nations, perhaps the depredations of both on our commerce may be amicably arrested. I think we should begin first with those who first began with us, and, by an example on them, acquire a right to redemand the respect from which the other party has departed." To the affectation of ultra Republican prudery, indif ference to office, and maiden reluctance, of which Jef ferson's above-quoted letters make such a display, the correspondence of John Adams, on the same subject, af fords a most refreshing contrast. Adams indeed wrote to his wife, who seems to have been bis sole confidant, and to whom he unbosomed himself without restraint, while Jefferson wrote to political co-operators, in many of whom he saw or feared political rivals, and with all of whom he had an object to accomplish. Yet, with all due allowance for this difference, their respective letters, though they show Adams self-deceived no less than Jef- 30 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter ferson, stiU exhibit in strong light the contrasted char- x. acter.gj of the writers. 1796. Referring to the approaching presidential election, Feb. 10. after a quotation from Necker, Adams adds, in illustra tion of it, "a man who, like myself, has been many more years than Mr. Necker ever was at the center of affairs, and that in a young country which has ever boasted of its simplicity, frugality, integrity, public spir it, public virtue, disinterestedness, &o., can judge from his own experience of the activity of private interest, and perceive in what manner the human heart is in fluenced, irritated, and soothed by hope. Neglects and sacrifices of personal interest are oftener boasted than practiced. The parade, and pomp, and ostentation, and hypocrisy have been as common in America as in France. When I hear these pretensions set up, I am very apt to say to myself, this man deceives himself, or is attempt ing to deceive me. " The various elections of the United States will soon call forth these personal interests in all their vigor, and all the arts of dissimulation to conceal them. I am weary of the game, yet I don't know how I could live out of it. I don't love slight, neglect, contempt, dis grace, nor insult more than others, yet I believe I have firmness of mind enough to bear it like a man, a hero, a philosopher. I might groan Uke Achilles, and roll from side to side abed sometimes at the ignorance, folly, injustice, and ingratitude of the world, but I should be resigned, and become more easy and cheerful, and enjoy myself and my friend better than ever I did." Lam entable indeed it was, that in this latter estimate of himself Adams proved so entirely mistaken, and that, when the time of trial came, his manliness, heroism, and Feb. 15. philosophy so totally failed him. In another letter a CONTRAST BETWEEN ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 3J few days after, not without exhibiting a little anxiety chapter and trepidation lest, after all, Washington might yet be ' persuaded to stand for a third term, in reply to some 1796. suggestions on the part of his wife of apprehensions for the government if Washington should retire, and of the violence of opposition, to which, if himself chosen presi dent, he might be exposed, Adams writes, "In my opin ion, there is no more danger in the change than there would be in changing a member of the Senate, and who ever lives to see it will own me to be a prophet. If Jay or even Jefferson (and one or the other it certainly will be, if the succession should be passed over) should be the man, the government will go on as well as ever. Jef ferson oould not stir a step in any other system than that which is begun. Jay would not wish it. The votes will run for three persons. Two I have mention ed ; the third, being heir-apparent, will not probably be wholly overlooked. If Jefferson and Jay are president and vice-president, as is not improbable, the other re tires without noise, or cries, or tears to his farm. If ei ther of these two is president and the other vice-pres ident, he retires without murmur or complaint to his farm forever. If this other should be president, and Jef ferson or Jay vice-president, four years more of resi dence in Philadelphia will be his and your portion, after which we shall probably be desirous of imitating the ex ample ofthe present pair; or if, by reason of strength and fortitude, eight years should be accomplished, that is the utmost limit of time that I will ever continue in public life at any rate. "Be of good courage, therefore, and tremble not. I see nothing to appal one, and I feel no ill forebodings or faint misgivings. I have not the smallest dread of private life or of public. If private life is to bo my 32 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter portion, ray farm and my pen shaU employ the rest of my days." 1796. Though Adams professed a readiness to retire with a good grace to private life, he did not affect to represent March 1. that retirement as a matter of choice : " I hate to live in Philadelphia in summer, and I hate still more to relin quish my farm. I hate speeches, messages, addresses and answers, proclamations, and such affected, studied, constrained things. I hate levees and drawing-rooms. I hate to speak to a thousand people to whom I have no thing to say. Yet all this I can do. But I am too old to continue more than one, or, at most, more than two heats, and that is scarcely time enough to form, conduct, and complete any very useful system." The debate on Jay's treaty being then fully under way, we find him exhibiting, a few days after, the spirit of an old war- horse, pawing the ground and panting for the battle : March 13, " There are bold and daring strides making to demolish the president, Senate, and all but the House, which, as it seems to me, must be the effect of the measures which many are urging." " I sometimes think that if I were in the House of Representatives, and could make speeches there, I could throw some light upon these things. If Mr. Jefferson should be president, I believe I must put up as a candidate for the House. But this is my vanity. I feel sometimes as ifl could speechify among them • but alas ! alas ! I am too old. It would soon destroy my health. I declare, however, if I were in that House, I would drive out of it some demons that haunt it. There are false doctrines and false jealousies predominant there at times that it would be easy to exorcise." As to the office of vice-president, which Jefferson professed to find so well suited to his wishes and his temper, Adams never lost an opportunity of expressing his disgust at its tedi ous and insipid insignificance. POLITICAL VIEWS OF THE NEW PRESIDENT. 33 With respect to foreign relations, the opinions and feel- chapter ings of Adams were precisely such as to free him from all . x. possibility of foreign influence, and to fit him for carrying 1797. out with energy and impartiality the system of exact neutrality which Washington had adopted. Whatever might be his admiration for the British Constitution, his feelings were altogether too warm and unyielding to have entirely subsided from that high pitch of indignation against the British government to which the Revolution ary struggle had raised them, and which his experience as minister to England, slighted and baffled as he had been, had not tended to allay. These feelings, indeed, had lately received a fresh impulse in a slight, or imagined slightj to John Q. Adams, then minister to Holland, dur ing a temporary visit to England, in relation to which the elder Adams thus wrote : " I am glad of it, for I would April 9. npt have my son go so far as Mr. Jay, and affirm the friendly disposition of that country to this. I know bet ter. I know their jealousy, envy, hatred, and revenge, covered under pretended contempt." On the other hand, he was entirely free from that polit ical fanaticism which had so run away with Giles, Mon roe, and others, and by which the judgment of Jefferson was so distorted as to make him, keenly as he felt any wrong or imagined wrong from Great Britain, perfectly supple under the chidings and the lash of the" French Di rectory, and to lead him, as in his letter above quoted^ to denounce Washington's neutral policy as a servile truckling to England. Adams did not believe in French politics. He had predicted from the beginning the fail ure of the French in their attempts to establish a free gov ernment ; and however his residence abroad might have inspired him with esteem for that people as individuals, he had brought home with hira very little confidence in v.— C 34 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter French political sincerity. In a letter to his wife, writ- ten on his way to Philadelphia, and before the result of the 1797. election had been finally determined, he had expressed, with a calm intrepidity, in striking contrast to Jefferson's timid apprehensions, his views of the posture of affairs : Nov, 27. " At Hartford I saw Mr. Adet's note to our Secretary of State" -^— the same already quoted in the preceding chapter, and in which was announced the termination of Adet's mission — " and I find it an instrument well cal culated to reconcile me to private Hfe. It will purify me from all envy of Mr. Jefferson, or Mr. Pinckney, or Mr. Burr, or Mr. any body else who may be chosen president or vice-president. Although, however, I think the mo ment a dangerous one, I am not scared. Fear takes no hold of me, and makes no approaches to me that I per ceive ; and if my country makes just claims upon me, I will be, as I ever have been, prompt to share fates and fortunes with her. I dread not a war with France or England, if either forces it upon us, but will make no aggression upon either with my free will, without just and necessary cause and provocation." " Nothing mor tifies me more than to think how the English will be gratified at this French flight. John BuU will exult and shrug his shoulder? like a Frenchman, and, I fear, show us some cunning, insidious sort of kindness on the oc- casion. I should dread his kindness as much as French severity, but will be the dupe of neither. If I have .looked with any accuracy into the hearts of my fellow. citizens, the French wUl find, as the English have found, that feelings may be stirred which they never expected to find there, and which, perhaps, the American people them selves are not sensible are within them." Such were the sentiments in relation to foreign affairs with which Adams assumed the administration of the government. INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 35 In conformity with a notification issued by Washing- chapter X. ton just before the expiration of his period of office, the . Senate of the United States assembled in special session 1797. on the first day of the new presidential term. No new March 4. senators appeared at this session. Schuyler, chosen in New York to succeed Burr, was too sick to take his seat. Most of the other senators whose term had expired had been rechosen. The vice-president elect, having written to his friends in Congress not to allowy in his case, the ceiremony of a special messenger, upon a mere notice through the mail had hastened to Philadelphia. But he could, not escape a ceremonious reception by a com pany of artillery, composed of his political friends, who greeted the auspicious occasion with a salvo of cannon, displaying a flag having for motto, " Jefferson, the friend of the People." On taking his seat as president of the Senate,, Jefferson delivered a short and modest address, containing a declaration of zealous attachment to the Constitution and the Union, and concluding with a high compliment to the '< eminent character" who had preced ed him in his present station, whose talents and integrity he had known and revered through a long course of years, the foundation of a cordial and uninterrupted friendship, and whom he declared to have been justly preferred to himself for the higher office. This ceremony concluded, the Senate adjourned to the chamber of the Representatives, where a brilliant as sembly, including many ladies, had already collected to witness the inauguration of the new president. In front of the speaker's chair sat the chief justiee, with three other judges of the Supreme Court. The new vice-pres ident and the secretary of the Senate took seats on their right ; on their left sat the speaker and clerk of the late House. The doors being opened, a crowd filled the 36 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter galleries with a rush. When Washington entered the " hall, shouts of applause broke forth from aU sides. Be- 1797. ing now a private citize'h, he took a seat in front of the judges. The president elect came in soon after, attend ed by the heads of departments and the marshal of the district. As he ascended to the chair, he also was receiv ed with shouts. After having been seated for a few mo ments, he rose, and delivered an inaugural address, very elaborately prepared, and quite unrivaled in that line of composition. Sketching with a few bold strokes the origin of the Federal Constitution, and declaring his original and continued approval of it, he emphatically denied — no doubt with a view to the political heresies which had been charged upon him — that it had ever been any objection in, his mind that the executive and Senate were not more permanent, or that he had ever entertained a thought of promoting any alterations "but such as the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see and feel to be necessary or expe dient, and by their representatives in Congress and the State Legislatures, according to the Constitution itself, adopt and ordain." "Returning to the bosom of my country after a pain ful separation from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station under the new order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious ob ligations to support the Constitution. The operation of it has equaled the most sanguine expectations of its friends ; and from an habitual attention to it, satisfac tion in its administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happiness of the nation, I have acquired an habitual attachment to it, and ven- eration for it. " What other form of government, indeed, can so weU deserve our esteem and love ? ADAMS'S INAUGURAL SPEECH. 37 " There may be littje solidity in an ancient idea that chapter congregations of men into cities and nations are the most ' pleasing objects in the sight of superior intelligences; 1797. but this is very certain, that, to a benevolent human mind, there can be no spectacle presented by any nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august than an assembly like that which has often been seen in this and the other chamber of Congress, of a government in which the executive authority, as well as that of all the branch es of the Legislature, is exercised by citizens selected, at regular periods, by their neighbors to make and execute laws for the general good. Can any thing essential, any thing more than, mere ornament and decoration, be add ed to this by robes and diamonds ? Can authority be more amiable and respectable, when it descends from ac cidents, or institutions established in rerriote antiquity, than when it springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of. an honest and enlightened people ? For it is the peo ple only that are represented ; it is their power and maj esty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every legitimate government, under whatever form it may ap pear. The existence of such a government as ours, for any length of time, is a full proof of a general dissemina tion of knowledge and virtue throughout the whole body of the people. And what object or consideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the human mind ? If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable, it is when it springs not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, inform ation, and benevolence. " In the midst of these pleasing ideas, we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties, if any thing partial or extra neous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, 38 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER and independent elections. If an election is to be de- ^- termined by a majority of a single vote, and that can 1797. be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the government may be the choice of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good. If that soUtary suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by fraud or violence, by terror, in trigue, or venality, the government may not be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations. And candid men will acknowledge that, in such cases, choice would have little advantage to boast of over lot or chance. " Such is the amiable and interesting system of gov ernment (and such are some of the abuses to which it is exposed) which the people of America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise and virtuous of all nations, for eight years, under the administration of a citizen, who, by a long course of great actions, reg ulated by prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people inspired with the same virtues, and animated with the same ardent patriotism and love of liberty, to independence and peace, to increased wealth and unexampled prosperity, has merited the gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of for eign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity. "In that retirement, which is his voluntary choice, may he long live to enjoy the delicious recollection of his services, the gratitude of mankind, the happy fruits of them to himself and the world which are daily increas ing, and that splendid prospect of the future fortunes of his country which is opening from year to year ! May his name be still a rampart, and the knowledge that he lives a bulwark against all open or secret enemies of his country's peace ! This example has been recommended ADAMS'S INAUGURAL SPEECH. 39 to the imitation of his successors by both houses of Con- chapter X. gress, and by the voice of the Legislatures, and of the people throughout the nation. 1797. " On this subject it might become me better to be si lent, or to speak with diffidence ; but as something may be expected, the occasion, I hope, will be admitted as an apology if I venture to say that, if a preference upon principle, of a free republican government, formed upon long and serious xeflection, after a diligent and impartial inquiry after truth ; if an attachnjent to the Constitu tion of the United States, and a conscientious determi nation to support it until it shall be altered by the judg ment and wishes of the people, expressed in the mode pre scribed in it ; if a respectful attention to the Constitu tions of the individiial states, and a constant caution and delicacy toward the state governments ; if an equal and impartial regard to the rights, interests, honor, and hap piness of all the states in the Union, without preference or regard to a northern or southern, an eastern or west ern position, their various poUtical opinions on unessen tial points, or their personal attachments ; if a love of virtuous men of all parties and denominations ; if a love of science and letters, and a wish to patronize every ra tional effort to encourage schools, colleges, universities, academies, and every ii^stitution for propagating knowl edge, virtue, and religion among all classes of the peo ple, not only for their benign influence on the happiness of life in all its stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only means of preserving our Con stitution from its natural enemies, the spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy of corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, which is the angel of destruction to elective govern ments ; if a love of equal laws, of justice and humanity 40 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER in the interior administration ; if an inclination to im- X. prove agriculture, commerce, and manufactures for ne- 1797. cessity, convenience, and defense; if a spirit of equity and humanity toward the aboriginal nations of America, and a disposition to meliorate their condition by inclining them to be more friendly to us, and our citizens to be more friendly to them ; if an inflexible determination to maintain peace and inviolable faith with all nations, and that system of neutrality and impartiality among the bel ligerent powers of Europe which has been adopted by this government, and so solemnly sanctioned by both houses of Congress, and applauded by the Legislatures of the states and the public opinion, until it shall be other wise ordained by Congress ; if a personal esteem for the French nation, formed in a residence of seven years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the friendship which has been so much for the honor and interest of both nations ; if, while the conscious honor and integrity of the people of America, and the internal sentiment of their own power and energies must be preserved, an earnest endeavor to investigate every just cause, and remove every colorable pretense of complaint ; if an intention to pursue by amicable negotiation a reparation for the in juries that have been committed on the commerce of our fellow-citizens, by whatever nation, and if success can not be obtained, to lay the facts before the Legislature, that they may consider what further measures the honor and interest of the government and its constituents demand ; if a resolution to do justice, as far as may depend upon me, at all times and to all nations, and to maintain peace, friendship, and benevolence with all the world • if an unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and resources of the American people, on which I have so often haz arded my all, and never been deceived ; if elevated ideas ADAMS'S INAUGURAL SPEECH. 4]^ of the high destinies of this country, and of my own du- chapter ties toward it, founded on a knowledge of the moral prin- ciples and intellectual improvements of the people, dee{)ly 1797. engraven on my mind in early life, and not obscured, but exalted by experience and age ; and with humble rever ence I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Chris tians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two houses shall not be without effect. '* With this great example before me, with the sense and spirit, the faith and honor, the duty and interest of the same American people, pledged to support the Con stitution of the United States,' I entertain no doubt of its continuance in all its energy, and my mind is pre pared, without hesitation, to lay myself under the most solemn obligations to support it to the utmost of my power. " And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of order, the Fountain of justice, and the Pro tector, in all ages of the world, of virtuous liberty, con tinue his blessing upon this nation and its government, and give it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of his Providence !" This elaborate address, as we learn by a letter of Ad ams to his wife, was intended as "an appeal to foreign nations and posterity," " so strangely used as he had been, so hated and so undefended." Yet it seems also to have been an appeal to the present, a disavowal of the anti-Republican doctrines which had been so freely im puted to him during the late presidential canvass, and a 42 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER holding out to the opposition of the hand of reconcilia- " tion by way of public answer to the private overtures al- 1797. ready made to him by some of the leaders. Adams's profession of respect and veneration for the Christian religion, though no doubt perfectly sincere on his part, had yet much the appearance of a reflection on Jefferson. That, however, was a delicate point, since Adams's own opinions, verging closely pn Socinianism, might seem to many almost as objectionable as the free- thinking of which Jefferson was accused. The allusions to Washington drew out floods of tears, rather too copiously, indeed, for the jealous temper of Ad ams, who seems, from the same letter already quoted, to have entertained some disagreeable doubts whether those tears might not be as much for his accession as for Washington's retirement. The speech ended, the oath was energetically admin istered by the chief justice, and as energetically repeated by Adams. This, ceremony over, the new president took his seat, but rose shortly after, bowed to all around, and retired. He was soon followed by the vice-president, not, however, without ceremonious efforts on his part to induce Washington to take the precedence. This was the last time that Jefferson and Washington ever met. As Washington followed the vice-president, the shouts were redoubled both in and out of the House. He was sumptuously entertained that same evening by the mer chants and other citizens of Philadelphia, and having been the first person to pay his respects to the new pres ident, by waiting upon him at his own house, he de parted a few days after for Mount Vernon, receiving on his way every mark of attention and regard. This homage to Washington, and the strong hold he still maintained on the affections of the American peo- LIBELS ON WASHINGTON. 43 pie, Were gall and Wormwood to the Aurora and the more chapter X. furious Democrats. Indeed, the open countenance and support which the Aurora received from Jefferson and 1797. other leaders of the Republican party, made them, in a certain degree at least, the endorsers of its sentiments. The following communication, dated on the day of Ad ams's inauguration — believed to be from the pen of Dr. Michael Leib, a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, whose maiden speech the year before had called out from Jefferson, in a letter to Giles, warm congratulations that " honest republicanisni" had made such an acquisition, and expressions of high hopes from a career which began on such elevated ground — appeared in that paper of the sixth of March : " ' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,' was the pibus ejaculation of a man who beheld a flood of happiness rushing in upon mankind. If ever there was a time which would license the reiteration of this exclamation" — so wrote this correspondent pf the Au rora — " that time is now arrived, for the man who is the source of all the misfortunes of our country is this day reduced to a level with his fellow-citizens, and is no longer possessed of power to multiply evils upon the United 8tat«s. If ever there was a period for rejoicing, this is the moment. Every heart in unison with the free dom and happiness of the people Pught to beat high with exultation that the name of Washington from this day ceases to give a currency to political iniquity and to le galized corruption. A new era is now opening upon us — an era which proraises rnuch to the people, for public measures must now stand upon their own merits, and nefarious projects can no longer be supported by a name. When a retrospect is taken of the Washingtonian ad ministration for eight years, it is a subject of the great- 44 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter est astonishment that a single individual should have conquered the principles of republicanism in an enlight- 1797. ened people just emerged from the gulf of despotism, and should have carried his designs against the public liber ty so far as to have put in jeopardy its very existence. Such, however, are the facts, and, with these staring us in the face, this day ought to be a jubilee in the United States !" Not content with this article and others in the same strain, and provoked by Washington's formal denuncia tion ofthe forged letters which political hatred had revived and published as his, the Aurora, no doubt with French assistance, gave a new specimen of its spite by reproduc ing the old calumny of Washington's " assassination" of Jumonville at the commencement of the war of 1753. It is not much to be wondered at that the editor and pub lisher of the Aurora, having paid a visit with a party of friends to the frigate United States, then on the stocks at Philadelphia, and being recognized by the son of the contractor, received at his hands a very severe beating, which many thought was no more than he deserved. Even the moderate Webster had remarked in his Miner va, that however such libels on Washington might be tol erated in PhUadelphia, their publisher would hardly be able to visit New England without danger of a coat of tar and feathers. And, indeed, Bache found it necessary to appease the public clamor against him by calling atten- tion to the fact that the article above quoted was not written by him, but came from a correspondent. While thus furious against Washington, the Aurora, in conformity with the policy of the Republican leaders, and to the signal thrown out by Jefferson in his inau gural address, treated the new president with great court esy ; found in his speech much to admire ; and expressed POLICY OF ADAMS. 45 great satisfaction that neither he nor Jefferson had been chapter X. "tricked out of their election" by the " vile and detesta- ble artifices" of Hamilton. 1797. However well pleased the new president might be with these signs of relaxation on the part of the opposi tion, he was yet by no means inclined to separate him self from those who had supported Washington's admin istration, and to whom he was indebted for the success orship. Wolcott certainly, and probably also the other cabinet officers, had tendered their resignations ; but Adams had declined to accept them, and the cabinet remained as Washington left it. At the same time, Adams was well disposed to avaU himself of the aid of the leaders of the opposition in meeting that crisis with respect to France which was now evidently approaching. Pinckney!s dispatches were still behind-hand, but ru mors had arrived that the Directory had refused to receive him. The president already entertained the idea of an other and a more solemn mission, and, indeed, the same thing was suggested to him the very morning after his inauguration by Ames and Tracy, acting on the part of Hamilton and his special friends. Adams had thought of employing Jefferson on this mission ; but the doubts recurred which Washington had formerly entertained in Adams's own case, if, being vice-president, he could prop erly accept it. He waited on Jefferson, told him as much, and mentioned Madison as a proper envoy, to be joined by a colleague or two. As Madison had constantly re fused all appointments under Washington's administra tion, Jefferson gave no encouragement that he would ac cept ; indeed, it is stated that Madison positively refused. But, before this refusal, Adams had encountered such op position from Wolcott, the only member of his cabinet whom he consulted as to this matter, as to induce him 46 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter to draw back from the offer. According to Adams's ac- " count, given many years after, the person he had thought 1797. of as a colleague for Madison was Hamilton himself; ac cording to Jefferson, he mentioned Gerry. This was the end, for the present at least, of all con sultations between Adams and Jefferson as to public af fairs. Pinckney's dispatches arrived a few days after ; and the very different views taken by the president and the vice-president as to the conduct of the French Di rectory, and the policy to be adopted, made any co-opera tion between them impossible. 1796. It appeared from these dispatches that, the next day Dec. 9. after Pinckney's arrival, he and Monroe had waited to gether on De la Croix, the French minister of Foreign Affairs, and, agreeably to an intimation previously given to Monroe, had delivered to him, Pinckney, his letters of credence, and Monroe his letters of recall. The min ister received them with great stiffness ; but, relaxing a little, promised to lay these documents before the Direct ory, and to send Pinckney and his secretary " letters of hospitality," without which no stranger oould remain at Paris. Pinckney's letter of credence declared him to be sent "to maintain that good understanding which, from the commencement of the alliance, had subsisted between the two nations, and to efface unfounded impressions, banish suspicions, and restore that cordiality which was at once the evidence and pledge of a friendly union." Dec. 12. Three days after, De la Croix sent to Monroe a form al written notification that the Directory would not re ceive another minister plenipotentiary from the United States tUl after that redress of grievances which the French government had a right to expect. Yet there might, notwithstanding this determination, subsist be tween the French republic and the American " people" PINCKNEY AT PARIS. 47 "the affection founded upon former benefits and reciprocal chapter interests — an affection," so the note concluded, "which you yourself have taken a pleasure in cultivating by 1796. every means in your power." The next morning Pinckney wrote to De la Croix, Dec. la expressing his regret at the determination of the Direct ory — a determination for the knowledge of which, as he had received no notice of it hiraself, he had been indebt ed to the politeness of Mr. Monroe, who had not even been asked - to make the communication. Under these circumstances, he desired to know if it were the wish of the Directory that he should quit the territories of the republic immediately, or whether he might remain till he heard from America. To Pinckney's private secre tary, by whose hand this note was sent, De la Croix stated that, since the recall of Monroe, the Directory knew of no American minister ; as to Pinckney's going or staying, he would obtain orders from the Directory, and then send an answer. Two or three days after, a secre- Dec. 15. tary of De la Croix's informed Pinckney that, as the Di rectory did not intend to acknowledge him as minister, and did not raean to give him leave to stay, he would fall under the general law forbidding strangers to reside at Paris without special permission. Upon Pinckney's suggesting that his baggage had not yet arrived frora Bordeaux, and desiring to be informed whether he might wait for it, the secretary promised that the Directory should be consulted, intimating also that the answer would probably be given through the minister of police. To this Pinckney decidedly objected, insisting upon his diplomatic character made known to the French gov ernment by his letters of credence delivered to and re ceived by their Secretary of State. Though ordered to quit the French territories, he was still entitled to a pass- 48 HISTORY OF THE UNITED S7ATES. chapter port and letters of safe-conduct, which were granted to ' ministers even in case of war, and to which his claira 1796. was so much the stronger as the two nations were still at peace. Here the matter rested for some time, the French government ^(vaiting probably to hear the result Dec. 26. of the presidential election. When Pinckney sent his secretary again to De la Croix, he disavowed the prom ise made by his messenger to consult the Directory ; ex pressed great surprise that Pinckney was not satisfied; and intimated that, if he did not depart soon, the minis ter of police would be informed of the fact. But as an order in writing for Pinckney's departure was refused, he resolved to remain till his passports were sent, or some other unequivocal step were taken. While Pinckney was thus treated with studied neg lect and insult, the facile Monroe was made to figure in a new scene — an epilogue fitly corresponding to the pro logue of his fraternal reception. His recall had wiped away all the temporary suspicions against him, and had satisfied the Directory that he really was, what he had ever professed to be, enthusiastically devoted to France. It was hardly, however, as a personal compliment to Monroe that the present scene was got up, but rather as a direct insult to the American government and their new minister — a signal thrown out to the French party Dec. 30. in the United States. Honored with a formal reception by the Directory to present his letters of recall and to take his leave, Monroe struck an agreeable note in warm ly acknowledging "the important services rendered by France to America." He also congratulated the repub lic on her victories, and on "the dawn of prosperity un der the auspices of a wise and excellent Constitution •" expressing also his earnest wishes for that " close union and perfect harmony" between France and America, the COMPLIMENTS TO MONROE. 49 promotion of which had been his sole object in accepting chapter the mission, and, since his acceptance of it, the object of ' his "utmost exertions." 1796. So unfortunate as to have fallen under the displeas ure and the censure of Washington, from whom he had derived his appointment, Monroe for this, doubtless^ found ample compensation in t"^e approbation and ap plause of Barras, president of the Directory. "Mr. Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of Amer ica" — such was the reply of Barras — "by presenting this day to the Executive Directory your letter of recall, you offer a very strange spectacle to Europe. Rich in hrer freedom, surrounded by the train of her victories, strong in the esteem of her allies, France will not stoop to calculate the consequences of the condescension of the American government to the wishes of its ancient tyrants. The French republic expects, however, that the successors of Columbus, Raleigh, and Penn, always proud of their liberty, will never forget that they owe it to France. They will weigh in their wisdom the magnanimous friendship of the French people with the crafty caresses of perfidious men, who meditate to bring them again un der their former yoke. Assure the good people of Amer ica, Mr. Minister, that, like them, we admire liberty ; that they will always possess our esteem, and find in the French people that republican generosity which knows how to grant peace as well as how to cause its sovereign ty to be respected. As for you, Mr. Minister Plenipo tentiary, you have ever battled for principles ; you have known the true interest of your country. Depart with our regret. We restore in you a representative to Amer ica; we preserve the remembrance of a citizen whose personal qualities did honor to that title." While Monroe was dismissed in these flattering terms, v.— D 50 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter the position of Pinckney was by no means pleasant. ^' The insolence of the French republic grew with its vic- 1797. tories. While Hoche was preparing to invade Ireland, where the United Irishmen were ready to join him, Bo naparte in Italy was overwhelming the Austrians with repeated defeats. Thirteen foreign ministers had been already sent off. The republic of Genoa had been obliged to renounce its neutrality, and to purchase pardon for having attempted to preserve it by the payment of near ly a million of dollars. Talleyrand, late a refugee in America, but recently returned to France, had told the Directory, so Pinckney was informed, that the United States were of no greater consequence and need be treated with no greater ceremony than Genoa. News having reached Paris of Bonaparte's great victory at Rivoli, securing, by the repulse of Alvinzi, the surrender of Mantua and the possession of all Northern Italy ; and Washington's speech at the opening of the late session of Congress having also arrived, together with the an- Jan. 25. swer of the Senate, De la Croix, in the name of the Di rectory, notified Pinckney that, having already resided in Paris nearly two months without special permission, he had become amenable to the law. Having thus obtained that notification in writing which he deemed essential, Pinckney wrote the next day for passports, and having Feb. 3. obtained them, speedily departed for Holland. Meanwhile the French cruisers were busily employed in giving new proofs of that " republican generosity" of which Barras had boasted in his farewell to Monroe. Constant captures were made of American vessels on the ground of having enemy's property on board. When carried into France, the validity of these prizes was de termined, in the first instance, by a new set of local tri bunals lately erected, and principally composed of mer- FRENCH DEPREDATIONS. 51 cantile men, many of whom were themselves interested chapter in privateers, and who made it a point to conderan, on sorae pretext or other, almost every vessel brought in. 1797. If an appeal were taken to the High Court of Cassation, the law officer of the Directory was authorized to refer the whole case to the minister of justice, in cffder that the opinion of the government might be taken. Thus the final decision depended, not upon any treaty provisions or established rules of international law, nor upon any principles of justice or equity, but upon the policy of the governraent for the time being. Pretenses, indeed, had been lately set up sufficient to insure the condemnation of every American vessel. An old ante-Revolutionary or dinance authorized French ships of war to arrest and bring in as pirates all vessels not having a role d'equi- page, that is, articles containing a list of^ the crew, signed by the seamen, and countersigned by some public officer. But as no such counter-signature was required by the American law, no American vessel had it. An other of these old ordinances required, as a necessary proof of neutrality, a national sea-letter, a document lit tle known in America, and with which vessels were never provided except when bound upon some new voyage among barbarous nations. The treaty between France and the United States had, indeed, specified the form of a passport to serve in time of war as proof of the na tionality of French and American vessels ; but to pass ports in that form it was presently objected, that as the treaty was set aside, the Americans must conform to the standing French law above referred to. Merlin, minis ter of justice, the same who, as president of the Conven tion, had given to Monroe the fraternal embrace, and who was believed to be hiraself largely interested as a secret partner in privateers, wrote a treatise, of which .52 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter the object was to show that the want of a sea-letter was good ground of capture. What was rtiost mortifying of 1797. aU, several of the privateers by which the most import ant captures were made had been fitted out and were commanded by Americans, sharers in the enthusiasm of citizens Monroe and Barney for the French republic, and who, in their eagerness to punish and plunder the ene mies of France, were constantly stimulating the Direct ory to new extravagances and new decrees. • The French consuls at Malaga and Cadiz, who exercised the author ity of courts of admiralty, and the special agents of the Directory in the West Indies, outdid even the domestic tribunals. Of the vessels thus condemned, the crews were placed in confinement, and treated with all the harshness of prisoners of war. Mar. 25. Upon the receipt of Pinckney's dispatches, a proclama tion was imraediately issued convening a special session of Congress. The outrages and insults of the French Di rectory were not without their effect upon public opinion. The Aurora, and the raore zealous partisans of France, still labored to throw all the blarae of the French captures, and of the insults to Pinckney and the American govern ment, on Jay's treaty ;, but among the more moderate and rational part of the community enthusiastic partiality for France began to decUne. It could not but have a cer tain effect upon the merchants that, almost simultaneous ly with the increase of French captures, commenced the issue, by the commissioners under Jay's treaty, of decrees of compensation for former British captures. The French and American flags intertwined, which, cut in tin, had or namented for three years the coffee-rooms in New York where the merchants were accustomed to assemble, after having been the occasion of several quarrels, were now finally removed by a formal vote of the proprietors. JEFFERSON'S MAZZEI LETTER. 53 This change of sentiment Was pei'ceptible, also, in chapter the congressional election going on in Virginia, as well I as in the state election of Massachhsetts. Induced by 1797. increasing age and waning popularity, Samuel Adams declined a re-election as governor df that state, and In crease Sumner, the Federal candidate, was elected by a April. decided majority. The opposition vote was divided be tween Gill, the late lieutenant governor, and James Sul livan, the attorney general, a brother of the late General SuUivan, of New Hampshire, one of the few New En gland men of distinguished talents and social eminence who arranged themselves on the so-called Republican side. Nor was the cause of the opposition much aided by the appearance in print just at this moment of Jeffer- May. son's famous letter to Mazzei, of which that gentleman had published an Italian translation in a newspaper at Florence, whence the Moniteur, the official paper of the French government, had given a version in French, as proof that the views of the Directory were shared by some ofthe most virtuous and enlightened citizens of America ; affording ground to hope that the late vigorous proceed ings of the French government would give rise to dis cussions leading to a triumph of " the party of good Re publicans, the friends of France." This letter to Maz zei, the material parts of which there has been already oc casion to quote, amounted, in fact, td a general endorse ment, under Jefferson's own hand, of all the charges against Washington and his administration, lately urged in the Aurora, Argus, Chronicle, and other Democratic organs;, and its publication brought to a final end the hitherto friendly, though of late somewhat ceremonious intercourse between Washington and Jefferson. Profes sions of friendship io his face, and secret aspersions bo- hind his back, were what Washington oould not endure. 54 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter It has even been reported and extensively believed — ^' though when this report, at the end of some twenty-sev- 1797. en years, finally got into print, Jefferson, in a letter to Mr. Van Buren (June 29, 1824), most strenuously de nied it — that the publication of the letter to Mazzei drew out from Washington a very sharp rebuke, and from Jefferson a humble and submissive apology ; letters, so it was alleged, which disappeared mysteriously from among Washington's papers by the supposed agency of Tobias Lear, his private secretary, with whom Jefferson appears to have maintained a confidential intercourse, and to whom he gave a foreign diplomatic appointment shortly after his accession to the presidency. Even apart from Jefferson's positive denial, the evidence of the above story is wholly insufficient ; yet Jefferson's attempt, in the let ter in which that denial was made, to show that the let ter to Mazzei contained no allusions to Washington ; that the reference to " the Samsons in the field and the Sol omons in the council, whose heads had been shorn by the harlot England," was meant for the Cincinnati general ly ; and that Washington must have perfectly understood that those phrases could not have any application to him self, must be pronounced an evident after-thought. Such was not Jefferson's opinion at the time of the publication ; Aug. 3. for, in a cotemporaneous letter to Madison, he gave as reasons for his entire silence in public as to the Mazzei letter, that he could not deny it to be his, because, though badly translated, it was his in substance, while to avow it, so the letter continued, " would render proofs of the whole necessary, and draw me at length into a publica tion of all, even the secret transactions of the adminis tration while I was of it, and embroil me personally with every member of the executive, with the judiciary, and others still ;" nor could it be avowed without bringing NEW DECREE AGAINST AMERICAN COMMERCE. 55 on, such is Jefferson's express statement, " a personal chapter X. difference between General Washington and myself, which nothing before the publication of this letter had 1797. ever done. It would embroU me, also, with aU those with whom his character is still popular, that is td say, nine tenths of the people of the United States." Had it been only the Cincinnati who were aimed at— a subterfuge not then thought of — it could hardly have been neces sary for Jefferson to have labored so hard as he did to convince Madison that it could not justly be inferred from his silence that he was afraid to avow the general senti ments of the letter. Just before the meeting of Congress, news arrived that May 10. the Directory had signified their disgust at the failure of Jefferson to be elected president by the issue, so soon as that information had been received, of a decree against March s. American commerce, purporting to define the authority granted to the French cruisers by the decree of July 2, 1796. By this new decree the treaty with America was declared to be so far modified as to make American ves sels and their cargoes liable to capture for any cause rec ognized as lawful ground of capture by the British treaty. By an additional and most extraordinary provision, any Americans found serving on board hostile armed vessels were to be treated as pirates, even although they might plead compulsion in excuse. In other words, American citizens impressed by the British were made liable to be hanged by the French. Violent as the Democratic pa pers were, and justly enough too, against British impress ment, they had not a word to say against this most ex traordinary French offset to that practice. This decree, in its practical application, proved much more fatal to American commerce than might have been supposed from its terms being construed by the tribunals into a justi- 56 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter fication of the capture of American vessels for not having a role d! equipage. 1797. "This decree," so, some time after its issue, wrote Barlow to his brother-in-law Baldwin, "was meant to be little short of a declaration of war." " The govern ment here," such was the statement of this recreant American, " was determined to fleece you to a sufficient degree to bring you to your feeling in the only nerve in which your sensibility lay, whieh was your pecuniary interest." The idea, indeed, of a war with France was far from being agreeable to any body. Though, among the more reflecting part of the community, enthusiasm in her favor had greatly subsided, fear and dread had replaced it. France at this time was terrible alike to her friends and her enemies. The so-called patriotic or Republican party in Holland, having called in the French to help in over turning the old government, had become their submiss ive tools, compelled to register their edicts, and to find them money whenever called upon. Spain, since her al liance with France, was hardly more independent. Both Spain and HoUand, as appeared from the papers laid be fore Congress along with Pinckney's dispatches, taking their cue from France, had already begun to complain of the provisions of the British treaty on the subject of con traband, and the seizure of enemy's goods in American ves sels, as infractions of their rights under their treaties with the United States, of which the provisions on these sub jects were similar to those of the treaty with France. In delaying to give up the posts on the Mississippi, and in postponing the joint survey ofthe Florida boundary, Spain was believed to act by the instigation of the French Di rectory, suspected of intending to obtain for themselves a cession of Louisiana and the Floridas, as they already had VIEWS OF HAMILTON. 57 done of the eastern part of Hispaniola. A French agent chapter had been lately arrested in Kentucky, sent thither, as ' was believed, by Adet, to renew the former intrigue for 1797. the separation of the Western country from the Ameri can Union, and its junction with Louisiana. The fate of Genoa, in being compelled to relinquish her neutrality, has already been referred to. Implacable toward En gland, France had required Hamburg to break off all commerce with her ; and the same demand had been ex tended to Bremen and to Denmark. Heche's expedition against Ireland had failed ; but Bonaparte was pressing hard upon the last remaining ally of Great Britain, and Austria, it was plain, would soon be forced to a peace. Discouraged by the bad success of her allies, Great Britain herself had for some time been attempting to' ne gotiate. What might be the fate of the United States if, with a violent French faction in their own bosom, a general peace- should be concluded in Europe, leaving the American difficulties with France unsettled, and the sis ter republic at Hberty to send thither a fraternizing army under Hoche or Bonaparte ? How moderate were the views of the leading Federal ists, is apparent from a letter of Hamilton to Wolcott, March 30. written sdme six weeks before the meeting of Congress, and very shortly after the arrival of Pinckney's dispatch es : " It has been a considerable time my wish," so reads this letter, "that a commission extraordinary should be constituted to go to France. I was particularly anxious that the first measure of the new president's administra tion should have been that; but it has not so happened. I still continue to wish earnestly that the same measure may go into effect, and that the meeting of the Senate may be accelerated for that purpose. Without opening a new channel of negotiation, it seems to me the door of 58 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER accommodation is shut, and rupture will follow if not pre- X. vented by a general peace. Who, indeed, can be cer- 1797. tain that a general pacification of Europe may not leave us alone to receive the law from France ? WUl it be wise to omit any thing to parry, if possible, these great risks ? But the Directory have declared that they wifl not receive a minister till their grievances shall have been redressed. This can hardly mean more than that they will not receive a resident minister. It can not mean that they will not hear an extraordinary messenger, who may even be sent to know what will satisfy. But sup pose they do. It will still be well to convince the peo ple that the government has done all in its power, and that the Directory are unreasonable. But the enemies of the government call for the measure. To me, this is a very strong reason for pursuing it. It will meet them on their own ground, and disarm them of the plea that something has been omitted. I ought, my good friend, to apprise you, for you may learn it from no other, that a suspicion begins to dawn among the friends of the gov ernment that the actual administration (ministers) is not averse from a war with France. How very important to obviate this. As in the case of England, so now, my opinion is to exhaust the expedient of negotiation, and, at the same time, to prepare vigorously for the worst. This is sound policy. Any omission or deficiency either way will be a great error." Wolcott, whose remonstrances, as we have seen, had contributed to prevent the institution of such a mission as Hamilton wished, was hardly ready to yield to these suggestions. He was not satisfied that the government had not already done aU that the occasion justified. The demands of France required, so he thought, a surrender of national independence, not to be yielded except to the VIEWS OF WOLCOTT. gg most extreme necessity. "The idea," so he wrote in chapter x. reply, " of a commi.ssion consisting of Mr. Madison, or . any one like him, I must own to you, is one which I can 1797. never adopt without the utmost reluctance. I have no March 3i. confidence in Mr. Madison ; he has been a frequenter of Adet's political parties. I have just been informed that Adet has suggested the idea of sending this gentleman. We know that the French count upon the support of a party in this country, and so shameless is the faction grown, that positive proof of a devotion to French views is with many no injury to a man's popularity. If the government suffers France to dictate what description of men shall be appointed to foreign courts, our country is undone. From that moment the confidence of all the old-fashioned, honorable, and virtuous men of the interior is irrevocably lost." " I have no objection to sending a man of neutral politics, if he is a man of sincere firmness and integrity. General Pinckney is of this description. If a commission is generally preferred, it is a point, per haps, not to be contested ; but how can the commission be composed ? From what was on the point of being done, I presume Mr. Cabot can not be brought forward. If a man of his principles were to be associated with Mr. Madison, either nothing would be done, or something worse than nothing. Mr. Madison would insist upon a subraission to France, or would obstruct a settlement, and throw the disgrace of failure upon the friends of gov ernment. The present is a moment of apparent tran- quUlity, but I conjecture it is a calm which forebodes a hurricane. The executive will either find a strong and steady gale from one point, or be assailed with a tornado which will throw every thing into confusion. I predict that no treaty, no compromise, no concession will afford security. Revenue is essential, and there will, I fear, be 60 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter insuperable objections started by the friends and enemies " of government. Credit has been abused and exhausted 1797. in senseless speculations. "You know that I am accustomed to respect your opinions, and, at any rate, I am not so ignorant of the extent of your influence with the friends of government as not to be sensible that if you are known to favor the sending of a commission, either nothing will be done, or your opinion will prevail. In this case, what will be the objection to sending Mr. IngersoU of this city, or some such character, to be united with General Pinckney and John Quincy Adams, or with Mr. Murray, to rendezvous at Amsterdam until the consent of France to renew nego tiations can be obtained ? Is a direct mission to France, of which Mr. Madison is to be a member, in your view indispensable ? " I should be sorry if the friends of government should consider me, or any of the public officers, as desirous of producing a war with France, because I should consider this as evidence that our affairs are desperate. If the public pulse does not beat higher than that of govern ment, all is over. So far as individual characters are affected, pubHc opinion is of no consequence; but the pub lic opinion in regard to measures is of the utmost conse quence. There ought to be a zeal for strenuous meas ures, and this zeal ought to be an engine in the hands of the executive for preserving peace. I think I can as sure you that the movehients of our political machine can not be adjusted to a minute scale, and that if the direction is attempted to be varied, its future course will be nearly opposite to the present." This last paragraph is Well worthy of notice as a remarkable specimen of po litical sagacity. Aprils. "I hope nothing in my last letter," wrote HamUton VIEWS OF HAMILTON. gj in reply, " was misunderstood. ' Could it, be necessary, I chapter would assure you that no one has a stronger conviction than myself of the purity of the motives which direct 1797. your public conduct, or of the good sense and judgment by which it is guided. If I have a fear (you wiU excuse my frankness), it is lest the strength of your feelings, the companion of energy of character, should prevent that pliancy to circumstances which is sometimes indispens able. " The situation of our country is singularly critical. There is too much reason to apprehend that the Emperor of Germany, in danger from Russia and Prussia, and perhaps from the Porte, may be compelled to yield to the views of FrancCi England, standing alone, may be com pelled to yield also. It is certain that great consternar tion in court and country attends the intelHgence of Bonaparte's last victories. To be in rupture with France, united with England alone, or singly as is pos sible, would be a most unwelcome situation. Divided as we are, who can say what would be hazarded by it ? In such a situation, it appears to rne, we should rather, err on the side of condescension than on the opposite side. We ought to do every thing to avoid rupture without unworthy sacrifices, and to keep in view, as a primary object, union at home. No measure can tend more to this than an extraordinary mission. To fulfiU the ends proposed, it is certain that it ought to embrace a char acter in whom France and the opposition have full reli^ ance. What risk can attend sending Madison, if cora bined, as I propose, with Pinckney, or Cabot, or such a man ? Pinckney is a man of honor, and loves his coun try. Cabot we both know. Besides, there ought to be certain leading instructions from which they may not deviate. I agree with you that we have nothing to re- 62 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER tract ; that we ought to risk every thing before we sub- ^ mit to dishonorable terms. But we may remold our 1797. treaties. We may agree to put France on the same foot ing with Great Britain by our treaty with her. We may also liquidate, with a view to future wars, the im port of the mutual guarantee in the treaty of alliance, substituting specific succors, and defining the casus fm- deris. This last may or may not be done, though, with me, it is a favorite object. IngersoU will not answer the purpose ; but I had rather have him than do nothing. If Madison is well coupled, I do not think his intrigues can operate as you imagine. Should he advocate dis honorable concessions to France, the public opinion will not support him. His colleagues, by address, and show ing a disposition to do enough, may easily defeat his pol icy and maintain the public confidence. Besides, it is possible that too much may be taken for granted with regard to Mr. Madison." While the sending of a new mission to France was thus zealously urged in his private correspondence by Hamilton, a similar course was warmly recommended by the leaders of the opposition, to whom the news of Pinck ney's expulsion from France had given a certain shock. March 30. An article in the Aurora, very different from the usual ribald style of that journal, and which, from internal evi dence, was ascribed to Madison, apologized for the re fusal to receive Pinckney on the ground that, as the Di rectory had suspended their ordinary minister here, they could not receive an ordinary minister from the United States. It was therefore urged that what was done in the case of Gjeat Britain should be imitated now, and that, " suitably to the solemnity of the occasion," an en voy extraordinary should be appointed, to carry with him the " temper and sensibilities of the country." FIFTH CONGRESS. 63 Though the president had already made up his mind chapter to send an extraordinary mission, he still conformed to the practice of Washington in taking the written opin- 1797. ions of his cabinet. Wolcott retained his original opin ion as to the inexpediency of a new mission, and Pick- exing coincided with him. Pickering, indeed, from his naturally inflexible temper, was Hable, even more than Wolcott, to the danger suggested by Hamilton, that the strength of his feelings might prevent that pliability. tp circurastances which is sometimes indispensable in pol itics. They consented, indeed, to the appointment of ministers, but were of opinion that they should not en ter France without a passport previously obtained, and a formal agreement of the French government to a re newal of negotiations. On the day fixed by the president's proclamation, a May 13. full quorum of both houses of Congress assembled at Philadelphia. The Senate, which, during the greater part of Washington's administration, had been so equally divided that many important measures had been carried by the casting vote of the vice-president, had now a de cided Federal majority; What would be the character of the House was considered, uncertain. That body had undergone considerable changes. Ames had retired on account of his health. Madison, also, had declined a re election, but his retirement was the less felt by his party, inasmuch as the superior promptitude and audacity of Gallatin had completely taken the leadership out of his hands — a circumstance, possibly, which had contributed to his retirement. Page, also, had ceased to be a mem ber. Among the old members on the Federal side were Goodrich and Griswold, of Connecticut ; Dayton, of New Jersey ; Hartley, Kittera, and Sitgreaves, of Pennsylva nia ; and Harper and Smith, of South Carolina. Among 64 HISTORY OF THB UNITED STATES. chapter the new members on this side were Harrison Gray Otis, the successor of Ames, and Isaac Parker and Samuel 1797. Sewall, both afterward chief justices of Massachusetts, of whom the former had superseded Dearb,prn ; James A, Bayard, of Delaware, and John Rutledge, Jr., of South Carolina. That Rutledge should vote with the Feder alists, and thus make an equal division of the delegation from South Carolina, was very disagreeable to Jefferson. General Morgan, distinguished in the Revolutionary war, one of the new members from Virginia, after a little wav ering finally joined the Federalists. The opposition could boast of old members, Varnum, of Massachusetts ; Livingston, of New York ; Gallatin, Findley i and Swanwick, of Pennsylvania ; Samuel Smith, of Maryland, who had now finally settled down on the Republican side ; Giles, Nicholas, Parker, and Venable, of Virginia ; Macon, of North Carolina ; and Baldwin, of Georgia. Sumter, pf South Carolina, who had been a member of the first and second Congress, now also again reappeared in the ranks, of the opposition. Among the new opposition members were Matthew Lyon, of Ver mont, and Blair M'ClenachaUj of Pennsylvania. Neither party could be said to have a raajority. Every thing depended upon a few wavering individuals, to gain over whora both sides made every exertion. Dayton, a very ambitious man, who strove as far as possible to please both sides, was re-elected speaker. The old clerk Bex ley, a very warm partisan of the opposition, and suspect ed, on gopd grpunds, of having furnished materials for some of the bitter personal newspaper attacks on Wash ington, was, much to the deUght of the Federalists, su perseded by a single vote. The president's speech began with what has since be come the regular formula for the commencement of such PRESIDENT'S SPEECH. 65 docuraents — devout congratulations on the public pros- chapter X. perity ; after which followed an account of the treatment . experienced by Pinckney. " As it is often necessary," 1797. so the speech continued, " that nations should treat for the mutual advantage of their affairs, and especially to accommodate and terminate differences, and as they can treat only by ministers, the right of embassy is well known and established by the law of nations. The re fusal on the part of France to receive our rainister is, then, the denial of a right ; but the refusal to receive hira until we have acceded to their deraands, witheut discussion and without investigation, is to treat us nei ther as allies nor as friends, nor as a sovereign state." " With this conduct of the French government, it will be proper to take into view the public audience given to the late minister of the United States on his taking leave of the Executive Directory. The speech of the president discloses sentiments more alarming than the refusal of a minister, because more dangerous to our independence and union, and, at the same time, studiously marked with indignities toward the government of the United States. It evinces a disposition to separate the people frpm the gpvernment, te persuade the people that they have differ- e.it affections, principles, and interests from those of their fellow-citizens, whom they themselves have chosen to manage their common concerns, and thus to produce divi sions fatal to our peace. Such attempts ought to be re pelled with a decision which shall convince France and the world that we are not a degraded people, humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear and sense of inferiority, fit ted to be the miserable instruments of foreign influence, and regardless of national honor, character, and interest." In spite, however, of these injuries, a desire was ex pressed, in which Congress and the people were presumed v.— E 66 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER to concur, to preserve peace and friendship with all na- _____ tions; and in the belief that neither the honor nor the 1797. interest of the United States absolutely forbade the rep etition of advances to France, the intention was stated to send a new mission thither. The president at the same time pressed upon Congress the creation of a navy, as, "next to the miHtia, the natural defense of the United States ;" the fortification of harbors ; the passage of laws authorizing, under proper regulations, the arming of merchant vessels in their own defense — a practice hitherto not permitted, except in case of vessels bound to the East Indies. It was also recommended to enact severe punishments against the "unnatural and iniqui tous practices" of building privateers in the United States to cruise against American commerce, and against the serving of American citizens on board of such pri vateers. "For myself," the speech concluded, "having never been indifferent to what concerned the interest of my country ; devoted the best part of my life to obtain and support its independence ; and having constantly wit nessed the patriotism, fidelity, and perseverance of my feUow-citizens on the most trying occasions, it is not for ine to hesitate, or to abandon a cause in which my heart has been so long engaged. "Convinced that the conduct of the government has been just and impartial to foreign nations ; that those internal regulations which have been established by law for the preservation of peace are in their nature proper, and that they have been fairly executed, nothing will ever be done by me to impair the national engageraents ; to innovate upon principles which have been so deliber ately and uprightly established ; or to surrender in any manner the rights of the governraent. To enable me ANSWERS TO THE SPEECH. QT to maintain this declaration, I rely, under God, with en- chapter tire confidence on the firm and enlightenecj support of the national Legislature, and upon the virtue and patriot- 1797. ism of my fellow-citizens," This declaration of fixed purpose^ to persevere in the policy of the late administration dashed at once the hopes of the opposition of separating the new president from the Federal party ; and forthwith the Aurora, lately sp full pf ccmpliments, commenced to assaU him as " presi dent by three votes." The Senate found no difficulty in agreeing to an an swer, which, en the whole, notwithstanding some soft sentences, was fully responsive to the speech. A mo tion to strike out a clause of it, declaring the Senate's perfect union with the president, was lost by the deci sive vote of eleven to sixteen. Vice-president Jefferson May 23. thus found himself obliged to put his signature to a doc ument to which his own sentiments by no means corre sponded. The arrival of additional senators increased the Federal majority by two or three votes. Even the wav- erers in the House did not escape the influence of the president's firm and decided tone, and the answer, as originally reported, echoed back the sentiments of the speech with tolerable distinctness. This, however, was a tone in which the opposition did not desire to speak ; and Nicholas moved a number of amendments, of which May 22. the object was to avoid any express approval of the policy hitherto pursued by the government, or the use of any strong expressions, such as might increase the anger of the offended Directory. One of these amendments con tained a suggestion that an offer should be made to place France, as to contraband and enemies' goods, upon the same ground conceded to Great Britain in the late treaty, and the expression of a hope that this offer raight prove satisfactory. 68 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter Those same gentlemen of the opposition who, twelve ^ months before, in arguing for the rejection of Jay's 1797. treaty, had spoken so lightly of a war with Great Brit ain, now seemed to be exceedingly impressed with the calamities which must attend a war with France. Sen sitive as they had been to injury or insult from Great Britain, toward France they exhibited a most saint-like patience. Nicholas, so he said, felt the insult to Pinck ney ; but he thought it very necessary to get rid of that irritation which injury produces, and to proceed in the most calm and dispassionate manner. Indeed, he argued at length to show that the insult to Pinckney was not so great after all ; that the real causes of his rejection were that his letters of credence made no special mention of the complaints recently urged by the French, and his being invested with no extraordinary powers to negotiate on that subject. " It might, perhaps, be the opinion of some that he was improperly influenced by party zeal in favor of the French — a zeal which had been blazoned forth as existing in an immoderate degree in this coun try. But where was the proof of this charge ? For his own part, he had no intercourse with the French but of the commonest kind. On his first coming into this House the French were embroiled with all their neigh bors, who were endeavoring to tear them to pieces. Knowing what had been the situation of this country when engaged in a similar cause, he was anxious for their success. And was there not reason for anxiety when a nation,' contending for the right of self-govern ment, was thus attacked ? especially since it was well known that if the powers engaged against France had proved successful, this country would have been their next object. Had they not the strongest proof, in the declaration of one of the British colonial governors, that HOUSE DEBATE ON THE ANSWER. gg it was the intention of England to declare war against chapter America, in case of the successful termination of the war against France? He would mention another reason for 1797. his sensibility in favor of the French cause, and that was because he found so much indifference to it in this part of the Union. He could not tell how it was that a disposi tion unfavorable to republicanism had arisen here. He shuddered for his country when he found such a dispo sition prevailing in any part of it ; and it was to coun teract this disposition that he opposed a contrary zeal, though he was not conscicus pf having been over-zeal ous." While allowing all due weight to this defense against the charge of belonging to a French faction, we ought, at the same time, in justice to the Federalists, to recol lect the grounds on which Nicholas and his friends had maintained the existence, in the United States, of an English anti-Republican faction, controlling, as they al leged, the policy of the government. The slightest dis play of moderation toward Great Britain had sufficed with them as foundation for the charge of being under British influence. To have opposed Madison's resolu tions for discriminations against British comraerce — to have been in favor of Jay's treaty, were, in their eyes, proofs entirely sufficient to establish this imputation. But if British influence could thus be proved, was not the argument equally good and ten times as strong for the existence of a French influence, especially against a man like Nicholas, who proceeded to argue, in the con clusion of his speech, in the very track of Adet and the French Directory, that, by ratifying Jay's treaty, the United States had abandoned the position of neutrality, and had given to France just cause of complaint ? In reply to Nicholas, Sraith, of South Carolina, main- 70 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER tained " that the insult to Pinckney was plainly a stud- X. ip.f1 one. The French government were resolved to use 1797. this country as an instrument for ruining the commerce of Great Britain — an object on which they had set their hearts as the only means of bringing that country to terms. The French were attempting tc make the same use of all the neutral nations ; and this object they hoped tp accpmplish here as elsewhere, by establishing among us a secret predominating influence more dangerous than invasion because more insidious. The treaty with Great Britain was but a mere pretext. The Directory had been led to believe that the government and the peo ple of the United States were at odds, and that, could they but succeed in overturning the existing administra tion, it was in their power to demand and to obtain any terms they chose. To adopt, in this state of things, a weak, timid, hesitating address, would strengthen this belief, and invite to a perseverance in the present course of insults and injuries. He valued unanimity as much as any body. He was sensible of its peculiar importance at the present juncture. But it might be purchased at too dear a sacrifice, and he would rather have only a bare majority for the address as reported, than its unanimous adoption as it was proposed to be amended. If that was all the gentlemen on the other side proposed doing at this extraordinary session, the calling of Congress to gether would prove the most humiliating, the most ca lamitous measure ever adopted. Better, indeed, had the members remained at home, and there, in secret silence, smothered their resentments and mourned over the dis honor of their country, than to be thus collected from aU parts of the Union as fellow- witnesses to their own sharae and to the indignities offered to their country, without the power or even the spirit to resent them. A course HOUSE DEBATE ON THE ANSWER. 71 so pregnant w^ith humiliation he could not regard as pos- chapter sible, and he confidently hoped that as our country had. X. always displayed her justice, so both sides of the House 1797. would unite to exhibit her as not inferior in fortitude and in firmness." Rutledge ppposed the amendments because, by under taking to dictate the course of the new negotiation, they interfered with the rights of the executive. Griswold in sisted that the substance of them was an apology for the conduct of France, and a reliance entirely on her spirit of concUiation for an adjustment of the existing differ ences. Baldwin was ppposed entirely to these addresses at the May 23. commencement of a session, by which the House was prematurely cdmmitted to a special course of policy. He had always been in favor of addresses as ambiguons as possible, making a decent answer to the president, but not committing the House; and it was on this ground that he based his support of the amendments. Otis (the successor of Ames, and a nephew of the fa mous James Otis, of the Stamp Act times) " agreed that, on ordinary occasions, such ambiguous addresses might be very proper. But this was not an ordinary case. What we now wanted was a new declaration of inde pendence, not less endangered by the pretensions of the French Directory than it had been in former times by the pretensions of Lord North. " The injuries we endured were atrocious — the cap ture of our vessels, depredations on the persons and prop erty of our citizens, indignity offered to our minister, re fusal to treat further unless the complaints of the Direc tory, without exception and without explanation, should first be redressed — in other words, unless we would vio late treaties, repeal statutes, and do what the Constitu- 72 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER tion would not allow, vacate solemn judgments of the ' courts of law. 1797. " He regretted that old party questions had been drag ged into this debate. He called upon members to forget old party differences, and to unite in defense of the rights of America. That the French had once been our friends, or because the commencement of their revolution had been a struggle for liberty, was no reason for foregoing the assertion of our rights, or for smothering a just and dig nified expression of our sensibility to insult. There was a time when he himself had been filled with enthusiasm for the French Revolution. While civil liberty appeared to be its object, he had cherished it. But that object of the Revolution he considered now to be completely achieved. The war was continued, not for Hberty, but for conquest and aggrandizement, to which he did not believe that it was our interest to contribute. Though the measures of defense recommended by the president did not look necessarily to war, nor tend to produce it, as had been argued on the other side, yet, considering the policy of conquest adopted by France, and the un certainty of negotiation, it was necessary to be ready. The Southern gentlemen would do well to bear in mind that no part of the country stood so much in need of de fense as their own. A hostile invasion, bringing the seeds of revolution with it, might excite there a war of the most dreadful kind — a war of slaves against their masters, thereby endangering that union of the states so dear to all, and the preservation of which, by the crea tion of a national character, ought to be the great object of aU." May 24. Swanwick and Livingston, indeed most of the speak ers of the opposition, were inclined to throw all the blame of the existing difficulties with France on those who had HOUSE DEBATE ON THE ANSWER. 73 voted to sustain Jay's treaty. Livingston, of whom chapter Goodrich, of Connecticut, wrote in a private letter that he lived at Philadelphia Hke a nabob, "though in the 1797. memorable era of scrip," designating thereby a late pe riod of speculation, " he committed a fraudulent bank ruptcy with others of his family and dignified line of ancestry" — ran off upon his favorite topic of impress raent. Thousands pf American seamen, he declared, the victims pf that wrpng, were now serving on board Brit ish ships. He was checked, however, by Harper, who reminded hirri that, as chairraan of the Committee on Ira pressraents in the last Congress, he had been able, with all his zeal, to produce evidence of only forty-two cases of impressment during the six months preceding the first of January, 1796 ; nor did it appear that so many as a hundred had been impressed during the past year that Livingston's act for recording all such cases had been in operation. But Smith, of Maryland, came to Living ston's aid with renewed declamations en the subject cf impressment, and the assertion that the recorded cases gave but a very imperfect idea of the extent to which that aggression was carried. That assertion was prob ably true ; at the sarae tirae, it was no less true that au thentic evidence had been received of the iraprisonraent, by the French, of not less than nine hundred American sailors, some two hundred of whora the British had re lieved by exchanging thera for French prisoners of war. Giles insisted that not only the recent French spolia- May 25. tions, but also the late fall in the price of agricultural produce, ascribed by others to the abundant harvests in Europe, grew out of Jay's treaty, of which he declared his detestation to be unalterable. To all these complaints against that treaty, and to May 29. the proposal of Nicholas to place France, as to beUiger- 74 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter ent rights, on the same footing with Great Britain, Har- x. .per emphatically replied that the real ground of French 1797. dissatisfaction was not this or that article of the treaty, but any treaty, any peace with Great Britain. It was the policy of France to use us as an instru ment against England, whose naval and comraercial greatness had been, for a century and upward, objects of French jealousy and hatred. Such being her policy, he , never could believe that it was the intention of her rulers to drive us into a war with herself, the idea of which was so alarming to some. France had too much to lose and too little to gain by such a contest. He had observed in her councils great wickedness, but no folly ; and to compel this country to become her enemy would be the height of folly. We possessed more ships and seamen than any other nation except Great Britain ; and were we driven to co-operate with Great Britain, such a union would be fatal, so far as the American seas were concerned, to the interests of France and her allies. The Americans, in such a case, as the French well knew, could and would lay hold of New Orleans and the Flor idas, and they might even find out the road to Mexico. The object of the French Directory was not war, but to compel us to renounce the British treaty, and to renew all our differences with Great Britain under circumstan ces of irritation which must speedily end in rupture. In this scheme the Directory had been encouraged by the persuasion, erroneous indeed, but favored by many ap pearances, that we were a weak, pusiUanimous people, too much devoted to gain to regard our honor ; too care ful of our property to risk it in support of our rights • too much divided to exert our strength ; too distrustful of our government to defend it ; too much devoted to France to repel her aggressions at the risk of quarrel; HOUSE DEBATE ON THE ANSWER. 75 and too much exasperated against England to consent chapter to that co-operation with her which raust of necessity ' grow out of resistance to France. They had seen us 1797. patiently submit to the insults and outrages of three suc cessive French embassadors — insults and outrages, for the very least of which they would have sent out of their country, if not to the guillotine, the minister of any na tion. The ccnduct of gentleraen on this floor had con firraed them in the erroneous persuasion of a party exist ing in the very bosom of our government devoted to their interests. He did not mean to charge gentlemen with acting under French influence, but he would ask if the course which they had pursued was net calculated to impress France with that belief ? When she saw them making it a constant ground of opposition to measures proposed, that such measures might be hurtful or dis pleasing to her ; when she saw them constantly support ing that course of which she was desirous ; constantly opposing all she opposed, how could she but infer that they were a party devoted to her views ? Knowing their number and importance, and having these apparently strong reasons for relying pn their attachment, how could she help concluding that, though they might not succeed in directing the government according to her wishes, they would still be ready and able to clog its operations, and so to prevent it from adopting or pursuing any vigorous measures against her ? She no doubt believed, and she had reasons for believing, nothing less, in fact, than the assurances of our late minister in that country, that she had nothing to dp but to press hard on the government in order to lay it bpund, hand and foot, at the feet of this party friendly to her, by means of which she raight then govern the country. In this beUef she was further confirraed by the conduct of our people, their warm par- 76 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER tiality for her, their enthusiastic exultation in her victo- ries, and the fond, sympathizing sorrow with which they 1797. mourned over her disasters. Mistaking the source of these generous emotions, she saw in them nothing but proofs of a slavish devotedness, such as to render us in capable of asserting our rights when it must be done at the risk of her displeasure. She did not understand that what inspired this enthusiasm was the cause of liberty in which she was thought to be struggling, and that, should she abandon the principles which she professed, these same generous well-wishers would be among the firmest of her opponents. Supposing resentment against England to be far more deeply rooted, more prevalent, and more permanent than it really was, she relied upon that to prevent any co-operation between us and the Brit ish, however it might be recommended by policy or even required by necessity. She was confirmed in all these delusions by the conduct, the speeches, the writings of persons in this country, both our citizens and hers ; by the inforraation of some of her own citizens, who, after a limited residence here, had carried home with them er roneous opinions, such as foreigners generally form about countries which they visit ; and it was to be feared, by the behavior, too, of some of our own citizens abroad, who, forgetting the trust reposed in them and the situa tions in which they were placed, had allowed themselves to persevere in a course of conversation and conduct cal culated to confirm France in all her unfounded and in jurious impressions. Supposing the people of this coun try to be unwiUing to oppose her, and the government unable ; imagining that we should prefer peace, with submission, to the risk of war ; believing that a strong party devoted to her would hang upon the government and impede all its measures, and that, should she place HOUSE DEBATE ON THE ANSWER. 77 US, by her aggressions, in a situation where the choice chapter X. would seera to lie between a war with England and . a war with her, our hatred to England, joined to the 1797. other causes above mentioned, would force us to adopt the former alternative ; entertaining these views, she had taken the course she was now pursuing, the object of which was to make us renounce the treaty with En gland, and to enter into a quarrel with that nation ; in fine, to effect by aggression and force what for four years she had attempted in vain by a course of intrigues and insidious policy. " Such being her objects, could she be induced to re nounce them by trifling concessions of this, that, or the other article of a treaty, this, that, or the other advan tage in trade ? To suppose that she was to be thus sat isfied seemed a delusion equally unaccountable and fatal. It seemed an unaccountable and fatal delusion, that could render gentlemen blind to the projects of France — to the Herculean strides of her overwhelming ambition, which so evidently aimed at nothing less than universal empire or universal influence ; blind to her having fixed on our own country as one instrument for the accomplish ment of her plans. It was against this dangerous de lusion that he wished to warn the House and the coun try. Let them not deceive themselves by the vain and fallacious expectation that the concessions suggested in the proposed amendment would satisfy the wishes or ar rest the measures of France. StiU, he did not dissuade from those concessions ; far from it ; he wished them to be offered, and in the way most likely to give weight to the offer. It was a bridge which he was most willing to build for the pride of France to retreat over. But what he wished to warn the Hous? against was thc rest ing satisfied with building the brilge, te the neglect of 78 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter those measures by which France might be induced to .march over it. He wished to negotiate, and he relied x, 1797. much on success in that way. But success in negotia tion could only be secured by adopting on this floor firm language and energetic measures, such as might con vince France that the opinions respecting this country on which her system was founded were wholly erroneous ; that we were neither a weak, a pusillanimous, nor a di vided people ; that we were not disppsed tp barter hpnpr for quiet, nor to save our money at the expense of our rights — measures which would convince her that we un derstood her projects, and were determined to oppose them with all our resources, and at the hazard of all our pos sessions. Unless success were secured by such support, negotiation was vain, weak, and delusive. Seeing us prepared, instead of attacking us, France would listen to our peaceable proposals, and would accept the concessions we meant to offer. He should vote against the amend ment, not because he was for war, but because he was for peace ; and because he saw in this amendment, and more especially in the course to which it pointed, a means of impeding instead of promoting our pacific en- deavprs." The idea thus inculcated with sp much warmth and abUity, that the French republic, so far from being the champion of liberty and the rights of man, was but a re vival, under a new form, of the dreams of Louis XIV. about a universal empire, could not but make a profound impression on the House, contrary as that idea was to prevailing notions ; nor could Gallatin, who exerted all his sophistical art in reply, entirely neutralize the effect of Harper's speech. Yet the proposed amendment was lost only by a vote of forty-eight to fifty-two. Even some of the Federalists were afraid of raaking the ad- HOUSE DEBATE ON THE ANSWER. 79 dress too pointed. Coit, of Connecticut, proposed to chapter modify a paragraph referring to Barras's offensive speech, " so as to strike out all personal reference to the director, 1797. and his motion to that effect, after some sharp debate. May 30. was carried by the casting vote of the chairman. Dayton, the speaker, then proposed an amendment, giving additional emphasis to the satisfacticn expressed by the House at the proposed renewal of negotiations, and declaring a hope " that a mutual spirit of concilia tion, and a disposition on the part of the United States to place France on grounds as favorable as other countries, would produce an accommodation compatible with our rights, honor, and engagements." This amendment was ppppsed, as being in substance the same as that pf Nich^ plas, already rejected. These opposers were denounced by the opposition orators as enemies of peace and enemies of France. Dayton, alluding to Harper's speech, depre cated the idea of arraigning the French republic like a criminal at the bar of the House, charged not only with acts against the interests and rights of the United States, but with crimes said to have been committed against the different nations of Europe. He was wiUing to express a becoming spirit of resentment, but objected tc employ ing the rage of a madman. It was not necessary to crouch to any nation, but he wished the House to act as if they wished for peace, not to stand in the position of gladiators and to sound the trumpet of defiance. In the course of this debate some very sharp words passed be tween Gallatin and Smith of South Carolina. Gallatin declared himself unable to believe that Smith was really desirous of peace, and Sraith, in his turn, could not be lieve that Gallatin, even if the terras it was now pro posed to offer should be rejected, would be ready to go to war. 80 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER By the help of some waverers, Dayton's amendment, ' after some modifications, was carried in committee, fifty- 1797. two to forty-seven. But the House, before agreeing to June 2. it, modified it still further by adding the expression of an expectation that France would be ready to make com pensation for any violation she might have committed of American neutral rights. What raight be considered as the test question of the strength of parties was an effort made by the opposition to strike out that clause of the address approving the policy ofthe government as "just and impartial to for eign nations," and pledging the House to support it. This motion was lost, forty-five to fifty-three ; after which the address, having been debated for two weeks, was finally agreed to, sixty-two to thirty-six. June 3. Upon the usual motion that the House wait upon the president with the address, Matthew Lyon, a new mem ber from the western district of Vermont, took occasion to make a display of his special democracy. An Irish man by birth, Lyon, then very young, had been brought to New York, sorae years previous to the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, as a redemptioner, and being sold to pay his passage, had been carried by his master to the new settlements in Vermont, of which, after serv ing out his time, he became hiraself a citizen. During the British invasion under Sir Guy Carleton in 1776, he had acted as lieutenant of a company of militia sta tioned to guard an advanced post on Lake Charaplain, and, with the other officers of the detachment, had been cashiered on a charge of cowardice and desertion, or, rather, of persuading the men to desert as an excuse for abandoning the post. Lyon, who had been sent to head quarters to report the abandonment, was treated with great indignity by Gates, pronounced a coward, and MATTHEW LYON. 81 placed under a guard ; , but he . always insisted that he chapter X. had opposed the course taken by the other officers ; and . it is certain that, nctwithstanding this previpus disgrace, 1797. he served afterward, fpr a short time, during Burgoyne's invasion, as a commissary in the army. Being a man of energy and ingenuity, subsequently to the peace he had established iron works and other manufactures near the foot of Lake Charaplain, had acquired property, had be come a cplonel of militia, and had married a daughter of Governpr Chittenden, whp, nptwithstanding his official dignity, continued, according to the siraple state of man ners prevalent in Vermont, to follow his old vocation of a farmer and tavern-keeper. Self-conceited and impetu ous, with the characteristic faults as well as virtues of his ccuntrymen, Lyon entered with great zeal into poli tics, tc. advpcate the ultra Demccratio side pf which he estahlished a newspaper at Castletcn, entitled " Scourge of Aristpcracy and Depository of Itnportant Political Truth," which he edited himself, and printed on paper manufactured, also by himself, frora the bark of the bass wood, and with types of his own casting. By the help of this organ, after a very warm contest, he had been elected to Congress over several competitors. Taking the present opportunity to make his debut, after a long speech denouncing and ridiculing the prac tice of waiting uppn the president as anti-Republican and slavish, and setting forth his own merits and ser vices in the cause of democracy, he offered a motion that he, personally, should be excused from corapliance with the standing order of the Hpuse in that respect. He had indeed been tcld — so he stated in his speech — that he might absent himself and nc nptice would be taken of it ; but he professed great reverence for the standing rules and erders, and preferred te have express autherity v.— F 82 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER for his absence. This speech was not very agreeable to X. the rest of the opposition, over whose heads Lyon seemed 1797. disposed to exalt himself as a special Democrat. By the Federalists it was heard with contemptuous smiles. Dana, of Connecticut^ after premising that for his part he was by no means specially desirous of the gentleman's company, and his belief that the president would as read ily forego it, expressed a hope that the leave asked for would be unanimously granted, which it accordingly was. Such was the first introduction to the House of one who subsequently became a political martyr, and who, during a membership of several years, often displayed a practical good sense hardly to have been expected from such a be ginning. Notwithstanding the tone of the address, the House was but slow in taking any steps of a very decided char acter. The news which continued to arrive from Europe was of a kind to inspire fresh alarm. The stoppage of specie payments by the Bank of England threatened de struction to the commercial and financial power of Great Britain. The mutiny at the Nore seemed to shake the very basis of British naval ascendency. Bonaparte had appeared under the walls of Vienna, and Austria had been compeUed to make peace. The opposition were de lighted with tbe opening prospect of the downfall of Great Britain ; and they urged with greater zeal than ever the necessity of cautiously avoiding a rupture with France. The Federalists, on the other hand, watched the progress of events, not without alarm for their own country should . England reaUy succumb. The letters of King, American embassador at London, to his Federal friends, strongly urged the impolicy of any involvement in the European war. Even England herself, alarraed at the terrible raU- itai-y power called into existence by the ill-considered at- MEASURES ADOPTED. 83 tempt from abroad to suppress the outbreak of Demo- chapter X. cratic enthusiasra in France, was now seeking, with in creased anxiety, to negotiate a peace. 1797. The House, however, still adhered, though by a very sraall raajority, to the policy set forth by the Federal leaders in the debate on the address. In a session of eight weeks, acts were passed appoi'tioning to the states a detachment of eighty thousand militia, to be ready to march at a moment's warning ; appropriating $115,000 for the further fortification of harbors ; prohibiting the exportation of arms and araraunition, and encouraging their impertation ; authorizing the equipment of the three frigates and their employment, together with an increased number of revenue cutters, in defending the coast. Another act subjected to a fine of $10,000 and ten years' imprisonraent any citizen of the United States who raight be concerned in fitting out, 0:? any way con nected with any private armed vessel intended to cruise against nations with . whom the United States were at peace, or against the vessels and property of their fellow- citizens. To meet the expenses that might be incurred, a loan of $800,000 was authorized, and the revenue was re-enforced by an addition of eight cents per bushel to the duty on salt, and by stamp-duties of ten doUars on licenses to practice law in the courts of the United States, five dollars on certificates of naturalization, four dollars on letters patent of the United States, two dollars on copies of the same, and one dollar on charter parties and bottomry bonds. A motion to raise the duty on certif icates pf naturalization, which stood in the bill as re ported at twenty cents, to twenty dollars, brought on, a lively debate as to the policy of encouraging immigration. The high duty was advocated by several Federalists as a check on the facility of acquiring the right of citizen- 84 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER ship. Gallatin, Swanwick, and Lyon opposed it as ex- cessive. and it was finally fixed at the' amount above 1797. mentioned. A stamp-tax, varying in amount with the value of the subject matter, was also imposed on receipts for legacies, poHcies of insurance, bonds, promissory notes, bank-notes. Mils of exchange, protests, letters of attor ney, inventories, biUs of lading, and certificates of de benture. The Committee of Ways and Means, hitherto composed of one member from each state, was reduced at this session to seven members taken frora the House at large, a number at which it has ever since remained. To most of the above measures a very decided opposi tion was made. The equipment of the frigates was spe ciaUy opposed, under the apprehension that the president might ertiploy them as convoys, to the American trade in the West Indies. The numerous French cruisers in those seas made prize of every American vessel which they met, except when these vessels had licenses granted by the French consuls, or were known to belong to zeal ous advocates of the French interest. Some partial pro tection had been obtained from convoy granted by Brit ish ships of war, but the idea of employing armed vessels of our own for that purpose^ was e.arnestly deprecated by the opposition, and even by some of the Federalists, as little less than a declaration of war against France. Gal latin admitted that depredations without nuraber were committed in the West India seas by vessels under the French flag, but he suggested that they were chiefly by pirates, without any commissions or authority ; to which it was weU answered that it was hard indeed if the frigates could not be employed to protect o^r vessels against pirates, for fear of giving offense to France! Giles, Macon, Gallatin, and Smith of Maryland, labored very hard, and prevailed upon the House to insert into MEASURES DEFEATED. gg the bill, among other restrictions, a provision that the chapter president shpuld not send the frigates out of the jurisdic- _____ tion ofthe United States; but as the Senate refused to 179T. concur, this and the other restrictions were afterward struck out. The more zealous Federalists urged the im mediate purchase of nine additional vessels, to be arnled and equipped for purposes of convoy. Doubtful what the consequences might be of armed collision, at the dis cretion of individuals, the president had issued a circular to the custom houses, renewing and confirming the rule hitherto acted upon, to grant np clearances to armed ves sels except such as were bound to the East Indies er the Mediterranean. The legality ef this circular was called in questicn, and it was prpppsed to authorize by an express act the arming of raerchant vessels in their own defense. But both these measures, the arming of merchant vessels and the additicnal ships of war, were defeated by the opposition, with the aid of Dayton and the waverers, on the ground tl^at it would be better to await the results of the new mission. Varnum, in the course of this debate, declared that he could see nothing in the conduct pf France like a wish tp injure the citizens pf the United States. He wondered that such an outcry should be raised because three or four American ships had been captured and carried into France. Smith, of Maryland, believed the merchants would subrait to any loss sooner than go to war ; while Swanwick boldly as serted that more captures were made in the West Indies by the British than by the French. A bill, criginating in the House, for raising , an addi tional corps of artillerists and engineers, failed to pass. A Senate bill for a provisional army of fifteen thousand men was defeated even in that body. The opposition raised a great outcry against every thing that involved 86 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter expense, on the ground that the treasury was empty ; but they also opposed, with no less zeal, every attempt 1797. to fill it, seeming to regard, as the only security for the peace of the country, the depriving the government of all means to defend it. Another bill was also brought in (designed to meet the case of such patriots as Barney), to prevent citizens of the United States from entering into the service of foreign powers, but with a clause de fining a method whereby citizens, either native or adopt ed, might relinquish their connection with the United States, and transfer their allegiance to a foreign power, thereby avoiding the penalties of the bill. This clause led to a curious debate on the subject of perpetual alle giance and voluntary expatriation — a question which was found to be surrounded by so many difficulties that the entire bill was finally dropped. It seemed to be going too far formally to allow citizens of the United States to abandon their own country and to make war upon it. Yet how could that be avoided, should any act on the subject of foreign service be passed, so long as the United States, in the impressment controversy with Great Brit ain, claimed for naturalized foreigners all the rights and immunities of native-born citizens ? July 3. The president, in the course of the session, transmit ted papers, from which it appeared that the Spanish au- thorities in Louisiana were opposing serious obstacles to the survey of the southern boundary line of the United States, as provided for by the recent treaty, and that they hesitated also to deliver up the posts north of the thirty- first degree of north latitude. Various pretenses of de lay were urged, such as apprehension of a British inva sion from Canada, to resist which these pests might be necessary, and uncertainty whether the fortifications were to be destroyed or left standing. The real reason SPANISH INTRIGUES. 87 no doubt, was the expectation of a breach between the chapter United States and France, which might furnish an ex- cuse for the non-fulfiUment of the treaty. The fact, in- 1797. deed, carae to light some years afterward, that the Baron De Carondelet, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, had even gone so far as to dispatch one Thoraas Power as a secret agent to Kentucky, to renew with the old Spanish partisans in that region the intrigue for the separation of the Western country frora the Union, and its erection into an independent state, in close alliance with Spain ; the late disputed territory on the east bank of the Mis sissippi to be divided between them. Sebastian, one of the judges of the Kentucky Court pf Appeals, seems tp have entered zealpusly intp this new project, but his old coadjutors, with whom he communicated on the sub ject, Innis, judge of the Federal District Court, and George Nicholas, late district attorney, and at present attorney general of the state, thought it would be a very dangerous project, since the Western people, being se cured by the Spanish treaty in the navigation ofthe Mis sissippi, had lost all inducement for such a movement. When testifying as to this matter some ten years after ward before a committee of the Kentucky Legislature, Innis gave as a reason why he and Nicholas had kept this intrigue to themselves, that as they were ppppsed tp the Federal administration, and believed that the pres ident kept a watchful eye over their actions, to have made any communication on the subject would have had the appearance of courting his favor. Moreover, they believed that the president was disposed, on the slightest pretext, to send an army into Kentucky, which they ccn- ceived wpuld be a grievance upen the people ; and as they apprehended no danger from the intrigue, that was an other reason for saying nothing about it. There were. 88 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter doubtless, other still weightier reasons, which Innis did ' not give : unwillingness to damage the party to which 1797. they belonged by this new proof pf foreign influence, at tempted and exercised ever some of its leaders ; also the danger of provoking an investigation which might unravel former intrigues, and which certainly would cut short the payment of any further Spanish pensions— ^a favor en joyed by Sebastian at least, if not by some of the others. Along with the papers transmitted to Congress in re lation to the Spanish business was the copy of a letter from William Blount, late governorof the Territory south of the Ohio, and now one of the senators from Tennessee, addressed to a recently-appointed Indian agent araong the Cherokees, by whora it had been communicated to the president. It appeared from this letter, as well as from information furnished by Listen, the new British minis ter, to whom application had been made respecting it, that Blount was engaged in an intrigue for transferring New Orleans and the neighboring districts to the British by means of a joint expedition, Britain to furnish a naval force, and a co-operating corps of backwoodsmen and In dians to be raised on the western frontier ofthe United States. Desperately involved in extensive land specu lations in Tennessee, and wishing to relieve himself by getting up an English company for the purchase of his lands, Blount dreaded the consequences of a retransfer to the French, a military and not a commercial nation, of the outlet of the Mississippi, a transfer expected, in deed supposed by some to be already made. He con ceived that it would be for the interest of the Western people, as well as for his own private benefit as a land speculator, that Louisiana should pass into the hands of the English. Relying upon his own influence with the backwoodsmen of Tennessee and the Southern Indians, CHARGES AGAINST BLOUNT. 89 among whom he had leng acted as agent, te raise the chapter necessary fproe, he had engaged as his chief ce-operator ___^_ one Chisholm, a wild backwoodsman, well acquainted 1797. with the Spanish posts, and who had conceived against the Spanish authorities, from some collisions with them, a bitter hatred and an ardent desire cf revenge. In Blount's letter, laid before Congress, he had sought to engage in his schemes the Indian agent to whom it was addressed. Upon the evidence of this letter the House voted to impeach Blount, of which they sent up notice July 7. to the Senate. The Senate thereupon required him to give security for his appearance to answer such articles as might be exhibited against him, himself in $20,000, and two sureties in $15,000 each, and the House hav ing requested that, till the impeachment should be decid ed, he raight be " sequestered frora his seat," after hear ing counsel in his behalf, , the Senate proceeded tc expel July 9. hira, Tazewell only voting in the negative. Thereup on his two sureties, his brother, a raeraber of the House, and Butler of the Senate, surrendered him into custody, and were discharged from their bond. But Blount was presently released on recpgnizing himself in $1000, with two securities in $500 each, to appear and answer to the articles, which, however, were not exhibited till the next session. The Aurera strpve anxieusly tp make out of this af fair a case of the employment of " British gold" for the purpose of involving the United States in difficulties with Spain and France. But the scheme had originated, not with Great Britain, but with Blount and his associates, all of whora strongly syrapathized with, the politics of the Aurora ; nor did it appear that the British minister had given to it any other countenance beyond yielding to Chisholm's earnest requests to be sent to England to 90 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter lay the project before the British ministry, by whora it ' was rejected on the very ground that it raight compro- 1797. mit the neutrality of the United States. Though expelled from the Senate, Blount by no means lost the confidence of his constituents. On his arrival at Knoxville, he was received there with great ceremony, and was presently ele&ted to the State Senate, of which he was chosen president. July 18. With the proceedings against Blount terminated a session in which party spirit had reached a sharpness and bitterness exceeding any thing hitherto known, Many warm repartees had been exchanged. Blount, of the House, brother of the senator of that name, and who had already immortalized himself by calling for the yeas and nays on the complimentary address to Washington at the last session, took great offense at a retort by Thatcher, of Massachusetts, which he construed into a charge that he belonged to a French faction, so much so that he sent Thatcher a challenge. Thatcher, besides declining to receive it, read to Macon, by whose hand it had been sent, a very pointed lecture on the folly of dueling, which he presently sent to the newspapers by way of offset to the publication by Blount of his letter of challenge — a letter which exhibited a good deal too much of the backwoods bully and blackguard. No no- tice, however, was taken in the House of this breach of privilege by a challenge for words spoken in debate. June 24. " You and I," wrote Jefferson to Edward Rutledge, / " have formerly seen warm debates and high political ' passions. But gentleraen of different poH tics would then speak to each other, and separate the business of the Senate from that of society. It is not so now. Men who have been intimate aU their lives cross the streets to avoid meeting, and turn their heads anether way lest JEFFERSON'S VIEWS. 9 j^ they should be obliged to touch their hats. This may chapter do for young men, with whom passion is enjoyraent ; but it is afliicting to peaceable minds." Another letter tP 1797. Burr, professedly written for the purpose of " recalling ^""^ ^^ himself to the memory of," and " evincing his esteem for" that political coadjutor, sheds a strong light on the ideas entertained by the opposition ; many of them, as appears from the previous part ef this chapter, very mis taken enes, especially the nction that the administration was anxious to plunge the country into a war with France. " You well know," says Jefferson in his letter, " how strong a character of division had been impressed on the Senate by the British treaty. Common errer, common censure, and common efforts of defense had formed the treaty majority into a common band, which feared to separate even on other subjects. Toward the close of the last Congress it had been hoped that their ties began to Idosen, and their phalanx to separate a lit tle. This hope was blasted at the very opening of the present session by the nature of the appeal which the president raade to the nation, the occasion for which had confessedly sprung from the fatal British treaty. This circumstance rallied them again to their standard, and hitherto we have had pretty regular treaty votes on all questions of principle, and, indeed, I fear that so long as the same individuals reraain, we shall see traces of the same division. In the House of Representatives the Re publican body has also lost strength. The non-attend ance of five or six pf that descripticn has left the majer- ity very equivocal indeed. A few individuals of no fixed systera at all, governed by the panic or the prewess of the moment, flap, as the breeze blows, against the Re publican or the aristocratic bodies, and give to the one or the other a preponderance entirely accidental. Hence 92 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ' chapter the dissiraUar aspect of the address, and of the proceed- , ' ings subsequent to that. The inflammatory composition 1797. of the speech excited sensations of resentment which had slept under British injuries, threw the wavering into the war scale, and produced the war address. Bonaparte's victories and those on the Rhine, the Austrian peace, British bankruptcy, mutiny of the seamen, and Mr. King's exhortations to pacific measures, have cooled them down again, and the scale of peace preponderates. The threatening propositions, therefore, founded on the ad dress, are abandoned one by one, and the cry begins now to be that we have been called together to do nothing. The truth is, there is nothing to do, the idea of war be ing scouted by the events of Europe ; but this only proves that war was the object for which we were called. It proves that the executive teraper was for war, and that the convocation of the representatives was an experi ment of the temper of the nation, to see if it was in uni son. Efforts at negotiation, indeed, were promised, but such a promise was as difficult to "withhold as easy to render nugatory. If negotiation alone had been raeant, that might have been pursued without so much delay, and without calling the representatives ; and if strong and earnest negotiation had been meant, the additional nom ination would have been of persons strongly and earnest ly attached to the alliance of 1778. War, then, was intended. Whether abandoned or not, we must judcre from future indications and events, for the same secrecy and mystery are affected to be observed by the present which marked the former administration. I had always hoped that the popularity of the late president being once withdrawn from active effect, the natural feelings of the people toward Hberty would restore the equiHbrium be tween the executive and legislative departments which JEFFERSON'S VIEWS. 93 had been destroyed by the superior weight and effect of chapter that popularity, and that their natural feelings of moral obligation would discountenance the ungrateful predilec- 1797. tion of the executive in favor of Great Britain. But, unfortunately, the preceding measures had already alien ated the nation who were the object of them, had excited reaction from them, and this reactipn has on the minds of our citizens an effect which supplies that of the Washing ton popularity. The effect was sensible on some of the late congressional elections, and this it is which has less ened the Republican majority in Congress. When it wiU be re-enforced must depend on events, and these are so incalculable that I consider the future character of our re public as in the air ; indeed, its future fortune will be in the air if war is made on us by France, and if Louisiana becomes a Gallo- American colony. " I have been much pleased to see a dawn of change in the spirit of your state. The late elections have in dicated soraething which, at a distance, we do not under stand. However, what with the English influence in the lower, and the Patroon influence in the upper parts of your state, I presume little is to, be hoped. If a pros pect could be once opened upon us of the penetration of truth into the Eastern States; if the people there who are unquestionable Republicans could discover that they have been duped into the support of measures calculated to sap the very foundation of Republicanism, we might still hope for salvation, and that it would come, as of old, from the East. But will that region ever awake to the true state of things ? Can the Middle, Southern, and Western States hold on till they awake ? These are painful and doubtful questions ; and if, in assuring me of your health, you can give rae a corafortable solution of thera, it wiU relieve a mind devoted to the preserva- 94 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter tion of our republican government in the true form and X. spirit in which it was established, but almost oppressed 1797. with apprehensions that fraud will at length effect what force could not, and that, what with currents and coun ter-currents, we shall in the end be driven back to the land from which we launched twenty years ago. In deed, my dear sir, we have been but a sturdy fish on the hook of a dexterous angler, who, letting us flounce till we have spent our force, brings us up at last." " I am tired of the scene, and this day se'nnight shall change it for one where to tranquillity of raind raay be added pursuits of private utility, since none public are admitted by the state of things." The selection of the envoys to France had been, since the commencement of the session, a subject of great in terest both in and out of the cabinet. The president, as we have seen, had been of opinion, and the same view had been taken by Hamilton, that one ofthe envoys ought to be selected from that party in the country regarded by the French as their especial friends. Madison had been thought of as the proper person for that purpose both by Hamilton and Adams ; but, besides his unwillingness to accept the mission, already intimated by Jefferson, the feeUng in the cabinet was so strong against him that the president had early laid aside the idea of his nomination. Madison, indeed, was altogether too cautious to risk his political prospects in any such doubtful enterprise, or to come out in so turbulent a crisis from that retireraent into which, with his newly-married wife, he had lately withdrawn. John Marshall, of Richmond, formerly an officer in the Revolutionary army, now a leading advo cate at the Virginia bar, a Federalist, but a man of great moderation, was selected in Madison's place. As Pinck ney was to make one of the new embassy, if the opposi- ENVOYS TO FRANCE. 95 tion were to have any representative at all, it must be chapter the third and Northern member, two from the South hav- ' ing been already selected. The president proposed Ger- 1797. ry, of whose abilities as a compatriot in the Revolution ary struggle he entertained a high opinion, and who had recently given what must have seemed, to the president at least, pretty good proof of the soundness of his judg ment, by oraitting to throw either of his votes as a Mas sachusetts elector of president and vice-president for his friend Jefferson, lest it raight endanger, as it would have done, the election of Adaras. As Pickering and Wol cott in the cabinet^ and a number of the raost zealous Federalists out of it, were decidedly opposed to a mixed embassy, and very strenuous for three Federalists, Adaras so far yielded to them as to nominate, instead of Gerry, his old associate in the diploraatio service, Francis Dana, at that time chief justice of Massachusetts. But Dana having declined the appointment on the plea of ill health, the president returned again to Gerry. Besides the gen eral reasons against a piebald comraission, some personal objections were made to Gerry as a man at once whim sical and obstinate, with whom his colleagues might on that account find it difficult to co-operate. The presi dent, however, insisted upon hira ; and the nomination was accordingly raade, and confirraed a day or two after Jefferson's letter to Burr. Even in the captious and sus picious judgment of Jefferson himself, the comraission as thus constituted was one with which little fault could be found. In a letter to Gerry congratulating him on his June 21. appointment, and urging his acceptance of itj he declared that Gerry's nomination gave him "certain assurance that there would be a preponderance in the mission sin cerely disposed to be at peace with the French govern ment and nation." 96 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER The existing treaty with Prussia being about to ex- _____pire, John Quincy Adams, to whom Washington had 1797. given the mission to Lisbon, but whP had npt yet en tered on that service, was appointed minister to Berlin. This appointment, the second in order of time made by the new president, could not, however, be ascribed to pa ternal partiality ; for Washington, whUe expressing the decided opinion that John Quincy Adams was the most valuable, and would prove himself to be the ablest of the American diplomatic corps, had strongly urged that mer ited promotion should not be withheld merely because he was the president's son. The post at Lisbon was given to Smith, of South Carolina, hitherto so conspicuous as a Federal leader in the House of Representatives. Galla tin, Nicholas, and others of the opposition had made very earnest efforts to defeat the appropriation necessary for the support of these two ministers. Opposed as they were to armies and navies, they seemed also to think a diplomatic establishment entirely unnecessary. The con sulships at Algiers and TripoH, which possessed a certain diplomatic character, were given to O'Brien and Cath- cart, two of the lately- released Algerine prisoners, thus superseding Barlow, who had obtained, on Monroe's rec ommendation, a commission to treat with those two re gencies. The consulship at Tunis was given to WUliara Eaton, of Massachusetts, lately a captain in the United States army, and who afterward made himself very con spicuous in the affairs of that regency. MONROE'S RETURN. 97 CHAPTER XL MONROE'S RETURN. SLANDEROUS ATTACK ON HAMILTON. ADVENTURES OF THE SPECIAL MISSION TO FRANCE. T T HILE the newly -appointed envoys to France were chapter preparing for their departure, and shortly before the ad- ' journment of Congress, Monroe, the recalled minister, ar- 1797. rived at Philadelphia. The opposition received him with open arms, and he was entertained at a public dinner, at which Chief-justice M'Kean presided. Vice-president Jefferson, and a large number of the merabers of both houses — among others, Dayton, the speaker — were pres ent. In warmth of applause and approval, M'Kean's speech of welcome fell only short of the eulogies to which Monroe had listened frora Merlin and Barras, models whom M'Kean seemed desirous to iraitate. By the same ship that brought Monroe came the an swer of Merlin, now minister of Justice, to the complaint of the ccnsul general pf the United States of the condera nation of two American vessels on the newly-invented ground that they had no roles dUequipage. This answer openly avowed the policy stated by Barlow in his letter, already quoted, as that of the Directory — the plunder of private merchants, under false and frivolous pretenses, as a means of compelling the government of the United States to conform to the wishes of France. " Let your government," writes this minister of justice, who was also, at the same time, a speculator in privateers, " return to a sense of what is due to itself and its true friends, become just and grateful, and let it break the incompre- V. — G 98 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER hensible treaty which it has concluded with our most im- placahle enemies, and, then the French republic will cease 1797. to take advantage of this treaty which favors England at its expense, and no appeals will then, I can assure you, be made to any tribunal against injustice." Immediately after his arrival at Philadelphia, Monroe July 6. addressed a letter to the Department of State in curious contrast with the subdued and very urbane style of his correspondence with the French minister of Fpreign Af- fairs. He requested, or rather demanded, in this letter, and that, too, in pretty decided terms, to be informed of the grounds of his recall, not as a matter of favor, but of July 7. right. Pickering suggested, by way of reply, that the president might well be possessed of facts and informa tion such as might justify the recall of a minister, or the dismissal of a public officer, though not such as to fur nish grounds for impeachment or other legal proceedings ; and that, in trusting the matter of recall or dismissal to his discretion, the Constitution never contemplated that the propriety of the exercise of that discretion in partic ular cases should be tested either by a formal trial or a public discussion. Taking upon himself the character of July 19. an abused and injured individual, Monroe, in his answer, expressed his astonishment that, after being denounced to tbe public, by deprivation of his office, as a person guilty of sorae great act of misconduct, the government, when called upon for a statement of the charge and the facts to support it, should be disposed to evade the demand, and to shrink from the inquiry. In reply to this indig- Jaly24. nant note, Pickering calmly insisted upon the right of the president to remove from office without giving any reasons for it. Communications might be received enti tled to credit, but under restrictions not permitting a dis closure. To admit the principle insisted upon by Mon- MONROE AND PICKERING. gg roe would be to shut the door to intelligence cf the in- chapter XL fidelity of public officers, especially of diplomatic agents in foreign countries, far removed from the immediate ob- 1797. servation of their own government. Mere want of con fidence, from whatever cause arising, furnished reason enough for recalling a minister. If he were found, on trial, to be deficient in judgment, skill, or diligence, cr if circumstances inspired a reascnable doubt of his sin cerity, he ought to be removed. While his official com munications had a fair appearance, a diplomatic agent might hold intimate and improper correspondence on po litical subjects with men known to be hostile to the gov ernment he represented, and whose actions tended to its subversion. He might, from mistaken views, even go so far as to countenance and invite a conduct on the part of the nation to whieh he was accredited, derogatory to the dignity of his own country and injurious to its interests. But a removal from office did not necessarily iraply actual misconduct. It might imply merely want of ability, or a change in the state of political affairs such as to render the substitution of another person proper. It might also happen, and such was Monroe's case, that a president just retiring from office might remove. In such a case, no member of the succeeding administration could under take to assign the motives of the removal. " There is no disposition," the letter concluded, " to treat you or any other man with injustice ; but the government can not, for the sake of indulging your sensibility, sacrifice a great national principle. I agree with you that the pres ident, in using that pleasure with which the Constitution has invested him, is bound to exercise it with discretion ; but I deny that he is bound on every occasion to explain and justify his conduct to the individual removed from office, which, besides other objections, would expose the 100 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER executive to perpetual altercations and controversies with XI. . the officers removed." Along with this official letter, as 1797. conclusive as it was sarcastic, and which has settled for ever the practice of the government, Pickering sent a note in his private capacity, offering to communicate in that same capacity, if Monroe desired it, the reasons which had induced him, when officially consulted by the late president, to advise Monroe's removal, and tendering also, on behalf of the other cabinet officers, a similar com munication. Monroe could hardly have expected that any official communication would be made to him of the reasons of his removal, though the demand for it, and the idea which that demand implied, that he held his appointment independently of the executive, were sufficiently in ac cordance with the system on which he had acted through out. The real object of his application was tp get up some excuse for a publication on his part, without the authority or consent of the government, of the correspond ence which had passed between himself, the French offi cials, and the Department of State. Considering the refusal of his demand as satisfying that object, he reject ed with insult the very reasonable offer made by Pick ering on behalf of himself and the other members of the cabinet. "I have yet to learn," he insolently wrote, Julys. '( what your pretensions are to confidence as an individ ual citizen, or the weight which your opinion ought to have as such, especially in the present case ;" and he proceeded to arraign the late administration, including Washington, the responsible head of it, as destitute of candor, and as seeking, by every possible artifice which interest or ingenuity could suggest, to disguise the real motives of their conduct, of which the present corre spondence was, in his opinion, a fresh proof. He wound MONROE'S POLITICAL VIEWS: j^ q ^ up at length by demanding to know whether Pickering, chapter in stating in his official letter the reasons which might justify the recall of a minister, had intended to insinuate 1797. that he, Monroe, was the tool and partisan of another Country against the honor and interest of his own. As if to save the necessity of an answer to this ques tion, which, considering the insolent tone of the whole let ter, Pickering could hardly have given without compro mitting his self-respect, Monroe proceeded to make an un authorized, irregular, and, in the delicate state in whieh affairs then stood, a very impudent and unjustifiable pub lication of his entire diplomatic correspondence ; thereby putting into a permanent form authentic and unquestion able proofs of his own folly, and of the superior wisdom and prudence of the government. It was the object of this publication, of the more material parts of which a pretty full abstract has already been given, tP make manifest tp the public, and especially tc the French- American party, that by repudiating the British treaty, and silently putting up with such breaches of the French treaty as the exigencies of the war might make conve nient to that nation, the friendship of the Directory might have been and might be preserved ; and even their aid against England purchased by supplying their pecuniary necessities. That Monroe should have been willing to purchase friendship and assistance at such a price ; that he should have been anxious to aid in reducing the United States to a degradation like that of Holland and Spain — a position of helpless dependence on France, did certainly expose him to the charge of having been " the tool and partisan of another country against the honor and interests of his own ;" nor is it wonderful that many Federalists of that day should have sought to ex plain his excessive zeal in this matter by the supposition 102 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER that, like other American residents in France, his politics had been influenced by pecuniary considerations. In 1797. fact, hints had been dropped — indeed, the charge had been openly made on the floor of Congress, and that by no less a person than Harper — that Monroe had been bribed ; a circumstance which will serve to explain, and which ought also partially to excuse, the excessive acrimony of his letters to Pickering. These gross insinuations were totaUy baseless. The time had not yet corae when Amer ican statesmen were to be purchased with money. Hpw perfectly sincere Monroe was in his opinions is manifest throughout the whole correspondence, which no purchased tool of France — none but a man blinded by enthusiastic passion, could ever have written, and still less would have published. Nor were such views of the honor and interest of the United States, strange as they may seem at this day, at all confined to Monroe. They were shared, to a greater or less extent, by most of the leaders, and by the great mass of the opposition party, the result of y two powerful co-operating passions, hatred of England ' and excessive admiration of the new French politics, too strong in many minds for sober judgment. Hatred of England, which, during the progress of the Revolution, had struck so deep a root in the popular mind, had been aggravated during recent years not only by British insolence and aggression on the frontiers and the seas, but by that stern and suspicious doraestic pol icy, the natural reaction against French excesses, by which, in Great Britain itself, all Republican tendencies and indications had been suppressed ; a policy which, by driving those inclined to Republicanisra into an exile more or less involuntary, had served to transfer, to Amer ica, there to germinate in a fruitful soil, many roots of bitterness against the British government. Any breach PARTIALITY FOR FRANCE. IQ3 with France would lead, it was feared, to an intimate chaptkr XI union with Great Britain, whence new support to the " monarchical and aristocratic tendencies charged upon the 1797. existing administration ; a further infusion of British sen timents and institutions; and an indefinite postponement of those happy times in which Jefferson, " the friend of the people," placed at the head of the government, was to snatch it from the grasp of monarchists and aris tocrats, and to restore it to its native republican sim plicity. Intimacy with Great Britain, fraught with such consequences, was to be avoided, it was thought, at al raost any hazard. Nothing is so gratifying to the human mind as sim plicity and instant completion. The idea of a short cut; ' to liberty and equality by killing off kings and aristo-f crats was quite too fascinating to be easily abandoned." ,;, Though born and baptized amid horrible outrages ; ;> though, in spite of all its paper constitutions, consisting); practically in nothing more or less than the seizure of J absolute political authority by a few enthusiastic and au dacious individuals, exercised, indeed, in the name of thej people, but constantly trampling, without scruple or hes- ; itation, on those rights of man on which it professed to j . be founded ; the old despotism, in new hands, bent like | that on universal dominion, but inspired with tenfold en-/ ergy and ferocity; in spite of this its real character, the French republic continued to be regarded by multitudes, both in America and elsewhere, as actually a free and] democratic government erected on the ruins of an an- 1 cient tyranny, the commencement of a political millen nium whence liberty, peace, and happiness were to flow! forth on Europe and the world ! The unscrupulous and often unprincipled politicians, whoever they might be, who controlled for the raoment the course of French af- 104 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER fairs, now the Girondins, now Danton, now Robespierre, XI ' now the Thermadoreans, and now the Directors, were all 1797. looked up to alike, and in turn, as the chosen high priests of liberty, raised by their very position above all tests of private character ; and insults and injuries which, com ing from Great Britain, would have set the whole coun try on fire, were submitted to with all the patience and even pleasure with which an over-fond lover sometimes allows himself to be trampled upon and plundered by an imperious and profligate mistress. It was, indeed, only from a comraunity greatly deluded by such mistaken sentiments that any applause could have been hoped for from the publication which the ex-minister hastened to make. Hardly had Monroe concluded his correspondence with Pickering, when he became involved in another, some what more private in its character, and out of which he came with still less credit. One Thomas CaUender, having fled from Scotland to avoid prosecution for a pamphlet entitled " The Political Progress of Great Britain," written very much in the Democratic vein, had become a reporter of congressional debates for one of the Philadelphia newspapers, had been encouraged by Jefferson to print an American edition of his Scotch pamphlet, and had afterward published, under the title of " American Annual Register," a great quan tity of libels against Washington's administration. His writings exhibited no particle of talent. It was chiefly their falsehoods and abuse which gave them a sale. Just after Monroe's return from France, CaUender came out with a new book, called " The History of the United States for 1796," made np, like his former publications of an undigested and garrulous collection of libels, but containing also some documents, public and private, well SLANDEROUS ATTACK ON HAMILTON. 105 calculated to stimulate curicsity, and whieh cculd cnly chapter have cpme intp his hands by a breach cf ocnfidence. Of this sprt was a singular ccUeotion of papers, a part pf 1797. them bearing the signatures pf Mpnrpe, of Venable, mera ber of the Hpuse of Representatives from Virginia, and of Muhlenburg, the late speaker, the publication of which remarkably evinced the pitch to which party and person al hatreds had risen, and the sort of means which some were willing to resort to for the gratification pf their ha tred and the injury ef their adversaries. It appeared from the papers , contained in Callender's book, and from other documents on the subject afterward published, that toward the end of the year 1792, one Clingman, arrested on a charge of participation with one Reynolds in subornation of perjury for the purpose of getting out letters of administration in order fraudu lently to obtain payment from the Treasury Department of a debt due from the United States, had applied to Muhlenburg, then speaker of the House, in whose serv ice he had formerly been, for his aid and assistance in compromising the prosecution. With this object in view, Muhlenburg called on Hamilton in company with Burr, and afterward had several interviews with Wolcott, then Controller of the Treasury, upon whose complaint the proceedings had been commenced. At first Wolcott was disinclined to interfere ; but finally, after considerable negotiation, the culprits were set at liberty, having first paid back the money fraudulently received, and given up a list of balances due on old accounts from the United States to individuals, which might be used as an assist ance toward similar frauds, also the name of the person by whose improper connivance that list had been surrep titiously obtained. Pending this negotiation, and with a view, no doubt. 106 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter to stiraulate the zeal of Muhlenburg, Clingman had XI. ' dropped frequent hints that his confederate Reynolds had 1797. it in his power very seriously to injure Hamilton, with whora Reynolds, as Clingman alleged, had been deeply concerned in buying up old claims against the United States, and for that purpose had received frequent ad- vances of money. These seeds of suspicion were scat tered on fertile ground. The heads of the opposition were employed at this very time in getting up those charges against Hamilton's official character, of which Giles be came the mouth-piece, and which resulted in their sin gular discomfiture. Nothing could have pleased them better than to have fixed upon Hamilton the charge of speculating in public securities, from which he was spe cially prohibited by the act constituting the Treasury Department. Muhlenburg having communicated to his friends, Venable of the House, and Monroe of the Sen ate, this agreeable information, they proceeded to pay a visit to Reynolds while he was yet confined in prison. He talked mysteriously about having a certain high of ficer very much in his power, but refused to give them any precise information tiU after his discharge, which was to take place in a day or two. Being discharged, he left the city or kept out of the way. In default of finding Reynolds, Muhlenburg and Monroe paid a visit to Reynolds's wife, who, in answer to their inquiries, told them that she had formerly burned, at Hamilton's re quest, a number of letters from him to her husband, but that CUngman stUl had three or four letters without sig natures, written, as she beHeved, by Hamilton. Ham ilton, so she tpld them, had offered to assist her in going to her friends, and had urged also the departure of her husband, in which case he promised to give him " some thing clever," not, as she beHeved, out of friendship, but SLANDEROUS ATTACK ON HAMILTON. 197 because he could tell something "that would make some chapter XI. of the heads of departments tremble." She stated, also, that Wadsworth, then a member of Congress from Con- 1797. necticut, under whom Reynolds's father had been an of ficer in the Commissary Department of the Revolutionary army, had been active in her behalf, at first at her re quest, but, as she believed, with the knowledge and ap probation of Hamilton, whose friend he professed to be. That he had been at her house the day before, and hav ing told her that two gentlemen of Congress had been at the jail to confer with her husband, had inquired if she knew what it was about. She also showed two notes in Hamilton's handwriting, both of quite recent date, ex pressing a desire to relieve her. After this interview with Mrs. Reynolds, Muhlenburg and Monroe hastened to Clingman, who told them that he had once met Ham ilton at Reynolds's house in the night, on which occasion he appeared unwilling to be seen ; that Mrs. Reynolds had told him that Hamilton had assisted her husband with raoney to the amount of upward of eleven hundred dol lars ; that, Reynolds had said that Hamilton had been concerned with one Duer, a speculating clerk in the Treasury Departraent, who had failed, and had been dis missed in consequence ; also, that Harailton had made thirty thousand dollars by speculation, and that he, Rey nolds, had it in his power to hang him, and could always get money frora him when he wanted it. These state ments, with many others of less importance relating to the arrest and discharge of Reynolds, were carefully cora raitted to writing, and signed by Clingman, who also de livered to Muhlenburg and Monroe two or three brief anonymous notes said to have been addressed by Hamil ton to Reynolds, but written in a disguised hand, con sisting each of a line or two, and about as significant as 108 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter the similar notes which formed so main a part of the ev- XI " idence in the celebrated trial of Mr. Pickwick for breach 1797. of promise of marriage. They also made and signed meraoranda — Muhlenburg of his first interviews with Clingman ; Monroe and Venable of their visit to Rey- nolds ; and Monroe and Muhlenburg of their interview with Mrs. Reynolds. Armed with these various docu ments, the three hastened to confront the secretary, and to demand his explanation of these suspicious appear ances previous to laying the matter before the presi dent. Harailton at once acknowledged the anonyraous notes to be his, and appointed a tirae for a second inter view, at which Wolcott was present. He then stated to the gentleraen whose patriotic zeal had induced them to incur so rauch trouble, that he had been unfortunately entrapped into an amour with Mrs. Reynolds, and that her husband, whoin he suspected to have been all along privy to the affair, having made a real or pretended dis covery of it, had received, on his own proposition, a thou sand dollars as a salve to his wounded honor. Every ar tifice had afterward been used by Reynolds and his wife, who pretended to be desperately in love with Harailton, to protract the intercourse between them by playing upon Hamilton's passions and sympathies ; a profitable oper ation on their part, since, to keep the matter quiet, and so to avoid injuring the feelings of his wife, whom, not withstanding this amour, he tenderly loved, Hamilton was obliged to respond oftener than was convenient to his limited finances to Reynolds's applications to borrow money. The connection having finally been broken off, and Reynolds's recent applications for money refused, he appears to have turned his thpughts toward revenge, re lying upon Clingman as his chief co-operator, and upon the political enemies of Hamilton as his dupes and in- SLANDEROUS ATTACK ON HAMILTON. 199 struments. All this was made perfectly apparent by a chapter XI. large cellecticn of letters from Reynolds and his wife, which Hamilton produced and read to the three inquisi- 1797. tors. Indeed, he had not gone far with this rather deli cate correspondence before the ridiculous position in which they had placed theraselves as spies upon the secretary's amours flashed upon the minds of Venable and Muhlen burg, and they begged him to stop, as further explana tions were quite unnecessary. Nothing, hardly, but the blindness of party hatred, could have prevented men of their ample worldly experience from suspecting, long be fore, the nature of the affair of which they had under taken the investigation. Even the grim and unsophis ticated Monroe, though not sharing the confusipn and embarrassment ef his twp colleagues, joined with them, after the reading of the correspondence had been finished, in professing himself perfectly satisfied, and his regret at the impertinent intrusion into Hamilton's personal affairs of which they had unintentionally been guilty. The next, day Hamilton wrote them a note, requesting copies of the papers exhibited to him ; of the several statements, that is, signed respectively by Muhlenburg, by Monroe and Venable, and by Muhlenburg and Monroe, and of his own unsigned notes to Reynolds ; requesting also that those notes raight be detained from the parties of whom they had been originally obtained, so that it might not be in their power to make use of them fpr future mis chief. " Considering of how abominable an attempt they have been made the instrument," so the note concluded, " I trust you will feel no scruples about this detention." Copies were accordingly furnished to Harailton, and the originals were detained in the possession of Monroe, who declared in his answer that every thing desired by Ham ilton " should be strictly complied with," an express prora- ] 10 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER ise of what, indeed, without any promise, might have " been expected of men raaking any pretensions to justice 1797. or honor — that the papers should be so disposed of as to be no longer in any danger of being used to trump up false charges against Hamilton. Yet it was these very papers which were now published in Callender's book, and along with them two others, drawn up about the same time, but of which no copies were ever furnished to Harailton, and which can not but throw a cloud of sus picion over the parties concerned in making them — in the case of Monroe a very deep one indeed. It appeared that after their return from the visit to Hamilton above mentioned, Monroe and his two friends had signed a mem orandum, in which, after stating the fact ofthe visit, with a brief account of Hamilton's explanations, they ambig uously added, " We left him under an impression our sus picions were removed." The other memorandum, of a still more equivocal character, signed by Monroe alone, and dated a fortnight after the first one, purported to state a conversation with Clingman, who- was represented to have said that he had communicated the substance of Hamilton's explanations to Reynolds's wife, who wept immoderately, denied the imputation, and declared that her husband had confessed to her that the whole had been a fabrication got up between him and Hamilton, he hav ing written letters and given receipts for money so as to countenance Hamilton's pretenses ; and that he, Cling man, was of opinion that she was innocent, and the de fense an imposition. Of the spirit in which this mem orandum was made and preserved we can only judge from the use ultimately made of it, from the circum stance that no copy of it was communicated to Hamil ton, and from Monroe's general conduct in the affair both before and after Callender's publication. All the pa- SLANDEROUS ATTACK ON HAMILTON. m pers, the two secret memoranda included, remained in chapter XI. Monroe's hands till his departure for France, when, ac cording to his account, he deposited them in the hands 1797. of a friend, " a respectable character in Virginia," with whom they were said still to remain. The originals, then, were not stolen. Copies must have been furnished to CaUender ; and by whom ? CaUender declared in his pamphlet that he made the publication in revenge for the recent attacks on the patriotism and honesty of Monroe ; and the statements which he gave respecting the copies furnished to Hamilton were such as could hardly have been derived except from Monroe and his associates, ei ther at first or second hand. It would seem, then, that CaUender must have been furnished with copies either by Monroe himself, or by " the respectable character in Vir ginia" to whom the originals had been intrusted. Mon roe expressly denied any agency in the publication, or knowledge of it till after it had taken place — a denial to which additional force was given by the fact that the printing must have been finished prior to his arrival from France. It would seem, then, that the copies must have been furnished, directly or indirectly, by " the respectable character in Virginia," and it deserves to be noticed that in none of Monroe's numerous letters upon the subject is there any denial that such was the case. Who was this " respectable character ?" That also is a subject upon which Monroe's letters afford no Hght. Hamilton ap pears to have suspected Jefferson, and certainly there was nobody with whom Monroe would have been more likely to make such a deposit. What a relishing tit-bit these papers would have furnished for Jefferson's Ana ! In deed, Jefferson's relations to some of Callender's subse quent publications were such as may serve to strengthen the sufepioion. If, in fact, these papers had been put 112 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. I CHAPTER into Jefferson's hands, it was a very fortunate circum- XI . " stance that the publication was made while Hamilton 1797. still lived to explain and refute the imputation intended to be founded upon them. It was not Callender's object, in publishing these pa pers, to show that Hamilton had been guilty of an adul terous amour. The far more aggravated charge urged against him was that, having been concerned with Rey nolds in illicit speculations, he had attempted to avoid de tection by forging letters and receipts, falsely implicat ing his own chastity and that of Reynolds's wife ; and this charge rested not alone on Clingman's alleged asser tions and the argument of CaUender, but seemed to re ceive a certain countenance from the two ambiguous meraoranda, the one signed by Monroe and his associates, the other by Monroe alone. Though it would have been a thing hardly to be sup posed that, really believing or seriously suspecting the truth of such a charge, Venable, Monroe, and Muhlen burg had suffered the matter to rest quietly for four years or more, to be at last surreptitiously brought out in a libelous pamphlet, Hamilton still deemed it proper, im mediately on the appearance of Callender's " History," to address to each of the three persons thus apparently July 5. vouched in to substantiate the charge, a separate letter, reminding them of what had passed at their interviews with hira, and requesting from them declarations equiv alent to those made at that time, " especially as you must be sensible," he added, " that the present appearance of the papers is contrary to the course which was under stood between us to be proper, and includes a dishonora ble infidelity somewhere." This infidelity he did not at tribute to either of the three, yet suspicion, he remarked, must naturally fall on some agent of theirs. His atten- SLANDEROUS ATTACK ON HAMILTON. JJS tion being shortly after called to the ambiguity of expres- chapter XI. sion in the memorandum signed by the three, giving an , account of their . interviews with IJamilton, and which 1797. he had seen for the, first tirae in print, he wrote a second time to inquire if that memorandum Were authentic, and what its intention and proper interpretation might be. Muhlenburg and Venable denied any concern in or knowledge ofthe publication, or that they had ever had copies of the papers. " I avoided taking copies," wrote Venable, in the true spirit of an honorable raan, " be cause I feared that the greatest care I could exercise iit keeping them safely raight be defeated by some accident, and that some person or other might improperly obtain an inspection of them." Both declared that at the in terview in question they had been entirely satisfied with Hamilton's explanations. In answer to Hamilton's sec ond note in reference to the joint merhorandurn, Muhlen burg and Monroe, Venable having previously left Phila delphia on his return to Virginia, stated, in a joint letter, that the impression left on their minds by the interview corresponded with that which the merhorandura stated thera tb have left on his, namely, that their suspicions were unfounded. Hamilton judged it, however, to be still necessary to demand of "Moproe an explanation of the memorandum signed by him alone, the tendency of which was, and for that purpose it had been used by CaUender, to countenance a suspicion that the papers ex hibited by him were forgeries, in which he falsely charged himself with a breach of matrimonial duty in order to' ward off a charge of official misconduct. This demand placed Monroe in a very awkward posi tion. He could not say that he recorded the alleged statement of Clingman because he believed or thought it might be true, since, in that case, to have confined it v.— H 114 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER to his own private repository or to that of his " respect- XI. . able friend in Virginia" would have been a scandalous 1797. dereliction of duty, wholly inconsistent with that patri otic zeal by which the origina;l investigation purported to have been prompted. To have admitted, on the other hand, that he recorded CHngman's statement believing it to be false, and yet without any intimation on his part to that effect, would be to confess himself ah acces sory to an outrageous and wicked slander, reduced to writing, thus preserved, and finally pubhshed through his means, if, indeed, it had not been entirely mani^fac- tured by him. Vainly struggling to escape from this most discreditable dilemma, Monroe replied to Hamilton's demand in the following terms : " Although I was sur prised at the communication given, I meant neither to give nor to imply any opinion of ray own as to its con tents. I simply entered the communication as I received it, reserving to myself the liberty of forming an opinion upon it at such future time as I found convenient, pay ing due regard to all the circumstances connected with it." Hamilton, however, was not to be put off with so poor an evasion ; and after another letter, giving Monroe a second chance to explain hiraself, which drew out another answer, substantially the same with that just July 20. quoted, he thus expressed his opinion of Monroe's behav ior. " The having any communication with Clingman after that with me ; receiving from him and recording information depending on the mere veracity of a man undeniably guilty of subornation of perjury, and whom the very documents which he himself produced showed sufficiently to be the accomplice of a vindictive attempt upon me ; the leaving it in a situation where it might rise up at a future and remote day to inculpate me, with out the possibility, perhaps, from the lapse of tirae, of SLANDEROUS ATTACK ON HAMILTON. ng establishing the refutation, was, in my opinion, in a high chaptki Xl. degree indelicate and imprdper. To have given or in- __ tended to give the least sanction or credit, after all that 1797. was known to you, to the mere assertion of either of the three persons, Clingman, Reynolds, or his wife, would have betrayed a disposition toward rae which, if it ap peared to exist, would merit epithets the severest I could apply." This temperate but cutting rebuke drew out frora July 21. Monroe a long argumentative answer in support of the delicacy and propriety of the joint proceedings of himself and his associates, and of his own separate interview with Clingman. But the delicacy and propriety of reducing Clingman's statement to writing, in terms implying no doubt of its truth, and placing that record in a position to be used, as it actually had been, as foundation for a charge against Hamilton the most serious and deroga tory, this, the very gist of the matter, was passed over without the slightest notice except what might be im plied in the following concluding sentence. " Whether the imputatipns against you as to speculations are well or ill founded, depends upon the facts and circumstances which appear against yen. If you show that they are ill founded, I shall be contented, for I have never under taken to accuse you , since our interview, nor do I now give any opinion on it, reserving td myself the liberty to form one after I see your defense, being resolved, how ever, so far as depends upon me, not to bar the door to free inquiry, or to the merits of the case in either view." In his reply to this note, Hamilton noticed Monroe's July 22. evident design to drive him to a formal and public de fense against the charges of Clingman and CaUender, which^ from its delicate nature, must be exceedingly dis agreeable. He also reminded Monroe that he had been 116 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter the cause, against the intent of a confidence reposed in ' him, of the affair assuming its present shape. " It was^ 1797. incumbent upon you," he added, " as a man of honesty- and sensibility, to have come forward in a raanner that would have shielded me completely from the unpleasant effects brought upon me by your agency. This you have not done. On the contrary, by the affected reference of this matter to a defense which I am to make, and by which you profess your opinion is to be decided, you im ply that your suspicions are still alive. And as nothing appears to have shaken your original conviction but the wretched tale of Clingman which you have thought fit to record, it follows that you are pleased to attach a degree of weight to that communication which can not be ac-, counted for on any fair principles. The result in my mind is, that you have been, and are, actuated by mo tives toward me malignant and dishonorable ; nor can I doubt that this will be the universal opinion when the publication of the whole affair, which I am about to make, shall be seen." To this manly and direct impu tation upon him as a man of honor, candor, and truth, July 25. Monroe made a wiffling and confused reply. He at tempted, by some further explanations, to withdraw the endorsement given by his preceding letter to Clingman's statement as something which required an answer and defense ; but he still found himself in the old dilemraa. He did not dare to say that the statement of CHngman had raade, at the tirae, any impression upon his raind, for if so, how explain his total silence concerning it for so matty years ? He was resolved not to say that he re garded it as false when made, for if so, why was it re corded and so carefully preserved ? Stigmatized as he was with being a malignant and dishonorable plotter against Hamilton's reputation, with the certain prospect SLANDEROUS ATTACK ON HAMILTON. 117 before him of being exhibited as such to the public, Mon- chapter roe found no other resource except the vulgar one of in- ' timating his readiness to fight — if challenged ! If Ham- 1797. ilton wished to make it a personal affair, he "might be more explicit, since you well know," so this letter con cluded, " if that is your disposition, what my determina tion is, and to which I shall firmly adhere." Hamilton, in his answer, declared himself at a loss July 28. to know what could be the determination on Monroe's part so mysteriously referred to as known to him. As to making the affair a personal matter, it would, on his part, be as unworthy to seek as to shun such an is sue. " It was my earnest wish," the letter added, " to have experienced a conduct on your part such as was, in my opinion, due to nde, to yourself, and to justice. Thinking as I did, on the coolest reflection, that this had not been the case, I did- not hesitate to convey to you the impression which I entertained, prepared for any con sequence." As to Monroe's additional explanations, they were pronounced wholly unsatisfactory. Monroe replied July 31. that he could give no further explanations, unless called upon in a way which, for the illustration of truth, he wished to avoid, but which he was ever ready to meet. To this Hamilton answered, that, as the affair stood, if Aug. 3, there was to be any challenge, it ought to come from Monroe. If his last note was intended as such, Hamil ton's friend, Colonel Jackson, was authorized to receive any further communications in relation to it. Again Monroe found himself in a very uncorhfortable position. Unquestionably, according to what is called the code of honor, if there was to be a challenge, it should have come from him, distinctly charged as he was with •betrayal of confidence, and behavior, in other rfespects, not only indelicate and improper, but malignant and dis- 118 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER honorable. It is no imputation, however, upon Monroe's ^'' personal courage, that, to his other sins against Hara- 1797. ilton, he did not wish to add that of a duel with him. But to avoid it, after having himself introduced the sub ject, he found it necessary to withdraw from the posi tion of partial defiance which he had assumed. " Seeing Aug, 6. no adequate cause," so he wrote, " by any thing in our late correspondence, why I should give a challenge to you, I own it was not my intention to give or even to provoke one by any thing contained in these letters. I meant only to observe that I should stand on the defense, and receive one in case you saw fit to give it. If, there fore, you were under a contrary impression, I frankly own you are mistaken." If, however, Hamilton's last note was intended as a challenge. Colonel Burr was au thorized, on Monroe's part, to make the necessary ar- Aug. 7. rangements. Hamilton stated, in reply, that the inten tion of his note was very plain, namely, to meet and close with an advance toward a personal interview, which appeared to have been made by Monroe. As any such advance was now disclaimed, any further step on his (Hamilton's) part would be inconsistent with the ground he had hitherto taken, and improper. This extraordinary correspondence thus closed, Hamil ton proceeded to do what the countenance given by Mon roe to the charges of Clingman and CaUender had made necessary. To cut up by the roots all possible suspicion that, in order to cover np the offense of illegal specula- tion, he had falsely charged himself with adultery and forged letters to prove it, he did not hesitate to publish the entire correspondence, and a very curious one, too, between himself and the Reynoldses, husband and wife, with certificates as to the handwriting of the letters, of which the originals were deposited, so as to be open to SLANDEROUS ATTACK ON HAMILTON. ng public inspection. Hamilton's numerous political ene- chapter mies, at least the baser part of them, consoled themselves for the total failure of this new attempt against his repu- 1797. tation as a public officer by exulting over the pain and mortification which he must have suffered in being driven to the disclosures which he thought it necessary to make ; and they even insinuated — insinuations which have been often since repeated, that he had at least outraged pro priety in venturing to defend his official integrity at the expense of so indecorous a confession. But it was not he,-it was his rancorous and malignant enemies who had dragged his secret amours before the public ; and few who have a spark of generpus feeling will be able te read, without emotion, his own excuse, in the introduc tion to his pamphlet, for defending his reputation as a public officer by telling the whole story without reserve. " This confession is not made without a blush. I can not be the apologist of any vice because the ardor of pas sion may have made it mine. I can never cease to con demn myself for the pang which it may inflict on a bo som eminently entitled to all my gratitude, fidelity, and love ; but that bosom will approve that, even at so great an expense, I should effectually wipe away a more seri ous stain frora a name which it cherishes with no less elevation than tenderness. The public too, I trust, wiU excuse the confession. The necessity of it to my de fense against a more heinous charge could alone have extorted from rae sp painful an indecorum." This matter has been gone into at greater length, not only as very illustrative of character, and because the circumstances attending it have been often misrepresent ed, but also as showing the desperate and outrageous kind of warfare to which some, at least, of the leaders of the opposition were willing to resort. Under these as- 120 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER sauits, which had, of late, begun to faU thick and heavy ^'' iipnn aU the principal supporters of Washington's policy, 1797. the Federalists were by no means passive. The princi pal writers on the side of the opposition were recent im migrants frora abroad, of whom there were several be sides CaUender. But the Federalists were not without assistance from the same quarter. In the afterward so celebrated WUliam Cobbett they had found a formidable champion. After an eight years' tour of duty in the British army, commencing just at the close of the Amer ican war, and passed principally in New Brunswick, dur ing which he had risen from the. ranks to be sergeant major of his regiment, and had improved his leisure to ac quire a familiar knowledge of the French and a complete mastery of the English tongue, together with no incon siderable stock of general information, Cobbett had em igrated to America in 1792. Of ardent feelings and moat determined spirit, he had, as is not uncommonly the case with young men of that character, a traditionary rev erence for the institutions of his native country — a rever ence proportioned, as he hiraself confessed at a later day, and as such feelings are very apt to be, to his ignorance of what those institutions practically were. His patriotism and his hatred of the French, which he had imbibed in the army, were inflamed instead of being cowed by the detestation of England and partiality for France which he found so prevalent in Araerica ; and under the influ ence of those feelings, he wrote and published, in 1794, a bitter satirical paraphlet on Priestley's emigration to America, and the demonstrations with which he had been welcomed at New York and Philadelphia. This para- phlet was favorably received by the Federalists, and was followed up by several others, principally relating to the British treaty, and published under the name of Peter PORCUPINE'S GAZETTE. 121 Porcupine, in which some very sharp thrusts were made chapter at the Democratic opposition. Such, in fact, was the success of those writings, that Cobbett resolved to adopt 1797. that profession of a popular political writer, for which Na ture had speciaUy designed him. Having first set up a shop at Philadelphia for the publication and sale of his own writings — for he complained of having been a good deal fleeced by the printers and publishers for whom he had hitherto written — he commenced, simultaneously with Adaras's administration, the publication of a daily paper called Porcupine's Gazette, being the eighth daily paper then published in Philadelphia (a greater number than at present), and in which he handled the opposition with very little mercy. His pointed wit, cutting sarcasm, and free command of the plainest and most downright English, made him, indeed, a formidable adversary. But the ultra and uncompromising Toryism in which he glo ried, and the entire freedom which he claimed and exer cised in expressing his opinions, rendered him not less dangerous to the party he had espoused than to that which he opposed. Though publishing an Araerican paper professedly in support of the administration, he did not profess to be any the less a Briton in his allegiance and his heart, and he came into collisions hardly more violent with Bache's Aurora than with the Minerva, the leading Federalist paper of New York, edited by Noah Webster, the afterward celebrated lexicographer. It was vainly attempted to silence him by threats of violence ; he grew daily more formidable ; to Monroe he showed no mercy; and perhaps it was the sting of some of his sharp squibs that had stimulated to the recent attack upon Harailton. That attack was presently foUowed up by a very re markable experiment on Washington, with abuse of whom 122 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER and of his administration, to which the Aurora and oth- XI. er raore violent opposition prints clamorously responded, 1797. Callender's book had been filled. For the purpose, ap parently, of ascertaining the effect of these attacks upon Washington's mind, and of drawing from him something of which advantage might be taken, a letter was address- Sept. 23. ed to him, dated Warren, Albemarle county, and signed John Langhorne, condoling with him on the aspersions on his character, but suggesting that he ought not to al low them to disturb his peace. Without any suspicion that his correspondent was a fictitious person, but sup posing hira, as he afterward expressed it, to be " a pedant desirous of displaying the flowers of his pen," Washing- Oct. 15. ton, with his accustomed courtesy, made a short reply, declaring that on public account he felt as much as any man the calumnies leveled at the governraent and its sup porters, but that as to himself personally he had a con solation within which protected him against the venom of these darts, and which, in spite of their utmost raalig- nity, kept his raind perfectly tranquil. It having acci dentally becorae known to John Nicholas, who lived in that vicinity, that there was a letter in the Charlottes ville post-office, directed, in Washington's handwriting, to John Langhorne, a narae unknown in the county, and his suspicions having been excited by other facts that had come to his knowledge, as it would seem, through his political intimacy with Jefferson, he took measures to learn what became of the letter, and ascertained that it was taken from the office by a political opponent of the administration, it would seera by a messenger from Mon ticello. Nicholas was a very zealous meraber of the pp- position ; but, whether instigated by regard for Washing ton, by personal dislike and distrust of Jefferson, or by a Nov. 18. mixture of motives, he presently wrote,- warning Wash- WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON. 123 ington against what had the appearance of a snare, chapter XI. Washington thereupon sent him a copy ofthe Langhorne letter and of his answer to it; and, some months after, 1798. Nicholas, communicated, as Washington. had requested, Feb. 22. the result of his investigations. That letter of Nicholas has never yet been published, but its tenor may be judged of from- Washington's reply. "Nothing short of the evi dence you have adduced," so Washington wrote, " cor- March 8 roborative of intimations which I had received long before through another channel, could have shaken my belief in the sincerity of a friendship which I had conceived was possessed for me by the person" — this person was Jef ferson — " to whom you allude. But attempts to injure those who are supposed to stand well in the estimatipn of the people, and are stumbling blocks in the way, by misrepresenting their political tenets, thereby to destroy all confidence in thera, are among the means by which the government is to beassailed and the Constitution de stroyed. The conduct of this party is systematized, and every thing that is opposed to its execution will be sacri ficed without hesitation or remorse, if the end can be an swered by it. " If the person whora you suspect was really the au thor of the letter under the signature pf Jphn Langhorne, it is not at all surprising to me that the correspondence should have ended where it did, for the penetration of that man would have perceived by the first glance at the answer that nothing was to be drawn from that mpde of attack. In what form the next insidious attempts may appear, remains to be discovered. But as the attempts to explain away the Constitution and weaken the gov ernment are now becorae so open, and the desire of plac ing the affairs of this country under the influence and control of a foreign natiorf is so apparent and strong, it 124 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter is hardly to be expected that a resort to covert means to ' effect these objects will be longer regarded." 1798. It would seem from a correspondence between Wash ington and his nephew Bushrod, presently a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, that Nicholas was desirous of bringing before the public the circumstances respecting this Langhorne letter, and had consulted with the nephew for that purpose. Washington left the mat ter entirely to their discretion, observing that if the let ter could be indubitably proved a forgery, " no doubt would remain in the mind of any one that it was writ ten with a view to effect some nefarious purpose ;" and that if the person whom Nicholas suspected was the real author or abettor, " it would be a pity not to expose him to public execration for attempting in so dishonorable a way to obtain a disclosure of sentiments of which sorae advantage could be taken. But," he added, " Mr. Nich olas will unquestionably know that if the proofs fail the matter will recoU, and that the statement must be a full and not a partial one that is given to the public ; not only as the most satisfactory mode of bringing it before that tribunal, but the shortest in the result, for he will have a persevering phalanx to contend against." It would be necessary, also, for Nicholas, so Washington suggested, to disclose his own motives in the business, and to run the risk of being himself accused of having got up a plot. It would seem that Nicholas, who stiU preserved his political standing with his party, hesitated to encounter so great a risk. The whole affair remain ed buried in obscurity tiU brought to light by the recent publication of Washingtni's writings, and it was in ig- norance that his double dealing, if not worse, had been fully exposed to Washington by one of his own warmest political partisans, that Jefferson, in his old age, wrote ENVOYS TO FRANCE. 125 the famous letter to Mr. Van Buren already referred to, chapter in which he attempted to make out that he had retained Washington's cpnfidenoe to the last. 1798. Apart from all other evidence, there are sufficient indi cations even in Jefferson's writings, as prepared by him self for publication, that he rated Washington as low and hated him with as much energy as he did all the other distinguished Federalists who had stood in his way. But dreading that great man's towering and indestructible popularity, made more solid by time, as a rook on which his own crumbHng reputation might be dashed to pieces should he venture to assail it, and cringing, as he always did, to popular opinion, whether right or wrong, he has attempted the same course with posterity which he so long successfully practiced with Washington hiraself; he has assumed in his published writings the character of that great man's admirer, eulogist, and friend, while many passages of those same writings covertly hold him up to conterapt as a mere tool in the hands of abler men, who took advantage of his monarchical predilec tions and decaying faculties to make him the cover and the instrument of their criminal projects. But it is time to return from these dark intrigues to affairs of a more public nature. The two new envoys, not long after their appointment, 1797. had separately embarked for Europe, there to join Pinck- ^^^^^ ney, and to unite with him in a new attempt to arrange matters with the French republic. Their letters of cre dence and full powers declared them to have been ap pointed for terminating all differences, and restoring harmony, and good understanding, and commercial and friendly intercourse between the two republics. That the negotiation might not be interrupted by the death or disability of one or two of the envoys, these powers were 126 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter conferred upon thera jointly and severally. Their very . elaborate and explicit instructions commenced by vin- 1797. dicating the neutral position of the United States, as suraed, as was alleged, with the full concurrence of the French government ; and by defending what had been done in support of that neutrality, as "pure in princi ple, irapartial in operation, and conformable to the in dispensable rights of sovereignty." The ministers were directed to seek, as an important object of their mis sion, redress for the various injuries inflicted by France, both the more recent depredations on American com merce, and the older ones, of which a series existed from the very comraenceraent of the existing war ; but, though this was to be pressed with the greatest earnestness, it was not to be iijsisted upon as indispensable to a treaty. The claims, however, were in no event to be renounced ; nor were they to be assumed by the United States as a loan to France. Though the Directory had no pretensions to claim it as a matter of right, yet, should they insist upon it, the treaty of coraraerce raight be so modified as to allow the seizure of enemies' goods in neutral vessels, and the in grafting into it, to last during the present war, of regu lations on the subject of provisions and other articles not usually deemed contraband, similar to those contained in the British treaty. The mutual renunciation ofthe guarantee contained in the treaty of alliance, and which was assumed to ap ply only to defensive wars, was also suggested as very desirable for the United States ; or, if that could not be obtained, a specification of the succors to be mutually rendered — those from the United States to be in money or provisions, and those from France in money, miUtary stores, or clothing — the total amount not to exceed INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ENVOYS. 127 $200,000 in any one year. Special care was to be tak- chapter. en not to recognize the existence of any claim under the ' guarantee, so far as related to the present war, nor to 1797. make any admission that the present war carae vfithin the purview of the treaty. Indeed, the precaution was suggested of not referring to the guarantee at all, unless the subject were first introduced on the other side. Par ticular instructions were also given as to tho consular convention, and to such articles of the treaty of cora raerce as had been differently understood by the two gov ernments. In any arrangement that might be raade, the envoys were to insist that no blame for any past transactions should be either directly or indirectly imputed to the United States. Exceptionable as the conduct of France had been, the United States, on the other hand, were willing to pass it over without comment. The envoys were further expressly forbidden to stipulate any aid to France during the pending war ; any engagement in consistent with any existing treaty with other nations ; any restraint upon lawful commerce with other nations ; any stipulations under color of which French tribunals of any sort might be established in the United States ; or any personal privileges to be claimed by Frenchmen resident in the United States incompatible with their complete sovereignty and independence in matters of in ternal polity, commerce, and government. As it was the object of the mission to do and to obtain justice, and to preserve peace, the style and manner of the proceeding were to be of the sort most directly tend ing to that end. If such changes had taken place in the French government as would render it politic, strong language was to be used ; but if there appeared a de termination to frustrate the negotiation, any warmth or 128 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. i CHAPTER harshness which might furnish the Directory with a pre- XI. , tense for breaking it off was. to be carefully avoided. In 1797. the representation to be made to the French government, a style was recommended uniting, as much as possible, "calm dignity with simplicity, and force of sentiment with mildness of language," but calculated, at the same time, to convey the idea of " inflexible perseverance." . Oct. 4. Having joined each other in Paris, the three envoys sent notice of their arrival to the French minister for Foreign Affairs, requesting him to appoint a time for re ceiving copies of their letters of credence. The events which had transpired in France between the appointment of the envoys and their arrival were by no means en couraging. A favorable change had been hoped, and not without reason, from the periodical renewal, as pro vided for by the French Constitution of the year Three, of one of the directors and two thirds of the councils. But this infusion of popular sentiment into the govern ing machinery of the French republic had been promptly raet and speedily extinguished. Two of the directors, the least exposed to suspicion of personal corruption, with seventy raerabers of the councils, including Pichegru, president of the Council of Five Hundred, and Pastoret and Segur, who had ably exposed from the tribune the wrongs inflicted upon the United States, had been seiz ed by their coUeagues, and, under the old pretense of Royalism, had been shipped off to Cayenne. Of the two new directors since appointed, one was Me'lin, the same who, as president of the Convention, had given the fraternal hug to Monroe, and who, as minister of Jus tice, had sustained the condemnation of American ves sels under the jfrivolous pretense of the want of a role d'equipage, that is, a certified list of the crew — a serv ice which the privateers were believed to reciprocate by UNOFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS. 129 allowing Merlin a share in the proceeds of their captures, chapter The new rainister of foreign affairs to whom the envoys 1 addressed themselves proved to be no other than Talley- 1797. rand, lately a proscribed exile in the United States, whose visits, like those of other French emigrants, Washington had declined to receive, lest such acts of courtesy might have been added to the long list of complaints on the part of the French republic. But by one of those rapid trans mutations so common in French politics, this late exile had now become the trusted and confidential agent of the Directory. The contemptuous observations as to the United States in which he indulged, as already re ported in Pinckney's dispatches, afforded no very favor able omens for the success of the present mission. The envoys were informed by Talleyrand that he was then engaged upon a report to the Directory on Ameri can affairs. When that was finished, he would let them know what was to be done. To authorize their residence in Paris meanwhile, he sent them permits, known at that time as cards of hospitality. After an interval often days, the envoys were informed Oct. 11. by a gentleman to whom the information had been given by Talleyrand's private secretary, that the Directory were very much exasperated by some parts of the presi dent's speech at the opening of Congress, and that no audience would probably be granted until the conclusion of the negotiation, which would, it was likely, be carried on by persons appointed for that purpose, and who would report to Talleyrand, to whom the management of the matter would be intrusted. Shortly after, a gentleman well known to the envoys, Oct. 18. a partner in a noted mercantile house at Paris, which had already volunteered to answer their drafts for any sum they might need, called on Pinckney, and stated v.— I 130 HISTORY OFTHE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER that a Mr. Hottinguer, to whom Pinckney had already 'Xi » ' been introduced, a gentleman of credit and reputation 1797. in whom the utmost confidence might be placed, had sdme important comraunications to make to them. Hot tinguer himself called on Pinckney the same even ing, and after chatting a while with the company that chanced to be present, whispered to Pinckney that he had a message from Talleyrand. Having withdrawn to gether to a private roPm, Hottinguer remarked that he had a plan to propose, by means of which Talleyrand thought a reconciliation might be brought about between France and the United States. The Directory, particu larly two members of it, were very much irritated at some expressions in the president's speech, and, previous to a reception of the envoys, those expressions must be softened. A loan to the republic would also be insisted on ; and a sum of money for the private pockets of the directors must be placed at Talleyrand's disposal. The amount of the private douceur required was 1,200,000 livres, about $240,000. As to the amount ofthe loan to the republic, or what particularly were the objection able passages in the president's speech, Hottinguer could give no information. He stated, in fact, that what he knew was not direct from TaUeyrand, but from another gentleman very much in that minister's confidence. As there seemed to be no other means of getting at the intentions of the French governraent, the envoys, after consulting together, agreed to extract from this un- Oct. 19. official source all the information they could. In an in terview the next day, at which all the envoys were pres ent, Hottinguer reduced his suggestions to writing. It was stated in the memorandum thus furnished that the French governraent would be willing to agree to a board of commissioners to decide upon American claims on UNOFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS. 131 France for depredations and debts due ; but the sums chapter XI. awarded, as well as those hitherto admitted to be due,. but not yet paid, must be advanced by the American 1797. government, and that, too, under an agreeraent on the part of the recipients that the amounts thus paid should be reinvested in additional supplies to the French cold- nies. First, however, there was to be deducted from this masked loan "certain sums," to wit, the 1,200,000 livres, " for the purpose of raaking the distributions cus tomary in diplomatic affairs." Encouraged, it would seem, by the attention paid to his suggestions, and having first demanded and received a promise that in no case should his own narae or that of the other gentleman be made public, Hottinguer re turned the day after, this time bringing with him for Oct. 20. further explanations that other gentleman, the alleged particular friend of Talleyrand, who proved to be a Mr. Bellamy, a citizen of Hamburg. After premising that he had no diplomatic authority, but was only a friend of Talleyrand's, trusted by him, and, like him, well dis posed toward the United States, Bellamy pointed out the comments on Barras's farewell speech to Monroe, as well as several other paragraphs in the president's speech at the opening of Congress, which seemed to imply that France had acted injuriously toward the United States, and of which a formal disavowal in writing would be required. That done, a new treaty would be agreed to, placing the matter of neutral rights in the same position as that established by the British treaty ; but with a secret article for a loan. On. the absolute necessity of the disavowal required, and also of paying a great deal of raoney, Bellamy dwelt with much emphasis ; but the amount once agreed upon, care would be taken to con sult the interest of the United States as to the best means 132 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter of furnishing it, so as to avoid complaints on the part of Great Britain. 1797. The two agents came the next day to breakfast, Bel- '^"^'- ^^- lamy, as he stated, fresh from TaUeyrand, with whom he had passed the morning. The apology demanded by the Directory, however painful the making of it might be, was, he said, an indispensable preliminary to the recep tion of the envoys, unless, indeed, they could find some means to change that determination. Those means he was not authorized to state ; but he suggested, as his own private opinion, that money would answer. The directors, he said, insisted upon the sarae respect for merly paid to the King of France, and the reparation required could only be dispensed with in exchange for something still more valuable. The Directory had on hand thirty-two miUions of florins in Dutch inscriptions (obligations extorted from that dependant republic), worth at the present raoment, in the market, according to Bel lamy's account, one half their nominal value. On the payment of their full value, $12,800,000, the Directory would assign thera to the American government. It would, in fact, be only an advance on good security, for after the war was over they would undoubtedly rise to par. To a question on that point, Bellamy replied that the douceur of $240,000 must be a separate and addi tional sum. To all this the envoys answered that the proposition for a loan went beyond their instructions. They offered, however, that one of their number should return horae to consult the governraent on that point, provided the Directory would agree to suspend, in the interval, aU further captures of Araerican vessels, and all proceedings on captures already made, and in case of prizes already condemned and sold, the payment over to the capters of UNOFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS. 133 This answer seems to have taken the agents quite by chapter surprise. Bellamy complained that the proposal about. money had been treated as though it had come from the 1797. Directory, whereas it did not even come from the minis ter, having been merely suggested by himself as a substi tute for the apology which the Directory required. But to this the envoys repliedj that from the circumstances under which their intercourse with Bellamy had origin ated (a thing not sought by them), they had conversed with him and his associate as they would have done with Talleyrand himself. It was true that no credentials had been exhibited, but, relying upon the respectable charac ters of Messrs. Hottinguer and Bellamy, the envoys had taken it for granted that they were in fact what they purported to be. As to the form of their answer, Mr. Bellamy could give it what shape he pleased. After all the depredations which the United States had suffered, they were astonished at the demands made upon them, as though America had been the aggressing party. On all points that could have been anticipated, they were fully instructed, but this matter of a loan was beyond their powers. Bellamy, in return, expressed himself with great ener gy as to the resentment of the Directory, and as the en voys seemed disinclined to accept his proposed substitute of a loan, he recalled their attention to his original prop osition of an apology and recantation. But this, the en voys told him, was whoUy out of the question ; indeed, they did not suppose that it had been seriously urged. The Constitution of the United States authorized and re quired the president to communicate to Congress his ideas on the affairs of the nation. He had done so, and, in doing so, had stated facts with which all America was famiHar. Over the president's speech the envoys had no 134 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER power, and any attempt to exercise such power would ' not only be absurd in itself, but would lead to their im- 1797. mediate disavowal and recall. After much conversation on this and other points, the two agents left, seeming to shudder at the consequences of the audacity of the en voys certain to result in their not being received. The very next day after the failure of this first at tempt upon thera, the envoys were approached from an- Oct. 22. other quarter. M. Hauteval, a respectable French gen tleman who had formerly resided in Boston, inforftied Gerry, who had been well acquainted with him, that TaUeyrand professed himself very well disposed toward the United States, and had expected to have frequently seen the Araerican envoys in their private capacity, and to have conferred with them individually on the subject of their mission. Neither Pinckney nor Marshall had ever had any previous acquaintance with Talleyrand ; but, after conferring together, it was agreed by the en voys that Gerry, who had known the French minister of Foreign Affairs during his residence in Araerica, might, upon the strength of that acquaintance, properly enough Oct. 23. call upon him ; which he did the next day, in company with M. Hauteval. Talleyrand not being then at his of fice, the twenty-eighth of the month was appointed for an interview. Oct. 27. The day before that interview Hottinguer again called upon the envoys, and urged with much vehemence the policy of propitiating the Directory by a loan, since they were determined that all nations should aid thera, or be considered and treated as enemies. Even if a loan might not be within their special authority, would it not be prudent to interest an influential friend in their favor ? The character of the directors ought to be con sidered. Believing that America could do them no UNOFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS. 135 harm, they would pay no regard to her claims, nor to chapter any reaspning in suppprt pf those claims. Interest with " them could only be acquired by a judicious application of 1797. money, and the envoys ought to consider whether the situation of their country did not require the use of such means. Both the loan and the douceur were pressed with great pertinacity and with a variety of arguments, but without making any impression on the envoys. At the interview the, next day between Gerry and Oct. 28. Talleyrand, Hauteval acted as interpreter. Talleyrand stated that the Directory had passed a decree, which he offered for perusal, requiring an explanation of some parts of the president's speech, and, reparation for other parts of it. This, he was sensible, must be a troublesome thing to the envoys, but by an offer of money on their part he thought the operation of the decree might be pre vented. Gerry objected that the envoys had no such powers ; to which Talleyrand replied, " Then assume them, and make a loan." Gerry thereupon reiterated to Talleyrand the statements already made to Hottinguer and Bellamy. The envoys had araple powers for the dis cussion and adjustment of what, in their view, were the real points of difference between the two nations ; but they did not consider the president's speech as coming within the range of diplomacy, they had no powers as to a loan, and any agreement of theirs to make one would be a deception on the Directory. Still, if the other points in controversy could be adjusted, they might, if it were deemed expedient, send home one of their number for in structions on that head. Talleyrand replied that this mat ter of the raoney must be settled at once without sending to America, and that, to give time for it, he would keep back the decree for a week. Even if the difficulty about the president's speech were settled, application would stiU 136 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. -CHAPTER go to the United States for a loan. Having been request- XI fid by Talleyrand to repeat to Gerry and his colleagues 1797. what he had said, Hauteval accompanied Gerry to his lodgings, and the other two envoys being present, a min ute was made of Talleyrand's propositions. This having been certified by Hauteval as correct, he was desired by Pinckney and Marshall to inforra Talleyrand that as Ger ry had fully expressed their sentiments, they had noth ing to add, and that it was not necessary to delay the de cree on their account. Oct. 29. The next day Hottinguer called again on the envoys with new assurances of Talleyrand's anxiety to serve them. After dwelling afresh on the power and haughti ness of France, he suggested a new proposition. If the envoys would pay by way of fees, as he expressed it, the sum demanded for the private use of the Directory, they might be suffered to remain in Paris till they could con sult their governraent on the subject of a loan. In that case, though not received by the Directory, they would be recognized by Talleyrand. On being asked if the Di rectory would also suspend the capture of American ves sels, and restore those already taken, but not condemned, he said they would not, but Talleyrand had observed that the winter was approaching, and that few prizes would be made during that season. To the question why they should pay twelve hundred thousand livres for the mere privUege of spending the winter in Paris, he replied that they raight in that way postpone hostilities, and that in the interval a change might take place. To this the envoys replied, that if they saw any prospect of an ad justment, or any real good to be gained, they should not stand for a little money, such as was stated to be us ual ; but that, so long as the depredations on American coraraerce continued, they would npt give a cent, nor UNOFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS. 137 would they even consult their government as to a loan, chapter The answer was, that unless they paid this money they _____ would be obliged to quit Paris; that the vessels already 1797. captured would be confiscated, and all Araerican ships in French ports embargoed. Hottinguer expressed a wish that the envoys would see Bellamy once more, and this being assented to, Hottinguer and Bellamy called togeth- Oct. 31. er the next morning. Bellamy argued, at great length, that in case of a war between France and the United States, no help could be expected from England, al ready so reduced as to be under the necessity of making peace with France. It was even hinted that the United States might in that case experience the fate of Venice, which, by the late treaty of peace between France and Austria, had been stripped of her independence, and an nexed to the Austrian dominions. Recent events, he stated, had given TaUeyrand new strength and greater influence, and he was now able to go much further on behalf of America than he could have done but a short time before. What was now suggested must be offered, however, as coming from the envoys themselves ; nor would Talleyrand be responsible for the success of any of the propositions ; all he could promise was to use his influence in their favor. The propositions thus proposed for the envpys tp make were as follows : First, that a commission should be named to decide on American claims, which, as fast as they should be authenticated and allowed, should be paid by the American governraent as an advance to the French republic; also the amount of claims already admitted to be due, this advance to be repaid as might be agreed : Second, that one of the en voys should immediately proceed to America to obtain the^ necessary powers — in case a treaty should be finally con eluded, negotiations for which were meanwhile to proceed. 138 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER — to purchase for cash the thirty-two mUlions of Dutch ' inscriptions ; all cases involving the question of the role 1797. dequipage to remain suspended till an answer as to this purchase could be obtained from America. To these might be added a third proposition — that during the six months to be allowed for a reference to America, there should be a cessation of captures and of all proceedings in the prize courts against American property ; hut this Bellamy said was merely his own suggestion, for he did not know that Talleyrand would consent to lay it be fore the Directory. Bellamy strongly urged upon the envoys the expediency of any accommodation to which France would assent. Such, he said, was her diplomatic skill, and so great her influence in America, that she could easUy throw the blarae of a rupture upon the Amer ican government, and upon its Federal, or, as they were called in France, its British supporters. At a detailed answer attempted by the envoys tp this long discourse, Bellamy manifested great impatience. He did not come,. he said, to hear eloquent harangues. Here were certain propositions, which, if the envoys would request it, the minister would make for them to the Directory. He had just stated what they were, and all the answer wished for was yes or no. Did the en voys, or did they not, request the minister to make these propositions on their behalf? BeUamy left the proposi tions in writing, and Hottinguer stated that Talleyrand would not consent even to lay them before the Directory unless the 1,200,000 Hvres, or the greater part of that sura, were first paid. To these propositions the envoys gave a written answer, in substance, that they would not stand on etiquette, and that they were Veady for the appointment of a commission of claims, but they would assume no French debts, even though the money were UNOFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS. 139 to be paid to the use of American citizens. They were chapter XL ready to enter upon the discussion of a new treaty, and, , if necessary, to consult their government as to a loan ; 1797. but, at this season pf the year, six months would hard ly suffice for that purpose. No diplomatic gratification could precede the ratification of the treaty. It was now resolved by the envoys to have no more of Nov. i. this indirect negotiation, the atterapt at which was re garded as degrading to the United States. Information to that effect was given to Hottinguer when he applied, two days after, for another interview between the en- Nov. 3. voys and Bellamy ; but that same day he called again, and showed and read a draft of a letter to the envoys, prepared, as he said, by Talleyrand, requesting an ex planation of parts of the president's speech. This letter, of which he would allow no copy to be taken, he stated, would be sent, unless the envoys came into the proposal already made to them. Intelligence, he remarked, had been received from the United States that, had Burr and Madison been sent as envoys, the dispute might have been settled before now ; and he added that Talleyrand was about to send a raeraorial to Araerica complaining of the envoys as unfriendly. To this the envoys replied that the correspondents of the minister in America ven tured very far when they undertook to pronounce how, in certain contingencies, the Directory would have acted. They were not afraid of Talleyrand's memorial, and he might rest assured that they would not be driven by the apprehension of censure to deserve it. They relied for support on the great body of honest and candid men in America. Their country had taken a neutral position, and had sought faithfully to preserve it. A loan to one of the belligerent powers would be to take part in the war ; and for the United States to take part in the war 140 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ichapter against their own judgment and at the dictation of ._^_ France, would be to surrender their independence. 1797. Having first transmitted to America a full account in cipher of the above unofficial negotiations — of which, to escape the interruptions to which communications across the Atlantic were at that time exposed, no less than six copies were sent by as many different vessels — the en- Nov. 11. voys presently addressed a note to Talleyrand reminding him of his promise, when informed of their arrival, to comraunicate to them, within a few days, the decision of the Directory on the report he was preparing on Amer ican affairs. In again soliciting his attention to their raission, they took occasion to express their earnest de sire to preserve for the United States the friendship of France, and to re-establish harraony and friendly inter course between the two rppublics. Nov. 21. Ten days having passed without any notice being taken of this letter, tlie private secretary of one of the envoys was sent to inquire whether it had been laid be fore the directors, and when an answer raight be expect ed. Talleyrand replied that he had laid the letter be fore the Directory, and that they would instruct hira what steps to pursue, of which due notice would be given to the envoys. A month passed without any such infor mation. MeanwhUe the condemnation of American ves sels not only went on, but a report spread that the Di rectory intended to order all Araericans out of Paris at twenty-four hours' notice. Hottinguer and Bellamy at tempted also, in the interval, to inveigle the envoys into further discussions. These attempts were repulsed; but they took eager advantage of a suggestion of Gerry's, that he should like to wait on Talleyrand for the purpose of reciprocating that minister's personal civUities to hira self by an invitation to dinner, on which occasion he pro- GERRY'S INTERVIEW WITH TALLEYRAND. 141 posed to ask his colleagues also, in hopes that the way chapter might be smoothed toward a better understanding ; espe- ' cially as he intended to remonstrate with the minister on 1797. the precarious and painful position in which the envoys stood. Bellamy at once volunteered to accompany Gerry Dec. 17. to Talleyrand's. Having called upon him for that pur pose, and finding Marshall present, he stated that a good understanding between the two nations might be irame diately restored by adopting two measures, of which one was the gratuity of 1,200,000 livres, and the other the purchase of 16,000,000 of Dutch rescriptions — half the amount formerly proposed. Sorae suggestions were made as to paying the gratuity, or, rather, as to covering it up, by a deduction to an equal araount from a claim held by M. Beaumarchais against the State of Virginia for supplies furnished during the Revolutionary war, in the prosecution of which MarshaU had acted as the counsel of Beaumarchais. The purchase money of the Dutch rescriptions would amount to only $6,400,000, half of which might be borrowed in Holland on a pledge of the paper. The other half might also be obtained on loan, under an easy arrangement for payment by installments. If these propositions were not accepted, steps would be immediately taken to ravage the coasts of the United States by frigates from St. Doraingo. This conversa tion over, Gerry accompanied Bellamy to Talleyrand's office, and during the conversation there he mentioned that Bellamy had that morning stated sorae proposi tions as coming from Talleyrand. On those proposi tions he would give no opinion, his present object being to invite the minister to fix a time for dining with him, in company with his colleagues ; though, considering the position in which they relatively stood, he did not wish to subject Talleyrand to any embarrassment by 142 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter accepting the invitation. He then alluded to the awk- _____ward position of himself and his colleagues, and to the 1797. reported intention to' order all Americans to leave Paris. So far as respected themselves, the envoys were ready to leave at any time. Indeed, they would prefer to re side out of the French jurisdiction till the question of their reception should be settled. Talleyrand seemed a little startled at this remark, but, without noticing it, observed that the information given by Bellamy was correct, and might always be relied upon, and that he hiraself would reduce it to writing ; and he immediately made and showed to Gerry a memorandum, which he afterward burned, containing the proposal for the pur chase of the Dutch rescriptions, but without any men tion ofthe gratuity, that being a subject too delicate for Talleyrand to make any direct reference to it. He then accepted the invitation to dine, and as he was engaged on the first day of the following decade (these days of leisure being usually selected for ceremonious dinner parties), he fixed the time ten days later. Dec. 19. A day or two after Gerry's interview with Talleyrand, the envoys resolved to persist rigidly in their determina tion, previously taken, to enter into no negotiations with persons not formally authorized to treat ; and also to pre pare a letter to the minister, stating the objects of their mission, and discussing at length the matters of differ ence between the two nations, exactly as if the envoys had been formally received ; this letter- to close with a request that a negotiation might be opened or their p'ass- Dec. 24. ports be sent to thera. This intention was expressed in their letters to their own government giving an account of their adventures thus far, and in which they stated their opinion that, were they to remain six months longer, they could accoraplish nothing without promising to pay MEMORIAL OF THE ENVOYS. 143 money, and a great deal of it too ; unless, indeed, the chapter proposed invasion of England, to be commanded by Bo- ' naparte," should prove a failure, or a total change should 1797. take place in the administration of the French govern ment. Gerry's diplomatic dinner, in spite of all his efforts to Dec. 30. get up a little cordiality, proved, as he afterward com plained — principally, as he would seem to intimate, by the fault of his colleagues — a very cold and stiff affair. But, though he failed to draw thera into any social inter course with Talleyrand, he continued his visits, and by that means he was drawn into a continuation, by him self, of those unofficial negotiations which he had been the first and most earnest to protest against. The paper on which the envoys had agreed, containing a full and elaborate statement of the grievances of the United States, and an answer to the various complaints which had been urged at different times on behalf of the French government, was prepared by Marshall ; and af ter being somewhat softened at the suggestion of Gerry, 1793 it was signed by the envoys; but as it was their custom Jan. 17. to send their memorials accompanied by an accurate French translation, a fortnight elapsed before it was ready to send. It concluded with a request that, if no hope remained of accommodating the differences betwe^en the two nations by any means which the United States had authorized, the return of the envoys to their own coun try " might be facUitated;" in which case they would depart with the most deep-felt regret that the sincere friendship of the government of the United States for "the great French republic," and their earnest efforts to demonstrate the purity of that government's conduct and intentions, had failed to bring about what a course so upright and just ought to have accomplished. 144 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter Before this document was sent, the very day, indeed. XI. . after its signature, was promulgated a new decree, for 1798. sorae time under discussion in the French legislative Jan. 18. body, and a draft of which had been forwarded to the United States with the last dispatches of the envoys. This decree, of a raore sweeping and outrageous charac ter than any yet issued, never paralleled, indeed, except by Bonaparte's subsequent imitations of it, declared to be good prize all vessels having raerchandise on board the production of England or her colonies, whoever the owner of the raerchandise might be, and forbade also the entrance into any French port of any vessel which at any previous part of her voyage had touched at any English possession. Feb. 6. A letter was presently prepared remonstrating against this decree, and concluding with an explicit request for passports ; but, even after it had been redrafted to ac- Feb. 18. commodate it to Gerry's taste, he still refused to sign it. The reason of this refusal is to be found in a recent in- Feb. 4. terview to which Talleyrand had specially invited him, and at which he had consented to receive communica tions under a promise to keep them secret from his col leagues ; a proraise wholly unwarrantable, since, by the very terras of their coraraission, in all that related to the embassy the envoys were to act jointly. Having ob tained this promise of secrecy, Talleyrand had stated that the Directory were not satisfied with Gerry's two col leagues, and would have nothing to do with them, but that they were ready to treat with Gerry alone ; adding, that his refusal to do so would produce an immediate declaration of war. Since Gerry's commission was sev eral as well as joint, he had full powers, so Talleyrand argued, to act. However flattering this preference might be to a van- INTERVIEWS WITH TALLEYRAND. 145 ity which Talleyrand had no doubt discovered to be a chapter weak point in Gerry's character, he had too much sense , XL to be taken in by so transparent a sophisra, though it 1798. was warraly urged upon him at two separate interviews. Nor, indeed, was the prospect of a separate negotiation very inviting. Gerry's colleagues soon became aware of his secret interviews witb Talleyrand ; nor were they long in conjecturing what might be their subject-mat ter, if, indeed, they were not actually put Upon the track by some of Talleyrand's secret agents. Near a month passed away, and no notice had been taken of Marshall's long memorial on the clairas and rights of the two republics. Indeed, Talleyrand's pri vate secretary had intimated that nobody had yet taken the trouble to read it, such long papers not being to the taste of the French government, who desired to corae to the point at once. To come to some point as speedily as possible was the very thing which the envoys wished, and, to that end, it was agreed to ask a joint interview with the minister, Feb. 27. a request to which Talleyrand readily acceded. Pinck- March 2. ney opened the conversation by observing that the en voys had received various propositions through Bellamy, to which they found it impossible to accede, and that their present object was to ascertain if no other means of accommodation could be devised. Talleyrand, in re ply, reverted at once to the old idea of a loan. As to want of power, envoys at such a distance frora their own government, and possessing, as they did, the public con fidence, must often use their discretion, and exceed their powers for the public good. In almost all the treaties made of late, this had been done, though the negotiators in those cases were so much nearer to their own govern ments than the American envoys. Express instructions v.— K 146 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter might, indeed, be a , fetter, but he argued on the pre- XI. . sumption, into which the former coramunications of the 1798. envoys had tended to lead him, that their instructions were merely silent on the subject. A loan, he said, was absolutely necessary to convince the Directory that the United States were really friendly. A thousand ways might be found to cover it up so as not to expose them to the charge of a breach of neutrality. To these observations Marshall replied, that the friend ship of the United States for France might seem to have been sufficiently exhibited by the appointment of the present mission, and by the patience with which the enor mous idsses of property inflicted by French captures had ^0 long been borne. A loan to France would be wholly inconsistent with that neutrality so important to the Pnited States, and which they had struggled so hard (tp maintain. If America were actually leagued with France, it could only be expected of her to furnish mon ey ; so thdt to furnish money would be, in fact, to make war. Under the American form of government, a secret loan was entirely out of the question. March 6. A second interview took place a few days after, the conversation being opened with a remark that Talley rand's proposals seemed to be the same in substance with the suggestions of Hdttinguei: and Bellamy. Tp put an end to that matter, he was now distinctly in formed that any loan, even the assumption of debts due to American citizens, was expressly prohibited by the in structions of the envoys. Talleyrand then reverted to a proposition suggested through his secretary a few days before to Gerry, and which Gerry had then seemed dis posed to entertain^ — a. loan to take effect after the con clusion of the pending war. Upon this there was rauch argument, the envoys insisting that their present instruc- TALLEYRAND'S REPLY TO THE MEMORIAL. 147 tions were as much against such a loan as any other, chapter Whaf their government might think about it they could . XL not teU. If TaUeyrand desired it, MarshaU and Gerry 1798, would go home for further instructions, or they would wait in expectation of answers to their communications already made. Sorae ttvo weeks after this interview Talleyrand made March 18 a long reply to the elaborate memorial of the envoys, it being now supposed, as it would seeta, that Gerry was prepared to act the part expected of him. Throughout that memorial it had been tacitly assuraed that the United States had been fully justified in taking a position of neutrality, an assumption which the former admissions of the French governraent would seera to warrant, and upon which the whole argumentation of the memorial depended. While discussing separately and minutely all the specific complaints made by the French govern ment, there had been no reference in that paper to the subject of the guarantee contained in the treaty of al liance. Avoiding equally any direct discussion, Tal leyrand tacitly assumed, on the other hand, that the treaty of alliance did impose a certain dnty of assisting France inconsistent with a rigid neutrality ; and he com plained that the envoys, " reversing the known order of facts," had passed over in silence " the just motives of complaint of the French govemment," and had endeav ored to show, by " an unfaithful and partial exposition," that tbe French repubUc had no real grievance, the United States being alone entitled to complain and to demaiid satisfaction ; whereas the first right of complaint was on the, side of the French, who had real and numer ous grounds for it, long before the existence of any of the facts on which the envoys dilated with so many de tails. All the depredations on the part of France (ex- 148 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER tending by this time to the value of many millions of XL .dollars) were assuraed to be merely retaliations for pre- 1798. vious breaches of treaty obligations on the part of the United States. Having laid down this preliminary, which, even upon his own principles, was far from being well founded — since the act of France in setting aside that article of the treaty which protected enemy's goods in Araerican vessels had preceded any act whatever of the American government of which France, under any view, had a right to complain — Talleyrand proceeded to reiterate the old charges : the jurisdiction exercised oyer French cruisers and their prizes in American ports ; the adraission of English ships of war into American ports ; the refusal to carry out the consular convention ; and, above all, the British treaty, " as filling up the measure of the grievances of the republic." As to Genet's admissions of the right of the United States to assume a neutral position, he had gone no fur ther, so .Talleyrand stated it, than merely to intiraate that, though the case provided for had clearly occurred, the United States would not be pressed on the guarantee. " Far from appreciating this conduct" — this proof of the friendly disposition of France — " the American govern ment received it as the acknowledgment of a right, and it is in this spirit also that the envoys extraordinary have met this question." To this friendly disposition of France, stiU further evinced by the national embrace which Merlin had given to Monroe, the United States had raost ungratefully responded by negotiating the Brit ish treaty, deluding France aU the whil'e with the idea that Jay had no powers except to demand reparation for injuries. Thus was brought up in judgraent against the Araerican government the attempts of Monroe to pledge it to his own policy, instead of conforming himself, as TALLEYRAND'S REPLY TO THE MEMORIAL. 149 a minister should do, to the policy of those for whom he chapter XI. acted. " When the agents of the republic complained of this mysterious conduct," such were Talleyrand's com- 1798. ments, " they were answered by an appeal to the inde pendence of the United States, solemnly sanctioned in the treaties of 1778 — a strange manner of contesting a grievalnce, the reality of which was demonstrated by the dissimulation to which recourse was had ; an insidious subterfuge, which substitutes for the true point in ques tion a general principle which the republic can not be supposed to dispute, and which destroys, by the aid of a sophism, that intimate confidence which ought to exist between the French republic and the United States." Having referred to the small majorities by which the British treaty had been sanctioned, and to " the multi tude of imposing wishes expressed by the nation against it," as confirming the views of the French government, Talleyrand proceeded to denounce the treaty as calculat ed in every thing to turn the neutrality of the United States to the disadvantage of the French republic and to the advantage of England, making concessions to Great Britain " the most unheard of, the most incompatible with the interests of the United States, and the most de rogatory to the alliance between the said states and the French republic," in consequence of which the republic became perfectly free "to avail itself of the preservative means with which the law of nature, the law of nations, and prior treaties furnished it." Such were the reasons ' which had produced the decrees of the Directory, and the conduct of the French agents in the West Indies com plained of by the United States ; measures alleged to be founded on that article of the coraraercial treaty which provided that in matters of navigation and commerce the French should always stand with respect to the United 150 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER States on the footing of the most favored nation. If, in XL . the execution of this " provisional clause of the treaty," 1798. some inconvenience had resulted to the United States, the Directory could not be responsible for that. As to any abuses attendant upon the execution of the late de crees, those Talleyrand was ready to discuss " in the most friendly manner." The extraordinary doctrine sug gested by Adet, and now formally set forth by Talley rand, was simply this : If other nations were not willing to make with the United States certain stipulations as to maritime rights, out of the common course, such as France and the United States had mutually made, France, under the above-cited provision, was entitled to a release from her special stipulations. Nay, further ; if any other nation wrongfully depredated on American commerce, France was at liberty, under the treaty, to depredate equally ! But, according to Talleyrand, the grievances of France did not end with the negotiation of Jay's treaty. The Federal courts had since expressly decided that French cruisers should no longer be permitted to sell their prizes, as they had done, in American ports. Nor was this all. " The newspapers known to be under the indirect con trol of the cabinet have, since the treaty, redoubled their invectives and calumnies against the republic, her prin ciples, her magistrates, and her envoys. Pamphlets open ly paid for by the British minister have reproduced, in every form, those insults and calumnies ;" an allusion, no doubt, to some of Cobbett's pamphlets, particularly the " Bloody Buoy," setting forth the horrors of the French Revolution — " nor has a state of things so scandalous ever attracted the attention of the government, which might have repressed it. On the contrary, the govern ment itself has been intent upon encouraging this scan- TALLEYRAND'S REPLY TO THE MEMORIAL. 151 dal in its public acts. The Executive Directory has seen chapter itself denounced, in a speech deHvered by the president, " as endeavoring to propagate anarchy and division within 1798. the United States. The new allies which the republic has acquired, and which are the same that contributed to the independence of America, have been equally insulted in the official correspondences which have been made pub lic. In fine, one can not help discovering, in the tone of the speech, and of the, publications which have just been pointed out, a latent enmity, which only waits an oppor tunity to l?reak forth." The instructions to the present ministers, sp Talley rand proceeded to charge, h^d been prepared, not with the view of effecting a reconciliation with France, but for the purpose of throwing upon the. French republic the blame of a rupture, being plainly based on a determination " of supporting at every hazard the treaty of London, which is the principal grievance of the republic ; of adhering to the spirit in which that treaty was forraed and executed, and of not granting to the republic any of the repara tions" which had been proposed through the medium of Talleyrand. Chiming in with the tone of the opposition in America, this extraordinary manifesto proceeded as fol lows: " Finally, it is wished to seize the first favorable opportunity to consummate an intimate union with a power toward which a devotion and partiality is profess ed, which has Ipng been te the Federal government a principle of conduct." " It was probably with this view that it was thought proper to send to the French repub lic persons whose opinions and connections are too well known to hope from them dispositions sincerely concilia tory. It is painful to be obliged to make a contrast be tween this conduct and that which was pursued, under similar circumstances, toward the cabinet of St. James. 152 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter An eagerness was then felt to send to London ministers XI well known for sentiraents corresponding with the objects 1798. of their mission. The republic, it would seem, might have expected a like deference, and if the same propriety has not been observed with regard to it, it may with great probability be attributed to the views above alluded to." Upon this specious paragraph it may be observed that the present envoys had, in point of fact, been select ed, the one for his pronounced attachment to France, the others from their known freedom from any prejudice or warmth of feeling against her. Jefferson's endorsement of the raission has already been recorded. There had been already experience enough in Monroe's case of leav ing the negotiations entirely in the hands of envoys des titute of any sympathy for the government which they represented. " The undersigned," so the document proceeds, " does not hesitate to believe that the American nation, like the French nation, sees this state of things with regret. The Araerican people, he apprehends, will not be deceived ei ther as to the prejudices with which it is sought to in spire them against an allied people, nor as to the engage ments into which it is sought to seduce them to the det riment of an alliance which so powerfully contributed to place them in the rank of nations and to support them in it, and that they wUl see in these new combinations the only dangers their prosperity and importance can in cur." " Penetrated with the justice of these reflections and their consequences, the Executive Directory has au thorized the undersigned to express himself with all the frankness that becoraes the French nation. It is indis pensable that, in the narae of the French Directory, he should dissipate those illusions with which, for five years the complaints ofthe ministers of the republic at Phila- TALLEYRAND'S REPLY TO THE MEMORIAL. 153 delphia have been incessantly surrounded, in order to cil^pter XI weaken, calumniate, or distort them. It was essential, ' in fine, that, by exhibiting the sentiments ofthe Direc- 1798. tory in an unequivocal manner, he should clear up all the doubts and all the false interpretations of which they might be the object." After these lengthened preliminaries, intended, as he said, only to smooth the way for discussions, Talleyrand came at last td the point. " Notwithstanding the kind of prejudices which had been entertained with respect to the envoys, the Executive Directory were disposed to treat with that one ofthe three whose opinions, presumed to be more impartial, promised, in the course of the ex planations, more of that reciprocal confidence which was indispensable." This overture, it was hoped, would be met without any serious difficulty ; the more so, as the powers of the envoys were several as well as joint, " so that nothing but the desire of preventing any accommo dation could produce any objection." This method was only " pointed out" to the coraraissioners, not imposed upon them, and it evidently could have no other object, so 'Talleyrand asserted, " than to assure to the negotia tion a happy issue, by avoiding at the outset any thing which might awaken, on either side, in the course of the negotiation, sentiments calculated to endanger it." It might seem strange that the Directory, unless they really intended to drive America into a war, should have ventured to put forth a manifesto like this. To preserve peace with France, the United States were required to repudiate the treaty with Great Britain, after having secured in the Western posts one of the great objects of that negotiation, and, like unfortunate Holland, "libera ted," as it was termed, by the French arms, to becorae a forced lender to the French republic, perhaps presently. 154 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ICHAPTER when drained of cash and credit, to supply " inscriptions," XI. like those of Holland, to be palmed off in the same way 1798. upon some new victim of French rapacity. These dis graceful concessions would naturally be followed by an open engagement on the side of France in the pending war with Great Britain — a ruinous entanglement, to avoid which had been the great object of Washington's policy during the five years past. To venture upon these outrageous demands, Talleyrand had been encour-- aged by what he believed to be the sentiments, if not of a majority of the American people, at least of a minority so large as effectually to embarrass, if not to control, the ac tion of the government. To judge by most of the Ameri cans then or lately resident in France — not merely those infamous persons ready to enrich themselves by any means, even by privateering against their own country men, but by suph men as Monroe, as Skipwith the con sul general, as Barlow, who, having accumulated a for tune by comraercial speculations, had lately purchased at Paris one of the confiscated palaces of the old nobility — the body of the American people wanted nothing bet ter than to throw themselves headlong into that French embrace, so deadly to all whom it encircled ; an opinion which might derive confirmation from the tone of the opposition leaders and opposition newspapers in America, claiming, as they did, to be the true representatives of the American people, while, as they alleged, the admin istration was sustained only by a few monarchists, aris tocrats, speculators, old Tories, and merchants trading on British capital. From his residence in America, Talley rand must have known that these representations were greatly exaggerated. But he also knew well the strength and\bitterness of the opposition, and the fierce hatred of Great Britain which so extensively prevaUed ; and he REJOINDER TO TALLEYRAND'S MANIFESTO. 155 calculated with confidence that, under these circumstan- phapter XI. ces, it would be impossible fpr the government to take . any steps hostile to France. Of the feebleness of the 1798. government ample proof had, indeed, been exhibited. A solemn embassy of three envoys had been appointed to supply the place of a minister rejected with insult ; and depredations on American commerce, to the amount of millions of dollars, had hitherto been patiently borne. So far, this system of insult and injury had answered well, and the Directory seem to have thought that it was only necessary to persist in it to carry every point. After due deliberation, the envoys made a detailed and April 7. elaborate rejoinder to Talleyrand's manifesto — a power ful, and, for the most part, a conclusive reply as to all the alleged special breaches of treaty, whether before Jay's mission, by the negotiation of the British treaty, or subsequently to it. The attempted justification of the recent hostile decrees under that clause of the treaty of commerce securing to France the privileges of the most favored nation, was fully exploded ; to which the envoys dryly added, that the provisions of those decrees most complained of, particularly the authorization of cap tures for want of a role ^equipage, could have no pos sible relation to any thing conceded or pretended to be conceded to any other nation, as the British had made no captures on any such pretense. The late outrageous decree, intended to cut off all intercourse between Great Britain and other nations, was made the subject of an energetic remonstrance, as tptally inccnsistent with neu tral rights and the law pf nations, to acquiesce in which would be to establish a precedent for national degrada tion, such as would never cease to authorize any meas ures which power might be disposed to adopt. The pres ident's strictures on Barras's speech were justified, not as 156 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CIMPTER a denunciation of the Directory, but as the statement of XL . a highly important fact, fully within the scope of the pres- 1798. ident'sduty. Talleyrand's attempt to hold the American government responsible for the freedoms of the American press was well touched. But the main point ofthe man ifesto — assumed, indeed, in that document rather than argued — the binding force of the guarantee, and the con sequent inability of the United States to assume a neu tral position, were passed over in silence. The only decisive evidence of feeling which the en voys suffered to escape them was in reference to the charge of duplicity in the matter of Jay's negotiation urged against the American government, and to which the conduct of Monroe had contributed to give a certain color. As to the imputation on the envoys themselves of hostility to France and devotion to England, they de clared theraselves " purely Araerican, unmixed with any particle of foreign tint," and anxious to manifest their attachment to their country by effecting a sincere and real accomraodation with France, not inconsistent with the independence ofthe United States, and such as might promote the interests of both nations. They denied that Jay could have been any more desirous to bring the Brit ish negotiation to a successful issue than they were of an honorable accommodation with France ; and they pointedly asked whether, supposing Jay's demands for reparation of past injuries and security for the future to have been met only by requisitions to comply with which would have involved the nation in evils of which even war would, perhaps, not be the greatest ; supposing all his attempts to remove unfavorable irapressions to have failed, and all his offers to make explanations to have been rejected ; supposing Jay himself to have been or dered out of England, would other ministers have been REJOINDER TO TALLEYRAND'S MANIFESTO. I57 sent to supply his place ? or, if sent, would they have chapter waited six months unaccredited, soliciting permission to display the upright principles on which their government 1798. had acted, and the amicable sentiments by which it was animated ? As to the proposition to treat with one of the envoys, selected by the French government, to the exclusion of the other two, they regretted that even this proposition was unaccompanied with any assurance of an abandon ment of those demands for .money hitherto proposed as the only condition on which a stop would be put to the depredations daily carried on against American com merce ; demands which the envoys had no power to ac cede to, and which the United States would find it very difficult to comply with, since such a compliance would violate (their neutrality, and involve them in a disastrous war with which they had no proper concern. Yet to this, as to every other proposition of the Directory, they had given the most careful and respectful consideration, but the result of their deliberations was, that no one of the envoys " was authorized to take upon hiraself a nego tiation evidently intrusted, by the tenor of their powers and instructions, to the whole ; nor were there any two of thera who would propose to withdraw frora the trust committed to them by their government while there re mained a possibihty of performing it." The present pa per, they hoped, might suffice to dissipate the prejudices which had been conceived against them ; but if not, and if it should be the will of the Directory to order passports for the whole, or any of them, it was expected that such passports would be accompanied by letters of safe-con duct amply sufficient to give to their persons and prop- erty; as against French cruisers, that perfect security to which, the laws and usages of nations entitled them. 158 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter The Directory desired that the departure of Pinckney XL . and Marshall should have the appearance of being their 1798. own act. Indeed, on the very day on which was present ed the joint memorial above quoted, Talleyrand addressed a note to Gerry, intended, as the Secretary who delivered it said, to be shown to his colleagues, and in which — presuming that Piijckney and Marshall, in consequence of the intimations in his note of March 3d, and " the ob stacles which their known opinions had opposed to the desired reconciliation," " had thought it proper and Use ful to quit the territory of the republic" — he proposed to Gerry to resume their reciprocal communications upon the interests of the French republic and of the United States of America. Terrified, so he afterward alleged in excuse, by Talleyrand's repeated threats of an imme diate declaration of war if he left Paris, and flattering himself, no doubt, that the personal preference expressed for hira, and his superior tact in accommodating himself to the humors, not to say insolences, of the French gov ernment, might, notwithstanding all that had passed, open the way to a reconcUiation, Gerry had consented to reraain, notwithstanding the expulsion of his colleagues. April 4. But he peremptorily declined to be employed as the in strument of any indirect attempt to drive his colleagues out of France, or to do any thing painful to their feel ings, or to refrain from rendering them all the assist ance in his power. The conditional demand for pass ports in their last joint note made any hints to them about departure unnecessary.' Marshall was waitino- impatiently for his passports ; but the state of his daugh ter's health would make Pinckney's ' immediate depart ure exceedingly inconvenient. As to Talleyrand's prop osition to him to go on singly with the negotiation, he stiU adhered to the opinion that, under existing circum- GERRY ALONE AT PARIS. 159 stances, he had no power to treat independently of his chapter XL colleagues. He could only confer informally, and com municate the result to his government. Nevertheless, 1798. every measure in his power, and in conformity with his duty to his country, should be zealously pursued to re store harmony and cordial friendship between the two republics. It was not without much caviling, and after experi encing many indignities, that Marshall obtained passports and a safe-conduct. Talleyrand evjen went so far as to dispute his character of envoy, and his right to the pro tection of that character, on the ground that he had not been received. At last, however, the safe-conduct was April 16, sent, and he hastened to leave Paris on his way to America. Pinckney, not without great difficulty, ob tained leave, on account of his daughter's health, to re main a few months in the south of France. Thus was Talleyrand left in possession of the field of diplomacy with Gerty in his claw. But, before pursuing further the history of this extraordinary negotiation, it is neces sary to recur to what was passing in Araerica. 160 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XIL FEDERALISM IN VIRGINIA. YRUJO, M'KEAN, AND COBBETT. LAW OF LIBEL. SECOND SESSION OF THE FIFTH CON- GRESS. MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENSE. ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS. FOURTH CON STITUTION OF GEORGIA. CHAPTER X HAT vehemence and virulence of party spirit, and close drawing of party lines, which had displayed itself, 1797. of late, in Congress, was now rapidly spreading through out the whole country, and had made itself conspicuous ly felt, in the elections which had succeeded the adjourn ment of the called session. The opposition had greater hopes of Vermont than of any other New England state ; Chittenden, so long the governpr, had leaned to their side. But on his declining a re-election, the Federalists Sept. succeeded, by a very close vote, in choosing Isaac Tich- enor. In the lower house of the Legislature the oppo sition obtained a majority, and it was, only by one vote that Nathaniel Chittenden, the Federal candidate, was Oct. chosen to supply Tichenor's place in the United States Senate. In Maryland, in the choice of John Henry, late a sen- Jan, ator in Congress, to be governor of that state, the oppo sition had triumphed. But James Lloyd, the Federal candidate, had been chosen senator in Henry's place by a majority of one vote. In all the states south of the Potomac, South Caroli na included, the opposition was predominant. Yet even in Virginia some signs of the existence of a Federal party begun to show themselves. A grand jury of the FEDERALISM IN VIRGINIA. 1(31 Federal Circuit Court held at Richraond, after a pretty chapter XII. warm charge from Judge Iredell, in which something of politics had been mingled, presented as " a real evil the 1797. circular letters of several members of the late Congress, May. and particularly letters with the signature of Samuel J. Cabell," "endeavoring, at a time of real public danger, to disseminate unfounded calumnies against the happy government of the United States, and thereby to sepa rate the people therefrom, and to increase or produce a foreign influence ruinous to the peace, happiness, and independence of the United States." Cabell made a very warm retort to this presentment, accusing the grand jury of going out of their province. But the political leaders of Virginia were not disposed to let the matter rest there. This incipient germ of Federalism was to be repressed with a strong hand. It was proposed to bring the matter before the House of Representatives as a breach of privileges ; but, unluckily, the opposition ma jority in that body, if, in fact, there was any, was too uncertain to be depended upon. In this emergency, Jef ferson pressed upon Monroe to have the matter brought Sept. 7. before the State Legislature. Monroe had his doubts whether it came within the province of state jurisdiction ; Jefferson, strict constructionist as he was in all that re lated to the powers of the Federal government, made up for it by a very liberal construction of the powers of the states. Free correspondence between citizen and citi zen, on their joint interests, whether public or private, was, according to his statement to Monroe, a natural right, and as no jurisdiction over that right had been given to the Federal judiciary, either by the Constitution or by any law of Congress, it therefore remained under the protection of the state courts. Jefferson's project seems to have been to bring the subject of the present- V.— L 162 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER ment before the General Assembly, and ultimately, by ' some legal process, whether against Iredell or the grand 1797. jurymen does not appear, before the state tribunals. The reasons for this course which he urged upon Mon roe will contribute to explain his connection with cer tain other proceedings of state Legislatures, to which our attention wUl presently be called. " Were the ques tion even doubtful," so he wrote, " that is no reason for abandoning it. The system of the general government is to seize all doubtful ground. We must join in the scrarable, or — get nothing. Where first occupancy is to give right, he who lies still loses all." As happens too often with champions of natural rights, in his eagerness to protect Cabell and the opposition rep resentatives Jefferson seems quite to have forgotten the rights of every body else. The presentment of the grand jury, which had so excited his indignation, was either an official act within their province, or it was extra-official ; in other words, a joint expression of opinion by so many individuals. If a proper official act, then it could not be questioned either in the Virginia General Assembly or in any state court. Suppose, on the other hand, that it was extra-official, yet surely the gentlemen composing the grand jury had as good a natural right to correspond with their fellow-citizens on their joint interests as Mr. Cabell or any other opposition representative. Another proposition, stUl more extraordinary, was con tained in the same letter. "It is of immense import ance that the states retain as complete authority as pos sible over their own citizens. The withdrawing them selves under the shelter of a foreign jurisdiction" mean ing thereby the jurisdiction of the Federal courts " is so subversive of order and so pregnant of abuse, that it may not be amiss to consider how far a law of premu- SUGGESTIONS OF JEFFERSON. 153 nire should be revived and raodified, against all citizens chapter XII who attempt to carry their causes before any other than the state courts in cases where those other courts have 1797. no right to their cognizance. A plea to the jurisdiction of the courts of their state, or a reclamation of a foreign jurisdiction, if adjudged valid, would be safe, but if ad judged invalid, should be followed by the punishment of premunire for the attempt." A premunire, by the English law, was a contempt of the king's authority by the introduction of a foreign pow er into the land, a crime invented for the restraint of the papal authority attempted to be exercised in England ; and the punishraents of it were, banishment, forfeiture of lands and goods, and pain of life or meraber. This offense and these punishments, or some modification of them, Jefferson proposed to revive as a safeguard against Federal usurpations, to be exercised by the state courts against every person who, in their judgraent, should dis pute their authority without cause — a proposition by which the natural right of every suitor to test the au thority of the tribunal before which he appears was to be sacrificed to the maintenance of state rights — a pro cedure well enough suited to such a republic as France, and to such ministers of justice as Danton and Merlin, but a little odd in such an American friend of the people and of the Federal Constitution as Jefferson professed to be, holding, as he did, also, at the same time, the office of vice-president of the United States. Very shortly after the date of the above quoted letter, there occurred in Pennsylvania another noticeable speci raen of regard for the " natural right of free correspond ence between citizen and citizen," proper to be noticed here, as having a direct bearing upon a celebrated act of the ensuing session of Congress on the subject of sedi- 1G4 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. • chapter tions libels. Yrujo, the Spanish minister, following in XII. . the French wake, had warmly remonstrated against the 1797. British treaty as unfair toward Spain, and inconsistent with the late Spanish treaty. Among other comraents on this remonstrance, Cobbett's Gazette had dwelt on the subserviency in which Spain had been held by France ever since the Bourbon occupation of the Spanish throne, and had reprobated in severe terms the conduct of Charles IL, the king of Spain, in making an ignoble peace with the murderers of his kinsman, Louis XVI., and so becoming " the supple tool of their most nefari ous politics." " As the sovereign is at home," Cobbett continued, " so is the rainister abroad : the one is gov erned like a dependent by the nod of the five despots at Paris, the other by the directions of the French agents in America. Because their infidel tyrants thought prop er to rob and insult this country and its government, and we have thought proper, I am sorry to add, to submit to it, the obsequious imitative Don raust attempt the sarae, in order to participate in the guilt and lessen the infamy of his masters." It was probably to this and two or three other similar articles, one of which spoke of Yrujo as " half Don, half sans culotte," that Talleyrand had alluded when he, complained, as we have seen, of the newspaper attacks upon France and " her allies" which the government of the United States suffered to be made without any attempt to suppress them. Yrujo himself also coraplained, and the government so far listened to him as to direct the attorney general to lay the matter before the grand jury of the Federal Circuit Court ; and August. Cobbett, in consequence, was bound over by the district judge of Pennsylvania to appear at the ensuing term. The Spanish minister, however, much preferred to bring the matter before the state courts of Pennsylvania, not YRUJO, M'KEAN, AND COBBETT. 155 only as a speedier process, but because he relied with chapteh more confidence on the justice or the favor of the state ' bench. Chief-justice M'Kean, whose daughter Yrujo soon 1797. after married, had not himself entirely escaped Cobbett's shafts. Not wiUing to run the risk of a suit for dam ages, or even to hazard the result of an indictment, since in Pennsylvania the truth might be given in evidence, M'Kean adopted a contrivance for the punishment of Cobbett, founded on some old English precedents, but the legality of which was excessively doubtful. It was, in deed, sustained as legal by a decision of the Pennsylva nia Court of Appeals some four years afterward ; but no where else, by any forraal decision of any court of com raon law, has any such doctrine ever been recognized ; and even in Pennsylvania it was tacitly set aside by Chief-justice Tilghman within five or six years after the decision was made. In pursuance of this contrivance, about the same time that Cobbett was bound over in the United States CoUrt, M'Kean issued a warrant against him (a copy of which he would not allow him to have), in which he was charged generally with having libeled M'Kean himself, Mifflin, Dallas, Jefferson, Monroe, Gal latin, and a great number of other persons, and on which he was not only bound over to appear at the next crim inal court, but was compelled also to give securities in four thousand dollars to keep the peace and be of gppd behavipr in the mean time. Having taken these recog nizances, M'Kean commenced a collection of every thing liable to be charged as libelous which appeared in Cob bett's paper, with a view, on the strength of these pub lications, to have his recognizances declared forfeit, a project afterward carried out. He also took up Yrujo's case with much warmth, and presently issued a second Nov. is. warrant, charging Cobbett with having published certain 166 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter infamous libels on the King of Spain and his minister. XIL and the Spanish nation, " tending to alienate their affec- 1797. tions and regard from the government and citizens ofthe United States, and to excite them to hatred, hostilities, and war." To the grand jury assembled at the criminal sessions held shortly after, M'Kean gave a remarkable, and, like all his judicial performances — for as a lawyer he has had but few rivals — a very able charge, alraost exclusively devoted to the subject of libels. " When li bels are printed," so he informed the jury, " against per sons employed in a public capacity, they receive an ag gravation, as they tend to scandalize the government by reflecting on those who are intrusted with the adminis tration of public affairs, and thereby not only endanger the public peace, as all other libels do, by stirring up the parties immediately concerned to acts of revenge, but have also a direct tendency to breed in the people a dis like of their governors, and to incline them to faction and sedition." " These offenses are punishable either by in dictraent, information, or civil action ; but there are some instances where they can be punished by a criminal pros ecution only, as where the United States in Congress assembled, the Legislature, judges ofthe Supreme Court or civil magistrates in general, are charged with corrup tion, moral turpitude, base partiality, and the like, when no one in particular is named." " By the law of Penn sylvania, the authors, printers, and publishers of such li bels are punishable by fine, and also a limited imprison ment at hard labor and solitary confinement in jail, or imprisonraent only, or one of thera, as to the court in its discretion shall seem proper, according to the heinousness of the crime and the quaHty and circumstances of the offender." " By this law and these punishments the lib erty of the press (a phrase much used, but Httle under- LAW OF LIBEL. 167 stood) is by no means infringed or violated. The Hberty chapter XH. of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free . state, but this consists in laying no previous restraints 1797. upon publications, and not in freedom frpm censure for crirainal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public ; to forbid this is to destroy the freedom of the press ; but if he publishes what is improper, mischiev ous, or illegal, he must take the consequences of his te merity. To punish dangerous and offensive writings, which, when published, shall, on a fair and impartial trial, be adjudged of a pernicious tendency, is necessary for the preservation of peace and good order, of govern ment and religion, the only soHd foundation of civil lib erty. Thus the will of individuals is still left free ; the abuse only of that free will is the object of legal punish raent. Our presses in Pennsylvania are thus free. The common law in this respect is confirmed and established by the Constitution, which provides ' that the printing- presses shall be free to every person who undertakes to examine the proceedings of the Legislature or any part of government.' Men, therefore, have only to take care in their publications that they are decent, candid, and true ; that they are for the purpose of reformation and not of defamation, and that they have an eye solely to the public good. Publications of this kind are not only lawful, but laudable. But if they are made to gratify envy or malice, and contain personal invectives, low scur rility, or slanderous charges, that can answer no good purposes for the community, but, on the contrary, must destroy the very ends of society — were these to escape with impunity, youth would not be safe in its innocence, nor venerable old age in its wisdom, gravity, and virtue ; dignity and station would become a reproach, and the 168 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter purest and best characters that this or any other country XII - ever produced would be vUified and blasted, if not ruined. 1797. " If any, person, whether in a public or private sta tion, does injury to individuals or to society, ample re dress can be had by having recourse to the laws and the proper tribunals, where the parties can be heard person ally or by council, the truth can be fairly investigated, and justice be fully obtained ; so that there can be no necessity nor reason for accusing any one of public or private wrongs in pamphlets or newspapers, or of appeals to the people under feigned names or by anonymous scrib blers." " Every one who has in hira the sentiraents of either a Christian or a gentleman can not but be highly offended at the envenomed scurrility that has raged in pamphlets and newspapers printed in Philadelphia for several years past, insomuch that libeling has become a kind of national crime, and distinguishes us not only from all the states around us, but from the whole civil ized world. Our satire has been nothing but ribaldry and Billingsgate ; the contest has been who could call names in the greatest variety of phrases, who could man gle the greatest number of characters, or who could excel in the magnitude and virulence of their lies. Hence the honor of families has been stained, the highest posts ren dered cheap and vile in the sight of the people, and the greatest services and virtue blasted. This evil, so scan dalous to our government and detestable in the eyes of all good men, calls aloud for redress. To censure the licentiousness is to maintain the liberty of the press." With the above statement of law and facts no fault is to be found. They were both sufficiently correct, and are quoted here for future reference. But was it not a little strange that, while the above sad state of things had existed for several years past, especially in Philadelphia, LAW OF LIBEL. Igg Chief-justice M'Kean had seen no occasion to interfere chapter before ? Till within a few months, this licentiousness ' of the press, which M'Kean so vigorously painted and 1797. denounced, had been almost exclusively exercised against Washington, against Hamilton, against Jay, Adams, and the Federal leaders generally, against the Federal ad ministration, against the British government, the British nation, and the British embassador. Paine's infamous letter to Washington, Callender's outrageous attacks upon Hamilton, the daily libels vomited forth by the Aurora, the daily labors of that paper for years past to excite against the British nation hatred, hostilities, and war, had called out no action on the part of the judge. All this time he had been silent ; but within less than eight months after the establishment of a newspaper for the avowed purpose of retorting these libels by the publica tion of disagreeable and scandalous truths as to their authors and favorers, by a most extraordinary, not to say illegal stretch of power, the publisher of that paper had not only been compelled to give securities to be of good behavior, but this same democratic chief justice was now straining every nerve to stimulate a grand jury to indict him for libel — not for libels, be it observed, against Mifflin, whom he charged with being, a drunkard, a de bauchee, and an insolvent debtor, who had fraudulently overdrawn to a large amount his account with the Bank of Pennsylvania ; not for libels against M'Kean himself, charged with being engaged in constant brawls with his wife, going to the extent of blows given and returned, and so habitual a drunkard that, according to a memorial said to have been signed by most of the members of the Philadelphia bar, persons and property were not safe in Pennsylvania after dinner ; not for libels against Dallas, Swanwick, M'Clenaohan, Monroe, or Barney, or any other 170 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter of the opposition leaders held up in various ways to con- " terapt and ridicule — for all these charges had a founda- 1797. tion in fact too easUy proved to make a prosecution ex pedient — but for a libel against his Catholic majesty, the King of Spain, and his minister Yrujo, accused of being tools of the French ! "At a time," he teUs the jury, " when misunderstand ings prevail between the republics of the United States and France, and when our general government have ap pointed public ministers to endeavor their removal and restore the former harmony, some of the journals or news papers in the city of Philadelphia have teemed with the most irritating invectives, couched in the most vulgar and opprobrious language, not only against the French nation and their allies, but the very raen in power with whom our ministers are sent to negotiate. These pub lications have an evident tendency not only to frustrate a reconciliation, but to create a rupture and provoke a war between the sister republics, and seem calculated to vilify, nay, to subvert, all republican government whatsoever." Remarkable tenderness for the characters of Barras and Merlin in a chief justice who had seen Washington, Jay, Hamilton, and Adams most shamefully abused with out any public expression of feeling, if not, indeed, with a secret pleasure ! Remarkable anxiety lest Cobbett's publications should hazard the success of the negotia tions then pending with France, in one who had seen with such perfect composure the efforts of the Aurora and kindred prints to defeat, not Jay's negotiation only, but the treaty itself after it had been raade and ratified, and who had himself assisted in a proceeding on that occasion which had ended in burning the treaty before the British embassador's door, not without great danger of a riot ! M'KEAN AND COBBETT. 171 We come now to not the least remarkable part of this chapter XIL charge, the direct attack upon Cobbett personally. "Im pressed with the duties of my station, I have used some 1797. endeavors for checking these evils by binding over the editor and printer of one of them, licentious and viru lent beyond all former exaraple, to his good behavior, but he still perseveres in his nefarious publications ; he has ransacked our language for terms of reproach and insult, and for the basest accusations against every ruler and distinguished character in France and Spain with whora we chance to have any intercourse, which it is scarce in nature to forgive ; in brief, he braves his recognizance and the laws. It is now with you, gentlemen of the jury, to animadvert on his conduct ; without your aid it can not be corrected. The government that will not discountenance may be thought to adopt it, and be deem ed justly chargeable with all the consequences. Every nation ought to avoid giving any real offense to another. Some medals and dull jests are mentioned and represent ed as a ground of quarrel between the English and Dutch in 1672, and likewise caused Louis XIV. to make an expedition into the United Provinces of the Netherlands in the same year, and nearly ruined that commonwealth." It is worthy of remark how, in this part of his charge, M'Kean anticipated the complaints of Talleyrand, and likely enough it was this very charge by which those complaints were suggested. " We are sorry to find," the learned judge concluded, " that our endeavors in this way have not been attended with all the good effects that were expected from thera ; howev er, we are determined to pursue the prevailing vice of the times with zeal and indignation, that crimes may no longer appear less odious for being fashionable, nor the more secure from punishment for being popular." 172 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. I CHAPTER In a long life of political warfare with his pen, Cob- xn. . bett did as much as any other man who ever lived, by fa- 1797. cing, at his own proper risk and cost. Lynch law and law of other kinds, assaults, mobs, actions, and indictments, to vindicate, on both sides of the Atlantic, " the natural right of free correspondence between citizen and citizen, on their joint interests, whether public or private ;" and to such a man it is but a piece of justice to say that M'Kean's charge against him of being " licentious and virulent beyond all former example" was itself a false, if not a malicious libel. Between Cobbett and the Callenders, Baches, and other " scribblers," of whose productions for several years past the chief justice gave a description so disgusting, and, at the same time, so just, there was this remarkable difference — there was nothing about Cobbett of sneaking malice. He dealt in no damnable innuendoes, no base insinuations of charges which he did not dare to state openly, and which he hira self knew to be false. Like all zealous men, he was often too precipitate in giving credit and circulation to injurious charges against those whom he hated ; but he evidently relied on being able to substantiate the truth of all he published. His stateraents were made in clear and plain terms, with the naraes at length of all the parties concerned, so that if the charge were false, refu tation was easy. If his language was frequently with out any touch of politeness, and his allusions to private matters often impertinent, he did in all this but follow a fashion which Chief-justice M'Kean had allowed to es tablish itself in Philadelphia by a usage of several years ; and in these very particulars CaUender and Bache went as far beyond Cobbett as they fell short of hira in victor of understanding, keenness of sarcasm, loftiness of spirit, manly self-respect, and unflinching courage. And so the COBBETT, RUSH, AND THE YELLOW FEVER. 173 grand jury seem to have thought; for, in spite of M'Kean's chapter charge, and his appearance before them as one of the wit- ' nesses, they returned ignoramus on the indictment laid 1797. before them — a fate presently shared by the indictments laid before the grand jury of the Circuit Court. It was not entirely to politics that Cobbett confined himself. Another subject which he handled with cutting severity was Dr. Rush's method of treating the yellow fever. That singular disorder, which had made such ravages in Philadelphia in 1793, had appeared the next year in New Haven ; in 1795 it broke out in New York, Baltimore, and Norfolk; in 1796 it had appeared in Boston and in Newburyport ; also in Charleston, in South Carolina. It reappeared again the present season, after an interval of four years, and with great virulence, in Philadelphia. A warm dispute had arisen among the doctors as to its origin. One party supposed it to be in fectious, and to be brought from the West Indies. Rush and his partisans maintained that it was of local origin, produced by the accumulation of filth in the water-side streets of maritime towns. The locality of its origin seems to be now pretty generally agreed upon among medical men, though what its precise cause may be re mains as doubtful as ever. Rush's opinion as to its ori gin, maintained, also, by Webster in an elaborate treat ise on the history of pestilential disorders, was not with out good results in a greater attention to cleanliness and ventilation. The Boston system of underground drain age, which contributes so much to the comfort and whole- soraeness of that city, dates from the visitation of the yel low fever, which also furnished the occasion of the first attempts to supply Philadelphia with water from the SchuylkiU for washing and cleansing the streets as well as for domestic use — a kind of enterprise in which that city preceded all other Anglo-American towns. 174 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. I CHAPTER Rush's method of treating the disease was far more XII . " questionable than his theory of its origin. He recom- 1797. mended and adopted what physicians call an heroic treat ment—making very free use of calorael and the lancet. Political prejudice — for Rush was reckoned to be some what of a French Democrat, or, at least, a political trim mer — had undoubtedly soraething to do with the un sparing ridicule with which Cobbett and Fenno attacked this method of practice, and which led first to a brutal assault by one of Rush's sons upon an aged physician, falsely suspected as the author of some of the articles ; secondly, to a not very creditable attempt on the part of Rush himself to get up a prosecution, under the Penn sylvania statute on the subject of dueling, against this medical brother, because, while declining to accept a challenge frora Rush's son, he sent one instead to the father, whora he regarded as the instigator of the as sault ; and, finally, to a libel suit on the part of Dr. Rush for daraages, the result of which, two years after, drove Cobbett from America. It would seem, indeed, that Rush's practice had suffered from these assaults or frora some other causes, since, in addition to his profess orship in the medical school, he solicited, obtained from Adaras, and held for the rest of his life the serai-sinecure office of Treasurer of the Mint. The reappearance of the yellow fever produced a great panic at Philadelphia. The sickness at one time was so great that the president doubted whether he should not exercise the power vested in hira by an act passed shortly after the former visitation of the fever, of calling Congress together at some other place. But with the Nov. 13. first frosts, and before the time appointed for the com raenceraent of the session, the disorder had ceased. Sorae time elapsed, however, before a quorum of mem- SECOND SESSION OF THE FIFTH CONGRESS. I75 bers ventured to make their appearance. Several va- chapter XIL cancies in both houses had been filled by new members, . among whom were Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, in the 1797. Senate, and in the House, Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, chosen from the Charleston district to fill the place of Smith, appointed minister to Portugal. Shortly before the meeting of Congress, news had ar rived in America of the change in the French govern ment by the expulsion of Carnot and Barthelemy from the Directory, and the banishment of Pichegru and some sixty other members of the Legislature, thus confirming the authority of Barras, and of the party at once the most violent and the most corrupt. It was also known, through the French newspapers, that the American en voys had reached Paris. But no letters had been received from them since their arrival in that city, nor was there any definite information as to their probable reception. The Aurora, however, already gave out that reconcilia tion with France could only be obtained by money, or, at least, by an abandonment of all claims for indemnity. After referring to the mission to France, and his trust Nov. 23. that nothing had been omitted, compatible with the safe ty, honor, and interests of the United States, which might tend to bring the negotiation to a successful issue, the president suggested, in his opening speech, that nothing would tend so much to the preservation of peace and the attainment of justice as a manifestation of that energy and unanimity, of which, on fprmer pccasicns, the United States had given such memcrable proof, by the exertion of those resources for national defense which a beneficent Providence had placed within their power. He therefore renewed his recommendations made at the opening of the preceding session. If a system of defensive measures was prudent then, it was still more prudent now that in- 176 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER creasing depredations had strengthened the reasons for ¦ its adoption. Nor was the expediency of such a system 1797. to be estimated by the probable issue of the present ne gotiation, or the Hkelihood of a temporary peace in Eu rope. Permanent tranquillity, he held it certain, would not soon be obtained ; and in the present confusion, of the sense of obligation and the excited violence of passion, no reasonable ground remained on which to raise an ex pectation that a commerce without protection or defense would not be plundered. " The comraerce of the United States," so the speech stated, " is essential, if not to their existence, at least to their comfort, their growth, pros perity, and happiness. The genius, character, and hab its of the people are highly coramercial ; their cities have been forraed and exist upon comraerce ; our agriculture, fisheries, arts, and manufactures are connected with and depend upon it. In short, coraraerce has made this coun try what it is, and it can not be destroyed or neglected without involving the people in poverty and distress. Great numbers are directly and solely supported by navi gation ; the faith of society is pledged for the preserva tion of the rights of comraercial and seafaring no less than of the other citizens. Under this view of our af fairs, I should hold myself guilty of a neglect of duty if I forbore to recommend that we should make every ex ertion to protect our comraerce and to place our country in a suitable posture of defense, as the only sure means of preserving both." Objections, he informed Congress, were still opposed by the Spaniards in Louisiana to the surrender of the posts on the Mississippi and the running of the boundary line ; and earnest efforts had been raade to shake the attachment of the neighboring Indian tribes, and to entice them into the Spanish interest. The comraission under the Spanish QUAKER ANTI-SLAVERY PETITION. 177 treaty was in session, as were the three commissions un- chapter der the British treaty, of which the one on spcliatipns had already made several awards fpr the benefit ef Amer- 1797. ican merchants. Attention was also called to some pro vision for detecting and preventing the forgery of Amer ican papers, a contrivance by which fcreign and belliger ent vessels spught tp avail themselves of the advantages of Araerican neutrality, and which had the evil effect of exposing all Araerican vessels to suspicion and seizure. A somewhat ambiguous and general answer to the president's message was reported, which passed the House without much of opposition or debate. Lyon again made his motion to be personally excused from waiting on the president ; but even his brother Democrats were some what piqued at the reflection thus implied on their re publicanism or their consistency, and the motion this time was peremptorily vpted down by a large raajority. While all were anxiously waiting for further news from France, the earlier part of the session passed off very quietly. For a moraent, indeed, this quiet was ruf fled by the presentation of a petition from the yearly Nov. 30. meeting held at Philadelphia of " the people called Quak ers," in which they complained of the increase of dissi pation and luxury in the United States, and of the coun tenance and encouragement given to stage-plays, cock- fighting, horse-racing, and other vain amusements, not withstanding the resolutions c|f the old Congress of 1774 to discourage all such extravagance and dissipation — a solemn covenant with the Almighty, made in the hour of distress, the fulfillment of which he was now calling for by the awful calamity of the yellow fever. This me morial further complained — and, indeed, that was its prin cipal object — that certain persons of the African race, to the number of one hundred and thirty-four, set free by v.— M 178 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER members ofthe religious society of Quakers, besides oth- ' ers whose cases were not so particularly known, had been 1797. reduced again into cruel bondage under the authority of an ex post facto law passed for that purpose by the State of North Carolina in 1777 (the same law of which men tion is made in the first part of this history), authoriz ing the seizure and resale as slaves pf certain emanci pated negrees. Any action upon this petition was vehemently opposed by Harper, who complained that this was not the first, second, nor third time that the House had been troubled by similar applications, which had a very dangerous ten dency. This and every other Legislature ought to set their faces against memorials complaining of what it was utterly impossible to alter. Thatcher, of Massachusetts, suggested in reply, that where persons considered themselves injured, they would not be likely to leave off petitioning till the House took some action upon their petitions. If the Quakers con sidered themselves aggrieved, it was their right and their duty to present their memorial, not three, five, or seven times only, but seventy times seven, until they obtained redress. Therefore gentlemen who wished not to be troubled again ought to be in favor of reading and a ref erence. Lyon maintained that a grievance was complained of which ought to be remedied, namely, that a certain num ber of black people who had been set at liberty by their masters were now held in slavery contrary to right ; he thought that ought to be inquired into. Rutledge would not oppose a reference if he were sure the committee would report as strong a censure as the ihemorial deserved ; such a censure as a set of men ought to have who attempt to seduce the servants of gentlemen DEBATE ON THE QUAKER PETITION. 179 traveling to the seat of government, and who are inces- chapter , . o . ^ ^^^ santly importuning Congress to interfere in a business with which, by the Constitution, they have no concern. 1797. At a tirae when other communities were witnesses of the most horrid and barbarous scenes, these petitioners were endeavoring to excite a certain class to the commission of like enormities here. Were he sure that this con duct would be reprobated as it deserved, he would cheer fully vote for a reference ; but not believing that it would be, he was for laying the meiriorial on the table or under the fable, that the House might have done with the bus iness, not for to-day, but forever. Gallatin, by whom the memorial had been presented, maintained that it was the practice of the House, when ever a petition was presented, to have it read a first and second time, and then to commit, unless it were express ed in such indecent terms as to induce the Hduse to re ject it, or related to a subject upon which it had been recently determined by a large majority not to act. It was not best to decide the matter under the influence of such passion as had been exhibited, and that furnished additional reason for a reference. He also vindicated the character of the Quakers against aspersions in which Rutledge had, very freely indulged. Sewall suggested a third case, applicable, as he thought, to the present memorial, in which petitions might be rejected without a commitment, and that was when they related to matters over which the House had no cognizance, especially if they were of a nature to ex cite disagreeable sensaticns in a part pf the members pps- sessed of a species of property held under circumstances in themselves sufficiently uncomfortable. The present memorial seemed to relate to tppics entirely within the jurisdiction of the states. 180 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. I CHAPTER XIL Macon declared that there was not a man in North Carolina who did not wish there were no blacks in the 1T97. country. Negro slavery was a misfortune; he consider ed it a curse ; but there was no means of getting rid of it ; and thereupon he proceeded to inveigh against the Quakers, whom he accused not only of unconstitutional applications to Congress, but of continually endeavoring to stir up in the Southern States insurrection among the negroes. Livingston believed these charges thus indiscriminate ly made to be totally unfounded. There might be indi viduals such as had been described ; but as against the body of the Quakers these charges were false and unjust. The scruples of the Quakers on the subject of war were relied upon as a help toward blocking the adminis tration and preventing any hostile demonstrations against France — a circumstance which may in part explain the zeal of Livingston and others in their behalf. Parker of Virginia, and Blount of North Carolina, VFarmly opposed the reference of the memorial. Nicho las felt as much as other Southern gentleraen on this subject, but as he thought the holders of slaves had noth ing to fear from inquiry, he was in favor of a reference. So, also, was Smith of Maryland. Finally, after a very warm debate, the reference was carried, and a special committee was appointed, of which Sitgreaves was chair man, Dana, Smith of Maryland, Nicholas, and Schure- man of New Jersey, being raembers. This committee, after hearing the petitioners, subsequently reported leave to withdraw, in which the House concurred, on the ground, as set forth in the report, that the matter com plained of was exclusively of judicial cognizance, and that Congress had no authority to interfere. Another debate involving the subject of slavery oo- MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. iQi curred somewhat later. The president had suggested at chapter the previous session the expediency of estabhshing a ter- ritorial government over the population on the Lower 1797- Mississippi, hitherto under Spanish authority, but ac knowledged by the recent treaty with Spain to be within the limits of the United States. There were in Natchez and its vicinity five or six thousand inhabitants, most of them of English origin, remains of the immigration just before the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, or settlers who had come in since upon Spanish invita tion. Georgia, indeed, on the plea of the cession to her by South Carolina of all the claims of that state under the Carolina charter, claimed the whole territory east of the Mississippi and south of Tennessee. The United States claimed, on the other hand, as a part of the com mon property of the Union, all the territory south of an east and west line from the mouth of the Yazoo to the Chattahoochee, that territory having heen annexed, prior to the Revolution, to the British province of West Florida, and having been ceded to the United States by the British treaty of 1783 — a title lately made coraplete by the relinquishment, under the late Spanish treaty, of all claims to it on the part of Spain. The propriety of a cession by Georgia of all her claims to lands west of the Chattahoochee (like that made by the other states having claims to Western lands) had been strongly urged ; and, on the ground that she ought to cede the whole, a partial cession, including only the country above de scribed as claimed by the United States, forraerly ten dered, on certain conditions, to the Continental Congress, had been rejected. Such a cession of the whole terri tory, encurabered as it was by the claims of the land companies already mentioned, Georgia was now ready to make ; but only on condition of being paid a large 182 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER sum of money, and of an undertaking on the part of the ' United States to extinguish within a limited time the 1797. Indian title, extending over two thirds or more of her re served territory. To facilitate the negotiation of some such arrangement, an act was passed for the appointment of coraraissioners to adjust the conflicting claims of Geor gia and the United States, and also to receive proposals frora Georgia for the cession of her share of the South western Territory, and at the sarae time to provide a government for the settlers on the Mississippi ; provi sion was also made by the same act for erecting all that portion of the late British province of West Flori da within the jurisdiction of the United States-^that is, the territory between the thirty -first degree of north lati tude and a due east line frora the mouth of the Yazoo to the Chattahoochee — into a government to be called the Mississippi Territory, to be constituted and regulated in all respects like the Territory northwest of the .Ohio, with the single exception that slavery was not to be pro hibited. 1798. While this section of the act was under discussion, March 23. ji^ving first stated that he intended to raake a motion touching the rights of man, Thatcher moved to strike out the exception as to slavery, so as to carry out the original project of Jefferson, as brought forward by him in the Continental Congress, of prohibiting slavery in all parts of the Western Territory of the United States, south as well as north of the Ohio. Rutledge hoped that this motion would be withdrawn • not that he feared its passing, but he hoped the gentle man would not indulge himself and others in utterin" philippics against a usage of most of the states merely because his and their philosophy happened to be at war with it. Surely, if his friend from Massachusetts had SLAVERY IN MISSISSIPPL 133 recollected that the most angry debate of the session had chapter xii. been occasioned by a motion on this very subject, he. would not again have brought it forward. Such debates 1798. led to more mischiefs in certain parts of the Union than the gentleman was aware of, and he hoped, upon that consideration, the motion would be withdrawn. The allusion, doubtless, was to the advantage taken of these debates by the opposition to excite hostility against the Federal gpvernment in those Southern States in which its friends were at best but too Weak. Otis very promptly responded to Rutledge by hoping the motion would not be withdrawn. He wanted gen tlemen from his part ofthe country to have an opportu nity to show by their votes how little they were disposed to interfere with the Southern States, as to the species of prpperty referred te. Thatcher remarked, in reply, " that he could by no means agree with his coUeague (Otis). In fact, they seldom did agree, and to-day they differed very widely indeed. The true interest of the Union would be pro moted by agreeing to the amendment proposed, of which the tendency was to prevent the increase of an evil ac knowledged to be' such by the very gentlemen theraselves who held slaves. The gentleman from Virginia (Nich olas) had frequently . told the House that slavery was an evil of very great magnitude. He agreed with that gentleman that it was so. He regarded slavery in the United States as the greatest of evils — an evU in direct hostility to the principles of our government ; and he be lieved the government had a right to take all due meas ures to diminish and destroy that evU, even though in doing so they raight injure the property of some individ uals ; for he never could be brought to believe that an individual could have a right in any thing that went to 1S4 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. I t'H.APTER the destruction of the government — a right in a wrong. Property in slaves is founded in wrong, and never can 1798. be right. The government raust, of necessity, put a stop to this evil, and the sooner they entered upon the business the better. He did not like td hear much said about the rights of man, because of late there had been much quackery on that subject. But because those rights and the claim to thera had been abused, it did not follow that men had no rights. Where legislators are chosen frora the people and frequently renewed, and in case of laws which affect the interests of those who pass thera, the rights of man are not likely to be often disre garded. But when we take upon us to legislate for men against their will, it is very proper to say something about those rights, and to remind gentlemen, at other times so eloquent upon this subject, that men, though held as slaves, are still men by nature, and entitled, therefore, to the rights of man — and hence his allusion to those rights in making the motion. " We are about td establish a government for a new country. The government of which we form a part originated from, and is founded upon, the rights of man, and upon that ground we mean to uphold it. With what propriety, then, can a government emanate from us in which slavery is not only tolerated, but sanctioned by law? It has indeed been urged that, as this ter ritory will be settled by emigrants frora the Southern States, they must be aUowed to have slaves ; as much as to say that the people of the South are fit for nothing but slave-drivers ; that, if left to their own labor, they would starve ! " But if gentlemen thought that those now holding slaves within the limits of the proposed territory ought to be excepted from the operation of his amendment, he SLAVERY IN MISSISSIPPL 185 would agree to such an exception for a. limited pe- chapter riod." ^"' No full report of this debate has been preserved. It 1798. \yould appear, however, that Varnum and Gallatin said something in favor of Thatcher's amendment, while Giles and Nicholas, with Gordon of New Harapshire, opposed it. Only twelve votes were given in its favor. A large majority of the opposition were themselves slaveholders, while the Federal representatives of the North did not wish tp offend their few confederates from Maryland and South Carolina, or td do any thing to add to the prejudices already so generally entertained in the South against th^ Federal party. Yet Thatcher's opposition to the further spread of slavery was not entirely without fruits. A day or two March 26 after. Harper offered an amendment which was carried without opposition, prohibiting the introduction into the new Mississippi Territory of slaves from without the lim its of the United States. Notwithstanding a provision in the act that nothing in it should operate in derogation of the rights of Geor gia, a vehement opposition was made by the representa tives from that state to the erection of the new terri tory, unless the bill contained a provision that the con sent of Georgia should first be obtained. To this it was answered that the State of Georgia had never been in pdssession of this territory ; that it had remained under the Spanish government until recently ceded; that the right of the United States to it was clear, and that, whether clear or not, it was their duty to retain posses sion of it tUl the question of title was disppsed of, and dis tant, and unprotected, and surrounded by Indian tribes as the settlements were, to provide for thera, in the raean time, an efficient government; views which the House 186 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter sustained by a vote of forty-six to thirty-four. This case, XII. ' it will be seen, had a very direct bearing on the question 1798. a short time since (1850) so violently agitated, ofthe erection of the Territory of New Mexico, notwithstand ing the clairas of Texas ; yet so inaccessibly wrapped up in records, pamphlets, and newspapers has the history of this period hitherto been, that this case, so exactly in point, was never referred to in that whole discussion. Much of the earlier part of the session was devoted to the consideration of private matters, mostly Revolution ary claims, which had corae by degrees to constitute a for raidable part of the business of the House. An act was passed authorizing grants of land to the refugees from Canada and Nova Scotia who had joined and adhered to the Araerican cause during the Revolution. At a former session, in spite of a violent opposition, based on the aUeged want of power in Congress for that purpose, a sum of money had been granted to the daughters of the Count de Grasse, reduced to poverty by the death of their father, who had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror. That sum had been exhausted, and a new act was now passed, in further acknowledgment of De Grasse's Revolutionary services, granting to his four daughters an annual pension for the next five years of $400 each. Numbers of banished Frenchmen continued to arrive in America, among whora, at this time, were the young Duke of Orleans, afterward Louis Philippe, king of the French, and his two younger brothers. The joy was great in America at hearing of the release of Lafayette from the Austrian dungeon in which he had so long been confined. By way of pecuniary relief to his family, Congress had already appropriated to their use the full amount of his pay as a major general in the American service. GRISWOLD AND LYON— BREACH OF DECORUM. 137 The bill making provision for fpreign intercourse be- chapter came a sort of party test, and many speeches were made upon it. The opposition maintained that the regulation 1798. of this matter ought to be with Congress and not with the president, and instead of voting a gross sum as here tofore, they wished to limit the number of missions, and to make a specific appropriation for each. Much tirae was cpnsumed in the business of Senator Blount's im peachment, which was protracted through the whole ses sion without being brought to any point. Every obsta cle was placed in the way of it by the opposition, who Were not a Httle alarmed at the idea of the impeachment of members of Congress, for which, as they alleged, the Constitution gave no authority. During the balloting for managers of this impeach ment, a scandalous breach of decorum occurred, the first Jan. so, ever witnessed in Congress. The speaker, having left the chair, had taken a seat next the bar ; Griswold and others were seated near ; many raembers, as is usual on such occasions, being out of their proper seats. ' Stand ing outside the bar, and leaning upon it, Lyon com raenced a conversation with the speaker in a loud tone, as if he desired to attract the attention of those about him, with respect to the Connecticut members, and partic ularly in reference to the Foreign Intercourse Bill, which just before had been under discussion. Those members, he said, acted in opposition tp the ppinions and wishes of nine tenths of their constituents. As to their allega tion in support of salaries of $9000 to the ministers abroad, that nobody would accept for less — that was false. They were all of them ready to accept any office, were the salary great or small. He knew the people of Connecticut, and that they were capable of hearing rea son, having had occasion to fight thera sometimes in his 188 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER own district when they came to visit their relations. XII ' { view. King, minister at the court of London, doubted the stability, and disliked the spirit of the British government. " Be assured," wrote John Trumbull, late secretary to Jay, and now umpire of the commission on British spoliations, " there exists in this country no cordial esteem for ours. There are those in whose bosoms still rankle the raera ory of former disappointments — men still in power, who detest the principles of our Revolution, and lament its success ; who look upon that event as the great cause of the present dissolution ofthe ancient systems of Europe, and who rejeice tc see us in a quarrel with those whom QUASI WAR AGAINST FRANCE. 221 they regard as the only supporters we had, looking, per- chapter haps, to the happy day when the two sister republics ] shaU sting each other to death." 1798. The opposition professed to hope great things from Gerry's remaining at Paris. Indeed, they had private dispatches of their own. Barlow, in a confidential let ter to his brother-in-law Baldwin, filled with abuse of Washington, Adams, Gouverneur Morris, and the late envoys, including even Gerry himself, whc was spoken of in terms by no means respectful, had yet held out the hope that Gerry aldne, without the others, by not stand ing on etiquette, and by consenting to pay a round sum of money, might be able to appease the terrible republic. The Federalists, on the other hand, saw in Gerry's re maining in Paris only new proof of the dangerous arts of French diplomacy ; and the minister who had thus been influenced to separate himself from his colleagues was denounced, in no measured terms, as little short of a traitor. The president's message was imraediately followed up by the passage of an act authorizing merchant vessels — June 25. until such time as the conformity of the French to the law of nations should be announced by instructions is sued by the president-^ to defend themselves by force against any search, seizure, or restraint on the part of any vessel under French oolprs ; and to subdue and cap ture, as good prize, any vessel attempting such search or seizure ; and to retake any vessel seized by the French, with benefit of salvage. A subscription having been opened in the principal towns toward building or purchasing additional ships of war, the president was authorized to accept such vessels, June 30. and to issue six per cent, stock to indemnify the sub scribers. Stock was subsequently issued under this act 222 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER to the amount of $711,700. Even in the infant city XIL .of Cincinnati, a surri was subscribed toward equipping a 1798. gaUey for the defense of the Mississippi River. July 6. Another act soon followed, declaring the French treat ies void, those treaties, as the preamble set forth, having been "repeatedly violated on the part ofthe French gov ernment, and the just claims ofthe United States for rep aration of the injuries so committed having been refused, and their attempts to negotiate an araicable adjustment of all complaints between the two nations repelled with • indignity." July 8. Two days after, the president was authorized to give instructions to the comraanders of the public armed ves sels, and to grant coraraissions to private armed vessels, to capture any French arraed vessels any where met with ; but these instructions were not to extend to the capture of unarraed raerchant ships, of which, indeed, there were but very few afloat under the French flag. The three frigates, the Constitution, the United States, and the Constellation, so long fitting out, were now at length equipped and ready for sea. One or two sloops of war of the additional arraaraent, with several armed cutters, had already sailed for the protection of American commerce against French privateers hovering on the coast. July 16. A further sum of $600,000 was appropriated toward equipping three new frigates, as a part of the additional naval armament, which, by another act, had been in creased from twelve to twenty-four vessels, to include six frigates, twelve sloops of war, and six smaller vessels. The enlistment of a marine corps of about nine hundred men, officers included, was also authorized. The place of Secretary ofthe Navy, declined by George Cabot, was given to Benjarain Stoddard, of Maryland. NAVY. INCREASE OF THE ARMY. 223 The officers for the infant navv had been selected from chapter . XII. the merchant service. Among those already appointed, and afterward greatly distinguished; were Charles Stew- 1798. art, Isaac Hull, John Rogers, William Bainbridge, and the younger Decatur. To the elder Decatur had been given the command of the sloop of war Delaware, and having put to sea, he soon returned with the first prize captured from the French, a privateer raounting twenty guns, which just before had been plundering an Araer ican vessel. While these preparations were made for defense on the sea, further precautions were deemed necessary against the danger of a French invasion and a slave insurrection. The president was authorized to appoint and commission June 22. forthwith such officers of the provisional army as he might deem necessary ; also field officers to organize, train, and discipline such volunteer corps as might offer their services under the provisional army act ; but no officers were to be entitled to pay till actually employed. An appropriation was made of $400,000 for the pur- July 6. chase of thirty thousand stand of arms, to be deposited at suitable points, and sold to the state governments for the use of the militia, or to the militia-men themselves. By another act, the regiments of the existing regular July 10. army, two of artillery (including the additional one au thorized at the present session), and four of infantry, were augraented to seven hundred raen each ; and the president was further authorized to enlist twelve addi tional regiments of infantry, with six troops of dragoons, to serve, unless sooner discharged, during the existing difficulties with France. This would raise the regular army to about thirteen thousand men, to be coraraanded by two major generals, an inspector general with the rank of major general, and four brigadier generals. 224 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter These preparations for defense would require large snma of money. In a stateraent raade by the Secretary 1798. of the Treasury to the Committee of Ways and Means, the ordinary annual expenses of the governraent, includ ing interest on the debt, were estimated at seven millions of dollars, and the accruing revenue, after an allowance for a falling off in consequence of French depredations, at eight miUions. But half this surplus would be re quired to raeet a loan of $100,000 to the coramissioners of the Federal city, granted early in the session, and twp temporary loans about to fall due to the United States Bank. The present emergency seemed to justify a di rect tax, a method of raising revenue always strongly insisted upon by the opposition ; and the House resolved July 1. thus to raise two millions of dollars. The act, as finally passed, after much discussion as to the details, directed that the amount, in certain specified proportions, should be levied on slaves between the ages of twelve and fifty, to be taxed half a dollar each, and on dwelling-houses, arranged in nine classes, the ratio of taxation increasing with the value from one fifth of one per cent, on those not exceeding $500 in value, to one per cent, on those valued at upward of $30,000 ; so much ofthe proportion of any state as might not be satisfied by these two taxes to be levied on lands. The necessary valuations were to be made by commissioners, the states being divided for that purpose into convenient districts ; and the amount was to be collected by the existing collectors of internal revenue. The president was authorized to anticipate the receipts from this tax by borrowing two millions on the credit of it, at a rate of interest not exceeding six per cent. ; and as still more money might be needed, he was further authorized to borrow five miUions more, on the best terms he could, the right of repayment not to be postponed for a longer term than fifteen years. SEDITION LAW. 225 To provide as well against internal as external foes, chapter xu. pending ' the progress of these warlike measures, Lloyd . of Maryland obtained leave in the Senate to bring in a 1798. bill to define more precisely the crime of treason, and to ^""® *^ define and punish the crime of sedition. As originally introduced, the first section of this bill declared the peo ple of France to be the enemies of the United States, and adherence to thera, giving thera aid and comfort, to be treaspn, punishable with death. The second section related to misprision of treason. The third section did not materially differ from the first section of the act as passed, and of which an analysis will presently be given. The fourth section provided for punishing, by fine and imprisonraent, the sum and period being left blank, any person who, by writing, printing, publishing, or speak ing, should attempt to justify the hostile conduct of the French, or to defame or weaken the government or laws of the United States by any seditious or inflamraatory declarations or expressions, tending to induce a belief that the government or any of its officers were influenced by motives hostile to the Constitution, or to the liberties or happiness of the people. Hamilton no sooner saw this bill in print than he wrote at once a letter of caution. It seemed to hira exceedingly exceptionable, and such as, raore than any thing else, might endanger civil war. " Let us not establish tyranny," so he continued : " energy is a very different thing from violence. If we make no false step we shall be essentially united, but if we push things to extremes we shall then give to facticn body and solid- ity." The bill did not pass the Senate, where it was carried by twelve votes to six, without undergoing considerable alterations. The two first sections were struck out en- V.— P 226 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter tirelv. The others were modified, but without any very xu. •' ¦'J essential change. 1798. When the bill came down to the House, Livingston J"ly 5. attempted to cut the matter short by moving its rejec tion. This led to a very warm and acrimonious de- July 10. bate, in which the character of the press was freely dis cussed, many extracts from the Aurora being cited by way of exaraple. Livingston's raotion was rejected, for ty-seven to thirty-six ; but in Committee of the Whole, on motion of Harper, by an amendment carried by the casting vote of the speaker, an entirely new section was substituted for the second (the fourth of the original draft), by which the character of the bill was essential ly changed. Bayard then proposed a section allowing the truth to be given in evidence. This, too, was car ried, as was also a limitation of the act to the end of the next Congress. But these araendraents did not prevent a very warm struggle on the third reading of the bill, Nicholas, who had now resumed his seat, Macon, Liv ingston, and GaUatin against it, Otis, Dana, and Harper for it. It was finally carried, forty-four to forty-one. The first section of this act, presently ' so faraous as the Sedition Law, made it a high misdemeanor, pun ishable by fine not exceeding $5000, imprisonment from six months to five years, and binding to good behavior at the discretion of the court, " for any persons unlaw fully to combine and conspire together, with intent to oppose any measures of the government of the United States, directed by proper authority, or to impede the operation of any law of the United States, or to intim idate or prevent any person holding office under the gov ernment of the United States from executing his trust," or with like intent " to commit, advise, or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly, or com- SEDITION LAW. 227 bination." The second sectien subjected tc a fine npt chapter exceeding $2000, and imprisonraent not exceeding two ' years, the printing or publishing " any false, scandalous, 1798. and raalicious writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress, or the president, with intent to defame them, or to bring them into CPntempt or disrepute, or to excite against them the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition, or with intent to excite apy unlawful com bination for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, pr.any lawful act of the president, or to excite generally to oppose or resist any such law or act, or te aid, abet, er encourage any hostile designs of any foreign nation against the United States." But in all pijosecu- tipns under this secticn, the truth of the matter stated might be given in evidence, as a good defense, the jury to be judges both of law and fact. The act was to con tinue in force till the fourth pf March, 1801. Gallatin's cpppsitipn tp this law was natural enough, since, had it then been in force, he would certainly have been held responsible, under the first section, for his share in stirring up that resistance to the excise law which had ended in prcducing the Whisky Insurrection. Yet against that part of the law no very weighty objections were urged. Indeed, it was against the second section — that for punishing the publication of seditious libels — ^that the arguments of the opposition were chiefly di rected. The weight due to those arguments will be considered in another place. It is sufficient to suggest here that the act was a terrlporary one, passed at a mo ment of threatened war, and while the government was assailed in print with a malice and ferocity scarcely par alleled before or since ; publications principally made by foreign refugees, as .to whom it was not wonderful if 228 His:roRY OF the united states. chapter they oared nothing for the country except to use it as XII ' an instrument of the political passions which they had 1798 brought with them from Europe ; or, if emanating from natives, then from men whom devotion to France and rancorous party spirit had carried td a pitch, of fanati cism careless of truth, decency, or reason, and of the re spect due to those intrusted under the Constitution with the government of the country. ' The press, and particularly the newspaper press, had rapidly attained a degree of influence such as hitherto had never been known. At the commencement of the Revolution there had been in the United States less than forty newspapers, and between that period and the adop tion of the Federal Constitution the number had rather diminished. The precise number when the Sedition Law was passed there is no means of ascertaining, but it ex ceeded a hundred. Philadelphia had eight daily papers, the first of which (Poulson's Daily Advertiser) had been established in 1784 ; New York had five or six dailies, Baltimore two or three. Boston, at this time, and for several years after, was content with semi- weeklies and weeklies, of which there Were five or six ; one attempt had been raade to support a daily paper ; but, after a short trial, it had been abandoned. It was a rare thing that any of the papers, even in the cities, had an editor distinct frora the printer and publisher. One of the first papers established on that plan was the Minerva of New York, a daily paper set up in 1794, of which the name had lately been changed to that of Comraercial Advertis er. This paper, the ablest in thecouhtry on the Federal side, was edited with equal talent and moderation by Noah Webster, the afterward distinguished lexicographer. Out of New England, the publishers of newspapers were principally foreigners, and this was especially the case with the opposition prints. AMERICAN newspapers. 229 Whatever might be their defects and deficiencies in chapter ° XIL other respects, the newspapers of that day had one re- deeming feature in the series of able essays communi- 1Y98. cated to their columns by such men as Hamilton, Madi son, Ames, Cabot, and raany others, who took that meth od of operating on the public mind. In the half century from 1765 to 1815, the peculiar literature of America is to be sought and foupd in these series of newspaper essays, some of them of distinguished ability, and as char-. aoteristic of that period as the Spanish ballads are of the tirae and country in which they were written. These rich jewels now and then glittered on the dung-heap ; but the editorial portion of the papers, and no small part of the communications also, consisted, too often, of declamatory calumnies, expressed in a style of vulgar ferocity. The epithets of rogue, liar, scoundrel, and villain were bandied about between the editors without the least ceremony. For a graphic character of the American press at that time, reference may be had to the already quoted charge of that distinguished Republican, Chief-justice M'Kean ; to which may be added, what he does not mention, that the government and officers of the United States had been for years the objects of full seven eighths of the out rageous ribaldry of which he complained. Yet the newspapers of that day exercised an individ ual influence over the minds of their readers very far beyond that of the so much abler journals of our times. The power and influence of the press as a whole, and even the importance of the press as a political agent, has indeed very greatly increased, but the effect which any individual journal can produce has very greatly dimin ished. In those days the Aurora, for instance, penetra ted to many localities in which no other printed sheet ever made its appearance. There were many who never 230 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter saw any other newspaper ; and its falsehoods and oalum- nies produced all the effect natural to an uncontradicted 1798. stateraent of fact. At present the mischief that can be done by falsehood and misrepresentation is comparatively limited, detection and exposure following too close. There is another circumstance, also, which must be taken into consideration before deciding too peremptorily upon the policy of the Sedition Law. That act was not supposed, by those who enacted it, to create any new of fenses, or to irapose any new punishments. Though the point had not yet come before the full bench of the Su preme Court, and though at a subsequent period, and after a complete change of judges, it was decided the other way, the opinion had been expressed on circuit, and was un derstood to be held by all the judges. Chase only except ed, that, independently of any authority expressly con ferred by statute, the Federal courts possessed a coraraon law jurisdiction over offenses against the United States, corresponding to the coraraon law jurisdiction exercised by the state courts. The crirainal jurisdiction of the state courts embraced two distinct classes of crimes — statute offenses, the nature and punishment of which were expressly defined by some statute, and common law offenses, as to which no statute provision existed, but which the courts, notwithstanding, had been accustoraed to punish from time immemorial by fine and imprison ment. Now among these common law offenses, punish able as such in all the states, were libel and sedition ; and what the common law as to libel was will be found stated in M'Kean's charge above referred to. The same comraon law jurisdiction had been claimed for the Feder al courts, and upon this claim had been founded the late attempt to indict Cobbett for a libel on the Spanish min ister ; and under the same supposed authority proceed- SEDITION LAW. 231 ings had been lately commenced against Bacho himself, chapter XII. Had tliis doctrine been well founded — nor was any ex press decision made to the contrary till fourteen years 1798. afterward — the Sedition Law was remedial and alleviar tive of the rigor of the existing law, since it ndt only limited the amount of fine and iraprisonraent, which by the coraraon law were discretionary with the court, but in the case of seditious libels allowed also the advantage of giving the truth in evidence — a thing not permitted by the common law, and hitherto introduced only in the states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Vermont, and that by a special constitutional provision. Even in that very objectionable shape in which the bUl came down from the Senate, it did but clothe with the form of law what had been the universal practice of the committees of safety at the comraenceraent of the Revolution. There had been no hesitation at ^hat mo ment -in suppressing, by means as prompt as severe, any opposition, either by writing or speaking, to the new rev olutionary governments ; proceedings continued under laws for that purpose among the earliest enactments of the new states — a species of legislation in which Virginia had taken the lead ; one of her enactments of 1776 hav ing served in part as a model for the Sedition Law. If these state acts were to be expused on the ground of ne cessity, and the impossibility of allowing free discussion at a moment when the existence of the nation was itself at stake — an excuse very promptly allowed by the raost ultra of the opposition for the severe measures of the French Directory in the suppression of anti-Republican journals — the friends and supporters of the Federal ad ministration, by whose votes the Sedition Law was pass ed, might claira the benefit of a similar apology. Party spirit was very fast rising to the pitch of civil war. To 232 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter the excited minds of the Federalists the conduct df the XII " opposition began to appear even inore reprehensible than 1798. that of the Tories at the comraenceraent of the Revolu tion. The Tory opposition of that time did but seek to maintain a colonial dependence which had long existed ; and the exactions to which they urged submission had ?fl,t least some color of constitutional right. The French Tories, for so the opposition began now to be designated, seemed bent upon reducing the United States into a de pendence on France as new as it was degrading ; and in their apparent wiHingness to submit to unrestrained dep redations and to forced loans, they seemed ready to sur render in substance that very point of exterior taxation which had caused the revolt from British rule. What had been the old restrictions of Great Britain on the commerce of the colonies compared with the piratical depredations now made under French authority ? What was a tax on tea, glass, and paints, compared with req uisitions at the pleasure of the Directory ? It seemed lamentable indeed to the Federalists that the terrible struggle of the Revolution should terminate at last, not in actual independence, but in the mere substitution of France as the mother country in place of Great Britain. The ppposition, on the other hand, not less excited, ve heraently retorted the charge of Toryism by accusing the governraent of an intention to restore the country to a state of at least semi-colonial dependence on Great Britain. The extent tp which the opposition leaders were dis posed to push matters may be judged of by a letter writ ten by John Taylor, of Caroline, late one of the Virginia senators, and since his resignation of that post the leader of the dominant majority in the Virginia House of Del egates. It was tirae, so Taylor thought, " to estimate JEFFERSON ON THE UNION. £33 the separate mass of Virginia and North Carolina with chapter XII. a view to their separate existence." Jefferson, to whora . this letter had been shown, suggested to Taylor some 1798. reasons why this idea should not be pushed. "It is June i. true," so he wrote, " that we are completely under the saddle of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and that they ride us very hard, cruelly insulting our feelings as well as exhausting our strength and subsistence. Their nat ural friends, th^ three other Eastern states, join thera from a sort of family pride, and they have the art to di vide certain other parts of the Union, so as to make use of thera to govern the whole* This is not new ; it is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order ; and those who have once got an as cendency, and possessed theraselves of all the resources of the nation, their revenues and offices, have immense means for retaining their advantage. But our present situation is not a natural one. The Republicans through every part of the Union say that it was the irresistible influence and popularity of General Washington, played off by the cunning of Harailton, which turned the gov ernment over to anti-Republican hands, or turned the Republicans chosen by the pepple into anti-Republicans. He delivered it over to his successor in this state, and very untoward events since, improved with great arti fice, have prpduced en tbe public mind the impressicns we see. But still, 1 repeat, this is not the natural state. Time alone would bring round an order more correspond ent to the sentiments of our constituents. But are there no events impending which will do it within a few months — the crisis with England, the public and au thentic avowal of sentiments hostile to the leading prin ciples of our Constitution, the prospect of a war in which we shall stand alone, land tax, stamp tax, increase of 234 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chjipter public debt, &c. ? Be this as it may, in every free and " deliberating society there must, from the nature of man, 1798. be opposite parties, and violent dissensions and discords, and one of these, for the most part, must prevail over the other for a longer or shorter time. Perhaps this party division is necessary to induce the one party to watch and to delate to the people the proceedings ofthe other. But if, on a teraporary superiority of the one par ty, the Pther is to resort to a scission of the Union, no Federal government can ever exist. If to rid ourselves ofthe present rule of Massachusetts and Connecticut we break the Union, will the evil stop there ? Suppose the New England States cut off, will our natures be changed? Are we not raen still to the south of that, and with all the passions of men ? Imraediately we shall see a Penn sylvania and a Virginia party arise in the residuary con federacy, and, the public mind will be distracted with the same party spirit. What a game, too, will the one party have in their hands by eternally threatening the other that unless they do so and so they will join their North ern neighbors ? If we reduce our Union to Virginia and North Carolina, immediately the conflict will be estab lished between the representatives of these two states, and they will end by breaking into their simple units. Seeing, therefore, that an association of men who will not quarrel with each other is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of natipns down to a town meeting or a vestry — seeing that we must have somebody to quarrel with, I had rather keep our New England associates for that purpose than to see our bick erings transferred to each other. They are circum scribed within such narrow limits, and their population is so full, that their numbers will ever be the minority, and they are marked, like the Jews, with such a perver- JEFFERSON ON THE UNION. 235 sity of character as to constitute from that circumstance chapter XH. the natural division of our parties. A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their 1798. spells dissolved, and the people recovering their true right and restoring their government to its true principles. It is true that in the raean time we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war, and long op pression of enormpus public debt. But whp can say what would be the evils of a scission, and when and where they would end ?. Better keep.together as we are, haul off from Europe as soon as we can, and from all at tachments to any portion pf it ; and if they show their powers just sufficiently to hoop us together, it will be the happiest situation in which we can exist. If the game runs some time against us at home, we raust have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an op portunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake. Better luck, therefore, to us all, and health, and happiness, and friendly salutations to yourself" But in spite of the good advice contained in this letter — at once a remark able specimen of Jefferson's hatred and jealousy of New England and of his political sagacity — we shall find him within a few months so carried away by passion as to be planning and setting on foot a scheme pf state resist ance tc Federal authprity, which, if pushed tp its natural results, cpuld pnly have ended in a scission of the Union. Simultaneously with the new energy exhibited by Congress, the spirit of resistance to French aggression kept on rising out of doors. Addresses to the presi dent continued to pour in. Numerous volunteer corapa nies enroUed themselves as a part of the provisional army. The Legislatures of the four Eastern states, at their summer sessions, successively declared their appro- 236 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER bation of the president's policy and their resolution to support it. The General Court of Massachusetts pro- 1798. posed so to amend the Constitution of the United States as to disqualify all naturalized citizens from holding of fice, a proposal concurred in by five other states. The fourth of July was every where celebrated by the Fed eralists with great enthusiasra. The black cockade was very generally mounted. There were symptoms of the sarae spirit even in Virginia. Marshall, on his return to Richmond, was affectionately received, and the north ern part of that state, at least, seemed Hkely to break away frora the hitherto absolute control of the opposition. Indications of the sarae kind appeared in North Carolina. Jefferson looked anxiously for an adjournraent as afford ing the opposition the only chance to rally. " To sepa- June 21. rate Congress now," he wrote, " will be withdrawing the fire frora under a boUing pot." The wished-for adjourn- July 16. ment carae at last, but it did not immediately produce all the consequences which Jefferson had hoped. Among so raany measures of merely temporary im portance, two acts were passed at this session permanent in their operation and phUanthropic in their character. Under one of these acts, debtors bf the United States held in execution, on proof to the satisfaction of the Secretary of State of their inabiHty to pay, and of having attempted no concealment pr fraudulent conveyance of their prop erty, were to be discharged from prison. But the judg ment was to remain good against their property ; nor was the act to apply to cases of imprisonment for any fine, forfeiture, or penalty, or of breach of trust. The other act authorized the detention of twenty cents per month from the wages of aU searaen, to be paid over to the collectors of the ports where the ships might enter on their return voyage, toward a fund for the erection FOURTH CONSTITUTION OF GEORGIA. 237 and support of hospitals for the relief and corafort of raer- chapter xu. chant searaen — a fund out of which hospitals have since. been erected at raost of the principal ports. 1798. In the course of the session a resolution had been in troduced authorizing Thoraas Pinckney to accept the presents which, according to an old diplomatic usage, had been tendered to him by the courts of Madrid and Lon don at the termination of his missions thither, but whichy on acQount of the clause in the Constitution respecting presents from foreign powers and princes, he had declined to receive till leave should be given by Congress. Though passed by the Senate, this resolution was lost in the. House; But another resolution was subsequently adopt ed by a unanimous vote, ascribing the rejection to mo tives of general policy, and expressly disclaiming any thing in it p,ersonalto Pinckney. The subsequent usage has been for ministers to receive the presents tendered, but to deposit them, on their return, with the Depart ment of State. Pending the session of Congress, the Constitution of Georgia had undergone a new revisal, under the provi sion to that effect contained in the Constitution of 1789. The pecuniary qualification of governor and merabers of the Legislature was slightly diminished, but new qual ifications of citizenship and of residence in the state were added; in case of the governor, six. years"^ residence and twelve years' citizenship ; in case of members of the Legislature, three years' residence, with nine years citi zenship, for senators, and seven years' for representa tives. Representation in the House was henceforth to be regulated by a compound basis of territory and pop ulation, including' in the count "three fifths of the peo ple of color." Three thousand inhabitants, according to this ratio, were to entitle a county to two members ; 238 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER seven thousand, to three members ; and twelve thousand, ' to four members ; but no county was to have less than 1798. one meraber, nor more than four. Each house was ex pressly vested with power to expel, censure, fine, or im prison its own members for disorderly conduct, and to take Hke steps against any person not a member guilty of disrespectful behavior toward either house in its pres ence, or of threats against or assaults upon any member for any thing said or done in the Asserably. The further importation of slaves into the state "from Africa or any foreign place" was expressly prohibited. A similar prohibition, by a law renewed from time to time, had existed in South Carolina ever since the adop tion of the Federal Constitution ; and a like act had also been enacted in North Carolina. Events in the West Indies had no doubt contributed to these enactments ; but, even with allowance for this, were they not sufficient to show that, in yielding to the imperious demands of the delegates frora South Carolina and Georgia a twenty years' continuance of the slave trade, the New England members of the Federal convention had been influenced either by unnecessary fears, or, if not by fears, by too excessive an anxiety to purchase a power over com merce, of which, after aU, the practical value amounted to very little ? By a clause copied from the Constitution of Kentucky, the Legislature of Georgia were prohibited to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves except with the previous consent of the individual owners ; nor were they to pro hibit immigrants: from bringing with them " such per sons as may be deemed slaves by the law of any one of the United States." By a further provision, any person maliciouslj killing or dismembering a slave was to sufler the same punishment as if the acts had been committed FOURTH CONSTITUTION OF GEORGIA. 239t on a free white person, except in cases of insurrection, chapter or "unless such death should happen by accident, in giv- " ing such slave raoderate correction." 1798. A clause, inserted for that express purpose, claimed as the property of the free citizens of the state, held by them in sovereignty, and unalienable except with their con sent, the whole territory as far west as the Mississippi, between the thirty-first degree of north latitude and a due west continuation of the northern line of Georgia. The Legislature were authorized to transfer to the United States any part of this territory west of the Chatta hoochee ; but no sales were to be made to individuals or private corapanies, unless a county had first been marked off and the Indian title extinguished. The Legislature were also enjoined to provide imraediate means for re funding all such sums as had hitherto been paid into the state treasury for the purchase of lands under con tracts, which this constitution did not recognize as bind ing. All these latter provisions had reference to the Yazoo purchases. Provision was made for amending the Constitution in future by bills for that purpose, to be passed by a two thirds' vote in both houses of two successive Legislatures, with an intervening publication for at least six months prior to the election of the members of the second Leg islature. This Constitution, amended in divers particu lars according to the method just pointed out, still con stitutes the fundamental law of the State of Georgia. 240 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER XIIL ARMY APPOINTMENTS. INTERNAL AFFAIRS. PROSECU TIONS UNDER THE SEDITION LAW. GERRY AND LO GAN. AMERICAN SQUADRONS IN THE WEST INDIES. NULLIFICATION. RESOLUTIONS OF KENTUCKY AND VIR GINIA. THIRD SESSION OF THE FIFTH CONGRESS. NEW MISSION TO FRANCE. CHAPTER J UST before the close of the session of Congress, the XIII. ' president had nominated Washington, and the Senate 1798. had unanimously confirmed him as lieutenant general and commander-in-chief of all the armies raised and to be raised for the service of the United States. Wash ington's letter of acceptance, which Adama hastened to July 17. lay before the Senate ' reasserabled for executive pur poses the day after the adjournraent of Congress, evinced on the part of that great man a thorough syrapathy with the adrainistration and the Federalists. After express ing a wish that the president's choice had fallen on sorae one " less declined in years and better qualified to en counter the usual vicissitudes of war," referring also to his extreme reluctance to quit a retirement which he had hoped might be final, again to enter " upon the boundless field of public action, incessant trouble, and high respon sibility," "it was impossible for me," he adds, "to re main ignorant of or indifferent to recent transactions. The conduct of the Directory of France toward our coun try ; their insidious hostilities to its government ; their various practices to withdraw the affections of the people from it ; the evident tendency of their arts, and those of their agents, to countenance and invigorate opposition ; ARMY APPOINTMENTS, 241 their disregard of solemn treaties and the law of na- chapter XUL tions ; their war upon our defenseless commerce ; their , treatment of our minister of peace, and their demands 1798. amounting to tribute ; could not fail to excite in me sen timents corresponding with those which my countrymen have so generally expressed in their affectionate addresses to you. Believe me, sir, no one can more cordially ap prove of the wise and prudent measures of your adminis tration. They ought to inspire universal confidence, and will, no doubt, combined with the state of things, call from Congress such laws and means as will enable you to meet the full force and extent of the crisis. Sat isfied that you have sincerely wished and endeavored to avert war, and exhausted to the last drop the cup of con ciliation, we can with pure hearts appeal to Heaven for the justice of our cause, and may confidently trust the final result to that kind Providence which has hitherto, and so often, signally favored the people of these United States." Washington's acceptance was on the express condition that he should not be called into active service till the army was in a situation to require his presence, unless urgency of circumstances should sooner make it neces sary. Under the late act for the increase of the army, Hamilton, Charles C. Pinckney, still detained in France by his daughter's ill health, and Knox were, norfiinated and confirmed as major generals, Harailton being also appointed inspector general. WUliara North, late a sen ator from New York, was appointed adjutant general, with the rank of brigadier. The president had first nom inated his son-in-law, William S. Smith; but his charac ter was suffering under his recent failure for a large amount, under circumstances not very reputable, and the Senate refused to confirra the appointraent ; yet, at a v.— Q 242 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER subsequent period, they allowed his noraination as a col- ' onel to pass. Brooks of Massachusetts, Dayton, the late 1798. speaker, and WiUiam Washington, a distant relative of the ex-president, distinguished during Greene's Southern carapaigns as a cavalry officer, and who had settled in South Carolina, were appointed brigadiers. Nomina tions were also made of general officers of the provisional army, Henry Lee and Hand as major generals, and Ebe nezer Huntington, of Connecticut, Antony White, of New Jersey, who had served as major general of the New Jersey railitia called out to suppress the Whisky Insur rection, William R. Davie, of North Carolina, ^.nd Gov. ernor Sevier, of Tennessee, as brigadier generals. It was with respect to these nominations, and espe^ cially as to the relative rank to be assigned to Harail ton and Knox, that the first syraptoms appeared of want of cordiality between Adams and his cabinet. Washing ton, during his presidential term, appears to have exer cised the appointing power, even in very important cases ^such, for instance, as the nomination of Rutledge as chief justice — without any previous consultation with his cabinet. In his case, unanimous choice of the peo ple as he was, this had been submitted to without mur muring. But the cabinet officers did not feel the sarae deference for Adams. He had, in fact, been elected as a party candidate, and they were inclined to think that all appointraents ought to be made with their consent. Though, in the selection of the envoys to France, Adams had partially yielded to their remonstrances, he was, how ever, the last raan in the world to resign a tittle of what he deemed the rightful prerogative of his office. At the sarae tirae that his position, compared with that of Washington, furnished special reasons why he should listen to advice (whether he took it or not), the charao- WASHINGTON AND ADAMS. 243 ter of.his mind and the jealous irritability of his temper chapter alike disqualified him to play the part of a serious and ' attentive listener, placing hira, in that respect, in very 1798. disadvantageous comparison with his predecessor. Re markable as Washington was for the uniform soundness of his judgment — ^and perhaps this uniforra soundness could not otherwise have existed — he was by no means distinguished for activity of the conceptive faculties. He arrived at his conclusions by slow steps ; it was, in deed, alraost a necessity with him to be furnished, by suggestions from various quarters, with materials on which his judgment might operate. Hence his habit of asking advice — a habit not less flattering to those thu^ called upon than it was convenient to himself. Endowed as Adams was, on the other hand, with a very lively and vigorous imagination, he formed his conclusions al most with the rapidity of intuition, and, having the great est confidence in his own discernment, he listened to ad vice rather as a matter of form than of use, and some tiraes with evident marks of impatience- — a circumstance not very flattering to his counselors. Washington had suggested, when first consulted on the raatter, as a condition of his acceptance, that no ap pointments should be made of general or staff officers without his concurrence ; but, from the rapidity with which Adams hurried on the nomination, no such under standing was formally had. Washington was consulted, however, and the appointments above mentioned had been suggested by him, with the intention that the officers should take rank in the order in which they are named. In the Revolutionary army Pinckney had outranked Hamilton, being made a brigadier by brevet just at the close of the war, whereas Harailton had never ranked higher than lieutenant colonel. Knox, as raajor general, 244 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER had outranked them both. But the army as now organ- ' ized had no connection with, or necessary reference to, 1798. the Revolutionary army; and rank was now to be de termined, not by reference to. past arrangements, but to present wants. Washington explained the matter in a letter to Knox, who was living at this time in the Dis trict of Maine, where he had entered largely into land speculations, having come into possession of a portion of the Waldo patent in right of his wife, and having made other large purchases on his own account. Knox, how ever, was by no means inclined to acquiesce in the ar rangement proposed ; and Adams, to whom the proraotion of Hamilton was far frdm agreeable, seemed strongly in clined to support Knox's claira, and to give him the rank of first major general. Nor, in spite of the warm remon strances of the cabinet, was the matter finally settled in Hamilton's favor without a decided letter from Washing ton, intimating that he should consider the refusal to give Hamilton the first rank a breach of the understand- 6ct. 13. ing with him, sufficient to justify his own resignation. In consequence of this decision, Knox declined, somewhat haughtily, the coramand proffered to him. Indeed, the state of his private affairs was such as to demand his en tire attention, for about this time he became involved in severe pecuniary erabarrassraents in consequence of the bad success of his land speculations. In this respect he did not stand alone. Wilson, who had recently died, and who was succeeded on the bench of the Supreme Court by Bushrod Washington, a nephew ofthe general, had be come deeply involved by the same means, and more than once in the last years of his Hfe had been in the hands of the sheriff. Even Robert Morris had been entirely ruined chiefly by speculations in New York lands and Federal city lots. To these failures, caused by unsuo- YELLOW FEVER IN PHILADELPHIA. 245 cessful land speculations, began to be added a host of chapter XHI. others, resulting from rash commercial ventures and the . depredations of the belligerents, particularly the French, 1798. araong which number were Swanwick and M'Clenaohan, the two opposition -members from the city and county of Philadelphia. The high rate of interest consequent upon these financial disturbances made it very difficult to fill up the new Ipans. The New York Legislature, called together in special August. session by Governor Jay, had appropriated $1,200,000 to be expended, under the direction of the president, for fortifying the harbor of New York, and to go, according to the offer pf Congress already mentioned, in liquida tion of so much of the Revolutionary balance due from that state. The further sura of $221,000 was also voted for the purchase of arms. Partly in consequence of the difficulty about rank already mentioned, no step had yet been taken toward the enlistment of the twelve additional regiments ; and this matter was still further delayed by the reappearance of the yellow fever at Phil adelphia, where it raged with even greater violence than during the meraorable auturan of 1793. It appeared also, though with less violence, in New London, New York, Wilraington, and other towns. Those who were able almost universally fled from Philadelphia. Many of the poorer inhabitants left their dwellings and en camped in the fields. The public offices of the Federal government were removed for a month or two to Tren ton, in New Jersey. Among the victims was Bache, the fanatical and unscrupulous editor of the Aurora. But another editor, not less fanatical and unscrupulous, and decidedly abler, stepped at once into the vacant seat. This was James Duane, hern pf Irish parents somewhere on the shores of Lake Charaplain, but who had left the 246 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER country in his youth, previous to the commencenient of the Revolution, and having gone to his friends in Ireland, 1798. had there learned the trade of a printer, whence he pro ceeded to Calcutta, where he had set up an English newspaper, one of the first established in India. It is only within a recent period that the liberty of the press has been introduced into that part of the British domin ions: In Duane's time no such thing was thought of; and having given offense by the insertion of sorae articles not agreeable to the authorities, his whole establishment was seized, and he himself shipped back td England. After sorae attempts to obtain redress for the heavy pe cuniary losses thus inflicted upon bim, he had emigrated to America, and had obtained employment sometimes as editor, sometimes as reporter for one or other of the Phil adelphia papers. Filled, naturally enough, with bitter hatred of the British government, he entered with great zeal into the politics ofthe opposition. Employed, after Bache's death, to edit the Aurora, he soon made himself master of the establishment by intermarriage' with the widow, and thus suddenly found himself raised to a posi tion of no niean influence. Fenno, printer to the Sen ate and publisher of the United States Gazette, the prin cipal Federal organ at the seat of government, was car ried dff by the same disease a few days after Bache's death, but the paper was continued by his son. The running of the lines under the treaty of Houlston, when at last it was corapleted, had disclosed the fact that several considerable tracts in the State of Tennessee, al ready occupied by white settlers, fell within the Chero kee territory. An atterapt to remove these settlers had produced the greatest discontents ; the president had thought it best to buy out the Indians, and commission ers for negotiating a treaty with them had been appoint- NORTHEASTERN BOUNDARY. 247 ed during the late session of Congress. By a new treaty, chapter XIII. signed at Tellico, in consideration of $5000 in goods and. an annual payment of $1000, the Cherokees ceded the 1798. lands in question, conceding, also, a free passage thrpugh '^°'- " their lands to all travelers on the road to Kentucky pass,- ing through the Cumberland. Gap. Much about the same tirne the Mississippi Territory was organized, under Winthrop Sargent, late secretary of the Northwest Territory, as governor. Among other provisions of Jay's treaty had been the creation of a commission for determining the eastern Oct. 25. boundary of the United States. Massachusetts had claimed as the true St. Croix, mentioned in the treaty of 1783, the Maguadavick. The British had not only claimed the Passamaquoddy as the true St. Croix, but had insisted, upon the western branch of it, called the Schoodic, as the main stream. The comraissioners de cided that the Passamaqupddy was in fact the true St. Crpix, of which, indeed, the identity was established by discovery of the ruins of the fort built on an island at its mouth by the early French settlers near two hundred years before. But they decided, also, that the main stream of the river, from the source of which the bound ary was to proceed in a due northerly direction, was not the Schoodic, but the eastern branch. The effect of this decision was to confirm existing land-grants , and to di vide the disputed country between the two nations in nearly equal proportions. One point, however, was left unsettled, as not within the powers of the commission, the ownership, namely, of the numerous islands in the Bay of Passaraaquoddy. Not long after its passage an inviting opportunity oc curred for putting the Sedition Law into execution. The first victim selected was no other than Matthew Lyon, 248 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter the particularly Democratic representative of the western XIU. . district of Vermont. One charge against him was found- 1798. ed on a letter of his, written from Philadelphia and pub lished in a Vermont paper, in which he alleged that on the part of the executive " every consideration of the public welfare was swallowed up in a continual grasp for power, an unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, fool ish adulation, and selfish avarice ;" that raen of raerit were turned out of office or were refused office for no oth er cause but "independency of sentiment," while "raean men" were preferred for their readiness in advocating opinions about which they knew nothing; and that the "sacred name of religion" was employed — an allusion to the l3,te proclamation for a fast — as "a state engine to raake mankind hate and persecute each other." In a second count Lyon was charged with publishing, by reading and comraenting upon it at public political raeetings, one of those nuraerous private letters to his friends in America by which Barlow was laboring now to frighten and bully, and now to coax his countrymen into submission to the demands of France. The pas sage particularly relied upon was one in which that ren egade American had expressed his surprise that the an swer of the House to the president's speech, which had been complained of by the Directory, had not been "an order to send hira to a mad-house." There was still a third count, for the publication in a paraphlet — contrary, it would seem, to his express agree ment with Baldwin, frora whom Lyon had received it in confidence — of the whole of this letter of Barlow's, a let ter npt more abusive of Adaras than of Washington, who was accused in it of having sacrificed the dignity of the nation by " thrusting Jay's treaty down the throats of the people of America by means of a monstrous influence. LYON'S TRIAL. 249 an inexplicable contrast to the weakness of his political chapter talents." Lyon, who managed his own cause, undei:took to prov^ 1798. by Judge Patterson, before whom the trial took place, Oct. 7. the truth of a part of his charges. He asked the judge whether he had not frequently dined with the president, and observed his ridiculous pomp and parade ; to which Patterson answered that he had sometimes dined with the president, but instead of pomp and parade, had seen a great deal of simplicity. Lyon made a long harangue to the jury ; but they found him guilty, and after a se vere lecture from the judge, he was sentenced to four raonths' imprisonment and a fine of $1000, the araount being diminished in consequence of evidence that Lyon was embarrassed in his circumstances, and not far from insolvency. Sorae of Lyon's friends revenged his cause shortly after by girdling the apple-trees of the principal witness es against him. A numerously-signed petition was sent to the president, asking Lyon's release from the prison, which was said to be a very small, filthy, and uncom fortable one ; but the president decHned to grant this petition unless Lyon would sign it himself So far from that, the imprisoned patriot dispatched from his jail a highly-colored account of his trial, and especially of his prison accommodations, in a letter addressed to Mason, the Virginia senator, the friend of CaUender. Mason wrote back a sympathizing reply, in which he suggested that the amount of the fine might be made up by sub scription. But it does not appear that this sympathy extended so far as to induce any of Lyon's Virginia friends to put their hands in their pockets for his relief. In fact, he was ultimately driven to an expedient which, in the end, Jefferson himself was fain to imitate — that 250 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter of a private lottery, the prizes to consist of houses, lands. XIII. _ and other real property, which it Was hoped thus to dis- 1798. pose of at a generous price. But the friends of Lyon, by whora this lottery was got up, having made use of lan guage in their call upon the public in itself indictable, the consequence was, that Haswell, the printer of the Vermont Gazette, in which the call appeared, was him self indicted, and after a twelvemonths' delay was found guilty and sentenced to a fine of $200 and two months' imprisonraent. Just before the trial of Lyon the Verraont election took place. At first there was no choice in Lyon's dis trict ; but on a second trial, the imprisoned Deraocrat, no doubt in consequence of his imprisonment, was elect ed by a decided majority. The Maryland election, which shortly followed that Oct. 4. of Verraont, was very vehemently contested. Smith was re-elected in the Baltimore District by two hundred ma jority, and throughout the state the Federalists did little more than to hold their own. They succeeded, however, at the ensuing session of the Legislature, in electing Ben jamin Ogle as governor. While these various events were occurring in Amer ica, Gerry, alone at Paris, found hiraself in a somewhat April 10. awkward situation. Four days after Marshall's depart ure, not having heard any thing further frora Talleyrand, he reminded hira by a note that nothing but threats of an iraraediate rupture, only to be prevented by his re raaining at Paris, had prevented his departure at the same time with his coUeagues. Although he did not feel authorized to continue the negotiation in character of minister plenipotentiary, as TaUeyrand had proposed, he was, however, ready and desirous to receive frora the French government, and to communicate to his own, a GERRY AT PARIS. 251 statement of the terms on which the differences between chapter the two nations might be accommodated — terms, he doubted not, corresponding to the justice and magnanim- 1798. ity of a great nation. Such a communication, he hpped, would be promptly raade, and a stop be put to further depredations on American comraerce till an answer could be obtained frora Araerica. The adoption of such a course would at once extinguish all feelings of hostility. He hoped, at all events, not to be long detained. The state of his private affairs demanded his speedy return, and the residence at Paris of the American consul gen eral would answer every political purpose. In consequence of this note, Gerry had several inter views with Talleyrand, who declined, however, to make the statement suggested on the ground that he did not know what the views of the United States were as to a treaty. Gerry thereupon explained, what Talleyrand perfectly well understood before, the nature of the Amer ican clairas and coraplaints. Some conversation was afterward had about sending a French minister to the United States. Finally, Talleyrand promised to furnish Gerry with the project of a treaty. Pending these conversations, a special messenger ar- May 12. rived at Paris with a letter from Pickering, written just before the publication of the X, Y, Z dispatches, directing the ministers, if they had not already been admitted to a formal negotiation, to leave France forthwith. The same letter contained positive and precise instructions not to consent to any loan or douceur, or purchase of peace with money, and a hint, also, that the dispatches on this sub ject were about to be published. As that publication might endanger the safety of the rainisters were they still in France, in order to insure them timely notice, this let ter had been sent by a special dispatch boat. 252 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER In consideration of " the new state of affairs," such XUL was his own phraseology, Gerry seems to have held 1798. himself not bound to any implicit obedience of the in structions thus received. He resolved, indeed, to return in the dispatch boat, and took the opportunity to notify Talleyrand that it was necessary to make haste with his project of a treaty ; but, rather than fail to obtain it, he determined to detain the vessel for such time as raight seem expedient. Talleyrand excused his delays hitherto by pleading other and pressing engagements. Several interviews took place between Gerry and Talleyrand's secretary, who disavowed any desire on the part of the French gov ernment to break up the British treaty, their demand simply being that France should be placed on equal ground with Great Britain. As to payraents for spoli ations, they raust be paid in the first place by the United States, to be reirabursed by France ; but this, Gerry told hira, was inadraissible. May 26. Gerry presently had an interview with Talleyrand hiraself, who told him that the Directory no longer had any thoughts of war. The results in America of the bullying system, of which the first advices began now to be received, had indeed made a change of tactics neces sary. Talleyrand even promised to propose to the Di rectory to send a minister to the United States. So stood matters when the first news of the pubHshed dispatches reached the Directory. This was a stroke which Talleyrand had not anticipated. He had hoped, indeed, as we have seen already, himself to make the first appeal to the Araerican people, by publishing in the Aurora — the joint organ of the French government and of the Araerican opposition — his reply to the raeraorial of the envoys. THE X, Y, Z EXPLOSION. 253 The first notice Gerry had that the published dis- chapter XIIL patches had reached France, was a call upon hira, by . one of the Paris newspapers, to deny their authenticity. 179,8. " Having reason to suppose," such is his own statement, ^^^ ^'^¦ " that the result of this new embarrassment, if not pa cific, would be very violent," he prepared himself for the worst by securing his papers. He might well be alarm ed, for it was only a short time before that, on the oc currence of ruptures with Portugal and the pope, the Portuguese and Reman embassadprs, instead of being furnished with passports, had been seized, and thrown into prispn. Soon after came a note from Talleyrand himself, in- May 30. closing a London Gazette, in which the dispatches were printed at length, " a very strange publication," so Tal leyrand wrote ; and he added, "It is with surprise I ob serve that intriguers have taken advantage of the insu lated condition in which the envoys of the United States have kept theraselves, to make proposals and to hold con versations of which the object evidently was to- deceive you." The letter then proceeded to demand the names represented by the letters W, X, Y, and Z, W having been used to designate the raerchant by whom Hottin guer (X) had been introduced to the envoys. " I must rely upon your eagerness," so the letter concluded, " to enable the government to fathom these practices, of which I felicitate you on not having been the dupe, and which you must wish to see cleared up." After having been frightened by threats of instant war into remaining in France against his own better judg ment, and coaxed by the phantom of a promised project of a treaty intp remaining still longer in defiance of the express orders of his government and at the risk of his personal safety, Gerry was now called upon to assist in 254 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER discrediting his own dispatches — a process of which the coolness can not but be admired, when it is recollected 1798. that Talleyrand himself had personally assured Gerry that full confidence might be given to whatever Bellamy (Y), the principal of the alleged intriguers, might state, and also that both Hottinguer and Bellamy had been present at dinner parties in company with Talleyrand and Gerry, got up for the very purpose of forwarding the negotiation. Writhing not a little under this infliction, Gerry attempted to get off by admitting that the persons in question did not produce any credentials of any kind, and that tfiree of them were foreigners, while the fourth (Z) acted only as a raessenger and linguist. Being fur- June 4. ther pressed, however, he consented to give up the names, under an express assurance that they should not be pub lished under his authority ; and he also stated, in reply to Talleyrand's request, that none of the persons em ployed in that minister's office had ever said a word hav ing the least reference to the " shocking proposition," as Talleyrand called it, to pay any sum whatever for cor rupt purposes. This, indeed, was the only suggestion of the secret agents' which it was possible for Talleyrand to disavow ; for the attempt to frighten the envoys into buying peace with a loan had been repeatedly made by that rainister himself as well as by those agents, whose names, pretending not to know them, he had so formally demanded of Gerry. June 7. There appeared, shortly after, in the Paris Redacteur, the special organ of Talleyrand, a labored defense of that minister and of the Directory against the implications of the dispatches, at the close of which, contrary to Talley rand's stipulations, were published the letters which had recently passed between him and Gerry as to the names of the agents — ^letters in which Gerry, as he had not THEX, Y, ZEXPLOSION. £5 5 judged it safe to suggest any doubts on that subjectj chapter XIII. might seem to admit the truth of Talleyrand's indignant . disavowals, and of his peremptory assertions that the en- 1798. voys had been grossly imposed upon. While openly as sailing the other two envoys, this same paper did not spare even Gerry himself, who was attacked, as he expressed it, " under a thin veil of insidious compliments." Gerry wrote out a full detection of the sophistries of this arti cle, but concluded, on second thought, that he might as well let the matter rest as it was. Meanwhile the dis patches were raaking a great noise. The British gov ernraent caused thera to be translated into the principal languages of Europe, and to be distributed in large quan tities, as affording new proof of the rapacity and profli gacy of the French republic. Nor was it long before Bel lamy, who had escaped to Hamburg, of which state he was a citizen, came out with a defense of his own con duct, in which he solemnly asserted, what there is every reason to suppose the truth, that he had never taken a step nor said a word in the raatter of the American ne gotiation except by Talleyrand's express directions. Having swallowed his vexation the best he could at the roasting he had received in TaUeyrand's newspaper, 0-a.^ Gerry dispatched a note, intimating the necessity of his June lO. speedy departure for America, and of his being furnished by Talleyrand with the proraised sketch of a treaty. Instead of sending that, Talleyrand replied with cora plaints against the president's message communicating the dispatches, and, as the terms of the note would seera to iraply, at the non-communication of his own answer of March 18th to the memorial of the envoys, which he did not doubt they had duly forwarded — the very same paper, by-the-way, for the publication of which he had himself provided by sending a copy of it to the Au- 556 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, chapter rora — a document quite sufficient, in his opinion, "to XUI. .efface frora the minds of the American people the Ul- 1798. founded uneasinesses they may have been made to en tertain." He asserted the disposition of France for peace on the basis of a restoration to her rights under the treaties and of rautual indemnities, ending with the old invitation to Gerry, so often rejected, to enter himself upon the negotiation as minister plenipotentiary. June 13. Gerry replied, as so often before, that he could not treat, since he had no powers. It would, however, be very easy for the French government to state their terras, and to send a minister to Araerica to complete the ne gotiation there. As to hiraself, he must shortly sail in the government dispatch boat waiting for him at Havre ; and he reminded Talleyrand that the passports asked for had not yet been received. Respecting the suppression of Talleyrand's letter of the eighteenth of March, so bit terly complained of, he begged leave to suggest that a documenjt dated at Paris on that day could hardly have arrived at Philadelphia by the third of April, the date of the president's message coraraunicating the dispatches. Talleyrand attempted to escape frora this awkward blun der by denying any reference to that letter ; but the per tinacious Gerry returned again to the charge ; and Tal leyrand finally explained that all he meant was the sup pression by the president of the fact, apparently well known in America, since some stateraents to that effect had appeared in the Aurora, that the Directory were will ing to treat with one of the ministers, but not with the other two. A very curious correspondence followed, consisting, on the part of Talleyrand, of new attempts to persuade Gerry himself to coraraence a new negotiation, inter mixed with various complaints against the Federal gov- GERRY AND TALLEYRAND. 257 (crnment, referring especially to the president's answers chapter XIH. to the addresses presented to him ; and on the part of , Gerry — for, thpugh he might be frightened or cajoled 1798. into concessions, he was not to be argued out of an opin ion — of new refutations of Talleyrand's sophistries, and, finaUy, of reiterated, and raore and raore urgent requests for his passports. Pending this singular correspondence, news contin ued tp arrive of the vigorous measures of defense set oh foot in the United States ; and the effect of this news be came sufficiently apparent in Talleyrand's letters. He was evidently alarmed lest war might result — an event rendered at once more probable and more formidable by the abandonment of the projected invasion of England, the total failure of the Irish insurrection, and the, pal pable evidences given by Great Britain, in spite of the suspension of specie payraents and the late mutinies in the fleet, df undiminished ability to carry on the war. It was the evident object of his letters to manufacture, as Gerry expressed it, materials for a manifesto by raak ing a plausible show, without coraraitting himself to any thing in particular, of a desire to preserve peace. Dur ing the space of six weeks TaUeyrand tried every art to detain Gerry, no doubt as a guarantee against war. When at last he yielded to repeated demands, the letter inclosing Gerry's passports contained reiterated assur- July 12. ances of peaceful intentions, and strongly urged Gerry to use his influence to the same end. Not content with assurances merely, Talleyrand cited as proofs his earnest efforts to treat ever since the departure of Pinckney and Marshall ; and to enable the opposition in America to use this letter, he caused it to be printed at length in the Paris newspapers. In a postscript, dated three days after July 15. the body of the letter, but pubHshed along with it, after v.— R 258 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER noticing the suspension by Congress of commercial inter- xiu. .course with France and the authority given to capture 1798. French cruisers, news of which had meanwhUe arrived, he declared that the " long-suffering of the Directory" was about to manifest itself "in the most unquestiona ble manner, sp that perfidy itself would no longer be able to cast suspicion on their pacific intentions. Though this fresh provocation would appear to leave no honorable al ternative but war, the Directory would be content with imposing a temporary embargo on American vessels in their ports, giving, at the sarae tirae, a proraise of indem. nity, should occasion for it arise. " The Directory is yet ready, and as much disposed as ever, to terminate by a united negotiation the differences which subsist between the two nations. So great is the repugnance of the Di rectory to consider the United States as enemies, that, notwithstanding the recent hostile demonstrations, they mean to wait till they are irresistibly forced into war by real hostilities." To this artful attempt to shift off upon the govern ment of the United States and their envoys the failure July 20. of the negotiation, Gerry replied with great spirit. He contended that the late niission had been defeated by in admissible demands of loans which would have violated the neutrality of the United States, and by demands equally inadmissible of reparation for the president's speech. He hiraself had been detained after the depart ure of his colleagues, first by threats of war, and then by a proraise which had never been fulfilled, that he should be furnished with the project of a treaty such as would satisfy the Directory. If the French government were really sincere in their wishes for peace, they might at least show it by putting some restraint upon the out rageous depredations committed upon American com- DEPARTURE OF GERRY. 259 merce by French privateersmen, who were suffered to chapter XIU. go, especially in the West Indies, far beycnd what even . the decrees of the French gpvernment wpuld justify. 1798. This spirited paper, by far the best of Gerry's diplo matic letters, and not unworthy of his Revolutionary rep utation, and which he insisted' upon publishing in the newspapers, since Talleyrand had seen fit to publish the letter to which it was a reply, had the effect to draw out from Talleyrand an express disavpwal pf any claim of July 22. reparation for the president's speech, or of any demand for a loan. He also declared that any envoy possessing Gerry's qualifications, who might be sent to negotiate at Paris, might be sure of being well received. Indeed, Gerry thought, and it might have been so, that a French minister would have been sent to America but for sorae apprehension that the American governraent might re tort the insults they had endured by refusing to receive hira. After Gerry had obtained his passports and had gone July 26. to Havre, obstacles were still put in the way of his em barkation, partly, as he believed, to gain time for forward ing by him a decree of the Directory, of which a hint had been given in Talleyrand's last letter (passed, it would seem, by way of partial answer to Gerry's cora plaints), requiring all privateers to give bonds not to corarait unauthorized depredations, and placing certain restraints upon the issue of coraraissions in the West Indies, and the conderanation there of captured vessels. Having been furnished with this proof, such as it was, of the peaceful disposition of the Directory, Gerry was August 8. at last permitted to sail. No sooner was Gerry gone than the Directory looked round for new means of recommencing the negotiation. ° ° Aug. 11- Two decrees rapidly succeeded each other ; one for re- 16. 260 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER leasing those Araerican citizens who had been irapris- XIII. oned under the embargo recently iraposed on Araerican 1798. shipping, and a second raising that embargo — a. thing, however, of little consequence, as there were at this time few American ships in French ports. By a circu lar letter of the sarae date with the decree rescinding the erabargo, the minister of Marine gave directions to the French cruisers that no injury should be done to the of ficers or crews of American vessels found to be "in or der," pr to the passengers or crew, if citizens of the United States, and properly provided with passports or protec tions. Use was also made of the ready agency of Ful war Skipwith, the American consul general at Paris — the protege of Monroe — who, with Barlow, Barney, and Thomas Paine, might be considered a chief leader of the Aug 22. renegade Americans in France, to convey assurances to the American government — founded, however, on no more trustworthy evidence than Skipwith's private opinion — that the Directory intended to urge upon the legislative body a revision of the maritime laws, with a view to the organization of a system such as would secure " the most important rights of neutrality on the seas." But even Skipwith seemed to think that, owing to particular cir curastances, it would require some considerable time to disppse the French Legislature to make such changes in the laws as would cause the privateers and the tribunals " to respect neutrals in general, and the flag of the United States in particular ;" yet he was happy to add that the High Court of Cassation, before which appeals were pend ing as to most of the vessels captured, were disposed to procrastinate, so as to give time for the passage of the new laws. Until those laws were passed, it would be impossible for the Directory, however well disposed, to alter the course of the tribunals. VIEWS AS TO GERRY'S CONDUCT. 261 Some consolation was found for the departure of Ger- chapter XUI. ry in the arrival, just afterward, of Dr. Logan, whose. (departure from the United States has been already men- 1798. tioned, and who was Represented in the Paris newspapers, particularly one edited by Citizen Paine, as the envoy, not, indeed, of the Federal government, but of those states favorable to the French interest. Logan was received - and feasted with great eclat by Talleyrand and Merlin, and he soon departed on his homeward voyage with new and reiterated assurances, not, however, in writing, of the desire of the French government to treat. Indeed, as we shall presently see, an attempt to re-establish diplo matic coraraunication with the United States, on ground much more mPderate than any hithertp insisted uppn, was already on foot, through the agency of the French secretary of legation at the' Hague, who had been authdr- ized to comraunicate on that subject with Murray, the American minister to the Batavian republic. Though Gerry's intentions in entering into a secret correspondence with TaUeyrand apart from his cdl- leagues, and in remaining at Paris after their departure, were doubtless patriotic, originating in his extreme anx iety for the preservation of peace, and in the hope that he might become the instrument for bringing about a recon ciliation between the two nations, his efforts in the mat ter, as is apt to be the case with unsuccessful experi ments, do not appear to have given much satisfaction to any body. His colleague Pinckney had written home " that he had never met with a man so destitute of can dor and full of deceit." Talleyrand, with a juster ap preciation of Gerry's weak points — a virtiious weakness which he could not be persuaded to overcome — declared that " he wanted decision at a moment when he might have easily adjusted every thing ; that he was too irres- 262 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER olute ; and that the correspondence between thera was a XUI. . curious monument of advances on his part, and evasions 1798. on Gerry's." Skipwith, in a letter to Jefferson, written before the departure of the other two envoys, speaking for himself and the other renegade Americans at Paris, informed that head of the opposition that " they could perceive in Gerry but the shadow of what they had presumed he was. We learn in secret whispers from this go.-^^d old gentleman (for I venerate the chastity of his moral char acter, while I regret that he has not courage to shape a political course congenial to the crisis here) that he has a hard and cruel task to think and act with his two as sociates, and that, were he alone, he would be able to stop the frightful breach between the two countries. But I am apprehensive that his paralytic mind would prove too weak to invent, ^nd his arm too feeble to apply the rem edy which the disease demands. In fact, no one but a pronounced Republican and friend of the French Revolu tion, and a man unfettered by the forms and school-read ings of Adams and Pickering, could stand a chance to heal the wounds which are now bleeding." The means of healing these bleeding wounds recom mended by this patriotic consul general were simply these : " 'Tis to confess some of our errors, to lay their sins heavily upon the shoulders of a few persons who have perpetrated thera, to raodify or break the English treaty with Jay, and to lend France as much money, should she ask it, as she lent us in the hour of distress. I am aware that the pride of some, the knavery of many, and the ignorance of others would pretend to execrate the act ; but imperious necessity commands, and the genius of republican liberty would sanction it." With such a consul general in close communion and sympathy with VIEWS AS TO GERRY'S CONDUCT. 263 the French government on the one hand, and with the chapter XUI. leaders of the American opposition on the other, who, it . was believed, would soon rise to the head of affairs, what 1798. need have we to wonder at the insolence of Talleyrand and the Directory? Barlow had written, about the same time, a similar letter to his brother-in-law Baldwin, some extracts from which have been already quoted in giving an account of Lyon's trial. But if Gerry's conduct gave no satisfaction abroad, whether to his fellow-envoys, to the French government, or to the American partisans of France, it found hardly more favor at home. The Federalists execrated his sep aration from his colleagues and his delay in France as acts of timidity and weakness, if not of treachery. So highly was the indignation of his iramediate neighbors raised against him, that his wife and young family, then resident at Cambridge; near Boston, became, as his bi ographer, complains, the object of some of thdse disgrace ful annoyances which it had been customary to play off at the commencement of the Revolution against some of the old Tories, and to which, at that time, perhaps Gerry himself had not much objected. " Letters, anon ymous or feigned, were sent to Mrs. Gerry, imputing his continuance in France to causes most distressing to a wife and raother. Yells were uttered and bonfires were kindled at night about the house, and on one occasion a guillotine was erected under the window, smeared with blood, and bearing the effigy of a headless man." But if the Federalists were indignant, the opposition, on the other hand, were no better satisfied ; for in finally leaving France without making any treaty, or bringing with him any definite proposals, he seemed to have fur nished unanswerable proofs of the falsehood and perfidy of the French government. 264 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER The president, upon whom he waited at Braintree with a report of his mission, received hira with kindness, and 1798. seemed disposed, by apologies for him in private conver- ^°'- ®- sation, to justify himself in having insisted upon Gerry's appointment. And yet he allowed Pickering, at the en suing session of Congress, to send in a report, pruned, indeed, soraewhat by the president's hand, but in which Gerry's conduct- was very sharply criticised. Even Jef ferson, in a long letter of what seemed to be consolation and sympathy, though it had, in fact, quite another ob ject, which will presently appear, could not refrain from the insulting insinuation that Gerry and his colleagues had been completely duped by the agents X, Y, and Z, there being neither " proof nor probability" that the French government had any thing to do with their cor rupt proposals ! Within a few days after Gerry reached Boston, his colleague Pinckney, who had been residing for some months, on account of his daughter's health, in the south of France, arrived at New York. He accepted with alac rity the military rank assigned him, approved with warmth the appointment of Hamilton to the first place next to Washington, and declared his readiness to give way to Knox alsp, did the good of the service seem to de raand it. Nov. Washington, HamUton, and Pinckney soon after met at Philadelphia — the yeUow fever having disappeared with the first frost — and, in conjunction with the Secre tary of War — the president being still at Braintree, whither he had retired shortly after the close of the ses sion of Congress — matured the arrangements for organ izing the twelve new regiments, and selected proper per sons for regimental officers. Gerry and Pinckney were soon followed across the RETURN OF LOGAN. 2 65 Atlantic by Logan, the account of whose mission, given chapter by the French papers, had greatly inflamed the suspicions . XUI. against him. He was received by the Federalists with 1798. shouts of execration as the treasonable envoy of a polit ical party which had undertaken to carry on a corre spondence of its own with a foreign and hostile power. The good Quaker hastened td present himself at the De partraent of State, but he brought no papers except du plicates of some old letters of Skipwith, and his recep tion by Pickering was not very gracious. Nor was he much better received by Washington, upon whom he wait ed shortly after, and who has left, in his own handwrit ing, a curious memorandum of the interview. Though received standing, and with a repulsive coldness and dis tance which no man knew better than Washington how to assume toward an unwelcome visitor, Logan would persist in giving an account of his mission ; to which Washington replied that it was something very singular that he, a mere private individual, unprovided with pow ers, and it was to be presumed unknown in France, shpuld suppose that he could effect what three gentleraen of the first respectability in the country, and specially charged under the authority of government, had been un able to do. At first the good doctor seemed a Httle dis concerted ; but he soon recovered himself, and stated, by way of answer to the suspicions afloat concerning his mission, that not five persons knew of his going, that Jefferson and M'Kean had furnished him with certificates of citizenship, and that Merlin, the president of the Di rectory, had evinced the greatest desire that the two re publics should be on the best terms. To which Wash ington dryly answered that the doctor had been decided ly more fortunate than our envoys, since they could nei ther be received nor heard by Merlin or the Directory. 266 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER If the authorities of France were serious in their profes- XIU sions of a desire for peace, there was a very plain and 1798. effectual way to show it, the repeal, naraely, of the ob noxious decrees by which the coraraercial rights of Amer ica had been so seriously invaded ; the putting a stop to further depredations ; and the making restitution for the injuries already inflicted. To a suggestion of Logan's that the Directory had regarded the American govern ment and the envoys as disposed td hostilities, Washing ton asked, what better evidence could be given in refuta tion of such an opinion than the long-suffering of our government under the outrageous conduct of France, and the dispatching thither three gentlemen of unquestiona ble worth, with araple powers to reconcile all difficulties, even though it raight require great sacrifices on our part? Did the Directory look upon us as worras not even al lowed to turn when trod upon ? It was evident to all the world that we had borne and forborne beyond what even common respect for ourselves perraitted. Logan stated that the Directory had taken off the erabargo, and were making restitution of property, and he men tioned one instance of it. To which Washington an swered that taking off the embargo or keeping it on was of very little consequence, as there were but very few of our vessels in France. The self-appointed Quaker en voy then began to magnify the power of France and the danger of the United States if they persisted in holding a hostile attitude, to which Washington rejoined that we were driven into these raeasures in self-defense, and that he hoped the spirit of the country never would suffer in juries to be inflicted with irapunity by any nation un der the sun — a sentiment to which Logan so far re sponded as to state that he had told Citizen Merlin that, if the United States were invaded by France, they would STATE OF PUBLIC FEELING. 267 unite to a man to oppose the invaders. So ended this chapter XIII. conversation, which is given at length, not only as re markably illustrating the characters ofthe speakers, but 1798. as exhibiting in a striking light the views of the parties to which they respectively belonged. What Washing ton had said was in every Federalist's mouth, while the more moderate of the opposition talked like Logan. Not discouraged by these rebuffs, Logan waited soon after upon the president, who arrived about this time at Philadelphia, and upon whom, as it would seem, his visit was not altogether without impression. As weU on his return from Braintree as in going thither, the president had been received at New York and elsewhere on the road with great enthusiasm. It was eyen proposed to celebrate his birth-day, whieh occurred about this time ; but this does not seem to have been done. The oppo sition, indeed, were qUite enough vexed at the keeping up of the custom of celebrating Washington's birth-day ; though Jefferson, with his usual sanguine view of things, found consolation in the proof thus afforded, as he thought, that it was the general's, not the president's birth-day, which the people had celebrated. The news of the capture of Bonaparte's fleet in the battle of the Nile was received in America with open joy, on the part of the Federalists — first of English vic tories so welcomed for a quarter of a century- — and with ill-concealed vexation on the part of the opposition. The Federal papers chronicled with triumph the bringing in from tirae to time of captured French cruisers. Al ready there were at sea, of Araerican public armed ves sels, besides the three frigates, twelve sloops of war of from twenty-eight to twenty-four guns, and eight armed cutters. The entrances of the American harbors were no longer safe cruising ground for picaroon vessels, nora- 268 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter inally French privateers, but very often little better than XUI. . pirates. Not content with driving thera from the coast, 1798. the American squadron had pursued thera to the West Indies, where a serious check was already given to the depredations, so long coraraitted without resistance,, on Araerican coraraerce. Orders had been issued by the British naval commander on the West India station to treat the Araerican ships of war with all courtesy ; but even at this iraportant and interesting mohient it was impossible to put a coraplete check upon that insuffer able insolence of British naval officers which had already bred so much ill blood between the two nations, and was destined to blreed raore. While cruising off the Havana — the coraraerce of which, since the late alliance between France and Spain, had been opened for the first time, as well as that of Vera Cruz and other Spanish-American ports, to other than Spanish vessels — ^the commander of a British squadron of heavy ships had the impertinence to Nov. 18. intercept and detain a part of a convoy of American mer chantraen sailing to that port under escort of the sloop of war Baltimore ; and even to send on board that vessel and to take out five or six of her crew, under claim that they were British subjects. This affair, which became Dec. 29. presently the occasion of a motion in Congress, caused the issue of an order by the Navy Department that no commander of any American ship of war should ever al low his ship to be searched or detained, or any of her men to be taken from her, under any pretense whatever ; but to resist to the uttermost, and if overpowered by su perior force, to strike his flag and yield up vessel as well as raen, but never men without the vessel. Represent ations on this subject were imraediately raade to the British government, by whom the outrage was promptly disavowed ; but that could not prevent the ill effects NAVAL OPERATIONS. FRENCH ST. DOMINGO. 2 6 9 which such an occurrence could not but produce upon chapter XIII. minds as sensitive to British as they were callous to. French insults. 1798. The comraander ofthe Baltimore had submitted to a force which did not admit of the idea of resistance. Cap tain Tingley, in the Ganges sloop of war, while cruising in the sarae seas, being inquired of by a boat frora a British frigate whether he had araong his men any Brit ish subjects, returned for answer that the American flag was a sufficient protection to any man in his ship — an answer with which the captain of the frigate judged it prudent to be content. The two points whence the French privateers had chiefly issued were the island of Guadaloupe and the coasts of French St. Doraingo. The English, after vain ly struggling for several years to obtain possession of the latter colony, had at last judged it expedient, in hopes of thus detaching it from France, to resign- the French part of the island into the hands of the blacks^ by whora it had' been so long and so bravely defended. There was a large and well-organized black army under Toussaint, a man as distinguished for civil as for military, talents, remarkable, though born and bred a slave, for an equity, moderation, and justice, exhibited toward blacks and whites alike, of which the French Revolutionary annals afford but very few examples. Finding it impossible to conquer the island, and perceiving that the actual con- trpl of things was in Toussaint's hands, the English had entered into negotiations with him, and had withdrawn their troops with an understanding that he should as surae the government and keep the island neutral during the war. Toussaint, on his part, had compelled Hedon- ville, the commissioner of the Directcry, to depart with his few white tropps. The mulattees in the southern 270 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter district of the colony, under Rigaud, were indeed dis- xui. _ posed to maintain their connection with France ; but 1798. that chief was obliged to submit to the superior genius and power of Toussaint.' This expulsion of the French led to a great diminution in the number of privateers issuing frora the ports of that island ; and Toussaint, desiring to renew coraraercial intercourse with Araerica, sent an agent to the United States for that purpose. The Araerican naval force was divided into four squad rons ; one of nine vessels, under Coramodore Barry, the senior officer of the navy, cruised to the eastward, as far south as Tobago ; a second of five vessels, under Cora modore Truxton, had its rendezvous at St. Kitt's, its bus iness being to watch the island of Guadaloupe ; twp smaller squadrons guarded, the pne the passage between Cuba and St. Doraingo, the other the neighborhood of the Havana, whence a number of privateers were accus tomed to issue under French colors. Each of these squadrons captured several French privateers. The merchants had eagerly availed themselves of the permis sion to arm ; and by an official return at the end of the year, it appeared that, besides the public ships, there were commissioned not less than 365 private armed vessels, mounting together 2733 guns, and manned by 6874 seamen. This arraaraent was chiefly for defense, the coraraissions, whether in the case of public or private ves sels, authorizing only the capture of armed ships. The French corvette which had been captured by De catur, being refitted as the Retaliation, had been placed under the coraraand of Bainbridge. While cruisin" off .\ov. 20. the island of Guadaloupe, she fell into the hands of two French frigates, which came unexpectedly upon her, and was carried into that island. On board one of these frigates was Desforneaux, appointed to supersede Victor AFFAIRS AT GUADALOUPE. 271 Hugues as commissioner of the Directory for that isl- chapter and. Hugues, who had so long exercised despotic pow- er, and whose unscrupulous vigor and energy had made 1798. him the terror of those seas — a terror felt by Ameri can ship-owners no less than by the inhabitants of the neighboring British islands- — was presently arrested and sent a prisoner to France. Yet it was only by urgent and repeated remonstrances that Bainbridge could obtain of the new comraissioner sorae relaxation of the extrerae ly harsh and cruel treatraent of numerous American pris oners at Guadaloupe, the crews of vessels captured and condemned; Bainbridge stated that while he remained in the island American prizes were brought in to a val ue far exceeding that of the Retaliation. There is rea son, however, to believe that the greater part of these cap tures were collusive, the vessels having approached Gua daloupe for the very purpose of being nominally captured, and in that way, evading the penalties of the act forbid ding comraercial intercourse with France and her pos sessions. Guadaloupe had suffered severely frora this non-intercourse, and the new commissioner, anxious to bring it to an end, declared to Bainbridge, who, as a means of relieving his countrymen, had suggested an ex change of prisoners, that he did not consider the Ameri cans in that light, but as friends, and that he would send them all home under a flag. Yet this did not prevent sorae twenty of them being pressed, in spite of Bain- bridge's remonstrances, to coraplete the corapHraent of '' the frigate in which Victor Hugues was sent to France. Finally, the E.etaliation, of which Bainbridge, much against his will, was compelled to assume the command, was sent to the United States, with two other vessels filled with the late prisoners, and carrying, also, an agent of Desforneaux's to solicit a renewal of trade. 272 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter His plan was to seem to have restored the Retaliation ¦VtTT ^ XIU. . in a friendly spirit, and great Use was made of this in- 1798. client, especially by Jefferspn in his private correspond ence, as a fresh proof of the anxiety of the French gov ernment for a reconcUiation. But the American gov ernraent refused to regard the restored prize in any other light than as a cartel, and she was presently sent back with a number of French sailors taken in the captured privateers. Meanwhile, however, the change of admin istration in St. Domingo and Guadaloupe, the presence of American as well as of British cruisers in the West India Seas, and the protection they affprded by way of convoy, gave comparative security to American cora raerce. Rates of insurance, which had been as high, on an average, as twenty per cent., fell about one half, thus affording unquestionable evidence of the efficiency of the protection afforded. Meanwhile ihe great leader of the opposition was very busy in constructing machinery for the overthrow of the adrainistration, to accoraplish which he seemed willing to risk, notwithstanding his late judicious advice to Tay lor, the "destruction even of the Union itself The pitch of excitement to which he had risen may be judged of Nov. 26. frora another letter to the sarae correspondent, in which he declares it to be " a singular phenomenon, that while our state governments are the very best in the world, without exception or comparison, our general government has, in the rapid course of nine or ten years, become raore arbitrary, and has swallowed up more of the pub Hc liberty than even that of England." It must have been while under the influence of feeHngs like these that Jefferson had prepared, after consultation with George Nicholas of Kentucky, WUson C. Nicholas of Virginia (both brothers of John Nicholas), and probably with Mad- KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS. 273 ison, and under a pledge of that profound secrecy with chapter XUL which he so scrupulously shrouded all his movements, the original draft of those famous resolutions which had 1798. just been offered in the Legislature of Kentucky ; reso- ^"^ ^^ lutions which revived the anti-Federal spirit in all its early virulence, and threatened to reduce the existing gov ernment to something np better than the old confedera tion, if so good. Indeed, had Jefferson's progrararae been entirely followed out, the State of Kentucky would have placed itself in a position of open rebelHon against the authority of the Federal government. The original draft, as still preserved in Jefferson's handwriting, began with a resolution that the Federal Constitution is a compact between the states as states, by which is created a general government for special pur poses, each state reserving to itself the residuary mass of power and right ; and " that, as in other cases of cora- pact between parties haying no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infrac tions as of the mode and raeasure of redress." This resolution involves two very questionable doctrines ; first, that the Constitution, instead of being a form of gov ernment as it purports to be, is simply a compact or treaty ; and, secondly, that the parties to it are not, as the Constitution itself declares, " the people of the United States," but only the states as political corporations. Then followed five resolutions practically applying to three acts of the last Congress this alleged right of the states to judge of infractions and their remedy, not mere ly as matter of opinion, but, officially and constitution ally, as parties to the compact, and as the foundation of important legislation. These three acts were, one to punish counterfeiters of the bills of the United States Bank, the Sedition Law, and the Alien Law ; all of v.— S 274 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter which, for various reasons assigned, were successively pro- XIU ¦' nounced " not law, but altogether void and of no force." 1798. The seventh resolution postponed " to a time of greater tranquillity" the " revisal and correction" of sundry other acts of Congress, alleged to have been founded upon an unconstitutional interpretation of the right to impose taxeis and excises, and to provide for the common defense and general welfare, and to make g.11 laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested in the government of the United States. The right to act, and cases for immediate as well as prospective action being thus laid down, the eighth resolution directed the appointment (as was done at the commencement of the Revolutionary quarrel with Great Britain) of a "com mittee of conference and cdrrespondence," to communi cate the foregoing resolutions to the several states, and to inforra them that the commonwealth of Kentucky, with all her esteem for her " co-states" and for the Union, was determined " to submit to undelegated, and, conse quently, unlimited powers in no man or body of men on earth ; that, in cases of an abuse of the delegated pow- ers, the merabers of the general gpvernment being chosen by the people, a change by the people would be the con stitutional remedy ; but where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the right remedy ; and that every state has a natural right, in cases not within the compact, to nullify, of their own authority, all assumptions of power by others within their limits." After many arguments to show that such is the only doctrine consistent with liberty, and that to ap peal in such a case to Congress would be quite out of place. Congress being not a party to the compact, but merely its creature, the eighth resolution proceeded to au thorize and instruct the committee of correspondence to KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS. £75 call upon the co-states " to concur in declaring these chapter acts void and pf no force, and each to take measures of its own for prpviding that neither these acts, nor any 1798. other of the general government not plainly and inten tionally authorized by the Constitution, shall be exer cised within their respective territories." The ninth res olution pf Jefferson's draft gave to this same committee a power to correspond with other like comraittees, to be apppinted by the "cp-states," and also required a report of that correspondence at the next session of the Legis lature. Carefully covered up under promises of secrecy, Jeffer son was very bold with his pen ; and if other writings of his were of this questionable character, we need not be so much surprised, especially now that the Sedition Act was in force, at the nervous anxiety which many.of his let ters exhibited lest his seals should be broken open by Federal spies in the post-offices. The present dose, in deed, was rather too strong even for George Nicholas, who had undertaken to present the resolutions for adop tion by the Kentucky Legislature ; and in his hand they underwent a change, rauch to be approved on the score of discretion, but which caused them to present a some what ludicrous contrast between boldness of preamble and taraeness of conclusion. Nicholas adoptee^ the first seven resolutions entire ; but for the eighth and ninth he sub stituted two of his pwn directing that the preceding res- olutions be laid before Cpngress by the Kentucky sena- tprs and representatives, whe were required " to use their best endeavors to procure at the next session of Congress a repeal of the aforesaid unconstitutional and obnoxious acts;" the governor being also instructed to transmit the resolutions to the Legislatures of the several states, to whom an earnest argumentative appeal was made, bor- 276 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter rowed partly from Jefferson's eighth resolution, for an XUI r ./ _ expression of opinion as to the Alien and Sedition Laws, 1798. and for their concurrence with Kentucky in declai-ing those laws void and of no force, and in requesting their repeal at the next session of Congress. In this shape the Nov. 14. resolutions passed the Kentucky Legislature with only two or three dissenting votes. A few weeks after, the same doctrine of nullification, nearly or quite to the full extent of Jefferson's original draft, its virulence, however, soraewhat disguised by the Dec. 24. generality of the terms, was re-echoed by the Legislature of Virginia in a series of resolutions, drafted by Madison, and offered by that same John Taylor who had suggested but a few months before the idea of a separate confed eracy, to be coraposed of Virginia and North Carolina. These resolutions began with expressing a warm attach ment to the Constitution and the Union, after which they proceeded to assert that the powers of the Federal gov ernment result only from a compact to which the states are the parties, " and that in case bf a deliberate, palpa ble, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the said compact, the states who are the parties there to have the right and are in duty bound to interpose for correcting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them." Next came an expres sion of "deep regret at a spirit in sundry instances man ifested by the Federal government to enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the constitutional charter, and of indications of a design to expound certain general phrases so as to destroy the meaning 'and effect of the particular enuraeration which necessarily explains and limits the general phrases," and " so to consolidate the states, by degrees, into one sovereignty, the obvious tend- VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS. 277 cncy and inevitable result of which Would b.e to trans- chapter XIU. forra the present republican system of the United States mto an absolute, or, at best, a mixed raonarchy." 1798. The resolutions then wound up with a protest against the Alien and Sedition Laws, which, for certain reasons set forth, were pronounced " palpable and alarming in fractions of the Constitution ;" a protest in which the other states were called upon to join, and each " tp take the necessary and proper measures for co-operating in each state in maintaining, unimpaired, the authorities, rights, and liberties reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." These resolutions were passed, after a warm debate, by a vote of one hundred to sixty-three in the House of Delegates, and of fourteen to three in the Senate. About a month after, they were sent out with an address, drawn probably by Madison, very able and adroit, containing the entire case of the opposition as against the Federal administration ; to which an answer, not less able, was soon put forth, signed by fifty-eight of the minority. In the midst of these formidable preparations for bring ing the state authorities into direct conflict with the Fed eral government, the fifth Congress carae together for its third session. The president's speech began with sorae allusions to the yellow fever, and the propriety of establishing, in aid of the health laws of the states, some geiieral system of quarantine cdmpatible with the interests of commerce and the safety of the revenue. It next suggested, as an addition to the ordinary objects of " our annual oblation of gratitude," that spirit which had arisen against the menaces and aggressions of a foreign nation ; a manly sense of national honor, dignity, and independence, which, if encouraged and invigorated by every branch of the 278 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER government, would " enable us to view undismayed the XUI .enterprises of any foreign power, and become the sure 1798. foundation of national prosperity and glory." The information as to the relations of France and the United States, received during the recess, and which he promised to make the subject of a special communica tion, went, in his view of it, to confirm the failure of all attempts at an amicable arrangement. These papers would, indeed, show the French governraent apparently solicitous to. avoid a rupture ; they even contained an expression of willingness to receive a minister from the United States. But that willingness was unfortunately expressed in terras which might seem to imply the in admissible pretension to prescribe the minister's qualifi cations, and even to question the sincerity of the Unit ed States in their often-expressed and repeated wishes for peace. The late decree requiring French privateers to conform to the laws could give no effectual relief, since those very laws were airiong the chief things com plained of; especially the one subjecting to capture all vessels having British products on board ; a decree in itself an act of war, presenting the French government as a power regardless of the independence, sovereignty, and essential rights of neutral nations, and only to be met, consistently with the interest and honor of such neutral nations as had the power to make it, by a firm resistance. Nothing, in his opinion, was discoverable in the conduct of France " which ought to change or relax our measures of defense." On the contrary, it would be true policy to extend and invigorate them. "An efficient preparation for war can alone secure peace. It is peace that we have uniformly and perse- veringly cultivated, and harmony between us and France may be restored at her option. But to send another FIFTH CONGRESS, THIRD SESSION. 279 minister, without more determinate assurances that he chapter XIII. would be received, would be an act of humiliation to which the United States dught not to submit. It must, 1798. therefore, be left with France, if she is indeed desirous of accomraodation, to take the requisite steps. The Unit ed States will steadily observe the maxims by which they have hitherto been governed. They will respect the sacred rights of embassy ; and, with a sincere dispo sition on the part of France to desist from hostility, to make reparation for the injuries hitherto inflicted, and to do justice in future, there will be no obstacle to the restoration of a friendly intercourse." Bvit while giving this public pledge of readiness to meet any sincere advance on the part of France toward peace, the president still urged, as the only sure means of ob taining an equal treaty and insuring its observance, prep arations for war, and, particularly, attention to the naval establishment. " Perhaps no more sudden and remark able advantages had ever been experienced from any measure than those derived from arming for maritime defense. A foundation ought to be laid, without loss of time, for giving an increase to the navy, sufficient to guard our coasts and protect our trade," and he recommended to the attention of Congress " such systematic efforts of prudent forethought as would be required for this object." Adams had been accustoraed, after Washington's ex ample, to consult his cabinet ministers as to the contents of his speeches, and, like him, to make free use of the drafts which they furnished. A large portion of that part of the speech - relating to France had been taken from a draft furnished by Wolcott ; but on one, important point there had been a deviation. Wolcott's draft had expressly declared, and, in so doing, had expressed the opinion of at least a majority of the cabinet, that to send 280 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER another minister to France would be an act of humilia- xm. tion not to be submitted to except under the pressure of 1798. an extreme necessity, which did not exist. Very much against the will of Pickering, Wolcott, and M'Henry, Lee and Stoddard seeming also to incline the same way, though much less decisively, the president gave to this passage the turn above stated, so as still to leave him self the conditional liberty of sending a minister, upon the withdrawal of the offensive pretensions to dictate the selection, and more positive assurances as to a respectful reception. The sentiments of the speech were fully re-echoed by the House as well as the Senate ; and, what had not happened for several sessions, the answers were carried in both houses without a division. The answer of the Senate, referring to Logan's recent mission, complained of an intercourse carried on by France through '.' the medium of individuals without public character or au thority, designed to separate the people from their gov ernment, and to bring about by intrigue that which open force could not effect ;" to which Adams responded by a suggestion whether such " temerity and impertinence on the part of individuals affecting to interfere in public af fairs, whether by their secret correspondence or otherwise, and intended to impose on the people and to separate them from their governraent, ought not to be inquired into and corrected ?" This suggestion gave rise to the first act of the ses sion, known as the " Logan Act," which made it a high misdemeanor, subject to a fine not exceeding $5000, and to imprisonraent from six months to three years, for any citizen of the United States to carry on, without permission or authority from the Federal government any correspondence, verbal or written, with the officers BLOUNT'S IMPEACHMENT. 281 of a foreign government, with intent to defeat the meas- chapter XIII. ures of the government of the United States, or in any controversy in which the United States were concerned, 1798. to influence the conduct of a foreign government. Not being able to meet this bill in the face, the op position, led by Gallatin, Nicholas, and Macon (for Giles had resigned his seat), made the most strenuous efforts to neutralize it by amendments. A very sharp discus sion ensued, in the course of which Harper, now the ac knowledged leader of the Federalists in the House, made a severe attack upon Logan, as well as upon those heads of the opposition in concert with whom he was supposed to have acted. This drew out from Logan a letter, pub lished in the Aurora, in which he gave the history of his mission, and denied the concern in it of any body but himself. Since his return, after a very severely contest ed election, Logan had been chosen a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature. The early part of the session was chiefly occupied with the impeachraent of Blount, left undisposed of at the close of the last session. The preliminary questions having at last been arranged, the Senate resolved itself Dec. 24. into a High Court of Impeachment. More agreeably occupied as president of the Senate of Tennessee, Blount disregarded the summons sent him, and did not person ally appear. But Dallas and IngersoU, who acted as his counsel, filed a plea, in which they denied the ju risdiction of the court, on the double ground that sen ators were hot " officers" liable to be impeached, and that, if they were, Blount's expulsion from the Senate left hira no longer a senator. To the elaborate argu ment of Dallas and IngersoU, an equally elaborate reply was made by Harper and Bayard, two of the managers appointed on behalf of the House. But the Senate sus- 282 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER tained the plea, whether on both grounds or on which xm. ^ , , . , , of thera did not appear, and so this long process came to 1798. an end. By these proceedings against him, Blount's popularity in Tennessee had been rather increased than otherwise, and nothing but his sudden death prevented his being elected governor over Sevier's head. 1799. It was not tUl the session of Congress was half gone, ^"' • and after divers urgings from Gallatin, who objected otherwise to go on with the several bUls reported by the standing committee on defense, that the president laid before Congress the proraised docuraents, including Ger ry's correspondence with Talleyrand, and also the letters frora Consul-general Skipwith, who, however, as well as all the consuls under hira, appointed on Monroe's sug gestion, had already been removed from office. One cause of the president's delay became apparent Jan. 23. in the transmission, a few days afterward, of a very elaborate report from Pickering, which it must have taken sorae time to prepare, and in which, though it had been somewhat trimmed down by the president's hand, Talleyrand, the Directory, and Gerry himself were very sharply criticised. The main argument of this report was, that as the several outrageous French decrees against American commerce reraained unrepealed (whatever lit tle repealing there had been being but illusory), TaUey rand's expressions of readiness to treat ought to be regard ed only as a deceptive lure, intended to keep the United States quiet, while France, in, the continued plunder of Araerican commerce, enjoyed all the benefits without experiencing hardly any of the evUs of war. Jan. 28. Pickering's report was presently followed by another message, communicating a new decree, extending to neu trals generally, found serving on board hostUe vessels, that penalty already some time before denounced againsl WARLIKE PREPARATIONS. 283 Americans in particular, of being treated as pirates, even chapter XUL though they might allege having been forced into the , service. But this sort of impartiality did not satisfy ; 1799. and a bill was soon brought in by the Committee of De fense, authorizing, on proof of the execution of this de cree against any American citizen, a retaliation, in like kind, upon any French prisoners in the hands of the United States. Before this bill had time to pass, news arrived that, owing to threats of retaliation by England, the late decree had been repealed. But as the former decree, embracing American citizens only, still remain ed in force, the bill was persevered with, and became a law. Meanwhile the House passed another bill, continuing for a year the non-intercourse with France and her de pendencies, but with a clause inserted, in spite of the ef forts of the opposition, designed to facilitate the renewal of commercial intercourse with St. Domingo, by which the president was authorized, whenever he might deem it expedient, to discontinue this restraint by proclaraation, either with respect to the entire French repubHc, or any port or place belonging to it. Three other bills from the naval committee were car ried through the House, one appropriating a million of dollars toward the construction of six ships of the line and six sloops of war ; a second appropriating $200,000 for the purchase of timber ; and a third appropriating $50,000 toward the establishment of two dock-yards. The Senate, raeanwhile, had passed a bill, authorizing the president to raise, in case of war or imminent dan ger of invasion, besides the troops voted at the last ses sion, the recruiting for which had but just commenced, twenty-four additional regiments of infantry, three regi ments of cavalry, a regiment and a battalion of riflemen. 284 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter and an additional battalion of artillery, making a total " force of regulars, should these and the other new regi- 1799. raents be filled up, of upward of forty thousand raen; and also to organize such volunteers as might offer their services under the act of the last session, to the nuraber of seventy-eight thousand men, distributed in certain quotas among the states. To carry these provisions into effect, should the emergency arise, two raillions of dollars were appropriated. In the midst of the progress of these vigorous raeas ures, great was the astonishment of the Federalists, and not less the exultation of the opposition, at a message Feb. 18. sent by the president to the Senate, nominating WUliam Van Murray, resident rainister at the Hague, as rainis ter plenipotentiary to the French republic. There was sent to the Senate along with this message, and as the occasion of.it, the copy of a letter frora Talleyrand to Pi chon, the French secretary of legation at the Hague, in tended, so it seemed to the president, as a compliance with the condition insisted upon in the message of June last, in which the return of Marshall had been notified, as that a^one on which he would ever send another rain ister to France — " assurance that he would be received, respected, and honored as the representative of a great, free, independent, and powerful nation." Being always disposed to embrace " every plausible appearance of prob ability" pf preserving peace, he had thpught prpper, sp he stated in his message, to meet this advance by mak ing the present nomination. Duly to understand the exact position of affairs, and the occasion of the above-mentioned letter of Talley rand's and of the nomination of Murray, it wiU be nec essary to go back for a moraent to Europe, and to the attempt on the part of Talleyrand at the renewal of dip- NEW MISSION TO FRANCE, 285 lomatic relations with the United States, already men- chapter XUL tioned as set on foot at the Hague. Very shortly after Gerry's departure, M. Pichon, for- 1799. raerly a resident in America, lately a clerk in Talley rand's office, and at this moment secretary of the French legation at the Hague, had opened a communication, no doubt by TaUeyrand's direction, with Murray, the Amer ican resident there. For Murray's satisfaction oh cer tain points, Talleyrand presently addressed (August 28, 1798) a letter to Pichon, in which, after many compli ments to Murray personally, and admitting, also, that the Directory might have been mistaken (as Murray had asserted to Pichon) in ascribing to the American govern ment a design to throw itself into the arms of England, Talleyrand formally disavowed any wish on the part of the Directory to revolutionize the United States, or any intention to make war upon thera. " Every contrary supposition," said this letter, " is an insult to common sense ;" though Talleyrand himself, not six months be fore, had frightened Gerry into remaining at Paris by threats of instant war if he departed ! After complaining, in terms already quoted, of Ger ry's diplomatic incapacity, this letter to Pichon went a step beyond the offer to treat contained in the" closing letter to Gerry himself, and which the president's speech at the opening of the session had pronounced inadmissi ble, clogged, as it was, by the proviso of an envoy " who should unite Gerry's advantages." Talleyrand express ly disavowed, in this letter to Piohcn, any disppsition to dictate as to the selection of an envoy ; having only in tended to hint, as he said, in a friendly way, that the Directory would have more confidence in an envoy who had not manifested a predilection for England, and who did not profess hatred or contempt for the French repub- 286 HISTORY OF THE UNI.TED STATES. CHAPTER Ho. The letter finally closed with a strong hint that XUL ' Murray himself would be perfectly acceptable. 1799. After some further comraunications, as it would seem, from Pichon, of interviews between hira and Murray, Talleyrand wrote again (September 28) — and this was the letter coraraunicated by the president as the basis of his noraination of Murray — giving his express sanction to a declaration which Pichon had taken it upon him self to make, that, whatever plenipotentiary the govern ment of the United States might send to France, "he would undoubtedly be received with the respect due to the representative of a free, independent, and powerful nation." Both these letters had been communicated to Murray for transmission to the United States, but only the second was laid before the Senate, and that as a se cret coraraunication. When it had been received, or why the other was kept back, does not appear. The letter communicated had probably reached the State Depart ment not long before the nPmination was made. Possi bly the other, though prior in date, had not yet arrived ; or, more likely, the president did not care, by communi cating it, to show how much his chpice of a rainister had been guided by Talleyrand's selection. The first letter, however, having probably been sent by Talleyrand him self for publication in America, made its appearance in print in the course of the following sumraer in Callen der's new paper at Richmond ; CaUender, since the death of Bache, disputing with Duane the editorial leadership of the opposition. In making the nomination, the pres ident expressly pledged himself that Murray should not enter France without having first received direct and un equivocal assurances from the French rainister of For eign Relations that he should be received in character, and that a rainister of equal grade would be appointed to treat with him. NEW MISSION TO FRANCE. 287 The motives which might have operated dn Adams's cihptek Kill. mind for making this ncminatipn are sufficiently pbvi- ous. The almost universal anxiety fpr peace with FrahcCj l'i99. fpr which the ppposition seemed willing te sacrifice every thing, while even the Federalists prcfessed a willingness to sacrifice every thing short of independence, national honor, and neutral rights, had prompted the mission of Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, in face of an express declaration of the Directory that they would not receive another minister from America till their alleged griev ances had first been redressed. If true policy had re quired the institution of an embassy in face of a declar ation like that, how was it possible entirely tp disregard the assurances cf Talleyrand, communicated through Pichon and Murray ? assurances the most explicit and direct that could be made, short of the appointment of a French minister to America — a stretch of conde scension hardly to be expected from the "terrible repub lic" toward a nation so weak as the United States, and rendered alraost helpless by internal dissensions. There had no doubt been a great change jn public sentiraent since the appointment of the late rejected embassy. All the earnest efforts of Jefferson and his coadjutors had been unablc; to extinguish in their partisans the sense of national degradation ; and many, especially in the South ern States, who had. hitherto vehemently opposed tho Federal adrainistration, , had come manfully forward to join in defending the national independence. But how far could this new-born zeal be relied upon ? Would these new recruits to the Federal ranks — indeed, would the- bulk of the old Federal party — s.upport the adminis tration in standing out against the advances of France, when they came to feel the burden of the new direct tax, for the collection of which the preliminary arrangements 288 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter had been nearly corapleted, and of other faxes which _____ raust be imposed? This standing on the defensive was 1799. an expensive business. There was now no resource of biUs of credit, as at the comraenceraent of the Revolution ; and to raise the five million loan it had been necessary to promise an interest of eight per cent. The costly naval and military establishments already on foot, and which it was proposed to enlarge, would require a great deal more of raoney ; and Adams could foresee as well as Jefferson how this increase of expenses and taxes was likely to operate on public opinion. The zeal and en thusiasm kindled by the publication of the X, Y, Z dis patches was already subsiding. The opposition, though cowed and weakened, was by no means discouraged. The late nullifying resolutions of Kentucky and Virginia showed the extent to which the leaders in those states and their prompters behind the scene were ready to go. It was even threatened to introduce bills into the Vir ginia Assembly, such as the spirit of their resolutions demanded, nullifying the Alien and Sedition Laws, and authorizing resistance to them by the force of the state, and to that end to reorganize the railitia. It was plain, frora Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt, to what a roraantic pitch the military ardor of the French was carried. Should they atterapt an expedition to America, against which the present naval predominance of England seemed the only security, who could tell what the result might be ? Was it perfectly certain that the raany devoted partisans of the French — was it certain that such raen as Giles and Monroe, Gallatin and Burr, even Jefferson hiraself, raight not look on a French array more as liberators than as enemies, whose aid might lawfully be employed to put down a govern ment denounced by Jefferson as having become more ar- NEW MISSION TO FRANCE. 289 bitrary and more dangerous to liberty than even that of chapter XIII. England ? Even if this foreign force were not availed . (of to overturn at once the government and the Constitu- 1799. tion, it might still be employed to transfer the adminis tration of it into new and so-called Republican hands; and the saving the country from the dangers of mon archy and British alliance might seem to a large faction to justify the risk of a subserviency to France, as piti- : ful and helpless as that of the Batavian republic, whose inscriptions Talleyrand had offered to the American en voys. What might have added to the weight of these con siderations was a letter which Adams had lately receiv ed from Washington, inclosing one from Barlow to him self of very nearly the same date (October 2, 1798), with Talleyrand's second letter to Pichon. In terms more decent and respectful toward his country than he had of late been accustomed to use, taking for his text the ap pointment of Washington as commander-in-chief of the Araerican armies. Barlow attempted to represent the pres ent difficulties between France and the United States as growing out of a misunderstanding of each other's inten tions. He insisted with eraphasis on the desire of France for peace, as evinced not only by acts already done, but by intentions alleged by Barlow to be known to himself ; and he ended with suggesting the appointraent of anoth er minister by the United States, as, under the circum stances, not inconsistent with the national honor. In transmitting to the president this letter, which Feb. i. Washington did immediately on receipt of it, he re marked that this was the only communication he had ever received from the writer, and that it must have been made either with a very good or a very bad design, the president could best judge which. " From the known v.— T 290 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter abilities of that gentleman, such a letter could not be the XIII result of ignorance in him, nor, from the implications 1799. which are to be found in it, has it been written without the privity of the French Directory." " Should you be of opinion that his letter is calculated to bring on nego tiations upon open, fair, and honorable grounds, and to merit a reply, and will instruct me as to the tenor of it, I shall, with pleasure and alacrity, obey your orders, more especially if there is reason to believe that it would become a raeans, however small, of restoring peace and tranquillity to the United States upon just, honorable, and dignified terms, which I am persuaded is the ardent desire of all the friends of this rising empire." But, however strong might be the motives prompting to Murray's noraination, there was one remarkable cir cumstance about it which exposed the president subse quently to many injurious suspicions and imputations, With that strong self-reHance and readiness to assume responsibility for which' he was distinguished, and re solved to vindicate his personal prerogative as president even at the hazard of giving great dissatisfaction to many of the leading men who supported him, he made the nomination, not only without any consultation with his cabinet, and against what he knew to be the opinions of a majority of its members as well as of many leading Federalists out of doors, but without any forewarning to any body of what he intended ; and from this moraent a breach commenced between him and a section of the Federalists, which rapidly became complete and final. His reason for anticipating by action any knowledge of his intention was, his certainty of the decided opposition of his cabinet to the course which he was just as decid- edly determined to take, and his wish to escape, as to this matter, what Fisher Ames had noted as a peculiar- NEW MISSION TO FRANCE. 291 ity of our government, that other governments found op- chapter XUI. position after their measures were taken, ours in their . very inception and commencement. The same policy, 1799. adopted by Adams on this occasion, ef anticipating op position by surprise, was afterward imitated in the cases of the embargo, the war with Great Britain, and the Mexican war, instances quite sufficient to raise the grav est doubts as to its propriety. There was this difference, however, between the cases, that Adams's surprise was upon his own counselors and leading partisans, while the surprise in the other cases was upon the opposition and the body of the people. The nomination of Murray being referred by the Senate to a coraraittee, of which Sedgwick was chairman, that committee took the unusual, and, as Adams esteemed it, unconstitutional course of attempting to persuade him to withdraw the nomination. Out df doors, also, a loud clamor was raised (the fact of the nomination having at once leaked out), the louder because, Talleyrand's letter to Pichon not being yet published, the public had no means whatever pf perceiving that any change pf cir cumstances had cccurred since the president had declared in his speech at the epening of the session, but a few weeks before, that to send another minister to France without more determinate assurances that he would be received would be an act of humiliation to which the United States ought not to submit. Though Adams refused to withdraw the nomination, yet, in consequence of the representations of the com mittee, and their expressed intention to report against Feb. 25. confirming it, he sent another message, nominating Chief- justice Ellsworth and Patrick Henry, jointly with Mur ray, envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary to the French republic, the two former not to embark for 292 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER France until authentic and satisfactory assurances should XIIL . . •' be received as to their reception. 1799. Thus raodified, the nomination was confirraed, sorely against the inclination of a nuraber of the Federal sena tors. But to reject it was a responsibility which they had not the courage to assurae, leading, as it certainly would, to an immediate break-up of the Federal party. In consequence of suggestions from the Russian min ister at London to the American minister there, the president had previously norainated, and the Senate had confirmed. King, the minister at the British court, to negotiate at London a treaty of commerce with Russia, and Sraith, the minister at Lisbon, to form a similar treaty with the Turks, both of those nations being now at war with France. But these negotiations were not pushed to any result. A consul general — a' sort of em bassador to Toussaint — was also appointed for the island of St. Domingo, the French part of which was now wholly under the dominion of that famous negro chief The age and increasing infirmities of Henry obliged him to decline the appointraent of erabassador to France. This he did in a letter, declaring that nothing short of absolute necessity could have induced him to withhold his little aid frora " an administration deserving of grat itude and reverence for abilities and virtue." General Davie, who had been chosen, a few months before, gov ernor of North Carolina, was appointed in his place. Jefferson raeanwhile continued to labor for the over throw of the adrainistration with that same persevering, unhesitating zeal which had prompted the nullifying res olutions of Kentucky and Virginia. But as in that mat ter, so now, according to his usual custom, he carefully avoided any exposure of himself, by any public use of his tongue or pen, to the dreaded quills of Porcupine and EFFORTS OF JEFFERSON. 293 other Federal critics. Yet he was not, on that account, chapter xiu. any the less busy, according to his established method, . in stiraulating others to the risk which he himself so sens- 1799. itively shunned. In a letter of seeraing sympathy and condolence, the Jan i7. same one already quoted for another purpose, Gerry was most earnestly pressed— r-and that, indeed, seems to have been the sole object of the letter — to imitate Monroe's exaraple, and to attack the administration and his late colleagues "by full communication and unrestrained de tails, postponing motives of delicacy to those of duty." " It rests with you," so the letter went on, " to come forward independently, to make your stand on the high ground of your own character, to disregard calumny, and to be borne above it on the shoulders of your grateful fellow-citizens, or to sink into the humble oblivion to which the Federalists, self-called, have secretly con demned you, and even to be happy if they will indulge you with oblivion, while they have beamed on your col leagues meridian splendor." But while thus urging, by this and many other like appeals to his pride, ambition, and revenge, the aged Gerry to a course which could hardly fail to expose him to the most bitter personal at tacks, we find in this same letter striking marks not only of Jefferson's constitutional timidity and exceeding care for his own comfort and safety, but also of that trans parent simplicity with which he so often betrays him self in a manner almost incredible in one so artful and shrewd. " My trust in you," so the letter concludes, " leaves me without a fear that this letter, meant as a confidential coraraunication of ray impressions, may ever go out of your own hand, or be suffered in any wise to corarait my name. Indeed, besides the accidents which might happen to it, even under your care, considering 294 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER the accident of death to which you are liable, I think it XUI, 1799. safest to pray you, after reading it as often as you please, to destroy at least the second and third leaves. The first contains principles only, which I fear not to avow ; but the second and third contain facts stated for your information, and which, though sacredly conforraable to my firm belief, yet would be galling to some, and expose me to illiberal attacks. I therefore repeat my prayer to j burn the second and third leaves. And did we ever ex- pect to see the day when, breathing nothing but senti- I raents of love tp our country, and its freedom and hap- ' piness, our correspondence raust be as secret as if we were hatching its destruction ? Adieu, my friend! and accept my sincere and affectionate salutations. I need not add my signature." Jan. 26. Three days after the date of this letter to Gerry, Jef ferson wrote to urge the superannuated Pendleton — now upward of eighty, and who, since the days of the Vir ginia Convention, in which the ratification of the Feder al Constitution had been discussed, seeras completely to have changed opinions with Patrick Henry — to take up his pen to expose, in a manner " short, simple, and level to every capacity," the wicked use made of the French negotiation, particularly the X, Y, Z dish cooked up by Marshall, where " the swindlers are made to appear as the French governraent." Of this exposition, having for its object to show the sincerity and good will of the French Directory, and the " dupery" practiced on the late envoys, it was proposed to print ten or twelve thou sand in hand-bills, to be dispersed over the Union under the franks of members of Congress — a work to which Pendleton was urged by many compliments on the weight of his character and his happy talent at that sort of com- Feb. 14. position. In a ^econd letter, a fortnight afterward. Pen- EFFORTS OF JEFFERSON. 295 dleton was again pressed to the same undertaking, and chapter XUI. furnished with additional suggestions toward it. Meanwhile, this indefatigable prompter addressed a 1799. letter to IMadison, urging him also into the field. "The Feb. a. public sentiment being now on the careen, and many heavy circumstances about to fall into the Republican scale, we are sensible that this summer is the season for systematic exertions and sacrifices. The engine is the press. Every man must lay his purse and his pen un der contribution. As to the former, it is possible I may be obliged to assume something for you. As to the lat ter, let me pray and beseech you to set apart a certain portipn of every post-day to write what may be proper for the public. Send it to me while here, and when I go away I will let you know to whom you may send, so that your name shall be sacredly secret. You can ren der such incalculable services in this way as to lessen the effect of our loss of your services here." The dis cord in the ranks of the Federalists, occasioned by the nomination of a new embassy to France, became at once perceptible to Jefferson's watchful eye, and nothing could exceed the delight with which he communicated to his political friends this new omen of victory. In the midst of the excitement which this nomination occasioned, Lyon, having served out the terra of his im prisonraent and paid his fine, appeared in the House and Feb. 20. took his seat. Harper immediately offered a resolution for his ex pulsion, alleging for cause "that he had been convicted of being a malicious and seditious person, of a depraved mind and wicked and diabolical disposition, guilty of pub lishing libels against the president, with design to bring the government of the United States into contempt." Nicholas warmly objected to the introduction into the 296 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER resolution of what he insisted to be the raere formal and XIII . ' technical language of the indictment ; to which Bayard 1799. replied that the resolution stated nothing but what a jury had found to be true. The resolution was carried Feb, 22. forty-nine to forty-five ; but as it required two thirds to expel, Lyon still kept his seat. But when the session closed, he did not venture to return to Vermont, where not only raore indictments, but pecuniary difficulties also, hung over his head. Since he had ventured into poli tics, his affairs had fallen into confusion, and he was now insolvent. Instead of returning home, he took refuge with his friend Senator Mason, of Virginia, Callender's late host, and, in a letter to the governor of Kentucky, proclaimed his intention to emigrate to that state at the head of a thousand families frora Vermont. It does not appear that either the senators or the rep resentatives of Kentucky had ventured to lay before their respective houses the nullifying resolutions of that state, notwithstanding the injunction contained in them to that effect ; nor had the resolutions either of Kentucky or Virginia found any favor with the state Legislatures. Those of Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jer sey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachu setts, New Harapshire, and Vermont already had, or did soon after, expressly disavow the pretense set up of a right in the state Legislatures to decide on the validity of acts of Congress. The elaborate and argumentative reply of Massachusetts raaintained also, in addition, the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws ; the Alien Law being justified under the express power given to Congress to provide for the comraon defense against external enemies, the Sedition Law under the power necessarily iraplied to sustain the officers of the gpvern ment in the discharge of their duty against corabinations ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS. 297 and misrepresentations tending to interrupt the execu- chapter XUI. tion of the laws, if not, indeed, tp the everthrew pf the . government. 1799. But, though the resolutions of Kentucky and Virginia met with no ccuntenance frcm the sister states, and seem not even to have been laid before Congress, many petitions from private individuals had been presented in the course of the session, praying for a repeal of the Alien and Sedition Laws, and, indeed, of all the late acts for augmenting the army, navy, and revenue. These peti tions had been referred to a special committee, Goodrich being chairman, by whom a very elaborate report had been made, maintaining both the constitutionality and the expediency of the laws in question. When this report came up for discussion, the Feder- Feb. 25. alists, satisfied with the argument of their committee, were for taking the question at once, especially as the session was so near its close, and so many important mat ters remained to be disposed of " They held a caucus," so Jefferson wrote, " and determined that not a word should be spoken on their side in answer to any thing which should be said on the other. Gallatin took up the Alien, and Nicholas the Sedition Law, but after a little while of common silence they began to enter into'loUd conversations, laugh, cough, &c., so that for the last hour of these gentlemen's speaking, they must have had the lungs of a vendue-master to have been heard. Living ston, however, attempted to speak, but after a few sen tences the speaker called him to order, and told him that what he was saying was not to the question. It was impossible to proceed. The question was taken, and car ried in favor of the report, fifty-two to forty-eight. The real strength of the two parties is fifty-six to fifty, but two of the latter have not attended during this session." 298 HISTORY OFTHE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER Though the opponents of the Sedition Law talked a XUI. . great deal about the liberty of the press, of which they 1799. even paraded themselves as the charapions, it would be a great raistake to suppose that they placed their argu ment against that act upon any such broad and com prehensive ground as true regard for liberty of the press would require. They did not attack the principle of gov ernment prosecutions for libels, but only the exercise of any such power by the Federal governraent. The crim inal law of libel was good law enough when adtninister- ed by the states, but in the general government it was an unconstitutional assuraption of power. The comraon law on the subject of libel, as laid down in M'Kean's charge in the case of Cobbett, and as rec ognized in all the states, made and still makes a great and remarkable distinction between written and spok en slander ; that is, between the license allowed to the tongue and that allowed to the pen. Spoken words are not indictable under any circumstance, nor can they be made the subject even of a private civil suit, unless some special daraage can be shown to have resulted frora thera, or unless they contain the imputation of some crirae, or iraply professional incapacity on the part of the person implicated — thus assailing his life, his Hberty, or his livelihood ; and in all cases of spoken words, their truth constitutes a complete defense. With respect to written words the law is vastly more severe. Any written words containing any disreputable imputation of any sort, or though they merely tend to make a person ridiculous, may not only be made the sub ject of a private suit for damages, but the writer and publisher are also liable to be indicted for a crime against the public. Nor, in case of such criminal prosecutions, could even the truth of the matters charged be given in SEDITIOUS LIBELS. 299 evidence, by way of justification, at the time of which chapter xm. we are speaking, except in the states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Vermont, which had inserted a provision 1799. to that effect into their recently-adopted Constitutions. The traditional reason for this distinction given by the law-books is, that written libels tend to breaches of the peace. But do not spoken slanders^ have the same ten dency ? . Do they not, in fact, give rise to frequent breaches of the peace, ending often in homicide ? Then, again, as to the evil produced ; it is true that written or printed libels, between which the law makes no distinc tion — though there is practically a much greater distinc tion between them than between written libels and words spoken — may have a wider circulation and a raore per manent endurance, and so may produce a greater injury. But, on the other hand, written and printed libels exist in a definite shape, in which they may be met and re futed ; especially if printed in newspapers or pamphlets, they can hardly fail to come to the speedy notice of the party concerned ; whereas spoken slanders circulate pri vately behind a man's back, and may do irretrievable in jury before their existence is known ; and even when it is known, the fleeting and changing shape of all merely oral declarations may often occasion great difficulty in grasping thera for refutation. But, whatever may once have been the propriety of this distinction, as showing greater malice and deliberation, and tending to inflict a more permanent injury, now that newspapers have become a necessary of life — a means, as it were, of carrying on an extended conversation be tween all the members of the comraunity, the same in dulgence and irapunity which have been found necessary for the safety and comfort of verbal intercourse ought to be extended to this new method of talking, and the same 300 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter means, and they only, relied upon for suppressing its abuses. 1799. With respect, in particular, to political discussions and political newspapers, a freedom as wide as this, however it raay often degenerate into license, seems quite indis pensable. In all free states it has been found necessary to guarantee to the merabers of the Legislature perfect impunity for any thing said in their legislative character. This irapunity is Hable to be greatly abused, and it often is greatly abused by bad and raalicious men ; but with out it, nothing like freedora of discussion, or the detect ing and ferreting out of political abuses, could be expect ed. And why not extend a sirailar irapunity — at least to the extent of freedom from criminal prosecutions — to those by whom politics are discussed before the tribunal of the whole people ? Falsehoods thus disseminated may be exceedingly grievous to the parties belied ; but those parties always have the privilege of detecting and expos ing the falsehood thus made to assume a distinct forra. Very seldora, indeed, can it do them any permanent in jury (in which case they have their reraedy by private suit), while the dread of being publicly denounced acts upon the less honest with tremendous "force. The exist ence of one such fearless paper as the Aurora, however objectionable in raany respects that paper might be, ope rated, beyond all question, as a greater check to miscon duct on the part of the Federal officials than all the laws put together. But it may be asked, why object to criminal prosecu tions when the truth may be given in evidence ? Be cause this is a concession in many cases, such as that cf Lypn, for example, much more showy than substantial. Even when the facts charged are of such a nature as to admit of distinct proof, to bring witnesses might often be SEDITIOUS LIBELS. 301 difficult, and would always be expensive. There is an- chapter other objection much more serious still. What in polit- ical prpsecutions for libel is charged as false allegaticn, 1799. very often is but a mere statement of opinion, a matter of inference, as to which testimony is out of the ques tion ; and very often these charges are made, like sirailar charges in a bill of equity, for the mere purppse of driv ing the party accused to confess or deny the allegations. As all popular governments rest for support, not upon force, but upon opinion, assaults upon thera limited to wprds ought to be repelled by words only. The press is open to the governraeht also. To convict those who as sail it of falsehood and malice by a candid exposition of facts, is the most certain means to destroy their influ ence. To appeal to the law will always expose to the charge of being driven by conscious guilt to silence by force in default of reason the complaints and criticisms of the people, a part of whose right and liberty it is to complain and to criticise — a right and Hberty of too del icate a nature, and too much intertwined with the first principles of freedom, to be rashly interfered with. Such are some of the arguments by which the wisdora and expediency of that part of the Sedition Law relating to libels, as well as of the whole systera of criminal pros ecutions for libels in the state courts, might have been plausibly, if not, indeed, convincingly assailed. But noth ing of this sort proceeded from the mouths of the oppo sition. They confined themselves very strictly to the constitutional argument. It was a special restriction of the ppwers pf the general government, not the general liberty of the press, for which they contended. Not a wprd was uttered against the exercise cf that same ppw- er by the states, the exercise cf which by the Federal gpvernment was denpunced as fatal tp Hberty. The op- 302 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (;hapter position argued, not like liberal statesmen and wise legis- ' lators, but only like violent anti-Federal politicians. 1799. While the nomination of envoys to France was still pending, the bUls for the increase of the navy had be come laws. Two others relating to the same subject were passed shortly after, one embracing a code of rules for the naval service, the other creating a fund for navy hospitals by a reservation out of the monthly wages of seamen employed in the navy, similar to that authorized at the last session in case of merchant seamen. By a third act the marine corps was increased to a regiment of a thousand raen. The Senate bill for a conditional in crease of the army was also passed, as was another in creasing the regiments of the standing force to a thou sand raen each. The laws relating to intercourse with the Indians, to the post-office, and to the collection of the revenue, were revised and re-enacted, and, in compliance with the rec ommendation of the president in his opening speech, the officers of the United States were required to assist in the enforceraent of the local quarantine laws. The sal aries of several public officers were increased. The sec retaries of state and the treasury were henceforth to re ceive $5000 each; the other two secretaries, $4500; the attorney general, controller, treasurer, auditor, cora missioner ofthe revenue, and postmaster general, $3000 each; the registrar ofthe treasury, $2400 ; the account ants of the war and navy departments, $2000 each ; the assistant postmaster general, $1700. The salaries of the clerks in the executive department were also increased, and a new tariff of fees was established for the officers, witnesses, and attorneys in the United States courts. The increase of salaries was most violently opposed, and a great clamor was raised against it out of doors. But FINANCES. REVOLUTIONARY BALANCES. 303 no reduction was made when these very opposers came, chapter soon after, to have the majority and the offices. '__ The appropriations for the service of the current year, 1799. exclusive ofthe interest on the public debt and the con ditional two millions for the augmentation of the army, but including some unexpended balances of former ap propriations, amounted to nine miUions, half of which was for the navy alone. The whole amount of means re quired for the service of the year exceeded thirteen mill ions of dollars. The resources for meeting this heavy expenditure consisted, in addition to the ordinary rev enue, of the two million direct tax, the preparations for collecting which were now nearly completed, and of the five million loan lately filled at an interest of eight per cent. In this tirae of need, the balances due from the states on the settlement of their Revolutionary accounts were again called to mind, and an act was passed offering to discharge all such debtor states as within a year would pass laws for paying within five years, or to expend with in that time, in fortifications, a sum in stocks of the United States at their then market value, equal, at par value, either to the balance due or to the whole amount of the state debt which the United States had assumed. This latter alternative was intended to meet the case of New; York, the balance due from which very considerably exceeded the amount of the debt of that state assumed by the general government, the United States being content to relinquish the surplus of their claims, if they could but get back the amount thus unadvisedly advanced. New York availed itself of this and the former act on the sub ject to make a partial payment by expenditures on for tifications ; but nothing was got, or has been, to this day, from any of the other debtor states. 304 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter Meanwhile a naval action of sorae iraportance had oc- XIII curred in the West Indies. Of the two French frigates 1799. by which Bainbridge had been captured, one had re turned to France, carrying Victor Hugues as a prisoner. The other, L'Insurgente, one of the very vessels with which the renegade Barney had blustered in the Chesa peake two years before, fell in with the Constitution, one of Barry's squadron, from which, however, she succeeded in escaping, the Constitution having carried away one of her top-masts in the chase. Though reckoned the best sailer in the French navy, L'Insurgente did not fare so well with the Constellation, the flag-ship of Truxton's squadron, by which she was chased off the island of St. Kitt's, and brought to close action after a three hours' pursuit, during which the French frigate carried away Feb. 9. her raain top-mast. As to number of guns, the ships were about equal ; but the Constellation's heavier metal gave her a decided advantage ; and, after an action of an hour and a quarter, having lost twenty killed and forty- six wounded, L'Insurgente struck her colors. The Con stellation had only three raen wounded and one killed, but her rigging was considerably cut to pieces. The prize was raanned and sent to the United States. The news, which arrived in America shortly after the adjourn- March 12. ment of Congress, of this first action between French and American national ships, filled the Federalists with de light, while the other party received it with dejection, as another obstacle in the way of peace. The newly-appointed consul general for St. Domingo April, had already sailed thither, and, soon after. General Mait- land, lately in command at that island, had arrived at Philadelphia frora England, with whom, in conjunction with Listen, the English embassador, an arrangement was entered into as to the trade of the island. Information ST. DOMINGO. 305 Having been received that Toussaint had complied with chapter XUL the conditions required, the president issued his procla mation reopening comraerce. A civil war, which had 1798. broken out between Toussaint and Rigaud, rendered this '^""^¦ trade at first less profitable than had been hoped ; but an order from France presently removed Rigaud from his command, and the Spanish p^rt of the island having submitted also to Toussaint's authority, he became sole governor of the whole. He still acknowledged, in name, the authority of the French republic, but acted in all things as an independent chief. During eight years of civil war the island had suffered severely, but a consid erable number of the old white proprietors still remained in it, to whom Toussaint extended every protection. He even invited back those who had fled- to the United States and elsewhere, an invitation which many accept ed. Many of the late slaves were willing to work for wages or on shares ; and, under Toussaint's judicious rule, the agriculture of the island began to revive. v.— U 300 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XIV. VIRGINIA, NEW YORK, PENNSYLVANIA. REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION 'OF KENTUCKY. JUDICIAL DECISIONS. NULLIFICATION. EMBARKATION OF THE ENVOYS TO FRANCE. DIVISION OF THE FEDERAL PARTY. COMMIS SIONS UNDER THE BRITISH TREATY SUSPENDED. FIRST SESSION OF THE SIXTH CONGRESS. DEATH OF WASH INGTON. INDIANA TERRITORY. NAVAL AFFAIRS. CHAPTER Jr ENDING the session of Congress, a warm canvass XIV. &' . had been going on in Virginia prelirainary. to the March 1799. elections. The Federal party now, for the first time, had become strong enough, in that state, to offer battle to the opposition. Though much occupied in correspond ing with the Secretary of War and others as to the or ganization of the additional regiments and of the army generally, Washington entered with great zeal into this Jan. 15. canvass. In a letter to Patrick Henry, urging hira to offer, if not as a candidate for Congress, at least for the Assembly, he very fully expressed his sentiraents. "It would be a waste of tirae," he wrote, " to attempt to bring to the view of a person of your observation and dis cernment the endeavors of a certain party among us to disquiet the public mind with unfounded alarras, to ar raign every act of the adrainistration, to set the people at variance with their government, and to embarrass all its measures. Equally useless would it be to predict what raust be the inevitable consequences of such a pol icy, if it can not be arrested. " Unfortunately, and extremely do I regret it, the WASHINGTON'S POLITICAL VIEWS. 307 1 State of Virginia has taken the lead in this opposition, chapter XIV. I have said the state, because the conduct of its Legis-. lature, in the eyes o^ the world, will authorize the ex- 1799. pression, and because it is an incontrovertible fact that the principal leaders of the opposition dwell in it, and that, with the' help of the chiefs in the other states, all the plans are arranged and systematically pursued by their foUowers in other parts of the Union ; though in no state except Kentucky, that I have heard of, has legis lative countenance been obtained beyond Virginia. " It has been said that the great mass of the citizens of this state are well affected, notwithstanding, to the general government and the Union; and I am willing to believe it — nay, do believe it ; but how is this to be reconciled with their choice of representatives, both to Congress and their state Legislature, who are opposed td the general government, and who, by the tendency of their measures, would destroy the Union ? Some among us have endeavored to account for this inconsist ency ; but, thdugh convinced themselves, they are una ble to convince others, unacquainted with the internal policy of the state. " One of the reasons assigned is, that the most re spectable and besti-qualified characters among us will not come forward. Easy and happy in their circum stances at home, and believing themselves secure in their liberties and property, they will not forsake their occu pations, and engage in the turmoil of public business, or expose themselves to the calumnies of their opponents, whose weapons are detraction. " But at such a crisis as this, when every thing dear and valuable to us is assailed ; when this party hangs upon the wheels of government as a dead weight, oppos ing every raeasure that is calculated for defense and self- 308 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER preservation, abetting the nefarious views of other na- XIV. -tions upon our rights, preferring, as long as they dare 1799. contend openly against the spirit and resentment of the people, the interest of France to the welfare of their own country, justifying the former at the expense of the lattet ; when all the acts ,of their own government are tortured, by constructions they will not bear, into at tempts to infringe and trample upon the Constitution, with a view to introduce monarchy ; when the most un ceasing and the purest exertions which were made to raaintain a neutrality, proclaimed by the executive, ap proved unequivocally by Congress, by the state Legisla tures, nay, by the people themselves in various meet ings, and to preserve the country in peace, are charged with being measures calculated to favor Great Britain at the expense of France, and all those who had any agency in it are accused of being under the influence of Great Britain, and her pensioners ; when measures are systematically and pertinaciously pursued which must eventually dissolve the Union or produce coercion ; I say, when these things have become so obvious, ought characters who are best able to rescue their country from the pending evil to remain at home ? Rather, ought they not to come forward, and by their talents and in fluence stand in the breach which such conduct has made on the peace and happiness of this country, and oppose the widening of it ? " Vain will it be to look for peace and happiness, or for the security of liberty or property, if civil discord should ensue. And what else can result from the poli cy of those among us who, by all the raeasures in their power, are driving matters to extremity, if they can not be counteracted effectually ? The views of raen can only be known or guessed at by their words or actions. WASHINGTON'S POLITICAL VIEWS. 309 Can those of the leaders of the opposition be mistaken chapter XIV. if they are judged by this rule ? That they are followed . by numbers who are unacquainted with their designs, 1799. and suspect as little the tendency of their principles, I ara fully persuaded. But if their conduct is viewed with indifference ; if there are activity and misrepresentation on one side, and supineness on the other, their nurabers accuraulated by intriguing and discontented foreigners under proscription, who were at war with their own gov ernments, and the greater part of them with all govern ments, they wiU increase, and nothing short of Omnis cience can foretell the consequences." " There are, I have no doubt, very raany sensible men who oppose thera selves to the torrent, that carries away others whP had rather swim with than stem it, without an able pilot to conduct them ; but these are neither old in legislation nor well known in the community. ' Your weight of character and influence in the House of Representatives would be a bulwark against such dangerous sentiments as are deHvered there at present. It would be a rally- ing-point for the timid and an attraction for the waver ing. In a word, I conceive it to be of immense import ance, at this crisis, that you should be there ; and I would fain hope that all minor considerations will be made to yield." This letter of Washington's, it is curious to observe, was written almost simultaneously with those of Jeffer son, already quoted, to Gerry, Pendleton, and Madison, stimulating them to new attacks on the adrainistration. Of the leaders of the opposition referred to in it, and of whom Washington, in a previous letter to his nephew Bushrod, had remarked that " they had points to carry from which no reasoning, no inconsistency: of conduct, no absurdity can divert them," Jefferson was undoubt- 310 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER edly the chief; and this letter alone is quite sufficient to ' settle the raooted, but in no respect doubtful question of 1799. Washington's final opinion of his pnce-trusted Secre tary of State. The aged patriot to whora Washington addressed him self did not turn a deaf ear to the appeal. Few are in sensible to personal raotives, and, besides those political considerations urged by Washington, Henry had strong personal reasons for thinking weU of, and giving his sup port to, that systera of government which he had once so veheraently opposed. Within a few years past he had entered extensively into the prevailing land speculations, and, more judicious and fortunate than raany others, had been made wealthy by the appreciation of his landed property. He offered hiraself as a candidate for the House of Delegates, and was elected, as usual, by a large majority. But he did not live to take his seat ; and the Federal party thus unfortunately lost, at this critical moment, the support which his influence and eloquence might have afforded. Of the Federal candidate for Congress in his own dis trict Washington was a zealous supporter, and he rode ten miles on the day of election in order to deposit his vote. Of the nineteen raembers to which Virginia was entitled, the Federalists carried eight, including Henry Lee and Marshall, the latter chosen from the Richraond district. Of the ten North Carolina merabers, the Fed eralists carried seven, also five out of six in South Car olina, and the two of Georgia. The Legislature of New York, the seat of govern ment of which state had been transferred to Albany April, two years before, at its session lately terrainated, had enacted two laws of historical importance. One was an act for the gradual extinguishment of slavery, a meas- ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN NEW YORK. 211 ure which Governor Jav had much at heart, and which, chapter XIV, after three previous unsuccessful atterapts, was now at last carried. Those who were slaves at the passage of 1799. the act were to continue so for life. All their children born after the 4th of July then following were to be free, but were to remain with the owner of the mother as apprentices, raales tiU the age of twenty-eight, and fe males till the age of twenty-five. The exportation of slaves was forbidden under a pecuniary punishraent, the slave upon whom the attempt was raade to becorae free at once. Persons reraoving into the state might bring with them slaVes whora they had pwned for a year pre viously ; but slaves so brought in could not be sold. ¦- The other act referred to was of a very different char acter. It established the Manhattan Corapany, with a perpetual charter, and a capital of two raillions — a scheme concocted by Cha,noellor Livingston and other leading members of the opposition, and carried through the As sembly by the address of Burr, who was this year a mem ber ; the object being to strengthen the hands of the op position by establishing a bank of which they should have the control, the other two banks in the city of New York, the New York Bank and the United States Branch Bank, being in the hands of the Federalists. Had this design been suspected, it never could have been carried into execution; but Burr contrived to get the bill through without any hint of its actual intention, except to a few of his brother merabers, who he knew could be relied upon. Taking advantage of the discussions which the yellow fever had occasioned as to the necessity of pro curing a supply of pure water for the city of New York, the object of the Manhattan Company purported to be the procuring such a supply. But the company was only bound to furnish water within ten years tp such 312 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER citizens as raight choose to take it, on such terras as the XIV. .company raight prescribe ; and under a clause author- 1799. izing the eraployraent of the company's surplus capital in the purchase of stocks " or any other moneyed trans actions or operations," a right of banking was claimed as soon as the charter was obtained, and was avowed as the great object of the company, to which the water was only a cover. In its imraediate operation, at least, this piece of trickery did not rauch strengthen the opposition, April, for in the state election which foUowed the close of the session, the Federalists obtained a decided victory. The Legislature of Pennsylvania, during their session, ihad passed an iraportant act for quieting the New En gland settlers under Connecticut grants prior in date to the Trenton decision. The state undertook to indemni fy the claimants of the same lands under Pennsylvania grants by paying them certain suras per acre, according to the quality of the lands, arranged for that purpose into four classes ; but a part of this indemnity was to be con tributed by the Connecticut holders. Thus at last was an effectual step taken toward a settlement of this pro tracted and troublesome controversy. Shortly after the adjournment of Congress, one of the natural results of the late violent assaults on the author ity of the Federal government made its appearance in Pennsylvania. The direct tax was to be levied, among other things, on houses, arranged in certain classes ; and among other prescribed means for making that classifica tion was a measurement of the windows. In the coun ties of Northampton, Bucks, and Montgomery, a violent opposition had been made td this measurement, princi paUy on the part of the German inhabitants, so rauch so that those eraployed in it had been obliged to desist. Warrants were issued frora the District Court of Penn- FRIES'S INSURRECTION. 3^3 sylvania against the rioters, and the marshal arrested chapter XIV. some thirty persons ; but in the village of Bethlehem he was set upon, and his prisoners were rescued by an armed 1799. party of fifty or more horsemen, headed by one Fries. ^^'"^^ ''¦ The president immediately issued a proclamation requir- March 12. ing submission to the laws. He called upon the govern or of Pennsylvania for a detachment of militia to sustain them ; and some troops of light horse detailed for this purpose, joined by several corapanies newly enlisted for the additional regiments, marched at once into the dis turbed counties. The commanding officer put forth an address to the inhabitants, showing how little reason they had to complain, as the money was wanted for na tional defense, and the law was so arranged as to favor the poor, the ratio of the tax to the worth of the house increasing largely with the increase of value. No oppo sition was made to the troops, and Fries and some thirty others were secured and carried to PhUadelphia. Fries was indicted for treason, and in spite of the efforts of Dallas, aided by Lewis, a Federal lawyer, among the ablest in the state, who argued that his offense amounted only to riot, he was found guilty. The court held that to resist a law by force, Svith intent to defeat its execution altogether, was levying war. But as it appeared after verdict that one of the jury, previous to being erapannel- ed, had expressed his opinion that Fries ought to be hung, a new trial was granted. > Several of Fries's com panions were found guilty of misdemeanor. While these trials were going on, the Aurora continued to be filled with the most infamous aspersions on the officers and sol diers who had been employed to arrest Fries. They were charged with living at free quarters on the inhabitants, and with chain ng their prisoners in a manner so negligent or vindictive,, that some old men had their wrists worn 314 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter to the bone by the handcuffs. As the editor, when called XIV. . upon for that purpose by a deputation of the officers, re- 1799. fused to fix the imputation on any particular corps, thus leaving it doubtful if there were any remedy at law, two or three of them were deputed to give hira a sound beat ing, which was administered accordingly on his own premises, a chief actor in this affair being a son of Chief- justice M'Kean, who had coraraanded one of the mUitia troops of horse. A similar castigation had been previ ously inflicted upon the editor of a German paper at Reading, which had been filled with stiU more scanda lous libels on the conduct of the troops, accused of beat ing woraen and children, and other like outrages. This attempt of the officers to revenge themselves was at once seized upon by all the opposition papers as the first fruits of incipient railitary despotisra. Not satisfied with the trifling fines inflicted for this breach of the peace, Duane comraenced a civil suit against young M'Kean ; and this affair, in the end, was not without an important influence on the politics of Pennsylvania. Already a very vigorous canvass was going on for the chief magistracy of that state. Mifflin's third term of office was now about to expire, and the Constitution would not allow of his re-election, for which, indeed, his habitual drunkenness and decHning health but very ill qualified hira. The administration of the government, for some time past, had been almost entirely controlled by Secretary Dallas and Chief-justice M'Kean, and with a view to continue power in the sarae hands, M'Kean was brought forward as the Republican candidate by a sort of caucus or meeting of sorae active politicians. The Federalists nominated Senator Ross, and the canvass be gun to be carried on in a very bitter spirit. Two ob jections were principally urged against Ross, both rather REVISED CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY. 315 curious as coming from a party of which Jefferson \yas chapter XU', the great leader, and Gallatin a principal champion. One . was a suspicion that Ross's religious views were not or- 1799. thodox, he having voted in convention against that clause of the Constitution of Pennsylvania which required all office-holders to acknowledge " the being of a God, and a future state of rewards and punishments," whereas M'Kean was a very orthodox Presbyterian, and had voted for that clause, without which, as he had remarked, the state might have Atheists in office. The having con tributed, by his avowed hostility to the Excise Law, to bring about the Whisky Insurrection, constituted a sec ond objection to Ross. Yet in all this there was not wanting a sort of wily policy. The Republicans were sure to vote against Ross at any rate, because he was not of their party, and these objections were only in tended for weak-minded Federalists. Somewhat later in the season a convention raet in August. Kentucky to revise the Constitution of that growing state. George Nicholas, the draughtsman of the former Constitution, and the nominal author ofthe late nullify ing resolutions, was recently dead. Of the present As sembly, John Breckenridge, a lawyer of eminence, who had been president of the Democratic Society of Lexing ton, was the leading spirit. The chief change in the Constitution related to the choice of senators and govern or, which were given directly to the people, the coun ties to be arranged into as many districts as there were senators, one fourth of the number to vacate their seats annually, the senatorial term, as under the first Consti tution, to be four years. Some attempt was made to in troduce a provision for the gradual abolition of slavery, an attempt supported by Henry Clay, a recent immigrant from Virginia, a young lawyer, who commenced a long 316 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER political career, not yet (1851) finished, by holding a .seat in this Convention. The atterapt raet, however, 1799. with very feeble support, and, so far as related tothe sub ject of slavery, the Constitution underwent no change. A similar proposition' for the gradual abolition of slav ery had been introduced a short time before into the Ma ryland Assembly, but it found so little encouragement there as to be withdrawn by the raover. Even in Penn sylvania, a proposition introduced into the Assembly for the imraediate and total abolition of slavery, though sup ported by the earnest efforts of the Pennsylvania Aboli tion Society, failed of success. Two judicial decisions, made in the course of the sum raer, furnished the opposition to the general governraent with new topics of bitter coraplaint. In the year 1797 a mutiny had occurred on board the British frigate Her- raione, then in the West Indies ; several of the officers had been killed, and the vessel, having been carried into La Guayra, on the Spanish Main, had there been sold by the rautineers. In the course of the present summer, one Thoraas Nash, former boatswain of the Hermione, and an active leader in the mutiny, had made his appear ance, at Charleston, in South Carolina, under the name of Nathan Robbins, and having betrayed himself by ira prudent boastings, had been arrested at the instance of the British consul, under that clause of Jay's treaty which provided for the rautual surrender of forgers and raurderers. Application having been made to the presi dent on the subject, he wrote to Bee, the district judge, to give the prisoner up on proof of identity and the pro duction of such further evidence as would justify his ap prehension and oomraitraent for trial had the offense been committed within the jurisdiction of the United States. The ground taken by the president was, that a national CASES OF ROBBINS AND WILLIAMS. 3^7 ship of war on the high seas forraed a part of the juris- chapteh XIV. diction of the nation under whose flag she sailed. To avert his impending fate, the fugitive mutineer as- 1799. sumed the name of Jonathan Robbins, produced a nota rial certificate or " protection" granted in New York, in 1795, to a person of that name, and also made an affi davit that he was born in Danbury, in Connecticut, and that two years before he had been pressed into the Brit ish service. In spite, however, of these documents, his identification as the Thomas Nash of the Hermione be ing complete, he was delivered up, and, being carried to July. Halifax, was tried by court martial, found guilty, and hanged. He confessed at his execution that he was an Irishman, and it appeared by the Hermione's books that he had entered the service at the beginning of the war, purporting to be born at Waterford. But before the re sult of this investigation had become known, a great clara or had been raised against the president and Jay's treaty, in which Charles Pinckney, now a Federal senator from South Carolina, and who had acted as counsel for the prisoner, , took a very active part. The president was charged with having given up an American citizen to be tried for a mutiny, which, if he really did join it, was justifiable enough on his part, since he had been pressed into the British service ; and even after the result of the Halifax court martial was known, the same accusation was still continued, the proof adduced on the trial being represented as manufactured for the occasion. The other case was that of Isaac Williams, one of those American renegadoes who, under color of being natural ized as French citizens, had enriched themselves by pri vateering, under the French flag, against American as well as British commerce. After making himself rich and notorious by this discreditable means, Williams had 318 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER the audacity to return to Connecticut, his native state, XIV. . there to enjoy his iU-gotten gains. But he was presently 1799. arrested and tried under that clause of Jay's treaty which Sept. 28 prohibited privateering by American citizens against Brit ish commerce. The trial came on before Chief-justice EUsworth — one of the last cases on which he ever sat — and notwith standing the French letters of naturalization produced in defense, he held that Williams was still subject to Amer ican law, it not being in the power of any man to throw off by his own volition his allegiance to the country in which he had been born. Under this doctrine — held at the present day, by the decided weight even of American authority, to be good law, and never questioned in any other country — WiUiams was found guilty, and fined and imprisoned ; very much to the dissatisfaction of the ultra Republican sympathizers with France, and advo cates of the right and power of expatriation. Another point of law which furnished still further oc casion for claraor and alarm was the claim which had been set up for the Federal courts of a comraon law crim inal jurisdiction — the right, that is, without any special statute, to punish by fine and imprisonment, whenever coraraitted under such circurastances as would bring them within the general range of Federal jurisdiction, such acts as, without any special statute, were indictable by the common law of England and the states. Edmund Randolph, who, since his dismissal by Washington, had reraained in perfect political obscurity, though enjoying an extensive practice as a lawyer, atterapted to recall at tention to himself by attacking this doctrine, since aban doned, in a paraphlet — a work in which he was strenu ously encouraged by Jefferson. Nor did Jefferson exhibit any disposition to give up DOCTRINE OF NULLIFICATION. 3 j c, his own doctrine of nullification, notwithstanding the re- chapter XIV pudiation of it by so many states. After a consultation !_ between him, Madison, and Wilson C. Nicholas, it was 1799. agreed that Madison, who had now again come actively forward, having been chosen to the House of Delegates on purpose to oppose Patrick Henry, should draw up a report in answer to the various objections urged against the resolutions of the last session. To make this report as palatable as possible, it was to express great attach ment to the Union, and indisposition to break it for slight causes. Jefferson wished, however, a positive reserva tion of the right to make the recent alleged violations of the compact " the ground of doing hereafter what might rightfully be done now," should these violations be con tinued or repeated. But the more cautious and moder ate Madison much preferred to argue the abstract point of mere right, without going so far as to suggest any ac tual exercise of it, either present or future. And, in deed, if such a right reaUy existed, Jefferson's proposed reservation was quite superfluous, since any violation of the contract, continued or renewed, would, withput any reservation, itself afford ground enough for action. The management of matters in Kentucky was intrust ed to Wilson C. Nicholas, then about to make a journey thither to look after the affairs of his deceased brother. He eraployed as the active agent John Breckenridge, al ready mentioned, on whom, since the death of George Nicholas, the political leadership of that state had de volved. " To avoid suspicions, which were pretty strong in some quarters on the late occasion," so he himself tells us, Jefferson omitted to prepare any thing in writing ; yet, except a preamble declining to enter the field of ar gument, but complaining ofthe terms in which, in some of the states, the former resolutions had been denounced 320 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER as incompatible with the Federal Union, the material XIV, part of the resolutions brought forward and adopted was 1799. mainly copied from such portions of Jefferson's original Nov. 14. draft as Nicholas had omitted.; including the famous dec laration that, in case of violations of the Constitution, " the several states who formed that instrument, being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of the infraction, and that a nullification by those sovereignties of all unauthorized acts, under color of that instrument, is the rightful Tcmedy." But, for all these bold words, the Kentucky politicians were even less dis posed now than at the former session to corarait them selves to any positive action. Content with asserting the general principle in the abstract, even the verbal nul lification of the Alien and Sedition Laws was not re peated, the Legislature being satisfied instead with a mere protest against their constitutionality. Madison perforraed his part of the progrararae by bring ing forward*, a few weeks after, in the Virginia Asserably, a long and elaborate report, purporting to justify the reso lutions ofthe preceding session as "founded in truth, con sonant with the Constitution, and conducive to its preser vation ;" but winding up, in the sarae inconclusive man ner as the Kentucky resolves, with a mere protest against the unconstitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws. In spite of the stimulus of party spirit, Madison had not so far forgotten his large share in framing the Constitu tion and procuring its adoption as to be willing to sanc tion, as a right reserved to and vested in the states, a veto upon the laws of the Union wholly incompatible with any quiet exercise of the federal authority ; and the report, whUe pretending to justify the resolutions, in fact abandoned them in their essential part. The assertion in the Virginia resolutions of '98 of a right in the indi- , RELATIONS WITH FRANCE/ 32J vidual states, in cases of palpable violations of the Con- chapteh . . . XIV. stitution, " to interfere for arresting the progress of the evil, and for raaintaining, within their respective limits, 1799. the , authorities, liberties, and rights appertaining te them," i.e., the states, was now explained to raean noth ing more than a general right of resistance, not the right of the states particularly, or at all growing out of their federal relations, but that general right of human nature — a right fully admitted on all sides — to resist, and to at tempt to rectify by force, whe,n other means should fail, intolerable grievances and oppressions ; a right which no American ever thought of disputing, and which it was hardly necessary to have set forth in legislative resolutions. The same Legislature which adopted this report ex pressed their confidence in Monroe and approval of his policy by electing him governor of the state. Immediately after the confirmation by the Senate of: new envoys to France, a letter had been written to Mur ray, at the Hague, directing, him to convey information' of that apppintraent to the French rainister for Foreign Affairs, and also to inforra hira that the other two envoys would not embark for Europe without direct and une quivocal assurances from the Directory, previously given thrPugh their minister for foreign affairs, that the new embassadors would be received and admitted to an au dience in their official character, and a minister of equal grade appointed to treat with them. At the same time, Murray was directed to have no more informal com munications of any kind with any French agents. In answer to Murray's communication, Talleyrand hastened to give assurances, in the termp required, not May 5, without expressions of regret that the negotiation shpuld be so long delayed for the mere confirmation of what he had so repeatedly declared to Gerry. v.— X 322 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER Upon the arrival in America of these assurances, in XIV. spite of the known reluctance of the majority of his cab- 1799. inet, the president, who had been at Braintree since the August, cjose of the session, directed orders to be sent to the en voys to prepare for immediate embarkation ; and that the Secretary of State, with the assistance of the other heads of departments, should immediately draw up and send to him for approval a draft of instructions. The~ two prin cipal points of these instructions, inderanity for the spoli ations heretofore coraraitted on Araerican coraraerce, and freedora for the future from any obHgation to guarantee any part of the French dominions, had been agreed upon previous to the president's leaving Philadelphia. But the preparation of the instructions in detail, including a draft of a new treaty as a substitute for the present ones, had been delayed, perhaps, by the reluctance of Pickering, but partly, also, by the reappearance of the yellow fever, which had again compelled the removal of the public offices to Trenton. As finally proposed and agreed to, the instructions di rected that, if Talleyrand's assurances were not promptly fulfilled, and the negotiatipn commenced within twenty days after the arrival of the envoys at Paris, and contin ued in good faith, they should at once demand their passports and leave France without listening to any fresh overtures that might be offered ; nor, unless for special reasons, were they to allow the negotiation to be protracted beyond the first of the ensuing April. Indem nification for spoliations and the release from the guar- ,antee, indeed from all the obligations of the old treaties and the consular convention, were to be insisted on as previously agreed ; also the repeal of the French decree for confiscating neutral vessels having English mer chandise on board. In other respects, the instructions RELATIONS WITH FRANCE. 393 substantially agreed with those given to the former en- chapter voys. ^_ By the time these instructions were nearly ready, 1799. news arrived of the Revolution in France of the 30th Sept. 11. Prarial (June 18th), by which the whole Directdry, ex cept Barras, had been chahged^a consequence ofthe se vere reverses which the arras of the Republic had lately experienced. Accounts of these reverses, arriving from time to time in America, had increased the disincliriat-' tion felt frora the beginning by many of the active Fed^" eral leaders to ahy renewal of diploinatic intercourse with France ; and they eagerly insisted upon the recent- change as a reason for further delay. Who could tell if the new directors Would hold themselves bound by the assurances of the old ones ? Further revolutions were also foreseen. SUch, of late, had been the rapid successes of tlie allies, the Arch-duke Charles triumphant on the Rhine, and the French quite driven out of Italy by the arms of Suwarrow, and Bonaparte absent and unsuccess ful, perhaps already slain in the East, that even the Re public itself seemed in danger. Indeed, the restoration of the Bourbon^ began to be talked of as an event by no means iniprobable ; Murray's recent dispatches were all in that strain ; and the whole cabinet concurred , in a let ter to the president suggesting the suspension of the mis sion. Ellsworth also wrote to him to the same effect. Before coming to a final decision, the president re solved to proceed to Trenton. When he reached that place he found Davie already there. Ellsworth, whom the president h^d seen and talked with on the way, ar rived a day or two after. Hamilton, accompanied by General Wilkinson, happened also to be present on af fairs of the army. But Adams strongly suspected his real business to be, to overlook the deliberations of a cab- 3 24 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter inet, of Which he afterward veheraently complained that XIV. it was raore Hamilton's than his. Well knowing, from 1799. many conversations with its separate members, what the opinion of the cabinet would be, and the instructions be ing at last finally arranged, the president, as on the for mer occasion of the nomination of Murray, issued direc tions, without any special cabinet consultation, that the envoys should embark as speedily as possible in the frig ate United States, then lying at Newport ready to receive them. This second slight put upon their opinions, and disre gard of what they seem to have esteemed their right to be consulted, made a final and permanent breach between the president and three of his secretaries. Stoddard, the Secretary of the Navy, who had exhibited great energy and ability in that department, and Lee, the Attorney General, were by no means so strenuous in opposing the departure of the envoys, being inclined to defer to the president's judgment in that matter. The three offended secretaries complained, in addition, of what they seeraed to consider an unjustifiable finesse, and which did, in deed, show a certain adroitness on the part of the presi dent in obtaining their concurrence in the instiuctions, without giving them an opportunity of protesting against the mission itself, which, in agreeing to the instructions, they might seera to have approved. But, though all confidence between them and the president was now at an end, they still continued to hold their places. They appear to have been influenced by the hope of availing themselves of their official position to secure a successor to Adams whose policy might more conform to theirs, and of acting, raeanwhile, as far as might be, as a clog upon those measures which they did not approve; while Adams, on his part, hesitated to widen the already alarm- RELATIONS WITH FRANCE. 325 ing breach in the Federal party by actually turning chaptek them out of office. Their position in Adams's cabinet bore, indeed, a certain resemblance to Jefferson's in that 1799. of Washington. The objections on the part of Pickering, Wolcott, and M'Henry, to a renewal of diplomatic relations with France^ — objections in which Hamilton and a large num ber of the more zealous Federalists concurred^ — were os tensibly based upon doubts as to the sincerity of the French government ; the impossibility of relying with confidence upon any stipulations made by Talleyrand ; and the idea that the hdnor of the country did not al low any further advances on our part, while the piratical French decrees against American commerce remained unrepealed. Washington hiraself was strongly disposed to this view, though, with his usual candor and caution, he declined to express a definitive opinion as to a raatter the whole of which did not lie before him. But, while' such were the objections openly urged, what, no doubt, had quite as much real weight, whether the parties so influenced were perfectly conscious of it or not, was the effect which the resumption of negotiations might have and would be likely to have on the domestic politics of the country. The manly resistance made by the Federalists to the insults and aggressions of France seemed to give thera a hold upon the public mind such as they had never pos sessed before. The self-styled Republican party, having come forward as advocates of submission, had withered and wasted under the meridian blaze of an excited patri otism ; and as a means of keeping up that feeling, and raising it to a still higher pitch, many of the raore ardent Federalists were ready and anxious for open war ; espe cially now that the declining fortune of the French re- 326 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter public raade her rauch less forraidable as an adversary ' than she had seeraed to be a year or two before. 1799. Even apart from these considerations of policy, the late ! wrongs and insults of the French rankled deeply in ardent bosoms. Among a large part of the more intelligent ; and better-educated people — and of such the Federal party was coraposed — that attachment for France which ; had sprung so suddenly into existence coteraporaneously with the French alliance, and which the early progress ; of the French Revolution had raised to a high pitch of enthusiasm, had begun to be replaced by a feeling com pounded of old traditional prejudices against the French, , and of that horror, dread, and detestation which the atroc ities of the Revolution, the overbearing insolence of the Republic, and, in particular, the abolition of the Christian worship, had combined to excite. It began to be argued, and with a good deal of plausibility, that the French alli ance had never been of any advantage to America ; that, so far from having secured our independence, as the French and their partisans alleged, it had, in fact, by arousing in Great Britain a bitter spirit of national jeal ousy, operated to protract a contest whicb, but for the interference of France, would have been much sooner ended, and without leaving behind it such deep traces as it had of anger and hate. France, so it was argued, had originally, espoused our cause, not from any love to us, but from desire to injure Great Britain. Indeed, proofs of her selfishness in this respect, derived frora the French archives, had been brought over by Genet, and made public with the very view of proving that Amer ica owed no debt of gratitude to the fallen monarchy. New force was given by these documents to the old sus picions. that, in the negotiation of the treaty of peace, France had played us false in the matter of the fisheries RELATIONS WITH FRANCE. 327 and the Western boundary. It was even endeavored to cHAPTiiit xiv. reflect back the recent insolence and bad faith of Talley- rand and the Directory upcn Vergennes and LpuisXVI., 1799. whp seem (however some might have thought otherwise) always to have conducted toward the United States with candor and generosity. It was also endeavored to trace back that French influence, so conspicuous in the United States within the last few years, to a still earlier period ; and the journals of the old confederation were quoted to show that the famous instructions to the Araerican cora missioners for negotiating peace, to submit themselves in all things to the direction of France, had been carried against New England by the votes of Virginia and the South. Subserviency to France, which it was thus at tempted to fix npon Virginia even at that early day, lay at the bottom, so it was argued, of the whole opposition to the Federal government, and nothing would effectual ly serve to counteract and destroy it except war with the French republic ; or, if the people could not be brought to that, a continuance in the existing position of com mercial non-intercourse and resistance to aggressions. This position, as must be evident at a single glance, was a very different one frora that occupied by Adams and the Federal party at the comraencernent of his ad ministration. It was going quite as far against France, and for very sirnilar reasons too, as the opposition had been inclined to go against England ; a complete aban donment, in fact, of that systera of neutrality which Washington had proclairaed, and upon which Adams had insisted, as at once the right and the true policy of America. Because a portion of the Federalists had changed their views, was Adams obliged to change with them ? Was he, as a party political expedient, to as sume the terrible responsibility of plunging the nation 328 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ;hapter into aU the sufferings, expenses, and dangers of a war ? Even as a party expedient, was the policy of protracting XIV. 1799. the dispute with France so certain? All the considera tions already suggested as motives for the nomination of Murray would weigh equally strong in favor of proceed ing with the mission. How little to be relied upon the recent outbursts of Federal feeling really were, was ap parent in the result of the Pennsylvania election, just concluded, in which M'Kean had been elected governor by twenty-eight thousand votes to twenty -three thousand for Ross, the Federal candidate. Nor did there seem any great force in the reasons urged for delaying the mission. The harder pressed the Directory were, the raore likely they would be to treat. And even in case the Republic should fall, there would be no harm, as Adaras suggest ed, to have envoys present on the spot to welcome the restoration of the ancient raonarchy. So fluctuating, in fact, were the chances of war, that before the envoys reached France, the fortunes of the Republic had begun again to ascend. Had negotiation been unprovided for, the speedy European peace that followed would have left America to fight alone ; or, that being out of the ques tion, as it would haye been, to accept such terms as France might choose to dictate. The wisdora of the mission being thus justified, as well on general considerations as by the actual result, it will not take long to disppse of the imputations against its author, freely thrown out at the tirae, and which have so often since been reiterated. The principal of these iraputations are, jealousy of Harailton, to whom a war would be likely to bring great addition of influence and reputation, and the hope, by appeasing the hostility of the opposition, to secure his own re-election. Give to these motives all the force which, under the circum- JUSTIFICATION OF THE PRESIDENT. 329 stances, they can be presuraed to have had — and that chapter Adams was quite accessible to such motives is not to be denied — yet they prompted to no sacrifice of the coun- 1799. try's interest or honor; at the raost, they only tended to confirm a resolution wise and good in itself Making due allowance, then, for the natural infirmities of hu manity — the more necessary in the case of a man like ^ Adaras, the ungovernable veheraence and incautiousness of whose temper, a most striking contrast to Jeffer son's, raade his weakness but too patent to the world — and in spite of the soraewhat misplaced sneers of Jef ferson and others, who profited by his fall; in spite of what he himself felt infinitely more, the anger and oblo quy of many of his former political supporters — an ob loquy which clouded the long remainder of his life, sour ing his temper, embittering his heart, and making him, as to certain persons, excessively unjust — it is yet im possible to discover, in the institution of this second mis sion to France, any thing to conflict with that character for honesty and independence which Franklin and Jeffer son, neither of thera partial judges, had united to bestow upon Adaras ; and in which the general voice of his coun try, including even his political opponents, had, down to this moment, almost unanimously concurred. Nor will a due sense of historical justice allow us to stop here. Whatever, on this meraorable occasion, raight have been the mixture of personal motives in Adams's conduct, no reason appears to esteera it so great as ma terially to detract frora the merits of an action of the highest and noblest class which it ever falls to the lot of statesmen to perform ; that of boldly risking their own personal popularity to secure to their country an honor able peace. Adams seeras, in fact, to have been right, when, long after (1809), in the freedom of confidential 330 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter correspondence, he asserted that this, the most question- ed of all his actions, was "the most disinterested, the 1799. most determined, prudent, and successful of his whole life." "I was obliged," he added, "to give peace and unexampled prosperity to my country for eight years — and if it is not of longer duration it is not my fault — against the advice, entreaties, and intrigues of all my ministers, and all the leading Federalists in both houses of Congress." In the agony of present suffering, groan ing like the chained Prometheus or the raountain-buried Titan under the " intolerable load of obloquy and inso lence" heaped upon him by the " eternal reviling" of the Federal newspapers — revilings renewed at that moment in consequence of the political course adopted by his son — he despaired of and almost spurned at the justice of history. " Too many falsehoods are already transmitted to posterity that are irrevocable. Records themselves are often liars. No human being but rayself can do rae justice ; and I shall not be believed. All I can say wiU be imputed to vanity and self-love." Yet, as the party mist which has hitherto enveloped our post-revolutionary history rises and lets in the clear Hght of truth, justice, there can be little doubt, he will ultiraately obtain. None, at least, can deny to his conduct in renewing the nego tiation a moral courage of which there are but few in stances in our history. Washington's sustention of Jay's treaty furnishes one. Perhaps alraost the only other is to be sought in the opposition of Dickinson to what he esteemed the premature declaration of independence — a reminiscence which can not but suggest a very curious and instructive parallel. Adaras, in fact, now occupied, in relation to the more ardent Federalists, very much the same position which Dickinson had occupied a quarter of a century before in relation to himself On that oc- COMMISSIONS UNDER JAY'S TREATY. 331 casion, in his youthful ardor, he had been ready to set chapteh XIV. down Dickinson as a " piddling genius" because he hes itated at a step quite in advance of any thing originally 1799. contemplated, and of which the ultimate consequences, though all agreed they must be very serious, could not be foreseen. And now that Adams hesitated in his turn at a like tremendous responsibility, there were not want ing among his late political adherents those ready to de nounce him as a " piddling genius" not up to the emer gency, and too much concerned abput his own interests to merit the title of a patriot. Dickinson occupied in both cases the same ground.. As he was then opposed to a war With England, so he was now opposed to a war with France. He had long since retired from public life, but his last published essays were on this topic. * About the tirae of the departure of the envoys, the proceedings of the commissions sitting under Jay^s trea ty encountered a serious interruption. The commis sion at London, under the sixth article, of which John TrumbuU was the umpire, had already made considera ble progress ; and damages to the amount of near half a millien pf dpUars had already been awarded and paid fpr illegal captures pf American vessels, for which the ordi nary course of law furnished no remedy. The comrais sion under the seventh article, sitting at Philadelphia, the apppintraent of the fifth coramissioner or umpire hav ing fallen by lot to the British, was by no means so har monious. Clainis of all sorts had been filed, including many by expatriated Tories, for the value of their con fiscated property, to the amount, in the whole, of twenty- four mUlions of dollars ; and the ground taken by the majority of the commission was such as threatened a very heavy burden to the United States. The Ameri can commissioners maintained that, as the United States 332 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER were only responsible for those debts the recovery of whieh bad been prevented by legal' impediraents, it rested on 1799. the claimant to show that due diligence had been uSed, and that the recovery of the debt had been prevented by actual legal obstacles, or by the debtor's becoming in solvent during the continuance of such obstacles. The raajority of the coraraission were disposed to hold the United States responsible, in the first place, for all un paid debts, and to throw upon them the burden of prov ing that, had due diligence been used, those debts might have been collected. There was also a difference both as to the allowance of interest while the war continued, and as to the classes of persons entitled to claira under the treaty. After much discussion, some of it very warm, and before any one claira had been definitively adjudi cated, the Araerican coraraissioners, with the approbation of their governraent, prevented any awards by withdraw ing. When this becarae known in England, the Brit ish governraent withdrew their members frora the board sitting there ; and both coraraissions thus came to a full stop. But, notwithstanding this interruption, both gov ernments expressed their anxiety to carry out the treaty in good faith, and Sitgreaves was soon after dispatched to England to co-operate with King in obtaining, if pos sible, sorae explanatory article on the subject of British debts. Frora a statement made by Wolcott prelirainary to the meeting of Congress, it appeared that for the year end ing the 30th of Septeraber, the internal duties, includ ing the Starap Act, had produced $773,000 — a consid erable increase upon any former annual amount ; but in the customs, the main source of revenue, there had been a falling off of near a million, occasioned in part by the in terruptions to trade, the whole produce being $7,117,000. FINANCES. SIXTH CONGRESS. 333 The preliminaries for the collection of the direct tax had chapter XIV been mostly arranged, but the collection itself was not yet begun. The total income of the year, including 1799. about four raillions received on the eight per cent, loan, amounted to $12,770,000. The expenditures had been $10,356,000. This left a balance in the treasury (in cluding that part of the five million loan outstanding) of near three millions and a half. But the existing estab lishments called for an expenditure exceeding the stand ing revenue by five millions annually, to provide for which, whether by loans or taxes, would be no easy matter. This was not a very agreeable state of affairs to lay before the sixth Congress, which came together, soon aft er, for its first session. In the Senate several new mem bers appeared — Dexter, of Massachusetts, known to us al ready as a forraer member ofthe House, in place of Sedg wick, and William H. Willes, of Delaware, in place of Vin ing, whose terms had expired. Dayton, late speaker of the House, and Baldwin, so long a member of that body, appeared also araong the new senators. Frora Virginia, in place of Tazewell, who had resigned, carae Wilson C. Nicholas, the confidential friend of Jefferson, but inferior in ability to either of his two brothers. Charles Pinck ney, of South Carolina, appointed to fill a vacancy just at the close of the last Congress, was also a raeraber of this. Just at the end of the session, Gouverneur Morris took his seat from. New York, to fill a vacancy occasioned by Watson's resignation. Still more extensive changes had taken place in the House, where the Federalists were now, for the first tirae since 1793, a decided majority. Of former members, the most distinguished were Otis, Sewall, Thatcher, Varnum, and Sedgwick, of Massachusetts — the latter, en the ex- 334 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter piration of his senatorial term, having been again re-elect- L_ ed to the House; Dana, Chauhcey Goodrich, and Gris- 1799. wold, of Connecticut ; Livingston, of New YPrk; Galla tin, Hartley, Kittera, Smilie, and Peter Muhlenburg, of Pennsylvania ; Bayard, of Delaware ; Smith, of Mary land ; John Nicholas, and Parker, of Virginia, of whom the former had carried his election only hy a few votes, while the latter had gone dver to the Federalists ; Ma con, of North Carolina ; Harper, Rutledge, Thoraas Pinck ney, and Sumter, of South Carolina. The most remark able ofthe new menibers were Dr. Michael Leib, already' known to us as a very furious Democrat, from Pennsyl vania ; Joseph H. Nicholson, of similar politics, from Ma ryland ; John Marshall, Henry Lee, and the eccentric and afterward celebrated John Randolph, frora Virginia. William Henry Harrison, afterward president of the United States, appeared as a delegate from the Territory northwest of the Ohio, the sole representative of that ex tensive region, counting now, at the end of only fifty years, five states, and near five miUions of inhabitants, Sedgwick was elected speaker ever Maocn by fprty-fpur votes to thirty-eight. Deo. The president's speech, after noticing the Northamp ton insurrection (Fries's), the revival of trade with St. Domingo, the departure of the envoys for France, and the suspension of the commissions under the British treaty, devoted itself principally to two topics : first, a re organization of the Federal judiciary, already more than once suggested by the judges, and repeatedly brought by Washington to the notice of Congress ; and, secondly, a steady perseverance in a system of national defense, com mensurate with the resources, and corresponding with the situation of the country. The president expressed his decided opinion that, in the present disturbed state of SIXTH CONGRESS. 335 the world,_ remote as the United States were from the chapter XIV. seat of war, and desirous as they raight be, by doing jus- . tice to all, to avoid offense to any, nothing short of the 1799. power and means of repelling aggressions would secure a rational prospect of escaping war, or national degrada tion, or both. Though the Federalists had a decided majority in the House, that majority was by no means homogeneous. " The following may be considered," so Wolcott wrote to Dec. 29. Ames, " as a tolerably correct outline ofthe state of the public councils. The Federal party is composed of old merabers who were generally re-elected in the Northern, with new raembers from the Southern States. New York has sent an anti-Federal majority, Pennsylvania has done the same. Opposition principles are gaining ground in New Jersey and Maryland, and in the present Congress the votes of these states will be fluctuating and undecided. A number of distinguished men appear from the southward, who are not pledged by any act to support the system of the late Congress. These men will pay great respect to the opinions of Marshall. He is doubtless a man of virtue and distinguished talents,. but he will think much of the State of Virginia, and is too much disposed to govern the world according to rules of Idgic. He will read and expound the Constitution as though it were a penal statute, and will sometiraes be embarrassed with doubts of which his friends wUl not perceive the importance. " The Northern members can do nothing of themselves, and circumstances have imposed upon them the necessity of reserve. The president will be supported by many from personal considerations ; some believe he has acted wisely, others consider it impolitic and unjust to with draw their support, though they admit that he has com- 336 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER raitted a mistake. The president's mind is in a state xiv. which renders it difficult to determine what prudence 1799. and duty require from those about him. He considers Colonel Pickering, Mr. M'Henry, and myself as his en emies ; his resentments against General Hamilton are excessive ; he declares his belief of the existence of a British faction in the United States. In some unguard ed moraent he wrote a letter to Tench Coxe, attributing the appointment of Mr. Pinckney, as rainister to Lon don, to British influence, and suggesting that, if he (Mr. Adams) were in an executive office, he should watch the progress of that influence. Coxe has perfidiously dis closed this letter, and copies are circulating araong the suspicious and raalignant. This state of things has greatly irapaired the confidence which subsisted among men of a certain class in society. No one knows how soon his own character may be assailed. Spies and in formers carry tales to the president with the hope of pro ducing changes in the administration. Mr. Otis, your successor, is suspected df aspiring to the office of Secre tary of State. Cunning half Jacobins assure the presi dent that he can combine the virtuous and moderate men of both parties, and that all our difficulties are owing to an oligarchy which it is in his power to crush, and thus acquire the general support of the natipn. I believe that I am not. mistaken in any of the facts which I have stated. It is certain that confidence is impaired. But no man can be certain that, when many are interested in pro moting dissension, he raay not himself be the dupe of ar tifice, and possibly this is my own case." " Considering the state of the House," says this same lively, candid, and sagacious letter, " it was necessary and proper that the answer to the speech should be pre pared by Marshall. He has had a hard task to perforra. DEATH OP WASHINGTON. 337 I and you will see how it has been executed. The object chapter was to meet all opinions, at least of the Federalists. It ' was, of course, necessary to appear to approve the rais- 1799. .sion, and yet to express the approbation in such terms as, when critically analyzed, should araount to no ap probation at all. No one individual was really satisfied, but all were unwUling to encounter the danger and heat which a debate would produce, and the address passed with silent dissent. The president doubtless understood the intention, and in his response has expressed his sense ( of the dubious corapHraent in terras inimitably obscure." The standing committees had been appointed, and some comraenceraent of business had been raade, when the proceedings of Congress were interrupted, and the whole nation was shocked by the sudden death of Gen eral Washington ; carried off, after a few days' sick ness, by an inflaramation of the windpipe, brought on by exposure to wet in a ride about his farm, and of which the fatal effect, it is to be feared, was hastened, if not, indeed, produced, by the excessive bleeding to which, according to the fashionable practice of that time, he was subjected by his attendant physicians. His sudden death almost entirely swept away, at least for the moraent, those feeHngs of suspicion with which a portion of the Republican party, especially of the lead ers, had begun to regard him. Now that he was dead, all zealously united to dp him honor. Rare man indeed he was among actors on the mil itary and political stage, possessing in the highest de gree the most imposing qualities of a great leader — de liberate and cautious wisdora in judging, promptitude and energy in acting, a steady, firm, indomitable spirit, such as men love to cling to and rely upon ; more than all, an unsullied integrity, and a sincere and disinterest- V.— Y 338 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter ed devotion to his country's cause, such, indeed, as many XIV public men, or their followers for them, pretend to, but 1799. the credit of which very few get and still fewer deserve. History records many names that dazzle the imagination with a greater brilliancy, but few, indeed, that shine with a light so pure, steady, permanent, penetrating, and se rene. Washington's character and reputation, as con trasted with those of many other faraous men, seem to re semble in effect the Doric in architecture as compared with the Gothic and Oriental styles. Those styles, often ex cite, especially in minds peculiarly liable to vivid impres sions, the most enthusiastic pitch of admiration, appealing, as they do, not alone nor chiefly to the sentiment of the beautiful, but to the powerful emotions, also, of surprise and wonder, growing out of novelty, variety, complica tion, and vastness. But these are eraotions, especially if we take into account the mass of men and succeeding generations, liable to great fluctuations, often subsiding into indifference, sometimes sinking into contempt ; whUe the serener sentiments, always and every where inspired by majesty, order, proportion, grace, and fitness, are not less steady, universal, and enduring than the perceptions from which they spring. The loss of this great raan, especially at this critical moment, was a terrible blow to the Federal party, of which he had always been the main pUlar and support. The confidence so almost universally reposed in his vir tue and his wisdora had been a tower of strength against which the furious waves of the ppposition had dashed harraless ; and in the present unhappy divisions among the Federal leaders, many eyes had begun to turn again toward him, as called upon for further labors and sacri fices. As he had consented again to gird on his sword to repel the foreign enemies of his country, many had DEATH OF WASHINGTON. 339 Ibegun to think that he ought also to permit hiraself to chapter be raised a third time to the presidency, in order to still once more the contests of party, and to save the country 1799. from the internal dangers that threatened it. All such thoughts were now vain. Nothing remained but to testify, by due honors, the feeling of his worth. Immediately, on the first report of his death, both houses Dec. 19. adjourned. The next day Marshall announced the con firmation of this a^icting intelligence, and after giving a brief but comprehensive sketch of Washington's pub- lie life and services, he moved that the House wait upon the president in condolence ; that its members and offi cers go into mourning ; and that the House proceed to ward the appointment of a joint coraraittee to consider of some suitable honors to the memory of the man "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his coun trymen." The Senate addressed a letter of condolence to the president, and concurred in the appointment of the joint committee ; upon whose report both houses resolved upon Dec. 23. a funeral ceremony, an oration to be pronounced before the two houses by a member of Congress, the sympa thies of Congress to be conveyed to the widow, the pres ident to be requested to recomraend to the people of the United States to wear badges of mourning for thirty days ; and that a suitable monument be erected by the United States in the Capitol at the new Federal city, designed to commemorate the great events of Washing ton's military and political life, the permission of his fam ily be asked to deposit his remains beneath it. The oration before Congress was pronounced by Hen- Dec. 20. ry Lee, who had enjoyed the intimate personal friend ship of Washington. Another resolUtipu was shortly aft er adopted, recommending that the people generally as- Dec. 30. 340 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER semble on the approaching anniversary of Washington's XIV. . birth publicly to testify their grief for his death " by 1800. suitable eulogies, orations, and discourses, or by public Feb. 22. prayers." That day was accordingly Solemnly observed throughout a great part of the Union ; Hamilton, Ames, and many orators of less fame standing forth as spokes men of the people's grief. Nowhere was that grief raore deep than in New England, where Washington's lofty virtue and practical good sense had struck a more re sponsive chord than even in his native state. To New England, indeed, he had ever looked, and never in vain, for his steadiest support, whether in war or in peace, whether as general or as president. Nor was it in America alone that Washington's vir tues were acknowledged and his death laraented. On hearing the sad news, the great British fleet of sixty ships of the line, eraployed to guard the English Chan nel, then lying in Torbay under the coramand of Lord Bridport, lowered their flags to half mast. Bonaparte, by this tirae first consul of France, paid also a tribute to Washington's meraory in an order of the day to the French array ; after which a funeral oration was pro nounced before the first consul and the civil and military authorities. Yet, in the midst of this universal mourning, scoffers and malcontents were not wanting. Some of those news papers which had slandered Washington while alive, Cal lender's among the nuraber, coraplained, in the very spirit of Judas Iscariot, that the honors bestowed upon his memory were idolatrous — and too expensive. Why was not this spikenard sold and the proceeds given to the poor ? Jan. 2. Scarcely was the business of Congress resumed, when the equanimity of the Southern members was not a little PETITION FROM COLORED MEN. 34]^ (disturbed by a petition from certain free colored inhabit- chapter . '^ XIV. ants of the city and county of Philadelphia, presented by . Wain, the city representative, setting forth that the slave 1800. trade to the coast of Guinea, for the supply of foreign nations, was clandestinely carried on from various ports of the United States ; that, colored freemen were seized, fettered^ and sold as slaves in various parts of the coun try ; and that the Fugitive Law of 1793 was attended in its execution by many hard and distressing circum stances. The petitioners, knowing the limits to the au thority of the general government, did not ask for the immediate emancipation of all those held in bondage ; yet they begged Congress to exert every means in its power to undo the heavy burdens, and to prepare the way for the oppressed to go free. Attention had recently been drawn to slavery and the slave trade, not only by alleged violations of the act forbidding American vessels to assist in the supply of foreign slave-markets, but much more forcibly by a recent conspiracy, or alleged conspiracy, in Virginia, which had produced a great alarm, resulting in the execution of several slaves charged as having been concerned in it. A great claraor was excited by Wain's raotion to refer this petition to a coraraittee already raised on the subject ofthe slave trade; a reference veheraently opposed, not only by Rutledge, Harper, Lee, Randolph, and other Southern raembers, on the ground that the petition intermeddled with matters over which Congress had no control, but also by Otis of Boston, and Brown of Rhode Island, whose vehemence was even greater, if pos sible, than that of the members from the South. Wain, Thatcher, Smilie, Dana, and Gallatin argued, on the other hand, that, as parts of the petition were certain ly within the jurisdiction of Congress, it ought to be re ceived and acted upon. The particulars of this debate 342 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER are very imperfectly preserved ; but, as usual on this sub- ' ject, it was a very warm one. Rutledge called for the 1800. yeas and nays, wishing, as he said, to show by how de cisive a majority all interference had been declined ; and so to allay any fear that the raatter would ever again be agitated in Congress.' Wain, however, anticipated the vote by withdrawing his raotion, and substituting anoth er, for the reference of such parts of the petition as re lated to the laws of the United States touching fugitives from service, and the supply of foreign countries with slaves. Rutledge raised a point of order as to the refer ence of a part of a petition ; but the speaker decided against him. Gray, of Virginia, then moved to araend by adding a declaration that the unreferred parts of the petition, inviting Congress to legislate on subjects over which the general government has no jurisdiction, " have a tendency to create disquiet and jealousy, and ought, therefore, to receive the pointed disapprobation of this House." Objections being stated to this araendraent by Dana and Thatcher, Gray agreed tp raodify it by sub stituting for the last clause, " ought therefore to receive no encouragement or countenance from this House." Against the araendraent thus raodified but one vote was given in the negative, that of Thatcher, who had repre sented the District of Maine ever since the adoption of the Constitution, and who had lost no opportunity to sig nalize his hostility to slavery. In the course of the ses sion, the committee to whom the petition was referred May 10. brought i;i a bill whieh passed to be enacted, restricting, by raore stringent provisions, the supply of slaves to for eign countries by ships of the United States. The opposition had already coraraenced the campaign in the House by a resolution, offered by Nicholas, for thc repeal of all the late laws authorizing an increase of the FIRST APPEARANCE OF JOHN RANDOLPH. 343 military and naval establishments. To this it' was ob- chapter XIV. jected that it was necessary to keep up a good show of . defense as a support to the negotiation lately recom- 1800. menoed, but of the success of which no accounts had yet been received ; and the motion, after a three days' debate, was rejected fifty-nine to thirty -nine. Among the speak- June lu ers in this debate was John Randolph, a very young man, scarcely of age, a singular mixture of the aristo crat and the Jacobin — an aristocrat by birth, education, and temperament ; a Jacobin, at this time, out of enthu siasm for France, and during all his life out of a sprt of Ishmaelitish opposition to the exercise of authority by any body but himself. In jealousy, envy, caprice, and passion, he ever exhibited the familiar characteristics of that unhappy neutral sex sufficiently common in East ern countries, though rare araong us, to which he was said to belong. In his speech upon this occasion, with that insolence which never forsook him, Randolph spoke of the officers of the army and navy as " a handful of ragamuffins," who consumed the fruits of the people's labor under pretext of protecting them from a foreign yoke. Being at the thea ter a night or two after with some other members of Con gress, two or three young officers entered the box where he sat, jostled against him, repeating the word " raga muffin," and when, in order to avoid a quarrel, he rose to leave, they pulled him by his coat and otherwise in sulted him. The next day Randolph addressed a letter to the president not less characteristic than his speech. Claiming to hold, in common with Adams, "the honora ble station of servant of the same sovereign people," and on the ground that his application required no preface of apology, he proceeded, as he expressed jt, " without the circumlocution of compHment," to set forth his case as ,344 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ( chapter one in which the independence of the Legislature had XIV. been attacked, the majesty of the people insulted, and 1800. the president's authority contemned ; and he ended with demanding action on the president's part "commensurate with the evil, and calculated to deter others from any future attempt to introduce the Reign of Terror." Randolph doubtless expected to place the president in a dilemma between syrapathy for the officers and respect for the rights of a representative. But he found the ta bles very quietly turned upon hira. The president sent a message to the House inclosing Randolph's letter, as to which he observed that, as it related to the privileges of the House— a raatter not proper to be inquired into except by the House itself— ^he had sent it to them with out any further comraents either on its raatter or style ; but as no gross iraproprieties on the part of persons hold ing coraraissions in the service ofthe United States ought to be passed over without due animadversion, he had di rected an investigation into the matter coraplained of, for the purpose of obtaining a stateraent of facts such as might enable him to decide on the course which duty and justice raight deraand. It was proposed to refer this message, with its incld- sure, to a select coraraittee — a step which Randolph vehe mently opposed. Adhering to the doctrine raaintained by his party in the case of Lyon — whora he seeras also to have taken as a model of Republican plainness and simplicity in manners — he insisted that the House had no jurisdiction in the raatter, and that to assurae it on this occasion raight prove a bad precedent. He wished, as in his letter, to shift off the whole responsibility of in quiry and punishment upon Adaras, who, as coramander- in-chief, had, so he maintained, abundant authority ui tho matter. But the House were almost unanimously QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE. 345 of opinion that, in a question so serious as that of their chapter XIV. privileges — and that certainly was one of the grounds on , which Randolph's letter had placed the matter — the pres- 1800. ident had acted with great discretion in referring the whole subject to them. A special committee was ac cordingly appointed, from which a report was soon made severely censuring not the style only, but object also, of Randolph's letter to the president. Whatever might have been the writer's intentions, this letter was pro nounced by the committee as in itself little short of a breach of the privileges of the House, being an attempt tp transfer to the president the jurisdiction over a matter of which the House itself was the peculiar and exclusive judge. As to the alleged insult witnesses had been ex amined ; the officers implicated had denied any knowl edge that Randolph was in the box ; and the whole tes timony as to what was said and done was so contradic tory, that, in the committee's opinion, no case requiring any action appeared. This report was adopted in spite of the earnest efforts of Randolph's party friends ; and he was thus obliged not only to put up with the retort which his own insolence had provoked, but himself to submit to the censure of Congress ; wjiile no punishment ofthe officers could be obtained — for, of course, after this, the jiresident took no further steps in the matter. This was a lesson by which a wiser man might have profited ; but a peevish, sneering, and quarrelsome insolence was so ingrained a part of Randolph's sickly nature, that not even the severest lessons of experience could restrain it. Though the proposal to return to the former peace es tablishment had been rejected, great anxiety was felt by a part of the Federalists on the score of the national ex penses, which had, indeed, been the great arguraent on the part of the opposition. From a statement submitted 346 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER by the Secretary of the Treasury, it appeared that if the ' additional twelve regiments were corapleted to the es- 1800. tablishraent — as yet only 3400 men had been enlisted, though all the officers had been appointed — and if the building of the seventy-fours were continued, a new loan of five millions would be neCessary to meet the expenses of the year. Under these circumstances, though not will- Jan. 15. ing to go quite the length of the opposition, a bill was in- troduced by thp Committee of Defense, which presently Feb. 20. becarae a law, suspending further enlistraents for the ad ditional regiraents,- but empowering the president, in case war should break out during the recess, to renew enlist ments at his discretion. No additional appropriation was made for the seventy-fours ; and the loan required was thus reduced to three millions and a half, which the May 7. president was authorized to borrow. As means of paying the interest on this and the pre- May 13. vious five raillion loan, additional duties were imposed of two cents and a half per pound on sugar-candy and half a cent per pound on brown sugar, raising the entire duty to tiivo cents and a half, also two and a half per cent. additional on all goods hitherto paying ten per cent, ad valorera, including all woolens, linens, and sUks, which were thus raade to pay the same twelve and a half per cent, as raanufactures of cotton. The duties on wines were also increased so as to range from twenty-three cents to fifty-eight cents per gaUon, Madeira still stand ing at the head of the Hst. The nuraerous insolvencies produced by the rage of land speculation and by the uncertainties of coraraerce, aggravated as they had been by the conduct of the bel ligerents, had made evident the necessity of laws for the discharge of insolvent debtors. The impolicy as well as cruelty of imprisonment for debts occasioned by the flue- BANKRUPT LAW. CONNECTICUT RESERVE. 347 tuations of trade and the Uncertainties of speculation had chapter XIV. begun to be felt ; and several of the states had already . tried their hands at the enactment of insolvent laws. 1800. More than once, at preceding sessions of Congress, the project had been brought forward of a general bankrupt law for the Union. Such a law was now passed, mod- April 4. eled after the English bankrupt law, and, Hke that, ex tending only to merchants and traders. But another act gave to all persons imprisoned on executions for debt is sued out of the Federal courts the right to discharge thehiselves from iraprisonraent — their property, should they acquire any, reraaining still liable for their debts — on taking an oath of poverty ; and this oath might also be taken with the same effect, even though no execu tion had issued, at any time after thirty days from the rendition of judgment. The tract of territory in the northeast corner of the present State of Ohio, reserved by Connecticut out of her cession to the United States, and thence known as the "Connecticut Reserve," had, as aliready has been raentipned, been sold by Connecticut, jurisdiction and all, tP a company of speculators. They had surveyed it into townships, and, under their auspices, a thousand settlers or more were already established on it. To these speculators the jurisdiction was of no pecuniary value, and was even likely to prove a serious embarrassment ; while, on the other hand, it was much for their interest to obtain from the United States a direct confirmation of the Connecticut title, hitherto only inferentially ac knowledged, and the more so as Connecticut, avoiding all risks, had only given them a quit-claim deed. On the other hand, it was an object for the United States to extinguish the claira of jurisdiction. In this mutuality of interests originated an act of Congress authorizing the April 28. 348 HISTORY OF THE "UNITED STATES. chapter issue of letters patent conveying the title to the lands " to the Governor of Connecticut, for the benefit df those 1800. claiming under her ; similar letters patent to be executed by Connecticut, relinquishing all claim to jurisdiction. This act, in obtaining frora Connecticut a relinquish raent of all her clairas to jurisdiction west of her present boundary, also had the effect to extinguish a controversy long pending between her and New York as to a strip of land along the southwestern boundary of the latter state, known as the "Connecticut Gore," and which Connecticut had clairaed as within her charter, on the sarae principles on which she had formerly claimed the northern portion of the State of Pennsylvania, as well as the Connecticut Reserve itself, and the ceded district west of it. The rising Connecticut settleraent on the Reserve be ing thus raerged into the Territory northwest ofthe Ohio, May 7. an act was passed dividing that territory into two sep arate jurisdictions, the region west of a line drawn frora the mouth of the Kentucky River to Fort Recovery, and thence due north to the Canada line, being erected into a separate territory, called Indiana, after one of the old anti-Revolutionary land companies, which had claims in that region. The assistance expected from the sale of the public lands toward the extinction of the pubHc debt had hith erto entirely failed to be realized. In fact, there was a powerful and influential body of raen interested in keep ing those lands out of the raarket, including the specu lators in military land warrants, and those who had pur chased up such immense tracts in New York and Penn sylvania, as well as in the Territory northwest of the Ohio, on which tracts alone had any settlements as yet been coraraenced. The act of 1796, authorizing the PUBLIC LANDS. INDIANA TERRITORY. 349 sale of public lands at Cincinnati, Pittsburg, and PhUa- chapter (delphia (at the two former places at vendue only, and in . xiv. .sections, as the smallest quantity), had effectually pre- 1800. vented purchases direct from the United States by ac tual settlers of sraall means, who were thus obliged to obtain their lands at second-hand from the speculators ; and during the four years this act had been in force, the total receipts under it, speculative purchases included, had scarcely amounted to $100,000. Principally through the urgency of Harrison, the del egate from the Territory northwest of the Ohio, and in hopes, also, of improving the revenue, this raethod of sale was considerably modified, and the substance of the ex isting land system introduced. By a new act on this May 10. subject, four land offices were to be opened within the, territory itself, at Cincinnati, Marietta, Chilicothe, and SteubenviUe, each with its register and receiver. The lands, subdivided into half sections of 320 acres each, after being offered at public auction, if not sold, might be entered at any time at the rainimura price of two dollars per acre, besides the expense of survey, one quar ter to he paid in forty days after the entry, and the re mainder in three installments spread over four years. A joint resolution had already been adopted, authorizing the president to appoint an agent to collect information as to the copper mines on the south side of Lake Superior. The new Territory of Indiana, vast as its extent was, contained only a few isolated spots to which the Indian title had been extinguished, and on which alone any set tlements existed. A Territorial Assembly was to be al lowed whenever a majority of the freeholders should de sire it. St. Vincent's, otherwise known as Vincennes, was fixed upon as the capital. The appointment of governor was given to Harrison, who had both family 350 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER and personal claims to it. His father had been a signer /^f the Declaration of Independence, and afterward gov- 1800. ernor of Virginia; while he had been himself first a lieu-- tenant in the army and an aid-de-camp to Wayne dur ing his campaign against the Indians, then secretary of the Northwestern Territory, and finaUy delegate of that territory to Congress. ' May 10. The immediate privilege of a Territorial Assembly was also extended to the Territory of Mississippi, where great dissatisfaction had arisen with the administration of Gov ernor Sargent. By the same act, the commissioners for adjusting with Georgia her clairas to that territory, were vested with full powers to arrange the whole matter ; with the restriction, however, that no money was to be paid to Georgia except out of the proceeds of the lands. Another act, designed to raeet such cases as Blount's, Jan. 10. had already passed, subjecting to fine and imprisonment any attempt, on behalf of any foreign power, to tamper with any of the Indian tribes, or the soliciting them to break the laws, infraet the treaties, or disturb the peace of the United States. The repeal of the Sedition Law, at least of that part of it relating to seditious libels, was early proposed by Macon in a committee of the whole, to which several petitions on that subject had been referred. Several of the Southern Federalists, and Marshall among the num ber, had adraitted the irapolicy of the law, and, as a means of securing their election, had pledged theraselves to vote for its repeal. Macon relied on their assistance, but he was effectually counterworked by Bayard, who Jan. 23. offered a resolution for the repeal of the section relating to libels, " the offenses therein provided for to remain pun ishable at common law," but the truth to be a defense. A division being called for, that part of the resolution go- CASE OF Nash or robbins. ^51 ing for repeal was carried fifty to forty-eight. The other chapter XIV. part of the resolution was also carried fifty-one to forty- seven. Gray of Virginia, and Nott of South Carolina, 1800. who had voted for the first clause, voting also for this. Thus amended, the resolution was voted down eighty- seven to eleven, those in the minority being mostly South ern FederaHsts. The bulk of the Federalists were as sisted in voting down the resolution by the whole opposi tion, as tending, in the shape in which it had, been adopt ed, to establish the doctrine of common law offenses against the United States — a doctrine far more alarm ing than the Sedition Law, which, by its own limitation, would expire in a year. The matter ofthe surrender of Thomas Nash, or Jon- Feb, 5. athan Robbins, as he had chosen to call himself, was brought before the House by a motion of Livingston's to call upon the president for the papers in the case. These papers were accordingly sent ; whereupon Living- Feb. 20. ston offered -resolutions charging the president with a dangerous interference, in that affair, with the rights and duties of the judiciary. These resolutions were vehe mently supported by Livingston, Nicholas, and Gallatin, to whom Bayard, Harper, Otis, and Dana replied. The debate was closed by a most conclusive argument by Marshall, which settled the principle, not for this case only, but for the future practice of the government. Still, it was deemed best to get rid of this inflammable question as quietly as possible ; and the Committee of March lo. the Whole, to whom the subject had been referred, was discharged from its further consideration by the decisive vote of sixty-two to thirty-five. Such was the raethod resolved upon for disposing of this matter, it not being considered politic to press a vote upon a counter-resolu tion of approval offered by Bayard. 352 history of the united states. CHAPTER The only proceedings of the Senate at this session which excited rauch public attention were those conneot- 1800. ed with an alleged breach of their privileges by Duane of the Aurora. In relation to a bill before the Senate, introduced by Ross, prescribing the raode of deciding dis puted elections of president and vice-president, of which the principal feature was the appointraent by ballot of a joint committee of both houses, with power to decide absolutely on the validity of any objections to any of the Feb. 19. electoral votes, Duane stated in the Aurora, and that in very abusive terms, that it was got up with the de sign to deprive Pennsylvania of her vote at the ensuing presidential election by a secret caucus of Federal sen ators, who controlled all the proceedings of that body. How the bill raight have had that operation will present- March 20. ly appear. The Senate, upon the report of a committee of privileges, to whom this publication had been referred, resolved that it contained " assertions and pretended in formation respecting the Senate and their proceedings" " false, defamatory, scandalous, and malicious, tending to defame the Senate, and to bring thera into conterapt and disrepute, and to excite against them the hatred of the good people of the United States, and that the said publication was a high breach of the privileges of the March 24. Senate." Having appeared at the bar in obedience to a suraraons, Duane asked and obtained perraission to be assisted by counsel, with this limitation, that they should only be heard as to such questions of fact as might arise, or in excuse or extenuation of his offense. Instead of, March 26. appearing at the time appointed, Duane sent copies of a correspondence between hiraself and his intended coun sel, Dallas and Thomas Cooper, the latter of whom we shall soon find defending a libel case of his own. In somewhat insolent terms toward the Senate, these two DUANE'S CONTEMPT OF THE SENATE. 353 opposition lawyers declined to act, since they wore not chapter to be allowed to dispute the constitutionality of the pro- ceeding; to which Duane himself added, that, being de- 1800. prived, under the restrictions which the Senate had seen fit to adopt, of all professional assistance, he thought him self " bound by the most sacred duties to decline any fur ther voluntary attendance upon that body, and to leave them to pursue such measures in this case as in their wisdom they may deem meet" — the word wisdom, by way of sneer, being underscored. The Senate thereupon voted hira guilty of a conteraptMaroh 27. in refusing to appear, and a warrant, signed by his friend the vice-president, was issued, directing the sergeant-at- arras to arrest him, and to hold hira in custody till fur ther orders. Duane evaded an arrest, and raeanwhile two or three petitions were got up by his friends in Phil adelphia, praying the Senate to reconsider their resolu tions. But instead of doing so, they adopted a resolution May 14. on the last day of the session requesting the president to instruct the proper law officers to coramence a prosecu tion against Duane for a libel on the Senate. The bill out of which these proceedings grew was greatly modified in the House by depriving the proposed joint coraraittee of the right of final decision, and other wise ; and, in the end, it was lost by disagreeraent be tween the two houses. The dissatisfaction which the president had given to a portion of the Federal party, first by the proposal of a new erabassy to France, and next by persisting in send ing the envoys, had continued to grow and increase dur ing the session. Though, for the first tirae since the di visions of party became marked, there was now a decided Federal majority in both houses, yet, as Jefferson ex- ultingly wrote, they had not been able to carry a single May 12. v.— Z 354 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER strong measure in the Lower House. Not only was there XIV. . a faltering in Congress, but out of doors, also, a visible 1800. abatement appeared of the zeal and ardor lately evinced in support of the administration. All this was ascribed by the ultra Federalists to the conduct of Adams, who was said to have thrown cold water on the public feeling by the renewal of negotiations with France, and in thus playing into the hands ofthe opposition, to have serious ly deranged, if not ruined, the Federal party. Nothing could be more unreasonable or unjust than these cdm- plaints. The moderation of the new Southern Federal members had not been infused into them by Adams. It did but indicate the highest pitch to which the feeling of resistance to French aggressions had risen in the South — a disposition to repel insults, but still to avoid war by all tolerable means ; and undoubtedly this was the disposition, also, of the great body of the Federal party throughout the Union, however a few might have thought and felt otherwise. The raore ardent Federal leaders, who had seen in the prospect of a war with France the coraplete prostration of Jefferson and his party, were disposed, in their disap pointment, to ascribe to Adaras's conduct that ebb of zeal which always takes place after every sudden excite raent, and which the appointraent of the new mission to France tended rather, perhaps, to delay and to moderate than to hasten or augment. But, whatever raight be thought of the policy df Ad ams, his course of proceeding had made one thine evi dent. He could not be depended upon as the instruraent of a party. As president, he was deterrained to exercise his own judgment. Of course, such a man could not be satisfactory to those who, as heads and leaders of tho Federal party, claimed to dictate, or at least substantial- BREACH OF THE FEDERAL PARTY, 355 ly to control, an administration raised to power through ch.apter their influence. It was natural enough for such men, conscious of their own integrity and confident in their 1800. own wisdora, to conjecture that the different views of policy taken by Adaras must have originated in certain by-ends and selfish objects of his own ; in jealousy of Hamilton and a disposition to secure his own re-election, no matter at what sacrifice of principle or at what risk to the Federal party. Already a scheme was on foot, in which Pickering, Wolcott, and M'Henry took a leading part, to contrive .some means for getting rid of Adams at the close of his present term of office, and of substituting in his place a more reliable party raan. Such, however, was the weight of Adams's personal character, and the respect and con fidence with which he was regarded by the Federalists generally, and especially in New England, that to have attacked him openly would have risked the triumph of the opposition even in that stronghold of Federal influ ence. On the other hand, Adams, though well aware of the intrigue going on against hira, and not a little era- bittered against its authors, did not dare, by any open breach with them, to risk the loss to the Federalists of those exceedingly doubtful Middle States, which had all along been the great battle-field of the two parties, and upon whose votes the final result of the presidential election raust depend. Indeed, by a very current cal culation, that result was raade to rest upon the vote of New York alone, and even upon the choice of raembers of Assembly to be made by the city of New York at the spring election. The votes of Maryland and North Carolina, in which latter state the Federal party had greatly increased of late, and in both of which the elec tors were chosen by districts, being supposed to be equal- 351) HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER ly divided. New England and the states south of Penn- XIV. , sylvania, according to this calculation, would balance 1800. each other. The result, then, would depend upon New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. But it was doubt ful whether Pennsylvania would vote at all, or, if she did, her vote raight be equally divided. The old law of that state for a choice of electors by general ticket had expired, and the Federalists who controlled the Senate would not agree to renew it. Should a choice by dis tricts be agreed upon, each party might safely calculate on about half the electors. It was whispered, indeed, that Governor M'Kean raeant to order an election under the expired law ; or should the opposition, at the approach ing election for members of Assembly, obtain a sufficient raajority, to call the Legislature together for a choice by joint ballot. But the Senate raight still refuse to con cur in this proceeding ; and it was to counteract any ir regular projects of this sort that Ross's bill for canvass ing the electoral votes — the occasion of the proceedings against Duane — had been introduced into the Senate^ Supposing Pennsylvania not to vote or to be pretty equal ly divided, the electors of New Jersey, a state exceed ingly doubtful, would not be nuraerous enough to be of any use to either side without New York. In that state the choice of electors was to be by the Asserably in joint ballot ; and such was the known strength of parties in the rest of the counties, that the raajority in joint ballot was sure to depend upon the result in the city of New York, where twelve members were to be chosen on a single ticket. While so much depended on the state, and even the city of New York, the latter the focus of Hamilton's influence, policy would not aUow, by the rupture of the cabinet, the betrayal to the public of any internal dissensions. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES. 357 The same motives which operated with Adams to pre- chap'i'er vent the dismissal of his now hostile secretaries, had op- ^ erated also with them to prevent their resignation. The 1800. success of their plans, as well as of Adams's, required a Federal majority in the electoral colleges ; and the great est caution was necessary lest any blow aimed at Ad ams personally might result in the defeat of the Fed eral party. The man upon whom the ultra Federalists had fixed their eyes as on the whole their most reliable and available candidate, was Charles C. Pinckney, the late envoy to France, whose conduct in that mission, at once spirited and discreet, and whose patriotic behavior respecting military rank, had brought himeonspicuously before the public, while his Southern citizenship might, perhaps, secure votes not attainable by any Northern man. The method, as the Constitution then stood, of voting for two candidates, without distinction as to the office for which they were intended, the one receiving the highest number of votes to be president, furnished peculiar facil ities for quietly displacing Adams without seeming to make any open attack upon him ; and even without the necessity that more than a limited number of influential politicians should be in the secret. The names of Adams and Pinckney being brought forward in a private caucus of the Federal members of Congress, held for the purpose of agreeing upon candidates to be supported by the par ty, it was recommended, pretty unanimously, that both should be voted for equally ; but the opponents of Adams secretly hoped that means might be found to secure for Pinckney the larger vote. A similar caucus of the opposition raerabers selected as their candidates Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, with the distinct understanding, however, that Jefferson 358 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTpp -was the choice of the party for president. Both these caucuses were held with profound secrecy, and their pro- 1800. ceedings, instead of being formaUy reported and publish ed in the newspapers, were only diffused among the local leaders by personal communication and private corre spondence. News having been received, toward the end of the ses sion, of the arrival of the new envoys in Europe, and of May 10. the prospect of a favorable result, an act was passed for the discharge, with three months' extra pay, of all the officers of the additional regiments, and of the men so far as they had been enlisted. But, though warlike prepa rations by land were thus abandoned, the comraercial non-intercourse, and the arming of merchant vessels, con tinued by acts of the present session, were still adhered to. The navy afloat, increased to nine frigates and twenty-five smaller vessels, still kept the seas in two principal squadrons, one on the St. Domingo station, the other, under Truxton, off Guadaloupe ; but, from the ne cessities of the service, the vessels were generally scatter ed. Truxton, in the Constellation, while cruising alone Feb. 1, off Guadaloupe, discovered a large vessel, to which he gave chase. It was the French frigate La Vengeance, of fifty guns, with from four to five hundred raen, bound fur France, with a large quantity of specie and of other valuable goods on board, which raade her lay very deep in the water. The Frenchman attempted to escape, but after a two days' chase, Truxton succeeded, about eight o'clock in the evening, in bringing on an action. The 1 wo ships, running side by side, kept up the contest till near one o'clock the next morning, by which time the Frenchman's fire being completely silenced, he hauled off and drew out of the combat. While attempting again to get alongside, Truxton discovered that the braces of NAVAL AFFAIRS.- 3 ; 3 9 his mainraast were all shot away, and before they could chapter XIV. be supplied the mast went by the board, thus giving the Frenchman a chance of escape, which he hastened to im- 1800. prove. The ConsteUation, having lost thirty-nine men killed and wounded, bore up for Jamaica for repairs. The French frigate, almost a wreck, and with upward of a hundred and fifty men killed or disabled, succeeded in getting into Cura9oa, where she was condemned as unfit for further service. Truxton's gallantry in this action, the news of which arrived before the adjournment of Con gress, was acknowledged by the vote of a. gold medal. March 29. 360 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XV. PENNSYLVANIA, MASSACHUSETTS, NEW YORK. STATE TRI ALS. CHANGES IN THE CABINET. STRUGGLE BETWEEN ADAMS AND HIS FEDERAL OP-PONENTS. CONVENTION WITH FRANCE. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS. REMOVAL OF THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT TO WASHINGTON. SECOND SESSION OF THE SIXTH CONGRESS. JUDICIARY ACT. PROJECT FOR MAKING BURR PRESIDENT. DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERAL PARTY. (CHAPTER JVNOWING how conservative M'Kean was in raost of his opinions, the Federalists had hoped, notwithstanding 1799. the constitutional ardor with which he had espoused the ^''' politics of the opposition, that, having secured his elec tion as governor of Pennsylvania, he would abate some what of that party vehemence by which he had been dis tinguished as a candidate. But the current which had set so fiercely in the new governor's mind against all who had opposed his election, could not be suddenly turned backward, or even stopped. In reply to the addresses of congratulation which his partisans poured in upon him, he stigmatized those who had voted against hira as either enemies to the principles of the Araerican Revolution, eraissaries of foreign governments, or office-holders or ex pectants of office under the Federal government. No Dec. 17. Sopner was he inducted into office, than, to punish his en emies and reward his friends, he made a vigorous use of the extensive powers of reraoval and appointraent vested in hira, being the first, in fact, to introduce that system into American politics, at least upon an extensive and sweeping scale. Governor Mifflin, who died shortly after POLITICS OF PENNSYLVANIA. ^61 the accession of M'Kean, in filling up the civil offices un- chapter ( der the new state Constitution, at a time when party lines were notyet distinctly drawn, and while he himself 1799. was a Federalist, had naturally enough made his selec tions, to a very great extent, frem ampng his fellpw-spl- diers in the Revolutionary army ; and of these a very large proportion had taken the Federal side, and had voted and electioneered in faVor of Ross. In the eyes of M'Kean, this was a crime more than sufficient to counterbalance any merits or services, however great ; and almost all those so guilty were speedily removed from office, and their places filled by M'Kean's own partisans. Some of his appointments occasioned great surprise, especially that of Breckenridge, who had been so much implicated in the Whisky Insurrection, to a seat on the behoh of the Su preme Court. But, while thus sacrificing to party with the one hand, he paid a tribute to legal learning on the other, in raising to the place of chief justice his late as sociate Shippen. During the Revolution Shippen had reraained quiescent, being personally inclined to the Brit ish side. Upon the reorganization of the courts under the new Constitution, he had been appointed a judge by Mifflin. Even Breckenridge, whatever his eccentricities and faults as a man or a politician, proved, in his judi cial character, no disgrace to the bench. The Asserably ha,ving met at Lancaster, whither, by an act of the preceding session, the seat of government had been removed, the Senate, in which the Federal- j^sOO ists had a majority, after taking a month to consider Jan. is. M'Kean's inaugural address, very briefly expressed in their answer their satisfaction at the sentiments an nounced in it ; after which they proceeded to read the governor a lecture on the denunciatory style of his an swers to addresses, and his prescriptive systera of re- 362 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER movals from office. To this address the governor made XV. a long and caustic replication, in which, with his usual 1800. force of argument, he totally denied, the right of the Sen- Jan. 28. a^^g ^0 intermeddle, under the forra of an address, with matters over which the Constitution had given thera no control, except in case of an impeachment of the govern or for misbehavior in office. These papers seeraed, indeed, by their tone, to carry one back to the times of the struggles between the pro prietary governors and the provincial assemblies. In the House, where the governor's friends had a small majority, party spirit ran also very high, giving rise to some singular scenes. Pending a debate on a new elec tion act, by one section of which the Republican mem bers proposed to deprive of the right of voting all citizens of Pennsylvania enlisting into the military service of the Feb. 20. United States, the pacific Logan, who had volunteered a voyage across the Atlantic to preserve peace between France and America, while leaving the House just after an adjournraent, got into a bout of fisticuffs with a Fed eral member, whose speech against this disfranchizing provision the doctor had chosen to pronounce " d — n non sense" — a criticism which that member had answered with a blow, which Logan's Quakerism did not prevent his returning. In Massachusetts the opposition had brought forward Gerry as a candidate for governpr. Suraner had died in office, and Strong was selected by the Federalists as their candidate. The election was very warraly contest- April 7. ed. Strong was chosen by 19,600 to 17,000 votes; but the support given to Gerry was quite enough to prove that, even in Massachusetts, the predorainancy of the Fed eralists was not entirely secure. Already, before the adjournment ofCongress, had taken AFFAIRS OF NEW YORK. 3 (j 3 place the important election in New York, on which so ciupieh much depended. Hamilton on the one side, and Burr , on the pther, made every ppssible exertion. The oppo- 1800. sition Assembly ticket for the city of New York was very '^j^"' ^"^ skillfully drawn up. At the head of it was placed the narae of ex-Governor Clinton, and it bore also the naraes of Brockholst Livingston as the representative of the Liv ingston interest, and of General Gates, who, having sold his plantation and emancipated his slaves in Virginia, had resided for the last ten years in New York and the vi cinity, being known as the warm political friend of Burr. It was only, however, by great efforts on Burr's part that either Clinton or Livingston had consented to this use of their names. Clinton considered his own preten sions to the presidency to have been unreasonably over looked in favor of Jefferson, whom he regarded as a trick ster and trimmer ; nor was Livingston particularly anx ious to promote the success of the presidential ticket agreed on. Burr went beyond every body in all the arts of electioneering intrigue. The year before, upon the question of sustaining the Federal government against the insolence of the French Directory, the Federalists had carried the city by five hundred majority. Now, upon the question of the next presidency, the opposition had a raajority nearly as great. There was, however, one resource left. The political year of New York commenced with July. There was time, therefore, to. call the present Federal Asserably to gether, and to pass an act simUar to one proposed at the late session, but rejected by the corabined votes of the more ardent of both parties, for an election by districts. Should such a bill pass, the Federalists might secure at least five out of the twelve votes to which New York was entitled. A letter was accordingly written to Jay May 7. i364 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER " bv one of the raost distinguished and influential Fed- XV. eralists in the United States" — such was Jay's endorse- 1800. ment on the back of the letter, which probably carae frora Harailton — suggesting an extra session of the Legisla ture, to consider the expediency of such an act. Such a procedure, the letter adraitted, raight be esteemed to transcend the ordinary forms of delicacy and decorum ; but the coraraunity's substantial interests ought not to be sacrificed to mere scruples of delicacy, while all means not contrary to good morals or to law ought to be eraployed to save the governraent frora falling into the hands of a dangerous party, which itself never scru pled to take every advantage of its opponents that the most strained construction of the law could be made to justify. This reasoning might seera conclusive, as, indeed, it often has done, to warm party politicians, who identify beyond the power of separation, so far, at least, as they are concerned, the success of their own party and the salvation of the state. But to Jay, who, after a long experience, had finally made up his mind to retire from public life, it did not seera so certain that the welfare of the state would be perraanently proraoted by a precari ous party triumph secured by means open to cavil, and which might serve as provocation to procedures of a character still more questionable. He therefore endorsed the letter as " proposing a measure for party purposes which he did not think it becarae hira to adopt ;" and, with a raagnaniraity very contrary to what he himself had experienced at the hands of those who caUed them selves Republicans, while they stigmatized him as a mon archist, declined to take any step toward defeating the popular will, as so recently expressed. The spring circuit of the Federal courts, which com- HOLT AND COOPER. 3g;3 inenced about the tirae of the Massachusetts election, chapter XV. iurnished new matter of clamor to the opposition. Holt, who had lately removed from New York to be- 1800. come publisher of the Bee, an opposition newspaper re cently established at New London, in Connecticut, and indicted, at a former term, under the Sedition Law, was April 17. now found guilty of a libel tending to defame the pres ident and to discourage enlistments into the army, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and a fine of $200. , A trial which' excited greater attention was that of Thoraas Cooper, already mentioned as one of Duane's in tended counsel in the question of breach of the privileges of the Senate. An Englishman by birth. Cooper had been educated as a barrister ; but, not restricting him self to the law, in which he was well read, he had also turned his attention to metaphysics, politics, and the sci ences, especially the then new science of chemistry, in experimenting in which he had spent a considerable part of his inherited fortune. Having embraced the new doc trine of the rights of man with great zeal, he had ren dered himself obnoxious in England, and, in consequence, had emigrated to America at the same tirae with his friend Priestley. Not raeeting with rauch success in the practice of the law, for which, notwithstanding his tal ents and learning, his irritable and supercilious temper ament and speculative turn of mind but ill qualified hira, he had applied, through Priestley, to Adams for an office. Failing in that application, he had established a news paper in one of the back counties of Pennsylvania, and had advocated in it, with great zeal, the election of M'Kean. The whole current of Cooper's sentiments at that time made him sympathize with the opposition, though probably his own private disappointment somc- 366 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter what sharpened his resentment against Adams in par- XV ticular, whom he had charged, in the article for which 1800. he was indicted, with having, by the unnecessary and unbecoming violence of his official communications, such as might justly have provoked a declaration of war, sad dled upon the nation, in tirae of peace, the expense of a permanent navy, and threatened it with that of a per manent array, to be supported by loans at eight per cent. He had also charged the president, in the same article, with having interfered to influence a court of justice "in the melancholy case of Jonathan Robbins, a native cit izen impressed by the British, and delivered up, at the president's request, to a mock trial by a British court martial" — " an interference without precedent, against law, and against mercy ;" "a stretch of power which the monarch of Great Britain would have shrunk from." The indictment found against Cooper for this article was very likely intended to punish him for his late aid to Duane in insulting the Senate. Cooper set up the truth in defense, and sumraoned a great number of wit nesses, chiefly members of Congress, none of whom, how ever, were examined. What he principally relied upon was a number of extracts from the president's answers, which had been collected in a volume, to the various addresses he had received ; though, being unauthenti- cated, the court told him they could not be evidence. But he claimed to offer the printed copy on the ground that, having applied to the president for authenticated copies of these answers, a note had been received from the president's secretary declining to afford him any in formation on the subject. The jury found him guilty, and Chase, who presided at the trial, and who treated Cooper throughout with much delicacy, sentenced him to six raonths' impri,sonment and a fine of $400. SECOND TRIAL OF FRIES. 367 Before this same court came on the second trial of chapter . XV. Fries for high treason. At the former trial the council for Fries had argued at great length to the jury that 1800. the offense was not treason, but riot ; and had cited a great number of English cases to support that distinc tion. Considering those cases as wholly irrelevant, the definition of treason depending not on English cases, but on the express terms of the Constitution of the United States, Chase reduced his view of the law to writing, and handed it to the prisoner's counsel, as that by which the course of the trial must be governed. Having no hope of the acquittal of Fries, and wishing to lay a founda tion for an appeal to eixecutive clemency, the prisoner's counsel put on an air of great indignation at this restric tion on their right to argue the law to the jury, and though Chase immediately withdrew the obnoxious pa per, they refused to appear any further in the case, and secretly advised their client to procure no other counsel. Fries was again found guilty, but was presently par doned by the president, as well as two others convicted of the sarae offense — an act of clemency very much clamored at by sorae of the ultra Federalists as having been dictated by a raean desire of popularity, in a case where a stern exaraple was needed. But surely, at this day, none will be inclined to complain at Adams's unwill ingness to be the first president to order an execution for treason — an act of authority which, thank God I none of his successors have yet found occasion to exercise. Having finished the Pennsylvania circuit. Chase, who was a great partisan of Adams's, and who was accustom ed to mingle a good deal of politics in his Charges to grand juries, proceeded to Richmond. There he pro- June cured the indictment of CaUender for certain passages of a recent publication, called the "Prospect before us," 368 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER filled with abuse of Washington as well as of Adams. XV. l„_It was afterward proved by autograph letters, produced 1800. by CaUender himself, that Jefferson, in spite of his dis claimers to Madison and others, not only contributed money toward the publication of this miserable election eering pamphlet, but actually saw and approved a part of the proof-sheets. CaUender was defended by three young lawyers, one of thera the afterward distinguished WUliara Wirt. Not having any defense on the facts, they wished to argue to the jury the constitutionality of the Sedition Law; but this Chase would not allow" He checked the counsel with no very great cereraony ; and they, seeing no other resource, followed the recent exara ple of Fries's counsel, by throwing down their briefs and walking out of court, CaUender was found guilty, and sentenced to nine raonth.s' iraprisonraent, a fine of $200, and to give securities for his good behavior for the term of two years. The details of these trials are given with the more particularity, as Chase's conduct in those of Fries and CaUender was made the principal ground, sev eral years after, of an impeachment against him. Cal lender's was one of the last trials under the Sedition Act, of which the whole number did not exceed five or six. Perhaps there were as many cases raore in which prose cutions were coraraenced, but not brought to trial. While the opposition smarted under these applications of the law, and used them, too, with great effect for elec tioneering purposes, they found great corafort in the judg raent which had overtaken Cobbett in the already-men tioned libel suit brought against him by Dr. Rush. That suit had been brought to trial on the very day of Wash ington's death ; singular coincidence, as Cobbett remark ed, that while the father of his country was perishing under the lancet, he, Cobbett, should be mulcted in a PROCEEDINGS AGAINST COBBETT. 359 verdict of $5000 for having exposed and ridiculed the chapter dangerous, practice of excessive bleeding: Shippen, who presided at the trial, certainly pushed the law, in his 1800. charge to the jury, to the utmost extreme ; and Cobbett insisted that it was for this charge that Shippen was re warded with the post of chief justice. In anticipation, it would seem, of what was to happen, Cobbett had stop ped his paper, which, notwithstanding its circulation, having but few advertisements,, had never proved profit able, and had removed to New York. His property at Philadelphia we^s seized and sold pn execution, and sub sequently an attempt was made to imprison him at New York. But he easily found bail, and the judgment was afterward paid by a subscription among the British resi dents iu America. Upon the recognizances for his gopd behavior already mentioned, vsrhich M'Kean, by an ex ceedingly doubtful stretch of his legal authority, had re quired him to give, a suit had been commenced, two years before. Upon this suit, also, judgment of forfeiture was presently ebtained, and the sureties were ebliged to pay, but were subsequently indemnified by Cobbett. Mean while, this indefatigable pamphleteer was not idle. He issued at New York a series of pamphlets called the "Rush Light," in which he took ample vengeance upon all parties concerned in his prosecution. Before the end of the year he returned to England, whence he hurled another . quiver full of arrows at his American enemies, in ten octavo volumes, which had a large circulation on both sides of the Atlantic, containing a collection of his American pamphlets, with the spiciest of his Porcupine editorials. With that untiring energy for which he was remarkable, availing himself of his American experience, he soon commenced the first complete report of British Parliamentary debates ever published, at the same time v.— A A I 370 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CH.4PTER conducting a political journal of wide circulation. But xv. under that experience which a change of position afford- 1800. ed, he passed soraewhat rapidly frora a most vehement Tory to a most vehement Radical ; for to be moderate in any thing was not in his nature. His departure from the country was hardly less a relief to the FederaHsts than to the opposition. He had attacked Adams and the peace policy with great vehemence ; and even the most ultra of the war party, much as they enjoyed his sharp hits, could not but feel that his pen did them more hurt than gpod. The opposition charged that Cobbett was hired by the British government. It is true that Listen, the English erabassador, a sagacious Scotchman, far bet ter adapted to the position than his predecessor, took care to flatter Cobbett's vanity by showing him some atten tions. But he was of a spirit far too proud td be bought with money, or to enlist as a mercenary into the service of any governraent or any party. The result of the New York election removed a great part of the reasons which had thus far induced the presi dent to temporize with his political enemies in the cab inet. That result, indeed, left him, as the only chance of his re-election, the securing of Southern votes — an object not likely to be accomplished by retaining as his political advisers a raajority of ultra Federalists. Even apart frora any views of that sort, now that the restraints of poHcy were removed, he had abundant reasons for de siring a change. It had been his custora, in which he had followed and somewhat exaggerated the example of Washington, to retire, shortly after the adjournment of Congress, to his own private residence at Braintree, leav ing the routine of business to be conducted by the cab inet rainisters, who, however, in more important cases, consulted him by letter. He could hardly wish to con CHANGES IN THE CABINET, 37^ fide SO confidential a trust to a cabinet pf which the chapter XV. rnajprity were his political, if not his personal enemies. Under the vexation which the recent news of the loss of 1800. New Yerk might naturally inspire, he sent for M'Hen- ^^^^ ^• ry, who, in the letter of Wolcott's already quoted, giv ing an account of the opening of the session, had been described as a man of hdnor and entirely trustworthy, also a man of sense, who delivered correct opinions when required ; but at the head of a difficult and unpopular department, without being skilled in the details of exec utive business, which he exposed to delays by his diffi dence in himself, and in which he sometimes committed mistakes, which his enemies employed to impair his in fluence. Adams began, according to a letter of M'Hen- ry's, written very shortly afterward, with some matter of business. That disposed of, he entered into a general criticism of M'Henry's conduct; charged him with per sonal hostility ; " became indecorous, and, at times, out rageous;" and finaUy told hira that he must resign, which he did the next morning. M'Henry succurabed like a willow before the blast — a blast, indeed, which he recol lected for the rest of his life. Pickering was made of sterner stuff. When called upon to resign, he refused to do so, and Adaras then disraissed him. Sorae eight May 12. years after (1808), the ex-president's anger being revived anew by Pickering's collisions at that time with John Quincy Adams, he drew, in a private letter, a sketch of that gentleman's character, not, perhaps, without like ness, but which certainly would have suited quite as well, if not better, either Adams, father or son. "He is, for any thing I know, a good son, husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and cousin. But he is a man in a mask, sometimes of silk, sometimes of iron, and sometimes of brass, and he can change them very sud- 372 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER denly, and with sorae dexterity." " He is extremely sus- ceptible of violent and invetei-ate prejudices, and yet, 1800, such are the contradictions to be found in human char acters, he is capable of very sudden and violent transi tions from one extreme to an opposite. Under the sim ple appearance of a bald head and straight hair, and un der professions pf profound Republicanism, he conceals an ardent ambition, envious of every superior, and im patient of obscurity. He makes me think of a coal-pit covered over with red earth, glowing within, but unable to conceal the internal heat for the interstices which let out the smoke, and now and then a flash of flame." This, indeed, was not so much the character of an in dividual as of that whole class of athletic, energetic, pas sionate men, born for action, and hardly comfortable ex cept in the midst of a tumult, to which John Adams and his son, M'Kean, Chase, and Pickering alike belonged. But surely Pickering's use of the mask, whether of silk, iron, pr brass, and his facility of sudden and violent transitions, was far less than that of either of the others. Indeed, it was the want of sufficient flexibility, which was the greatest defect in Pickering's political character. John Adams and his son, as well as Chase and M'Kean, had also the advantage of him in a profound and varied learning, while Pickering had Httle to rely upon beyond his naturally vigorous intellect, and the multiplied ex periences of a very active life. Yet the pieces which came frora his pen during the controversy with France rank high in that collection of state papers which, with the series of political essays already referred to, consti tute the only valuable and distinctive Araerican litera ture during the half century from 1765 to 1815. Wolcott was not less decisive in his political opinions than either of the other secretaries. But he had pre- FEDERAL INTRIGUE AGAINST ADAMS. 373 served toward the president great courtesy of manner ; chapter XV. he xyas an excellent Secretary of the Treasury, whose place it might not be so easy to fill ; and perhaps the 1800. president considered it politic to allow to the ultra sec tion of the Federal party a representation, though not a majority in the cabinet. The places of the dismissed secretaries were very ably filled by Marshall as Secre tary of State, and Dexter as Secretary of War. In desiring to make their position in the cabinet a van tage-ground from which to carry on an intrigue to defeat the president's re-election, and in considering themselves as suffering a political martyrdom in being removed, M'Henry and Pickering by no means correctly appre ciated the tru6 and proper relation in which a cabinet officer ought to stand. The president, being solely re sponsible for the executive administration, has an un questionable right to the unshackled selection of his polit ical advisers and executive assistants ; and after so well expounding the matter, as he formerly had done to Mon roe, Pickering ought never to have put the president to the necessity of dismissing hira. These dismissals increased the anxiety of the ultra Federalists to substitute Pinckney as president in the place of Adams. But this was a matter in which they could not move without the greatest risk of burying themselves as well as Adaras in one common ruin. Should they openly attempt to deprive him of any Fed eral votes in order to give the majority to Pinckney, it could not, be doubted that the same policy would be re torted upon Pinckney, so that the result might be to place them both behind the two oppc^ition candidates. The mass of the FederaHsts reraained ignorant of the bit ter feud which had, sprung np among the leaders. That feud was still a political secret into which few were in- 374 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER itiated, and but very slightly alluded to in the public ______ prints. The feeling against Adams was confined, in a 1800. great raeasure, to a few active politicians. The attempt to diffuse their feeling among the mass could only give rise to dissensions in a party whose united force was hardly able to withstand the external pressure against it. Yet there were some so embittered against Adams as to be ready to operate for his defeat, even at the risk of bringing in Jefferson. Such was the feeling of Wol cott, who seems to have been chief engineer for the dis satisfied. Other cooler heads perceived that by no raeans whatever could the Federal leaders opposed to Adams raore effectually destroy theraselves in the public estima tion than by following out a plan of irapotent resentment, and thus bringing about the election of a man whom they had so long combined to hold up as devoid of every good principle, religious or political. In what a ridiculous position would they place themselves, after lauding Ad ams for four years as the wisest and firmest of men, to turn about and denounce him as one whose weakness, caprices, selfishness, and vanity raade hira unfit to be the head of a party or a nation ! The painful and alraost helpless position of these in- Juiy 22. triguers is graphically portrayed in a letter frora M'Hen ry to Wolcott. "Have our "party shown that they pos sess the necessary skill and courage to deserve to be con tinued to govern ? What have they done ? They did not (with a few exceptions), knowing the disease, the man, and his nature, meet it, when it first appeared, like wise and resolute politicians ; they tampered with it, and thought of palliations down to the last day of the late session of Congress. Nay, their conduct even now, not withstanding the consequences full in view, should the present chief be re-elected, in most, if not in all of the COUNTER OPERATIONS OF ADAMS. 375 1 states, is tremulous, tiraid, feeble, deceptive, and coward- chapter XV. ly. They write private letters. To whora? To each. (Other. But they do nothing to give a proper direction to 1800. the public mind. They observe, even in their conversa tion, a discreet circumspection, ill calculated to diffuse information, or to prepare the mass of the people for the result. They meditate in private. Can good come^ out of such a systera ? If the party recover its pristine en ergy and splendor, shall I ascribe it to such cunning, pal try, indecisive, back-door conduct ?" The Federal lead ers in New England, dreading the weight of Adams's name and influence, desired that the first open demon stration against him, if any was to be made, as to which they very much doubted, should come frora Maryland or New Jersey, But the Federalists of these two states, ac customed to look to New England for leadership,, did not think it at all expedient to place themselves at the head of so serious a movement. Fully aware of the intrigues going on against hira, Adaras was not the man to reraain quietly on the de fensive. He freely denounced his Federal opponents under the appellation of the " Essex Junto" — several of their chief leaders in Massachusetts being residents in op connected with that raaritime county — as a faction de voted to England, whose real ground of complaint against hira was that he had refused to involve the nation in an unnecessary war with France. Thus, both personally and through his partisans, he appealed to that spirit of aniraosity against England, deeply rooted in his own breast, and still operating with great force on the popu lar mind. The men thus struck at thought it hard in deed that this imputation of subserviency to England — a long-standing accusation ofthe opposition as against the whole Federal party, and of which Adams himself had 376 HISTORY OFTHE UNITED STATES. chapter been a special mark — shduld now be caught up by him XV ' and pointed exclusively against them ; nor could they 1800. see any thing in it but a mere electioneering trick, a dis honest appeal to the passions and prejudices of the mul-' Aug. 3. titude. " You will at length," so Ames wrote to Wol cott, " clearly discern in the gazettes the whole plan of a certain great man. It is by prating about impartial ity, Araericanism, liberty and equality, to gull the weak among the Feds. Half the wealthy can be made to re pine that talents without wealth take the right hand of them. Purse-pride works in Boston. They are vexed that an Essex Junto should be more regarded than the men whose credit in money matters so far outweighs thera. The Federalists hardly deserve the name of a party. Their association is a loose one, formed by acci dent, and shaken by every prospect of labor or hazard." Yet this charge of devotion to England, though some what exaggerated, was not by any means without foun dation. Though, when first brought forward against the whole Federal pairty, it had been a mere chimera, the offspring of that unsatiated hatred which saw in any thing approaching, to moderation and candor symptoms of a culpable attachment, it had come now in the course of events to describe something that actually existed- — a counterpart, though comparatively a very modest one, to that French faction which had exercised so powerful an influence upon the national politics. Sympathy for rev olutionary France, regarded as the champion of political and social reforms as against the ancient despotisms of Europe, had created a faction in the United States, the object of which seemed to be to throw America headlong into the arms of France — an object supported and en couraged, to a very considerable extent, by the general opposition of which this faction formed a part. At first VIEWS OF THE ESSEX JUNTO, 377 these enthusiasts had found their principal oppdsition in chapter the firmness of Washingtpn, the sagacity ef Hamilton, and especially from that inertia which always dpppses it- 1800, self to any great and sudden mevement. But these ex cesses pf the French Revelution which, at the raoment of their happening, had seemed to strike the public at tention as little more than a horrible dream, had begun, in the minds of a large portion of the comraunity, to as surae the character of terrible realities, and to be brooded over, without any very nice analysis of their real causes, as the necessary consequences of the practical application of those principles Which the leaders of the French Rev olution had proclaimed— principles held up to execration under what had now become the odious narae of Jacc- binisra. As developed in practice, whatever it might be in theory, the system of Jacobinism had turned out to be nothing raore than the violent seizure of power by suc cessive factions of aiidacious, enthusiastic, and turbulent men, impatient of all control and greedy of authority, who, as the pretended agents of the people, and in the name of the rights of man, had successively exercised a horrible despotism, not to be paralleled except by the worst passages in the history of the worst times, A nat ural reaction against the admirers and would-be imita tors of such a system and such men, joined to the late outrageous conduct of France, and to the fact that En gland seemed to be the only power capable of offering to her any effectual resistance, had in many bosoms extin guished the Revolutionary antipathy to Great Britain, and had gradually brought her to be regarded as the great champion of law, order, reHgion, and property, against what seemed the demoniac fury of the French Revolu tionists, Of those entertaining these feelings there were many ready and anxious to join England in the war 378 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER against France, as the only means of saving the LTnited " States from French influence and JaCobin triumph, 1800, Naturally enough, they had been greatly displeased at the renewal of negotiations with France ; and these were the raen whom Adams denounced, and not altogether without reason, as constituting an English faction. With the sarae degree of truth with which they had charged French influence as operating on Jefferson and his asso ciates, they might be now said to be themselves acting under English influence. French sympathies and En- glish sympathies would, in either case, have been the more accurate expression ; but the language of political passion, always greatly exaggerated, makes, at the best, only a certain approach toward the truth. Very unfortunately for Adams, as to this point of British influence, his enemies of both partips were en abled, just at this moraent, to put hira to a mortifying disadvantage. An old letter of his, betrayed through a gross breach of confidence, displayed in a striking Hght some of the weakest points of his character. Like all persons of his impulsive temper, always too ready to be tray himself by his tongue or his pen, Adams had been inveigled, during Washington's first term of office, into a confidential correspondence with Tench Coxe, a mous ing politician and temporizing busy-body, though a man of considerable financial knowledge and ability, who held at that moment the place of Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. The insignificance of Adams's position as vice-president was, as we have had occasion to notice, far from agreeable to his active teraperaraent, and he had even expressed his readiness to return to England as embassa dor — an appointraent, however, which Washington did not think consistent with the position of vice-president, which Adaras desired to retain. In a fit of ill humor at ADAMS'S LETTER TO COXE. 379 this disappointraent, Adams had written a letter to Coxe chapter XV. (May, 1792), in reply to one containing some allusipns. to the appointment of Thomas Pinckney, in which he 1800. remarked, "The Duke of Leeds once inquired of rae, very kindly, after his classraates at Westrainster school, the two Mr. Pinckneys, which induces rae to conclude that our new embassador has many powerful old friends in England, Whether this is a recommendation of him for the pjfice cr not, I have, other reasons to believe that his family have had their eyes fixed upon the embassy to St, James for raany years, even before I was sent there, and that they contributed to limit the duration of my comraission to three years, in prder te , make way fpr themselves to succeed me, I wish they may find as much honor and pleasure in it as they expected, and that the public may derive frora it dignity and utility ; but know ing as I do the long intrigues, and suspecting as I do much British influence in the appointment, were I in any executive department, I would take the liberty to keep a vigilant eye upon them," Subsequently to this correspondence, under the new arrangement of parties which grew out of the French Revolution and Jay's trea,ty, Coxe, who made some pretensions to speculative science, became, like almost all, persons of that descrip tion, a zealous partisan of France, and, of course, a mem ber of the American opposition. Being disraissed frora the office of Supervisor of the Revenue, shortly after Ad ams's accession to the presidency, for gross misbehavior, as the Secretary of. the Treasury alleged, but as Coxe would have it, on account of his pplitical principles — in fact, fpr carrying stories about the treasury to the Au rora, where they were detailed with great exaggeration and a very false coloring — he waited his opportunity for revenge. Nor did he have occasion, to wait long. An 380 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER indictment, under the Sedition Law, was presently found XV. .against Duane, the new editor of the Aurora, part of the 1800. matter charged as Hbelous relating to this very subject of British influence; whereupon Coxe furnished Duane with Adams's letter, as a piece of evidence toward proving the truth of the charge. The district attorney, to whom the letter was shown, perceiving the delicate position in which Adams would be placed by it, was thus induced to let the prosecution drop. But this was not the end of it. Coxe's letter, handed about in manuscript — being the same, in fact, to which Wclcctt had alluded in his account, already quoted, ofthe opening ofthe sixth Con gress— ^had contributed greatly, as Wolcott stated, td im pair the confidence in each other formerly existing among the leaders of the Federalists, So long as it remained in manuscript, Pinckneyj, though well aware of its ex istence, had not deemed hiraself called upcn tp notice it. Subsequently to the adjournment of Congress it was Aug. 28. printed in the Aurora, to which Coxe, about that time, became a principal contributor ; whereupon Pinckney wrote frora Charleston, in a tone not only respectful but friendly, calling the president's attention to it as prob ably a forgery. Adams,. in his reply", which he caused at once to be published in the newspapers, while strong ly expressing his obligations to Pinckney for the tone Oct. 27. in which he had addressed him, acknowledged the au thenticity of the letter, at least as to its substance, and gave the following explanation of it, He had been told in London, shortly after his arrival there as embassador, that a Mr. Pinckney, a member of the Continental Con gress, had said that the limitation of three years, insert ed into his cemmissipn as minister to England (which had struck his attention as soraething new), had been placed there for the purpose of getting rid of him at the ADAMS'S LETTER TO COXE. 38I end of that period ; and that, as soon as that happened, chapter XV. a Mr. Pinckney, of South Carolina, Would be appointed. in his place. Bearing in mind this old piece pf gossip, 1800. when he understood that a Mr. Pinckney had been ap pointed embassador to England, he had concluded at once , that the intrigue set on fppt eight years before had at last been brought to a successful conclusion. It is a striking proof, among many others, how little, in the early days of the Federal administration, remote states knew of each other, that Adams, when he wrote his letter to Coxe, was ignorant how raany Mr. Pinckneys had attained to political consideration in South Carolina, or in what re lations they stood td each other, and was thus led to con found Charles Pinckney, now one pf the Seuth Carplina senatprs, and whp had been a member of the Continental Congress in 1785, with Thomas Pinckney, and his broth er^ Charles C. Pinckney ; or, at least, to suppose between them a political sympathy and co-operation which did not exist. Notwithstanding this ignorance, if, instead of listening to mischief-making tattlers and the hasty sug gestions of his own jealousy, Adams had exarained the printed Journal of the Continental Congress, he would have found that the Hmitation of three years, though moved by Charles Pinckney, had been introduced prior to the nomination of Adams to England, h^d been ex tended to all foreign missions al^ke, had been seconded by HoweU ef Rhpde Island, the very member by whom Adams was afterward nominated, had been supported by Gerry, always Adaras's friend, and had been voted for by all the New England states ; so that the idea of any blow aimed at him, in particular was evidently a raere chimera. As to the suggestipu of British influence, Adaras at tempted to put this gloss upon it. Taking the firiendly 382 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter inquiries of the Duke of Leeds as proof that the Pinck- ney faraily had influential acquaintances in England, 1800. he had been led to suppose that an intimation, in which there was nothing unusual or improper, had been given to the American government that one of the Mr. Pinck neys would be favorably received by the British court ; and he averred that in alluding to British influence, he had intended no more than that. Having thus explained away, as far as he could, the letter to Coxe, Adams proceeded to make the best rep aration in his power, by expressing' in strong terms his high opinion of both Thomas Pinckney and his brother Charles C. Pinckney — now the joint Federal candidate with Adams, and, in fact, his rival for the presidency. Since his letter to Coxe, he had enjoyed araple opportu nities, so he stated, for knowing the conduct of both, and, so far as had corae to his knowledge, they had displayed minds candid, able, independent, and wholly free from any iraproper bias toward Great Britain or any other country. Both had rendered iraportant public services, nor did he know any two gentiemen more deserving of public confidence. " I can not conclude," such was the closing paragraph of his letter, " without observing that we are fallen on evil times ; on evil times, indeed, are we fallen, if every piece of private ccnversatien is iraraedi ately to be betrayed and misrepresented in the newspa pers, and if every frivolous and confidential letter is to be dragged by the hand of treachery from its oblivion of eight years, and published by raalice and revenge for the purpose of raaking mischief" The allusion in this last paragraph to unguarded conversations betrayed and mis represented was no doubt intended to apply, not to Coxe, but to a remarkable pamphlet of Harailton's, which had then just issued from the press, and extracts from HAMILTON'S PAMPHLET AGAINST ADAMS. 333 which had already been surreptitiously published in the chapter Aurora and in Holt's New London Bee, . The reiterated charge made by the president in private 1800, Conversations against his Federal opponents, and now beginning to be repeated by his partisans in the news papers, that they were a British faction, rankled deeply in their bosoms, Hamilton, especially, was very indig nant ; and learning that the president had repeatedly men tioned hira by name as acting , under British influence, he Tiad written a respectful letter requesting explana- Aug. 1. tions. The president took no notice of this or a subse quent letter oii the same subject, and his silence, while Oct. 1. it aggravated the feelings of Hamilton, confirraed hira in a resolutidn, as to which Cabot and Wolcott in vain dis couraged him, to finish and print, with his own name to it, a paraphlet to be privately circulated araoUg the lead ing Federalists, vindicating himself against the insinua tions of Adams and his partisans, and also setting fdrth the reasons why Pinckney ought to be preferred for pres ident. That Hamilton had abundant personal provocation to the writing and circulation of this pamphlet can not be denied. In the then existing state of the public feel ing, the charge of subserviency to Great Britain was terrible indeed ; and, unless satisfactory explanations were given, he and his friends were in danger of political ruin from Adams's charges. Besides, he had the best reasons for believing that, with respect to himself in particular, Adams had repeatedly indulged in the most virulent and indecent abuse, not only stigmatizing him as the leader of a British faction, but assailing even his pri vate character, and holding hira up as a man destitute of every moral principle ; charges afterward repeated in that famous Cunningham correspPndence cf Adams's, 384 ^ HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter frora which we have already raade several quptations — and which continue to be cited as testimony by ^v-riters 1800. who would have us believe that in his relations with woraen Harailton was as profligate as MiffHn, Burr, or Edwards ; a slander raainly founded on the case of Mrs. Reynolds, and upon which Adams's austere Puritanism had seized, in the absence of other matter of attack, with an eagerness quite rabid.. It was the great object of Hamilton's panaphlet to show, without denying Adaras's patriotisra and integrity, and even talents of a certain kind, that he was not adapted to the administration of government, there being in his character great and intrinsic defects which unfit ted him for the office of chief magistrate. The chief of these defects were stated to be "an imagination subli mated and eccentric, propitious neither to the regular display of sound judgment, nor to steady perseverance in a systematic plan of conduct ;" "a vanity without bounds;" " a jealousy capable of discoloring every ob ject;" " disgusting egotism and ungovernable indiscre tion." This w^s, to be sure, a somewhat strong pres entation pf the dark side of Adams's character, yet, in the main, it was correct — for his was a character not tp be faithfully portrayed, whether as to its Hghts or its shadows, except in pretty strong colors. In proof of its correctness, Hamilton added a sketch of Adams's po- litical career, especiaUy of his late official acts, inter spersed with a number of authentic anecdotes, which showed, indeed, how little control Adams often had over his tongue and his pen, and how, in moments of excite ment, he gave vehement and unguarded expression to his feelings. But all this was very far frora proving — what was charged, not in this letter only, but in the private correspondence' as weU of Jeffersen as of Wolcptt — that ADAMS AND HAMILTON. g g ^^ Adams acted without any settled plan, without any fixed chapter XV. system or theory, and much raore under the guidance of . caprice and passion than of judgment. Passion-tossed, 1800. and sometimes transformed, undoubtedly he was, as all persons of his hot temperament and vivacious imagina tion always must be. His, indeed, was a character hard ly comprehensible by the serene and magnanimous Ham ilton, the steady, sagacipus Wolcott, or the crafty, secre tive, dissembling Jefferson, Adams's temperament was, however, qualified,' and as to all his most important pub lic actions,, overmastered and controlled, by a vigorous judgment, penetrating and prompt, of which, in the great events of his Hfe, "his sublimated and eccentric imag ination" was, as results proved, not the master, but the useful and ready servant. As to himself — a subject on which he dwelt but brief ly — Harailton might well declare, as he formerly had in answer to Jefferson's assaults, that " in the cardinal points of public and private rectitude — above all, in pure and disinterested zeal for the interest and service of the country," he " shrank not from a comparison with any arrogant pretender to superior and exclusive merit," In reply to the charge of being the leader of a British fac- tion, he denied having ever advised any connection with Great Britain other than a comraercial one, or the giv ing to her any coraraercial privilege not granted to other nations ; nor had he ever been able to make up his mind as to the expediency of even a temporary alliance in case of a rupture with France. Although, as between themselves personally, Hamil ton had ground enough for his pamphlet ; though the tone of it, all things considered, was exceedingly candid ; and though his placing his name to it was in honorable con trast to Adams's silent evasion of charges which, however v.— B B 386 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter he might reiterate them, he did not venture to avouch XV. . ' , under his own hand ; yet the expediency of the publica- 1800. tion at this particular crisis was somewhat more than doubtful. Such, indeed, was the position of affairs, that Hamilton was obliged to stultify himself, as it were, by declaring, in conclusion, that he did not recomraend the withholding from Adams of a single vote ! He ex pressed his intention so to regulate the circulation of the paraphlet that it might not operate in that way to Adams's disadvantage, and his wish, also, to confine it within narrow limits. But, whatever might have been his intentions or wishes — and the expectation of mak ing a secret of such a printed paraphlet was chiraerical at the best — they were defeated at the outset by the watchful and artful Burr, who obtained one of the earli est copies, and sent off extracts, as already mentioned, to the Aurora and Holt's New London Bee. This made the appearance of an authentic edition necessary ; and it issued from the press coteraporaneously with the publi cation of Adams's letter to Pinckney, It is now time to take a look at the erabassy to France, the iraraediate cause of these bitter and ominous dissen sions araong the Federal leaders. As the French gov ernment, at the moraent of Ellsworth's and Davie's em barkation for France, was evidently on the eve of one of its periodical revolutions, it had been thought best that the frigate in which they sailed should touch at Lisbon for information. On arriving at that port they heard of the Revolution of Bruraaire (November 8, 1799), which some three weeks before had placed Bonaparte at the head of the state. The frigate then made sail for L'Ori- ent, but, after being tossed for a fortnight in the stormy Bay of Biscay, was obliged to put into Corunna. Thence Jan. 11. the commissioners wrote to Talleyrand, who stiU remain- NEGOTIATIONS AT PARIS. 337 ( ed, under the new adrainistration, at the head of .foreign chapter XV. affairs, asking passports for themselves, and that one . might also be sent to Murray at the Hague; and in- 1800. quiring if the circumstance that their letters of credence were addressed to the Directory, now passed away, would make any difference in the matter of their reception, Talleyrand replied that the ministers were waited for with impatience, and would be received with warmth. Thus encouraged, they proceeded to Paris, where they found their colleague Murray, who had arrived three days March 2. before them. A few days after, they were formally re ceived by the first consul ; and three plenipotentiaries, Joseph Bonaparte at the head, were appointed to treat with them. But a serious obstacle soon appeared which threatened to defeat the negotiation. The American corrimissioners were pereraptorily instructed to insist on the renuncia tion of the old treaties, which had been declared void by Congress, and also upon indemnity for spoliations on American commerce. The French coraraissioners were unwilling to relinquish the old treaties, especially the provisions relating to the adraission of French privateers and prizes into American ports, the more so as this privi lege, lost to the French, would, under Jay's treaty, be exclusively vested in the English so long as the present war continued. They \^rere still raore unwilling to pay any inderanities, for which they insisted there could be no claira except upon the assuraption that the treaties continued in force. After a good deal of delay for ad ditional instructions, caused by Bonaparte's absence frora Paris, they finally offered this alternative : the old trea- Aug. 11. ties, with stipulations for mutual indemnities, or a new treaty on equal terms, but without indemnities. After a good deal of correspondence, the American envoys sug- 388 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter gested a renewal of the old treaties, but with a reserva- XV. tion to the United States of a right to buy off their ob- 1800. ligations by the payment of certain fixed sums ; but the French commissioners were not inclined to adopt this suggestion, which would still have thrown the balance of payments against France. They frankly acknowledged that, as France had no money, it was a great object with her to avoid the payment of indemnities at all ; and they were, no doubt, the more encouraged to insist upon this, as the instructions of the former envoys, laid before Con gress and published, had allowed of such a settlement. As the instructions of the present envoys, more strin gent than those of the former mission, did not allow them to accept either of the French offers, the alterna tive was either to abandon the negotiation, or to make a temporary arrangement, subject to rejection or ap proval by the American government, such as might re lieve the United States from that position of semi-hostil ity in which they stood toward France — a position ren dered every day raore dangerous by the successes of Bo naparte and the growing prospect of a general European peace — or, should the war continue, raight secure Araer ican commerce, as far as possible, against those abuses of belligerent rights, on the part of the French, under which it had suffered so rauch ; saving also the great amount of captured American property on. which the French Council of Prizes had not yet passed definitive sentence. Oct. 1. On this basis a convention was presently concluded ; referring to future negotiation the indemnities mutually claimed, and the binding force of the old treaties, which, meanwhile, were to remain inoperative ; providing for the mutual restoration of public ships taken by either party, as weU as the restoration of all captured property, French CHOICE OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS. 339 or American, not already conderaned ; also for the ran- chapter XV. tual payraent of all debts due, whether by the govern- ' raent or by individuals; the commerce, and the pubHc 1800. and private ships of either party, to enjoy in the ports of the other the privileges of the most favored nation. The reraaining articles were principally devoted to the security of American commerce against those raultiplied vexatious pretenses hitherto set up by the French cruis ers, and countenanced by the governraent and the tri bunals. The provision of the old treaty that free ships sh,ould raake free goods was still retained in the new convention. Meanwhile, in Araerica, the grand struggle destined to decide, for years to corae, the policy and conduct of the Federal government, was fast approaching its crisis. Three, or, rather, four different modes of choosing elect ors of president and vice-president had been hitherto in use : a choice by the Legislature, either by joint ballot or concurrent vote ; an election by the people, by gen eral ticket, the whole nurhber of electors being voted for on one ballot throughout the state ; or a choice by dis tricts. The latter method was evidently that which gave the fairest expression to public opinion, by approaching nearest to a direct vote. But those states which adopt ed it were placed at the disadvantage of being exposed to a division of their strength and neutralization of their vote ; while the electors chosen by either of the other methods voted in a body on one side or the other, thus making the voice of the state< decisively felt. This con sideration had induced the two leading states of Massa chusetts and Virginia to abandon the district systera: in Virginia, where the party in opposition to the Fed eral government was overwhelmingly predominant, the choice had been given to the people by general ticket; 390 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter in Massachusetts, where parties were more equally di- ' vided, it had been retained by the Legislature. In Ma- 1800, rylaiid the Federalists controlled the state Senate, and, had they succeeded in carrying the House, they would also have adopted a choice by the Legislature ; but in the Oct. 6. election for raerabers of the House, which had just taken place, the opposition obtained a raajority, and the choice by districts remained as before. Similar causes produced a similar result in North Carohna. In Pennsylvania, also, the opposition succeeded to their wishes in electing Oct. 14. a majority of the Lower House of Assembly ; but the Federalists still retained their raajority in the Senate, Nov. 5. and when M'Kean called the Asserably together for the choice of electors, it was not so easy to arrange how it should be made. The Republicans were very eager for a choice by joint ballot, which would have given them the whole ; but to this the Senate would not consent, except on terms such as would secure to the Federal ists a share of the electors. They proposed that eight out of the fifteen might be the nominees of the House, the other seven to be norainated by the Senate. This offer, made in various shapes, was several times peremp torily rejected ; but as, in the very close division of par ties, one vote raight deterraine the election, it was agreed Dec. 1. to at the last raoment, and a bill was passed, by the pro visions of which each house was to norainate eight can didates, frora whora, by joint ballot, the fifteen electors were to be chosen, Pennsylvania, of course, stood eight opposition to seven Federal electors. A similar neutral ization of political forces had taken place in the other states where the district system was maintained. Ma ryland was equally divided ; North Carolina elected eight opposition electors to four Federalists. The Federal ticket prevailed entire in the four New England states ; PRESIDENTIAL .ELECTORS. 391 ialso in New Jersey and Delaware. Opposition electors chaptei;, were chosen in New York, and in all the states south L_ of the Potomac, the four Federalists in North Carolina 1800. excepted. In South .Carolina, where the choice was by the Legislature, in which were many members of doubt ful politics, the result had been regarded as very uncer tain. The opposition offered to compromise on Jefferson and Pinckney ; but, after consideration, the Federalists resolved to stand by their own ticket ; which was lost, however, by from fifteen to eighteen votes in a house of one hundred and fifty-one members. This gave a ma jority of eight opposition electors in the colleges; but, even after this was known, the result still hung in sus pense. It was not certain that the electors on either side would strictly conform to the party nominations, for the original intention of the Constitution was still so far re spected that public opinion, as yet, conceded to the elect ors a certain private liberty of choice, Pinckney and Burr might be so far dropped, and the names of Jefierson and Adaras substituted, as to bring in again the present incumbents, though, perhaps, with a change of position. Jefferson seems, with his usual dissimulation, still to have flattered Adams — easily imposed upon by such an appeal to his vanity — with the idea of having no higher ambition than to continue to serve under him. But the game did not lie entirely between Jefferson and Adaras, Pinckney might get some Southern votes withheld from them both, and so, possibly, raight be president ; or, if all the electors conformed strictly to party nominations, what was to decide between Jefferson and Burr ? The reraoval, under the provisions of the act of the first Congress, of the seat of government to the new Fed eral city on the Potomac, which took place in the course of the summer, raight seem a sort of forerunner of the 392 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER transfer of Federal control from the North to the South ; XV. ^and a fanciful mind might also discover, in the contrast 1800. between Philadelphia and the new City of Washington, a syrabolization of the difference between Federal poli tics and those of the opposition. Looking raerely to the accommodations already prepared, the removal might seem somewhat premature. Only the north wing of the Capitol was finished. That, however, had been fitted up so as to accommodate both houses of Congress. The president's house was corapleted externally, but the in ternal finishing was quite behindhand. July 4. " There is one good tavern," so Wolcott wrote shortly after his arrival there, " about forty rods from the Capi tol, and several other houses are built or erecting ; but I do not see how the members of Congress can possibly secure lodgings, unless they will consent to live like scholars in a college or monks in a monastery, crowded ten or twenty in one house, and utterly secluded from society. The only resource for such as wish to live com fortably will be found in Georgetown, three miles dis tant, over as bad a road in winter as the clay grounds near Hartford. I have made every exertion to secure good lodgings near the office, but shall be compelled to take thera at the distance of more than half a mile. There are, in fact, but few houses in any one place, and most of them small, miserable huts, which present an awful contrast to the public buildings. The people are poor, and, as far as I can judge, they live like fishes, by eating each other. All the ground for several miles around the city, being, in the opinion of the people, too valuable to be cultivated, remains unfenced. There are but few inclosures, even for gardens, and those are in bad order. You raay look in almost any direction, over an extent of ground nearly as large as the city of New York, CITY OF WASHINGTON. 3 93 without seeing a fence or any object except brick-kilns chapter and temporary huts for laborers. Mr. Law" — a broth- XV. ( er of the subsequent Lord EUenborough, who had trans- 1800. ferred to America, and had vested to a large extent in Washington City lots, a great fortune acquired in India " and a few other gentlemen live in great splendor, but most of the inhabitants are low people, whose ap pearance indicates vice and intemperance, or else ne groes. All the lands which I have described are valued at fourteen to twenty-five cents the superficial foot. There appears to be a Confident expectation that this place will soon exceed any city in the world. Mr. Thornton, one of the commissioners, spoke of a popula tion of 160,000 as a matter of course in a few years. No stranger can be here a day, and converse with the proprietors, without conceiving himself in the corapany of crazy people. Their ignorance of the rest of the world, and their delusions with respect to their own prospects, are without parallel. Iramense suras have been squan dered in buildings which are but partly finished, in sit uations which are not, and never will be, the scenes of business, while the parts near the public buildings are alraost wholly uniraproved. On the whole, I must say that the situation is a good one, and I perceive no rea son for suspecting it to be unhealthy; but I had no con ception, till I came here, of the folly and infatuation of the people who have directed the settleraents. Though five tiraes as much money has been expended as was necessary, and though the private buildings are in nura ber sufficient for all who will have occasion to reside here, yet there is nothing convenient and nPthing plen ty but provisions ; there is no industry, society, or busi ness." Mrs. Adams's account of matters when she came to 394 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter take possession of the presidential mansion, since famil- iarly known as the White House, was hardly more flat- 1800. tering. " Woods are all you see frora Baltimore until Nov. 21. yjjy reach the city, which is only so in narae. Here and there is a sraall cot, without a glass window, interspersed among the forests, through which you travel miles with out seeing a human being. In the city there are build ings enough, if they were compact and finished, to ac commodate Congress and those attached to it ; but as they are, and scattered as they are, I see no great com fort for them, " The house is upon a grand and superb scale, requir ing about thirty servants to attend and keep the apart ments in proper order, and perform the ordinary business of the house and stables : an establishment," she ironic ally adds, " very well proportioned to the president's sal ary. The lighting the apartments from the kitchen to parlors and chambers is a tax indeed ; and the fires we are obliged to keep to secure us from daily agues is an other cheering corafort," "If they will put rae up sorae bells — there is not one hung through the whole house, and promises are ^U yoU can obtain — and let rae have wood enough to keep fires, I design to be pleased, I could content myself almost any where three months ; but, surrounded with forests, can you believe that wood is not to be had, because people can not be found to cut and cart it ! Briesler entered into a contract with a man to supply hira with wood, A sraaU part — a few cords only, has he been able to get. Most of that was expended to dry the walls of the house before we came in, and yesterday the raan told hira it was irapossible to procure it to be cut and carted. He has had recourse to coals ; but we can not get grates made and set. We have indeed come into a new country.''^ SECOND SESSION OF THE SIXTH CONGRESS. 395 The public offices had hardly been established at Wash- chapter ington when the War Office took fire and was burned, occasioning the destruction of many valuable papers. In 1800. the course of the winter a like accident happened to the Treasury Department, though there the destruction of papers was less. In the rabid party fury of the times, Pickering's dismissal from office had been ascribed by the Aurora, which all the other opposition papers copied, to great pecuniary defalcations ; and now, in the sarae spirit, these fires were attributed to design on the part of certain public officers, who, it was said, hoped thus to destroy »the evidence of their deficiencies. Before the choice of electors in South Carolina was yet known, and while the event seemed to depend on that state. Congress came together at the new city. The Nov. 22 president's speech announced the prospect of an arrange ment with France ; but, at the same tirae, suggested that the United States could not, without dangerous irapru- denoe, abandon those raeans of self-defense adapted to its situation, and to which, notwithstanding their pacific pol icy, the violence and injustice of other nations raight soon compel them to resort. Considering the extent of the American sea-coast, the vast capital engaged in trade, and the maritime resources of the country, a navy seem ed to be the most effectual instrurhent of defense. Sea sonable and systematic arrangeraents for that purpose, so that, in case of necessity, a naval armament might be quickly brought into use, appeared to fee as much recom mended by a wise and true economy as by regard for fu ture peace and security. Perseverance in the fortifica tion of the principal sea-ports was recommended as a sub sidiary means of defense, and attention also to the man ufacture of arms. These, with a reorganization of the judiciary establishment, and the necessary legislation for ;396 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER the District of Columbia, constituted the chief topics of the speech, 1800, Ever since the dismissal of his colleagues, Wolcott had .felt his position in the cabinet very uncomfortable ; but the urgency of his friends, and the desire to leave the affairs pf his department en a good footing, had hitherto induced him to remain. He had fixed, however, on the end of the year as a period for retiring, of which he no tified the president and the House, asking, at the same time, an investigation into his official conduct. He left the treasury in a flourishing condition. The duties on iraports had exceeded those of the year preceding by nearly two millions and a half; the sum of $734,000 had been received from the direct tax ; the internal du ties produced near a million ; and as the disbanding of the additional regiments had diminished the expenses be low the estimates, the treasury contained, when Wolcott left it, a balance of $2,623,000, a greater amount than it had contained at the close of any previous year. The greater part of the loan of three millions and a half of doljars, authorized at the last session, had been taken up, but repayments had been made to nearly an equal amount. The total receipts of the year, loans included, amounted to $12,451,000, very nearly the same with those of the previous year. The total expenditures amounted to about twelve millions, near a million more than those of the year preceding. The balance in the treasury was mainly derived from the balance on hand at the comraenceraent of the year. Dexter was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in Wolcott's place ; the War Department, after two or three unsuccessful attempts to find a successor for Dexter, re raaining without a head. Neither Wolcott nor Picker ing, however they might be denounced by their Virginia WOLCOTT AND PICKERING. 397 rivals as monarchists and aristocrats, had, like Jefferson, chapter XV. Madison, and so many other Southern Democrats, hered- , itary plantations to retire to, where they raight play the 1800. patriarch, and live in aristocratic leisure on the unpaid labors of a nuraerous family of slaves. After twelve years of laborious and important public service, Wolcott left office with not $600 in his pocket. His ideas extended no further than to the purchase of a small farm in his na tive Connecticut on which to support his family. Pick ering had no property except sorae wild lands in the Wy oming settlements of Pennsylvania, purchased after his retireraent from the array, but not yet paid for. Thither he had retired with his numerous young family, to cut a farm out of the wilderness. But his Massachusetts friends of the Essex Junto, unwilling to see his services thus lost to the public, bought his lands at a generous price, and so enabled him to purchase a small farm near his native Salem, where he lived for a quarter of a cen tury in the extremest republican simplicity, but not with out, as we shaU presently see, an active participation in public affairs. Among the first subjects of discussion in Congress- was the erection of a monument to Washington, in con formity with the resolves adopted at his death, A biU had been introduced and partially discussed at the last session for building a marble mausoleum of a pyramidal shape, with a base of a hundred feet. This was violently opposed by many Republican merabers, who thought a plain slab of raarble quite enough. History and his coun try's gratitude would serve, they said, as his true monu ment. In the course of the debate, attention was called to an unexecuted resolve of the Continental Congress, adopted on Washington's resigning his military cora raand, for an equestrian statue. This would be cheaper 398 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter than the pyramid, and not quite so exceedingly plain XV. . and simple as the slab. The bill for a mausoleum finally 1800, passed the House, with an appropriaition of $200,000. The Senate reduced the appropriation to $150,000, and proposed a board of comraissioners to agree upon a prop er monument. The House proposed other amendments ; and, finally, in the hurry at the close of the session, the whole subject was postponed. The next Congress, in which the opponents of Washington's policy had an over whelming majority, found other subjects more interest ing than his meraory and honor ; and, after a lapse of sorae fifty years, the erection of a monuraent has at length been undertaken by private subscription. Dec. 11. Shortly after the opening of the session, Davie arrived at Norfolk, bringing with him the convention with Dec. 15. France. When it was laid before the Senate, those Federal raerabers who had opposed the mission raised a loud complaint that no indemnity had been secured for the spoliations coraraitted on American commerce, and that the old treaties with France had not been definitive ly dissolved. Out of distrust, probably, of what the in- eoraing adrainistration raight do, they refused to ratify the article referring those two subjects to future nego tiation ; proposing, as a substitute for it, a limitation of the convention to eight years. A strong effort was also made to expunge the provision for the mutual restoration of public vessels — a provision solely for the benefit of the French. But this failed, out of fear lest the French might insist, in their turn, upon retaining all captured vessels and property — a provision principally beneficial to America. During the sumraer, quite a number of French pri vateers had fallen into the hands of the American cruis ers, amounting, with those previously taken, to about fif- CONVENTION WITH FRANCE. 399 ty sail. There were also numereus recaptures cf mer- chapter XV. chant vessels previcusly taken by the French. Lieu tenant Charles Stewart, in the schooner Experiment, of 1800. twelve guns, being chased, by a French brig and a schoon- Nov. er, the one of eighteen, and the other of fourteen guns, had the address to separate the hostile vessels, after which he engaged and carried the schooner, on board of which was the mulatto general Rigaud, who had been deprived of his coramand in St. Domingo, and ordered to France. Later in the season, Stewart engaged and cap tured a British letter of marque, which, on being chased and brought to action, had refused to show her colors or to answer repeated hails. Of course, on discovering her national character, she was immediately set at liberty. Fortunately, no lives had been lost, except one on board the Experiment, About the same tirae, the French national corvette Berceau, of twenty-four guns, after a sharp action of two hours, struck to the Boston sloop of war. Captain Little, and, though very rauch cut up, was brought safely into port, Adams would decidedly have preferred the convention as it originally stood, so he informed the Senate ; but he ratified it, nevertheless, as it had been, altered, and 1 qqi appointed Bayard, as minister, to carry out the ratifica- Feb. 16. tion to France, Bayard, however, declined the appoint ment, and, without any further nomination, Adams left the matter to the incoming administration. By the terms of the act, the non-intercourse with France ex pired at the termination of the session. When the amended convention was afterward present ed to Bonaparte, he added a proviso that the expunging of the article respecting future negotiations should be understood as an abandonment of the claims set up on both sides, thus bringing the treaty to correspond to one 400 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter of the rejected proposals of the French coraraissioners — XV. , a new treaty without indemnities. It was in this shape 1801. that the convention was finaUy ratified, the result of the Senate's araendraent being a relinquishment of all claims for spoliations, in consideration of an absolute release frora the French guarantee. Had the treaty been rati fied in its original shape, the sufferers by the spoliations of the French might, perhaps, before now, have obtained that inderanity frora the French governraent which they have ever since been asking of their own, but which has hitherto been unjustly withheld. The great act of the session was the reorganization of the judiciary, so long in conteraplation, and so warraly recommended by the president. The requiring the cir cuit courts to be held by the judges of the Supreme Court had not only tended to the delay of justice by the insufficiency in the number of judges — making due al lowance for unavoidable absences occasioned by sickness or otherwise ,; but the keeping the judges constantly on the road, at a time when there were few faoUities for traveling, rendered their office laborious and undesirable, and consumed tirae which might have been better be stowed in the study of the various new and difficult ques tions which they were called upon to decide. In fact, the constitutional power of Congress to require the judg es of the Supreme Court to act as circuit judges had been called in question by Chief-justice Jay, Feb. 13. By the new act, the judges of the Supreme bench, to be reduced to five whenever a vacancy occurred, were released frora all circuit duty. The number of district courts was increased to twenty-three by the subdivision of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee, each into two districts, and the erection of a new dis trict northwest of the Ohio. These twenty-three dis- NEW JUDICIARY ACT. 401 tricts were arranged into six circuits,, the first composed chapter of Massachusetts, in,cluding Maine, with New Hamp- shire and Rhode Island ; the second, of Connecticut and 1801. New York ; the third, pf New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania ; the fourth, of Maryland and Virginia ; the fifth, of the two Carolinas and Georgia ; and the sixth, of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the territories north of the Ohio ; to have each a beUch of its own, composed of a chief judge and two puisne judges, to hold two courts annually in each district of the circuit. The effect of this act was to create twenty-three new judicial officers, besides attorneys, marshals, and clerks for the additional districts, at an annual expense of about $30,000. The necessity of some change was so obvious, taking into account, especially, the increase of business likely to grow out of the new Bankruptcy Act, that no very vehement resistance was made in Congress ; and, though the opposition voted in a body against it, not im probably, had the appointraent of the judges been left to the incoraing adrainistration, the act might never have been disturbed. But, as Adams proceeded at once to fill up the offices, and that, top, by the appointraent of dis tinguished Federalists, a treraendous clamor was imme diately raised, the effects of which will presently appear. The president showed a magnanimity which took Wol cott quite by surprise, and which, indeed, he had little reason to expect, in appointing him one of the judges of the second district. He had also taken an early oppor tunity, after M^Henry's retirement, to express to Wolcott his respect and his esteera for that gentleman, and his satisfaction that M'Henry's ample private fortune made the hplding of office a matter, in his case, of no pecuniary importance. Eflsworth, who was still detained in Eu rope by ill health, had sent in his resignation ofthe office v.— C c 402 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter of chief justice,. and, previous to ,the passage of the new ¦In dici ary Act, the president had conferred that capital 1801. post on Marshall, his secretary of state. Jay had been first norainated, but he declined, having raade up his raind to retire frora public life. Marshall stUl contin ued, notwithstanding his new office, to discharge the du ties of Secretary of State. Pending these proceedings, the returns of the electoral votes gradually came in, frora which, at length, it be came certain not only that the Republican ticket had triumphed, as had been generally expected, but, what was far from being so agreeable to most members of the Republican party, that Jefferson and Burr had both re ceived the sarae nuraber of votes. The understanding araong the Federalists to vote equally for Adaras and Pinckney had been faithfully carried out, except in Rhode Island, where one vote had been withheld from Pinckney and given to Jay, leaving Pinckney sixty- four in the whole to Adams's sixty -five. Jefferson and Burr had each seventy -three votes, and the decision between them devolved, under the Constitution, upon the House of Representatives voting by states. Though the Federalists had a decided majority of members, they could not coraraand, for the purposes of this election, a majority of states ; but neither could the other party. The single Federal representative on whom, by the death of his coUeague, the vote of Georgia had devolved, also Dent, one of the Federal representatives from Maryland, had decided to conform to the wishes of their constituents by voting for Jefferson. This gave Georgia to the Republicans, and equally divided the vote of Maryland. North Carolina was also equally divided; but one of the Federal merabers took the sarae view with the above-mentioned merabers from Maryland and Geor- PROJECT FOR MAKING BURR PRESIDENT. 403 gia. The friends of Jefferson were thus sure of eight chapter , . XV. votes. But there still remained two states equally di- vided, Maryland and Vermont; which, added to South 1801. Carolina, Delaware, and the four maritime New ,En- gland states, prevented a majority. In this state of things, the idea was conceived by the Federalists of disappointing Jefferson and the body of the opposition by giving the first office to Burr. Before the equality of votes was precisely ascertained. Burr had writ ten a letter disclaiming any competition for the first of fice, and constituting Smith, of Maryland, to whom the letter was addressed, his proxy so to state, if occasion should happen. But it was not supposed that this com mitment would at all deter Burr, should a promising oc casion present itself, from exerting aU his skill and art to secure his own promotion over Jefferson's head ; and it was thought that the two divided states, with New York and New Jersey, and perhaps Tennessee, of which the vote was held by a single representative, C. C. Claiborne, might furnish the requisite voices. Bayard, of Delaware, Morris, of Vermont, or Craik, Baer, Dennis, or Thomas, of Maryland, all Federalists, raight at any time, by their single votes, give to Jef ferson an additional state, and so decide the election in his favpr. On the ether hand, Bailey and Livingstpn, pf New York, neither of whom were thought specially favorable to Jefferson, with Lynn, of New Jersey, and Dent, of Maryland, the former a half Federalist, the lat ter entirely one, might, by their united votes, give Burr three additional states, sufficient to elect him ; or the vote of Lyon or Claiborne, by giving him Vermont or Tennes see, might supply the lack of one of the others. Burr, being a Northern man, was on that account preferred by the FederaHsts, whose strength lay in that 404 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER quarter of the Union, It was also hoped that his eleva- XV ' tion to the first office might produce such a split in the 1800, opposition ranks as would still leave the control of affairs substantially in the hands of the Federalists, to whom Burr hiraself would owe a debt of gratitude. This idea had been suggested early in the session, and before the result of the election was certainly known. As soon as it carae to Harailton's knowledge, he entered a vigorous Dec. 16. protest against it. " I trust New England, at least," so he wrote to Wolcott, " will not so far lose its head as to fall into the snare. There is no doubt that, upon ev ery prudent and virtuous calculation, Jefferson is to be preferred. He is by far not so dangerous a man, and he has pretensions to character. As to Burr, there is nothing in his favor. His private character is not de fended by his most partial friends. He is bankrupt be yond redemption, except by the plunder of his country. His public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandizement. If he can, he will certainly disturb our institutions to secure himself permanent pow er, and with it wealth." Dec. 17. " Let it not be imagined that Burr can be won to Federal views. It is a vain hope. Stronger ties and stronger inducements will impel him in a contrary direc tion. His ambition will not be content with those ob jects which virtuous men of either party will allot to it, and his situation and his habits will oblige him to have recpurse tp corrupt expedients, from which he will be re strained by no raoral scruples. To accoraplish his ends, he must lean upon unprincipled men, and will continue to adhere to the myrmidons who have hitherto surround ed him. To these he will no doubt add able rogues of the Federal party ; but he will employ the rogues of all parties to overrule the good men of all parties, and to PROJECT FOR MAKING BURR PRESIDENT. 405 promote projects which wise men of every description chapter XV. will disapprove. These things are to be inferred with moral certainty from the character of the man. Every 1801. step in his career proves that he has formed hiraself on the model of Catiline, and he is too cold-blooded and determined a conspirator ever to change his plan." Subsequent events sufficiently proved Hamilton's just appreciation of Burr's character ; but his warning voice, though he wrote similar letters to others besides Wolcott, was not listened to. Personal collisions with Burr in the party contests of New York were supposed to have created in his mind undue prejudices. In a private con sultation among themselves, a raajority of the Federal raerabers in Congress resolved on an effort to elect Burr, and in this decision the minority acquiesced. There were sorae so rash and violent, and so obstinately preju diced against Jefferson, as to advocate his exclusion, even though the offices of president and vice-president should remain unfilled, thus exposing the whole Federal system to dissolution. Such ideas, rashly thrown out by a few, met, however, with little countenance, and, perhaps, were not seriously entertained by any. On the other hand. Bayard, Morris, Craik, and Baer, four out of the six Federal members, any one of whom might, at any time, by his single voice, decide the election in Jefferson's fa vor, came to a mutual resolution that the attempt to ex clude -hira, after its feasibility had been fairly tested, should not be carried beyond a certain point. Before raeeting the Senate to count the electoral votes, Feb. 9. the House resolved — with the intent, according to John Randolph, to starve or worry the doubtful merabers into voting for Burr, though it raight be easy to conjecture a more justifiable reason — that in case no candidate should have a majority of electoral votes, they would forthwith 406 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER return to their own chamber, and there continue in ses- XV. sinn, without proceeding to any other business, till a pres- 1801. ident should be chosen. Seats were to be provided on the floor for the president and the senators ; but during the act of balloting, the galleries were to be cleared and the doors closed. Questions of order that might arise Were to be decided without debate, the House voting by states. Feb. 11. Upon the first ballot, eight states voted for Jefferson, including all those south of New England except Dela ware, Maryland, and South Carolina. The four mari time New England states, with Delaware and South Carolina, voted for Burr ; Verraont and Maryland were divided. Two or three raembers were so sick as to be brought to the House on their beds. Twenty-nine bal lots were had at longer or shorter- intervals, occupying the House till the next day at noon — all with the sarae result. The House remained in session, nominally with out adjournraent, for seven days ; but, after sitting cut the first night, the resolution not to adjourn was substan tially evaded by substituting a recess. During the next four days the actual sessions were very short, only five hallo tings being had. Araple tirae had been allowed to Burr to bring over, if he could, any of the opposition votes ; and that offers on both sides had been raade to the doubtful merabers, subsequent developraents left little doubt. A part of the evils which Hamilton had anticipated began already to be felt. The public mind was much agitated by the delay. Rumors had been and continued to be circula ted, charging the Federalists with the most desperate and revolutionary intentions, Jefferson himself, in the Feb. 15. highest state of nervous agitation, wrote to Monroe that they w^ere only prevented from passing an act to vest the executive authority, in default of any election of presi- PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 407 dent, in the chief justice or some other high officer, by chapter threats on the part of the opposition that the Middle. XV. States would rise in arms, and call a convention for fram- 1801. ing a new Constitution, Had Congress been sitting in Philadelphia instead of Washington, it would have run :no small risk of being invaded by a mob. Thinking that the tirae had arrived for terminating the struggle — -in the exercise of a- discretion intrusted to him' by the other three Federalists with whom he co-op erated — Bayard called a general meeting of the Federal Feb. 16. members ; and, though some were still very reluctant to yield, it was finally agreed that Burr had no chance, and that Jefferson must be chosen. But the FederaHsts did not surrender entirely at dis cretion, norwithout something like an approach to terms. Application had been made by Dayton and Parker to Smith of Maryland, who was intimate with Jefferson, and lived in the same house with him, to ascertain his intentions as to the public debt, commerce, and the navy. Bayard had also applied to Smith,, not only as to these points, but ;also touching removals from office. As to the public debt, commerce, and the navy. Smith, so he said, had frequently heard Jefferson express his opinion, and he gave satisfactory assurances that no serious changes of policy would be attempted. As to the mat ter of removals from office, he promised to make inqui ries, and the next day reported to Bayard that Jefferson coincided in the opinion already expressed by himself, that meritorious subordinate officers ought not to be re moved merely on account of their political opinions. The thirty-fifth ballot, taken at noon the day after Feb. 17. the Federal caucus, the seventh day of the protracted sitting, resulted like the former ones. After an hour's interval, on the thirty-sixth ballot, Morris, of Vermont, 408 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER was absent, and the two Maryland Federalists, Craik XV '__ and Baer, put in blank ballots, thus giving two raore 1801, states to Jefferson, which, added to the eight that had always voted for him, made a majority. The vice-presi dency, of course, devolved on Burr, Comraittees were appointed to inform the Senate and the president elect. To this notification Jefferson raade a short reply, in which his satisfaction at the result and his entire devotion to the proper discharge of his important trust were emphat ically expressed. The obnoxious Sedition Act would expire, by its own Jan. 26. limitation, at the close of the present Congress, A bill, ordered to be brought in by the casting vote of the speak er, for continuing that law in force, would seera to prove that its friends had been influenced in its original enact ment by other motives than a mere desire to silence their opponents. Fortunately, however, for the Federalists, Feb. 2).. this bill, failed, on its third reading, by a considerable majority. Even the first section of it, airaed against combinations to impede the execution of the laws, how ever theoretically unexceptionable, might have proved. In the hands of a violent and tyrannical government, back ed by an unscrupulous raajority, and in the case of un just laws, a terrible instrument of tyranny. Feb. 27. The District of Colurabia, erected into two counties, as divided by the Potomac, was placed under the juris diction of a circuit court, composed of a chief justice and two assessors ; the judgment of this court to be final in criminal cases, but in civil cases, where the araount in dispute exceeded one hundred dollars in value — since increased to one thousand dollars^ — a writ of error to lie to the Supreme Court of the United States. By a subsequent enactment, the chief justice of the Circuit Court was made sole judge of the District Court, hav- NAVY. 409 ihg a jurisdiction like that of the other Federal Dis- chapter XV. trict Courts. All raatters relating to probate of wills, administration of intestate estates, and guardianships, 1801. were made cognizable in the first instance by an Or phan's Court, composed of a single judge, with a regis trar. Justices of the peace were to be appointed at the discretion of the president. Instead of providing a hom ogeneous Code for the district, the laws of Maryland and Virginia, as they stood at that moment, were continued in force on the north and south sides of the Potomac re spectively. As there was now every prospect of a peace with France, there seeraed no longer the same necessity for keeping so many public vessels afloat. Several of those vessels, purchased for immediate use or built of unsea soned materials, were hardly proper for the service, and, upon the reccmraendatien pf the Secretary of the Navy, the president was authorized to sell all of them except March 3. thirteen of the largest and best, six of which were to be kept constantly in commission. All the officers were to be discharged except nine captains, thirty-siX Heutenants, and a hundred and fifty midshipmen ; and those retained were to receive only half pay except when in active ser vice. It appeared from the report of the Secretary of the Navy that materials had been collected for the construc tion of the six seventy-fours, and grounds purchased or contracted for on which to build them— the sites of the present navy yards at Portsmouth, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Norfolk. The secretary pressed with great earnestness the policy of annual ap propriations toward a naval force of twelve seventy -fours and twice as many heavy frigates ; or, at least, of pro viding the materials, so that the vessels raight be set up at any tirae. The Navy BiU, as passed, appropriated 410 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER half a mUlion toward the completion of the six seventy- fours, 1801, A collision in the course of the session between the speaker and the reporters of Congressional debates is not unwprthy of notice. At the first session of Congress, held in New York, reporters had been admitted to the floor of the House, and the debates had not only been published frora day to day in the newspapers, but, at the close of the session, were collected in two octavo volumes, called the Congressional Register, These reports, how ever, had failed to give entire satisfaction to all the raera bers. They had been veheraently attacked as full of misrepresentations, distortions, and omissions, by Burke of South Carolina, who had proposed to withdraw frora the reporters the privilege of the floor. Though not pressed to a vote, the reporters, in consequence of this motion, retired to the gallery. The resumption of this question of reports resulted at the next session in the tacit admission of a discretionary power in the speaker to ad mit to the floor or the gaUeries such stenographers as he might think proper. The Congressional Register did not reach beyond a third volume, breaking down in the raid- die of the second session of the first Congress. After the removal of Congress to Philadelphia, the country was mainly indebted for reports of Congressional proceedings to the enterprise of Mr. Brown, the pubHsher of the Phil adelphia Gazette, who employed a stenographer or two for that purpose, and from whose columns the other pa pers mostly copied, though the raore iraportant speeches then, as now, were frequentiy written out by the speak ers. The Aurora also gave occasional reports of its own. In 1796, a scheme was brought forward to employ a re porter as an officer of the House, at a salary of $4000, of which Brown offered to pay a part ; but this was REPORTS OF CONGRESSIONAL DEBATES. 411 thought exorbitant, and was not carried. After the re- chapter XV. moval to Washingtpn, applicaticn was made te the speak er by twp reperters for seats on the floor, which he re- 1801. fused on the plea that no such seats could be assigned consistently with the convenience of the Heuse. Per haps, however, the fact that one of these applicants was editor of the National Intelligencer, and that the reports of both were intended for that new organ of the opposi tion, might have influenced Sedgwick's decision. The reporters then applied to the House by memorial ; but the speaker's decision was sustained by his own casting vote, and they were obliged to accommodate theraselves in the area outside the bar. Not long after, the editor of the Intelligencer took the opportunity to report sorae pro ceedings on a question of order in a way not very cora- plimentary to Sedgwick's knowledge or fairness. The speaker denpunced this report frora his place as grossly incorrect ; but the Intelligencer, notwithstanding, still in sisted on its correctness ; in consequence of which, the speaker instructed the sergeant-at-arms to expel the editor of that paper first from the area outside the bar, and then from the gallery, to which he had retired. Though the same course had been taken with Duane, in 1797, for alleged misrepresentations which he refused to retract, it was brought before the House as a usurpation of authority. It was contended that the speaker had no right to exclude any citizen from the gallery except for disorderly conduct, and a vote of censure was moved. But this motion was decided to be out of order, and so was got rid of. Gallatin then moved an amendment to the rules, the effect of which would have been to restore the reporter to the gallery, and to deprive the speaker of the power to remove him ; but upon this raotion, also, a direct vote was avoided, and it received the go-by by 412 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter raeans of the previous question. On the subject of giv- ' ing publicity to the proceedings of Congress and affording 18t)i. facilities to reporters, the opposition, for obvious reasons, had always taken the liberal side. The sixth Congress terrainated, late at night, on the March 4. third of March. Early the next raorning, without wait ing to attend the inauguration of his successor, ex-Pres ident Adams left Washington for his residence in Mas sachusetts, carrying with him, as the only acknowledg ment of his past services, the privilege granted to Wash ington on his retirement frora office, and afterward to his widow, and bestowed, likewise, on all subsequent ex-pres idents and their widows, of receiving his letters free of postage for the reraainder of his life. This abrupt de parture, and tiie strict non-intercourse kept up for thir teen years between Adams and Jefferson, notwithstand ing sorae advances, then and subsequently, on Jeffer son's part, till finally the parties were reconciled by the intervention of Dr. Rush, and their common. sympathy as to the second war against Great Britain, indicates, on the part of Adams, a sense of personal wrong, of the exact nature of which we possess at present no raeans of judging, except frora the charge brought against Jef ferson in Adaras's confidential correspondence (1804), of " a mean thirst of popularity, an inordinate ambition, and a want of sincerity." The ex-president retired to Braintree in a state of mind little to be envied. Delighting as he did in dis tinction, and anxious for leadership and applause, had he still remained the head and champion of the Federalists, his proud spirit might have borne up with equanimity, if not with exultation, against the hatred of the ppposi tion, the taunts and shouts of triumph with which they greeted his retirement, and the personal responsibility ADAMS IN RETIREMENT. 4-^3 to which he Was held for the Alien and Sedition Laws, chapter XV. and every other obnoxious procedure of the past four. years. But when to all this were added the curses, 1801. deeper, if not so loud, of the Essex Junto, responded to by a large part of the Federal leaders throughout the country, denouncing him as a traitor, who had sacrificed the good cause in a vain and foolish attempt to secure the votes and favor of the opposition by unworthy con cessions, the ex-president's philpspphy was corapletely overthrown. Eight years after, when time had some what fleshed over these wounds, they broke out again with new malignancy by reason of renewed attacks upon him in consequence of John Quincy Adams's abandon ment pf the Federal party. The celebrated Cunning ham letters — a repetition, on a larger scale, of the Tench Coxe correspondence, already referred to — ^most of which were written at that time, and from which we have already had occasion to quote, present a striking proof how the most powerful judgments become incapa ble of discerning the truth through the disturbing medi um of jealousy and anger, and how little df candor or justice is to be expected when hate and vindictive pas sion hold the pen. Even the old man's last hours, when past the verge of ninety, were disturbed by the publica tion, through another gross breach of confidence, of these same Cunningham letters, as a part of the electioneering machinery against John Quincy Adams's elevation to the presidency, provoking, as they did, a bitter criticism from Pickering, then, also, in extreme old age. To Adams's unwilling and ungraceful retirement and troublous unrest, John Jay, his compatriot and feUow- laborer in so many trying scenes for a quarter of a cen tury, exhibited a striking conti'ast. Having refused to become again chief justice, and declining to be longer a 414 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER candidate for the governorship of New York, consider- i"g his debt to the public discharged, though ten years 1801, younger than Adams, he siraultaneously withdrew into a voluntary retirement, protracted through a still longer period, and presenting, in its peacefulness and the uni versal respect which it attracted, a contrast to Adaras's as raarked as that between the ex-chief justice's mild but steady firraness, apparently forgetful of self, and the ir ritable veheraence and ever-active egotism, such raarked traits in the ex-president's character. Those engaged in the heat of political struggles are al most always led to ascribe to trivial, tempprary, and pei'- spnal accidents a large part of that effect which is prop erly due to causes more remote, general, permanent, and inevitable. While the Essex Junto imputed to Adams the downfall of Federal ascendency, he bitterly retorted by imputing to their intrigues to defeat him, not that de feat only, but the ruin of the party also. It was not, however, the unfortunate divisions among themselves ; and, though mere party politicians then and since raay have thought so, it was not the Alien and Se dition Laws, the surrender of the pretended Jonathan Robbins, the additional army, the large naval expendi tures, the eight per cent, loan, and the direct tax, the collection of which was going on during the presidential canvass, on the one hand, nor, on the other, the renewal of negotiations with France, that reaUy lost to the Fed eralists the adrainistration of the government. Those measures raight, and no doubt did, contribute to determ ine the precise moment of that event ; but, under any cucumstances, it could not have been long deferred. From the first moraent that party lines had been dis- tinctiy drawn, the opposition had possessed a nuraerical majority, against which nothing but the superior energy, RETROSPECT OF PARTIES, 4^5 intelligence, and practical skill of the Federalists, backed chapter XV. by the great and venerable name and towering influence of Washington, had enabled them to maintain for eight 1801, years past an arduous and doubtful struggle. The Fed eral party, with Washington and Harailton at its head, represented the experience, the prudence, the practical wisdorn, the discipline, the conservative reason and in stincts of the country. The opposition, headed by Jef ferson, expressed its hopes, wishes, theories, many of them enthusiastic and impracticable, raore especially its pas sions, its syrapathies and antipathies, its irapatience of restraint. The Federalists had their strength in those narrow districts where a concentrated population had pro duced and contributed to raaintain that complexity of in stitutions and that reverence for social prder, which, in prcpprtipn as men are brpught intp ccntiguity, become more absolutely necessaries of existence. The ultra democratical ideas of the opposition prevailed in all that more extensive region in which the dispersion of popula tion, and the despotic authority vested in individuals over families of slaves, kept society in a state of immaturity, and made legal restraints the more irksome in proportion as their necessity was the less felt. Massachusetts and Connecticut stood at the head of the one party, support ed, though not always without some wavering, by the rest of New England. The other, party was led by Vir ginia, by whose finger all the states south and west of the Potomac might be considered to be guided. In the tide-water district of South Carolina, indeed, a certain number of the wealthier and more intelligent planters, led by a few men pf talents and prebity whp had received their educaticn in England, were inclined tc support the Federal policy, so ably upheld in Congress by Smith, Harper, Pinckney, and Rutledge, But the mass of the 416 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER voting population felt and thought otherwise ; nor could XV. . the influence of a few individuals long resist a nuraerical 1801, preponderancy so decided. As fdr the states of Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and, except for a brief mo ment. North Carolina, they followed without doubt or hesitation in the wake of Virginia ; and the rapidly-in creasing backwoods settlements df all these states con stantly added new strength to the opposition. Of the five states intervening between Virginia and New England, little Delaware alone adhered with unflinching firmness to the Federal side. Maryland and New Jersey, though wavering and undecided, inclined also the same way. The decision between Federalism and the so-called Re publican party depended on the two great and growing states of Pennsylvania and New York ; and from the very fact that they were growing, that both of them had an extensive backwoods frontier, and that both were con stantly receiving accessions of political enthusiasts frora Europe, they both inclined more and raore to the Repub lican side. Scarcely a session of Congress had passed that some new expense had not been authorized and some new tax imposed, A just regard to the welfare of the country had compelled Washington and the Federalists to throw themselves into the gap against the national hatred of England kindled in the Revolutionary war, and aggra vated since by new aggressions and insolence, in the very spirit, it would seera, pf those ministers by whom the Revolution had been provoked. On the other hand, they had been obHged to ppppse that ardent zeal for France which gratitude for French assistance and enthusiasm for liberty combined to inspire. For the concluding six years of Washington's administration, there had always been in the House a majority against hira ; while the DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERAL PARTY'. ^I'j vice-president's casting vote in the Senate had often been chapteh ¦ . XV. needed to secure a majority even there. On Washing- ______ ton's retireraent, Jefferson had been kept out of the suo- 1801. cessorship only by two chance votes, given for Adaras as well as for him, in the decidedly anti-Federal states of Vir ginia and North Carolina. It so happened, indeed, that, during Adams's administration, all the doubtful states were represented by senators of the Federal party, thus giving, for the first time, a decided Federal majority in that body, Adams's spirited resistance to the insults of France, by kindling a flash of patriotic Federalism in the Southern States, which glimraered, however, only to expire again, secured, also, the first and last House of Representatives in which the Federalists had a decided majority. But upon Pennsylvania and New York, even patriotism itself, invoked to stand up against French in solence, produced little or no effect ; while the indefati gable and unscrupulous ambition of M'Kean in the one state, and of Burr in the other, seconded as Burr was by the influence of the Clintons and the wealth of the Liv ingstons, precipitated that inevitable triumph of the oppo sition which nothing could very long have delayed. The Federal party, never strong, expired at last by reason of that exhaustion, the natural result, by the laws of reac tion, of extraordinary efforts to arouse and prepare the country to resist the aggressions pf France. The party for a moment rose majestic, as if with new strength, trampling under foot those who hesitated to vindicate their country's honor and independence. But this very effort exhausted and destroyed it. It was in vain that Adams sought to avert the effect by renewing, at the earliest possible moraent consistent with the honor of the country, pacific relations with France. The force of the party had been expended in the desperate effort to repel v.— D D 418 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER French insolence, and there was not now vitality enough XV. left effectually to resist the opponents, who rose dexter- 1801. ously out of the dust in which they had been trodden, and, as if refreshed by the humiliation, renewed the con test with new vigor. . But, though the Federal party thus fell never to rise again, it left behind it permanent raonuraents. The whole raachinery of the Federal governraent, as it now operates, must be considered the work of that party. With every individual part of that machinery, as those parts were successively put into operation, the opposi tion, first as anti-Federalists, then as Republicans, and then as Democrats — for so the more ultra began now to call themselves — had found most critical and pertina cious fault. We shall soon see how, themselves in pow er, notwithstanding all their former criticisms, they at once adopted, without essential change, the greater part of this very machinery, and how they were ultimately driven again to restore, with hardly an exception, all those portions of it with which, in conformity to their own theories, they had attempted at first to dispense ; testimony as irrefragable as it was reluctant, that how ever the so-called Republican leaders might excel the Federalists in the arts of popularity, the best thing they could do, in the constructive part of politics, was humbly to copy the models they had once calumniated. INAUGURATION OF JEFFERSON. 419 CHAPTER XVL INAUGURATION OF JEFFERSON. STATE ELECTIONS. AP POINTMENTS AND REMOVALS. HOSTILITIES WITH TRIP OLI. SEVENTH CONGRESS. CENSUS AND APPORTION- ,MENT. RETRENCHMENTS. REPEAL OF THE JUDICIARY ACT. TERRITORIES. CESSION OF LOUISIANA TO FRANCE. CALLENDER. JEFFERSON AND THE CLERGY. REPUBLIC AN DIVISIONS IN NEW YORK. SECOND SESSION OF THE SEVENTH CONGRESS. STATE OF OHIO. tl EFFERSON had reached the presidential chair at a chapter XVI. raost fortunate raoraent. The storm which, four years before, had so alarmingly threatened , as to make him 1801. willingly shrink into the position, comparatively obscure, but free from all responsibility, of vice-president, had now quite blown over. The prospect of a speedy peace in Europe promised effectual and perraanent relief frora those serious embarrassments to which, during war on the ocean, American comraerce was ever exposed from the aggressions of one or of all the belligerents. The treasury was fuller, the revenue more abundant than at any previous period. Commerce was flourishing, and the pecuniary prosperity of the country very great. All the responsibility of framing institutions, laying taxes, and providing for debts, had fallen on the ousted adrainistra tion. Succeeding to the powers and the raeans of the Federal government without sharing any of the unpop ularity at the expense of which they had been attained, and ambitious not so rauch of a splendid as of a quiet and popular adrainistration, the new president seemed to have before him a very plain and easy path. 420 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter Among other Federal pomps, Jefferson had formerly XVI. . condemned with emphasis, as savoring of monarchy, any 1801. public ceremony at swearing the president into office. Yet, not to disappoint the raultitude of his friends and partisans who had asserabled to pay him honors, and, perhaps, now that his own turn had corae, looking at the matter in a soraewhat different Hght, on the morning March 4. of his accession to office, escorted by a body of militia and a procession of citizens, he proceeded to the Capitol, where the Senate had met in special session in obedience to a call issued by Adaras scrae weeks before. Burr, al ready sworn in as vice-president, gave up the chair to Jefferson, taking. a seat at his right hand. On his left sat Chief-justice Marshall, ready to adrainister the oath of office. The charaber was well filled, a large number of the members of the late House being present, to which body, just before its adjournment, Jefferson had sent no tice of his intended public inauguration. But the ab sence of the late speaker, as well as of the late president, did not fail to excite remark. Before taking the oath, Jefferson delivered an inau gural address, a piece of studied and very elaborate com position, in many points strongly characteristic of its au thor. Elevated at last to the height of his political am bition, he seeraed anxious now to quell the rage of that political storm on the wings of which he had ridden into office. Desirous to still the heavings of that " tempest uous sea of liberty," on which, as a meraber of the op position, he had navigated so adventurously, he warraly urged the restoration of that " harraony and affection," without which, as he had now discovered, " liberty and even life itself are but dreary things," " Every dif ference of opinion," so he suggested, "is not a differ ence of principle. Brethren of the same principle, we JEFFERSON'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 42I are called by different names. We are all Republicans, chapter XVI. we are all Federalists," He announced as the sum of good government " a wise frugality, which does not take 1801, from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned, and which, restraining men from injuring one another, leaves them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits ;" a paraphrase of the favorite idea of his party, that the goodness of government is in proportion td the smallness of its quantity. Yet, in' descending to particulars, he did not avoid the gross inconsistency of enumerating as " essential principles of government," "encouragement of agriculture and of commerce as its handmaid, the dif fusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public opinion," The Federalists having ac cused him of hostility to the Federal Constitution, un due partiality for France, and of doctrines which tended to a repudiation of the public debt, he added to his list of essentials " the preservation of the Federal govern ment in its whple constitutional vigor ;" " peace, com raerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none ;" and " the pi-ompt payment of our debts, and sacred preservation of the public faith," Simultaneously with the removal of the public offices to Washington, two newspapers, the National Intelli gencer and the Washington Federalist, had been estab lished there ; of which the forraer becarae, as it was orig inally intended to be, the official organ of the new ad ministration. The editor, selected probably by Jeffer son, was Sarauel Harrison Sraith, who had forraerly pub lished at Philadelphia the Universal Gazette, a ihiscella- neous journal of sorae pretensions. The new organ, sub sequently known araong the Federalists as the "national smoothing-plane," affected an almost prudish regard to decency and correctness of statement — qualities in which 422 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter all its Republican predecessors had been sadly deficient ; and so far the comparison was rauch in its favor. But XVI. 1801. in point of spirit and talent it fell far short of the old organ, the Aurora, by which its editor was presently spoken of with sorae conterapt as "silky, milky Smith" — epithets, like that employed by the Federalists, de scriptive enough of the ever-ready adulation with which all the acts of the administration and its supporters were somewhat nauseously glossed over. Toward the Feder alists, however, very little either of milkiness or of silk- iness was displayed. The long, forraal, pedantic disqui sitions in which the editdr delighted to indulge, exhib ited, indeed, a cold, claramy, political rancor, altogether raore detestable and less easy to forgive than the pas sionate hate and vindictive raalice of the Aurora. To the offices of Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and Attorney General, left vacant by the res- March 5. ignation of the late incumbents, Jefferson nominated James Madison, Henry Dearborn, and Levi Lincoln, the latter an early leader of the opposition in Massa chusetts, who had taken a seat in Congress prior* to the close of the late session, having been chosen, after a warmly-contested election, to fill a vacancy in the Wor cester district. As the Senate stood at present, still con taining, as it did, of the members present a majority of Federalists, Jefferson did not think proper to raake any further norainations ; but, soon after the adjournraent. May 1.^. he appointed as Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gal latin, all along the financial member of the opposition, and who had come out, pending the presidential canvass, with a new pamphlet, in which he had undertaken to show an alarming increase of debt and expenditure. The Navy Department, after being refused by Chancellor Liv- juiy 22, ingston, was given to Robert Sraith, brother of the Bal- NEW APPOINTMENTS. 423 timore member of Congress, Livingston, however, hav- chapter ing reached the age of sixty, and being obHged, under a Constitutional provision, to vacate the chancellorship of 1801, New York, consented to accept the embassy to France, to which he was nominated and confirmed previous to the adjournment of the Senate ; but he did not embark till after the ratifications of the late convention had been exchanged. Meanwhile Dawson,, one of the Virginia members of Congress, familiarly known as " Beau Daw son," was dispatched to France in the sloop of war Ma ryland with the amended convention. He also carried a very gracious letter from Jefferson to Thomas Paine, of fering him a passage to America, on the return of the Maryland — a security against British capture which Paine had been for some time anxious to get. Shortly after Dawson's departure, M, Pichon, already well known to us as secretary of the French legation at the Hague, arrived at Washington as French charge des affaires. Habersham was continued as post-master-general for some six months, under an injunction to employ " no printer, foreigner, or Revolutionary Tory in any of his offices ;" but he presently gave way to Gideon Granger, a leader of the Connecticut Republicans, who had begun of late to show, for the first time, sorae decided signs of activity, and whpm it was thought specially necessary to encourage and reward. How Jefferson would fill up the executive departraents had been a matter of a good deal of curiosity to the Fed eralists. Fitzsimmons had insisted, in a letter to Wol cott, .that there were not among the Republicans raen of sufficient talents and activity to carry out their own plans, and he repeated, as corresponding with his own experience, a saying of Steuben's, that he had known but two persons in Virginia fit to execute public busi- 424 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER ness. And, in fact, all the appointraents requiring much XVI. industry or labor were given to Northern men. 1801, With the change in the adrainistration ofthe Federal government, a change not less important and not less de cided took place in the hitherto doubtful and contested states, thus greatly strengthening the hands of Jefferson and his cabinet. The triumph pf the Republicans in the New York state election of 1800 had given them a majority in the Council of Appointment ; and Jay, unable otherwise to withstand the claira on their part to appoint to offices independentiy of his noraination, had been obliged to ad journ the council, thus leaving the offices unfilled. At April, the ensuing gubernatorial election, George Clinton, again the Republican candidate, was chosen over Van Rensse laer, and the Federalists of New York were reduced to nearly the same insignificance as those of Pennsylvania, Oct. A convention, called to settle the question as to the powers of the Council of Appointment, of which Burr was the president, decided, against the letter of the Consti tution and the opinion of Governors Clinton and Jay, to reduce the governor to a raere fifth member of the coun cil, with no greater power than any other member, ex cept the right to preside. By this same convention, the number of the senators, which by the provisions of the Constitution had increased frora twenty-four to forty- three, was fixed at thirty-six. De Witt Clinton, the governor's nephew, was a member of the council in of- july. fice at Clinton's accession, the sarae whose proceedings Jay had stopped by adjournment; also Ambrose Spen cer, down to the end of the year 1799 a warm Federal ist, but now just as warm a Republican, both very able and ambitious ypung raen, and afterward greatly distin guished in the politics of New York, Before the decis- STATE POLITICS. 425 ion of the convention', and in spite of the governor's pro- chapter tests, they had already comraenCed, with the help of a third Republican meraber, a systera of removals and ap- 1801, pointments sirailar to that introduced by M'Kean into the politics of Pennsylvania, Nor was this proscription confined to Federalists merely. Already a furious strug gle had comraenced between the Clintons and the Liv ingstons on the one hand, and Burr and his partisans on the other, which soon began to be carried on with the ut- rapst bitterness. The friends and partisans of Burr were excluded frora office not less scrupulously than Federal ists, the appointments being made exclusively frora those belohgihg tp the Clinton and Livingston factiens. In this distributipn the Livingstpns came in foi: the lion's share. Not to mention inferior posts, the bench df the Supreme Court was mainly in their hands. The chan cellorship having been given to Lansing, Morgan Lewis, connected by marriage with the Livingstons, was raade chief justice, having for colleagues Brockholst Living ston and Sraith Thorapson, the latter also connected by marriage with the Livingston family. The New Jersey FederaHsts, having the control of the state Legislature, had adopted a general ticket system of choosing representatives to Congress, expecting to secure a delegation entirely Federal ; but the election had result ed in the triumph of the Democratic ticket by from five January. hundred to a thousand majority out of 29,000 votes. The state election, some nine months after, gave to the same October. party a majority in both branches ofthe Legislature, and secured the election of Richard Bloomfield, the Republican candidate for governor. The Republicans had triumphed, also, in Maryland, obtaining a sufficient majority in the January. House to overcome the Federal majority in the Senate, and to elect John F, Mercer as governor ; and they soon sue- April, 426 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER ceeded in obtaining a raajority in the Senate also. The XVI, .election of representatives to Congress resulted in the 1801. choice of five Republicans and three Federalists. From Sept. Virginia only a single Federalist was elected to Congress. That party lost also, though not so badly, in the two Caro linas. Georgia, of course, went back to the Republicans. October. The election of David Hall, the Republican candidate for governor in the State of Delaware, left the Federalists neither governor nor Legislature out of New England, the Legislature of Delaware alone excepted. Even in.New April. England, Rhode Island was lost, the election there havi&g resulted in choosing Republican merabers of Congress, and also a Republican General Assembly. Vermont was ex ceedingly doubtful, while Massachusetts itself seemed to be shaken. Strong, indeed, was rechosen governor ; but the Republican ticket triuraphed in Boston ; and out of the fourteen representatives to Congress were chosen five Republicans, including Eustis frora the Boston District. While thus triuraphant throughout the states, already a somewhat troublesome subject pressed upon the new adrainistration — the conduct to be observed respect ing removals frora office. The more violent partisans wished Jefferson to make a clean sweep of all his oppo- Feb. 20. nents. M'Kean very early gave him a pointed hint on. that head. Jefferson, as well as his partisans, had been exceedingly annoyed by the pertinacity of Adams in pro ceeding to fill up all vacancies, down to the very close of his administration ; and a great clamor had been raised against these " midnight appointments," as, by a some what free figure of speech, they were called. Yet to adopt the prescriptive system of Pennsylvania and New York would not only give the He to opinions expressed previously to his election, under circumstances which gave to that expression a near approach to a positive REMOVALS AND APPOINTMENTS. 427 pledge ; it would also be contrary to Jefferson's policy chapter XVI. of conciliating the more moderate Federalists, who would. hardly fail to consider such removals, if made for no oth- 1801, er cause than political opinions, as but instances of that very " political intolerance" against which he had so en- ergeticaUy protested in )iis inaugural address. There were some cases, however, as to which no scru ples were felt. In accordance with the Republican scheme of economy, especially in the matter of foreign intercourse, Murray, Smith, and John Q, Adams, the ministers to Holland, Portugal, and Prussia, were recall ed, without the appointment of any successors. Hum phreys was recalled from Spain, on account, as the letter of recall informed him, of long absence from the United States, and Charles Pinckney, the exceedingly erabarr rassed state of whose pecuniary affairs raade sorae such office very convenient, was appointed in his room. Skip with, Monroe's protege, was named coramercial agent at Paris, and a corresponding restoration was made of the other French consuls displaced by Adaras. Win throp Sargent, whose term of office as governor of the Mississippi Territory had expired, contrary to an express promise made to him, as he alleged, was superseded by C, C, Claiborne, late representative from Tennessee ; merely, as the president averred, for the sake of peace, and with out intending at all to sustain the charges urged against Sargent at the last session ofCongress, of having extort ed illegal fees, and of having usurped, in conjunction with the judges, an unwarrantable legislative authority. But other and more special reasons were afterward suggested as having occasioned Claiborne's appointment. The Federal attorneys and raarshals of the United States courts were mostly replaced by Republicans. Alexander J, DaUas and Edward Livingston were both 428 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (CHAPTER thus richly provided for, the one as attorney for the East- ______ ern District of Pennsylvania, the other as attorney for 1801. the Southern District of New York, Livingstori had already been rewarded at horae by the still more lucra tive office of mayor of the city of New York, a post at that time not elective, but in the gift of the Council of Appointraent, including among its duties that of chief judge for the city, and enjoying a revenue from fees said to araount to $10,000 a year, Dallas was also very desirous to hold, in conjunction with his office of United States district attorney, that of recorder of the city of Philadelphia, given to him by Governor M'Kean, It had been one of DaUas's first of ficial acts to discontinue, by the president's order, the prosecution instituted against Duane, at the request of the Senate of the United States, for a libel on that body. But this did not prevent Duane frdm attacking, with a good deal of severity, the anti-Republican conjunction, in the person of Dallas, of two lucrative offices, state and national ; and, finally, Dallas was obliged to resign his recordership, by a special act of the Legislature to that effect, passed in spite of the governor's veto. Duane himself was presently admitted to a share of pecuniary eraoluraent by a contract given to him for the pubHc printing, and for supplying the public offices with stationery. In a nuraber of cases, including soirie judicial offices, though Adams's appointments had been confirmed, the coraraissions had not yet issued when his terra expired. In these cases the coraraissions were withheld, and new appointments were raade. The legality of this proceed ing, even in the case of judicial appointments, was sub sequently sustained by the Suprerae Court, on a process of mandamus sued out against the Secretary of State to REMOVALS AND APPOINTMENTS. 429 corapel hira to issue coraraissions to certain persons nom- chapter XVI. : inated by Adams and confirmed by the Senate as jus tices of the peace for the District of Columbia. But, 1801, ; notwithstanding this decision, Jefferson was greatly out raged that the court should have presumed even to en tertain such a suit. All this was quietly subraitted to as a raatter of course, but some removals and appointments of officers df the customs and excise raised a loud clamor on the part pf the Federalists. One pf the mest noticeable of these cases was the removal of EHzur Goodrich, lately a rep resentative in Congress from Colmecticut, who had re signed his seat to accept the office of coUectorship of New Haven. In his place was appointed Samuel Bishop, a respectable old man of seventy-seven, but so nearly blind that he could hardly write his name, and with no particu lar qualifications for the office, or claim to it, except being the father cf pne Abraham Bishop, a young Democrat, a lawyer without practice, for whom the appointment was really intended. The claims of the younger Bishop con sisted in two political orations which he had recently de livered, one of them by a sort of surprise, before a liter ary society of Yale CoUege^an occasion upon which all the dignitaries of the state were collected. This was a vehement, flippant, but excessively shallow declamatidn, yet suited to alarra the popular raind, the burden of it being that by commercial, military, clerical, and legal de lusions, a monarchy and aristocracy were just on the point of being saddled pu the country^ To this_pratipn, already in print before it had been delivered, and which was at once distributed as an electioneering document (the choice of presidential electors being t\ien about to take place), Noah Webster had immediately published a cutting reply, entitled, " A Rod for the Fool's Back." 430 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER The younger Bishop's second oration, delivered at a fes- tival to celebrate the Republican triumph, was a paral- 1801. lei, drawn at great length, between Jefferson and Jesus Christ, " the illustrious chief who, once insulted, now presides over the Union, and him who, once insultedj now presides over the universe." To a remonstrance against this removal and appoint ment, made by the merchants of New Haven, who quot ed the inaugural proraise " to prpmote the general wel fare, without regarding the distinctions of party," the July 12. president replied, that the exaraple of Franklin, still " an ornament to human nature," when past the age of the new collector, as well as the office^ of town clerk, jus tice of the peace, mayor of New Haven, and chief judge of the Comraon Pleas for that county, held by hira at the time of his appointraent, furnished abundant proof of his ability, notwithstanding his age, to perforra, with such assistance as he might see fit to employ, the duties of his office. As to Goodrich, he was displaced, to be sure, but it could not be properly called a removal, for he ought not to have accepted the office, not knowing if those whose agent he was to be would have confidence in hira. Besides, the Federalists had all the offices ; while a due participation in office by those who now con stituted a raajority of the nation was no raore than a matter of right. Few died, and none resigned ; and how could this participation be brought about except by re moval? That was a painful duty, in which he proceeded with deliberation and inquiry, so as to inflict the least pri vate distress, and to throw, as far as possible, such as could not be avoided, on delinquency, oppression, intolerance, and anti-Revolutionary adherence to Great Britain. This, however, did not satisfy. The Federalists enu merated with emphasis an Aquila Giles, marshal of the PRESIDENTIAL LEVEES. 43J Eastern District of New York ; a Joshua Sands, collector chapter XVI of that port ; a James Watson, navy agent ; a Nicholas Fish, supervisor for New York of the internal revenue ; 1801. and a Henry Miller, supervisor for Pennsylvania, all of them meritorious officers of the Revolution, and falling within none of Jefferson's rules, yet all removed to make rppm for political partisans, in one case for an old Tory ! The partisans of Jefferson replied, on the other hand, that out of two hundred and twenty-eight attorneys, raarshals, supervisors, collectors, naval officers, and sur veyors, appointments held at the pleasure of the presi dent, one hundred and ninety-eight were still in the hands of the Federalists. To these might be added the subordinate stations in the executive departments, in which few changes had been made, partly from the dif ficulty of finding Republicans competent to fill them — a large proportion of the active men on that side being bet ter at declamation than at business. , Besides the above- mentioned offices in the gift of the president, there were about a thousand deputy post-raasters, but only a few of these post-masterships were lucrative enough to make them objects of desire. Jefferson had been greatly alarmed lest the presiden tial levees introduced by Washingtpn might impercepti bly lead tc the ceremcnials of a court, if not, indeed, to monarchy itself. He, therefore, solemnly announced, in a letter to Macon, that for the future there were to be May 14. no more levees. The removal of the seat of govern ment to Washington, then a little village in the raidst of the woods, and the fact, also, that Jefferson was a widower, were favorable to that ultra Republican sira- plioity which he sought to introduce. What occasion for levees in such a wilderness, where nobody came ex cept on public business ? Eight years after, Mrs. Mad- 432 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter ison revived a usage exceedingly convenient, and ever since continued. 1801. Another change from the alarming monarchical style of the former administrations, announced also in the same letter, was the disuse of speeches and answers at the opening of the session, and the substitution of a writ ten message, to be sent in manuscript and read by the clerk, to which no special answer would be expected; a change to which Jefferson was perhaps the more inclined, at least so the Federalists maliciously suggested, by rea son of his taU, ungainly figure, comparing but ill with Washington's or Adams's, and his total destitution of gifts as a public speaker. The change thus introduced has not only been retained, but has been gradually cop ied in most of the states, being, perhaps, one cause of that intolerable prolixity into which executive commu nications have tended more and more to run. But while thus giving np the forras, Jefferson clung with instinctive tenacity to the substance of power. A Nov. 5. circular addressed to his cabinet ministers, though filled with .flattering declarations of " unlimited, unqualified, and unabated confidence," very plainly evinced that the new president had no intention to tolerate any of the pretensions set up by Adams's ministers, or to allow the government to be parceled out, as he expressed it, among four independent heads, drawing soraetiraes in opposite directions. Deferring for once to the example of Wash-- ington, he very properly claimed, since the people had im posed the responsibility upon hira, the unrestrained right of final decision. Though the late adrainistrations had been forced into the purchase of treaties of peace with the Barbary pow ers mainly by the clamor of the opposition, who dreaded the expense of coercion, yet the large sura expended in BARBARY STATES. 433 presents (near two millions of dollars) had formed a fa- chapter XVI. vorite topic pf electioneering declamation, more especial ly as it had not entirely answered its purpose. The 1801. treaty with TripoH, the last of the series, had been pur chased by the payment of a gross sum down. But with this arrangement the Bey naturally grew dissatisfied when he compared his case with that of Algiers ; and on various pretenses of quarrel, he threatened war against the United States, The building of national ships had first been commenced for the restraint of the Barbary pirates ; and one of Jefferson's first acts was to dispatch Commodore Dale, with four out of the six vessels still retained in coraraission, to watch the proceedings of the Bey, and, if necessary, to repel hostilities, , The insolence of these piratical states, fostered by an almost unaccountable subraission to their pretensions by the Christian nations of Europe, had been strikingly ex hibited in the conduct of the Dey of Algiers toward Cap- 1 goo tain Bainbridge, on his arrival there in the frigate George Sept. Washington with the annual tribute. The frigate, which carae to anchor under the guns of the castle, and which could hardly attempt to depart without danger of destruction, was pressed into the Dey's service for the purpose of carrying presents and an erabassador to Con stantinople, under threats, in case of refusal, of an ira mediate renewal of hostilities against the United States, To Bainbridge's remonstrances and those of the consul O'Brien, the Dey replied, "You pay me tribute, by which you becorae my slaves, and therefore I have a right to order you as I think proper." All the tributary nations of Europe submitted, so he added, to render him like serv ices, " I hope," wrote Bainbridge, in his account of this matter to the Navy Department, " I shall never again be sent to Algiers with tribute, unless I am authorized V,— E E 434 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER to deliver it from the mouth of our cannon," Under XVI the advice of O'Brien, and understanding that English, 1800, French, and Spanish ships of war had submitted to the same thing, Bainbridge at last yielded td the Dey's de mands, and his ship was the first to display the Araeri can flag — though not under the raost agreeable circum- Nov. 9. stances — before the ancient city of Constantinople, The Turkish officers had never heard of the United States, but when, at length, they were made to understand that Bainbridge came from the New Western World which Columbus had discovered, he was received with great courtesy. Indeed, the sultan drew omens specially fa vorable to the future friendship of the two nations from the fact that the American flag was emblazoned with the stars and his with the crescent, indicative, as he imag ined, of a certain sirailarity in their institutions. With the Capudan Pasha, the Turkish admiral, Bainbridge be- 1801 ^^^^ ^ great favorite, and received from him a firman, Jan. 21. which, on his return to Algiers, protected hira from any further insolences on the part of the Dey, and enabled him to render essential services to the French residents, exposed to great danger by a declaration of war by Al giers against France. The Pasha was anxious that an American erabassador should be sent to Constantinople, and a treaty made ; bnt the recall of Smith, the minis ter to Portugal, who held also a commission to treat with the Porte, prevented any thing being done. July. On arriving at Gibraltar, Dale found two Tripolitan cruisers lying there, on the watch for Araerican vessels, the Bey having already declared war. These were block aded by the Philadelphia frigate, while Bainbridge, who now coraraanded the Essex frigate, was employed in giv ing convoy to the Araerican Mediterranean trade. Dale himself in the President, followed by the schooner Ex- SQUADRON IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 435 periraent, sailed to cruise off Tripoli. On her passage chapter XVI. thither the Experirnent fell in with, and, after three hours' hard fighting, captured a Tripolitan cruiser of 1801, fourteen guns. The prize had twenty killed and thirty ^^S- ^¦ wounded, while the Experiment lost not a man. As there was yet no formal declaration of war against Trip oli, the captured vessel was dismissed with the survivors pf the crew, being first completely disraantled, her masts cut away, and her guns thrown overboard. The appear ance of Dale's squadron in the Mediterranean was sea sonable ; for already Algiers and Tunis, as well as Trip oli, were pretending fo additional presents. The seventh Congress, on coraing together, showed a Dec. 7. decided administration majority in both branches. The Senate stood eighteen adrainistration merabers to four teen Federalists ; the Hduse, thirty-six Federalists to sixty-nine for the adrainistration. On the administra tion side in the Senate there were, of former members of note, Wilson Cary Nicholas and Baldwin ; of new mem bers, John Armstrong, of New York, the author of the Newburg letters, and brother-in-law of Chancellor Liv ingston, but whd resigned his seat before the end of the session, a,nd was succeeded by De Witt Clinton ; Dr. Logan, of Pennsylvania ; Sumter, of South CaroUna ; Jackson, of Georgia, an active member of the first and the third Congress, lately governor of that state, where he had been succeeded by Josiah Tatnall ; and John Breckenridge, of Kentucky. On the Federal side were Chipman, of Vermont ; D wight Fpster and Jenathan Ma son, of Massachusetts, who had taken their seats during the last Congress as successors to Dexter arid Gopdhue ; Tracy and HiOhouse, of Connecticut; Foster, of Rhode Island; Gouverneur Morris, of New York; Dayton, ofNew Jersey ; Ross, of Pennsylvania ; and Willes, of Delaware, 436 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER Of the new merabers only three were Federalists, Sam^ XVI. " uel White, of Delaware, and Jaraes Sheafe and Siraedn 1801, Olcott, of New Harapshire, in place of Livermore, who had resigned, and of Langdon, whose terra had expired. Langdon had long been the only Republican senator for New England ; but his single vote was now replaced by those of Bradley, of Vermont, and Ellery, of Rhode Island. In the House, on the administration side, there were, of former merabers, Varnum, of Massachusetts ; Gregg, Smilie, and Leib, of Pennsylvania ; Smith and Nich olson, of Maryland ; Macon, of North Carolina ; GUes, again re-elected after an interval of one Congress, and John Randolph, of Virginia. Araong the new raerabers on the same side were Dr, William Eustis, representing the Boston District, and Dr, Samuel L, Mitchill, a better chemist than politician, from the city of New York. The Federalists had, of old merabers who had raade themselves known, Griswold, Dana, Davenport, and John Cotton Smith, of Connecticut ; Bayard, of Delaware ; John Stanley, of North Carolina ; and Rutledge and Thomas Lowndes, of South Carolina, Of the new members there were few on that side, and none of them distinguished, Thatcher, of Massachusetts, a member during the whole of the two preceding administrations, and remarkable for his zeal against slavery, had accepted a seat on the Mas sachusetts Supreme bench, where he found his late col league Sewall, and was soon joined by Sedgwick, Of the members of former Congresses, Hartley, of Pennsyl vania, was lately dead ; Peter Muhlenburg had received office as supervisor for Pennsylvania ; John Nicholas had removed from Virginia to Western New York, and henceforth disappears from the political arena ; Harper, the late Federal leader in the House, had married a daughter of John Carroll, of CarroUton, and had removed from South Carolina to Maryland. SEVENTH CONGRESS. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. 437 Macon was chosen speaker by fifty -three votes to twen- chapter XVI. ty-six for Bayard, Bexley, the old Republican clerk, whom the Federalists had ousted, was reinstated by a sim- 1801 . ilar vote. The House met in a roora, temporarily fitted up, in the basement of the south wing of the Capitol then in progress of erection. By an addition to the rules, re porters were henceforth to be entitled to seats within the bar, to be -assigned to them by the speaker. The Sen ate ndw, also, for the first time, and against the vote of all the Federal members, admitted a stenographer on their floor ; but years were yet to elapse before any connected reports of their debates were published, John Randolph, appointed chairraan of the Committee of Ways and Means, and whose fluency, promptitude of retort, and acrimoni ous wit, though without method or logical order, made him a formidable debater, became leader for the adminis tration, Griswold and Bayard were leaders on the part of the FederaHsts. The president's message, after congratulations on the peace in Europe and the quiet on the frontiers, and a statement as to the existing hostilities with Tripoli, ad verted to the reduction of expenditure already made by disbanding a part of the marine corps ; by curtailing the diplomatic establishment; and by a reduction in the num ber of officers employed in coUecting the internal reve nue. The army, the navy, the fortifications in progress, and the Federal offices generally, were pointed out as fit subjects for further retrenchments, necessary in order to justify a repeal of the internal taxes. The new ju diciary system was also mentioned as a subject which, of cpurse, would attract attention. A modification was recommended in the Naturalization Law, favorable to foreigners seeking to become citizens. ' One of the first s'ibjects which engaged the attention 438 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER of the House was the reapportionment of representation, .in accordance with the new census recently completed. XVL 1802, The old ratio of one representative to each thirty -three Jan. 14. thousand in federal numbers was still retained. The result of the new census, and of the new apportionment founded upon it, will appear in the following table:. Virginia Pennsylvania Newf York Massachuaetts, with Maine . . North Carolina Maryland Soath Carolina '....... Connecticut Kentucky — . New Jersey New Hampshire Georgia Vermont ,. Tennessee ., _. Rhode Island Delaware : Northwest Territoiy (Ohio). Indiana Temtory Mississippi Territory District of Columbia Total. Free Whites. I Slaves. 518,674 586,278 555,063567,194 337,864 221,998 196,259 237,374 179,875 194,325 182,995 101,068 153,908 91,705 65,438 49,852 45,022 5,453 5,289 10,076 346,968 1,706 20,613 133,196 107,707 146,151 951 40,34312,422 8 59,699 13,584 380 6,153 135 3,4893,244 20,507 14,56410,374 7,3707,043 19,987 3,1815,300 741 4,402 855 1,919 557 309 3,3048,268 337 163 182 783 886,149 602,548686,050 574,564478,103 349,692 345,.591 251,002220,959211,149 183,858162,686154,465105,602 69,12264,27345,365 5,641 8,850 14,093 4,309,656 896,749 111,146[ 5,319,762 141 Ilep'a. In conforraity to the suggestions of the president, the emoluments of collectors of the customs, surveyors, and naval officers, were Hmited, by an act still in force, to $5000, $3500, and $3000 respectively. Some other salaries were also reduced, but the late increase to the cabinet officers was retained. The array was reduced to the peace establishment of 1796, to consist of three regi raents, one of artillery of twenty corapanies, and two of infantry of ten corapanies each, araounting in the whole to 3000 men. There were also retained a corps of en gineers, to consist of seven officers and ten cadets, to have their head-quarters at West Point, there to consti tute a military academy, under the superintendence of the senior officer, two cadets annexed to each of the ARMY AND NAVY. RETRENCHMENTS, 431) twenty companies of artillery, being the students, A chapter XVI. professor of French and drawing was afterward added : but this paltry establishment, the supprintendence of 1802. which was quite incompatible with the proper duties of the engineers, who were needed elsewhere, was very far short of the elaborate plan which M'Henry had drawn up just before his resignation, from notes furnished by Washington, and which ultimately becarae the basis of the present West Point Acaderay, Under the act of the last sessidn, the navy, by sell ing the supernuraerary ships, had been already reduced to thirteen vessels. The appropriations for iraproveraent and increase were liraited to a quarter of a raillion, and the building of the six seventy-foursj for which tiraber had been collected, was thus brought to a stand still ; nor were they, in fact, ever completed, the tiraber being cut up for smaller vessels, or allowed td go to deeay. The purchase of sites for navy yards by the late Secretary of the Navy was attacked by a coraraittee of the House as having beein raade without authority ; and nothing saved the yards, or a part of them, from being sold, except the circumstance that to remove the timber there deposited would cost more than the yards would sell for. The expenditures by the late Secretary of the Navy, under this head, for land and improvements, had amounted to about $200,000; an expense which he fully justified against the cavils of the coraraittee by rerainding thera that as Congress had directed the seventy-fours to be built, and had appropriated raoney for that purpose, yards raust of necessity be hired or purchased, and that experi ence in building the frigates had proved that to purchase was altogether the cheaper. It was attempted, also, to abolish the Mint, but that did not succeed. Another small saving was made by the repeal of the late Judi- 440 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter ciary Act, which formed, indeed, the great measure of the session. It was early brought forward by Breoken- 1802. ridge in the Senate, and the speeches upon it constitute Jan. 6. the earliest reported debates of that body, Gouverneur Morris took the, lead for the Federalists, and greatly dis tinguished hiraself Before the debate was over, the greater part of the senators had spoken. The Judiciary Act, and especially the appointments made under it, had been held up to popular odium from the moraent of its passage as an unworthy maneuver, having no other object except to plunder the treasury for the benefit of the Federal leaders, ousted by the public voice from the control of the other departments of the government. Several of the state Legislatures had in structed their senators and representatives in Congress to urge the iramediate -repeal of the act. Returns of the business hitherto transacted by the Federal courts were moved for and obtained, frora which it was argued that the late change was entirely unnecessary, especially as the Sedition Law had expired, while the proposed repeal of the internal duties, and the dirainution of suits by British creditors, would still further dirainish the busi ness of the courts. It was raaintained, on the other side, that the new system had become necessary through the exigencies of justice ; and even admitting that the provision made by it was somewhat more ample than was necessary, that was an error on the right side, and would save to suitors, in the prompt decision of cases, vastly more than the new system would cost. Besides, those superfluities might be' retrenched without repealing the act. Indeed, a re- establishment of the old system was quite out of the question. It was also urged, and with great positiveness, that, REPEAL OF THE JUDICIARY ACT. 444 whether the act was good or bad, as the new judges had chapter been appoirited for life, that appointment amounted in ______ substance to a contract on the part of the public, which, 1802. consistently with the spirit ofthe Constitution, could not be set aside. To none of these arguments would the, Republicans listen ; and the bill finally passed the Senate, sixteen to Feb. 3. fifteen — one of the administration merabers being ab sent, and another (Ogden, of New Jersey) voting against it. In the House the debate was renewed with still great- Feb. 13. er earnestness. Giles, in the course of it, made a fu rious onslaught upon the whole judiciary system, and, indeed, upon the entire policy of the late administrations. At^length, by means of a midnight session, now first re- * sorted to for such a purpose, the Committee of the Whole was forced to report the bUl, which presently passed the March 1. House, fifty-nine to thirty-two, Eustis, the Boston rep- March 3. resentative, was the only administration meraber who voted against it. Jefferson appears to have been very doubtful, at least previous to the meeting of Congress, whether the judges had not a freehold in their offices of which they could not be constitutionally deprived. But he did not hesitate to sign the act. Nor, indeed, whatever might be thought of the expediency of the repeal, could there be any solid doubt of the power of Congress in the raatter, the repeal being, as it was, a bona fide one, and not a mere trick to deprive the judges of their offices, with intent to es tablish those offices anew and to give thera to others. Having thus destroyed the work of the Federalists, a bill was brought in, and presently passed by which the April 29 terms of the Suprerae Court were reduced to one annu ally, which a majority of the judges was authorized to 442 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER hold. Instead of three circuits as formerly, six were constituted, but somewhat different from those of the re- 1802, pealed act, Maine, Kentucky, and Tennessee not being included in the arrangeraent, A single judge of the Su preme Court was to be assigned to each of these circuits, to hold semi-annual courts in each district, with the dis trict judge for an associate. In case they differed on a point of law, the matter was to go up by certificate to the Supreme' Court, This system, with some addition to the number of Suprerae Court judges, and an increase of circuits and districts, remains in force to the present day. It answered well enough for a certain period, but its inadequacy has long since become fully apparent ; and the alraost hopeless accumulation for years past (1851) of business before the Supreme Court gives but too abun dant occasion, at least to the unfortunate suitors, to la ment that the aCt of 1801 was ever repealed. While the Senate were busy with the repeal of the Judiciary Act, the House attacked the internal taxes, in cluding the duties on domestic distilled spirits, and on licenses to retail them, together with the stamp duties, and the excises on refined sugar, sales at auction, and pleasure carriages. The gross produce of these taxes was about a million annually ; but, deducting the cost of collection, and the stamp duties, just about to expire, the nett revenue woiild be about $600,000, of which $500,000 was derived frora the tax on distilled spirits. The objection urged to these taxes was the expensive- ness of the collection in proportion to the product — the principal burden of a treatise by GaUatin published sev eral years before — to which were added the old argu ments as to their anti-republican character, and the .sys tem of espionage which they made necessary. Griswold insisted that, before repealing these taxes. REPEAL OF THE INTERNAL TAXES. 443 the House should first take up a resolution which he had chapter ^ . XVL offered for indemnifying those sufferers by French spoli- ations whose claims on France, in consideration of the 180:^. formal releasp of the United States from any claims un der the French treaties, had been finally abandoned by the convention as modified first by the Senate and then by Bonaparte, and lately ratified by the president in its modified form. But, without committing themselves as to the validity of this claim, or stopping to inquire into it, the House refused to be thus diverted from their pre determined course. It was next suggested that, if a reduction of taxes were practicable, it ought to be made, not on distilled spirits, a pernicious luxury, but on tea, coffee, sugar, and salt, articles of necessary consumption, taxed under the ex isting tariff fifty per cent, on their foreign cost. Spe cial reasons were also urged why the systera of internal revenue should not be abolished. That revenue was a sure resource, and in the fluctuations to which foreign trade was exposed, the country might yet be. driven to rely upon it. After rauch experience, the machinery for its coUection had been brought into good working order, and it would be well to keep it up against time of need, since to reconstruct it anew would be an affair of labor and delay. But this argument also, the force of which became evident enough some ten or twelve years after, now passed unheeded. Of all subjects of taxation, there was none fitter for it than distilled spirits. The other internal taxes produced but little, and might be repealed ; but this, it was urged, ought to be retained for moral as well as financial rea sons. Weighty as this argument was, the majority weU understood, though they did npt say so, that no greater boon could be conferred upon a very zealous and noisy 444 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER portion of the Republican party than the repeal of this XVI. .same tax, which Jefferson himself had pronounced "exe- 1802, erable," and to which Gallatin and others had stiraulated a passive resistance, resulting at length in actual insur rection. The repeal, also, had the additional recoraraend ation of getting rid of another batch of obnoxious office- :March 21. holders. It had been decided upon as a party measure, and was carried sixty-one to twenty-four, several of the Federalists being absent or omitting to vote. It passed March 31. the Senate soon after by a like party division. By a very unusual practice, several calls for information, with out being objected to or debated, were silently voted down by the raajority, whora the Federalists stigmatized in con sequence as the " dumb Legislature," A fourth recommendation of the president was carried April 13. out by the passage of an act repealing the late impedi ments placed in the way of the naturalization of foreign ers, and re-enacting the provisions of the act of 1795, which still continue in force. The retrenchments recommended by the president and adopted by the Congress had in view not only the repeal of the internal taxes, but the provision of means for the prompt reduction of the public debt, always a great bug bear to Jefferson. Gallatin, who aspired to rival Ham ilton as a financier, but whose best claims in that respect had thus far been exhibited in a strict adherence to the systera of his predecessors, suggested to Congress, and April 29. they adopted, some new arrangements on that head. Somewhat more simple than those previously in force, these arrangeraents, however, were only feasible with a full treasury, such as Gallatin anticipated, but which his predecessors had never enjoyed. Hamilton's Sinking Fund Act had appropriated a variety of funds out of which to meet the annual interest and installments of NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 445 the public debt; and, in addition, such surpluses as chapter XVI, might remain after paying, the current expenses. Gal- . latin proposed to pledge absolutely, toyrard the interest 1802. and discharge of the debt, the round annual sum of $7,300,000, exceeding by $1,200,000 the sura abso lutely appropriated by Harailton's act, leaving the cur rent expenses to be met out of such surplus of revenue as raight reraain after this annual payment. As the Territory northvvest of the Ohio appeared by the census to have a population entitling it to admis sion into the Union, in accordance with raany petitions to that effect, the people residing within the present lim its of Ohio were authorized to organize themselves as a April 30. state, a convention to meet at Chilicothe in Noveraber to form a constitution. The remainder of the territory was to be annexed to Indiana. In consideration of the passage by the new state of an irrepealable ordinance exempting frora taxation for four years all lands newly purchased of the United States, Congress proposed to ' grant, in return, one township in each section for the support of schools, being one thirty-sixth part of all the lands in the state ; besides five per cent, of the proceeds of all lands sold, to be laid out for the construction of roads ; three per cent, of it, by a subsequent act, to be expended within the state, and two per cent, upon roads leading to the state from the eastward. The Board of Commissioners which hitherto had man aged the affairs of the City of Washington was dissolved by an act of this Congress, and a superintendent appoint ed in their place. Means were also provided by this same act for paying the loan due to the State of Mary land. Another act provided a municipal government for the city. Just before the close of the jate administratipn, the 446 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter renewed negotiation with England on the subject of Brit- ish debts had been brought to a conclusion by an agree- 1802, ment on the part of the United States to pay, in discharge of the liabilities assumed by Jay's treaty, the sum of $2,664,000 in three annual installments, A bill was ac cordingly passed at this session appropriating the means for this payment,, being, in substance, so rauch added to the assumption of state debts, the larger part of it on ac count of Virginia, The subject of the balances due from certain states was again brought up. As no payraent oould be got, except a partial one made by New York in expenditures on fortifications, a bill was introduced discharging the debt, but it did not pass. One of the results of the recent Republican triumph in Pennsylvania was an Intrusion Act, so called, sub jecting to very severe punishraent, by fine and irapris onraent, the Connecticut settlers on Wyoming lands, un- "der pretended Susquehanna Corapany grants subsequent to the Trenton decision. These unfortunate squatters thereupon appealed to Congress for the transfer of all such prosecutions to the Federal courts, and a trial out of Pennsylvania, Apart from constitutional difficulties in the way, the fact that they were Ne^ Englanders and mostly Federalists left them no hope frora this Congress ; and, after a twenty years' struggle, which had bred not a little of ill blood between New England and Pennsylva nia, they found themselves at length obliged to succumb, and to make such comproraises and settlements as they could, April 26. A few days before the close of the session, the presi dent coraraunicated to Congress the compact as to the territory between the Mississippi and the Chattahoochee, which, under the full powers granted for that purpose, t CESSION BY GEORGIA. 447 had been entered into by the coraraissioners of Geor- chapter gia on the one part, and those of the United States on . XVI. the other ; the latter being the Secretary of State, the 1802. Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attorney General. By this compact, to remain in full ferce unless rejected by pne party or the other within six raonths, Georgia ceded to the United States all her claims to territory west of what now constitutes her western boundary, on con dition of receiving out of the first nett proceeds of the lands sold the surti of $1,250,000, and, what ultimately proved of far higher cost, an undertaking on the part of the United States to extinguish, at the expense of the Federal treasury, the Indian title to the lands reserved by Georgia " as early as the same could be peaceably obtained on reasonable terms ;" especially the Indian ti tle to that tract between the Oconee and Ocmulgee, so long and so perseveringly sought by the Georgians. It was also provided, by the terms of the compact, that whenever the population of the territory thus ceded should amount to 60,000, or earlier at the option of Congress, the ceded territory was to be erected into a state, on the same terms and conditions contained in the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Territory northwest of the Ohio, " that article only excepted which prohibits slayery." Of the hundred thousand square miles of territory of which the United States thus acquired the jurisdiction, all except a very small portion was still in the hands of the Indians ; the Creeks and Cherokees toward tbe east, the Chickasaws and Choctaws toward the west. The only portion to whieh the Indian title had been extin guished by the former French possessors, and on which any white settlements existed, were two tracts of nearly three thousand square miles each, one extending along 448 HISTORY OFTHE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER the Mississippi from the Florida line to the mouth of XVI. the Yazoo, the other between the waters of the Pasca- 1802, goula and the Tombigbee, its southern lirait being fifty miles north of the Florida line, from which, as well as from the tract on the Mississippi, it was separated by an intervening wilderness. An iramediate cession, obtained from the Creeks by a considerable expenditure of pres- June 16. ents, at a treaty held with them in the course of the summer, of a part of the much-coveted tract between the Oconee and Ocmulgee, induced the State of Georgia to allow this compact to go into force. The Choctaws and Chickasaws, by previous treaties (October and Decem ber, 1801), had already conceded the right to open a road through their territory frora Nashville to Natchez. Whatever may be thought of Jefferson's politics, he was undoubtedly a philanthropist ; he entered with zeal into the benevolent policy of Washington toward the In dians ; and at his recoraraendation, an act was passed for regulating intercourse with thera on the system already existing, and for sustaining the public trading-houses for supplying them with goods. Having recognized the existence of war with Tripoli, Congress authorized the fitting out of such a naval force as the president raight see fit, A squadron, manned and equipped for two years' service, consisting of three large and two smaller frigates, to which was added the schoon er Experiment, was accordingly got ready to relieve Dale's ships. The command was offered to the gallant Truxton, who decHned because, with the characteristic parsimony of the administration, he was refused a cap tain for his flag-ship. To punish him for thus presum ing to differ from the executive, his letter of declination was construed, contrary to his intention, as a resigna tion of his commission, and under that pretense he was RETROCESSION OF LOUISIANA TO FRANCE, 449 struck from the navy list. The command of the squad- chapter xvi. ron was then given to Morris. Tripoli could only be . brought to terms by a vigorous blockade or a bombard- 1802. ment. But a close blockade required a number of small vessels, while for a bombardment the armainents of the frigates were not well adapted. Ever since the alliance between France and Spain, it had been strongly suspected that France intended to ob tain the retrocession of Louisiana, perhaps with the ad dition of Florida also. These rumors increasing as the negotiations for the peace of Amiens proceeded, Living ston at Paris, Charles Pinckney at Madrid, and King at London, had been specially instructed to endeavor to de feat the cession ; which, however, by a secret treaty, had been already made (October 1, 1800), to take effect with- » in six raonths after the coraplete execution of another treaty, by which Tuscany, then a republic, had been as sured as an hereditary dorainion to the Duke of Parma, the King of Spain's son-in-law. Even for Spain to coraraand the mouth of the Mis sissippi, thus holding at mercy the trade of the Western country, now in so rapid progress of settlement, was a very uncomfortable thing. Out of this circumstance had heretofore grown intrigues, already referred to, on the part of some of the leading politicians of Kentucky, to break the union with the states east of the mountains, and to enter into relations, more or less intiraate, with Spain. Should an enterprising nation like the French — one, too, for which such partialities had been felt — obtain the key of the Western waters, who could tell what might hap pen ? This state of things, wrote Jefferson to Living- April is. ston, " completely reverses all the political relations of the United States, and will form a new epoch in our po litical course. We have ever looked to France as our v.— Ff 450 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter natural friend — one with whora we could nevfi i^xva an Xvi. occasion of difference ; but there is one spot on th**. p;lobe 1802, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. That spot is New Orleans, France, placing herself in that door, assumes to us the attitude of defiance. The day that France takes possession seals the union of two nations, who, in conjunction, can maintain exclusive pos session of the ocean. From that moraent we must mar ry ourselves to the British fleet and nation. We must turn all our attention to a maritime force, and make the first cannon fired in Europe the signal for tearing up any settlement France raay have made," Much was added to the same effect as reasons why the French govern ment should consent to the transfer of Louisiana, or, at least, of the island of Orleans, to the United States — suggestions which Livingston was instructed to raake in a way not to give offense. .¦\pril 2. A letter, sorae few days before, to. Kosciusko, who had written to inquire if some countrymen of his could find military eraployraent in the United States, expressed, in a somewhat exulting tone, Jefferson's view of the state of public affairs : " The session of the first Congress con vened since Republicanism has recovered its ascendency will pretty completely fulfill all the desires of the people. They have reduced the army and navy to what is bare ly necessary. They keep in service no more than men enough to garrison the sraall posts, dispersed at great dis tances on our frontiers, which garrisons will generally consist of a captain's corapany only, in no case of raore than two or three, and in not one of a sufficient number to require a field officer ; and no circumstances whatev er can bring these garrisons together, because it would be an abandonment of their posts. They are disarming executive patronage and preponderance by putting down STATE OF PUBLIC FJIELING. 45]^ I one half the pffioes cf the United States which are no chapter XVI longer necessary. These economies have enabled them to suppress aU the internal taxes, and stiU to make such 1802. provision for the payraent of the public debt as to dis charge it in eighteen years. Tljey have lopped off a par asite lirab planted by their predecessors on the judiciary body for party purposes ; they are opening the door of hospitality to fugitives frora the oppressions of other coun tries ; and we have suppressed all those public forms and ceremonies which tended tP familiarize the public eye tp the harbingers of another form of government. The peo ple are nearly all united. Their quondam leaders, infu riated with the sense of their impotence, will soon be seen or heard only in the newspapers, which serve as chira- neys to carry off noxious vapors and smoke, and all is now tranquil, firra, and well, as it should be." Yet raany symptoms already, or soon after, appeared of an internal agitation and a party bitterness not very consistent with Jefferson's boa.sts of political tranquillity and a united people. Early in the session a coraraittee had been appointed, of which Nicholson and Giles were principal raembers, to investigate the past expenditures of the government, and to inquire whether moneys drawn from the treasury had been properly accounted for. This committee grew out of charges freely indulged in by the Democratic newspapers, by reason of certain defaults which had happened among some of the disbursing agents in the latter part of Adams's administration, seized upon as proofs of a general and widespread corruption. Per haps, also, it was intended as a sort of counter-blast to the outcry of the Federal newspapers respecting a very profuse expenditure, as they aUeged, without any appro priation having been made for it, in refitting the Berceau, one of the captured vessels restored under the French 452 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES I CHAPTER treaty — a subject to which attention had also been called on the floor of the House, 1802, No report was made by this committee till three days May 1. jjgfope the close of the session, when a very one-sided statement, drawn up by the administration majority of the coraraittee, with the aid of Gallatin, and without the knowledge of the Federal merabers, was laid before the House — a raiserable electioneering document, under the disguise of a Congressional report ; the first instance of the sort in our history, but of which too many, the usu al consequence of bad precedents, have since occurred. The studied intention of this report was, by a partial statement of facts, v^-hich the coraraittee well knew to be capable of coraplete explanation, to convey the impression to the public that the pecuniary transactions of the late administration had been conducted in the loosest manner; that many large suras of public raoney reraained unac counted for ; and that many large expenditures had been habitually made without any lawful authority. Though any direct assertion of that sort was carefully avoided, the report pointed distinctly to the conclusion that, when the accounts came to be finally settled, very large de faults might appear. To this attack upon the late secretaries, made in an official shape, under circumstances which had allowed, neither to .thera nor to their friends in Congress, any op portunity of explanation, and which too plainly evinced a base malignity of intention, Wolcott presently made a reply in the form of a pamphlet, not less remarkable, in those days of excitement, for its perfect decorum, than for its conclusive exposures of the party fraud attempted by the committee. The repeal of the Judiciary Act, denounced by the Federalists as the first step toward the overthrow of the FEDERAL NEWSPAPERS, CALLENDER. 453 Constitution itself (which they still charged to be the se- chapter cret object of the Republican leaders), and foUowed up. by a report like this, and by new removals frora office, 1802. tended but little tp the subsidence of political feeling, Wolcott having lost his office as judge, his friends in New York gladly availed themselves of his financial tal ents as president of the Merchants' Bank, established in that city about this time,, at first under articles of as sociation, without a charter. Two new journals, on the ultra Federal side, had recently made their appearance, the Evening Post, at New York, edited by Colraan, and understood to express the sentiraents of Hamil tpu (Web ster's Comraercial Advertiser adhering to the more raod erate section of the party), and the Palladiura, at Bos ton, to which Ames made large contributions, but the aid of whose pen was presently transferred to a still new er journal, called the Repertory, In their renewed attacks. upon the president, the Fed eralists found an unexpected ally in that zealous Demo crat, the notorious CaUender, who, at the time of Jeffer son's accession, had just served out his terra of imprison raent under the sentence against him for seditious libel. He had even been able, by the assistance pf pplitical friends, tc pay intp the hands of the marshal the fine iraposed upon him, which, however, Jefferson, by a some what doubtful exercise of power, ordered to be returned by virtue of a pardon which he hastened to grant. Not satisfied with this mere remission of his fine, CaUender applied to be appointed post-master of Richmond ; but his libelous pen being no longer needed, Jefferson sent him fifty dollars and a civil refusal. Indignant at this treatment, CaUender availed himself of the columns of the Richraond Recorder, of which he became an editor, to charge upon Jefferson's encouragement and aid in, and 454 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, chapter responsibility for, the libels which he had pubHshed, es- xvi. .pecially "The Prospect before us," that scandalous pam- 1802, phlet which had given rise to his prosecution under the Sedition Law, This " base ingratitude" on the part of CaUender, whom he denounced as a " lying renegade," touched Jefferson to the quick ; and he wrote to Governor Monroe, authorizing a public stateraent, which was ac cordingly raade, that his connection with CaUender had been only that of a generous patron to a distressed man of letters, to whom, out of pure charity, he had made occasional donations. He promised to send copies of all the letters he' had ever written to CaUender ; but from this he afterward excused himself on the plea that he could not find them, CaUender, however, had preserved the originals, and he hastened to print them ; whereby it appeared that Jefferson had not only contributed fifty dol lars toward the publication ofthe "Prospect before us," but that he had furnished information for it, and had seen and highly approved of a part, at least, ofthe proof-sheets. Nor did CaUender stop with the publication of these letters. Assisted with information frdm Jefferson's Fed eral neighbors, he entered into the history of his private life ; and it is a striking instance of retributive justice that the very man who had been instigated and assisted, if not by Jefferson hiraself, by sorae one or other of the Virginia clique, to bring before the public the araours of Harailton, should now, to Jefferson's infinite annoyance — for his teraperaraent was so sensitive that he blushed like a woraan at any such allusions — have done the same kind office for hira. It was frora this source that origin ated, among other things, the story of Jefferson's atterapt to seduce a neighbor's wife, and of his serai-African con cubine— -by the father's side a sister, it was said, of his raore lawful spouse, and the mother, by hira, of a large CALLENDER AND PAINE. 455 faraily of unrecognized colored children — stories told with chaptee minute circumstances, never contradicted, and which, ac- L_ quiring general credit, formed the sting of raany a polit- 1802. ical pasquinade. In this eraergency, George Hay, late one of Callen der's counsel on his trial for libel, and now,, by Jefferson's appointraent, district attorney of Virginia, procured Cal- lender to be arrested and carried before two raagistrates, with the intent to play off upon him that same piece of legal tyranny lately exercised by M'Kean over Cobbett, in corapelling hira to give security to publish no libels. But this attempt appears to have excited some misgiv ings araong sorae of the Virginians who had raised such clamors against the Sedition Law, and Hay found him self obliged to defend his conduct in a pamphlet, Jef ferson was presently relieved from his troublesome ac complice, who was accidentally drowned not long after while bathing in Jaraes River, But the stories which he had put in circulation did not die with hira; they continued to be kept alive in the Federal newspapers, ' and some three years after (1805) received additional confirmation through an unlucky movement of Jeffer son's friends in the Massachusetts Legislature, by whora a raotion was raade to deprive the publishers of the Pal ladiura of the state printing, on the ground of its abuse of the president in the republication of, or allusion to, these stories ; in consequence of which raotion, an affidavit was presently obtained frora Virginia, and published in the Palladium, from a person who professed hiraself a neigh bor of Jefferson's and personally cognizant of the facts. Nor was it his association- with CaUender alone by which Jefferson was exposed to obloquy. The egregious vanity of Thoraas Paine had led him to publish in Paris Jefferson's letter containing the offer of a passage to 456 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (;hapter America in a public vessel. But Paine, instead of be- -ing esteemed as forraerly as a lover of liberty, whose vig- XVI. 1802. orous pen had contributed to hasten the Declaration of Independence, was now detested by large numbers as the libeler of Washington and the scoffing assailant of the Christian religion ; and this raarked piece of courtesy extended to hira, coupled with Paine's retilrn to Araerica soon after, occasioned a renewal of the attacks upon Jef ferson's religious opinions, which had, indeed, been a good deal urged pending the presidential canvass. The first American Free-thinker who went so far as to deny the supernatural origin of the Christian religion ap pears td have been Jeremiah Dumraer, for many years colonial agent of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and cel ebrated for his " Defense ofthe New England Charters," Though a grandson of one of the Puritan fathers, and hiraself a theological student, Dumraer had imbibed from personal intercourse the religious opinions of Boling broke, But as he was careful to keep thera to himself, and as he lived the greater part of his life and died in England, his views could have had little or no influence in America, Yet converts were not wanting there to the same opinions, of whora Franklin was the most Ulus trious. He, however, at least in his maturer age, was no propagandist. He thought religion necessary for re straining the ignorant and viciously inclined ; consid ered it highly dangerous " to unchain the tiger ;" os tensibly adhered to the Church of England ; and seeras not to have favored any attacks upon current religious ideas. The first work of that kind published in Amer ica was Ethan Allen's " Oracles of Reason," which ap peared in 1 786. That Jefferson entertained similar opin ions was evident frora several passages in his "Notes on Virginia," published in London in 1787, FREE-THINKING IN AMERICA. 457 chapter xvi. The renunciation of the Christian religion by the French republic, and the publication of Paine's " Age of Reason," the first part in 1794, the second part in 1796, |l802 a work extensively circulated in America, not only made \ a considerable number of converts to Deistical opinions, i but emboldened many openly to avow ideas long secretly \ entertained. Still, the irapression was very slight. Of | the comparatively small nuraber able and inclined to! reason on the topic of religion, by far the greater part| stopped short with denying, doubting, or explaining away | the divinity of Christ, and, along with it, the doctrines,' one or all, of the Trinity, the atonement, total depravity, . the new birth, and eternal punishments, A considera- j ble proportion of the Congregational clergy of New En gland, with a certain number of the more intelligent lay men, secretly rejected these dogmas, or doubted with re- \ spect to thera. But, knowing theraselves to be far in \ advance of the masses, like the Armenians of the times ' preceding the great revival of 1740, they observed a dis-| erect silence in public, Jefferson's relations to the religious opinions of his country were somewhat peculiar. He believed, like Paine, in a personal God and a future life, but, like hira, re garded Christianity, in the supernatural view of it, as a popular fable, an instrument for deluding, misgoverning, and plundering mankind ; and these opinions he enter tained, as he did most others, with little regard to any qualifying considerations, and with an energy approach ing to fanaticism. But he was no more inclined than were the New England Rationalists to become a raartyr to the propagation of unpopular ideas. That he left to Paine and others of less discretion or more courage than him self He found a safer and more popular way of indulg ing his sentiments in an avowed and active hostility to 458 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER all public establishments for the support of reHgion, and XVI. ' especiaUy to the establishment which, during colonial 1802. tiraes, the Church of England had enjoyed in Virginia and the other Southern States. By the act of Virginia of 1776 suspending the collection of parish rates, confirraed and extended by the Religious Freedom Act of 1785, in both of which enactments Jefferson had a large share, and which had been carried by means of the co-operat ing jealousy and hatred of the Baptists and Presbyte rians, he struck a blow at the Church of England in Virginia frora which it has never since recovered. But, even in this disabled state, that church still continued an object of jealousy alike to the Free-thinkers, of whom there were a considerable number araong the educated planters, and to the Baptists and other sectaries ; and a recent act (1799) had repealed all the laws passed since the Revolution which seemed to acknowledge a corpo- Jan. rate character in that church. Still more recently the favorite point had been carried of forfeiting the glebes as fast as they became vacant, to be sold for such purpose, " not religious," as a majority of the parishioners should elect. This zeal against church estabUshments having ac coraplished its end in the Southern States, and having tended, so far as the Dissenters, the raajority of the pop ulation, were concerned, to promote Jefferson's popular ity there, was now directed against the system of the New Ehgland churches ; furnishing also a strong point of sympathy between Jefferson and the New England sectaries. This hostUity to the support of religion by public authority raight be consistent enough on the part of Jefferson and of those who agreed with hira in regard ing the religion of the country as no better than a rais- chievous delusion. It raight also be consistent enough RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS. 459 on the part of those sectaries who, disregarding human chapter means,' relied on God's rairaculous support. But upon what logical basis this raoveraent could find favor with 1802. those who entertained different views, it is not so easy to explain. The result of the French Revolution had tended to confirm the opinion that soraething raore than a procla mation of the rights of man, to wit, general intelligence,, virtue and good morals, public and private, afforded the foundation upon which alone a republican government could be sustained. It was also generaUy adraitted, then as now, that religion furnished the only solid support for morality. Such being the case, was it not the bounden duty of the government to provide for public instruction in religion, just as much as for public instruction in let ters? Nor did this necessarily imply any infringement upon the rights of conscience, since in New England ev ery one enjoyed, at least to a certain extent, the right of choosing what church he would support. The New England system of common schools had in its origin been intimately connected with the religious establishment. Both grew out of theocratic views. Those views, how ever, had been long since abandoned ; and the public sup port both of education and religion had been alike placed on mere grounds of huraan policy, the interest, to wit, which the community has in the intelligence and good morals of its members. And it was significantly re marked that, as out of New England there was no church establishment, so out of New England there was no extensive system of public education. But it was not merely or chiefly in their character of a priesthood that Jefferson detested the New England clergy. The steady front which the Federal opposition continued to present in the states of Massachusetts, New 460 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER Hampshire, and especially of Connecticut, he ascribed al- . most entirely to clerical influence ; and he held up those XVI. 1802, states in his private correspondence as unfortunate priest- ridden communities, led by the nose by a body of men " who had got a smell of union between church and state," the natural eneraies of science and truth associ ated together in a conspiracy against the liberties of the people ; opinions publicly reiterated by the grateful Bishop in a long series of articles, addressed to the Republicans of New England, on the conspiracy of church and state against Christianity and the governraent of the United States. The clergy of New England, frora the comraenceraent of the Revolution, had taken a very active part in poli- tics ; and so they continued to do throughout the admin istration of Jefferson and his successor. This part they took, not in their character of clergymen merely, but rather as raen of superior education and intelligence, and of high moral character, placed, by the life-tenure of their parishes, in a position of comparative leisure and inde pendence; circurastances which made them, in conjunc tion with the lawyers, with whora their relations were in timate and harmonious, as much the natural leaders of New England as the slave-holding planters were natural leaders in Virginia, In the general justice of their views on political affairs, they had no reason to fear coraparison with their Virginia rivals ; and there is still room for reasonable doubt (the course of events, aided by quarrels among themselves, having deprived them of their estab lishraent, and stripped them of all political power) wheth er the transfer of the entire guardianship of our politics into the hands of office-seekers and politicians by profes sion has resulted in any special benefit to the comrau nity, however the calling it Republican and Democratic raay delight our ears. JEFFERSON AND THE CLERGY. 45]^ Jefferson seems to have considered himself excessively chapter . XVI. lU treated by the clergy, who were constantly twitting him with his infidel opinions. But it 'does not very dis- 1802. tirfotly appear in what respeCt the religious bigptry pf the clergy was at all wcrse than Jefferspn's pplitical bigotry. They seem, in fact, to have been but varieties ofthe very same thing. WhUe he took advantage of popular prej udices to hold them up to odium as enemies of popular rights, and thereby to strip them of their 'power and their ppsitipn, was it any thing mpre than a fair retort for them to appeal, in their turn, to popular prejudices, and to hold hira up as the enemy pf religipn, and consequent ly the enemy of that upon which good morals and social order can alone be securely based, and therefore not fit to be trusted with political power ? In that freedom resulting not from raere thotightlessi ness or impatience of restraint, but founded upon reflec tion and investigation, NeW England then, as now, was very far before the rest of the country; but, however freely some of the New Ehgland clergy might speculate in their closets, in matters of practice the great body of them were inclined to carry their conservatism, or what they. called the maintenance of "steady habits," consid erably further than was consistent with the just and nat ural progress of society. This disposition, always strong enough in such bodies, had been, of late, greatly re-en forced by that powerful reaction, felt in America as well as in Europe, against the rage for innovation, without stop ping to consider to what it would lead, which had raade the French Revolution appear, to cotemporary eyes, so strange a mixture ofthe terrible and the ridiculous. The * story of Barruel and Robinson, ascribing the origin of that revolution to a conspiracy of free-thinkers, associated, with Voltaire at their head, for the overthrow of the Chris- 462 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter tian reHgion, and having affiliated branches in Araerica as XVI. ^ ' ° 1802 .iwell as in Europe, had found extensive credence ; while the result of that revolution, after twelve years of such ardent aspirations, irapassioned hopes, wild coraraotions, desperate struggles, and civil bloodshed, in a raere rail itary despotisra, served to confirm hostility to change, I however plausible in. theory ; and to inspire the idea that /the salvation of the country against the horrors of Jac- I obinisra depended upon preserving frora rash innovation I those venerable institutions under which, thus far, it had grown and prospered. So far, indeed, as related to a public provision for re ligious teachers — the great instance, according to Jeffer son, of the political benightedness of New England — there was soraething plausible to be said in defense of it, even upon Jefferson's own views. Grant that reHgion is but another name for superstition, a thing in itself unprofitable and pernicious ; yet religion the people will have ; and by abolishing all public provision for religious teaching, you are but opening the door to a flood of ex travagant fanaticism, the surest safeguard against which is to be found, after all, in a well-educated clergy, from intellectual necessity keeping up, to a great degree, with the progress of the times, and secured by decent and per raanent salaries against the perpetual teraptation to pur chase a precarious support by playing upon the supersti tions, and constantly applying fresh stimulus to the ex cited fancies of their flocks. Such a view of the case,, taken by numbers of Feder alists who made no pretensions to be themselves religious men, and who indulged personally in great latitude of opinion, was very rauch strengthened by events already taking place in the South and West, where the abolition of religious establishments had by no raeans proved an RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM. 453 extinguisher to religious fanaticism. At this very mo- chapter XVI. ment one of those revivals was in progress in Kentucky . and the other Western settlements which, in the last 1802, fifty years, have produced such reraarkable results in America ; building up, in place of the religious establish ments xjnce supported by law, new volunteer sectarian organizations, certainly in no respect more favorable to freedom of opinion, to reason, or to learning, however they raay have exceeded in warrath of piety and glow of feeling. In those Western settlements, where there were very few educated preachers, and little regular pro vision for public worship, the sarae religious excitement which had produced in ancient times the passionate or gies with which the worship of Bacchus and Cybele used to be celebrated, displayed itself now, in excesses, under the name of religion, not a whit less extraordinary. Among other things of the like sort, during the two or three years that this excitement was kept up, it was not uncommon to find companies assembled in the woods, some praying and others barking like dogs, employed, to use their own backwoods phraseology, in " treeing the devU," The decent and moderate religionists of New England, where latitudinarian views at this tirae were extensively prevalent, if not decidedly predominant, were hardly less shocked by these excesses than by Paine's unceremoni ous treatment of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, Between enthusiastic sectaries on the one side and scoff ers on the other, their patience was not a little tried. On the other hand, the Free-thinkers and the sectaries were able to co-operate politically without much diffi culty ; and many of Jefferson's greatest admirers were to be found araong the latter class. Appeals to the reason, like those of Paine, gave but littie trouble to men who 464 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER relied, as most of the sectaries did, upon the visible con- XVI. , verting presence of the Holy Spirit ; while both extremes 1802. had a strong bond of sympathy in their coraraon hostility to the established clerical order, by which the Free-think ers expressed their dislike to all priesthoods, whUe the sectaries not only indulged the bitterness of theological rivalry, but signified also their confidence that their own worship, being the true one, would be upheld by Divine aid, without ^eed of a legal support, only necessary for a dead and forraal religion — one of the head, and not of the heart. There was also a still deeper and more permanent bond of sympathy, not consciously perceived by either party. Enthusiasm in religion is, in its ultimate anal ysis, but a species of free thinking — that form which free thinking takes when developed in minds in which imagination and the feelings predominate over the rea son. Free-thinkers denounce prevailing opinions, and appeal to first principles, and religious enthusiasts do the same thing. Free-thinkers had united with Luther against the Church of Rome ; Free-thinkers had united with the Puritans against the Church of England ; Free thinkers had united with the Church of England against the Congregational Church establishraents of Massachu setts and Connecticut ; and Free-thinkers now, through out the LInited States, united with the various enthusi astic sects against any public provision for the clergy. Political enthusiasra, discouraged by the results of the French Revolution, was already dying out, without hav ing produced hardly any raodifications of laws or consti tutions. In Maryland, indeed, where such a change was necessary to secure the perraanent ascendency of the Re publican party, the triuraphant Democrats brought in and presently' carried an amendment of the Constitution RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM. 455 abolishing the property qualification of voters. But in chapter XVI. Virginia, in spite of the theoretical deraocracy of which that state was the fountain-head, all atterapts failed to 1802. liberalize a constitution, as to the right of suffrage one of. the most exclusive in the Union, We shall see here after with how little success the Pennsylvania Democrats attempted to throw off the yoke of the lawyers. But while political enthusiasm was thus expiring, religious enthusiasm ran on for many years a vigorous course ; suppressing free thinking on the one hand and legal provision for the clergy on the other, and buUding up great and powerful religious establishments on the principle of free association and voluntary contributions. Nor did it stop there. Descending, in our day, from the heavens to the earth, and, with the more general diffusion of intelligence, taking on, among the better informed, a more practical shape, it has pushed and is ^pushing, with all its native energy, many great questions of social re form ; and even dashing with fury against the very re ligious establishments it had formerly built up, whenever it finds in them obstacles to its present career ; at times assailing even the fundamental dogmas of all formal re-r ligions with a species of artillery infinitely more danger ous than any that Paine or Jefferson ever used. Yet, as all general statements are to be taken with some allowance, so there were to be found araong the New En gland Republicans a certain number of as zealous stick lers for the New England system of religious establish ments as any of the Federalists ; including even two or three eminent clergymen, the secret of whose polities is to be sought either in very hopeful views of the improva- bility of human nature, or, if their creed was more or- thodox, in an inextinguishable hatred against England, kindled in the Revolution. v.— G G 466 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter The great mass, however, of the New England Re- XVI ,-¦ " publican party was raade up of secret or open, latitudiria- 1802. rian, free thinking, or fanatical dissenters frora the relig ious establishment, who now sought support against that establishment, and aid to overthrow it, from the general government, just as, in the times of the first Massachu. setts charter, a similar party had done from the govern ment of England ; while the New England Federalists, on the other hand, presently carae to regard the general government, the infancy of which they had so carefully nursed, with rauch the sarae jealous and hostile spirit formerly exhibited toward the mother country. Nor was that political millenniura, of which Jefferson so fondly hoped tp becorae the high priest, delayed only by the execrations of the Federalists, Alarraing syrap toms appeared of growing divisions in the Democratic tanks. In Pennsylvania, where M'Kean was re-elected governor by forty-five thousand out of sixty thousand votes, with an overwhelrning Republican majority in both branches of the Legislature, these dissensions, though al ready visible, were still kept in check ; but in New York a decided breach had already occurred, Greenleaf's Argus, the forraer organ of the Republi cans of New York, had been succeeded by the Araerican Citizen, established by Dennison, a relation of the Clin tons, and Warraly devoted, to their interests, Dennison having no ability as a writer, the editorship of the paper had been given to, Jaraes Cheethara, a man of sdperior talents, an immigrant from Birmingham, in England, a devoted admirer of Paine's, and ultimately his biogra pher. This paper, simultaneously with the adjournment of Congress, began to attack Vice-president Burr with great vehemence, charging him with having forfeited his position in the Republican party by his secret intrigues POLITICS. OF NEW YORK. BURR. 457 with the Federalists, and sorae of the Republicans, on chapter XVI. occasion of the late election of president. Of this, in- . deed, there was no very positive proof; for in cautious 1802. secretiveness and silent activity Burr was a match for Jefferson himself. Yet circurastances were cited going to show efforts on the part of Burr and his friends to op erate on the New York and New Jersey members. This attack did not grow out of any special regard en tertained by the Clintons and Livingstons for Jefferson. But it furnished a plausible and popular ground on which to attack Burr, and might help them to engross the con trol of the Federal executive patronage in New York, through the favor of the president, to whom, not less than to theraselves. Burr was an object of jealous, suspi cion. Indeed, it was 'further aUeged against him, that, with a view to the next presidential election, he still kept up with the Federalists a secret intrigue. He was charged with having been opposed to the late repeal of Adams's Judiciary Act, and with having influenced Og den and Eustis, the only two Republicans who had voted against it. He had also attended at Washington a Fed eral celebration of Washington's birth-day, and ha,d|given for his toast "the union of all honest raen," A further proof urged against him was the paying a sum of money to suppress a history of John Adaras's administration, compiled chiefly from- the Aurora and Callender's pam phlets by one John Wood, a recent Scotch immigrant. This suppression had been attempted, as Cheetham said, on account of the developments it contained respecting Dayton and dther of Burr's Federal friends,; but, as Burr hiraself alleged, on account of the disgrace which its nu raerous libels and blunders would have reflected on the Republican party. To counteract these attacks, Burr and his friends es- 468 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter tablished the Morning Chronicle, edited by Dr. Irving ; ' and besides newspaper articles, several virulent pam- 1802. phlets were published on both sides. As to the alleged intrigues on occasion of the presidential election. Burr's friends suggested in whispers, which presently, however, found their way into print, not a little to Burr's injury, that since his election Jefferson had given offices to Dent, Linn, Livingston, and Claiborne, four of the six persons whom it had been expected might vote for Burr, and in fulfillment, as it was hinted, of promises made to secure their fidelity. Lyon's son had also received a clerkship ; and Bailey, who alone remained unprovided for, was soon added to the Hst as post-master of New York, Nor was the controversy confined to print, John Swartwout, who had obtained, through Burr's interest, the office of marshal for the district of New York, chal lenged De Witt Clinton for having called him " a liar, a scoundrel, and a viUain," Five shots were exchanged. Though twice wounded, Swartwout still kept his ground, and demanded to go on ; but Clinton, after consulting with his seconds, threw down his pistol, and refused to fire again. In this excited state of political feeling, sev eral other political duels occurred, some of thera fatal. The re-establishment of the colonial empire of France was a favorite project of Bonaparte's, and with that view the cession of Louisiana had been obtained. But these American projects had met with some checks. Tous saint had foUowed up his treaty with the British for the neutrality of St. Domingo by taking possession of the Spanish part of the island (January, 1801), which he claimed for France under the treaty of Basle. He had also caused a code and a new constitution to be pro claimed (July 1), under which he was declared president for life. This example was presently imitated by the ST. DOMINGO, GUADALOUPE, LOUISIANA. 459 black and colored population of G,uadaloupe, who, head- chapter XVI. ed by Pelagic, seized the governor sent out by Bona- . parte, forced him on board a Danish vessel in the harbor, 1802, and established a provisional government (October 21, 1801), Before this rising took place, the preliminary articles of the peace of Amiens had been already signed (October 1) ; and before the end ofthe year, a great fleet and army, under Le Clerc, Bonaparte's brother-in-law, were sent to subdue the rebellious negroes of St, Domingo. This army, regarded with great suspicion by Toussaint and his black generals, only effected a landing by force, and a new civil war ensued, subjecting that unhappy Feb. country to new desolations. A moraentary peace was patched up, by false assurances on the part of Le Clero May 1. that he did not intend to re-establish slavery, and by promises of liberty and equality td the inhabitants with out regard to color. Guadaloupe submitted about the May 7- 22 same time, though not without resistance, to another fleet and army sent against it. A simultaneous decree" of the French legislative body, for the re-establishment May 17. of West Indian slavery and the slave trade as they had stdod in 1789, gave the lie to Le Clere's assurances, and affdrded undeniable evidence that the dream of lib erty and equality was over. On suspicion of a new re volt in St. Doraingo, Toussaint was treacherously seized June. and sent to France, where he died in confinement. But the arms of the negroes, led by Christophe and Dessa- lines, and greatly aided by the diseases of the eliraate, rap idly thinned the ranks of the French army, which, being july- thus employed in St. Doraingo, was unable to carry out ^'^' Bonaparte's original plan for the detachraent of a force to take possession of New Orleans. Notwithstanding this disappointment, the occupation of Lcuisiana was still kept in view by Benaparte, by this 470 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter time, consul for life, and, in spite of the forms of a con- XVI. . ' stitution, already, managing every thing at his own will 1802. and pleasure. All Livingston's long memoirs to prove ¦^ how useless the territory would be to the French made no impression, and that minister found himself obliged to Nov. write home that a special expedition was about sailing to take possession of New Orleans, and that the greatest op pressions of American commerce on the Mississippi, and even attempts to seize Natchez and corrupt the Western people, might be expected ; whence he argued the neces sity of " strengthening ourselves by force and ships at home and alliance abroad" — recommendations not much in consonance with Jefferson's favorite policy, or with the doings of the late session of Congress. Before this letter of Livingston's was written, the Spanish intendant of Louisiana, as if to anticipate the Oct. 16. wishes of the French, had issued a proclamation inter dicting the privilege secured by the treaty pf 1795,. oi depositing Araerican raerchandise at New Orleans. This privilege, as respected that very spot, had indeed been Hmited to three years ; but the treaty also provided, in a clause overlooked or disregarded by the intendant, that if the Americans were deprived of the use of New Or leans, sorae other convenient place of deposit should be provided for them somewhere else on the banks of the Mississippi. This interruption td their commerce pro duced a great commotion in the Western country, and led to emphatic reraonstrances frora the governor and Legislature of Kentucky, threatening to drive the ad ministration to a speedy use of force. In this excited state of the public mind,* the seventh Dec. 6. Congress came together for its second session. The pres ident's message called attention to a proposal, on the part of Great Britain, to abolish the discriminating duties mu- SEVENTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION. 471 tually allowed by the treaty of 1794 ; mention was chapter XVI. made of the ratification by Georgia of the recent epn- vention respecting the territory west of the Chattalioo- 1802. chee ; of the cession of jjjpuisiana to France ; . and of the continuance of hostilities with Tripoli, for the, more ef fectual prosecution of which the building of some small vessels was propose(^. The raessage alsp aUuded, with much exultation, to the pa,ying off within the year of five millions and a half of the public debt, toward which, however, one raillion had been obtained by the sale of bank stpck^r-a procedure by no means satisfactory to the Federalists. Surveys and plans were also submitted for constructing a dry deck at Washington, in which the public vessels not in use could be laid up dry, and und^r cover from the sun — a scheme which exposed thp, presi dent tp iipt a little ridicule. The most interesting proceedings of the House related to the cession of Louisiana to France, and the interrup tion, by the Spanish governor,, of the navigation of the Mississippi, for ii;iform;ation as, to which Griswold pro- 1 003 posed to call upon the president. This motion was zeal- Jan. 5 ously ppppsed by Randolph, and was voted down by the Jan. 7 majority, as likely to interfere with pending negotiations. The same, fate attended, another resolution offered by Griswold, asserting the right pf the people, of the United States to the navigation of the Mississippi, and proposing an inquiry as to the proper means to maintain it. The House could only be induced tp express their "great sen sibility" at the interruption of the navigation of the Mis sissippi, occasioned, they presumed, by unauthorized mis conduct of the Spanish officers ; at the same time de claring their " perfect confidence in the wisdom and vig ilance pf the executive," and " their unalterable determ ination to maintain the rights of commerce and naviga- 472 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter tion on the Mississippi, as established by existing trea- ^^'' ties." 1803. The interest taken in this matter by the Federal raem bers Jefferson ascribed to a desire to force the country into a war in order to derange the finances ; or, if they failed of that, at least to, gain the favor of the Western States by an appearance of zeal on their behalf. Such were the suggestions made to Monroe, whom the presi dent inforraed, in the sarae letter, of his appointraent to prpoeed tp Paris to co-operate with Livingston in a ne gotiation for the purchase of New Orleans and the adja cent territory. Monroe's constitutional terra of office as governor of Virginia had lately expired — his successor in that office being John Page, the same amiable enthusi ast formerly one of the Virginia representatives in Con^ gress — and it was necessary to provide for him in some way, especiaUy as his pecuniary circurastances were rath er involved. Feb, 18. Soraewhat later in the session, the ferment in the Western country continuing to increase, Ross brought forward in the Senate a series of resolutions, authorizing the president — in retaliation for the violation of the rights of the United States by the neglect to provide a place of deposit on the Mississippi — to take possession of New Orleans, and for that purpose to call out 50,000 militia, toward which the resolutions proposed to appropriate five millions of dollars. Instead of these resolutions, a sub- March 3. stitute was adopted, and made the foundation of an act, by which the whole matter was intrusted to the discre tion of the president, with authority to direct the gov ernors of the states, should he see occasion for it, to de tach and hold in readiness 80,000 volunteers. Two Feb, 36. raillions of dollars were also appropriated, at the presi dent's request, under the head of foreign intercourse, as MISSISSIPPI LANDS. 473 a fund toward the proposed purchase, Ross's raotion chapter had been supported by the Federal senators on the ground _^___ that the hopes of purchase were chiraerical, 1803, The abolitipn pf the discrirainating duties en British ships was opposed by the navigating interests, and failed to pass. Jefferson's dry dock scherae, after a short de bate in Coraraittee of the Whole, notwithstanding the support of Dr. Mitchill, was suffered to drop in silence. Four sraall vessels, to aid in the blockade of Tripoli, not to exceed sixteen guns each, were added to the navy, for which an appropriation was made of $96,000 ; and with a view to possible operations on the Mississippi, $50,000 were appropriated for fifteen gun-boats. In consequence of loud coraplaints frora South Carolina of the illegal im portation not only of slaves from Africa, but of slaves and free people of color frora the French West Indies, at the risk of the importation of revolutionary principles, a fine of a thousand dollars for each person so imported contrary to the laws of any state was imposed on the captain, with forfeiture of the vessel. Since 1798, all the states had united in prohibiting the import of slaves from abroad. The compact with Georgia for the cession of the Mis sissippi country confirmed and declared valid all British and Spanish grants, and the grants by Georgia, under an act passed in 1785, surveyed and in the hands of resident settlers. It also provided that not above five railHons of acres of the ceded territory or their proceeds might be appropriated to the satisfaction of other claims, but no such appropriation was to be raade unless Congress acted upon the subject within a year frora the ratification of the compact. This provision had in view the vast sales, com monly known as Yazoo claims, raade in 1789, and espe cially those of 1795, covering alraost the entire territory, and which had produced such an excitement in Georgia, 474 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter those sales having been declared, void, and splemnly re- . pudiated by the Legislature. 1803. The same commissioners, Madisoji, GaUatin,, and Lin coln, who had negotiated with Georgia the cession of the Mississippi country, having been, authorized to inquire, as to the various private clairas to laiids in that territpry, Feb. 16. repprted in faver pf liberal grants to all actual settlers prior tp the Spanish, evacuaticn, hoAyever imperfect their titles might be. They also reported the, facts as tp the Georgia grants of 1789 and 1795,, of 'vvhieh a sketclx has been given already under those dates. 'The claims based on the grants of 1789 the comraissioners deem,ed wholly invalid, the bargain having been rescinded fpr non-performance on the part) of the gra,ntees, A? to the grants of 1795, whatever grounds of invalidity there might be as between Georgia and the original grantees, and even though, the contract raight not be legally bind-, ing as between Georgia and the present holders, yet,, a,s those holders claimed to stand, and, tp a certp,in extent, did stand, in, the position of innocent purchasers without notice, theirs seemed to be a. proper case for a ppmproT raise. The claimants had put, in an offer to surrpnder their claims at the rate of twenty-five cents the acre,, amount ing, as it was calculated, in the ¦v^hole, 1;p npt less than eight raillions pf dollars ; it, being, however, a part of the proposition that the sum, to be paid should not exceed the price obtained for that five millions of the Mississippi lands which should sell the dearest. This the commissioners thought tpp much ; at the same time, they suggested the propriety of offering to the claimants certificates bearing interest to the amount of two millions and a half of dollars, or certificates without interest for five millions, payable out of the earliest re- MISSISSIPPI LANDS. 475 ceipts fot Mississippi lands,, after the, stipulation, tp Geer- chapter gia shpuld be satisfied. " Upon this report was founded an acit confirming the 1803. titles guaranteed by the, compact, and creating two boards March 3 of commissioners for their adjudication ; granting,, also, to oettlers prior to the Spanish evacuation, whose titles might prove defective, lots not exceeding six hundred and forty acres each ; and to all persons who had settled in the territory without any valid title prior tp the pasr sage of this act, a right of pre-emptipn to the la,ads in their possession, the price payable in the customary in stallments, without interest. Whatever, after these de ductions, might remain of the five millions of acres re served by the compact, was appropriated for the quieting of such other unconfirraed claims as might be exhibited and recorded in the office of the Secretary of State before the close of the year, and for which Congress might see fit to make a provision ; the same Qomwissioners being reappointed to- receive proposals from the claimants, and to submit them to the next Congress. The same act extended to the Mississippi Terrifiory the sarae system for the surveys and sales of public lands already in operation in Ohio.. But these surveys and sales, as well as the confirmations and donations provided for in the act, were, of course, limited to th,e two small tracts, containing together not more than three raillions of acres, to which the Indian title had been extinguished, the one on the Mississippi, the other on the Tombigbee, erected by the Territorial Legislature into the two coun ties of Adams and Washington, the one the nucleus of the present State of Mississippi,, the other of the State of Alabama. Just as the session closed, the new State of Ohio took March 1. upon itself the exercise of self-government, under a con- 476 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter stitution framed the preceding autumn. This constitu- XVI. .tion, one of the raost democratic yet adopted, gave the 1803, right of suffrage to all raale white inhabitants above the age of twenty-one, residents for a year in the state, and on whora any tax had been assessed. The representa tives in the General Assembly, not fewer than seventy- two nor more than seventy-six, to be apportioned among the counties according to the number of their voters, were to be elected annually. The senators, not fewer than one third nor raore than half the representatives, appor tioned on the same principle, were to be elected for two years. The governor was to be chosen by the people for the sarae terra, but could not hold office more than six years out of eight. His power was limited to grant ing reprieves and pardons, calling extra sessions of the Legislature, and temporarily filling such vacancies in state offices as raight occur during its non-session. The judicial power was vested in a Supreme Court, courts of Comraon Pleas, consisting of a president judge and coun ty judges, and in justices of the peace ; the judges to be elected by joint ballot of both houses for periods of seven years, and the justices of the peace by the townships for three years. All other officers, civil and military, were to be appointed by joint ballot of the Legislature ; ex- cept sheriffs and coroners, elected by the people of their respective counties for terms of five years. St. Clair had been a candidate for governor at the elec tion, but received very few votes, the nearly unaniraous choice falling upon Edward Tiffin. All the northwest ern part of this new state, to the extent of half its ter ritory or more, was still in possession of the Indians. In New York the contest between Burr and the Clin tons and Livingstons continued to rage with great fury. Burr, however, was fast losing ground. After hanging POLITICAL BANKS IN NEW YORK, 477 for some time in the balance, the Albany Register, and chapter most of the other country papers of the Republican party, carae out on the CHnton side ; and it had by this time 1S03. becorae evident that the aid of the Federalists could alone secure Burr frora political annihilation. Meanwhile the Clintons and Livingstons proceeded to strengthen themselves by creating a new bank, to be March 19, called the State Bank, and located at Albany. The ground taken in its favor was, that the only three banks in the state out of New York — the Bank of Columbia, at Hudson, the Bank of Albany, and the Farraers' Bank, near Troy — were all in the hands of the Federalists. The Republican character of this new bank was secured, and at the sarae time the passage of its charter,- by ad mitting all the Clintonian merabers of the Legislature to subscribe for a certain nuraber of shares. The peti tioners also came very near securing, at a mere nominal rent, the monopoly of the Salina salt-springs, the value of which was then but imperfectly known. This was the first instance of that corrupt practice, subsequently carried so far in Ne^ York, of making the grant of bank charters dependent on the politics of the applicants, and of offering to merabers of the Legislature shares in the stock by way of securing their votes. While thus strengthening theraselves, the prevailing party in the Legislature refused a charter to the Mer chants' Bank, already in operation under articles of co partnership, and also to a raoneyed corporation applied for by the friends of Burr. Hopes, indeed, were held out, so long as the charter of the State Bank hung in doubt, in order to secure additional votes ; but, this object ac complished, the other two appUcations were voted down without ceremony. 478 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XVn. PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. TRIPOLITAN VPAR. EIGHTH CONGRESS— FIRST , AND SECOND SESSIONS. COMMISSION ON BRITISH SPOLIATIONS. TERRITORIES OF ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, AND MICHIGAN. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. IMPEACHMENTS. PENNSYLVANIA, NEW YORK, AND NEW ENGLAND. BURR AND HAMILTON. RE-ELEC TION OF JEFFERSON. IMPRESSMENTS. DIFFICULTIES WITH SPAIN. JEFFERSON'S SCHEME OF DEFENSE. YA ZOO CLAIMS. INDIAN CESSIONS. chapter U PON his first arrival in France, Livingston had found himself regarded with great suspicion as no better than 1803. a Jacobin, the representative of a Jaophin gpvernment, inclined, perhaps, tc ccnneCt himself with the democrat ic enemiiespf the iir^ ccnsul and the new Constitution. Livingston's democracy seems, however, to have been limited to a hatred of England. He understood well how to play the arts of a courtier ; and, notwithstanding the neglect with which his fiirst memorials had been treat ed, he soon ingratiated himself into Bonaparte's favor. Before Monroe had left the United States, Livingston, though he labored under a good deal of embarrassment in having, as yet, no authority to offer any particular sura, had already opened a negotiation for the purchase of New Orleans and the adjacent tracts on the Missis sippi. Finding that nobody had any special influence with Bonaparte, or pretended to entertain any opinions different from his, he had raanaged to bring the raatter directly to Bonaparte's personal notice, without the inter- PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 479 vention of any minister. By way of additional motive chapter XVII. to sell, he pressed the claims of American citizens, rec ognized by the recent convention, for supplies furnished 1803. to France, but upon which nothing had yet been paid. There seemed, hdwever, to bC little prospect of success till the application began td be secdnded by the evident approach of a new Eurdpeah war. That made a grCat difference ; and shortly before Monroe's arrival at Paris, Livingston was requested 'by Taireyra,nd to make an of- April 11. fer for the vvhole df Louisiana. That was an extent of purchase which had not been contemplated either by 'Liv ingston or by the administration which he represented. It had been supposed that the cessidn by Spain to France either included, or Would be rliade to include, the Flori das as 'Well as Louisiana ; and "the pulrChase contempla ted by the joint instructions to Livingstdn and Monroe was that of the Floridas, or the Western part of -them, with the island of Orleans. The highest amount author ized to be offered was fifty rhillions of livres, or about ten millions of dollars. Shduld 'France dbstinately refuse to sell, the ministers were authorized to enter into negotia tions with Great Britain, with the view of preventing France from taking pdssessidn of Louisiana, and of ulti mately seourittg it to the United States. Bonaparte presently suggested, as the price of Louisi ana, a hundred millions df livres, abdut twenty millions of dollars, in cash or stocks of the United States, to which was to be added the payment, out ofthe American treas ury, of all the claims of Arherican taercharits recognized by the late convention. This offer was niade through Marbois, the same who had been forrneriy secretary to the French embassy to America, ahd 'Who Was now at the head of the French treasury. 'taUeyrand had been dropped, as Livingston oonjebtured, because Bonaparte, 480 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter recollecting the X, Y, Z affair, was not willing to trust XVII, .him in any matter where money was concerned. 1803. Livingston and Monroe, after consulting together, con cluded to offer fifty millions of livres, subject, however, to the deduction of enough to pay the Araerican claims, estimated at from twenty to twenty-five million livres. Finally, Marbois offered to take sixty raillion livres, the American governraent undertaking, in addition, to dis charge the claims of the raerchants to the extent of twen ty millions of livres, should they araount to so much. On this basis the treaty was finaUy concluded, in three April 30. separate parts, all dated the sarae day — a treaty of ces sion, and two conventions regulating the payment of the consideration. The treaty, after setting forth the title of France as acquired from Spain, transferred that title to the United States, with a proviso that the inhabitants should be secure in their liberty, property, and religion, and should be admitted, as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoy ment of all the rights of citizens of the United States. The ships of France and Spain, laden with the produce of those countries or their colonies, were, during the next twelve years, to be adraitted at the port of New Orleans on the same terras as American vessels, and French ships ever afterward on the footing of the most favored nation. The first of the two conventions stipulated that the pay ment of the sixty raillions of livres should be raade in six per cent, stock of the United States to the araount of $11,250,000, the interest to be payable in Europe, and the stock to be redeeraable after fifteen years in annual installments of not less than three millions of dollars. Under the second convention, the claims of citizens of the United States on France were to be paid at the Amer ican treasury to the araount of $3,750,000, on orders PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 43 1 iof the American rainister in France, such orders to be chapter based on the joint determinations of the French bureau to which these claims had been referred, acting in con- 1803. junction with three Araerican commissioners to be ap pointed for that purpose ; the ultiraate decision, should any difference of opinion arise, to be with the French minister of Finance. This negotiation completed, Monroe proceeded to Lon don, to take the place of King, who had asked to be re called. The news of this arrangement was received with great exultation by the president and his^ cabinet. The as sumption of power by the - ministers in bargaining for the whole of Louisiana was cordially approved, and a good deal of pains was taken to soothe Livingston, who evinced no little dissatisfaction that Monroe should have been sent out to wrest from him, as it were, the honors of the treaty. In one respect, however, this treaty placed ,Iefferson in an awkward predicament. He had always been a great stickler for a strict construction of the Con stitution, and had strenuously denied to the general gov ernment any powers not specificaUy conferred upon it. But no clause of the Constitution gave Congress any ex press power to appropriate money to purchase additional territory. Such a power could only be maintained un der that general claus,e by which Congress was aiithor- ized to lay and collect taxes to pay the debts and pro vide for the comraon defense and general welfare of the United States. But Jefferson had always warraly raain tained, and had charged the contrary opinion on Hamil ton as a most pernicious heresy, that this general clause gave no power beyond the powers afterward specifically enumerated, and among these the acquisition of territory was not included. In his private correspondence he fully v.— Hh 482 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter admitted this difficulty, and proposed to get over it by araending the Constitution, But as the treaty required 1803, a mutual exchange of ratifications within six raonths, his plan was that Congress should go on, notwithstanding its want of power, and trust to a confirmation of their act under an amendment to be subsequently made. To hasten the matter, he issued a proclaraation calling Con gress together ; but as the elections were not yet com pleted, the day fixed did but just precede the expiration of the six raonths. Meanwhile, a large extinguishment was made of the Indian title to the region north of the Ohio. At a treaty Aug. 13. held with Governor Harrison, in consideration ofthe pro tecting care of the United States, of $580 in cash, of an increase of their annuity to $1000, of $300 toward building a church, and of an annual payment for seven years of $100 to a Catholic priest (who, perhaps, had no inconsiderable part in bringing about the treaty), the Ht tie tribe of Kaskaskias, reduced to a few hundred indi viduals, but claiming to represent the once considerable confederacy of the Illinois, ceded to the United States, except a small reservation, all that great tract included within a line beginning at the mouth of the lUinois, de scending the Mississippi to its junction with the Ohio, ascending the Ohio to the Wabash, and from a point up the Wabash west again to the Mississippi, embracing all the southern part of the present State of Illinois — a val uable tract, but not equal to many other districts of tbe Western country, a large part of it being prairie, portions of which were but ill supplied with good water. The squadron employed against Tripoli, reduced by the departure of several vessels, had been able to accom plish nothing. Yet the blockade was not altogether use less. The John Adams, while cruising alone off that TRIPCLITAN WAR. 4^3 pert, engaged and captured Ifie Meshouda, dne of the chapter xvii. Tripolitan ortiisers lately blockaded at Gibraltar, but . which, under pretense of having been sdld to the Emper- 1803. or of Morocco, was endeavoring to get home. Not long "^^^ after, another Tripolitan ship pf war, the largest yet be- June. Ipnging tp the Bey, was attacked and bleWn up whUe attempting to get into the harbor. The four new vessels authorized at the late sessiwr, the Argus and Siren, brigs of eighteen guns, the Nau tilus and Vixen, schooners of fourteen guns, rapidly corapleted) were dispatched as fast as they were ready. The frigates Constitution and Philadelphia were also sent out tp relieve the other vessels, all of which pres ently returned home except the Enterprise.^ The cora raand of the new squadron was given to Edward Preble, who hoisted his flag on board the Constitution. Both Algiers and Morocco had lately shown signs of hostility, in consequence of which the blpckade of Trip- pli had been abandpned, in order that the ships might be employed in giving ccDvpy. The Philadelphia, 'Captain Bainbridge, on her passage out, encountered, just within the Straits of Gibraltar, a cruiser of Morocco, the Mir- Aug. 26. boha, of twenty-two guns, baving an American brig in corapany, of which she had made prize. When Preble arrived some weeks after at Gibraltar, whither Bain bridge had sent his prizes, finding how the case was, he stood across to Tangier, accompanied by the Nautilus and the frigates New York and John Adams, which he met with at Gibraltar on their way home. Upon the ap pearance of this fleet, tbe Emperor of Morocco disavowed Oct. G. any orders to commit hostilities, and matters were ar ranged upon Preble's agreeing to restore the Mirboha, and also the Meshouda, taken off TripoK, but claimed by the emperor. 434 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER Preble then sailed for Tripoli ; but, before his arrival, XVII. a serious accident had occurred. The Philadelphia, pro- 1803, ceeding thither, had reooraraenced the blockade of that port, but while standing close in shore, under a heavy press of sail, in pursuit of a vessel attempting to enter Oct, 31. the harbor, had run with great force upon a sunken rock, upon which, in spite of efforts to set her free, she re mained iraraovably fixed. While her crew were engaged in attempts to get her oif, she was attacked by a flotilla of Tripolitan gun-boats, and as she lay much upon one side, they easily took a position in which not a gun of the frigate could be brought to bear upon thera. Most of the guns were thrown overboard, and her anchors and foreraast were cut away, but she still reraained fast. Holes were then bored in her bottom and her pumps choked, after which, having stood the fire of the gun boats all day, Bainbridge subraitted to the disagreeable necessity of stiiking his flag. The Tripolitans, after great exertions, no Araerican cruiser being there to mo lest them, succeeded in getting off the Philadelphia and towing her into the harbor. In Bainbridge and his crew of three hundred raen, they held valuable prisoners for whom to demand ransom. The officers were treated with comparative indulgence, but the raen were all reduced to slavery, Oct, 17, In the new Congress, called together by proclaraation, the adrainistration, strong enough before, had large acces sions. In the Senate the Federalists had but nine mera bers against twenty-five. Tracy and HiUhouse still rep- ¦ resented Connecticut. Sheafe, of New Hampshire, had been succeeded by WiUiam Plummer. In place of the late senators from Massachusetts carae Tiraothy Picker ing and John Quincy Adams, representing the two sec tions of the Federal party in that state. Since his re- EIGHTH CONGRESS. > 49,5 turn from abroad, John Quincy Adams had opened a chapter XVII. law-office in Boston, Both he a^d Pickering had ieen. brought forward at the late election as candidates for the 1803. House of Representatives, but had been beaten, though by very sraall majorities, Pickering by Crowninshield, and Adams by Eustis, Besides the six. Federal sena tors from these states, there were two from Delaware, and one (Dayton) from New Jersey, The administra tion had all the rest, including those from Rhode Island and Verraont, and those also frora the new State of Ohio, The leading members on that side were De Witt Clinton, of New York, who resigned early in the session in order to accept the office of raayor of New York, being suc ceeded by Arrastrong, lately his predecessor ; Logan, of Pennsylvania ; Samuel Smith, of Maryland, so long an active member of the other house ; Wilson C, Nicholas, of Virginia ; Sumter^ of South Carolina ; Baldwin and Jackson, of Georgia ; and Breckenridge, of Kentucky, In the other house the majority was not less over whelming. The new apportionment, by increasing the number of backwoods raerabers both positively and rela tively, had increased, at the same time, the administra tion raajority. The five representatives from New Hamp shire and the seven from Connecticut were all Federal ists, also two of the four from Verraont, and ten out of the seventeen frora Massachusetts. From New York, out of seventeen raembers there were five Federalists, including Joshua Sands, the ex-collector of New York, chosen as one of the two raerabers to which, under the new apportionment, that city became entitled ; from Maryland, three out of nine ; from Virginia, four out of twenty-two ; from North Carolina, one out of twelve ; from South Carolina, two out of eight — in all, thirty-nine Federalists, while the adrainistration had ninety-six, 486 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER raised presently to one hundred and two by the members XV|[, from New Jersey, whose election, on account ofthe ex- 1803. piration of the state law to regulate it, did not take place till near the end of the year. Bayard, the late leader of the Federalists, had lost his election, being defeated by Csesar A. Rodney, son of the Caesar Rodney, of the Rev olution. Griswold, Dana, Davenport, and John Cotton Sraith, of Connecticut, still retained their seats, and were the leading raerabers on the Federal side. Of old Demo cratic members there were Varnum and Eustis, of Mas sachusetts ; Dr, MitchiU, of New York ; Leib, Gregg, Srailie, and Findley, of Pennsylvania ; Nicholson, of Maryland ; John Randolph, of Virginia ; Macon, of North Carolina, Matthew Lyon, late of Vermpnt, npw also re appeared as a representative from Kentucky, Among the new members on that side were James Elliot, of Ver mont ; Jacob Crowninshield, of Massachusetts, from the Salera District — both the Boston and the Salem districts being now represented by Republicans ; Oliver Phelps, the noted land speculator, and Erastus Root, of New York ; James Sloan, of New Jersey ; Joseph Clay, repre senting, with Leib, the city and county df Philadelphia ; and from Virginia, Thomas W, Eppes and Thomas M, Randolph, sons-in-law of the president. Of the whole House considerably more than half were new raerabers. Macon was chosen speaker, most of the Federalists, and some of the Northern Republicans, voting for Varnura. The chief subject of the president's message was the cession of Louisiana. In announcing the recomraence- raent of war between France and England, a determina tion was avowed to preserve the strictest neutrality. The treaty and conventions with France were imme diately laid before the Senate, and after two days' dis- Oct. 20. cussion, their ratification was advised by that body. Of DEBATE ON THE LOUISIANA TREATY. 487 the Federal senators, only Dayton voted for it, John Q. chapter Adams had not yet taken his seat. Bonaparte's ratifi- , cation was already in the hands of Pichon, the French 1803. charge des affaires, and, the ratifications being exchanged, the bargain became complete. The ratified conventions were iramediately communicated to the House for con sideration in their legislative capacity, with an intiraation from the president that the co-operation ofthe House was needed to carry them into, effect, and that tirae pressed fpr instant action, Griswold raoved a call upon the pres ident for a copy of the treaty between Spain and France upon which the title of France depended, and any evi dence he might have that Spain, in whose hands the ceded district still remairied, was ready to deliver, it over. Griswold urged that the treaty before the House recited only a provisional agreement on the part of Spain to cede Louisiana to France. There was no evidence that the cession had really taken place. Griswold's mo tion having failed by a majority of two votes, Randolph offered a resolution that provision ought to be raade for carrying the treaty and conventions into effect. Upon this resolution a spirited debate arose. The Federalists denied any authority under the Constitution for receiv ing into the Union, whether by treaty or otherwise, a foreign people. They also criticised the special provis ions as to the trade of France and Spain with Louisi ana, as introducing an unconstitutional discriraihation between different parts of the Union, The constitution ality of the treaty was zealously sustained by Randolph and others ; but the question as to the power of Congress to vote money for the purchase was not raooted. It did not lay in the mouths of the Federalists to deny that power, and the Democratic leaders thought it best to keep their doubts to themselves. The resolution was 488 HISTORY OF THE UNITE D - S TATE S. chapter adopted ninety to twenty-five, and the necessary bills xvu. . were speedily passed. Nothing was ever said about any 1803. amendment of the Constitution to sanction this proceed- Oct. 25. j^g. ajjij Jeiferson's silence on that head must' be con sidered as araounting to a recantation of the doctrine he had so zealously raaintained against Harailton-^a recan tation in which the whole Republican party joined, and which they reiterated by many subsequent votes. An act, originating in the Senate while the House were debating Randolph's resolution, authorized the pres ident to take possession of the ceded territory, and to em ploy for that purpose the army of the United States, and such portions of the railitia as might be found necessary. He was also authorized, till Congress should otherwise provide, to vest in such person as he raight appoint all the authority appertaining, under the Spanish laws, to the officers of governraent, to be exercised under the president's direction, for maintaining the inhabitants in their freedora, property, and religion. A second act, originating in the House, authorized the creation of the stocks to be given to France, and appropriated toward the interest and principal an annual sum of $700,000, thus raising the annual appropriation for the public debt to eight millions, A third act appropriated toward pay ing the merchants' claims the two millions voted at the last session toward the purchase of New Orleans, the re mainder to be raised by a temporary loan. Simultaneously with this provision for the claimants against the French governraent, the coramissioners on iUegal captures, sitting under the British treaty — the temporary articles of which just now expired — closed their labors, having awarded to American merchants about six millions of dollars, all of which was duly paid by the British government. Deduct frora this the amount at MARYLAND CLAIM. 489 which the British debts were liquidated, also some small chapter awards to British claimants for captures made by French privateers in American waters, and there still remained 1803. a balance of upward of three millions secured to the country by Jay's treaty ; to which might be added oth er large sums recovered in the British Courts by way of damages for illegal captures ; also the restoration of many captured vessels and cargoes by the British Admiralty Court of Appeals. Add to these amounts the sum al lowed by France as a deduction frora the payraent for Louisiana, and also the vessels and cargoes released un der the convention of 1800, and we have an amount of from fifteen to twenty millions of dollars recovered, by the policy of the Federal party, from the clutch of the belligerents. What success the Republican party had in this same line we shall presently see. The State of Maryland derived a special pecuniary advantage from Jay's treaty in the recovery of upward of $800,000 invested in Bank of England shares and other British stocks, and claimed to belong to the state as successor to the lat^ province of Maryland, This fund originated in a deposit, long prior to the Revolution, in the hands of three London raerchants as trustees, of the interest received on certain loans of colony paper raoney, appropriated toward an accumulating fund for the redemption of that paper. No such redemption was ever made; and the paper, being continued in circulation by successive acts, finally depreciated to nothing, and disappeared in the general wreck of paper money toward the conclusion of the Revolutidnary war. The fund meanwhUe continued to accumulate by the addition of the interest on the stocks in which it was invested. Shortly after the peace of 1783, a bUl in behalf of the State of Maryland had been filed in the EngHsh Court of 490 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER Chancery against the trustees of the fund, one of whom XVII. . set up as an offset a claim for private property of his, for- 1803. felted by the State of Maryland on the ground of absen teeism and adherence to the state's enemies. After fif teen years' litigation, the chancellor gave an informal opinion that the present suit, being brought in the name of an independent state, over which he had no jurisdic tion, could not be sustained ; that the stock had belonged to the province of Maryland, a corporation created by the crown ; but that, as this cprporation had been dis solved, the property escheated to the sovereign. Subse quently to this decision, claims were put forward by Har ford, the late proprietary of Maryland, and others, who alleged themselves to have suffered on account of their loyalty by the confiscating acts, indemnification for which they clairaed out of this fund. But as they had already received their share of the very generous sum voted by Parliament for the relief of the American Loyalists, the restoration of the whole amount to the State of Mary land was finally ordered — -an instance of upright dealing rare enough as between man and raan, and as between nations not easy to be paralleled. Already, before the ratifications had been exchanged, doubts and discussions had arisen as to the extent of ter ritory erabraced in the treaty with France, Was it Lou isiana as clairaed and held by the French prior to 1763, or was it Louisiana as that narae had been understood subsequently to the Spanish possession ? The words of the treaty, by no raeans precise, allowed room for either interpretation, the cession being described as including "the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same ex tent as it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and BOUNDARY OF LOUISIANA. 491 other states." As France originally possessed it, Lou- chapter XVII, isiana included both banks of the Mississippi, extending . east to the River Perdido, by which it had been separ- 1803. ated from the Spanish province of Florida, As received by Spain, it was bounded on the east by the Lakes Pont- chartrain and Borgne and the Mississippi River, the raore eastern portions having been previously yielded up to Great Britain, under whose authority they had been erected, along with the country about Pensacola, ceded at the same time by Spain, into the English province of West Florida, By the treaty of 1783, the Floridas had been restored to Spain ; but the division into an east ern and western province, first made by the English, had been still kept up ; and West Florida, at the date of the late treaty of cession, still embraced all that territory south of the thirtieth degree of north latitude, and east' of the Mississippi and the two lakes, which, in former times had appertained to Louisiana, To allow this por tion of the original Louisiana to remain in the hands of the Spaniards would be attended with many erabar rassraents ; indeed, the obtaining pf this very tract, to gether with the island of Orleans — thus securing the en tire command of the Lower Mississippi, with a land cora raunication between New Orleans and Natchez, and open ing to the settlers on the Torabigbee an access to the Gulf through the port of Mobile — had been the only pur chase contemplated by the American government. Livingston, who had negotiated the treaty, strenuous ly argued that the cession included all Louisiana as orig inally clairaed and possessed by France, except such parts, if any, as Spain might, by subsequent treaties, have yield ed to other nations ; and he strongly urged upon Jeffer son to act upon this interpretation by taking possession at once of the disputed territory. But such an inter- 492 HISTORY OF THE UNITEJD STATES. CHAPTER pretation was sure to be resisted by Spain. Indeed, any cession of any sort to the United States had been very 1803, disagreeable to that court, as bringing the Araericans too near to the Mexican provinces ; so much so that Yrujo, the Spanish minister at Washington, had entered a sol eran protest against the entire treaty. To eraploy force would be to adopt the policy recoraraended by the Fed eralists at the late session of Congress ; and besides lead ing to embroilraent with Spain, it raight also operate to prevent the peaceable yielding up of New Orleans, still in the possession of the Spaniards. Jefferson was therefore content to accept the formal Dec. 20. delivery of the island and city of Orleans, made by Cit izen Lausat, who had, as commissioner of France, re ceived possession a few days before from the Spanish authorities, leaving the left bank of the lakes and of the river above in possession ofthe Spaniards. The comrais sioners on the part of the United States were General Wilkinson, since the disbandraent of the additional regi raents again the commander-in-chief of the array, and C. C, Claiborne, governor of the Mississippi Territory, ap pointed under the late act of Congress to the suprerae and sole governraent of the new province, Wilkinson had with him several corapanies of Mississippi volunteers, also two or three corapanies of regulars, drawn from Fort Adams, just at the Southwestern corner of the Mississip pi Territory, A considerable railitia force of volunteers frora Tennessee had marched near four hundred miles along the new road through the Indian country frora Nashville as far as Natchez ; but as there proved to be no occasion for their services at New Orleans, they were stopped there, wheeled about, and raarched horae. An early exercise of the absolute authority with which he was intrusted was the charter by Claiborne of the Bank of Louisiana, with a capital of $600,000. INDEPENDENCE OF HAYTI. 493 Almost simultaneously with this emancipation of Lou- chapter XVII. isiana from dependence on Eurcpe, France lost her hold. on Western St. Domingo, which thus became the second 1803. independent state in America. Rochambeau, with the remnant of the French, amounting to eight thousand raen, driven into the town of Cape Fran9ais, was cora- pelled to capitulate to the insurgent negroes, now com manded by Dessalines and Christophe. Having failed to comply with his stipulations, his people were only saved frora total destruction by flyipg on shipboard, and throwing themselves into the hands ofthe English block ading squadron. The independence of Hayti was pro- Nov. 29. claimed. Protection was still promisedto the white pro prietors and inhabitants, and even to absentees who raight return and behave in a peaceable manner. But as the whites showed their sense of this clemency only by new intrigues against the black government, a new m^'Ssacre and a new flight presently ensued, under a proclamation 1804. issued by Dessalines, upon whom the negro and mulatto -^P"' ^^' generals had conferred the governor-generalship, and who presently declared himself emperor. The French au thorities continued, however, to maintain themselves for some time longer in the eastern, the late Spanish part ofthe island, where the larger part ofthe population was white. The peaceful acquisition of Louisiana for so trifling a sum, securing to the rising settlements on tlje Western waters an uninterrupted river communication with the sea, the fear of losing which had been heretofore the oc casion of so many jealousies and such serious embarrass ments, was celebrated at Washington by a public dinner, given by the administration members of Congress to the president, vice-president, and heads of departments, and by similar festivals among the Republicans in different 494 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter parts of the Union. This peaceful annexation, so Char- xvn. aoteristic of Jefferson's policy, was exultingly Cdntrast- 1804. ed with the violent method of seizing New Orleans by force, recommended-by the FederaHsts. The Federalists, however, were prorapt to reply that the sura paid for Louisiana was just so much money thrown away, or, rather, was an unjustifiable dduceur to France — the sarne, in substance,^ with that for which Monroe, during his first embassy to that country, had been so zealous — since Bonaparte sold what he could not keep, and what the breach of the -Spanish treaty as to the right of de posit, and other claims on that nation for spoliations on our commerce, would well have justified the United States in seizing without any payraent at aU. It was, thoy averred, no policy of Jeiferson's, but the war in Europe, that had brought about the cession. The idea of ob taining the whole tract west of the Mississippi was, in fact, altogether too vast for Jefferson, Bonaparte had forced it upon him. Such an acquisition of territory seemed, indeed, to many, and Jefferson himself bad se rious doubts on the subject, to tend directly to the dis solution of the Union, The settlers West of the mount ains had already more than once threatened to separate themselves from their Atlantic brethren, and to form an independent republic. Such threats, which had been very rife in Kentucky, and even in Western Pennsylva nia during tbe Whisky Insurrection, had made a deep impression on Jefferson's mind. The Federalists fore told, and he feared, that the reraoval of all external press ure on the side of the Mississippi would precipitate this danger — an apprehension which time has completely fals ified, the crack having been proved to run in quite a different direction. Another objection, seriously felt by many, and especially by the New England Federalists, TERRITORY OF ORLEANS. 495 was, that the throwing open to emigration of such new chapter XVII. and vast territories tended to increase an evil already suf ficiently felt ; the stripping of the old states of their in- 1804. habitants, and the dwarfing them in political iraportance. Nor were these considerations without their weight in the arrangements, adopted for the newly-acquired terri tory. By an act originating in the Senate, that terri tory was divided into two provinces by a line drawn along the thirty-third parallel of north latitude. The province south of this parallel, named tbe Territory of Orleans, already possessed a population of -50,000 per sons, of whom more than half were slaves. Within the last ten years the cultivation of the sugar-cane had been successfully introduced, in part by refugee planters from St, Domingo, and that, together with cotton, had already superseded the production of indigo, formerly the chief staple. So lucrative were these new branches of indus try — ^the decreased product df St, Domingo making an opening in the sugar market, and cotton, under the in creased demand for it by the English manufacturers, bringing to the producer twenty-five cents per pound — that the chief planters enjoyed incomes hardly known to landed proprietors any where else north df the Gulf of Mexico, Of the white inhabitants tbe greater part Were French Creoles, descendants of the original French colonists, with an admixture, however, ©f French, Span ish, and British immigrants. Under France tbe colo nists had possessed hardly any political power ; under Spain, none at all. With a cautious imitation of these models, which in Federalists would have been denounced as exceedingly anti-republiean, the president was author ized not only to appoint the governor and secretary of the new Territory, but annually to nominate the thir teen members who were to compose the legislative coun- 496 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter cU, This provision, though strongly objected to and L_ struck out by the House as contrary to Deraocratic prin- 1804, ciples, was reinstated by the Senate, and, on the report of a coraraittee of conference, was finally agreed to. The laws of Louisiana, down to the period of the ces sion to Spain, had been, Hke those of Canada, the custom of Paris and the royal ordinances of France. The Span ish governor, on taking possession, araong other very ar bitrary acts, had issued a proclaraation substituting the Spanish code, and such remained the law of the colony when it passed into the hands of the United States, This Spanish code, so far as it was not repugnant to the Con stitution and laws of the United States, was continued in force, subject to such alterations as the new territorial Legislature might raake. Under the Spanish systera, the governor had been sole judge, being bound, however, to consult an assessor learned in the laws. The present act estabhshed, besjdes a District Federal Court, a Su perior Territorial Court, to consist of three judges. The organization pf inferior tribunals was left to the local Legislature, Trial was to be by jury in all capital cases ; also in aU other cases, civil as well as criminal, at the demand of either party. The writ of habeas corpus was secured to the inhabitants, and the privilege of giving bail, except in capital cases where a strong presumption of guilt appeared, Claiborne was still continued as gov ernor of this new territory, the administration of his gov ernraent of Mississippi being, temporarily intrusted to the secretary. To New Orleans, already a city of seven or eight thousand inhabitants, a considerable immigra tion at once began. Among others who resorted thither was Edward Livingston, who had lately become a de faulter to tlje government to a large araount, through the failure of a speculating friend, perhaps a partner, to whom DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA. 497 he had inccnsiderately trusted gpvernment meney in his chapter pcssessipu as attprney for the District pf New Yerk, The hope, finally realized, of finding, by new specula- 1804. tions in this, wealthy and preraising ccuntry, means fpr discharging his liabilities tp the government, had induced his removal to this new territory, of which he ultimately became the legislator, or rather the codifier. All that region west of the Mississippi, and north of the Territory of Orleans, was constituted by the same act into the District of Louisiana. It included one lit tle village on the Arkansas, and several on or near the Mississippi, the principal of which was St. Louis. The white population of this region, embracing the present states of Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa, had been some what augmented of late by iraraigrants from the old French villages on the other side of the Mississippi, and by Anglo-American adventurers, who already outnum bered the French inhabitants. But the increase of this pppulation, which did not exceed three or four thousand, was not considered desirable. It was proposed to reserve this region for the Indians ; and the president was author ized to propose to the tribes east of the Mississippi an ex change of lands, and a migration on their part across the river — a policy since extensively carried out. Mean while the jurisdiction over the few white inhabitants, and nominally over the whole district, was annexed to the Territory of Indiana, thus made to include the whole region north of the Ohio River and the thirty-third de gree of north latitude, and west of the State of Ohio. With the view of facilitating settleraents east of the Mississippi, all those tracts to which the Indian title had been extinguished were directed, by another act, to be sur veyed, and land-offices were established at Detroit, Vin cennes, and Kaskaskia. The public lands were hence- V.— Ii 498 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER forth to be offered for sale in quarter sections of a hun- dred and sixty acres, and, in case the installments pf the 1804, price were punctually met, ne interest was tp be charged. Besides the reservation df salt-springs, and the sixteenth section in each township for the use of schools, an entire township was to be reserved in each district of survey toward a seminary of learning. At the preceding session of Congress a memorial had been presented, accompanied by the proceedings of a con vention of the people of Indiana, held at Vincennes, of which the object was to obtain a suspension, as to In diana, of thc' article of compact ofthe ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery north of the Ohio, A coraraittee, to whpra the raeraorial had been referred, and of which Randolph was chairman, had deemed it " highly danger ous and inexpedient to irapair a provision wisely calcu lated to promote the happiness and prosperity ofthe North western country, and to give strength and security to that extensive frontier ;" and they had declared their be lief that, "in the salutary operation of this sagacious and benevolent restraint, the inhabitants of Indiana would, at no distant day, find ample remuneration for a temporary privation of labor and immigration." This report, made just at the close of the late session, was referred at the present session, together with the papers on which it had been founded, to a new committee, of which Rodney, the new democratic representative of Delaware, was chair man. This committee reported in favor of the qualified suspension of the prohibition of slavery, so as to admit, for ten years, the introduction of slaves born within the United States, their descendants to be free, males at the age of twenty-five, and females at twenty-one. On this report no action was had ; but the subject, as we shall presently see, was not ;allowed to rest here, being re- SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES. 499 peatedly urged on Congress by the inhabitants of In- chapter diana. Early in the session, the annual convention of dele- 1804. gates frem the varipus state spcieties fer proraofing the abolition of slavery, and iraproving the condition bf the African race, then in session at Philadelphia, had pre sented a raeraorial praying Congress to prohibit the fur ther iraportatipn pf slaves into the newly-acquired re gion of Louisiana. This proposal bore a striking resem blance to the suggestions of Jefferson in his famous re port to the Continental Congress on the western terri tory, embodied afterward in a somewhat raore strin gent shape into the faraous ordinance of 1787. Con sistency, and that special regard for the abstract rights of raan which Jefferson always so loudly professed, might indeed have made it proper enough that this suggestion, instead of being left to the abolition societies, should have come from the president himself. But if Jeffer son loved the rights of man, he loved popularity more ; and he had early found that opposition to slavery was not the road to popularity. Ever since his return frora Europe, he had observed on this point a cautious si lence ; and his efforts toward ridding his country of the curse which he had so eloquently denounced in his Notes on Virginia (not originally intended for publication, but for distribution araong his European friends), had been liraited to a few slight intimations in his confidential cor- responderice of a hope that something to bring it about raight some time be done by somebody. The memorial of the abolition convention was not, however, entirely without effect. It was referred to the Committee on the government of Louisiana, and a provision was inserted into the act organizing the Territory of Orleans, that no slaves should be carried thither except from sorae part of 500 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER the United States, by citizens reraoving into the territory ' as actual settlers, this permission not to extend to ne- 1804. groes introduced into the United States since 1798, The intention of this latter provision was to guard against the effects of a recent act of South Carolina re viving the African slave trade, after a cessation of it, as to that state, for fifteen years, and of six years as to the whole Union, Such a result of the triumph of demo cratical principles in South Carolina was rather shock ing td sorae sincere Northern advocates of the rights of man ; especially as it might open the way to the intro duction of an indefinite number of slaves from Africa into the new territories of Mississippi and Orleans. In addi tion to the above prohibition^ Bard, of Pennsylvania, to limit the evil as far as might be, and to express the sense of the nation upon it, introduced a resolution to impose a tax of ten dollars on every slave imported. In opposing this resolution in Coraraittee of the Whole, Lowndes apologized for the conduct of his state on the ground of an alleged irapossibility of enforcing the pro hibition. Such was the nature of their coast, deeply penetrated by navigable rivers, that the people of South Carolina, especiaUy as they had stripped theraselves of means by giving up to the general government the du ties on imports, could not restrain their "Eastern breth ren," who, in defiance of the authority of the general government, allured by the excitement of gain, had been engaged in this trade. The repeal had becorae necessary to reraove the spectacle of the daily violation of the law. All this was very ingenious ; but when we consider that Congress, at its very last session, had inflicted ad ditional and severe penalties of fine and confiscation on the persons and vessels employed in this trade, the effect of which there had not yet been time to test, there must REVIVAL OF THE SLAVE TRADE. gQl have been, it would seem, other reasons besides mere chapter disgust at the success of the smugglers for this sudden triumph in South Carolina of the favorers of the African 1804. slave trade. And perhaps the increasing value of slave labor consequent on the increasing demand for cotton, by which the culture of indigo had been generally superseded, and the expectation that Charleston might become the entrepot for supplying slaves to the new territories of Mis sissippi and Orleans, had quite as rauch weight. Lowndes added that, personally, he was opposed to the slave trade, and that he wished the time were al ready arrived when it might be constitutionally prohib ited by act of Congress ; but the imposition of the pro posed tax, so far from checking the traffic, would, he thought, rather tend to its increase, by seeming to give to it a Congressional sanction. Another effect of the duty would be to lay so much additional and special tax ation on South Carolina, which he thought very unjust. Bard defended his resolution on two grounds. The proposed tax was a constitutional and fair source of rev enue. Since the African slave trade made raen articles of traffic, they raust be subject to imposts like- other mer chandise. The value cf an imported slave being $400, a duty of ten dollars was only two and a half per cent. on the value. While this duty would add to the reve nue, it would also accomplish a more important end by showing the world that the general government was op posed to slavery, and ready to exercise its powers as far as they would go for preventing its extensien, " We pwe it indispensably to ourselves," said Bard, "and to the world whose eyes are upon us, to maintain the repub lican character of our government," As additional rea sons in favor of his resolution, he dwelt at length on the cruelty and imraorality of the slave trade, and the dan- 502 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter ger of slave insurrections, of which St. Doraingo had fut- . nished so striking an example, and two or three alarms XVII. 1804, of which had recently occurred in Virginia, Mr, Speaker Macon expressed the opinion that the mo rality or immorality of the slave trade had nothing to do with the question before the House. " The question is not whether we shall p'rehibit the trade, but whether we shall tax it. Gentleraen think that South Carolina has done wrong in perraitting the importation of slaves. That raay be, and still this measure may also be wrong. Will it not look like an attempt in the general govern ment to correct a state for the undisputed exercise of its constitutional power ? It appears to be something like putting a state to the ban of the empire," Here was the gerra of the argument afterward zealously urged by Mr, Calhoun, and still in many mouths, but pushed rauch further than Macon ventured to go. For we are now gravely told not only that the states, so long as they con fine theraselves to the exercise of constitutional rights, are to be secure frora any direct interference, which no body denies, but also that they are entitled to the direct countenance and support of the general government in every thing which they are constitutionally entitled to do, even though they may see fit to adopt or to persevere in an obsolete, retrograde, barbarous course of policy, alike disastrous to themselves and disgraceful to the nation. Lucas, of Pennsylvania, denied that South Carolina had any right to complain of the proposed duty. If she had the right, under the Constitution, to permit the im portation. Congress, under the same Constitution, had the right to impose the tax. If she chose to exercise her constitutional authority, why complain of a like ex ercise of it on the part of Congress ? If she wished to avoid paying the tax, let her prohibit the importation. PROPOSED TAX ON SLAVES IMPORTED. 503 Nor did he admit that, by taxing the importation, Con- chapter XVII. gress legalized or countenanced the traffic. The impor tation was not legalized by Congress, but by South Car- 1804. olina. Congress not yet having the power to prohibit it. The tax would tend to check a traffic which, in four years, might add a hundred thousand slaves to those al ready in the Union.. The thirst for gain was more alive in the country than ever, and the opening of the trade by South Carolina would virtually amount to a general opening ; for, African ' slaves once introduced into one state, would find their way into all others in which slavery was allowed. Smilie wished, to steer clear of the question of moral ity ; at the sarae time, he could not but think that the whole Union had a direct interest in the measure adopt ed by South Carolina, inasmuch as it tended to weaken the common defense of the country. Every slave brought in raust be regarded in the light of an imported enemy. Stanton, of Rhode Island, insisted strenuously on the tax. Nor did he confine his reprobation to the foreign slave trade merely ; he described, in very strong terms, his eraotions at meeting, on his way to the seat of gov ernraent, twenty or thirty negroes chained together and driven like mules to raarket. The resolution was also supported by Findley, Dr. Mitchill, and Southard of New Jersey. The Southern raembers exhibited in this debate decidedly less of over bearing arrogance than on any former occasion on which the subject of slavery had come into discussion. Every body, even her own representatives, seemed to be ashamed of the conduct of South Carolina. But on this as on most former occasions, the anti-slavery speeches came principally from the Pennsylvania merabers. Griswold, the leader of the FederaHsts, opposed the resolution on 504 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter the old ground forraerly taken by Sherman and Ames, XVII. . and already suggested by Lowndes, that to derive a rev- 1804, enue from the African slave trade might seera to be giv ing it a certain countenance. But there is too much reason to believe, both in Griswold's case and that of his New England predecessors — since neither he nor they were at all fettered, in general, by captious scruples — that this was a mere decent pretext for not giving offense to South Carolina, which, perhaps, he might still hope to lure back to the Federal ranks. It was suggested, on the other side, by way of palliating this objection, that all the proceeds of the tax might be specially appropri ated to purposes of humanity, such as might tend to al leviate the evil of slavery itself, Randolph, the leader of the Virginia Deraocrats, in deed the acknowledged leader of the administration party in the House, was silent. Eppes, the son-in-law of Jef ferson, zealously supported the resolution ; and, notwith standing an attempt at postponement, on the ground that perhaps South Carolina would re-enact her old prohibit ory law, it was finally agreed to by the House, and was referred to a coraraittee to bring in a bill. That bill was reported, read-twice, and referred to a Coraraittee of the Whole, But the entreaties of the South Carolina mera bers, and their proraises of what the state would do, ar rested any further action. Just previous to the commencement of this debate. New Jersey, the seventh and the last of the old confed eration to do so, had joined the circle of the free states, Feb. 15. by an act, passed by an almost unanimous vote, secur ing freedom to all persons born in that state after the fourth of July next following ; the children of slave par ents to become free, males at twenty-five, and females at twenty-one^-a law which gave great satisfacticn tc Gpv- MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. YAZOO CLAIMS. 505 ernor Bloomfield, who had been from the beginning a chapter XVII. zealous meraber of the New Jersey society for the aboli tion of slavery, A new effort was also made in Penn- 1804. sylvania to hasten the operation of the old act for grad ual abolition by giving iramediate freedom to all slaves above the age of twenty-eight years ; but this attempt failed as before. By another act, relating to the public domain, all the region south of the State of Tennessee was annexed to the Territory of Mississippi, which, as originally consti tuted, had been bounded on the north by a line stretch ing due east frora the mouth of the Yazoo. Into this act an appropriation was inserted for exploring the new ly-acquired Territory of Louisiana, and under it the ex pedition of Lewis and Clarke was presently undertaken. The New England Mississippi Company, successors, by purchase, to the Georgia Mississippi Corapany, one of the four great corapanies to which the faraous Yazoo sales of 1795 had been raade, now appeared, by its agents, to solicit a settlement. These agents had been judiciously selected, one being Granger, the post-master general, and the other Perez Morton, a leading Derao crat of Massachusetts. This claim, however, encount ered a virulent, and, for the presejtit, a successful oppo sition from John Randolph, Having happened to be in Georgia on a visit during the agitation for the repeal of the Mississippi grants, he had espoused that side of the question with all the natural vehemency of his tempera ment. The corrupt means alleged to have bCen employ ed in obtaining the grants furnished a raost congenial theme for his vituperative eloquence. The fact that a large share in these grants had ultimately passed, though at a very great advance, into the hands of New England ers, his hatred toward whom was not less, bitter than Jef- 506 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER ferson's, furnished to his vindictive and spiteful soul am- XVII. _ple reason, notwithstanding a claim equitable if not le- 1804. gal, why the government should never pay a farthing. In this view of the subject Randolph was very warmly supported by Duane of the Aurora ; for however far Ran dolph might be separated frora Duane on the aristoorat- ical side of his character, on the Jacobinical side there was a perfect sympathy and a very great similarity be tween them. The proposal to araend the Constitution so as to give to the electors of president and vice-president the right of designating the candidates for those offices, though supported by the legislative resolutions of several states,' had failed to obtain in the last Congress the requisite majority of two thirds. In this Congress it succeeded better ; though it required the speaker's- vote to carry it through the House. The opposition was based on the aUeged constitutional rights of the small states, whose weight in presidential elections would, it was thought, be dimmished by the change. One of the Massachu setts members suggested^ pending the debate, that if any change were to be made in the Constitution, the first thing to be done ought to be to strike out that provis ion which allowed slave property to be represented, thus adding eighteen extraneous members to the House, ahd eighteen to the number of presidential electors. The news of the capture of the Philadelphia by the Tripolitans having reached Washington, it led to an act by which all goods subject to ad valorem duties were to pay an additional two and a half per cent, during the con tinuance of hostilities in the Mediterranean, to constitute a fund to be exclusively applied to expenses occasioned by the Barbary powers^ Two additional cruisers, of not more than sixteen guns each, were to be procured, and EXPLOIT OF DECATUR. 507 tlje president was also authorized to'accept on loan, from chapter any Mediterranean power, as many gun-boats as he might think proper; toward which expenses, in addition io the 1804. produce of the new Mediterranean fund, a million of dol lars were appropriated. The means thus provided, prep arations were made for fitting out several additional frig ates. Simultaneously, almost, with the passage of this act, a bold exploit had sPiriewhat repaired the credit of the American navy. Shortly after the loss' of the Philadel phia, Preble, in the Constitution, accompanied by the En terprise, coraraanded by Lieutenant Decatur, having rec- pnupitered the harbor of Tripoli, and coraraunicated with Bainbridge, had put across td Syracuse. The capture by the Enterprise, on this passage, of a small Tripolitan vessel bound to Constantinople with a present of female slaves for the sultan, facilitated the execution of a project which Bainbridge had suggested, and which Preble had readily adopted, for destroying the Philadelphia, then re fitting in the harbor of Tripoli. The imraediate conduct of this operation was intrusted to Dccatur, who assumed it with great zeal. The captured vessel was taken into service, and named the Intrepid. Manned by volunteers frora the Enterprise, she sailed from Syracuse, escorted by the Syren, which had recently joined the squadron. The tWo vessels having made the Tripolitan offing, the Intrefiid, as evening carae on, favored by a light breeze, Feb. 16. stood directly into the harbor. Abont iriidnight she be gan to approach the Philadelphia, directly toward which she steered, all but two or three of her crew laying flat upon the deck. Being haUed, the linguist answered that they were frora Malta, on a trading voyage ; and that, having lost their anchors in a late gale, they beg ged perraission to make fast to the frigate's side for the 508 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter night. This was agreed to, and the breeze meanwhile baving died away, a boat was lowered, which assisted the 1804, Intrepid's boat in rijnning lines to the frigate. So far all had passed without exciting the slightest suspicion ; but just as the Intrepid touched the side of the Philadelphia, an alarm was raised by the Turks. The Araericans, how ever, boarded in an instant, and the frigate's guard, after a raoraent's resistance, were driven over her opposite side, a few being killed, but most of them jumping into the water. With equal promptitude, combustibles, ready prepared, and their distribution arranged beforehand, were hurried on board, and in less than half an hour the ves sel was in a light blaze. Dried as she was by exposure to the sun, she burned with such rapidity that it was not without difficulty and danger that the Intrepid and her crew got thernselves clear. As the raen put out their sweeps, it being a perfect calm, they raised a shout, which was answerecj by the guns of the batteries on shore and by the armed vessels at anchor inside. The burning frigate lighted up the whole harbor like day ; and as the heat increased, her guns, which were loaded and shot ted, began to explode. But the Intrepid swept on un harmed, and soon reached the raouth of the harbor, where she found the boats of the Syren ready to aid in towing her off. A breeze soon sprung up, and both vessels sailed for Syracuse, where they were received by the American squadron with great exultation, shared also by the peo ple of the town, the two SicUies being then at war with Tripoli, Almost the only iraportant measure in which both sides, of the House seemed heartily to concur was the repeal of the Bankruptcy Act, That act had been pro duced by the acknowledged necessity of some relief to a large number of embarrassed persons, including raany REPEAL OF THE BANKRUPTCY ACT. 509 men of energy and capacity, irretrievably involved by chapter XVII. over-venturous cottiraercial hazards, by a course of des- , perate speculations in wild lands, by the depredations of 1804. the belligerents, or by the great commercial fluctuations which had attended the closing years of the late Euro pean war. But when the immense amount of debts thus contracted came to be exhibited, the nominal sum greatly swelled by the amounts due from one speculator to another, but not representing any real value ; and when this vast sum of debts was contrasted with the very small amount of assets to raeet it, a loud cry was raised against the law, as if that, soraehow, had led to this discrepancy, or, at least, as if it held out an encour- ageraent to rash speculation and fraudulent bankruptcy. Hence it was repealed by alraost unanimous consent be fore there had been any chance to test its ordinary and regular operation. It is curious to remark that another Bankruptcy Act, which originated, many years after, un der like circumstances, suffered precisely the same fate. But both had at least the advantage of sweeping off a great mass of hopeless debts, and of assimilating nominal to real values, much resembling, in that respect, sorhe laws for the abolition of debts recorded in ancient history, which have proved great stumbling-blocks to raany mod ern inquirers. It was one effect of the present repeal to throw back the subject of insolvency upon the state Leg islatures, But state legislation upon this difficult sub ject was found hardly more satisfactory than that of Congress, It is, indeed, very hard to make up by legis lation for the lack of individual honesty or judgment, or to furnish out of the empty coffers of bankrupts any liquidation of debts satisfactory to creditors. Just at the close of the preceding Congress, the judge of the District Court of New Hampshire had been im- 510 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER peached before the Senate by order of the House, At XVH. . the present, session articles of impeachraent were sent up, 1804, charging hira with a willful sacrifice ofthe rights of the United States in a certain revenue case tried before hira, and also, genesrally, with drunkenness and profanity on the bench. The judge did not appear; but his son pre sented a petition, setting forth that his father was insane, and praying to be heard by counsel. This was granted, not without opposition, and several depositions were put in going to establish the fact of insanity. The reply was, that if insanity did exist, it had been occasioned by ha bitual drunkenness. The impeachraent was sustained by a pure party vote, all the Federal senators in the nega tive, and the judge was removed from his seat. What excited a much greater interest was the ira- peachraent against Judge Chase, of the Suprerae Court, resolved upon by the Democratic raajority of the House, after a good deal of discussion and the taking of evidence. Notwithstanding the defeat ofthe Federal party, of which, of late years, he had been a very zeabus raeraber. Chase was by no means disposed to forego the privilege of ap pending to his charges to the grand juries of his circuit such political disquisitions as the posture of affairs raight seera to call for — a privilege olairaed after the fashion of the English judges, and which, in the case of Drayton's faraous charge to the grand juries of South Carolina, just on the eve of the American Revolution, had elicited no little applause frora the Araerican patriots. In a recent charge to a Maryland grand jury. Chase had dwelt with indignant eloquence on the repeal by Congress of the late Judiciary Act, a proceeding, in his opinion, not consist ent with the constitutional independence of that depart ment. Thence he had passed to the late change in the Constitution of Maryland, dispensing with the property IMPEACHMENT OF CHASE, 544 qualification of voters, whiph he thpught likely to effect chapter the security of property. ; He dbprepated, also, certain. xvu. other proposed amendments in relation to the state ju- 1804. diciary as tending td shake its independence. Wh^le very decided in the expression pf his ppinipns. Chase, like' M'Kean and Jphn Adams, whom in many respects he much resembled, was .also exceedingly able, and, of course, a,n object of terror as well as of hatred to his op ponents. Jn hopes to get rid of hira, a committee was appointed, on Randolph's motion, to investiga,te his j offi cial conduct. An impeachment had been resolved upon ; but to find plausible raatter on which tp rest it, five years ha,d to be retraced, his conduct in the cases of CaUender and Fries being selected by the coraraittee as the most vulnerable points in his judicial adrninistration. The Federalists opposed the whole proceeding as a mere piece of party spite and vengeance. They alleged that, npt ccntent with the regular course of things, which had already given to the party jn power one judge on the Suprerae bench — ^WUliara Jphn^pn,^ pf Sputh Carolina, having been appointed in place of Moore,, who had resigned — the design was prematurely to remove at Ipast a major ity of the present Federal incumbents. There were also some ampng the Republicans whc thought that, however Chase's conduct might haye been scraewhat. precipitate and overbearing, there existed, no grounds for any forraal proceedings against, hira. The majority, however, led by Randolph, decided otherwise ; an impeachment was voted ; and preparations were ,made for its prosecutipn at the next sessien. This idea of impeachment for frivolous or insufficient causes, with a reliance upcn party prejudice tp, make up any deficiency in the evidence, thus clearing the bench of obnoxious judges, was by ne means eriginal with Ran- 512 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER dolph. Like the proscription of office-holders for polit- XVII. .ical -Opinions, to which it was the natural supplement, it 1804. had been derived from Pennsylvania, an example having lately been set there in the impeachraent and reraoval from office of Addison, president judge of the Comraon Pleas for the Western District of Pennsylvania. There were five such districts in that state, for each of which there was a president judge, learned in the law, holding office under the state Constitution during good behavior. He held stated courts in all the counties of his district, assisted in each county by a nuraber of local associates, generally not lawyers. Of course, the leadership and raanageraent of business devolved raainly on the president judge. In one of the counties of Addison's district a certain Lucas had been appointed by M'Kean as county judge, an ignorant and self-sufficient man, who seeraed to think that the vindication of Deraocratic principles rested on his shoulders. In charging a grand jury short ly after Lucas's appointraent, Addison had seen fit to ap pend to his charge certain observations about the alleged conspiracy of the Illuminati, Lucas felt called upon to reply ; but his right to do so being questioned by Addi son, he had at th3,t tirae desisted. Having consulted with Braokenridge, who resided in the county, and who had an old feud with Addison, as, indeed, he seems to have had with most of the noted men on both sides of politics in that quarter, Lucas, at the next court, though Addison had then confined hiraself to mere matters of law, rose with a long written protest in his hand against the politics ofthe forraer charge, which, however, he was prevented frora reading by Addison, with whora the other judges concurred. After attempting in vain to bring the matter before the Suprerae Court, as if he had been Ule- gally deprived of his right to address the jury, Lucas had IMPEACHMENT OF ADDISON. 513 complained to the Legislature, and out of this matter chapter ¦^ 0 ' XVII. was made an article of irapeachraent against Addison. A second article was insolence toward his Democratic 1804. (Colleague, in having observed to a jury which Lucas had (addressed in opposition to a previous charge given by Addison, that he, Addison, differed in opinion with that judge, and probably often should do so. Whether this re mark had been volunteered, or whether it was not natu rally, drawn out by something which Lucas had previous ly said, the evidence left very doubtful. Upon these two charges Addison was impeached. The trial came on be fore a Senate in which the Republicans had, for the first time, an overwhelming majority (January, 1803). In capable of conducting the prosecution theraselves, the raanagers had the assistance of Dallas, and of the attor ney general, M'Ketin, the governor's son. The respond ent was constantly tripped up by the sharpest rules of evidence. Dallas displayed his usual talent in an artful appeal to the political prejudices of the senators. Addi son replied with great ability, dignity, and pathos. His high qualifications, his integrity and devotion to the du ties of his office, were confessed by the raost respectable residents in the district, of both parties ; but the cer tificates offered to that effect the Senate refused to hear read, even as a part of Addison's argument, though they had driven him to that resort by declining to allow him to bring witnesses at the public expense. They even refused to take the vote on the charges separately — the one amounting, at most, to an error of judgment, in which the other judges had concurred, and the other to a breach of politeness — but, lumping them together, found him guilty of both by a strict party vote, the sentence being reraoval from office, with incapacity to sit as a judge in any Pennsylvania court. v.— Kk 514 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter Such was the precedent which Randolph followed, and XVII |_upon which the Pennsylvania Asserably itself — in both 1804. branches of which there remained but six Federalists, one in the Senate and five in the House — almost siraul taneously acted in an impeachraent of three out of the four judges of the Supreme Court of that state, for al leged arbitrary conduct in committing to prison for con tempt of court, in one of the parties in a suit pending be fore thera, by an abusive publication in the newspapers raade agauist the opposite party. Braokenridge, the fourth judge, happened to be absent at the time of the coraraittal, and so was not erabraced in the irapeachraent. Choosing, however, not to separate himself from his brethren, he sent a letter to the Assembly declaring his full concurrence in the course taken by the other judges, and desiring to share their fate. The" House replied by addressing the governor for his removal on a charge of insolence to thera, and neglect of his duty by frequent absence from the bench. But the harraony between M'Kean and the Democratic raajority of the Legislature having by this time corae to an end, he neglected to cora- ply with their request. He by no raeans concurred with their projects for legal reforms, sufficiently needed, but which they did not well understand how to raake. They seemed to entertain the idea that if trials by jury could be got rid of, lawyers might also be dispensed with ; and with that view they had passed an act substituting ref erees in civil cases instead of juries, and prohibiting the employment of counsel, M'Kean had put his veto on this act as unconstitutional, as well as upon another, which was passed in spite of him, giving a greatly ex tended jurisdiction to justices of the peace ; from which moment there sprang up between him and the Assembly a violent quarrel, which presently reached a great height. POLITICAL STRUGGLE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 545 and in the course of which the governor found hiraself chapter XVH bitterly assailed by his late ally, Duane. The chief supporter of Duane in this foray upon 1804. M'Kean was Dr. Leib, always intimately connected with the Aurora. To raeet it, a new paper was set up, called the Freeraan's Journal, in which Tench Coxe, once a large contributor to the Aurora, took up the pen for the governor. The battle was carried on with great fury, the combatants principally urging against each other charges which, when formerly brought forward by the Federalists, they had seemed to think of little weight. Coxe was charged with having been a Tory in the Rev olution, and with piloting the British array into Phila delphia ; with having betrayed Harailton's confidence when in-office under him ; with being " a snake in the grass, a Jesuit whom every one doubted and no one could trust." Leib was accused of disgraceful fraud in a pri vate pecuniary affair — an accusation brought forward by the Federalists several years before, but which the Dem ocrats then thought of no great consequence. As Coxe held the office of Purveyor of Supplies under the Treas ury Department, Gallatin came in for his share of abuse as prostituting the patronage ofthe treasury "to the es tablishraent of a third party on the ruins of the Repub lican interest." A very earnest effort was raade by the new paper to defeat Leib's re-election to Congress, but this totally failed of success. Ever since the removal of tbe seat of governraent to Washington, the members of Congress had found them selves very uncomfortably situated. The public build ings were separated from each other by " magnificent distances," while accommodations for domestic comfort continued very few, and those for social intercourse still fewer. The project of removing somewhere else till the 516 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER infant city had reached a greater maturity, started in the last Congress, much to the alarm of the proprieters 1804, of city lots, was renewed in this, A majority were ready enough to remove ; but the question where to go proved an insurmountable difficulty, A concentration of the public buildings was also proposed, by taking the president's house for the accorampdation of Congress, and building him another near by, on a raore econoraical and republican plan. This sensible proposition, which would have added so rauch to the public comfort and conven ience by creating at once a compact little town, failed to be adopted ; and $50,000 were appropriated toward the completion of the south wing of the Capitol, much of the work on which already done was so imperfect that it had to be taken down and rebuilt. Such was the commence ment of a series of annual appropriations, gradually in creasing in amount, for the corapletion and sustentation of the public buildings at Washington, Feb. 29.. Just at the close of the session, at a caucus of the administration raembers, about which, now for the first time, no secret was raade, Jefferson was unanimously nominated as a candidate for re-election. The principal object of the caucus was to select a candidate for the vice-presidency. Burr never had rauch political strength out of New York, and even there he had been denounced as a traitor by the more influential Republican leaders and presses. Indeed, he had all along been an object of suspicion and terror to the Virginia politicians, as a man whose energy, enterprise, and audacity would never al low him to rest content with a subordinate position. For him, by a private arrangement among a few leaders, was substituted George Clinton, now very willing to accept the second station as a stepping-stone to the first, while the Virginia aspirants saw in him a rival far less danger- POLITICS OF NEW YORK. 517 ous than Burr. The selection, however, was not unan- chapter XVII. imous, nor was it brought about without considerable maneuvering. Already a cry was raised against Vir- 1804. ginia dictation. Clinton received in the caucus sixty- seven votes ; twenty were given for Breckenridge, most ly by raerabers frora the West ; nine for Lincoln, the attorney general ; seven for Langdon ; four for Granger, the post-master general ; and one for M'Clay, of Penn sylvania. Of course it would be necessary for the adrainistra tion party, at the approaching election for governor of New York, to find a new candidate in Clinton's place. At a caucus of Republican members of the Legislature, Chancellor Lansing had been nominated. He accepted ; but a few days after declined, having found out, as he subsequently stated, that it would be expected of him, as governor, to be the mere tool of the Clintons. The candidate named in his place was Chief-justice Lewis, not so remarkable for talent that he would have been likely, but for his connection with the Livingston fara ily, to have attained to much political erainence. Though proscribed by his political rivals, Burr was not without adherents, raost of thera young raen, ardent and ambitious, many of thera unscrupulous like himself, and all irapatient of the domination of the Clintons and Livingstons, and anxious to corae in for their share of political honors and profits. This was Burr's last chance. Not only were his political fortunes in a very doubtful condition, but his pecuniary affairs had been reduced to a state of great disorder and ruin by unsuccessful spec ulations. Yet he was not altogether without prospect of success. In the interval between Lansing's declination and Lewis's noraination, he was brought forward, by pub lic meetings of his friends held at New York and Albany, 518 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter as an independent candidate. The Federalists were too XVII '__ much broken to have any reasonable prospect of cbcosing 1804. a candidate of their own ; and, could they be induced to vote for him, he might be elected. While these political intrigues were in progress, a case came on for argument before the Supreme Court of New York, then sitting at Albany, in which the rights and freedora of the press were deeply involved. Ambrose Spencer, as attorney general, had instituted a prosecu tion for libel against a Federal printer for having assert ed that Jefferson had paid CaUender for traducing Wash ington and Adams. The case had been tried before Chief- justice Lewis, who had held, araong other things, that in a criminal trial for libel the truth could not be given in evidence, and that the jury were merely to decide the fact of publication, the question belonging exclusively to the court whether it were a libel or not. These points coraing on for a rehearing before the Suprerae Court on a motion for a new trial, Spencer, hiraself shortly after el evated to the bench, maintained with great zeal the arbi trary doctrines laid down by Lewis. Hamilton, a volun teer in behalf of the liberty ofthe press, displayed, on the other side, even more than his wonted eloquence and en ergy, denouncing the maxira " the greater the truth the greater the libel," at least in its relation to political pub lications, as wholly inconsistent with the genius of Amer ican institutions. The court, after a long deUberation, sustained the chief justice ; but Harailton's eloquence was not lost. A declaratory bill as to the law of libel, conforraing to the doctrine raaintained by Harailton, was introduced into the Assembly, then sitting, by a Feder al member. The Republicans shrank frora this iraplied censure on their candidate for governor, and the matter was postponed to the next session. The doctrines for HAMILTON AND BURR. 5^9 which Hamilton had contended were then enacted by the chapter xvu. Assembly, but defeated by the Council of Revision, com posed of the judges and chancellor. The act, however, 1804. with some modifications, became law the next year ; and such, either by constitutional provision, legislative en actment, or the decisions of the courts, is now the law throughout the United States. Harailton's opinion of Burr, so eraphatically expressed three years before, had undergone no alteration. At a Federal caucus held at Albany, he warraly opposed the project, favored by a large portion of the party, of giving him support. He took no active part himself in the can vass, but his opinions were freely quoted by those who did. Burr carried the city by a small majority, but failed in the state, having received but 28,000 votes to 35,000 AprU. for Lewis. The chief-justiceship, which became vacant by the promotion of Lewis, was given to Kent, the senior associate justice- — a departure frora party discipline not agreeable to Clinton and Spencer ; for Kent, though very learned as a lawyer, was also a Federalist. Disappointed, and all his hopes blighted, as he be lieved, by HamUton's instruraentality. Burr became ea ger for vengeance. Humiliating was the contrast be tween himself and Hamilton, to whom, in his anger, he was ready to ascribe, not his political defeat raerely, but his blasted character also. Though fallen frora his former station of commanding influence in the conduct of affairs, Hamilton still enjoyed the unbounded confi dence of a party, outnumbered, indeed, but too respect able to be despised ; while, of his bitterest opponents, none, with any pretensions to character or candor, doubt ed his honor or questioned his integrity. Burr, on the other hand, saw himself distrusted and suspected by ev ery body, and just about to sink alike into political an- 520 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter nihilation and pecuniary ruin. Two months' medita XVII. tion on this desperate state of his affairs wrought up his 1804. cold, implacable spirit to the point of risking his own life to take that of his rival. He might even have enter tained the insane hope — for, though cunning and dexter ous to a remarkable degree, he had no great intellect — that, Hamilton killed or disgraced, and thus removed out of the _way, he raight yet retrieve his desperate fortunes. Among other publications made in the course of the late contest were two letters by a Dr. Cooper, a zealous partisan of Lewis, in one of which it was alleged that Hamilton had spoken of Burr as a " dangerous raan, who ought not to be trusted with the reins of governraent." In the other letter, after repeating the above statement, Cooper added, " I could detail to you a still more despi cable opinion which General Harailton has expressed of Mr. Burr." Uppn this latter passage Burr seized as the means of forcing Harailton into a" duel. For his agent and assist ant, therein he selected WilHara P. Van Ness, a young lawyer, one of his raost attached partisans, and not less dark, designing, cool, and implacable than hiraself. Van June 18. Ness was sent to Harailton ' with a' copy of Cooper's printed letter and a note frora Burr, insisting upon " a prorapt and unqualified acknowledgment or denial of the use of any expressions which would warrant Codp- er's assertions." Perfectly well acquainted both with Burr and Van Ness, and perceiving as well frora Van Ness's conversa,- tion as from Burr's note a settled intention to fix a quar rel uppn him, Hamilton declined any immediate answer, promising a reply in writing at his earliest convenience. June 20. In that reply he called Burr's attention to the fact that the word "despicable," however in its general significa- HAMILTON AND BURR, 52I tion it might imply imputations upon personal honor as chapter XVII. to which explanations might be asked, yet, frora its con nection, as used 'in Dr, Cooper's letter, it apparently re- 1804. lated raerely to qualifications for political office, a subject, as nothing was said about the more definite stateraent referred to in the sarae letter, as to which it seemed to be adraitted that no explanation was demandable. Still, Harailton expressed a perfect readiness to avow or disa vow any specific opinion which he might be charged with having uttered ; but added that he never would consent to be interrogated generally as to whether he had ever said any thing in the course of fifteen years of political competition to justify inferences which others might have drawn, thus exposing his candor and sincerity to injuri ous iraputations on the part of all who raight have mis apprehended hira, "More than this," so the letter con cluded, " can not fitly be expected frora me ; especially, it can not be reasonably expected that I shall enter into any explanations upon a basis so vague as that you have adopted. I trust, on more reflection, you will see the raatter in the same light. If not, I can only regret the circumstance, and raust abide the consequences." Burr's curt, rude, and offensive reply began with in- June 21, tiraating that Harailton's letter was greatly deficient in that sincerity and delicacy which he professed so much to value. The epithet in question, in the common un derstanding of it, implied dishonor. It having been af fixed to Burr's name upon Harailton's authority, he was bound to say whether he had authorized it, either direct ly, or by uttering expressions or opinions derogatory to Burr's honor. It was apparent from this letter, and it was subse quently distinctly stated by Van Ness, that what Burr required was a general disavowal on the part of Hamil- 522 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER ton of any intention, in any conversation he might ever XVII. ,1 J o have held, to convey irapressions derogatory to the honor 1804. of Burr. Granting Burr's right to make this extraordinary in- quisition into Harailton's confidential conversations and correspondence, it would have been quite out of the ques tion for Harailton to make any such disavowal. His prac tice as a lawyer had given hira full insight into Burr's swindling pecuniary transactions, and he had long regard ed hira, in his private as well as his political character, as a consummate villain, as reckless and unprincipled as he was cool, audacious, and enterprising — an opinion which he had found frequent occasion to express more or less distinctly while warning his Federal friends against the arts of Burr. Desirous, however, to deprive Burr of any possible ex cuse for persisting in his murderous intentions, Hamilton caused a paper to be transmitted to him, through Pen dleton, a brother lawyer, who acted as his friend in this matter, to the effect that, if properly addressed- — for Burr's second letter was considered too insulting to adrait of a reply — he should be willing to state that the conversation alluded to by Dr. Cooper, so far as he could recall it, was wholly in relation to politics, and did not touch upon Burr's private character ; nor should he hesitate to make an equally prompt avowal or disavowal as to any other particular and specific conversation as to which he might be questioned. But as Burr's only object was to find a pretext for a challenge, since he never could have expected the gen eral disavowal which he deraanded, this offer was pro nounced unsatisfactory and a mere evasion ; and again, a second time, disavowing in the sarae breath the charge made against hira of predeterrained hostility. Burr re- HAMILTON AND BURR. 523 quested Van Ness to deliver a challenge, vEven after its chapter XVII. delivery, HamUton made a further attempt at pacific ar rangement in a second paper, denying any attempt to 1804. evade, or intention to defy or insult, as had been insin uated, with particular reference to the closing paragraph of Hamilton's first letter, in Burr's observations, through Van Ness, on Hamilton's first paper. But this second paper Van Ness refused to receive, on the ground that the challenge had been already given and accepted. It was insisted, however, on Hamilton's part, as the Fed eral Circuit Court was in session, in which he had many important cases, that the meeting should be postponed till the court was over, since he was not wiUing, by any act of his, to expose his clients to embarrassment, loss, or delay. It was not at all in the spirit of a professed duelist, it was not upon any paltry point of honor, that Hamilton had accepted this extraordinary challenge, by which it was attempted to hold him answerable for the numerous iraputations on Burr's character bandied about in con versation and the newspapers for two or three years past. The practice of dueling he utterly condenined ; indeed, he had himself already been a victim to it in the loss of his eldest son, a boy of twenty, in a pplitical duel some two years previously. As a private citizen, as a man, under the influence of moral and religious sentiments, as a hus band loving and loved, and the father of a nuraerous and dependent family, as a debtor honorably disppsed, whose creditors raight suffer by his death,. he had every motive for avoiding the meeting. So he stated in a paper which, under a premonition of his fate, he took care to leave behind him. It was in his character of a public man ; it was in that lofty spirit of patriotism, of which exam ples are so rare, rising high above all personal and pri- 524 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER vate considerations — a spirit magnaniraous and self-sac- rifining to the last, however in this instance uncalled 1804. for and raistaken — that he accepted the fatal challenge. " The ability to be in future useful," such was his own stateraent of his raotives, " whether in resisting mischief or effecting good in those crises of our pubHc affairs which seem likely to happen, would probably be inseparable from a conformity with prejudice in this particular." With that candor toward his opponents by which Ham ilton was ever so nobly distinguished, but of which so very seldom, indeed, did he ever experience any return, he disavowed in this paper, the last he ever wrote, any disposition to affix odium to Burr's conduct in this par ticular case. He denied feeling toward Burr any per sonal ill will, while he adraitted that Burr raight nat urally be influenced against him by hearing of strong animadversions in which he had indulged, and which, as usually happens, might probably have been aggravated in the report. Those animadversions, in some cases, might have been occasioned by misconstruction or rais- inforraation ; yet bis censures had not proceeded on light grounds nor from unworthy motives. From the possi bility, however, that he raight have injured Burr, as well as frora his general principles and temper in relation to such affairs, he had come to the resolution which he left on record, and coraraunicated also to his second, to with hold and throw away his first fire, and perhaps even his second ; thus giving to Burr a double opportunity to pause and reflect. The grounds of Weehawk, on the Jersey shore, oppo site New York, were at that time the usual field of these single combats, then, chiefly by reason of the inflamed state of political feeling, of frequent occurrence, and very July 11, seldora ending without bloodshed. The day having been DEATH OF HAMILTON, 525 fixed, and the hour appointed at seven o'clock in the chapter XVII. morning, the parties met, accompanied only by their sec onds. The barge-men, as well as Dr, Hosack, the sur- 1804. geon mutually agreed upon, remained, as usual, at a dis tance, in order, if any fatal result should occur, not to be witnesses. The parties having exchanged saluta tions, the seconds measured the distance of ten paces ; loaded the pistols ; made the other preliminary arrange ments ; and placed the combatants. At the appointed signal. Burr took deliberate aim, and fired. The ball en tered Harailton's side, and as he fell his pistol too was un consciously discharged. Burr approached hira apparent ly somewhat moved ; but on the suggestion of his sec ond, the surgeon and barge-men already approaching, he turned and hastened away. Van Ness coolly covering hira from their sight by opening an umbrella. The surgeon found Hamilton half lying, half sitting on the ground, supported in the arms of his second. The pallor of death was on his face. " Doctor," he said, " this is a mortal woupd ;" and, as if overcome by the effort of speaking, he swooned quite away. As he was carried across the river the fresh breeze revived him. His own house be ing in the country, he was conveyed at once to the house of a friend, where he lingered for twenty-four hours in great agony, but preserving his composure and self-com mand to the last. The news of his death, diffused through the city, pro duced the greatest excitement. Even that party hostil ity of which he had been so conspicuous an object was quelled for the moraent. All were now willing to admit that he was not less patriotic than able, and that in his untimely death — for he was only in his forty-eighth year — the country had suffered an irreparable loss. The general feeUng expressed itself in a public cereraony, the 526 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER raournful pomp of which the city had never seen equaled. ' A funeral oration was delivered in Trinity Church by 1804, Gouverneur Morris, at whose side, on the platform erect ed for the speaker, stood four sons of Hamilton, between the ages of sixteen and six, Morris briefly recapitulated Hamilton's public services and noble virtues — his puri ty of heart, his rectitude of intention, his incorruptible integrity, " I charge you to protect his fame !" he add ed ; " it is all that he has left — all that these orphan children will inherit from their father. Though he was corapelled to abandon public life, never for a raoment did he abandon the public service. He never lost sight of your interests. In his most private and confidential con versations, the single objects of discussion were your free dom and happiness. You know that he never courted your favor by adulation or the sacrifice of his own judg ment. You have seen him contending against you, and saving your dearest interests, as it were, in spite of your selves. And you now feel and enjoy the benefits result ing from the firm energy of his conduct. He was charged with ambition, and, wounded by the imputation, he de clared, in the proud independence of his soul, that he never would accept of any office unless, in a foreign war, he should be called on to expose his life in defense of his country. He was ambitious only of glory ; but he was deeply solicitous for you. For himself he feared noth ing ; but he feared that bad men raight, by false profes sions, acquire your confidence, and abuse it to your ruin." In Harailton's death the Federalists and the country experienced a loss second only to that of Washington. Hamilton possessed the sarae rare and lofty qualities, the same just balance of soul, with less, indeed, of Wash ington's severe simplicity and awe-inspiring presence, but with more of warmth, variety, ornament, and grace. If DEATH OP HAMILTON. 527 the Doric in architecture be taken as the symbol of chapter XVII. Washington's character, Harailton's belonged to the sarae . grand style as developed in the Corinthian — if less ira- 1804. pressive, raore winning. If we add Jay for the Ionic, we have a trio not to be matched, in fact, not to be ap proached in our history, if, indeed, in any other. Of earth-born Titans, as terrible as great, now angels, and now toads and serpents^ there are every where enough. Of the serene and benign sons of the celestial gods, how few at any time have walked the earth ! When the correspondence which preceded the duel came to be published, the outburst of public indignation against Burr was tremendous. He was regarded as no better than a deliberate murderer, who had artfully con trived to entrap his victim. The desperate duel, two years before, between John Swartwout and De Witt Clinton ; another duel, the last year, between Robert Swartwout, a brother of John, and Richard Riker, an active Clintonian partisan, in which Riker had been se verely wounded, were coupled with the challenge to Ham ilton as parts of one connected system of cool-blooded and murderous intimidation. Burr was charged by Cheet hara, of the Araerican Citizen, with having practiced pis tol-shooting for three months before the challenge, with having gone to the field clothed in silk as a partial sort of armor, and with having, while Hamilton lay on the bed of death, mirthfully apologized to his intimates for not having shot him through the heart. Astonished at the torrent of indignation which poured down upon him, and fearing an arrest, after concealing himself in New York for two or three days, he passed stealthily through New Jersey,, and sought refuge in Phil adelphia, where he found shelter and hospitality from the district attorney, Dallas. The coroner's inquest, after a 528 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter long sitting and sorae difficulty in obtaining evidence- xvn. . sorae of Burr's friends allowing themselves to be impris- 1804. oned rather than to testify — ^returned a verdict of willful raurder by the hand of Aaron Burr. A bill of indict ment for that crime was found against him in New Jer sey, where the duel had been fought ; while the grand jury of New York found bills as well against him as against the two seconds for being concerned in sending and receiving a challenge — an offense punishable, by a recent act of that state, with disfranchisement and inca pacity to hold office for twenty years. Apprehending that his person might be demanded of the governor of Pennsylvania, Burr privately embarked for Georgia, "merely," so he wrote his daughter, who was married to a South Carolina planter, " to give a little time for passions to subside, not from any apprehensions of the final effects of proceedings in courts of law." But the impression made upon the public raind by this fatal duel did not subside so easily ; the absurdity of the sacrifice of a Hfe like Hamilton's to the " honor" of a profligate like Burr was too gross ; and a strong impulse was thus given to that growing sentiment of civilized comraon sense which has nearly extirpated the practice of dueling throughout^e free states qfJAmerioa. The blockade of Tripoli was kept up during the ear lier part of the sumraer by the smaller vessels of the squadron, and one or two captures were raade. Later in the season, having borrowed two bomb-ketches and several gun-boats of the Neapolitan governraent, Preble Aug. 3. attacked the harbor of Tripoli, which was well defended by heavy batteries, and by gun-boats and sraall armed vessels. After some very desperate fighting, hand to hand, in which Decatur figured conspicuously, two of the Tripolitan gun-boats were sunk, and three others BOMBARDMENT OF TRIPOLI. 529 taken. The attack was renewed a few days after, but chapter XVII on the arrival of the John Adaras, fitted out as a store- ship, with news that a squadron from America might 1804. be imraediately expected, it was suspended to wait for '^"S- » these fresh ships. Meanwhile a negotiation was entered into with the Bashaw ; but as he stiU demanded $500 per head for his captives, no arrangement could be raade. As the expected squadron failed to appear, two more at- Aug. 28. tacks were made by Preble, the Constitution ranging ^P ' ''¦ alongside the batteries, and borabarding them and the town with good effect. The Intrepid was also fitted as a fire-ship and sent into the harbor, in the hopes of blow ing up some of the enemy's ships ; but this proved a fail ure, the explosion taking place prematurely, and result ing in the loss of Lieutenant Soraers and the crew who had volunteered on this desperate service. Shortly after, the new squadron arrived, under the command of Com- Sept. 10. modore Barron, by whom Preble was superseded. Bar ron was now in coraraand of five frigates and five sraaU er vessels, besides several armed prizes, two thirds the ef fective force of the American navy ; but new alarms of hostiHties on the part of Morocco made it necessary for a part of the fleet to cruise near Gibraltar ; and at Trip oli nothing was done during the autumn and winter be yond keeping up the blockade. By two treaties made at Vincennes with the Dela-Aug. is- wares and Piankeshaws, and a third at St. Louis with jf^^ 3 the Sacs and Foxes, Harrison, governor of Indiana and Indian coramissioner, extinguished the Indian title to large additional tracts in that region. The Delawares and Piankeshaws, in consideration of some small addition al annuities, ceded all the country south of a line from Vincennes to the falls of the Ohio at LouisviUe. The Sacs and Foxes, in consideration of an annuity in goods v.— L L 530 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter tc the value of one thousand dollars, ceded a great tract XVIL on both sides of the Mississippi, of near eighty thousand 1804, square railes, extending on the east bank from the raouth of the Illinois to the head of that river, and thence to the Wisconsin ; and including on the west a considerable part of the present State of Missouri, from the mouth of the Gasconade northward. In the choice of electors of president and vice-presi dent, the Deraocrats — for by that narne the Republican party, at least throughout the Northern States, began very generally to be called — succeeded even beyond their April 16. hopes. A letter of Jefferson's to Granger intimates that early in the year some scheme Was contemplated for a coalition between the Federalists and Democrats of the seven Eastern States (such as took place twenty years later), to shake off the Virginia ascendency, of which bitt-er coraplaints began to be uttered by some of the Democrats ; a feeling extending also to Kentucky, as appears frora Matthew Lyon's publications in the Kentucky Palladium. This ascendency was the burden of many able articles in the Boston Repertory, the chief organ of the Essex Junto ; and the Massachusetts Leg islature had recently shown their sense of the matter by proposing for the consideration of the sister states an amendment of the Federal Constitution — the same sug gested in the House by a Massachusetts member in the debate on the amendment respecting electors of president — to deprive slave property of any representation on the floor of Congress. This projected coalition, of which Burr's attempt to be chosen governor of New York was no doubt a part, had no result. The idea of it was probably based, in part, on the expected failure of the proposed araendraent in relation to the election of president and vice-president. MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT. 53^ and it was therefore doubly rendered hopeless, as well by chapter the defeat and total prdstratiptt pf Bur'r, as by the adop- ^"' tion of that amendment by precisely the constitutional 1804. number of states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Nev Hampshire, and Delaware in the negative. Among other objections urged in these states was this : that the amendment ought to have been recommended by two thirds of all the merabers of both houses, whereas the recomraehdation came irt fact frora a bare two thirds of those present and voting. The hold of the Federalists even on New England seemed about to part. The Republican party in Mas sachusetts had strenuously insisted on a choice of presi dential electors by the people and by districts. The Federalists, who had a small majority in the Legislature, consented to give the choice to the people, but they in sisted on a general ticket, hoping thus to secure the whole. To their infinite mortification, and greatly to the surprise even of the Republicans themselves, the JefFersonian electdral ticket triumphed by a sraall ma jority. The same thing happened in New Hampshire, where the Republicans at the spring election had carried both branches of the Legislature, though Gilman, the Federal governor, had been re-eleeted by a majority of forty-four votes out of twenty-four thousand. Connecticut still stood firtti. But the Republican mi nority, upheld by the patronage ofthe general goverriraent, had greatly increased in numbers, and was exceedingly busy ; so rhuoh so as to excite no little alarra among the friends of " steady habits." At the head of the Repub licans in tbis state was Pierrepdnt Edwards, lately ap pointed district judge, a son df the celebrated theologian, and maternal uncle of Burr, whora he resembled as well in accomplishments and address as in profligacy of private 532 HISTORY OFTHE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER character, at least in whatever related to women. The favorite project of the Connecticut Republicans Was a 1804. convention to frame a Constitution. The old charter of Charles II., in accordance with which the governraent continued to be carried on, according to thera was no Constitution at all. Candor, at the same tirae, would have deraanded the adraission, that in no other state ex_- cept Verraont, which had copied largely frora Connecti cut, and Rhode Island, of which the governraent rested on a sirailar royal charter, was the appeal to the popular vote so often and so generally raade. A convention of Republican delegates at New Haven, called together by May 29. Edwards, had put forth an address to the people, which intiraated the existing governraent to be a usurpation, and in which the necessity of fraraing a Constitution was warraly urged. The General Court of Connecticut took fire at this attack on their authority, and reraoved frora office five of the signers, who, as justices of the peace, held their places at the pleasure of the Assembly — an act denounced by the Democratic papers throughout the country as a great piece of intolerance characteristic of Federalism and Connecticut. Yet why more intolerant than the reraoval of Federalists from office, so thorough ly carried out in all the Democratic states, does not very distinctly appear. The Federalists had also regained their ascendency in Delaware, where Nathapiel Mitchell had been chosen governor. Besides the Federal electors in this state and Connecticut, two raore were chosen in Maryland, where the district system was stiU maintained. This was the whole of the lean minority, fourteen in all, which the Federalists were able to muster. Conformity to Jefferson's own principles, and to his opinions repeatedly expressed, would have required him JEFFERSON'S RE-ELECTION. PROSPERITY. 533 to retire at the close of his first terra ; and, as things cpIaptrr XVII turned out, far better would it have been for his reputa- tion to have done so. But he found a ready excuse for 1804. a second terra in the " unbounded calumnies of the Fed eral pfirty," which obliged him " to throw himself on the verdict of his country for trial." That verdict, as de clared by the result of the election, was enough to flatter any man's vanity. The peaceful acquisition of Louisiana ; the curtail- raents in the public expenses ; the prosperous state of the finances leaving every year an increasing surplus ; the vast extension, since the renewal of hostilities be tween France and England, of Araerican trade, as yet but Httle disturbed by the belligerents, seemed palpably to give the He to the gloomy predictions of the FederaHsts that the new administratipn and the Democratic party were not competent to carry on the government with credit and success. The country had reached a pitch of pecuniary prosperity never known before. The num ber of banks, which in 1802 was thirty-three, or thirty- nine, including the six branches of the United States Bank, with capitals araounting to twenty-four raillions, had since considerably increased. The Bank of Phila delphia, the third state bank in that city, had lately been chartered, with a capital of two millions, paying the state $135,000 in cash as a bonus for the charter, besides other pecuniary inducements. Even Virginia had intro duced the banking system by the charter of the Bank of Virginia at Richmond, Many insurance companies had been formed, and others for the construction of roads and bridges. Since the adoption of the Federal Constitu tion, the export of doraestic produce had tripled in value, having reached the amount of forty-two miUions. A trade to a much greater nominal amount, and rapidly in- HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. -HAPTER creasing, was carried on in the import and export of for- p.ign produce, exclusively for the supply of foreign na- 1804. tions, on which very large profits were made. With all this Jefferson's policy had nothing to do. But as govern ments are often hel^ responsible for pecuniary distresses over which they have no control, so they often get cred it for a public prosperity growing entirely out of extra neous causes. Already, however, a dismal cloud, no big ger at this moraent than a man's hand, began to lower in the eastern horizon. Though few depredations, as yet, had been coraraitted by the belligerents, some of the inconveniences necessa rily attending a war on the ocean began to be felt. The presence of English and French ships of war in the har bors of the United States, and the angry collisions to which their hostility to each other and their interferences with American shipping gave rise, called loudly for sorae effectual raeans of keeping thera in order, especially as the coramanders of these vessels did not hesitate to set the civil powers of the states at defiance. On the part of the British, the practice had been renewed with the war of impressraent from Araerican vessels in foreign har bors, on the high seas, and even on the very coast of the United States. Professedly these impressments were lim ited to British seamen serving on board American vessels ; and generally it was so. But it was not on that account the less annoying to the prevalent party in Araerica, in fluential with which were so raany persons of foreign or igin, who insisted upon it ^s a point of national honor that Araerican letters of naturalization shduld supersede and extinguish all other obligations. Toward the close of Adams's administration, Mar shall, as Secretary of State, had very seriously pressed on the British ministry an arrangement of this subject, so "IMPRESSMENT. 53-, fruitful of irritation. After the peace of Amiens the ne- chapter XVII gotiation had flagged ; but when a new war was seen to approach. King had again brought it up, and with a flat- 1804. tering prospect of success. The outrage of seizing na tive-born American seamen and corapeUing thera to serve in British ships of war was too flagrant to be palliated ; yet this was constantly liable to happen, so long as care less and unscrupuloils press-gangs, and captains of ships of war eager to fill up their crews, possessed the right to take any body from American vessels. Such a prac tice, giving occasion, as it did, to constant and cruel wrongs and irritating collisions, was utterly inconsistent with solid peace and friendship between the two nations. Just before leaving London on his return to America, King so far prevailed with Admiral Lord St, Vincent (Sir John Jarvis), then at the head of the British Admiralty, that he consented to an agreeraent for five years that neither nation should take any seamen out of the ships of the other on the high -seas, both nations contracting to prohibit, under heavy penalties, the carrying away from the ports of the other seamen not natives of the country to which the ship belonged. But, when the agreement came to be signed, not content with the right thus left of visitation and irapressraent as to aU Ameri can vessels in any British harbor, St, Vincent clairaed to except the narrow seas also, that is, the seas surrounding England, " they having been imraeraoriaUy considered to be within the dominion of Great Britain," Such a pretension had indeed been set up in forraer times, and the Dutch, on sundry occasions, had been compelled to submit to it. But, rather than sanction any such ob solete pretense, or subrait to such a curtailraent of the original agreement. King preferred to let the whole mat ter drop. Destitute as the United States then were of 536 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter means of compulsion short ofthe total sacrifice of their XVII. , . 1 , whole foreign coraraerCe, which alone raade the question 1804. of irapressraent of any consequence, it would, perhaps, have been the better policy to secure what was obtaina ble. But, well knowing that Jefferson would ratify no such agreement. King did not choose to expose himself to the obloquy of making it. There had been some atterapts to legislate on this sub ject at the last session, bills in relation to it having been introduced into both houses ofCongress. But, now that the responsibility rested upon the Democratic leaders, they readily perceived the impossibility of settling such a question by legislation merely, and the bills had been allowed to drop. Besides the unsettled controversies with Great Brit ain, syraptoras also began to appear of serious difficul ties with Spain, Clairas had been raade on the Spanish court for compensation not only for spoliations commit ted on Araerican comraerce previous to the peace of Ami ens by Spanish cruisers, but also for similar depreda tions on the part of cruisers under the French flag, is suing frora and harbored in Spanish ports, where the prizes taken had also been condemned by French consuls pretending to admiralty jurisdiction. For depredations by vessels under the Spanish flag a liabiUty had been admitted; and, by a convention negotiated in 1802, a joint board of coraraissioners was to be established for adjudicating such clairas. But the acquisition of Lou isiana, the claim to a part of Florida growing out of it, and especially an act of the last session of Congress, es tablishing a port of entry on the River Tombigbee, above MobUe, had given great offense to Spain, This act was looked upon as indicating a deterraination to take forci ble possession of the part of Florida in dispute, and Spain, DIFFICULTIES WITH SPAIN. 537 in consequence, refused to ratify the convention for in- chapter xvu. demnities, Monroe, the lately-commissioned minister to. Great Britain, whom Jefferson seeras to have regarded 1804. as alone capable of any delicate foreign negotiation, was sent to Madrid to assist Charles Pinckney, the resident minister at that court. Assurances being given that no intention was entertained of seizing the disputed ter ritory by force, the Spanish court withdrew the objec tions hitherto urged to the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States, But the ratification of the conven tion of inderanities was still declined. No progress was made in settling the bounds of Louisiana. Spain denied any liability for depredations coraraitted by French cruis ers from her ports, maintaining that France alone was re sponsible, and that all claim on her had been relinquished by the convention of 1800. An offer by the American ministers to make the Colorado the western boundary of Louisiana, and to relinquish their deraands on account of the violation of the right of deposit, and of spoliations both French and Spanish, in exchange for the disputed territory east of the Mississippi, was rejected with dis dain. According to the Spaniards, Louisiana, as ceded to the United States, was bounded on the east by the Mississippi, Pass Manshac, Lakes Maurepas and Pont- chartrain, and on the west by the Merraentau, a streara about half way from New Orleans to the Sabine ; and in this view of the recent French cession, as including only a narrow strip of territory along the west bank of the Mississippi, as well as of the non-liability of Spain for French depredations, that court was sustained by Tal leyrand, Bonaparte's rainister for foreign affairs. Besides these difficulties abroad, the American gov ernment came into disagreeable collision with Yrujo, the Spanish minister, the son-in-law of M'Kean, accused by 538 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER the editor of a newly-established Federal paper at Phil- XVII. "^ '^ '^ adelphia of attempting to buy him over to the support of 1804. the Spanish view of the pending controversies. Yrujo's attention being called to this subject, he raaintained, in a long letter, that he had no object except to make the rights of Spain apparent to the Araerican people, and that he had a perfect right to offer pay to the proprietor of a newspaper for inserting articles of that sort. This was not deeraed satisfactory, and his recall was asked of the Spanish government. To obtain such command of our own harbors and waters as would afford security against the insolence of foreign ships of war and privateers, and to enable us, if necessary, to resist attack by sea, Washington had rec oraraended, and Adaras had zealously urged, the double means of harbor fortifications and a respectable navy. This same plan, for the last five-and-thirty years, has formed the basis of our maritirae policy. But to the thrifty Jefferson it seeraed altogether too expensive. He was frightened at the idea of spending fifty miUions of dollars on a scheme of fortifications which would require, even in time of peace, two thousand raen, and fifty thou sand in time of war ; and which, in his opinion, would, after all, be of no use. He proposed, as a substitute, heavy cannon on traveling carriages, to be brought, when needed, to any point of the beach or coast, or the bank of any navigable river, raost convenient for annoying an approaching eneray ; a sufficient nuraber of these cannon to be lent to each sea-port town, and their militia to be trained to use thera. Ships of war, no less terrible to Jefferson on the score of expense than fortifications, he proposed to replace by gun-boats, to be manned by the seamen and mUitia of the town, and kept hauled up under sheds, ready to be GUN-BOAT SCHEME OF DEFENSE. 539 launched at a raoraent's notice — a situation, as he com- chapter placentiy added, in which a boat " costs nothing but an L inclosure, or a sentinel to see that no mischief is done 1804. her." A few, however, niight be kept afloat against any very sudden emergencies, some with men enough to nav igate them in harbor, and others fully manned. There were, in Jefferson's opinion, about fifteen harbors in the United States which, ought to be in a state of substan tial defense. For these would be needed, according to his estimate, two hundred and fifty gun-boats, to cost a raillipn of dollars. As no immediate hurry seemed to hira to be necessary, ten years might be taken in which to coraplete thera, at the rate of twenty -five a year. Such was the president's scheme of defense as sug gested in his message at the opening of the second ses- Nov. 8. sion of the eighth Congress, and more particularly after ward in a letter to Nicholson, chairman of a coraraittee to which that part of the message had been referred. Under the appropriation already made, after a diligent .study of Spanish and Neapolitan models, those being the only nations which placed much dependence on this spe cies of force, ten gun-boats had been commenced, and two or three completed. From their total incapacity ei ther to sail, or to use their guns with effect, these boats had becorae the laughing-stock of all nautical raen, a few navy officers excepted, who found it convenient to flatter executive fancies. But the president was not tc be laughed put pf this eccnomical systera pf defense; and he assured the cpramittee that, if fifteen more were added to those already in progress, he should be able to put ev ery harbor into a " respectable condition," so as to pre serve the dignity of the country from insult. This whole gun-boat scherae was severely criticised by several of the Federal raembers ; but the House ap- 540 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER propriated $60,000 toward the twenty-five boats as re- quested. 1804. The great subject of interest was the impeachraent of Judge Chase, determined upon at the last session. Eight articles of irapeachraent, one founded on his conduct at the trial of Fries, five on the trial of CaUender, and two on his late charge to the Maryland grand jury, were agreed to, raost of thera by a strict party vote, John Randolph, the administration leader in the House, took a very active part, as at the former session, and was ap pointed, along with Nicholson, Rodney, and others of less note, a manager on the part of the House, Having ap- 1805, peared at the suraraons of the Senate,' Chase asked for Jan. 2. (jgja^y iiw .(;jjQ next session. This was refused ; but a month was given him in which to prepare his defense. In consideration of his age and infirraities, he was allowed to be seated in the center of the area of the Senate chara ber, in front of the presiding officer. It was, indeed, a remarkable scene. The aged judge had been among the most active and efficient of those by whom the Declara tion of Independence had been brought about, the concur rence of hesitating Maryland in that declaration having been, in a great raeasure, owing to his exertions. For sixteen years, as he stated to the Senate, he had sus tained high judicial offices, state or national, during which whole period his official conduct had never been arraigned except in the cases of Cooper, Fries, and Cal- lender ; nor had his private or professional probity or honor ever otherwise been called in question. Of the tribunal before which Chase appeared, the presiding of ficer was Vice-president Burr. Having returned from his flight southward, he had taken his seat in the Sen ate just at the opening of the session, over which body, blasted though his prospects and reputation were, and DEBATE ON THE YAZOO CLAIMS. 541 with an indictment for murder hanging over his head, he chapter nevertheless presided with all his accustoraed self-posses- . XVII. sion, dignity, and grace. 1805. During the judge's interval for preparation, a debate carae on in the House which seemed to threaten very seriously the harmony ofthe administration party, shaken already by the impeachment of Chase. • To a proposition for a settlement of the Mississippi claims, Randolph, as at the forraer session, moved as an amendment a series of resolutions excluding from any compensation whatever the claimants under the Georgia Yazoo grants of 1795. Quite a number of the Democrats, of whom the lead ers were Matthew Lyon, of Kentucky, Elliot, of Vermont, Findley, of Pennsylvania, and Bidwell, of Massachu setts, had, even at the last session, become totally dis gusted at the caprices, eccentricities, and insolent, over bearing demeanor of Randolph, whom it had- been cus tomary to toast as " the man who speaks what he thinks," but whose excessive freedom in expressing his contempt for his Northern party associates was by no means so agreeable as had been his virulent abuse, of the Federal ists. The idea of throwing off the Virginia ascendency, though it had produced no effect upon the presidential election, was not abandoned. All were willing to put up with the fair-spoken Jefferspn ; but the petulant and waspish, the insolent and acrid Randolph, who had in volved himself, during the late session, in several violent personal quarrels, was not to be endured. Yet declamation against the frauds of land speculators was well suited to a certain class of minds. Almost all the Southern members — the Yazoo clairas being chiefly held at the North — went with Randolph, as did some of the Northern ones, especially Leib and Clay, of Philadel phia, and Philip Sloan, of New Jersey, a wealthy bu,tch- 542 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, (;nAPTER er eraployed in the supply of the Philadelphia market, whose oddity of appearance, incorrectness of language, 1805, ultra Jeffersonian deraocracy, and tediously pertinacious harangues exposed him to much ridicule, though he Was by no means destitute of sense, and unquestionably was- honest and sincere, Randolph, more outrageous than ever, did not hesitate to insinuate that all who opposed; him were interested in the claims, or bribed by those who were. They retorted with the courteous epithet's' of calumniator, madraan, despotic demagogue, popular tyrant. He poured out a torrent of abuse on Granger, agent ofthe clairaants, whom he accused of bribirlg raem bers. Nor did Madison, Gallatin, and Lincoln, who, as coramissioners, had recommended a coraproraise of the clairas, entirely escape. Granger thought it necessary Feb, 1. to send a letter to the House, asking an investigation into his Conduct — a request Which was got rid of by a post- poneraent. With the help ofthe Federalists, the oppo nents of Randolph Voted down his resolutions by a raa jority of five ; but Randolph, on his side, succeeded in defeating the passage of a bill. He complained bitterly — and it was a curious instance of political rautation — that Lyon and Griswold, who had once corae into such fierce collision, should now be united against the leader of the Republicans in the House, This violent struggle was not yet entirely over when Chase appeared at the bar of tbe Senate with his coun sel, of whora the raost erainent were Luther Martin, like Chase himself, originally opposed to the Constitu tion, but who had becorae long since awarra Federalist, Charles Lee, late Attorney General of the United States, and Robert Goodloe Harper, the forraer distinguished Federal leader in the House, Fdr these, the ablest advocates in the Union, to take TRIAL OF CHA-SE. 543 no account of Chase, who was a host in himself, the man- chapter XVII. agers on the part of the House were no match. Martin's massive logic, and Lee's and Harper's argumentative el- 1805. oquence, directed always to the point, stood in striking contrast to the tingling but desultory surface strokes of Randolph, upon Whom the main burden of the prose cution fell. A great nuraber of witnesses were exam ined on both sides. Chase's counsel admitted that he might have fallen into some casual heats and indiscre tions, but they totally denied the proof of any thing that would at all justify an impeachraent; and in spite of the strong adrainistration raajority in the Senate, he was ac quitted on five out of the eight charges against him by March. decided majorities — on one of them unanimously. Of three other articles, two relating to Callender's trial and the third to his charge to the Maryland grand jury, a majority of the senators present held him guilty ; but as this majority did not amount to two thirds, his acquittal was pronounced on all the charges. This acquittal of Chase was deeraed by the Federal ists a great triuraph, tending to show that there were limits even to the power of party discipline. The man agers and chief instigators of the prosecution were ex cessively mortifiedl After a speech full of intemperate and indecent reflections on the Senate, in which he spoke of Chase as " an acquitted felon," Randolph proposed to amend the Constitution so as to make judges removable by jpint resolution of the two houses. Nicholson, on his part, proposed to give to the state Legislatures the power to vacate at pleasure the seats of their senators. But ^ these splenetic ebullitions came to nothing. Even the majority of the House were guilty, undbr Randolph's leadership, of the contemptible meanness of refusing to pay Chase's witnesses. The Senate, to their honor, in- 544 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER sisted unanimously that, as Chase had been acquitted, XVII. all the witnesses should be paid alike. The House re- 1805, fused to yield, and this disagreement caused the loss of the bill. It was then attempted, on the last day of the session, to pay the witnesses for the prosecution out of the contingent fund of the House ; but this failed for want of a quorum, and the whole business went over to the next Congress. In that Congress provision was made, though not without very serious opposition from Randolph and his followers, for the payment of all the witnesses alike. Both in the matter of the Mississippi claims and in his other controversies with the raore raoderate Derao crats, Randolph had been warraly supported by the Au rora, But the violent assaults of Duane upon several of his late political associates did not go unpunished. He was deprived of the public printing and of the stationery contract, which, by the help of the Federal votes, were offered to the lowest bidder. Though the proceedings against Chase were no doubt dictated by violent party spirit, without sufficient found ation in fact or law, yet they were not entirely without good results. They served to check that overbearing and insolent demeanor on the bench, handed down from co lonial times, which raany judges seem to have thought it essential to the dignity of their office to exhibit; Early in the session, a very vehement petition, drawn by Edward Livingston, had been presented to Congress frora the inhabitants of the Territory of Orleans, com plaining of the arbitrary government established over thera, and clairaing, under the treaty of cession, the priv ilege enjoyed by the other citizens of the United States, of choosing their own legislators ; in fact, iramediate organization as an independent state. This was not ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, MICHIGAN. 545 granted ; but an act was passed giving to the Territory chapter of Orleans the same government in every respect with that of Mississippi — the government, that is, of a terri- 1805. tory of the first class, having a Legislature chosen by the inhabitants, with the privilege, whCn they should reach the number of 60,000, of erecting theraselves into a state, forraing a constitution, and claiming adraission into the Union. The District of Louisiana, hithertp annexed tp Indi ana, was now erected into a separate territory of the sec-^ ond class, the power of legislation being vested in the governor and judges. A section of this act, by continu ing in force, until altered or repealed by the Legislature, all existing laws and regulations, gave a tacit confirraa- tion to the system of slavery already established in the settleraents on the Arkansas and Missouri. The Territory of Indiana underwent a further curtail ment in the erection of Michigan into a new and sepa rate territory of the second class. Of this new territory the Indian title had been extinguished only to a small tract, formerly ceded to the French, about the ancient town of Detroit, with another like tract on the main land opposite Mackinaw ; and the total white population did not exceed four thousand. But their wide separation, by impassable swamps, from the other settled districts of In diana, made a separate governraent expedient. The gpvernment pf the Orleans Territory had all along been reserved for Monroe ; but as he was now ptherM'ise prpvided for, Claiborne was continued as governor, his other government of Mississippi being given to Robert Williams. The government of Michigan was given to William Hull, of Massachusetts, who had served with honor in the Revolutionary array, having specially dis tinguished hiraself in the storming of Stony Point. Gen- V.— Mm 546 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER eral Wilkinson, the comraander-in-ohief of the Araeri- ' can array, was appointed governor of the Louisiana 1805. Territory. The condition of the District of Colurabia gave rise to considerable debate. More than half the tirae of Con gress, at a great expense to the nation, was taken up with the affairs of that district, and yet its systera of laws was left in the raost heterogeneous state, two differ ent codes being in force on the opposite sides of the Poto raao, It being thought contrary to republican principles that the people should be governed by Congress, without any Legislature of their own, it was proposed to retrocede the whole district except the City of Washington; but Jan. 18. this did not succeed. A proposition, brought forward by Sloan, of New Jersey, that all children born of slaves within the District after the ensuing fourth of July should become free at an age to be fixed upon, was re fused reference to a committee of the whole sixty -five to forty-seven, and wag then rejected seventy-seven to thir ty-one. The thirty-one were mainly Democrats frora Pennsylvania, New York, and New England. Only five Federalists voted with thera, two frora New Harapshire, two from Massachusetts, and one frora New York. The practice of going arraed for their own defense, so generally adopted by American vessels during the diffi culties with France, was still kept up in certain branch es of trade, especially that with the revolted island of St.' Domingo, where Dessalines, in imitation of Bonaparte, had assumed the title of emperor. Very strict prohibi tions against this trade had been issued by the French ; and General Turreau, who had lately arrived frora France as envoy extraordinary to the United States, had very warmly protested against its allowance. The coraplais- ant Jefferson, dreading the interference of France in the HAYTIAN TRADE. FOREIGN SHIPS OF 'WAR. 547 dispute with Spain, had pointedly called the attention of chapter XVII. Congress to this trade, "as an attempt to force a com merce into certain ports and countries in defiance of the 1805. laws of those countries, tending to produce aggression on the laws and rights of other nations, and to endanger the peace of our own." Upon this hint, Logan brought a bill into the Senate to prohibit altogether the trade with the new empire of Hayti. But as the blacks, beyond all question, ¦were de facto an independent nation, this was thought to be carrying complaisance toward France a little too far. The mdst that could be obtained, and thdt not without a great deal of opposition, was an act requiring arraed vessels to give bonds not to use their armaments for any unlawful purpose, but only for resist ance and defense in case of involuntary hostilities ; and to bring them back to the United States. Another topic of the president's message had been in fringements against our laws and rights within our own waters by the armed ships of the belligerents. To meet this difficulty, an act was passed authorizing the use of the regular troops of the United States, as well as of the militia, to aid in the service of criminal process, whether state or Federal, agaiiist persons taking refuge on board foreign armed ships within the waters of the United States. But in all such cases a demand was first to be made for the surrender of those against whora the pro cess ran. The president was also authorized, as a fur ther means of preserving the authority of the laws, to permit dr interdict at pleasure the entrance of foreign arraed vessels into the waters of the United States ; and, in case of disobedience, to prohibit all intercourse with them, and to use force to compel thera to depart. He might also forbid, by proclamation, the coraing within the jurisdiction of the United States df any officer of a 548 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER foreign arraed vessel who raight, upon the high seas, have XVII, . committed any trespass upon, or spoliation of, any Amer- 1805, ican ship, the disregard of such proclaraation to be pun ishable by fine and iraprisonraent. When the votes for president and vice-president came Feb. 13. to be opened and counted, there appeared for Jefferson, as president, one hundred and sixty -two, and the sarae nuraber for Clinton as vice-president. The fourteen Fed eral electors vpted for C, C, Pinckney and Rufus King, Rechosen by this flattering raajority, Jefferson entered March 4. on his second term of office with an inaugural address filled with congratulations to his supporters on the suc cess of their policy thus far ; on the extent to which that policy had found favor with an intelligent people ; and on the prospect t;hat all the remaining doubters would at length succurab to truth, reason, and a just view of their own interest, and especially to the raagnaniraous gener osity with which he proposed to treat thera ; and being thus gathered " into the fold of their country," would "complete that entire union of opinion which gives to a nation the blessing of harmony and the benefit of all its strength." In these somewhat premature congratulations on union and harmony, the president seems to have quite over looked the deep schisms and bitter feuds by which the Republican party was itself divided in the two great states of New York and Pennsylvania, The Burr faction in New York might now be consid ered as out of the field ; but that field was hardly left in the quiet possession of the Livingstons and the Clintons before a very bitter quarrel broke out between thera. The Merchants' Bank of Ne^'' York, disappointed of a charter in 1803, had continued to go on under its articles of association. A fresh application for a charter had been POLITICS OF NEW YORK. 549 made in 1804, But instead of granting one, the Legis- chapter xvu. lature of that year had passed an act prohibiting all un incorporated companies, under severe penalties, from is- 1805. suing notes to pass as raoney, and giving the Merchants' Bank one year in which to wind up its affairs. Similar acts for the restraint of private banking had recently been passed in Massachusetts, copied from the old act of Parliament of 1741, the first enforcement of which in New England had almost produced a rebellion. These acts had been obtained by the existing banks upon the plausible ground that such prohibitions were essential to the security of the public. But, besides their squint to ward raonopoly, a most hateful thing in every trading country, they were attended, in the end, by two other evil consequences very fuUy developed in New York ; the making the grant of bank charters a matter of political favoritism and a reward for political services, and the opening a wide door to bribery and corruption. The stockholders of the Merchants' Bank, not discour aged, again made their appearance at Albany the present year. The leading Democrats, from their concern in the Manhattan and State banks, were not only deeply inter ested in keeping up a monopoly, but they also consid ered it quite intolerable that an association of Federal ists should presume to ask a Democratic Legislature for a bank charter. An agent from the city of New York was dispatched to Albany to oppose the grant; but that agent, by some means or other, was soon silenced, bought over, it was alleged, to the other side. After very hot debates and a violent altercation, in which two senators, both having the title of judge, came to actual fisticuffs within the senatorial precinct, the bill of incorporation passed the Senate by a majority of three votes, A cry was iramediately raised by the Clintonians of treachery 550 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER on the part of the Livingston faction, and of bribery by xvu. . the applicants. A committee of investigation, appointed 1805. by the House, laid evidence before that body that certain agents of the bank, one of thera a senator, who presently resigned in order to escape expulsion, had endeavored to secure the votes of certain Deraocratic merabers by offer ing them shares in the stock, with a guarantee, did the raerabers not choose to pay up the assessraents, of pur chase after the charter was granted at twenty-five per cent, advance. It was also proved that two of the sen ators had accepted such offers. The apparent horror of the Clintonians at this discovery would have seemed raore real, had not sirailar, if not the very sarae, expedients been eraployed but two years before in obtaining the charter of the Deraocratic State bank. As it was, their April, claraor produced but little effect, and the bill passed the House by a decided majority. The treacherous Deraocrats in the Legislature were at once attacked with great fury in the Albany Regis ter and the Araerican Citizen, in the latter paper by the pen of Tunis Wortman, as rancorous as it was fluent. An appeal was raade to the Council of Revision to de feat the bill ; and Judge Spencer, as a raeraber of that body, exerted his utmost efforts against it ; maintaining, first, that the bank was not needed, and, secondly, that the charter had been obtained by corruption. Governor Lewis, Chancellor Lansing, Chief-justice Kent, and Judg es Livingston and Thorapson, gave it their approval, and it became a law. But from that raoraent was formed, on the part of the Clintonians, a settled and violent op position to the adrainistration of Governor Lewis. As to another measure adopted at this session, on the recommendation of the governor, there can be no differ ence of opinion. This was the appropriation of the pro- LIVINGSTON, HUMPHREYS, AND BARLOW. 55 1 ceeds of the remaining state lands, amounting to about chapter XVII. a million and a half of acres, tpward constituting the^ex- isting school fund of the State of New York, • 1805. Chancellor Livingstpn, having resigned his embassy tp France, in which he was succeeded by his brother-in-law Armstrong, withdrew thenceforth from public life, for which his increasing deafness quite incapacitated him. Yet he still displayed the vigor and enterprise chara.cter- istic of his faraily. At Paris he had become acquainted with Fulton, and presently entered with him upon a se ries of expensive experiments, for which his ample estates furnished the means, resulting finally in bringing into practical use that magnificent invention of, steam navi gation. Livingston's attention was also much given to agriculture, and he aided in introducing the use of plaster of Paris as a manure. Humphreys, the late minister to Spain, who had secured a fortune by marrying the daugh ter of a wealthy EngHsh merchant at Lisbon, had, since his return to America, given his attention to the im provement of the native flocks by the importation of me rinoes, and to the raanufacture of fine broad cloths, now for the first time produced in America. Livingston took up the same idea, and he too iraported merinoes from Spain. Joel Ba,rlow, whose republicain dreams had received a severe check in the elevation of Bonaparte to an im perial throne, returned to America about the sarae time with Livingston, He had left Connecticut, some fifteen years before, a poor adventurer, but npw brought back with hira an araple fortune, acquired by coraraercial spec ulations. Barlow's reception in New England was ex ceedingly cool. Having paid a visit to Boston, the news papers there republished his faraous fourth-of-July song of « The Guillotine," and they also threw in his teeth his dis- 552 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER cipleship of Paine, whom, indeed, he had assisted in pub- lishing the first part of his " Age of Reason," besides him- 1805, self having translated and published Vdlney's "Ruins of Empires," Having established hiraself in a magnificent residence in the District of Columbia, Barlow presently put forth, with a splendor of typography hitherto un known in America, and in a new and enlarged edition, under the title ofthe "Columbiad," his "Vision of Co lumbus," originally published before his embarkation for France, It is, however, on his vigorous prose that Bar low's clairas as a writer raust principally rest. Before the terraination of Chase's trial, the irapeach- February. raent of the Pennsylvania judges had reached a similar end. The judges had shown their sagacity in retaining Dallas for their defense. All the other eminent lawyers of the state were Federalists, and when applied to by the raanagers they all refused to take a fee in the case. The managers theraselves were quite inadequate to so serious a business. Hence the necessity of eraploying Rodney, frora the neighboring State of Delaware, under circurastances which might call to mind M'Kean's orig inal appointment as chief justice of Pennsylvania. A majority of the senators pronounced the judges guilty ; but as that majority was short of two thirds, the result was an acquittal. The fury, at this result, of the Aurora and the ultra Deraocrats, knew no bounds. The project was irarae diately started for a convention to reraodel the state Con stitution, and a memorial to that effect was got up and presented to the Legislature. A large number of the raore raoderate Deraocrats, including all the advocates of M'Kean's vetoes and the opponents of Leib and Du ane, were by no raeans willing to go this length ; and they prepared and presented a counter raeraorial. POLITICS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 553 The propositions for altering the constitution of the chapter XVII. national judiciary and Senate, brought forward by Ran- dolph and Nicholson; the semi-Revolutionary step, or ap- 1805, proach to it, taken by the Democratic convention which Pierrepont Edwards had. called together in Connecticut ; and now this proposition for a new constitution for Penn sylvania, together with the violence of the Clintonians in New York, excited general alarm, as evidences of thc existence in the country of an ultra radical and Revolu tionary party. Yet the memorial for a convention in Pennsylvania only proposed to make the election of sen ators annual ; to reduce the patronage of the governor ; and to limit the term of office of the judges — -a thing al ready existing in Connecticut, Vermont, and Ohio, and since substantially carried into effect, not in Pennsylva nia only, but in New York and many other states ; and which (in spite of conservative objectors) may be con- .sidCred as noW coincident with the prevailing political ideas of intelligent men in America. Longer experience has tended to produce the conviction that all select bod ies in which the appointing power may be vested, while ^they are hardly less liable to delusion than the mass of the voters, are far more likely to be managed by intrigue and warped by private interests. It is also to be borne in mind that the improved political education of the peo ple, the multiplication of newspapers, and the immense and increasing diffusion of intelligence, has made prac ticable for us an infusion of democracy into the admin istration of public affairs which half a century ago might have been at least questionable, if not dangerous. The moderate Democrats took the name bf Constitu tionalists ; and, as a central point for ' operations, they organized what they called " the Constitutional Socie ty." The other section of the party constituted them- 554 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER selves into a rival club, called " the Friends of the Peo- pie," The Federalists looked on and enjoyed the strife ; 1805, yet not altogether without alarm ; for the violence of the factions seemed alraost to threaten a civil war, M'Kean, having put his veto upon sorae further acts for increas ing the power of the Assembly and for regulating the administration of justice, was openly denounced by " the Friends of the People ;" and at a legislative caucus, Si mon Snyder, late speaker of the House, whose German narae and lineage would attract, it was hoped, many votes, was norainated as the ultra Deraocratic candidate for the office of governor. The Constitutionalists, on the other hand, rallied about M'Kean, among thera that " plausible, elastic, extraordinary man" Dallas, for so the Aurora described hira — and it charged hira, too, with having pocketed $6598 for three raonths' services as state pay-master during the Whisky Insurrection. Lo gan also adhered to M'Kean, as did Cooper, the Sedition Law martyr, lately appointed president judge of one of the Comraon Pleas districts. In their address to the Deraocratic citizens, the friends of Snyder represented M'Kean as a demagogue ready to purchase preferraent by making a display of the most ex travagant republican zeal, but, at the same time, by ed ucation, sentiment, and habit, a domineering and over bearing aristocrat, who, having first obtained office and secured his re-election by Democratic votes, had finally attempted, with Federal aid, to set up a third party of his own, and had always treated the Deraocratic Legisla ture with distant suUenness, private virulence, and pub lic disrespect. The biting lash of the Aurora was now most bitterly felt by many who had formerly stimulated its application to others ; so much so that the friends of M'Kean complained in their address " that the citizens POLITICS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 555 might at length perceive that advantage had been taken chapter xvii. of their just veneration for the liberty df the press to . shackle them with the tyranny of printers." . 1805. How far the Deraocrats of Pennsylvania, whether Con stitutionalists or Friends of the People, could make any just pretensions tp " veneration for the Hberty of the press," may be judged of by a prosecution Which, before their schism, they had jointly promoted against Joseph Dennie, the able editor of the Port Folio, published at Philadelphia, in which journal had appeared a general diatribe against Democracy, setting forth the evils of that form of government as exhibited in Greece, Rome, and elsewhere, but without any direct allusions to Amer ica, though the application was obvious. Upon this art icle an indictment had been found (July, 1802), charg ing Dennie with the publication of a seditious libel, with the design to bring the government of the United States into contempt ! Chief-justice Shippen, who presided at the trial, which came en toward the end of the current year, instructed the jury that if the publication had been made with the intent charged, the indictment would He, But the jury settled the matter by a verdict pf npt guilty. The veteran but new somewhat superannuated Thom as Paine, having returned to Araerica, had taken up his residence' on a farm in New York, the forfeited property of a refugee Tory, given him by that state for his Rev olutionary services. His pen wa,s enlisted on the side of " the Friends of the People ;" but, by those same sup porters of M'Kean who had admired the Letter to Wash ington in 1797, Paine was now denounced as " a pol luted monster, infamous and execrated," There was some difference of opinion among the Fed eralists as to what course they ought to take. Such was the bitterness against M'Kean pf the mpre ardent mem- 556 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER hers of that party, that they were even ready to give xvii. their votes to Snyder, But the bulk of the Federalists 1805, determined to support M'Kean as the least of two evils — an aid which the Constitutionalists gladly accepted, though they guarded carefully against any actual amal gamation, strenuously contending with the Friends of the People for the title of " genuine Republicans," In October, the end M'Kean triuraphed by a raajority of upward of 5000 votes ; and, what was still raore important, the Constitutionalists obtained raajorities in both branches of the Legislature. While the Democratic party in New Ydrk and Penn sylvania was shaken by these violent internal struggles, Virginia remained quite tranquil. Even there, however, existed a more radical and a more moderate party, of which the latter triuraphed in the election of WUliara H, Cabell to succeed Page as governor. In the course of the summer large additional cessions of land were obtained frora the Indians, By a treaty July 4. held at Fort Industry, on the Maumee, between Gov ernor Harrison and the Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippewas, Munsees, Delawares, Shawanese, and PotaWatohiids, those tribes, in consideration of a perpetual annuity of $1000, relinquished all claira to the tract in the State of Ohio known as the Connecticut Reserve, This was in addition to $16,000 already paid or secured to some of these tribes by the Connecticut Land Corapany, the purchasers from Connecticut of that tract. By another treaty, shortly after, with the Delawares, Potawatomies, Miarais, Eel River Indians, and Weas, the Indian title was extinguished to all that part of the present State of Indiana within fifty railes of the Ohio, except a narrow tract along the west bank of the Wabash ; and thus, in connection with former cessions, was opened to settlement INDIAN CESSIONS. 557 the whole northern bank of the Ohio, frora its sources to chapter - xvu. its mouth. The consideration to the Indians was $4000 in cash, an annuity of $500 for ten years, and a perma- 1805. nent annuity of $1100, ^"S- 3i- On the south of the Ohio, also, cessions of ijo less iin- portance were obtained. The introduction of the arts and habits of civilized life among the Indian tribes, orig inated by Washington, and zealously followed up by Jef ferson, proved a measure no less politic than humane. The recent progress of the Cherokees in husbandry and the rearing of cattle made them the more ready to cede a part of their lands, now no longer needed as hunting- grounds. For $14,000 in cash and a perpetual annuity of $3000, they yielded up, of that wide, intervening tract by which hitherto the settleraents of East and West Ten nessee had been divided, the portion north of Duck River, They also conceded the opening of several roads and the passage of the mail through their territory. The Georgians succeeded at last in obtaining that ob ject of their ardent wishes, the tract, or the greater part of it, between the Oconee and Ocmulgee. A treaty had been made the year before, by which the Creeks had agreed to cede this tract for the sum of $200,000, in irredeemable six per cent, stock of the United States. But this treaty the Senate had refused to ratify, both because they thought the price exorbitant, and because they apprehended that the stock might soon pass out of the hands of the Indians into those of cunning traders and speculators. By a new treaty the Creeks agreed to Nov. 14. accept instead an annuity of $12,000 for eight years, to be followed by an annuity of $11,000 for ten years. 558 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XVIIL EATON AND HAMET. CARRYING TRADE. FIRST SESSION OF THE NINTH CONGRESS. SECRET APPROPRIATION FOR THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. SCHEME FOR COERCING GREAT BRITAIN. MIRANDA'S EXPEDITION. QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSORSHIP. AFFAIRS OF PENNSYLVANIA, NEW YORK, CONNECTICUT, AND MASSACHUSETTS. CHAPTER At the comraenceraent of the difficulties with Tripoli, |_Cathcart, the late consul there, had suggested to Eaton, at Tunis, the idea of an attack by land, in concert with Hamet, then a resident at Tunis, elder brother of Jes suff, the reigning bashaw of Tripoli, and formerly bashaw hiraself, but who had been deprived of his sovereignty by Jessuff, and driven into exile several years before. Eaton was a person of roraantic temper and great enterprise. At the age of sixteen he had left his father's house in Connecticut without leave, and had enlisted into the Rev olutionary army. Having served through the war, and risen to be a sergeant, he had returned horae, and, gain ing a support raeanwhile as a teacher, had prepared him self to enter Dartmouth College, and in the same way had raade his way through it. He was shortly after appointed a captain in the army ; and having served in the Northwest under St. Clair and Wayne, besides do ing garrison duty in Georgia, had finally received from Adaras the consulship at Tunis, He caught eagerly at Cathcart's suggestion, and opened a communication with Hamet, But, after incurring an expense of some $22,000, though countenanced to a certain extent by the authorities at horae, he could not engage the naval EATON AND HAMET, 559 coramanders on the station to co-operate with him. The chapter XVIII. next year (1803) Eaton went to America, and, by urg- ent representations, succeeded in obtaining a vague sort of authority to carry out, in conjunction with Hamet, his scheme of a land attack upon Tripoli, He returned to the Mediterranean in Barron's squadron (1804), and proceeded to Egypt in pursuit ofthe exiled bashaw, who — after atterapting, at the head of a body of mercena ries hired for the purpose, an attack upon Derne, the Tripolitan port and settlement nearest to Egypt, but separated from it by a wide desert — had been reduced to the necessity of joining the Mamelukes in Upper Egypt, where such of them as had escaped the French invad ers and the still more destructive massacre of the fa mous AH Pasha still maintained a predatory war against the Turkish authorities. By indefatigable zeal, and by the friendly assistance of the English agents at Cairo and Alexandria, and in spite of obstacles placed in his way by the French consul, Eaton succeeded in obtain ing from AH Pasha, by whom he was very courteous ly received, a letter of amnesty for Hamet, and permis sion for him to pass the Turkish armies, and to leave Egypt unmolested. Messengers were sent to Upper Egypt to seek Haraet out and detach hira from the jgOS Mamelukes; and he and Eaton at length met near Feb. 11. Alexandria, and concerted measures for an expedition against Derne, Thc force mustered for this invasion consisted of about four hundred men, one hundred of them Christians, adventurers of various nations, picked up in Egypt, including nine Araericans. The rest were partly Tripolitan exiles, adherents of Hamet, and partly Arab cavalry, any nuraber of whom it would have been easy to collect had there been means to feed them. While this force commenced its march through the des- 560 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER ert, with a caravan of caraels and asses for the convey- XVIII ance of provisions, the Argus, which had carried Eaton 180§, to Egypt, sailed to Syracuse for supplies, with which she was to raeet the forces of Hamet and Eaton at Bora ba, a roadstead not far frora Derne. The whole expenses of the expedition thus far were about $20,000, for the repayment of which Haraet pledged the tribute of Swe den, Denraark, and Holland. After infinite trouble with his carael-drivers fearful of not being paid, and a constant struggle against the hesitation and tiraidity of his allies, Eaton succeeded, at April 15. last, in reaching Boraba just as the last of his provisions were consumed. But Bomba was an arid beach, with out the vestige of a huraan being. Nothing could be seen of any wells, nor was the expected vessel in sight, Frora rage the Mussulraen passed into despair; but a signal-fire having been kindled, by Eaton's orders, on a neighboring hill, it was seen by the Argus, which was off the coast, and she presently stood in. The Hornet arrived a day or two after, laden with provisions ; and raeanwhile araple cisterns of water had been found at a little distance inland. Thus replenished, the little army pushed on for Derne, the approach to which was pres ently indicated by signs of vegetation. As that town came in sight, Eaton's motley forces were greatly fright ened by a report that the Tripolitan troops were approach ing. He persuaded them, however, to seize upon a hill overlooking the town, Hamet was joined by some addi tional partisans. Two of the three quarters which made up the town were well disposed toward him ; but as the governor had a force of eight hundred raen, they were not able, at present, to render any assistance. In a few days the Argus and Hornet, joined raeanwhile by the Nautilus, made their appearance off Derne ; but ATTACK ON DERNE. PEACE WITH TRIPOLI. 554 to a proposal frPm Hamet that he shpuld acknowledge chapter XVHl. hira as bashaw, the governor of that town laconically re plied, "Your head or mine," An attack was iramediate- 1805. ly resolved upon. The main defense was a water bat tery of nine guns. There were also some temporary breastworks ; and the houses of the hostile quarter were lopp-hpled for musketry. The ships of war, having taken up a position as near Aprils?. in shore as possible, opened a fire on the battery and the tpwn. Eaton, with his little band of Christians, aided by a field-piece and a few marines frPm the shipping, at tacked a bcdy of the enemy stationed behind the tempo rary breastwork ; while Hamet, with his cavalry, tock up a threatening ppsitipu pn the ppppsite side of the town. The battery having been silenced by the shipping, Eaton and his party made a rush and obtained possession of it. The guns were turned upon the town, the ships renewed their fire, and the enemy were soon completely driven out. Thus Derne fell into Harhet's hands. Eaton was soon after attacked there by the forces of May 13. Jessuff, sent to the relief of the garrison ; but, assisted by the vessels, he succeeded in repelling them. He pressed hard for further supplies, to enable him and Hamet to march against Tripoli itself. But Barron, who knew the exceedingly economical spirit of the gov ernment, and who had no great faith in Eaton's project, doubted whether he was authorized to grant any thing more. Indeed, a negotiation was already on foot, con ducted by Lear, who had succeeded O'Brien as consul at Algiers, which soon resulted in a treaty of peace. This treaty provided for an exchange of prisoners, man June a for man, as far as they would go. But as Jessuff had a surplus of about two hundred prisoners, $60,000 was to be paid by way of ransom for them. No further aid was v.— N N 562 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER to be furnished to Haraet, Jessuff stipulating, however, to XVIII '_ give up his wife and children, who had been detained at 1805, Tripoli. When Eaton and his Christian troops were withdrawn frora Derne, that unhappy adventurer him self embarked also, as having no other refuge either from the revenge of his brother or the despair of his own ad herents. This abrupt termination of the war was by no means agreeable either to Hamet or Eaton, both of whom considered themselves very badly treated. And there were those in America to whom the peace seemed sorae what hasty ; especiaUy as pains had been taken to send to the Mediterranean nine of Jefferson's gun-boats, with their guns stowed in their holds, also two bomb-ketches, built at Preble's suggestion, re- enforcements to Barron's fleet, which arrived just after peace was concluded. It seemed singular to many that a peace should have been made just as the American squadron had learned the true method of attack, and had been provided with proper raeans for it, possessing, also, an opportunity for a land co-operation — a peace including the concession of paying ransom for the prisoners, which had all along been the great point of dispute. Loud threats of war had recently been uttered by Tu nis, in consequence of the capture of two or three vessels of that regency which had attempted to evade the block ade of Tripoli, But Barron's appearance with his whole fleet off that port soon brought the Bey to terms. He retracted his threats of war, and asked permission to send an erabassador to the United States to solicit the restora tion of his captured vessels. Since the recoraraenoeraent of the European war, the carrying trade of the United States had reached an ira mense extension, never known before or since, and pro ductive of vast profits. The vessels employed in this AMERICAN CARRYING TRADE. 56S trade, and especially their valuable cargoes, were tempt- chapter XVIII ing objects of spoliation to the cruisers of th'e belliger- _^ 1_ ents, of whom, since the beginning of the year, Spain 1805. had become one; and alrCady many disagreeable annoy ances and interruptions began to be experienced. The trade with St, Doraingo, at least the old French part of it, was carried on by arraed ships, and in spite of the French cruisers, who did their best to break it up. Many French and Spanish cruisers made captures without the shadow of a cause, often fobbing vessels of which they oould not hope to obtain the condemnation, and mal treating the passengers and crews. The whole southern coast of the United States, and the very entrances of the harbors, were annoyed by these half pirates. But what created by far the most alarm was a new view of the rights of neutrals taken by tbe British Admiralty Court, going greatly to curtail the neutral trade of the United States, According to the modification of the rule ofthe war of 1756, hitherto recdgnized by the British orders in coun cil, the Americans might lawfully trade to and from the colonies of the belligerents in produce and goods of all kinds. They migbt trade also in the same way with the mother countries of those colonies, and with Europe generally. The consequence was, that the carrying to Europe of the produce of thc colonies of France and Hol land, and, since the recent accession of Spain to the French alliance, ofthe vast colonies df that country also, most of them now opened for the first time to foreign vessels, and the supplying of those colonies with Euro pean gPods, had fallen alraost entirely into American hands. The only other neutral maritime powers were Sweden, Denmark, and the Hanse towns ; all of whom, as well as the United States, were fast growing rich by 564 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER this most profitable business. The colonial produce, or the manufactured goods, as the case might be, were first 1805, transported to the neutral country and landed there, and then transhipped to the place of consumption, thus giv ing to the neutral a double freight, at rates fixed almost by himself The British merchants regarded with envy the vast profits of this growing commerce. The British privateersmen and navy officers cpraplained that there were no longer any prizes to take. The belligerents had ceased to have merchant vessels or other property afloat. All their colonial produce and manufactured goods were protected from capture by transportation as Araerican property under the Araerican flag. Thus, it was alleged, was the rule of the war of 1756 wholly evaded. The comraerce between France, Holland, and Spain, and their respective colonies, was carried on, with some enhance- raent, indeed, of expense, but in other respects with as little interruption as in time of the most profound peace ; while these hostile nations, no longer needing convoys for their comraerce, were enabled to employ all their ships of war in cruising against British trade, or to concen trate thera for the invasion of England. In this state of things, the British courts of adrairal ty began to listen tp suggestions that this allegation of neutral property was in many, indeed in most cases, a mere fraud, intended to give to belligerent property a neutral character ; that it was impossible that the neu tral merchants, whether Araerican or others, lately pos sessed of so little capital, could suddenly have become so immensely rich as te be the real owners of such valua ble and nuraerous cargoes ; that even a landing and tran shipment in a neutral country, when the goods thus transhipped continued to belong to the same person, did not break the continuity of the voyage, or when other MEMBERS OF THE NINTH CONGRESS. 555 circumstances tended to show that the property had been chapter imported to a neutral country for the very purpose of be- ing exported again to a belligerent one. 1805. The condemnation, on these grounds, of several Amer ican vessels with very valuable cargoes, as soon as it be came known in Araerica, led to a series of public meet ings in all the principal sea-ports, in which the national Oct. government was very loudly called upon for protection and redress. These proceedings of the British admiralty courts, and the by no means friendly disposition evinced by France and Spain, caused the coming together of the ninth Congress to be looked forward to with great anxi ety. -In both branches of that body the Democrats had Dee. i. an overwhelming majority. In the Senate the Federal ists were reduced to seven : Plumer, of New Hampshire ; Pickering and J. Q.. Adams, of Massachusetts ; TraCy and HiUhouse, of Connecticut ; and Bayard and White, of Delaware. The other twenty-three merabers were Democrats, of whom Smith, of Maryland, and Giles, of Virginia, might be esteemed the leaders. Giles, how ever, was absent during raost of the session. The other Deraocratic members of nPte were Baldwin and Jackscn, of Georgia, and Dr. MitchiU, of New York. The new member from New Hampshire was Nicholas Gilman, brother of the Federal governor, but himself a Democrat. The Federalists were equaUy weak in the House. They could not count above twenty-five rhembers, most ly from New England. Roger Griswold, of Connecticut, their leader during the four or five last sessions, had re tired. But his former colleagues, Dana, John Cottpn Smith, and Davenpprt, still maintained their seats ; and in Josiah Quincy, who had superseded Eustis as the Boston representative, the FederaHsts had a new mem- 566 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter ber who soon made himself conspicuous. Out of the XVIII ' L_ seventeen Massachusetts merabers, the Democrats now, 1805. for the first time, had a majority, ten in number, among them Varnum, Crowninshield, and Barnabas Bidwell. Elliot, of Vermont ; Mumford, and George Clinton, a brother of De Witt's, but without his talent, from the city of New York ; Sloan, of New Jersey ; Gregg, Find ley, Smilie, Leib, and Clay, of Pennsylvania ; John Ran dolph, Thomas M. Randolph, and Eppes, of Virginia; and Macon, of North Carolina, again reappeared. The larger part of the meriibers, under the system of rotation in office, were new, of whom only one or two soared above mediocrity. Nor could the Congress, taken as a whole, compare in talent with any of its predecessors. Macon was again elected speaker, but not till after three trials, and then only by a bare raajority. The Northern Democrats had grown tired of Southern dicta tion, and the greater part of thera, thinking it was time to have their turn, voted for Varnura. The Federal ists voted for John Cotton Smith. Macon reappointed John Randolph as chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means ; but the bulk of the Northern Democrats re fused any longer to acknowledge him as a leader. Dis satisfied at Jefferson's backwardness in supporting his radical measures, and at the influence over him evident ly exercised by Granger and other Northern Democrats, Randolph was in a very sore and dissatisfied state, of which palpable indications very soon appeared. The president was not able to give an account as to the condition of foreign affairs so flattering as that in his forraer raessages. Peace, indeed, had been secured with Tripoli ; but the conduct of Spain in regard to the Lou isiana question — not to mention her belligerent aggres sions — especially the conduct of her raUitary officers, who PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. 557 had intruded upon territory hitherto in the possession of chapter the United States, made it necessary to repel force by force. Deterrained and effectual resistance was also re- 1805. quired to the new principles as to the carrying trade, in terpolated by Great Britain into the law of nations. Such being the doubtful state of foreign affairs, Jef ferson again pressed his favorite gun-boat project for the protection of harbors. Whether it would be neces sary to increase the regular array, events in the course of the sessidn would determine. Meanwhile, he recora raended a classification of the militia, so that in any sud den emergency the younger and more active portion might be called separately into the field — a thing often recoraraended before and since, and several times taken in hand by Congress ; but never with success. Attention was also called to the naval force, and to a provision of the existing law introduced in accordance with Jefferson's economical principles (but suspended during the hostilities with Tripoli), that in time of peace vessels in commission should have but two thirds their complement of men- — a piece of unreasonable curtail raent, which rendered them quite inefficient. It was also intimated that there were on hand, collected during Adams's administration, materials for building six ships of the line ; but as to what ought to be done with those materials, the president did not venture on a hint. During the course of the sumraer, on the resignation by Lincoln of the attorney generalship, an office in which he had acquired no great distinction, a change had been atterapted in the Navy Department, by giving Lincoln's place to Smith, and appointing Crowninshield Secretary of the Navy. But Crowninshield was too busy in the field of commerce to accept the office, and Sraith return ed again to the Navy Department ; the attorney general- 568 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter ship being given to Breckenridge, of Kentucky, the busy politicians of which growing state were already very un- 1805. easy at not having what they esteemed their fair share in the distribution of office. Smith wanted thp seventy- fours ; but the prejudices of the Southern Democrats against the navy were inveterate ; and neither he nor Jefferson dared openly to ask for them. This little haste to get ready, notwithstanding the ap parent prospect of imraediate hostilities with Spain, may be easily explained. The president and his cabinet flat tered themselves that a new sum of money, nominally paid to Spain, but which would redound also to the ben efit of France, since France and Spain were now allies, might induce France to corapel Spain to sell the Flori das, or, at least, that portion of thera bordering on the Mississippi. But as the trusting great sums of money in executive hands for uncertain uses had always been very pointedly condemned both by Jefferson and GaUa tin, the administration did not wish openly to broach this project by asking for the money. In order to obtain it, apparently, by a voluntary offer of Congress, a message, covering papers relating to the difficulties with Spain, Dec. 6. was sent to the Hou^e, ostensibly for the purpose of re ferring to that body the question whether, and to what extent, force should be used in repelling Spanish aggres sions on the side of Louisiana. This message and the papers were read with closed doors, and referred to a se lect committee, of which Randolph was chairman. He was inforraed, first by the president himself, then by Mad ison, and finally by Gallatin, who furnished a plan for raising the money, that what the administration wanted was not troops, but two mUlidijs of dollars with which to commence a new negotiation for purchase. Madison as sured him that, as things now stood, France would not SPANISH RELATIONS, 559 aUow Spain to adjust her differences with us ; that she chapter XVIII. wanted money, and we must give it to her, or have a. Spanish and French war. But in the soured state of 1805. Randolph's mind, he declined to allow himself to be thus used, and he gave Madison and Gallatin, as he after ward stated, a severe private lecture on this indirect method of asking for money. The president then sent for Bidwell and Varnum- Bidwell, hiraself a meraber of the coraraittee, was tiraid indeed, but cunning, supple, and sly, Varnura was hon est, downright, and steady, btit never suspected of hav ing rauch head. To these two members the executive wishes were coraraunicated, and Bidwell made sorae un successful attempts to ingraft them into the report of the committee. He could not prevail, however, against the influence of Randolph, and the report was by no means 1806, what the president wanted. It denounced, as ample Jan. s. cause of war, the conduct of Spain in refusing to ratify the convention of 1802, and to adjust the boundaries of Louisiana ; her dbstructions to the trade of the Araeri can settlements on the Torabigbee by her claira to levy a duty on Araerican produce passing down the Mobile River ; and her late violations of the Araerican territo ry. But as it was the policy of the United States to improve the present season of extended comraerce and great revenue frora it to pay off the public debt, war, if possible, was to be avoided. By concessions on the side of Mexico, in which direction the United States clairaed as far as the Rio del Norte, Spain raight be induced to consent to a favorable arrangeraent of the eastern limits of Louisiana. Yet troops were essential to guard the territory of the United States from invasion ; and the committee recoraraended the raising of as raany as the president might deem necessary for that purpose ; and they reported resolutions to that effect. 570 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter Upon this report a very warm debate arose, still with . closed doors, Bidwell offered a substitute for the reso- xvni. 1806, lutions of the coraraittee, placing in the hands of the ex ecutive, for extraordinary expenses of foreign intercourse, two miUions of dollars ; and, as a raeans of reirabursing this raoney, which the president was to be authorized to borrow, continuing the two and a half per cent, addition al duty iraposed under the narae of the Mediterranean Fund, but which, on account of the peace with Tripoli, was about to expire. To Randolph's objection that the president's message did not ask for raoney, Varnura rath er indiscreetly rejoined that he knew such to be the "se cret wishes" of the president. Those secret wishes, thus announced to the House, at once prevailed, and the res olution of the coraraittee was voted down seventy-two to fifty-eight, raainly by the Northern Democrats, the Fed eralists voting with Randolph and his adherents. But the, raatter did not end here. The debate in se cret session was kept up for near a fortnight, Randolph desired to prefix a preamble and to make certain amend ments to Bidwell's resolution, restricting the " extraor dinary expenses" therein spoken of to the purchase of the Spanish territory east of the Mississippi ; and this was at first agreed to. Attempts were also made to limit the sura to be thus expended ; but these failed. Finally, in deed, the House retraced its steps, struck out Randolph's amendment, and passed a bill in the vague terms of Bid- well's original proposal, appropriating the two millions generally for " extraordinary expenses of foreign inter- Jan. 16. course;" which bill was presently sent to the Senate with a message coraraunicating as the object for which it was passed " the enabling the president to coramence with raore effect a negotiation for the purchase of the Span ish territories east of the Mississippi." RANDOLPH AND THE PRESIDENT. 571 Randolph succeeded in defeating Bidwell's proposal chapter XVIII for the continuance of the Mediterranean duties, on the ground that it was an unwarrantable proceeding to vote 1806. supplies in secret session. Means, however, as we shaU see, were found, before the end of the session, to carry that measure also. From this moment it was open war between Randolph and the administration, against whose leading raembers that eccentric orator henceforth poured out- all his viru lence, Varnum, BidweU, and some five or six others, through whom the executive wishes were now conveyed to a supple and obedient majority, were stigmatized by hira now as the president's " back-stairs favorites," and npw as " pages of the presidential water-closet." At first Randolph's adherents were quite numerous, but they diminished from day to day, and before the end ofthe ses sion had dwindled to a very few. During the pendency of these discussions, all of which were carried on with closed doors, the government re ceived a very pointed insult from Yrujo, the Spanish minister. Having made his appearance at Washington, Madison wrote to remind him that the Spanish govern- Jan. 15. ment, in reply to the solicitation fPr his recall, had dcr sired, as leave tp return had already been asked for by hira, that his departure should take place on that foot ing. This arrangement had been acceded to, and under these circumstances, Yrujo's presence at Washington was " dissatisfactory to the president," who, though he did not insist on his leaving the United States at this inclement season, yet expected his departure as soon as that dbsta- cle was removed. To this letter Yrujo raade two replies. In the one he insisted on his perfect right, both as an individual and a public minister, not engaged in any plots against the 572 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter United States, to continue his residence at the City of XVIII. . Washington, which he intended to do so long as suited 1806, his personal convenience and the interests ofthe king his master. In the other letter he informed Madison " that the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of his Catholic majesty near the United States receives no orders except from his sovereign ;" and to this announce ment he added a solemn protest against Madison's inva sion of his diplomatic rights ; intimating, also, his inten tion to comraunicate to all the other ministers accredited to the United States a copy of the correspondence. To all these insults Jefferson and his cabinet very quietly submitted ; and, indeed, they were destined to still great er hurailiations frora this same quarter. It was in rela tion to this affair that John Q, Adams presently intro duced into the Senate a bill to prevent the abuse of the privileges enjoyed by foreign rainisters, giving to the president authority to order their departure in certain cases. Nothing, however, came of this bill ; and, in fact, its passage would have been an impHed declaration that in the ease of Yrujo the president had atterapted to ex ercise an authority which did not belong to hira. These difficulties with Spain, however embarrassing, were of far less importance than the relations with Great Britain, which had begun to assurae a very dubious char acter. During the previous summer, in an earnest cor respondence with Merry, successor to Listen as minister from the British court, Madison had undertaken to main tain the doctrine, better sustained by a competent naval force than by any paper arguments, that a neutral flao- ought tp protect from seizure or impressraent all those sailing under it, of whatever nation they might be ; and Monroe had been instructed to urge the same thing at Ijondon, To these old difficulties about irapressraent RELATIONS WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 573 were now added the new doctrines of the British adrai- chapter ralty goUrts as to the carrying trade, The subject of the invasion of neutral rights by the 1806, belligerents had been referred, on the, third day ofthe ses sion,, to the Coraraittee of Ways and Means, against the efforts of Bidwell, who wanted a special committee ; but, though this coraraittee early applied to the State De partment fpr facts, they received no answer for several weeks. Meanwhile a new coraraunication was made to Congress by the president, under an injunction of secre cy, pf parts pf Monroe's diplomatic correspondence from Londcn, and alsp pf varipus meraprials from the maritirae towns remonstrating against the new British doctrines. The Committee of Ways and Means also coraraunicated Jan. 29 to the House an elaborate report on neutral rights, which the Secretary of State had drawn up to be presented to the president, and which he had sent to the committee by way of answer to their inquiries. All these docu ments were referred to a Committee ofthe Whole, along with a resolution offered by Gregg, of Pennsylvania, pro posing to retaliate upon Great , Britain for her impress ments and invasions df neutral rights by prohibiting all importations of goods the produce of Great Britain or any of her colonies. This was but a revival of Madison's old scheraes for bringing Great Britain to reason by comraerciar restric tions. That it proceeded directly frora the cabinet, or rather from Jefferson and Madison — for the other mera bers seera not to have been consulted — raay well be con jectured from the republication not long previously in the National Intelligencer of the non-importation, non- consumption, and non-exportation agreement of 1774, accompanied by sorae very grandiloquent observations in the usual style of that journal, which foreshadowed 574 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter the whole course of policy ultimately pursued. " What would England say to an imposition of heavy duties on 1806. her manufactured fabrics, the want of which we could supply in other markets ? What would she say to re fusing permission to any of her ships to enter our har bors ? What would she say to withholding all supplies frora her islands ? What would she say to an embargo ? What would she say to a prohibition of all intercourse? Pacific as the disposition of America is, it may be that the storm wiU burst before foreign nations are aware of it. But let them recollect that the thunder has long rolled at a distance — ^that they were long since warned of the danger of awakening the lion," Feb. 5. Smith, of Maryland, as chairman of a Senate com mittee to whom had been referred the subject of British aggressions, reported in favor of the imposition of duties on certa,in enumerated articles, to take effect within a limited time, if Britain did not previously give satisfac tion. This system of policy was very warmly opposed by Randolph as leading directly to war. As to the impress ment of our searaen, he suggested that, although it was now raade very much of by certain speakers, being a grievance well calculated to touch the popular feeling, yet the nation had been content to bear it under three administrations for twelve years past, not, indeed, with out indignant remonstrances, yet without pushing the raatter to extremity; nor did he see any ground, at pres ent, for a change of policy in that particular. His views on the subject of neutral rights will ap pear by the following extract from one of his speeches. " What is the question in dispute ? The carrying trade. What part of it ? The fair, the honest, the useful trade, which is engaged in carrying our own productions to for- VIEWS OF RANDOLPH. 575 eign markets ahd bringing back their productions in chapter ° ° r XVIII. exchange ? No, su: ; it is that carrying trade which covers enemy's property, and carries, under a neutral 1806, flag, coffee, sugar, and other colonial products, the prop erty of belligerents. If this great agricultural country is to be governed by Salem and Boston, New York and Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Norfolk, and Charleston, let gentlemen come out and say so, and let a oomraittee of safety be appointed frora those towns to carry on the gov ernraent, I, for one, will not mortgage my property and my liberty to carry on this trade. The nation said so seven years ago. I said so then,, and I say so now. It is not for the honest trade of America, but for this mush room, this fungus of war — for a trade which, so soon as the nations of Europe are at peace, will no longer exist — it is for this that the spirit of a.varicious traffic would plunge us into war. " I will never consent to go to war for that which I can not protect. I deem it no disgrace to say to the le viathan ofthe deep, we are unable to Contend with you in your own element, but if you come within our actual limits, we will shed our last drop of blood in defense of our territory. I am averse to a naval war with any na tion whatever. I was opposed to the naval war of the last administration ; I am as ready to oppose a naval war by the present administration, should they contem plate such a raeasure." On these questions of going to war in defense of neu tral rights, or the rights of searaen, Randolph spoke the sentiraents of the great bulk of the supporters of the ad rainistration from the Southern and Middle States — in deed, those of the adrainistration itself. To go to war with Great Britain was at this time the last thing in the intention of the government. Madison had always 576 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER maintained, frora the first Congress downward, that his XVUI. . , ° _ ¦- scherae of coramercial compulsion was pacific in its na- 1806. ture ; and the present bill was advocated in the House, in opposition to Randolph, by raost of the administration raembers as an eminently peaceful measure. Yet al ready appeared the gerra of that w^r party which ulti mately got the control of the governraent, and plunged Madison, in spite of himself, into a war which he depre cated. Crowninshield dwelt with animation, should war result, upon the ease with which Canada and Nova Sco tia raight be taken by the militia of Verraont and Mas sachusetts alone, and the iramensp damage which might be done to British commerce by American privateers. "Because, during the Revolutionary war," said Ran dolph in reply, " at a tirae when Great Britain was not raistress of the ocean, privateers of this country trespassed on her coraraerce, the gentleraan frora Massachusetts has settled it that we are not only capable of contending with Great Britain on the ocean, but that we are, in fact, her superior. To my mind, nothing is more clear than that, if we go to wa:* with Great Britain, Charleston and Boston, the Chesapeake and the Hudson, will be invested by British squadrons. Will you call on the Count de Grasse to relieve you, or shall we apply to Admiral Gravina, or Admiral Villeneuve, to raise the blockade ?" This last question was particularly pointed, news having just arrived in America of the total defeat -of the com bined Spanish and French fleets, commanded by these two admirals, in the famous battle of Trafalgar, by which the naval power of Bonaparte was annihilated. " But not only is there a prospect of gathering glory, and, what seeras to the gentleraan frora Massachusetts much dearer, profit from privateering, you will be able also to make a conquest of Canada and Nova Scotia. In- VIEWS OF RANDOLPH. 577 deed ! Then, sir, we shall catch a Tartar. I have no chapter XVIII, desire to see on this floor representatives of the French . Canadians, or of the Tory refugees of Nova Scotia," 1806. He questioned the policy of throwing the United States, frora any raotive, into the scale of France, so as to aid the views of her gigantic policy, aiming at suprerae domin ion by sea as well as by land. " Take away the British navy," he exclaimed, "and France to-morroW is the ty rant ofthe ocean." Randolph had not, like so raany oth er of his late party assPciates, transferred to the Emper or Napoleon that extravagant attachment to the French republic which he had once entertained. He had begun, indeed, so far to agree with the Federalists as to regard Great Britain, in the struggle going on in Europe, as the champion of the liberties of the world against an au dacious aspirant to universal empire. The excessive tameness of the administration toward the Spaniards, who had actually invaded our territory, and whom it would be easy to meet, was very sarcas tically contrasted with the administration's readiness to risk a war with Great Britain ; a war which must be mainly on the ocean, and which there could be no hope of carrying on effectually except as the ally of France, The impropriety of taking so hostile a^step while negoti ations with England were still pending was also strongly urged ; especially as news arrived in the course of the debate of Pitt's death, and the accession to power of Fox, frora whom a more favorable disposition toward America might reasonably be expected. After great debates in both houses, this scheme of pol icy took its final shape in a law, founded upon a reso- Feb, 10. lution offered by Nicholson, prohibiting the importation from Great Britain or her dependencies, or from any other country, of any of the following articles of British v.— Oo 578 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter production : manufactures of leather, silk, hemp, flax, tin, or brass ; woolen cloths above the invoice value of a 1806, dollar and a quarter the square yard ; woolen hosiery, glass, silver or plated wares, paper, nails, spikes, hats, ready-raade clothing, raillinery, beer, ale, porter, play ing-cards, pictures, or prints. But, to give time for in termediate negotiations, the comraenceraent of the pro hibition was postponed till the middle of Noveraber. March 26. This act passed the House by a pure party vote, nine ty-three to thirty-two. The Federalists to a raan voted against it, and along with thera six or seven " Quids," as they were called— the whole nuraber of partisans that Randolph could rauster when it came to the question of separating from the administration. Whatever may be thought of the general soundness of Randolph's judgment, or of the motives of his present opposition, certain it is that he took in this case the more statesmanlike view. But, in voting with him, the Fed eralists by no raeans accepted all his opinions. They did not join in his depreciation of the carrying trade, partly instigated, perhaps, by envy of the great fortunes which the Northern merchants were rapidly acquiring by it ; and borrowed by hira from a pamphlet recently pub Hshed in England, entitled " War in Disguise ; or, the Frauds of Neutral Flags," in which the new doctrines of the British admiralty courts were ably vindicated. The Federalists were far frora considering neutral rights as not worth contending for, even at the risk of hostilities. Those rights, however, in their opinion, could derive lit tle or no support from coramercial restrictions, them selves a great embarrassraent to commerce, and quite unsupported by any serious measures of preparation for war — measures which the ruling party seemed not at all inclined to adopt. MILITARY AND NAVAL PREPARATIONS. 579 The old empty forraality was indeed re-enacted of chapter authorizing the president to caU into service, should he ^^"'' deera it necessary, a hundred thousand mUitia or volun- 1806. teers. A biU was also introduced prohibiting the ex portation pf arms ; but it was dropped before reaching its final stage. An appropriation was made of $150,000 for the fortification of forts and harbors — an amount rid iculed by the FederaHsts as not a quarter enough to for tify New York alone, but defended by the adrainistration party on the ground that the Secretary of War had asked fpr np raore, and that this sura was needed, not for new fortifications, but raerely to keep the old ones in repair, A committee to whom that subject had been referred had reported in favor of completing the six ships of the line. But so far was that measure frora being adopted, that an appropriation was refused even for the repair of two or three of the frigates which had fallen to decay, the president being authorized td sell thera instead. The great war measure adopted by Congress at this comraence raent of a struggle for maritime rights was the appropria tion of $250,000 for the building of fifty additional gun boats. Under appropriations made during the hostilities with Tripoli, the Hornet sloop of war had been equipped. The Wasp was launched about this tirae. These two fine sloops were the last additions made to the American navy for raore than six years, during all which tirae the prospect of war was irarainent ; nor was it till some tirae after war had actually broken out that the building of ships was recommenced. So far from laying up addi tional materials ready for use, the fraraes on hand, of the six ships of the line, were presently cu]t np for the addi tional gun-boats. Even the few vessels already pos sessed were mostly laid up in ordinary, and this at a time when, according to the president's own statement, 580 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES niiAPTER in his opening message to Congress, our principal har- L_bors were fairly blockaded, not only by beUigerent ships 1806. of war little enough disposed to respect either the neu tral rights or the laws of the United States, but even by piratical privateers, which did not hesitate to capture American vessels on the flimsiest pretenses, even within American waters. The president, indeed, was nominal ly authorized to keep in actual service as raany public armed vessels as he might deera necessary ; but the to tal number of searaen to be eraployed was liraited to nine hundred and twenty-five — not enough to raan three frig ates, of which two were required for the Mediterranean service. Shortly after the adjournment of Congress, the citi zens of New York were greatly excited by the death of Peirce, captain of a coasting vessel, killed within the jurisdiction of the United States by a cannon shot frora a British ship of war hovering off that harbor. To a re- April 28. quest from the Common Council of that city for two or three ships to keep these foreign cruisers in order, the ad ministration could only reply by sending a copy of the act of Congress for the naval peace establishment, and by an impotent proclaraation ordering the offending vessel out of the waters of the United States. And yet, with a singular but characteristic disproportion of raeans to May 4. ends, Jefferson could write to Monroe, " We begin to broach the idea that we consider the whole Gulf Stream as of our waters, in which hostilities and cruising are to be frowned on for the present, and prohibited as soon as either consent or force will permit us. We shall never permit another privateer to cruise within it, and shall forbid our harbors to national cruisers." The Federal members had remarked, with sorae in dignation, that, however grudging Congress raight be of CUMBERLAND ROAD. SLAVE TRADE. 581 grants for the protection of commerce and shipping, all ch.aitf.i: the large sums required for the benefit of the inland front- . ier, to carry out the treaties raade the preceding sumraer 1806. with the Indians, were readily voted. Now also was made the first commencement of the system of internal improvements at the public expense, the sum of $30,000 being appropriated out of the treasury (but chargeable ultiraately upon the two per cent, fund. Under the cora- pact With Ohio, of proceeds of the public lands) toward laying out a road over the Alleghany Mountains, from Curaberland, in the State of Maryland, to the Ohio River — first coraraenceraent of the faraous Curaberland Road. The president Was also authorized to expend $6600 in opening a road from Athens, on the frontier of Georgia, toward New Orleans ; also the sura of $6000 upon each of two other roads, one the old road frora Nashville to Natchez, the other through the territory just ceded by the Indians, from Cincinnati to the Mis sissippi, opposite St. Louis, The question of a tax on slaves iraported — the renew ed African slave trade of South Carolina being carried on with great vigor — was again revived by Sloan. After some very angry debate, in which the blame of the traf fic was bandied about between South Carolina, by which the importation was allowed, and Rhode Island, accused of furnishing ships for the business, in spite of all the efforts of the ultra slaveholders, a bill was ordered to be brought in by a decided majority. But the subject was finally allowed to go over to the next session, when it would be corapetent for Congress to provide for the final cessation of the traffic. Returning frora the Mediterranean, General Eaton had arrived at Harapton Roads about the coramence- ment of the session of Congress, He was received with 582 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER many corapliraents at Richmond, on his way to Wash- ington, and was honored there, in conjunction with De- 1806. catur, with a coraplimentary dinner, at which was pres ent, araong other guests, the faraous General Moreau, lately exiled frora France. The peace with Tripoli was generally ascribed to Eaton's enterprise and gallantry in getting up the attack upon Derne. The opinion, indeed, was entertained by many, that, had he been duly sup ported', a much more favorable peace might have been obtained. Eaton freely expressed, especially when heat ed with wine, his disgust at what he called the " pusil lanimous conduct and sly policy" of the administration ; and the consequence was, that a resolution, early brought forward to honor hira with a gold medal, was vehement ly opposed, postppned, and finally lost. The Legislature of Massachusetts, in which state Eaton's faraily resided, presented hira with ten thousand acres of wild land in the District of Maine ; and he succeeded, though not without some difficulty and obstructions, in bringing his accounts with the United States to a settleraent. The whole cost of the Derne expedition was about $40,000. Congress also voted $2400 for the teraporary relief of the unfortunate Haraet, who had been landed at Syracuse by the Araerican fleet, and who sent thence an indignant coraplaint at the bad faith with which he had been treat ed, his agreement with Eaton not having been carried out, and he himself having been left at Syracuse with a farai ly of thirty persons, totally destitute of raeans of support. The Tunisian erabassador, who had arrived about the same time with Eaton, had been received with rauch cereraony. He was entertained at the public expense, insisting, in fact, upon having the best house in Wash ington ; and he visited, at the sarae expense, the princi pal cities. One advantage, at least, Jefferson derived SECRET SESSIONS. 533 from his presence ; for just at the close of the session of chapter XVIII Congress, under pretense of some inadmissible demands said to have been raade by him, which might perhaps 1806. end in war. Congress was prevailed upon to continue the Mediterranean duties ; and thus the whole scheme of the administration, as originaUy suggested by Bidwell in se cret session, was carried out. These sittings with closed doors, of which there had been several during the session, did not fail greatly to pique the public curiosity. The Federal prints triuraph antly reminded the Democrats of the claraor they had been accustomed to raise about secrecy in public trans actions ; and they asserted, not without reason, that, ever since Jefferson's accession to office, a mystery had en shrouded the foreign relations of the country such as nev er had existed during the two preceding administrations. The secret gradually leaked out, and finally the journal of the secret session, though without any removal of the injunction upon the members, was directed to be pub lished. Randolph complained, however, that the pub lished journal was garbled ; and frora his stateraent, first made in one of the sittings with closed doors toward the end of the session, of the confidential communications to hira by Madison and GaUatin, the idea sprung up that the two millions voted in secret session was wanted as a bribe to France, thereby to induce her to compel Spain to come to a reasonable arrangement as to the bounda ries of Louisiana. Such a perfect counterpart to Mon roe's old scheme of hiring France to corapel Spain and Great Britain to do us justice, found at once very ready credence with the Federalists, What served to confirm this opinion was the carrying through of Logan's bill, rejected by the last Congress, for prohibiting all inter course with Dessalines and his erapire of Hayti — a law, 584 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER however, which it was easier to pass than to enforce, L_ Turreau and TaUeyrand, with Very little cereraony, had 1806, threatened war if such an act were not passed. Jackson and some other of the Southern raerabers were inclined to put its passage on the ground of the general duty of discountenancing negro insurrection. Near the close of the session another subject was brought to the attention of Congress, curious in itself, closely connected with some other singular events, and involving, also, the honor and good faith of the gpvern ment. The successful revolt of the United States of America had not failed early to inspire, in some enthusiastic and scheming minds, the idea of a Spanish Araerican revo lution. Of this character was Francis Miranda, a native of Spanish Araerica, formerly an officer in the Spanish army. Shortly after the close of the American Revolu tion, being detected in, or at least accused of, certain plots against the Spanish authority, he had made his es cape to Europe, and had presented to the courts of En gland and Russia, not entiMy without encouragement, as it was said, plans for revolutionizing the Spanish col onies. Finally, he went to Paris about the tirae of the establishraent of the Republic, connected himself with the Girondists, and on the breaking out of the war had been appointed a general of division. But his conduct at the siege of Maestricht and at the battle of Nerwinde did not do hira credit, and he was presently iraprisoned by the tri uraphant Jacobins. He was liberated in 1794, but was soon after ordered to quit France, Having returned again, and being accused of political intrigues, he was again sent away in 1797. Again he returned to Paris in 1804, but, being accused of intrigues against Bonaparte's gov- ernmentj he was again sent away. About the beginning MIRANDA'S EXPEDITION. 535 ofthe current year, bringing letters of introduction to Mr, chaptei; XVIII Jefferson, he' had arrived in the United States, with the purpose of fitting out an expedition having for its object 1806. the revolutionizing of the Spanish province of Caraccas, now constituting the republic of Venezuela, Even apart from a natural feeling of syrapathy for Miranda's polit ical principles and objects, as things then stood between Spain and the United States, any such embarrassment to Spain was not likely to be disagreeable to the Araer ican government, Miranda used, indeed, a certain de gree of reserve, and carried on his preparations with se crecy. But, While those preparations were making at New York, he resided for some time at Washington, in habits of intimacy with Jefferson and Madison ; and it was afterward believed that the act prohibiting the ex portation of arms had been dropped for his special con venience. It is certain, at least, that a Mr, Ogden, of New York, whose ship, the Leander, was chartered by Miranda, and that William S, Smith, John Adaras's son- in-law, who held at this tirae the lucrative post of sur veyor of that port, and who was engaged in furthering Miranda's preparations, both believed that he was secret ly countenanced by the government. Presently the Le ander sailed from New York, having on board Miranda, February. a supply of arms, and some two or three hundred raen enlisted for the enterprise. Soon after her departure the raatter began to be talked of in the newspapers ; and the government, alarmed lest they might be compromit ted with Spain, ordered prosecutions to be coraraenced March. against Ogden and Smith, They presented memorials April. to Congress, setting forth that they had entered into the enterprise having every reason to beHeve, from the repre sentations of Miranda, that he was secretly supported and encouraged by the government. The House re- 586- HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER solved, by a very large majority, a few of the Federalists "" in the negative, that there was no reason to give credit 1806. to the iraputations attempted to be cast on the adminis- April 21. ti-ation by these raeraorials, and that they appeared to have been presented with insidious designs. Another res olution, that it would be highly improper in the House to take any step that might influence or prejudice a cause pending before a legal tribunal, was agreed to unanimous ly. Yet, when the case came on for trial, Ogden and July. Smith were acquitted by the jury on this very ground that the government had countenanced the enterprise ; and the circumstance that the president interposed his au thority to prevent the attendance of his cabinet ministers, who had been sumraoned as witnesses by the defendants, alleging that he needed their services at Washington, served to assure the public that the verdict was correct. In consequence of this affair, Sraith lost his office, as did also Swartwout, the raarshal. Burr's friend, whose selection of a jury, and whose testiraony in the case, w.ere by no raeans satisfactory to the president. The expedi tion itself ended, two or three months after, in a cora plete failure. Miranda obtained some assistance from the English, and took possession of two or three towns on the coast of Caraccas. But the inhabitants would not listen to his proffers of liberty. Two transports, with some sixty Araericans on board, were taken by the Span iards. The rest returned to Trinidad, where the expe dition dispersed and broke up. Jefferson's views of the state of foreign affairs, of the proceedings of Congress, and of the defection of Ran dolph, are apparent from letters written during the ses- March22. sion. He assured Duane, of the Aurora, that the point of difference with Randolph was, that the administration " were not disposed to join in league with Britain under JEFFERSON AND RANDOLPH. 537 any belief that she is fighting for the liberties of man- chapter xviii. kind, and to enter into war with Spain, and, consequent- ly, with France," This was a very artful appeal to Du- 1806. ane's strong anti-British antipathies — which feeling, in deed, joined to a panic terror of the power of France, seemed to form the key-stone of Jefferson's foreign pol icy. The battle of Trafalgar, by its destruction of the French marine, had corapletely disabled Bonaparte from mischief, so far as America was concerned. But, daz zled by the overthrow of Austria at Austerlitz, soon fol lowed by the dissolution of the German Erapire, and by the battle of Jena and the dismemberment of Prussia, Jefferson and his cabinet still continued to look to France with a fear little short of abject, " A last effort at friendly settleraent with Spain is proposed to be made at Paris, and under the auspices of France;" so wrote Jefferson to his confidential friend March 24. Wilson C. Nicholas, " For this purpose. General Arm strong and Mr, Bowdoin (both now at Paris) have been appointed joint commissioners ; but such a cloud of dis satisfaction rests on General Armstrong in the rainds of many persons, on account of a late occurrence stated in the public papers, that we have in conteraplation to add a third commissioner, in order to give the necessary meas ure of public confidence to the commission." Nicholas was accordingly asked if he would accept the place. Bowdoin, a son of the late James Bowdoin, but in no re spect equal tp^ his father, had been rewarded for his ad herence to Jeffersonian politics by the raission to Spain, frora which Charles Pinckney — the ruinous state of whose private pecuniary affairs demanded his presence at horae, where he was soon again chosen governor — had asked his recall. The feeling against Arrastrong grew out of his interference, irregular and unauthcrized, as it was raain- 588 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER tained, to prevent the payment in full by France of a claira under the Louisiana treaty, already allowed by 1806. the American comraission, on the ground of a suspicion that the property was English, and a further suspicion that it was insured, Arrastrong taking the extraordinary ground that the American insurers had made such great profits about the time of this capture that they were not entitled to indemnity. The Senate, out of an " unjust indignation," so Jefferson esteeraed it, refused, by a tie Vote, to confirra Arrastrong's nomination as joint comrais sioner; but already the two millions had been forwarded, with instructions to him and Bowdoin, by the sloop of war Hornet, April 13. In writing to Nicholas, who had previously declined the offer, to inform hira that the project of a third com missioner was dropped, Jefferson added, " I wish sincere ly you were back in the Senate, and that you would take the necessary measures to get yourself there. Per haps, as a preliminary, you should go to our Legislature. Giles's absence has been a most serious misfortune. A majority of the Senate means well. But Tracy and Bayard are too dexterous for them, and have very much influenced their proceedings. Tracy bas been on nearly every coraraittee during the session, and for the raost part the chairraan, and, of course, drawer of the reports. Seven Federalists voting always in phalanx, and joined by some discontented Republicans, some oblique ones, sorae capricious, have so Pften raade a majority as to pro duce very serious embarrassraent to public operations ; and very rauch do I dread the submitting to them, at the next session, any treaty which can be made either with England or Spain, when I consider that five joining the Federalists can defeat a friendly settlement of our affairs. " The House of Representatives is as well disposed as NEW MISSION TO ENGLAND. 539 ever I saw one. The defection of so prominent a leader chapter xvm. (Randolph) threw them into confusion and dismay for a . raoment ; but they soon rallied to their own principles, 1806. and let him go off with five or six followers only. One half of these are from Virginia, His late declaration of perpetual hostility to this administration drew off a few others who at first had joined him, supposing his opposi tion occasional only and not systeraatic. The alarra the House has had frora this schisra has produced a rallying together and a harraony which carelessness and security had begun to endanger," Just at the close of the session, an earnest seemed to April 19 be given that a sincere negotiation was intended with the British, by the nomination and appointment of Will iam Pinkney, of Maryland, as joint commissioner with Monroe for that purpose, Pinkney was a Federalist, who had first risen to notice by his earnest advocacy of Jay's treaty, under which he had been subsequently ap pointed one of the comraissioners for the adjudication of American clairas against the British, in which capacity he had resided for several years at London, Since his return he had confined hiraself to the practice of his pro fession, and in that capacity had risen to the head of the Maryland bar. Randolph's declaration of eternal hostility to the ad rainistration was not without a strong bearing on the next presidential election. Within two or three years past a new Republican paper had been established at Richmond, called the Enquirer, and edited by Thoraas Ritchie, who was described in a cotemporary Federal journal as " a young man who seems to have his brain confused by a jumble of crude and absurd notions, which he raistakes for philosophy," But a Httle confusion of ideas is seldom of any disadvantage to a party poHtician ; 590 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER and Ritchie wrote in a warra, flowing, gossipy style, and XVIU. u tj '__ with a degree of tad and ability, and especially of ear- 1806, nestness, which soon placed his paper very decidedly at the head of the Southern journals. Shortly after Jeffer son's second inauguration, apprehensions had begun to be expressed, both in the Enquirer and the Aurora, that Jefferson might be pressed to stand for a third term, against which those papers warraly protested, as leading directly toward despotisra ; very apt to be the result, as they observed, of too implicit a confidence in their lead ers on the part of the people ; and presently the Enquirer took upon itself to declare, upon what authority does not clearly appear, that Jefferson would not consent to be a candidate for a third election, Madison had long been marked out by Jefferson, at least so far as their private correspondence went, as his destined successor. Of course, the president must be selected from Virginia, But Monroe had warra friends ; Randolph and aU the discontented Southern Deraocrats rallied about him, and the Aurora was also inclined to give hira support. Seeing that a serious controversy was likely to arise, Jefferson at once took up a position May 4. of apparent neutrality; but in a letter to Monroe, he warned him against Randolph as a partisan likely to do him more harm than good. While Jefferson thus confined himself, as usual, to epistolary correspondence, Randolph presently took the August, field in a long coraraunication, published in the Rich raond Enquirer (with sorae apologies on the part of the editor for this seeraing opposition to the adrainistration, and for violating the Congressional injunction of secre cy), in which a full history was given of all the proceed ings in secret session in relation to the appropriation of the two raUlions for extraordinary diplomatic expenses. AFFAIRS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 591 But though the Aurora, smarting, as its enemies alleged, chapter XVIII under the loss of its printing and stationery contracts, inclined to support Randolph's views, and assaUed the 1806. administration with a good deal of vigor, this joint at tack failed, however, to produce the effect which seems to have been expected from it. The local politics of Pennsylvania still continued in a very agitated state. Having secured his re-election by the combined votes of the Constitutionalists and the FederaHsts, M'Kean had exercised his prerogative by turning out of the offices held at his pleasure all the act ive Friends of the People — in other words, all the more vehement Democrats, As a reward to thp Federalists for their aid, the chief justiceship of the state, on Ship- pen's resignation, was given to William Tilghman, one May. of the Federal judges whom the repeal of Adams's judi ciary act had stripped of their offices. A host of, libel suits were also comraenced by the governor ; and the Aurora exclaimed that the reign of terror had begun ! Fortunately, however, for Duane; the new Federal chief justice, while not inferior to M'Kean in legal knowledge, far surpassed that Deraocratic champion in moderation, calmness, sentiment of equity, and sincere regard for the freedom of the press. Not long after Tilghman's ap pointment, Duane was bound over by the mayor of Phil adelphia on a criminal charge of libel, FoUowing the precedent established by M'Kean in Cobbett's case, the mayor required hira to give security to keep the peace in the mean time, Duane had once already been caught in that trap. He refused to give security, went to jail, and was taken thence on habeas corpus before Chief- July justice Tilghman, who, without absolutely declaring M'Kean's conduct in Cobbett's case illegal, yet refused to follow it as a precedent, and discharged Duane with- 592 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER out requiring securities ; thus giving a final quietus to XVIII. no tj u^ that formidable contrivance for muzzling the press. 1806. The politics of New York took, in some respects, a course similar to those of Pennsylvania. The Federal ists, in those parts of the state where they had no hope of electing their own candidates, united with the Liv ingstons, or Lewisites, as they began now to be called, against the Clintonians, whose influence, in consequence, was pretty much circumscribed to the city of New York. The sickness of Judge Patterson, by leaving Pierre pont Edwards to sit as sole judge in the Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut, gave docasioil to sorae April, remarkable proceedings. Under his instructions, a grand jury, specially selected by the Deraocratic raarshal, found bills of indictraent at coramon law against Tappan Reeve, one of the judges of the Superior Court of Connecticut, for writing, and against the publisher of a Litchfield pa per for printing, an aUeged libel against Jefferson. A young candidate for the rainistry was also indicted, charged with having spoken disrespectfully of the presi dent in a Thanksgiving serraon. Being arrested thereon, and carried to New Haven, where he had no acquaint ances, he was obliged to lie a week in jail before he could obtain bail. Other sirailar indiotraents were afterward found, especially one against the publisher of the Con necticut Courant, for having charged Jefferson with send ing the two raiUions to Paris as a bribe to France. Five years after (1811), this latter case was finally adjudi cated in the Supreme Court of the United States, the decision being then first formally made (though the Dem ocratic party had always held to the doctrine) that the courts of the United States have no crirainal jurisdiction not expressly conferred upon them by statute. In Massachusetts the Democratic party continued to SPANISH AGGRESSIONS, 593 gain ground. Governor Strong was re-elected by a very chapter XVIII. small majority ; but the Democrats obtained a majority . in both branches of the Legislature, and with it the se- 1806. lection of the governor's council. The defeat of Trafalgar, by alarraing the Spaniards, had delayed an intended transfer of troops from the Ha vana to operate against Louisiana. But the negotiation for which the two millions had been voted came to noth ing ; and while that negotiation Was still pending, the Spaniards again resumed a hostile attitude. On the side of Mexico, the American claim extended to the Rio Grande, The Spaniards, on the other hand, would have limited Louisiana by the Merraentau and a very narrow strip along the west bank of the Mississippi. The Sa bine had hitherto been regarded, on both sides, as a sort of provisional boundary ; but the Spanish comraander in Texas crossed that river with a body of irregular horse, and occupied the settleraent at Bayou Pierre, pn the Red River, a few railes above Natchitoches, the westernraost American military station. It was deemed necessary to repel this aggression, and orders were sent to General Wilkinson, at St. Louis, at once commander-in-chief of the American army and governor of the Louisiana Ter ritory, to re-enforce, frora the posts in Louisiana, the four or five hundred regulars in the Territory of Orleans, and hiraself to take command there, with the view of driving back the Spaniards. v.— Pp 594 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. GHAPTE.R XIX, BURR'S MYSTERIOUS ENTERPRISE. AFFAIRS OF KENTUCKY. SECOND SESSION OF THE NINTH CONGRESS. ABOLITION. OF THE FOREIGN SLAVE TRADE. BONAPARTE'S CONTI NENTAL SYSTEM, BERLIN DECREE. REJECTION OF THE' TREATY WITH GREAT BRITAIN. BURR'S. TRIAL. AFFAIR OF THE CHESAPEAKE. ALARMING STATE OF FOREIGN RELATIONS. CHAPTER X. HE late vice-president. Burr, had,, descended frora of- fice an utterly ruined and a desperate man ; his passion 1805. for distinction, power, and wealth undiminished, but all March 5. jeg^Jar and legitimate paths thereto wholly closed" upon him. Already the seconds in his late duel with Ham ilton, had been found guilty, in New York, of being con cerned in arrangements for the duel, and, under a re cent, statute to that effect, had been sentenced to twenty years' incapacity to hold any civil office. Should Burr return to New York, he could expect for himself no bet ter fate- The New Jersey indictment for murder still hung over him ; and though Governor Bloomfield had been his personal friend, in spite of all the urging of Dal las and others, he refused to direct a nolle prosequi to be entered. Burr's pecuniary were in no better state than his political affairs. His acceptance of the vice-presi dency had interrupted his business as a lawyer, frora which he had derived large profits ; his creditors had seized all his property, and he remained overwhelmed with enormous debts. April. Very shortly after the expiration of his term of office, he departed, with several nominal objects in view, on a PROJECTS AND MOVEMENTS OF BURR. 595 journey to thfe West, One was a speculation for a ca- chapter nal round the Falls of the Ohio, on' the Indiana side, which he seems to have pi'ojeCted along with Dayton, 1805. of New Jersey, whose senatorial' term' had just expired,' and whose exterisi've purchases of military lan'd warrants had given hirh a large interest in' tile rhilitary bounty lands in that vicinity, Burt had offered a share in tliis speculation to General Wilkinson, the corrimander-in- chief of the array, and just appdinted governor df the new Territory of Louisiana, including all the region West of the Mississippi and north of the present state of that narae. Having knoWn each other in the Revolutionary array, and bptb reraarkable fdr social qiialities ahd ac complished manners. Burr and Wilkinson had long been on intimate terms, and had carried on' a correspondence occasionally in cipher — a military expedient, to the use of which, with dthers as well as Burt, the general seems to have been partial, even when the occasion for it was but slight. He was a nian of ardent ainbition and large de sires ; of a very spe'culatiVe fat'n, but without talents for pecuniary busiriess, and with sthall pecuniary resources; and Burr seems to have reckpiied confidently upon' se curing his co-operatioh — £(' thing of the utmost irajjort- ance, as his official position, both civil arid military, would make him a very efficient agent. Another nominal object of Burr's Western tour was to present hiraself in Tennessee, where no previous resi dence was required, as a candidate for Congress. This idea, suggested by Matthew Lyon, whose oWn district bordered upon Tennessee, had been warmly pressed upon Burr by Wilkinson, under the apprehension, as he after ward alleged, that, unless some legitimate position could be found for hira, Burr would be driven into desperate and illegal enterprises. 596 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER Wilkinson was departing about this tirae to take pos- , session of his governraent of Louisiana, and he invited 1805. Burr to embark with him at Pittsburg, and to descend the river in his corapany. The vessels then chiefly employed in descending voyages were arks — chest-like boats, square at the ends, which admitted of being fit ted up with every corafort for a small number of pas sengers, and which floated down with the current. As Burr's own boat was first ready, he declined to wait for Wilkinson, and proceeded alone. He soon overtook Ly on, descending the river on his way horae, and in his cora pany floated down to Marietta. Lyon proceeded on his voyage, but Burr stopped at Blennerhasset's Island, near ly opposite Marietta, and there he acquired a raost zeal ous, devoted, and enthusiastic partisan. This was Her raan Blennerhasset, an Irishman, possessing by inherit ance a considerable fortune, a raan of education and re- fineraent, who had retired from Europe under the influ ence of certain politico-romantic notions, coraraon in Great Britain toward the close of the eighteenth century — the same in which Southey and Coleridge had deeply shared. Retiring to the frontier settlements, Blennerhasset had invested a considerable part of his fortune in erecting, near Marietta, on an island in the Ohio, which soon be came known by his name, an elegant mansion, surround ed by gardens and conservatories — furnished in a style as yet unknown beyond the mountains, and provided with a large and valuable library — a little Eden of civilization in the midst of the wilderness. As if to give complete ness to this romantic picture, Blennerhasset bad a wife no less enthusiastic and accomplished than himself ; and she, even more, if possible, than her husband, appears to have been captivated by the arts of Burr, whose success with the fair sex was the very thing on which he most BURR'S FIRST VISIT TO THE WEST. 597 prided himself. Blennerhasset had some interest in a chapter mercantile firm at Marietta, but appears to have had. XIX, no great business capacity, and but little knowledge of 1805. the world. His excitable imagination was at once set on fire by the grand and splendid projects which Burr unfolded. Perhaps, too, the insufficiency of his incorae for the style of life he had adopted, no less than the promptings of his own atnbition and that of his wife, made hira ready to risk what he had in the hope of princely returns. After considerable delay at this agreeable spot. Burr resumed his voyage, and at the fall of the Ohio (Louis ville) again overtook Ijyon, who had been detained there by business, and by whom he was told that his delay in pressing forward had ruined his chance of being elected frora Tennessee. Nevertheless, he accompanied Lyon to his home at Eddyville, up the Curaberland River, whence he proceeded on horseback to Nashville, There he was honored with a public reception, very cordial and enthu- May 28. siastic. After remaining a few days, he returned to Ed dyville in a boat furnished by General Andrew Jackson, a resident in the neighborhood, who had formerly known Burr while they were both members of Congress, and who had received him with great hospitality. Nothing had been said at Nashville as to his being a candidate for Congress ; but he still urged Lyon to write on the sub ject to a gentleman there, from whom he had received great attentions — probably Jackson — at the same time observing that he might be a delegate frora the Orleans Territory, but that he should prefer to enter Congress as a full raeraber. Having resumed his voyage in his own boat. Burr met Wilkinson, then on his way to St. Louis, at Fort Mas sac, on the Ohio, nearly opposite the mouth of the Cum- 598 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER berland, Sorae of the troops at Fort Massac had been XIX, . ordered to New Orleans, and, by Wilkinson's influence, 1805. Burr was provided with a barge belonging to one of the officers, and raanned with a crew of soldiers, and in this good style he set off for that city, Wilkinson alsp fur nished hira with letters of introduction ; among others, one to Daniel Clark, an old resident of that Territory, Irish by birth, with whom, and formerly with his uncle of the sarae narae, to whose property the younger Clark had succeeded, Wilkinson had been acquainted ever since his early trading speculations from Kentucky, prior to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, June 25. Burr found the Territory of Orleans in a state of great exciteraent, such as might well furnish encouragement to his projects. Governor Claiborne was exceedingly unpopular with a part of the inhabitants, of whom Clark was a leader. The introduction of the English forms of law proceedings, and the very slight participation in the adrainistration of affairs allowed to the inhabitants — for as yet the legislators as well as the governor were all appointed by the president — had occasioned great dis contents. Araong the French Creoles and the old settlers of British birth, attachraent to the American connection was not likely to be a very strong sentiment ; while even the new American iraraigrants were divided and distract ed by very bitter feuds. After a short stay at New Orleans, Burr reascended to Natchez in the Mississippi Territory, whence he trav eled by land, along the road or bridle-path, through the Indian Territory, four hundred and fifty railes to Nash ville, where he was again entertained for a week by Aug, 6, General Jackson, " once a lawyer," so he reraarked in the journal which he kept for the entertainraent of his daughter, " afterward a judge, and now a planter — a man BURR'S FIRST VISIT TO THE WEST. 599 of intelligence, and ene pf thpse prpmpt, frank, ardent chapter spuls whom I love to raeet." Having been again ccra- pliraented with a public dinner at Nashvillej he prPoCed- 1805. ed tp Kentucky, and after spending a few weeks there, departed by land, thrcugh the Indiana Territpl-y, pn his way tp St. Lpuis, where he tppk up his residence With a relatipu pf his, whp had been apppinted, at his special re quest, the secretary pf the new Leuisiana Territory. It was upon meeting him at St. Louis that Burr's al tered and mysterious manner, and the unexplained hints which he threw out of a splendid enterprise, first excit ed in Wilkinson's mind, according to his own account, definite suspicions as to Burr's designs. He spoke, in deed, of this enterprise as favored by the governraent ; but he spoke, at the sarae time, of the government it self as irabecile, and of the people of the West as ready for revolt. So much was Wilkinson impressed, that he wrote to his friend Smith, the Secretary of the Navy, that Burr was about something, whether internal or external he could not discover, and advising to keep a strict watch upon him ; at least Wilkinson's aid-de-Camp afterward testified that such a letter was copied by hira, and, as he believed, dispatched through the post-office, though Smith did not recollect having received it. Burr presently left St. Louis, carrying with him a let- Sept. 14. ter from Wilkinson to Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, strongly urging the use of his influence to get Burr chosen a delegate to Congress from that territory — a letter written, as Wilkinson alleged, under the con firmed impression that nothing but the being put into some legitimate career would save Burr from very dan gerous courses. From the Indiana Territory Burr con- tinned his route eastward, stopping at Cincinnati, Chili cothe, and Marietta, whence, toward the end of the year. 600 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER he returned to Philadelphia, That winter, and the fol- XIX ' lowing spring and suraraer, he spent partly in Philadel. 1806 phia and partly in Washington, While in Philadelphia, he resided in a sraall house in an obscure street, where he was visited by raany persons, apparently on business, all of whora he received with a certain air of precaution and mystery, and no two of whom did he see at the same tirae. At Washington, during that winter. Burr sought and obtained frequent intercourse with Eaton, who had then lately returned frora the Mediterranean, in no very good humor with the governraent. He told Eaton that he had already organized a secret expedition against the Spanish provinces of Mexico, in which he asked him to join ; and Eaton, under the irapression, as he said, that the expedition was secretly countenanced by governraent — to which the state of Spanish relations and the Miran da expedition, then on foot, raight. well give color — gave hira encourageraent that he would. Burr then proceed ed to further confidences, such as excited suspicions in Eaton's mind as to the real character of his intended en terprise. He seeraed anxious to increase to the utraost Eaton's irritation against the government, which he ac cused of want of character, want of gratitude, and want of justice. Wishing, according to his own account, to draw Burr out, Eaton encouraged hira to go on, till finally he developed a project for revolutionizing the West ern country, separating it from the Union, and establish ing a monarchy (it was just at this time that Bonaparte was raaking kings of all his faraily), of which he was to be sovereign ; New Orleans to be his capital ; and his dominion to be further extended by a force organized on the Mississippi, so as to include a part or the whole of Mexico. He assured Eaton that Wilkinson was a party HIS PROJECTS AS STATED TO EATON. gQl to this enterprise, and would no doubt be able to carry chapter with him the regular troops on the Western waters, who might easily be re-enforced by ten or twelve thousand 1806, Western volunteers. He had besides, so he asserted, agents in the Spanish provinces, and many there were ready to co-operate. He spoke of the establishment of an independent government west of the AUeghanies as an inherent right of the people, as rauch so as the separ ation of the Atlantic States frora Great Britain — an event which, like that, must sooner or later take place, and to which existing circurastances were specially fav orable. There was no energy in the government to be dreaded ; in fact, the power of the government was in a raanner paralyzed by the deep and serious divisions in political opinion prevalent throughout the Union, Many enterprising raen, who aspired to something beyond the dull pursuits of civil life, would be ready, to volunteer in this enterprise. The proraise of an iraraediate distribu tion of land, with the raines of Mexico in prospect, would call raultitudes to his standard. Warming up with the subject, he declared that, if he could only secure the marine corps — the only soldiers stationed at Washington — and gain over the naval com manders, Truxton, Preble, Decatur, and others, he would turn Congress neck and heels out of doors, assassinate the president, seize on the treasury and navy, and de clare himself the protector of an energetic government. To which Eaton, according to his own stateraent, re plied, that one single word, usurper, would destroy hira ; and that, though he might succeed at Washington in the first instance, within six weeks after he would have his throat cut by the Yankee militia. Satisfied that Burr was a very dangerous man, but ¦ having no pvert act, nor even any writing, to produce 602 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER against him, Eaton waited on the president, and sug- XIX D ' . ^ ' gested to him the appointraent of Burr to some foreign 1806. mission, giving as a reason for it that, if he were not so disposed of, there would be, within eighteen months, an insurrection, if not a revolution, in the Western country. The president replied that he had too much confidence in the attachment of the Western people to the Union to al low hira to entertain any such apprehensions. No ques tions were asked as to the origin of these fears on Ea ton's part ; and as Eaton's relations to the government at that moraent were soraewhat delicate, he pressed the subject no further. He did, however, coraraunicate to Dana and to John Cotton Sraith, raerabers of Congress frora Connecticut, the substance of Burr's conversations. They adraitted that Burr was capable of any thing, but regarded his projects as too chimerical, and his circum stances as too desperate to furnish any ground for alarm. To Truxton, who was greatly dissatisfied at the cav alier raanner in which his narae had been dropped from the navy list. Burr suggested the idea of a naval expe dition against the Spanish provinces. He assured Trux ton that, in the event of a war with Spain, which seemed then very probable, he intended to establish an independ ent government in Mexico ; that Wilkinson and many officers of the array would join in the project ; and that raany greater men than Wilkinson were concerned in it. He several times renewed his invitation, till Truxton, understanding that the project was not countenanced by government, declined to have any thing to do with it. The same idea was also broached to Decatur, who also declined to co-operate. To how raany others sirailar ad vances may have been made, or what co-operation Burr actually secured, is not distinctly known; but it is cer tain that Jonathan Dayton, who had played so conspic- BURR'S SE.COND JOURNEY TO THE WEST. gQS upus a part as a representative and senater frpm New chapter XIX. Jersey, as well as seme ether persons in New York and , its vicinity, were concerned to a greater or less extent 1806. in the enterprise, and advanced money to forward it. Toward the end of the sumraer Burr departed upon August. a secend Western journey. A rumor for more than a year had prevailed, at the same time in Philadelphia and New Orleans, and spread through all the intervening country, that Burr was at the bottom of a project for effecting a revolution in Mexico-r^an idea sufficiently agreeable to the great body of the Western people, and, considering the existing difficulties with Spain and the affair of Miranda's expedition, likely enough to be secrpt- ly favored by the goverpment. Under the impression that such was the fact. Burr and his project seem to have received a certain degree of ccuntenance frcm sev eral leading persens in the Western cpuntry. But hovy many, and 'who, and, indeed, whether any were fully and distinctly informed of the real charapter of the enterprise, and, having that information, had undertaken to co-op erate, does not appear. Nor, indeed, does any distinct evidence exist as to what ¦^as the exact nature and ex tent of the enterprise intended, if, indeed, Burr himself had any precise and definite pl?iri. One of the first things which he did on arriving in Ken tucky was to purchase of a Mr. Lynch, for a nominal consideration of $40,000, of which a few thousand vj^ere paid, an interest in a claim to a large tract of land on the Washita, under a Spanish grant to the Baron de Bastrop. Edward Livingston, at New Orleans, had been speculating on this same grant. His claims to it Lynch had purchased out for $30,000 ; and Burr was to pay that amount to Livingston, against whom he had de mands, as a part of the purchase money. These lands. 604 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter situate on the upper waters of the Washita, were not XIX " many miles distant from the left bank of the Mississippi, 1806. just below the raouth of the Arkansas ; but, owing to the swarapy and often inundated state of the intervening country, they could not well be approached except by de scending the Mississippi and ascending the Washita — a circuit of several hundred railes. The pretense of an intention to settle these lands raight serve to cover a very different enterprise ; and,-should that enterprise fail, such a settleraent might really be undertaken. Burr himself, in company with Blennerhasset, entered into a contract for building fifteen boats on the Muskin gum, a few railes above Marietta, toward which $2000 were advanced in a draft on New York, Application also appears to have been raade to John Sraith, one of the Ohio senators, and contractor to furnish supplies to the troops in the West, to purchase two gun-boats which Sraith was building on the Ohio for the governraent. This purchase was not effected ; but there are reasons for believing that Smith was, to a certain extent at least, acquainted with and favorable to Burr's projects. Authority was given to a house at Marietta, the same in which Blennerhasset had lately been a partner, to pur chase provisions ; and a kiln was erected on Blennerhas set's island for drying corn so as to fit it for shipraent. Other sirailar preparations were made elsewhere, but not, so far as appears, to any great extent. Young raen were also enlisted, in considerable nurabers, for an enterprise down the Mississippi, as to which mysterious hints were thrown out, but the true nature of which did not distinct ly appear, Wilkinson, meanwhile, in obedience to his orders, had arrived at Natchitoches, and had assumed coramand of the five or six hundred troops collected there to oppose BURR'S LETTER TO WILKINSON. 605 the Spanish invasion, A few days after his arrival, and chapter XIX. while busy in preparations for advancing on the Span iards, a young Mr, Swartwout, brother of Burr's friend, 1806, Colonel John Swartwout, who had been lately removed *-**^''' ^¦ from his office of raarshal of New York, made his ap pearance in the camp with a letter of introduction frora Jonathan Dayton to Colonel Cushing, the senior officer next to Wilkinson, He also had with hira another let ter, which he took an opportunity to slip unobserved into Wilkinson's hand, being a forraal letter of introduction frora Burr, and inclosing another, dated July 27th, just before Burr's departure for the West, written principal ly in cipher. Since Burr's visit to St. Louis the preceding auturan, Wilkinson had received from hira several short letters, some of thera in cipher, alluding to an enterprise which he had on foot, the tenor of which would seem to imply that Wilkinson was privy to that enterprise, if not a party to it, Wilkinson had also written to Burr ; but of the precise contents of his letters we are ignorant. Burr afterward, on his trial, intimated that they irapli cated Wilkinson as privy to all his designs, excusing the non-production of the letters by alleging that he had de stroyed thera, Wilkinson adraitted having written, but merely with the design to draw out Burr, He had kept no copies, nor did he precisely recollect the tenor of his letters. Burr's letter in cipher, brought by Swartwout, which Wilkinson succeeded in partially deciphering the sarae evening, announced, in broken sentences and mysterious tone, that he had obtained friends ; that detachments from different points and under different pretenses would rendezvous on the Ohio by the first of Noveraber; that the protection of England had been secured ; that Trux- 606 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chatter ton had gone to Jaraaica to arrange with the English ad- XIX , " rairal on that statidn; that an English fleet would raeet 1806, on the Mississippi ; that the riavy of the United States was ready to join ; that final orders had been given to his friends and followers ; that Wilkinson should be sec ond to Burr only, and' should dictate the rank and pro motion of his officers ; that orders had been already giv en to the contractor for prdvisioris to forward supplies for six months to sUCh points as Wilkinson should designate; that the people of the cdUHtry to which they were going were ready to receive them, thfeir agents then with Buri: having stated that, if protected intheir religion, and not subjected to a foreign power, all would be settled in three weeks. The letter requested Wilkinson to send an in telligent and confidential friend' to confer' with Buri:, and a list of all persons west of the mduntains Who might be useful, with a note designating their characters; also the coraraissions of four or' five of his officers, which he raight borrow under any pretense, and Which should be faithfully returned. It was stated to be the plan df op erations to raove rapidly from the Falls of the Ohio on the 15th of Ndvember, With the first detachraent of five hundred or a thousand raen, in light bdats already con structing for the pOr^Pse', td'be at Natchez iri Decera- b'er, there te meet' Wilkinson; and to deterraine whether ' it would be expedient to pass dr' to seize Baton Rouge, at that tirae in possession of the Spaniards as a part of West Florida. The bearer of the letter was stated to be a man of discretion and honor, thoroughly informed as to the plans and intentions of Burr, who would make disclosures so far as he was inquired of, and no further. Inclosed in the sarae packet was another letter, also in cipher, frora Jonathan DAytori, in which Wilkinson was assured that he would certainly be displaced at the BiURR AND WILKINSON. 607 next session of Congress ; " But," added the letter, "you chapter are not a man to despair, or even to despdnd, especially when such prospects offer in another quarter. Are ydu 1806- ready? Are your nuraerous associates ready ? Wealth and glory ! Louisiana and Mexico ! Dayton," The tenor of these letters, and the previous intimacy and correspondence between Wilkinson and Burr, have given occasion to conclude that Wilkinson really was, in the first instance, a party to Burr's designs ; and that Burr, when he wrote the ciphered letter of which Swartwout was the bearer, had good' reason to rely on Wilkinson's co-operatioUi This was specially urged by Burr and his counsel during Burr's trial, with the object of invalidating. Wilkinson's testimony ; and the same view was afterward taken up and' urged with great per tinacity by Wilkinson's numerous enemies in Congress and out of it. Yet the tone of Burr's and Dayton's letters is hardly that of one conspirator to anpther, be tween whom a. definite plan of co-operation had been ar ranged. It is rather like throwing out a lure, making loud boasts and round assertionsj raany of them totally and, willfhlly false, with, the design of ' attracting a par tisan whose hopes and fears were alike to be operated' upon. Besides, an artful man like Burr; in Writing to one whom.' he hoped togain over, would naturally guard against betrayal by employing sucb terms as might' ex pose the recipient to suspicion, while he avoided impli cating himself by any thing tangible or specific enough for the law to lay hold of One- thing, at least, is certain. Wilkinson, after de ciphering the letter so far as to obtain a general idea of its contents, did not hesitate a moment as to the course he should adopt. He communicated the next morning to Colonel Cushing, his second in coramand, the sub- 608 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter stance of Burr's letter ; stating also his intention to raarch as speedily as possible for the Sabine, and, having raade 1806. the best terras he could with the Spanish coraraander, to hasten back to New Orleans, to defend that city against Burr, should he venture to attack it. Meanwhile, he proceeded to extract frora Swartwout all the inforraation he could — inforraation which served to raise his alarhi to a very high pitch, Swartwout stated that, in company with a Mr, Og den, he had left Philadelphia while Burr was still in that city. They had proceeded to Kentucky with dis patches for General Adair — lately appointed a senator in Congress in place of Braokenridge, raade attorney gen eral — who was a party to the enterprise. Having de livered these letters, they had hastened across the coun try frora the Falls of the Ohio to St. Louis in search of Wilkinson ; but learning at Kaskaskia that he had de scended the river (a circumstance on which Burr had not calculated, and which served, in the end, effectually to defeat all his plans), they had procured a skiff, and had followed on to Fort Adams, nearly opposite the mouth of Red River, Being told here that Wilkinson had gone to Natchitoches, Ogden kept on down the Mississippi with dispatches for Burr's friends in New Orleans, while Swartwout had ascended Red River to the camp. He expressed some surprise that Wilkinson had heard noth ing of Dr. BoUman, who had proceeded by sea from Phil adelphia to New Orleans, and must before this time have arrived there. He stated that Burr, supported by a nu merous and powerful association, extending from New York to New Orleans, was about levying a force of sev en thousand men for an expedition against the Mexican provinces, and that five hundred raen, the vanguard of this force, would descend the Mississippi under Colonel MOVEMENTS OF WILKINSON. 609 Swartwout and a Major Tyler, The Territory of Or- chapter' XIX. leans would be revolutionized, for which the inhabitants. were quite ready, " Sorae seizing," he supposed, would 1806. be necessary at New Orleans, and a forced loan from the bank. It was expected to embark about the 1st of Feb ruary. The expedition was to land at Vera Cruz, and march thence to Mexico. Naval protection would be af forded by Great Britain. Truxton and the officers of the navy, disgusted with the copduct of the government, were ready to join, and, for the purposes of the erabark- ation, fast-sailing schooners had been contracted for, to be built on the southern coast of the United States. Swartwout returned to New Orleans after reraaining ten days in the carap, during which Wilkinson extract ed from hira all the inforraation he could without giv ing any hint of his own intentions. Meanwhile Wil kinson had succeeded in procuring transportation for his baggage, and, having been joined by a body of volunteer railitia from Mississippi, he advanced toward the Sabine. Oct. 22, But before setting out, he dispatched Lieutenant Smith as an express, with directions to make the utmost haste, with two letters to the President of the United States, one official, the other confidential, in which, without men tioning any names, he stated the general outline of the - scheme communicated to him by Swartwout. In his confidential letter, he gave as a reason for mentioning no names that, although his information appeared to be too distinct and circumstantial to be fictitious, yet the mag nitude and desperation of the enterprise, and the great consequences with which it seemed to be pregnant, were such as to stagger his belief, and to excite doubts of its reality, even against the conviction of his senses. It was his desire not to mar a salutary design, nor to in jure any body, but to avert a great public calamity ; v.— Qq 610 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER and what raade him the more cautious was, that araong XIX ' other allureraents held out to him, he was told — though. 1806. considering his own orders to avoid, if ppssible, any col lision with the Spaniards, he could not believe it — that the gpvernment connived at the plan, and that the coun try would sustain it. Were he sure that the combina tion for attacking Mexico were formed in opposition to the laws and in defiance of government, he could not doubt that the revolt and revolutionizing of the Territory of Orleans would be the first step in the enterprise ; and, notwithstanding his orders to repel the Spaniards to the other side of the Sabine, he should not hesitate to make the best arrangement he could with the Spanish com raander, so as to hasten at once to New Orleans, The defensive works of that city had moldered away, yet, by extraordinary exertions, it raight in a few weeks be ren dered defensible against an undisciplined rabble acting in a bad cause. As raatters stood, however, he deeraed it his first duty to execute his orders against the Span iards, Simultaneously with this letter to the president, Wil kinson sent directions to the coramanding officer at New Orleans to put that place in the best possible condition of defense, and especially to secure, by contract if possi ble, but at all events to secure, a train of artillery be longing to the French government, which the adrainis tration had been too parsiraonious to purchase, but which the French had yet had no opportunity to remove, and which raight now fall into bad hands. As the American forces advanced upon the Spaniards, they retired behind the Sabine, leaving a rear guard on the western bank of that river, A messenger was dis patched to the Spanish camp ; and, after some negotia- , Nov. 3. tion, a temporary arrangeraent was entered into that the MOVEMENTS OF WILKINSON. (^ j i Sabine should be, for the present, the line of demarca- chapter tion between the two nations, ^^^' Leaving Cushing to bring down the troops, Wilkinson 1806. hastened back to Natchitoches, where he received a let- ^^^ '' ter from Bollman, dated at New Orleans, covering a du plicate of Burr's letter in cipher, and also a letter, partly in cipher, from Dayton, different in its precise tenor, but in general substance much the sarae with that brought by Swartwout, Just about the same time he also re ceived a letter from a gentleraan at Natchez, stating the arrival there of a person from St, Louis in thirteen days, bringing a report that a plan to revolutionize the West ern country was just ready to explode — Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Territory of Orleans hav ing combined to declare theraselves independent on the 15th of Noveraber, This letter gave new impulse to Wilkinson's alarra. He wrote to Cushing to hasten down the troops with the greatest possible dispatch, and to the officer commanding at New Orleans, to whom he sent a re-enforceraent of men and artificers, to press for ward his defenses, but without signs of alarra, or any indication of his reasons. Wilkinson hiraself proceeded with all dispatch to Natchez, whence, in the midst of a severe domestic bereavement in the death of his wife, he dispatched a second special messenger to the president with duplicates of his former coramunications, inclosed in a letter, in which he declared that all his doubts as to the reality of the conspiracy were now at an end, men tioning also the insufficiency ofthe means at his disposal, and the necessity of putting New Orleans under martial law ; in which step he trusted to be sustained by the president. Wilkinson exhibited to this messenger the ciphered letters he had received, and authorized him to name Burr, Dayton, Truxton, and others, as apparently engaged in the enterprise. 612 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter He dispatched, at the same time, a confidential let- XIX. . ter to Governor Claiborne, of the Orleans Territory, in- 1806. forming him that his governraent was menaced by a secret plot, and entreating him to co-operate with the military commander in raeasures of defense ; but enjoin ing secrecy till he himself arrived. He also called on the acting governor of the Mississippi Territorry for five hundred militia to proceed to New Orleans. But as he declined to specify the service for which he required thera, the acting governor declined to answer the requisition, Nov. 25. Arrived at New Orleans, and being under apprehen sions that Burr had raany secret partisans in that city — a thing by no raeans iraprobable — and the ruraors frora up the river growing raore and raore alarraing, a public Dec. 9. meeting of raerchants was called, before which Wilkin son and Claiborne made an exposition of Burr's suspect ed projects. The railitia of the Territory was placed at Wilkinson's disposal ; in addition to a sraall squadron of gun-boats and ketches in the river, vessels were arraed and fitted out to repel the expected attack by sea, and a sort of voluntary erabargo was agreed upon in order that searaen might be got to man them. After consultation with the governor and two of the Dec. 14. judges, Wilkinson caused Bollman, Swartwout, and Og den to be arrested, and confined on board sorae of the vessels of the squadron. A writ of habeas corpus having been issued in the case of Bollman by the Superior Court, Wilkinson appeared before the judges in full uniform, at tended by his aids-de-camp, and made a return stating that, as a necessary step toward the defense of the city, menaced by a lawless band of traitors, he had arrested BoUman on his own responsibility, on a charge of mis prision of treason ; and that he would do the same with any other person against whom reasonable suspicions WILKINSON'S PROCEEDINGS AT NEW ORLEANS. 613 might arise. Indeed, he intimated very strongly that chapter both Alexander and Livingston, the lawyers at whose instance the habeas corpus had issued, ought to be ar- 1806. rested. Bollman and Swartwout were sent prisoners by sea to Washington. Ogden was once released on a writ of habeas corpus, granted by Judge Wortman, of the County Court, and directed to the officer in whose custody Ogden was. But both he and Alexander, who had obtained the writ, were shortly after taken into custody by Wilkinson's order, and to a new writ Wilkinson made the sarae return as in Boll- man's case, Wortman himself was presently arrested, but was set at liberty by the judge of the United States District Court, New Orleans, subjected, in fact, to mar tial law, presented a singular scene of doubts, alarm, and mutual suspicions and recriminations. The chief ground of suspicion against Livingston seems to have been that Burr had drawn upon hira, in favor of Bollraan, for $1500, But this, Livingston insisted, was raerely in discharge of an old debt. Among those arrested was Bradford, the old whisky rebel, editor of the only paper in New Orleans, which was thus brought to a stop. While these events were occurring on the Lower Mis sissippi, much exciteraent also prevailed on the waters of the Ohio and its tributaries. About the tirae of Burr's arrival in the Western country, a series of articles, signed Querist, appeared in the Ohio Gazette, one of the four or five newspapers published at that time west df the mpuntains, arguing strongly in favor of the separation of the Western States from the Union. These articles were nominally written by Blennerhasset, but were be lieved to be furnished in substance by Burr. Articles having the sarae tendency, though less bold and decided, appeared in the Commonwealth, a Democratic paper pub lished at Pittsburg. 614 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter There had sprung up in Kentucky, on the part of some aspirants for political power, a great uneasiness at 1806, the existing raonopoly of office and influence by the old Republican leaders. The oircurastance of a draft on the Spanish government for a considerable amount, drawn by Sebastian, one of those leaders, and now a judge of the Court of Appeals, and found among the effects of a Kentucky merchant, who had died during a visit to New Orleans, had revived the old story of Spanish pen sioners in Kentucky — a story zealously seized upon as a means of destroying the influence of the old raonopolists of political influence. Daviess, the United States Dis trict Attorney, had caught very eagerly at this affair, and early in the year had opened a correspondence with the president, under an injunction ofthe strictest secrecy, implicating, on mere suspicion, rumor, or guess, Wilkin son, Brown, late one of the Kentucky senators, and, in deed, raost of the leading politicians of that state, as be ing, or having been, Spanish pensioners, and therefore likely, in case of a war with Spain, to play into her hands, and perhaps to bring about that separation of the Union which Spain had formerly instigated, and for which her partisans had labored, without being then able to accomplish it. Daviess even went so far as to aban don his plantation, and to make a journey of exploration down the Mississippi, for the purpose of unraveling this plot. He went, however, no further than St, Louis, and returned without discovering any thing. Meanwhile, there had been set up at Lexington a newspaper caUed the Western World, edited by that same Wood whose History of John Adams's adminis tration Burr had forraerly labored to suppress. By whora this paper was started does not distinctly appear, Da viess denied, in his letters to the president, any agency STATE OF THINGS IN THE WEST. 615 in it. But its object evidently was to attack the al- chapteil leged Spanish pensioners, and an able and well-informed correspondent was soon found in Humphrey MarshaU, the 1806. former Federal senator, and a bitter enemy of the old clique, who took the opportunity to lay open matters con nected with the separation of Kentucky from Virginia, of which the present inhabitants, consisting to so large an extent of recent immigrants, knew but little. The name of Wilkinson, against whom, also, Marshall entertained a mortal hatred, was freely used in connection with these alleged Spanish intrigues, of which he was represented as having been a chief manager ; and the fact that certain large suras of money had been at differ ent times remitted to him from New Orleans was urged as proof positive of his corrupt connection with the Span ish government. The ruraors in circulation of a new enterprise on foot under Burr's leadership becarae connected, in the public mind, with those relating to the old Spanish plot, and Wilkinson's reputed connection with that gave addition al credibility to the hints of Burr and his confederates of his being also connected with the new moveraent. Sorae numbers of the Western World, containing im putations of this sort, which reached the Lower Missis sippi', added not a little to WUkinson's embarrassments. So currently, indeed, were he and Burr connected to gether by rumor, that General Jackson wrote to Gov- Nov. 12 ernor Claiborne, suggesting that an enterprise was on foot against his territory, and warning hira to be on his guard against internal as weU as external dangers, and as weU against WUkinson as against Burr, " I hate the Dons," wrote Jackson ; " I would delight to see Mex ico reduced ; but I would die in the last ditch before I ¦would see the Union disunited," This letter of Jack- 616 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. <;hapter son's having reached Claiborne about the time of Wil- XIX. . kinson's disclosures, raade him pay the greater attention 1806, to them. Indeed, this letter was one ofthe documents, the name of the writer and some passages of it being suppressed, which had been read at the public meeting in New Orleans, at which the existence of the plot and the consequent danger of the city had been first pub licly announced. In Kentucky, araong the leading politicians, the im putations of crirainal designs against Burr were very slow in finding credit. Those, indeed, who believed the charges in the Western World as to the old Spanish plot, looked also with very suspicious eyes on Burr's designs; but the adherents of those accused as Spanish pensioners were disposed, on the other hand, to treat both sets of ruraors as alike futile and malicious. Daviess, the district attorney, naturally kept a watch ful eye on Burr. He wrote several times to the presi dent on the subject, but without eliciting any specific Nov. 5. directions. Finally, upon an affidavit sworn to by him self,, that he had good reason to suspect Burr of medi tating an unlawful expedition against Mexico, and also a separation of the Western States from the Union, he applied to the Federal District Court for process of ar rest, and to hold Burr to recognizances for his appear ance to answer these charges, and for his good behavior in the mean time. The judge, Harry Innis, himself one of the old Spanish intriguers, after argument, refused to issue process, but directed a grand jury to be impanneled to inquire into the accusation, and witnesses to be sum raoned, Iramediately after the announcement of this Nov. 8. opinion. Burr appeared in court with his counsel, one of whora was Henry Clay, at that time a rising young lawyer and politician, just elected to the Senate of the PROCEEDINGS IN KENTUCKY. 617 United States to supply a vacancy of a single session oc- chapter casioned by Adair's resignation. Great readiness was professed by Burr and his counsel for an immediate in- 1806. vestigation ; but as the witness chiefly relied upon by the district ^attorney — David Floyd, an undoubted partisan of Burr, then at Vincennes in his capacity of a meraber of the Indiana Legislature — failed to appear, the grand jury was discharged without further proceedings. It was not long, however, before the district attorney made an application for a new grand jury. This time Nov. 25. he sumraoned General Adair as his principal witness ; but as he too failed to appear at the appointed tirae. Dee. 2. the attorney was obliged to ask a Httle delay. There upon Burr, with his counsel, again appeared in court, and insisted that the business should proceed at once. The attorney denied Burr's right to appear at all in this stage of the proceedings, as no bill had yet been found ; but Burr's counsel pressed the matter with great zeal, and the judge finally told the attorney that, if he did not proceed, the grand jury would be dismissed. He also re fused to allow the attorney to attend the grand jury and examine the witnesses. Thereupon, as the main witness was wanting, and those present were all unwilling ones, with nobody to draw them out, the jury not only failed to find a bill against Burr, but they even went so far as to sign a pa- Deo. 5. per, in which they declared their persuasion that noth ing was intended by him injurious to the United States, Burr's triumph was celebrated by a ball at Frankfort ; after which he suddenly departed for NashviUe, in cora pany with General Adair, against whom the district at torney had also presented a bill of indictment, which the jury refused to find. Steps, however, were already in progress at the North, 618 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter as well as the South, fatal to Burr's projects, whatever XIX. they might be. In consequence of various comraunica- 1806. tions received frora the West, the president had corn- October, missioned Graham, secretary of the Orleans Territory, then about to leave Washington on his way thither, to investigate the origin of the reports about Burr, and, if they appeared to be well founded, to apply to the govern ors of the Western States to take steps to cut short his career. The matter appeared to the president in a more serious light in consequence of his being put in posses sion now, for the first tirae, of the communications which had passed during the previous winter between Burr and Eaton, of which Eaton had raade a statement to Gran ger, the post-master general, in consequence of having seen a letter frora Ohio, in which it was stated that boats for Burr were building on the Muskingum. This was followed up by Wilkinson's dispatches from Natchitoches, Nov. 27. two days after receiving which the president issued a proclamation, declaring that he had been inforraed of an unlawful scherae set on foot for invading the Spanish doniinions ; warning all good citizens against any par ticipation therein ; and calling upon all in authority to exert themselves in suppressing the enterprise, and ar resting all concerned in it. Already, before the issue of this proclamation, the agent Grahara — from conversations with Blennerhasset, whora he raet at Marietta, and who seeraed to take him for one of the confederates, relying, apparently, on the statements of Burr to that effect, and expressing great surprise when the fact was denied — had thought it nec essary to apply to the Governor of Ohio for the seizure of the boats building on the Muskingum, and by this Dec. 2. time about finished. The Legislature of Ohio was then sitting, and an act was at once passed, with closed doors, authorizing the seizure, which was iramediately made. TYLER'S FLOTILLA. 619 Two or three days after the president's prpclamaticn chapter XIX. reached Marietta, seme four or five boats frora the neigh- borhood of Beaver, in Pennsylvania, intended for Burr's 1806. expedition, led by Colonel Tyler, and with a number of raen on board, reached Blennerhasset's island, Senti- Dec lo. nels were posted to prevent any communication with the river banks, Blennerhasset, having received information that his own boats on the Muskingum had been seized, and that a body of railitia were coraing to seize those at the island, hastily erabarked with a few of his followers, Dec. 13. and descended the river in Tyler's flotilla. The next day a mob of miHtia took possession of the island, committing great waste and destruction, and not even abstaining from insolence and insults toward Blennerhasset's accom plished wife, who presently succeeded, however, in ob taining a boat and following her husband down the river. From Chilicothe, the seat .of government of Ohio, the agent Grahara had hastened to Frankfort, The Ken tucky Legislature was then in session, and an investiga tion, which had been ordered into Sebastian's conduct, had resulted in full proof that he had been for years a Spanish pensioner. Indeed, he had anticipated the report of the coraraittee by a resignation. It was shown that Innis, the district judge, George Nicholas, deceased, and oth ers, had been concerned in these Spanish intrigues, but no evidence appeared that any but Sebastian had been paid agents of the Spanish government. Upon the top of these startiing disclosures, Graham easily prevailed upon the Kentucky Legislature to pass an act similar to Deo. 24. that of Ohio, and under it some seizures were made. Bodies of militia were also posted to intercept such as might be descending the river. Smith, the Ohio sena tor, made himself very busy in this business ; but already Tyler's boats had succeeded in passing the Falls of the 620 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER Ohio, where they had been joined by two or three oth- p.rs under David Floyd, 1806, Burr hiraself descended from Nashville with two boats — Adair having proceeded by land to New Orleans — Dec. 24. and at the mouth of the Curaberland encountered those which had raade good their escape down the Ohio, The whole flotilla did not exceed ten boatsj with about a hund red raen. They landed on an island at the raouth of the Cumberland, and waited for sorae days, apparently in the hope that other boats raight yet join thera. The men were drawn up in a sort of square, and Burr was intro duced to them. He had intended, he said, to make here an exposition of his designs, but, from circumstances which had occurred, he should defer it to another oppor tunity. Nearly opposite the mouth of the Cumberland, on the north bank of the Ohio, stood Fort Massac, with a gar rison of sorae forty men, but without cannon. The ru raors of Burr's projects, so rife throughout the Western country, do not appear to have reached this secluded spot. Burr opened a coraraunication with the officer in command, and, under pretense that he wanted to send a confidential express from New Madrid to St. Louis, ob tained, under a furlough for twenty days, an orderly ser geant from the garrison; which, however, he took care to pass in the night. This orderly sergeant was per suaded to join in the enterprise ; and, according to his own testimony. Burr urged hira to endeavor to influence sorae of the soldiers to desert for the sarae purpose. The only other railitary post between the raouth of the 1807, Cumberland and Natchez was at Chickasaw Bluff, now Jan. 3. Memphis, The boats stopped there ; and Burr made great efforts, and not altogether without success, to se duce the coramanding officer into his service. He would BURR NEAR NATCHEZ. 621 not, however, join him till he had first visited his friends ; chapter nor, though efforts were raade for it, did Burr succeed in . XIX. obtaining any of the soldiers of the garrison, 1807. Having reached the first settlement on the left bank Jan. lO. of the Mississippi, Burr, who had gone on ahead o^ the other boats, landed at the house of a planter, one of the judges of the Mississippi Territory. On inquiring for newspapers, there was handed to him, as it happened, the very New Orleans journal containing a statement respecting the condition of affairs made by Wilkinson to the Legislature of the Orleans Territory, called together in special session, and annexed to which was a decipher ed copy of Burr's letter to Wilkinson, received through Swartwout and Bollman. Perceiving what he had to expect at New Orleans, and fearful that he might be arrested at once," Burr directed his boats to withdraw to the west bank of the river, and there, out of the jurisdiction of the Mississippi Territory, an encampment was established, sentinels were posted, and a piece of ground was cleared on which to exercise the men. This was some thirty miles above Natchez. The president's proclamation had already reached the Mississippi Territory, with special instructions also ; and, notwithstanding a letter frora Burr denying the truth of current rumors as to his intentions, deprecating civil war, and requesting that steps might be taken to appease the public alarm, the acting governor at once called out a body of about four hundred militia for the purpose of arresting Burr. While these troops were collecting at Coles's Creek, a few miles below Bayou Pierre, oppo site to which was Burr's camp, three or four militia of ficers, one of whom was Poindexter, attorney general of. the Territory, were sent to induce Burr to surrender. With them he entered into a written agreement, under 622 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER a guarantee for his personal safety, to raeet the governor the next day at Coles's Creek, He carae accordingly; 1807. and under threat that, imraediately after his return to Jan. 16. i-,jg floats, the railitia would be ordered to advance and seize the whole party, he raade an unconditional sur render to the civil authority, and agreed that his boats should be searched, and that all arms should be seized. Previously, however, to this search, the boats moved down toward Coles's Creek, and on the way, during the night, several chests of arms were thrown overboard, so that not raany were discovered on board. Meanwhile Burr proceeded to Washington, the seat of governraent of the Mississippi Territory, about ten railes east of Natchez, Poindexter gave it as his official opinion that there was no evidence to convict Burr of any offense in the Mississippi Territory, and, moreover, that the Supreme Territorial Court, being a court of appeals only, could not entertain original jurisdiction of the mat ter, and that it would be best to send Burr to the seat of the national governraent, where the Suprerae Court of the United States was in session, by which the proper locality for the trial of Burr might be deterrained. But Rodney, the j udge before whora Burr was brought, thought differently, and he directed a grand jury to be summoned to atterid the approaching term of the Suprerae Territo rial Court, and Burr to give recognizances to appear frora day to day. Feb. 5. When the court raet, Poindexter took the sarae ground as before ; but as the two judges, Rodney and Bruin, were divided in opinion, his motion was overruled. The grand jury retired, and no evidence having been offered against Burr, instead of indicting him, they presently brought in presentments against the acting governor for calling out the militia ; against the manner in which BURR SENT TO WASHINGTON. 623 Burr had been compelled to surrender ; and against the chapter XIX. late proceedings at New Orleans ! Burr withdrew to the house of one of his sureties; but, 1807. alarmed by a report that some military officers had been sent from New Orleans by Wilkinson to arrest him, he disappeared that same evening. He spoke with much bitterness of Wilkinson as a traitor, and expressed a great dislike to fall into his hands. He returned to his boats, and told the men that he had been tried and acquitted, but that they were going to arrest him again, and that he must fly. What property, provisions, and other things there were in the boats, they might sell and make the most of, and might go and settle on the Washita lands if they chose. Nothing more was heard of Burr for some time, except a message, believed to be in his hand writing, directed to T, or F. (Tyler or Floyd), found un der the cape of a coat belonging to Burr, but worn by a negro boy, in which he desired his men, if they had not separated, to keep together, to get their arms ready, and he would join thera the next hight — a message which led to several arrests. Burr's men, several of whom were afterward used against hira as witnesses, dispersed through the Territory, furnishing it, as Poindexter after ward testified, with an abundant supply of schoolraas- ters, singing-raasters, dancing-masters, and doctors. A re'ward having been offered for his capture. Burr was ar rested some time after in the Eastern Mississippi settle- Feb. 19. ments, on the Tombigbee, through which he was passing on horseback, meanly dressed, attended by a single com panion, and whence he was sent, under a guard, to Washington. The arrest was made by the register of the land-office, assisted by Lieutenant Gaines (afterward Major-general Gaines), with a sergeant and four men frora Fort Stoddart. 624 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CH.4PTER Just about the tirae of Burr's arrival near Natchez, XIX ' General Adair reached New Orleans by land, but was 1807. iramediately taken into custody by Wilkinson, and sent round by sea to Baltimore. The alarra did not irarae diately cease upon the stoppage of Burr's boats. As it was imagined that he had proraises of foreign assistance, confederates in various quarters, and nuraerous partisans in the city itself, it was thought that even yet an at tack might be made. There had been in New Orleans a society called the Mexican Association, forraed for the purpose of obtaining inforraation respecting the internal provinces of that viceroyalty, with a view, it was admit ted, to sorae future expedition against them. This so ciety, it was said, had some time before dwindled to noth ing, and had discontinued its meetings ; yet all thoSe who had once been connected with it were suspected as Burr's partisans. Not willing to risk further arrests, from which the prisoners might be discharged on writs of habeas cor- Feb. 10. pus. Governor Claiborne applied to the Territorial Legis lature to suspend that writ. But though, in other re spects, the majority had supported his and Wilkinson's measures, they refused to grant this request. A consid erable party, both in the Assembly and among the citi zens, was very bitter against what they called the high handed and tyrannical proceedings of Wilkinson and Clai borne. Wortman resigned . his office of judge on the ground that the government was usurped by military authority, and Livingston presently came out with a long vindication against the insinuation which had been thrown out by Wilkinson to his disadvantage. 1806. In the midst of the exciteraent occasioned by the issue ^' of the president's proclamation, the ninth Congress came together for its second session. In the opening message sorae allusions were made to that proclamation ; but it BOLLMAN AND SWARTWOUT. 625 was six weeks before the proceedings against Burr came chapter distinctly before the House. Td a call for information, moved by Randolph, and carried against a good deal of 1807. i opposition from the president's more particular supporters, the president replied by a statement of the steps taken Jan. 22. by his orders. Though it was not yet known what had becorae of Burr, all occasion for alarm had ceased. So the president declared, and yet, as if in spite of this dec laration, a bill was at once introduced into the Senate, and, by a suspension of all the rules by unanimous con- Jan. 23, sent, was passed in secret session without a division, sus pending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus for three months. This singular moveraent is best explained by the legal proceedings then pending in the case of Bollraan and Swartwout, who, having been brought across the coun try from Annapolis, had arrived at Washington that same evening, and had been committed to the custody of the Jan. 24. marine corps. The following Monday they were brought before the Circuit Court, the principal court of law of the district, on a charge of treason, the president's message of the previous week being relied upon by the counsel for the government as conclusive proof of the existence of a trai torous plot — a course of reasoning to which two of the three judges assented, A deposition of Wilkinson, ob jected to as being ex parte, was also introduced, as well as the testimony of Eaton ; and the court, on this evi dence, two to one, coraraitted the prisoners for trial, Jan. 30. If the suspension of the habeas corpus was intended for this case, that intention failed of its effect, for the House very unceremoniously rejected the bill from the Jan. 26. Senate by the decisive vote of 113 to 16, A day or two Jan. 28. after, aU alarm was quieted by the information coramu- V,— Rr 626 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter nicated to Congress by the president that Burr had pass- p.c] Fort Massac with only ten boats, not strongly man- 1807. ned, and without appearance of railitary array, Bollraan and Swartwout — Alexander, who had also reached Washington in custody, having been meanwhile Feb. 6. discharged — were presently brought before the Suprerae Court of the United States on a writ of habeas corpus, and, after a very elaborate argument (Harper and Mar tin appearing as their counsel), first, as to the right of the court to issue the writ, and then as to the sufficien cy of the cause of oomraitraent, they were discharged Feb, 21. frora custody on the ground that they did not appear to have been in any way connected with the coraraission of any overt act of treason. Adair, who, along with Ogden, had been discharged about the sarae time by a Baltimore judge, addressed a long letter to the Kentucky delegation in Congress, in which he insisted that he had gone to New Orleans only on a land speculation and commercial business. By a coramon revulsion of feeling, the exaggerated rumors as to Burr's force, and the alarra thereby excited in New Orleans and elsewhere, becarae now subjects of ridicule. Henry Clay, lately Burr's counsel in Ken tucky, denounced the arrests made by Wilkinson at New Orleans as illegal and unconstitutional. Sraith, of Ma ryland, adraitted that Wilkinson's proceedings were not technically legal, but he justified thera as precautions which the general's position and inforraation had made it necessary for him to take. In the House, toward the end of the session, the same subject was very warmly discussed, on a series of reso- Feb. 19. lutions directing a bill to be brought in more effectually to secure the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus to persons in custody under the authority of the United ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. 627 States. Both sections of the opposition, the Federalists, chapter and the little party led by Randolph, severely denounced , xix. the conduct of Wilkinson ; and the resolutions were with 1807. difficulty got rid of by a majority of only two votes. The president had recommended in his opening message the giving to the executive, in case of enterprises medi tated against the government, the sarae suppressive pow ers already possessed in case of enterprises against for eign powers. But the Democrats had not yet entirely fprgptten how violently, when in opposition, they had re sisted the latter act, A bill, in conformity to the pres ident's recommendations, was brought into the House ; but as it could not be so shaped as to suit the majority, it failed to pass. Another bill on the same subject came down from the Senate, but the whole was struck out in the House except a single section, still in force, author izing the president, in all cases in which he had the right to call out the militia to suppress insurrection and resist ance to the laws, to employ for the same purpose the naval and military forces of the United States, Another subject pressed upon the attention of the House in the president's raessage, and which occupied a large share of attention from the beginning to the end of the session, was the prohibition of the importation of slaves from and after the first of January, 1808. All concurred in expressing the greatest anxiety that this traffic should.be prohibited from the first moraent that it fell under the cognizance of Congress. But as to the details of the measure, very great differences of opinion arose ; principally as to the punishments to be imposed upon those who might persist in carrying on the traffic, and as to the disposal of negroes illegally introduced. As originally reported by a committee, of which Ear ly, of Georgia, was chairman, the bill provided that all 6-2 8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER negroes, raulattoes, and persons of color illegally intro- duced " should be forfeited and sold for life for the ben- 1806, efit of the United States," Sloan moved to substitute Dee 17. (( gjjall be entitled to his or her freedora," an araendraent very violently opposed by the Southern raerabers. Early maintained with great earnestness " that the persons so illegally introduced must not only be forfeited, but raust be sold as slaves and continued as such. What else can be done with thera ? We of the South consider slavery a dreadful evil, but the existence of large nurabers of free blacks among us as a greater evil ; and yet you would by this amendment turn loose all who may be imported ! You can not execute such a law, for no man will inforra who loves himself or his neighbor," This same view, the impossibility of enforcing the law if negroes illegally imported were to become free, was urged by Macon, the speaker. Other arguments were added by his colleague, Willis Alston. " Should a state by law forbid the freeing of any slaves. Congress could not contravene such a law," " Slaves being property by the laws of a state. Congress could not, in opposition to those laws, consider them otherwise." On the other hand, Srailie called attention to the in consistency of laying severe penalties, as this bill did, upon all concerned in buying or selling imported slaves, while, at the sarae time, the United States set thera selves up as sellers ! Barker, of Massachusetts, thought that the United States ought not only to declare all ille gally imported Africans free, but safely to convey thera back to their native country. That, Macon thought, would be impracticable, Quincy opposed the amend ment because it was not right to say that a certain class of people should be free, who could not be so according to the laws of the state where they might be, and whose ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. 629 freedom might produce a fatal, injurious, or disagreeable chapter effect, ^'^- Only nineteen members voted in favor of Sloan's 1806. araendraent ; but the next day, Pitkin, of Connecticut, Dec. is. on a raotion to recommit the bill, urged sorae very strong objections against forfeiting iraported Africans, and sell ing them at pubHo auction like bales of goods. He ad mitted the inconvenience that might arise in sorae of the states frora setting them free; but that raight be ob viated by binding them out for terms of years, and ap pointing some proper officer to look after them. As the bill now stood, it authorized the selling of forfeited slaves even in Massachusetts, where slavery was totally pro hibited. After an animated debate, Pitkin's motion prevailed. When the bill carae back frora the select coraraittee to Dec. 23. which it had been referred, sorae debate arose upon the punishment of death to be inflicted on those engaged in the slave trade. This, Early said, had been introduced to gratify some of the coraraittee, and to test the sense of the House. He raeved tp strike it out, with a view to substitute imprisonraent ; and, after some debate, that motion was carried. When the other point was again resumed, Findley Dec. 29. advocated binding out the forfeited negroes for terras of years. Bidwell strongly ppppsed the forfeiture, as ira- plicating the United States in the same crirae with the traders. He hoped the statute-book would never be dis graced by such a law. This verbal implication of the United States being, however, avoided, he was quite will ing to leave the imported Africans to the laws of the states, whatever they might be. Quincy, in reply, in sisted on the forfeiture, not only because the Southern gentlemen regarded it as the only raeans of enforcing 630 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER the law, but because it was also the only raeans by which „ the United States could obtain a control over these un- 1806, fortunate creatures, so as to be certain that the best was done for them that circumstances would adrait. It did not follow that they raust be sold because they were forfeited. " May you not do with them what is best for human beings in that condition — naked, helpless, ignorant of our laws, character, and manners? You are afraid to trust the national government, and yet, by refusifig to forfeit, you will throw them under the control of the states, all of which raay, and some of which will and must retain them in slavery. The great objection to forfeiture is that it admits a title. But this does not follow. All the effect of forfeiture is, that whatever title can be acquired in the cargo shall be vested in the United States. If the cargo be such that, from the nature of the thing, no title can be acquired in it, then nothing vests in the United Statesi The only operation of the forfeiture is to vest the importer's color of title by the appropriate commercial term, perhaps the only terra we can effectually use, to this purpose, without interfering with the rights of the states. Grant that these persons have all the rights of raan : will not those rights be as valid against the United States as against the iraporter? And, by taking all color of title out of the importer, do we not place the United States in the best possible situ ation to give efficiency to the rights of man in the case of the persons iraported ? "But let us adrait that forfeiture does iraply a species of title lost on one side and acquired on the other, such as we can not prevent being recognized in those states into which these importations will most frequently take place : which is best ? which is most humane ? to ad mit a title, gain it for the United States, and then to ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. 631 make these miserable creatures free, under such circum- chapter XIX. stances and at such time as the condition into which they . are forced permits, or, by denying the possibility of title, 1806. to leave them to be slaves? But my colleague has a sovereign specific for this. We do not make thera slaves, he says, we only leave thera to the laws of the states. But if the laws of aU the states may, and if some of thera do and wiU make them slaves, by leaving them to the operation of the laws of those states, do we not as absolutely make them slaves as though we voted them to be so in express terms ? To my mind, if, when we have the power, we fail to secure to ourselves the means of giving freedom to them under proper modifications, we have an agency in making them slaves. To strike out the forfeiture, as it seems to rae, will defeat the very end its advocates have in view," Fiske, of Verraont, denied that, in order to give the United States the desired control over Africans or oth ers illegally iraported, any forfeiture was necessary. It was never thought that shipwrecked people belonged to the finder. Just so with alleged slaves brought here. It •was our duty to take thera into our custody, and, if they needed assistance, to provide for them ; and this might be done without seeraing to recognize any title in the importer. He was inclined to the apprenticeship plan. Clay, of Philadelphia, and Macon strongly urged the bill as it stood, on the ground that it was only as a cora mercial question that Congress had any jurisdiction over the slave trade, Smilie insisted that this was something more than a mere commercial question, and that the bill could not be passed with this clause of forfeiture in it without damage to the national character. He quoted the Declaration of Independence ; to which Clay replied that the Declaration of Independence must be taken with 632 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER great qualifications. It declared that men have an inal- XIX. , ienable right to life — yet we hang criminals ; to liberty 1806. — yet we imprison ; to the pursuit of happiness — and yet raen must not infringe on the rights of others. If that declaration were to be taken in its fullest extent, it would warrant robbery and murder, for sorae raight think' even these criraes necessary to their happiness. This cavalier treatment of the rights of raan, while Jefferson was still president, was not a little reraarkable in one chosen to rep resent the ultra radical Deraocracy of the city of Phila delphia, Hastings, of Massachusetts, hoped the general governraent would never be disgraced by undertaking to sell huraan beings like goods, wares, and raerchandise. Dec 31. Yet, in spite of all these objections, the House refused to strike out the forfeiture sixty-three to thirty-six. The debate then turned upon the punishment to be inflicted on the masters and owners of vessels engaged in the slave trade. The substitution, which had been adopted in Committee of the Whole, of iraprisonraent for death, was warraly opposed by the greater part of the Northern raerabers, a few excepted, who professed scru ples at inflicting capital punishraents at all. " We have been repeatedly told," said Mosely, of Connecticut, " and told with an air of sorae triuraph, by gentleraen frora the South, that their citizens have no concern in this infa- raous traffic ; that people from the North are the import ers of negroes, and thereby the seducers of Southern cit izens to buy thehi. We have a right to presume, then, that the citizens of the South will entertain no particular partiality for these wicked traffickers, but will be ready to subject them to the most exemplary punishment. So far as the people of Connecticut are concerned, I am sure that, should any citizen of the North be convicted under this law, so far frora thinking it cruel in their Southern ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. 633 brethren to hang them, such a punishment of such cui- chapter prits would be acknowledged with gratitude as a favor," The Southern members all opposed the punishment of 1806, death as too severe to be carried into execution, " A large majority of the people in the Southern States," said Early, "do not consider slaveholding as a crime. They do not believe it immoral to hold raen in bondage. Many deprecate slavery as an evil — a pdlitical evil — but not as a crime. Reflecting raen apprehend incalculable evils from it at some future day, but very few consider it a crime. It is best to be candid on this subject. If they considered the holding men in slavery as a crirae, they would necessarily accuse themselves. I will tell the truth : a large raajority of people in the Southern States do not consider slavery even an evil. Let gentleraen go and travel in that quarter of the Union, and they will find this to be the fact." Holland, of North Carolina, gave a similar account of the public sentiraent of the South : " Slavery is gener ally considered a political evil, and, in that point of view, nearly all are disposed to stop the trade for the future. But has capital punishment been usually inflicted on of fenses merely political ? Fine and imprisonment are the common punishments in such cases. The people of the South do not generally consider slaveholding as a moral offense. The importer might say to the iaformer, I have done no worse than you, nor even so bad. It is true, I have brought these slaves from Africa ; but I have only transported them from one master to another, I am not guilty of holding huraan beings in bondage ; you are. You have hundreds on your plantation in that miserable condition. By your purchases you tempt traders to in crease that evil which your ancestors introduced into the country, and which you yourself contribute to augment. 634 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER And the sarae language the iraporter raight hold to the judge and jury who might try him. Under such cir- 1806. curastances, the law inflicting death could not be exe cuted. But if the punishment should be fine and im prisonment only, the people of the South will be ready to execute the law," Holland, like all the other South ern speakers on this subject, wished to place the prohibi tion of the slave trade on political, and not on moral grounds. The negroes, he said, brought frora Africa ¦were unquestionably brought from a state of slavery. All admitted that, as slaves, they were infinitely better off in Araerica than in Africa. How, then, he argued, could the trade be iraraoral ? The infliction of capital punishraent was also object ed to by Stanton, one of the Deraocratic raerabers frora Rhode Island, " Sorae people of ray state," he remarked, " have been tempted by the high price offered for negroes by the Southern people to enter into this abominable traffic, I wish the law made strong enough to prevent the trade in future, but I can not believe that a man ought to be hung for only stealing a negro !" — a declara tion received by the House with a loud laugh, "Those who buy are as bad as those who import, and deserve hanging just as rauch," " We are told," said Theodore Dwight, of Connecti cut, "that morality has nothing to do with this traffic; that it is not a question of morals, but of politics. The president, in his message at the opening of the session, has expressed a very different opinion. He speaks of this traffic as a violation of human rights, which those who regarded morality, and the reputation and best in terests of the country, have long been eager to prohibit. The gentleman from North Carolina has argued that, in importing Africans, we do thera no harra ; that we only ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE 635 transfer thera frora a state of slavery at horae to a state chapter XIX of slavery attended by fewer calaraities here. But by _ what authority do we interfere with their concerns? 1806. Who empowered us tp judge fpr them which is the worse and which the better statd ? Have these miserable be ings ever been consulted as to their removal ? Who can say that the state in which they were born, and to which they are habituated, is not more agreeable to them than one altogether untried, of which they have no knowledge, and about which they can not even make any calcula tions ? Let the gentleraan ask his own conscience whether it be not a violation of human rights thus forci bly to carry these wretches from their horae and their country ?" Clay insisted that capital punishraents under this law could not be carried into execution even in Pennsylvania, of which state it had been the policy to dispense with the penalty of death in all cases except for murder in the first degree. But on this point Findley and Smilie expressed very decidedly an opposite opinion. This was a crirae, they said, above murder ; it was man-stealing added to murder. In spite, however, of all efforts, the substitu tion of imprisonraent for death prevailed by a vote of sixty -three to fifty-two. Another attempt was afterward made by Sloan, of New 1807. Jersey, to strike out the forfeiture clause ; but he could ¦^^" ^ not even succeed in obtaining the yeas and nays upon it. Three days after, the bill having been engrossed and the question being on its passage, the Northern members Jan. 8. seemed suddenly to recollect themselves. Again it was urged that by forfeiting the slaves iraported, and putting the proceeds into the public treasury, the bill gave a di rect sanction to the principle of slavery, and cast a stain upon the national character. In order that some other 636 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER plan might be devised, consistent at once with the honor XIX. . of the Union and the safety of the slaveholding states, it 1807. was moved to recomrait the bill to a coraraittee of seven teen — one from each state. This motion, made by Bed- inger, of Kentucky, was supported not only by Sloan, Bidwell, Findley, and Smilie, but also by Quincy, of Boston, and Clay, of Philadelphia, who seeraed at length to havctaken the alarra at the extent to which they had been playing into the hands of the slaveholders. It was urged, on the other side, that the bill, as it stood, was satisfactory to nearly or quite all the raerabers frora the Southern States, who alone were interested in the raat ter, and that to recommit a biU at this stage was very unusual. The motion to recomrait was carried, howev er, seventy-six to forty-nine. With the yeas voted all the Northern merabers present, except three Federalists from New Harapshire, and as many more from New York, But their desertion was more than made good by three votes from Maryland, two from Virginia, two frora Kentucky, and one from each of the states of Del aware, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Jan. 20. The committee of seventeen proposed that all persons imported in violation of the act should be sent to such states as had prohibited slavery, or had enacted laws for its gradual abolition, and should there be bound out as apprentices for a limited tirae, at the expiration of which they were to become free. Feb. 9. When this report came up for discussion, a very ex traordinary degree of excitement was exhibited by sev eral of the Southern merabers. Early declared that the people of the South would resist this provision with their Hves ; and he raoved, by way of compromise, as he said, to substitute for it a delivery of the imported negroes to the state authorities, to be disposed of as they might see ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. 537 fit — the same, in substance, with Bidwell's suggestion, chapter XIX. This Smilie pronounced a new scene indeed ! Was the . House to be frightened by threats of civil war? Early 1807, denied having made any such threats. He merely meant to intiraate that troops would be necessary to enforce the act. The whole day, thus comraenced, was consumed in a very violent debate, of which no detailed report has been preserved. ¦ While this subject had been under discussion in the House, the Senate had passed and sent down a bill hav ing the same object in view. The House bill, with the report of the committee, having been laid upon the table, the Senate bill was taken up. That bill provided that Feb. 10. neither the importer, nor any purchaser under him, should " have or gain" any title to the persons illegally iraport ed, leaving them to be disposed of as the states might direct, Williams, of South Carohna, moved to substi tute the word " retain" instead of the words " have or gain," The motion to strike out prevailed, but, instead of " retain," the word " hold" was substituted ; where upon WiUiams declared, in a very vehement speech, that he considered this word " hold" as leading to the destruc tion and massacre of aU the whites in the Southern States ; and he attacked Bidwell with great violence as the author of this calaraity. The punishment of death was also stricken from the biU, and, thus araended, it was reported to the House, These araendraents being con curred in, the bill was passed one hundred and thirteen to five, and was sent back to tbe Senate, But, notwithstanding this concession to the South, the trouble was not yet over. Among other precautions against the transportation coastwise of iraported slaves, the Senate biU had forbidden the transport, for the pur pose of sale, of any negro whatever on board any vessel 638 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER under forty tons burden, to which a proviso had been added by the House, excluding frora the operation of 1807, this section the coastwise transportation of slaves when accorapanied by the owner or his agent. The refusal of the Senate to concur in this araendraent called out John Randolph, who hitherto had hardly spoken, "If the bill passed without this proviso, the Southern people," he said, "would set the act at defiance. He would set the first exaraple. He would go with his own slaves, and be at the expense of asserting the rights of the slaveholders. The next step would be to prohibit the slaveholder him self going frora one state to another. The bill without the araendraent was worse than the exaction of ship- money. The proprietor of sacred and chartered rights was prevented from the constitutional use of his prop erty," Other speeches were made in the same high strain^ and finally a committee of conference was appointed, by which an araended proviso was agreed to, allowing the transportation of negroes, not iraported contrary to the provisions of the act, in vessels of any sort on any river or inland bay within the jurisdiction of the United States, This, however, was far from satisfying the more violent Southern merabers, Randolph stUl insisted " that the provisions of the biU, so far as related to the coastwise transportation of slaves, touched upon the right of pri vate property, and he expressed a fear lest at a future pe riod this claim of power might be made the pretext for a general emancipation. He would rather lose all the bills of the session, every bill passed since the establishment of the government, than submit to such a provision. It went to blow the Constitution into ruins. If disunion should ever take place, the line of disseverance would not be between the East and the West, lately the topic of ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. 639 SO much alarm, but between the slaveholding and the chapter XIX. non-slavebolding states. Early and Williams joined in . these furious demonstrations ; but the report ofthe com- 1807. mittee of conference was agreed to, sixty-three to forty- nine. The act, as finally passed, imposed a fine of $20,000 upon all persons concerned in fitting out any vessel for the slave trade, with the fprfeiture of the vessel ; like wise a fine of $5000, with forfeiture also of the vessel, for taking on board any negro, raulatto, or person of color in any foreign country, with the purpose of selling such person within the jurisdiction of the United States as a slave. For actually transporting from any foreign coun try and selling as a slave, or to be held to service or la bor within the United States, any such person as above described, the penalty was imprisonment for not less than five nor more than ten years, with a fine not ex ceeding $10,000 nor less than $1000. The purchaser, if cognizant ofthe facts, was also liable to a fine of $800 for every person so purchased. Neither the importer nor the purchaser were to hold any right or title to such per son, or to his or her service or labor ; but all such per sons were to remain subject to any regulations for their disposal, not contrary to the provisions of this act, which might be made by the respective states and territories. Coasting vessels transporting slaves from one state to an other were to have the narae, age, sex, and description of such slaves, with the naraes of the owners, inserted in their manifests, and certified also by the officers ofthe port of departure ; which manifests, before landing any of the slaves, were to be exhibited and sworn to before the officer of the port of arrival, under pain of forfeiture of the vessel, and a fine of $1000 for each slave as to whom these formalities might be omitted. No vessel of 640 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER less than forty tons burden was to take any slaves on board except for transportation on the inland bays and 1807. rivers of the United States ; and any vessel found hov ering on the coast with slaves on board, in contravention of this act, was liable to seizure and conderanation ; for which purpose the president was authorized to eraploy the ships of the navy, half the proceeds of the captured vessels and their cargoes to go to the captors. The raas- ters of vessels so seized were liable to a fine of $10,000, and iraprisonraent for not less than two nor raore than four years. The negroes found on board were to be de livered to such persons as the states raight respectively appoint to receive them, or, in default of such appoint ment, to the overseers of the poor of the place to which they might be brought ; and if, under state regulations, they should be " sold or disposed of," the penalties of this act upon the seller and purchaser were not to at tach in such cases. Though coming very near it, the provisions of this warraly-contested enactment did yet, vastly to the chagrin of the ultra slaveholders, avoid, as the Constitution of the United States had done, any ac knowledgment of the existence, by natural law, of prop erty in raan, or any national participation in the sale of huraan beings. Randolph's objections to the act, of which the restraint upon the transportation of slaves by water was raade the pretense, did not cease with the passage of the bill. He Feb. 27. denounced it the day after in a raost veheraent speech, in which he declared that whatever raight be thought of alien, and sedition, and excise laws, they were noth ing in comparison to this. It laid the axe at the root of all property in the Southern States. If Congress could abridge, alter, or raodify the right of property in slaves, they could go a step further, and eraancipate thera. He RANDOLPH'S BRAVADOES. 641 asked, therefore, for leave to bring in an explanatory bill, chapter XIX. If the motion was rejected, he doubted if the House would ever again see any Southern delegates on its floor. He, 1807. for one, would say, let us secede and go home. This display of insolent bravado, so often since repeat ed, did not raeet with so much success as it has done on some subsequent occasions. Srailie declared that he was not to be frightened by any such scarecrow. He might lament a secession, but he did not fear it. The North ern people could take care of themselves ; it was the South that would suffer. Leave, however, was granted, and Randolph brought in his explanatory bill, disavow ing in its preamble any right in Congress to abridge, modify, or affect the right of property in slaves not ille gally imported into the United States, and declaring the prohibition as to the transportation of slaves in vessels under forty tons burden not to apply to any masters or owners, or to their agents, transporting slaves from one port to another of the United States. Randolph insisted upon instant action, without the customary reference to a committee of the whole, as otherwise the bill would fail to pass at the present session ; in which case he hoped that the Virginia delegation would wait upon the presi dent to remonstrate against his signature of the bill al ready passed. In spite, however, ofthe fury of Randolph, the bill was referred in the usual way. Of course, it was not reached. It slept forever ; yet the Union re mained undissolved. The importation of Africans into South Carolina dur ing' the four years from the reopening of the traffic up to the period- when the law of the United States went into effect, amounted to about 40,000, of whom half were brought by EngHsh vessels. A very large proportion of the remainder seem to have been introduced by Rhode v.— Ss 642 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER Islanders, The English act for the abolition of the slave XIX ' trade, and especially the commercial restrictions which 1807. went into operation simultaneously with the Araerican act, contributed to give it an efficacy which otherwise it raight not have had. At a subsequent period, after the re-establishment of trade, additional provisions, as we shall see, becarae necessary. That spirit, twin-born with the struggle for liberty and independence, which had produced in three states (Massachusetts, Verraont, and Ohio) the total prohibi tion of slavery, and in six others provisions for its grad ual abolition ; and, in spite of the efforts of the people of Indiana for its temporary introduction — efforts renewed again at the present session, but again, notwithstanding the favorable report of a coraraittee, without success — its continued prohibition in the territories northwest of the Ohio, culrainating now in the total prohibition of the foreign slave trade, seeras to have become, for a con siderable interval, less active, or, at least, less marked in its manifestations. The convention of delegates from the various abolition societies had continued, since its institution in 1793, to meet annually at Philadelphia ; but of late the delega tions frora the South had greatly fallen off, and the con vention of the present year resolved that its future meet ings should be only triennial. The greater part of the societies whence the delegates came gradually died out, and even the triennial convention presently ceased, Jef ferson, having much more about him ofthe politician than ofthe martyr, preserved, with all his zeal on this subject, a dead silence. In his private letters he sometiraes alluded to the necessity of steps for getting rid of the evil of slav ery ; but he took good care not to hazard his popularity at the South by any public suggestions on the subject. REACTION IN THE SOUTH. 643 That dread of and antipathy to free negroes which chapter had been evinced in the debate on the slave trade pro- _____ hibition act had not been without its influence upon the 1807. legislation of the -states. Indeed, it had led to some se rious infractions of these alleged rights p-f property, but a very distant approach to which by the general govern raent had thrown Randolph into such excitement. In 1796 North Carolina had re-enforced and re-enacted her law prohibiting emancipations except for meritorious services and by allovvance of the county courts. South Carolina, in 1800, had prohibited emancipations except by Consent of a justice of the peace and of five indiffer ent freeholders. Another South Carolina act of the same year had declared it unlawful for any number of slaves, free negroes, mtilattoes, or mestizoes to asserable togeth er, even though in the presence' of white persons, " for mental instruction or religious worship," The same in fluences were felt in Virginia, aggravated, perhaps, by two successive alarms of insurrection,' one in 1799, the other in 1801. The freedom of emancipation allowed by the act of 1782 was substantially taken away in 1805, by a provision that thenceforward emancipated slaves remaining in the statefor twelve months after ob taining their freedom should be apprehended and sold for the behefit of the poor of the county — a forfeiture given afterward to the literary fund. Overseers ofthe poor, binding out black or mulatto orphans as apprentices, were forbidden to require their masters to teach them reading, writing, or arithmetic. Free blacks coming into the state were to be sent back to the places whence they came. The Legislature of Kentucky presently (1808) -svent so far as to provide that free negroes coming into that state should give security to depart within twenty days, and on faUure to do so should be sold for a year — 644 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER the same process to be repeated if, twenty days after the XIX, end of the year, they were still found within the state. 1807. "Such is the fate," exclaims Marshall, the historian of Kentucky, indignant at this barbarous piece of legisla tion, "of men not represented, at the hands of law-mak ers, often regardless of the rights of others, and even of the first principles of humanity." Yet this barbarous and disgraceful statute reraains in force to the present day, and many like ones, in other states, have been add ed to it. Whether the excessive dread of the increase of free negroes, which still prevails, and which seeras every day to grow raore and raore rabid throughout the Southern States, has any better foundation than raere suspicion and fear, is not so certain. In Delaware and Maryland the free colored ¦ population is far greater in proportion than elsewhere ; yet life and property are more sepure in those than in many other slaveholding states, nor are they inferior in wealth and industry. Next to the prohibition of the slave trade, the act of the session of the greatest permanent importance was that for a survey of the coasts of the United States — a great enterprise, continued frora that time to this, and not yet entirely completed. This very important raeas ure was introduced on the suggestion of Dana, who raight be considered, since Griswold's retireraent, as the leader of the Federalists. The first appropriation was $50,000 ; but the bill would hardly have passed had the adminis tration or its supporters entertained the least idea of the expense which the survey would ultiraately involve. Dana also called attention to the recent prosecutions for libels coraraenced under Pierrepont Edwards's aus pices in the Federal Circuit Court of Connecticut. He wished that sorae provision raight be made securing to the defendants the right to give the truth in evidence. JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS. 64 5 Nothing, however, came of this raotipu ; npr, taking- it chapter for granted, as the Republican party had always main- XIX. tained, that the Federal courts had, no coramon law crim- 1807. inal jurisdiction, did there seem any occasion for Con gress to interfete. The death of Patterson having carised a vacancy on the bench of the Supreme Court, Brockholst Livingston had been appointed to fill it — an appointment not a lit tle mortifying to the Clintonians, who, in denouncing the Livingston or Lewisite party as little better than Fed eralists, had professed a very special zeal on behalf of the adriiinistration. An act of this session added a seventh judge to the Supreme bench of the United States, and created a seventh circuit, composed of the states of Ken tucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. This appointment was giv en to Thomas Todd, of Kentucky, one of the secreta ries of the Democratic Society at Lexington at the tirae Breckenridge had been president. The place of attorney general, vacant by the death of Breckenridge, was given to Csesar A. Rodney, who had acted for the government in the case of Bollraan and Swartwout, It was not, however, by doraestic affairs, interesting and exciting as they were at this moraent, that the pub Hc attention was entirely engrossed. On the represent ation of the president that the pending negotiation with Great Britain seeraed likely to result in a treaty, an act had passed very soon after Congress carae together (Dec, 19), suspending till the following July the operation of the act prohibiting the iraport of certain descriptions of British merchandise, remitting all penalties hitherto in curred, and authorizing the president to continue the sus pension, should he think proper, tiU -tjie meeting of the next Congress, 646 HISTORY OFTHE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER Of the progress of the negotiation with Spain the pres- ¦ ' ident was not able to furnish any satisfactory account, 1807, Though the project of buying the Floridas had not suc ceeded, yet the adrainistration had gone so far as to con sent, on the urgent recommendation of Bonaparte, again to receive as embassador from Spain that same Yrujo by whora they had been so publicly insulted a few months before, Turreau,- the French embassador, treated the American governraent much in the sarae "way, urging with a rude pertinacity the payitient of the claim of the heirs of Beaumarchais for the million livres which, on the settlement of his accounts, had been deducted as hav ing been put into his hands by Vergennes for the use of the United States and as a gift to them. The French government, which had taken up the patronage, and prob ably had obtained an assignment of this claim, strenu ously insisted that the million of livres given to Beau marchais had been employed by him in certain secret services, quite distinct frora the furnishing of railitary supplies, for which his claira — so Turreau insisted, and Rodney seemed to concur in it — was good td the extent of the supplies furnished. This, however, was but a trifle compared with certain new steps taken by France, February, information of which arrived during the session. The battle of Trafalgar, by striking a death-blow at the French and Spanish navies, bad-given the dominion of the ocean and the control of the trade of the world to Grea,t Britain. It was evident, from the recent decis ions of the English Courts of Adrairalty, restricting the rights of neutrals, that she meant to exercise that power to her own advantage, and to derive frora the supply of the Continent with produce from abroad new pecuniary means wherewith to prosecute the war. So long as the French Revolutionary government, and Bonaparte as its BERLIN DECREE. 647 successor, had been able to contend with Great Britain chapter for maritime ascendency, they had put themselves for- ^^' ward as the great charapicns and vindicators of the rights 1807. of neutrals and the freedom of trade. But seeing new np Pther way tp ccunteract Great Britain except by put ting an end tc the fpreign trade pf Europe, Bonaparte entered with all his natural proraptitude, and with the blind zeal of a military despot, upon that scheme of pol icy, to which he gave the name of the ContinentaPsys- tem. Having subdued Austria for the third time, and completely humbled her ; having dissolved the German Empire, and overturned the kingdom of Prussia at a single blow ; confident in his apparent omnipotence, he issued from the field of Jena (Nov. 21, 1806) the fa mous Berlin decree,^the iirst step in his new anti-com mercial career. On the aUeged ground of the tyranny established by England over the seas, and especially the abuse of de claring ports and coasts blockaded before which no ade quate force was stationed — this decree retaliated by de claring the British Islands in a state of blockade, and pro hibiting all commerce and intercourse with thera. No letters in the English language were to pass through the French post-offices. All trade in English merchandise was forbidden. All merchandise belonging to English men, or from England, was declared lawful prize. No vessels directly from England or the-English colonies, or which might have been there subsequent to the date of this deCree, were to be admitted into any French port. In its terms, this decree applied as much to neutrals as to Frenchmen, and threatened with seizure all Ameri can vessels, wherever bound, having British merchandise on board, or trading to or from the British Islands, Nor, in this respect, was the decree original, for the sarae pro- 648 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER visions had been contained in one of the decrees of the XIX _____ Directory issued during the year 1798. The Berlin 1807. decree, by one of its articles, was to be communicated to the kings of Spain, Naples, Holland, and Etruria (Tus cany), and to the allies of France generaUy ; and as the states named were but the humble vassals of Bonaparte, there was every reason to expect them speedily to adopt the sarae policy. When the news of this decree reached the United States, it produced the greatest alarra among the mer chants. The rates of insurance rose to a ruinous height, and almost a complete stop was put to coramercial enter prises. But this alarra was soon appeased by the pub- lica'fion in the National Intelligencer of a private letter of Arrastrong, the Araerican rainister at Paris, stating, in positive terras, that he had received written assurances frora the French minister of Marine that the decree would in no respect, so far as the United States were concerned, disturb the existing regulations of coraraerce as settled by the convention of 1800, But Arrastrong's Feb. 19. oflicial correspondence, which was presently laid before Congress by the president, by no raeans bore out this agreeable assurance, Champagny, the French minister of Marine, had indeed expressed his opinion that Araer ican vessels bound to or from British ports would not be liable to capture for that reason only. But as to the point of having British produce on board, embraced also in Arrastrong's inquiries, the reply was rauch less defi nite. Indeed, the rainister of Marine, though he ex pressed a general opinion that the decree was not in tended to contravene the Araerican treaty, referred Arm strong, as to the whole raatter, to the rainister of Foreign Affairs as the proper person to be consulted. The raer chants, however, were disposed to give to these assur- MEASURE'S OF DEFENSE. 649 ances the broadest latitude of interpretation ; and they re- chapter ceived with great satisfaction the additional information . XIX. communicated in the same raessage, that Moriroe and 1807, Pinkney had agreed in England on the terms of a treaty, arranging the late disputed points of neutral rights, and which only now waited td be reduced to forra. Still, as well after these coraraunications as before, tlie few Federalists in Congress — and several of the Demo cratic irepresentatives from comraercial parts of the Un ion concurred with them — were decidedly of opinion that, considering the very delicate and uncertain state of the foreign relations of the country, some preparations for defense at least were necessary. But to every proposal of this sort the special supporters of the administration were decidedly opposed, A bill from the Senate to in crease the regular army was lost in the House. A prop osition to put all the ships of the navy into commission, or, at least, so many of them as the president might deem expedient, failed in the same way. The House would go no further than to vote an increase cf five hundred seamen, without which it would be irapossible to relieve the frigate stationed in the Mediterranean. The presi dent reiterated his decided opinion as to the impolicy of making preparations for war in time of peace — a policy, he said, which had ruined half the nations of Eurdpe. All that he deemed necessary was an increase of gun boats ; and he asked an appropriation of $300,000 to build sixty, in addition to the sixty-nine already teora- pleted. A biU was accordingly brought in, appropriat ing for that purpose $250,000 ; also $20,000 for forti fications, aU that the Secretary of War asked for. The Federalists attacked this biU with much spirit. The absurdity of the proposed appropriation for fortifica tions was sufficiently obvious, since it would require two 650 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter or three millions to fortify New York alone, liable, at . present, to be insulted and plundered by any one or two 1807. ships of war, and, indeed, even by privateers. As for the gun-boats, they were good for nothing except on rivers and smooth water. They raight, perhaps, answer at the South, but would be wholly useless on the North ern coast. In the debate on this subject. Nelson, of Ma ryland, repeated a suggestion thrown out by Randolph during the preceding session, that; in case of war, it would probably be necessary to abandon the harbors and sea-coast, and td retire to the interior. Srailie declared that if there were no mode of defending the country ex cept by a fleet, so far as his vote was concerned it should go undefended ! It was only for the protection of trade that fleets became necessary, and sooner than build fleets for that purpose, he would give up all the trade of the country. In the sarae spirit, Logan introduced into the Senate a resolution for repealing the drawback of duties allowed on the exportation of iraported produce. As the carrying trade in foreign goods threatened to involve us with foreign nations, he thought it best to abandon it al together. The comraercial raembers contrasted, with no little bitterness, the parsimony of the administration in ex penditures for the security of coraraerce with the sums lavished for the purchase of Louisiana, and in obtaining cessions of land from the Indians for the convenience of the frontier inhabitants, and the readiness evinced to pay a still further indefinite araount to Spain for the purchase of the Floridas. At this very session sums had been ap propriated to carry into execution three Indian treaties negotiated in 1805 and 1806. The sum of $1100 in cash, and an annuity of $300, was voted to the Pianke shaws, in consideration of their relinquishment of a con- MEASURES OF DEFENSE. 651 siderable tract along the west bank of the Wabash. To chapter the Chickasaws $22,000 were voted, to be appropriated __f!f_ to the payment of their debts; and to the Cherokees 1807. $10,000, in fite annual payraents, besides the erection within their territory, and for their use, of a grist-mill, and a machine for the cleaning of cotton — compensation to these twp nations for their, relinquishment of their re spective titles to the lands, some small tracts excepted, hitherto occupied by them, north and east of the Ten nessee River. Notwithstanding a report from the president, in which he entered into a very elaborate defense of the gun-boats, the House cut down the appropriation under that head to $150,000 ; and they insisted upon voting as much more for fortifications, notwithstanding the fact, to which attention was called, that of a similar appropriation made at the preceding session, not a third part had been ex pended. The Senate went further, and struck out altogether the appropriation for guri-boats, in which, much to Jef ferson's mortification, the House acquiesced. A bill for continuing the additional two and a half per cent, duty, known as the Mediterranean Fund, but now diverted to the general purposes of the treasury, a favorite measure with the administration, came very near sharing the same fate. ^ Feeling very acutely the want of some competent per son as leader in the House, Jefferson wrote again to Wil- Feb. 38. son C. Nicholas, pressing him to offer as a candidate. " Never," he wrote, " did the call of patriotism more loudly assail you than at this moment. After except ing the Federalists, who will be twenty-seven, and the little band of schismatics, who will be three or four, all tongue^ the residue of the House of Representatives"^ 6 52 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter he seems here suddenly to pass back frorn the new to the XIX. . expiring Congress — " is as well disposed a body of men 1807, as I ever saw collected. But there is no one whose tal ents and standing taken together have weight enough to give him the lead. The consequence is, that there is no one who will undertake to do the public business, and it reraains undone. Were you-here, the whole would rally round you in an instant, and ¦vrillingly co-operate in what ever is for the public good," Since the complete preponderance of the Democratic party, there had been a great falling off in talent on both sides of the House, The Federalists being in a hopeless minority, a seat in Congress had lost, for their ablest men, a large part of its charms; while araong the Dem ocrats, the idea of Republican equality and rotation in of fice had brought forward many very inferior men. Con scious of their inferiority, these Democratic raembers were, in general, docile enough. Men who had regard ed Adams as Httle better than a traitor sold to the Brit ish, and to whom even Washington had been an object of watchful suspicion, as under the influence of very bad advice, looked up to Jefferson with the most implicit trust and undoubting confidence. They were exceed ingly " well disposed," as Jefferson expressed it ; but with such marplots about as John Randolph and the abler Federalists, a diligent and powerful watch-dog was much needed to keep the sheep from running astray. The hopes raised in the rainds of the mercantile com munity by the president's announcement of a treaty with Great Britain were destined, and by the president's own act, to be suddenly and raost disastrously dashed. 1806, Previous to Pinkney's arrival in England as joint commissioner. Fox had expressed to Monroe some sensi- bUity at the passage of the non-importation act, as placing NEGOTIATION AT LONDON. 653 him in the disagreeable position of seeming to treat un- chapter der compulsion ; to which Monroe, with a view of smooth- ing over the matter, had replied, that the bill had been 1806. introduced before' knowledge in America of the change of ministry in England, and that, upon receipt of that information, its features had been softened and its cora raenceraent postponed. About the time of Pinkney's arrival Fox had been taken sick, which caused a delay of several weeks in the commencement of the negotiation. His sickness contin uing. Lords Auckland and Howick (afterward Earl Grey) Aug. 2. were appointed to conduct the negotiation on the British side, Pinkney's appointment as joint commissioner had excited at first some jealousy in Monroe's raind, which Jefferson took pains to assuage. Pinkney pursued a judicious course, and, while he succeeded in obtaining a controlling influence over the negotiation, he preserved, also, unimpaired harmony with his coUeague. As the American commissioners were expressly in structed to make no treaty which did not secure Ameri can vessels on the high seas against the visitation of press-gangs, this naturally became the first topic, upon which several earnest, but friendly and candid discus sions took place between the comraissioners. Monroe and Pinkney had been instructed by Madison to contend, that the right of impressment existing by mere municipal law could not be exercised out of the jurisdiction of Great Britain.- The British comraissioners, on the other hand, produced the opinions of the chief law-officers to the effect that the king had a right, by his prerogative, to require, as against his maritime enemies, the personal services of aU his seafaring subjects, and the right also to seize such subjects by force for, that purpose every where and any where except within the territorial limits 654 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter of some other power ; and further, that the high seas XIX. . were extra-territorial, and that raerchant vessels navigat- 1806. ing thereon did not carry with them any such foreign jurisdiction as to protect British subjects sailing therein from this exercise of the king's prerogative. To give up this prerogative would render Araerican ships an asylum for British seamen anxious to evade their country's serv ice, and even for deserters from British ships of war, and raight, in the peculiar existing state of things, go far toward the overthrow df that naval power on which the safety of the state essentially depended. The Board of Adrairalty and the law-officers of the Adrairalty courts were unanimous as to the right of the crown, and the impolicy and danger of giving it up; and, under such circumstances,' so the British comraissioners stated, the rainistry could notgive it up, without taking a responsi bility such as no adrainistration would be wUling to as surae, however pressing the emergency. At the sarae tirae, a readiness was avowed to do any thing to satisfy the United States' short of a positive relinquishraent of the right to impress British seamen on the high seas ; and Monroe and Pinkney were called upon to point out any thing short of such relinquishment which would be satisfactory. But this the American comraissioners pro fessed their inability to do. They offered, indeed, by way of offset to the relinquish raent upon which they insisted that the aid of the local authorities in Araerica should be given toward the arrest and return of deserters from British ships, whether na tional or merchant vessels. But this was not thought satisfactory by the British commissioners, since little oould be hoped from such interference, even if exercised in good faith; the. popular feeling in both countries be ing in favor of shielding deserters, while their most like- QUESTION OF IMPRESSMENT. gSS ly places of refuge would be on board of Araerican ves- chapter XIX. sels, where, by the stipulation asked for, they would be . expressly protected. 1806. On the other hand, the British commissioners proposed that laws should be passed by both nations, making it penal on the one hand for British coramanders to im press Araerican citizens, and, on the other, for any offi cer of the Araerican governraent to grant certificates of American citizenship to British subjects. But this the Araerican commissioners declared to be inadmissible ; in deed, it raised the whole delicate and disputed question of the right of a subject or citizen to renounce the alle giance under which he had been born. In this state of the case, a very iraportant question presented itself to the Araerican coramissioners. Should they forego the present fair opportunity of settling so many other grave subjects of dispute, because, as to this one, they could not obtain all they were instructed to ask ? The British negotiators declared that although the ministry could not venture to give up, by formal treaty, the right of impressraent on the high seas, yet that special instructions should be given and enforced for the observance of the greatest caution against subjecting any American-born citizen to molestation or injury, and that, in case of any such injury, upon representation of it, the promptest redress should be afforded. These as surances they reduced to writing, suggesting, at the same Nov. 8 time, that while both parties thus reserved their rights, this stipulation might answer temporarily all the purposes of a treaty provision. The American comraissioners were, in fact, given to understand, though it was not so ex pressed in terras, that the intention of the British gov ernment was not to allow impressments from American vessels on the high seas except under extraordinary cir- 656 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. (¦HAPTER cumstances, as in the case of their havinar on board known XIX. . deserters from the British navy ; thus gradually and si- 1806, lently abandoning a practice of which the national preju dices and feeling did not adrait a specific renunciation. Having obtained every concession on the subject of irapressment short of a renunciation by the British gov ernment of the claim of right to take British subjects out of Araerican vessels — a claira going back to an indefinite antiquity, strongly supported by the national feeling, and thought, at the present crisis of European affairs, essen tial to the national safety — and having thus placed the United States, as to this question, on ground short, in deed, of their pretensions, and perhaps of their rights, but the best which, at present, there was the slightest pros pect of obtaining ; especially considering the total inabili ty of the United States to enforce by arms their claira to be exempt frora raaritirae visitation and search, and the total ruin which must ensue, frora war with Great Britain, of that raaritirae commerce which alone made this ques tion of impressments of any practical importance : — under these circurastances, iraitating the exaraple of Jay, and of the coraraission to France in 1799, Monroe and Pink ney did not deem it consistent either with common pru dence or common sense to relinquish the advantage thus secured, and, along with it, other advantages in prospect, and, from a too strict adherence to instructions, to leave the country, by breaking off the negotiation, exposed to vast maritime losses, to the continuance and aggravation of present misunderstandings, and to imminent risk of war. They accordingly resolved to proceed with the nego tiation, having first informed the British comraissioners that they did so on their own responsibility, and with full reserve to the government at horae of the privilege to ratify or not, as raight be deeraed proper. TREATY AGREED TO. 657 The stumbling-block of the impressment question thus chapter XIX. removed out of the way, the terms of a treaty for ten. years were soon agreed to, based principally on Jay's. 1806. By a sHght iraproveraent on the provisions of that treaty, the trade between the United States and the European possessions of Great Britain was placed on a basis of en tire reciprocity. On the subject of the East India trade the provision was less favorable than Jay's, Araerican vessels being Hmited in terras to the direct voyage to British India and back. No concessions could be ob tained as to the trade to the British West Indies. That stood as before, American vessels being excluded frora it. The questions of blockades and of contraband were ar ranged as in Jay's treaty, an express additional provision being inserted that no Araerican vessels were to be vis ited or seized within five miles of the Araerican coast. On the great point of the carrying trade, as to which the decisions of the British admiralty courts had caused so much excitement, the right was conceded, for the pres ent war, to transport in American vessels, to any bellig erent colony not blockaded by a British force, any Eu ropean goods except contraband of war, provided the same were American property, had previously been landed in the United States, and had paid a duty of at least one per cent, above the amount drawn back on re-exporta tion. In like raanner, all the produce of such colonies the property of American citizens, and not contraband of War, might be brought to the United States, and having been landed, and having paid a duty of at least two per cent, exclusive of drawback, might be exported in Amer ican vessels to any port of Europe net blockaded. The news of the issue of the Berlin decree arriving in England just as this, on the whple, very favprable treaty was ready for signature, occasioned some hesitation on V,— T T 658 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter the part of the British comraissioners. They wanted as- su ranees that the United States would not allow their 1806. trade with Great Britain and in British raerchandise to be interrupted and interfered with by France without 1807 ^^l^i^S measures to resent it. Finally, however, they Jan, 3. consented to sign ; but they presented, at the same tirae, a written protest against the Berlin decree, reserving to the British government the right, should that decree be actually carried into force as against neutrals, and be submitted to by them, to take such raeasures of retalia tion as raight be deeraed expedient. One raeasure of retaliation as against France and her allies was indeed taken, a few days after, by the issue of an order in council restraining neutrals frora the coasting trade between one hostile port to another, a coraraerce hitherto allowed, with sorae sHght exceptions. This, in deed, was but the extension to all the hostile ports of a principle previously applied to the line of coast from Brest to the Elbe, under a British order in council of May 16, 1806, issued in consequence of the occupation of Hanover by the Prussian armies. This was called an order of blockade, and was one of those relied upon by Bonaparte and his apologists as justifying the Berlin de cree. But, except as to the ports from the Seine to Os- tend, before which a marine force was stationed, this order went only to restrain neutrals frora trading from port to port along that coast ; and by a subsequent order of the 27 th of September, previous to the issue of the BerUn decree, even this restriction had been repealed as to the coast frora Ems to the Elbe, The same powerful reasons — conclusive to every mind not disturbed by passion or misled by delusive fancies which had induced the Araerican commissioners to com plete and sign this treaty, ought to have operated with REASONS FOR RATIFYING THE TREATY. 659 Jefferson in favor of its acceptance and ratification. The ch.4pter XIX. rautual relations of the two countries were very much . the same as at the tirae of Jay's treaty, and now, as then, 1807. the question of ratifying or rejecting was, in fact, a ques tion of peace or war. The arguraents, however, in fa vor of ratifying were far raore powerful than in the case of Jay's treaty. In giving to it his signature, the pres ident would not have been obHged to encounter any vio lent popular prejudice or popular clamor. The merchants would have been perfectly satisfied, the treaty having granted all they could have expected ; while the great body of the back-country Democrats, looking up to Jef ferson with a sort of idolatrous reverence, were ready to submit implicitly to his judgment, whatever it raight be. It had been a strong objection to Jay's treaty, at least in the minds of a large portion of the people, that it tend ed to infringe the rights of France ; that it was, in fact, a sacrifice of our only sympathetic ally, the great cham pion of liberty and republicanisra, at the shrine of the conspiracy of kings. No such objection could be urged to the present treaty. By the relinquishraent of a great mass of private claims for cruel and piratical spoliations, a release from the obligations, whatever they might be, of the French treaty of aUiance, had been purchased at a heavy price ; and the conduct of France as to that affair, and, more recently, as to the Spanish negotiation and the boundaries of Louisiana, had extinguished all claims she might ever have had on the national gratitude. The French republic, once the cbject, with raany Amer icans, of such devoted affection, no longer existed. Bo naparte was an emperor, and two of Ms brothers had late ly been made kings. He had even ceased to be a re publican eraperor, for he had lately surrounded his throne by a whole host of hereditary nobles. Nobody could any 660 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER longer pretend to see in him the charapion of liberty. XIX, . In fact, the tables were now cprapletely turned, the late 1807. kingly and aristocratic conspirators against the rights of raan now appearing as the charapions of national inde pendence against a terrible railitary adventurer who evi dently airaed at universal empire. Nor had Bonaparte any longer any claim to be regard ed as the charapion of neutral rights and of the freedora of the seas. The Berlin decree was a deadly blow at the very existence of neutral commerce, and, in fact, of international coraraerce of any kind. Notwithstanding the correspondence subraitted to Congress between Arra strong and Charapagny, the Araerican governraent al ready had inforraation of the capture, in the West India seas, of raany Araerican vessels, under the pretense of having British raerchandise on board ; and of the seiz ure in Europe of British merchandise belonging to Amer icans, under color of the Berlin decree, put under se questration, as it was called, to await the eraperor's final decision, to an araount so great as to leave, so Arra strong wrote, very little hope of its release. Such being the precarious condition of American coraraerce with Eu rope, the greater reason existed for preserving a good un derstanding with Great Britain, especially since in case of a breach France no longer possessed the power, strip ped as she was of her navy, to afford the United States the least direct assistance. Yet, in spite of all these powerful arguraents, and ap parently without giving them the least consideration, Jefferson and Madison — for it does not appear that any other raeraber of the cabinet was consulted — obstinately adhered to the sarae views which they had so zealously advocated at the tirae of Jay's treaty, Monroe's diplo matic ideas — thanks, probably, to his protracted resi- REJECTION OF THE TREATY. 661 dence in Europe — had greatiy expanded. But Jefferson chapter and Madison, obstinately adhering to their originafly nar- ' row and mistaken views, had, before the new treaty ar- 1807. rived in America, made up their minds that it should not be ratified, Iramediately on the receipt of informa tion from Monroe and Pinlmey of the disposition made of the question of impressment, and of their determina tion to go on with the treaty, Madison had dispatched Feb. 3. an official letter td inform them that it did not coraport with the president's ideas of the sentiraents of the na tion, popular or legislative, that any treaty should be en tered into with Great Britain in which the question of impressraent was not settled agreeably to their instruc tions ; and directing them, in case such a treaty had been concluded, at once to notify the British government that it could not be ratified, and to propose a recom mencement of the negotiation. Considering that Congress was at this time in session ; that in the raatter of treaties the Senate is the constitu tional adviser of the president ; and that, according to Jef ferson's doctrine, even the House had a right to be con sulted, it is not a little remarkable that, without any ref erence to either of those bodies, in fact, without any cabi net consultation, the president and his Secretary of State should thus have taken it upon theraselves to pronounce upon the legislative policy and public sentiment of the nation ; and in a case in which not commerce only, but peace itself, was at stake, should thus have made up their minds, upon the single question of impressraent, to reject the treaty, however it might be in other respects advantageous. This precipitate and most disastrous resolution, involv ing a high exertion of executive authority without par allel in our history, and which would have subjected any 662 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. cHAP'TER other president to the charge of monarchical usurpation. XIX, , was carried out in the same peremptory spirit in which 1807. it had been originally conceived. Within three days March 18. after the arrival of the treaty, the resolution not to ratify it was reiterated to the coraraissioners — a step placed, in another raore forraal letter two months afterward, upon the ground that the president's duty, and his sen sibility " to the sovereignty of the nation," would not al low him, even constructively, to recognize a principle which exposed the liberty of his seafaring fellow-citizens on the high seas to the interested, at least the capricious decision ofthe naval officers of a foreign governraent, not entitled by any law or usage to decide upon the owner ship of even the slightest article of property — a state ment of the case artfully adapted to touch the popular feeling by a display of great regard for the personal rights of Araerican citizens. To this view of the case Monroe afterward ably replied, that the rejected treaty did by no means require any such recognition, either actual or constructive, as had been assumed. The tacit understanding on the subject of irapressraents, entered into coteraporaneously with the treaty, was not intend ed to operate as a bar to future discussions having in view a positive and distinct arrangeraent ; on the con trary, by directly tending to a gradual abandonment of irapressraents frora Araerican vessels, it highly favored a definite arrangeraent such as the United States desired. The question of irapressraents having been placed on the best temporary basis that the conflicting sensibilities and prejudices of the two nations would admit, reserving to each its original claims in the fullest extent, with the right to push them by negotiation or by any other arbi trament, nothing, so Monroe conclusively argued, could justify the refusal to ratify, except a fixed determina- KEJ12CTI0N OF THE TREATY. g g 3 tion, in case the raatter were not speedily arranged by chapter XIX negotiation, to press it to a decision by arms. But any intention of appealing to arms Jefferson was 1807. far frora avowing or entertaining. Indeed, the very letter in which it had been first announced to the cora missioners that their conduct on the subject of impress ments was not satisfactory, and that the treaty would not be ratified, had also suggested that the negotiation might be made to terminate without any formal com pact, in a mutual understanding that the practice of the two nations, with a view to peace and good neigh borhood; should be made to conform to the stipulations agreed upon as the basis of the treaty. Thus the very terms which the president and his Secretary of State could not reconcile it to their duty — perhaps they raight raore correctly have said to their antipathies and their corarait- ments — to accept by formal stipulation, they were still anxious to secure by an informal understanding ! The Federalists had long regarded Jefferson with ha bitual and incurable distrust. They placed no raore con fidence in his word than the English Roundheads had been accustomed to do in that of Charles I. They re fused to believe, in spite of his protestations, that either he or his Secretary of State really wished any adjust ment with England, Hatred of England was the com raon bond of sympathy that held the discordant elements of the Democratic party together. Take away occasions of clamor against England, and what was there to keep up the spirit of the party ? They were, therefore, in clined to regard the rejection of the treaty as a deliber ate maneuver for cherishing popular, passions, and thus strengthening the party hold of the president and his destined successor on the masses; to which, in Madi son's case at least, there was an additional teraptation 664 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER in the favor and popularity, at least among the raerchants and the Federalists generally, which his rival, Monroe, 1807. would be certain to secure by the successful negotiation of a treaty with England, These raotives, unconsciously, perhaps, raight have had a certain degree of influence ; but a less uncharita ble view of the case is probably a juster one, Jefferson and Madison, especially the latter, as he had shown on raany former occasions, placed a great reliance on the compulsive efficacy, as against Great Britain, of com mercial regulations. They probably flattered themselves that it was the threat of the non-iraportation of British manufactures which had extorted frora the British gov ernment the concessions raade to Monroe and' Pinkney ; and they hoped — for a proclaraation had been issued, March, shortly after the adjournment of Congress, suspending the operation of the act till the following December — that the continued operation of the sarae threat would drive that governraent to an unconditional surrender. If such was their idea, they found theraselves raost egregiously raistaken. Before news arrived in England of the refusal to ratify the treaty, the Fox and Grenville adrainistration, the most favorable to America of any British ministry for twenty years before or after, had been superseded, on the death of Fox, by the adherents and disciples of the younger Pitt, under the leadership of Liverpool, Percival, Castlereagh, and Canning, It was to this new rainistry that the refusal to ratify, and the proposition to reopen the negotiation were corarau nicated, we shall presently see with what success. The ratification of Jay's treaty secured to the country thir teen years of peace and of unexampled comraercial pros perity. The rejection of the present treaty was followed — as if to deraonstrate, by melancholy facts, the supe- POLITICS OF NEW ENGLAND. 665 rior poHtical wisdom of Washington and Hamilton, and chapter XIX to fulfill to the letter the prophecies made at the tirae of " Jay's treaty, and reiterated on the present occasion — by 1807. four years of vexatious and ruinous coramercial restric tions, to which succeeded two years and a half of most disastrous and aimless war, ending in a near approach to national bankruptcy, and seriously threatening, had it not been unexpectedly brought to a close, the dismera- 1)erraent of the Union. Yet this high-handed and most undemocratic step of rejecting a treaty, involving raost seriously the industry and the peace of the country, without even so far con sulting the public or gratifying a natural curiosity as to let it be known what that treaty contained, did not in the least shake the implicit confidence which so large a portion of the people reposed in the president. Even in New England the admirers of Jefferson and his policy continued to gain ground, Connecticut stood firm for Federalism and steady habits ; but New Harap shire, since 1805, had fallen completely into the hands of the Deraocrats, Langdon, once a merchant, but whose large property had long since been vested in real estate, having been chosen governor in that year. Politics in Massachusetts ran very high. During the preceding year a rencounter bad taken place in Boston, on the pub Hc exchange, in which Selfridge, a Federal lawyer, had shot dead a young graduate of Harvard College, son of Benjamin Austin, a conspicuous leader ofthe Democrats, the young man having undertaken to give Selfridge a public chastisement for an alleged insult to his father, growing out of political antipathy. This event, exceed ingly novel in New England, produced a great excite ment. Selfridge was tried, but was acquitted as having acted in self-defense. Yet this " Federal murder," as 666 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER the Chronicle called it — the Boston Deraocratic organ, XIX. ' in which Austin was a principal writer — no doubt con- 1807. tributed to the triuraph of the Deraocrats at the follow- Aprii. jj^g spring election, which resulted in the choice of Sulli van as governor. In Pennsylvania the hopes of the Federalists had been soraewhat roused by the uprising of the Constitutional party, into whose hands they had contributed to put the power of the state, as against the ultra Deraocratic Friends of the People. But at the fall election of 1806, the Friends of the People had secured a raajority of one or two in both branches of the Legislature, including among the nuraber Leib, who had resigned his seat in Congress for the express purpose of putting hiraself at the head of his party in the Pennsylvania Assembly, A stormy session had ensued, new attempts being made by the ultra Democrats to simplify the practice of law by prohibiting the citation of English decisions in the Penn sylvania courts, and by some other innovations not ob jectionable, perhaps, indeed, desirable in themselves, but not urged with rauch teraper, judgraent, or knowledge. As M'Kean still continued to interpose his veto, thus de feating sorae favorite measures of the raajority, they re solved upon extrerae steps, A committee of the House was appointed to investigate the governor's official con duct, and preparations were made toward an impeach ment ; decisive action being referred, however, to the next Asserably, Meanwhile, in New York, the party struggle between the Lewisites and Clintonians raged with almost equal violence. The Clintonians, in the election of 1806, had succeeded in securing a decided raajority of the Demo cratic merabers of Assembly ; but the friends of Lewis, February, by the aid of the Federalists, had obtained the ascend- POLITICS OF NEW YORK. 667 ency in the Council of Appointment ; had turned out all chapter the Clintonian office-holders — De Witt Clinton hiraself from the lucrative place of mayor of New York ; and had 1807. divided the spoils with their Federal allies. But this appointment of FederaHsts to office had been held up as a great piece of political heresy ; and, at the election of the present year, the tables were corapletely turned. The real leaders of the Clintonians were De Witt Clinton, and his friend and now brother-in-law. Judge Spencer. But as the grand topic of assault upon Lewis was the over bearing influence of the Livingston faraily, it was judged expedient not to set up as against hira a candidate liable to similar objections. The Clintonians accordingly nom inated as their gubernatorial candidate Daniel D, Torap kins, a young lawyer of the city, distinguished for his affable raanners and pleasing address, who had been chosen a member of the ninth Congress, but, before tak ing his seat, had been appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of the State, Tompkins was elected by a major- May. ity of four thousand, a result, in part, brought about by a considerable number of votes of late Federalists, de spairing of that crushed and fallen party, and whose as sistance in electing Torapkins was received by the Clin tonians as satisfactory proof of their conversion to Repub licanism, The Federalists, indeed, atterapted to make a rally in the city of New York, where they nominated an Assembly ticket headed by Rufus King, They were beaten, however, an event which they ascribed, with much bitterness, to the predominating influence of those " imported patriots" Cheethara, Genet, who now again appeared on the political stage, and Thomas Addis Em mett, a recent immigrant from Ireland, where he had escaped a prosecution for treason by turning state's evi dence, and who attacked. King with great bitterness and 668 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter no inconsiderable degree of self-conceited gasconade, for XIX having, while rainister in England, endeavored to inter- 1807, pose some obstacles to his migration to America, It is exceedingly difficult for us at this day to comprehend the degree of influence exercised at that-time over American politics by a few immigrant foreigners. The complete ly successful Clintonians carried the state as 'well as the city, electing their governor, and a raajority in both branches of the Legislature, which gave thera, prospect ively, the Council of Appointment, with the whole con trol of the politics of the state. While these various affairs occupied attention, the eyes of the public were drawn to Richmond, where Burr, March 30. shortly after his arrival there from Mississippi, under a guard, on his way to Washington, had been examined and held to bail upon a charge of setting on foot, within the territories of the United States, a hostile expedition against the Spanish provinces. It had been decided by the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Swartwout and Bollman, that although, by the Federal Constitution, treason con sists only in levying war against the United States, yet that an overt act of levying war may be committed not only without the use of any actual force, but even with out the bodily presence of the party charged. The ar ray of an armed force — so the court had expressed their opinion — with intention to overthrow the authority or resist the laws of the United States, amounted to an overt act of levying war, of which all those were guilty who had any direct .connection with it, though not act ually present. Under this view of the law, an indictment for high treason was presently found against Burr by a grand jury for the District of Virginia, selected by the marshal TRIAL OF BURR. 669 from among the most eminent inhabitants. The levy- chapter ing of war relied upon was the coUection of armed men . XIX. at Blennerhasset's Island, within the Hmits of Virginia, 1807. of which it was proposed to prove that Burr, though not personally present, had been the cause and instigator, he having been concerned with Blennerhasset and others in the concoction of a scheme, in which these men were to co-operate, for overturning the authority of the Federal government in the Western country generally, or, at least, in the Territory of Orleans, The trial, and also the hearing of several prelirainary and interlocutory motions, took place before Chief-justice Marshall, who presided with great dignity, ability, and impartiality, holding the court in conjunction with Grif fin, the district judge. The prosecution was conducted by Rodney, the attorney general, assisted by District- attorney Hay, and by William Wirt, already holding a cpnspicuous position at the Virgiriia bar. The prisoner was defended by Edmund Randolph, formerly attorney general and secretary of state, Luther Martin, and other eminent counsel ; and every point, from the beginning to the end ofthe proceedings (whiph, owing partly to the absence of witnesses, were protracted through the entire sumraer), was contested with the greatest keenness, ve hemence, and even passion. The guilt or innocence of Burr, Hke every thing else in those times of excitement, had been made a party question, and was discussed with exceeding earnestness. The Federalists, by way of throwing odium and ridicule on the adrainistration, were inclined to make light of the whole affair of Burr's enterprise, and especially of the charge of treason, as a raere chimera of fear, fancy, ha tred, treachery, and revenge. The Democrats, on the other hand, seemed to regard the conviction of Burr as 670 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter necessary to the vindication of the steps taken by the ad- XIX, , ministration to defeat his enterprise ; and they charged 1807, the Federalists, to whom they were inclined to turn over Burr, as belonging to them rather than to the Demo cratic party, with being apologists for treason, and with seeking to screen Burr from the punishment due to his criraes. Jefferson had neither forgotten nor forgiven Burr's interposition between him and the presidential chair. He watched the progress of the trial with the greatest interest ; sent directions to the prosecuting offi cers ; nor did he hesitate, in his private correspondence, to throw out frequent insinuations against the conduct of the chief justice — insinuations re-echoed by raany of the Democratic papers, but wholly ungrounded. It was, indeed, the impartiality of the chief justice which made hira appear partial to these hot and one-sided partisans. An iraportant interlocutory decision allowed the issue, on the prisoner's motion, of a summons to the president to produce certain papers deeraed essential to the de fense. In the prosecutions growing out of the Miranda expedition, Jefferson had directed his secretaries not to obey the summons of the court to be present and to test ify on behalf of the prisoners. The present decision he seemed to consider as a direct personal insult to himself. Yet Marshall, whUe sustaining the prisoner's right to have the suraraons issued, had declared that the court would not allow such process to be used as a raeans of personal annoyance ; and had been very cautious about indicating any disposition to enforce obedience to the process any further than the president's own sense of justice, of what might be due to the prisoner on the one hand, and to the public on the other, might induce him to yield it. The trial on the raain question, which did not fairly TRIAL OF BURR. 671 commence before the beginning of August, occupied chapter nearly the whole of that rnonth. The greatest efforts of '__ Burr's counsel were directed to destroy the testiraony of 1807. Eaton and Wilkinson ; in the latter case by insinuations ^"S- 3. that Wilkinson was, in fact, an original confederate of Burr, who, having betrayed hira, to add greater weight to his treason had attempted to magnify his guilt. To give additional color to this charge, it was also insinu- , ated that Wilkinson had been a Spanish pensioner, en gaged of old in intrigues against the Union, The Fed eral newspapers eagerly caught up and repeated these calumnies ; and, being subsequently urged by John Ran dolph, and other bitter and persevering enemies of Wil kinson, they became matters of investigation by comrait tees of Congress and military courts. The honorable acquittals of Wilkinson pronounced by these tribunals, after a thorough sifting of the facts, seera well sustained by the evidence. Yet such charges, once made, are with great difficulty wholly silenced ; and these insinuations against Wilkinson still continue to float in the public mind, and to be rashly repeated to his injury by writers who know very little of the facts. An effort to break down Eaton by evidence as to his military conduct while stationed in Georgia, proved a total failure, rebounding with great force upon the heads of the witnesses by whom it was atterapted. The evidence being all in, the counsel were heard at length on the question of its sufficiency to lay the foun dation for a charge of treason, Marshall's opinion and the decision of the court was, that the prosecution had Aug. 31. failed in two essential points. It was not proved that there was any military array on Blennerhasset's island. Thirty or forty men had asserabled there, but it did not appear that there was more of military organization 672 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter amons; thera, or that more were armed, than was cus- XIX. toraary araong sirailar corapanies of boatraen and emi- 1807. grants. Nor, in the second place, even had a military array been proved, did it appear that Burr or Blenner hasset had any thing to do with the presence of these men on the island. They came, it appeared, from up the river ; but it did not appear that Burr had any agency in their enlistment or erabarkation. Under this charge Sept. 1. the jury returned a verdict of not guilty ; whereupon the indictments for treason which had been found against Blennerhasset, Dayton, Sraith of Ohio, Tyler, and Floyd, were abandoned. Sept. 9. A second trial followed, on a charge of setting on foot a railitary expedition against the Spanish territories ; but, as evidence was excluded of all acts with which Burr could not be directly connected, and which had not occurred in the District of Virginia, this also resulted in Sept, 15. a verdict of not guilty. A long exaraination was then gone into to show that Burr and Blennerhasset, one or both, might have com mitted treason by a military array with intent to levy war against the United States, at the island at the mouth of the Cumberland River, or lower down on the banks ofthe Mississippi ; or at least that they raight have been guilty of a raisderaeanor in setting on foot an expedition against the Spanish provinces ; and the court was re quested to commit them for trial in any district in which they might seem to have perpetrated either of these of- Oct. 20. fenses. Finally^ they were committed for trial in the District of Ohio upon the charge of setting on foot a mil itary expedition against the provinces of Spain, and they accordingly gave bail for their appearance, each in the sum of three thousand dollars. But they faUed to ap pear, their recognizances were forfeited, and no trial was SUBSEQUENT FORTUNES OF BURR. 673 ever had. The trial of Judge Wortman and of some oth- chapter ers, on similar charges, in the Territory of Orleans and, XIX. the State of Ohio, resulted in acquittals. Floyd, who 1807. was tried in the Indiana Territory, was found guilty of la misdemeanor. Withdrawing hiraself as speedily as possible frora pub lic observation. Burr presently embarked for Europe, hop ing to engage the English or some other European na tion in his project of revolutionizing Mexico, and wish ing also, no doubt, to escape the iramediate pressure of his creditors. But the sudden turn of Spanish affairs in consequence of the rising against Bonaparte proved fa tal to his hopes so far as England was concerned. He soon became an object of suspicion, probably as a French spy, and, under the alien la'w, was ordered out of the country. Thence he proceeded to France ; but Bona parte regarded hira as a British spy, and he was long de tained in Paris, at tiraes in the deepest poverty, support ed by some scanty remittances from America. Finally, after long solicitations, he obtained leave to return home just before the breaking out of the war with England. Arriving in New York, he found himself, in his old age, and still harassed by his creditors, obliged to resume the practice of the law for support. The death of his only daughter, lost at sea on a voyage from Charleston to meet him, left him without family ties. Yet, amid all this loneliness and embarrassment, his reraarkable equa nimity did not desert him ; and he lived twenty -four years longer, shrouding hiraself with that mystery and obscurity which he so much affected, and dying at last (1836), after surviving almost aU his cotemporaries, at the age of eighty — a remarkable example of the muta- bUity of political fortune. The public attention, at first quite absorbed by the v.— U u 674 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter proceedings against Burr, was soon diverted by two gross outrages upon the sovereignty of the United States— one 1807. of the first fruits of the rejection of the late proposed ar rangements with Great Britain ; and which served to make any future accommodation the more hopeless, as well by exasperating the feelings of the American people as by presenting to the British ministry and nation strik ing proofs of the helplessness of the American government. Among the vessels in company at the time of the un fortunate homicide of Peirce off the port of New York, and within the waters of the United States, by a can non shot from the British ship of war Leander — an act for which Whitby, captain of the Leander, had lately been tried and acquitted by a British naval court-mar tial — was the sloop of war Driver, which, along with the Leander, had been forbidden by the president's proclaraa tion, issued on that occasion, ever again to corae within the waters of -the United States. The Driver, however, in the course of the spring, put into Charleston to fill her water-casks ; and, though inforraed of the proclaraa tion, and requested by the authorities to depart, her com mander refused to do so until it suited his own conven ience. This, however, was nothing to what happened soon after. Congress having granted, as we have seen, five hund red additional seamen, steps had been taken toward fit ting out the Chesapeake to relieve the Constitution, then in the Mediterranean, and to carry dut Coraraodore Bar ron, again appointed to coraraand on that station. While the Chesapeake lay at Washington, fitting out for her cruise, there entered at the naval recruiting station at Norfolk three seamen, deserters frora the British frigate Melarapus, and four others, deserters frora the Halifax, vessels attached to a British squadron eraployed in the BRITISH NAVAL DESERTERS. 675 Chesapeake to watch and blockade certain French oruis- chapter ers which had taken refuge at AnnapoHs. XIX. An arrangement for the return of British deserters 1807. had been held out, it will be recollected, by the Ameri can comraissioners, during the late negotiation, as one inducement to the British to abandon the practice of ira pressraent on the high seas. Independently of such a special arrangeraent, there was no obligation to deliver up deserters, and in defect of any law on the subject, in fact, no authority to do so ; raore especially if these men were, what they always clairaed to be, American citizens who had been pressed into the British service. With regard to the deserters from the Melarapus, a forra al deraand had been raade for them by Erskine, a son of the celebrated lawyer of that name, lately appointed, through his father's interest with the Fox administra tion, minister to the United States as Merry's success or. The answer was in the terms of a former one to a April 7, sirailar application, that the Araerican governraent were under no obligation, and, in fact, possessed no power to surrender deserters ; that, however, so far frora counte nancing desertion, general orders had been given to the recruiting officers to enlist no British subjects known to be such ; and that it appeared, by an examination of the matter which Coraraodore Barron had been directed to make, that these particular men were, in fact, Ameri can citizens, who had, as they alleged, been pressed into the British service. All three were colored persons, and it was afterward sufficiently proved that two of thera were born in Maryland, the third being a South Ameri can by birth, brought at an early age to Massachusetts, where he had been educated. It was stated, however, by the captain of the American merchant ship to which they had belonged previous to entering on board the Me- 676 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter larapus, that, so far frora being irapressed, they had de- XIX. . sorted his vessel in the port of London, being suspected 1807, of a theft, and had enlisted voluntarily into the British service. With respect to the deserters from the Hali fax, the captain of that vessel having hiraself seen them on shore at Norfolk, had demanded- thera, through the British consul, of the recruiting officer and the authori ties of Norfolk, but without effect. After two months' preparation, the Chesapeake sailed from Washington, intending to complete her crew and equipments at Norfolk. On the passage down, three of the deserters from the Halifax deserted from the Chesa peake, leaving on board of those claimed as British de serters only Wilson or Ratford, an Englishman by birth, and the three colored men frora the Melarapus, The desertions frora the British Chesapeake squadron had produced a good deal of excitement among the Brit ish officers, some of whora coraplained of having been in sulted while on shore at Norfolk by deserters from their own ships. Encouraged, doubtless, by the news of the failure of the American negotiation and of the change of ministry in England, Admiral Berkeley, commanding on the North American station, had taken it upon hira self to issue a circular order, dated at Halifax the first of June, and addressed to all the captains and comraanders on his station. It recited that raany seamen, subjects of his Britannic majesty, and serving in his majesty's ships and vessels, as per margin (to wit, Belleisle, Bellona, Tri uraph, Chichester, Halifax, and Zenobia), had deserted those vessels, had enlisted on board the Araerican frigate Chesapeake, and had openly paraded the streets of Nor folk, in sight of their officers, under the American col ors, protected by the raagistrates of the town and the re cruiting officer, who refused to give thera up either on BRITISH NAVAL DESERTERS. 677 the demand of the commanders of the ships to which chapter they belonged or on that of the British consul. The. XIX. captains and commanders to whom this circular was ad- 1807. dressed were therefore directed, in case of meeting the frigate Chesapeake at sea, and without the limits of the United States, to show to her captain this order, and to require to search his ship for the deserters, and to pro ceed to search for them ; and if the captain of the Ches apeake should raake a sirailar deraand, to allow hira to search for deserters from the American service, " accord ing to the customs and usages of civilized nations on terms of peace and amity with each other," Here was a remarkable specimen of naval exposition pf the law pf nations, such, however, as are constantly occurring, especially in times of war, on the part of strong nations toward weak ones. The " custom and usage" referred to were a pure figment of Admiral Berkeley's imaginatipn. The British civilians, whatever raight be their doctrine as to merchant vessels, made no pretense of the existence of any right to visit foreign ships of war for the purpose of seizing British seamen, whether desert ers or others, A ship of war on the high seas was ad mitted to carry the national jurisdiction with it ; and, had the whole crew of the Chesapeake been British de serters, being on board that national ship, they were as much under the protection of the national flag as if in the streets of Baltiraore or Norfolk, The idea, however, of searching foreign ships of war for deserters was not original with Admiral Berkeley, Advocates for that practice had appeared in the columns of the British newspapers and on the floor of Parliaraent. Nor was the case of the Chesapeake the first in which it had been exercised. The instance off Havana, during the difficulties with France, in the time of John Adams, 678 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter already recorded in a previous chapter, had occasioned XIX. the issue of a standing order to all comraanders of Ameri- 1807. can ships of war never to allow their crews to be raus- tered except by their own officers. For that affair an apology had been made — more than seems to have hap pened in a more recent instance, in which one of the American gun-boats sent to the Mediterranean had been overhauled by one of the ships of Lord Collingwood's fleet off Cadiz, and robbed of three of her crew, under pretense that they were British subjects ; an outrage which does not appear to have been raade even a subject of remon strance. Having at last corapleted her armament and crew, the Chesapeake got under way frora Harapton Roads, and, wholly unconscious of danger, set sail on her intended voyage. For executing Berkeley's orders, as well as for the purposes of general surveillance, there lay in Lynn- haven Bay three British vessels, the Melarapus of thirty- eight guns, one of those frora which the desertions had taken place, the Leopard of fifty guns, and the Bellona seventy-four. The Leopard got under way at the same time with the Chesapeake, and stood out to sea a few- miles ahead of her, a proceeding in which there was noth ing to alarm, as the British ships were constantly chang ing their stations. When both vessels were sorae seven or eight miles outside the Capes of the Chesapeake, hav ing, as they proceeded to sea, approached each other, the captain of the Leopard hailed, and desired to send some dispatches on board. Nor was there in this any thing sus picious, as it was custoraary with the British ships of war to avail themselves of such opportunities for the safe transfer of letters to England, Barron accordingly brought the Chesapeake to ; the Leopard also came to ; and presently a boat was dispatched to the Chesapeake, AFFAIR OF THE CHESAPEAKE. 579 with a Heutenant and a note from Humphries, captain chapter of the Leopard, inclosing the above-quoted circular order ^' of Admiral Berkeley's. This note took Barron entirely 1807. by surprise. After half an hour's detention, the lieuten ant was sent back with a reply, denying any knowledge that any British deserters were on board the Chesapeake, and stating that the recruiting officer had been specially instructed to enlist none such. The note added that his orders did not permit him to allow his men to be mus tered by any body except their own officers. Engrossed as his attention had been by the prepara tion of his answer to so extraordinary a deraand, it does not seera yet to have occurred to Barron that there could be any intention to use force. But the officers of the ship, suspecting something wrong, had been busy in at tempting to clear the decks. Several hours, however, would have been needed to prepare the ship for action. Without the least thought of encountering an enemy, she had gone to sea in a very encumbered condition. Her men had never been exercised at the guns, and though she had been more than six months in fitting out, her equipments were found to be exceedingly imperfect. The Leopard lay in a very favorable position for her purpose, within pistol-shot of the Chesapeake's weather- quarter, with guns pointed and matches lighted. Hav ing dispatched his note, the idea that force might be used seems first to have struck Barron, and he ordered the raen to be silently called to quarters, and preparations for resistance to be hastened. As soon as Barron's note was received, the British captain hailed as follows: " Coraraodore Barron must be aware that the orders of the vice-admiral raust be obeyed." Barron replying that he did not understand, this was repeated several times. A shot then came from the Leopard's gun-deck 680 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter across the Chesapeake's bows ; after a minute, another ; and shortly after, a whole broadside, by which, besides 1807. other injuries, Barron, who was standing in the gang way, was slightly wounded. Barron then hailed the Leopard, proposing to send a boat on board ; but this was regarded by Humphries as a raere feint to gain tirae, and was therefore disregarded. Several raore broadsides were poured in, by which three of the Chesapeake's crew were kUled, and eight severely and ten badly wounded, besides considerable injuries to her masts and rigging, and twenty round shot in her hull. The officers had succeeded in getting the guns loaded and shotted, but there was a great deficiency of powder-horns for prim ing, no gunlocks, loggerheads, nor match could be found, and all this time, for want of proper fireworks, not a shot could be returned. Had the guns been once discharged, for want of cartridges, wads, and raramers, they could not have been reloaded. Just as the flag was lowered by Barron's order, a single gun was fired by means of a coal brought from the galley. Two British lieutenants and several midshipraen soon carae on board the Chesapeake, mustered her crew, and, after a three hours' examination, carried off the three deserters frora the Melarapus, and also Wilson or Rat ford, the deserter from the Halifax, who was found con cealed in the coal-hole. Pending these proceedings, Bar ron sent a note on board the Leopard, stating that he regarded the Chesapeake as her prize, and offering to de liver her up to any officer authorized to receive her ; to which Huraphries replied, that, having fulfilled his in structions, he desired nothing raore ; > offering, at the same time, every assistance, and expressing his regret that any lives should have been lost in the execution of a service which raight have been adjusted more amica- AFFAIR OF THE CHESAPEAKE. gSl bly, not only as regarded theraselves, but as between the chapter nations tc which they respectively belcnged. Indignantly rejecting this cffer ef assistance, her pffi- 1807. cers and crew in a state pf great bitterness, gloora, and mortification, the Chesapeake made the best of her way back to Norfolk. The four men taken from her were carried to Halifax, and were there tried by oourt-raar- tial, and sentenced to death as deserters. Ratford or WUson, who was proved or confessed himself to be a British subject, was hanged; The others, whose claim to be Americans could not be disproved, were reprieved on ccnditipu pf re-entering the British service ; not, how ever, without a grave lecture from Berkeley on the enor mity of their offense, and its tendency to provoke a war — one of thpse cases, surely, in which the judge and the culprits might well have changed places ! Np sppner was the return ef the Chesapeake known at Norfplk, and the eccasicn pf it, than a public meeting was held, at which resclutipus were adepted tp allow no further intercourse with British ships of war till the pres ident's pleasure should be known. To these resolutions. Captain Douglas, corarrianding the British squadron in the Chesapeake, made at first a very insolent and threat ening response. Apprehensions were entertained, from the tenor of his letter, that the British ships might at tempt to make their way up to Norfolk, pr might land at pther ppints, and supply themselves by fprce. Sp great was the alarm, that CabeU, gpverner pf Virginia, prdered detachments cf militia tp Norfolk and Hampton. But Douglas, in a second letter, soon lowered his tone. The news, as it spread, produced every, where the greatest excitement, the mortification of the insult being aggra vated by the Chesapeake's helpless non-resistance to it. A high degree of anger against Great Britain was kindled 682 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter in the popular raind, mingled, araong the more reflect- ing, especially those directly interested in commerce and 1807. navigation, with alarraing anticipations of a war fraught with mischief, destructive to coraraerce, and from which could be expected no possible good. July 2. The president issued a proclaraation complaining of the habitual insolence of the British cruisers ; express ing, however, the belief that the present outrage was un authorized ; but in the mean time ordering all British ish ships of war to quit the waters of the United States ; and in case they refused — for to corapel thera the gov ernraent, unfortunately, had no power — forbidding any intercourse with thera. The money voted at the last session of Congress for fortifications was expended at New York, Charleston, and New Orleans, as being the points most exposed. Most ofthe gun-boats in commis sion were ordered to the sarae points, and the president assuraed the responsibility of directing purchases of rail itary stores, of which the magazines had been suffered to becorae alraost entirely empty, and of timber for ad ditional gun-boats. A hundred thousand militia were ordered to be detached by the different, states, ready for service, but without pay ; and volunteers were invited to enroll theraselves. Congress was called together by proc lamation sorae weeks in anticipation of its usual tirae of raeeting. A court of inquiry was ordered into the conduct of Barron and his officers ; and finally a vessel was dispatched for England, with instructions to the Araerican ministers to demand reparation, and to sus pend all other negotiation until it was granted. Berkeley had sent frora Halifax a dispatch-boat, which carried to England the first news of this affair ; upon receipt of which. Canning, on behalf of the British rain- July 25. istry, expressly disavowed the act, and tendered repara- AFFAIR OF THE CHESAPEAKE. ggg tion for it. He also inforraed the American ministers chapter that orders had been sent out recalling Berkeley from ™^" his coraraand. 1807 Thus far every thing was proraising ; but the instruc tions sent from Washington placed serious obstacles in Sept. i. the way of a speedy settlement. Not only was restora tion demanded of the four men taken from the Chesa peake, which the British government was ready enough to grant (except as to the one who had been hanged), with other apologies and indemnity to the farailies ofthe killed, but it was atterapted to connect the reparation for this disavowed attack with the standing claims of the American government on the subject of impressments ; it being insisted that, by way of security for the future, the visitation of American vessels in search of British subjects should be totally relinquished. This demand gave the British government an advant age which they did not fail at once to seize. They com plained of it as an attempt to connect two entirely dis- Sept. 23. tinct subjects, the reparation of a disavowed outrage with the relinquishment of an unquestionable right of the British governraent. They also assumed, in their turn, the position of an injured party, complaining of the pres ident's proclamation ordering all British ships of war out of the American waters as in itself a retaliation, without first having deraanded reparation, as was required by one of the perpetual articles of Jay's treaty, and as going, therefore, to diminish the right of the American govern ment to voluntary reparation on the part of the British. As Jefferson, on his side, had determined to yield noth ing of what he considered the utmost rights of Araerica, so it becarae evident that the British government were resolved, on their side, to take advantage of every punc tilio — a game always sure to redound to the benefit of the stronger party. 684 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter So far from yielding to the reiterated demands of the XIX, . American government on the subject of irapressraents, a 1807. royal proclaraation was presently issued, calling upon all Oct. 17. British mariners employed in the service of foreign na tions, whether on board merchant vessels or in ships of war, forthwith to leave that service and to hasten to the aid of their native country menaced and endangered, and her maritirae rights, on which her greatness depended, called in question. All commanders of foreign ships of war were authorized, by the same proclamation, to seize and bring away from on board foreign merchant vessels all British. mariners ; but without any unnecessary vio lence. A deraand was also to be raade for all British raariners serving on board of foreign ships of war, and should such deraand be refused, notice of the refusal was to be given to the comraander-in-chief of the squadron to which the ship raight belong, tbe sarae to be transraitted to the British rainister resident with the nation whose flag was borne by the refusing ship, or to the British Admiralty, in order that measures for redress raight be taken. Oct. 19. Monroe objected to this proclamation that it seeraed to shut the door to negotiation on the subject of irapress raents ; to which Canning rejoined, that it was only a declaration of the existing law and practice necessary for the inforraation of the officers of the British navy, who might be at a loss, since the affair of the Chesapeake and its disavowal by the British government, to know by what rule to regulate their conduct. As the instructions sent to the American ministers at London made it irapossible for thera to bring the affair of the Chesapeake to a conclusion, the British ministry thought proper to send to America Mr. Rose, son of one of their number, for the sole purpose of arranging that ALARMING STATE OF BRITISH REL ATIONS. 6 8 5 affair, who was speedily followed by Monroe, Pinkney chapter being left behind as resident minister. Just previous to Monroe's departure. Canning made 1807. to the American comraissioners a forraal and final reply, °°*- ^^• on the part of the British government, to the proposal to renew negotiations for a treaty on the basis of that re turned unratified, and in which several alterations were proposed, particularly on the subject of irapressraents. He protested very energetically against the privilege sought to be assumed by the American government of revising and altering agreements concluded and signed on its behalf by its duly authorized agents, with a view to retain so much as might be favorable to itself, and to reject all the rest ; a practice which, if imitated by the other party, as it naturally would be, tended to protract negotiations indefinitely, and to render settlement hope less. He was ready to hear any suggestions which the Araerican ministers might have to make with a view to the settlement of existing differences. But the proposal to proceed to negotiate anew on the basis of a treaty al ready concluded and signed, and after that rejected by one of the parties, was wholly inadmissible. Thus fell to the ground all hopes of settling the ex isting difficulties with England by negotiation. From this moment the relations of the two countries took on a very angry and quarrelsome complexion. That suspi cion and hatred of England, so deeply ingrained into Jef ferson and his partisans, was fully retorted by suspicion and dislike on the part of the British Tory ministers and their supporters, whose prejudices were not less vehe raent and bitter ; to which was added a feeling of con tempt, naturally inspired by the unwarlike and defense less posture of a country so lofty in its tone and so punc tilious in its demands — for, practically, it is with nations 686 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. chapter as with individuals, a piece of ridiculous folly to insist XIX. ..strenuously on exact justice unless one has the means to 1807. enforce it. There was, besides, a large and influential party in England to whora, upon mere considerations of policy, the idea of a war with America was by no means disagreeable. The United States could add little to that formidable combination against which the British gov ernment had already to contend ; while their vast navi gation afloat on every sea proraised a rich and easy spoil. The Araerican market raight indeed be lost, or partly so ; but that loss, it was believed, would be more than made up for by the absorption of the vast American carrying trade, and the engrossment by Great Britain of the ocean commerce of the world. In the United States, the more intelligent part of the people, especially those immediately interested in com. merce, looked upon the state of affairs with no little alarm. With a navy of gun-boats, and militia for the principal military force, actual war did not seera very probable ; at least so long as the Jeffersonian influence predominated. What was rather to be expected was an indirect war of comraercial regulations, so far as com merce was concerned vastly more harassing than all the impediments placed in its way by Great Britain ; and which, by keeping up and increasing irritation, seemed certain, however those in authority might think and wish otherwise, to end at last in armed collision. END OF VOL. H. YALE UNIVERSITY a39002 003576197b It iS' th'' ^Yfi * I .f ¦ s-j'.- 'I', w •(•' I } ;.i !*1 ^ I ' ir»i f'li.Hi "vt I.' 1 4 [^J,'.).'. ?'W|*%'"4 lT*?y '' '^ Sr i^f'*' ** i "jv"^'^ ¦" ^?|; l^sPm'''''^ ^St* HnP -< W ' it, -:.' I ^I'l'jSrf'f'* « i !l.t !< (. ,>4fj *" 'if*jta - ' 'j)i-ttj,« fi^T^jV, /iu7v, T , t » .^, ,•5- i-i-r -*, milium rt-i w 5 ?" ,. 4. -^ r^^f* "v ..x^^iT^'