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diff --git a/22461.txt b/22461.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84b314c --- /dev/null +++ b/22461.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10784 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Union and Democracy, by Allen Johnson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Union and Democracy + + +Author: Allen Johnson + + + +Release Date: August 30, 2007 [eBook #22461] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNION AND DEMOCRACY*** + + +E-text prepared by G. Edward Johnson, Stacy Brown, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 22461-h.htm or 22461-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/4/6/22461/22461-h/22461-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/4/6/22461/22461-h.zip) + + + + + +UNION AND DEMOCRACY + +by + +ALLEN JOHNSON + +Professor of American History +Yale University + + + + + + + +[Illustration: From the original portrait by Stuart, at Bowdoin College. + +Th. Jefferson [Handwritten]] + + + +[Illustration] + + + +Houghton Mifflin Company +Boston New York Chicago + +The Riverside Press Cambridge + +Copyright, 1915, by Allen Johnson +All Rights Reserved + +The Riverside Press +Cambridge, Massachusetts +U. S. A. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The title of this volume must be regarded as suggestive rather than as +strictly accurate, for the beginnings of union are to be found farther +back than 1783, and democracy in its largest sense has even yet been +only imperfectly realized. At the close of the Revolution, union was but +a name. What Metternich said of the Italy of his day might have been +said of the United States in 1783: it was only a geographical +expression. The formation of the new federal union under the +Constitution is properly the main, though not the sole, theme of this +volume. Behind the thirteen Atlantic communities lay a vast region which +almost at once invited the colonizing activities of the people. The rise +of this western world is a movement of immense significance. Out of the +bosom of the West emerged the new democracy which transformed the face +of society in the old States. Whether viewed economically or +politically, this forms the second theme in any history of the times. +Around these two movements, therefore, I have endeavored to group the +events of forty-five years. + +Within the last few years special studies have added much to the common +stock of historical information, and in many ways effected changes in +the historian's point of view. The time seemed proper to restate the +salient factors in the history of this formative period. I have frankly +appropriated the labors of others. Had the plan of the series permitted +the use of footnotes, I would gladly have made particular acknowledgment +of my indebtedness. At the same time I have not hesitated to present the +results of my own studies where they have led away from the conventional +view of men and events. + +In preparation of the maps showing the popular vote in the elections of +1800 and 1824, I have drawn largely upon the data which Dr. Charles O. +Paullin, of the Carnegie Institution, has generously put at my disposal. +In States where the presidential electors were not chosen directly by +the voters, other votes, such as those for governor, have been made the +basis for determining the popular choice among party candidates for the +presidency. Two of my graduate students, Miss Isabel S. Mitchell and Mr. +Joseph E. Howe, have given me valuable assistance in the execution of +the maps. I am under particular obligation to my colleague, Professor +Stewart L. Mims, for reading critically both manuscript and proof. + + Allen Johnson. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. The Ordeal of the Confederation 1 + + II. The Making of the Constitution 25 + + III. The Restoration of Public Credit 46 + + IV. The Testing of the New Government 68 + + V. Anglomen and Jacobins 89 + + VI. The Revolution of 1800 105 + + VII. Jeffersonian Reforms 123 + + VIII. The Purchase of the Province of Louisiana 143 + + IX. Faction and Conspiracy 161 + + X. Peaceable Coercion 179 + + XI. The Approach of War 197 + + XII. The War of 1812 212 + + XIII. The Results of the War 231 + + XIV. The Westward Movement 245 + + XV. Hard Times 266 + + XVI. The National Awakening 282 + + XVII. The New Democracy 298 + +XVIII. Politics and State Rights 318 + + XIX. The Rise of National Sovereignty 331 + + Index i + + + + +MAPS AND CHARTS + + +The United States in 1783 _facing_ 1 + +State-making in the West, 1783-87 9 + +Distribution of Votes in Ratification of The Constitution: + The New England States 37 + The Middle States 39 + The Southern States 42 + +Distribution of Population, 1790 49 + +Vote on Assumption 59 + +The Northwest, 1785-95 71 + +Vote on the Repeal of the Alien and Sedition + Acts, February 25, 1799 _between_ 112 _and_ 113 + +Presidential Election of 1800 _between_ 116 _and_ 117 + +Distribution of Population, 1800 125 + +Vote on the Repeal of the Judiciary Act, March 2, 1802 + _between_ 134 _and_ 135 + +The Yazoo-Georgia Land Controversy 168 + +The Tonnage of the United States, 1807 185 + +Vote on the Embargo, December 21, 1807 + _between_ 190 _and_ 191 + +Vote on the Declaration of War, June 4, 1812 + _between_ 208 _and_ 209 + +Land Sales and Land Offices To 1821 248 + +The Cotton Crop in the United States, 1801-34 250 + +The West As an Economic Section in 1820 253 + +Treaty With Spain, 1819 263 + +Distribution of Slaves in 1820 270 + +Vote on the Missouri Compromise, March 2, 1820 278 + +Russian Claims in North America 293 + +Distribution of Population, 1820 299 + +States Admitted To the Union Between 1812 and 1821 306 + +Vote on the Tariff Bill, April 16, 1824 + _between_ 310 _and_ 311 + +Presidential Election of 1824 _between_ 314 _and_ 315 + +Vote on the Tariff Bill, April 22, 1828 + _between_ 328 _and_ 329 + +Canals in the United States About 1825 341 + +Highways of the United States About 1825 344 + + + + +UNION AND DEMOCRACY + + + + +[Map: The United States in 1783] + + + + +UNION AND DEMOCRACY + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ORDEAL OF THE CONFEDERATION + + +It was characteristic of the people of the United States that once +assured of their political independence they should face their economic +future with buoyant expectations. As colonizers of a new world they were +confident in their own strength. When once the shackles of the British +mercantile system were shaken off, they did not doubt their ability to +compete for the markets of the world. Even Washington, who had fewer +illusions than most of his contemporaries, told his fellow citizens of +America that they were "placed in the most enviable condition, as sole +lords and proprietors of a vast tract of continent, comprehending all +the various soils and climates of the world, and abounding with all the +necessaries and conveniences of life." Independence was the magic word +which the common man believed would open wide the gates of prosperity. +Yet within a year after the ratification of the Peace of Paris, American +society was in the throes of a severe industrial depression. + +Contrary to the accepted view, the latter years of the war were not +years of penury and want among the people. Outside of those regions of +Virginia and the Carolinas, which were devastated by the marching and +countermarching of the combatants, the people were living in comparative +comfort. North of the Potomac, indeed, there was even a tendency to +speculation in business and extravagance in living. Throughout the war +farmers had found a ready market for their produce within the lines of +the British and French armies. The temporary suspension of commerce had +encouraged many forms of productive industry. As the war continued, +venturesome skippers eluded British men-of-war and found their way to +European or Dutch West India ports, bringing home rich cargoes in +exchange for tobacco, flour, and rice. The prizes brought in by +privateers added largely to the stock of desirable and attractive +merchandise in the shops of Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston. If +such prosperity could follow in the wake of war, what commercial gains +might not be expected in the piping times of peace? In anticipation of +immediate returns, merchants drew heavily upon their foreign creditors +and stocked their shops with imported commodities. Southern planters +indulged similar expectations and bought land and slaves on credit, +regardless of the price. "A rage for running in debt became epidemical," +wrote a contemporary observer. "Individuals were for getting rich by a +_coup de main_; a good bargain--a happy speculation--was almost every +man's object and pursuit." + +During the hard times of 1785-86 these golden dreams vanished. Instead +of sharing as the people of an independent nation in the trade and +commerce of the world, American shippers found themselves no better off +than they were as dependents of Great Britain. Orders in council at once +closed the ports of the British West Indies to all staple products which +were not carried in British bottoms. Certain commodities,--fish, pork, +and beef,--which might compete with the products of British +dependencies, were excluded altogether. The policy of France and Spain +was scarcely less illiberal. The effect was immediate. Cut off from +their natural markets, American shipowners were forced either to leave +their vessels to rot at their wharves or to seek new markets. For months +there seemed to be no other alternative. At the same time the new +industries which had sprung up during the war had to meet the shock of +foreign competition, as the British manufacturer dumped on American +wharves the accumulated stock of his warehouses. The plight of the small +farmer and of the large planter was much the same; for both had incurred +debts in expectation of continued prosperity. + +Everywhere people complained of hard times. Discouragement and ill-humor +displaced the buoyant optimism with which peace had been heralded. "What +is independence?" asked a writer in _A Shorter Catechism_. "Dependence +upon nothing" was the cynical answer. In many States the popular +discontent found vent in a vindictive crusade against the Tories. Even +sober-minded citizens shared the general detestation of these +unfortunate people. In the heat of war Washington had declared them to +be "abominable pests of society" who ought to be hanged as traitors. +The States had quite generally confiscated their property and in some +cases had passed acts of attainder against them. In communities like New +York, which had long remained in the hands of the British, the popular +animosity was exceedingly bitter. To aid those citizens who had been +dispossessed of their estates, the legislature passed the Trespass Act, +which permitted suits for the recovery of property that had passed into +the hands of the enemy upon the flight of the owners. The terms of the +act were in flat contradiction to the treaty of peace. Further to aid +claimants, it was provided that no military order could be pleaded in +court in justification of the seizure of property. + +In a famous case brought before the Mayor's Court of New York by the +widow Rutgers to recover her property from Joshua Waddington, a wealthy +Tory, Alexander Hamilton appeared as counsel for the defendant. It was a +daring act which brought down upon him the unmitigated wrath of the +radical elements. Nevertheless, in an opinion which has considerable +interest for students of constitutional law, the court ruled that the +Trespass Act, "by a reasonable interpretation," must be construed in +harmony with the treaty of peace, which was obligatory upon every State. +It was not to be presumed that the legislature would intentionally +violate the law of nations. The judgment of the court therefore, was in +favor of the defendant. With chagrin and resentment the popular party +declared that the court had set aside a law of the State and had +presumed to set itself above the legislature. Wherever the radicals got +the upper hand, confiscation was the order of the day; and even where +the conservatives succeeded in restraining their radical brethren from +legislative reprisals, no Tory was safe from the assaults of +irresponsible mobs. Thousands took refuge in flight, to the infinite +delight of the wits in the coffee-houses who jested of the "Independence +Fever" which was carrying off so many worthy people. + +Financially the Confederation was hopelessly embarrassed. Having sowed +the wind by its issues of bills of credit, it was now reaping the +whirlwind. By the end of the war this paper money had so far depreciated +that it ceased to pass as currency. "Not worth a continental" has passed +into our native idiom. Without power to levy taxes, Congress could only +make requisitions upon the States. The returns were pitifully inadequate +to the needs of government. All told, less than a million and a half of +dollars came into the treasury between 1781 and 1784, although Morris, +as Superintendent of Finance, had earnestly besought the governors of +the States for two millions for the year 1783 alone, in order to meet +outstanding obligations and current expenses. Without foreign and +domestic loans the war could never have been carried to a successful +conclusion; but in 1783 even that source was drained. In sheer +desperation Congress authorized the Superintendent of Finance to draw +bills of exchange, at his discretion, upon the credit of loans _which +were to be procured_ in Europe. In vain Morris warned Congress that no +more loans could be secured. "Our public credit is gone," he declared. + +The obvious remedy for the financial ills of the Confederation was to +give Congress the power to levy taxes. Early in 1781, indeed, before the +Articles of Confederation had been ratified by Maryland, the proposal +had been made that Congress should be vested with power to levy a five +per cent duty on imports; but the obstinate opposition of Rhode Island +effectually blocked the amendment. "She considered it the most precious +jewel of sovereignty that no State be called upon to open its purse but +by the authority of the State and by her own officers." Again, in 1783, +Congress submitted to the States an amendment which would confer upon it +the power to place specific duties for a term of twenty-five years upon +certain classes of imported commodities. The tardy response of the +States to this proposal left little hope that it would be adopted. + +In fact, the Confederation and its woes hardly occupied the thoughts of +the people at all, except as a subject for jest and ridicule. The +newspapers made merry over the peregrinations of Congress. Frightened +away from Philadelphia by the riotous conduct of some troops of the +Pennsylvania line, who had imbibed too freely, the delegates had +withdrawn first to Princeton and then to Annapolis. Thither Washington +repaired to resign his commission; but even so notable an occasion as +this brought together delegates from only seven of the States. The best +talent in America was drafted into the service of the several States. +Men had ceased to think continentally. "A selfish habitude of thinking +and reasoning," wrote one who styled himself Yorick, in the _New York +Packet_, "leads us into a fatal error the moment we begin to talk of the +interests of America. The fact is, by the interests of America we mean +only the interests of that State to which property or accident has +attached us." "Of the affairs of Georgia," Madison confessed in 1786, "I +know as little as those of Kamskatska." + +On all sides intelligent men agreed that the return of prosperity +depended upon the opening-up of foreign trade. Their immediate concern +was the recovery of old markets. When John Adams went to London in 1785 +as the first representative of the United States, he bent all his +energies to the task of securing a commercial treaty which would provide +for unrestricted intercourse between the countries. It was an impossible +task. At every turn he encountered the hostility of the mercantile +classes, of whom Lord Sheffield was the most conspicuous representative. +"What have you to give us in exchange for this and that?" "What have you +to give us as reciprocity for the benefit of going to our islands?" +"What assurance can you give that the States will agree to a treaty?" +These were the embarrassing questions which Adams had to encounter. +Baffled by the cool indifference of the English Ministry, Adams wrote +home in despair that there was not the slightest prospect of relief for +American commerce unless the States would confer the power of passing +navigation laws upon Congress or themselves pass retaliatory acts +against Great Britain. + +Congress had, indeed, already urged upon the States the necessity of +yielding the power to enact navigation laws; but they had replied with +such deliberation and with so many conditions that Congress was as +powerless as ever. Meantime, each State struck blindly at the common +enemy with little or no regard for its neighbors. "The States are every +day giving proofs," wrote Madison, "that separate regulations are more +likely to set them by the ears than to attain the common object." When +the other New England States closed their ports to British shipping, +Connecticut hastened to profit at their expense by throwing her ports +wide open. New Jersey, with New York on one side and Pennsylvania on the +other, was likened to a cask tapped at both ends. To find a historical +parallel to the annals of this period, one must go back to the +bickerings and jealousies of the states of ancient Greece. + +In this dark picture, however, there are cheering rays of light. One by +one the States were redeeming their promises and ceding their western +lands. It seemed as though the Confederation, hitherto a disembodied +spirit, was about to tenant a body. By the year 1786 the United States +were in joint possession of the greater part of the vast region between +the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Great Lakes--a domain of imperial +dimensions. In anticipation of these cessions, Congress took under +consideration an ordinance reported by a committee of which Thomas +Jefferson was chairman. This ordinance contemplated the division of the +land north of the thirty-first parallel into fourteen or sixteen States. +The settlers in these rectangular areas were not to form state +governments at once, but for their temporary government were to borrow +such constitutions as they thought best from the older States. When a +State had twenty thousand inhabitants, it might frame a permanent +constitution and send a delegate to Congress. Admission to the Union was +to be granted only when a State had as many free inhabitants as "the +least numerous of the thirteen original States." Two features of +Jefferson's report do not appear in the Ordinance of 1784; the fantastic +names which Jefferson had selected and the fifth of the fundamental +conditions which were to be a charter of compact between the old States +and the new. It is perhaps no misfortune that the names Assenisipia, +Polypotamia, Pelisipia, do not appear on the map; the article +prohibiting slavery after the year 1800 might well have been retained. + +[Map: State-Making In the West 1783-1787] + +More important than the Ordinance of 1784, which indeed is interesting +chiefly because it was the forerunner of the final ordinance for the +Northwest Territory, is that adopted by Congress in the following year. +The so-called Land Ordinance of 1785 provided in general for the survey +of a series of townships six miles square in the region immediately west +of Pennsylvania, and for the further division of each township into +thirty-six lots, or, as they were later styled, "sections," one mile +square. After satisfying the claims of the soldiers of the Continental +Army, Congress proposed to distribute these lands among the States, to +be sold at auction for a minimum price of one dollar an acre, reserving +certain sections in each township and one third of the mineral ore which +might be found. The sixteenth section in each township was to be set +aside for the support of education. Each purchaser was to receive with +his deed a definite description of his holding. Subsequent amendments to +the Land Ordinance made the terms of purchase somewhat easier. Instead +of making an out-and-out purchase, prospective settlers might pay one +third in cash and receive a credit of three months for the balance of +the purchase price. Yet even with these inducements only seventy-three +thousand acres had been sold to individuals down to 1788. The hazards of +western settlement were still too great. + +Disappointed in the sales under the Land Ordinance, Congress was +persuaded to consider the alternative course of selling large tracts to +companies. The collapse of national credit left the public domain almost +the only available source of revenue. Early in 1787 the Ohio Company +offered to purchase a tract of land between the Ohio and Muskingum +Rivers. The promoters of this company had been interested in an earlier +project of army officers for the founding of a military colony beyond +the Ohio. Organized at Boston in March, 1786, with a nominal capital of +one million dollars, it had within a year raised one fourth of that +amount and sent first General Samuel Parsons and then the Reverend +Manasseh Cutler to secure the desired grant from Congress. The labors of +this astute divine at the seat of government form an interesting chapter +in the evolution of American legislative methods. By devices well known +to the modern lobbyist he not only secured the grant of land, but also +took a hand in the shaping of a new ordinance for the Northwest +Territory. In order to secure the grant to his associates, he had to +resort to log-rolling and agree to procure for a group of land +speculators an option to lands on the Scioto River. The grant to the +Ohio Company contained a million and a half acres; that to the Scioto +Company, five million acres. But while the one paid down half a million +dollars, the other made no payment, expecting to dispose of their +"rights" before the first payment was due. In the following year a third +grant of a million acres on the Great and Little Miami Rivers in Ohio +was made to John Cleve Symmes. + +From these sales Congress expected to realize over three and a half +million dollars in public securities and at the same time to satisfy +military bounty warrants amounting to about eight hundred thousand +acres. The actual amount realized was less than six hundred thousand +dollars. The Scioto Company succeeded in disposing of rights to about +three million acres to a company organized in France, which in turn +sold them to unsuspecting royalist emigrants. Neither company ever +secured a clear title to these lands, and Congress had eventually to +come to the relief of the unhappy French settlers with a donation of +twenty-four thousand acres. Unforeseen circumstances prevented either +the Ohio Company or Symmes from complying with the conditions of sale; +and in both cases Congress consented to alter the terms of contract. + +On July 13, 1787, Congress adopted the ordinance which it had long had +under consideration. The authorship of this "charter of the west," after +long controversy, is still in dispute. Like all legislative measures it +bears the mark of many hands. Certain features of Jefferson's ordinance +reappear: the provision for temporary government and eventual statehood, +and the fundamental articles of compact. Other provisions are stated in +a detailed fashion and suggest the probability that Congress had +definite conditions to meet. The ordinance took final form while the +Reverend Manasseh Cutler was representing the Ohio Company in New York. +Perhaps the most striking departure from the Ordinance of 1784 is the +provision for not less than three nor more than five States north of the +Ohio, where Jefferson planned for ten. Admission to the Union was to be +gained only after the population had reached sixty thousand. Temporary +government was to consist of a governor, a secretary, and three judges +appointed by Congress, who were to adopt such laws from other States as +they believed suited to local conditions. In each and every case +Congress reserved the right to disallow these laws. Whenever a territory +attained a population of five thousand, it was to pass to the second +grade of government, with a representative assembly, an appointive +council, and a delegate in Congress. + +Six articles of compact were also written into the ordinance, which were +to remain forever unalterable except by the common consent of the +parties thereto--"the original States and the people and States in the +said territory." Freedom of worship, the usual rights of person and +property, and the obligation of private contracts were guaranteed. +Religion, morality, and education were to be forever encouraged. Neither +slavery nor involuntary servitude was to be permitted. In imposing these +conditions Congress undoubtedly exceeded its powers under the Articles +of Confederation, for that document nowhere confers upon Congress the +power to make binding contracts, nor for that matter to legislate in any +wise for the government of the common domain. + +The Ohio Company hastened to colonize its broad acres on the Muskingum. +Before the end of the year 1787, the vanguard of the first colony was on +the march through Pennsylvania to the upper waters of the Ohio. There +they spent the winter constructing the craft which was to carry them to +their destination. As soon as the ice broke up in the spring, they +embarked on the Mayflower,--for so they had christened the craft,--and +within five days set foot on the soil of Ohio. Other bands joined them, +and by midsummer their rude huts and a blockhouse marked the site of +what was to be the town of Marietta, the first New England settlement +in the West. Across the Muskingum, at Fort Harmar, the new governor, +General St. Clair, had already taken up his official residence. Farther +down the river, Symmes planted a colony from New Jersey on the tract +which he had purchased; and within the next few years settlements were +made in the adjoining district, which Virginia had reserved as bounty +land for her soldiers. The vision of virgin lands in the Ohio country +was beginning to dawn upon the small farmer of the East. Emigration grew +apace. Between February and June, 1788, an observer noted not less than +forty-five hundred settlers drifting past Fort Harmar in their +flatboats, in search of new homes in the wilderness. + +While the colonization of the Northwest was going on under the eye of +Governor St. Clair, hardy pioneers were laying the foundations of a new +society in the Southwest, without the protecting arm of the Government. +Before the war Daniel Boone had made his famous trace to "the country of +Kentucke" through the Cumberland Gap; and Robertson had led his colony +from North Carolina to the upper waters of the Tennessee. Settlers had +followed the long-rangers; and numerous communities sprang up by salt +lick and water course. In all these settlements there was much local +independence. For a time the people on the Watauga had established a +government of their own. Upon the cession by North Carolina of her +western lands, the settlers of eastern Tennessee took matters into their +own hands and prepared to organize as a State. Congress had just adopted +the Ordinance of 1784, and one of Jefferson's prospective States +included most of the land already appropriated by these pioneers. They +nourished, too, long-standing grievances. They were taxed for the +support of a government which treated them with contumely and ignored +their administrative needs. The movement toward independence acquired +such headway that not even the repeal of the act of cession by North +Carolina could stay its course. With a confidence born of frontier +conditions these "modern Franks, the hardy mountain men," as a +contemporary called them, drafted a constitution, organized a +government, and appealed to Congress for recognition as a State of the +Confederation. For three years the State of Franklin, as it was +officially christened, under the able leadership of Governor John +Sovier, refused to recognize the authority of North Carolina, even to +the point of resisting the militia by arms. But Congress turned a deaf +ear to the petitions of the insurgents; and in the year 1788, diplomacy +succeeding where coercion had failed, the people of Franklin returned to +their first allegiance. + +Much the same centrifugal forces were at work in northwestern Virginia +and western Pennsylvania, a region which felt its isolation keenly. +"Separated by a vast, extensive and almost impassible Tract of +Mountains, by Nature itself formed and pointed out as a Boundary between +this Country and those below it," the settlers of this trans-Alleghany +region besought Congress to recognize them as a "sister colony and +fourteenth province of the American Confederacy." + +More menacing to the integrity of Virginia was a movement for +independent statehood among the people of Kentucky. Rivers were the +highways of their commerce and the current of all bore their flatboats +away from the parent State. New Orleans was their inevitable _entrepot_. +The forces of nature seemed to conspire to throw these western +settlements into the hands of Spain. Washington was deeply impressed by +the necessity of connecting the headwaters of the James and the Potomac +with the tributaries of the Ohio, if the trade and allegiance of the +people of Kentucky were to be secured to Virginia and to the Union. "The +western States," he wrote to Governor Harrison of Virginia, "stand as it +were upon a pivot. The touch of a feather would turn them any way." The +situation in Kentucky became more acute as intimations reached the +people that John Jay was proposing to renounce the free navigation of +the Mississippi. + +In the summer of 1785, Don Diego de Gardoqui, the first accredited +Minister from Spain, arrived in the United States to settle all +outstanding differences between the two countries. Congress appointed +John Jay as its diplomatic agent and instructed him to hold insistently +to the thirty-first parallel as the southern boundary of the States and +to the free navigation of the Mississippi. The prospect of agreement was +very slight. The American claims were based solely on the Treaty of 1783 +which the King of Spain was determined not to recognize. Negotiations +dragged on for months. Reporting to Congress in August, 1786, Jay +advised the abandonment of the claim of free navigation of the +Mississippi for the sake of securing an advantageous commercial treaty +with Spain. The delegates from Northern States were ready to barter away +the Southwest; but the Southern delegates succeeded in postponing action +until the impotent Confederation gave way to a more perfect union. + +At the Court of St. James, John Adams was having no better luck in +pressing the rights of the moribund Confederation. Notwithstanding the +explicit terms of the Treaty of 1783, British garrisons still held +strategic posts along the Great Lakes, exercising a strong influence +upon the Indians and guarding the interests of British fur traders. Such +a situation would have been intolerable to a self-respecting nation. +Smothering his pride, Adams mustered all the diplomacy which his nature +permitted and sought an explanation of this extraordinary conduct from +the ministers. He was finally told that he need not expect Great Britain +to relinquish the Western posts so long as the States continued to put +obstacles in the way of the collection of British debts. + +A general reluctance to meet financial obligations was a deplorable +aspect of the depression to which American society had succumbed. In all +the States there was a more or less numerous class of debtors who were +convinced that the Government could help them out of all their +distresses. As the cause of all their woes was the scarcity of money, +why, let the Government manufacture money and so put an end to the +stringency. What Madison called "the general rage for paper money" +seized upon Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, and +Georgia. Coupled with paper-money acts were others designed to alleviate +the distress of the unfortunate. Stay laws of one sort or another were +devised to keep the wolf, in the guise of the sheriff, from the door. +Legal-tender acts made cattle and produce equivalent to money when +offered in payment of debts. Nor was this legislation inspired +altogether by dishonest intent. Many believed with Luther Martin, of +Maryland, that there were times of great public distress and extreme +scarcity of specie when it was the duty of the Government to pass stay +laws and legal-tender acts, "to prevent the wealthy creditor and the +moneyed man from totally destroying the poor, though even industrious, +debtor." + +No State suffered more from the paper-money aberration than Rhode +Island. Under pressure from the radical elements the legislature passed +an act for the emission of bills of credit which were to be issued to +any freeholder who would offer as security real estate of any sort to +double the amount of the loan. "Many from all parts of the State made +haste to avail themselves of their good fortune, and mortgaged fields +strewn thick with stones and covered with cedars and stunted pines for +sums such as could not have been obtained for the richest pastures." But +when they sought their creditors, not a merchant nor a shop-keeper could +be found. Nobody fished to have a just debt discharged in such currency. +Not to be thwarted in their purpose, the radicals then enacted a law +which threatened with a summary trial and a heavy fine any one who +refused to accept paper money in payment of debt. + +Under this Force Act, one John Weeden, a butcher, was brought to trial +for refusing to receive the paper offered by a customer in payment for +meat. To the discomfiture of the legislature the court refused to +enforce the law in this instance, on the ground that the statute was +contrary to the constitution of Rhode Island; and when summoned before +the legislature to answer for their defiance, the judges boldly stood +their ground. The case of _Trevett_ v. _Weeden_ was not without its +lesson to those who were casting about for ways and means to defend +property from the assaults of popular majorities. In Virginia, too, the +highest state court, in the case of _Commonwealth_ v. _Caton_, boldly +asserted the right of the judiciary to declare void such acts of the +legislature as were repugnant to the constitution. + +Meantime the debtor and creditor classes in Massachusetts were locked in +a struggle which menaced the peace of the country. Here as elsewhere +hard times had forced the small farmers of the interior counties to the +wall. No doubt their difficulties were caused in part by their own +improvidence, but they were increased by the prevailing scarcity of +money. So dire was the want of a medium of exchange that many +communities resorted to barter. The editor of a Worcester paper +advertised that he would accept Indian corn, rye, wheat, wood, or +flaxseed, in payment of debts owed to him, up to the amount of twenty +shillings. It seemed to the ignorant farmer that his creditors were +taking an unfair advantage of circumstances in demanding currency to +settle debts which had been contracted when money was abundant. The +law, however, favored the creditor. The jails were filled to overflowing +with men imprisoned for debt; the courts were overwhelmed with actions. +In Worcester County, with a population of less than fifty thousand +people, there were in 1784 two thousand cases on the docket of the +Inferior Court of Common Pleas. In this age of litigation only one class +appeared to thrive--the lawyers. The anger of the poor debtors, inflamed +by attachments and foreclosures, vented itself upon the ostensible cause +of their misfortunes. The excessive costs of courts and the immoderate +fees of lawyers are grievances which bulk large in every indictment +drawn by town meeting or county convention. Young John Quincy Adams, +then a senior in Harvard College, was so affected by the odium which had +fallen upon the practice of law that he was almost ready to abandon the +career which he had chosen. + +The adjournment of the General Court in July, 1786, without authorizing +an issue of paper money or passing a legal-tender act or fixing the fees +of lawyers and the costs of courts, contributed to the unrest which was +now assuming a threatening aspect. During August and September riotous +mobs prevented the courts from sitting at Northampton, Worcester, Great +Barrington, and Concord. Alarmed by these disorders Governor Bowdoin +convened the legislature in special session and summoned the militia to +the protection of the capital. While the legislature was devising ways +and means of allaying the public excitement, another demonstration +occurred at Worcester which resulted in the dispersion of the Court of +General Sessions by a force of armed men. From Worcester the disorders +spread into adjoining counties; and something like a concerted movement +upon Boston and Cambridge seemed to be preparing. The prompt action of +the state authorities however, balked the plans of the insurgents. The +main body of insurgents under Shays scattered; but a month later they +rallied around Springfield to prevent the holding of court. Governor +Bowdoin then dispatched troops, four thousand strong, under the command +of General Lincoln, to the assistance and protection of the civil +authorities. A civil war seemed imminent. Shays had planned an attack +upon the national arsenal at Springfield, but he could not bring his +rustics to act together. Before the determined resistance of the local +militia his undisciplined troops broke and fled. The arrival of the +state militia under Lincoln completed the demoralization of Shays' army. +Retreating through the hilly country of Hampshire, they wore finally +overtaken and routed at Petersham. Some of the insurgents went to their +homes, completely humbled and subdued; others fled across the border to +await better times; and still others, unrepentant and unsubdued, +continued to harass the countryside. It was not until the following +September that Governor Bowdoin ventured to disband the militia. + +To these disturbances in Massachusetts, Congress had not remained +indifferent. Aside from the direct interest that all members were bound +to take in a rebellion which seemed to threaten the very foundations of +a sister State and which might easily recur in their own, Congress was +concerned for the fate of the national arsenal at Springfield. But no +forces were available for the protection of the property of the +Confederation. The few hundred men who comprised the army were scattered +in garrisons along the western frontier. Acting as intermediary between +Congress and Governor Bowdoin, General Knox as Secretary of War made +what provision he could for the defense of the arsenal by local militia; +but these measures were confessedly inadequate. Upon his report Congress +was finally moved to increase the army, ostensibly for the protection of +the frontier, where in truth Indian hostilities required the presence of +additional troops. As these forces would be raised chiefly in New +England, they could be employed first to protect Springfield. Any open +avowal of this plan was avoided, however, lest the insurgents should +take alarm and immediately attack the arsenal. But these plans were +wrecked on the reef of financial bankruptcy. Congress could only +supplicate the States for money and borrow what it might on its +expectations. Recruiting went on so slowly that the rebellion was +practically over when two companies of artillery, numbering +seventy-three men each, which had been raised in Massachusetts, were +finally marched to Springfield. All the other recruits were dismissed. +The inefficiency of Congress and its want of moral influence were +self-confessed. + +In his famous circular letter of 1783, Washington had spoken of the +times as a period of "political probation." The moment had come for the +United States to determine, said he, "whether they will be respectable +and prosperous, or contemptible and miserable, as a nation." Three years +had now passed and the period of probation seemed to have ended in the +ruin of national hopes. The events of the years 1786 made a profound +impression upon the minds of all responsible and conservative men. In +undisguised alarm, Washington wrote: "There are combustibles in every +State which a spark might set fire to.... I feel ... infinitely more +than I can express to you, for the disorders which have arisen in these +States. Good God! Who, besides a Tory, could have foreseen, or a Briton, +predicted them?" Rightly or wrongly, men of the upper classes believed +that the foundations of society were threatened and that the State +Governments would fall a prey to the radical and unpropertied elements, +unless a stronger Federal Government were created. "With this idea, they +are thinking, very seriously," wrote an interested observer at the seat +of Federal Government in New York, "in what manner to effect the most +easy and natural change of the present form of the Federal Government to +one more energetic, that will, at the same time, create respect, and +secure properly life, liberty, and property. It is, therefore, not +uncommon to hear the principles of government stated in common +conversation. Emperors, kings, stadtholders, governors-general, with a +senate or house of lords, and house of commons, are frequently the +topics of conversation." There were those who frankly advocated a +monarchical government as the only way of escape from the ills under +which American society was laboring. There is reason to believe that a +project was on foot to invite Prince Henry of Prussia to become the head +of a new consolidated government. The influence of the Order of the +Cincinnati was much feared by friends of republican institutions. +Individually members of the order did not hesitate to express their +impatience with popular government. What was to come out of this +political chaos, no man could tell. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + The two most extensive histories dealing with the period of the + Confederation are George Bancroft's _History of the Formation of + the Constitution of the United States of America_ (2 vols., 1882) + and G. T. Curtis's _History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption + of the Constitution of the United States_ (2 vols., 1854). In the + fourth volume of Hildreth's _History of the United States_ (6 + vols., 1849-52), a concise but rather dry account of the + Confederation may be found. More entertaining is John Fiske's _The + Critical Period of American History, 1783-1789_ (1888). Valuable + information bearing on the social as well as the political history + of the times is contained in the first volume of J. B. McMaster's + _History of the People of the United States from the Revolution to + the Civil War_ (7 vols., 1883-1913). More recent histories of the + period are A. C. McLaughlin's _The Confederation and the + Constitution, 1783-1789_ (in _The American Nation_, vol. 10, + 1905), and Edward Channing's _History of the United States_, vol. + III (3 vols., 1905- ). A vigorous narrative of the exploits of the + pioneers beyond the Alleghanies has been written by Theodore + Roosevelt, _Winning of the West_ (4 vols., 1889-96). A more + restrained account of the beginnings of Western settlement is B. + A. Hinsdale's _The Old Northwest, the Beginnings of our Colonial + System_ (1899). + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION + + +Notwithstanding the manifold differences between State and State in the +Confederation, there were everywhere groups of men who confronted much +the same economic conditions. Between the farmer who tilled his sterile +hillside acres in the interior of New England and the cultivator of the +richer soil of the Piedmont in Virginia and the Carolinas, a greater +identity of economic interests existed than the casual observer would +have suspected. The feeling of hostility which circumstances bred in the +followers of Daniel Shays toward the merchants of Boston was akin to +that which the farmers of middle and western Pennsylvania harbored +toward the aristocratic and wealthy classes of Philadelphia and the +eastern counties. A similar antagonism appears between the yeomen of the +uplands and the planters of the tidewater farther to the south, +accentuated, no doubt, by religious and racial differences. The +Scotch-Irish or German dissenter, who was treated with contempt as a +foreigner and forced to support a church established by a State +Government which discriminated against numbers and in favor of property, +was not likely to feel kindly toward the tidewater aristocracy. Bad +crops spelled disaster for these farmers, for they had incurred debt to +purchase their lands and had borrowed capital to work them. In hard +times they were the first to suffer, for whether money was scarce or +plentiful, the tax-collector and the money-lender knocked inexorably at +their doors. Bad roads kept them isolated and want of intercourse bred +much ignorance and prejudice in even honest men. Were the recorded +grievances of these inland groups brought together, they would show a +surprising agreement. + +Set over against this interior population with predominant agrarian +interests were those classes, urban for the most part, whose income was +derived from personal rather than real property. Even at this time a +capitalist class of no mean proportions existed. No inconsiderable part +of this personalty was invested in shipping and manufacturing. A part, +not easily determined, was tied up in Western lands, which appealed +strongly to the speculative instincts of the American. The amount of +money at interest was also considerable in States like Massachusetts. As +creditors of the debt-burdened farmers these classes were everywhere on +the defensive. To this group should be added the holders of public +securities, both state and continental, who could not have remained +uninterested witnesses of the demise of the Confederation. + +The logic of events was drawing these holders of personal property +together. Capitalists with idle money found the avenues to profitable +investment closed by the inability of Congress to offer protection to +either manufacturing or shipping; creditors with money at interest +witnessed with alarm the inability or unwillingness of state +legislatures to resist attacks upon private contracts and public +credit; holders of public securities shared the general contempt for a +Government, which, so far from providing for the ultimate redemption of +its obligations, could not even pay interest on its debts; speculators +in lands despaired of a rise in values so long as the Government could +not defend its borders and protect its frontier population. The desire +of all these classes, from Boston to Charleston, was for a Government +which would govern. + +Under these circumstances the idea of a special convention to revise the +Articles of Confederation grew in favor. Some of the States, notably +Delaware, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, had employed constituent +conventions to draft new frames of government. The legislature of New +York had in 1782 proposed a convention to revise the Articles of +Confederation. At the suggestion of Governor Bowdoin, the General Court +of Massachusetts had resolved in 1785 in favor of such a convention; but +the delegates in Congress, for reasons best known to themselves, had +refused to present the resolution. In any case Congress could hardly be +expected to take the initiative. + +For many years Virginia and Maryland had been at loggerheads over the +navigation of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. In 1784 +commissioners from both States met at Alexandria, and subsequently at +Washington's country-seat, at Mount Vernon, to make a last effort to +adjudicate their differences. It speedily appeared that the question of +commercial regulations was one that concerned also their neighbors to +the north. Maryland proposed that Pennsylvania and Delaware should be +invited to a further conference. The assembly of Virginia went still +further and appointed delegates to meet with delegates from other States +"to take into consideration the trade of the United States" and "to +consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be +necessary to their common interest and their permanent harmony." +Annapolis was selected as the place of meeting. + +The response of the States to this call was disappointing. Only five +States sent delegates. Positive action on trade relations was, of +course, out of the question. But Alexander Hamilton, who attended as a +delegate from New York, drafted a report which went far to redeem the +situation. Addressed to the legislatures of the States represented at +Annapolis, it called attention to the critical state of the Union and +the need of a convention of delegates with wider powers from all the +States; and in conclusion, it named Philadelphia and the second Monday +in May, 1787, as a suitable place and time for such a convention. "From +motives of respect" a copy of this report was sent to Congress. + +With its wonted indecision, Congress dallied with this bold proposal +until late in the following February. Meantime, Virginia and other +States appointed delegates to the convention which Congress had not yet +sanctioned. When Congress finally issued the summons, it made no +reference to the Annapolis Convention, though it took over bodily the +recommendations of that body. The sole and express purpose of the +convention was declared to be the revision of the Articles of +Confederation. + +The delegates to the Philadelphia Convention were to be "appointed by +the States." As a matter of course, the choice devolved upon the +legislature in every instance. To what extent the active economic +interests directed and controlled the selection is a mere matter of +speculation. Certain it is that the members of the convention belonged +to the governing class in their respective communities. Almost to a man +they had held important public positions. To a surprising extent they +came from the commercial sections of their States. "Not one member +represented in his immediate personal economic interests the small +farming or mechanic classes." A large majority were "directly and +personally interested in the outcome of their labors through their +ownership of property, real or personal." Many were holders of public +securities and profited by the later funding operations of the new +Government; some had invested in Western lands; others had capital +invested in manufacturing, shipping, and slaves. Thus circumstanced, +they had no mind to try doubtful experiments in government. + +Among the first of the delegates to reach Philadelphia was James +Madison. Other members of the Virginia delegation soon joined him, and +on the 13th of May, Washington made what was really a triumphant entry +into the city. When the 14th dawned only a few delegates had arrived. +Inclement weather and bad roads detained many, no doubt; but a general +dilatoriness in heeding the summons was accountable for the tardiness +of others. Until a majority of States were represented, the delegates +could only adjourn from day to day. That the gentlemen from Virginia put +this time to good use appears from the plan which they drew up as a +tentative program and which Randolph presented to the convention. +Indeed, there is little doubt that much unrecorded progress was made +throughout the convention by informal conferences among the leaders. + +It was not until Friday, May 25, that seven States were represented and +a preliminary organization could be effected. Washington was the +unanimous choice for president, though tradition has it that Franklin +was the first choice of many delegates. Altogether, though not at any +one time, there were fifty-five delegates in attendance from twelve +States. Rhode Island was never represented. The average attendance was +hardly more than thirty. It was possible, therefore, to adopt simple +rules of procedure and to permit full discussion. The credentials of the +delegates gave them, with a single exception, free hand in revising the +Articles of Confederation. Delaware alone forbade its representatives to +make any alterations which should deprive the State of its equal vote in +Congress. + +As the doors closed on this notable body in the chamber over +Independence Hall in the State House, profound secrecy enveloped its +proceedings. Not until the publication of the journal by act of Congress +in 1819 were the actual proceedings of the convention divulged; and many +more years passed before Madison's notes on the debates were given to +the curious public. The earth scattered on the pavement to silence the +rattling of wheels and the sentries stationed at the doors to warn +intruders gave added emphasis to the importance of this gathering. + +The task before the convention was one of immense difficulty. The most +general criticism of the Confederation was that expressed in the vague +phrase, "lack of power"; but the defect could not be overcome merely by +giving new powers to Congress. Any such increase of authority involved a +delicate readjustment of the relations of the States to each other and +to the central Government. Before the convention had been in session a +fortnight, a line of cleavage among the delegates appeared. To the most +obtuse mind the resolutions presented as the Virginia plan seemed to +reach far beyond any mere revision of the Articles of Confederation. +Randolph frankly admitted the scope of his resolutions by urging that a +union of the States merely federal would not suffice. The convention so +far yielded to the general drift as to adopt, in committee of the whole, +the resolution "that a national government ought to be established +consisting of a supreme Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary." + +As the group of nationally minded delegates, led by Madison and Wilson, +of Pennsylvania, seized this initial advantage and secured the +acceptance, step by step, of the main features of a national government, +the delegates from the smaller States drew together in alarmed +opposition. It was in their behalf that Paterson, of New Jersey, +presented his resolutions. In contrast to the Virginia plan, this held +out only the prospect of an improved Confederation. Additional powers +were to be given to Congress and there was to be an executive and a +supreme judiciary; but the basal principle of the Confederation--the +equality of the States--was left untouched. Given the alternative +between the New Jersey plan and the Virginia plan as amended, seven +States voted for the latter. Only New York, New Jersey, and Delaware +preferred the former. The vote of Maryland was divided. The convention +then returned to the detailed consideration of the amended Virginia +plan. The large-State men were now disposed to make some concessions. +The word "national" was dropped from all the resolutions; and minor +changes were made in the interest of harmony. But on the fundamental +question of what was termed "proportional representation,"--that is, +representation of the States in proportion to numbers in the national +legislature,--no agreement seemed possible. More than once the +convention was on the point of adjourning _sine die_. Even the usually +placid Franklin suggested that "prayers imploring the assistance of +Heaven ... be held in this Assembly every morning." + +In spite of the opposition of the smaller States, the convention finally +voted that the rule of suffrage in the first branch of the legislature +ought not to be according to that established by the Articles of +Confederation. Debate then turned on the manner of constituting the +upper chamber. On July 2, a vote was taken on the proposal of the +Connecticut delegation that each State should have an equal vote in the +upper house. The result was a tie, five States against five, with the +vote of one State divided. The deadlock seemed complete. + +Hoping that a compromise might even yet be effected, General Pinckney +proposed a committee of one from each State to consider the whole +matter. Opposition was made, but the convention indorsed the proposal +and chose the members of the committee by ballot. The selection was +obviously favorable to the small-State party, for the committee +abandoned the idea of proportional representation in the second chamber. +On July 5, it recommended that in the first branch of the legislature +there should be one representative for every forty thousand inhabitants +in each State, counting three fifths of the slaves, and that in the +second chamber the States should have an equal vote. The first +proposition underwent further changes at the hands of a special +committee, but the principle of representation was accepted. On July 16, +the first proposition as amended and the second proposition without +change were adopted by a vote of five States to four, with the vote of +one State divided. Very properly historians have termed this the great +compromise of the Constitution, for without it the further work of the +convention would have been impossible. In agreeing that three fifths of +the slaves should be counted in apportioning representation, the +convention made no innovation, but simply took over the federal ratio +which Congress had recommended in 1783 as the basis for future +apportionment of requisitions among the States. On this point there was +no great difference of opinion in the convention. + +It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that with this obstacle to +union removed, the Constitution speedily took form. On the contrary, +every proposal bristled with controversial points. The Northern +commercial States demanded insistently that Congress should be given +power to regulate commerce. It was, indeed, the desire of the commercial +classes in all the States that Congress should be given power to pass +retaliatory acts against Great Britain, but the planters of the +Carolinas and Georgia feared--not without reason--that the power to +regulate commerce might be used to interfere with the importation of +slaves. Here, too, the spirit of compromise prevailed. The power was +granted, but the importation of such persons as the States thought +proper to admit was not to be prohibited before the year 1808. + +From first to last, divergent views were held as to the constitution of +the chief executive office. After the initial question, whether the +office should be single or plural, was decided, the manner of election +remained to be considered. The early proposal to make the President +elective by the national legislature was dropped as the office assumed +greater importance in the general scheme. If the independence of the +legislature was to be maintained, some form of indirect popular choice +was favored. But if the people were to elect, the larger States would +have a decided advantage. Here was the old question in another form. The +electoral scheme finally adopted was essentially a compromise. In most +instances--Mason, of Virginia, said nineteen out of twenty times--it was +believed that the electors would so scatter their votes that no +candidate would have a majority; consequently the Senate would make a +choice from among the five candidates having the highest votes. By this +arrangement the large States would in effect nominate and the small +States elect the President. But because the Senate had already been +given extensive powers, the convention transferred the final election to +the House, with the provision that the vote there should be by States. +The eventual election of a Vice-President was left to the Senate, +whenever the electoral college failed to make a choice. + +From time to time the convention resorted to committees to facilitate +its work. Most important services were rendered by the committee of +detail, which early in August put into orderly and connected form the +conclusions which the convention had reached. It was the committee on +unfinished business which suggested the method finally adopted of +electing the President. In its final form and phrasing the Constitution +is the work of Gouverneur Morris, who prepared the report of the +committee of style. + +Citizens of Philadelphia who took up their copies of the _Pennsylvania +Advertiser_ on Tuesday, September 17, found to their surprise that the +columns were completely filled with the new Constitution. This was their +first intimation of what the convention had really done. Rumor had +stalked abroad that the convention was rent by dissensions; but the +envious reader saw at the end of his paper the words, "Done in +convention by the unanimous consent of the States ... in witness whereof +we have hereunto subscribed our names." Done by unanimous consent of +the delegates the Constitution was not, for not all the delegates who +were present on the last day would affix their signatures. It was +Gouverneur Morris who suggested the phrase which gave a specious +unanimity to the work of the convention. + +The thoughtful reader of the Constitution must have been impressed by +the new features which caught his eye. In place of the old inefficient +and powerless Congress, he observed a well-organized national +legislature, an independent executive, and a federal judiciary of ample +jurisdiction. Further scrutiny must have apprised him that the new +Government would operate directly upon individuals, thus remedying a +vital defect in the Confederation. The powers given to Congress may well +have set at rest the minds of anxious public creditors. With the power +to lay and collect taxes, to raise and support a military and naval +establishment, and to regulate commerce, Congress had ample means to pay +the public debt, to enforce its claims, and to offer protection to trade +and industry. Not less significant to property-owners were the brief +clauses in the new Constitution which sharply forbade States to emit +bills of credit, to make anything but gold and silver legal tender in +payment of debts, and to make laws impairing the obligation of +contracts. + +[Map: Distribution of Votes in Ratification of the Constitution +The New England States (Based on the map of Dr. O. G. Libby)] + +But what guaranty was there that States would observe these +prohibitions? The power to coerce a State was nowhere conferred. The +militia, to be sure, could be called out to execute the laws; and the +United States guaranteed to every State a republican form of government +and promised protection against domestic violence. Congress could deal +surely and effectively with any future Shays if it were invited to do +so. But what if a State passed a law violating the obligation of +contracts? The answer is contained in the clause which reads: "This +Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in +Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under +the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the +Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in +the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." +This and the correlative clause which extended the judicial power to all +cases arising under the Constitution, the laws and the treaties of the +United States, may be called the keystone of the whole constitutional +structure. "For the first time in history, courts are called upon by the +simple processes of administering justice, in cases where private right +or personal injury is involved, to uphold the structure of the body +politic." And there were those in the convention who believed that the +principle of judicial control included the power of passing upon the +constitutionality of laws enacted by Congress. + +It was still within the power of the old Congress to expedite or block +the ratification of the new Constitution. The document which the +Philadelphia Convention presented was technically only a revision of the +Articles of Confederation, which might be altered only with the consent +of the legislatures of all thirteen States; but the last article of this +new instrument provided that when ratified by conventions (not +legislatures) in nine States, it should go into effect among the States +so acting. In effect, Congress was asked to sanction a secession of nine +States from the old Union which had been declared perpetual. Making a +virtue of necessity, Congress finally yielded and passed the +Constitution on to the States. + +[Map: Distribution of Votes in Ratification of the Constitution +The Middle States (Based on the map of O. G. Libby)] + +Since the party struggles of Whigs and Tories no campaign of continental +proportions had ever been seen like that which ensued between the +friends and foes of the new Constitution. By their forehandedness and +their clear perception of what they must do, the Federalists, as the +proponents of better government styled themselves, had a slight tactical +advantage. The Anti-Federalists resented the assumption of the name by +their opponents. They were the true friends of federal government, while +the friends of the new Constitution aimed to set up a consolidated +government. The press teemed with letters and essays, allegories and +satires, squibs and pasquinades, expostulating, warning, ridiculing. The +public was invited to heed the admonitions of Cato, Cassius, and many +another worthy Roman. + +Although much the same arguments, sober or satirical, were used +everywhere, the campaign had to be fought out in the several States, +each with its own peculiar social, economic, and political conditions. +In Massachusetts the eastern counties, with their dominant commercial +and mercantile interests, favored the Constitution, while the interior +agricultural section, which had fought the battles of the Revolution and +recruited the ranks of Shays' army, opposed it. The interior counties of +New York containing the farming population were Anti-Federal, while the +city and county of New York with its environs--the commercial +section--were Federalist. In Pennsylvania, those who had opposed the +domination of the Scotch-Irish and German radicals in the State +Government now united in advocacy of the new Constitution. Here as +elsewhere the Federal area corresponded closely to the counties where +commercial and mercantile interests were most in evidence. In Virginia, +the old-time social and economic antagonism between east and west, +between the planters and merchants of the tidewater and the small +farmers of the interior, reappeared. Much the same alignment is found in +the Carolinas. Beyond the Alleghanies, the people were a unit in +opposing the Constitution. + +Detailed studies of the geographical distribution of votes in the state +conventions, and recent investigations in the archives of the Treasury +Department, sustain the conclusion to which the historian is driven by +the testimony of contemporaries, that the fundamental opposition between +the advocates and opponents of the Constitution was based on +distinctions of wealth. On his first view of the Constitution young John +Quincy Adams wrote in his diary: "It is calculated to increase the +influence, and power, and wealth of those who have any already." A +writer in the _Boston Gazette_ declared that the supporters of the +Constitution consisted generally of the noble Order of Cincinnatus, +holders of public securities, bankers, and lawyers: "these with their +train of dependents form the Aristocratick combination." Over against +this should be put the remark of Alexander Hamilton: that the new +Constitution encountered the "opposition of all men much in debt, who +will not wish to see a government established, one object of which is to +restrain the means of cheating creditors." According to John Adams, the +Constitution was "the work of the commercial people in the seaport +towns, of the planters of the slaveholding states, of the officers of +the Revolutionary army, and the property-holders everywhere." + +From November to the following July the campaign continued. Delaware, +New Jersey, and Georgia ratified the Constitution unanimously; +Connecticut by a majority of three to one; and Pennsylvania, by a +majority of two to one. But there is reason to believe that these +majorities in the ratifying conventions did not reflect public opinion +accurately. Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina followed +hesitatingly, each proposing amendments to the Constitution. Toward the +end of June the ninth State, New Hampshire, threw in her lot with the +majority; and on the heels of this news came the intelligence that the +Old Dominion had also ratified. The Constitution was now the law of the +land. In the stanch Federal city of Philadelphia, the Fourth of July was +celebrated with great rejoicing, for in the parlance of the time the +sloop Anarchy was ashore on Union Rock, the old scow Confederation had +put to sea, and the good ship Federal Constitution had come into port +bringing a cargo of Public Credit and Prosperity. + +[Map: Distribution of Votes in Ratification of the Constitution +The Southern States, 1787-1790 (Based on the map by Dr. O. G. Libby)] + +But until New York ratified the Constitution this rejoicing was +premature. Geographically New York was a pivotal State. A union without +this member was not worthy of the name. The task of the Federalists was +here most difficult. Fully two thirds of the convention were at first +opposed to the Constitution. The leadership of the Federalists fell to +Hamilton. Together with James Madison and John Jay, he contributed to +the newspapers a series of essays in advocacy of the Constitution, +which, under the title _The Federalist_, have become a classic in our +political literature. Just how the Federalists succeeded in overcoming a +hostile majority and in securing a ratification of the Constitution by a +vote of thirty to twenty-seven, remains a mystery to this day. + +Half a century later it became the habit of statesmen of the nationalist +school to speak of the Constitution as the work of the people of the +United States. John Marshall declared the Constitution to be "an +expression of the clear and deliberate will of the whole people." As a +matter of fact, no direct popular vote was taken at any stage in its +evolution. The delegates to the Philadelphia Convention were chosen by +the state legislatures; their work was ratified by conventions of +delegates in the several States; and these delegates were chosen in +every State but one on a carefully limited suffrage. New York alone +provided that delegates to the convention should be elected on the basis +of manhood suffrage. Elsewhere property qualifications were imposed +which disfranchised probably about one third of the adult male +population. In all the States a considerable proportion of the voters +abstained from voting. In Boston, where twenty-seven hundred were +qualified to vote, only seven hundred and sixty took the trouble to +vote for delegates to the state convention. A recent writer hazards the +guess that "not more than one fourth or one fifth of the adult white +males took part in the election of delegates to the state conventions." +If this be true, the Constitution expressed something less than the will +of the whole people and perhaps not even of a majority. The making of +the Constitution was clearly the work of a party rather than of the +whole people. In the ranks of the Federalist party were the wealth and +intelligence which made possible concerted and rapid action. The +leadership fell naturally to those who had been accustomed to public +life. From this point of view, the adoption of the Constitution was the +triumph of a "natural aristocracy." + +Meantime, Congress nearing its end made testamentary provision for its +heir. After much wrangling and vacillation, it fixed upon New York as +the seat of the new Government and summoned the States to choose +presidential electors, Senators, and Representatives. The new national +legislature was to assemble on the first Wednesday in March, which fell +upon the 4th. To this summons, two States turned a deaf ear. Not having +ratified the new Constitution, North Carolina and Rhode Island were +strangely circumstanced. Of all the States which had entered into the +"firm league of friendship," they alone remained loyal--loyal, but +discredited. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + Full accounts of the work of the Federal Convention may be found + in the histories of Bancroft and Curtis; briefer accounts, in the + volumes already cited, by McMaster, Fiske, McLaughlin, and + Channing. A succinct narrative is given by Max Farrand, _The + Framing of the Constitution_ (1913). A suggestive volume, treating + of the Constitution as the resultant of conflicting economic + interests, is C. A. Beard's _An Economic Interpretation of the + Constitution of the United States_ (1913). Among the special + studies of the ratification of the Constitution may be mentioned, + O. G. Libby, _The Geographical Distribution of the Vote of the + Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution, 1787-1788_ (1888); + McMaster and Stone, _Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, + 1787-1788_ (1888); S. B. Harding, _The Contest over the + Ratification of the Federal Constitution in the State of + Massachusetts_ (1896); and F. G. Bates, _Rhode Island and the + Formation of the Union_ (1898). The most illuminating notes of the + debates in the Convention were those taken by James Madison, which + are printed in the _Records of the Federal Convention_ (3 vols., + edited by Farrand, 1911). The most valuable commentary on the + Constitution is still _The Federalist_, written by Madison, + Hamilton, and Jay. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE RESTORATION OF PUBLIC CREDIT + + +"The people have been ripened by misfortune for the reception of a good +government," Washington wrote to Jefferson, in the midsummer of 1788. +"They are emerging from the gulf of dissipation and debt into which they +had precipitated themselves at the close of the war. Economy and +industry are evidently gaining ground." There is, indeed, abundant +evidence that thrift and enterprise were steadily banishing hard times. +The task of establishing the new government was made incomparably easier +by the confidence inspired by returning prosperity. + +Already West India commerce had resumed very nearly its old volume. Both +France and Spain had made concessions to vessels which came to the +island ports laden with American produce. The Dutch and the Danish +islands had always been kept open to American trade; and evidence is not +wanting that the needs of British West India planters were stronger than +their respect for orders in council. At all events, by hook or crook, +American farm products and lumber found their way to British planters as +well as to their French competitors. But something more than the +resumption of the West India traffic was needed to restore prosperity. +Necessity drove American sea captains to longer voyages and larger +ventures. American vessels found their way in increasing numbers through +the Baltic to Russia, and around Cape Horn to the Pacific ports, to +China, and to the East Indies. One of the pioneers of this traffic to +the Far East was Captain Robert Gray, of Boston, who, in his ship, the +Columbia, doubled the Cape of Good Hope and completed the first American +voyage around the world. + +While hardy seamen were seeking new markets, American ingenuity was +trying to reproduce the machinery which was coming into use in England +for the manufacture of textiles. In the year 1789, Pennsylvania was +manufacturing cotton cloths, hats, and "all articles in leather," while +Massachusetts was making cordage, duck, and glass. "The number of shoes +made in one town, and nails in another, is incredible," wrote +Washington. When Hamilton made his famous report on manufactures two +years later, he described some seventeen industries which had already +attained considerable proficiency, though nearly all of these were +carried on in the household. + +The dawn of the 4th of March was saluted by the guns at the Battery in +New York and by the ringing of church bells. This day was to witness the +inauguration of the new Government. Delusive expectation! The dilatory +habits of a decade were not so readily unlearned. To the amusement of +ill-wishers, barely a score of Congressmen appeared in the city; and the +carpenters were still at work remodeling the old City Hall into a +fitting habitation for the new Federal Congress. It was not until the +30th that enough Representatives were in attendance to make up a quorum +and to permit the House to organize. Another week passed before the +Senate could organize. + +On the 6th of April, the Senate summoned the House to attend the +counting of the electoral votes. It then appeared that George Washington +had received the highest number (69) and John Adams the next highest +(34). This happy result had not been achieved without some concerted +action among the Federalist leaders. The great personal influence of +Washington was needed, indeed, to give dignity to the new office. While +messengers were hastening to inform Washington and Adams of their +election, the members of Congress had ample opportunities to look each +other over. If they were not well known to each other, they were at +least conspicuous in their respective communities. Nearly every man had +held public office under his State Government and a large proportion had +sat in the state conventions which had ratified the Constitution. Over +two thirds of the Representatives counted themselves Federalist, or at +least friends of the new Constitution. + +[Map: Distribution of Population 1790 +(Indian Tribes beyond the settled area)] + +On the 30th of April, the Senate and House in joint session received the +President-elect. With simple ceremonies as befitted the occasion, the +inauguration of our first President was consummated. Stepping from the +Senate chamber upon the balcony, Washington looked out upon the crowds +which thronged Wall Street. The Chancellor of New York administered the +oath, the populace shouted, "Long live George Washington, President of +the United States!" and then the President withdrew to deliver his +inaugural address. + +When the minutes of the Senate were read next day an incident occurred, +which, trivial as it seems, was indicative of a spirit that may be truly +characterized as American. The President's address was referred to as +"His most gracious Speech." In a moment the doughty Maclay, of +Pennsylvania, sprang to his feet with a vigorous protest. These were +words which savored of kingly authority and which were odious to the +people. He moved that they be struck out. Vice-President John Adams +remonstrated mildly; he saw no objection to borrowing the practices of a +government under which we had lived so long and happily. Senator Maclay +was on his feet at once with the declaration that the sentiments of the +people had undergone a change adverse to royal government. Such a phrase +on the minutes of the Senate would immediately be represented as "the +first rung of the ladder in the ascent to royalty." Maclay had his way +and the offensive phrase was erased. Much the same republican spirit +appeared in the debate on titles. The Senate would have preferred to +address the President as "His Highness, the President of the United +States and Protector of their Liberties"; but the House insisted on +having the plain title, "President of the United States." + +Even before the inauguration, the House of Representatives had entered +upon its first tariff debate, for an immediate revenue was needed if the +wheels of government were to move. Madison was ready with a scheme of +customs duties patterned very largely after the ill-fated project of +1783. On all sides it was agreed that taxes should be external rather +than internal, upon foreign rather than domestic commerce. Madison +advocated duties upon "articles of requisition likely to occasion the +least difficulty," such as spirituous liquors, molasses, wines, tea, +coffee, cocoa, pepper, and sugar. But almost at once the idea was +broached that indirect aid should be given to certain industries. The +clash of opposing sectional interests appears even in this first debate. +In the end Madison's simple revenue measure was set aside. Specific +duties were levied on more than thirty articles, and _ad valorem_ duties +ranging from five to fifteen per cent on all others. Revenue was still +the main object, but protective duties were deliberately grafted upon +the bill. Tonnage dues were fixed in a separate act, while still another +act laid the foundations of our national fiscal administration. In every +State, side by side with local officials, yet independent of state +control, there were to be collectors, surveyors of ports, inspectors, +weighers, gaugers, measurers,--in short, so many living witnesses to the +existence of a self-sufficient central government. + +When Congress addressed itself to the work of establishing the executive +departments, questions of constitutional interpretation thrust +themselves into the foreground. Experience under the Confederation +proved the need of at least the three departments of foreign affairs, +war, and treasury. Bills to establish these departments were at once +framed and favorably considered, but exception was taken to the +provisions making the heads of these departments, who were appointed by +the President and Senate, removable by the President alone. It was +finally agreed to assume that the President had the power to remove from +office. The act was therefore made to read, "Whenever said principal +officer shall be removed by the President." In this wise, by legislative +construction, the Constitution was expanded at many points in the early +years of the new Government. + +The bill to establish the Treasury Department was drawn in accordance +with the ideas of Hamilton, for it was expected that he would be the +first incumbent of the office. It may have been his well-known +partiality for British institutions that caused the House to mistrust +the phrase which made it the duty of the Secretary "to digest and report +plans for the improvement and management of the revenue, and the support +of the public credit." "If we authorize him to prepare and report +plans," argued Tucker, of Virginia, voicing that fear of executive +authority which was then instinctive, "it will create an interference of +the executive with the legislative powers; it will abridge the +particular privilege of this House.... How can business originate in +this House, if we have it reported to us by the Minister of Finance?" +The House was not minded to make Alexander Hamilton a Chancellor of the +Exchequer. The bill was amended to read, "digest and prepare." +Subsequently the House showed unmistakably its determination to assume +direction of the national revenues and expenditures. + +One of the first concerns of Congress was to give substance to the +colorless statement of the Constitution that there should be one supreme +court and such inferior courts as Congress should ordain and establish. +On the day following its organization, while the House was grappling +with the question of revenue, the Senate appointed a committee to bring +in a bill to establish the federal courts. The chairman of this +committee was Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, who had sat on the bench +of the Court of Appeals under the Confederation and who had been an +influential member of the Federal Convention. The bill reported by the +committee was substantially his work. It provided for a supreme court +bench of six judges--a chief justice and five associates; for thirteen +district courts, each with a single judge; and for three circuit courts, +each of which was to consist of two justices of the Supreme Court and a +district judge. Lengthy provisions in the act carefully delimited the +jurisdiction of these courts, and laid down the modes of procedure and +practice in them. Of great importance was the twenty-fifth section, +which provided for taking cases on appeal to the Supreme Court from the +lower federal and state courts. The words of the act, by a fair +implication, would seem to confer upon the Supreme Court the power to +review the decision of a state court holding an act of the United States +unconstitutional. It would seem to follow logically that the Supreme +Court might do also directly what it might do indirectly--declare an act +of Congress void by reason of its repugnance to the Constitution. +Ellsworth, at least, held that in the discharge of their ordinary +duties, the judges of the federal courts would have the right to +pronounce acts of Congress void when they stood in conflict with the +Constitution. Attempts were made, in the course of the debate on the +Judiciary Act, to strip the federal courts of all jurisdiction except in +admiralty and maritime cases. Many members of Congress agreed with +Maclay in thinking that the Judiciary Act was calculated to draw all law +business into the federal courts. "The Constitution is meant to swallow +all the state constitutions, by degrees," averred the worthy Senator +from Pennsylvania; "and this [bill] to swallow, by degrees, all the +state judiciaries." + +The wisdom of the new President appeared in his appointments to office. +Concerned solely with the fate of the federal experiment, he sought +consistently the support of those who would add weight to the new +Government, and who were Federalists in politics. Not only personal +fitness but sectional interests had to be taken into consideration. +Washington was solicitous to draw "the first characters of the union" +into the judiciary, particularly those who had served in the state +courts and commanded public confidence. His choice for Chief Justice +fell upon John Jay. Rutledge, of South Carolina, Wilson, of +Pennsylvania, Cushing, of Massachusetts, Harrison, of Maryland, and +Blair, of Virginia, were first named as Associate Justices. Washington +chose his chief advisers also from different sections. Thomas Jefferson +was invited to become Secretary of State--a post which he accepted +somewhat reluctantly. Hamilton did not have to be urged to take the +headship of the Treasury. Knox was given the superintendence of a +military establishment which then numbered only a few hundred men. +Edmund Randolph was appointed Attorney-General. + +Before Congress adjourned in the fall, it adopted and sent to the States +for ratification twelve amendments to the new Constitution. There were +those who thought this action precipitate. Why tinker with a +constitution which had hardly been tried? To all such Madison replied +cogently that the amendments which his committee reported did not alter +the framework of the instrument, but added only certain safeguards to +individual rights. The lack of a declaration of rights had been deplored +in every convention and had cost the support of many respectable people. +Moreover, two communities had not yet "thrown themselves into the bosom +of the Confederacy." The wisdom of this course was attested by the +prompt ratification of ten of the twelve proposed amendments. + +On November 21, 1789, North Carolina ratified the Constitution, leaving +Rhode Island to a position of hazardous isolation. Congress was +considering a bill to cut off the commercial privileges of the State, by +putting her on the footing of a foreign nation, when news came that a +convention at Newport had ratified the Constitution by the narrow margin +of two votes. In the following year the number of States was increased +by the admission of Vermont. The admission of Kentucky followed in 1792; +and Congress paved the way for the entrance of other States into the +Union by organizing the Southwest Territory out of Western lands ceded +by the three southernmost States. The expansion of the United States had +begun, bringing with it unforeseen problems. + +The severest labors of Congress began in the second session, when the +new Secretary of the Treasury presented his first report on public +credit. Shortly after the Convention of 1787, Hamilton had expressed his +belief that one of the great dangers which threatened American society +was "the depredations which the democratic spirit is apt to make on +property." Distrusting the political capacity of the people, whom in +private he called "a great beast," he believed that the new Government +would succeed or fail in just the proportion that it enlisted the +support of the influential and wealthy classes. He set himself +deliberately to the task of identifying the interests of the propertied +classes with those of the Government. + +It was a sorry state in which Hamilton found the national finances. The +foreign debt, including principal and arrears of interest, amounted to +$11,710,000. The domestic debt, much more difficult to determine, was +not less than $42,414,000, about one third of which was made up of +arrears of interest. The debts of the individual States, principal and +interest, were estimated at about $25,000,000. These were heavy burdens +for the shoulders of a young Government whose fiscal powers were as yet +untested. But the shoulders had to be fitted to the burden, if public +credit was to be restored. + +In this first report on public credit, January 9, 1790, Hamilton +analyzed the financial situation with masterly clearness and set forth +his plans for the adjustment of the national debt. The determination of +Congress to make adequate provision for the support of the public credit +was justified in his mind by every consideration. A country like the +United States, possessed of little active wealth, must borrow in +emergencies; to borrow on good terms, it must establish its credit; and +to maintain its credit, it must faithfully observe its contracts. But +over and above these considerations, dictated by expediency, were +"immutable principles of moral obligation." Moreover, the national debt +was no ordinary obligation: it was "the price of liberty." On all sides, +it was agreed that the debt contracted abroad should be provided for in +the precise terms of the contracts. + +It was only in regard to the domestic debt that differences of opinion +were likely to arise. The notes representing this debt were of all sorts +and kinds. Much of it had changed hands and all of it had depreciated in +value. Some of it still circulated as a monetary medium. The vital +question was: how were the present holders to be paid? At the face value +of the paper, or at the price for which it had been purchased? Hamilton +argued firmly against any discrimination, both because it was a breach +of contract and because it was a violation of the rights of a fair +buyer. + +When this part of Hamilton's plan came before Congress in concrete form, +it gave rise to the bitterest debate which had been heard. That it would +give opportunity for immoderate speculation was plain enough; yet every +alternative which aimed to do justice by both the original and the +present holder was confessedly inadequate, when a certificate of +indebtedness, for example, had passed through several hands without +record. + +No sooner was Hamilton's proposal made than a wild scramble began for +the possession of the hitherto worthless government paper. "Couriers and +relay horses by land, and swift sailing pilot boats by sea, were flying +in all directions," wrote Jefferson. "Active partners and agents were +associated and employed in every state, town, and country neighborhood, +and this paper was bought up at 5/ and even as low as 2/ in the pound, +before the holder knew Congress had already provided for its redemption +at par. Immense fortunes were thus filched from the poor and ignorant, +and fortunes accumulated by those who had themselves been poor enough +before." + +[Map: Vote on Assumption July 24, 1790] + +The second part of the scheme outlined in Hamilton's first report +aroused even more bitter opposition. With a fine audacity he proposed +the assumption of state debts. It is difficult to believe that Hamilton +was perfectly ingenuous in stating his reasons for this move. He +apprehended, he said, that the States would be hampered in satisfying +their creditors because they had surrendered one important source of +revenue to the central Government, duties on imports. In resorting to +other means, the States might pass conflicting measures which would +oppose industry. Besides, the debts had been incurred in the cause of +Union and should be borne by all. But deeper than these reasons was +probably a political motive. Hamilton had no local attachments. A +thoroughgoing nationalist, he saw in the claims of the States to +autonomy only so many obstacles in the path of national unity. "To +cement more closely the Union of States" by creating a solidarity of +financial interests, was, indeed, the basal principle of his fiscal +plans. + +The wrath of Congressmen from States like Virginia, which had already +discharged most of their debts, knew no bounds. After they had practiced +thrift and met their obligations, should they, forsooth, now aid their +less provident sisters? The chief opponents of assumption came from the +South, and the chief advocates from the North. South Carolina and New +Hampshire parted company with their neighbors, the one because it had a +large debt and the other because it had not. Pennsylvania was divided on +this question. For a time the opposition was too strong to be overcome. +On May 25, 1790, an adverse vote seemed to seal the fate of "Miss +Assumption," as the wits of the day called this measure. Just at this +juncture the question of the location of the future capital, which had +been debated inconclusively during the first session, was revived. Here +again the North was arrayed against the South. Should the capital be +located on the Potomac, as Maryland and the Southern States wished, or +somewhere in Pennsylvania? New York was now out of the question, and +since Pennsylvania would not support assumption, the New England States +rather spitefully opposed the claims of Philadelphia. + +Here was a situation which called for the _finesse_ of the politician. +Might not votes for one project be traded for the other? Would the +Virginia representatives abandon their opposition to assumption for the +sake of locating the capital on the banks of the Potomac? It was at this +juncture that Hamilton sought out Jefferson, whose influence over the +Congressmen from Virginia was very considerable, and laid the project +before him. With a readiness which he afterward regretted, Jefferson +fell in with the scheme, and invited Hamilton and certain Virginia +Representatives to dine at his table. In this comfortable fashion, over +their wine, these gentlemen reached an amicable agreement. Such is +Jefferson's account, but the matter could not have been quite so simple, +for other Representatives than those from Virginia changed their votes +and so contributed to the final settlement of the controversy. Nor is +Jefferson quite ingenuous when he afterward described himself as duped +by Hamilton, for he had not shown himself averse to assumption at any +time. Be this as it may, Congress voted to assume the debts of the +States, and to remove the seat of government from Philadelphia after ten +years to a district ten miles square on the Potomac, which Washington +was to select. + +The need of further revenue was now imperative. As Hamilton said in his +second report on the public credit, the duties on imported articles had +reached a point which might not be exceeded "without contravening the +sense of the body of the merchants." When Congress met for its third +session in December, 1790, Hamilton boldly urged what was perhaps as +unpopular a tax as he could have proposed--a duty on distilled spirits. +To most Americans an excise was not only an internal tax, but as +Jefferson said, "an infernal one." It was bound to fall with heavy +weight upon the people of the interior who turned much of their corn and +rye into whiskey, for more convenient transportation over the mountains +to Eastern markets. But despite strenuous opposition the excise was +voted. It was, as a member of Congress expressed it, like "drinking down +the national debt." + +In this same report of December 13, 1790, Hamilton advocated the +establishment of a national bank. Such an institution, he believed, +would increase the amount of active capital in the country and at the +same time serve the Government as a fiscal agent in obtaining loans and +in collecting taxes. Opposition to this project gathered rapidly and was +encouraged by the Secretary of State. The debates in Congress touched +upon the monopolistic tendency of such a banking institution and its +constitutionality, rather than upon its intrinsic merits and demerits. +The bill was carried by substantial majorities in February, 1791, and +sent to the President for his approval. + +Washington was so beset with doubts as to the constitutionality of the +bank bill that he asked his secretaries and the Attorney-General to +express their opinions. Jefferson argued that the power to incorporate a +bank was not given by the Constitution to Congress, for it was not among +the enumerated powers and it was not a power which belonged to any of +the enumerated powers as indispensably necessary to their exercise. +Hamilton deprecated this attempt to confine the general Government +either to powers expressly granted or to powers absolutely necessary to +carry out the enumerated powers. There was another class, he contended, +which might be termed "resulting" powers. If the end to be gained by a +measure was comprehended within the specified powers, and the measure +was obviously a means to that end and not forbidden by the Constitution, +then it was clearly within the compass of the national authority. +Washington finally yielded to Hamilton's persuasions, and signed the +bill. + +The charter of the bank fixed the capital stock at ten million dollars, +of which the Government was to subscribe one fifth; the rest was open to +public subscription. Three fourths of the public subscriptions might be +paid in bonds of the Government. The notes issued by the bank were made +receivable for all payments to the United States. The bank was to be the +repository of the government funds. Its management was committed to a +board of twenty-five directors chosen annually, who could establish +branch banks as they deemed advisable. The charter was to run for twenty +years. + +The stock of the bank was not only subscribed at once, but soon sold at +a premium which invited the wildest sort of speculation in Philadelphia, +New York, and Boston. Stock-jobbing became a mania. "The coffee house is +in an eternal buzz with the gamblers," Madison wrote from the seat of +government. Sinister aspects of this speculative craze soon began to +appear. "Of all the shameful circumstances of this business," said +Madison, "it is among the greatest to see the members of the Legislature +who were most active in pushing this job openly grasping its +emoluments." It was reported that Schuyler, Hamilton's father-in-law, +was to head the board of directors. + +As the wide reach of Hamilton's financial policy became clear, men like +Madison, whose sympathies had hitherto been enlisted on the side of more +efficient government, had grave misgivings. When the Secretary of the +Treasury intimated in his report on manufactures that Congress might +promote the general welfare by appropriating money in any way it chose, +Madison definitely parted company with his former collaborator, holding +that by such an interpretation of the Constitution "the Government is no +longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite +one, subject to particular restrictions." Jefferson had already +expressed himself in a similar way apropos of the bank bill. The +suspicions which the Secretary of State entertained of his brilliant +colleague were deep-seated. Hamilton's well-known preference for the +British Constitution and his disposition to convert his secretaryship +into a sort of chief ministerial office confirmed Jefferson's distrust. +Had he and Madison been alone in their suspicions, their misgivings +would not be worth recording; but they voiced the sentiments of an +increasing number of men who disliked the consolidating tendencies of +the new Government. + +Moreover, the aristocratic tone of Washington and his _entourage_ gave +deep offense. Both by disposition and by calculation the President +cultivated a certain official etiquette. His receptions were formal to +the point of frigidity. He received his visitors "with a dignified bow, +while his hands were so disposed as to indicate that the salutation was +not to be accompanied with shaking hands." His figure clad in black +velvet was most impressive. His hair was powdered and gathered in a +large silk bag. His hands were dressed in yellow gloves, and he carried +a cocked hat adorned with a black feather, while at his side hung a +sword in a scabbard of white polished leather. To ardent republicans +these trappings were so many manifestations of monarchical leanings. +Hamilton's suggestion that coins should bear the head of the President +under whom they were minted, was additional evidence to suspicious minds +that the group of men who had the President's ear were monarchists at +heart. + +Before the First Congress adjourned, the nucleus of a new party was at +hand and its fundamental tenet roughly foreshadowed: namely, opposition +to the increase of the powers of the Federal Government through the use +of implied powers and at the expense of the State Governments. The +appearance of the first number of the _National Gazette_ under the +editorship of Philip Freneau was a sign that the further conduct of the +Administration would be subjected to searching criticism. Freneau +succeeded admirably in voicing the opinions of the nascent party. The +columns of the _National Gazette_ had much to say about "aristocratic +juntos," "ministerial systems," and "the control of the government by a +wealthy body of capitalists and public creditors," whose interests were +in opposition to those of the people. When Hamilton's paper, the _United +States Gazette_, attempted to stigmatize the opposition as essentially +Anti-Federalist, Freneau replied that only those men were true friends +of the Union who adhered to a limited and republican form of government +and who were ready to resist the efforts which had been made "to +substitute, in the room of our equal republic, a baneful monarchy." By +posing as the only stanch supporters of republicanism, the opposition +secured a great tactical advantage. To call one's self emphatically a +Republican was to cast aspersions upon the republicanism of one's +opponents. + +As yet, however, there existed only tendencies toward parties and not +clearly defined political groups. The voting in the early sessions of +Congress was far from consistent. The members gave little indication +that they regarded themselves as adherents of parties whose fortunes +depended on preserving an unbroken alignment for or against the +Government. How little coherence the opposition possessed was apparent +when Giles, of Virginia, presented a resolution censuring Hamilton for +his management of the Treasury. Despite the unpopularity of Hamilton and +the general distrust of his policy in Republican circles, the opposition +could muster only seven votes in favor of the resolution, in the closing +hours of the Second Congress. + +The presidential election of 1792, therefore, was not properly a contest +between parties. When Washington consented reluctantly to serve a second +term, his unopposed reelection was assured. The Republicans expressed +their opposition only by supporting for Vice-President, George Clinton, +of New York, whose Anti-Federalism was well known, instead of John +Adams, of Massachusetts. The congressional elections of this year +resulted in the choice of men whose leanings were rather Republican than +Federalist. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + Besides the works of Hildreth and of McMaster, there are several + compendious histories which treat of the beginnings of the new + government. Among these are James Schouler, _History of the United + States under the Constitution_ (7 vols., 1880-1913), and E. M. + Avery, _History of the United States and its People from their + Earliest Records to the Present Time_ (7 vols., 1904- ). The events + of the Administrations of Washington and Adams are narrated by J. + S. Bassett, _The Federalist System_ (in _The American Nation_, + vol. 11, 1906). Among the special studies of importance are D. R. + Dewey, _Financial History of the United States_ (1903); C. R. + Fish, _The Civil Service and the Patronage_ (1905); H. B. Learned, + _The President's Cabinet_ (1912); and W. W. Willoughby, _The + Supreme Court of the United States_ (1890). There are many + biographies of the Federalist leaders. Among the best are W. C. + Ford, _George Washington_ (2 vols., 1900); W. G. Sumner, + _Alexander Hamilton_ (1890); F. S. Oliver, _Alexander Hamilton; an + Essay on American Union_ (1907); J. T. Morse, _John Adams_ (1885); + W. G. Brown, _Life of Oliver Ellsworth_ (1905). Of contemporary + writings none will give a more intimate view of politics than + Senator William Maclay's _Journal_ (1890). William Sullivan, + _Familiar Letters on Public Characters_ (1834), gives some lively + sketches of notable figures, but he writes with a strong + Federalist bias. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE TESTING OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT + + +The new Government fell heir to all the unsettled diplomatic problems of +the Confederation. The political destiny of the thirteen States seemed +fixed when they ratified the Constitution; the fate of the Western +communities beyond the Alleghanies still hung in the balance. In +Kentucky, General Wilkinson still intrigued in behalf of Spain. Sevier +and Robertson, in Tennessee, were not averse to separation from the +Eastern States nor to a Spanish protectorate. From New Orleans, Mobile, +St. Marks, and Pensacola, the Spanish authorities supplied the Indians +of the Southwest with arms and ammunition, counting on these uncertain +allies to maintain their long frontier, for Spain still claimed Florida +with its most northern boundary and refused to accept the validity of +the British cession of 1783. More than this: Spain was disposed to claim +both sides of the Mississippi, at least as far north as the Ohio. + +In the Northwest, British garrisons still held Michilimackinac, Detroit, +Niagara, Oswego, and other posts. The policy of Great Britain was +dictated by much the same considerations as was that of Spain. Lord +Dorchester, Governor of Canada, assured the home Government that "the +flimsy texture of republican government" could not long hold the Western +settlements in the Union. In 1789, the Lords of Trade reported that it +was a matter of interest for Great Britain "to prevent Vermont and +Kentucke, and all other settlements now forming in the Interior parts of +the great Continent of North America, from becoming dependent upon the +Government of the United States, or of any other Foreign Country, and to +preserve them on the contrary in a State of Independence and to induce +them to form Treaties of Commerce and Friendship with Great Britain." + +President Washington had hardly taken the oath of office when a war +cloud appeared on the western horizon. Certain British vessels, bound +for Nootka Sound to establish a trading-post, were seized by Spanish +authorities in a way which provoked bitter resentment. In the early +months of 1790, war seemed imminent. The situation was full of peril for +the United States, for war would inevitably bring about military +operations directed against Florida and Louisiana, and neither party was +likely to respect the neutrality of the United States. The prospect of a +conquest of the Spanish colonies by Great Britain alarmed the +Administration. "Embraced from the St. Croix to the St. Mary's on the +one side by their possessions, on the other side by their fleet," wrote +Jefferson, "we need not hesitate to say that they would soon find means +to unite to them all the territory covered by the ramifications of the +Mississippi." Representations were therefore made to the British +Government that "a due balance on our borders is not less desirable to +us than a balance of power in Europe has always appeared to them." + +Fortunately the war cloud vanished as rapidly as it had formed. In the +fall of 1790, Spain and England entered into a convention which averted +hostilities. Yet the situation on both flanks of our long frontier was +full of peril. Spain intrigued with the Creeks of the Southwest, while +the British authorities in Canada encouraged the Indians north of the +Ohio in their hostility to the white settlers. The attitude of the +Indians along the Maumee and Wabash Rivers was so menacing that Governor +St. Clair sent a punitive expedition against them; but the effect upon +the Indians was so slight that a second expedition was set on foot in +the following year. With a force of fourteen hundred raw recruits, +unused to Indian warfare, St. Clair marched into the heart of the Indian +country and suffered an inglorious defeat, on November 4, 1791. More +than half of his command were killed, and scarcely a man escaped +unscathed. It was a most humiliating reverse for the new Government, +occurring almost under the eyes of British garrisons, and just as +opposition was coming to a head in Congress. + +While two European powers were thus poised like vultures awaiting the +demise of the new republic, a third darkened the sky. France deemed the +moment auspicious for an attack upon the colonial possessions of her +late ally, the King of Spain. The South American revolutionist, Miranda, +had persuaded the French Ministry, as he had before persuaded Pitt, that +the Spanish colonial empire was tottering and would readily fall with +its rich spoil at the first resolute attack. The French Ministers were +dazzled by the prospect of reviving a colonial empire in the new world. +It seemed well within the range of possibilities to reduce Louisiana, +and from the mouth of the Mississippi to begin the conquest of Spanish +Central and Southern America. With this purpose in view, the Government +sent as Minister to the United States, Citizen Genet, an ardent apostle +of the Revolution. He was instructed to secure a treaty with the United +States--"a true family compact"--which "would conduce rapidly to freeing +Spanish America, to opening the navigation of the Mississippi to the +inhabitants of Kentucky, to delivering our ancient brothers of Louisiana +from the tyrannical yoke of Spain, and perhaps to uniting the fair star +of Canada to the American constellation." But without waiting for the +cooperation of the United States, Genet was to arouse the people of +Kentucky and Louisiana by sending among them agents who should light the +fires of revolution. + +[Map: The Northwest 1785-1795] + +The first news of the revolution in France had kindled the warmest +sympathy in the United States. Emotional individuals thought they saw +the events of our own revolution mirrored in the stirring drama in +France. The spectacle of the new republic confronting the allied +monarchs of Europe thrilled those who had battled with the hirelings of +George the Third. Civic feasts became the fashion; liberty caps and +French cockades were donned; "the social and soul-warming term Citizen" +was adopted by the more demonstrative. But there were those who did not +sing "Ca Ira" and who foresaw the peril of a general European war. + +Early in April, 1793, a British packet brought the news to New York that +Louis XVI had been guillotined and that France was at war with England +and Spain. The ominous tidings brought President Washington post-haste +from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia. Summoning his advisers, he put before +them the perplexing questions which had arisen in his mind. Neutrality +was obviously the policy which national self-interest dictated; but +neutrality seemed hardly compatible with our treaty obligations to +France. In the treaties of 1778, the United States had expressly +guaranteed French possessions in America and had opened its ports to +French privateers and their prizes, denying the privilege to her +enemies. Hamilton argued rather fallaciously that these treaties were +made by the King of France and were binding upon his successors alone; +they were not in force after the Revolutionary Government had destroyed +the monarchy. Furthermore, the guaranty did not apply to an offensive +war such as that which France was now waging. Jefferson and Randolph +took issue with Hamilton on these points; but all agreed that neutrality +must be preserved. On April 22, the President issued a proclamation, +which, avoiding the word "neutrality," declared that the United States +was at peace with both France and Great Britain, and warned all citizens +to avoid all acts of hostility. + +The proclamation was well-timed, for Genet had already landed at +Charleston and had begun his extraordinary career as revolutionary agent +of the Gironde. He found the ground well watered for the seeds of +revolution. In Georgia and South Carolina, the frontiersmen were +smarting under the repeated depredations of the Cherokees and Creeks and +eager to put an end to Spanish ascendancy in that quarter. Under these +circumstances it was no difficult matter to arrange for expeditions +against St. Augustine from the Georgia frontier, and against New Orleans +from South Carolina by way of the Tennessee River and the Mississippi. +Assuming that the United States was already enlisted in the cause by the +treaties of 1778, Genet sent out orders to French consuls, bidding them +set up courts of admiralty for the trial of prize cases, and even +dispatched privateers from the port of Charleston to prey upon British +vessels. Before Genet could reach Philadelphia, the French frigate +L'Ambuscade had captured the Little Sarah in lower Delaware Bay, and had +anchored with her prize in the river opposite the city. + +From Charleston, Genet made a triumphal progress to Philadelphia, +receiving on all sides demonstrations which convinced him that the heart +of the nation beat in unison with that of France. He was therefore much +disconcerted and angered by the studied reserve of the President, to +whom he presented his credentials in Philadelphia. What a contrast +between the liberty-loving populace and this haughty aristocrat who kept +medallions of Capet and his family upon his parlor walls! At a banquet +in Oeller's Tavern, however, Genet received the sort of demonstrations +which his French heart craved. There, amid poetic declamations and many +libations to the Goddess of Liberty, he and his hosts donned the crimson +cap of liberty and sang with infinite zest the new "Marseillaise." Even +a well-balanced mind might have become convinced that the Administration +and the people were out of accord. + +On the threshold of his career at Philadelphia, Genet demanded an +advance payment on the debt which the United States owed to France. The +refusal of the Administration to supply him with funds embittered him +still further. He now took up with vigor his revolutionary projects in +the West. The proposal of George Rogers Clark to raise a force and take +all Louisiana for France reached him at this time and fitted in well +with his general mission. Clark was given a commission as "Major General +of the Independent and Revolutionary Legion of the Mississippi," and was +promised the cooperation of frigates in his attack upon New Orleans. For +this purpose Genet made haste to transform the Little Sarah into a +privateer, under the very eyes of the Government. He was warned that he +must not allow La Petite Democrate, as the vessel was rechristened, to +put to sea. Nevertheless, in defiance of the state and federal +authorities, the ship dropped down the bay and eventually put out to +sea. + +Up to this moment Genet's popularity was immense. Very probably this +popular devotion to the cause of France was inspired in part by the +factious opposition which was irritating the Administration on purely +domestic issues. Nevertheless, Liberty, Equality, and the Rights of Man +were phrases which appealed cogently to the democratic masses in the +States. In imitation of the Jacobin Club, Democratic societies sprang up +in all the considerable centers of population from Boston to Charleston. +In these organizations the voice of the disfranchised classes was +articulate for the first time. With unprecedented virulence these +Democrats attacked not only policies but personalities. Washington was +libeled in such scurrilous fashion that even his composure broke down on +one occasion, so Jefferson records; and he declared in a passion that by +God! he had rather be in his grave than in his present situation. + +After the Little Democrat episode, however, popular sentiment began to +grow cold toward Genet. His plans failed to carry; and he was reported +to have exclaimed in a moment of irritation that he would appeal from +the President to the people. This was the last straw. All but his most +radical followers deserted him. The Administration now determined to +demand his recall. But events in France had already terminated Genet's +career. The Girondist party had fallen and the triumphant Jacobins had +no use for an agent who had served the discredited faction. In February, +1794, Genet was replaced by Fauchet and his revolutionary mission ended +with his official duties. + +From the moment when France declared war upon Great Britain to the exile +of Napoleon two decades later, the United States as a neutral nation was +incessantly menaced by the aggressions of one or the other of the +belligerents. A faithful picture of American politics must set the +stirring events of this epoch against the forbidding background of +European intrigue and war. In this struggle the supremacy of the seas +fell to Great Britain. However victorious on European battlefields, +French armies were powerless to defend the colonial possessions in the +West Indies. Cut off from France the colonies could only maintain +themselves by direct trade with neutrals like the United States. But by +the so-called rule of 1756, neutral commerce was forbidden under these +conditions. Ports closed to neutral commerce in time of peace might not +be thrown open in time of war. Flinging consistency to the winds, the +French Convention decreed in February, 1793, that neutral states might +trade with her colonies on the same terms as French vessels. That Great +Britain would refuse to sanction this trade was fully expected. It was +inevitable that Great Britain would treat neutrals who accepted the +French invitation as having forfeited their neutrality. + +With little or no thought of probable consequences, fleets of +merchantmen set sail from Boston, Philadelphia, and other ports in the +spring of the year, with cargoes of fish and grain to barter for sugar, +coffee, and rum at Martinique, Antigua, and St. Kitts. The traffic +promised to be most lucrative. But disaster overtook many a gallant +vessel before she could reach her destination. In June, British orders +in council instructed English cruisers to detain all vessels bound for a +French port with corn, flour, and meal, and to purchase such supplies as +were needed. Such vessels were then to be allowed to proceed to any port +of a state with which His Majesty was living in amity. The skipper who +had anything worth taking to a foreign port after an experience of this +sort was lucky indeed. In November orders were issued for the seizure of +all vessels laden with French colonial products or carrying provisions +to any French colony. + +Tales of outrages perpetrated under the British orders in council soon +began to reach the home ports of the West India merchantmen. Doubtless +these tales lost nothing in the telling, but the unimpeachable fact +remains that scores of American ships were seized and libeled in +admiralty courts set up in the British West Indies. Nor did the British +naval officers hesitate to impress seamen who were suspected of being +British subjects. Republican opponents of the Administration, who had +felt the proclamation of neutrality as a rebuff to our old ally, France, +were now confirmed in their hostility to Great Britain. To their minds +ample cause for war existed. + +The policy which Jefferson and Madison would have forced upon the +Administration was one of retaliation. In a report to Congress Jefferson +proposed that whenever our commerce was laid under restrictions by a +foreign nation, similar restrictions should be put upon the trade of the +offending state. By pacific coercion, the United States would oblige +foreign states to make favorable commercial treaties. Madison urged this +policy upon Congress in a series of resolutions; but the supporters of +the Administration pointed out that retaliatory measures would sacrifice +the trade with Great Britain, which furnished seven eighths of the total +imports into the country. It was plain that the mercantile classes which +upheld the Administration did not desire either war or retaliatory +legislation, however much they might be suffering from British +depredations. The resources of diplomacy were not yet exhausted. Might +not a treaty be secured which would open up the British West India +trade? + +Upon the news of the offensive orders in council of November, which +reached Philadelphia in the following March, public feeling veered +strongly toward war. At the same time with tales of new outrages at sea +came a not very well authenticated but commonly accepted report of Lord +Dorchester's speech to the Indians of the Northwest, in which he +assured his dusky hearers that war was imminent between his country and +the United States. Congress now began to prepare for the inevitable. +Appropriations were made for the fortification of harbors and the +collection of military stores. The depredations of the Algerine pirates +in the Mediterranean gave excuse for the building of six frigates. An +embargo was laid upon commerce for thirty days and then extended over +another thirty days. Dayton, of New Jersey, alarmed the administration +party by proposing the sequestration of all British debts as an +indemnity for the vessels which had been seized by British cruisers. + +A rift now appeared in the war cloud. Early in April, Washington +received intelligence of a new order in council dated January 8, 1794, +which only forbade trade between the French colonies and Europe, leaving +American vessels to trade freely with the French West Indies. Washington +seized the opportune moment to test the resources of diplomacy. On April +16, he sent to the Senate the nomination of Chief Justice John Jay as +Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of St. James. Three days later the +nomination was confirmed, and by the middle of May, Jay was on his way +to England upon the most difficult mission of his diplomatic career. + +While Jay was pressing American grievances upon Lord Grenville, not the +least of which was the retention of the Western posts by British +garrisons, events occurred near one of the unsurrendered posts which +might easily have brought on war. The humiliating defeat of St. Clair +in 1791 had left the settlers beyond the Ohio at the mercy of the +Indians. British authorities in Canada encouraged the Indians to believe +that by combination they could check the advance of the whites. An +Indian territory under British protection would have served the purposes +of Great Britain admirably. To forestall these designs President +Washington appointed to command in the Northwest Anthony Wayne--"Mad +Anthony" of Revolutionary days. With a caution and thoroughness which +belied his reputation, Wayne spent nearly two years in recruiting and +drilling an army. Every effort in the mean time to conciliate the +Indians was made futile by the machinations of their British advisers. +By the spring of 1794, Wayne had an army sufficiently trustworthy to +undertake a forward movement. His route lay down the Maumee River, at +the rapids of which Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe had built a fort and +stationed a small garrison, in anticipation of an American attack upon +Detroit, which was supposed to be Wayne's objective. At a place known as +Fallen Timber, a few miles south of the rapids, on August 18, Wayne +found the Indians ready to offer battle. They had chosen their ground +with considerable skill, but Wayne employed his cavalry and infantry so +effectively that he drove the redskins from cover and pursued them with +great slaughter almost to the walls of the British fort. The British +commander demanded an explanation. Wayne replied with a taunt which +amounted to a challenge and which was probably intended to be such; but +the British refused to be drawn into hostilities. Had Wayne attacked +and dispersed the British garrison, he would hardly stand condemned at +the bar of history, for by the Treaty of Paris not he, but the British +commander, was the intruder on foreign soil. Nevertheless, war at this +time would have made Jay's mission futile and might have sacrificed the +whole Mississippi Valley. + +The Administration had hardly time to applaud Wayne's victory when it +was greatly perturbed by an insurrectionary movement in western +Pennsylvania. The sturdy Scotch-Irish people of the southwestern +counties beyond the mountains had always felt their aloofness from the +eastern counties. They were now still further disaffected because of the +federal tax on spirituous liquors. They shared the feeling of the +Continental Congress, which in 1774 had declared an excise "the horror +of all free states." Even before the incidence of the tax was fully +felt, protests were drafted at mass-meetings and federal collectors were +roughly treated. The tax fell with heavy weight upon the small farmer. +Whiskey was not merely his chief marketable commodity: it was also his +medium of exchange when money was scarce. A tax on his still seemed to +be an unfair discrimination. Such was the pitch of public feeling in the +year 1793 that farmers who complied with the law had their stills +wrecked by masked men, popularly known as "Whiskey Boys." + +Early in July, 1794, the marshal of the district court of Philadelphia +attempted to serve writs against distillers in the western counties who +were charged with breaking the law. He chose his time unwisely, for the +farmers were in the midst of harvesting, and liquor was circulating +freely among the laborers. In serving his last writ, he was threatened +by a number of reapers. This was the spark needed to start a +conflagration. On the next morning the house of a revenue inspector, +Neville, was attacked and blood was shed. A small detachment of soldiers +from Fort Pitt was stationed at the house; but on the following day they +were fired upon and forced to surrender, and the house of the inspector +was burned. The marshal and the inspector fled the country. Matters went +from bad to worse. The mail was robbed; the militia was summoned to meet +at Braddock's Field for the avowed purpose of attacking the garrison at +Fort Pitt; but there the courage of the leaders evaporated. The attack +upon the garrison was commuted into a boisterous march through the +streets of Pittsburg, whose citizens purchased immunity by liberal +donations of whiskey to the thirsty rioters. + +On August 7, 1794, the President issued a proclamation commanding the +insurgents to disperse, and summoned twelve thousand militia from the +adjoining States to hold themselves in readiness for active service on +the 1st of September. Meanwhile, earnestly desiring to avoid the use of +force, Washington sent three commissioners to the scene of the riots in +the hope of appealing to the sober sense of the people. They held +protracted negotiations with representatives of the people in the +disaffected district, but were unable to persuade them to deliver up the +ringleaders of the revolt. On September 24, the President issued a +second proclamation and set the troops in motion. Under the command of +"Light Horse Harry" Lee, now Governor of Virginia, the army marched west +in two divisions, but encountered no resistance. Many arrests were made +and eighteen alleged leaders of the insurrection were sent to +Philadelphia for trial. Only two of these, however, were convicted of +treasonable conduct, and they were pardoned by the President. Some +twenty-five hundred troops were quartered near Pittsburg for the winter; +but rebellion did not again lift its head. + +The utter collapse of the Whiskey Rebellion made the whole affair seem +ridiculous to those who gathered in the coffee-houses to hear the tales +of the militiamen but the importance of the episode was not slight. +Hamilton is said to have remarked on one occasion that a government can +never be said to be established "until some signal display of force has +manifested its power of military coercion." The Federal Government had +now demonstrated that it was equal to the emergency whenever the laws +were opposed by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the +ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the +marshals by law. The days of Shays' Rebellion had gone, never to return. + +There was an aspect of the insurrection which Washington did not fail to +note in his annual address to Congress in November, 1794. The Democratic +clubs had been unsparing in their condemnation of the excise law, and +their resolutions had more than once a treasonable sound. Washington did +not hesitate to deprecate the untoward influence of these "self-created +societies" and to condemn those "combinations of men, who, careless of +consequences, and disregarding the unerring truth that those who rouse +cannot always appease a civil convulsion, have disseminated, from an +ignorance or perversion of facts, suspicions, jealousies, and +accusations of the whole Government." The Democratic societies now fell +into disrepute and did not long survive their great prototype, the +Jacobin Club of Paris. + +Although Jay had presented his credentials in June, 1794, it was the +19th of November before a treaty was signed; and it was not until the +8th of June, 1795, that Washington could send an authentic copy to the +Senate. The most dispassionate member of that body must have confessed +privately to a sense of disappointment as he heard the terms for the +first time. Listening intently for the redress of grievances, he seemed +to hear only concessions. The United States was to assume the debts +still unpaid to British merchants since the peace, so far as "lawful +impediments" had been put in the way of their collection; to open all +ports to British ships on the footing of the most favored nation; and to +make restitution for losses and damages to the property of British +subjects occasioned by French privateers in American waters, whenever +compensation could not be obtained in the ordinary course of justice. +And for all these concessions what had been gained? The promise to +evacuate the Western posts? That was but a tardy redemption of an old +promise. No mention was made of the negroes carried away by British +armies during the war. Nothing was said about the impressment of +American seamen. To be sure, the ports of the East Indies were to be +opened to direct commerce with the United States; but no American vessel +might engage in the coasting trade of these East India dependencies. As +for the West India trade, only vessels of seventy tons burden might +participate, and even that concession was yielded on the express +understanding that molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, and cotton should not +be exported from the United States to any part of the world. After +hearing this obnoxious twelfth article, few Senators could preserve a +fair mind on the remaining provisions of the treaty. + +The historian is in a better position to evaluate the treaty. To the +cause of international arbitration, Jay and Grenville made a distinct +contribution. They provided for three commissions which were to settle +the uncertain boundaries of the United States on the northeast and +northwest; to adjudicate the claims of British creditors; and to adjust +the claims of those citizens of the United States whose ships and +cargoes had been seized in the West India trade, and on the other hand, +the claims of those British subjects who had suffered losses through +French privateers in American waters. Moreover, an agreement was reached +on what should in future be regarded as contraband, and on the treatment +of vessels which should be captured on suspicion of carrying enemies' +property or contraband. + +There were two cogent reasons for ratifying the treaty despite its +defects: it provided for indemnity in respect to recent seizures on the +high seas; and it averted war. But no arguments could justify the +surrender of American trade in the West Indies, to the minds of either +the New England shipper or the Southern planter, for while the latter +might be indifferent to other considerations, he would not willingly +part with his right to ship his cotton crop, now becoming every year +more valuable. The requisite two-thirds vote of the Senate was secured +only by dropping out altogether the objectionable twelfth article. + +The publication of the treaty was followed by an outburst of popular +indignation which made even the President wince. Remonstrances and +protests poured in upon him from every part of the Union. The sailors +and shipowners of Portsmouth burned Jay and Grenville in effigy, +together with a miniature ship of seventy tons. In Charleston, the flags +were put at half-mast and the public hangman burned copies of the treaty +in the open street. While remonstrating with a disorderly crowd in Wall +Street which was vilifying Jay, Hamilton was stoned and forced to give +way with the blood streaming down his face. Personal abuse of the +coarsest kind was heaped upon Washington by the opposition press, while +a host of pamphleteers assailed him under cover of anonymity. Congress +expressed its hostility toward the President by omitting to congratulate +him on his birthday. + +In the face of this denunciation, Washington might well have hesitated +to press the ratification of the amended treaty upon Great Britain. His +perplexities were further increased by the tidings that the Ministry +had renewed the earlier orders for the seizure of provisions on neutral +vessels bound for French ports. Hamilton was of the opinion that the +President should insist upon the withdrawal of this order in council and +upon the acceptance of the Senate amendment before he ratified the +treaty. The delicate task of securing the consent of Great Britain to +these conditions was entrusted to John Quincy Adams, then Minister at +The Hague. + +Meanwhile the skies cleared in the Northwest. Wayne's punitive +expedition had done its work. With their towns destroyed and their crops +ruined, the Indians had passed a terrible winter. By the following +summer they were ready to sue for peace. In a great council at +Greenville, on August 4, 1795, they agreed to a treaty which ceded to +the United States all the region south and east of a line running from +the intersection of the Kentucky and Ohio Rivers to Lake Erie. Only one +thing was needed to secure the Northwest and that was the evacuation of +the British posts. + +During this same summer, Thomas Pinckney, at the Court of Madrid, was +trying to secure the liberation of the Southwest from the control of +Spain. On October 27, 1795, the treaty of San Lorenzo was signed, which +conceded the thirty-first parallel as the northern boundary of West +Florida from the Mississippi to the Apalachicola. This was in itself a +notable achievement; but even more important to the people of the +Western world was the declaration that the Mississippi River should be +open to their commerce with the right of deposit at New Orleans. + +The mission of Adams at the Court of St. James was not less successful. +The Ministry agreed to modify the objectionable order in council and to +accept the treaty without the twelfth article. With a deep sense of +relief Washington promulgated the treaty as the law of the land on +February 27, 1795. With these three treaties of 1795, not only was war +averted, but our slender hold upon the vast tract between the +Alleghanies and the Mississippi immeasurably strengthened, if not +secured for all time. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + The attitude of historical writers toward the events recorded in + this chapter has been considerably altered since the publication + of a series of articles by F. J. Turner. The more important of + these contributions are: "The Origin of Genet's Projected Attack + on Louisiana and the Floridas" (_American Historical Review_, + III); "The Policy of France toward the Mississippi Valley" + (_Ibid._, X); and "The Diplomatic Contest for the Mississippi + Valley" (_Atlantic Monthly_, XCIII). Nearly all the authorities + cited in the foregoing chapter deal in greater or less detail with + the diplomatic events of Washington's Administrations. The + following may be added to the list: Trescott, _Diplomatic History + of the Administrations of Washington and Adams_ (1857); F. A. Ogg, + _The Opening of the Mississippi_ (1904); C. D. Hazen, + _Contemporary American Opinion of the French Revolution_ (1897). + The story of the expeditions against the Indians of the Northwest + is told by Roosevelt, _Winning of the West_ (vol. IV). A reliable + account of the Whiskey Insurrection is given in Brackenridge, + _History of the Western Insurrection_ (1859). + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ANGLOMEN AND JACOBINS + + +In January, 1795, Hamilton retired from the Treasury Department. The +moment was well chosen, for his great creative work was done and signs +were not wanting that the initiative in finance was about to pass to the +House of Representatives. As he passed out of office, a young +Representative from Pennsylvania made his appearance in Congress who was +scarcely his inferior in quick grasp of the intricacies of public +finance. Almost the first efforts of Albert Gallatin were directed to +the improvement of the methods of congressional finance. It was at his +suggestion that the first standing Committee of Ways and Means in the +House was appointed, in the expectation that it would assume a general +superintendence of finance. Believing that the Executive could be held +in check only by systematic, specific appropriations, Gallatin became an +insistent advocate of the rule, and in consequence a thorn in the flesh +of the departments. "The management of the Treasury," complained Wolcott +to Hamilton, "becomes more and more difficult. The legislature will not +pass laws in gross. Their appropriations are minute; Gallatin, to whom +they yield, is evidently intending to break down this department, by +charging it with an impracticable detail." "The heads of departments," +Fisher Ames wrote despondently, two years after Hamilton left office, +"are chief clerks. Instead of being the ministry, the organs of the +executive power, and imparting a kind of momentum to the operation of +the laws, they are precluded even from communicating with the House by +reports." There was no room for a British ministry in the Republican +scheme of politics. + +Meantime, Washington's foreign policy had widened the breach between the +political factions and had forced him into a partisan position. From the +Republican point of view, Jay's treaty threw the United States into the +arms of England and gave just cause of offense to France. Knowing the +popular temper, which was undoubtedly hostile to the treaty, the +Republican leaders endeavored to defeat the purposes of the +Administration by refusing to vote the necessary appropriations. Their +first demand was for the papers relating to the treaty, on the ground +that in matters upon which the action of the House was needed, that body +might properly call for information to guide its deliberations. The +President refused this demand, both because he deemed it imprudent to +make the papers public, and because he denied the right of the House to +participate in the treaty-making power. + +The debate which followed is one of the most illuminating in the early +history of Congress. The trend of argument may be suggested by two +remarks of opposing partisans. Said Griswold for the Federalists, "The +House of Representatives have nothing to do with the treaty but provide +for its execution." Disclaiming that the House was bent upon impairing +the constitutional right of the President and Senate to make treaties, +Gallatin contended that the power claimed by the House was "only a +negative, a restraining power on those subjects over which Congress has +the right to legislate." In vigorous resolutions the House sustained +Gallatin's position; and the appropriation for the treaty was carried +only by the casting vote of the Speaker, on April 29, two months after +Washington by proclamation had declared the treaty to be the law of the +land. + +The consequences of the _rapprochement_ between the United States and +Great Britain were far-reaching. The French Minister, Fauchet, urged his +Government to take immediate steps to acquire a continental colony which +would not only serve France and her West India colonies as a granary and +as a market for their exports, but which would also bring pressure to +bear upon the disaffected border communities of the United States. Such +a colony was Louisiana. With this province in her possession, a power +like France would speedily control the Mississippi and the Western +people who used that highway for their commerce. Throughout the year +1795, the French Government sought by persuasion and threats to secure +Louisiana from Spain as the price of an alliance. + +How far the Administration was apprised of these designs is not clear; +but against the background of French intrigue certain passages of +Washington's Farewell Address take on a new significance. The West was +warned that it could control "the indispensable outlets for its own +productions" only by attaching itself firmly to "the Atlantic side of +the Union." "Any other tenure ... whether derived from its own separate +strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign +power, must be intrinsically precarious." And the admission of Tennessee +as a State in the year 1796 may have been hastened by an ill-defined +fear that the people of the West might not be proof against French +machinations. + +The purpose of Washington not to accept a re-election was known to his +intimates early in the spring of 1796. Upon whom would his mantle fall? +There was much searching of hearts among Federalist leaders, but by the +end of the summer it was well understood that Federalist electors would +support John Adams and Thomas Pinckney for the Presidency and +Vice-Presidency. The most talented man in the party was unquestionably +Alexander Hamilton; but Hamilton had made too many enemies to be a +popular candidate. By common consent, Thomas Jefferson became the +candidate of the Republicans for President; with him was associated +Aaron Burr, of New York. + +The most remarkable aspect of the campaign of 1796 was the undisguised +attempt of Adet, who had succeeded Fauchet, to turn the election in +Jefferson's favor. The treaty with England could not be undone; but +France had much to hope from a Republican administration. In a series of +letters directed to the Secretary of State, but printed in the +Philadelphia _Aurora_, Adet announced that the Directory regarded the +treaty of commerce concluded with Great Britain as "a violation of the +treaty made with France in 1778, and equivalent to a treaty of alliance +with Great Britain." "Justly offended," the Directory had ordered him to +"suspend his ministerial functions with the Federal Government." This +action, however, was not to be regarded as a rupture between the two +peoples, but only "as a mark of just discontent, which is to last until +the Government of the United States returns to sentiments and to +measures, more conformable to the interests of the alliance, and the +sworn friendship between the two nations." + +Adet would have had the people believe that the alternatives were +Jefferson or war; and the threat of war, so it was said, was enough to +drive the peace-loving Quakers of Pennsylvania into the Republican +ranks. In more northerly States Adet's manifesto probably had the +opposite effect. "There is not one elector east of the Delaware River," +declared the Connecticut _Courant_, "who would not sooner be shot than +vote for Thomas Jefferson." Not a Republican elector was chosen in the +States to the north and east of Pennsylvania. On the other hand, Adams +received only two electoral votes south of the Potomac. South Carolina +divided its vote between Jefferson and Pinckney. Only unexpected votes +in Virginia and North Carolina gave Adams the election, for Pennsylvania +was carried by the Republicans. Pinckney lost the Vice-Presidency +through the defection of Federalists in New England. + +An incident of the election in Pennsylvania revealed the change already +wrought by parties in the Constitution. The framers of the Constitution +expected that a small number of persons selected by their fellow +citizens from the general mass would deliberately weigh "all the reasons +and inducements which were proper to govern their choice," and in their +mature wisdom choose the individual who met the requirements of the +office. It fell out otherwise. In Pennsylvania, one of the six States to +choose electors by popular vote, each party had put forward a ticket +with fifteen names. Thirteen of the fifteen Republican electors were +chosen. Of the two Federalist electors who were chosen, one broke faith +with his party and cast his vote for Jefferson and Pinckney. The +Federalists were exasperated by this treachery. "What!" expostulated a +writer in the _United States Gazette_: "Do I chuse Samuel Miles to +determine for me whether John Adams or Thomas Jefferson shall be +President? No! I chuse him to _act_, not to _think_." + +While Adet was endeavoring to bring what the Federalists called the +French party into power, the Administration was urging the reluctant +Monroe at Paris to make the Jay Treaty as palatable as possible to the +French Government. This was an irksome task for that ardent Republican. +From the outset of his mission he found it difficult to sustain that +detachment from French politics which his position demanded. Moreover, +after having assured the French Government that Jay was negotiating at +London only for the redress of grievances and not for a commercial +treaty, Monroe found it peculiarly humiliating to be obliged to confess +that he had been kept in ignorance of the real trend of negotiations. +Under these circumstances, he temporized and gave only half-hearted +attention to the task of placating the Directory. Hamilton now advised +his recall; and Washington, who had on two occasions expressed his +displeasure with Monroe's conduct, determined to send Charles Cotesworth +Pinckney in his stead. + +Trivial as this incident seems, it was not without its effect upon the +course of diplomacy abroad and of politics at home. When Monroe +endeavored to put his successor into touch with the French Foreign +Office, he was told that the Directory was not prepared to receive +another American representative until their grievances had been +redressed. This affront left Pinckney in an embarrassing position, for +until his credentials were accepted, he was liable, like all foreigners +at that time, to arrest as a spy. It was not until February, after many +months of waiting, that he was given his passport. He at once crossed +the border and took up his residence at Amsterdam. + +Meantime, Monroe had taken his departure with the warmest expressions of +regard on the part of the French Government. He was assured that his +worth and his efforts in behalf of his country's interests were +understood and appreciated. He returned to the United States with the +firm conviction, which his Republican friends shared, that he had been +made the victim of Federalist chicanery. In the following year he +published an elaborate defense which served admirably as a popular +campaign document in the next presidential elections. + +It fell to John Adams on the very threshold of his administration to +deal with what he euphemistically called the misunderstanding with +France. His inaugural address announced unmistakably his intention to +preserve neutrality between the belligerents of Europe, and to treat +France with impartiality but with a sincere desire for her friendship. +Between the lines may be read also an equally sincere desire to placate +the opposition and to free himself from all imputation of a bias toward +Great Britain and a monarchical system. From the first news of +Pinckney's dismissal, President Adams was disposed "to institute a fresh +attempt at negotiation": he even approached Jefferson to see if he would +not persuade Madison to serve on a special commission, believing that +Madison's well-known Gallic sympathies would commend him to the French +nation. At the same time he declared stoutly in a message to Congress, +in special session on May 15, that France had treated the United States +"neither as allies nor as friends nor as a sovereign state." Attempts +which had been made to create a rupture between the people of the United +States and their Government "ought to be repelled 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." +While he therefore recommended measures of defense, he asked the Senate +to confirm the appointment of three commissioners whom he proposed to +send to France. Two of these, Pinckney and John Marshall, were +Federalists, but the third was Elbridge Gerry, a Massachusetts +Republican, who was the second choice of the President, Dana having +declined to serve. + +While Congress was acting upon the President's recommendations and +voting appropriations for fortifications and for the completion of the +three frigates which were then on the stocks, disquieting disclosures +came from the West. Spain having declared war upon England in the +previous fall, British emissaries, it was rumored, were concerting plans +for the conquest of New Orleans and West Florida. While expeditions made +up of Western frontiersmen and Indians descended upon the Spanish +strongholds in the Southwest, a British fleet was to blockade the mouth +of the Mississippi. The evidence which President Adams laid before +Congress in July implicated Senator Blount, of Tennessee. In common with +other land speculators, he had become alarmed at the rumor that France +was about to acquire Louisiana, and had agreed to use his influence +among the whites and Indians of the Southwest, where he had formerly +been governor, to assist the designs of Great Britain. He was expelled +from the Senate and impeached. Before his trial could take place, he was +elected a member of the legislature of Tennessee, and from that point of +vantage he successfully defied the federal authorities. + +The episode had unfortunate consequences: it aroused the distrust of the +Spanish Government and delayed the surrender of Natchez and other posts +which Spain had agreed to cede in the Treaty of 1795; and it furnished +Talleyrand, who had become Minister of Foreign Affairs under the +Directory, with an additional argument for the cession of Louisiana to +France. France in control of Louisiana and Florida would be "a wall of +brass forever impenetrable to the combined efforts of England and +America." + +Early in March, 1797, dispatches arrived from the envoys which were full +of sinister disclosures. On the 19th, President Adams announced gloomily +that he perceived "no ground of expectation" that the objects of the +mission could be accomplished "on terms compatible with the safety, +honor, or the essential interests of the nation." He renewed his +recommendations of measures of defense "proportioned to the danger." The +average Republican regarded this message as tantamount to a declaration +of war. Jefferson spoke of it as "an insane message." The partisan press +held it to be further proof of British bias in John Adams, the old +aristocrat! But when the President sent to Congress the deciphered +dispatches, and the newspapers had printed extracts from them, a wave of +indignation swept over the country. For the moment the wildest partisan +of France was silenced. + +The envoys told a sordid tale of French intrigue and greed. It appeared +that they had never been received officially when they made known their +presence on French soil, but had been approached by agents of +Talleyrand, whom they referred to in the dispatches as Mr. X, Mr. Y, and +Mr. Z. They were much mystified by the language used by these gentlemen, +until the evening of October 18, when Mr. X called on General Pinckney +and whispered that he had a message from Talleyrand. "General Pinckney +said he should be glad to hear it. Mr. X replied that the Directory, and +particularly two of the members of it, were exceedingly irritated at +some passages of the President's speech, and desired that they should be +softened; and that this step would be necessary previous to our +reception. That, besides this, a sum of money was required for the +pocket of the Directory and Ministers, which would be at the disposal of +M. Talleyrand; and that a loan would also be insisted on. Mr. X said if +we acceded to these measures, M. Talleyrand had no doubt that all our +differences with France might be accommodated. On inquiry, Mr. X could +not point out the particular passages of the speech that had given +offense, nor the quantum of the loan, but mentioned that the _douceur_ +for the pocket was twelve hundred thousand livres, about fifty thousand +pounds sterling." + +Unwilling to believe their ears, the astonished envoys asked to have +these proposals put in writing. Mr. X not only complied with this +request, but brought with him Mr. Y, a confidential friend of +Talleyrand, who repeated the terms upon which the envoys would be +received, and pointed out convenient means by which the money could be +secretly transferred. + +The American commissioners responded that while they had ample powers to +make a treaty, they had none to make a loan. They offered, however, to +send one of their number to America for further instructions, provided +that the Directory would check the further capture of American vessels. +Nevertheless, the efforts of X and Y to secure the _douceur_ were not +relaxed. Finally, finding the envoys either obstinate or obtuse, Mr. X +exclaimed, "Gentlemen, you do not speak to the point. It is money; it is +expected that you will offer money." The Americans were inexorable. +"What is your answer?" asked X impatiently. "It is," said the envoys, +"no, no; not a sixpence." + +On November 1, the commissioners agreed to hold no more indirect +intercourse with the Government, but to prepare a statement of the +American grievances against France and to send it to Talleyrand. Two +weary months passed before they received his answer. Couched in language +which was both contemptuous and insulting, this reply of Talleyrand +terminated the mission. The Directory intimated that in future they +would treat only with Gerry as "the more impartial" member of the +commission. Pinckney and Marshall remonstrated against this +discrimination, but Gerry unwisely consented to deal with Talleyrand +alone. Marshall secured a passport with some difficulty and departed for +home. Pinckney with more difficulty secured permission to retire to +southern France with his invalid daughter. + +The war spirit now ran high. President Adams declared that he would +never send another minister to France without assurances that he would +be "received, respected, and honored as the representative of a great, +free, powerful, and independent nation," and the people supported this +declaration with surprising unanimity. Demonstrations occurred in all +the playhouses of Philadelphia and New York; young men formed +associations and donned the black cockade as an emblem of patriotic +devotion; even in the quiet towns of New England, women met to drink tea +and to sing the new song "Adams and Liberty." Cities along the coast +vied with one another in their eagerness to build warships. The +patriotic fervor found expression in original song and verse. "Hail +Columbia" was the happy inspiration of young Joseph Hopkinson, of +Philadelphia. For once in his life President John Adams found himself a +popular hero riding on the crest of public applause. + +To the intense disgust of Jefferson, even Republicans caught the war +fever, and joined with the Federalists in putting the country on a war +footing. Among the earliest measures of Congress was an act providing +for the establishment of a Navy Department. In rapid succession followed +acts authorizing the President to permit merchantmen to arm in their own +defense and our warships to seize French vessels which preyed upon our +commerce. On July 7, the existing treaties with France were repealed. In +short, without a formal declaration, the United States was virtually at +war with France. The new navy soon put to sea and gratified national +pride by several gallant victories, the most notable being the capture +of the frigate L'Insurgente by the newly commissioned Constellation, on +February 9, 1799. When peace was restored in 1800, the navy had a record +of eighty-four prizes, most of which were French privateers. + +The organization of the provisional army did not move so rapidly, partly +because of the incompetence of the Secretary of War, and partly because +of an unseemly wrangle for precedence among the three major-generals +whom Adams had named. Conscious of his own inexperience in military +affairs, President Adams had persuaded Washington to take chief command +of the army with the distinct understanding that he would not be called +into active service unless an emergency arose. Washington named +Hamilton, C. C. Pinckney, and Knox as major-generals, and the President +sent the nominations to the Senate in this order. Misunderstandings +arose at once as to the relative rank of these three major-generals. +Hamilton and his intimates in the circle of the President's advisers +urged that as his name was first on the list he was the ranking officer. +At this Knox took umbrage, for he had outranked Hamilton in the old +army; and so, too, had Pinckney. Knowing the intrigue in Hamilton's +behalf and not a little alarmed at the prospect of having the direction +of the war pass into the hands of a man whom he regarded as a rival, +Adams determined to sign the commissions in the reverse order, thus +giving Knox precedence. The friends of Hamilton were enraged at this +turn of affairs and prevailed upon Washington to write a letter of +protest to the President. Adams was finally persuaded to date all three +commissions alike and to leave the designation of rank to the +commander-in-chief. Washington promptly named Hamilton as +inspector-general with precedence over Pinckney and Knox; whereupon Knox +refused to serve. + +The immediate outcome of this controversy was to widen the rift which +was already separating the President from the faction led by Hamilton. +Adams had taken office in the belief that Washington's cabinet advisers +were loyal to him. "Pickering and all his colleagues are as much +attached to me as I desire," he had written just before his +inauguration. But he speedily found that all were accustomed to look to +Hamilton as the virtual leader of the Federalist party. Moreover, he +found himself thrust into the background in the matter of military +appointments, as soon as Hamilton took over the actual work of +organizing the army. The Constitution made him commander-in-chief; +circumstances seemed to conspire, he complained bitterly, "to annihilate +the essential powers given to the President." He had, too, all the +natural aversion of a civilian for military affairs. "Regiments are +costly articles everywhere," he told McHenry testily, "and more so in +this country than in any other under the sun. And if this country sees a +great army to maintain, without an enemy to fight, there may arise an +enthusiasm that seems to be little foreseen." + +It would have been strange, indeed, if under these circumstances the +President had not scanned the horizon anxiously for the faintest +intimations of peace. In October, 1798, definite assurances were given +by Talleyrand, through our Minister at The Hague, that France would +receive a new minister from the United States. On February 18, 1799, the +President confounded both friends and foes by sending to the Senate the +nomination of Vans Murray to be Minister to France. The emotions of the +militant Federalists were too various to admit of description. It would +have been madness, however, not to accept the proffered olive branch. +Swallowing their wrath, they agreed to the mission, but substituted a +commission of three for a single minister. + +From Napoleon, the new master of France, the commissioners secured a +convention which not only restored peace, but safeguarded the rights of +neutrals, by restraining the right of search and conceding the principle +that free ships make free goods. Napoleon consented also to the +abrogation of the treaties of 1778, but only upon condition that the new +treaty should contain no provision for the settlement of claims for +indemnity. John Adams was not far from the truth when he accounted this +peace one of the most meritorious actions of his life. "I desire no +other inscription over my gravestone," he wrote fifteen years later, +"than: 'Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility +of the peace with France in the year 1800.'" + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + On the origin and growth of political parties in the United + States, the following books are suggestive and informing: H. J. + Ford, _The Rise and Growth of American Politics_ (1898); C. E. + Merriam, _A History of American Political Theories_ (1910); J. P. + Gordy, _Political History of the United States_ (2 vols., + 1900-03); A. E. Morse, _The Federalist Party in Massachusetts to + the Year 1800_ (1909); J. D. Hammond, _History of the Political + Parties in the State of New York, 1789-1840_ (2 vols., 1850). To + those histories already mentioned which describe the quarrel with + France may be added G. W. Allen, _Our Naval War with France_ + (1909), and A. T. Mahan, _Influence of Sea Power on the French + Revolution and Empire_ (2 vols., 1898). A most readable account of + manners and customs in America is given by La + Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, _Travels through the United States, + 1795-1797_ (2 vols., 1799). Social life in New York and + Philadelphia is described by R. W. Griswold, _The Republican + Court_ (1864). + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE REVOLUTION OF 1800 + + +The greatest obstacle in the path of the people of the United States in +their struggle toward national life was the vastness of the territory +which they occupied. Even the region between the Alleghanies and the sea +was as yet imperfectly subdued. Great tracts of wilderness separated +communities beyond the fall-line of the rivers. Intercourse was +incredibly difficult even between the commercial ports of New England +and the Middle States. Stage-coaches plied between Boston and New York, +to be sure, and between New York and Philadelphia. By stage, too, a +traveler could reach Baltimore and Washington in the course of time. But +beyond the Potomac public conveyances were few and uncertain in their +routes. The only public stage in the Carolinas and Georgia plied between +Charleston and Savannah. Those whom either public or private business +forced to journey from these remote Southern States to Philadelphia took +passage in coasting vessels. It is difficult to say which were greater, +the perils by land or by sea. Writing from Philadelphia in 1790, William +Smith, of South Carolina, described the misfortunes of his fellow +Congressmen in trying to reach the seat of government, as follows: +"Burke was shipwrecked off the Capes; Jackson and Mathews with great +difficulty landed at Cape May and traveled one hundred and sixty miles +in a wagon to the city. Burke got here in the same way. Gerry and +Partridge were overset in the stage; the first had his head broke and +made his _entree_ with an enormous black patch; the other had his ribs +sadly bruised and was unable to stir for some days. Tucker had a +dreadful passage of sixteen days with perpetual storms. I wish these +little _contretemps_ may not sour their tempers and be inauspicious to +our proceedings." + +Even in the North, where distances were not so great and where great +arms of the ocean did not penetrate so far inland, as in North Carolina, +for example, interposing so many barriers to communication, travel was +painfully slow and hazardous. Travelers who made the journey from Boston +to New York by stage-coach accounted themselves lucky if they reached +their destination in six days, for no bridges spanned any of the great +waterways and the crossing by ferryboats was uncertain and often +dangerous. Many travelers preferred to journey by water from port to +port, but coasting vessels, contending with the winds and the tides, +were often nine or ten days in sailing from Boston to New York. + +The post traveled with somewhat greater speed; yet a letter sent from +Portland, Maine, could not be delivered in Savannah, Georgia, in less +than twenty days. From Philadelphia a post went to Lexington, Kentucky, +in sixteen days, and to Nashville, Tennessee, in twenty-two days. The +cost of these posts, like the cost of traveling, was in many cases +prohibitive. The rate for a letter of a single sheet was twenty-five +cents. News traveled slowly from State to State. The best news sheets +in New York printed intelligence from Virginia which was almost as +belated as that which the packets brought from Europe. + +With such barriers in the way of intercourse, the masses, so far indeed +as they possessed the suffrage at all, were not politically +self-assertive. Devoted primarily to the pursuit of agriculture and +commerce, essentially rural in their distribution, the people had +neither the desire nor the means, nor yet the leisure, to engage in +active politics. Politics was the occupation of those who commanded +leisure and some accumulated wealth. The voters of the several States +touched each other only through their leaders. In these early years +national parties were hardly more than divisions of a governing class. +Party organization was visible only in its most rudimentary form--a +leader and a personal following. The machinery of a modern party +organization did not come into existence until the railroad and the +steamboat tightened the bonds of intercourse between State and State, +and between community and community. + +In another respect political parties of the Federalist period differed +from later political organizations. Under stress of foreign +complications, Federalists and Republicans were forced into an +irreconcilable antagonism. The one group was thought to be British in +its sympathies, the other Gallic. In the eyes of his opponents, the +Republican was no better than a democrat, a Jacobin, a revolutionary +incendiary; and the Federalist no better than a monocrat and a Tory. The +effect was denationalizing. Each lost confidence in the other's +Americanism. + +The Federalists, in control of the Executive,--and thus, in the common +phrase, "in power,"--were disposed to view the opposition as factious, +if not treasonable. Washington deprecated the spirit of party and +thought it ought not to be tolerated in a popular government. Fisher +Ames expressed a common Federalist conviction when he wrote in 1796: "It +is a childish comfort that many enjoy, who say the minority aim at place +only, not at the overthrow of government. They aim at setting mobs above +law, not at the filling places which have known legal responsibility. +The struggle against them is therefore _pro aris et focis_; it is for +our rights and liberties." Such a state of mind can be understood only +by a diligent reading of the newspapers and political tracts of the +time. Republican journalists, many of whom were of alien origin, still +gloried in the ideals and achievements of the French Revolution. But +liberty and democracy, as preached by a Tom Paine and glorified by a +Callender and exemplified by the Reign of Terror in France, had caused +an ominous reaction in the minds of upholders of the established order +in the United States. + +Under these circumstances, when, in the minds of those in authority, +party was identified with faction, and faction was held to be synonymous +with treason, the position of the Republicans was precarious. War with +France they bitterly opposed, but were powerless to prevent. The path of +opposition was made all the more difficult by the well-known attitude of +conspicuous Federalist leaders who favored war as an opportunity for +discrediting their political opponents, or, as Higginson expressed it, +for closing the "avenues of French poison and intrigue." + +Laboring under the conviction that they had to deal not only with an +enemy without but with an insidious foe within, the Federalists carried +through Congress in June and July, 1798, a series of measures which are +usually cited as the Alien and Sedition Acts. The first in the series +was the Naturalization Act, which lengthened the period of residence +required of aliens who desired citizenship, from five to fourteen years. +The Alien Act authorized the President, for a period of two years, to +order out of the country all such aliens as he deemed dangerous to +public safety or guilty of treasonable designs against the Government. +Failure to leave the country after due warning was made punishable by +imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years and by exclusion from +citizenship for all time. A third act conferred upon the President the +further discretionary power to remove alien enemies in time of war or of +threatened war. Finally, the Sedition Act added to the crimes punishable +by the federal courts unlawful conspiracy and the publication of "any +false, scandalous, and malicious writings" against the Government, +President, or Congress, with the intent to defame them or to bring them +into contempt or disrepute. For conspiracy the penalty was a fine not +exceeding five thousand dollars and imprisonment not exceeding five +years; for seditious libel, a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars +and imprisonment not exceeding two years. + +The debates in Congress left little doubt that the Sedition Act was a +weapon forged for partisan purposes. The Federalists were convinced that +France maintained a party in America which by means of corrupt hirelings +and subsidized presses was paralyzing the efforts of the Administration +to defend national rights. That there was great provocation for the act +cannot be denied. The tone of the press generally was low; but between +the scurrilous assaults of Cobbett in _Porcupine's Gazette_ upon +Republican leaders, and the atrocious libels of Bache upon President +Washington, there is not much to choose. + +What the opposition had to fear from the Sedition Act, appeared with +startling suddenness in October, 1798, when Representative Matthew Lyon, +of Vermont, an eccentric character who had become the butt of all +Federalists, was indicted for publishing a letter in which he maintained +that under President Adams "every consideration of the public welfare +was swallowed up in a continual grasp for power, in an unbounded thirst +for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and selfish avarice." The +unlucky Lyon was found guilty, sentenced to imprisonment for four +months, and fined one thousand dollars. + +Alarmed by this attack on what he termed the freedom of speech and of +the press, Jefferson cast about for some effective form of protest. +Collaborating with John Breckenridge, a member of the Kentucky +Legislature, he prepared a series of resolutions which were adopted by +that body, while Madison, then a member of the Virginia House of +Burgesses, secured the adoption of a set of resolutions of similar +purport which he had drafted. Both sets of resolutions condemned the +Alien and Sedition Acts as unwarranted by the letter of the Constitution +and opposed to its spirit. Both reiterated the current theory of the +Union as a compact to which the States were parties; and both intimated +that, as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common +judge, each party had an equal right to judge for itself, as well of +infractions as of the mode of redress. + +The real purport of these Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions has been +much misunderstood. The emphasis should fall not upon the compact +theory, for that was commonly accepted at this time; nor yet upon the +vague remedies suggested by the phrases "nullification" and +"interposition." With these remedies Jefferson and Madison were not +greatly concerned. Protest rather than action was uppermost in their +minds. As Jefferson said to Madison, they proposed to "leave the matter +in such a train as that we may not be committed absolutely to +extremities, and yet may be free to push as far as events will render +prudent." What they desired was such an affirmation of principles as +should rally their followers and arrest the usurpation of power by their +opponents. The fundamental position assumed is that the Federal +Government is one of limited powers and that citizens must look to their +State Governments as bulwarks of their civil liberties, whenever the +express terms of the federal compact are violated. The Federal +Government was not to be allowed to become the judge of its own powers. +By recalling the party to its original position of opposition to the +consolidating tendencies of the Federalists, the resolutions of 1798 +served much the same purpose as a modern party platform. In this light, +their ambiguities are not greater nor their political theories more +vague than those of later platforms. + +In the early months of 1799, petitions for the repeal of the Alien and +Sedition Acts began to pour in upon Congress from the Middle States; but +the Federalists felt secure enough in popular favor to ignore these +protests. With a keener ear for the voice of the people, Jefferson +summoned his Republican friends to seize the moment to effect an entire +"revolution of the public mind to its republican soundness." "This +summer is the season for systematic energies and sacrifices," he wrote +to Madison. "The engine is the press. Every man must lay his purse and +pen under contribution." The response was immediate and hearty. Not only +were political pamphlets printed and distributed from Cape Cod to the +Blue Ridge, but an astonishing number of newspapers were founded to +disseminate Republican doctrine. The three or four years before the +presidential election of 1800 are marked by an unprecedented +journalistic revival. Instead of being mere purveyors of facts, these +newspapers became, as a contemporary observes, "Vehicles of discussion, +in which the principles of government, the interests of nations, the +spirit and tendency of public measures, and the public and private +characters of individuals, are all arraigned, tried, and decided." Such +a systematic attempt to direct public opinion had not been made since +the early days of the Revolution. + +[Map: Vote on the Repeal of the Alien and Sedition Acts House +of Representatives February 25, 1799] + +The Federalists watched this Republican revival with grave misgivings. +What Jefferson called "the awakening of the spirit of 1776" was to +Fisher Ames an ominous sign of impending "revolutionary Robespierrism." +Federalists of the Hamiltonian brand unhesitatingly held the Republicans +responsible for the Fries Rebellion, which occurred in Pennsylvania. The +immediate occasion for these disturbances, to be sure, was the federal +house tax, but the rioting occurred in those eastern counties which were +ardently Republican; hence the outbreak could be denounced plausibly +enough as the result of Jacobin teachings. In some alarm the +Administration dispatched troops to quell the riots, and prosecuted the +leaders with relentless vigor. Fries was condemned to death, and the +President's advisers would have carried out the decree of the court, "to +inspire the malevolent and factious with terror"; but President Adams +persisted in pardoning Fries, holding wisely that there was grave danger +in so construing treason as to apply it to "every sudden, ignorant, +inconsiderable heat, among a part of the people, wrought up by political +disputes, and personal and party animosities." Such motives were not +appreciated by the circle of Hamilton's admirers. Why were the renegade +aliens who were running the incendiary presses not sent out of the +country, Hamilton asked Pickering. "Are laws of this kind passed merely +to excite odium and remain a dead letter?" + +If the Administration made only a half-hearted effort to arrest and +deport aliens, it could at least not be accused of letting the Sedition +Act remain a dead letter. Some unnecessary and thoroughly unwise +prosecutions in the year 1799 were followed by a series of trials for +seditious libel in the spring term of the federal courts. All the +individuals indicted were either editors or printers of Republican +newspapers. The impression created by these prosecutions was, therefore, +that the Administration had determined to crush the opposition. What +deepened this impression was the obvious bias of the federal judges and +the partisanship of the juries, which it was alleged were packed by the +prosecution. + +With one accord Republican editors lifted up their voices in defense of +freedom of speech, never losing from view, however, the political +possibilities of the situation. The more prosecutions the better, wrote +one editor significantly to a fellow victim: "You know the old +ecclesiastical observation that the blood of the martyrs was the seed of +the church." From the Federalist point of view these editors were "lying +Jacobins," incendiaries, anarchists. "Should Jacobinism gain the +ascendency," an orator at Deerfield, Massachusetts, warned his auditors, +in the midst of the elections of 1800, "let every man arm himself, not +only to defend his property, his wife, and children, but to secure his +life from the dagger of his Jacobin neighbor." In vain Republicans +protested that they had a right to form a party to oppose measures which +they deemed destructive to public liberty. They were not opposing the +Constitution but the Administration; not government in general, but the +existing Government, of men who were employing despotic methods. + +In the presidential election of 1800 only four of the sixteen States +provided for a choice of the electors directly by the people. The +outcome depended upon the action of the legislatures in a comparatively +few States. New England was so steadfast in the Federalist faith that +the Republicans gave up all hope of contesting the control of the +legislatures. After an electioneering tour through Connecticut, Aaron +Burr is said to have remarked that they might as well attempt to +revolutionize the Kingdom of Heaven. On the other hand, Jeffersonian +Republicanism was deeply rooted in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and +Georgia. The contestable area lay in the Middle States and in the +Carolinas. + +In the early spring, both parties began to burnish their armor for the +first encounter in New York. It was generally believed that the May +elections to the Assembly would determine the vote of the presidential +electors, and that the vote of the city of New York would settle the +control of the Assembly. The task of carrying the legislative districts +of the city for the Republicans fell to Aaron Burr, past-master of the +art of political management and first of the long line of political +bosses of the great metropolis. How he concentrated the party vote upon +a ticket which bore such names as those of George Clinton, Horatio +Gates, and Henry Rutgers; how he wooed and won voters in the doubtful +seventh ward among the laboring classes,--these are matters which elude +the most painstaking researches of the historian. The outcome was a +Republican Assembly which beyond a peradventure would give the +electoral vote of the State to the Republican candidates. + +In another respect Burr's victory in New York was important. It made him +the logical and most available candidate for the vice-presidential +nomination. By general consent Jefferson became for the second time the +candidate of his party for the Presidency. On May 11, the Republican +members of Congress met in caucus and unanimously agreed to support Burr +for the Vice-Presidency. Already wiseacres were figuring out the +probabilities of a Republican victory. + +It was a chastened group of Federalist Congressmen who met in caucus on +May 3, after the disheartening tidings from New York. Though their +hearts misgave them, they still supported John Adams. To carry South +Carolina, they agreed to support Charles C. Pinckney for the +Vice-Presidency; but rumor had it that many Federalists would be glad to +see Pinckney outstrip Adams,--a hope which in the course of the summer +was frankly avowed by Hamilton. In a letter which he had privately +printed for circulation among the Federalists, Hamilton declared without +disguise his hostility to Adams. The imprudence of this act was apparent +when Burr seized upon a copy of the letter and scattered reprints far +and wide as good campaign material. + +[Map: Presidential Election of 1800 Popular Vote by Counties] + +The effect of Hamilton's indiscretion was probably slight. Adams carried +all the electoral votes in the New England States, leading Pinckney by a +single vote. The Federalists were completely successful also in New +Jersey and Delaware. Through the tactics of thirteen Federalists in +the Senate of Pennsylvania, they won seven of the fifteen electoral +votes of that State. In Maryland they divided the electoral vote evenly +with their opponents. In North Carolina, they secured four of the twelve +votes; but in South Carolina they were completely discomfited. Instead +of carrying his own State for the ticket, Pinckney was outgeneraled by +the strategy of his cousin Charles Pinckney, who effected an +irresistible combination of the Piedmont farmers and the artisans of +Charleston. The loss of South Carolina was irretrievable and decisive. +The Federalists had to concede the defeat of their ticket. + +The exultation of the Republicans was at first unbounded. "The election +of a Republican President," wrote the editor of the Schenectady +_Cabinet_ triumphantly, "is a new Declaration of Independence, as +important in its consequences as that of '76, and of much more difficult +achievement." But the elation of the Jeffersonians was somewhat tempered +by the information that Jefferson and Burr had an equal number of votes +in the electoral college. Adams was defeated, to be sure, but was Thomas +Jefferson elected? Neither Jefferson nor Burr had "the highest number of +votes" which the Constitution required for an election. The House of +Representatives, therefore, must choose between them. But the House was +Federalist! Coincidently with these tidings came rumors that the +Federalists would prevent an election by the House until the 4th of +March passed, when the Presidency and Vice-Presidency would fall vacant, +necessitating a new election. Scarcely less ominous was the report that +the Federalists would endeavor to seat Burr in the presidential chair. + +When balloting began in the House on February 11, 1801, enough +Federalists had been involved in an intrigue to defeat Jefferson to give +the vote of six States to Burr. Jefferson received the vote of eight +States, but not the majority which was needed to elect, inasmuch as the +delegations of two States were evenly divided. The result was the same +on thirty-five successive ballots. On the thirty-sixth, February 17, +Jefferson received the votes of ten States and Burr of four. The votes +of Delaware and South Carolina were blank, the Federalists having agreed +to produce a tie by not voting. A similar abstention from voting on the +part of Federalists from Vermont and Maryland gave the votes of those +States to Jefferson. + +More than any other man, Bayard, of Delaware, was responsible for the +election of Jefferson. Finding that Burr would not "commit himself," +Bayard announced that he would cast the single vote of his State for +Jefferson. "You cannot well imagine the clamor and vehement invective to +which I was subjected for some days," he wrote to Hamilton. "We had +several caucuses. All acknowledged that nothing but desperate measures +remained, which several were disposed to adopt, and but few were willing +openly to disapprove. We broke up each time in confusion and discord, +and the manner of the last ballot was arranged but a few minutes before +the ballot was taken." How narrowly the Federalists escaped the folly of +electing Burr may be inferred from the further statement of Bayard, +that "the means existed of electing Burr, but this required his +cooperation. By deceiving one man (a great blockhead), and tempting two +(not incorruptible), he might have secured a majority of the States." + +In after years Jefferson was wont to speak of his election as "the +Revolution of 1800." To his mind, it was "as real a revolution in the +principles of our government as that of 1776 was in its form; not +effected, indeed, by the sword, as that, but by the rational and +peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people." In one +sense, at least, Jefferson was right. Taken collectively, the events of +1800 do constitute a revolution--the first party revolution in American +history. For a season it seemed as though the Republican party was to be +denied the right to exist as a legal opposition, entitled to attain +power by persuasion. At the risk of incurring the suspicion of +disloyalty, if not of treason, the Republicans clung tenaciously to +their rights as a minority. By persistent use of the press, by +unremitting personal efforts, and by adroit electioneering, the leaders +succeeded in arousing the apathetic masses and converted their minority +into an actual majority. They won, therefore, for all time that +recognition of the right of legal opposition which is the primary +condition of successful popular government. + +The change in political weather was foreshadowed during the summer of +1800 by the removal of the seat of government to the banks of the +Potomac. For ten years Philadelphia had been the center of the +political and the social worlds, which for the only time in American +history were then identical. Even those who knew the court life of +Europe marveled at the display of wealth and fashion at this republican +court. Of this social world, the "President and his Lady" were not +merely the titular and official leaders, but the real leaders. Between +the Virginia aristocracy and the wealthy families of Philadelphia there +were natural affinities. And if the second Federalist President and his +consort did not become leaders in quite the same sense, it was because +John and Abigail Adams belonged temperamentally to a more restrained +society. + +Those who had enjoyed the hospitalities of the Morrises, the Binghams, +and the Willings, and the bodily comforts of Philadelphia hotels and +inns, were not likely to find any compensations in the unkempt, +straggling village which the Government and private speculators were +trying to convert into a fitting abode for the National Government. +There were few comfortable private dwellings. Most of the houses were +mere huts occupied by laborers. Great tracts were left unfenced and +uncultivated, in the firm expectation that an extraordinary rise in land +value was about to take place. That craze for speculation in land which +had possessed those with any idle capital afflicted every landowner in +or near the new city. + +When Mrs. Adams finally reached the city, after a difficult journey +through the forest between Baltimore and Washington, she met with +anything but a cheering welcome. The President's house was not yet +finished: the plaster was not even dry on the walls. It was built on a +grand and superb scale, but the thrifty New England spirit of the +President's wife was appalled at the prospect of having to employ thirty +servants to keep the apartments in order and to tend the fires which had +everywhere to be kept up to drive away the ague. The ordinary +conveniences were wanting. For lack of a yard, Mrs. Adams made a +drying-room out of the great unfinished audience room. And the only +society which she might enjoy was in Georgetown, two miles away. "We +have, indeed," she wrote, "come into _a new country_." But with true +pioneer spirit, she added, "It is a beautiful spot, capable of every +improvement, and, the more I view it, the more I am delighted with it." + +The gloom which enveloped the Federalists after the elections of the +year deepened as they straggled into the new capital in November. They +approached their labors as men who would save what they could of a +falling world. For some time there had been an urgent demand for the +reorganization of the federal judiciary. The justices of the Supreme +Court objected to circuit duty and urged the erection of a circuit court +with a permanent bench of judges. Such a reform was inevitable, it was +said; therefore let the Federalists find what consolation they might +from the possession of these new judgeships. Patriotism, too, suggested +the wisdom of filling the judiciary with men who would uphold the +established order. "In the future administration of our country," +President Adams wrote to Jay, "the firmest security we can have against +the effects of visionary schemes or fluctuating theories will be in a +solid judiciary." + +The Judiciary Act of February 13, 1801, which embodied these aims, added +five new districts to those which had been established in 1789, and +grouped the twenty-two districts into six circuits. The amount of +patronage which thus fell into the President's hands was very +considerable, though it was grossly exaggerated by Republicans. The +partisan press pictured President John Adams signing the commissions of +these new judgeships to the very stroke of twelve on the night of March +3, and then entering his coach and driving in haste from the city. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + On the organization of parties at the close of the century there + are two works of importance: G. D. Luetscher, _Early Political + Machinery in the United States_ (1903), and M. Ostrogorski, + _Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties_ (2 vols., + 1902. Vol. II deals with parties in the United States). + Prosecutions under the Sedition Act are reported in F. Wharton, + _State Trials of the United States during the Administrations of + Washington and Adams_ (2 vols., 1846). F. T. Hill, _Decisive + Battles of the Law_ (1907), gives an interesting account of the + trial of Callender. Two special studies should be mentioned: E. D. + Warfield, _The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798_ (1887), and F. M. + Anderson, "Contemporary Opinion of the Virginia and Kentucky + Resolutions," in the _American Historical Review_, vol. v. The + spirit of American politics at this time can be best appreciated + by perusing _Porcupine's Works_, the writings of Callender and Tom + Paine, and the letters of Fisher Ames, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas + Jefferson, and Timothy Pickering. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JEFFERSONIAN REFORMS + + +The society over whose political destiny Thomas Jefferson was to preside +for eight years was for the most part still rural and primitive. +Evidences of a higher culture were wanting outside of communities like +Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston. Even in Philadelphia, the literary +as well as the social and political capital, the poet Moore could find +only a sacred few whom "'twas bliss to live with, and 'twas pain to +leave." American life had not yet created an atmosphere in which poetry, +or even science, could thrive. The scientific curiosity of the younger +generation does not seem to have been whetted in the least by the +startling experiments of Franklin; and the figure of Philip Freneau +stands almost alone, though Connecticut, to be sure, boasted of her +Dwight, her Trumbull, and her Barlow. The "Connecticut wits" are +interesting personalities; but the society which could read, with +anything akin to pleasure, Dwight's _Conquest of Canaan_--an epic in +eleven books with nearly ten thousand lines--was more admirable for its +physical endurance than for its poetical intuitions. Latrobe was quite +right when he wrote that in America the labor of the hand took +precedence over that of the mind. + +The American people were still engaged almost exclusively in agriculture +and commerce. Manufacturing was in its infancy. In his report on +manufactures in 1791, Hamilton had named seventeen industries which had +made notable progress, but most of these were household crafts. In 1790, +Samuel Slater had duplicated the inventions of Hargreaves and Arkwright, +and had, with Moses Brown, of Rhode Island, set up a successful cotton +mill at Pawtucket; but ten years later only four factories were in +operation in the whole country. + +The wars in Europe had created an unprecedented and ever-increasing +demand for American agricultural products. The price of foodstuffs like +flour and meal reached a point which made possible enormous profits. +Shipping became, therefore, the indispensable handmaid of agriculture, +as Jefferson observed. The volume of trade expanded at an astonishing +rate. The total value of exports mounted from $20,000,000 in 1790 to +$94,000,000 in the year of Jefferson's inauguration. One half of this +amount, however, represented the value of commodities like sugar, +coffee, and cocoa, which had been brought into the country for +exportation. The easy and almost certain profits of this trade attracted +capital which might otherwise have gone into manufacturing. + +[Map: Distribution of Population 1800] + +Shipping was stimulated also by the Navigation Act of 1789, which +imposed lower tonnage duties in American ports on vessels built or owned +by American citizens, and by the Tariff Act of the same year, which +allowed a ten per cent deduction from the customs duties levied on goods +imported in American vessels. These discriminating duties, together with +the law of 1792, which excluded foreign-built ships from American +registry, would have aided materially in the building of an American +marine, even in less prosperous times. The registered tonnage engaged in +foreign trade increased from 346,254 in 1790 to 718,549 in 1801; and in +coast trade, from 103,775 to 246,255. Yet there was an artificial +quality in this prosperity. "Temporary benefits were mistaken for +permanent advantages," writes a contemporary; "so certain were the +profits on the foreign voyages, that commerce was only pursued as an +art; ... the philosophy of commerce, if I am allowed the expression, was +totally neglected ... they [merchants] did not contemplate a period of +general peace, when each nation will carry its own productions, when +discriminations will be made in favour of domestic tonnage, when foreign +commerce will be limited to enumerated articles, and when much +circumspection will be necessary in all our commercial transactions." + +It cannot be said, either, that the American farmer studied the +philosophy of agriculture. He owed his crops less to intelligent +cultivation of the soil than to provident Nature in a new and untilled +country. Both his methods and his implements were bad, and resulted in +that land spoliation which has been the bane of American industry. +"Agriculture in the South," said John Taylor, of Caroline, "does not +consist so much in cultivating land as in killing it"; and the statement +was scarcely less true when applied to the Northern farmer. The soil was +rapidly exhausted by planting the same crop year after year, for it was +easier to take up fresh land than to restore productivity to the old. +Indeed, the comments of foreign travelers at the close of the century +suggest doubts as to whether the American farmer understood the +importance of rotating his crops and of fertilizing his fields. The +farming implements in use showed little of that mechanical ingenuity +which is now characteristic of the American people. The plough was still +a clumsy affair with heavy beam and handles, and wooden mould-board. The +scythe, the sickle, and the flail were the same as their forbears had +used for centuries. + +The demand of Europe for the food products of the Northern and Middle +States obscured for a time the importance of cotton as an article of +export. In 1790, South Carolina and Georgia, then the only +cotton-growing States, produced less than two million pounds of inferior +quality, none of which was exported. A decade later thirty-five million +pounds were raised, one half of which was exported; and Virginia, North +Carolina, and Tennessee had begun the cultivation. This sudden +development was due to the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, +in 1793. This machine facilitated the separation of the seed from the +fiber of the short-staple variety of cotton, which alone could be +profitably cultivated in the uplands, and thus made possible a vast +extension of the area of cotton culture. + +The cotton gin came at an opportune moment for the Southern planters, +since rice and indigo were declining in importance as exports, and their +gangs of African slaves were likely to become a burden. They could now +cultivate cotton under an extensive system of agriculture with large +immediate profits. Experience proved, however, that the system was +extraordinarily wasteful, leading to a rapid exhaustion of the soil. +This ever-recurring exhaustion of the soil and demand for new land was a +potent cause of the incessant pressure of population into the virgin +lands of the Southwest, in succeeding decades. + +The new President was the embodiment of the national life. Although he +was tall of stature, he was not outwardly an impressive figure. His red, +freckled face wore a frank, good-natured expression, but he lacked +dignity and poise. "His whole figure has a loose, shackling air," wrote +a contemporary. "A laxity of manner seemed shed about him ... even his +discourse partook of his personal demeanor. It was loose and rambling." +With his blue coat and red waistcoat, his green velveteen breeches, yarn +stockings, and slippers down at the heels, he seemed to an English +visitor, who saw him in 1804, "very much like a tall, large-boned +farmer." Jefferson would have been the last to resent this epithet. No +man had a more profound respect for tillers of the soil. Years before he +had written: "Generally speaking, the proportion which the aggregate of +the other classes of citizens bears in any State to that of its +husbandmen is the proportion of its sound to its healthy parts, and is a +good enough barometer whereby to measure its degree of corruption." He +rejoiced in the agricultural possibilities of America. Could he have had +his way, he would have made the republic, in the apt phrase of Mr. Henry +Adams, "an enlarged Virginia--a society to be kept pure and free by the +absence of complicated interests, by the encouragement of agriculture +and of commerce as its handmaid." He abhorred cities and factories, and +dreaded the growth of a manufacturing and capitalist class. + +An agricultural society bent upon justice, Jefferson believed, could +always protect itself against the aggressions of foreign nations. "Our +commerce," he wrote soon after his inauguration, "is so valuable to +them, that they will be glad to purchase it, when the only price we ask +is to do us justice. I believe we have in our own hands the means of +peaceable coercion." In this wise the United States would set an example +to the world of a society democratically organized and capable of +unlimited moral and physical progress. + +As the head of a party which had effected a revolution in government, +Jefferson's first care was to reconcile his opponents to Republican +rule. The inaugural address emphasized the principles upon which all +republican governments must be based. It is often said that these +principles might have been uttered by Washington with equal +propriety--as good Federalist doctrine. This is to mistake the +significance of the revolution which had occurred. A party had triumphed +which Federalists firmly believed inimical to all government. The +announcement that the fundamental principles to which all Americans were +attached would guide the new Administration had a meaning which it would +not have had if uttered by a Federalist President. So far did Jefferson +lean in holding out the olive branch that he ran the risk of minimizing +the revolution of 1800. To say that "every difference of opinion is not +a difference of principle. We are all Republicans, we are all +Federalists," was to contradict his often expressed conviction that his +party had saved the country from monarchy. + +Aside from such generalities as that wise government consists in +restraining men from injuring one another and leaving them free to +regulate their own pursuits, the inaugural address contains no +declaration of purpose or policies. No such reticence marks Jefferson's +private letters, which are, indeed, the best expression of his political +philosophy. Nowhere is the governing purpose of his Administration +stated more clearly than in a letter written just before his +inauguration. "Let the general government be reduced to foreign concerns +only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other +nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants will manage the +better the more they are left free to manage for themselves, and our +general government may be reduced to a very simple organization and a +very unexpensive one,--a few plain duties to be performed by a few +servants." + +The first and most troublesome task of the Administration was to select +these few servants. Even in naming the heads of departments, the +President experienced some embarrassment, for, while Madison accepted +readily the Secretaryship of State and Albert Gallatin that of the +Treasury, the naval portfolio went begging. Robert Smith, of Maryland, +was finally persuaded to accept the post. Two New Englanders, Henry +Dearborn and Levi Lincoln, became Secretary of War and Attorney-General +respectively. Far more difficult was the distribution of the lesser +federal offices. Had Jefferson been free to follow his own inclination, +he would probably have made few removals, even though such a course +would have seemed somewhat inconsistent with his belief that Federalists +were monarchists at heart. He yielded slowly and reluctantly to the +demands of his partisans for their share of the offices; but he +professed to look forward with joy to that state of things when the only +questions concerning a candidate shall be, Is he honest? Is he capable? +Is he faithful to the Constitution? + +The embarrassment of the President was all the greater because removals +from office were likely to defeat his policy of conciliating the +Federalists; and because the bestowal of offices was likely to alienate +some local faction, as in New York, where the Clintons and the +Livingstons were fighting the faction led by Burr. Once started on the +policy of removal, the descent was easy. The point of equilibrium +between the parties was soon passed. By the end of Jefferson's second +term of office, the civil service was as preponderatingly Republican as +it had been Federalist in 1800. It cannot be denied that Jefferson +opened the door to the spoils system; but it should be stated also that +he endeavored to make fitness a qualification for office. The charge +that offices were given indiscriminately to "wild Irishmen" and French +refugees, is not sustained by the facts. On the whole Jefferson's +appointments were not inferior in character to those of his +predecessors. The vicious aspects of the spoils system did not appear +for a generation. + +As an opposition party the Republicans had always declaimed vociferously +against the powers wielded by the President. Jefferson sincerely wished +to avoid what he termed the monarchical tendencies of his predecessors; +and as an earnest of his intentions he abandoned not only levees but +also the practice of addressing Congress in a speech, since Republicans +held this custom a reprehensible imitation of the British speech from +the throne. Yet with characteristic indirection, Jefferson assigned +other reasons for substituting a written message for the usual personal +address. "I have had principal regard," said he, "to the convenience of +the Legislature, to the economy of their time, to their relief from the +embarrassment of immediate answers, on subjects not yet fully before +them, and to the benefits thence resulting to public affairs." It is +highly probable that Jefferson had his own convenience also in mind, for +he was not a ready nor an impressive speaker. + +The keynote of the reforms which the President suggested tactfully to +Congress was economy. It was to effect a reduction of the debt, indeed, +that Jefferson had called Gallatin to the head of the Treasury. Eight +years later he wrote: "The discharge of the debt is vital to the +destinies of our government; we shall never see another President and +Secretary of the Treasury making all other objects subordinate to this." +By laborious calculation Gallatin reached the conclusion that if +$7,300,000 were set aside each year, the debt, principal and interest, +could be discharged within sixteen years. But the party was clamoring +for the reduction of taxes. The problem before the Secretary of the +Treasury was how to accomplish these antithetical purposes. The most +unpopular tax was unquestionably the excise. If this were cut out and +the estimated appropriation for the reduction of the debt were made, the +Government would be unable to live within its income. The only +alternative was to reduce expenditures. It was at this point that +Jefferson's "chaste reformation" of the government was to begin. Under +the Federalist regime, in anticipation of war with France, the +expenditures for the army and navy had mounted to six millions of +dollars, nearly double the normal expenditure of those departments. All +good Republicans would welcome a proposal to reverse the militant policy +of the Federalists, which, indeed, the return of peace seemed to make +unnecessary. It was agreed that the expenditures for the army and navy +should be kept below two million dollars. + +Notwithstanding Jefferson's wish to avoid everything savoring of +executive dictation, he could not abdicate his position as leader of his +party. Throughout his first term, at least, he was the master mind +directing the policies of the party, in ways which were not less +effective because they were personal and indirect. The leadership in the +House of Representatives, which then overshadowed the Senate, fell to +Southern rather than to Northern Republicans. In close touch with the +Speaker, Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, and with the chairman of +the Committee of Ways and Means, the eccentric John Randolph, of +Roanoke, the Administration scored comparatively easy victories over the +Federalists on matters of financial policy. + +The repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801 was the second task which the +President laid upon the shoulders of Congress. No act of the outgoing +Administration had given greater offense. Jefferson expressed a general +impression when he declared that the Federalists, driven from the +legislative and executive branches of the Government, had retreated into +the judiciary as their stronghold. "There the remains of federalism are +to be preserved and fed from the Treasury; and from that battery all the +works of republicanism are to be beaten down and destroyed." But no +suggestion of this animus toward the Federalist judges appeared in the +studied moderation of the President's message. The President contented +himself with presenting a record of the causes decided by the courts, in +order that Congress might "judge of the proportion which the institution +bears to the business it has to perform." + +[Map: Vote on Repeal of the Judiciary Act House of +Representatives March 2, 1802] + +Taking their cue from the President, the Republican leaders in Congress +urged the repeal of the Judiciary Act on the ground that the new courts +had not justified their existence. Republican economy required that +unnecessary, and therefore improper, institutions should be abolished. +Certain bolder spirits like William Giles, of Virginia, however, frankly +admitted a fear of the "ultimate censorial and controlling power" of the +courts over all the departments of the Government--a control "over +legislation, execution, and decision, and irresponsible to the people." +In the background of the active mind of this Virginian was hostility to +the new courts "because of their tendency to produce a gradual +demolition of State Courts." If this last were the real reason for the +repeal of the act, consistency should have led the Republicans to revise +the whole judiciary system from the Supreme Court down. But for such +radical action few, if any, were prepared. The repealing act passed the +House by a party vote of fifty-nine to thirty-two, and was signed by the +President on March 8, 1802. + +In the course of the acrimonious debate over the judiciary, Federalists +had challenged the constitutional right and power of Congress to vacate +the judgeships, asserting that the plain intent of the Constitution is +to place the judges beyond the power of Congress by prescribing a tenure +of office during good behavior. The challenge was disquieting, for with +John Marshall on the bench of the Supreme Court, the Republican +reformation of the courts might be brought to naught by an adverse +decision. A supplementary act was therefore passed which prevented the +Supreme Court from holding its usual session. It was hoped that when the +court met in the following year, Federalist partisanship would have lost +its violence. + +Two obnoxious acts of the late Administration--the Alien and the +Sedition Acts--had expired by limitation. Congress suffered the Alien +Enemies Act to remain upon the statute book, but insisted upon the +repeal of the Naturalization Act of the year 1798. The time of residence +required of aliens before they could acquire citizenship was again fixed +at five years. With these rather meager performances, the reforms of the +Republicans came to an end. + +Perhaps none of the last appointments of John Adams had so exasperated +his successor as that of John Marshall as Chief Justice of the Supreme +Court. Jefferson had an invincible repugnance for Marshall; and the +feeling was cordially reciprocated. Between these men there were +temperamental differences as wide as the ocean. Moreover, Jefferson +entertained the belief that all appointments made by Adams after the +results of the election were known were nullities, on the theory that a +retiring President might not bind his successor. Two years later, in +1803, in the famous case of _Marbury_ v. _Madison_, the Supreme Court, +speaking through the Chief Justice, took sharp issue with the President. +William Marbury had applied to the court for a _mandamus_ to compel +Madison, Secretary of State, to deliver his commission as justice of the +peace, which, it was alleged, had been duly signed and sealed, but never +delivered. The Supreme Court held that Marbury was entitled to his +commission. "To withhold his commission, therefore," said Marshall, "is +an act deemed by the Court not warranted by law, but violative of a +legal vested right." Let President Thomas Jefferson take notice of his +constitutional obligations. + +The case of _Marbury_ v. _Madison_, however, has a much deeper +significance for constitutional history. Having asserted the right of +Marbury to his commission, the court disappointed expectations by +refusing to issue the writ of _mandamus_, on the ground that the power +to issue such writs was not conferred by the Constitution upon the +Supreme Court as part of its original jurisdiction. And as the Judiciary +Act of 1789 had conferred this authority, the court was impelled to +declare this provision of the act unwarranted by the Constitution and +therefore void. For the first time the Supreme Court asserted its power +to pronounce an act of Congress repugnant to the Constitution not to be +law, but void and of no effect. In substantiating its position, the +court did not inquire into the difficult question whether the framers of +the Constitution intended or expected the national judiciary to exercise +this authority. It was enough for the purposes of the court that the +Constitution was the supreme and paramount law of the land, established +by the people of the United States. The Constitution defines and limits +the powers of government it must then control any legislative act +repugnant to it. "Certainly all those who have framed written +constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount +law of the nation, and, consequently, the theory of every such +government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the +constitution, is void." + +With equal certitude the court declared that it was the province and +duty of the judiciary to say what the law is. "Those who apply the rule +to particular cases, must of necessity expound and interpret that rule. +If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the +operation of each." So if a law stood in opposition to the Constitution, +the court must decide which of these conflicting rules governs the case. +"This is of the very essence of judicial duty." Moreover, the judges may +not shut their eyes to the Constitution and see only the law, for they +are bound by oath to administer justice not according to the laws alone, +but "agreeably to the Constitution and the laws of the United States." +"Thus, the particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United +States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential +to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution +is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by +that instrument." + +On two other occasions the hostility of the Republican Administration +provoked a trial of strength with the Federalist judiciary. The +impeachment in 1804 of John Pickering, District Judge in New Hampshire, +on charges of intoxication and habits unfitting him for his duties, +amounted to little short of a tragedy. When the trial opened, Judge +Pickering did not appear, but representations made by his son showed +beyond a doubt that he was and had been for two years of unsound mind. +To convict a man of misdemeanors for which he was not morally +responsible seemed a travesty on justice. Yet there was no other +constitutional device for removing him. Though Pickering never appeared +in person, the managers for the House pressed the prosecution; and +rather than leave the administration of justice to a demented judge, the +Senate pronounced the unhappy man "guilty as charged," and resolved +that he should be removed from office. + +On the same day that the Senate reached this monstrous decision, March +12, 1804, the House voted to impeach Justice Samuel Chase, of the +Supreme Court. While the defiant words of Chief Justice Marshall in the +Marbury case were still rankling in Jefferson's bosom, Justice Chase had +gone out of his way to attack the Administration, in addressing a grand +jury at Baltimore. The repeal of the Judiciary Act, he had declared, had +shaken the independence of the national judiciary to its foundations. +"Our republican Constitution," said he, "will sink into a mobocracy--the +worst of all possible governments." To appreciate the effect of this +partisan outburst upon the President, one must recall that Chase was the +judge who had presided at the trials of Fries and of Callender, and who +had left the bench to electioneer for John Adams in the campaign of +1800. Jefferson immediately wrote to Nicholson, who was managing +Pickering's impeachment, raising the question whether "this seditious +and official attack on the principles of our Constitution" ought to go +unpunished. + +Such was Jefferson's way of initiating the measures of the +Administration. His supporters in the House were not over-eager to take +up the gauntlet, but as usual the wishes of the President prevailed. The +management of the impeachment of Chase fell to John Randolph, who was as +ill-fitted by temperament for the difficult task as a man could be. +Instead of impeaching Chase for his indiscretion at Baltimore, Randolph +dragged into the indictment his conduct on the bench during the trials +of Fries and of Callender, and certain errors in law which he was +alleged to have committed. The effect of these latter items was to range +all the bench on the side of Chase, for if a mere mistake in judgment +was a proper ground of impeachment, no judge was safe in his tenure. +Justice Chase secured some of the best legal talent in the country to +conduct his defense; and the trial assumed from the outset a spectacular +character from the personalities involved. + +The managers of the impeachment were far from consistent in their +conception of the nature of impeachable offenses. Randolph, Campbell, +and Giles held that an impeachment was "a kind of inquest into the +conduct of an officer merely as it regards his office," rather than a +criminal prosecution. A judge, in short, might be removed for a mistake +in the administration of the law. Nicholson rejected this theory, +contending that impeachment was essentially a criminal prosecution which +aimed at not only the removal but also the punishment of the offender. +Yet the managers had not specified any offense which could be called a +"high crime" or "misdemeanor" within the meaning of the Constitution. +The counsel for Justice Chase, on the other hand, held consistently to +the position that a judge might not be impeached or removed from office +for anything short of an indictable offense, an offense indictable under +the known law of the land. + +From the first, the legal counsel for the accused were more than a +match for the managers. Randolph's erratic course culminated in an +impassioned but incoherent speech which closed the argument for the +prosecution and left the outcome hardly in doubt. Not one of the +articles of impeachment received the two-thirds majority which was +necessary to convict. The eighth article, which touched upon the real +provocation for the trial,--the harangue at Baltimore,--received the +highest vote; but nearly one fourth of the Republican Senators refused +to sustain the managers. The acquittal of Chase was, therefore, a +judgment against Randolph. He never recovered his lost prestige as the +leader of his party in the House. Jefferson could accept Randolph's +downfall with equanimity, but not the failure of the impeachment. Years +afterward he wrote, bitterly that impeachment was "an impracticable +thing, a mere scarecrow." From this time on, said he, the judges held +office without any sense of responsibility, led "by a crafty chief-judge +who sophisticates the law to his mind by the turn of his own reasoning." + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + Although the general histories contain much that is important for + an understanding of the administrations of Jefferson, the + authority _par excellence_ is Henry Adams, _History of the United + States of America_ (9 vols., 1889-91). Chapters I-VI of the first + volume contain an excellent description of American society about + 1800; but for the details of social and economic life the reader + will turn to McMaster. A briefer account of the Jeffersonian + regime may be found in Channing, _The Jeffersonian System, + 1801-1811_ (in _The American Nation_, vol. 12, 1906). Henry Adams + has also contributed two biographies to this period: _Life of + Albert Gallatin_ (1878), and _John Randolph_(1882). The Federalist + point of view is admirably presented in S. E. Morison, _The Life + and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis_ (2 vols., 1913). The larger + biographies of Jefferson are: H. S. Randall, _Life of Thomas + Jefferson_ (3 vols., 1858), commonly referred to as the standard + biography, though exceedingly partisan; G. Tucker, _Life of Thomas + Jefferson_ (2 vols., 1837); and James Parton, _Life of Thomas + Jefferson_(1874). + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE PURCHASE OF THE PROVINCE OF LOUISIANA + + +Not a war cloud was in the sky when Jefferson took the oath of office. +The European calm, to be sure, proved to be only a lull in the tempest +of war which was to rage fifteen years longer; but no man could have +cast the horoscope of Europe in that age of storm and stress. The times +seemed auspicious for the Republican program of retrenchment and +economy. Jefferson was so sanguine of continued peace that he would have +been glad to lay up all seven of the frigates which then constituted the +navy in the eastern branch of the Potomac, where "they would be under +the immediate eye of the department, and would require but one set of +plunderers to take care of them." Peace was his passion, he frankly +avowed. He would have been glad to banish all the paraphernalia of war. +Yet within three months the United States was at war with an +insignificant Mediterranean power and menaced by France from an +unexpected quarter. + +Early in the spring of 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli, one of the Barbary +powers which for years had preyed upon the commerce of the +Mediterranean, declared war upon the United States by cutting down the +flagstaff at the residence of the American consul. European states had +purchased immunity for their commerce by paying tribute to these +rapacious pirates; and the United States had followed the custom. The +Pasha of Tripoli, however, was dissatisfied with the American tribute, a +paltry eighty-three thousand dollars, and demanded more. The other +Barbary powers threatened to make common cause with him. Anticipating +trouble, Jefferson had sent a small squadron to the Mediterranean even +before the dramatic act of the Pasha at the American consulate; and +hostilities began on August 1 with the capture of a corsair by the +schooner Enterprise. Therewith Jefferson's dreams of a navy for coast +defense only vanished in thin air. + +Contrary to all expectations, the Tripolitan War dragged on for four +years, causing the peace-loving Administration no end of embarrassment. +So far from reducing expenditures, Gallatin was obliged to devise new +ways and means for an ever-increasing naval force. An additional duty of +two and one half per cent was laid on all imports which paid an _ad +valorem_ duty, and the proceeds were kept as a separate treasury +account. The Administration was sensitive to the charge that it was +guilty of the very crime which it had accused the Federalists of +committing--"taxing the industry of our fellow citizens to accumulate +treasure for war." With superior wisdom and a higher sense of popular +responsibility, the Republicans, so the argument ran, were establishing +a "Mediterranean Fund," so that the people might know in detail just +what was collected and spent for war purposes. + +Tales of individual daring go far to relieve the tedious record of +ineffective blockades and bombardments during the war. Two exploits left +an imperishable memory in the minds of contemporaries--Lieutenant +Stephen Decatur's destruction of the captured frigate Philadelphia, +under the guns of the forts in the harbor of Tripoli; and the tragic +death of Lieutenant Richard Somers and the crew of the Intrepid, as they +were about to blow up the Tripolitan gunboats in the harbor. These deeds +of heroic adventure created the very last thing that Jefferson desired, +something closely akin to an _esprit de corps_ in the new navy. + +It was not so much the onslaughts of Commodore Preble's gunboats, +however, as an unexpected attack on his eastern frontier which brought +the Pasha to terms. His exiled brother, Hamet Caramelli, had fallen in +with an American adventurer by the name of Eaton, who persuaded him to +join an expedition against their common enemy. With a motley army they +marched across the desert from Egypt and fell upon the outlying domains +of the Pasha. That astute monarch then yielded to persuasion. On June 3, +1805, with many protestations that he was being subjected to humiliating +terms, he agreed to live on terms of peace with the United States and +renounce all claim to tribute; but his injured feelings were salved by a +ransom of sixty thousand dollars for the crew of the Philadelphia. The +Pasha's brother was rewarded with a pension of two hundred dollars a +year. + +At the same moment that hostilities broke out in the Mediterranean, +Jefferson heard disquieting news from France. "There is considerable +reason to apprehend," he wrote to Monroe, on May 26, 1801, "that Spain +cedes Louisiana and the Floridas to France. It is a policy very unwise +in both, and very ominous to us." What Jefferson apprehended was, +indeed, an accomplished fact. On October 1, 1800, the day after Joseph +Napoleon, in the name of his brother, set his hand to the Treaty of +Morfontaine, which restored amicable relations between France and the +United States, General Berthier under instructions from Napoleon signed +at Ildefonso a treaty which restored Louisiana to France. In effect, as +Mr. Henry Adams says, the second treaty undid the work of the first. + +The retrocession of Louisiana, long desired and sought by the Directory, +was regarded by Talleyrand as a diplomatic triumph of first magnitude. +The price, easily paid by one who held Italy under his iron heel, was a +kingdom in Tuscany for the young Duke of Parma, nephew and son-in-law of +Charles IV of Spain. The gateway to this vast province was New Orleans, +and the avenue of approach lay by way of Santo Domingo, once an +important French colony, but now under the rule of Toussaint +L'Ouverture. Before Talleyrand's dream of a revived colonial empire in +the heart of the North American continent could be realized, this +"gilded African" must be removed and Santo Domingo restored to its +former position as the center of the French West Indies. The conquest of +a negro republic surely could not be a difficult undertaking for one who +had humbled Austria on the battlefields of northern Italy. In November, +1801, Napoleon dispatched Leclerc with an army of ten thousand men to +recover Santo Domingo. + +Jefferson was thoroughly alarmed at the news of Leclerc's expedition. +"Every eye in the United States," he wrote, "is now fixed on this affair +of Louisiana. Perhaps nothing since the Revolutionary War has produced +more uneasy sensations through the body of the nation." No discerning +man could mistake the significance of the expedition; the French troops +would proceed to Louisiana after finishing their work in Santo Domingo. +The retrocession of Louisiana, in short, as Jefferson said, completely +reversed all the political relations of the United States. Hitherto, +from the Republican point of view, France had been our natural friend. +Henceforth, as the possessor of New Orleans, through which three eighths +of the produce of the West passed to market, she became a natural and +habitual enemy. "France placing herself in that door," wrote Jefferson +to Livingston, "assumes to us the attitude of defiance. The impetuosity +of her temper, the energy and restlessness of her character, placed in a +point of eternal friction with us, and our character, ... these +circumstances render it impossible that France and the United States can +continue long friends when they meet in so irritable a position.... The +day that France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which +is to restrain her forever within her low-water mark. It seals the union +of two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession of +the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet +and nation." + +Even as he expressed his apprehensions to Livingston, then Minister to +France, Jefferson suggested ways and means for averting the clash of +conflicting interests. If France was bent on possessing and holding +Louisiana, might she not make concessions for the sake of retaining the +friendship of the United States? Livingston was to sound the French +Government to ascertain whether it would entertain the idea of ceding +the Island of New Orleans and the Floridas. "We should consider New +Orleans and the Floridas as equivalent for the risk of a quarrel with +France produced by her vicinage," he assured Livingston. + +What the Western world had to fear from the French occupation of +Louisiana appeared in November, 1802, when Governor Claiborne, of the +Mississippi Territory, reported that the right of deposit at New Orleans +had been withdrawn. The act, to be sure, was that of the Spanish +intendant, but every one believed that it had been incited by France. +The people of the Western waters, particularly in Tennessee and +Kentucky, were outraged and demanded instant war against the aggressor. +Even in Congress a war party raised its head. During all this popular +clamor the self-restraint of the Administration was admirable. The +annual message ignored the existence of the war party and referred to +the cession of Louisiana in colorless language worthy of Talleyrand. + +The Administration was not, however, without a well-considered policy. +In January, at the instance of party leaders, an appropriation of two +million dollars was voted by Congress "to defray any expenses in +relation to the intercourse between the United States and foreign +nations"; and James Monroe was appointed Minister Extraordinary to +France and Spain, to aid Livingston and Pinckney in "enlarging and more +effectually securing our rights and interests in the river Mississippi +and in the territories eastward thereof." + +Meantime, Napoleon's colonial schemes had received a decisive check. The +transfer of Louisiana had been delayed by the opposition of Godoy, who +had returned to royal favor in Spain; Leclerc's invading army had been +worn away by the attrition of incessant war with the negroes; a second +army had been decimated by yellow fever; and finally Leclerc himself had +succumbed to the dread destroyer, leaving the remnants of the French +troops to their fate. Without the most extraordinary exertions, Santo +Domingo was lost; and what was Louisiana without the island which was +the very heart of the projected colonial system? The First Consul was +almost ready to abandon a project which after all had originated in +Talleyrand's brain rather than in his own. What he sought was a fair +pretext to cover his retreat from failure. + +Livingston plied the French Ministers with arguments to prove that it +was good policy to put the Americans in possession of the Island of +Orleans. One day, while he was repeating the old story, Talleyrand +suddenly asked what he would give for the whole of Louisiana. For the +moment Livingston was nonplussed, and declined to make any offer. +Talleyrand repeated his question and Livingston replied that twenty +millions of francs would be a fair price, if France would pay the +spoliation claims of American citizens since the Treaty of 1800. +Talleyrand demurred: the sum was too small. Thereupon Livingston +promised to advise with Monroe who was expected soon. + +Monroe, as it happened, arrived on this very day. On the following day +Livingston learned casually from Marbois, a minister who stood very +close to the First Consul, that Napoleon had named a hundred million +francs and the payment of the American spoliation claims as the price of +Louisiana. Further conversation elicited the information that Napoleon +would consider an offer of sixty million francs with claims amounting to +twenty millions more. For a fortnight the two envoys, at the risk of +losing everything, sought to secure better terms. But the First Consul +would not abate his demands. On May 2, 1803, Livingston and Monroe set +their signatures to a treaty by which Napoleon agreed to sell a province +of which he was not in possession and which he had contracted never to +alienate. The price to be paid was the sum last named, amounting in +American figures to $11,250,000. The amount of outstanding claims which +the United States agreed to assume was estimated at $3,750,000. After +signing his name to the treaty, Livingston rose and shook hands with +Monroe and Marbois. "We have lived long," he said with emotion, "but +this is the noblest work of our lives." + +In less exalted moments, Livingston and Monroe may well have +experienced some disquietude at what they had done. The instructions +given to Monroe contemplated no more extensive purchase than New Orleans +and West Florida, at a sum not exceeding $10,000,000. The envoys had set +out to purchase a tract of land which controlled the delta of the +Mississippi they had acquired an empire beyond the Mississippi whose +limits they did not know, at a price which exceeded their allowance by +$5,000,000. Besides, it was not at first believed that West Florida was +included in this purchase. Livingston was keenly disappointed, until on +narrower examination he found, in the words of the treaty, evidence +which satisfied him that France--to quote Mr. Henry Adams--"had actually +bought West Florida without knowing it and had sold it to the United +States without being paid for it." The words on which he founded his +theory were those which retroceded Louisiana "with the same extent as it +now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, +and such as it should be according to the treaties subsequently entered +into between Spain and the other States." Monroe soon adopted +Livingston's view and pressed it upon the President. + +The news of the purchase of Louisiana reached the United States in the +latter part of June and occasioned much rejoicing among stanch +Republicans of the Middle and Southern States. The people east of the +Alleghanies were densely ignorant about this Spanish province, but they +sensed in a vague way that its possession by a power like France would +have dragged the United States into the maelstrom of European politics. +The Federalists of the Eastern States looked askance at this as at every +act of the Administration of Thomas Jefferson, without knowing anything +about this vast domain beyond the Mississippi. The President himself was +not much better informed about Louisiana. In a report to Congress he +undertook to put together such information as he could cull from books +of travel and pick up by hearsay. His credulity led him into some +amazing statements. A thousand miles up the Missouri, he stated soberly, +there was a salt mountain, one hundred and eighty miles long and +forty-five miles in width, composed of solid rock salt, without any +trees or even shrubs on it. He would not have believed the tale but for +the testimony of travelers who had shown specimens of the salt to the +people of St. Louis. Federalist newspapers made merry over the +President's discovery. "Can this be Lot's wife?" asked one editor. + +But Jefferson had already taken steps to dispel general ignorance about +the Far West. Securing from Congress an appropriation for an expedition +among the Missouri Indians, ostensibly to extend the external commerce +of the United States, he commissioned his private secretary, Meriwether +Lewis, and William Clark, brother of George Rogers Clark, to undertake +one of the most important explorations in American annals. With a body +of picked men, Lewis and Clark made their way to the upper waters of the +Missouri, and passed the winter of 1804-05 among the Mandans. In the +following spring and summer they crossed the Rocky Mountains to the +waters of the Columbia. Here they spent a second winter, and then began +their arduous return, by way of the Great Divide, the Yellowstone River, +and the Missouri, to St. Louis. The journals of the members of this +expedition are a remarkable record of personal adventures and scientific +observations. It was not until 1814, however, that the details of this +expedition were given to the public. + +Meantime, Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike had won immediate fame by +publishing an account of two thrilling expeditions into the Far West. On +the first expedition Pike traced the upper course of the Mississippi +almost to its source; on the second, begun soon after his return to St. +Louis in 1806, he followed the course of the Arkansas to the peak which +bears his name. His attempt to explore the headwaters of the Rio Grande, +which he mistook for the Red River, led to his capture by the Spanish +authorities. After a roundabout journey through Mexico and Texas, he was +released on the Louisiana frontier. + +Unexpected as the acquisition of Louisiana was to the Administration, +President Jefferson was quick to appreciate the vast importance of the +province to the United States. "Giving us the sole dominion of the +Mississippi," he wrote, "it excludes those bickerings with foreign +powers, which we know of a certainty would have put us at war with +France immediately: and it secures to us the course of a peaceable +nation." At the same time he was equally quick to see that the +acquisition would give "a handle to the malcontents." To his intimates +he avowed with the utmost frankness that the Administration had +exceeded its constitutional powers. The Constitution, he conceived, did +not contemplate the acquisition of territory not included within the +limits fixed by the Treaty of 1783. Yet he was firmly convinced of the +practical necessity of ratifying the treaty of purchase. The only way +out of the dilemma, he thought, was frankly "to rely on the nation to +sanction an act done for its great good, without its previous +authority." + +Never doubting that so benevolent a purpose would be cordially approved, +Jefferson drafted an amendment to the Constitution authorizing the +acquisition of Louisiana and providing for its government. To his +surprise, leading Republicans received his proposal with indifference, +not to say with coolness. Nicholas thought that the power to acquire +territory by treaty might fairly be inferred from the Constitution, and +advised the President not to run the risk of turning the Senate against +the treaty by raising constitutional scruples. In much distress of +spirit Jefferson replied that to assume by free construction the power +to acquire territory was to make blank paper of the Constitution. If the +treaty-making power could be stretched in this fashion, then there was +no limit to its extent. But finding that his party did not share his +scruples, Jefferson abandoned his amendment to the Constitution, +"confiding that the good sense of our country will correct the evil of +construction when it shall produce ill effects." Hamilton in all the +pride of triumphant Federalism had never gone further than this. + +The debates in Congress over the treaty are full of interest to the +student of constitutional law. The treaty fairly bristled with +controversial points. The exigencies of politics played havoc with +consistency. Parties seemed to have changed sides. Federalists borrowed +state-rights arguments without a tremor; and Republicans employed the +language of centralization with Federalist facility. Federalists from +New England looked beyond the immediate issue and discerned the +inevitable economic as well as political consequences of westward +expansion. The men who would have naturally populated the vacant lands +of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont would inevitably seek this "new +paradise of Louisiana," observed a New England pamphleteer. Jeffersonian +Democracy rather than Federalism would become the creed of these +transplanted New Englanders, if Ohio were a fair example of future +Western Commonwealths. Moreover, as these new States would in all +probability enter the Union as slaveholding communities, they would +further impair the influence of the Eastern States in the National +Government. Even the remnant of the Federalist party in the South +opposed the purchase of Louisiana, fearing that the Atlantic States +would be depressed in influence by the formation of great States in the +West. + +Upon one great constitutional principle, both Federalists and +Republicans were disposed to agree: that the United States had the power +to acquire foreign territory, either by treaty or conquest. Senator +Tracy, of Connecticut, conceded this point, but denied that the +inhabitants of an acquired territory could be admitted into the Union +and be made citizens by treaty. In providing that "the inhabitants of +the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union," the +Administration had exceeded its constitutional authority. The consent of +all the States was necessary to admit into the Union. Senator Pickering, +of Massachusetts, held the same view. "I believe the assent of each +individual State to be necessary," said he, "for the admission of a +foreign country as an associate in the Union, in like manner as in a +commercial house the consent of each member would be necessary to admit +a new partner into the company." To this line of argument, Taylor, of +Virginia, replied that the words of the treaty did not contemplate the +erection of the ceded territory as a State, but its incorporation as a +Territory. + +On October 17, 1803, the Senate ratified the treaty by a vote +of twenty-four to seven. Two constitutional principles seemed, +therefore, to be decided: the Government had a constitutional +right to acquire foreign territory; and the treaty-making power could +incorporate--whatever that expression might mean--such territory into +the Union. A third matter of policy had yet to be determined: what +powers had Congress over the new territory? Two courses lay open, either +to make Louisiana a part of the "territory" which the Constitution gives +Congress power to "dispose of," or to hold the province as a dependency +apart from other organized Territories. The provisional act which +Congress adopted pointed in this latter direction, since it authorized +the President to take possession of the province and concentrated all +powers, civil and military, in the hands of agents to be appointed by +him. When objection was made that such despotic authority was +incompatible with the Constitution, Rodney, of Maryland, declared in the +House of Representatives that Congress had a power in the Territories +which it could not exercise in the States, and that the limitations of +power found in the Constitution were applicable to States and not to +Territories. The Republicans were making rapid progress in learning the +vocabulary of Federalism. + +It is one of the ironies of history that the province over which parties +battled with so much display of legal profundity was not yet in the +possession of the First Consul. Six months after the ratification of the +treaty, in the old Cabildo at New Orleans, Laussat received from the +Spanish governor the keys of the city and took possession of the +province in the name of his master. For twenty days the Tricolor floated +over the Place d'Armes, emblem of the shadowy French tenure. On December +2, it, in turn, gave place to the Stars and Stripes, as Louisiana passed +into the hands of the last of its rulers, the puissant young republic. + +In the following year Congress divided the province, giving to the +southern part, the Territory of Orleans, which contained most of the +inhabitants, a separate territorial government, and annexing the +sparsely settled upper part to the Indiana Territory. The Act of 1804 +was roundly abused because it gave to the President the appointment of +all officers in the Territory of Orleans, even the appointment of the +legislative council of thirteen. By the treaty, it was pointed out, the +inhabitants of Louisiana were guaranteed all "the rights, advantages, +and immunities of citizens of the United States." Was not representative +government one of these privileges? The obvious answer was the +unpreparedness of the Spanish inhabitants for Anglo-American +institutions. To the Western American who floated down the Mississippi, +past the cotton-fields and sugar plantations cultivated by African +negroes, and who landed his cargo on the levee at New Orleans, among the +motley throngs, province and city seemed like a foreign country, and the +inhabitants aliens in speech and habits. From the buildings, with their +many arcades and balconies and varied coloring, to the courts of law +where the Code Napoleon, introduced by Laussat, added confusion to the +Spanish law, the atmosphere of New Orleans was that of a city of the Old +World, where one civilization was superimposed upon an older. Men bred +in the traditions of the English law might reasonably doubt whether the +people of Louisiana were ready for self-government. + +Before the new territorial government could be organized, a remonstrance +had been drawn up by the people of Louisiana and forwarded by three +commissioners with all possible dispatch to Washington. In the following +year (1805), Congress so far yielded to the complaints of the people of +Louisiana as to authorize an elective assembly and to hold out the +promise of eventual statehood. + +But what were the bounds of Louisiana? No one knew with certitude. The +letters of Livingston and Monroe had convinced Jefferson that Louisiana +included at least West Florida, and for two years he sought by every +diplomatic device to wrest from Spain a confirmation of this shadowy +title. That Spain did not intend to cede West Florida and that France +had no expectation of receiving it seems clear enough from the +instructions to Laussat. What he handed over to the American +representative was Louisiana, with the Rio Bravo and the Iberville as +boundaries. With some show of right, Jefferson might have occupied +Texas; he preferred, however, to chase his phantom claim to Florida. For +Texas nobody then cared, but the Floridas were coveted by Southern +planters. + +In a letter written soon after the signing of the Louisiana Treaty, +Robert Livingston relates a suggestive conversation which he had with +Talleyrand. "What are the eastern bounds of Louisiana?" asked Livingston +rather naively. "I do not know," replied Talleyrand; "you must take it +as we received it." "But what did you mean to take?" Livingston +insisted. "I do not know," was the reply. "Then you mean that we shall +construe it our own way?" "I can give you no direction," replied the +astute Frenchman. "You have made a noble bargain for yourselves, and I +suppose you will make the most of it." + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + The history of the Barbary Wars is well told by G. W. Allen, _Our + Navy and the Barbary Corsairs_(1905), and by C. O. Paullin, + _Commodore John Rodgers_(1910). The investigations of Henry Adams + in foreign archives enabled him to treat the diplomatic history of + the purchase of Louisiana with great fullness. F. A. Ogg, _The + Opening of the Mississippi_(1904), and J. K. Hosmer, _The + Louisiana Purchase_ (1902), contain brief accounts of the + acquisition of the province. The actual route of the Lewis and + Clark expedition may be traced with the aid of O. D. Wheeler, _The + Trail of Lewis and Clark_, 1804-1904 (1904). The constitutional + aspects of the Louisiana Treaty and the subsequent legislation for + the territory are discussed at length by Adams, and less + satisfactorily by Schouler and Von Holst. Channing, _The + Jeffersonian System, 1801-1811_ (1906), contains a good account of + the whole episode. The problem of the original boundaries is + discussed by F. E. Chadwick, _The Relations of the United States + and Spain_(1909). + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +FACTION AND CONSPIRACY + + +Down to the end of the eighteenth century, the people of New England +possessed a greater degree of social solidarity than any other section +of the Union. Descended from English stock, imbued with common religious +and political traditions, and bound together by the ties of a common +ecclesiastical polity, they cherished, as Jefferson expressed it, "a +sort of family pride" which existed nowhere else between people of +different States. In New England, there were elements of political and +religious dissent, to be sure, but the domination of the Congregational +clergy and the magistracy was hardly less complete in the year 1800 than +fifty years earlier. New England was governed by "the wise, the good, +and the rich." All the forces of education, property, religion, and +respectability were united in the maintenance of the established order +against the assaults of democracy. New England Federalism was not so +much a body of political doctrines as a state of mind. Abhorrence of the +forces liberated by the French Revolution was perhaps the dominating +emotion. Democracy seemed an aberration of the human mind, which was +bound everywhere to produce the same results in society. Jacobinism was +the inevitable outcome. "The principles of democracy are everywhere what +they have been in France," wrote Ames. "Democracy is a troubled spirit, +fated never to rest, and whose dreams, if it sleeps, present only +visions of hell." + +In 1801, New England was in bitter, irreconcilable opposition to the +National Administration. The situation was fraught with grave +possibilities. Jefferson himself looked forward to "an uneasy +government," if the whole body of New England continued in opposition to +Republican principles. Ordinary political opposition was to be expected, +of course; but a sectional opposition, fortified by a social solidarity +like that of New England, was a menace to the Union. From the moment +when he took the oath of office, Jefferson directed his best energies to +the Republican conquest of New England. It was a policy dictated not +only by partisan considerations, but also by the highest instincts of +statesmanship. The fair-minded historian is bound to record that the +Jeffersonian party in this period of its history was, in spite of all +its inconsistencies, a potent agency in the maintenance of the Union. + +The first conquest of the Republicans was that of Rhode Island in the +first year of the new Administration. The President was deeply gratified +by what he called "the regeneration of Rhode Island," interpreting the +event as "the beginning of that resurrection of the genuine spirit of +New England." Vermont, he prophesied, would next emerge from under the +yoke of the Federalist hierarchy; and the fall election verified his +prediction. Elsewhere the contest was more stubborn and prolonged, but +the Federalists noted with alarm that the Republican vote was +increasing everywhere. By the end of Jefferson's first term, the number +of Republican voters in New England very nearly equaled that of their +opponents. + +The ranks of the Republican party were recruited largely from the rural +districts, where hostility to the mercantile and moneyed classes was +most bitter. It was the old alignment of the men of little or no +personal property against the prosperous and well-to-do classes. From +this point of view the Republican movement was an attack upon the +privileged orders, an attempt to break down the social hierarchy of New +England. Closely connected with the political movement was also the +struggle of the Baptists and the Methodists to secure religious freedom +in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The dissenters looked to Jefferson as +their natural leader; and the bitter opposition of the Congregational +clergy to the spread of democracy was due to their persistent, and no +doubt sincere, belief that dissent and democracy were manifestations of +the same radical and destructive spirit. + +The rising tide of Republicanism and the increasing popularity of the +Administration cast the Federalist leaders into the deepest gloom. The +annexation of Louisiana was regarded as a mortal blow, since it +imperiled the ascendency of New England in the Union, and New England +was the stronghold of Federalism. At the beginning of the year 1804, +most of the Federalist members of Congress from New England were agreed +in thinking that a crisis was approaching. Democracy was about to +triumph over the forces of law and order. The only question was how to +save their section, where the ravages of Jacobinism could yet be stayed. +There was but one answer, from the point of view of Senator Timothy +Pickering. The people of the Eastern States could not reconcile their +habits, views, and interests with those of the South and West: +therefore, let them withdraw from the Union and form a Northern +Confederation. Plumer, of New Hampshire, and Tracy and Griswold, of +Connecticut, were in hearty agreement with this view. Pickering then put +his project before the members of the coterie of Federalists in +Massachusetts, which was generally known as the "Essex Junto." As the +confederacy shaped itself in Pickering's imagination, it would of +necessity include New York, which would act as a barrier to the +insidious inroads of Southern Jacobinism; but Massachusetts should +initiate the movement. + +Replying for his intimates in the Essex Junto, George Cabot put aside +the project, not as in any wise morally reprehensible,--on the contrary, +he thought separation desirable,--but as impracticable. The people of +New England were not aware of their danger and therefore not prepared +for so radical a movement. The only chance for a successful revolution, +Cabot thought, would be "a war with Great Britain manifestly provoked by +our rulers." Pickering and Griswold then turned to New York for support +and to Aaron Burr. + +The Vice-President was at this time without political influence in the +Administration, and without credit, either morally or politically. In +New York, the Livingstons and the Clintons, whom he had mortally +offended, were determined to drive him from the party. At first, Burr +was inclined to give way: he even applied to the President for an +executive appointment; but this resource failing, he determined to fight +his enemies to the bitter end. In February, 1804, he was nominated for +governor by a group of his friends in the legislature, in opposition to +the Clinton faction. It was well known that many Federalists would +support his candidacy. At this crucial moment, Pickering and Griswold +sought out Burr as an ally. As Governor of New York, they intimated, he +would be in a strategic position and could take the lead in the +secession of the Northern States. His leadership in the movement, in +short, was to be the price of Federalist support at the polls. But the +shifty Burr would not commit himself further than to promise an +administration satisfactory to the Federalists. The conspirators had to +rest content with this vague assurance and to count on Burr's ambition, +and his desire to be revenged upon his enemies, to bind him to their +cause. + +Meantime, Alexander Hamilton was straining every nerve to prevent the +Federalists from indorsing the man who stood in the way of his own +ambition and whom he believed to be a dangerous and unprincipled +character. Some vestige of prudence kept the party from committing +itself openly to Burr, but its vote was cast for him. Burr carried his +old stronghold, New York City, but he was beaten elsewhere in the State. +The hopes of the Federalists were shattered; the conspirators were +confounded; and the bubble of a Northern Confederacy vanished. + +The immediate consequences of this political episode were personal. +Hamilton had again thwarted the ambitions and incurred the deadly enmity +of an embittered political desperado. A challenge followed and was +accepted. On a summer morning, July 11, 1804, at Weehawken across the +Hudson, the rivals faced each other for the last time. Hamilton threw +away his fire: Burr aimed with murderous intent, and Hamilton fell +mortally wounded. From this moment Burr was a marked man and an outcast +from respectable society in the East. The newer society of the West, +less sensitive in such matters, thought none the less of a man who had +shot his foe in a fair fight. Thither Burr betook himself when his term +of office expired. + +As the presidential election approached, the Republicans determined to +prevent any recurrence of the accident which had so nearly seated Burr +in the President's chair. This resolve took the form of a constitutional +amendment which provided that presidential electors should designate on +distinct ballots the persons voted for as President and Vice-President. +To change the Constitution in this wise was a delicate matter. No part +of the work of the Federal Convention had been more difficult than to +reconcile the small-State party to the mode provided for the election of +a President. The final settlement had been accepted only in the +expectation that in most cases the electoral college would fail to +elect, and that a choice would then be made by the House of +Representatives, where the small States would have an equal voice with +the large States. To remove the chances of an election by the House was +to upset the original compromise and to increase the importance of the +large States in the initial election. + +Another consequence would follow the proposed change. The office of +Vice-President would be degraded. Roger Griswold clearly foresaw this +eventuality. "The office will generally be carried into the market," +said he, "to be exchanged for the votes of some large States for +President; and the only criterion which will be regarded as a +qualification for the office of Vice-President will be the temporary +influence of the candidate over the electors of his State." +Notwithstanding these and many less obvious objections, the amendment +was adopted by a party vote in Congress and promptly ratified by +thirteen out of the sixteen States before the fall elections. + +The campaign of 1804 was uneventful. The congressional caucus of the +Republican party dropped Burr as a candidate and nominated George +Clinton, of New York. Jefferson was the unanimous choice of his party. +The depressed Federalists supported Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of +South Carolina, and Rufus King, of New York, as their candidates. +Jefferson was triumphantly reelected with the loss of only two States, +Connecticut and Delaware, and of two electoral votes in Maryland. Well +might he exult at the discomfiture of his enemies. "The two parties," he +wrote to Volney, "are almost melted into one." + +[Map: The Yazoo-Georgia Land Controversy] + +Below the calm surface of Republican politics, however, dangerous +counter-currents swirled. For a time the controversy over the Yazoo land +claims seemed likely to be a reef on which Republican unity would be +shattered. Both the United States and Georgia laid claim to the great +Western tract which is now occupied by the States of Mississippi and +Alabama. But Georgia with a stronger _prima facie_ case evinced little +regard for the claims of the Federal Government. In 1795, while a mania +for land speculation was sweeping over the country, the legislature +yielded to corrupt influences and sold some thirty-five million acres in +the disputed territory for the sum of $500,000 to four land companies. +In the following year, the people of Georgia rose in their wrath, turned +out the corrupt legislators, and forced the passage of a rescinding act. +Meantime, sales had been made by the Yazoo speculators to guileless +purchasers, who now appealed to Congress for relief. In 1798, Congress +enacted a law providing for commissioners who should confer with Georgia +regarding these conflicting claims. At the same time the Territory of +Mississippi was organized. + +Such was the status of the Yazoo land claims when Jefferson became +President. It fell to him to appoint the federal commissioners. They +wrestled manfully with the perplexing details of the controversy, and in +1802 reported what they believed to be a fair settlement of the claims +of all parties. Georgia was to cede her Western lands to the United +States in return for a payment of $1,250,000 and an agreement on the +part of the Federal Government to extinguish all Indian titles within +her limits as soon as might be. In the course of time this Western +territory was to be admitted as a State. Five million acres were to be +set aside to satisfy the claims of those who had suffered loss by the +rescinding act of Georgia. + +The morbid imagination of John Randolph could see nothing but jobbery in +this proposal to satisfy claims which had been fraudulently obtained +from the Legislature of Georgia. There can be little doubt that +Randolph's hatred for Madison, who was a member of the federal +commission, influenced his subsequent action. On two occasions, in 1804 +and again in 1805, he assailed the proposed compromise, and twice he +secured a postponement, though he could not defeat the bill which +embodied the conclusions of the commission. From this time on Randolph +was never more than an uncertain ally of the Administration. The few +politicians who still followed his lead were styled rather +contemptuously "Quids." Even Republicans with slender classical training +grasped the significance of a _tertium quid_. Yet Randolph was still a +power in the House. + +The Yazoo affair dragged on for years. In 1810, a decision of the +Supreme Court gave aid and comfort to the opposition. In the case of +_Fletcher_ v. _Peck_, the court held that the original Act of 1795, +conveying the Yazoo grants, was a contract within the meaning of the +Constitution which might not be impaired by subsequent legislation. It +was not until 1814 that Congress voted $8,000,000 to the claimants under +this act and so settled one of the most obstinate controversies in the +history of Congress. + +In the fall of 1805, Jefferson seemed about to realize what had been the +object of his diplomatic endeavors ever since the acquisition of +Louisiana. Intimations came from Talleyrand that the Floridas might be +obtained by purchase if the United States would prevail upon Spain to +refer the whole dispute to Napoleon. On December 3, 1805, he sent a +message to Congress which seemed to break completely with all +Jeffersonian precedents. It recounted the failure of negotiations with +Spain, and spoke sternly of the depredations committed in the new +Territories by Spanish officers and soldiers. The Administration had +found it necessary to order the troops on the frontier to be in +readiness to repel future aggressions. Some of the injuries committed +admitted of a peaceable remedy. Some of them were "of a nature to be met +by force only, and all of them may lead to it." Coupled with these +admonitions were suggestions for the fortification of seaports, the +building of war-vessels, and the organization of the militia. + +Coming from the pen of one who had written that peace was his passion +and who had hitherto avoided war with Quaker-like submission, this +message caused bewilderment on all sides. The West, however, took the +President literally and looked forward with enthusiasm to a war which +was bound to end in the overthrow of Spanish dominion in the Southwest. +Three days later a secret message was delivered to the House of +Representatives announcing that Spain was disposed to effect a +settlement "so comprehensive as to remove as far as possible the grounds +of future collision and controversy on the eastern as well as the +western side of the Mississippi." Only a show of force was needed "to +advance the object of peace." + +Randolph for one was thoroughly disgusted by "this double set of +opinions and principles"; and his ill-temper gave vent to biting +invective when he learned, that as chairman of the Committee of Ways and +Means he was expected to propose an appropriation of $2,000,000 for the +purchase of Florida. He refused flatly to assume the responsibility "of +delivering the public purse to the first cut-throat that demanded it," +for Madison had said in private conversation that the money was destined +for Napoleon. The opposition of Randolph caused weeks of delay. It was +not until March 13 that Madison could authorize Armstrong, minister to +France, to offer $5,000,000 for Florida and Texas. It was then too +late. Either Armstrong had been misled or Napoleon had changed his mind: +in either case, the favorable moment had passed. The purchase of Florida +was indefinitely deferred. + +During these months, when relations with Spain were strained to the +breaking point, Aaron Burr was weaving the strands of one of the most +intricate and baffling intrigues in American history. Shortly after +relinquishing the office of Vice-President, Burr undertook an extensive +tour through the West. In the course of his voyage down the Ohio he +landed on Blennerhassett's Island, which an eccentric Irish gentleman of +that name had transformed into an estate. At Cincinnati he was the guest +of Senator John Smith; and there he met also Jonathan Dayton, who had +just finished his term as Senator from New Jersey. Both of these +individuals played an uncertain part in Burr's plans. At Nashville he +visited General Andrew Jackson; at Fort Massac he spent four days in +close conference with General James Wilkinson, who was in command of the +Western army--one of the most precious rascals in the annals of the +country; and at New Orleans he put himself in touch with the Mexican +Association, which had been formed by ardent individuals who looked +forward to war with Spain and the liberation of Mexico. + +To men like Andrew Jackson and Daniel Clark, of New Orleans, whose +loyalty is beyond question, Burr announced his purpose to devote his +life to the overthrow of the Spanish power in America. It was a mission +which commended itself to the Spanish-hating people of the Mississippi +Valley. Western newspapers announced that he meditated some +extraordinary enterprise; and one editor hinted that he was plotting a +revolution which would end in the formation of a separate government for +the region bordering on the Ohio and the Mississippi. + +Returning to the East, Burr left no stone unturned in his efforts to +find funds to finance this mysterious enterprise. He was in conference +with Merry, the British minister, and with Yrujo, the Spanish minister; +and each received a different impression as to the scope of his plans. +At one time Burr talked madly of seizing the government at Washington. +The kaleidoscopic changes of his plans baffle consistent explanation. +One thing only is clear: he needed funds. These he obtained in part from +his son-in-law, Joseph Alston, a wealthy planter in South Carolina, and +in part from the credulous Blennerhassett, who was persuaded to purchase +a million acres on the Washita River in northern Louisiana. Thither the +expedition which started out from Blennerhassett's Island was ostensibly +directed. How far Burr's plans went beyond the occupation of this tract +is a matter of conjecture. One of Blennerhassett's servants may +inadvertently have told the truth when he said that they were "going to +take Mexico, one of the finest and richest places in the whole world." + +If Burr seriously contemplated a filibustering expedition against +Mexico, he was favored by circumstances. Spanish troops had taken up a +position east of the Sabine River, on what was American soil; and only +an overt act was needed to precipitate war. Every frontiersman was +preparing for a tussle with the hated Spaniard. In the event of war Burr +knew well enough that an expedition against Mexico would be countenanced +by the government at Washington. Whether or no war with Spain would +occur depended upon the cooperation of General Wilkinson, for he had +been charged by the Secretary of War to take command of the troops at +New Orleans with as little delay as possible and "to repel any invasion +of the territory of the United States east of the river Sabine, or north +and west of the bounds of what has been called West Florida." + +The delay of Wilkinson in following these orders of May 6, 1806, has +been explained on the supposition that he was awaiting the development +of Burr's plans. Be that as it may, his hesitation was fatal to the +conspirators. On September 27, the Spanish troops retired beyond the +Sabine, thus removing an excellent pretext for war. From this time on +Wilkinson's hand is against Burr. His conduct is enveloped in an +atmosphere of intrigue. At one moment he is sending alarmist dispatches +to the President, warning him against a mysterious expedition which was +being prepared--by what authority he professed not to know--against the +Spanish province of Mexico; at the next moment he is intriguing with the +Spanish authorities, warning them against Burr and assuring them of his +protection. This valuable information Wilkinson thought was worth about +$111,000; but his aid-de-camp seems to have returned empty-handed from +the City of Mexico. His further exploits in New Orleans, which he kept +in a state of perpetual alarm and finally put under martial law, read +like a chapter from a melodrama. + +It was not until October, 1806, that President Jefferson expressed any +serious concern about Burr's intrigues. Even then he concluded to send +only a confidential agent to watch the conspirator and to arrest him if +necessary. In November, dispatches from Wilkinson convinced the +President of the need of more summary action. On November 27, he issued +a proclamation, stating that sundry persons were confederating and +conspiring together to begin a military expedition or enterprise against +the dominions of Spain. Honest and well-meaning citizens were being +seduced under various pretenses to engage in the criminal enterprises of +these men. All faithful citizens and the civil and military authorities +were therefore enjoined to be vigilant in preventing the expedition and +in bringing the conspirators to punishment. + +The President's proclamation wrought a transformation in the temper of +the West. People reasoned that the danger must be greater than any one +had suspected. The newspapers began to print wild stories. The +Legislature of Ohio authorized the governor to take proper measures to +prevent acts hostile to the United States. The governor promptly seized +the bateaux which were being constructed at Marietta and called out the +militia to overpower Blennerhassett and his followers. On the Virginia +side of the river, the militia were in readiness for a descent upon the +island. On the night of December 10, Blennerhassett and a handful of men +left the island in such boats as they could find. Wild rumors followed +the expedition as it floated peacefully down the Ohio. The _Western Spy_ +told its readers that Blennerhassett had passed Cincinnati in keel boats +loaded with military stores; that more were to follow; and that twenty +thousand men had been enlisted in an expedition against Mexico. + +Meantime, Burr had met with embarrassing delays. The promised recruits +had not come in, since war had not been declared. Only two of the five +boats which Jackson had agreed to build were ready. Nevertheless, Burr +left Nashville on December 23, as he had planned, and on the next day +joined Blennerhassett at the mouth of the Cumberland. The combined +strength of this flotilla which was causing such public consternation +was nine bateaux, carrying less than sixty men. + +The voyage of the expedition down the Ohio and the Mississippi was +without incident until January 10, when the expedition put into Bayou +Pierre, in the Mississippi Territory. There Burr was put under arrest +and brought before a grand jury. Luck again favored him. As in Kentucky, +so here the jurors failed to find any ground for indictment. +Nevertheless, the judge bound Burr over to appear from day to day. +Holding this proceeding unauthorized by law, Burr forfeited his bond and +made his escape; but near Fort Stoddert, he was again apprehended. On +March 5, 1807, he was sent with a guard of six men from Fort Stoddert to +Richmond, Virginia. + +The commitment, indictment, and trial of Aaron Burr form a fittingly +inconclusive sequel to a strange tale of intrigue and misadventure. Not +merely the fate of the accused man, but the personalities involved, gave +a spectacular character to the legal proceedings at Richmond. Arrayed as +counsel on the side of Burr were three notable attorneys from Virginia, +and Luther Martin of Maryland. The foreman of the grand jury was John +Randolph. The chief witness for the prosecution was General Wilkinson. +The presiding judge was Chief Justice John Marshall, within whose +circuit Blennerhassett's Island lay. And behind the prosecution, +straining every nerve to secure the conviction of the conspirators, was +President Thomas Jefferson. + +From first to last the Chief Justice made the task of the prosecution +exceedingly difficult by a rigorous definition of treason. Treason +involved an overt act, he insisted; the actual levying of war by an +assembling of armed men. To convict of treason, the testimony of two +witnesses was required by the Constitution. Now, Burr was hundreds of +miles away from Blennerhassett's Island when the alleged overt act of +treason was committed. The court would not admit any testimony relative +to the conduct and declarations of Burr elsewhere and subsequent to the +transactions on Blennerhassett's Island. Such testimony was in its +nature merely corroborative, the Chief Justice ruled, and inadequate to +prove the overt act in itself, and therefore irrelevant until the overt +act was proved by the testimony of two witnesses. On September 1, the +prosecution abandoned the case, and the jury returned a verdict of not +guilty. The Government now sought to secure the conviction of Burr on +the charge of misdemeanor; but less than a week was needed to reveal the +weakness of the testimony put forward by the prosecution. On September +15, Burr was again acquitted. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + The New England conspiracy, the Yazoo controversy, and the + intrigues of Burr, are admirably recounted by Henry Adams. His + account may be corrected at various points, however, by consulting + W. F. McCaleb, _The Aaron Burr Conspiracy_ (1903). A brief account + of the intrigues and plots of this time may be found in Channing, + _The Jeffersonian System, 1801-1811_ (1906). The intrigues of the + Federalists in New England have been described recently with new + information by S. E. Morison, _Life and Letters of Harrison Gray + Otis_ (2 vols., 1913). Other biographies of importance are H. C. + Lodge, _Life and Letters of George Cabot_ (1877); James Parton, + _Life and Times of Aaron Burr_ (1858); J. S. Bassett, _Life of + Andrew Jackson_ (2 vols., 1911). The trial of Burr is described in + popular fashion by F. T. Hill, _Decisive Battles of the Law_ + (1907). The origin and subsequent history of the Yazoo affair may + be traced in C. H. Haskins, "The Yazoo Land Companies" (in the + _American Historical Association Papers_, 1891). + + + + +CHAPTER X + +PEACEABLE COERCION + + +The so-called Peace of Amiens in 1801 proved to be only an interlude in +the wars of France with Europe. Within two years hostilities were +renewed which closed only with the battle of Waterloo. In the course of +this prolonged conflict Napoleon won and lost for France the ascendency +in central and western Europe, but Great Britain remained throughout +mistress of the seas. The commerce of France and of Holland and Spain, +which had become virtually her dependencies, was almost driven from the +seas. For their foodstuffs and colonial supplies, more than ever in +demand as war devastated the fields of Europe, these nations had to look +to vessels flying neutral flags. The export trade of the United States, +which had fallen from $94,000,000 in the year 1801 to $55,800,000 in +1803, rapidly recovered until in 1805 it passed the high-water mark of +the earlier year. More than half of this trade was in products of the +tropics, for while the direct trade between the West India colonies and +Europe was forbidden by the so-called "Rule of 1756," American shippers +carried on a lucrative traffic which was virtually direct. Products +brought from the West Indies to American ports were promptly reshipped +as part of American stock to European ports; and the British courts had +held that this importation had broken the voyage. When once import +duties had been paid in an American port, the courts refused to inquire +what thereafter became of the cargo and whether in fact rebates were +given on exportation. + +In midsummer of 1805 occurred a reversal of British policy. In the case +of the Essex, which had made the voyage from Charleston to London with +colonial produce from Martinique, a British admiralty court ruled for +the first time that the payment of import duties was not sufficient +proof of _bona fide_ importation, because of the practice in the United +States of repaying duties on exportation. Other seizures followed that +of the Essex, to the consternation of American shippers. Insurance rates +on cargoes were doubled and doubled again within a year. Early in 1806, +Monroe, then Minister to England, wrote in protest to the British +Ministry that "about one hundred and twenty vessels had been seized, +several condemned, all taken from their course, detained, and otherwise +subjected to heavy losses and damages." But Monroe could not obtain any +concession of principle or promise of indemnity. + +The policy which the Secretary of State was known to favor was that of +coercing England through restrictions upon trade. The implications of +this policy were suggested by his often-quoted remark touching upon the +dependence of British manufacturers: "There are three hundred thousand +souls who live by our custom: let them be driven to poverty and despair, +and what will be the consequences?" He lost no opportunity to urge upon +his party associates the need of passing retaliatory legislation +against Great Britain. It was well known, of course, that the President +would support any fair application of his theory of peaceable coercion. + +At first there was a general disposition to try the effect of an +embargo; but more prudent counsels prevailed when the news of Trafalgar +reached America. Congress finally adopted, in April, 1806, a +non-importation bill, which was to become effective eight months later. +There was some point to Randolph's criticism when he declared it to be +"a milk-and-water Bill. A dose of chicken broth to be taken nine months +hence"; for the act prohibited only the importation of such English +goods as could be manufactured in the United States or procured +elsewhere. Such a measure was not likely to make the manufacturers of +England quail. In the mean time, the Administration was to accomplish +what it might by direct negotiation with the British Ministry, using +this Nicholson Act as a covert threat. Much against his will, Jefferson +had to nominate another envoy to act with Monroe. His choice fell upon +William Pinkney, of Maryland. The friends of Madison were not unwilling +to humiliate Monroe, whose presidential aspirations might interfere with +Madison's succession, for Jefferson had let it be known as early as the +summer of 1805 that he did not seek a reelection. + +A few days after Congress adjourned occurred the Leander episode. This +frigate was one of several British war vessels whose presence in +American waters was a constant menace to merchantmen and an insult to +the National Government. From time to time they appeared off Sandy Hook, +lying in wait for American vessels which were suspected of carrying +British seamen who had fled from the hard conditions of service on ships +of war. An American merchantman was likely at any time to be stopped by +a shot across her bow and to be subjected to the humiliation of a visit +from a search crew. On April 25, 1806, the Leander, in rounding up a +merchantman, fired a shot which killed the helmsman of a passing +coasting sloop. The incident or accident threatened to assume the +proportions of a _casus belli_. + +The practice of impressment was an old grievance which seemed to +Americans devoid of any justification. From the British point of view +there was much to be said in extenuation of the practice. It should not +be forgotten that Great Britain was locked in a life-and-death struggle +with a mighty antagonist, and that she had need of every able seaman. +Owing to the rigorous life on board of men-of-war, every ship's crew was +likely to be depleted by desertions whenever she touched at an American +port. Jack Tar found life much more agreeable on an American +merchantman; and he rarely failed to procure the needful naturalization +papers or certificates which would give him a claim to American +citizenship. The right of expatriation was not at this time conceded by +the British Government. Once an Englishman, always an Englishman. +Surely, then, British commanders might claim their own seamen on the +high seas. Officially, at least, they never claimed the right to impress +American seamen. Yet where differences of speech were so slight, the +provocation so strong, and the needs of the navy so great, search crews +were not always careful to distinguish between Britishers and Yankees. + +The United States never admitted the justice of these claims. To concede +the right of search on the high seas was to admit a vast extension of +British jurisdiction. As early as 1792, Jefferson had stated the +principle for which the United States had consistently contended: "The +simplest rule will be that the vessel being American shall be evidence +that the seamen on board of her are such." The principle was never +accepted by any British ministry. The practice of impressment continued +to harass each succeeding administration. In 1806, a crisis seemed at +hand. Madison reported to the House of Representatives the names of nine +hundred and thirteen persons who appeared to have been impressed from +American vessels. How many of these were British deserters under +American names, it is impossible to say. The number reported by Madison +is at least an index to the sense of injury which the nation felt. + +When President Jefferson sent Pinkney to join Monroe in securing a +comprehensive treaty with Great Britain, which should restore West India +trade to its old condition and provide indemnity for the American +vessels condemned in the admiralty courts, he set down, as a _sine qua +non_ in his instructions, the renunciation by the British Government of +the practice of impressment. It was an ultimatum which expressed a truly +national feeling; but with the consciousness of power which the +domination of the high seas gave, the British commissioners treated +this ultimatum, somewhat contemptuously, as an impossible and +unwarranted demand. The American mission should have ended then and +there; but on obtaining assurances that greater care would be exercised +in impressing seamen, Monroe and Pinkney determined to disregard their +instructions. Negotiations were continued and culminated in a treaty, +December 1, 1806, which ran counter to the injunctions of the President +in every particular. He refused to submit the document to the Senate. +Nevertheless, he permitted Madison to draft new instructions for the +commissioners, in the hope that the treaty could be made a basis for +further negotiations. While these new instructions were crossing the +ocean, a disaster occurred which brought the United States and Great +Britain to the verge of war. + +In the early months of 1807, some French frigates had run up Chesapeake +Bay to escape a British squadron. Relying on what Jefferson pleasantly +termed the hospitality of the United States, these British men-of-war +dropped anchor in Lynnhaven Bay, near Cape Henry, where they could watch +the passage through the capes. From one of these British vessels a boat +crew of common seamen made their escape to Norfolk. Just at this time +the new frigate Chesapeake, which had been partially fitted out at the +navy yard at Washington for service in the Mediterranean, dropped down +to Hampton Roads to receive her complement of guns and provisions for a +three years' cruise. + +[Map: Tonnage of the United States 1807] + +On June 22, the Chesapeake passed out through the capes, preceded by the +Leopard, a British frigate of fifty guns. When they were well out on +the high seas, the Leopard drew alongside the Chesapeake and signaled +that she had a message for Commodore Barron. This message proved to be +an order from Admiral Berkeley at Halifax, instructing commanders of +British vessels who fell in with the Chesapeake to search her for +deserters. The American commander denied that he had deserters on board +and refused to allow the search. Almost immediately the Leopard +approached with her gundecks cleared for action. Unaware of his danger +Commodore Barron had not called his crew to quarters. The Leopard opened +fire and poured three broadsides into the helpless American vessel, +killing three men and wounding eighteen others. After fifteen minutes +Barron hauled down his flag to spare his crew from needless sacrifice, +and suffered the British commander to search the dismantled Chesapeake. +Four alleged deserters were found and taken away, three of whom +subsequently were proved to be American citizens. The Leopard then +returned to the squadron off Cape Henry, while the Chesapeake limped +back to Hampton Roads. + +Had the President chosen to go to war at this moment, he would have had +a united people behind him. But Thomas Jefferson was not a martial +character. His proclamation ordering all armed British vessels out of +American waters and suspending intercourse with them if they remained, +was so moderate in tone as to seem almost pusillanimous. John Randolph +called it an apology. Instead of demanding unconditional reparation for +this outrage, Madison instructed Monroe to insist upon an entire +abolition of impressments as "an indispensable part of the +satisfaction." The astute Canning, who had become Foreign Secretary in +the new Portland Ministry, took advantage of this confusion of issues to +evade the demand for reparation until popular passion in the United +States had subsided. It was not until November that Canning took active +measures. He then sent a special commissioner to the United States in +the person of George Rose. + +The instructions which Rose carried with him to Washington, in January, +1808, were anything but conciliatory. As a preliminary to any +negotiations, he was to demand the recall of the President's +proclamation of July 2, and an explicit disavowal of Commodore Barron's +conduct in encouraging desertion from His Majesty's navy. The United +States was also to give assurances that it would prevent the recurrence +of such causes as had provoked the display of force by Admiral Berkeley. +That the Administration should have continued negotiations after the +full purport of these instructions was disclosed, seems incredible; but +it was not until the middle of February that Madison awoke to the fact +that the United States was being invited to "make as it were an +expiatory sacrifice to obtain redress." Yet another month passed before +Rose was given to understand that his mission was futile. By this time +public attention was engrossed in the contest for neutral rights. + +Before the close of the year 1806, Napoleon was master of central Europe +and in a position to deal his premeditated blow at the commercial +ascendency of England. A fortnight after the terrible overthrow of +Prussia at Jena, he made a triumphal entry into Berlin. From this city +he issued, on November 21, the famous decree which was his answer to the +British blockade of the continent. Since the British had determined to +ruin neutral commerce by an illegal blockade, so the preamble read, +"whoever deals on the continent in English merchandise favors that +design and becomes an accomplice." All English goods henceforth were to +be lawful prize in any territory held by the troops of France or her +allies. The British Isles were declared to be in a state of blockade. +Every American or other neutral vessel going to or coming from the +British Isles, therefore, was subject to capture. + +The British Ministry took up the gauntlet. An order in council of +January 7, 1807, forbade neutral trade between ports under the control +of France or her allies; a second order, November 11, closed to neutrals +those European ports under French control "as if the same were actually +blockaded," but permitted vessels which first entered a British port and +paid port duties to sail to any continental port. Only one more blow +seemed needed to complete the ruin of American commerce. It fell a month +later, December 17, 1807, when Napoleon issued his Milan Decree. +Henceforth any vessel which submitted to be searched by an English +cruiser or which paid any tonnage duty to the British Government or +which set sail for any British port was subject to capture and +condemnation as lawful prize. Such was to be the maritime code "until +England returned to the principles of international law which are also +those of justice and honor." + +American commerce was now, indeed, between the hammer and the anvil. The +Nicholson Non-Importation Act, which had been twice suspended and which +had only just gone into effect (December 14), seemed wholly inadequate +to meet this situation. It had been designed as a coercive measure, to +be sure, but no one knew precisely to what extent it would affect +English trade. The time had come for the blow which Jefferson and his +advisers had held in reserve. On December 18, the President sent to +Congress a message recommending "an immediate inhibition of the +departure of our vessels from the ports of the United States." The +Senate responded by passing a bill (which Jefferson probably drafted) +through its three stages in a single day; the House passed the measure +after only two days of debate; and on December 22, the Embargo Act +received the President's signature. + +The temper of those who supported the embargo was reflected by Senator +Adams, of Massachusetts, who was reported to have said: "The President +has recommended the measure on his high responsibility. I would not +consider, I would not deliberate; I would act." Yet there were members +of Congress who were not prepared to accept the high authority of the +President. The vote in the House of Representatives indicates that +opinion was divided in Adams's own State. Boston with its environs and +the interior counties were opposed to the embargo. New York was also +divided, though here the commercial areas favored the measure. Maryland +showed a like division of opinion. Connecticut was a unit in opposing +the President's policy. + +What was the measure which was accepted almost without discussion on +"the high responsibility" of the President? So far as it was defended at +all, it was presented as a measure for the protection of American ships, +merchandise, and seamen. It forbade the departure of all ships and +vessels in the ports of the United States for any foreign port, except +vessels under the immediate direction of the President. Foreign armed +vessels were exempted as a matter of course from the operation of this +act; so also were all vessels in ballast or already loaded with goods at +the time when the act was passed. Coasting vessels were to give bonds +double the value of vessel and cargo to re-land their goods, wares, or +merchandise in some port of the United States. + +American shippers were so little appreciative of the protection offered +by a benevolent Government that they evaded the embargo from the very +first. Foreign trade was lucrative in just the proportion that it was +hazardous. If some skippers obeyed, the profits were so much the greater +for the less conscientious. Under guise of engaging in the coasting +trade, many a ship's captain with the connivance of the owner landed his +cargo in a foreign port. A brisk traffic also sprang up by land across +the Canadian border. + +[Map: House Vote on the Embargo December 21, 1807] + +All pretense that the embargo was designed to protect American commerce +had now to be abandoned. Jefferson did not attempt to disguise his +purpose to use the embargo as a great coercive weapon against France and +Great Britain. Congress passed supplementary acts and suffered the +President to exercise a vast discretionary power which was strangely at +variance with Republican traditions. "When you are doubtful," wrote the +President with reference to coasting vessels, "consider me as voting for +detention." "We find it necessary," he informed the governors of the +States, "to consider every vessel as suspicious which has on board any +article of domestic produce in demand at foreign markets." Governors of +those States which consumed more wheat than they produced were to issue +certificates to collectors of ports stating the amount desired. The +collectors in turn were to authorize merchants in whom they had +confidence to import the needed supplies. Nor did the President hesitate +to put whole communities under the ban when individual shipowners were +suspected of engaging in illicit trade. He so far forgot his horror of a +standing army that he asked Congress for an addition to the regular army +of six thousand men. Congress had already made an appropriation of +$850,000 to build gunboats. It now appropriated a million and a quarter +for fortifications and for the equipment of the militia. + +Through the long summer of 1808, President Jefferson waited anxiously +for the effects of coercion to appear. The reports from abroad were not +encouraging. The effects of the embargo upon English economy are even +now a matter of conjecture. In the opinion of Mr. Henry Adams, the +embargo only fattened the shipowners and squires who devised the orders +in council, and lowered the wages and moral standard of the laboring +classes by cutting off temporarily the importation of foodstuffs and the +raw material for British manufacturers. When Pinkney approached Canning +with the proposal that England should revoke her orders upon the +withdrawal of the embargo, he was told, with biting sarcasm, that "if it +were possible to make any sacrifice for the repeal of the embargo +without appearing to deprecate it as a measure of hostility, he [His +Majesty] would gladly have facilitated its removal as a measure of +inconvenient restriction upon the American people." The blow aimed at +Great Britain had missed its mark. + +From the first Napoleon had welcomed the embargo as a measure likely to +contribute to the success of his continental system. On April 17, 1808, +he issued a decree from Bayonne ordering the seizure of all American +vessels in French ports. It was argued ingeniously that since they were +abroad in violation of the embargo, they were not _bona fide_ American +vessels, but presumptively British, and therefore subject to capture. To +accept the aid of the French Emperor in enforcing a policy which was +intended to coerce his action, was humiliating to the last degree. +Armstrong wrote to Madison that in his opinion the coercive force of the +embargo had been overrated. "Here it is not felt, and in England ... it +is forgotten." + +The importance of the embargo, Jefferson never tired of repeating, was +not to be measured in money. If the brutalities of war and the +corruption incident to war could be avoided by this alternative, the +experiment was well worth trying. Yet Jefferson himself was startled by +the deliberate and systematic evasions of the law. "I did not expect," +he confessed, "a crop of so sudden and rank growth of fraud and open +opposition by force could have grown up in the United States." Moreover, +the cost of the embargo was very great. The value of exports fell from +$108,000,000 in 1807 to $22,000,000 in the following year. The national +revenue from import duties was cut down by one half. + +The embargo bore down with crushing weight upon New England, where +nearly one third of the ships engaged in the carrying trade were owned. +The shipbuilding industry languished, as well as all the industries +subsidiary to commerce. Even the farmers suffered as the embargo +continued. A temporary loss of their market could have been borne with +some degree of equanimity, but not an indefinite loss, for imported +goods now began to rise in price, adding to the general distress. + +The economic distress of New England, however, cannot be measured by the +volume of indignant protest. The Federalist machine never worked more +effectively than when it directed this unrest and diverted it to +partisan purposes. Thomas Jefferson's embargo was made to seem a +vindictive assault upon New England. The Essex Junto, with Timothy +Pickering as leader, spared no pains to convince the unthinking that +Jefferson was the tool or the dupe of Napoleon, who was bent upon +coercing the United States into war with Great Britain. The spring +election of 1808 gave the measure of this reaction in Massachusetts. The +Federalists regained control of both houses of the state legislature, +and forced the resignation of Senator John Quincy Adams, who had broken +with his party by voting for the embargo, and who had incurred the +undying enmity of of the Essex Junto by defending the policy of the +Administration. + +In the midst of what Jefferson called "the general factiousness," +following the embargo, occurred a presidential election. Jefferson was +not a candidate for reelection. His fondest hope now was that he might +be allowed to retire with honor to the bosom of his family. Upon whom +would his mantle fall? Madison was his probable preference; and Madison +had the doubtful advantage of a formal nomination by the regular +congressional caucus of the party. But Monroe still considered his +chances of election good; and Vice-President George Clinton also +announced his candidacy. Both Monroe and Clinton represented those +elements of opposition which harassed the closing months of the +Administration. Contrary to expectation, the Federalists did not ally +themselves with Clinton, but preferred to go down in defeat under their +old leaders, Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King. With the opposition +thus divided, Madison scored an easy victory; but against him was the +almost solid vote of a section. All the New England States but Vermont +cast their electoral votes for the Federalist candidates. + +Before the end of the year the failure of the embargo was patent to +every fair-minded observer. The alternatives, war or submission, were +not pleasant to contemplate. From force of habit the party in power +looked to Jefferson for leadership; but since Madison's election, he had +assumed the role of "unmeddling listener," not wishing to commit his +successor to any policy. The abdication of Jefferson thus left the party +without a leader and without a program at a most critical moment. + +Under the circumstances it was easier to continue the embargo than to +face the probability of war. Gallatin had already urged the need of more +stringent laws for the enforcement of the embargo,--laws which he +admitted were both odious and dangerous. On January 9, 1809, Congress +passed the desired legislation. Thereafter coasting vessels were obliged +to give bonds to six times the value of vessel and cargo before they +were permitted to load. Collectors were authorized to refuse permission +if in their opinion there was "an intention to violate the embargo." +Only loss at sea released a shipowner from his bond. In suits at law +neither capture nor any other accident could be pleaded. Collectors at +the ports and on the frontiers were authorized to seize goods which were +"apparently on their way toward the territory of a foreign nation." And +for such seizures the collectors were not liable in courts of law. The +army, the navy, and the militia were put at their disposal. + +The "Force Act" was the last straw for the Federalists of Massachusetts. +Town after town adopted resolutions which ran through the whole gamut of +partisan abuse. The General Court of Massachusetts resolved that it +would cooperate with other States in procuring such amendments to the +Constitution as were necessary to obtain protection for commerce and to +give to the commercial States "their fair and just consideration in the +government of the Union." Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, flatly +declined to allow the militia to assist the collectors in the +enforcement of the embargo, holding that the act to enforce the embargo +was unconstitutional, "interfering with the state sovereignties, and +subversive of the guaranteed rights, privileges, and immunities of the +citizens of the United States." The legislature rallied to the support +of the governor with resolutions which breathe much the same spirit as +the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. + +The incessant bombardment by the New England towns was too much for +Jefferson's equanimity. "I felt the foundation of the government shaken +under my feet by the New England townships," he said in after years. His +control over his own party was gone. Northern Republicans combined with +Federalists to force the repeal of the embargo through Congress; and on +March 1, 1809, with much bitterness of spirit, Jefferson signed the bill +that terminated his great experiment. Instead of interdicting commerce +altogether, Congress suspended intercourse with France and Great Britain +after March 15 and until one or the other of the offenders repealed its +obnoxious orders. Meantime, American vessels were free to pick up what +trade they could with other nations. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + The historical writings of Henry Adams are indispensable aids to + an understanding of the foreign policy of Jefferson. On the effect + of the embargo, Channing, _The Jeffersonian System_, takes sharp + issue with Adams. There is a mass of valuable data on social + history in the third volume of McMaster, _History of the People of + the United States_. E. L. Bogart, _Economic History of the United + States_ (1913); Katherine Coman, _Industrial History of the United + States_ (1913); and C. D. Wright, _Industrial Evolution of the + United States_ (1907), are manuals containing much valuable + matter. The brief introductions to the chapters in G. S. + Callender, _Selections from the Economic History of the United + Slates_ (1909), are always illuminating. The foreign policy of + Jefferson and Madison is extensively reviewed in A. T. Mahan, _Sea + Power in its Relations to the War of 1812_ (2 vols., 1905). + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE APPROACH OF WAR + + +The Administration of James Madison began with what seemed like a +diplomatic triumph. Negotiations with the new British minister, Erskine, +led to a complete agreement on all the points in dispute. Full +reparation was to be made for the Chesapeake affair. The offensive +orders in council of 1807 were to be withdrawn on a fixed date. +Thereupon, with undisguised satisfaction, the President issued a +proclamation, April 21, 1809, renewing commercial intercourse with Great +Britain. General rejoicing followed. Ships which had been tied up to +wharves for eighteen months put to sea with crowded holds. Those +Republicans who had stanchly upheld the Jeffersonian policy of peaceable +coercion boldly claimed for the embargo the credit of having brought +about this happy consummation. Some misgivings were excited, to be sure, +by the report of a new order in council which substituted a blockade of +Holland, France, and Italy for the order of November, 1807; yet weeks of +smug satisfaction were enjoyed by the Administration before it was +bewildered by the tidings that Canning had recalled Erskine and +repudiated all his acts. Madison had to submit to "the mortifying +necessity" of issuing another proclamation reviving the Non-Intercourse +Act against Great Britain. + +Erskine was replaced by Francis James Jackson, a typical representative +of the governing class,--intolerant, overbearing, and contemptuous. He +had been chosen in 1807 for the brutal destruction of the Danish fleet +at Copenhagen. Pinkney described him as "completely attached to all +those British principles and doctrines which sometimes give us trouble." +Madison was speedily convinced that conciliation was not the keynote of +this man's mission. After the first exchange of notes, he took the pen +out of the hand of Robert Smith, his incompetent Secretary of State, in +order to deal more effectually with the adversary. When Jackson +intimated that Erskine had been disavowed for disobedience to +instructions and that the Administration was somehow responsible for +this misconduct, Madison warned him sharply that "such insinuations are +inadmissible in the intercourse of a foreign minister with a government +that understands what it owes itself"; and a few days later, after an +exhibition of domineering temper on the part of Jackson, Madison +informed him that no further communications would be received. Months +passed, however, before Jackson was recalled; and in the mean time he +made a tour through the Eastern States where he was warmly welcomed by +the Federalists. No better evidence was needed to convince the +Administration of the unpatriotic and pro-British attitude of Federalist +New England. + +The Non-Intercourse Act had brought some measure of relief to New +England shipping. Trade with parts of the European continent could now +be carried on by those who wished to incur the hazard. A greater volume +of trade was probably carried on illicitly with England. Amelia Island, +just across the Florida line, and Halifax, in Nova Scotia, became +intermediate ports to which American goods went for reshipment to Europe +and to which British merchandise was shipped for distribution in the +United States. Notwithstanding these well-known evasions of the law, +Congress would probably have been content to leave well enough alone but +for the fact that the Non-Intercourse Act would expire by limitation in +the spring of 1810. Some action was imperative. A bill was drawn by the +Administration to meet the situation and introduced in the House by +Macon; but it failed to command the support of the party and was dropped +in favor of a second bill, commonly known as Macon's Bill No. 2, though +he was not the author of it. This measure eventually became law, May 1, +1810. "It marked the last stage toward the admitted failure of +commercial restrictions as a substitute for war," writes Mr. Adams. By +repealing the Non-Intercourse Act it left commerce free once more to +seek the markets of the world. In case either Great Britain or France +should revoke or modify its hostile policy, the President was authorized +to revive the Non-Intercourse Act against the delinquent nation. + +After the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809, Napoleon had begun the +"sequestration" of American vessels in European ports. Sequestration +proved to be only a euphemistic expression for confiscation. On May 14, +he issued from Rambouillet a decree which authorized the seizure and +condemnation of all American ships in French ports. With an eye to the +needs of his war chest, the Emperor calculated that by drawing in this +net he would make a catch amounting to about six million dollars. As a +matter of fact, this was a conservative estimate. The American consul at +Paris reported the seizure of one hundred and thirty-four vessels +between April, 1809, and April, 1810. The actual loss to American +shipowners could not have been less than ten millions of dollars. + +The news of the passage of Macon's bill suggested another stroke to the +wily conqueror of Europe. On August 5, he announced to the American +Minister that the decrees of Berlin and Milan were revoked and would be +inoperative after November 1, "it being understood that in consequence +of this declaration the English are to revoke their orders in council +and renounce the new principles of blockade," and that the United +States, conforming to its act of May 1, 1810, would "cause their rights +to be respected by the English." + +Accepting this letter at its face value, with a credulity which now +seems incredible, President Madison proclaimed on November 2 that France +had withdrawn its decrees, and that in consequence commercial +intercourse with Great Britain would be suspended on and after February +2, 1811. Madison's haste was due to a very natural desire to coerce +Great Britain into a similar renunciation, but to his chagrin, the +British Ministry refused to accept the mere notification of Napoleon as +evidence of the repeal of the various decrees. Even the supporters of +the Administration became uneasy as months passed without any formal +edict of revocation. Might not the courts adjudge that the decrees had +not been repealed _pro forma_? The Administration was greatly perturbed +in December, too, by the news that two American vessels had been +sequestered at Bordeaux. After much hesitation, Congress came to the +support of the President and revived the Non-Intercourse Act against +Great Britain, at the same time admitting the weakness of its position +by the additional provision that the courts should not entertain the +question whether the French decrees were or were not revoked. On the +same day, February 28, 1811, Pinkney took formal leave of the Prince +Regent under circumstances which presaged, if they did not imply, a +rupture of diplomatic relations. Yet the British Ministry had so little +comprehension of the temper of the American people that at this very +moment Wellesley was drafting instructions for the new Minister, Mr. +Augustus John Foster, which bade him yield not a jot or a tittle to the +alleged rights of neutrals. He was, however, to make proper reparation +for the Chesapeake affair. + +In these months of struggle for the rights of neutral commerce, the +question of impressments had been relegated to second place in the minds +of Americans. The blockade of New York by British frigates in the spring +of 1811 suddenly revived the old controversy. For a year past an +American squadron under the command of Commodore John Rodgers had +patrolled the coast, under instructions to protect all merchantmen from +molestation by armed foreign cruisers within the three-mile limit. + +The British frigate Guerriere had made itself particularly offensive by +its search crews and arbitrary seizures of alleged deserters. On May 16, +1811, Commodore Rodgers's flagship, the frigate President carrying +forty-four guns, sighted a British sloop-of-war some fifty miles east of +Cape Henry, which he believed to be the Guerriere, and wishing to make +inquiries about a certain seaman who was reported to have been +impressed, Rodgers sailed toward the stranger. The vessel acted in a +manner which was thought suspicious, so the President gave chase. On +coming within range about dusk, the American frigate was fired upon, so +it was alleged in a subsequent court of inquiry. The President then +opened its batteries and in less than fifteen minutes had overpowered +the British corvette. To his surprise and disappointment, Rodgers then +learned that his antagonist was not the Guerriere, but the Little Belt, +a vessel far inferior to his own and carrying only twenty guns. When the +new British Minister arrived in Washington, he found the Administration +singularly indifferent to the historic Chesapeake affair. In the opinion +of the American public, the President had avenged the Chesapeake. + +While Congress was vacillating between non-intercourse and partial +non-intercourse, in the early months of 1810, with a strong inclination +toward the path of least resistance, one voice was raised for war. Henry +Clay was then filling out an unexpired term in the Senate upon +appointment by the Governor of Kentucky. Born in Virginia, thirty-three +years before, he had sought his fortune as a young lawyer in the new +communities beyond the Alleghanies. Closely identified with the +aggressive spirit of his section, he voiced a growing sense of +humiliation that his country should be buffeted by every British +ministry. The people of Kentucky and Tennessee had little patience with +half measures in defense of national rights. The petty diplomacy of +closet statesmen did not appeal to the soul of the frontiersman who was +accustomed to hew his way to his goal. The people of this section, +imperial in its dimensions, were prepared for large tasks done in a bold +way. Their ideas of the Union transcended the policies of Eastern +statesmen, whose eyes saw no farther than the tops of the Alleghanies +and whose ears listened all too readily to the admonitions of European +chancellors. Clay spoke heatedly of the "ignominious surrender of our +rights"--heritage of the heroes of the Revolution. He would have +Congress exhibit the vigor of their forbears. "The conquest of Canada is +in your power," he cried. "I trust I shall not be deemed presumptuous +when I state that I verily believe that the militia of Kentucky alone +are competent to place Montreal and Upper Canada at your feet." This was +a new and unfamiliar style of oratory in the Senate of the United +States. + +At this moment, however, the United States seemed far more likely to +acquire the Floridas than Canada. In the summer of 1810, Americans who +had crossed the border and settled in and around the district of West +Feliciana rose in revolt against the Spanish governor at Baton Rouge, +and declared West Florida a free and independent state, appealing to the +Supreme Ruler of the world for the rectitude of their intentions. What +their intentions were appeared in a petition to the President for +annexation to the United States. This was an opportune moment for the +realization of the hopes which Madison had cherished ever since the +acquisition of Louisiana. On October 27, 1810, he issued a proclamation, +announcing that Governor Claiborne would take possession of West Florida +to the river Perdido, in the name of the United States. + +Not satisfied with this achievement, President Madison called attention +in a secret message to the condition of East Florida and asked Congress +for authority to take temporary possession of any part or parts of the +territory. With equal secrecy Congress gave the desired authorization, +and the President immediately sent two commissioners with large +discretionary powers to the St. Mary's River. In March, 1812, another +"revolution" took place. The Spanish governor of East Florida was forced +to surrender and to permit the occupation of Amelia Island in the name +of the United States. The farce was too broad, however, even for the +eager Administration. The President was obliged to disavow the acts of +his agents. But Amelia Island was not evacuated until May, 1813, and +West Florida was never released. After much deliberation Congress +annexed part of the region to the new State of Louisiana and joined the +rest to the Territory of Mississippi. + +In the Northwest also American pioneers were overrunning the bounds, not +those fixed by international agreement, to be sure, but those marked by +Indian treaties, which commanded even less respect. A society which +believed that the only good Indian was a dead Indian was not likely to +be over-nice in its appraisal of his property rights. The line of +intercourse marked by the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 had receded +somewhat as home-seekers had pushed their way up the rivers from the +Ohio into the Indiana Territory; but the vast interior around the upper +waters of the Wabash River was still closed to white men. Governor +William Henry Harrison fully shared the irritation of the settlers that +Indians should monopolize the best lands. He was therefore a willing +agent of the President when in 1804 and 1805 he took advantage of the +necessities of certain chieftains, whom he called "the most depraved +wretches on earth," to despoil whole tribes of their lands, under the +guise of treaties. + +Among the better class of Indians this policy aroused the bitterest +resentment. The rise of Tecumseh, son of a Shawnee warrior, and of his +brother the Prophet, dates from this time. It was the aim of these +remarkable individuals to prevent the further alienation of Indian lands +by limiting the authority of irresponsible local chiefs and conferring +it upon a congress of warriors from all allied tribes. During the year +1808, Tecumseh and the Prophet laid the foundation of a confederacy by +establishing an Indian village on Tippecanoe Creek, one hundred and +fifty miles above Vincennes. + +In the following year (1809), Governor Harrison anticipated the +formation of this Indian confederation by beginning negotiations with +the same irresponsible sachems for the cession of more lands. The +treaty, which was readily concluded, carried despair to the heart of +every follower of Tecumseh, for it conveyed to the National Government +three millions of acres of the best lands in the Indian country, +extending along both banks of the Wabash for a hundred miles. An +alliance with the British seemed to be the only recourse of the Indians. +Only a spark was needed to start a conflagration along the whole +frontier. + +Although war was believed to be imminent by the people of Indiana, the +winter and summer of 1811 passed without untoward events. Toward the end +of October, Harrison began a forward movement into the Indian country. +On the morning of November 7, his camp on the banks of the Tippecanoe +was attacked. A sharp engagement followed, in which the army narrowly +escaped disaster; but the troops rallied and finally succeeded in +routing the Indians. In the abandoned village of the Prophet were found +English arms--confirmatory evidence, it was said, of the part which the +British in Canada had taken in the projects of Tecumseh and the Prophet. +Occurring at a moment of tension between the United States and Great +Britain, the battle of Tippecanoe may be regarded properly as "a +premature outbreak of the great wars of 1812." An unforeseen consequence +of this skirmish on the frontier was the rise of a new popular hero in +the West. + +Nationally minded men indulged high hopes of the new Congress which +convened at the capital in November, 1811. The presence of some seventy +new members, many of whom belonged to a younger generation, warranted +the expectation that the Twelfth Congress would exhibit greater vigor +than its predecessor. In organizing, the House passed over Macon, who +belonged to the old school of statesmen, and chose as Speaker Henry +Clay, who had exchanged his seat in the Senate for this more stirring +arena. Clay's conception of the Speakership was novel. He was determined +to be something more than a mere presiding officer. As a leader of his +party he proposed to use his powers of office to shape legislation. His +heart was set upon an aggressive policy. War had no terrors for him. He +therefore named his committees with the possibility of war in mind. + +There were many young men who shared Clay's impatience with the policy +of peaceable coercion and its humiliating sequel. Grundy, of Tennessee, +had been elected because he openly favored war. He admitted that he was +"anxious not only to add the Floridas to the south, but the Canadas to +the north of this Empire." John C. Calhoun, a new member from South +Carolina, openly repudiated the restrictive system of the President as a +mode of resistance suited neither to the genius of the people nor to the +geographical character of the country. "We have had a peace like a war," +he cried; "in the name of Heaven let us not have the only thing that is +worse--a war like a peace!" Clay left the chair frequently to stir the +House by his glowing eloquence. Whatever else might be said about these +young stalwarts, no one could doubt their ardent nationalism and +devotion to the Union. Even the President was moved to allude gently in +his annual message to the duty of assuming "an attitude demanded by the +crisis and corresponding with the national spirit and expectations." + +The response of Congress was exasperatingly slow. It was January before +a bill to increase the standing army by twenty-five thousand men became +law. Another month passed before Congress would agree to a bill +authorizing the President to raise a volunteer force of fifty thousand +men. No arguments would move the House to vote an appropriation of seven +and a half million dollars for a navy of twenty frigates and twelve +ships-of-the-line. Even more discouraging was the reluctance of Congress +to anticipate the financial drain of war by levying the internal revenue +taxes which Gallatin strongly recommended, now that Congress had +suffered the charter of the National Bank to expire. Without that +important instrument of credit, he saw no alternative but to revive the +excise which was so hateful to Republicans. In the end Congress +authorized a loan of eleven million dollars, but no additional taxes. + +[Map: Vote of House on the Declaration of War June 4, 1812] + +From the first the war party had fixed upon Great Britain as the object +of attack. In the sober light of history, France appears to be quite as +much an enemy to American commerce. But so long as the Administration +maintained that Napoleon had withdrawn his decrees, and that England had +not, consistency required that Great Britain should be regarded as the +greater offender. Reparation had been made for the Chesapeake affair, to +be sure, but no guaranties had been given that the rights of +neutral vessels would be respected on the high seas. Besides, the group +of young Republicans led by Clay and Grundy had looked forward to the +conquest of Canada on the north and of Florida on the south as the +result of war. Madison was too keen a politician not to know that he +could not afford to alienate this group if he wished a second term in +office. On April 1, he recommended an embargo for sixty days, and two +months later, on June 1, he sent his famous war message to Congress. + +In reciting the grievances of the United States, the President thrust +into the foreground "the continued practice of violating the American +flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing and carrying off +persons sailing under it." No one could deny that these were real +grievances, but they had not been pressed in recent negotiations as a +possible cause of war. A second grievance was the blockade of American +ports by British cruisers. "They hover over and harass our entering and +departing commerce," said the President. "To the most insulting +pretentions they have added the most lawless proceedings in our very +harbors; and have wantonly spilt American blood within the sanctuary of +our territorial jurisdiction." This grievance was also real, but not of +recent date. When the President alluded to "pretended blockades" under +which "our commerce has been plundered in every sea," he touched upon +outrages which were still fresh in the minds of all. "Not content with +these occasional expedients for laying waste our neutral trade," +continued the message, "the Cabinet of Great Britain resorted, at +length, to the sweeping system of blockades, under the name of Orders in +Council." Finally, the President did not refrain from the plain +intimation that the Indian hostilities on the frontier were due to the +influence of British traders and British garrisons. + +Three days later the House of Representatives passed a bill declaring +war by a vote of 79 to 49. The opposition came largely from the +Northeast. The representatives from Connecticut and Rhode Island were to +a man against war, and they were supported by Federalists from +Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. In the +Senate the vote stood 19 for war and 13 against it. "Except +Pennsylvania, the entire representation of no Northern State declared +itself for the war; except Kentucky, every State south of the Potomac +and Ohio voted for the declaration." + +While Congress was debating the alternatives of peace or war, the +British Government took a step which under modern conditions would have +averted hostilities. Taking advantage of a decree of Napoleon dating +from 1810, which declared his edicts revoked so far as American vessels +were concerned, the Ministry announced on June 23 that the British +orders would be withdrawn. But just five days earlier, President Madison +had proclaimed a state of war between the United States and Great +Britain. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + A brief account of the events which formed the prelude to the War + of 1812 may be found in K. C. Babcock, _The Rise of American + Nationality_ (in _The American Nation_, vol. 13, 1906). The + diplomatic and military antecedents of the war are set forth at + greater length in A. T. Mahan, _Sea Power in its Relation to the + War of 1812_ (2 vols., 1905). Biographies contribute much that is + of interest. Carl Schurz, _Henry Clay_ (2 vols., 1887), is one of + the best. J. T. Morse, _John Quincy Adams_ (1882), and Edmund + Quincy, _Life of Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts_ (1867), also + contain interesting information. M. P. Follett, _The Speaker of + the House of Representatives_ (1896); Edward Stanwood, _History of + the Presidency_ (1898); and M. L. Hinsdale, _History of the + President's Cabinet_ (1911), touch upon important aspects of + politics. The volume entitled _Memoirs and Letters of Dolly + Madison_ (1886) gives many charming glimpses of social life at the + capital. The discomforts and hazards of travel in the West are + described with great vivacity by Margaret Van Horn, _A Journey to + Ohio in 1810_ (1912). + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE WAR OF 1812 + + +When hostilities began in North America, the war establishment of the +United States stood officially at 36,700 men. Actually the army +consisted of ten regiments with ranks half filled, scattered in +garrisons from Mackinac to Lake Champlain,--a force of less than 10,000 +men, of whom 4000 were raw recruits. The staff was made up of old and +incompetent officers; and from a military point of view the new +appointments left much to be desired. The navy which was to contest the +supremacy of the seas with the victor at Trafalgar consisted of twelve +sea-going vessels and some two hundred gunboats, which were useless +except for coast defense. There was bitter truth in the manifesto issued +by the Federalist members of Congress when it said: "Our enemy is the +greatest maritime power that has ever been on earth, and to her we offer +the most tempting prizes. Our merchantmen are on every sea. Our rich +cities lie along the Atlantic seaboard close to the water's edge. And to +defend these from the cruisers of Great Britain we are to have an army +of raw recruits yet to be raised and a navy of gunboats now stranded on +the beaches and frigates that have long been rotting in the slime of the +Potomac." + +The worst aspect of the war was its sectional character. New England was +in opposition. From the outset the activity of the National +Administration was weakened by the indubitable fact that the United +States, as the Federalists were never tired of repeating, began the war +"as a divided people." When General Dearborn made requisition upon the +governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut for militia to defend the +coast, Governor Strong ignored the summons. Pressed for a reply, he +finally stated to the Secretary of War that the judges of the Supreme +Court of Massachusetts had advised him that the commanders-in-chief of +the militia in the several States, rather than the President, had the +right to determine whether any of the exigencies contemplated by the +Constitution existed so as to require them to place the militia in the +service of the United States. The judges also advised the governor that +the militia, when in the service of the United States, could not +lawfully be commanded by any federal officers below the President, but +only by state officers. The general assembly of Connecticut sustained +Governor Griswold in a similar attitude toward the federal authorities, +holding that the war was an offensive war to which the provisions of the +Constitution respecting the militia did not apply. + +From the first the war-hawks had cried, "On to Canada," for their hope +of conquest was undisguised. "Agrarian cupidity," declared Randolph, +"not maritime right, urges the war. Ever since the report of the +Committee on Foreign Relations came into the House, we have heard but +one word,--like the whippoorwill, but one eternal monotonous +tone,--Canada, Canada, Canada!" Military considerations, however, +probably determined the campaign of 1812,--so far, indeed, as any +well-considered plans were worked out. A general advance was to be made +along the route by Lake Champlain to Montreal. Three expeditions were +also to be sent against Sackett's Harbor, Niagara, and Malden. All were +strategic points on the Lakes; but Malden was particularly important as +the center of British influence among the Indians of the Northwest. + +The expedition against Malden, which was entrusted to General William +Hull, not only failed to accomplish its purpose, but terminated in the +most humiliating reverse of the war. For reasons that have never been +adequately explained, Hull laid siege to Malden instead of attacking it +at once with his superior force; and when British reenforcements +appeared, he not only abandoned the siege, but on August 15, surrendered +Fort Detroit without firing a shot. The army, the fort, and the +undisputed control of the Michigan country passed into the hands of the +British. On the same day occurred the surrender of Fort Dearborn and the +massacre of its garrison by the Indians. + +The other military operations on the northern frontier were scarcely +less inglorious. The failure of the attack upon Queenston, October 13, +was due largely to the incompetence of the commanding general. Nowhere +did the American troops pierce the Niagara or Lake Champlain frontier. +The Duke of Wellington was well within the truth when he declared the +American campaign of 1812 "beneath criticism." + +The smart of these humiliating failures was only relieved by the series +of stirring naval victories which began with the duel between the +Constitution and the Guerriere. The frigates met on August 19, some +three hundred miles off Cape Race. "In less than thirty minutes from the +time we got alongside of the enemy," reported Captain Hull of the +Constitution, "she was left without a spar standing, and the hull cut to +pieces in such a manner as to make it difficult to keep her above +water." The effect of this victory was electric. When the Constitution +reached Boston Harbor, even Federalists broke into exultation. The cry +in every New England home was, "Thank God for Hull's victory!" Nothing +could have been better timed and more dramatic. The papers which +announced the humiliating surrender of General Hull contained the news +of his nephew's victory. + +If the victory of the Constitution was won on unequal terms,--the +Guerriere was undoubtedly inferior,--the British Admiralty could not +excuse a second naval defeat on this score. On October 17, the American +sloop-of-war Wasp encountered the brig Frolic convoying merchantmen six +hundred miles east of Norfolk. There was little to choose between the +vessels either in size or equipment, yet the marksmanship of the +American gunners was so far superior that in forty-three minutes the +crew of the Wasp had boarded the Frolic. Not even the subsequent capture +of both vessels by a British ship-of-the-line could dim the glory of +this victory. A week later the frigate United States under Captain +Decatur captured the Macedonia and brought her into New London--"the +only British frigate ever brought as a prize into an American port." In +December the Constitution, now commanded by Captain Bainbridge, added to +her laurels by overpowering the powerful frigate Java. + +The effect of these disasters upon the British public was out of all +proportion to the actual value of the vessels lost. Canning afterward +declared that the loss of the Guerriere and the Macedonia produced a +sensation scarcely to be equaled by the most violent convulsion of +nature. "The sacred spell of the invincibility of the British navy was +broken by those unfortunate captures." + +In the midst of the war occurred a presidential election. Madison had +been the unanimous choice of the congressional caucus held in May; but +only eighty-three out of one hundred and thirty-three Republicans had +attended, and the discontent of New York Republicans was well known. The +nomination of De Witt Clinton by the New York legislative caucus opened +wide the breach in the party. In September a convention of Federalists +repeated the error of 1804 and indorsed Clinton's nomination, naming as +his partner Jared Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania. Elbridge Gerry, of +Massachusetts, was finally nominated for Vice-President by the +Republicans. The alternatives presented to the people seemed to be +Madison and continued war ineffectively conducted, or Clinton and still +more humiliating peace. New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and all the New +England States but Vermont, preferred Clinton. The South and West +supported Madison; but without the vote of Pennsylvania Madison would +have been defeated. + +To retrieve Hull's disaster, General William Henry Harrison, the hero of +Tippecanoe, was placed in command of the Western army in the fall of +1812; but a succession of mishaps overtook his expedition into the +Northwest. He not only failed to reach Detroit, but lost most of his +available troops by disease, desertion, and the onset of British +detachments from Fort Malden. + +It was now clear that the control of the Lakes was indispensable for a +successful invasion of Canada. At the close of the year 1812, there was +not a war-vessel flying the American flag on Lake Erie. To create a +fleet was the task set for Oliver Hazard Perry, a young naval officer, +who was sent from Newport to Presqu' Isle. Of the needful supplies only +timber was abundant; the rest had to be brought overland from +Philadelphia by way of Pittsburg. Surmounting all obstacles, +nevertheless, the energetic Perry finally got together a flotilla of +vessels which was quite equal to the British squadron. The two fleets +met in battle off Sandusky on September 10, 1813. The American boat +Lawrence, Perry's flagship, was obliged to strike her colors, but Perry +boarded another vessel of his fleet and succeeded in turning defeat into +a brilliant victory. "We have met the enemy and they are ours," was his +triumphant dispatch to General Harrison. + +The way was now open to the invasion of Canada. Under the protection of +Perry's fleet, Harrison was able to transport his army to the Canadian +shore below Fort Malden. The British troops were already in full +retreat. On October 5, 1813, the American army overtook them and in a +short but decisive battle on the river Thames revenged the loss of +Detroit. Among the dead on the British side was found the body of +Tecumseh. In point of numbers, the battle of the Thames is +insignificant; but it has an important place in the annals of the war +because it destroyed the British military power in the Northwest and +recovered control of the Michigan Territory. + +No such success attended the movement of American troops on the Niagara +and St. Lawrence frontier. The control of Lake Ontario was in doubt +throughout the year 1813. The military operations, first under Dearborn, +and then under Wilkinson and Hampton, were indecisive. Indeed, the +events of the year served only one good purpose: they revealed the +incompetence of the older generals and the ability of the younger +officers. + +The loss of the Chesapeake in a duel with the Shannon, on June 1, 1813, +outside of Boston Harbor, left the United States with an available +sea-going navy of just two frigates and a few small sloops. All the +other frigates were shut up in various ports by the British blockade, +which extended from Cape Cod to Florida. The burden of offense during +the rest of the war fell upon privateers. During the war more than five +hundred fitted out in American ports. In the year 1813 they took over +three hundred prizes, while the frigates took but seventy-nine. While +British cruisers were blockading the coast of the United States, these +craft, with their beautiful lines and wonderful spread of canvas, +carried consternation to all British shippers in the English Channel and +in the Irish Sea. They "seize prizes in sight of those that should +afford protection," complained the London _Times_, "and if pursued put +on their sea-wings and laugh at the clumsy English pursuers." No +exploits of the regular navy contributed so much to dispose the British +governing class to peace as the depredations of these privateers. + +In the remote Southwest, the war assumed a different character. There +the enemy on the border was not Great Britain but Spain. The people of +the Carolinas and Georgia fully expected to acquire the Floridas while +the North was wresting Canada from British control. Had President +Madison been given his way, this wish would have been gratified; but +Congress refused to countenance the seizure of East Florida, and in May, +1813, Madison very reluctantly ordered the troops to evacuate Amelia +Island. No scruples deterred Congress from authorizing the occupation of +West Florida. In the spring of 1813, General Wilkinson forced the +surrender of the only Spanish fort on Mobile Bay and took possession of +the country as far as the Perdido--"the only permanent gain of territory +made during the war." + +During the first year of the war the younger warriors of the Western +Creeks, in what is now Alabama, had been incited to hostilities by +Tecumseh, and in the following spring began depredations which +culminated in the capture of Fort Mims and the massacre of its +inhabitants on August 30, 1813. The horrors of an Indian war brought +every able-bodied settler in the adjoining States to arms. Before the +end of the year seven thousand whites had invaded the Indian territory +and had killed about one fifth of the Creek warriors. The hero of the +war was General Andrew Jackson, who at the head of an army of Tennessee +militiamen won a decisive battle at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa +River. On August 9, 1814, he forced the chieftains who had not fled +across the Florida border to sign a treaty of capitulation at Fort +Jackson and to cede nearly two thirds of their lands in southern Georgia +and in what afterward became central Alabama. This phase of the war +opened up a vast territory to settlement and made the military +reputation of Andrew Jackson. + +Operations on the Niagara frontier were resumed by the American troops +in 1814; but they were now directed by one of the new major-generals, +Jacob Brown, who infused a new spirit into his soldiers. On July 5, +General Winfield Scott's brigade won a signal victory at Chippewa. Three +weeks later, on July 25, the entire army fought a desperate battle at +Lundy's Lane, which lasted from sunset to midnight. The Americans +claimed a victory, but the losses were about even and the British +remained in possession of the field. At the close of the year, despite +the valiant fighting of Brown's army, the situation on the Niagara had +not changed materially. The invasion of Canada and a peace dictated from +Quebec seemed as remote as ever. + +The British plans for the campaign of 1814 called for "a diversion on +the coasts of the United States, in favor of the army employed in the +defense of Upper and Lower Canada." For the first time since the +opening of hostilities, British military authorities could concentrate +their attention on the war in North America. The defeat of Napoleon on +the plains of Leipzig had thrown his shattered columns back upon France. +Thither the allied armies had followed him and forced his capitulation. +With the end of European wars in sight, Wellington could release his +veteran troops for service in America. In early summer eleven thousand +seasoned troops were sent to Canada. Four thousand more were dispatched +under Major-General Ross, of the Peninsular army, to cooperate with the +navy under Admiral Cochrane on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. Later in +the year Major-General Pakenham, also a veteran of the Peninsular +campaign, was sent with ten thousand troops to seize the mouth of the +Mississippi and to force the capitulation of the West by closing the +ports on the Gulf. + +Those whose memories went back thirty-seven years may well have recalled +Burgoyne's expedition, for it was by the old Lake Champlain route that +Sir George Prevost began his invasion of New York in September, 1814. +His objective was Plattsburg, where an American army of not more than +two thousand men was stationed. Accompanying his army, to insure its +line of communication with Canada, was a fleet consisting of a frigate, +a brig, and a dozen smaller vessels. To this fleet, Captain Thomas +Macdonough could oppose only a corvette and a dozen small craft. The +fleets met in a battle for the control of the lake on September 11. The +resourcefulness of the young American officer saved the day. By winding +his corvette, the Saratoga, about, so as to bring her unused guns to +bear just when the fight seemed lost, he forced the formidable Confiance +to strike her colors. The surrender of the smaller British boats +followed. The battle of Plattsburg was decisive of the invasion. Fearing +greater disasters if he pressed on without the control of the waterway +at his rear, Prevost at once ordered a retreat. + +The expedition directed toward Chesapeake Bay was well under way before +Prevost's ill-starred invasion began. On August 19, General Ross landed +his forces on the banks of Patuxent River, within striking distance of +Washington. Marching leisurely across country toward the capital, the +British finally met at Bladensburg a motley array of some seven thousand +Americans, hastily summoned from the countryside. What followed is not +easily described. Some show of resistance was made by the marines from +the American gunboats in the Patuxent; but for the most part the +Americans were seized with a panic and fled in wild disorder. The +President and his Cabinet took to the Virginia woods, leaving the enemy +to wreak their vengeance on the government buildings. Having fired the +Capitol, the White House, and other edifices, the British forces +returned to their fleet and reembarked. The historian can take no +pleasure in dwelling upon details which are discreditable to all +concerned; for if the British committed acts of vandalism, the Americans +had provoked retaliation when they burned the parliament houses at York +in the campaign of 1813. + +An attack upon Baltimore which might have resulted in further outrages +was frustrated by the measures of defense which the government of the +city had already wisely undertaken. After a skirmish in which General +Ross was killed, and an ineffective bombardment of the harbor defenses, +the British withdrew. + +A visitor to the national capital after its capture described the +President as "miserably shattered and woe-begone," and heart-broken at +the defection of New England. To prosecute the war, money and men were +needed; but both were wanting. The Administration hoped, but hoped in +vain, that the victories at Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, and Plattsburg would +stimulate enlistments; but recruits were not likely to be lured by +promises which every one knew the Government could not redeem. It became +clearer every day that unless Congress was disposed to adopt Monroe's +plan of conscription, the National Government would have to put its +dependence upon state armies. In September, after Castine and the +eastern part of Maine to the Penobscot had been occupied by the British, +Governor Strong consented to call out the militia of Massachusetts, but +he was careful to place the troops under the command of state officers. +At the same time he made inquiry of the Secretary of War whether the +expenses of the militia would be assumed by the National Government. +Monroe replied rather sharply that so long as Massachusetts refused to +put her troops under the command of national officers, she need not +expect the United States to maintain them. The Governor of Connecticut +had already withdrawn the militia of that State from national service. +At the moment when Prevost was beginning his invasion, the Governor of +Vermont declined to call out the state militia because he doubted his +authority to order the militia out of the State. The Union seemed on the +point of disintegrating into its original elements. + +The anxieties of the Administration were further increased by the action +of the Massachusetts General Court, which called a convention of those +States "the affinity of whose interests is closest," with the avowed +purpose of devising some mode of common defense and of securing a +convention of delegates from all the States to revise the National +Constitution. In spite of vigorous opposition, delegates were chosen, to +meet on December 15 with "such as may be chosen by any or all of the +other New England States." The legislatures of Connecticut and Rhode +Island responded promptly; but the legislature of Vermont unanimously +declined the invitation, and New Hampshire failed to reply. The movement +seemed all the more ominous after the fall elections, which resulted in +the choice of thirty-nine Federalist Congressmen from New England and of +only two Republicans. In the preceding Congress there had been thirty +Federalists and eleven Republicans. + +That members of the Essex Junto would gladly have seized this +opportunity to remake the Federal Union by excluding the Western States +appears clearly enough in the correspondence of men like Timothy +Pickering. A new Union of the "good old thirteen States" on terms set by +New England was believed to be well within the bounds of possibility. +Radical newspapers referred with enthusiasm to the erection of a new +federal edifice. Little wonder that the harassed President was obsessed +with the idea that New England was on the verge of secession. + +From the first, however, this movement in New England was kept well in +hand by men like Harrison Gray Otis, who always insisted that the object +of a convention was to defend New England against the common enemy and +to prevent radical action under the stress of popular excitement. If +this be true, it was unfortunate, to say the least, that these patriots +chose just this moment, when the Federal Government was about to succumb +to the common enemy, to propose alterations in the Constitution; and it +was equally unfortunate for the reputations of all concerned that they +should have held their deliberations in secret, giving an air of +conspiracy to their proceedings. The official journal of the Convention +at Hartford was not published until 1823. When the Convention adjourned +on January 5, 1815, all that the general public was permitted to know of +its deliberations was contained in its famous report. + +The Convention was at no little pains to reassure a waiting world that +it did not contemplate or countenance secession. It was not yet ready to +concede that the defects in the Constitution were incurable nor that +multiplied abuses justified a severance of the Union, "especially in a +time of war." "If the Union be destined to dissolution, ... it should, +if possible, be the work of peaceable times, and deliberate consent." +But these philosophical considerations did not deter the author of the +report from a vicious and partisan attack upon "the multiplied abuses of +bad administrations." + +President Madison must have read this document with mingled feelings, +for the Convention held, almost in the words of his Resolutions of 1798, +that the infractions of the Constitution were so "deliberate, dangerous, +and palpable" as to put the liberties of the people in jeopardy and to +make it the duty of a State "to interpose its authority for their +protection." The legislatures of the several States were recommended to +adopt measures for protecting their citizens against all +unconstitutional acts of Congress which should subject the militia or +other citizens to forcible drafts, conscriptions, or impressments. They +were also urged to apply to the Federal Government for consent to some +arrangement whereby the States, separately or in concert, could +undertake their own defense and retain a reasonable proportion of the +national taxes for the purpose. Finally, seven amendments to the +Constitution were proposed, to prevent a recurrence of the grievances +from which the New England States suffered. Four of these proposed +amendments put limitations upon Congress: a two-thirds vote of both +houses was to be required to admit a new State, to interdict commerce, +to lay an embargo, and to declare war. In future, representation and +direct taxes were to be apportioned according to the respective numbers +of free persons. Naturalized citizens were to be excluded from all +federal civil offices; and finally--a blow at the Virginia +dynasty--"the same person shall not be elected President of the United +States a second time; nor shall the President be elected from the same +State two terms in succession." + +The General Court of Massachusetts acted promptly. Three commissioners +were dispatched at once to Washington, to work out an amicable +arrangement for the defense of the State. On February 3, 1815, the +"three ambassadors," as they styled themselves, set out for the capital. +Ten days later, _en route_, they learned that General Andrew Jackson had +decisively repulsed an attack of the British upon New Orleans on January +8. On reaching Washington the commissioners were met with the news that +a treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent. Their cause had met with the +most unlucky fate which can befall any cause in the United States: it +had become ridiculous. The tension of war-times relaxed in a roar of +laughter at their expense. + +Early in the year 1813, Russia had endeavored to mediate between her +ally and the United States. President Madison had at once, and as it +appeared somewhat precipitately, sent Albert Gallatin and James A. +Bayard as peace commissioners to St. Petersburg; but Great Britain +declined the Czar's good offices. The American envoys, however, remained +in Europe. When, then, in October, the British Ministry intimated that +it was prepared to begin direct negotiations, President Madison created +a new commission by sending John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Jonathan +Russell to join Gallatin and Bayard. In the last week in June, the +commissioners repaired to Ghent, which had been chosen as the place of +meeting. Thither the British negotiators followed them in leisurely +fashion. The first joint conference was not held until August 8, 1814. + +The task of the American commissioners was one of very great difficulty. +Confronted by the unexpected demand that the revision of the Canadian +boundary, the fisheries, and the establishment of an Indian state in the +Northwest should be included in the _pourparler_, they could only reply +that they had been instructed to discuss only matters of maritime +law--impressments, blockades, and neutral rights. There seemed so little +likelihood of agreement that the American commissioners prepared to +leave Ghent. But the British Ministry abated its extreme demands and +continued the negotiations. At the same time new instructions from +Washington advised the American representatives that they might drop the +subject of impressments if they found it an insuperable obstacle in the +way of peace. + +The insistence of the British agents upon the principle of _uti +possidetis_--the state of possession at the close of the war--again +threatened to break off negotiations, for the Americans resolutely +insisted on the _status quo ante bellum_, a restoration of all places +taken during the war. It was at this juncture that tidings arrived of +the British repulse at Plattsburg. For a week the British Ministry +debated the feasibility of renewing the war; but the complications at +the Congress of Vienna, the "prodigious expense" of continued war, the +change in public opinion, and the emphatic conviction of Wellington that +the Ministry had "no right from the state of the war to demand any +cession of territory"--these and many lesser considerations disposed the +Cabinet to ask the American envoys to prepare a draft of a treaty. + +Strong differences of opinion developed among the Americans when they +set to work upon their preliminary draft. As the representative of +Western interests, Clay set himself obstinately against any further +recognition of the British right--secured by the treaty of 1783--of free +navigation of the Mississippi. Adams was equally determined not to +sacrifice the correlative right to the Labrador and Newfoundland +fisheries, which his father had secured in the Treaty of Paris. +Gallatin, the peacemaker, was in favor of offering to renew both +privileges; and he finally succeeded in winning Clay's reluctant assent +to this plan. But when the British commissioners objected, both sides +agreed to omit all reference to these vexing questions. + +The treaty which was signed on December 24, 1814, is remarkable for its +omissions. The reader will scan it in vain for any allusion to +impressments, blockades, and neutral rights. It is equally silent as to +the control of the Lakes, Indian territories, the fisheries, and the +navigation of the Mississippi. It was "simply a cessation of +hostilities, leaving every claim on either side open for future +settlement." Clay probably reflected the disappointment of Republicans +when he pronounced it "a damned bad treaty." Nevertheless, it brought +what was most desired by the exhausted Administration--peace. Moreover, +the treaty must be viewed in the light of events in Europe. The +overthrow of the Napoleonic Empire and the exile of Bonaparte gave +promise of a return to normal conditions so far as maritime rights were +concerned. The victories of American seamen in the war were after all +better guaranties of neutral rights than any declarations on parchment. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + Besides the larger histories, which contain abundant information + about the war, mention should be made of B. J. Lossing's + _Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812_ (1868), written by one + who visited most of the battlefields of the war. A well-balanced + account of the military operations is contained in K. C. Babcock's + _The Rise of American Nationality_ (in _The American Nation_, vol. + XIII, 1906). Theodore Roosevelt, _The Naval War of 1812_ (various + editions); E. S. Maclay, _History of the United States Navy from + 1775 to 1901_ (3 vols., 1901-02), and _History of American + Privateers_ (1899); J. R. Spears, _History of Our Navy_ (4 vols., + 1897); and C. O. Paullin, _Commodore John Rodgers_ (1910), give + the history of the maritime war. The most comprehensive study of + the naval operations of the war is the work by Admiral Mahan + already cited. The part of Jackson in the war is set forth in many + biographies. The most picturesque is James Parton, _Life of Andrew + Jackson_ (3 vols., 1860); the most recent is J. S. Bassett, _Life + of Andrew Jackson_ (2 vols., 1911). S. E. Morison, _Life and + Letters of Harrison Gray Otis_ (2 vols., 1913), gives a fresh + account of the disaffection in New England and of the Hartford + Convention. The peace negotiations at Ghent are set forth + circumstantially by Henry Adams in his _History of the United + States_ (9 vols., 1889-91). + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE RESULTS OF THE WAR + + +In a message to Congress transmitting the treaty of peace, President +Madison congratulated the country on the termination of a war "waged +with a success which is the natural result of the wisdom of the +legislative councils, of the patriotism of the people, of the public +spirit of the militia, and of the valor of the military and naval forces +of the country." The verdict of history does not sustain this paean of +victory. "The record, upon the whole," declares Admiral Mahan, "is one +of gloom, disaster, and governmental incompetence, resulting from lack +of national preparation, due to the obstinate and blind prepossessions +of the Government, and, in part, of the people." Public opinion indorsed +the President's estimate of the late struggle. + +As a matter of fact, the people of the United States had seen little of +the disasters and ravages of war. All the important battles took place +on the borders. The great mass of the people were undisturbed in their +vocations. There was hardly a day during the war when a farmer could not +till his acres in tranquillity. Not an important city save Washington +was taken during the war. Nor was the loss of life large in proportion +to population. All told, the killed and wounded did not exceed five +thousand men. Napoleon lost nearly two hundred thousand French soldiers +in his disastrous Russian campaign. + +American character appeared at its best and at its worst in these three +years of war. Even the British press could not gainsay the +resourcefulness and intelligence of the American soldier and sailor, +though the phrase "Yankee smartness" conveyed also the unpleasant +imputation of trickiness and moral laxity. Wherever conditions permitted +a fair test, the superiority of the American gunner was incontestable. +The greater losses of the British whenever the armies met on even terms +proved the superior marksmanship of the American militiaman. The +adaptation of the fast-sailing schooner to privateering was further +evidence of an alert intellect which was quick to adapt means to ends. +This quality, to be sure, has been bred in every frontier folk by the +very necessities of existence, but it appeared in marked strength in the +American of this time. While the shipbuilders of New England were laying +the keels of these privateers, Robert Fulton was perfecting his +steamboat on the Delaware and Hudson rivers. In the year before the war, +the first steamboat appeared on the Ohio, and before the end of the war +fourteen were plying on Western waters, and opening up a new era in the +American colonization of the continent. + +This instinctive adaptation of means to ends was less successful in the +realm of American politics. No celerity could compensate for want of +prevision on the part of the authorities at Washington. The lesson of +the war was not lost upon James Madison, at least. "Experience has +taught us," said he in a message to Congress,--and the words amounted to +a confession of error,--"that neither the pacific dispositions of the +American people nor the pacific character of their political +institutions, can altogether exempt them from that strife which appears, +beyond the ordinary lot of nations, to be incident to the actual period +of the world; and the same faithful monitor demonstrates that a certain +degree of preparation for war is not only indispensable to avert +disaster in the onset, but affords also the best security for the +continuance of peace." + +The indirect effects of war were more widely felt. The blockade affected +adversely all the extractive industries upon which the vast majority of +the people in all the States depended. Only New England escaped +unscathed--and the circumstance was not creditable to the section. In +the latter months of 1814 ruin stared the Southern planter in the face. +The lifting of the blockade wrought a transformation. Planters in the +Old Dominion, who could find no market for their tobacco and wheat on +February 13, sold their produce on February 14 at prices which made them +rich again. Flour which had found almost no purchasers at seven and a +half dollars a barrel sold readily at ten. Imported commodities fell in +price correspondingly. Ships put to sea at once laden with the +accumulated produce of two long years. The export trade, which had +fallen to less than $7,000,000, leaped to $46,000,000 between March and +October. Fully two thirds of this wealth accrued to the Southern +planters who raised the three great staples, tobacco, cotton, and rice. +The people of the Middle States shared only moderately in this +prosperity. The value of the wheat and corn which the farmers of +Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey raised for export did not much +exceed that of tobacco alone. + +The return of peace brought relief also to the shipping industry of New +England. Vessels which the embargo and the restrictive policy and the +hazards of war had kept in port now put to sea again. But the European +conditions which had created such immense profits for the Yankee skipper +in 1805, 1806, and 1807 had passed away. Foreign ships now bid for the +carrying trade of the Atlantic, and their competition cut down freight +rates to a point which caused melancholy forebodings in the homes of +Boston and Salem shipowners. + +The long period of commercial restriction followed by three years of war +caused a dislocation of industry in New England. Capital which had been +invested in shipping now sought larger returns in the manufacture of +those commodities hitherto supplied by British factories. When the +embargo was laid, only fifteen cotton mills were in operation, +representing a capital of about $500,000. Two years later, capital to +the amount of $4,000,000 had been invested in factories which employed +nearly 4000 hands. At the close of the war, $40,000,000 were invested in +cotton mills which consumed 27,000,000 pounds of raw cotton and gave +employment to 100,000 men and women. Hitherto much of the weaving had +been done on hand looms in the farmhouses of New England: only the +spinning had been done by machinery. In 1814, Francis Lowell introduced +the power loom into his mill at Waltham, Massachusetts, and brought the +various processes of cotton manufacturing under one roof. The foundation +of the New England factory system was thus laid before the end of the +war. In the following decade the famous factory towns on the Merrimac +came into existence. The metamorphosis of the section had begun. + +The woolen industry received a great impetus in this same period of +artificial stimulation, but it failed to expand with the same rapidity, +owing to the scarcity and cost of the finer grades of wool. +Nevertheless, in the year 1816, about $12,000,000 were invested in the +manufacture of woolen fabrics. Like the cotton industry, this owed its +development to the policy of Presidents from Virginia. It is one of the +ironies of history that Jefferson and Madison should have unwittingly +sacrificed Southern planters to build up industries in the North, and +that New Englanders should have excoriated those worthies for policies +which became the source of New England prosperity. + +To these new industries peace spelled disaster. English manufacturers +seized the opportunity to unload the goods which they had been piling up +in their warehouses for years. Importations which had amounted to +$13,000,000 in 1813 rose to the staggering sum of $147,000,000 in 1816. +Not even import duties stemmed the tide, for as Lord Brougham stated in +Parliament, "It was well worth while to incur a loss upon the first +exportation, in order, by a glut, to stifle in the cradle those rising +manufactures in the United States which the war had forced into +existence, contrary to the natural course of things." + +In October, 1815, the cotton manufacturers of Rhode Island sent a +memorial to Congress, stating that their one hundred and forty factories +were threatened with destruction by this cut-throat competition. Such +complaints seemed unduly apprehensive; yet before the year closed, most +of the textile mills had shut down. The distress of New England was no +longer feigned. Caught in a process of transition from shipping to +manufacturing, capital could neither advance nor retreat. It was a +legitimate case for governmental aid. Even Jefferson laid aside his +early prepossessions in favor of a simple bucolic life for the American +citizen, and admitted that "to be independent for the comforts of life, +we must fabricate them for ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer +by the side of the agriculturist." Madison, too, departed from the +Virginia faith so far as to recommend sufficient protection of "the +enterprising citizens whose interests are now at stake" to guard them +"against occasional competition from abroad." + +Within sight of the blackened walls of the Capitol, in temporary +quarters which it had rented, Congress set its hand to the work of +national reconstruction. Before many months had passed, the new Capitol, +under the supervision of Latrobe, began to rise from the ruins of the +old, a symbol of a new era. On the walls of the rotunda, John Trumbull +painted scenes which were to remind coming generations of the heroic +days of the Revolution, and within its confines was eventually installed +what was left of the library of Congress, with the gaps supplied in part +by Jefferson's private collection, which Congress purchased. The new +nation was not to disdain wholly the finer aspects of life nor to +despise the garnered wisdom of the ages. + +In March, 1816, Congress took under consideration a tariff bill which +had been drafted on lines marked out by the new Secretary of the +Treasury, A. J. Dallas, of Pennsylvania. The debates brought out a wide +diversity of interests. Daniel Webster represented admirably the mingled +feelings of his New England constituents when he professed to favor +existing manufactures, but deprecated any action calculated to produce +new industries. He never wished to see the time when the young men of +the country would be forced to close their eyes to heaven and earth, and +open them in the dust and smoke of unwholesome factories. On the other +hand, Calhoun, eschewing a narrow sectionalism, declared that +manufacturing must be encouraged as a wise national policy. "Neither +agriculture, manufactures, nor commerce, taken separately, is the cause +of wealth," said he. "It flows from the three combined and cannot exist +without each." The South showed little of the apprehension which John +Randolph expressed when he cried, "Upon whom bears the duty on coarse +woolens and linens and blankets, upon salt, and all the necessaries of +life?" and answered, "On poor men, and on slaveholders." + +The bill which Congress eventually passed fixed somewhat lower duties +than Dallas had advised. A duty of twenty-five per cent was placed on +cotton and woolen goods until June 30, 1819, when it was to be reduced +to twenty per cent. By what was known as the minimum principle, all +cotton fabrics costing less than twenty-five cents a square yard were +held to have cost that amount and were made to pay corresponding duties. +The object of this provision was to exclude from India the coarser and +cheaper cotton textiles which would menace the products of New England +looms. Other important articles were made subject to higher duties, such +as rolled and hammered iron, leather goods, hats, carriages, and +writing-paper. A comparison of these duties with those of the tariff of +1789 shows a marked increase. Where the average duty was seven and one +half per cent in 1789, it was thirty per cent in the tariff of 1816. So +far as the intent of the law is concerned, this tariff act committed the +country to a fiscal policy in which "revenue was subordinated to +industrial needs." + +Although the largest vote against the tariff bill came from the South +and Southwest, twenty-three out of fifty-seven Representatives voted for +the bill. New England showed a prepondering opinion in favor of +protection: only ten out of twenty-seven Representatives opposed the +bill. The Representatives of the Middle States ranged themselves +emphatically on the side of protection; and with them stood the +Congressmen from Ohio and Kentucky. + +The close of the war found the country with a badly disordered currency +and with a bankrupt treasury. Nowhere were the remedial efforts of +Congress needed more. The condition of the currency was due, in part at +least, to the failure of Congress in 1811 to perceive the regulative +influence of a national bank. By refusing to recharter the United States +Bank, Congress not only deprived the Treasury of an exceedingly valuable +fiscal agent during the war, but also threw the door wide open to +indiscriminate and unregulated state banking. Between 1811 and 1816 the +number of these state institutions increased from eighty-eight to two +hundred and forty-six, all of which exercised the right of issuing notes +with little or no restriction. Inflation followed inevitably. During the +blockade the banks of the Middle and Southern States suffered great +distress by the constant drain of specie to New England and abroad. +After the capture of Washington, practically all banks outside of New +England were forced to suspend specie payments. The country experienced +once more all the evils of a depreciated currency. Southern bank notes +were refused for deposit in Philadelphia banks. Notes of these +institutions in Philadelphia, in turn, were subject to a discount of +twenty-four per cent in Boston. Uncertainty and distrust demoralized +financial operations everywhere. + +Wiser by the experience of five years, Congress was now disposed to +establish another national bank. A first bill, however, fell short of +the President's desires and was vetoed. A second bill became law on +April 10, 1816. The provisions of this Bank of the United States +differed in several particulars from that chartered in 1790. Its capital +was three and one half times as large. One fifth of the total capital +of $35,000,000 was to be subscribed by the Government, and the remainder +by individuals. Five of the twenty-five directors were to be appointed +by the President of the United States. The funds of the Government were +to be deposited in the Bank unless the Secretary of the Treasury should +otherwise direct, laying his reasons for any such change before +Congress. In return for the privileges granted in the charter, the Bank +was required to transfer the government funds from place to place +without charge, and to pay $1,500,000 to the Government. On its side the +Government agreed not to charter any other bank except in the District +of Columbia. The circulation of the Bank was limited to the amount of +its capital. Its notes were to be payable on demand in specie and to be +receivable in all payments to the Government. + +Such an institution gave promise of serving the Government as a sound +fiscal agent and of assisting materially in the restoration of the +currency to a specie basis. The stock was subscribed promptly by 31,334 +individuals, all but three thousand of whom resided in the Middle +States. New England was still reluctant to support the plans of Mr. +Madison; the South had other uses for its capital. To facilitate the +resumption of specie payments, Congress passed a joint resolution, that +after February 20 of the following year (1817), all dues to the +Government should be paid in specie, treasury notes, national bank +notes, or notes of banks payable in the "said currency of the United +States." This was strong medicine for the state banks. Unwilling or +unable to contract their circulation and to call in their loans, the +banks of the Middle States asked to have the date of resumption +deferred, on the ostensible ground that the new bank could not be +organized in time to assist them. The energetic Secretary of the +Treasury disposed of this plea by putting the Bank in operation in +January, 1817. On the date set by Congress the banks very generally +resumed specie payments. + +The propulsive force given to the Government by the war seemed likely to +continue. The task of the National Government no longer seemed merely +negative,--to "restrain men from injuring one another," in the +Jeffersonian phrase,--but positive and constructive. Even Madison, in +his annual message of 1815, recommended liberal provision for defense, +more military academies, an improved and enlarged navy, protection to +manufactures, new national roads and canals, and a national university. +He gave his support to Monroe's proposal to fix the peace establishment +at twenty thousand men; and he experienced the unique sensation of +finding himself in advance of his party, which finally agreed upon an +army of ten thousand men. Still more striking evidence of the change +which had passed over the party of Jefferson was its willingness to +retain the entire naval establishment and to appropriate $4,000,000 for +frigates and ships-of-the-line. Clay and Calhoun, speaking for the +younger Republicans, agreed that the greatest danger of the future lay +in weak government. They were not in the least intimidated by the +addition of $80,000,000 to the national debt as the result of war. That +sum represented to their minds simply the price, none too large, of +commercial and industrial independence. + +These young aggressive spirits seemed at times quite indifferent to nice +questions of constitutional law. Calhoun dismissed constitutional +objections to a national bank with a wave of the hand: he thought +discussion of such abstract themes "a useless consumption of time." On +introducing his bill for internal improvements, in December, 1816, he +intimated that he did not propose to indulge in metaphysical subtleties +respecting the Constitution. "The instrument was not intended as a +thesis for the logician to exercise his ingenuity on; ... it ought to be +construed with plain good sense." If Clay exhibited more sensitiveness +to constitutional limitations, it was because he had to clear himself +from the charge of inconsistency. In supporting the Bank Bill in 1816 he +frankly confessed that he had changed his mind on the point of +constitutionality. He had believed the incorporation of a bank in 1811 +unwarranted by the Constitution; but conditions had changed. What was +then neither necessary nor proper was now both necessary and proper. The +interpretation of the Constitution must always take existing +circumstances into account. If Clay did not add to his reputation as an +expounder of the Constitution by this speech, he represented admirably, +nevertheless, the changes which circumstances had wrought in the +convictions of his associates. + +Against these new tendencies John Randolph set himself stark and grim. +"The question is," said he, replying to Calhoun's new nationalism, +"whether or not we are willing to become one great consolidated nation, +or whether we have still respect enough for those old, respectable +institutions [the States] to regard their integrity and preservation as +a part of our policy." Randolph spoke for a generation which was passing +away; but his words touched a responsive chord in the breast of +President Madison. On March 3, 1817, as he was about to leave office, he +sent to Congress a message vetoing the Internal Improvements Bill and +warning his party associates of the danger of latitudinarian views of +the Constitution. This message was Madison's farewell address. It was +thoroughly characteristic of the man and the statesman. + +The relaxing of Republican doctrines, and of party ties generally, +divested the presidential election of any real political significance. +The Federalists were thoroughly discredited. As a party they made no +concerted effort to nominate candidates. Virtually, therefore, the +selection of a President rested with the congressional caucus of the +Republican party. The choice lay between two members of the President's +Cabinet: James Monroe, Secretary of State, and William H. Crawford, +Secretary of the Treasury. Governor Tompkins, of New York, was put +forward by enthusiastic partisans from that State, but he was not a +national figure in any sense and commanded no support outside of his +State. Intrigue played a part in this caucus, if contemporary testimony +may be believed. Tradition has it that Martin Van Buren and Peter B. +Porter prevented their New York delegation from voting for Crawford and +thus threw the nomination to Monroe. Governor Tompkins was the choice of +the caucus for Vice-President. No one could safely affirm that these +nominees were the choice of the rank and file of the party. Here and +there public meetings were held to protest against the dictation of the +congressional caucus; but no organized opposition developed. The +campaign proved to be a tame affair. Nowhere was there a real contest. +Only three States, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware, chose +Federalist electors. Not a ripple of excitement stirred the public when +announcement was finally made that Monroe had received 183 electoral +votes and Rufus King, 34. For the fourth time a Virginian had been +raised to the Presidency. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + Of the general histories, only that by McMaster contains any great + amount of information bearing on the economic changes wrought by + war and the preceding period of commercial restriction. Adams + summarizes the economic results of war in a single chapter in the + last volume of his work. K. C. Babcock, _The Rise of American + Nationality_ (in _The American Nation_, vol. 13, 1906), attempts + the same task. Besides the manuals on economic history which have + already been mentioned, there are several excellent volumes + dealing with various phases of national life: such as, D. R. + Dewey, _Financial History of the United States_ (1903); F. W. + Taussig, _Tariff History of the United Stales_ (rev. ed., 1913); + R. C. H. Catterall, _The Second Bank of the United Stales_ (1903); + J. L. Bishop, _History of American Manufactures from 1608-1860_ (2 + vols., 1861-64); C. W. Wright, _Wool-Growing and the Tariff_ + (1910). Among the biographies of statesmen of the new generation, + the best are: G. T. Curtis, _Life of Daniel Webster_ (2 vols., + 1869); W. W. Story, _Life and Letters of Joseph Story_ (2 vols., + 1851); G. Hunt, _John C. Calhoun_ (1908). + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT + + +At the end of the second decade of the nineteenth century, the people of +the United States were still in the main a homogeneous folk, native-born +descendants of native-born ancestors. The tide of immigration which was +by the end of the century to inundate the nation and transform its +character was just beginning to flow. Its volume between the close of +the Revolution and the year 1820, when the first official statistics +were collected, must remain a matter of conjecture. In 1817, the +painstaking Niles, in his _Register_, estimated that about twenty-two +thousand immigrants had arrived in that year in the ports of New York, +Philadelphia, and Boston, of whom four thousand were Germans and the +rest inhabitants of the British Isles. Fully one half of these British +subjects were brawny Irishmen, often a turbulent lot, but always in +demand for hard labor on the roads and canals which were projected in +every part of the Union. Among these newcomers, however, were many +undesirables. Not a few English parishes emptied their poorhouses by +sending the helpless inmates to the New World. Some of these deported +paupers, no doubt, found a livelihood and became respectable citizens; +but the records of almshouses in the Eastern States indicate that many +of these unfortunates had only exchanged one asylum for another. In the +Philadelphia poorhouses in the early thirties, from one third to one +half of the inmates were foreign-born. Cargoes of redemptioners came +into American ports as late as the year 1818. Of that traffic which was +bringing helpless Africans into bondage in the Southern States, more +will be said in a subsequent chapter. + +Among the new arrivals, it goes without saying, were men and women, who, +and whose descendants, contributed mightily to the building up of +American Commonwealths. Entire communities seeking an asylum in the New +World continued to arrive as in the early years of the seventeenth +century. In 1817, a body of German separatists from Wuerttemberg, under +the leadership of Joseph Baumeler, landed at Philadelphia. Like the +English Pilgrims they sought freedom from religious persecution, but the +Plymouth which they founded was on a new frontier--at Zoar in the +wilderness of Ohio. + +What particularly impressed every foreign traveler in America during +these years of transition and expansion was the incessant movement of +society. The earlier westward movement of population had never wholly +ceased, but it had been retarded by the war. The return of peace was +like the first warm days of spring. The roads leading West were fairly +inundated by a swelling stream of emigrants. An observer at the Genesee +turnpike noted a train of some twenty wagons and one hundred and sixteen +persons on their way to Indiana from a single town in Maine. A traveler +on his way from Nashville to Georgia, in January, 1817, met an +astonishing number of people from the Carolinas and Georgia who were +bound for the cotton lands of Alabama. He counted over two hundred +conveyances and three thousand people, driving herds of cattle and +droves of hogs before them. But the great highway to the West lay +through Pennsylvania. On the road from Chambersburg to Pittsburg, +Fearon, an intelligent and in such particulars a trustworthy English +traveler, counted one hundred and three stage-wagons, drawn by four and +six horses, proceeding from Philadelphia and Baltimore to Pittsburg, and +seventy-nine wagons bound in the opposite direction. "On the road," +comments Fearon, "every emigrant tells you he is going to Ohio; when you +arrive in Ohio, its inhabitants are 'moving' to Missouri and Alabama; +thus it is that the point for final settlement is forever receding as +you advance, and thus it will hereafter proceed, and only be terminated +by that effectual barrier--the Pacific Ocean." + +To this emigration all sections of the Union contributed. In the +back-country of New England--in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and +western Massachusetts--was a restive population little loved by the +governing class. President Timothy Dwight, of Yale College, described +these people as "impatient of the restraints of law, religion, and +morality," contentious, always complaining, and always indebted. They +were likely to be Baptists or Methodists, by persuasion, and Democrats +in politics. As small farmers their lot was a hard one. They needed only +the incentive of cheap lands in the West to sever the slender ties which +bound them to the stony hillsides of New England. Yet the older towns of +New England also complained of the Western fever which was carrying off +the available labor supply. Fearon found "the small and middling +tradesmen" always ready to sell out when business got bad and "pack up +for the back-country." The immediate destination of these New Englanders +was western New York. Within a decade what had been a frontier area was +filled with an industrious population eager to secure markets for the +surplus products of their farms. + +[Map: Land Sales and Land Offices to 1821] + +Before a very large number of New Englanders passed beyond western New +York, emigrants from the Middle States were pushing into the Ohio +country, where Harrison's victories had opened vast tracts to the white +settlers. The earliest settlers in Indiana and Illinois, however, were +of Southern extraction. Tennessee and Kentucky, having no longer a +supply of good land at low prices, sent the younger generation on to a +new frontier. In the year 1816 the father of Abraham Lincoln took his +family across the Ohio on a raft and hewed his way into the timber lands +along the river bottoms of Indiana. With these migratory Kentuckians +went also descendants of the Germans and the Scotch-Irish who had +peopled the Great Valley in the previous century. Even from the +Carolinas came all sorts and conditions of men,--poor whites, Quakers, +Baptists,--small farmers whom the advancing plantation system was +driving from the uplands. + +Even more significant than this advance of population into the region +north of the Ohio was the contemporaneous movement from the Southern +Seaboard States into the cotton lands of the Gulf plains. The way had +been prepared by Andrew Jackson's conquest of the Creeks. Alabama was +the immediate goal of the migrating Southerner. From Kentucky, also, but +more particularly from Tennessee, stalwart pioneers entered this new El +Dorado. The father of Jefferson Davis was one of those who tried their +luck in the alluvial plains of the lower Mississippi. By the year 1820, +the area of settlement had extended from southern Tennessee to Mobile, +and from Mobile to the Mississippi along the Gulf. + +[Illustration: The Cotton Crop in the United States 1801-1834 + Based on Estimates furnished to Congress by the Secretary of Treasury + Figures indicate the crop in million pounds + Shaded segments indicate the Gulf States] + +The causes and consequences of this colonization of the Southwest form a +vital chapter in the economic history of the country. In the year before +the war, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia produced 75,000,000 pounds +of cotton; the only other cotton-raising States, Tennessee and +Louisiana, produced 5,000,000 pounds. Ten years later, the Seaboard +States raised 117,000,000 pounds; the Southwest, 60,000,000. In another +decade the States of the Southwest had outstripped the Old South. This +comparison throws a flood of light upon Southern history. The invention +of the cotton gin had made possible the cultivation of the short-staple +cotton plant, which was the only variety that could be raised profitably +in the uplands. Occurring just at the moment when the use of the power +loom in factories was giving an unprecedented stimulus to the +manufacture of cotton, the cotton gin worked a revolution in Southern +life and industry. From the tidewater, with its large plantations +worked by African slaves, the cultivation of cotton passed into the +region above the fall-line of the rivers, where the small farmer +practiced a diversified agriculture. Socially and politically the two +regions had always been distinct. The gentlemen planters of the +tidewater, with much the same outlook as the English gentry of the same +period, regarded the democratic yeomen of the Piedmont with distrust not +unmixed with contempt. By excluding them from their proportionate +representation in the state legislatures, the aristocratic planters +maintained an ascendency which was at once political and social. But as +cotton-growing became more profitable and advanced into the interior, +the farmer of the uplands found himself pushed to the wall. Either he +must adopt the plantation system and purchase slaves, or sell his land +and move on. For want of capital large numbers chose the latter +alternative and swelled the numbers of those who had already set their +faces westward. + +The communities which within six years after the Treaty of Ghent were +admitted into the Union as the States of Mississippi and Alabama, did +not at first differ materially from Indiana and Illinois, which became +Commonwealths at the same time. Much the same obstacles confronted the +pioneer in the pine forests of Mississippi as in the hard woods of the +Northwest. Either as squatter or _bona fide_ purchaser he had with the +aid of his neighbors hewed out a clearing, or single-handed girdled the +trees, and laid the sills of his log cabin. A "raising" or "frolic" was +one of the few opportunities for social intercourse in the hard life of +the frontiersman. Between the stumps of his clearing he planted his +first crop of Indian corn; and what the soil did not yield for his +sustenance, he supplied with his trusty rifle. Time wrought vast +transformations in these new communities. The thriftless, who scratched +the surface of the ground and then sold out to a newcomer of sterner +fiber, passed on to a new frontier. Log cabins gave way to frame houses. +Clearings became well-tilled farms. Better methods of cultivation +extracted a surplus of produce which could be sent to market. Along the +rivers of the Northwest, cities sprang up like mushrooms. + +From this point the history of the Southwest diverged from that of the +Northwest. The virgin lands of the Gulf attracted also the planter with +his capital invested in African slaves. Once again the small farmer felt +the combined pressure of social and economic forces. He saw his +wealthier neighbor acquire the more fertile lands; he found himself +thrust into a socially inferior class; and again he yielded to fate. +While a democratic society of self-reliant yeomen was developing in the +northern half of the Mississippi Valley, a society based upon a +plantation economy and aristocratic in its outward characteristics was +forming in the Gulf States. Yet in its aggressiveness and commercial +enterprise, the new South resembled the Northwest rather than the old +South. + +[Map: The West as an Economic Section in 1820] + +While the South was producing staples for an ever-growing market, it +became itself the market for the surplus products of the Northwest. An +active internal trade sprang up between the sections in spite of the +natural barriers to commercial intercourse. Live stock could be driven +to market. It was a common occurrence to see droves of thousands of +"razor-back" hogs on their way from Kentucky to the Seaboard States, +feeding on nuts and roots by the way. Rivers were the chief highways for +such produce as could not provide for its own locomotion. The Western +waters floated all sorts of craft, from the lumber raft to the flatboat, +laden with pork, cheese, butter, flour, corn, and whiskey. The greater +part of these boats were makeshifts, and made no return voyage. It was +not until 1809 that a barge was warped upstream from New Orleans to +Nashville. The entire traffic on the Mississippi and the Ohio was +carried on until 1817 in less than a score of keel boats, which made the +voyage downstream from Louisville to New Orleans in about forty days, +and upstream in ninety. When, then, a steamboat succeeded in making a +return voyage in twenty-five days, it was hailed as an epoch-making +performance. In the next year twenty steamboats were competing for the +river traffic; and three years later (1820) seventy-two were in actual +service. Yet the steamboat did not drive the flatboat from the Western +rivers. So late as 1840 one fifth of the freight handled on the lower +Mississippi was carried in flatboats or barges. + +The rapid rise of this internal commerce between the farmer of the +Northwest and the cotton planter of the South increased the ability of +both to purchase manufactures in the Eastern markets. Both sections had +wants which they could not supply by their simple household industries. +They had to import not only their farming implements, but most of those +articles, useful or ornamental, which were thought indispensable to a +higher civilization. "Spots in Tennessee, in Ohio, and Kentucky," +comments an English traveler, "that within the lifetime of even young +men, witnessed only the arrow and the scalping knife, now present the +traveler with articles of elegance and modes of luxury which might rival +the displays of London and Paris." Most of this stock was transported +over the mountains from Philadelphia or Baltimore. In 1820, three +thousand wagons carried to Pittsburg, the distributing center of the +West, nearly eighteen million dollars' worth of merchandise. + +The commercial interests of the East were quick to see the possibilities +of this new market. An eager rivalry sprang up between the merchants of +New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Everywhere ways and means of +cheaper transportation were discussed. In this subject the Western +farmer was vitally interested, for freight charges added nearly one +third to the cost of merchandise transported over the mountains. The +cotton planter of the Seaboard States, also, feeling the competition of +the Southwest, where riverways were abundant and easily navigable, saw +the need of better roads to tidewater, in order to lessen the cost of +marketing his produce. + +The popular demand for better roads was not recent. All the States had +encouraged, directly or indirectly, the building of turnpikes and +bridges. Between 1793 and 1812, Pennsylvania had chartered fifty-five +turnpike companies, and other States had been scarcely less ready to +grant articles of incorporation to stock companies. Private enterprise +had, indeed, done much to improve communication along the seaboard. +Turnpikes and bridges had shortened the journey by stage from Boston to +Washington to four and a quarter days by the year 1815. The city of New +York was in 1816 within twenty-four hours of Albany by the Hudson River +steamboats. + +Numerous canal companies had also been chartered; but of all the canals +projected, only three had been completed when the War of 1812 began: the +Dismal Swamp Canal in Virginia, the Santee Canal in South Carolina, and +the Middlesex Canal in Massachusetts. It remained for New York to usher +in a new era in internal communication by authorizing in 1817 the +construction of the Erie Canal. In the ardent imagination of its chief +promoter, De Witt Clinton, this canal was destined to be "a bond of +union between the Atlantic and Western States" and "an organ of +communication between the Hudson, the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, the +Great Lakes of the North and West, and their tributary rivers," creating +"the greatest inland trade ever witnessed" and transforming New York +into a vast emporium of commerce and "the granary of the world." + +This bold bid for Western trade alarmed the merchants of Philadelphia, +particularly as the completion of the national road threatened to divert +much of their traffic to Baltimore. In 1825, the legislature of +Pennsylvania grappled with the problem by projecting a series of canals +which were to connect its great seaport with Pittsburg on the west and +with Lake Erie and the upper Susquehanna on the north. + +The magnitude of the transportation problem was such, however, that +neither individual States nor private corporations seemed able to meet +the demands of an expanding internal trade. As early as 1807, Albert +Gallatin had advocated the construction of a great system of internal +waterways to connect East and West, at an estimated cost of $20,000,000. +But the only contribution of the National Government to internal +improvements during the Jeffersonian era was an appropriation in 1806 of +two per cent of the net proceeds of the sales of public lands in Ohio +for the construction of a national road, with the consent of the States +through which it should pass. By 1818 the road was open to traffic from +Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, Virginia. + +In 1816, with the experiences of the war before him, no well-informed +statesman could shut his eyes to the national aspects of the problem. +Even President Madison invited the attention of Congress to the need of +establishing "a comprehensive system of roads and canals." Soon after +Congress met, it took under consideration a bill drafted by Calhoun +which proposed an appropriation of $1,500,000 for internal improvements. +Because this appropriation was to be met by the moneys paid by the +National Bank to the Government, the bill was commonly referred to as +the "Bonus Bill." "Let it not be forgotten," said Calhoun in advocacy of +his bill, "that it [the size of the Union] exposes us to the greatest of +all calamities,--next to the loss of liberty,--and even to that in its +consequences--disunion. We are great, and rapidly--I was about to say +fearfully--growing. This is our pride and our danger; our weakness and +our strength.... We are under the most imperious obligation to +counteract every tendency to disunion.... Whatever impedes the +intercourse of the extremes with this, the center of the Republic, +weakens the Union." + +The one section which was impervious to these national considerations at +this moment was New England; but it was President Madison, and not New +England, who defeated the Bonus Bill. On the day before he left office, +Madison sent to Congress a notable veto message. Reverting to his +earlier faith, he pronounced the measure unconstitutional. Neither the +express words of the Constitution nor any fair inference could, in his +judgment, warrant the exercise of such powers by Congress. To pass the +bill over his veto was impossible. Monroe, too, in his first message to +Congress intimated that he also held strict views of the powers of +Congress. The policy of internal improvements by Federal aid was thus +wrecked on the constitutional scruples of the last of the Virginia +dynasty. + +Having less regard for consistency, the House of Representatives +recorded its conviction, by close votes, that Congress could appropriate +money to construct roads and canals, but had not the power to construct +them. As yet the only direct aid of the National Government to internal +improvements consisted of various appropriations, amounting to about +$1,500,000 for the Cumberland Road. + +Circumstances were also pressing the claims of the Far West upon the +Government. Beyond the scattered settlements of Illinois and Indiana +extended vast forests, known only to the Indians and the fur traders. +With the experiences of the war fresh in mind, the new Secretary of War, +Calhoun, urged upon the Government the necessity of taking resolute +measures to hold this territory. Laws excluding foreigners from the +Indian trade were passed; forts were established at strategic points +like Chicago, Prairie du Chien, and Green Bay; and in 1820, Governor +Cass, of the Michigan Territory, was sent on an expedition through the +Wisconsin forests into Minnesota, to assert American claims wherever +British influence was still felt. + +Still farther west lay an almost unknown region of imperial dimensions. +Save where venturesome pioneers had pushed up the Arkansas and the +Missouri, and where the Spaniards maintained their feeble hold in the +Southwest, no white men inhabited the great prairies which swept +westward to the foothills of the Rockies. Only nomadic Indian tribes and +occasional traders followed the buffalo trails across this wide expanse. +Between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific was the region which Lewis +and Clark had penetrated. Along the valley of the northern branch of the +Columbia River, the Hudson's Bay Company had planted their trading +posts. Farther to the south lay Spanish California and the ill-defined +region to the eastward over which _presidios_ maintained a shadowy +jurisdiction. + +On October 20, 1818, Benjamin Rush and Albert Gallatin, ministers to +England and France respectively, concluded a convention with Great +Britain which left the fate of the Oregon country in suspense for a +period of ten years. To the British claims of prior discovery by Cook +and Mackenzie and of prior occupation by the Hudson's Bay Company, the +American commissioners opposed the claims based on the voyage of Captain +Gray in 1792 and on the founding of Astoria by John Jacob Astor in 1811. +It was finally agreed that the northern boundary of the United States +should run from the Lake of the Woods to the Stony Mountains, along the +forty-ninth parallel, and that the disputed country beyond the mountains +should be occupied jointly for a period of ten years. An agreement was +also reached regarding the Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries. + +On another frontier conditions existed to which Congress could not +remain indifferent. East Florida was still a thorn in the side of +Georgia and Alabama. The province had become a rendezvous for pirates, +filibusters, renegade Indians, and runaway negroes. Creek warriors who +would not submit to the loss of their lands had taken refuge with their +kinsmen, the Seminoles, and were inciting malcontents of every stripe +against the whites. A band of negroes, estimated at not less than a +thousand in number, together with some Creek Indians, had taken +possession of an abandoned fort on the Apalachicola and had terrorized +the country for miles around. The Spanish commander at Pensacola was +summoned to destroy this pirates' nest and to disperse the marauders; +but he was either unable or unwilling to do so, and in 1816 a red-hot +shot from a United States gunboat blew up the magazine of the negro +fort, killing nearly three hundred men, women, and children. Early in +1818, in equally summary fashion troops of the United States expelled a +band of freebooters from Amelia Island. + +The slight regard which the United States paid to the territorial +sovereignty of Spain in Florida sprang from a general conviction that +Spain could not and would not observe the provisions of the Treaty of +1795. Spain had then agreed to restrain the Indians living within her +borders from attacking the citizens or Indians of the United States. +President Monroe seemed to assume that Spain had forfeited her rights +over Florida. At all events, he authorized General Andrew Jackson to +assume command of the forces at Fort Scott and to call on the governors +of adjacent States for militia to terminate the war. This order of +December 26, 1817, was stated in dangerously broad terms. Jackson did +not doubt for an instant that it authorized him to pursue the Indians +into Florida. To his mind the time seemed opportune for the seizure of +East Florida as an indemnity for the outrages committed by the +Seminoles. He wrote to the President to this effect. "Let it be +signified to me," said he, "through any channel (say Mr. J. Rhea) that +the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States +and in sixty days it will be accomplished." + +To his dying day Jackson maintained that the President signified his +approval through Congressman Rhea, of Tennessee. Monroe denied that he +had read Jackson's letter until after the exploits which so nearly +plunged the country into war with Spain. Whatever may be the truth of +the matter, General Jackson acted in accord with what he believed to be +the President's desires. With a thousand men he marched across the +border and was soon in possession of St. Mark's. Among those who fell +into his hands was Alexander Arbuthnot, a Scotch trader who was +suspected of inciting the Indians. Continuing his march, Jackson +surprised and captured Suwanee, another rendezvous of Indians and +runaway negroes. Here he found Robert Ambrister, another British +subject, who was also regarded as a suspicious character. Returning to +St. Mark's, Jackson handed these two suspects over to a court martial, +which found both guilty of giving aid and comfort to the enemy and of +inciting or waging war against the United States. Arbuthnot was hanged +from the yardarm of his own schooner; Ambrister was shot. The fall of +Pensacola finished the campaign. By the end of May, 1818, Florida was in +the possession of the troops of the United States and Jackson was on his +way to Tennessee, the idol of his men and a national hero in the +estimation of the people of the Southwest. + +The outcome of these exploits might easily have been war with both Spain +and Great Britain. Don Luis de Onis, the Spanish Minister at Washington, +immediately suspended the negotiations then in progress respecting the +Floridas and made a spirited protest "against these acts of hostility +and invasion." He demanded the immediate restitution of the places which +had been seized, indemnity for all damage to property, and the +punishment of General Jackson. As for Great Britain, Lord Castlereagh +afterward said that, such was the temper of Parliament and the country, +war might have been produced by holding up a finger and an address to +the Crown carried by an almost unanimous vote. + +The Cabinet of President Monroe was divided over the course to be +pursued. Calhoun insisted that Jackson had virtually committed an act of +war, which should be promptly disavowed. But Adams held--and the +President was inclined to side with him--that in reality Spain had been +the aggressor, and that Jackson had not violated the spirit of his +orders. In order to terminate the war, Jackson had been obliged to cross +the Spanish line. He had not done so with the purpose of waging war upon +Spain. + +[Map: Treaty with Spain 1819] + +Following a memorandum made by the President, Adams replied to Don Onis +in this spirit. Later, in a masterly state paper, he set forth the +intolerable conditions which obtained on the Florida frontier. The lax +conduct of the Spanish authorities was held to justify the aggressive +measures of Jackson. The United States was prepared to restore Pensacola +and St. Mark's whenever Spain should give guaranties for the observance +of treaty obligations. So far from consenting to punish Jackson, the +United States demanded the punishment of those Spanish officials who had +so flagrantly violated the obligations of the Treaty of 1795. "Spain +must immediately make her election either to place a force in Florida at +once adequate for the protection of her territory and to the fulfillment +of her engagements, or cede to the United States a province of which she +retains nothing but the nominal possession." This latter alternative, +indeed, the Administration never lost from view. + +Confronted by the revolt of all her American colonies, Spain could +hardly resist this insistent pressure upon a province which she could +neither govern nor defend. On February 22, 1819, Don Onis set his hand +to a treaty which ceded the Floridas in return for the assumption by the +United States of claims of American citizens against her to an amount +not exceeding $5,000,000. The treaty contained also a definition of the +boundary between Spanish and American possessions on the North American +continent. Beginning at the mouth of the Sabine River, the line ran +along that river to the thirty-second parallel; thence due north to the +Red River, which it followed to the hundredth meridian; thence north to +the Arkansas and along that river to its source; thence to the +forty-second parallel, which it followed to the Pacific. As the United +States renounced all claims to the west and south of this boundary, so +Spain surrendered whatever shadowy title she had to the Northwest. + +The ratification of the Florida Treaty was delayed by the attempt of the +Spanish Crown to grant extensive tracts to certain grandees, and by the +vigorous opposition of Henry Clay in the House of Representatives. The +treaty seemed to him a bad bargain. "What do we get?" he cried. "We get +Florida loaded and encumbered with land grants which leave scarcely a +foot of soil for the United States. What do we give? We give Texas free +and unencumbered, and we surrender all our claims on Spain for damages +not included in that five millions of dollars." He challenged the right +of the President and Senate to alienate territory without the consent of +the House. Behind Clay's opposition lay some personal pique against the +President and his Secretary of State; but he voiced, nevertheless, the +spirit of the Southwest, which already looked toward Texas as a possible +field of expansion and resented its surrender. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + The westward movement is described in various chapters of volumes + IV and V of McMaster, _History of the People of the United + States_. The significance of the movement is best explained in F. + J. Turner, _Rise of the New West, 1819-1829_ (in _The American + Nation_, vol. 14, 1906), which contains also excellent chapters on + the social and economic life of the different sections of the + country. The highways and waterways to the West are described in + A. B. Hurlbert, _Historic Highways of America_ (10 vols., + 1902-05). A summary account of the development of transportation + is given in J. L. Ringwalt, _Development of Transportation Systems + in the United States_ (1888). Among the biographies which + contribute materially to an understanding of the new West may be + mentioned Theodore Roosevelt, _Thomas H. Benton_ (1887), and James + Parton, _Life of Andrew Jackson_ (3 vols., 1860). Edward + Eggleston, _The Circuit Rider_ (1888), and the _Autobiography of + Peter Cartwright_ (1856), touch upon important aspects of frontier + life. The importance of the German element in American history is + admirably set forth in Faust, _The German Element in the United + States_ (2 vols., 1909). The spread of New Englanders in the West + is described by L. K. Mathews, _The Expansion of New England_ + (1909). The diplomatic negotiations which resulted in the cession + of Florida are reviewed by F. E. Chadwick, _The Relations of the + United States and Spain_ (1909). + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +HARD TIMES + + +The phrase "era of good feelings" applied to the Administration of +President Monroe is a misnomer. It is descriptive neither of politics +nor of business and industry, for the historic Democratic party was all +but rent by bitter personal animosities, and the country was prostrated +by a severe industrial crisis. + +The first symptoms of hard times appeared in the early months of the +year 1819. Undoubtedly the causes of the crisis were world-wide; but +local conditions go far to explain the industrial collapse in the United +States. All indications point to the conclusion that the country was +experiencing the inevitable reaction from a period of too rapid +commercial expansion and of unsound speculation. The high prices of +commodities after the war had given a sort of fictitious prosperity to +industry and trade, and had encouraged unduly the spirit of commercial +enterprise. On credit easily secured from wild-cat banks, the Western +pioneer had bought lands beyond the purchasing power of his own meager +capital; and the speculator in turn had borrowed money to secure title +to lands which he would unload upon unsuspecting settlers. State banks +had met these demands by liberal issues of notes which were imperfectly +covered by their specie reserves. It needed only a sudden demand for +liquidation to cause widespread distress. + +The unwise management of the National Bank may have contributed to the +approaching disaster. The branch banks in the South and West had loaned +freely, issuing notes which were payable at any branch of the National +Bank. Capital was thus diverted from the East to sections of the country +where there was least conservatism in banking. In 1818, the directors of +the Bank became alarmed at the excessive expansion of credit, and issued +instructions which compelled the redemption of notes at the bank where +they were issued. At the same time the branch banks curtailed their +loans. This sudden reversal of policy caused a fearful pressure which +was transmitted from creditor to debtor all along the line. + +Every sufferer by the panic was disposed to blame the National Bank for +his misfortunes, particularly as it was common rumor that the directors +of the Bank had speculated in its stock and had used their influence to +cripple local banks. Congress had been obliged to take cognizance of +these charges and to appoint a committee to investigate the condition of +the institution. On the report of this committee, in January, 1819, the +stock of the Bank fell from 140 to 93. The investigation revealed +nothing worse than mismanagement; but a vigorous effort was made in +Congress to revoke the charter. + +The widespread hostility of the West and South toward the National Bank +was born at this time. Everywhere it was known as "the Monster." State +after State passed acts to tax the branch banks out of existence. The +decision of Chief Justice Marshall, to be sure, in the famous case of +_M'Culloch_ v. _Maryland_, declared emphatically that the States had no +constitutional power to tax the branches of an institution chartered +under the laws of the United States; nevertheless, the legislature of +Ohio deliberately levied such a tax, and when resistance was offered to +its collection, withdrew the protection of the State from the branch +banks. Feeling themselves the victims of the money power, the people in +many of the Western States resorted to the remedies which were broached +during hard times under the Confederation. Kentucky became notorious by +reason of its laws in behalf of the debtor class. In every Western State +there was a disposition to seek shelter from the operation of federal +law behind the aegis of State rights. The people of these newer +communities were slow to accept the force of precedent in cases decided +by the federal courts. Andrew Jackson voiced this feeling when he became +President. "Mere precedent," said he, "is a dangerous source of +authority, and should not be regarded as deciding questions of +constitutional power, except where the acquiescence of the people and +the States can be considered as well settled." + +That there was much real suffering during this panic admits of no doubt. +Niles estimated that not less than twenty thousand persons were seeking +employment in Philadelphia in the summer of 1819, and quite as many +wandering in the streets of New York looking for work. In both cities +soup-houses were established by private charitable societies to relieve +distress in the following winter. In the city of New York, during the +year 1816, over nineteen hundred unfortunates were imprisoned for debt; +and of these, over seven hundred owed less than twenty-five dollars. + +But it was not merely the city dweller who felt the pinch of poverty. +Thousands of Western settlers who had purchased land under the Act of +1800, which permitted deferred payments, found themselves insolvent. +More than $21,000,000, one fifth of the national debt, remained unpaid +in the year 1820. To the importunities of these debtors Congress had +yielded from time to time, but it was not until 1821 that it passed the +first general relief act. Those who had not completed their payments +within the prescribed five years were then permitted to give up the land +which they had not paid for, and to apply the payments already made to +the full purchase of the lands which they retained. Arrears of interest +were remitted. + +In 1820, Congress passed an act which wrought a far-reaching change in +the disposal of the public domain. The credit system was abolished +outright. After July 1, 1820, land was to be sold for cash at a minimum +price of a dollar and a quarter an acre, and in eighty-acre tracts. A +payment of one hundred dollars, then, would make a settler the owner of +eighty acres in his own right. The prospect of actual ownership of a +small tract made him far less ready to listen to the voice of the +tempter in the form of the speculator, who had heretofore lured him to +make larger purchases on credit than he could ever pay for by the labor +of his hands. + +In the midst of this period of financial depression, the Territory of +Missouri applied for admission into the Union. On February 13, 1819, +while an enabling act was under consideration in the House of +Representatives, James Tallmadge, of New York, moved an amendment which +touched Southern interests to the quick. "_And provided_, That the +further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be prohibited, +except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been +duly convicted; and that all children born within the said State, after +the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free at the age of +twenty-five years." + +[Map: Distribution of Slaves 1820] + +This bold attempt to prevent the spread of slavery provoked a brief but +momentous debate. Clay left the Speaker's chair to remonstrate, "in the +name of humanity," against a policy which could result, he believed, +only in the misery of the slaves of the South. The lot of the negro +would be vastly improved if the unfortunate people were more widely +dispersed. Taylor, of New York, called this a specious plea. "It is that +humanity," said he, "which seeks to palliate disease by the application +of nostrums, which scatter its seeds through the whole system." To open +the West to slavery would be simply to create an additional demand for +the importation of slaves. Of those Southern Representatives who took +part in this debate, not a man posed as the defender of slavery in the +abstract. Barbour, of Virginia, frankly admitted that slavery "like all +other human things is mixed with good and evil--the latter, no doubt, +preponderating." And Johnson, of Kentucky, maintained that though +slavery might be a necessary evil, "not incompatible with true +religion," even so "slavery must still be a bitter draught." + +What rankled in the breasts of all Southern men was the insinuation that +their social system was founded on hypocrisy and tyranny. Tallmadge +commented with biting sarcasm on the willingness of Southern gentlemen +to contribute to missionary enterprises for the uplifting of the +Hottentots and Hindus, and their determination to keep their African +slaves in ignorance. And his colleague contrasted the plantations, +overrun with weeds on one side of Mason and Dixon's line, with the +cultivated farms on the other: in Pennsylvania, he observed "a neat, +blooming, animated, rosy-cheeked peasantry"; in Maryland, "a squalid, +slow-motioned black population." These were barbed shafts which left +sore wounds. + +When the Union was formed, African negroes were held in servitude in +all but two of the States. At the time of this debate, slavery had been +abolished, or was on the way to ultimate extinction, in every State +north of Maryland and Delaware. Climate rather than humanitarian +considerations sealed the fate of slavery at the North; and climate, in +the last analysis, fastened African slavery on the South. As the South +became committed to the raising of a staple, and that staple cotton, the +negro was regarded as an indispensable factor in plantation economy. +There were far-sighted individuals, it is true, who deprecated slavery +on humanitarian grounds; but they were, for the most part, citizens of +border States where the profitableness of negro labor was less apparent. +Even in these communities opposition to slavery was tempered by dread of +what emancipation might bring in its train. The history of Santo Domingo +revealed the hideous possibilities of a negro insurrection. No father of +a family could contemplate with equanimity the proximity of a large body +of free, semi-civilized blacks. For a time even prominent slaveholders +favored the aims of the Colonization Society which proposed to deport +emancipated blacks to the African coast. So late as 1820 the Governor of +Virginia recommended an appropriation by the legislature for the +emancipation and removal of the negroes. + +Although slavery was a local institution, and regulated by state law, +its existence was recognized by the Federal Convention of 1787. The +arrangement which obtained under the old Confederation, whereby five +slaves were to count as three whites in apportioning representation and +taxes, was continued; the mutual obligation of the States to return +fugitives from justice and labor was distinctly stated in the +Constitution; and the slave trade was permitted to continue at least to +the year 1808. + +In 1793, Congress had met its constitutional obligations by enacting a +law for the return of fugitive slaves; and in 1794, Congress passed an +act--"the first national act against the slave trade"--which prohibited +all trade in slaves from the United States to any foreign country. By +the opening of the new century all the States had forbidden the +importation of slaves from abroad. But in 1803, South Carolina again +legalized the slave trade; and in 1805, Congress after a brief +interdiction removed all restrictions upon the importation of slaves +into the Louisiana Territory. The slave trade at once assumed alarming +proportions. It was officially stated that between 1803 and 1807, 39,075 +negroes were brought into the port of Charleston. Eighteen hundred of +these unfortunate blacks were imported in American vessels. One half of +the consignees of these slavers were Americans, of whom thirteen were +natives of Charleston and eighty-eight of Rhode Island. + +This traffic, coupled with the alarm caused by negro insurrections in +the West Indies, prepared the public mind for positive action, as the +year approached when Congress might constitutionally prohibit the +foreign slave trade. The Act of March 2, 1807, however, only partially +met the expectations of the anti-slavery people. The African slave +trade was forbidden, but negroes illegally imported were to be disposed +of as the legislatures of the several States should determine. There was +reason to fear that the Southern States would neglect to legislate on +this important matter, and that the act would be indifferently enforced. +Moreover, the coastwise slave trade for purposes of sale was not +interdicted, but forbidden only in vessels under forty tons burden. + +That the Act of 1807 did not prevent the African slave trade was patent +to every one who knew conditions in the Southern Seaboard States; but +the extent of this traffic can only be surmised. During the debates on +the Missouri Bill, Tallmadge stated that fourteen thousand negroes had +been brought into the country within the last year, and the statement +was not challenged. + +When the Missouri controversy was renewed in the session of December, +1819, the number of free States equaled the number of slave States. The +addition of a twenty-third State, then, would unsettle the equilibrium +between the sections in the Senate. A growing antagonism based upon +widely different economic and social organizations was coming to be +felt--felt rather than clearly perceived and openly recognized. In the +year 1800, the two sections had been nearly equal in population; in +1820, the North outnumbered the South by over half a million. This +disparity in numbers had a direct political significance, for the +national House of Representatives was beyond all question controlled by +the delegations from the free States. No great prescience was needed to +warn the South that in self-defense it must maintain the even balance +of sections in the Senate. The contest for Missouri was therefore +essentially "a struggle for sectional domination." + +The Tallmadge amendment was passed by the House, but rejected by the +Senate, after a heated debate which convinced Southern statesmen that +there was a distinct anti-slavery sentiment at the North. The +adjournment of Congress threw the whole controversy into the crucible of +public opinion. The latent hostility of men and women with humanitarian +sympathies was at once raised to white heat. Mass meetings in city, +town, and county passed resolutions against the spread of slavery and +the admission of more slave States. Yet it can hardly be said that the +public conscience was deeply touched. The leaven of abolitionism had to +work many years before it could produce results in politics. + +The whole question assumed a new guise when Congress met in December, +1820. The people of Maine had held a convention and formed a +constitution, and were now applying for admission as a State. Here was a +free State which would offset Missouri if it were admitted as a slave +State. When the House passed a bill to admit Maine, the Senate promptly +attached to it, as a "rider," a bill for the admission of Missouri +without any prohibition of slavery. It was to this bill that Senator +Thomas, of Illinois, representing a constituency divided against itself +on the subject of slavery, offered an amendment in the nature of a +compromise. He would admit Missouri as a slave State, but prohibit +slavery forever in the rest of the old Province of Louisiana north of +36 deg. 30'. The Senate accepted this amendment and sent the bill to the +House. Here the original Maine Bill was stripped of the rider and the +Thomas amendment by large majorities. Shortly after this vigorous +assertion of independence, the House passed a bill for the admission of +Missouri with the prohibition of slavery. The deadlock seemed complete. + +The constitutional aspects of the problem called forth some exceedingly +able argumentation. Those who favored imposing a restriction upon +Missouri argued, plausibly enough, that as Congress was given the power +to admit new States, so it was fully warranted in exercising discretion +and refusing to admit. Precedents existed for imposing restrictions. +Three States carved out of the Northwest Territory had been admitted on +condition that their constitutions should not be repugnant to the sixth +article of the Ordinance of 1787. The State of Louisiana had been +admitted under explicit conditions. It was fully competent for Congress, +by virtue of its authority over Territories, to regulate all the stages +in the process of framing a constitution, and then to give or to +withhold its approval. + +The most brilliant argument on the other side was made by William +Pinkney, of Maryland. Conceding that the power of Congress was +discretionary, he insisted that Congress might not exact terms which +would interfere with the results to be accomplished. "What, then," he +asked, "is the professed result? To admit a State into this Union. What +is that Union?... An equal Union between parties equally sovereign.... +It is into that Union that a new State is to come. By acceding to it +the new State is placed on the same footing with the original States.... +If it comes in shorn of its beams--crippled and disparaged beyond the +original States--it is not into the original Union that it comes.... The +first was a Union _inter pares_; this is a Union between _disparates_, +between giants and a dwarf, between power and feebleness, between full +proportioned sovereignties and a miserable image of power." + +Yet there were Senators and Representatives from the North who would not +be diverted from the discussion of the larger sectional and ethical +issues involved in the extension of slavery. Chief among these was Rufus +King, who then represented New York in the Senate. His cogent arguments +made a profound impression. "The great slaveholders in the House," Adams +wrote in his journal, "gnawed their lips and clenched their fists as +they heard him." + +[Map: House Vote on the Missouri Compromise March 2, 1820] + +Meantime, a joint committee of conference was endeavoring to reconcile +the differences between the House and the Senate. The House was put at a +disadvantage by the approach of March 4--when the consent of +Massachusetts to the admission of Maine would expire. It was finally +agreed that the Senate should pass the bill admitting Maine as a +separate measure, while the House should accept the Missouri Bill with +the Thomas amendment. Missouri, in short, was to come in as a slave +State, but slavery was forever prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana +Purchase north of her southern boundary. An analysis of the voting in +the House of Representatives reveals no clear-cut sectional divisions, +though it forecasts a time when slavery might split parties along +sectional lines. In New England and the Middle States public opinion had +not yet crystallized into inflexible opposition to the spread of +slavery; but the Northwest was distinctly in favor of a restriction upon +Missouri. The Southwest and the South were a unit in desiring the +admission of Missouri as a slave State. + +In the fall of 1820, the Missouri question in another form returned to +vex Congress. When the constitution of the State was presented to +Congress, it was found to contain a clause which excluded free negroes. +Again the two houses locked horns. Passions rose again. The work of the +preceding session seemed about to be undone. But under the persuasive +leadership of Henry Clay, a joint committee elaborated a resolution +which was acceptable to both houses. Missouri was to be admitted on the +express condition that the offending clause in her constitution should +never be construed so as to authorize the passing of any law by which +any citizen of any of the States of the Union should be deprived of his +privileges and immunities under the Federal Constitution. The +legislature of Missouri was to give its solemn consent to this +fundamental condition. Then, and not until then, the President was to +declare Missouri a member of the Union. The State complied with the +requirement, though in the same breath protesting that all this was an +empty form, since Congress could not thus bind a State. On August 10, +1821, President Monroe declared Missouri a State of the Union. + +In the midst of this exciting controversy, Monroe was reelected +President. Nowhere but in Pennsylvania was there any serious opposition. +Old distinctions of party had so far disappeared that the venerable +ex-President John Adams was chosen as a presidential elector in +Massachusetts, and voted with his fourteen colleagues--who were half +Federalists and half Democrats--for James Monroe. In the electoral count +Monroe lacked only a single vote of a unanimous election. + +When the electoral vote was about to be counted, an embarrassing +question arose with regard to the vote of Missouri. As the State had not +yet complied with the condition imposed by Congress, its right to vote +was challenged. Again Clay appeared in his role of compromiser. The +delicate question was adroitly avoided by having the President of the +Senate announce the electoral vote with and without the votes of +Missouri. At last the Missouri question was disposed of; but words had +been uttered which could not be recalled; and wounds had been inflicted +which left scars. The South could never quite forget that it had been +charged with conniving at crime in maintaining slavery. "You have +kindled a fire," said Cobb, of Georgia, to Tallmadge, "which all the +waters of the ocean cannot put out, which seas of blood only can +extinguish." + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + An account of the crisis of 1819 is contained in F. J. Turner's + _Rise of the New West_ (in _The American Nation_, vol. 14, 1906); + a shorter and less satisfactory account in A. M. Simons's _Social + Forces in American History_ (1911). Much information may be + gleaned from the pages of McMaster's history. Detailed information + must be sought in the special studies already cited, such as R. C. + H. Catterall, _The Second Bank of the United States_ (1903), and + P. J. Treat, _The National Land System, 1785-1820_ (1910). From + the vast literature dealing with slavery and the slavery + controversy, the following titles may be selected as especially + important: W. E. B. DuBois, _The Suppression of the African + Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870_ (1896); W. + H. Collins, _The Domestic Slave-Trade_ (1904); A. B. Hart, + _Slavery and Abolition_ (in _The American Nation_, vol. 16, 1906); + N. D. Harris, _The History of Negro Servitude in Illinois_ (1904); + E. R. Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_ (1911); and a number of + monographs in the Johns Hopkins University _Studies_. All the + larger histories discourse with great particularity upon the + Missouri controversy. Contemporary views of the congressional + struggle are presented in J. Q. Adams's _Memoirs_, and in T. H. + Benton's _Thirty Years' View; or, A History of the Working of + American Government, 1820-1850_ (2 vols., 1854). + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE NATIONAL AWAKENING + + +There is a measure of truth in speaking of the War of 1812 as a second +war of independence. In throwing off the shackles of British commercial +ascendency, American society experienced much the same sense of elation +and liberation as the peoples of Europe who contemporaneously rose in +their might against Napoleon and asserted their right to independent +national existence. The war was followed in the United States by an +expansion of the vital forces of the nation in all directions. The +earliest manifestations of this new national consciousness, however, +were characteristically boisterous. An English traveler, who visited the +United States soon after the war, found every man, woman, and child +talking about the Guerriere, the Java, the Macedonia, the Frolic, Lake +Erie, Lake Champlain, and the "vast inferiority of British sailors and +soldiers to the true-blooded Yankees." The events of the war were +commemorated in songs which this Briton declared--and no doubt +truthfully--to be "frothy, senseless bombast." But whatever limitations +of culture were disclosed by this outburst of national conceit, no one +could doubt for an instant that an exuberant vitality was coursing +through the veins of the nation. + +It was a fair question, however, whether this national feeling would +find expression in any permanent literary form. A literature of its own +America did not possess: every one with literary tastes was forced to +this humiliating admission. Writing from Berlin in 1801, John Quincy +Adams hailed the first number of Dennie's _Port Folio_ with delight. +"The object," he declared, "is noble. It is to take off that foul stain +of literary barbarism which has so long exposed our country to the +reproach of strangers and to the derision of our enemies." But the +periodical had a very limited circle of readers, and its literary merits +were slight. The _Anthology and Boston Review_, founded in 1805, had a +wider influence upon letters in America; but it is memorable chiefly as +the forerunner of the _North American Review_, modeled upon the English +quarterlies, which was first published by William Tudor, in the year +1815, at Boston. + +The publication of American books at this time was a hazardous +enterprise. "The successful booksellers of the country," wrote one who +recalled his own experiences in the book trade, "were for the most part +the mere reproducers and sellers of English books." Yet American +publishers often showed commendable enterprise. In 1817, Byron's +_Manfred_ was received, printed, and published at Philadelphia in a +single day. Walter Scott, Moore, Miss Edgeworth, Miss Porter, and Lord +Byron were the favorite British novelists and poets whose writings were +reprinted in America. Among the American publications advertised by +booksellers, were sermons, geographies, and schoolbooks; but rarely any +productions which belonged to the category termed by contemporaries +_belles-lettres_. + +The slender literary product of the United States from 1815 to 1830 is +contained in magazines rather than in books. Prose and verse which could +never have found a publisher separately appeared in periodicals of every +description. Most of these were ephemeral publications. The more serious +reviews, like the _American Biblical Repository_, the _American Law +Journal_, and the religious reviews, had a longer life; but the lighter +magazines, like the _Ladies' Literary Cabinet_, the _Young Ladies' +Parental Mentor_, and the _Casket: or Flowers of Literature, Wit, and +Sentiment_, rose and fell on the fickle tide of public taste. Even the +West had its magazines. Lexington, Kentucky, which disputed with +Cincinnati the proud title, "Athens of the West," published the _Western +Review_, one number of which contained a review of _Don Juan_ within six +weeks after the poem was published in England. + +In the September number of the _North American Review_, in 1817, +appeared an original poem of such merit as to mark an era in the history +of American verse. There was in William Cullen Bryant's _Thanatopsis_, +it is true, no such youthful exuberance of feeling as the first +stirrings of poetic genius in a new world might be expected to exhibit. +The sense of refined form seemed almost un-American; yet there are lines +in the poem which suggest the primeval background of American life and +its influence upon the American mind. In 1819 appeared Washington +Irving's _Sketch-Book_--the first American book which was widely read +in England; and in 1821, Cooper published _The Spy_, which was the first +to win favor on the Continent. Both Cooper and Irving were more or less +conscious imitators of English prose writers, the one of Scott and the +other of Addison; and they lacked consequently that originality which +critics have always demanded as the hall-mark of a genuinely native art. +It is easy to forget, however, that the Americans were not a primitive +people. They were folk with a literary inheritance, of which albeit they +often showed little knowledge. It was not for them to invent new forms, +but to press new wine into old bottles. Of Irving, moreover, it should +be said that he drew freely upon a vein of delicious humor, as in his +_Knickerbocker History of New York_, which may be truly characterized as +American. + +The annals of American art in these years are even more bare. Benjamin +West, to be sure, was born in Pennsylvania, but he achieved eminence in +England. That he could succeed Sir Joshua Reynolds as President of the +Royal Academy was a tribute to his fame, but equally convincing proof +that he had ceased to be identified with the land of his nativity. +Gilbert Stuart owed much to West, but his return to America in 1792 +saved him from complete subservience to English models. As a portrait +painter he developed power and individuality. Posterity may well be +grateful that the portraits of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison were +painted with fidelity to nature as Stuart saw it, rather than in the +grandiose manner of West. Two other names, Malbone and Allston, deserve +brief mention. The one achieved some distinction as a painter of +miniatures; the other is remembered both as artist and man of letters in +the literary circle which was forming about Boston. The name of Jonathan +Trumbull completes the list of American artists. What David was to the +great actors in the revolutionary drama in France, Trumbull was to the +notable characters of the American Revolution. In his conception of his +themes he was perhaps the most genuinely American painter of his time. + +In the pages of his autobiography, Trumbull recounts an interview with +his father which may take the place of any further comment on the dearth +of artistic feeling in the United States. The young man was arguing +passionately for his vocation. The father, a typical Yankee, listened +with commendable patience, and complimented the lad when he had +finished. "'But,' added he, 'you must give me leave to say, that you +appear to have overlooked, or forgotten, one very important point in +your case.' 'Pray, sir,' I rejoined, 'what was that?' 'You appear to +forget, sir, that _Connecticut is not Athens_'; and with this pithy +remark, he bowed and withdrew, and nevermore opened his lips upon the +subject. How often have those few impressive words recurred to my +memory." + +The names of Bryant, Cooper, and Irving are linked with the city of New +York which enjoyed for a brief time that primacy in the world of +American letters which it was fast acquiring in commerce. The center of +literary and scholarly activity in the next generation was Boston, +where the New England renaissance began. In this revival of letters +Harvard College had a notable part. In 1806, John Quincy Adams was +appointed Professor of Rhetoric and gave a course of lectures which +moulded the taste of that school of orators to which Edward Everett +belonged--a school of oratory which found its models in Demosthenes and +Cicero. Everett became Professor of Greek in 1815; and George Ticknor, +Professor of Belles-Lettres in 1816. Prescott graduated in 1814, Palfrey +in 1815, and George Bancroft in 1817,--all three to add to American +historiography works of enduring excellence. In 1817, young Ralph Waldo +Emerson entered college. + +It was Boston, however, rather than Harvard College, which +created the atmosphere that these young scholars--all from Boston +families--breathed: for the Athenaeum, the American School of Arts and +Sciences, and the Massachusetts Historical Society had begun to exercise +an increasing influence on the younger generation. Harvard College, like +all colleges of the day, was hardly more than a species of higher +academy whither boys went at a tender age to continue their study of the +classics and mathematics, and incidentally to cultivate rhetoric and +_belles-lettres_. + +The liberation of the American mind from time-honored traditions and +conventions appeared markedly in the ecclesiastical revolts and +religious revivals of the age. Unitarianism took its rise quite as much +in protest against the teaching of Calvinism, that man was brought into +the world hopelessly depraved, as against the orthodox conception of +Christ's nature. The definite separation of Unitarianism from +Congregationalism dates from 1815 when William E. Channing published his +memorable letter to the Reverend Samuel C. Thacher. The writings of +Buckminster, Channing, and other theological liberals have a distinct +place in the annals of American intellectual life. Universalism also +took its rise at this time and spread with remarkable rapidity under the +lead of Hosea Ballou. In western Pennsylvania and Virginia, the +Campbells, father and son, led a departure from the established +Presbyterian order. The Society of Friends was also rent by the +teachings of Elias Hicks. + +Revivals had been a recurring feature of New England religious life +since the latter years of the seventeenth century. That they stimulated +many forms of religious activity appears in the annals of missionary +enterprises at home and abroad. In 1810 the American Board of Foreign +Missions and in 1814 the American Baptist Missionary Union were founded. +In 1812 four young missionaries went out to India; and five years later +other devoted young men began their labors among the Cherokees and +Choctaws of the Southwest. There is something at once heroic and +pathetic in the humanitarian zeal of a people, whom Europeans still +regarded with disdain, to carry to the remote ends of the earth a +Christian civilization which they had themselves hardly attained. But an +incomprehensible idealism has from first to last been interwoven in the +texture of American character. + +After the cessation of European wars the United States stood singularly +aloof from the Old World, yet in the affairs of South America they did +not cease to take a lively interest. The successive revolutions by which +the provinces of the Rio de la Plata, Chili, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, and +Mexico threw off the yoke of Spain woke a thrill in the people of the +United States, for they thought they saw the events of their own +revolution repeated in the exploits of San Martin and Bolivar. To the +imagination of Henry Clay, this was a sublime spectacle--"eighteen +millions of people struggling to burst their chains and be free." He +would have had the United States recognize these sister republics and +join hands with them in forming an American system independent of +Europe. And when the Administration hesitated, he exclaimed: "We look +too much abroad. Let us break these commercial and political fetters; +let us no longer watch the nod of any European politician; let us become +real and true Americans, and place ourselves at the head of the American +system." + +The conception of an American system did not originate in the ardent +mind of Henry Clay. It was as old as the Union itself. Foreign +encroachment had been feared from the very birth of the nation. "You are +afraid of being made the tool of the powers of Europe," said Richard +Oswald to John Adams while peace negotiations were pending at Paris. +"Indeed I am," rejoined Adams. "What powers?" asked Oswald. "All of +them," said Adams; "it is obvious that all the powers of Europe will be +continually manoeuvring with us to work us into their real or +imaginary balances of power.... But I think that it ought to be our rule +not to meddle." Washington's refusal to enter into an alliance with +France and his firm insistence upon neutrality were inspired by this +same fear. Jefferson's negotiations for the purchase of New Orleans were +motivated by the fear that France, once in possession of the mouth of +the Mississippi, would threaten the isolation of the United States and +drive us into the arms of Great Britain. "Jefferson is an American," +Adet once said, with rare insight, "and by that title, it is impossible +for him to be sincerely our friend. _An American is the born enemy of +European peoples._" + +The corollary of the principle of non-intervention was abstention on the +part of the United States from the affairs of Europe. Could the United +States, then, recognize the colonies of Spain as independent republics +without emerging from its traditional isolation? President Monroe would +have been glad to recognize the South American republics even before +they had demonstrated their ability to maintain their independence; but +his cool-headed Secretary of State prevailed upon him to await further +evidence. It was not until 1822, indeed, that the President recommended +to Congress the establishment of missions in the new republics of South +America. Spain protested emphatically against this action; but Adams, +now sure of his ground, justified the action of the Administration by an +appeal to facts. So long as Spain was attempting to reduce the colonies +by arms, the United States had observed "the most impartial neutrality." +But war had ceased, and the United States had "yielded to an obligation +of duty of the highest order, by recognizing, as independent states, +nations which, after deliberately asserting their right to that +character, had maintained and established it against all the resistance +which had been or could be brought to oppose it." + +In the year 1823, the traditional principles of American foreign policy +were put to a severer test. Soon after the Congress of Vienna, that +combination of the great powers was consummated which contemporaries +usually but erroneously styled the Holy Alliance. Austria, Prussia, +Russia, and Great Britain covenanted together to meet at fixed periods +to consult upon their common interests and to consider the measures +"most salutary for the repose and prosperity of nations, and for the +maintenance of the peace of Europe." Three years later, France was +admitted to the councils of these "self-appointed keepers of the world's +peace." Innocent enough in its public professions, this association of +the great powers was converted by Metternich of Austria, who had +acquired a remarkable ascendency over the mind of his own sovereign and +over that of the impressionable czar, into an instrument of reaction and +repression, whenever and wherever the specter of revolution raised its +head. Within a few years revolutionary uprisings occurred in Italy and +Spain. The so-called legitimate sovereigns were driven from their +thrones and constitutional governments were established. In successive +congresses at Troppau and Laybach, the three powers, Austria, Russia, +and Prussia, resolved to suppress these revolutionary movements. An +Austrian army was commissioned to carry out this policy of intervention, +as it was termed; and the King of the Two Sicilies was restored to his +uneasy throne. Neither Great Britain nor France took part in these +congresses. It now remained to chastise the revolutionists of Spain. At +the Congress of Verona in 1822, the representative of Great Britain +openly protested against any intervention in Spain. But again the three +powers, now joined by France, resolved to restore the deposed Fernando +VII. Early in the following year a French army crossed the Pyrenees and +entered Madrid. It was commonly believed that the restoration of the +monarchy was to be followed by a reduction of the revolted colonies and +a restoration of the Spanish colonial empire. + +It was at this juncture that Canning, who had become the head of the +British ministry, protested against the policy of intervention and +sought for ways and means to make the protest effective. The one power +whose traditions of liberty and whose interests in this particular +seemed to be identical with those of Great Britain was the United +States. In truth, their interests were far from being identical. Two +years before, in a conversation with the British minister at Washington, +the Secretary of State, in his most uncompromising manner, had +challenged the right of Great Britain to the valley of the Columbia +River or to any part of the Pacific Coast. And so recently as April of +this critical year 1823, Adams had taken alarm at the appearance of a +British naval force off the coast of Cuba and had warned the Government +at Madrid that "the transfer of Cuba to Great Britain would be an event +unpropitious to the interests of the United States." At the same time +Adams stated his conviction that within half a century the annexation of +Cuba to the United States would be "indispensable to the continuance of +the Union itself." Coupled with this prophecy was the equally frank +assurance that the United States desired to have Cuba and Porto Rico +"continue attached to Spain"--for the present. + +[Map: Russian Claims in North America] + +It was in midsummer of this year, too, that Adams protested against the +ukase of the czar which had asserted the claim of Russia to the Pacific +Coast as far south as the fifty-first degree, and to a maritime +jurisdiction one hundred Italian miles from the coast. Adams records in +his diary that he told the Russian minister "that we should contest the +right of Russia to _any_ territorial establishment on this continent, +and that we should assume distinctly the principle that the American +continents are no longer subjects for _any_ new European colonial +establishments." The time had come when the United States was bound to +take more than a sentimental interest in the affairs of Spanish America. +The disintegration of the Spanish colonial empire not only invited the +Intervention of European powers in the internal affairs of the new +republics, but also exposed portions of the North American continent to +their aggressions. + +On several occasions Canning conferred with Richard Rush, the minister +of the United States resident in London, to ascertain whether his +Government would join Great Britain in a public declaration against any +"forcible enterprise for reducing the colonies to subjugation on behalf +of or in the name of Spain; or which meditates the acquisition of any +part of them to itself, by cession or by conquest." England had no +designs upon the distant colonies of Spain, Canning asseverated; at the +same time it "could not see any part of them transferred to any other +power with indifference." Not trusting implicitly in Canning's altruism, +Rush wisely suggested that Great Britain should first recognize the +South American republics as a preliminary to a joint declaration. To +this Canning would not commit himself; and Rush would not assume +responsibility for a public declaration on any other conditions. + +On receiving the dispatches from Rush recounting these interesting +conferences, President Monroe took counsel with the two Virginia +oracles, Jefferson and Madison. Both advised him to meet Canning's +overtures and to make common cause with Great Britain--the one nation, +as Jefferson put it, which could prevent America from having an +independent system and which now offered "to lead, aid, and accompany us +in it." Monroe was disposed to follow this advice. He not only drafted a +message to Congress upon these lines, but he went further and urged the +recognition of Greek independence in a way which departed widely from +the traditional aloofness which earlier Presidents had maintained in +matters of European concern. On the other hand, Adams was decidedly of +the opinion that Canning's invitation should be declined. He did not +wish the country to appear "as a cock-boat in the wake of the British +man-of-war." Moreover, Adams was considerably alarmed at the reactionary +principles which the Russian ministry had avowed in a communication +addressed to the minister at Washington. He urged the President to seize +the occasion to make an explicit declaration of American principles. +"The ground I wish to take," said he, "is that of earnest remonstrance +against the interference of European powers by force with South America, +but to disclaim all interference on our part with Europe; to make an +American cause and adhere inflexibly to that." + +Yielding to his contentious Secretary of State, President Monroe +redrafted his message to Congress. In its final form, December 2, 1823, +this famous state paper contained the essential principles of what has +come to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. It was asserted "as a general +principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are +involved that the American continents, by the free and independent +condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be +considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers." +The message expressly disclaimed any purpose to interfere in European +politics; but respecting the affairs of the Western hemisphere a direct +and immediate interest was frankly avowed. "The political system of the +allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of +America." "We should consider any attempt on their part to extend their +system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and +safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power +we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments +who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose +independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, +acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of +oppressing them, or controlling in any manner their destiny, by any +European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an +unfriendly disposition toward the United States." + +The immediate effects of the message are not easily traced. It is not +clear, even, that the favorable treaty made with Russia in the following +year was the outcome of what Canning somewhat contemptuously styled "the +new Doctrine of the President." Russia, it is true, agreed to waive her +claims below fifty-four degrees forty minutes and to exclusive +jurisdiction in Bering Sea; but the conflicting claims of England in the +Northwest remained, and Canning predicted that England would "have a +squabble with the Yankees yet in and about those regions." + +Later generations have read strange meanings into the message of +President Monroe. Even contemporaries were not clear as to its import. +Interpreted in the light of its origin, it was a candid announcement +that the United States did not purpose to meddle in the affairs of +European states or of their existing dependencies, and a protest against +the increase of power of European states in America either by +intervention or by new colonization. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + In the concluding volume of Henry Adams's _History of the United + States_ are excellent chapters on American literature, art, and + religious thought. W. B. Cairns's _On the Development of American + Literature from 1815 to 1833_ (1898) contains much interesting + information about periodicals. Barrett Wendell's _A Literary + History of America_ (1900) is full of pungent comment on early men + of letters. C. C. Caffin, _The Story of American Painting_ (1907), + and H. T. Tuckerman, _Artist-Life, or Sketches of American + Artists_ (1847), record the small achievements of American art. + John Trumbull's _Autobiography, Reminiscences, and Letters, from + 1756 to 1841_ (1841), is a book of great interest. E. G. Dexter's + _A History of Education in the United States_ (1904) is an + excellent manual. The Unitarian Movement can be best followed in + J. W. Chadwick's _William Ellery Channing_ (1903). The history of + the various denominations may be found in volumes of the _American + Church History Series_. The genesis of Monroe's message is + described by F. J. Turner, _The Rise of the New West_(in _The + American Nation_, vol. 14, 1906), and F. E. Chadwick, _The + Relations of the United States and Spain_ (1909). Both of these + accounts are based on W. C. Ford, _John Quincy Adams: His + Connection with the Monroe Doctrine_ (in Massachusetts Historical + Society _Proceedings_, 1902). An excellent essay is that by W. F. + Reddaway, _The Monroe Doctrine_ (2d. ed., 1905). + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE NEW DEMOCRACY + + +By the year 1824, the West had become a section to be reckoned with by +those who were calculating their chances in the presidential race. Since +the war six Western States had been admitted into the Union. The +population west of the Alleghanies had increased by nearly a million and +a half within a decade. The relative importance of this new section +appears in the census returns. In 1790, less than six per cent of the +total population lived west of the Alleghanies; in 1820, nearly +thirty-two per cent were domiciled in this vast region. In the National +Legislature the West had acquired notable weight. By the apportionment +of 1822, it had forty-seven out of two hundred and thirteen members of +the House; in the Senate, eighteen out of forty-eight. But these figures +do not tell the whole tale. As Professor Turner has well said, rightly +to estimate the weight of Western population we must add the people of +western New York and of the interior counties of Pennsylvania, and of +the trans-Alleghany counties of Virginia, as well as the people of the +back-country of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, North Carolina, and +Georgia. "All of these regions were to be influenced by the ideals of +democratic rule which were springing up in the Mississippi Valley." + +[Map: Distribution of Population 1820] + +Economic conditions bred a democratic society in the West. What +Gallatin said of Pennsylvania was true of the greater West: "An equal +distribution of property made every individual independent and produced +a true and real equality." The basal characteristic of the West was +individual ownership of land; and the reaction of the sense of +proprietorship upon individual character was the most significant fact +in the history of its population. Intense individualism and rugged +self-reliance were the salient characteristics of the Westerner. So far +as he reflected upon his social relations, he believed in complete +social equality. In numberless instances the pioneer had migrated to +escape the social inequalities and depressing conventions of older +communities; and he was not minded to encourage the reproduction of +these conditions in his new home. "America, then, exhibits in her social +state an extraordinary phenomenon," wrote De Tocqueville in his notable +study of American democracy. "Men are there seen on a greater equality +in point of fortune and intellect, or, in other words, more equal in +their strength, than in any other country of the world, or in any age of +which history has preserved the remembrance." + +Life on the frontier, where a man wrestled with the primitive forces of +Nature and conquered by dint of his indomitable will, made the Westerner +perhaps overconfident in his ability to deal with all obstacles in the +way of human achievement and withal somewhat impatient under the +restraints imposed by the more complicated social order in the older +communities to the East. The sweep of the prairies and the wide horizon +lines of the Middle West may have exercised a subtle influence upon +temperament. At all events, the Westerner was buoyant and optimistic, +taking large views of national destiny and of the possibilities of human +achievement in a democracy. + +There was danger, indeed, that in cutting loose from the irritating +restraints of the older communities, the people of the West would +sacrifice much of the grace and many of the intellectual and spiritual +refinements of an older civilization. "In this part of the American +continent," observes De Tocqueville, "population has escaped the +influence not only of great names and great wealth, but even of the +natural aristocracy of knowledge and virtue." It seemed to two young New +Englanders who traversed the vast region from the Western Reserve to New +Orleans in 1813, in the interests of missionary societies, that the +people were wrapped in spiritual darkness, "being ignorant, often +vicious, and utterly destitute of Bibles and religious literature." The +General Bible Society of the United States was founded in 1816 to dispel +this irreligious gloom. Within five years this organization and its +numerous auxiliaries had distributed one hundred and forty thousand +Bibles and Testaments through the new States. + +Yet the irreligion of the West was painted darker than it really was. +Methodism had struck root where other denominations could not thrive. +Its methods and organization, indeed, were peculiarly adapted to a +people which could not support a settled pastor. "A sect, therefore, +which marked out the region into circuits, put a rider on each and bade +him cover it once a month, preaching here to-day and there to-morrow, +but returning at regular intervals to each community, provided the +largest amount of religious teaching and preaching at the least +expense." The Baptists, too, secured a footing in the new communities +and labored effectively in creating religious ties between the old and +the new sections of the country. In religion as in politics the people +of the West were responsive to emotional appeals. The circuit rider, +with his intense conviction of sin and his equally strong conviction of +salvation through repentance, wrought great crowds in camp meetings into +ecstasies of religious excitement. Odd religious sects and strange +"isms" were to be found in the back-country. At New Harmony on the +Wabash River were the Rappites, a sect of German peasants who came first +to Pennsylvania under their leader George Rapp, and who afterward +returned thither. At Zoar in Ohio was the Separatist community led by +Joseph Baumeler. Shaker societies were formed at many places; and +Mormonism was just beginning its strange history through the revelations +of Joseph Smith in western New York. + +The intellectual horizon of the Western world was necessarily limited. +Absorbed in the stern struggle for existence, the people had no leisure +and no heart to enjoy the finer aspects of life. Education was a luxury +which only the prosperous might possess. The purpose to make elementary +education a public charge developed tardily. Outside of New England, +indeed, a public school system did not exist. Throughout the older +portions of the West the traveler might find academies and so-called +colleges, but none supported at public expense. The State of Indiana, +it is true, entered the Union with a constitution which made it the duty +of the legislature to provide, as soon as circumstances permitted, "for +a general system of education, ascending in a regular gradation from +township schools to a State University, wherein tuition shall be gratis, +and equally open to all." But years passed before circumstances +permitted the realization of this ideal. Meantime, the prosperous +planters of the Southwest employed tutors for their children, and the +well-to-do farmers of the Northwest paid tuition for their boys at +academies. But young Abraham Lincoln had to teach himself Euclid and to +cipher on the back of a wooden shovel, by the flickering embers of a +log-cabin fire. + +The new Commonwealths entered the Union as self-confessed democracies. +In all the States formed after the War of 1812, with one exception, +property qualifications such as prevailed in the older States were swept +away and the right to vote was accorded to every adult white male. In +Mississippi alone there was the additional qualification that a voter +should be enrolled in the militia or have paid a state or county tax. +Everywhere, too, the principle was accepted that representation should +be based upon population and not upon property. The men who framed these +new constitutions believed that they were establishing the rule of the +people. It was, indeed, unthinkable that, believing themselves equal in +all other respects, they should not accept the principle of political +equality and popular sovereignty. + +There is evidence in these new constitutions, however, that the people +placed less reliance in their legislative bodies than did the people of +the Revolutionary era. Instead of general grants of legislative power, +there are specific prohibitions and positive injunctions. Important +limitations are imposed upon the form and mode of legislation. It is +clear, too, that fear of an over-strong executive had given way to a +belief in the necessity of having a stronger countervailing influence, +capable of checking the legislative. Everywhere the governor was made +elective directly by the people and given the veto power. The conviction +was often expressed in constitutional conventions that the governor was +peculiarly the representative of the people, a popular tribune who would +protect them against the indiscretions of their legislative +representatives. The extension of the elective principle to all +important offices was accompanied also by a general conviction that life +tenure of office is undemocratic. "Rotation in office," said Andrew +Jackson, voicing a popular feeling, "is a cardinal principle of +democracy." + +The spirit of Western democracy leavened also the older States. The +people of Maine, breaking away from Massachusetts and her ancient +ideals, boldly declared for manhood suffrage in their new constitution. +Connecticut adopted a constitution in 1818 to replace the old charter, +and dissolved the old union of Church and State by declaring that no +preference should be given by law to any Christian sect or mode of +worship. At the same time Connecticut extended the suffrage to all who +served in the militia or paid a state tax. New York in the constitution +of 1821 and Massachusetts by a constitutional amendment in the same +year abandoned the old property qualifications for voting. + +In both Massachusetts and New York, conservative men like Chancellor +Kent and Daniel Webster frankly avowed their apprehensions of universal +suffrage. "The tendency of universal suffrage," said Kent in the New +York convention, "is to jeopardize the rights of property, and the +principles of liberty." He held society to be an association for the +protection of property as well as of life, "and the individual who +contributes only one cent to the common stock ought not to have the same +power and influence in directing the property concerns of the +partnership as he who contributes his thousands." + +The democratic movement affected not only the formal organization of +State Governments, but also the machinery and methods of political +parties. In the Northern States there was increasing dissatisfaction +with the practice of nominating candidates for office by legislative +caucus. The rank and file of the parties were no longer willing to +submit blindly to the dictation of leaders. In deference to party voters +in districts which were not represented by men of their political faith, +the leaders of the respective parties now found it expedient to summon +special delegates to their party conclaves, in order to give a more +truly representative character to the organization of party. The +legislative caucus, in short, gave way to the mixed caucus. + +[Map: States Admitted to the Union between 1812 and 1821] + +But the old vice remained. The selection of candidates for office was +still made by those who had no mandate to act for the party except in +a legislative capacity. If the voters of the party were in truth the +source of authority within the party, then a means had to be devised of +ascertaining their will. The democratic principle, in short, had to be +applied to party. In response to this feeling, mass meetings and +irregular conventions were held; but these methods of securing an +expression of party opinion were only transitional. Indeed, so long as +the means of communication were defective, popular gatherings were +necessarily poorly attended. The next step in the democratization of +party organization could only be taken when the barriers of space were +overcome by the application of the steam engine to transportation. The +nominating delegate convention waited on the development of +transportation. + +Much the same popular hostility was directed against the congressional +caucus. Candidates for the presidential nomination were not blind to +this movement, and for the most part they sought other means of +promoting their chances. Monroe had hardly entered upon his second term +when state legislative caucuses began to nominate favorite sons. In +1821, the legislature of South Carolina put forward the name of William +Lowndes, and upon his death named John C. Calhoun as its candidate for +the Presidency. In 1822, the legislature of Tennessee presented the name +of Andrew Jackson, "the soldier, the statesman, the honest man," to the +consideration of the people of the United States. In the same year +Republican members of the legislature of Kentucky recommended Henry Clay +"as a suitable person to succeed James Monroe as President." A "joint +meeting of the Republican members of the Massachusetts legislature and +of Republican delegates from the various towns of the Commonwealth not +represented in the legislature" nominated John Quincy Adams for the +Presidency in January, 1823. And finally, illustrative of the varied +methods in use and of the strange vicissitudes of politics at this time, +a public gathering or mass meeting at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in +March, 1824, nominated Adams for President and Jackson for +Vice-President. + +A series of resolutions passed by the legislature of Tennessee in 1823 +called attention in no uncertain language to the shortcomings of the +congressional caucus and called for its overthrow. A canvass of the +members of Congress showed that one hundred and eighty-one out of two +hundred and sixty-one believed a caucus inexpedient at this time. +Nevertheless, the minority, acting in Crawford's interest, took their +courage in both hands and held a caucus on February 14, 1824. Sixty-four +out of sixty-eight votes were cast for William H. Crawford, who thus +became by all precedents the "regular" candidate of the Republican +party. This nomination and the indorsement of Jackson by the Republicans +of Pennsylvania spoiled Calhoun's chances. In the spring of 1824, he +allied himself with the Jackson faction by accepting the nomination for +Vice-President at the hands of a state nominating convention at +Harrisburg, which had put Jackson at the head of the ticket. + +Such issues as were discoverable in the presidential contest of 1824 +were formulated in the debates in Congress during the early part of the +year. As the country recovered from financial depression, the question +of internal improvements again forged to the front. In 1822, a bill to +authorize the collection of tolls on the Cumberland Road had been vetoed +by the President. In an elaborate essay Monroe set forth his views on +the constitutional aspects of a policy of internal improvements. +Congress might appropriate money, he admitted, but it might not +undertake the actual construction of national works nor assume +jurisdiction over them. For the moment the drift toward a larger +participation of the National Government in internal improvements was +stayed. Two years later, however, Congress authorized the President to +institute surveys for such roads and canals as he believed to be needed +for commerce and military defense. The vote on this bill shows that the +source of opposition to internal improvements was chiefly in the +Northeast, in Virginia, and in the Carolinas. The West and Southwest, +with Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey, were a unit in support of +the general survey. + +No one pleaded more eloquently for a larger conception of the functions +of the National Government than Clay. No one voiced the aspirations of +his section more faithfully. He called the attention of his hearers to +provisions made for coast surveys and lighthouses on the Atlantic +seaboard and deplored the neglect of the great interior of the country. +"A new world has come into being since the Constitution was adopted," he +exclaimed. "Are the narrow, limited necessities of the old thirteen +States, of, indeed, parts only of the old thirteen States as they +existed at the formation of the present Constitution, forever to remain +the rule of its interpretation?" Of the other presidential candidates, +Jackson voted in the Senate for the general survey bill; and Adams left +no doubt in the public mind that he did not reflect the narrow views of +his section on this issue. Crawford felt the constitutional scruples +which were everywhere being voiced in the South, and followed the old +expedient of advocating a constitutional amendment to sanction national +internal improvements. + +The Tariff Act of 1824 also entered somewhat into the presidential +campaign. The failure of the protectionists to secure a higher tariff in +1820 had been followed by other efforts to secure congressional action; +but none succeeded until Clay was again elected Speaker of the House and +thrust the matter into the foreground of discussion. Clay dwelt +eloquently upon the loss of the foreign market for agricultural products +and upon the consequent widespread distress. To his mind the remedy was +the establishment of an American market by fostering manufactures. That +such a policy would involve a clash of sectional interests, he did not +deny; but he believed that "reconciliation by mutual concessions" could +be effected and a genuine "American system" be brought into existence. + +[Map: House Vote on Tariff Bill April 16, 1824] + +The tariff bill presented in 1824 was avowedly a protective measure. +Among lesser changes, increased duties were proposed on iron, lead, +wool, hemp, cotton bagging, and cotton and woolen goods. At once +the clash of sectional interests began. New England shippers protested +against the duty on hemp, which they needed for cordage; and Southern +planters made common cause with them on this item, because the cheap +bagging which they used for baling their cotton was made of coarse hemp. +For the same reason the maritime sections of New England opposed the +duty on iron. For precisely opposite reasons, Kentucky clamored for the +protection of her hemp-growers, and Pennsylvania, for the protection of +her iron-workers. It was well understood that the cotton industry was +established and needed no protection; nevertheless, the minimum duty on +cotton fabrics was raised. The increased duty on woolens, however, was +offset by an increased duty on raw wool, so that the woolen +manufacturers profited little by the change of rate. A proposal to apply +to woolens the minimum principle which had been extended to cottons in +1816 was defeated by the opposition of the South. Any increase in the +cost of cheap woolen goods was bound to enhance the cost of clothing the +slaves. On the other hand, the representatives of the great +grain-growing and farming States of New York, New Jersey, and +Pennsylvania, together with the States of the Ohio Valley, were almost +unanimously in favor of the proposed bill. When the bill came to a vote +in the House on April 16, 1824, only nine of the combined ninety-five +votes of these sections were cast in the negative. Equally emphatic was +the protest of the South and Southwest: only six out of seventy-six +Representatives favored the bill. New England by its divided vote +revealed the internal conflict between the commercial and manufacturing +interests. The bill passed both houses of Congress by small majorities +and received the signature of the President. + +Of the presidential candidates, only one spoke with uncertain sound on +the tariff issue. Clay was the outspoken advocate of a far-reaching +American system; Adams thought the tariff of 1824 a fair compromise; +Jackson, properly coached by his intimates, put himself on record as a +supporter of a protective policy to create a home market; only Crawford, +representative of the peculiar interests of the South and candidate for +Northern support, felt the impossibility of harmonizing the conflicting +interests of his followers by a clear-cut and explicit utterance on the +tariff. + +With so many candidates in the field, it was difficult to forecast the +outcome of the presidential campaign. Even if there had been a +pronounced popular drift toward any candidate, the result would have +remained in doubt until the six States which still gave the choice of +electors to their legislatures had completed the complicated electoral +process. There was a strong likelihood, however, that the election would +go to the House of Representatives. As the choice would then be confined +to the three candidates having the highest vote, there was not a little +bargaining in the States where the legislatures chose the electors. The +completed returns gave Jackson 99 electoral votes; Adams, 84; Crawford, +41; and Clay, 37. Calhoun was elected Vice-President by more than two +thirds of the electoral vote. The House, therefore, as wiseacres had +foretold, was called upon for the second time to decide a contested +presidential election. + +The position of Clay was one of unenviable distinction and power. He +could not be elected President, but he could, it was believed, determine +which of his rivals should have the coveted office. His own State +favored Jackson as a second choice; but Clay wrote to a friend that he +could not consider the killing of twenty-five hundred Englishmen at New +Orleans proved the fitness of Jackson for the chief civil magistracy. +Crawford was personally less objectionable to Clay; but he had suffered +a paralytic stroke and his health was precarious. Besides, Crawford had +opposed some of the policies which Clay had most at heart. For years +Clay had been a bitter opponent of Adams; yet after all was said, he was +bound to admit that his interests would be best served by an alliance +with this stiff-necked New Englander. At an early date, therefore, he +determined to throw his support to Adams. + +For weeks the capital was enveloped in an atmosphere of intrigue. Clay +was courted by all factions. The possibility of securing his support was +a standing temptation to wire-pullers. Even Adams wrote in his diary, +"_Incedo super ignes_" (I walk over fires). When Clay announced +positively, on January 24, that he and his friends would support Adams, +a storm of passionate denunciation broke upon him. An anonymous letter +appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper, charging that friends of Adams had +offered Clay the Secretaryship of State in return for his support, and +that friends of Clay had reported the offer to friends of Jackson, with +the intimation that Clay would support the general on similar terms. +When the friends of Jackson spurned these overtures, Clay sold out to +Adams. With quite unnecessary heat Clay branded the author of this +letter as "a base and infamous calumniator, a dastard, and a liar." His +first instinct was to challenge the author whoever he might be; but when +Representative George Kremer, an odd character who was chiefly +conspicuous by reason of the leopard-skin coat which he wore avowed +himself the writer of the offensive letter, Clay wisely concluded not to +make himself ridiculous by an affair of honor with this Gil Blas. He +demanded a congressional investigation instead. + +While this investigation of the alleged bargain between Adams and Clay +was pending, the House proceeded to the election of a President. On the +first ballot, Adams received the votes of thirteen States, while Jackson +was the choice of seven States, and Crawford of four. New England, New +York, Louisiana, Maryland, and the States of the Northwest, except +Indiana, supported Adams. Combined with these were now Missouri and +Kentucky, which had voted for Clay. Jackson received the votes of the +Southwest, together with those of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, and +South Carolina. Crawford was supported by Georgia, North Carolina, +Virginia, and Delaware. Two days later the President-elect announced +that he had invited Henry Clay to be his Secretary of State. After some +hesitation, Clay accepted the post. + +[Map: The Presidential Election of 1824] + +The cry of corruption is a recurrent note in the history of +democracies. The American democracy is no exception. With most of the +charges of corruption, the historian has little concern; but the bargain +and corruption cry of 1825 has a historical significance. The falsity of +the charge against Clay has been proved as nearly as a negative can be. +Adams may not have been above the uncongenial task of soliciting votes, +but he kept safely within the moral domain which his conscience marked +out. The motive which governed his appointment of Clay as Secretary of +State is stated frankly in a letter to Monroe, two days after the +election by the House. He considered the appointment "due to his talents +and services to the western section of the Union, whence he comes, and +to the confidence in me manifested by their delegations." Upon one +individual these considerations made no impression: Andrew Jackson left +the capital with wrath in his soul. He felt that he had been defrauded +by a corrupt bargain. From this time on his hand was against Clay,--that +"Judas of the West," as he afterward called him,--who had conspired to +"impair the pure principles of our republican institutions" and to +"prostrate that fundamental maxim which maintains the supremacy of the +people's will." + +Years after the events of 1824-25, the belief of Jackson that the will +of the people had been defeated found classic expression in Thomas H. +Benton's _Thirty Years' View of Congress_. What Benton termed "the Demos +Krateo principle" was thoroughly in accord with the spirit of the new +democracy, but it rested upon an entire misunderstanding of the +Constitution. A direct popular election of the President was never +contemplated by the framers of the Constitution. It is impossible to +find in either the letter or the spirit of the Constitution any +justification for the view that the House of Representatives is bound to +elect the candidate having the highest popular vote. + +What the will of the people really was in the presidential election of +1824 is by no means clear. Even in those States where presidential +electors were chosen by popular vote, Jackson received less than half of +the popular vote; and in many of these States the actual vote fell far +below the potential. In Massachusetts, where 66,000 votes had been cast +for governor the year before, only 37,000 voters took the trouble to +vote for President. In Pennsylvania, which boasted of a population of +over a million, less than 48,000 voted in 1824. Moreover, the six States +which chose the presidential electors through their legislatures, +contained one fourth of the population of the country. One fact, +however, stands out with unmistakable clearness,--and it did not escape +politicians like Van Buren, of New York, who had their fingers on the +pulse of the people,--this martial hero from out of the West had an +unprecedented vote-getting capacity. It were well to observe the Western +horizon more intently. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + The best description of the political characteristics of American + society in this period is given by Alexis de Tocqueville, + _Democracy in America_ (2 vols., trans., 1862). F. J. Turner has + pointed out the importance of the West in the development of the + nation in several studies, notably: "The Significance of the + Frontier in American History" (American Historical Association, + _Report_, 1893); "The Problem of the West" (_Atlantic Monthly_, + vol. 78); "Contributions of the West to American Democracy" + (_Atlantic Monthly_, vol. 91). The political development of the + South is set forth with great thoroughness by U. B. Phillips, + _Georgia and State Rights_ (American Historical Association, + _Report_, 1901); W. A. Schaper, _Sectionalism and Representation + in South Carolina_ (_ibid._, 1900); and C. H. Ambler, + _Sectionalism in Virginia from 1776 to 1861_ (1910). Important + aspects of the tariff are discussed in Edward Stanwood's _American + Tariff Controversies in the Nineteenth Century_ (2 vols., 1903), + and in C. W. Wright's _Wool-Growing and the Tariff_ (1910). + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +POLITICS AND STATE RIGHTS + + +The circumstances of his election made the position of President Adams +one of very great difficulty. He alluded to his embarrassment in his +first message to Congress. "Less possessed of your confidence in advance +than any of my predecessors," said he, "I am deeply conscious of the +prospect that I shall stand more and oftener in need of your +indulgence." It is doubtful, however, if even he appreciated the +momentum of the forces which were already combining to discredit his +administration. In October, the legislature of Tennessee had again +nominated Jackson for the Presidency, and he had accepted the nomination +as a summons to wage war upon the forces of evil in high places. The +campaign of 1828, indeed, had already begun: and it was to be a campaign +of personal vindication as well as of popular rights. + +Under similar circumstances most men would have made sure of the loyalty +of their constitutional advisers, at least, but Adams flattered himself +that he could carry on a non-partisan administration. The results were +disastrous, for at least two of the Cabinet were not above using the +patronage of office to further the cause of Jackson. In his laudable +desire not to allow the Government to become "a perpetual and +unintermitting scramble for office," Adams refused to make removals in +the civil service on partisan grounds, yet he retained in office +underlings who labored incessantly in the cause of the opposition. + +Equally impolitic was the attitude of the President toward questions of +public policy in his first message to Congress. Just when the opposition +was in a fluid state and the winds of conflicting doctrines were +ruffling the surface of national politics, Adams gave utterance to +opinions on the functions of government which were bound to alienate +many of his followers. Entertaining no doubts as to constitutional +limitations upon the powers of the National Government, he advocated not +only the construction of roads and canals, but the establishment of +observatories and a national university. His program included +governmental aid to the arts, mechanical and literary, and to the +sciences, "ornamental and profound." He was prepared to give +encouragement not only to manufacturing but to agriculture and to +commerce. Many of these were objects which President Jefferson had +recommended to the consideration of Congress in 1806; but whereas he had +urged the adoption of amendments to the Constitution which would +authorize Congress to provide for roads and canals and education, Adams +seemed oblivious to the limitations of the Constitution. In much alarm +Jefferson suggested to Madison the desirability of having Virginia adopt +a new set of resolutions, bottomed on those of 1798, and directed +against the acts for internal improvements. In March, 1826, the general +assembly declared that all the principles of the earlier resolutions +applied "with full force against the powers assumed by Congress" in +passing acts to protect manufactures and to further internal +improvements. That the Administration would meet with opposition in +Congress, whatever its program might be, was a foregone conclusion. The +only question was whether the diverse and mutually hostile factions +which had followed the fortunes of Crawford, Calhoun, and Jackson could +coalesce into a consistent opposition. The first test occurred when the +Administration proposed the Panama mission. + +The overthrow of the authority of Spain in South America had left the +way clear for the long-projected union of the republics. Early in the +year 1825, the ministers of Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia waited on +Clay to learn whether the United States would accept an invitation to a +great council or congress which had been called by the revolutionist +Bolivar, now President of Colombia. The project appealed strongly to +Clay. A league of young republics in the New World to offset the Holy +Alliance in Europe was, as his biographer remarks, "one of those large, +generous conceptions well calculated to fascinate his ardent mind." The +imagination of the President was not so easily touched: he instructed +Clay to inquire more particularly into the purposes of the congress. + +The condition of affairs in the countries bordering on the Caribbean +Sea--the American Mediterranean--was such, indeed, as to justify extreme +caution in dealing with the Latin-American republics. It was matter of +common knowledge that Colombia and Mexico had designs upon Cuba, the +last of the Spanish outposts in the New World. So long as Spain +continued at war with her old colonies, the United States was bound to +be uneasy about the fate of Cuba and Porto Rico. Even if the islands +were liberated by the republican armies of Central and South America, +they were likely to fall a prey to some European power. The appearance +of a French fleet off the coast of Cuba during the summer of 1825 gave +point to these not unwarranted apprehensions. It was rumored that Cuba +was to be made the basis for an expedition against Mexico in behalf of +Spain. This episode prompted Clay to make strong representations to +France that the United States could not consent to the occupation of +Cuba by any other European power. + +When, then, a formal invitation came to participate in the Panama +Congress, the Administration determined to seize the occasion to +exercise a wholesome restraint by friendly advice upon the assembled +delegates of the republics, and at the same time to ascertain their +purposes. In asking the Senate to confirm the nomination of two +delegates, however, the President voiced his own expectation of what the +Congress would be and do, rather than the purposes of Bolivar and his +associates. The occasion would be favorable, the President intimated, +for the discussion of commercial reciprocity, of neutral rights, and of +principles of religious liberty. An alliance with the Latin-American +republics was not contemplated. On the contrary, the delegates from the +United States would urge "an agreement between all of the parties +represented at the meeting, that each will guard by its own means +against the establishment of any future European colony within its +borders." At this stage in its evolution the Monroe Doctrine was not +understood to include any obligation on the part of the United States to +police the territories of the lesser republics of the New World. + +The instructions given to the envoys leave no doubt as to the intentions +of the Administration. Every possible endeavor was to be made to +dissuade Colombia and Mexico from their designs upon Cuba and Porto +Rico. The recognition of Hayti as an independent state was to be +deprecated. In short, the _status quo_ in the Caribbean Sea was to be +maintained; and throughout, the congress was to be regarded as a +diplomatic conference and in no wise as a convention to constitute a +permanent league of republics. + +Nevertheless, the opposition in Congress persisted in misrepresenting +the President's purposes. It was pointed out that the republics to the +south very generally believed that the United States was pledged by +Monroe's message to make common cause with them when their independence +was threatened. "Are we prepared," asked Hayne, of South Carolina, "to +send ministers to the Congress of Panama for the purpose of making +effectual this pledge of President Monroe as construed by the present +administration and understood by the Spanish-American states?" With +greater sincerity Southern Representatives protested against +participating in a congress which proposed to discuss the suppression +of the slave trade and the future of Hayti. "Slavery in all its +bearings," said Hayne, "is a question of extreme delicacy, concerning +which there is but one safe rule either for the States in which it +exists or for the Union. It must ever be treated as a domestic question. +To foreign governments the language of the United States must be that +the question of slavery concerns the peace and safety of our political +family, and that we cannot allow it to be discussed." Least of all, he +continued, could the United States touch the question of the +independence of Hayti in connection with revolutionary governments which +had marched to victory under the banner of universal emancipation and +which had permitted men of color to command their armies and enter their +legislative halls. + +In the end the Administration had its way and the nominations were +confirmed; but the delay was most unfortunate. On their way to the +Isthmus, one of the delegates died, and the other arrived too late to +take part in the congress. From the viewpoint of domestic politics, the +controversy over the mission was only an incident in the evolution of a +party within the bosom of the Democratic party. The animus of the +opposition is revealed in the often-quoted remark of Martin Van Buren, +who was trying to drill the varied elements in the Senate into a +coherent organization: "Yes, they have beaten us by a few votes, after a +hard battle; but if they had only taken the other side and refused the +mission, we should have had them." + +Of far more serious import than this factional opposition in Congress +was the resistance which the authorities of Georgia offered to the +National Administration in the matter of Indian lands. On March 5, 1825, +the Senate ratified the Treaty of Indian Springs with the Creek Indians, +which provided for the cession of practically all the lands of the tribe +between the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers. For years the planters of +Georgia had coveted these fertile tracts, awaiting with impatience the +negotiations of the Federal Government with the reluctant Indians. +Although the title to the lands was not to pass to Georgia until +September 1, 1826, Governor Troup ordered them to be surveyed with a +view to their immediate occupation. Meantime, well-founded charges were +current that the treaty had been made by a faction among the Creeks, +without the consent of the responsible chiefs. President Adams at once +ordered the state authorities to desist from their survey; but the +governor replied that Georgia was convinced of the validity of the +treaty and fully determined to enter into possession of her own. The +tone of the governor's letter was ominous. Nevertheless, the President +instituted negotiations for a new treaty. The diplomatic shifts resorted +to by the Indian agents in this instance were not above suspicion, but +the President seemed to entertain no misgivings, for he assured the +Senate that the new Treaty of Washington (January 24, 1826) was the will +and deed of "the chiefs of the whole Creek Nation." The grant left the +Indians still in possession of some lands west of the Chattahoochee. + +The feelings of all loyal Georgians were outraged by the course of the +Administration. The legislature protested against the Treaty of +Washington as "illegal and unconstitutional," and denounced the +President's action as "an instance of dictation and federal supremacy +unwarranted by any grant of powers to the General Government." "Georgia +owns exclusively the soil and jurisdiction of all the territory within +her present chartered and conventional limits," read the resolutions of +December 22, 1826. "She has never relinquished said right, either +territorial or jurisdictional, to the General Government." + +The ebullient governor hardly needed the indorsement of the legislature. +He pushed on the surveys to the limits set by the original treaty. But +the surveyors soon met with resistance from the Indians; and the Indians +appealed to the President. The Secretary of War then notified Troup that +the President felt himself compelled to employ all the means under his +control to maintain the faith of the nation and to carry the treaty into +effect. Governor Troup replied defiantly that the "military character of +the menace" was well understood. "You will distinctly understand, +therefore, that I feel it my duty to resist to the utmost any military +attack.... From the first decisive act of hostility, you will be +considered and treated as a public enemy, and with less repugnance +because you, to whom we might constitutionally have appealed for our +defense against invasion, are yourselves the invaders, and, what is +more, the unblushing allies of the savages whose course you have +adopted." He at once issued orders to the state military officers to +hold the militia in readiness to repel any invasion of the soil of +Georgia. + +The tension which had now become acute was relieved by the intelligence +that the President had ordered the Indian agent to the Creeks to resume +negotiations for the cession of the rest of their lands. The governor +hastened to point out jubilantly that the President had beaten a +retreat. Meantime, the President had laid the whole matter before +Congress in a special message. A committee of the House advised the +purchase of the rest of the Indian lands, but in the mean time the +maintenance of the terms of the Treaty of Washington. A committee of the +Senate, however, with Benton as chairman, took an opposite view of the +situation, and deprecated any action looking toward the coercion of a +sister State. A treaty concluded with the Creeks in November, 1827, +fortunately satisfied all parties and put an end to this exciting +controversy--a controversy in which the President had played a lone and +not very successful hand. + +In this same year (1827), another Indian problem of even greater +perplexity arose. The Cherokees of northwestern Georgia, who were ruled +by a group of intelligent half-breeds, declared themselves one of the +sovereign and independent nations of the earth, and drafted a +constitution which completely excluded the authority of the State of +Georgia. Again, in no uncertain language, Georgia asserted her title to +all the lands within her limits, regarding the Indians simply as +"tenants at her will"; but before the controversy reached an acute +stage Adams had surrendered the Presidency to General Andrew Jackson, +who had only contempt for Indian rights when they fell athwart the +purposes of honest white settlers. + +In the midst of these protestations against federal intervention, the +legislature of Georgia sounded a note of defiance also in the matter of +the tariff. It was "their decided opinion an increase of Tariff duties +will and ought to be RESISTED by all legal and constitutional means." +Just what should be "the mode of opposition" they would not pretend to +say, but for the present they would content themselves with "the +peaceable course of remonstrating with Congress." This rather ominous +protest was inspired by the demands of certain manufacturers and +politicians who had assembled in convention at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, +in the summer of 1827. + +The woolen industry had profited least of all those which had been +protected by the Tariff of 1824. Not only had the slight advance in +rates been offset by the increase of the duty on raw wool, but the +effect of English competition in 1825 had been most depressing to the +woolen trade. A tariff bill to meet the wishes of the wool-growers and +woolen manufacturers had passed the House early in 1827, but had been +defeated in the Senate by the casting vote of the Vice-President. The +convention at Harrisburg was designed to create a public sentiment in +favor of the protected interests and to bring pressure from various +sources to bear upon Congress. The failure of the tariff bill in the +spring session had impressed upon woolen manufacturers the necessity of +securing allies. + +The recommendations of the convention at Harrisburg were comprehensive. +Higher duties all along the line, from wool to glass, were urged. But +that which the promoters of the convention had most at heart was the +extension to woolens of the minimum principle already applied to cotton +fabrics. According to their demands, the _ad valorem_ duty on woolens +should range from forty to fifty per cent, assessed on minimum +valuations of fifty cents, two dollars and a half, four dollars, and six +dollars a yard. That is to say, goods valued at less than fifty cents a +yard were to be treated as though they had a value of fifty cents; and +all between fifty cents and two dollars and a half, as though they were +worth two dollars and a half; and so on--a system which offered a high +degree of protection to the cheaper fabrics in each group. + +[Map: House Vote on Tariff Bill April 22, 1828] + +The high hopes of the protectionists were only partially realized. In +the following session of Congress, economic interests became badly +tangled with political. The President and the greater part of his +supporters were protectionists. Indeed, it was openly charged by the +opposition that the Harrisburg Convention was a device of the Adams men +to promote his reelection. The opposition, on the other hand, was far +from united on the tariff question. The only affinity between Southern +planters and their Northern allies in the Middle and Western States was +hostility to the Administration. According to Calhoun, who in after +years made a frank avowal of his part in the intrigue, the opposition +determined to frame a tariff bill with a general high level of +duties to satisfy the Middle and Western States, but to increase +the duties on raw material which New England manufacturers needed. All +the stanch Jackson men were to unite in forcing this bill to a passage +without amendment. At the last moment, however, the Southern group were +to part company with their allies and to vote against the bill. The +Representatives from New England, and the supporters of the +Administration generally, would of course vote against the bill also, +and so compass its defeat. The odium would then fall upon the Adams men, +while the Jackson men could pose as the only whole-hearted advocates of +protection; and, finally, not the least factor in Calhoun's +calculations, the South would escape the toils of high protection. There +was only one hitch in this cleverly planned game. To the consternation +of the plotters, enough New England Representatives swallowed the bitter +dose to enact the bill. + +The "tariff of abominations" deserves all the abuse which has been +heaped upon it. Shapen in political iniquity, it bore upon its face the +marks of its origin. High duties for which no one had asked were imposed +on certain raw material like pig and bar iron, and hemp, the better +quality of which was always in demand and never produced in the United +States. Items like the increased duty on molasses and the heavy duty on +sail-duck were added to make the bill distasteful to New England. But +the woolen industry suffered the most grievous disappointment. Instead +of the minimum principle advocated by the Harrisburg Convention, the Act +of 1828 established a minimum of one dollar between the minimal points +of fifty cents and two dollars and a half. Whereas the proposed rate +would have fixed a prohibitory duty on woolens costing about a dollar a +yard, the act allowed only a duty of forty-five per cent. "The dollar +minimum," as one of the aggrieved manufacturers put it, "was planted in +the very midst of the woolen trade." + +Again the Middle States and the States of the Ohio Valley united in +support of the protective principle. New England was divided against +itself. Political considerations weighed heavily with those New +Englanders who like Webster voted for the bill. John Randolph hardly +exaggerated when he declared that "the bill referred to manufactures of +no sort or kind, except the manufacture of a President of the United +States." + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + To the bibliography at the close of the preceding chapter only a few + titles need be added. The foreign policy of the Adams Administration + is well described in F. E. Chadwick's _The Relations of the United + States and Spain_ (1909). The stages in the Indian controversy may + be traced in U. B. Phillips's _Georgia and State Rights_ (American + Historical Association, _Report_, 1901), and in E. J. Hardin's _Life + of George M. Troup_ (1859). E. M. Shepard, _Martin Van Buren_ + (1888), and T. D. Jervey, _Robert Y. Hayne and His Times_ (1909), + are important biographies. Josiah Quincy's _Figures of the Past_ + (1883) contains some interesting sketches of Washington society, + while N. Sargent's _Public Men and Events_ (2 vols., 1875) supplies + an abundance of political gossip. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE RISE OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY + + +Shortly after the Federal Convention of 1787, a friend remarked to +Gouverneur Morris, "You have made a good constitution." "That," replied +Morris laconically, "depends on how it is construed!" From Washington to +Jackson the process of construing the Constitution had gone on, +intermittently by the executive and legislative, steadily by the +judiciary. "The judiciary of the United States," wrote Jefferson in +1820, "is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working +underground to undermine the foundations of our confederate fabric. They +are constantly construing our constitution from a coordination of a +general and a special government, to a general and supreme one alone. +They will lay all things at their feet, and they are too well versed in +the English law to forget the maxim, '_boni judicis est ampliare +jurisdictionem_.'" + +Yet as late as 1800 the federal judiciary had pronounced none of those +decisions which were to make it so powerful a factor in the assertion +and maintenance of national sovereignty. In declining an appointment as +Chief Justice, John Jay wrote to President Adams that he had "left the +bench perfectly convinced that under a system so defective, it would not +obtain the energy, weight, and dignity, which were essential to its +affording due support to the National Government; nor acquire the +public confidence and respect which, as the last resort of the justice +of the Nation, it should possess." + +The uncertainty of the law was in large part responsible for this lack +of prestige. "Too great inattention," complained a Boston lawyer, in the +_Columbian Centinel_ in 1801, "has hitherto prevailed as to the +preservation of the decisions of our courts of law. We have neither +authorized nor voluntary reporters. Hence we are compelled to the loose +and interested recollections of counsel, or to depend wholly on British +decisions." The first systematic attempt to secure records of opinions +was made by Connecticut in 1785. Four years later, Ephraim Kirby, a +printer in Litchfield, issued "the first regular printed law reports in +America." This example was followed in other States; and in 1798 the +first volume of United States Supreme Court Reports was published by +Dallas. + +The great period in the history of the Supreme Court coincides with the +thirty-four years during which John Marshall held the office of Chief +Justice. President John Adams rendered no more lasting service to the +Federalist cause than when he appointed this great Virginian to the +bench, for Marshall, if not a Federalist of the strictest sect, was a +thoroughgoing nationalist. Down to his appointment only six decisions +involving constitutional questions of any moment had been handed down; +between 1801 and 1835, sixty-two were rendered, of which Marshall wrote +thirty-six. The decisions of the court during "the reign of Marshall" +fill thirty volumes of the Reports. Seven hundred and fifty-three cases +were taken on appeal to the Supreme Court from the lower federal courts, +and in nearly one half of these cases the decisions were reversed. + +An American constitutional law did not exist when Marshall took office. +Few precedents were available. In some of his important cases Marshall +did not cite a single judicial decision. He reached his conclusions by +the light of reason. "There, Story," he would say to his associate, "is +the law. Now you must find the authorities." In a peculiar sense it is +true to say that Marshall both laid the foundations of constitutional +law and reared the superstructure, as one of his biographers remarks. +But Marshall was ably supported by his colleagues; and he owed much, as +he freely admitted, to the arguments of a remarkable body of lawyers of +the federal bar. Wirt, Pinkney, and Webster were as truly creators of +American constitutional law as the learned justices. + +The constitutional importance of the decision of the Supreme Court in +_Marbury_ v. _Madison_ has already been pointed out. In the development +of the idea of national sovereignty, the significance of the decision +lies in the emphatic assertion that the Supreme Court is the tribunal of +last resort in cases involving the constitutionality of acts of +Congress. + +The first open resistance of a State to federal authority, as asserted +by the Supreme Court, occurred in 1809, when the legislature of +Pennsylvania interposed its authority to prevent the payment of prize +money which had been awarded by a federal district court to Gideon +Olmstead and others for their capture of the sloop Active during the +Revolution. All efforts to secure a peaceful settlement of this +controversy having failed, the Attorney-General, in behalf of Olmstead, +applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of _mandamus_, directing Judge +Peters of the district court to enforce his judgment. In granting the +writ, Chief Justice Marshall pointed out the gravity of the issue. "If +the legislatures of the several States," said he, "may at will annul the +judgment of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights +acquired under those judgments, the Constitution becomes a solemn +mockery, and the nation is deprived of the means of enforcing its laws +by the instrumentality of its own tribunals." Such a conclusion he +emphatically repudiated. Reviewing the history of the case with all its +details, he reached the uncompromising conclusion that "the State of +Pennsylvania can possess no constitutional right to resist the legal +process which may be directed in this cause.... A peremptory _mandamus_ +must be awarded." + +Judge Peters issued the writ, but all efforts of the marshal to serve +the writ were thwarted by the state militia. The marshal then summoned a +_posse comitatus_ of two thousand men. Bloodshed seemed imminent; but +after an ineffectual appeal to the President, the Pennsylvania +authorities gave way and paid over the money. Subsequently the officer +commanding the militia and others were indicted, tried, convicted, and +sentenced to fine and imprisonment, for resisting the writ of a federal +court; but they were pardoned by the President because "they had acted +under a mistaken sense of duty." + +In this conflict of authority the National Government won at every +point. Even the resolution which the legislature adopted in the heat of +the controversy, calling for an amendment to the Constitution which +should establish "an impartial tribunal to determine disputes between +the General and State Governments," met with no approval from other +States. Virginia, soon to be of a very different mind, responded that "a +tribunal is already provided ... to wit: the Supreme Court, more +eminently qualified from their habits and duties, from the mode of their +selection, and from the tenure of their offices, to decide the disputes +aforesaid in an enlightened and impartial manner, than any other +tribunal which could be erected." + +In two notable cases, the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality +of the Judiciary Act of 1789 and asserted its authority to review and +reverse decisions of the state courts when those decisions were adverse +to alleged federal rights. The opinion in the first case, that of +_Martin_ v. _Hunter's Lessee_, in 1816, was written by Joseph Story, of +Massachusetts, who had been appointed to a vacancy on the bench by +President Madison. Story was reputed to be a Republican, but he +disappointed all expectations by becoming a stanch supporter of +nationalist doctrines and only second to Marshall in his influence upon +the development of American constitutional law. + +The case of _Martin_ v. _Hunter's Lessee_ grew out of the old Fairfax +claims which Marshall had represented as counsel before his appointment +to the bench. In 1815, the Supreme Court had reversed the decision of +the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and ordered the state court to execute +the judgment rendered in the lower state court. The judges of the Court +of Appeals, headed by Judge Spencer Roane, a bitter opponent of +Marshall, formally announced that they would not obey the _mandamus_, +holding that the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act of 1789--that +extending the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court over state +tribunals--was unconstitutional. The state-rights elements in Virginia +quickly rallied to the support of the judges, and the Supreme Court +found itself face to face with an incensed public opinion in the Old +Dominion. In no wise daunted by this opposition, the Supreme Court +reviewed its position in 1816 and again ordered the execution of its +judgment. + +Five years later, Chief Justice Marshall rendered a similar decision in +the case of _Cohens_ v. _Virginia_. The counsel for the Commonwealth had +argued that the appellate jurisdiction conferred by the Constitution on +the Supreme Court was merely authority to revise the decisions of the +inferior courts of the United States. "Congress," it was contended, "is +not authorized to make the supreme court or any other court of a State +an inferior court.... The inferior courts spoken of in the Constitution +are manifestly to be held by federal judges." "It is the case, not the +court, that gives jurisdiction," replied Marshall. "The courts of the +United States can, without question, revise the proceedings of the +executive and legislative authorities of the States, and if they are +found to be contrary to the Constitution may declare them to be of no +legal validity. Surely the exercise of the same right over judicial +tribunals is not a higher or more dangerous act of sovereign power." + +It was in the course of this decision that Marshall asserted in +unmistakable language the sovereignty of the National Government. "The +people made the Constitution and the people can unmake it.... But this +supreme and irresistible power to make or to unmake resides only in the +whole body of the people; not in any subdivision of them. The attempts +of any of the parts to exercise it is usurpation, and ought to be +repelled by those to whom the people have delegated the power of +repelling it.... The framers of the Constitution were indeed unable to +make any provisions which should protect that instrument against a +general combination of the States, or of the people for its destruction; +and conscious of this inability, they have not made the attempt. But +they were able to provide against the operation of measures adopted in +any one State, whose tendency might be to arrest the execution of the +laws; and this it was the part of wisdom to attempt. We think they have +attempted it." + +Between these notable Virginia cases was decided, in 1819, the case of +_M'Culloch_ v. _Maryland_, in which the Chief Justice sustained the +constitutionality of the act establishing the National Bank, and +declared a state law imposing a tax on a branch of the Bank +unconstitutional and void. In the course of his opinion, which followed +much the same line of reasoning that Alexander Hamilton had employed, +Marshall stated in classic phraseology the doctrine of liberal +construction. Holding that the Constitution was not a code of law, but a +document marking out in large characters the powers of government, he +sought, among the enumerated powers, not the lesser, but the great +substantive, powers necessary to the purposes of the Union. These +substantive powers, however, carry with them many incidental (Hamilton +said _resulting_) powers, among which a choice may freely be made to +achieve the desired and legitimate end. "Let the end be legitimate," +said Marshall, "let it be within the scope of the Constitution, and all +means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, +which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the +Constitution, are constitutional." In an earlier decision (_United +States_ v. _Fisher_, 1804), indeed, Marshall had refused to concede the +force of the argument that the Federal Government was clothed only with +the powers indispensably necessary to exercise powers expressly granted +to it. "Congress must possess the choice of means which are in fact +conducive to the exercise of a power granted by the Constitution." + +The cumulative effect of these decisions was to provoke a violent +reaction in Virginia. Under the pen-name "Algernon Sidney," Judge Roane +renewed his attacks upon the Chief Justice in violent and at times +offensive language. "The judgment before us," he declared, referring to +the case of _Cohens_ v. _Virginia_, "will not be less disastrous in its +consequences, than any of these memorable judgments [of the time of +Charles I]. It completely negatives the idea, that the American States +have a real existence, or are to be considered, in any sense, as +sovereign and independent States." It seemed to Jefferson that the +powerful arguments of Roane completely "pulverized" every word which had +been uttered by John Marshall. John Taylor of Caroline, however, was the +philosophical exponent of this reactionary movement. In his +_Construction Construed_ (1820), _Tyranny Unmasked_ (1822), and _New +Views of the Constitution_ (1823), he pointed out the manifest tendency +of the decisions of the Supreme Court and suggested the "state veto" as +the remedy against usurpation of power by the Supreme Court or by +Congress. The legislature of Virginia indorsed an amendment to the +Constitution drafted by Judge Roane which would have limited the +jurisdiction of the federal courts, where the rights of the States were +concerned, and which would have forbidden appeals from the courts of a +State to any court of the United States. Beyond such remonstrances and +protests, however, public opinion in Virginia was not prepared to go at +this time. + +The judges of the Supreme Court could not remain indifferent to these +assaults. "If, indeed, the Judiciary is to be destroyed," wrote Story, +"I should be glad to have the decisive blow now struck, while I am +young, and can return to my profession and earn an honest livelihood." +But he added, "For the Judges of the Supreme Court there is but one +course to pursue. That is, to do their duty firmly and honestly, +according to their best judgments." + +It was in this spirit that the court rendered judgment in the case of +_Green_ v. _Biddle_ (1823), which gave deep offense to the people of +Kentucky by setting aside as unconstitutional the so-called "Occupying +Claimant Laws." The remonstrance of the legislature was all the more +bitter because the decision had been rendered by a bench of only four +judges, one of whom dissented from the majority opinion. The resolutions +of the legislature demanded a reorganization of the court in such wise +that the concurrence of at least two thirds of the judges should be +necessary in an opinion affecting the validity of state laws. And when +Congress made no response, the lower House called upon the governor to +express his opinion "whether it may be advisable to call forth the +physical power of the State to resist the execution of the decisions of +the court, or in what manner the mandates of said court should be met by +disobedience." But Kentucky like Virginia kept well within the legal +limits of petition and remonstrance. + +In Ohio, also, there was an ominous spirit of resistance to the force of +precedent. Notwithstanding the decision of the court in the case of +_M'Culloch_ v. _Maryland_, the general assembly of that State not only +enacted a law to tax the local branch of the National Bank, but actually +seized the amount of the tax. Suit was thereupon brought against the +state auditor; and in spite of the vigorous remonstrance of the +legislature, the Supreme Court again sustained the constitutionality of +the Bank and declared the state tax unconstitutional. The State was +ultimately obliged to make restitution of the funds of the Bank. + +[Map: Canals in the United States about 1825] + +Meantime, the national judiciary had contributed to the expansion of the +Constitution in notable ways; sometimes by affirming the +constitutionality of powers exercised by the President or Congress, and +at other times by narrowing the limits of state authority. In the case +of the _American Insurance Company_ v. _Canter_, twenty-five years after +the acquisition of Louisiana, Marshall affirmed the constitutionality +of the treaty which had so aroused Jefferson's misgivings. "The +Constitution," said the Chief Justice, "confers absolutely on the +Government of the Union the powers of making war and of making treaties; +consequently, that Government possesses the power of acquiring +territory, either by conquest or by treaty." + +In two instances, on the other hand, the Supreme Court gave an +interpretation of the "obligation of contracts" clause of the +Constitution which seriously limited the powers of the States. In the +case of _Fletcher_ v. _Peck_ (1810), the court declared unconstitutional +an act of the legislature of Georgia which attempted to revoke the +notorious Yazoo land grants of 1795. A grant was held to be a contract +within the meaning of the Constitution; and the court found no adequate +ground for exempting such contracts from the prohibition of the +Constitution. + +Far-reaching in its implication, also, was the second instance, when the +Supreme Court held unconstitutional and void the acts of the New +Hampshire legislature which amended the charter granted by the Crown to +Dartmouth College in 1769. Arguing as counsel for the college, of which +he was an honored graduate, Daniel Webster held that the charter of a +private corporation was a contract which might not be impaired by an act +of a state legislature. Chief Justice Marshall only restated and +amplified Webster's argument, when he rendered the opinion of the court +and declared that New Hampshire might not by law impair the charter of +Dartmouth College. To the argument of the counsel for the Commonwealth, +contending that the framers of the Constitution never contemplated such +a broad use of the word "contract," Marshall replied that it was not +enough to say this particular use of the word was not in the mind of the +Convention when the article was adopted. "It is necessary to go farther, +and to say that, had this particular case been suggested, the language +would have been so varied as to exclude it, or it would have been made a +special exception." + +The immense significance of this decision was not immediately apparent. +The peculiar immunity which it gave to private property could not be +appreciated until the rise of corporations with concentrated capital. +Not even the Chief Justice foresaw that the guaranty of inviolability +which he had thrown about a private educational corporation would be +demanded with equal right by the great business corporations of the +succeeding era. + +[Map: Highways of the United States about 1825] + +In the famous case of _Gibbons_ v. _Ogden_ (1824), the Supreme Court +gave an interpretation of the commerce clause of the Constitution which +also had a profound effect upon subsequent history. In the course of its +decision the court declared unconstitutional a law of the State of New +York which had granted an exclusive right to operate steamboats in the +waters of New York. The regulation of commerce, the court held, had been +given exclusively to Congress, and "commerce" as used in the +Constitution comprehended not merely traffic and intercourse but also +navigation. The power to regulate was regarded as a unit. In regulating +commerce with foreign nations, the power of Congress does not stop at +the jurisdictional lines of the several States. "If a foreign voyage may +commence or terminate at a port within a State, then the power of +Congress may be exercised within a State." Similarly, the court reasoned +that commerce "among the States" cannot stop at the external boundary of +each State. "Commerce among the States must of necessity be commerce +with the States." In short, while expressly disclaiming that Congress +had the power to regulate the internal commerce of a State, the court +asserted the complete control of Congress over inter-state commerce so +far as navigation was concerned. The deeper significance of this +interpretation of the commerce clause appeared only when railroads began +to span the continent and the jurisdictional lines of States were +crossed and re-crossed by an ever-increasing volume of trade. + +Twenty-five years had wrought a vast change in the position of the +national judiciary in the American constitutional system. "It is now +seen on every hand," wrote Attorney-General Wirt, urging the appointment +of Chancellor Kent to a vacancy on the Supreme Court bench, "that the +functions to be performed by the Supreme Court of the United States are +among the most difficult and perilous which are to be performed under +the Constitution. They demand the loftiest range of talents and learning +and a soul of Roman purity and firmness. The questions which come before +them frequently involve the fate of the Constitution, the happiness of +the whole Nation, and even its peace as it concerns other nations." In +the light of the decisions reviewed, the nationalizing tendency of the +federal judiciary is unmistakable. But a constitutional reaction had set +in; and even while John Marshall was setting forth the doctrine of +national sovereignty in its most uncompromising form, John C. Calhoun in +the quiet of his estate in South Carolina was elaborating a defense of +state rights on premises which the great Chief Justice had combated for +a quarter of a century. + + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + An adequate history of the Supreme Court has yet to be written. H. + L. Carson, _The History of the Supreme Court of the United States, + with biographies of all the chief and associate justices_ (2 vols., + 1902-04), and H. Flanders, _The Lives and Times of the + Chief-Justices of the Supreme Court_ (2 vols., 1855-58), are + serviceable works. The best selection of cases on constitutional + law is that by J. B. Thayer, _Cases in Constitutional Law_ (2 vols., + 1894-95). Some of the more important decisions may be found + abridged in Allen Johnson's _Readings in American Constitutional + History_ (1912). W. W. Willoughby, _The Supreme Court: its History + and Influence in our Constitutional System_ (1890), and _The American + Constitutional System_ (1904), are interesting volumes by an + authority on constitutional law. J. P. Kennedy, _Memoirs of the Life + of William Wirt_ (2 vols., 1850); G. J. McRee, _Life and + Correspondence of James Iredell_ (2 vols., 1857-58); W. W. Story, + _Life and Letters of Joseph Story_ (2 vols., 1851); and G. T. + Curtis, _Life of Daniel Webster_ (2 vols., 1870), contribute to an + understanding of the relation of the federal bench and bar. + Especially valuable is Charles Warren's _History of the American + Bar, Colonial and Federal, to 1860_ (1911). The progress of American + law is reviewed in _Two Centuries' Growth of American Law, + 1701-1901_, by members of the faculty of the Yale Law School. + + + + +INDEX + + +Adams, Abigail, 120, 121. + +Adams, John, Minister to England, 7; + demands Western posts, 17; + on the adoption of the Constitution, 41; + elected Vice-President, 48; + on the President's address, 50; + re-elected Vice-President, 67; + candidate for the Presidency, 92; + elected President, 93; + his attitude toward France, 96; + appoints commissioners, 96-97; + urges preparations for war, 98; + sends X Y Z letters to Congress, 98; + appoints officers of army, 101-02; + at odds with Hamilton faction, 103; + resumes relations with France, 103-04; + his title to fame, 104; + pardons Fries, 113; + candidate for Presidency (1800), 116; + and federal judiciary, 121-22; + presidential elector (1820), 280; + on European entanglements, 289-90; + offers Chief Justiceship to Jay, 331. + +Adams, John Quincy, and the practice of law, 20; + on the new Constitution, 41; + special envoy to England, 87; + secures amendment of Jay Treaty, 88; + defends the embargo, 189; + resigns from Senate, 193; + commissioner at Ghent, 227-29; + on Jackson's invasion of Florida, 262; + his reply to Spain, 262-63; + on recognition of South American Republics, 290-91; + challenges British claims on Pacific, 292; + on future of Cuba, 292-93; + protests Russian claims on the Pacific Coast, 293; + advises against joint declaration with England, 295; + candidate for the Presidency (1824), 308; + favors internal improvements, 310; + favors Tariff of 1824, 312; + his electoral vote (1824), 312; + wins Clay's following, 313-14; + elected President by the House, 314; + appoints Clay Secretary of State, 315; + his first message, 318-19; + and the civil service, 318-19; + on the Panama Congress, 320, 321; + and the Creek Indians, 324-26; + and the Cherokee Indians, 326-27. + +Adet, French Minister to United States, interferes in the election + of 1800, 92-93; + on Jefferson as an American, 290. + +Agriculture, American, 126-27. + +Alabama, admitted as a State, 251. + +Alien and Sedition Acts, 109; + petitions for the repeal of, 112; + expiration of, 135. + +Allston, Washington, 286. + +Ambrister, Robert C., 261-62. + +Amelia Island, _entrepot_ for neutral trade, 199; + occupied by the United States, 204; + evacuated, 219. + +American character, disclosed by the war, 232-33. + +American Insurance Company _v._ Canter, 341-42. + +American literature, want of, 283; + from 1815 to 1830, 284. + +Ames, Fisher, on the heads of departments, 89-90; + on the Republican opposition, 108; + on democracy, 161-62. + +Annapolis Trade Convention, 28. + +_Anthology and Boston Review_, 283. + +Anti-Federalists, and the Constitution, 39. + +Appointments, by Washington, 54-55; + by John Adams, 122; + by Jefferson, 130-31; + by John Q. Adams, 318-19. + +Arbuthnot, Alexander, 261-62. + +Army, at the establishment of Government, 55; + provisional, in 1798, 101-03; + at the beginning of the War of 1812, 212; + after the War of 1812, 241. + +Articles of Confederation, proposed amendments to, 6; + inadequacy of, 16-17, 21-24, 25-27. + +Assumption of state debts, 58-61. + + +Ballou, Hosea, 288. + +Baltimore, and Western trade, 254, 256. + +Bancroft, George, 287. + +Bank of the United States, opposed by Jefferson, 62; + advocated by Hamilton, 63; + charter of, 63; + speculation in the stock of, 63-64; + Congress refuses to recharter, 239; + charter of the second, 239-40; + management of, 267; + investigation of, 267; + popular hostility to, 267-68; + taxation of the branches of, 268. + +Baptists, in New England, 247; + in the West, 301-02. + +Barbour, James, 271. + +Baumeler, Joseph, 246, 302. + +Bayard, James A., and the election of 1801, 118-19; + commissioner at Ghent, 227. + +Benton, Thomas H., on the election of 1825, 315-16. + +Berlin Decree, of Napoleon, 187; + its revocation, 200. + +Bible Society of the United States, 301. + +Bladensburg, battle of, 222. + +Blennerhassett, Harman, and Burr, 172-73, 175-76. + +Blockade of American ports by British cruisers, 181-82, 201, 218, 233. + +Blount conspiracy, 97. + +Bonus Bill, advocated by Calhoun, 257; + vetoed by Madison, 257. + +Boone, Daniel, 14. + +Boston, as an intellectual and literary center, 287. + +Bowdoin, Governor James, and Shays' Rebellion, 20-21; + suggests convention of the States, 27. + +Breckenridge, John, 110. + +Brown, Jacob, 220. + +Brown, Moses, 124. + +Bryant, William Cullen, 284. + +Burr, Aaron, candidate for the Vice-Presidency (1796), 92; + on politics in Connecticut, 115; + carries the city of New York (1800), 115-16; + elected Vice-President (1800), 118; + candidate for Governor of New York, 165; + approached by Federalists, 165-66; + his duel with Hamilton, 166; + his intrigues, 172-73; + his expedition, 173-76; + his arrest and trial, 176-78. + + +Cabot, George, 164. + +Calhoun, John C., repudiates peaceable coercion, 207; + favors Tariff of 1816, 237; + his nationalism, 241-42; + on constitutional limitations, 242; + his Bonus Bill, 257; + Secretary of War, 258; + candidate for the Presidency, 307; + candidate for the Vice-Presidency, 308; + elected Vice-President, 312; + on the Tariff of 1828, 328-29; + elaborates his defense of state rights, 345. + +Campbell, Alexander, 288. + +Canada, proposed conquest of, 203, 213. + +Canals, constructed and projected, in 1825, 255-56. + +Canning, George, and the Chesapeake affair, 186; + on the embargo, 191; + on British naval losses, 216; + on intervention, 292; + overtures to Rush, 294; + on the new doctrine of President Monroe, 296. + +Capital, location of the national, 60-61; + removed from Philadelphia to Washington, 119-21. + +Caucus, + _congressional_ (1800), 116; + (1804), 167; + (1808), 193-94; + (1812), 216; + (1816), 243; + hostility to, 307, 308; + (1824), 308. + _legislative_, 305. + +Channing, William E., 288. + +Chase, Samuel, impeachment of, 139-41. + +Cherokee Indians, in Georgia, 326-27. + +Chesapeake Bay, navigation of, 27-28; + British military operations in, 221-23. + +Chesapeake, United States frigate, and the Leopard, 184-86; + reparation offered for, 197; + avenged, 202; + captured, 218. + +Chippewa, battle of, 220. + +Cincinnati, Society of the, 24. + +Civil service. _See_ Appointments. + +Claiborne, W. C. C., Governor of the Mississippi Territory, reports + withdrawal of the right of deposit, 148; + takes possession of West Florida, 204. + +Clark, George Rogers, and Genet, 74-75. + +Clay, Henry, his early career, 202-03; + in the Senate, 203; + Speaker of the House, 207; + commissioner at Ghent, 227, 229; + his nationalism, 241-42; + on the National Bank Bill, 242; + opposes the Florida Treaty, 264-65; + on the extension of slavery, 270; + on the admission of Missouri, 279; + on the counting of the electoral vote (1820), 280; + advocates an American system, 289; + candidate for the Presidency (1824), 307-08; + on internal improvements, 309-10; + urges a protective tariff, 310; + favors the Tariff of 1824, 312; + his electoral vote (1824), 312; + and Jackson, 313, 314, 315; + and Crawford, 313; + and Adams, 313-14; + accepts Secretaryship of State, 314; + denies corrupt-bargain charge, 313-15; + favors Panama Congress, 320; + on the status of Cuba, 321. + +Clinton, De Witt, nominated for the Presidency (1812), 216; + promotes the Erie Canal, 255-56. + +Clinton, George, candidate for Vice-Presidency (1792), 67; + elected Vice-President (1804), 167; + candidate for the Presidency (1808), 194. + +Cohens _v._ Virginia, 336-37. + +Colonization Society, 272. + +Commerce, + _foreign_, during the Revolution, 2; + restrictions upon, 3, 7; + power to regulate, 34; + revival of, 46-47; + aggressions on, 76-77, 86-87; + and Jay's Treaty, 85-87; + Mississippi opened to, 87; + during European wars, 124, 179-80; + during the War of 1812, 233; + after the Treaty of Ghent, 233-34. + _internal_, + between South and Northwest, 252-53; + along the Mississippi, 253-54; + between East and other sections, 254-56. + +Commonwealth _v._ Caton, 19. + +Compromises of the Constitution, 33-35. + +Congress, + _of the Confederation_, and finance, 5-6; + peregrinations of, 6; + and foreign commerce, 7-8; + and the public domain, 8; + organizes the Northwest Territory, 10-12; + and the State of Franklin, 15; + and Shays' Rebellion, 21-22; + and the Annapolis Convention, 28-29; + and the new Constitution, 38, 44. + _of the new Union_, elections to, 44; + assembles, 47; + organizes, 48; + attends the counting of the electoral vote, 48; + hears the inaugural address, 48, 49; + enters upon its duties, 50. + +Connecticut, favors the open door, 8; + ratifies the Constitution, 41; + refuses call for militia, 213; + and the Hartford Convention, 224; + adopts a new Constitution, 304; + suffrage in, 304; + authorizes first law reports, 332. + +Connecticut Wits, the, 123. + +Constitution of the United States, drafting of, 30-35; + publication of, 35-38; + ratification of, 39-43; + voting on, 43-44; + first amendments to, 55; + Twelfth Amendment to, 166-67; + judicial interpretation of, 331-45. + +Constitution, United States frigate, captures L'Insurgente, 101; + captures the Guerriere, 215; + captures the Java, 216. + +Constitutions, of new States, 303-04; + of the old States, 304-05. + +Convention of 1787, origin, 28-29; + choice of delegates to, 29; + proceedings of, 30-38; + journal of, 30; + its work, 35-36. + +Cooper, J. Fenimore, 285. + +Corrupt-bargain cry, in 1825, 313-15. + +Cotton gin, invention of, 127; + effect of, 127-28. + +Cotton-growing, spread of, 127, 249-51. + +Cotton manufacturing, beginnings of, 124; + after the embargo, 234-35; + after the Peace of Ghent, 235-36. + +Court reports, first published, 332. + +Courts, federal. _See_ Federal judiciary, Judiciary Act, etc. + +Crawford, William H., candidate for presidential nomination (1816), 243-44; + nominated for the Presidency (1824), 308; + on internal improvements, 310; + on the Tariff of 1824, 312; + his electoral vote (1824), 312; + his vote in the election by the House, 314. + +Creek Indians, rising of, 219; + capitulation of, 220; + in East Florida, 260; + lands in Georgia, 324-26. + +Crisis of 1819, 266-67. + +Cuba, interest of the United States in, 293, 321. + +Cumberland Road. _See_ National Road. + +Currency, under the Confederation, 5; + after the War of 1812, 238-39, 240-41. + +Cushing, William, 54. + +Cutler, Manasseh, 11-12. + + +Dallas, A. J., Secretary of the Treasury, and the tariff, 237-38; + and the new National Bank, 241. + +Dartmouth College Case, 342-43. + +Davis, Jefferson, father of, 249. + +Dearborn, Henry, Secretary of War, 130-31; + in the War of 1812, 213, 218. + +Decatur, Stephen, 145, 215. + +Delaware, instructs delegates to the Federal Convention, 30; + ratifies the Constitution, 41. + +Democracy in the United States, 298-301, 303-07. + +Democratic societies, founded, 75; + condemned by Washington, 83-84. + +_Demos Krateo_ principle, 315-16. + +Dennie, Joseph, 283. + +Departments, executive, organized, 51-52; + Fisher Ames on, 89-90. + +Deposit, right of, at New Orleans, 87; + withdrawn, 148. + +Detroit, surrender of, 214. + +Dorchester, Lord, Governor of Canada, 68, 78-79. + +Duties on imports, proposed in 1781, 1783, 6. + +Dwight, Timothy, his _Conquest of Canaan_, 123; + on the back-country people, 247. + + +East Florida, revolution in, 204; + occupied by United States, 204; + rendezvous, 259-60; + invaded by Jackson, 260-62. + +Ellsworth, Oliver, 53-54. + +Embargo Act, _of 1794_, 79; + _of 1807_, 188-89; + enforcement of, 190-91, 194-95; + as a coercive weapon, 190, 192; + effect of, 191-93; + in New England, 193, 195; + repeal of, 196; + _of 1812_, 209. + +Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 287. + +Emigration, from New England, 247-48; + from the Middle States, 248; + from the South, 249. + +Era of Good Feelings, 266. + +Erie Canal, construction of, 255-56. + +Erskine, D. M., British Minister to the United States, 197. + +Essex, case of the, 180. + +Essex Junto, 164, 193, 224. + +Everett, Edward, 287. + +Executive Departments, establishment of, 51-52. + + +Fallen Timber, battle of, 80-81. + +Far West, 258-59. + +Fauchet, J. A. J., succeeds Genet, 76; + urges acquisition of Louisiana, 91. + +Fearon, Henry B., 247, 248. + +Federal Convention of 1787. _See_ Convention of 1787. + +_Federalist_, the, 43. + +Federalist party, origin of, 39-40. + _See also_ Presidential elections. + +Finances, of the Confederation, 5-6; + of the new Government, 50-51, 56-64. + +Fiscal administration, beginnings of national, 51. + +Fisheries, discussed at Ghent, 229; + in the Convention of 1818, 259. + +Fletcher _v._ Peck, 170, 342. + +Floridas, controversy over the boundaries of, 16, 68; + northern boundary settled, 87; + proposed purchase of, 148; + and the province of Louisiana, 151, 158-59; + sought by Jefferson, 170-71; + acquisition of, 264. + +Florida Treaty, 264-65. + +Foreign-born in the United States, 245-46. + +Foster, A. J., British Minister to the United States, 201. + +France, concessions to American commerce, 46; + covets Spanish colonies, 70-71; + sends Genet to United States, 71-72; + demands rights under treaties of 1778, 72-73; + substitutes Fauchet for Genet, 76; + opens colonies to neutral trade, 76-77; + attempts to procure Louisiana, 91; + offended at Jay's Treaty, 92-93; + refuses to receive Pinckney, 95; + the X Y Z affair, 98-99; + involved in hostilities with United States, 101; + convention of 1800, 104, 146; + acquires Louisiana, 146; + expedition against Santo Domingo, 146-47; + cedes Louisiana to United States, 149, 150; + continental system, 187-88; + and the embargo, 191-92; + sequesters American vessels, 199-200; + withdraws decrees, 200. + +Franklin, Benjamin, in the Convention of 1787, 30, 32. + +Franklin, State of, 15. + +French Revolution, influence on America, 72. + +Freneau, Philip, 65-66, 123. + +Fries Rebellion, 113. + +Fulton, Robert, 232. + + +Gallatin, Albert, Representative, 89; + on the treaty-making power, 90-91; + Secretary of the Treasury, 130; + his policy of retrenchment, 132-33; + and the Mediterranean Fund, 144; + urges enforcement of the embargo, 194; + recommends war taxes, 208; + commissioner at Ghent, 227, 229; + and the Convention of 1818, 259; + on equality in Pennsylvania, 300. + +Gardoqui, Don Diego de, Spanish Minister to United States, 16. + +Genet, E. C., French Minister to United States, 71-72; + designs on Florida and Louisiana, 73; + sets up prize courts, 73-74; + revolutionary activities, 73-75; + discredited, 76; + recalled, 76. + +Georgia, ratifies the Constitution, 41; + and the Yazoo land grants, 168-70; + and the Creek Indians, 324; + protests against the Treaty of Washington, 325; + and the Indian lands, 325-26; + protests against the tariff, 327. + +Gerry, Elbridge, commissioner to France, 96; + and the X Y Z affair, 98-100; + elected Vice-President (1812), 216. + +Ghent, Treaty of, preliminary negotiations, 227-29; + terms of, 229-30. + +Gibbons _v._ Ogden, 343-45. + +Giles, William, resolution censuring Hamilton, 66; + on the reform of the judiciary, 134-35; + on impeachment, 140. + +Gray, Captain Robert, of the Columbia, 47. + +Great Britain, imposes restriction on American commerce, 3; + refuses commercial treaty, 7; + retains Western posts, 7; + Nootka Sound affair, 69; + policy in the Northwest, 68-70; + and the Rule of 1756, 76-77; + preys on neutral commerce, 77-78; + and the Jay Treaty, 84-88; + and the Blount conspiracy, 97; + and the case of the Essex, 180; + exercises right of search, 182; + condones impressment, 182; + evades reparation for the Chesapeake affair, 186; + demands recall of proclamation, 186; + retaliates for French decrees, 188; + and the embargo, 191; + repudiates Erskine Treaty, 197; + recalls Jackson, 198; + and the withdrawal of French decrees, 200; + offers reparation for the Chesapeake affair, 201; + blockades New York, 201; + incurs American hostility, 208-10; + withdraws orders in council, 210; + and the War of 1812, 212-30; + declines Russian mediation, 227; + negotiates for peace, 227; + concludes Treaty of Ghent, 228-29; + concludes Convention of 1818, 259; + aroused by Jackson's Florida campaign, 262; + and the European congresses, 291; + protests against intervention, 292; + overtures to the United States, 292-94. + +Green _v._ Biddle, 340. + +Greenville, Treaty of, 87; + disregarded by settlers, 205. + +Grenville, Lord, negotiates with Jay, 79, 85. + +Griswold, Roger, on the treaty-making power, 90; + and the project of a New England confederacy, 164; + on the office of Vice-President, 167. + +Grundy, Felix, 207. + +Guerriere, British frigate, 202, 215. + + +Hamilton, Alexander, defends Waddington, 4; + drafts Annapolis report, 28; + on the opposition to the Constitution, 41; + contributes to the _Federalist_ papers, 43; + and the bill to establish the Treasury Department, 52; + Secretary of the Treasury, 54; + first Report on the Public Credit, 56-60; + alleged deal with Jefferson, 61-62; + second Report, 61-62; + on the National Bank Bill, 62-63; + on the French treaties, 73; + defends Jay's Treaty, 86; + retires from the Treasury, 89; + and the Presidency, 92; + advises recall of Monroe, 95; + major-general, 102; + urges enforcement of Alien Act, 113; + hostility to John Adams, 116; + opposes Federalist alliance with Burr, 165; + duel with Burr, 166. + +Hard times, under the Confederation, 2-3; + in 1819-20, 268-69. + +Harmar, Fort, seat of government in the Northwest, 14. + +Harrisburg Convention, 327-28. + +Harrison, William Henry, concludes Indian treaties, 205-06; + wins battle of Tippecanoe, 200; + in the War of 1812, 217-18. + +Hartford Convention, origin of, 224-25; + journal of, 225; + report of, 225-27. + +Harvard College, 287. + +Hayne, Robert Y., on the Panama Mission, 322-23. + +Henry of Prussia, Prince, and the regency of the United States, 24. + +Hicks, Elias, 288. + +Holy Alliance, designs of the so-called, 291. + +Hopkinson, Joseph, 101. + +Horseshoe Bend, battle of, 220. + +Hudson's Bay Company, 259. + +Hull, Captain Isaac, captures the Guerriere, 215. + +Hull, General William, surrenders Detroit, 214. + + +Ildefonso, Treaty of, 146. + +Illinois, settlement of, 248; + admitted as a State, 251. + +Immigration into the United States, 245. + +Impeachment, of Senator Blount, 97; + of Judge Pickering, 138-39; + of Justice Chase, 139-41. + +Impressment of American seamen, in 1793-94, 77-78; + not mentioned in the Jay Treaty, 84-85; + condoned by the British Admiralty, 182; + deeply resented in United States in 1806, 183; + abolition demanded by Monroe, 186; + as a cause of the War of 1812, 209; + in the negotiations at Ghent, 228 + and the Treaty of Ghent, 229-30. + +Imprisonment for debt, 269. + +Indiana, settlement of, 245; + admitted as a State, 251. + +Indian Treaties in the Northwest, 205-06. + +Industry, during the Revolution, 2; + revival of, 47; + protection of, in the tariff of 1789, 51; + growth of, 124. + _See also_ special industries, and Tariff Acts. + +Ingersoll, Jared, 216. + +Internal improvements, popular demand for, 255; + carried on by States, 255-56; + proposed by Gallatin in 1806, 256; + Calhoun's Bonus Bill, 257; + Madison on, 257; + Monroe on, 258; + in Congress, 258, 309; + Survey Bill, 309. + +Intervention of the Great Powers, in Italy, 292; + in Spain, 292. + +Irving, Washington, 284, 285. + + +Jackson, Andrew, wins battle of Horseshoe Bend, 220; + concludes treaty with the Creeks, 220; + wins the battle of New Orleans, 227; + invades East Florida, 261-62; + on precedent, 268; + on rotation in office, 304; + candidate for the Presidency (1824), 307-08; + favors Survey Bill, 310; + favors protective policy, 312; + his electoral vote (1824), 312; + his vote in the House election, 314; + and Clay, 315; + significance of his popular vote, 316; + candidate for the Presidency (1828), 318. + +Jackson, F. J., British Minister to United States, 198. + +Jacobinism, 107, 114, 161. + +Jay, John, diplomatic agent of United States, 16; + contributes to the _Federalist_ papers, 43; + appointed Chief justice, 54; + envoy extraordinary to England, 79; + drafts treaty, 84; + declines appointment as Chief Justice, 331-32. + +Jay Treaty, negotiated, 84; + discussed in Senate, 84-85; + evaluation of, 85-86; + popular opinion of, 86; + amended in Senate, 86-87; + promulgated by President, 88; + debated in the House, 90-91; + gives offense to France, 92-93. + +Jefferson, Thomas, Ordinance of 1784, 8; + Secretary of State, 54; + on speculation in government paper, 58; + on assumption, 60-61; + on the excise, 62; + on the Bank Bill, 62-63; + his distrust of Hamilton, 64; + fears British designs on Louisiana, 69; + on the French treaties, 73; + proposes retaliatory legislation against England, 78; + candidate for the Presidency (1796), 92; + elected Vice-President, 93; + on war message of Adams, 98; + drafts Kentucky Resolutions, 110; + candidate for the Presidency (1800), 110; + directs political campaign of 1800, 112; + elected President, 118; + on the Revolution of 1800, 119; + personal appearance, 128; + on husbandry, 128; + on commerce and coercion, 129; + inaugural address, 129-30; + on the work of the general Government, 130; + and the patronage, 131-33; + mastery of Congress, 132, 133-34; + on retrenchment, 132-33; + on the judiciary, 134-35, 141, 331; + on impeachment, 141; + on the navy, 143; + on the retrocession of Louisiana, 147; + instructions to Livingston, 148; + his information about Louisiana, 152; + authorizes Lewis and Clark expedition, 152; + on the acquisition of Louisiana, 153-54; + on New England Federalism, 162-63; + reelected President (1804), 167; + attempts to acquire the Floridas, 170-71; + his proclamation against Burr, 175; + sends Pinkney to England, 181; + and the Chesapeake affair, 186; + recommends embargo, 190; + abdicates, 194; + favors protection of manufactures, 236; + on Canning's overtures, 294; + on internal improvements, 319. + +Johnson, R. M., 271. + +Judicial review, power of, 4, 19, 137-38. + +Judiciary Act, _of 1789_, passed, 53-54; + tested, 335-37; + _of 1801_, passed, 121-22; + repealed, 134-35. + +Judiciary, federal, organized, 53-54; + reorganized, 121-22; + and Republican reforms, 134-35; + feared by Jefferson, 331; + influence in 1800, 331-32; + controversy with Pennsylvania, 333-35; + controversy with Virginia, 336-37, 338-39; + expands the Constitution, 341-45; + nationalizing influence, 345. + + +Kent, James, on universal suffrage, 305; + his appointment to the Supreme Court urged, 345. + +Kentucky, separatist movement in, 16; + admitted as a State, 55; + intrigues in, 68; + radical legislation in, 268; + protests against the decision of court in Green _v._ Biddle, 340. + +King, Rufus, candidate for the Vice-Presidency, 167, 194; + elected Vice-President, 244; + on slavery in Missouri, 277. + +Kirby, Ephraim, 332. + +Knox, Henry, refuses to serve in the provisional army, 10; + Secretary of War, 22, 55; + and Shays' Rebellion, 22. + +Kremer, George, 314. + + +L'Ambuscade, French frigate, 74. + +Land Act of 1820, 269. + +Land Ordinance of 1785, 10. + +Lands, disposal of the public, 10-12, 269-70. + +Latrobe, Benjamin H., 123, 236. + +Leander, British frigate, 181-82. + +Leclerc, V. E., expedition against Santo Domingo, 146-47, 149. + +Lee, Henry, and the Whiskey Insurrection, 83. + +Leopard-Chesapeake affair, 184-86. + +Lewis and Clark expedition, 152-53. + +Lincoln, Abraham, father of, 249; + education of, 303. + +Lincoln, Levi, 130-31. + +L'Insurgente, French frigate, 101. + +Little Belt, British sloop-of-war, 202. + +Little Sarah affair, 75. + +Livingston, Robert, Minister to France, 148-49; + negotiates for Louisiana, 150-51; + on the bounds of Louisiana, 151, 158-59. + +Louisiana, Spanish province, threatened by France, 71; + retroceded to France, 146; + acquired by the United States, 149-51; + Senate opposition to, 155-56; + provision for the government of, 156-58; + transfer of, 157; + bounds of, 158-59; + western boundary settled, 264. + +Lowndes, William, 307. + +Lundy's Lane, battle of, 220. + +Lyon, Matthew, prosecution of, 110. + + +M'Culloch _v._ Maryland, 268, 337-38. + +Macdonough, Thomas, wins battle of Plattsburg, 221-22. + +McHenry, James, Secretary of War, 101, 103. + +Maclay, William, on the President's address, 50; + on the Judiciary Act, 54. + +Macon bills, 199. + +Macon, Nathaniel, Speaker of the House, 133-34; + on non-intercourse, 199. + +Madison, James, on affairs in Georgia, 7; + on state jealousies, 8; + in the Federal Convention, 29-30; + contributes to the _Federalist_ papers, 43; + proposes constitutional amendments, 55; + on stock-jobbing, 63-64; + on Hamilton's financial policy, 64; + proposes retaliatory legislation (1793), 78; + drafts Virginia Resolutions, 110-11; + Secretary of State, 130; + on the Yazoo commission, 169; + favors peaceable coercion, 180-81; + on impressments, 186; + and George Rose, 187; + elected President, 194; + and Erskine, 197; + and Jackson, 198; + issues proclamation against England, 200; + authorizes occupation of West Florida, 204; + and the war party, 208-09; + recommends an embargo, 209; + his war message, 209-10; + his proclamation of war, 210; + reelected President (1812), 216-17; + and New England, 223, 225; + his estimate of the war, 231-32; + favors mild protection of industries, 236; + vetoes Bank Bill, 239; + signs second Bank Bill, 239; + message of 1815, 241; + his farewell address, 243, 257; + on Canning's overtures, 294. + +Magazines as literature, 1815-30, 284. + +Mahan, Admiral A. T., on the War of 1812, 231. + +Maine, the admission of, 275-77; + suffrage in, 304. + +Malbone, Edward G., 286. + +Manufactures, beginnings of, 46, 124. + _See_ special industries. + +Marbury _v._ Madison, case of, 136-37; + constitutional importance of, 333. + +Marietta, founding of, 13. + +Marshall, John, on the Constitution as the expression of the will of + the people, 43; + commissioner to France, 96; + and the X Y Z affair, 98-100; + appointed Chief Justice, 136; + and Jefferson, 136; + opinion in Marbury _v._ Madison, 136-37, 333; + at the trial of Burr, 177-78; + influence of, 332-33; + opinion in United States _v._ Peters, 334; + opinion in Cohens _v._ Virginia, 336-37; + opinion in M'Culloch _v._ Maryland, 337-38; + opinion in United States _v._ Fisher, 338; + opinion in American Insurance Company _v._ Canter, 341-42; + opinion in Fletcher _v._ Peck, 342; + opinion in Dartmouth College Case, 342-43; + opinion in Gibbons _v._ Ogden, 343-45. + +Martin, Luther, 18, 177. + +Martin _v._ Hunter's Lessee, 335-36. + +Maryland, commercial differences with Virginia, 27-28; + ratifies the Constitution, 41; + taxes branch bank, 337. + +Mason, George, 34. + +Massachusetts, disorders in, 19-20; + Shays' Rebellion, 20-22; + ratifies the Constitution, 41; + refuses call for militia, 213; + calls Hartford Convention, 224; + dispatches commissioners to Washington, 227; + suffrage in, 305. + +Mediterranean Fund, 144. + +Methodism, in New England, 247; + in the West, 301-02. + +Metternich, Prince, and the Holy Alliance, 291-92. + +Migration, inter-state, after the Revolution, 13-14; + after the War of 1812, 246-47. + +Milan Decree, issued by Napoleon, 188; + withdrawn, 200. + +Militia question, in Massachusetts, 213, 223. + +Miranda, Francisco, 70. + +Missionary enterprises, 288. + +Mississippi, admitted as a State, 25; + suffrage in, 303. + +Mississippi River, navigation of, 16, 87, 229. + +Missouri, admission as a State, 277, 279; + electoral vote in 1820, 280. + +Missouri Compromise, the, 277. + +Missouri controversy, political aspects, 274-75; + and public opinion, 275; + constitutional aspects, 276-77; + settlement, 277, 279. + +Monroe, James, Minister to France, 94-95; + recalled, 95; + and the purchase of Louisiana, 149-50; + Minister to England, 183-84; + candidate for the Presidency (1808), 194; + elected President (1816), 244; + on internal improvements, 258; + and General Jackson, 260-63; + reelected President (1820), 280; + on recognition of South American republics, 290; + on Canning's overtures, 294; + re-drafts message, 295; + message of 1823, 295-96; + vetoes Cumberland Road Bill, 309; + pardons Pennsylvania militiamen, 334-35. + +Monroe Doctrine, genesis of, 289-95; + in the President's message, 295-96; + Canning on, 296; + implications of, 296-97, 322. + +Moore, Thomas, on American letters, 123. + +Morfontaine, Treaty of, 104, 146. + +Mormonism, rise of, 302. + +Morris, Gouverneur, in Federal Convention, 35-36; + on the Constitution, 331. + +Morris, Robert, Superintendent of Finance, 5. + + +Napoleon Bonaparte, concludes convention with United States, 146; + acquires Louisiana, 146; + sends Leclerc against Santo Domingo, 146; + sells Louisiana to United States, 149-50; + his Berlin Decree, 187; + his Milan Decree, 188; + sequesters American vessels, 189-200; + and the embargo, 191-92; + revokes decrees, 200. + +_National Gazette_, Republican newspaper, 65. + +National Road, construction of, 256; + appropriations for, 258; + bill for collection of tolls on, 309. + +Naturalization Act, _of 1798_, 109; + _of 1801_, 135-36. + +Navigation laws, want of power in Congress to pass, 7; + of the States, 8; + passed by Congress (1789), 51; + and shipping, 124. + +Navy of the United States, in 1798-99, 101; + under Jefferson, 133; + in Tripolitan War, 144-45; + in the War of 1812, 212-30, _passim_. + +Navy Department, established, 101. + +Neutrality, proclamation of, 72-73. + +Neutral trade. _See_ Commerce. + +New England Confederacy, projected in 1804, 163-66. + +New England Federalism, characteristics of, 161-63; + and the embargo, 192-93, 195-96. + +New Hampshire, ratifies the Constitution, 41; + on assumption, 60; + and the Hartford Convention, 224. + +New Jersey, and its neighbors under the Confederation, 8; + ratifies the Constitution, 41. + +New Orleans, battle of, 227. + +Newspapers, character of, in 1800, 107, 110, 112; + founding of, 112. + +New York, treatment of the Tories in, 4; + ratifies the Constitution, 42-43; + settlement of western, 248; + constitution of 1821, 304-05. + +New York City, and Western trade, 255-56; + as a literary center, 286. + +Nicholson, Joseph, and the impeachment of Pickering, 139; + on the nature of impeachable offenses, 140. + +Nominating methods, changes in, 305, 307, 308. + +Non-Importation Act of 1806, 181, 188. + +Non-Intercourse Act of 1809, 196; + evasions of, 198-99; + enforcement of, 198-99; + revived against England, 201. + +Nootka Sound affair, 69. + +_North American Review_, founded 283-84. + +North Carolina, and the Watauga settlers, 14-15; + rejects the Constitution, 44; + ratifies the Constitution, 55. + +Northwest, receives settlers from New England, 13-14, 247; + from the Middle States, 248; + from the South, 248-49; + commerce of, 252-54. + + +Ohio Company, origin of, 10-11; + concessions of Congress to, 11-12; + begins colonization, 13. + +Ohio, taxes branch Bank of the United States, 268; + seizes funds, 340; + forced to make restitution, 341. + +Olmstead, Gideon, claimant in federal courts, 333-34. + +Onis, Luis de, Spanish Minister to the United States, 262-64. + +Orders in council, _of 1783_, 3; + _of 1793-94_, 77-78; + _of 1807_, 188; + withdrawal in 1812, 210. + +Ordinance of 1784, 9; + _of 1785_, 10; + _of 1787_, 12-13. + +Oregon, joint occupation of, 259. + +Otis, Harrison Gray, 225. + + +Palfrey, John G., 287. + +Panama, Congress, invitation to, 320-21; + opposition in Congress to, 322-23; + fate of the mission, 323. + +Paper money, continental, 5; + state, 17-18. + +Paris, Treaty of, aftermath of, 1-2. + +Parsons, Samuel, 11. + +Party, deprecated by Washington, 108; + identified with faction, 108-09; + rights of, in opposition, 114; + place of, in popular government, 119. + +Party organization, 107, 305, 307. + +Pasha of Tripoli, 143, 145. + +Paterson, William, in the Federal Convention, 31-32. + +Patronage. _See_ Appointments. + +Pennsylvania, and the Federal judiciary, 333-35. + +Perry, Oliver H., wins naval supremacy of Lake Erie, 217. + +Philadelphia, as the seat of government, 119-20; + as a literary center, 123; + and Western trade, 254, 256. + +Pickering, John, impeachment of, 138-39. + +Pickering, Timothy, Secretary of State, 103, 113; + on the Louisiana Treaty, 156; + plots a New England confederacy, 164; + opposes the embargo, 193; + secessionist in 1814, 225. + +Pike, Zebulon M., expeditions of, 153. + +Pinckney, Charles, and the election of 1800, 117. + +Pinckney, Charles C, Minister to France, 95; + commissioner to France, 96; + and the X Y Z affair, 98-99; + appointed major-general, 102; + candidate for the Vice-Presidency (1800), 116; + candidate for the Presidency (1804), 167; + candidate for the Presidency (1808), 194. + +Pinckney, Thomas, concludes Treaty of San Lorenzo, 87; + candidate for the Vice-Presidency (1800), 92-93. + +Pinkney, William, Envoy to England, 181; + negotiates treaty, 184; + takes abrupt leave, 201; + on the admission of Missouri, 276-77; + influence at the federal bar, 333. + +Pittsburg, distributing center in the West, 254. + +Plattsburg, battle of, 221-22. + +_Port Folio_, Dennie's, 283. + +Postal service in 1800, 106. + +Posts, retention of Western, 17, 68, 79, 84. + +Potomac, navigation of, 16, 27-28; + location of the capital on, 60-61. + +Preble, Edward, and the Tripolitan War, 145. + +Prescott, William H., 287. + +Presidency, created in the Federal Convention, 34-35. + +President, appointing and removing power of, 52. + +President, American frigate, 202. + +Presidential elections, _of 1788_, 48; + _of 1792_, 66-67; + _of 1796_, 92-94; + _of 1800_, 115-17; + _of 1801_, 118-19; + _of 1804_, 167; + _of 1808_, 193-94; + _of 1812_, 216-17; + _of 1816_, 243-44; + _of 1820_, 280; + _of 1824_, 312-13, 316; + _of 1825_, 314. + +Prevost, Sir George, 221-22. + +Privateers, in the War of 1812, 218-19. + +Prophet, the, 205. + +Public domain, origin of, 8. + + +Quids, followers of Randolph, 170. + + +Rambouillet, decree of, 199-200. + +Randolph, Edmund, in the Federal Convention, 30-31; + Attorney-General, 55; + on the French treaties of 1778, 73. + +Randolph, John, position in the House, 134; + in the Chase impeachment, 139-41; + and the Yazoo controversy, 169-70; + and the purchase of Florida, 171; + and the indictment of Burr, 177; + derides the Non-Importation Bill, 181; + on the cause of the War of 1812, 213; + on the Tariff of 1816, 237; + on state rights, 243; + on the Tariff of 1828, 330. + +Rapp, George, 302. + +Relief Act of 1821, 269. + +Republican court at Philadelphia, 119-20. + +Republican party, origin of, 64-67. + _See also_ Presidential elections. + +Revivals in New England, 288. + +Rhea letter to General Jackson, 261. + +Rhode Island, opposes changes in the Articles of Confederation, 6; + paper money craze, 18-19; + out of the new Union, 44; + ratifies the Constitution, 55; + and the Hartford Convention, 224. + +Right of deposit at New Orleans, 87; + withdrawn, 148. + +Roane, Spencer, resists judgment in the case of Martin _v._ Hunter's + Lessee, 336; + attacks the federal judiciary, 338-39. + +Robertson, James, 14, 68. + +Rodgers, John, 201, 202. + +Rose, George, 186-87. + +Rule of 1756, 76-77, 179-80. + +Rush, Benjamin, Minister to England, 259; + Canning's overtures to, 294. + +Russell, Jonathan, commissioner at Ghent, 227. + +Russia, offers to mediate in 1813, 227; + and the Holy Alliance, 291; + and intervention, 292; + claims on the Pacific Coast, 293; + concludes the Treaty of 1824, 296. + +Rutgers _v._ Waddington, 4. + +Rutledge, John, 54. + + +St. Clair, Arthur, Governor of Northwest Territory, 14; + defeated by the Indians, 70. + +San Lorenzo, Treaty of, 87. + +Santo Domingo, negro republic, 146; + resists French expedition, 146-47. + +Scioto Company, land grants to, 11-12. + +Scott, Winfield, 220. + +Sedition Act, prosecutions under, 114. + +Seminole War, 260-262. + +Sevier, John, 15, 68. + +Shaker Societies, 302. + +Shays' Rebellion, 20-22. + +Shipping, of the United States, during the European wars, 124, 126; + after the Treaty of Ghent, 234. + +Simcoe, J. G., 80. + +Slater, Samuel, 124. + +Slavery, debated in Congress, 270-271, 277; + in Missouri, 270; + extent in 1789, 271-272; + decrease in North, 272; + recognized by the Constitution, 272-73; + congressional legislation on, 273-74; + and the Missouri Compromise, 277. + +Slave trade, acts relating to, 273; + extent of, 273; + forbidden by the Act of 1807, 273-74; + extent of, after 1808, 274. + +Smith, Joseph, 302. + +Smith, Robert, 140, 198. + +Smith, William, 105. + +Somers, Richard, 145. + +South, effect of cotton gin upon, 250; + extention of cotton growing in, 251-52; + becomes the market for Northwest, 252-53. + +South American republics, recognition of, 289-91. + +South Carolina, ratifies the Constitution, 41. + +Southwest, colonization of, 14-15, 249-52; + commerce of, 15-16; + a frontier society, 251-52; + diverges from Northwest, 252. + +Spain, disputes the line of 1783, 16-17; + in the Southwest, 68, 70; + concludes Treaty of San Lorenzo, 87; + withholds posts, 97; + cedes Louisiana to France, 146; + retains the Floridas, 159; + menaced by the United States, 170-72; + threatens hostilities, 173-74; + in East Florida, 260; + protests against Jackson's invasion, 262; + cedes the Floridas to the United States, 264; + loses her American colonies, 289-90; + invaded by France, 292. + +Specie payment, suspension of, 239; + resumption of, 240-41. + +Speculation, in Western lands, 10-12, 26-27; + in government paper, 58; + in bank stock, 63-64. + +Squatter, the, 251-52. + +State banks, increase of, 239; + notes of, 266. + +Steamboat, on Western waters, 253-54. + +Story, Joseph, and Marshall, 333; + appointed Associate Justice, 335; + on criticism of the judiciary, 339-40; + opinion in Martin _v._ Hunter's Lessee, 335-36. + +Stuart, Gilbert, 285. + +Supreme Court. _See_ Federal judiciary. + +Survey Bill, vote in Congress on, 309. + +Symmes, John C., land grants to, 11, 12; + begins colony, 14. + + +Talleyrand-Perigord, C. M., urges acquisition of Louisiana, 98; + and the X Y Z affair, 98-99; + to the American commissioners, 100; + and the retrocession of Louisiana, 146; + and the cession of Louisiana to the United States, 149-50; + on the boundaries of the province, 159. + +Tallmadge, James, 270, 271. + +Tariff Act, _of 1789_, 50-51; + _of 1816_, 237-38; + _of 1824_, 310-13; + _of 1828_, 328-30; + +Tariff of Abominations. _See_ Tariff Act, of 1828. + +Taylor, John, on agriculture at the South, 126; + on the Louisiana Treaty, 156; + on state rights, 339. + +Taylor, John W., 271. + +Tecumseh, 205, 218, 219. + +Tennessee, settlement of, 14; + intrigues in, 68; + admitted as a State, 92. + +Thames, battle of the, 218. + +Thomas, Jesse B., 275-76. + +Ticknor, George, 287. + +Tippecanoe, battle of, 206. + +Tocqueville, De, on equality in America, 300; + on the character of Western society, 301. + +Tonnage dues, 51, 124. + +Tories, persecution of, 3-5. + +Toussaint L'Ouverture, 146. + +Tracy, Uriah, on the Louisiana Treaty, 155-56; + on a New England confederacy, 164. + +Trade. _See_ Commerce. + +Transportation, in 1800, 105. + _See also_ National Road, Canals, Internal improvements, etc. + +Travel, difficulties of, about 1800, 105-06; + improvement after the War of 1812, 255. + +Treasury, Secretary of, bill to establish, 52; + reports of, 56-62. + +Treaty-making power, debated in House, 90-91. + +Treaty of Paris (1783), 1; + (1794), 84-88; + of Greenville (1795), 87; + of San Lorenzo (1795), 87-88; + of Morfontaine (1800), 104, 146; + of Louisiana (1803), 150; + with Tripoli (1805), 145; + (1806), 184; + (1809), 197; + of Ghent (1814), 229-30; + with Spain (1819), 264. + +Trespass Act of New York, 4. + +Trevett _v._ Weeden, 19. + +Tripolitan War, 143-45. + +Troup, George M., 325-26. + +Trumbull, John, 236-37, 286. + +Tudor, William, 283. + +Turnpikes, construction of, 255. + + +Unitarianism, rise of, 287-88. + +United States, frigate, 215. + +_United States Gazette_, Federalist newspaper, 66. + +United States _v._ Peters, 333-34. + +Universalism, rise of, 288. + + +Van Buren, Martin, 243-44, 316, 323. + +Vans Murray, William, 103. + +Vermont, admitted as a State, 55; + refuses the call for militia, 224; + and the Hartford Convention, 224. + +Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, 110-12. + +Virginia, commercial difficulties with Maryland, 27-28; + ratifies the Constitution, 41; + protests against internal improvements, 319-20; + on the Supreme Court (1809), 335; + protests against decisions of federal courts, 336-37; + proposes constitutional amendment, 339. + + +War of 1812, preparations for, 208-09; + motives for, 208-10; + vote for, 210; + political aspects of, 212-13, 216-17, 223-27; + land operations of, 213-14, 217-18, 220-23; + naval operations, 215-16, 218-19, 221-22; + in the Southwest, 219-20; + end of, 228; + results of, 231-244, 282. + +Washington, George, on the prospects of the United States, 1; + on Tories, 3; + resigns commission, 6; + on the West, 16; + on Shays' Rebellion, 23; + in the Federal Convention, 29; + on the growth of industry, 46-47; + elected President, 48; + inauguration, 48-50; + appointments of, 54-55; + and the Bank Bill, 62-63; + levees of, 65; + reelected President, 66-67; + proclaims neutrality, 73; + sends Jay on mission to England, 79; + and the Whiskey Insurrection, 82-83; + censures Democratic Clubs, 83-84; + and the Jay Treaty, 86-88; + Farewell Address, 91-92; + appointed head of provisional army, 102. + +Wasp, American sloop-of-war, 215. + +Watauga settlement, 14. + +Wayne, Anthony, wins battle of Fallen Timber, 80-81; + secures Treaty of Greenville, 87. + +Webster, Daniel, on the principle of protection, 237; + on universal suffrage, 305; + and the Tariff of 1828, 330; + influence at the federal bar, 333; + counsel for Dartmouth College, 342. + +Wellington, Duke of, 214, 228-29. + +West, Benjamin, 285. + +West, the, social aspects, 252, 299-300; + political aspects, 298, 303-04; + intellectual aspects, 300-01, 302; + religious aspects, 301-02; + education in, 302-03. + +Western lands, speculation in, 26. + +West Florida, claimed by the United States, 151, 158-59; + revolt in, 203-04; + annexed in part, 204. + +Whiskey Insurrection, the, 81-83. + +Whitney, Eli, 127. + +Wilkinson, James, in Kentucky, 68; + his relation to Burr's conspiracy, 172-75, 177; + in the campaign of 1813, 218; + occupies West Florida, 219. + +Wilson, James, in the Federal Convention, 31; + appointed Associate Justice, 54. + +Wirt, William, 333, 345. + +Wolcott, Oliver, 89. + +Woolen manufacturing, beginnings of, 235; + after the War of 1812, 235-36. + + +X Y Z affair, 98-100. + + +Yazoo land controversy, 168-70, 342. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNION AND DEMOCRACY*** + + +******* This file should be named 22461.txt or 22461.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/4/6/22461 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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