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diff --git a/3004.txt b/3004.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6c3374 --- /dev/null +++ b/3004.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6854 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jefferson and his Colleagues, 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: Jefferson and his Colleagues + A Chronicle of the Virginia Dynasty, Volume 15 In The + Chronicles Of America Series + +Author: Allen Johnson + +Editor: Allen Johnson + +Posting Date: February 5, 2009 [EBook #3004] +Release Date: January, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JEFFERSON AND HIS COLLEAGUES *** + + + + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library Of St. Gregory's +University, and Alev Akman + + + + + + +JEFFERSON AND HIS COLLEAGUES, + +A CHRONICLE OF THE VIRGINIA DYNASTY + + +By Allen Johnson + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S COURT + + II. PUTTING THE SHIP ON HER REPUBLICAN TACK + + III. THE CORSAIRS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN + + IV. THE SHADOW OF THE FIRST CONSUL + + V. IN PURSUIT OF THE FLORIDAS + + VI. AN AMERICAN CATILINE + + VII. AN ABUSE OF HOSPITALITY + + VIII. THE PACIFISTS OF 1807 + + IX. THE LAST PHASE OF PEACEABLE COERCION + + X. THE WAR-HAWKS + + XI. PRESIDENT MADISON UNDER FIRE + + XII. THE PEACEMAKERS + + XIII. SPANISH DERELICTS IN THE NEW WORLD + + XIV. FRAMING AN AMERICAN POLICY + + XV. THE END OF AN ERA + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + + + +JEFFERSON AND HIS COLLEAGUES + + + +CHAPTER I. PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S COURT + +The rumble of President John Adams's coach had hardly died away in +the distance on the morning of March 4,1801, when Mr. Thomas Jefferson +entered the breakfast room of Conrad's boarding house on Capitol +Hill, where he had been living in bachelor's quarters during his +Vice-Presidency. He took his usual seat at the lower end of the table +among the other boarders, declining with a smile to accept the chair +of the impulsive Mrs. Brown, who felt, in spite of her democratic +principles, that on this day of all days Mr. Jefferson should have the +place which he had obstinately refused to occupy at the head of the +table and near the fireplace. There were others besides the wife of the +Senator from Kentucky who felt that Mr. Jefferson was carrying +equality too far. But Mr. Jefferson would not take precedence over the +Congressmen who were his fellow boarders. + +Conrad's was conveniently near the Capitol, on the south side of the +hill, and commanded an extensive view. The slope of the hill, which +was a wild tangle of verdure in summer, debouched into a wide plain +extending to the Potomac. Through this lowland wandered a little stream, +once known as Goose Creek but now dignified by the name of Tiber. The +banks of the stream as well as of the Potomac were fringed with native +flowering shrubs and graceful trees, in which Mr. Jefferson took great +delight. The prospect from his drawing-room windows, indeed, quite as +much as anything else, attached him to Conrad's. + +As was his wont, Mr. Jefferson withdrew to his study after breakfast and +doubtless ran over the pages of a manuscript which he had been preparing +with some care for this Fourth of March. It may be guessed, too, that +here, as at Monticello, he made his usual observations-noting in his +diary the temperature, jotting down in the garden-book which he kept +for thirty years an item or two about the planting of vegetables, and +recording, as he continued to do for eight years, the earliest and +latest appearance of each comestible in the Washington market. Perhaps +he made a few notes about the "seeds of the cymbling (cucurbita +vermeosa) and squash (cucurbita melopipo)" which he purposed to send to +his friend Philip Mazzei, with directions for planting; or even wrote a +letter full of reflections upon bigotry in politics and religion to +Dr. Joseph Priestley, whom he hoped soon to have as his guest in the +President's House. + +Toward noon Mr. Jefferson stepped out of the house and walked over to +the Capitol--a tall, rather loose-jointed figure, with swinging stride, +symbolizing, one is tempted to think, the angularity of the American +character. "A tall, large-boned farmer," an unfriendly English observer +called him. His complexion was that of a man constantly exposed to the +sun--sandy or freckled, contemporaries called it--but his features were +clean-cut and strong and his expression was always kindly and benignant. + +Aside from salvos of artillery at the hour of twelve, the inauguration +of Mr. Jefferson as President of the United States was marked by extreme +simplicity. In the Senate chamber of the unfinished Capitol, he was met +by Aaron Burr, who had already been installed as presiding officer, and +conducted to the Vice-President's chair, while that debonair man of the +world took a seat on his right with easy grace. On Mr. Jefferson's left +sat Chief Justice John Marshall, a "tall, lax, lounging Virginian," with +black eyes peering out from his swarthy countenance. There is a dramatic +quality in this scene of the President-to-be seated between two men who +are to cause him more vexation of spirit than any others in public +life. Burr, brilliant, gifted, ambitious, and profligate; Marshall, +temperamentally and by conviction opposed to the principles which seemed +to have triumphed in the election of this radical Virginian, to whom +indeed he had a deep-seated aversion. After a short pause, Mr. Jefferson +rose and read his Inaugural Address in a tone so low that it could be +heard by only a few in the crowded chamber. + +Those who expected to hear revolutionary doctrines must have been +surprised by the studied moderation of this address. There was not +a Federalist within hearing of Jefferson's voice who could not have +subscribed to all the articles in this profession of political faith. +"Equal and exact justice to all men"--"a jealous care of the right of +election by the people"--"absolute acquiescence in the decisions of +the majority"--"the supremacy of the civil over the military +authority"--"the honest payments of our debts"--"freedom of +religion"--"freedom of the press"-"freedom of person under the +protection of the habeas corpus"--what were these principles but the +bright constellation, as Jefferson said, "which has guided our steps +through an age of revolution and reformation?" John Adams himself might +have enunciated all these principles, though he would have distributed +the emphasis somewhat differently. + +But what did Jefferson mean when he said, "We have called by different +names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans--we are all +Federalists." If this was true, what, pray, became of the revolution +of 1800, which Jefferson had declared "as real a revolution in the +principles of our government as that of 1776 was in its form?" Even +Jefferson's own followers shook their heads dubiously over this passage +as they read and reread it in the news-sheets. It sounded a false note +while the echoes of the campaign of 1800 were still reverberating. If +Hamilton and his followers were monarchists at heart in 1800, bent +upon overthrowing the Government, how could they and the triumphant +Republicans be brethren of the same principle in 1801? The truth of +the matter is that Jefferson was holding out an olive branch to his +political opponents. He believed, as he remarked in a private letter, +that many Federalists were sound Republicans at heart who had been +stampeded into the ranks of his opponents during the recent troubles +with France. These lost political sheep Jefferson was bent upon +restoring to the Republican fold by avoiding utterances and acts +which would offend them. "I always exclude the leaders from these +considerations," he added confidentially. In short, this Inaugural +Address was less a great state paper, marking a broad path for the +Government to follow under stalwart leadership, than an astute effort to +consolidate the victory of the Republican party. + +Disappointing the address must have been to those who had expected a +declaration of specific policy. Yet the historian, wiser by the march of +events, may read between the lines. When Jefferson said that he desired +a wise and frugal government--a government "which should restrain men +from injuring one another but otherwise leave them free to regulate +their own pursuits--" and when he announced his purpose "to support the +state governments in all their rights" and to cultivate "peace with all +nations--entangling alliances with none," he was in effect formulating a +policy. But all this was in the womb of the future. + +It was many weeks before Jefferson took up his abode in the President's +House. In the interval he remained in his old quarters, except for a +visit to Monticello to arrange for his removal, which indeed he was in +no haste to make, for "The Palace," as the President's House was dubbed +satirically, was not yet finished; its walls were not fully plastered, +and it still lacked the main staircase-which, it must be admitted, was a +serious defect if the new President meant to hold court. Besides, it +was inconveniently situated at the other end of the, straggling, unkempt +village. At Conrad's Jefferson could still keep in touch with those +members of Congress and those friends upon whose advice he relied in +putting "our Argosie on her Republican tack," as he was wont to +say. Here, in his drawing-room, he could talk freely with practical +politicians such as Charles Pinckney, who had carried the ticket +to success in South Carolina and who might reasonably expect to be +consulted in organizing the new Administration. + +The chief posts in the President's official household, save one, +were readily filled. There were only five heads of departments to be +appointed, and of these the Attorney-General might be described as a +head without a department, since the duties of his office were few and +required only his occasional attention. As it fell out, however, +the Attorney-General whom Jefferson appointed, Levi Lincoln of +Massachusetts, practically carried on the work of all the Executive +Departments until his colleagues were duly appointed and commissioned. +For Secretary of War Jefferson chose another reliable New Englander, +Henry Dearborn of Maine. The naval portfolio went begging, perhaps +because the navy was not an imposing branch of the service, or because +the new President had announced his desire to lay up all seven frigates +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 look after them." One conspicuous Republican after another +declined this dubious honor, and in the end Jefferson was obliged to +appoint as Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith, whose chief qualification +was his kinship to General Samuel Smith, an influential politician of +Maryland. + +The appointment by Jefferson of James Madison as Secretary of State +occasioned no surprise, for the intimate friendship of the two +Virginians and their long and close association in politics led +everyone to expect that he would occupy an important post in the new +Administration, though in truth that friendship was based on something +deeper and finer than mere agreement in politics. "I do believe," +exclaimed a lady who often saw both men in private life, "father never +loved son more than Mr. Jefferson loves Mr. Madison." The difference in +age, however, was not great, for Jefferson was in his fifty-eighth +year and Madison in his fiftieth. It was rather mien and character that +suggested the filial relationship. Jefferson was, or could be if he +chose, an imposing figure; his stature was six feet two and one-half +inches. Madison had the ways and habits of a little man, for he was only +five feet six. Madison was naturally timid and retiring in the presence +of other men, but he was at his best in the company of his friend +Jefferson, who valued his attainments. Indeed, the two men supplemented +each other. If Jefferson was prone to theorize, Madison was disposed +to find historical evidence to support a political doctrine. While +Jefferson generalized boldly, even rashly, Madison hesitated, +temporized, weighed the pros and cons, and came with difficulty to +a conclusion. Unhappily neither was a good judge of men. When pitted +against a Bonaparte, a Talleyrand, or a Canning, they appeared +provincial in their ways and limited in their sympathetic understanding +of statesmen of the Old World. + +Next to that of Madison, Jefferson valued the friendship of Albert +Gallatin, whom he made Secretary of the Treasury by a recess +appointment, since there was some reason to fear that the Federalist +Senate would not confirm the nomination. The Federalists could never +forget that Gallatin was a Swiss by birth--an alien of supposedly +radical tendencies. The partisan press never exhibited its crass +provincialism more shamefully than when it made fun of Gallatin's +imperfect pronunciation of English. He had come to America, indeed, too +late to acquire a perfect control of a new tongue, but not too late to +become a loyal son of his adopted country. He brought to Jefferson's +group of advisers not only a thorough knowledge of public finance but +a sound judgment and a statesmanlike vision, which were often needed to +rectify the political vagaries of his chief. + +The last of his Cabinet appointments made, Jefferson returned to +his country seat at Monticello for August and September, for he was +determined not to pass those two "bilious months" in Washington. "I have +not done it these forty years," he wrote to Gallatin. "Grumble who will, +I will never pass those two months on tidewater." To Monticello, indeed, +Jefferson turned whenever his duties permitted and not merely in the +sickly months of summer, for when the roads were good the journey was +rapidly and easily made by stage or chaise. There, in his garden +and farm, he found relief from the distractions of public life. "No +occupation is so delightful to me," he confessed, "as the culture of the +earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden." At Monticello, +too, he could gratify his delight in the natural sciences, for he was a +true child of the eighteenth century in his insatiable curiosity about +the physical universe and in his desire to reduce that universe to an +intelligible mechanism. He was by instinct a rationalist and a foe +to superstition in any form, whether in science or religion. His +indefatigable pen was as ready to discuss vaccination and yellow fever +with Dr. Benjamin Rush as it was to exchange views with Dr. Priestley on +the ethics of Jesus. + +The diversity of Jefferson's interests is truly remarkable. Monticello +is a monument to his almost Yankee-like ingenuity. He writes to his +friend Thomas Paine to assure him that the semi-cylindrical form of roof +after the De Lorme pattern, which he proposes for his house, is entirely +practicable, for he himself had "used it at home for a dome, being 120 +degrees of an oblong octagon." He was characteristically American in +his receptivity to new ideas from any source. A chance item about Eli +Whitney of New Haven arrests his attention and forthwith he writes to +Madison recommending a "Mr. Whitney at Connecticut, a mechanic of the +first order of ingenuity, who invented the cotton gin," and who has +recently invented "molds and machines for making all the pieces of his +[musket] locks so exactly equal that take one hundred locks to pieces +and mingle their parts and the hundred locks may be put together as well +by taking the first pieces which come to hand." To Robert Fulton, +then laboring to perfect his torpedoes and submarine, Jefferson wrote +encouragingly: "I have ever looked to the submarine boat as most to be +depended on for attaching them [i. e., torpedoes].... I am in hopes it +is not to be abandoned as impracticable." + +It was not wholly affectation, therefore, when Jefferson wrote, "Nature +intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my +supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived, +have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself +on the boisterous ocean of political passions." One can readily picture +this Virginia farmer-philosopher ruefully closing his study door, taking +a last look over the gardens and fields of Monticello, in the golden +days of October, and mounting Wildair, his handsome thoroughbred, +setting out on the dusty road for that little political world at +Washington, where rumor so often got the better of reason and where +gossip was so likely to destroy philosophic serenity. + +Jefferson had been a widower for many years; and so, since his daughters +were married and had households of their own, he was forced to preside +over his menage at Washington without the feminine touch and tact +so much needed at this American court. Perhaps it was this unhappy +circumstance quite as much as his dislike for ceremonies and formalities +that made Jefferson do away with the weekly levees of his predecessors +and appoint only two days, the First of January and the Fourth of July, +for public receptions. On such occasions he begged Mrs. Dolly Madison +to act as hostess; and a charming and gracious figure she was, casting +a certain extenuating veil over the President's gaucheries. Jefferson +held, with his many political heresies, certain theories of social +intercourse which ran rudely counter to the prevailing etiquette of +foreign courts. Among the rules which he devised for his republican +court, the precedence due to rank was conspicuously absent, because he +held that "all persons when brought together in society are perfectly +equal, whether foreign or domestic, titled or untitled, in or out of +office." One of these rules to which the Cabinet gravely subscribed read +as follows: + +"To maintain the principles of equality, or of pele mele, and prevent +the growth of precedence out of courtesy, the members of the Executive +will practise at their own houses, and recommend an adherence to the +ancient usage of the country, of gentlemen in mass giving precedence +to the ladies in mass, in passing from one apartment where they are +assembled into another." + +The application of this rule on one occasion gave rise to an incident +which convulsed Washington society. President Jefferson had invited to +dinner the new British Minister Merry and his wife, the Spanish Minister +Yrujo and his wife, the French Minister Pichon and his wife, and Mr. and +Mrs. Madison. When dinner was announced, Mr. Jefferson gave his hand to +Mrs. Madison and seated her on his right, leaving the rest to straggle +in as they pleased. Merry, fresh from the Court of St. James, was aghast +and affronted; and when a few days later, at a dinner given by the +Secretary of State, he saw Mrs. Merry left without an escort, while Mr. +Madison took Mrs. Gallatin to the table, he believed that a deliberate +insult was intended. To appease this indignant Briton the President was +obliged to explain officially his rule of "pole mele"; but Mrs. Merry +was not appeased and positively refused to appear at the President's New +Year's Day reception. "Since then," wrote the amused Pichon, "Washington +society is turned upside down; all the women are to the last degree +exasperated against Mrs. Merry; the Federalist newspapers have taken +up the matter, and increased the irritations by sarcasms on the +administration and by making a burlesque of the facts." Then Merry +refused an invitation to dine again at the President's, saying that he +awaited instructions from his Government; and the Marquis Yrujo, who had +reasons of his own for fomenting trouble, struck an alliance with the +Merrys and also declined the President's invitation. Jefferson was +incensed at their conduct, but put the blame upon Mrs. Merry, whom +he characterized privately as a "virago who has already disturbed our +harmony extremely." + +A brilliant English essayist has observed that a government to secure +obedience must first excite reverence. Some such perception, coinciding +with native taste, had moved George Washington to assume the trappings +of royalty, in order to surround the new presidential office with +impressive dignity. Posterity has, accordingly, visualized the first +President and Father of his Country as a statuesque figure, posing at +formal levees with a long sword in a scabbard of white polished leather, +and clothed in black velvet knee-breeches, with yellow gloves and a +cocked hat. The third President of the United States harbored no such +illusions and affected no such poses. Governments were made by rational +beings--"by the consent of the governed," he had written in a memorable +document--and rested on no emotional basis. Thomas Jefferson remained +Thomas Jefferson after his election to the chief magistracy; and so +contemporaries saw him in the President's House, an unimpressive figure +clad in "a blue coat, a thick gray-colored hairy waistcoat, with a red +underwaist lapped over it, green velveteen breeches, with pearl buttons, +yarn stockings, and slippers down at the heels." Anyone might have found +him, as Senator Maclay did, sitting "in a lounging manner, on one hip +commonly, and with one of his shoulders elevated much above the other," +a loose, shackling figure with no pretense at dignity. + +In his dislike for all artificial distinctions between man and man, +Jefferson determined from the outset to dispense a true Southern +hospitality at the President's House and to welcome any one at any +hour on any day. There was therefore some point to John Quincy Adams's +witticism that Jefferson's "whole eight years was a levee." No one could +deny that he entertained handsomely. Even his political opponents rose +from his table with a comfortable feeling of satiety which made them +more kindly in their attitude toward their host. "We sat down at the +table at four," wrote Senator Plumer of New Hampshire, "rose at six, +and walked immediately into another room and drank coffee. We had a very +good dinner, with a profusion of fruits and sweetmeats. The wine was +the best I ever drank, particularly the champagne, which was indeed +delicious." + +It was in the circle of his intimates that Jefferson appeared at his +best, and of all his intimate friends Madison knew best how to evoke the +true Jefferson. To outsiders Madison appeared rather taciturn, but among +his friends he was genial and even lively, amusing all by his ready +humor and flashes of wit. To his changes of mood Jefferson always +responded. Once started Jefferson would talk on and on, in a loose +and rambling fashion, with a great deal of exaggeration and with many +vagaries, yet always scattering much information on a great variety of +topics. Here we may leave him for the moment, in the exhilarating +hours following his inauguration, discoursing with Pinckney, Gallatin, +Madison, Burr, Randolph, Giles, Macon, and many another good Republican, +and evolving the policies of his Administration. + + + +CHAPTER II. PUTTING THE SHIP ON HER REPUBLICAN TACK + +President Jefferson took office in a spirit of exultation which he made +no effort to disguise in his private letters. "The tough sides of our +Argosie," he wrote to John Dickinson, "have been thoroughly tried. Her +strength has stood the waves into which she was steered with a view to +sink her. We shall put her on her Republican tack, and she will now show +by the beauty of her motion the skill of her builders." In him as in +his two intimates, Gallatin and Madison, there was a touch of that +philosophy which colored the thought of reformers on the eve of the +French Revolution, a naive confidence in the perfectability of man +and the essential worthiness of his aspirations. Strike from man +the shackles of despotism and superstition and accord to him a free +government, and he would rise to unsuspected felicity. Republican +government was the strongest government on earth, because it was founded +on free will and imposed the fewest checks on the legitimate desires of +men. Only one thing was wanting to make the American people happy and +prosperous, said the President in his Inaugural Address "a wise and +frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, +which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of +industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the +bread it has earned." This, he believed, was the sum of good government; +and this was the government which he was determined to establish. +Whether government thus reduced to lowest terms would prove adequate in +a world rent by war, only the future could disclose. + +It was only in intimate letters and in converse with Gallatin and +Madison that Jefferson revealed his real purposes. So completely did +Jefferson take these two advisers into his confidence, and so loyal +was their cooperation, that the Government for eight years has been +described as a triumvirate almost as clearly defined as any triumvirate +of Rome. Three more congenial souls certainly have never ruled a nation, +for they were drawn together not merely by agreement on a common policy +but by sympathetic understanding of the fundamental principles of +government. Gallatin and Madison often frequented the President's House, +and there one may see them in imagination and perhaps catch now and then +a fragment of their conversation: + +Gallatin: We owe much to geographical position; we have been fortunate +in escaping foreign wars. If we can maintain peaceful relations with +other nations, we can keep down the cost of administration and avoid all +the ills which follow too much government. + +The President: After all, we are chiefly an agricultural people and if +we shape our policy accordingly we shall be much more likely to multiply +and be happy than as if we mimicked an Amsterdam, a Hamburg, or a city +like London. + +Madison (quietly): I quite agree with you. We must keep the government +simple and republican, avoiding the corruption which inevitably prevails +in crowded cities. + +Gallatin (pursuing his thought): The moment you allow the national debt +to mount, you entail burdens on posterity and augment the operations of +government. + +The President (bitterly): The principle of spending money to be paid +by posterity is but swindling futurity on a large scale. That was what +Hamilton-- + +Gallatin: Just so; and if this administration does not reduce taxes, +they will never be reduced. We must strike at the root of the evil and +avert the danger of multiplying the functions of government. I +would repeal all internal taxes. These pretended tax-preparations, +treasure-preparations, and army-preparations against contingent wars +tend only to encourage wars. + +The President (nodding his head in agreement): The discharge of the debt +is vital to the destinies of our government, and for the present we +must make all objects subordinate to this. We must confine our general +government to foreign concerns only and let our affairs be disentangled +from those of all other nations, except as to commerce. And our commerce +is so valuable to other nations that they will be glad to purchase it, +when they know that all we ask is justice. Why, then, should we not +reduce our general government to a very simple organization and a very +unexpensive one--a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants? + +It was precisely the matter of selecting these few servants which +worried the President during his first months in office, for the federal +offices were held by Federalists almost to a man. He hoped that he would +have to make only a few removals any other course would expose him to +the charge of inconsistency after his complacent statement that there +was no fundamental difference between Republicans and Federalists. But +his followers thought otherwise; they wanted the spoils of victory and +they meant to have them. Slowly and reluctantly Jefferson yielded to +pressure, justifying himself as he did so by the reflection that a due +participation in office was a matter of right. And how, pray, could +due participation be obtained, if there were no removals? Deaths +were regrettably few; and resignations could hardly be expected. Once +removals were decided upon, Jefferson drifted helplessly upon the tide. +For a moment, it is true, he wrote hopefully about establishing an +equilibrium and then returning "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?" That blessed expectation +was never realized. By the end of his second term, a Federalist in +office was as rare as a Republican under Adams. + +The removal of the Collector of the Port at New Haven and the +appointment of an octogenarian whose chief qualification was his +Republicanism brought to a head all the bitter animosity of Federalist +New England. The hostility to Jefferson in this region was no ordinary +political opposition, as he knew full well, for it was compounded of +many ingredients. In New England there was a greater social solidarity +than existed anywhere else in the Union. Descended from English stock, +imbued with common religious and political traditions, and bound +together by the ties of a common ecclesiastical polity, the people of +this section had, as Jefferson expressed it, "a sort of family pride." +Here 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 doctrine as a state of mind. Abhorrence of the forces +liberated by the French Revolution was the dominating emotion. To the +Federalist leaders democracy seemed an aberration of the human mind, +which was bound everywhere to produce infidelity, looseness of morals, +and political chaos. In the words of their Jeremiah, Fisher Ames, +"Democracy is a troubled spirit, fated never to rest, and whose dreams, +if it sleeps, present only visions of hell." So thinking and feeling, +they had witnessed the triumph of Jefferson with genuine alarm, for +Jefferson they held to be no better than a Jacobin, bent upon subverting +the social order and saturated with all the heterodox notions of +Voltaire and Thomas Paine. + +The appointment of the aged Samuel Bishop as Collector of New Haven was +evidence enough to the Federalist mind, which fed upon suspicion, that +Jefferson intended to reward his son, Abraham Bishop, for political +services. The younger Bishop was a stench in their nostrils, for at a +recent celebration of the Republican victory he had shocked the good +people of Connecticut by characterizing Jefferson as "the illustrious +chief who, once insulted, now presides over the Union," and comparing +him with the Saviour of the world, "who, once insulted, now presides +over the universe." And this had not been his first transgression: he +was known as an active and intemperate rebel against the standing order. +No wonder that Theodore Dwight voiced the alarm of all New England +Federalists in an oration at New Haven, in which he declared that +according to the doctrines of Jacobinism "the greatest villain in the +community is the fittest person to make and execute the laws." "We have +now," said he, "reached the consummation of democratic blessedness. +We have a country governed by blockheads and knaves." Here was an +opposition which, if persisted in, might menace the integrity of the +Union. + +Scarcely less vexatious was the business of appointments in New York +where three factions in the Republican party struggled for the control +of the patronage. Which should the President support? Gallatin, whose +father-in-law was prominent in the politics of the State, was inclined +to favor Burr and his followers; but the President already felt a deep +distrust of Burr and finally surrendered to the importunities of DeWitt +Clinton, who had formed an alliance with the Livingston interests to +drive Burr from the party. Despite the pettiness of the game, which +disgusted both Gallatin and Jefferson, the decision was fateful. It was +no light matter, even for the chief magistrate, to offend Aaron Burr. + +From these worrisome details of administration, the President turned +with relief to the preparation of his first address to Congress. The +keynote was to be economy. But just how economies were actually to be +effected was not so clear. For months Gallatin had been toiling over +masses of statistics, trying to reconcile a policy of reduced taxation, +to satisfy the demands of the party, with the discharge of the public +debt. By laborious calculation he found that if $7,300,000 were set +aside each year, the debt--principal and interest--could be discharged +within sixteen years. But if the unpopular excise were abandoned, where +was the needed revenue to be found? New taxes were not to be thought of. +The alternative, then, was to reduce expenditures. But how and where? + +Under these circumstances the President and his Cabinet adopted the +course which in the light of subsequent events seems to have been +woefully ill-timed and hazardous in the extreme. They determined to +sacrifice the army and navy. In extenuation of this decision, it may +be said that the danger of war with France, which had forced the Adams +Administration to double expenditures, had passed; and that Europe was +at this moment at peace, though only the most sanguine and shortsighted +could believe that continued peace was possible in Europe with the First +Consul in the saddle. It was agreed, then, that the expenditures for +the military and naval establishments should be kept at about +$2,500,000--somewhat below the normal appropriation before the recent +war-flurry; and that wherever possible expenses should be reduced by +careful pruning of the list of employees at the navy yards. Such was +the programme of humdrum economy which President Jefferson laid before +Congress. After the exciting campaign of 1800, when the public was +assured that the forces of Darkness and Light were locked in deadly +combat for the soul of the nation, this tame programme seemed like an +anticlimax. But those who knew Thomas Jefferson learned to discount the +vagaries to which he gave expression in conversation. As John Quincy +Adams once remarked after listening to Jefferson's brilliant table +talk, "Mr. Jefferson loves to excite wonder." Yet Thomas Jefferson, +philosopher, was a very different person from Thomas Jefferson, +practical politician. Paradoxical as it may seem, the new President, +of all men of his day, was the least likely to undertake revolutionary +policies; and it was just this acquaintance with Jefferson's mental +habits which led his inveterate enemy, Alexander Hamilton, to advise his +party associates to elect Jefferson rather than Burr. + +The President broke with precedent, however, in one small particular. He +was resolved not to follow the practice of his Federalist predecessors +and address Congress in person. The President's speech to the two houses +in joint session savored too much of a speech from the throne; it was a +symptom of the Federalist leaning to monarchical forms and practices. He +sent his address, therefore, in writing, accompanied with letters to +the presiding officers of the two chambers, in which he justified this +departure from custom on the ground of convenience and economy of time. +"I have had principal regard," he wrote, "to the convenience of the +Legislature, to the economy of their time, to the relief from the +embarrassment of immediate answers on subjects not yet fully before +them, and to the benefits thence resulting to the public affairs." This +explanation deceived no one, unless it was the writer himself. It was +thoroughly characteristic of Thomas Jefferson that he often explained +his conduct by reasons which were obvious afterthoughts--an unfortunate +habit which has led his contemporaries and his unfriendly biographers to +charge him with hypocrisy. And it must be admitted that his preference +for indirect methods of achieving a purpose exposed him justly to the +reproaches of those who liked frankness and plain dealing. It is not +unfair, then, to wonder whether the President was not thinking rather +of his own convenience when he elected to address Congress by written +message, for he was not a ready nor an impressive speaker. At all +events, he established a precedent which remained unbroken until another +Democratic President, one hundred and twelve years later, returned to +the practice of Washington and Adams. + +If the Federalists of New England are to be believed, hypocrisy marked +the presidential message from the very beginning to the end. It began +with a pious expression of thanks "to the beneficent Being" who had +been pleased to breathe into the warring peoples of Europe a spirit of +forgiveness and conciliation. But even the most bigoted Federalist who +could not tolerate religious views differing from his own must have +been impressed with the devout and sincere desire of the President to +preserve peace. Peace! peace! It was a sentiment which ran through the +message like the watermark in the very paper on which he wrote; it was +the condition, the absolutely indispensable condition, of every chaste +reformation which he advocated. Every reduction of public expenditure +was predicated on the supposition that the danger of war was remote +because other nations would desire to treat the United States justly. +"Salutary reductions in habitual expenditures" were urged in every +branch of the public service from the diplomatic and revenue services +to the judiciary and the naval yards. War might come, indeed, but +"sound principles would not justify our taxing the industry of our +fellow-citizens to accumulate treasure for wars to happen we know not +when, and which might not, perhaps, happen but from the temptations +offered by that treasure." + +On all concrete matters the President's message cut close to the +line which Gallatin had marked out. The internal taxes should now be +dispensed with and corresponding reductions be made in "our habitual +expenditures." There had been unwise multiplication of federal offices, +many of which added nothing to the efficiency of the Government but only +to the cost. These useless offices should be lopped off, for "when we +consider that this Government is charged with the external and mutual +relations only of these States,... we may well doubt whether our +organization is not too complicated, too expensive." In this connection +Congress might well consider the Federal Judiciary, particularly the +courts newly erected, and "judge of the proportion which the institution +bears to the business it has to perform." * And finally, Congress should +consider whether the law relating to naturalization should not be +revised. "A denial of citizenship under a residence of fourteen years +is a denial to a great proportion of those who ask it"; and "shall we +refuse to the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which +savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this +land?" + + * The studied moderation of the message gave no hint of + Jefferson's resolute purpose to procure the repeal of the + Judiciary Act of 1801. The history of this act and its + repeal, as well as of the attack upon the judiciary, is + recounted by Edward S. Corwin in "John Marshall and the + Constitution" in "The Chronicles of America." + + +The most inveterate foe could not characterize this message as +revolutionary, however much he might dissent from the policies +advocated. It was not Jefferson's way, indeed, to announce his +intentions boldly and hew his way relentlessly to his objective. He +was far too astute as a party leader to attempt to force his will upon +Republicans in Congress. He would suggest; he would advise; he would +cautiously express an opinion; but he would never dictate. Yet few +Presidents have exercised a stronger directive influence upon Congress +than Thomas Jefferson during the greater part of his Administration. So +long as he was en rapport with Nathaniel Macon, Speaker of the House, +and with John Randolph, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, +he could direct the policies of his party as effectively as the most +autocratic dictator. When he had made up his mind that Justice Samuel +Chase of the Supreme Court should be impeached, he simply penned a note +to Joseph Nicholson, who was then managing the impeachment of Judge +Pickering, raising the question whether Chase's attack on the principles +of the Constitution should go unpunished. "I ask these questions for +your consideration," said the President deferentially; "for myself, +it is better that I should not interfere." And eventually impeachment +proceedings were instituted. + +In this memorable first message, the President alluded to a little +incident which had occurred in the Mediterranean, "the only exception to +this state of general peace with which we have been blessed." Tripoli, +one of the Barbary States, had begun depredations upon American commerce +and the President had sent a small squadron for protection. A ship of +this squadron, the schooner Enterprise, had fallen in with a Tripolitan +man-of-war and after a fight lasting three hours had forced the corsair +to strike her colors. But since war had not been declared and the +President's orders were to act only on the defensive, the crew of +the Enterprise dismantled the captured vessel and let her go. Would +Congress, asked the President, take under consideration the advisability +of placing our forces on an equality with those of our adversaries? +Neither the President nor his Secretary of the Treasury seems to have +been aware that this single cloud on the horizon portended a storm of +long duration. Yet within a year it became necessary to delay further +reductions in the naval establishment and to impose new taxes to meet +the very contingency which the peace-loving President declared most +remote. Moreover, the very frigates which he had proposed to lay up +in the eastern branch of the Potomac were manned and dispatched to the +Mediterranean to bring the Corsairs to terms. + + + +CHAPTER III. THE CORSAIRS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN + +Shortly after Jefferson's inauguration a visitor presented himself at +the Executive Mansion with disquieting news from the Mediterranean. +Captain William Bainbridge of the frigate George Washington had just +returned from a disagreeable mission. He had been commissioned to carry +to the Dey of Algiers the annual tribute which the United States had +contracted to pay. It appeared that while the frigate lay at anchor +under the shore batteries off Algiers, the Dey attempted to +requisition her to carry his ambassador and some Turkish passengers to +Constantinople. Bainbridge, who felt justly humiliated by his +mission, wrathfully refused. An American frigate do errands for this +insignificant pirate? He thought not! The Dey pointed to his batteries, +however, and remarked, "You pay me tribute, by which you become my +slaves; I have, therefore, a right to order you as I may think proper." +The logic of the situation was undeniably on the side of the master of +the shore batteries. Rather than have his ship blown to bits, Bainbridge +swallowed his wrath and submitted. On the eve of departure, he had +to submit to another indignity. The colors of Algiers must fly at +the masthead. Again Bainbridge remonstrated and again the Dey looked +casually at his guns trained on the frigate. So off the frigate sailed +with the Dey's flag fluttering from her masthead, and her captain +cursing lustily. + +The voyage of fifty-nine days to Constantinople, as Bainbridge recounted +it to the President, was not without its amusing incidents. Bainbridge +regaled the President with accounts of his Mohammedan passengers, who +found much difficulty in keeping their faces to the east while the +frigate went about on a new tack. One of the faithful was delegated +finally to watch the compass so that the rest might continue their +prayers undisturbed. And at Constantinople Bainbridge had curious +experiences with the Moslems. He announced his arrival as from the +United States of America he had hauled down the Dey's flag as soon as +he was out of reach of the batteries. The port officials were greatly +puzzled. What, pray, were the United States? Bainbridge explained that +they were part of the New World which Columbus had discovered. The Grand +Seigneur then showed great interest in the stars of the American flag, +remarking that, as his own was decorated with one of the heavenly +bodies, the coincidence must be a good omen of the future friendly +intercourse of the two nations. Bainbridge did his best to turn his +unpalatable mission to good account, but he returned home in bitter +humiliation. He begged that he might never again be sent to Algiers with +tribute unless he was authorized to deliver it from the cannon's mouth. + +The President listened sympathetically to Bainbridge's story, for he +was not unfamiliar with the ways of the Barbary Corsairs and he had long +been of the opinion that tribute only made these pirates bolder and more +insufferable. The Congress of the Confederation, however, had followed +the policy of the European powers and had paid tribute to secure +immunity from attack, and the new Government had simply continued the +policy of the old. In spite of his abhorrence of war, Jefferson held +that coercion in this instance was on the whole cheaper and more +efficacious. Not long after this interview with Bainbridge, President +Jefferson was warned that the Pasha of Tripoli was worrying the American +Consul with importunate demands for more tribute. This African potentate +had discovered that his brother, the Dey of Algiers, had made a better +bargain with the United States. He announced, therefore, that he must +have a new treaty with more tribute or he would declare war. Fearing +trouble from this quarter, the President dispatched a squadron of four +vessels under Commodore Richard Dale to cruise in the Mediterranean, +with orders to protect American commerce. It was the schooner Enterprise +of this squadron which overpowered the Tripolitan cruiser, as Jefferson +recounted in his message to Congress. + +The former Pasha of Tripoli had been blessed with three sons, Hasan, +Hamet, and Yusuf. Between these royal brothers, however, there seems +to have been some incompatibility of temperament, for when their father +died (Blessed be Allah!) Yusuf, the youngest, had killed Hasan and had +spared Hamet only because he could not lay hands upon him. Yusuf then +proclaimed himself Pasha. It was Yusuf, the Pasha with this bloody +record, who declared war on the United States, May 10,1801, by cutting +down the flagstaff of the American consulate. + +To apply the term war to the naval operations which followed is, +however, to lend specious importance to very trivial events. Commodore +Dale made the most of his little squadron, it is true, convoying +merchantmen through the straits and along the Barbary coast, holding +Tripolitan vessels laden with grain in hopeless inactivity off +Gibraltar, and blockading the port of Tripoli, now with one frigate and +now with another. When the terms of enlistment of Dale's crews expired, +another squadron was gradually assembled in the Mediterranean, under the +command of Captain Richard V. Morris, for Congress had now authorized +the use of the navy for offensive operations, and the Secretary of +the Treasury, with many misgivings, had begun to accumulate his +Mediterranean Fund to meet contingent expenses. + +The blockade of Tripoli seems to have been carelessly conducted +by Morris and was finally abandoned. There were undeniably great +difficulties in the way of an effective blockade. The coast afforded few +good harbors; the heavy northerly winds made navigation both difficult +and hazardous; the Tripolitan galleys and gunboats with their shallow +draft could stand close in shore and elude the American frigates; and +the ordnance on the American craft was not heavy enough to inflict any +serious damage on the fortifications guarding the harbor. Probably these +difficulties were not appreciated by the authorities at Washington; at +all events, in the spring of 1803 Morris was suspended from his command +and subsequently lost his commission. + +In the squadron of which Commodore Preble now took command was the +Philadelphia, a frigate of thirty-six guns, to which Captain Bainbridge, +eager to square accounts with the Corsairs, had been assigned. Late in +October Bainbridge sighted a Tripolitan vessel standing in shore. He +gave chase at once with perhaps more zeal than discretion, following his +quarry well in shore in the hope of disabling her before she could make +the harbor. Failing to intercept the corsair, he went about and was +heading out to sea when the frigate ran on an uncharted reef and stuck +fast. A worse predicament could scarcely be imagined. Every device known +to Yankee seamen was employed to free the unlucky vessel. "The sails +were promptly laid a-back," Bainbridge reported, "and the forward guns +run aft, in hopes of backing her off, which not producing the desired +effect, orders were given to stave the water in her hold and pump it +out, throw overboard the lumber and heavy articles of every kind, cut +away the anchors... and throw over all the guns, except a few for our +defence.... As a last resource the foremast and main-topgallant mast +were cut away, but without any beneficial effect, and the ship remained +a perfect wreck, exposed to the constant fire of the gunboats, which +could not be returned." + +The officers advised Bainbridge that the situation was becoming +intolerable and justified desperate measures. They had been raked by +a galling fire for more than four hours; they had tried every means of +floating the ship; humiliating as the alternative was, they saw no +other course than to strike the colors. All agreed, therefore, that +they should flood the magazine, scuttle the ship, and surrender to the +Tripolitan small craft which hovered around the doomed frigate like so +many vultures. + +For the second time off this accursed coast Bainbridge hauled down his +colors. The crews of the Tripolitan gunboats swarmed aboard and set +about plundering right and left. Swords, epaulets, watches, money, +and clothing were stripped from the officers; and if the crew in the +forecastle suffered less it was because they had less to lose. Officers +and men were then tumbled into boats and taken ashore, half-naked and +humiliated beyond words. Escorted by the exultant rabble, these three +hundred luckless Americans were marched to the castle, where the +Pasha sat in state. His Highness was in excellent humor. Three hundred +Americans! He counted them, each worth hundreds of dollars. Allah was +good! + +A long, weary bondage awaited the captives. The common seamen +were treated like galley slaves, but the officers were given some +consideration through the intercession of the Danish consul. Bainbridge +was even allowed to correspond with Commodore Preble, and by means of +invisible ink he transmitted many important messages which escaped the +watchful eyes of his captors. Depressed by his misfortune--for no one +then or afterwards held him responsible for the disaster--Bainbridge had +only one thought, and that was revenge. Day and night he brooded over +plans of escape and retribution. + +As though to make the captive Americans drink the dregs of humiliation, +the Philadelphia was floated off the reef in a heavy sea and towed +safely into the harbor. The scuttling of the vessel had been hastily +contrived, and the jubilant Tripolitans succeeded in stopping her seams +before she could fill. A frigate like the Philadelphia was a prize the +like of which had never been seen in the Pasha's reign. He rubbed his +hands in glee and taunted her crew. + +The sight of the frigate riding peacefully at anchor in the harbor was +torture to poor Bainbridge. In feverish letters he implored Preble to +bombard the town, to sink the gunboats in the harbor, to recapture +the frigate or to burn her at her moorings--anything to take away the +bitterness of humiliation. The latter alternative, indeed, Preble had +been revolving in his own mind. + +Toward midnight of February 16, 1804, Bainbridge and his companions were +aroused by the guns of the fort. They sprang to the window and witnessed +the spectacle for which the unhappy captain had prayed long and +devoutly. The Philadelphia was in flames--red, devouring flames, pouring +out of her hold, climbing the rigging, licking her topmasts, forming +fantastic columns--devastating, unconquerable flames--the frigate was +doomed, doomed! And every now and then one of her guns would explode as +though booming out her requiem. Bainbridge was avenged. + +How had it all happened? The inception of this daring feat must be +credited to Commodore Preble; the execution fell to young Stephen +Decatur, lieutenant in command of the sloop Enterprise. The plan +was this: to use the Intrepid, a captured Tripolitan ketch, as +the instrument of destruction, equipping her with combustibles and +ammunition, and if possible to burn the Philadelphia and other ships +in the harbor while raking the Pasha's castle with the frigate's +eighteen-pounders. When Decatur mustered his crew on the deck of the +Enterprise and called for volunteers for this exploit, every man jack +stepped forward. Not a man but was spoiling for excitement after months +of tedious inactivity; not an American who did not covet a chance to +avenge the loss of the Philadelphia. But all could not be used, and +Decatur finally selected five officers and sixty-two men. On the night +of the 3rd of February, the Intrepid set sail from Syracuse, accompanied +by the brig Siren, which was to support the boarding party with her +boats and cover their retreat. + +Two weeks later, the Intrepid, barely distinguishable in the light of +a new moon, drifted into the harbor of Tripoli. In the distance lay the +unfortunate Philadelphia. The little ketch was now within range of the +batteries, but she drifted on unmolested until within a hundred yards +of the frigate. Then a hail came across the quiet bay. The pilot replied +that he had lost his anchors and asked permission to make fast to the +frigate for the night. The Tripolitan lookout grumbled assent. Ropes +were then thrown out and the vessels were drawing together, when the cry +"Americanas!" went up from the deck of the frigate. In a trice Decatur +and his men had scrambled aboard and overpowered the crew. + +It was a crucial moment. If Decatur's instructions had not been +imperative, he would have thrown prudence to the winds and have tried to +cut out the frigate and make off in her. There were those, indeed, who +believed that he might have succeeded. But the Commodore's orders were +to destroy the frigate. There was no alternative. Combustibles were +brought on board, the match applied, and in a few moments the frigate +was ablaze. Decatur and his men had barely time to regain the Intrepid +and to cut her fasts. The whole affair had not taken more than twenty +minutes, and no one was killed or even seriously wounded. + +Pulling lustily at their sweeps, the crew of the Intrepid moved her +slowly out of the harbor, in the light of the burning vessel. The guns +of the fort were manned at last and were raining shot and shell wildly +over the harbor. The jack-tars on the Intrepid seemed oblivious to +danger, "commenting upon the beauty of the spray thrown up by the shot +between us and the brilliant light of the ship, rather than calculating +any danger," wrote Midshipman Morris. Then the starboard guns of the +Philadelphia, as though instinct with purpose, began to send hot shot +into the town. The crew yelled with delight and gave three cheers for +the redoubtable old frigate. It was her last action, God bless her! Her +cables soon burned, however, and she drifted ashore, there to blow up in +one last supreme effort to avenge herself. At the entrance of the harbor +the Intrepid found the boats of the Siren, and three days later both +rejoined the squadron. + +Thrilling as Decatur's feat was, it brought peace no nearer. The Pasha, +infuriated by the loss of the Philadelphia, was more exorbitant +than ever in his demands. There was nothing for it but to scour the +Mediterranean for Tripolitan ships, maintain the blockade so far as +weather permitted, and await the opportunity to reduce the city of +Tripoli by bombardment. But Tripoli was a hard nut to crack. On the +ocean side it was protected by forts and batteries and the harbor was +guarded by a long line of reefs. Through the openings in this natural +breakwater, the light-draft native craft could pass in and out to harass +the blockading fleet. + +It was Commodore Preble's plan to make a carefully concerted attack upon +this stronghold as soon as summer weather conditions permitted. For this +purpose he had strengthened his squadron at Syracuse by purchasing a +number of flat-bottomed gunboats with which he hoped to engage the enemy +in the shallow waters about Tripoli while his larger vessels shelled the +town and batteries. He arrived off the African coast about the middle of +July but encountered adverse weather, so that for several weeks he could +accomplish nothing of consequence. Finally, on the 3rd of August, a +memorable date in the annals of the American navy, he gave the signal +for action. + +The new gunboats were deployed in two divisions, one commanded by +Decatur, and fully met expectations by capturing two enemy ships in most +sanguinary, hand-to-hand fighting. Meantime the main squadron drew close +in shore, so close, it is said, that the gunners of shore batteries +could not depress their pieces sufficiently to score hits. All these +preliminaries were watched with bated breath by the officers of the old +Philadelphia from behind their prison bars. + +The Pasha had viewed the approach of the American fleet with utter +disdain. He promised the spectators who lined the terraces that they +would witness some rare sport; they should see his gunboats put the +enemy to flight. But as the American gunners began to get the range and +pour shot into the town, and the Constitution with her heavy ordnance +passed and repassed, delivering broadsides within three cables' +length of the batteries, the Pasha's nerves were shattered and he fled +precipitately to his bomb-proof shelter. No doubt the damage inflicted +by this bombardment was very considerable, but Tripoli still defied +the enemy. Four times within the next four weeks Preble repeated these +assaults, pausing after each bombardment to ascertain what terms the +Pasha had to offer; but the wily Yusuf was obdurate, knowing well enough +that, if he waited, the gods of wind and storm would come to his aid and +disperse the enemy's fleet. + +It was after the fifth ineffectual assault that Preble determined on a +desperate stroke. He resolved to fit out a fireship and to send her into +the very jaws of death, hoping to destroy the Tripolitan gunboats and +at the same time to damage the castle and the town. He chose for this +perilous enterprise the old Intrepid which had served her captors so +well, and out of many volunteers he gave the command to Captain Richard +Somers and Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth. The little ketch was loaded with +a hundred barrels of gunpowder and a large quantity of combustibles and +made ready for a quick run by the batteries into the harbor. Certain +death it seemed to sail this engine of destruction past the outlying +reefs into the midst of the Tripolitan gunboats; but every precaution +was taken to provide for the escape of the crew. Two rowboats were taken +along and in these frail craft, they believed, they could embark, when +once the torch had been applied, and in the ensuing confusion return to +the squadron. + +Somers selected his crew of ten men with care, and at the last moment +consented to let Lieutenant Joseph Israel join the perilous expedition. +On the night of the 4th of September, the Intrepid sailed off in the +darkness toward the mouth of the harbor. Anxious eyes followed the +little vessel, trying to pierce the blackness that soon enveloped her. +As she neared the harbor the shore batteries opened fire; and suddenly +a blinding flash and a terrific explosion told the fate which overtook +her. Fragments of wreckage rose high in the air, the fearful concussion +was felt by every boat in the squadron, and then darkness and awful +silence enfolded the dead and the dying. Two days later the bodies of +the heroic thirteen, mangled beyond recognition, were cast up by the +sea. Even Captain Bainbridge, gazing sorrowfully upon his dead comrades +could not recognize their features. Just what caused the explosion will +never be known. Preble always believed that Tripolitans had attempted +to board the Intrepid and that Somers had deliberately fired the powder +magazine rather than surrender. Be that as it may, no one doubts that +the crew were prepared to follow their commander to self-destruction if +necessary. In deep gloom, the squadron returned to Syracuse, leaving +a few vessels to maintain a fitful blockade off the hated and menacing +coast. + +Far away from the sound of Commodore Preble's guns a strange, almost +farcical, intervention in the Tripolitan War was preparing. The scene +shifts to the desert on the east, where William Eaton, consul at Tunis, +becomes the center of interest. Since the very beginning of the war, +this energetic and enterprising Connecticut Yankee had taken a lively +interest in the fortunes of Hamet Karamanli, the legitimate heir to the +throne, who had been driven into exile by Yusuf the pretender. Eaton +loved intrigue as Preble gloried in war. Why not assist Hamet to recover +his throne? Why not, in frontier parlance, start a back-fire that would +make Tripoli too hot for Yusuf? He laid his plans before his superiors +at Washington, who, while not altogether convinced of his competence to +play the king-maker, were persuaded to make him navy agent, subject +to the orders of the commander of the American squadron in the +Mediterranean. Commodore Samuel Barron, who succeeded Preble, was +instructed to avail himself of the cooperation of the ex-Pasha of +Tripoli if he deemed it prudent. In the fall of 1804 Barron dispatched +Eaton in the Argus, Captain Isaac Hull commander, to Alexandria to find +Hamet and to assure him of the cooperation of the American squadron in +the reconquest of his kingdom. Eaton entered thus upon the coveted role: +twenty centuries looked down upon him as they had upon Napoleon. + +A mere outline of what followed reads like the scenario of an opera +bouffe. Eaton ransacked Alexandria in search, of Hamet the unfortunate +but failed to find the truant. Then acting on a rumor that Hamet had +departed up the Nile to join the Mamelukes, who were enjoying one of +their seasonal rebellions against constituted authority, Eaton plunged +into the desert and finally brought back the astonished and somewhat +reluctant heir to the throne. With prodigious energy Eaton then +organized an expedition which was to march overland toward Derne, meet +the squadron at the Bay of Bomba, and descend vi et armis upon the +unsuspecting pretender at Tripoli. He even made a covenant with Hamet +promising with altogether unwarranted explicitness that the United +States would use "their utmost exertions" to reestablish him in his +sovereignty. Eaton was to be "general and commander-in-chief of the land +forces." This aggressive Yankee alarmed Hamet, who clearly did not want +his sovereignty badly enough to fight for it. + +The international army which the American generalissimo mustered was +a motley array: twenty-five cannoneers of uncertain nationality, +thirty-eight Greeks, Hamet and his ninety followers, and a party of +Arabian horsemen and camel-drivers--all told about four hundred men. The +story of their march across the desert is a modern Anabasis. When the +Arabs were not quarreling among themselves and plundering the rest of +the caravan, they were demanding more pay. Rebuffed they would disappear +with their camels into the fastnesses of the desert, only to reappear +unexpectedly with new importunities. Between Hamet, who was in constant +terror of his life and quite ready to abandon the expedition, and these +mutinous Arabs, Eaton was in a position to appreciate the vicissitudes +of Xenophon and his Ten Thousand. No ordinary person, indeed, could have +surmounted all obstacles and brought his balky forces within sight of +Derne. + +Supported by the American fleet which had rendezvoused as agreed in the +Bay of Bomba, the four hundred advanced upon the city. Again the Arab +contingent would have made off into the desert but for the promise of +more money. Hamet was torn by conflicting emotions, in which a desire +to retreat was uppermost. Eaton was, as ever, indefatigable and +indomitable. When his forces were faltering at the crucial moment, he +boldly ordered an assault and carried the defenses of the city. The guns +of the ships in the harbor completed the discomfiture of the enemy, +and the international army took possession of the citadel. Derne won, +however, had to be resolutely defended. Twice within the next four +weeks, Tripolitan forces were beaten back only with the greatest +difficulty. The day after the second assault (June 10th) the frigate +Constellation arrived off Derne with orders which rang down the curtain +on this interlude in the Tripolitan War. Derne was to be evacuated! +Peace had been concluded! + +Just what considerations moved the Administration to conclude peace at +a moment when the largest and most powerful American fleet ever placed +under a single command was assembling in the Mediterranean and when the +land expedition was approaching its objective, has never been adequately +explained. Had the President's belligerent spirit oozed away as the +punitive expeditions against Tripoli lost their merely defensive +character and took on the proportions of offensive naval operations? Had +the Administration become alarmed at the drain upon the treasury? Or +did the President wish to have his hands free to deal with those +depredations upon American commerce committed by British and French +cruisers which were becoming far more frequent and serious than ever +the attacks of the Corsairs of the Mediterranean had been? Certain it is +that overtures of peace from the Pasha were welcomed by the very naval +commanders who had been most eager to wrest a victory from the Corsairs. +Perhaps they, too, were wearied by prolonged war with an elusive foe off +a treacherous coast. + +How little prepared the Administration was to sustain a prolonged +expedition by land against Tripoli to put Hamet on his throne, appears +in the instructions which Commodore Barron carried to the Mediterranean. +If he could use Eaton and Hamet to make a diversion, well and good; +but he was at the same time to assist Colonel Tobias Lear, American +Consul-General at Algiers, in negotiating terms of peace, if the Pasha +showed a conciliatory spirit. The Secretary of State calculated that +the moment had arrived when peace could probably be secured "without any +price and pecuniary compensation whatever." + +Such expectations proved quite unwarranted. The Pasha was ready for +peace, but he still had his price. Poor Bainbridge, writing from +captivity, assured Barron that the Pasha would never let his prisoners +go without a ransom. Nevertheless, Commodore Barron determined to meet +the overtures which the Pasha had made through the Danish consul at +Tripoli. On the 24th of May he put the frigate Essex at the disposal of +Lear, who crossed to Tripoli and opened direct negotiations. + +The treaty which Lear concluded on June 4, 1805, was an inglorious +document. It purchased peace, it is true, and the release of some three +hundred sad and woe-begone American sailors. But because the Pasha held +three hundred prisoners, and the United States only a paltry hundred, +the Pasha was to receive sixty thousand dollars. Derne was to be +evacuated and no further aid was to be given to rebellious subjects. +The United States was to endeavor to persuade Hamet to withdraw from the +soil of Tripoli--no very difficult matter--while the Pasha on his part +was to restore Hamet's family to him--at some future time. Nothing was +said about tribute; but it was understood that according to ancient +custom each newly appointed consul should carry to the Pasha a present +not exceeding six thousand dollars. + +The Tripolitan War did not end in a blaze of glory for the United +States. It had been waged in the spirit of "not a cent for tribute"; it +was concluded with a thinly veiled payment for peace; and, worst of all, +it did not prevent further trouble with the Barbary States. The war had +been prosecuted with vigor under Preble; it had languished under Barron; +and it ended just when the naval forces were adequate to the task. Yet, +from another point of view, Preble, Decatur, Somers, and their comrades +had not fought in vain. They had created imperishable traditions for the +American navy; they had established a morale in the service; and they +had trained a group of young officers who were to give a good account of +themselves when their foes should be not shifty Tripolitans but sturdy +Britons. + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE SHADOW OF THE FIRST CONSUL + +Bainbridge in forlorn captivity at Tripoli, Preble and Barron keeping +anxious watch off the stormy coast of Africa, Eaton marching through the +windswept desert, are picturesque figures that arrest the attention of +the historian; but they seemed like shadowy actors in a remote drama to +the American at home, absorbed in the humdrum activities of trade and +commerce. Through all these dreary years of intermittent war, other +matters engrossed the President and Congress and caught the attention of +the public. Not the rapacious Pasha of Tripoli but the First Consul of +France held the center of the stage. At the same time that news arrived +of the encounter of the Enterprise with the Corsairs came also the +confirmation of rumors current all winter in Europe. Bonaparte had +secured from Spain the retrocession of the province of Louisiana. From +every point of view, as the President remarked, the transfer of this +vast province to a new master was "an inauspicious circumstance." The +shadow of the Corsican, already a menace to the peace of Europe, fell +across the seas. + +A strange chain of circumstances linked Bonaparte with the New World. +When he became master of France by the coup d'etat of the 18th Brumaire +(November 9, 1799), he fell heir to many policies which the republic had +inherited from the old regime. Frenchmen had never ceased to lament the +loss of colonial possessions in North America. From time to time the +hope of reviving the colonial empire sprang up in the hearts of the +rulers of France. It was this hope that had inspired Genet's mission to +the United States and more than one intrigue among the pioneers of +the Mississippi Valley, during Washington's second Administration. The +connecting link between the old regime and the new was the statesman +Talleyrand. He had gone into exile in America when the French Revolution +entered upon its last frantic phase and had brought back to France the +plan and purpose which gave consistency to his diplomacy in the office +of Minister of Foreign Affairs, first under the Directory, then under +the First Consul. Had Talleyrand alone nursed this plan, it would have +had little significance in history; but it was eagerly taken up by a +group of Frenchmen who believed that France, having set her house +in order and secured peace in Europe, should now strive for orderly +commercial development. The road to prosperity, they believed, lay +through the acquisition of colonial possessions. The recovery of the +province of Louisiana was an integral part of their programme. + +While the Directory was still in power and Bonaparte was pursuing his +ill-fated expedition in Egypt, Talleyrand had tried to persuade the +Spanish Court to cede Louisiana and the Floridas. The only way for +Spain to put a limit to the ambitions of the Americans, he had argued +speciously, was to shut them up within their natural limits. Only so +could Spain preserve the rest of her immense domain. But since Spain +was confessedly unequal to the task, why not let France shoulder the +responsibility? "The French Republic, mistress of these two provinces, +will be a wall of brass forever impenetrable to the combined efforts +of England and America," he assured the Spaniards. But the time was not +ripe. + +Such, then, was the policy which Bonaparte inherited when he became +First Consul and master of the destinies of his adopted country. A +dazzling future opened before him. Within a year he had pacified Europe, +crushing the armies of Austria by a succession of brilliant victories, +and laying prostrate the petty states of the Italian peninsula. Peace +with England was also in sight. Six weeks after his victory at Marengo, +Bonaparte sent a special courier to Spain to demand--the word is hardly +too strong--the retrocession of Louisiana. + +It was an odd whim of Fate that left the destiny of half the American +continent to Don Carlos IV, whom Henry Adams calls "a kind of Spanish +George III "--virtuous, to be sure, but heavy, obtuse, inconsequential, +and incompetent. With incredible fatuousness the King gave his consent +to a bargain by which he was to yield Louisiana in return for Tuscany +or other Italian provinces which Bonaparte had just overrun with his +armies. "Congratulate me," cried Don Carlos to his Prime Minister, his +eyes sparkling, "on this brilliant beginning of Bonaparte's relations +with Spain. The Prince-presumptive of Parma, my son-in-law and nephew, +a Bourbon, is invited by France to reign, on the delightful banks of +the Arno, over a people who once spread their commerce through the known +world, and who were the controlling power of Italy,--a people mild, +civilized, full of humanity; the classical land of science and art." A +few war-ridden Italian provinces for an imperial domain that stretched +from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Superior and that extended westward no +one knew how far! + +The bargain was closed by a preliminary treaty signed at San Ildefonso +on October 1, 1800. Just one year later to a day, the preliminaries of +the Peace of Amiens were signed, removing the menace of England on the +seas. The First Consul was now free to pursue his colonial policy, and +the destiny of the Mississippi Valley hung in the balance. Between the +First Consul and his goal, however, loomed up the gigantic figure of +Toussaint L'Ouverture, a full-blooded negro, who had made himself master +of Santo Domingo and had thus planted himself squarely in the searoad +to Louisiana. The story of this "gilded African," as Bonaparte +contemptuously dubbed him, cannot be told in these pages, because it +involves no less a theme than the history of the French Revolution in +this island, once the most thriving among the colonial possessions of +France in the West Indies. The great plantations of French Santo Domingo +(the western part of the island) had supplied half of Europe with sugar, +coffee, and cotton; three-fourths of the imports from French-American +colonies were shipped from Santo Domingo. As the result of class +struggles between whites and mulattoes for political power, the most +terrific slave insurrection in the Western Hemisphere had deluged +the island in blood. Political convulsions followed which wrecked the +prosperity of the island. Out of this chaos emerged the one man who +seemed able to restore a semblance of order--the Napoleon of Santo +Domingo, whose character, thinks Henry Adams, had a curious resemblance +to that of the Corsican. The negro was, however, a ferocious brute +without the redeeming qualities of the Corsican, though, as a leader +of his race, his intelligence cannot be denied. Though professing +allegiance to the French Republic, Toussaint was driven by circumstances +toward independence. While his Corsican counterpart was executing his +coup d'etat and pacifying Europe, he threw off the mask, imprisoned the +agent of the French Directory, seized the Spanish part of the island, +and proclaimed a new constitution for Santo Domingo, assuming all power +for himself for life and the right of naming his successor. The negro +defied the Corsican. + +The First Consul was now prepared to accept the challenge. Santo Domingo +must be recovered and restored to its former prosperity--even if slavery +had to be reestablished--before Louisiana could be made the center of +colonial empire in the West. He summoned Leclerc, a general of excellent +reputation and husband of his beautiful sister Pauline, and gave to +him the command of an immense expedition which was already preparing +at Brest. In the latter part of November, Leclerc set sail with a large +fleet bearing an army of ten thousand men and on January 29, 1802, +arrived off the eastern cape of Santo Domingo. A legend says that +Toussaint looking down on the huge armada exclaimed, "We must perish. +All France is coming to Santo Domingo. It has been deceived; it comes +to take vengeance and enslave the blacks." The negro leader made a +formidable resistance, nevertheless, annihilating one French army +and seriously endangering the expedition. But he was betrayed by his +generals, lured within the French lines, made prisoner, and finally +sent to France. He was incarcerated in a French fortress in the Jura +Mountains and there perished miserably in 1803. + +The significance of these events in the French West Indies was not lost +upon President Jefferson. The conquest of Santo Domingo was the prelude +to the occupation of Louisiana. It would be only a change of European +proprietors, of absentee landlords, to be sure; but there was a world +of difference between France, bent upon acquiring a colonial empire and +quiescent Spain, resting on her past achievements. The difference was +personified by Bonaparte and Don Carlos. The sovereignty of the lower +Mississippi country could never be a matter of indifference to those +settlers of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio who in the year 1799 sent down +the Mississippi in barges, keel-boats, and flatboats one hundred and +twenty thousand pounds of tobacco, ten thousand barrels of flour, +twenty-two thousand pounds of hemp, five hundred barrels of cider, and +as many more of whiskey, for transshipment and export. The right of +navigation of the Mississippi was a diplomatic problem bequeathed by +the Confederation. The treaty with Spain in 1795 had not solved the +question, though it had established a modus vivendi. Spain had conceded +to Americans the so-called right of deposit for three years--that is, +the right to deposit goods at New Orleans free of duty and to transship +them to ocean-going vessels; and the concession, though never definitely +renewed, was tacitly continued. No; the people of the trans-Alleghany +country could not remain silent and unprotesting witnesses to the +retrocession of Louisiana. + +Nor was Jefferson's interest in the Mississippi problem of recent +origin. Ten years earlier as Secretary of State, while England and +Spain seemed about to come to blows over the Nootka Sound affair, he had +approached both France and Spain to see whether the United States might +not acquire the island of New Orleans or at least a port near the mouth +of the river "with a circum-adjacent territory, sufficient for its +support, well-defined, and extraterritorial to Spain." In case of war, +England would in all probability conquer Spanish Louisiana. How +much better for Spain to cede territory on the eastern side of the +Mississippi to a safe neighbor like the United States and thereby make +sure of her possessions on the western waters of that river. It was "not +our interest," wrote Mr. Jefferson, "to cross the Mississippi for ages!" + +It was, then, a revival of an earlier idea when President Jefferson, +officially through Robert R. Livingston, Minister to France, and +unofficially through a French gentleman, Dupont de Nemours, sought to +impress upon the First Consul the unwisdom of his taking possession of +Louisiana, without ceding to the United States at least New Orleans and +the Floridas as a "palliation." Even so, France would become an object +of suspicion, a neighbor with whom Americans were bound to quarrel. + +Undeterred by this naive threat, doubtless considering its source, the +First Consul pressed Don Carlos for the delivery of Louisiana. The King +procrastinated but at length gave his promise on condition that France +should pledge herself not to alienate the province. Of course, replied +the obliging Talleyrand. The King's wishes were identical with the +intentions of the French government. France would never alienate +Louisiana. The First Consul pledged his word. On October 15, 1802, Don +Carlos signed the order that delivered Louisiana to France. + +While the President was anxiously awaiting the results of his diplomacy, +news came from Santo Domingo that Leclerc and his army had triumphed +over Toussaint and his faithless generals, only to succumb to a far more +insidious foe. Yellow fever had appeared in the summer of 1802 and had +swept away the second army dispatched by Bonaparte to take the place +of the first which had been consumed in the conquest of the island. +Twenty-four thousand men had been sacrificed at the very threshold of +colonial empire, and the skies of Europe were not so clear as they had +been. And then came the news of Leclerc's death (November 2, 1802). +Exhausted by incessant worry, he too had succumbed to the pestilence; +and with him, as events proved, passed Bonaparte's dream of colonial +empire in the New World. + +Almost at the same time with these tidings a report reached the settlers +of Kentucky and Tennessee that the Spanish intendant at New Orleans had +suspended the right of deposit. The Mississippi was therefore closed to +western commerce. Here was the hand of the Corsican.* Now they knew what +they had to expect from France. Why not seize the opportunity and strike +before the French legions occupied the country? The Spanish garrisons +were weak; a few hundred resolute frontiersmen would speedily overpower +them. + + * It is now clear enough that Bonaparte was not directly + responsible for this act of the Spanish intendant. See + Channing, "History of the United States," vol. IV, p. 312, + and Note, 326-327. + + +Convinced that he must resort to stiffer measures if he would not be +hurried into hostilities, President Jefferson appointed James Monroe as +Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to France and Spain. +He was to act with Robert Livingston at Paris and with Charles Pinckney, +Minister to Spain, "in enlarging and more effectually securing our +rights and interests in the river Mississippi and in the territories +eastward thereof"--whatever these vague terms might mean. The President +evidently read much into them, for he assured Monroe that on the event +of his mission depended the future destinies of the Republic. + +Two months passed before Monroe sailed with his instructions. He had +ample time to study them, for he was thirty days in reaching the coast +of France. The first aim of the envoys was to procure New Orleans and +the Floridas, bidding as high as ten million dollars if necessary. +Failing in this object, they were then to secure the right of deposit +and such other desirable concessions as they could. To secure New +Orleans, they might even offer to guarantee the integrity of Spanish +possessions on the west bank of the Mississippi. Throughout the +instructions ran the assumption that the Floridas had either passed with +Louisiana into the hands of France or had since been acquired. + +While the packet bearing Monroe was buffeting stormy seas, the policy of +Bonaparte underwent a transformation--an abrupt transformation it seemed +to Livingston. On the 12th of March the American Minister witnessed an +extraordinary scene in Madame Bonaparte's drawing-room. Bonaparte and +Lord Whitworth, the British Ambassador, were in conversation, when the +First Consul remarked, "I find, my Lord, your nation want war again." +"No, Sir," replied the Ambassador, "we are very desirous of peace." "I +must either have Malta or war," snapped Bonaparte. The amazed onlookers +soon spread the rumor that Europe was again to be plunged into war; but, +viewed in the light of subsequent events, this incident had even greater +significance; it marked the end of Bonaparte's colonial scheme. +Though the motives for this change of front will always be a matter +of conjecture, they are somewhat clarified by the failure of the Santo +Domingo expedition. Leclerc was dead; the negroes were again in +control; the industries of the island were ruined; Rochambeau, Leclerc's +successor, was clamoring for thirty-five thousand more men to reconquer +the island; the expense was alarming--and how meager the returns for +this colonial venture! Without Santo Domingo, Louisiana would be of +little use; and to restore prosperity to the West India island--even +granting that its immediate conquest were possible--would demand many +years and large disbursements. The path to glory did not lie in this +direction. In Europe, as Henry Adams observes, "war could be made to +support war; in Santo Domingo peace alone could but slowly repair some +part of this frightful waste." + +There may well have been other reasons for Bonaparte's change of front. +If he read between the lines of a memoir which Pontalba, a wealthy and +well-informed resident of Louisiana, sent to him, he must have realized +that this province, too, while it might become an inexhaustible source +of wealth for France, might not be easy to hold. There was here, it is +true, no Toussaint L'Ouverture to lead the blacks in insurrection; but +there was a white menace from the north which was far more serious. +These Kentuckians, said Pontalba trenchantly, must be watched, cajoled, +and brought constantly under French influence through agents. There were +men among them who thought of Louisiana "as the highroad to the conquest +of Mexico." Twenty or thirty thousand of these westerners on flatboats +could come down the river and sweep everything before them. To be sure, +they were an undisciplined horde with slender Military equipment--a +striking contrast to the French legions; but, added the Frenchman, "a +great deal of skill in shooting, the habit of being in the woods and of +enduring fatigue--this is what makes up for every deficiency." + +And if Bonaparte had ever read a remarkable report of the Spanish +Governor Carondelet, he must have divined that there was something +elemental and irresistible in this down-the-river-pressure of the people +of the West. "A carbine and a little maize in a sack are enough for an +American to wander about in the forests alone for a whole month. With +his carbine, he kills the wild cattle and deer for food and defends +himself from the savages. The maize dampened serves him in lieu of +bread .... The cold does not affright him. When a family tires of one +location, it moves to another, and there it settles with the same ease. +Thus in about eight years the settlement of Cumberland has been formed, +which is now about to be created into a state." + +On Easter Sunday, 1803, Bonaparte revealed his purpose, which had +doubtless been slowly maturing, to two of his ministers, one of whom, +Barbs Marbois, was attached to the United States through residence, his +devotion to republican principles, and marriage to an American wife. +The First Consul proposed to cede Louisiana to the United States: he +considered the colony as entirely lost. What did they think of the +proposal? Marbois, with an eye to the needs of the Treasury of which +he was the head, favored the sale of the province; and next day he +was directed to interview Livingston at once. Before he could do so, +Talleyrand, perhaps surmising in his crafty way the drift of the First +Consul's thoughts, startled Livingston by asking what the United States +would give for the whole of Louisiana. Livingston, who was in truth +hard of hearing, could not believe his ears. For months he had talked, +written, and argued in vain for a bit of territory near the mouth of the +Mississippi, and here was an imperial domain tossed into his lap, as +it were. Livingston recovered from his surprise sufficiently to name +a trifling sum which Talleyrand declared too low. Would Mr. Livingston +think it over? He, Talleyrand, really did not speak from authority. The +idea had struck him, that was all. + +Some days later in a chance conversation with Marbois, Livingston spoke +of his extraordinary interview with Talleyrand. Marbois intimated that +he was not ignorant of the affair and invited Livingston to a further +conversation. Although Monroe had already arrived in Paris and was now +apprised of this sudden turn of affairs, Livingston went alone to the +Treasury Office and there in conversation, which was prolonged until +midnight, he fenced with Marbois over a fair price for Louisiana. +The First Consul, said Marbois, demanded one hundred million francs. +Livingston demurred at this huge sum. The United States did not want +Louisiana but was willing to give ten million dollars for New Orleans +and the Floridas. What would the United States give then? asked Marbois. +Livingston replied that he would have to confer with Monroe. Finally +Marbois suggested that if they would name sixty million francs, (less +than $12,000,000) and assume claims which Americans had against the +French Treasury for twenty million more, he would take the offer under +advisement. Livingston would not commit himself, again insisting that he +must consult Monroe. + +So important did this interview seem to Livingston that he returned +to his apartment and wrote a long report to Madison without waiting +to confer with Monroe. It was three o'clock in the morning when he was +done. "We shall do all we can to cheapen the purchase," he wrote, "but +my present sentiment is that we shall buy." + +History does not record what Monroe said when his colleague revealed +these midnight secrets. But in the prolonged negotiations which followed +Monroe, though ill, took his part, and in the end, on April 30, 1803, +set his hand to the treaty which ceded Louisiana to the United States on +the terms set by Marbois. In two conventions bearing the same date, the +commissioners bound the United States to pay directly to France the sum +of sixty million francs ($11,250,000) and to assume debts owed by France +to American citizens, estimated at not more than twenty million francs +($3,750,000). Tradition says that after Marbois, Monroe, and Livingston +had signed their names, Livingston remarked: "We have lived long, but +this is the noblest work of our lives.... From this day the United +States take their place among the powers of the first rank." + + + +CHAPTER V. IN PURSUIT OF THE FLORIDAS + +The purchase of Louisiana was a diplomatic triumph of the first +magnitude. No American negotiators have ever acquired so much for +so little; yet, oddly enough, neither Livingston nor Monroe had the +slightest notion of the vast extent of the domain which they had +purchased. They had bought Louisiana "with the same extent that it is +now in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, +and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into +between Spain and other States," but what its actual boundaries were +they did not know. Considerably disturbed that the treaty contained +no definition of boundaries, Livingston sought information from the +enigmatical Talleyrand. "What are the eastern bounds of Louisiana?" +he asked. "I do not know," replied Talleyrand; "you must take it as we +received it." "But what did you mean to take?" urged Livingston somewhat +naively. "I do not know," was the answer. "Then you mean that we shall +construe it in our own way?" "I can give you no direction," said the +astute Frenchman. "You have made a noble bargain for yourselves, and I +suppose you will make the most of it." And with these vague assurances +Livingston had to be satisfied. + +The first impressions of Jefferson were not much more definite, for, +while he believed that the acquired territory more than doubled the area +of the United States, he could only describe it as including all the +waters of the Missouri and the Mississippi. He started at once, however, +to collect information about Louisiana. He prepared a list of queries +which he sent to reputable persons living in or near New Orleans. +The task was one in which he delighted: to accumulate and diffuse +information--a truly democratic mission gave him more real pleasure than +to reign in the Executive Mansion. His interest in the trans-Mississippi +country, indeed, was not of recent birth; he had nursed for years an +insatiable curiosity about the source and course of the Missouri; and in +this very year he had commissioned his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, +to explore the great river and its tributaries, to ascertain if they +afforded a direct and practicable water communication across the +continent. + +The outcome of the President's questionnaire was a report submitted +to Congress in the fall of 1803, which contained much interesting +information and some entertaining misinformation. The statistical matter +we may put to one side, as contemporary readers doubtless did; certain +impressions are worth recording. New Orleans, the first and immediate +object of negotiations, contained, it would appear, only a small part of +the population of the province, which numbered some twenty or more +rural districts. On the river above the city were the plantations of the +so-called Upper Coast, inhabited mostly by slaves whose Creole masters +lived in town; then, as one journeyed upstream appeared the first and +second German Coasts, where dwelt the descendants of those Germans who +had been brought to the province by John Law's Mississippi Bubble, an +industrious folk making their livelihood as purveyors to the city. Every +Friday night they loaded their small craft with produce and held market +next day on the river front at New Orleans, adding another touch to the +picturesque groups which frequented the levees. Above the German Coasts +were the first and second Acadian Coasts, populated by the numerous +progeny of those unhappy refugees who were expelled from Nova Scotia in +1755. Acadian settlements were scattered also along the backwaters west +of the great river: Bayou Lafourche was lined with farms which were +already producing cotton; near Bayou Teche and Bayou Vermilion--the +Attakapas country--were cattle ranges; and to the north was the richer +grazing country known as Opelousas. + +Passing beyond the Iberville River, which was indeed no river at all but +only an overflow of the Mississippi, the traveler up-stream saw on +his right hand "the government of Baton Rouge" with its scattered +settlements and mixed population of French, Spanish, and +Anglo-Americans; and still farther on, the Spanish parish of West +Feliciana, accounted a part of West Florida and described by President +Jefferson as the garden of the cotton-growing region. Beyond this point +the President's description of Louisiana became less confident, as +reliable sources of information failed him. His credulity, however, led +him to make one amazing statement, which provoked the ridicule of his +political opponents, always ready to pounce upon the slips of this +philosopher-president. "One extraordinary fact relative to salt must +not be omitted," he wrote in all seriousness. "There exists, about one +thousand miles up the Missouri, and not far from that river, a salt +mountain! The existence of such a mountain might well be questioned, +were it not for the testimony of several respectable and enterprising +traders who have visited it, and who have exhibited several bushels of +the salt to the curiosity of the people of St. Louis, where some of it +still remains. A specimen of the salt has been sent to Marietta. This +mountain is said to be 180 miles long and 45 in width, composed of solid +rock salt, without any trees or even shrubs on it." One Federalist wit +insisted that this salt mountain must be Lot's wife; another sent an +epigram to the United States Gazette which ran as follows: + +Herostratus of old, to eternalize his name Sat the temple of Diana all +in a flame; But Jefferson lately of Bonaparte bought, To pickle his +fame, a mountain of salt. + +Jefferson was too much of a philosopher to be disturbed by such gibes; +but he did have certain constitutional doubts concerning the treaty. +How, as a strict constructionist, was he to defend the purchase of +territory outside the limits of the United States, when the Constitution +did not specifically grant such power to the Federal Government? He had +fought the good fight of the year 1800 to oust Federalist administrators +who by a liberal interpretation were making waste paper of the +Constitution. Consistency demanded either that he should abandon the +treaty or that he should ask for the powers which had been denied to +the Federal Government. He chose the latter course and submitted to his +Cabinet and to his followers in Congress a draft of an amendment to the +Constitution conferring the desired powers. To his dismay they treated +his proposal with indifference, not to say coldness. He pressed his +point, redrafted his amendment, and urged its consideration once again. +Meantime letters from Livingston and Monroe warned him that delay was +hazardous; the First Consul might change his mind, as he was wont to do +on slight provocation. Privately Jefferson was deeply chagrined, but he +dared not risk the loss of Louisiana. With what grace he could summon, +he acquiesced in the advice of his Virginia friends who urged him to let +events take their course and to drop the amendment, but he continued to +believe that such a course if persisted in would make blank paper of +the Constitution. He could only trust, as he said in a letter, "that the +good sense of the country will correct the evil of construction when it +shall produce its ill effects." + +The debates on the treaty in, Congress make interesting reading for +those who delight in legal subtleties, for many nice questions of +constitutional law were involved. Even granting that territory could be +acquired, there was the further question whether the treaty-making power +was competent irrespective of the House of Representatives. And what, +pray, was meant by incorporating this new province in the Union? Was +Louisiana to be admitted into the Union as a State by President and +Senate? Or was it to be governed as a dependency? And how could the +special privileges given to Spanish and French ships in the port of New +Orleans be reconciled with that provision of the Constitution which, +expressly forbade any preference to be given, by any regulation of +commerce or revenue, to the ports of one State over those of another? +The exigencies of politics played havoc with consistency, so that +Republicans supported the ratification of the treaty with erstwhile +Federalist arguments, while Federalists used the old arguments of the +Republicans. Yet the Senate advised the ratification by a decisive vote +and with surprising promptness; and Congress passed a provisional act +authorizing the President to take over and govern the territory of +Louisiana. + +The vast province which Napoleon had tossed so carelessly into the lap +of the young Western Republic was, strangely enough, not yet formally in +his possession. The expeditionary force under General Victor which +was to have occupied Louisiana had never left port. M. Pierre Clement +Laussat, however, who was to have accompanied the expedition to assume +the duties of prefect in the province, had sailed alone in January, +1803, to receive the province from the Spanish authorities. If this +lonely Frenchman on mission possessed the imagination of his race, +he must have had some emotional thrills as he reflected that he was +following the sea trail of La Salle and Iberville through the warm +waters of the Gulf of Mexico. He could not have entered the Great River +and breasted its yellow current for a hundred miles, without seeing in +his mind's eye those phantom figures of French and Spanish adventurers +who had voyaged up and down its turbid waters in quest of gold or of +distant Cathay. As his vessel dropped anchor opposite the town which +Bienville had founded, Laussat must have felt that in some degree he was +"heir of all the ages"; yet he was in fact face to face with conditions +which, whatever their historic antecedents, were neither French nor +Spanish. On the water front of New Orleans, he counted "forty-five +Anglo-American ships to ten French." Subsequent experiences deepened +this first impression: it was not Spanish nor French influence which had +made this port important but those "three hundred thousand planters who +in twenty years have swarmed over the eastern plains of the Mississippi +and have cultivated them, and who have no other outlet than this river +and no other port than New Orleans." + +The outward aspect of the city, however, was certainly not American. +From the masthead of his vessel Laussat might have seen over a thousand +dwellings of varied architecture: houses of adobe, houses of brick, +houses of stucco; some with bright colors, others with the harmonious +half tones produced by sun and rain. No American artisans constructed +the picturesque balconies, the verandas, and belvederes which suggested +the semitropical existence that Nature forced upon these city dwellers +for more than half the year. No American craftsmen wrought the artistic +ironwork of balconies, gateways, and window gratings. Here was an +atmosphere which suggested the Old World rather than the New. The +streets which ran at right angles were reminiscent of the old regime: +Conde, Conti, Dauphine, St. Louis, Chartres, Bourbon, Orleans--all +these names were to be found within the earthen rampart which formed the +defense of the city. + +The inhabitants were a strange mixture: Spanish, French, American, +black, quadroon, and Creole. No adequate definition has ever been +formulated for "Creole," but no one familiar with the type could fail +to distinguish this caste from those descended from the first French +settlers or from the Acadians. A keen observer like Laussat discerned +speedily that the Creole had little place in the commercial life of +the city. He was your landed proprietor, who owned some of the choicest +parts of the city and its growing suburbs, and whose plantations lined +both banks of the Mississippi within easy reach from the city. At the +opposite end of the social scale were the quadroons--the demimonde of +this little capital--and the negro slaves. Between these extremes were +the French and, in ever-growing numbers, the Americans who plied +every trade, while the Spaniards constituted the governing class. +Deliberately, in the course of time, as befitted a Spanish gentleman and +officer, the Marquis de Casa Calvo, resplendent with regalia, arrived +from Havana to act with Governor Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo in +transferring the province. A season of gayety followed in which the +Spaniards did their best to conceal any chagrin they may have felt at +the relinquishment--happily, it might not be termed the surrender--of +Louisiana. And finally on the 30th of November, Governor Salcedo +delivered the keys of the city to Laussat, in the hall of the Cabildo, +while Marquis de Casa Calvo from the balcony absolved the people in +Place d'Armes below from their allegiance to his master, the King of +Spain. + +For the brief term of twenty days Louisiana was again a province of +France. Within that time Laussat bestirred himself to gallicize +the colony, so far as forms could do so. He replaced the cabildo or +hereditary council by a municipal council; he restored the civil code; +he appointed French officers to civil and military posts. And all +this he did in the full consciousness that American commissioners were +already on their way to receive from him in turn the province which his +wayward master had sold. On December 20, 1803, young William Claiborne, +Governor of the Mississippi Territory, and General James Wilkinson, with +a few companies of soldiers, entered and received from Laussat the keys +of the city and the formal surrender of Lower Louisiana. On the Place +d'Armes, promptly at noon, the tricolor was hauled down and the American +Stars and Stripes took its place. Louisiana had been transferred for the +sixth and last time. But what were the metes and bounds of this +province which had been so often bought and sold? What had Laussat been +instructed to take and give? What, in short, was Louisiana? + +The elation which Livingston and Monroe felt at acquiring unexpectedly +a vast territory beyond the Mississippi soon gave way to a disquieting +reflection. They had been instructed to offer ten million dollars for +New Orleans and the Floridas: they had pledged fifteen millions for +Louisiana without the Floridas. And they knew that it was precisely West +Florida, with the eastern bank of the Mississippi and the Gulf littoral, +that was most ardently desired by their countrymen of the West. But +might not Louisiana include West Florida? Had Talleyrand not professed +ignorance of the eastern boundary? And had he not intimated that +the Americans would make the most of their bargain? Within a month +Livingston had convinced himself that the United States could rightfully +claim West Florida to the Perdido River, and he soon won over Monroe to +his way of thinking. They then reported to Madison that "on a thorough +examination of the subject" they were persuaded that they had purchased +West Florida as a part of Louisiana. + +By what process of reasoning had Livingston and Monroe reached this +satisfying conclusion? Their argument proceeded from carefully chosen +premises. France, it was said, had once held Louisiana and the Floridas +together as part of her colonial empire in America; in 1763 she had +ceded New Orleans and the territory west of the Mississippi to Spain, +and at the same time she had transferred the Floridas to Great Britain; +in 1783 Great Britain had returned the Floridas to Spain which were then +reunited to Louisiana as under French rule. Ergo, when Louisiana was +retro-ceded "with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, +and that it had when France possessed it," it must have included West +Florida. + +That Livingston was able to convince himself by this logic, does not +speak well for his candor or intelligence. He was well aware that +Bonaparte had failed to persuade Don Carlos to include the Floridas +in the retrocession; he had tried to insert in the treaty an article +pledging the First Consul to use his good offices to obtain the Floridas +for the United States; and in his midnight dispatch to Madison, with +the prospect of acquiring Louisiana before him, he had urged the +advisability of exchanging this province for the more desirable +Floridas. Livingston therefore could not, and did not, say that Spain +intended to cede the Floridas as a part of Louisiana, but that she +had inadvertently done so and that Bonaparte might have claimed West +Florida, if he had been shrewd enough to see his opportunity. The United +States was in no way prevented from pressing this claim because the +First Consul had not done so. The fact that France had in 1763 actually +dismembered her colonial empire and that Louisiana as ceded to Spain +extended only to the Iberville, was given no weight in Livingston's +deductions. + +Having the will to believe, Jefferson and Madison became converts +to Livingston's faith. Madison wrote at once that in view of these +developments no proposal to exchange Louisiana for the Floridas should +be entertained; the President declared himself satisfied that "our right +to the Perdido is substantial and can be opposed by a quibble on form +only"; and John Randolph, duly coached by the Administration, flatly +declared in the House of Representatives that "We have not only obtained +the command of the mouth of the Mississippi, but of the Mobile, with its +widely extended branches; and there is not now a single stream of note +rising within the United States and falling into the Gulf of Mexico +which is not entirely our own, the Appalachicola excepted." From this +moment to the end of his administration, the acquisition of West Florida +became a sort of obsession with Jefferson. His pursuit of this phantom +claim involved American diplomats in strange adventures and at times +deflected the whole course of domestic politics. + +The first luckless minister to engage in this baffling quest was James +Monroe, who had just been appointed Minister to the Court of St. James. +He was instructed to take up the threads of diplomacy at Madrid where +they were getting badly tangled in the hands of Charles Pinckney, who +was a better politician than a diplomat. "Your inquiries may also be +directed," wrote Madison, "to the question whether any, and how much, of +what passes for West Florida be fairly included in the territory ceded +to us by France." Before leaving Paris on this mission, Monroe made +an effort to secure the good offices of the Emperor, but he found +Talleyrand cold and cynical as ever. He was given to understand that it +was all a question of money; if the United States were willing to pay +the price, the Emperor could doubtless have the negotiations transferred +to Paris and put the deal through. A loan of seventy million livres to +Spain, which would be passed over at once to France, would probably put +the United States into possession of the coveted territory. As an honest +man Monroe shrank from this sort of jobbery; besides, he could hardly +offer to buy a territory which his Government asserted it had already +bought with Louisiana. With the knowledge that he was defying Napoleon, +or at least his ministers, he started for Madrid to play a lone hand in +what he must have known was a desperate game. + +The conduct of the Administration during the next few months was hardly +calculated to smooth Monroe's path. In the following February (1804) +President Jefferson put his signature to an act which was designed +to give effect to the laws of the United States in the newly acquired +territory. The fourth section of this so-called Mobile Act included +explicitly within the revenue district of Mississippi all the navigable +waters lying within the United States and emptying into the Gulf east +of the Mississippi--an extraordinary provision indeed, since unless the +Floridas were a part of the United States there were no rivers within +the limits of the United States emptying into the Gulf east of the +Mississippi. The eleventh section was even more remarkable since it gave +the President authority to erect Mobile Bay and River into a separate +revenue district and to designate a port of entry. + +This cool appropriation of Spanish territory was too much for the +excitable Spanish Minister, Don Carlos Martinez Yrujo, who burst into +Madison's office one morning with a copy of the act in his hand and with +angry protests on his lips. He had been on excellent terms with Madison +and had enjoyed Jefferson's friendship and hospitality at Monticello; +but he was the accredited representative of His Catholic Majesty and +bound to defend his sovereignty. He fairly overwhelmed the timid Madison +with reproaches that could never be forgiven or forgotten; and from this +moment he was persona non grata in the Department of State. + +Madison doubtless took Yrujo's reproaches more to heart just because +he felt himself in a false position. The Administration had allowed the +transfer of Louisiana to be made in the full knowledge that Laussat had +been instructed to claim Louisiana as far as the Rio Bravo on the +west but only as far as the Iberville on the east. Laussat had finally +admitted as much confidentially to the American commissioners. Yet +the Administration had not protested. And now it was acting on the +assumption that it might dispose of the Gulf littoral, the West Florida +coast, as it pleased. Madison was bound to admit in his heart of hearts +that Yrujo had reason to be angry. A few weeks later the President +relieved the tense situation, though at the price of an obvious evasion, +by issuing a proclamation which declared all the shores and waters +"lying _Within the Boundaries of The United States_" * to be a revenue +district with Fort Stoddert as the port of entry. But the mischief had +been done and no constructive interpretation of the act by the President +could efface the impression first made upon the mind of Yrujo. Congress +had meant to appropriate West Florida and the President had suffered the +bill to become law. + + * The italics are President Jefferson's. + + +Nor was Pinckney's conduct at Madrid likely to make Monroe's mission +easier. Two years before, in 1802, he had negotiated a convention by +which Spain agreed to pay indemnity for depredations committed by her +cruisers in the late war between France and the United States. This +convention had been ratified somewhat tardily by the Senate and +now waited on the pleasure of the Spanish Government. Pinckney was +instructed to press for the ratification by Spain, which was taken for +granted; but he was explicitly warned to leave the matter of the Florida +claims to Monroe. When he presented the demands of his Government to +Cevallos, the Foreign Minister, he was met in turn with a demand for +explanations. What, pray, did his Government mean by this act? To +Pinckney's astonishment, he was confronted with a copy of the Mobile +Act, which Yrujo had forwarded. The South Carolinian replied, in a tone +that was not calculated to soothe ruffled feelings, that he had already +been advised that West Florida was included in the Louisiana purchase +and had so reported to Cevallos. He urged that the two subjects be kept +separate and begged His Excellency to have confidence in the honor and +justice of the United States. Delays followed until Cevallos finally, +declared sharply that the treaty would be ratified only on several +conditions, one of which was that the Mobile Act should be revoked. +Pinckney then threw discretion to the winds and announced that he would +ask for his passports; but his bluster did not change Spanish policy, +and he dared not carry out his threat. + +It was under these circumstances that Monroe arrived in Madrid on his +difficult mission. He was charged with the delicate task of persuading +a Government whose pride had been touched to the quick to ratify the +claims convention, to agree to a commission to adjudicate other claims +which it had refused to recognize, to yield West Florida as a part of +the Louisiana purchase, and to accept two million dollars for the rest +of Florida east of the Perdido River. In preparing these extraordinary +instructions, the Secretary of State labored under the hallucination +that Spain, on the verge of war with England, would pay handsomely for +the friendship of the United States, quite forgetting that the real +master of Spain was at Paris. + +The story of Monroe's five weary months in Spain may be briefly told. He +was in the unstrategic position of one who asks for everything and can +concede nothing. Only one consideration could probably have forced the +Spanish Government to yield, and that was fear. Spain had now declared +war upon England and might reasonably be supposed to prefer a solid +accommodation with the United States, as Madison intimated, rather than +add to the number of her foes. But Cevallos exhibited no signs of fear; +on the contrary he professed an amiable willingness to discuss every +point at great length. Every effort on the part of the American to reach +a conclusion was adroitly eluded. It was a game in which the Spaniard +had no equal. At last, when indubitable assurances came to Monroe +from Paris that Napoleon would not suffer Spain to make the slightest +concession either in the matter of spoliation claims or any other +claims, and that, in the event of a break between the United States and +Spain, he would surely take the part of Spain, Monroe abandoned the game +and asked for his passports. Late in May he returned to Paris, where he +joined with General Armstrong, who had succeeded Livingston, in urging +upon the Administration the advisability of seizing Texas, leaving West +Florida alone for the present. + +Months of vacillation followed the failure of Monroe's mission. The +President could not shake off his obsession, and yet he lacked the +resolution to employ force to take either Texas, which he did not want +but was entitled to, or West Florida which he ardently desired but whose +title was in dispute. It was not until November of the following year +(1805) that the Administration determined on a definite policy. In a +meeting of the Cabinet "I proposed," Jefferson recorded in a memorandum, +"we should address ourselves to France, informing her it was a last +effort at amicable settlement with Spain and offer to her, or through +her," a sum not to exceed five million dollars for the Floridas. The +chief obstacle in the way of this programme was the uncertain mood of +Congress, for a vote of credit was necessary and Congress might not take +kindly to Napoleon as intermediary. Jefferson then set to work to draft +a message which would "alarm the fears of Spain by a vigorous language, +in order to induce her to join us in appealing to the interference of +the Emperor." + +The message sent to Congress alluded briefly to the negotiations with +Spain and pointed out the unsatisfactory relations which still obtained. +Spain had shown herself unwilling to adjust claims or the boundaries +of Louisiana; her depredations on American commerce had been renewed; +arbitrary duties and vexatious searches continued to obstruct American +shipping on the Mobile; inroads had been made on American territory; +Spanish officers and soldiers had seized the property of American +citizens. It was hoped that Spain would view these injuries in +their proper light; if not, then the United States "must join in the +unprofitable contest of trying which party can do the other the most +harm. Some of these injuries may perhaps admit a peaceable remedy. Where +that is competent, it is always the most desirable. But some of them are +of a nature to be met by force only, and all of them may lead to it." + +Coming from the pen of a President who had declared that peace was his +passion, these belligerent words caused some bewilderment but, on the +whole, very considerable satisfaction in Republican circles, where the +possibility of rupture had been freely discussed. The people of the +Southwest took the President at his word and looked forward with +enthusiasm to a war which would surely overthrow Spanish rule in the +Floridas and yield the coveted lands along the Gulf of Mexico. The +country awaited with eagerness those further details which the President +had promised to set forth in another message. These were felt to be +historic moments full of dramatic possibilities. + +Three days later, behind closed doors, Congress listened to the special +message which was to put the nation to the supreme test. Alas for those +who had expected a trumpet call to battle. Never was a state paper +better calculated to wither martial spirit. In dull fashion it recounted +the events of Monroe's unlucky mission and announced the advance of +Spanish forces in the Southwest, which, however, the President had not +repelled, conceiving that "Congress alone is constitutionally invested +with the power of changing our condition from peace to war." He had +"barely instructed" our forces "to patrol the borders actually delivered +to us." It soon dawned upon the dullest intelligence that the President +had not the slightest intention to recommend a declaration of war. On +the contrary, he was at pains to point out the path to peace. There +was reason to believe that France was now disposed to lend her aid in +effecting a settlement with Spain, and "not a moment should be lost +in availing ourselves of it." "Formal war is not necessary, it is not +probable it will follow; but the protection of our citizens, the spirit +and honor of our country, require that force should be interposed to +a certain degree. It will probably contribute to advance the object of +peace." + +After the warlike tone of the first message, this sounded like a +retreat. It outraged the feelings of the war party. It was, to their +minds, an anticlimax, a pusillanimous surrender. None was angrier than +John Randolph of Virginia, hitherto the leader of the forces of the +Administration in the House. He did not hesitate to express his disgust +with "this double set of opinions and principles"; and his anger mounted +when he learned that as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means +he was expected to propose and carry through an appropriation of two +million dollars for the purchase of Florida. Further interviews with the +President and the Secretary of State did not mollify him, for, according +to his version of these conversations, he was informed that France would +not permit Spain to adjust her differences with the United States, which +had, therefore, the alternative of paying France handsomely or of facing +a war with both France and Spain. Then Randolph broke loose from +all restraint and swore by all his gods that he would not assume +responsibility for "delivering the public purse to the first cut-throat +that demanded it." + +Randolph's opposition to the Florida programme was more than an +unpleasant episode in Jefferson's administration; it proved to be the +beginning of a revolt which was fatal to the President's diplomacy, for +Randolph passed rapidly from passive to active opposition and fought +the two-million dollar bill to the bitter end. When the House finally +outvoted him and his faction, soon to be known as the "Quids," and the +Senate had concurred, precious weeks had been lost. Yet Madison must +bear some share of blame for the delay since, for some reason, never +adequately explained, he did not send instructions to Armstrong until +four weeks after the action of Congress. It was then too late to +bait the master of Europe. Just what had happened Armstrong could not +ascertain; but when Napoleon set out in October, 1806, on that fateful +campaign which crushed Prussia at Jena and Auerstadt, the chance of +acquiring Florida had passed. + + + +CHAPTER VI. AN AMERICAN CATILINE + +With the transfer of Louisiana, the United States entered upon its first +experience in governing an alien civilized people. At first view there +is something incongruous in the attempt of the young Republic, founded +upon the consent of the governed, to rule over a people whose land had +been annexed without their consent and whose preferences in the matter +of government had never been consulted. The incongruity appears the +more striking when it is recalled that the author of the Declaration of +Independence was now charged with the duty of appointing all officers, +civil and military, in the new territory. King George III had never +ruled more autocratically over any of his North American colonies than +President Jefferson over Louisiana through Governor William Claiborne +and General James Wilkinson. + +The leaders among the Creoles and better class of Americans counted on +a speedy escape from this autocratic government, which was confessedly +temporary. The terms of the treaty, indeed, encouraged the hope that +Louisiana would be admitted at once as a State. The inhabitants of the +ceded territory were to be "incorporated into the Union." But Congress +gave a different interpretation to these words and dashed all hopes by +the act of 1804, which, while it conceded a legislative council, made +its members and all officers appointive, and divided the province. +A delegation of Creoles went to Washington to protest against this +inconsiderate treatment. They bore a petition which contained many +stiletto-like thrusts at the President. What about those elemental +rights of representation and election which had figured in the glorious +contest for freedom? "Do political axioms on the Atlantic become +problems when transferred to the shores of the Mississippi?" To such +arguments Congress could not remain wholly indifferent. The outcome +was a third act (March 2, 1805) which established the usual form of +territorial government, an elective legislature, a delegate in Congress, +and a Governor appointed by the President. To a people who had counted +on statehood these concessions were small pinchbeck. Their irritation +was not allayed, and it continued to focus upon Governor Claiborne, the +distrusted agent of a government which they neither liked nor respected. + +Strange currents and counter-currents ran through the life of this +distant province. Casa Calvo and Morales, the former Spanish officials, +continued to reside in the city, like spiders at the center of a web of +Spanish intrigue; and the threads of their web extended to West Florida, +where Governor Folch watched every movement of Americans up and down +the Mississippi, and to Texas, where Salcedo, Captain-General of +the Internal Provinces of Mexico, waited for overt aggressions from +land-hungry American frontiersmen. All these Spanish agents knew that +Monroe had left Madrid empty-handed yet still asserting claims that were +ill-disguised threats; but none of them knew whether the impending blow +would fall upon West Florida or Texas. Then, too, right under their eyes +was the Mexican Association, formed for the avowed purpose of collecting +information about Mexico which would be useful if the United States +should become involved in war with Spain. In the city, also, were +adventurous individuals ready for any daring move upon Mexico, where, +according to credible reports, a revolution was imminent. The conquest +of Mexico was the day-dream of many an adventurer. In his memoir +advising Bonaparte to take and hold Louisiana as an impenetrable barrier +to Mexico, Pontalba had said with strong conviction: "It is the +surest means of destroying forever the bold schemes with which several +individuals in the United States never cease filling the newspapers, by +designating Louisiana as the highroad to the conquest of Mexico." + +Into this web of intrigue walked the late Vice-President of the United +States, leisurely journeying through the Southwest in the summer of +1805. + +Aaron Burr is one of the enigmas of American politics. Something of +the mystery and romance that shroud the evil-doings of certain Italian +despots of the age of the Renaissance envelops him. Despite the +researches of historians, the tangled web of Burr's conspiracy has never +been unraveled. It remains the most fascinating though, perhaps, the +least important episode in Jefferson's administration. Yet Burr himself +repays study, for his activities touch many sides of contemporary +society and illuminate many dark corners in American politics. + +According to the principles of eugenics, Burr was well-born, and by +all the laws of this pseudo-science should have left an honorable name +behind him. His father was a Presbyterian clergyman, sound in the faith, +who presided over the infancy of the College of New Jersey; his maternal +grandfather was that massive divine, Jonathan Edwards. After graduating +at Princeton, Burr began to study law but threw aside his law books on +hearing the news of Lexington. He served with distinction under Arnold +before Quebec, under Washington in the battle of Long Island, and later +at Monmouth, and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1779. +Before the close of the Revolution he had begun the practice of law in +New York, and had married the widow of a British army officer; +entering politics, he became in turn a member of the State Assembly, +Attorney-General, and United States Senator. But a mere enumeration +of such details does not tell the story of Burr's life and character. +Interwoven with the strands of his public career is a bewildering +succession of intrigues and adventures in which women have a conspicuous +part, for Burr was a fascinating man and disarmed distrust by avoiding +any false assumption of virtue. His marriage, however, proved happy. He +adored his wife and fairly worshiped his strikingly beautiful daughter +Theodosia. + +Burr throve in the atmosphere of intrigue. New York politics afforded +his proper milieu. How he ingratiated himself with politicians of high +and low degree; how he unlocked the doors to political preferment; +how he became one of the first bosses of the city of New York; how he +combined public service with private interest; how he organized the +voters--no documents disclose. Only now and then the enveloping fog +lifts, as, for example, during the memorable election of 1800, when the +ignorant voters of the seventh ward, duly drilled and marshaled, carried +the city for the Republicans, and not even Colonel Hamilton, riding on +his white horse from precinct to precinct, could stay the rout. That +election carried New York for Jefferson and made Burr the logical +candidate of the party for Vice-President. + +These political strokes betoken a brilliant if not always a steady +and reliable mind. Burr, it must be said, was not trusted even by his +political associates. It is significant that Washington, a keen judge +of men, refused to appoint Burr as Minister to France to succeed Morris +because he was not convinced of his integrity. And Jefferson shared +these misgivings, though the exigencies of politics made him dissemble +his feelings. It is significant, also, that Burr was always surrounded +by men of more than doubtful intentions--place-hunters and self-seeking +politicians, who had the gambler's instinct. + +As Vice-President, Burr could not hope to exert much influence upon the +Administration, since the office in itself conferred little power and +did not even, according to custom, make him a member of the Cabinet; +but as Republican boss of New York who had done more than any one man +to secure the election of the ticket in 1800, he might reasonably expect +Jefferson and his Virginia associates to treat him with consideration in +the distribution of patronage. To his intense chagrin, he was ignored; +not only ignored but discredited, for Jefferson deliberately allied +himself with the Clintons and the Livingstons, the rival factions in New +York which were bent upon driving Burr from the party. This treatment +filled Burr's heart with malice; but he nursed his wounds in secret and +bided his time. + +Realizing that he was politically bankrupt, Burr made a hazard of new +fortunes in 1804 by offering himself as candidate for Governor of New +York, an office then held by George Clinton. Early in the year he had a +remarkable interview with Jefferson in which he observed that it was +for the interest of the party for him to retire, but that his retirement +under existing circumstances would be thought discreditable. He asked +"some mark of favor from me," Jefferson wrote in his journal, "which +would declare to the world that he retired with my confidence"--an +executive appointment, in short. This was tantamount to an offer of +peace or war. Jefferson declined to gratify him, and Burr then began an +intrigue with the Federalist leaders of New England. + +The rise of a Republican party of challenging strength in New England +cast Federalist leaders into the deepest gloom. Already troubled by the +annexation of Louisiana, which seemed to them to imperil the ascendancy +of New England in the Union, they now saw their own ascendancy in New +England imperiled. Under the depression of impending disaster, men +like Senator Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts and Roger Griswold of +Connecticut broached to their New England friends the possibility of a +withdrawal from the Union and the formation of a Northern Confederacy. +As the confederacy shaped itself in Pickering's imagination, it would +of necessity include New York; and the chaotic conditions in New York +politics at this time invited intrigue. When, therefore, a group of +Burr's friends in the Legislature named him as their candidate for +Governor, Pickering and Griswold seized the moment to approach him with +their treasonable plans. They gave him to understand that as Governor of +New York he would naturally hold a strategic position and could, if he +would, take the lead in the secession of the Northern States. Federalist +support could be given to him in the approaching election. They would +be glad to know his views. But the shifty Burr would not commit himself +further than to promise a satisfactory administration. Though the +Federalist intriguers would have been glad of more explicit assurances +they counted on his vengeful temper and hatred of the Virginia +domination at Washington to make him a pliable tool. They were willing +to commit the party openly to Burr and trust to events to bind him to +their cause. + +Against this mad intrigue one clear-headed individual resolutely set +himself--not wholly from disinterested motives. Alexander Hamilton had +good reason to know Burr. He declared in private conversation, and the +remark speedily became public property, that he looked upon Burr as a +dangerous man who ought not to be trusted with the reins of government. +He pleaded with New York Federalists not to commit the fatal blunder of +endorsing Burr in caucus, and he finally won his point; but he could not +prevent his partisans from supporting Burr at the polls. + +The defeat of Burr dashed the hopes of the Federalists of New England; +the bubble of a Northern Confederacy vanished. It dashed also Burr's +personal ambitions: he could no longer hope for political rehabilitation +in New York. And the man who a second time had crossed his path and +thwarted his purposes was his old rival, Alexander Hamilton. It is said +that Burr was not naturally vindictive: perhaps no man is naturally +vindictive. Certain it is that bitter disappointment had now made Burr +what Hamilton had called him--"a dangerous man." He took the common +course of men of honor at this time; he demanded prompt and unqualified +acknowledgment or denial of the expression. Well aware of what lay +behind this demand, Hamilton replied deliberately with half-conciliatory +words, but he ended with the usual words of those prepared to accept +a challenge, "I can only regret the circumstance, and must abide the +consequences." A challenge followed. We are told that Hamilton accepted +to save his political leadership and influence--strange illusion in one +so gifted! Yet public opinion had not yet condemned dueling, and men +must be judged against the background of their times. + +On a summer morning (July 11, 1804) Burr and Hamilton crossed the Hudson +to Weehawken and there faced each other for the last time. Hamilton +withheld his fire; Burr aimed with murderous intent, and Hamilton fell +mortally wounded. The shot from Burr's pistol long reverberated. It woke +public conscience to the horror and uselessness of dueling, and left +Burr an outlaw from respectable society, stunned by the recoil, and +under indictment for murder. Only in the South and West did men treat +the incident lightly as an affair of honor. + +The political career of Burr was now closed. When he again met the +Senate face to face, he had been dropped by his own party in favor of +George Clinton, to whom he surrendered the Vice-Presidency on March 5, +1805. His farewell address is described as one of the most affecting +ever spoken in the Senate. Describing the scene to his daughter, Burr +said that tears flowed abundantly, but Burr must have described what he +wished to see. American politicians are not Homeric heroes, who weep +on slight provocation; and any inclination to pity Burr must have been +inhibited by the knowledge that he had made himself the rallying-point +of every dubious intrigue at the capital. + +The list of Burr's intimates included Jonathan Dayton, whose term as +Senator had just ended, and who, like Burr, sought means of promoting +his fortunes, John Smith, Senator from Ohio, the notorious Swartwouts +of New York who were attached to Burr as gangsters to their chief, and +General James Wilkinson, governor of the northern territory carved out +of Louisiana and commander of the western army with headquarters at St. +Louis. + +Wilkinson had a long record of duplicity, which was suspected but never +proved by his contemporaries. There was hardly a dubious episode from +the Revolution to this date with which he had not been connected. He was +implicated in the Conway cabal against Washington; he was active in the +separatist movement in Kentucky during the Confederation; he entered +into an irregular commercial agreement with the Spanish authorities +at New Orleans; he was suspected--and rightly, as documents recently +unearthed in Spain prove--of having taken an oath of allegiance to Spain +and of being in the pay of Spain; he was also suspected--and justly--of +using his influence to bring about a separation of the Western States +from the Union; yet in 1791 he was given a lieutenant-colonel's +commission in the regular army and served under St. Clair in the +Northwest, and again as a brigadier-general under Wayne. Even here the +atmosphere of intrigue enveloped him, and he was accused of inciting +discontent among the Kentucky troops and of trying to supplant +Wayne. When commissioners were trying to run the Southern boundary +in accordance with the treaty of 1795 with Spain, Wilkinson--still a +pensioner of Spain, as documents prove--attempted to delay the survey. +In the light of these revelations, Wilkinson appears as an unscrupulous +adventurer whose thirst for lucre made him willing to betray either +master--the Spaniard who pensioned him or the American who gave him his +command. + +In the spring of 1805 Burr made a leisurely journey across the +mountains, by way of Pittsburgh, to New Orleans, where he had friends +and personal followers. The secretary of the territory was one of his +henchmen; a justice of the superior court was his stepson; the Creole +petitionists who had come to Washington to secure self-government had +been cordially received by Burr and had a lively sense of gratitude. On +his way down the Ohio, Burr landed at Blennerhassett's Island, where an +eccentric Irishman of that name owned an estate. Harman Blennerhassett +was to rue the day that he entertained this fascinating guest. At +Cincinnati he was the guest of Senator Smith, and there he also met +Dayton. At Nashville he visited General Andrew Jackson, who was thrilled +with the prospect of war with Spain; at Fort Massac he spent four +days in close conference with General Wilkinson; and at New Orleans he +consorted with Daniel Clark, a rich merchant and the most uncompromising +opponent of Governor Claiborne, and with members of the Mexican +Association and every would-be adventurer and filibuster. In November, +Burr was again in Washington. What was the purpose of this journey and +what did it accomplish? + +It is far easier to tell what Burr did after this mysterious western +expedition than what he planned to do. There is danger of reading too +great consistency into his designs. At one moment, if we may believe +Anthony Merry, the British Minister, who lent an ear to Burr's +proposals, he was plotting a revolution which should separate the +Western States from the Union. To accomplish this design he needed +British funds and a British naval force. Jonathan Dayton revealed to +Yrujo much the same plot--which he thought was worth thirty or forty +thousand dollars to the Spanish Government. To such urgent necessity for +funds were the conspirators driven. But Dayton added further details +to the story which may have been intended only to intimidate Yrujo. The +revolution effected by British aid, said Dayton gravely, an expedition +would be undertaken against Mexico. Subsequently Dayton unfolded a still +more remarkable tale. Burr had been disappointed in the expectation of +British aid, and he was now bent upon "an almost insane plan," which was +nothing less than the seizure of the Government at Washington. With the +government funds thus obtained, and with the necessary frigates, the +conspirators would sail for New Orleans and proclaim the independence of +Louisiana and the Western States. + +The kernel of truth in these accounts is not easily separated from the +chaff. The supposition that Burr seriously contemplated a separation of +the Western States from the Union may be dismissed from consideration. +The loyalty of the Mississippi Valley at this time is beyond question; +and Burr was too keen an observer not to recognize the temper of the +people with whom he sojourned. But there is reason to believe that he +and his confederates may have planned an enterprise against Mexico, for +such a project was quite to the taste of Westerners who hated Spain as +ardently as they loved the Union. Circumstances favored a filibustering +expedition. The President's bellicose message of December had prepared +the people of the Mississippi Valley for war; the Spanish plotters had +been expelled from Louisiana; Spanish forces had crossed the Sabine; +American troops had been sent to repel them if need be; the South +American revolutionist Miranda had sailed, with vessels fitted out +in New York, to start a revolt against Spanish rule in Caracas; every +revolutionist in New Orleans was on the qui vive. What better time could +there be to launch a filibustering expedition against Mexico? If it +succeeded and a republic were established, the American Government might +be expected to recognize a fait accompli. + +The success of Burr's plans, whatever they may have been, depended on +his procuring funds; and it was doubtless the hope of extracting aid +from Blennerhassett that drew him to the island in midsummer of 1806. +Burr was accompanied by his daughter Theodosia and her husband, Joseph +Alston, a wealthy South Carolina planter, who was either the dupe or the +accomplice of Burr. Together they persuaded the credulous Irishman to +purchase a tract of land on the Washita River in the heart of Louisiana, +which would ultimately net him a profit of a million dollars when +Louisiana became an independent state with Burr as ruler and England +as protector. They even assured Blennerhassett that he should go as +minister to England. He was so dazzled at the prospect that he not only +made the initial payment for the lands, but advanced all his property +for Burr's use on receiving a guaranty from Alston. Having landed his +fish, Burr set off down the river to visit General Jackson at Nashville +and to procure boats and supplies for his expedition. + +Meanwhile, Theodosia--the brilliant, fascinating Theodosia--and her +husband played the game at Blennerhassett's Island. Blennerhassett's +head was completely turned. He babbled most indiscreetly about the +approaching coup d'etat. Colonel Burr would be king of Mexico, he told +his gardener, and Mrs. Alston would be queen when Colonel Burr died. Who +could resist the charms of this young princess? Blennerhassett and his +wife were impatient to exchange their little isle for marble halls in +far away Mexico. + +But all was not going well with the future Emperor of Mexico. Ugly +rumors were afloat. The active preparations at Blennerhassett's Island, +the building of boats at various points along the river, the enlistment +of recruits, coupled with hints of secession, disturbed such loyal +citizens as the District-Attorney at Frankfort, Kentucky. He took it +upon himself to warn the President, and then, in open court, charged +Burr with violating the laws of the United States by setting on foot +a military expedition against Mexico and with inciting citizens to +rebellion in the Western States. But at the meeting of the grand jury +Burr appeared surrounded by his friends and with young Henry Clay for +counsel. The grand jury refused to indict him and he left the court in +triumph. Some weeks later the District-Attorney renewed his motion; +but again Burr was discharged by the grand jury, amid popular applause. +Enthusiastic admirers in Frankfort even gave a ball in his honor. + +Notwithstanding these warnings of conspiracy, President Jefferson +exhibited a singular indifference and composure. To all alarmists he +made the same reply. The people of the West were loyal and could be +trusted. It was not until disquieting and ambiguous messages from +Wilkinson reached Washington-disquieting because ambiguous--that the +President was persuaded to act. On the 27th of November, he issued +a proclamation warning all good citizens that sundry persons were +conspiring against Spain and enjoining all Federal officers to apprehend +those engaged in the unlawful enterprise. The appearance of this +proclamation at Nashville should have led to Burr's arrest, for he was +still detained there; but mysterious influences seemed to paralyze the +arm of the Government. On the 22d of December, Burr set off, with two +boats which Jackson had built and some supplies, down the Cumberland. +At the mouth of the river, he joined forces with Blennerhassett, who had +left his island in haste just as the Ohio militia was about to descend +upon him. The combined strength of the flotilla was nine bateaux +carrying less than sixty men. There was still time to intercept the +expedition at Fort Massac, but again delays that have never been +explained prevented the President's proclamation from arriving in time; +and Burr's little fleet floated peacefully by down stream. + +The scene now shifts to the lower Mississippi, and the heavy villain +of the melodrama appears on the stage in the uniform of a United States +military officer--General James Wilkinson. He had been under orders +since May 6, 1806, to repair to the Territory of Orleans with as little +delay as possible and to repel any invasion east of the River Sabine; +but it was now September and he had only just reached Natchitoches, +where the American volunteers and militiamen from Louisiana and +Mississippi were concentrating. Much water had flowed under the bridge +since Aaron Burr visited New Orleans. + +After President Jefferson's bellicose message of the previous December, +war with Spain seemed inevitable. And when Spanish troops crossed +the Sabine in July and took up their post only seventeen miles +from Natchitoches, Western Americans awaited only the word to begin +hostilities. The Orleans Gazette declared that the time to repel Spanish +aggression had come. The enemy must be driven beyond the Sabine. "The +route from Natchitoches to Mexico is clear, plain, and open." The +occasion was at hand "for conferring on our oppressed Spanish brethren +in Mexico those inestimable blessings of freedom which we ourselves +enjoy." "Gallant Louisianians! Now is the time to distinguish yourselves +.... Should the generous efforts of our Government to establish a free, +independent Republican Empire in Mexico be successful, how fortunate, +how enviable would be the situation in New Orleans!" The editor who +sounded this clarion call was a coadjutor of Burr. On the flood tide +of a popular war against Spain, they proposed to float their own +expedition. Much depended on General Wilkinson; but he had already +written privately of subverting the Spanish Government in Mexico, and +carrying "our conquests to California and the Isthmus of Darien." + +With much swagger and braggadocio, Wilkinson advanced to the center of +the stage. He would drive the Spaniards over the Sabine, though they +outnumbered him three to one. "I believe, my friend," he wrote, "I shall +be obliged to fight and to flog them." Magnificent stage thunder. But +to Wilkinson's chagrin the Spaniards withdrew of their own accord. Not +a Spaniard remained to contest his advance to the border. Yet, oddly +enough, he remained idle in camp. Why? + +Some two weeks later, an emissary appeared at Natchitoches with a letter +from Burr dated the 29th of July, in cipher. What this letter may have +originally contained will probably never be known, for only Wilkinson's +version survives, and that underwent frequent revision.* It is quite +as remarkable for its omissions as for anything that it contains. In +it there is no mention of a western uprising nor of a revolution in +New Orleans; but only the intimation that an attack is to be made upon +Spanish possessions, presumably Mexico, with possibly Baton Rouge as the +immediate objective. Whether or no this letter changed Wilkinson's plan, +we can only conjecture. Certain it is, however, that about this time +Wilkinson determined to denounce Burr and his associates and to play a +double game, posing on the one hand as the savior of his country and on +the other as a secret friend to Spain. After some hesitation he wrote +to President Jefferson warning him in general terms of an expedition +preparing against Vera Cruz but omitting all mention of Burr. +Subsequently he wrote a confidential letter about this "deep, dark, and +widespread conspiracy" which enmeshed all classes and conditions in New +Orleans and might bring seven thousand men from the Ohio. The contents +of Burr's mysterious letter were to be communicated orally to the +President by the messenger who bore this precious warning. It was on +the strength of these communications that the President issued his +proclamation of the 27th of November. + + * What is usually accepted as the correct version is printed + by McCaleb in his "Aaron Burr Conspiracy," pp. 74 and 75, + and by Henry Adams in his "History of the United States," + vol. III, pp. 253-4. + + +While Wilkinson was inditing these misleading missives to the President, +he was preparing the way for his entry at New Orleans. To the perplexed +and alarmed Governor he wrote: "You are surrounded by dangers of +which you dream not, and the destruction of the American Government is +seriously menaced. The storm will probably burst in New Orleans, where +I shall meet it, and triumph or perish!" Just five days later he wrote +a letter to the Viceroy of Mexico which proves him beyond doubt the +most contemptible rascal who ever wore an American uniform. "A storm, a +revolutionary tempest, an infernal plot threatens the destruction of the +empire," he wrote; the first object of attack would be New Orleans, +then Vera Cruz, then Mexico City; scenes of violence and pillage +would follow; let His Excellency be on his guard. To ward off these +calamities, "I will hurl myself like a Leonidas into the breach." But +let His Excellency remember what risks the writer of this letter incurs, +"by offering without orders this communication to a foreign power," and +let him reimburse the bearer of this letter to the amount of 121,000 +pesos which will be spent to shatter the plans of these bandits from the +Ohio. + +The arrival of Wilkinson in New Orleans was awaited by friends and foes, +with bated breath. The conspirators had as yet no intimation of his +intentions: Governor Claiborne was torn by suspicion of this would-be +savior, for at the very time he was reading Wilkinson's gasconade +he received a cryptic letter from Andrew Jackson which ran, "keep a +watchful eye on our General and beware of an attack as well from your +own country as Spain!" If Claiborne could not trust "our General," whom +could he trust! + +The stage was now set for the last act in the drama. Wilkinson arrived +in the city, deliberately set Claiborne aside, and established a species +of martial law, not without opposition. To justify his course Wilkinson +swore to an affidavit based on Burr's letter of the 29th of July and +proceeded with his arbitrary arrests. One by one Burr's confederates +were taken into custody. The city was kept in a state of alarm; Burr's +armed thousands were said to be on the way; the negroes were to be +incited to revolt. Only the actual appearance of Burr's expedition or +some extraordinary happening could maintain this high pitch of popular +excitement and save Wilkinson from becoming the ridiculous victim of his +own folly. + +On the 10th of January (1807), after an uneventful voyage down the +Mississippi, Burr's flotilla reached the mouth of Bayou Pierre, some +thirty miles above Natchez. Here at length was the huge armada which was +to shatter the Union--nine boats and sixty men! Tension began to give +way. People began to recover their sense of humor. Wilkinson was never +in greater danger in his life, for he was about to appear ridiculous. +It was at Bayou Pierre that Burr going ashore learned that Wilkinson had +betrayed him. His first instinct was to flee, for if he should proceed +to New Orleans he would fall into Wilkinson's hands and doubtless be +court-martialed and shot; but if he tarried, he would be arrested +and sent to Washington. Indecision and despair seized him; and while +Blennerhassett and other devoted followers waited for their emperor to +declare his intention, he found himself facing the acting-governor of +the Mississippi Territory with a warrant for his arrest. To the +chagrin of his fellow conspirators, Burr surrendered tamely, even +pusillanimously. + +The end of the drama was near at hand. Burr was brought before a grand +jury, and though he once more escaped indictment, he was put under +bonds, quite illegally he thought, to appear when summoned. On the 1st +of February he abandoned his followers to the tender mercies of the law +and fled in disguise into the wilderness. A month later he was arrested +near the Spanish border above Mobile by Lieutenant Gaines, in command +at Fort Stoddert, and taken to Richmond. The trial that followed did not +prove Burr's guilt, but it did prove Thomas Jefferson's credulity and +cast grave doubts on James Wilkinson's loyalty.* Burr was acquitted +of the charge of treason in court, but he remained under popular +indictment, and his memory has never been wholly cleared of the +suspicion of treason. + + * An account of the trial of Burr will be found in "John + Marshall and the Constitution" by Edward S. Corwin, in "The + Chronicles of America". + + + +CHAPTER VII. AN ABUSE OF HOSPITALITY + +While Captain Bainbridge was eating his heart out in the Pasha's prison +at Tripoli, his thoughts reverting constantly to his lost frigate, he +reminded Commodore Preble, with whom he was allowed to correspond, +that "the greater part of our crew consists of English subjects not +naturalized in America." This incidental remark comes with all the +force of a revelation to those who have fondly imagined that the sturdy +jack-tars who manned the first frigates were genuine American sea-dogs. +Still more disconcerting is the information contained in a letter from +the Secretary of the Treasury to President Jefferson, some years later, +to the effect that after 1803 American tonnage increased at the rate of +seventy thousand a year, but that of the four thousand seamen required +to man this growing mercantile marine, fully one-half were British +subjects, presumably deserters. How are these uncomfortable facts to +be explained? Let a third piece of information be added. In a report of +Admiral Nelson, dated 1803, in which he broaches a plan for manning +the British navy, it is soberly stated that forty-two thousand British +seamen deserted "in the late war." Whenever a large convoy assembled at +Portsmouth, added the Admiral, not less than a thousand seamen usually +deserted from the navy. + +The slightest acquaintance with the British navy when Nelson was winning +immortal glory by his victory at Trafalgar must convince the most +sceptical that his seamen for the most part were little better than +galley slaves. Life on board these frigates was well-nigh unbearable. +The average life of a seaman, Nelson reckoned, was forty-five years. In +this age before processes of refrigeration had been invented, food could +not be kept edible on long voyages, even in merchantmen. Still worse +was the fare on men-of-war. The health of a crew was left to Providence. +Little or no forethought was exercised to prevent disease; the commonest +matters of personal hygiene were neglected; and when disease came +the remedies applied were scarcely to be preferred to the disease. +Discipline, always brutal, was symbolized by the cat-o'-nine-tails. +Small wonder that the navy was avoided like the plague by every man and +seaman. + +Yet a navy had to be maintained: it was the cornerstone of the Empire. +And in all the history of that Empire the need of a navy was never +stronger than in these opening years of the nineteenth century. The +practice of impressing able men for the royal navy was as old as the +reign of Elizabeth. The press gang was an odious institution of +long standing--a terror not only to rogue and vagabond but to every +able-bodied seafaring man and waterman on rivers, who was not exempted +by some special act. It ransacked the prisons, and carried to the navy +not only its victims but the germs of fever which infested public places +of detention. But the press gang harvested its greatest crop of seamen +on the seas. Merchantmen were stopped at sea, robbed of their able +sailors, and left to limp short-handed into port. A British East +Indiaman homeward bound in 1802 was stripped of so many of her crew in +the Bay of Biscay that she was unable to offer resistance to a French +privateer and fell a rich victim into the hands of the enemy. The +necessity of the royal navy knew no law and often defeated its own +purpose. + +Death or desertion offered the only way of escape to the victim of the +press gang. And the commander of a British frigate dreaded making port +almost as much as an epidemic of typhus. The deserter always found +American merchantmen ready to harbor him. Fair wages, relatively +comfortable quarters, and decent treatment made him quite ready to take +any measures to forswear his allegiance to Britannia. Naturalization +papers were easily procured by a few months' residence in any State +of the Union; and in default of legitimate papers, certificates of +citizenship could be bought for a song in any American seaport, where +shysters drove a thrifty traffic in bogus documents. Provided the +English navy took the precaution to have the description in his +certificate tally with his personal appearance, and did not let his +tongue betray him, he was reasonably safe from capture. + +Facing the palpable fact that British seamen were deserting just when +they were most needed and were making American merchantmen and frigates +their asylum, the British naval commanders, with no very nice regard for +legal distinctions, extended their search for deserters to the decks of +American vessels, whether in British waters or on the high seas. If in +time of war, they reasoned, they could stop a neutral ship on the high +seas, search her for contraband of war, and condemn ship and cargo in a +prize court if carrying contraband, why might they not by the same token +search a vessel for British deserters and impress them into service +again? Two considerations seem to justify this reasoning: the trickiness +of the smart Yankees who forged citizenship papers, and the indelible +character of British allegiance. Once an Englishman always an +Englishman, by Jove! Your hound of a sea-dog might try to talk through +his nose like a Yankee, you know, and he might shove a dirty bit of +paper at you, but he couldn't shake off his British citizenship if he +wanted to! This was good English law, and if it wasn't recognized by +other nations so much the worse for them. As one of these redoubtable +British captains put it, years later: "'Might makes right' is the +guiding, practical maxim among nations and ever will be, so long as +powder and shot exist, with money to back them, and energy to wield +them." Of course, there were hair-splitting fellows, plenty of them, in +England and the States, who told you that it was one thing to seize a +vessel carrying contraband and have her condemned by judicial process in +a court of admiralty, and quite another thing to carry British subjects +off the decks of a merchantman flying a neutral flag; but if you knew +the blasted rascals were deserters what difference did it make? Besides, +what would become of the British navy, if you listened to all the +fine-spun arguments of landsmen? And if these stalwart blue-water +Britishers could have read what Thomas Jefferson was writing at this +very time, they would have classed him with the armchair critics who +had no proper conception of a sailor's duty. "I hold the right of +expatriation," wrote the President, "to be inherent in every man by the +laws of nature, and incapable of being rightfully taken away from him +even by the united will of every other person in the nation." + +In the year 1805, while President Jefferson was still the victim of +his overmastering passion, and disposed to cultivate the good will of +England, if thereby he might obtain the Floridas, unforeseen commercial +complications arose which not only blocked the way to a better +understanding in Spanish affairs but strained diplomatic relations +to the breaking point. News reached Atlantic seaports that American +merchantmen, which had hitherto engaged with impunity in the carrying +trade between Europe and the West Indies, had been seized and condemned +in British admiralty courts. Every American shipmaster and owner at once +lifted up his voice in indignant protest; and all the latent hostility +to their old enemy revived. Here were new orders-in-council, said they: +the leopard cannot change his spots. England is still England--the +implacable enemy of neutral shipping. "Never will neutrals be perfectly +safe till free goods make free ships or till England loses two or three +great naval battles," declared the Salem Register. + +The recent seizures were not made by orders-in-council, however, but in +accordance with a decision recently handed down by the court of appeals +in the case of the ship Essex. Following a practice which had become +common in recent years, the Essex had sailed with a cargo from Barcelona +to Salem and thence to Havana. On the high seas she had been captured, +and then taken to a British port, where ship and cargo were condemned +because the voyage from Spain to her colony had been virtually +continuous, and by the so-called Rule of 1756, direct trade between a +European state and its colony was forbidden to neutrals in time of war +when such trade had not been permitted in time of peace. Hitherto, the +British courts had inclined to the view that when goods had been landed +in a neutral country and duties paid, the voyage had been broken. +Tacitly a trade that was virtually direct had been countenanced, because +the payment of duties seemed evidence enough that the cargo became a +part of the stock of the neutral country and, if reshipped, was then a +bona fide neutral cargo. Suddenly English merchants and shippers woke +to the fact that they were often victims of deception. Cargoes would +be landed in the United States, duties ostensibly paid, and the goods +ostensibly imported, only to be reshipped in the same bottoms, with the +connivance of port officials, either without paying any real duties +or with drawbacks. In the case of the Essex the court of appeals cut +directly athwart these practices by going behind the prima facie payment +and inquiring into the intent of the voyage. The mere touching at a +port without actually importing the cargo into the common stock of the +country did not alter the nature of the voyage. The crucial point +was the intent, which the court was now and hereafter determined to +ascertain by examination of facts. The court reached the indubitable +conclusion that the cargo of the Essex had never been intended for +American markets. The open-minded historian must admit that this was +a fair application of the Rule of 1756, but he may still challenge the +validity of the rule, as all neutral countries did, and the wisdom of +the monopolistic impulse which moved the commercial classes and the +courts of England to this decision.* + + * Professor William E. Lingelbach in a notable article on + "England and Neutral Trade" in "The Military Historian and + Economist" (April, 1917) has pointed out the error committed + by almost every historian from Henry Adams down, that the + Essex decision reversed previous rulings of the court and + was not in accord with British law. + + +Had the impressment of seamen and the spoliation of neutral commerce +occurred only on the high seas, public resentment would have mounted to +a high pitch in the United States; but when British cruisers ran into +American waters to capture or burn French vessels, and when British +men-of-war blockaded ports, detaining and searching--and at times +capturing--American vessels, indignation rose to fever heat. The +blockade of New York Harbor by two British frigates, the Cambrian and +the Leander, exasperated merchants beyond measure. On board the Leander +was a young midshipman, Basil Hall, who in after years described the +activities of this execrated frigate. + +"Every morning at daybreak, we set about arresting the progress of all +the vessels we saw, firing of guns to the right and left to make every +ship that was running in heave to, or wait until we had leisure to send +a boat on board 'to see,¹ in our lingo, 'what she was made of.' I have +frequently known a dozen, and sometimes a couple of dozen, ships lying +a league or two off the port, losing their fair wind, their tide, and +worse than all their market, for many hours, sometimes the whole day, +before our search was completed."* + + * "Fragments of Voyages and Travels," quoted by Henry Adams, + in "History of the United States", vol. III, p. 92. + + +One day in April, 1806, the Leander, trying to halt a merchantman that +she meant to search, fired a shot which killed the helmsman of a passing +sloop. The boat sailed on to New York with the mangled body; and the +captain, brother of the murdered man, lashed the populace into a rage +by his mad words. Supplies for the frigates were intercepted, personal +violence was threatened to any British officers caught on shore, the +captain of the Leander was indicted for murder, and the funeral of the +murdered sailor was turned into a public demonstration. Yet nothing came +of this incident, beyond a proclamation by the President closing the +ports of the United States to the offending frigates and ordering the +arrest of the captain of the Leander wherever found. After all, the +death of a common seaman did not fire the hearts of farmers peacefully +tilling their fields far beyond hearing of the Leander's guns. + +A year full of troublesome happenings passed; scores of American vessels +were condemned in British admiralty courts, and American seamen were +impressed with increasing frequency, until in the early summer of 1807 +these manifold grievances culminated in an outrage that shook even +Jefferson out of his composure and evoked a passionate outcry for war +from all parts of the country. + +While a number of British war vessels were lying in Hampton Roads +watching for certain French frigates which had taken refuge up +Chesapeake Bay, they lost a number of seamen by desertion under +peculiarly annoying circumstances. In one instance a whole boat's crew +made off under cover of night to Norfolk and there publicly defied +their commander. Three deserters from the British frigate Melampus had +enlisted on the American frigate Chesapeake, which had just been fitted +out for service in the Mediterranean; but on inquiry these three were +proven to be native Americans who had been impressed into British +service. Unfortunately inquiry did disclose one British deserter who +had enlisted on the Chesapeake, a loud-mouthed tar by the name of Jenkin +Ratford. These irritating facts stirred Admiral Berkeley at Halifax +to highhanded measures. Without waiting for instructions, he issued an +order to all commanders in the North Atlantic Squadron to search the +Chesapeake for deserters, if she should be encountered on the high seas. +This order of the 1st of June should be shown to the captain of the +Chesapeake as sufficient authority for searching her. + +On June 22, 1807, the Chesapeake passed unsuspecting between the capes +on her way to the Mediterranean. She was a stanch frigate carrying +forty guns and a crew of 375 men and boys; but she was at this time in +a distressing state of unreadiness, owing to the dilatoriness and +incompetence of the naval authorities at Washington. The gundeck was +littered with lumber and odds and ends of rigging; the guns, though +loaded, were not all fitted to their carriages; and the crew was +untrained. As the guns had to be fired by slow matches or by loggerheads +heated red-hot, and the ammunition was stored in the magazine, the +frigate was totally unprepared for action. Commodore Barron, who +commanded the Chesapeake, counted on putting her into fighting trim on +the long voyage across the Atlantic. + +Just ahead of the Chesapeake as she passed out to sea, was the Leopard, +a British frigate of fifty-two guns, which was apparently on the lookout +for suspicious merchantmen. It was not until both vessels were eight +miles or more southeast of Cape Henry that the movements of the Leopard +began to attract attention. At about half-past three in the afternoon +she came within hailing distance and hove to, announcing that she had +dispatches for the commander. The Chesapeake also hove to and answered +the hail, a risky move considering that she was unprepared for action +and that the Leopard lay to the windward. But why should the commander +of the American frigate have entertained suspicions? + +A boat put out from the Leopard, bearing a petty officer, who delivered +a note enclosing Admiral Berkeley's order and expressing the hope that +"every circumstance... may be adjusted in a manner that the harmony +subsisting between the two countries may remain undisturbed." Commodore +Barron replied that he knew of no British deserters on his vessel and +declined in courteous terms to permit his crew to be mustered by any +other officers but their own. The messenger departed, and then, for the +first time entertaining serious misgivings, Commodore Barron ordered his +decks cleared for action. But before the crew could bestir themselves, +the Leopard drew near, her men at quarters. The British commander +shouted a warning, but Barron, now thoroughly alarmed, replied, "I don't +hear what you say." The warning was repeated, but again Barron to gain +time shouted that he could not hear. The Leopard then fired two shots +across the bow of the Chesapeake, and almost immediately without +parleying further--she was now within two hundred feet of her +victim--poured a broadside into the American vessel. + +Confusion reigned on the Chesapeake. The crew for the most part showed +courage, but they were helpless, for they could not fire a gun for +want of slow matches or loggerheads. They crowded about the magazine +clamoring in vain for a chance to defend the vessel; they yelled with +rage at their predicament. Only one gun was discharged and that was by +means of a live coal brought up from the galley after the Chesapeake had +received a third broadside and Commodore Barron had ordered the flag to +be hauled down to spare further slaughter. Three of his crew had already +been killed and eighteen wounded, himself among the number. The whole +action lasted only fifteen minutes. + +Boarding crews now approached and several British officers climbed +to the deck of the Chesapeake and mustered her crew. Among the ship's +company they found the alleged deserters and, hiding in the coal-hole, +the notorious Jenkin Ratford. These four men they took with them, +and the Leopard, having fulfilled her instructions, now suffered the +Chesapeake to limp back to Hampton Roads. "For the first time in their +history," writes Henry Adams, * "the people of the United States learned, +in June, 1807, the feeling of a true national emotion. Hitherto every +public passion had been more or less partial and one-sided;... but the +outrage committed on the Chesapeake stung through hidebound prejudices, +and made democrat and aristocrat writhe alike." + + * History of the United States, vol. IV, p. 27. + + +Had President Jefferson chosen to go to war at this moment, he would +have had a united people behind him, and he was well aware that he +possessed the power of choice. "The affair of the Chesapeake put war +into my hand," he wrote some years later. "I had only to open it and +let havoc loose." But Thomas Jefferson was not a martial character. The +State Governors, to be sure, were requested to have their militia +in readiness, and the Governor of Virginia was desired to call such +companies into service as were needed for the defense of Norfolk. +The President referred in indignant terms to the abuse of the laws of +hospitality and the "outrage" committed by the British commander; but +his proclamation only ordered all British armed vessels out of American +waters and forbade all intercourse with them if they remained. The +tone of the proclamation was so moderate as to seem pusillanimous. John +Randolph called it an apology. Thomas Jefferson did not mean to have +war. With that extraordinary confidence in his own powers, which in +smaller men would be called smug conceit, he believed that he could +secure disavowal and honorable reparation for the wrong committed; but +he chose a frail intermediary when he committed this delicate mission to +James Monroe. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE PACIFISTS OF 1807 + +It is one of the strange paradoxes of our time that the author of the +Declaration of Independence, to whose principle of self-determination +the world seems again to be turning, should now be regarded as a +self-confessed pacifist, with all the derogatory implications that lurk +in that epithet. The circumstances which made him a revolutionist +in 1776 and a passionate advocate of peace in 1807 deserve some +consideration. The charge made by contemporaries of Jefferson that his +aversion to war sprang from personal cowardice may be dismissed at once, +as it was by him, with contempt. Nor was his hatred of war merely an +instinctive abhorrence of bloodshed. He had not hesitated to wage naval +war on the Barbary Corsairs. It is true that he was temperamentally +averse to the use of force under ordinary circumstances. He did not +belong to that type of full-blooded men who find self-expression in +adventurous activity. Mere physical effort without conscious purpose +never appealed to him. He was at the opposite pole of life from a man +like Aaron Burr. He never, so far as history records, had an affair +of honor; he never fought a duel; he never performed active military +service; he never took human life. Yet he was not a non-resistant. "My +hope of preserving peace for our country," he wrote on one occasion, "is +not founded in the Quaker principle of nonresistance under every wrong." + +The true sources of Jefferson's pacifism must be sought in his +rationalistic philosophy, which accorded the widest scope to the +principle of self-direction and self determination, whether on the part +of the individual or of groups of individuals. To impose one's will upon +another was to enslave, according to his notion; to coerce by war was +to enslave a community; and to enslave a community was to provoke +revolution. Jefferson's thought gravitated inevitably to the center of +his rational universe--to the principle of enlightened self-interest. +Men and women are not to be permanently moved by force but by appeals +to their interests. He completed his thought as follows in the letter +already quoted: "But [my hope of preserving peace is founded] in the +belief that a just and friendly conduct on our part will procure +justice and friendship from others. In the existing contest, each of the +combatants will find an interest in our friendship." + +It was a chaotic world in which this philosopher-statesman was called +upon to act--a world in which international law and neutral rights had +been well-nigh submerged in twelve years of almost continuous war. Yet +with amazing self-assurance President Jefferson believed that he held in +his hand a master-key which would unlock all doors that had been shut +to the commerce of neutrals. He called this master-key "peaceable +coercion," and he explained its magic potency in this wise: + +"Our commerce is so valuable to them [the European belligerents] that +they will be glad to purchase it when the only price we ask is to do +us justice. I believe that we have in our hands the means of peaceable +coercion; and that the moment they see our government so united as that +they can make use of it, they will for their own interest be disposed to +do us justice." + +The idea of using commercial restrictions as a weapon to secure +recognition of rights was of course not original with Jefferson, but +it was now to be given a trial without parallel in the history of +the nation. Non-importation agreements had proved efficacious in +the struggle of the colonies with the mother country; it seemed not +unreasonable to suppose that a well-sustained refusal to traffic in +English goods would meet the emergency of 1807, when the ruling of +British admiralty courts threatened to cut off the lucrative commerce +between Europe and the West Indies. With this theory in view, the +President and his Secretary of State advocated the NonImportation Bill +of April 18, 1806, which forbade the entry of certain specified goods of +British manufacture. The opposition found a leader in Randolph, who now +broke once and for all with the Administration. "Never in the course of +my life," he exclaimed, "have I witnessed such a scene of indignity and +inefficiency as this measure holds forth to the world. What is it? A +milk-and-water bill! A dose of chicken-broth to be taken nine months +hence!... It is too contemptible to be the object of consideration, +or to excite the feelings of the pettiest state in Europe." The +Administration carried the bill through Congress, but Randolph had +the satisfaction of seeing his characterisation of the measure amply +justified by the course of events. + +With the Non-Importation Act as a weapon, the President was confident +that Monroe, who had once more returned to his post in London, could +force a settlement of all outstanding differences with Great Britain. To +his annoyance, and to Monroe's chagrin, however, he was obliged to send +a special envoy to act with Monroe. Factious opposition in the Senate +forced the President to placate the Federalists by appointing William +Pinkney of Maryland. The American commissioners were instructed +to insist upon three concessions in the treaty which they were to +negotiate: restoration of trade with enemies' colonies, indemnity for +captures made since the Essex decision, and express repudiation of the +right of impressment. In return for these concessions, they might hold +out the possible repeal of the Non-Importation Act! Only confirmed +optimists could believe that the mistress of the seas, flushed with the +victory of Trafalgar, would consent to yield these points for so slight +a compensation. The mission was, indeed, doomed from the outset, and +nothing more need be said of it than that in the end, to secure any +treaty at all, Monroe and Pinkney broke their instructions and set aside +the three ultimata. What they obtained in return seemed so insignificant +and doubtful, and what they paid for even these slender compensations +seemed so exorbitant, that the President would not even submit the +treaty to the Senate. The first application of the theory of peaceable +coercion thus ended in humiliating failure. Jefferson thought it best +"to let the negotiation take a friendly nap"; but Madison, who felt +that his political future depended on a diplomatic triumph over England, +drafted new instructions for the two commissioners, hoping that the +treaty might yet be put into acceptable form. It was while these new +instructions were crossing the ocean that the Chesapeake struck her +colors. + +James Monroe is one of the most unlucky diplomats in American history. +From those early days when he had received the fraternal embraces of the +Jacobins in Paris and had been recalled by President Washington, to the +ill-fated Spanish mission, circumstances seem to have conspired against +him. The honor of negotiating the purchase of Louisiana should have been +his alone, but he arrived just a day too late and was obliged to +divide the glory with Livingston. On this mission to England he was not +permitted to conduct negotiations alone but was associated with William +Pinkney, a Federalist. No wonder he suspected Madison, or at least +Madison's friends, of wishing to discredit him. And now another +impossible task was laid upon him. He was instructed to demand not +only disavowal and reparation for the attack on the Chesapeake and the +restoration of the American seamen, but also as "an indispensable part +of the satisfaction" "an entire abolition of impressments." If the +Secretary of State had deliberately contrived to deliver Monroe into +the hands of George Canning, he could not have been more successful, for +Monroe had already protested against the Chesapeake outrage as an act of +aggression which should be promptly disavowed without reference to the +larger question of impressment. He was now obliged to eat his own +words and inject into the discussion, as Canning put it, the irrelevant +matters which they had agreed to separate from the present controversy. +Canning was quick to see his opportunity. Mr. Monroe must be aware, said +he, that on several recent occasions His Majesty had firmly declined to +waive "the ancient and prescriptive usages of Great Britain, founded on +the soundest principles of natural law," simply because they might come +in contact with the interests or the feelings of the American people. If +Mr. Monroe's instructions left him powerless to adjust this regrettable +incident of the Leopard and the Chesapeake, without raising the other +question of the right of search and impressment, then His Majesty +could only send a special envoy to the United States to terminate the +controversy in a manner satisfactory to both countries. "But," added +Canning with sarcasm which was not lost on Monroe, "in order to avoid +the inconvenience which has arisen from the mixed nature of your +instructions, that minister will not be empowered to entertain... any +proposition respecting the search of merchant vessels." + +One more humiliating experience was reserved for Monroe before his +diplomatic career closed. Following Madison's new set of instructions, +he and Pinkney attempted to reopen negotiations for the revision of the +discredited treaty of the preceding year. But Canning had reasons of his +own for wishing to be rid of a treaty which had been drawn by the late +Whig Ministry. He informed the American commissioners arrogantly that +"the proposal of the President of the United States for proceeding to +negotiate anew upon the basis of a treaty already solemnly concluded and +signed, is a proposal wholly inadmissible." His Majesty could therefore +only acquiesce in the refusal of the President to ratify the treaty. One +week later, James Monroe departed from London, never again to set foot +on British soil, leaving Pinkney to assume the duties of Minister at +the Court of St. James. For the second time Monroe returned to his own +country discredited by the President who had appointed him. In both +instances he felt himself the victim of injustice. In spite of his +friendship for Jefferson, he was embittered against the Administration +and in this mood lent himself all too readily to the schemes of John +Randolph, who had already picked him as the one candidate who could beat +Madison in the next presidential election. + +From the point of view of George Canning and the Tory squirearchy whose +mouthpiece he was, the Chesapeake affair was but an incident--an unhappy +incident, to be sure, but still only an incident--in the world-wide +struggle with Napoleon. What was at stake was nothing less than +the commercial supremacy of Great Britain. The astounding growth of +Napoleon's empire was a standing menace to British trade. The overthrow +of Prussia in the fall of 1806 left the Corsican in control of Central +Europe and in a position to deal his long premeditated blow. A fortnight +after the battle of Jena, he entered Berlin and there issued the famous +decree which was his answer to the British blockade of the French +channel ports. Since England does not recognize the system of +international law universally observed by all civilized nations--so the +preamble read--but by a monstrous abuse of the right of blockade has +determined to destroy neutral trade and to raise her commerce and +industry upon the ruins of that of the continent, and since "whoever +deals on the continent in English goods thereby favors and renders +himself an accomplice of her designs," therefore the British Isles are +declared to be in a state of blockade. Henceforth all English goods were +to be lawful prize in any territory held by the troops of France or +her allies; and all vessels which had come from English ports or from +English colonies were to be confiscated, together with their cargoes. +This challenge was too much for the moral equilibrium of the squires, +the shipowners, and the merchants who dominated Parliament. It dulled +their sense of justice and made them impatient under the pinpricks which +came from the United States. "A few short months of war," declared the +Morning Post truculently, "would convince these desperate [American] +politicians of the folly of measuring the strength of a rising, but +still infant and puny, nation with the colossal power of the British +Empire." "Right," said the Times, another organ of the Tory Government, +"is power sanctioned by usage." Concession to Americans at this crisis +was not to be entertained for a moment, for after all, said the Times, +they "possess all the vices of their Indian neighbors without their +virtues." + +In this temper the British Government was prepared to ignore the United +States and deal Napoleon blow for blow. An order-in-council of January +7, 1807, asserted the right of retaliation and declared that "no vessel +shall be permitted to trade from one port to another, both which ports +shall belong to, or be in possession of France or her allies." The +peculiar hardship of this order for American shipowners is revealed +by the papers of Stephen Girard of Philadelphia, whose shrewdness and +enterprise were making him one of the merchant princes of his time. One +of his ships, the Liberty, of some 250 tons, was sent to Lisbon with a +cargo of 2052 barrels and 220 half-barrels of flour which cost the +owner $10.68 a barrel. Her captain, on entering port, learned that flour +commanded a better price at Cadiz. To Cadiz, accordingly, he set sail +and sold his cargo for $22.50 a barrel, winning for the owner a goodly +profit of $25,000, less commission. It was such trading ventures as this +that the British order-in-council doomed. + +What American shipmasters had now to fear from both belligerents was +made startlingly clear by the fate of the ship Horizon, which had sailed +from Charleston, South Carolina, with a cargo for Zanzibar. On the way +she touched at various South American ports and disposed of most of +her cargo. Then changing her destination, and taking on a cargo for the +English market, she set sail for London. On the way she was forced to +put in at Lisbon to refit. As she left to resume her voyage she +was seized by an English frigate and brought in as a fair prize, +since--according to the Rule of 1756--she had been apprehended in an +illegal traffic between an enemy country and its colony. The British +prize court condemned the cargo but released the ship. The unlucky +Horizon then loaded with an English cargo and sailed again to Lisbon, +but misfortune overtook her and she was wrecked off the French coast. +Her cargo was salvaged, however, and what was not of English origin was +restored to her owners by decree of a French prize court; the rest of +her cargo was confiscated under the terms of the Berlin decree. When the +American Minister protested at this decision, he was told that "since +America suffers her ships to be searched, she adopts the principle +that the flag does not cover the goods. Since she recognizes the absurd +blockades laid by England, consents to having her vessels incessantly +stopped, sent to England, and so turned aside from their course, why +should the Americans not suffer the blockade laid by France? Certainly +France recognizes that these measures are unjust, illegal, and +subversive of national sovereignty; but it is the duty of nations to +resort to force, and to declare themselves against things which dishonor +them and disgrace their independence." * But an invitation to enter the +European maelstrom and battle for neutral rights made no impression upon +the mild-tempered President. + + * Henry Adams, History of the United States, IV, p. 110. + + +It is as clear as day that the British Government was now determined, +under pretense of retaliating upon France, to promote British trade with +the continent by every means and at the expense of neutrals. Another +order-in-council, November 17, 1807, closed to neutrals all European +ports under French control, "as if the same were actually blockaded," +but permitted vessels which first entered a British port and obtained a +British license to sail to any continental port. It was an order which, +as Henry Adams has said, could have but one purpose--to make American +commerce English. This was precisely the contemporary opinion of the +historian's grandfather, who declared that the "orders-in-council, if +submitted to, would have degraded us to the condition of colonists." + +Only one more blow was needed, it would seem, to complete the ruin of +American commerce. It fell a month later, when Napoleon, having overrun +the Spanish peninsula and occupied Portugal, issued his Milan decree of +December 17, 1807. Henceforth any vessel which submitted to search +by English cruisers, or paid any tonnage duty or tax to the English +Government, or sailed to or from any English port, would be captured and +condemned as lawful prize. Such was to be the maritime code of France +"until England should return to the principles of international law +which are also those of justice and honor." + +Never was a commercial nation less prepared to defend itself against +depredations than the United States of America in this year 1807. For +this unpreparedness many must bear the blame, but President Jefferson +has become the scapegoat. This Virginia farmer and landsman was not +only ignorant and distrustful of all the implements of war, but utterly +unfamiliar with the ways of the sea and with the first principles of +sea-power. The Tripolitan War seems to have inspired him with a single +fixed idea--that for defensive purposes gunboats were superior to +frigates and less costly. He set forth this idea in a special message +to Congress (February 10, 1807), claiming to have the support of +"professional men," among whom he mentioned Generals Wilkinson and +Gates! He proposed the construction of two hundred of these gunboats, +which would be distributed among the various exposed harbors, where +in time of peace they would be hauled up on shore under sheds, for +protection against sun and storm. As emergency arose these floating +batteries were to be manned by the seamen and militia of the port. +What appealed particularly to the President in this programme was the +immunity it offered from "an excitement to engage in offensive maritime +war." Gallatin would have modified even this plan for economy's sake. +He would have constructed only one-half of the proposed fleet since the +large seaports could probably build thirty gunboats in as many days, if +an emergency arose. In extenuation of Gallatin's shortsightedness, it +should be remembered that he was a native of Switzerland, whose navy +has never ploughed many seas. It is less easy to excuse the rest of the +President's advisers and the Congress which was beguiled into accepting +this naive project. Nor did the Chesapeake outrage teach either Congress +or the Administration a salutary lesson. On the contrary, when in +October the news of the bombardment of Copenhagen had shattered the +nerves of statesmen in all neutral countries, and while the differences +with England were still unsettled, Jefferson and his colleagues decided +to hold four of the best frigates in port and use them "as receptacles +for enlisting seamen to fill the gunboats occasionally." Whom the gods +would punish they first make mad! + +The 17th of December was a memorable day in the annals of this +Administration. Favorable tradewinds had brought into American ports a +number of packets with news from Europe. The Revenge had arrived in +New York with Armstrong's dispatches announcing Napoleon's purpose to +enforce the Berlin decree; the Edward had reached Boston with British +newspapers forecasting the order-in-council of the 11th of November. +This news burst like a bomb in Washington where the genial President +was observing with scientific detachment the operation of his policy of +commercial coercion. The Non-Importation Act had just gone into effect. +Jefferson immediately called his Cabinet together. All were of one mind. +The impending order-in-council, it was agreed, left but one alternative. +Commerce must be totally suspended until the full scope of these new +aggressions could be ascertained. The President took a loose sheet of +paper and drafted hastily a message to Congress, recommending an embargo +in anticipation of the offensive British order. But the prudent Madison +urged that it was better not to refer explicitly to the order and +proposed a substitute which simply recommended "an immediate inhibition +of the departure of our vessels from the ports of the United States," +on the ground that shipping was likely to be exposed to greater dangers. +Only Gallatin demurred: he would have preferred an embargo for a +limited time. "I prefer war to a permanent embargo," he wrote next +day. "Government prohibitions," he added significantly, "do always more +mischief than had been calculated." But Gallatin was overruled and the +message, in Madison's form, was sent to Congress on the following day. +The Senate immediately passed the desired bill through three readings +in a single day; the House confirmed this action after only two days +of debate; and on the 22d of December, the President signed the Embargo +Act. + +What was this measure which was passed by Congress almost without +discussion? Ostensibly it was an act for the protection of American +ships, merchandise, and seamen. It forbade the departure of all ships +for foreign ports, except vessels under the immediate direction of the +President and vessels in ballast or already loaded with goods. Foreign +armed vessels were exempted also as a matter of course. Coasting ships +were to give bonds double the value of vessel and cargo to reland their +freight in some port of the United States. Historians have discovered +a degree of duplicity in the alleged motives for this act. How, it is +asked, could protection of ships and seamen be the motive when all of +Jefferson's private letters disclose his determination to put his theory +of peaceable coercion to a practical test by this measure? The criticism +is not altogether fair, for, as Jefferson would himself have +replied, peaceable coercion was designed to force the withdrawal of +orders-in-council and decrees that menaced the safety of ships and +cargoes. The policy might entail some incidental hardships, to be sure, +but the end in view was protection of American lives and property. +Madison was not quite candid, nevertheless, when he assured the British +Minister that the embargo was a precautionary measure only and not +conceived with hostile intent. + +Chimerical this policy seemed to many contemporaries; chimerical it has +seemed to historians, and to us who have passed through the World +War. Yet in the World War it was the possession of food stuffs and raw +materials by the United States which gave her a dominating position in +the councils of the Allies. Had her commerce in 1807 been as necessary +to England and France as it was "at the very peak" of the World War, +Thomas Jefferson might have proved that peaceable coercion is an +effective alternative to war; but he overestimated the magnitude and +importance of the carrying trade of the United States, and erred still +more grievously in assuming that a public conscience existed which would +prove superior to the temptation to evade the law. Jefferson dreaded war +quite as much because of its concomitants as because of its inevitable +brutality, quite as much because it tended to exalt government and to +produce corruption as because it maimed bodies and sacrificed human +lives. Yet he never took fully into account the possible accompaniments +of his alternative to war. That the embargo would debauch public morals +and make government arbitrary, he was to learn only by bitter experience +and personal humiliation. + +Just after the passage of this momentous act, Canning's special envoy, +George Rose, arrived in the United States. A British diplomat of the +better sort, with much dignity of manner and suave courtesy, he was +received with more than ordinary consideration by the Administration. +He was commissioned, every one supposed, to offer reparation for +the Chesapeake affair. Even after he had notified Madison that his +instructions bade him insist, as an indispensable preliminary, on the +recall of the President's Chesapeake proclamation, he was treated with +deference and assured that the President was prepared to comply, if he +could do so without incurring the charge of inconsistency and disregard +of national honor. Madison proposed to put a proclamation of recall in +Rose's hands, duly signed by the President and dated so as to correspond +with the day on which all differences should be adjusted. Rose consented +to this course and the proclamation was delivered into his hands. He +then divulged little by little his further instructions, which were such +as no self-respecting administration could listen to with composure. +Canning demanded a formal disavowal of Commodore Barron's conduct in +encouraging deserters from His Majesty's service and harboring them on +board his ship. "You will state," read Rose's instructions, "that +such disavowals, solemnly expressed, would afford to His Majesty a +satisfactory pledge on the part of the American Government that the +recurrence of similar causes will not on any occasion impose on His +Majesty the necessity of authorizing those means of force to which +Admiral Berkeley has resorted without authority, but which the continued +repetition of such provocations as unfortunately led to the attack upon +the Chesapeake might render necessary, as a just reprisal on the part +of His Majesty." No doubt Rose did his best to soften the tone of these +instructions, but he could not fail to make them clear; and Madison, who +had conducted these informal interviews, slowly awoke to the real nature +of what he was asked to do. He closed further negotiations with the +comment that the United States could not be expected "to make, as it +were, an expiatory sacrifice to obtain redress, or beg for reparation." +The Administration determined to let the disavowal of Berkeley suffice +for the present and to allow the matter of reparation to await further +developments. The coercive policy on which the Administration had +now launched would, it was confidently believed, bring His Majesty's +Government to terms. + +The very suggestion of an embargo had an unexpected effect upon American +shipmasters. To avoid being shut up in port, fleets of ships put out to +sea half-manned, half-laden, and often without clearance papers. With +freight rates soaring to unheard-of altitudes, ship-owners were willing +to assume all the risks of the sea--British frigates included. So little +did they appreciate the protection offered by a benevolent government +that they assumed an attitude of hostility to authority and evaded the +exactions of the law in every conceivable way. Under guise of engaging +in the coasting trade, many a ship landed her cargo in a foreign port; +a brisk traffic also sprang up across the Canadian border; and Amelia +Island in St. Mary's River, Florida, became a notorious mart for illicit +commerce. Almost at once Congress was forced to pass supplementary acts, +conferring upon collectors of ports powers of inspection and regulation +which Gallatin unhesitatingly pronounced both odious and dangerous. The +President affixed his signature ruefully to acts which increased +the army, multiplied the number of gunboats under construction, and +appropriated a million and a quarter dollars to the construction of +coast defenses and the equipment of militia. "This embargo act," he +confessed, "is certainly the most embarrassing we ever had to execute. +I did not expect a crop of so sudden and rank growth of fraud and open +opposition by force could have grown up in the United States." + +The worst feature of the experiment was its ineffectiveness. The +inhibition of commerce had so slight an effect upon England that when +Pinkney approached Canning with the proposal of a quid pro quo--the +United States to rescind the embargo, England to revoke her +orders-in-council--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 would gladly +have facilitated its removal AS A MEASURE OF INCONVENIENT RESTRICTION +UPON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE." By licensing American vessels, indeed, +which had either slipped out of port before the embargo or evaded the +collectors, the British Government was even profiting by this measure of +restriction. It was these vagrant vessels which gave Napoleon his excuse +for the Bayonne decree of April 17, 1808, when with a stroke of the pen +he ordered the seizure of all American ships in French ports and +swept property to the value of ten million dollars into the imperial +exchequer. Since these vessels were abroad in violation of the embargo, +he argued, they could not be American craft but must be British ships in +disguise. General Armstrong, writing from Paris, warned the Secretary of +State not to expect that the embargo would do more than keep the United +States at peace with the belligerents. As a coercive measure, its effect +was nil. "Here it is not felt, and in England... it is forgotten." + +Before the end of the year the failure of the embargo was patent to +every fair-minded observer. Men might differ ever so much as to the harm +wrought by the embargo abroad; but all agreed that it was not bringing +either France or England to terms, and that it was working real hardship +at home. Federalists in New England, where nearly one-third of the ships +in the carrying trade were owned, pointed to the schooners "rotting +at their wharves," to the empty shipyards and warehouses, to the idle +sailors wandering in the streets of port towns, and asked passionately +how long they must be sacrificed to the theories of this charlatan in +the White House. Even Southern Republicans were asking uneasily when the +President would realize that the embargo was ruining planters who could +not market their cotton and tobacco. And Republicans whose pockets were +not touched were soberly questioning whether a policy that reduced the +annual value of exports from $108,000,000 to $22,000,000, and cut the +national revenue in half, had not been tested long enough. + +Indications multiplied that "the dictatorship of Mr. Jefferson" was +drawing to a close. In 1808, after the election of Madison as his +successor, he practically abdicated as leader of his party, partly out +of an honest conviction that he ought not to commit the President-elect +by any positive course of action, and partly no doubt out of a less +praiseworthy desire not to admit the defeat of his cherished principle. +His abdication left the party without resolute leadership at a critical +moment. Madison and Gallatin tried to persuade their party associates +to continue the embargo until June, and then, if concessions were +not forthcoming, to declare war; but they were powerless to hold the +Republican majority together on this programme. Setting aside the +embargo and returning to the earlier policy of non-intercourse, Congress +adopted a measure which excluded all English and French vessels and +imports, but which authorized the President to renew trade with +either country if it should mend its ways. On March 1, 1809, with much +bitterness of spirit, Thomas Jefferson signed the bill which ended his +great experiment. Martha Jefferson once said of her father that he +never gave up a friend or an opinion. A few months before his death, he +alluded to the embargo, with the pathetic insistence of old age, as "a +measure, which, persevered in a little longer... would have effected its +object completely." + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE LAST PHASE OF PEACEABLE COERCION + +Three days after Jefferson gave his consent to the repeal of the +embargo, the Presidency passed in succession to the second of the +Virginia Dynasty. It was not an impressive figure that stood beside +Jefferson and faced the great crowd gathered in the new Hall of +Representatives at the Capitol. James Madison was a pale, extremely +nervous, and obviously unhappy person on this occasion. For a masterful +character this would have been the day of days; for Madison it was a +fearful ordeal which sapped every ounce of energy. He trembled violently +as he began to speak and his voice was almost inaudible. Those who could +not hear him but who afterward read the Inaugural Address doubtless +comforted themselves with the reflection that they had not missed much. +The new President, indeed, had nothing new to say--no new policy to +advocate. He could only repeat the old platitudes about preferring +"amicable discussion and reasonable accommodation of differences to a +decision of them by an appeal to arms." Evidently, no strong assertion +of national rights was to be expected from this plain, homespun +President. + +At the Inaugural Ball, however, people forgot their President in +admiration of the President's wife, Dolly Madison. "She looked a queen," +wrote Mrs. Margaret Bayard Smith. "She had on a pale buff-colored +velvet, made plain, with a very long train, but not the least trimming, +and beautiful pearl necklace, earrings, and bracelets. Her head dress +was a turban of the same colored velvet and white satin (from Paris) +with two superb plumes, the bird of paradise feathers. It would be +ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE for any one to behave with more perfect propriety +than she did. Unassuming dignity, sweetness, grace. Mr. Madison, on the +contrary," continued this same warm-hearted observer, "seemed spiritless +and exhausted. While he was standing by me, I said, 'I wish with all my +heart I had a little bit of seat to offer you.' 'I wish so too,' said +he, with a most woebegone face, and looking as if he could hardly stand. +The managers came up to ask him to stay to supper, he assented, and +turning to me, 'but I would much rather be in bed,' he said." Quite +different was Mr. Jefferson on this occasion. He seemed to be in high +spirits and "his countenance beamed with a benevolent joy." It seemed to +this ardent admirer that "every demonstration of respect to Mr. M. +gave Mr. J. more pleasure than if paid to himself." No wonder that +Mr. Jefferson was in good spirits. Was he not now free from all the +anxieties and worries of politics? Already he was counting on retiring +"to the elysium of domestic affections and the irresponsible direction" +of his own affairs. A week later he set out for Monticello on horseback, +never again to set foot in the city which had witnessed his triumph and +his humiliation. + +The election of Madison had disclosed wide rifts in his party. Monroe +had lent himself to the designs of John Randolph and had entered the +list of candidates for the Presidency; and Vice-President Clinton had +also been put forward by other malcontents. It was this division in the +ranks of the opposition which in the end had insured Madison's election; +but factional differences pursued Madison into the White House. Even +in the choice of his official family he was forced to consider the +preferences of politicians whom he despised, for when he would have +appointed Gallatin Secretary of State, he found Giles of Virginia and +Samuel Smith of Maryland bent upon defeating the nomination. The Smith +faction was, indeed, too influential to be ignored; with a wry face +Madison stooped to a bargain which left Gallatin at the head of the +Treasury but which saddled his Administration with Robert Smith, who +proved to be quite unequal to the exacting duties of the Department of +State. + +The Administration began with what appeared to be a great diplomatic +triumph. In April the President issued a proclamation announcing that +the British orders-in-council would be withdrawn on the 10th of June, +after which date commerce with Great Britain might be renewed. In the +newspapers appeared, with this welcome proclamation, a note drafted +by the British Minister Erskine expressing the confident hope that all +differences between the two countries would be adjusted by a special +envoy whom His Majesty had determined to send to the United States. +The Republican press was jubilant. At last the sage of Monticello was +vindicated. "It may be boldly alleged," said the National Intelligencer, +"that the revocation of the British orders is attributable to the +embargo." + +Forgotten now were all the grievances against Great Britain. Every +shipping port awoke to new life. Merchants hastened to consign the +merchandise long stored in their warehouses; shipmasters sent out +runners for crews; and ships were soon winging their way out into +the open sea. For three months American vessels crossed the ocean +unmolested, and then came the bitter, the incomprehensible news that +Erskine's arrangement had been repudiated and the over-zealous diplomat +recalled. The one brief moment of triumph in Madison's administration +had passed. + +Slowly and painfully the public learned the truth. Erskine had exceeded +his instructions. Canning had not been averse to concessions, it is +true, but he had named as an indispensable condition of any concession +that the United States should bind itself to exclude French ships of war +from its ports. Instead of holding to the letter of his instructions, +Erskine had allowed himself to be governed by the spirit of concession +and had ignored the essential prerequisite. Nothing remained but to +renew the NonIntercourse Act against Great Britain. This the President +did by proclamation on August 9, 1809, and the country settled back +sullenly into commercial inactivity. + +Another scarcely less futile chapter in diplomacy began with the arrival +of Francis James Jackson as British Minister in September. Those who +knew this Briton were justified in concluding that conciliation had no +important place in the programme of the Foreign Office, for it was he +who, two years before, had conducted those negotiations with Denmark +which culminated in the bombardment and destruction of Copenhagen. "It +is rather a prevailing notion here," wrote Pinkney from London, "that +this gentleman's conduct will not and cannot be what we all wish." And +this impression was so fully shared by Madison that he would not hasten +his departure from Montpelier but left Jackson to his own devices at the +capital for a full month. + +This interval of enforced inactivity had one unhappy consequence. Not +finding employment for all his idle hours, Jackson set himself to +read the correspondence of his predecessor, and from it he drew the +conclusion that Erskine was a greater fool than he had thought possible, +and that the American Government had been allowed to use language of +which "every third word was a declaration of war." The further he read +the greater his ire, so that when the President arrived in Washington +(October 1), Jackson was fully resolved to let the American Government +know what was due to a British Minister who had had audiences "with most +of the sovereigns of Europe." + +Though neither the President nor Gallatin, to whose mature judgment he +constantly turned, believed that Jackson had any proposals to make, they +were willing to let Robert Smith carry on informal conversations with +him. It speedily appeared that so far from making overtures, Jackson was +disposed to await proposals. The President then instructed the Secretary +of State to announce that further discussions would be "in the written +form" and henceforth himself took direct charge of negotiations. The +exchange of letters which followed reveals Madison at his best. His +rapier-like thrusts soon pierced even the thick hide of this conceited +Englishman. The stupid Smith who signed these letters appeared to be no +mean adversary after all. + +In one of his rejoinders the British Minister yielded to a flash of +temper and insinuated (as Canning in his instructions had done) that the +American Government had known Erskine's instructions and had encouraged +him to set them aside--had connived in short at his wrongdoing. "Such +insinuations," replied Madison sharply, "are inadmissible in the +intercourse of a foreign minister with a government that understands +what it owes itself." "You will find that in my correspondence +with you," wrote Jackson angrily, "I have carefully avoided drawing +conclusions that did not necessarily follow from the premises advanced +by me, and least of all should I think of uttering an insinuation where +I was unable to substantiate a fact." A fatal outburst of temper which +delivered the writer into the hands of his adversary. "Sir," wrote the +President, still using the pen of his docile secretary, "finding that +you have used a language which cannot be understood but as reiterating +and even aggravating the same gross insinuation, it only remains, in +order to preclude opportunities which are thus abused, to inform you +that no further communications will be received from you." Therewith +terminated the American Mission of Francis James Jackson. + +Following this diplomatic episode, Congress Wain sought a way of escape +from the consequences of total nonintercourse. It finally enacted a +bill known as Macon's Bill No. 2, which in a sense reversed the former +policy, since it left commerce everywhere free, and authorized the +President, "in case either Great Britain or France shall, before the +3d day of March next, so revoke or modify her edicts as that they shall +cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States," to cut off +trade with the nation which continued to offend. The act thus gave the +President an immense discretionary power which might bring the country +face to face with war. It was the last act in that extraordinary series +of restrictive measures which began with the Non-Intercourse Act of +1806. The policy of peaceful coercion entered on its last phase. + +And now, once again, the shadow of the Corsican fell across the seas. +With the unerring shrewdness of an intellect never vexed by ethical +considerations, Napoleon announced that he would meet the desires of the +American Government. "I am authorized to declare to you, Sir," wrote +the Duc de Cadore, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to Armstrong, "that the +Decrees of Berlin and Milan are revoked, and that after November 1 they +will cease to have effect--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 which they have wished to +establish; or that the United States, conformably to the Act you have +just communicated [the Macon Act], cause their rights to be respected by +the English." + +It might be supposed that President Madison, knowing with whom he had to +deal, would have hesitated to accept Napoleon's asseverations at their +face value. He had, indeed, no assurances beyond Cadore's letter that +the French decrees had been repealed. But he could not let slip this +opportunity to force Great Britain's hand. It seemed to be a last chance +to test the effectiveness of peaceable coercion. On November 2, 1810, +he issued the momentous proclamation which eventually made Great Britain +rather than France the object of attack. "It has been officially made +known to this government," said the President, "that the said edicts of +France have been so revoked as that they ceased, on the first day of the +present month, to violate the neutral commerce of the United States." +Thereupon the Secretary of the Treasury instructed collectors of customs +that commercial intercourse with Great Britain would be suspended after +the 2d of February of the following year. + +The next three months were full of painful experiences for President +Madison. He waited, and waited in vain, for authentic news of the formal +repeal of the French decrees; and while he waited, he was distressed and +amazed to learn that American vessels were still being confiscated in +French ports. In the midst of these uncertainties occurred the biennial +congressional elections, the outcome of which only deepened his +perplexities. Nearly one-half of those who sat in the existing Congress +failed of reelection, yet, by a vicious custom, the new House, which +presumably reflected the popular mood in 1810, would not meet for +thirteen months, while the old discredited Congress wearily dragged out +its existence in a last session. Vigorous presidential leadership, it +is true, might have saved the expiring Congress from the reproach +of incapacity, but such leadership was not to be expected from James +Madison. + +So it was that the President's message to this moribund Congress was +simply a counsel of prudence and patience. It pointed out, to be sure, +the uncertainties of the situation, but it did not summon Congress +sternly to face the alternatives. It alluded mildly to the need of +a continuance of our defensive and precautionary arrangements, +and suggested further organization and training of the militia; it +contemplated with satisfaction the improvement of the quantity and +quality of the output of cannon and small arms; it set the seal of the +President's approval upon the new military academy; but nowhere did it +sound a trumpet-call to real preparedness. + +Even to these mild suggestions Congress responded indifferently. It +slightly increased the naval appropriations, but it actually reduced the +appropriations for the army; and it adjourned without acting on the bill +authorizing the President to enroll fifty thousand volunteers. Personal +animosity and prejudice combined to defeat the proposals of the +Secretary of the Treasury. A bill to recharter the national bank, which +Gallatin regarded as an indispensable fiscal agent, was defeated; and a +bill providing for a general increase of duties on imports to meet the +deficit was laid aside. Congress would authorize a loan of five million +dollars but no new taxes. Only one bill was enacted which could be said +to sustain the President's policy--that reviving certain parts of +the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 against Great Britain. With this last +helpless gasp the Eleventh Congress expired. + +The defeat of measures which the Administration had made its own +amounted to a vote of no confidence. Under similar circumstances an +English Ministry would have either resigned or tested the sentiment of +the country by a general election; but the American Executive possesses +no such means of appealing immediately and directly to the electorate. +President and Congress must live out their allotted terms of office, +even though their antagonism paralyzes the operation of government. +What, then, could be done to restore confidence in the Administration of +President Madison and to establish a modus vivendi between Executive and +Legislative? + +It seemed to the Secretary of Treasury, smarting under the defeat of +his bank bill, that he had become a burden to the Administration, an +obstacle in the way of cordial cooperation between the branches of the +Federal Government. The factions which had defeated his appointment +to the Department of State seemed bent upon discrediting him and his +policies. "I clearly perceive," he wrote to the President, "that my +continuing a member of the present Administration is no longer of any +public utility, invigorates the opposition against yourself, and must +necessarily be attended with an increased loss of reputation by myself. +Under those impressions, not without reluctance, and after perhaps +hesitating too long in the hopes of a favorable change, I beg leave to +tender you my resignation." + +This timely letter probably saved the Administration. Not for an instant +could the President consider sacrificing the man who for ten years +had been the mainstay of Republican power. Madison acted with unwonted +promptitude. He refused to accept Gallatin's resignation, and determined +to break once and for all with the faction which had hounded Gallatin +from the day of his appointment and which had foisted upon the President +an unwelcome Secretary of State. Not Gallatin but Robert Smith should +go. Still more surprising was Madison's quick decision to name Monroe +as Smith's successor, if he could be prevailed upon to accept. Both +Virginians understood the deeper personal and political significance of +this appointment. Madison sought an alliance with a faction which had +challenged his administrative policy; Monroe inferred that no opposition +would be interposed to his eventual elevation to the Presidency when +Madison should retire. What neither for the moment understood was the +effect which the appointment would have upon the foreign policy of the +Administration. Monroe hesitated, for he and his friends had been open +critics of the President's pro-French policy. Was the new Secretary +of State to be bound by this policy, or was the President prepared to +reverse his course and effect a reconciliation with England? + +These very natural misgivings the President brushed aside by assuring +Monroe's friends that he was very hopeful of settling all differences +with both France and England. Certainly he had in no wise committed +himself to a course which would prevent a renewal of negotiations +with England; he had always desired "a cordial accommodation." Thus +reassured, Monroe accepted the invitation, never once doubting that he +would reverse the policy of the Administration, achieve a diplomatic +triumph, and so appear as the logical successor to President Madison. + +Had the new Secretary of State known the instructions which the British +Foreign Office was drafting at this moment for Mr. Augustus J. Foster, +Jackson's successor, he would have been less sanguine. This "very +gentlemanlike young man," as Jackson called him, was told to make some +slight concessions to American sentiment--he might make proper amends +for the Chesapeake affair but on the crucial matter of the French +decrees he was bidden to hold rigidly to the uncompromising position +taken by the Foreign Office from the beginning--that the President was +mistaken in thinking that they had been repealed. The British Government +could not modify its orders-in-council on unsubstantiated rumors that +the offensive French decrees had been revoked. Secretly Foster was +informed that the Ministry was prepared to retaliate if the American +Government persisted in shutting out British importations. No one in +the ministry, or for that matter in the British Isles, seems to have +understood that the moment had come for concession and not retaliation, +if peaceful relations were to continue. + +It was most unfortunate that while Foster was on his way to the United +States, British cruisers would have renewed the blockade of New York. +Two frigates, the Melampus and the Guerriere, lay off Sandy Hook and +resumed the old irritating practice of holding up American vessels and +searching them for deserters. In the existing state of American feeling, +with the Chesapeake outrage still unredressed, the behavior of the +British commanders was as perilous as walking through a powder +magazine with a live coal. The American navy had suffered severely +from Jefferson's "chaste reformation" but it had not lost its fighting +spirit. Officers who had served in the war with Tripoli prayed for a +fair chance to avenge the Chesapeake; and the Secretary of the Navy had +abetted this spirit in his orders to Commodore John Rodgers, who was +patrolling the coast with a squadron of frigates and sloops. "What has +been perpetrated," Rodgers was warned, "may be again attempted. It is +therefore our duty to be prepared and determined at every hazard to +vindicate the injured honor of our navy, and revive the drooping spirit +of the nation." + +Under the circumstances it would have been little short of a miracle if +an explosion had not occurred; yet for a year Rodgers sailed up and down +the coast without encountering the British frigates. On May 16, 1811, +however, Rodgers in his frigate, the President, sighted a suspicious +vessel some fifty miles off Cape Henry. From her general appearance he +judged her to be a man-of-war and probably the Guerriere. He decided to +approach her, he relates, in order to ascertain whether a certain seaman +alleged to have been impressed was aboard; but the vessel made off and +he gave chase. By dusk the two ships were abreast. Exactly what then +happened will probably never be known, but all accounts agree that a +shot was fired and that a general engagement followed. Within fifteen +minutes the strange vessel was disabled and lay helpless under the guns +of the President, with nine of her crew dead and twenty-three wounded. +Then, to his intense disappointment, Rodgers learned that his adversary +was not the Guerriere but the British sloop of war Little Belt, a craft +greatly inferior to his own. + +However little this one-sided sea fight may have salved the pride of +the American navy, it gave huge satisfaction to the general public. The +Chesapeake was avenged. When Foster disembarked he found little interest +in the reparations which he was charged to offer. He had been prepared +to settle a grievance in a good-natured way; he now felt himself obliged +to demand explanations. The boot was on the other leg; and the American +public lost none of the humor of the situation. Eventually he offered +to disavow Admiral Berkeley's act, to restore the seamen taken from the +Chesapeake, and to compensate them and their families. In the course +of time the two unfortunates who had survived were brought from their +prison at Halifax and restored to the decks of the Chesapeake in Boston +Harbor. But as for the Little Belt, Foster had to rest content with the +findings of an American court of inquiry which held that the British +sloop had fired the first shot. As yet there were no visible signs +that Monroe had effected a change in the foreign policy of the +Administration, though he had given the President a momentary advantage +over the opposition. Another crisis was fast approaching. When Congress +met a month earlier than usual, pursuant to the call of the President, +the leadership passed from the Administration to a group of men who had +lost all faith in commercial restrictions as a weapon of defense against +foreign aggression. + + + +CHAPTER X. THE WAR-HAWKS + +Among the many unsolved problems which Jefferson bequeathed to his +successor in office was that of the southern frontier. Running like a +shuttle through the warp of his foreign policy had been his persistent +desire to acquire possession of the Spanish Floridas. This dominant +desire, amounting almost to a passion, had mastered even his better +judgment and had created dilemmas from which he did not escape without +the imputation of duplicity. On his retirement he announced that he was +leaving all these concerns "to be settled by my friend, Mr. Madison," +yet he could not resist the desire to direct the course of his +successor. Scarcely a month after he left office he wrote, "I suppose +the conquest of Spain will soon force a delicate question on you as to +the Floridas and Cuba, which will offer themselves to you. Napoleon +will certainly give his consent without difficulty to our receiving the +Floridas, and with some difficulty possibly Cuba." + +In one respect Jefferson's intuition was correct. The attempt of +Napoleon to subdue Spain and to seat his brother Joseph once again on +the throne of Ferdinand VII was a turning point in the history of +the Spanish colonies in America. One by one they rose in revolt and +established revolutionary juntas either in the name of their deposed +King or in professed cooperation with the insurrectionary government +which was resisting the invader. Events proved that independence was the +inevitable issue of all these uprisings from the Rio de la Plata to the +Rio Grande. + +In common with other Spanish provinces, West Florida felt the impact of +this revolutionary spirit, but it lacked natural unity and a dominant +Spanish population. The province was in fact merely a strip of coast +extending from the Perdido River to the Mississippi, indented with bays +into which great rivers from the north discharged their turgid waters. +Along these bays and rivers were scattered the inhabitants, numbering +less than one hundred thousand, of whom a considerable portion had +come from the States. There, as always on the frontier, land had been +a lodestone attracting both the speculator and the homeseeker. In the +parishes of West Feliciana and Baton Rouge, in the alluvial bottoms +of the Mississippi, and in the settlements around Mobile Bay, American +settlers predominated, submitting with ill grace to the exactions +of Spanish officials who were believed to be as corrupt as they were +inefficient. + +If events had been allowed to take their natural course, West Florida +would in all probability have fallen into the arms of the United States +as Texas did three decades later. But the Virginia Presidents were +too ardent suitors to await the slow progress of events; they meant to +assist destiny. To this end President Jefferson had employed General +Wilkinson, with indifferent success. President Madison found more +trustworthy agents in Governor Claiborne of New Orleans and Governor +Holmes of Mississippi, whose letters reveal the extent to which Madison +was willing to meddle with destiny. "Nature had decreed the union of +Florida with the United States," Claiborne affirmed; but he was not +so sure that nature could be left to execute her own decrees, for he +strained every nerve to prepare the way for American intervention when +the people of West Florida should declare themselves free from Spain. +Holmes also was instructed to prepare for this eventuality and to +cooperate with Claiborne in West Florida "in diffusing the impressions +we wish to be made there." + +The anticipated insurrection came off just when and where nature +had decreed. In the summer of 1810 a so-called "movement for +self-government" started at Bayou Sara and at Baton Rouge, where +nine-tenths of the inhabitants were Americans. The leaders took pains +to assure the Spanish Commandant that their motives were unimpeachable: +nothing should be done which would in any wise conflict with the +authority of their "loved and worthy sovereign, Don Ferdinand VII." +They wished to relieve the people of the abuses under which they +were suffering, but all should be done in the name of the King. The +Commandant, De Lassus, was not without his suspicions of these patriotic +gentlemen but he allowed himself to be swept along in the current. The +several movements finally coalesced on the 25th of July in a convention +near Baton Rouge, which declared itself "legally constituted to act in +all cases of national concern... with the consent of the governor" and +professed a desire "to promote the safety, honor, and happiness of our +beloved king" as well as to rectify abuses in the province. It adjourned +with the familiar Spanish salutation which must have sounded ironical +to the helpless De Lassus, "May God preserve you many years!" Were these +pious professions farcical? Or were they the sincere utterances of men +who, like the patriots of 1776, were driven by the march of events out +of an attitude of traditional loyalty to the King into open defence of +his authority? + +The Commandant was thus thrust into a position where his every movement +would be watched with distrust. The pretext for further action was +soon given. An intercepted letter revealed that DeLassus had written to +Governor Folch for an armed force. That "act of perfidy" was enough to +dissolve the bond between the convention and the Commandant. On the 23d +of September, under cover of night, an armed force shouting "Hurrah! +Washington!" overpowered the garrison of the fort at Baton Rouge, +and three days later the convention declared the independence of West +Florida, "appealing to the Supreme Ruler of the World" for the rectitude +of their intentions. What their intentions were is clear enough. Before +the ink was dry on their declaration of independence, they wrote to the +Administration at Washington, asking for the immediate incorporation of +West Florida into the Union. Here was the blessed consummation of years +of diplomacy near at hand. President Madison had only to reach out his +hand and pluck the ripe fruit; yet he hesitated from constitutional +scruples. Where was the authority which warranted the use of the army +and navy to hold territory beyond the bounds of the United States? +Would not intervention, indeed, be equivalent to an unprovoked attack +on Spain, a declaration of war? He set forth his doubts in a letter to +Jefferson and hinted at the danger which in the end was to resolve all +his doubts. Was there not grave danger that West Florida would pass into +the hands of a third and dangerous party? The conduct of Great Britain +showed a propensity to fish in troubled waters. + +On the 27th of October, President Madison issued a proclamation +authorizing Governor Claiborne to take possession of West Florida and +to govern it as part of the Orleans Territory. He justified his action, +which had no precedent in American diplomacy, by reasoning which was +valid only if his fundamental premise was accepted. West Florida, he +repeated, as a part of the Louisiana purchase belonged to the United +States; but without abandoning its claim, the United States had +hitherto suffered Spain to continue in possession, looking forward to a +satisfactory adjustment by friendly negotiation. A crisis had arrived, +however, which had subverted Spanish authority; and the failure of the +United States to take the territory would threaten the interests of +all parties and seriously disturb the tranquillity of the adjoining +territories. In the hands of the United States, West Florida would "not +cease to be a subject of fair and friendly negotiation." In his annual +message President Madison spoke of the people of West Florida as having +been "brought into the bosom of the American family," and two days later +Governor Claiborne formally took possession of the country to the Pearl +River. How territory which had thus been incorporated could still remain +a subject of fair negotiation does not clearly appear, except on the +supposition that Spain would go through the forms of a negotiation which +could have but one outcome. + +The enemies of the Administration seized eagerly upon the flaws in +the President's logic, and pressed his defenders sorely in the closing +session of the Eleventh Congress. Conspicuous among the champions of +the Administration was young Henry Clay, then serving out the term of +Senator Thurston of Kentucky who had resigned his office. This eloquent +young lawyer, now in his thirty-third year, had been born and bred in +the Old Dominion--a typical instance of the American boy who had nothing +but his own head and hands wherewith to make his way in the world. He +had a slender schooling, a much-abbreviated law education in a lawyer's +office, and little enough of that intellectual discipline needed for +leadership at the bar; yet he had a clever wit, an engaging personality, +and a rare facility in speaking, and he capitalized these assets. He +was practising law in Lexington, Kentucky, when he was appointed to the +Senate. + +What this persuasive Westerner had to say on the American title to West +Florida was neither new nor convincing; but what he advocated as an +American policy was both bold and challenging. "The eternal principles +of self preservation" justified in his mind the occupation of West +Florida, irrespective of any title. With Cuba and Florida in the +possession of a foreign maritime power, the immense extent of country +watered by streams entering the Gulf would be placed at the mercy of +that power. Neglect the proffered boon and some nation profiting by this +error would seize this southern frontier. It had been intimated that +Great Britain might take sides with Spain to resist the occupation of +Florida. To this covert threat Clay replied, + +"Sir, is the time never to arrive, when we may manage our own affairs +without the fear of insulting his Britannic Majesty? Is the rod of +British power to be forever suspended over our heads? Does the President +refuse to continue a correspondence with a minister, who violates +the decorum belonging to his diplomatic character, by giving and +deliberately repeating an affront to the whole nation? We are instantly +menaced with the chastisement which English pride will not fail +to inflict. Whether we assert our rights by sea, or attempt their +maintenance by land--whithersoever we turn ourselves, this phantom +incessantly pursues us. Already has it had too much influence on +the councils of the nation. It contributed to the repeal of the +embargo--that dishonorable repeal, which has so much tarnished the +character of our government. Mr. President, I have before said on this +floor, and now take occasion to remark, that I most sincerely desire +peace and amity with England; that I even prefer an adjustment of all +differences with her, before one with any other nation. But if she +persists in a denial of justice to us, or if she avails herself of the +occupation of West Florida, to commence war upon us, I trust and hope +that all hearts will unite, in a bold and vigorous vindication of our +rights. + +"I am not, sir, in favour of cherishing the passion of conquest. But +I must be permitted, in conclusion, to indulge the hope of seeing, +ere long, the NEW United States (if you will allow me the expression) +embracing, not only the old thirteen States, but the entire country east +of the Mississippi, including East Florida, and some of the territories +of the north of us also." + +Conquest was not a familiar word in the vocabulary of James Madison, and +he may well have prayed to be delivered from the hands of his friends, +if this was to be the keynote of their defense of his policy in West +Florida. Nevertheless, he was impelled in spite of himself in the +direction of Clay's vision. If West Florida in the hands of an +unfriendly power was a menace to the southern frontier, East Florida +from the Perdido to the ocean was not less so. By the 3d of January, +1811, he was prepared to recommend secretly to Congress that he should +be authorized to take temporary possession of East Florida, in case the +local authorities should consent or a foreign power should attempt +to occupy it. And Congress came promptly to his aid with the desired +authorization. + +Twelve months had now passed since the people of the several States +had expressed a judgment at the polls by electing a new Congress. The +Twelfth Congress was indeed new in more senses than one. Some seventy +representatives took their seats for the first time, and fully half of +the familiar faces were missing. Its first and most significant act, +betraying a new spirit, was the choice as Speaker of Henry Clay, who +had exchanged his seat in the Senate for the more stirring arena of the +House. In all the history of the House there is only one other instance +of the choice of a new member as Speaker. It was not merely a personal +tribute to Clay but an endorsement of the forward-looking policy which +he had so vigorously championed in the Senate. The temper of the House +was bold and aggressive, and it saw its mood reflected in the mobile +face of the young Kentuckian. + +The Speaker of the House had hitherto followed English traditions, +choosing rather to stand as an impartial moderator than to act as a +legislative leader. For British traditions of any sort Clay had little +respect. He was resolved to be the leader of the House, and if necessary +to join his privileges as Speaker to his rights as a member, in order to +shape the policies of Congress. Almost his first act as Speaker was to +appoint to important committees those who shared his impatience with +commercial restrictions as a means of coercing Great Britain. On the +Committee on Foreign Relations--second to none in importance at this +moment--he placed Peter B. Porter of New York, young John C. Calhoun of +South Carolina, and Felix Grundy of Tennessee; the chairmanship of the +Committee on Naval Affairs he gave to Langdon Cheves of South Carolina; +and the chairmanship of the Committee on Military Affairs, to another +South Carolinian, David Williams. There was nothing fortuitous in this +selection of representatives from the South and Southwest for important +committee posts. Like Clay himself, these young intrepid spirits were +solicitous about the southern frontier--about the ultimate disposal of +the Floridas; like Clay, they had lost faith in temporizing policies; +like Clay, they were prepared for battle with the old adversary if +necessary. + +In the President's message of November 5, 1811, there was just one +passage which suited the mood of this group of younger Republicans. +After a recital of injuries at the hands of the British ministry, +Madison wrote with unwonted vigor: "With this evidence of hostile +inflexibility in trampling on rights which no independent nation can +relinquish Congress will feel the duty of putting the United States into +an armor and an attitude demanded by the crisis; and corresponding with +the national spirit and expectations." It was this part of the message +which the Committee on Foreign Relations took for the text of its +report. The time had arrived, in the opinion of the committee, when +forbearance ceased to be a virtue and when Congress must as a sacred +duty "call forth the patriotism and resources of the country." Nor did +the committee hesitate to point out the immediate steps to be taken if +the country were to be put into a state of preparedness. Let the ranks +of the regular army be filled and ten regiments added; let the President +call for fifty thousand volunteers; let all available war-vessels be put +in commission; and let merchant vessels arm in their own defense. + +If these recommendations were translated into acts, they would carry the +country appreciably nearer war; but the members of the committee were +not inclined to shrink from the consequences. To a man they agreed that +war was preferable to inglorious submission to continued outrages, and +that the outcome of war would be positively advantageous. Porter, who +represented the westernmost district of a State profoundly interested in +the northern frontier, doubted not that Great Britain could be despoiled +of her extensive provinces along the borders to the North. Grundy, +speaking for the Southwest, contemplated with satisfaction the time when +the British would be driven from the continent. "I feel anxious," he +concluded, "not only to add the Floridas to the South, but the Canadas +to the North of this Empire." Others, like Calhoun, who now made +his entrance as a debater, refused to entertain these mercenary +calculations. "Sir," exclaimed Calhoun, his deep-set eyes flashing, "I +only know of one principle to make a nation great, to produce in this +country not the form but the real spirit of union, and that is, +to protect every citizen in the lawful pursuit of his business... +Protection and patriotism are reciprocal." + +But these young Republicans marched faster than the rank and file. Not +so lightly were Jeffersonian traditions to be thrown aside. The old +Republican prejudice against standing armies and seagoing navies still +survived. Four weary months of discussion produced only two measures of +military importance, one of which provided for the addition to the army +of twenty-five thousand men enlisted for five years, and the other for +the calling into service of fifty thousand state militia. The proposal +of the naval committee to appropriate seven and a half million dollars +to build a new navy was voted down; Gallatin's urgent appeal for +new taxes fell upon deaf ears; and Congress proposed to meet the new +military expenditure by the dubious expedient of a loan of eleven +million dollars. + +A hesitation which seemed fatal paralyzed all branches of the Federal +Government in the spring months. Congress was obviously reluctant to +follow the lead of the radicals who clamored for war with Great Britain. +The President was unwilling to recommend a declaration of war, though +all evidence points to the conclusion that he and his advisers believed +war inevitable. The nation was divided in sentiment, the Federalists +insisting with some plausibility that France was as great an offender +as Great Britain and pointing to the recent captures of American +merchantmen by French cruisers as evidence that the decrees had not been +repealed. Even the President was impressed by these unfriendly acts and +soberly discussed with his mentor at Monticello the possibility of war +with both France and England. There was a moment in March, indeed, when +he was disposed to listen to moderate Republicans who advised him to +send a special mission to England as a last chance. + +What were the considerations which fixed the mind of the nation and +of Congress upon war with Great Britain? Merely to catalogue the +accumulated grievances of a decade does not suffice. Nations do not +arrive at decisions by mathematical computation of injuries received, +but rather because of a sense of accumulated wrongs which may or may not +be measured by losses in life and property. And this sense of wrongs is +the more acute in proportion to the racial propinquity of the offender. +The most bitter of all feuds are those between peoples of the same +blood. It was just because the mother country from which Americans had +won their independence was now denying the fruits of that independence +that she became the object of attack. In two particulars was Great +Britain offending and France not. The racial differences between French +and American seamen were too conspicuous to countenance impressment +into the navy of Napoleon. No injuries at the hands of France bore any +similarity to the Chesapeake outrage. Nor did France menace the frontier +and the frontier folk of the United States by collusion with the +Indians. + +To suppose that the settlers beyond the Alleghanies were eager to fight +Great Britain solely for "free trade and sailors' rights" is to assume +a stronger consciousness of national unity than existed anywhere in the +United States at this time. These western pioneers had stronger and +more immediate motives for a reckoning with the old adversary. Their +occupation of the Northwest had been hindered at every turn by the red +man, who, they believed, had been sustained in his resistance directly +by British traders and indirectly by the British Government. Documents +now abundantly prove that the suspicion was justified. The key to the +early history of the northwestern frontier is the fur trade. It was for +this lucrative traffic that England retained so long the western posts +which she had agreed to surrender by the Peace of Paris. Out of the +region between the Illinois, the Wabash, the Ohio, and Lake Erie, pelts +had been shipped year after year to the value annually of some 100,000 +pounds, in return for the products of British looms and forges. It was +the constant aim of the British trader in the Northwest to secure "the +exclusive advantages of a valuable trade during Peace and the zealous +assistance of brave and useful auxiliaries in time of War." To +dispossess the redskin of his lands and to wrest the fur trade from +British control was the equally constant desire of every full-blooded +Western American. Henry Clay voiced this desire when he exclaimed in the +speech already quoted, "The conquest of Canada is in your power.... Is +it nothing to extinguish the torch that lights up savage warfare? Is it +nothing to acquire the entire fur-trade connected with that country, and +to destroy the temptation and opportunity of violating your revenue and +other laws?" * + + * A memorial of the fur traders of Canada to the Secretary + of State for War and Colonies (1814), printed as Appendix N + to Davidson's "The North West Company," throws much light on + this obscure feature of Western history. See also an article + on "The Insurgents of 1811," in the American Historical + Association "Report" (1911) by D. R. Anderson. + + +The Twelfth Congress had met under the shadow of an impending +catastrophe in the Northwest. Reports from all sources pointed to an +Indian war of considerable magnitude. Tecumseh and his brother the +Prophet had formed an Indian confederacy which was believed to embrace +not merely the tribes of the Northwest but also the Creeks and Seminoles +of the Gulf region. Persistent rumors strengthened long-nourished +suspicions and connected this Indian unrest with the British agents on +the Canadian border. In the event of war, so it was said, the British +paymasters would let the redskins loose to massacre helpless women and +children. Old men retold the outrages of these savage fiends during the +War of Independence. + +On the 7th of November--three days after the assembling of +Congress--Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory +encountered the Indians of Tecumseh's confederation at Tippecanoe and by +a costly but decisive victory crushed the hopes of their chieftains. As +the news of these events drifted into Washington, it colored perceptibly +the minds of those who doubted whether Great Britain or France were the +greater offender. Grundy, who had seen three brothers killed by Indians +and his mother reduced from opulence to poverty in a single night, +spoke passionately of that power which was taking every "opportunity of +intriguing with our Indian neighbors and setting on the ruthless savages +to tomahawk our women and children." "War," he exclaimed, "is not to +commence by sea or land, it is already begun, and some of the richest +blood of our country has been shed." + +Still the President hesitated to lead. On the 31st of March, to be sure, +he suffered Monroe to tell a committee of the House that he thought war +should be declared before Congress adjourned and that he was willing to +recommend an embargo if Congress would agree; but after an embargo for +ninety days had been declared on the 4th of April, he told the British +Minister that it was not, could not be considered, a war measure. He +still waited for Congress to shoulder the responsibility of declaring +war. Why did he hesitate? Was he aware of the woeful state of +unpreparedness everywhere apparent and was he therefore desirous of +delay? Some color is given to this excuse by his efforts to persuade +Congress to create two assistant secretaryships of war. Or was he +conscious of his own inability to play the role of War-President? + +The personal question which thrust itself upon Madison at this time was, +indeed, whether he would have a second term of office. An old story, +often told by his detractors, recounts a dramatic incident which is +said to have occurred, just as the congressional caucus of the party +was about to meet. A committee of Republican Congressmen headed by Mr. +Speaker Clay waited upon the President to tell him, that if he wished a +renomination, he must agree to recommend a declaration of war. The story +has never been corroborated; and the dramatic interview probably +never occurred; yet the President knew, as every one knew, that his +renomination was possible only with the support of the war party. When +he accepted the nomination from the Republican caucus on the 18th +of May, he tacitly pledged himself to acquiesce in the plans of the +war-hawks. Some days later an authentic interview did take place between +the President and a deputation of Congressmen headed by the Speaker, in +the course of which the President was assured of the support of Congress +if he would recommend a declaration. Subsequent events point to a +complete understanding. + +Clay now used all the latent powers of his office to aid the war party. +Even John Randolph, ever a thorn in the side of the party, was made to +wince. On the 9th of May, Randolph undertook to address the House on the +declaration of war which, he had been credibly informed, was imminent. +He was called to order by a member because no motion was before the +House. He protested that his remarks were prefatory to a motion. The +Speaker ruled that he must first make a motion. "My proposition is," +responded Randolph sullenly, "that it is not expedient at this time to +resort to a war against Great Britain." "Is the motion seconded?" +asked the Speaker. Randolph protested that a second was not needed and +appealed from the decision of the chair. Then, when the House sustained +the Speaker, Randolph, having found a seconder, once more began to +address the House. Again he was called to order; the House must first +vote to consider the motion. Randolph was beside himself with rage. The +last vestige of liberty of speech was vanishing, he declared. But Clay +was imperturbable. The question of consideration was put and lost. +Randolph had found his master. + +On the 1st of June the President sent to Congress what is usually +denominated a war message; yet it contained no positive recommendation +of war. "Congress must decide," said the President, "whether the United +States shall continue passive" or oppose force to force. Prefaced to +this impotent conclusion was a long recital of "progressive usurpations" +and "accumulating wrongs"--a recital which had become so familiar in +state papers as almost to lose its power to provoke popular resentment. +It was significant, however, that the President put in the forefront of +his catalogue of wrongs the impressment of American sailors on the high +seas. No indignity touched national pride so keenly and none so clearly +differentiated Great Britain from France as the national enemy. Almost +equally provocative was the harassing of incoming and outgoing vessels +by British cruisers which hovered off the coasts and even committed +depredations within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. +Pretended blockades without an adequate force was a third charge against +the British Government, and closely connected with it that "sweeping +system of blockades, under the name of orders-in-council," against which +two Republican Administrations had struggled in vain. + +There was in the count not an item, indeed, which could not have been +charged against Great Britain in the fall of 1807, when the public +clamored for war after the Chesapeake outrage. Four long years had +been spent in testing the efficacy of commercial restrictions, and +the country was if anything less prepared for the alternative. When +President Madison penned this message he was, in fact, making public +avowal of the breakdown of a great Jeffersonian principle. Peaceful +coercion was proved to be an idle dream. + +So well advised was the Committee on Foreign Relations to which the +President's message was referred that it could present a long report +two days later, again reviewing the case against the adversary in great +detail. "The contest which is now forced on the United States," +it concluded, "is radically a contest for their sovereignty and +independency." There was now no other alternative than an immediate +appeal to arms. On the same day Calhoun introduced a bill declaring war +against Great Britain; and on the 4th of June in secret session the war +party mustered by the Speaker bore down all opposition and carried the +bill by a vote of 79 to 49. On the 7th of June the Senate followed +the House by the close vote of 19 to 14; and on the following day the +President promptly signed the bill which marked the end of an epoch. + +It is one of the bitterest ironies in history that just twenty-four +hours before war was declared at Washington, the new Ministry at +Westminster announced its intention of immediately suspending the +orders-in-council. Had President Madison yielded to those moderates who +advised him in April to send a minister to England, he might have been +apprized of that gradual change in public opinion which was slowly +undermining the authority of Spencer Perceval's ministry and commercial +system. He had only to wait a little longer to score the greatest +diplomatic triumph of his generation; but fate willed otherwise. No +ocean cable flashed the news of the abrupt change which followed the +tragic assassination of Perceval and the formation of a new ministry. +When the slow-moving packets brought the tidings, war had begun. + + + +CHAPTER XI. PRESIDENT MADISON UNDER FIRE + +The dire calamity which Jefferson and his colleagues had for ten years +bent all their energies to avert had now befallen the young Republic. +War, with all its train of attendant evils, stalked upon the stage, and +was about to test the hearts of pacifist and war-hawk alike. But nothing +marked off the younger Republicans more sharply from the generation to +which Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin belonged than the positive relief +with which they hailed this break with Jeffersonian tradition. This +attitude was something quite different from the usual intrepidity of +youth in the face of danger; it was bottomed upon the conviction which +Clay expressed when he answered the question, "What are we to gain +by the war?" by saying, "What are we not to lose by peace? Commerce, +character, a nation's best treasure, honor!" Calhoun had reached the +same conclusion. The restrictive system as a means of resistance and of +obtaining redress for wrongs, he declared to be unsuited to the genius +of the American people. It required the most arbitrary laws; it +rendered government odious; it bred discontent. War, on the other hand, +strengthened the national character, fed the flame of patriotism, and +perfected the organization of government. "Sir," he exclaimed, "I would +prefer a single Victory over the enemy by sea or land to all the good we +shall ever derive from the continuation of the non-importation act!" The +issue was thus squarely faced: the alternative to peaceable coercion was +now to be given a trial. + +Scarcely less remarkable was the buoyant spirit with which these young +Republicans faced the exigencies of war. Defeat was not to be found in +their vocabulary. Clay pictured in fervent rhetoric a victorious army +dictating the terms of peace at Quebec or at Halifax; Calhoun scouted +the suggestion of unpreparedness, declaring that in four weeks after the +declaration of war the whole of Upper and part of Lower Canada would be +in our possession; and even soberer patriots believed that the conquest +of Canada was only a matter of marching across the frontier to Montreal +or Quebec. But for that matter older heads were not much wiser as +prophets of military events. Even Jefferson assured the President that +he had never known a war entered into under more favorable auspices, +and predicted that Great Britain would surely be stripped of all her +possessions on this continent; while Monroe seems to have anticipated +a short decisive war terminating in a satisfactory accommodation with +England. As for the President, he averred many years later that while he +knew the unprepared state of the country, "he esteemed it necessary to +throw forward the flag of the country, sure that the people would press +onward and defend it." + +There is something at once humorous and pathetic in this self-portrait +of Madison throwing forward the flag of his country and summoning his +legions to follow on. Never was a man called to lead in war who had so +little of the martial in his character, and yet so earnest a purpose to +rise to the emergency. An observer describes him, the day after war +was declared, "visiting in person--a thing never known before--all the +offices of the Departments of War and the Navy, stimulating everything +in a manner worthy of a little commander-in-chief, with his little round +hat and huge cockade." Stimulation was certainly needed in these two +departments as events proved, but attention to petty details which +should have been watched by subordinates is not the mark of a great +commander. Jefferson afterward consoled Madison for the defeat of his +armies by writing: "All you can do is to order--execution must depend +on others and failures be imputed to them alone." Jefferson failed +to perceive what Madison seems always to have forgotten, that a +commander-in-chief who appoints and may remove his subordinates can +never escape responsibility for their failures. The President's first +duty was not to stimulate the performance of routine in the departments +but to make sure of the competence of the executive heads of those +departments. + +William Eustis of Massachusetts, Secretary of War, was not without +some little military experience, having served as a surgeon in the +Revolutionary army, but he lacked every qualification for the onerous +task before him. Senator Crawford of Georgia wrote to Monroe caustically +that Eustis should have been forming general and comprehensive +arrangements for the organization of the troops and for the prosecution +of campaigns, instead of consuming his time reading advertisements of +petty retailing merchants, to find where he could purchase one hundred +shoes or two hundred hats. Of Paul Hamilton, the Secretary of Navy, +even less could be expected, for he seems to have had absolutely no +experience to qualify him for the post. Senator Crawford intimated +that in instructing his naval officers Hamilton impressed upon them the +desirability of keeping their superiors supplied with pineapples and +other tropical fruits--an ill-natured comment which, true or not, +gives us the measure of the man. Both Monroe and Gallatin shared the +prevailing estimate of the Secretaries of War and of the Navy and +expressed themselves without reserve to Jefferson; but the President +with characteristic indecision hesitated to purge his Cabinet of these +two incompetents, and for his want of decision he paid dearly. + +The President had just left the Capital for his country place at +Montpelier toward the end of August, when the news came that General +William Hull, who had been ordered to invade Upper Canada and begin the +military promenade to Quebec, had surrendered Detroit and his +entire army without firing a gun. It was a crushing disaster and a +well-deserved rebuke for the Administration, for whether the fault was +Hull's or Eustis's, the President had to shoulder the responsibility. +His first thought was to retrieve the defeat by commissioning Monroe to +command a fresh army for the capture of Detroit; but this proposal which +appealed strongly to Monroe had to be put aside--fortunately for all +concerned, for Monroe's desire for military glory was probably not +equalled by his capacity as a commander and the western campaign proved +incomparably more difficult than wiseacres at Washington imagined. + +What was needed, indeed, was not merely able commanders in the field, +though they were difficult enough to find. There was much truth in +Jefferson's naive remark to Madison: "The creator has not thought +proper to mark those on the forehead who are of the stuff to make good +generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them, blindfold, and then let +them learn the trade at the expense of great losses." But neither seems +to have comprehended that their opposition to military preparedness had +caused this dearth of talent and was now forcing the Administration to +select blindfold. More pressing even than the need of tacticians was the +need of organizers of victory. The utter failure of the Niagara campaign +vacated the office of Secretary of War; and with Eustis retired also +the Secretary of the Navy. Monroe took over the duties of the one +temporarily, and William Jones, a shipowner of Philadelphia, succeeded +Hamilton. + +If the President seriously intended to make Monroe Secretary of War +and the head of the General Staff, he speedily discovered that he was +powerless to do so. The Republican leaders in New York felt too keenly +Josiah Quincy's taunt about a despotic Cabinet "composed, to all +efficient purposes, of two Virginians and a foreigner" to permit Monroe +to absorb two cabinet posts. To appease this jealousy of Virginia, +Madison made an appointment which very nearly shipwrecked his +Administration: he invited General John Armstrong of New York to become +Secretary of War. Whatever may be said of Armstrong's qualifications for +the post, his presence in the Cabinet was most inadvisable, for he did +not and could not inspire the personal confidence of either Gallatin +or Monroe. Once in office, he turned Monroe into a relentless enemy and +fairly drove Gallatin out of office in disgust by appointing his +old enemy, William Duane, editor of the Aurora, to the post of +Adjutant-General. "And Armstrong!"--said Dallas who subsequently as +Secretary of War knew whereof he spoke--"he was the devil from the +beginning, is now, and ever will be!" + +The man of clearest vision in these unhappy months of 1812 was +undoubtedly Albert Gallatin. The defects of Madison as a War-President +he had long foreseen; the need of reorganizing the Executive Departments +he had pointed out as soon as war became inevitable; and the problem of +financing the war he had attacked farsightedly, fearlessly, and +without regard to political consistency. No one watched the approach of +hostilities with a bitterer sense of blasted hopes. For ten years he had +labored to limit expenditures, sacrificing even the military and naval +establishments, that the people might be spared the burden of needless +taxes;--and within this decade he had also scaled down the national debt +one-half, so that posterity might not be saddled with burdens not of +its own choosing. And now war threatened to undo his work. The young +republic was after all not to lead its own life, realize a unique +destiny, but to tread the old well-worn path of war, armaments, and +high-handed government. Well, he would save what he could, do his +best to avert "perpetual taxation, military establishments, and other +corrupting or anti-republican habits or institutions." + +If Gallatin at first underrated the probable revenue for war purposes, +he speedily confessed his error and set before Congress inexorably the +necessity for new taxes-aye, even for an internal tax, which he had once +denounced as loudly as any Republican. For more than a year after +the declaration of war, Congress was deaf to pleas for new sources of +revenue; and it was not, indeed, until the last year of the war that +it voted the taxes which in the long run could alone support the public +credit. Meantime, facing a depleted Treasury, Gallatin found himself +reduced to a mere "dealer of loans"--a position utterly abhorrent to +him. Even his efforts to place the loans which Congress authorized must +have failed but for the timely aid of three men whom Quincy would +have contemptuously termed foreigners, for all like Gallatin were +foreign-born--Astor, Girard, and Parish. Utterly weary of his thankless +job, Gallatin seized upon the opportunity afforded by the Russian +offer of mediation to leave the Cabinet and perhaps to end the war by +a diplomatic stroke. He asked and received an appointment as one of the +three American commissioners. + +If Madison really believed that the people of the United States would +unitedly press onward and defend the flag when once he had thrown it +forward, he must have been strangely insensitive to the disaffection +in New England. Perhaps, like Jefferson in the days of the embargo, +he mistook the spirit of this opposition, thinking that it was largely +partisan clamor which could safely be disregarded. What neither of +these Virginians appreciated was the peculiar fanatical and sectional +character of this Federalist opposition, and the extremes to which +it would go. Yet abundant evidence lay before their eyes. Thirty-four +Federalist members of the House, nearly all from New England, issued an +address to their constituents bitterly arraigning the Administration +and deploring the declaration of war; the House of Representatives +of Massachusetts, following this example, published another address, +denouncing the war as a wanton sacrifice of the best interests of +the people and imploring all good citizens to meet in town and county +assemblies to protest and to resolve not to volunteer except for a +defensive war; and a meeting of citizens of Rockingham County, New +Hampshire, adopted a memorial drafted by young Daniel Webster, which +hinted that the separation of the States--"an event fraught with +incalculable evils"--might sometime occur on just such an occasion as +this. Town after town, and county after county, took up the hue and cry, +keeping well within the limits of constitutional opposition, it is true, +but weakening the arm of the Government just when it should have struck +the enemy effective blows. + +Nor was the President without enemies in his own political household. +The Republicans of New York, always lukewarm in their support of the +Virginia Dynasty, were now bent upon preventing his reelection. They +found a shrewd and not overscrupulous leader in DeWitt Clinton and +an adroit campaign manager in Martin Van Buren. Both belonged to that +school of New York politicians of which Burr had been master. Anything +to beat Madison was their cry. To this end they were willing to condemn +the war-policy, to promise a vigorous prosecution of the war, and even +to negotiate for peace. What made this division in the ranks of +the Republicans so serious was the willingness of the New England +Federalists to make common cause with Clinton. In September a convention +of Federalists endorsed his nomination for the Presidency. + +Under the weight of accumulating disasters, military and political, it +seemed as though Madison must go down in defeat. Every New England State +but Vermont cast its electoral votes for Clinton; all the Middle States +but Pennsylvania also supported him; and Maryland divided its vote. Only +the steadiness of the Southern Republicans and of Pennsylvania saved +Madison; a change of twenty electoral votes would have ended the +Virginia Dynasty.* Now at least Madison must have realized the poignant +truth which the Federalists were never tired of repeating: he had +entered upon the war as President of a divided people. + + * In the electoral vote Madison received 128; Clinton, 89. + + +Only a few months' experience was needed to convince the military +authorities at Washington that the war must be fought mainly by +volunteers. Every military consideration derived from American history +warned against this policy, it is true, but neither Congress nor the +people would entertain for an instant the thought of conscription. Only +with great reluctance and under pressure had Congress voted to increase +the regular army and to authorize the President to raise fifty thousand +volunteers. The results of this legislation were disappointing, not +to say humiliating. The conditions of enlistment were not such as to +encourage recruiting; and even when the pay had been increased and the +term of service shortened, few able-bodied citizens would respond. If +any such desired to serve their country, they enrolled in the State +militia which the President had been authorized to call into active +service for six months. + +In default of a well-disciplined regular army and an adequate volunteer +force, the Administration was forced more and more to depend upon such +quotas of militia as the States would supply. How precarious was the +hold of the national Government upon the State forces, appeared in the +first months of the war. When called upon to supply troops to relieve +the regulars in the coast defenses, the governors of Massachusetts and +Connecticut flatly refused, holding that the commanders of the State +militia, and not the President, had the power to decide when exigencies +demanded the use of the militia in the service of the United States. +In his annual message Madison termed this "a novel and unfortunate +exposition" of the Constitution, and he pointed out--what indeed was +sufficiently obvious--that if the authority of the United States could +be thus frustrated during actual war, "they are not one nation for the +purpose most of all requiring it." But what was the President to do? +Even if he, James Madison, author of the Virginia Resolutions of +1798, could so forget his political creed as to conceive of coercing +a sovereign state, where was the army which would do his bidding? The +President was the victim of his own political theory. + +These bitter revelations of 1812--the disaffection of New England, +the incapacity of two of his secretaries, the disasters of his +staff officers on the frontier, the slow recruiting, the defiance of +Massachusetts and Connecticut--almost crushed the President. Never +physically robust, he succumbed to an insidious intermittent fever in +June and was confined to his bed for weeks. So serious was his condition +that Mrs. Madison was in despair and scarcely left his side for five +long weeks. "Even now," she wrote to Mrs. Gallatin, at the end of +July, "I watch over him as I would an infant, so precarious is his +convalescence." The rumor spread that he was not likely to survive, and +politicians in Washington began to speculate on the succession to the +Presidency. + +But now and then a ray of hope shot through the gloom pervading the +White House and Capitol. The stirring victory of the Constitution over +the Guerriere in August, 1812, had almost taken the sting out of Hull's +surrender at Detroit, and other victories at sea followed, glorious in +the annals of American naval warfare, though without decisive influence +on the outcome of the war. Of much greater significance was Perry's +victory on Lake Erie in September, 1813, which opened the way to the +invasion of Canada. This brilliant combat followed by the Battle of the +Thames cheered the President in his slow convalescence. Encouraging, +too, were the exploits of American privateers in British waters, but +none of these events seemed likely to hasten the end of the war. Great +Britain had already declined the Russian offer of mediation. + +Last day but one of the year 1813 a British schooner, the Bramble, came +into the port of Annapolis bearing an important official letter from +Lord Castlereagh to the Secretary of State. With what eager and anxious +hands Monroe broke the seal of this letter may be readily imagined. It +might contain assurances of a desire for peace; it might indefinitely +prolong the war. In truth the letter pointed both ways. Castlereagh had +declined to accept the good offices of Russia, but he was prepared to +begin direct negotiations for peace. Meantime the war must go on--with +the chances favoring British arms, for the Bramble had also brought the +alarming news of Napoleon's defeat on the plains of Leipzig. Now for +the first time Great Britain could concentrate all her efforts upon +the campaign in North America. No wonder the President accepted +Castlereagh's offer with alacrity. To the three commissioners sent to +Russia, he added Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell and bade them Godspeed +while he nerved himself to meet the crucial year of the war. + +Had the President been fully apprized of the elaborate plans of the +British War Office, his anxieties would have been multiplied many +times. For what resources had the Government to meet invasion on +three frontiers? The Treasury was again depleted; new loans brought +in insufficient funds to meet current expenses; recruiting was slack +because the Government could not compete with the larger bounties +offered by the States; by summer the number of effective regular troops +was only twenty-seven thousand all told. With this slender force, +supplemented by State levies, the military authorities were asked to +repel invasion. The Administration had not yet drunk the bitter dregs of +the cup of humiliation. + +That some part of the invading British forces might be detailed to +attack the Capital was vaguely divined by the President and his Cabinet; +but no adequate measures had been taken for the defense of the city +when, on a fatal August day, the British army marched upon it. The +humiliating story of the battle of Bladensburg has been told elsewhere. +The disorganized mob which had been hastily assembled to check the +advance of the British was utterly routed almost under the eyes of the +President, who with feelings not easily described found himself obliged +to join the troops fleeing through the city. No personal humiliation was +spared the President and his family. Dolly Madison, never once doubting +that the noise of battle which reached the White House meant an American +victory, stayed calmly indoors until the rush of troops warned her of +danger. She and her friends were then swept along in the general rout. +She was forced to leave her personal effects behind, but her presence of +mind saved one treasure in the White House--a large portrait of General +Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart. That priceless portrait and the +plate were all that survived. The fleeing militiamen had presence of +mind enough to save a large quantity of the wine by drinking it, and +what was left, together with the dinner on the table, was consumed +by Admiral Cockburn and his staff. By nightfall the White House, +the Treasury, and the War Office were in flames, and only a severe +thunderstorm checked the conflagration.* + + * Before passing judgment on the conduct of British officers + and men in the capital, the reader should recall the equally + indefensible outrages committed by American troops under + General Dearborn in 1813, when the Houses of Parliament and + other public buildings at York (Toronto) were pillaged and + burned. See Kingsford's "History of Canada," VIII, pp. 259- + 61. + + +Heartsick and utterly weary, the President crossed the Potomac at about +six o'clock in the evening and started westward in a carriage toward +Montpelier. He had been in the saddle since early morning and was nearly +spent. To fatigue was added humiliation, for he was forced to travel +with a crowd of embittered fugitives and sleep in a forlorn house by the +wayside. Next morning he overtook Mrs. Madison at an inn some sixteen +miles from the Capital. Here they passed another day of humiliation, for +refugees who had followed the same line of flight reviled the President +for betraying them and the city. At midnight, alarmed at a report that +the British were approaching, the President fled to another miserable +refuge deeper in the Virginia woods. This fear of capture was quite +unfounded, however, for the British troops had already evacuated the +city and were marching in the opposite direction. + +Two days later the President returned to the capital to collect his +Cabinet and repair his shattered Government. He found public sentiment +hot against the Administration for having failed to protect the city. +He had even to fear personal violence, but he remained "tranquil as +usual... though much distressed by the dreadful event which had taken +place." He was still more distressed, however, by the insistent popular +clamor for a victim for punishment. All fingers pointed at Armstrong as +the man responsible for the capture of the city. Armstrong offered +to resign at once, but the President in distress would not hear of +resignation. He would advise only "a temporary retirement" from the city +to placate the inhabitants. So Armstrong departed, but by the time he +reached Baltimore he realized the impossibility of his situation and +sent his resignation to the President. The victim had been offered +up. At his own request Monroe was now made Secretary of War, though +he continued also to discharge the not very heavy duties of the State +Department. + +It was a disillusioned group of Congressmen who gathered in September, +1814, in special session at the President's call. Among those who gazed +sadly at the charred ruins of the Capitol were Calhoun, Cheves, and +Grundy, whose voices had been loud for war and who had pictured their +armies overrunning the British possessions. Clay was at this moment +endeavoring to avert a humiliating surrender of American claims at +Ghent. To the sting of defeated hopes was added physical discomfort. The +only public building which had escaped the general conflagration was the +Post and Patent Office. In these cramped quarters the two houses awaited +the President's message. + +A visitor from another planet would have been strangely puzzled to make +the President's words tally with the havoc wrought by the enemy on every +side. A series of achievements had given new luster to the American +arms; "the pride of our naval arms had been amply supported"; the +American people had "rushed with enthusiasm to the scenes where danger +and duty call." Not a syllable about the disaster at Washington! Not +a word about the withdrawal of the Connecticut militia from national +service, and the refusal of the Governor of Vermont to call out the +militia just at the moment when Sir George Prevost began his invasion of +New York; not a word about the general suspension of specie payment by +all banks outside of New England; not a word about the failure of the +last loan and the imminent bankruptcy of the Government. Only a single +sentence betrayed the anxiety which was gnawing Madison's heart: "It +is not to be disguised that the situation of our country calls for its +greatest efforts." What the situation demanded, he left his secretaries +to say. + +The new Secretary of War seemed to be the one member of the +Administration who was prepared to grapple with reality and who had the +courage of his convictions. While Jefferson was warning him that it was +nonsense to talk about a regular army, Monroe told Congress flatly that +no reliance could be pled in the militia and that a permanent force +of one hundred thousand men must be raised--raised by conscription if +necessary. Throwing Virginian and Jeffersonian principles to the winds, +he affirmed the constitutional right of Congress to draft citizens. The +educational value of war must have been very great to bring Monroe +to this conclusion, but Congress had not traveled so far. One by one +Monroe's alternative plans were laid aside; and the country, like a +rudderless ship, drifted on. + +An insuperable obstacle, indeed, prevented the establishment of any +efficient national army at this time. Every plan encountered ultimately +the inexorable fact that the Treasury was practically empty and the +credit of the Government gone. Secretary Campbell's report was a +confession of failure to sustain public credit. Some seventy-four +millions would be needed to carry the existing civil and military +establishments for another year, and of this sum, vast indeed in those +days, only twenty-four millions were in sight. Where the remaining +fifty millions were to be found, the Secretary could not say. With this +admission of incompetence Campbell resigned from office. On the 9th of +November his successor, A. J. Dallas, notified holders of government +securities at Boston that the Treasury could not meet its obligations. + +It was at this crisis, when bankruptcy stared the Government in the +face, that the Legislature of Massachusetts appointed delegates to +confer with delegates from other New England legislatures on their +common grievances and dangers and to devise means of security and +defense. The Legislatures of Connecticut and Rhode Island responded +promptly by appointing delegates to meet at Hartford on the 15th +of December; and the proposed convention seemed to receive popular +indorsement in the congressional elections, for with but two exceptions +all the Congressmen chosen were Federalists. Hot-heads were discussing +without any attempt at concealment the possibility of reconstructing the +Federal Union. 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. +News-sheets referred enthusiastically to the erection of a new Federal +edifice which should exclude the Western States. Little wonder that the +harassed President in distant Washington was obsessed with the idea that +New England was on the verge of secession. + +William Wirt who visited Washington at this time has left a vivid +picture of ruin and desolation: + +"I went to look at the ruins of the President's house. The rooms which +you saw so richly furnished, exhibited nothing but unroofed naked walls, +cracked, defaced, and blackened with fire. I cannot tell you what I +felt as I walked amongst them.... I called on the President. He looks +miserably shattered and wobegone. In short, he looked heartbroken. His +mind is full of the New England sedition. He introduced the subject, and +continued to press it--painful as it obviously was to him. I denied the +probability, even the possibility that the yeomanry of the North +could be induced to place themselves under the power and protection of +England, and diverted the conversation to another topic; but he took the +first opportunity to return to it, and convinced me that his heart and +mind were painfully full of the subject." + +What added to the President's misgivings was the secrecy in which the +members of the Hartford Convention shrouded their deliberations. An +atmosphere of conspiracy seemed to envelop all their proceedings. That +the "deliverance of New England" was at hand was loudly proclaimed +by the Federalist press. A reputable Boston news-sheet advised the +President to procure a faster horse than he had mounted at Bladensburg, +if he would escape the swift vengeance of New England. + +The report of the Hartford Convention seemed hardly commensurate with +the fears of the President or with the windy boasts of the Federalist +press. It arraigned the Administration in scathing language, to be +sure, but it did not advise secession. "The multiplied abuses of +bad administrations" did not yet justify a severance of the Union, +especially in a time of war. The manifest defects of the Constitution +were not incurable; yet the infractions of the Constitution by the +National Government had been so deliberate, dangerous, and palpable +as to put the liberties of the people in jeopardy and to constrain the +several States to interpose their authority to protect their citizens. +The legislatures of the several States were advised to adopt measures to +protect their citizens against such unconstitutional acts of Congress +as conscription and to concert some arrangement with the Government at +Washington, whereby they jointly or separately might undertake their +own defense, and retain a reasonable share of the proceeds of Federal +taxation for that purpose. To remedy the defects of the Constitution +seven amendments were proposed, all of which had their origin in +sectional hostility to the ascendancy of Virginia and to the growing +power of the New West. The last of these proposals was a shot at Madison +and Virginia: "nor shall the President be elected from the same State +two terms in succession." And finally, should these applications of the +States for permission to arm in their own defense be ignored, then and +in the event that peace should not be concluded, another convention +should be summoned "with such powers and instructions as the exigency of +a crisis so momentous may require." + +Massachusetts, under Federalist control, acted promptly upon these +suggestions. Three commissioners were dispatched to Washington to effect +the desired arrangements for the defense of the State. The progress of +these "three ambassadors," as they styled themselves, was followed with +curiosity if not with apprehension. In Federalist circles there was a +general belief that an explosion was at hand. A disaster at New Orleans, +which was now threatened by a British fleet and army, would force +Madison to resign or to conclude peace. But on the road to Washington, +the ambassadors learned to their surprise that General Andrew Jackson +had decisively repulsed the British before New Orleans, on the 8th of +January, and on reaching the Capital they were met by the news that +a treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent. Their cause was not only +discredited but made ridiculous. They and their mission were forgotten +as the tension of war times relaxed. The Virginia Dynasty was not to end +with James Madison. + + + +CHAPTER XII. THE PEACEMAKERS + +On a May afternoon in the year 1813, a little three-hundred-ton ship, +the Neptune, put out from New Castle down Delaware Bay. Before she +could clear the Capes she fell in with a British frigate, one of the +blockading squadron which was already drawing its fatal cordon around +the seaboard States. The captain of the Neptune boarded the frigate +and presented his passport, from which it appeared that he carried two +distinguished passengers, Albert Gallatin and James A. Bayard, Envoys +Extraordinary to Russia. The passport duly viseed, the Neptune resumed +her course out into the open sea, by grace of the British navy. + +One of these envoys watched the coast disappear in the haze of evening +with mingled feelings of regret and relief. For twelve weary years +Gallatin had labored disinterestedly for the land of his adoption and +now he was recrossing the ocean to the home of his ancestors with the +taunts of his enemies ringing in his ears. Would the Federalists never +forget that he was a "foreigner"? He reflected with a sad, ironic +smile that as a "foreigner with a French accent" he would have distinct +advantages in the world of European diplomacy upon which he was +entering. He counted many distinguished personages among his friends, +from Madame de Stael to Alexander Baring of the famous London banking +house. Unlike many native Americans he did not need to learn the ways of +European courts, because he was to the manner born: he had no provincial +habits which he must slough off or conceal. Also he knew himself and the +happy qualities with which Nature had endowed him--patience, philosophic +composure, unfailing good humor. All these qualities were to be laid +under heavy requisition in the work ahead of him. + +James Bayard, Gallatin's fellow passenger, had never been taunted as a +foreigner, because several generations had intervened since the first of +his family had come to New Amsterdam with Peter Stuyvesant. Nothing +but his name could ever suggest that he was not of that stock commonly +referred to as native American. Bayard had graduated at Princeton, +studied law in Philadelphia, and had just opened a law office in +Wilmington when he was elected to represent Delaware in Congress. As the +sole representative of his State in the House of Representatives and +as a Federalist, he had exerted a powerful influence in the disputed +election of 1800, and he was credited with having finally made possible +the election of Jefferson over Burr. Subsequently he was sent to the +Senate, where he was serving when he was asked by President Madison to +accompany Gallatin on this mission to the court of the Czar. Granting +that a Federalist must be selected, Gallatin could not have found +a colleague more to his liking, for Bayard was a good companion and +perhaps the least partisan of the Federalist leaders. + +It was midsummer when the Neptune dropped anchor in the harbor of +Kronstadt. There Gallatin and Bayard were joined by John Quincy Adams, +Minister to Russia, who had been appointed the third member of the +commission. Here was a pureblooded American by all the accepted canons. +John Quincy Adams was the son of his father and gloried secretly in his +lineage: a Puritan of the Puritans in his outlook upon human life +and destiny. Something of the rigid quality of rock-bound New England +entered into his composition. He was a foe to all compromise--even with +himself; to him Duty was the stern daughter of the voice of God, who +admonished him daily and hourly of his obligations. No character in +American public life has unbosomed himself so completely as this son of +Massachusetts in the pages of his diary. There are no half tones in the +pictures which he has drawn of himself, no winsome graces of mind +or heart, only the rigid outlines of a soul buffeted by Destiny. +Gallatin--the urbane, cosmopolitan Gallatin--must have derived much +quiet amusement from his association with this robust New Englander who +took himself so seriously. Two natures could not have been more unlike, +yet the superior flexibility of Gallatin's temperament made their +association not only possible but exceedingly profitable. We may not +call their intimacy a friendship--Adams had few, if any friendships; but +it contained the essential foundation for friendship--complete mutual +confidence. + +Adams brought disheartening news to the travel-weary passengers on the +Neptune: England had declined the offer of mediation. Yes; he had +the information from the lips of Count Roumanzoff, the Chancellor and +Minister of Foreign Affairs. Apparently, said Adams with pursed lips, +England regarded the differences with America as a sort of family +quarrel in which it would not allow an outside neutral nation to +interfere. Roumanzoff, however, had renewed the offer of mediation. +What the motives of the Count were, he would not presume to say: Russian +diplomacy was unfathomable. + +The American commissioners were in a most embarrassing position. +Courtesy required that they should make no move until they knew what +response the second offer of mediation would evoke. The Czar was their +only friend in all Europe, so far as they knew, and they were none too +sure of him. They were condemned to anxious inactivity, while in middle +Europe the fortunes of the Czar rose and fell. In August the combined +armies of Russia, Austria, and Prussia were beaten by the fresh levies +of Napoleon; in September, the fighting favored the allies; in October, +Napoleon was brought to bay on the plains of Leipzig. Yet the imminent +fall of the Napoleonic Empire only deepened the anxiety of the forlorn +American envoys, for it was likely to multiply the difficulties of +securing reasonable terms from his conqueror. + +At the same time with news of the Battle of Leipzig came letters from +home which informed Gallatin that his nomination as envoy had been +rejected by the Senate. This was the last straw. To remain inactive as +an envoy was bad enough; to stay on unaccredited seemed impossible. He +determined to take advantage of a hint dropped by his friend Baring that +the British Ministry, while declining mediation, was not unwilling to +treat directly with the American commissioners. He would go to London in +an unofficial capacity and smooth the way to negotiations. But Adams and +Bayard demurred and persuaded him to defer his departure. A month later +came assurances that Lord Castlereagh had offered to negotiate with the +Americans either at London or at Gothenburg. + +Late in January, 1814, Gallatin and Bayard set off for Amsterdam: the +one to bide his chance to visit London, the other to await further +instructions. There they learned that in response to Castlereagh's +overtures, the President had appointed a new commission, on which +Gallatin's name did not appear. Notwithstanding this disappointment, +Gallatin secured the desired permission to visit London through +the friendly offices of Alexander Baring. Hardly had the Americans +established themselves in London when word came that the two new +commissioners, Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell, had landed at Gothenburg +bearing a commission for Gallatin. It seems that Gallatin was believed +to be on his way home and had therefore been left off the commission; +on learning of his whereabouts, the President had immediately added his +name. So it happened that Gallatin stood last on the list when every +consideration dictated his choice as head of the commission. The +incident illustrates the difficulties that beset communication one +hundred years ago. Diplomacy was a game of chance in which wind and +waves often turned the score. Here were five American envoys duly +accredited, one keeping his stern vigil in Russia, two on the coast of +Sweden, and two in hostile London. Where would they meet? With whom were +they to negotiate? + +After vexatious delays Ghent was fixed upon as the place where peace +negotiations should begin, and there the Americans rendezvoused during +the first week in July. Further delay followed, for in spite of the +assurances of Lord Castlereagh the British representatives did not make +their appearance for a month. Meantime the American commissioners made +themselves at home among the hospitable Flemish townspeople, with whom +they became prime favorites. In the concert halls they were always +greeted with enthusiasm. The musicians soon discovered that British +tunes were not in favor and endeavored to learn some American airs. Had +the Americans no national airs of their own, they asked. "Oh, yes!" they +were assured. "There was Hail Columbia." Would not one of the gentlemen +be good enough to play or sing it? An embarrassing request, for musical +talent was not conspicuous in the delegation; but Peter, Gallatin's +black servant, rose to the occasion. He whistled the air; and then +one of the attaches scraped out the melody on a fiddle, so that the +quick-witted orchestra speedily composed l'air national des Americains a +grand orchestre, and thereafter always played it as a counterbalance to +God save the King. + +The diversions of Ghent, however, were not numerous, and time hung +heavy on the hands of the Americans while they waited for the British +commissioners. "We dine together at four," Adams records, "and sit +usually at table until six. We then disperse to our several amusements +and avocations." Clay preferred cards or billiards and the mild +excitement of rather high stakes. Gallatin and his young son James +preferred the theater; and all but Adams became intimately acquainted +with the members of a French troupe of players whom Adams describes +as the worst he ever saw. As for Adams himself, his diversion was a +solitary walk of two or three hours, and then to bed. + +On the 6th of August the British commissioners arrived in Ghent--Admiral +Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, Esq., and Dr. William Adams. They were +not an impressive trio. Gambier was an elderly man whom a writer in the +Morning Chronicle described as a man "who slumbered for some time as a +Junior Lord of Admiralty; who sung psalms, said prayers, and assisted in +the burning of Copenhagen, for which he was made a lord." Goulburn was +a young man who had served as an undersecretary of state. Adams was a +doctor of laws who was expected perhaps to assist negotiations by his +legal lore. Gallatin described them not unfairly as "men who have not +made any mark, puppets of Lords Castlereagh and Liverpool." Perhaps, in +justification of this choice of representatives, it should be said that +the best diplomatic talent had been drafted into service at Vienna and +that the British Ministry expected in this smaller conference to keep +the threads of diplomacy in its own hands. + +The first meeting of the negotiators was amicable enough. The Americans +found their opponents courteous and well-bred; and both sides evinced a +desire to avoid in word and manner, as Bayard put it, "everything of an +inflammable nature." Throughout this memorable meeting at Ghent, indeed, +even when difficult situations arose and nerves became taut, personal +relations continued friendly. "We still keep personally upon eating and +drinking terms with them," Adams wrote at a tense moment. Speaking for +his superiors and his colleagues, Admiral Gambier assured the Americans +of their earnest desire to end hostilities on terms honorable to both +parties. Adams replied that he and his associates reciprocated this +sentiment. And then, without further formalities, Goulburn stated in +blunt and business-like fashion the matters on which they had been +instructed: impressment, fisheries, boundaries, the pacification of the +Indians, and the demarkation of an Indian territory. The last was to be +regarded as a sine qua non for the conclusion of any treaty. Would the +Americans be good enough to state the purport of their instructions? + +The American commissioners seem to have been startled out of their +composure by this sine qua non. They had no instructions on this latter +point nor on the fisheries; they could only ask for a more specific +statement. What had His Majesty's Government in mind when it referred to +an Indian territory? With evident reluctance the British commissioners +admitted that the proposed Indian territory was to serve as a buffer +state between the United States and Canada. Pressed for more details, +they intimated that this area thus neutralized might include the entire +Northwest. + +A second conference only served to show the want of any common basis for +negotiation. The Americans had come to Ghent to settle two outstanding +problems--blockades and indemnities for attacks on neutral commerce--and +to insist on the abandonment of impressments as a sine qua non. Both +commissions then agreed to appeal to their respective Governments for +further instructions. Within a week, Lord Castlereagh sent precise +instructions which confirmed the worst fears of the Americans. The +Indian boundary line was to follow the line of the Treaty of Greenville +and beyond it neither nation was to acquire land. The United States +was asked, in short, to set apart for the Indians in perpetuity an area +which comprised the present States of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois, +four-fifths of Indiana, and a third of Ohio. But, remonstrated Gallatin, +this area included States and Territories settled by more than a hundred +thousand American citizens. What was to be done with them? "They must +look after themselves," was the blunt answer. + +In comparison with this astounding proposal, Lord Castlereagh's further +suggestion of a "rectification" of the frontier by the cession of Fort +Niagara and Sackett's Harbor and by the exclusion of the Americans from +the Lakes, seemed of little importance. The purpose of His Majesty's +Government, the commissioners hastened to add, was not aggrandizement +but the protection of the North American provinces. In view of the +avowed aim of the United States to conquer Canada, the control of the +Lakes must rest with Great Britain. Indeed, taking the weakness of +Canada into account, His Majesty's Government might have reasonably +demanded the cession of the lands adjacent to the Lakes; and should +these moderate terms not be accepted, His Majesty's Government would +feel itself at liberty to enlarge its demands, if the war continued to +favor British arms. The American commissioners asked if these proposals +relating to the control of the Lakes were also a sine qua non. "We +have given you one sine qua non already," was the reply, "and we should +suppose one sine qua non at a time was enough." + +The Americans returned to their hotel of one mind: they could view +the proposals just made no other light than as a deliberate attempt to +dismember the United States. They could differ only as to the form in +which they should couch their positive rejection. As titular head of the +commission, Adams set promptly to work upon a draft of an answer which +he soon set before his colleagues. At once all appearance of unanimity +vanished. To the enemy they could present a united front; in the privacy +of their apartment, they were five headstrong men. They promptly fell +upon Adams's draft tooth and nail. Adams described the scene with +pardonable resentment. + +"Mr. Gallatin is for striking out any expression that may be offensive +to the feelings of the adverse Party. Mr. Clay is displeased with +figurative language which he thinks improper for a state paper. Mr. +Russell, agreeing in the objections of the two other gentlemen, will be +further for amending the construction of every sentence; and Mr. Bayard, +even when agreeing to say precisely the same thing, chooses to say it +only in his own language." + +Sharp encounters took place between Adams and Clay. "You dare not," +shouted Clay in a passion on one occasion, "you CANNOT, you SHALL not +insinuate that there has been a cabal of three members against you!" +"Gentlemen! Gentlemen!" Gallatin would expostulate with a twinkle in his +eye, "We must remain united or we will fail." It was his good temper +and tact that saved this and many similar situations. When Bayard +had essayed a draft of his own and had failed to win support, it was +Gallatin who took up Adams's draft and put it into acceptable form. On +the third day, after hours of "sifting, erasing, patching, and amending, +until we were all wearied, though none of us satisfied," Gallatin's +revision was accepted. From this moment, Gallatin's virtual leadership +was unquestioned. + +The American note of the 24th of August was a vigorous but even-tempered +protest against the British demands as contrary to precedent and +dishonorable to the United States. The American States would never +consent "to abandon territory and a portion of their citizens, to admit +a foreign interference in their domestic concerns, and to cease to +exercise their natural rights on their own shores and in their own +waters." "A treaty concluded on such terms would be but an armistice." +But after the note had been prepared and dispatched, profound +discouragement reigned in the American hotel. Even Gallatin, usually +hopeful and philosophically serene, grew despondent. "Our negotiations +may be considered at an end," he wrote to Monroe; "Great Britain wants +war in order to cripple us. She wants aggrandizement at our expense.... +I do not expect to be longer than three weeks in Europe." The +commissioners notified their landlord that they would give up their +quarters on the 1st of October; yet they lingered on week after week, +waiting for the word which would close negotiations and send them home. + +Meantime the British Ministry was quite as little pleased at the +prospect. It would not do to let the impression go abroad that Great +Britain was prepared to continue the war for territorial gains. If a +rupture of the negotiations must come, Lord Castlereagh preferred to +let the Americans shoulder the responsibility. He therefore instructed +Gambier not to insist on the independent Indian territory and the +control of the Lakes. These points were no longer to be "ultimata" but +only matters for discussion. The British commissioners were to insist, +however, on articles providing for the pacification of the Indians. + +Should the Americans yield this sine qua non, now that the first had +been withdrawn? Adams thought not, decidedly not; he would rather break +off negotiations than admit the right of Great Britain to interfere with +the Indians dwelling within the limits of the United States. Gallatin +remarked that after all it was a very small point to insist on, when a +slight concession would win much more important points. "Then, said I +[Adams], with a movement of impatience and an angry tone, it is a good +point to admit the British as the sovereigns and protectors of our +Indians? Gallatin's face brightened, and he said in a tone of perfect +good-humor, 'That's a non-sequitur.' This turned the edge of the +argument into jocularity. I laughed, and insisted that it was a +sequitur, and the conversation easily changed to another point." +Gallatin had his way with the rest of the commission and drafted the +note of the 26th of September, which, while refusing to recognize the +Indians as sovereign nations in the treaty, proposed a stipulation that +would leave them in possession of their former lands and rights. This +solution of a perplexing problem was finally accepted after another +exchange of notes and another earnest discussion at the American hotel, +where Gallatin again poured oil on the troubled waters. Concession begat +concession. New instructions from President Madison now permitted the +commissioners to drop the demand for the abolition of impressments and +blockades; and, with these difficult matters swept away, the path to +peace was much easier to travel. + +Such was the outlook for peace when news reached Ghent of the +humiliating rout at Bladensburg. The British newspapers were full of +jubilant comments; the five crestfallen American envoys took what cold +comfort they could out of the very general condemnation of the burning +of the Capitol. Then, on the heels of this intelligence, came rumors +that the British invasion of New York had failed and that Prevost's army +was in full retreat to Canada. The Americans could hardly grasp the full +significance of this British reversal: it was too good to be true. But +true it was, and their spirits rebounded. + +It was at this juncture that the British commissioners presented a note, +on the 21st of October, which for the first time went to the heart +of the negotiations. War had been waged; territory had been overrun; +conquests had been made--not the anticipated conquests on either side, +to be sure, but conquests nevertheless. These were the plain facts. Now +the practical question was this: Was the treaty to be drafted on the +basis of the existing state of possession or on the basis of the status +before the war? The British note stated their case in plain unvarnished +fashion; it insisted on the status uti possidetis--the possession of +territory won by arms. + +In the minds of the Americans, buoyed up by the victory at Plattsburg, +there was not the shadow of doubt as to what their answer should be; +they declined for an instant to consider any other basis for peace than +the restoration of gains on both sides. Their note was prompt, emphatic, +even blunt, and it nearly shattered the nerves of the gentlemen in +Downing Street. Had these stiffnecked Yankees no sense? Could they not +perceive the studied moderation of the terms proposed--an island or two +and a small strip of Maine--when half of Maine and the south bank of +the St. Lawrence from Plattsburg to Sackett's Harbor might have been +demanded as the price of peace? + +The prospect of another year of war simply to secure a frontier +which nine out of ten Englishmen could not have identified was most +disquieting, especially in view of the prodigious cost of military +operations in North America. The Ministry was both hot and cold. At +one moment it favored continued war; at another it shrank from the +consequences; and in the end it confessed its own want of decision +by appealing to the Duke of Wellington and trying to shift the +responsibility to his broad shoulders. Would the Duke take command of +the forces in Canada? He should be invested with full diplomatic and +military powers to bring the war to an honorable conclusion. + +The reply of the Iron Duke gave the Ministry another shock. He would go +to America, but he did not promise himself much success there, and he +was reluctant to leave Europe at this critical time. To speak frankly, +he had no high opinion of the diplomatic game which the Ministry was +playing at Ghent. "I confess," said he, "that I think you have no right +from the state of the war to demand any concession from America... +You have not been able to carry it into the enemy's territory, +notwithstanding your military success, and now undoubted military +superiority, and have not even cleared your own territory on the point +of attack. You cannot on any principle of equality in negotiation claim +a cession of territory excepting in exchange for other advantages which +you have in your power.... Then if this reasoning be true, why stipulate +for the uti possidetis? You can get no territory; indeed, the state of +your military operations, however creditable, does not entitle you to +demand any." + +As Lord Liverpool perused this dispatch, the will to conquer oozed away. +"I think we have determined," he wrote a few days later to Castlereagh, +"if all other points can be satisfactorily settled, not to continue +the war for the purpose of obtaining or securing any acquisition of +territory." He set forth his reasons for this decision succinctly: +the unsatisfactory state of the negotiations at Vienna, the alarming +condition of France, the deplorable financial outlook in England. But +Lord Liverpool omitted to mention a still more potent factor in his +calculations--the growing impatience of the country. The American +war had ceased to be popular; it had become the graveyard of military +reputations; it promised no glory to either sailor or soldier. Now that +the correspondence of the negotiators at Ghent was made public, the +reading public might very easily draw the conclusion that the Ministry +was prolonging the war by setting up pretensions which it could +not sustain. No Ministry could afford to continue a war out of mere +stubbornness. + +Meantime, wholly in the dark as to the forces which were working in +their favor, the American commissioners set to work upon a draft of a +treaty which should be their answer to the British offer of peace on the +basis of uti possidetis. Almost at once dissensions occurred. Protracted +negotiations and enforced idleness had set their nerves on edge, and +old personal and sectional differences appeared. The two matters +which caused most trouble were the fisheries and the navigation of the +Mississippi. Adams could not forget how stubbornly his father had fought +for that article in the treaty of 1783 which had conceded to New England +fishermen, as a natural right, freedom to fish in British waters. To +a certain extent this concession had been offset by yielding to the +British the right of navigation of the Mississippi, but the latter right +seemed unimportant in the days when the Alleghanies marked the limit +of western settlement. In the quarter of a century which had elapsed, +however, the West had come into its own. It was now a powerful section +with an intensely alert consciousness of its rights and wrongs; and +among its rights it counted the exclusive control of the Father of +Waters. Feeling himself as much the champion of Western interests as +Adams did of New England fisheries, Clay refused indignantly to consent +to a renewal of the treaty provisions of 1783. But when the matter came +to a vote, he found himself with Russell in a minority. Very reluctantly +he then agreed to Gallatin's proposal, to insert in a note, rather than +in the draft itself, a paragraph to the effect that the commissioners +were not instructed to discuss the rights hitherto enjoyed in the +fisheries, since no further stipulation was deemed necessary to entitle +them to rights which were recognized by the treaty of 1783. + +When the British reply to the American project was read, Adams noted +with quiet satisfaction that the reservation as to the fisheries was +passed over in silence--silence, he thought, gave consent--but Clay flew +into a towering passion when he learned that the old right of navigating +the Mississippi was reasserted. Adams was prepared to accept the British +proposals; Clay refused point blank; and Gallatin sided this time +with Clay. Could a compromise be effected between these stubborn +representatives of East and West? Gallatin tried once more. Why not +accept the British right of navigation--surely an unimportant point +after all--and ask for an express affirmation of fishery rights? +Clay replied hotly that if they were going to sacrifice the West to +Massachusetts, he would not sign the treaty. With infinite patience +Gallatin continued to play the role of peacemaker and finally brought +both these self-willed men to agree to offer a renewal of both rights. + +Instead of accepting this eminently fair adjustment, the British +representatives proposed that the two disputed rights be left to future +negotiation. The suggestion caused another explosion in the ranks of the +Americans. Adams would not admit even by implication that the rights for +which his sire fought could be forfeited by war and become the subject +of negotiation. But all save Adams were ready to yield. Again Gallatin +came to the rescue. He penned a note rejecting the British offer, +because it seemed to imply the abandonment of a right; but in turn he +offered to omit in the treaty all reference to the fisheries and the +Mississippi or to include a general reference to further negotiation +of all matters still in dispute, in such a way as not to relinquish any +rights. To this solution of the difficulty all agreed, though Adams was +still torn by doubts and Clay believed that the treaty was bound to be +"damned bad" anyway. + +An anxious week of waiting followed. On the 22d of December came the +British reply--a grudging acceptance of Gallatin's first proposal to +omit all reference to the fisheries and the Mississippi. Two days later +the treaty was signed in the refectory of the Carthusian monastery +where the British commissioners were quartered. Let the tired +seventeen-year-old boy who had been his father's scribe through these +long weary months describe the events of Christmas Day, 1814. "The +British delegates very civilly asked us to dinner," wrote James Gallatin +in his diary. "The roast beef and plum pudding was from England, and +everybody drank everybody else's health. The band played first God Save +the King, to the toast of the King, and Yankee Doodle, to the toast of +the President. Congratulations on all sides and a general atmosphere of +serenity; it was a scene to be remembered. God grant there may be always +peace between the two nations. I never saw father so cheerful; he was in +high spirits, and his witty conversation was much appreciated." * + + * "A Great Peace Maker: The Dairy of James Gallatin" (1914). + p. 36. + + +Peace! That was the outstanding achievement of the American +commissioners at Ghent. Measured by the purposes of the war-hawks of +1812, measured by the more temperate purposes of President Madison, the +Treaty of Ghent was a confession of national weakness and humiliating +failure. Clay, whose voice had been loudest for war and whose kindling +fancy had pictured American armies dictating terms of surrender at +Quebec, set his signature to a document which redressed not a single +grievance and added not a foot of territory to the United States. +Adams, who had denounced Great Britain for the crime of "man-stealing," +accepted a treaty of peace which contained not a syllable about +impressment. President Madison, who had reluctantly accepted war as the +last means of escape from the blockade of American ports and the ruin +of neutral trade, recommended the ratification of a convention which did +not so much as mention maritime questions and the rights of neutrals. + +Peace--and nothing more? Much more, indeed, than appears in rubrics on +parchment. The Treaty of Ghent must be interpreted in the light of more +than a hundred years of peace between the two great branches of the +English-speaking race. More conscious of their differences than anything +else, no doubt, these eight peacemakers at Ghent nevertheless spoke a +common tongue and shared a common English trait: they laid firm hold on +realities. Like practical men they faced the year 1815 and not 1812. In +a pacified Europe rid of the Corsican, questions of maritime practice +seemed dead issues. Let the dead past bury its dead! To remove possible +causes of future controversy seemed wiser statesmanship than to rake +over the embers of quarrels which might never be rekindled. So it +was that in prosaic articles they provided for three commissions to +arbitrate boundary controversies at critical points in the far-flung +frontier between Canada and the United States, and thus laid the +foundations of an international accord which has survived a hundred +years. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. SPANISH DERELICTS IN THE NEW WORLD + +It fell to the last, and perhaps least talented, President of the +Virginia Dynasty to consummate the work of Jefferson and Madison by a +final settlement with Spain which left the United States in possession +of the Floridas. In the diplomatic service James Monroe had exhibited +none of those qualities which warranted the expectation that he would +succeed where his predecessors had failed. On his missions to England +and Spain, indeed, he had been singularly inept, but he had learned much +in the rude school of experience, and he now brought to his new duties +discretion, sobriety, and poise. He was what the common people held +him to be a faithful public servant, deeply and sincerely republican, +earnestly desirous to serve the country which he loved. + +The circumstances of Monroe's election pledged him to a truly national +policy. He had received the electoral votes of all but three States. * +He was now President of an undivided country, not merely a Virginian +fortuitously elevated to the chief magistracy and regarded as alien in +sympathy to the North and East. Any doubts on this point were dispelled +by the popular demonstrations which greeted him on his tour through +Federalist strongholds in the Northeast. "I have seen enough," he wrote +in grateful recollection, "to satisfy me that the great mass of our +fellow-citizens in the Eastern States are as firmly attached to the +union and republican government as I have always believed or could +desire them to be." The news-sheets which followed his progress from +day to day coined the phrase, "era of good feeling," which has passed +current ever since as a characterization of his administration. + + * Monroe received 183 electoral votes and Rufus King, 34-- + the votes of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware. + + +It was in this admirable temper and with this broad national outlook +that Monroe chose his advisers and heads of departments. He was +well aware of the common belief that his predecessors had appointed +Virginians to the Secretaryship of State in order to prepare the way +for their succession to the Presidency. He was determined, therefore, +to avert the suspicion of sectional bias by selecting some one from the +Eastern States, rather than from the South or from the West, hitherto +so closely allied to the South. His choice fell upon John Quincy Adams, +"who by his age, long experience in our foreign affairs, and adoption +into the Republican party," he assured Jefferson, "seems to have +superior pretentions." It was an excellent appointment from every point +of view but one. Monroe had overlooked--and the circumstance did +him infinite credit--the exigencies of politics and passed over an +individual whose vaulting ambition had already made him an aspirant to +the Presidency. Henry Clay was grievously disappointed and henceforward +sulked in his tent, refusing the Secretaryship of War which the +President tendered. Eventually the brilliant young John C. Calhoun took +this post. This South Carolinian was in the prime of life, full of +fire and dash, ardently patriotic, and nationally-minded to an +unusual degree. Of William H. Crawford of Georgia, who retained the +Secretaryship of the Treasury, little need be said except that he also +was a presidential aspirant who saw things always from the angle of +political expediency. Benjamin W. Crowninshield as Secretary of the +Navy and William Wirt as Attorney-General completed the circle of the +President's intimate advisers. + +The new Secretary of State had not been in office many weeks before he +received a morning call from Don Luis de Onis, the Spanish Minister, who +was laboring under ill-disguised excitement. It appeared that his house +in Washington had been repeatedly "insulted" of late-windows broken, +lamps in front of the house smashed, and one night a dead fowl tied to +his bell-rope. This last piece of vandalism had been too much for his +equanimity. He held it a gross insult to his sovereign and the Spanish +monarchy, importing that they were of no more consequence than a dead +old hen! Adams, though considerably amused, endeavored to smooth the +ruffled pride of the chevalier by suggesting that these were probably +only the tricks of some mischievous boys; but De Onis was not easily +appeased. Indeed, as Adams was himself soon to learn, the American +public did regard the Spanish monarchy as a dead old hen, and took no +pains to disguise its contempt. Adams had yet to learn the long train +of circumstances which made Spanish relations the most delicate and +difficult of all the diplomatic problems in his office. + +With his wonted industry, Adams soon made himself master of the facts +relating to Spanish diplomacy. For the moment interest centered on +East Florida. Carefully unraveling the tangled skein of events, Adams +followed the thread which led back to President Madison's secret message +to Congress of January 3,1811, which was indeed one of the landmarks in +American policy. Madison had recommended a declaration "that the +United States could not see without serious inquietude any part of +a neighboring territory [like East Florida] in which they have in +different respects so deep and so just a concern pass from the hands of +Spain into those of any other foreign power." To prevent the possible +subversion of Spanish authority in East Florida and the occupation of +the province by a foreign power--Great Britain was, of course, the power +the President had in mind--he had urged Congress to authorize him to +take temporary possession "in pursuance of arrangements which may +be desired by the Spanish authorities." Congress had responded with +alacrity and empowered the President to occupy East Florida in case the +local authorities should consent or a foreign power should attempt to +occupy it. + +With equal dispatch the President had sent two agents, General George +Matthews and Colonel John McKee, on one of the strangest missions in the +border history of the United States. + +East Florida--Adams found, pursuing his inquiries into the archives of +the department--included the two important ports of entry, Pensacola on +the Gulf and Fernandina on Amelia Island, at the mouth of the St. Mary's +River. The island had long been a notorious resort for smugglers. Hither +had come British and American vessels with cargoes of merchandise and +slaves, which found their way in mysterious fashion to consignees within +the States. A Spanish garrison of ten men was the sole custodian of law +and order on the island. Up and down the river was scattered a lawless +population of freebooters, who were equally ready to raid a border +plantation or to raise the Jolly Roger on some piratical cruise. To this +No Man's Land--fertile recruiting ground for all manner of filibustering +expeditions--General Matthews and Colonel McKee had betaken themselves +in the spring of 1811, bearing some explicit instructions from President +Madison but also some very pronounced convictions as to what they +were expected to accomplish. Matthews, at least, understood that the +President wished a revolution after the West Florida model. He assured +the Administration-Adams read the precious missive in the files of his +office-that he could do the trick. Only let the Government consign two +hundred stand of arms and fifty horsemen's swords to the commander at +St. Mary's, and he would guarantee to put the revolution through without +committing the United States in any way. + +The melodrama had been staged for the following spring (1812). Some two +hundred "patriots" recruited from the border people gathered near St. +Mary's with souls yearning for freedom; and while American gunboats +took a menacing position, this force of insurgents had landed on Amelia +Island and summoned the Spanish commandant to surrender. Not willing +to spoil the scene by vulgar resistance, the commandant capitulated and +marched out his garrison, ten strong, with all the honors of war. The +Spanish flag had been hauled down to give place to the flag of the +insurgents, bearing the inspiring motto Salus populi--suprema lex. +Then General Matthews with a squad of regular United States troops had +crossed the river and taken possession. Only the benediction of the +Government at Washington was lacking to make the success of his mission +complete; but to the general's consternation no approving message +came, only a peremptory dispatch disavowing his acts and revoking his +commission. + +As Adams reviewed these events, he could see no other alternative +for the Government to have pursued at this moment when war with Great +Britain was impending. It would have been the height of folly to break +openly with Spain. The Administration had indeed instructed its new +agent, Governor Mitchell of Georgia, to restore the island to the +Spanish commandant and to withdraw his troops, if he could do so without +sacrificing the insurgents to the vengeance of the Spaniards. But the +forces set in motion by Matthews were not so easily controlled from +Washington. Once having resolved to liberate East Florida, the patriots +were not disposed to retire at the nod of the Secretary of State. The +Spanish commandant was equally obdurate. He would make no promise to +spare the insurgents. The Legislature of Georgia, too, had a mind of its +own. It resolved that the occupation of East Florida was essential +to the safety of the State, whether Congress approved or no; and the +Governor, swept along in the current of popular feeling, summoned troops +from Savannah to hold the province. Just at this moment had come +the news of war with Great Britain; and Governor, State militia, and +patriots had combined in an effort to prevent East Florida from becoming +enemy's territory. + +Military considerations had also swept the Administration along the same +hazardous course. The occupation of the Floridas seemed imperative. The +President sought authorization from Congress to occupy and govern both +the Floridas until the vexed question of title could be settled by +negotiation. Only a part of this programme had carried, for, while +Congress was prepared to approve the military occupation of West Florida +to the Perdido River, beyond that it would not go; and so with great +reluctance the President had ordered the troops to withdraw from Amelia +Island. In the spring of the same year (1813) General Wilkinson had +occupied West Florida--the only permanent conquest of the war and that, +oddly enough, the conquest of a territory owned and held by a power with +which the United States was not at war. + +Abandoned by the American troops, Amelia Island had become a rendezvous +for outlaws from every part of the Americas. Just about the time +that Adams was crossing the ocean to take up his duties at the State +Department, one of these buccaneers by the name of Gregor MacGregor +descended upon the island as "Brigadier General of the Armies of the +United Provinces of New Granada and Venezuela, and General-in-chief of +that destined to emancipate the provinces of both Floridas, under the +commission of the Supreme Government of Mexico and South America." This +pirate was soon succeeded by General Aury, who had enjoyed a wild career +among the buccaneers of Galveston Bay, where he had posed as military +governor under the Republic of Mexico. East Florida in the hands of such +desperadoes was a menace to the American border. Approaching the problem +of East Florida without any of the prepossessions of those who had been +dealing with Spanish envoys for a score of years, the new Secretary of +State was prepared to move directly to his goal without any too great +consideration for the feelings of others. His examination of the facts +led him to a clean-cut decision: this nest of pirates must be broken up +at once. His energy carried President and Cabinet along with him. It was +decided to send troops and ships to the St. Mary's and if necessary to +invest Fernandina. This demonstration of force sufficed; General Aury +departed to conquer new worlds, and Amelia Island was occupied for the +second time without bloodshed. + +But now, having grasped the nettle firmly, what was the Administration +to do with it? De Onis promptly registered his protest; the opposition +in Congress seized upon the incident to worry the President; many of +the President's friends thought that he had been precipitate. Monroe, +indeed, would have been glad to withdraw the troops now that they had +effected their object, but Adams was for holding the island in order to +force Spain to terms. With a frankness which lacerated the feelings of +De Onis, Adams insisted that the United States had acted strictly on the +defensive. The occupation of Amelia Island was not an act of aggression +but a necessary measure for the protection of commerce--American +commerce, the commerce of other nations, the commerce of Spain itself. +Now why not put an end to all friction by ceding the Floridas to the +United States? What would Spain take for all her possessions east of +the Mississippi, Adams asked. De Onis declined to say. Well, then, Adams +pursued, suppose the United States should withdraw from Amelia +Island, would Spain guarantee that it should not be occupied again by +free-booters? No: De Onis could give no such guarantee, but he would +write to the Governor of Havana to ascertain if he would send an +adequate garrison to Fernandina. Adams reported this significant +conversation to the President, who was visibly shaken by the conflict of +opinions within his political household and not a little alarmed at the +possibility of war with Spain. The Secretary of State was coolly taking +the measure of his chief. "There is a slowness, want of decision, and a +spirit of procrastination in the President," he confided to his diary. +He did not add, but the thought was in his mind, that he could sway +this President, mold him to his heart's desire. In this first trial of +strength the hardier personality won: Monroe sent a message to Congress, +on January 13, 1818, announcing his intention to hold East Florida for +the present, and the arguments which he used to justify this bold course +were precisely those of his Secretary of State. + +When Adams suggested that Spain might put an end to all her worries by +ceding the Floridas, he was only renewing an offer that Monroe had made +while he was still Secretary of State. De Onis had then declared that +Spain would never cede territory east of the Mississippi unless the +United States would relinquish its claims west of that river. Now, +to the new Secretary, De Onis intimated that he was ready to be less +exacting. He would be willing to run the line farther west and allow the +United States a large part of what is now the State of Louisiana. Adams +made no reply to this tentative proposal but bided his time; and time +played into his hands in unexpected ways. + +To the Secretary's office, one day in June, 1818, came a letter from De +Onis which was a veritable firebrand. De Onis, who was not unnaturally +disposed to believe the worst of Americans on the border, had heard that +General Andrew Jackson in pursuit of the Seminole Indians had crossed +into Florida and captured Pensacola and St. Mark's. He demanded to be +informed "in a positive, distinct and explicit manner just what had +occurred"; and then, outraged by confirmatory reports and without +waiting for Adams's reply, he wrote another angry letter, insisting upon +the restitution of the captured forts and the punishment of the American +general. Worse tidings followed. Bagot, the British Minister, had heard +that Jackson had seized and executed two British subjects on Spanish +soil. Would the Secretary of State inform him whether General Jackson +had been authorized to take Pensacola, and would the Secretary furnish +him with copies of the reports of the courts-martial which had condemned +these two subjects of His Majesty? Adams could only reply that he lacked +official information. + +By the second week in July, dispatches from General Jackson confirmed +the worst insinuations and accusations of De Onis and Bagot. President +Monroe was painfully embarrassed. Prompt disavowal of the general's +conduct seemed the only way to avert war; but to disavow the acts of +this popular idol, the victor of New Orleans, was no light matter. He +sought the advice of his Cabinet and was hardly less embarrassed to +find all but one convinced that "Old Hickory" had acted contrary to +instructions and had committed acts of hostility against Spain. A week +of anxious Cabinet sessions followed, in which only one voice was raised +in defense of the invasion of Florida. All but Adams feared war, a war +which the opposition would surely brand as incited by the President +without the consent of Congress. No administration could carry on a war +begun in violation of the Constitution, said Calhoun. But, argued Adams, +the President may authorize defensive acts of hostility. Jackson had +been authorized to cross the frontier, if necessary, in pursuit of the +Indians, and all the ensuing deplorable incidents had followed as a +necessary consequence of Indian warfare. + +The conclusions of the Cabinet were summed up by Adams in a reply to +De Onis, on the 23d of July, which must have greatly astonished that +diligent defender of Spanish honor. Opening the letter to read, as he +confidently expected, a disavowal and an offer of reparation, he found +the responsibility for the recent unpleasant incidents fastened upon his +own country. He was reminded that by the treaty of 1795 both Governments +had contracted to restrain the Indians within their respective borders, +so that neither should suffer from hostile raids, and that the Governor +of Pensacola, when called upon to break up a stronghold of Indians and +fugitive slaves, had acknowledged his obligation but had pleaded his +inability to carry out the covenant. Then, and then only, had General +Jackson been authorized to cross the border and to put an end to +outrages which the Spanish authorities lacked the power to prevent. +General Jackson had taken possession of the Spanish forts on his +own responsibility when he became convinced of the duplicity of the +commandant, who, indeed, had made himself "a partner and accomplice of +the hostile Indians and of their foreign instigators." Such conduct on +the part of His Majesty's officer justified the President in calling +for his punishment. But, in the meantime, the President was prepared to +restore Pensacola, and also St. Mark's, whenever His Majesty should send +a force sufficiently strong to hold the Indians under control. + +Nor did the Secretary of State moderate his tone or abate his demands +when Pizarro, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, threatened +to suspend negotiations with the United States until it should give +satisfaction for this "shameful invasion of His Majesty's territory" and +for these "acts of barbarity glossed over with the forms of justice." In +a dispatch to the American Minister at Madrid, Adams vigorously defended +Jackson's conduct from beginning to end. The time had come, said he, +when "Spain must immediately make her election either to place a force +in Florida adequate at once to the protection of her territory and +to the fulfilment of her engagements or cede to the United States a +province of which she retains nothing but the nominal possession, but +which is in fact a derelict, open to the occupancy of every enemy, +civilized or savage, of the United States and serving no other earthly +purpose, than as a post of annoyance to them." + +This affront to Spanish pride might have ended abruptly a chapter in +Spanish-American diplomacy but for the friendly offices of Hyde de +Neuville, the French Minister at Washington, whose Government could +not view without alarm the possibility of a rupture between the two +countries. It was Neuville who labored through the summer months of this +year, first with Adams, then with De Onis, tempering the demands of the +one and placating the pride of the other, but never allowing intercourse +to drop. Adams was right, and both Neuville and De Onis knew it; the +only way to settle outstanding differences was to cede these Spanish +derelicts in the New World to the United States. + +To bring and keep together these two antithetical personalities, +representatives of two opposing political systems, was no small +achievement. What De Onis thought of his stubborn opponent may be +surmised; what the American thought of the Spaniard need not be left to +conjecture. In the pages of his diary Adams painted the portrait of his +adversary as he saw him--"cold, calculating, wily, always commanding +his temper, proud because he is a Spaniard but supple and cunning, +accommodating the tone of his pretensions precisely to the degree of +endurance of his opponents, bold and overbearing to the utmost extent to +which it is tolerated, careless of what he asserts or how grossly it is +proved to be unfounded." + +The history of the negotiations running through the fall and winter is +a succession of propositions and counter-propositions, made formally by +the chief participants or tentatively and informally through Neuville. +The western boundary of the Louisiana purchase was the chief obstacle to +agreement. Each sparred for an advantage; each made extreme claims; and +each was persuaded to yield a little here and a little there, slowly +narrowing the bounds of the disputed territory. More than once the +President and the Cabinet believed that the last concession had been +extorted and were prepared to yield on other matters. When the President +was prepared, for example, to accept the hundredth meridian and the +forty-third parallel, Adams insisted on demanding the one hundred and +second and the forty-second; and "after a long and violent struggle," +wrote Adams, "he [De Onis]. .. agreed to take longitude one hundred from +the Red River to the Arkansas, and latitude forty-two from the source of +the Arkansas to the South Sea." This was a momentous decision, for the +United States acquired thus whatever claim Spain had to the northwest +coast but sacrificed its claim to Texas for the possession of the +Floridas. + +Vexatious questions still remained to be settled. The spoliation claims +which were to have been adjusted by the convention of 1802 were +finally left to a commission, the United States agreeing to assume all +obligations to an amount not exceeding five million dollars. De Onis +demurred at stating this amount in the treaty: he would be blamed for +having betrayed the honor of Spain by selling the Floridas for a paltry +five millions. To which Adams replied dryly that he ought to boast of +his bargain instead of being ashamed of it, since it was notorious +that the Floridas had always been a burden to the Spanish exchequer. +Negotiations came to a standstill again when Adams insisted that certain +royal grants of land in the Floridas should be declared null and void. +He feared, and not without reason, that these grants would deprive the +United States of the domain which was to be used to pay the indemnities +assumed in the treaty. De Onis resented the demand as "offensive to +the dignity and imprescriptible rights of the Crown of Spain"; and +once again Neuville came to the rescue of the treaty and persuaded both +parties to agree to a compromise. On the understanding that the royal +grants in question had been made subsequent to January 24, 1818, Adams +agreed that all grants made since that date (when the first proposal was +made by His Majesty for the cession of the Floridas) should be declared +null and void; and that all grants made before that date should be +confirmed. + +On the anniversary of Washington's birthday, De Onis and Adams signed +the treaty which carried the United States to its natural limits on +the southeast. The event seemed to Adams to mark "a great epocha in our +history." "It was near one in the morning," he recorded in his diary, +"when I closed the day with ejaculations of fervent gratitude to +the Giver of all good. It was, perhaps, the most important day of my +life.... Let no idle and unfounded exultation take possession of my +mind, as if I would ascribe to my own foresight or exertions any portion +of the event." But misgivings followed hard on these joyous reflections. +The treaty had still to be ratified, and the disposition of the Spanish +Cortes was uncertain. There was, too, considerable opposition in the +Senate. "A watchful eye, a resolute purpose, a calm and patient temper, +and a favoring Providence will all be as indispensable for the future +as they have been for the past in the management of this negotiation," +Adams reminded himself. He had need of all these qualities in the trying +months that followed. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. FRAMING AN AMERICAN POLICY + +The decline and fall of the Spanish Empire does not challenge the +imagination like the decline and fall of that other Empire with which +alone it can be compared, possibly because no Gibbon has chronicled its +greatness. Yet its dissolution affected profoundly the history of three +continents. While the Floridas were slipping from the grasp of Spain, +the provinces to the south were wrenching themselves loose, with +protestations which penetrated to European chancelleries as well as to +American legislative halls. To Czar Alexander and Prince Metternich, +sponsors for the Holy Alliance and preservers of the peace of Europe, +these declarations of independence contained the same insidious +philosophy of revolution which they had pledged themselves everywhere +to combat. To simple American minds, the familiar words liberty and +independence in the mouths of South American patriots meant what they +had to their own grandsires, struggling to throw off the shackles of +British imperial control. Neither Europe nor America, however, knew the +actual conditions in these newborn republics below the equator; and both +governed their conduct by their prepossessions. + +To the typically American mind of Henry Clay, now untrammeled by +any sense of responsibility, for he was a free lance in the House of +Representatives once more, the emancipation of South America was a +thrilling and sublime spectacle--"the glorious spectacle of eighteen +millions of people struggling to burst their chains and to be free." +In a memorable speech in 1818 he had expressed the firm conviction that +there could be but one outcome to this struggle. Independent these South +American states would be. Equally clear to his mind was their political +destiny. Whatever their forms of government, they would be animated by +an American feeling and guided by an American policy. "They will obey +the laws of the system of the new world, of which they will compose a +part, in contradistinction to that of Europe." To this struggle and to +this destiny the United States could not remain indifferent. He would +not have the Administration depart from its policy of strict and +impartial neutrality but he would urge the expediency--nay, the +justice--of recognizing established governments in Spanish America. +Such recognition was not a breach of neutrality, for it did not imply +material aid in the wars of liberation but only the moral sympathy of a +great free people for their southern brethren. + +Contrasted with Clay's glowing enthusiasm, the attitude of the +Administration, directed by the prudent Secretary of State, seemed cold, +calculating, and rigidly conventional. For his part, Adams could see +little resemblance between these revolutions in South America and +that of 1776. Certainly it had never been disgraced by such acts of +buccaneering and piracy as were of everyday occurrence in South American +waters. The United States had contended for civil rights and then for +independence; in South America civil rights had been ignored by all +parties. He could discern neither unity of cause nor unity of effort +in the confused history of recent struggles in South America; and until +orderly government was achieved, with due regard to fundamental civil +rights, he would not have the United States swerve in the slightest +degree from the path of strict neutrality. Mr. Clay, he observed in +his diary, had "mounted his South American great horse... to control or +overthrow the executive." + +President Monroe, however, was more impressionable, more responsive +to popular opinion, and at this moment (as the presidential year +approached) more desirous to placate the opposition. He agreed with +Adams that the moment had not come when the United States alone might +safely recognize the South American states, but he believed that +concerted action by the United States and Great Britain might win +recognition without wounding the sensibilities of Spain. The time was +surely not far distant when Spain would welcome recognition as a relief +from an impoverishing and hopeless war. Meanwhile the President +coupled professions of neutrality and expressions of sympathy for the +revolutionists in every message to Congress. + +The temporizing policy of the Administration aroused Clay to another +impassioned plea for those southern brethren whose hearts--despite all +rebuffs from the Department of State--still turned toward the United +States. "We should become the center of a system which would constitute +the rallying point of human freedom against the despotism of the Old +World.... Why not proceed to act on our own responsibility and recognize +these governments as independent, instead of taking the lead of the +Holy Alliance in a course which jeopardizes the happiness of unborn +millions?" He deprecated this deference to foreign powers. "If Lord +Castlereagh says we may recognize, we do; if not, we do not.... Our +institutions now make us free; but how long shall we continue so, if we +mold our opinions on those of Europe? 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 question of recognition was thus thrust into the foreground of +discussion at a most inopportune time. The Florida treaty had not yet +been ratified, for reasons best known to His Majesty the King of Spain, +and the new Spanish Minister, General Vives, had just arrived in the +United States to ask for certain explanations. The Administration +had every reason at this moment to wish to avoid further causes of +irritation to Spanish pride. It is more than probable, indeed, that Clay +was not unwilling to embarrass the President and his Secretary of State. +He still nursed his personal grudge against the President and he did not +disguise his hostility to the treaty. What aroused his resentment was +the sacrifice of Texas for Florida. Florida would have fallen to the +United States eventually like ripened fruit, he believed. Why, then, +yield an incomparably richer and greater territory for that which was +bound to become theirs whenever the American people wished to take it? + +But what were the explanations which Vives demanded? Weary hours spent +in conference with the wily Spaniard convinced Adams that the great +obstacle to the ratification of the treaty by Spain had been the +conviction that the United States was only waiting ratification to +recognize the independence of the Spanish colonies. Bitterly did Adams +regret the advances which he had made to Great Britain, at the +instance of the President, and still more bitterly did he deplore those +paragraphs in the President's messages which had expressed an all too +ready sympathy with the aims of the insurgents. But regrets availed +nothing and the Secretary of State had to put the best face possible on +the policy of the Administration. He told Vives in unmistakable language +that the United States could not subscribe to "new engagements as the +price of obtaining the ratification of the old." Certainly the United +States would not comply with the Spanish demand and pledge itself +"to form no relations with the pretended governments of the revolted +provinces of Spain." As for the royal grants which De Onis had agreed to +call null and void, if His Majesty insisted upon their validity, perhaps +the United States might acquiesce for an equivalent area west of the +Sabine River. In some alarm Vives made haste to say that the King +did not insist upon the confirmation of these grants. In the end he +professed himself satisfied with Mr. Adams's explanations; he would send +a messenger to report to His Majesty and to secure formal authorization +to exchange ratifications. + +Another long period of suspense followed. The Spanish Cortes did not +advise the King to accept the treaty until October; the Senate did not +reaffirm its ratification until the following February; and it was two +years to a day after the signing of the treaty that Adams and Vives +exchanged formal ratifications. Again Adams confided to the pages of his +diary, so that posterity might read, the conviction that the hand of an +Overruling Providence was visible in this, the most important event of +his life. + +If, as many thought, the Administration had delayed recognition of the +South American republics in order not to offend Spanish feelings while +the Florida treaty was under consideration, it had now no excuse for +further hesitation; yet it was not until March 8, 1822, that President +Monroe announced to Congress his belief that the time had come when +those provinces of Spain which had declared their independence and were +in the enjoyment of it should be formally recognized. On the 19th of +June he received the accredited charge d'affaires of the Republic of +Colombia. + +The problem of recognition was not the only one which the impending +dissolution of the Spanish colonial empire left to harass the Secretary +of State. Just because Spain had such vast territorial pretensions and +held so little by actual occupation on the North American continent, +there was danger that these shadowy claims would pass into the hands of +aggressive powers with the will and resources to aggrandize themselves. +One day in January, 1821, while Adams was awaiting the outcome of his +conferences with Vives, Stratford Canning, the British Minister, +was announced at his office. Canning came to protest against what +he understood was the decision of the United States to extend its +settlements at the mouth of the Columbia River. Adams replied that he +knew of no such determination; but he deemed it very probable that the +settlements on the Pacific coast would be increased. Canning expressed +rather ill-matured surprise at this statement, for he conceived that +such a policy would be a palpable violation of the Convention of 1818. +Without replying, Adams rose from his seat to procure a copy of the +treaty and then read aloud the parts referring to the joint occupation +of the Oregon country. A stormy colloquy followed in which both +participants seem to have lost their tempers. Next day Canning returned +to the attack, and Adams challenged the British claim to the mouth of +the Columbia. "Why," exclaimed Canning, "do you not KNOW that we have a +claim?" "I do not KNOW," said Adams, "what you claim nor what you do not +claim. You claim India; you claim Africa; you claim--" "Perhaps," said +Canning, "a piece of the moon." "No," replied Adams, "I have not heard +that you claim exclusively any part of the moon; but there is not a spot +on THIS habitable globe that I could affirm you do not claim; and there +is none which you may not claim with as much color of right as you can +have to Columbia River or its mouth." + +With equal sang-froid, the Secretary of State met threatened aggression +from another quarter. In September of this same year, the Czar issued +a ukase claiming the Pacific coast as far south as the fifty-first +parallel and declaring Bering Sea closed to the commerce of other +nations. Adams promptly refused to recognize these pretensions and +declared to Baron de Tuyll, 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." * + + * Before Adams retired from office, he had the satisfaction + of concluding a treaty (1824) with Russia by which the Czar + abandoned his claims to exclusive jurisdiction in Bering Sea + and agreed to plant no colonies on the Pacific Coast south + of 54 degrees 40 minutes. + + +Not long after this interview Adams was notified by Baron Tuyll that +the Czar, in conformity with the political principles of the allies, had +determined in no case whatever to receive any agent from the Government +of the Republic of Colombia or from any other government which owed its +existence to the recent events in the New World. Adams's first impulse +was to pen a reply that would show the inconsistency between these +political principles and the unctuous professions of Christian duty +which had resounded in the Holy Alliance; but the note which he drafted +was, perhaps fortunately, not dispatched until it had been revised +by President and Cabinet a month later, under stress of other +circumstances. + +At still another focal point the interests of the United States ran +counter to the covetous desires of European powers. Cuba, the choicest +of the provinces of Spain, still remained nominally loyal; but, should +the hold of Spain upon this Pearl of the Antilles relax, every maritime +power would swoop down upon it. The immediate danger, however, was not +that revolution would here as elsewhere sever the province from Spain, +leaving it helpless and incapable of self-support, but that France, +after invading Spain and restoring the monarchy, would also intervene +in the affairs of her provinces. The transfer of Cuba to France by +the grateful King was a possibility which haunted the dreams of George +Canning at Westminster as well as of John Quincy Adams at Washington. +The British Foreign Minister attempted to secure a pledge from France +that she would not acquire any Spanish-American territory either by +conquest or by treaty, while the Secretary of State instructed the +American Minister to Spain not to conceal from the Spanish Government +"the repugnance of the United States to the transfer of the Island of +Cuba by Spain to any other power." Canning was equally fearful lest the +United States should occupy Cuba and he would have welcomed assurances +that it had no designs upon the island. Had he known precisely the +attitude of Adams, he would have been still more uneasy, for Adams was +perfectly sure that Cuba belonged "by the laws of political as well as +of physical gravitation" to the North American continent, though he +was not for the present ready to assist the operation of political and +physical laws. + +Events were inevitably detaching Great Britain from the concert of +Europe and putting her in opposition to the policy of intervention, both +because of what it meant in Spain and what it might mean when applied +to the New World. Knowing that the United States shared these latter +apprehensions, George Canning conceived that the two countries might +join in a declaration against any project by any European power for +subjugating the colonies of South America either on behalf or in the +name of Spain. He ventured to ask Richard Rush, American Minister at +London, what his government would say to such a proposal. For his part +he was quite willing to state publicly that he believed the recovery +of the colonies by Spain to be hopeless; that recognition of their +independence was only a question of proper time and circumstance; that +Great Britain did not aim at the possession of any of them, though she +could not be indifferent to their transfer to any other power. "If," said +Canning, "these opinions and feelings are, as I firmly believe them to +be, common to your government with ours, why should we hesitate mutually +to confide them to each other; and to declare them in the face of the +world?" + +Why, indeed? To Rush there occurred one good and sufficient answer, +which, however, he could not make: he doubted the disinterestedness of +Great Britain. He could only reply that he would not feel justified in +assuming the responsibility for a joint declaration unless Great Britain +would first unequivocally recognize the South American republics; and, +when Canning balked at the suggestion, he could only repeat, in as +conciliatory manner as possible, his reluctance to enter into any +engagement. Not once only but three times Canning repeated his +overtures, even urging Rush to write home for powers and instructions. + +The dispatches of Rush seemed so important to President Monroe that +he sent copies of them to Jefferson and Madison, with the query--which +revealed his own attitude--whether the moment had not arrived when the +United States might safely depart from its traditional policy and meet +the proposal of the British Government. If there was one principle which +ran consistently through the devious foreign policy of Jefferson and +Madison, it was that of political isolation from Europe. "Our first and +fundamental maxim," Jefferson wrote in reply, harking back to the +old formulas, "should be never to entangle ourselves in the broils +of Europe, our second never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with +Cis-Atlantic affairs." He then continued in this wise: + +"America, North and South, has a set of interests distinct from those +of Europe, and peculiarly her own. She should therefore have a system +of her own, separate and apart from that of Europe. While the last is +laboring to become the domicile of despotism, our endeavor should surely +be, to make our hemisphere that of freedom. One nation, most of all, +could disturb us in this pursuit; she now offers to lead, aid, and +accompany us in it. By acceding to her proposition, we detach her from +the band of despots, bring her mighty weight into the scale of free +government and emancipate a continent at one stroke which might +otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty.... I am clearly of Mr. +Canning's opinion, that it will prevent, instead of provoking war. With +Great Britain withdrawn from their scale and shifted into that of our +two continents, all Europe combined would not undertake such a war.... +Nor is the occasion to be slighted which this proposition offers, of +declaring our protest against the atrocious violations of the rights +of nations, by the interference of any one in the internal affairs of +another, so flagitiously begun by Buonaparte, and now continued by the +equally lawless alliance, calling itself Holy." + +Madison argued the case with more reserve but arrived at the same +conclusion: "There ought not to be any backwardness therefore, I think, +in meeting her [England] in the way she has proposed." The dispatches +of Rush produced a very different effect, however, upon the Secretary of +State, whose temperament fed upon suspicion and who now found plenty +of food for thought both in what Rush said and in what he did not say. +Obviously Canning was seeking a definite compact with the United States +against the designs of the allies, not out of any altruistic motive but +for selfish ends. Great Britain, Rush had written bluntly, had as little +sympathy with popular rights as it had on the field of Lexington. It +was bent on preventing France from making conquests, not on making South +America free. Just so, Adams reasoned: Canning desires to secure from +the United States a public pledge "ostensibly against the forcible +interference of the Holy Alliance between Spain and South America; +but really or especially against the acquisition to the United States +themselves of any part of the Spanish-American possessions." By +joining with Great Britain we would give her a "substantial and perhaps +inconvenient pledge against ourselves, and really obtain nothing in +return." He believed that it would be more candid and more dignified +to decline Canning's overtures and to avow our principles explicitly to +Russia and France. For his part he did not wish the United States "to +come in as a cock-boat in the wake of the British man-of-war!" + +Thus Adams argued in the sessions of the Cabinet, quite ignorant of the +correspondence which had passed between the President and his mentors. +Confident of his ability to handle the situation, he asked no more +congenial task than to draft replies to Baron Tuyll and to Canning and +instructions to the ministers at London, St. Petersburg, and Paris; +but he impressed upon Monroe the necessity of making all these +communications "part of a combined system of policy and adapted to each +other." Not so easily, however, was the President detached from the +influence of the two Virginia oracles. He took sharp exception to the +letter which Adams drafted in reply to Baron Tuyll, saying that he +desired to refrain from any expressions which would irritate the Czar; +and thus turned what was to be an emphatic declaration of principles +into what Adams called "the tamest of state papers." + +The Secretary's draft of instructions to Rush had also to run the +gauntlet of amendment by the President and his Cabinet; but it emerged +substantially unaltered in content and purpose. Adams professed to find +common ground with Great Britain, while pointing out with much subtlety +that if she believed the recovery of the colonies by Spain was +really hopeless, she was under moral obligation to recognize them as +independent states and to favor only such an adjustment between them and +the mother country as was consistent with the fact of independence. The +United States was in perfect accord with the principles laid down by Mr. +Canning: it desired none of the Spanish possessions for itself but it +could not see with indifference any portion of them transferred to any +other power. Nor could the United States see with indifference "any +attempt by one or more powers of Europe to restore those new states to +the crown of Spain, or to deprive them, in any manner whatever, of +the freedom and independence which they have acquired." But, for +accomplishing the purposes which the two governments had in common--and +here the masterful Secretary of State had his own way--it was advisable +THAT THEY SHOULD ACT SEPARATELY, each making such representations to the +continental allies as circumstances dictated. + +Further communications from Baron Tuyll gave Adams the opportunity, +which he had once lost, of enunciating the principles underlying +American policy. In a masterly paper dated November 27, 1823, he +adverted to the declaration of the allied monarchs that they would never +compound with revolution but would forcibly interpose to guarantee the +tranquillity of civilized states. In such declarations "the President," +wrote Adams, "wishes to perceive sentiments, the application of which is +limited, and intended in their results to be limited to the affairs of +Europe.... The United States of America, and their government, could not +see with indifference, the forcible interposition of any European Power, +other than Spain, either to restore the dominion of Spain over her +emancipated Colonies in America, or to establish Monarchical Governments +in those Countries, or to transfer any of the possessions heretofore or +yet subject to Spain in the American Hemisphere, to any other European +Power." + +But so little had the President even yet grasped the wide sweep of the +policy which his Secretary of State was framing that, when he read +to the Cabinet a first draft of his annual message, he expressed his +pointed disapprobation of the invasion of Spain by France and urged an +acknowledgment of Greece as an independent nation. This declaration was, +as Adams remarked, a call to arms against all Europe. And once again +he urged the President to refrain from any utterance which might be +construed as a pretext for retaliation by the allies. If they meant to +provoke a quarrel with the United States, the administration must meet +it and not invite it. "If they intend now to interpose by force, we +shall have as much as we can do to prevent them," said he, "without +going to bid them defiance in the heart of Europe." "The ground I wish +to take," he continued, "is that of earnest remonstrance against the +interference of the 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." In the end Adams had his way and +the President revised the paragraphs dealing with foreign affairs so as +to make them conform to Adams's desires. + +No one who reads the message which President Monroe sent to Congress on +December 2, 1823, can fail to observe that the paragraphs which have an +enduring significance as declarations of policy are anticipated in +the masterly state papers of the Secretary of State. Alluding to the +differences with Russia in the Pacific Northwest, the President repeated +the principle which Adams had stated to Baron Tuyll: "The occasion has +been judged proper for asserting, as a 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." And the vital principle +of abstention from European affairs and of adherence to a distinctly +American system, for which Adams had contended so stubbornly, found +memorable expression in the following paragraph: + +"In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we +have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to +do. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we +resent injuries or make preparations for our defense. With the movements +in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected, +and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial +observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially +different in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds +from that which exists in their respective Governments; and to the +defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much +blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened +citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this +whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the +amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers +to declare that 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 and 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 other manner +their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the +manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." + +Later generations have read strange meanings into Monroe's message, and +have elevated into a "doctrine" those declarations of policy which had +only an immediate application. With the interpretations and applications +of a later day, this book has nothing to do. Suffice it to say that +President Monroe and his advisers accomplished their purposes; and +the evidence that they were successful is contained in a letter which +Richard Rush wrote to the Secretary of State, on December 27, 1823: + +"But the most decisive blow to all despotick interference with the new +States is that which it has received in the President's Message at the +opening of Congress. It was looked for here with extraordinary interest +at this juncture, and I have heard that the British packet which left +New York the beginning of this month was instructed to wait for it +and bring it over with all speed.... On its publicity in London... the +credit of all the Spanish American securities immediately rose, and the +question of the final and complete safety of the new States from all +European coercion, is now considered as at rest." + + + +CHAPTER XV. THE END OF AN ERA + +It was in the midst of the diplomatic contest for the Floridas that +James Monroe was for the second time elected to the Presidency, with +singularly little display of partisanship. This time all the electoral +votes but one were cast for him. Of all the Presidents only George +Washington has received a unanimous vote; and to Monroe, therefore, +belongs the distinction of standing second to the Father of his Country +in the vote of electors. The single vote which Monroe failed to get fell +to his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams. It is a circumstance of +some interest that the father of the Secretary, old John Adams, so far +forgot his Federalist antecedents that he served as Republican elector +in Massachusetts and cast his vote for James Monroe. Never since +parties emerged in the second administration of Washington had such +extraordinary unanimity prevailed. + +Across this scene of political harmony, however, the Missouri +controversy cast the specter-like shadow of slavery. For the moment, +and often in after years, it seemed inevitable that parties would spring +into new vigor following sectional lines. All patriots were genuinely +alarmed. "This momentous question," wrote Jefferson, "like a fire bell +in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at +once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. +But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence." + +What Jefferson termed a reprieve was the settlement of the Missouri +question by the compromise of 1820. To the demands of the South that +Missouri should be admitted into the Union as a slave State, with the +constitution of her choice, the North yielded, on condition that the +rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36 degrees 30' should be forever +free. Henceforth slaveholders might enter Missouri and the rest of the +old province of Louisiana below her southern boundary line, but beyond +this line, into the greater Northwest, they might not take their human +chattels. To this act of settlement President Monroe gave his assent, +for he believed that further controversy would shake the Union to its +very foundations. With the angry criminations and recriminations of +North and South ringing in his ears, Jefferson had little faith in +the permanency of such a settlement. "A geographical line," said he, +"coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived +and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; +and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper." And Madison, +usually optimistic about the future of his beloved country, indulged +only the gloomiest forebodings about slavery. Both the ex-Presidents +took what comfort they could in projects of emancipation and +deportation. Jefferson would have had slaveholders yield up slaves born +after a certain date to the guardianship of the State, which would then +provide for their removal to Santo Domingo at a proper age. Madison took +heart at the prospect opened up by the Colonization Society which he +trusted would eventually end "this dreadful calamity" of human slavery. +Fortunately for their peace of mind, neither lived to see these frail +hopes dashed to pieces. + +Signs were not wanting that statesmen of the Virginia school were not to +be leaders in the new era which was dawning. On several occasions both +Madison and Monroe had shown themselves out of touch with the newer +currents of national life. Their point of view was that of the epoch +which began with the French Revolution and ended with the overthrow of +Napoleon and the pacification of Europe. Inevitably foreign affairs had +absorbed their best thought. To maintain national independence against +foreign aggression had been their constant purpose, whether the menace +came from Napoleon's designs upon Louisiana, or from British disregard +of neutral rights, or from Spanish helplessness on the frontiers of her +Empire. But now, with political and commercial independence assured, +a new direction was imparted to national endeavor. America made a +volte-face and turned to the setting sun. + +During the second quarter of the nineteenth century every ounce +of national vitality went into the conquest and settlement of the +Mississippi Valley. Once more at peace with the world, Americans set +themselves to the solution of the problems which grew out of this +vast migration from the Atlantic seaboard to the interior. These were +problems of territorial organization, of distribution of public lands, +of inland trade, of highways and waterways, of revenue and appropriation +problems that focused in the offices of the Secretaries of the Treasury +and of War. And lurking behind all was the specter of slavery and +sectionalism. + +To impatient homeseekers who crossed the Alleghanies, it never occurred +to question the competence of the Federal Government to meet all their +wants. That the Government at Washington should construct and maintain +highways, improve and facilitate the navigation of inland waterways, +seemed a most reasonable expectation. What else was government for? +But these proposed activities did not seem so obviously legitimate to +Presidents of the Virginia Dynasty; not so readily could they waive +constitutional scruples. Madison felt impelled to veto a bill for +constructing roads and canals and improving waterways because he could +find nowhere in the Constitution any specific authority for the Federal +Government to embark on a policy of internal improvements. His last +message to Congress set forth his objections in detail and was designed +to be his farewell address. He would rally his party once more around +the good old Jeffersonian doctrines. Monroe felt similar doubts when he +was presented with a bill to authorize the collection of tolls on the +new Cumberland Road. In a veto message of prodigious length he, too, +harked back to the original Republican principle of strict construction +of the Constitution. The leadership which the Virginians thus refused to +take fell soon to men of more resolute character who would not let the +dead hand of legalism stand between them and their hearts' desires. + +It is one of the ironies of American history that the settlement of +the Mississippi Valley and of the Gulf plains brought acute pecuniary +distress to the three great Virginians who had bent all their energies +to acquire these vast domains.. The lure of virgin soil drew men and +women in ever increasing numbers from the seaboard States. Farms that +had once sufficed were cast recklessly on the market to bring what they +would, while their owners staked their claims on new soil at a dollar +and a quarter an acre. Depreciation of land values necessarily followed +in States like Virginia; and the three ex-Presidents soon found +themselves landpoor. In common with other planters, they had invested +their surplus capital in land, only to find themselves unable to market +their crops in the trying days of the Embargo and NonIntercourse Acts. +They had suffered heavy losses from the British blockade during the war, +and they had not fully recovered from these reverses when the general +fall of prices came in 1819. Believing that they were facing only a +temporary condition, they met their difficulties by financial expedients +which in the end could only add to their burdens. + +A general reluctance to change their manner of life and to practice an +intensive agriculture with diversified crops contributed, no doubt, to +the general depression of planters in the Old Dominion. Jefferson at +Monticello, Madison at Montpelier, and to a lesser extent Monroe at Oak +Hill, maintained their old establishments and still dispensed a lavish +Southern hospitality, which indeed they could hardly avoid. A former +President is forever condemned to be a public character. All kept open +house for their friends, and none could bring himself to close his door +to strangers, even when curiosity was the sole motive for intrusion. +Sorely it must have tried the soul of Mrs. Randolph to find +accommodations at Monticello for fifty uninvited and unexpected guests. +Mrs. Margaret Bayard Smith, who has left lively descriptions of life at +Montpelier, was once one of twenty-three guests. When a friend commented +on the circumstance that no less than nine strange horses were feeding +in the stables at Montpelier, Madison remarked somewhat grimly that he +was delighted with the society of the owners but could not confess to +the same enthusiasm at the presence of their horses. + +Both Jefferson and Madison were victims of the indiscretion of others. +Madison was obliged to pay the debts of a son of Mrs. Madison by her +first marriage and became so financially embarrassed that he was forced +to ask President Biddle of the Bank of the United States for a long loan +of six thousand dollars--only to suffer the humiliation of a refusal. +He had then to part with some of his lands at a great sacrifice, but +he retained Montpelier and continued to reside there, though in reduced +circumstances, until his death in 1836. At about the same time Jefferson +received what he called his coup de grace. He had endorsed a note of +twenty thousand dollars for Governor Wilson C. Nicholas and upon his +becoming insolvent was held to the full amount of the note. His only +assets were his lands which would bring only a fifth of their former +price. To sell on these ruinous terms was to impoverish himself and +his family. His distress was pathetic. In desperation he applied to the +Legislature for permission to sell his property by lottery; but he was +spared this last humiliation by the timely aid of friends, who +started popular subscriptions to relieve his distress. Monroe was less +fortunate, for he was obliged to sell Oak Hill and to leave Old Virginia +forever. He died in New York City on the Fourth of July, 1831. + +The latter years of Jefferson's life were cheered by the renewal of his +old friendship with John Adams, now in retirement at Quincy. Full of +pleasant reminiscence are the letters which passed between them, and +full too of allusions to the passing show. Neither had lost all interest +in politics, but both viewed events with the quiet contemplation of +old men. Jefferson was absorbed to the end in his last great hobby, the +university that was slowly taking bodily form four miles away across the +valley from Monticello. When bodily infirmities would not permit him to +ride so far, he would watch the workmen through a telescope mounted on +one of the terraces. "Crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and +laborious," he wrote to Adams. "But while writing to you, I lose the +sense of these things in the recollection of ancient times, when youth +and health made happiness out of everything. I forget for a while +the hoary winter of age, when we can think of nothing but how to keep +ourselves warm, and how to get rid of our heavy hours until the friendly +hand of death shall rid us of all at once. Against this tedium vitae, +however, I am fortunately mounted on a hobby, which, indeed, I should +have better managed some thirty or forty years ago; but whose easy amble +is still sufficient to give exercise and amusement to an octogenary +rider. This is the establishment of a University." Alluding to certain +published letters which revived old controversies, he begged his old +friend not to allow his peace of mind to be shaken. "It would be strange +indeed, if, at our years, we were to go back an age to hunt up imaginary +or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections so sweetening to +the evening of our lives." + +As the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence +approached, Jefferson and Adams were besought to take part in the +celebration which was to be held in Philadelphia. The infirmities of age +rested too heavily upon them to permit their journeying so far; but they +consecrated the day anew with their lives. At noon, on the Fourth of +July, 1826, while the Liberty Bell was again sounding its old message to +the people of Philadelphia, the soul of Thomas Jefferson passed on; and +a few hours later John Adams entered into rest, with the name of his old +friend upon his lips. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +GENERAL WORKS + +Five well-known historians have written comprehensive works on the +period covered by the administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe: +John B. McMaster has stressed the social and economic aspects in "A +History of the People of the United States;" James Schouler has dwelt +upon the political and constitutional problems in his "History of the +United States of America under the Constitution;" Woodrow Wilson has +written a "History of the American People" which indeed is less a +history than a brilliant essay on history; Hermann von Holst has +construed the "Constitutional and Political History of the United States +"in terms of the slavery controversy; and Edward Channing has brought +forward his painstaking "History of the United States," touching many +phases of national life, to the close of the second war with England. To +these general histories should be added "The American Nation," edited by +Albert Bushnell Hart, three volumes of which span the administrations of +the three Virginians: E. Channing's "The Jeffersonian System" (1906); K. +C. Babcock's "The Rise of American Nationality" (1906); F. J. Turner's +"Rise of the New West" (1906). + +CHAPTER I + +No historian can approach this epoch without doing homage to Henry +Adams, whose "History of the United States," 9 vols. (1889-1891), is at +once a literary performance of extraordinary merit and a treasure-house +of information. Skillfully woven into the text is documentary material +from foreign archives which Adams, at great expense, had transcribed and +translated. Intimate accounts of Washington and its society may be found +in the following books: G. Gibbs, "Memoirs of the Administrations of +Washington and John Adams", 2 vols. (1846); Mrs. Margaret Bayard Smith, +"The First Forty Years of Washington Society" (1906); Anne H. Wharton, +"Social Life in the Early Republic" (1902). "The Life of Thomas +Jefferson," 3 vols. (1858), by Henry S. Randall is rich in authentic +information about the life of the great Virginia statesman but it is +marred by excessive hero-worship. Interesting side-lights on Jefferson +and his entourage are shed by his granddaughter, Sarah N. Randolph, in a +volume called "Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson" (1871). + +CHAPTER II + +The problems of patronage that beset President Jefferson are set forth +by Gaillard Hunt in "Office-seeking during Jefferson's Administration," +in the "American Historical Review," vol. III, p. 271, and by Carl R. +Fish in "The Civil Service and the Patronage" (1905). There is no better +way to enter sympathetically into Jefferson's mental world than to read +his correspondence. The best edition of his writings is that by Paul +Leicester Ford. Henry Adams has collected the "Writings of Albert +Gallatin," 3 vols. (1879), and has written an admirable "Life of Albert +Gallatin" (1879). Gaillard Hunt has written a short "Life of James +Madison" (1902), and has edited his "Writings," 9 vols. (1900-1910). The +Federalist attitude toward the Administration is reflected in the "Works +of Fisher Ames," 2 vols. (1857). The intense hostility of New England +Federalists appears also in such books as Theodore Dwight's "The +Character of Thomas Jefferson, as exhibited in His Own Writings" (1839). +Franklin B. Dexter has set forth the facts relating to Abraham Bishop, +that arch-rebel against the standing order in Connecticut, in the +"Proceedings" of the Massachusetts Historical Society, March, 1906. + +CHAPTER III + +The larger histories of the American navy by Maclay, Spears, and Clark +describe the war with Tripoli, but by far the best account is G. +W. Allen's "Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs" (1905), which may be +supplemented by C. O. Paullin's "Commodore John Rodgers" (1910). T. +Harris's "Life and Services of Commodore William Bainbridge" (1837) +contains much interesting information about service in the Mediterranean +and the career of this gallant commander. C. H. Lincoln has edited "The +Hull-Eaton Correspondence during the Expedition against Tripoli 1804-5" +for the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, vol. XXI +(1911). The treaties and conventions with the Barbary States are +contained in "Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols +and Agreements between the United States of America and Other Powers," +compiled by W. M. Malloy, 3 vols. (1910-1913). + +CHAPTER IV + +Even after the lapse of many years, Henry Adams's account of the +purchase of Louisiana remains the best: Volumes I and II of his "History +of the United States." J. A. Robertson in his "Louisiana under the Rule +of Spain, France, and the United States," 1785-1807, 2 vols. (1911), +has brought together a mass of documents relating to the province and +territory. Barbe-Marbois, "Histoire de la Louisiana et de la Cession" +(1829), which is now accessible in translation, is the main source +of information for the French side of the negotiations. Frederick J. +Turner, in a series of articles contributed to the "American Historical +Review" (vols. II, III, VII, VIII, X), has pointed out the significance +of the diplomatic contest for the Mississippi Valley. Louis Pelzer has +written on the "Economic Factors in the Acquisition of Louisiana" in the +"Proceedings" of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, vol. VI +(1913). There is no adequate biography of either Monroe or Livingston. +T. L. Stoddard has written on "The French Revolution in San Domingo" +(1914). + +CHAPTER V + +The vexed question of the boundaries of Louisiana is elucidated by Henry +Adams in volumes II and III of his "History of the United States." Among +the more recent studies should be mentioned the articles contributed by +Isaac J. Cox to volumes VI and X of the "Quarterly" of the Texas State +Historical Association, and an article entitled "Was Texas Included in +the Louisiana Purchase?" by John R. Ficklen in the "Publications" of the +Southern History Association, vol. V. In the first two chapters of his +"History of the Western Boundary of the Louisiana Purchase" (1914), +T. M. Marshall has given a resume of the boundary question. Jefferson +brought together the information which he possessed in "An Examination +into the boundaries of Louisiana," which was first published in 1803 +and which has been reprinted by the American Philosophical Society +in "Documents relating to the Purchase and Exploration of Louisiana" +(1904). I. J. Cox has made an important contribution by his book on "The +Early Exploration of Louisiana" (1906). The constitutional questions +involved in the purchase and organization of Louisiana are reviewed at +length by E. S. Brown in "The Constitutional History of the Louisiana +Purchase, 1803-1812" (1920). + +CHAPTER VI + +The most painstaking account of Burr's expedition is W. F. McCaleb's +"The Aaron Burr Conspiracy" (1903) which differs from Henry Adams's +version in making James Wilkinson rather than Burr the heavy villain +in the plot. Wilkinson's own account of the affair, which is thoroughly +untrustworthy, is contained in his "Memoirs of My Own Times," 3 vols. +(1816). The treasonable intrigues of Wilkinson are proved beyond doubt +by the investigations of W. R. Shepherd, "Wilkinson and the Beginnings +of the Spanish Conspiracy," in vol. IX of "The American Historical +Review," and of I. J. Cox, "General Wilkinson and His Later Intrigues +with the Spaniards," in vol. XIX of "The American Historical Review." +James Parton's "Life and Times of Aaron Burr" (1858) is a biography of +surpassing interest but must be corrected at many points by the works +already cited. William Coleman's "Collection of the Facts and the +Documents relative to the Death of Major-General Alexander Hamilton" +(1804) contains the details of the great tragedy. The Federalist +intrigues with Burr are traced by Henry Adams and more recently by S. E. +Morison in the "Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis," 2 vols. (1913). +W. H. Safford's "Blennerhassett Papers" (1861) and David Robertson's +"Reports of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr for Treason, and for a +Misdemeanor," 2 vols. (1808), brought to light many interesting facts +relating to the alleged conspiracy. The "Official Letter Books of W. +C. C. Claiborne, 1801-1816," 6 vols. (1917), contain material of great +value. + +CHAPTER VII + +The history of impressment has yet to be written, but J. R. Hutchinson's +"The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore" (1913) has shown clearly that the +baleful effects of the British practice were not felt solely by American +shipmasters. Admiral A. T. Mahan devoted a large part of his first +volume on "Sea Power in its relations to the War of 1812," 2 vols. +(1905), to the antecedents of the war. W. E. Lingelbach has made a +notable contribution to our understanding of the Essex case in his +article on "England and Neutral Trade" printed in "The Military +Historian and Economist," vol. II (1917). Of the contemporary pamphlets, +two are particularly illuminating: + +James Stephen, "War in Disguise; or, the Frauds of the Neutral Flags" +(1805), presenting the English grievances, and "An Examination of the +British Doctrine, which Subjects to Capture a Neutral Trade, not open +in Time of Peace," prepared by the Department of State under Madison's +direction in 1805. Captain Basil Hall's "Voyages and Travels" (1895) +gives a vivid picture of life aboard a British frigate in American +waters. A graphic account of the Leopard-Chesapeake affair is given by +Henry Adams in Chapter I of his fourth volume. + +CHAPTERS VIII AND IX + +Besides the histories of Mahan and Adams, the reader will do well to +consult several biographies for information about peaceable coercion +in theory and practice. Among these may be mentioned Randall's "Life of +Thomas Jefferson," Adams's "Life of Albert Gallatin" and "John Randolph" +in the "American Statesmen Series," W. E. Dodd's "Life of Nathaniel +Macon" (1903), D. R. Anderson's "William Branch Giles" (1914), and J. B. +McMaster's "Life and Times of Stephen Girard," 2 vols. (1917). For +want of an adequate biography of Monroe, recourse must be taken to +the "Writings of James Monroe," 7 vols. (1898-1903), edited by S. M. +Hamilton. J. B. Moore's "Digest of International Law", 8 vols. (1906), +contains a mass of material bearing on the rights of neutrals and +the problems of neutral trade. The French decrees and the British +orders-in-council were submitted to Congress with a message by President +Jefferson on the 23d of December, 1808, and may be found in "American +State Papers, Foreign Relations," vol. III. + +CHAPTER X + +The relations of the United States and Spanish Florida are set forth in +many works, of which three only need be mentioned: H. B. Fuller, "The +Purchase of Florida" (1906), has devoted several chapters to the early +history of the Floridas, but so far as West Florida is concerned +his work is superseded by I. J. Cox's "The West Florida Controversy, +1789-1813" (1918). The first volume, "Diplomacy," of F. E. Chadwick's +"Relations of the United States and Spain," 3 vols. (1909-11), gives an +account of the several Florida controversies. Several books contribute +to an understanding of the temper of the young insurgents in the +Republican Party: Carl Schurz's "Henry Clay," 2 vols. (1887), W. M. +Meigs's "Life of John Caldwell Calhoun," 2 vols. (1917), M. P. Follett's +"The Speaker of the House of Representatives" (1896), and Henry Adams's +"John Randolph" (1882). + +CHAPTER XI + +The civil history of President Madison's second term of office may be +followed in Adams's "History of the United States," vols. VII, VIII, +and IX; in Hunt's "Life of James Madison;" in Adams's "Life of Albert +Gallatin;" and in such fragmentary records of men and events as are +found in the "Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison" (1886) and Mrs. M. +B. Smith's "The First Forty Years of Washington Society" (1906). The +history of New England Federalism may be traced in H. C. Lodge's "Life +and Letters of George Cabot" (1878); in Edmund Quincy's "Life of Josiah +Quincy of Massachusetts" (1867); in the "Life of Timothy Pickering," 4 +vols. (1867-73); and in S. E. Morison's "Life and Letters of Harrison +Gray Otis," 2 vols. (1913). Theodore Dwight published his "History +of the Hartford Convention" in 1833. Henry Adams has collected the +"Documents relating to New England Federalism," 1800-1815 (1878). The +Federalist opposition to the war is reflected in such books as Mathew +Carey's "The Olive Branch; or, Faults on Both Sides" (1814) and William +Sullivan's "Familiar Letters on Public Characters" (1834). + +CHAPTER XII + +The history of the negotiations at Ghent has been recounted by Mahan and +Henry Adams, and more recently by F. A. Updyke, "The Diplomacy of the +War of 1812" (1915). Aside from the "State Papers," the chief sources +of information are Adams's "Life of Gallatin" and "Writings of Gallatin" +the "Memoirs of John Quincy Adams," 12 vols. (1874-1877), and "Writings +of John Quincy Adams" 7 vols. (1913-), edited by W. C. Ford, the "Papers +of James A. Bayard, 1796-1815" (1915), edited by Elizabeth Donnan, the +"Correspondence, Despatches, and Other Papers, of Viscount Castlereagh," +12 vols. (1851-53), and the "Supplementary Despatches of the Duke of +Wellington," 15 vols. (1858-78). The Proceedings of the Massachusetts +Historical Society, vol. XLVIII (1915), contain the instructions of +the British commissioners. "A Great Peace Maker, the Diary of James +Gallatin, Secretary to Albert Gallatin" (1914) records many interesting +boyish impressions of the commissioners and their labors at Ghent. + +CHAPTER XIII + +The want of a good biography of James Monroe is felt increasingly as one +enters upon the history of his administrations. Some personal items may +be gleaned from "A Narrative of a Tour of Observation Made during the +Summer of 1817" (1818); and many more may be found in the "Memoirs and +Writings" of John Quincy Adams. The works by Fuller and Chadwick already +cited deal with the negotiations leading to the acquisition of Florida. +The "Memoirs et Souvenirs" of Hyde de Neuville, 3 vols. (1893-4), +supplement the record which Adams left in his diary. J. S. Bassett's +"Life of Andrew Jackson," 2 vols. (1911), is far less entertaining than +James Parton's "Life of Andrew Jackson," 3 vols. (1860), but much more +reliable. + +CHAPTER XIV + +The problem of the recognition of the South American republics has been +put in its historical setting by F. L. Paxson in "The Independence of +the South American Republics" (1903). The relations of the United States +and Spain are described by F. E. Chadwick in the work already cited +and by J. H. Latane in "The United States and Latin America" (1920). +To these titles may be added J. M. Callahan's "Cuba and International +Relations" (1899). The studies of Worthington C. Ford have given John +Quincy Adams a much larger share in formulating the Monroe Doctrine than +earlier historians have accorded him. The origin of President Monroe's +message is traced by Mr. Ford in "Some Original Documents on the Genesis +of the Monroe Doctrine," in the "Proceedings" of the Massachusetts +Historical Society, 1902, and the subject is treated at greater length +by him in "The American Historical Review," vols. VII and VIII. The +later evolution and application of the Monroe Doctrine may be followed +in Herbert Kraus's "Die Monroedoktrin in ihren Beziehungen zur +Amerikanischen Diplomatie and zum Volkerrecht" (1913), a work which +should be made more accessible to American readers by translation. + +CHAPTER XV + +The subjects touched upon in this closing chapter are treated with great +skill by Frederick J. Turner in his "Rise of the New West" (1906). On +the slavery controversy, an article by J. A. Woodburn, "The Historical +Significance of the Missouri Compromise," in the "Report" of the +American Historical Association for 1893, and an article by F. H. +Hodder, "Side Lights on the Missouri Compromise," in the "Report" for +1909, may be read with profit. D. R. Dewey's "Financial History of the +United States" (1903) and F. W. Taussig's "Tariff History of the United +States" (revised edition, 1914) are standard manuals. Edward Stanwood's +"History of the Presidency," 2 vols. (1916), contains the statistics +of presidential elections. T. H. Benton's "Thirty Years' View; or, +A History of the Working of American Government, 1820-1850," 2 vols. +(1854-56), becomes an important source of information on congressional +matters. The latter years of Jefferson's life are described by Randall +and the closing years of John Adams's career by Charles Francis Adams. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Jefferson and his Colleagues, by Allen Johnson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JEFFERSON AND HIS COLLEAGUES *** + +***** This file should be named 3004.txt or 3004.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/0/3004/ + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library Of St. Gregory's +University, and Alev Akman + + +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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