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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35932-8.txt b/35932-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc72424 --- /dev/null +++ b/35932-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13704 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of +Political Parties in the United States, by Martin Van Buren + +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: Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States + +Author: Martin Van Buren + +Editor: Abraham Van Buren + John Van Buren + +Release Date: April 22, 2011 [EBook #35932] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INQUIRY *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Gary Rees and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: M Van Buren] + + + + + INQUIRY + INTO + THE ORIGIN AND COURSE + OF + POLITICAL PARTIES + IN THE + UNITED STATES. + + + BY THE LATE EX-PRESIDENT + MARTIN VAN BUREN. + + + Nam quis nescit primam esse historię legem ne quid falsi dicere + audeat? deinde, ne quid veri non audeat? Ne qua suspicio gratię + sit in scribendo? Ne qua simultatis? CICERO. _De Orat._ Lib. II. + + + EDITED BY HIS SONS. + + + NEW YORK: + PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON. + 1867. + + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by + SMITH T. VAN BUREN, + in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of + New York. + + + RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: + STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY + H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The following pages originally formed part of a much larger work, from +the general course and design of which they constituted a digression. It +seems therefore proper to preface them by a few words of explanation, +relating chiefly to the work from which they are now separated. + +Mr. Van Buren, eighth President of the United States, on the expiration +of his term of office, in the year 1841, retired to a country residence +near Kinderhook, (the place of his birth,) in the State of New York, +which he had then recently purchased, and to which he gave the name of +Lindenwald. Here, with infrequent and brief interruptions, he continued +to reside for some twenty years, or until his death, which occurred in +July, 1862. Although numbering nearly sixty years of age,--two-thirds of +which had been years of almost incessant activity and excitement, +professional, political, and social,--at the period of his withdrawal to +the tranquil scenes and occupations of rural life, he embraced the +latter with an ardor and a relish that surprised not a little the +friends who had known him only as prominent in, and apparently engrossed +by, the public service, but which were happy results of early +predilections, an even and cheerful temper, fitting him for and +constantly inclining him to the enjoyment of domestic intercourse, a +hearty love of Nature, and a sound constitution of mind and body. After +twelve years of the period of his retirement had passed, happily and +contentedly, he began to apply a portion of his "large leisure" to a +written review of his previous life, and to recording his recollections +of his contemporaries and of his times. To this work, as he intimates in +its opening paragraphs, he was mainly induced by the solicitations of +life-long friends, who, (it may be here added,) knowing the importance +and interest of the scenes and incidents of his extended public career, +and the extraordinary influence he had exerted upon public men and +questions of his time, and perceiving the tenaciousness of his memory +and the charm of his conversation unimpaired by the lapse of seventy +years, confidently anticipated a work of much interest in such a record +as they urged upon him to make. + +But although Mr. Van Buren so far complied with these suggestions as to +set about writing his memoirs, he was not inclined to pursue the +employment as a task, or to devote more of his time to it than could be +easily spared from other occupations in which he was interested, and in +order to keep himself from every temptation to exceed this limitation, +he resolved, at the start, that no part of what he might write should be +published in his lifetime. The work which he had commenced, was thus +exposed to frequent interruption, even by unimportant accidents, and at +length was altogether arrested by the serious illness of a member of his +family, and by the failure of his own health, which rapidly supervened. +It resulted that the recorded memoirs of his life and times closed +abruptly when he had brought them down to the date of 1833-34, and that +he never revised for publication what he had written. There is evidence +that he contemplated such a revision when he should reach a convenient +stage of his progress, but from the circumstances under which he wrote +(which have been alluded to) as well as from his comparatively small +interest in the mere graces of composition, the _labor limę_ was +continually postponed, and the "flighty purpose" was never o'ertaken. +When, after his death, the subject of the disposition of these memoirs +was presented to his sons, to whom his papers had been intrusted, they +were embarrassed by questions as to the manner and form in which it was +their duty to give them the publicity intended by their author. Should +they, notwithstanding unaffected distrust of their qualifications, and a +deep sense of special unfitness arising from natural partiality, +undertake to continue the history of their father's life from the point +at which his own account had ceased, to supply, as far as they could, +the gaps in the previous narrative which had been left by him for +further examination or after-construction, and to give to the work the +extensive revision which, in the state in which it came to their hands, +it seemed to require? Or should they publish the unfinished and +unrevised memoirs, as they were left, _as a fragment_ and a +contribution, so far as they might go, to the history of the country? +Would one or the other of these be such a history of the life of a +statesman who had filled a large space in the observation of his +countrymen, and who had exerted a controlling influence in the +Government during interesting and critical periods, as would answer a +natural and just public expectation, or satisfy the many warm friends +who survived him? While occupied with the consideration of these +questions, they received a note from Charles H. Hunt, Esq., informing +them that he felt strongly inclined to write a Biography of Mr. Van +Buren, and requesting the use for that purpose of any materials within +their power to furnish. An additional paragraph of Mr. Hunt's note, +referring to the rumor of writings left by Mr. Van Buren, showed that he +had been entirely misinformed as to the nature and extent of those +writings; he, in effect, supposing them to consist solely of +disquisitions on various political questions. + +The communication of Mr. Hunt not only superseded the necessity of +deciding between the alternative propositions mentioned, but afforded +them in all respects great satisfaction. His ripe and graceful +scholarship, sound judgment, and pure taste were widely known, and +especially to all who, like themselves, enjoyed familiar acquaintance +with him. He had, moreover, recently advanced by a single step to the +first rank among American biographers--a position readily accorded by +recognized authority in the republic of letters, at home and abroad, to +the author of the "Life of Edward Livingston." To such hands they could +not hesitate to commit the work proposed, so far as they were able to +control it, feeling assured that, while Mr. Hunt would bring to its +performance the disinterestedness and impartiality indispensable to give +it value as a history, and which are with difficulty maintained in +family memorials, his inclination to undertake it was evidence of a +general sympathy with, or at least respect for, Mr. Van Buren's +character and public career sufficient to authorize the relinquishment +to him of the materials in their possession. Accordingly the fragmentary +memoirs, with all the correspondence and other manuscripts applicable to +his purpose, and within their reach, were committed to Mr. Hunt, by Mr. +Van Buren's representatives, with entire satisfaction and confidence +that they will be used with fidelity and skill in the construction of +the work he has undertaken,--a confidence that will be shared by Mr. Van +Buren's surviving friends and by the public. + +The main body of manuscripts left by Mr. Van Buren having been thus +applied, some question remained in regard to that portion now published. +Begun as an episode, the subject grew on the author's hands (as he +explains in a note) to such proportions as to seem to stand more +properly as a distinct production, and although, like the principal +work, incomplete, it had been nevertheless carried forward to the point, +chronologically speaking, that had been proposed, and that was in fact +its natural termination. For this reason, and because it had no such +connection with the memoirs as required that they should be printed +together, it has been thought best to publish it without further delay +in the form in which it was left by the writer. The subject is of +peculiar interest at this time when our country, having suffered the +rude shock and disorder of civil war, and our free and popular +institutions having sustained with admirable firmness and substantial +triumph a more fearful trial than any to which they had before been +subjected, the sacred and momentous duty is devolved on patriots and +good citizens throughout our borders to reconstruct whatever valuable +parts have been thrown down, to restore what may have been injured or +defaced in our political system and in the principles on which it rests; +and the occasion seems auspicious for recalling the attention of our +people to the study of the lives and doctrines--the grounds and motives +of action--of the great men by whom the foundations of their government +were laid. + +The work of editing this volume has been inconsiderable, the sum of it +having been to correct a few manifest inadvertencies, to divide it into +chapters, with indexical heads, to furnish the whole with a title, and +to add one or two foot-notes that appeared to be proper. Otherwise the +aim has been to preserve the form and substance of the original. The +citation from Cicero on the title-page was found on Mr. Van Buren's +table, in his library, extracted in his own handwriting; whether only as +a terse declaration of the law by the spirit of which his pen was +guided, or as a possible motto for his complete work, is not known. The +letter from Mr. Jefferson, forming an Appendix, was intended by Mr. Van +Buren to be printed with whatever of his own might reach publication, +and is spoken of in the present volume as "accompanying this work." It +is now printed for the first time from the original manuscript letter, +and a few errors in the edition published (probably from the draft) by +the Library Committees of Congress are corrected. + +The portrait fronting this book is engraved from Brady's imperial +photograph, by Ritchie, and must be pronounced a very favorable specimen +of his art. It represents Mr. Van Buren in the seventy-fifth year of his +age. + + EDGEHILL, FISHKILL-ON-HUDSON, N. Y., + _February, 1867_. + + + + +POLITICAL PARTIES + +IN THE + +UNITED STATES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + Gratifying Period in our History embraced by Administrations of + Jefferson and Madison--The Caucus System and its Abandonment--The + System useful to the Republican or Democratic Party, but not so to + the Federalists--Questions proposed--Difficulties of the + Subject--Two great Parties, under changing Names, have always + divided the Country--Few and imperfect Attempts heretofore made to + trace the Origin and Principles of those Parties--This the first + Attempt with that object on the Republican or Democratic Side--The + Sources of Differences in Opinion and Feeling which gave rise to our + Political Divisions, and _punctum temporis_ of their + Rise--Principles established by the English Revolution of + 1688--Application of those Principles to the Colonies--Grounds of + the American Revolution--Abstract Opinions regain their Influence + after the Settlement of the practical Questions involved in the + Revolution--Diverse Character and Feelings of Emigrants to the + different Colonies--Effect of that Diversity on Principles of + Government and Administration in the New Governments--Repugnance of + the People to any Revival of the System overthrown by the + Revolution--Popular Reluctance to create an Executive Branch of the + Government--Confederacy of the United Colonies of New England in + 1643--Dr. Franklin's Plan of Union in 1755--The Sentiments of the + Colonists those of the Whigs of the + Revolution--Exceptions--Discordant Materials, in certain Respects, + of which the Revolutionary Brotherhood was composed--Effects of that + Discordance upon the subsequent Organization of Political + Parties--The Confederation, and Parties for and against + it--Perversion of Party Names--Conflicts and Questions in + Controversy between Federalists and Anti-Federalists--The + Constitutional Convention of 1787--Different Plans proposed before + it--Motives and Views of the Authors of those Plans--The Views which + determined Congress and the People to acquiesce in the Results of + the Convention--Adoption of the Constitution and Extinction of the + Anti-Federal Party as such. + + +There has been no period in our history, since the establishment of our +Independence, to which the sincere friend of free institutions can turn +with more unalloyed satisfaction, than to that embraced by the +administrations of Jefferson and Madison, moved as they were by a common +impulse. Mr. Jefferson commenced the discharge of his official duties by +an act which, though one of form, involved matter of the highest moment. +I allude to the decision and facility with which, in his intercourse +with the other branches of the Government, he suppressed the observance +of empty ceremonies which had been borrowed from foreign courts by +officers who took an interest in such matters, and were reluctantly +tolerated by Washington, who was himself above them. Instead of +proceeding in state to the capitol to deliver a speech to the +legislature, according to the custom of monarchs, he performed his +constitutional duty by means of a message in writing, sent to each House +by the hands of his private secretary, and they performed theirs by a +reference of its contents to appropriate committees. The Executive +procession, instead of marking the intercourse between the different +branches of the Government, was reserved for the Inauguration, when the +President appeared before the people themselves, and in their presence +took the oath of office. + +A step so appropriate and so much in harmony with our institutions, was +naturally followed by efforts for the abolition of offices and official +establishments not necessary to the public service, the reduction of the +public expenses, and the repeal of odious internal taxes. To these he +added the influence of his individual example to keep the organization +and action of the Federal Government upon that simple and economical +footing which is consistent with the Republican system. In this branch +of his official conduct he established precedents of great value, from +some of which his successors have not ventured to depart. + +With the single exception of his approval of the Bank of the United +States, the administration of Mr. Madison was one of great merit, and +was made especially illustrious by conducting the country through a war +imperishably honorable for its military achievements and the consequent +elevation of our national character. + +Jefferson and Madison were brought forward by caucus nominations; they, +throughout, recognized and adhered to the political party that elected +them; and they left it united and powerful, when, at the close of public +life, they carried into their retirement, and always enjoyed, the +respect, esteem, and confidence of all their countrymen. + +Mr. Monroe's administration did not introduce any very disturbing public +questions. The protective policy was, toward its close, generally +acquiesced in at the North and West, and no part of the South as yet +even contemplated the resistance which was subsequently attempted. The +agitation in regard to internal improvements was yet for the most part +speculative and too far in advance of any contemplated action to stir +the public mind. The Bank of the United States was having its own way +without question on the part of the Government, and with but little if +any suspicion on the part of the people. No very embarrassing questions +had arisen in our foreign relations; yet the first year of Mr. Monroe's +second term had scarcely passed away before the political atmosphere +became inflamed to an unprecedented extent. The Republican party, so +long in the ascendant, and apparently so omnipotent, was literally +shattered into fragments, and we had no fewer than five Republican +Presidential candidates in the field. + +In the place of two great parties arrayed against each other in a fair +and open contest for the establishment of principles in the +administration of Government which they respectively believed most +conducive to the public interest, the country was overrun with personal +factions. These having few higher motives for the selection of their +candidates or stronger incentives to action than individual preferences +or antipathies, moved the bitter waters of political agitation to their +lowest depths. + +The occurrence of scenes discreditable to all had for a long time been +prevented by a steady adherence on the part of the Republican party to +the caucus system; and if Mr. Monroe's views and feelings upon the +subject had been the same as were those of Jefferson and Madison, the +results to which I have alluded, and which were soon sincerely +deprecated, might have been prevented by the same means. There was no +difference in the political condition of the country between 1816--when +Mr. Monroe received a caucus nomination, on a close vote between Mr. +Crawford and himself, and was elected--and 1824, when the caucus system +was appealed to by the supporters of Mr. Crawford, which called for its +abandonment. The Federal party were on both occasions incapable of +successfully resisting a candidate in whose favor the Republicans were +united, and they were on each sufficiently strong to control the +election when the support of their opponents was divided amongst +several. Mr. Monroe and a majority of his cabinet were unfortunately +influenced by different views, and pursued a course well designed to +weaken the influence of the caucus system, and to cause its abandonment. +Mr. Crawford was the only candidate who, it was believed, could be +benefited by adhering to it, and the friends of all the others sustained +the policy of the administration. Those of Jackson, Adams, Clay, and +Calhoun, united in an address to the people condemning the practice of +caucus nominations, and announcing their determination to disregard +them. Already weakened through the adverse influence of the +administration, the agency which had so long preserved the unity of the +Republican party did not retain sufficient strength to resist the +combined assault that was made upon it, and was overthrown. Mr. Crawford +and his friends adhered to it to the last, and fell with it. + +It is a striking fact in our political history that the sagacious +leaders of the Federal party, as well under that name as under others by +which it has at different times been known, have always been desirous to +bring every usage or plan designed to secure party unity into disrepute +with the people, and in proportion to their success in that has been +their success in the elections. When they have found such usage too +strong to be overthrown for the time being, they have adopted it +themselves, but only to return to their denunciations of it after every +defeat. It would, on first impression, seem that a practice which is +good for one political party must be good for another; but when the +matter is more closely looked into, it will be discovered that the +policy of the Federal leaders referred to, like most of the acts of +those far-seeing men, rested upon substantial foundations. It +originated, beyond doubt, in the conviction, on the part of the early +Federalists, that a political organization in support of the particular +principles which they advocated, and to which they intended to adhere, +did not stand as much in need of extraneous means to secure harmony in +its ranks as did that of their opponents. + +The results of general elections for more than half a century have +served to confirm this opinion. With the exception of a single instance, +susceptible of easy explanation, the Republican, now Democratic party, +whenever it has been wise enough to employ the caucus or convention +system, and to use in good faith the influence it is capable of +imparting to the popular cause, has been successful, and it has been +defeated whenever that system has been laid aside or employed unfairly. +With the Federal party and its successors the results have been widely +different; with or without the caucus system they have generally found +no difficulty in uniting whenever union promised success. + +Why is it that a system or practice open to both parties, occasionally +used by both, and apparently equally useful to both, is in fact so much +less necessary to one than to the other? If this consequence springs +from a corresponding difference in the principles for the defense and +spread of which they have respectively been formed, what are those +principles, whence are they derived, and what is their history? + +These are grave questions, which have often presented themselves to the +minds of our public men, and to answer which satisfactorily is neither +an easy nor a short task. + +Histories of struggles for power between individual men or families, +long involved in obscurity, are becoming more frequent than they were, +and far more satisfactory. Aided by a comparatively free access to +public and private papers,--a privilege formerly sturdily refused, but +which the liberal spirit of the age has now made common,--the literary +men of most countries, with improved capacities to weigh conflicting +statements as well as to narrate the results of their researches with +simplicity and perspicuity, are probing the most hidden recesses of the +past, and describing with reliable accuracy transactions of great +interest, the causes and particular circumstances of which have been +hitherto little or not at all understood. But to define the origin and +trace the history of national parties is an undertaking of extraordinary +difficulty; one from which, in view of the embarrassments that surround +it in the case of our own political divisions, I have more than once +retired in despair, and on which I now enter with only slight hopes of +success. Yet it is due as well to the memories of the past as to actual +interests, that a subject which has exerted so great an influence and +which may be made so instructive, should be made plain, if that be +practicable, to the understandings of the present and succeeding +generations; and if my imperfect effort shall have a tendency to turn +stronger minds and abler pens in that direction it will not have been +made in vain. + +The two great parties of this country, with occasional changes in their +names only, have, for the principal part of a century, occupied +antagonistic positions upon all important political questions. They have +maintained an unbroken succession, and have, throughout, been composed +respectively of men agreeing in their party passions and preferences, +and entertaining, with rare exceptions, similar general views on the +subjects of government and its administration. Sons have generally +followed in the footsteps of their fathers, and families originally +differing have in regular succession received, maintained, and +transmitted this opposition. Neither the influences of marriage +connections, nor of sectarian prejudices, nor any of the strong motives +which often determine the ordinary actions of men, have, with limited +exceptions, been sufficient to override the bias of party organization +and sympathy, devotion to which has, on both sides, as a rule, been a +master-passion of their members. + +The names of these parties, like those of their predecessors in older +countries, have from time to time been changed, from suggestions of +policy or from accidental causes. Men of similar and substantially +unchanged views and principles have, at different periods of English +history, been distinguished as Cavaliers or Roundheads, as Jacobites or +Puritans and Presbyterians, as Whigs or Tories. Here, with corresponding +consistency in principle, the same men have at different periods been +known as Federalists, Federal Republicans, and Whigs, or as +Anti-Federalists, Republicans, and Democrats. But no changes of name +have indicated--certainly not until very recently, and the depth and +duration of the exception remain to be seen--a change or material +modification of the true character and principles of the parties +themselves. The difference between the old Republican and the +Anti-Federal parties, arising out of the questions in regard to the new +Constitution, was by far the greatest variation that has occurred. + +Several hasty and but slightly considered attempts have been made to +define the origin, and to mark the progress, of our national parties. +But, with a single exception,--namely, that made by ex-President John +Quincy Adams, in his Jubilee Discourse before the New York Historical +Society, on the 30th of April, 1839, being the Fiftieth Anniversary of +the Inauguration of George Washington as President of the United +States,--they have not professed, so far as they have fallen under my +notice, to do more than glance at the subject. + +To say that this discourse of one hundred and twenty pages was written +with Mr. Adams's accustomed ability, would be a commendation short of +its merits. It was more. The political condition of the country, and the +near approach of the memorable struggle of 1840, superadded to the +stirring considerations connected with the occasion, seem to have +persuaded that distinguished man that he was called upon to make an +extraordinary effort. A severe philippic against his and his father's +political enemies, this discourse, judged in the sense in which such +performances are naturally estimated by contemporaries imbued with +similar feelings, could not fail to be regarded as an eloquent and able +production; but I deceive myself if it can be deemed by a single +ingenuous mind either a dispassionate or an impartial review of the +origin and course of parties in the United States. Such minds will be +more likely to receive a paper, written so long after the transactions +of which it speaks, with feelings of regret at the strong evidence it +affords that the rage of party spirit, upon the assumed extinguishment +of which its author had, years before, exultingly congratulated the +people from the Presidential chair, was yet so active in his own breast. +I say this more in sorrow than in anger. Other portions of this work[1] +will, I am sure, exonerate me from the suspicion of cherishing the +slightest sentiment of unkindness toward the memory of John Quincy +Adams. When my personal acquaintance with him was but slight, and when +our political relations were unfavorable to the cultivation of friendly +feelings, my dispositions toward him were to an unusual extent free from +the prejudices commonly engendered by party differences. In the later +periods of our acquaintance, continuing to the end of his life, +I regarded him with entire personal respect and kindness; and +notwithstanding the occasional fierceness of our political collisions, +I have never heard of any unfriendly expression by him in respect to +myself personally. + + [1] This refers to the Memoirs of the writer, to which the present + essay was intended to be an episode. See Introduction to this + volume. Eds. + +It is not a little remarkable, though in harmony with other striking +features in the relations of our parties, that no serious attempt has +ever been made to trace their origin except by members of the same +political school with Mr. Adams. If I am right in this, mine will at +least have the weight, whatever that may be, due to the narration of one +who, from the beginning to the end of an extended political career, has +been an invariable and ardent member of the opposite school. + +The author of the life of Hamilton confidently pronounces what occurred +on the appointment of Washington as Commander-in-chief of the +Revolutionary army, to be the true source of the party divisions that +have so long and so extensively prevailed in this country. President +John Quincy Adams, in his Inaugural Address, attributes them to the +conflicting prejudices and preferences of the people for and against +Great Britain and France at the commencement of the present government, +and the discontinuance of them to the effects produced by the excesses +of the French Revolution. Matthew L. Davis,--a man of much note and +cleverness, who commenced his career an active member of the old +Republican party, became the especial champion of Colonel Burr, and, +soon seceding from the party to which he was at first attached, spent +the remainder of his life in opposition to it,--in his life of Aaron +Burr, attributes the origin of our two great political parties to the +proceedings of the Federal Constitutional Convention and of the State +Conventions which passed upon the question of ratification. + +These various versions of the matter I shall hereafter notice, +contenting myself, for the present, with the remark that party divisions +which have extended to every corner of a country as large as our own, +and have endured so long, could not spring from slight or even limited +causes. No differences in the views of men on isolated questions +temporary in their nature, could, it seems to me, have produced such +results. Questions of such a character are either finally settled, with +more or less satisfaction, or in time lose their interest, +notwithstanding momentary excitement, and the temporary organizations +springing from them give place in turn to others equally short-lived. + +But when men are brought under one government who differ radically in +opinion as to its proper form, as to the uses for which governments +should be established, as to the spirit in which they should be +administered, as to the best way in which the happiness of those who +are subject to them can be promoted, no less than in regard to the +capacity of the people for self-government, we may well look for party +divisions and political organizations of a deeper foundation and a more +enduring existence. + +Ours arose at the close of the Revolution, and the leading parties to +them were the Whigs, through whose instrumentality, under favor of +Providence, our Independence had been established. They and the Tories +constituted our entire population, and the latter had at first, for +obvious reasons, but little to do in the formation of parties, save to +throw themselves in a body into the ranks of one of them. It became at +once evident that great differences of opinion existed among the Whigs +in respect to the character of the government that should be substituted +for that which had been overthrown, and also in respect to the spirit +and principles which should control the administration of that which +might be established. These spread through the country with great +rapidity, and were respectively maintained with a zeal and determination +which proved that they were not produced by the feelings or impulses of +the moment. To ascertain the origin of those differences, and to trace +their effects, we can adopt no safer course than to look to the +antecedents of the actors in the stirring political scenes that followed +the close of the war, to the characters and opinions of their ancestors, +from whom they had naturally imbibed their first ideas of government +either directly or traditionally, and to the incidents of the memorable +struggle from which the country had just emerged. + +The great principle first formally avowed by Rousseau, "that the right +to exercise sovereignty belongs inalienably to the people," sprung up +spontaneously in the hearts of the colonists, and silently influenced +all their acts from the beginning. The condition of the country in +which they settled,--a wilderness occupied besides themselves only by +savage tribes,--to which many of them were driven by the fiercest +persecutions ever known to the civilized world, and the stern +self-reliance and independent spirit which most of them had acquired in +contests with iron fortune that preceded their exile, combined to induce +the cultivation and to secure the permanent growth of such a sentiment. +Not being, however, for several generations, in a suitable condition, +and from counteracting inducements not even disposed to dispute the +pretensions of the Crown to their allegiance, they were content to look +principally to its patents and other concessions for the measure of +their rights. But their views were greatly changed, and their advance on +the road to freedom materially accelerated, by the English Revolution of +1688. The final overthrow of James II., from whose tyrannical acts, as +well in the character of Duke of York as in that of King, they had +severely suffered, was not the greatest advantage the colonists derived +from that Revolution. The principles upon which that most important of +European movements was founded, and the doctrines it consecrated, paved +the way to a result which, though not upon their tongues, or perhaps to +any great extent the subject of their meditations as immediately +practicable, was, doubtless, from that time, within their contemplation. + +That Revolution, which shattered, "past all surgery," the blasphemous +and absurd dogma of the divine right of kings; which replaced the +slavish doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance with the +principle that the authority of the monarch was no other than a trust +founded on an assumed agreement between him and his subjects that the +power conferred upon him should be used for their advantage, for the +faithful execution of which he was individually responsible, and for a +breach of which resistance to his authority, as a last resort, was a +constitutional remedy; which for the supremacy of the Crown substituted +the supremacy of Parliament; which made the King as well as his subjects +responsible to its authority, and which abrogated the right of the Crown +to govern the colonies in virtue of its prerogative, and vested that +power in Parliament, placed the colonists upon a footing widely +different from that they had theretofore occupied. + +The general principle that they were, by the laws and statutes of +England, entitled to the political rights that appertained to British +subjects, could not be denied, but commercial rivalry and political +jealousies acting upon their excited feelings, soon generated questions +of the gravest import, both as to the extent of the power of Parliament +to legislate for them, and as to the participation in representation +essential to authorize the exercise of that power. + +The subjects of taxation and the regulation of trade by Parliamentary +authority, excited the greatest interest on both sides of the Atlantic. +In respect to the latter, the question was not a little embarrassed by +an alleged acquiescence on the part of the colonists, and the consequent +force of precedents. This circumstance, in connection with the +consideration that, if the right to regulate the trade of the colonies +was denied to the mother country, the allegiance conceded to be due +would be paid to a barren sceptre, was calculated to deprive the cause +of the colonists of the favorable opinion of those just men in England +whose countenance and support were of so much service to them in the +sequel. Duly appreciating the obstacles to success which there was +reason to apprehend from this source, with the prudence and good sense +that belonged to their character, and without waiving any of their +rights, they placed their cause principally upon a ground that lay at +the foundation of the Revolution, and was thoroughly immovable, viz., +that by the fundamental laws of property no taxes could be levied upon +the people but by their own consent or that of their authorized agents, +and that by consequence the connection was indissoluble between taxation +and representation. + +In the justice and constitutionality of this position they were openly +sustained by Lord Chatham, Lord Camden, Burke, Fox, and others,--men who +were in their day and have since been regarded as leading minds of +England. With but little of public sentiment against them beyond what +was influenced by the inveterate hatred and the insane obstinacy of the +King, wielding at will the majority of a notoriously corrupt Parliament +and the brute force of the kingdom, the colonists appealed to the God of +Battles in defense of a sacred principle of freedom, and in resistance +to tyrannical acts of the most odious and oppressive character, and they +were victorious. It is now, and will be in all time, a source of +satisfaction to the people of these States, that the decision of the +sword is not their only nor their highest title to the liberty they +enjoy. The colonists were right in the contest. Of this no serious doubt +is now entertained in any honest and well-informed quarter. The idea of +virtual representation, and the attempt to justify one wrong by the +practice of another, namely, the taxing other British subjects without +giving them an adequate representation in Parliament,--the only replies +that were made to the claim of constitutional rights,--are now well +understood, and, it gives me pleasure to say, generally disavowed in +England. Lord Derby, the manly and highly gifted leader of what is left +of the old Tory party, not long since, in a speech delivered in the +presence of an American minister, unreservedly admitted that we were +right in the Revolutionary contest; and, if that question were now +submitted to the free judgment of the people of England, such would be +found to be the public sense of that great nation. + +The only way in which the right in respect to taxation set up by the +English Parliament could have been sustained consistently with the +English Constitution, would have been by a joint government, securing to +the colonies the representation in that body to which they were entitled +as British subjects,--a plan to which both the mother country and the +colonies were equally decided in their dislike, but for very different +reasons. If a similar question were presented at this day it would, +according to the present state of public opinion in both countries, be +at once settled by an alliance of peace and friendship, substituting +fraternal relations for those of parent and children. + +Well would it have been for the interests of both and of humanity if the +matter had been thus adjusted. + +The immediate question upon which the Revolution turned was, of course, +forever extinguished by its results. But it has been far otherwise with +the opinions, doubtless of various shades and equally sincere, in regard +to the nature of government, the uses to which it could be properly +applied, and the manner and spirit of its application, with which the +colonists entered into the contest, and with the feelings engendered by +those opinions and developed by the war. Upon these points the +characters and successive conditions of the early emigrants exerted a +great influence. Those to Virginia were first in point of time, and +certainly not inferior to any in the elements of character adapted to +the difficulties they were destined to encounter. History, doubtless +authentic, records that the first emigration to that State was a measure +of the patriotic party in England, and sprung from a desire to make an +offering to liberty in the wilderness which the stringency of power had +prevented them from making at home. The accomplishment of that design, +whatever may have been the aid subsequently derived from its authors, +has been eminently successful. Whether as colonists, as citizens of a +free State, or as a part of our great Confederacy, the emigrants to +Virginia, their successors and descendants, have done all that men could +do to realize the anticipations and designs of the founders of that +ancient colony. + +Fully equal to them in devotion to liberty, with the additional merit of +having made greater sacrifices in its defense, stood the Puritans, whose +descendants are said to constitute at this time one fifth (I believe it +is) of the people of the United States. It would be superfluous to +describe either the persecutions to which they were subjected by +arbitrary power or their fidelity to their principles. Their story is +known, and their early character understood, throughout the civilized +world. + +The Huguenots entered largely into the early settlement of several of +the colonies, and their descendants now constitute numerous portions of +several of our States. Indeed, the very first European colony +established in this country was composed of Huguenots, who were +exterminated by the Spaniards,--an event which, indirectly, contributed +greatly to the emigration to Virginia under Sir Walter Raleigh. +Fugitives from the most cruel as well as the most obstinate +persecutions, hunted like wild beasts on account of their devotion to +religious freedom and the right of opinion, they fled to our shores, +detesting irresponsible power of every description, and ready to do +their utmost to prevent its re-incorporation in our virgin system. + +The States General and the Dutch West India Company, although the +former were perhaps not more favorable to popular sovereignty, in our +sense of these words, than the Stuarts, and the latter altogether +mercenary, yet introduced into this country, in the colonization of New +Netherlands, emigrants especially adapted, by character and disposition, +to the scenes through which they were destined to pass. This happy +result was attributable to the peculiar conjuncture of affairs at home +when the establishment of that colony was undertaken. It was during the +continuance of the truce in their War of Independence--the first that +was granted to them by Philip II., after that barbarous contest had +already lasted forty years--that the attention of the United Provinces +was directed to this country. The revolting cruelties which Philip had +caused to be inflicted upon the Dutch, through the instrumentality of +Alva, are as notorious to the world as are those to which the Huguenots +were subjected by Charles IX. and Louis XIV.; and the spirit of +resistance to arbitrary power, whether ecclesiastical or political, was +branded as by fire upon the hearts of both. + +To colonists of these descriptions were from time to time added numerous +other Protestants, who had fled to Holland, as well after the massacre +of St. Bartholomew as from other and kindred demonstrations of political +and priestly despotism in various parts of Europe, with an infusion of +descendants of the disciples of the Bohemian martyr, John Huss, who, +from the stake to which he had been doomed for his resistance to papal +tyranny, conjured his followers not to put their trust in princes. + +The mass of the early colonists having been sufferers at home, as well +from social and political inequalities as from the heavy hand of power +applied to themselves, having left behind them much that they dreaded +and nothing that they approved in the management of public affairs, were +exposed to no influences that could disincline them to the +establishment of just and equal governments in the land of their +adoption. Nothing could therefore be more natural than that they and +their immediate descendants, made familiar with the wrongs and outrages +practiced on their fathers by absolute tyrants, should have been jealous +of their liberties, and disposed to be rigid in their restrictions upon +the grant and exercise of delegated authority. From this disposition +sprang the principles to which they always adhered in the administration +of public affairs, and in the defense of which they appear to have been +always ready to make any necessary sacrifice. These, on the part of by +far the largest portions of the original colonists and their +descendants, were an insurmountable opposition to hereditary political +power in any shape and under any circumstances; a suspicious +watchfulness of all official authority, proportioned to their knowledge +of its liability to be abused; a consequent indisposition to concede +more than was indispensable to good government; the establishment of a +certain, and, as they called it, a swift responsibility for the exercise +of that which was granted; an habitual distrust, exhibited on various +occasions in their history, of every offer of special privileges by +government, and an unwillingness to confer the power to grant them,--the +former springing from suspicion that they were designed to impair their +independence, and the latter from conviction, fully justified by +experience, that such a power will always end in favoritism; and an +early and strong appreciation of the value of union among themselves and +between the colonies, originating in the necessity for their protection +against the savages, and kept alive by perpetual machinations from the +mother country to weaken and restrict their freedom. + +These and kindred feelings and principles were, as I have said, natural +to men whose antecedents, as well as those of their ancestors, had been +such as I have described; and they remained throughout the prevailing +features of colonial politics. They were not only the views of men +prominent in their respective communities, but the matured convictions +of the masses in respect to the line of policy necessary to their +welfare, and therefore the more likely to be perpetuated, for it has +been well and truly said, that "it is the masses alone that live." These +opinions might occasionally and for a season lie dormant, or be made to +yield to power, but neither corruption nor force could eradicate them. +With occasional but brief intermissions, they controlled the action of +the colonial legislatures; were embraced by a majority of the signers of +the Declaration of Independence; directed the course of the +Revolutionary Congress as well as that of the Government of the +Confederation subsequent to the recognition of our Independence, and +were in truth always the real sentiments of a majority of the people. + +It will be hereafter seen when they were for a season rendered +powerless, and when and how their control over the action of the +government was restored. + +The materials for tracing the action of the public mind, and the +proceedings of public bodies during the early periods of our history, +are, in comparison with those applicable to modern times, quite +imperfect. But aided by the facts which the historians of our day, with +great industry and in most cases with equal fidelity, have drawn from +oblivion, and still more by the recent very general publication of the +papers of eminent deceased statesmen, the work has become less +difficult. + +The fidelity of the Puritans to their well-known principles in respect +to hereditary power, was soon exposed to a severe trial. During the +residence of Sir Henry Vane in the Colony of Massachusetts, several +English peers, induced by a desire to remove to that colony and to make +it their place of permanent residence, offered to do so if changes could +be effected in its government, by which the General Court should be +divided into two bodies, and their hereditary right to seats in the +upper branch allowed to them. Strong as was the wish of the colonists +for the acquisition of those distinguished men, they yet declined a +compliance with their wishes. All that they could be induced to allow +was a life-tenure, and they actually made some appointments of that +character; but of this they soon repented, and attached to the offices +held by that tenure a condition which made the concession nugatory by +making it valueless. It is perhaps not assuming too much to suppose that +the regret they experienced at this momentary forgetfulness of their +principles--a regret exhibited in various ways--had no small influence +in inducing them to limit the terms of offices in the New England States +to very short periods, as is still the custom there. + +Similar conduct and feeling were disclosed by the colonists on every +occasion that presented itself for their display, but the necessity for +their exhibition was in a great measure superseded by the Declaration of +Independence and the war that succeeded, during the continuance of which +sentiments favorable to hereditary power were regarded by the country as +crimes to be punished. + +Our Independence was scarcely established when a circumstance occurred +which exhibited in a very striking manner the fixed aversion of the +great body of the people to hereditary distinctions. + +The officers of the army, desirous of perpetuating the memory of the +relations of respect and friendship which had grown up among them during +the trying and momentous scenes through which they had passed, +established, in May, 1783, the "Society of the Cincinnati," and made +the honor of membership hereditary. It has not appeared that General +Washington was consulted upon the subject in the first instance, but +conscious of the purity of his own motives, and confiding fully in those +of his military associates, he allowed his name to be placed at the head +of the list of members and consented to be its president. + +The principle of hereditary distinctions could not well have been placed +before the people in a less exceptionable form, and yet there were but +few occurrences during the war by which the public mind was so deeply +excited as that by which the officers intended to grace the closing +scenes of their meritorious career. The measure was assailed in all the +forms in which an offended public opinion usually finds vent. In +addition to able and eloquent attacks from American pens, the movement +was severely criticised in a pamphlet published in France and written by +Mirabeau, entitled, "Thoughts on the Order of Cincinnatus." + +General Washington informed himself of the extent to which the subject +was agitating the public mind, and, justly alarmed at the consequences +it might produce, determined to do all in his power to arrest its +progress. He wrote to Mr. Jefferson in April, 1784, asking his opinion +and the probable views of Congress (of which Mr. Jefferson was a member) +upon the subject, and his advice in respect to the most eligible +measures to be adopted by the society at their next meeting, which was +to be held in the ensuing month of May. This letter does not appear in +the published writings of Washington, but an extract from it is given by +Mr. Sparks, from which and from Jefferson's reply its contents as stated +are gathered. Mr. Jefferson's answer, containing an unreserved +communication of his opinions in the matter, may be found in Vol. I. of +his Correspondence. He stated at length the objections that were made +to the society, the unfriendliness of Congress to it, and added, in +conclusion, that if, rather than decide themselves upon the best course +to be pursued, the members should, at their approaching meeting, refer +the question to Congress, such a reference would "infallibly produce a +recommendation of total discontinuance." + +General Washington attended the meeting in May, and proposed several +changes in the constitution, and among them, in his own words, taken by +Mr. Sparks from memoranda in his own handwriting, "to discontinue the +hereditary part in all its connections, absolutely, without any +substitution which can be construed into concealment or a change of +ground only, for this would, in my opinion, increase rather than allay +suspicion." This amendment, and others having a similar bearing, were +adopted. + +In Mr. Jefferson's letter to myself, accompanying this volume,[2] to +which, as it was prepared with great care, and avowedly designed "to +throw light on history and to recall that into the path of truth," I +shall have frequent occasion to refer, will be found a highly +interesting account of what took place between himself and General +Washington, on his way to the meeting in Philadelphia, and on his +return, in May, 1784. + + [2] See Appendix. + +Some of the State societies rejected these modifications _in toto_, and +others only agreed to them partially. The agitation of the subject was +thus continued for several years, and as late as 1787 no State had yet +so far yielded its prejudices as to grant the charter for which the +constitution of the society made it the duty of the State meetings to +apply. Whatever opinion may at this day be formed in regard to the +sufficiency of the reasons for the alarm which this transaction +produced, it cannot be doubted that the proceedings in regard to it +afford strong proof that there was, down to the spring of 1787, a +settled aversion in the minds of a majority of the people to any measure +or course of measures which were indicative of the slightest desire to +return in any degree to the system which they had overthrown; and that +as early as 1783 strong suspicion existed that such desires were +concealed in the minds of many who had previously stood faithfully by +the country in all its perils. + +The intense hostility of the colonists and their successors to +monarchical institutions, and the recollection of the cruelties +inflicted upon them and upon their predecessors under the authority of +kings, had produced a determined repugnance on their part to the +concentration of power in the hands of single magistrates. Their minds +had become thoroughly impressed with a conviction that the disposition +to abuse power by those who were intrusted with it was not only inherent +and invariable, but incurable, and that it was therefore unwise to grant +more than was actually indispensable to the management of public +affairs. At no period anterior to the adoption of the present +Constitution, could a majority be obtained in Congress for the creation +of an executive branch of the Government, or an impression be made upon +the public mind favorable to such a measure. The inconveniences +experienced from a want of it during a protracted war, and which were +again encountered in the public service after the recognition of our +independence, were not sufficient to overcome this repugnance. The +tenacity with which they adhered to an equal representation and +influence for the colonies before, and for the States after, the +Declaration of Independence, in the confederacies and governments they +formed, sprang from like considerations. They could not be brought to +believe that a State, to which was allowed a greater power than was +reserved to its confederates, could be restrained from the ultimate +exercise of her superior power to depress her smaller confederates and +to elevate herself. + +Proofs of the existence and force of these opinions are spread through +every portion of our early history. + +In 1643 the New England Colonies, with the exception of those "who ran a +different course" from the Puritans, entered into a Confederacy. Its +avowed design was the better advancement of their general interests, but +its real object was to provide greater security against the savages by +whom they were menaced. It was called the "United Colonies of New +England." The plan was for a season defeated, because Massachusetts +claimed more power than she was willing to concede to the other +colonies; but it was finally established upon principles of perfect +equality, no more power or influence being conceded to Massachusetts, by +far the largest, than to New Haven, the smallest colony. The management +of affairs was intrusted to commissioners, of which each colony had two, +but no executive power was conferred upon them. They might deliberate +and recommend, but the colonies alone could carry their recommendations +into effect. This Confederacy endured for nearly half a century, and +worked well. + +In 1755 a convention of delegates from the colonies was held at Albany, +under the stimulus of French encroachments, and a plan of union, drawn +up by Dr. Franklin, was agreed upon and submitted to the colonies for +their approval. The plan, as was to be expected from the character of +its author, distributed the powers of the government between the people +and the prerogatives of the Crown, much more favorably to the popular +side than it would seem the latter might, in the then condition of +things, have reasonably hoped for. Still the attachments of the +colonists to their local governments, and, above all, their distrust and +dread of a central government, which was provided for, were sufficient +to deprive the plan of their favor, and to cause its ultimate +abandonment. + +The privilege of "Government within themselves," as "their undoubted +right in the sight of God and man," and "to be governed by rulers of +their own choosing and laws of their own making," were from the +beginning objects of absorbing solicitude with the colonists and their +Revolutionary successors. + +The principles and sentiments I have attempted to define, which had +sprung up at the earliest period in the colonies, and had grown with +their growth and strengthened with their strength, and in explanation of +which I have referred to a few of the many illustrations with which +their history abounds, were doubtless those also of a great majority of +the Whigs of the Revolution, in whose breasts was not wanting the +feeling which rarely fails to be seen in those political divisions that +lead to civil war,--a thorough antagonism to the general opinions, as +well as to the particular policy of the power or party opposed; but it +is equally true that those were far from being the principles or +feelings of all by whose efforts the Revolution was achieved. A numerous +portion of the Whigs of the Revolution, many of them greatly +distinguished for their talents, high characters, and great public +services, neither concurred in the principles nor sympathized with the +feelings I have described, but were in a great measure driven by other +considerations to take active parts in the struggle. The number thus +influenced was, fortunately for the result of the contest, increased by +specific tyrannical acts, which a prudent government would have avoided, +but which were forced on the ministry and Parliament of the mother +country by the obstinacy and bigotry of the king. Within a year after +his accession to the throne he wound up a series of unnecessary +interferences with the administration of justice in the colonies, by +changing the tenure of office, which had till that period prevailed in +relation to the colonial judges, from that of good behavior to that of +the will and pleasure of the Crown. By thus using his prerogative to +create a distinction in different parts of the realm degrading to the +colonies, he left the colonial lawyers no other course consistent with +self-respect, to say nothing of patriotism, than to unite with those +engaged in other pursuits in an effort to overthrow a government capable +of such practices. While subjecting the legal profession to such +humiliating proofs of the royal displeasure, his government commenced +its assaults upon that portion of his subjects engaged in commerce. His +indignation against those who scouted the doctrine of the British +Constitution, "that the king can do no wrong," was intense and +unappeasable in proportion to their presumed intelligence. It was in +this spirit that he appears to have selected judges, professional men, +and merchants, as special objects of his wrath, and having exerted his +power against the first two classes, he turned his attention toward the +latter. + +The Navigation Acts, as they stood at the period of his accession, had +been framed in the illiberal and selfish spirit which characterized the +legislation of the age. But though they had proved injurious to the +trade of the colonies, and humiliating to the colonial merchants, in +consequence of the extent to which they made their interests subservient +to those of the mother country, yet their prejudicial effects had in +neither respect been fully developed, in consequence of the remissness +which had prevailed in their execution. This had in a great degree been +occasioned by illicit contrivances between the colonists engaged in +trade and navigation and the officers of government stationed in the +colonies. A vigorous execution of the existing laws not only was +determined upon, but new acts were passed imposing additional +restrictions, and superadding cumulative penalties upon those who +disregarded them. To enforce this vindictive policy the Government +resorted to a measure at once the most arbitrary and odious of any that +had ever been known to the public service,--that of "Writs of +Assistance,"--and converted the army and navy into a police +establishment to aid in the detection and punishment of the colonial +offenders. + +By thus giving vent to his persecuting spirit--a spirit always blind to +its own interests--this infatuated Prince drove into the front rank of +the Revolution two classes of the colonists who were, from the nature of +their pursuits, least likely to embark in popular outbreaks, and most +inclined to favor a strong government,--classes which are usually +caressed by more sagacious rulers, and which had been so here before the +reign of George III. All orders of the colonists, save a few favorites, +were by these and similar means united, as a band of brothers, in a +movement such as the world had never before, and has never since seen, +for the overthrow of a government by which they were so sorely +oppressed. + +This union was in other respects composed of very discordant materials. +It consisted, on the one hand, of men and the descendants of men on +whose hearts the fires of persecution had burned a hatred of royalty too +deep to be erased and too zealous to be trifled with; of men who were at +the same time too conversant with human nature to allow themselves to +believe that the love of power and the proneness to its abuse were +confined to its hereditary possessors, and who were therefore anxious to +restrict grants of authority to their public functionaries to the lowest +point consistent with good government, and to subject what they did +grant to the most stringent responsibilities. They continued, also, to +cherish the same preference for their local organizations, and to +entertain the same distrust of an overshadowing central government, for +which the great body of the people had long been distinguished. They +were men whose highest ambition and desire for themselves and the +country was that it should have a plain, simple, and cheap government +for the management of the affairs of the Confederacy, republican in its +construction and democratic in its spirit,--a government that should, as +far as practicable, be deprived of the power of creating artificial +distinctions in society, and of corrupting and thus subverting the +independence of the people by the possession of a redundant patronage. +Such a government had long been the subject of their meditations, and +they braved the hazards and encountered the hardships of the +Revolutionary contest for the opportunity of establishing it. + +The Revolutionary brotherhood by which the recognition of our +Independence was enforced, contained, on the other hand, men respectable +in numbers, and distinguished by talent, public service, and high social +position, who dissented from many (I may say from most) of these views, +and who regarded them as Utopian in themselves, or as too contracted for +the exigencies of the public service. + +This difference in the opinions of men who had been engaged in such a +contest was all but unavoidable, and was never absent from any political +struggle of sufficient importance to be compared with it. It results, +besides those which have been indicated as peculiar to our own condition +and history, from simple but potent causes of universal operation, such +as diversities in social condition, in education, in the influence and +tendencies of previous pursuits, and in individual character and +temperament, producing diversities of views on such occasions. + +Although an aversion to royalty and opposition to hereditary government +in any form, were sentiments that pervaded the masses and exercised a +controlling influence in the Revolution, there were not a few, of the +character I have described, who, though they doubtless did not at the +moment design the reintegration of those institutions after the +overthrow of the actual Government, could yet contemplate, without great +revulsion of feeling, their ultimate establishment in this country. +Prompt to resist tyranny in any shape, and stung by the oppressions +practiced upon the colonies by the British Government, they hesitated +not to peril their lives for its subversion here, whilst theoretically +they not only tolerated its form and constitution, but regarded them as +the best that could be devised to promote the welfare and to secure the +happiness of mankind. Of the existence of this opinion on the part of +many sincere friends and able advocates of the Revolutionary cause, in +every stage of the contest and for years after its close, we have +indubitable evidence. I will notice a few cases of this description, on +account of the influence exerted on the formation of political parties +by the knowledge of the existence of such opinions, and by the +suspicions, perhaps unjust, and in some respects certainly so, as to the +extent to which those who held them were willing to carry them out. In +so doing, it is by no means my design to cast reproach upon the memories +of the great men who entertained them, and who stood by their country in +her severest extremity, and established the highest claims to her +gratitude and favor. + +No ingenuous mind can doubt that a large majority of the Whigs were +opposed to the substitution of a government similar either in form or +spirit to that from which they had emancipated themselves. Our +Revolutionary creed was, "That all men are created equal; that they are +endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among +these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure +these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just +powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of +government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the +people to alter and abolish it, and to institute a new government, +laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in +such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and +happiness." + +Under such a creed all were entitled as of right to a perfect freedom of +choice in regard to the character of the new government. Neither for the +formation of their opinions, however erroneous these may have been, nor +for the maintenance of them by lawful means, did any subject themselves +to just reproach, or to other forfeiture than perhaps a loss of the +confidence of those who thought differently. + +James Otis, Stephen Hopkins, John Adams, Gouverneur Morris, and +Alexander Hamilton, may be selected from many others as representatives +of the principles of that class to which I have referred as dissenting +from the popular or preponderating ideas of the time. + +I select them the more readily from a desire to avoid mistakes, as they +were possessed of temperaments too sanguine and too fearless to be +deterred from advancing openly opinions they honestly entertained, by +their unpopularity. + +There were certainly not many individuals, if there was one, who did +more to set the ball of the Revolution in motion than James Otis; and if +his career had not been cut short by the hand of violence he would have +taken high rank among the great and good men who survived the struggle. +His speech against the issuing of the Writs of Assistance had an effect +corresponding to those of Patrick Henry. Yet this highly gifted man, +whose patriotic spirit was sufficiently aroused by the oppressions of +the mother country, while yet in their incipiency, to induce him to +peril his life in acts of resistance, was an enthusiastic admirer of the +principles of the English system, and honestly believed, as he said, +"that the British Constitution came nearest the idea of perfection of +any that had been reduced to practice." + +The patriotic Hopkins, one of the Rhode Island Representatives in the +General Congress, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, +wrote--and that colony authoritatively published its concurrence in the +declaration--that "The glorious Constitution of Great Britain is the +best that ever existed among men." + +Gouverneur Morris's unyielding hostility to democratic principles, and +his preference for aristocratic and monarchical institutions, were often +exhibited and unreservedly avowed, as well on the floor of the Federal +Convention as elsewhere, and have become familiar among his countrymen +as household words. There were not many, if indeed there was a single +one of his contemporaries, who went beyond him in hostility to the State +governments. "State attachments and State importance," said he in the +Federal Convention, "have been the bane of this country! We cannot +annihilate them, but we may, perhaps, take out the teeth of the +serpents." Such as were his principles at the commencement of his career +they remained to the close of his life. + +But the opinions of John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, from their larger +agency in the politics of the country, in the administration of its +government, and in the actual formation of parties, are of still greater +importance. A full exposition of these, beyond the single point upon +which there existed the greatest jealousy at the period at which we have +now arrived,--that of their preference for the English system,--will be +best postponed until we come to consider the times and occasions which +were presented for an ampler display of them. I will, therefore, only +refer at this place to the contents of a statement prepared and signed +by Thomas Jefferson, in February, 1818, and designed to explain a +portion of his writings. In this he says, among other things: "But +Hamilton was not only a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on +corruption. In proof of this I will relate an anecdote for the truth of +which I attest the God who made me. Before the President set out upon +his Southern tour, in April, 1791, he addressed a letter of the 4th of +that month, from Mount Vernon, to the Secretaries of State, Treasury, +and War, desiring that if any serious and important cases should arise +during his absence they would consult and act on them, and he requested +that the Vice-President should also be consulted. This was the only +occasion on which that officer was ever requested to take part in a +Cabinet question. Some occasion for consultation arising, I invited +those gentlemen (and the Attorney-General, as well as I remember) to +dine with me, in order to confer on the subject. After the cloth was +removed, and our question argued and dismissed, conversation began on +other matters, and by some circumstance was led to the British +Constitution, on which Mr. Adams observed,--'Purge that Constitution of +its corruption and give to its popular branch equality of +representation, and it would become the most perfect Constitution ever +devised by the wit of man.' Hamilton paused and said,--'Purge it of its +corruptions and give to its popular branch equality of representation, +and it would become an impracticable government: as it stands at +present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most perfect which +ever existed.'" + +The solemn responsibility under which this statement was made, the high +character of its author, the time when it was recorded,--after one of +the principal parties had passed from earth, and the two remaining were +on the brink of the grave; when the passions excited by personal and +political rivalry had died away, and friendly relations had been +restored between the survivors,--would of themselves be sufficient to +establish its accuracy, even if its description of the opinions of Adams +and Hamilton had not been, as it will be seen that they were, abundantly +confirmed as well by the speeches and writings of the parties themselves +as by the recorded declarations of associates and friends who possessed +the best opportunities to become acquainted with their real sentiments. + +The natural presumption is--and there are many facts to prove its +correctness--that opinions with which these most prominent leaders were +so deeply imbued, had, to a very considerable extent at least, been +diffused throughout the ranks of their followers. + +The effects of this discordance on so many and such vital points in the +political doctrines and feelings of those by whom the Revolution had +been achieved, were postponed by the existence of the war; but when that +restraint was removed by the recognition of our Independence they broke +forth unavoidably, and were soon developed in the formation of political +parties. + +The Congress of the Confederation, and--from the dependence of the +Federal Government upon the coöperation of the States for the +performance of its most important duties--the State legislatures, as +well as the public press, became the theatres for the display of these +conflicting opinions. + +The so-called Government of the Confederation was little else than an +alliance between the States--a federal league and compact, the terms of +which were set forth in the Articles of Confederation. Besides a +control over questions of Peace and War, its powers and duties were +chiefly advisory, and dependent for their execution upon the coöperation +of the States. A federal system so defective was justly held responsible +for a large share of the public and private embarrassments that existed +at, or arose after, the termination of the Revolutionary contest. It was +also, as was natural, charged in some degree with those which were, in +truth, unavoidable consequences of a seven years' war, and which would +have existed under any system. It is not surprising, therefore, that a +party bent upon its overthrow should have arisen as soon as the public +mind was by the course of events brought to a proper state to consider +the subject. Of this party Alexander Hamilton became the leader, and its +immediate objects were, of course, very soon frankly developed. These +were in the first instance to divest the State governments of certain +powers, and to confer them upon Congress, the possession of which by the +Federal head they deemed indispensable to the exigencies of the public +service, with the intention of following up this step by an attempt to +abrogate the Articles of Confederation, and to substitute for that +system an independent and effective Federal Government, composed of +executive, legislative, and judicial departments. In respect to the +powers to be given to the new Government, and to its construction +otherwise, there doubtless existed some differences of opinion among the +members of this party; but all agreed that it should be what in the +language of the day was called a "strong government." There may not have +been entire harmony among them in regard to the expediency and +practicability of attempting it, but I do not think there is reasonable +ground to doubt that most of them desired a virtual consolidation of the +two systems--Federal and State. A few were, from an early period, +suspected by those who differed from them, and who became their +opponents, of desiring to return to the English system, and this +suspicion, doubtless, contributed to make the latter more impracticable +than they might otherwise have been. + +The political feelings which lay nearest to the hearts of the great body +of the people, as well during our colonial condition as in the States +after the declaration and establishment of Independence, and of the +strength of which I have referred to such striking and oft-repeated +illustrations, were those of veneration and affection for their local +governments as safeguards of their liberties and adequate to most of +their wants; endeared to them as their refuge from the persecutions of +arbitrary power, and hallowed by the perils and triumphs of the +Revolution. Allied to these feelings, and nearly co-extensive with them +in point of duration, was a distrust, at both periods, on the part of +the masses, of what they called an overshadowing general government. + +When to these sources of opposition to the views of the party which had +arrayed itself against the government of the Confederation is added the +natural and deeply seated hostility of those who dissented from its +views in respect to hereditary government in any form, and the suspicion +of a reserved preference for such, or at least for kindred institutions, +we cannot be at a loss in accounting for the origin of the first two +great parties which sprang up and divided the country so soon after the +establishment of our Independence. + +But the names by which these parties were distinguished are, it must be +admitted, not so intelligible. The name of Anti-Federalists was +strangely enough given by their opponents to those who advocated the +continuance of the Union upon the principles which prevailed in its +establishment, and according to which it was regarded as a Federal +League or Alliance of Free States, upon equal terms, founded upon a +compact (the Articles of Confederation) by which its conditions were +regulated,--to be represented by a general Congress, authorized to +consider and decide all questions appertaining to the interests of the +alliance and committed to its charge, without power either to act upon +the people directly or to apply force to the States, or otherwise to +compel a compliance with its decrees, and without any guarantee for +their execution other than the good faith of the parties to the compact. +On the other hand the name of Federalists was assumed, and, what is +still more extraordinary, retained by those who desired to reduce the +State governments, by the conjunction of which the Federal Union had +been formed, to the condition of corporations to be intrusted with the +performance of those offices only for the discharge of which a new +general government might think them the appropriate functionaries; to +convert the States, not perhaps in name, but practically and +substantially, into one consolidated body politic, and to establish over +it a government which should, at the least, be rendered independent and +effective by the possession of ample powers to devise, adopt, and +execute such measures as it might deem best adapted to common defense +and general welfare. + +That this was a signal perversion of the true relation between party +names and party objects can scarcely be denied. Yet we who have, in +later days, witnessed the caprices in respect to party names to which +the public mind has been occasionally subjected, and the facility with +which one party has, through its superior address or its greater +activity, succeeded in attaching to its adversary an unsuitable and +unwelcome name, have not as much reason to be surprised at that +perversion as had the men of that day who were subjected to it. + +The motive which operated in thus denying to men whose principles were +federal the name which indicated them, and in giving it to their +opponents, must be looked for in the fact that federal principles were +at that time favored by the mass of the people. This was well understood +at the time, and was made still more apparent by the circumstance that +those who really adhered to them, though compelled by the superior +address of their adversaries to act under the name of Anti-Federalists, +maintained their ascendancy in the government of the Confederation to +its close. + +Those who require further proof of the truth of this position beyond +what results from a mere statement of the principles contended for by +the respective parties, will find it fully sustained by definitions of +Gouverneur Morris and James Madison. (2 Madison _Papers_, pp. 747-8, and +893.) Mr. Morris explained the distinction between a _federal_ and a +_national_ supreme government,--the former being a mere compact resting +on the good faith of the parties, the latter having a complete and +_compulsive_ operation. Mr. Madison, in the debate on the propositions +of Mr. Patterson, which constituted the plan of the Anti-Federalists, +and which were rejected by a vote of seven States to three,--one +(Maryland) divided,--said: "Much stress has been laid by some gentlemen +on the want of power in the Convention to propose any other than a +_federal_ plan.... Neither of the characteristics of a federal plan +would support this objection. One characteristic was that in a _federal_ +government the power was exercised, not on the people _individually_, +but on the people _collectively_, on the _States_. The other +characteristic was that a _federal_ government derived its appointments, +not immediately from the people, but from the States which they +respectively composed." + +It cannot be difficult to decide which of these parties was, in truth, +_federal_, and which _anti-federal_, according to these authentic +definitions of a federal government.[3] + + [3] This contradiction between names and principles was obvious even + to intelligent foreigners. The French minister Fauchet, in his + famous despatch to his government (the publication of which worked + the downfall of Edmund Randolph, Washington's Secretary of State) + alluding to political parties in America, speaks of the whimsical + contrast between their names, Federal and Anti-Federal, and their + real opinions;--the former aiming with all their power to annihilate + federalism, while the latter were striving to preserve it. + +Between these parties, thenceforth distinguished by the misnomers of +Federalists and Anti-Federalists, there was, from the close of the war +to the establishment of the present government, an uninterrupted +succession of partisan conflicts, in which the whole country +participated. They grew, for the most part, out of propositions to take +from the State governments the rights of regulating commerce and of +levying and collecting impost duties, and for the call of a Convention +to revise the Articles of Confederation. The first two of these +propositions were introduced by the Federalists, and for six years +vigorously supported by their party, with Hamilton at its head; and, +although advocated by Madison whilst he was in Congress, such was the +strength of the Anti-Federal party in that body and in the States that +they were not able to carry either. Advances were occasionally made in +respect to imposts, but these were so restricted as to the officers by +whom the duties should be collected, whether State or Federal, and in +regard to the application of the money when collected, that the movers +of the principal measure considered its value so much impaired that they +declined to push it further under the existing circumstances. + +A distrust of the motives of the Federal leaders, and an apprehension +that they designed to employ the powers asked for in the establishment +of a strong and absorbing general government, capable of becoming, and +which the Anti-Federalists feared would, in the progress of time, +become, disposed to practice a tyranny upon the people, as oppressive as +that from which the Revolution had relieved them, with the suspicion +already referred to, that many would not be willing to stop at that +point, were doubtless the true causes of these otherwise unaccountable +failures. The accounts which have been brought down to us of the +proceedings of public bodies, and of appeals to the people, through +different channels, abundantly sustain this assumption. These, in a work +like this, can only be glanced at. + +The grounds taken by the opponents of these measures, and which, backed +by popular suspicions, made them so powerful, were that the views of the +Federalists were rather political than financial,--that they were at +least as solicitous to gratify their well-understood passion for power, +through the adoption of these propositions, as they were to maintain +public credit. Beyond all doubt the belief that the government which the +Federalists wished to create would, whatever it might be called, provide +for the greatest practical extent of irresponsible power, led the +Anti-Federalists not unfrequently to oppose measures which they would +otherwise have supported. + +General Hamilton's speech, most able as it was, went far to strengthen +these impressions. The debate commenced on the 28th, and was continued +to the 30th January, 1783, and was throughout one of great power. It +resulted in the adoption, with slight amendments, of a proposition, +submitted and vigorously supported by Mr. Madison, "That it is the +opinion of Congress that the establishment of permanent and adequate +funds to operate generally throughout the United States, is +indispensably necessary for doing complete justice to the creditors of +the United States, for restoring public credit, and for providing for +the future exigencies of the war." Although this proposition finally +passed without a dissenting vote, yet when an attempt was made to carry +it into effect by an impost--the only way in which it was attempted--the +measure was defeated, as has been before remarked, by restrictions in +regard to the officers by whom it should be collected, and to the +application of the money. In the course of his speech General Hamilton +signified, as an additional reason why the impost ought to be collected +by officers under the appointment of Congress, "that as the energy of +the Federal Government was evidently short of the degree necessary for +pervading and uniting the States, it was expedient to introduce the +influence of officers deriving their emoluments from, and consequently +interested in supporting the power of Congress." + +Upon this Mr. Madison, in a note, observes: "This remark was imprudent +and injudicious to the cause which it was meant to serve. This influence +was the very source of jealousy which rendered the States averse to a +revenue under the collection as well as appropriation of Congress. All +the members of Congress who concurred in any degree with the States in +this jealousy, smiled at the disclosure. Mr. Bland, and still more Mr. +Lee, who were of this number, took notice in private conversation that +Mr. Hamilton had let out the secret."[4] + + [4] 1 Madison _Papers_, 291. + +It is scarcely possible, at this distant day, to appreciate the terror +of irresponsible and arbitrary power which had been impressed upon the +minds of men who had themselves suffered from its excesses, or had +witnessed the cruelties it had inflicted on others, or whose fathers had +been victims of its crimes. Even Mr. Jefferson, who differed from the +Anti-Federalists in respect to these questions, as I shall hereafter +have occasion to show, though he sympathized with them in their general +feelings, in a letter to Mr. Madison in December, 1787, from Paris, upon +the subject of the Constitution, did not hesitate to say, "I own I am +not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always +oppressive."[5] + + [5] 2 Jefferson's _Correspondence_, 276. + +Similar feelings were exhibited by Massachusetts in 1785. That leading +State in the confederacy was, during the whole of this period, strongly +imbued with the feelings of the misnamed Anti-Federal party. This was in +no small degree owing to the talents, zeal, and activity displayed in +their behalf by Samuel Adams and John Hancock, two of the three persons +(John Adams having been the third), who were excepted by the British +Government from the offer of pardon to its rebellious subjects. Hancock +was a leading merchant and a zealous Revolutionary patriot, who had the +honor of placing his name first to the Declaration of Independence, and +the higher honor of sustaining the contest which it provoked to its +close with inflexible firmness and at unusual risks, growing out of his +large interests in commerce. Samuel Adams was equal to any man of his +day in intelligence, integrity, and patriotism. He was among the very +first who embraced the Revolution in the sense which it finally +assumed,--that of entire separation from the British Crown,--and he +supported the principles upon which it was founded, as well during the +conflict as for the residue of his long life, with great ability and +unsurpassed devotion. Whilst many of his associates, not less sincere +than himself in resistance to the despotic acts of the mother country, +could yet express their admiration of the English system and were +consequently inclined to limit their efforts to a redress of temporary +grievances, he at the earliest period avowed his hostility to kingly +government, and rallied around himself the advocates for an entire +separation, most of whom became with him early and prominent members of +the Anti-Federal party. + +The legislature of Massachusetts, momentarily diverted from the +Anti-Federal track by influences which will be noticed in another place, +adopted a resolution urging Congress to recommend a convention of the +States "to revise the Confederation, and to report how far it may be +necessary in their opinion to alter and enlarge the same, in order to +secure and perpetuate the primary objects of the Union." Governor +Bowdoin, who had recommended the measure to the legislature in his +message, addressed a letter to Congress including the resolution, and +sent it to the delegates of the State to be presented by them. The +delegates suspended its delivery, and assigned their reasons for doing +so in a letter dated September 3, 1785, addressed to the Governor, with +a request that it should be laid before the legislature. From this +letter, which is ably written and occupies throughout Anti-Federal +ground, I make the following extracts:--"The great object of the +Revolution was the establishment of good government, and each of the +States, in forming their own as well as the Federal Constitution, have +adopted republican principles. Notwithstanding this, plans have been +artfully laid and vigorously pursued, which, had they been successful, +we think would have inevitably changed our republican governments into +baleful aristocracies. These plans are frustrated, but the same spirit +remains in their abettors; and the institution of Cincinnati, honorable +and beneficent as the views may have been of the officers who composed +it, we fear, if not totally abolished, will have the same tendency.... +'More power in Congress,' has been the cry from all quarters, but +especially of those whose views, not being confined to a government +that will best promote the happiness of the people, are extended to one +that will afford lucrative employments, civil and military. Such a +government is an aristocracy, which would require a standing army and a +numerous train of pensioners and placemen to prop and support its +exalted administration. To recommend one's self to such an +administration would be to secure an establishment for life, and at the +same time to provide for his posterity. These are pleasing prospects +which republican governments do not afford, and it is not to be wondered +at that many persons of elevated views and idle habits in these States +are desirous of the change. We are for increasing the power of Congress +as far as it will promote the happiness of the people; but at the same +time, are clearly of opinion that every measure should be avoided which +would strengthen the hands of the enemies to free government, and that +an administration of the present Confederation, with all its +inconveniences, is preferable to the risk of general dissensions and +animosities, which may approach to anarchy and prepare the way to a +ruinous system of government." + +This letter of the delegates was laid before the legislature at their +next session, and produced a vote annulling the resolution recommending +a convention. The letter was signed by Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Holton, +and Rufus King. Mr. King, in the course of the following year, married +Miss Alsop, the only child of John Alsop, a wealthy merchant of New +York, and after having represented his native State with credit in the +Federal Convention of 1787, moved to that city; was appointed one of the +first senators in Congress from the State of New York (General Schuyler +being the other); was the friend and associate of Hamilton, Gouverneur +Morris, and Jay, and became, and continued for many years, a prominent +member of the Federal party. + +Every step that was taken toward a convention was regarded with +distrust,--a distrust founded on a prevalent apprehension that the +talented and, as was believed, ambitious men who would get the control +of it, would in some way defeat those republican principles for the +right to establish which the country had made such great sacrifices. + +The Commercial Convention, representing five States, which originated in +Virginia and met at Annapolis, and by which the movement that resulted +in the present Constitution was commenced, permitted Hamilton to draw up +their Address to the other States, which was also to be laid before +Congress; but insisted on giving a shape to their proposition which +would confine the Federal Convention within narrow bounds. They did this +in deference to the well understood sentiment of the country, and as the +only course, in their opinion, by which a convention could be obtained; +and accordingly they proposed "That a convention should be called to +meet at Philadelphia in May next, to devise such further provisions as +should appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the +Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and to +report such an act for that purpose to the United States in Congress +assembled, as _when agreed to by them, and afterwards confirmed by the +legislatures of every State_, will effectually provide for the same."[6] + + [6] See _Address_; 2 Madison, 698. Not more than one, if one, of the + five States was fully in favor of a Convention. + +The final action of Congress upon the subject, a majority of which +entertained similar views, consisted of a resolution, introduced by the +delegates from Massachusetts, declaring it to be the opinion of Congress +that a convention should be held at the time and place named by the +Commissioners who met at Annapolis, "for _the sole and express purpose_ +of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and +the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as +shall, _when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States_, render +the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and +the preservation of the Union."[7] + + [7] _Journals_ of that Congress, Vol. IV. p. 724. + +But for the sanction thus given to the measure by Congress no convention +would have been held--at least none at that time. Washington, as appears +from his Correspondence, would not have deemed a convention legal +without it, and would not have attended;[8] and his example, added to +the hesitation of most of the States, and the decided opposition of some +of them, would have been sufficient to put a stop to the project. + + [8] Sparks's _Washington_, Vol. IX.; Notes, pp. 237-9. + +It was under such circumstances that the Convention assembled. Its +proceedings have become so familiar to the public mind, from the full +publications that have been made of them, and the extent to which they +have been reviewed, as to render it unnecessary to go very far into +their details. The Anti-Federal plan was introduced by Mr. Patterson, of +New Jersey, more in obedience to the ascertained wishes of his +constituents, than in conformity with his particular views. It proposed +an amendment of the Articles of Confederation for the construction of +executive and judicial departments in the federal government; to make +its laws and treaties the supreme law of the land; to increase the +powers of Congress in several important particulars, among which were +the right to levy and collect taxes and imposts, to regulate foreign +commerce and commerce between the States, and to give to the federal +government power to enforce its requisitions upon the States when it +should become necessary,--and to leave the government in other respects +as it stood. + +The plan which Hamilton desired the Convention to propose to the people +and the States, of which he left a copy with Mr. Madison as a permanent +memorial of his opinions,--now published with Mr. Madison's "Papers," +and in the "Life of Hamilton" by his son, and agreeing with each other +in all respects,--consisted, in its most remarkable features, of the +following provisions, viz:-- + +_First:_ The President should hold his office during good behavior, +removable only on conviction upon impeachment for some crime or +misdemeanor; and he should have an absolute negative upon all bills, +resolutions, and acts of Congress about to be passed into a law. + +_Secondly:_ The Senators should hold their offices by the same tenure, +and should have the exclusive power of declaring war. + +_Thirdly:_ The General Government should have the right to appoint the +future Governors of the States, who might hold their offices during good +behavior, and who should have the power to negative all laws about to be +passed by the respective State legislatures, subject to such regulations +as Congress might prescribe, and also to appoint all the militia +officers if Congress should so direct; and, + +_Fourthly:_ Congress should "have power to pass all laws which they +shall judge necessary to the common defense and general welfare of the +Union." + +The first of these plans, which professed to represent the views of the +Anti-Federalists, was rejected by the Convention, after full discussion, +as has been already mentioned, by a vote of seven States to three, one +being divided. Hamilton's scheme was not brought to a vote, nor, except +by himself, made the subject of particular discussion. This course was +obviously induced, in no small degree, by motives of respect for the +feelings of its author. Every body praised his candor and independence, +but the popular opinions in respect to its provisions were too well +understood to allow of any vote, other than his own, being given in its +favor, whatever private sympathy it may have enlisted. + +Fortunately for the country at this, perhaps the most decisive period in +its history, a majority of the Convention, composed of every shade of +opinion, became thoroughly satisfied that a crisis had arrived which +demanded a liberal sacrifice of extreme views. They were convinced that +whilst, on the one hand, no system would stand the slightest chance to +be acceptable to any thing like a majority either of the States or +people, which was designed, or obnoxious to the suspicion of being +designed, to degrade the State governments, or even to impair their +capacities for the successful management of those portions of public +affairs which, under a proper distribution of the powers of government, +would be left under their control, or which was in the smallest degree +calculated to do violence to the well-known feelings of the people upon +the subjects of hereditary or irresponsible power; so, on the other, +there was no room for two opinions in respect to the ruinous +consequences that would, in the then condition of the country, +inevitably result from the failure of a convention, brought together +with so much difficulty, to remedy the manifest defects of the existing +government by suitable and effectual additions and improvements, and to +make a Constitution which would prove satisfactory both to the States +and people. Kept together by this overruling conviction, they entered +upon the construction of the present Constitution. The State governments +had been until that period, in point of fact, the ruling power. The +federal head, from the want of power to act directly upon the people, +or, in a compulsory manner, upon the State authorities, was dependent on +them for the execution of its most important decisions. Though much +depressed by the adverse current of events, it was yet in the State +governments that the pride of power stood relatively at the highest +point. Any attempt, under such circumstances, to humiliate the State +authorities, would inflame the passions of their supporters; but they +might be, perhaps, to a sufficient extent conciliated, and the +Convention prudently adopted this course. Irritating subjects were, with +that view, as far as possible, avoided. Propositions to give to the new +government a direct negative upon the legislation of the States, and to +empower it to appoint their governors and militia officers, which had +produced so much ill blood, were effectually discountenanced. The +sovereignty of the States, to which State pride was so keenly alive, was +not interfered with in respect to the powers of government which were +left in their hands. An impartial and wise division of powers was made +between them and the government proposed to be established. To remove +apprehensions which had been long entertained, and which had sunk deep +in the minds of many, the State authorities as such were allowed a +liberal participation in the first formation, and their coöperation was +made necessary to the subsequent continuance of the new government. The +manner of choosing the electors of President and Vice-President was, +with the same general view, left to the regulation of the State +legislatures exclusively; and when a failure to choose by the electors +should occur--a result then believed likely to happen frequently--the +President was to be chosen by the House of Representatives of the United +States, and, in the performance of that important duty, each State had +reserved to it the right to appear and act in its federal +character--that of a perfect equality with her sister States--whatever +might be the difference in their respective population, territory, or +wealth. The choice of the Senate of the United States was also left +exclusively to the State legislatures. The result of all these +arrangements was, that the Federal Constitution was so constructed as to +put it in the power of a bare majority of the States to bring the +government proposed by it to a peaceable end, without exposing their +citizens to the necessity of resorting to force, by simply withholding +the appointment of electors, or the choice of their Senators, or both. + +No provisions could have been devised better calculated to remove +apprehension and allay jealousy in respect to the new government. They +hit the nail on the head. Although they might not avert the opposition +of excited partisans, they answered the expectations of moderate +men,--of that large class whose paramount object was the relief of the +country as well as their own private affairs from the embarrassments +under which they were suffering, and which were, as usual on such +occasions, attributed altogether to the defects of the existing system. +The question could with great propriety be put to Anti-Federal opponents +(and doubtless was put),--Are you afraid to trust a numerical majority +of the States? If not, they can at short intervals put an end to the new +government if it proves to be as bad as you apprehend. + +Having already, in a spirit of devotion to duty and a hazardous +disregard of responsibility which was made necessary by the occasion, +set aside the instructions of Congress by making a new Constitution, the +Convention pursued a similar course to the end. Instead of reporting the +result of their labors to Congress for its approval and submission to +the States for their unanimous sanction, according to the Articles of +Confederation, as was proposed at Annapolis and provided by Congress in +the act of sanction to the holding of the Convention, that body sent the +instrument it had framed to Congress, not for its approval, but to be by +it submitted to the States and people in the first instance, under a +provision, prescribed by the Convention, that if it was ratified by nine +of the thirteen States it should be binding upon all,--an heroic though +perhaps a lawless act. + +The dangerous condition of the country, and the general opinion that +some decided step was necessary to its safety, added to the imposing +character of the instrument itself, which, though not satisfactory to +Congress, was yet far less objectionable than had been anticipated, and +a general expectation that important amendments rendering it still more +acceptable to the people would follow its ratification, deterred the +national legislature from refusing to comply with the request of the +Convention, notwithstanding its flagrant disregard of congressional +authority. The same considerations should have induced the Anti-Federal +party to acquiesce in the ratification of the Constitution. They should +have looked upon the marked effect of that instrument upon Congress as a +prophetic warning of the danger to which they would expose themselves as +a party by opposing it. But they did not see their duty, or, perhaps, +their interests, in that light; honest in their intentions and obstinate +in their opinions, they opposed the ratification, were defeated, and, as +a party, finally overthrown. + +The Anti-Federal party represented very fairly the ideas and feelings +that prevailed with the masses during the Revolution. These, as we have +described, having been deeply rooted by the persecutions suffered by +Puritan, Huguenot, Hussite, and Dutch ancestors, and, however crude and +unsystematized at first, having been gradually stimulated into maturity +and shape by the persevering injustice of the mother country, became +political opinions of the most tenacious and enduring character. At the +moment of which we are speaking, alarm in respect to the character of +the General Government about to be established, with increased +attachments to those of the States, were predominant feelings in the +Anti-Federal mind, and closed it against a dispassionate consideration +of the Constitution submitted to their choice. The local governments +were entitled to all the regard which had been cherished for them by the +Anti-Federalists and by their political predecessors under the colonial +system; neither were the dangers which threatened them overrated. +Hamilton could not tolerate the idea that they should be continued +otherwise than as corporations, with very limited powers. Morris, in his +usual rough and strong way, was for "drawing their teeth," as I have +already quoted him; and even the temperate Madison was in favor of +giving the General Government a direct negative upon all their laws,--a +proposition which, though not so humiliating as Hamilton's, or so +harshly expressed as that of Morris, would have been far more fatal to +their future usefulness. Standing now on the vantage-ground of +experience, no sensible man can fail to see that the State governments +would have perished under the treatment thus proposed for them, nor can +any such man doubt the immense advantage they have been and still are to +our system. A short reflection upon what has been accomplished through +their agency, and upon what our condition would probably have been if +they had been blotted out of the system, as was virtually desired in +most influential quarters, must satisfy candid and intelligent minds of +the fatal unsoundness of the policy proposed. The States would under it +have been governed as her numerous colonies were governed by Rome, and +a comparison of our present condition with what it must have been under +the satraps of a consolidated federal government, will cause every +patriotic heart to rejoice at our escape from the latter. For that +escape we are largely indebted to the old Anti-Federal party. They stood +out longest and strongest in behalf of the State governments, after the +establishment of our Independence; and although they failed in other +respects, they made impressions upon the public mind which have never +been effaced, and for which we owe them a debt of gratitude. Their +motives, as is usual in political collisions, were misrepresented; they +were spoken of as men of contracted views, of narrow prejudices; and +their preference for the State governments was attributed to the +preponderance they possessed in them, and to a consciousness that their +greatness and power were derived from local prejudices and from their +skill in fomenting them. Hence was inferred their hostility to an +efficient federal government, whose extensive affairs they were +incapable of managing, and in which, consequently, it was alleged that +they would not retain the influence they possessed at home. + +Although I unite fully in condemning the course pursued by the +Anti-Federalists in respect as well to the Constitution as to their +refusal to grant an adequate revenue to the federal head, and the right +to regulate commerce, I regard those imputations which ascribed to them +a readiness to sacrifice the great interests of the country to merely +factious purposes, as the ebullitions of party spleen produced by party +jealousies, as unjust and unfounded as was the charge brought forward by +the old Republican party against Alexander Hamilton of a design to +plunge the country into war with France to subserve the wishes and +interests of England. I do not think there were ten in every hundred of +that party who did not believe that imputation well founded, and most +of them went to their graves without having yielded that conviction. I +came upon the political stage when this matter was only viewed in the +retrospect, and am free to say that I even believed that, if there was +any thing true in the party criminations of the preceding era, this was +so. Judge, then, of my surprise, on discovering from his papers, as well +as from those of some of his contemporaries recently published, that +there was probably no man in the country more sincerely anxious to +prevent a war with France; that he applied his great mind incessantly to +that object; that he was willing, indeed desirous, to send either Mr. +Jefferson or Mr. Madison as one of the commissioners to negotiate with +France, a proposition in respect to which he could not obtain the +concurrence of either Mr. Adams or his cabinet, the latter of whom were +sufficiently prompt to adopt his advice save when it conflicted with +their party prejudices; and that so far from acting on that occasion at +the instigation or to promote the policy of Great Britain, although +entertaining strong--in my opinion too strong--preferences for England +as between her and France, he was, in respect to every thing that +affected the interests of his own country, purely and strictly American. +Of this no man, whose mind is not debauched by prejudice, can entertain +a doubt on reading the papers referred to. + +The imputations upon the motives of the Anti-Federalists were of the +same general stamp and origin. It was too soon for those who were yet +fresh from the self-sacrificing and patriotic struggle on the field of +the Revolution, where they had nobly done their duty, to fall under the +influence of such petty motives as were attributed to them. Like their +opponents, they might and did peril much of their own standing to +further political views of great magnitude which they honestly, if +erroneously, believed would promote the welfare of their country; but +base incentives and merely factious calculations are not predicable of +the times or of the men. + +We should be slow to attribute narrow views to a political party to +whose principal leaders, more than to any other portion of the Whigs, we +owe the great change in the character of our Revolutionary struggle by +which the assertion of Independence was substituted for the demand of a +redress of grievances. + +If the Anti-Federal party had been accused of cherishing morbid and +impracticable ideas on the subject of a general government, the charge +would have come nearer the truth. Many of them had so vivid a +recollection of cruelties practiced upon their fathers, and had +themselves seen and felt so much of the tyranny of the mother country, +as to destroy all hope on their part that political power could be +vested in remote hands, without the certainty of its being abused. +Although they may have been right in respect to the monarchical +preferences of many who were the most zealous for a convention, still +they overrated the danger that such views would be encouraged by that +body, and in their apprehensions of subsequent efforts to establish +monarchical institutions here, they did not sufficiently appreciate an +existing security against the accomplishment of such an object, the +character and adequacy of which shall be hereafter noticed. We have +every reason to believe that they regarded the project of a general +convention as involving, if successful, the fate of republican +principles in this country; and under the influence of feelings of so +sombre a character, their course, as a party, was, it must be admitted, +substantially adverse to any change, content rather to bear the ills +they had than to encounter others of which they knew not the precise +extent, but which they dreaded more. In this they fell behind the +progress of events. + +If our Revolutionary contest had terminated in a compromise with the +mother country, as was for a long time expected, the existing system, +with the amendments which would then have been generally favored, might +have sufficed. It might have answered all the purposes contemplated by +that which Franklin took so much pains to establish in 1755. But when +our country had taken her position among the nations of the earth as a +sovereign and independent power, she acquired rights and incurred +obligations which could not be properly cared for by any agency short of +a well-constructed and efficient general government, and the existing +organization was neither. By an efficient government I do not mean one +capable of absorbing or neutralizing the State authorities, or not fully +responsible for the faithful exercise of the powers conferred upon it, +or possessing more power than was necessary for the discharge of all the +duties assigned to it, but one amply furnished with the ability to +discharge them by its own means. To this end it was necessary that it +should have competent and well organized executive, legislative, and +judicial departments, and at least the power requisite to raise its +necessary revenues from the people directly. To all this the +Anti-Federal party was opposed, and therein it was wrong. The risk of +having exceptionable principles incorporated into the Constitution was +one that had to be encountered at some time, and there were cogent +reasons for meeting it then. The condition of the country, in regard to +its credit and other interests, presented an argument of great urgency +for the necessity of a competent government. But above all other +considerations stood the fact that the Convention had proposed for the +approval of the people and the States a constitution which, when +interpreted according to its plain and obvious meaning, conferred on the +government proposed by it powers fully adequate to the public service, +but none from which danger could be apprehended to any interest. That +this was so is no longer an open question. Time and experience have +demonstrated the error of the Anti-Federalists, who, under the influence +of strong prejudices, although doubtless honestly, thought differently. +No one will now question the devotion of the people, for whose benefit +it was framed, and who are the best judges in the matter, to the +existing system. With full power to alter or abolish it, they have lived +under it for the greater part of a century, without making or desiring +to make any essential alterations in its structure. By the exercise of +those powers only which were plainly given by the Constitution to the +government established by its authority and expressed on its face, in +regard to which there has been no dispute, and which were at the times +of its adoption well understood by those who made and those who adopted +it, our country has prospered and grown to its present greatness. I say +by those powers only, because the spurious interpolations which have +from time to time been attempted have in no instance been productive of +good. + +The Convention was held with closed doors, and the result of its labors +was not known to the public before it was communicated to Congress, nor +the particulars of its proceedings, the votes, resolutions, and +speeches, till many years afterwards. The public mind, and especially +the Anti-Federal portion of it, was impressed by those circumstances, +operating upon long entertained suspicions, with the most unfavorable +anticipations in respect to the character of the instrument that had +been agreed upon. All found it so different from what it was feared by +many that it would be, and so many received it according to its real +merits, that it carried a large preponderance of the public sentiment, +drawn from both parties, to the conclusion that it ought not to be, and +could not with safety be rejected. The reflection of this sentiment was +distinctly seen in the action of Congress. It had given its assent to +the holding of a Convention, without which that body would not have met; +but it had, as we have seen, restricted its action in two most important +points: 1st, that the Convention should limit its action to a revision +of the Articles of Confederation and to suggestions for their +improvement; and, 2d, that its doings should be reported to Congress, to +be submitted to the States, under those Articles which required the +assent of every State to any alteration. The Convention disregarded +both; it sent to Congress a new constitution, regulated its submission +to the States, and decided that the assent of nine of the thirteen +should make it binding upon all. Congress, with its resolutions and +limitations thus set at nought, and without even a protest, did what was +asked of it. Yet the leaders of the Anti-Federal party in the States +determined upon opposition. The course and character of that opposition +indicate that those who embarked in it were conscious of their +approaching defeat. + +In the three largest and most strongly Anti-Federal States, in which the +power of that party, when cordially united, was irresistible, the +Constitution was ratified. It was adopted by the required number of +States, and the fate of the Anti-Federal party, as such, was forever +sealed by the result of the contest in which it had unwisely engaged. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + The Federal Party in Power under the New Constitution--Agency of + Individuals in the Formation and Ratification of the + latter--Prospects of the Opening Administration of the + Government--Unwise Course of the Federal Party--President + Washington--His Peculiar Relations with the People and with + Parties--His first Cabinet--Character of the Differences between + Jefferson and Hamilton--The latter sustained--Hamilton's Position, + Power, and Influence upon the subsequent Course of Parties--His + Monarchical Views--Various Authorities in Relation to the + latter--Fidelity of Washington to the Republican Form of + Government--Importance of correctly Understanding the Extent of + Hamilton's Influence during the Administrations of Washington and + John Adams--Personal and Official Relations between Washington and + Members of his Cabinet--Evidences of the Spread of Monarchical + Views among Officers and Public Men in Washington's Time--His + Steadfast Adherence to the last to the Republican Form--His + Permanent Hold upon the Affections of the People, even while they + repudiated certain Leading Principles of his Administration. + + +The period in our political history to which our inquiry has conducted +us, was one of the greatest interest. The successful effort that had +been made to compel Great Britain to acknowledge our Independence; the +government of the Confederation, and the causes that led to its +abandonment; the grave step taken in a better direction by the formation +and ratification of the new Constitution, with the hopes and fears +excited by the last great movement, were well calculated to impress +profoundly the minds of those who had been actors in such important +scenes. The success of the Federal party in the first election held +under the new Constitution was complete. For the first time since its +organization, that party possessed the unrestricted control of the +national legislature. If any thing could have been thought wanting to +insure its permanent success, that was believed to be secured by the +consent of General Washington to be the first President of the new +government about to be organized under a constitution, to the paternity +of which they had established so fair a claim. Neither the formation nor +the ratification of that instrument were altogether the work of avowed +members of that party; but as between the two parties they had clearly +the best title to be regarded as its authors. The merits of individuals +in that great work were various. Alexander Hamilton, the able and +undisputed leader of the Federal party, from its origin to his death, +did comparatively nothing either toward its formation or adoption by the +Federal Convention. His most useful services were rendered in the New +York State Convention, by which it was ratified, and in his +contributions to the numbers of "The Federalist." These were formally +declared as the measure of his services in that regard, in reply to a +direct inquiry long after Hamilton's death, by his best informed and +always devoted friend, Gouverneur Morris, as will be seen hereafter. It +was, beyond all doubt, from Madison that the Constitution derived its +greatest aid in respect as well to its construction as to its passage +through the Convention, and its ratification by the States. + +The character and political career of James Madison were _sui +generis_--as much so as though far different from those of John +Randolph. Possessed of intellectual powers inferior to none, and taking +an unsurpassed interest in the course of public affairs, he seemed +invariably to bring to the discussion of public questions a thoroughly +unprejudiced mind. Whilst in the speeches of his contemporaries we +seldom fail to perceive that the argument submitted was framed to +support a foregone conclusion,--to recommend a measure for which the +speaker cherished a personal preference,--it is rare indeed, if ever, +that any such indications are to be found in those of Mr. Madison. +Whilst the former present themselves as advocates, the latter appears in +the attitude of an umpire between rival opinions, who has made it his +business to search for the truth, and is determined to abide the result +of his investigations, uninfluenced in the formation of his decision by +preferences or prejudices of any description. The most acute observer in +reviewing the writings, speeches, and votes of Mr. Madison during the +exciting periods of which we are speaking, when governments as well as +individuals were to an unusual extent in a state of transition, would +find it difficult to place his finger upon any of them in respect to +which the justice of this description would not be manifest. + +Mr. John Quincy Adams, in his Jubilee Address, heretofore alluded to, +describes Mr. Madison and General Hamilton as being, at this period, +"spurred to the rowels by ambition."[9] Both of these gentlemen were, +doubtless, ambitious of the fame which is acquired by serving one's +country honestly and efficiently, and we have no sufficient reason for +assuming that Mr. Adams meant more than that. It is, nevertheless, but +justice to those truly great men to add that so far as high-reaching +ambition is indicated by abjuring unpopular opinions and assuming those +which are believed to be otherwise; by professing attachment to +principles not really cherished for their own sake, or by personal +intrigues of any description to acquire or increase popular favor, I +sincerely believe that there were no two men of their day less liable to +the imputation. Mr. Madison's course at the period of which we are +speaking and during his antecedent public life, was, to a remarkable +extent, divested of a partisan character. He supported, ably and +perseveringly, many, if not most of the propositions for the adoption of +which the Federal party was particularly solicitous, whilst representing +one of the most decided Anti-Federal States in the Confederacy, without +losing the confidence of his constituents, or even hazarding its loss. +He was, throughout, in favor of giving to the federal head an +independent right to levy and collect its necessary revenue and to +regulate commerce, and was from the beginning in favor of a convention +to revise the Constitution. In that body he was one of the majority in +favor of the course I have described, and which resulted in the present +Constitution. His successful and brilliant efforts in favor of the new +system of government placed him at the head of its friends; but there +was no time when Mr. Madison can, with truth and fairness, be said to +have belonged to the Federal party; he all the time represented a State +which took the lead in opposition to that school, his political +affinities and associations were in general adverse to that +organization, and, as I have said, he never forfeited the good opinion +of his State. She seems always to have confided in his sincerity and in +the integrity of his motives, and to have been willing to allow him to +follow the dictates of his own judgment in regard to particular +measures. + + [9] Mr. Van Buren, in making the above quotation from the Jubilee + Address, doubtless relied upon his memory. "Both spurred to the + rowels by rival and antagonist ambition," are the words used by Mr. + Adams; but they, in fact, refer distinctly to _Jefferson_ and + Hamilton, though Mr. Madison's name is incidentally coupled with + that of the latter in the same sentence. Eds. + +The most auspicious prospects beamed upon the opening administration of +the new government, and it is fair to presume that the anticipations +thus inspired would have been triumphantly realized if those who had +been selected to conduct it, and their successors for the ensuing +twelve years, had accepted the Constitution in the sense in which it +was known to have been understood by those who framed it, and by the +people when they adopted it. A course thus right in itself, and thus +acquiescent in the popular will by men, some of whom had been long +suspected by many of their Revolutionary associates of not holding that +will in very high respect, would not have failed to conciliate large +portions of the Anti-Federal party. Their dread of the exercise of +unauthorized power by a general government, of which the responsibility +was, in their estimation, too remote to be safely trusted, and their +apprehensions for the safety of State institutions, always an object of +their greatest solicitude, might have been allayed, if not substantially +subdued. These valuable objects accomplished, the great improvements in +the condition as well of public as of individual affairs, unavoidably +flowing from the reasonably harmonious action of a government which the +Federal party had done so much to establish, and the crowning fact that +these gratifying results were brought about in the name, and with the +active coöperation of Washington, the object of universal respect and +affection, would have secured to that party through the long lapse of +time that has since intervened, at least as large a share in the control +of the government as has been possessed by a party which became its +successful rival, but which can scarcely be said to have then existed. + +But the Federal party rashly turned its back upon the only course by +which these advantages might have been secured, and in doing so, showed +itself regardless of considerations which would not have escaped the +attention of more discreet, if not wiser bodies. Its influential and +leading men forgot that the administration did not, in point of fact, +represent the political opinions in respect to the proper uses and +spirit of governments in general of a majority of the people; that +their party had acquired power solely by its wise course in regard to a +single, though doubtless most important measure; and that even in +respect to that large portions of the people felt, as expressed by John +Quincy Adams, "that the Constitution itself had been extorted from the +grinding necessity of a reluctant nation." The Federal party took its +course also in momentary forgetfulness of the characters of those whose +opinions it was about to violate, whose feelings were to be offended, +and whose resentments it must incur. It overlooked what it had the +fullest reason to know, that those whom it was about to drive into +opposition were men, and the descendants of men, who had from the +beginning, and at all times, and under all circumstances, been +enthusiasts in devotion to liberty, and stern and uncompromising in +demanding stringent restrictions upon delegated authority,--as +inflexible in their opinions, and as incapable of being driven from +their support by the hand of power, or seduced by corruption, as human +nature could be made in the schools of fiery trial in which they had +been trained. The Federalists in power, or rather he who, through the +great confidence of his chief, wielded that power, did nothing, if we +except the personal efforts of Washington in favor of conciliation, +absolutely nothing to soothe the feelings of their defeated opponents, +or to allay their apprehensions, but much to exacerbate the former and +to confirm the latter. + +The justice of these allegations is fully proved by the acts of the +public men of that day. From the official position of the first +President, and the part he consequently took in the management of public +affairs, a faithful survey of these cannot be made without embracing him +in the review. This is treading upon privileged ground. No American, no +good man, can approach it without feeling that it is such, or without +being embarrassed by the apprehension that, however pure his intention, +he may undesignedly outrage the sentiments of admiration and reverence +by which it is naturally and properly intrenched. General Washington +retired gracefully from his military command, with more true glory than +ever fell to the lot of man. There have, doubtless, at times, appeared +military leaders of more professional genius and science, but never one +better adapted to the high duties to which he was called; never one of +whom it could with more truth be said, to use a modern and comprehensive +expression, that he was "the right man in the right place." Certainly +without his seeking it, and doubtless against his wishes, he was +transferred to the civil service of his country by his election to the +office of President under the new Constitution. The administration, of +which he thus became the constitutional head, adopted certain measures, +proposed others, and set up claims to power under that instrument, of +which many of his countrymen and personal friends could not approve, and +which they felt themselves obliged to oppose; these, in the progress of +time and events, became organized as a political party by which those +objectionable measures and claims of power were perseveringly resisted, +but without any diminution of respect for his character, position, and +feelings. They overthrew the administration of his successor, which +claimed to act upon his principles, succeeded to the control of the +Federal Government, and have kept it ever since, with rare and limited +exceptions, attributable to special causes. + +There is, notwithstanding, in this great country, no hamlet, town, city, +or place in which American citizens congregate, where the name of +Washington is ever pronounced without the profoundest reverence, or in +which there does not prevail an undying sense of gratitude for his +public services. The history of the world will be searched in vain for +a tribute of love and gratitude at all comparable to that which the +people of the United States have rendered to him who was the commander +of their armies in the war of the Revolution, and their first republican +chief magistrate--a tribute, in paying which the only contest between +political parties is as to which shall manifest the most zeal, and which +shall attain the highest success. + +Was ever before so great and so gratifying reward bestowed, including in +its wide extent the noble, exalted, and well-won title of _Pater +Patrię_! This, the highest honor that man can receive on earth, was not, +as of old, a title given to an adored chief by victorious soldiers who, +however renowned for their valor, were always open to the influence of +personal and temporary feelings; nor was it obtained through the +instrumentality of a venal senate; neither did it originate in +state-craft or priest-craft, which have in every age paid homage to the +great men of the world for selfish and sinister purposes. The high +honors paid to Washington proceeded from no such sources, nor were they +exposed to the suspicions from which such bestowments are rarely free. +They sprang from the disinterested and deliberate judgment of an +intelligent, virtuous, and free people, who felt that he had, in his +military capacity alone, done incomparably more than any other man for +the establishment of their Independence, and that in all his civil +service he had been actuated by the same upright motives which had +governed his whole previous career, and that in that sphere also, as in +every act of his life, he had placed the performance of public duties +and the advancement of public interests before all other earthly +considerations. Although many of them had differed from him in respect +to some measures which had received his sanction, they were not on that +account the less satisfied that he had, in the exercise of a rightful +discretion, been influenced only by an earnest desire to promote the +welfare of his country. So regarding his whole career, they with one +accord gave him the highest place on the roll of fame and the first in +their hearts. + +This spontaneous and ample recognition of a debt of imperishable +gratitude to a public benefactor, whose modesty was equal to his +unsurpassed merit, was the act of a people often misrepresented, and as +often misunderstood, but who have never been found wanting, in the end, +in what was due to faithful public servants, to themselves, or to their +political institutions. + +We are, perhaps, yet too near the period of these great transactions to +pronounce safely upon the general justice of their dealings with the +contemporaries of Washington. But when time shall have relieved the +subject more thoroughly from the adverse influences of family +connections and partisan feelings, I have not a doubt that some American +historian, loving his country and admiring the character of his +countrymen, will take pleasure in holding up to the world a picture of +the distribution of popular confidence and popular favors in their case +also, which may safely be compared with that drawn from the history of +any people. + +Unbelievers may gainsay, and disappointed aspirants may rail at these +deductions, but they nevertheless do no more than justice to the +character of our people, before whom every public question and the acts +and opinions of every public man, be he whom he may, may be freely +canvassed. All that can be asked of him who seeks to vindicate and +perpetuate the truth of history, is that he shall deal justly and +candidly with his subject. From a scrutiny so conducted, no citizen will +ask or expect that any public transaction, or the course of any public +man shall be exempted. + +No man could have accepted office with fewer temptations to depart from +the line of duty than offered themselves to President Washington. His +claims to the admiration of his countrymen and of the world were +complete; reasonable in all his desires and happy in his domestic +relations, he was possessed of property beyond either his wants or his +desires, and was without children to inherit his estate or to succeed to +the glories already attached to his name. The advantages to be derived +by a republican magistrate from the consciousness of occupying such a +position and of its being also appreciated by his constituents, are very +great. The confidence inspired by these considerations was also +strengthened by the fact that in the high and responsible stations in +which he had been placed he had never failed to increase the good-will +and respect of those by whom he had been appointed. But these +circumstances of encouragement did not blind his cautious mind to a +proper sense of the difficulties incident to the new duties he had +assumed and to his want of experience in regard to them. In addition to +the command of all the military force in the country in a more plenary +form than that in which he had before possessed it, he was now intrusted +with the superintendence and direction of large portions of the domestic +and of all the foreign concerns of a great people just taking their +position in the family of nations. First on the list of his responsible +duties stood that of organizing a government constructed upon new and to +a great extent untried principles, at a moment when the tendency of the +French Revolution had been sufficiently developed to threaten political +convulsions more portentous and more difficult to be dealt with than any +that the world had ever witnessed; and he was called to the performance +of this delicate task amidst party dissensions at home of the most +violent nature, which many people apprehended might extend to a +revolution in the character of the government itself. Firm in all his +purposes Washington did not shrink from the application of his +well-balanced mind to a survey of the difficulties that stood in his +way, in making which no exaggerated estimate of his own capacities +prevented him from foreseeing the embarrassments that might arise, and +to some extent must arise, from the difference in the nature of many of +the duties he was now called upon to discharge from those with which his +past public life had made him familiar; and I have always thought that, +among the great transactions of his career, there was scarcely one in +which were exhibited more strikingly the strength of his judgment and +the nobleness of his disposition, than in the formation of his first +Cabinet. + +It is difficult for one not particularly conversant with such matters to +realize the obstructions which not unfrequently present themselves in +the work of forming a good cabinet. These are sometimes the consequence +of an overestimate of his own qualifications on the part of the chief +magistrate elect, and a resulting disinclination to bring into the +government men whose prominence before the country and whose great +accomplishments as statesmen may depress his own importance in the +action of the administration. This feeling, when it exists in only a +moderate degree, is certain to be encouraged by the flatteries of +friends, or more often by selfish men for the purpose of promoting their +designs upon the patronage at the disposal of the incumbent. Against the +dangerous influences of these classes President Washington was +effectually guarded by elements in his own character decidedly +unpropitious to both. But he was not so free from embarrassments arising +from another source. He was at the commencement of his government +surrounded by his fellow-soldiers, the officers of the army of the +Revolution,--veterans who had acquired high consideration by their +meritorious services, and were endeared to him by their personal +characters and their past and present sufferings. They were generally +men whose judgments he could not but respect, and who, like their class +in all countries, were not disposed to consider the aid of civilians in +the administration of public affairs as imperatively necessary. The +actual state of the country also, in regard to its party divisions and +dissensions, was, as I have already said, perhaps the greatest source of +perplexity and trouble. + +Not discouraged by these difficulties, he proceeded to the formation of +his cabinet in a spirit of patriotism and good sense, manifesting an +anxious desire to allay, if he could not neutralize, the violence of +party spirit, and to enlist in the administration of the new government +and secure to the public service those of highest character and talents +who belonged to, or were disposed to sympathize with, the party which +had opposed the Constitution. With these noble views, he divided his +cabinet equally between gentlemen of that school and members of the +Federal party, and equally also between civilians and military men. For +the two most responsible, as well as most difficult offices, to which +were assigned duties least familiar to himself, he selected two +gentlemen, who from their active patriotism and distinguished talents +occupied high, if not the highest positions in the country, had already +been placed at the head of the rival and conflicting opinions which +divided it, and of whose personal uprightness and political independence +he was well assured. + +Down to the period which we have now reached, President Washington had, +to a remarkable extent, kept himself aloof from partisan strife. This +was partly owing to his great self-command and to his perception of the +incompatibility of a participation in that field of action with the +positions he occupied in the public service; and possibly, to some +extent, to anticipations, not unnatural, that the future held in store +for him a fame which would soar above parties. He had seen and known too +much of men to allow himself to hope that the cabinet he had selected +would be entirely free from disunion, or from those distractions likely +to arise from the conflicting materials of which it was composed; but he +did not at first appreciate fully the extent and bearing of the +differences that existed between the opinions and public views of +Jefferson and Hamilton. Hoping that these would be confined to +particular points in the administration of affairs, he doubtless relied +upon his personal influence to soothe the asperities they might produce, +and at least to limit their adverse effect to the measures to which they +might be from time to time applied. His confidence in this regard was +well warranted by his past good fortune in removing obstacles that +threatened injury to the country, by means of the general respect that +was paid to his opinions and wishes by all classes of his countrymen. +His success in allaying the spirit of insubordination that manifested +itself among the officers of the army at Newburgh and for a season +menaced seriously the character of the army and the peace of the +country; in arresting a design which was supposed to be on foot in +Congress, to make the sufferings and consequent indignation of the +troops subservient to the promotion of the financial schemes of +civilians; and in dispersing the storm which threatened to follow the +establishment of the Cincinnati, with its hereditary honors, strikingly +justified his confidence in the efficacy of any future efforts in the +same direction. + +More could not have been done, or in a better spirit, than Washington +did to preserve harmony between the two leading members of his cabinet, +and to secure their coöperation in the public service. No steps, +consistent with a proper self-respect, as it now appears, were omitted +on his part. If the differences in their views had been less radical +these friendly efforts and applications must have succeeded, received as +they were by both in the most becoming and grateful spirit. + +But these commendable exertions were doomed to an unavoidable and final +disappointment. The President might as well have attempted to combine +the elements of fire and water as to secure a harmonious action in the +administration of the Government between Jefferson and Hamilton. The +antagonistic opinions of these great men upon the subjects of government +and its proper administration were too profoundly planted in their +breasts, and they were both too honest to depart from them without a +corresponding change in their convictions, which there was no reason to +anticipate, to admit of a hope for a different result. + +Of the nature and extent of their differences of opinion it is my +purpose to attempt some explanation in another place; but here I will +only say, as I desire to say in advance, that I do not now believe, +whatever my impression may have been, that they originated in any +difference as to the objects at which they aimed, or that those objects, +in either case, were other than the welfare and happiness of those for +whom they were selected to act. They may have differed in opinion in +respect to the condition, social and political, in which the mass of the +people would be most likely to be prosperous and happy; they certainly +did so, and that very widely, in regard to the public measures by which +that prosperity and happiness would be promoted or diminished; and that +diversity in their opinions arose mainly from their conflicting +estimates of the capacity of the people for self-government. Upon that +point they were opposed diametrically, and that opposition produced an +unavoidable antagonism in their views of almost every public question. + +In a conversation between these gentlemen in 1791, to which a more +particular reference will be made hereafter, General Hamilton thus +expressed himself:--"For that mind must be really depraved which would +not prefer the equality of political rights, which is the foundation of +pure republicanism, if it can be obtained consistently with order." This +was, I do not in the least doubt, his real sentiment; but unhappily +circumstances, to which we may hereafter recur, had impressed his mind +with a conviction, which was never removed, that the great desideratum +which he mentioned--the preservation of order--could not be secured +where the control of public affairs was largely in the hands of the +people. He very correctly regarded the security of the rights of persons +and of property as an indispensable ingredient in good government; and +distrusting the respect of the people, when acting in masses, for both, +he was adverse to that equality of rights which he truly said was "the +foundation of pure republicanism." These great objects he thought could +in no other way be secured than by a strong government, in which there +would be what he called a "stable will," independent of popular control. +This he endeavored openly, and with a candor that belonged to his +character, to obtain in the Convention, and failing there, he hoped to +realize its advantages, in some degree, by strengthening what he +described as the "organs" of the Government, through the action of a +popular President and a good administration. The most important of the +measures by which he designed to accomplish these objects Mr. Jefferson +regarded as so many violations of the Constitution, and he looked upon +the spirit in which they had their origin as evidence of disaffection +to republican government, the differences in opinion between these +master spirits of the cabinet, who engrossed a share of the attention of +the people inferior only to that paid to the President, were therefore, +not limited as Washington hoped they would be, to particular measures +but presented contradictory and irreconcilable theories for the +administration of the Government, which could not even be discussed in +the cabinet without producing interminable distractions. As was to be +expected from minds like their respective systems left no middle ground, +and required the adoption of the one or the other as a rule of action +for the Government. The unavoidable obligation to make a selection +between them devolved therefore on Washington, and he discharged it, as +he did all his duties, courteously and firmly. He gave the preference to +Hamilton, and sustained him in the measures he proposed to carry out the +policy he recommended. + +Mr. Jefferson, sensible that the necessity of his retirement from the +cabinet had thus become absolute, determined to take that step in a way +as little annoying to the President and as little injurious to the +public service as possible. To this end he gave early notice that he +would resign at the expiration of the President's first term of office; +and when that time arrived he retired. This left General Hamilton +without any check from his associates in the administration, save what +might proceed from the Attorney General, Edmund Randolph, who became +Secretary of State on Jefferson's retirement, and of whom the latter +said that his habit was to give his opinions to his friends and his +votes to his opponents. + +Thus, next to Washington, Alexander Hamilton became the most powerful +man in the nation, abundantly able to give to party divisions their form +and pressure, and in effect to shape the action of the Government +according to his judgment by the authority with which he was invested, +and which he exerted with less restraint than had ever before or has +ever since been encountered by any minister in this country or in +Europe. + +To no quarter, therefore, could our attention be more profitably +directed for instruction in the history and course of parties during his +political career than to the opinions and acts of that remarkable man. +The time has been, I am sensible, when, with vision distorted by +partisan prejudices, which seldom allow both sides of any question to be +seen, I could not have reviewed his course with the impartiality due to +truth and justice; but I am happy to believe that those feelings have +sufficiently lost their force to permit me, while dissenting more +thoroughly than ever from his principles, to do justice to his motives, +and to admit his sincerity and his desire to serve his country in the +very acts which I unreservedly condemn. The most obnoxious of his +opinions have here, thank God, become obsolete and exploded theories, +not at all dangerous as examples, and mainly referred to as historical +marks of our progress. Believing, as I think all liberal minds now do, +that they were honestly formed, we can speak of them without reproach to +their author, and censure them without being suspected of a design to +cast obloquy on his memory. The history of our partisan warfare has +presented, since his time, the anomalous feature of a persevering denial +in his name, by some of his followers, of the political opinions which +he not only did not affect to disclaim, but which he made it his +business on all fitting occasions to publish and advocate, believing +them to be right, and to the last moment of his life confidently +expecting that they would become, at no distant day, the general +sentiment of the country. + +I have already referred to contemporaneous declarations, made in April, +1791, by John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, at an informal meeting of +General Washington's Cabinet, to which the Vice-President had been +invited, in favor of monarchical institutions according to the English +model. The terms in which those gentlemen expressed their admiration of, +and preference for, the English system of government, though differing +in particulars, were in no sense equivocal, nor can there be, at this +day, the slightest doubt of their authenticity. On the 13th of August, +in the same year, General Hamilton held another conversation with Mr. +Jefferson, of which the latter leaves the following notes:-- + +"I own," said Hamilton, "it is my own opinion, though I do not publish +it in Dan or Beersheba, that the present government is not that which +will answer the ends of society by giving stability and protection to +its rights, and that it will probably be found to be expedient to go +into the British form. However, since we have undertaken the experiment, +I am for giving it a fair course, whatever my expectations may be. The +success, indeed, is so far greater than I had expected, and therefore +success seems more possible than it had done heretofore, and there are +still other and other stages of improvement which, if the present does +not succeed, may be tried and ought to be tried before we give up the +republican form altogether; for that mind must be really depraved which +would not prefer the equality of political rights, which is the +foundation of pure republicanism, if it can be obtained consistently +with order. Therefore whoever by his writings disturbs the present order +of things is really blamable, however pure his intentions may be, and he +was sure Mr. Adams's were pure." + +"This," Mr. Jefferson adds in his memorandum, "is the substance of a +declaration made in much more lengthy terms, and which seemed to be more +formal than usual for a private conversation between two, and as if +intended to qualify some less guarded expressions which had been dropped +on former occasions. Thomas Jefferson has committed it to writing the +moment of Alexander Hamilton's leaving the room." + +The measures described by Hamilton as the stages of improvement already +adopted were doubtless the bank and funding system, and those still in +reserve were such as are recommended in his report on manufactures, +subsequently made. + +In the Federal Convention which framed our present Constitution General +Hamilton submitted a series of propositions to be adopted as a basis for +the new government, which he supported in an elaborate and very able +speech. The debates of the Convention were reported by Mr. Madison, who +submitted the notes he had taken of his speech to General Hamilton, +which the latter admitted to be correct, contenting himself with a few +formal and verbal amendments. In the year 1810, before the proceedings +of the Convention were ordered to be published, the Rev. Dr. Mason, +intending to write the life of Hamilton, applied to Mr. Madison, then +President of the United States, for a copy of that speech, which was +furnished to him accompanied by the following note:-- + + "James Madison presents his respects to Dr. Mason with the promised + copy of Mr. Hamilton's observations in the General Convention on the + subject of a Federal Constitution, as noted at the time." + + "WASHINGTON, _January 12th, 1810_." + +Dr. Mason abandoned the idea of preparing the life, and a descendant of +his, a few years since, placed in my hands two of the documents +collected by his grandfather, one of which was the above note with a +copy of the speech. The following are extracts from the latter:-- + +"This view of the subject almost led him to despair that a republican +government could be established over a country of so great an extent. He +was sensible at the same time that it would be unwise to propose one of +any other form. In his private opinion he had no scruple in declaring, +supported as he was in the opinion of so many of the wise and the good, +that the British government was the best in the world; and he doubted +very much whether any thing short of it would do in America." + +Speaking of the executive, he said: "As to the executive it seemed to be +admitted that no good one could be established on republican principles. +Was not this giving up the merits of the question, for can there be a +good government without a good executive? The English model was the only +good one on this subject. The hereditary interest of the king was so +interwoven with those of the nation, and his personal emolument so +great, that he was placed above the danger of being corrupted from +abroad," &c. Also, "their House of Lords is a most noble institution. +Having nothing to hope for by a change and a sufficient interest by +means of their property in being faithful to the national interest, they +form a permanent barrier against any pernicious innovation, whether +attempted on the part of the Crown or of the Commons." + +On comparing these extracts with the speech, as published in the +"Madison Papers," I find them to accord in all respects. In the life of +Hamilton, by his son, the author indulges in harsh imputation upon the +conduct of Mr. Madison, in this connection, in the justice of which I am +deceived in the general sentiment of the country if he finds many to +agree with him; and through a fatality which often attends similar +demonstrations, he publishes in the same volume Hamilton's plan of +government, the original draft of which Dr. Mason informed Mr. Madison +was yet among the General's papers, and which is, word for word, the +same as the copy published in the "Madison Papers;" and also Hamilton's +own notes for his great speech in the Convention, which indicate the +character of the speech upon the point in question as fully as notes +ever prefigured a speech, and both of which confirm all that Mr. Madison +has said in regard to it. + +The following are extracts from the notes:-- + +"Here I shall give my sentiments of the best form of government--not as +a thing attainable by us, but as a model which we ought to approach as +near as possible." "British Constitution best form." "There ought to be +a principle in the government capable of resisting the popular current." +"No periodical duration will come up to this." "The principle chiefly +intended to be established is this, that there must be a permanent +_will_." "A democratic assembly is to be checked by a democratic senate, +and both these by a democratic chief magistrate: the end will not be +answered; the means will not be equal to the object." "The monarch must +have proportional strength. He ought to be hereditary, and to have so +much power that it will not be his interest to risk much to acquire +more." "The advantage of a monarch is this, he is above corruption,--he +must always intend in respect to foreign nations the true interests and +glory of the people." "Republics liable to foreign corruption and +intrigue. Holland--Athens." "Effect of the British government." "A +vigorous execution of the laws, and a vigorous defense of the people +will result." "Better chance for a good government." "It is said a +republican government will not admit of a vigorous execution." "It is +therefore bad; for the goodness of a government consists in a vigorous +execution." + +It thus appears that the opinions avowed to Mr. Jefferson on different +occasions, one of which seems to have been sought for the purpose, were +no more than repetitions of those he had avowed on the floor of the +Convention, and of which he knew that Mr. Madison possessed an authentic +record that would some day see the light; indeed, if such had not been +the fact he would have just as frankly repeated them, for they were the +settled convictions of his mind during his life--as fresh when they were +announced to Mr. Jefferson as when promulgated in the Convention. Nor +had he any motives for concealment of his views, if concealment had +been, as it was not, characteristic of the man, for he was equally +convinced that the government which had been established would prove a +failure, and that the wisdom of his plans and the propriety of adopting +them would thus become apparent to all. + +We have here the words of General Hamilton himself--in his declarations +deliberately made and attested in the most solemn and responsible form +by Thomas Jefferson, and in his speech as reported by James Madison, +under still more specific responsibility, confirmed by his own notes for +that speech now published by his son and biographer--all going to the +same end, viz: to show that he was in principle a monarchist, and that +he preferred a monarchical to a republican form of government. + +But Jefferson and Madison were politically his opponents. Let us now see +what his oldest and best friend says upon this point. Gouverneur Morris, +his coadjutor in the Convention and in politics through life, and his +eulogist at the grave, gave in 1811 an unreserved _exposé_ of Hamilton's +opinions on this very question, in a letter to Robert Walsh, then +editor of the "National Gazette," written, doubtless, in answer to +inquiries. The reader should procure this letter, and will find in it +much matter of interest. I omit, among other things, what it says in +respect to Hamilton's purity, and his frank and honorable character and +bearing in political matters, having said as much myself, and with no +less sincerity. + +"General Hamilton," says Morris, "had little share in forming the +Constitution. He disliked it, believing all republican government to be +radically defective. He admired, nevertheless, the British Constitution, +which I consider an aristocracy in fact though a monarchy in name.... +General Hamilton hated republican government because he confounded it +with democratical government, and he detested the latter because he +believed it must end in despotism, and be, in the mean time, destructive +to public morality.... But although General Hamilton knew these things +from the study of history, and perceived them by the intuition of +genius, he never failed on every occasion to advocate the excellence of, +and avow his attachment to monarchical government." + +In another part of the letter, "one marked trait in the General's +character was the pertinacious adherence to opinions he had once +formed."[10] + + [10] Sparks's _Life of Gouverneur Morris_, Vol. III. p. 260. + +In a previous letter, written shortly after Hamilton's death, (December, +1804,) to Governor Aaron Ogden, Morris says: "Our poor friend Hamilton +bestrode his hobby to the great annoyance of his friends and not without +injury to himself. More a theoretic than a practical man, he was not +sufficiently convinced that a system may be good in itself and bad in +relation to particular circumstances. He well knew that his favorite +form was inadmissible unless as the result of civil war; and I suspect +that his belief in what he called _an approaching crisis_[11] arose from +a conviction that the kind of government most suitable, in his, opinion, +to this extensive country, could be established in no other way." + + [11] The _italics_ are mine. + +Hamilton not only cherished his preference for monarchical institutions +to the very close of his life, but we have good reason to believe that +the expectation that some crisis in the affairs of the country, +encouraged by the weakness of our political system, would yet arise and +would lead to their introduction, was equally abiding. His letters and +writings will be found to contain many intimations to that effect. I +will notice two instances. His letter to Timothy Pickering in 1803, is +the only attempt that I have ever seen, coming from himself, to explain +his course in the Convention. There may have been others, but I would be +surprised indeed by the production of any thing from his pen denying his +preference for the monarchical form of government, although such was the +standing charge of his political opponents. None such, I feel very +confident, ever existed. That letter concludes with the following very +significant remark:-- + +"I sincerely hope that it may not hereafter be discovered that, through +want of sufficient attention to the last idea," (that of giving adequate +energy to the Government,) "the experiment of Republican Government, +even in this country, has not been as complete, as satisfactory, and as +decisive as could be wished." + +The explanation of "his conduct, motives, and views" in accepting the +challenge of Colonel Burr--probably the last paper containing any +allusion to public affairs that he ever wrote--closes with expressions, +italicized by myself, remarkably in harmony with the intimations of +Gouverneur Morris to Aaron Ogden:-- + +"To those who, with me, abhorring the practice of dueling, may think +that I ought on no account to add to the number of bad examples, I +answer that my relative situation, as well in public as private, +enforcing all the considerations which men of the world designate honor, +imposed on me, as I thought, a peculiar necessity not to decline the +call. The ability to be in future useful, whether in resisting mischief +or effecting good, _in those crises of our public affairs which seem +likely to happen, would probably be inseparable from a conformity with +prejudice in this particular_." + +Although not so pointed in expressing it, his disposition toward the +State governments was scarcely more favorable than toward the plan of +the general government. In his letter to Pickering, at a period when +their usefulness and importance to the system were better appreciated, +he says: "Though I would have enlarged the legislative power of the +General Government, yet I never contemplated the abolition of the State +governments, but, on the contrary, they were in some particulars a +part,--constituent parts,--of my plan." But let us see what part it was +that he would have them perform. He said in the Convention: "If they +(the State governments) are extinguished, he was persuaded that great +economy might be obtained by substituting a general government. He did +not mean, however, to shock the public opinion by proposing such a +measure. _On the other hand, he saw no other necessity for declining +it._ They are not necessary for any of the great purposes of commerce, +revenue, or agriculture. Subordinate authorities, he was aware, would be +necessary. There must be district tribunals, corporations for local +purposes. But _cui bono_ the vast and expensive apparatus now +appertaining to the States?" + +These were Hamilton's views in respect to the State governments, as +expressed in the Convention, according to Mr. Madison's report. In this +case it is also fortunate for the cause of truth that, from a paper +written by Hamilton just as the General Convention adjourned, and +published by his son, it appears very plainly that his views upon the +subject cannot have been greatly misreported by Mr. Madison. In this +paper he speculates upon the probable fate of the Constitution; after +saying, in confirmation of my suggestion that he doubted the +dispositions of the people in other respects than their intelligence and +capacity, that the Constitution would have in its favor "the good will +of men of property in the several States who wish a government of the +Union able to protect them against domestic violence, and the +_depredations which the democratic spirit is apt to make on property_," +he adds: "If the Government be adopted, it is probable General +Washington will be the President of the United States. This will insure +a wise choice of men to administer the Government, and a good +administration. A good administration will conciliate the confidence and +affection of the people, and perhaps enable the Government to acquire +more consistency than the proposed Constitution seems to promise for so +great a country. _It may then triumph over the State governments and +reduce them to entire subordination, dividing the larger States into +smaller districts._ The organs of the General Government may also +acquire additional strength." The _italics_ in the above extracts are +all my own except as to the word _organs_. He would not "shock the +public opinion" by proposing to extinguish the State governments, but +there was _no other_ reason for omitting to do so. It would be well if +it were done, but it was not wise to shock the public mind upon a point +in respect to which it was known to be sensitive. But he would reduce +them to entire subordination, triumph over and consequently humiliate +them. It would be a poor compliment to Hamilton's knowledge of men and +of the effect of public measures, to assume that he did not know that +such would be the surest as well as the safest way to extinguish them in +the end. + +In a letter to Gouverneur Morris, so late as in 1802, a little more than +two years before his death, and which will be found in "The Works of +Hamilton," edited by his son, (Vol. VI. p. 529,) he thus unbosoms +himself to his friend: "Mine is an odd destiny. Perhaps no man in the +United States has sacrificed or done more for the present Constitution +than myself; and contrary to all my anticipations of its fate, as you +know from the very beginning, I am still laboring to prop the frail and +worthless fabric. Yet I have the murmurs of its friends no less than the +curses of its foes for my reward. What can I do better than withdraw +from the scene? Every day proves to me more and more that this American +world was not made for me." + +There would seem to be no force in evidence, however appropriate its +source or credible its character, if that we have produced is not +conclusive in regard to the opinions of General Hamilton upon certain +points. It proves, _first_, that he regarded monarchical institutions, +according to the English model, as being the most perfect government +that ever existed; _secondly_, that he would have preferred the +establishment of such a government here, and was only prevented from +advocating it by a conviction that it was made impracticable by the +adverse public opinion of the time; _thirdly_, that he thought it was +our duty, nevertheless, to approach that model with our Government as +nearly as the prejudices of the people would permit, and that he +introduced into the Convention a plan by which that object might be +reached; _fourthly_, that he regarded the present Federal Constitution, +which, as lately as two years before his death, in a free communication +to his trusted friend, he called "a frail and worthless fabric," as +inadequate to the purposes of a good government; that he had accepted it +at the time as a temporary bond of union, but believed from the +beginning that it would prove a failure and fall into contempt; that he +believed that this result would open the way to popular tumults forcing +intervention, and to convulsions through the evils of which the people +would, at no distant day, become convinced of their error, and consent +to institutions substantially similar to those he favored; and, +_fifthly_, that his preference for monarchical institutions was a fixed +and cherished sentiment; that although at times encouraged by his +success in measures he had no right to hope for under the Constitution +as he knew that instrument was intended to be, he yet invariably +returned to his first opinion adverse to the sufficiency of the +Constitution, and descended to the grave not only without a change in +his opinions, but with increased convictions of their perfect soundness. + +It has been a question often mooted whether the idea of using the power +with which he was or might be clothed to overthrow the actual +government, and to introduce the system he so earnestly preferred, was +ever seriously entertained by Hamilton. Such designs were freely charged +upon him by many of the old Republicans, who, under the full influence +of partisan prejudices, doubtless believed that he waited only for a fit +opportunity to attempt them. His repeated and undisguised expressions of +a preference for monarchical institutions, to friends and foes, when the +people of the United States, whose officer he was, had established a +government which they intended should be so widely different from such +institutions, were well calculated to engender the suspicion. Plain men +naturally imagined that a man like Hamilton would do much and incur +high responsibilities for the accomplishment of an object so near his +heart. Mr. Jefferson, who was not a man of a suspicious temperament, +through the fiery and protracted contests of parties, at the head of +which they respectively stood, was evidently at times alarmed by +similar apprehensions. But toward the close of his life, when +partisan asperities had been long since forgotten, in a letter +to myself he virtually exonerated Hamilton from the charge in these +expressions:--"For Hamilton frankly avowed that he considered the +British Constitution, with all the corruptions of its administration, as +the most perfect model of government that had ever been devised by the +wit of man,--professing, however, at the same time, that the spirit of +this country was so fundamentally republican that it would be visionary +to think of introducing monarchy here, and that therefore it was the +duty of its administrators to conduct it upon the principles their +constituents had elected."[12] + + [12] See Appendix. + +Mr. Charles Francis Adams has placed before us, in his life of his +grandfather, John Adams, a series of facts bearing upon this point with +no ordinary significance. They are not brought forward in support of any +such charge, but as raising a question for the consideration of his +readers, whether it is not possible that in the pains he took to +increase greatly the provisional forces authorized to meet our +difficulties with France, and to convert the whole into a permanent +military establishment; in the readiness with which he fell in with the +scheme of Miranda, to conquer, through the joint operations of Great +Britain and the United States, the Floridas, Louisiana, and the South +American possessions of Spain, in case of a rupture between us and +France; and in his prompt consent to take command of the troops to be +so employed, General Hamilton was influenced by a desire to bring about +the crisis to which he had always looked as one that would present a fit +opportunity for the establishment here of the political institutions he +preferred. + +These are grave matters, and of a nature calculated to challenge a new +and stricter examination of one of those critical periods which have +often occurred in our history, and from which we have had so many +providential deliverances. The subject is treated with becoming delicacy +and great caution by the author, whose conclusion, of which we have only +a hint, may possibly have been influenced by family traditions, +tinctured unavoidably with strong personal prejudices but never wanting +in intelligence. I will not undertake to speculate even as to what +General Hamilton might have done or have left undone if he had found +himself at the head of a large and permanent military force, and the +country convulsed by those popular outbreaks, the expectation of which +seems to have been never absent from his mind or from the minds of his +disciples. He might have mounted his "hobby"--as Morris termed his +passion for monarchical institutions--and have struck a blow in their +behalf, acting in the spirit of other "strong minds" who, as Mr. C. F. +Adams well and truly says, "seldom fail to associate with dreams of +their own glory the modes of exercising power for the good of their +fellow-men. Considering their happiness as mainly dependent upon a sense +of security from domestic convulsions, his first aim would have been to +gain that end at any rate, even if it should be done at some expense of +their liberties." But looking at the subject with no other feeling than +a sincere desire to arrive at a correct solution of the circumstances +narrated by Mr. Adams, I cannot bring my mind to the conclusion referred +to. + +I can well conceive that Hamilton might have been led to avail himself +of such a state of things for a _coup de main_ of some decided character +if its existence had been brought about by others, or had been the +result of fortuitous circumstances--a contingency which his mind had +doubtless often contemplated. But I do not think that he would have +planned or contributed to bring about such a state of things involving +to so grave an extent the public order and the peace of the country. +Such a course would have been at variance with some of his most +cherished principles and inconsistent with his personal character. The +preservation of order, and a respect for the individual rights of +persons and of property, appeared always to be the objects of his +greatest solicitude. It was only because he did not think that these +could be effectually secured under any other form of government that he +preferred monarchical institutions, acknowledging at the same time that +they were at war with the principles of natural justice, and only +allowable upon that of their absolute necessity to secure society +against the occasional waywardness of a majority of its members. It was +mainly because of the very erroneous opinions he had formed of the +dispositions in this respect of a majority of his adopted countrymen +that he was induced to devote his splendid talents to hopeless efforts +to sustain principles so irreconcilable with those for which he had +periled his life in the war of the Revolution. I say erroneous, not only +because I think them such, but because experience, the only unerring +test, has so proved them. We are, at the moment when I write, a half +century from the transactions which form the subject of our +consideration, and I venture nothing in saying that there is no country +in Europe in which order has, in the interim, been better preserved, or +the rights of persons and property been more secure, than in the United +States; none in which the power of government has been more stable or +more adequate to the purposes of its institution. + +But this is a wide field, for which I have neither space nor time. It +becomes me to remember, whilst occupied not without pleasure with these +retrospective investigations and meditations, that I have already passed +by several cheerful years, the allotted threescore-and-ten,--that period +of such solemn import which the undeserved favor of an always kind +Providence has permitted me to pass, not only with life but with the +means and the faculties to enjoy life,--and that if I hope to complete +the work before me I must confine myself more to the highway of my +subject, and leave its by-paths to the explorations of younger men. + +I cannot, nevertheless, refrain from a brief reference to transactions +which have more than once occurred in this country, have made a greater +impression on my mind than they seem to have made on others, and which I +think have a strong bearing upon the question of the American love of +order and respect for property and its rights. Although it is not +probable that the facts of these can ever be sufficiently understood +abroad to be correctly appreciated, it is otherwise here, and they are +well worthy of our profoundest meditations. I allude to scenes which +have been presented at San Francisco, which were at the moment of such +thrilling interest, but appear already to have sunk into oblivion amid +the ceaseless bustle and never-halting progress of American life. + +Look at that young but already large and flourishing city! Regard her as +she stood at the commencement of the extraordinary steps that were taken +for her relief! Think of the scenes through which she was made to pass, +and the condition to which she has been restored! An active and artful +portion of her population thoroughly steeped in corruption, vice, and +crime; her municipal authorities, the direct offspring of that +corruption, not only regardless of duty but fraternizing with criminals, +deriding the complaints of the injured, and scoffing at their prayers +for official interference; despair succeeding hope, and the opinion that +protection is at an end, and that nature may soon reassert her empire at +length ripening into conviction in the breasts of the good of all +classes; the general meeting of the citizens, and the appointment of the +Committee of Vigilance with unlimited powers and subject to +responsibility to no other tribunal than to the congregated mass of the +people from whom they derive their authority and their power; the +regular military organization adopted by the Committee and forthwith +called into the field of duty, sufficient in men, arms, and equipments +to crush resistance to the authority of the Committee in the city, and +to deter the exercise of any other authority at that remote distance +that might have a right to claim cognizance of the crimes they seek to +suppress; all legal rule superseded by that of the Committee of +Vigilance and put down on the instant of its assertion; criminals who +had been set at large by the former authorities re-arrested on charges +of capital offences, tried before the Committee, informally but honestly +and intelligently, found guilty and executed; the functionaries who had +connived at those offences arraigned at the bar of the same tribunal and +dealt with according to their deserts; crimes detected and felons +dragged from their hiding-places to meet a just punishment; men to whom +no specific offence could be traced, but who were notorious enemies of +order and abettors of crime, banished not to return under penalty of +death, and every effort made to resist or defeat the action of the +Committee crushed by an all-sufficient military force. The power of the +Committee continues in active and constant exercise for nearly three +months, when the purification of the city from crime and from criminals +being accomplished, the authority of the laws is restored, also the use +of the ballot-box which had been desecrated; this restoration is by the +order and in pursuance of the authority and power of the Committee which +are voluntarily laid down with the approbation and consent of a +community consisting of from 25,000 to 30,000 persons. + +There is no good reason for saying that during the whole of that period +and in the midst of such stirring scenes the power of the Committee was +in a single instance exercised to divest any innocent man of his +property, or to oppress him in any way, or to interfere with his legal +rights further than to compel submission to the temporary supremacy of +that body, or to punish the innocent, or to enable the guilty to escape, +or to aggrandize the Committee, or to benefit its members, their +friends, or its _employées_, or to do an act of intentional injustice to +any human being. During the government of the Committee the business +concerns of the city and the vocations of its citizens were carried on +with at least as much regularity and success as ever. Since its +resignation and the consequent dispersion of its power not a banished +man has returned contrary to the terms of his expulsion, and no member +of the Committee, nor any one who acted by and within its authority, has +been called to account for his acts within the bounds either of the city +or of the State to which it belongs. + +Is it probable that there is any city in Europe of equal size in which +its legally established authorities could have been suspended by the +irregular action of its own people with similar results,--in which the +substituted power could be exercised with equal wisdom and forbearance, +and laid down with so few causes for individual complaint? My +opportunities for observation, although considerable, have been less +than those of some others, and I may be wrong in thinking as I do that +such things could not be done by any other people in the world. + +The remedy for the social and political crimes which called the +Committee of Vigilance into existence was a fearful one, and must be so +regarded by all thinking and virtuous minds, and it would seem +paradoxical to set up such a crowning act of disorder--that of the +subversion of all legal authority, for even the shortest period--as an +exhibition of a love of order and respect for the rights of persons and +of property on the part of the actors; but I cannot resist the belief +that the transaction afforded the strongest proof of the existence of +those great principles in their minds, and that a proper sense of them +and a determination to maintain them will seldom be wanting on the part +of those who can act as did the Committee of San Francisco and its +supporters. + +But I ask pardon for this digression, and return to my subject. Many +considerations besides those suggested by Hamilton's invariable +solicitude for the preservation of order and by his constant respect for +the individual rights of persons and of property, press themselves upon +my mind against the conclusion intimated by Mr. C. F. Adams, and against +the probability that General Hamilton ever contemplated the creation of +a state of things that would justify or facilitate the employment of +force to establish institutions more congenial with his taste and +judgment than those we possessed. But I forbear to urge them, partly +because I have devoted as much time and space to the subject as I can +afford, and also because I am well satisfied that his knowledge of the +certain opposition of General Washington to any such scheme or design +would have been sufficient to deter him from undertaking either during +the lifetime of the General, even if his own disposition had pointed in +that direction. + +It was at no time the intention of President Washington to give his +sanction to the opinions so generally, and as it now appears so justly, +attributed to General Hamilton. Never was man more strongly pledged to +the support of republican government, or more unchangeably determined to +maintain the responsibilities he had incurred in that regard. Embracing +with all his heart the Declaration of Independence, in which its +principles were delineated with the pencil of truth, he did more than +any other man to overthrow the government against which it was hurled, +and to open the way for the establishment of a republic in its place. +None knew better than he that such was the object of the Revolution, and +his resolution was immovable that the sufferings and sacrifices which +had been incurred in support of that object should not fail to +accomplish it through any act of omission or commission on his part. +Every important act in his eventful career shows that he regarded +himself on that point as invested by his country with a sacred trust. +When the bright prospect which he had largely contributed to open to his +countrymen for the realization of their wishes in this respect was in +danger of being obscured, if not forever blasted, by means similar to +those which have so often prevented or subverted free government, by the +violence of an exasperated soldiery, he threw himself into the breach, +and saved at the same time by his heroic and patriotic effort their +interests and the honor of his brothers-in-arms. When the minds of the +earnest and jealous friends of liberty were frenzied by an ill-advised +attempt in the same quarter to introduce hereditary distinctions amongst +us, he was again found at the post of duty; and, though feelingly +indulgent to his military companions, as well as satisfied of the +perfect purity of their intentions, he nevertheless promptly and +successfully employed the great influence he derived from their respect +for his character and their confidence in his friendship to induce them +to abandon their project. + +In the full possession of such claims to the esteem, gratitude, and +trust of his countrymen, superadded to those which were due for his +military services, he closed the first great period of his splendid life +by presiding over the Federal Convention, and by assenting to, and +recommending to the favor of the people, a Constitution eminently +republican in its form, and in the principles upon which it was founded. +So far was he from encouraging the spread of opposite sentiments that +there is, on the contrary, much reason to believe that it was by making +his views of the subject known to those about him that the +anti-republican tone which Jefferson found, on his arrival from France, +so prevalent in social and political circles at the seat of government, +was kept in check until public opinion became strong enough to +extinguish it altogether. Speaking to this point, Mr. Jefferson says, +"The truth is that the Federalists, pretending to be the exclusive +friends of General Washington, have ever done what they could to sink +his character by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy +of Republicans, him who of all men is best entitled to the appellation +of the father of that Republic which they were endeavoring to subvert, +and the Republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections +proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the +republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend +to the republican principles of the Constitution. His faith perhaps in +its duration might not have been as confident as mine; but he repeatedly +declared to me that he was determined it should have a fair chance of +success, and that he would lose the last drop of his blood in its +support against any attempt which might be made to change it from its +republican form. He made these declarations the oftener because he knew +my suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet my +jealousies upon the subject."[13] + + [13] See Appendix. + +Independently of his principles, which were the main source, doubtless, +of the personal solicitude he often manifested upon this point, General +Washington was a man of too much sense and reflection not to know that +the world would in all future time hold him responsible for the +overthrow of the republican principle here, if its extinguishment +occurred in his day, and he was too careful of his well-earned fame, and +anticipated too correctly the elevation it was destined to reach in +connection with the history of his country, not to do all in his power +to guard it from detriment upon a point at once so delicate and so +momentous. Hamilton was the first man to whom he would make his +sentiments known, and I can find nothing in the positions which they +occupied toward each other which would induce me to entertain the +opinion that Hamilton would have ventured on an attempt to shake his +patriotic resolutions on that point through the influence he was +supposed to possess over the actions of Washington in other respects. + +There is, I am quite sure, nothing more essential to a right +appreciation of many of the most important incidents in our political +history, than a correct understanding of the relations that existed +between those distinguished men. It cannot fail to shed considerable +light on much that occurred during the government of the Confederation, +and is perhaps the only touchstone by which the measures of government +and many other public transactions between 1789 and 1799--between the +organization of the new government and the death of Washington--can be +safely tested. + +I will give my interpretation of the character of those relations, fully +aware of the misrepresentations and misunderstandings to which they have +been subjected, and from which no subject connected with partisan +conflicts can, it appears, be entirely free, but conscious of a single +desire to state things truly, and of an inability to do intentional +injustice to either. It will be for others to judge of my success. + +Mr. Charles F. Adams, in the work to which I have referred,[14] says, +"Without much hold upon the judgment or affections of the people at +large, he (Hamilton) had yet by the effect of his undisputed abilities +and his masculine will gained great sway over the minds of the +intelligent merchants along the Atlantic border. His previous doctrines, +in unison with the feelings and interests of the most conservative +class, had drawn to him their particular confidence, whilst his position +in the first administration had facilitated the establishment by him of +a chain of influence resting for its main support on _his power over the +mind of Washington himself_, but carried equally through all the +ramifications of the executive department. _Thus it happened that even +after he ceased to be personally present his opinions continued to shape +the policy of Washington's second administration, and even that of his +successor._" This declaration extending so far would have been deemed +quite credible at the period to which it relates, and, coming from the +grandson of that "_successor_"--himself the undisguised enemy of +Hamilton--was probably called forth by the recent publication of the +private papers of the latter. + + [14] _Life of John Adams._ The _italics_ are my own. + +As far as Mr. Adams affirms that the policy of Washington's +administration, and also, in many very important respects, that of his +successor, were guided by the opinions of Hamilton, his declaration has +my full concurrence. No candid and intelligent man can, I think, read +the evidence which has recently appeared, in connection with facts +previously known, without acknowledging the undeniable truth of these +positions. But I do not by any means intend to concede the control of +Hamilton over the mind of Washington which is implied by the terms +employed by Mr. Adams without qualifications which limit and very +materially change its character. The policy of both administrations was +guided by the opinions of Hamilton, but those opinions received their +influence through different channels, and were enforced in very +different ways. Hamilton's opinions, when known as his, had very little +weight with the successor of Washington, save, in many cases, to secure +a bad reception for themselves; but that successor had little if any +control over, or influence with, the members of his own cabinet, and not +much with Congress or the Federal party, by whom the policy of his +administration was shaped. With them Hamilton's opinions established the +rule of action. In respect to the two latter, this arose mainly from the +sway he was capable of exerting over them by the force of his great +talents, and from a general concurrence in his views. In respect to the +prominent members of Mr. Adams's cabinet his control arose from the +power he had in part acquired over their minds whilst they were also +members of General Washington's administration. Timothy Pickering, who, +after the retirement of Mr. Jefferson and the brief term of Randolph, +was Secretary of State under both Presidents, was a remarkable man, +sincere and honest, I am willing to believe, in his political opinions, +but savagely bitter in his feelings toward his opponents. It seemed +pretty much a matter of course in him to hate those to whose political +course he was opposed, and, as is usually the case with minds thus +constituted, he was equally bigoted in his devotion to those with whom +he agreed and acted. + +General Hamilton was his _beau ideal_ of a politician and statesman, and +it would not have been an easy matter in him to have dissented from any +opinion positively advanced by Hamilton, whatever his own first +impressions on the subject might have been. Mr. McHenry, Secretary of +War in both cabinets, was undoubtedly an honorable and well-disposed +gentleman. He was, in the opinion of those who had the best +opportunities for judging, including Washington and Hamilton, not +entirely competent for the duties of his office, and that circumstance +drove him the more to rely for support on Hamilton, for whom he +cherished an early and ardent friendship. His personal devotion to +Hamilton was such as to prevent Mr. Adams from longer overlooking his +incompetency, as Washington had done, and precipitated his resignation. +Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, the member of his cabinet +most trusted by President Adams because the least suspected, was, +notwithstanding, the one among his official advisers who went the +greatest lengths to testify his entire allegiance to Hamilton, who had +been the artificer of his political fortunes from the beginning and by +whose influence he had been advanced to the high position he occupied. +Throughout he advised with and was assisted by Hamilton in the +performance of his official duties. Such was Hamilton's "power over his +mind" that he was applied to successfully by the former for evidence of +facts to be derived from the treasury archives to sustain an attack that +Hamilton contemplated making upon the President--an attack that he did +make, although he acknowledged to Wolcott that it would not be regarded +as proper that he should have received the evidence at his hands, and +that that fact ought not therefore to be known. + +No one can read the correspondence between General Hamilton and Mr. +Wolcott, as recently published with Hamilton's Works, without regretting +that the parties to it should have been so forgetful of the proprieties +due to the occasions to which it relates, or without a disposition to +excuse the strong expression of Mr. Charles F. Adams, in speaking of his +grandfather's cabinet, applied to Mr. Wolcott "as the most venomous +serpent of them all." + +Mr. Charles F. Adams places Hamilton's sway over the mind of Washington +upon the same footing with that which he exerted over the executive +department, composed principally of the members of his second cabinet of +whom we have been speaking. From this view I entirely dissent. If +Hamilton possessed any power over the mind of Washington, it was of a +very different character from that which he exercised over those +members. Washington was to an unusual extent free from the weakness of +overrating his own powers; with just conceptions of his capacities for +public service he was always ready to place them at the public disposal, +but he was very far from pretending to qualifications which he did not +possess. No one was more sensible than he that the science of civil +government--the construction of constitutions and the administration of +the civil affairs of the State--were not best learned in the camp, where +so large a portion of his life had been spent. He therefore, as we have +seen, selected two of the ablest statesmen in the country, particularly +versed in those portions of the public business which he devolved upon +them. They differed irreconcilably in respect to the policy of the +administration, and in the performance of his duty he decided between +their conflicting opinions in favor of those of Hamilton. Preferring the +policy of the latter he adopted the measures he recommended to carry it +out, which happened also to appertain principally to Hamilton's +department, and sustained him in their execution. In doing so he but +sustained the measures of his administration and views which were either +originally his own or made such upon conviction. Participating in the +general opinion in favor of Hamilton's remarkable talents, having full +opportunities to judge of his character, and confiding in his integrity, +he extended to him, it is true, but with the purest motives, the degree +of countenance and trust which established his extraordinary power and +influence. Of the consequences, as well to his administration as to the +country, we will have much to say hereafter. But it would be a great +mistake to suppose that there ever was a period at which, or a +transaction between them in which, their relative positions, rights, and +duties were either forgotten or disregarded. It was well understood that +the degree of weight to be attached to Hamilton's advice would depend +upon the unbiased opinion which Washington himself should form of its +soundness, influenced as he naturally would be, and always was, by a +conviction of Hamilton's undoubted integrity, and his superior capacity +for the decision of the question under consideration. There certainly +never was a time when the slightest indication of a desire or design on +the part of Hamilton to sway the mind of Washington in his official acts +through his personal influence, or by any considerations which did not +point distinctly and exclusively to the public good, would not have been +peremptorily and indignantly repelled. It is evident from the whole +tenor of Washington's life that no man ever lived who was more tenacious +of self-respect, or more absolute in his reservation of the right to +judge for himself of what belonged to his individual independence and +personal dignity, or more prompt to resist every attempt to encroach +upon either. No one understood his temperament in that respect better +than General Hamilton, or would have been less likely to bring himself +in conflict with it. Many indications of this understanding and of its +effects are to be found in the accounts of their personal intercourse. +The correspondence between them in regard to the discreditable use that +Washington thought was being made in Congress of the sufferings and +dissatisfaction of the army, already referred to, will be found to throw +much light upon the sense of both as to the nature of their personal +relations. + +In June, 1793, Hamilton announced to President Washington, that +considerations relative both to the public interest and _his own +dignity_ had brought his mind to the conclusion to resign his office at +the termination of the close of the next session of Congress, and one of +the reasons he assigned for delaying his final retirement to that period +was to give Congress an opportunity to complete the investigation that +had been instituted in regard to his official conduct. In March +thereafter Hamilton informed the President that the committee charged to +inquire, among other things, "into the authority of the President +respecting the making and disbursement of the loans under certain acts +of Congress," were about to meet. He sent to him at the same time, a +copy of a paper he had presented to the committee, containing his +opinion in relation to the proper limits of a legislative inquiry, but +said that he deemed it expedient to fix in advance, with the President, +on the true state of facts, of which he proceeded to make a statement, +and requested the President to sanction it. General Washington soon +thereafter made a declaration, in the form of a letter to Hamilton, of +his recollections and opinions in respect to the matter. The latter, in +reply, protested vehemently against the sufficiency of the declaration +for the protection of his honor, and in a letter of considerable length, +written with his usual ability, undertook to show that the character of +the President's declaration would enable, his (Hamilton's) enemies to +say that "the reserve of the President is a proof that he does not think +that Hamilton's representations are true, else his justice would have +led him to rescue the officer concerned even from suspicion upon the +point." + +The subject of loans and their frequency produced much excitement in +Congress, and not a few calls upon the President and the Secretary of +the Treasury for information in regard to them. It does not appear from +the published works of Hamilton, that any answer was made by General +Washington to his letter, or any other explanation of the subject; and +no one, I think, can read the correspondence without feeling that the +interpretation I give to its abrupt termination is the correct one, +viz.: that Washington intended by his silence to reprove the freedom of +Hamilton's letter. The resignation of the latter was deferred, with the +approbation of the President, till January, 1795, when it was accepted +in a letter from General Washington, containing an approval of +Hamilton's official conduct as full as words could make it.[15] + + [15] Hamilton's _Works_, Vol. IV. pp. 436, 510, 516, 562; Vol. V. + pp. 74, 78. + +The construction I have placed upon the character of their personal +relations is also sustained by a correspondence between them in May, +1798, after Hamilton's retirement from office, which will be found in +the sixth volume of Hamilton's "Works," at p. 289. Hamilton's object +appears to have been to impress the mind of Washington with a proper +sense of the dangerous crisis which had arrived in the condition of +public affairs. His letter contains the following extraordinary +paragraph: "I am sincere in declaring my full conviction, as the result +of a long course of observation, that the faction which has for years +opposed the government are ready to remodel our Constitution under the +influence or _coercion_ of France, to form with her a perpetual +alliance, _offensive and defensive_, and to give her a monopoly of our +trade, by _peculiar_ and exclusive privileges. This would be in +substance, whatever it might be in name, to make this country a province +of France. Neither do I doubt that her standard displayed in this +country would be directly or indirectly seconded by them in pursuance of +the project I have mentioned." + +In such a state of things it was impossible, he said, not to look up to +him, (Washington,) and to wish that his influence might, in some proper +way, be brought into direct action, and he added: "Among the ideas that +have passed through my mind for this purpose, I have asked myself +whether it might not be expedient for you to make a circuit through +Virginia and North Carolina under some pretense of health, &c. This +would call forth addresses, public dinners, &c., which would give an +opportunity of expressing sentiments in answers, toasts, &c., which +would throw the weight of your character into the scale of the +government, and revive enthusiasm for your person which might be turned +into the right channel." + +Although Washington himself had been highly excited, by the course of +events, against those to whom Hamilton attributed such treasonable +designs, he was yet enabled by his good sense and by his knowledge of +his countrymen to see at a glance the reckless extravagance of +Hamilton's imputations, and he was doubtless dissatisfied with the uses, +little creditable, which it was proposed to make of himself. His answer +was a truly imposing production. It narrowed Hamilton's description of +the portions of his countrymen whose course he deemed objectionable, +virtually disapproved his charges by giving his own views of the extent +of the danger which was to be apprehended from those whose patriotism +Hamilton so grossly impeached, and placed the objectionable character of +the course recommended to him in a striking light by showing that, his +health never having been better, he would be obliged to commence his +journey with the propagation of a falsehood. + +Those who wish to read these letters will do well to look for them in +Hamilton's "Works," as I am sorry to say that in Mr. Sparks's "Writings +of Washington" the above extract from Hamilton's letter, containing his +suggestion of an electioneering tour in the South by Washington, is +omitted, and the whole paragraph in Washington's reply, in which he +rejects and virtually rebukes it, suppressed. Neither is that part of +Hamilton's letter given in which he denounces "the powerful faction +which has for years opposed the government" with fanatical violence, +(for his description of them deserves no other name,) whilst what +Washington says upon that point is set forth with considerable +aggravation. The results of those omissions and suppressions are not +only to conceal the fact that such a proposition was made to Washington, +and the grounds upon which he declined to adopt it, but his remarks, +condemnatory of a portion of his fellow-citizens, are left to stand as +voluntary denunciations of his own instead of, as they in truth were, +modifications of the charges to which Hamilton had called his attention. + +I have thus selected a few transactions between these great men, +occurring at long intervals and embracing the entire period of their +intercourse, to show that the influence which it must be conceded +Hamilton exercised over Washington's conduct in the civil service of his +country was not of the character which is commonly understood and +intended by the imputation of it in the case of high official +personages, and which necessarily involves the sacrifice of personal +independence and, at least in some degree, of self-respect on the part +of the person influenced. + +Anecdotes of distinguished men are always interesting, although their +accuracy is not so reliable, of course, as that of statements +substantiated by their own writings. I was told of one, several years +since, which struck me as throwing light upon this subject of the +personal relations between Washington and his immediate associates and +friends. So thinking, and especially as General Hamilton was in one +sense a party concerned, I have recently obtained reliable testimony of +its authenticity. Judge Fine, the writer of the following note, is well +known in New York, and not a little in other States; he has been a State +Senator, a Representative in Congress, a State Judge, &c., &c., and is +regarded as a gentleman of the utmost probity and of superior +intelligence. Judge Burnet, with whom I have served in the United States +Senate, was also well known as a gentleman in whose statements entire +confidence might be placed, and was, withal, a Hamiltonian Federalist, +and never, politically, any thing else; in whose eyes, I am very sure, +any statement disparaging to the memory of either Washington or Hamilton +would have appeared a grave offense against morality and truth. + + +FROM JOHN FINE. + + OGDENSBURG, N. Y., _April 30, 1857_. + + Hon. M. VAN BUREN: + + DEAR SIR,--During the session of the Presbyterian General Assembly + in Cincinnati--May, 1852--I dined twice at the hospitable mansion of + Hon. Jacob Burnet, now deceased. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, + in 1770, and was the son of Dr. William Burnet, who was in the + medical service of his country through the Revolution. + + Judge Burnet was acquainted with our early distinguished statesmen, + and his conversation was rich in the recollection of their manners + and characters. He related an anecdote of Washington which he had + from the lips of Alexander Hamilton. + + When the Convention to form a Constitution was sitting in + Philadelphia in 1787, of which General Washington was President, he + had stated evenings to receive the calls of his friends. At an + interview between Hamilton, the Morrises, and others, the former + remarked that Washington was reserved and aristocratic even to his + intimate friends, and allowed no one to be familiar with him. + Gouverneur Morris said that was a mere fancy, and he could be as + familiar with Washington as with any of his other friends. Hamilton + replied, "If you will, at the next reception evening, gently slap + him on the shoulder and say, 'My dear General, how happy I am to see + you look so well!' a supper and wine shall be provided for you and a + dozen of your friends." + + The challenge was accepted. On the evening appointed a large number + attended, and at an early hour Gouverneur Morris entered, bowed, + shook hands, laid his left hand on Washington's shoulder, and said: + "My dear General, I am very happy to see you look so well!" + Washington withdrew his hand, stepped suddenly back, fixed his eye + on Morris for several minutes with an angry frown, until the latter + retreated abashed and sought refuge in the crowd. The company looked + on in silence. + + At the supper which was provided by Hamilton, Morris said: "I have + won the bet but paid dearly for it, and nothing could induce me to + repeat it." + + Yours truly, + JOHN FINE. + + +Better proof of the truth of this statement could not, at this day, be +expected or desired, and assuming it to be substantially true, the +transaction, in my estimation, illustrates the character of the personal +relations that existed between Washington and the two distinguished men, +Hamilton and Morris, who, in respect to the management of public +affairs, enjoyed perhaps his fullest confidence. + +It is without doubt true, that in his intercourse with public men +Washington observed an extraordinary degree of dignified reserve, and +there is every reason to believe that this invariable habit was natural +to him, and in no degree assumed for effect. We indeed know nothing of +his character if he was at all capable of practicing the low device of +hiding mental deficiencies under a wise look and a mysterious manner, +which is sometimes the resort of meaner minds; but some such foundation +(or some degree of it) for his habit must have been presupposed by the +very unusual proceeding of Morris and it is quite impossible to believe +that a man was in danger of being unduly influenced by his personal +friends who could thus, by the power of his eye and the solemnity of his +countenance, abash and punish the presumption of a man of Morris's +standing, confessedly the sauciest man in his society, without causing +the slightest confusion or excitement in the surrounding company. + +He had nothing to conceal; he never desired to pass for more than he was +worth, and there have been few men who formed a juster estimate of their +own qualifications and capacities. In respect to military affairs he was +evidently self-reliant, but not more so than was justified by his large +experience and by the success which had crowned his efforts; but neither +in that nor in any other department was he above receiving advice. In +the intricate and complex affairs of civil administration, and in grave +questions of constitutional construction and of national law, he felt +that his experience and study had been much less than those of some who +were associated with him in the public service, and he did not hesitate +to recognize the difference. The principal aid he could bring to the +settlement of such questions consisted of a clear head, a sound +judgment, and an honest heart. These he never failed to apply after such +questions had been prepared for decision by the previous examination and +discussions of those of his cabinet whose attention had been more +directed to them than his own. To secure these prerequisites he had, as +I have said before, availed himself of the highest talent which the +country afforded, without reference to distinctions of party. + +This was the way in which he dealt with the grave questions that arose +during the early stages of his administration, touching the numerous and +complicated difficulties between us and our old friend and ally France, +the reception and treatment of her ministers, Genet and his successor +Adet, our assumption of a neutral position between European +belligerents, the claims of France under the treaty of alliance and +guaranty, the powers of Congress under the Constitution in relation to a +national bank, and other subjects. In respect to the first of these +matters he went so far as to consult Hamilton by letter on the question +of his own personal demeanor at a Presidential levee toward the French +minister, by whose conduct he had been offended. Whatever may be our +regret at finding the confidential note asking that advice preserved to +so late a period and now recklessly published, we may yet be satisfied +that the step itself only affords additional evidence of the prudence +and manliness of Washington's character. Few men stood less in need of +advice in respect to his treatment of those who had given him offense in +a matter purely personal; but it was natural for him to assume that the +usages of diplomacy had settled rules for the action of the heads of +government in such cases, of which he was not informed and in respect to +which he was not ashamed to ask advice and information from proper +sources. The constancy with which he invoked the aid of his cabinet upon +all questions of the general character to which I have alluded, the +unreserved manner in which he submitted them to their consideration, the +delicacy with which he withheld his opinions until theirs were +pronounced, and the spirit in which these were received, whether +agreeing with or differing from his own, were above all praise. The +information we possess of the details of those interesting proceedings +is principally derived from Mr. Jefferson, and in all that he has +written or in all that we have understood him to have said upon the +subject no word of complaint or allegation at variance with the +description here given of them is to be found. The idea that Washington +ever sought to advance his objects by indirect or exceptionable means, +or that he was actuated in his public measures by any other motive than +an honest desire to promote the good of his country, seems never to have +presented itself to Mr. Jefferson's mind, however erroneous he +considered some of those measures. I spent some days with him, as I have +elsewhere described,[16] two years before his death, and in the course +of our repeated conversations he dwelt long and particularly upon these +early transactions. I attributed the circumstance at the time to a +desire, consistent with his very genial disposition, to gratify my +curiosity, which was strong and not concealed; and it did not occur to +me that he might have had other views, until, after my return home, I +received his long letter avowedly written for the purpose for which I +now use it, "to throw light on history, and to recall that into the path +of truth when he was no more, nor those whom it might offend." In all +that he said--and he spoke with perfect freedom of men and things--there +was nothing inconsistent with the inference I have here drawn from his +writings, but much to confirm it. The President's decisions upon cabinet +questions were generally in favor of Hamilton's views; but that +circumstance, very much to his credit, was not permitted to influence +Jefferson's estimate of motives, but was regarded as the natural result +of Washington's general sympathy with Hamilton's political opinions, and +his confidence in his ability and integrity,--a sympathy, however, that +never even approached the subject of a change in the existing form of +our Government. That was a question as to which we have the best reason +to believe that Washington would have never taken counsel except from +his God and his conscience. He more than once declared to Jefferson +"that he was determined that the republican form of our Government +should have a fair chance of success, and that he would, if necessary, +spill the last drop of his blood in its defense,"--a resolution, and the +likelihood of its being sustained, that no one understood better than +Hamilton. + + [16] See Note on page 9. + +By these repeated declarations to Mr. Jefferson, Washington only renewed +to a civilian, whose character and position made them the more +significant and impressive, a pledge which he had given to the world at +Newburgh in the presence of the companions of his glory, yet with arms +in their hands--that his name should never be added to the list of those +who, having done much to emancipate a people from thralldom, were the +first to blast their hopes and sacrifice their dearest interests at the +promptings of selfish and unhallowed passions. They only proved that the +flattery of the world during the ten intervening years had not corrupted +his heart nor endangered the observance of a pledge which had derived +its value from the character of the man who gave it, and on whose +continued fidelity to the principle it involved the future liberties and +welfare of his country were in so large a degree dependent. + +It has always been believed that if Washington had inclined a favorable +ear to the suggestions of the Newburgh letters, and in due season had +given his name and influence to the counter-revolution they were +intended to promote, it might have been made successful, and the system +which the Revolution had overthrown might have been in some modified +form restored. The disparity between the means which were at his +disposal when propositions looking to such a result were thrown before +the army at Newburgh and those within his reach when the declarations to +Mr. Jefferson were made was not as great as might be supposed. At the +former period it is true that the army of the Revolution was yet in the +field, mortified, irritated, and indeed highly inflamed by the assumed +injustice and ingratitude of their country, and in all probability +prepared to follow his lead in furtherance of any views he might +disclose which did not exceed the proposed limits; and the government to +be overthrown was feeble, distracted, destitute of the sinews of war, +and with but a slight hold upon the confidence and affections of the +people. But it must also be remembered that the fervor and spirit of the +Revolution--that intense hatred of royalty and monarchical institutions +in any shape--which had roused the country to the contest, had as yet in +no sensible degree abated amongst the masses, neither had they +surrendered those sanguine anticipations of the blessings and advantages +of republican government by which their hearts had been fortified and +their arms strengthened for the struggle. That any attempt to bring +about a counter-revolution under such circumstances, however popular the +name and character of him by whom it was sanctioned, or however +imposing the means by which it was sustained, would meet with a +formidable opposition from the great body of the people was certain; and +it was not easy to estimate the nature and extent of the resistance that +might spring from the sources to which I have referred to confront an +army which had so lately been the object of their unalloyed admiration +and affection. + +In the lapse of time between that period and the one at which Mr. +Jefferson received the assurances he describes great changes had taken +place in respect to all these matters, but, as I have said, not so +adverse as might on first impression be supposed to the practicability +of an attempt such as Washington referred to. The army of the Revolution +had indeed been dissolved, and, in regard to the elements of which it +was principally composed, beyond recall; but its officers, who, next to +Washington, were capable of giving a tone and direction to the spirit of +the troops, were alive, several of them again under his command, not a +few about his person, and all filled with unabated admiration and +affection for their idolized chief. If the account given us by Mr. +Jefferson of the feelings he found most prevalent in our principal +cities and at the seat of government on his return from France and in +his progress to Philadelphia, to take upon himself the office of +Secretary of State, is to be relied upon,--and many important +contemporaneous occurrences corroborate his statement,--sad changes had +taken place in the public opinion and feeling, of absorbing interest in +this connection. "The President," he says, "received me cordially, and +my colleagues and the circle of principal citizens apparently with +welcome. The courtesies of dinner-parties given me, as a stranger newly +arrived among them, placed me at once in familiar society. But I cannot +describe the wonder and mortification with which the table conversations +filled me. Politics were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly +over republican governments was evidently the favorite sentiment." In +his description of what he heard and saw there can be no mistake; but it +is more than probable that changes among the people at large, upon the +point spoken of, had not occurred to any thing like the same extent as +among those portions of society to which he more particularly refers. +Still it is undeniably true that from the influence of examples set by +men in high places, from the difficulties under which the late +government had labored, and from other causes, there had been at that +moment a falling off from the true faith respecting governments and the +administration of them which could now be scarcely credited. Add to +these favoring circumstances the fact that the man, without whose +countenance or coöperation no reactionary attempt would have been +thought of even by the rankest advocate for monarchical institutions, +was at the head of the Government to be overthrown, and the unquestioned +object of the national confidence and affection, and the scheme, with +his coöperation, was not likely to be then regarded as so impracticable +as it would now certainly be considered. If such a work were at this day +thought of by any man or men, however elevated in position or loved by +the people, they could reap no other harvest than contempt and derision; +but the single fact that Washington, who always handled serious matters +seriously, and who was not liable to be alarmed by "false fires," +treated the subject as he did, is sufficient to mark the difference +between the condition of the country and of the public mind then and +now. + +But happily for us he was the same man in 1793 that he was in 1783. The +principle upon which he acted upon both occasions was maintained through +life without spot or blemish. The world believed, and for the best +reasons, that he had refused to become the master of a people, whose +liberties he had, through the favor of God and the fortitude and bravery +of his countrymen, been made instrumental to establish, because he +deemed it a higher honor to be their servant. It compared his acts with +those of the Cęsars, of Cromwell, and of Napoleon, and glorified his +name above that of any other mortal man. Such has been his reward for +his faithfulness to the most sacred of human trusts--a reward and a +fidelity unparalleled! Services have been rendered in every age which +entitled the actors in them to the gratitude of their country, and to +the thanks of mankind, but lacking the distinguishing feature of +Washington's, their traces have become fainter with the lapse of time, +whilst the remembrance of his unequaled merits grows more distinct and +strong with each revolving year. + +That he committed grave errors in giving his sanction, probably with +considerable reluctance, to some of the measures of his administration, +is certain. I say this not merely on the strength of my own poor +opinion, but because such is the unreserved and irreversible judgment of +the country, to which, under a republican government, the acts of all +public men are subjected. But the assent which he gave to these measures +was never, even by those most opposed to them, attributed to him as a +fault, but was regarded only as an honest error of opinion; and hence +the extraordinary political phenomenon of a party having its origin in +the adoption by him of those measures expelling from power his immediate +successor, who claimed to act upon his principles, placing those +principles by protracted and diligent efforts under the ban of public +opinion, and keeping them and their supporters there, in the main, for +more than half a century--and yet being not a whit behind those who +approved them in its respect for his name and character, because its +members, in the eloquent language of Mr. Jefferson, "would not suffer +the temporary aberration to weigh against the immeasurable merits of his +life; and although they tumbled his seducers from their places, they +preserved his memory embalmed in their hearts with undiminished love and +devotion, and there it forever will remain embalmed in entire oblivion +of every temporary thing which might cloud the glories of his splendid +life." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + The Fact that Hamilton shaped and guided the Administrations of + Washington and John Adams at the Time generally believed, now + clearly established--Occasions when his Influence did not + prevail--His Views and Purposes on entering the Cabinet--Some of + his early Measures not authorized by the Constitution--True + Character of that Instrument--Hamilton as Secretary of the + Treasury--His extraordinary Ability--His exaggerated Ideas as to + the Embarrassments of the Country--Unfounded Alarm at that Period + on the Subjects of the Public Debt and Public Revenues--Device for + surmounting Constitutional Obstacles to Hamilton's Plan--Source of + the Doctrine of Implied Powers--Foundation of Hamilton's Policy + under his Construction of the Constitution--His Measures and the + Effects he anticipated from them--The Funding System--The Weakening + of State Authority a leading Feature of Hamilton's Policy--Further + Aims and other "Stages of Improvement"--Hamilton's Report on + Manufactures; its Ability, Spirit, and Political Effects upon its + Author and his Party--Hamilton's Desire to build up in this Country + a "Money Power" similar to that of England--Such a Power + antagonistic to the Democratic Spirit of our People--The Real + Object of Hamilton in endeavoring to transplant the System + here--His temporary Success, and the Influence thereof in forming a + School that survived him--His Motives and the Convictions upon + which they were Founded. + + +That the policy of every administration of the Federal Government for +the first twelve years of its existence was shaped, and the action of +the Federal party guided, by the opinions and advice of Hamilton, was +the general impression of the opponents of that party, and of course +known to the leading Federalists. I have in another place[17] referred +to the fact that Mr. Jefferson, in all my conversations with him in +1824, when he spoke of the course pursued by the Federal party, +invariably personified it by saying "Hamilton" did or insisted thus; +and, on the other hand, "the Republicans" held or claimed so and so; and +that upon my calling his attention to the peculiarity of his expression, +he smiled and attributed his habit to the universal conviction of the +Republicans that Hamilton directed every thing. But the evidence they +possessed of the truth of that impression was slight indeed in +comparison with that which is now before the country. They had only the +opinions given in the cabinet upon the important public questions that +arose during that period, with the decisions of the President upon them +and other public documents relating to them, and the general conjectural +impressions on the minds of politicians, which can seldom be traced to +any specific authority, in respect to the influence which governs the +action of parties. The additions now made by the publication of +Hamilton's private papers alone, and more especially when they are read +in connection with those of other distinguished public men, prove those +impressions to have been well founded, and to an extent far beyond what +was even imagined in those days. I had read these papers with care, and, +I hope, weighed their contents with candor, before I gave my assent to +the declaration of Mr. Charles F. Adams upon the subject, quoted on +p. 96 above. Many of General Washington's letters to Hamilton are +marked "private," and some "private and confidential." It is not for me +to decide upon the propriety of their publication, however much I may +regret that the friends of the latter should have deemed that course +necessary in respect to many of them. I content myself with a general +reference to those which have a bearing upon the point under +consideration, without making extracts or adding remarks explanatory of +their tendency and effect. The letters between Washington and Hamilton +more particularly in point will be found in the fifth volume of +Hamilton's "Works," p. 106, in answer to letter at p. 12; and in the +sixth volume, at pp. 19, 34, 35, 36, 52, 63, 64, 73, 90, 143, 156, 179, +197; those between Hamilton and members of Washington's cabinet, in the +sixth volume, at pp. 29, 41, 67, 129, 238. + + [17] See note, p. 9. + +The steps taken by General Hamilton to shape the policy and to prescribe +the action of Mr. Adams's administration were designed to embrace its +entire course, and were carried into effect with but little respect for +the wishes or opinions of its constitutional head. Three weeks had not +elapsed after Mr. Adams's inauguration before General Hamilton wrote a +letter to Mr. Pickering, Secretary of State, in which he expressed "his +extreme anxiety that an exactly proper course should be pursued in +regard to France," and suggested for his consideration, under seven +different heads, what he thought that course ought to be. The Secretary +was not requested to submit these views to the President, nor was any +desire indicated that he should do so, nor any notice taken of the +President in the letter further than may be found in the closing +paragraph,--"The executive, before Congress meet, ought to have a +_well-digested plan_ and _coöperate_ in getting it adopted." + +If there was a single instance in which Hamilton, in his numerous +letters of advice to the Secretaries, requested them to submit his views +to the consideration of the President, it has escaped my observation. He +was several times spoken of, but generally as to what he ought to do and +what he might or might not be induced to do. The letters and papers +bearing upon the subject will be found in the sixth volume of Hamilton's +"Works," at pp. 213, 215, 218, 246, 250, 251, 252, 269, 278, 292, 294, +381, 444, 447, 471, 477, 484. + +During the whole period Hamilton was regarded as the leader of the +Federal party by most of the prominent members of that party,--Mr. Adams +and a few of his friends excepted,--by those who represented the country +abroad, by members of Congress, &c., &c. He was considered the fountain +head of partisan authority, was freely applied to for advice, and gave +it when it was asked, and quite as freely when it was not. He from time +to time furnished members of Congress with specifications of steps +proper to be taken, in one of which will be found suggested the passage +of the celebrated sedition law. A few instances of his interference in +this form will be found in Volume V. Hamilton's "Works," pp. 79, 86, and +in Volume VI. at pp. 92, 94, 381, 383, 390. + +The most important, if not the only occasions on which the influence of +Hamilton over the action of the Federal party was exerted without +success, were those of the formation of the Federal Constitution, and +the support of Aaron Burr, by that party, for President, and for +Governor of New York in 1801 and 1804. The first can scarcely be +regarded, however, as such an occasion, because it was one in which +party distinctions were merged in a compromise to which he himself +ultimately assented. The others belong to the number of those occasions +which, from time to time, present themselves in the history of all +political parties, when the lust of power overrides the advice of their +ablest and best friends. A party which has been long out of power, or +which, having long held it, is threatened with imminent danger of losing +it, can rarely resist the temptation when it is presented of securing +success by dividing its opponents. Such a temptation is almost always +strong enough to silence other objections, and Hamilton, on those +occasions, shared the fate of party leaders who place their individual +influence in opposition to the excited passions and short-sighted +schemes of their party. + +It was my fortune to hear Hamilton's great speech against the support of +Burr for the office of Governor of New York by the Federalists of the +State. I happened to visit Albany on the day appointed for the meeting, +in company with William P. Van Ness, who was a few months afterwards +Burr's second in his duel with Hamilton; and we lodged, as we were in +the habit of doing, at _Lewis's Tavern_, the place where the meeting was +to be held. Our room adjoined and communicated with the larger one in +which the meeting took place; and after its organization, Mr. Van Ness +threw open the door between the rooms, giving us a full view of the +assemblage and exposing our presence to them. I mention these +circumstances, which I recollect well, because it is my impression that +it was very unusual at that day for politicians of one party to attend +the meetings of the other. Mr. Van Ness and myself differed +irreconcilably in respect to the support of Colonel Burr, but we were +both members of the Republican party. The meeting consisted of about one +hundred very respectable looking men, generally well advanced in life, +and I remember many gray heads among them. Such was a gathering of the +Federalists, in a city in which they had complete control, called +together to hear the leader of their party, decidedly the most eloquent +man of his day, a little more than fifty years ago. _Quantum mutatus!_ +My seat was so near to Hamilton that I could hear distinctly every word +he said, and three impressions of the scene are still strong in my +memory--his imposing manner and stirring eloquence, the obvious +disinclination of the larger portion of his audience to be governed by +his advice, notwithstanding the unbounded respect and love they bore +him, and the marked indignation which often sparkled on the countenance +of Van Ness whilst he was speaking. + +Preferring monarchical institutions because he conscientiously believed +that republican government could not be maintained "consistently with +order," but satisfied that public opinion would not then admit of their +establishment in this country, and indisposed for the reasons I have +assigned to advocate the use of force for that purpose, yet expecting a +crisis to arrive by which the opinions of the people would be changed, +or the use of force be rendered justifiable, Hamilton entered the +cabinet of President Washington determined to recommend a line of policy +and the adoption of measures, which, whilst they would give the +Government sufficient power to sustain itself against the democratic +spirit of the country,--always the object of his dread,--would not be +out of place when a resort to the English model, the object of his +life-long choice, should have become necessary. If, in the execution of +this policy, he had confined himself to the powers intended to be +conferred upon the Federal Government by the Constitution, however much +his conduct might have been censured on account of the anti-republican +spirit it evinced, it would nevertheless have presented a very different +aspect to posterity. But this was unhappily far from his intention. No +one knew better than Hamilton that power to adopt some of the most +important of the measures included in the chart he had devised for the +action of the Federal Government was not designed to be granted to it +either by those who framed, or by those who had adopted the +Constitution, and that if there had been any reason to suspect that that +instrument conferred such powers there would not have been the slightest +chance for its ratification. + +The Convention that framed the Constitution was well aware that the +portion of its labors which related to the extent of the powers to be +given to the new government was that upon which the public mind was +most sensitive. It was not ignorant how far the apprehensions of the +people upon that point had, through the entire period of our colonial +history, prevented the establishment of any general government, and even +the institution of one since the Declaration of Independence that was +adequate to the necessities of the country. It knew that the powers +given to Congress, particularly, would be the part of the Constitution +to which the attention of the friends of the State governments would be +directed, and upon which their opposition would be most likely to arise. +Understanding these things, the Convention, with that good sense and +prudence by which its entire course was so greatly distinguished, +bestowed upon that branch of its business the utmost care and +circumspection. Instead of describing the power given to Congress in +general terms, as was done by Hamilton, in the plan submitted by him for +its adoption,--viz.: "To pass all laws which they shall judge necessary +to the common defense and general welfare of the Union,"--by which much +would of necessity be left to the discretion of those who were to +execute the power, the Convention specified the powers it intended to +grant under seventeen heads, and described them in the simplest and +plainest language, so that none should be at a loss to understand their +import. So well was this design executed that no room for doubt or cavil +remained to those who had no other desire than to arrive at the meaning +of the framers of the Constitution. + +Here the Convention might have stopped, for no implication could have +been more unavoidable than that Congress should have the right to +promulgate the rules they adopted by the enactment of laws. But as if +aware of the uses which the able men from whom it apprehended opposition +might make of the fact that a necessity of a resort to implication had +been left by the instrument, it granted that power also in express +terms. The principal part of that clause was moreover designed to +constitute Congress the law-maker for the other great departments of the +government, and to exclude the idea that they should also have the power +of legislation. + +Having thus, as it thought, guarded the work of its hands from +misrepresentation or misinterpretation upon what it justly considered +the most delicate and, if disregarded, the most vulnerable point, and +having framed a Constitution with which all friends to republican +principles ought to be satisfied, the Convention appealed with +confidence to the ratifying conventions, and in doing so it did no more +than justice to those bodies,--the instrument, thus guarded, was +ultimately ratified by the votes of all the States. + +If Hamilton, either in the articles of the "Federalist," to which he +largely contributed, or on the floor of the Convention of Ratification, +of which he was a member, had only countenanced that construction of the +Constitution which he set up for it as Secretary of the Treasury, or if +in any other way a suspicion had been produced that it was intended to +give that instrument such a construction after its ratification, its +rejection would have been inevitable. No one who has studied the state +of the public mind at that period can for a moment doubt that this would +have been the result. Such was the true character of the Constitution +which the people of the United States intended to establish, and thought +they had established, and such were the circumstances under which it was +ratified. + +Hamilton was placed by Washington virtually at the head of his +administration; for, although the Secretary of State has, since that +period, been regarded in that light, no such impression had then +obtained, and in the government of Great Britain, to which attention +had been most directed, it was otherwise. The Treasury Department +wielded infinitely the most influence, and the superior confidence of +the President in the incumbent decided the point of priority, at least +for the time being. Perhaps the only question in respect to Hamilton +upon which there has never been any diversity of sentiment was in regard +to his talents. That they were of the highest order was the opinion of +all who knew him. Jefferson scarcely ever spoke of him in his letters to +Madison without admonishing him of the extraordinary powers of his mind, +and in one of them he says,--"Hamilton is really a Colossus to the +Anti-Republican party; without numbers he is a host in himself. In truth +when he comes forward there is nobody but yourself (Madison) that can +meet him." When I was Minister of the United States in England I saw +much of Prince Talleyrand, then French Ambassador at the same Court, and +enjoyed relations of marked kindness with him. In my informal visits to +him we had long and frequent conversations, in which Hamilton, his +acquaintance with him in this country, and incidents in their +intercourse, were his favorite themes. He always spoke with great +admiration of his talents, and during the last evening that I spent with +him he said that he regarded Hamilton as the ablest man he became +acquainted with in America,--he was not sure that he might not add +without injustice, or that he had known in Europe.[18] With such +advantages, greater at that time certainly than the public service of +any country afforded to any other man, it is difficult to conceive of a +more commanding position than that which he occupied. With a mind that +dwelt habitually upon great ideas, the political career of such a man +could not fail to produce important results for good or for evil. It +must not, however, be forgotten, for it is a truth which exerted a +powerful influence on his whole course, that he was at the same time, as +his friend Morris described him, "more a theoretic than a practical +man." It was natural that a mind so easily excited and an imagination so +vivid as Hamilton's seem always to have been, should have formed +exaggerated ideas as well of the extent and character of the +embarrassments under which the country was laboring, as of the causes +from which they sprang. These were undoubtedly very serious, very +difficult to be dealt with; and it is equally true that they had been +greatly aggravated by, if they were not, as he was very willing to +consider them, mainly attributable to the defects of the former federal +system. But there was some misapprehension, and no small degree of +exaggeration upon these points. We are indeed an imaginative people, and +the transfer of our fathers to a new country and climate doubtless +accounts for the great difference in this respect between ours and the +cool, deliberate, and unimpressible temperaments and character retained +by those in Europe who have the same descent. It was not to have been +expected that a country so young as our own, and as unprepared, could +have passed through a seven years' war with a powerful nation without +involving itself in grave embarrassments; but when the extent of those +embarrassments, the difficulties of dealing with them, and the then +resources of the country are now regarded, it seems impossible to avoid +the conclusion that the grounds for the alarm then so prevalent upon the +subjects of the public credit and the public revenues were greatly +overrated. + + [18] At the same interview Talleyrand told me an anecdote which, + considering the depressed condition of Colonel Burr at the period to + which it referred, I thought descriptive of a harsh act on the part + of my informer, and I do not repeat it without hesitation. "Burr," + he said, "called in pursuance of a previous communication from him, + and, his card being brought up, he directed the messenger to say + that he could not receive a visit from Colonel Burr, and referred + him, for an explanation of his refusal, to a painting hanging over + the mantel-piece in the antechamber, which was a portrait of + Hamilton." + + The visit was probably one of courtesy, with a possible hope of + being able to enlist Talleyrand in his (Burr's) Mexican schemes. + +Our whole foreign debt amounted to but twelve millions of dollars, +payable by installments, the last of which did not become due until +seven years thereafter. The domestic debt amounted to forty-two +millions, for the payment of which the Government was under no +obligation to make immediate provision, amounting in all to fifty-four +millions, and the annual expenses of the Government were estimated at +less than six hundred thousand dollars. This was the full extent of +federal responsibilities. Hamilton assumed some fifteen millions of the +State debts, but that was an act entirely voluntary, neither asked nor +desired by the States, unconstitutional and inexpedient, and caused as +much unpopularity to his administration of the department as, perhaps +more than, any act by which it was distinguished. + +To meet these responsibilities the new Constitution had placed in the +hands of the Federal Government the power of collecting a revenue from +imposts and taxes, to borrow money on the credit of the United States to +any amount which the public service might be deemed to require, and to +regulate commerce, both foreign and domestic,--a power from the exercise +of which great improvements in the trade of the country were justly +anticipated. In aid of these resources we possessed a population of some +three and a half millions, as active and enterprising as any on the face +of the earth, just emerging from the discouragements of a defective +government, and bounding with hope into all the varieties of business +and labor, for which a fertile soil and a salubrious climate afforded +the most ample facilities. The comparison may be, and doubtless by many +will be, regarded as inappropriate; but with the views--simple but +practical--which experience has taught me, I cannot but think that if +one were instituted between the liabilities of the United States in 1790 +and those of the State of New York in 1842,--between the means at the +disposal of each, and the extent to which the credit of each had been +depressed,--it would be found that speedier and more substantial relief, +and under less eligible circumstances, was obtained for the latter by +the simple and direct efforts of those unpretending financiers, Michael +Hoffman and Azariah C. Flagg, than was accomplished for the United +States by the manifold schemes that were resorted to at the period of +which we are speaking. Certain I am that if a similar comparison were +made between the difficulties which the Treasury Department of the +Federal Government had to contend with in 1790, and those which it +encountered in 1837, combined with the powerful and active hostility of +the United States Bank, the former would lose much of the apparent +importance with which tradition, the influence of a great name, and the +rhetorical applauses of modern political orators, of the Federal school, +have invested them.[19] + + [19] "He smote the rock of the national resources and abundant + streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the + public credit, and it sprang upon its feet. The fabled birth of + Minerva from the brain of Jove was hardly more sudden or more + perfect than the financial system of the United States, as it burst + forth from the conceptions of Alexander Hamilton."--_Daniel + Webster._ + +The condition of things at the period we are considering was such as to +promise the greatest advantages from the simplest, though persevering +and well-considered, employment of the means then for the first time +placed at the disposal of the General Government. + +If it had fortunately so happened that General Washington had placed +Hamilton at the head of the State Department, in which the theories +which he appears to have studied from his earliest manhood--he having, +though anonymously, at the age of twenty-three, sent to Robert Morris, +then a member of Congress, the first plan for a bank of the United +States, accompanied by an elaborate examination into monetary and +financial affairs generally, and those of the United States in +particular--would not have been called into action, and if he had +appointed Madison to be Secretary of the Treasury, the fate of his +administration and the effects of its measures in respect to parties +would have been very different. The practical character of Madison's +talents and disposition had been exemplified in the whole of his +previous career, and was conspicuous in his course on the subject of +revenue. On the second day after the votes for President and +Vice-President under the new Constitution had been canvassed, and twenty +days before the inauguration of President Washington, he commenced +operations in the new House of Representatives, of which he was a +member, to enable the new government to avail itself of the advantages +secured to it by the Constitution in regard to revenue. + +To this end he introduced a bill to impose impost and tonnage duties by +which he believed all the objects of a national revenue could be secured +without being oppressive to the country, and pursued his object day in +and day out, until his bill became a law. A prompt application of the +means thus acquired to the regular payment of the interest on the public +debt, with a resort to others authorized in express terms by the +Constitution if the impost had not proved adequate to all the objects of +a national revenue, as he believed it would, and a discreet use of the +power to borrow exerted in the ordinary way, accompanied by proper +efforts to keep public expenditures at the lowest point consistent with +an efficient public service, would in all probability have been the sum +of the measures which Mr. Madison would have deemed necessary to place +the public credit at the highest desirable point and to discharge all +the existing obligations of the Government. They constitute all the +means employed by the department now, and for several years past have +proved abundantly sufficient to meet infinitely higher responsibilities, +and there is in truth no conclusive reason to be found in the history of +the period referred to why they would not have performed the same +offices then. + +But these simple and usually efficacious measures did not come up to +Hamilton's standard. They fell short of what he thought necessary to the +actual wants of the public service, and still more so in regard to what +he deemed due to the efficiency, stability, and dignity of the +Government. To secure all of these objects he desired to build up a +financial system which would approach to an equality with the English +model after which he designed to construct it; and he believed that it +was in that way only that the public necessities could be amply provided +for, the public credit placed at the point which he wished it to occupy, +and the respectability of the Government be properly consulted. But this +plan required the adoption of measures which, it is not too much to say, +he knew that neither those who framed nor those who adopted the +Constitution intended to authorize. This difficulty, which to ordinary +minds would have appeared insurmountable, was overcome by a device +either of his own creation or, as I have for many years believed, the +suggestion of another. + +The subject of internal improvements by the Federal Government, in +regard as well to the power of the latter over the subject as to the +expediency of its exercise, was repeatedly and very fully discussed in +Congress, whilst Mr. Rufus King and myself represented the State of New +York in the Senate of the United States. Upon the question of power we +concurred in opinion, he adhering to that of Hamilton--the construction +of such works being one of the very few powers which the latter did not +claim for the Federal Government. Notwithstanding this agreement the +subject was often canvassed between us in respect to the arguments +advanced, from time to time, in Congress, by others. On one of those +occasions, he told me that on Gouverneur Morris's visit to the city of +New York, soon after his return from the Federal Convention, he was +congratulated by his friends on the circumstance that the Convention had +succeeded in agreeing upon a Constitution which would realize the great +object for which it had been convened, and that Morris promptly and, as +Mr. King seemed to have understood it, significantly replied--"_That +will depend upon the construction that is given to it!_" Mr. King did +not state any inference he had drawn from the remark and seemed to me +indisposed to prolong the conversation upon that point, and, knowing his +habitual reserve in speaking of his old associates, I yielded to what I +believed to be his wish not to be questioned, although I was at the +moment strongly impressed by the observation. I referred to it +afterwards in a speech I made in the Senate upon the powers of the +Government, which was extensively published. At a subsequent period this +ready answer of Morris would not have attracted notice; but spoken +before even a single officer had been elected to carry the Constitution +into effect, and of course before any question as to its construction +had arisen, it was to my mind, and, as I believe, to the mind of Mr. +King, evidence of a foregone conclusion to claim under that instrument +powers not anticipated by the great body of those who framed it, or by +those who had given it vitality by their approval. The facts that this +reply had been so long remembered by Mr. King, a prominent and sagacious +member of the Convention, and repeated under the circumstances I have +detailed, were calculated to create such an impression. It gave, at +least to my view, a decided direction in respect to the source from +whence the doctrine of _implied powers_ originated. I had found it +difficult, with the opinions I had formed of Hamilton's character and +dispositions, to reconcile the first suggestion of such a policy with +them. I could believe that, in accordance with the principles which he +avowed, he might be not unwilling to carry it into effect when it was +suggested to him; but that, after advancing his opinions in a manner so +frank and fearless, notwithstanding their well understood unpopularity, +he should be found mousing over the words of the Constitution for +equivocal expressions, containing a meaning intelligible only to the +initiated, and by such methods preparing to spring a trap upon the +people, was, it appeared to me, utterly foreign to his nature and +habits. Neither was I disposed to believe that he would, at the very +moment of signing, have denounced the Constitution as inadequate to the +purposes of good government if he had then regarded it as possessing the +very extensive powers he afterwards assisted in claiming for it, nor +would he have subsequently declared it to be "a frail and worthless +fabric." His complaint upon the latter occasion would have been against +the construction that had been given to it, and not against the +Constitution itself. + +Morris, whose ability no one will question, was a constant attendant +upon the Convention, took an active part in its proceedings throughout, +was on most of its committees and the _working-man_ of the last,--the +duties of which were "to revise the style of, and arrange the articles +which had been agreed to by the House,"--and the second and last draft +of the Constitution was reported by him. But it is now comparatively +unimportant with whom the latitudinarian construction of the +Constitution, which has caused so much strife and contention and so +little advantage to any person, party, or interest, originated. +Hamilton, at least, adopted it as the corner-stone of his constitutional +views, and, by his genius and the weight of his official influence, gave +it a temporary success. + +For reasons which will appear in the sequel, I will confine myself to a +simple statement of the questions that were raised in respect to the +construction of the Constitution, and a few illustrations of their +character. That instrument, as has already been stated, contained a +specific enumeration of the powers given to Congress, and the reasons +have been also described for this particularity. The measures to which +they referred were known by appropriate and distinct names, and applied +to definite and well understood objects, and they have been ever since +known and understood as they were then. This enumeration of the powers +of Congress was followed, as we have seen, by a grant of authority to +that body to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for +carrying into execution the foregoing powers." + +Under this winding-up clause of the Constitutional enumeration of the +powers of Congress, the true sense and object of which was so easy to be +understood, Hamilton claimed for that body the power of authorizing by +law measures of a substantive character, described by well understood +names, altogether different from those employed in the enumeration, such +as the incorporation of banks, &c., &c., if Congress should declare +itself of the opinion that the execution of the enumerated powers would +be materially aided by any such measures, reserving to Congress the +right of deciding whether the proposed measure would be sufficiently +useful to create the "propriety and necessity" required by the +Constitution, and placing in its breast alone the final decision of +every such question. + +The objects of the Constitution, as set forth in its preamble, were "to +form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic +tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general +welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our +posterity." The first of the powers of Congress, contained in the +enumeration of them in the Constitution, is in the following words: + +"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, +imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common +defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, and +imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United +States;"--and then follow all the other powers, to borrow money, &c. + +The terms "common defense and general welfare," used in this +enumeration, were taken from the Articles of Confederation, where they +stood thus: "All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be +incurred for the _common defense and general welfare_, and allowed by +the United States, in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a +common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several States in +proportion," &c. Under those Articles they were never understood as a +substantive grant of power to the Continental Congress, or as +authorizing that body to ask from the States moneys, and to expend them +for any purposes other than those which the Articles afterwards +specified. By the new Constitution the manner of getting the money was +happily changed from State requisitions to taxes, duties, imposts, and +excises, to be expended, however, when so obtained, for the common +defense and general welfare, as before, and the Constitution then, like +the Articles of Confederation, says upon what objects it is to be +expended. The Convention which framed and those which ratified the +instrument, of course, understood the terms as used in the same sense. +But after the Constitution was ratified, without an intimation of such +a construction having been whispered before, it was contended by many +that the manner in which the terms common defense and general welfare +were used in it authorized Congress to adopt _any measure_ which that +body might deem calculated to subserve the common defense and general +welfare of the country, whilst others, less reckless, limited the power +they claimed for Congress to the application of money to any such +measures. Among the former, as to the clause in the preamble, Hamilton +placed himself, insisting that, under the grant of powers to make all +laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying its given powers +into execution, Congress had the power to adopt every measure of +government not expressly denied to it or exclusively granted to the +States, which it should deem useful in the execution of its enumerated +powers, however variant in its name, object, and general understanding; +and under the clause quoted from the preamble an unlimited power of +taxation, and an equally unlimited authority to expend the money so +raised upon objects which it might think would promote the common +defense and general welfare. He thus claimed for Congress substantially +all legislative power, save such as was expressly prohibited to it, +given exclusively to the States, or denied to both, falling but little +if any thing short of the power he assigned to the national legislature +in his propositions submitted to the Convention, which that body would +not even consider, viz.: "to pass all laws which they shall judge +necessary to the common defense and general welfare of the Union." + +When the advocates of these doctrines were asked to remember the state +of public opinion at the time when the Constitution was framed; the +jealousy which then existed and had for so many years existed, of the +power of the General Government; the fact that the apprehensions which +had been entertained had so long prevented the calling of a Convention; +the extreme improbability that the Convention, under such circumstances, +could have intended to give to Congress the power to pass any law it +might be pleased to regard as useful in the execution of an enumerated +power, whatever might be its bearing upon the State governments; to add +to the power to make peace and war and to raise armies and equip fleets; +to make the power to raise money unlimited by authorizing its +expenditure upon any measure Congress might assume to be conducive to +the common defense and general welfare, and the absurdity of the +supposition that the grant of such far-reaching and absorbing powers +would have been conferred in so obscure a way, and that the Constitution +would have passed the scrutiny of so many State Conventions without its +ever having been intimated in any way that there lay concealed in its +general terms grants of power which, if but suspected, would have set +the country in a blaze, and would have produced instant refusals to +ratify on the part of most of the States,--when such considerations were +opposed to those bold pretensions, the only reply was, the Constitution +must be construed by its letter, and we cannot look behind it or beside +it for the means of doing so truly. + +To the answer that extraneous matter has always been allowed by all +laws, state and national, to be used in the interpretation of the +highest acts of sovereignty, such as the construction of treaties +between sovereign powers, of patents issued under the great seal, of +acts of Parliament, of Congress, and of State legislatures, and in +respect to the latter class the old law, the mischief and the proposed +remedy to be taken into consideration in searching for the meaning of +such acts, in the construction of wills, deeds, &c., &c., the only +rejoinder was that a Constitution was an exception to those rules; in +short that a Constitution was the sole exception to the application of +the maxim which has grown out of the observation and experience of +mankind,--_qui hęret in literā hęret in cortice_. + +The nearness of the time when the Constitution was framed to the period +of which we are speaking gave to this construction its most repulsive +aspect. The members of the Federal Convention were yet on the stage of +action, and many of them participators in the measures that were brought +forward on the strength of it. The remonstrances of those who dissented +on the ground of their own knowledge that the Convention did not +contemplate such a construction were disregarded, not because they did +not represent the truth but because the objection was inadmissible upon +principle. This was emphatically the case in respect to the +establishment of a national bank, the pioneer of constitutional +infractions, the "wooden horse" from whose sides the most violent +assaults have been made upon the Constitution. It was a fact well +remembered by the members, and subsequently confirmed by the publication +of the journal of the Convention, that a motion was made to give to +Congress power to grant acts of incorporation, as facilities to public +improvements. This fact was brought to the notice of President +Washington by Mr. Jefferson, in his opinion upon the bank question: "It +is known," said he, "that the very power now proposed as _a means_ was +rejected _as an end_ by the Convention which formed the Constitution; a +proposition was made to them to authorize Congress to open canals, and +an amendatory one to empower them to incorporate, but the whole was +rejected, and one of the reasons of rejection urged in the debate was +that then they would have power to erect a bank, which would render the +great cities, where there were prejudices or jealousies upon this +subject, adverse to the reception of the Constitution." + +This communication was made directly to General Washington, who had been +President of the Convention, and made to defeat a measure of Hamilton's, +who never failed to turn every proposition of his opponents against +themselves when it was in his power to do so. It remained unnoticed, and +its truth was therefore virtually admitted. Upon the very first +question, then, which arose under the Constitution upon Hamilton's +construction, and that one first also in importance, the well-known +intentions of the Convention were directly and intentionally overruled. + +President Washington gave no reasons for his decision in favor of the +Bank Bill. I will hereafter state the principle upon which I think it +fair to presume that he acted. Hamilton was influenced by views which +governed his conduct in every constitutional question that arose in his +day. He did not, because he could not with any show of propriety, deny +that the Constitution ought in strictness to be construed according to +the intentions of those who made it; but believing, doubtless sincerely, +from the beginning, that, so construed, it was insufficient for the +purposes of good government and must prove a failure, he designedly gave +it construction, in cases where he deemed that course necessary to the +public interest, in opposition to what he knew to have been the +intentions of the Convention. The objection that this was setting at +naught the declared will of the people had but little weight with him. +He believed that a majority of the Convention would have been content to +incorporate the powers he now claimed in the Constitution if they had +not been deterred by the fear that it would not be ratified, and for the +opinion of a majority of the people he made proverbial his want of +respect. He held them incapable of judging in such questions. He was as +anxious as any man to promote their happiness and welfare, but he +thought it a political necessity that this could only be done in despite +of themselves; no man could possibly be less prone than he was to the +employment of sinister means in private life, and yet he held them +excusable in dealing with the people; he thought nothing effectual and +salutary could be done with them without appeals to their special +interests, without exciting their passions and turning them to the side +of the Government. This was the vicious feature of his political creed, +and proofs of its existence could be multiplied almost without end; but, +as the subject will unavoidably and often present itself, I will content +myself here with an extract from a letter written by him to his friend +Morris, after the great public transactions in which he had been engaged +were principally ended. The last letter to Morris, from which I have +quoted, spoke of the past; this looks to the future, and shows the +lengths to which he was yet, as he had always been, willing to go. The +letter is dated April 6, 1802, in which, after complimenting Morris upon +his efforts "in resisting the follies of an infatuated administration," +he thus points his friend to the work before them:-- + +"But, my dear sir, we must not content ourselves with a temporary effort +to oppose the approach of evil. We must derive instruction from the +experience before us, and learning to form a just estimate of things to +which we have been attached, there must be a systematic and persevering +endeavor to establish the fortune of a great empire on foundations much +firmer than have yet been devised. What will signify a vibration of +power if it cannot be used with confidence or energy, and must be again +quickly restored to hands which will prostrate much faster than we shall +be able to rear under so frail a system? Nothing will be done until the +structure of our national edifice shall be such as naturally to control +eccentric passions and views, and to keep in check demagogues and +knaves in the disguise of patriots."[20] + + [20] Hamilton's _Works_, Vol. VI. p. 536. + +This speaks for itself, and certainly nothing could be more superfluous +than an attempt to elucidate its import and extent. It deserves to be +remembered that this was in the thirteenth year of the Constitution, now +described as a "frail system," and which, in a previous letter to +Morris, was called a "frail and worthless fabric." Hamilton enforced his +construction, but upon that point we will say no more until we arrive at +a period when it was exposed to a scrutiny by which it was forever +exploded. Looking to the construction of the Constitution which I have +described for his authority to adopt the measures he deemed necessary to +establish his policy, he advanced in his work with his accustomed +industry and perseverance. The outlines of that policy were +substantially portrayed in his speeches in the Federal Convention, in +his letter to General Washington from New York during the session of +that body, and in a paper written by him after its adjournment, and now +published by his son,--all of which have already been referred to. It +was founded on a conviction, doubtless sincere and at all events not +liable to change, that great danger to the federal system was to be +apprehended from the hostility of the State governments, and on a +consequent desire to reduce their power and importance; on an immovable +distrust of the capacities and dispositions of the masses; and on an +unshaken belief that the success of the new government could only be +secured by assimilating its action to that of the English system as +nearly as that could be done without too gross, and therefore dangerous, +violation of the well understood and most cherished sentiments of the +people. + +The power wielded by the English ministry, in Parliament and in the +country, springs from influences derived from various sources, mainly +from the funding system, from the Bank of England, from connection with +the East India Company, and from ability to confer government favors on +individuals and classes in the shape of offices and dignities in church +and state, of titles, pensions, bounties, franchises, and other special +privileges of great value. Its power in these respects is derived from +the crown in virtue of its prerogatives, aided by acts of Parliament +where these are required by the Constitution. + +The measures which Hamilton deemed indispensable to the success of the +new government, in addition to those authorized by the Constitution, +consisted of + +_First._ A funding system upon the English plan, with authority to +assume the separate debts of the States; + +_Second._ A national bank; and, + +_Third._ An unrestricted exercise by Congress of the power to raise +money, and the employment of the national revenue in patronizing +individual, class, and corporate interests, according to the plan +described in his report, nominally on manufactures, but embracing an +infinite variety of other concerns. + +The funding system, as presented to Congress by him, as well as the bank +were not only on the English plan, but as far as that could consistently +be effected were copies of the originals, and substantially the same +reasons for their establishment here were assigned in his report as had +been given for their first creation in England. The third measure, or +rather the third in his system of measures, as set forth in the +Secretary's report, partook largely of the general character of some of +those alluded to above as sources of ministerial power in England, and, +in connection with the means of securing legitimate influence allowed by +our Constitution, would have clothed the administration here with equal +power, even without authority to grant titles of nobility, +ecclesiastical preferments and dignities, and other like privileges. + +The advantages Hamilton anticipated from these measures consisted of the +effect which the fact of their establishment would have upon every +question of constitutional power, the popularity and political influence +which the administration would acquire in and through their +organization, and greater than all, of their inevitable influence upon +the future character of the institutions of the country. He might well +think that he would not thereafter have any serious difficulty in regard +to constitutional power to do what he desired, if he could obtain the +passage of acts, according to the forms of the Constitution, authorizing +Congress to _lend_ money to the States under a provision in that +instrument giving it power to _borrow_ money; to establish a national +bank, when a possible ground for pretense to such a power had been +expressly excluded from the Constitution, and when every body knew that +both the Convention that made it and a vast majority of the States and +people by whom it was adopted were at the time opposed to such an +institution; and not only to raise money upon the principle of an +unlimited power to do so, but also to expend it according to the +pleasure of the Government, subject to no other limitation than that it +should regard the purpose as conducive to the common defense and general +welfare,--a principle he distinctly avowed in his report on +manufactures. If he had succeeded in these points and secured his +advances, he would have been fully warranted in regarding the +enumeration of the powers of Congress contained in the Constitution as a +sham, and the brief clause he proposed to the Convention, giving to the +national legislature power to pass all laws which it should judge +necessary to the common defense and general welfare of the Union, as +inserted in its place. The increased power and influence derived by the +administration in the course of the organization of some of these +measures will be seen as we proceed, and my own views in respect to +their combined effects upon our institutions and upon the character of +the government, will be given hereafter. + +In England the bank was first established, but Hamilton gave precedence +here to the funding system and made it the first great measure of his +administration of the Treasury Department, contenting himself in the +first instance with a declaration, in his report in favor of the funding +system, of his intention to connect a bank with it. The Secretary's +annunciation of the principles upon which he proposed to found that +system, and their resemblance to those by which the English system was +regulated, were received with unmistakable signs of dissatisfaction by +large portions of the people in all parts of the country. The +Legislature of Virginia passed by decided majorities resolutions +denouncing the Secretary's plan with great severity. These, with similar +demonstrations in other States, show the depth of the excitement of the +public mind upon the subject. + +The public debt of England had its origin in an early practice of her +government to anticipate her resources through loans effected upon +pledges of portions of her revenues, to be re-imbursed, principal and +interest, at specific periods. These were made to correspond with the +time of the probable collection of the taxes out of which the loans were +to be paid; and such, it may safely be assumed, was also the origin of +public debt in all countries. For a time these anticipations were +limited in their amounts to the actual value of the fund upon the credit +of which they were obtained, the loans were discharged according to +their terms, and the operation proved to be a great convenience to the +government without prejudice to any interest. It was not long, however, +before a practice, originally no other than a fair business transaction, +was perverted to screen men in power from the odium of enforcing +taxation to repay the principal sum borrowed. The disproportion between +the revenues to be received and the anticipations successively charged +upon them soon became too great to leave the government able to pay both +principal and interest on the loans which its necessities required. Some +device was therefore desirable by which it would be enabled to replenish +the public coffers without a too great increase of taxation, which, for +obvious reasons, is always the peculiar aversion of those intrusted with +the management of public affairs. The plan adopted, in lieu of +anticipations of the revenue of the character I have described, was to +make loans upon the credit of the nation, re-imbursable at the pleasure +of the government, with special and adequate provisions for the payment +of the interest only, or to borrow money upon perpetual annuity +equivalent to the interest of the sum borrowed, government being at +liberty to redeem such annuity at any time by paying back the principal +sum, with authority also to borrow on annuities for terms of years and +for lives. These became thenceforth leading features in the English +funding system. + +These facilities proved amply sufficient for every exigency. The public +debt increased with unheard of rapidity under the influence and the +expenses of the wars in which England was successively engaged. In 1706, +when its foundation was laid, it amounted to but little more than five +millions sterling, and in 1777 it had increased to one hundred and +thirty-six millions sterling. Near the latter period the subjects of +public debt, the principles of the English funding system, and their +effects in all countries where they had been adopted, were brought to a +searching scrutiny by Adam Smith in his "Wealth of Nations," who +demonstrated from reason and experience that they had invariably +enfeebled every nation which had embraced them. He insisted that there +was scarcely an instance in which a public debt contracted and +established upon those principles had been fully paid, and that the +revenues of the countries subject to such incumbrances had been relieved +from the destructive effects of an irredeemable public debt, if relieved +at all, either by avowed bankruptcy or by pretended payments through +such artifices as adulterations of the coin, or raising its +denomination, or by reductions of the rate of interest. + +In 1786, four years before the introduction of Hamilton's funding +system, the public debt of England had already increased to +£276,000,000; and so rapid has been its subsequent growth that the +strictures and predictions of Adam Smith are at this day receiving their +confirmation in the existence of a national debt of more than +£800,000,000. By no people were these facts and circumstances, so far as +they had then transpired, better understood than by ours. They had +watched the condition of England, in regard to her increasing debt, +through the Revolutionary contest in the hope that she would be +compelled by the very extent of her indebtedness to stay the hand she +had uplifted to enslave them. It ought not therefore to have been a +matter of surprise to Hamilton and his associates, and cannot be to us +viewing these matters retrospectively, that his recommendation of a +funding system, upon the English plan, with a national bank as its +adjunct, as the first great measures of the new government, were +received by large portions, probably a majority, of the people, with so +much dissatisfaction and distrust of the motives in which the +recommendation had its origin--a distrust naturally produced by the +precipitate resort to the system of a nation against which the hostile +feelings of the war had not yet subsided, and which under that system, +in the estimation of many sober minded and sagacious men, was rapidly +sinking into the gulf of hopeless indebtedness. + +No necessity can now be perceived for the adoption at that moment of a +scheme of such magnitude as that which Hamilton proposed--one so well +calculated to excite jealousy, and against which the warning voice of +experience had become so audible. The existing debt, sacred as the price +of liberty and entitled to all solicitude for its satisfactory +discharge, was not, in view of the increased resources of the +Government, either very large or, in any other event than a failure in +the payment of interest, ineligibly situated, or in any great danger of +soon becoming impracticable or oppressive. The foreign debt then stood +at eleven millions, the principal payable by moderate instalments, the +last of which, not due till 1808, was never, save a small portion of the +French debt, actually funded, and was paid off during the administration +of Mr. Madison. The domestic debt of the United States amounted to forty +millions, which Secretary Hamilton thought might fairly be regarded as +payable at the pleasure of the Government. The interest and instalments +as they fell due were therefore the principal subjects to be dealt with. + +The change which had at last been effected in the Constitution, securing +to the Federal head full power to levy and collect all necessary +revenue, and the prospects of an improving trade and increasing +prosperity in every branch of business gave of themselves to the +Government a good right to anticipate an improvement in the public +credit sufficient to enable it to make direct loans abroad upon fair +terms, payable at specific and reasonable periods, as had been before +done without these advantages. On the avails of these, with the surplus +of an increasing revenue over and above the six hundred thousand +dollars, which was all that was asked for the support of Government in +other respects than the payment of debts, the Secretary might, it would +seem, have safely relied to meet accruing demands on account of the +public debt. It is well known that such favorable effects resulted from +the change which had taken place in the Government and our credit abroad +was so greatly improved that loans which had before been obtained with +difficulty and in a considerable degree through favor, and in part by +means of specific guaranties, were now sought after and taken with +avidity in Amsterdam and Antwerp. The friends of the Secretary, and +those who favored his policy, naturally claimed that this favorable +change was due to his report, and to the acts that were passed in +pursuance of his recommendation. A portion of the effects produced may +have been attributable to this cause, but it was rendered quite clear +that the improvement could not be thus explained as to Holland, where a +large part of our foreign debt was held and to which country the whole +was soon transferred, by the facts that her bankers not only continued +to lend freely to our Government in the old way, upon direct loans, +payable at specific periods,--principal and interest,--but expressly +declined, as did also our creditors in Antwerp, to accept our proposal +for converting the debts due upon loans of that character into a funded +domestic stock. + +The whole of our foreign debt in Holland, that which was due at the time +of the passage of the act establishing the funding system as well as +that which was subsequently contracted there and at Antwerp, and the +principal part of that held elsewhere, was paid to the entire +satisfaction of the creditors by the means I have described, and +without being funded. The domestic debt, the least difficult or delicate +to deal with, would doubtless have been seasonably and satisfactorily +discharged in the same way, if General Hamilton had not, at an early +age, imbibed an opinion, which he never changed, that a permanent +national debt was an advantage to any country, and likely to be +particularly useful in a confederacy like ours. That such was his +sincere opinion there cannot be the slightest doubt, and that he +contemplated a public debt here of a character as permanent as that was +likely to be which then existed in England is fairly to be inferred from +his acts. + +Hamilton's mind was from a very early period turned to politics, and of +political subjects that of finance was from the beginning the favorite +theme of his meditations, among the most prominent results of which was +a conviction that of the agencies necessary to good government, whatever +might be its form, there were none more useful than a well funded public +debt and a judiciously constructed national bank. At the early age of +twenty-three, whilst filling a post of subordinate rank in the army, he +addressed an anonymous communication (as I have before mentioned) to +Robert Morris, whose mind was inclined in the same direction, and who +was extensively employed in the management of fiscal affairs, enforcing +with much ability his favorite ideas. Some of the contents of this +communication are given in the "Life of Hamilton" by his son. In a +subsequent letter to the same gentleman, he argues in support of kindred +positions. In his report upon public credit he advances the same +favorable opinion, and in substantially the same language, of the +effects of the particular debt he proposed to fund upon terms which +promised perpetuity. He did, it is true, accompany the latter +declaration with a protest against the latitude, inviting to +prodigality, which was sometimes given to the idea of the utility of a +public debt, and with a recommendation in favor of the establishment of +a sinking fund, and other reservations and qualifications, couched in +the guarded terms usually employed by able men in state papers upon +controverted public questions. But the report contained nothing +inconsistent with the idea of keeping on foot a national debt as long as +it did not become "too large,"--a condition that could scarcely fail to +give way to the supposed exigencies of the moment,--and the farther +condition of an indispensable necessity for its continuance never found +a place in his reports or weight in his opinions. On the contrary, the +advantages of a national debt in preparing the people for those periods +of oppressive assessment to which all nations are occasionally exposed, +by constantly levying a reasonable tax to discharge interest, a +principal reason in favor of a public debt assigned in his letter to +Morris; the utility and convenience of having always at hand a band +whose special interest in the stability of the government would promptly +rally them to its support,--an idea never long absent from Hamilton's +mind; the benefits which the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial +interests would derive from the funding of seventy millions of debt in +the form and upon the principles he proposed, giving to it the capacity +of being "substituted for money" and increasing by that amount the +floating capital, and to a great extent the circulating medium of the +country; the beneficial influence of a funded debt in raising the value +of land, in proof of which the experience of England is cited, besides +supplying those important classes with means to improve and enlarge +their respective pursuits, and increasing those facilities by reducing +the rate of interest, constituted the arguments and persuasions set +forth in glowing and captivating terms in his reports, and though not +necessarily confined to a _permanent_ national debt, indicate very +clearly, to my mind at least, that it was such a debt that he had in +view. + +The uses to which the sinking fund had been applied in England and its +inefficiency in the reduction of the national debt were well understood +by the Secretary. The explanations of its greater efficacy here in after +times will be given in another place. They had no connection with the +views that were prevalent in the councils of the nation at the moment of +which we are speaking. Every act of the Secretary was in keeping with +the inference I have stated. In addition to the principle he proposed as +the basis of his system, which, if not perpetual funding in express +terms, postponed redemption to so remote and indefinite a period as to +render it next to certain that it would never occur, there were other +circumstances scarcely less confirmatory of the assumption that such was +his intention. + +The stand taken by Hamilton in the provision he proposed and which was +adopted for a portion of the domestic debt had a great influence in +creating the impression that his funding system had other than fiscal +objects in view. His opponents not thinking either that system or the +bank necessary for the public service--an opinion vindicated and +sustained by subsequent experience--readily attributed the strong desire +manifested for their establishment to political designs on the part of +their author. Jefferson denounced the financial scheme as a "puzzle to +exclude popular understanding and inquiry, and a machine for the +corruption of the Legislature." In aid of the latter charge, besides +going at least some length to sustain the imputation of Hamilton's +desire for an unnecessary increase of the public debt, came these facts: +A large proportion of the domestic debt consisted of certificates of +indebtedness given by the United States to the soldiers who fought our +battles, and to the farmers, manufacturers, and merchants who furnished +supplies for their support. These had been given because the Government +had no money, but under promises of speedy payment. The holders were +frequently driven by their necessities, and by misrepresentations in +respect to the chances of payment, to part with them for trifling +amounts. Had the matter stopped there, however much regretted and +condemned, it might not have attracted the notice which was taken of it. +But when Hamilton proposed to put the original holders and the +fraudulent purchasers of these certificates upon the same footing, and +when it became known to the members of Congress, which sat with closed +doors, that the bill would pass in that shape, every part of the country +was overrun by speculators, sped by horse and packet expresses, buying +up large portions of the certificates still held by those to whom they +were originally given at the rate of five shillings and, in some +instances, of two shillings and sixpence in the pound. It was never +doubted that members of Congress and their particular friends +participated in these speculations, and realized large sums by the +certificates being funded at their nominal amounts. When the bill came +up, several gentlemen, who afterwards became prominent members of the +Republican party, earnestly supported a proposition to make a +composition between the original holders and the assignees of these +papers, allowing to the latter the highest prices they had ever brought +in the market, and settling with the former for the residue. Such an +arrangement might have been effected without embarrassment to the +treasury by satisfactory grants of public lands, and the amount of debts +might have been thus materially reduced. Mr. Madison in a sensible +speech supported the justice of some such composition; but the friends +of the Secretary in Congress, some of them interested in the result, +carried the measure which had been elaborately argued in advance by +Hamilton, in his report, and by which the whole was awarded to the +speculators. The entire transaction caused deep disgust in the minds of +many who felt solicitous for the purity of the Government, and not a few +believed that the scramble which ensued was foreseen and counted upon as +a source of influence to enlist Congress on the side of the +administration. Their hostility to a system susceptible, as they +thought, of such practices, was of course greatly inflamed. + +The construction thus placed upon the Secretary's course received its +strongest confirmation from his proposal and untiring efforts for the +assumption of the State debts. The first object of a prudent financier +would seem to be to keep the debt he has to deal with at the lowest +practicable point. Hamilton, on the contrary, whilst struggling with +embarrassments in respect to the debts for which the United States were +legally bound, upon the largest portion of which many years of interest +had been suffered to accumulate, proposed to increase the liability +twenty-five millions by the voluntary assumption of debts which the +Federal Government was under no obligations to pay; an assumption not +only unsolicited on the part of the indebted States, but to which there +was the best reason for believing that several among them would be +opposed. The special representatives of the latter in the Senate, where +the proposition originated, so earnestly contested it that the clause of +the bill to carry it into effect could only be passed by a majority of +two, was in the first instance rejected in the House of Representatives +against the united influences of the administration, and could only be +reconsidered and barely carried by means of a discreditable intrigue to +which the Secretary and Mr. Jefferson, as the latter has acknowledged +with shame and contrition, were parties. + +The reasons assigned by Hamilton for this forced assumption of a debt +which had never been audited, and the amount of which they were obliged +to guess at, though framed with his usual ability, cannot, I should +think, he now regarded as sufficient to justify the step. The weight +which they might by any be supposed to possess was overbalanced by the +obvious unconstitutionality of the measure. It adopted as well the debts +of the States which, upon the final settlement between them and the +United States, were found in debt to the latter, as of those which +proved to have balances in their favor, and was therefore a loan by the +Federal Government to the former class of States, made under the power +in the Constitution authorizing Congress to borrow money. + +This measure, like that which preceded it, was well calculated to +strengthen the suspicion with which the minds of his opponents became +thoroughly imbued, that Hamilton in all his measures had in view the +advancement of partisan objects, from its peculiar adaptation to the +promotion of a leading point in his whole policy,--that of weakening +State authority and strengthening that of the General Government at +their expense. The distinctness and strength of expression with which +this policy was avowed by him, in papers published by his son, have +already been seen. Among the means suggested was the adoption of +measures by which the attention of the people might be diverted from the +State governments, upon which it was thought to be too intensely fixed, +and turned towards the Federal head, and by which their passions might +be excited and turned in the same channel. What single measure could +exert greater influence in giving effect to this policy or show more +strikingly the hand of a master than that by which the intense and +constant solicitude of the holders of twenty-five millions of debts, +scattered, in comparatively small sums, through the different States, +and embracing, it is fair to presume, the most active of their citizens, +was turned from the local authorities to the Federal Government, first +for the settlement of the amount, and next for the payment of their +demands,--by which the States themselves became liable for the amounts +so paid to a Government which, certainly in some of its departments, +regarded them as rival not to say dangerous powers, and by which also +the disreputable scramble for those debts, commenced in the case of the +certificates of the United States, would be revived. + +The conflicting views entertained upon these subjects by Hamilton and +Jefferson soon assumed the form of a distinct and well defined issue +between the friends and political followers of each,--the former +composing the Federal party, and the latter constituting elements of +which the Republican party, then in embryo, was formed. Hamilton's +doctrine, and for a season the avowed creed of his party, was that there +were advantages in the existence of a national debt which more than +counter-balanced any evils that might arise from its unnecessary +continuance, and this faith shaped the whole course of their action upon +the subject. Its subjection to the operations of a sinking fund, and the +qualification that the amount of the debt should be kept within proper +limits, were of course features in their platform. Estimating the +results of the former here by its efficiency in England, and instructed +by the experience of all nations that restraints upon the accumulation +of debt, however solemnly imposed, are of no account with applicants for +grants from the public treasury, and unhappily little more respected by +men in power when the importunities of friends and supporters are +brought in competition with the interests of posterity, it was not +difficult to foresee the futility of these conditions. Mr. Jefferson, on +the contrary, from the beginning regarded a public debt as a "mortal +canker" from which it was the duty of the Government to relieve the +country at the earliest practicable moment, and in this spirit he and +his friends acted throughout. + +The subject of Finance had not at that early period been made as +familiar to the American mind as it has since become, and the genius of +Hamilton and the sanction of Washington, which his plans were supposed +to receive, were well calculated to discourage opposition to them. But +many of those who disapproved of his course were not to be moved from +what they regarded as the line of duty by any considerations personal to +themselves. They resisted Hamilton's financial schemes from the start, +and it was in the discussions upon this issue that some, who +subsequently became famous leaders in the old Republican party, fleshed +their maiden swords. No two measures ever attracted a larger share of +the attention of the American people, excited more deeply their feelings +and their apprehensions, or exerted a greater influence upon the +politics of this country than did the funding system and the first Bank +of the United States. The peculiar results of the contest that was waged +in respect to them will be noticed hereafter. + +Hamilton had done much by their establishment and organization to +strengthen the Federal arm, and proportionately to weaken the State +governments, but the influence he derived from these measures was not +sufficiently operative upon several classes whom he desired to +conciliate. The wished for impression had been made upon the commercial +class,--at all times a powerful body and by the nature of their pursuits +inclined to favor strong governments, banks, and funding systems,--upon +the domestic creditors of the General Government, upon the creditors of +the several State governments, upon all who had a passion for gambling +in stocks, to whose appetites he furnished so much aliment,--a numerous, +crafty, and influential portion of almost every community,--and upon all +who wanted to borrow or had money to lend, a class still more numerous. +Besides these, whom Mr. Canning called the "train-bands of commerce," in +general the most dangerous to encounter and the most efficient when at +his service, there were still larger interests, and in the aggregate +more powerful, upon whom the Secretary desired to make similar +impressions and to secure their attachment to his system. + +In August, 1791, whilst concocting the measures by which he hoped to +secure the support of these, and flushed by the success which had +hitherto crowned his efforts, he thus (as I have already quoted) +addressed his great rival, Mr. Jefferson:-- + +"I own," said he, "it is my opinion, though I do not publish it in Dan +or Beersheba, that the present Government is not that which will answer +the ends of society, by giving stability and protection to its rights, +and that it will probably be found expedient to go into the British +form; however, since we have undertaken the experiment, I am for giving +it a fair course, whatever my expectations may be. The success, indeed, +so far, is greater than I had expected, and therefore at present success +seems more possible than it had done heretofore, and there are still +other and other stages of improvement, which, if the present does not +succeed, may be tried and ought to be tried before we give up the +republican form altogether." + +First in the order of time among "the other and other stages of +improvement" with which the prolific mind of the Secretary was busied, +were doubtless those embraced in his "Report on Manufactures" which made +its appearance four months afterwards, and was probably then in course +of preparation. It contains more than a hundred folio pages, in print, +and is perhaps the most thoroughly elaborated and artfully devised state +paper to be found in the archives of any country. Manufactures were +alone spoken of in the title, but it embraced every species of industry +that offered the slightest chance of being successfully prosecuted in +the United States, and contained a very full and carefully considered +exposition of their respective conditions, and of the facilities by +which their success might be increased, to extend which to those +diversified interests it undertook to show was within the power and the +duty of the Government. This report, on account of the striking +illustration it affords of the progress of parties, and the powerful +influence it exerted upon their fate, is well entitled to the fullest +notice. But it is not possible within the limits I have prescribed to +myself to go as fully into the review of such a paper as justice to the +subject would require. I must therefore content myself with an abridged +account of the various branches of industry the advancement of which was +the design of its author, and of the manner in which he proposed to +accomplish his object. + +The manufactured articles which he specified as fit subjects for +governmental aid were those made of skins, of iron, of wood, of flax and +hemp, bricks, coarse tiles, and potters' wares, ardent spirits and malt +liquors, writing and printing paper, hats, refined sugars, oils of +animals and seeds, soap and candles, copper and brass wares, tin wares, +carriages of all kinds, snuff, chewing and smoking tobacco, starch, +lampblack and other painters' colors, and gunpowder. This enumeration +was followed by a detailed statement of the great variety of articles +embraced in the general denominations. Besides these, which he said had +attained a considerable degree of maturity, there was a vast sum of +household manufacturing which was made not only sufficient for the use +of the families that made them but for sale also, and in some instances +for exportation, and consisted of great quantities of coarse cloths, +coatings, serges, and flannels, linsey-woolseys, hosiery of wool, cotton +and thread, coarse fustians, jeans and muslins, checked and striped +cotton and linen goods, bedticks, coverlets and counterpanes, tow +linens, coarse shirtings, sheetings, toweling, and table linen, and +various mixtures of wool and cotton, and of cotton and flax. + +These observations were, he said, the pleasing result of the +investigation into which the subject of his report had led, and were +applicable to the Southern as well as to the Middle and Northern States. +He also designated the principal raw materials of which these +manufactures were composed, and which were, or were capable of being, +raised or produced by ourselves. These were iron, copper, lead, fossil +coal, wool, skins, grain, flax and hemp, cotton, wool, silk, &c., &c. + +The Secretary contended that the growth and production of all the +articles last named were, in common with the manufactures of which they +constituted the raw material, entitled to the encouragement _and +specific aid of the Federal Government_. + +He next pointed out the various modes in which that aid might be +afforded, varying its application according to circumstances; viz.: + +1st. By _protecting duties_. + +2d. By _prohibition_ of rival articles, or duties equivalent to +prohibition. + +3d. By _prohibition of the exportation_ of the _materials_ of +manufactures. + +4th. By _pecuniary bounties_. + +5th. By _premiums_. + +6th. By _exemption_ of _the materials_ of _manufactures from duties_. + +7th. By _drawbacks_ of duties on the same materials. + +8th. By _encouragement_ of new inventions at home and the _introduction_ +of others from abroad. + +9th. By _judicious regulations_ for the _inspection_ of manufactured +commodities. + +10th. By facilitating pecuniary remittances; and, + +11th. By facilitating the transportation of commodities _by roads and +canals_. + +Of the power of the Federal Government to promote the objects spoken of +by the means suggested, with two exceptions, he said there could be no +doubt. The exceptions were the encouragement of new inventions and the +facilities to transportation by roads and canals. In respect to the +specific execution of these measures he confessed and regretted that +there was some doubt. But to the power of giving aid, so far as that +could be done by the application of money, he insisted that there was no +exception: "Whatever concerns the general interest of learning, of +agriculture, of manufactures, and of commerce are" he said, "within the +sphere of the national concerns _as far as regards an application of +money_;" and he proposed, first, to raise a fund out of the surplus of +additional duties laid and appropriated to replace defalcations +proceeding from the abolition or diminution of duty diverted for +purposes of protection, which he thought would be more than adequate for +the payment of _all bounties_ which should be decreed; and, _secondly_, +to constitute a fund for the operations of a board to be established for +promoting _arts_, _agriculture_, _manufactures_, and _commerce_. To this +Board he proposed to give power to apply the funds so raised to defray +the expenses of the emigration of artists and manufacturers in +particular branches of extraordinary importance; to induce the +prosecution and introduction of useful discoveries, inventions, and +improvements by proportionate rewards, judiciously held out and applied; +to encourage by premiums, both honorable and lucrative, the exertions of +individuals and classes in relation to the several objects they were +charged with promoting; and to afford such other aids to those objects +as might be generally designated by law;--adding to all this that it +often happens that the capitals employed are not equal to the purposes +of bringing from abroad workmen of a superior kind, and that here, in +cases worthy of it, the auxiliary agency of Government would in all +probability be useful. There are also valuable workmen in every branch +who are prevented from emigrating solely by the want of means. +Occasional aids to such persons, properly administered, might be, he +suggested, the source of valuable acquisitions to the country. + +The thorough and minute consideration bestowed on its numerous details, +the well sustained consistency of the argument with the principles upon +which it was founded, the felicity and clearness with which its author's +views were expressed, and the evidence it furnished of well directed and +comprehensive research, stamp this remarkable document as the ablest +state paper that proceeded from his pen during the whole of his +political career. But able as it was, it yet, as we shall see when we +recur to the action of parties, contributed more than all that he had +before done to the prostration of the political standing of its author +and to the overthrow of his party. Its bold assumptions of power and the +jubilant spirit in which they were expressed afforded the clearest +indications, as well to his opponents as to the country, that he +regarded his victory over the Constitution as complete. He spoke of the +national legislature, unhesitatingly and as one having authority, as +possessing, in virtue of the construction of the Constitution he had +established, all the power with very limited exceptions which he +insisted in the Convention ought to be given to it. + +Mr. Jefferson denounced the recommendations of the report to President +Washington with great warmth and earnestness. He described it as going +far beyond any pretensions to power under the Constitution which had yet +been set up, and as a document to which many eyes were turned as one +which was to let us know whether we lived under a limited or an +unlimited government.[21] + + [21] 4 Jefferson's _Correspondence_, p. 457. + +But the views of the Secretary of the Treasury in the establishment of +the policy of which we have been speaking have as yet been but +imperfectly described. They had a breadth and an extent of which +superficial observers had no idea. The increased strength the General +Government derived from turning towards itself so many and such active +men as the holders and purchasers of the public debt, State and +National, and the influence which the patronage attached to his +financial scheme would give to the existing administration, were both +important, and doubtless entered into Hamilton's designs. The views of +common minds might well have been limited to such acquisitions. But +these results fell far short of Hamilton's anticipations. His partiality +for the English system, it is natural to presume, arose in some degree +from his birth and early training; but study and reflection, I am +inclined to think, had quite as much to do with bringing his mind to the +conclusions it cherished with so much earnestness. Among the public men +of his day there was not one who appears to have devoted a larger share +of his time to examinations into and meditation upon public affairs. +There was not one who wrote more or with more ease upon the subjects of +government in general and public financial questions in particular. +Almost every thing he said and wrote and did, in these respects, went to +show that the elements of power by which the English government had been +raised from a crude and in some degree impracticable condition to the +seemingly palmy state at which it had arrived when his successive +reports were made had been justly reviewed and thoroughly considered by +him. The result of this survey was a conviction that for the favorable +changes, as he regarded them, which had taken place in the condition of +England she was more indebted to the operation of her bank and funding +system than to any other cause. These, like his corresponding systems, +had been originally formed for the accomplishment of immediate and +limited objects. His were avowedly to revive and to uphold our sinking +public credit; theirs, to relieve the government established by the +Revolution of 1688 from its dependence upon the landed aristocracy for +its revenues, and to secure the acquisition of ample means to defray the +expenses of the war in which England was at the time involved. From such +beginnings these principal measures, aided by kindred and affiliated +establishments of which they were the parents, had with astonishing +rapidity developed a great political power in the state, soon and ever +since distinguished from its associates in the government of the country +as the MONEY POWER,--a power destined to produce greater changes in the +workings of the English system than had been accomplished by the +Revolution itself. + +The rival powers of the state had down to that period consisted of the +crown and the landed aristocracy. The measures out of which the money +power was constructed were designed, as has been stated, to render the +former, restored to greater favor with the nation by the Revolution, +more independent of the latter than it had hitherto been. This new power +had not only performed its duty in that regard, acting in the capacity +of umpire between the crown and the landed aristocracy, (the latter +before so omnipotent,) but had at times found itself able to control the +action of both through the influence of public opinion, to which it had +given a vitality and force it never before possessed. + +Mr. Bancroft, in his able history of the United States, has given a +condensed and I have no doubt a very correct account of the rise and of +a part of the progress of the money power in England, as they are +presented by her historians. His entire remarks upon the subject are +full of interest and instruction, and I regret that I am obliged to +restrict myself to the following extract:--"Moreover, as the expenses of +wars soon exceeded the revenue of England, the government prepared to +avail itself of the largest credit which, not the accumulations of +wealth only, but the floating credits of commerce, and the funding +system could supply. The price of such aid was political influence. That +the government should, as its paramount policy, promote commerce, +domestic manufactures, and a favorable balance of trade; that the +classes benefited by this policy should sustain the government with +their credit and their wealth, was the reciprocal relation and +compromise on which rested the fate of parties in England. The floating +credits of commerce, aided by commercial accumulations, soon grew +powerful enough to balance the landed interest; stock aristocracy +competed with feudalism. So imposing was the spectacle of the +introduction of the citizens and of commerce as the arbiter of +alliances, the umpire of factions, the judge of war and peace, that it +roused the attention of speculative men: that at last Bolingbroke, +claiming to speak for the landed aristocracy, described his opponents, +the Whigs, as the party of the banks, the commercial corporations, and +'in general, the moneyed interest;' and the gentle Addison, espousing +the cause of the burghers, declares nothing to be more reasonable than +that 'those who have engrossed the riches of the nation should have the +management of its public treasure, and the direction of its fleets and +armies.' In a word the old English aristocracy was compelled to respect +the innovating element embodied in the moneyed interest."[22] + + [22] 3 Bancroft's _History of the United States_, p. 8. + +The full establishment here of a similar power, by attaching to the bank +and funding systems the political influence they had acquired in +England, was, beyond all doubt, the "other and still other stages of +improvement" alluded to by Hamilton in his encouraging conversation with +Jefferson, in which he expressed a hope, for the first time, that the +inadequacy of the Constitution might yet be overcome, and the necessity +of returning to the English _form_ be at least postponed. That the +leading supporters of his policy at least understood and entered into +Hamilton's views will be seen in the following extract from a letter +written to him by Fisher Ames, which will be found in the first volume +of Randall's "Life of Jefferson," at p. 638: "All the influence of the +moneyed men ought to be wrapped up in the Union (Federal Government) and +in one Bank," &c. + +Of the three great elements of power under the English system--the +crown, the landed aristocracy, and the moneyed interest--Hamilton +regarded the latter, I have no doubt, as the most salutary even in +England. There was little in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of the +kingly office, and still less in the feudal grandeur of a landed +aristocracy, to captivate a mind like his; he advocated the monarchical +form for special reasons of a very different character, and these he +assigned in the Convention. Indeed, he all but expressed this +preference when he said to John Adams,--"Strike out of the English +system its corruptions and you make the government an impracticable +machine." Corruption in some form being the means by which the money +power ordinarily exerts its influence, Hamilton was not slow in +foreseeing the advantages to be derived from that power in the United +States. It is true that the influence it exerted in England was liberal +in its character, and beneficial, at least in its political bearings, to +the middle classes. We have seen that one object and a principal effect +of its establishment was to reduce the overshadowing influence of the +landed aristocracy which existed so long and exerted a sway so imperious +over the country--an object in the accomplishment of which the members +of the "stock aristocracy" were, in all probability, not a little +stimulated by recollections of their past exclusions not only from all +participation in the management of public affairs, but also from many +social distinctions. The landed aristocracy of England is composed of a +race of men superior in manly virtues and consistency of character to +similar classes in other countries, but notwithstanding these undeniable +and commendable traits they are, by force of their condition and by the +law of their minds, in a great degree the result of that condition, +unwilling to extend to their unprivileged fellow-subjects that equality +in public and private rights to which we republicans consider them +justly entitled. In this respect there is no difference between them, be +they Whigs or Tories,--their first duty being, in the estimation of +both, to "stand by their order." It is equally true that it did not +comport with Hamilton's policy to promote the establishment of any power +here the influence of which would enure to the increase and security of +political power in the people, and that, to answer his purposes, the +results of the operations of the money power here must be the reverse +of what they were in England. He was too well versed in politics and +parties not to know that the action of every political organization in a +state takes its direction from the character and condition of its +principal rival, and that all have their rivals. If one is not found to +exist they will soon make one, for such is the natural operation of +political parties in any degree free. + +We differed greatly from England in the condition and political aspect +of affairs; we had no monarchical institutions, no landed aristocracy to +excite the rivalry and opposition of the money power. It was itself, on +the contrary, destined, when firmly established, to become whatever of +aristocracy could co-exist with our political system. Its natural +antagonist would be the democratic spirit of the country,--that spirit +which had been the lion in Hamilton's path from the beginning, the dread +of which had destroyed his usefulness and blasted the fair prospects +that were presented to the youthful patriot,--that spirit which he +doubtless sincerely believed adverse to order, and destitute of due +respect for the rights of property. It was to keep down this spirit that +he desired the establishment of a money power here which should stand by +the Government as its interested ally, and support it against popular +disaffection and tumult. He well understood that, if he accomplished +that desire, they would soon become the principal antagonistic +influences on our political stage. He knew also, what was not less +satisfactory to his feelings, that if the anticipations, not to say +hopes, which he never ceased to entertain, should be realized, of the +presentation of a fair opportunity for the introduction of his favorite +institutions without too great a shock to public feeling; there could be +no class of men who would be better disposed to second his views than +those whose power in the state he had so largely contributed to +establish. To be allied to power, permanent, if possible, in its +character and splendid in its appendages, is one of the strongest +passions which wealth inspires. The grandeur of the Crown and of the +landed aristocracy affords a fair vent to that in England. Here, where +it is deprived of that indulgence, it maintains a constant struggle for +the establishment of a moneyed oligarchy, the most selfish and +monopolizing of all depositories of political power, and is only +prevented from realizing its complete designs by the democratic spirit +of the country. + +Hamilton succeeded for a season in all his wishes. He established the +money power upon precisely the same foundations upon which it had been +raised in England. He founded a political school the implied alliance +between which and the Government was similar to that which was formed +between the money power in England and the Revolutionary Government in +1688. A party adhering inflexibly to the leading principle of that +school had survived his own overthrow, is still in existence, and will +continue to exist as long as ours remains a free Government, and as long +as the characters and dispositions of men remain what they are. To +combat _the democratic spirit_ of the country was the object of its +original establishment, an object which it has pursued with unflagging +diligence, by whatever name it may have been designated. + +Having brought the general subject to this point it is due to truth and +justice that I should, before I proceed farther, refer to considerations +connected with Hamilton's motives which have been already but casually +and partially noticed. + +In all his steps he was doubtless influenced at bottom by a sincere +desire to promote the good of his country, and as little by personal +views as ordinarily falls to the lot of man. A riveted conviction that +the masses were destitute of a sufficient love of order and respect for +private rights, with an entire distrust, consequently, of their capacity +for self-government, lay at the foundation of his whole course,--a +course which the matured judgment of the country has definitively +condemned as to both teacher and doctrine. Subsequent experience of long +duration has shown, as I have remarked already, that the dispositions of +our people are eminently conservative in respect to public order and the +rights of property; exceptions to the general rule have been witnessed +here as well as elsewhere, but they have been of very limited duration +and seldom the cause of much mischief. There have been few if any +countries that have been more fortunate in this regard. + +I have also spoken of Hamilton's preference for monarchical +institutions, upon evidence of which I have not felt myself at liberty +to doubt. But it is due to the memory of that distinguished man that we +should speak of his disposition in that respect with more precision than +might be deemed necessary in other cases. To assume that he was a friend +to monarchy as it existed in England in the times of the Stuarts and +their predecessors would be doing him gross injustice. No man in the +country, in his day, respected less the absurd dogma of the divine right +of kings, or regarded with more contempt the reverence paid by gaping +crowds to the pomp and pageantry of royalty and to the carefully guarded +relics and reliquaries of the hoar institution of monarchy, than +Alexander Hamilton. He was, beyond all doubt, entirely sincere when he +said, in the Federal Convention, that he "was as zealous an advocate for +liberty as any man whatsoever, and trusted he would be as willing a +martyr to it, though he differed as to the form in which it was most +eligible;" and had he been a fellow-subject and contemporary of Russell, +and Sydney, and Hampden, we may believe that he would have proved +himself as prompt as either to make sacrifices equal to theirs in +resistance to arbitrary power. Expectations of personal advantages +through the favor of royalty did not enter into the formation of his +opinions. It was monarchy as modified and re-established by the +Revolution of 1688 that was the object of Hamilton's preference. In the +same speech from which I have just quoted he gave with manly candor his +reasons for believing that the English model presented the fairest +chance of any system then extant for the selection of a good executive. +He contrasted the probable advantages in this regard between a chief +magistrate selected, in the first instance, by Parliament and continued +by descent, and one elected by the people for a limited period, and +frankly argued in favor of the former. His opinion was mainly controlled +by that want of confidence in the capacity of the people for +self-government which he never hesitated to acknowledge, and which, as I +have said, lay at the foundation of his political views. But it was not +the king, as such, that he sought after, but a competent chief +magistrate; and he advocated monarchical institutions only because he +thought them the most likely to produce such an one. In a speech +delivered by him in the New York Ratification Convention, which bears +the stamp of his own revision, he said, "It is an undeniable truth that +the body of the people in every country sincerely desire its prosperity, +but it is equally unquestionable that they do not possess the +discernment and stability necessary for systematic government." He never +exhibited a preference for monarchy in the abstract; no one ever heard +him express a partiality for or an attachment to this or that royal +family save as their acts were more or less meritorious, and I cannot +think that such considerations ever swayed his course. He treated the +question not as one of personal preference, but as one involving the +chances of good government. In deciding this question he may have erred, +and few in our country can deny or seriously doubt that he did greatly +err; but it was a question that he had a right to entertain, more +especially at the formation of the Government, and one in respect to +which, his opinion having been honestly formed, error could not fairly +be made the subject of reproach. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Excitement of the Public Mind caused by Hamilton's Measures--Great + Men brought thus into the Political Field--The Preponderance of + leading Politicians and Commercial Classes on the side of + Hamilton--Not so with the Landed Interest--Character of Farmers and + Planters of the United States--Position of the Landed Interest + toward the Anti-Federal Party and toward Hamilton's System--Success + in maintaining its Principles greater in the Southern than in the + Northern States and the Causes thereof--The Landed Interest the + Fountain of the old Republican Party--Course of that Party toward + Washington and his Administration--Decline of the Federal + Party--Hamilton's Course in the Convention the most Brilliant and + Creditable of his Political Career--His Candor and Devotion to + Principle on that Occasion--His subsequent Loss of the Confidence + of the Friends of Republican Government--Coincidences and Contrasts + in the Public Lives of Hamilton and Madison--Their several + Contributions in the First Congress to the Promotion of the + Financial Branch of the Public Service--The Fate and the Fruits of + each--The Country chiefly indebted to them for the + Constitution--Their Treatment of it after its Adoption not the + same--The Provision authorizing Amendments necessary to save the + Constitution from Rejection--Memorials from New York and + Virginia--Dread of a New Convention on the Part of the + Federalists--Madison's Amendments--Consequences of their + Adoption--Character of Madison's Statesmanship--Different Courses + of Hamilton and Madison on Questions of Constitutional + Power--Unconstitutionality of Hamilton's Measures--His + Consciousness thereof--His Sense of the Obligations of Public + Men--His View of the Constitution as "a Temporary Bond of + Union"--Subsequent Change of Opinion, but Final Return in 1802 to + his Original View--Separation between him and Madison--"Sapping and + Mining Policy" of Hamilton--That Policy counteracted by the + Republican Party--Discrimination between Washington and Hamilton in + the Adoption of the latter's Policy--Probable Ground of + Washington's Official Approval of the Bank Bill--Subsequent similar + Position and Conduct of Madison--Instances of a like Transcending + of Constitutional Limits under a supposed Necessity, by Jefferson + and by Jackson--The Hamiltonian Rule of Construction discarded by + Washington in the case of his Veto of the First Apportionment + Bill--Portions of the Community liable to be attracted to + Hamilton's Policy--The Principles of that Policy inaugurated in + England in 1688--Extension of its Influence in this Country to + almost every Class but the Landed Interest--Points of Agreement and + of Difference between Hamilton and Politicians of his School in our + Time--Exceptions to the General Rule--Influence of the Money Power + in attracting Literary and Professional Men--Great Preponderance in + Numbers of Newspapers and Periodicals supporting the Views of the + Money Power over those devoted to the Advocacy of Democratic + Principles--The same Fact observable in Monarchical + Countries--Caucuses and Conventions not necessary to the Harmony of + the Federal Party--Sagacity indicated by Hamilton's System--The + Secret of its Failure in the Numerical Preponderance, often + underrated, of the Agricultural Class--The Policy best adapted to + succeed with our People is that of a Strict Construction of the + Constitution as to the Powers of the General Government--Such the + Successful Policy of Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson--Struggles of + the Money Power Ineffectual till crowned with Exceptional Success + in the Overthrow of Van Buren's Administration--Latitudinarianism + of Hamilton's School--John Quincy Adams elected as a Convert to the + Principles of the Republican Party--His early Disavowal of those + Principles, and the consequent Overthrow of his + Administration--Relative Power of the Landed Interest--The Safety + of our Institutions depends on the Right Convictions of the great + Agricultural Class--Growth of the Money Power in England--The + Political Influence of that Power Beneficent in Europe but + Injurious in the United States. + + +I have already spoken of the extent to which the public mind was excited +by Hamilton's measures. Large portions of the people regarded the most +prominent among them as violations of the Constitution, and most of them +as servile imitations of the English system, inexpedient in themselves +and contrary to the genius and spirit of our institutions. Their +arraignment and vindication brought into the political field the ablest +men of the country at a period when she abounded in great men. The +American Revolution accomplished here that which the French Revolution, +then at its commencement, and similar crises in all countries and times, +have brought about, namely, the production of great men by great events, +developing and calling into action upon a large scale intellects the +powers of which, but for their application to great transactions, might +have remained unknown alike to their possessors and to the world. Among +the master minds which were thus roused to political activity were +Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Patrick Henry, John +and Samuel Adams, John Jay, Chancellor Livingston, Gouverneur Morris, +George Clinton, Robert Yates, Chancellor Lansing, John Langdon, Elbridge +Gerry, Rufus King, Roger Sherman, John Dickinson, Speight and Williamson +and the Rutledges, Pinckneys, and Middletons of North and South +Carolina, Chace and Luther Martin of Maryland, Jackson, Few, and +Baldwin, of Georgia, John Mason, Marshall, Pendleton, and Wythe of +Virginia, and others; men, some of whom have under various circumstances +added celebrity to the best informed communities in the world and at one +of the brightest periods of the human intellect, and who, if they could +now be congregated, would eclipse the great men of any country. + +Hamilton's measures, of which the funding system was the pioneer, +presented their first field, after the adoption of the Federal +Constitution, for the display of their opinions and talents. They +supported in those grave discussions, with few exceptions, relatively +the same principles by which they had been influenced in respect to +federal politics during the government of the Confederation, by which +also they and men of their stamp had been governed under the colonial +system, and to which they would have adhered, in all probability, +throughout the intermediate period if they had not been driven into open +rebellion by the indiscriminate and intolerable oppression of a bigoted +tyrant, and by their own innate hatred of wrong and outrage, without +immediate regard to the government that should result from their +revolution. + +Jefferson was absent from the country during a large portion of the +government of the Confederation, and through the entire period of the +formation and adoption of the new Constitution. He sympathized +throughout with the feelings and concurred in the opinions of the +Anti-Federal party, with the exceptions that he was not opposed to +conferring on the Federal Government the powers to regulate commerce and +to raise its own revenues; was in favor of a convention for the +construction of a new constitution, and of the formation by that body of +a substantive and effective federal government, composed of legislative, +executive, and judicial departments; approved of the Constitution as +made, with modifications which were principally provided for by +amendments proposed and adopted, and was sincerely anxious for its +ratification. These things have, I know, been controverted and are still +disbelieved by many, but will be found fully established by references +to the following documents, viz.: Jefferson's "Correspondence," Vol. I. +p. 441; Vol. II. pp. 64, 162, 221, 236, 273, 303; Letter to Washington +expressing his anxiety for the adoption of the Constitution; p. 310, +some strong remarks in favor of it; p. 342, to Madison, congratulating +him on its adoption, and p. 348, to John Jay, to the same effect. + +Of Madison's character and general course I have already spoken. His +position at the period now under consideration differed from that of all +his contemporaries in the public service. He had supported all the +commercial and financial measures advocated by the Federal party during +the government of the Confederation, and had been as active, and I think +as efficient, as Hamilton in his efforts to promote the call of the +Federal Convention; had opposed, with ability and firmness, the +Anti-Federal plan of a Constitution; had, as far as we have knowledge of +Washington's opinions, acted in concert with him in the Convention, and +was first selected by him at a later period to prepare his Farewell +Address; had combined his labors with those of Hamilton and Jay to +promote the ratification of the Constitution by the well-known papers of +the "Federalist," and, upon the whole, had done more than any other man +to secure that great object. Yet there had been no time, as before +observed, when he could with propriety have been regarded as a member of +the Federal party, in the sense in which Hamilton, Adams, and Jay were +so regarded, or when he did not possess the confidence of the +Anti-Federal party, in respect to all public questions other than those +to which I have referred, and, what is still more remarkable, there was +not, during the whole of this period, a single occasion on which his +perfect probity and disinterestedness were not very generally felt and +acknowledged. + +Among the leading politicians of the epoch of which I speak, the +preponderance in numbers, in wealth, in social position, and possibly in +talent, was on the side of Hamilton; and when to these were added the +commercial and numerous other classes interested in and dependent upon +the money power then just rising into importance, an estimate may be +formed of his ability to give tone and direction to the state and to +society, and to cover with odium those who disapproved of his measures +by charging them with personal hostility to Washington, who so well +deserved the confidence and good will of all, and who enjoyed them to an +extent that led John Adams, at a much later day, to stigmatize the +deference paid to him as "impious homage." Hamilton wielded this great +power with tremendous effect, for, although his judgment in the +management of men was always deemed defective, he exerted, in the +promotion of his particular objects, talents and industry which could +not fail to produce great results. His activity and capacity for labor +were not equaled by any of his contemporaries save Madison; his powers +of persuasion and the effects of his eloquence were strikingly +exemplified by his success in making Mr. Jefferson believe, on his first +arrival at the seat of government from France, that the safety of the +Union depended upon the passage of the bill for the assumption of the +State debts, which had been at the moment rejected in the House of +Representatives by a majority of one or two, and in inducing him to +"hold the candle," as Jefferson afterwards described it, to a bargain by +which Messrs. White and Lee, Southern members, were prevailed upon to +vote for its reconsideration and passage on condition that Hamilton +would get the requisite number of Northern members to vote for the +establishment of the seat of the Federal Government on slave territory. +Jefferson gives an interesting account of the earnestness of Hamilton's +appeal to him on the subject, and of his own mortification and regret at +having been made a party to so exceptionable a transaction in support of +a measure he soon found the strongest reasons to condemn.[23] + + [23] Jefferson's _Correspondence_, Vol. 4. p. 449. + +The attention of every American community which possessed facilities for +foreign commerce or manufactures, or for any of the various pursuits +enumerated in his great report, and especially when they possessed also +superior skill and enterprise, was at once directed to Hamilton's scheme +of government for encouragement, and they certainly were not always +indisposed to accept the seductive offers held out to them. But +fortunately for the country and for the cause of good government there +was a class, happily formidable in numbers and in great and sterling +qualities, whom no wiles could win from their devotion to early +principles and whom government favors could not corrupt. That class was, +singularly enough, the landed interest. I say singularly, not because +their fidelity to principle was at variance with their history, but with +reference to the circumstance that, whilst in England it had been the +principal object in building up the money power to restrict the +influence of the landed interest, that power was here destined to be +itself kept in check by an interest of the same name, however different +in character. + +Mr. Jefferson in his celebrated letter to Mazzei, in 1796, gives a +description, which could not be improved, of the then political +condition of the country and of its political parties: "Against us," he +says, "are the executive, the judiciary, two out of three branches of +the Legislature, all the officers of the Government, all who want to be +officers, all timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the +boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants and Americans trading on +British capital, speculators and holders in the banks and public +funds,--a contrivance invented for the purpose of corruption, and for +assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well as the sound parts +of the British model. The whole body of our citizens, however, remain +true to their republican principles; the _whole landed interest is +republican_, and so is a great mass of talent." The term "landed +interest" in its general signification, and in the sense in which it was +used by Mr. Jefferson, referred to those who worked as well as owned the +land,--the farmers of the North and the planters of the South,--all who +made Agriculture their pursuit; a class which in the earlier periods of +our colonial condition constituted almost our entire population, and +have at every period in our history vastly exceeded in numbers those +engaged in all other pursuits. There is no point of resemblance between +them and the landed aristocracy of England, save in that they both +represent the landed interest of their respective countries and that +they were led in each to oppose the money power. Their difference in +other respects is sufficiently manifest. + +A more estimable class of men than the farmers and planters of the +United States is not to be found in the world. From the landing of the +Pilgrims to the present day they have exerted an effective and salutary +influence, not only upon the condition of the country, in respect to its +material improvement, but upon the character and strength of our +political institutions. It was to their sagacity and firmness that the +colonies were chiefly indebted for their success in turning away and +defeating the fury of the savages, and in baffling the persevering +efforts of the mother country to enslave the provinces. For the most +part the descendants of ancestors who had been, to an almost +unprecedented extent, exposed to the faithlessness and persecutions of +power, they seldom failed to be on their guard against its approaches, +however artfully disguised. Every attempt to purchase their acquiescence +in measures that they regarded as encroachments upon their liberties or +subversive of their rights, through governmental favors, proved +abortive. + +Grenville, when pressed, as prime minister, by the London merchants with +the dangers that threatened the collection of their American debts from +the effects of the stamp-tax, was prodigal in his offers of governmental +favors to secure the submission of the colonists to the odious measure. +"If one bounty," said he, "will not do, I will add two; if two will not +do, I will add three." But these offers, as well as all the efforts +which had been and were subsequently made by the Crown to quiet the +Colonies through bounties and commercial privileges, were unavailing. +The "landed interest," constituting a great majority of the colonists, +was too wise to be duped, and too honest to be corrupted, by special +favors of any description. Placed by the nature of their pursuits, in a +great measure, beyond the reach of court and official blandishments, and +less dependent on the special privileges of the Crown than those who +looked to them for their support, they uniformly regarded these offers +with distrust rather than desire. They had, from these and other +considerations, been led to embrace the principles upon which the +Revolution was founded with more earnestness, and to cherish them with a +more uncalculating devotion, than many of their Revolutionary +associates. The circumstance that a larger share of the defense of those +principles had devolved upon them, by reason of the excess of their +numbers, naturally commended more warmly to their hearts doctrines for +the establishment of which they had suffered so much inquietude and +encountered so many perils. + +These considerations were alike applicable to, and equally influential +upon, the landed interest of the North and of the South. With +attachments undiminished and unchangeable to republican principles, pure +and simple, subject to such limitations only as were required by +convenience in their execution and necessary to deliberation in council, +principles the fruition of which had been the day-dream of their +ancestors through successive generations, and their own guiding-star in +the gloomiest period of the Revolution, the representatives of this +great interest, North and South, by large majorities, sustained the +Anti-Federal party until that party was overthrown through its great +error in respect to the Constitution, and were still ready to take their +stand in any organization that should have for its object opposition to +the heresies developed by Hamilton in his platform for the government of +the administration. + +The principles upon which the landed interest acted from the start, +have, it must be admitted, been more successfully sustained in the +Southern than in the Northern States; not because they were originally +embraced with more sincerity, but from very different causes. The +commercial, manufacturing, and trading classes, to whom Hamilton's +policy was more particularly addressed, and upon whom it, beyond all +doubt, exerted a powerful influence, were, at the beginning, far more +numerous in the Northern than in the Southern States, and this disparity +in their respective conditions has been constantly increasing. It was +through the growing power of these classes, and of others similarly, +though perhaps not equally, exposed to its influence that the +Hamiltonian policy occasionally triumphed in the Northern States, and +their politics thus became more unstable than those of the South. + +Mr. Bancroft happily and truly describes the peculiar condition of +Southern men in this regard. "An instinctive aversion," says he, "to too +much government was always a trait of Southern character expressed in +the solitary manner of settling in the country, in the absence of +municipal governments, in the indisposition of the scattered inhabitants +to engage in commerce, to collect in towns, or to associate in townships +under corporate powers. As a consequence there was little commercial +industry; and on the soil of Virginia there were no vast accumulations +of commercial wealth. The exchanges were made almost entirely--and it +continued so for more than a century--by factors of foreign merchants. +Thus the influence of wealth, under the modern form of stocks and +accumulations of money, was always inconsiderable; and men were so +widely scattered--like hermits among the heathen--that far the smallest +number were within the reach of the direct influence of the established +Church or of Government."[24] + + [24] Bancroft's _Hist. United States_, Vol. II. p. 189. + +In this description of the early, which is also measurably and +comparatively true of the present, state of the South, we find a +solution of the circumstance that the failure of Hamilton's policy was +so much more signal there than in other quarters, and that the +principles upon which it was founded have there been since so +perseveringly and unitedly resisted. The political principles of the +landed interest, constituting an immense majority of their people, have +prevailed in the administration of their State governments, save in +regard to the ratification of the Federal Constitution, from the +recognition of our Independence to the present day. There has also been +a remarkable consistency in the political positions of their public men. +In Virginia, which State has done so much to give a tone to national +politics, Patrick Henry has been almost, if not quite, the only +prominent man who abandoned the principles by which he had been governed +during the Confederation, and embraced those of Hamilton at the coming +in of the new government. Always admiring his character and conduct +during the Revolutionary era, and strongly impressed by the vehemence +and consistency with which he had, during the government of the +Confederation, opposed every measure that savored of English origin, I +pressed Mr. Jefferson, as far as was allowable, for the reasons of his +sudden and great change. His explanation was, "that Henry had been +smitten by Hamilton's financial policy." + +The Republican party, forced into existence by Hamilton's obnoxious +measures, sprang chiefly from the landed interest. The declaration of +its illustrious founder, in his letter to Mazzei, that the country would +yet preserve its liberties, was mainly based on the fact that "the whole +landed interest was republican," and he could not have placed his +reliance on a surer foundation. Farthest removed, as has been already +said, from the seductive influence of the money power, abounding in +strong common sense and love of country, and always greatly superior in +numbers to the business men of all other classes, it constituted then, +and has ever since constituted, the balance wheel of the Government. All +it asks from administration is the maintenance of order, protection in +the enjoyment of its civil and political rights, and the management of +public affairs in a spirit of equal justice to all men. Whilst the +commercial and manufacturing classes are annually approaching the +National Legislature with appeals for aid and encouragement, and whilst +the Congressional committees charged with their interests are from time +to time convulsing the country with their measures, that which is +nominally the representative and guardian of agriculture not being asked +to do any thing for its support, very properly does nothing; having, +indeed, no power under the Constitution to do any thing for it, the +advantages of which are not common to all classes. What the farmers and +planters desire more than this are "the early and the latter rain," for +which they look to a source purer and more powerful than human +legislation. + +Thus sustained, the Republican party of 1790, headed by Thomas +Jefferson, with the 'laboring oar' in the hands of James Madison, warmed +into action by Jefferson's more fervent though not more deeply seated +patriotism, and embracing "a great mass of talent," determined to oppose +every measure of Washington's administration which they believed to be +unauthorized by the Constitution, or anti-republican in its tendencies. +This resolution was carried out with unflinching firmness, but, whatever +has been said to the contrary, was made and designed to be performed in +a manner consistent with the respect they entertained for the character +and feelings of President Washington, and without even a desire to +displace him from the high office with which they had contributed to +invest him. It would have been strange if, in a state of party violence +so excited as that which naturally sprung up, the dominant party should +have refrained from aspersing the motives of their opponents by +attributing to them personal hostility to a chief so justly beloved by +the people as was Washington. Mr. Jefferson, in his letter to me, +referring to similar charges but speaking of a subsequent period, says +"General Washington, after the retirement of his first cabinet and the +composition of his second, entirely Federal, and at the head of which +was Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both sides of +any question. His measures consequently took more the hue of the party +in whose hands he was. These measures were certainly not approved by the +Republicans; yet they were not imputed to him, but to the counselors +around him; and his prudence so far restrained their impassioned course +and bias that no act of strong mark during the remainder of his +administration excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time +after, and too much withdrawn from information to correct the views into +which he had been deluded, and the continued assiduities of the party +drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career, separated him +still farther from his real friends, and excited him to actions and +expressions of dissatisfaction which grieved them but could not loosen +their affections from him."[25] + + [25] See Appendix. + +Such charges were freely made and with unsparing bitterness; yet I +cannot but think that unprejudiced minds, if it is not too soon to +expect to find many such upon this subject, would, on a careful review +of facts, acquit the Republican party of them. Madcaps, and those who, +looking to party for their daily bread, hope to commend themselves by +extremes and by violence to those whom they sustain, are to be found in +all parties and should not be allowed to make those to which they attach +themselves responsible for their acts. Nothing has ever been adduced +that may fairly be regarded as the act of the Republican party which +proves the existence of the disposition charged against it in regard to +General Washington; and the single fact that, although its opposition +commenced three years before the expiration of his first term, there was +not the slightest effort made to prevent his reėlection, or the +exhibition of any desire to prevent it, is, of itself, sufficient to +refute the charge of personal unfriendliness toward him. Nor did the +Republicans desire to embarrass his administration beyond what was +inevitable from their opposition to measures which they regarded as +unconstitutional or in the highest degree inexpedient, of which the bank +and funding system were appropriate illustrations. + +The Federal party, without extraordinary or difficult attention and +care, might have preserved untarnished a character made respectable by +illustrious names and honorable history, notwithstanding the +overwhelming defeat to which it was subsequently exposed, and its +principles, however erroneous, might have stood a chance of restoration +to power in the course of those changes and overturns of men and things +to which public affairs and political parties have ever been subject. +Even error of opinion not unfrequently regains a lost ascendancy by +means of the perseverance and consistency with which it is adhered to, +and when the organization by which it has been upheld is maintained with +the fidelity and dignity that belong to a good cause. In all these +respects there was, on the part of the members of the Federal party, a +complete failure. They suffered its lead to fall into less respectable +hands, and its support to be lent to seceders (one after another) from +the Republican ranks between whom and themselves there was no identity +of political feeling, and still less of principle. The motives for this +course were usually censurable, and the results generally disastrous +from the beginning, and always so in the sequel. Hamilton, as has been +seen, twice threw himself in the path of his party to save it from such +degradation, for his intelligence and integrity appreciated the +impossibility of preserving the respect of the people at large for +principles, whose special advocates showed by their acts that they did +not themselves respect them. His counsels were unheeded, and the banner +of a once highly honored party continued to be trailed in the dust until +its name was disowned by its adherents with shame and disgust. + +Those who agree with me in believing that General Hamilton was sincere +in the opinion he expressed that the republican system could not be made +adequate to the purpose of good government here, and that the welfare of +the country would be best promoted by approaching as near to the English +model as public sentiment would tolerate, are well justified in holding +him undeserving of censure for his introduction of the anti-republican +plan which he submitted to the Federal Convention. The right of the +people to "alter or abolish" existing systems, and "to institute new +government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its +powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their +safety and happiness," was the corner-stone of the Revolution, in +defense of which he had freely ventured his life. The Convention was not +only an appropriate but the appointed place for the assertion and +exercise of that right. So far from being a fit subject for censure, the +submission to that body by a man in Hamilton's position, with the claims +he had established upon the confidence and support of the people by his +superior abilities and his Revolutionary services, of propositions which +every body knew, and which he himself felt, were strongly adverse to the +prevailing current of public sentiment, and the intrepidity and +extraordinary talent with which he sustained them, without a single open +supporter in the Convention, solely because he believed them to be right +and their adoption necessary to the public good, exhibited a patriotic +and self-sacrificing spirit alike honorable to himself and to his +principles. His course in the Convention, for which he has been +extensively reviled, was in my judgment the most brilliant and +creditable portion of his political career. It presented an example of +candor and devotion to principle which there was not a single one among +his friends willing to follow, although there were, doubtless, a few who +felt substantially as he did and sympathized with all he said, and +although they all admired his gallant hearing while lamenting his +indiscretion. It was, unhappily for himself, the culminating point in +his political life, from which every subsequent step gradually lowered +him, until he justly forfeited the confidence and countenance of every +sincere friend to republican government. + +Alas! how deeply is it to be lamented that this great statesman, as able +as an impracticable man can be, when he knew that he was about to +attempt a ladder upon the first round of which his boldest friend dared +not even to place his foot, had not rather followed, in some respects at +least, the example of his coadjutor and friend, James Madison. The +coincidences in the occurrence of opportunities to make themselves +useful to their country, and the contrasts in the ways in which these +were improved and the consequences that followed, to be found in the +public lives of these illustrious men, are both striking and +instructive. In regard to one subject a partial reference to them has +already been made. They were co-workers in a series of efforts to obtain +from the Congress of the Confederation authority for the Federal head to +levy and collect impost duties to enable it to perform the offices +devolved upon the General Government by the Articles of Confederation, +instead of trusting to the unsafe and unstable requisitions upon the +States. No sooner had the first Congress of the new Government, +established for that and other purposes, formed a quorum, than Mr. +Madison, as we have already seen, before the executive branch had been +organized, or even the President elect been informed of his election, +introduced bills for the imposition and collection of duties on imported +goods, which he pushed forward _de die in diem_ until they became laws, +and the duties were in the process of being collected, and the public +coffers in the way of being replenished. This good work he followed up +in due time by the introduction into Congress of resolutions (and the +most able support of them on its floor) in favor of a commercial policy +recommended by the Secretary of State, Mr. Jefferson, to improve our +trade and thus increase our revenue. These were the contributions of Mr. +Madison, simple, practical, and direct like their author, for promoting +the financial branch of the public service under the new Government, +which was committed by President Washington to the special +superintendence of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury. + +The Secretary's contributions to the same objects consisted of two very +elaborate and very able reports, the first upon public credit, +recommending the establishment of a funding system, and the second in +favor of a national bank, embracing plans for each and, in the former, a +scheme to raise funds for the payment of the interest of a debt to be +funded. The _éclat_ which he acquired by these imposing state papers was +so great, and many minds are still so much dazzled by the traditional +splendor of their effects upon the credit and resources of the country +as to render it not a little embarrassing to discuss, in a plain, +matter-of-fact way, the questions of their real influence or +non-influence upon our finances. + +In previous as well as in subsequent parts of this work will be found +notices of the rise, progress, and effects of Hamilton's funding system, +which, if they do not show that the measure, judged by its results, +partook more of the character of a castle in the air than of a wise and +practicable financial scheme, do not, I think, fall far short of it. But +both it and the bank are now only "obsolete ideas"--to remain so +probably while our Government endures. References, under such +circumstances, can only be usefully made to them to show the principles +and objects of men and parties. + +Whilst Hamilton's measures have been, it is hoped and believed, forever +abandoned--the funding system by his own political friends, and a +national bank in consequence of its explicit and emphatic condemnation +by the whole country--those put into immediate and successful operation +by Madison not only performed at the time the useful office designed for +them by the Constitution, and gradually provided for the wants of the +existing Government, but have supplied it with a revenue abundantly +sufficient to pay the public debt and to defray all expenses and +disbursements required by the public service in war and in peace, with +rare and limited additions, for nearly three quarters of a century, and +will, in all likelihood, continue so to do to the end. + +But the most interesting aspect of these coincidences and contrasts to +which I refer is to be found in the illustrations they furnish of the +use and abuse of the Constitution by those distinguished men and by +their followers respectively. Co-workers again in persevering efforts to +obtain from Congress or the States a call for a general convention to +revise the Articles of Confederation, it would be difficult to decide +which contributed most to effect that object, and it is not too much to +say that it would not have been then accomplished if the efforts of +either had been withheld. They were neither of them satisfied with the +Constitution framed by the Convention; Madison not entirely, Hamilton +scarcely at all. The former sympathized, as I have already said, with +Hamilton's distrust of the State governments, made unsuccessful efforts +to impose stringent restrictions upon their power, and would have been +better pleased with the Constitution if it had inclined more decidedly +in that direction. + +They both signed the instrument notwithstanding; Hamilton under a sort +of protest against its sufficiency (or rather its want of it), and +Madison with apparent and, I doubt not, real cordiality. In the numbers +of the "Federalist," (of which they were the principal authors,) they +offered a joint and honorable testimonial to the Constitution, which +became in the sequel an enduring monument to their own associated +memories. Each rendered "yeoman's service" in the conventions, +respectively, of New York and Virginia, to decide upon its ratification; +in neither of which was the ratification probable at the beginning, and +in both there is the best reason to believe that, without their powerful +aid, it must have ultimately failed. In such an event the failure of the +Constitution would have been next to certain. + +Although Gouverneur Morris's assertion that Hamilton had comparatively +nothing to do with the construction of the Federal Constitution is true, +yet as Madison had a greater agency in that work than any other +individual, and as the obtaining the call of the Convention and the +ratification of the Constitution, in which Madison and Hamilton acted +the chief parts, were also the portions of the whole transaction most +exposed to the action of the States and of the public mind, and +therefore the most difficult of accomplishment, it may with truth be +affirmed that there were not any fifty or a hundred other men taken +together to whom the country was as much indebted for the Federal +Constitution as to those two gentlemen. But in their subsequent +treatment of that sacred instrument, which each had done so much to +bring to maturity, they, unfortunately for the country, differed very +widely. The Constitution was ratified and adopted in the first instance +by more than the requisite number of States, and finally by the whole +thirteen. General Washington was elected President. He appointed +Alexander Hamilton to be Secretary of the Treasury, and James Madison +was elected a member of the first Congress. The latter, although +overruled in the Convention upon points which he deemed important, +acquiesced in the decisions of the majority, accepted the Constitution +in good faith with a determination to do all in his power, not only to +secure its ratification, but to give to the people and the States the +full benefit of its provisions as those were understood by them, and to +do this with the same fidelity and honor with which he would perform any +private arrangement to which he had made himself a party. Satisfied from +numerous exhibitions of public sentiment elsewhere as well as in the +State conventions, and perhaps more particularly in that of his own +State, not only that there was far greater opposition in the minds of +the people at large to the Constitution as it came from the hands of +the Convention than he at first supposed, but that it was, in point of +fact, defective in some particulars important in themselves and well +calculated to excite the solicitude of the masses, he determined to +leave no means within his reach unimproved to make it, by suitable and +seasonable amendments, what a brief experience convinced him that it +ought to be. It might perhaps be inferred, from some general expressions +used by him in the first Congress, that he felt as if something had been +said or done on his part rendering his attention to this matter a +special duty, although nothing of that nature is apparent; but, be that +as it may, there were other considerations imperative upon a mind so +circumspect and so just to prevent his losing sight of the subject. + +Mr. John Quincy Adams asserts that the Constitution "was extorted from +the grinding necessity of a reluctant nation." Although this may be +deemed an exaggerated description no one can make himself familiar with +the history of that period without becoming sensible of the truth of two +positions, viz.: that vast numbers who were greatly dissatisfied with +the Constitution were induced to withhold their active opposition by the +embarrassed condition of the country, and that even this consideration +would not have sufficed to overcome the decided Anti-Federal majority +against it but for the provision authorizing amendments, and the +confident anticipation that such as were proper and necessary would be +speedily made. The consciousness of these truths, and a conviction that +a successful operation of, and general acquiescence in, the provisions +of the new Constitution were not to be expected unless proper steps were +immediately taken to appease the opposition still in force among the +Anti-Federalists, secured the early and unremitting attention of Mr. +Madison to that point. + +This view of the expectations of the country upon the subject of +amendment and of the condition of the public mind in respect to it was +strongly confirmed by memorials presented to the first Congress, at its +first session, by the States of New York and Virginia, containing +averments framed in the strongest terms, that whilst they dreaded the +operation of the Constitution in its then imperfect state, they had, +notwithstanding, yielded their assent to its ratification from motives +of affection for their sister States, and from an invincible reluctance +to separate from them, and with a full confidence that its imperfections +would be speedily removed; that the existence of great and vital defects +in the Constitution was the prevailing conviction of those States; that +the dissatisfaction and uneasiness upon the subject amongst their people +would never cease to distract the country until the causes of them were +satisfactorily removed; that the matter would ill admit of postponement, +and concluding with applications to Congress that they should, without +delay, call a new convention with full powers to revise and amend the +Constitution. Although these memorials referred to the opinions +expressed by their respective State conventions that that instrument +ought to undergo further revision, which, in one of them, was a +unanimous expression, Congress nevertheless took no steps toward a +compliance with the request they contained. But the whole subject was +brought before it by Mr. Madison as soon as he had perfected his revenue +measures, and he caused amendments to be carried through that body, I +had almost said by his own unaided efforts, which were satisfactory to +the people--certainly to that portion of them by whom the Constitution +had been opposed. + +A tolerably full and obviously fair account of the debates and +proceedings in the House of Representatives upon this subject--those in +the Senate, I fear, are lost--may be found in the first and second +volumes of Lloyd's "Register of the Proceedings and Debates of the +First House of Representatives of the United States," which I am sorry +to find has not been transferred to Colonel Benton's "Abridgment." The +subject, speaking of the ten amendments as one measure, was only second +in intrinsic importance, on account of the influence its success exerted +on the solidity and perpetuity of the new system, to the Constitution +itself, and the debates in point of ability and earnestness, +particularly on the part of Mr. Madison, not inferior to any of the +discussions by which that interesting period when the foundations of the +present government were laid was so greatly distinguished; one cannot +read them without acknowledging the difficulty of recalling another +instance in which a measure of equal gravity was so successfully carried +through a public body against the obvious and decided preferences of a +large majority of its members, or without admiring the extent to which +that success was achieved by the exertions of one man. + +Now that the dangers which environed these proceedings have passed away, +they afford amusement to the curious in such matters by the picture they +furnish of the twists and turns to which men in high positions and of +generally fair views will sometimes resort to stave off distasteful +propositions, with the hope of ultimately defeating what they do not +feel it to be safe directly to oppose. The Virginia and New York +applications were presented by Mr. Bland, of the former, and Mr. +Lawrence, of the latter State, both friends of Hamilton; and although +both were solicitous that the applications should be respectfully +received, neither of them ever took a step to make them successful, nor +were they in favor of the amendments proposed by Mr. Madison. That +gentleman gave notice of his intention to bring the subject before the +House several weeks before the day he named for that purpose. When that +day arrived he moved that the House should resolve itself into a +committee of the whole to receive the amendments he proposed to offer. +Opposition to going into such committee came from almost all sides of +the House, some urging one species of objections and some another, but +generally indicative of decided unfriendliness to the views of the +mover. Perceiving that his motion was neither satisfactory nor likely to +succeed, Mr. Madison withdrew it, and submitted a proposition for the +appointment of a select committee to report such amendments to the +Constitution as they should think proper. Having done this, he, in a +very able speech, went over the whole subject, stated at length the +necessity that existed for some amendments, and the high expediency of +proposing others, and furnished a statement of those he had intended to +offer to the committee of the whole; these he trusted would now be +referred to the select committee, and thus the matter would proceed +there without interruption to the other business of the House. + +The proposition for a select committee was not more fortunate or +acceptable than its predecessor. It was opposed from the same quarters, +and several who had evinced no favor toward the motion to go into +committee of the whole now said that, if the subject was to be taken up +at all, that would have been, but for its withdrawal, the preferable +mode. Mr. Madison declared himself, as he said, "unfortunate in not +satisfying gentlemen with respect to the mode of introducing the +business; he had thought, from the dignity and peculiarity of the +subject, that it ought to be referred to a committee of the whole; he +had accordingly made that motion first, but finding himself not likely +to succeed in that way, he had changed his ground. Fearing again to be +discomfited on his motion for a select committee, he would change his +mode, and move the propositions he had stated before directly to the +House, and it might then do what it thought proper with them. He +accordingly moved the propositions by way of Resolutions to be adopted +by the House." + +This course was also objected to on several grounds; but the majority +saw that if the game of staving off the subject was not broken up by Mr. +Madison's third proposition, it had at least been so far exposed as to +require time to put it in some new form, and with that view Mr. +Lawrence, who, as already said, was not in favor of amendments, moved +that the subject be referred to a committee of the whole,--the +proposition first submitted by Mr. Madison,--which was done. This +occurred on the 8th of June. On the 21st of July thereafter Mr. Madison +"begged the House to indulge him in the further consideration of the +subject of amendments to the Constitution, and as there appeared, in +some degree, a moment of leisure, he would move to go into a committee +of the whole upon the subject, conformably to the order of the 8th of +last month." + +This proposition was met by a motion from Mr. Fisher Ames, of +Massachusetts, to rescind the vote of the 8th of June, and to refer the +business to a select committee. This motion gave rise to speeches +professing not to be opposed to the consideration of amendments at a +proper time and under proper circumstances, but showing a decided +distrust of and distaste for the whole proceeding. The motion prevailed +by a vote of 34 to 15, and a select committee was appointed, of which +Mr. Vining, an opponent, was made chairman. The report of this committee +contained substantially the amendments proposed by Mr. Madison, with +some alterations and additions. These, after revision by the House, were +finally passed by a vote of two thirds in both Houses, submitted to the +States and ratified by them, as they now appear as the first ten of the +twelve amendments that have been made to the Federal Constitution since +its first adoption. + +Some of Mr. Madison's colleagues occasionally expressed a desire for the +success of his propositions, and similar avowals were sometimes made by +two or three members from other States; but of substantial, persevering, +and effective assistance, he may, with truth, be said to have had none, +and two thirds of the House were at heart decidedly opposed to the +amendments that were made. With all his talents, industry, and +perseverance, Mr. Madison would not have been able to carry them if his +exertions had not been seconded by an influence still more efficacious. +The legislature of Virginia alluded to the defects of the Constitution +as "involving all the great and inalienable rights of freemen," declared +that its objections were not founded on speculative theory, but deduced +from principles which had been established by the melancholy examples of +other nations in different ages, and said, "they will never be removed +until the cause shall cease to exist." It announced the "cause of +amendment as a common cause," and its trust that commendable zeal would +be shown by others also for obtaining those "provisions which experience +had taught them were necessary to secure from danger the inalienable +rights of human nature." It expressed its impatience of delay and its +doubt as to the disposition of Congress; complained of the slowness of +its forms, but congratulated itself on the possession of another remedy, +which it was determined to pursue, under the Constitution itself--that +of a convention of The States. + +The New York application, signed, as Speaker, by John Lansing, Jr., who +had left the Federal Convention in consequence of his dissatisfaction +with its proceedings and never returned to it, though not going as much +into details, employed language equally bold and uncompromising in +demanding from Congress another convention, which might propose such +amendments "as it might find best calculated to promote our common +interests, and secure to ourselves and our latest posterity the great +and inalienable rights of mankind." This memorial asserted not only that +the New York Convention had ratified "in the fullest confidence of +obtaining a revision of the Constitution by a general convention, as +appeared on the face of its ratification," but that that body (of which +Hamilton was a member) were unanimous in the opinion that such a +revision was necessary to recommend that instrument to the approbation +and support of a numerous body of its constituents. + +These documents, and especially that of Virginia, pointed very +emphatically to the source of that discontent with the Constitution +which so extensively prevailed in the old Anti-Federal ranks. Even they +felt that the Constitution was much better than they had expected, and +the most considerate among them, those who were most capable of +suspending their suspicions as to the designs of their opponents long +enough to give the instrument a dispassionate consideration, were soon +satisfied--and Samuel Adams, who stood at the head of the Anti-Federal +party, admitted--that its general structure was free from any +insuperable objection. The life-tenure given to the Federal Judges was, +as it indeed might well be, regarded as inconsistent with republican +principles; but it was to be remembered that those officers were +expected to be, as they ought always to be, non-combatants in partisan +politics by reason of their appointment to act as arbiters of the fates +and fortunes of their countrymen. Upon the great point to which the +attention of such men was first directed, that of the ability of the +State governments to maintain their sovereignty and independence under +the new system, there was no real ground for apprehension. But the +Constitution was principally confined to what were more strictly public +concerns, the powers and duties of the Federal and State Governments in +regard to National and State affairs, with only a slight sprinkling of +provisions looking particularly to the protection of the citizen against +the exercise of arbitrary power; and it was accompanied by no Bill of +Rights, such as those to which the people had been accustomed in respect +to their State governments. In the latter cases they might more readily +have been reconciled to the absence of such provisions, as those +governments were carried on under their immediate observation, and they +formed a part of them in much larger portions than they could expect to +do of the Federal Government. The latter they were too much in the habit +of regarding, at that early period, as a foreign government only +remotely responsible to them. We have already spoken of the settled +character of their distrust of power for which there was only a remote, +if any, responsibility, and of their having been trained by experience +to expect only abuses from the exercise of such authority, whether in +State or Church,--an experience embracing the sorrowful and +well-remembered accounts of outrage and persecution against their +ancestors, and the cruel oppression of the then existing generation by +the distant government of the mother country. We have seen how great had +been their aversion and that of their ancestors to the establishment of +a general government, and with what difficulties their consent to the +call of the then recent Convention had been obtained, and what care had +been taken to restrict its power. It was not therefore surprising that a +large majority of them should have manifested such intense +dissatisfaction when a Constitution was presented for their approval +containing so few, so very few safeguards for the protection of "the +great and inalienable rights of freemen," as Virginia described +them--of the "great and inalienable rights of mankind," as the New York +Legislature styled them--points to which the masses, especially of the +Anti-Federalists, were so keenly alive. + +These considerations and circumstances produced a sudden and extensive +spirit of discontent which, as those States avowed, never would be +appeased until its causes were removed, and with which Mr. Madison was +well satisfied the new Government would not be able to contend unless +some mode was devised to appease it. Although never a member of it, he +had, in his long and persevering efforts to obtain the Constitution, +"tasted the quality," so to speak, of the old Anti-Federal party, and +understood the stuff of which it was composed. He knew very well that +the call of Virginia upon her co-States to make the demand for +amendments "a common cause" would not be _brutum fulmen_, but that the +agitation for a new convention in such hands, and commenced under such +favorable circumstances, with so many materials of discontent already +made to their hands, would not cease until its object was gained, and +what would follow no man could tell. He was not so much of a Bourbon as +Hamilton; he had not pursued his thorny path through those trying scenes +without learning something of the character and temper of the people, or +without having his mind disabused of much that it had once entertained. +No man in the country was more opposed to the call of a new convention, +or more unwilling to make any amendments that would materially impair +the original structure of the Constitution. The former he omitted to +avow out of respect to the declared wishes of his State but the latter +he repeatedly announced because it was only in harmony with his past +course. But he knew that matters could not remain as they stood, and he +thought a series of amendments could be made, some of which he deemed +highly proper and all expedient, through which a large portion of the +Anti-Federalists might be conciliated without prejudice to the system +which had been adopted. This course, to be useful, must, he was +satisfied, be pursued at the very commencement of the new government. He +devoted himself, body and mind, to that object, and we have seen some of +the difficulties with which he had to contend. Although Hamilton was not +personally in Congress, he was well represented, and Madison found +there, besides, many other Bourbons, in the sense in which I use that +term. He prepared a plan according to the views I have described; and +few exhibitions of that kind can have been more interesting than to see +him stand between the Federal majority in the House and the few old +Anti-Federalists who were there, and avail himself of the votes of each +in turn to defeat the obnoxious efforts of the other; first to arrest by +Federal aid every attempt on the part of the few Anti-Federalists to mar +his project by seeking amendments which he was not himself prepared to +adopt, and then to frustrate by Anti-Federal votes the efforts of a +majority of the Federalists (though less than a majority of the House) +to defeat his entire scheme. + +That the only alternative was between a new convention and the adoption +of amendments substantially like his, was the great fact which he +labored to impress upon the minds of the Federal members. He introduced +it in his public speeches with never-failing delicacy, but with +sufficient clearness to be understood, and doubtless enforced it at +private interviews as far as it was his habit to do such things. That +important truth was the fulcrum on which he rested his lever, and he +engineered his plan through the House and afterwards, as chairman of the +Committee of Conference, through both Houses (the majorities in each +alike unfriendly to it) with triumphant and under the circumstances most +extraordinary success. + +The dread of another Federal Convention has never failed, when the +circumstances were sufficient to justify apprehension of its call, to +deter the Federalists from the adoption of projects obnoxious to the +democratic spirit of the country, however anxiously desired by +themselves. Pending the election of President in the House, between +Jefferson and Burr, the Republicans replied to the threat of putting the +Government in the hands of an officer by act of Congress, by an open, +united, and firm declaration that the day such an act passed, the Middle +States would arm, and that they would "call a convention to reorganize +and amend the Constitution;" upon the effect of which Mr. Jefferson +remarks, "the very word convention gives them the horrors, as, in the +present democratical spirit of America, they fear they should lose some +of the favorite morsels of the Constitution." + +Mr. Madison's ten amendments consisted of provisions in favor of the +free exercise of religion, of speech, and of the press; of assembling +peaceably to petition the Government for a redress of grievances; of the +right to keep and bear arms; against quartering soldiers in any house +without the consent of the owner, except under certain qualifications; +against unreasonable searches and general warrants; against being held +to answer for crimes unless on presentment by a grand jury, with certain +exceptions; against being twice put in jeopardy for the same offense; +against being compelled to be a witness against one's self, or being +deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; +against taking private property for public use without just +compensation; in favor of a trial by an impartial jury of the district +in certain cases at common law and in all criminal prosecutions, of the +party charged being informed of the nature of the accusation, of being +confronted with the witnesses against him, of having compulsory process +for obtaining witnesses and the assistance of counsel in his defense; +against excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel punishments; against +the enumeration of certain rights being construed to deny or disparage +others retained by the people; and, finally, that powers not delegated +to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the +States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people. + +These provisions embraced the points upon which the public mind was most +susceptible, and upon which the old Anti-Federal party in particular had +been, with obvious reason, most excited. + +That Mr. Madison's success in this great measure saved the Constitution +from the ordeal of another Federal Convention is a conclusion as certain +as any that rests upon a contingency which has not actually occurred, +and that it converted the residue of the Anti-Federal party which had +not supported the Constitution, whose members, as well as their +political predecessors in every stage of our history, constituted a +majority of the people, from opponents of that instrument into its +warmest friends, and that they and their successors have from that time +to the present period, either as Republicans or Democrats, occupied the +position of its _bonā fide_ defenders in the sense in which it was +designed to be understood by those who constructed and by those who +ratified it, against every attempt to undermine or subvert it, are +undeniable facts. + +It was by adding this great service to those he had rendered in +obtaining the Convention, and in framing the Constitution in that body, +that he deservedly won the noble title of "Father of the Constitution." +He was neither as great a man nor as thorough a Republican, certainly +not as thorough a Democrat, as Mr. Jefferson; he had less genius than +Hamilton; yet it is doing him no more than justice to say that, as a +civilian, he succeeded in making himself more practically useful to his +country than any other man she has produced. No one would have been more +ready than Mr. Jefferson to award to Mr. Madison this high distinction. +He either told me at Monticello, or I heard it from him at second-hand, +(I am uncertain which was the case,) that whilst he was in France, some +one whom he named asked him to say whom he thought the greatest man in +America, and that he replied, if the gentleman would ask him to name the +greatest man in the world he would comply with the request, which +addition being made, he answered "James Madison!" + +This brings us to the consideration of the contrast between the conduct +of Hamilton and Madison in respect to their treatment of a Constitution +which they had both taken such unwearied pains to bring into existence. +The course they respectively pursued upon the subjects of finance and +revenue, and the measures they respectively preferred, without regard to +questions of constitutional power, only indicated differences of opinion +upon subjects in which such differences are apt to arise, and did not +necessarily involve the political integrity of either. But we have now +arrived at a point of departure in the relative course of these great +men involving graver considerations, and to which it is to be regretted +that the last reservation cannot be truly applied. There was no warrant +in the Constitution for the establishment of a national bank, or for the +assumption of the State debts, or for the unlimited claim of power by +the Federal Government over the collection and disbursement of national +revenue, and for its patronage of by far the largest proportion of the +pursuits and interests of the country, all of which were effected by +Hamilton or recommended in his Report on Manufactures, and he understood +perfectly well that the Constitution conferred no such powers when he +advocated successfully the first two of those measures, and asserted the +power and recommended its exercise in respect to the latter. + +It is not agreeable to be obliged to assume that a gentleman of General +Hamilton's elevated character in private life, upon whose integrity and +fidelity in his personal dealings and in the discharge of every private +trust that was reposed in him no shadow rested, who was indifferent to +the accumulation of wealth, who as a public man was so free from +intrigues for personal advancement, and whose thoughts and acts in that +character were so constantly directed to great questions and great +interests, could yet prove faithless to one of the most sacred public +trusts that can be placed in man--the execution of the fundamental law +of the land. If Hamilton had been asked, as a private man, whether he +believed it was the intention of the framers of the Constitution to +confer upon Congress the power to establish a national bank, and whether +he believed that the people when they ratified it supposed that it +contained such a power, he would, if he answered at all, have answered +"No!" He was incapable of willful deception on the subject. This +discrepancy between his conduct as a statesman in the management of +public affairs and his integrity and truthfulness in private life was +the result of a vicious opinion as to the obligations of a public man, +and in no degree attributable to any inferior sense of personal honor, +nor was it ever otherwise regarded. + +His position upon this point is understood to have been founded on the +following opinions: That the people as a body were not capable of +managing their public affairs with safety to their happiness and +welfare; that it was, therefore, a proper exercise of power to give the +management of them into the hands of those who were capable, and to +place the latter in positions, as far as practicable under the +circumstances, beyond popular control; that it was the sacred duty of +those who were so intrusted to exercise their power truly and sincerely +for the best interests of those for whom they acted; that if those +interests could be well administered without transcending the power with +which the public functionary was invested, or without the practice of +deception or corruption, such would be the preferable and proper course; +but if violations of the popular will, deception, or corruptions--not +those of the grosser kind, like direct bribery, but such as belonged to +the class he spoke of to Mr. Adams as constituting the life-giving +principle of the English system--were necessary, in the best judgment of +men in power, to the security or advancement of the public welfare, the +employment of such means was justifiable. + +Without stopping to cite authorities, I assume--on the strength of the +opinion of the age in which he lived, of his writings, of his +declarations, which were, beyond almost all other public men, without +reserve, and of his acts--that such were his views, and content myself +with the declaration that the existence of such views is the best, if +not the only, excuse that can be made for his official course. + +At the close of the Convention, and just before signing the +Constitution, he declared that the latter might serve as a temporary +bond of union, but could never suffice to secure good government. After +he had succeeded in his first two interpolations, he spoke exultingly of +the success of the Constitution, and hopefully of the future; this was +because he knew that he had prospered in his attempt to give it a +construction not dreamed of at the former period by himself, or others +to his knowledge; and his hopes of the future were founded on his +success also in his plan set forth in his Report on Manufactures, +widening very greatly the breach he had already effected in the +Constitution. In February, 1802, after his latitudinarian scheme had +been arrested and was in danger of being permanently overthrown, he +described the Constitution to Gouverneur Morris as a "frail and +worthless fabric," the "fate" of which he had "anticipated from the very +beginning." He never reproached his friends with an unwillingness to go +as far as the Constitution would justify, but always attributed their +failure to defects in the system, thus admitting that the measures in +which he exulted and from which he hoped so much, had been established +by him, not under, but outside of that instrument. + +The first marked effect of Hamilton's determination to pursue the course +I have described was a separation between him and his most efficient +coadjutor upon many points during the government of the Confederation, +and the next was the formation of the old Republican party. The motives +for the separation between those distinguished associates have been made +the subject, as might have been expected, of various and extensive +comment. So far as I know, Hamilton never spoke of Madison, after their +separation, in any other terms than those which were consistent with the +knowledge he possessed of the purity and integrity of his character. Few +men had such perfect control over their feelings as Mr. Madison, and few +exercised more reserve in speaking of the motives of his political +opponents. It has been rare indeed that he has ventured to touch upon +them even when necessary to his vindication from aspersions upon his own +character, a truth obvious to any one familiar with his life and +writings. I however accidentally came into the possession of +information upon this precise question of very great interest, which +will be found in the letter below from Nicholas P. Trist, Esq. In the +course of a conversation between Mr. Trist, myself, and other gentlemen, +at Philadelphia, last spring,[26] upon the subject of which they had +only a general bearing, the former alluded to the circumstances here +given in detail, and subsequently, at my request, reduced them to the +shape in which they now appear. + + [26] In the spring of 1857. Eds. + +Mr. Trist was a much esteemed and highly trusted friend of Mr. +Jefferson, and married his favorite grand-daughter, a lady of superior +intelligence, with whom I was well acquainted. He was also for many +years a neighbor and confidential friend of Mr. Madison, toward the +decline of the life of the latter. My knowledge of him has been derived +from long and familiar intercourse with him as a confidential clerk in +my department whilst I was Secretary of State, as consul of the United +States at Havana, and as private secretary of President Jackson, and I +do not hesitate to say that I never knew a more upright man. No one who +has had opportunities to become well acquainted with his character, +however politically or personally prepossessed in regard to him in other +respects, will, I am very sure, fail to admit his perfect truthfulness, +and the authenticity of any relation he might make upon the strength of +his own knowledge. + + +FROM MR. TRIST. + + PHILADELPHIA, _May 31, 1857_. + + MY DEAR SIR,--My promise, however tardily performed, has never been + forgotten; and now, complying with your request preferred at the + time and since renewed, I give you in writing the statement made by + me a month or two ago in conversation at Mr. Gilpin's; which + statement you will recollect was casually elicited, as the proper + commentary upon the charge mentioned by one of the company as being + brought against Mr. Jefferson--the charge, namely, that he had + "stolen Mr. Madison from the Federalists." This notion, by the way, + involves an utterly erroneous conception of the relation which + existed between the minds and characters of the two men. But I must + here confine myself to doing what you asked of me. + + During the latter years of Mr. Madison's life, (the exact date is + recorded in a memorandum not now at hand,) the following incident + occurred. + + My intimate friend Mr. Davis, Law Professor in the University of + Virginia, mentioned to me, as a thing which he thought Mr. Madison + ought to be apprised of, that in a forthcoming Life of Colonel + Hamilton, by one of his sons, the authenticity of his (Mr. M.'s) + report of Colonel H.'s speech in the Federal Convention was to be + denied; and furthermore he was to be represented as having + "abandoned" Colonel Hamilton. This Davis had learnt from Professor + George Tucker, of the same University, then recently returned from a + trip to the North. + + Of course, on my first visit to Mr. Madison, which occurred soon + after, I told him of what Davis had said. + + The effect upon his countenance was an expression of painful + surprise, succeeded by a very remarkable look his face assumed + sometimes, and which was deeply impressive from its concentration + and solemnity. A silence of some moments was broken by his saying, + in a tone corresponding to that look, "Sorry to hear it." Then a + pause, followed by these words, "I abandoned Colonel Hamilton,--or + Colonel Hamilton abandoned me,--in a word, we _parted_,--upon its + plainly becoming his purpose and endeavor to _adminis_TRATION + (administer) the government into a thing totally different from + that which he and I both knew perfectly well had been understood and + intended by the Convention which framed it, and by the people in + adopting it." + + Upon the two words which I have underscored, especially the second, + and most especially its last two syllables, a marked emphasis was + laid. The latter (the word _administration_ used as a verb) is the + only instance of neologism I ever observed in Mr. Madison. Its + effectiveness was most striking; it hit the nail plumb on the head, + and drove it home at one blow. The whole history of that business, + the entire truth of the matter, was compressed into that one word. + As uttered by him there was a pause at "_adminis_"--and then came + out "TRATION." It was followed by the word "administer," thrown in + parenthetically, and in an under-tone; as much as to say, "I have + been coining a word here, which, as you are aware, is not my habit; + but just as I was about to say _administer_ the government, I felt + that this term is too general, too commonplace, too tame to convey + the idea present to my mind; and this modification of it presented + itself as exactly suited to the case." + + As regards the speech, Mr. M. seemed painfully troubled at the + thought of the fidelity of his report of it being disputed, and at a + loss to realize the possibility of such a thing. "Why, as I once + related to you, that speech was placed by me in Colonel Hamilton's + own hand; and was, after deliberate perusal, returned by him with an + explicit recognition of its correctness--all to a very few verbal + alterations, which were made; on which occasion he placed in my + hands, as the proper accompaniment of his speech in my record, and + as presenting in a precise and exact shape his views as to the + government which it was desirable to establish, the draft of a + Constitution which he had prepared before coming to the + Convention." + + This substantially, if not exactly, is what Mr. M. said upon that + point. He then went on to conjecture in what way Colonel H.'s + biographer might have been misled into this error; not a doubt being + intimated or evinced by him as to its being honestly an error. + Colonel H. spoke several times in the Convention--at greater or less + length, as would be seen when his (Mr. M.'s) notes were given to the + world. Perhaps, among his papers notes had been found, which, in the + absence of means of discriminating between remarks made on different + occasions, and between notes for an intended speech and that which + the speaker had actually said, might have given rise to the + misconception. + + To the foregoing incident you wished me to add what I was led to + say, in the course of the same conversation, regarding Mr. + Jefferson's habitual tone in speaking of Colonel Hamilton. This was + always the very reverse of that in which he spoke of those whose + _characters_, personal or political, were objects of his disesteem. + It was invariably such as to indicate, and to infuse (certainly this + effect was produced upon my mind) a high estimate of Colonel + Hamilton _as a man_, whether considered with reference to personal + matters or to political matters. He was never spoken of otherwise + than as being a gentleman--a lofty-minded, high-toned man. As + regards politics, their convictions, their creeds, were + diametrically opposite. Colonel H. had no faith in republican + government. In his eyes the British Government was the perfection of + human government, the model of all that was practically attainable + in politics. His doctrine, openly avowed, was that there are but two + ways of governing men, but two ways in which the business of + government can be conducted: the one is through fear, the other + through self-interest--that is, influencing the conduct of those + upon whom the course of political affairs depends, through their + desire for personal advantages, for position, for wealth, and so + forth. In this country, to operate upon men through their fears was + out of the question; and consequently the latter constituted the + only practicable means. These political convictions on the part of + Colonel H., united as they were with his splendid abilities _and_ + his lofty character as a man, both _public_ and _private_, were + regarded by Mr. Jefferson as having constituted the great peril to + which republicanism had been exposed in our country. But for the + _character_ of Colonel H., for the _man_, for his honesty and + sincerity and single-mindedness,--I mean considered with reference + to politics,--there was never the least indication of depreciation + or disrespect on the part of Mr. Jefferson; always the direct + reverse. + + Never, in a single instance, when Colonel H. was the subject of + conversation with me, or in my presence, was it otherwise than + perfectly manifest that, in Mr. J.'s habitual feeling toward him, + the broadest possible line of demarcation existed between the man, + the character, (the _public_ character, I repeat, no less than the + _private_,) and the creed by which the action and course of that + character were determined; and that whilst the latter was abhorrent + to his own cherished faith, and had been for him the cause of the + intensest anxiety and gloomiest forebodings ever suffered by him, + the former was nevertheless no less truly an object of sincere + respect. + + Having thus, my dear sir, at length fulfilled my promise,--though + not within the limited space (far from it) which you intimated,--I + tender the assurance of my respectful regard and friendly + remembrance. + + N. P. TRIST. + + MARTIN VAN BUREN, + _Ex-President of the U. S._ + +Hamilton took the position of which the virtuous Madison, whilst +standing at the brink of his grave, left behind him a description so +graphic, promptly and, as was his habit, immovably. The crisis met him +in his last intrenchment. He believed honestly, sincerely, and without +any designs other than such as related to the public welfare, that +nothing short of monarchical institutions would prove adequate to the +wants of the country, but these he was well satisfied could not be +obtained then, and possibly not for a long period. He had approached +them in the Convention as nearly, in respect to the point of efficiency, +as would afford the slightest chance of success for his plan, and he had +been left without a single open supporter in that body. Regarding the +Constitution, as framed by the Convention, as the only avenue to escape +from anarchy, he finally promoted its passage there and its ratification +by the States and people, avowedly as a temporary bond of union. +Appointed to assist in carrying it into effect, and sincerely believing +that, with no other powers than those only which he and Madison so well +knew it was intended to authorize, it must prove a failure and the +government established under it must go to pieces, he decided, +unhesitatingly and absolutely, to do under it whatever he in good faith +might think would promote the general welfare, without reference to the +intentions of its authors. He was a man of too much good sense to do +unnecessary violence to public feeling,--as he said to Jefferson "to +publish it in Dan or Beersheba,"--but such was his unchangeable design. +On the contrary, he entered into labored and able discussions to show +that his principal measures were authorized by the Constitution, but +these were in deference to the prejudices and ideas of the people, +nothing more. + +There is nothing in the writings, speeches, or declarations of General +Hamilton inconsistent with the truth of this statement. In papers which +have been referred to, and others, he submitted ingenious arguments to +show that the Convention might have so intended, and that Congress had a +right to hold from the words employed that it did so intend, but he was +too circumspect to insist that the intention of the Convention ought not +to prevail when it could be ascertained, or to make the actual +intention, as a matter of fact, a point in the argument. Giving due +weight to the intention of the body when that was ascertained, he +adopted a course of reasoning which every body understood went to defeat +it, desiring no other efficacy for the opinion he labored to establish +than the vote of the majority. The better knowledge of the country +overthrew his specious deductions in a short time, and its traditions +will, it is to be hoped, render them forever harmless. + +The principle of construction contended for by Hamilton, and for a +season to some extent made successful, was not designed for the +promotion of a particular measure, for which the powers of Congress +under the Constitution were to be unduly extended, on account of its +assumed indispensable importance to the public safety, but intended as a +sweeping rule by which those powers, instead of being confined to the +constitutional enumeration, were to authorize the passage of all laws +which Congress might deem conducive to the general welfare and which +were not expressly prohibited; a power similar to that contained in the +plan he proposed in the Convention. He desired, in short, to make the +Constitution a tablet of wax upon which each successive administration +would be at liberty to impress its rescripts, to be promulgated as +constitutional edicts. + +Hamilton never well understood the distinctive character of our people, +but he understood human nature too well to believe that any people could +long respect or desire to uphold a Constitution the most stringent +provisions of which were thus regarded or treated. Its inevitable fate +is illustrated in the experience of France, after one of her +unscrupulous wits had aided in consigning to general derision that +litter of Constitutions which had rapidly followed one after the other, +by accompanying his oath with a grimace and a jest upon the number which +he had successively and with equal solemnity sworn to support. The +example of France was not lost upon a mind so watchful as Hamilton's, +and he did not doubt that our Constitution would be overthrown with the +same certainty, if not with equal facility, after it had been long +enough treated with similar disrespect, and that the door would be thus +opened for the ultimate introduction, under the influence of the money +power, of the only political institutions in which he placed absolute +confidence. He declared it to be his opinion, in the Convention, that he +regarded ours as the last chance for a republican government, and +assigned that opinion as a reason for his attempt to infuse into the new +system qualities as stringent as those he proposed and which he knew +very well were not generally regarded as belonging to a republican +system. No man better understood than he that the inviolate sanctity of +a written Constitution was the life of a republican government, and that +its days were numbered from the moment its people and rulers ceased thus +to preserve, protect, and defend it. Mr. Jefferson spoke, in his letter, +of Hamilton as "_professing_" that it was "the duty of its +administrators to conduct the Government on the principles their +constituents had elected." I did not at first, and for a long time +afterwards, attach as much significance to the word I have here +italicized, as I do now, when I have studied Hamilton's course more +carefully. I knew the letter was written in a liberal spirit toward his +memory. As I have elsewhere said, during my visit to Mr. Jefferson we +talked most of Hamilton, and the general course of Mr. J.'s remarks was +substantially similar to those now related, more than thirty years after +his decease, and without the slightest knowledge of what I have said +upon the same subject, by his relative, Mr. Trist, who was also a member +of his family. Mr. Jefferson was evidently disposed to confirm the +favorable impressions I had imbibed of the personal side of Hamilton's +character, and the words quoted above from his letter were designed to +qualify his imputation of monarchical principles to the latter, and I +can now appreciate the motive for the expression used, which did not +commit him to a concession that the opinion of Hamilton in regard to the +duty of administration was that upon which he acted. + +With all these considerations before him, Hamilton did more than any, +and I had almost said than all, his contemporaries together, to +counteract the will of the people and to subvert by undermining the +Constitution of their choice. If his sapping and mining policy had been +finally successful, if the Republican party, mostly composed of old +Anti-Federalists, led by so bold a spirit and such a root-and-branch +Republican as Mr. Jefferson, had not arrested the farther progress of +his principles and demolished his scheme, this glorious old Constitution +of ours, of which we all seem so proud, of which it is so great an honor +to have been and of which so many have been ambitious to be, regarded as +the faithful expounder, under the wings of which we have risen from +small beginnings to be a puissant nation,--attracting the admiration and +able to command the respect of the civilized world,--would long since +have sunk beneath the waters of time, an object of neglect and scorn. +Our system might then have dissolved in anarchy, or crouched under +despotism or under some milder type of arbitrary government,--a +monarchy, an aristocracy, or, most ignoble of all, a moneyed +oligarchy,--but as a Republic it would have endured no longer. In this +aspect, notwithstanding his great and good qualities,--and he had +many,--Hamilton's course was an outrage upon liberty and a crime against +free government. + +How happy would it have been for himself and for every interest if he +had not parted from his friend and faithful fellow-laborer through so +many and such trying scenes,--if, like Madison, not entirely satisfied +with the Constitution, but knowing that many others were in the same +predicament, he had applied his great talents to the business of making +it as generally acceptable as possible, and in giving to the masses an +administration of the Government according not only to the form but to +the spirit also in which it had been framed. The country would then at +length have rested after so many storms, and his great and good friend +Washington, instead of being steeped to the lips in partisan anxieties, +(as his nephew, Judge Bushrod Washington, described him to me to have +been within the year of his death,) would not only have had a glorious +and successful administration, but would have lived in his retirement +and finally passed from earth without having been ever annoyed by the +canker of party spirit. His own political career would doubtless have +been far more prosperous and more agreeable; no occasion would then have +arisen for such reflections as he expressed to his confidential friend +describing his only reward, after all his efforts and sacrifices, as +"the murmurs of the friends of the Constitution and the curses of its +foes," and concluding, sadly enough for one who had so greatly +distinguished himself in its service, that "the American world was not +made for him!" + +In these views of General Hamilton's course and in the opinions +expressed in respect to it, I have designed to confine myself strictly +to what I consider the deliberate judgment of the country, pronounced in +various ways and among others through the ballot-box--its constitutional +exponent. The most prominent of his measures have been, as already said, +discarded, and those who constituted the party in whose name they were +first introduced have so far yielded to the current of public opinion as +to abandon them forever. I have also before alluded to the gratifying +circumstance that the odium attached to those measures never in any +degree affected the confidence of the people in the patriotism of +Washington or in his fidelity to republican institutions, or weakened +their affection for him while he lived, or their respect for his memory +when he was no more. These were not the results of mere personal +devotion, but of an intelligent and just discrimination on the part of +the people. Hamilton designed to effect a civil revolution by changing +the powers of Congress from the restricted character given to them in +obedience to the wishes of the people to one in effect unlimited. +Washington entertained no such views. His constructions of the +Constitution were designed for the cases that called them forth, and had +no ulterior views. + +The subject of the bank presented the principal and almost the only +question upon which President Washington gave a construction to that +instrument which met the disapprobation and excited the apprehensions of +the old Republicans. To the assumption of the State debts Hamilton, as +has been seen, succeeded in obtaining--how much to his mortification and +regret his writings show--the coöperation of Mr. Jefferson, and thereby +the unanimous support of the cabinet; and his Report on Manufactures, as +to most of its obnoxious details, was not acted upon during Washington's +administration, but in respect to its principal objects remained a dead +letter. President Washington, notwithstanding the conflicting opinions +of his cabinet, gave no reasons for his approval of the Bank Bill. The +public were therefore left to draw their own inferences in regard to +their character. Diverse opinions upon the point of course arose, and +there is much reason to believe (and that belief is strengthened by his +subsequent course in respect to another important matter) that he was +induced to regard a bank as indispensable, in the then condition of the +country, to the success of the new Government--an exigency in public +affairs of that peculiar sort which men in power assume to deal with +under the sanction of the great principle, _Salus populi suprema lex._ +(See note.) Mr. Madison, who had demonstrated in Congress its +unconstitutionality at its creation, who had opposed the banking system +through his whole public life, and whose fame was in a very great degree +founded on the ability with which he had defined the true principles of +constitutional construction, in a way to exclude the idea of any power +in Congress to establish such an institution, did, notwithstanding, at +the close of his public career, in a condition of the country not unlike +that in which President Washington acted, and viewing the subject from +the same official station, arrive at the same conclusion in regard to +its imperative necessity, and gave his approval to the erection of a new +national bank. + + NOTE.--(_Feb. 16th, 1858_.) Whilst reviewing the "era of + good-feeling," as it was called, during the administration of Mr. + Monroe, I conceived the idea of adding some account of the rise and + progress of our political parties, and entered upon the task + immediately, designing it to stand as an episode in my Memoirs. The + subject grew upon my hands to such an extent that for the last two + years it has, in necessary reading and examinations into facts, + &c., occupied most of the time that could be devoted to the general + object. The idea of limiting this portion to a mere digression was + therefore substantially laid aside, and the dignity of a separate + and distinct consideration, to which its dimensions, if nothing + else, entitled it, was assigned to it. Accordingly I continued my + examination of the course of parties in the United States down to + the present time, including the first months of President + Buchanan's administration. Whilst engaged in correcting the + manuscript and arranging it to be copied, and after I had, by many + pages, passed the place in the text to which this note is appended, + the first volume of Mr. Randall's _Life of Jefferson_, recently + published, came to my hands, and on reading its last two chapters + first, because they have a more immediate bearing on my subject, I + find the following very striking confirmation of the correctness of + my inference as to the state of General Washington's mind, on the + occasion spoken of:-- + + FROM RANDALL'S "LIFE OF JEFFERSON," VOL. 1. p. 631. + + "On the subject of President Washington's feelings on the Bank Bill + we find the following entry in Mr. Trist's memoranda:-- + + "'MONTPELIER, _Friday, May 25, 1827_. + + * * * * * + + "'_Mr. Madison:_ "General Washington signed Jay's Treaty, but he + did not at all like it. He also signed the Bank. But he was _very_ + near not doing so; and if he had refused, it would, in my opinion, + have produced a crisis. I will mention to you a circumstance which + I have never imparted, except in strict confidence. You know, by + the Constitution, ten days are allowed for the President's veto to + come in. If it does not appear within that time, the bill becomes a + law. I was conversing with a distinguished member of the Federal + party, who observed that according to his computation the time was + running out, or indeed _was run_ out; when just at this moment, + Lear[27] came in with the President's sanction. _I am satisfied + that had it been his veto, there would have been an effort to + nullify it, and they would have arrayed themselves in a hostile + attitude._ Between the two parties, General Washington had a most + difficult course to steer." + + * * * * * + + "'The foregoing is written immediately after the conversation, + which has not lasted half an hour,--Mr. Madison having stepped out, + and I taking advantage of this interruption to retire to my room + and commit the substance to paper. The very words I have retained, + as near as I could. In many instances (where I have run a line over + the words[28]) I have done this exactly.'" + + This statement by Mr. Madison substantially sustains the view I + have taken of General Washington's position at that period. The + letters of all the leading Federalists of that day, and those that + followed it for some years, show that they looked with great + unanimity to Hamilton rather than to Washington for the tone and + direction that was to be given to the movements of the Federal + party, and leave scarcely a doubt that they would have sided with + Hamilton if a difference had arisen between the two, as is here + intimated by Mr. Madison. + + How much is it to be regretted that the latter did not leave behind + him a history of the events of his life and an account of what he + knew of the views of others. No man was better informed upon all + political subjects than himself. At the time he referred to, in his + observations to Mr. Trist, he probably enjoyed as large a share of + Washington's confidence as any other man, and was at all times most + reluctant to be placed in opposition to him. Afterwards General + Washington placed in his hands the papers from which to write his + Farewell Address. But it was a rule of Mr. Madison's life, as I + have noticed before, never to injure the feelings of any man as + long as it could possibly be avoided, and he suffered long and much + to avoid it. His papers will be examined in vain for imputations of + faults to his contemporaries. They are even omitted in cases where + they would have been the readiest and apparently the indispensable + means of repelling unjust imputations upon himself. He carried this + self-denial farther than any other public man. The pain and regret + that he exhibited in his conversation with Mr. Trist, in respect to + the parting between Hamilton and himself, were obviously genuine, + but the necessity was absolute, and the danger that justice might + not otherwise he done to his character imminent. He was on the eve + of his departure for another world,--his well earned and well + established reputation was about to lose his own personal + guardianship,--and the subject was brought before him in such a way + that he must either confess the forthcoming impeachments by his + silence, or repel them by declaring the truth. + + Some other citations which I have found occasion to make from Mr. + Randall's work are incorporated in the text. + + [27] President Washington's Private Secretary. + + [28] We have italicized these words. + +Other instances have occurred in our Government and elsewhere in which +statesmen have transcended the constitutional limits of their power +under a necessity sincerely believed to be controlling, trusting to that +circumstance for the indulgence of their constituents; and in no case +which has presented itself here has that indulgence been withheld where +the motives for the assumption of responsibility were pure. Mr. +Jefferson's course in the purchase of Louisiana and General Jackson's +conduct at New Orleans were striking cases of that description. + +But we have, fortunately, evidence the most authentic and unequivocal +that President Washington never intended by his approval of the Bank +Bill to express an approval of the systematic and general disregard of +the intentions of the framers of the Constitution, in respect to the +powers of Congress, whenever such disregard should be deemed expedient. +The provisions of the first Apportionment Bill sent to him for his +approval were contrary to the Constitution, and Mr. Jefferson gave an +opinion to that effect and recommending a veto, whilst the opinion of +General Hamilton was in favor of their constitutionality. The division +by which the bill passed had been exclusively sectional, and the +objection of unconstitutionality was raised by the South. The Union was, +at that early period, believed to stand upon a precarious footing, and +the President was seriously apprehensive that the worst consequences +might result, in the then state of the public mind, if he were to throw +himself on the side of his own section by a veto. + +His embarrassment and concern were great, and he was sincerely desirous +to avoid a resort to what was then regarded as an extreme measure. He +agreed that the method prescribed by the bill "was contrary to the +common understanding of that instrument (the Constitution), and to what +was understood at the time by the makers of it," but thought "it would +bear the construction assumed by the bill." This was the precise issue +that was raised upon the passage of the bill to establish the bank, +viz.: whether the actual intention, or that which was only inferential, +was to prevail. That he would have withheld the veto if he had felt +himself at liberty in such a case to follow the letter of the +Constitution, and thereby defeat the intention of those who made it, no +one, who examines the matter, will for a moment doubt. He appears to +have been duly sensible of the magnitude of the question in all its +bearings. On the one hand were the evils to be apprehended from a +decision in favor of the South upon a disturbing question by a Southern +President, in a form not only without precedent here, but very +unpalatable--that of a veto; on the other was the grave objection to his +committing himself in favor of the principle which had prevailed on the +question of the bank in a case that did not furnish any thing like an +equal excuse for departing from the honest and straightforward rule of +interpreting the Constitution, like any other instrument, by the +intention of those who made it. He did not fail to see that to act +again, and under existing circumstances, upon the principle to which he +had given his sanction in the case of the bank, would be to commit +himself to Hamilton's latitudinarian doctrines in respect to the +construction of the Constitution, and he vetoed the bill.[29] + + [29] Jefferson's _Correspondence_, Vol. IV. p. 466. + +It would have been well for the country if the injurious effects of +Hamilton's policy and principles had been confined to his own times, but +men of such rare genius, distinguished by the same eagerness, industry, +and energy in pursuit of their objects, seldom fail to leave a durable +mark upon the world in which they have bustled, especially when their +day is contemporaneous with the commencement of a new government, and +when they are intrusted with great power, as was emphatically the case +with Hamilton. He and Jefferson, both answering to this description, +have always been regarded by me as the bane and antidote of our +political system. Every speech and every writing of Hamilton exhibited +proof of deep research and laborious study. Men, governments, and +political measures, were his favorite subjects of reflection and +discussion. Of the former, more particularly of the mass, he had (as I +have elsewhere said) formed unfavorable opinions; not that he was less +desirous than others for their welfare--for few men were more +philanthropic in disposition--but because of the early and ineffaceable +impression upon his mind that the majority of men, in their collective +capacity, were radically deficient in respect for order and for the +rights of persons and of property. As he thought their fears or their +private interests and passions the only alternative methods of managing +them and the former inapplicable to our people, so he considered those +measures of government "discreetest, wisest, best," which were most +likely to enlist their personal interests and feelings on its side. Such +measures he deemed indeed indispensable, and his whole scheme for the +administration of the Government was founded upon this theory. + +Anti-republican as these views undoubtedly were, they nevertheless +pointed to principles and to a policy well calculated to make deep +impressions upon large portions of the community, in which were, and +will always be, found many liable to be influenced by such +considerations, and ready to follow the political party organized upon +them; many, if not born in the belief, certainly educated in it, that +they have something to fear from the major part of their +fellow-creatures, and seeing few more important objects for the +establishment of governments among men than to keep these in order and +to protect the well-disposed portions of society like themselves from +the vices and follies of the masses. In the performance of such duties +they very naturally conclude that government should look to the more +intelligent and better informed classes for support, and as naturally +that to enable them to render such support they should receive partial +favors and extraordinary advantages from its administration. Men of this +class, their associates and dependents, as was foreseen, embraced with +alacrity and supported with the energy inspired by self-interest the +principle of political reciprocity between government and its supporters +inaugurated in England at the Revolution of 1688, and ingrafted upon our +system by Hamilton in 1790. He found in the old Federal party a soil +well adapted to the cultivation of that policy, and in conjunction with +those who expected to share in the profits exerted all the faculties of +his great mind to extend the field for its operation. + +That extension soon became so great under the fostering influence of +Government and the money power as to include among its supporters, +either as principals or sympathizers, almost every business class in the +community, saving always the landed interest, properly so called, the +mechanics not manufacturers, and the working classes. When I speak of +the landed interest, I allude (as I have before explained) to those only +who cultivate the soil themselves directly or by the aid of +_employées_--to the farmers and planters of the country--and do not of +course include speculators in lands, who buy to sell and sell to buy, +and who, of all classes, are most dependent upon the friendship and most +subject to the influence of the money power. + +Such a principle of political action, once fairly started in business +communities, is not easily uprooted. It continued to govern the +successors to the Federal party by whatever name they were called. +Indeed, the discrepancy that existed between its name and its principles +when it was first called _Federal_ has obtained in all its mutations. +Its principles have been the same, with a single exception, under every +name, until the perturbation of party names and systems recently +produced by the disturbing subject of slavery. When that influence is +spent, the individuals who now constitute the so-called Republican party +will in the main revert to their original positions. The exception +referred to consists in the exemption on the part of his political +disciples of the present day from the hallucination which Hamilton +carried to his grave in regard to the possibility of the ultimate +re-establishment of monarchical institutions in this country. In all +other respects we have had unvarying exhibitions of his well-known +sentiments upon the subjects of government and its administration; the +same preference for artificial constructions of the Constitution, +devised to defeat instead of to develop the intentions of those who made +it; the same inclination to strengthen the money power and to increase +its political influence--an object that occupied the first place in +Hamilton's wishes; the same disposition to restrict the powers of the +State governments, and to enlarge those of the Federal head; the same +distrust of the capacity of the people to control the management of +public affairs, and the same desire also for governmental interference +in the private pursuits of men and for influencing them by special +advantages to favored individuals and classes. A statement of the +extent to which the business, as distinguished from the agricultural and +other laboring classes, have been banded together in our political +contests by a preference for Hamilton's principles and by the +instrumentality of the money power, would be regarded as incredible if +the facts were not indisputable and notorious. Such has been the case +with those who hold the stock of our banks, and control their +action--agencies which enter into some of the minutest as well as the +most important of the business transactions of these great communities. +A vast majority in number as well as in interest of these are men deeply +imbued with Hamiltonian principles. The same thing may be said of our +insurance companies which have been invested with special privileges of +various grades, and are authorized to insure against perils by land, and +perils by sea, and against perils of almost every description. The same +in respect to our incorporated companies invested with like privileges, +and established for the manufacture of articles made of cotton, of wool, +of flax, of hemp, of silk, of iron, of steel, of lead, of clay, &c., &c. +The same of companies with like privileges for the construction of +railroads, of bridges, of canals, where they can be made profitable, and +other constructions to which the invention and industry of man can be +successfully applied. Individuals frequently go into these powerful +associations with opposite political feelings, but are ultimately almost +invariably induced to change them altogether, or to modify them so much +as to satisfy their partners that their democratic principles are not +sufficiently stringent to be troublesome. The possession of special and, +in some of these cases, of exclusive privileges, is certain sooner or +later to produce distrust of the less favored body of the people, and +distrust grows apace to the proportions of prejudice and dislike. There +are of course striking exceptions to this rule, as to every other. +There are always men connected with these associations whose democratic +principles are so deeply implanted in their very natures as to place +them above the influence of circumstances; but they are few and far +between. These changes are not the fruit of infirm purposes or +characters, but are produced by influences which seem no farther +traceable than is here imperfectly done, and are yet sufficiently +effective to convert to Hamiltonian principles more than three fourths +of the Democrats who become members of the associations of which I have +spoken. + +Such aggregations of wealth and influence, connected as they usually are +or soon become with social distinctions, naturally come to be regarded +as the fountains of patronage by those who are in search of it. The +press, men of letters, artists, and professional men of every +denomination, and those engaged in subordinate pursuits who live upon +the luxurious indulgences of the rich, are all brought within the scope +of this influence. It is perhaps in this way only that we can account +for the remarkable disparity in number between the newspapers and other +periodicals advocating Democratic principles and those which support the +views of the money power and its adherents--a disparity the +extraordinary extent of which will strike any one who visits a common +reading-room, in which, amid the well-furnished shelves and full files +of the publications of the latter class, it is rare that we find many of +the former, often not more than a single newspaper, sometimes not one. +Yet those which we do not find there represent the political principles +of a large majority of the people. The same fact attracts the attention +of the observer in passing through countries abroad which are under +monarchical institutions. + +These are among the political accretions of the money power in this +country, made in a comparatively short period--these, the foreseen +operations of Hamilton's policy and principles and the _strata_ on which +he designed at some time, when the prejudices of the day should have +passed away, or in some crisis in the affairs of the country which might +make the work easier or more agreeable to the people, to found political +institutions of the same general character at least with those the +realization of which had been the day-dream of his life. + +To return to the point from which I started in this long and doubtless +prolix review--a political party founded on such principles and looking +to such sources for its support does not often stand in need of caucuses +and conventions to preserve harmony in its ranks. Constructed +principally of a network of special interests,--almost all of them +looking to Government for encouragement of some sort,--the feelings and +opinions of its members spontaneously point in the same direction, and +when those interests are thought in danger, or new inducements are held +out for their advancement, notice of the apprehended assault or promised +encouragement is circulated through their ranks with a facility always +supplied by the sharpened wit of cupidity. Their conflicts in council, +when such occur, are for the same reasons less likely to be obstinate +and more easily reconciled. Sensible of these facts, the policy of their +leaders has been from the beginning to discountenance and explode all +usages or plans designed to secure party unity, so essential to their +opponents and substantially unnecessary to themselves. + +Hamilton's system considered with reference to the effect it was +calculated to exert upon most of the classes at whom it aimed, did great +credit to his sagacity. The wonder has always been that a party which +has had at its command so large a portion of the appliances generally +most effective in partisan warfare should meet with such infrequent +success in the elections. Strangers who visit us are especially struck +with this to them unaccountable circumstance, and superficial observers +at home are often scarcely less impressed by it; and yet the secret of +its failure lies on the surface. Although Hamilton's policy was +successful with many, it failed signally, as has been stated, with the +most numerous and consequently the most powerful class of our +citizens--those engaged in agriculture; a class with which the +intercourse of strangers is the most limited, and the strength of which, +from the seclusion and unobtrusiveness of its common life, is very apt +to be underrated by other ranks even of our own people. It not only +failed to attract their sympathies in his favor, but excited their +dissatisfaction by its extension of governmental favors to others in +which they could not participate consistently with their inherited and +cherished principles, and which were not necessary to their pursuits; +thus increasing that antagonism to some extent between those who live by +the sweat of their brow and those who live by their wits. These adverse +results of his policy continued after its execution devolved upon his +disciples. Farmers and planters--the main-stay of the Democratic +party--seldom allow themselves, as I have before said, to be drawn +before Congress or into the audience chambers of Presidents and +Cabinets, suppliants for special favors to the interest in which they +are engaged. The indifference exhibited by the agriculturists of +America, at the period of the Stamp Act, to the overflowing offers of +bounties, is still shown by their uncorrupted successors. The promised +aid to their business held out by Hamilton in his famous Report on +Manufactures, both direct and consequential, therefore excited no +feeling in their breasts save strong suspicions of his motives. + +Our political history abounds with instances in which similar attempts +to obtain the support of the many by appeals to the self-interest of the +few have shared the same fate. They seldom fail to prove offensive to +the taste and humiliating to the pride of our people. The wisest way to +the confidence and support of the latter is to confine the action of the +administration of the Federal Government to the duties specifically +enjoined upon it by the Constitution, and to the able and honest +discharge of them. Statesmen who act upon this rule are much more likely +to close their official careers with credit to themselves and advantage +to the country than by resort to experiments, however splendid or +plausible. Occasions may indeed be presented on which temporary +derangements in the affairs of the State and of individuals are produced +of sufficient magnitude to baffle all calculations and to disappoint the +best intentions and the wisest measures, but these must of necessity be +of rare occurrence. + +The administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson were thus +conducted, and they had their reward. The success of Mr. Madison's was, +it is true, greatly retarded by obstructions placed in its way by the +money power, with a view to drive him to a dishonorable peace by +crippling his resources; but he and his associates in the Government +triumphed, notwithstanding, for that power had not then acquired the +strength which it subsequently attained, and the field for the display +of that which it possessed was not a safe one, while the passions of the +people were excited by a state of open war and were liable to be turned +with augmented fury against such as virtually aided the public enemy. It +was in its palmiest state in 1832, when it demanded a re-charter of the +Bank of the United States, and when, this being refused, it commenced +the struggle for the expulsion of President Jackson from the chair of +State. Although it lacked time to mature its measures sufficiently for +the accomplishment of that particular object, it continued its assaults +upon the Executive, materially weakened its influence in the National +Legislature, and after a ruthless war of eight years succeeded in +overthrowing the administration of his successor and in obtaining +possession of the Government. + +But the methods of the great men and successful Presidents whom I have +named were too simple, and the tenor of their way too noiseless and even +for the adventurous genius of Hamilton's school. To devise elaborate +schemes for the management of that branch of the Government intrusted to +his control, and of such as fell within the scope of his influence, was +more to his liking. The construction and execution of these made +necessary the use of powers not granted by the Constitution, and led to +a perversion of its provisions, of which we have seen the consequences. + +John Quincy Adams was the first President, after the civil revolution of +1800, who entered upon the duties of his office with views of the +Constitution as latitudinarian as were those of Hamilton, and the only +one of that stamp who possessed sufficient force of character to make +his will the rule of action for his cabinet, and who lived long enough +to make it to some extent effectual. Although elected as a convert to +the principles of the then Republican party, he was no sooner seated in +the Presidential chair than he disavowed those principles in their most +important features--those of Constitutional construction--and marked out +a course in that regard which he intended to pursue. He thereby united +that party against his reėlection to an extent sufficient to defeat it +by an overwhelming majority. + +Of the party which thus a second time vindicated the Constitution, by +far the most effective ingredient was the landed interest. But though +the most powerful, it was yet far from being its only valuable element, +for, to use Mr. Jefferson's words on the former occasion, there was +besides "a great mass of talent on the Republican side." + +If there be any whom experience has not yet satisfied of the power of +the landed interest, and of its capacity to cope successfully with the +money power of the country, enormous as has been the growth of the +latter, let them consider the facts disclosed by the census. By that of +1850, our population, as affecting the point under consideration, is +shown to have consisted at that time of _farmers_, two millions three +hundred and sixty thousand; of planters, twenty-seven thousand; of +laborers engaged in agriculture, thirty-seven thousand; of persons +engaged in commerce, trade, manufactures, mechanic arts, and mining, one +million six hundred thousand; in law, medicine, and divinity, +ninety-four thousand. Let them compare these with previous enumerations, +and they will see how invariable and large is the disproportion in +numbers between the agricultural and other classes. That disproportion +must of course have been greater during our colonial existence and at +the Revolutionary period, when our commerce was trifling, and we were +almost if not entirely destitute of manufactures. We are hence able to +form an idea of the extent to which the defense of the principles which +the colonists cherished, and for the maintenance of which the Revolution +was made, rested on the broad shoulders of the landed interest from the +beginning to the end of that great contest. + +Without the hearty and constant coöperation of that interest the +impassable barrier that has been erected against the politically +demoralizing and anti-republican tendency of the Hamiltonian policy +could never have been maintained. I have alluded to the reasons for my +belief that it is placed by its position and by the law of its nature +beyond the reach of that policy, and my firm conviction that it will +secure to our people the blessings of republican government as long as +it remains the predominant interest in the country. It can only be when +the agriculturists abandon the implements and the field of their labor +and become, with those who now assist them, shopkeepers, manufacturers, +carriers, and traders, that the Republic will be brought in danger of +the influences of the money power. But this can never happen. Every +inclination of the landed interest, however slight, in that direction +has been to it a prolific source of loss, regret, and repentance. +Between 1835 and 1840, when the country was stimulated to madness by the +Bank of the United States and its allies, the interests of agriculture +were so much neglected as to lead to large importations of breadstuffs +from Europe, whilst the land was covered with luxury, soon succeeded by +bankruptcy and want. But the sober second-thought of the people, in a +remarkably brief period, not only brought that great branch of the +industry of the country back to the point from which it had been +seduced, but drove from power those who had risen to it upon the +strength of a temporary popular delusion. + +If any doubt the existence and agency of a political influence such as I +have described under the name of the money power, or think the +description exaggerated, let me ask them to ponder upon its achievements +in the country from which it has been transplanted to our shores. It is +but little more than a century and a half since it was first +interpolated upon the English system, and we have seen the results it +has in that period produced upon its rivals: every vestige of the feudal +system that survived the Revolution of 1688 extinguished; the landed +aristocracy, once lords paramount, depressed to an average power in the +State; the Crown, still respected, and its possessor at this moment +justly beloved by all, yet substantially reduced to a pageant, protected +indeed by the prejudices of John Bull in favor of ancestral forms and +state ceremonies, but of almost no account as an element of power when +weighed against the well-ascertained opinion of the people of England. +Who does not know that it holds in its hands, more often than any other +power, questions of peace or war, not only in England but over Europe! +How often have previous consultations with a respectable family of Jews +decided the question of a declaration of war! Indeed it would have been +well for humanity if so salutary a check upon the brutal passions of men +and monarchs had been always equally potent--if some conservative and +life-sparing Rothschilds had been able to restrain the Henries, the +Louises, the Fredericks, and the Napoleons of the past. + +The money power, designed from the beginning to exert a liberal +influence in England as the antagonist of arbitrary power, has done much +good there by the prominence and influence to which it has elevated +public opinion, and this to some extent is true of other European +countries. Here it was from its start, as I have said, designed to +control the public will by undermining and corrupting its free and +virtuous impulse and determination, and its political effects have been +continually injurious. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Slight Notice so far in this Work bestowed upon the Course of the + Democratic Party, and Reasons therefor--Four great Crises in our + National Affairs, viz.: The Revolution; the Confederation; the + Struggle resulting in the Adoption of the Constitution, and + Hamilton's Attempt to pave the way for its Overthrow--Equal Merit + during the Revolution of those who afterwards formed the Federalist + and Anti-Federalist Parties--Condition of the Country under the + Confederation--During that Period and in the Struggle for the + Constitution the Measures and Conduct of the Federalists Wiser than + those of their Opponents--Culmination of the Contest of Principle + between the two great Parties during the Administration of John + Adams--The Object of this Work to give a general Account of the + Origin and Organization of Parties, and not a History of Partisan + Conflicts arising afterwards--Party Spirit, its Evils and + Benefits--Randall's "Life of Jefferson"--Leadership of Hamilton and + Jefferson--Their Character and Influence--Contrasts in their + Careers, Principles, and Aims--John Adams's Political + Principles--State of Parties in the time of Washington's + Administration as described by John Q. Adams--Character of John + Adams--His Services in the Revolution--Change in his Political + Opinions from his Residence in England--Fidelity of Jefferson, + Samuel Adams, and others to their Original Principles--Vigor and + Efficiency of the Organization of the Old Republican Party--Firm + Establishment of Popular Convictions against Monarchical + Institutions--"Sapping and Mining Policy" of Hamilton--Growing + Attachment of Republicans to the Constitution, and corresponding + Dislike of that Instrument on the part of Federalists--Issue + presented by Madison in the Legislature of Virginia--His Report a + Synopsis of Republican Doctrines--Triumph and general Success of + the Party--Lasting Effects of Hamilton's Teachings--Erroneous + Theories of the Origin of Parties--Identity of the Anti-Federal, + Republican, and Democratic Parties--Apparent Agreement of all + Parties upon Fundamental Questions after the Ratification of the + Constitution--Subsequent Controversy arose from the Efforts of the + Federalists for a Latitudinarian, and of their Opponents for a + Strict Construction of that Instrument. + + +It cannot have failed to strike the reader of these pages that a +comparatively slight notice has been taken of that party which has for +more than half a century, with rare and limited exceptions, administered +the Government of our country. This is easily explained. During the +first twelve years of the existence of this Government, the period +during which the two great parties of the country received that "form +and pressure" which they have never lost, the Federalists were in power, +and of course principal actors in the management of public affairs. +Expositions of their measures and of the circumstances under which they +were brought forward, and criticisms upon those measures, naturally +acquire greater prominence in a review of the period than the less +salient manifestations of the opposition permit. The resistance made by +the latter to those measures involved a succession of sacrifices and +services which it is now difficult to appreciate at their full value, +but which, when correctly estimated, reflect the highest honor upon +those engaged in it and deserve the fullest notice. + +The four great crises in our national affairs were, _first_, the +Revolution; _second_, the government of the Confederation between the +recognition of our Independence and the adoption of the present +Constitution; _third_, the struggle for and the acquisition of that +instrument; and _fourth_, Hamilton's attempt to make of the Government +which had been established under it a delusion, and the Constitution a +sham, to pave the way for its overthrow and for the final introduction +of institutions more accordant with his opinions;--for, as I have +remarked, no intelligent man could have expected that the people of +America would long endure a Constitution subject to the treatment to +which he had exposed it, and to such as he had still in store for it. + +In the crisis of the Revolution, the conduct of all who subsequently +composed the two great parties in the country--save the Tories, who were +soon absorbed by one of them,--was equally meritorious. The difference +between them in point of numbers was largely in favor of those who were +afterwards called Anti-Federalists, and, still later, Republicans, and +in point of talents and perhaps in social position on the side of the +Federalists. + +The condition of the country, during the second important juncture, may +be not inaptly illustrated by the common figure of a strong man +struggling in a morass. Nothing was stable, and nothing which promised +substantial relief seemed for a season practicable. Of the prominent +measures brought forward by both parties to extricate the country from +its embarrassments, those proposed by the Federalists were the wisest, +and, as the result proved, well adapted to the exigences of the +occasion. + +In the contest for the Constitution that party was also throughout more +useful than its opponents. In this estimate the course taken by Hamilton +is not regarded as the act of his party, except as to that portion of it +which consisted in signing the Constitution and in aiding its adoption. + +The issues involved in the fourth decisive crisis in our political +fortunes were contested during the presidency of John Adams. The whole +of that administration was a political campaign, occupied by bitter and +uninterrupted struggles for predominance between the conflicting +principles of two great parties. The most important, although perhaps +not the most exciting, of the questions and measures in dispute had +arisen during the administration of President Washington; but his +presence and participation in the Government held the parties at bay. +Political alienations had then taken place, and wounds had been +inflicted which were never healed, and bitter fountains sprang up and +struggled for an outlet, but they were in a great degree restrained by +that consideration. The leading men among those who soon after +organized the first Republican, now called the old Republican, party, +made it a point to abstain from violent action, and to content +themselves with protests against measures of which they disapproved, but +which they could not defeat. Jefferson gave his opinion in the cabinet, +and Madison made his unanswerable speech in the Congress against the +bank, and the latter, with other Republicans, spoke strongly against +particular features of the funding system, but both measures were +nevertheless adopted by decisive majorities; and still, as far as +practicable, harsh invective and reproaches against those majorities +were withheld or delayed. The removal of the salient point of attack, by +the withdrawal of Hamilton from the cabinet, served also to stay +partisan outbreaks on the part of the Republicans, who were, throughout, +not unmindful of the advantages they would give to their opponents by +bringing matters to a crisis whilst Washington was at the head of the +Government. On the other hand, Hamilton evidently was discouraged by the +restrictions imposed upon him by the prudence of Washington. It is +apparent that, although by far more confided in, on the score of his +great talents, than any other member of the administration, he was yet +not allowed the latitude which he thought necessary to success. No one +can read his remarkable letter to Washington (to which I have referred +in another connection) without perceiving that he was seriously +discontented. He thought that there were men about the President who +interfered with and opposed his counsels, and he avowed his suspicions +to that effect in that letter to Washington, with the expression of a +hope that the latter would one day understand those men better. There +was, besides, as Jefferson admits, "no act of strong mark during the +remainder of his" (Washington's) "administration that excited much +complaint." + +Discontents were, therefore, in a great degree, held in abeyance waiting +the succession for more active resistance and redress. The arrival of +that period--the retirement of Washington and the election of +Adams--found the field clear for the great contest for which the +materials had been gathered and the hearts of the combatants prepared. + +Mr. Jefferson endeavored, as far as was proper, to prevent himself from +being regarded as a competitor with Mr. Adams, when the latter was +elected. He wrote to Mr. Madison, requesting him to withdraw his name if +there should be an equality of votes between himself and Mr. Adams, +which was not an improbable result, assigning, as a reason, that the +latter was greatly his senior in years, and had always stood in advance +of him in public life. But notwithstanding the friendly feelings that +had existed between them down to that period, their relations soon +assumed a very decided character of political opposition. Then commenced +that fierce partisan struggle which has never been equaled here and +seldom, if ever, in any country, either in respect to the gravity and +interest of the principles involved, or to the ability and firmness with +which the ground of the respective parties was sustained. + +A full account of the incidents of this four years' controversy would +carry this work far beyond the limits of my plan and of my time. My +object has been to trace the origin and first organization of our +political parties. To this full notices of the early measures out of +which they sprang were indispensable. Partisan conflicts upon questions +that arose after their organization was completed, are to be regarded as +effects rather than as causes of their existence. The spirit which +controls the action of sects and parties, in church or state, is indeed +selfish and perverse, becoming more and more characterized by those +qualities the longer they are kept on foot. When a new measure is +proposed, or doctrine announced, on either side, the problem presenting +itself for deliberation _eo instanti_ to the minds of the opposite +faction, is as to the degree of strength and credit which its +introduction and success may be expected to bring to its authors, and of +consequent damage to their own party,--degrees, of course, dependent +upon the extent of its probable advantage to the interests of religion, +in one case, or of the country, in the other,--and in such deliberation +the claims of religion and country are in great danger of being +postponed for the interests of parties, and the new doctrine or measure +of meeting with a resistance proportioned to its probable merit. It +results as a general rule that it is sufficient to induce one party to +oppose any given measure to know that it has been introduced by its +adversary. This is an unfavorable and humiliating view of a subject +which nevertheless includes great advantages in a free State, but its +truth is unhappily too obvious. + +The angry contests which followed each other in rapid and uninterrupted +succession during the administration of the elder Adams, partook +strongly of this character. They sprung out of questions which arose +after the two great parties of the country--which have been +substantially kept on foot ever since--had been completely organized and +had taken the field, the one to accomplish and the other to resist a +great national reform which could only be constitutionally determined +through the medium of a struggle for the succession. Of these I have +only noticed the alien and sedition laws, and have been induced to make +that discrimination partly by a conviction of their superior influence +in settling the fate of parties, but principally from their relation to +the report upon the question of their constitutionality prepared by +Madison, under the invigorating stimulus administered by the ever +active and zealous mind of Jefferson. Of this great paper I shall speak +again. + +For an account of those interesting partisan conflicts--which, in +comparison with the men and issues of the present day, I may, without, I +think, being justly reproached with overpraising the past, call a war of +giants--the reader cannot, in my judgment, be referred to a source which +is in the main more reliable than Randall's "Life of Jefferson." The +descendants of that great and good man have contributed to the +preparation of that work, apparently without reserve, a body of +information of intense interest with which they have been intrusted, and +which has never before been made public. With many of the members of +this family it has been my good fortune to become intimately acquainted; +it would be difficult to find people anywhere more unobtrusive, +notwithstanding their claims upon the respect and consideration of the +community, whilst in individual temperament and character they are +richly endowed with those amiable, truthful, disinterested, and upright +traits for which their progenitor was so greatly distinguished in the +estimation of those who knew him well, and who were disposed to do him +justice. Mr. Randall has faithfully embodied the valuable materials +furnished by them in his work, to the execution of which he has brought, +besides talent and industry, a thoroughly democratic spirit. He has +entitled himself to credit for permitting Mr. Jefferson and his +contemporaries, as well opponents as coadjutors, to speak for themselves +in respect to public questions generally. If it should be thought in any +quarter that his own commentaries betray too much warmth; and are in +some instances of too partisan a character for the right tone of +history, it should be remembered that they fall in those respects far +short of the writers of the Federal school who have treated of +Jefferson; his volumes may with truth be regarded as the first +systematic defense of that statesman's entire political career, and it +would not be an easy matter for any one, especially for one of Randall's +years, after wading through the volumes of political and personal +detraction which have been written against him, to read for the first +time vindications authentic, simple, and conclusive without being +sometimes betrayed into expressions which would not have been indulged +at moments of less excitement. + +Occasional mistakes in a work of such extent, even with the best +intentions, and with what may well be regarded as the most reliable +sources of information, are still unavoidable. I have elsewhere +corrected a very important one in respect to Mr. Madison's vote on +Giles's resolution censuring the conduct of Hamilton. I dissent also +from the inferences drawn in a few instances from facts about which +there is no mistake,--such as Washington's intentions respecting the +rank of the major-generals for the provisional army, and the blame +imputed to Jefferson and Madison,--to the latter for not accepting the +office of Secretary of State when the former resigned, and to Jefferson +for declining Washington's invitation to return to it; but I have not +seen any statement in the whole work which I do not believe was intended +to be correct, or any construction of ascertained results which does not +appear to have been made in good faith. + +It is conceded on all sides that Hamilton and Jefferson, during the +presidency of John Adams, were the leaders of the two great parties--the +substantial amalgamation of the old Anti-Federal and Republican parties +leaving but two. Hamilton's position was unprecedented. Although the +President and himself were, almost from the commencement of the +campaign, upon very bad terms--feeling strong personal dislike towards +each other, and holding no really friendly intercourse--he +notwithstanding directed the course of the administration, and +controlled the entire action of the Government to a greater extent than +he had done at any time during the presidency of Washington. These +extraordinary results he accomplished by means of the complete +ascendancy, to which I have heretofore alluded, which he possessed over +the three principal members of Mr. Adams's cabinet,--Pickering, Wolcott +and McHenry,--and by the peculiar influence that he was capable of +exerting over the Federal members of Congress. I have referred to +letters, state papers, briefs, and instructions for the action of those +parties establishing the truth of this position. With very limited +exceptions the control of Mr. Adams over his own administration was +little more than nominal. He served the purpose, and that was his chief +burden, of bearing the responsibility of unpopular measures--a fortunate +circumstance for the Republicans, as he excelled most men in his +capacity for adding to the odium of an obnoxious measure by the manner +of executing it. + +I doubt whether, in the history of the world, another occasion can be +found when any two men were as successful as were Jefferson and Hamilton +in impressing such great numbers of intelligent people with their own +opinions and views upon the subjects of government and its proper +administration. + +Acts and avowed opinions speak for themselves, but to determine the +motives of parties in the adoption of their measures no safer tests +perhaps can be employed than the characters and dispositions of those by +whom the parties themselves were founded and, in their early stages, +guided. Hamilton's character, qualifications, and views have already +occupied a large space in these pages. If they have been spoken of in +any other than a faithful and liberal spirit, I have certainly failed +to do justice to my own feelings. Of Thomas Jefferson, the founder as +well as leader of the old Republican, now Democratic, party, +comparatively little has been said. Opposed as they were in their +opinions upon almost every public question that arose after the adoption +of the Federal Constitution, there were yet occasional coincidences of +sentiment which served to illustrate the elevated character of their +minds, as there were also many features of their respective careers +which, while broadly contrasted, furnished the strongest evidence of the +sincerity and integrity of both. Not the least striking among the latter +may be found in the circumstances and conditions of life in which they +respectively started in the "race set before them," as connected with +the ideas and opinions at which they arrived, so variant from those +commonly impressed upon men by similar accidents. + +Descended from a highly honored stock, it was yet Hamilton's lot to be +born poor and to be left solely dependent upon his own exertions for his +success in life. After a service of three years as clerk in a +counting-house he was sent to this country for the completion of his +education, at the expense of relatives on his mother's side. Here he +made himself acquainted with the character of our dispute with the +mother country, and took sides with the colonists in a manner and under +circumstances highly creditable to him, and after five years' military +service, in which he acquired great reputation in comparatively +subordinate stations, he retired to private life, adopting the legal +profession as his only resource for the support of his family. + +That a man trained in such a school, and who at the same time possessed +capacities to influence the public mind, when his efforts were properly +directed, far superior to any of his contemporaries, would, in the +condition in which he was placed, and under a government like our own, +take his political position on the popular side, was an anticipation +naturally entertained by the zealous friends of republican government. +But we have seen, on the contrary, that there was not, throughout the +wide extent of the Republic, a single man of respectable standing, more +deeply (and, let me add, more sincerely) distrustful of the judgment and +dispositions of the great body of the people, or more anxious to impose +restraints upon the popular will, and, for the accomplishment of that +object, to add to the intrinsic influence of associated wealth the +facilities for its exercise afforded by the possession of political +power. His case must not, however, be confounded with that of the +"candied tongues" found in every community which + + "Lick absurd pomp, + And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee + That thrift may follow fawning." + +Hamilton's mind was incapable of that condescension, or, as Mr. +Jefferson observed to me of him in connection with other matters, "he +was far above that." He participated largely as a professional man in +the favor and patronage of the commercial and manufacturing classes, but +instead of his own political course being influenced by the receipt of +such favors, he seldom failed to govern theirs. He was not a man to +mortgage his great abilities for personal benefits of any description, +and so well was his character in that respect understood that no one +would have ventured to tender him any inducement which might in the +estimation of the most prejudiced expose his personal independence to +the slightest question or suspicion. The fact, therefore, that he +pursued a course so different from what might have been naturally +expected of him by people generally--a course so much less eligible for +the gratification of ambitious views--affords high evidence of the +integrity of his motives. It proved that he acted under the influence of +opinions which had been honestly formed, and in the correctness of which +he confided to the end; opinions which he doubtless hoped would in the +sequel prove acceptable to the majority, but to which he felt it his +duty to adhere, whatever might be the consequences to himself of his +perseverance. + +Mr. Jefferson, on the other hand, succeeded at the age of fourteen, in +addition to other rights of primogeniture, to an inheritance which, with +competent management, was sufficient to satisfy all his wants, and to a +social position, when he became a man, which required no pecuniary aids +to make his condition in every respect all that was desirable, and one +that could scarcely be improved by any change in the government of his +country. To an unusual extent devoid of the gift of oratory, personal +ambition was less likely to tempt him into the paths of politics. +Cherishing always a love of letters, science and the arts, blessed with +a genial temper, and in every respect well qualified to adorn and to +enjoy the social circle, he seemed destined for a life of elegant ease. +But, happily for the cause of human rights throughout the world, and for +the welfare especially of his own country, he was impressed by his Maker +with an ardent love of liberty, and a zealous devotion to the generous +and equalizing principles of republican government, which impelled him +into the political field, and placed him from the beginning in +unreserved hostility to hereditary political power in any form, to all +institutions in the State which secure to particular classes or +individuals a preference over others of equal merit, and to all power in +government, or in individuals or associations, civil or ecclesiastical, +which can be exerted to control the opinions or to coerce the +consciences of men. + +Moved by such impulses, and having "sworn eternal hostility against +every form of tyranny over the mind of man," he entered, at an early +age, upon his public career, destined to be long and eventful, and +sustained throughout the character given of him on his first appearance +in Congress in 1775, by John Adams,--"prompt, frank, explicit, and +decisive"--"not even Samuel Adams was more so." From that time until the +day of his death he gave his support, never for a moment diminished in +zeal or sincerity, and varied only in its efficiency according to the +positions he occupied and the influence they afforded for the purpose, +to the great principle of "the equality of political rights" which +Hamilton well described as "the foundation of pure Republicanism." + +At the age of twenty-two--a period in Hamilton's life when his already +teeming mind was meditating the establishment of institutions, and the +adoption of measures to strengthen the Government, and to enable it to +exercise what he deemed a salutary and necessary restraint upon the +popular will, institutions and measures in the working of which, from +their nature, none but moneyed men could be expected to +participate--Jefferson was as actively and constantly employed in the +Virginia House of Delegates, in concert with the earliest Revolutionary +patriots of that State, in preparing her, as well as the hearts of the +people, for the great movement then already the subject of confident +anticipation with minds like theirs. There he remained until 1775, when +he was appointed a delegate to the Continental Congress. Of his agency, +whilst a member of that body, in preparing the Declaration of +Independence, and in promoting its adoption, it is unnecessary here to +speak. As soon as that noble work had been accomplished, he resigned his +seat, accepted a reėlection to the State Legislature as the position in +which, though less exalted, he could render more useful services to the +cause, and the measures to which his exertions were there directed were +in harmony with the spirit of the Revolution, and designed, as avowed by +himself, "to eradicate every fibre of ancient or future aristocracy, and +to lay a foundation for a government truly republican." The results of +the joint labors of himself and his patriotic associates were: + +1st. An act to prevent the further importation of slaves, a practice +which he had denounced in the Declaration of Independence as a +"piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers;" + +2d. An act to abolish entailments; + +3d. An act to abolish primogenitureship--a right which had vested in +himself; + +4th. An act for religious freedom; and + +5th. A bill for general education. + +These were not only appropriate but indispensable steps to lay a sure +foundation for republican government, State as well as National. Most, +if not all of the States, followed her lead, but to Virginia belongs the +high merit of having been in this respect the first in the field, and to +Jefferson a large share of that merit. + +Such were the men who were by common consent placed at the respective +heads of the two great parties in that national struggle which resulted +in what has ever since been known as "the Civil Revolution of Eighteen +Hundred," a name given to it by the victors on the assumption that, +although the weapons were different, the principles which were involved +in it and the spirit which achieved the triumph were akin to those which +distinguished the Revolution by the sword. The knowledge that Hamilton +preferred monarchical institutions to every other form, that John Adams, +who was at the head of the Government, sympathized very cordially with +that sentiment, and the belief that most of the leaders of the Federal +party partook largely of the same feeling, and were only prevented from +avowing the fact by their perception of its unpopularity, caused a +wide-spread and sincere alarm on the side of the Republican party for +the safety of republican government in the United States. This +apprehension imparted a graver character to the contest than any other +considerations could have produced, and called into vigorous action much +of the spirit by which the minds of the masses had been influenced in +the Revolutionary War. It served to weld the members of the old +Anti-Federal party and the Republicans--between whom a concert of action +had previously arisen--into a thorough union, which became permanent, +because it was founded on a principle in which they heartily concurred, +and which was of sufficient magnitude to absorb minor differences in +their political views. + +That Hamilton's settled opinion and preference were such as I have +described is a point which has been, it is hoped, already too well +established to admit, at this day, of an honest difference of opinion. +He avowed them on the floor of the Convention in the presence of the +assembled representatives, and this is equally clear, whether the sum of +that declaration is tested by the copy of the speech which he himself +delivered to Mr. Madison as a permanent record of his opinions, or by +the notes for that speech now published by his son. He announced them to +his political rival, Mr. Jefferson, in the presence of Mr. John Adams, +and reaffirmed them to the former in a conversation obviously sought for +the purpose of giving the form he desired to expressions of a less +guarded character, and which were, under that impression, immediately +reduced to writing by Mr. Jefferson, who, for the truth of his record, +"attests the God that made him." He so thoroughly impressed his +political coadjutor and most trusted friend--him to whom it was +appointed to pronounce his eulogy at his funeral--Gouverneur Morris, +with a sense of his devotion to monarchical institutions, that within +six months after his death, Morris, writing to his friend Ogden, speaks +of that devotion as "hobby" which Hamilton "bestrode to the great +annoyance of his friends, and not without injury to himself;" also to +Robert Walsh, the well-known editor of a leading Federal journal, in +answer to inquiries on the subject, that "Hamilton hated republican +government because he confounded it with democratical government, and he +detested the latter because he believed it must end in despotism, and be +in the mean time destructive to morality;" and that "he never failed on +every occasion to advocate the excellence of, and his attachment to, +monarchical government." It was in perfect keeping with the character of +Hamilton that never, throughout his life, though constantly charged with +entertaining such opinions, did he deny the imputation; he who denies it +now must assume that Hamilton either did not know his own mind upon the +subject, or that he had some motive for misrepresenting it, or that Mr. +Jefferson deliberately falsified his repeated declarations, and that +Gouverneur Morris was capable of misrepresenting his friend upon a point +of so much importance when that friend had descended to his grave. + +To what lengths Hamilton would have gone to subvert the existing +government, and to substitute monarchical institutions, or under what +circumstances he would have deemed an attempt to do so justifiable, are +questions open to investigation and comment, but to discuss the fact of +his constant preference for such institutions, and desire to see them +established here, would be to trifle with the subject. + +Mr. Adams, who was President, and in whose name the battle was fought, +fell but little if any thing short of General Hamilton in his partiality +for the English system. To purge the British Constitution of its +corruptions, and to give to its popular branch equality of +representation, were alone necessary, he thought, to make it "the most +perfect Constitution ever devised by the wit of man." The alterations or +amendments he suggested, sound and creditable to himself as they were, +were no more than qualifications of his general preference for the +English model. If Hamilton's admiration of that model was less qualified +than that of Adams, it must at the same time be admitted that the former +was freest from the fault of seeking to degrade and discredit republican +institutions by his writings. Without undertaking to describe the +specific design of Mr. Adams's "Defense of the Constitutions of +Government of the United States," or of his "Discourse on Davila,"--a +task, for obvious reasons, very difficult,--it may, I think, be safely +assumed that such was their manifest tendency. Hamilton at least thought +so at a time when the reciprocal prejudices which afterwards separated +them so widely had not yet acquired a strong hold upon the feelings of +either. In his interview with Mr. Jefferson on the 13th of August, 1791, +before referred to, when the conversation was turned to the writings of +Mr. Adams, Hamilton condemned them, and "most particularly Davila, as +having a tendency to weaken the present Government;" and, after other +remarks in relation to the existing Government and its chances of +success, he added,--"Whoever by his writings disturbs the present order +of things is really blamable, however pure his intentions might be, and +he was sure Mr. Adams's were pure." + +The division by Mr. Adams of governments designated as republics, into +democratic republics, aristocratic republics and monarchical, or regal +republics,--embracing a minute description of each, in which the +Government of the "United Provinces of the Low Countries," whose powers +are held by the persons intrusted with them either by hereditary title +or by the selection of associates, after the manlier of close +corporations, is called a "democratic Republic," and that of England a +"monarchical, or regal Republic,"--was naturally displeasing to the +sense and feeling of those who regarded aristocratical or monarchical or +regal features as absolutely incompatible with the true idea of +republican government. The voluminous and doubtless violent attacks that +were made upon his writings were scarcely necessary to satisfy those who +had freely undergone the sufferings and sacrifices of a long and bloody +war to secure to themselves and their posterity the blessings of +republican institutions, according to their acceptation of them, that +the writings of Mr. Adams were designed, as was charged, to cause the +term "Republican Government" to mean "any thing or nothing." + +The notices taken of the general subject and of these writings in +particular, by John Adams himself, by his son, John Quincy Adams, and by +his grandson, Charles Francis Adams, go far to show that if not fairly +liable to this construction, they were too much open to it to be +persisted in. In a note attached by the author, in 1812, to the +"Discourse on Davila," as published in his "Life and Works," he says: +"The work, however, powerfully operated upon his (J. A.'s) popularity. +It was urged as full proof that he was an advocate for monarchy, and +laboring to introduce a hereditary President in the United States." His +grandson, Charles F. Adams, introducing the "Discourse" in his "Life and +Works of John Adams," says: "They furnished to the partisans of the day +so much material for immediate political use in the contest then +beginning (1790), that the author thought it best to desist, and they +were left incomplete." + +John Quincy Adams, in his Jubilee Address,--the occasion and character +of which have been heretofore noticed,--describes the state of parties +at the accession of General Washington to the Presidency in the +following terms: "On the other hand no small number of the Federalists, +sickened by the wretched and ignominious failure of the Articles of +Confederation to fulfill the promise of the Revolution; provoked at once +and discouraged by the violence and rancor of the opposition against +their strenuous and toilsome endeavors to raise their country from her +state of prostration; chafed and goaded by the misrepresentations of +their motives, and the reproaches of their adversaries, and imputing to +them in turn deliberate and settled purposes to dissolve the Union and +resort to anarchy for the repair of ruined fortunes,--distrusted ever +the efficacy of the Constitution itself, and with a weakened confidence +in the virtue of the people were inclined to the opinion that the only +practicable substitute for it would be a government of greater energy +than that presented by the Convention. There were among them numerous +warm admirers of the British Constitution, disposed to confide rather to +the inherent strength of the Government than to the self-evident truths +of the Declaration of Independence for the preservation of the rights of +property and perhaps of persons." + +This is language which it is easy to understand, and which covers very +fairly the subject of our immediate attention. Few men enjoyed better +opportunities to possess himself of correct views in regard to the +opinions of his own political party than John Quincy Adams. He was by +nature truthful, or if at times blinded by prejudice, never, I firmly +believe, induced to swerve by sinister considerations. Accustomed from +early life to indulgence in the strong expressions (both in manner and +form) common to his race, he was apt to exaggerate under great +excitement, but was not capable of designedly falsifying facts. In the +case before us the greatest reliance may be placed upon his statements +in regard to the opinions and views of a class of men of whom he thought +well. The Federal party entered upon the first administration under the +new Constitution, of which the election had placed it in full +possession, with a weakened confidence, Mr. Adams says, in the virtue of +the people,--distrustful even of the efficacy of the Constitution +itself, and inclined to the opinion that the only practical substitute +for it would be a government of greater energy than that presented by +the Convention, and a portion of them (how large it was difficult for +manifest reasons to determine, but Mr. Adams describes it as +"numerous,") warmly admiring the British Constitution, and disposed to +confide to the inherent strength of such a government rather than to one +founded on the principles of the Declaration of Independence. In what +class or division it was the intention of Mr. Adams to place his +venerable father does not appear, nor is it very clear to which he +should be assigned. That he considered his opinions, which had been more +impugned in all respects than those of any, save perhaps of Hamilton, as +not placing him in either, is not at all probable. + +John Adams's "Defense" and "Discourse" were written at different periods +remote from each other, and when he himself occupied very different +situations; the former before the formation of the Federal Constitution, +when he represented his country as Minister to England, and the latter, +which was universally regarded as the most Anti-Republican of the two, +after he had been elected Vice-President. That his views were in some +degree changed by time and circumstances is not improbable. Mr. +Jefferson thought that he owed his support for the Vice-Presidency to +the Anti-Republican tendencies of the first work, and that his election +to that office and the federal sentiment that he found prevalent on his +return from England, and down to the commencement of the new government, +induced him to write the "Discourse," and to give to it a higher tone in +the same direction. The diffusive and (if that expression is not too +strong when speaking of writings of so much learning and ability) the +incoherent manner in which these works were constructed, particularly +the earlier one, makes it unsafe to venture to specify the precise +principles they were designed to sustain. His grandson was so sensible +of the deficiencies of the "Defense" in these respects that he +reconstructed and improved it in his publication, but without, as he +says, changing the sense, and I have no doubt that he has carried out +the latter idea in good faith. + +That few if any American citizens went beyond John Adams in his +admiration of the British Constitution is undeniably true. In the third +chapter of the "Defense,"--(see Vol. IV. p. 358, of his "Life and +Works,") he pronounces an eulogium on that Constitution which goes far +beyond that reported by Mr. Jefferson, (in his account of the +conversation between Adams and Hamilton in April, 1791,) calling it "the +most stupendous fabric of human invention," adding, that "not the +formation of languages, not the whole art of navigation and +ship-building, does more honor to the human understanding than this +system of government." But on the very next page he commends the United +States for not having followed the English model, so far as to make +"their first magistrates or their senators hereditary"--differing +substantially in that regard from the opinion reported by Mr. Jefferson, +and showing how unsafe if not futile would be the attempt to define +exactly the principles which he favored. + +It may, notwithstanding, be safely assumed, _first_, that he was +foremost among the warm admirers of the British Constitution spoken of +by his son, and _secondly_, that he deemed our Constitution defective in +omitting to provide for some depository of political power in the +government, variant in principle from its general provisions, one which +should be either not at all or only very remotely subject to popular +control, and that he stood almost at the head of those whose confidence +in the virtue of the people had been greatly weakened by occurrences +following the Revolution. + +The latter assumption would seem very fully warranted by the following +citations from his "Defense:"[30] + +"The proposition, that the people are the best keepers of their own +liberties, is not true; they are the worst conceivable; they are no +keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will as a +political body." + +"If it is meant by our author a representative assembly, they are not +still the best keepers of the liberties of the people; at least the +majority would invade the liberty of the minority sooner and oftener +than an absolute monarchy." + +"A great writer has said that a people will never oppress themselves, or +invade their own rights. This compliment, if applied to any nation or +people in being or memory, is more than has been merited." + +"Aristides, Fabricius, and Cincinnatus, are always quoted, as if such +characters were always to be found in sufficient numbers to protect +liberty; and a cry and show of liberty is set up by the profligate and +abandoned, such as would sell their fathers, their country, and their +God for profit, place, and power. Hypocrisy, simulation, and finesse are +not more practiced in the courts of princes than in popular elections, +nor more encouraged by kings than people." + +"The real merit of public men is rarely known and impartially +considered. When men arise who to real services add political +empiricism, conform to the errors of the people, comply with their +prejudices, gain their hearts and excite their enthusiasm, then +gratitude is a contagion--it is a whirlwind." + + [30] See Randall's _Life of Jefferson_, Vol. I. p. 587. + +The same volume (of Randall's Work) contains copious extracts from the +letters of Fisher Ames and a number of other leading Federalists, +derived from Hamilton's recently published papers and other sources. +They breathe in general the same spirit, hankering after +pre-revolutionary institutions and systems, though less boldly expressed +than was done by Hamilton and Adams, and the same distrust of the +sufficiency of the Constitution and above all of the capacities and +dispositions of the people, the latter exhibited in assaults upon +democracy and the democratic spirit of the country. + +John Adams was in every sense a remarkable man. Nature seems to have +employed in his construction intellectual materials sufficient to have +furnished many minds respectably. It would not be easy to name men, +either of his day or of any period, whose characters present a deeper or +a stronger soil, one which during his long and somewhat boisterous +public life was thoroughly probed by his enemies without disclosing any +variation in its depths from the qualities and indications of its +surface. Still more deeply was it turned up and exposed to the light by +himself with the same result. His writings, which have been more +extensive and more various than those of any of his contemporaries, have +been given to the world apparently without reserve. These, with his +diaries and autobiography, have turned his character inside out and +shown us, without disguise of any sort, the kind of man he was: and the +representation is invariably that of the same "always honest man" that +he was three quarters of a century ago when that high praise was +accorded to him by his not too partial friend, Benjamin Franklin, in a +communication not designed to be over civil. + +Whatever diversities may have arisen in the opinions of men in relation +to the merits or demerits of his after conduct, all agree in conceding +to him credit for patriotic and useful services in the times which have +been happily described as those which tried men's souls. Mr. Jefferson, +but two years before the death of both of them, on referring to that +period, and to Mr. Adams's great services, in my presence, was warmed by +the subject, and spoke of him as having been the mainmast of the +ship--the orator of the Revolution, &c. It is in all probability no +exaggeration of his merits to assume that there was no man in the United +States, (perhaps, but not without doubt, excepting Samuel Adams,) who, +before he was sent abroad in their service, did more than himself in a +civil capacity to promote the cause of the Revolution. This is a high +distinction--one which entitles his memory to the perpetual reverence of +his countrymen. No subsequent errors of opinion, nothing short of +personal dishonor and degradation, of which he was incapable, could +extinguish a claim to the enduring gratitude and respect of a nation +founded on such services. + +He left our shores upon his foreign mission a noble specimen of a +republican statesman--his heart and mind filled to overflowing with +right principles, and capable of vindicating them whenever and wherever +they might stand in need of support or defense. He performed his public +duties with fidelity and honor, but in respect to his political opinions +he returned an altered man. His "Defense of the Constitutions of +Government of the United States of America," written and published in +England whilst representing his country there, notwithstanding an +imposing title, though agreeable to some excited painful emotions in +the breasts of most of his Revolutionary associates. The dissatisfaction +of the latter was not a little increased by the circumstance that +sentiments and opinions, so disparaging to a form of government which +had been the unceasing object of their desire, should have been +ostentatiously promulgated in a country and in the presence of a +government from which the right to establish it had been wrested by +arms, and on the part of which the most unfriendly feelings in respect +to our advancement were still entertained. It was, nevertheless, true +that no circumstance contributed more toward his selection by the +Federal party as their candidate for the office of Vice-President than +these very avowals. His own sense of their efficacy in that respect is +clearly to be inferred from the fact that he devoted the first moments +of his time, whilst occupying that station, to the prosecution of the +same general object, with less disguise and increased boldness, through +his "Discourses on Davila." + +Jefferson and Samuel Adams and others of their stamp, who had embarked +in the Revolution with a spirit that could neither be appalled by danger +whilst the battle raged, nor seduced by considerations of any +description after it had been fought, were not slow in perceiving that +Mr. Adams had not only deserted from the cause of free government, but +that he regarded his first success under the new system and aspired to +the still higher honor in the gift of his countrymen as fruits of his +desertion. Whilst his early and best friends felt that the fabric, the +erection of which had cost them so much labor and so many sacrifices, +had lost one of its strongest pillars by his falling off, they were +neither dismayed nor did they despair of its safety. They met his second +attempt to bring free governments into disrepute with an energy that +drove him, as he himself admits, stubborn and inflexible in his +purposes as he always had been, to discontinue, at least in that form, +assaults upon a political faith, once the object of their common +devotion. This desertion on the part of one in whom they had confided so +fully, and upon whose coöperation, in securing to them the full +enjoyment of the political rights for the acquisition of which they had +endured so many perils, they had largely depended, sank deeply into the +hearts and minds of the people. The spirit of discontent was naturally +much increased by the discovery that Hamilton, who had done himself so +much honor, and who had raised such favorable anticipations by the +chivalrous spirit and gallantry with which he had embraced and sustained +the national cause was, after all, irreconcilably hostile to that system +of republican government which they so highly prized, and upon the +ultimate enjoyment of which they had so long meditated; that his +opposition was not only open and unreserved, but that he assigned as a +reason for it their incapacity and unfitness for the support and +enjoyment of free institutions. + +A sense of danger to the cause of republicanism in the United States was +widely diffused through the public mind. There were indignities to be +resented and wrongs to be redressed, besides new securities to be +devised for the safety of long-cherished principles. These were +considerations quite sufficient to rouse the lion of the Revolution from +his lair to defend its choicest fruit from further profanation. Those +classes, among the surviving patriots of that eventful day, of whom I +have spoken as pervaded by a deeper hatred of kingly government than +others among their Revolutionary associates, sprang to the rescue with +alacrity and zeal. The descendants of the devoted spirits who first +settled the ancient colony of Virginia were not unmindful of their +hereditary obligations to resist the exercise of lawless power. Neither +could the appeal fall unheeded on the ears of the representatives of the +persecuted Huguenots, who had suffered so cruelly from the exercise of +powers now sought to be revived, or of the Netherlanders of the Middle +States, or on those sons of the Puritans of the East whose zeal in +behalf of liberty had not been tempted to spend itself on trade and +manufactures by the seductive influence of Hamilton's policy, and by the +facilities they possessed for those pursuits. + +Drawing its power from such sources, and sustained by a great +preponderance of the landed interest in every part of the country, the +old Republican party attained a degree of vigor and efficiency superior +to that of any partisan organization which had before or has since +appeared on the political stage. Mr. John Quincy Adams described it +truly when he said that it had acquired a head which would have enabled +it, if so disposed, "to have overthrown Washington's administration as +it did that of his successor acting upon its principles." Jefferson's +declaration to Mazzei that "we have only to awake and snap the +Lilliputian cords with which they have attempted to bind us during the +first slumbers that succeed our labors," was borne out by the result. + +Although the audacious passion for monarchical government, which the +leading Federalists had ventured to revive so soon after the Revolution, +was the most exciting of the causes which inflamed the hearts and braced +the nerves of the Republicans for the conflict,[31] that was not the +first issue to be tried. The nature of the government to be substituted +was a question that would not, in the natural order of things, arise +until the fate of the existing Constitution had been settled; but as +their blood was up and their hands at work, the Republicans resolved, if +possible, to strangle the conspiracy against the new-born liberties of +the country in both its branches by the same effort. The severity and +success of the blows they directed against the restoration of the power +and influence of the Crown, in any form, is strikingly illustrated by a +comparison of the state in which that question was found and that in +which it was left by the civil revolution of 1800. Whilst at the former +period the superiority of kingly over republican government was the +prevailing and absorbing sentiment among what were called the higher +classes, as graphically described by Mr. Jefferson, and substantially +corroborated by Gouverneur Morris's letter to Rufus King, the notion +that the former would be ever practicable in this country was so +thoroughly annihilated by that great struggle as never again to have +been whispered in our politics. There is no exaggeration in the +affirmation that there has been no day within the last forty years when +a proposition for the reėstablishment of monarchy in the United States, +however seriously made, could have excited any other emotion than +ridicule or contempt, or would not have been deemed more appropriately +punished by the administration of the straight-jacket than by a trial +for treason. But there has been far greater difficulty in completing the +work of resistance to Hamilton's efforts to overthrow the Constitution +by subverting it, through the agency of his sapping and mining policy, +which was the direct issue in the election of 1800. A constitution had +been established, in the construction and ratification of which the +Federal party had performed a greater and more effectual part than the +party opposed to it. Its general provisions were fully adequate to the +support of a republican government. By a successful incorporation of the +representative system with the republican form, pure and simple, its +framers had happily qualified and adapted the instrument to our +extensive territory, and a provision for amendments furnished a remedy +against existing defects. Of the latter the omission to secure +specifically and adequately the individual natural rights of men against +the exercise of arbitrary power was the most important--a defect in +respect to which a large majority of the Anti-Federalists were, for +reasons frequently referred to, most sensitive. The Constitution was +ratified by several of the States, and amongst them by Virginia and New +York, with accompanying resolutions, some of them passed by the State +conventions with perfect unanimity, expressing opinions that it deserved +revision and required amendments. Without such resolutions the +ratification could not, we are forced to believe, have been effected. We +have seen with what reluctance the first Congress, Federal by a large +majority, consented to make any constitutional amendments, and that +nothing short of Mr. Madison's wonderful perseverance could, in all +probability, have effected their adoption; but they were obtained, +proved satisfactory to the Anti-Federalists, and made them fast friends +of the new Constitution. + + [31] See _Life of Morris_, Vol. III. p. 128. "But the thing which in + my opinion has done more mischief to the Federal party is the ground + given by some of them to believe that they wish to establish a + monarchy."--_Letter from Morris to King._ + +From that moment that instrument ceased to be an object of solicitude +with the leaders of the Federal party, hardly retaining favor with any +of them. This result is by no means an unusual one in the history of +parties whose feelings have become to any great extent embittered. The +instances are rare indeed in which any public measure or act is at the +same time entirely acceptable to all sides. The "Independent Treasury" +is the only clear case of the kind among us that has fallen under my +observation. The letters of the leading Federalists, which have now for +the first time seen the light, prove their subsequent indifference, and, +in many instances, active hostility to the Constitution. Not a few who +imbibed Hamilton's feelings and shared in his views upon this point had +been members of the Convention, and among those to whom I have awarded +so large a share of credit for their conduct in making the Constitution +what it is. This was justly their due. It is not to be doubted that +several of them, as I have before said, participated largely in +Hamilton's objections, and would have preferred a very different +instrument; but they knew that none less favorable to the supposed +interests of the State governments, or less liberal in other respects, +would stand the slightest chance of ratification, more especially when +the circumstance of disregard to the limits and restrictions of the +authority by which they had been convened was taken into consideration. +They saw nothing but injury, vast and complicated, to the country from +their failure, and they evinced their patriotism in yielding to this +wise foresight at the sacrifice of their individual preferences. +Although many of them, doubtless, did not fully share Hamilton's +absorbing preference for monarchy, they very generally went to the +extent pointed out by John Quincy Adams in his Jubilee Address--that was +for a government of more energy than was provided for by the +Constitution presented by the Convention. This they had a right to +desire and to work for through amendments in the way appointed by the +Constitution, but in this way they knew they could not obtain what they +wanted, and they therefore yielded their ready aid to the measures he +proposed by which the Constitution was to be made to mean any thing, +substantially, which those who were intrusted with its execution might +believe would promote the general welfare. Hamilton's course in this +regard seemed to the uninitiated extremely reckless, as he appeared +desirous to select objects in respect to which the excess of authority +under the Constitution which he exerted was most obvious, and the +subjects themselves were those in respect to which the sensibilities of +his opponents were the keenest. In the whole range of measures, which, +if constitutional, might appropriately proceed from his department, he +could not have found a single one as to which the intention of the +framers of the Constitution, adverse to the power he exercised, was +better understood than a United States Bank. Mr. Jefferson brought the +facts which transpired in the Convention proving such intention to his +notice, and to that of the President, and they were not controverted by +either. + +So in regard to the Sedition Law. One of the ten amendments was +especially designed to prohibit such legislation, and there were no +subjects to which the Anti-Federalists and Republicans were more alive +than to the liberty of speech and of the press. The same thing may be +said, in respect to public sensibilities, of the Alien Act. That Act +conferred a power on the President, which, though one of the +prerogatives of the Crown, no prime minister dare exercise at this day +in the sense in which the President was authorized to exercise it. + +Yet it is now known that of these last measures the first was passed +upon Hamilton's suggestion, and Mr. Charles F. Adams informs us that +neither was ever made the subject of executive consultation. + +But I can well conceive that these considerations, which might deter +other men, were but so many recommendations with Hamilton for the course +he pursued. From first to last he thought the Constitution inadequate to +the purposes of what he regarded as good government, and that the sooner +it was gotten rid of the better for the country. There were moments when +he allowed himself to hope that he might make it answer the purpose if +he were allowed to go on with it as he began. But these were only +momentary impressions that soon gave way to the settled convictions of +his mind, his avowals of which were uniformly the same. He declared to +Jefferson in 1792, "that the Constitution was a shilly-shally thing of +mere milk and water, and was only good as a step to something +better,"--a declaration which the latter communicated in self-defense to +Washington; and in 1802 he describes it to his friend Morris, as we have +seen, as "a frail and worthless fabric," reminding him at the same time +of his knowledge that such had been his (Hamilton's) opinion "from the +very beginning." It was, therefore, natural that a man of his +intelligence and resolution, looking with entire confidence to its +failure, should think it expedient to select the most palpable as well +as the most flagrant violations of the Constitution, while it was yet in +its infancy and feeblest condition, and thus to prepare the public mind +for the degradation he had in store for it, and to insure its speedy +overthrow. + +These severe measures were rendered doubly odious by the manner in which +the Sedition Law was executed, and by the steps adopted to suppress +outbreaks of popular discontent, but which only swelled comparative +rivulets into resistless torrents and rendered the Republican cause +invaluable service by giving occasion to Madison's great Report on the +Constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws. The judgment of the +country has ever been that a more able state paper never issued from the +pen of any man. It covered the entire controversy between the two +parties, traced its origin to the different views they entertained of +the construction and obligatory character of the Constitution, and +placed the republican creed in those respects upon grounds absolutely +impregnable. Hamilton was a laborious writer, but only so because his +writings were so voluminous; to write was with him a labor of love, and +there was no man of his day who devoted more time to political +disquisitions. There was scarcely any other great public question that +occupied the public mind during that period on which a publication, +offensive or defensive, is not to be found in his Works. Yet if he ever +attempted a reply to that Report, which attracted general attention and +became the flag under which the Republicans fought, I have never seen or +heard of it. I may safely assume that he never did make such attempt. + +The issue was fairly presented by Mr. Madison, through the Virginia +Legislature, as depending upon the answers to the following questions:-- + +1. What are the true principles that should be applied to the +construction of the Constitution? + +2. Are those who are elected by the people bound to execute it according +to the intention of its framers and the understanding of those who +ratified it? + +3. Is it in that sense sacredly obligatory upon all who are subject to +its authority? + +The charge presented against the Federal party and its representatives +was that they had trampled upon the sanctity of the Constitution by the +application to its construction of principles known to be unsound, by +setting at defiance the intentions of those who made it and for whom it +was made, and by prostituting it, and claiming the right to prostitute +it, to the promotion of their particular views of the public interests, +regardless of such intentions, however well understood. + +This Report stands as a perpetual record of that issue. The Republicans +regarded its decision as involving the existence of republican +government, inasmuch as no such government could be sustained for a +moment longer than the Constitution was looked to as a sacred and +inviolable line of duty for both rulers and ruled. They triumphed in +the great contest, and they expelled from power the men who refused to +recognize that principle in the administration of the government, and +for that reason they placed in their stead those who would recognize it. + +Madison's Report presented a faithful synopsis of the principles of the +old Republicans upon fundamental questions,--those which relate to the +powers of government and to the responsibilities under which they should +be exercised,--the only questions which gave rise to permanent political +parties. Whilst divisions in regard to particular measures disappear +with the falling off of interest in the subjects of them, those which I +have described as growing out of such primordial tenets are kept alive +as long as the government itself endures. So it has been in all +countries where there has been any appreciable degree of freedom of +opinion. England is almost, if not altogether, the only country whose +institutions are sufficiently analogous to ours to admit of useful +comparisons. From the time when her sovereigns traced their authority +from God, and acknowledged responsibility to Him alone for the manner of +its exercise, to the Revolution of 1688, by which absolutism was forever +abolished and government declared to be a trust for the abuse of which +the sovereign is responsible to the people, and always since, her party +divisions, regarded as national, have had relation to the powers of +government and to the degrees of responsibility under which they should +be exercised. Whether these parties were called Cavaliers and +Roundheads, Presbyterians and Jacobites, Whig and Tory, or Conservatives +and Liberals, such have always been the essential dividing points. Like +ourselves they have had a succession of exciting public questions not of +this character which have for a time divided the community, and were +earnestly contested, but which passed away without making material +inroads upon ancient party divisions, and the latter resumed their sway +when the temporary interruption ceased in much the same general array +they would have presented if it had not occurred. + +I have said that Madison's report was the flag under which the +Republicans conquered. It defines the constitutional creed by which they +were influenced in the administration of the government for twenty-four +years successively, and under which the Democratic party, their +successors, have since held the reins of the Federal Government, with +infrequent exceptions--the latter never extending to two Presidential +terms, and always the result of special circumstances having little +bearing upon general politics. + +But the political seed sown by Hamilton has not in other respects proved +as perishable as have his teachings in favor of monarchical +institutions. The former has never been eradicated--it seems not +susceptible of eradication. I have given the reasons why this has been +so with a description of the fruit it has continued to produce. These +results have fostered kindred doctrines in respect to constitutions, +their sanctity, their uses, and their abuses. I have also said that +these doctrines have been ever cherished and enforced when circumstances +were auspicious, and have constituted the chief element of our party +divisions. Hence it has been that those divisions have been so uniform +in their general outlines. The opposite dispositions which lead men to +take different sides upon such questions have worked to the same ends +from the close of the Revolution, and have been developed on all +occasions of a nature to call them into action. The execution of the +present Federal Constitution presented an opportunity to give them a +definite and more permanent form and classification which they have +maintained ever since. Individuals have changed from side to side under +the influence of what they have regarded as stronger inducements, and +when they have been disappointed, have generally returned to their first +bias. Questions of public policy, disconnected from considerations of +constitutional power, have arisen, been discussed, decided or abandoned +and forgotten, whilst the political parties of the country have remained +as they were. + +With the authentic record before us of the issue, the contest, the +result, and the efforts on the part of the defeated party to recover the +ground it had lost, the supposition seems preposterous that our party +divisions had their origin in the circumstances that occurred on the +appointment of General Washington to be Commander-in-Chief of our +Revolutionary army, as is alleged by a son of General Hamilton, in his +history of the life of his father. Of the same character, though not +quite so unreasonable, are the attempts which have been made by several +to find their origin in the Federal Convention. That body did indeed +present an occasion for the application of different opinions to the +original formation of the Federal Constitution, but those opinions grew +out of conflicting tenets which had divided the country into parties +long before, and they were not then determined either way, but +compromised upon grounds of expediency by a result which was not in +point of fact satisfactory to any side, but acquiesced in by a majority +obtained from the ranks of both. The proposition of President John +Quincy Adams in his Inaugural Address, tracing their rise to the +opposing sides taken by the people of the United States, as between +England and France, and their final discontinuance to the disastrous +career and termination of the French Revolution, would seem to be not +less wide of the mark. The continuance of the two great parties of the +country in the same state, in respect to the principles they espoused +and the characters and dispositions of those who composed them, for more +than half a century and for a quarter of a century before his address +was delivered, is not to be denied. If it was even supposed possible +that an intelligent and high spirited people like our own, with +traditions and a history so eventful, and with domestic interests so +important, could have been arrayed in hostile political opinions and +party divisions by the influence of purely foreign questions, the +continuance of those divisions in the same form and spirit for so many +years after all pretense of the operation of such an influence had +ceased would of itself be sufficient to refute the theory. But the +objections to it are too numerous, too conclusive in their character, +and too obvious to make it necessary to press them farther. The French +Revolution had sufficiently developed itself to weaken, if not +extinguish, the solicitude of the Republicans for its success, (who, +with their leader, Thomas Jefferson, regarded its excesses with +abhorrence,) before they expelled John Adams from the Presidency for the +aid and sanction which he gave to Hamilton's violations of the +Constitution, and his son, John Quincy Adams, was twenty-eight years +afterwards driven from power for the same cause and by the same party, a +party which he supposed had ceased to exist for some thirty years +previous. It was by his latitudinarian avowals in respect to the +constitutional powers of Congress,--when he began to talk of erecting +"light-houses of the skies," and of the folly of paralyzing +representatives by the will of their constituents,--that his political +destiny was sealed. + +That existing political divisions among the people of the United States +induced the formation of preferences and prejudices in respect to +England and France, was, doubtless, true, but to suppose that these +constituted the foundation of their own divisions is to mistake for the +cause one of its least important effects. + +The Anti-Federal, Republican, and Democratic parties have been from the +beginning composed of men entertaining the same general views in regard +to the most desirable form of government, and to the spirit in which, +and the objects for which, it should be administered. The morbid +feelings of large portions of the old Anti-Federalists produced by their +distrust of delegated power, founded on their knowledge of the extent to +which it had been everywhere abused, led to a difference between them +and the Republicans on the question of clothing the Federal Government +with power to collect its own revenues, to regulate commerce, &c., and +induced them to oppose the ratification of the new Constitution on that +account, and on account of its deficiencies in regard to proper +securities for personal rights. Their party was thereby broken down, but +Jefferson and Samuel Adams, and men like them, succeeded in satisfying +them of their error in respect to the outlines of the Constitution, and +Madison procured the adoption of amendments that obviated their other +objections and, as I have before said, a cordial and enduring union was +formed between them and the Republicans, under the latter name. Since +that period the party has undergone no change, either in its +organization, its principles, or the general political dispositions of +the individuals of which it has been composed. Its name has been changed +from Republican to Democratic, in consequence of the increasing popular +development of its course and principles, and in some degree by the +circumstance that its old opponent had assumed the name of Federal +Republican and by a natural desire to keep the line of demarcation +between them as broad and as well defined as possible. + +The formation and ratification of the Federal Constitution, mainly +through Federal agency, the union of the Anti-Federalists and +Republicans and the cordial acceptance of the Constitution, after its +amendment, by both, presented, at the commencement of Washington's +administration, the fairest opportunity for a real "era of good feeling" +that the country has ever known. All controversy upon fundamental +questions having been removed, the doors seemed to be thrown open for an +amalgamation of parties like that of which so much was said, and with so +little result, during the administration of Mr. Monroe. Without any open +question affecting permanently every interest, and all the people and +all alike, as is the case with such as relate to and embrace the sources +of power and the foundations of the government, if the Constitution had +been upheld in good faith on both sides partisan contests must of +necessity have been limited to local or temporary and evanescent +measures and to popular excitements and opposing organizations as +shifting and short-lived as the subjects which gave rise to them. But +Hamilton took especial care that such halcyon days should not even dawn +on the country. He had a riveted conviction--a conviction he took no +pains to conceal--that the Constitution must prove a signal failure, +unless it could be made to bear measures little dreamed of by those who +made and had adopted it; and in his view of the welfare of the country +that question could not be too soon decided. The name and influence of +Washington was an element of strength toward the accomplishment of his +project in that regard, upon which he had expressed a strong reliance in +the letter now published by his son, without date but written between +the formation and ratification of the Constitution, and he was, of +course, desirous to bring all such questions to an early decision, as +Washington's long continuance in office was far from probable. He, +therefore, promptly seized his opportunity, and at the earliest +suitable moment after the organization of the new Government, proposed +the incorporation of a national bank. I have already said, and given my +reasons for the assertion, that in the whole range of the affairs of the +government committed to his charge, he could not have taken a single +step which would have afforded such unmistakable evidence of his +determination not to be controlled in his administration of the +government under the new Constitution by the intentions of those who +framed, or of those who ratified it; not one more likely to revive +former distrusts, and to infuse new jealousies among the +Anti-Federalists in respect to his hostility to republican principles, +or better calculated to give new strength to their energies when the +proper time arrived for the blast of the trumpet that called every man +to his tent. His old friend, Madison, was one of the first to take up +the gauntlet thus boldly thrown before the sincere friends of the +Constitution. This was done by his masterly and unanswerable speech in +Congress against the constitutionality of the bank. No one can make +himself acquainted with Mr. Madison's course, and with the state of his +feeling towards President Washington at that period, and fail to +appreciate the regret and pain he suffered from the performance of that +act of duty, not on his own account but from his extreme reluctance to +be placed in the attitude of opposition to one for whom he cherished +feelings of such unbounded respect and affection, and whose confidence +he fully enjoyed. But for the strong and audacious movements of +Hamilton, there is every reason to believe that Mr. Madison would have +coöperated very cordially in the support of President Washington's +administration throughout. In respect to mere questions of expediency, +he would have done all in his power to give them the most desirable form +and direction, and, if disappointed, would, doubtless, have been silent +as to the result. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Glance at the General Subject as heretofore discussed in this + Essay--One important Topic not yet touched upon, viz.: the Effort + that has been made to secure to the Judicial Department a Superior + Controlling and Dangerous Power over the Executive and Legislative + Departments--The constant Aim of the leading Federalists to give + undue Influence to one of the Three Great Departments--The Judicial + not the Department originally preferred by Hamilton as the + Depository of this Power--How that Department came to be selected + for that Purpose--The Election of Jefferson the Overthrow of the + Federalists in the Executive and Legislative Departments--Efforts + of the latter to retain Control of the Judicial + Department--Character and Career of Chief Justice Marshall--His + Efforts to control the Action of the Executive by + Mandamus--Resistance by Jefferson--Account of the Proceeding by + Mandamus against the Secretary of State, Madison--Opinion of the + Court in Marbury _v._ Madison--Merits and Result of the + case--Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under the + Constitution--Great Addition to its Power conferred by the + Judiciary Act of 1789--Encroachment by the Federal Judiciary upon + the Jurisdiction of State Courts, the Distinct Policy of the + Federalists--Popular Respect for the Court and Judges favorable to + the Success of that Policy--Jefferson directed the Resistance which + was made to Orders of the Supreme Court, in Marbury _v._ + Madison--His Action sustained by Congress and approved by the + People--The Federalists hesitate and abandon their Attempt to carry + the Encroachment they had undertaken in the Case of Marbury _v._ + Madison--High Character of Marshall. + + +I have proceeded thus far in my endeavor to search out the origin, trace +the progress, and define the principles of political parties in the +United States. To accomplish these objects the measures they have from +time to time advocated have been brought into view; opinions they have +advanced partially discussed, and the means that have been employed to +make them effectual considered. + +The general subject, considering the interest and the importance +attached to it in several aspects, has been but little canvassed, and +is at best but imperfectly understood. The most important points put in +issue, so far as they have arisen out of principles advanced or +pretenses set up by either party prior to the election of 1800, have, it +is believed, been fully, and, it is hoped, fairly presented. Here, on +account of the unforeseen extent to which the subject has grown upon my +hands, it would be my wish to dismiss it and to resume the thread of my +Memoirs at the point at which I left it for the consideration of what I +then regarded as incidental matter. To do so has been my intention +through the last two hundred pages of my manuscript. But, at the stage +to which I had looked as the termination of this branch of my labors, I +am met by the reflection that in all I have said in respect to the +doctrines, theories, and acts of parties, I have not even touched upon a +great principle subsequently advanced for the action of the Federal +Government, which, for reasons that will be seen and appreciated as we +proceed, is of equal interest, and which, from considerations of recent +application, is perhaps of more urgent importance than those upon which +my attention has been bestowed. + +I allude to the effort which has been made to secure to one of the three +great departments of the Government--the judicial--a superior and +controlling power over its departmental associates, the executive and +the legislative, all of which were designed by the Constitution to be +coördinate, and, in respect to their relative powers, independent of +each other. This pretension, though successfully discouraged at its +origin, instead of sharing the fate of other constitutional heresies +which sprang from the same source, has been revived with increased +earnestness at critical periods, and at this time seems to threaten to +exert a dangerous influence upon our political system. + +I have not noticed it before, because it was not set up until after the +great struggle of 1800, and was thus separated from the questions which +originated under the previous administration, most of which have been +agitated to the present day, and because the period of its most imposing +if not its first introduction into the political arena, unconnected with +judicial proceedings,--that of President Jackson's veto against the +passage of the Bank Bill,--occurred at a later period than that to which +my account of political movements has been brought in my Memoirs. + +It has from the beginning been the constant aim of the leading +Federalists to select some department, or some nook or corner in our +political system, and to make it the depository of power which public +sentiment could not reach nor the people control. The judicial was not +the department which Hamilton deemed the best adapted to that end, and +his opinion upon such points seldom failed to become that of his party. +He liked the judiciary as well on account of its being the only branch +of the Government that was constituted, in regard to the tenure of +office, upon the principles he preferred, and which he had proposed in +the Convention for other offices also, as on account of its usefulness +in protecting the rights of persons and property against vicious +legislation or lawless violence. But regarding the exercise of its +powers in no other light than through its judgments in cases "in law and +equity" that were brought before it by parties litigant, the only sense +in which they were regarded by the framers of the Constitution, he +thought it too weak a department for his purpose. This was nominally to +influence, but really to control, the action of the public mind--an +object which, he never hesitated to declare, could only be effected by +appeals to the interests or the fears of the people, and the judicial +power did not possess the means to make either effectual. This opinion +of the weakness of the judicial power he frequently avowed, and +particularly in the 78th No. of the "Federalist." The judiciary, he +there said, "was incontestibly the weakest of the three departments of +power;"--that "though individual oppression might now and then proceed +from the courts of justice, the general liberty of the people could +never be endangered from that quarter;"--that it had "no influence over +either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of +the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. +It may truly be said to have neither _force_ nor _will_, but merely +judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm +for the efficacious exercise even of this faculty." In support of these +views he cited Montesquieu, who, speaking of them says: "_Of the three +powers above mentioned, the Judiciary is next to nothing._" Thus +regarding the judicial department, Hamilton selected the executive and +legislative as those best adapted to his purposes. Of the means which +those departments possessed he spoke in the same number of the +"Federalist" in the following strain: "The executive not only dispenses +the honors, but holds the sword of the community; the legislative not +only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties +and rights of every citizen are to be regulated." These were the +departments, through the instrumentality of which, invigorated as he +designed to invigorate them by his construction of the Constitution, he +hoped to make ours a practicable government. Sustained by a Congress, a +majority of whom stood ready to follow his lead, and by the almost +unbounded confidence of the executive, he for a season carried out his +plans with great success, and enjoyed that momentary confidence which +produced his jubilant remark to Mr. Jefferson. + +But he soon found that, like the scriptural foolish man, he had built +his house upon the sand, and the rain descended and the floods came and +the winds blew, and it fell. Within the short period that he remained in +the Government, some of the measures that he had brought into existence +were already discredited by an offended public sentiment, and toward the +close of Mr. Adams' administration--one still guided by his +superintending genius--the political fabric which he had created was, by +the same power, blown into atoms. It was this great overthrow that +brought home to him the unwelcome conviction that other constitutional +foundations than those which the Federal Convention, the people, and the +States had laid, no man, without the same aid, could lay. It presented +to his mind, under circumstances the most impressive, a truth which he +had overlooked in the eagerness of his pursuit after power, viz., that +the people were enabled by the popular provisions of the Constitution in +respect to the executive and legislative departments, to break down the +greater part of such structures as those which he had reared, by +dismissing from their places those who had assisted in their +construction, and substituting others, who, knowing their wishes, would +feel it their interest to respect them; and what was passing before his +eyes afforded the most reliable evidence that they would not be slow in +the exercise of the rights that belonged to them. This was the +handwriting on the wall that foretold the fate of all his plans, and +called forth, during the brief period of his subsequent existence, his +continued denunciation of the Constitution as "a frail and worthless +fabric." + +It was at the moment of this great disaster, when dismay prevailed in +the Federal councils, whilst Hamilton was brooding over a defective +Constitution which he knew the States would not alter to suit his wishes +and which it was evident the people would not permit him to pervert, +that the Federal party was conducted to the judicial department of the +Government, as to an ark of future safety which the Constitution placed +beyond the reach of public opinion. The man who planned this retreat was +John Marshall--a statesman of great power, one who partook largely of +Hamilton's genius, was better acquainted with the character of the +people, and possessed more control over his own actions. + +The period when this once powerful party was thus counseled and guided +was one well calculated to cause its members to embrace the advice given +to them with avidity. They had just been expelled, root and branch, from +those departments of the government which the Constitution had made +accessible to public opinion and subject to the voice of the people; +whilst over that to which they were recommended to extend their +preference and favor, the people possessed but little if any control. +This difference, so acceptable to their most cherished feelings, was +besides greatly increased in value by the grossly irrational +apprehensions under which they labored in regard to the course of the +President elect and to the dispositions of the party by which he had +been elevated to power. That he participated largely in the feelings and +views of the Jacobins of France, and was prepared for the introduction +of their opinions and practices in this country; that religion, the +rights of persons and property, and all the interests which are regarded +as sacred under well regulated governments, were put in jeopardy by his +election, were opinions to which there were but few dissentients in the +Federal ranks. I have elsewhere referred to a letter, written during the +then recent canvass by Hamilton to Washington, in which he avowed in the +most solemn and deliberate manner his conviction that the Republican +party desired to make our Government subservient to the policy of that +of France, and would, in all probability, rally under her banner if it +was unfurled in force on our shores. Similar sentiments were fulminated +from pulpit and press; and there are yet, here and there, living +witnesses, who will not partake of the surprise this description of the +then condition of the public mind is calculated to excite on the part of +the present generation because they know it to be true, and yet remember +how often and with what solemnity the warning was uttered from sacred +desks that Jefferson's election would be the signal for the prostration +of our pulpits, the burning of our Bibles, and the substitution of some +Goddess of Reason. + +The promises of the mild sway of reason and justice, installed and +enforced by that great statesman, with no other limitation than the +removal from office of factious incumbents whose violence was calculated +to obstruct the successful action of the principles he was elected to +sustain, and the revocation of judicial trusts created in the last +moments of a power already condemned by the people, and which were +designed to counteract their will--a sway which bore upon its wings the +repeal of odious taxes, the reduction of superfluous expense, the +payment of the public debt, and the avoidance of all unnecessary public +burdens, with a zealous concern for the rights of the States as well as +for those of individuals,--made impressions upon the public mind in +favor of the principles upon which it was founded, which now, after the +lapse of more than half a century, are as fixed and as powerful as they +were then; but at the time were scouted by Federal leaders and presses +as false pretences designed to deceive the people and to clear the way +for destructive changes. + +Under such impressions the first object of solicitude on the part of the +Federalists was to strengthen the existing organization of the +judiciary by increasing the number of its tribunals and those employed +in its administration, and thus to place it before the country in a more +imposing attitude; and the second to enlarge its powers beyond the +bounds intended to be assigned to them by the Constitution. To +accomplish the first object they resorted to a stretch of power which +now, when the feelings it excited have long since died away and the +actors concerned in it have without exception descended to their tombs, +will not, I feel confident, find a justification in the breast of a +single upright man, whatever disposition he may entertain to excuse it +on account of the violence of public feeling prevalent at the time. + +After the fiat of the people had pronounced the absolute expulsion from +office of the Federal executive within a brief and fixed period, and +virtually that of the Federal party from power, they availed themselves +of the remnant of authority unavoidably left to them by the forms of the +Constitution to establish new courts, embracing within the jurisdiction +assigned to them all the States of the Confederacy, and the district +which had been set apart for the seat of the Federal Government; +appointed three judges for each court, to hold their offices nominally +during good behavior, virtually for life, with liberal salaries,--making +in all twenty-one judges, besides clerks, etc.,--all designed to be +placed beyond the power of the government that had been selected by the +people to succeed them. Thus, much was done toward the accomplishment of +their first object. The enlargement of the judicial power of the +department was to be effected by a different process. + +Among the "_midnight appointments_" by President Adams, (a stigma +attached to them at the time, and from which they have never been +rescued,) were forty-two magistrates, nominated for the District of +Columbia. The list, though containing many highly respectable names, +was in the main made up of opponents of the President elect, not a few +of them strongly imbued with the partisan _furor_ of the day. They were +to hold their offices for a period extending beyond that for which the +President himself was elected, and it was upon their coöperation Mr. +Adams and his cabinet intended that his successor should be mainly +dependent for the discharge of the high duty imposed upon him by the +Constitution--that of causing the laws to be executed in the Federal +District. The nominations were sent to the Senate on the second of +March, confirmed during the night of the third, and Mr. Jefferson +entered upon the duties of his office the next morning. The commissions +were found on the table in the State Department with its seal attached, +signed by President Adams, and if signed also by a Secretary it must +have been by a _locum tenens_, as Mr. Marshall had some days before been +transferred from the office of Secretary of State to that of Chief +Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The commissions had +not been delivered,--an act which Mr. Jefferson, as the head of the +executive department of the Government, decided to be necessary to the +completion of the appointment. Under such circumstances, and, doubtless, +stung by the ungraciousness of the treatment he had received, he +directed that the commissions should neither be recorded nor delivered, +but treated as nullities. Believing the number far too large, he issued +new commissions during the recess to twenty of those selected by Mr. +Adams and to five others designated by himself, nominated them to the +Senate at its next session, by which body they were confirmed. + +This transaction furnished the desired occasion to apply the opening +wedge for the enlargement of the judicial power of the Federal +Government, and it was promptly and fully embraced through the +proceedings that were had in the celebrated case of Marbury and Madison. +The judges of the Supreme Court were to a man Federalists, and at the +head of them stood, as chief justice, President Jefferson's persevering +and consistent old political antagonist--John Marshall. + +The Chief Justice may not have been the severest student or the most +learned lawyer, but he was certainly, all things considered, the ablest +judge that had ever occupied a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court +of the United States. No man was ever more rigidly just or strictly +impartial in all cases of _meum and tuum_ that were brought before him +for adjudication. Under a disposition the most genial, and a childlike +simplicity and frankness of manner he cherished during his whole life, +as all his race have done, Federal principles and Federal prejudices of +the most ultra character. These, though ordinarily kept in due check by +a commendable and exemplary self-command,--a virtue he shared with, if +he had not in some degree imbibed it from, his friend and neighbor, +General Washington,--had nevertheless been warmed by the circumstances +of the moment to a high temperature. The inducements by which he was +almost forced into public life by the General, shortly before the death +of the latter, have been narrated in the account I have given of my +conversation with his nephew, Judge Washington, at Mount Vernon.[32] +Unhappily impressed with the idea that his own as well as the interests +of the country depended upon the support of Mr. Adams' administration, +General Washington for once, and fortunately only for a brief season, +lent himself to partisan movements and used his controlling influence to +induce Mr. Marshall to offer for Congress, and in no other case has the +high estimate he formed of a man's capacity been more signally verified +by the result. Marshall became at once, through the influence of a +single speech of extraordinary power, a leader in the House of +Representatives during the most stormy period of the administration of +John Adams, was subsequently appointed Secretary of War and Secretary of +State by Mr. Adams, and held the latter office until his party, and the +administration with it, were overthrown by the Republicans under the +lead of Mr. Jefferson. He was then transferred by Mr. Adams to the place +of Chief Justice. Other circumstances lent their influence to infuse +ill-will into the personal relations of Jefferson and Marshall. They +were natives of the same State, and although they had stood as Whigs +side by side in the Revolution, the political principles maintained by +Mr. Jefferson, after the establishment of our Independence, were so much +more in harmony with those of Virginia as to place Marshall's views ever +after under the ban of her opinion, notwithstanding the qualified +sanction they received front General Washington. On the part of Mr. +Jefferson, the unfriendly feelings which he believed were entertained +toward him by the Chief Justice were, for him, quite earnestly +reciprocated. This is shown by the following pointed extract from his +letter to myself, in which, speaking of the alterations and other uses +that had been made of his letter to Mazzei, he adds, "and even Judge +Marshall makes history descend from its dignity and the ermine from its +sanctity to exaggerate, to record, and to sanction this forgery."[33] + + [32] See Note on p. 9. + + [33] See Appendix. + +Mr. Jefferson, apprised that steps were being taken to bring his acts in +respect to the commissions under the supervision of the Supreme Court, +at once penetrated the design that lay behind the particular measure, +and, with that moral courage that never deserted him, prepared to defend +the department committed to his charge. The head of the State +Department was advised, and the clerks instructed, to make themselves +parties to no act which would justly be regarded as recognizing the +authority of the court to meddle in the affair, and his views were, of +course, faithfully carried out by Mr. Madison, as well as by the +subordinates in the department. A motion was made at the December term +of the court in 1801, for a rule requiring James Madison to show cause +why a mandamus should not issue commanding him to deliver those +commissions to the nominees. Notice of motion was served upon Mr. +Madison, but he declined to appear. He was asked by the relator whether +the commissions were signed and sealed, but declined to respond to such +inquiries, as did also the officers of the department. Application was +also made to the Secretary of the Senate for a certificate that the +nominations had been confirmed, which was also refused. A resolution was +offered in the Senate directing the Secretary of the Senate to give the +certificate. It was laid upon the table and no further acted upon. Upon +affidavits stating these facts, except the last, a rule was obtained +requiring the Secretary to show cause why the mandamus should not be +issued on a day certain, of which he took no notice. The court, +notwithstanding, proceeded to an _ex parte_ hearing. "Two clerks were +summoned from the department as witnesses, who objected to be sworn +because they were not bound to disclose any facts relating to the +business or transactions of the office. The court ordered the witnesses +to be sworn, and their testimony taken in writing; but informed them +that, when the questions were asked, they might state their objections +to answering each particular question, if they had any. Mr. Lincoln, who +had been Acting Secretary of State when the circumstances stated in the +affidavits occurred, was called upon to give testimony. He objected to +answering. The questions were put in writing. The Court said there was +nothing confidential required to be disclosed. If there had been, he was +not obliged to answer that, nor was he obliged to state any thing which +would criminate himself."[34] + + [34] Taken from the report of the case. + +The testimony that was given is not set forth in the report of the case. + +The counsel for the relator argued the questions he presented for the +consideration of the court in the following order, viz.: + +1st. Whether the Supreme Court can award the writ of mandamus in any +case. + +2d. Whether it would lie to a Secretary of State in any case whatever. + +3d. Whether in the present case the court may award a mandamus to James +Madison, Secretary of State. + +The point involving the question of jurisdiction was, according to the +invariable course of legal proceeding, the first in order of +consideration, upon the plain and simple principle that if the court +have no right to act definitively in the matter there is neither use nor +propriety in considering even, and much less in making a decision upon, +the merits of the case. That belongs to the tribunal that possesses +jurisdiction. No point was clearer than the want of jurisdiction on the +part of the Supreme Court, and such it will be seen was the unanimous +and unhesitating opinion of the court itself. The Constitution divides +the jurisdiction conferred on that high tribunal into that which may be +exercised as original, and that which shall only be appellate, and +separates the two in terms which leave no room for misapprehension or +mistake. The language of the Constitution is--"In all cases affecting +ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a +State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original +jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned the Supreme Court +shall have appellate jurisdiction" both as to the law and fact, with +such exceptions and under such regulations as Congress shall make. The +motion before the court was clearly an original proceeding in a matter +in which it confessedly had no original jurisdiction; so the court was +obliged to say, and so it ultimately said. + +A pretense was set up by the relator's counsel that the court might +claim the desired authority under that part of the Judiciary Act +providing necessary means to enforce its appellate jurisdiction, which, +after specifying the cases in which such jurisdiction may be exercised, +and pointing out the way in which it may be carried into effect, adds to +the authority to issue writs of prohibition to the district courts in +certain cases--"and writs of mandamus, in cases warranted by the +principles and usages of law, to any courts appointed or persons holding +office under the authority of the United States." Now the plain +intention of this clause of the sentence was to extend the right of +issuing a mandamus, in the exercise of its _appellate jurisdiction_, to +any subordinate authorities upon whom Congress might confer judicial +power, whether that power was given to a court, or to a single officer +not constituting a court according to the ordinary interpretation of +that word. The commissioners subsequently appointed under the Fugitive +Slave Act are officers of that description. To think otherwise is to +suppose that the men who framed the Judiciary Act of 1789 designed by +the terms they employed to give to the Supreme Court original +jurisdiction in cases in which it was denied to it by the +Constitution--a design too absurd and too disingenuous to have found +even a momentary resting-place in the minds of those great men. The +court so far countenanced this interpretation as to assume, for the sake +of the argument, that the words "or persons holding office," might +embrace the case before it. But it immediately proceeded to disprove the +assumption by saying, "It has been stated at the bar that the appellate +jurisdiction may be exercised in a variety of forms, and that if it be +the will of the legislature that a _mandamus_ should be issued for that +purpose that will must be obeyed. _This is true_; yet the jurisdiction +must be _appellate_ not _original_,"--and the court goes on to show that +this proceeding would in no sense be regarded as an exercise of +appellate jurisdiction; adding to that demonstrative refutation the +declaration, that if the act would bear the interpretation given to it +by the counsel, it would be directly contrary to the Constitution and +therefore void. That the court had not the slightest right to do what it +was asked to do, or to take original jurisdiction of the matter in any +form, was a point upon which it expressed no doubt; and if it had +decided the questions in the order in which they were presented by the +relator's counsel, the necessity of dismissing the motion before coming +to the consideration of the merits of the case would have been too +imperative to be overcome. + +Under these circumstances what was the course pursued by the Chief +Justice, who gave the opinion of the court, and who alone of its members +appears, in the report, to have taken part in the case? He reversed the +order in which the relator's counsel had presented their client's case +and substituted the following:-- + +1st. Has the applicant a right to the commission he demanded? + +2d. If he has a right and that right has been violated, do the laws of +his country afford him a remedy? + +3d. If they do afford him a remedy, is it a mandamus from this court? + +That the question of jurisdiction is always the first in order is a +proposition too plain and too well-established to be discussed. It is +not only a rule in our judicial system and in that from which ours has +been derived, but must of necessity be a feature in every enlightened +system of jurisprudence. + +This order was observed by the counsel for the relator, but was so +changed in the opinion of the court as to make the consideration of the +merits precede the question of jurisdiction--an arrangement for which no +good reason could be given, and for which therefore none was attempted +to be given. The motive lay on the face of the transaction. It was the +only way in which the court could avoid the necessity of saying that +they had no jurisdiction over the subject before proceeding to discuss +and decide upon its merits. It was to avoid, though in appearance only, +this judicial deformity that the Chief Justice reversed the order of the +questions, and then in an opinion, which occupies some twenty-six pages +in Cranch's Reports,[35] he attempted to prove that the withholding of +the commissions was an act not warranted by law, but a violation of a +vested legal right which the court pronounced it to be; yet wound up +with an admission that the court had no jurisdiction of the subject, and +of course no right to act upon it. + + [35] See Cranch's _Supreme Court Reports_, Vol. I. p. 137. + +If this statement is not in all respects true, then I do injustice to +the Chief Justice and his associates, and the inferences I draw from it +are to be turned not only from them but against myself. But if the +matter, as described by the Chief Justice himself, stood in every +respect as I have here narrated, then I insist--and I cannot, I am very +sure, deceive myself in believing that every ingenuous mind, whatever +may be its political bias, will concur with me in the position--that the +course pursued by the Chief Justice and sanctioned by his associates +was exceptionable in the highest degree. With the Constitution before +them, it was entirely clear at the first introduction of the matter that +they had no original jurisdiction of the subject, and could not, under +any state of facts, comply with the application of the relator. The +course should therefore have been, and doubtless under ordinary +circumstances would have been, to direct the relator's counsel to +confine their argument to that preliminary point and at its close, with +the want of jurisdiction as apparent to the court as it proved to be, to +have discharged the rule. But if the court had for any reason thought it +desirable to hear the whole case, the same course should have been +pursued when it came to their decision, and the merits of the case +should have been left unacted upon. No end could be answered by an +unauthorized decision on the merits, other than to show to the inferior +tribunals what the Supreme Court would do if the case was brought before +it on appeal; and that was the design attributed to the Chief Justice by +Mr. Jefferson and severely reprobated. Such is not the way in which it +is admissible for superior tribunals to treat such subjects; but if it +could in any case be deemed excusable, it could never be so on an _ex +parte_ hearing. For myself I cannot, with equal and great respect for +the principal actors, help regarding the proceedings, from the granting +of the rule to show cause to the final decision, as exhibiting a +culpable want of courtesy on the part of one of the three great +departments of the Federal Government toward a coördinate member, at +least equal in dignity and power, greatly aggravated by the political +relations in which the President and the Chief Justice stood toward each +other, and by the temper of the times in which they occurred. + +I apply the remark to them individually, because Chief Justice Marshall +was the principal, and seemingly the sole actor, in the proceedings on +the part of the court, and because the retention of the commissions--the +grievance those proceedings were designed to redress--was not merely an +executive act, but one committed in pursuance of the specific direction +of President Jefferson. This was always avowed by the latter, and the +guarded manner in which the replies of Mr. Madison are stated in the +report of the case is, to my mind at least, sufficient proof that the +President was throughout considered and treated by the Chief Justice as +the actual offender in the matter. + +In respect to the soundness of the volunteer opinion of the court it +would be superfluous, considering the fate that awaited it, to do more +than to restate the question. This may certainly be done with more +brevity and perhaps with equal distinctness. + +It will not be denied that President Jefferson had the same power over +the subject on the 4th March that Mr. Adams would have possessed if his +term of office had not expired on the 3d. The President under our +system, like the king in a monarchy, never dies. Let us then suppose +that Mr. Adams, after he had signed the commission and caused the seal +to be affixed to it, but before it had been recorded or delivered, had +discovered that the appointee was a felon, or for any reason an +obviously improper person to be made a conservator of the public peace, +was he not authorized to withhold it? The appointment is made by the +Constitution to consist of three acts--the nomination, the approval by +the Senate, and the commissioning. The first and last devolve on the +President. The signatures to them must necessarily be his own act; but +Congress supplies him with a Secretary of State subject to his own +directions, to do whatever else is necessary, viz.: to affix the seal to +the commission; to record it; and to cause it to be delivered or +transmitted to the appointee. The President is apprised of the +impropriety of the appointment,--an act which the Constitution had +devolved on him alone,--the commission is yet in his possession, for the +office of Secretary of State is, for all such purposes, his office, and +the question would not have been changed if the seal had been affixed at +the President's House; can it be for a moment supposed that the +Constitution intended that his power over the commission ceased the +moment he attached his signature, or the Secretary the public seal, and +that after that he had no right to arrest further proceedings, however +strong his reasons for so doing? Can it be presumed that its framers +intended to invest the President in the discharge of his responsible +duty to "commission all the officers of the United States" with an +authority so precise and technical? It is on all sides conceded that he +is not bound to commission after the Senate has approved, but has still +a right to withhold the commission at his pleasure; and it would be +strange, indeed, if it was not intended to give him the power also to +arrest its being put on record and delivered after he had signed it, if +he saw good cause to do so. But it is not now important to weigh +accurately the reasoning of the Chief Justice, which certainly partakes +largely of the art and precision of special pleading; as the case was +abandoned then, and no similar case has arisen for more than half a +century. That the claim of Mr. Marbury and his associates, with ample +facilities for its prosecution in the inferior tribunals within their +reach, (Judge Cranch, the reporter of the case of Marbury _v._ Madison, +a full believer in the judicial as well as the political infallibility +of the Chief Justice, being the Federal judge in the District) should +have been given up, after the determination with which it had been +asserted, and the care and favor with which it had been considered and +elaborated by the Chief Justice, would at the first blush seem not a +little unaccountable. The fact of abandonment, in the absence of other +explanation, would justify the inference that it was the result of a +subsequent conviction that the proceedings were erroneous. But changes +of opinion or disposition under such circumstances seldom arise, and the +solution of their subsequent course is, I think, to be found in other +considerations. The course pursued by the President afforded +unmistakable evidence of his determination to resist at the threshold, +and to the bitter end, the supervisory power of the judiciary over the +other great departments of the Government, which was then for the first +time sought to be introduced through the _ex parte_ proceedings in the +case of Marbury _v._ Madison. + +With such a demonstration before them it became the Supreme Court and +its supporters, before it committed itself more deeply in the attempt it +had entered upon to control the action of the aroused democracy of the +country represented in the executive and legislative departments of the +Federal Government, to survey, with more care than had perhaps been +hitherto used, the means of offense and defense with which the +Constitution had invested each. + +The result of such a scrutiny could not have failed to satisfy sensible +men that the President elect, the new Senate, and the new House of +Representatives,--who in their respective positions had frustrated the +effort of the late President to subject his successor to a dependence +during his entire official term, for the performance of a highly +important part of his official duties in the Federal District, upon a +magistracy not of his own selection, and had thus far also defeated an +attempt, springing from the same spirit and upon an enlarged scale, to +saddle the country with an uncalled-for and enormous addition to the +existing judicial corps, clothed with extensive authority, and to all +substantial purposes irresponsible to the people,--were also invested by +the Constitution with ample power not only to defeat a new effort to +carry into effect before the appropriate tribunal the hostile views +indicated by the proceedings in the case of Marbury _v._ Madison, but to +reduce the power and dignity of the Supreme Court itself to a standard +far inferior to those it then possessed. + +The Federal Constitution declares, that "all the appellate jurisdiction +conferred on the Supreme Court shall in all cases be subject to such +exceptions and under such regulations as Congress shall make." Thus by +the words of the Constitution the whole subject is placed under the +revision of Congress and is made subject to its action. If any attempt +had been made to set up anew the importance that had been constructively +attached, in the case of Marbury _v._ Madison, to the words "or persons +holding office" in the Judiciary Act, that body would instantly have +relieved that act and its authors from the preposterous aspersions which +had been cast upon them. + +But there was matter in the background of far greater moment. + +The _original_ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was limited to cases +affecting ambassadors and those in which a State was a party. This +branch of its jurisdiction has, it is well known, occupied but little of +the time of the court, and has been withal very unimportant either in +its character or consequences. Deprived of the influence and _éclat_ it +has derived from the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction, the court +would have stood as a pageant in the federal system of but little +account for good or evil. With the addition of that obtained from +appeals and writs of error from the inferior tribunals of the United +States, its position before the country would still have been one of +little consideration. + +Both branches of the jurisdiction in these respects taken collectively, +their results would not have been any thing like the power and influence +and dignity which the Supreme Court of the United States derived from a +single clause in the Judiciary Act of 1789, extending its appellate +jurisdiction to the decisions of the State courts. The assemblage of +cases for its application arrayed in that pregnant section, aided by the +power derived from the construction given to the provision in the +Federal Constitution prohibiting the passage of State laws violating the +obligation of contracts--a provision always understood to have been +introduced to prevent State obstructions to the collection of British +debts, but now made to override the insolvent systems of the States, +etc.,--gave the Supreme Court the supervision and control of the most +valuable and hitherto the most cherished portion of the legislation and +jurisprudence of the State governments. To secure this control was an +object always near to Hamilton's heart. He attempted it openly in the +Convention by his proposition for a negative upon State laws, etc. But +in the hands of the court the control of the Federal Government over +State legislation was equally effective, less likely to become +obnoxious, and infinitely more secure; for if it had been placed, as he +proposed, in the hands of the President, or of the President and Senate, +or of Congress, it would still have been deposited in places accessible +to the people, and at short and stated periods liable to be overruled by +their will. But here it was in the only sanctuary in a republican +government he deemed safe against popular inroads, and it was this +provision _in the Judiciary Act_ which, more than all other things +combined, made that department--which Montesquieu described as next to +nothing in point of power, and upon the weakness of which Hamilton, +before the passage of that act, descanted so freely--the most formidable +and overshadowing branch of the government. The section bears the +impress of his mind, and if not the work of his pen was beyond all doubt +the result of his suggestions. Hamilton was not a member then, but we +have seen that he made speeches in Congress through another, and I have +not a doubt that, if the truth could now be known, it would appear that +but few things were said or done on one side, in either branch of that +body, of which he did not make a part in some form. Is it not passing +strange that not a word is to be found in the Constitution to authorize +Congress to confer such a jurisdiction upon the Supreme Court? Can it be +for a moment supposed that such a power,--one so nearly akin to the +proposition to place a veto in the hands of the Federal Government upon +State legislation, one so eminently calculated to alarm the State-rights +party,--would have been allowed, if it had been by anybody believed to +be in the Constitution, to pass the State Conventions _sub silentio_? +What is said in the Constitution about the appellate jurisdiction of the +Supreme Court is not only satisfied by referring it to the inferior +courts which Congress were authorized to "ordain and establish," but is, +by the terms employed, fairly confined to them. The place in the +Constitution where the authority is given to establish inferior courts +to exercise those parts of the judicial power of which no original +jurisdiction was given to the Supreme Court, and which were to +constitute the basis for the operation of that which was to be appellate +only, would have been, one would suppose, the very place in which the +authority to extend that jurisdiction to the State courts would have +been inserted if it was intended to be given. Again, the whole judicial +power of the United States is by the Constitution vested in the Supreme +Court, and in _such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to +time ordain and establish_. That the words used embrace, and seem +intended to embrace, the _whole power_, is apparent from the face of the +Constitution, and was, besides, demonstrated by Hamilton in the first +number of his "Pacificus." Madison said in the Virginia Convention, that +it would be in the power of Congress to _vest the inferior Federal +jurisdiction in the State courts_; and Pendleton and Mason intimated an +expectation that this would be done; whilst Grayson said that State +judges formed the principal defense of the rights of the States, and +that Congress should not take from them their "only defensive armor;" +and Patrick Henry, who in the days of his political orthodoxy could +snuff danger to State rights in almost every breeze, apprehended that +"by construction the Supreme Court would completely annihilate the State +courts." Had Congress invested the inferior Federal jurisdiction in the +State courts, and had they accepted the extension, the appellate +jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to those courts in the cases +enumerated would have been in all respects proper. But the Congress, a +majority of whose members were Hamiltonian Federalists, were not, for +reasons it is now unnecessary to consider, willing to admit the State +courts to a participation in the administration of the judicial power +reserved to the Federal Government, and proceeded at once to ordain and +establish inferior courts of their own. These consisting of district +courts, circuit courts and the one Supreme Court named in the +Constitution, completed the organization of the Federal judiciary. Their +respective jurisdictions were wisely separated and accurately defined. A +small portion of that which was original was, for well-understood +reasons, vested in the Supreme Court. The residue was separated and +distributed among the inferior tribunals, subject to an appellate +jurisdiction and supervisory power in the Supreme Court over all their +proceedings. The system thus arranged was not only complete but +harmonious in all its parts. The courts were clothed with the entire +judicial power of the Government; were only authorized to act upon one +class of subjects--those which appertained to the judicial power of the +United States. The judges received their appointments from the same +source, and were responsible for their conduct to one head. Looking only +to judicial objects this might well be regarded as the judicial system +designed by the framers of the Constitution. + +If ours had been a consolidated government these provisions would have +embraced the whole subject, and satisfied the wants of the whole +country. But in the actual state of things in that regard they were +inadequate to the accomplishment of that end. Instead of one +consolidated government ours was a confederacy of sovereign States, +presided over by a Federal Government which they had themselves created +and clothed with such powers as they deemed necessary to its efficiency +and usefulness, and as would be most likely to conduce to the freedom, +prosperity, and happiness of all. + +With no other bond of union during the first years of the Revolutionary +contest than common danger, and obliged to struggle with a defective +Federal organization, these States succeeded in constructing for +themselves republican constitutions, and in several instances, before +the establishment of our Independence, sustained the brunt of that +struggle and came out of it with institutions fully adequate to all the +purposes of good government, including systems of jurisprudence and +competent tribunals for their administration. The administrators of +these institutions, driven to desperation by great public and private +distress,--the direct results of the oppression of the mother +country,--may in a few cases, and for a short period, have forgotten +that interests liable to sequestration in war were inviolable in peace, +and failed to interpose with sufficient alacrity a judicial barrier +against the attempts of some of the State legislatures to throw +obstructions in the way of the collection of British debts. But those +were limited and temporary aberrations, which would soon have yielded to +proper treatment on the part of the Federal Government. At the period of +the passage of the Judiciary Act the judges who presided in most of the +State courts might be compared without discredit to those who filled the +benches of the Federal courts, and this relative equality has ever since +been well maintained. Such has certainly been the case in the State of +New York. The name of Chancellor Livingston, who was then at the head of +our equity system, would lose nothing from a comparison with Chief +Justice Jay, when the latter was placed at the head of the Federal +courts. Our equity and common-law courts have since been graced by +Chancellor Lansing, Chief Justices Lewis and Kent, and Judges Brockholst +Livingston, Smith Thompson, Ambrose Spencer, Wm. W. Van Ness, and +others, all men of great talents and acquirements. Nor have the courts +of our sister States been wanting in this regard. The names of +Theophilus Parsons of Massachusetts, Tappan Reeves of Connecticut, and +Pendleton, Wythe and Roane of Virginia, with numerous others, might be +added to the list. It would not be an easy matter to match these by +selections from the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, +highly distinguished as its incumbents have been. + +The State courts had, for nearly fifteen years before the passage of the +Judiciary Act of 1789, performed, as well in peace as in war, most of +the duties which the new Constitution devolved upon the Federal +judiciary. The Federal Government was authorized, by the articles of +Confederation, to establish inferior courts for the trial of piracies +and felonies committed on the high seas, and courts for the trial of +Admiralty cases, yet these powers had been carried into effect through +the State judiciaries. But all at once the State courts were deemed +unworthy of trust. Whence this change? Had the State courts degenerated? +No such thing; they were constantly improving, the supineness of a few +in respect to the interests of the mother country, blamable as it +certainly was, to the contrary notwithstanding. No, the State courts had +not become worse, but the implacable opponents of those whose judicial +power they represented had become stronger! The old Anti-Federal party, +the inflexible and powerful champion for the rights of the States, had +been overthrown--forever demolished, at least in that array. The State +governments were for a season helpless. Those who were always hostile to +their power--who, in the language of Hamilton after the Convention, and +in the act of foreshadowing the effects of such an administration as +actually succeeded, were desirous of a "triumph altogether over the +State governments, and to reduce them to an entire subordination"--were +all powerful in Congress. Nor was their power confined to Congress or to +any particular branch of the Government. The result of the question of +ratification in the different State Conventions, and the idea present to +every mind that material prosperity, public and private, would be much +promoted by that result, produced a great change in public sentiment +adverse to the authority and influence of the State governments. It was +made fashionable to deride them. The organization of the Federal +judiciary was the very first opportunity that was afforded after the +adoption of the Constitution to make the States feel the power which +their inveterate opponents had acquired by that event, and most +unsparingly was that power exercised. + +The few members of that Congress who had not been entirely carried away +by this current, and had the boldness to stand by the States and their +tribunals--among whom that firm and incorruptible republican, James +Jackson of Georgia, was by far the most effective--were willing that a +right to supervise and reverse the decisions of the State tribunals in +all matters of Federal jurisdiction, should be conferred on the Supreme +Court of the United States, provided only that the State courts were +intrusted, as they had hitherto been, with the administration of the +inferior Federal jurisdiction in lieu of the inferior Federal courts +which the Bill proposed to establish. This they contended would make the +system an harmonious and consistent one, and preserve the respect and +consideration which was due to the State tribunals. + +The proposition was literally scouted in debate and rejected by a vote +of two to one in the House, and in the Senate by a still larger +majority. The Bill was so constructed as to clothe the Supreme Court and +the inferior courts it established with all the judicial power allowed +to the Federal Government by the Constitution, with unimportant +reservations which did not diminish their authority and do not require +to be noticed. Ample means were thus provided for its practical +extension to every party entitled to its protection, and if those who +regulated the action of Congress had not been influenced by any views +other than such as related to the administration of justice, its +legislation would have terminated there. But that body went further. A +clause was added to the Judiciary Bill professing to give to the Supreme +Court appellate jurisdiction over the final judgments and decrees of the +highest courts of law and equity of a State, whoever might be the +parties to the suit, or whatever might have been the objects for which +it had been brought, provided only that the relative powers of the +Federal and State governments under the Federal Constitution in respect +to several enumerated subjects had in the course of prosecution of such +suit been "drawn in question," and decided against the Federal power. No +matter to what extent the rights of the parties were concluded by that +question, or in what form or how incidentally it had been introduced, it +was sufficient that it had been raised and decided against the Federal, +or in favor of the State authority, to subject the judgment or decree +given by the State court to be reėxamined or reversed in the Supreme +Court of the United States. To confer upon that tribunal, the anomalous +authority of issuing writs of error to the highest courts of other +States confessedly sovereign, and which in all such matters might well +be regarded as foreign States,--courts which were not established by the +Federal Government, and between which and it there existed no judicial +relations,--commanding those courts to send to it for reėxamination, +reversal, or affirmance, the record of judgments and decrees which had +neither been made under Federal authority nor by judges in any sense +amenable to it for the discharge of their official duties, was an idea +never broached in the Federal Convention, or in the slightest degree +alluded to in the Constitution it adopted. + +Disputes in respect to the boundaries of power between the Federal and +State governments were foreseen, and the means for acquisition and +defense sought after by the special friends of each. Both looked to +their respective legislatures as the theatres of encroachment, and a +very serious effort was made to obtain authority for the Federal +Government to confer important State appointments, and to interpose a +negative upon State laws. These concessions were sternly refused by the +friends of the State authorities, and if they had been granted the new +Constitution would never have been ratified. No efforts have been made +by Congress through direct legislation to restrain the State +legislatures from encroaching on the power of the Federal Government, +and it would not be an easy matter--the Constitution being silent on the +subject--to establish a right on the part of the judicial power to +interfere in that direction which would not also devolve on the Federal +legislature, the power more particularly interested in the matter. The +clause referred to in the Federal Judiciary Act looks in an especial +manner to the legislative acts of each government, and seeks to +establish the supremacy in the Federal system. It is possible that the +framers of the Constitution intended to give Congress a right to confer +such a power on the Supreme Court, but it is certainly most +extraordinary if that was so that the subject should have remained +unnoticed in the Convention, and have been so entirely excluded from the +face of the Constitution. Be that as it may, it is well known that the +authority given to the court by the statute for a long time lay in its +hands a dormant power. Those who conferred it had too much their own way +in the administration of the Federal Government, during the first twelve +years of its existence, to require extraneous aid to push its power to +the extremes they desired. It was when they had been expelled from its +executive and legislative departments by the uprising of the people that +their attention was more earnestly turned to that of the judiciary as +one which--as well from the peculiarity of its constitution as from the +views of those who were in possession of it--was best qualified for the +protection of rights which they, no doubt honestly, believed in danger. +Hence the movement in the case of Marbury _v._ Madison. + +We cannot now form a complete estimate of the extent to which the +character of our institutions, in view of that step and of measures of +which it might have been the opening wedge, hinged upon the character +and disposition of those whom the people had then just raised to power. +The respect and reverence with which the minds of a vast majority of our +citizens were impressed for their courts of justice, the confidence +which had been reposed in their purity as indicated by the tenure of +their offices, and the imposing character of those who filled them at +the moment combined to deter feeble and irresolute minds from resistance +to the authority of the Supreme Court of the United States, however +unfavorable their estimation of the course upon which it was entering. + +No unauthorized exercise of power would, for any considerable period, +have passed unchecked by a people like ours, then yet fresh from a +national struggle for principles better defined and defended with more +steadiness and by purer means than any the world had ever witnessed in +revolutionary contests. But the class of men, in any community where +deference for the ermine is habitual, who will meet danger at the very +threshold, and oppose resistance to judicial usurpation at the instant +of its appearance, is not likely to be numerous. + +Hostile to every assumption of power over the conduct or mind of man not +originally authorized by man himself, however plausible the pretences +upon which it might be exerted, an opposition deeply seated in his +nature, matured and confirmed by study and by all the observation and +experience of his eventful career, Jefferson was not the man to submit +to encroachments upon institutions he had sworn to protect, and more +especially upon that branch of them which a great and free people had +confided to his particular care. It was no matter to a man of his +knowledge of the world and approved moral courage from what quarter such +encroachments proceeded, they were certain to meet with a firm and +spirited opposition on his part. + +The course pursued by the State department was by his express direction, +and of course upon his responsibility. This he always avowed, and this +would have appeared in the report of the case of Marbury and Madison, if +the fact had not been designedly and for obvious reasons suppressed. It +was to accomplish this object that the statement of the case which +accompanies the elaborate opinion of Chief Justice Marshall was made to +present an appearance so ambiguous and unlawyer-like. Mr. Madison, it is +stated, refused to deliver the commission. On what grounds? That is not +stated, only that his explanations were not satisfactory to the relator. +If they had been given the fact referred to would have appeared on the +face of the record, and would have gone down to posterity as an answer +to the reasoning of the opinion. The refusal of the witnesses--clerks in +the department--to be sworn or to answer, and the decision of the court +that they should be sworn and answer under certain restrictions, and +that they were sworn, are all stated with much particularity, but what +they said is not stated. Here, again, the fact is suppressed that the +commission was retained in the executive department by the orders of the +President, who, in the exercise of executive discretion, regarded it as +the evidence of an appointment not completed, and which he decided not +to complete. + +But this was only a foretaste of the spirit with which the scheme of the +Federal party to raise the judicial department of the Federal +Government, not only over the States and their judicatories but over the +two other departments of the General Government, was to be met. Two +months had not elapsed after the delivery of the opinion of the Chief +Justice in Marbury _v._ Madison, before the entire judicial fabric which +that party had erected during the last moments of their expiring power, +by which twenty-one additional federal judges were appointed, eighteen +in the States and three in the District of Columbia, with large salaries +and still larger power, to hold their offices virtually for life, was +overthrown by the vote of a majority of Congress, a majority more +confiding, more harmonious, and better disposed to second and sustain +the measures of the executive than any we have ever had. + +This measure--the least important effect of which was to relieve the +national treasury from the payment of salaries to some twenty-seven or +thirty gentlemen, whose services an experience of more than half a +century has shown to have been unnecessary--was assailed with +unprecedented violence. Gouverneur Morris said it had stricken down the +sanctity of the judiciary, and his political associates in Congress +denounced it as a gross infraction of the Constitution. He spoke of it +with the same vehemence and heat with which he taunted the men who had +passed it and their successors, twelve years afterwards, at the federal +celebration of the restoration of the Bourbons, when he invited them, by +the appellation of the "savage and wild democracy," to see, "though it +should blast their eye-balls, royal princes surrounded by loyal +subjects!" The attempts of Mr. Morris and his coadjutors to exasperate +the public mind against the repeal of the midnight Judiciary Act +recoiled upon their party. The only effects they produced were to rivet +the convictions of a large majority of the people that they had acted +wisely in changing their rulers, and to evoke a determination to sustain +the men in power as long as they adhered to the course upon which they +had entered. To the Chief Justice, his associates on the bench, and the +leaders of the defeated party, this condition of public opinion +presented considerations of the gravest import. The court had decided, +and their decision was sustained by the latter with perfect unanimity, +that the appointment of Marbury had been completed before Mr. Jefferson +came into office, that the Secretary of State had therefore no right to +withhold his commission, and that he could be compelled to deliver it by +_mandamus_, provided only that the proceedings should originate in an +inferior court. There was no ground for question in respect to the +legality of the appointments of the midnight judges, or their clerks, if +the repealing law was unconstitutional, nor of their right to their +salaries. This was certainly a question for the judiciary in respect to +private rights; and if the courts could compel the one Secretary by +_mandamus_ to deliver a commission wrongfully withheld, _a fortiori_ +could they compel another to pay salaries undeniably due if the +repealing law was unconstitutional. The field for the writ of _mandamus_ +was thus greatly enlarged. If the withholding of a few justices' +commissions constituted good ground for the institution of such +proceedings as those we have referred to, the case now presented was one +of much greater magnitude, and no party was ever more deeply committed +before the country on a public question than they were in regard to the +unconstitutionality of the Repealing Act. If they were right in that, +and also in their views in respect to the powers of the Supreme Court, a +_mandamus_ would of course have been authorized to compel the treasury +to pay the judges their salaries. Should they resume the Marbury and +Madison case in the inferior courts, and proceed in this also, or should +they abandon both and submit themselves to the stigma of having been the +authors of false pretences and unfounded clamor, was the question to be +met. + +The Republican party of the Union, as then constituted, was for the +first time in possession of two departments of the Federal Government. +Whilst in a minority they had not been regarded by their high-reaching +opponents with feelings of much respect. Whatever might still have been +the federal impressions of their principles or designs, there was no +longer room for two opinions, in respect to their determination, their +firmness and their capacity to carry out the measures they deemed +necessary to the public service. Such being the circumstances in which +they were placed, the Chief Justice, his associates and friends, +surveyed the exposures and defenses of the only department that was left +under their control, and it was natural that they should ponder upon +possible consequences before they proceeded another step in a course +which the other departments regarded as one of aggression. + +The supervision and control of the Supreme Court of the United States +over the largest portion of the legislation and jurisprudence of the +State governments, designed to be secured by the twenty-fifth section of +the Federal Judiciary Act and the extent to which they might be carried, +were, in their political aspects, looked upon by Hamilton and his +followers as constituting the only remaining sheet-anchor of the +government, in the sense in which they desired to see it administered. +This lay completely at the mercy of their opponents. No matter what +might be their confidence in the constitutionality of the provision, the +whole appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is, by the express +letter of the Constitution, to be exercised subject to "such exceptions +and such regulations as the Congress shall make." An act of three lines +repealing the clause of the Judiciary Act would except writs of error to +State courts from the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and +another might abolish the use of the writ of _mandamus_. The members of +that court had seen too much of the temper and firmness of the President +and Congress to doubt the immediate adoption of such measures if the +contest in regard to the boundaries of power between the departments +was continued, and were too sensible of the extent to which that high +tribunal was indebted for its power and dignity to that branch of their +jurisdiction to push so unprofitable a collision one step farther under +their present auspices. The consequence was a suspension of all +movements in that direction. No more was heard of Mr. Marbury's claims +to his commission, and the new judges quietly submitted to expulsions +from their life-estates in offices by a law they claimed to be +unconstitutional, with a court within their reach authorized to declare +it such if it so believed. + +Chief Justice Marshall remained at the head of the Supreme Court many +years after the delivery of his opinion in the case of Marbury and +Madison. During that long period he not only acquired, by the exercise +of his great talent, the high distinction of which I have already +spoken, but endeared himself by his personal demeanor to all who were +drawn within the circle of his acquaintance. No generous mind could +contemplate a man possessed of such towering intellect, placed in so +elevated a position and bearing his honors with such modesty and +unaffected simplicity as he habitually displayed, without being +impressed with a deep interest in his character. I was not among the +least cordial of his admirers, and would not for the world speak a +wanton or unkind word in disparagement of his memory. But the public +acts of public men are always and under all circumstances legitimate +materials for history, and may be canvassed with freedom, provided they +are spoken of truly, and reviewed "with good motives and for justifiable +ends." To this limitation it shall be my endeavor to confine myself on +this as on all other occasions. + +No part of the fame which Chief Justice Marshall acquired on the bench +was due to his course and conduct in the case of Marbury and Madison, +which may with truth be regarded as his judicial _début_. He had been +snatched from the political caldron, heated to redness by human +passions, almost at the moment of his first appearance on the bench. In +his rapid transition from the halls of Congress and the Departments of +War and State to that of the Judiciary, he had, as it were, been driven +to the bench as to a place of safety before a tempest of public +indignation created by the abuses of the administration of which he had +been a part. Among his first acts after reaching it, and before time had +been allowed for his passions to cool, before he had acquired judicial +habits or had leisure to think even of the amenities that should +distinguish his new position, was a severe blow at the wizard who, he +believed, had raised the wind and directed the storm. But Jefferson, the +"dreaming Condorcet," as Hamilton sometimes called him, proved an +accomplished statesman. Wide awake, he made ample preparations for the +assault, interposed effectual resistance, and the recoil and ultimate +abandonment were the result. I have heretofore referred to the +non-observance in these proceedings of due respect toward the acts of a +coördinate department of the Government,--an obligation on the part of +each from which no consideration can release them, and which in this +case was rendered still more imperative by the relations, personal and +political, that had existed between the President and the Chief Justice. +Whatever weaknesses I may be subject to,--and doubtless they are +numerous,--dogmatism, I am very sure, is not one of them. My endeavor +always is to state my positions with deference to the judgments of +others. But on this point I cannot refrain from insisting that no man +who can divest himself of prejudice to only a reasonable extent can +review these proceedings without being satisfied that the objection I +have made to the course of the Chief Justice in this regard is well +founded. No such omission was ever chargeable to him at a more advanced +period in his judicial career; whatever exception may have been taken to +the course of his decisions no one ever had reason to complain of a want +of courtesy toward any branch of the government or toward individuals. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Renewed Attempt of the Federalists to give the Judiciary a + controlling power over the other Departments on the occasion of the + Bank Veto by President Jackson--Importance of the Principle of a + clear Division of Powers between the several Departments, and the + Independence of each--Assertion of the Principle by Jackson in his + Veto Message--Unguarded expression therein--Substantial Endorsement + by Webster of Jackson's Doctrine as to the Independence of the + Executive--Character of the Contest waged against Jackson on behalf + of the Bank--Violent and disingenuous course of Webster and Clay in + the Debate--The true Doctrine declared by Senator White--Its great + Importance--Merits of the Question discussed--The Judgment of the + People the ultimate Test--Instances of the effectual exercise of + that Judgment--Distrust of the Federalist Leaders as to the + Capacity of the People. + + +The most imposing, and I may add the most important occasion, +unconnected with judicial proceedings, on which the successors of the +old Federal party, encouraged by the success of the Supreme Court in +modern times, sought to avail themselves of the principle of the +controlling power of the judiciary over the other departments of the +Government in regard to questions of constitutional power, for which it +had early and long contended, was that of the veto of President Jackson +against the passage of the bill for the incorporation of the Bank of the +United States. + +In addition to the great and permanent importance it is to the +Government and the country to keep down this heresy, we have in this +case a scarcely less potent inducement for giving the matter a very +thorough consideration, founded in a desire to do justice to the conduct +and character of that great and good man. + +The division of the powers of the Federal Government into distinct and +independent departments is founded on a principle the value of which has +never been lost sight of by the framers of governments designed to be +free. It must at the same time be admitted that, among the principles +which necessarily enter into such a system, there are not many so +difficult to define with desirable certainty or to uphold in practice. +The faithful and capable men who constructed ours, state as well as +national, have been as successful, I believe, in this respect as any who +have gone before them; and the efforts which have been so perseveringly +made to counteract their patriotic designs must be attributed to an +inherent spirit of encroachment which is inseparable from power in whose +hands soever it may be placed. + +The veto message contained the following passage:--"If the opinion of +the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of this act, it ought not to +control the coördinate authorities of this Government. The Congress, the +executive, and the court must each for itself be guided by its own +opinion of the Constitution. Each public officer, who takes an oath to +support the Constitution, swears that he will support it as he +understands it, and not as it is understood by others. It is as much the +duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate and of the +President, to decide upon the constitutionality of any bill or +resolution which may be presented to them for passage or approval, as it +is of the supreme judges when it may be brought before them for judicial +decision. The opinion of the judges has no more authority over Congress +than the opinion of Congress has over the judges; and on that point the +President is independent of both. The authority of the Supreme Court +must not, therefore, be permitted to control the Congress or the +executive when acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only +such influence as the force of their reasoning may deserve." + +To present an intelligible view of this matter, the gravity of which +cannot fail to be appreciated as we proceed, it is necessary that we +should in the first place ascertain and define the leading idea which +its author intended to convey by the words he employed. The entire +paragraph is replete with distinct avowals of his meaning, but in the +midst of them are to be found a few words by which its true sense is +exposed to cavil and perversion. This was a point upon which General +Jackson was very liable to err, notwithstanding his natural and in other +matters practiced wariness,--a qualification with which few men were +more amply endowed than himself. The spirit by which alone free +governments can be sustained was deeply planted in his breast by the +hand of Nature; quickened into life by the blows of the enemy, whilst a +prisoner and yet a stripling, it grew with his growth and strengthened +with his strength. But possessed of a mind that was ever dealing with +the substance of things, he was not very careful in regard to the +precise terms in which his principles were defined. He was, besides, at +that moment placed in a peculiar as well as difficult situation. Whilst +struggling with an institution which felt itself sufficiently powerful +to measure strength with the Government, and which had been itself stung +to madness by his refusal to submit to its arbitrary demands, he was +deprived of the assistance of the leading members of his cabinet. The +Secretary of the Treasury, to whose department the subject belonged, +had, in his report to Congress, placed himself on record in favor of the +bank, and the Secretaries of State and of War concurred in his opinion; +all three openly disapproved of, and could not cordially coöperate in, +the measure the President was about to adopt--the Secretaries of the +Treasury and of War, as will be seen by the letters of General Jackson +to myself, which on account of the interesting matters to which they +relate will be given with these memoirs,[36] pressing their opposition +so far as to make it sufficient ground for proposing to retire from his +cabinet--a step they were with difficulty prevented from carrying into +immediate effect. That a document of such length, prepared on the spur +of the occasion and under such untoward and exciting circumstances, +should not have been even more vulnerable to the assaults of his astute +and implacable opponents, is not a little surprising. + + [36] The correspondence, including the letters of President Jackson, + has received the same direction with the other MSS. of the Author. + See introduction to this volume. Eds. + +Few had better opportunities for knowing the state of feeling which +prevailed at the Presidential mansion, whilst this matter was in +progress, than myself. I arrived at New York from my brief mission to +England after the Bank Bill had passed both Houses and on the day it was +sent to President Jackson for his approval, and left the next morning +for Washington. Arriving there at midnight, I proceeded at once to the +White House, in pursuance of an invitation he had sent to New York in +anticipation of my coming. I found the General in bed, supported by +pillows, in miserable health, but awake and awaiting and expecting me. +Before suffering me to take a seat, and whilst still holding my hand he, +with characteristic eagerness when in the execution of weighty concerns, +spoke to me of the bank--of the bill that had been sent for his +approval, and of the satisfaction he derived from my arrival at so +critical a moment; and I have not forgotten the gratification which +beamed from his countenance when I expressed a hope that he would veto +it, and when I declared my opinion that it was in that way only he could +discharge the great duty he owed to the country and to himself. Not +that he was ignorant of my views upon the subject, for in all our +conversations in respect to it before I left the country,--and they had +been frequent and anxious,--my voice had been decided as well against +the then existing, as against any other national bank. Neither that he +was himself in doubt as to the course that he ought to pursue, for he +entertained none. But the satisfaction he evinced, and which he +expressed in the most gratifying terms, arose solely from the relief he +derived from finding himself so cordially sustained in a step he had +determined to take but in respect to which he had been severely +harassed, by the stand taken by the leading members of his cabinet and +by the remonstrances of many timid and not a few false friends, and had +as yet been encouraged only by the few about him in comparatively +subordinate positions who were alike faithful to principle and to +himself. + +The veto message was prepared and sent in whilst I remained at +Washington. The manuscript was at all times open to my inspection, +although I had but little direct agency in its construction. Had it been +otherwise, the few words which subsequently made that part in which they +appear so conspicuous could not have escaped my notice. + +The paragraph in the message which sets forth the constitutional +principles which President Jackson intended to avow, contains the +following declarations: 1st. That if the opinion of the Supreme Court +covered the whole ground of the act under consideration, still it ought +not to control the coördinate authorities of the Government. 2d. That +the Congress, the Executive, and the Court must each for itself be +guided by its own opinions of the Constitution. 3d. That it is as much +the duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of the +President, to decide upon any Bill or Resolution that may be presented +to them for passage or approval, as it is for the supreme judges when +brought before them for judicial decision. 4th. That the opinion of the +judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress +has over the judges, and that on that point the President is independent +of both. 5th. That the authority of the Supreme Court should not +therefore be permitted to control the Congress or the Executive, when +acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only such influence +as the force of their reasoning may deserve. In none of these avowals is +the principle of irresponsibility in respect to the opinion of the +Supreme Court, by fair construction much less by necessary implication, +carried farther than to include the President when discharging his +official duties as the depository of the executive power of the +Government in approving or disapproving of a Bill or Resolution sent to +him by Congress for his executive action. That in all this he was +perfectly right, it will be seen even Mr. Webster, latitudinarian as he +was, did not venture to controvert. + +But in the midst of these declarations are found these unguarded words: +"Each public officer who takes an oath to support the Constitution, +swears that he will support it as he understands it and not as it is +understood by others." Either this declaration was applied by the +President only to all _such_ officers as those of whom he had been +speaking before and of whom alone he spoke afterwards, all in the same +paragraph,--to that class of officers who, singly as was his own case, +or in conjunction with others as was the case with some, constituted the +three great departments of the Government, whilst acting in their +respective official capacities, as it was beyond all doubt intended to +be applied; or he must be supposed to have held that the inferior judges +of the federal courts had a right to say to the superior court, "We do +not understand the Constitution as you have expounded it, and we will +therefore not submit to your decision;" the same as to the judges of the +State courts of every grade, and as to the officers of the custom-house +and innumerable other officers of his own appointment; empowering the +latter on the same ground to refuse to conform to the instructions sent +to them, &c., &c. A construction, one would think, too preposterous for +credulity itself to swallow. + +The plain and well-understood substance of what he said was that in +giving or withholding his assent to the bill for the re-charter of the +bank it was his right and duty to decide the question of its +constitutionality for himself, uninfluenced by any opinion or judgment +which the Supreme Court had pronounced upon that point, farther than his +judgment was satisfied by the reason which it had given for its +decision. This covered the whole ground. It explained fully his views of +the Constitution in respect to what he was doing. All beyond was both +uncalled for and unnecessary. To this view of the President's power and +duty under the Constitution Mr. Webster assented in the fullest manner. +He said,--"It is true that each branch of the legislature has an +undoubted right, in the exercise of its functions, to consider the +constitutionality of a law proposed to be passed. This is naturally a +part of its duty, and neither branch can be compelled to pass any law, +or do any other act, which it deems to be beyond the reach of its +constitutional power. The President has the same right when a bill is +presented for his approval; for he is doubtless bound to consider, in +all cases, whether such bill be compatible with the Constitution, and +whether he can approve it consistently with his oath of office." + +If the supporters of the bank had been willing to judge the President by +the claim of power under the Constitution which he intended to advance +in his veto message, there would have been a perfect accord of opinion +between him and their great leader in the debate upon that document, and +one disturbing element would have been withdrawn from the severe +agitation to which the public mind was exposed. But this course neither +suited the interest of the bank, nor would it have comported with the +excited feelings of the implacable enemies of the President. Matters had +worked to their liking. By forcing the bill through the two Houses at +the eve of the struggle for the President's reėlection, and thus +compelling him either to sign or to encounter the responsibility of +defeating it, they felt that they had involved the great opponent of the +bank,--the only man whose power with the people they really dreaded--in +toils from which his escape would be impossible. They were engaged in +framing an issue with President Jackson and the Democratic party, +looking at that time only to the defeat of his reėlection but which was +in 1834 so extended as to involve consequences second only in their +importance to those of our struggle for independence from the mother +country,--an issue, which was to decide whether the control by the +people in affairs of government, the fruit of that great contest, should +be continued, or be made to give place to a government controlled by the +money power of the country, the trial of which continued much longer +than that of the Revolution, and the ultimate results of which were the +extinguishment of the bank and the first direct overthrow of the +Democratic party since its accession to power in 1800. Able to count +their votes in both Houses, and certain of a majority in each, the +leading friends of the bank reserved their greatest efforts for the +discussion of the veto, the interposition of which they understood the +man they had to contend with too well to doubt. + +Mr. Webster was designated by the supporters of the bank to open the +discussion, and a more competent man, or one better suited for the +purpose, could not have been selected. Among our public men there have +doubtless been several whose mental endowments were in some particulars +superior to his. Hamilton possessed more genius and eloquence. Between +Clay and Webster the same disparity existed, though not in the same +degree. But as a close and powerful reasoner, an adroit and wary +debater,--one capable of taking comprehensive, and at the same time +close views of his subject; who surveyed all the points in his case, the +weak as well as the strong, and dealt with each in the way best +calculated to serve his purpose, and to reduce the advantage of his +antagonist to the lowest allowable point, and who was withal +unscrupulous in the employment of his great powers,--he was in his day +unsurpassed. Backed by a powerful moneyed institution--prepared to use +its overflowing resources to any necessary extent; having Mr. Clay on +his side; and knowing that what he said would, by means of the money of +the bank, be brought to every mansion, and forced into every cabin, and +made the subject of eulogy by a vast preponderance of the public press; +it is not possible to conceive of circumstances better calculated to +bring out Mr. Webster's capacities to the utmost. Those who have the +curiosity to turn to the record of his vigorous effort on that occasion +will see a favorable specimen of the art in which he was so great a +master. His opening speech was designed to give the cue to his party, +its orators and presses, in respect to the grounds upon which the +election was to be contested. It contained an official programme of the +campaign, showing that denunciation and intimidation were the principal +weapons to be employed, and was itself the first gun fired in that +direction--the signal that was to summon their political friends to the +field, and to begin the attempt to fright the country from its +propriety. + +Mr. Webster opened his speech with statements from which the following +are extracts: "Let us look at known facts. Thirty millions of the +capital of the bank are now out, on loans and discounts, in the States +on the Mississippi and its waters; ten of these millions on the discount +of bills of exchange, foreign and domestic, and twenty millions loaned +on promissory notes. The whole debt is to be paid, and within the same +time the circulation withdrawn. + +"The local banks, where there are such, will be able to afford little +assistance, because they themselves will feel a full share of the +pressure. They will not be in a condition to extend their discounts; but +in all probability, obliged to curtail them.... I hesitate not to say +that, as this veto travels to the West, it will depreciate the value of +every man's property from the Atlantic States to the capital of +Missouri. Its effects will be felt in the price of lands--the great and +leading article of Western property; in the price of crops; in the +products of labor; in the repression of enterprise; and in embarrassment +to every kind of business and occupation. I state this opinion strongly, +because I have no doubt of its truth, and am willing its correctness +should be judged by the event.... To call in this loan at the rate of +eight millions a year, in addition to the interest on the whole, and to +take away, at the same time, that circulation which constitutes so great +a portion of the medium of payment throughout that whole region, is an +operation which, however wisely conducted, cannot but inflict a blow on +the community of tremendous force and frightful consequences. The thing +cannot be done without distress, bankruptcy, and ruin to many.... + +"A great majority of the people are satisfied with the bank as it is, +and desirous that it should be continued. They wished no change. The +strength of this public sentiment has carried the bill through Congress, +against all the influence of the administration, and all the power of +organized party. But the President has undertaken, on his own +responsibility, to arrest the measure, by refusing his assent to the +bill. He is answerable for the consequences, therefore, which +necessarily follow the change which the expiration of the bank charter +may produce; and if these consequences shall prove disastrous, they can +fairly be ascribed to his policy only, and to the policy of his +administration." + +These alarming consequences were portrayed as the unavoidable result of +a failure on the part of the people to effect a change in our public +councils, before the expiration of the charter of the bank, which could +only be done at the then next election. + +No old school Federalist, who had grown to man's estate with views and +opinions in regard to the character of the people which that faith +seldom failed to inspire, could doubt the efficacy of such an exposition +in turning the minds of all classes of the community in the desired +direction. The idea of producing the catastrophe, thus held up to public +view, through the direct action of the bank--a proceeding justly +stigmatized as "flagitious," in his recent letter to the New York +bankers, by Mr. Appleton of Boston, a distinguished and highly trusted +Whig, who was in those days admitted behind the curtain and had a view +of the whole ground,--had not at that time, I am satisfied, entered into +the mind of Mr. Biddle, or perhaps into that of the most reckless +advocate of the bank. But the sagacious leader of the Whig party +understood too well the extent of General Jackson's popularity and the +strength of the Democratic party to think for a moment that an attempt +to carry a Presidential election against the power of both could safely +be treated as a holiday affair. He knew that by far the largest portion +of the classes most likely to be affected by appeals to their pecuniary +interests were already on the side of the bank, and that the only chance +of success in the election depended upon their ability to make +impressions favorable to their views upon classes differently situated, +and who in general politics were on the same side with the President. He +was also well aware that among the admirers and sincere friends of +General Jackson, there were in every State not a few who, confiding +fully in his integrity, believing him engaged in continual struggles for +the public good with a reckless opposition and sincerely wishing him +success, yet distrusted his prudence, listened readily to the reports of +his enemies prejudicial to his character, and were kept in constant +apprehension that he would, through passion or ill advisement, commit +some rash act. Virginia abounded in that class of politicians. My +quondam friend Ritchie scarcely ever went to bed in those exciting times +without apprehension that he would wake up to hear of some _coup d'etat_ +by the General, which he would be called on to explain or defend, and +his letters to me were filled with remonstrances and cautions upon the +subject. A vacancy occurring in the office of Attorney-General of the +United States, I recommended the appointment of Mr. Daniel, now one of +the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, for the place. +He came to Washington, was pleased with the invitation to take a seat in +the Cabinet, which the General authorized me to give him, was pleased +also with the office and would have been glad to accept it under other +circumstances, but was, notwithstanding, induced to decline it, after a +day's consultation with me, by considerations of that character +exclusively. The General was not a little amused, after our friend left +us, to hear me attribute his refusal to an apprehension that he might, +in the discharge of his official duties be reduced to the necessity of +acting against the principles of '98, or against his, the General's +wishes--an alternative that he preferred not to encounter. I am free to +confess that before I came to understand General Jackson as well as I +subsequently did I had not a little of the same feeling. I had seen +enough of him in the Senate, whilst occupying different sides in mere +party politics, to satisfy me that he was incapable of acting knowingly +against the public interest, but it was some time before I became +thoroughly satisfied that I did not do full justice to his prudence. I +will allude to a single occurrence bearing upon this point. His +successful effort to remove the Indians to their Western home is well +known and ought never to be forgotten, for there has scarcely been a +single act of his life which has proved more beneficial to all parties +than that. When the act conferring upon him the necessary powers was +before Congress, which was at an early period of his administration, it +was found difficult to prevail on the Pennsylvanian members of the House +to support it. They were believed to be influenced by an apprehension +that by supporting it they would give offense to the Quakers who, as is +known, are very numerous in their State. He invited them to an interview +which he asked me to attend. He remonstrated with those who came in an +earnest and really eloquent manner; placed before them very forcibly the +importance of the movement as well to the Indians as to the country; +refuted the reasons which were given for their doubts, and as they rose +to leave him, under indications not favorable to his wishes, he told +them, with much emphasis, that he could not believe that the reasons +they had assigned were the true motives by which they were actuated; +that they were men of too much sense not to see that the measure was a +proper one, but that they were afraid of their popularity; that they +stood more in dread of displeasing the Quakers than they did of doing +wrong; conjured them to rise superior to such motives, and to do what +was right, regardless of personal consequences; told them they would +find that to be the best way to make themselves popular, and concluded +by saying that he should do his duty in this respect, and if the bill +failed for the want of their vote it would not be his fault if their +constituents were not supplied with means for forming a correct judgment +between them and him. This was the substance of what was said, and said +with considerable animation, I observed his eye directed toward me +whilst he was speaking, and the moment the door closed on the retiring +delegation he turned to me with a smile upon his countenance and said +with the blandest manner, "I saw that my remarks disturbed you." I +admitted the fact, and said that although they were his friends, +personal as well as political, I was apprehensive that his observations, +if they were made public, however true and just, might in the then +feverish state of the public mind give countenance to the +representations of his enemies. His reply was: "No, my friend, I have +great respect for your judgment, but you do not understand these +gentlemen as well as I do. They are quite honest, and wish to do what is +right, but are prevented from doing it by precisely the considerations +to which I alluded. They will not be offended, because they know I am +their friend, and act only for the public good, and you will see that +they will show a different disposition upon the subject"--and they did +so. My apprehensions were more on account of what I feared he might say, +from the excited manner in which he spoke, than on account of what he +did actually say; and this was but one of numerous instances in which I +observed a similar contradiction between his apparent undue excitement +and his real coolness and self-possession in which, I may say with +truth, he was seldom if ever wanting. It was to the class of Jackson's +supporters which I have described, men of Mr. Daniel's school, that +Webster made his most powerful appeal; to alarm and influence them his +powers were exerted to their utmost point. To do this with any chance of +success a perversion of the Veto Message was indispensable. We have seen +that he was obliged to admit that the President had a right, under the +Constitution, to do all that he proposed by the veto. He had sworn to +protect the Constitution as the chief executive officer of the +government; and when an act was offered for his approval which he +honestly believed was contrary to that instrument, he had the right--not +the power only but the right also--to withhold his assent. This Mr. +Webster admitted in so many words, and President Jackson did not by the +message propose to do any thing more. And yet Webster denounced him as a +ruthless tyrant, who was violating the Constitution, and uprooting the +foundations of society. Look at some of his fierce denunciations: "He +asserts a right of individual judgment on constitutional questions, +which is totally inconsistent with any proper administration of the +Government, or any regular execution of the laws. Social disorder, +entire uncertainty in regard to individual rights and individual duties, +the cessation of legal authority, confusion, the dissolution of free +government,--all these are inevitable consequences of the principles +adopted by the message, whenever they shall be carried to their full +extent.... That which is now claimed for the President is, in truth, +nothing less, and nothing else than the old dispensing power asserted by +the Kings of England in the worst of times--the very climax, indeed, of +all the preposterous pretensions of the Tudor and the Stuart races. + +"According to the doctrines put forth by the President, although +Congress may have passed a law, and although the Supreme Court may have +pronounced it constitutional, yet it is, nevertheless, no law at all, if +he in his good pleasure, sees fit to deny its effect; in other words, to +repeal and annul it. Sir, no President, and no public man, ever before +advanced such doctrines in the face of the nation. There never was +before a moment in which any President would have been tolerated in +asserting such claim to despotic power.... If these opinions of the +President be maintained, there is an end of all law and all judicial +authority. Statutes are but recommendations, judgments no more than +opinions. Both are equally destitute of binding force. Such a universal +power as is now claimed for him--a power of judging over the laws and +over the decisions of the tribunal--is nothing else than pure despotism. +If conceded to him, it makes him at once what Louis the Fourteenth +proclaimed himself to be when he said 'I am the State.'" + +Now where was his warrant for these scandalous denunciations? Was it to +be found in the words "every officer," etc. to which I have referred? If +so, common fairness required that he should have set them forth so that +the readers of his speech might judge for themselves what the President +intended by them. This he was too sagacious to do, for if he named them +he was bound to give the whole paragraph. If he omitted this the +President's friends would have pointed out the deception. If he gave the +whole his readers would have seen that General Jackson could not have +used the words in the sense attributed to them by Mr. Webster. In this +dilemma he contented himself with substituting bold and reckless +assumption for proof. Mr. Clay was less cautious, as it was his nature +to be; he extracted the obnoxious words without the context, and +founded upon them charges like these,--charges by which none who read +his speech would have been misled if he had quoted the message +fairly:--"There are some parts of his message that ought to excite deep +alarm, and that especially in which the President announces that each +public officer may interpret the Constitution as he pleases. His +language is 'each public officer, who takes an oath to support the +Constitution, swears that he will support it as he understands it and +not as it is understood by others.' 'The opinion of the judges has no +more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the +judges; and on that point the President is independent of both.' Now, +Mr. President, I conceive, with great deference, that the President has +mistaken the purport of the oath to support the Constitution of the +United States. No one swears to support it as he understands it, but to +support it simply as it is in truth. All men are bound to obey the laws, +of which the Constitution is the supreme; but must they obey them as +they are, or as they understand them? If the obligation of obedience is +limited and controlled by the measure of information, in other words if +the party is bound to obey the Constitution only as he understands it, +what would be the consequence?" No warrant for these broad and unfounded +imputations, on the part of either of the senators, was to be found in +the fact that the objections to the new Bank Bill applied equally to the +old, nor for the ground thence assumed that it was the intention of +President Jackson to treat that as a nullity and to embarrass its +directors in winding up its concerns. There was not only nothing in the +message to justify such a charge, but its whole character was directly +opposite, and that too plainly to be controverted. His agency was not +necessary to enable them to wind it up. The courts were sufficient for +that, and they were on the side of the bank. Even if it were otherwise, +there were legitimate considerations which would have justified him in +allowing a charter which had received the sanction of a predecessor in +office to proceed to its consummation, whatever he might think of its +constitutionality. Nor had Mr. Webster or Mr. Clay a moment's doubt that +it was his intention to do so. Their violent not to say savage tirades +against the veteran had a different object--and that was the election. +There, fortunately, they were unsuccessful, or we might yet have been in +our Federal relations, as we unhappily are in those of the States, a +bank-ridden people. + +But I cannot allow this great constitutional question, respecting the +relation which the three great departments of the Federal +Government--executive, legislative, and judicial--were by the +Constitution designed to occupy toward each other, to pass without +farther notice. One more vitally important has not arisen nor can ever +arise out of our complex and peculiar form of government, and it is also +one which there is reason to apprehend has not been studied with +adequate care, by many who are in other respects sufficiently astute in +detecting constitutional encroachments. + +General Jackson--though owing to his military employment he had not been +for many years of his life much engaged in party politics--was yet, from +a very early period, strongly imbued with the principles of the fathers +of the republican school in regard to the objects and only legitimate +purposes of Government and the true construction of the Federal +Constitution. His views in these respects were sufficiently disclosed in +the course of his brief services in both Houses of Congress, during the +administration of Washington, and more particularly in his celebrated +letter to Williamson about the year 1800. + +Judge White, then his personal and political friend, followed Mr. +Webster in the debate on the Veto Message and in the course of his +speech laid down, in a perspicuous and satisfactory manner, the +principles applicable to the question of the relative powers and duties +of the several departments of the General Government which President +Jackson then, as he had at all times, sustained. Deeply incensed at the +gross perversions of his message, on the part of the advocates of the +bank, but at all times and under all circumstances against parleying +with his enemies in the midst of a battle, the President contented +himself with frequent and unreserved expression of concurrence in the +views which had been taken of the subject, on the floor of the Senate, +by Judge White, and although reėlected under the clamor which had been +raised against him upon that point, and more determined than ever to +prevent, by all constitutional means, the extension of the charter of +the existing bank, he was equally decided, as he had always been, not to +interpose, nor did he interpose, any obstructions to the employment by +it of all the means provided by the charter to conduct business to its +end and to wind up its affairs after its termination. + +Senator White's definition of the Constitution was expressed in the +following words: "The honorable Senator argues that the Constitution has +constituted the Supreme Court a tribunal to decide great constitutional +questions, such as this; and that when they have done so, the question +is put at rest, and every other department of the government must +acquiesce. This doctrine I deny. The Constitution vests 'the judicial +power in a Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may +from time to time ordain and establish.' Whenever a suit is commenced +and prosecuted in the courts of the United States, of which they have +jurisdiction, and such suit is decided by the Supreme Court,--as that is +the court of last resort,--its decision is final and conclusive between +the parties. But as an authority it does not bind either the Congress or +the President of the United States. If either of these coördinate +departments is afterwards called upon to perform an official act, and +conscientiously believes the performance of that act will be a violation +of the Constitution, they are not bound to perform it, but, on the +contrary, are as much at liberty to decline acting as if no such +decision had been made.... If different interpretations are put upon the +Constitution by the different departments, the people is the tribunal to +settle the dispute. Each of the departments is the agent of the people, +doing their business according to the powers conferred; and where there +is a disagreement as to the extent of these powers, the people +themselves, through the ballot-boxes, must settle it." + +This is the true view of the Constitution. It is that which was taken by +those who framed and adopted it, and by the founders of the Democratic +party. It is one which was universally acquiesced in at the formation of +the Government, and for some time thereafter. It is a matter of great +moment, and one which cannot be too closely scrutinized, especially at +the present moment when there is abundant reason to apprehend that +heresies of a marked character in respect to it are being infused into +the public mind. The principle which inculcates the necessity of +distributing the powers of government among several departments, and +that they should be independent of each other in the performance of the +duties assigned to them by the Constitution, has united in its favor the +opinions of the friends of liberty everywhere from a very early period +to the present time. Montesquieu said: "There can be no liberty where +the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person or +body of magistrates;" or "if the power of judging be not separated from +the legislative and executive powers." The American Revolution provided +the fairest opportunity to test the merits of this doctrine that the +world had ever seen, and it was not lost sight of by the statesmen of +that day. Many of the States recorded their adherence to it on the face +of their constitutions, some of which were framed and adopted _flagrante +bello_, and all paid due respect to it in the construction of their +organic laws. The settlement and ratification of the Federal +Constitution carried the discussion of its merit to our national +councils where, and more particularly in the discussion upon the +question of ratification, the matter was very closely examined and by +very able hands. The opponents of the Constitution resisted it earnestly +and with ability, on the ground, amongst others, that it did not provide +sufficient guarantees to protect the departments from reciprocal +encroachments, and to secure the required independence of each. The +difficulties, inherent in the very nature of government, of carrying +those securities to an extent which would silence cavil in respect to +them, obtained for this objection advantages which, in view of the well +understood reverence of the people for the main principle, caused no +small degree of inquietude to those able defenders of the +Constitution--Madison, Hamilton, and Jay. The numbers of the +"Federalist" which touch upon this point are full of interest and will +well repay re-perusal. They afford the strongest evidence of an earnest +adherence, on the part of those great men, to the general principle, and +will, if I do not deceive myself, be found quite inconsistent with +several positions which have since been taken upon the subject. In the +47th number of the "Federalist," Mr. Madison thus expresses his own +views, and of course those of his associates, Hamilton and Jay, as they +acted in concert: "One of the principal objections inculcated by the +more respectable adversaries to the Constitution, is its supposed +violation of the political maxim that the legislative, executive and +judiciary departments ought to be separate and distinct. In the +structure of the Federal Government no regard, it is said, seems to have +been paid to this essential precaution in favor of liberty. The several +departments of power are distributed and blended in such a manner as at +once to destroy all symmetry and beauty of form, and to expose some of +the essential parts of the edifice to the danger of being crushed by the +disproportionate weight of other parts. + +"No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value, or is +stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty, than +that on which the objection is founded. The accumulation of all powers, +legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, +a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may +justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. Were the Federal +Constitution, therefore, really chargeable with this accumulation of +power, or with a mixture of powers having a dangerous tendency to such +an accumulation, no further arguments would be necessary to inspire a +universal reprobation of the system".... In No. 48, speaking of the +three great departments, he says: "It is equally evident that neither of +them ought to possess, directly or indirectly, an overruling influence +over the others in the administration of their respective powers." ... +In No. 49, he notices a proposition of Mr. Jefferson to authorize a +Convention upon a call of two of the three departments, for "altering +the Constitution or correcting breaches of it," and says,--"The several +departments being perfectly coördinate by the terms of their common +commission, neither of them, it is evident, can pretend to an exclusive +or superior right of settling the boundaries between their respective +powers." He then goes on to urge objections to too frequent appeals to +the people in that form, and sustains the opinion that it would be +better to rely on other safeguards against encroachments which he +details. In Nos. 78 and 81, General Hamilton, admitting that "there is +no liberty where the power of judging be not separated from the +legislative and executive powers," shows at great length the comparative +weakness of the judicial power, and the very slight probability that +"the general liberty of the people can ever be endangered from that +quarter." + +The provisions of the Constitution will be searched in vain for any +which indicate a design on the part of its framers to give to one of the +departments power to control the action of another in respect to its +departmental duties under that instrument. All _legislative power_ +granted by the Constitution was vested in a Congress, to be composed of +two Houses. The _executive power_ of the Government was vested in a +President. Specific powers to be exercised in conjunction with the +Senate, as well as some in respect to which a question might arise +whether they would otherwise have passed to the executive, were added, +but the Constitution in respect to the legislative power, contained no +limitations or restrictions. All executive authority to be exercised +under it was granted to the President, and he was hence spoken of by the +writers of the "Federalist" as the _sole depositary_ of executive power. +By the third article of the Constitution the same expression is used in +respect to the Supreme Court, &c.: "_The judicial power of_ the United +States shall be vested in _one Supreme Court_ and certain inferior +tribunals." But as these terms would, standing by themselves, have +conveyed all the judicial power of the United States to the Supreme +Court, and as no such grant could be properly made because a large share +of it had, in a previous part of the Constitution, been granted to a +court of impeachment, of which the Supreme Court only supplied the +presiding officer on a single occasion,--the trial of a President,--and +was designed to be still farther restricted, the Constitution +immediately proceeds to say, that "The judicial power shall extend to +all cases in law and equity arising under this Constitution, the laws of +the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under +their authority; to all cases affecting, ambassadors, other public +ministers, and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime +jurisdiction, etc." No oath to support the Constitution is prescribed by +it, in regard to the incumbents of the legislative or judicial branches +of the Government, other than the general provision that all officers of +a certain description, (which included them,) whether belonging to the +Federal or State governments, should swear to support the Federal +Constitution. + +In regard to the executive department the case is very different. The +Constitution requires from the President, and from him only, that he +should, in addition to the oath of office, before he enter upon its +duties, swear "_that he will, to the best of his ability, preserve, +protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States_." + +Is it not surprising that under a Constitution so constructed, +exhibiting on its face such features, the idea should ever have been +advanced that it was to the judicial power of the Government that its +framers looked for the preservation of that sacred instrument? So far as +it concerns the private rights of citizens and foreigners in questions +of _meum and tuum_, growing out of the laws and Constitution of the +United States, or controversies regarding the separate and special +interests of contending States, or of the United States, and in respect +to the rights of foreign ministers and consuls, it was intended to be +supreme and so made, nor has its supremacy in all these respects ever +been questioned. But it seems very absurd to suppose that it was +intended to oblige the President of the United States,--the officer +clothed with the whole executive power of the Government; the only +officer, except the Vice-President, who is chosen by the whole people of +the United States; the champion, designated by the Constitution itself +to "preserve, protect, and defend" it in the performance of the +executive duties committed to his charge,--duties affecting what +Hamilton happily describes as "the general liberty of the people," to +distinguish it from affairs of _meum and tuum_,--to keep his eye upon +the Supreme Court calendar, and to gather from its decisions in respect +to the private rights of parties litigant the measure of his +constitutional powers, and to stop or go on in the execution of the +important national offices assigned to his department as its judgments +may be deemed to authorize or forbid his further proceeding. I can +easily understand why a class of men, born with certain dispositions and +trained to corresponding opinions, should desire such a construction of +the Federal Constitution; but in the face of facts and considerations +like these, I can find no explanation of the boldness with which so +groundless a pretension has been advanced, other than in the +recklessness by which the spirit of political encroachment is and will +be characterized as long as it finds facilities for its gratification in +the weakness or the passions of mankind. The deeper the subject is +looked into, the more apparent to all _bonā fide_ searchers for truth +will become the fallacy of the principle which claims for the Supreme +Court a controlling power over the other departments in respect to +constitutional questions. Inquirers of this description cannot fail to +appreciate the difficulty, nay the impossibility of reconciling Mr. +Webster's unreserved admission of the President's "undoubted right in +the exercise of his functions, when a bill is presented for his +approval, to consider in all cases whether such a bill be compatible +with the Constitution, and whether he can approve it, consistently with +his oath of office," and to approve, or refuse to approve according to +the result, with his severe denunciation of him for regarding an act as +unconstitutional, which had been approved by one of his predecessors, +but which he, notwithstanding, conscientiously believed to be +unconstitutional, and for withholding the power of the executive from +the execution of any such act. Everybody knows that an act which is +contrary to the Constitution is a nullity, although it may have passed +according to the forms of the Constitution. That instrument creates +several departments, whose duty it may become to act upon such a bill, +in the performance of their respective functions. The theory of the +Constitution is that these departments are coördinate and independent of +each other, and that when they act in their appropriate spheres they +each have a right, and it is the duty of each to judge for themselves in +respect to the authority and requirements of the Constitution, without +being controlled or interfered with by their co-departments, and are +each responsible to the people alone who made them for the manner in +which they discharge their respective duties in that regard. It is not +therefore to be presumed that that instrument, after making it the +President's especial duty to take an oath to preserve and uphold the +Constitution and prevent its violation, intended to deny to him the +right to withhold his assent from a measure which he might +conscientiously believe would have that effect, and to impose upon him +the necessity of outraging his conscience, by making himself a party to +such a violation. The Constitution, which was framed by great men, the +form of which has been so much and so justly admired, is not so +imperfect nor subject to such a reproach. The matter does not +necessarily end with a refusal on the part of the executive to do an act +which he believes Congress had no right, under the Constitution, to +require his department to perform. Although the President, representing +one of the three great departments of the Government, possesses in this +respect a right which neither the citizen nor any other officer or +officers of the Government, not having the control of such a department, +can exercise, yet if he allows himself to be governed by unworthy +motives he is liable to impeachment and expulsion from office. It is in +this way, or by his removal by the people, that the wrong he does to the +public is redressed. But this is not all. If the act has been passed +according to the forms of the Constitution, and is judged to be +constitutional by the judicial department of the Federal Government, it +is obligatory upon the citizens, binds and controls their private rights +and personal interests, and can be carried into effect in respect to +those by the judiciary, which also judges for itself regarding the +constitutionality of such law. It is the department by which laws, +affecting as well the private rights of the citizen as those of the +States, which can be made the subjects of litigation, are carried into +effect. It has ample power conferred upon it to cause its judgments and +decrees to be executed. Officers are appointed whose duty it is made by +law to obey its orders, and these officers have the right given to call +out the civil power of their respective districts to enable them to +execute judicial decrees. Nor do the rights secured to it by the +Constitution stop here. If resistance is offered to the execution of a +judgment or decree--made by the proper court to which jurisdiction of +the matter which such judgment or decree seeks to enforce is given by +the Constitution--too great to be overcome by the civil power, it is the +duty of the President, upon the request of the officers of the court, to +order out the military power to sustain that of the judiciary. It would +be no answer on his part to such a call to say that the right which the +decree or judgment seeks to enforce arises under a law which he deems +unconstitutional. That is, under the circumstances, a matter that he has +no right to inquire into. The decision of that question has been +delegated to a different department, and has by that department been +decided differently. The Constitution requires that the judgments of +that department, upon subjects committed to it, should be enforced. It +makes that enforcement, in extreme cases, the duty of the military. The +President is intrusted with the command of that force and, in such a +case, his power in regard to it is ministerial only. It is his duty, in +such a case, to sustain the judicial power by the aid of the military, +and if he failed in its performance he would subject himself to +impeachment and removal from office. Not only is the entire power of the +government thus pledged to the maintenance of judicial authority, whilst +acting in the line of its duties, but there lies no appeal from its +judgments or decrees. They are final and obligatory upon the rights and +interests of the parties. They can neither be reversed by any other +tribunal, nor is it in the power of the remaining departments of the +Government united to set them aside or to treat them as a nullity, +however contrary to the Constitution they may be. + +We are not without experience upon this point. Our history bears +indelible record of the abuse of power in that form during the +administration of the elder Adams. The unconstitutionality of the +Sedition Law will now be scarcely controverted by any ingenuous mind. +The Supreme Court, nevertheless, decided it to be constitutional, tried +citizens for having violated its provisions, and caused fines and +imprisonment to be inflicted upon them. When a majority of the Senate of +the United States, friends of the bank, placed upon its journal an +unconstitutional act of condemnation against President Jackson, for the +steps he had taken to relieve the country from that institution, the +same body, after its political complexion had been sufficiently changed +through the influence of an offended public sentiment, not only reversed +the sentence but expunged it from the record. This it had a right to do, +because both acts were committed by the same branch of the same +department. But the executive and legislative departments had no such +power over the unconstitutional sentences that were pronounced under the +Sedition Law, because they had no right to interfere with the acts of a +coördinate department. The President had an express right to pardon such +offenses, and the national legislature had a constitutional right to +return the money collected from those who committed them, and they did +so. But the judgments of the court remained, and will forever remain, +unreversed. In England, judicial convictions, attainders, judgments of +forfeitures of franchises, etc., may be reversed by act of Parliament, +but no such interference by one department of the government with the +authorized proceedings of a coördinate department are permitted by our +Constitution, simply because the great departments of our Government are +by the Constitution made coördinate and independent of each other. Can +any reflecting mind, in view of these facts, doubt the sufficiency of +the protection which that instrument provides for the personal rights of +the citizen and for private interests of every description, or for a +moment apprehend the disorganization of society described by Mr. Webster +as a consequence of carrying into effect the principles avowed by +President Jackson? + +The judicial power of the Federal Government, according to the +description here given of the binding force, the finality and efficiency +of its decisions upon the parties and their rights in all cases which +may be brought before it, answers all the purposes of its institution. +Was it the intention of the framers of the Constitution that it should +be clothed with other powers, and if so, what are they? The duties +imposed on the executive and legislative departments are of higher +importance than those of the judiciary, in proportion as the interests +of the nation are of more consequence than the separate interests of +individuals and minor associations. They include the question of peace +or of war, and the maintenance of the latter, international obligations +in the forms of treaties, their construction and execution, the +regulation of foreign commerce and commerce among the States, the +regulation of the currency, the establishment of a mint, the assessment +and collection of the national revenue, the raising, regulating, and +command of an army and navy, the establishment of a general and of +particular post-offices, the regulation and protection of the Indian +tribes, and many other duties which it is unnecessary to specify. In +none of these is it contemplated by the Constitution that the judicial +power shall take a part. The powers and duties of the other departments +upon these subjects are to some extent specified in the Constitution, +and the residue are left to the direction of the legislature which acts, +in respect to them, through the Executive as the department especially +charged with the execution of the laws. In the performance of their high +duties these departments are, at almost every step, met by +constitutional questions. The Houses of the legislature, in every law or +resolution that they pass, have to consider whether it is authorized by +the Constitution to which they have sworn to conform, and the President +and Senate, when they make a treaty, are bound to consider and decide +the same question. The President, as the sole depositary of the +executive power, is under a similar obligation. His first inquiry is, +whether the Constitution authorizes him to apply the power of his +department to the execution of the business before him, or, if it is one +of the numerous functions which the legislature is in the constant +habit of calling upon him to perform, has the legislature power under +the Constitution to direct the thing to be done, and can he do it +consistently with his oath to preserve and uphold that instrument? + +How are they to act in the decision of these questions? By what +considerations are they to be controlled? They know that they are +responsible to the people, under whose commission they act, for all they +do. The Constitution does not give to one department the right to decide +such questions for another, either in terms or by necessary implication, +nor subject them to any other responsibility, nor place before them any +guide for the government of their decisions other than their own +discretion and their own consciences, and has caused to be placed upon +their consciences an oath that they will, in no event, act contrary to +that instrument. Under such circumstances, I ask, what are they to do? +What can they do, consistently with the duty they owe to God, to their +country, and to themselves, other than to decide such questions for +themselves, following the dictates of their own judgment? Can it be +believed that those who framed and adopted the Constitution intended to +place these high functionaries,--the only representatives of the people, +in the great departments of the government, over whose continuance in +office the people possess control--to place them, in respect to their +official acts, about which a constitutional question can be raised, +under the guidance of a department over which the people possess no such +control, to be regulated by its decisions in private actions, to which +such functionaries are not parties, and of which decisions they are, +notwithstanding, to take notice at their peril. If a system so +anti-republican could have been designed by those who made the +Constitution, is it to be supposed that they would have omitted to +declare, on the face of the instrument, that such was their intention, +leaving those functionaries to grope their way to its discovery. Such a +question--one in which the character of our political institutions is so +much involved, and upon a right understanding of which their ultimate +safety may depend--should be stripped of every uncertainty. The claim +set up for the Supreme Court must be good throughout, or it is not good +at all. The principle, that the final decision of constitutional +questions belongs exclusively to the supreme judicial tribunal, set up +in Mr. Webster's speech, must be true throughout, or it cannot be true +to any extent. It amounts to this: the incumbents of the legislative and +executive departments, in respect to questions of constitutional power, +are _ministerial officers only_. Constitutional questions are points in +respect to which they have no right to exercise their own discretion, +but are bound, at every important step, to look to the judiciary for +guidance, and if they omit to adopt its decisions, if it has made any, +they do so at their peril:--the former department at the hazard of +having its laws, if the Supreme Court regard them as unconstitutional, +treated as a nullity, not only when they are relied upon "in cases in +law and equity," but in all cases, and everywhere. From the nature of +their action, members of Congress do not subject themselves to personal +responsibility, except when they act corruptly. But the situation of the +incumbent of the executive department is less favorable. Deprived of all +discretion, and bound to thus understand his position, he encounters +personal responsibility, in certain cases, whichever way he may act. If +he find a law upon the statute book, approved by one of his +predecessors--and to relieve the country from which has perhaps been one +of the reasons for the removal of the latter from office--a law which he +deems unauthorized by the Constitution, but which the Supreme Court +holds to be constitutional, he must either violate his oath of office +and execute it, or refuse to do so and expose himself to impeachment +for a failure in the discharge of his official duties. If he persists in +the observance of a law which the Supreme Court has, in a private suit, +held to be unconstitutional, he incurs a similar responsibility; and if +he omits its observance, he does violence to his own conscience by +failing to perform his official duties according to his oath. Let me +illustrate this view of the subject by particular and possible cases. +Take that referred to by General Hamilton in his papers written in +defense of President Washington's proclamation of neutrality, over the +signature of "Pacificus." + +The President has power, by and with the advice of the Senate, to make +treaties with foreign governments. Private rights, subject to judicial +investigation, often grow out of public treaties. The interpretation and +enforcement of these rights belong exclusively to the judiciary, and in +the execution of its power it may hold the treaty, under which the claim +arises, unconstitutional for any of the reasons for which laws may be so +regarded. Its decision is binding and final upon the parties and their +interests. + +Then comes the execution of that treaty between the governments that are +parties to it. This, on our part, belongs exclusively to the legislative +and executive departments. The duty of the former is to pass the laws +necessary to its execution, and that of the latter to see to their +enforcement, and to do such other acts as he may do, under the +Constitution, without a law. + +A foreign government calls for the interference of these departments to +redeem the national faith, pledged through executive instrumentality, +and for the redemption of which the executive, and the legislature, +where necessary, are the agents designated by the Constitution. They see +and feel their duty, but have been rendered powerless. The Supreme Court +has decided the treaty to be unconstitutional. No matter how obscure +the parties by whom its interference was asked, no matter how +unimportant the interest in respect to which the decision was made, from +the moment it is promulgated, it becomes a rule of action for every +department of the government, and every public functionary as well as +every citizen. If the national legislature passes a law to carry into +effect the void treaty its law becomes a nullity. If the executive +issues an order for its execution, or toward the performance of the +treaty in any way to his subordinates, they are not bound to obey it, +and the Supreme Court will sustain them in their contumacy. If he take +measures to enforce his authority, he makes himself amenable to that +tribunal. Acting in such a matter as a ministerial officer only, without +a right to employ his own discretion, he subjects himself to impeachment +if he persists. + +Alexander Hamilton--who, if he was not the one who suggested the +latitudinarian doctrine of "implied powers," was certainly its most +effective supporter, and through life its watchful guardian--in No. 1 of +Pacificus, has said that though the judiciary department is charged with +the interpretation of treaties, "it exercises this function only where +contending parties bring before it a specific controversy;" that "it has +no concern with pronouncing upon the external political relation of +treaties between government and government;" that "this proposition is +too plain to need being insisted upon;" that "it belongs to the +executive department to exercise the function in question, when a proper +case for it occurs," "as the _interpreter_ of the national treaties, in +those cases in which the judiciary is not competent,--that is, between +government and government; as the _power_ which is charged with the +execution of the laws, of which treaties form a part; as that which is +charged with the command and disposition of the public force." + +James Madison, in conjunction with Hamilton and Jay, in the numbers of +the "Federalist," avows doctrines at war with this assumption of power +in the Supreme Court. Thomas Jefferson, whose anxious patriotism was +always alive to such subjects, and the political thoughts and studies of +whose life were exclusively directed toward the protection of human +rights through the instrumentality of free governments, opposed the +doctrine vehemently, from first to last, and long after his retirement +from public life, its passions and excitements, expressed himself in +regard to it, on different occasions, in terms which follow. In 1815, in +answer to the direct question put to him by a citizen of Georgia, he +says:--"The second question, whether the judges are invested with +exclusive authority to decide on the constitutionality of a law, has +been heretofore a subject of consideration with me in the exercise of +official duties. Certainly there is not a word in the Constitution which +has given that power to them more than to the executive or legislative +branches. Questions of property, of character, and of crime, being +ascribed to the judges, through a definite course of legal +proceeding,--laws, involving such questions, belong, of course, to them, +and as they decide on them ultimately and without appeal, they, of +course, decide _for themselves_. The constitutional validity of the law, +or laws, again prescribing executive action, and to be administered by +that branch ultimately and without appeal, the executive must decide for +_themselves_, also, whether, under the Constitution, they are valid or +not. So, also, as to laws governing the proceedings of the legislature; +that body must judge _for itself_ the constitutionality of the law, and, +equally, without appeal or control from its coördinate branches. And, in +general, that branch which is to act ultimately, and without appeal, on +any law, is the rightful expositor of the validity of the law, +uncontrolled by the opinions of the other coördinate authorities." +Again, so late as 1819, in a very interesting letter to Judge Spencer +Roane, he says:--"My construction of the Constitution is very different +from that you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of +the others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the +meaning of the Constitution in the cases submitted to its action; and +especially, where it is to act ultimately and without appeal.... But you +intimate a wish that my opinion should be known on this subject. No, +dear Sir, I withdraw from all contests of opinion and resign every thing +cheerfully to the generation now in place. They are wiser than we were, +and their successors will be wiser than they, from the progressive +advance of science. Tranquillity is the _summum bonum_ of age. I wish, +therefore, to offend no man's opinion, nor to draw disquieting +animadversions on my own. While duty required it, I met opposition with +a firm and fearless step. But loving mankind in my individual relations +with them, I pray to be permitted to depart in their peace, and, like +the superannuated soldier, '_quadragenis stipendiis emeritis_,' to hang +my arms on the post." + +Mr. Jefferson, in these letters, speaks of his uniform opposition to the +opposite doctrine, and refers to the inconvenience that may at times +arise from conflicting decisions. But that, he thought, might be safely +dealt with through the prudence of public functionaries, and he names +instances when they were so treated: one in England, where an instance +of difference occurred, in the time of Lord Holt, between the judges of +England and the House of Commons; and another in this country, when a +difference of opinion was found to exist between the Federal Judiciary +and the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court decided, in a case +of _meum and tuum_, that William Duane was not a citizen, and the +House of Representatives, upon a question of membership, decided that +William Smith, whose character of citizenship stood on precisely the +same ground, was a citizen. These decisions were made in high party +times, whilst the Federalists were in power. Duane was an Irishman, who +had married into the family of Dr. Franklin, and was editor of the +"Aurora," the most prominent Republican newspaper. Smith was an ardent +Federalist from South Carolina, a man of good talents himself, but who +delivered speeches in the House prepared by Hamilton in his closet, as +was charged by Jefferson at the time, and has now been fully proved by +the publication of Hamilton's private papers. + +But the establishment of the constitutional rule sustained by Jefferson +would not have saved the country from practical inconveniences, which he +did not notice because he knew them to be unavoidable. A concession to +the other great departments of the right to decide for themselves +constitutional questions applicable to, and that necessarily arise in +the discharge of, their official functions, still leaves them, to a +serious extent, dependent upon the judicial power. Whilst it would +exempt the incumbents from the penalty of impeachment when they act in +good faith, they and their subordinates remain liable whenever their +acts may be construed into an injurious interference with the property +or personal rights of individuals, to be called before the judicial +tribunal, to be there subjected to a different interpretation of the +Constitution from that which they, or their superiors in authority, have +placed upon it, and to be melted in damages for their public acts, +however pure their motives may have been. + +In a government, constructed like ours in some degree of conflicting +parts, it is ever difficult, if not at times impossible, to prevent such +a discrepancy, and those who framed ours, upon the whole, were wise in +not attempting to do so. As a tribute to the personal rights of man and +the security of private property, existing provisions go far to atone +for whatever of individual injustice they may occasion. The legislative +department has the power to indemnify those who suffer in this way and +invariably does so when they have acted in good faith. The losses thus +incurred by individuals, in the first instance, are in the end +transferred to the whole community, which is abundantly remunerated by +the benefits it derives from the system as a whole. Should a federal +organization ever obtain which shall attempt, through an abuse of its +power, to exert a dangerous influence over the Government, to an extent +and in a way to arrest the attention of the people, they will neither be +at a loss for a remedy nor fail in its adoption. + +But to extend the control of the judiciary, through their decisions "in +cases in law and equity," over the action of the other departments in +the discharge of the duties assigned to them, for the extent and gravity +of which we have only to look to the Constitution, and which, for the +most part, steer entirely clear of private and separate interests, would +be a measure of a very different character. It was upon these public +functionaries that the entire political power of the Federal Government +was intended to be conferred, and to the limited tenure by which they +held their offices and to their direct responsibility to the people that +the latter have always looked for the means to control their action. It +is upon this swift and certain responsibility they have hitherto relied +for their ability to bring the government back, without great delay, to +the republican track designed for it by the Constitution, whenever it +might be made to depart from it through, the infidelity of their +representatives. Truly says Mr. Jefferson, in one of his letters last +referred to, "when the legislative or executive functionaries act +unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective +capacity. The exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous +enough. I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society +but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough +to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not +to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This +is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." + +Nor have the people been slow to exert their powers to reform abuses +which they honestly, whether erroneously or not, believed to exist, by +displacing representatives whom they considered unfaithful, whenever the +occasion has seemed to them of sufficient magnitude to call for its +exercise. The commencement of the nineteenth century was made forever +memorable in our political annals by a display of this power, and it was +again exerted in 1828, in 1840, in 1844, and in 1852. The result of the +election of 1848 was altogether occasioned by divisions in the +Democratic party, and I feel that I venture nothing in attributing that +of 1840 mainly to a mistake in the public mind, which it has since +magnanimously acknowledged, and with that atonement I am more than +satisfied. + +But if the incumbents of the legislative and executive departments have +no right to decide for themselves constitutional questions that arise in +the performance of their official functions; if it be indeed true that +the National Legislature, in discharging the important duties of laying +and collecting taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; in borrowing money +on the credit of the United States; in regulating commerce with foreign +nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; in +establishing uniform rules of naturalization and on the subject of +bankruptcies; in coining money and regulating the value thereof, and of +foreign coins, and fixing the standard of weights and measures; in +providing punishment for counterfeiting the securities and current coin +of the United States; in establishing post-offices and post-roads; in +promoting science and useful arts; in constituting tribunals inferior to +the Supreme Court; in defining and punishing piracies and felonies +committed on the high seas and offences against the law of nations; in +declaring war; granting letters of marque and reprisal, and making rules +concerning captures on land and water; in raising and supporting armies; +in providing and maintaining a navy; in making rules for the government +and regulation of the land and naval forces; in providing for calling +forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress +insurrection and repel invasion; in providing for organizing armies and +disciplining the militia, and for governing such parts of them as may be +employed in the service of the United States; in the exercise of +exclusive jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever in the ten-mile-square +and in the forts of the United States; and in making necessary and +proper laws for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all +other powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United +States, or in _any department_ or officer thereof: and that the +President, in assuming command of the army or navy of the United States +and of the militia of the several States, when called into their +service; in making treaties by and with the advice of the Senate; and in +the appointment of all the officers of the United States, with limited +and specific exceptions, and in filling up all vacancies that may arise +during the recess of the Senate; in receiving ambassadors and other +public ministers; and in taking care that the laws be faithfully +executed,--are both bound to look to the decisions, of the Supreme +Court, "in cases of law and equity" that are brought before them, for +the character and extent of their powers under the Constitution, and to +be governed by them, what becomes of the distinguishing feature of +Republican Government--the responsibility of the representative to the +people for the faithful performance of his duties? A people so +intelligent, and withal so just as ours, would surely never think of +dismissing one branch of their public servants for acts in respect to +which they had placed them under the absolute guidance of another +branch. To single out one department from the rest by placing its +incumbent under a special oath to protect and preserve the Constitution, +and then to make it his duty to obey the directions of another in that +very function, absolutely and unconditionally, would, I cannot but +think, be going quite as far in that direction as the character of any +people for justice and wisdom could bear. + +To whom are the members of the Federal Judiciary responsible for the +truthfulness of their constitutional expositions and for the wisdom of +the steps they take to make them effectual? To no human being. They can +only be displaced by impeachment and criminal conviction. That mere +error of judgment, without positive proof of corruption, can never be +made the basis of such a proceeding, is known to all. Is it not, then, +most apparent that to place the fidelity to the Federal Constitution of +the representatives of the people and of the States and of most of the +effective officers employed in the conduct of public affairs, save only +those that are of a judicial character, under the supervision of that +department, is nothing less than to divest the Government of its +republican features and to substitute in its place the control of an +irresponsible judicial oligarchy--to make the Constitution a lie, and +turn to mockery its most formal provisions, designed to secure to the +people a control over the action of the Government under its authority? +Is it not remarkable that a doctrine, so clearly anti-republican in its +character and tendencies, should have been so long kept on foot under a +system so truly republican as ours, and may we not trace its origin to +the same inexhaustible fountain from whence have proceeded the most +tenacious of our party divisions--an inextinguishable distrust, on the +part of numerous and powerful classes, of the capacities and +dispositions of the great body of their fellow-citizens? + +The want of a proper respect for the people, as has been often said, was +Hamilton's great misfortune. If he could have felt otherwise, he would +have been a Republican. This distrust of the capacity and disposition of +the masses, which had been the bane of his life, retained its hold upon +his strong mind and ardent feelings when he bequeathed it to his +political disciples, and it has been the shibboleth of their tribe ever +since. In a large degree wealthy and proud of their social position, +their fear of the popular will, and desire to escape from popular +control, instead of being lessened, is increased by the advance of the +people in education and knowledge. Under no authority do they feel their +interests to be safer than under that which is subject to the judicial +power, and in no way could their policy be more effectually promoted +than by taking power from those departments of the Government over which +the people have full control, and accumulating it in that over which +they may fairly be said to have none. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Exceptional Countenance given by the Democratic Party to the + Federalist Doctrine of the Supremacy of the Judicial over the other + Departments on the Occasion of the Dred Scott Decision--Former + Acquiescence of the Country as to the Power of Congress over + Slavery in the Territories--That Power brought in question by + General Cass, in 1848--The Result a Rupture in the Democratic Party + and Defeat of Cass--The subsequent Election of Pierce--Repeal of + the Missouri Compromise--Dangers of that Step--The Kansas-Nebraska + Act--Opinions of the Judges in the Dred Scott Case how far + extra-Judicial--Probable Motives of the Chief Justice and his + Brethren--The Author's Recollections of Taney--The Motives of the + Judges Good, but their _obiter dicta_ a Mistake--The Course of + President Buchanan, with respect to the Dred Scott Decision, an + Abandonment of the Democratic Principle of the Independence of each + of the three great Departments in deciding Constitutional + Questions--Subsequent Action of the Democratic Party on this + Subject--Importance of returning to original Doctrines of the + Party. + + +If this essay shall be ever published, the censures I have bestowed upon +the old Federal party and its successors for their persevering efforts +to destroy the balances of the Constitution, in this respect of the +relative powers of the departments, will doubtless be met by those who +still sympathize with its opinions, by a reference to the proceedings in +the case of Dred Scott. Of this no one will have a right to complain, so +long as those who so refer confine themselves to facts; for truth is +truth, whatever may be the circumstances under which it is applied, and +wrong is wrong, by whomsoever it may be committed and by whatever party +it may be sustained. It will be alleged that the Supreme Court, now +composed of gentlemen who are acknowledged members of the Democratic +party, has in that case set up the right to guide the official action +of the executive and legislative departments of the Government upon a +great constitutional question,--that the Executive has recognized that +right, and has promised to conform his own course to it when exercised, +and that these proceedings have received the approbation and support of +the Democratic party. + +In the notice I propose to take of that case, it is not my intention to +discuss the correctness or incorrectness of the decision that was made +in respect to the power of Congress to legislate upon the subject of +slavery in the Territories. I will however state in advance and in few +words the view I now take of the general subject. + +The acquiescence of the country in the power of Congress referred to, +from the Presidency of Washington to that of Polk inclusive, is well +known. Every President signed bills for carrying it into effect, when +any such became necessary and were presented for their approval, and the +other great departments of the Government not only complied with the +rule but, in innumerable instances, recognized its validity. This +continued until the year 1848, when a point, which had so long been +considered settled, was brought in question by an opinion expressed by +General Cass, then being a candidate for the Presidency, in a letter to +Mr. Nicholson, of Tennessee, adverse to the powers of Congress. The +Democratic party, whose candidate he was, adopted his opinions, and the +consequences were a rupture in that party, the elevation of an +old-school Federalist to the Presidency, and an administration of the +Federal Government upon the long exploded principles of Federalism. In +1852 the Democracy of the Union, instructed by experience in regard to +the destructive tendency of slavery agitations, resolved to avoid them +in future, united on General Pierce as their candidate, supported him +on their old and time-honored principles, and elected him by a +triumphant majority. + +This result, so auspicious to the country, was unhappily followed by the +repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and a consequent reopening of the +agitation upon the subject of slavery, in a form and under influences +more portentous of evil than any which had before attended it. + +I received information of that event whilst I was abroad, a +sojourner in a country which was under the dominion of an absolute +monarch,--circumstances which never fail to increase the attachment of a +true-hearted American, however orthodox he may have been before in his +devotion, to home and its inestimable institutions. Although forever +withdrawn from public life, I could not be indifferent to a measure +promising such startling consequences. Having had full opportunities to +become acquainted with the evil which the infusion of slavery agitation +into the partisan feelings of the country was capable of producing, I +felt, in all their force, the dangers to which our political fabric +would be exposed by that act, and mourned over its adoption. Whatever +may be thought or said of it in other respects, in regard to its +influence in exciting sectional animosities to a far more perilous +height than they had ever reached before there is not now room for two +opinions. + +Under the feelings of the moment, I naturally extended to the substitute +Congress had provided, the odium which, in my view, belonged to the act +of repeal, and could see no adequate relief save in a restoration of the +Compromise. But as passion subsided I became convinced of the +impracticability of that step, and turned my attention to a more careful +consideration of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and I became satisfied that, +if honestly executed, it was all that could, under existing +circumstances, be done, or, perhaps, desired. Having been a second time +invited by my old political friends of Tammany Hall, before the +Presidential election of 1856, to submit my views upon the then state of +the question, I gave them in a letter which presented the whole subject +in a form and was written in a spirit which many thought well calculated +to make favorable impressions on well-intentioned and sober-minded men. +It contained a simple and truthful description of the position I had +before occupied upon the slavery subject, an exposition of the reasons +by which I was yet satisfied that it had been well taken, and of the +ground of my expectation that Mr. Buchanan would do all in his power to +cause the Kansas-Nebraska Act to be carried into full and fair effect. + +I have read all the opinions given by the judges in the Dred Scott case +with care, and will state the impressions which they have made upon my +mind. I had never examined the question, and learned, with serious +misgivings as to its correctness, that the court had decided that a man +of African birth, though free and, in the State in which he resided, +entitled to all the rights of a citizen, was not also a citizen of the +United States. My mind remained in this state, with partial alleviations +of my anxiety, derived from newspaper sketches of the subject referring +to instances in which the principle had been acted upon in the +administration of public affairs, until I read very deliberately the +voluminous opinions of the judges. The able, judgelike, and I may add, +statesmanlike, views taken by Chief Justice Taney and by Justice Daniel, +of that branch of the subject, have satisfied me that the judgment of +the court upon it was right. I am now convinced that the sense in which +the word "citizen" was used by those who framed and ratified the Federal +Constitution was not intended to embrace the African race, whose +ancestors were brought to this country and sold in slavery. I shall +content myself with stating the result of my reflections, without going +into details, as that would be to re-argue the question, which would be +foreign to my present object. I do not say that the subject is free from +difficulties. No adverse opinion could pass through the ordeal of so +subtle and masterly an argument as that of Justice Curtis, who bestowed +more attention upon the point than his dissenting brother, and escape +unscathed. + +The weight of facts and argument is, notwithstanding, in my judgment, on +the side of the decision of the court. + +A decision in favor of a free black man's right to institute a suit in +the Federal court, on the grounds of citizenship and his residence in a +different State from the defendant, would undoubtedly establish his +right under the Constitution to the enjoyment in a slave State of all +the privileges allowed to its own citizens. The extent to which such a +construction and the practical operation of the rights which might be +claimed under it would increase the difficulties, already so great, of +maintaining the unity and harmonious action of the Federal system, will +be more and more apparent the deeper the matter is considered. I think +it is quite certain that if the Constitution had been supposed to +contain a provision legitimately authorizing such consequences, it would +not have been agreed to by the slaveholding States, nor, in view of the +liberal spirit evinced even by the latter at the time of the formation +of the Constitution in regard to the extension of slavery, would such a +provision have been insisted upon by their brethren of the States which +had the happiness to be comparatively free from the institution. The +decision must, therefore, be regarded as fortunate, as I cannot but hold +it to be correct. For though the personal rights of individuals, however +humble their position in society, are not the less important and their +protection no less the duty of government, yet the great community may +felicitate itself that claims like these,--the practical enjoyment of +which, while of little value, relatively, to the few who assert them, +may endanger the peace and welfare of millions,--are extinguished +through the agency of the organ of the Government constituted for their +adjustment. It is in such cases, when confined to its necessary and +legitimate duties, that the salutary influence of that high tribunal is +felt by all. + +The plaintiff, Dred Scott, alleged in his declaration--as he was bound +to allege to give the Circuit Court jurisdiction of the cause--that he +was a citizen of Missouri. Sandford, the defendant, plead to the +jurisdiction and alleged for cause of abatement that Scott was not a +citizen of Missouri as averred in his declaration, "_because_ he is a +negro of African descent; his _ancestors were of pure African blood and +were brought into this country and sold as negro slaves_." To this plea +there was a demurrer by which the facts set forth in the plea were +admitted, and upon the issue in law thus joined the Circuit Court gave +judgment that the demurrer be sustained. The plea, it will be perceived, +did not aver that Scott was a slave, or state any fact from which the +inference that he was such unavoidably resulted. The plaintiff was, +therefore, to be regarded in the decision upon the demurrer as a free +man, and was so regarded by the Circuit Court and by the Supreme +Court.[37] The effect of the final decision, assuming it to have been +the opinion of the court, was that the judgment of the Circuit Court +upon the demurrer be reversed, and a mandate issued directing the suit +to be dismissed from that court for want of jurisdiction. This disposed +of every question in the case that entered into, or could exert the +slightest influence upon the personal rights of the parties or the +ultimate judgment of the Supreme Court. Judge Daniel in his +opinion--inferior to none that were delivered--admitted this in so many +words: "According to the view taken of the case as applicable to the +demurrer to the plea in abatement in this cause," (said he,) "the +question subsequently raised upon the several pleas in bar _might be +passed by, as requiring neither a particular examination nor an +adjudication directly upon them_." This was, beyond all doubt, the true +condition of the case. Every other question bore upon one point only, +and that was, whether Scott had become a free man,--a question not put +in issue by the plea in abatement, and according to the opinion of the +court of no real consequence in the decision of the cause. + + [37] The opinion of the Supreme Court is thus summed up by the Chief + Justice: "And upon a full and careful consideration of the subject + _the court_ is of opinion _that upon the facts stated in the plea in + abatement_ Dred Scott was not a citizen of Missouri within the + meaning of the Constitution of the United States, and not entitled + as such to sue in its courts; and consequently that the Circuit + Court had no jurisdiction of the cause and that the judgment on the + plea in abatement is erroneous." + +The result would, therefore, seem to be that every thing subsequently +said and done by the court was extrajudicial--_obiter dicta_ decisions, +which, not affecting the merits of the case, are of no authority. But +the court, anticipating such an objection, made very considerable +efforts, in advance, to repel and disprove it. Both the Chief Justice +and Judge Wayne insisted earnestly on the circumstance that this was a +writ of error to the Circuit Court and not to a State court; that the +question did not relate to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, but of +its own inferior court, and that in such cases it was the practice and +the duty of the Supreme Bench to take a wider range in the correction of +errors than when the case came up from the State courts, and the +question was whether the Supreme Court had a right to act in the matter. +In the latter case they admitted that the judges ought to stop the +moment they found that none existed, and if they did not, all beyond was +extrajudicial. They urged that the general judgment in favor of the +defendant, in a case in which the Circuit Court had no jurisdiction, was +an error apparent on the record which it was proper in the Supreme Court +to correct by a reversal of that judgment, and that for this purpose it +became necessary to decide the issue presented by the special plea which +involved the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise Act; and, +finally, that the case was one which the court had not sought, but which +had been brought before it in the regular course of judicial +proceedings; that the issues it involved were those which the parties +had presented for the decision of the court, and that it was its duty to +dispose of them. + +That the court had neither sought the case nor exerted any agency in +framing the issues it presented was undeniably true, and the reasons +assigned in justification of its course are certainly entitled to great +respect. How far their strength is impaired by the following +considerations, those who have sufficient curiosity to study the case +will judge for themselves. That the parties, at the commencement of the +proceedings in the Supreme Court, were both desirous to have the issue +joined upon the merits examined and decided upon by that court, is very +evident, but it is questionable whether the wishes and interests of both +were not superseded by its action. The plaintiff secure, as he supposed, +by the stand he had acquired in the Circuit Court through the decision +of that tribunal upon the demurrer in his favor, was of course +solicitous to reverse the judgment which had been given by that court in +favor of the defendant upon the merits. The defendant had two objects in +view,--the first of which was to reverse the judgment upon the demurrer, +and, if he failed in that, to sustain the judgment in his favor upon the +merits. On the argument of the cause it was made a grave question +whether the point raised by the plea to the jurisdiction was legally +before the Supreme Court,--a question of no small difficulty and one in +regard to which there was a diversity of opinion to the last, even among +the judges who were in favor of the decision of the court. It was +contended by the plaintiff in error that the defendant had conceded the +jurisdiction of the Circuit Court by pleading over, and that he had not +brought his writ of error to reverse his own judgment. But the Supreme +Court overruled these objections, reversed the judgment in his favor, +and directed the suit to be dismissed from the Circuit Court for the +want of jurisdiction. By this decision, which the plaintiff could not +foresee, and was not bound to anticipate, all his interest in a decision +upon the merits was of course superseded. The defendant having succeeded +in driving the plaintiff out of the court below, could have no possible +desire that the judgment rendered in _his own favor_ should be reversed; +affirmed it could not be on account of the want of jurisdiction in the +Circuit Court. His application to the Supreme Court to have that point +of the case acted upon was therefore superseded by its own act. Such +anomalous proceedings, as an elaborate opinion in favor of all the +claims set up by a party terminating with the reversal of a judgment in +his favor, are happily of rare occurrence in judicial tribunals so able +and elevated as ours. It is perhaps questionable whether the judgments +for the defendant in the court below did not fall with the dismissal of +the cause from before the Circuit Court for want of jurisdiction, +without farther interference on the part of the Supreme Court. Still in +a case involving so many and such extraordinary complications, the +latter might well feel itself at liberty to decide also the questions +that were raised and had been very fully discussed before it upon the +merits of the cause. But on what grounds it could regard such a course +as obligatory and necessary to the complete administration of justice +between the parties litigant before it, I cannot see, and I find it +difficult to believe that the members of the court would have given +themselves the trouble to prepare such elaborate opinions upon questions +the decision of which was not necessary to the judgment of the court, if +their solution could have had no other bearing than upon the personal +rights of Dred Scott. I think it more likely that the judges who united +in the opinion that the Missouri Compromise Act was unconstitutional, +seeing the extraordinary revolution which its repeal had produced in the +political and fraternal feelings of the people of the United States, and +sincerely believing the safety of the Union endangered by continued +agitation upon so disturbing a subject, hoped to arrest it by the +judgment of the Supreme Court upon the point in question,--a step which, +if not actually called for, they yet believed fully justified by the +case before them. + +Chief Justice Taney, who, by his superior intellect and elevation of +character, was enabled to give to such a movement its greatest impulse, +was not exempt from an original bias in favor of the doctrine advanced +by Mr. Webster in the discussions upon the Bank Veto, when the latter +declared,--"Hitherto it has been _thought_ that the final decision of +constitutional questions belonged to the supreme judicial tribunal. The +very nature of free government, it has been _supposed_, enjoins this; +and our Constitution, moreover, has been _understood_ so to provide +clearly and expressly."[38] The peculiarity of these expressions +challenges our attention in passing. The guarded and sly manner in which +they put forth the doctrines of the old Federal party, without assuming +the responsibility of affirming them, is in their author's best manner. + + [38] The italics are mine. + +Nor did the Chief Justice stand alone in that position among his +judicial brethren. He had occupied a distinguished place in the Federal +ranks to an advanced period in his professional life; he had acquired an +enviable fame at the Bar, and had left it, as most old lawyers do, with +feelings of admiration and respect not only for his professional +brethren but for the Bench, in the influence and power of which they +seldom fail to take the deepest interest. It was hardly to be expected +that he should, on taking his seat, have proved insensible to the +_esprit du corps_ which had long prevailed in and around that high +tribunal, and which, directed by the plastic hand of John Marshall, had +charmed minds as strong as his own, even although professing opposite +political principles. Story and Thompson, who had been stars of +considerable magnitude in the old Republican party, were in succession +subdued by Marshall's magnetic influence to conditions in this regard +favorable to the acceptance of almost any extension of the doctrine of +the supremacy of the Supreme Court. + +Although the master-mind which gave it life and by which it was +installed has departed, the proceedings now the subject of our review +give us abundant reason to apprehend that the spirit has retained its +place and power. In respect to many hardly contested issues brought +before the Court, occurring vacancies and new appointments have +doubtless worked important changes in its opinions; but on that of the +supremacy of the judicial over the other departments of the Government +in constitutional questions, there are yet, it is to be feared, few +dissentients on the Bench, and least of all on the question from which +opposition to the decision in the Dred Scott case proceeded. That +decision was therefore pronounced under the full persuasion that, in +addition to its quieting effect upon the public mind, it, of right, +ought to have a controlling influence over the action of the other +departments of the Government; that it ought to influence the action of +Congress in particular, and that, if an attempt should be made to revive +the condemned act, it would guide the course of the Executive. Judge +Daniel, in the modest, hesitating terms in which he expressed his +concurrence in the farther proceedings, which he admitted to be +unnecessary, seems to have thought it due to the political school in +which he had been reared to put some qualification upon the power of the +court to settle the conflicting views upon the subject that prevailed +out of doors and might find place in the other departments of the +Government. But my worthy friend, Judge Wayne, had no such reserve. He +thought that the case, in addition to private rights of great value, +involved "constitutional principles of the highest importance, about +which there had become such a difference of opinion that the peace and +harmony of the country required the settlement of them by judicial +decision." + +The Chief Justice was too circumspect not to content himself with +action, and not to avoid expressions open to unfavorable criticism. I +cannot suffer the allusions I have made to circumstances in the previous +career of this excellent man to pass without a disclaimer of the +slightest intention to impeach his motives in any thing. I have known +him long and well. We stood shoulder to shoulder by the side of General +Jackson at the most eventful period of his second term of office, and +did all we could do to sustain him by our coöperation and advice. I do +not know that we differed on any point; and I do know that there could +not have been a more upright and vigilant public officer than he was; +nor could any man have had a more faithful or a more efficient friend +than he proved to that noble old man. I witnessed from beginning to end +the virulent and violent persecutions he experienced at the hands of his +old Federal and Whig friends, and was deeply affected by the steady, +self-possessed and manly spirit with which he endured them. This +impressed me with a respect for his character and a personal attachment +which no after-occurrence has weakened. He was my choice as the +candidate of the Democratic party for the Presidency in 1852, and there +has been no time since at which I would not have rejoiced to see him at +the head of the Government. I would have expected to find in him some +defects, which being bred in the bone would come out in the flesh, but +that never was with me, as was known to my familiar associates in +political life, an objection to the elevation to office of gentlemen +whose political _status_ was similar to his own. I took them _cum +onere_, and sometimes, though certainly not always, gained by the +experiment. He was a man of innate as well as cultivated integrity in +sentiment and action, and the longer we live the higher value we learn +to place on this quality in a public man. Conscious of the importance of +sincerity and truthfulness in all the movements of Government, whose +office it is to enforce the observance of moral obligation, men of this +character can never be induced to countenance public measures unless +they are not only pure in themselves, but supported by pure means. Such +a man was Roger B. Taney, and such men I never suspect of unworthy +motives in any thing they say or do. Neither have I the slightest doubt +of the good intentions by which his associates on the bench were +influenced in the proceedings of which I am speaking. Yet I cannot but +think that in going beyond the necessities of the case they made a +grievous mistake. The question, which the court undertook to settle, was +political, and had assumed a partisan character of great virulence. +There are two classes in every community whose interference in politics +is always and very naturally distasteful to sincere republicans, and +those are judges and clergymen. Their want of sympathy, as a general +rule, for popular rights, is known throughout the world, and in this +country that repugnance received an enduring impulse from the unanimity +with which a vast majority of both classes banded themselves on the side +of power, in the stormy time of the first Adams, and from the bitterness +with which they railed from the bench and the pulpit at the +public-spirited and patriotic men, who sought to relieve the country +from misrule. Both were again called to the political field, though on +different sides, during our recent troubles; yet the circumstance that +the judges took part with a majority of those who constituted the +Democratic party of the United States was not sufficient to neutralize +the dislike to their interference in politics which was seated in the +Democratic mind. To add a deeper shade to this trespass upon the +time-honored creed of the Democratic party, the anti-Democratic doctrine +was conveyed to the public in a form professing to be a necessary +adjudication in the regular course of the administration of justice, +whilst it is, to a considerable extent at least, exposed to the +imputation of having in truth been an extrajudicial opinion, voluntarily +and not necessarily delivered,--a mode of bringing before the country +the opinions of the supreme bench, formerly much in use, but which, +since the case of Marbury and Madison, has been peculiarly repulsive to +Democrats, and which Mr. Jefferson spent much time in holding up to +odium. + +To do full justice to Mr. Buchanan in respect to the extent to which +this action of the Supreme Court received his sanction, it becomes +necessary to state with more precision than might otherwise be deemed +requisite, in connection with admitted facts, his avowals on the +subject, which are contained in his inaugural address. + +The Kansas-Nebraska Act was designed to settle, as far as an act of +Congress could do so, two points, viz.--1st, that Congress possessed no +power to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the Territories, and +therefore it repealed the Missouri Compromise Act; and 2d, that it +belongs to the majority of the people of the Territory to decide whether +slavery shall or shall not exist within its bounds. + +President Buchanan treated every point which the Kansas Act professed to +settle as removed from the scope of partisan warfare, and congratulated +the country on the happy conception through which the Congress had +accomplished results so desirable. + +That body recognized in the fullest manner the power and the right of a +majority of the people of Kansas to decide upon their domestic +institutions, including the subject of slavery, but was silent as to the +period when that right should be exercised. That was, therefore, left an +open question, and the President expressed his views in regard to it in +the following words: "A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to +the time when the people of a Territory shall decide this question for +themselves. This is happily a matter of little practical importance, and +besides it is a judicial question, which legitimately belongs to the +Supreme Court of the United States, before whom it is now pending, and +will, it is understood, be speedily and finally settled. To their +decision, in common with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit, +whatever this may be, though it has been my individual opinion," etc. + +It is not necessary for the purpose of this reference to inquire either +how far that question was decided by the Supreme Court, in the case +referred to, or whether the President does justice to its importance. In +respect to the latter point it is well known that a contrary opinion is +extensively entertained. It will not be denied that the case he speaks +of was that of Dred Scott, and that the questions to be decided in it +related only to the personal rights and interests of the parties to the +suit. It is in the settlement of such only that the Supreme Court could +exercise jurisdiction upon such a subject, and all will admit that if it +belongs to a Territory to determine the question of the toleration of +slavery there, the occasion of the formation of its State constitution +will be a proper time for the settlement of that question, if a majority +consent that the decision shall be so long deferred. The question in +regard to the true time can, therefore, only arise, when a majority wish +to act upon the subject at an earlier period. If such an attempt be +made, the most extreme advocates for judicial supremacy would not +pretend that it would be competent for the Supreme Court to arrest the +proceedings by injunction or writ of prohibition, or any other process. +It could, therefore, only be in cases involving individual interests, +which might be supposed to be affected by such a proceeding on the part +of the Territory, that the judicial tribunals could interfere, and it +was to such a case that the President was understood to refer. It was of +an expected decision of the court in a case in law, brought for the +settlement of private rights, that the President spoke, when he said +that, though he had an opinion of his own, he would, notwithstanding, +submit to the decision of the court upon the point, whatever that might +be. By this declaration he announced to his constituents that in the +exercise of the executive power upon the subject, whenever that might +become necessary, he would take notice of the decision of the Supreme +Court in the case he referred to as then pending, and would feel it to +be his duty to maintain the rule it should lay down in respect to the +particular question of which he spoke, and _a fortiori_ in respect to +the main question, the right of the Territory to act upon the matter, +and that he would do so because the court had so decided without +reference to his individual opinion in the premises--the consequence of +which would be, that if his official sanction or coöperation should +become necessary to a settlement of the question of slavery by the +people of the Territory, he would give it if the people had acted +conformably to the rule prescribed by the court, or withhold it if they +had acted contrary thereto; and that if Congress should undertake to +legislate upon any part of the subject against the decision of the +Supreme Court, in respect to its constitutional powers, he would +withhold his assent from any bill of that character which the two houses +might pass. + +It is our duty, and must be our aim, to interpret the language employed +by the President according to what we, in good faith, believe to have +been his intention. Attempts to pervert the sense of what is said by a +man placed in his situation and acting under his grave responsibilities, +would not injure him, and could not fail to recoil upon their author. +If, dealing with his avowals in that spirit, we are yet bound to believe +that the declaration which I have described is the legitimate +interpretation and effect of his language, it is not only our right but +our duty to speak of it as we conscientiously think it deserves. It can +be scarcely necessary to say that those who regard the Republican +principles of government applicable to the question before us, as they +have been set forth in this work, as the true and only principles of the +Constitution, must either abandon the tenets of their predecessors and +their own convictions, or treat the declaration of Mr. Buchanan as a +voluntary and seemingly a ready sacrifice of a most cherished principle +of the Democratic faith--the reciprocal independence of the great +departments of government; a principle the importance of which was +apparent to and insisted on by the friends of liberty long before the +establishment of our independence, and for the practical enforcement of +which the American Revolution was regarded as presenting the best +opportunity ever offered. For the security of this principle the fathers +of our political school made the greatest efforts, and the invasion of +it was met by Mr. Jefferson, at the commencement of his administration, +with characteristic firmness, and was the subject of his anxious +watchfulness during the closing scenes of his life. + +The recent action of the Democratic party upon this subject must be +considered with many grains of allowance. The long-continued support of +a majority of the people,--the only test of political merit in a +Republic,--has secured a preference for its principles of which it may +well be proud; and the general fidelity of its members to the faith they +profess is creditably illustrated by the fact that after all the changes +to which its organization has been exposed, its ranks, whatever may be +the case as to some of its leaders, are mainly composed of men with like +dispositions with those by whom that organization was effected; yet its +best friends set up in its behalf no claim to infallibility, nor do they +pretend that its members have never failed in their duty to the cause. +They know that men do not escape from their liability to err by uniting +with a political association. Circumstances of the gravest character +have besides put the adherence of its members to the principles of their +party, in the matter under consideration, to a severer test than any to +which they have hitherto been exposed. For the first time since its +ascent to power in the Federal Government, two of the three great +departments, the Executive and the Judicial, are presided over by +gentlemen who, though raised to their places by its favor, had not been +bred in its ranks but joined them at comparatively advanced periods in +their lives, with opinions formed and matured in an antagonist school. +The motives by which these gentlemen were led to enlist under the +Democratic banner were, beyond question, of the purest character, and +the high position to which they have been raised by their new friends +shows that they were appreciated as they deserved. Most of the +principles and opinions they formed in the ranks of the adversary have +doubtless been changed, and ours adopted in their stead, but, +unfortunately, that which is the subject of our present remark appears +not to have been among the number. + +Several of the members of the President's cabinet and of the bench of +the Supreme Court, perhaps a majority of each, stand in the same +category. In Congress the state of things is not materially different; +when we look at the gentlemen who have been most prominent in the Kansas +embroilment, on the side of the administration, we find an unprecedented +number of the same class. It is most proper to avoid referring +unnecessarily to names in a work of this character, especially when such +reference is not for particular commendation, but the innocence of the +motive in this case will excuse a slight departure from the rule. Among +the most prominent of those who have taken the lead on the Democratic +side in the two houses of Congress in respect to the affairs of Kansas, +will be found the names of Toombs, of the Senate, and Stephens, of the +House--both from Georgia, and both, for aught I know or have ever known, +honorable men, doubtless actuated by good motives. I know neither +personally, and never heard of either particularly, save as extreme +partisans in the ranks of our opponents. I will not vouch for precise +accuracy as to dates, but I am persuaded I will not err materially in +saying that neither professed to belong to the Democratic party until +after their appointment and election to their present posts. All of +these gentlemen not merely believe, as it is very natural that they +should, in this supremacy of the judicial power in such matters,--an +idea always heretofore scouted by the Democracy of the land,--but they +maintain it before the country, under circumstances rendered very +imposing by their high official positions, as a test of party fidelity. +The Executive, whose elevation to power cost the Democracy so fearful a +struggle, and from whose success so much was and still is expected, has +done this clearly and undisguisedly in respect to the support of +Lecompton, and virtually in respect to the question of judicial +supremacy. Mr. Stephens offered a resolution declaring the support of +the Lecompton Act, a measure closely interwoven with the principle of +which we are speaking, as a test question in the Democratic caucus over +which presided Mr. Cochran,--a promising young man from New York, +descended from a family as thoroughly imbued with Hamiltonian Federalism +as any this State has produced (one of them Hamilton's brother-in-law), +brought up till he arrived at man's estate among the straightest of the +sect, and on that account entitled to greater credit for throwing +himself with becoming zeal into the Democratic ranks, but for the same +reason less likely to embrace their creed in its full extent, and less +qualified to instruct them in the principles of their faith. + +But there is an obstacle to an adherence on the part of the Democratic +party to their ancient faith, in respect to these proceedings of the +court, far more potent than those to which I have referred. This arises +from the circumstance that those proceedings had their origin mainly in +a sincere belief that they were necessary to protect a paramount and +absorbing interest in nearly half the States of the Confederacy, with +the security and quiet of which the citizens of those States believe +their happiness and welfare to be inseparably involved. These are also +the States in which the Democratic party possesses comparatively its +greatest influence, and in some of which the true principles of the +Constitution have in general, and especially at earlier periods in our +history, been sought after with great avidity, and in which that under +consideration found its earliest, ablest, and most persevering +supporters. I need not speak of the control which this belief is capable +of exerting over most of those who are by their position brought within +the range of its practical operation. Minds thus excited find no +insuperable difficulty in placing the object of their solicitude upon +the footing of the _salus populi_, or in looking upon any measure that +tends to its security as justifiable, because it is in execution of the +_suprema lex_. Before such a feeling, so widely diffused, constitutional +objections and all the principles which on ordinary occasions bind the +consciences and influence the actions of men, are seldom, if ever, of +much avail. + +Neither will full justice have been done to the subject, notwithstanding +this formidable array of hindrances in the path of duty, if I omit to +refer to the inducement, always so strong with political parties, to +avail themselves of every opportunity that presents or seems to present +itself to "_commend the poisoned chalice_" to the lips of their +opponents--a temptation they find it hard to resist, however much their +own hands or consciences may have to be soiled in the operation. Few of +the present generation who have made themselves at all conversant with +the course of public affairs, need to be told how constant and openly +professed has been the faith of the old Federalists and their political +successors in the infallibility and omnipotence of the decisions of the +Supreme Court of the United States upon constitutional questions. The +complaints of the old Republicans and their successors upon that head +have been both loud and long continued. When they made the country ring +with them in respect to the unconstitutionality and tyrannical character +of the Alien and Sedition Laws, the ready and only reply of their +opponents was, that it belonged to the judicial power to decide upon +their constitutionality, and that their expediency was a matter to be +solved in the breast of Congress. In more modern times, when its +unconstitutionality was objected to the second Bank of the United +States, the decision of the Supreme Court in favor of the power of +Congress to establish it was the equally ready and confident answer to +all complaints on that ground. Other and similar instances might be +referred to, but it is unnecessary. For the first time since the +formation of the present Government the supreme bench, considerably +changed in the political complexion of its members and tempted, +doubtless more or less under the pressure of an all-absorbing popular +influence at the South, to borrow a leaf from the book of our political +opponents, has undertaken to control, adversely to the views of those +opponents, a great political question by an extrajudicial decision of +the court. As one of the consequences, a hue and cry has been raised +against that august tribunal, hitherto revered by them as the only +political sanctuary; trusted as the ark of safety;--a clamor reaching to +a demand for the reorganization of the court itself;--a point never even +approached by the Democracy when their displeasure has been raised to +the greatest height by its unauthorized assumptions of political power. +It is not then surprising that portions of the Democratic party should +have been led to give the qualified assent which they have given to the +Federal principle under consideration. I say qualified, for the guarded +manner in which those who so assent have urged the influence which the +decision of the court ought to have upon the question, must have been +apparent to all; and this has been very much to their credit, +especially in the slaveholding States. The references which have been +made to the doings of the judiciary, in most instances, have savored +more of what is known in the law as a _plea of estoppel_ than of a claim +of right,--a plea by which the truth or falsity of any matter brought +forward by one party is waived, and its admission resisted on the ground +that the party relying upon it has precluded himself from introducing it +by some act or concession appearing upon the record, or established +_aliunde_. If the doctrine of estoppel could be applied to politicians, +it would certainly not be difficult to show that the Federal party and +its successors are very clearly estopped from objecting to the action of +the Supreme Court of which we have been speaking. + +It may, under such circumstances, be safely assumed that the Democratic +party has not committed itself to a departure from its professed +principles upon this subject to an extent which it cannot be relieved +from without a sacrifice of self-respect on the part of its members, or +without serious prejudice to its well-earned title to the confidence of +the country. That it will so relieve itself its past good sense and +active patriotism forbid us to doubt. Let us hope that the protecting +care of a kind Providence, which has hitherto carried our country in +safety through so many perils, will in His own good time afford us a +breathing spell at least, from the baleful excitements attendant upon +slavery agitation. When that happy period arrives ... besides the +incalculable advantage it will bring to the highest interests of all +parties and all sections of our country, the Democrats in the +slaveholding States will not fail to see the folly of asking their +political coadjutors in the free States to coöperate in the support of +measures and principles in sustaining which they cannot be sustained at +home. The hair-breadth escape of their common party from destruction at +the last Presidential election, and the deplorable condition to which +the Democratic party has been reduced in the non-slaveholding States, by +a past disregard of that consideration, will then be allowed their +proper admonitory effect. All will then acknowledge that in the steps +which have recently been taken, having their origin in the same bitter +and deplorable source, the Democratic party, always before the able and +zealous defender of the Constitution against similar inroads, had +entered upon a path which leads directly and inevitably to a revolution +of the Government in the most important of its functions--a revolution +which would in time substitute for the present healthful and beneficial +action of public opinion the selfish and contracted rule of a judicial +oligarchy, which, sympathizing in feeling and acting in concert with the +money power, would assuredly subvert the best features of a political +system that needs only to be honestly administered to enable it to +realize those anticipations of our country's greatness which now warm +the hearts and animate the patriotism and nerve the arms of her faithful +sons. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Effects of our Leading Party Conflicts in the Light of Seventy + Years' Experience--Contest as to the Relative Powers of the State + and General Governments--Merits and Faults of the Parties to that + Contest--The Credit of settling the Struggle upon right Grounds due + to Jefferson's Administration--Attempt of the Federalists to give + undue Supremacy to the Judicial Department and Failure of that + Attempt--Hamilton's Funding System--History of its Establishment, + Continuance, and Overthrow--The National Bank Struggle--The + Protective System--Clay's American System--Internal Improvements by + the General Government--Overthrow of these Measures the beneficent + Work of the Democratic Party--No such Contributions to the Public + Welfare made by the Opponents of that Party--The Debt of Gratitude + due from the Country to Madison, to Jackson, and especially to + Jefferson. + + +It will not be deemed inappropriate to close this review of the rise and +progress of our political parties, and of the principles upon which they +have acted, with a fuller notice of the advantages and disadvantages +which have resulted to the country from their conflicting acts and +pretensions during an experience of more than seventy years. In deciding +the character of parties by their works we will but follow the dictates +of unerring wisdom, by which we are taught to judge the tree by its +fruit. + +A great question, and naturally the first that arose in the formation of +our political system, related to the power that should be reserved to, +and the treatment that should be extended towards, the State +governments. Rivalries between them and the Federal head could not be +prevented. To mitigate the evil by dealing justly and wisely with the +State authorities, was all that could be done. Each of the great +parties which have divided the country had, from the beginning, its own, +and they were conflicting opinions, in respect to the spirit in which +this important subject should be dealt with. These, and the acts and +sayings they gave rise to, have been herein freely spoken of, and what +has been said need not be repeated. The facts and circumstances brought +into view, consisting in a considerable degree of the reiterated +declarations of the parties themselves, with a mass of others supplied +by contemporaneous history, fully justify the belief that if Hamilton +and Morris, and the influential men of the party of which the former was +through life the almost absolute leader, could have had their way, the +State governments would have been reduced to conditions in regard to +power and dignity which would not only have destroyed their usefulness, +but from which they must have sunk into insignificance and contempt; to +which state it was the avowed wish of those leaders to depress them. +This desire was frustrated in the Federal Convention, not so much +through favorable feeling towards the State authorities as by a +conviction on the part of a majority--a conviction which could neither +be disguised nor suppressed--that the old Anti-Federal party would be +sufficiently strengthened by a plan of the Constitution, against which a +design clearly hostile to the State governments could be fairly charged, +to enable that party to prevent its ratification. John Quincy Adams, to +his declaration that the "Constitution was extorted from the grinding +necessity of a reluctant nation," might have added, with equal truth, +that the Constitution, in the form it bore on this point, was extorted +from the Convention by a necessity not less effectual. Hamilton's design +to attain the object he had failed to accomplish in the Convention, by +"_administrating_" the Constitution, in the language of Madison, into a +thing very different from what they both knew it was intended to be, +was defeated by the old Republican party. + +The lowest point to which the State governments would have been reduced, +if the influence that was exerted to lessen their power had not been +defeated in the way I have described, must of necessity be matter of +speculation only. Hamilton, as we have seen, declared candidly that he +knew of no reason why he did not advocate their total overthrow other +than the manifest strong desire of the people for their retention; +whilst Morris, with equal openness, said that if they could not abolish +them altogether, it was nevertheless desirable to pull the teeth of the +serpents. + +There can be but little doubt that a complete triumph of the Federal +policy would have resulted in a decline of the State governments, if +they escaped extinguishment, from the condition which they occupied at +the period of the recognition of our Independence to mere municipal +authorities, without sufficient power to render them extensively +useful--fit theatres only for the exercise and enjoyment of the +patronage of the Federal government. + +The Anti-Federalists, like their opponents, could only look with favor +on one side of this great question. I do not complain of their +partiality for the State governments, for it was in them a natural and +inherited feeling, one which had been cherished with equal ardor from a +remote period in our history by men whose places they filled and whom +they most resembled. Their fault was the exclusiveness of their +preference. They could not and did not deny that a general government of +some sort was indispensable, and they should therefore have stood ready +to confer upon it such powers as were necessary to enable it to sustain +itself and to qualify it for the successful performance of the duties to +be assigned to it. This they would not do. They, on the contrary, +allowed their local prejudices and their suspicious, in some instances +well founded but unwisely indulged, to lead them to persistent refusals +to concede to the Federal head means which a sufficient experience had +shown to be absolutely necessary to good government. Public and private +interests suffered from that cause, and they were justly held +responsible for the consequences. Their conduct was as unjustifiable and +as suicidal as was the unmitigated warfare waged by leading Federalists +against the State governments; and no political course adopted by public +men or political parties, of which it could be said that it was +intentionally wrong, has hitherto, to their honor be it spoken, long +escaped rebuke from the American people. + +The Anti-Federal party by their pertinacious, nay morbid perseverance in +a wrong course, exposed themselves to the same penalty which was at a +later period inflicted upon their old opponents--as a party they were +overthrown and ruined. + +The merit of discouraging and finally extinguishing this unnatural, +unprofitable, and unnecessary struggle between the friends of the +General and State governments, and of vindicating the Federal +Constitution, by placing the peculiar principle it sought to establish +for the government to be constituted under its authority, that of an +_imperium in imperio_, upon a practicable and safe footing, was reserved +for the administration of Thomas Jefferson. For the evils arising from +the pernicious rivalry between agencies, upon the harmonious coöperation +of which the framers of the Constitution relied for the success of that +instrument, the remedy recommended by Mr. Jefferson in his inaugural +address, as expressed in his own inimitable language, was "the support +of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent +administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwark +against anti-republican tendencies: the preservation of the General +Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our +peace at home and safety abroad." These propositions, so simple, so +natural, and so plainly in accord with the spirit of the Constitution, +though, in common with other suggestions from the same source designed +by their author to give repose to an over-agitated community, received +at the time with indifference by incensed partisans, met with a cordial +welcome from the great body of the people. Their fitness and probable +efficacy could not be successfully controverted, and although they did +not escape factious opposition, a majority of the people, tired of the +unavailing agitation which the subject had undergone, and more and more +satisfied of Mr. Jefferson's sincere desire to advance the general +interest, embraced them with constantly increasing earnestness, and +sustained them until they became the successful as well as settled +policy of the Government. Angry passions, having their origin in this +prolific source of partisan strife, which swept over and convulsed the +country during the Government of the Confederation, and for at least +twenty years after the adoption of the new Constitution, have been +subdued. The State governments, increased in number from thirteen to +more than thirty, with no other powers than those reserved to them by +the undisputed provisions of the Constitution, have advanced to a degree +of dignity and usefulness which has enabled them to extend to their +citizens seven eighths of the aid and protection for which they look to +government, either State or national, and has also removed from their +representatives all fear of the encroachments of the Federal Government; +whilst the latter, having proven itself able to sustain itself without +the aid of constructive powers, and to perform with promptitude and +success all the duties assigned to it, is no longer disturbed by +apprehensions of the factious spirit and grasping designs once so +freely charged upon the State authorities. + +For this auspicious state of things we are beyond all doubt indebted, +more than to any other cause, to the conservative character of +Democratic principles and the unwavering fidelity of the party that +sustains them. + +To understand truly the advantages which the country has derived from +the success of this policy, and the defeat of that to which it was +opposed, we have only to picture to ourselves what the condition of the +State governments must have been if the latter had triumphed, and to +compare it with the actual state of things. Assuming that the desire to +divest them of the authority which they had gradually acquired, as +occasions for its exercise were developed by the necessities of the +public service, at one time so strong with leading Federalists and as we +have seen so openly avowed, had been limited to what was actually +proposed, viz., to give to the General Government the power to appoint +their governors, and through them the most important of their minor +officers, including those of the militia, with an absolute veto upon all +State laws,--what, judging according to the experience we have had, +would now have been the character and condition of those governments? +Without the authority required to make themselves useful, or +respectability sufficient to excite the ambition of individuals to be +honorably employed in their service, and thus to divide their attention +and regard between the Federal and State governments, they would +have sunk gradually into feeble, unimportant, characterless +establishments--mere places for the sinecure appointments of the former. +Contrast institutions like these--and only such could have been possible +under the policy advocated by the leading Federalists--with the galaxy +of independent governments of which we now boast, such as no +confederation, ancient or modern, possessed, vested with authority and +dignity, and filling the States respectively with monuments of their +wisdom, enterprise, usefulness, and philanthropy; and contrast the +Federal Government, resting as it now does on these tried and ample +foundations, with one based on establishments like those to which it was +proposed to degrade the States, and we will have some idea of the +dangers that the people of the United States have escaped, and the +advantages they have secured by the wisdom of their course and the +patriotism of those who advised it. If the Democratic party of +Jefferson's time, and under his lead, had effected nothing else for the +country, they would have done enough in this to deserve the perpetual +respect and gratitude of the whole people. + +Yet this was but the beginning of their usefulness, subsequent to the +adoption of the present Constitution. + +No sooner had the efforts of the leaders of the Federal party to break +down the power and influence of the State governments been arrested +through the triumph of the Democratic party in the great contest of +1800, which was to a great extent carried on in their defense, than an +attempt was set on foot to rescue a portion of the political power lost +by the former, by raising the judicial power--the dispensers of which +were to a man on their side--above the executive and legislative +departments of the Federal Government. Of this enterprise, its origin, +progress, and present condition, I have taken the notice which I thought +was demanded by its importance. That it was unsuccessful, and that the +balance of power between those departments, so necessary to the security +of liberty and to the preservation of the Government, has not been +destroyed, is altogether due to the persevering opposition of the +Democratic party under the same bold and capable leader. + +Where the points in issue between political parties have been of so +grave a character as those in the United States, it is not an easy +matter to decide on their relative importance, or in which the right and +the wrong was most apparent. Whilst some have resolved themselves mainly +into questions of expediency, in respect to which errors may be +committed without incurable injury to our institutions, there have been +others striking at their roots, which would, if differently decided, +have ended in their inevitable destruction. The two to which I have +referred were emphatically of the latter character, and hence the +inestimable value of the successful resistance that was made on the +Democratic side. + +Hamilton's funding system, though involving in respect to the assumption +of the State debts a grave constitutional question, was in its principal +features one of expediency. Yet it was an important one, by reason of +the serious consequences that were apprehended from its assumed +tendency, and produced impressions upon the public scarcely less marked +than were made by any public question which had before or has since +arisen in this country. The character of that system, and the injuries +that were anticipated from its establishment, have been spoken of in a +previous part of this essay. Only a slight consideration of the +operations of a similar system elsewhere will be sufficient to show how +greatly the welfare of nations has been affected by their course in +respect to it. + +Of these, England, from her present condition in regard to her public +debt, compared with that in which it is believed she might have stood if +her course in that respect had been guided by wiser counsels, presents +the most instructive example. Ours derives interest scarcely less +impressive from the evils we have avoided by abandoning, whilst that was +yet in our power, the further imitation of her example after we had +fully begun to imitate it. That the system was established here with +much _éclat_, and under explanations and circumstances indicative of a +determination on the part of the men in power to adhere to it as long as +and whenever a public debt existed, all know. It is also known that the +practice of funding the public debt, for which it furnished the plan, +has long been discontinued. Through what agency and upon what +inducements that discontinuance has been brought about, and who is +entitled to the credit of protecting the country from the evils flowing +from the practice elsewhere, can only be ascertained by an impartial +examination of its further history. To bestow that attention upon the +subject is perhaps not necessary for instruction or example, as a +national bank has not become more completely an "obsolete idea" amongst +us, or more thoroughly condemned in public opinion than a funding +system. Still there are many considerations which render such an +examination an object of curiosity certainly, and one not destitute of +higher interest. If the change which was effected in the policy and +action of the Government in this regard has been as advantageous as with +the light which experience has thrown upon the subject cannot be longer +doubted, it is highly proper that those who brought about the reform +should have the credit of it. + +No important transaction upon which patriotism of such an order and +intellects of such caliber as distinguished the public men of that day +were earnestly employed, can be without interest to inquiring minds of +this. It is so long since the whole affair has passed from public +attention as to make it an unfamiliar subject to most of us. I confess +it was so to me, and those who read these sheets will not complain if +the interest I have taken in following it to its termination shall at +least save them from some of the trouble that would otherwise have been +necessary to master its details. + +Strongly excited by the first appearance of the project at the head of +Hamilton's programme, as well described by Madison in his interesting +statement to Mr. Trist, the old Republicans in and out of Congress, with +Jefferson as their adviser and at their head, rallied promptly in +earnest and unyielding opposition to its consummation. Overborne by a +large majority in the first Congress, devoted as it was to Hamilton and +his measures, they could not defeat the bill for its establishment, and +were obliged to content themselves in the first instance with efforts to +expose its objectionable features to the people, in the hope of +rendering it too odious to be persisted in. They also resorted, as they +often afterwards did on similar occasions, to the State legislatures for +advice and coöperation. That of Virginia, the President's native State, +as well as the place of his residence, denounced the scheme very soon +after its introduction, in resolutions of much power, touching the +subject upon the points in respect to which it was most exceptionable. +Its opponents in Congress also kept a watchful eye upon the steps taken +by the Secretary towards its execution, and followed every important +movement by calls for information and by pertinent resolutions. These +calls were generally upon the Secretary, occasionally on the President +himself. As early as 1792, the Republicans caused the introduction of, +and gave efficient support to, a resolution that "measures ought to be +taken for the redemption of so much of the public debt as by the act +making provision for the debts of the United States, they have the right +to redeem." In this resolution, which was adopted by the House, a +provision was inserted, against the votes of the old Republicans, to +direct the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare the plan for the +contemplated redemption. Those who were opposed to its preparation by +that officer desired to have it done by a committee, and apprehended +obstacles on his part to an efficient prosecution of the reform they +supported. + +The resolution, though not expressly such in its terms, was obviously +designed as a side-blow at the funding system. That the Secretary so +regarded it was sufficiently apparent from the graceful notice, in his +report, of the circumstance that "the House had predetermined the +question in regard to the expediency of the proposed redemption, and +only submitted to his consideration the best mode of carrying it into +effect." He then proceeded to state the different ways in which the +object in view might be accomplished, designated that which he thought +most expedient, pointed out the increased burdens on the people it would +require, and specified the taxes the imposition of which he thought +would be necessary. His report was drawn up with his accustomed skill +and ability, but the measure was no further prosecuted at that time. + +The President was subsequently called upon, at the instance of the +Republicans, for copies of the commissions and instructions under which +Hamilton had borrowed some twelve millions of dollars in Europe in +virtue of a provision of the act establishing the funding system, and a +call was at the same time made upon Hamilton for an account of the +manner in which the money had been applied. These calls brought from the +President copies of the commission and instructions, the latter of which +were very precise and in strict conformity, in every respect, to the +law, and from Hamilton an elaborate report, drawn with a degree of care +and power unusual even with him. He appears to have anticipated a storm, +and to have prepared himself for every contingency, as far as his +conduct could be sustained by the facts. Those who derive pleasure from +the intellectual efforts of great minds, however remote the occasion +that called them forth, will not begrudge the time spent in reading his +report. + +A series of resolutions introduced into the House by Giles of Virginia, +charged the Secretary with having violated both the law and the +President's instructions, by the manner in which he had executed the +authority confided to him. These resolutions, after a long and animated +debate, were thrown out by strong votes, of the composition of which Mr. +Jefferson undertakes to give an account in his annals. But no +unprejudiced mind can read Madison's unanswerable speech, which will be +found in the first volume of "Benton's Abridgment of the Debates of +Congress," p. 431, without being convinced that the truth of both +charges was established. He proves by the Secretary's own letters that +on the very day of the receipt of the President's instructions he +commenced arrangements, which he, notwithstanding, carried into effect, +for an application of the funds diametrically opposite to that which the +President had directed him to make. + +Mr. Randall, in his "Life of Thomas Jefferson,"[39] has accidentally +fallen into a singular mistake in saying that "Mr. Madison voted with +the majority on every division" on that occasion, and on that assumption +proceeds to show "that Jefferson put a less charitable construction on +the motives of the majority," by giving the following entry in his +"Ana": "March the 2d, 1793. See, in the papers of this date, Mr. Giles's +Resolutions. He and one or two others were sanguine enough to believe +that the palpableness of these resolutions rendered it impossible the +House could reject them. Those who knew the composition of the +House,--1. Of bank directors; 2. Holders of bank stock; 3. +Stock-jobbers; 4. Blind devotees; 5. Ignorant persons who did not +comprehend them; 6. Lazy and good-humored persons, who comprehended and +acknowledged them, yet were too lazy to examine or unwilling to +pronounce censure,--the persons who knew these characters foresaw that +the three first descriptions making one third of the House, the three +latter would make one half of the residue; and of course that they would +be rejected by a majority of two to one. But they thought that even this +rejection would do good, by showing the public the desperate and +abandoned dispositions with which their affairs were conducted. The +resolutions were proposed, and nothing spared to present them in the +fullness of demonstration. There were not more than three or four who +voted otherwise than had been expected." + + [39] Vol. II. p. 119. + +Mr. Madison voted with the minority on every division, and so far was he +from acting otherwise that William Smith, of South Carolina, the devoted +friend of Hamilton, charged him with saying after the vote that "the +opinion of the House on the preceding resolutions would not change the +truth of facts, and that the public would ultimately decide whether the +Secretary's conduct was criminal or not." + +The character of this debate and the open disregard of the President's +instructions by the Secretary, which it established, were not likely to +pass unheeded or even lightly regarded through the proud and sensitive +mind of Washington. + +Other circumstances may be referred to which show quite clearly that the +latter was not at ease upon the subject of the finances. Among these is +one of a very striking character, not known at the time, and only +recently disclosed through the publication of the "Hamilton Papers" by +order of Congress. I allude to the correspondence between him and +Washington, to which I have before referred for another purpose, and +which will be found in the fourth volume of "Hamilton's Works," +commencing at page 510. The committee appointed by Congress to examine +the state of the treasury preparatory to Hamilton's resignation, then +expected but postponed for a season, were charged by that body to +"inquire into the authorities, from the President to the Secretary of +the Treasury, respecting the making and disbursing of the loans" which +were the subject of the debate and proceedings above referred to. +Hamilton thought the inquiry beyond the province of the committee, but +wishing to be prepared, if they should decide otherwise, furnished the +President with a statement of the facts, as he understood them to be, +with a view to his approval. Washington indorsed on it a certificate +which was very unsatisfactory to Hamilton, who thereupon addressed to +him a long and earnest letter, in which he complained vehemently, and +with the frankness and boldness natural to him, of not having been +sustained by the President in a delicate and responsible part of his +official duties in respect to the public debt. It does not appear that +Washington made any reply to this extraordinary letter, or that he did +anything further upon the subject which had called it forth. + +Whilst the proceedings which led to the debate of which I have spoken +were going on, a bill was introduced on the recommendation of the +Secretary, for a second assumption of State debts, and authorizing a +loan to be opened for that purpose. Notwithstanding strenuous efforts on +the part of the Republican members to prevent its passage, the bill +passed the House, but only by the casting vote of Mr. Speaker Trumbull. +These circumstances were brought to the notice of the President by +Jefferson, before the bill was acted upon by the Senate, and it was +rejected by that body. He speaks in his "Ana" of the prevalent +impression that the bill had been defeated by the interference of the +President, through Lear, with Langdon, who till that time had gone +steadily for the funding system but now opposed its extension. +Jefferson says, "Beckley knows this." + +But whatever may have been the state of feeling between these great men, +arising out of the condition of the finances, or the course of the +Secretary in respect to them, we have the best reasons for believing +that there was a growing sentiment in the Federal party adverse to the +expediency of keeping on foot the funding system. It soon began to lose +the brilliant hues in which it had been clothed, at its first +introduction, by the very imposing report of the Secretary. Our foreign +creditors showed an unwillingness to subject their debts to its +operation, and the means taken to find subjects to be embraced by its +provisions could not fail to excite odium against the measure. The +people were not a little predisposed to listen favorably to the charges +that were made against it on the part of the Republicans, by the +circumstances heretofore noticed that it was so close an imitation of +the English system, and adopted upon the heel of the Revolution. The +growing jealousy of the people, and consequent increase of public clamor +against it, caused a wide-spread conviction through the Federal ranks +that the entire success of the Republican party could only be prevented +by its abandonment,--a conviction greatly strengthened and stimulated to +action by the startling fact that, although the President had just been +reėlected by the unanimous vote of the people, the country was convulsed +by partisan rancors, for which there was no other apology than the +measures of his administration, and the Confederacy which he came into +power to cement was in imminent peril of disruption by their violence. +Neither was this the worst nor the most humiliating view of the case. +For the first time during our existence as an independent nation, even +including the period of the proverbially weak government of the +Confederation, our free institutions suffered the discredit of an open +rebellion against the authority of the Federal Government springing up +in the Quaker State, one of the oldest and best settled in the +Confederacy and in which was established the seat of that Government, +against the imposition of a tax always and everywhere odious, an +"infernal tax," as Jefferson called it;--an insurrection of so much +importance as to induce Washington to call into the field a force +numerically larger than was ever concentrated at one place during the +War of the Revolution, or ever organized in one body in the course of +two wars through which the country has since passed, and nearly if not +quite double that with which Scott fought his way through a hostile +nation of eight millions, and entered the City of Mexico in triumph. No +feature in the character of Washington has ever been disclosed which +will allow us to believe for a moment that those scenes could have +failed to disturb and agitate deeply his lofty and sensitive spirit. We +have a fact, now for the first time, as far as I know or believe, +revealed in Randall's "Life of Jefferson," which gives us some clue to +the current of Washington's thoughts at that very critical period of his +life. Hamilton, whose resignation was about to take effect, applied to +have the time prolonged until after the impending insurrection had been +suppressed, on the ground that as it was menaced in consequence of a +measure of his Department, it would not be proper for him to leave his +post until the crisis had terminated, and he had also asked for leave to +attend the troops to the scene of the outbreak. Both of these +applications had been readily agreed to by the President. In the midst +of these movements, between the first Proclamation offering pardon to +the rebels upon their return to duty and the second calling the troops +into the field and announcing the intended application of military +force, an express was sent to Mr. Jefferson with an invitation to him +to resume his former place in Washington's cabinet. This fact is +indisputable, for Jefferson's answer declining the invitation is +published by Randall. + +What was the nature and what the extent of Washington's design in this +application? The assumption is justified by the lapse of time and by +other circumstances, that as no record of his intentions has come to +light none exists, and it is therefore a question on which we are only +able to speculate; but there is another question, the answer to which, +though not quite certain, may be made so, and which, when ascertained, +would throw much light upon the subject of our speculations. + +Was Hamilton advised of the application to Jefferson, and was it made +with his approbation? The thorough examinations and publications which +have been made of the papers of both Washington and Hamilton, without +the disclosure of a single reference to the main fact, authorize the +belief that Hamilton never was a party to the movement in any shape. In +respect to Hamilton's papers, this inference is particularly strong, as, +from the quasi-rivalry which has recently been set on foot by his +descendants between his own fame and that of Washington, it may well be +presumed that if they could have furnished evidence of such an act of +disloyalty to Federalism on the part of Washington as his invitation to +Jefferson, who had, after his retirement, openly charged Congress with +the most flagrant corruption, and traced its origin to the measures of +the Secretary of the Treasury, the information would certainly not have +been withheld from publication. The same considerations lead with still +greater confidence to the conclusion that no movement had been made +towards any other than a temporary change of purpose in regard to his +resignation on the part of Hamilton. Washington's letter giving his +consent to the postponement, is published among the "Hamilton Papers," +and from all that was said or done upon the subject it is quite clear +that no attempt was made by him to dissuade Hamilton from carrying his +resolution into effect, and that such resolution was final on the part +of the latter from the beginning. + +Incidents occurring at an early period of their relations were well +calculated to induce circumspection in such a matter on both sides. The +uncertainty in regard to Washington's ulterior intentions in the step he +had just taken will become more apparent the more the question is +considered. Mr. Randall seems to infer from it a desire on his part to +return to the system of _a balanced government_ with which he commenced +his administration. But to the consummation of such a design the assent +of Hamilton was absolutely indispensable, and that, with the lights +before us, we may safely assume was neither asked nor given. I find it, +besides, difficult to resist the conclusion that Washington's preference +for that sort of government must by that time have been greatly weakened +if not entirely extinguished. He had tried it under circumstances far +more eligible than those then existing or than he could reasonably +anticipate, and had found it disastrous. Jefferson had in the most +positive terms declined an attempt to coalesce with Hamilton, as made +impossible by the radical differences in their political principles. The +same differences continued, and their personal relations had now become +much more embittered. For these and other reasons that could be given, +it is extremely difficult to reconcile with his well-known prudence the +design hypothetically attributed to Washington by Randall. + +If there is the force in these suggestions that they appear to me to +possess, we would seem to be driven to the conclusion that Washington +contemplated, in military language, a _change of front_ dependent upon +Jefferson's acceptance; that he meant not only to place Jefferson at the +head of his cabinet, but to give an increased effect to his principles +in the future administration of the Government. I confess that this is a +startling supposition, even to my own mind, and one in respect to which +I feel that I cannot go much beyond surmise. A step of so decided and so +pregnant a character, taken under the pressure of a situation for many +reasons so critical, could not have been thought of by such a man as +Washington without ulterior, well-considered designs. What were they, if +not of the character I have suggested? I can conceive of no other answer +to this question which is not more inconsistent with well-known facts. + +Considerations were not wanting to persuade him that his second term, +under an administration thus directed, would be more agreeable as well +as more auspicious for the country than the first had been. I have +before referred to the contrast between Jefferson and Madison on one +side, and Hamilton on the other, presented by the fact that whilst the +former entered upon the discharge of public offices with feelings and +views similar to those with which they accepted private trusts, +considered themselves under equal obligations to respect the rights and +to carry into full and fair effect the intentions of the parties chiefly +concerned, and would have regarded a failure to do either as much a +violation of the principles of probity and honor in one case as in the +other, the latter neither entertained nor professed to act upon such +opinions; he had on the contrary a conviction, which he never changed, +that there were deficiencies in the popular mind which made it +impracticable on the part of men in power to deal safely with the people +by appeals to their good sense and honesty, and that they could only be +successfully governed through their fears or their interests. Hence his +justification of measures addressed to their passions and particular +interests, and hence his indifference to the faithful observance of the +Constitution as a moral or honorable obligation and his utter +recklessness of constitutional restraints in his public career, +notwithstanding the perfect uprightness of his dealings in private life. + +Washington's personal character has been never correctly appreciated, if +the former of these systems or ideas was not more congenial with his +taste and with the suggestions of his heart than the latter. In giving +his assent to the bill for the establishment of the bank, he could not +shut his eyes to the fact that he was sanctioning a measure which he had +conclusive reason to believe was never intended to be authorized by the +Constitution, framed by a convention over which he had presided. Reasons +of supposed state necessity we are warranted in believing reconciled his +conscience to the step, but it cannot be doubted, without injustice to +his character, that it was a hard service and altogether repugnant to +his feelings. His inquietude under these restraints upon his natural +inclinations was exhibited on more than one occasion. His letter to the +venerable Edmund Pendleton, (one of the purest of men,) published by +Randall, was one of them. That rumors were rife in respect to the +measures decided upon by Federal cabals if Washington had refused to +sign the Bank Bill we learn from several sources, and no one who knew +Mr. Madison can doubt that he spoke with full knowledge when he said to +Trist as already quoted, that if the President had vetoed the Bill +"_there would have been an effort to nullify it_" (the veto), "_and +they_" (the leading Federalists) "_would have arrayed themselves in a +hostile attitude_." It is, besides, against nature to suppose that +Washington's consciousness of the past condition of things in this +regard and recollection of the scenes referred to by Madison, had not +been painfully revived by the offensive letter he had received from +Hamilton only four months before the period of which we are speaking. + +The probable correctness of the inference under consideration ought not +to be tested by the character of the subsequent relations between +Washington and Hamilton. Jefferson declined the President's invitation +to resume his former seat in his cabinet promptly but respectfully and +kindly. Mr. Randall says that he has read a declaration by President +Washington to the effect that he would have offered the place to +Madison, upon Jefferson's declension, if he had not ascertained that he +would not accept it. These successive and marked steps by the most +prominent leaders of the Republican party, taken in connection with the +results of the preceding Congressional elections, and the avowed +principles upon which they had been conducted, show clearly that the +lines had been distinctly and finally drawn between the Republicans who +had hitherto sustained the administration in general and the Federal +party; the opinion at which Jefferson and the Republicans had arrived +being that the differences which had arisen, founded as they chiefly +were on the interpretation of the Constitution and the degree of +sanctity attaching to that instrument, could not be satisfactorily +settled by any divided counsels, or by any the most liberal and friendly +dispositions of the President; that the season for obtaining present +redress and future security upon those points through such means had +passed away, and that their proper course, whilst continuing their +respect for and their confidence in Washington to the end, was to +support the measures of his administration as far as they could +consistently with their avowed principles, and to place the Government +in the hands of men of their own school at the earliest practicable +moment after his voluntary retirement. + +The President, having greatly against his inclination consented to stand +by the helm for another term, and having been reėlected by the unanimous +vote of the country, had no other course to pursue than to carry on the +Government under its existing organization, relying for his support upon +the Federal party, with such coöperation as his measures might draw from +its opponents. Hamilton resigned at the end of the quarter, his +resignation was accepted in the way I have described, and as the actual +and acknowledged leader of the Federal party, though out of office, he +kept up his relations with Washington's administration as well as with +that of his successor, Mr. Adams, as has been already set forth. The +administration having been virtually, and, in the English sense, +actually overthrown by being reduced to a minority in the popular branch +of the national legislature, the President, having signally failed in +his disinterested and patriotic attempt to arrest the adverse current by +a reconstruction of his cabinet so as to place at its head the known and +acknowledged leader of the opposition to the principal measures of the +Government, and obliged by his reėlection to remain at his post till the +expiration of his second term or to retire with discredit, turned his +attention to an earnest survey of the policy to which so disastrous a +state of things might be attributed. That it had not originated in any +objections personal to himself was shown by the fact that the same +election which exhibited the evidence of dissatisfaction, on the part of +a majority of the people, with the measures of Government, demonstrated +also by his unanimous reėlection their continued confidence in him. +Those measures to which the deprecated result was attributed were the +bank and the funding system. Jay's treaty had no agency in producing it, +that disturbing question not having then arisen, and its only effect, in +this respect, was during the last year of Washington's administration +to increase the majority against the Government to so great an extent as +to enable the Republicans to carry Kitchel's resolution condemnatory of +the President's own act in refusing to lay before Congress the +instructions and papers connected with the negotiation of the treaty, by +a vote, including absentees whose sentiments were known, of very nearly +two to one. + +The bank, to the operations of which Jefferson, whilst in retirement, +openly and unreservedly attributed the corruption of Congress, had +passed beyond reach, but the funding system was yet open to the action +of the Government. It was in respect to this ill-omened and ill-fated +measure that the tocsin had been first sounded of that alarm which now +extensively pervaded the public mind, and it was beyond all doubt that +no other act of the Government had proven a more prolific source of +popular discontent. It was not the existence of the debt of which the +people complained; they gladly accepted that burden, on the contrary, as +the price of their liberties; but it was the system devised by Hamilton +for its management and for the treatment of their fiscal affairs +generally that excited their severe displeasure. They believed that the +politico-fiscal agencies congenial with, and cherished features of, +monarchical institutions had been adopted in servile emulation of the +English system, and as they were acknowledged sources of corruption in +that system, that they had been introduced for similar effect here. +Hamilton's oft-avowed preference for the English model gave much color +to the first part of this conclusion, and the exasperated feelings of +our people toward that government predisposed the public mind against +the whole policy. Nor were these resentments without adequate cause. No +independent nation was ever worse treated by another than was ours by +Great Britain from the recognition of our Independence until after the +war of 1812. So arrogant and outrageous was her conduct at this very +period that Washington, as appears by his published letters to Hamilton +in August 1796, found it difficult to keep the expressions of his +dissatisfaction within the bounds demanded by his official position, and +Hamilton was driven to admit in his reply that "we were subject to +inconveniences too nearly approaching a state of war" to be submitted +to. But these were not the only nor even the principal objections of the +people against the funding system. They were satisfied by reason and +observation that there could never be a proper economy in public +expenditures, or a check to the increase of public debt so long as +Government was not only under no obligation to pay the principal of such +debts but had no right so to do or the right only in respect to a mere +pittance, as was the case with our funded debt. The power to convert the +credit of the nation into revenue by such a policy, of which Hamilton +boasted, was a power in which they thought no government could be safely +indulged. If the argument in favor of that opinion, which need not be +repeated here, was not sufficient to establish its soundness, the +experience of the mother country, which was constantly before their +eyes, afforded conclusive demonstration of it. I have elsewhere stated +the extent to which the debt of England had then already increased, and +the force with which her ablest writer on political economy and finance +had traced that alarming growth, by the lights of experience and reason, +to those features in her funding system. + +Hamilton had been throughout and still remained devoted to what we may +call English principles in the management of our finances, and +constantly desirous to extend them to every species of our public debt, +foreign and domestic. General Washington was wedded to no such views. +The subject belonging peculiarly to Hamilton's department, and having +full confidence in him, he acquiesced in the course he recommended, but +he was always open to conviction, and only wished to leave the question +of its continuance to be decided by its results. In the course of a +conversation with Mr. Jefferson, designed to prevail on him to remain in +the cabinet, the latter says that Washington touched upon the merits of +the funding system, to which he knew that Mr. Jefferson was earnestly +opposed, and expressed himself thus: "There is a difference of opinion +about it, some thinking it very bad, and others very good; experience +was the only criterion of right which he knew, and this alone would +decide which opinion was right." The disappointment generally +experienced by the original friends of the system cannot have failed to +reach Washington, and it is impossible that the discredit which the +measure had brought upon his administration could have escaped the +notice of so sagacious and generally dispassionate an observer of the +course of events. Hamilton was to leave him in a month or two, and he +was destined to pass through an ordeal becoming every day more and more +severe. To relieve his Government as far as practicable from odium from +any source, was therefore a suggestion of duty and interest to which he +could not but give heed. The measure of which we are speaking challenged +his attention. The power of the Government over it, without the consent +of its creditors, was, it is true, very limited, but it could relieve +the system to some extent of a portion of its unpopularity by lessening +its character of irredeemability. The annual eight per cent. for +interest and principal (only two per cent. towards the principal, which +was all the Government had a right to pay, but was never obliged to +pay), it could make itself liable to redeem punctually, and could give +to the creditors securities which would put it out of its power to evade +its undertaking. + +This was all that could be done, and it was not to be doubted that the +accomplishment of this through the interference of Washington, with a +return to the old mode of raising money, would go far to allay honest +apprehensions, and to remove prejudices against his administration +without disadvantage to the public service certainly, and, I may add, +without the slightest departure from the course which it became him to +pursue. He determined to pursue it. That the resolution in regard to the +policy finally adopted upon this point originated with Washington alone, +without consultation with, or advice from, Hamilton, is rendered certain +to my mind from contemporaneous circumstances, some of which will be +referred to. He, of course, communicated his intention to Hamilton, who +proposed to take charge of all the preliminary steps that could be +adopted during the short period of his remaining in office to prepare +the way for the contemplated change. This was proper in itself and +assented to by the President, who thus, as was his way on most +occasions, enabled Hamilton to give to the whole affair the shape he +thought best. The funding system was emphatically his measure, and if it +was to be discontinued, it was proper that he should be permitted to +make its exit as graceful as was practicable. + +The intended movement was preceded by the President's speech to Congress +in November, 1794, from which I extract this passage: "The time which +has elapsed since the commencement of our fiscal measures has developed +our pecuniary resources so as to open a way for a definitive plan for +the redemption of the public debt. It is believed that the result is +such as to encourage Congress to consummate this work without delay. +Nothing can more promote the permanent welfare of the nation, and +nothing would be more grateful to our constituents. Indeed, whatsoever +is unfinished of our system of public credit cannot be benefited by +procrastination; and, as far as may be practicable, we ought to place +that credit on grounds which cannot be disturbed, and to prevent that +progressive accumulation of debt which must ultimately endanger all +governments." + +This was substantially the only part of the speech which related to any +other matter than the Pennsylvanian insurrection, and no one familiar +with Hamilton's writings can doubt that the entire paragraph was +prepared by him,--a proceeding common and in this instance particularly +proper. It presented in general terms a gratifying assurance of the +improvement in the revenues of the Government, and the promised +advantages to the national finances. No reference is made to the +character of the measures by which those advantages were to be secured; +these might be provisions for the immediate reduction of the debt, or at +the least for an earlier reduction than that which was authorized by +law. + +On the 25th of January, eleven days before he left the department, +Hamilton tendered to the Senate an elaborate "plan for the further +support of public credit on the basis of the actual revenue." It was not +his annual report, nor had it been called for by the Senate, but had +been prepared, he said, as a part of his duties, according to the Act by +which they were prescribed, and in conformity with the suggestions of +the President. It fills twenty-seven pages, small print, in the large +folio edition of the American State Papers, and, being his last, was of +course prepared with great care and, as much of course, with great +ability. Jefferson thought, at times, that Hamilton did not himself +understand his own complicated and elaborate reports on the finances, +but in this I am persuaded he was entirely mistaken. Hamilton evidently +held the thousand threads which traversed these voluminous works with a +firm and instructed hand, and perfectly understood their several and +manifold connections with the body of the documents and the results to +which the whole and every part tended. That he meant that others should +understand them as well as he did is perhaps not so certain. + +His plan did not even look to a present reduction of the debt, which +would seem to be the natural consequence of a revenue so prosperous as +that he had described in the speech; that would have been an +impossibility. At the date of his report the debt had increased four +millions from what it was when the funding system was established, +independent of the assumption of those of the States, and at the end of +Mr. Adams's administration, the increase stood at eight millions. I have +not examined the result for each year, but am confident that I hazard +little in affirming that there was not a single year, from the first +period to the last, during which the public debt was not increased. Mr. +Jefferson, in a letter to Mr. Madison, written in 1796, expressed the +opinion that, from the commencement of the new government till the time +when he ceased to attend to it, the debt had augmented a million a year. +The preceding statement shows the correctness of his calculation. + +Neither did Hamilton propose any measures by which the payment of the +debt might be accelerated, but the reverse. The whole debt then stood as +follows: foreign debt, between thirteen and fourteen millions; domestic +debt funded, including those of the States, between sixty and sixty-one +millions, and domestic debt unsubscribed, between one and two millions. +The foreign debt was payable by installments, ending at the expiration +of fifteen years. His plan was to offer the foreign creditors one half +of one per cent. interest, annually, more than it then drew, if they +would consent to make it a domestic debt, and postpone the redemption of +the principal till 1818, which would defer it between eight and nine +years; or, if they refused that, it might remain redeemable at any time +they proposed, so that the redemption of the principal was not +accelerated by making it less than the fifteen years. A law authorizing +such a change was passed, the offer made and declined. The debt was +suffered to stand as it did, and the last payment was made during the +administration of Mr. Madison. In respect to the funded debt, all that +the report proposed (and that proposition was carried into effect by law +shortly after Hamilton retired) was to add materially to the existing +provisions for the payment of the public debt, and to provide +effectually that the funds set apart for that should be regularly and +inviolably applied, first, to the payment of as much of the funded debt +as the Government had a right to pay annually, which was two per cent. +of the principal besides the interest, and after that to the then +existing public debt generally; that is to say, in regard to the funded +debt, it changed the option of the Government to pay the two per cent. +into a positive obligation, and provided adequate funds for that +purpose. It was calculated that these provisions would redeem the funded +debt bearing an immediate interest in 1818, and the deferred funded debt +in 1824; they did so, and thus the funded debt was extinguished. All +succeeding loans, as well under the administrations of Washington and +Adams as subsequently, were made redeemable at or after a certain +period, save in rare and very limited instances controlled by special +circumstances and not constituting modifications of the general rule of +the Government. + +By this step Congress carried into effect an object for which the +Republicans had striven since soon after the establishment of the +funding system, and upon the resolution to accomplish which Hamilton +had interposed a temporary obstruction by his report in December, 1792. +The funded debt was changed into a simple debt payable by regular though +small installments, at stated and certain periods. Its ultimate +redemption was made certain, and the further practice of funding +successfully discountenanced. That was done which Washington desired to +have done; not indeed in the plain, straightforward way in which he +would have done it, for that would have shown that the Government, in +deference to public sentiment, had, to borrow a common phrase, taken the +back track; an exhibition which Hamilton's course was designed to avoid. +What the latter undertook to do he did effectually and in good faith, +but a careful perusal of his last _exposé_ will show how little the +whole proceeding was in harmony with his individual feelings. + +The following are extracts from that extraordinary paper:-- + +"To extinguish a debt which exists and to avoid the contracting more are +always ideas favored by public feeling; but to pay taxes for the one or +the other purpose, which are the only means of preventing the evil, is +always more or less unpopular. These contradictions are in human nature; +and happy indeed would be the country that should ever _want men to turn +them to the account of their own popularity or to some other sinister +account_. + +"Hence it is no uncommon spectacle to see the same men clamoring for +occasions of expense when they happen to be in unison with the present +humor of the community, whether well or ill directed, declaiming against +a public debt and for the reduction of it as an abstract thesis, yet +vehement against every plan of taxation which is proposed to discharge +old debts or to avoid new by the defraying of exigencies as they emerge. +These unhandsome acts throw artificial embarrassments in the way of the +administration of a government." + +These observations afford evidence of the wounded spirit under which he +was acting, and also of the strong sense he entertained of the influence +which a necessity for taxation is calculated to exert upon the minds of +a legislature anxious for the redemption of a public debt. Do they not +further explain the motive for the array of taxes that would be required +to carry into effect the Resolution of 1792, in favor of making +provision for the redemption of the funded debt, contained in his report +upon that resolution? + +When speaking of now resorting to the old practice of anticipating +revenues, that is, by making provision for the payment of both principal +and interest, in the departure from which practice the English Funding +System had its birth, he says:-- + +"This would be at the same time an antidote against what may be +pronounced the most plausible objections to the system of _funding_ +public debts; which are, that, by facilitating the means of supporting +expense they encourage to enterprises which produce it, and by +furnishing in credit a substitute for revenue, likely to be too freely +used to avoid the odium of laying new taxes, they occasion a tendency to +run in debt. Though these objections to funding systems--which, giving +the greatest possible energy to public credit, are a great source of +national security, strength, and prosperity--are very similar to those +which speculative men urge against national and individual opulence, +drawn from its abuses; and though perhaps, upon a careful analysis of +facts, they would be found to have much less support in them than is +imagined, attributing to those systems effects which are to be ascribed, +more truly, to the passions of men and perhaps to the genius of +particular governments; yet, as they are not wholly unfounded, it is +desirable to guard, as far as possible, against the dangers which they +suppose, without renouncing the advantages which these systems +undoubtedly afford." + +When we find him thus dallying with a pet system on the eve of its +abandonment, thus filling a paper designed to prepare the way for that +result with his reasons for deprecating it, who can suppose that its +impending fate was of his own suggestion, or doubt that he looked to its +restoration under more favorable auspices? + +The Secretary very naturally endeavors in this paper to place the +provisions now recommended in respect to the Sinking Fund upon the same +footing with those contained in his first Report upon public credit, +conformably to which his funding system was established. Without the +slightest desire to assail or to weaken any of his attempts to rest his +acts on the most favorable ground consistent with truth, it is yet due +to the memories of the patriotic men who by their fearless and +persevering efforts succeeded in discrediting that dangerous system, and +finally in causing it to be discontinued from the operations of our +Government, that the circumstances under which they acted should not be +misrepresented. The difference between the provisions of the Sinking +Fund first and now adopted was great indeed. The grant of the funds to +the first, to say nothing of their insufficiency, lacked the essential +quality of being irrevocable, but was left subject to the action of +Congress. There was therefore no reason to think that more might be +expected from the Sinking Fund here than had been realized in England, +where it had not only been found entirely ineffectual even in time of +peace, but the funds vested in the Commissioners had on more than one +occasion been used as a basis for new loans. But now, when the business +of redemption was entered upon in earnest, that matter was placed upon +a very different footing. The funds were not only more ample, but they +were vested in the Commissioners as an irrevocable trust, and the faith +of the Government was pledged that its execution should not be +interfered with. As widely different were the dispositions of the +Government and the sentiments of its principal supporters. On the former +occasion the proposals submitted to Congress by the head of the Treasury +Department, and most trusted officer of the Government, were to fund the +entire debt of the United States upon the following terms, viz: 1st. +That the whole principal should be forever irredeemable at the option of +the United States; 2d. That they should not even reserve to themselves a +right to pay more than two dollars upon a hundred of the principal, +however full their coffers, and however great their convenience to pay; +and, that no obstacle might be wanting to the redemption of that +pittance, he proposed further to assume and fund in the same way +twenty-five millions of the debts of the States which the Federal +Government was under no obligations to pay and was not asked to assume. +This policy was entered upon in the face of the fact that the debt of +England, under a similar system, had, in eighty years, increased from +some five millions to two hundred and seventy-six millions of pounds +sterling, and was still increasing. + +After these propositions had been substantially adopted by Congress and +sustained by the Government, Hamilton, having the entire direction of +its affairs, and knowing the spirit and firmness with which those who +disapproved of his schemes always maintained their views of the public +interest, had no right to complain of, and ought not to have been +surprised at, the opposition he encountered from them, under the weight +of which his Funding System, in respect to the future action of the +Government in the management of its finances, soon became a dead +letter, no further thought of than to get rid of the debts that had been +contracted under it, with the intent to return to the old mode of +anticipating revenue, that of direct loans payable at or after specific +periods, principal as well as interest; the only way by which, as Adam +Smith had demonstrated, a nation could avoid a permanent and ruinous +public debt,--a view of the subject which came too late for England, but +was, happily, in season for us. Though the Government had, by the Act of +March 3d, 1795, passed to carry into effect the improved views of +Washington, placed the management of our finances upon a better footing, +no progress was made in the reduction of the public debt; but the act +doubtless accomplished much in restraining its increase. It was not an +easy thing to keep down the public debt under an administration which, +like that of Mr. Adams, in pursuance of the express advice of Hamilton +to Wolcott, paid upon its loans an annual interest of eight per cent., +the highest that had then ever been paid except by England to her bank +upon the loan obtained from it on its first establishment. + +Upon Jefferson's accession to power he denounced a public debt, in his +message to Congress, as a "moral canker," and invoked the aid of the +legislature for its extinction at the earliest practicable period. The +Committee of Ways and Means, with John Randolph at its head (his +brightest period of public usefulness), entered upon the subject "_con +amore_." They called upon the Secretary of the Treasury for a thorough +exposition of the state of the public debt, and for his opinion in +regard to the best mode of dealing with it. Mr. Gallatin's reply, which +may be found in the publication of American State Papers,--title +"FINANCE," Vol. I.,--gave a full statement of the then condition of the +debt, and pointed out the defects through which the Act of March 3, +1795, had been rendered inadequate to the accomplishment of all the +objects for which it was designed. I will refer to but one of them, +which consisted in its limiting the appropriation for the redemption of +the public debt, beyond that which had been funded, to "surpluses which +shall remain at the end of every calendar year, and which, during the +session of Congress next thereafter, shall not be otherwise specially +appropriated or reserved by law." Our experience of the action of +Congress has been too full to make it necessary to speak of the extreme +improbability of any considerable surpluses being left by that body +acting under no more specific restraint than that which is here +provided, and upon examination of the books of the treasury it was found +that so far from there having been any such surpluses from the +establishment of the present Government in 1789 till the close of the +year 1799, the appropriations charged upon the revenue by Congress had +exceeded, by nearly a million of dollars, the whole amount of such +revenue, whether collected or outstanding. + +To remedy results so unfavorable to the accomplishment of the object in +view, the Secretary advised specific appropriations of such sums as, +upon a fair estimate of the wants and resources of the country, ought in +the opinion of Congress to be applied to the payment of the public debt, +and to make such appropriations irrevocable and their application +mandatory on the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund. The committee +adopted the suggestion with alacrity as one which, in addition to +securing the early performance of a sacred duty, could not in their +opinion fail to induce economy on the part of Congress in its +disposition of the public funds. They therefore reported a bill, which +became a law, appropriating annually to the Sinking Fund seven millions +three hundred thousand dollars for the payment of the public debt. This +sum was increased to eight millions in consequence of the purchase of +Louisiana. During the administration of Mr. Madison the annual +appropriation was increased to ten millions, besides an additional +appropriation of nine millions, and one of four millions if the +Secretary of the Treasury should deem it expedient; and all of these +appropriations were made irrevocable and compulsory as respected the +action of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund. + +The consequences of this change in the action of the Government upon the +subject of the public debt and of this liberality of appropriations +under Democratic administrations, were the discharge of thirty-three +millions of the principal of the debt, besides the payment of interest +on the whole, during the Presidency of Mr. Jefferson, and its final +extinguishment under President Jackson, notwithstanding the intervention +of a war with England commenced at a period of the greatest financial +embarrassment. + +I have been induced to take so extended a notice of this matter as well +by the circumstance, to which I have before referred, that it presented +a leading subject of party divisions in this country, as because of the +influence which it and its adjuncts the Bank of the United States and +the Protective System have exerted upon our politics. It has been seen +that the Funding System, however, preceded the bank in its +establishment, and it became also an "obsolete idea" many years before +the latter was declared to be such by its most devoted advocate and +reckless supporter, Daniel Webster. That the bank did not share that +fate at a much earlier period was because Henry Clay and John C. +Calhoun, both disciples of the old Republican school,--the former one of +the ablest among the opponents of the revival of the bank in +1811,--tempted by the political allurements of the day in 1815, +advocated the establishment of a new bank, and because that pure man +and patriot, James Madison, under mistaken impressions in respect to the +absolute necessity of such an institution, gave his assent to its +incorporation. + +No public question was ever longer or more severely agitated in any +country than that of the existence of a national bank has been in this. +Madison acquired enduring honor by his unanswerable speech against its +constitutionality. It divided the cabinet of President Washington, and +contributed with other causes to give birth to a political party which +kept his administration at bay, overthrew that of his successor, has +sustained itself in power ever since (with brief and easily explained +interruptions), and is now, after the lapse of nearly seventy years, in +full possession of the Federal Government. It gave position in 1811 to +Henry Clay as one of the strong minds of the country, derived from his +speech against rechartering the bank, by far the best speech he ever +made and nearly equal to that of Madison in 1790, and it enabled that +venerable revolutionary patriot, George Clinton, to add new laurels to +his already great fame by his casting vote against the passage of the +bill for its re-incorporation. Whilst in 1815 it marred forever the +political fortunes of Clay and Calhoun, then standing at the head of the +rising Republican statesmen of the country, in 1830 it made memorable +and glorious the civil career of Andrew Jackson through his celebrated +veto--a noble step in that fearful issue between the respective powers +of the Government and the Bank, on the trial of which that institution +justified and confirmed Jefferson's gloomy forebodings at its first +establishment by spreading recklessly and wantonly (as is now well +understood) panic in the public mind and convulsions in the business +affairs of the people, through which incalculable injury was inflicted +upon the country, and by wasting its entire capital of thirty millions +in wild speculation and in corrupt squandering upon parasites and +political backers. It did not however prove too strong for the +Government, as Mr. Jefferson apprehended, but was itself overwhelmed in +utter defeat and disgrace. So thorough has been its annihilation that +its books and papers were a few months since sold by auction, in +Philadelphia, by the ton, as waste paper! + +Who can call to mind without amazement the extent to which the +impression was fastened on the public judgment that a national bank was +of vital necessity to the healthful action of the Federal Government, +indispensable to the collection of its revenues, to the management of +its finances, to the transfer of its funds from point to point, and, +above all, to the execution and support of domestic exchanges, without +which the most important business of the country would be unavoidably +suspended, and now see that all this was sheer delusion; or who can +reflect upon the bold and profligate action taken by the bank to force a +compliance with its application, without acknowledging and admiring the +wisdom of the Federal Convention in refusing, as it did almost in terms, +to confer upon Congress the power to establish such an institution, so +inefficient for good and so potent for mischief, or without applauding +the true conservatism and patriotic spirit of the Democratic party +during a forty years' struggle to expel from our system so dangerous an +abuse, or without rejoicing that that great object was finally achieved +and blessing the memory of the brave old man to whom the achievement is +mainly to be credited. + +The Protective System was another of the important measures brought +forward at the commencement of the Government, and had its origin in the +prolific mind of Hamilton. Efforts have been made to trace its +commencement to the legislation of the first Congress, but they have +not been successful. The idea of protection, beyond that which is +incidental to a tariff for revenue and could be effected without losing +sight of the revenue point, was not, at that time, broached in Congress +or inferable from the character of the duties imposed. It was in +Hamilton's masterpiece--his elaborate report, nominally upon +manufactures, but embracing in its range every pursuit of human industry +susceptible of encouragement under an unlimited government--that the +subject was first brought to the notice and recommended to the favorable +consideration of Congress. + +I have already described, more fully, perhaps, than might on first +impression be thought necessary, the length and breadth of that famous +document, the boldness and extravagance of its ultra-latitudinarian +pretensions to power in the Federal Government, including unlimited +authority to raise money by taxes and an equally unlimited power to +spend it in any way which Congress might think would be conducive to the +general welfare. The vehement denunciation of its character by Mr. +Jefferson and his friends, with continually increasing indications of +popular discontent, prevented Hamilton from attempting any measures +worthy of notice to carry into effect his recommendations--and no +assumptions, beyond the revenue standard, were acted upon by the +administrations of either Washington or Adams. + +The enforcement of Hamilton's recommendations was reserved for the close +of the War of 1812, a period of which I have already spoken as one which +brought on the political stage a new class of Presidential aspirants, +members of a succeeding generation and unknown to revolutionary fame. +Among the most prominent of these stood Crawford, Clay, Calhoun, Adams, +Webster, and Lowndes,--the latter, perhaps, the most likely to have +succeeded, if his useful life had not been brought to a premature close. + +In the same year, 1815, was revived the idea of a national bank, and no +fitter associate could have been devised for it than the Protective +System. They had a common origin, even in their political aspects, were +designed for a common effect, and were moreover alike adapted to the +immediate policy of two of the Presidential aspirants of the Republican +stamp, Clay and Calhoun,--that of conciliating the good-will of those +who still clung to the wreck of the Federal party, which having been +shattered and disabled by its course in the war, was at the moment +drifting upon the political seas. Henry Clay, with better qualifications +for success than his not less ambitious rival, seized the prize in view, +and after long competition from the latter, and against perpetual, +though sometimes concealed opposition from Webster, attached the mass of +the Federal party to his fortunes, and held them there to the close of +his remarkable life. Shouldering a large share of responsibility for the +reintroduction of a national bank, he added to his programme the +Protective System, stopping in the first instance at a protective +tariff, but willing, as was clearly seen, to embrace Hamilton's entire +scheme, and superadding to these a system of internal improvements by +the Federal Government, in respect to which he went, on the point of +constitutional power, beyond his great prototype. These were the +elements out of which he constructed his famous "American System." A +convert to theories and measures hostile to the earliest and most +cherished principles of the old Republican party, he of course soon lost +his position in its ranks, and was in due season installed as the leader +of that with which all its wars have been waged. Possessing certain +qualities eminently adapted to attract the popular admiration, and which +could not have failed to elevate him to the Presidency if he had +remained in the Democratic party and had adhered to its principles, he +infused into the torpid body of the Federal party elements of strength, +of which it had always stood in need; besides bringing to it a leader of +fascinating manners and brilliant talents, he gave a new and more +captivating form to the platform of principles and policy in support of +which its original members and their descendants had been trained, +excepting only the Funding System, which had not only been tabooed by +the good sense of our people, but as to which England was yet uttering +warnings to other nations of too fearful import to allow its revival +here to be for a moment contemplated even by a politician so bold and +too often reckless as Clay. Thus reinvigorated and backed by the +money-power of the country, during a quarter of a century, and with +never quailing spirit, he conducted that party, under various names but +striving always under the banner of the same "American System," through +a succession of political campaigns which left their injurious traces +upon the country. + +The fruits of this warfare against the Democratic party and its +principles are familiar to politicians and observers of our times. The +Bank of the United States, after filling the country with distress and +ruin, itself perished; the proposed system of internal improvements by +the Federal Government was happily broken down by his opponents before +it involved the country in inextricable embarrassments, and the +Protective System, after being finally overthrown in England, from which +country we had copied it, was abandoned here also, and consigned by the +judgment of the people to the same oblivion with its kindred delusions. + +The promotion of internal improvements by the General Government was an +assumption of power by Congress, against which, from its first inception +till its substantial overthrow, the Democratic party interposed a +steady, persevering, and inflexible resistance. The general character of +the abuse, its origin, progress, and extirpation through Democratic +agencies, are fully presented in another part of this work.[40] Here the +probable effect upon the national treasury of arresting the practice +will alone be noticed. + + [40] Referring to the Memoirs of the writer. See Introduction. Eds. + +In his annual message to Congress, December, 1834, President Jackson +says:-- + +"When the bill authorizing a subscription on the part of the United +States for stock in the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Companies +passed the two Houses, there had been reported, by the committees of +internal improvements, bills containing appropriations for such objects, +exclusive of those for the Cumberland Road and for harbors and +light-houses, to the amount of about one hundred and six millions of +dollars. In this amount was included authority to the Secretary of the +Treasury to subscribe to the stock of different companies to a great +extent, and the residue was principally for the direct construction of +roads by this Government. In addition to those projects, which had been +presented to the two Houses, under the sanction and recommendation of +their respective committees on internal improvements, there were then +still pending before the committees, and in memorials to Congress, +presented but not referred, different projects for works of a similar +character, the expense of which cannot be estimated with certainty but +must have exceeded one hundred millions of dollars." + +The same message contained also the following suggestions:-- + +"From attempts to appropriate the national funds to objects which are +confessedly of a local character, we cannot I trust have any thing +further to apprehend. My views in regard to the expediency of making +appropriations for works which are claimed to be of a national +character, and prosecuted under State authority, assuming that Congress +have the right to do so, were stated in my annual message to Congress in +1830, and also in that containing my objections to the Maysville Road +Bill. + +"So thoroughly convinced am I that no such appropriations ought to be +made by Congress, until a suitable constitutional provision is made upon +the subject, and so essential do I regard the point to the highest +interests of our country, that I could not consider myself as +discharging my duty to my constituents in giving the executive sanction +to any bill containing such an appropriation. If the people of the +United States desire that the public treasury shall be resorted to for +the means to prosecute such works, they will concur in an amendment of +the Constitution prescribing a rule by which the national character of +the works is to be tested, and by which the greatest practicable +equality of benefits may be secured to each member of the Confederacy. +The effects of such a regulation would be most salutary in preventing +unprofitable expenditures, in securing our legislation from the +pernicious consequences of a scramble for the favors of Government, and +in repressing the spirit of discontent which must inevitably arise from +an unequal distribution of treasures which belong alike to all." + +These declarations of President Jackson that he would approve no bill +containing appropriations even for objects of a national character, +until an amendment of the Constitution was adopted placing such +expenditures upon an equal footing towards all the States, were +reiterated in his Maysville veto. My election to the Presidency, and the +knowledge that I cordially approved, and was determined to sustain, the +ground taken in those two state papers upon the subject of internal +improvements, with the large Democratic vote in Congress, always opposed +upon principle to such grants, effectually closed the doors of the +national treasury against them for seven years. + +All similar applications, save for harbor and river appropriations, were +thus driven, as was anticipated, to the State legislatures. The money +expended for such improvements, when authorized by the States, were +chargeable upon the treasuries of the States, to be collected by direct +taxation. When made by incorporated companies under authority derived +from the States they were at the expense of their stockholders. All must +be sensible of the salutary check which these circumstances are +calculated to exert by increasing the circumspection and prudence with +which such expenses are incurred; and yet what immense amounts of money +have been irrecoverably sunk upon such works, and what widespread +embarrassments have they at times created in the financial affairs of +the country, through the headlong enterprise and adventurous spirit of +our people! + +We have only to imagine a transfer of the seat of these operations to +the halls of Congress to estimate the sums that would have been drawn +out of the National Treasury and carried to the States to be, for the +most part, expended upon local objects,--the scenes of log-rolling and +intrigue to which such scrambles would have given rise, and the utter +unscrupulousness of the applications that would thus have been produced. +What millions upon millions of the public funds would have been worse +than uselessly expended during the twenty-seven years that have elapsed +since the Democratic party, through their venerable and fearless +President, took the first effectual step to break up the practice! The +one hundred millions for which bills had been reported, and the other +hundred millions of applications pending before Congress when the +Maysville veto was interposed, according to the President's message, +furnish ample data upon which to found our calculations. No sum would +seem to be too large at which to place the probable amount of our +national debt if the plans of their political opponents had in this +regard been crowned with complete success. In view of such an event who +will be bold enough, with the subsequent experience of the country +before him, to place even a conjectural estimate upon that amount or +upon the extent to which valuable improvements, through individual +enterprise or under State authority, would have been postponed or +arrested forever by a further prosecution of the policy into which such +persevering efforts were made to lead the Federal Government. For +preservation from such prodigality and debt, and from the corruptions +that would have followed in their train, we are plainly and undeniably +indebted to the successful enforcement of the principles of the +Democratic party. + + [A space was here reserved in the original Manuscript for an + intended notice of the advantages derived to the country from the + establishment of the Independent Treasury; a measure proposed by + Mr. Van Buren in the first year of his Presidency and in his first + communication to Congress, and supported by the Democratic party. + + In consequence, however, of the interruptions to which this work + was subjected (and which are referred to in the Introduction), the + contemplated addition to it was never supplied.--EDITORS.] + +The measures of which I have spoken as the cherished policy of the old +Federal party and its successors taken as a whole were justly described +by Jefferson, in his much-abused letter to Mazzei, as "a contrivance +invented for the purpose of corruption and for assimilating us in all +respects to the rotten as well as the sound parts of the British +Constitution." A persuasion of their practical usefulness in some +respects entered more or less into the motives of the leaders on the +occasions both of their creation and of their attempted resuscitation; +but that they were by both regarded principally as elements of political +strength, and adopted as means by which to build up and sustain an +overshadowing money power in the country, through which the Democratic +spirit of the people might be kept in check, is at least equally +certain. Doubtless both of those political leaders honestly believed +such a check to be necessary to the public good. With Hamilton this +faith had from the beginning constituted an integral part of his +political system. Clay had been, in his youth, too much a man of the +people to avow such a belief, but that he became a convert to it in +after-life I have no doubt. But the Democratic spirit of the country did +not stand in need of any such restraint as that which they designed to +place upon its course. + +I have thus adverted to some of the advantages the country has derived +from the action of the Democratic party, to which must be added the +benefits conferred on the States by an extension of kindred principles +to the administration of the local governments. If its opponents are +asked for a statement of their contributions to the public welfare when +in power and by their efforts to defeat the measures of the Democratic +party, or to name a great measure of which they were the authors and +which has stood the test of experience, or one in the establishment of +which they have been prevented by factious or partisan opposition, but +which would now be received with favor by the people, or a principle +advocated by them for the administration of the Government, in which +they have been defeated but which would now be so received, or an +unsound one set up by their opponents which they have successfully +resisted,--what must be the replies to questions so simple yet so +comprehensive and important! Can it, on the other hand, be now denied +that notwithstanding the conceded capacities of their leaders, and their +possession of superior facilities for the acquisition and favorable +exercise of political power, their time and their resources have been +mainly employed in efforts to establish principles and build up systems +which have been to all appearance irrevocably condemned by the people, +and in unavailing efforts to defeat measures and principles which, after +a full experience, have proved acceptable to them, and through the +influence and operation of which the country has been gradually raised +to great power and unexampled prosperity. + +The course of events to which I have referred has had the effect of +breaking up as a national organization the party so long opposed to the +Democratic party, leaving the latter the only political association +co-extensive in its power and influence with the Union,--and the sole +survivor of all its national competitors. Of the eleven Presidents +elected since its accession to power in the Federal Government, +including the one in whose election it achieved its first national +triumph, nine were avowed supporters of the cause it sustained, and +eight its exclusive candidates. During the sixty years which will, at +the end of the present Presidential term, have passed away since the +occurrence of that great event, the chief magistracy of this country has +been in the hands of professed supporters of its principles, with the +exception only of four years and one month. + +Born of the spirit which impelled our early colonists to forsake the +abodes of civilization to establish among savages and in the wilderness +the sacred right of opinion, which encouraged and sustained them in all +their wanderings and sufferings and perils, and which finally conducted +the survivors through a long and bloody war to liberty and independence, +and representing the feelings and opinions of a majority of the people, +it has labored zealously and, in the main, successfully, to give effect +to those by which that momentous struggle was produced, to realize its +promises, to maintain the sanctity of the Constitution, and to uphold +"that equality of political rights" which Hamilton, though he could not +find it in his judgment to favor, yet truly described as "the foundation +of pure Republicanism." + +For the signal success of its beneficent and glorious mission the +country is indebted to the virtue and intelligence of the men of whom +this great party has from time to time been composed,--much to the +ability, industry, and devoted patriotism of James Madison; largely to +the iron will, fearlessness, and uprightness of Andrew Jackson; and more +conspicuously still to the genius, the honest and firm heart, and +spirit-stirring pen of its founder, Thomas Jefferson, who stands, in my +estimation, as a faithful republican, pure patriot, and wise and +accomplished statesman, unequaled in the history of man. His opinions +deliberately formed on important public questions, do not appear to have +undergone material change or modification, except perhaps in the case of +the issue raised in respect to the necessity of an amendment of the +Constitution to justify the admission of Louisiana into the Union. +Certain it is that he never entertained one which he could justly be +accused of having concealed or recanted to propitiate power or to +promote his own popularity, or which he was not on all suitable +occasions prompt to avow and to defend. The presence of this noble +spirit, and a readiness to encounter any sacrifice necessary to its free +indulgence, were manifest in every crisis of his eventful life; nor were +his last moments on earth without an impressive exhibition of its +continued ascendency, even when reason and sense were passing away. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON, + +TO MARTIN VAN BUREN. + + MONTICELLO, June 29, 1824. + +DEAR SIR,--I have to thank you for Mr. Pickering's elaborate Philippic +against Mr. Adams, Gerry, Smith, and myself; and I have delayed the +acknowledgment until I could read it and make some observations on it. + +I could not have believed that, for so many years, and to such a period +of advanced age, he could have nourished passions so vehement and +viperous. It appears, that for thirty years past, he has been +industriously collecting materials for vituperating the characters he +had marked for his hatred; some of whom, certainly, if enmities towards +him had ever existed, had forgotten them all, or buried them in the +grave with themselves. As to myself, there never had been any thing +personal between us, nothing but the general opposition of party +sentiment; and our personal intercourse had been that of urbanity, as +himself says. But it seems he has been all this time brooding over an +enmity which I had never felt, and yet that with respect to myself as +well as others, he has been writing far and near, and in every +direction, to get hold of original letters, where he could, copies, +where he could not, certificates and journals, catching at every +gossiping story he could hear of in any quarter, supplying by suspicions +what he could find nowhere else, and then arguing on this motley +farrago, as if established on gospel evidence. And while expressing his +wonder that "at the age of eighty-eight, the strong passions of Mr. +Adams should not have cooled;" that on the contrary "they had acquired +the mastery of his soul" (p. 100); that "where these were enlisted, no +reliance could be placed on his statements" (p. 104); "the facility and +little truth with which he could represent facts and occurrences, +concerning persons who were the objects of his hatred" (p. 3); that "he +is capable of making the grossest misrepresentations, and, from detached +facts, and often from bare suspicions, of drawing unwarrantable +inferences, if suited to his purpose at the instant" (p. 174); while +making such charges, I say, on Mr. Adams, instead of his "_ecce homo_" +(p. 100), how justly might we say to him, "_mutato nomine, de te fabula +narratur_." For the assiduity and industry he has employed in his +benevolent researches after matter of crimination against us, I refer to +his pages 13, 14, 34, 36, 46, 71, 79, 90, bis. 92, 93, bis. 101, ter. +104, 116, 118, 141, 143, 146, 150, 151, 153, 168, 171, 172. That Mr. +Adams' strictures on him, written and printed, should have excited some +notice on his part, was not perhaps to be wondered at. But the +sufficiency of his motive for the large attack on me may be more +questionable. He says (p. 4), "of Mr. Jefferson I should have said +nothing, but for his letter to Mr. Adams, of October 12th, 1823." Now +the object of that letter was to soothe the feelings of a friend, +wounded by a publication which I thought an "outrage on private +confidence." Not a word or allusion in it respected Mr. Pickering, nor +was it suspected that it would draw forth his pen in justification of +this infidelity, which he has, however, undertaken in the course of his +pamphlet, but more particularly in its conclusion. + +He arraigns me on two grounds, my actions and my motives. The very +actions, however, which he arraigns, have been such as the great +majority of my fellow citizens have approved. The approbation of Mr. +Pickering, and of those who thought with him, I had no right to expect. +My motives he chuses to ascribe to hypocrisy, to ambition, and a passion +for popularity. Of these the world must judge between us. It is no +office of his or mine. To that tribunal I have ever submitted my actions +and motives, without ransacking the Union for certificates, letters, +journals, and gossiping tales, to justify myself and weary them. Nor +shall I do this on the present occasion, but leave still to them these +antiquated party diatribes, now newly revamped and paraded as if they +had not been already a thousand times repeated, refuted, and adjudged +against him, by the nation itself. If no action is to be deemed virtuous +for which malice can imagine a sinister motive, then there never was a +virtuous action; no, not even in the life of our Saviour himself. But he +has taught us to judge the tree by its fruit, and to leave motives to +him who can alone see into them. + +But whilst I leave to its fate the libel of Mr. Pickering, with the +thousands of others like it, to which I have given no other answer than +a steady course of similar action, there are two facts or fancies of his +which I must set to rights. The one respects Mr. Adams, the other +myself. He observes that my letter of October 12th, 1823, acknowledges +the receipt of one from Mr. Adams, of September 18th, which, having been +written a few days after Cunningham's publication, he says was no doubt +written to apologize to me for the pointed reproaches he had uttered +against me in his confidential letters to Cunningham. And thus having +"no doubt" of his conjecture, he considers it as proven, goes on to +suppose the contents of the letter (19, 22), makes it place Mr. Adams at +my feet suing for pardon, and continues to rant upon it, as an undoubted +fact. Now, I do most solemnly declare, that so far from being a letter +of apology, as Mr. Pickering so undoubtingly assumes, there was not a +word nor allusion in it respecting Cunningham's publication. + +The other allegation, respecting myself, is equally false. In page 34, +he quotes Doctor Stuart as having, twenty years ago, informed him that +General Washington, "when he became a private citizen," called me to +account for expressions in a letter to Mazzei, requiring, in a tone of +unusual severity, an explanation of that letter. He adds of himself, "in +what manner the latter humbled himself and appeased the just resentment +of Washington, will never be known, as some time after his death the +correspondence was not to be found, and a diary for an important period +of his Presidency was also missing." The diary being of transactions +during his Presidency, the letter to Mazzei not known here until some +time _after he became a private citizen_, and the pretended +correspondence of course after that, I know not why this lost diary and +supposed correspondence are brought together here, unless for +insinuations worthy of the letter itself. The correspondence could not +be found, indeed, because it had never existed. I do affirm that there +never passed a word, written or verbal, directly or indirectly, between +General Washington and myself on the subject of that letter. He would +never have degraded himself so far as to take to himself the imputation +in that letter on the "Samsons in combat." The whole story is a +fabrication, and I defy the framers of it, and all mankind, to produce a +scrip of a pen between General Washington and myself on the subject, or +any other evidence more worthy of credit than the suspicions, +suppositions and presumptions of the two persons here quoting and quoted +for it. With Doctor Stuart I had not much acquaintance. I supposed him +to be an honest man, knew him to be a very weak one, and, like Mr. +Pickering, very prone to antipathies, boiling with party passions, and +under the dominion of these readily welcoming fancies for facts. But +come the story from whomsoever it might, it is an unqualified falsehood. + +This letter to Mazzei has been a precious theme of crimination for +Federal malice. It was a long letter of business, in which was inserted +a single paragraph only of political information as to the state of our +country. In this information there was not one word which would not then +have been, or would not now be approved by every Republican in the +United States, looking back to those times; as you will see by a +faithful copy now enclosed of the whole of what that letter said on the +subject of the United States, or of its government. This paragraph, +extracted and translated, got into a Paris paper at a time when the +persons in power there were laboring under very general disfavor, and +their friends were eager to catch even at straws to buoy them up. To +them, therefore, I have always imputed the interpolation of an entire +paragraph additional to mine, which makes me charge my own country with +ingratitude and injustice to France. There was not a word in my letter +respecting France, or any of the proceedings or relations between this +country and that. Yet this interpolated paragraph has been the burthen +of Federal calumny, has been constantly quoted by them, made the subject +of unceasing and virulent abuse, and is still quoted, as you see, by +Mr. Pickering, page 33, as if it were genuine, and really written by me. +And even Judge Marshall makes history descend from its dignity, and the +ermine from its sanctity, to exaggerate, to record, and to sanction this +forgery. In the very last note of his book, he says, "a letter from Mr. +Jefferson to Mr. Mazzei, an Italian, was published in Florence, and +republished in the 'Moniteur,' with very severe strictures on the +conduct of the United States." And instead of the letter itself, he +copies what he says are the remarks of the editor, which are an +exaggerated commentary on the fabricated paragraph itself, and silently +leaves to his reader to make the ready inference that these were the +sentiments of the letter. Proof is the duty of the affirmative side. A +negative cannot be positively proved. But, in defect of impossible proof +of what was not in the original letter, I have its press-copy still in +my possession. It has been shown to several, and is open to any one who +wishes to see it. I have presumed only, that the interpolation was done +in Paris. But I never saw the letter in either its Italian or French +dress, and it may have been done here, with the commentary handed down +to posterity by the Judge. The genuine paragraph, retranslated through +Italian and French into English, as it appeared here in a Federal paper, +besides the mutilated hue which these translations and retranslations of +it produced generally, gave a mistranslation of a single word, which +entirely perverted its meaning, and made it a pliant and fertile text of +misrepresentation of my political principles. The original, speaking of +an Anglican, monarchical, and aristocratical party, which had sprung up +since he had left us, states their object to be "to draw over us the +substance, as they had already done the _forms_ of the British +Government." Now the forms here meant, were the levees, birthdays, the +pompous cavalcade to the state house on the meeting of Congress, the +formal speech from the throne, the procession of Congress in a body to +reėcho the speech in an answer, &c., &c. But the translator here, by +substituting _form_ in the singular number, for _forms_ in the plural, +made it mean the frame or organization of our government, or its _form_ +of legislative, executive, and judiciary authorities coördinate and +independent; to which _form_ it was to be inferred that I was an enemy. +In this sense they always quoted it, and in this sense Mr. Pickering +still quotes it, pages 34, 35, 38, and countenances the inference. Now +General Washington perfectly understood what I meant by these forms, as +they were frequent subjects of conversation between us. When, on my +return from Europe, I joined the government in March, 1790, at New York, +I was much astonished, indeed, at the mimicry I found established of +royal forms and ceremonies, and more alarmed at the unexpected +phenomenon, by the monarchical sentiments I heard expressed and openly +maintained in every company, and among others by the high members of the +government, executive and judiciary, (General Washington alone +excepted,) and by a great part of the legislature, save only some +members who had been of the old Congress, and a very few of recent +introduction. I took occasion, at various times, of expressing to +General Washington my disappointment at these symptoms of a change of +principle, and that I thought them encouraged by the forms and +ceremonies which I found prevailing, not at all in character with the +simplicity of Republican government, and looking as if wishfully to +those of European courts. His general explanations to me were that when +he arrived at New York, to enter on the executive administration of the +new government, he observed to those who were to assist him, that, +placed as he was in an office entirely new to him, unacquainted with the +forms and ceremonies of other governments, still less apprized of those +which might be properly established here, and himself perfectly +indifferent to all forms, he wished them to consider and prescribe what +they should be; and the task was assigned particularly to General Knox, +a man of parade, and to Colonel Humphreys, who had resided some time at +a foreign court. They, he said, were the authors of the present +regulations, and that others were proposed so highly strained that he +absolutely rejected them. Attentive to the difference of opinion +prevailing on this subject, when the term of his second election arrived +he called the heads of departments together, observed to them the +situation in which he had been at the commencement of the government, +the advice he had taken and the course he had observed in compliance +with it; that a proper occasion had now arrived of revising that course, +of correcting in it any particulars not approved in experience, and he +desired us to consult together, agree on any changes we should think for +the better, and that he should willingly conform to what we should +advise. We met at my office. Hamilton and myself agreed at once that +there was too much ceremony for the character of our government, and +particularly, that the parade of the installation at New York ought not +to be copied on the present occasion; that the President should desire +the Chief Justice to attend him at his chambers, that he should +administer the oath of office to him in the presence of the higher +officers of the government, and that the certificate of the fact should +be delivered to the Secretary of State to be recorded. Randolph and Knox +differed from us, the latter vehemently; they thought it not advisable +to change any of the established forms, and we authorized Randolph to +report our opinions to the President. As these opinions were divided, +and no positive advice given as to any change, no change was made. Thus +the _forms_ which I had censured in my letter to Mazzei were perfectly +understood by General Washington, and were those which he himself but +barely tolerated. He had furnished me a proper occasion for proposing +their reformation, and, my opinion not prevailing, he knew I could not +have meant any part of the censure for him. + +Mr. Pickering quotes, too (page 34), the expression in the letter of +"the men who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but +who had had their heads shorn by the harlot England;" or, as expressed +in their re-translation, "the men who were Solomons in council, and +Samsons in combat, but whose hair had been cut off by the whore +England." Now this expression also was perfectly understood by General +Washington. He knew that I meant it for the Cincinnati generally, and +that, from what had passed between us at the commencement of that +institution, I could not mean to include him. When the first meeting was +called for its establishment, I was a member of the Congress then +sitting at Annapolis. General Washington wrote to me, asking my opinion +on that proposition, and the course, if any, which I thought Congress +would observe respecting it. I wrote him frankly my own disapprobation +of it; that I found the members of Congress generally in the same +sentiment; that I thought they would take no express notice of it, but +that in all appointments of trust, honor, or profit, they would silently +pass by all candidates of that order, and give an uniform preference to +others. On his way to the first meeting in Philadelphia, which I think +was in the spring of 1784, he called on me at Annapolis. It was a little +after candle-light, and he sat with me till after midnight, conversing, +almost exclusively, on that subject. While he was feelingly indulgent to +the motives which might induce the officers to promote it, he concurred +with me entirely in condemning it; and when I expressed an idea that if +the hereditary quality were suppressed, the institution might perhaps be +indulged during the lives of the officers now living, and who had +actually served, "no," he said, "not a fibre of it ought to be left, to +be an eye-sore to the public, a ground of dissatisfaction, and a line of +separation between them and their country;" and he left me with a +determination to use all his influence for its entire suppression. On +his return from the meeting he called on me again, and related to me the +course the thing had taken. He said that from the beginning, he had used +every endeavor to prevail on the officers to renounce the project +altogether, urging the many considerations which would render it odious +to their fellow citizens, and disreputable and injurious to themselves; +that he had at length prevailed on most of the old officers to reject +it, although with great and warm opposition from others, and especially +the younger ones, among whom he named Colonel W. S. Smith as +particularly intemperate. But that, in this state of things, when he +thought the question safe, and the meeting drawing to a close, Major +L'Enfant arrived from France, with a bundle of eagles, for which he had +been sent there, with letters from the French officers who had served in +America, praying for admission into the order, and a solemn act of their +king permitting them to wear its ensign. This, he said, changed the face +of matters at once, produced an entire revulsion of sentiment, and +turned the torrent so strongly in an opposite direction that it could be +no longer withstood; all he could then obtain was a suppression of the +hereditary quality. He added that it was the French applications, and +respect for the approbation of the king, which saved the establishment +in its modified and temporary form. Disapproving thus of the institution +as much as I did, and conscious that I knew him to do so, he could never +suppose I meant to include him among the Samsons in the field, whose +object was to draw over us the _form_, as they made the letter say, of +the British Government, and especially its aristocratic member, an +hereditary house of lords. Add to this, that the letter saying that "two +out of the three branches of legislature were against us" was an obvious +exception of him; it being well known that the majorities in the two +branches, of Senate and Representatives, were the very instruments which +carried, in opposition to the old and real Republicans, the measures +which were the subjects of condemnation in this letter. General +Washington then, understanding perfectly what and whom I meant to +designate, in both phrases, and that they could not have any application +or view to himself, could find, in neither, any cause of offence to +himself; and therefore neither needed, nor ever asked any explanation of +them from me. Had it even been otherwise, they must know very little of +General Washington, who should believe to be within the laws of his +character what Doctor Stuart is said to have imputed to him. Be this, +however, as it may, the story is infamously false in every article of +it. My last parting with General Washington was at the inauguration of +Mr. Adams, in March, 1797, and was warmly affectionate; and I never had +any reason to believe any change on his part, as there certainly was +none on mine. But one session of Congress intervened between that and +his death, the year following, in my passage to and from which as it +happened to be not convenient to call on him, I never had another +opportunity; and as to the cessation of correspondence observed during +that short interval, no particular circumstance occurred for epistolary +communication, and both of us were too much oppressed with +letter-writing, to trouble, either the other, with a letter about +nothing. + +The truth is that the Federalists, pretending to be the exclusive +friends of General Washington, have ever done what they could to sink +his character, by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy +of Republicans him who, of all men, is best entitled to the appellation +of the father of that republic which they were endeavoring to subvert, +and the Republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections +proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the +republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend +to the republican principles of our constitution. His faith, perhaps, in +its duration, might not have been as confident as mine; but he +repeatedly declared to me that he was determined it should have a fair +chance for success; and that he would lose the last drop of his blood in +its support, against any attempt which might be made to change it from +its republican form. He made these declarations the oftener because he +knew my suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet +my jealousies on this subject. For Hamilton frankly avowed that he +considered the British Constitution, with all the corruptions of its +administration, as the most perfect model of government which had ever +been devised by the wit of man; professing however, at the same time, +that the spirit of this country was so fundamentally republican, that it +would be visionary to think of introducing monarchy here, and that, +therefore, it was the duty of its administrators to conduct it on the +principles their constituents had elected. + +General Washington, after the retirement of his first cabinet, and the +composition of his second, entirely Federal, and at the head of which +was Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both sides of +any question. His measures, consequently, took more the hue of the party +in whose hands he was. These measures were certainly not approved by the +Republicans; yet were they not imputed to him, but to the counsellors +around him; and his prudence so far restrained their impassioned course +and bias, that no act of strong mark, during the remainder of his +administration, excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time +after, and too much withdrawn from information, to correct the views +into which he had been deluded; and the continued assiduities of the +party drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career, separated +him still farther from his real friends, and excited him to actions and +expressions of dissatisfaction, which grieved them, but could not loosen +their affections from him. They would not suffer this temporary +aberration to weigh against the immeasurable merits of his life; and +although they tumbled his seducers from their places, they preserved his +memory embalmed in their hearts, with undiminished love and devotion; +and there it forever will remain embalmed, in entire oblivion of every +temporary thing which might cloud the glories of his splendid life. It +is vain, then, for Mr. Pickering and his friends to endeavor to falsify +his character, by representing him as an enemy to Republicans and +republican principles, and as exclusively the friend of those who were +so; and had he lived longer, he would have returned to his ancient and +unbiased opinions, would have replaced his confidence in those whom the +people approved and supported, and would have seen that they were only +restoring and acting on the principles of his own first administration. + +I find, my dear Sir, that I have written you a very long letter, or +rather a history. The civility of having sent me a copy of Mr. +Pickering's diatribe, would scarcely justify its address to you. I do +not publish these things, because my rule of life has been never to +harass the public with feedings and provings of personal slanders; and +least of all would I descend into the arena of slander with such a +champion as Mr. Pickering. I have ever trusted to the justice and +consideration of my fellow citizens, and have no reason to repent it, or +to change my course. At this time of life too, tranquillity is the +_summum bonum_. But although I decline all newspaper controversy, yet, +when falsehoods have been advanced, within the knowledge of no one so +much as myself, I have sometimes deposited a contradiction in the hands +of a friend, which, if worth preservation, may, when I am no more, nor +these whom it might offend, throw light on history, and recall that into +the path of truth. And, if of no other value, the present communication +may amuse you with anecdotes not known to every one. + +I had meant to have added some views on the amalgamation of parties, to +which your favor of the 8th has some allusion; an amalgamation of name, +but not of principle. Tories are tories still, by whatever name they may +be called. But my letter is already too unmercifully long, and I close +it here with assurances of my great esteem and respectful consideration. + +TH. JEFFERSON. + + +[_Enclosed in the above._] + +EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM TH. JEFFERSON, TO PHILIP MAZZEI, + +April 24, 1796. + +"The aspect of our politics has wonderfully changed since you left us. +In place of that noble love of liberty and republican Government which +carried us triumphantly through the war, an Anglican, Monarchical and +Aristocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed object is to draw over +us the substance as they have already done the forms of the British +government. The main body of our citizens, however, remain true to their +republican principles. The whole landed interest is republican, and so +is a great mass of talent. Against us are the Executive, the Judiciary, +two out of three branches of the legislature, all the officers of the +government, all who want to be officers, all timid men who prefer the +calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants, +and Americans trading on British capitals, speculators, and holders in +the banks and public funds,--contrivance invented for the purpose of +corruption, and for assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well +as the sound parts of the British model. It would give you a fever were +I to name to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies; men +who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but who have +had their heads shorn by the harlot England. In short, we are likely to +preserve the liberty we have obtained only by unremitting labors and +perils. But we shall preserve them; and our mass of weight and wealth on +the good side is so great as to leave no danger that force will ever be +attempted against us. We have only to awake and snap the Liliputian +cords with which they have been entangling us during the first sleep +which succeeded our labors." + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + +Footnotes in the original text were marked at the page level, beginning +at Footnote #1 each time footnotes appeared on a page. Footnote numbers +for the whole text have been replaced with sequential footnote numbers, +from 1 to 40. + +Spellings of reelect-, coordinat-, and cooperat- in this +transcription have been normalized for consistency to reėlect-, +coördinat-, and coöperat-. + +Page 426: A closing qutotation, absent in the original publication, has +been supplied at the end of the following: "the facility and +little truth with which he could represent facts and occurrences, +concerning persons who were the objects of his hatred". + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of +Political Parties in the United States, by Martin Van Buren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INQUIRY *** + +***** This file should be named 35932-8.txt or 35932-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/9/3/35932/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Gary Rees and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +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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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: Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States + +Author: Martin Van Buren + +Editor: Abraham Van Buren + John Van Buren + +Release Date: April 22, 2011 [EBook #35932] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INQUIRY *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Gary Rees and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" alt="Portrait of Martin Van Buren"/> +<br /> +<br /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>INQUIRY</h2> + +<div class="center">INTO</div> + +<h3>THE ORIGIN AND COURSE</h3> + +<div class="center">OF</div> + +<h1>POLITICAL PARTIES</h1> + +<div class="center">IN THE</div> + +<h2>UNITED STATES.<br /><br /><br /></h2> + +<div class="center">BY THE LATE EX-PRESIDENT</div> + +<h2>MARTIN VAN BUREN.<br /><br /><br /></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Nam quis nescit primam esse historię legem ne quid falsi dicere +audeat? deinde, ne quid veri non audeat? Ne qua suspicio gratię sit +in scribendo? Ne qua simultatis? <span class="smcap">Cicero</span>. <i>De Orat.</i> Lib. <span class="smcap">II</span>. +<br /> +<br /> +</p></div> + +<h3>EDITED BY HIS SONS. +<br /> +<br /> + +NEW YORK:<br /> +PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON.<br /> +1867.<br /> +</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="center">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by<br /> +<span class="smcap">Smith T. Van Buren</span>,<br /> +in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of<br /> +New York.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:<br /> +STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY<br /> +H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> +<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2> + + +<p>The following pages originally formed part of a much larger work, from +the general course and design of which they constituted a digression. It +seems therefore proper to preface them by a few words of explanation, +relating chiefly to the work from which they are now separated.</p> + +<p>Mr. Van Buren, eighth President of the United States, on the expiration +of his term of office, in the year 1841, retired to a country residence +near Kinderhook, (the place of his birth,) in the State of New York, +which he had then recently purchased, and to which he gave the name of +Lindenwald. Here, with infrequent and brief interruptions, he continued +to reside for some twenty years, or until his death, which occurred in +July, 1862. Although numbering nearly sixty years of age,—two-thirds of +which had been years of almost incessant activity and excitement, +professional, political, and social,—at the period of his withdrawal to +the tranquil scenes and occupations of rural life, he embraced the +latter with an ardor and a relish that surprised not a little the +friends who had known him only as prominent in, and apparently engrossed +by, the public service, but which were happy results of early +predilections, an even and cheerful temper, fitting him for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span> and +constantly inclining him to the enjoyment of domestic intercourse, a +hearty love of Nature, and a sound constitution of mind and body. After +twelve years of the period of his retirement had passed, happily and +contentedly, he began to apply a portion of his "large leisure" to a +written review of his previous life, and to recording his recollections +of his contemporaries and of his times. To this work, as he intimates in +its opening paragraphs, he was mainly induced by the solicitations of +life-long friends, who, (it may be here added,) knowing the importance +and interest of the scenes and incidents of his extended public career, +and the extraordinary influence he had exerted upon public men and +questions of his time, and perceiving the tenaciousness of his memory +and the charm of his conversation unimpaired by the lapse of seventy +years, confidently anticipated a work of much interest in such a record +as they urged upon him to make.</p> + +<p>But although Mr. Van Buren so far complied with these suggestions as to +set about writing his memoirs, he was not inclined to pursue the +employment as a task, or to devote more of his time to it than could be +easily spared from other occupations in which he was interested, and in +order to keep himself from every temptation to exceed this limitation, +he resolved, at the start, that no part of what he might write should be +published in his lifetime. The work which he had commenced, was thus +exposed to frequent interruption, even by unimportant accidents, and at +length was altogether arrested by the serious illness of a member of his +family, and by the failure of his own health, which rapidly supervened. +It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span> resulted that the recorded memoirs of his life and times closed +abruptly when he had brought them down to the date of 1833-34, and that +he never revised for publication what he had written. There is evidence +that he contemplated such a revision when he should reach a convenient +stage of his progress, but from the circumstances under which he wrote +(which have been alluded to) as well as from his comparatively small +interest in the mere graces of composition, the <i>labor limę</i> was +continually postponed, and the "flighty purpose" was never o'ertaken. +When, after his death, the subject of the disposition of these memoirs +was presented to his sons, to whom his papers had been intrusted, they +were embarrassed by questions as to the manner and form in which it was +their duty to give them the publicity intended by their author. Should +they, notwithstanding unaffected distrust of their qualifications, and a +deep sense of special unfitness arising from natural partiality, +undertake to continue the history of their father's life from the point +at which his own account had ceased, to supply, as far as they could, +the gaps in the previous narrative which had been left by him for +further examination or after-construction, and to give to the work the +extensive revision which, in the state in which it came to their hands, +it seemed to require? Or should they publish the unfinished and +unrevised memoirs, as they were left, <i>as a fragment</i> and a +contribution, so far as they might go, to the history of the country? +Would one or the other of these be such a history of the life of a +statesman who had filled a large space in the observation of his +countrymen, and who had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span> exerted a controlling influence in the +Government during interesting and critical periods, as would answer a +natural and just public expectation, or satisfy the many warm friends +who survived him? While occupied with the consideration of these +questions, they received a note from Charles H. Hunt, Esq., informing +them that he felt strongly inclined to write a Biography of Mr. Van +Buren, and requesting the use for that purpose of any materials within +their power to furnish. An additional paragraph of Mr. Hunt's note, +referring to the rumor of writings left by Mr. Van Buren, showed that he +had been entirely misinformed as to the nature and extent of those +writings; he, in effect, supposing them to consist solely of +disquisitions on various political questions.</p> + +<p>The communication of Mr. Hunt not only superseded the necessity of +deciding between the alternative propositions mentioned, but afforded +them in all respects great satisfaction. His ripe and graceful +scholarship, sound judgment, and pure taste were widely known, and +especially to all who, like themselves, enjoyed familiar acquaintance +with him. He had, moreover, recently advanced by a single step to the +first rank among American biographers—a position readily accorded by +recognized authority in the republic of letters, at home and abroad, to +the author of the "Life of Edward Livingston." To such hands they could +not hesitate to commit the work proposed, so far as they were able to +control it, feeling assured that, while Mr. Hunt would bring to its +performance the disinterestedness and impartiality indispensable to give +it value as a history, and which are with difficulty main<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span>tained in +family memorials, his inclination to undertake it was evidence of a +general sympathy with, or at least respect for, Mr. Van Buren's +character and public career sufficient to authorize the relinquishment +to him of the materials in their possession. Accordingly the fragmentary +memoirs, with all the correspondence and other manuscripts applicable to +his purpose, and within their reach, were committed to Mr. Hunt, by Mr. +Van Buren's representatives, with entire satisfaction and confidence +that they will be used with fidelity and skill in the construction of +the work he has undertaken,—a confidence that will be shared by Mr. Van +Buren's surviving friends and by the public.</p> + +<p>The main body of manuscripts left by Mr. Van Buren having been thus +applied, some question remained in regard to that portion now published. +Begun as an episode, the subject grew on the author's hands (as he +explains in a note) to such proportions as to seem to stand more +properly as a distinct production, and although, like the principal +work, incomplete, it had been nevertheless carried forward to the point, +chronologically speaking, that had been proposed, and that was in fact +its natural termination. For this reason, and because it had no such +connection with the memoirs as required that they should be printed +together, it has been thought best to publish it without further delay +in the form in which it was left by the writer. The subject is of +peculiar interest at this time when our country, having suffered the +rude shock and disorder of civil war, and our free and popular +institutions having sustained with admirable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> firmness and substantial +triumph a more fearful trial than any to which they had before been +subjected, the sacred and momentous duty is devolved on patriots and +good citizens throughout our borders to reconstruct whatever valuable +parts have been thrown down, to restore what may have been injured or +defaced in our political system and in the principles on which it rests; +and the occasion seems auspicious for recalling the attention of our +people to the study of the lives and doctrines—the grounds and motives +of action—of the great men by whom the foundations of their government +were laid.</p> + +<p>The work of editing this volume has been inconsiderable, the sum of it +having been to correct a few manifest inadvertencies, to divide it into +chapters, with indexical heads, to furnish the whole with a title, and +to add one or two foot-notes that appeared to be proper. Otherwise the +aim has been to preserve the form and substance of the original. The +citation from Cicero on the title-page was found on Mr. Van Buren's +table, in his library, extracted in his own handwriting; whether only as +a terse declaration of the law by the spirit of which his pen was +guided, or as a possible motto for his complete work, is not known. The +letter from Mr. Jefferson, forming an Appendix, was intended by Mr. Van +Buren to be printed with whatever of his own might reach publication, +and is spoken of in the present volume as "accompanying this work." It +is now printed for the first time from the original manuscript letter, +and a few errors in the edition published (probably from the draft) by +the Library Committees of Congress are corrected.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p> + +<p>The portrait fronting this book is engraved from Brady's imperial +photograph, by Ritchie, and must be pronounced a very favorable specimen +of his art. It represents Mr. Van Buren in the seventy-fifth year of his +age.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><span class="smcap">Edgehill, Fishkill-on-Hudson, N. Y.</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;"><i>February, 1867</i>.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<h1>POLITICAL PARTIES<br /></h1> + +<h3>IN THE<br /></h3> + +<h2>UNITED STATES.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Gratifying Period in our History embraced by Administrations of +Jefferson and Madison—The Caucus System and its Abandonment—The +System useful to the Republican or Democratic Party, but not so to +the Federalists—Questions proposed—Difficulties of the +Subject—Two great Parties, under changing Names, have always +divided the Country—Few and imperfect Attempts heretofore made to +trace the Origin and Principles of those Parties—This the first +Attempt with that object on the Republican or Democratic Side—The +Sources of Differences in Opinion and Feeling which gave rise to +our Political Divisions, and <i>punctum temporis</i> of their +Rise—Principles established by the English Revolution of +1688—Application of those Principles to the Colonies—Grounds of +the American Revolution—Abstract Opinions regain their Influence +after the Settlement of the practical Questions involved in the +Revolution—Diverse Character and Feelings of Emigrants to the +different Colonies—Effect of that Diversity on Principles of +Government and Administration in the New Governments—Repugnance of +the People to any Revival of the System overthrown by the +Revolution—Popular Reluctance to create an Executive Branch of the +Government—Confederacy of the United Colonies of New England in +1643—Dr. Franklin's Plan of Union in 1755—The Sentiments of the +Colonists those of the Whigs of the +Revolution—Exceptions—Discordant Materials, in certain Respects, +of which the Revolutionary Brotherhood was composed—Effects of +that Discordance upon the subsequent Organization of Political +Parties—The Confederation, and Parties for and against +it—Perversion of Party Names—Conflicts and Questions in +Controversy between Federalists and Anti-Federalists—The +Constitutional Convention of 1787—Different Plans proposed before +it—Motives and Views of the Authors of those Plans—The Views +which determined Congress and the People to acquiesce in the +Results of the Convention—Adoption of the Constitution and +Extinction of the Anti-Federal Party as such.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>here has been no period in our history, since the establishment of our +Independence, to which the sin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>cere friend of free institutions can turn +with more unalloyed satisfaction, than to that embraced by the +administrations of Jefferson and Madison, moved as they were by a common +impulse. Mr. Jefferson commenced the discharge of his official duties by +an act which, though one of form, involved matter of the highest moment. +I allude to the decision and facility with which, in his intercourse +with the other branches of the Government, he suppressed the observance +of empty ceremonies which had been borrowed from foreign courts by +officers who took an interest in such matters, and were reluctantly +tolerated by Washington, who was himself above them. Instead of +proceeding in state to the capitol to deliver a speech to the +legislature, according to the custom of monarchs, he performed his +constitutional duty by means of a message in writing, sent to each House +by the hands of his private secretary, and they performed theirs by a +reference of its contents to appropriate committees. The Executive +procession, instead of marking the intercourse between the different +branches of the Government, was reserved for the Inauguration, when the +President appeared before the people themselves, and in their presence +took the oath of office.</p> + +<p>A step so appropriate and so much in harmony with our institutions, was +naturally followed by efforts for the abolition of offices and official +establishments not necessary to the public service, the reduction of the +public expenses, and the repeal of odious internal taxes. To these he +added the influence of his individual example to keep the organization +and action of the Federal Government upon that simple and economical +footing which is consistent with the Republican system. In this branch +of his official conduct he established precedents of great value, from +some of which his successors have not ventured to depart.</p> + +<p>With the single exception of his approval of the Bank<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> of the United +States, the administration of Mr. Madison was one of great merit, and +was made especially illustrious by conducting the country through a war +imperishably honorable for its military achievements and the consequent +elevation of our national character.</p> + +<p>Jefferson and Madison were brought forward by caucus nominations; they, +throughout, recognized and adhered to the political party that elected +them; and they left it united and powerful, when, at the close of public +life, they carried into their retirement, and always enjoyed, the +respect, esteem, and confidence of all their countrymen.</p> + +<p>Mr. Monroe's administration did not introduce any very disturbing public +questions. The protective policy was, toward its close, generally +acquiesced in at the North and West, and no part of the South as yet +even contemplated the resistance which was subsequently attempted. The +agitation in regard to internal improvements was yet for the most part +speculative and too far in advance of any contemplated action to stir +the public mind. The Bank of the United States was having its own way +without question on the part of the Government, and with but little if +any suspicion on the part of the people. No very embarrassing questions +had arisen in our foreign relations; yet the first year of Mr. Monroe's +second term had scarcely passed away before the political atmosphere +became inflamed to an unprecedented extent. The Republican party, so +long in the ascendant, and apparently so omnipotent, was literally +shattered into fragments, and we had no fewer than five Republican +Presidential candidates in the field.</p> + +<p>In the place of two great parties arrayed against each other in a fair +and open contest for the establishment of principles in the +administration of Government which they respectively believed most +conducive to the public interest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> the country was overrun with personal +factions. These having few higher motives for the selection of their +candidates or stronger incentives to action than individual preferences +or antipathies, moved the bitter waters of political agitation to their +lowest depths.</p> + +<p>The occurrence of scenes discreditable to all had for a long time been +prevented by a steady adherence on the part of the Republican party to +the caucus system; and if Mr. Monroe's views and feelings upon the +subject had been the same as were those of Jefferson and Madison, the +results to which I have alluded, and which were soon sincerely +deprecated, might have been prevented by the same means. There was no +difference in the political condition of the country between 1816—when +Mr. Monroe received a caucus nomination, on a close vote between Mr. +Crawford and himself, and was elected—and 1824, when the caucus system +was appealed to by the supporters of Mr. Crawford, which called for its +abandonment. The Federal party were on both occasions incapable of +successfully resisting a candidate in whose favor the Republicans were +united, and they were on each sufficiently strong to control the +election when the support of their opponents was divided amongst +several. Mr. Monroe and a majority of his cabinet were unfortunately +influenced by different views, and pursued a course well designed to +weaken the influence of the caucus system, and to cause its abandonment. +Mr. Crawford was the only candidate who, it was believed, could be +benefited by adhering to it, and the friends of all the others sustained +the policy of the administration. Those of Jackson, Adams, Clay, and +Calhoun, united in an address to the people condemning the practice of +caucus nominations, and announcing their determination to disregard +them. Already weakened through the adverse influence of the +administration, the agency which had so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> long preserved the unity of the +Republican party did not retain sufficient strength to resist the +combined assault that was made upon it, and was overthrown. Mr. Crawford +and his friends adhered to it to the last, and fell with it.</p> + +<p>It is a striking fact in our political history that the sagacious +leaders of the Federal party, as well under that name as under others by +which it has at different times been known, have always been desirous to +bring every usage or plan designed to secure party unity into disrepute +with the people, and in proportion to their success in that has been +their success in the elections. When they have found such usage too +strong to be overthrown for the time being, they have adopted it +themselves, but only to return to their denunciations of it after every +defeat. It would, on first impression, seem that a practice which is +good for one political party must be good for another; but when the +matter is more closely looked into, it will be discovered that the +policy of the Federal leaders referred to, like most of the acts of +those far-seeing men, rested upon substantial foundations. It +originated, beyond doubt, in the conviction, on the part of the early +Federalists, that a political organization in support of the particular +principles which they advocated, and to which they intended to adhere, +did not stand as much in need of extraneous means to secure harmony in +its ranks as did that of their opponents.</p> + +<p>The results of general elections for more than half a century have +served to confirm this opinion. With the exception of a single instance, +susceptible of easy explanation, the Republican, now Democratic party, +whenever it has been wise enough to employ the caucus or convention +system, and to use in good faith the influence it is capable of +imparting to the popular cause, has been successful, and it has been +defeated whenever that system has been laid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> aside or employed unfairly. +With the Federal party and its successors the results have been widely +different; with or without the caucus system they have generally found +no difficulty in uniting whenever union promised success.</p> + +<p>Why is it that a system or practice open to both parties, occasionally +used by both, and apparently equally useful to both, is in fact so much +less necessary to one than to the other? If this consequence springs +from a corresponding difference in the principles for the defense and +spread of which they have respectively been formed, what are those +principles, whence are they derived, and what is their history?</p> + +<p>These are grave questions, which have often presented themselves to the +minds of our public men, and to answer which satisfactorily is neither +an easy nor a short task.</p> + +<p>Histories of struggles for power between individual men or families, +long involved in obscurity, are becoming more frequent than they were, +and far more satisfactory. Aided by a comparatively free access to +public and private papers,—a privilege formerly sturdily refused, but +which the liberal spirit of the age has now made common,—the literary +men of most countries, with improved capacities to weigh conflicting +statements as well as to narrate the results of their researches with +simplicity and perspicuity, are probing the most hidden recesses of the +past, and describing with reliable accuracy transactions of great +interest, the causes and particular circumstances of which have been +hitherto little or not at all understood. But to define the origin and +trace the history of national parties is an undertaking of extraordinary +difficulty; one from which, in view of the embarrassments that surround +it in the case of our own political divisions, I have more than once +retired in despair, and on which I now enter with only slight hopes of +success. Yet it is due as well to the memories of the past<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> as to actual +interests, that a subject which has exerted so great an influence and +which may be made so instructive, should be made plain, if that be +practicable, to the understandings of the present and succeeding +generations; and if my imperfect effort shall have a tendency to turn +stronger minds and abler pens in that direction it will not have been +made in vain.</p> + +<p>The two great parties of this country, with occasional changes in their +names only, have, for the principal part of a century, occupied +antagonistic positions upon all important political questions. They have +maintained an unbroken succession, and have, throughout, been composed +respectively of men agreeing in their party passions and preferences, +and entertaining, with rare exceptions, similar general views on the +subjects of government and its administration. Sons have generally +followed in the footsteps of their fathers, and families originally +differing have in regular succession received, maintained, and +transmitted this opposition. Neither the influences of marriage +connections, nor of sectarian prejudices, nor any of the strong motives +which often determine the ordinary actions of men, have, with limited +exceptions, been sufficient to override the bias of party organization +and sympathy, devotion to which has, on both sides, as a rule, been a +master-passion of their members.</p> + +<p>The names of these parties, like those of their predecessors in older +countries, have from time to time been changed, from suggestions of +policy or from accidental causes. Men of similar and substantially +unchanged views and principles have, at different periods of English +history, been distinguished as Cavaliers or Roundheads, as Jacobites or +Puritans and Presbyterians, as Whigs or Tories. Here, with corresponding +consistency in principle, the same men have at different periods been +known as Federalists,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> Federal Republicans, and Whigs, or as +Anti-Federalists, Republicans, and Democrats. But no changes of name +have indicated—certainly not until very recently, and the depth and +duration of the exception remain to be seen—a change or material +modification of the true character and principles of the parties +themselves. The difference between the old Republican and the +Anti-Federal parties, arising out of the questions in regard to the new +Constitution, was by far the greatest variation that has occurred.</p> + +<p>Several hasty and but slightly considered attempts have been made to +define the origin, and to mark the progress, of our national parties. +But, with a single exception,—namely, that made by ex-President John +Quincy Adams, in his Jubilee Discourse before the New York Historical +Society, on the 30th of April, 1839, being the Fiftieth Anniversary of +the Inauguration of George Washington as President of the United +States,—they have not professed, so far as they have fallen under my +notice, to do more than glance at the subject.</p> + +<p>To say that this discourse of one hundred and twenty pages was written +with Mr. Adams's accustomed ability, would be a commendation short of +its merits. It was more. The political condition of the country, and the +near approach of the memorable struggle of 1840, superadded to the +stirring considerations connected with the occasion, seem to have +persuaded that distinguished man that he was called upon to make an +extraordinary effort. A severe philippic against his and his father's +political enemies, this discourse, judged in the sense in which such +performances are naturally estimated by contemporaries imbued with +similar feelings, could not fail to be regarded as an eloquent and able +production; but I deceive myself if it can be deemed by a single +ingenuous mind either a dispassionate or an impartial review of the +origin and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> course of parties in the United States. Such minds will be +more likely to receive a paper, written so long after the transactions +of which it speaks, with feelings of regret at the strong evidence it +affords that the rage of party spirit, upon the assumed extinguishment +of which its author had, years before, exultingly congratulated the +people from the Presidential chair, was yet so active in his own breast. +I say this more in sorrow than in anger. Other portions of this work<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +will, I am sure, exonerate me from the suspicion of cherishing the +slightest sentiment of unkindness toward the memory of John Quincy +Adams. When my personal acquaintance with him was but slight, and when +our political relations were unfavorable to the cultivation of friendly +feelings, my dispositions toward him were to an unusual extent free from +the prejudices commonly engendered by party differences. In the later +periods of our acquaintance, continuing to the end of his life, I +regarded him with entire personal respect and kindness; and +notwithstanding the occasional fierceness of our political collisions, I +have never heard of any unfriendly expression by him in respect to +myself personally.</p> + +<p>It is not a little remarkable, though in harmony with other striking +features in the relations of our parties, that no serious attempt has +ever been made to trace their origin except by members of the same +political school with Mr. Adams. If I am right in this, mine will at +least have the weight, whatever that may be, due to the narration of one +who, from the beginning to the end of an extended political career, has +been an invariable and ardent member of the opposite school.</p> + +<p>The author of the life of Hamilton confidently pronounces what occurred +on the appointment of Washington as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> Commander-in-chief of the +Revolutionary army, to be the true source of the party divisions that +have so long and so extensively prevailed in this country. President +John Quincy Adams, in his Inaugural Address, attributes them to the +conflicting prejudices and preferences of the people for and against +Great Britain and France at the commencement of the present government, +and the discontinuance of them to the effects produced by the excesses +of the French Revolution. Matthew L. Davis,—a man of much note and +cleverness, who commenced his career an active member of the old +Republican party, became the especial champion of Colonel Burr, and, +soon seceding from the party to which he was at first attached, spent +the remainder of his life in opposition to it,—in his life of Aaron +Burr, attributes the origin of our two great political parties to the +proceedings of the Federal Constitutional Convention and of the State +Conventions which passed upon the question of ratification.</p> + +<p>These various versions of the matter I shall hereafter notice, +contenting myself, for the present, with the remark that party divisions +which have extended to every corner of a country as large as our own, +and have endured so long, could not spring from slight or even limited +causes. No differences in the views of men on isolated questions +temporary in their nature, could, it seems to me, have produced such +results. Questions of such a character are either finally settled, with +more or less satisfaction, or in time lose their interest, +notwithstanding momentary excitement, and the temporary organizations +springing from them give place in turn to others equally short-lived.</p> + +<p>But when men are brought under one government who differ radically in +opinion as to its proper form, as to the uses for which governments +should be established, as to the spirit in which they should be +administered, as to the best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> way in which the happiness of those who +are subject to them can be promoted, no less than in regard to the +capacity of the people for self-government, we may well look for party +divisions and political organizations of a deeper foundation and a more +enduring existence.</p> + +<p>Ours arose at the close of the Revolution, and the leading parties to +them were the Whigs, through whose instrumentality, under favor of +Providence, our Independence had been established. They and the Tories +constituted our entire population, and the latter had at first, for +obvious reasons, but little to do in the formation of parties, save to +throw themselves in a body into the ranks of one of them. It became at +once evident that great differences of opinion existed among the Whigs +in respect to the character of the government that should be substituted +for that which had been overthrown, and also in respect to the spirit +and principles which should control the administration of that which +might be established. These spread through the country with great +rapidity, and were respectively maintained with a zeal and determination +which proved that they were not produced by the feelings or impulses of +the moment. To ascertain the origin of those differences, and to trace +their effects, we can adopt no safer course than to look to the +antecedents of the actors in the stirring political scenes that followed +the close of the war, to the characters and opinions of their ancestors, +from whom they had naturally imbibed their first ideas of government +either directly or traditionally, and to the incidents of the memorable +struggle from which the country had just emerged.</p> + +<p>The great principle first formally avowed by Rousseau, "that the right +to exercise sovereignty belongs inalienably to the people," sprung up +spontaneously in the hearts of the colonists, and silently influenced +all their acts from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> beginning. The condition of the country in +which they settled,—a wilderness occupied besides themselves only by +savage tribes,—to which many of them were driven by the fiercest +persecutions ever known to the civilized world, and the stern +self-reliance and independent spirit which most of them had acquired in +contests with iron fortune that preceded their exile, combined to induce +the cultivation and to secure the permanent growth of such a sentiment. +Not being, however, for several generations, in a suitable condition, +and from counteracting inducements not even disposed to dispute the +pretensions of the Crown to their allegiance, they were content to look +principally to its patents and other concessions for the measure of +their rights. But their views were greatly changed, and their advance on +the road to freedom materially accelerated, by the English Revolution of +1688. The final overthrow of James II., from whose tyrannical acts, as +well in the character of Duke of York as in that of King, they had +severely suffered, was not the greatest advantage the colonists derived +from that Revolution. The principles upon which that most important of +European movements was founded, and the doctrines it consecrated, paved +the way to a result which, though not upon their tongues, or perhaps to +any great extent the subject of their meditations as immediately +practicable, was, doubtless, from that time, within their contemplation.</p> + +<p>That Revolution, which shattered, "past all surgery," the blasphemous +and absurd dogma of the divine right of kings; which replaced the +slavish doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance with the +principle that the authority of the monarch was no other than a trust +founded on an assumed agreement between him and his subjects that the +power conferred upon him should be used for their advantage, for the +faithful execution of which he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> was individually responsible, and for a +breach of which resistance to his authority, as a last resort, was a +constitutional remedy; which for the supremacy of the Crown substituted +the supremacy of Parliament; which made the King as well as his subjects +responsible to its authority, and which abrogated the right of the Crown +to govern the colonies in virtue of its prerogative, and vested that +power in Parliament, placed the colonists upon a footing widely +different from that they had theretofore occupied.</p> + +<p>The general principle that they were, by the laws and statutes of +England, entitled to the political rights that appertained to British +subjects, could not be denied, but commercial rivalry and political +jealousies acting upon their excited feelings, soon generated questions +of the gravest import, both as to the extent of the power of Parliament +to legislate for them, and as to the participation in representation +essential to authorize the exercise of that power.</p> + +<p>The subjects of taxation and the regulation of trade by Parliamentary +authority, excited the greatest interest on both sides of the Atlantic. +In respect to the latter, the question was not a little embarrassed by +an alleged acquiescence on the part of the colonists, and the consequent +force of precedents. This circumstance, in connection with the +consideration that, if the right to regulate the trade of the colonies +was denied to the mother country, the allegiance conceded to be due +would be paid to a barren sceptre, was calculated to deprive the cause +of the colonists of the favorable opinion of those just men in England +whose countenance and support were of so much service to them in the +sequel. Duly appreciating the obstacles to success which there was +reason to apprehend from this source, with the prudence and good sense +that belonged to their character, and without waiving any of their +rights,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> they placed their cause principally upon a ground that lay at +the foundation of the Revolution, and was thoroughly immovable, viz., +that by the fundamental laws of property no taxes could be levied upon +the people but by their own consent or that of their authorized agents, +and that by consequence the connection was indissoluble between taxation +and representation.</p> + +<p>In the justice and constitutionality of this position they were openly +sustained by Lord Chatham, Lord Camden, Burke, Fox, and others,—men who +were in their day and have since been regarded as leading minds of +England. With but little of public sentiment against them beyond what +was influenced by the inveterate hatred and the insane obstinacy of the +King, wielding at will the majority of a notoriously corrupt Parliament +and the brute force of the kingdom, the colonists appealed to the God of +Battles in defense of a sacred principle of freedom, and in resistance +to tyrannical acts of the most odious and oppressive character, and they +were victorious. It is now, and will be in all time, a source of +satisfaction to the people of these States, that the decision of the +sword is not their only nor their highest title to the liberty they +enjoy. The colonists were right in the contest. Of this no serious doubt +is now entertained in any honest and well-informed quarter. The idea of +virtual representation, and the attempt to justify one wrong by the +practice of another, namely, the taxing other British subjects without +giving them an adequate representation in Parliament,—the only replies +that were made to the claim of constitutional rights,—are now well +understood, and, it gives me pleasure to say, generally disavowed in +England. Lord Derby, the manly and highly gifted leader of what is left +of the old Tory party, not long since, in a speech delivered in the +presence of an American minister, unreservedly admitted that we were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +right in the Revolutionary contest; and, if that question were now +submitted to the free judgment of the people of England, such would be +found to be the public sense of that great nation.</p> + +<p>The only way in which the right in respect to taxation set up by the +English Parliament could have been sustained consistently with the +English Constitution, would have been by a joint government, securing to +the colonies the representation in that body to which they were entitled +as British subjects,—a plan to which both the mother country and the +colonies were equally decided in their dislike, but for very different +reasons. If a similar question were presented at this day it would, +according to the present state of public opinion in both countries, be +at once settled by an alliance of peace and friendship, substituting +fraternal relations for those of parent and children.</p> + +<p>Well would it have been for the interests of both and of humanity if the +matter had been thus adjusted.</p> + +<p>The immediate question upon which the Revolution turned was, of course, +forever extinguished by its results. But it has been far otherwise with +the opinions, doubtless of various shades and equally sincere, in regard +to the nature of government, the uses to which it could be properly +applied, and the manner and spirit of its application, with which the +colonists entered into the contest, and with the feelings engendered by +those opinions and developed by the war. Upon these points the +characters and successive conditions of the early emigrants exerted a +great influence. Those to Virginia were first in point of time, and +certainly not inferior to any in the elements of character adapted to +the difficulties they were destined to encounter. History, doubtless +authentic, records that the first emigration to that State was a measure +of the patriotic party in England,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> and sprung from a desire to make an +offering to liberty in the wilderness which the stringency of power had +prevented them from making at home. The accomplishment of that design, +whatever may have been the aid subsequently derived from its authors, +has been eminently successful. Whether as colonists, as citizens of a +free State, or as a part of our great Confederacy, the emigrants to +Virginia, their successors and descendants, have done all that men could +do to realize the anticipations and designs of the founders of that +ancient colony.</p> + +<p>Fully equal to them in devotion to liberty, with the additional merit of +having made greater sacrifices in its defense, stood the Puritans, whose +descendants are said to constitute at this time one fifth (I believe it +is) of the people of the United States. It would be superfluous to +describe either the persecutions to which they were subjected by +arbitrary power or their fidelity to their principles. Their story is +known, and their early character understood, throughout the civilized +world.</p> + +<p>The Huguenots entered largely into the early settlement of several of +the colonies, and their descendants now constitute numerous portions of +several of our States. Indeed, the very first European colony +established in this country was composed of Huguenots, who were +exterminated by the Spaniards,—an event which, indirectly, contributed +greatly to the emigration to Virginia under Sir Walter Raleigh. +Fugitives from the most cruel as well as the most obstinate +persecutions, hunted like wild beasts on account of their devotion to +religious freedom and the right of opinion, they fled to our shores, +detesting irresponsible power of every description, and ready to do +their utmost to prevent its re-incorporation in our virgin system.</p> + +<p>The States General and the Dutch West India Com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>pany, although the +former were perhaps not more favorable to popular sovereignty, in our +sense of these words, than the Stuarts, and the latter altogether +mercenary, yet introduced into this country, in the colonization of New +Netherlands, emigrants especially adapted, by character and disposition, +to the scenes through which they were destined to pass. This happy +result was attributable to the peculiar conjuncture of affairs at home +when the establishment of that colony was undertaken. It was during the +continuance of the truce in their War of Independence—the first that +was granted to them by Philip II., after that barbarous contest had +already lasted forty years—that the attention of the United Provinces +was directed to this country. The revolting cruelties which Philip had +caused to be inflicted upon the Dutch, through the instrumentality of +Alva, are as notorious to the world as are those to which the Huguenots +were subjected by Charles IX. and Louis XIV.; and the spirit of +resistance to arbitrary power, whether ecclesiastical or political, was +branded as by fire upon the hearts of both.</p> + +<p>To colonists of these descriptions were from time to time added numerous +other Protestants, who had fled to Holland, as well after the massacre +of St. Bartholomew as from other and kindred demonstrations of political +and priestly despotism in various parts of Europe, with an infusion of +descendants of the disciples of the Bohemian martyr, John Huss, who, +from the stake to which he had been doomed for his resistance to papal +tyranny, conjured his followers not to put their trust in princes.</p> + +<p>The mass of the early colonists having been sufferers at home, as well +from social and political inequalities as from the heavy hand of power +applied to themselves, having left behind them much that they dreaded +and nothing that they approved in the management of public affairs, were +ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>posed to no influences that could disincline them to the +establishment of just and equal governments in the land of their +adoption. Nothing could therefore be more natural than that they and +their immediate descendants, made familiar with the wrongs and outrages +practiced on their fathers by absolute tyrants, should have been jealous +of their liberties, and disposed to be rigid in their restrictions upon +the grant and exercise of delegated authority. From this disposition +sprang the principles to which they always adhered in the administration +of public affairs, and in the defense of which they appear to have been +always ready to make any necessary sacrifice. These, on the part of by +far the largest portions of the original colonists and their +descendants, were an insurmountable opposition to hereditary political +power in any shape and under any circumstances; a suspicious +watchfulness of all official authority, proportioned to their knowledge +of its liability to be abused; a consequent indisposition to concede +more than was indispensable to good government; the establishment of a +certain, and, as they called it, a swift responsibility for the exercise +of that which was granted; an habitual distrust, exhibited on various +occasions in their history, of every offer of special privileges by +government, and an unwillingness to confer the power to grant them,—the +former springing from suspicion that they were designed to impair their +independence, and the latter from conviction, fully justified by +experience, that such a power will always end in favoritism; and an +early and strong appreciation of the value of union among themselves and +between the colonies, originating in the necessity for their protection +against the savages, and kept alive by perpetual machinations from the +mother country to weaken and restrict their freedom.</p> + +<p>These and kindred feelings and principles were, as I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> have said, natural +to men whose antecedents, as well as those of their ancestors, had been +such as I have described; and they remained throughout the prevailing +features of colonial politics. They were not only the views of men +prominent in their respective communities, but the matured convictions +of the masses in respect to the line of policy necessary to their +welfare, and therefore the more likely to be perpetuated, for it has +been well and truly said, that "it is the masses alone that live." These +opinions might occasionally and for a season lie dormant, or be made to +yield to power, but neither corruption nor force could eradicate them. +With occasional but brief intermissions, they controlled the action of +the colonial legislatures; were embraced by a majority of the signers of +the Declaration of Independence; directed the course of the +Revolutionary Congress as well as that of the Government of the +Confederation subsequent to the recognition of our Independence, and +were in truth always the real sentiments of a majority of the people.</p> + +<p>It will be hereafter seen when they were for a season rendered +powerless, and when and how their control over the action of the +government was restored.</p> + +<p>The materials for tracing the action of the public mind, and the +proceedings of public bodies during the early periods of our history, +are, in comparison with those applicable to modern times, quite +imperfect. But aided by the facts which the historians of our day, with +great industry and in most cases with equal fidelity, have drawn from +oblivion, and still more by the recent very general publication of the +papers of eminent deceased statesmen, the work has become less +difficult.</p> + +<p>The fidelity of the Puritans to their well-known principles in respect +to hereditary power, was soon exposed to a severe trial. During the +residence of Sir Henry Vane<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> in the Colony of Massachusetts, several +English peers, induced by a desire to remove to that colony and to make +it their place of permanent residence, offered to do so if changes could +be effected in its government, by which the General Court should be +divided into two bodies, and their hereditary right to seats in the +upper branch allowed to them. Strong as was the wish of the colonists +for the acquisition of those distinguished men, they yet declined a +compliance with their wishes. All that they could be induced to allow +was a life-tenure, and they actually made some appointments of that +character; but of this they soon repented, and attached to the offices +held by that tenure a condition which made the concession nugatory by +making it valueless. It is perhaps not assuming too much to suppose that +the regret they experienced at this momentary forgetfulness of their +principles—a regret exhibited in various ways—had no small influence +in inducing them to limit the terms of offices in the New England States +to very short periods, as is still the custom there.</p> + +<p>Similar conduct and feeling were disclosed by the colonists on every +occasion that presented itself for their display, but the necessity for +their exhibition was in a great measure superseded by the Declaration of +Independence and the war that succeeded, during the continuance of which +sentiments favorable to hereditary power were regarded by the country as +crimes to be punished.</p> + +<p>Our Independence was scarcely established when a circumstance occurred +which exhibited in a very striking manner the fixed aversion of the +great body of the people to hereditary distinctions.</p> + +<p>The officers of the army, desirous of perpetuating the memory of the +relations of respect and friendship which had grown up among them during +the trying and momentous scenes through which they had passed, +established, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> May, 1783, the "Society of the Cincinnati," and made +the honor of membership hereditary. It has not appeared that General +Washington was consulted upon the subject in the first instance, but +conscious of the purity of his own motives, and confiding fully in those +of his military associates, he allowed his name to be placed at the head +of the list of members and consented to be its president.</p> + +<p>The principle of hereditary distinctions could not well have been placed +before the people in a less exceptionable form, and yet there were but +few occurrences during the war by which the public mind was so deeply +excited as that by which the officers intended to grace the closing +scenes of their meritorious career. The measure was assailed in all the +forms in which an offended public opinion usually finds vent. In +addition to able and eloquent attacks from American pens, the movement +was severely criticised in a pamphlet published in France and written by +Mirabeau, entitled, "Thoughts on the Order of Cincinnatus."</p> + +<p>General Washington informed himself of the extent to which the subject +was agitating the public mind, and, justly alarmed at the consequences +it might produce, determined to do all in his power to arrest its +progress. He wrote to Mr. Jefferson in April, 1784, asking his opinion +and the probable views of Congress (of which Mr. Jefferson was a member) +upon the subject, and his advice in respect to the most eligible +measures to be adopted by the society at their next meeting, which was +to be held in the ensuing month of May. This letter does not appear in +the published writings of Washington, but an extract from it is given by +Mr. Sparks, from which and from Jefferson's reply its contents as stated +are gathered. Mr. Jefferson's answer, containing an unreserved +communication of his opinions in the matter, may be found in Vol. I. of +his Correspondence. He stated at length the objections that were made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +to the society, the unfriendliness of Congress to it, and added, in +conclusion, that if, rather than decide themselves upon the best course +to be pursued, the members should, at their approaching meeting, refer +the question to Congress, such a reference would "infallibly produce a +recommendation of total discontinuance."</p> + +<p>General Washington attended the meeting in May, and proposed several +changes in the constitution, and among them, in his own words, taken by +Mr. Sparks from memoranda in his own handwriting, "to discontinue the +hereditary part in all its connections, absolutely, without any +substitution which can be construed into concealment or a change of +ground only, for this would, in my opinion, increase rather than allay +suspicion." This amendment, and others having a similar bearing, were +adopted.</p> + +<p>In Mr. Jefferson's letter to myself, accompanying this volume,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> to +which, as it was prepared with great care, and avowedly designed "to +throw light on history and to recall that into the path of truth," I +shall have frequent occasion to refer, will be found a highly +interesting account of what took place between himself and General +Washington, on his way to the meeting in Philadelphia, and on his +return, in May, 1784.</p> + +<p>Some of the State societies rejected these modifications <i>in toto</i>, and +others only agreed to them partially. The agitation of the subject was +thus continued for several years, and as late as 1787 no State had yet +so far yielded its prejudices as to grant the charter for which the +constitution of the society made it the duty of the State meetings to +apply. Whatever opinion may at this day be formed in regard to the +sufficiency of the reasons for the alarm which this transaction +produced, it cannot be doubted that the proceedings in regard to it +afford strong proof that there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> was, down to the spring of 1787, a +settled aversion in the minds of a majority of the people to any measure +or course of measures which were indicative of the slightest desire to +return in any degree to the system which they had overthrown; and that +as early as 1783 strong suspicion existed that such desires were +concealed in the minds of many who had previously stood faithfully by +the country in all its perils.</p> + +<p>The intense hostility of the colonists and their successors to +monarchical institutions, and the recollection of the cruelties +inflicted upon them and upon their predecessors under the authority of +kings, had produced a determined repugnance on their part to the +concentration of power in the hands of single magistrates. Their minds +had become thoroughly impressed with a conviction that the disposition +to abuse power by those who were intrusted with it was not only inherent +and invariable, but incurable, and that it was therefore unwise to grant +more than was actually indispensable to the management of public +affairs. At no period anterior to the adoption of the present +Constitution, could a majority be obtained in Congress for the creation +of an executive branch of the Government, or an impression be made upon +the public mind favorable to such a measure. The inconveniences +experienced from a want of it during a protracted war, and which were +again encountered in the public service after the recognition of our +independence, were not sufficient to overcome this repugnance. The +tenacity with which they adhered to an equal representation and +influence for the colonies before, and for the States after, the +Declaration of Independence, in the confederacies and governments they +formed, sprang from like considerations. They could not be brought to +believe that a State, to which was allowed a greater power than was +reserved to its confederates, could be restrained from the ultimate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +exercise of her superior power to depress her smaller confederates and +to elevate herself.</p> + +<p>Proofs of the existence and force of these opinions are spread through +every portion of our early history.</p> + +<p>In 1643 the New England Colonies, with the exception of those "who ran a +different course" from the Puritans, entered into a Confederacy. Its +avowed design was the better advancement of their general interests, but +its real object was to provide greater security against the savages by +whom they were menaced. It was called the "United Colonies of New +England." The plan was for a season defeated, because Massachusetts +claimed more power than she was willing to concede to the other +colonies; but it was finally established upon principles of perfect +equality, no more power or influence being conceded to Massachusetts, by +far the largest, than to New Haven, the smallest colony. The management +of affairs was intrusted to commissioners, of which each colony had two, +but no executive power was conferred upon them. They might deliberate +and recommend, but the colonies alone could carry their recommendations +into effect. This Confederacy endured for nearly half a century, and +worked well.</p> + +<p>In 1755 a convention of delegates from the colonies was held at Albany, +under the stimulus of French encroachments, and a plan of union, drawn +up by Dr. Franklin, was agreed upon and submitted to the colonies for +their approval. The plan, as was to be expected from the character of +its author, distributed the powers of the government between the people +and the prerogatives of the Crown, much more favorably to the popular +side than it would seem the latter might, in the then condition of +things, have reasonably hoped for. Still the attachments of the +colonists to their local governments, and, above all, their distrust and +dread of a central government, which was pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>vided for, were sufficient +to deprive the plan of their favor, and to cause its ultimate +abandonment.</p> + +<p>The privilege of "Government within themselves," as "their undoubted +right in the sight of God and man," and "to be governed by rulers of +their own choosing and laws of their own making," were from the +beginning objects of absorbing solicitude with the colonists and their +Revolutionary successors.</p> + +<p>The principles and sentiments I have attempted to define, which had +sprung up at the earliest period in the colonies, and had grown with +their growth and strengthened with their strength, and in explanation of +which I have referred to a few of the many illustrations with which +their history abounds, were doubtless those also of a great majority of +the Whigs of the Revolution, in whose breasts was not wanting the +feeling which rarely fails to be seen in those political divisions that +lead to civil war,—a thorough antagonism to the general opinions, as +well as to the particular policy of the power or party opposed; but it +is equally true that those were far from being the principles or +feelings of all by whose efforts the Revolution was achieved. A numerous +portion of the Whigs of the Revolution, many of them greatly +distinguished for their talents, high characters, and great public +services, neither concurred in the principles nor sympathized with the +feelings I have described, but were in a great measure driven by other +considerations to take active parts in the struggle. The number thus +influenced was, fortunately for the result of the contest, increased by +specific tyrannical acts, which a prudent government would have avoided, +but which were forced on the ministry and Parliament of the mother +country by the obstinacy and bigotry of the king. Within a year after +his accession to the throne he wound up a series of unnecessary +interferences with the administration of justice in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> colonies, by +changing the tenure of office, which had till that period prevailed in +relation to the colonial judges, from that of good behavior to that of +the will and pleasure of the Crown. By thus using his prerogative to +create a distinction in different parts of the realm degrading to the +colonies, he left the colonial lawyers no other course consistent with +self-respect, to say nothing of patriotism, than to unite with those +engaged in other pursuits in an effort to overthrow a government capable +of such practices. While subjecting the legal profession to such +humiliating proofs of the royal displeasure, his government commenced +its assaults upon that portion of his subjects engaged in commerce. His +indignation against those who scouted the doctrine of the British +Constitution, "that the king can do no wrong," was intense and +unappeasable in proportion to their presumed intelligence. It was in +this spirit that he appears to have selected judges, professional men, +and merchants, as special objects of his wrath, and having exerted his +power against the first two classes, he turned his attention toward the +latter.</p> + +<p>The Navigation Acts, as they stood at the period of his accession, had +been framed in the illiberal and selfish spirit which characterized the +legislation of the age. But though they had proved injurious to the +trade of the colonies, and humiliating to the colonial merchants, in +consequence of the extent to which they made their interests subservient +to those of the mother country, yet their prejudicial effects had in +neither respect been fully developed, in consequence of the remissness +which had prevailed in their execution. This had in a great degree been +occasioned by illicit contrivances between the colonists engaged in +trade and navigation and the officers of government stationed in the +colonies. A vigorous execution of the existing laws not only was +determined upon, but new acts were passed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> imposing additional +restrictions, and superadding cumulative penalties upon those who +disregarded them. To enforce this vindictive policy the Government +resorted to a measure at once the most arbitrary and odious of any that +had ever been known to the public service,—that of "Writs of +Assistance,"—and converted the army and navy into a police +establishment to aid in the detection and punishment of the colonial +offenders.</p> + +<p>By thus giving vent to his persecuting spirit—a spirit always blind to +its own interests—this infatuated Prince drove into the front rank of +the Revolution two classes of the colonists who were, from the nature of +their pursuits, least likely to embark in popular outbreaks, and most +inclined to favor a strong government,—classes which are usually +caressed by more sagacious rulers, and which had been so here before the +reign of George III. All orders of the colonists, save a few favorites, +were by these and similar means united, as a band of brothers, in a +movement such as the world had never before, and has never since seen, +for the overthrow of a government by which they were so sorely +oppressed.</p> + +<p>This union was in other respects composed of very discordant materials. +It consisted, on the one hand, of men and the descendants of men on +whose hearts the fires of persecution had burned a hatred of royalty too +deep to be erased and too zealous to be trifled with; of men who were at +the same time too conversant with human nature to allow themselves to +believe that the love of power and the proneness to its abuse were +confined to its hereditary possessors, and who were therefore anxious to +restrict grants of authority to their public functionaries to the lowest +point consistent with good government, and to subject what they did +grant to the most stringent responsibilities. They continued, also,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> to +cherish the same preference for their local organizations, and to +entertain the same distrust of an overshadowing central government, for +which the great body of the people had long been distinguished. They +were men whose highest ambition and desire for themselves and the +country was that it should have a plain, simple, and cheap government +for the management of the affairs of the Confederacy, republican in its +construction and democratic in its spirit,—a government that should, as +far as practicable, be deprived of the power of creating artificial +distinctions in society, and of corrupting and thus subverting the +independence of the people by the possession of a redundant patronage. +Such a government had long been the subject of their meditations, and +they braved the hazards and encountered the hardships of the +Revolutionary contest for the opportunity of establishing it.</p> + +<p>The Revolutionary brotherhood by which the recognition of our +Independence was enforced, contained, on the other hand, men respectable +in numbers, and distinguished by talent, public service, and high social +position, who dissented from many (I may say from most) of these views, +and who regarded them as Utopian in themselves, or as too contracted for +the exigencies of the public service.</p> + +<p>This difference in the opinions of men who had been engaged in such a +contest was all but unavoidable, and was never absent from any political +struggle of sufficient importance to be compared with it. It results, +besides those which have been indicated as peculiar to our own condition +and history, from simple but potent causes of universal operation, such +as diversities in social condition, in education, in the influence and +tendencies of previous pursuits, and in individual character and +temperament, producing diversities of views on such occasions.</p> + +<p>Although an aversion to royalty and opposition to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> hereditary government +in any form, were sentiments that pervaded the masses and exercised a +controlling influence in the Revolution, there were not a few, of the +character I have described, who, though they doubtless did not at the +moment design the reintegration of those institutions after the +overthrow of the actual Government, could yet contemplate, without great +revulsion of feeling, their ultimate establishment in this country. +Prompt to resist tyranny in any shape, and stung by the oppressions +practiced upon the colonies by the British Government, they hesitated +not to peril their lives for its subversion here, whilst theoretically +they not only tolerated its form and constitution, but regarded them as +the best that could be devised to promote the welfare and to secure the +happiness of mankind. Of the existence of this opinion on the part of +many sincere friends and able advocates of the Revolutionary cause, in +every stage of the contest and for years after its close, we have +indubitable evidence. I will notice a few cases of this description, on +account of the influence exerted on the formation of political parties +by the knowledge of the existence of such opinions, and by the +suspicions, perhaps unjust, and in some respects certainly so, as to the +extent to which those who held them were willing to carry them out. In +so doing, it is by no means my design to cast reproach upon the memories +of the great men who entertained them, and who stood by their country in +her severest extremity, and established the highest claims to her +gratitude and favor.</p> + +<p>No ingenuous mind can doubt that a large majority of the Whigs were +opposed to the substitution of a government similar either in form or +spirit to that from which they had emancipated themselves. Our +Revolutionary creed was, "That all men are created equal; that they are +endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> that among +these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure +these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just +powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of +government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the +people to alter and abolish it, and to institute a new government, +laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in +such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and +happiness."</p> + +<p>Under such a creed all were entitled as of right to a perfect freedom of +choice in regard to the character of the new government. Neither for the +formation of their opinions, however erroneous these may have been, nor +for the maintenance of them by lawful means, did any subject themselves +to just reproach, or to other forfeiture than perhaps a loss of the +confidence of those who thought differently.</p> + +<p>James Otis, Stephen Hopkins, John Adams, Gouverneur Morris, and +Alexander Hamilton, may be selected from many others as representatives +of the principles of that class to which I have referred as dissenting +from the popular or preponderating ideas of the time.</p> + +<p>I select them the more readily from a desire to avoid mistakes, as they +were possessed of temperaments too sanguine and too fearless to be +deterred from advancing openly opinions they honestly entertained, by +their unpopularity.</p> + +<p>There were certainly not many individuals, if there was one, who did +more to set the ball of the Revolution in motion than James Otis; and if +his career had not been cut short by the hand of violence he would have +taken high rank among the great and good men who survived the struggle. +His speech against the issuing of the Writs of Assistance had an effect +corresponding to those of Patrick Henry. Yet this highly gifted man, +whose patri<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>otic spirit was sufficiently aroused by the oppressions of +the mother country, while yet in their incipiency, to induce him to +peril his life in acts of resistance, was an enthusiastic admirer of the +principles of the English system, and honestly believed, as he said, +"that the British Constitution came nearest the idea of perfection of +any that had been reduced to practice."</p> + +<p>The patriotic Hopkins, one of the Rhode Island Representatives in the +General Congress, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, +wrote—and that colony authoritatively published its concurrence in the +declaration—that "The glorious Constitution of Great Britain is the +best that ever existed among men."</p> + +<p>Gouverneur Morris's unyielding hostility to democratic principles, and +his preference for aristocratic and monarchical institutions, were often +exhibited and unreservedly avowed, as well on the floor of the Federal +Convention as elsewhere, and have become familiar among his countrymen +as household words. There were not many, if indeed there was a single +one of his contemporaries, who went beyond him in hostility to the State +governments. "State attachments and State importance," said he in the +Federal Convention, "have been the bane of this country! We cannot +annihilate them, but we may, perhaps, take out the teeth of the +serpents." Such as were his principles at the commencement of his career +they remained to the close of his life.</p> + +<p>But the opinions of John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, from their larger +agency in the politics of the country, in the administration of its +government, and in the actual formation of parties, are of still greater +importance. A full exposition of these, beyond the single point upon +which there existed the greatest jealousy at the period at which we have +now arrived,—that of their preference<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> for the English system,—will be +best postponed until we come to consider the times and occasions which +were presented for an ampler display of them. I will, therefore, only +refer at this place to the contents of a statement prepared and signed +by Thomas Jefferson, in February, 1818, and designed to explain a +portion of his writings. In this he says, among other things: "But +Hamilton was not only a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on +corruption. In proof of this I will relate an anecdote for the truth of +which I attest the God who made me. Before the President set out upon +his Southern tour, in April, 1791, he addressed a letter of the 4th of +that month, from Mount Vernon, to the Secretaries of State, Treasury, +and War, desiring that if any serious and important cases should arise +during his absence they would consult and act on them, and he requested +that the Vice-President should also be consulted. This was the only +occasion on which that officer was ever requested to take part in a +Cabinet question. Some occasion for consultation arising, I invited +those gentlemen (and the Attorney-General, as well as I remember) to +dine with me, in order to confer on the subject. After the cloth was +removed, and our question argued and dismissed, conversation began on +other matters, and by some circumstance was led to the British +Constitution, on which Mr. Adams observed,—'Purge that Constitution of +its corruption and give to its popular branch equality of +representation, and it would become the most perfect Constitution ever +devised by the wit of man.' Hamilton paused and said,—'Purge it of its +corruptions and give to its popular branch equality of representation, +and it would become an impracticable government: as it stands at +present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most perfect which +ever existed.'"</p> + +<p>The solemn responsibility under which this statement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> was made, the high +character of its author, the time when it was recorded,—after one of +the principal parties had passed from earth, and the two remaining were +on the brink of the grave; when the passions excited by personal and +political rivalry had died away, and friendly relations had been +restored between the survivors,—would of themselves be sufficient to +establish its accuracy, even if its description of the opinions of Adams +and Hamilton had not been, as it will be seen that they were, abundantly +confirmed as well by the speeches and writings of the parties themselves +as by the recorded declarations of associates and friends who possessed +the best opportunities to become acquainted with their real sentiments.</p> + +<p>The natural presumption is—and there are many facts to prove its +correctness—that opinions with which these most prominent leaders were +so deeply imbued, had, to a very considerable extent at least, been +diffused throughout the ranks of their followers.</p> + +<p>The effects of this discordance on so many and such vital points in the +political doctrines and feelings of those by whom the Revolution had +been achieved, were postponed by the existence of the war; but when that +restraint was removed by the recognition of our Independence they broke +forth unavoidably, and were soon developed in the formation of political +parties.</p> + +<p>The Congress of the Confederation, and—from the dependence of the +Federal Government upon the coöperation of the States for the +performance of its most important duties—the State legislatures, as +well as the public press, became the theatres for the display of these +conflicting opinions.</p> + +<p>The so-called Government of the Confederation was little else than an +alliance between the States—a federal league and compact, the terms of +which were set forth in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> the Articles of Confederation. Besides a +control over questions of Peace and War, its powers and duties were +chiefly advisory, and dependent for their execution upon the coöperation +of the States. A federal system so defective was justly held responsible +for a large share of the public and private embarrassments that existed +at, or arose after, the termination of the Revolutionary contest. It was +also, as was natural, charged in some degree with those which were, in +truth, unavoidable consequences of a seven years' war, and which would +have existed under any system. It is not surprising, therefore, that a +party bent upon its overthrow should have arisen as soon as the public +mind was by the course of events brought to a proper state to consider +the subject. Of this party Alexander Hamilton became the leader, and its +immediate objects were, of course, very soon frankly developed. These +were in the first instance to divest the State governments of certain +powers, and to confer them upon Congress, the possession of which by the +Federal head they deemed indispensable to the exigencies of the public +service, with the intention of following up this step by an attempt to +abrogate the Articles of Confederation, and to substitute for that +system an independent and effective Federal Government, composed of +executive, legislative, and judicial departments. In respect to the +powers to be given to the new Government, and to its construction +otherwise, there doubtless existed some differences of opinion among the +members of this party; but all agreed that it should be what in the +language of the day was called a "strong government." There may not have +been entire harmony among them in regard to the expediency and +practicability of attempting it, but I do not think there is reasonable +ground to doubt that most of them desired a virtual consolidation of the +two systems—Federal and State. A few were, from an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> early period, +suspected by those who differed from them, and who became their +opponents, of desiring to return to the English system, and this +suspicion, doubtless, contributed to make the latter more impracticable +than they might otherwise have been.</p> + +<p>The political feelings which lay nearest to the hearts of the great body +of the people, as well during our colonial condition as in the States +after the declaration and establishment of Independence, and of the +strength of which I have referred to such striking and oft-repeated +illustrations, were those of veneration and affection for their local +governments as safeguards of their liberties and adequate to most of +their wants; endeared to them as their refuge from the persecutions of +arbitrary power, and hallowed by the perils and triumphs of the +Revolution. Allied to these feelings, and nearly co-extensive with them +in point of duration, was a distrust, at both periods, on the part of +the masses, of what they called an overshadowing general government.</p> + +<p>When to these sources of opposition to the views of the party which had +arrayed itself against the government of the Confederation is added the +natural and deeply seated hostility of those who dissented from its +views in respect to hereditary government in any form, and the suspicion +of a reserved preference for such, or at least for kindred institutions, +we cannot be at a loss in accounting for the origin of the first two +great parties which sprang up and divided the country so soon after the +establishment of our Independence.</p> + +<p>But the names by which these parties were distinguished are, it must be +admitted, not so intelligible. The name of Anti-Federalists was +strangely enough given by their opponents to those who advocated the +continuance of the Union upon the principles which prevailed in its +establish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>ment, and according to which it was regarded as a Federal +League or Alliance of Free States, upon equal terms, founded upon a +compact (the Articles of Confederation) by which its conditions were +regulated,—to be represented by a general Congress, authorized to +consider and decide all questions appertaining to the interests of the +alliance and committed to its charge, without power either to act upon +the people directly or to apply force to the States, or otherwise to +compel a compliance with its decrees, and without any guarantee for +their execution other than the good faith of the parties to the compact. +On the other hand the name of Federalists was assumed, and, what is +still more extraordinary, retained by those who desired to reduce the +State governments, by the conjunction of which the Federal Union had +been formed, to the condition of corporations to be intrusted with the +performance of those offices only for the discharge of which a new +general government might think them the appropriate functionaries; to +convert the States, not perhaps in name, but practically and +substantially, into one consolidated body politic, and to establish over +it a government which should, at the least, be rendered independent and +effective by the possession of ample powers to devise, adopt, and +execute such measures as it might deem best adapted to common defense +and general welfare.</p> + +<p>That this was a signal perversion of the true relation between party +names and party objects can scarcely be denied. Yet we who have, in +later days, witnessed the caprices in respect to party names to which +the public mind has been occasionally subjected, and the facility with +which one party has, through its superior address or its greater +activity, succeeded in attaching to its adversary an unsuitable and +unwelcome name, have not as much reason to be surprised at that +perversion as had the men of that day who were subjected to it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + +<p>The motive which operated in thus denying to men whose principles were +federal the name which indicated them, and in giving it to their +opponents, must be looked for in the fact that federal principles were +at that time favored by the mass of the people. This was well understood +at the time, and was made still more apparent by the circumstance that +those who really adhered to them, though compelled by the superior +address of their adversaries to act under the name of Anti-Federalists, +maintained their ascendancy in the government of the Confederation to +its close.</p> + +<p>Those who require further proof of the truth of this position beyond +what results from a mere statement of the principles contended for by +the respective parties, will find it fully sustained by definitions of +Gouverneur Morris and James Madison. (2 Madison <i>Papers</i>, pp. 747-8, and +893.) Mr. Morris explained the distinction between a <i>federal</i> and a +<i>national</i> supreme government,—the former being a mere compact resting +on the good faith of the parties, the latter having a complete and +<i>compulsive</i> operation. Mr. Madison, in the debate on the propositions +of Mr. Patterson, which constituted the plan of the Anti-Federalists, +and which were rejected by a vote of seven States to three,—one +(Maryland) divided,—said: "Much stress has been laid by some gentlemen +on the want of power in the Convention to propose any other than a +<i>federal</i> plan.... Neither of the characteristics of a federal plan +would support this objection. One characteristic was that in a <i>federal</i> +government the power was exercised, not on the people <i>individually</i>, +but on the people <i>collectively</i>, on the <i>States</i>. The other +characteristic was that a <i>federal</i> government derived its appointments, +not immediately from the people, but from the States which they +respectively composed."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> + +<p>It cannot be difficult to decide which of these parties was, in truth, +<i>federal</i>, and which <i>anti-federal</i>, according to these authentic +definitions of a federal government.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>Between these parties, thenceforth distinguished by the misnomers of +Federalists and Anti-Federalists, there was, from the close of the war +to the establishment of the present government, an uninterrupted +succession of partisan conflicts, in which the whole country +participated. They grew, for the most part, out of propositions to take +from the State governments the rights of regulating commerce and of +levying and collecting impost duties, and for the call of a Convention +to revise the Articles of Confederation. The first two of these +propositions were introduced by the Federalists, and for six years +vigorously supported by their party, with Hamilton at its head; and, +although advocated by Madison whilst he was in Congress, such was the +strength of the Anti-Federal party in that body and in the States that +they were not able to carry either. Advances were occasionally made in +respect to imposts, but these were so restricted as to the officers by +whom the duties should be collected, whether State or Federal, and in +regard to the application of the money when collected, that the movers +of the principal measure considered its value so much impaired that they +declined to push it further under the existing circumstances.</p> + +<p>A distrust of the motives of the Federal leaders, and an apprehension +that they designed to employ the powers asked for in the establishment +of a strong and absorbing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> general government, capable of becoming, and +which the Anti-Federalists feared would, in the progress of time, +become, disposed to practice a tyranny upon the people, as oppressive as +that from which the Revolution had relieved them, with the suspicion +already referred to, that many would not be willing to stop at that +point, were doubtless the true causes of these otherwise unaccountable +failures. The accounts which have been brought down to us of the +proceedings of public bodies, and of appeals to the people, through +different channels, abundantly sustain this assumption. These, in a work +like this, can only be glanced at.</p> + +<p>The grounds taken by the opponents of these measures, and which, backed +by popular suspicions, made them so powerful, were that the views of the +Federalists were rather political than financial,—that they were at +least as solicitous to gratify their well-understood passion for power, +through the adoption of these propositions, as they were to maintain +public credit. Beyond all doubt the belief that the government which the +Federalists wished to create would, whatever it might be called, provide +for the greatest practical extent of irresponsible power, led the +Anti-Federalists not unfrequently to oppose measures which they would +otherwise have supported.</p> + +<p>General Hamilton's speech, most able as it was, went far to strengthen +these impressions. The debate commenced on the 28th, and was continued +to the 30th January, 1783, and was throughout one of great power. It +resulted in the adoption, with slight amendments, of a proposition, +submitted and vigorously supported by Mr. Madison, "That it is the +opinion of Congress that the establishment of permanent and adequate +funds to operate generally throughout the United States, is +indispensably necessary for doing complete justice to the creditors of +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> United States, for restoring public credit, and for providing for +the future exigencies of the war." Although this proposition finally +passed without a dissenting vote, yet when an attempt was made to carry +it into effect by an impost—the only way in which it was attempted—the +measure was defeated, as has been before remarked, by restrictions in +regard to the officers by whom it should be collected, and to the +application of the money. In the course of his speech General Hamilton +signified, as an additional reason why the impost ought to be collected +by officers under the appointment of Congress, "that as the energy of +the Federal Government was evidently short of the degree necessary for +pervading and uniting the States, it was expedient to introduce the +influence of officers deriving their emoluments from, and consequently +interested in supporting the power of Congress."</p> + +<p>Upon this Mr. Madison, in a note, observes: "This remark was imprudent +and injudicious to the cause which it was meant to serve. This influence +was the very source of jealousy which rendered the States averse to a +revenue under the collection as well as appropriation of Congress. All +the members of Congress who concurred in any degree with the States in +this jealousy, smiled at the disclosure. Mr. Bland, and still more Mr. +Lee, who were of this number, took notice in private conversation that +Mr. Hamilton had let out the secret."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>It is scarcely possible, at this distant day, to appreciate the terror +of irresponsible and arbitrary power which had been impressed upon the +minds of men who had themselves suffered from its excesses, or had +witnessed the cruelties it had inflicted on others, or whose fathers had +been victims of its crimes. Even Mr. Jefferson, who differed from the +Anti-Federalists in respect to these ques<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>tions, as I shall hereafter +have occasion to show, though he sympathized with them in their general +feelings, in a letter to Mr. Madison in December, 1787, from Paris, upon +the subject of the Constitution, did not hesitate to say, "I own I am +not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always +oppressive."<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>Similar feelings were exhibited by Massachusetts in 1785. That leading +State in the confederacy was, during the whole of this period, strongly +imbued with the feelings of the misnamed Anti-Federal party. This was in +no small degree owing to the talents, zeal, and activity displayed in +their behalf by Samuel Adams and John Hancock, two of the three persons +(John Adams having been the third), who were excepted by the British +Government from the offer of pardon to its rebellious subjects. Hancock +was a leading merchant and a zealous Revolutionary patriot, who had the +honor of placing his name first to the Declaration of Independence, and +the higher honor of sustaining the contest which it provoked to its +close with inflexible firmness and at unusual risks, growing out of his +large interests in commerce. Samuel Adams was equal to any man of his +day in intelligence, integrity, and patriotism. He was among the very +first who embraced the Revolution in the sense which it finally +assumed,—that of entire separation from the British Crown,—and he +supported the principles upon which it was founded, as well during the +conflict as for the residue of his long life, with great ability and +unsurpassed devotion. Whilst many of his associates, not less sincere +than himself in resistance to the despotic acts of the mother country, +could yet express their admiration of the English system and were +consequently inclined to limit their efforts to a redress of temporary +grievances, he at the earliest period avowed his hostility to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> kingly +government, and rallied around himself the advocates for an entire +separation, most of whom became with him early and prominent members of +the Anti-Federal party.</p> + +<p>The legislature of Massachusetts, momentarily diverted from the +Anti-Federal track by influences which will be noticed in another place, +adopted a resolution urging Congress to recommend a convention of the +States "to revise the Confederation, and to report how far it may be +necessary in their opinion to alter and enlarge the same, in order to +secure and perpetuate the primary objects of the Union." Governor +Bowdoin, who had recommended the measure to the legislature in his +message, addressed a letter to Congress including the resolution, and +sent it to the delegates of the State to be presented by them. The +delegates suspended its delivery, and assigned their reasons for doing +so in a letter dated September 3, 1785, addressed to the Governor, with +a request that it should be laid before the legislature. From this +letter, which is ably written and occupies throughout Anti-Federal +ground, I make the following extracts:—"The great object of the +Revolution was the establishment of good government, and each of the +States, in forming their own as well as the Federal Constitution, have +adopted republican principles. Notwithstanding this, plans have been +artfully laid and vigorously pursued, which, had they been successful, +we think would have inevitably changed our republican governments into +baleful aristocracies. These plans are frustrated, but the same spirit +remains in their abettors; and the institution of Cincinnati, honorable +and beneficent as the views may have been of the officers who composed +it, we fear, if not totally abolished, will have the same tendency.... +'More power in Congress,' has been the cry from all quarters, but +especially of those whose views, not being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> confined to a government +that will best promote the happiness of the people, are extended to one +that will afford lucrative employments, civil and military. Such a +government is an aristocracy, which would require a standing army and a +numerous train of pensioners and placemen to prop and support its +exalted administration. To recommend one's self to such an +administration would be to secure an establishment for life, and at the +same time to provide for his posterity. These are pleasing prospects +which republican governments do not afford, and it is not to be wondered +at that many persons of elevated views and idle habits in these States +are desirous of the change. We are for increasing the power of Congress +as far as it will promote the happiness of the people; but at the same +time, are clearly of opinion that every measure should be avoided which +would strengthen the hands of the enemies to free government, and that +an administration of the present Confederation, with all its +inconveniences, is preferable to the risk of general dissensions and +animosities, which may approach to anarchy and prepare the way to a +ruinous system of government."</p> + +<p>This letter of the delegates was laid before the legislature at their +next session, and produced a vote annulling the resolution recommending +a convention. The letter was signed by Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Holton, +and Rufus King. Mr. King, in the course of the following year, married +Miss Alsop, the only child of John Alsop, a wealthy merchant of New +York, and after having represented his native State with credit in the +Federal Convention of 1787, moved to that city; was appointed one of the +first senators in Congress from the State of New York (General Schuyler +being the other); was the friend and associate of Hamilton, Gouverneur +Morris, and Jay, and became, and continued for many years, a prominent +member of the Federal party.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<p>Every step that was taken toward a convention was regarded with +distrust,—a distrust founded on a prevalent apprehension that the +talented and, as was believed, ambitious men who would get the control +of it, would in some way defeat those republican principles for the +right to establish which the country had made such great sacrifices.</p> + +<p>The Commercial Convention, representing five States, which originated in +Virginia and met at Annapolis, and by which the movement that resulted +in the present Constitution was commenced, permitted Hamilton to draw up +their Address to the other States, which was also to be laid before +Congress; but insisted on giving a shape to their proposition which +would confine the Federal Convention within narrow bounds. They did this +in deference to the well understood sentiment of the country, and as the +only course, in their opinion, by which a convention could be obtained; +and accordingly they proposed "That a convention should be called to +meet at Philadelphia in May next, to devise such further provisions as +should appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the +Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and to +report such an act for that purpose to the United States in Congress +assembled, as <i>when agreed to by them, and afterwards confirmed by the +legislatures of every State</i>, will effectually provide for the same."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>The final action of Congress upon the subject, a majority of which +entertained similar views, consisted of a resolution, introduced by the +delegates from Massachusetts, declaring it to be the opinion of Congress +that a convention should be held at the time and place named by the +Commissioners who met at Annapolis, "for <i>the sole and express purpose</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and +the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as +shall, <i>when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States</i>, render +the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and +the preservation of the Union."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>But for the sanction thus given to the measure by Congress no convention +would have been held—at least none at that time. Washington, as appears +from his Correspondence, would not have deemed a convention legal +without it, and would not have attended;<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> and his example, added to +the hesitation of most of the States, and the decided opposition of some +of them, would have been sufficient to put a stop to the project.</p> + +<p>It was under such circumstances that the Convention assembled. Its +proceedings have become so familiar to the public mind, from the full +publications that have been made of them, and the extent to which they +have been reviewed, as to render it unnecessary to go very far into +their details. The Anti-Federal plan was introduced by Mr. Patterson, of +New Jersey, more in obedience to the ascertained wishes of his +constituents, than in conformity with his particular views. It proposed +an amendment of the Articles of Confederation for the construction of +executive and judicial departments in the federal government; to make +its laws and treaties the supreme law of the land; to increase the +powers of Congress in several important particulars, among which were +the right to levy and collect taxes and imposts, to regulate foreign +commerce and commerce between the States, and to give to the federal +government power to enforce its requisitions upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> States when it +should become necessary,—and to leave the government in other respects +as it stood.</p> + +<p>The plan which Hamilton desired the Convention to propose to the people +and the States, of which he left a copy with Mr. Madison as a permanent +memorial of his opinions,—now published with Mr. Madison's "Papers," +and in the "Life of Hamilton" by his son, and agreeing with each other +in all respects,—consisted, in its most remarkable features, of the +following provisions, viz:—</p> + +<p><i>First:</i> The President should hold his office during good behavior, +removable only on conviction upon impeachment for some crime or +misdemeanor; and he should have an absolute negative upon all bills, +resolutions, and acts of Congress about to be passed into a law.</p> + +<p><i>Secondly:</i> The Senators should hold their offices by the same tenure, +and should have the exclusive power of declaring war.</p> + +<p><i>Thirdly:</i> The General Government should have the right to appoint the +future Governors of the States, who might hold their offices during good +behavior, and who should have the power to negative all laws about to be +passed by the respective State legislatures, subject to such regulations +as Congress might prescribe, and also to appoint all the militia +officers if Congress should so direct; and,</p> + +<p><i>Fourthly:</i> Congress should "have power to pass all laws which they +shall judge necessary to the common defense and general welfare of the +Union."</p> + +<p>The first of these plans, which professed to represent the views of the +Anti-Federalists, was rejected by the Convention, after full discussion, +as has been already mentioned, by a vote of seven States to three, one +being divided. Hamilton's scheme was not brought to a vote, nor, except +by himself, made the subject of particular dis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>cussion. This course was +obviously induced, in no small degree, by motives of respect for the +feelings of its author. Every body praised his candor and independence, +but the popular opinions in respect to its provisions were too well +understood to allow of any vote, other than his own, being given in its +favor, whatever private sympathy it may have enlisted.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for the country at this, perhaps the most decisive period in +its history, a majority of the Convention, composed of every shade of +opinion, became thoroughly satisfied that a crisis had arrived which +demanded a liberal sacrifice of extreme views. They were convinced that +whilst, on the one hand, no system would stand the slightest chance to +be acceptable to any thing like a majority either of the States or +people, which was designed, or obnoxious to the suspicion of being +designed, to degrade the State governments, or even to impair their +capacities for the successful management of those portions of public +affairs which, under a proper distribution of the powers of government, +would be left under their control, or which was in the smallest degree +calculated to do violence to the well-known feelings of the people upon +the subjects of hereditary or irresponsible power; so, on the other, +there was no room for two opinions in respect to the ruinous +consequences that would, in the then condition of the country, +inevitably result from the failure of a convention, brought together +with so much difficulty, to remedy the manifest defects of the existing +government by suitable and effectual additions and improvements, and to +make a Constitution which would prove satisfactory both to the States +and people. Kept together by this overruling conviction, they entered +upon the construction of the present Constitution. The State governments +had been until that period, in point of fact, the ruling power. The +federal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> head, from the want of power to act directly upon the people, +or, in a compulsory manner, upon the State authorities, was dependent on +them for the execution of its most important decisions. Though much +depressed by the adverse current of events, it was yet in the State +governments that the pride of power stood relatively at the highest +point. Any attempt, under such circumstances, to humiliate the State +authorities, would inflame the passions of their supporters; but they +might be, perhaps, to a sufficient extent conciliated, and the +Convention prudently adopted this course. Irritating subjects were, with +that view, as far as possible, avoided. Propositions to give to the new +government a direct negative upon the legislation of the States, and to +empower it to appoint their governors and militia officers, which had +produced so much ill blood, were effectually discountenanced. The +sovereignty of the States, to which State pride was so keenly alive, was +not interfered with in respect to the powers of government which were +left in their hands. An impartial and wise division of powers was made +between them and the government proposed to be established. To remove +apprehensions which had been long entertained, and which had sunk deep +in the minds of many, the State authorities as such were allowed a +liberal participation in the first formation, and their coöperation was +made necessary to the subsequent continuance of the new government. The +manner of choosing the electors of President and Vice-President was, +with the same general view, left to the regulation of the State +legislatures exclusively; and when a failure to choose by the electors +should occur—a result then believed likely to happen frequently—the +President was to be chosen by the House of Representatives of the United +States, and, in the performance of that important duty, each State had +reserved to it the right to appear and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> act in its federal +character—that of a perfect equality with her sister States—whatever +might be the difference in their respective population, territory, or +wealth. The choice of the Senate of the United States was also left +exclusively to the State legislatures. The result of all these +arrangements was, that the Federal Constitution was so constructed as to +put it in the power of a bare majority of the States to bring the +government proposed by it to a peaceable end, without exposing their +citizens to the necessity of resorting to force, by simply withholding +the appointment of electors, or the choice of their Senators, or both.</p> + +<p>No provisions could have been devised better calculated to remove +apprehension and allay jealousy in respect to the new government. They +hit the nail on the head. Although they might not avert the opposition +of excited partisans, they answered the expectations of moderate +men,—of that large class whose paramount object was the relief of the +country as well as their own private affairs from the embarrassments +under which they were suffering, and which were, as usual on such +occasions, attributed altogether to the defects of the existing system. +The question could with great propriety be put to Anti-Federal opponents +(and doubtless was put),—Are you afraid to trust a numerical majority +of the States? If not, they can at short intervals put an end to the new +government if it proves to be as bad as you apprehend.</p> + +<p>Having already, in a spirit of devotion to duty and a hazardous +disregard of responsibility which was made necessary by the occasion, +set aside the instructions of Congress by making a new Constitution, the +Convention pursued a similar course to the end. Instead of reporting the +result of their labors to Congress for its approval and submission to +the States for their unanimous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> sanction, according to the Articles of +Confederation, as was proposed at Annapolis and provided by Congress in +the act of sanction to the holding of the Convention, that body sent the +instrument it had framed to Congress, not for its approval, but to be by +it submitted to the States and people in the first instance, under a +provision, prescribed by the Convention, that if it was ratified by nine +of the thirteen States it should be binding upon all,—an heroic though +perhaps a lawless act.</p> + +<p>The dangerous condition of the country, and the general opinion that +some decided step was necessary to its safety, added to the imposing +character of the instrument itself, which, though not satisfactory to +Congress, was yet far less objectionable than had been anticipated, and +a general expectation that important amendments rendering it still more +acceptable to the people would follow its ratification, deterred the +national legislature from refusing to comply with the request of the +Convention, notwithstanding its flagrant disregard of congressional +authority. The same considerations should have induced the Anti-Federal +party to acquiesce in the ratification of the Constitution. They should +have looked upon the marked effect of that instrument upon Congress as a +prophetic warning of the danger to which they would expose themselves as +a party by opposing it. But they did not see their duty, or, perhaps, +their interests, in that light; honest in their intentions and obstinate +in their opinions, they opposed the ratification, were defeated, and, as +a party, finally overthrown.</p> + +<p>The Anti-Federal party represented very fairly the ideas and feelings +that prevailed with the masses during the Revolution. These, as we have +described, having been deeply rooted by the persecutions suffered by +Puritan, Huguenot, Hussite, and Dutch ancestors, and, however crude and +unsystematized at first, having been gradually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> stimulated into maturity +and shape by the persevering injustice of the mother country, became +political opinions of the most tenacious and enduring character. At the +moment of which we are speaking, alarm in respect to the character of +the General Government about to be established, with increased +attachments to those of the States, were predominant feelings in the +Anti-Federal mind, and closed it against a dispassionate consideration +of the Constitution submitted to their choice. The local governments +were entitled to all the regard which had been cherished for them by the +Anti-Federalists and by their political predecessors under the colonial +system; neither were the dangers which threatened them overrated. +Hamilton could not tolerate the idea that they should be continued +otherwise than as corporations, with very limited powers. Morris, in his +usual rough and strong way, was for "drawing their teeth," as I have +already quoted him; and even the temperate Madison was in favor of +giving the General Government a direct negative upon all their laws,—a +proposition which, though not so humiliating as Hamilton's, or so +harshly expressed as that of Morris, would have been far more fatal to +their future usefulness. Standing now on the vantage-ground of +experience, no sensible man can fail to see that the State governments +would have perished under the treatment thus proposed for them, nor can +any such man doubt the immense advantage they have been and still are to +our system. A short reflection upon what has been accomplished through +their agency, and upon what our condition would probably have been if +they had been blotted out of the system, as was virtually desired in +most influential quarters, must satisfy candid and intelligent minds of +the fatal unsoundness of the policy proposed. The States would under it +have been governed as her numerous colonies were governed by Rome,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> and +a comparison of our present condition with what it must have been under +the satraps of a consolidated federal government, will cause every +patriotic heart to rejoice at our escape from the latter. For that +escape we are largely indebted to the old Anti-Federal party. They stood +out longest and strongest in behalf of the State governments, after the +establishment of our Independence; and although they failed in other +respects, they made impressions upon the public mind which have never +been effaced, and for which we owe them a debt of gratitude. Their +motives, as is usual in political collisions, were misrepresented; they +were spoken of as men of contracted views, of narrow prejudices; and +their preference for the State governments was attributed to the +preponderance they possessed in them, and to a consciousness that their +greatness and power were derived from local prejudices and from their +skill in fomenting them. Hence was inferred their hostility to an +efficient federal government, whose extensive affairs they were +incapable of managing, and in which, consequently, it was alleged that +they would not retain the influence they possessed at home.</p> + +<p>Although I unite fully in condemning the course pursued by the +Anti-Federalists in respect as well to the Constitution as to their +refusal to grant an adequate revenue to the federal head, and the right +to regulate commerce, I regard those imputations which ascribed to them +a readiness to sacrifice the great interests of the country to merely +factious purposes, as the ebullitions of party spleen produced by party +jealousies, as unjust and unfounded as was the charge brought forward by +the old Republican party against Alexander Hamilton of a design to +plunge the country into war with France to subserve the wishes and +interests of England. I do not think there were ten in every hundred of +that party who did not believe that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> imputation well founded, and most +of them went to their graves without having yielded that conviction. I +came upon the political stage when this matter was only viewed in the +retrospect, and am free to say that I even believed that, if there was +any thing true in the party criminations of the preceding era, this was +so. Judge, then, of my surprise, on discovering from his papers, as well +as from those of some of his contemporaries recently published, that +there was probably no man in the country more sincerely anxious to +prevent a war with France; that he applied his great mind incessantly to +that object; that he was willing, indeed desirous, to send either Mr. +Jefferson or Mr. Madison as one of the commissioners to negotiate with +France, a proposition in respect to which he could not obtain the +concurrence of either Mr. Adams or his cabinet, the latter of whom were +sufficiently prompt to adopt his advice save when it conflicted with +their party prejudices; and that so far from acting on that occasion at +the instigation or to promote the policy of Great Britain, although +entertaining strong—in my opinion too strong—preferences for England +as between her and France, he was, in respect to every thing that +affected the interests of his own country, purely and strictly American. +Of this no man, whose mind is not debauched by prejudice, can entertain +a doubt on reading the papers referred to.</p> + +<p>The imputations upon the motives of the Anti-Federalists were of the +same general stamp and origin. It was too soon for those who were yet +fresh from the self-sacrificing and patriotic struggle on the field of +the Revolution, where they had nobly done their duty, to fall under the +influence of such petty motives as were attributed to them. Like their +opponents, they might and did peril much of their own standing to +further political views of great magnitude which they honestly, if +erroneously, believed would pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>mote the welfare of their country; but +base incentives and merely factious calculations are not predicable of +the times or of the men.</p> + +<p>We should be slow to attribute narrow views to a political party to +whose principal leaders, more than to any other portion of the Whigs, we +owe the great change in the character of our Revolutionary struggle by +which the assertion of Independence was substituted for the demand of a +redress of grievances.</p> + +<p>If the Anti-Federal party had been accused of cherishing morbid and +impracticable ideas on the subject of a general government, the charge +would have come nearer the truth. Many of them had so vivid a +recollection of cruelties practiced upon their fathers, and had +themselves seen and felt so much of the tyranny of the mother country, +as to destroy all hope on their part that political power could be +vested in remote hands, without the certainty of its being abused. +Although they may have been right in respect to the monarchical +preferences of many who were the most zealous for a convention, still +they overrated the danger that such views would be encouraged by that +body, and in their apprehensions of subsequent efforts to establish +monarchical institutions here, they did not sufficiently appreciate an +existing security against the accomplishment of such an object, the +character and adequacy of which shall be hereafter noticed. We have +every reason to believe that they regarded the project of a general +convention as involving, if successful, the fate of republican +principles in this country; and under the influence of feelings of so +sombre a character, their course, as a party, was, it must be admitted, +substantially adverse to any change, content rather to bear the ills +they had than to encounter others of which they knew not the precise +extent, but which they dreaded more. In this they fell behind the +progress of events.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<p>If our Revolutionary contest had terminated in a compromise with the +mother country, as was for a long time expected, the existing system, +with the amendments which would then have been generally favored, might +have sufficed. It might have answered all the purposes contemplated by +that which Franklin took so much pains to establish in 1755. But when +our country had taken her position among the nations of the earth as a +sovereign and independent power, she acquired rights and incurred +obligations which could not be properly cared for by any agency short of +a well-constructed and efficient general government, and the existing +organization was neither. By an efficient government I do not mean one +capable of absorbing or neutralizing the State authorities, or not fully +responsible for the faithful exercise of the powers conferred upon it, +or possessing more power than was necessary for the discharge of all the +duties assigned to it, but one amply furnished with the ability to +discharge them by its own means. To this end it was necessary that it +should have competent and well organized executive, legislative, and +judicial departments, and at least the power requisite to raise its +necessary revenues from the people directly. To all this the +Anti-Federal party was opposed, and therein it was wrong. The risk of +having exceptionable principles incorporated into the Constitution was +one that had to be encountered at some time, and there were cogent +reasons for meeting it then. The condition of the country, in regard to +its credit and other interests, presented an argument of great urgency +for the necessity of a competent government. But above all other +considerations stood the fact that the Convention had proposed for the +approval of the people and the States a constitution which, when +interpreted according to its plain and obvious meaning, conferred on the +government proposed by it powers fully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> adequate to the public service, +but none from which danger could be apprehended to any interest. That +this was so is no longer an open question. Time and experience have +demonstrated the error of the Anti-Federalists, who, under the influence +of strong prejudices, although doubtless honestly, thought differently. +No one will now question the devotion of the people, for whose benefit +it was framed, and who are the best judges in the matter, to the +existing system. With full power to alter or abolish it, they have lived +under it for the greater part of a century, without making or desiring +to make any essential alterations in its structure. By the exercise of +those powers only which were plainly given by the Constitution to the +government established by its authority and expressed on its face, in +regard to which there has been no dispute, and which were at the times +of its adoption well understood by those who made and those who adopted +it, our country has prospered and grown to its present greatness. I say +by those powers only, because the spurious interpolations which have +from time to time been attempted have in no instance been productive of +good.</p> + +<p>The Convention was held with closed doors, and the result of its labors +was not known to the public before it was communicated to Congress, nor +the particulars of its proceedings, the votes, resolutions, and +speeches, till many years afterwards. The public mind, and especially +the Anti-Federal portion of it, was impressed by those circumstances, +operating upon long entertained suspicions, with the most unfavorable +anticipations in respect to the character of the instrument that had +been agreed upon. All found it so different from what it was feared by +many that it would be, and so many received it according to its real +merits, that it carried a large preponderance of the public sentiment, +drawn from both parties, to the conclusion that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> it ought not to be, and +could not with safety be rejected. The reflection of this sentiment was +distinctly seen in the action of Congress. It had given its assent to +the holding of a Convention, without which that body would not have met; +but it had, as we have seen, restricted its action in two most important +points: 1st, that the Convention should limit its action to a revision +of the Articles of Confederation and to suggestions for their +improvement; and, 2d, that its doings should be reported to Congress, to +be submitted to the States, under those Articles which required the +assent of every State to any alteration. The Convention disregarded +both; it sent to Congress a new constitution, regulated its submission +to the States, and decided that the assent of nine of the thirteen +should make it binding upon all. Congress, with its resolutions and +limitations thus set at nought, and without even a protest, did what was +asked of it. Yet the leaders of the Anti-Federal party in the States +determined upon opposition. The course and character of that opposition +indicate that those who embarked in it were conscious of their +approaching defeat.</p> + +<p>In the three largest and most strongly Anti-Federal States, in which the +power of that party, when cordially united, was irresistible, the +Constitution was ratified. It was adopted by the required number of +States, and the fate of the Anti-Federal party, as such, was forever +sealed by the result of the contest in which it had unwisely engaged.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This refers to the Memoirs of the writer, to which the +present essay was intended to be an episode. See <a href="#Page_iii">Introduction</a> to this +volume. <span class="smcap">Eds.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_425">Appendix</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> This contradiction between names and principles was obvious +even to intelligent foreigners. The French minister Fauchet, in his +famous despatch to his government (the publication of which worked the +downfall of Edmund Randolph, Washington's Secretary of State) alluding +to political parties in America, speaks of the whimsical contrast +between their names, Federal and Anti-Federal, and their real +opinions;—the former aiming with all their power to annihilate +federalism, while the latter were striving to preserve it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> 1 Madison <i>Papers</i>, 291.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> 2 Jefferson's <i>Correspondence</i>, 276.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See <i>Address</i>; 2 Madison, 698. Not more than one, if one, +of the five States was fully in favor of a Convention.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Journals</i> of that Congress, Vol. IV. p. 724.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Sparks's <i>Washington</i>, Vol. IX.; Notes, pp. 237-9.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>The Federal Party in Power under the New Constitution—Agency of +Individuals in the Formation and Ratification of the +latter—Prospects of the Opening Administration of the +Government—Unwise Course of the Federal Party—President +Washington—His Peculiar Relations with the People and with +Parties—His first Cabinet—Character of the Differences between +Jefferson and Hamilton—The latter sustained—Hamilton's Position, +Power, and Influence upon the subsequent Course of Parties—His +Monarchical Views—Various Authorities in Relation to the +latter—Fidelity of Washington to the Republican Form of +Government—Importance of correctly Understanding the Extent of +Hamilton's Influence during the Administrations of Washington and +John Adams—Personal and Official Relations between Washington and +Members of his Cabinet—Evidences of the Spread of Monarchical +Views among Officers and Public Men in Washington's Time—His +Steadfast Adherence to the last to the Republican Form—His +Permanent Hold upon the Affections of the People, even while they +repudiated certain Leading Principles of his Administration.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>he period in our political history to which our inquiry has conducted +us, was one of the greatest interest. The successful effort that had +been made to compel Great Britain to acknowledge our Independence; the +government of the Confederation, and the causes that led to its +abandonment; the grave step taken in a better direction by the formation +and ratification of the new Constitution, with the hopes and fears +excited by the last great movement, were well calculated to impress +profoundly the minds of those who had been actors in such important +scenes. The success of the Federal party in the first election held +under the new Constitution was complete. For the first time since<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> its +organization, that party possessed the unrestricted control of the +national legislature. If any thing could have been thought wanting to +insure its permanent success, that was believed to be secured by the +consent of General Washington to be the first President of the new +government about to be organized under a constitution, to the paternity +of which they had established so fair a claim. Neither the formation nor +the ratification of that instrument were altogether the work of avowed +members of that party; but as between the two parties they had clearly +the best title to be regarded as its authors. The merits of individuals +in that great work were various. Alexander Hamilton, the able and +undisputed leader of the Federal party, from its origin to his death, +did comparatively nothing either toward its formation or adoption by the +Federal Convention. His most useful services were rendered in the New +York State Convention, by which it was ratified, and in his +contributions to the numbers of "The Federalist." These were formally +declared as the measure of his services in that regard, in reply to a +direct inquiry long after Hamilton's death, by his best informed and +always devoted friend, Gouverneur Morris, as will be seen hereafter. It +was, beyond all doubt, from Madison that the Constitution derived its +greatest aid in respect as well to its construction as to its passage +through the Convention, and its ratification by the States.</p> + +<p>The character and political career of James Madison were <i>sui +generis</i>—as much so as though far different from those of John +Randolph. Possessed of intellectual powers inferior to none, and taking +an unsurpassed interest in the course of public affairs, he seemed +invariably to bring to the discussion of public questions a thoroughly +unprejudiced mind. Whilst in the speeches of his contemporaries we +seldom fail to perceive that the argument sub<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>mitted was framed to +support a foregone conclusion,—to recommend a measure for which the +speaker cherished a personal preference,—it is rare indeed, if ever, +that any such indications are to be found in those of Mr. Madison. +Whilst the former present themselves as advocates, the latter appears in +the attitude of an umpire between rival opinions, who has made it his +business to search for the truth, and is determined to abide the result +of his investigations, uninfluenced in the formation of his decision by +preferences or prejudices of any description. The most acute observer in +reviewing the writings, speeches, and votes of Mr. Madison during the +exciting periods of which we are speaking, when governments as well as +individuals were to an unusual extent in a state of transition, would +find it difficult to place his finger upon any of them in respect to +which the justice of this description would not be manifest.</p> + +<p>Mr. John Quincy Adams, in his Jubilee Address, heretofore alluded to, +describes Mr. Madison and General Hamilton as being, at this period, +"spurred to the rowels by ambition."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Both of these gentlemen were, +doubtless, ambitious of the fame which is acquired by serving one's +country honestly and efficiently, and we have no sufficient reason for +assuming that Mr. Adams meant more than that. It is, nevertheless, but +justice to those truly great men to add that so far as high-reaching +ambition is indicated by abjuring unpopular opinions and assuming those +which are believed to be otherwise; by professing attachment to +principles not really cherished for their own sake, or by personal +intrigues of any description to acquire or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> increase popular favor, I +sincerely believe that there were no two men of their day less liable to +the imputation. Mr. Madison's course at the period of which we are +speaking and during his antecedent public life, was, to a remarkable +extent, divested of a partisan character. He supported, ably and +perseveringly, many, if not most of the propositions for the adoption of +which the Federal party was particularly solicitous, whilst representing +one of the most decided Anti-Federal States in the Confederacy, without +losing the confidence of his constituents, or even hazarding its loss. +He was, throughout, in favor of giving to the federal head an +independent right to levy and collect its necessary revenue and to +regulate commerce, and was from the beginning in favor of a convention +to revise the Constitution. In that body he was one of the majority in +favor of the course I have described, and which resulted in the present +Constitution. His successful and brilliant efforts in favor of the new +system of government placed him at the head of its friends; but there +was no time when Mr. Madison can, with truth and fairness, be said to +have belonged to the Federal party; he all the time represented a State +which took the lead in opposition to that school, his political +affinities and associations were in general adverse to that +organization, and, as I have said, he never forfeited the good opinion +of his State. She seems always to have confided in his sincerity and in +the integrity of his motives, and to have been willing to allow him to +follow the dictates of his own judgment in regard to particular +measures.</p> + +<p>The most auspicious prospects beamed upon the opening administration of +the new government, and it is fair to presume that the anticipations +thus inspired would have been triumphantly realized if those who had +been selected to conduct it, and their successors for the ensuing +twelve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> years, had accepted the Constitution in the sense in which it +was known to have been understood by those who framed it, and by the +people when they adopted it. A course thus right in itself, and thus +acquiescent in the popular will by men, some of whom had been long +suspected by many of their Revolutionary associates of not holding that +will in very high respect, would not have failed to conciliate large +portions of the Anti-Federal party. Their dread of the exercise of +unauthorized power by a general government, of which the responsibility +was, in their estimation, too remote to be safely trusted, and their +apprehensions for the safety of State institutions, always an object of +their greatest solicitude, might have been allayed, if not substantially +subdued. These valuable objects accomplished, the great improvements in +the condition as well of public as of individual affairs, unavoidably +flowing from the reasonably harmonious action of a government which the +Federal party had done so much to establish, and the crowning fact that +these gratifying results were brought about in the name, and with the +active coöperation of Washington, the object of universal respect and +affection, would have secured to that party through the long lapse of +time that has since intervened, at least as large a share in the control +of the government as has been possessed by a party which became its +successful rival, but which can scarcely be said to have then existed.</p> + +<p>But the Federal party rashly turned its back upon the only course by +which these advantages might have been secured, and in doing so, showed +itself regardless of considerations which would not have escaped the +attention of more discreet, if not wiser bodies. Its influential and +leading men forgot that the administration did not, in point of fact, +represent the political opinions in respect to the proper uses and +spirit of governments in general of a majority<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> of the people; that +their party had acquired power solely by its wise course in regard to a +single, though doubtless most important measure; and that even in +respect to that large portions of the people felt, as expressed by John +Quincy Adams, "that the Constitution itself had been extorted from the +grinding necessity of a reluctant nation." The Federal party took its +course also in momentary forgetfulness of the characters of those whose +opinions it was about to violate, whose feelings were to be offended, +and whose resentments it must incur. It overlooked what it had the +fullest reason to know, that those whom it was about to drive into +opposition were men, and the descendants of men, who had from the +beginning, and at all times, and under all circumstances, been +enthusiasts in devotion to liberty, and stern and uncompromising in +demanding stringent restrictions upon delegated authority,—as +inflexible in their opinions, and as incapable of being driven from +their support by the hand of power, or seduced by corruption, as human +nature could be made in the schools of fiery trial in which they had +been trained. The Federalists in power, or rather he who, through the +great confidence of his chief, wielded that power, did nothing, if we +except the personal efforts of Washington in favor of conciliation, +absolutely nothing to soothe the feelings of their defeated opponents, +or to allay their apprehensions, but much to exacerbate the former and +to confirm the latter.</p> + +<p>The justice of these allegations is fully proved by the acts of the +public men of that day. From the official position of the first +President, and the part he consequently took in the management of public +affairs, a faithful survey of these cannot be made without embracing him +in the review. This is treading upon privileged ground. No American, no +good man, can approach it without feeling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> that it is such, or without +being embarrassed by the apprehension that, however pure his intention, +he may undesignedly outrage the sentiments of admiration and reverence +by which it is naturally and properly intrenched. General Washington +retired gracefully from his military command, with more true glory than +ever fell to the lot of man. There have, doubtless, at times, appeared +military leaders of more professional genius and science, but never one +better adapted to the high duties to which he was called; never one of +whom it could with more truth be said, to use a modern and comprehensive +expression, that he was "the right man in the right place." Certainly +without his seeking it, and doubtless against his wishes, he was +transferred to the civil service of his country by his election to the +office of President under the new Constitution. The administration, of +which he thus became the constitutional head, adopted certain measures, +proposed others, and set up claims to power under that instrument, of +which many of his countrymen and personal friends could not approve, and +which they felt themselves obliged to oppose; these, in the progress of +time and events, became organized as a political party by which those +objectionable measures and claims of power were perseveringly resisted, +but without any diminution of respect for his character, position, and +feelings. They overthrew the administration of his successor, which +claimed to act upon his principles, succeeded to the control of the +Federal Government, and have kept it ever since, with rare and limited +exceptions, attributable to special causes.</p> + +<p>There is, notwithstanding, in this great country, no hamlet, town, city, +or place in which American citizens congregate, where the name of +Washington is ever pronounced without the profoundest reverence, or in +which there does not prevail an undying sense of gratitude for his +public<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> services. The history of the world will be searched in vain for +a tribute of love and gratitude at all comparable to that which the +people of the United States have rendered to him who was the commander +of their armies in the war of the Revolution, and their first republican +chief magistrate—a tribute, in paying which the only contest between +political parties is as to which shall manifest the most zeal, and which +shall attain the highest success.</p> + +<p>Was ever before so great and so gratifying reward bestowed, including in +its wide extent the noble, exalted, and well-won title of <i>Pater +Patrię</i>! This, the highest honor that man can receive on earth, was not, +as of old, a title given to an adored chief by victorious soldiers who, +however renowned for their valor, were always open to the influence of +personal and temporary feelings; nor was it obtained through the +instrumentality of a venal senate; neither did it originate in +state-craft or priest-craft, which have in every age paid homage to the +great men of the world for selfish and sinister purposes. The high +honors paid to Washington proceeded from no such sources, nor were they +exposed to the suspicions from which such bestowments are rarely free. +They sprang from the disinterested and deliberate judgment of an +intelligent, virtuous, and free people, who felt that he had, in his +military capacity alone, done incomparably more than any other man for +the establishment of their Independence, and that in all his civil +service he had been actuated by the same upright motives which had +governed his whole previous career, and that in that sphere also, as in +every act of his life, he had placed the performance of public duties +and the advancement of public interests before all other earthly +considerations. Although many of them had differed from him in respect +to some measures which had received his sanction, they were not on that +account the less satisfied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> that he had, in the exercise of a rightful +discretion, been influenced only by an earnest desire to promote the +welfare of his country. So regarding his whole career, they with one +accord gave him the highest place on the roll of fame and the first in +their hearts.</p> + +<p>This spontaneous and ample recognition of a debt of imperishable +gratitude to a public benefactor, whose modesty was equal to his +unsurpassed merit, was the act of a people often misrepresented, and as +often misunderstood, but who have never been found wanting, in the end, +in what was due to faithful public servants, to themselves, or to their +political institutions.</p> + +<p>We are, perhaps, yet too near the period of these great transactions to +pronounce safely upon the general justice of their dealings with the +contemporaries of Washington. But when time shall have relieved the +subject more thoroughly from the adverse influences of family +connections and partisan feelings, I have not a doubt that some American +historian, loving his country and admiring the character of his +countrymen, will take pleasure in holding up to the world a picture of +the distribution of popular confidence and popular favors in their case +also, which may safely be compared with that drawn from the history of +any people.</p> + +<p>Unbelievers may gainsay, and disappointed aspirants may rail at these +deductions, but they nevertheless do no more than justice to the +character of our people, before whom every public question and the acts +and opinions of every public man, be he whom he may, may be freely +canvassed. All that can be asked of him who seeks to vindicate and +perpetuate the truth of history, is that he shall deal justly and +candidly with his subject. From a scrutiny so conducted, no citizen will +ask or expect that any public transaction, or the course of any public +man shall be exempted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p> + +<p>No man could have accepted office with fewer temptations to depart from +the line of duty than offered themselves to President Washington. His +claims to the admiration of his countrymen and of the world were +complete; reasonable in all his desires and happy in his domestic +relations, he was possessed of property beyond either his wants or his +desires, and was without children to inherit his estate or to succeed to +the glories already attached to his name. The advantages to be derived +by a republican magistrate from the consciousness of occupying such a +position and of its being also appreciated by his constituents, are very +great. The confidence inspired by these considerations was also +strengthened by the fact that in the high and responsible stations in +which he had been placed he had never failed to increase the good-will +and respect of those by whom he had been appointed. But these +circumstances of encouragement did not blind his cautious mind to a +proper sense of the difficulties incident to the new duties he had +assumed and to his want of experience in regard to them. In addition to +the command of all the military force in the country in a more plenary +form than that in which he had before possessed it, he was now intrusted +with the superintendence and direction of large portions of the domestic +and of all the foreign concerns of a great people just taking their +position in the family of nations. First on the list of his responsible +duties stood that of organizing a government constructed upon new and to +a great extent untried principles, at a moment when the tendency of the +French Revolution had been sufficiently developed to threaten political +convulsions more portentous and more difficult to be dealt with than any +that the world had ever witnessed; and he was called to the performance +of this delicate task amidst party dissensions at home of the most +violent nature, which many people apprehended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> might extend to a +revolution in the character of the government itself. Firm in all his +purposes Washington did not shrink from the application of his +well-balanced mind to a survey of the difficulties that stood in his +way, in making which no exaggerated estimate of his own capacities +prevented him from foreseeing the embarrassments that might arise, and +to some extent must arise, from the difference in the nature of many of +the duties he was now called upon to discharge from those with which his +past public life had made him familiar; and I have always thought that, +among the great transactions of his career, there was scarcely one in +which were exhibited more strikingly the strength of his judgment and +the nobleness of his disposition, than in the formation of his first +Cabinet.</p> + +<p>It is difficult for one not particularly conversant with such matters to +realize the obstructions which not unfrequently present themselves in +the work of forming a good cabinet. These are sometimes the consequence +of an overestimate of his own qualifications on the part of the chief +magistrate elect, and a resulting disinclination to bring into the +government men whose prominence before the country and whose great +accomplishments as statesmen may depress his own importance in the +action of the administration. This feeling, when it exists in only a +moderate degree, is certain to be encouraged by the flatteries of +friends, or more often by selfish men for the purpose of promoting their +designs upon the patronage at the disposal of the incumbent. Against the +dangerous influences of these classes President Washington was +effectually guarded by elements in his own character decidedly +unpropitious to both. But he was not so free from embarrassments arising +from another source. He was at the commencement of his government +surrounded by his fellow-soldiers, the officers of the army of the +Revolution,—veterans<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> who had acquired high consideration by their +meritorious services, and were endeared to him by their personal +characters and their past and present sufferings. They were generally +men whose judgments he could not but respect, and who, like their class +in all countries, were not disposed to consider the aid of civilians in +the administration of public affairs as imperatively necessary. The +actual state of the country also, in regard to its party divisions and +dissensions, was, as I have already said, perhaps the greatest source of +perplexity and trouble.</p> + +<p>Not discouraged by these difficulties, he proceeded to the formation of +his cabinet in a spirit of patriotism and good sense, manifesting an +anxious desire to allay, if he could not neutralize, the violence of +party spirit, and to enlist in the administration of the new government +and secure to the public service those of highest character and talents +who belonged to, or were disposed to sympathize with, the party which +had opposed the Constitution. With these noble views, he divided his +cabinet equally between gentlemen of that school and members of the +Federal party, and equally also between civilians and military men. For +the two most responsible, as well as most difficult offices, to which +were assigned duties least familiar to himself, he selected two +gentlemen, who from their active patriotism and distinguished talents +occupied high, if not the highest positions in the country, had already +been placed at the head of the rival and conflicting opinions which +divided it, and of whose personal uprightness and political independence +he was well assured.</p> + +<p>Down to the period which we have now reached, President Washington had, +to a remarkable extent, kept himself aloof from partisan strife. This +was partly owing to his great self-command and to his perception of the +incompatibility of a participation in that field of action with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> the +positions he occupied in the public service; and possibly, to some +extent, to anticipations, not unnatural, that the future held in store +for him a fame which would soar above parties. He had seen and known too +much of men to allow himself to hope that the cabinet he had selected +would be entirely free from disunion, or from those distractions likely +to arise from the conflicting materials of which it was composed; but he +did not at first appreciate fully the extent and bearing of the +differences that existed between the opinions and public views of +Jefferson and Hamilton. Hoping that these would be confined to +particular points in the administration of affairs, he doubtless relied +upon his personal influence to soothe the asperities they might produce, +and at least to limit their adverse effect to the measures to which they +might be from time to time applied. His confidence in this regard was +well warranted by his past good fortune in removing obstacles that +threatened injury to the country, by means of the general respect that +was paid to his opinions and wishes by all classes of his countrymen. +His success in allaying the spirit of insubordination that manifested +itself among the officers of the army at Newburgh and for a season +menaced seriously the character of the army and the peace of the +country; in arresting a design which was supposed to be on foot in +Congress, to make the sufferings and consequent indignation of the +troops subservient to the promotion of the financial schemes of +civilians; and in dispersing the storm which threatened to follow the +establishment of the Cincinnati, with its hereditary honors, strikingly +justified his confidence in the efficacy of any future efforts in the +same direction.</p> + +<p>More could not have been done, or in a better spirit, than Washington +did to preserve harmony between the two leading members of his cabinet, +and to secure their co<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>öperation in the public service. No steps, +consistent with a proper self-respect, as it now appears, were omitted +on his part. If the differences in their views had been less radical +these friendly efforts and applications must have succeeded, received as +they were by both in the most becoming and grateful spirit.</p> + +<p>But these commendable exertions were doomed to an unavoidable and final +disappointment. The President might as well have attempted to combine +the elements of fire and water as to secure a harmonious action in the +administration of the Government between Jefferson and Hamilton. The +antagonistic opinions of these great men upon the subjects of government +and its proper administration were too profoundly planted in their +breasts, and they were both too honest to depart from them without a +corresponding change in their convictions, which there was no reason to +anticipate, to admit of a hope for a different result.</p> + +<p>Of the nature and extent of their differences of opinion it is my +purpose to attempt some explanation in another place; but here I will +only say, as I desire to say in advance, that I do not now believe, +whatever my impression may have been, that they originated in any +difference as to the objects at which they aimed, or that those objects, +in either case, were other than the welfare and happiness of those for +whom they were selected to act. They may have differed in opinion in +respect to the condition, social and political, in which the mass of the +people would be most likely to be prosperous and happy; they certainly +did so, and that very widely, in regard to the public measures by which +that prosperity and happiness would be promoted or diminished; and that +diversity in their opinions arose mainly from their conflicting +estimates of the capacity of the people for self-government. Upon that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +point they were opposed diametrically, and that opposition produced an +unavoidable antagonism in their views of almost every public question.</p> + +<p>In a conversation between these gentlemen in 1791, to which a more +particular reference will be made hereafter, General Hamilton thus +expressed himself:—"For that mind must be really depraved which would +not prefer the equality of political rights, which is the foundation of +pure republicanism, if it can be obtained consistently with order." This +was, I do not in the least doubt, his real sentiment; but unhappily +circumstances, to which we may hereafter recur, had impressed his mind +with a conviction, which was never removed, that the great desideratum +which he mentioned—the preservation of order—could not be secured +where the control of public affairs was largely in the hands of the +people. He very correctly regarded the security of the rights of persons +and of property as an indispensable ingredient in good government; and +distrusting the respect of the people, when acting in masses, for both, +he was adverse to that equality of rights which he truly said was "the +foundation of pure republicanism." These great objects he thought could +in no other way be secured than by a strong government, in which there +would be what he called a "stable will," independent of popular control. +This he endeavored openly, and with a candor that belonged to his +character, to obtain in the Convention, and failing there, he hoped to +realize its advantages, in some degree, by strengthening what he +described as the "organs" of the Government, through the action of a +popular President and a good administration. The most important of the +measures by which he designed to accomplish these objects Mr. Jefferson +regarded as so many violations of the Constitution, and he looked upon +the spirit in which they had their origin as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> evidence of disaffection +to republican government, the differences in opinion between these +master spirits of the cabinet, who engrossed a share of the attention of +the people inferior only to that paid to the President, were therefore, +not limited as Washington hoped they would be, to particular measures +but presented contradictory and irreconcilable theories for the +administration of the Government, which could not even be discussed in +the cabinet without producing interminable distractions. As was to be +expected from minds like their respective systems left no middle ground, +and required the adoption of the one or the other as a rule of action +for the Government. The unavoidable obligation to make a selection +between them devolved therefore on Washington, and he discharged it, as +he did all his duties, courteously and firmly. He gave the preference to +Hamilton, and sustained him in the measures he proposed to carry out the +policy he recommended.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jefferson, sensible that the necessity of his retirement from the +cabinet had thus become absolute, determined to take that step in a way +as little annoying to the President and as little injurious to the +public service as possible. To this end he gave early notice that he +would resign at the expiration of the President's first term of office; +and when that time arrived he retired. This left General Hamilton +without any check from his associates in the administration, save what +might proceed from the Attorney General, Edmund Randolph, who became +Secretary of State on Jefferson's retirement, and of whom the latter +said that his habit was to give his opinions to his friends and his +votes to his opponents.</p> + +<p>Thus, next to Washington, Alexander Hamilton became the most powerful +man in the nation, abundantly able to give to party divisions their form +and pressure, and in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> effect to shape the action of the Government +according to his judgment by the authority with which he was invested, +and which he exerted with less restraint than had ever before or has +ever since been encountered by any minister in this country or in +Europe.</p> + +<p>To no quarter, therefore, could our attention be more profitably +directed for instruction in the history and course of parties during his +political career than to the opinions and acts of that remarkable man. +The time has been, I am sensible, when, with vision distorted by +partisan prejudices, which seldom allow both sides of any question to be +seen, I could not have reviewed his course with the impartiality due to +truth and justice; but I am happy to believe that those feelings have +sufficiently lost their force to permit me, while dissenting more +thoroughly than ever from his principles, to do justice to his motives, +and to admit his sincerity and his desire to serve his country in the +very acts which I unreservedly condemn. The most obnoxious of his +opinions have here, thank God, become obsolete and exploded theories, +not at all dangerous as examples, and mainly referred to as historical +marks of our progress. Believing, as I think all liberal minds now do, +that they were honestly formed, we can speak of them without reproach to +their author, and censure them without being suspected of a design to +cast obloquy on his memory. The history of our partisan warfare has +presented, since his time, the anomalous feature of a persevering denial +in his name, by some of his followers, of the political opinions which +he not only did not affect to disclaim, but which he made it his +business on all fitting occasions to publish and advocate, believing +them to be right, and to the last moment of his life confidently +expecting that they would become, at no distant day, the general +sentiment of the country.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have already referred to contemporaneous declarations, made in April, +1791, by John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, at an informal meeting of +General Washington's Cabinet, to which the Vice-President had been +invited, in favor of monarchical institutions according to the English +model. The terms in which those gentlemen expressed their admiration of, +and preference for, the English system of government, though differing +in particulars, were in no sense equivocal, nor can there be, at this +day, the slightest doubt of their authenticity. On the 13th of August, +in the same year, General Hamilton held another conversation with Mr. +Jefferson, of which the latter leaves the following notes:—</p> + +<p>"I own," said Hamilton, "it is my own opinion, though I do not publish +it in Dan or Beersheba, that the present government is not that which +will answer the ends of society by giving stability and protection to +its rights, and that it will probably be found to be expedient to go +into the British form. However, since we have undertaken the experiment, +I am for giving it a fair course, whatever my expectations may be. The +success, indeed, is so far greater than I had expected, and therefore +success seems more possible than it had done heretofore, and there are +still other and other stages of improvement which, if the present does +not succeed, may be tried and ought to be tried before we give up the +republican form altogether; for that mind must be really depraved which +would not prefer the equality of political rights, which is the +foundation of pure republicanism, if it can be obtained consistently +with order. Therefore whoever by his writings disturbs the present order +of things is really blamable, however pure his intentions may be, and he +was sure Mr. Adams's were pure."</p> + +<p>"This," Mr. Jefferson adds in his memorandum, "is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> the substance of a +declaration made in much more lengthy terms, and which seemed to be more +formal than usual for a private conversation between two, and as if +intended to qualify some less guarded expressions which had been dropped +on former occasions. Thomas Jefferson has committed it to writing the +moment of Alexander Hamilton's leaving the room."</p> + +<p>The measures described by Hamilton as the stages of improvement already +adopted were doubtless the bank and funding system, and those still in +reserve were such as are recommended in his report on manufactures, +subsequently made.</p> + +<p>In the Federal Convention which framed our present Constitution General +Hamilton submitted a series of propositions to be adopted as a basis for +the new government, which he supported in an elaborate and very able +speech. The debates of the Convention were reported by Mr. Madison, who +submitted the notes he had taken of his speech to General Hamilton, +which the latter admitted to be correct, contenting himself with a few +formal and verbal amendments. In the year 1810, before the proceedings +of the Convention were ordered to be published, the Rev. Dr. Mason, +intending to write the life of Hamilton, applied to Mr. Madison, then +President of the United States, for a copy of that speech, which was +furnished to him accompanied by the following note:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"James Madison presents his respects to Dr. Mason with the promised copy +of Mr. Hamilton's observations in the General Convention on the subject +of a Federal Constitution, as noted at the time." +<br/><br/> +"<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, <i>January 12th, 1810</i>."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Dr. Mason abandoned the idea of preparing the life, and a descendant of +his, a few years since, placed in my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> hands two of the documents +collected by his grandfather, one of which was the above note with a +copy of the speech. The following are extracts from the latter:—</p> + +<p>"This view of the subject almost led him to despair that a republican +government could be established over a country of so great an extent. He +was sensible at the same time that it would be unwise to propose one of +any other form. In his private opinion he had no scruple in declaring, +supported as he was in the opinion of so many of the wise and the good, +that the British government was the best in the world; and he doubted +very much whether any thing short of it would do in America."</p> + +<p>Speaking of the executive, he said: "As to the executive it seemed to be +admitted that no good one could be established on republican principles. +Was not this giving up the merits of the question, for can there be a +good government without a good executive? The English model was the only +good one on this subject. The hereditary interest of the king was so +interwoven with those of the nation, and his personal emolument so +great, that he was placed above the danger of being corrupted from +abroad," &c. Also, "their House of Lords is a most noble institution. +Having nothing to hope for by a change and a sufficient interest by +means of their property in being faithful to the national interest, they +form a permanent barrier against any pernicious innovation, whether +attempted on the part of the Crown or of the Commons."</p> + +<p>On comparing these extracts with the speech, as published in the +"Madison Papers," I find them to accord in all respects. In the life of +Hamilton, by his son, the author indulges in harsh imputation upon the +conduct of Mr. Madison, in this connection, in the justice of which I am +deceived in the general sentiment of the country if he finds many to +agree with him; and through a fatality which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> often attends similar +demonstrations, he publishes in the same volume Hamilton's plan of +government, the original draft of which Dr. Mason informed Mr. Madison +was yet among the General's papers, and which is, word for word, the +same as the copy published in the "Madison Papers;" and also Hamilton's +own notes for his great speech in the Convention, which indicate the +character of the speech upon the point in question as fully as notes +ever prefigured a speech, and both of which confirm all that Mr. Madison +has said in regard to it.</p> + +<p>The following are extracts from the notes:—</p> + +<p>"Here I shall give my sentiments of the best form of government—not as +a thing attainable by us, but as a model which we ought to approach as +near as possible." "British Constitution best form." "There ought to be +a principle in the government capable of resisting the popular current." +"No periodical duration will come up to this." "The principle chiefly +intended to be established is this, that there must be a permanent +<i>will</i>." "A democratic assembly is to be checked by a democratic senate, +and both these by a democratic chief magistrate: the end will not be +answered; the means will not be equal to the object." "The monarch must +have proportional strength. He ought to be hereditary, and to have so +much power that it will not be his interest to risk much to acquire +more." "The advantage of a monarch is this, he is above corruption,—he +must always intend in respect to foreign nations the true interests and +glory of the people." "Republics liable to foreign corruption and +intrigue. Holland—Athens." "Effect of the British government." "A +vigorous execution of the laws, and a vigorous defense of the people +will result." "Better chance for a good government." "It is said a +republican government will not admit of a vigorous execution." "It is +therefore<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> bad; for the goodness of a government consists in a vigorous +execution."</p> + +<p>It thus appears that the opinions avowed to Mr. Jefferson on different +occasions, one of which seems to have been sought for the purpose, were +no more than repetitions of those he had avowed on the floor of the +Convention, and of which he knew that Mr. Madison possessed an authentic +record that would some day see the light; indeed, if such had not been +the fact he would have just as frankly repeated them, for they were the +settled convictions of his mind during his life—as fresh when they were +announced to Mr. Jefferson as when promulgated in the Convention. Nor +had he any motives for concealment of his views, if concealment had +been, as it was not, characteristic of the man, for he was equally +convinced that the government which had been established would prove a +failure, and that the wisdom of his plans and the propriety of adopting +them would thus become apparent to all.</p> + +<p>We have here the words of General Hamilton himself—in his declarations +deliberately made and attested in the most solemn and responsible form +by Thomas Jefferson, and in his speech as reported by James Madison, +under still more specific responsibility, confirmed by his own notes for +that speech now published by his son and biographer—all going to the +same end, viz: to show that he was in principle a monarchist, and that +he preferred a monarchical to a republican form of government.</p> + +<p>But Jefferson and Madison were politically his opponents. Let us now see +what his oldest and best friend says upon this point. Gouverneur Morris, +his coadjutor in the Convention and in politics through life, and his +eulogist at the grave, gave in 1811 an unreserved <i>exposé</i> of Hamilton's +opinions on this very question, in a letter to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> Robert Walsh, then +editor of the "National Gazette," written, doubtless, in answer to +inquiries. The reader should procure this letter, and will find in it +much matter of interest. I omit, among other things, what it says in +respect to Hamilton's purity, and his frank and honorable character and +bearing in political matters, having said as much myself, and with no +less sincerity.</p> + +<p>"General Hamilton," says Morris, "had little share in forming the +Constitution. He disliked it, believing all republican government to be +radically defective. He admired, nevertheless, the British Constitution, +which I consider an aristocracy in fact though a monarchy in name.... +General Hamilton hated republican government because he confounded it +with democratical government, and he detested the latter because he +believed it must end in despotism, and be, in the mean time, destructive +to public morality.... But although General Hamilton knew these things +from the study of history, and perceived them by the intuition of +genius, he never failed on every occasion to advocate the excellence of, +and avow his attachment to monarchical government."</p> + +<p>In another part of the letter, "one marked trait in the General's +character was the pertinacious adherence to opinions he had once +formed."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>In a previous letter, written shortly after Hamilton's death, (December, +1804,) to Governor Aaron Ogden, Morris says: "Our poor friend Hamilton +bestrode his hobby to the great annoyance of his friends and not without +injury to himself. More a theoretic than a practical man, he was not +sufficiently convinced that a system may be good in itself and bad in +relation to particular circumstances. He well knew that his favorite +form was inadmissible unless as the result of civil war; and I suspect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +that his belief in what he called <i>an approaching crisis</i><a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> arose from +a conviction that the kind of government most suitable, in his, opinion, +to this extensive country, could be established in no other way."</p> + +<p>Hamilton not only cherished his preference for monarchical institutions +to the very close of his life, but we have good reason to believe that +the expectation that some crisis in the affairs of the country, +encouraged by the weakness of our political system, would yet arise and +would lead to their introduction, was equally abiding. His letters and +writings will be found to contain many intimations to that effect. I +will notice two instances. His letter to Timothy Pickering in 1803, is +the only attempt that I have ever seen, coming from himself, to explain +his course in the Convention. There may have been others, but I would be +surprised indeed by the production of any thing from his pen denying his +preference for the monarchical form of government, although such was the +standing charge of his political opponents. None such, I feel very +confident, ever existed. That letter concludes with the following very +significant remark:—</p> + +<p>"I sincerely hope that it may not hereafter be discovered that, through +want of sufficient attention to the last idea," (that of giving adequate +energy to the Government,) "the experiment of Republican Government, +even in this country, has not been as complete, as satisfactory, and as +decisive as could be wished."</p> + +<p>The explanation of "his conduct, motives, and views" in accepting the +challenge of Colonel Burr—probably the last paper containing any +allusion to public affairs that he ever wrote—closes with expressions, +italicized by myself, remarkably in harmony with the intimations of +Gouverneur Morris to Aaron Ogden:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"To those who, with me, abhorring the practice of dueling, may think +that I ought on no account to add to the number of bad examples, I +answer that my relative situation, as well in public as private, +enforcing all the considerations which men of the world designate honor, +imposed on me, as I thought, a peculiar necessity not to decline the +call. The ability to be in future useful, whether in resisting mischief +or effecting good, <i>in those crises of our public affairs which seem +likely to happen, would probably be inseparable from a conformity with +prejudice in this particular</i>."</p> + +<p>Although not so pointed in expressing it, his disposition toward the +State governments was scarcely more favorable than toward the plan of +the general government. In his letter to Pickering, at a period when +their usefulness and importance to the system were better appreciated, +he says: "Though I would have enlarged the legislative power of the +General Government, yet I never contemplated the abolition of the State +governments, but, on the contrary, they were in some particulars a +part,—constituent parts,—of my plan." But let us see what part it was +that he would have them perform. He said in the Convention: "If they +(the State governments) are extinguished, he was persuaded that great +economy might be obtained by substituting a general government. He did +not mean, however, to shock the public opinion by proposing such a +measure. <i>On the other hand, he saw no other necessity for declining +it.</i> They are not necessary for any of the great purposes of commerce, +revenue, or agriculture. Subordinate authorities, he was aware, would be +necessary. There must be district tribunals, corporations for local +purposes. But <i>cui bono</i> the vast and expensive apparatus now +appertaining to the States?"</p> + +<p>These were Hamilton's views in respect to the State<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> governments, as +expressed in the Convention, according to Mr. Madison's report. In this +case it is also fortunate for the cause of truth that, from a paper +written by Hamilton just as the General Convention adjourned, and +published by his son, it appears very plainly that his views upon the +subject cannot have been greatly misreported by Mr. Madison. In this +paper he speculates upon the probable fate of the Constitution; after +saying, in confirmation of my suggestion that he doubted the +dispositions of the people in other respects than their intelligence and +capacity, that the Constitution would have in its favor "the good will +of men of property in the several States who wish a government of the +Union able to protect them against domestic violence, and the +<i>depredations which the democratic spirit is apt to make on property</i>," +he adds: "If the Government be adopted, it is probable General +Washington will be the President of the United States. This will insure +a wise choice of men to administer the Government, and a good +administration. A good administration will conciliate the confidence and +affection of the people, and perhaps enable the Government to acquire +more consistency than the proposed Constitution seems to promise for so +great a country. <i>It may then triumph over the State governments and +reduce them to entire subordination, dividing the larger States into +smaller districts.</i> The organs of the General Government may also +acquire additional strength." The <i>italics</i> in the above extracts are +all my own except as to the word <i>organs</i>. He would not "shock the +public opinion" by proposing to extinguish the State governments, but +there was <i>no other</i> reason for omitting to do so. It would be well if +it were done, but it was not wise to shock the public mind upon a point +in respect to which it was known to be sensitive. But he would reduce +them to entire subordination, triumph over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> and consequently humiliate +them. It would be a poor compliment to Hamilton's knowledge of men and +of the effect of public measures, to assume that he did not know that +such would be the surest as well as the safest way to extinguish them in +the end.</p> + +<p>In a letter to Gouverneur Morris, so late as in 1802, a little more than +two years before his death, and which will be found in "The Works of +Hamilton," edited by his son, (Vol. VI. p. 529,) he thus unbosoms +himself to his friend: "Mine is an odd destiny. Perhaps no man in the +United States has sacrificed or done more for the present Constitution +than myself; and contrary to all my anticipations of its fate, as you +know from the very beginning, I am still laboring to prop the frail and +worthless fabric. Yet I have the murmurs of its friends no less than the +curses of its foes for my reward. What can I do better than withdraw +from the scene? Every day proves to me more and more that this American +world was not made for me."</p> + +<p>There would seem to be no force in evidence, however appropriate its +source or credible its character, if that we have produced is not +conclusive in regard to the opinions of General Hamilton upon certain +points. It proves, <i>first</i>, that he regarded monarchical institutions, +according to the English model, as being the most perfect government +that ever existed; <i>secondly</i>, that he would have preferred the +establishment of such a government here, and was only prevented from +advocating it by a conviction that it was made impracticable by the +adverse public opinion of the time; <i>thirdly</i>, that he thought it was +our duty, nevertheless, to approach that model with our Government as +nearly as the prejudices of the people would permit, and that he +introduced into the Convention a plan by which that object might be +reached; <i>fourthly</i>, that he regarded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> the present Federal Constitution, +which, as lately as two years before his death, in a free communication +to his trusted friend, he called "a frail and worthless fabric," as +inadequate to the purposes of a good government; that he had accepted it +at the time as a temporary bond of union, but believed from the +beginning that it would prove a failure and fall into contempt; that he +believed that this result would open the way to popular tumults forcing +intervention, and to convulsions through the evils of which the people +would, at no distant day, become convinced of their error, and consent +to institutions substantially similar to those he favored; and, +<i>fifthly</i>, that his preference for monarchical institutions was a fixed +and cherished sentiment; that although at times encouraged by his +success in measures he had no right to hope for under the Constitution +as he knew that instrument was intended to be, he yet invariably +returned to his first opinion adverse to the sufficiency of the +Constitution, and descended to the grave not only without a change in +his opinions, but with increased convictions of their perfect soundness.</p> + +<p>It has been a question often mooted whether the idea of using the power +with which he was or might be clothed to overthrow the actual +government, and to introduce the system he so earnestly preferred, was +ever seriously entertained by Hamilton. Such designs were freely charged +upon him by many of the old Republicans, who, under the full influence +of partisan prejudices, doubtless believed that he waited only for a fit +opportunity to attempt them. His repeated and undisguised expressions of +a preference for monarchical institutions, to friends and foes, when the +people of the United States, whose officer he was, had established a +government which they intended should be so widely different from such +institutions, were well calculated to engender the suspicion. Plain men +naturally imagined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> that a man like Hamilton would do much and incur +high responsibilities for the accomplishment of an object so near his +heart. Mr. Jefferson, who was not a man of a suspicious temperament, +through the fiery and protracted contests of parties, at the head of +which they respectively stood, was evidently at times alarmed by similar +apprehensions. But toward the close of his life, when partisan +asperities had been long since forgotten, in a letter to myself he +virtually exonerated Hamilton from the charge in these +expressions:—"For Hamilton frankly avowed that he considered the +British Constitution, with all the corruptions of its administration, as +the most perfect model of government that had ever been devised by the +wit of man,—professing, however, at the same time, that the spirit of +this country was so fundamentally republican that it would be visionary +to think of introducing monarchy here, and that therefore it was the +duty of its administrators to conduct it upon the principles their +constituents had elected."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Charles Francis Adams has placed before us, in his life of his +grandfather, John Adams, a series of facts bearing upon this point with +no ordinary significance. They are not brought forward in support of any +such charge, but as raising a question for the consideration of his +readers, whether it is not possible that in the pains he took to +increase greatly the provisional forces authorized to meet our +difficulties with France, and to convert the whole into a permanent +military establishment; in the readiness with which he fell in with the +scheme of Miranda, to conquer, through the joint operations of Great +Britain and the United States, the Floridas, Louisiana, and the South +American possessions of Spain, in case of a rupture between us and +France; and in his prompt consent to take command<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> of the troops to be +so employed, General Hamilton was influenced by a desire to bring about +the crisis to which he had always looked as one that would present a fit +opportunity for the establishment here of the political institutions he +preferred.</p> + +<p>These are grave matters, and of a nature calculated to challenge a new +and stricter examination of one of those critical periods which have +often occurred in our history, and from which we have had so many +providential deliverances. The subject is treated with becoming delicacy +and great caution by the author, whose conclusion, of which we have only +a hint, may possibly have been influenced by family traditions, +tinctured unavoidably with strong personal prejudices but never wanting +in intelligence. I will not undertake to speculate even as to what +General Hamilton might have done or have left undone if he had found +himself at the head of a large and permanent military force, and the +country convulsed by those popular outbreaks, the expectation of which +seems to have been never absent from his mind or from the minds of his +disciples. He might have mounted his "hobby"—as Morris termed his +passion for monarchical institutions—and have struck a blow in their +behalf, acting in the spirit of other "strong minds" who, as Mr. C. F. +Adams well and truly says, "seldom fail to associate with dreams of +their own glory the modes of exercising power for the good of their +fellow-men. Considering their happiness as mainly dependent upon a sense +of security from domestic convulsions, his first aim would have been to +gain that end at any rate, even if it should be done at some expense of +their liberties." But looking at the subject with no other feeling than +a sincere desire to arrive at a correct solution of the circumstances +narrated by Mr. Adams, I cannot bring my mind to the conclusion referred +to.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>I can well conceive that Hamilton might have been led to avail himself +of such a state of things for a <i>coup de main</i> of some decided character +if its existence had been brought about by others, or had been the +result of fortuitous circumstances—a contingency which his mind had +doubtless often contemplated. But I do not think that he would have +planned or contributed to bring about such a state of things involving +to so grave an extent the public order and the peace of the country. +Such a course would have been at variance with some of his most +cherished principles and inconsistent with his personal character. The +preservation of order, and a respect for the individual rights of +persons and of property, appeared always to be the objects of his +greatest solicitude. It was only because he did not think that these +could be effectually secured under any other form of government that he +preferred monarchical institutions, acknowledging at the same time that +they were at war with the principles of natural justice, and only +allowable upon that of their absolute necessity to secure society +against the occasional waywardness of a majority of its members. It was +mainly because of the very erroneous opinions he had formed of the +dispositions in this respect of a majority of his adopted countrymen +that he was induced to devote his splendid talents to hopeless efforts +to sustain principles so irreconcilable with those for which he had +periled his life in the war of the Revolution. I say erroneous, not only +because I think them such, but because experience, the only unerring +test, has so proved them. We are, at the moment when I write, a half +century from the transactions which form the subject of our +consideration, and I venture nothing in saying that there is no country +in Europe in which order has, in the interim, been better preserved, or +the rights of persons and property been more secure, than in the United +States; none<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> in which the power of government has been more stable or +more adequate to the purposes of its institution.</p> + +<p>But this is a wide field, for which I have neither space nor time. It +becomes me to remember, whilst occupied not without pleasure with these +retrospective investigations and meditations, that I have already passed +by several cheerful years, the allotted threescore-and-ten,—that period +of such solemn import which the undeserved favor of an always kind +Providence has permitted me to pass, not only with life but with the +means and the faculties to enjoy life,—and that if I hope to complete +the work before me I must confine myself more to the highway of my +subject, and leave its by-paths to the explorations of younger men.</p> + +<p>I cannot, nevertheless, refrain from a brief reference to transactions +which have more than once occurred in this country, have made a greater +impression on my mind than they seem to have made on others, and which I +think have a strong bearing upon the question of the American love of +order and respect for property and its rights. Although it is not +probable that the facts of these can ever be sufficiently understood +abroad to be correctly appreciated, it is otherwise here, and they are +well worthy of our profoundest meditations. I allude to scenes which +have been presented at San Francisco, which were at the moment of such +thrilling interest, but appear already to have sunk into oblivion amid +the ceaseless bustle and never-halting progress of American life.</p> + +<p>Look at that young but already large and flourishing city! Regard her as +she stood at the commencement of the extraordinary steps that were taken +for her relief! Think of the scenes through which she was made to pass, +and the condition to which she has been restored! An active and artful +portion of her population thoroughly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> steeped in corruption, vice, and +crime; her municipal authorities, the direct offspring of that +corruption, not only regardless of duty but fraternizing with criminals, +deriding the complaints of the injured, and scoffing at their prayers +for official interference; despair succeeding hope, and the opinion that +protection is at an end, and that nature may soon reassert her empire at +length ripening into conviction in the breasts of the good of all +classes; the general meeting of the citizens, and the appointment of the +Committee of Vigilance with unlimited powers and subject to +responsibility to no other tribunal than to the congregated mass of the +people from whom they derive their authority and their power; the +regular military organization adopted by the Committee and forthwith +called into the field of duty, sufficient in men, arms, and equipments +to crush resistance to the authority of the Committee in the city, and +to deter the exercise of any other authority at that remote distance +that might have a right to claim cognizance of the crimes they seek to +suppress; all legal rule superseded by that of the Committee of +Vigilance and put down on the instant of its assertion; criminals who +had been set at large by the former authorities re-arrested on charges +of capital offences, tried before the Committee, informally but honestly +and intelligently, found guilty and executed; the functionaries who had +connived at those offences arraigned at the bar of the same tribunal and +dealt with according to their deserts; crimes detected and felons +dragged from their hiding-places to meet a just punishment; men to whom +no specific offence could be traced, but who were notorious enemies of +order and abettors of crime, banished not to return under penalty of +death, and every effort made to resist or defeat the action of the +Committee crushed by an all-sufficient military force. The power of the +Committee continues in active and constant exercise for nearly three +months,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> when the purification of the city from crime and from criminals +being accomplished, the authority of the laws is restored, also the use +of the ballot-box which had been desecrated; this restoration is by the +order and in pursuance of the authority and power of the Committee which +are voluntarily laid down with the approbation and consent of a +community consisting of from 25,000 to 30,000 persons.</p> + +<p>There is no good reason for saying that during the whole of that period +and in the midst of such stirring scenes the power of the Committee was +in a single instance exercised to divest any innocent man of his +property, or to oppress him in any way, or to interfere with his legal +rights further than to compel submission to the temporary supremacy of +that body, or to punish the innocent, or to enable the guilty to escape, +or to aggrandize the Committee, or to benefit its members, their +friends, or its <i>employées</i>, or to do an act of intentional injustice to +any human being. During the government of the Committee the business +concerns of the city and the vocations of its citizens were carried on +with at least as much regularity and success as ever. Since its +resignation and the consequent dispersion of its power not a banished +man has returned contrary to the terms of his expulsion, and no member +of the Committee, nor any one who acted by and within its authority, has +been called to account for his acts within the bounds either of the city +or of the State to which it belongs.</p> + +<p>Is it probable that there is any city in Europe of equal size in which +its legally established authorities could have been suspended by the +irregular action of its own people with similar results,—in which the +substituted power could be exercised with equal wisdom and forbearance, +and laid down with so few causes for individual complaint? My<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +opportunities for observation, although considerable, have been less +than those of some others, and I may be wrong in thinking as I do that +such things could not be done by any other people in the world.</p> + +<p>The remedy for the social and political crimes which called the +Committee of Vigilance into existence was a fearful one, and must be so +regarded by all thinking and virtuous minds, and it would seem +paradoxical to set up such a crowning act of disorder—that of the +subversion of all legal authority, for even the shortest period—as an +exhibition of a love of order and respect for the rights of persons and +of property on the part of the actors; but I cannot resist the belief +that the transaction afforded the strongest proof of the existence of +those great principles in their minds, and that a proper sense of them +and a determination to maintain them will seldom be wanting on the part +of those who can act as did the Committee of San Francisco and its +supporters.</p> + +<p>But I ask pardon for this digression, and return to my subject. Many +considerations besides those suggested by Hamilton's invariable +solicitude for the preservation of order and by his constant respect for +the individual rights of persons and of property, press themselves upon +my mind against the conclusion intimated by Mr. C. F. Adams, and against +the probability that General Hamilton ever contemplated the creation of +a state of things that would justify or facilitate the employment of +force to establish institutions more congenial with his taste and +judgment than those we possessed. But I forbear to urge them, partly +because I have devoted as much time and space to the subject as I can +afford, and also because I am well satisfied that his knowledge of the +certain opposition of General Washington to any such scheme or design +would have been sufficient to deter him from undertaking either<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> during +the lifetime of the General, even if his own disposition had pointed in +that direction.</p> + +<p>It was at no time the intention of President Washington to give his +sanction to the opinions so generally, and as it now appears so justly, +attributed to General Hamilton. Never was man more strongly pledged to +the support of republican government, or more unchangeably determined to +maintain the responsibilities he had incurred in that regard. Embracing +with all his heart the Declaration of Independence, in which its +principles were delineated with the pencil of truth, he did more than +any other man to overthrow the government against which it was hurled, +and to open the way for the establishment of a republic in its place. +None knew better than he that such was the object of the Revolution, and +his resolution was immovable that the sufferings and sacrifices which +had been incurred in support of that object should not fail to +accomplish it through any act of omission or commission on his part. +Every important act in his eventful career shows that he regarded +himself on that point as invested by his country with a sacred trust. +When the bright prospect which he had largely contributed to open to his +countrymen for the realization of their wishes in this respect was in +danger of being obscured, if not forever blasted, by means similar to +those which have so often prevented or subverted free government, by the +violence of an exasperated soldiery, he threw himself into the breach, +and saved at the same time by his heroic and patriotic effort their +interests and the honor of his brothers-in-arms. When the minds of the +earnest and jealous friends of liberty were frenzied by an ill-advised +attempt in the same quarter to introduce hereditary distinctions amongst +us, he was again found at the post of duty; and, though feelingly +indulgent to his military companions, as well as satisfied of the +perfect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> purity of their intentions, he nevertheless promptly and +successfully employed the great influence he derived from their respect +for his character and their confidence in his friendship to induce them +to abandon their project.</p> + +<p>In the full possession of such claims to the esteem, gratitude, and +trust of his countrymen, superadded to those which were due for his +military services, he closed the first great period of his splendid life +by presiding over the Federal Convention, and by assenting to, and +recommending to the favor of the people, a Constitution eminently +republican in its form, and in the principles upon which it was founded. +So far was he from encouraging the spread of opposite sentiments that +there is, on the contrary, much reason to believe that it was by making +his views of the subject known to those about him that the +anti-republican tone which Jefferson found, on his arrival from France, +so prevalent in social and political circles at the seat of government, +was kept in check until public opinion became strong enough to +extinguish it altogether. Speaking to this point, Mr. Jefferson says, +"The truth is that the Federalists, pretending to be the exclusive +friends of General Washington, have ever done what they could to sink +his character by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy +of Republicans, him who of all men is best entitled to the appellation +of the father of that Republic which they were endeavoring to subvert, +and the Republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections +proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the +republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend +to the republican principles of the Constitution. His faith perhaps in +its duration might not have been as confident as mine; but he repeatedly +declared to me that he was determined it should have a fair chance of +success, and that he would lose the last<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> drop of his blood in its +support against any attempt which might be made to change it from its +republican form. He made these declarations the oftener because he knew +my suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet my +jealousies upon the subject."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>Independently of his principles, which were the main source, doubtless, +of the personal solicitude he often manifested upon this point, General +Washington was a man of too much sense and reflection not to know that +the world would in all future time hold him responsible for the +overthrow of the republican principle here, if its extinguishment +occurred in his day, and he was too careful of his well-earned fame, and +anticipated too correctly the elevation it was destined to reach in +connection with the history of his country, not to do all in his power +to guard it from detriment upon a point at once so delicate and so +momentous. Hamilton was the first man to whom he would make his +sentiments known, and I can find nothing in the positions which they +occupied toward each other which would induce me to entertain the +opinion that Hamilton would have ventured on an attempt to shake his +patriotic resolutions on that point through the influence he was +supposed to possess over the actions of Washington in other respects.</p> + +<p>There is, I am quite sure, nothing more essential to a right +appreciation of many of the most important incidents in our political +history, than a correct understanding of the relations that existed +between those distinguished men. It cannot fail to shed considerable +light on much that occurred during the government of the Confederation, +and is perhaps the only touchstone by which the measures of government +and many other public transactions between 1789 and 1799—between the +organization of the new gov<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>ernment and the death of Washington—can be +safely tested.</p> + +<p>I will give my interpretation of the character of those relations, fully +aware of the misrepresentations and misunderstandings to which they have +been subjected, and from which no subject connected with partisan +conflicts can, it appears, be entirely free, but conscious of a single +desire to state things truly, and of an inability to do intentional +injustice to either. It will be for others to judge of my success.</p> + +<p>Mr. Charles F. Adams, in the work to which I have referred,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> says, +"Without much hold upon the judgment or affections of the people at +large, he (Hamilton) had yet by the effect of his undisputed abilities +and his masculine will gained great sway over the minds of the +intelligent merchants along the Atlantic border. His previous doctrines, +in unison with the feelings and interests of the most conservative +class, had drawn to him their particular confidence, whilst his position +in the first administration had facilitated the establishment by him of +a chain of influence resting for its main support on <i>his power over the +mind of Washington himself</i>, but carried equally through all the +ramifications of the executive department. <i>Thus it happened that even +after he ceased to be personally present his opinions continued to shape +the policy of Washington's second administration, and even that of his +successor.</i>" This declaration extending so far would have been deemed +quite credible at the period to which it relates, and, coming from the +grandson of that "<i>successor</i>"—himself the undisguised enemy of +Hamilton—was probably called forth by the recent publication of the +private papers of the latter.</p> + +<p>As far as Mr. Adams affirms that the policy of Washington's +administration, and also, in many very important<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> respects, that of his +successor, were guided by the opinions of Hamilton, his declaration has +my full concurrence. No candid and intelligent man can, I think, read +the evidence which has recently appeared, in connection with facts +previously known, without acknowledging the undeniable truth of these +positions. But I do not by any means intend to concede the control of +Hamilton over the mind of Washington which is implied by the terms +employed by Mr. Adams without qualifications which limit and very +materially change its character. The policy of both administrations was +guided by the opinions of Hamilton, but those opinions received their +influence through different channels, and were enforced in very +different ways. Hamilton's opinions, when known as his, had very little +weight with the successor of Washington, save, in many cases, to secure +a bad reception for themselves; but that successor had little if any +control over, or influence with, the members of his own cabinet, and not +much with Congress or the Federal party, by whom the policy of his +administration was shaped. With them Hamilton's opinions established the +rule of action. In respect to the two latter, this arose mainly from the +sway he was capable of exerting over them by the force of his great +talents, and from a general concurrence in his views. In respect to the +prominent members of Mr. Adams's cabinet his control arose from the +power he had in part acquired over their minds whilst they were also +members of General Washington's administration. Timothy Pickering, who, +after the retirement of Mr. Jefferson and the brief term of Randolph, +was Secretary of State under both Presidents, was a remarkable man, +sincere and honest, I am willing to believe, in his political opinions, +but savagely bitter in his feelings toward his opponents. It seemed +pretty much a matter of course in him to hate those to whose political +course he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> opposed, and, as is usually the case with minds thus +constituted, he was equally bigoted in his devotion to those with whom +he agreed and acted.</p> + +<p>General Hamilton was his <i>beau ideal</i> of a politician and statesman, and +it would not have been an easy matter in him to have dissented from any +opinion positively advanced by Hamilton, whatever his own first +impressions on the subject might have been. Mr. McHenry, Secretary of +War in both cabinets, was undoubtedly an honorable and well-disposed +gentleman. He was, in the opinion of those who had the best +opportunities for judging, including Washington and Hamilton, not +entirely competent for the duties of his office, and that circumstance +drove him the more to rely for support on Hamilton, for whom he +cherished an early and ardent friendship. His personal devotion to +Hamilton was such as to prevent Mr. Adams from longer overlooking his +incompetency, as Washington had done, and precipitated his resignation. +Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, the member of his cabinet +most trusted by President Adams because the least suspected, was, +notwithstanding, the one among his official advisers who went the +greatest lengths to testify his entire allegiance to Hamilton, who had +been the artificer of his political fortunes from the beginning and by +whose influence he had been advanced to the high position he occupied. +Throughout he advised with and was assisted by Hamilton in the +performance of his official duties. Such was Hamilton's "power over his +mind" that he was applied to successfully by the former for evidence of +facts to be derived from the treasury archives to sustain an attack that +Hamilton contemplated making upon the President—an attack that he did +make, although he acknowledged to Wolcott that it would not be regarded +as proper that he should have received the evidence at his hands, and +that that fact ought not therefore to be known.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> + +<p>No one can read the correspondence between General Hamilton and Mr. +Wolcott, as recently published with Hamilton's Works, without regretting +that the parties to it should have been so forgetful of the proprieties +due to the occasions to which it relates, or without a disposition to +excuse the strong expression of Mr. Charles F. Adams, in speaking of his +grandfather's cabinet, applied to Mr. Wolcott "as the most venomous +serpent of them all."</p> + +<p>Mr. Charles F. Adams places Hamilton's sway over the mind of Washington +upon the same footing with that which he exerted over the executive +department, composed principally of the members of his second cabinet of +whom we have been speaking. From this view I entirely dissent. If +Hamilton possessed any power over the mind of Washington, it was of a +very different character from that which he exercised over those +members. Washington was to an unusual extent free from the weakness of +overrating his own powers; with just conceptions of his capacities for +public service he was always ready to place them at the public disposal, +but he was very far from pretending to qualifications which he did not +possess. No one was more sensible than he that the science of civil +government—the construction of constitutions and the administration of +the civil affairs of the State—were not best learned in the camp, where +so large a portion of his life had been spent. He therefore, as we have +seen, selected two of the ablest statesmen in the country, particularly +versed in those portions of the public business which he devolved upon +them. They differed irreconcilably in respect to the policy of the +administration, and in the performance of his duty he decided between +their conflicting opinions in favor of those of Hamilton. Preferring the +policy of the latter he adopted the measures he recommended to carry it +out, which happened also to appertain principally to Hamilton's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +department, and sustained him in their execution. In doing so he but +sustained the measures of his administration and views which were either +originally his own or made such upon conviction. Participating in the +general opinion in favor of Hamilton's remarkable talents, having full +opportunities to judge of his character, and confiding in his integrity, +he extended to him, it is true, but with the purest motives, the degree +of countenance and trust which established his extraordinary power and +influence. Of the consequences, as well to his administration as to the +country, we will have much to say hereafter. But it would be a great +mistake to suppose that there ever was a period at which, or a +transaction between them in which, their relative positions, rights, and +duties were either forgotten or disregarded. It was well understood that +the degree of weight to be attached to Hamilton's advice would depend +upon the unbiased opinion which Washington himself should form of its +soundness, influenced as he naturally would be, and always was, by a +conviction of Hamilton's undoubted integrity, and his superior capacity +for the decision of the question under consideration. There certainly +never was a time when the slightest indication of a desire or design on +the part of Hamilton to sway the mind of Washington in his official acts +through his personal influence, or by any considerations which did not +point distinctly and exclusively to the public good, would not have been +peremptorily and indignantly repelled. It is evident from the whole +tenor of Washington's life that no man ever lived who was more tenacious +of self-respect, or more absolute in his reservation of the right to +judge for himself of what belonged to his individual independence and +personal dignity, or more prompt to resist every attempt to encroach +upon either. No one understood his temperament in that respect better +than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> General Hamilton, or would have been less likely to bring himself +in conflict with it. Many indications of this understanding and of its +effects are to be found in the accounts of their personal intercourse. +The correspondence between them in regard to the discreditable use that +Washington thought was being made in Congress of the sufferings and +dissatisfaction of the army, already referred to, will be found to throw +much light upon the sense of both as to the nature of their personal +relations.</p> + +<p>In June, 1793, Hamilton announced to President Washington, that +considerations relative both to the public interest and <i>his own +dignity</i> had brought his mind to the conclusion to resign his office at +the termination of the close of the next session of Congress, and one of +the reasons he assigned for delaying his final retirement to that period +was to give Congress an opportunity to complete the investigation that +had been instituted in regard to his official conduct. In March +thereafter Hamilton informed the President that the committee charged to +inquire, among other things, "into the authority of the President +respecting the making and disbursement of the loans under certain acts +of Congress," were about to meet. He sent to him at the same time, a +copy of a paper he had presented to the committee, containing his +opinion in relation to the proper limits of a legislative inquiry, but +said that he deemed it expedient to fix in advance, with the President, +on the true state of facts, of which he proceeded to make a statement, +and requested the President to sanction it. General Washington soon +thereafter made a declaration, in the form of a letter to Hamilton, of +his recollections and opinions in respect to the matter. The latter, in +reply, protested vehemently against the sufficiency of the declaration +for the protection of his honor, and in a letter of considerable length, +written with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> usual ability, undertook to show that the character of +the President's declaration would enable, his (Hamilton's) enemies to +say that "the reserve of the President is a proof that he does not think +that Hamilton's representations are true, else his justice would have +led him to rescue the officer concerned even from suspicion upon the +point."</p> + +<p>The subject of loans and their frequency produced much excitement in +Congress, and not a few calls upon the President and the Secretary of +the Treasury for information in regard to them. It does not appear from +the published works of Hamilton, that any answer was made by General +Washington to his letter, or any other explanation of the subject; and +no one, I think, can read the correspondence without feeling that the +interpretation I give to its abrupt termination is the correct one, +viz.: that Washington intended by his silence to reprove the freedom of +Hamilton's letter. The resignation of the latter was deferred, with the +approbation of the President, till January, 1795, when it was accepted +in a letter from General Washington, containing an approval of +Hamilton's official conduct as full as words could make it.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>The construction I have placed upon the character of their personal +relations is also sustained by a correspondence between them in May, +1798, after Hamilton's retirement from office, which will be found in +the sixth volume of Hamilton's "Works," at p. 289. Hamilton's object +appears to have been to impress the mind of Washington with a proper +sense of the dangerous crisis which had arrived in the condition of +public affairs. His letter contains the following extraordinary +paragraph: "I am sincere in declaring my full conviction, as the result +of a long course of observation, that the faction which has for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> years +opposed the government are ready to remodel our Constitution under the +influence or <i>coercion</i> of France, to form with her a perpetual +alliance, <i>offensive and defensive</i>, and to give her a monopoly of our +trade, by <i>peculiar</i> and exclusive privileges. This would be in +substance, whatever it might be in name, to make this country a province +of France. Neither do I doubt that her standard displayed in this +country would be directly or indirectly seconded by them in pursuance of +the project I have mentioned."</p> + +<p>In such a state of things it was impossible, he said, not to look up to +him, (Washington,) and to wish that his influence might, in some proper +way, be brought into direct action, and he added: "Among the ideas that +have passed through my mind for this purpose, I have asked myself +whether it might not be expedient for you to make a circuit through +Virginia and North Carolina under some pretense of health, &c. This +would call forth addresses, public dinners, &c., which would give an +opportunity of expressing sentiments in answers, toasts, &c., which +would throw the weight of your character into the scale of the +government, and revive enthusiasm for your person which might be turned +into the right channel."</p> + +<p>Although Washington himself had been highly excited, by the course of +events, against those to whom Hamilton attributed such treasonable +designs, he was yet enabled by his good sense and by his knowledge of +his countrymen to see at a glance the reckless extravagance of +Hamilton's imputations, and he was doubtless dissatisfied with the uses, +little creditable, which it was proposed to make of himself. His answer +was a truly imposing production. It narrowed Hamilton's description of +the portions of his countrymen whose course he deemed objectionable, +virtually disapproved his charges by giving his own views of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> the extent +of the danger which was to be apprehended from those whose patriotism +Hamilton so grossly impeached, and placed the objectionable character of +the course recommended to him in a striking light by showing that, his +health never having been better, he would be obliged to commence his +journey with the propagation of a falsehood.</p> + +<p>Those who wish to read these letters will do well to look for them in +Hamilton's "Works," as I am sorry to say that in Mr. Sparks's "Writings +of Washington" the above extract from Hamilton's letter, containing his +suggestion of an electioneering tour in the South by Washington, is +omitted, and the whole paragraph in Washington's reply, in which he +rejects and virtually rebukes it, suppressed. Neither is that part of +Hamilton's letter given in which he denounces "the powerful faction +which has for years opposed the government" with fanatical violence, +(for his description of them deserves no other name,) whilst what +Washington says upon that point is set forth with considerable +aggravation. The results of those omissions and suppressions are not +only to conceal the fact that such a proposition was made to Washington, +and the grounds upon which he declined to adopt it, but his remarks, +condemnatory of a portion of his fellow-citizens, are left to stand as +voluntary denunciations of his own instead of, as they in truth were, +modifications of the charges to which Hamilton had called his attention.</p> + +<p>I have thus selected a few transactions between these great men, +occurring at long intervals and embracing the entire period of their +intercourse, to show that the influence which it must be conceded +Hamilton exercised over Washington's conduct in the civil service of his +country was not of the character which is commonly understood and +intended by the imputation of it in the case of high<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> official +personages, and which necessarily involves the sacrifice of personal +independence and, at least in some degree, of self-respect on the part +of the person influenced.</p> + +<p>Anecdotes of distinguished men are always interesting, although their +accuracy is not so reliable, of course, as that of statements +substantiated by their own writings. I was told of one, several years +since, which struck me as throwing light upon this subject of the +personal relations between Washington and his immediate associates and +friends. So thinking, and especially as General Hamilton was in one +sense a party concerned, I have recently obtained reliable testimony of +its authenticity. Judge Fine, the writer of the following note, is well +known in New York, and not a little in other States; he has been a State +Senator, a Representative in Congress, a State Judge, &c., &c., and is +regarded as a gentleman of the utmost probity and of superior +intelligence. Judge Burnet, with whom I have served in the United States +Senate, was also well known as a gentleman in whose statements entire +confidence might be placed, and was, withal, a Hamiltonian Federalist, +and never, politically, any thing else; in whose eyes, I am very sure, +any statement disparaging to the memory of either Washington or Hamilton +would have appeared a grave offense against morality and truth.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">FROM JOHN FINE.</span></div> + +<div class="right"><span class="smcap">Ogdensburg, N. Y.</span>, <i>April 30, 1857</i>.<br /></div> + +<p>Hon. <span class="smcap">M. Van Buren</span>:<br /></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—During the session of the Presbyterian General Assembly in +Cincinnati—May, 1852—I dined twice at the hospitable mansion of Hon. +Jacob Burnet, now deceased. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1770, +and was the son of Dr. William Burnet, who was in the medical service of +his country through the Revolution.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p> + +<p>Judge Burnet was acquainted with our early distinguished statesmen, and +his conversation was rich in the recollection of their manners and +characters. He related an anecdote of Washington which he had from the +lips of Alexander Hamilton.</p> + +<p>When the Convention to form a Constitution was sitting in Philadelphia +in 1787, of which General Washington was President, he had stated +evenings to receive the calls of his friends. At an interview between +Hamilton, the Morrises, and others, the former remarked that Washington +was reserved and aristocratic even to his intimate friends, and allowed +no one to be familiar with him. Gouverneur Morris said that was a mere +fancy, and he could be as familiar with Washington as with any of his +other friends. Hamilton replied, "If you will, at the next reception +evening, gently slap him on the shoulder and say, 'My dear General, how +happy I am to see you look so well!' a supper and wine shall be provided +for you and a dozen of your friends."</p> + +<p>The challenge was accepted. On the evening appointed a large number +attended, and at an early hour Gouverneur Morris entered, bowed, shook +hands, laid his left hand on Washington's shoulder, and said: "My dear +General, I am very happy to see you look so well!" Washington withdrew +his hand, stepped suddenly back, fixed his eye on Morris for several +minutes with an angry frown, until the latter retreated abashed and +sought refuge in the crowd. The company looked on in silence.</p> + +<p>At the supper which was provided by Hamilton, Morris said: "I have won +the bet but paid dearly for it, and nothing could induce me to repeat +it."</p> + +<div class="center">Yours truly,<br /></div> + +<div class="right"><span class="smcap">JOHN FINE.</span></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>Better proof of the truth of this statement could not, at this day, be +expected or desired, and assuming it to be substantially true, the +transaction, in my estimation, illustrates the character of the personal +relations that existed between Washington and the two distinguished men, +Hamilton and Morris, who, in respect to the management of public +affairs, enjoyed perhaps his fullest confidence.</p> + +<p>It is without doubt true, that in his intercourse with public men +Washington observed an extraordinary degree of dignified reserve, and +there is every reason to believe that this invariable habit was natural +to him, and in no degree assumed for effect. We indeed know nothing of +his character if he was at all capable of practicing the low device of +hiding mental deficiencies under a wise look and a mysterious manner, +which is sometimes the resort of meaner minds; but some such foundation +(or some degree of it) for his habit must have been presupposed by the +very unusual proceeding of Morris and it is quite impossible to believe +that a man was in danger of being unduly influenced by his personal +friends who could thus, by the power of his eye and the solemnity of his +countenance, abash and punish the presumption of a man of Morris's +standing, confessedly the sauciest man in his society, without causing +the slightest confusion or excitement in the surrounding company.</p> + +<p>He had nothing to conceal; he never desired to pass for more than he was +worth, and there have been few men who formed a juster estimate of their +own qualifications and capacities. In respect to military affairs he was +evidently self-reliant, but not more so than was justified by his large +experience and by the success which had crowned his efforts; but neither +in that nor in any other department was he above receiving advice. In +the intricate and complex affairs of civil administration, and in grave +ques<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>tions of constitutional construction and of national law, he felt +that his experience and study had been much less than those of some who +were associated with him in the public service, and he did not hesitate +to recognize the difference. The principal aid he could bring to the +settlement of such questions consisted of a clear head, a sound +judgment, and an honest heart. These he never failed to apply after such +questions had been prepared for decision by the previous examination and +discussions of those of his cabinet whose attention had been more +directed to them than his own. To secure these prerequisites he had, as +I have said before, availed himself of the highest talent which the +country afforded, without reference to distinctions of party.</p> + +<p>This was the way in which he dealt with the grave questions that arose +during the early stages of his administration, touching the numerous and +complicated difficulties between us and our old friend and ally France, +the reception and treatment of her ministers, Genet and his successor +Adet, our assumption of a neutral position between European +belligerents, the claims of France under the treaty of alliance and +guaranty, the powers of Congress under the Constitution in relation to a +national bank, and other subjects. In respect to the first of these +matters he went so far as to consult Hamilton by letter on the question +of his own personal demeanor at a Presidential levee toward the French +minister, by whose conduct he had been offended. Whatever may be our +regret at finding the confidential note asking that advice preserved to +so late a period and now recklessly published, we may yet be satisfied +that the step itself only affords additional evidence of the prudence +and manliness of Washington's character. Few men stood less in need of +advice in respect to his treatment of those who had given him offense in +a matter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> purely personal; but it was natural for him to assume that the +usages of diplomacy had settled rules for the action of the heads of +government in such cases, of which he was not informed and in respect to +which he was not ashamed to ask advice and information from proper +sources. The constancy with which he invoked the aid of his cabinet upon +all questions of the general character to which I have alluded, the +unreserved manner in which he submitted them to their consideration, the +delicacy with which he withheld his opinions until theirs were +pronounced, and the spirit in which these were received, whether +agreeing with or differing from his own, were above all praise. The +information we possess of the details of those interesting proceedings +is principally derived from Mr. Jefferson, and in all that he has +written or in all that we have understood him to have said upon the +subject no word of complaint or allegation at variance with the +description here given of them is to be found. The idea that Washington +ever sought to advance his objects by indirect or exceptionable means, +or that he was actuated in his public measures by any other motive than +an honest desire to promote the good of his country, seems never to have +presented itself to Mr. Jefferson's mind, however erroneous he +considered some of those measures. I spent some days with him, as I have +elsewhere described,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> two years before his death, and in the course +of our repeated conversations he dwelt long and particularly upon these +early transactions. I attributed the circumstance at the time to a +desire, consistent with his very genial disposition, to gratify my +curiosity, which was strong and not concealed; and it did not occur to +me that he might have had other views, until, after my return home, I +received his long letter avowedly written for the purpose for which I +now use it, "to throw light on history, and to recall that into the path +of truth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> when he was no more, nor those whom it might offend." In all +that he said—and he spoke with perfect freedom of men and things—there +was nothing inconsistent with the inference I have here drawn from his +writings, but much to confirm it. The President's decisions upon cabinet +questions were generally in favor of Hamilton's views; but that +circumstance, very much to his credit, was not permitted to influence +Jefferson's estimate of motives, but was regarded as the natural result +of Washington's general sympathy with Hamilton's political opinions, and +his confidence in his ability and integrity,—a sympathy, however, that +never even approached the subject of a change in the existing form of +our Government. That was a question as to which we have the best reason +to believe that Washington would have never taken counsel except from +his God and his conscience. He more than once declared to Jefferson +"that he was determined that the republican form of our Government +should have a fair chance of success, and that he would, if necessary, +spill the last drop of his blood in its defense,"—a resolution, and the +likelihood of its being sustained, that no one understood better than +Hamilton.</p> + +<p>By these repeated declarations to Mr. Jefferson, Washington only renewed +to a civilian, whose character and position made them the more +significant and impressive, a pledge which he had given to the world at +Newburgh in the presence of the companions of his glory, yet with arms +in their hands—that his name should never be added to the list of those +who, having done much to emancipate a people from thralldom, were the +first to blast their hopes and sacrifice their dearest interests at the +promptings of selfish and unhallowed passions. They only proved that the +flattery of the world during the ten intervening years had not corrupted +his heart nor endangered the observance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> of a pledge which had derived +its value from the character of the man who gave it, and on whose +continued fidelity to the principle it involved the future liberties and +welfare of his country were in so large a degree dependent.</p> + +<p>It has always been believed that if Washington had inclined a favorable +ear to the suggestions of the Newburgh letters, and in due season had +given his name and influence to the counter-revolution they were +intended to promote, it might have been made successful, and the system +which the Revolution had overthrown might have been in some modified +form restored. The disparity between the means which were at his +disposal when propositions looking to such a result were thrown before +the army at Newburgh and those within his reach when the declarations to +Mr. Jefferson were made was not as great as might be supposed. At the +former period it is true that the army of the Revolution was yet in the +field, mortified, irritated, and indeed highly inflamed by the assumed +injustice and ingratitude of their country, and in all probability +prepared to follow his lead in furtherance of any views he might +disclose which did not exceed the proposed limits; and the government to +be overthrown was feeble, distracted, destitute of the sinews of war, +and with but a slight hold upon the confidence and affections of the +people. But it must also be remembered that the fervor and spirit of the +Revolution—that intense hatred of royalty and monarchical institutions +in any shape—which had roused the country to the contest, had as yet in +no sensible degree abated amongst the masses, neither had they +surrendered those sanguine anticipations of the blessings and advantages +of republican government by which their hearts had been fortified and +their arms strengthened for the struggle. That any attempt to bring +about a counter-revolution under such circumstances, however popular the +name and char<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>acter of him by whom it was sanctioned, or however +imposing the means by which it was sustained, would meet with a +formidable opposition from the great body of the people was certain; and +it was not easy to estimate the nature and extent of the resistance that +might spring from the sources to which I have referred to confront an +army which had so lately been the object of their unalloyed admiration +and affection.</p> + +<p>In the lapse of time between that period and the one at which Mr. +Jefferson received the assurances he describes great changes had taken +place in respect to all these matters, but, as I have said, not so +adverse as might on first impression be supposed to the practicability +of an attempt such as Washington referred to. The army of the Revolution +had indeed been dissolved, and, in regard to the elements of which it +was principally composed, beyond recall; but its officers, who, next to +Washington, were capable of giving a tone and direction to the spirit of +the troops, were alive, several of them again under his command, not a +few about his person, and all filled with unabated admiration and +affection for their idolized chief. If the account given us by Mr. +Jefferson of the feelings he found most prevalent in our principal +cities and at the seat of government on his return from France and in +his progress to Philadelphia, to take upon himself the office of +Secretary of State, is to be relied upon,—and many important +contemporaneous occurrences corroborate his statement,—sad changes had +taken place in the public opinion and feeling, of absorbing interest in +this connection. "The President," he says, "received me cordially, and +my colleagues and the circle of principal citizens apparently with +welcome. The courtesies of dinner-parties given me, as a stranger newly +arrived among them, placed me at once in familiar society.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> But I cannot +describe the wonder and mortification with which the table conversations +filled me. Politics were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly +over republican governments was evidently the favorite sentiment." In +his description of what he heard and saw there can be no mistake; but it +is more than probable that changes among the people at large, upon the +point spoken of, had not occurred to any thing like the same extent as +among those portions of society to which he more particularly refers. +Still it is undeniably true that from the influence of examples set by +men in high places, from the difficulties under which the late +government had labored, and from other causes, there had been at that +moment a falling off from the true faith respecting governments and the +administration of them which could now be scarcely credited. Add to +these favoring circumstances the fact that the man, without whose +countenance or coöperation no reactionary attempt would have been +thought of even by the rankest advocate for monarchical institutions, +was at the head of the Government to be overthrown, and the unquestioned +object of the national confidence and affection, and the scheme, with +his coöperation, was not likely to be then regarded as so impracticable +as it would now certainly be considered. If such a work were at this day +thought of by any man or men, however elevated in position or loved by +the people, they could reap no other harvest than contempt and derision; +but the single fact that Washington, who always handled serious matters +seriously, and who was not liable to be alarmed by "false fires," +treated the subject as he did, is sufficient to mark the difference +between the condition of the country and of the public mind then and +now.</p> + +<p>But happily for us he was the same man in 1793 that he was in 1783. The +principle upon which he acted upon both occasions was maintained through +life without spot or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> blemish. The world believed, and for the best +reasons, that he had refused to become the master of a people, whose +liberties he had, through the favor of God and the fortitude and bravery +of his countrymen, been made instrumental to establish, because he +deemed it a higher honor to be their servant. It compared his acts with +those of the Cęsars, of Cromwell, and of Napoleon, and glorified his +name above that of any other mortal man. Such has been his reward for +his faithfulness to the most sacred of human trusts—a reward and a +fidelity unparalleled! Services have been rendered in every age which +entitled the actors in them to the gratitude of their country, and to +the thanks of mankind, but lacking the distinguishing feature of +Washington's, their traces have become fainter with the lapse of time, +whilst the remembrance of his unequaled merits grows more distinct and +strong with each revolving year.</p> + +<p>That he committed grave errors in giving his sanction, probably with +considerable reluctance, to some of the measures of his administration, +is certain. I say this not merely on the strength of my own poor +opinion, but because such is the unreserved and irreversible judgment of +the country, to which, under a republican government, the acts of all +public men are subjected. But the assent which he gave to these measures +was never, even by those most opposed to them, attributed to him as a +fault, but was regarded only as an honest error of opinion; and hence +the extraordinary political phenomenon of a party having its origin in +the adoption by him of those measures expelling from power his immediate +successor, who claimed to act upon his principles, placing those +principles by protracted and diligent efforts under the ban of public +opinion, and keeping them and their supporters there, in the main, for +more than half a century—and yet being not a whit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> behind those who +approved them in its respect for his name and character, because its +members, in the eloquent language of Mr. Jefferson, "would not suffer +the temporary aberration to weigh against the immeasurable merits of his +life; and although they tumbled his seducers from their places, they +preserved his memory embalmed in their hearts with undiminished love and +devotion, and there it forever will remain embalmed in entire oblivion +of every temporary thing which might cloud the glories of his splendid +life."<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Mr. Van Buren, in making the above quotation from the +Jubilee Address, doubtless relied upon his memory. "Both spurred to the +rowels by rival and antagonist ambition," are the words used by Mr. +Adams; but they, in fact, refer distinctly to <i>Jefferson</i> and Hamilton, +though Mr. Madison's name is incidentally coupled with that of the +latter in the same sentence. <span class="smcap">Eds.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Sparks's <i>Life of Gouverneur Morris</i>, Vol. III. p. 260.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The <i>italics</i> are mine.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_425">Appendix</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_425">Appendix</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Life of John Adams.</i> The <i>italics</i> are my own.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Hamilton's <i>Works</i>, Vol. IV. pp. 436, 510, 516, 562; Vol. +V. pp. 74, 78.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> See <a href="#Footnote_1_1">Note</a> on page 9.</p></div> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>The Fact that Hamilton shaped and guided the Administrations of +Washington and John Adams at the Time generally believed, now +clearly established—Occasions when his Influence did not +prevail—His Views and Purposes on entering the Cabinet—Some of +his early Measures not authorized by the Constitution—True +Character of that Instrument—Hamilton as Secretary of the +Treasury—His extraordinary Ability—His exaggerated Ideas as to +the Embarrassments of the Country—Unfounded Alarm at that Period +on the Subjects of the Public Debt and Public Revenues—Device for +surmounting Constitutional Obstacles to Hamilton's Plan—Source of +the Doctrine of Implied Powers—Foundation of Hamilton's Policy +under his Construction of the Constitution—His Measures and the +Effects he anticipated from them—The Funding System—The Weakening +of State Authority a leading Feature of Hamilton's Policy—Further +Aims and other "Stages of Improvement"—Hamilton's Report on +Manufactures; its Ability, Spirit, and Political Effects upon its +Author and his Party—Hamilton's Desire to build up in this Country +a "Money Power" similar to that of England—Such a Power +antagonistic to the Democratic Spirit of our People—The Real +Object of Hamilton in endeavoring to transplant the System +here—His temporary Success, and the Influence thereof in forming a +School that survived him—His Motives and the Convictions upon +which they were Founded.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HAT the policy of every administration of the Federal Government for +the first twelve years of its existence was shaped, and the action of +the Federal party guided, by the opinions and advice of Hamilton, was +the general impression of the opponents of that party, and of course +known to the leading Federalists. I have in another place<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> referred +to the fact that Mr. Jefferson, in all my conversations with him in +1824, when he spoke of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> course pursued by the Federal party, +invariably personified it by saying "Hamilton" did or insisted thus; +and, on the other hand, "the Republicans" held or claimed so and so; and +that upon my calling his attention to the peculiarity of his expression, +he smiled and attributed his habit to the universal conviction of the +Republicans that Hamilton directed every thing. But the evidence they +possessed of the truth of that impression was slight indeed in +comparison with that which is now before the country. They had only the +opinions given in the cabinet upon the important public questions that +arose during that period, with the decisions of the President upon them +and other public documents relating to them, and the general conjectural +impressions on the minds of politicians, which can seldom be traced to +any specific authority, in respect to the influence which governs the +action of parties. The additions now made by the publication of +Hamilton's private papers alone, and more especially when they are read +in connection with those of other distinguished public men, prove those +impressions to have been well founded, and to an extent far beyond what +was even imagined in those days. I had read these papers with care, and, +I hope, weighed their contents with candor, before I gave my assent to +the declaration of Mr. Charles F. Adams upon the subject, quoted on p. +96 above. Many of General Washington's letters to Hamilton are marked +"private," and some "private and confidential." It is not for me to +decide upon the propriety of their publication, however much I may +regret that the friends of the latter should have deemed that course +necessary in respect to many of them. I content myself with a general +reference to those which have a bearing upon the point under +consideration, without making extracts or adding remarks explanatory of +their tendency and effect. The letters between Washington and Hamilton +more par<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>ticularly in point will be found in the fifth volume of +Hamilton's "Works," p. 106, in answer to letter at p. 12; and in the +sixth volume, at pp. 19, 34, 35, 36, 52, 63, 64, 73, 90, 143, 156, 179, +197; those between Hamilton and members of Washington's cabinet, in the +sixth volume, at pp. 29, 41, 67, 129, 238.</p> + +<p>The steps taken by General Hamilton to shape the policy and to prescribe +the action of Mr. Adams's administration were designed to embrace its +entire course, and were carried into effect with but little respect for +the wishes or opinions of its constitutional head. Three weeks had not +elapsed after Mr. Adams's inauguration before General Hamilton wrote a +letter to Mr. Pickering, Secretary of State, in which he expressed "his +extreme anxiety that an exactly proper course should be pursued in +regard to France," and suggested for his consideration, under seven +different heads, what he thought that course ought to be. The Secretary +was not requested to submit these views to the President, nor was any +desire indicated that he should do so, nor any notice taken of the +President in the letter further than may be found in the closing +paragraph,—"The executive, before Congress meet, ought to have a +<i>well-digested plan</i> and <i>coöperate</i> in getting it adopted."</p> + +<p>If there was a single instance in which Hamilton, in his numerous +letters of advice to the Secretaries, requested them to submit his views +to the consideration of the President, it has escaped my observation. He +was several times spoken of, but generally as to what he ought to do and +what he might or might not be induced to do. The letters and papers +bearing upon the subject will be found in the sixth volume of Hamilton's +"Works," at pp. 213, 215, 218, 246, 250, 251, 252, 269, 278, 292, 294, +381, 444, 447, 471, 477, 484.</p> + +<p>During the whole period Hamilton was regarded as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> leader of the +Federal party by most of the prominent members of that party,—Mr. Adams +and a few of his friends excepted,—by those who represented the country +abroad, by members of Congress, &c., &c. He was considered the fountain +head of partisan authority, was freely applied to for advice, and gave +it when it was asked, and quite as freely when it was not. He from time +to time furnished members of Congress with specifications of steps +proper to be taken, in one of which will be found suggested the passage +of the celebrated sedition law. A few instances of his interference in +this form will be found in Volume V. Hamilton's "Works," pp. 79, 86, and +in Volume VI. at pp. 92, 94, 381, 383, 390.</p> + +<p>The most important, if not the only occasions on which the influence of +Hamilton over the action of the Federal party was exerted without +success, were those of the formation of the Federal Constitution, and +the support of Aaron Burr, by that party, for President, and for +Governor of New York in 1801 and 1804. The first can scarcely be +regarded, however, as such an occasion, because it was one in which +party distinctions were merged in a compromise to which he himself +ultimately assented. The others belong to the number of those occasions +which, from time to time, present themselves in the history of all +political parties, when the lust of power overrides the advice of their +ablest and best friends. A party which has been long out of power, or +which, having long held it, is threatened with imminent danger of losing +it, can rarely resist the temptation when it is presented of securing +success by dividing its opponents. Such a temptation is almost always +strong enough to silence other objections, and Hamilton, on those +occasions, shared the fate of party leaders who place their individual +influence in opposition to the excited passions and short-sighted +schemes of their party.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was my fortune to hear Hamilton's great speech against the support of +Burr for the office of Governor of New York by the Federalists of the +State. I happened to visit Albany on the day appointed for the meeting, +in company with William P. Van Ness, who was a few months afterwards +Burr's second in his duel with Hamilton; and we lodged, as we were in +the habit of doing, at <i>Lewis's Tavern</i>, the place where the meeting was +to be held. Our room adjoined and communicated with the larger one in +which the meeting took place; and after its organization, Mr. Van Ness +threw open the door between the rooms, giving us a full view of the +assemblage and exposing our presence to them. I mention these +circumstances, which I recollect well, because it is my impression that +it was very unusual at that day for politicians of one party to attend +the meetings of the other. Mr. Van Ness and myself differed +irreconcilably in respect to the support of Colonel Burr, but we were +both members of the Republican party. The meeting consisted of about one +hundred very respectable looking men, generally well advanced in life, +and I remember many gray heads among them. Such was a gathering of the +Federalists, in a city in which they had complete control, called +together to hear the leader of their party, decidedly the most eloquent +man of his day, a little more than fifty years ago. <i>Quantum mutatus!</i> +My seat was so near to Hamilton that I could hear distinctly every word +he said, and three impressions of the scene are still strong in my +memory—his imposing manner and stirring eloquence, the obvious +disinclination of the larger portion of his audience to be governed by +his advice, notwithstanding the unbounded respect and love they bore +him, and the marked indignation which often sparkled on the countenance +of Van Ness whilst he was speaking.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<p>Preferring monarchical institutions because he conscientiously believed +that republican government could not be maintained "consistently with +order," but satisfied that public opinion would not then admit of their +establishment in this country, and indisposed for the reasons I have +assigned to advocate the use of force for that purpose, yet expecting a +crisis to arrive by which the opinions of the people would be changed, +or the use of force be rendered justifiable, Hamilton entered the +cabinet of President Washington determined to recommend a line of policy +and the adoption of measures, which, whilst they would give the +Government sufficient power to sustain itself against the democratic +spirit of the country,—always the object of his dread,—would not be +out of place when a resort to the English model, the object of his +life-long choice, should have become necessary. If, in the execution of +this policy, he had confined himself to the powers intended to be +conferred upon the Federal Government by the Constitution, however much +his conduct might have been censured on account of the anti-republican +spirit it evinced, it would nevertheless have presented a very different +aspect to posterity. But this was unhappily far from his intention. No +one knew better than Hamilton that power to adopt some of the most +important of the measures included in the chart he had devised for the +action of the Federal Government was not designed to be granted to it +either by those who framed, or by those who had adopted the +Constitution, and that if there had been any reason to suspect that that +instrument conferred such powers there would not have been the slightest +chance for its ratification.</p> + +<p>The Convention that framed the Constitution was well aware that the +portion of its labors which related to the extent of the powers to be +given to the new government<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> was that upon which the public mind was +most sensitive. It was not ignorant how far the apprehensions of the +people upon that point had, through the entire period of our colonial +history, prevented the establishment of any general government, and even +the institution of one since the Declaration of Independence that was +adequate to the necessities of the country. It knew that the powers +given to Congress, particularly, would be the part of the Constitution +to which the attention of the friends of the State governments would be +directed, and upon which their opposition would be most likely to arise. +Understanding these things, the Convention, with that good sense and +prudence by which its entire course was so greatly distinguished, +bestowed upon that branch of its business the utmost care and +circumspection. Instead of describing the power given to Congress in +general terms, as was done by Hamilton, in the plan submitted by him for +its adoption,—viz.: "To pass all laws which they shall judge necessary +to the common defense and general welfare of the Union,"—by which much +would of necessity be left to the discretion of those who were to +execute the power, the Convention specified the powers it intended to +grant under seventeen heads, and described them in the simplest and +plainest language, so that none should be at a loss to understand their +import. So well was this design executed that no room for doubt or cavil +remained to those who had no other desire than to arrive at the meaning +of the framers of the Constitution.</p> + +<p>Here the Convention might have stopped, for no implication could have +been more unavoidable than that Congress should have the right to +promulgate the rules they adopted by the enactment of laws. But as if +aware of the uses which the able men from whom it apprehended opposition +might make of the fact that a necessity of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> resort to implication had +been left by the instrument, it granted that power also in express +terms. The principal part of that clause was moreover designed to +constitute Congress the law-maker for the other great departments of the +government, and to exclude the idea that they should also have the power +of legislation.</p> + +<p>Having thus, as it thought, guarded the work of its hands from +misrepresentation or misinterpretation upon what it justly considered +the most delicate and, if disregarded, the most vulnerable point, and +having framed a Constitution with which all friends to republican +principles ought to be satisfied, the Convention appealed with +confidence to the ratifying conventions, and in doing so it did no more +than justice to those bodies,—the instrument, thus guarded, was +ultimately ratified by the votes of all the States.</p> + +<p>If Hamilton, either in the articles of the "Federalist," to which he +largely contributed, or on the floor of the Convention of Ratification, +of which he was a member, had only countenanced that construction of the +Constitution which he set up for it as Secretary of the Treasury, or if +in any other way a suspicion had been produced that it was intended to +give that instrument such a construction after its ratification, its +rejection would have been inevitable. No one who has studied the state +of the public mind at that period can for a moment doubt that this would +have been the result. Such was the true character of the Constitution +which the people of the United States intended to establish, and thought +they had established, and such were the circumstances under which it was +ratified.</p> + +<p>Hamilton was placed by Washington virtually at the head of his +administration; for, although the Secretary of State has, since that +period, been regarded in that light, no such impression had then +obtained, and in the government<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> of Great Britain, to which attention +had been most directed, it was otherwise. The Treasury Department +wielded infinitely the most influence, and the superior confidence of +the President in the incumbent decided the point of priority, at least +for the time being. Perhaps the only question in respect to Hamilton +upon which there has never been any diversity of sentiment was in regard +to his talents. That they were of the highest order was the opinion of +all who knew him. Jefferson scarcely ever spoke of him in his letters to +Madison without admonishing him of the extraordinary powers of his mind, +and in one of them he says,—"Hamilton is really a Colossus to the +Anti-Republican party; without numbers he is a host in himself. In truth +when he comes forward there is nobody but yourself (Madison) that can +meet him." When I was Minister of the United States in England I saw +much of Prince Talleyrand, then French Ambassador at the same Court, and +enjoyed relations of marked kindness with him. In my informal visits to +him we had long and frequent conversations, in which Hamilton, his +acquaintance with him in this country, and incidents in their +intercourse, were his favorite themes. He always spoke with great +admiration of his talents, and during the last evening that I spent with +him he said that he regarded Hamilton as the ablest man he became +acquainted with in America,—he was not sure that he might not add +without injustice, or that he had known in Europe.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> With such +advantages, greater at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> that time certainly than the public service of +any country afforded to any other man, it is difficult to conceive of a +more commanding position than that which he occupied. With a mind that +dwelt habitually upon great ideas, the political career of such a man +could not fail to produce important results for good or for evil. It +must not, however, be forgotten, for it is a truth which exerted a +powerful influence on his whole course, that he was at the same time, as +his friend Morris described him, "more a theoretic than a practical +man." It was natural that a mind so easily excited and an imagination so +vivid as Hamilton's seem always to have been, should have formed +exaggerated ideas as well of the extent and character of the +embarrassments under which the country was laboring, as of the causes +from which they sprang. These were undoubtedly very serious, very +difficult to be dealt with; and it is equally true that they had been +greatly aggravated by, if they were not, as he was very willing to +consider them, mainly attributable to the defects of the former federal +system. But there was some misapprehension, and no small degree of +exaggeration upon these points. We are indeed an imaginative people, and +the transfer of our fathers to a new country and climate doubtless +accounts for the great difference in this respect between ours and the +cool, deliberate, and unimpressible temperaments and character retained +by those in Europe who have the same descent. It was not to have been +expected that a country so young as our own, and as unprepared, could +have passed through a seven years' war with a powerful nation without +involving itself in grave embarrassments; but when the extent of those +embarrassments, the difficulties of dealing with them, and the then +resources of the country are now regarded, it seems impossible to avoid +the conclusion that the grounds for the alarm then so prevalent upon the +subjects<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> of the public credit and the public revenues were greatly +overrated.</p> + +<p>Our whole foreign debt amounted to but twelve millions of dollars, +payable by installments, the last of which did not become due until +seven years thereafter. The domestic debt amounted to forty-two +millions, for the payment of which the Government was under no +obligation to make immediate provision, amounting in all to fifty-four +millions, and the annual expenses of the Government were estimated at +less than six hundred thousand dollars. This was the full extent of +federal responsibilities. Hamilton assumed some fifteen millions of the +State debts, but that was an act entirely voluntary, neither asked nor +desired by the States, unconstitutional and inexpedient, and caused as +much unpopularity to his administration of the department as, perhaps +more than, any act by which it was distinguished.</p> + +<p>To meet these responsibilities the new Constitution had placed in the +hands of the Federal Government the power of collecting a revenue from +imposts and taxes, to borrow money on the credit of the United States to +any amount which the public service might be deemed to require, and to +regulate commerce, both foreign and domestic,—a power from the exercise +of which great improvements in the trade of the country were justly +anticipated. In aid of these resources we possessed a population of some +three and a half millions, as active and enterprising as any on the face +of the earth, just emerging from the discouragements of a defective +government, and bounding with hope into all the varieties of business +and labor, for which a fertile soil and a salubrious climate afforded +the most ample facilities. The comparison may be, and doubtless by many +will be, regarded as inappropriate; but with the views—simple but +practical—which experience has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> taught me, I cannot but think that if +one were instituted between the liabilities of the United States in 1790 +and those of the State of New York in 1842,—between the means at the +disposal of each, and the extent to which the credit of each had been +depressed,—it would be found that speedier and more substantial relief, +and under less eligible circumstances, was obtained for the latter by +the simple and direct efforts of those unpretending financiers, Michael +Hoffman and Azariah C. Flagg, than was accomplished for the United +States by the manifold schemes that were resorted to at the period of +which we are speaking. Certain I am that if a similar comparison were +made between the difficulties which the Treasury Department of the +Federal Government had to contend with in 1790, and those which it +encountered in 1837, combined with the powerful and active hostility of +the United States Bank, the former would lose much of the apparent +importance with which tradition, the influence of a great name, and the +rhetorical applauses of modern political orators, of the Federal school, +have invested them.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>The condition of things at the period we are considering was such as to +promise the greatest advantages from the simplest, though persevering +and well-considered, employment of the means then for the first time +placed at the disposal of the General Government.</p> + +<p>If it had fortunately so happened that General Washington had placed +Hamilton at the head of the State Department, in which the theories +which he appears to have studied from his earliest manhood—he having, +though anonymously, at the age of twenty-three, sent to Robert<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> Morris, +then a member of Congress, the first plan for a bank of the United +States, accompanied by an elaborate examination into monetary and +financial affairs generally, and those of the United States in +particular—would not have been called into action, and if he had +appointed Madison to be Secretary of the Treasury, the fate of his +administration and the effects of its measures in respect to parties +would have been very different. The practical character of Madison's +talents and disposition had been exemplified in the whole of his +previous career, and was conspicuous in his course on the subject of +revenue. On the second day after the votes for President and +Vice-President under the new Constitution had been canvassed, and twenty +days before the inauguration of President Washington, he commenced +operations in the new House of Representatives, of which he was a +member, to enable the new government to avail itself of the advantages +secured to it by the Constitution in regard to revenue.</p> + +<p>To this end he introduced a bill to impose impost and tonnage duties by +which he believed all the objects of a national revenue could be secured +without being oppressive to the country, and pursued his object day in +and day out, until his bill became a law. A prompt application of the +means thus acquired to the regular payment of the interest on the public +debt, with a resort to others authorized in express terms by the +Constitution if the impost had not proved adequate to all the objects of +a national revenue, as he believed it would, and a discreet use of the +power to borrow exerted in the ordinary way, accompanied by proper +efforts to keep public expenditures at the lowest point consistent with +an efficient public service, would in all probability have been the sum +of the measures which Mr. Madison would have deemed necessary to place +the public credit at the highest desirable point and to discharge all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +the existing obligations of the Government. They constitute all the +means employed by the department now, and for several years past have +proved abundantly sufficient to meet infinitely higher responsibilities, +and there is in truth no conclusive reason to be found in the history of +the period referred to why they would not have performed the same +offices then.</p> + +<p>But these simple and usually efficacious measures did not come up to +Hamilton's standard. They fell short of what he thought necessary to the +actual wants of the public service, and still more so in regard to what +he deemed due to the efficiency, stability, and dignity of the +Government. To secure all of these objects he desired to build up a +financial system which would approach to an equality with the English +model after which he designed to construct it; and he believed that it +was in that way only that the public necessities could be amply provided +for, the public credit placed at the point which he wished it to occupy, +and the respectability of the Government be properly consulted. But this +plan required the adoption of measures which, it is not too much to say, +he knew that neither those who framed nor those who adopted the +Constitution intended to authorize. This difficulty, which to ordinary +minds would have appeared insurmountable, was overcome by a device +either of his own creation or, as I have for many years believed, the +suggestion of another.</p> + +<p>The subject of internal improvements by the Federal Government, in +regard as well to the power of the latter over the subject as to the +expediency of its exercise, was repeatedly and very fully discussed in +Congress, whilst Mr. Rufus King and myself represented the State of New +York in the Senate of the United States. Upon the question of power we +concurred in opinion, he adhering to that of Hamilton—the construction +of such works being one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> of the very few powers which the latter did not +claim for the Federal Government. Notwithstanding this agreement the +subject was often canvassed between us in respect to the arguments +advanced, from time to time, in Congress, by others. On one of those +occasions, he told me that on Gouverneur Morris's visit to the city of +New York, soon after his return from the Federal Convention, he was +congratulated by his friends on the circumstance that the Convention had +succeeded in agreeing upon a Constitution which would realize the great +object for which it had been convened, and that Morris promptly and, as +Mr. King seemed to have understood it, significantly replied—"<i>That +will depend upon the construction that is given to it!</i>" Mr. King did +not state any inference he had drawn from the remark and seemed to me +indisposed to prolong the conversation upon that point, and, knowing his +habitual reserve in speaking of his old associates, I yielded to what I +believed to be his wish not to be questioned, although I was at the +moment strongly impressed by the observation. I referred to it +afterwards in a speech I made in the Senate upon the powers of the +Government, which was extensively published. At a subsequent period this +ready answer of Morris would not have attracted notice; but spoken +before even a single officer had been elected to carry the Constitution +into effect, and of course before any question as to its construction +had arisen, it was to my mind, and, as I believe, to the mind of Mr. +King, evidence of a foregone conclusion to claim under that instrument +powers not anticipated by the great body of those who framed it, or by +those who had given it vitality by their approval. The facts that this +reply had been so long remembered by Mr. King, a prominent and sagacious +member of the Convention, and repeated under the circumstances I have +detailed, were calculated to create such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> an impression. It gave, at +least to my view, a decided direction in respect to the source from +whence the doctrine of <i>implied powers</i> originated. I had found it +difficult, with the opinions I had formed of Hamilton's character and +dispositions, to reconcile the first suggestion of such a policy with +them. I could believe that, in accordance with the principles which he +avowed, he might be not unwilling to carry it into effect when it was +suggested to him; but that, after advancing his opinions in a manner so +frank and fearless, notwithstanding their well understood unpopularity, +he should be found mousing over the words of the Constitution for +equivocal expressions, containing a meaning intelligible only to the +initiated, and by such methods preparing to spring a trap upon the +people, was, it appeared to me, utterly foreign to his nature and +habits. Neither was I disposed to believe that he would, at the very +moment of signing, have denounced the Constitution as inadequate to the +purposes of good government if he had then regarded it as possessing the +very extensive powers he afterwards assisted in claiming for it, nor +would he have subsequently declared it to be "a frail and worthless +fabric." His complaint upon the latter occasion would have been against +the construction that had been given to it, and not against the +Constitution itself.</p> + +<p>Morris, whose ability no one will question, was a constant attendant +upon the Convention, took an active part in its proceedings throughout, +was on most of its committees and the <i>working-man</i> of the last,—the +duties of which were "to revise the style of, and arrange the articles +which had been agreed to by the House,"—and the second and last draft +of the Constitution was reported by him. But it is now comparatively +unimportant with whom the latitudinarian construction of the +Constitution, which has caused so much strife and contention and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> so +little advantage to any person, party, or interest, originated. +Hamilton, at least, adopted it as the corner-stone of his constitutional +views, and, by his genius and the weight of his official influence, gave +it a temporary success.</p> + +<p>For reasons which will appear in the sequel, I will confine myself to a +simple statement of the questions that were raised in respect to the +construction of the Constitution, and a few illustrations of their +character. That instrument, as has already been stated, contained a +specific enumeration of the powers given to Congress, and the reasons +have been also described for this particularity. The measures to which +they referred were known by appropriate and distinct names, and applied +to definite and well understood objects, and they have been ever since +known and understood as they were then. This enumeration of the powers +of Congress was followed, as we have seen, by a grant of authority to +that body to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for +carrying into execution the foregoing powers."</p> + +<p>Under this winding-up clause of the Constitutional enumeration of the +powers of Congress, the true sense and object of which was so easy to be +understood, Hamilton claimed for that body the power of authorizing by +law measures of a substantive character, described by well understood +names, altogether different from those employed in the enumeration, such +as the incorporation of banks, &c., &c., if Congress should declare +itself of the opinion that the execution of the enumerated powers would +be materially aided by any such measures, reserving to Congress the +right of deciding whether the proposed measure would be sufficiently +useful to create the "propriety and necessity" required by the +Constitution, and placing in its breast alone the final decision of +every such question.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> + +<p>The objects of the Constitution, as set forth in its preamble, were "to +form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic +tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general +welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our +posterity." The first of the powers of Congress, contained in the +enumeration of them in the Constitution, is in the following words:</p> + +<p>"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, +imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common +defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, and +imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United +States;"—and then follow all the other powers, to borrow money, &c.</p> + +<p>The terms "common defense and general welfare," used in this +enumeration, were taken from the Articles of Confederation, where they +stood thus: "All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be +incurred for the <i>common defense and general welfare</i>, and allowed by +the United States, in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a +common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several States in +proportion," &c. Under those Articles they were never understood as a +substantive grant of power to the Continental Congress, or as +authorizing that body to ask from the States moneys, and to expend them +for any purposes other than those which the Articles afterwards +specified. By the new Constitution the manner of getting the money was +happily changed from State requisitions to taxes, duties, imposts, and +excises, to be expended, however, when so obtained, for the common +defense and general welfare, as before, and the Constitution then, like +the Articles of Confederation, says upon what objects it is to be +expended. The Convention which framed and those which ratified the +instrument, of course, understood the terms as used in the same sense. +But after the Constitu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>tion was ratified, without an intimation of such +a construction having been whispered before, it was contended by many +that the manner in which the terms common defense and general welfare +were used in it authorized Congress to adopt <i>any measure</i> which that +body might deem calculated to subserve the common defense and general +welfare of the country, whilst others, less reckless, limited the power +they claimed for Congress to the application of money to any such +measures. Among the former, as to the clause in the preamble, Hamilton +placed himself, insisting that, under the grant of powers to make all +laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying its given powers +into execution, Congress had the power to adopt every measure of +government not expressly denied to it or exclusively granted to the +States, which it should deem useful in the execution of its enumerated +powers, however variant in its name, object, and general understanding; +and under the clause quoted from the preamble an unlimited power of +taxation, and an equally unlimited authority to expend the money so +raised upon objects which it might think would promote the common +defense and general welfare. He thus claimed for Congress substantially +all legislative power, save such as was expressly prohibited to it, +given exclusively to the States, or denied to both, falling but little +if any thing short of the power he assigned to the national legislature +in his propositions submitted to the Convention, which that body would +not even consider, viz.: "to pass all laws which they shall judge +necessary to the common defense and general welfare of the Union."</p> + +<p>When the advocates of these doctrines were asked to remember the state +of public opinion at the time when the Constitution was framed; the +jealousy which then existed and had for so many years existed, of the +power of the General Government; the fact that the apprehensions which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +had been entertained had so long prevented the calling of a Convention; +the extreme improbability that the Convention, under such circumstances, +could have intended to give to Congress the power to pass any law it +might be pleased to regard as useful in the execution of an enumerated +power, whatever might be its bearing upon the State governments; to add +to the power to make peace and war and to raise armies and equip fleets; +to make the power to raise money unlimited by authorizing its +expenditure upon any measure Congress might assume to be conducive to +the common defense and general welfare, and the absurdity of the +supposition that the grant of such far-reaching and absorbing powers +would have been conferred in so obscure a way, and that the Constitution +would have passed the scrutiny of so many State Conventions without its +ever having been intimated in any way that there lay concealed in its +general terms grants of power which, if but suspected, would have set +the country in a blaze, and would have produced instant refusals to +ratify on the part of most of the States,—when such considerations were +opposed to those bold pretensions, the only reply was, the Constitution +must be construed by its letter, and we cannot look behind it or beside +it for the means of doing so truly.</p> + +<p>To the answer that extraneous matter has always been allowed by all +laws, state and national, to be used in the interpretation of the +highest acts of sovereignty, such as the construction of treaties +between sovereign powers, of patents issued under the great seal, of +acts of Parliament, of Congress, and of State legislatures, and in +respect to the latter class the old law, the mischief and the proposed +remedy to be taken into consideration in searching for the meaning of +such acts, in the construction of wills, deeds, &c., &c., the only +rejoinder was that a Constitution was an exception to those rules; in +short that a Constitution was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> the sole exception to the application of +the maxim which has grown out of the observation and experience of +mankind,—<i>qui hęret in literā hęret in cortice</i>.</p> + +<p>The nearness of the time when the Constitution was framed to the period +of which we are speaking gave to this construction its most repulsive +aspect. The members of the Federal Convention were yet on the stage of +action, and many of them participators in the measures that were brought +forward on the strength of it. The remonstrances of those who dissented +on the ground of their own knowledge that the Convention did not +contemplate such a construction were disregarded, not because they did +not represent the truth but because the objection was inadmissible upon +principle. This was emphatically the case in respect to the +establishment of a national bank, the pioneer of constitutional +infractions, the "wooden horse" from whose sides the most violent +assaults have been made upon the Constitution. It was a fact well +remembered by the members, and subsequently confirmed by the publication +of the journal of the Convention, that a motion was made to give to +Congress power to grant acts of incorporation, as facilities to public +improvements. This fact was brought to the notice of President +Washington by Mr. Jefferson, in his opinion upon the bank question: "It +is known," said he, "that the very power now proposed as <i>a means</i> was +rejected <i>as an end</i> by the Convention which formed the Constitution; a +proposition was made to them to authorize Congress to open canals, and +an amendatory one to empower them to incorporate, but the whole was +rejected, and one of the reasons of rejection urged in the debate was +that then they would have power to erect a bank, which would render the +great cities, where there were prejudices or jealousies upon this +subject, adverse to the reception of the Constitution."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p> + +<p>This communication was made directly to General Washington, who had been +President of the Convention, and made to defeat a measure of Hamilton's, +who never failed to turn every proposition of his opponents against +themselves when it was in his power to do so. It remained unnoticed, and +its truth was therefore virtually admitted. Upon the very first +question, then, which arose under the Constitution upon Hamilton's +construction, and that one first also in importance, the well-known +intentions of the Convention were directly and intentionally overruled.</p> + +<p>President Washington gave no reasons for his decision in favor of the +Bank Bill. I will hereafter state the principle upon which I think it +fair to presume that he acted. Hamilton was influenced by views which +governed his conduct in every constitutional question that arose in his +day. He did not, because he could not with any show of propriety, deny +that the Constitution ought in strictness to be construed according to +the intentions of those who made it; but believing, doubtless sincerely, +from the beginning, that, so construed, it was insufficient for the +purposes of good government and must prove a failure, he designedly gave +it construction, in cases where he deemed that course necessary to the +public interest, in opposition to what he knew to have been the +intentions of the Convention. The objection that this was setting at +naught the declared will of the people had but little weight with him. +He believed that a majority of the Convention would have been content to +incorporate the powers he now claimed in the Constitution if they had +not been deterred by the fear that it would not be ratified, and for the +opinion of a majority of the people he made proverbial his want of +respect. He held them incapable of judging in such questions. He was as +anxious as any man to promote their happiness and wel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>fare, but he +thought it a political necessity that this could only be done in despite +of themselves; no man could possibly be less prone than he was to the +employment of sinister means in private life, and yet he held them +excusable in dealing with the people; he thought nothing effectual and +salutary could be done with them without appeals to their special +interests, without exciting their passions and turning them to the side +of the Government. This was the vicious feature of his political creed, +and proofs of its existence could be multiplied almost without end; but, +as the subject will unavoidably and often present itself, I will content +myself here with an extract from a letter written by him to his friend +Morris, after the great public transactions in which he had been engaged +were principally ended. The last letter to Morris, from which I have +quoted, spoke of the past; this looks to the future, and shows the +lengths to which he was yet, as he had always been, willing to go. The +letter is dated April 6, 1802, in which, after complimenting Morris upon +his efforts "in resisting the follies of an infatuated administration," +he thus points his friend to the work before them:—</p> + +<p>"But, my dear sir, we must not content ourselves with a temporary effort +to oppose the approach of evil. We must derive instruction from the +experience before us, and learning to form a just estimate of things to +which we have been attached, there must be a systematic and persevering +endeavor to establish the fortune of a great empire on foundations much +firmer than have yet been devised. What will signify a vibration of +power if it cannot be used with confidence or energy, and must be again +quickly restored to hands which will prostrate much faster than we shall +be able to rear under so frail a system? Nothing will be done until the +structure of our national edifice shall be such as naturally to control +eccentric passions and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> views, and to keep in check demagogues and +knaves in the disguise of patriots."<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p>This speaks for itself, and certainly nothing could be more superfluous +than an attempt to elucidate its import and extent. It deserves to be +remembered that this was in the thirteenth year of the Constitution, now +described as a "frail system," and which, in a previous letter to +Morris, was called a "frail and worthless fabric." Hamilton enforced his +construction, but upon that point we will say no more until we arrive at +a period when it was exposed to a scrutiny by which it was forever +exploded. Looking to the construction of the Constitution which I have +described for his authority to adopt the measures he deemed necessary to +establish his policy, he advanced in his work with his accustomed +industry and perseverance. The outlines of that policy were +substantially portrayed in his speeches in the Federal Convention, in +his letter to General Washington from New York during the session of +that body, and in a paper written by him after its adjournment, and now +published by his son,—all of which have already been referred to. It +was founded on a conviction, doubtless sincere and at all events not +liable to change, that great danger to the federal system was to be +apprehended from the hostility of the State governments, and on a +consequent desire to reduce their power and importance; on an immovable +distrust of the capacities and dispositions of the masses; and on an +unshaken belief that the success of the new government could only be +secured by assimilating its action to that of the English system as +nearly as that could be done without too gross, and therefore dangerous, +violation of the well understood and most cherished sentiments of the +people.</p> + +<p>The power wielded by the English ministry, in Parlia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>ment and in the +country, springs from influences derived from various sources, mainly +from the funding system, from the Bank of England, from connection with +the East India Company, and from ability to confer government favors on +individuals and classes in the shape of offices and dignities in church +and state, of titles, pensions, bounties, franchises, and other special +privileges of great value. Its power in these respects is derived from +the crown in virtue of its prerogatives, aided by acts of Parliament +where these are required by the Constitution.</p> + +<p>The measures which Hamilton deemed indispensable to the success of the +new government, in addition to those authorized by the Constitution, +consisted of</p> + +<p><i>First.</i> A funding system upon the English plan, with authority to +assume the separate debts of the States;</p> + +<p><i>Second.</i> A national bank; and,</p> + +<p><i>Third.</i> An unrestricted exercise by Congress of the power to raise +money, and the employment of the national revenue in patronizing +individual, class, and corporate interests, according to the plan +described in his report, nominally on manufactures, but embracing an +infinite variety of other concerns.</p> + +<p>The funding system, as presented to Congress by him, as well as the bank +were not only on the English plan, but as far as that could consistently +be effected were copies of the originals, and substantially the same +reasons for their establishment here were assigned in his report as had +been given for their first creation in England. The third measure, or +rather the third in his system of measures, as set forth in the +Secretary's report, partook largely of the general character of some of +those alluded to above as sources of ministerial power in England, and, +in connection with the means of securing legitimate influence allowed by +our Constitution, would have clothed the admin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>istration here with equal +power, even without authority to grant titles of nobility, +ecclesiastical preferments and dignities, and other like privileges.</p> + +<p>The advantages Hamilton anticipated from these measures consisted of the +effect which the fact of their establishment would have upon every +question of constitutional power, the popularity and political influence +which the administration would acquire in and through their +organization, and greater than all, of their inevitable influence upon +the future character of the institutions of the country. He might well +think that he would not thereafter have any serious difficulty in regard +to constitutional power to do what he desired, if he could obtain the +passage of acts, according to the forms of the Constitution, authorizing +Congress to <i>lend</i> money to the States under a provision in that +instrument giving it power to <i>borrow</i> money; to establish a national +bank, when a possible ground for pretense to such a power had been +expressly excluded from the Constitution, and when every body knew that +both the Convention that made it and a vast majority of the States and +people by whom it was adopted were at the time opposed to such an +institution; and not only to raise money upon the principle of an +unlimited power to do so, but also to expend it according to the +pleasure of the Government, subject to no other limitation than that it +should regard the purpose as conducive to the common defense and general +welfare,—a principle he distinctly avowed in his report on +manufactures. If he had succeeded in these points and secured his +advances, he would have been fully warranted in regarding the +enumeration of the powers of Congress contained in the Constitution as a +sham, and the brief clause he proposed to the Convention, giving to the +national legislature power to pass all laws which it should judge +necessary to the common defense and general wel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>fare of the Union, as +inserted in its place. The increased power and influence derived by the +administration in the course of the organization of some of these +measures will be seen as we proceed, and my own views in respect to +their combined effects upon our institutions and upon the character of +the government, will be given hereafter.</p> + +<p>In England the bank was first established, but Hamilton gave precedence +here to the funding system and made it the first great measure of his +administration of the Treasury Department, contenting himself in the +first instance with a declaration, in his report in favor of the funding +system, of his intention to connect a bank with it. The Secretary's +annunciation of the principles upon which he proposed to found that +system, and their resemblance to those by which the English system was +regulated, were received with unmistakable signs of dissatisfaction by +large portions of the people in all parts of the country. The +Legislature of Virginia passed by decided majorities resolutions +denouncing the Secretary's plan with great severity. These, with similar +demonstrations in other States, show the depth of the excitement of the +public mind upon the subject.</p> + +<p>The public debt of England had its origin in an early practice of her +government to anticipate her resources through loans effected upon +pledges of portions of her revenues, to be re-imbursed, principal and +interest, at specific periods. These were made to correspond with the +time of the probable collection of the taxes out of which the loans were +to be paid; and such, it may safely be assumed, was also the origin of +public debt in all countries. For a time these anticipations were +limited in their amounts to the actual value of the fund upon the credit +of which they were obtained, the loans were discharged according to +their terms, and the operation proved to be a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> great convenience to the +government without prejudice to any interest. It was not long, however, +before a practice, originally no other than a fair business transaction, +was perverted to screen men in power from the odium of enforcing +taxation to repay the principal sum borrowed. The disproportion between +the revenues to be received and the anticipations successively charged +upon them soon became too great to leave the government able to pay both +principal and interest on the loans which its necessities required. Some +device was therefore desirable by which it would be enabled to replenish +the public coffers without a too great increase of taxation, which, for +obvious reasons, is always the peculiar aversion of those intrusted with +the management of public affairs. The plan adopted, in lieu of +anticipations of the revenue of the character I have described, was to +make loans upon the credit of the nation, re-imbursable at the pleasure +of the government, with special and adequate provisions for the payment +of the interest only, or to borrow money upon perpetual annuity +equivalent to the interest of the sum borrowed, government being at +liberty to redeem such annuity at any time by paying back the principal +sum, with authority also to borrow on annuities for terms of years and +for lives. These became thenceforth leading features in the English +funding system.</p> + +<p>These facilities proved amply sufficient for every exigency. The public +debt increased with unheard of rapidity under the influence and the +expenses of the wars in which England was successively engaged. In 1706, +when its foundation was laid, it amounted to but little more than five +millions sterling, and in 1777 it had increased to one hundred and +thirty-six millions sterling. Near the latter period the subjects of +public debt, the principles of the English funding system, and their +effects in all countries<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> where they had been adopted, were brought to a +searching scrutiny by Adam Smith in his "Wealth of Nations," who +demonstrated from reason and experience that they had invariably +enfeebled every nation which had embraced them. He insisted that there +was scarcely an instance in which a public debt contracted and +established upon those principles had been fully paid, and that the +revenues of the countries subject to such incumbrances had been relieved +from the destructive effects of an irredeemable public debt, if relieved +at all, either by avowed bankruptcy or by pretended payments through +such artifices as adulterations of the coin, or raising its +denomination, or by reductions of the rate of interest.</p> + +<p>In 1786, four years before the introduction of Hamilton's funding +system, the public debt of England had already increased to +£276,000,000; and so rapid has been its subsequent growth that the +strictures and predictions of Adam Smith are at this day receiving their +confirmation in the existence of a national debt of more than +£800,000,000. By no people were these facts and circumstances, so far as +they had then transpired, better understood than by ours. They had +watched the condition of England, in regard to her increasing debt, +through the Revolutionary contest in the hope that she would be +compelled by the very extent of her indebtedness to stay the hand she +had uplifted to enslave them. It ought not therefore to have been a +matter of surprise to Hamilton and his associates, and cannot be to us +viewing these matters retrospectively, that his recommendation of a +funding system, upon the English plan, with a national bank as its +adjunct, as the first great measures of the new government, were +received by large portions, probably a majority, of the people, with so +much dissatisfaction and distrust of the motives in which the +recommendation had its origin—a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> distrust naturally produced by the +precipitate resort to the system of a nation against which the hostile +feelings of the war had not yet subsided, and which under that system, +in the estimation of many sober minded and sagacious men, was rapidly +sinking into the gulf of hopeless indebtedness.</p> + +<p>No necessity can now be perceived for the adoption at that moment of a +scheme of such magnitude as that which Hamilton proposed—one so well +calculated to excite jealousy, and against which the warning voice of +experience had become so audible. The existing debt, sacred as the price +of liberty and entitled to all solicitude for its satisfactory +discharge, was not, in view of the increased resources of the +Government, either very large or, in any other event than a failure in +the payment of interest, ineligibly situated, or in any great danger of +soon becoming impracticable or oppressive. The foreign debt then stood +at eleven millions, the principal payable by moderate instalments, the +last of which, not due till 1808, was never, save a small portion of the +French debt, actually funded, and was paid off during the administration +of Mr. Madison. The domestic debt of the United States amounted to forty +millions, which Secretary Hamilton thought might fairly be regarded as +payable at the pleasure of the Government. The interest and instalments +as they fell due were therefore the principal subjects to be dealt with.</p> + +<p>The change which had at last been effected in the Constitution, securing +to the Federal head full power to levy and collect all necessary +revenue, and the prospects of an improving trade and increasing +prosperity in every branch of business gave of themselves to the +Government a good right to anticipate an improvement in the public +credit sufficient to enable it to make direct loans abroad upon fair +terms, payable at specific and reasonable periods, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> had been before +done without these advantages. On the avails of these, with the surplus +of an increasing revenue over and above the six hundred thousand +dollars, which was all that was asked for the support of Government in +other respects than the payment of debts, the Secretary might, it would +seem, have safely relied to meet accruing demands on account of the +public debt. It is well known that such favorable effects resulted from +the change which had taken place in the Government and our credit abroad +was so greatly improved that loans which had before been obtained with +difficulty and in a considerable degree through favor, and in part by +means of specific guaranties, were now sought after and taken with +avidity in Amsterdam and Antwerp. The friends of the Secretary, and +those who favored his policy, naturally claimed that this favorable +change was due to his report, and to the acts that were passed in +pursuance of his recommendation. A portion of the effects produced may +have been attributable to this cause, but it was rendered quite clear +that the improvement could not be thus explained as to Holland, where a +large part of our foreign debt was held and to which country the whole +was soon transferred, by the facts that her bankers not only continued +to lend freely to our Government in the old way, upon direct loans, +payable at specific periods,—principal and interest,—but expressly +declined, as did also our creditors in Antwerp, to accept our proposal +for converting the debts due upon loans of that character into a funded +domestic stock.</p> + +<p>The whole of our foreign debt in Holland, that which was due at the time +of the passage of the act establishing the funding system as well as +that which was subsequently contracted there and at Antwerp, and the +principal part of that held elsewhere, was paid to the entire +satisfaction of the creditors by the means I have described, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +without being funded. The domestic debt, the least difficult or delicate +to deal with, would doubtless have been seasonably and satisfactorily +discharged in the same way, if General Hamilton had not, at an early +age, imbibed an opinion, which he never changed, that a permanent +national debt was an advantage to any country, and likely to be +particularly useful in a confederacy like ours. That such was his +sincere opinion there cannot be the slightest doubt, and that he +contemplated a public debt here of a character as permanent as that was +likely to be which then existed in England is fairly to be inferred from +his acts.</p> + +<p>Hamilton's mind was from a very early period turned to politics, and of +political subjects that of finance was from the beginning the favorite +theme of his meditations, among the most prominent results of which was +a conviction that of the agencies necessary to good government, whatever +might be its form, there were none more useful than a well funded public +debt and a judiciously constructed national bank. At the early age of +twenty-three, whilst filling a post of subordinate rank in the army, he +addressed an anonymous communication (as I have before mentioned) to +Robert Morris, whose mind was inclined in the same direction, and who +was extensively employed in the management of fiscal affairs, enforcing +with much ability his favorite ideas. Some of the contents of this +communication are given in the "Life of Hamilton" by his son. In a +subsequent letter to the same gentleman, he argues in support of kindred +positions. In his report upon public credit he advances the same +favorable opinion, and in substantially the same language, of the +effects of the particular debt he proposed to fund upon terms which +promised perpetuity. He did, it is true, accompany the latter +declaration with a protest against the latitude, inviting to +prodigality, which was sometimes given to the idea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> of the utility of a +public debt, and with a recommendation in favor of the establishment of +a sinking fund, and other reservations and qualifications, couched in +the guarded terms usually employed by able men in state papers upon +controverted public questions. But the report contained nothing +inconsistent with the idea of keeping on foot a national debt as long as +it did not become "too large,"—a condition that could scarcely fail to +give way to the supposed exigencies of the moment,—and the farther +condition of an indispensable necessity for its continuance never found +a place in his reports or weight in his opinions. On the contrary, the +advantages of a national debt in preparing the people for those periods +of oppressive assessment to which all nations are occasionally exposed, +by constantly levying a reasonable tax to discharge interest, a +principal reason in favor of a public debt assigned in his letter to +Morris; the utility and convenience of having always at hand a band +whose special interest in the stability of the government would promptly +rally them to its support,—an idea never long absent from Hamilton's +mind; the benefits which the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial +interests would derive from the funding of seventy millions of debt in +the form and upon the principles he proposed, giving to it the capacity +of being "substituted for money" and increasing by that amount the +floating capital, and to a great extent the circulating medium of the +country; the beneficial influence of a funded debt in raising the value +of land, in proof of which the experience of England is cited, besides +supplying those important classes with means to improve and enlarge +their respective pursuits, and increasing those facilities by reducing +the rate of interest, constituted the arguments and persuasions set +forth in glowing and captivating terms in his reports, and though not +necessarily confined to a <i>permanent</i> national debt, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>dicate very +clearly, to my mind at least, that it was such a debt that he had in +view.</p> + +<p>The uses to which the sinking fund had been applied in England and its +inefficiency in the reduction of the national debt were well understood +by the Secretary. The explanations of its greater efficacy here in after +times will be given in another place. They had no connection with the +views that were prevalent in the councils of the nation at the moment of +which we are speaking. Every act of the Secretary was in keeping with +the inference I have stated. In addition to the principle he proposed as +the basis of his system, which, if not perpetual funding in express +terms, postponed redemption to so remote and indefinite a period as to +render it next to certain that it would never occur, there were other +circumstances scarcely less confirmatory of the assumption that such was +his intention.</p> + +<p>The stand taken by Hamilton in the provision he proposed and which was +adopted for a portion of the domestic debt had a great influence in +creating the impression that his funding system had other than fiscal +objects in view. His opponents not thinking either that system or the +bank necessary for the public service—an opinion vindicated and +sustained by subsequent experience—readily attributed the strong desire +manifested for their establishment to political designs on the part of +their author. Jefferson denounced the financial scheme as a "puzzle to +exclude popular understanding and inquiry, and a machine for the +corruption of the Legislature." In aid of the latter charge, besides +going at least some length to sustain the imputation of Hamilton's +desire for an unnecessary increase of the public debt, came these facts: +A large proportion of the domestic debt consisted of certificates of +indebtedness given by the United States to the soldiers who fought our +battles, and to the farmers, manufacturers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> and merchants who furnished +supplies for their support. These had been given because the Government +had no money, but under promises of speedy payment. The holders were +frequently driven by their necessities, and by misrepresentations in +respect to the chances of payment, to part with them for trifling +amounts. Had the matter stopped there, however much regretted and +condemned, it might not have attracted the notice which was taken of it. +But when Hamilton proposed to put the original holders and the +fraudulent purchasers of these certificates upon the same footing, and +when it became known to the members of Congress, which sat with closed +doors, that the bill would pass in that shape, every part of the country +was overrun by speculators, sped by horse and packet expresses, buying +up large portions of the certificates still held by those to whom they +were originally given at the rate of five shillings and, in some +instances, of two shillings and sixpence in the pound. It was never +doubted that members of Congress and their particular friends +participated in these speculations, and realized large sums by the +certificates being funded at their nominal amounts. When the bill came +up, several gentlemen, who afterwards became prominent members of the +Republican party, earnestly supported a proposition to make a +composition between the original holders and the assignees of these +papers, allowing to the latter the highest prices they had ever brought +in the market, and settling with the former for the residue. Such an +arrangement might have been effected without embarrassment to the +treasury by satisfactory grants of public lands, and the amount of debts +might have been thus materially reduced. Mr. Madison in a sensible +speech supported the justice of some such composition; but the friends +of the Secretary in Congress, some of them interested in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> result, +carried the measure which had been elaborately argued in advance by +Hamilton, in his report, and by which the whole was awarded to the +speculators. The entire transaction caused deep disgust in the minds of +many who felt solicitous for the purity of the Government, and not a few +believed that the scramble which ensued was foreseen and counted upon as +a source of influence to enlist Congress on the side of the +administration. Their hostility to a system susceptible, as they +thought, of such practices, was of course greatly inflamed.</p> + +<p>The construction thus placed upon the Secretary's course received its +strongest confirmation from his proposal and untiring efforts for the +assumption of the State debts. The first object of a prudent financier +would seem to be to keep the debt he has to deal with at the lowest +practicable point. Hamilton, on the contrary, whilst struggling with +embarrassments in respect to the debts for which the United States were +legally bound, upon the largest portion of which many years of interest +had been suffered to accumulate, proposed to increase the liability +twenty-five millions by the voluntary assumption of debts which the +Federal Government was under no obligations to pay; an assumption not +only unsolicited on the part of the indebted States, but to which there +was the best reason for believing that several among them would be +opposed. The special representatives of the latter in the Senate, where +the proposition originated, so earnestly contested it that the clause of +the bill to carry it into effect could only be passed by a majority of +two, was in the first instance rejected in the House of Representatives +against the united influences of the administration, and could only be +reconsidered and barely carried by means of a discreditable intrigue to +which the Secretary and Mr. Jefferson, as the latter has acknowledged +with shame and contrition, were parties.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> + +<p>The reasons assigned by Hamilton for this forced assumption of a debt +which had never been audited, and the amount of which they were obliged +to guess at, though framed with his usual ability, cannot, I should +think, he now regarded as sufficient to justify the step. The weight +which they might by any be supposed to possess was overbalanced by the +obvious unconstitutionality of the measure. It adopted as well the debts +of the States which, upon the final settlement between them and the +United States, were found in debt to the latter, as of those which +proved to have balances in their favor, and was therefore a loan by the +Federal Government to the former class of States, made under the power +in the Constitution authorizing Congress to borrow money.</p> + +<p>This measure, like that which preceded it, was well calculated to +strengthen the suspicion with which the minds of his opponents became +thoroughly imbued, that Hamilton in all his measures had in view the +advancement of partisan objects, from its peculiar adaptation to the +promotion of a leading point in his whole policy,—that of weakening +State authority and strengthening that of the General Government at +their expense. The distinctness and strength of expression with which +this policy was avowed by him, in papers published by his son, have +already been seen. Among the means suggested was the adoption of +measures by which the attention of the people might be diverted from the +State governments, upon which it was thought to be too intensely fixed, +and turned towards the Federal head, and by which their passions might +be excited and turned in the same channel. What single measure could +exert greater influence in giving effect to this policy or show more +strikingly the hand of a master than that by which the intense and +constant solicitude of the holders of twenty-five millions of debts, +scattered, in com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>paratively small sums, through the different States, +and embracing, it is fair to presume, the most active of their citizens, +was turned from the local authorities to the Federal Government, first +for the settlement of the amount, and next for the payment of their +demands,—by which the States themselves became liable for the amounts +so paid to a Government which, certainly in some of its departments, +regarded them as rival not to say dangerous powers, and by which also +the disreputable scramble for those debts, commenced in the case of the +certificates of the United States, would be revived.</p> + +<p>The conflicting views entertained upon these subjects by Hamilton and +Jefferson soon assumed the form of a distinct and well defined issue +between the friends and political followers of each,—the former +composing the Federal party, and the latter constituting elements of +which the Republican party, then in embryo, was formed. Hamilton's +doctrine, and for a season the avowed creed of his party, was that there +were advantages in the existence of a national debt which more than +counter-balanced any evils that might arise from its unnecessary +continuance, and this faith shaped the whole course of their action upon +the subject. Its subjection to the operations of a sinking fund, and the +qualification that the amount of the debt should be kept within proper +limits, were of course features in their platform. Estimating the +results of the former here by its efficiency in England, and instructed +by the experience of all nations that restraints upon the accumulation +of debt, however solemnly imposed, are of no account with applicants for +grants from the public treasury, and unhappily little more respected by +men in power when the importunities of friends and supporters are +brought in competition with the interests of posterity, it was not +difficult to foresee the futility of these conditions. Mr. Jefferson, on +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> contrary, from the beginning regarded a public debt as a "mortal +canker" from which it was the duty of the Government to relieve the +country at the earliest practicable moment, and in this spirit he and +his friends acted throughout.</p> + +<p>The subject of Finance had not at that early period been made as +familiar to the American mind as it has since become, and the genius of +Hamilton and the sanction of Washington, which his plans were supposed +to receive, were well calculated to discourage opposition to them. But +many of those who disapproved of his course were not to be moved from +what they regarded as the line of duty by any considerations personal to +themselves. They resisted Hamilton's financial schemes from the start, +and it was in the discussions upon this issue that some, who +subsequently became famous leaders in the old Republican party, fleshed +their maiden swords. No two measures ever attracted a larger share of +the attention of the American people, excited more deeply their feelings +and their apprehensions, or exerted a greater influence upon the +politics of this country than did the funding system and the first Bank +of the United States. The peculiar results of the contest that was waged +in respect to them will be noticed hereafter.</p> + +<p>Hamilton had done much by their establishment and organization to +strengthen the Federal arm, and proportionately to weaken the State +governments, but the influence he derived from these measures was not +sufficiently operative upon several classes whom he desired to +conciliate. The wished for impression had been made upon the commercial +class,—at all times a powerful body and by the nature of their pursuits +inclined to favor strong governments, banks, and funding systems,—upon +the domestic creditors of the General Government, upon the cred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>itors of +the several State governments, upon all who had a passion for gambling +in stocks, to whose appetites he furnished so much aliment,—a numerous, +crafty, and influential portion of almost every community,—and upon all +who wanted to borrow or had money to lend, a class still more numerous. +Besides these, whom Mr. Canning called the "train-bands of commerce," in +general the most dangerous to encounter and the most efficient when at +his service, there were still larger interests, and in the aggregate +more powerful, upon whom the Secretary desired to make similar +impressions and to secure their attachment to his system.</p> + +<p>In August, 1791, whilst concocting the measures by which he hoped to +secure the support of these, and flushed by the success which had +hitherto crowned his efforts, he thus (as I have already quoted) +addressed his great rival, Mr. Jefferson:—</p> + +<p>"I own," said he, "it is my opinion, though I do not publish it in Dan +or Beersheba, that the present Government is not that which will answer +the ends of society, by giving stability and protection to its rights, +and that it will probably be found expedient to go into the British +form; however, since we have undertaken the experiment, I am for giving +it a fair course, whatever my expectations may be. The success, indeed, +so far, is greater than I had expected, and therefore at present success +seems more possible than it had done heretofore, and there are still +other and other stages of improvement, which, if the present does not +succeed, may be tried and ought to be tried before we give up the +republican form altogether."</p> + +<p>First in the order of time among "the other and other stages of +improvement" with which the prolific mind of the Secretary was busied, +were doubtless those embraced in his "Report on Manufactures" which made +its appearance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> four months afterwards, and was probably then in course +of preparation. It contains more than a hundred folio pages, in print, +and is perhaps the most thoroughly elaborated and artfully devised state +paper to be found in the archives of any country. Manufactures were +alone spoken of in the title, but it embraced every species of industry +that offered the slightest chance of being successfully prosecuted in +the United States, and contained a very full and carefully considered +exposition of their respective conditions, and of the facilities by +which their success might be increased, to extend which to those +diversified interests it undertook to show was within the power and the +duty of the Government. This report, on account of the striking +illustration it affords of the progress of parties, and the powerful +influence it exerted upon their fate, is well entitled to the fullest +notice. But it is not possible within the limits I have prescribed to +myself to go as fully into the review of such a paper as justice to the +subject would require. I must therefore content myself with an abridged +account of the various branches of industry the advancement of which was +the design of its author, and of the manner in which he proposed to +accomplish his object.</p> + +<p>The manufactured articles which he specified as fit subjects for +governmental aid were those made of skins, of iron, of wood, of flax and +hemp, bricks, coarse tiles, and potters' wares, ardent spirits and malt +liquors, writing and printing paper, hats, refined sugars, oils of +animals and seeds, soap and candles, copper and brass wares, tin wares, +carriages of all kinds, snuff, chewing and smoking tobacco, starch, +lampblack and other painters' colors, and gunpowder. This enumeration +was followed by a detailed statement of the great variety of articles +embraced in the general denominations. Besides these, which he said had +attained a considerable degree of maturity, there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> was a vast sum of +household manufacturing which was made not only sufficient for the use +of the families that made them but for sale also, and in some instances +for exportation, and consisted of great quantities of coarse cloths, +coatings, serges, and flannels, linsey-woolseys, hosiery of wool, cotton +and thread, coarse fustians, jeans and muslins, checked and striped +cotton and linen goods, bedticks, coverlets and counterpanes, tow +linens, coarse shirtings, sheetings, toweling, and table linen, and +various mixtures of wool and cotton, and of cotton and flax.</p> + +<p>These observations were, he said, the pleasing result of the +investigation into which the subject of his report had led, and were +applicable to the Southern as well as to the Middle and Northern States. +He also designated the principal raw materials of which these +manufactures were composed, and which were, or were capable of being, +raised or produced by ourselves. These were iron, copper, lead, fossil +coal, wool, skins, grain, flax and hemp, cotton, wool, silk, &c., &c.</p> + +<p>The Secretary contended that the growth and production of all the +articles last named were, in common with the manufactures of which they +constituted the raw material, entitled to the encouragement <i>and +specific aid of the Federal Government</i>.</p> + +<p>He next pointed out the various modes in which that aid might be +afforded, varying its application according to circumstances; viz.:</p> + +<p>1st. By <i>protecting duties</i>.</p> + +<p>2d. By <i>prohibition</i> of rival articles, or duties equivalent to +prohibition.</p> + +<p>3d. By <i>prohibition of the exportation</i> of the <i>materials</i> of +manufactures.</p> + +<p>4th. By <i>pecuniary bounties</i>.</p> + +<p>5th. By <i>premiums</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p> + +<p>6th. By <i>exemption</i> of <i>the materials</i> of <i>manufactures from duties</i>.</p> + +<p>7th. By <i>drawbacks</i> of duties on the same materials.</p> + +<p>8th. By <i>encouragement</i> of new inventions at home and the <i>introduction</i> +of others from abroad.</p> + +<p>9th. By <i>judicious regulations</i> for the <i>inspection</i> of manufactured +commodities.</p> + +<p>10th. By facilitating pecuniary remittances; and,</p> + +<p>11th. By facilitating the transportation of commodities <i>by roads and +canals</i>.</p> + +<p>Of the power of the Federal Government to promote the objects spoken of +by the means suggested, with two exceptions, he said there could be no +doubt. The exceptions were the encouragement of new inventions and the +facilities to transportation by roads and canals. In respect to the +specific execution of these measures he confessed and regretted that +there was some doubt. But to the power of giving aid, so far as that +could be done by the application of money, he insisted that there was no +exception: "Whatever concerns the general interest of learning, of +agriculture, of manufactures, and of commerce are" he said, "within the +sphere of the national concerns <i>as far as regards an application of +money</i>;" and he proposed, first, to raise a fund out of the surplus of +additional duties laid and appropriated to replace defalcations +proceeding from the abolition or diminution of duty diverted for +purposes of protection, which he thought would be more than adequate for +the payment of <i>all bounties</i> which should be decreed; and, <i>secondly</i>, +to constitute a fund for the operations of a board to be established for +promoting <i>arts</i>, <i>agriculture</i>, <i>manufactures</i>, and <i>commerce</i>. To this +Board he proposed to give power to apply the funds so raised to defray +the expenses of the emigration of artists and manufacturers in +particular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> branches of extraordinary importance; to induce the +prosecution and introduction of useful discoveries, inventions, and +improvements by proportionate rewards, judiciously held out and applied; +to encourage by premiums, both honorable and lucrative, the exertions of +individuals and classes in relation to the several objects they were +charged with promoting; and to afford such other aids to those objects +as might be generally designated by law;—adding to all this that it +often happens that the capitals employed are not equal to the purposes +of bringing from abroad workmen of a superior kind, and that here, in +cases worthy of it, the auxiliary agency of Government would in all +probability be useful. There are also valuable workmen in every branch +who are prevented from emigrating solely by the want of means. +Occasional aids to such persons, properly administered, might be, he +suggested, the source of valuable acquisitions to the country.</p> + +<p>The thorough and minute consideration bestowed on its numerous details, +the well sustained consistency of the argument with the principles upon +which it was founded, the felicity and clearness with which its author's +views were expressed, and the evidence it furnished of well directed and +comprehensive research, stamp this remarkable document as the ablest +state paper that proceeded from his pen during the whole of his +political career. But able as it was, it yet, as we shall see when we +recur to the action of parties, contributed more than all that he had +before done to the prostration of the political standing of its author +and to the overthrow of his party. Its bold assumptions of power and the +jubilant spirit in which they were expressed afforded the clearest +indications, as well to his opponents as to the country, that he +regarded his victory over the Constitution as complete. He spoke of the +national legislature, unhesitatingly and as one having au<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>thority, as +possessing, in virtue of the construction of the Constitution he had +established, all the power with very limited exceptions which he +insisted in the Convention ought to be given to it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jefferson denounced the recommendations of the report to President +Washington with great warmth and earnestness. He described it as going +far beyond any pretensions to power under the Constitution which had yet +been set up, and as a document to which many eyes were turned as one +which was to let us know whether we lived under a limited or an +unlimited government.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>But the views of the Secretary of the Treasury in the establishment of +the policy of which we have been speaking have as yet been but +imperfectly described. They had a breadth and an extent of which +superficial observers had no idea. The increased strength the General +Government derived from turning towards itself so many and such active +men as the holders and purchasers of the public debt, State and +National, and the influence which the patronage attached to his +financial scheme would give to the existing administration, were both +important, and doubtless entered into Hamilton's designs. The views of +common minds might well have been limited to such acquisitions. But +these results fell far short of Hamilton's anticipations. His partiality +for the English system, it is natural to presume, arose in some degree +from his birth and early training; but study and reflection, I am +inclined to think, had quite as much to do with bringing his mind to the +conclusions it cherished with so much earnestness. Among the public men +of his day there was not one who appears to have devoted a larger share +of his time to examinations into and meditation upon public affairs. +There was not one who wrote more or with more ease upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> subjects of +government in general and public financial questions in particular. +Almost every thing he said and wrote and did, in these respects, went to +show that the elements of power by which the English government had been +raised from a crude and in some degree impracticable condition to the +seemingly palmy state at which it had arrived when his successive +reports were made had been justly reviewed and thoroughly considered by +him. The result of this survey was a conviction that for the favorable +changes, as he regarded them, which had taken place in the condition of +England she was more indebted to the operation of her bank and funding +system than to any other cause. These, like his corresponding systems, +had been originally formed for the accomplishment of immediate and +limited objects. His were avowedly to revive and to uphold our sinking +public credit; theirs, to relieve the government established by the +Revolution of 1688 from its dependence upon the landed aristocracy for +its revenues, and to secure the acquisition of ample means to defray the +expenses of the war in which England was at the time involved. From such +beginnings these principal measures, aided by kindred and affiliated +establishments of which they were the parents, had with astonishing +rapidity developed a great political power in the state, soon and ever +since distinguished from its associates in the government of the country +as the <span class="smcap">Money Power</span>,—a power destined to produce greater changes in the +workings of the English system than had been accomplished by the +Revolution itself.</p> + +<p>The rival powers of the state had down to that period consisted of the +crown and the landed aristocracy. The measures out of which the money +power was constructed were designed, as has been stated, to render the +former, restored to greater favor with the nation by the Revolution,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +more independent of the latter than it had hitherto been. This new power +had not only performed its duty in that regard, acting in the capacity +of umpire between the crown and the landed aristocracy, (the latter +before so omnipotent,) but had at times found itself able to control the +action of both through the influence of public opinion, to which it had +given a vitality and force it never before possessed.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bancroft, in his able history of the United States, has given a +condensed and I have no doubt a very correct account of the rise and of +a part of the progress of the money power in England, as they are +presented by her historians. His entire remarks upon the subject are +full of interest and instruction, and I regret that I am obliged to +restrict myself to the following extract:—"Moreover, as the expenses of +wars soon exceeded the revenue of England, the government prepared to +avail itself of the largest credit which, not the accumulations of +wealth only, but the floating credits of commerce, and the funding +system could supply. The price of such aid was political influence. That +the government should, as its paramount policy, promote commerce, +domestic manufactures, and a favorable balance of trade; that the +classes benefited by this policy should sustain the government with +their credit and their wealth, was the reciprocal relation and +compromise on which rested the fate of parties in England. The floating +credits of commerce, aided by commercial accumulations, soon grew +powerful enough to balance the landed interest; stock aristocracy +competed with feudalism. So imposing was the spectacle of the +introduction of the citizens and of commerce as the arbiter of +alliances, the umpire of factions, the judge of war and peace, that it +roused the attention of speculative men: that at last Bolingbroke, +claiming to speak for the landed aristocracy, described his opponents, +the Whigs, as the party of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> banks, the commercial corporations, and +'in general, the moneyed interest;' and the gentle Addison, espousing +the cause of the burghers, declares nothing to be more reasonable than +that 'those who have engrossed the riches of the nation should have the +management of its public treasure, and the direction of its fleets and +armies.' In a word the old English aristocracy was compelled to respect +the innovating element embodied in the moneyed interest."<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>The full establishment here of a similar power, by attaching to the bank +and funding systems the political influence they had acquired in +England, was, beyond all doubt, the "other and still other stages of +improvement" alluded to by Hamilton in his encouraging conversation with +Jefferson, in which he expressed a hope, for the first time, that the +inadequacy of the Constitution might yet be overcome, and the necessity +of returning to the English <i>form</i> be at least postponed. That the +leading supporters of his policy at least understood and entered into +Hamilton's views will be seen in the following extract from a letter +written to him by Fisher Ames, which will be found in the first volume +of Randall's "Life of Jefferson," at p. 638: "All the influence of the +moneyed men ought to be wrapped up in the Union (Federal Government) and +in one Bank," &c.</p> + +<p>Of the three great elements of power under the English system—the +crown, the landed aristocracy, and the moneyed interest—Hamilton +regarded the latter, I have no doubt, as the most salutary even in +England. There was little in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of the +kingly office, and still less in the feudal grandeur of a landed +aristocracy, to captivate a mind like his; he advocated the monarchical +form for special reasons of a very different character, and these he +assigned in the Conven<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>tion. Indeed, he all but expressed this +preference when he said to John Adams,—"Strike out of the English +system its corruptions and you make the government an impracticable +machine." Corruption in some form being the means by which the money +power ordinarily exerts its influence, Hamilton was not slow in +foreseeing the advantages to be derived from that power in the United +States. It is true that the influence it exerted in England was liberal +in its character, and beneficial, at least in its political bearings, to +the middle classes. We have seen that one object and a principal effect +of its establishment was to reduce the overshadowing influence of the +landed aristocracy which existed so long and exerted a sway so imperious +over the country—an object in the accomplishment of which the members +of the "stock aristocracy" were, in all probability, not a little +stimulated by recollections of their past exclusions not only from all +participation in the management of public affairs, but also from many +social distinctions. The landed aristocracy of England is composed of a +race of men superior in manly virtues and consistency of character to +similar classes in other countries, but notwithstanding these undeniable +and commendable traits they are, by force of their condition and by the +law of their minds, in a great degree the result of that condition, +unwilling to extend to their unprivileged fellow-subjects that equality +in public and private rights to which we republicans consider them +justly entitled. In this respect there is no difference between them, be +they Whigs or Tories,—their first duty being, in the estimation of +both, to "stand by their order." It is equally true that it did not +comport with Hamilton's policy to promote the establishment of any power +here the influence of which would enure to the increase and security of +political power in the people, and that, to answer his purposes, the +results of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> operations of the money power here must be the reverse +of what they were in England. He was too well versed in politics and +parties not to know that the action of every political organization in a +state takes its direction from the character and condition of its +principal rival, and that all have their rivals. If one is not found to +exist they will soon make one, for such is the natural operation of +political parties in any degree free.</p> + +<p>We differed greatly from England in the condition and political aspect +of affairs; we had no monarchical institutions, no landed aristocracy to +excite the rivalry and opposition of the money power. It was itself, on +the contrary, destined, when firmly established, to become whatever of +aristocracy could co-exist with our political system. Its natural +antagonist would be the democratic spirit of the country,—that spirit +which had been the lion in Hamilton's path from the beginning, the dread +of which had destroyed his usefulness and blasted the fair prospects +that were presented to the youthful patriot,—that spirit which he +doubtless sincerely believed adverse to order, and destitute of due +respect for the rights of property. It was to keep down this spirit that +he desired the establishment of a money power here which should stand by +the Government as its interested ally, and support it against popular +disaffection and tumult. He well understood that, if he accomplished +that desire, they would soon become the principal antagonistic +influences on our political stage. He knew also, what was not less +satisfactory to his feelings, that if the anticipations, not to say +hopes, which he never ceased to entertain, should be realized, of the +presentation of a fair opportunity for the introduction of his favorite +institutions without too great a shock to public feeling; there could be +no class of men who would be better disposed to second his views than +those whose power in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> state he had so largely contributed to +establish. To be allied to power, permanent, if possible, in its +character and splendid in its appendages, is one of the strongest +passions which wealth inspires. The grandeur of the Crown and of the +landed aristocracy affords a fair vent to that in England. Here, where +it is deprived of that indulgence, it maintains a constant struggle for +the establishment of a moneyed oligarchy, the most selfish and +monopolizing of all depositories of political power, and is only +prevented from realizing its complete designs by the democratic spirit +of the country.</p> + +<p>Hamilton succeeded for a season in all his wishes. He established the +money power upon precisely the same foundations upon which it had been +raised in England. He founded a political school the implied alliance +between which and the Government was similar to that which was formed +between the money power in England and the Revolutionary Government in +1688. A party adhering inflexibly to the leading principle of that +school had survived his own overthrow, is still in existence, and will +continue to exist as long as ours remains a free Government, and as long +as the characters and dispositions of men remain what they are. To +combat <i>the democratic spirit</i> of the country was the object of its +original establishment, an object which it has pursued with unflagging +diligence, by whatever name it may have been designated.</p> + +<p>Having brought the general subject to this point it is due to truth and +justice that I should, before I proceed farther, refer to considerations +connected with Hamilton's motives which have been already but casually +and partially noticed.</p> + +<p>In all his steps he was doubtless influenced at bottom by a sincere +desire to promote the good of his country, and as little by personal +views as ordinarily falls to the lot of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> man. A riveted conviction that +the masses were destitute of a sufficient love of order and respect for +private rights, with an entire distrust, consequently, of their capacity +for self-government, lay at the foundation of his whole course,—a +course which the matured judgment of the country has definitively +condemned as to both teacher and doctrine. Subsequent experience of long +duration has shown, as I have remarked already, that the dispositions of +our people are eminently conservative in respect to public order and the +rights of property; exceptions to the general rule have been witnessed +here as well as elsewhere, but they have been of very limited duration +and seldom the cause of much mischief. There have been few if any +countries that have been more fortunate in this regard.</p> + +<p>I have also spoken of Hamilton's preference for monarchical +institutions, upon evidence of which I have not felt myself at liberty +to doubt. But it is due to the memory of that distinguished man that we +should speak of his disposition in that respect with more precision than +might be deemed necessary in other cases. To assume that he was a friend +to monarchy as it existed in England in the times of the Stuarts and +their predecessors would be doing him gross injustice. No man in the +country, in his day, respected less the absurd dogma of the divine right +of kings, or regarded with more contempt the reverence paid by gaping +crowds to the pomp and pageantry of royalty and to the carefully guarded +relics and reliquaries of the hoar institution of monarchy, than +Alexander Hamilton. He was, beyond all doubt, entirely sincere when he +said, in the Federal Convention, that he "was as zealous an advocate for +liberty as any man whatsoever, and trusted he would be as willing a +martyr to it, though he differed as to the form in which it was most +eligible;" and had he been a fellow-subject and contemporary of Russell, +and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> Sydney, and Hampden, we may believe that he would have proved +himself as prompt as either to make sacrifices equal to theirs in +resistance to arbitrary power. Expectations of personal advantages +through the favor of royalty did not enter into the formation of his +opinions. It was monarchy as modified and re-established by the +Revolution of 1688 that was the object of Hamilton's preference. In the +same speech from which I have just quoted he gave with manly candor his +reasons for believing that the English model presented the fairest +chance of any system then extant for the selection of a good executive. +He contrasted the probable advantages in this regard between a chief +magistrate selected, in the first instance, by Parliament and continued +by descent, and one elected by the people for a limited period, and +frankly argued in favor of the former. His opinion was mainly controlled +by that want of confidence in the capacity of the people for +self-government which he never hesitated to acknowledge, and which, as I +have said, lay at the foundation of his political views. But it was not +the king, as such, that he sought after, but a competent chief +magistrate; and he advocated monarchical institutions only because he +thought them the most likely to produce such an one. In a speech +delivered by him in the New York Ratification Convention, which bears +the stamp of his own revision, he said, "It is an undeniable truth that +the body of the people in every country sincerely desire its prosperity, +but it is equally unquestionable that they do not possess the +discernment and stability necessary for systematic government." He never +exhibited a preference for monarchy in the abstract; no one ever heard +him express a partiality for or an attachment to this or that royal +family save as their acts were more or less meritorious, and I cannot +think that such considerations ever swayed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> his course. He treated the +question not as one of personal preference, but as one involving the +chances of good government. In deciding this question he may have erred, +and few in our country can deny or seriously doubt that he did greatly +err; but it was a question that he had a right to entertain, more +especially at the formation of the Government, and one in respect to +which, his opinion having been honestly formed, error could not fairly +be made the subject of reproach.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> See <a href="#Footnote_1_1">note</a>, p. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> At the same interview Talleyrand told me an anecdote +which, considering the depressed condition of Colonel Burr at the period +to which it referred, I thought descriptive of a harsh act on the part +of my informer, and I do not repeat it without hesitation. "Burr," he +said, "called in pursuance of a previous communication from him, and, +his card being brought up, he directed the messenger to say that he +could not receive a visit from Colonel Burr, and referred him, for an +explanation of his refusal, to a painting hanging over the mantel-piece +in the antechamber, which was a portrait of Hamilton."</p> +<p>The visit was probably one of courtesy, with a possible hope of being +able to enlist Talleyrand in his (Burr's) Mexican schemes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> "He smote the rock of the national resources and abundant +streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the +public credit, and it sprang upon its feet. The fabled birth of Minerva +from the brain of Jove was hardly more sudden or more perfect than the +financial system of the United States, as it burst forth from the +conceptions of Alexander Hamilton."—<i>Daniel Webster</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Hamilton's <i>Works</i>, Vol. VI. p. 536.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> 4 Jefferson's <i>Correspondence</i>, p. 457.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> 3 Bancroft's <i>History of the United States</i>, p. 8.</p></div> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Excitement of the Public Mind caused by Hamilton's Measures—Great +Men brought thus into the Political Field—The Preponderance of +leading Politicians and Commercial Classes on the side of +Hamilton—Not so with the Landed Interest—Character of Farmers and +Planters of the United States—Position of the Landed Interest +toward the Anti-Federal Party and toward Hamilton's System—Success +in maintaining its Principles greater in the Southern than in the +Northern States and the Causes thereof—The Landed Interest the +Fountain of the old Republican Party—Course of that Party toward +Washington and his Administration—Decline of the Federal +Party—Hamilton's Course in the Convention the most Brilliant and +Creditable of his Political Career—His Candor and Devotion to +Principle on that Occasion—His subsequent Loss of the Confidence +of the Friends of Republican Government—Coincidences and Contrasts +in the Public Lives of Hamilton and Madison—Their several +Contributions in the First Congress to the Promotion of the +Financial Branch of the Public Service—The Fate and the Fruits of +each—The Country chiefly indebted to them for the +Constitution—Their Treatment of it after its Adoption not the +same—The Provision authorizing Amendments necessary to save the +Constitution from Rejection—Memorials from New York and +Virginia—Dread of a New Convention on the Part of the +Federalists—Madison's Amendments—Consequences of their +Adoption—Character of Madison's Statesmanship—Different Courses +of Hamilton and Madison on Questions of Constitutional +Power—Unconstitutionality of Hamilton's Measures—His +Consciousness thereof—His Sense of the Obligations of Public +Men—His View of the Constitution as "a Temporary Bond of +Union"—Subsequent Change of Opinion, but Final Return in 1802 to +his Original View—Separation between him and Madison—"Sapping and +Mining Policy" of Hamilton—That Policy counteracted by the +Republican Party—Discrimination between Washington and Hamilton in +the Adoption of the latter's Policy—Probable Ground of +Washington's Official Approval of the Bank Bill—Subsequent similar +Position and Conduct of Madison—Instances of a like Transcending +of Constitutional Limits under a supposed Necessity, by Jefferson +and by Jackson—The Hamiltonian Rule of Construction discarded by +Washington in the case of his Veto of the First Apportionment +Bill—Portions of the Community liable to be attracted to +Hamilton's Policy—The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> Principles of that Policy inaugurated in +England in 1688—Extension of its Influence in this Country to +almost every Class but the Landed Interest—Points of Agreement and +of Difference between Hamilton and Politicians of his School in our +Time—Exceptions to the General Rule—Influence of the Money Power +in attracting Literary and Professional Men—Great Preponderance in +Numbers of Newspapers and Periodicals supporting the Views of the +Money Power over those devoted to the Advocacy of Democratic +Principles—The same Fact observable in Monarchical +Countries—Caucuses and Conventions not necessary to the Harmony of +the Federal Party—Sagacity indicated by Hamilton's System—The +Secret of its Failure in the Numerical Preponderance, often +underrated, of the Agricultural Class—The Policy best adapted to +succeed with our People is that of a Strict Construction of the +Constitution as to the Powers of the General Government—Such the +Successful Policy of Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson—Struggles of +the Money Power Ineffectual till crowned with Exceptional Success +in the Overthrow of Van Buren's Administration—Latitudinarianism +of Hamilton's School—John Quincy Adams elected as a Convert to the +Principles of the Republican Party—His early Disavowal of those +Principles, and the consequent Overthrow of his +Administration—Relative Power of the Landed Interest—The Safety +of our Institutions depends on the Right Convictions of the great +Agricultural Class—Growth of the Money Power in England—The +Political Influence of that Power Beneficent in Europe but +Injurious in the United States.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> have already spoken of the extent to which the public mind was excited +by Hamilton's measures. Large portions of the people regarded the most +prominent among them as violations of the Constitution, and most of them +as servile imitations of the English system, inexpedient in themselves +and contrary to the genius and spirit of our institutions. Their +arraignment and vindication brought into the political field the ablest +men of the country at a period when she abounded in great men. The +American Revolution accomplished here that which the French Revolution, +then at its commencement, and similar crises in all countries and times, +have brought about, namely, the production of great men by great events, +developing and calling into action upon a large scale intellects the +powers of which, but for their application to great transactions, might +have remained unknown alike to their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> possessors and to the world. Among +the master minds which were thus roused to political activity were +Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Patrick Henry, John +and Samuel Adams, John Jay, Chancellor Livingston, Gouverneur Morris, +George Clinton, Robert Yates, Chancellor Lansing, John Langdon, Elbridge +Gerry, Rufus King, Roger Sherman, John Dickinson, Speight and Williamson +and the Rutledges, Pinckneys, and Middletons of North and South +Carolina, Chace and Luther Martin of Maryland, Jackson, Few, and +Baldwin, of Georgia, John Mason, Marshall, Pendleton, and Wythe of +Virginia, and others; men, some of whom have under various circumstances +added celebrity to the best informed communities in the world and at one +of the brightest periods of the human intellect, and who, if they could +now be congregated, would eclipse the great men of any country.</p> + +<p>Hamilton's measures, of which the funding system was the pioneer, +presented their first field, after the adoption of the Federal +Constitution, for the display of their opinions and talents. They +supported in those grave discussions, with few exceptions, relatively +the same principles by which they had been influenced in respect to +federal politics during the government of the Confederation, by which +also they and men of their stamp had been governed under the colonial +system, and to which they would have adhered, in all probability, +throughout the intermediate period if they had not been driven into open +rebellion by the indiscriminate and intolerable oppression of a bigoted +tyrant, and by their own innate hatred of wrong and outrage, without +immediate regard to the government that should result from their +revolution.</p> + +<p>Jefferson was absent from the country during a large portion of the +government of the Confederation, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> through the entire period of the +formation and adoption of the new Constitution. He sympathized +throughout with the feelings and concurred in the opinions of the +Anti-Federal party, with the exceptions that he was not opposed to +conferring on the Federal Government the powers to regulate commerce and +to raise its own revenues; was in favor of a convention for the +construction of a new constitution, and of the formation by that body of +a substantive and effective federal government, composed of legislative, +executive, and judicial departments; approved of the Constitution as +made, with modifications which were principally provided for by +amendments proposed and adopted, and was sincerely anxious for its +ratification. These things have, I know, been controverted and are still +disbelieved by many, but will be found fully established by references +to the following documents, viz.: Jefferson's "Correspondence," Vol. I. +p. 441; Vol. II. pp. 64, 162, 221, 236, 273, 303; Letter to Washington +expressing his anxiety for the adoption of the Constitution; p. 310, +some strong remarks in favor of it; p. 342, to Madison, congratulating +him on its adoption, and p. 348, to John Jay, to the same effect.</p> + +<p>Of Madison's character and general course I have already spoken. His +position at the period now under consideration differed from that of all +his contemporaries in the public service. He had supported all the +commercial and financial measures advocated by the Federal party during +the government of the Confederation, and had been as active, and I think +as efficient, as Hamilton in his efforts to promote the call of the +Federal Convention; had opposed, with ability and firmness, the +Anti-Federal plan of a Constitution; had, as far as we have knowledge of +Washington's opinions, acted in concert with him in the Convention, and +was first selected by him at a later period<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> to prepare his Farewell +Address; had combined his labors with those of Hamilton and Jay to +promote the ratification of the Constitution by the well-known papers of +the "Federalist," and, upon the whole, had done more than any other man +to secure that great object. Yet there had been no time, as before +observed, when he could with propriety have been regarded as a member of +the Federal party, in the sense in which Hamilton, Adams, and Jay were +so regarded, or when he did not possess the confidence of the +Anti-Federal party, in respect to all public questions other than those +to which I have referred, and, what is still more remarkable, there was +not, during the whole of this period, a single occasion on which his +perfect probity and disinterestedness were not very generally felt and +acknowledged.</p> + +<p>Among the leading politicians of the epoch of which I speak, the +preponderance in numbers, in wealth, in social position, and possibly in +talent, was on the side of Hamilton; and when to these were added the +commercial and numerous other classes interested in and dependent upon +the money power then just rising into importance, an estimate may be +formed of his ability to give tone and direction to the state and to +society, and to cover with odium those who disapproved of his measures +by charging them with personal hostility to Washington, who so well +deserved the confidence and good will of all, and who enjoyed them to an +extent that led John Adams, at a much later day, to stigmatize the +deference paid to him as "impious homage." Hamilton wielded this great +power with tremendous effect, for, although his judgment in the +management of men was always deemed defective, he exerted, in the +promotion of his particular objects, talents and industry which could +not fail to produce great results. His activity and capacity for labor +were not equaled by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> any of his contemporaries save Madison; his powers +of persuasion and the effects of his eloquence were strikingly +exemplified by his success in making Mr. Jefferson believe, on his first +arrival at the seat of government from France, that the safety of the +Union depended upon the passage of the bill for the assumption of the +State debts, which had been at the moment rejected in the House of +Representatives by a majority of one or two, and in inducing him to +"hold the candle," as Jefferson afterwards described it, to a bargain by +which Messrs. White and Lee, Southern members, were prevailed upon to +vote for its reconsideration and passage on condition that Hamilton +would get the requisite number of Northern members to vote for the +establishment of the seat of the Federal Government on slave territory. +Jefferson gives an interesting account of the earnestness of Hamilton's +appeal to him on the subject, and of his own mortification and regret at +having been made a party to so exceptionable a transaction in support of +a measure he soon found the strongest reasons to condemn.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + +<p>The attention of every American community which possessed facilities for +foreign commerce or manufactures, or for any of the various pursuits +enumerated in his great report, and especially when they possessed also +superior skill and enterprise, was at once directed to Hamilton's scheme +of government for encouragement, and they certainly were not always +indisposed to accept the seductive offers held out to them. But +fortunately for the country and for the cause of good government there +was a class, happily formidable in numbers and in great and sterling +qualities, whom no wiles could win from their devotion to early +principles and whom government favors could not corrupt. That class was, +singularly enough, the landed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> interest. I say singularly, not because +their fidelity to principle was at variance with their history, but with +reference to the circumstance that, whilst in England it had been the +principal object in building up the money power to restrict the +influence of the landed interest, that power was here destined to be +itself kept in check by an interest of the same name, however different +in character.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jefferson in his celebrated letter to Mazzei, in 1796, gives a +description, which could not be improved, of the then political +condition of the country and of its political parties: "Against us," he +says, "are the executive, the judiciary, two out of three branches of +the Legislature, all the officers of the Government, all who want to be +officers, all timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the +boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants and Americans trading on +British capital, speculators and holders in the banks and public +funds,—a contrivance invented for the purpose of corruption, and for +assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well as the sound parts +of the British model. The whole body of our citizens, however, remain +true to their republican principles; the <i>whole landed interest is +republican</i>, and so is a great mass of talent." The term "landed +interest" in its general signification, and in the sense in which it was +used by Mr. Jefferson, referred to those who worked as well as owned the +land,—the farmers of the North and the planters of the South,—all who +made Agriculture their pursuit; a class which in the earlier periods of +our colonial condition constituted almost our entire population, and +have at every period in our history vastly exceeded in numbers those +engaged in all other pursuits. There is no point of resemblance between +them and the landed aristocracy of England, save in that they both +represent the landed interest of their respective countries and that +they were led in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> each to oppose the money power. Their difference in +other respects is sufficiently manifest.</p> + +<p>A more estimable class of men than the farmers and planters of the +United States is not to be found in the world. From the landing of the +Pilgrims to the present day they have exerted an effective and salutary +influence, not only upon the condition of the country, in respect to its +material improvement, but upon the character and strength of our +political institutions. It was to their sagacity and firmness that the +colonies were chiefly indebted for their success in turning away and +defeating the fury of the savages, and in baffling the persevering +efforts of the mother country to enslave the provinces. For the most +part the descendants of ancestors who had been, to an almost +unprecedented extent, exposed to the faithlessness and persecutions of +power, they seldom failed to be on their guard against its approaches, +however artfully disguised. Every attempt to purchase their acquiescence +in measures that they regarded as encroachments upon their liberties or +subversive of their rights, through governmental favors, proved +abortive.</p> + +<p>Grenville, when pressed, as prime minister, by the London merchants with +the dangers that threatened the collection of their American debts from +the effects of the stamp-tax, was prodigal in his offers of governmental +favors to secure the submission of the colonists to the odious measure. +"If one bounty," said he, "will not do, I will add two; if two will not +do, I will add three." But these offers, as well as all the efforts +which had been and were subsequently made by the Crown to quiet the +Colonies through bounties and commercial privileges, were unavailing. +The "landed interest," constituting a great majority of the colonists, +was too wise to be duped, and too honest to be corrupted, by special +favors of any description.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> Placed by the nature of their pursuits, in a +great measure, beyond the reach of court and official blandishments, and +less dependent on the special privileges of the Crown than those who +looked to them for their support, they uniformly regarded these offers +with distrust rather than desire. They had, from these and other +considerations, been led to embrace the principles upon which the +Revolution was founded with more earnestness, and to cherish them with a +more uncalculating devotion, than many of their Revolutionary +associates. The circumstance that a larger share of the defense of those +principles had devolved upon them, by reason of the excess of their +numbers, naturally commended more warmly to their hearts doctrines for +the establishment of which they had suffered so much inquietude and +encountered so many perils.</p> + +<p>These considerations were alike applicable to, and equally influential +upon, the landed interest of the North and of the South. With +attachments undiminished and unchangeable to republican principles, pure +and simple, subject to such limitations only as were required by +convenience in their execution and necessary to deliberation in council, +principles the fruition of which had been the day-dream of their +ancestors through successive generations, and their own guiding-star in +the gloomiest period of the Revolution, the representatives of this +great interest, North and South, by large majorities, sustained the +Anti-Federal party until that party was overthrown through its great +error in respect to the Constitution, and were still ready to take their +stand in any organization that should have for its object opposition to +the heresies developed by Hamilton in his platform for the government of +the administration.</p> + +<p>The principles upon which the landed interest acted from the start, +have, it must be admitted, been more successfully sustained in the +Southern than in the Northern States;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> not because they were originally +embraced with more sincerity, but from very different causes. The +commercial, manufacturing, and trading classes, to whom Hamilton's +policy was more particularly addressed, and upon whom it, beyond all +doubt, exerted a powerful influence, were, at the beginning, far more +numerous in the Northern than in the Southern States, and this disparity +in their respective conditions has been constantly increasing. It was +through the growing power of these classes, and of others similarly, +though perhaps not equally, exposed to its influence that the +Hamiltonian policy occasionally triumphed in the Northern States, and +their politics thus became more unstable than those of the South.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bancroft happily and truly describes the peculiar condition of +Southern men in this regard. "An instinctive aversion," says he, "to too +much government was always a trait of Southern character expressed in +the solitary manner of settling in the country, in the absence of +municipal governments, in the indisposition of the scattered inhabitants +to engage in commerce, to collect in towns, or to associate in townships +under corporate powers. As a consequence there was little commercial +industry; and on the soil of Virginia there were no vast accumulations +of commercial wealth. The exchanges were made almost entirely—and it +continued so for more than a century—by factors of foreign merchants. +Thus the influence of wealth, under the modern form of stocks and +accumulations of money, was always inconsiderable; and men were so +widely scattered—like hermits among the heathen—that far the smallest +number were within the reach of the direct influence of the established +Church or of Government."<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>In this description of the early, which is also measur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>ably and +comparatively true of the present, state of the South, we find a +solution of the circumstance that the failure of Hamilton's policy was +so much more signal there than in other quarters, and that the +principles upon which it was founded have there been since so +perseveringly and unitedly resisted. The political principles of the +landed interest, constituting an immense majority of their people, have +prevailed in the administration of their State governments, save in +regard to the ratification of the Federal Constitution, from the +recognition of our Independence to the present day. There has also been +a remarkable consistency in the political positions of their public men. +In Virginia, which State has done so much to give a tone to national +politics, Patrick Henry has been almost, if not quite, the only +prominent man who abandoned the principles by which he had been governed +during the Confederation, and embraced those of Hamilton at the coming +in of the new government. Always admiring his character and conduct +during the Revolutionary era, and strongly impressed by the vehemence +and consistency with which he had, during the government of the +Confederation, opposed every measure that savored of English origin, I +pressed Mr. Jefferson, as far as was allowable, for the reasons of his +sudden and great change. His explanation was, "that Henry had been +smitten by Hamilton's financial policy."</p> + +<p>The Republican party, forced into existence by Hamilton's obnoxious +measures, sprang chiefly from the landed interest. The declaration of +its illustrious founder, in his letter to Mazzei, that the country would +yet preserve its liberties, was mainly based on the fact that "the whole +landed interest was republican," and he could not have placed his +reliance on a surer foundation. Farthest removed, as has been already +said, from the seductive influ<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>ence of the money power, abounding in +strong common sense and love of country, and always greatly superior in +numbers to the business men of all other classes, it constituted then, +and has ever since constituted, the balance wheel of the Government. All +it asks from administration is the maintenance of order, protection in +the enjoyment of its civil and political rights, and the management of +public affairs in a spirit of equal justice to all men. Whilst the +commercial and manufacturing classes are annually approaching the +National Legislature with appeals for aid and encouragement, and whilst +the Congressional committees charged with their interests are from time +to time convulsing the country with their measures, that which is +nominally the representative and guardian of agriculture not being asked +to do any thing for its support, very properly does nothing; having, +indeed, no power under the Constitution to do any thing for it, the +advantages of which are not common to all classes. What the farmers and +planters desire more than this are "the early and the latter rain," for +which they look to a source purer and more powerful than human +legislation.</p> + +<p>Thus sustained, the Republican party of 1790, headed by Thomas +Jefferson, with the 'laboring oar' in the hands of James Madison, warmed +into action by Jefferson's more fervent though not more deeply seated +patriotism, and embracing "a great mass of talent," determined to oppose +every measure of Washington's administration which they believed to be +unauthorized by the Constitution, or anti-republican in its tendencies. +This resolution was carried out with unflinching firmness, but, whatever +has been said to the contrary, was made and designed to be performed in +a manner consistent with the respect they entertained for the character +and feelings of President Washington, and without even a desire to +displace him from the high<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> office with which they had contributed to +invest him. It would have been strange if, in a state of party violence +so excited as that which naturally sprung up, the dominant party should +have refrained from aspersing the motives of their opponents by +attributing to them personal hostility to a chief so justly beloved by +the people as was Washington. Mr. Jefferson, in his letter to me, +referring to similar charges but speaking of a subsequent period, says +"General Washington, after the retirement of his first cabinet and the +composition of his second, entirely Federal, and at the head of which +was Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both sides of +any question. His measures consequently took more the hue of the party +in whose hands he was. These measures were certainly not approved by the +Republicans; yet they were not imputed to him, but to the counselors +around him; and his prudence so far restrained their impassioned course +and bias that no act of strong mark during the remainder of his +administration excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time +after, and too much withdrawn from information to correct the views into +which he had been deluded, and the continued assiduities of the party +drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career, separated him +still farther from his real friends, and excited him to actions and +expressions of dissatisfaction which grieved them but could not loosen +their affections from him."<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>Such charges were freely made and with unsparing bitterness; yet I +cannot but think that unprejudiced minds, if it is not too soon to +expect to find many such upon this subject, would, on a careful review +of facts, acquit the Republican party of them. Madcaps, and those who, +looking to party for their daily bread, hope to commend themselves by +extremes and by violence to those whom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> they sustain, are to be found in +all parties and should not be allowed to make those to which they attach +themselves responsible for their acts. Nothing has ever been adduced +that may fairly be regarded as the act of the Republican party which +proves the existence of the disposition charged against it in regard to +General Washington; and the single fact that, although its opposition +commenced three years before the expiration of his first term, there was +not the slightest effort made to prevent his reėlection, or the +exhibition of any desire to prevent it, is, of itself, sufficient to +refute the charge of personal unfriendliness toward him. Nor did the +Republicans desire to embarrass his administration beyond what was +inevitable from their opposition to measures which they regarded as +unconstitutional or in the highest degree inexpedient, of which the bank +and funding system were appropriate illustrations.</p> + +<p>The Federal party, without extraordinary or difficult attention and +care, might have preserved untarnished a character made respectable by +illustrious names and honorable history, notwithstanding the +overwhelming defeat to which it was subsequently exposed, and its +principles, however erroneous, might have stood a chance of restoration +to power in the course of those changes and overturns of men and things +to which public affairs and political parties have ever been subject. +Even error of opinion not unfrequently regains a lost ascendancy by +means of the perseverance and consistency with which it is adhered to, +and when the organization by which it has been upheld is maintained with +the fidelity and dignity that belong to a good cause. In all these +respects there was, on the part of the members of the Federal party, a +complete failure. They suffered its lead to fall into less respectable +hands, and its support to be lent to seceders (one after another)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> from +the Republican ranks between whom and themselves there was no identity +of political feeling, and still less of principle. The motives for this +course were usually censurable, and the results generally disastrous +from the beginning, and always so in the sequel. Hamilton, as has been +seen, twice threw himself in the path of his party to save it from such +degradation, for his intelligence and integrity appreciated the +impossibility of preserving the respect of the people at large for +principles, whose special advocates showed by their acts that they did +not themselves respect them. His counsels were unheeded, and the banner +of a once highly honored party continued to be trailed in the dust until +its name was disowned by its adherents with shame and disgust.</p> + +<p>Those who agree with me in believing that General Hamilton was sincere +in the opinion he expressed that the republican system could not be made +adequate to the purpose of good government here, and that the welfare of +the country would be best promoted by approaching as near to the English +model as public sentiment would tolerate, are well justified in holding +him undeserving of censure for his introduction of the anti-republican +plan which he submitted to the Federal Convention. The right of the +people to "alter or abolish" existing systems, and "to institute new +government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its +powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their +safety and happiness," was the corner-stone of the Revolution, in +defense of which he had freely ventured his life. The Convention was not +only an appropriate but the appointed place for the assertion and +exercise of that right. So far from being a fit subject for censure, the +submission to that body by a man in Hamilton's position, with the claims +he had established upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> the confidence and support of the people by his +superior abilities and his Revolutionary services, of propositions which +every body knew, and which he himself felt, were strongly adverse to the +prevailing current of public sentiment, and the intrepidity and +extraordinary talent with which he sustained them, without a single open +supporter in the Convention, solely because he believed them to be right +and their adoption necessary to the public good, exhibited a patriotic +and self-sacrificing spirit alike honorable to himself and to his +principles. His course in the Convention, for which he has been +extensively reviled, was in my judgment the most brilliant and +creditable portion of his political career. It presented an example of +candor and devotion to principle which there was not a single one among +his friends willing to follow, although there were, doubtless, a few who +felt substantially as he did and sympathized with all he said, and +although they all admired his gallant hearing while lamenting his +indiscretion. It was, unhappily for himself, the culminating point in +his political life, from which every subsequent step gradually lowered +him, until he justly forfeited the confidence and countenance of every +sincere friend to republican government.</p> + +<p>Alas! how deeply is it to be lamented that this great statesman, as able +as an impracticable man can be, when he knew that he was about to +attempt a ladder upon the first round of which his boldest friend dared +not even to place his foot, had not rather followed, in some respects at +least, the example of his coadjutor and friend, James Madison. The +coincidences in the occurrence of opportunities to make themselves +useful to their country, and the contrasts in the ways in which these +were improved and the consequences that followed, to be found in the +pub<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>lic lives of these illustrious men, are both striking and +instructive. In regard to one subject a partial reference to them has +already been made. They were co-workers in a series of efforts to obtain +from the Congress of the Confederation authority for the Federal head to +levy and collect impost duties to enable it to perform the offices +devolved upon the General Government by the Articles of Confederation, +instead of trusting to the unsafe and unstable requisitions upon the +States. No sooner had the first Congress of the new Government, +established for that and other purposes, formed a quorum, than Mr. +Madison, as we have already seen, before the executive branch had been +organized, or even the President elect been informed of his election, +introduced bills for the imposition and collection of duties on imported +goods, which he pushed forward <i>de die in diem</i> until they became laws, +and the duties were in the process of being collected, and the public +coffers in the way of being replenished. This good work he followed up +in due time by the introduction into Congress of resolutions (and the +most able support of them on its floor) in favor of a commercial policy +recommended by the Secretary of State, Mr. Jefferson, to improve our +trade and thus increase our revenue. These were the contributions of Mr. +Madison, simple, practical, and direct like their author, for promoting +the financial branch of the public service under the new Government, +which was committed by President Washington to the special +superintendence of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury.</p> + +<p>The Secretary's contributions to the same objects consisted of two very +elaborate and very able reports, the first upon public credit, +recommending the establishment of a funding system, and the second in +favor of a national bank, embracing plans for each and, in the former, a +scheme to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> raise funds for the payment of the interest of a debt to be +funded. The <i>éclat</i> which he acquired by these imposing state papers was +so great, and many minds are still so much dazzled by the traditional +splendor of their effects upon the credit and resources of the country +as to render it not a little embarrassing to discuss, in a plain, +matter-of-fact way, the questions of their real influence or +non-influence upon our finances.</p> + +<p>In previous as well as in subsequent parts of this work will be found +notices of the rise, progress, and effects of Hamilton's funding system, +which, if they do not show that the measure, judged by its results, +partook more of the character of a castle in the air than of a wise and +practicable financial scheme, do not, I think, fall far short of it. But +both it and the bank are now only "obsolete ideas"—to remain so +probably while our Government endures. References, under such +circumstances, can only be usefully made to them to show the principles +and objects of men and parties.</p> + +<p>Whilst Hamilton's measures have been, it is hoped and believed, forever +abandoned—the funding system by his own political friends, and a +national bank in consequence of its explicit and emphatic condemnation +by the whole country—those put into immediate and successful operation +by Madison not only performed at the time the useful office designed for +them by the Constitution, and gradually provided for the wants of the +existing Government, but have supplied it with a revenue abundantly +sufficient to pay the public debt and to defray all expenses and +disbursements required by the public service in war and in peace, with +rare and limited additions, for nearly three quarters of a century, and +will, in all likelihood, continue so to do to the end.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the most interesting aspect of these coincidences and contrasts to +which I refer is to be found in the illustrations they furnish of the +use and abuse of the Constitution by those distinguished men and by +their followers respectively. Co-workers again in persevering efforts to +obtain from Congress or the States a call for a general convention to +revise the Articles of Confederation, it would be difficult to decide +which contributed most to effect that object, and it is not too much to +say that it would not have been then accomplished if the efforts of +either had been withheld. They were neither of them satisfied with the +Constitution framed by the Convention; Madison not entirely, Hamilton +scarcely at all. The former sympathized, as I have already said, with +Hamilton's distrust of the State governments, made unsuccessful efforts +to impose stringent restrictions upon their power, and would have been +better pleased with the Constitution if it had inclined more decidedly +in that direction.</p> + +<p>They both signed the instrument notwithstanding; Hamilton under a sort +of protest against its sufficiency (or rather its want of it), and +Madison with apparent and, I doubt not, real cordiality. In the numbers +of the "Federalist," (of which they were the principal authors,) they +offered a joint and honorable testimonial to the Constitution, which +became in the sequel an enduring monument to their own associated +memories. Each rendered "yeoman's service" in the conventions, +respectively, of New York and Virginia, to decide upon its ratification; +in neither of which was the ratification probable at the beginning, and +in both there is the best reason to believe that, without their powerful +aid, it must have ultimately failed. In such an event the failure of the +Constitution would have been next to certain.</p> + +<p>Although Gouverneur Morris's assertion that Hamilton<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> had comparatively +nothing to do with the construction of the Federal Constitution is true, +yet as Madison had a greater agency in that work than any other +individual, and as the obtaining the call of the Convention and the +ratification of the Constitution, in which Madison and Hamilton acted +the chief parts, were also the portions of the whole transaction most +exposed to the action of the States and of the public mind, and +therefore the most difficult of accomplishment, it may with truth be +affirmed that there were not any fifty or a hundred other men taken +together to whom the country was as much indebted for the Federal +Constitution as to those two gentlemen. But in their subsequent +treatment of that sacred instrument, which each had done so much to +bring to maturity, they, unfortunately for the country, differed very +widely. The Constitution was ratified and adopted in the first instance +by more than the requisite number of States, and finally by the whole +thirteen. General Washington was elected President. He appointed +Alexander Hamilton to be Secretary of the Treasury, and James Madison +was elected a member of the first Congress. The latter, although +overruled in the Convention upon points which he deemed important, +acquiesced in the decisions of the majority, accepted the Constitution +in good faith with a determination to do all in his power, not only to +secure its ratification, but to give to the people and the States the +full benefit of its provisions as those were understood by them, and to +do this with the same fidelity and honor with which he would perform any +private arrangement to which he had made himself a party. Satisfied from +numerous exhibitions of public sentiment elsewhere as well as in the +State conventions, and perhaps more particularly in that of his own +State, not only that there was far greater opposition in the minds of +the people at large to the Constitution as it came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> from the hands of +the Convention than he at first supposed, but that it was, in point of +fact, defective in some particulars important in themselves and well +calculated to excite the solicitude of the masses, he determined to +leave no means within his reach unimproved to make it, by suitable and +seasonable amendments, what a brief experience convinced him that it +ought to be. It might perhaps be inferred, from some general expressions +used by him in the first Congress, that he felt as if something had been +said or done on his part rendering his attention to this matter a +special duty, although nothing of that nature is apparent; but, be that +as it may, there were other considerations imperative upon a mind so +circumspect and so just to prevent his losing sight of the subject.</p> + +<p>Mr. John Quincy Adams asserts that the Constitution "was extorted from +the grinding necessity of a reluctant nation." Although this may be +deemed an exaggerated description no one can make himself familiar with +the history of that period without becoming sensible of the truth of two +positions, viz.: that vast numbers who were greatly dissatisfied with +the Constitution were induced to withhold their active opposition by the +embarrassed condition of the country, and that even this consideration +would not have sufficed to overcome the decided Anti-Federal majority +against it but for the provision authorizing amendments, and the +confident anticipation that such as were proper and necessary would be +speedily made. The consciousness of these truths, and a conviction that +a successful operation of, and general acquiescence in, the provisions +of the new Constitution were not to be expected unless proper steps were +immediately taken to appease the opposition still in force among the +Anti-Federalists, secured the early and unremitting attention of Mr. +Madison to that point.</p> + +<p>This view of the expectations of the country upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> subject of +amendment and of the condition of the public mind in respect to it was +strongly confirmed by memorials presented to the first Congress, at its +first session, by the States of New York and Virginia, containing +averments framed in the strongest terms, that whilst they dreaded the +operation of the Constitution in its then imperfect state, they had, +notwithstanding, yielded their assent to its ratification from motives +of affection for their sister States, and from an invincible reluctance +to separate from them, and with a full confidence that its imperfections +would be speedily removed; that the existence of great and vital defects +in the Constitution was the prevailing conviction of those States; that +the dissatisfaction and uneasiness upon the subject amongst their people +would never cease to distract the country until the causes of them were +satisfactorily removed; that the matter would ill admit of postponement, +and concluding with applications to Congress that they should, without +delay, call a new convention with full powers to revise and amend the +Constitution. Although these memorials referred to the opinions +expressed by their respective State conventions that that instrument +ought to undergo further revision, which, in one of them, was a +unanimous expression, Congress nevertheless took no steps toward a +compliance with the request they contained. But the whole subject was +brought before it by Mr. Madison as soon as he had perfected his revenue +measures, and he caused amendments to be carried through that body, I +had almost said by his own unaided efforts, which were satisfactory to +the people—certainly to that portion of them by whom the Constitution +had been opposed.</p> + +<p>A tolerably full and obviously fair account of the debates and +proceedings in the House of Representatives upon this subject—those in +the Senate, I fear, are lost—may be found in the first and second +volumes of Lloyd's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> "Register of the Proceedings and Debates of the +First House of Representatives of the United States," which I am sorry +to find has not been transferred to Colonel Benton's "Abridgment." The +subject, speaking of the ten amendments as one measure, was only second +in intrinsic importance, on account of the influence its success exerted +on the solidity and perpetuity of the new system, to the Constitution +itself, and the debates in point of ability and earnestness, +particularly on the part of Mr. Madison, not inferior to any of the +discussions by which that interesting period when the foundations of the +present government were laid was so greatly distinguished; one cannot +read them without acknowledging the difficulty of recalling another +instance in which a measure of equal gravity was so successfully carried +through a public body against the obvious and decided preferences of a +large majority of its members, or without admiring the extent to which +that success was achieved by the exertions of one man.</p> + +<p>Now that the dangers which environed these proceedings have passed away, +they afford amusement to the curious in such matters by the picture they +furnish of the twists and turns to which men in high positions and of +generally fair views will sometimes resort to stave off distasteful +propositions, with the hope of ultimately defeating what they do not +feel it to be safe directly to oppose. The Virginia and New York +applications were presented by Mr. Bland, of the former, and Mr. +Lawrence, of the latter State, both friends of Hamilton; and although +both were solicitous that the applications should be respectfully +received, neither of them ever took a step to make them successful, nor +were they in favor of the amendments proposed by Mr. Madison. That +gentleman gave notice of his intention to bring the subject before the +House several weeks before the day he named for that purpose. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> that +day arrived he moved that the House should resolve itself into a +committee of the whole to receive the amendments he proposed to offer. +Opposition to going into such committee came from almost all sides of +the House, some urging one species of objections and some another, but +generally indicative of decided unfriendliness to the views of the +mover. Perceiving that his motion was neither satisfactory nor likely to +succeed, Mr. Madison withdrew it, and submitted a proposition for the +appointment of a select committee to report such amendments to the +Constitution as they should think proper. Having done this, he, in a +very able speech, went over the whole subject, stated at length the +necessity that existed for some amendments, and the high expediency of +proposing others, and furnished a statement of those he had intended to +offer to the committee of the whole; these he trusted would now be +referred to the select committee, and thus the matter would proceed +there without interruption to the other business of the House.</p> + +<p>The proposition for a select committee was not more fortunate or +acceptable than its predecessor. It was opposed from the same quarters, +and several who had evinced no favor toward the motion to go into +committee of the whole now said that, if the subject was to be taken up +at all, that would have been, but for its withdrawal, the preferable +mode. Mr. Madison declared himself, as he said, "unfortunate in not +satisfying gentlemen with respect to the mode of introducing the +business; he had thought, from the dignity and peculiarity of the +subject, that it ought to be referred to a committee of the whole; he +had accordingly made that motion first, but finding himself not likely +to succeed in that way, he had changed his ground. Fearing again to be +discomfited on his motion for a select committee, he would change his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +mode, and move the propositions he had stated before directly to the +House, and it might then do what it thought proper with them. He +accordingly moved the propositions by way of Resolutions to be adopted +by the House."</p> + +<p>This course was also objected to on several grounds; but the majority +saw that if the game of staving off the subject was not broken up by Mr. +Madison's third proposition, it had at least been so far exposed as to +require time to put it in some new form, and with that view Mr. +Lawrence, who, as already said, was not in favor of amendments, moved +that the subject be referred to a committee of the whole,—the +proposition first submitted by Mr. Madison,—which was done. This +occurred on the 8th of June. On the 21st of July thereafter Mr. Madison +"begged the House to indulge him in the further consideration of the +subject of amendments to the Constitution, and as there appeared, in +some degree, a moment of leisure, he would move to go into a committee +of the whole upon the subject, conformably to the order of the 8th of +last month."</p> + +<p>This proposition was met by a motion from Mr. Fisher Ames, of +Massachusetts, to rescind the vote of the 8th of June, and to refer the +business to a select committee. This motion gave rise to speeches +professing not to be opposed to the consideration of amendments at a +proper time and under proper circumstances, but showing a decided +distrust of and distaste for the whole proceeding. The motion prevailed +by a vote of 34 to 15, and a select committee was appointed, of which +Mr. Vining, an opponent, was made chairman. The report of this committee +contained substantially the amendments proposed by Mr. Madison, with +some alterations and additions. These, after revision by the House, were +finally passed by a vote of two thirds in both Houses, submitted to the +States and ratified by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> them, as they now appear as the first ten of the +twelve amendments that have been made to the Federal Constitution since +its first adoption.</p> + +<p>Some of Mr. Madison's colleagues occasionally expressed a desire for the +success of his propositions, and similar avowals were sometimes made by +two or three members from other States; but of substantial, persevering, +and effective assistance, he may, with truth, be said to have had none, +and two thirds of the House were at heart decidedly opposed to the +amendments that were made. With all his talents, industry, and +perseverance, Mr. Madison would not have been able to carry them if his +exertions had not been seconded by an influence still more efficacious. +The legislature of Virginia alluded to the defects of the Constitution +as "involving all the great and inalienable rights of freemen," declared +that its objections were not founded on speculative theory, but deduced +from principles which had been established by the melancholy examples of +other nations in different ages, and said, "they will never be removed +until the cause shall cease to exist." It announced the "cause of +amendment as a common cause," and its trust that commendable zeal would +be shown by others also for obtaining those "provisions which experience +had taught them were necessary to secure from danger the inalienable +rights of human nature." It expressed its impatience of delay and its +doubt as to the disposition of Congress; complained of the slowness of +its forms, but congratulated itself on the possession of another remedy, +which it was determined to pursue, under the Constitution itself—that +of a convention of The States.</p> + +<p>The New York application, signed, as Speaker, by John Lansing, Jr., who +had left the Federal Convention in consequence of his dissatisfaction +with its proceedings and never returned to it, though not going as much +into details,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> employed language equally bold and uncompromising in +demanding from Congress another convention, which might propose such +amendments "as it might find best calculated to promote our common +interests, and secure to ourselves and our latest posterity the great +and inalienable rights of mankind." This memorial asserted not only that +the New York Convention had ratified "in the fullest confidence of +obtaining a revision of the Constitution by a general convention, as +appeared on the face of its ratification," but that that body (of which +Hamilton was a member) were unanimous in the opinion that such a +revision was necessary to recommend that instrument to the approbation +and support of a numerous body of its constituents.</p> + +<p>These documents, and especially that of Virginia, pointed very +emphatically to the source of that discontent with the Constitution +which so extensively prevailed in the old Anti-Federal ranks. Even they +felt that the Constitution was much better than they had expected, and +the most considerate among them, those who were most capable of +suspending their suspicions as to the designs of their opponents long +enough to give the instrument a dispassionate consideration, were soon +satisfied—and Samuel Adams, who stood at the head of the Anti-Federal +party, admitted—that its general structure was free from any +insuperable objection. The life-tenure given to the Federal Judges was, +as it indeed might well be, regarded as inconsistent with republican +principles; but it was to be remembered that those officers were +expected to be, as they ought always to be, non-combatants in partisan +politics by reason of their appointment to act as arbiters of the fates +and fortunes of their countrymen. Upon the great point to which the +attention of such men was first directed, that of the ability of the +State governments to maintain their sovereignty and independence under +the new system, there was no real<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> ground for apprehension. But the +Constitution was principally confined to what were more strictly public +concerns, the powers and duties of the Federal and State Governments in +regard to National and State affairs, with only a slight sprinkling of +provisions looking particularly to the protection of the citizen against +the exercise of arbitrary power; and it was accompanied by no Bill of +Rights, such as those to which the people had been accustomed in respect +to their State governments. In the latter cases they might more readily +have been reconciled to the absence of such provisions, as those +governments were carried on under their immediate observation, and they +formed a part of them in much larger portions than they could expect to +do of the Federal Government. The latter they were too much in the habit +of regarding, at that early period, as a foreign government only +remotely responsible to them. We have already spoken of the settled +character of their distrust of power for which there was only a remote, +if any, responsibility, and of their having been trained by experience +to expect only abuses from the exercise of such authority, whether in +State or Church,—an experience embracing the sorrowful and +well-remembered accounts of outrage and persecution against their +ancestors, and the cruel oppression of the then existing generation by +the distant government of the mother country. We have seen how great had +been their aversion and that of their ancestors to the establishment of +a general government, and with what difficulties their consent to the +call of the then recent Convention had been obtained, and what care had +been taken to restrict its power. It was not therefore surprising that a +large majority of them should have manifested such intense +dissatisfaction when a Constitution was presented for their approval +containing so few, so very few safeguards for the protection of "the +great and inalien<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>able rights of freemen," as Virginia described +them—of the "great and inalienable rights of mankind," as the New York +Legislature styled them—points to which the masses, especially of the +Anti-Federalists, were so keenly alive.</p> + +<p>These considerations and circumstances produced a sudden and extensive +spirit of discontent which, as those States avowed, never would be +appeased until its causes were removed, and with which Mr. Madison was +well satisfied the new Government would not be able to contend unless +some mode was devised to appease it. Although never a member of it, he +had, in his long and persevering efforts to obtain the Constitution, +"tasted the quality," so to speak, of the old Anti-Federal party, and +understood the stuff of which it was composed. He knew very well that +the call of Virginia upon her co-States to make the demand for +amendments "a common cause" would not be <i>brutum fulmen</i>, but that the +agitation for a new convention in such hands, and commenced under such +favorable circumstances, with so many materials of discontent already +made to their hands, would not cease until its object was gained, and +what would follow no man could tell. He was not so much of a Bourbon as +Hamilton; he had not pursued his thorny path through those trying scenes +without learning something of the character and temper of the people, or +without having his mind disabused of much that it had once entertained. +No man in the country was more opposed to the call of a new convention, +or more unwilling to make any amendments that would materially impair +the original structure of the Constitution. The former he omitted to +avow out of respect to the declared wishes of his State but the latter +he repeatedly announced because it was only in harmony with his past +course. But he knew that matters could not remain as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> they stood, and he +thought a series of amendments could be made, some of which he deemed +highly proper and all expedient, through which a large portion of the +Anti-Federalists might be conciliated without prejudice to the system +which had been adopted. This course, to be useful, must, he was +satisfied, be pursued at the very commencement of the new government. He +devoted himself, body and mind, to that object, and we have seen some of +the difficulties with which he had to contend. Although Hamilton was not +personally in Congress, he was well represented, and Madison found +there, besides, many other Bourbons, in the sense in which I use that +term. He prepared a plan according to the views I have described; and +few exhibitions of that kind can have been more interesting than to see +him stand between the Federal majority in the House and the few old +Anti-Federalists who were there, and avail himself of the votes of each +in turn to defeat the obnoxious efforts of the other; first to arrest by +Federal aid every attempt on the part of the few Anti-Federalists to mar +his project by seeking amendments which he was not himself prepared to +adopt, and then to frustrate by Anti-Federal votes the efforts of a +majority of the Federalists (though less than a majority of the House) +to defeat his entire scheme.</p> + +<p>That the only alternative was between a new convention and the adoption +of amendments substantially like his, was the great fact which he +labored to impress upon the minds of the Federal members. He introduced +it in his public speeches with never-failing delicacy, but with +sufficient clearness to be understood, and doubtless enforced it at +private interviews as far as it was his habit to do such things. That +important truth was the fulcrum on which he rested his lever, and he +engineered his plan through the House and afterwards, as chairman of the +Committee of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> Conference, through both Houses (the majorities in each +alike unfriendly to it) with triumphant and under the circumstances most +extraordinary success.</p> + +<p>The dread of another Federal Convention has never failed, when the +circumstances were sufficient to justify apprehension of its call, to +deter the Federalists from the adoption of projects obnoxious to the +democratic spirit of the country, however anxiously desired by +themselves. Pending the election of President in the House, between +Jefferson and Burr, the Republicans replied to the threat of putting the +Government in the hands of an officer by act of Congress, by an open, +united, and firm declaration that the day such an act passed, the Middle +States would arm, and that they would "call a convention to reorganize +and amend the Constitution;" upon the effect of which Mr. Jefferson +remarks, "the very word convention gives them the horrors, as, in the +present democratical spirit of America, they fear they should lose some +of the favorite morsels of the Constitution."</p> + +<p>Mr. Madison's ten amendments consisted of provisions in favor of the +free exercise of religion, of speech, and of the press; of assembling +peaceably to petition the Government for a redress of grievances; of the +right to keep and bear arms; against quartering soldiers in any house +without the consent of the owner, except under certain qualifications; +against unreasonable searches and general warrants; against being held +to answer for crimes unless on presentment by a grand jury, with certain +exceptions; against being twice put in jeopardy for the same offense; +against being compelled to be a witness against one's self, or being +deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; +against taking private property for public use without just +compensation; in favor of a trial by an impartial jury of the district +in certain cases at common<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> law and in all criminal prosecutions, of the +party charged being informed of the nature of the accusation, of being +confronted with the witnesses against him, of having compulsory process +for obtaining witnesses and the assistance of counsel in his defense; +against excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel punishments; against +the enumeration of certain rights being construed to deny or disparage +others retained by the people; and, finally, that powers not delegated +to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the +States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people.</p> + +<p>These provisions embraced the points upon which the public mind was most +susceptible, and upon which the old Anti-Federal party in particular had +been, with obvious reason, most excited.</p> + +<p>That Mr. Madison's success in this great measure saved the Constitution +from the ordeal of another Federal Convention is a conclusion as certain +as any that rests upon a contingency which has not actually occurred, +and that it converted the residue of the Anti-Federal party which had +not supported the Constitution, whose members, as well as their +political predecessors in every stage of our history, constituted a +majority of the people, from opponents of that instrument into its +warmest friends, and that they and their successors have from that time +to the present period, either as Republicans or Democrats, occupied the +position of its <i>bonā fide</i> defenders in the sense in which it was +designed to be understood by those who constructed and by those who +ratified it, against every attempt to undermine or subvert it, are +undeniable facts.</p> + +<p>It was by adding this great service to those he had rendered in +obtaining the Convention, and in framing the Constitution in that body, +that he deservedly won the noble title of "Father of the Constitution." +He was neither as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> great a man nor as thorough a Republican, certainly +not as thorough a Democrat, as Mr. Jefferson; he had less genius than +Hamilton; yet it is doing him no more than justice to say that, as a +civilian, he succeeded in making himself more practically useful to his +country than any other man she has produced. No one would have been more +ready than Mr. Jefferson to award to Mr. Madison this high distinction. +He either told me at Monticello, or I heard it from him at second-hand, +(I am uncertain which was the case,) that whilst he was in France, some +one whom he named asked him to say whom he thought the greatest man in +America, and that he replied, if the gentleman would ask him to name the +greatest man in the world he would comply with the request, which +addition being made, he answered "James Madison!"</p> + +<p>This brings us to the consideration of the contrast between the conduct +of Hamilton and Madison in respect to their treatment of a Constitution +which they had both taken such unwearied pains to bring into existence. +The course they respectively pursued upon the subjects of finance and +revenue, and the measures they respectively preferred, without regard to +questions of constitutional power, only indicated differences of opinion +upon subjects in which such differences are apt to arise, and did not +necessarily involve the political integrity of either. But we have now +arrived at a point of departure in the relative course of these great +men involving graver considerations, and to which it is to be regretted +that the last reservation cannot be truly applied. There was no warrant +in the Constitution for the establishment of a national bank, or for the +assumption of the State debts, or for the unlimited claim of power by +the Federal Government over the collection and disbursement of national +revenue, and for its patronage of by far the largest proportion of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +pursuits and interests of the country, all of which were effected by +Hamilton or recommended in his Report on Manufactures, and he understood +perfectly well that the Constitution conferred no such powers when he +advocated successfully the first two of those measures, and asserted the +power and recommended its exercise in respect to the latter.</p> + +<p>It is not agreeable to be obliged to assume that a gentleman of General +Hamilton's elevated character in private life, upon whose integrity and +fidelity in his personal dealings and in the discharge of every private +trust that was reposed in him no shadow rested, who was indifferent to +the accumulation of wealth, who as a public man was so free from +intrigues for personal advancement, and whose thoughts and acts in that +character were so constantly directed to great questions and great +interests, could yet prove faithless to one of the most sacred public +trusts that can be placed in man—the execution of the fundamental law +of the land. If Hamilton had been asked, as a private man, whether he +believed it was the intention of the framers of the Constitution to +confer upon Congress the power to establish a national bank, and whether +he believed that the people when they ratified it supposed that it +contained such a power, he would, if he answered at all, have answered +"No!" He was incapable of willful deception on the subject. This +discrepancy between his conduct as a statesman in the management of +public affairs and his integrity and truthfulness in private life was +the result of a vicious opinion as to the obligations of a public man, +and in no degree attributable to any inferior sense of personal honor, +nor was it ever otherwise regarded.</p> + +<p>His position upon this point is understood to have been founded on the +following opinions: That the people as a body were not capable of +managing their public affairs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> with safety to their happiness and +welfare; that it was, therefore, a proper exercise of power to give the +management of them into the hands of those who were capable, and to +place the latter in positions, as far as practicable under the +circumstances, beyond popular control; that it was the sacred duty of +those who were so intrusted to exercise their power truly and sincerely +for the best interests of those for whom they acted; that if those +interests could be well administered without transcending the power with +which the public functionary was invested, or without the practice of +deception or corruption, such would be the preferable and proper course; +but if violations of the popular will, deception, or corruptions—not +those of the grosser kind, like direct bribery, but such as belonged to +the class he spoke of to Mr. Adams as constituting the life-giving +principle of the English system—were necessary, in the best judgment of +men in power, to the security or advancement of the public welfare, the +employment of such means was justifiable.</p> + +<p>Without stopping to cite authorities, I assume—on the strength of the +opinion of the age in which he lived, of his writings, of his +declarations, which were, beyond almost all other public men, without +reserve, and of his acts—that such were his views, and content myself +with the declaration that the existence of such views is the best, if +not the only, excuse that can be made for his official course.</p> + +<p>At the close of the Convention, and just before signing the +Constitution, he declared that the latter might serve as a temporary +bond of union, but could never suffice to secure good government. After +he had succeeded in his first two interpolations, he spoke exultingly of +the success of the Constitution, and hopefully of the future; this was +because he knew that he had prospered in his attempt to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> give it a +construction not dreamed of at the former period by himself, or others +to his knowledge; and his hopes of the future were founded on his +success also in his plan set forth in his Report on Manufactures, +widening very greatly the breach he had already effected in the +Constitution. In February, 1802, after his latitudinarian scheme had +been arrested and was in danger of being permanently overthrown, he +described the Constitution to Gouverneur Morris as a "frail and +worthless fabric," the "fate" of which he had "anticipated from the very +beginning." He never reproached his friends with an unwillingness to go +as far as the Constitution would justify, but always attributed their +failure to defects in the system, thus admitting that the measures in +which he exulted and from which he hoped so much, had been established +by him, not under, but outside of that instrument.</p> + +<p>The first marked effect of Hamilton's determination to pursue the course +I have described was a separation between him and his most efficient +coadjutor upon many points during the government of the Confederation, +and the next was the formation of the old Republican party. The motives +for the separation between those distinguished associates have been made +the subject, as might have been expected, of various and extensive +comment. So far as I know, Hamilton never spoke of Madison, after their +separation, in any other terms than those which were consistent with the +knowledge he possessed of the purity and integrity of his character. Few +men had such perfect control over their feelings as Mr. Madison, and few +exercised more reserve in speaking of the motives of his political +opponents. It has been rare indeed that he has ventured to touch upon +them even when necessary to his vindication from aspersions upon his own +character, a truth obvious to any one familiar with his life and +writings. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> however accidentally came into the possession of +information upon this precise question of very great interest, which +will be found in the letter below from Nicholas P. Trist, Esq. In the +course of a conversation between Mr. Trist, myself, and other gentlemen, +at Philadelphia, last spring,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> upon the subject of which they had +only a general bearing, the former alluded to the circumstances here +given in detail, and subsequently, at my request, reduced them to the +shape in which they now appear.</p> + +<p>Mr. Trist was a much esteemed and highly trusted friend of Mr. +Jefferson, and married his favorite grand-daughter, a lady of superior +intelligence, with whom I was well acquainted. He was also for many +years a neighbor and confidential friend of Mr. Madison, toward the +decline of the life of the latter. My knowledge of him has been derived +from long and familiar intercourse with him as a confidential clerk in +my department whilst I was Secretary of State, as consul of the United +States at Havana, and as private secretary of President Jackson, and I +do not hesitate to say that I never knew a more upright man. No one who +has had opportunities to become well acquainted with his character, +however politically or personally prepossessed in regard to him in other +respects, will, I am very sure, fail to admit his perfect truthfulness, +and the authenticity of any relation he might make upon the strength of +his own knowledge.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">FROM MR. TRIST.</span></div> + +<div class="right"><span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, <i>May 31, 1857</i>.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,—My promise, however tardily performed, has never been +forgotten; and now, complying with your request preferred at the time +and since renewed, I give you in writing the statement made by me a +month<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> or two ago in conversation at Mr. Gilpin's; which statement you +will recollect was casually elicited, as the proper commentary upon the +charge mentioned by one of the company as being brought against Mr. +Jefferson—the charge, namely, that he had "stolen Mr. Madison from the +Federalists." This notion, by the way, involves an utterly erroneous +conception of the relation which existed between the minds and +characters of the two men. But I must here confine myself to doing what +you asked of me.</p> + +<p>During the latter years of Mr. Madison's life, (the exact date is +recorded in a memorandum not now at hand,) the following incident +occurred.</p> + +<p>My intimate friend Mr. Davis, Law Professor in the University of +Virginia, mentioned to me, as a thing which he thought Mr. Madison ought +to be apprised of, that in a forthcoming Life of Colonel Hamilton, by +one of his sons, the authenticity of his (Mr. M.'s) report of Colonel +H.'s speech in the Federal Convention was to be denied; and furthermore +he was to be represented as having "abandoned" Colonel Hamilton. This +Davis had learnt from Professor George Tucker, of the same University, +then recently returned from a trip to the North.</p> + +<p>Of course, on my first visit to Mr. Madison, which occurred soon after, +I told him of what Davis had said.</p> + +<p>The effect upon his countenance was an expression of painful surprise, +succeeded by a very remarkable look his face assumed sometimes, and +which was deeply impressive from its concentration and solemnity. A +silence of some moments was broken by his saying, in a tone +corresponding to that look, "Sorry to hear it." Then a pause, followed +by these words, "I abandoned Colonel Hamilton,—or Colonel Hamilton +abandoned me,—in a word, we <i>parted</i>,—upon its plainly becoming his +purpose and endeavor to <i>adminis</i><span class="smcap">TRATION</span> (administer) the government +into a thing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> totally different from that which he and I both knew +perfectly well had been understood and intended by the Convention which +framed it, and by the people in adopting it."</p> + +<p>Upon the two words which I have underscored, especially the second, and +most especially its last two syllables, a marked emphasis was laid. The +latter (the word <i>administration</i> used as a verb) is the only instance +of neologism I ever observed in Mr. Madison. Its effectiveness was most +striking; it hit the nail plumb on the head, and drove it home at one +blow. The whole history of that business, the entire truth of the +matter, was compressed into that one word. As uttered by him there was a +pause at "<i>adminis</i>"—and then came out "<span class="smcap">TRATION</span>." It was followed by +the word "administer," thrown in parenthetically, and in an under-tone; +as much as to say, "I have been coining a word here, which, as you are +aware, is not my habit; but just as I was about to say <i>administer</i> the +government, I felt that this term is too general, too commonplace, too +tame to convey the idea present to my mind; and this modification of it +presented itself as exactly suited to the case."</p> + +<p>As regards the speech, Mr. M. seemed painfully troubled at the thought +of the fidelity of his report of it being disputed, and at a loss to +realize the possibility of such a thing. "Why, as I once related to you, +that speech was placed by me in Colonel Hamilton's own hand; and was, +after deliberate perusal, returned by him with an explicit recognition +of its correctness—all to a very few verbal alterations, which were +made; on which occasion he placed in my hands, as the proper +accompaniment of his speech in my record, and as presenting in a precise +and exact shape his views as to the government which it was desirable to +establish, the draft of a Constitution which he had prepared before +coming to the Convention."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p> + +<p>This substantially, if not exactly, is what Mr. M. said upon that point. +He then went on to conjecture in what way Colonel H.'s biographer might +have been misled into this error; not a doubt being intimated or evinced +by him as to its being honestly an error. Colonel H. spoke several times +in the Convention—at greater or less length, as would be seen when his +(Mr. M.'s) notes were given to the world. Perhaps, among his papers +notes had been found, which, in the absence of means of discriminating +between remarks made on different occasions, and between notes for an +intended speech and that which the speaker had actually said, might have +given rise to the misconception.</p> + +<p>To the foregoing incident you wished me to add what I was led to say, in +the course of the same conversation, regarding Mr. Jefferson's habitual +tone in speaking of Colonel Hamilton. This was always the very reverse +of that in which he spoke of those whose <i>characters</i>, personal or +political, were objects of his disesteem. It was invariably such as to +indicate, and to infuse (certainly this effect was produced upon my +mind) a high estimate of Colonel Hamilton <i>as a man</i>, whether considered +with reference to personal matters or to political matters. He was never +spoken of otherwise than as being a gentleman—a lofty-minded, +high-toned man. As regards politics, their convictions, their creeds, +were diametrically opposite. Colonel H. had no faith in republican +government. In his eyes the British Government was the perfection of +human government, the model of all that was practically attainable in +politics. His doctrine, openly avowed, was that there are but two ways +of governing men, but two ways in which the business of government can +be conducted: the one is through fear, the other through +self-interest—that is, influencing the conduct of those upon whom the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +course of political affairs depends, through their desire for personal +advantages, for position, for wealth, and so forth. In this country, to +operate upon men through their fears was out of the question; and +consequently the latter constituted the only practicable means. These +political convictions on the part of Colonel H., united as they were +with his splendid abilities <i>and</i> his lofty character as a man, both +<i>public</i> and <i>private</i>, were regarded by Mr. Jefferson as having +constituted the great peril to which republicanism had been exposed in +our country. But for the <i>character</i> of Colonel H., for the <i>man</i>, for +his honesty and sincerity and single-mindedness,—I mean considered with +reference to politics,—there was never the least indication of +depreciation or disrespect on the part of Mr. Jefferson; always the +direct reverse.</p> + +<p>Never, in a single instance, when Colonel H. was the subject of +conversation with me, or in my presence, was it otherwise than perfectly +manifest that, in Mr. J.'s habitual feeling toward him, the broadest +possible line of demarcation existed between the man, the character, +(the <i>public</i> character, I repeat, no less than the <i>private</i>,) and the +creed by which the action and course of that character were determined; +and that whilst the latter was abhorrent to his own cherished faith, and +had been for him the cause of the intensest anxiety and gloomiest +forebodings ever suffered by him, the former was nevertheless no less +truly an object of sincere respect.</p> + +<p>Having thus, my dear sir, at length fulfilled my promise,—though not +within the limited space (far from it) which you intimated,—I tender +the assurance of my respectful regard and friendly remembrance.</p> + +<div class="right">N. P. TRIST.</div> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Martin Van Buren,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Ex-President of the U. S.</i></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p> + +<p>Hamilton took the position of which the virtuous Madison, whilst +standing at the brink of his grave, left behind him a description so +graphic, promptly and, as was his habit, immovably. The crisis met him +in his last intrenchment. He believed honestly, sincerely, and without +any designs other than such as related to the public welfare, that +nothing short of monarchical institutions would prove adequate to the +wants of the country, but these he was well satisfied could not be +obtained then, and possibly not for a long period. He had approached +them in the Convention as nearly, in respect to the point of efficiency, +as would afford the slightest chance of success for his plan, and he had +been left without a single open supporter in that body. Regarding the +Constitution, as framed by the Convention, as the only avenue to escape +from anarchy, he finally promoted its passage there and its ratification +by the States and people, avowedly as a temporary bond of union. +Appointed to assist in carrying it into effect, and sincerely believing +that, with no other powers than those only which he and Madison so well +knew it was intended to authorize, it must prove a failure and the +government established under it must go to pieces, he decided, +unhesitatingly and absolutely, to do under it whatever he in good faith +might think would promote the general welfare, without reference to the +intentions of its authors. He was a man of too much good sense to do +unnecessary violence to public feeling,—as he said to Jefferson "to +publish it in Dan or Beersheba,"—but such was his unchangeable design. +On the contrary, he entered into labored and able discussions to show +that his principal measures were authorized by the Constitution, but +these were in deference to the prejudices and ideas of the people, +nothing more.</p> + +<p>There is nothing in the writings, speeches, or declarations of General +Hamilton inconsistent with the truth of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> this statement. In papers which +have been referred to, and others, he submitted ingenious arguments to +show that the Convention might have so intended, and that Congress had a +right to hold from the words employed that it did so intend, but he was +too circumspect to insist that the intention of the Convention ought not +to prevail when it could be ascertained, or to make the actual +intention, as a matter of fact, a point in the argument. Giving due +weight to the intention of the body when that was ascertained, he +adopted a course of reasoning which every body understood went to defeat +it, desiring no other efficacy for the opinion he labored to establish +than the vote of the majority. The better knowledge of the country +overthrew his specious deductions in a short time, and its traditions +will, it is to be hoped, render them forever harmless.</p> + +<p>The principle of construction contended for by Hamilton, and for a +season to some extent made successful, was not designed for the +promotion of a particular measure, for which the powers of Congress +under the Constitution were to be unduly extended, on account of its +assumed indispensable importance to the public safety, but intended as a +sweeping rule by which those powers, instead of being confined to the +constitutional enumeration, were to authorize the passage of all laws +which Congress might deem conducive to the general welfare and which +were not expressly prohibited; a power similar to that contained in the +plan he proposed in the Convention. He desired, in short, to make the +Constitution a tablet of wax upon which each successive administration +would be at liberty to impress its rescripts, to be promulgated as +constitutional edicts.</p> + +<p>Hamilton never well understood the distinctive character of our people, +but he understood human nature too well to believe that any people could +long respect or desire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> to uphold a Constitution the most stringent +provisions of which were thus regarded or treated. Its inevitable fate +is illustrated in the experience of France, after one of her +unscrupulous wits had aided in consigning to general derision that +litter of Constitutions which had rapidly followed one after the other, +by accompanying his oath with a grimace and a jest upon the number which +he had successively and with equal solemnity sworn to support. The +example of France was not lost upon a mind so watchful as Hamilton's, +and he did not doubt that our Constitution would be overthrown with the +same certainty, if not with equal facility, after it had been long +enough treated with similar disrespect, and that the door would be thus +opened for the ultimate introduction, under the influence of the money +power, of the only political institutions in which he placed absolute +confidence. He declared it to be his opinion, in the Convention, that he +regarded ours as the last chance for a republican government, and +assigned that opinion as a reason for his attempt to infuse into the new +system qualities as stringent as those he proposed and which he knew +very well were not generally regarded as belonging to a republican +system. No man better understood than he that the inviolate sanctity of +a written Constitution was the life of a republican government, and that +its days were numbered from the moment its people and rulers ceased thus +to preserve, protect, and defend it. Mr. Jefferson spoke, in his letter, +of Hamilton as "<i>professing</i>" that it was "the duty of its +administrators to conduct the Government on the principles their +constituents had elected." I did not at first, and for a long time +afterwards, attach as much significance to the word I have here +italicized, as I do now, when I have studied Hamilton's course more +carefully. I knew the letter was written in a liberal spirit toward his +memory. As I have elsewhere said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> during my visit to Mr. Jefferson we +talked most of Hamilton, and the general course of Mr. J.'s remarks was +substantially similar to those now related, more than thirty years after +his decease, and without the slightest knowledge of what I have said +upon the same subject, by his relative, Mr. Trist, who was also a member +of his family. Mr. Jefferson was evidently disposed to confirm the +favorable impressions I had imbibed of the personal side of Hamilton's +character, and the words quoted above from his letter were designed to +qualify his imputation of monarchical principles to the latter, and I +can now appreciate the motive for the expression used, which did not +commit him to a concession that the opinion of Hamilton in regard to the +duty of administration was that upon which he acted.</p> + +<p>With all these considerations before him, Hamilton did more than any, +and I had almost said than all, his contemporaries together, to +counteract the will of the people and to subvert by undermining the +Constitution of their choice. If his sapping and mining policy had been +finally successful, if the Republican party, mostly composed of old +Anti-Federalists, led by so bold a spirit and such a root-and-branch +Republican as Mr. Jefferson, had not arrested the farther progress of +his principles and demolished his scheme, this glorious old Constitution +of ours, of which we all seem so proud, of which it is so great an honor +to have been and of which so many have been ambitious to be, regarded as +the faithful expounder, under the wings of which we have risen from +small beginnings to be a puissant nation,—attracting the admiration and +able to command the respect of the civilized world,—would long since +have sunk beneath the waters of time, an object of neglect and scorn. +Our system might then have dissolved in anarchy, or crouched under +despotism or under some milder type of arbitrary government,—a +monarchy, an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> aristocracy, or, most ignoble of all, a moneyed +oligarchy,—but as a Republic it would have endured no longer. In this +aspect, notwithstanding his great and good qualities,—and he had +many,—Hamilton's course was an outrage upon liberty and a crime against +free government.</p> + +<p>How happy would it have been for himself and for every interest if he +had not parted from his friend and faithful fellow-laborer through so +many and such trying scenes,—if, like Madison, not entirely satisfied +with the Constitution, but knowing that many others were in the same +predicament, he had applied his great talents to the business of making +it as generally acceptable as possible, and in giving to the masses an +administration of the Government according not only to the form but to +the spirit also in which it had been framed. The country would then at +length have rested after so many storms, and his great and good friend +Washington, instead of being steeped to the lips in partisan anxieties, +(as his nephew, Judge Bushrod Washington, described him to me to have +been within the year of his death,) would not only have had a glorious +and successful administration, but would have lived in his retirement +and finally passed from earth without having been ever annoyed by the +canker of party spirit. His own political career would doubtless have +been far more prosperous and more agreeable; no occasion would then have +arisen for such reflections as he expressed to his confidential friend +describing his only reward, after all his efforts and sacrifices, as +"the murmurs of the friends of the Constitution and the curses of its +foes," and concluding, sadly enough for one who had so greatly +distinguished himself in its service, that "the American world was not +made for him!"</p> + +<p>In these views of General Hamilton's course and in the opinions +expressed in respect to it, I have designed to con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>fine myself strictly +to what I consider the deliberate judgment of the country, pronounced in +various ways and among others through the ballot-box—its constitutional +exponent. The most prominent of his measures have been, as already said, +discarded, and those who constituted the party in whose name they were +first introduced have so far yielded to the current of public opinion as +to abandon them forever. I have also before alluded to the gratifying +circumstance that the odium attached to those measures never in any +degree affected the confidence of the people in the patriotism of +Washington or in his fidelity to republican institutions, or weakened +their affection for him while he lived, or their respect for his memory +when he was no more. These were not the results of mere personal +devotion, but of an intelligent and just discrimination on the part of +the people. Hamilton designed to effect a civil revolution by changing +the powers of Congress from the restricted character given to them in +obedience to the wishes of the people to one in effect unlimited. +Washington entertained no such views. His constructions of the +Constitution were designed for the cases that called them forth, and had +no ulterior views.</p> + +<p>The subject of the bank presented the principal and almost the only +question upon which President Washington gave a construction to that +instrument which met the disapprobation and excited the apprehensions of +the old Republicans. To the assumption of the State debts Hamilton, as +has been seen, succeeded in obtaining—how much to his mortification and +regret his writings show—the coöperation of Mr. Jefferson, and thereby +the unanimous support of the cabinet; and his Report on Manufactures, as +to most of its obnoxious details, was not acted upon during Washington's +administration, but in respect to its principal objects remained a dead +letter. President Washing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>ton, notwithstanding the conflicting opinions +of his cabinet, gave no reasons for his approval of the Bank Bill. The +public were therefore left to draw their own inferences in regard to +their character. Diverse opinions upon the point of course arose, and +there is much reason to believe (and that belief is strengthened by his +subsequent course in respect to another important matter) that he was +induced to regard a bank as indispensable, in the then condition of the +country, to the success of the new Government—an exigency in public +affairs of that peculiar sort which men in power assume to deal with +under the sanction of the great principle, <i>Salus populi suprema lex.</i> +(See <a href="#note">note</a>.) Mr. Madison, who had demonstrated in Congress its +unconsti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>tutionality at its creation, who had opposed the banking system +through his whole public life, and whose fame was in a very great degree +founded on the ability with which he had defined the true principles of +constitutional construction, in a way to exclude the idea of any power +in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> Congress to establish such an institution, did, notwithstanding, at +the close of his public career, in a condition of the country not unlike +that in which President Washington acted, and viewing the subject from +the same official station, arrive at the same conclusion in regard to +its imperative necessity, and gave his approval to the erection of a new +national bank.</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap"><a name="note" id="note">Note</a></span>.—(<i>Feb. 16th, 1858</i>.) Whilst reviewing the "era of +good-feeling," as it was called, during the administration of Mr. +Monroe, I conceived the idea of adding some account of the rise and +progress of our political parties, and entered upon the task +immediately, designing it to stand as an episode in my Memoirs. The +subject grew upon my hands to such an extent that for the last two +years it has, in necessary reading and examinations into facts, +&c., occupied most of the time that could be devoted to the general +object. The idea of limiting this portion to a mere digression was +therefore substantially laid aside, and the dignity of a separate +and distinct consideration, to which its dimensions, if nothing +else, entitled it, was assigned to it. Accordingly I continued my +examination of the course of parties in the United States down to +the present time, including the first months of President +Buchanan's administration. Whilst engaged in correcting the +manuscript and arranging it to be copied, and after I had, by many +pages, passed the place in the text to which this note is appended, +the first volume of Mr. Randall's <i>Life of Jefferson</i>, recently +published, came to my hands, and on reading its last two chapters +first, because they have a more immediate bearing on my subject, I +find the following very striking confirmation of the correctness of +my inference as to the state of General Washington's mind, on the +occasion spoken of:—</p> + +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">FROM RANDALL'S "LIFE OF JEFFERSON," VOL.</span> 1. p. 631.</div> + +<p>"On the subject of President Washington's feelings on the Bank Bill +we find the following entry in Mr. Trist's memoranda:—</p> + +<p>"'<span class="smcap">Montpelier</span>, <i>Friday, May 25, 1827</i>.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"'<i>Mr. Madison:</i> "General Washington signed Jay's Treaty, but he +did not at all like it. He also signed the Bank. But he was <i>very</i> +near not doing so; and if he had refused, it would, in my opinion, +have produced a crisis. I will mention to you a circumstance which +I have never imparted, except in strict confidence. You know, by +the Constitution, ten days are allowed for the President's veto to +come in. If it does not appear within that time, the bill becomes a +law. I was conversing with a distinguished member of the Federal +party, who observed that according to his computation the time was +running out, or indeed <i>was run</i> out; when just at this moment, +Lear<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> came in with the President's sanction. <i>I am satisfied +that had it been his veto, there would have been an effort to +nullify it, and they would have arrayed themselves in a hostile +attitude.</i> Between the two parties, General Washington had a most +difficult course to steer."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"'The foregoing is written immediately after the conversation, +which has not lasted half an hour,—Mr. Madison having stepped out, +and I taking advantage of this interruption to retire to my room +and commit the substance to paper. The very words I have retained, +as near as I could. In many instances (where I have run a line over +the words<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>) I have done this exactly.'"</p> + +<p>This statement by Mr. Madison substantially sustains the view I +have taken of General Washington's position at that period. The +letters of all the leading Federalists of that day, and those that +followed it for some years, show that they looked with great +unanimity to Hamilton rather than to Washington for the tone and +direction that was to be given to the movements of the Federal +party, and leave scarcely a doubt that they would have sided with +Hamilton if a difference had arisen between the two, as is here +intimated by Mr. Madison.</p> + +<p>How much is it to be regretted that the latter did not leave behind +him a history of the events of his life and an account of what he +knew of the views of others. No man was better informed upon all +political subjects than himself. At the time he referred to, in his +observations to Mr. Trist, he probably enjoyed as large a share of +Washington's confidence as any other man, and was at all times most +reluctant to be placed in opposition to him. Afterwards General +Washington placed in his hands the papers from which to write his +Farewell Address. But it was a rule of Mr. Madison's life, as I +have noticed before, never to injure the feelings of any man as +long as it could possibly be avoided, and he suffered long and much +to avoid it. His papers will be examined in vain for imputations of +faults to his contemporaries. They are even omitted in cases where +they would have been the readiest and apparently the indispensable +means of repelling unjust imputations upon himself. He carried this +self-denial farther than any other public man. The pain and regret +that he exhibited in his conversation with Mr. Trist, in respect to +the parting between Hamilton and himself, were obviously genuine, +but the necessity was absolute, and the danger that justice might +not otherwise he done to his character imminent. He was on the eve +of his departure for another world,—his well earned and well +established reputation was about to lose his own personal +guardianship,—and the subject was brought before him in such a way +that he must either confess the forthcoming impeachments by his +silence, or repel them by declaring the truth.</p> + +<p>Some other citations which I have found occasion to make from Mr. +Randall's work are incorporated in the text.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Other instances have occurred in our Government and elsewhere in which +statesmen have transcended the constitutional limits of their power +under a necessity sincerely believed to be controlling, trusting to that +circumstance for the indulgence of their constituents; and in no case +which has presented itself here has that indulgence been withheld where +the motives for the assumption of responsibility were pure. Mr. +Jefferson's course in the purchase of Louisiana and General Jackson's +conduct at New Orleans were striking cases of that description.</p> + +<p>But we have, fortunately, evidence the most authentic and unequivocal +that President Washington never intended by his approval of the Bank +Bill to express an approval of the systematic and general disregard of +the intentions of the framers of the Constitution, in respect to the +powers of Congress, whenever such disregard should be deemed expedient. +The provisions of the first Apportionment Bill sent to him for his +approval were contrary to the Constitution, and Mr. Jefferson gave an +opinion to that effect and recommending a veto, whilst the opinion of +General Hamilton was in favor of their constitutionality. The division +by which the bill passed had been exclusively sectional, and the +objection of unconstitutionality was raised by the South. The Union was, +at that early period, believed to stand upon a precarious footing, and +the President was seriously apprehensive that the worst consequences +might result, in the then state of the public mind,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> if he were to throw +himself on the side of his own section by a veto.</p> + +<p>His embarrassment and concern were great, and he was sincerely desirous +to avoid a resort to what was then regarded as an extreme measure. He +agreed that the method prescribed by the bill "was contrary to the +common understanding of that instrument (the Constitution), and to what +was understood at the time by the makers of it," but thought "it would +bear the construction assumed by the bill." This was the precise issue +that was raised upon the passage of the bill to establish the bank, +viz.: whether the actual intention, or that which was only inferential, +was to prevail. That he would have withheld the veto if he had felt +himself at liberty in such a case to follow the letter of the +Constitution, and thereby defeat the intention of those who made it, no +one, who examines the matter, will for a moment doubt. He appears to +have been duly sensible of the magnitude of the question in all its +bearings. On the one hand were the evils to be apprehended from a +decision in favor of the South upon a disturbing question by a Southern +President, in a form not only without precedent here, but very +unpalatable—that of a veto; on the other was the grave objection to his +committing himself in favor of the principle which had prevailed on the +question of the bank in a case that did not furnish any thing like an +equal excuse for departing from the honest and straightforward rule of +interpreting the Constitution, like any other instrument, by the +intention of those who made it. He did not fail to see that to act +again, and under existing circumstances, upon the principle to which he +had given his sanction in the case of the bank, would be to commit +himself to Hamilton's latitudinarian doctrines in respect to the +construction of the Constitution, and he vetoed the bill.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>It would have been well for the country if the injurious effects of +Hamilton's policy and principles had been confined to his own times, but +men of such rare genius, distinguished by the same eagerness, industry, +and energy in pursuit of their objects, seldom fail to leave a durable +mark upon the world in which they have bustled, especially when their +day is contemporaneous with the commencement of a new government, and +when they are intrusted with great power, as was emphatically the case +with Hamilton. He and Jefferson, both answering to this description, +have always been regarded by me as the bane and antidote of our +political system. Every speech and every writing of Hamilton exhibited +proof of deep research and laborious study. Men, governments, and +political measures, were his favorite subjects of reflection and +discussion. Of the former, more particularly of the mass, he had (as I +have elsewhere said) formed unfavorable opinions; not that he was less +desirous than others for their welfare—for few men were more +philanthropic in disposition—but because of the early and ineffaceable +impression upon his mind that the majority of men, in their collective +capacity, were radically deficient in respect for order and for the +rights of persons and of property. As he thought their fears or their +private interests and passions the only alternative methods of managing +them and the former inapplicable to our people, so he considered those +measures of government "discreetest, wisest, best," which were most +likely to enlist their personal interests and feelings on its side. Such +measures he deemed indeed indispensable, and his whole scheme for the +administration of the Government was founded upon this theory.</p> + +<p>Anti-republican as these views undoubtedly were, they nevertheless +pointed to principles and to a policy well calculated to make deep +impressions upon large portions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> the community, in which were, and +will always be, found many liable to be influenced by such +considerations, and ready to follow the political party organized upon +them; many, if not born in the belief, certainly educated in it, that +they have something to fear from the major part of their +fellow-creatures, and seeing few more important objects for the +establishment of governments among men than to keep these in order and +to protect the well-disposed portions of society like themselves from +the vices and follies of the masses. In the performance of such duties +they very naturally conclude that government should look to the more +intelligent and better informed classes for support, and as naturally +that to enable them to render such support they should receive partial +favors and extraordinary advantages from its administration. Men of this +class, their associates and dependents, as was foreseen, embraced with +alacrity and supported with the energy inspired by self-interest the +principle of political reciprocity between government and its supporters +inaugurated in England at the Revolution of 1688, and ingrafted upon our +system by Hamilton in 1790. He found in the old Federal party a soil +well adapted to the cultivation of that policy, and in conjunction with +those who expected to share in the profits exerted all the faculties of +his great mind to extend the field for its operation.</p> + +<p>That extension soon became so great under the fostering influence of +Government and the money power as to include among its supporters, +either as principals or sympathizers, almost every business class in the +community, saving always the landed interest, properly so called, the +mechanics not manufacturers, and the working classes. When I speak of +the landed interest, I allude (as I have before explained) to those only +who cultivate the soil themselves directly or by the aid of +<i>employées</i>—to the farmers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> and planters of the country—and do not of +course include speculators in lands, who buy to sell and sell to buy, +and who, of all classes, are most dependent upon the friendship and most +subject to the influence of the money power.</p> + +<p>Such a principle of political action, once fairly started in business +communities, is not easily uprooted. It continued to govern the +successors to the Federal party by whatever name they were called. +Indeed, the discrepancy that existed between its name and its principles +when it was first called <i>Federal</i> has obtained in all its mutations. +Its principles have been the same, with a single exception, under every +name, until the perturbation of party names and systems recently +produced by the disturbing subject of slavery. When that influence is +spent, the individuals who now constitute the so-called Republican party +will in the main revert to their original positions. The exception +referred to consists in the exemption on the part of his political +disciples of the present day from the hallucination which Hamilton +carried to his grave in regard to the possibility of the ultimate +re-establishment of monarchical institutions in this country. In all +other respects we have had unvarying exhibitions of his well-known +sentiments upon the subjects of government and its administration; the +same preference for artificial constructions of the Constitution, +devised to defeat instead of to develop the intentions of those who made +it; the same inclination to strengthen the money power and to increase +its political influence—an object that occupied the first place in +Hamilton's wishes; the same disposition to restrict the powers of the +State governments, and to enlarge those of the Federal head; the same +distrust of the capacity of the people to control the management of +public affairs, and the same desire also for governmental interference +in the private pursuits of men and for influencing them by special +advantages to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> favored individuals and classes. A statement of the +extent to which the business, as distinguished from the agricultural and +other laboring classes, have been banded together in our political +contests by a preference for Hamilton's principles and by the +instrumentality of the money power, would be regarded as incredible if +the facts were not indisputable and notorious. Such has been the case +with those who hold the stock of our banks, and control their +action—agencies which enter into some of the minutest as well as the +most important of the business transactions of these great communities. +A vast majority in number as well as in interest of these are men deeply +imbued with Hamiltonian principles. The same thing may be said of our +insurance companies which have been invested with special privileges of +various grades, and are authorized to insure against perils by land, and +perils by sea, and against perils of almost every description. The same +in respect to our incorporated companies invested with like privileges, +and established for the manufacture of articles made of cotton, of wool, +of flax, of hemp, of silk, of iron, of steel, of lead, of clay, &c., &c. +The same of companies with like privileges for the construction of +railroads, of bridges, of canals, where they can be made profitable, and +other constructions to which the invention and industry of man can be +successfully applied. Individuals frequently go into these powerful +associations with opposite political feelings, but are ultimately almost +invariably induced to change them altogether, or to modify them so much +as to satisfy their partners that their democratic principles are not +sufficiently stringent to be troublesome. The possession of special and, +in some of these cases, of exclusive privileges, is certain sooner or +later to produce distrust of the less favored body of the people, and +distrust grows apace to the proportions of prejudice and dislike. There +are of course<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> striking exceptions to this rule, as to every other. +There are always men connected with these associations whose democratic +principles are so deeply implanted in their very natures as to place +them above the influence of circumstances; but they are few and far +between. These changes are not the fruit of infirm purposes or +characters, but are produced by influences which seem no farther +traceable than is here imperfectly done, and are yet sufficiently +effective to convert to Hamiltonian principles more than three fourths +of the Democrats who become members of the associations of which I have +spoken.</p> + +<p>Such aggregations of wealth and influence, connected as they usually are +or soon become with social distinctions, naturally come to be regarded +as the fountains of patronage by those who are in search of it. The +press, men of letters, artists, and professional men of every +denomination, and those engaged in subordinate pursuits who live upon +the luxurious indulgences of the rich, are all brought within the scope +of this influence. It is perhaps in this way only that we can account +for the remarkable disparity in number between the newspapers and other +periodicals advocating Democratic principles and those which support the +views of the money power and its adherents—a disparity the +extraordinary extent of which will strike any one who visits a common +reading-room, in which, amid the well-furnished shelves and full files +of the publications of the latter class, it is rare that we find many of +the former, often not more than a single newspaper, sometimes not one. +Yet those which we do not find there represent the political principles +of a large majority of the people. The same fact attracts the attention +of the observer in passing through countries abroad which are under +monarchical institutions.</p> + +<p>These are among the political accretions of the money<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> power in this +country, made in a comparatively short period—these, the foreseen +operations of Hamilton's policy and principles and the <i>strata</i> on which +he designed at some time, when the prejudices of the day should have +passed away, or in some crisis in the affairs of the country which might +make the work easier or more agreeable to the people, to found political +institutions of the same general character at least with those the +realization of which had been the day-dream of his life.</p> + +<p>To return to the point from which I started in this long and doubtless +prolix review—a political party founded on such principles and looking +to such sources for its support does not often stand in need of caucuses +and conventions to preserve harmony in its ranks. Constructed +principally of a network of special interests,—almost all of them +looking to Government for encouragement of some sort,—the feelings and +opinions of its members spontaneously point in the same direction, and +when those interests are thought in danger, or new inducements are held +out for their advancement, notice of the apprehended assault or promised +encouragement is circulated through their ranks with a facility always +supplied by the sharpened wit of cupidity. Their conflicts in council, +when such occur, are for the same reasons less likely to be obstinate +and more easily reconciled. Sensible of these facts, the policy of their +leaders has been from the beginning to discountenance and explode all +usages or plans designed to secure party unity, so essential to their +opponents and substantially unnecessary to themselves.</p> + +<p>Hamilton's system considered with reference to the effect it was +calculated to exert upon most of the classes at whom it aimed, did great +credit to his sagacity. The wonder has always been that a party which +has had at its command so large a portion of the appliances generally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +most effective in partisan warfare should meet with such infrequent +success in the elections. Strangers who visit us are especially struck +with this to them unaccountable circumstance, and superficial observers +at home are often scarcely less impressed by it; and yet the secret of +its failure lies on the surface. Although Hamilton's policy was +successful with many, it failed signally, as has been stated, with the +most numerous and consequently the most powerful class of our +citizens—those engaged in agriculture; a class with which the +intercourse of strangers is the most limited, and the strength of which, +from the seclusion and unobtrusiveness of its common life, is very apt +to be underrated by other ranks even of our own people. It not only +failed to attract their sympathies in his favor, but excited their +dissatisfaction by its extension of governmental favors to others in +which they could not participate consistently with their inherited and +cherished principles, and which were not necessary to their pursuits; +thus increasing that antagonism to some extent between those who live by +the sweat of their brow and those who live by their wits. These adverse +results of his policy continued after its execution devolved upon his +disciples. Farmers and planters—the main-stay of the Democratic +party—seldom allow themselves, as I have before said, to be drawn +before Congress or into the audience chambers of Presidents and +Cabinets, suppliants for special favors to the interest in which they +are engaged. The indifference exhibited by the agriculturists of +America, at the period of the Stamp Act, to the overflowing offers of +bounties, is still shown by their uncorrupted successors. The promised +aid to their business held out by Hamilton in his famous Report on +Manufactures, both direct and consequential, therefore excited no +feeling in their breasts save strong suspicions of his motives.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p> + +<p>Our political history abounds with instances in which similar attempts +to obtain the support of the many by appeals to the self-interest of the +few have shared the same fate. They seldom fail to prove offensive to +the taste and humiliating to the pride of our people. The wisest way to +the confidence and support of the latter is to confine the action of the +administration of the Federal Government to the duties specifically +enjoined upon it by the Constitution, and to the able and honest +discharge of them. Statesmen who act upon this rule are much more likely +to close their official careers with credit to themselves and advantage +to the country than by resort to experiments, however splendid or +plausible. Occasions may indeed be presented on which temporary +derangements in the affairs of the State and of individuals are produced +of sufficient magnitude to baffle all calculations and to disappoint the +best intentions and the wisest measures, but these must of necessity be +of rare occurrence.</p> + +<p>The administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson were thus +conducted, and they had their reward. The success of Mr. Madison's was, +it is true, greatly retarded by obstructions placed in its way by the +money power, with a view to drive him to a dishonorable peace by +crippling his resources; but he and his associates in the Government +triumphed, notwithstanding, for that power had not then acquired the +strength which it subsequently attained, and the field for the display +of that which it possessed was not a safe one, while the passions of the +people were excited by a state of open war and were liable to be turned +with augmented fury against such as virtually aided the public enemy. It +was in its palmiest state in 1832, when it demanded a re-charter of the +Bank of the United States, and when, this being refused, it commenced +the struggle for the expulsion of President Jackson from the chair of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +State. Although it lacked time to mature its measures sufficiently for +the accomplishment of that particular object, it continued its assaults +upon the Executive, materially weakened its influence in the National +Legislature, and after a ruthless war of eight years succeeded in +overthrowing the administration of his successor and in obtaining +possession of the Government.</p> + +<p>But the methods of the great men and successful Presidents whom I have +named were too simple, and the tenor of their way too noiseless and even +for the adventurous genius of Hamilton's school. To devise elaborate +schemes for the management of that branch of the Government intrusted to +his control, and of such as fell within the scope of his influence, was +more to his liking. The construction and execution of these made +necessary the use of powers not granted by the Constitution, and led to +a perversion of its provisions, of which we have seen the consequences.</p> + +<p>John Quincy Adams was the first President, after the civil revolution of +1800, who entered upon the duties of his office with views of the +Constitution as latitudinarian as were those of Hamilton, and the only +one of that stamp who possessed sufficient force of character to make +his will the rule of action for his cabinet, and who lived long enough +to make it to some extent effectual. Although elected as a convert to +the principles of the then Republican party, he was no sooner seated in +the Presidential chair than he disavowed those principles in their most +important features—those of Constitutional construction—and marked out +a course in that regard which he intended to pursue. He thereby united +that party against his reėlection to an extent sufficient to defeat it +by an overwhelming majority.</p> + +<p>Of the party which thus a second time vindicated the Constitution, by +far the most effective ingredient was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> landed interest. But though +the most powerful, it was yet far from being its only valuable element, +for, to use Mr. Jefferson's words on the former occasion, there was +besides "a great mass of talent on the Republican side."</p> + +<p>If there be any whom experience has not yet satisfied of the power of +the landed interest, and of its capacity to cope successfully with the +money power of the country, enormous as has been the growth of the +latter, let them consider the facts disclosed by the census. By that of +1850, our population, as affecting the point under consideration, is +shown to have consisted at that time of <i>farmers</i>, two millions three +hundred and sixty thousand; of planters, twenty-seven thousand; of +laborers engaged in agriculture, thirty-seven thousand; of persons +engaged in commerce, trade, manufactures, mechanic arts, and mining, one +million six hundred thousand; in law, medicine, and divinity, +ninety-four thousand. Let them compare these with previous enumerations, +and they will see how invariable and large is the disproportion in +numbers between the agricultural and other classes. That disproportion +must of course have been greater during our colonial existence and at +the Revolutionary period, when our commerce was trifling, and we were +almost if not entirely destitute of manufactures. We are hence able to +form an idea of the extent to which the defense of the principles which +the colonists cherished, and for the maintenance of which the Revolution +was made, rested on the broad shoulders of the landed interest from the +beginning to the end of that great contest.</p> + +<p>Without the hearty and constant coöperation of that interest the +impassable barrier that has been erected against the politically +demoralizing and anti-republican tendency of the Hamiltonian policy +could never have been maintained. I have alluded to the reasons for my +belief that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> it is placed by its position and by the law of its nature +beyond the reach of that policy, and my firm conviction that it will +secure to our people the blessings of republican government as long as +it remains the predominant interest in the country. It can only be when +the agriculturists abandon the implements and the field of their labor +and become, with those who now assist them, shopkeepers, manufacturers, +carriers, and traders, that the Republic will be brought in danger of +the influences of the money power. But this can never happen. Every +inclination of the landed interest, however slight, in that direction +has been to it a prolific source of loss, regret, and repentance. +Between 1835 and 1840, when the country was stimulated to madness by the +Bank of the United States and its allies, the interests of agriculture +were so much neglected as to lead to large importations of breadstuffs +from Europe, whilst the land was covered with luxury, soon succeeded by +bankruptcy and want. But the sober second-thought of the people, in a +remarkably brief period, not only brought that great branch of the +industry of the country back to the point from which it had been +seduced, but drove from power those who had risen to it upon the +strength of a temporary popular delusion.</p> + +<p>If any doubt the existence and agency of a political influence such as I +have described under the name of the money power, or think the +description exaggerated, let me ask them to ponder upon its achievements +in the country from which it has been transplanted to our shores. It is +but little more than a century and a half since it was first +interpolated upon the English system, and we have seen the results it +has in that period produced upon its rivals: every vestige of the feudal +system that survived the Revolution of 1688 extinguished; the landed +aristocracy, once lords paramount, depressed to an average power in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +State; the Crown, still respected, and its possessor at this moment +justly beloved by all, yet substantially reduced to a pageant, protected +indeed by the prejudices of John Bull in favor of ancestral forms and +state ceremonies, but of almost no account as an element of power when +weighed against the well-ascertained opinion of the people of England. +Who does not know that it holds in its hands, more often than any other +power, questions of peace or war, not only in England but over Europe! +How often have previous consultations with a respectable family of Jews +decided the question of a declaration of war! Indeed it would have been +well for humanity if so salutary a check upon the brutal passions of men +and monarchs had been always equally potent—if some conservative and +life-sparing Rothschilds had been able to restrain the Henries, the +Louises, the Fredericks, and the Napoleons of the past.</p> + +<p>The money power, designed from the beginning to exert a liberal +influence in England as the antagonist of arbitrary power, has done much +good there by the prominence and influence to which it has elevated +public opinion, and this to some extent is true of other European +countries. Here it was from its start, as I have said, designed to +control the public will by undermining and corrupting its free and +virtuous impulse and determination, and its political effects have been +continually injurious.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Jefferson's <i>Correspondence</i>, Vol. 4. p. 449.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Bancroft's <i>Hist. United States</i>, Vol. II. p. 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_425">Appendix</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> In the spring of 1857. <span class="smcap">Eds.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> President Washington's Private Secretary.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> We have italicized these words.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Jefferson's <i>Correspondence</i>, Vol. IV. p. 466.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p></div> + +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Slight Notice so far in this Work bestowed upon the Course of the +Democratic Party, and Reasons therefor—Four great Crises in our +National Affairs, viz.: The Revolution; the Confederation; the +Struggle resulting in the Adoption of the Constitution, and +Hamilton's Attempt to pave the way for its Overthrow—Equal Merit +during the Revolution of those who afterwards formed the Federalist +and Anti-Federalist Parties—Condition of the Country under the +Confederation—During that Period and in the Struggle for the +Constitution the Measures and Conduct of the Federalists Wiser than +those of their Opponents—Culmination of the Contest of Principle +between the two great Parties during the Administration of John +Adams—The Object of this Work to give a general Account of the +Origin and Organization of Parties, and not a History of Partisan +Conflicts arising afterwards—Party Spirit, its Evils and +Benefits—Randall's "Life of Jefferson"—Leadership of Hamilton and +Jefferson—Their Character and Influence—Contrasts in their +Careers, Principles, and Aims—John Adams's Political +Principles—State of Parties in the time of Washington's +Administration as described by John Q. Adams—Character of John +Adams—His Services in the Revolution—Change in his Political +Opinions from his Residence in England—Fidelity of Jefferson, +Samuel Adams, and others to their Original Principles—Vigor and +Efficiency of the Organization of the Old Republican Party—Firm +Establishment of Popular Convictions against Monarchical +Institutions—"Sapping and Mining Policy" of Hamilton—Growing +Attachment of Republicans to the Constitution, and corresponding +Dislike of that Instrument on the part of Federalists—Issue +presented by Madison in the Legislature of Virginia—His Report a +Synopsis of Republican Doctrines—Triumph and general Success of +the Party—Lasting Effects of Hamilton's Teachings—Erroneous +Theories of the Origin of Parties—Identity of the Anti-Federal, +Republican, and Democratic Parties—Apparent Agreement of all +Parties upon Fundamental Questions after the Ratification of the +Constitution—Subsequent Controversy arose from the Efforts of the +Federalists for a Latitudinarian, and of their Opponents for a +Strict Construction of that Instrument.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>T cannot have failed to strike the reader of these pages that a +comparatively slight notice has been taken of that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> party which has for +more than half a century, with rare and limited exceptions, administered +the Government of our country. This is easily explained. During the +first twelve years of the existence of this Government, the period +during which the two great parties of the country received that "form +and pressure" which they have never lost, the Federalists were in power, +and of course principal actors in the management of public affairs. +Expositions of their measures and of the circumstances under which they +were brought forward, and criticisms upon those measures, naturally +acquire greater prominence in a review of the period than the less +salient manifestations of the opposition permit. The resistance made by +the latter to those measures involved a succession of sacrifices and +services which it is now difficult to appreciate at their full value, +but which, when correctly estimated, reflect the highest honor upon +those engaged in it and deserve the fullest notice.</p> + +<p>The four great crises in our national affairs were, <i>first</i>, the +Revolution; <i>second</i>, the government of the Confederation between the +recognition of our Independence and the adoption of the present +Constitution; <i>third</i>, the struggle for and the acquisition of that +instrument; and <i>fourth</i>, Hamilton's attempt to make of the Government +which had been established under it a delusion, and the Constitution a +sham, to pave the way for its overthrow and for the final introduction +of institutions more accordant with his opinions;—for, as I have +remarked, no intelligent man could have expected that the people of +America would long endure a Constitution subject to the treatment to +which he had exposed it, and to such as he had still in store for it.</p> + +<p>In the crisis of the Revolution, the conduct of all who subsequently +composed the two great parties in the country—save the Tories, who were +soon absorbed by one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> them,—was equally meritorious. The difference +between them in point of numbers was largely in favor of those who were +afterwards called Anti-Federalists, and, still later, Republicans, and +in point of talents and perhaps in social position on the side of the +Federalists.</p> + +<p>The condition of the country, during the second important juncture, may +be not inaptly illustrated by the common figure of a strong man +struggling in a morass. Nothing was stable, and nothing which promised +substantial relief seemed for a season practicable. Of the prominent +measures brought forward by both parties to extricate the country from +its embarrassments, those proposed by the Federalists were the wisest, +and, as the result proved, well adapted to the exigences of the +occasion.</p> + +<p>In the contest for the Constitution that party was also throughout more +useful than its opponents. In this estimate the course taken by Hamilton +is not regarded as the act of his party, except as to that portion of it +which consisted in signing the Constitution and in aiding its adoption.</p> + +<p>The issues involved in the fourth decisive crisis in our political +fortunes were contested during the presidency of <span class="smcap">John Adams</span>. The whole +of that administration was a political campaign, occupied by bitter and +uninterrupted struggles for predominance between the conflicting +principles of two great parties. The most important, although perhaps +not the most exciting, of the questions and measures in dispute had +arisen during the administration of President Washington; but his +presence and participation in the Government held the parties at bay. +Political alienations had then taken place, and wounds had been +inflicted which were never healed, and bitter fountains sprang up and +struggled for an outlet, but they were in a great degree restrained by +that consideration. The leading men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> among those who soon after +organized the first Republican, now called the old Republican, party, +made it a point to abstain from violent action, and to content +themselves with protests against measures of which they disapproved, but +which they could not defeat. Jefferson gave his opinion in the cabinet, +and Madison made his unanswerable speech in the Congress against the +bank, and the latter, with other Republicans, spoke strongly against +particular features of the funding system, but both measures were +nevertheless adopted by decisive majorities; and still, as far as +practicable, harsh invective and reproaches against those majorities +were withheld or delayed. The removal of the salient point of attack, by +the withdrawal of Hamilton from the cabinet, served also to stay +partisan outbreaks on the part of the Republicans, who were, throughout, +not unmindful of the advantages they would give to their opponents by +bringing matters to a crisis whilst Washington was at the head of the +Government. On the other hand, Hamilton evidently was discouraged by the +restrictions imposed upon him by the prudence of Washington. It is +apparent that, although by far more confided in, on the score of his +great talents, than any other member of the administration, he was yet +not allowed the latitude which he thought necessary to success. No one +can read his remarkable letter to Washington (to which I have referred +in another connection) without perceiving that he was seriously +discontented. He thought that there were men about the President who +interfered with and opposed his counsels, and he avowed his suspicions +to that effect in that letter to Washington, with the expression of a +hope that the latter would one day understand those men better. There +was, besides, as Jefferson admits, "no act of strong mark during the +remainder of his" (Washington's) "administration that excited much +complaint."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p> + +<p>Discontents were, therefore, in a great degree, held in abeyance waiting +the succession for more active resistance and redress. The arrival of +that period—the retirement of Washington and the election of +Adams—found the field clear for the great contest for which the +materials had been gathered and the hearts of the combatants prepared.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jefferson endeavored, as far as was proper, to prevent himself from +being regarded as a competitor with Mr. Adams, when the latter was +elected. He wrote to Mr. Madison, requesting him to withdraw his name if +there should be an equality of votes between himself and Mr. Adams, +which was not an improbable result, assigning, as a reason, that the +latter was greatly his senior in years, and had always stood in advance +of him in public life. But notwithstanding the friendly feelings that +had existed between them down to that period, their relations soon +assumed a very decided character of political opposition. Then commenced +that fierce partisan struggle which has never been equaled here and +seldom, if ever, in any country, either in respect to the gravity and +interest of the principles involved, or to the ability and firmness with +which the ground of the respective parties was sustained.</p> + +<p>A full account of the incidents of this four years' controversy would +carry this work far beyond the limits of my plan and of my time. My +object has been to trace the origin and first organization of our +political parties. To this full notices of the early measures out of +which they sprang were indispensable. Partisan conflicts upon questions +that arose after their organization was completed, are to be regarded as +effects rather than as causes of their existence. The spirit which +controls the action of sects and parties, in church or state, is indeed +selfish and perverse, becoming more and more characterized by those +qualities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> the longer they are kept on foot. When a new measure is +proposed, or doctrine announced, on either side, the problem presenting +itself for deliberation <i>eo instanti</i> to the minds of the opposite +faction, is as to the degree of strength and credit which its +introduction and success may be expected to bring to its authors, and of +consequent damage to their own party,—degrees, of course, dependent +upon the extent of its probable advantage to the interests of religion, +in one case, or of the country, in the other,—and in such deliberation +the claims of religion and country are in great danger of being +postponed for the interests of parties, and the new doctrine or measure +of meeting with a resistance proportioned to its probable merit. It +results as a general rule that it is sufficient to induce one party to +oppose any given measure to know that it has been introduced by its +adversary. This is an unfavorable and humiliating view of a subject +which nevertheless includes great advantages in a free State, but its +truth is unhappily too obvious.</p> + +<p>The angry contests which followed each other in rapid and uninterrupted +succession during the administration of the elder Adams, partook +strongly of this character. They sprung out of questions which arose +after the two great parties of the country—which have been +substantially kept on foot ever since—had been completely organized and +had taken the field, the one to accomplish and the other to resist a +great national reform which could only be constitutionally determined +through the medium of a struggle for the succession. Of these I have +only noticed the alien and sedition laws, and have been induced to make +that discrimination partly by a conviction of their superior influence +in settling the fate of parties, but principally from their relation to +the report upon the question of their constitutionality prepared by +Madison, under the invigorating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> stimulus administered by the ever +active and zealous mind of Jefferson. Of this great paper I shall speak +again.</p> + +<p>For an account of those interesting partisan conflicts—which, in +comparison with the men and issues of the present day, I may, without, I +think, being justly reproached with overpraising the past, call a war of +giants—the reader cannot, in my judgment, be referred to a source which +is in the main more reliable than Randall's "Life of Jefferson." The +descendants of that great and good man have contributed to the +preparation of that work, apparently without reserve, a body of +information of intense interest with which they have been intrusted, and +which has never before been made public. With many of the members of +this family it has been my good fortune to become intimately acquainted; +it would be difficult to find people anywhere more unobtrusive, +notwithstanding their claims upon the respect and consideration of the +community, whilst in individual temperament and character they are +richly endowed with those amiable, truthful, disinterested, and upright +traits for which their progenitor was so greatly distinguished in the +estimation of those who knew him well, and who were disposed to do him +justice. Mr. Randall has faithfully embodied the valuable materials +furnished by them in his work, to the execution of which he has brought, +besides talent and industry, a thoroughly democratic spirit. He has +entitled himself to credit for permitting Mr. Jefferson and his +contemporaries, as well opponents as coadjutors, to speak for themselves +in respect to public questions generally. If it should be thought in any +quarter that his own commentaries betray too much warmth; and are in +some instances of too partisan a character for the right tone of +history, it should be remembered that they fall in those respects far +short of the writers of the Federal school who have treated of +Jefferson; his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> volumes may with truth be regarded as the first +systematic defense of that statesman's entire political career, and it +would not be an easy matter for any one, especially for one of Randall's +years, after wading through the volumes of political and personal +detraction which have been written against him, to read for the first +time vindications authentic, simple, and conclusive without being +sometimes betrayed into expressions which would not have been indulged +at moments of less excitement.</p> + +<p>Occasional mistakes in a work of such extent, even with the best +intentions, and with what may well be regarded as the most reliable +sources of information, are still unavoidable. I have elsewhere +corrected a very important one in respect to Mr. Madison's vote on +Giles's resolution censuring the conduct of Hamilton. I dissent also +from the inferences drawn in a few instances from facts about which +there is no mistake,—such as Washington's intentions respecting the +rank of the major-generals for the provisional army, and the blame +imputed to Jefferson and Madison,—to the latter for not accepting the +office of Secretary of State when the former resigned, and to Jefferson +for declining Washington's invitation to return to it; but I have not +seen any statement in the whole work which I do not believe was intended +to be correct, or any construction of ascertained results which does not +appear to have been made in good faith.</p> + +<p>It is conceded on all sides that Hamilton and Jefferson, during the +presidency of John Adams, were the leaders of the two great parties—the +substantial amalgamation of the old Anti-Federal and Republican parties +leaving but two. Hamilton's position was unprecedented. Although the +President and himself were, almost from the commencement of the +campaign, upon very bad terms—feeling strong personal dislike towards +each other, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> holding no really friendly intercourse—he +notwithstanding directed the course of the administration, and +controlled the entire action of the Government to a greater extent than +he had done at any time during the presidency of Washington. These +extraordinary results he accomplished by means of the complete +ascendancy, to which I have heretofore alluded, which he possessed over +the three principal members of Mr. Adams's cabinet,—Pickering, Wolcott +and McHenry,—and by the peculiar influence that he was capable of +exerting over the Federal members of Congress. I have referred to +letters, state papers, briefs, and instructions for the action of those +parties establishing the truth of this position. With very limited +exceptions the control of Mr. Adams over his own administration was +little more than nominal. He served the purpose, and that was his chief +burden, of bearing the responsibility of unpopular measures—a fortunate +circumstance for the Republicans, as he excelled most men in his +capacity for adding to the odium of an obnoxious measure by the manner +of executing it.</p> + +<p>I doubt whether, in the history of the world, another occasion can be +found when any two men were as successful as were Jefferson and Hamilton +in impressing such great numbers of intelligent people with their own +opinions and views upon the subjects of government and its proper +administration.</p> + +<p>Acts and avowed opinions speak for themselves, but to determine the +motives of parties in the adoption of their measures no safer tests +perhaps can be employed than the characters and dispositions of those by +whom the parties themselves were founded and, in their early stages, +guided. Hamilton's character, qualifications, and views have already +occupied a large space in these pages. If they have been spoken of in +any other than a faithful and liberal spirit, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> have certainly failed +to do justice to my own feelings. Of Thomas Jefferson, the founder as +well as leader of the old Republican, now Democratic, party, +comparatively little has been said. Opposed as they were in their +opinions upon almost every public question that arose after the adoption +of the Federal Constitution, there were yet occasional coincidences of +sentiment which served to illustrate the elevated character of their +minds, as there were also many features of their respective careers +which, while broadly contrasted, furnished the strongest evidence of the +sincerity and integrity of both. Not the least striking among the latter +may be found in the circumstances and conditions of life in which they +respectively started in the "race set before them," as connected with +the ideas and opinions at which they arrived, so variant from those +commonly impressed upon men by similar accidents.</p> + +<p>Descended from a highly honored stock, it was yet Hamilton's lot to be +born poor and to be left solely dependent upon his own exertions for his +success in life. After a service of three years as clerk in a +counting-house he was sent to this country for the completion of his +education, at the expense of relatives on his mother's side. Here he +made himself acquainted with the character of our dispute with the +mother country, and took sides with the colonists in a manner and under +circumstances highly creditable to him, and after five years' military +service, in which he acquired great reputation in comparatively +subordinate stations, he retired to private life, adopting the legal +profession as his only resource for the support of his family.</p> + +<p>That a man trained in such a school, and who at the same time possessed +capacities to influence the public mind, when his efforts were properly +directed, far superior to any of his contemporaries, would, in the +condition in which he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> was placed, and under a government like our own, +take his political position on the popular side, was an anticipation +naturally entertained by the zealous friends of republican government. +But we have seen, on the contrary, that there was not, throughout the +wide extent of the Republic, a single man of respectable standing, more +deeply (and, let me add, more sincerely) distrustful of the judgment and +dispositions of the great body of the people, or more anxious to impose +restraints upon the popular will, and, for the accomplishment of that +object, to add to the intrinsic influence of associated wealth the +facilities for its exercise afforded by the possession of political +power. His case must not, however, be confounded with that of the +"candied tongues" found in every community which</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 16em;">"Lick absurd pomp,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">That thrift may follow fawning."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Hamilton's mind was incapable of that condescension, or, as Mr. +Jefferson observed to me of him in connection with other matters, "he +was far above that." He participated largely as a professional man in +the favor and patronage of the commercial and manufacturing classes, but +instead of his own political course being influenced by the receipt of +such favors, he seldom failed to govern theirs. He was not a man to +mortgage his great abilities for personal benefits of any description, +and so well was his character in that respect understood that no one +would have ventured to tender him any inducement which might in the +estimation of the most prejudiced expose his personal independence to +the slightest question or suspicion. The fact, therefore, that he +pursued a course so different from what might have been naturally +expected of him by people generally—a course so much less eligible for +the gratification of ambitious views—affords high evidence of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +integrity of his motives. It proved that he acted under the influence of +opinions which had been honestly formed, and in the correctness of which +he confided to the end; opinions which he doubtless hoped would in the +sequel prove acceptable to the majority, but to which he felt it his +duty to adhere, whatever might be the consequences to himself of his +perseverance.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jefferson, on the other hand, succeeded at the age of fourteen, in +addition to other rights of primogeniture, to an inheritance which, with +competent management, was sufficient to satisfy all his wants, and to a +social position, when he became a man, which required no pecuniary aids +to make his condition in every respect all that was desirable, and one +that could scarcely be improved by any change in the government of his +country. To an unusual extent devoid of the gift of oratory, personal +ambition was less likely to tempt him into the paths of politics. +Cherishing always a love of letters, science and the arts, blessed with +a genial temper, and in every respect well qualified to adorn and to +enjoy the social circle, he seemed destined for a life of elegant ease. +But, happily for the cause of human rights throughout the world, and for +the welfare especially of his own country, he was impressed by his Maker +with an ardent love of liberty, and a zealous devotion to the generous +and equalizing principles of republican government, which impelled him +into the political field, and placed him from the beginning in +unreserved hostility to hereditary political power in any form, to all +institutions in the State which secure to particular classes or +individuals a preference over others of equal merit, and to all power in +government, or in individuals or associations, civil or ecclesiastical, +which can be exerted to control the opinions or to coerce the +consciences of men.</p> + +<p>Moved by such impulses, and having "sworn eternal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> hostility against +every form of tyranny over the mind of man," he entered, at an early +age, upon his public career, destined to be long and eventful, and +sustained throughout the character given of him on his first appearance +in Congress in 1775, by John Adams,—"prompt, frank, explicit, and +decisive"—"not even Samuel Adams was more so." From that time until the +day of his death he gave his support, never for a moment diminished in +zeal or sincerity, and varied only in its efficiency according to the +positions he occupied and the influence they afforded for the purpose, +to the great principle of "the equality of political rights" which +Hamilton well described as "the foundation of pure Republicanism."</p> + +<p>At the age of twenty-two—a period in Hamilton's life when his already +teeming mind was meditating the establishment of institutions, and the +adoption of measures to strengthen the Government, and to enable it to +exercise what he deemed a salutary and necessary restraint upon the +popular will, institutions and measures in the working of which, from +their nature, none but moneyed men could be expected to +participate—Jefferson was as actively and constantly employed in the +Virginia House of Delegates, in concert with the earliest Revolutionary +patriots of that State, in preparing her, as well as the hearts of the +people, for the great movement then already the subject of confident +anticipation with minds like theirs. There he remained until 1775, when +he was appointed a delegate to the Continental Congress. Of his agency, +whilst a member of that body, in preparing the Declaration of +Independence, and in promoting its adoption, it is unnecessary here to +speak. As soon as that noble work had been accomplished, he resigned his +seat, accepted a reėlection to the State Legislature as the position in +which, though less exalted, he could render more useful services to the +cause,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> and the measures to which his exertions were there directed were +in harmony with the spirit of the Revolution, and designed, as avowed by +himself, "to eradicate every fibre of ancient or future aristocracy, and +to lay a foundation for a government truly republican." The results of +the joint labors of himself and his patriotic associates were:</p> + +<p>1st. An act to prevent the further importation of slaves, a practice +which he had denounced in the Declaration of Independence as a +"piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers;"</p> + +<p>2d. An act to abolish entailments;</p> + +<p>3d. An act to abolish primogenitureship—a right which had vested in +himself;</p> + +<p>4th. An act for religious freedom; and</p> + +<p>5th. A bill for general education.</p> + +<p>These were not only appropriate but indispensable steps to lay a sure +foundation for republican government, State as well as National. Most, +if not all of the States, followed her lead, but to Virginia belongs the +high merit of having been in this respect the first in the field, and to +Jefferson a large share of that merit.</p> + +<p>Such were the men who were by common consent placed at the respective +heads of the two great parties in that national struggle which resulted +in what has ever since been known as "the Civil Revolution of Eighteen +Hundred," a name given to it by the victors on the assumption that, +although the weapons were different, the principles which were involved +in it and the spirit which achieved the triumph were akin to those which +distinguished the Revolution by the sword. The knowledge that Hamilton +preferred monarchical institutions to every other form, that John Adams, +who was at the head of the Government, sympathized very cordially with +that sentiment, and the belief that most of the leaders of the Federal +party partook<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> largely of the same feeling, and were only prevented from +avowing the fact by their perception of its unpopularity, caused a +wide-spread and sincere alarm on the side of the Republican party for +the safety of republican government in the United States. This +apprehension imparted a graver character to the contest than any other +considerations could have produced, and called into vigorous action much +of the spirit by which the minds of the masses had been influenced in +the Revolutionary War. It served to weld the members of the old +Anti-Federal party and the Republicans—between whom a concert of action +had previously arisen—into a thorough union, which became permanent, +because it was founded on a principle in which they heartily concurred, +and which was of sufficient magnitude to absorb minor differences in +their political views.</p> + +<p>That Hamilton's settled opinion and preference were such as I have +described is a point which has been, it is hoped, already too well +established to admit, at this day, of an honest difference of opinion. +He avowed them on the floor of the Convention in the presence of the +assembled representatives, and this is equally clear, whether the sum of +that declaration is tested by the copy of the speech which he himself +delivered to Mr. Madison as a permanent record of his opinions, or by +the notes for that speech now published by his son. He announced them to +his political rival, Mr. Jefferson, in the presence of Mr. John Adams, +and reaffirmed them to the former in a conversation obviously sought for +the purpose of giving the form he desired to expressions of a less +guarded character, and which were, under that impression, immediately +reduced to writing by Mr. Jefferson, who, for the truth of his record, +"attests the God that made him." He so thoroughly impressed his +political coadjutor and most trusted friend—him to whom it was +appointed to pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>nounce his eulogy at his funeral—<span class="smcap">Gouverneur Morris</span>, +with a sense of his devotion to monarchical institutions, that within +six months after his death, Morris, writing to his friend Ogden, speaks +of that devotion as "hobby" which Hamilton "bestrode to the great +annoyance of his friends, and not without injury to himself;" also to +Robert Walsh, the well-known editor of a leading Federal journal, in +answer to inquiries on the subject, that "Hamilton hated republican +government because he confounded it with democratical government, and he +detested the latter because he believed it must end in despotism, and be +in the mean time destructive to morality;" and that "he never failed on +every occasion to advocate the excellence of, and his attachment to, +monarchical government." It was in perfect keeping with the character of +Hamilton that never, throughout his life, though constantly charged with +entertaining such opinions, did he deny the imputation; he who denies it +now must assume that Hamilton either did not know his own mind upon the +subject, or that he had some motive for misrepresenting it, or that Mr. +Jefferson deliberately falsified his repeated declarations, and that +Gouverneur Morris was capable of misrepresenting his friend upon a point +of so much importance when that friend had descended to his grave.</p> + +<p>To what lengths Hamilton would have gone to subvert the existing +government, and to substitute monarchical institutions, or under what +circumstances he would have deemed an attempt to do so justifiable, are +questions open to investigation and comment, but to discuss the fact of +his constant preference for such institutions, and desire to see them +established here, would be to trifle with the subject.</p> + +<p>Mr. Adams, who was President, and in whose name the battle was fought, +fell but little if any thing short of General Hamilton in his partiality +for the English system. To<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> purge the British Constitution of its +corruptions, and to give to its popular branch equality of +representation, were alone necessary, he thought, to make it "the most +perfect Constitution ever devised by the wit of man." The alterations or +amendments he suggested, sound and creditable to himself as they were, +were no more than qualifications of his general preference for the +English model. If Hamilton's admiration of that model was less qualified +than that of Adams, it must at the same time be admitted that the former +was freest from the fault of seeking to degrade and discredit republican +institutions by his writings. Without undertaking to describe the +specific design of Mr. Adams's "Defense of the Constitutions of +Government of the United States," or of his "Discourse on Davila,"—a +task, for obvious reasons, very difficult,—it may, I think, be safely +assumed that such was their manifest tendency. Hamilton at least thought +so at a time when the reciprocal prejudices which afterwards separated +them so widely had not yet acquired a strong hold upon the feelings of +either. In his interview with Mr. Jefferson on the 13th of August, 1791, +before referred to, when the conversation was turned to the writings of +Mr. Adams, Hamilton condemned them, and "most particularly Davila, as +having a tendency to weaken the present Government;" and, after other +remarks in relation to the existing Government and its chances of +success, he added,—"Whoever by his writings disturbs the present order +of things is really blamable, however pure his intentions might be, and +he was sure Mr. Adams's were pure."</p> + +<p>The division by Mr. Adams of governments designated as republics, into +democratic republics, aristocratic republics and monarchical, or regal +republics,—embracing a minute description of each, in which the +Government of the "United Provinces of the Low Countries," whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> powers +are held by the persons intrusted with them either by hereditary title +or by the selection of associates, after the manlier of close +corporations, is called a "democratic Republic," and that of England a +"monarchical, or regal Republic,"—was naturally displeasing to the +sense and feeling of those who regarded aristocratical or monarchical or +regal features as absolutely incompatible with the true idea of +republican government. The voluminous and doubtless violent attacks that +were made upon his writings were scarcely necessary to satisfy those who +had freely undergone the sufferings and sacrifices of a long and bloody +war to secure to themselves and their posterity the blessings of +republican institutions, according to their acceptation of them, that +the writings of Mr. Adams were designed, as was charged, to cause the +term "Republican Government" to mean "any thing or nothing."</p> + +<p>The notices taken of the general subject and of these writings in +particular, by John Adams himself, by his son, John Quincy Adams, and by +his grandson, Charles Francis Adams, go far to show that if not fairly +liable to this construction, they were too much open to it to be +persisted in. In a note attached by the author, in 1812, to the +"Discourse on Davila," as published in his "Life and Works," he says: +"The work, however, powerfully operated upon his (J. A.'s) popularity. +It was urged as full proof that he was an advocate for monarchy, and +laboring to introduce a hereditary President in the United States." His +grandson, Charles F. Adams, introducing the "Discourse" in his "Life and +Works of John Adams," says: "They furnished to the partisans of the day +so much material for immediate political use in the contest then +beginning (1790), that the author thought it best to desist, and they +were left incomplete."</p> + +<p>John Quincy Adams, in his Jubilee Address,—the oc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>casion and character +of which have been heretofore noticed,—describes the state of parties +at the accession of General Washington to the Presidency in the +following terms: "On the other hand no small number of the Federalists, +sickened by the wretched and ignominious failure of the Articles of +Confederation to fulfill the promise of the Revolution; provoked at once +and discouraged by the violence and rancor of the opposition against +their strenuous and toilsome endeavors to raise their country from her +state of prostration; chafed and goaded by the misrepresentations of +their motives, and the reproaches of their adversaries, and imputing to +them in turn deliberate and settled purposes to dissolve the Union and +resort to anarchy for the repair of ruined fortunes,—distrusted ever +the efficacy of the Constitution itself, and with a weakened confidence +in the virtue of the people were inclined to the opinion that the only +practicable substitute for it would be a government of greater energy +than that presented by the Convention. There were among them numerous +warm admirers of the British Constitution, disposed to confide rather to +the inherent strength of the Government than to the self-evident truths +of the Declaration of Independence for the preservation of the rights of +property and perhaps of persons."</p> + +<p>This is language which it is easy to understand, and which covers very +fairly the subject of our immediate attention. Few men enjoyed better +opportunities to possess himself of correct views in regard to the +opinions of his own political party than John Quincy Adams. He was by +nature truthful, or if at times blinded by prejudice, never, I firmly +believe, induced to swerve by sinister considerations. Accustomed from +early life to indulgence in the strong expressions (both in manner and +form) common to his race, he was apt to exaggerate under great +excitement, but was not capable of designedly falsifying facts. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> the +case before us the greatest reliance may be placed upon his statements +in regard to the opinions and views of a class of men of whom he thought +well. The Federal party entered upon the first administration under the +new Constitution, of which the election had placed it in full +possession, with a weakened confidence, Mr. Adams says, in the virtue of +the people,—distrustful even of the efficacy of the Constitution +itself, and inclined to the opinion that the only practical substitute +for it would be a government of greater energy than that presented by +the Convention, and a portion of them (how large it was difficult for +manifest reasons to determine, but Mr. Adams describes it as +"numerous,") warmly admiring the British Constitution, and disposed to +confide to the inherent strength of such a government rather than to one +founded on the principles of the Declaration of Independence. In what +class or division it was the intention of Mr. Adams to place his +venerable father does not appear, nor is it very clear to which he +should be assigned. That he considered his opinions, which had been more +impugned in all respects than those of any, save perhaps of Hamilton, as +not placing him in either, is not at all probable.</p> + +<p>John Adams's "Defense" and "Discourse" were written at different periods +remote from each other, and when he himself occupied very different +situations; the former before the formation of the Federal Constitution, +when he represented his country as Minister to England, and the latter, +which was universally regarded as the most Anti-Republican of the two, +after he had been elected Vice-President. That his views were in some +degree changed by time and circumstances is not improbable. Mr. +Jefferson thought that he owed his support for the Vice-Presidency to +the Anti-Republican tendencies of the first work, and that his election +to that office and the federal senti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>ment that he found prevalent on his +return from England, and down to the commencement of the new government, +induced him to write the "Discourse," and to give to it a higher tone in +the same direction. The diffusive and (if that expression is not too +strong when speaking of writings of so much learning and ability) the +incoherent manner in which these works were constructed, particularly +the earlier one, makes it unsafe to venture to specify the precise +principles they were designed to sustain. His grandson was so sensible +of the deficiencies of the "Defense" in these respects that he +reconstructed and improved it in his publication, but without, as he +says, changing the sense, and I have no doubt that he has carried out +the latter idea in good faith.</p> + +<p>That few if any American citizens went beyond John Adams in his +admiration of the British Constitution is undeniably true. In the third +chapter of the "Defense,"—(see Vol. IV. p. 358, of his "Life and +Works,") he pronounces an eulogium on that Constitution which goes far +beyond that reported by Mr. Jefferson, (in his account of the +conversation between Adams and Hamilton in April, 1791,) calling it "the +most stupendous fabric of human invention," adding, that "not the +formation of languages, not the whole art of navigation and +ship-building, does more honor to the human understanding than this +system of government." But on the very next page he commends the United +States for not having followed the English model, so far as to make +"their first magistrates or their senators hereditary"—differing +substantially in that regard from the opinion reported by Mr. Jefferson, +and showing how unsafe if not futile would be the attempt to define +exactly the principles which he favored.</p> + +<p>It may, notwithstanding, be safely assumed, <i>first</i>, that he was +foremost among the warm admirers of the Brit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>ish Constitution spoken of +by his son, and <i>secondly</i>, that he deemed our Constitution defective in +omitting to provide for some depository of political power in the +government, variant in principle from its general provisions, one which +should be either not at all or only very remotely subject to popular +control, and that he stood almost at the head of those whose confidence +in the virtue of the people had been greatly weakened by occurrences +following the Revolution.</p> + +<p>The latter assumption would seem very fully warranted by the following +citations from his "Defense:"<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p>"The proposition, that the people are the best keepers of their own +liberties, is not true; they are the worst conceivable; they are no +keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will as a +political body."</p> + +<p>"If it is meant by our author a representative assembly, they are not +still the best keepers of the liberties of the people; at least the +majority would invade the liberty of the minority sooner and oftener +than an absolute monarchy."</p> + +<p>"A great writer has said that a people will never oppress themselves, or +invade their own rights. This compliment, if applied to any nation or +people in being or memory, is more than has been merited."</p> + +<p>"Aristides, Fabricius, and Cincinnatus, are always quoted, as if such +characters were always to be found in sufficient numbers to protect +liberty; and a cry and show of liberty is set up by the profligate and +abandoned, such as would sell their fathers, their country, and their +God for profit, place, and power. Hypocrisy, simulation, and finesse are +not more practiced in the courts of princes than in popular elections, +nor more encouraged by kings than people."</p> + +<p>"The real merit of public men is rarely known and im<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>partially +considered. When men arise who to real services add political +empiricism, conform to the errors of the people, comply with their +prejudices, gain their hearts and excite their enthusiasm, then +gratitude is a contagion—it is a whirlwind."</p> + +<p>The same volume (of Randall's Work) contains copious extracts from the +letters of Fisher Ames and a number of other leading Federalists, +derived from Hamilton's recently published papers and other sources. +They breathe in general the same spirit, hankering after +pre-revolutionary institutions and systems, though less boldly expressed +than was done by Hamilton and Adams, and the same distrust of the +sufficiency of the Constitution and above all of the capacities and +dispositions of the people, the latter exhibited in assaults upon +democracy and the democratic spirit of the country.</p> + +<p>John Adams was in every sense a remarkable man. Nature seems to have +employed in his construction intellectual materials sufficient to have +furnished many minds respectably. It would not be easy to name men, +either of his day or of any period, whose characters present a deeper or +a stronger soil, one which during his long and somewhat boisterous +public life was thoroughly probed by his enemies without disclosing any +variation in its depths from the qualities and indications of its +surface. Still more deeply was it turned up and exposed to the light by +himself with the same result. His writings, which have been more +extensive and more various than those of any of his contemporaries, have +been given to the world apparently without reserve. These, with his +diaries and autobiography, have turned his character inside out and +shown us, without disguise of any sort, the kind of man he was: and the +representation is invariably that of the same "always honest man" that +he was three quarters of a century<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> ago when that high praise was +accorded to him by his not too partial friend, Benjamin Franklin, in a +communication not designed to be over civil.</p> + +<p>Whatever diversities may have arisen in the opinions of men in relation +to the merits or demerits of his after conduct, all agree in conceding +to him credit for patriotic and useful services in the times which have +been happily described as those which tried men's souls. Mr. Jefferson, +but two years before the death of both of them, on referring to that +period, and to Mr. Adams's great services, in my presence, was warmed by +the subject, and spoke of him as having been the mainmast of the +ship—the orator of the Revolution, &c. It is in all probability no +exaggeration of his merits to assume that there was no man in the United +States, (perhaps, but not without doubt, excepting Samuel Adams,) who, +before he was sent abroad in their service, did more than himself in a +civil capacity to promote the cause of the Revolution. This is a high +distinction—one which entitles his memory to the perpetual reverence of +his countrymen. No subsequent errors of opinion, nothing short of +personal dishonor and degradation, of which he was incapable, could +extinguish a claim to the enduring gratitude and respect of a nation +founded on such services.</p> + +<p>He left our shores upon his foreign mission a noble specimen of a +republican statesman—his heart and mind filled to overflowing with +right principles, and capable of vindicating them whenever and wherever +they might stand in need of support or defense. He performed his public +duties with fidelity and honor, but in respect to his political opinions +he returned an altered man. His "Defense of the Constitutions of +Government of the United States of America," written and published in +England whilst representing his country there, notwithstanding an +impos<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>ing title, though agreeable to some excited painful emotions in +the breasts of most of his Revolutionary associates. The dissatisfaction +of the latter was not a little increased by the circumstance that +sentiments and opinions, so disparaging to a form of government which +had been the unceasing object of their desire, should have been +ostentatiously promulgated in a country and in the presence of a +government from which the right to establish it had been wrested by +arms, and on the part of which the most unfriendly feelings in respect +to our advancement were still entertained. It was, nevertheless, true +that no circumstance contributed more toward his selection by the +Federal party as their candidate for the office of Vice-President than +these very avowals. His own sense of their efficacy in that respect is +clearly to be inferred from the fact that he devoted the first moments +of his time, whilst occupying that station, to the prosecution of the +same general object, with less disguise and increased boldness, through +his "Discourses on Davila."</p> + +<p>Jefferson and Samuel Adams and others of their stamp, who had embarked +in the Revolution with a spirit that could neither be appalled by danger +whilst the battle raged, nor seduced by considerations of any +description after it had been fought, were not slow in perceiving that +Mr. Adams had not only deserted from the cause of free government, but +that he regarded his first success under the new system and aspired to +the still higher honor in the gift of his countrymen as fruits of his +desertion. Whilst his early and best friends felt that the fabric, the +erection of which had cost them so much labor and so many sacrifices, +had lost one of its strongest pillars by his falling off, they were +neither dismayed nor did they despair of its safety. They met his second +attempt to bring free governments into disrepute with an energy that +drove him, as he him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>self admits, stubborn and inflexible in his +purposes as he always had been, to discontinue, at least in that form, +assaults upon a political faith, once the object of their common +devotion. This desertion on the part of one in whom they had confided so +fully, and upon whose coöperation, in securing to them the full +enjoyment of the political rights for the acquisition of which they had +endured so many perils, they had largely depended, sank deeply into the +hearts and minds of the people. The spirit of discontent was naturally +much increased by the discovery that Hamilton, who had done himself so +much honor, and who had raised such favorable anticipations by the +chivalrous spirit and gallantry with which he had embraced and sustained +the national cause was, after all, irreconcilably hostile to that system +of republican government which they so highly prized, and upon the +ultimate enjoyment of which they had so long meditated; that his +opposition was not only open and unreserved, but that he assigned as a +reason for it their incapacity and unfitness for the support and +enjoyment of free institutions.</p> + +<p>A sense of danger to the cause of republicanism in the United States was +widely diffused through the public mind. There were indignities to be +resented and wrongs to be redressed, besides new securities to be +devised for the safety of long-cherished principles. These were +considerations quite sufficient to rouse the lion of the Revolution from +his lair to defend its choicest fruit from further profanation. Those +classes, among the surviving patriots of that eventful day, of whom I +have spoken as pervaded by a deeper hatred of kingly government than +others among their Revolutionary associates, sprang to the rescue with +alacrity and zeal. The descendants of the devoted spirits who first +settled the ancient colony of Virginia were not unmindful of their +hereditary obligations to resist the exercise of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> lawless power. Neither +could the appeal fall unheeded on the ears of the representatives of the +persecuted Huguenots, who had suffered so cruelly from the exercise of +powers now sought to be revived, or of the Netherlanders of the Middle +States, or on those sons of the Puritans of the East whose zeal in +behalf of liberty had not been tempted to spend itself on trade and +manufactures by the seductive influence of Hamilton's policy, and by the +facilities they possessed for those pursuits.</p> + +<p>Drawing its power from such sources, and sustained by a great +preponderance of the landed interest in every part of the country, the +old Republican party attained a degree of vigor and efficiency superior +to that of any partisan organization which had before or has since +appeared on the political stage. Mr. John Quincy Adams described it +truly when he said that it had acquired a head which would have enabled +it, if so disposed, "to have overthrown Washington's administration as +it did that of his successor acting upon its principles." Jefferson's +declaration to Mazzei that "we have only to awake and snap the +Lilliputian cords with which they have attempted to bind us during the +first slumbers that succeed our labors," was borne out by the result.</p> + +<p>Although the audacious passion for monarchical government, which the +leading Federalists had ventured to revive so soon after the Revolution, +was the most exciting of the causes which inflamed the hearts and braced +the nerves of the Republicans for the conflict,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> that was not the +first issue to be tried. The nature of the government to be substituted +was a question that would not, in the natural order of things, arise +until the fate of the existing Constitution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> had been settled; but as +their blood was up and their hands at work, the Republicans resolved, if +possible, to strangle the conspiracy against the new-born liberties of +the country in both its branches by the same effort. The severity and +success of the blows they directed against the restoration of the power +and influence of the Crown, in any form, is strikingly illustrated by a +comparison of the state in which that question was found and that in +which it was left by the civil revolution of 1800. Whilst at the former +period the superiority of kingly over republican government was the +prevailing and absorbing sentiment among what were called the higher +classes, as graphically described by Mr. Jefferson, and substantially +corroborated by Gouverneur Morris's letter to Rufus King, the notion +that the former would be ever practicable in this country was so +thoroughly annihilated by that great struggle as never again to have +been whispered in our politics. There is no exaggeration in the +affirmation that there has been no day within the last forty years when +a proposition for the reėstablishment of monarchy in the United States, +however seriously made, could have excited any other emotion than +ridicule or contempt, or would not have been deemed more appropriately +punished by the administration of the straight-jacket than by a trial +for treason. But there has been far greater difficulty in completing the +work of resistance to Hamilton's efforts to overthrow the Constitution +by subverting it, through the agency of his sapping and mining policy, +which was the direct issue in the election of 1800. A constitution had +been established, in the construction and ratification of which the +Federal party had performed a greater and more effectual part than the +party opposed to it. Its general provisions were fully adequate to the +support of a republican government. By a successful incorporation of the +representative system with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> republican form, pure and simple, its +framers had happily qualified and adapted the instrument to our +extensive territory, and a provision for amendments furnished a remedy +against existing defects. Of the latter the omission to secure +specifically and adequately the individual natural rights of men against +the exercise of arbitrary power was the most important—a defect in +respect to which a large majority of the Anti-Federalists were, for +reasons frequently referred to, most sensitive. The Constitution was +ratified by several of the States, and amongst them by Virginia and New +York, with accompanying resolutions, some of them passed by the State +conventions with perfect unanimity, expressing opinions that it deserved +revision and required amendments. Without such resolutions the +ratification could not, we are forced to believe, have been effected. We +have seen with what reluctance the first Congress, Federal by a large +majority, consented to make any constitutional amendments, and that +nothing short of Mr. Madison's wonderful perseverance could, in all +probability, have effected their adoption; but they were obtained, +proved satisfactory to the Anti-Federalists, and made them fast friends +of the new Constitution.</p> + +<p>From that moment that instrument ceased to be an object of solicitude +with the leaders of the Federal party, hardly retaining favor with any +of them. This result is by no means an unusual one in the history of +parties whose feelings have become to any great extent embittered. The +instances are rare indeed in which any public measure or act is at the +same time entirely acceptable to all sides. The "Independent Treasury" +is the only clear case of the kind among us that has fallen under my +observation. The letters of the leading Federalists, which have now for +the first time seen the light, prove their subsequent indifference, and, +in many instances, active hostility to the Constitution.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> Not a few who +imbibed Hamilton's feelings and shared in his views upon this point had +been members of the Convention, and among those to whom I have awarded +so large a share of credit for their conduct in making the Constitution +what it is. This was justly their due. It is not to be doubted that +several of them, as I have before said, participated largely in +Hamilton's objections, and would have preferred a very different +instrument; but they knew that none less favorable to the supposed +interests of the State governments, or less liberal in other respects, +would stand the slightest chance of ratification, more especially when +the circumstance of disregard to the limits and restrictions of the +authority by which they had been convened was taken into consideration. +They saw nothing but injury, vast and complicated, to the country from +their failure, and they evinced their patriotism in yielding to this +wise foresight at the sacrifice of their individual preferences. +Although many of them, doubtless, did not fully share Hamilton's +absorbing preference for monarchy, they very generally went to the +extent pointed out by John Quincy Adams in his Jubilee Address—that was +for a government of more energy than was provided for by the +Constitution presented by the Convention. This they had a right to +desire and to work for through amendments in the way appointed by the +Constitution, but in this way they knew they could not obtain what they +wanted, and they therefore yielded their ready aid to the measures he +proposed by which the Constitution was to be made to mean any thing, +substantially, which those who were intrusted with its execution might +believe would promote the general welfare. Hamilton's course in this +regard seemed to the uninitiated extremely reckless, as he appeared +desirous to select objects in respect to which the excess of authority +under the Constitution which he exerted was most obvious,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> and the +subjects themselves were those in respect to which the sensibilities of +his opponents were the keenest. In the whole range of measures, which, +if constitutional, might appropriately proceed from his department, he +could not have found a single one as to which the intention of the +framers of the Constitution, adverse to the power he exercised, was +better understood than a United States Bank. Mr. Jefferson brought the +facts which transpired in the Convention proving such intention to his +notice, and to that of the President, and they were not controverted by +either.</p> + +<p>So in regard to the Sedition Law. One of the ten amendments was +especially designed to prohibit such legislation, and there were no +subjects to which the Anti-Federalists and Republicans were more alive +than to the liberty of speech and of the press. The same thing may be +said, in respect to public sensibilities, of the Alien Act. That Act +conferred a power on the President, which, though one of the +prerogatives of the Crown, no prime minister dare exercise at this day +in the sense in which the President was authorized to exercise it.</p> + +<p>Yet it is now known that of these last measures the first was passed +upon Hamilton's suggestion, and Mr. Charles F. Adams informs us that +neither was ever made the subject of executive consultation.</p> + +<p>But I can well conceive that these considerations, which might deter +other men, were but so many recommendations with Hamilton for the course +he pursued. From first to last he thought the Constitution inadequate to +the purposes of what he regarded as good government, and that the sooner +it was gotten rid of the better for the country. There were moments when +he allowed himself to hope that he might make it answer the purpose if +he were allowed to go on with it as he began. But these were only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +momentary impressions that soon gave way to the settled convictions of +his mind, his avowals of which were uniformly the same. He declared to +Jefferson in 1792, "that the Constitution was a shilly-shally thing of +mere milk and water, and was only good as a step to something +better,"—a declaration which the latter communicated in self-defense to +Washington; and in 1802 he describes it to his friend Morris, as we have +seen, as "a frail and worthless fabric," reminding him at the same time +of his knowledge that such had been his (Hamilton's) opinion "from the +very beginning." It was, therefore, natural that a man of his +intelligence and resolution, looking with entire confidence to its +failure, should think it expedient to select the most palpable as well +as the most flagrant violations of the Constitution, while it was yet in +its infancy and feeblest condition, and thus to prepare the public mind +for the degradation he had in store for it, and to insure its speedy +overthrow.</p> + +<p>These severe measures were rendered doubly odious by the manner in which +the Sedition Law was executed, and by the steps adopted to suppress +outbreaks of popular discontent, but which only swelled comparative +rivulets into resistless torrents and rendered the Republican cause +invaluable service by giving occasion to Madison's great Report on the +Constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws. The judgment of the +country has ever been that a more able state paper never issued from the +pen of any man. It covered the entire controversy between the two +parties, traced its origin to the different views they entertained of +the construction and obligatory character of the Constitution, and +placed the republican creed in those respects upon grounds absolutely +impregnable. Hamilton was a laborious writer, but only so because his +writings were so voluminous; to write was with him a labor of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> love, and +there was no man of his day who devoted more time to political +disquisitions. There was scarcely any other great public question that +occupied the public mind during that period on which a publication, +offensive or defensive, is not to be found in his Works. Yet if he ever +attempted a reply to that Report, which attracted general attention and +became the flag under which the Republicans fought, I have never seen or +heard of it. I may safely assume that he never did make such attempt.</p> + +<p>The issue was fairly presented by Mr. Madison, through the Virginia +Legislature, as depending upon the answers to the following questions:—</p> + +<p>1. What are the true principles that should be applied to the +construction of the Constitution?</p> + +<p>2. Are those who are elected by the people bound to execute it according +to the intention of its framers and the understanding of those who +ratified it?</p> + +<p>3. Is it in that sense sacredly obligatory upon all who are subject to +its authority?</p> + +<p>The charge presented against the Federal party and its representatives +was that they had trampled upon the sanctity of the Constitution by the +application to its construction of principles known to be unsound, by +setting at defiance the intentions of those who made it and for whom it +was made, and by prostituting it, and claiming the right to prostitute +it, to the promotion of their particular views of the public interests, +regardless of such intentions, however well understood.</p> + +<p>This Report stands as a perpetual record of that issue. The Republicans +regarded its decision as involving the existence of republican +government, inasmuch as no such government could be sustained for a +moment longer than the Constitution was looked to as a sacred and +inviolable line of duty for both rulers and ruled. They triumphed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> in +the great contest, and they expelled from power the men who refused to +recognize that principle in the administration of the government, and +for that reason they placed in their stead those who would recognize it.</p> + +<p>Madison's Report presented a faithful synopsis of the principles of the +old Republicans upon fundamental questions,—those which relate to the +powers of government and to the responsibilities under which they should +be exercised,—the only questions which gave rise to permanent political +parties. Whilst divisions in regard to particular measures disappear +with the falling off of interest in the subjects of them, those which I +have described as growing out of such primordial tenets are kept alive +as long as the government itself endures. So it has been in all +countries where there has been any appreciable degree of freedom of +opinion. England is almost, if not altogether, the only country whose +institutions are sufficiently analogous to ours to admit of useful +comparisons. From the time when her sovereigns traced their authority +from God, and acknowledged responsibility to Him alone for the manner of +its exercise, to the Revolution of 1688, by which absolutism was forever +abolished and government declared to be a trust for the abuse of which +the sovereign is responsible to the people, and always since, her party +divisions, regarded as national, have had relation to the powers of +government and to the degrees of responsibility under which they should +be exercised. Whether these parties were called Cavaliers and +Roundheads, Presbyterians and Jacobites, Whig and Tory, or Conservatives +and Liberals, such have always been the essential dividing points. Like +ourselves they have had a succession of exciting public questions not of +this character which have for a time divided the community, and were +earnestly contested, but which passed away without making material +inroads upon ancient party<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> divisions, and the latter resumed their sway +when the temporary interruption ceased in much the same general array +they would have presented if it had not occurred.</p> + +<p>I have said that Madison's report was the flag under which the +Republicans conquered. It defines the constitutional creed by which they +were influenced in the administration of the government for twenty-four +years successively, and under which the Democratic party, their +successors, have since held the reins of the Federal Government, with +infrequent exceptions—the latter never extending to two Presidential +terms, and always the result of special circumstances having little +bearing upon general politics.</p> + +<p>But the political seed sown by Hamilton has not in other respects proved +as perishable as have his teachings in favor of monarchical +institutions. The former has never been eradicated—it seems not +susceptible of eradication. I have given the reasons why this has been +so with a description of the fruit it has continued to produce. These +results have fostered kindred doctrines in respect to constitutions, +their sanctity, their uses, and their abuses. I have also said that +these doctrines have been ever cherished and enforced when circumstances +were auspicious, and have constituted the chief element of our party +divisions. Hence it has been that those divisions have been so uniform +in their general outlines. The opposite dispositions which lead men to +take different sides upon such questions have worked to the same ends +from the close of the Revolution, and have been developed on all +occasions of a nature to call them into action. The execution of the +present Federal Constitution presented an opportunity to give them a +definite and more permanent form and classification which they have +maintained ever since. Individuals have changed from side to side under +the influence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> of what they have regarded as stronger inducements, and +when they have been disappointed, have generally returned to their first +bias. Questions of public policy, disconnected from considerations of +constitutional power, have arisen, been discussed, decided or abandoned +and forgotten, whilst the political parties of the country have remained +as they were.</p> + +<p>With the authentic record before us of the issue, the contest, the +result, and the efforts on the part of the defeated party to recover the +ground it had lost, the supposition seems preposterous that our party +divisions had their origin in the circumstances that occurred on the +appointment of General Washington to be Commander-in-Chief of our +Revolutionary army, as is alleged by a son of General Hamilton, in his +history of the life of his father. Of the same character, though not +quite so unreasonable, are the attempts which have been made by several +to find their origin in the Federal Convention. That body did indeed +present an occasion for the application of different opinions to the +original formation of the Federal Constitution, but those opinions grew +out of conflicting tenets which had divided the country into parties +long before, and they were not then determined either way, but +compromised upon grounds of expediency by a result which was not in +point of fact satisfactory to any side, but acquiesced in by a majority +obtained from the ranks of both. The proposition of President John +Quincy Adams in his Inaugural Address, tracing their rise to the +opposing sides taken by the people of the United States, as between +England and France, and their final discontinuance to the disastrous +career and termination of the French Revolution, would seem to be not +less wide of the mark. The continuance of the two great parties of the +country in the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> state, in respect to the principles they espoused +and the characters and dispositions of those who composed them, for more +than half a century and for a quarter of a century before his address +was delivered, is not to be denied. If it was even supposed possible +that an intelligent and high spirited people like our own, with +traditions and a history so eventful, and with domestic interests so +important, could have been arrayed in hostile political opinions and +party divisions by the influence of purely foreign questions, the +continuance of those divisions in the same form and spirit for so many +years after all pretense of the operation of such an influence had +ceased would of itself be sufficient to refute the theory. But the +objections to it are too numerous, too conclusive in their character, +and too obvious to make it necessary to press them farther. The French +Revolution had sufficiently developed itself to weaken, if not +extinguish, the solicitude of the Republicans for its success, (who, +with their leader, Thomas Jefferson, regarded its excesses with +abhorrence,) before they expelled John Adams from the Presidency for the +aid and sanction which he gave to Hamilton's violations of the +Constitution, and his son, John Quincy Adams, was twenty-eight years +afterwards driven from power for the same cause and by the same party, a +party which he supposed had ceased to exist for some thirty years +previous. It was by his latitudinarian avowals in respect to the +constitutional powers of Congress,—when he began to talk of erecting +"light-houses of the skies," and of the folly of paralyzing +representatives by the will of their constituents,—that his political +destiny was sealed.</p> + +<p>That existing political divisions among the people of the United States +induced the formation of preferences and prejudices in respect to +England and France, was, doubtless, true, but to suppose that these +constituted the founda<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>tion of their own divisions is to mistake for the +cause one of its least important effects.</p> + +<p>The Anti-Federal, Republican, and Democratic parties have been from the +beginning composed of men entertaining the same general views in regard +to the most desirable form of government, and to the spirit in which, +and the objects for which, it should be administered. The morbid +feelings of large portions of the old Anti-Federalists produced by their +distrust of delegated power, founded on their knowledge of the extent to +which it had been everywhere abused, led to a difference between them +and the Republicans on the question of clothing the Federal Government +with power to collect its own revenues, to regulate commerce, &c., and +induced them to oppose the ratification of the new Constitution on that +account, and on account of its deficiencies in regard to proper +securities for personal rights. Their party was thereby broken down, but +Jefferson and Samuel Adams, and men like them, succeeded in satisfying +them of their error in respect to the outlines of the Constitution, and +Madison procured the adoption of amendments that obviated their other +objections and, as I have before said, a cordial and enduring union was +formed between them and the Republicans, under the latter name. Since +that period the party has undergone no change, either in its +organization, its principles, or the general political dispositions of +the individuals of which it has been composed. Its name has been changed +from Republican to Democratic, in consequence of the increasing popular +development of its course and principles, and in some degree by the +circumstance that its old opponent had assumed the name of Federal +Republican and by a natural desire to keep the line of demarcation +between them as broad and as well defined as possible.</p> + +<p>The formation and ratification of the Federal Consti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>tution, mainly +through Federal agency, the union of the Anti-Federalists and +Republicans and the cordial acceptance of the Constitution, after its +amendment, by both, presented, at the commencement of Washington's +administration, the fairest opportunity for a real "era of good feeling" +that the country has ever known. All controversy upon fundamental +questions having been removed, the doors seemed to be thrown open for an +amalgamation of parties like that of which so much was said, and with so +little result, during the administration of Mr. Monroe. Without any open +question affecting permanently every interest, and all the people and +all alike, as is the case with such as relate to and embrace the sources +of power and the foundations of the government, if the Constitution had +been upheld in good faith on both sides partisan contests must of +necessity have been limited to local or temporary and evanescent +measures and to popular excitements and opposing organizations as +shifting and short-lived as the subjects which gave rise to them. But +Hamilton took especial care that such halcyon days should not even dawn +on the country. He had a riveted conviction—a conviction he took no +pains to conceal—that the Constitution must prove a signal failure, +unless it could be made to bear measures little dreamed of by those who +made and had adopted it; and in his view of the welfare of the country +that question could not be too soon decided. The name and influence of +Washington was an element of strength toward the accomplishment of his +project in that regard, upon which he had expressed a strong reliance in +the letter now published by his son, without date but written between +the formation and ratification of the Constitution, and he was, of +course, desirous to bring all such questions to an early decision, as +Washington's long continuance in office was far from probable. He, +therefore, promptly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> seized his opportunity, and at the earliest +suitable moment after the organization of the new Government, proposed +the incorporation of a national bank. I have already said, and given my +reasons for the assertion, that in the whole range of the affairs of the +government committed to his charge, he could not have taken a single +step which would have afforded such unmistakable evidence of his +determination not to be controlled in his administration of the +government under the new Constitution by the intentions of those who +framed, or of those who ratified it; not one more likely to revive +former distrusts, and to infuse new jealousies among the +Anti-Federalists in respect to his hostility to republican principles, +or better calculated to give new strength to their energies when the +proper time arrived for the blast of the trumpet that called every man +to his tent. His old friend, Madison, was one of the first to take up +the gauntlet thus boldly thrown before the sincere friends of the +Constitution. This was done by his masterly and unanswerable speech in +Congress against the constitutionality of the bank. No one can make +himself acquainted with Mr. Madison's course, and with the state of his +feeling towards President Washington at that period, and fail to +appreciate the regret and pain he suffered from the performance of that +act of duty, not on his own account but from his extreme reluctance to +be placed in the attitude of opposition to one for whom he cherished +feelings of such unbounded respect and affection, and whose confidence +he fully enjoyed. But for the strong and audacious movements of +Hamilton, there is every reason to believe that Mr. Madison would have +coöperated very cordially in the support of President Washington's +administration throughout. In respect to mere questions of expediency, +he would have done all in his power to give them the most desirable form +and direction, and, if disappointed, would, doubtless, have been silent +as to the result.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> See Randall's <i>Life of Jefferson</i>, Vol. I. p. 587.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> See <i>Life of Morris</i>, Vol. III. p. 128. "But the thing +which in my opinion has done more mischief to the Federal party is the +ground given by some of them to believe that they wish to establish a +monarchy."—<i>Letter from Morris to King.</i></p></div> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Glance at the General Subject as heretofore discussed in this +Essay—One important Topic not yet touched upon, viz.: the Effort +that has been made to secure to the Judicial Department a Superior +Controlling and Dangerous Power over the Executive and Legislative +Departments—The constant Aim of the leading Federalists to give +undue Influence to one of the Three Great Departments—The Judicial +not the Department originally preferred by Hamilton as the +Depository of this Power—How that Department came to be selected +for that Purpose—The Election of Jefferson the Overthrow of the +Federalists in the Executive and Legislative Departments—Efforts +of the latter to retain Control of the Judicial +Department—Character and Career of Chief Justice Marshall—His +Efforts to control the Action of the Executive by +Mandamus—Resistance by Jefferson—Account of the Proceeding by +Mandamus against the Secretary of State, Madison—Opinion of the +Court in Marbury <i>v.</i> Madison—Merits and Result of the +case—Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under the +Constitution—Great Addition to its Power conferred by the +Judiciary Act of 1789—Encroachment by the Federal Judiciary upon +the Jurisdiction of State Courts, the Distinct Policy of the +Federalists—Popular Respect for the Court and Judges favorable to +the Success of that Policy—Jefferson directed the Resistance which +was made to Orders of the Supreme Court, in Marbury <i>v.</i> +Madison—His Action sustained by Congress and approved by the +People—The Federalists hesitate and abandon their Attempt to carry +the Encroachment they had undertaken in the Case of Marbury <i>v.</i> +Madison—High Character of Marshall.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> have proceeded thus far in my endeavor to search out the origin, trace +the progress, and define the principles of political parties in the +United States. To accomplish these objects the measures they have from +time to time advocated have been brought into view; opinions they have +advanced partially discussed, and the means that have been employed to +make them effectual considered.</p> + +<p>The general subject, considering the interest and the importance +attached to it in several aspects, has been but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> little canvassed, and +is at best but imperfectly understood. The most important points put in +issue, so far as they have arisen out of principles advanced or +pretenses set up by either party prior to the election of 1800, have, it +is believed, been fully, and, it is hoped, fairly presented. Here, on +account of the unforeseen extent to which the subject has grown upon my +hands, it would be my wish to dismiss it and to resume the thread of my +Memoirs at the point at which I left it for the consideration of what I +then regarded as incidental matter. To do so has been my intention +through the last two hundred pages of my manuscript. But, at the stage +to which I had looked as the termination of this branch of my labors, I +am met by the reflection that in all I have said in respect to the +doctrines, theories, and acts of parties, I have not even touched upon a +great principle subsequently advanced for the action of the Federal +Government, which, for reasons that will be seen and appreciated as we +proceed, is of equal interest, and which, from considerations of recent +application, is perhaps of more urgent importance than those upon which +my attention has been bestowed.</p> + +<p>I allude to the effort which has been made to secure to one of the three +great departments of the Government—the judicial—a superior and +controlling power over its departmental associates, the executive and +the legislative, all of which were designed by the Constitution to be +coördinate, and, in respect to their relative powers, independent of +each other. This pretension, though successfully discouraged at its +origin, instead of sharing the fate of other constitutional heresies +which sprang from the same source, has been revived with increased +earnestness at critical periods, and at this time seems to threaten to +exert a dangerous influence upon our political system.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have not noticed it before, because it was not set up until after the +great struggle of 1800, and was thus separated from the questions which +originated under the previous administration, most of which have been +agitated to the present day, and because the period of its most imposing +if not its first introduction into the political arena, unconnected with +judicial proceedings,—that of President Jackson's veto against the +passage of the Bank Bill,—occurred at a later period than that to which +my account of political movements has been brought in my Memoirs.</p> + +<p>It has from the beginning been the constant aim of the leading +Federalists to select some department, or some nook or corner in our +political system, and to make it the depository of power which public +sentiment could not reach nor the people control. The judicial was not +the department which Hamilton deemed the best adapted to that end, and +his opinion upon such points seldom failed to become that of his party. +He liked the judiciary as well on account of its being the only branch +of the Government that was constituted, in regard to the tenure of +office, upon the principles he preferred, and which he had proposed in +the Convention for other offices also, as on account of its usefulness +in protecting the rights of persons and property against vicious +legislation or lawless violence. But regarding the exercise of its +powers in no other light than through its judgments in cases "in law and +equity" that were brought before it by parties litigant, the only sense +in which they were regarded by the framers of the Constitution, he +thought it too weak a department for his purpose. This was nominally to +influence, but really to control, the action of the public mind—an +object which, he never hesitated to declare, could only be effected by +appeals to the interests or the fears of the people, and the judicial +power<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> did not possess the means to make either effectual. This opinion +of the weakness of the judicial power he frequently avowed, and +particularly in the 78th No. of the "Federalist." The judiciary, he +there said, "was incontestibly the weakest of the three departments of +power;"—that "though individual oppression might now and then proceed +from the courts of justice, the general liberty of the people could +never be endangered from that quarter;"—that it had "no influence over +either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of +the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. +It may truly be said to have neither <i>force</i> nor <i>will</i>, but merely +judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm +for the efficacious exercise even of this faculty." In support of these +views he cited Montesquieu, who, speaking of them says: "<i>Of the three +powers above mentioned, the Judiciary is next to nothing.</i>" Thus +regarding the judicial department, Hamilton selected the executive and +legislative as those best adapted to his purposes. Of the means which +those departments possessed he spoke in the same number of the +"Federalist" in the following strain: "The executive not only dispenses +the honors, but holds the sword of the community; the legislative not +only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties +and rights of every citizen are to be regulated." These were the +departments, through the instrumentality of which, invigorated as he +designed to invigorate them by his construction of the Constitution, he +hoped to make ours a practicable government. Sustained by a Congress, a +majority of whom stood ready to follow his lead, and by the almost +unbounded confidence of the executive, he for a season carried out his +plans with great success, and enjoyed that momentary confidence which +produced his jubilant remark to Mr. Jefferson.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span></p> + +<p>But he soon found that, like the scriptural foolish man, he had built +his house upon the sand, and the rain descended and the floods came and +the winds blew, and it fell. Within the short period that he remained in +the Government, some of the measures that he had brought into existence +were already discredited by an offended public sentiment, and toward the +close of Mr. Adams' administration—one still guided by his +superintending genius—the political fabric which he had created was, by +the same power, blown into atoms. It was this great overthrow that +brought home to him the unwelcome conviction that other constitutional +foundations than those which the Federal Convention, the people, and the +States had laid, no man, without the same aid, could lay. It presented +to his mind, under circumstances the most impressive, a truth which he +had overlooked in the eagerness of his pursuit after power, viz., that +the people were enabled by the popular provisions of the Constitution in +respect to the executive and legislative departments, to break down the +greater part of such structures as those which he had reared, by +dismissing from their places those who had assisted in their +construction, and substituting others, who, knowing their wishes, would +feel it their interest to respect them; and what was passing before his +eyes afforded the most reliable evidence that they would not be slow in +the exercise of the rights that belonged to them. This was the +handwriting on the wall that foretold the fate of all his plans, and +called forth, during the brief period of his subsequent existence, his +continued denunciation of the Constitution as "a frail and worthless +fabric."</p> + +<p>It was at the moment of this great disaster, when dismay prevailed in +the Federal councils, whilst Hamilton was brooding over a defective +Constitution which he knew the States would not alter to suit his wishes +and which it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> evident the people would not permit him to pervert, +that the Federal party was conducted to the judicial department of the +Government, as to an ark of future safety which the Constitution placed +beyond the reach of public opinion. The man who planned this retreat was +John Marshall—a statesman of great power, one who partook largely of +Hamilton's genius, was better acquainted with the character of the +people, and possessed more control over his own actions.</p> + +<p>The period when this once powerful party was thus counseled and guided +was one well calculated to cause its members to embrace the advice given +to them with avidity. They had just been expelled, root and branch, from +those departments of the government which the Constitution had made +accessible to public opinion and subject to the voice of the people; +whilst over that to which they were recommended to extend their +preference and favor, the people possessed but little if any control. +This difference, so acceptable to their most cherished feelings, was +besides greatly increased in value by the grossly irrational +apprehensions under which they labored in regard to the course of the +President elect and to the dispositions of the party by which he had +been elevated to power. That he participated largely in the feelings and +views of the Jacobins of France, and was prepared for the introduction +of their opinions and practices in this country; that religion, the +rights of persons and property, and all the interests which are regarded +as sacred under well regulated governments, were put in jeopardy by his +election, were opinions to which there were but few dissentients in the +Federal ranks. I have elsewhere referred to a letter, written during the +then recent canvass by Hamilton to Washington, in which he avowed in the +most solemn and deliberate manner his conviction that the Republican +party<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> desired to make our Government subservient to the policy of that +of France, and would, in all probability, rally under her banner if it +was unfurled in force on our shores. Similar sentiments were fulminated +from pulpit and press; and there are yet, here and there, living +witnesses, who will not partake of the surprise this description of the +then condition of the public mind is calculated to excite on the part of +the present generation because they know it to be true, and yet remember +how often and with what solemnity the warning was uttered from sacred +desks that Jefferson's election would be the signal for the prostration +of our pulpits, the burning of our Bibles, and the substitution of some +Goddess of Reason.</p> + +<p>The promises of the mild sway of reason and justice, installed and +enforced by that great statesman, with no other limitation than the +removal from office of factious incumbents whose violence was calculated +to obstruct the successful action of the principles he was elected to +sustain, and the revocation of judicial trusts created in the last +moments of a power already condemned by the people, and which were +designed to counteract their will—a sway which bore upon its wings the +repeal of odious taxes, the reduction of superfluous expense, the +payment of the public debt, and the avoidance of all unnecessary public +burdens, with a zealous concern for the rights of the States as well as +for those of individuals,—made impressions upon the public mind in +favor of the principles upon which it was founded, which now, after the +lapse of more than half a century, are as fixed and as powerful as they +were then; but at the time were scouted by Federal leaders and presses +as false pretences designed to deceive the people and to clear the way +for destructive changes.</p> + +<p>Under such impressions the first object of solicitude on the part of the +Federalists was to strengthen the existing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> organization of the +judiciary by increasing the number of its tribunals and those employed +in its administration, and thus to place it before the country in a more +imposing attitude; and the second to enlarge its powers beyond the +bounds intended to be assigned to them by the Constitution. To +accomplish the first object they resorted to a stretch of power which +now, when the feelings it excited have long since died away and the +actors concerned in it have without exception descended to their tombs, +will not, I feel confident, find a justification in the breast of a +single upright man, whatever disposition he may entertain to excuse it +on account of the violence of public feeling prevalent at the time.</p> + +<p>After the fiat of the people had pronounced the absolute expulsion from +office of the Federal executive within a brief and fixed period, and +virtually that of the Federal party from power, they availed themselves +of the remnant of authority unavoidably left to them by the forms of the +Constitution to establish new courts, embracing within the jurisdiction +assigned to them all the States of the Confederacy, and the district +which had been set apart for the seat of the Federal Government; +appointed three judges for each court, to hold their offices nominally +during good behavior, virtually for life, with liberal salaries,—making +in all twenty-one judges, besides clerks, etc.,—all designed to be +placed beyond the power of the government that had been selected by the +people to succeed them. Thus, much was done toward the accomplishment of +their first object. The enlargement of the judicial power of the +department was to be effected by a different process.</p> + +<p>Among the "<i>midnight appointments</i>" by President Adams, (a stigma +attached to them at the time, and from which they have never been +rescued,) were forty-two magistrates, nominated for the District of +Columbia. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> list, though containing many highly respectable names, +was in the main made up of opponents of the President elect, not a few +of them strongly imbued with the partisan <i>furor</i> of the day. They were +to hold their offices for a period extending beyond that for which the +President himself was elected, and it was upon their coöperation Mr. +Adams and his cabinet intended that his successor should be mainly +dependent for the discharge of the high duty imposed upon him by the +Constitution—that of causing the laws to be executed in the Federal +District. The nominations were sent to the Senate on the second of +March, confirmed during the night of the third, and Mr. Jefferson +entered upon the duties of his office the next morning. The commissions +were found on the table in the State Department with its seal attached, +signed by President Adams, and if signed also by a Secretary it must +have been by a <i>locum tenens</i>, as Mr. Marshall had some days before been +transferred from the office of Secretary of State to that of Chief +Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The commissions had +not been delivered,—an act which Mr. Jefferson, as the head of the +executive department of the Government, decided to be necessary to the +completion of the appointment. Under such circumstances, and, doubtless, +stung by the ungraciousness of the treatment he had received, he +directed that the commissions should neither be recorded nor delivered, +but treated as nullities. Believing the number far too large, he issued +new commissions during the recess to twenty of those selected by Mr. +Adams and to five others designated by himself, nominated them to the +Senate at its next session, by which body they were confirmed.</p> + +<p>This transaction furnished the desired occasion to apply the opening +wedge for the enlargement of the judicial power of the Federal +Government, and it was promptly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> and fully embraced through the +proceedings that were had in the celebrated case of Marbury and Madison. +The judges of the Supreme Court were to a man Federalists, and at the +head of them stood, as chief justice, President Jefferson's persevering +and consistent old political antagonist—John Marshall.</p> + +<p>The Chief Justice may not have been the severest student or the most +learned lawyer, but he was certainly, all things considered, the ablest +judge that had ever occupied a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court +of the United States. No man was ever more rigidly just or strictly +impartial in all cases of <i>meum and tuum</i> that were brought before him +for adjudication. Under a disposition the most genial, and a childlike +simplicity and frankness of manner he cherished during his whole life, +as all his race have done, Federal principles and Federal prejudices of +the most ultra character. These, though ordinarily kept in due check by +a commendable and exemplary self-command,—a virtue he shared with, if +he had not in some degree imbibed it from, his friend and neighbor, +General Washington,—had nevertheless been warmed by the circumstances +of the moment to a high temperature. The inducements by which he was +almost forced into public life by the General, shortly before the death +of the latter, have been narrated in the account I have given of my +conversation with his nephew, Judge Washington, at Mount Vernon.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> +Unhappily impressed with the idea that his own as well as the interests +of the country depended upon the support of Mr. Adams' administration, +General Washington for once, and fortunately only for a brief season, +lent himself to partisan movements and used his controlling influence to +induce Mr. Marshall to offer for Congress, and in no other case has the +high estimate he formed of a man's capacity been more signally verified +by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> the result. Marshall became at once, through the influence of a +single speech of extraordinary power, a leader in the House of +Representatives during the most stormy period of the administration of +John Adams, was subsequently appointed Secretary of War and Secretary of +State by Mr. Adams, and held the latter office until his party, and the +administration with it, were overthrown by the Republicans under the +lead of Mr. Jefferson. He was then transferred by Mr. Adams to the place +of Chief Justice. Other circumstances lent their influence to infuse +ill-will into the personal relations of Jefferson and Marshall. They +were natives of the same State, and although they had stood as Whigs +side by side in the Revolution, the political principles maintained by +Mr. Jefferson, after the establishment of our Independence, were so much +more in harmony with those of Virginia as to place Marshall's views ever +after under the ban of her opinion, notwithstanding the qualified +sanction they received front General Washington. On the part of Mr. +Jefferson, the unfriendly feelings which he believed were entertained +toward him by the Chief Justice were, for him, quite earnestly +reciprocated. This is shown by the following pointed extract from his +letter to myself, in which, speaking of the alterations and other uses +that had been made of his letter to Mazzei, he adds, "and even Judge +Marshall makes history descend from its dignity and the ermine from its +sanctity to exaggerate, to record, and to sanction this forgery."<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Jefferson, apprised that steps were being taken to bring his acts in +respect to the commissions under the supervision of the Supreme Court, +at once penetrated the design that lay behind the particular measure, +and, with that moral courage that never deserted him, prepared to defend +the department committed to his charge. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> head of the State +Department was advised, and the clerks instructed, to make themselves +parties to no act which would justly be regarded as recognizing the +authority of the court to meddle in the affair, and his views were, of +course, faithfully carried out by Mr. Madison, as well as by the +subordinates in the department. A motion was made at the December term +of the court in 1801, for a rule requiring James Madison to show cause +why a mandamus should not issue commanding him to deliver those +commissions to the nominees. Notice of motion was served upon Mr. +Madison, but he declined to appear. He was asked by the relator whether +the commissions were signed and sealed, but declined to respond to such +inquiries, as did also the officers of the department. Application was +also made to the Secretary of the Senate for a certificate that the +nominations had been confirmed, which was also refused. A resolution was +offered in the Senate directing the Secretary of the Senate to give the +certificate. It was laid upon the table and no further acted upon. Upon +affidavits stating these facts, except the last, a rule was obtained +requiring the Secretary to show cause why the mandamus should not be +issued on a day certain, of which he took no notice. The court, +notwithstanding, proceeded to an <i>ex parte</i> hearing. "Two clerks were +summoned from the department as witnesses, who objected to be sworn +because they were not bound to disclose any facts relating to the +business or transactions of the office. The court ordered the witnesses +to be sworn, and their testimony taken in writing; but informed them +that, when the questions were asked, they might state their objections +to answering each particular question, if they had any. Mr. Lincoln, who +had been Acting Secretary of State when the circumstances stated in the +affidavits occurred, was called upon to give testimony. He objected to +answering. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> questions were put in writing. The Court said there was +nothing confidential required to be disclosed. If there had been, he was +not obliged to answer that, nor was he obliged to state any thing which +would criminate himself."<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>The testimony that was given is not set forth in the report of the case.</p> + +<p>The counsel for the relator argued the questions he presented for the +consideration of the court in the following order, viz.:</p> + +<p>1st. Whether the Supreme Court can award the writ of mandamus in any +case.</p> + +<p>2d. Whether it would lie to a Secretary of State in any case whatever.</p> + +<p>3d. Whether in the present case the court may award a mandamus to James +Madison, Secretary of State.</p> + +<p>The point involving the question of jurisdiction was, according to the +invariable course of legal proceeding, the first in order of +consideration, upon the plain and simple principle that if the court +have no right to act definitively in the matter there is neither use nor +propriety in considering even, and much less in making a decision upon, +the merits of the case. That belongs to the tribunal that possesses +jurisdiction. No point was clearer than the want of jurisdiction on the +part of the Supreme Court, and such it will be seen was the unanimous +and unhesitating opinion of the court itself. The Constitution divides +the jurisdiction conferred on that high tribunal into that which may be +exercised as original, and that which shall only be appellate, and +separates the two in terms which leave no room for misapprehension or +mistake. The language of the Constitution is—"In all cases affecting +ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a +State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned the Supreme Court +shall have appellate jurisdiction" both as to the law and fact, with +such exceptions and under such regulations as Congress shall make. The +motion before the court was clearly an original proceeding in a matter +in which it confessedly had no original jurisdiction; so the court was +obliged to say, and so it ultimately said.</p> + +<p>A pretense was set up by the relator's counsel that the court might +claim the desired authority under that part of the Judiciary Act +providing necessary means to enforce its appellate jurisdiction, which, +after specifying the cases in which such jurisdiction may be exercised, +and pointing out the way in which it may be carried into effect, adds to +the authority to issue writs of prohibition to the district courts in +certain cases—"and writs of mandamus, in cases warranted by the +principles and usages of law, to any courts appointed or persons holding +office under the authority of the United States." Now the plain +intention of this clause of the sentence was to extend the right of +issuing a mandamus, in the exercise of its <i>appellate jurisdiction</i>, to +any subordinate authorities upon whom Congress might confer judicial +power, whether that power was given to a court, or to a single officer +not constituting a court according to the ordinary interpretation of +that word. The commissioners subsequently appointed under the Fugitive +Slave Act are officers of that description. To think otherwise is to +suppose that the men who framed the Judiciary Act of 1789 designed by +the terms they employed to give to the Supreme Court original +jurisdiction in cases in which it was denied to it by the +Constitution—a design too absurd and too disingenuous to have found +even a momentary resting-place in the minds of those great men. The +court so far countenanced this interpretation as to assume, for the sake +of the argument, that the words "or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> persons holding office," might +embrace the case before it. But it immediately proceeded to disprove the +assumption by saying, "It has been stated at the bar that the appellate +jurisdiction may be exercised in a variety of forms, and that if it be +the will of the legislature that a <i>mandamus</i> should be issued for that +purpose that will must be obeyed. <i>This is true</i>; yet the jurisdiction +must be <i>appellate</i> not <i>original</i>,"—and the court goes on to show that +this proceeding would in no sense be regarded as an exercise of +appellate jurisdiction; adding to that demonstrative refutation the +declaration, that if the act would bear the interpretation given to it +by the counsel, it would be directly contrary to the Constitution and +therefore void. That the court had not the slightest right to do what it +was asked to do, or to take original jurisdiction of the matter in any +form, was a point upon which it expressed no doubt; and if it had +decided the questions in the order in which they were presented by the +relator's counsel, the necessity of dismissing the motion before coming +to the consideration of the merits of the case would have been too +imperative to be overcome.</p> + +<p>Under these circumstances what was the course pursued by the Chief +Justice, who gave the opinion of the court, and who alone of its members +appears, in the report, to have taken part in the case? He reversed the +order in which the relator's counsel had presented their client's case +and substituted the following:—</p> + +<p>1st. Has the applicant a right to the commission he demanded?</p> + +<p>2d. If he has a right and that right has been violated, do the laws of +his country afford him a remedy?</p> + +<p>3d. If they do afford him a remedy, is it a mandamus from this court?</p> + +<p>That the question of jurisdiction is always the first in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> order is a +proposition too plain and too well-established to be discussed. It is +not only a rule in our judicial system and in that from which ours has +been derived, but must of necessity be a feature in every enlightened +system of jurisprudence.</p> + +<p>This order was observed by the counsel for the relator, but was so +changed in the opinion of the court as to make the consideration of the +merits precede the question of jurisdiction—an arrangement for which no +good reason could be given, and for which therefore none was attempted +to be given. The motive lay on the face of the transaction. It was the +only way in which the court could avoid the necessity of saying that +they had no jurisdiction over the subject before proceeding to discuss +and decide upon its merits. It was to avoid, though in appearance only, +this judicial deformity that the Chief Justice reversed the order of the +questions, and then in an opinion, which occupies some twenty-six pages +in Cranch's Reports,<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> he attempted to prove that the withholding of +the commissions was an act not warranted by law, but a violation of a +vested legal right which the court pronounced it to be; yet wound up +with an admission that the court had no jurisdiction of the subject, and +of course no right to act upon it.</p> + +<p>If this statement is not in all respects true, then I do injustice to +the Chief Justice and his associates, and the inferences I draw from it +are to be turned not only from them but against myself. But if the +matter, as described by the Chief Justice himself, stood in every +respect as I have here narrated, then I insist—and I cannot, I am very +sure, deceive myself in believing that every ingenuous mind, whatever +may be its political bias, will concur with me in the position—that the +course pursued by the Chief Justice<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> and sanctioned by his associates +was exceptionable in the highest degree. With the Constitution before +them, it was entirely clear at the first introduction of the matter that +they had no original jurisdiction of the subject, and could not, under +any state of facts, comply with the application of the relator. The +course should therefore have been, and doubtless under ordinary +circumstances would have been, to direct the relator's counsel to +confine their argument to that preliminary point and at its close, with +the want of jurisdiction as apparent to the court as it proved to be, to +have discharged the rule. But if the court had for any reason thought it +desirable to hear the whole case, the same course should have been +pursued when it came to their decision, and the merits of the case +should have been left unacted upon. No end could be answered by an +unauthorized decision on the merits, other than to show to the inferior +tribunals what the Supreme Court would do if the case was brought before +it on appeal; and that was the design attributed to the Chief Justice by +Mr. Jefferson and severely reprobated. Such is not the way in which it +is admissible for superior tribunals to treat such subjects; but if it +could in any case be deemed excusable, it could never be so on an <i>ex +parte</i> hearing. For myself I cannot, with equal and great respect for +the principal actors, help regarding the proceedings, from the granting +of the rule to show cause to the final decision, as exhibiting a +culpable want of courtesy on the part of one of the three great +departments of the Federal Government toward a coördinate member, at +least equal in dignity and power, greatly aggravated by the political +relations in which the President and the Chief Justice stood toward each +other, and by the temper of the times in which they occurred.</p> + +<p>I apply the remark to them individually, because Chief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> Justice Marshall +was the principal, and seemingly the sole actor, in the proceedings on +the part of the court, and because the retention of the commissions—the +grievance those proceedings were designed to redress—was not merely an +executive act, but one committed in pursuance of the specific direction +of President Jefferson. This was always avowed by the latter, and the +guarded manner in which the replies of Mr. Madison are stated in the +report of the case is, to my mind at least, sufficient proof that the +President was throughout considered and treated by the Chief Justice as +the actual offender in the matter.</p> + +<p>In respect to the soundness of the volunteer opinion of the court it +would be superfluous, considering the fate that awaited it, to do more +than to restate the question. This may certainly be done with more +brevity and perhaps with equal distinctness.</p> + +<p>It will not be denied that President Jefferson had the same power over +the subject on the 4th March that Mr. Adams would have possessed if his +term of office had not expired on the 3d. The President under our +system, like the king in a monarchy, never dies. Let us then suppose +that Mr. Adams, after he had signed the commission and caused the seal +to be affixed to it, but before it had been recorded or delivered, had +discovered that the appointee was a felon, or for any reason an +obviously improper person to be made a conservator of the public peace, +was he not authorized to withhold it? The appointment is made by the +Constitution to consist of three acts—the nomination, the approval by +the Senate, and the commissioning. The first and last devolve on the +President. The signatures to them must necessarily be his own act; but +Congress supplies him with a Secretary of State subject to his own +directions, to do whatever else is necessary, viz.: to affix the seal to +the commission; to record it; and to cause it to be deliv<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>ered or +transmitted to the appointee. The President is apprised of the +impropriety of the appointment,—an act which the Constitution had +devolved on him alone,—the commission is yet in his possession, for the +office of Secretary of State is, for all such purposes, his office, and +the question would not have been changed if the seal had been affixed at +the President's House; can it be for a moment supposed that the +Constitution intended that his power over the commission ceased the +moment he attached his signature, or the Secretary the public seal, and +that after that he had no right to arrest further proceedings, however +strong his reasons for so doing? Can it be presumed that its framers +intended to invest the President in the discharge of his responsible +duty to "commission all the officers of the United States" with an +authority so precise and technical? It is on all sides conceded that he +is not bound to commission after the Senate has approved, but has still +a right to withhold the commission at his pleasure; and it would be +strange, indeed, if it was not intended to give him the power also to +arrest its being put on record and delivered after he had signed it, if +he saw good cause to do so. But it is not now important to weigh +accurately the reasoning of the Chief Justice, which certainly partakes +largely of the art and precision of special pleading; as the case was +abandoned then, and no similar case has arisen for more than half a +century. That the claim of Mr. Marbury and his associates, with ample +facilities for its prosecution in the inferior tribunals within their +reach, (Judge Cranch, the reporter of the case of Marbury <i>v.</i> Madison, +a full believer in the judicial as well as the political infallibility +of the Chief Justice, being the Federal judge in the District) should +have been given up, after the determination with which it had been +asserted, and the care and favor with which it had been considered and +elaborated by the Chief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> Justice, would at the first blush seem not a +little unaccountable. The fact of abandonment, in the absence of other +explanation, would justify the inference that it was the result of a +subsequent conviction that the proceedings were erroneous. But changes +of opinion or disposition under such circumstances seldom arise, and the +solution of their subsequent course is, I think, to be found in other +considerations. The course pursued by the President afforded +unmistakable evidence of his determination to resist at the threshold, +and to the bitter end, the supervisory power of the judiciary over the +other great departments of the Government, which was then for the first +time sought to be introduced through the <i>ex parte</i> proceedings in the +case of Marbury <i>v.</i> Madison.</p> + +<p>With such a demonstration before them it became the Supreme Court and +its supporters, before it committed itself more deeply in the attempt it +had entered upon to control the action of the aroused democracy of the +country represented in the executive and legislative departments of the +Federal Government, to survey, with more care than had perhaps been +hitherto used, the means of offense and defense with which the +Constitution had invested each.</p> + +<p>The result of such a scrutiny could not have failed to satisfy sensible +men that the President elect, the new Senate, and the new House of +Representatives,—who in their respective positions had frustrated the +effort of the late President to subject his successor to a dependence +during his entire official term, for the performance of a highly +important part of his official duties in the Federal District, upon a +magistracy not of his own selection, and had thus far also defeated an +attempt, springing from the same spirit and upon an enlarged scale, to +saddle the country with an uncalled-for and enormous addition to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +existing judicial corps, clothed with extensive authority, and to all +substantial purposes irresponsible to the people,—were also invested by +the Constitution with ample power not only to defeat a new effort to +carry into effect before the appropriate tribunal the hostile views +indicated by the proceedings in the case of Marbury <i>v.</i> Madison, but to +reduce the power and dignity of the Supreme Court itself to a standard +far inferior to those it then possessed.</p> + +<p>The Federal Constitution declares, that "all the appellate jurisdiction +conferred on the Supreme Court shall in all cases be subject to such +exceptions and under such regulations as Congress shall make." Thus by +the words of the Constitution the whole subject is placed under the +revision of Congress and is made subject to its action. If any attempt +had been made to set up anew the importance that had been constructively +attached, in the case of Marbury v. Madison, to the words "or persons +holding office" in the Judiciary Act, that body would instantly have +relieved that act and its authors from the preposterous aspersions which +had been cast upon them.</p> + +<p>But there was matter in the background of far greater moment.</p> + +<p>The <i>original</i> jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was limited to cases +affecting ambassadors and those in which a State was a party. This +branch of its jurisdiction has, it is well known, occupied but little of +the time of the court, and has been withal very unimportant either in +its character or consequences. Deprived of the influence and <i>éclat</i> it +has derived from the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction, the court +would have stood as a pageant in the federal system of but little +account for good or evil. With the addition of that obtained from +appeals and writs of error from the inferior tribunals of the United +States, its position before the country would still have been one of +little consideration.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span></p> + +<p>Both branches of the jurisdiction in these respects taken collectively, +their results would not have been any thing like the power and influence +and dignity which the Supreme Court of the United States derived from a +single clause in the Judiciary Act of 1789, extending its appellate +jurisdiction to the decisions of the State courts. The assemblage of +cases for its application arrayed in that pregnant section, aided by the +power derived from the construction given to the provision in the +Federal Constitution prohibiting the passage of State laws violating the +obligation of contracts—a provision always understood to have been +introduced to prevent State obstructions to the collection of British +debts, but now made to override the insolvent systems of the States, +etc.,—gave the Supreme Court the supervision and control of the most +valuable and hitherto the most cherished portion of the legislation and +jurisprudence of the State governments. To secure this control was an +object always near to Hamilton's heart. He attempted it openly in the +Convention by his proposition for a negative upon State laws, etc. But +in the hands of the court the control of the Federal Government over +State legislation was equally effective, less likely to become +obnoxious, and infinitely more secure; for if it had been placed, as he +proposed, in the hands of the President, or of the President and Senate, +or of Congress, it would still have been deposited in places accessible +to the people, and at short and stated periods liable to be overruled by +their will. But here it was in the only sanctuary in a republican +government he deemed safe against popular inroads, and it was this +provision <i>in the Judiciary Act</i> which, more than all other things +combined, made that department—which Montesquieu described as next to +nothing in point of power, and upon the weakness of which Hamilton, +before the passage of that act, descanted so freely—the most formidable +and overshadowing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> branch of the government. The section bears the +impress of his mind, and if not the work of his pen was beyond all doubt +the result of his suggestions. Hamilton was not a member then, but we +have seen that he made speeches in Congress through another, and I have +not a doubt that, if the truth could now be known, it would appear that +but few things were said or done on one side, in either branch of that +body, of which he did not make a part in some form. Is it not passing +strange that not a word is to be found in the Constitution to authorize +Congress to confer such a jurisdiction upon the Supreme Court? Can it be +for a moment supposed that such a power,—one so nearly akin to the +proposition to place a veto in the hands of the Federal Government upon +State legislation, one so eminently calculated to alarm the State-rights +party,—would have been allowed, if it had been by anybody believed to +be in the Constitution, to pass the State Conventions <i>sub silentio</i>? +What is said in the Constitution about the appellate jurisdiction of the +Supreme Court is not only satisfied by referring it to the inferior +courts which Congress were authorized to "ordain and establish," but is, +by the terms employed, fairly confined to them. The place in the +Constitution where the authority is given to establish inferior courts +to exercise those parts of the judicial power of which no original +jurisdiction was given to the Supreme Court, and which were to +constitute the basis for the operation of that which was to be appellate +only, would have been, one would suppose, the very place in which the +authority to extend that jurisdiction to the State courts would have +been inserted if it was intended to be given. Again, the whole judicial +power of the United States is by the Constitution vested in the Supreme +Court, and in <i>such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to +time ordain and establish</i>. That the words<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> used embrace, and seem +intended to embrace, the <i>whole power</i>, is apparent from the face of the +Constitution, and was, besides, demonstrated by Hamilton in the first +number of his "Pacificus." Madison said in the Virginia Convention, that +it would be in the power of Congress to <i>vest the inferior Federal +jurisdiction in the State courts</i>; and Pendleton and Mason intimated an +expectation that this would be done; whilst Grayson said that State +judges formed the principal defense of the rights of the States, and +that Congress should not take from them their "only defensive armor;" +and Patrick Henry, who in the days of his political orthodoxy could +snuff danger to State rights in almost every breeze, apprehended that +"by construction the Supreme Court would completely annihilate the State +courts." Had Congress invested the inferior Federal jurisdiction in the +State courts, and had they accepted the extension, the appellate +jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to those courts in the cases +enumerated would have been in all respects proper. But the Congress, a +majority of whose members were Hamiltonian Federalists, were not, for +reasons it is now unnecessary to consider, willing to admit the State +courts to a participation in the administration of the judicial power +reserved to the Federal Government, and proceeded at once to ordain and +establish inferior courts of their own. These consisting of district +courts, circuit courts and the one Supreme Court named in the +Constitution, completed the organization of the Federal judiciary. Their +respective jurisdictions were wisely separated and accurately defined. A +small portion of that which was original was, for well-understood +reasons, vested in the Supreme Court. The residue was separated and +distributed among the inferior tribunals, subject to an appellate +jurisdiction and supervisory power in the Supreme Court over all their +proceedings. The system<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> thus arranged was not only complete but +harmonious in all its parts. The courts were clothed with the entire +judicial power of the Government; were only authorized to act upon one +class of subjects—those which appertained to the judicial power of the +United States. The judges received their appointments from the same +source, and were responsible for their conduct to one head. Looking only +to judicial objects this might well be regarded as the judicial system +designed by the framers of the Constitution.</p> + +<p>If ours had been a consolidated government these provisions would have +embraced the whole subject, and satisfied the wants of the whole +country. But in the actual state of things in that regard they were +inadequate to the accomplishment of that end. Instead of one +consolidated government ours was a confederacy of sovereign States, +presided over by a Federal Government which they had themselves created +and clothed with such powers as they deemed necessary to its efficiency +and usefulness, and as would be most likely to conduce to the freedom, +prosperity, and happiness of all.</p> + +<p>With no other bond of union during the first years of the Revolutionary +contest than common danger, and obliged to struggle with a defective +Federal organization, these States succeeded in constructing for +themselves republican constitutions, and in several instances, before +the establishment of our Independence, sustained the brunt of that +struggle and came out of it with institutions fully adequate to all the +purposes of good government, including systems of jurisprudence and +competent tribunals for their administration. The administrators of +these institutions, driven to desperation by great public and private +distress,—the direct results of the oppression of the mother +country,—may in a few cases, and for a short period, have forgotten +that interests liable to sequestration in war were inviolable in peace,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +and failed to interpose with sufficient alacrity a judicial barrier +against the attempts of some of the State legislatures to throw +obstructions in the way of the collection of British debts. But those +were limited and temporary aberrations, which would soon have yielded to +proper treatment on the part of the Federal Government. At the period of +the passage of the Judiciary Act the judges who presided in most of the +State courts might be compared without discredit to those who filled the +benches of the Federal courts, and this relative equality has ever since +been well maintained. Such has certainly been the case in the State of +New York. The name of Chancellor Livingston, who was then at the head of +our equity system, would lose nothing from a comparison with Chief +Justice Jay, when the latter was placed at the head of the Federal +courts. Our equity and common-law courts have since been graced by +Chancellor Lansing, Chief Justices Lewis and Kent, and Judges Brockholst +Livingston, Smith Thompson, Ambrose Spencer, Wm. W. Van Ness, and +others, all men of great talents and acquirements. Nor have the courts +of our sister States been wanting in this regard. The names of +Theophilus Parsons of Massachusetts, Tappan Reeves of Connecticut, and +Pendleton, Wythe and Roane of Virginia, with numerous others, might be +added to the list. It would not be an easy matter to match these by +selections from the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, +highly distinguished as its incumbents have been.</p> + +<p>The State courts had, for nearly fifteen years before the passage of the +Judiciary Act of 1789, performed, as well in peace as in war, most of +the duties which the new Constitution devolved upon the Federal +judiciary. The Federal Government was authorized, by the articles of +Confederation, to establish inferior courts for the trial of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> piracies +and felonies committed on the high seas, and courts for the trial of +Admiralty cases, yet these powers had been carried into effect through +the State judiciaries. But all at once the State courts were deemed +unworthy of trust. Whence this change? Had the State courts degenerated? +No such thing; they were constantly improving, the supineness of a few +in respect to the interests of the mother country, blamable as it +certainly was, to the contrary notwithstanding. No, the State courts had +not become worse, but the implacable opponents of those whose judicial +power they represented had become stronger! The old Anti-Federal party, +the inflexible and powerful champion for the rights of the States, had +been overthrown—forever demolished, at least in that array. The State +governments were for a season helpless. Those who were always hostile to +their power—who, in the language of Hamilton after the Convention, and +in the act of foreshadowing the effects of such an administration as +actually succeeded, were desirous of a "triumph altogether over the +State governments, and to reduce them to an entire subordination"—were +all powerful in Congress. Nor was their power confined to Congress or to +any particular branch of the Government. The result of the question of +ratification in the different State Conventions, and the idea present to +every mind that material prosperity, public and private, would be much +promoted by that result, produced a great change in public sentiment +adverse to the authority and influence of the State governments. It was +made fashionable to deride them. The organization of the Federal +judiciary was the very first opportunity that was afforded after the +adoption of the Constitution to make the States feel the power which +their inveterate opponents had acquired by that event, and most +unsparingly was that power exercised.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span></p> + +<p>The few members of that Congress who had not been entirely carried away +by this current, and had the boldness to stand by the States and their +tribunals—among whom that firm and incorruptible republican, James +Jackson of Georgia, was by far the most effective—were willing that a +right to supervise and reverse the decisions of the State tribunals in +all matters of Federal jurisdiction, should be conferred on the Supreme +Court of the United States, provided only that the State courts were +intrusted, as they had hitherto been, with the administration of the +inferior Federal jurisdiction in lieu of the inferior Federal courts +which the Bill proposed to establish. This they contended would make the +system an harmonious and consistent one, and preserve the respect and +consideration which was due to the State tribunals.</p> + +<p>The proposition was literally scouted in debate and rejected by a vote +of two to one in the House, and in the Senate by a still larger +majority. The Bill was so constructed as to clothe the Supreme Court and +the inferior courts it established with all the judicial power allowed +to the Federal Government by the Constitution, with unimportant +reservations which did not diminish their authority and do not require +to be noticed. Ample means were thus provided for its practical +extension to every party entitled to its protection, and if those who +regulated the action of Congress had not been influenced by any views +other than such as related to the administration of justice, its +legislation would have terminated there. But that body went further. A +clause was added to the Judiciary Bill professing to give to the Supreme +Court appellate jurisdiction over the final judgments and decrees of the +highest courts of law and equity of a State, whoever might be the +parties to the suit, or whatever might have been the objects for which +it had been brought, provided only that the relative<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> powers of the +Federal and State governments under the Federal Constitution in respect +to several enumerated subjects had in the course of prosecution of such +suit been "drawn in question," and decided against the Federal power. No +matter to what extent the rights of the parties were concluded by that +question, or in what form or how incidentally it had been introduced, it +was sufficient that it had been raised and decided against the Federal, +or in favor of the State authority, to subject the judgment or decree +given by the State court to be reėxamined or reversed in the Supreme +Court of the United States. To confer upon that tribunal, the anomalous +authority of issuing writs of error to the highest courts of other +States confessedly sovereign, and which in all such matters might well +be regarded as foreign States,—courts which were not established by the +Federal Government, and between which and it there existed no judicial +relations,—commanding those courts to send to it for reėxamination, +reversal, or affirmance, the record of judgments and decrees which had +neither been made under Federal authority nor by judges in any sense +amenable to it for the discharge of their official duties, was an idea +never broached in the Federal Convention, or in the slightest degree +alluded to in the Constitution it adopted.</p> + +<p>Disputes in respect to the boundaries of power between the Federal and +State governments were foreseen, and the means for acquisition and +defense sought after by the special friends of each. Both looked to +their respective legislatures as the theatres of encroachment, and a +very serious effort was made to obtain authority for the Federal +Government to confer important State appointments, and to interpose a +negative upon State laws. These concessions were sternly refused by the +friends of the State authorities, and if they had been granted the new +Constitution would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> never have been ratified. No efforts have been made +by Congress through direct legislation to restrain the State +legislatures from encroaching on the power of the Federal Government, +and it would not be an easy matter—the Constitution being silent on the +subject—to establish a right on the part of the judicial power to +interfere in that direction which would not also devolve on the Federal +legislature, the power more particularly interested in the matter. The +clause referred to in the Federal Judiciary Act looks in an especial +manner to the legislative acts of each government, and seeks to +establish the supremacy in the Federal system. It is possible that the +framers of the Constitution intended to give Congress a right to confer +such a power on the Supreme Court, but it is certainly most +extraordinary if that was so that the subject should have remained +unnoticed in the Convention, and have been so entirely excluded from the +face of the Constitution. Be that as it may, it is well known that the +authority given to the court by the statute for a long time lay in its +hands a dormant power. Those who conferred it had too much their own way +in the administration of the Federal Government, during the first twelve +years of its existence, to require extraneous aid to push its power to +the extremes they desired. It was when they had been expelled from its +executive and legislative departments by the uprising of the people that +their attention was more earnestly turned to that of the judiciary as +one which—as well from the peculiarity of its constitution as from the +views of those who were in possession of it—was best qualified for the +protection of rights which they, no doubt honestly, believed in danger. +Hence the movement in the case of Marbury <i>v.</i> Madison.</p> + +<p>We cannot now form a complete estimate of the extent to which the +character of our institutions, in view of that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> step and of measures of +which it might have been the opening wedge, hinged upon the character +and disposition of those whom the people had then just raised to power. +The respect and reverence with which the minds of a vast majority of our +citizens were impressed for their courts of justice, the confidence +which had been reposed in their purity as indicated by the tenure of +their offices, and the imposing character of those who filled them at +the moment combined to deter feeble and irresolute minds from resistance +to the authority of the Supreme Court of the United States, however +unfavorable their estimation of the course upon which it was entering.</p> + +<p>No unauthorized exercise of power would, for any considerable period, +have passed unchecked by a people like ours, then yet fresh from a +national struggle for principles better defined and defended with more +steadiness and by purer means than any the world had ever witnessed in +revolutionary contests. But the class of men, in any community where +deference for the ermine is habitual, who will meet danger at the very +threshold, and oppose resistance to judicial usurpation at the instant +of its appearance, is not likely to be numerous.</p> + +<p>Hostile to every assumption of power over the conduct or mind of man not +originally authorized by man himself, however plausible the pretences +upon which it might be exerted, an opposition deeply seated in his +nature, matured and confirmed by study and by all the observation and +experience of his eventful career, Jefferson was not the man to submit +to encroachments upon institutions he had sworn to protect, and more +especially upon that branch of them which a great and free people had +confided to his particular care. It was no matter to a man of his +knowledge of the world and approved moral courage from what quarter such +encroachments proceeded, they were certain to meet with a firm and +spirited opposition on his part.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p> + +<p>The course pursued by the State department was by his express direction, +and of course upon his responsibility. This he always avowed, and this +would have appeared in the report of the case of Marbury and Madison, if +the fact had not been designedly and for obvious reasons suppressed. It +was to accomplish this object that the statement of the case which +accompanies the elaborate opinion of Chief Justice Marshall was made to +present an appearance so ambiguous and unlawyer-like. Mr. Madison, it is +stated, refused to deliver the commission. On what grounds? That is not +stated, only that his explanations were not satisfactory to the relator. +If they had been given the fact referred to would have appeared on the +face of the record, and would have gone down to posterity as an answer +to the reasoning of the opinion. The refusal of the witnesses—clerks in +the department—to be sworn or to answer, and the decision of the court +that they should be sworn and answer under certain restrictions, and +that they were sworn, are all stated with much particularity, but what +they said is not stated. Here, again, the fact is suppressed that the +commission was retained in the executive department by the orders of the +President, who, in the exercise of executive discretion, regarded it as +the evidence of an appointment not completed, and which he decided not +to complete.</p> + +<p>But this was only a foretaste of the spirit with which the scheme of the +Federal party to raise the judicial department of the Federal +Government, not only over the States and their judicatories but over the +two other departments of the General Government, was to be met. Two +months had not elapsed after the delivery of the opinion of the Chief +Justice in Marbury <i>v.</i> Madison, before the entire judicial fabric which +that party had erected during the last moments of their expiring power, +by which twenty-one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> additional federal judges were appointed, eighteen +in the States and three in the District of Columbia, with large salaries +and still larger power, to hold their offices virtually for life, was +overthrown by the vote of a majority of Congress, a majority more +confiding, more harmonious, and better disposed to second and sustain +the measures of the executive than any we have ever had.</p> + +<p>This measure—the least important effect of which was to relieve the +national treasury from the payment of salaries to some twenty-seven or +thirty gentlemen, whose services an experience of more than half a +century has shown to have been unnecessary—was assailed with +unprecedented violence. Gouverneur Morris said it had stricken down the +sanctity of the judiciary, and his political associates in Congress +denounced it as a gross infraction of the Constitution. He spoke of it +with the same vehemence and heat with which he taunted the men who had +passed it and their successors, twelve years afterwards, at the federal +celebration of the restoration of the Bourbons, when he invited them, by +the appellation of the "savage and wild democracy," to see, "though it +should blast their eye-balls, royal princes surrounded by loyal +subjects!" The attempts of Mr. Morris and his coadjutors to exasperate +the public mind against the repeal of the midnight Judiciary Act +recoiled upon their party. The only effects they produced were to rivet +the convictions of a large majority of the people that they had acted +wisely in changing their rulers, and to evoke a determination to sustain +the men in power as long as they adhered to the course upon which they +had entered. To the Chief Justice, his associates on the bench, and the +leaders of the defeated party, this condition of public opinion +presented considerations of the gravest import. The court had decided, +and their decision was sustained by the latter with perfect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> unanimity, +that the appointment of Marbury had been completed before Mr. Jefferson +came into office, that the Secretary of State had therefore no right to +withhold his commission, and that he could be compelled to deliver it by +<i>mandamus</i>, provided only that the proceedings should originate in an +inferior court. There was no ground for question in respect to the +legality of the appointments of the midnight judges, or their clerks, if +the repealing law was unconstitutional, nor of their right to their +salaries. This was certainly a question for the judiciary in respect to +private rights; and if the courts could compel the one Secretary by +<i>mandamus</i> to deliver a commission wrongfully withheld, <i>a fortiori</i> +could they compel another to pay salaries undeniably due if the +repealing law was unconstitutional. The field for the writ of <i>mandamus</i> +was thus greatly enlarged. If the withholding of a few justices' +commissions constituted good ground for the institution of such +proceedings as those we have referred to, the case now presented was one +of much greater magnitude, and no party was ever more deeply committed +before the country on a public question than they were in regard to the +unconstitutionality of the Repealing Act. If they were right in that, +and also in their views in respect to the powers of the Supreme Court, a +<i>mandamus</i> would of course have been authorized to compel the treasury +to pay the judges their salaries. Should they resume the Marbury and +Madison case in the inferior courts, and proceed in this also, or should +they abandon both and submit themselves to the stigma of having been the +authors of false pretences and unfounded clamor, was the question to be +met.</p> + +<p>The Republican party of the Union, as then constituted, was for the +first time in possession of two departments of the Federal Government. +Whilst in a minority they had not been regarded by their high-reaching +op<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>ponents with feelings of much respect. Whatever might still have been +the federal impressions of their principles or designs, there was no +longer room for two opinions, in respect to their determination, their +firmness and their capacity to carry out the measures they deemed +necessary to the public service. Such being the circumstances in which +they were placed, the Chief Justice, his associates and friends, +surveyed the exposures and defenses of the only department that was left +under their control, and it was natural that they should ponder upon +possible consequences before they proceeded another step in a course +which the other departments regarded as one of aggression.</p> + +<p>The supervision and control of the Supreme Court of the United States +over the largest portion of the legislation and jurisprudence of the +State governments, designed to be secured by the twenty-fifth section of +the Federal Judiciary Act and the extent to which they might be carried, +were, in their political aspects, looked upon by Hamilton and his +followers as constituting the only remaining sheet-anchor of the +government, in the sense in which they desired to see it administered. +This lay completely at the mercy of their opponents. No matter what +might be their confidence in the constitutionality of the provision, the +whole appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is, by the express +letter of the Constitution, to be exercised subject to "such exceptions +and such regulations as the Congress shall make." An act of three lines +repealing the clause of the Judiciary Act would except writs of error to +State courts from the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and +another might abolish the use of the writ of <i>mandamus</i>. The members of +that court had seen too much of the temper and firmness of the President +and Congress to doubt the immediate adoption of such measures if the +contest in regard to the boundaries of power between the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> departments +was continued, and were too sensible of the extent to which that high +tribunal was indebted for its power and dignity to that branch of their +jurisdiction to push so unprofitable a collision one step farther under +their present auspices. The consequence was a suspension of all +movements in that direction. No more was heard of Mr. Marbury's claims +to his commission, and the new judges quietly submitted to expulsions +from their life-estates in offices by a law they claimed to be +unconstitutional, with a court within their reach authorized to declare +it such if it so believed.</p> + +<p>Chief Justice Marshall remained at the head of the Supreme Court many +years after the delivery of his opinion in the case of Marbury and +Madison. During that long period he not only acquired, by the exercise +of his great talent, the high distinction of which I have already +spoken, but endeared himself by his personal demeanor to all who were +drawn within the circle of his acquaintance. No generous mind could +contemplate a man possessed of such towering intellect, placed in so +elevated a position and bearing his honors with such modesty and +unaffected simplicity as he habitually displayed, without being +impressed with a deep interest in his character. I was not among the +least cordial of his admirers, and would not for the world speak a +wanton or unkind word in disparagement of his memory. But the public +acts of public men are always and under all circumstances legitimate +materials for history, and may be canvassed with freedom, provided they +are spoken of truly, and reviewed "with good motives and for justifiable +ends." To this limitation it shall be my endeavor to confine myself on +this as on all other occasions.</p> + +<p>No part of the fame which Chief Justice Marshall acquired on the bench +was due to his course and conduct in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> the case of Marbury and Madison, +which may with truth be regarded as his judicial <i>début</i>. He had been +snatched from the political caldron, heated to redness by human +passions, almost at the moment of his first appearance on the bench. In +his rapid transition from the halls of Congress and the Departments of +War and State to that of the Judiciary, he had, as it were, been driven +to the bench as to a place of safety before a tempest of public +indignation created by the abuses of the administration of which he had +been a part. Among his first acts after reaching it, and before time had +been allowed for his passions to cool, before he had acquired judicial +habits or had leisure to think even of the amenities that should +distinguish his new position, was a severe blow at the wizard who, he +believed, had raised the wind and directed the storm. But Jefferson, the +"dreaming Condorcet," as Hamilton sometimes called him, proved an +accomplished statesman. Wide awake, he made ample preparations for the +assault, interposed effectual resistance, and the recoil and ultimate +abandonment were the result. I have heretofore referred to the +non-observance in these proceedings of due respect toward the acts of a +coördinate department of the Government,—an obligation on the part of +each from which no consideration can release them, and which in this +case was rendered still more imperative by the relations, personal and +political, that had existed between the President and the Chief Justice. +Whatever weaknesses I may be subject to,—and doubtless they are +numerous,—dogmatism, I am very sure, is not one of them. My endeavor +always is to state my positions with deference to the judgments of +others. But on this point I cannot refrain from insisting that no man +who can divest himself of prejudice to only a reasonable extent can +review these proceedings without being satisfied that the objection I +have made to the course of the Chief Justice in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> this regard is well +founded. No such omission was ever chargeable to him at a more advanced +period in his judicial career; whatever exception may have been taken to +the course of his decisions no one ever had reason to complain of a want +of courtesy toward any branch of the government or toward individuals.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> See <a href="#Footnote_1_1">Note</a> on p. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_425">Appendix</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Taken from the report of the case.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> See Cranch's <i>Supreme Court Reports</i>, Vol. I. p. 137.</p></div> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Renewed Attempt of the Federalists to give the Judiciary a +controlling power over the other Departments on the occasion of the +Bank Veto by President Jackson—Importance of the Principle of a +clear Division of Powers between the several Departments, and the +Independence of each—Assertion of the Principle by Jackson in his +Veto Message—Unguarded expression therein—Substantial Endorsement +by Webster of Jackson's Doctrine as to the Independence of the +Executive—Character of the Contest waged against Jackson on behalf +of the Bank—Violent and disingenuous course of Webster and Clay in +the Debate—The true Doctrine declared by Senator White—Its great +Importance—Merits of the Question discussed—The Judgment of the +People the ultimate Test—Instances of the effectual exercise of +that Judgment—Distrust of the Federalist Leaders as to the +Capacity of the People.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE most imposing, and I may add the most important occasion, +unconnected with judicial proceedings, on which the successors of the +old Federal party, encouraged by the success of the Supreme Court in +modern times, sought to avail themselves of the principle of the +controlling power of the judiciary over the other departments of the +Government in regard to questions of constitutional power, for which it +had early and long contended, was that of the veto of President Jackson +against the passage of the bill for the incorporation of the Bank of the +United States.</p> + +<p>In addition to the great and permanent importance it is to the +Government and the country to keep down this heresy, we have in this +case a scarcely less potent inducement for giving the matter a very +thorough consideration, founded in a desire to do justice to the conduct +and character of that great and good man.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span></p> + +<p>The division of the powers of the Federal Government into distinct and +independent departments is founded on a principle the value of which has +never been lost sight of by the framers of governments designed to be +free. It must at the same time be admitted that, among the principles +which necessarily enter into such a system, there are not many so +difficult to define with desirable certainty or to uphold in practice. +The faithful and capable men who constructed ours, state as well as +national, have been as successful, I believe, in this respect as any who +have gone before them; and the efforts which have been so perseveringly +made to counteract their patriotic designs must be attributed to an +inherent spirit of encroachment which is inseparable from power in whose +hands soever it may be placed.</p> + +<p>The veto message contained the following passage:—"If the opinion of +the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of this act, it ought not to +control the coördinate authorities of this Government. The Congress, the +executive, and the court must each for itself be guided by its own +opinion of the Constitution. Each public officer, who takes an oath to +support the Constitution, swears that he will support it as he +understands it, and not as it is understood by others. It is as much the +duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate and of the +President, to decide upon the constitutionality of any bill or +resolution which may be presented to them for passage or approval, as it +is of the supreme judges when it may be brought before them for judicial +decision. The opinion of the judges has no more authority over Congress +than the opinion of Congress has over the judges; and on that point the +President is independent of both. The authority of the Supreme Court +must not, therefore, be permitted to control the Congress or the +executive when acting in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> legislative capacities, but to have only +such influence as the force of their reasoning may deserve."</p> + +<p>To present an intelligible view of this matter, the gravity of which +cannot fail to be appreciated as we proceed, it is necessary that we +should in the first place ascertain and define the leading idea which +its author intended to convey by the words he employed. The entire +paragraph is replete with distinct avowals of his meaning, but in the +midst of them are to be found a few words by which its true sense is +exposed to cavil and perversion. This was a point upon which General +Jackson was very liable to err, notwithstanding his natural and in other +matters practiced wariness,—a qualification with which few men were +more amply endowed than himself. The spirit by which alone free +governments can be sustained was deeply planted in his breast by the +hand of Nature; quickened into life by the blows of the enemy, whilst a +prisoner and yet a stripling, it grew with his growth and strengthened +with his strength. But possessed of a mind that was ever dealing with +the substance of things, he was not very careful in regard to the +precise terms in which his principles were defined. He was, besides, at +that moment placed in a peculiar as well as difficult situation. Whilst +struggling with an institution which felt itself sufficiently powerful +to measure strength with the Government, and which had been itself stung +to madness by his refusal to submit to its arbitrary demands, he was +deprived of the assistance of the leading members of his cabinet. The +Secretary of the Treasury, to whose department the subject belonged, +had, in his report to Congress, placed himself on record in favor of the +bank, and the Secretaries of State and of War concurred in his opinion; +all three openly disapproved of, and could not cordially coöperate in, +the measure the President was about to adopt—the Secretaries of the +Treasury and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> of War, as will be seen by the letters of General Jackson +to myself, which on account of the interesting matters to which they +relate will be given with these memoirs,<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> pressing their opposition +so far as to make it sufficient ground for proposing to retire from his +cabinet—a step they were with difficulty prevented from carrying into +immediate effect. That a document of such length, prepared on the spur +of the occasion and under such untoward and exciting circumstances, +should not have been even more vulnerable to the assaults of his astute +and implacable opponents, is not a little surprising.</p> + +<p>Few had better opportunities for knowing the state of feeling which +prevailed at the Presidential mansion, whilst this matter was in +progress, than myself. I arrived at New York from my brief mission to +England after the Bank Bill had passed both Houses and on the day it was +sent to President Jackson for his approval, and left the next morning +for Washington. Arriving there at midnight, I proceeded at once to the +White House, in pursuance of an invitation he had sent to New York in +anticipation of my coming. I found the General in bed, supported by +pillows, in miserable health, but awake and awaiting and expecting me. +Before suffering me to take a seat, and whilst still holding my hand he, +with characteristic eagerness when in the execution of weighty concerns, +spoke to me of the bank—of the bill that had been sent for his +approval, and of the satisfaction he derived from my arrival at so +critical a moment; and I have not forgotten the gratification which +beamed from his countenance when I expressed a hope that he would veto +it, and when I declared my opinion that it was in that way only he could +discharge the great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> duty he owed to the country and to himself. Not +that he was ignorant of my views upon the subject, for in all our +conversations in respect to it before I left the country,—and they had +been frequent and anxious,—my voice had been decided as well against +the then existing, as against any other national bank. Neither that he +was himself in doubt as to the course that he ought to pursue, for he +entertained none. But the satisfaction he evinced, and which he +expressed in the most gratifying terms, arose solely from the relief he +derived from finding himself so cordially sustained in a step he had +determined to take but in respect to which he had been severely +harassed, by the stand taken by the leading members of his cabinet and +by the remonstrances of many timid and not a few false friends, and had +as yet been encouraged only by the few about him in comparatively +subordinate positions who were alike faithful to principle and to +himself.</p> + +<p>The veto message was prepared and sent in whilst I remained at +Washington. The manuscript was at all times open to my inspection, +although I had but little direct agency in its construction. Had it been +otherwise, the few words which subsequently made that part in which they +appear so conspicuous could not have escaped my notice.</p> + +<p>The paragraph in the message which sets forth the constitutional +principles which President Jackson intended to avow, contains the +following declarations: 1st. That if the opinion of the Supreme Court +covered the whole ground of the act under consideration, still it ought +not to control the coördinate authorities of the Government. 2d. That +the Congress, the Executive, and the Court must each for itself be +guided by its own opinions of the Constitution. 3d. That it is as much +the duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of the +President, to decide upon any Bill or Resolution that may be presented +to them for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> passage or approval, as it is for the supreme judges when +brought before them for judicial decision. 4th. That the opinion of the +judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress +has over the judges, and that on that point the President is independent +of both. 5th. That the authority of the Supreme Court should not +therefore be permitted to control the Congress or the Executive, when +acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only such influence +as the force of their reasoning may deserve. In none of these avowals is +the principle of irresponsibility in respect to the opinion of the +Supreme Court, by fair construction much less by necessary implication, +carried farther than to include the President when discharging his +official duties as the depository of the executive power of the +Government in approving or disapproving of a Bill or Resolution sent to +him by Congress for his executive action. That in all this he was +perfectly right, it will be seen even Mr. Webster, latitudinarian as he +was, did not venture to controvert.</p> + +<p>But in the midst of these declarations are found these unguarded words: +"Each public officer who takes an oath to support the Constitution, +swears that he will support it as he understands it and not as it is +understood by others." Either this declaration was applied by the +President only to all <i>such</i> officers as those of whom he had been +speaking before and of whom alone he spoke afterwards, all in the same +paragraph,—to that class of officers who, singly as was his own case, +or in conjunction with others as was the case with some, constituted the +three great departments of the Government, whilst acting in their +respective official capacities, as it was beyond all doubt intended to +be applied; or he must be supposed to have held that the inferior judges +of the federal courts had a right to say to the superior court, "We do +not understand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> the Constitution as you have expounded it, and we will +therefore not submit to your decision;" the same as to the judges of the +State courts of every grade, and as to the officers of the custom-house +and innumerable other officers of his own appointment; empowering the +latter on the same ground to refuse to conform to the instructions sent +to them, &c., &c. A construction, one would think, too preposterous for +credulity itself to swallow.</p> + +<p>The plain and well-understood substance of what he said was that in +giving or withholding his assent to the bill for the re-charter of the +bank it was his right and duty to decide the question of its +constitutionality for himself, uninfluenced by any opinion or judgment +which the Supreme Court had pronounced upon that point, farther than his +judgment was satisfied by the reason which it had given for its +decision. This covered the whole ground. It explained fully his views of +the Constitution in respect to what he was doing. All beyond was both +uncalled for and unnecessary. To this view of the President's power and +duty under the Constitution Mr. Webster assented in the fullest manner. +He said,—"It is true that each branch of the legislature has an +undoubted right, in the exercise of its functions, to consider the +constitutionality of a law proposed to be passed. This is naturally a +part of its duty, and neither branch can be compelled to pass any law, +or do any other act, which it deems to be beyond the reach of its +constitutional power. The President has the same right when a bill is +presented for his approval; for he is doubtless bound to consider, in +all cases, whether such bill be compatible with the Constitution, and +whether he can approve it consistently with his oath of office."</p> + +<p>If the supporters of the bank had been willing to judge the President by +the claim of power under the Constitution which he intended to advance +in his veto message, there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> would have been a perfect accord of opinion +between him and their great leader in the debate upon that document, and +one disturbing element would have been withdrawn from the severe +agitation to which the public mind was exposed. But this course neither +suited the interest of the bank, nor would it have comported with the +excited feelings of the implacable enemies of the President. Matters had +worked to their liking. By forcing the bill through the two Houses at +the eve of the struggle for the President's reėlection, and thus +compelling him either to sign or to encounter the responsibility of +defeating it, they felt that they had involved the great opponent of the +bank,—the only man whose power with the people they really dreaded—in +toils from which his escape would be impossible. They were engaged in +framing an issue with President Jackson and the Democratic party, +looking at that time only to the defeat of his reėlection but which was +in 1834 so extended as to involve consequences second only in their +importance to those of our struggle for independence from the mother +country,—an issue, which was to decide whether the control by the +people in affairs of government, the fruit of that great contest, should +be continued, or be made to give place to a government controlled by the +money power of the country, the trial of which continued much longer +than that of the Revolution, and the ultimate results of which were the +extinguishment of the bank and the first direct overthrow of the +Democratic party since its accession to power in 1800. Able to count +their votes in both Houses, and certain of a majority in each, the +leading friends of the bank reserved their greatest efforts for the +discussion of the veto, the interposition of which they understood the +man they had to contend with too well to doubt.</p> + +<p>Mr. Webster was designated by the supporters of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> bank to open the +discussion, and a more competent man, or one better suited for the +purpose, could not have been selected. Among our public men there have +doubtless been several whose mental endowments were in some particulars +superior to his. Hamilton possessed more genius and eloquence. Between +Clay and Webster the same disparity existed, though not in the same +degree. But as a close and powerful reasoner, an adroit and wary +debater,—one capable of taking comprehensive, and at the same time +close views of his subject; who surveyed all the points in his case, the +weak as well as the strong, and dealt with each in the way best +calculated to serve his purpose, and to reduce the advantage of his +antagonist to the lowest allowable point, and who was withal +unscrupulous in the employment of his great powers,—he was in his day +unsurpassed. Backed by a powerful moneyed institution—prepared to use +its overflowing resources to any necessary extent; having Mr. Clay on +his side; and knowing that what he said would, by means of the money of +the bank, be brought to every mansion, and forced into every cabin, and +made the subject of eulogy by a vast preponderance of the public press; +it is not possible to conceive of circumstances better calculated to +bring out Mr. Webster's capacities to the utmost. Those who have the +curiosity to turn to the record of his vigorous effort on that occasion +will see a favorable specimen of the art in which he was so great a +master. His opening speech was designed to give the cue to his party, +its orators and presses, in respect to the grounds upon which the +election was to be contested. It contained an official programme of the +campaign, showing that denunciation and intimidation were the principal +weapons to be employed, and was itself the first gun fired in that +direction—the signal that was to summon their political friends to the +field, and to begin the attempt to fright the country from its +propriety.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr. Webster opened his speech with statements from which the following +are extracts: "Let us look at known facts. Thirty millions of the +capital of the bank are now out, on loans and discounts, in the States +on the Mississippi and its waters; ten of these millions on the discount +of bills of exchange, foreign and domestic, and twenty millions loaned +on promissory notes. The whole debt is to be paid, and within the same +time the circulation withdrawn.</p> + +<p>"The local banks, where there are such, will be able to afford little +assistance, because they themselves will feel a full share of the +pressure. They will not be in a condition to extend their discounts; but +in all probability, obliged to curtail them.... I hesitate not to say +that, as this veto travels to the West, it will depreciate the value of +every man's property from the Atlantic States to the capital of +Missouri. Its effects will be felt in the price of lands—the great and +leading article of Western property; in the price of crops; in the +products of labor; in the repression of enterprise; and in embarrassment +to every kind of business and occupation. I state this opinion strongly, +because I have no doubt of its truth, and am willing its correctness +should be judged by the event.... To call in this loan at the rate of +eight millions a year, in addition to the interest on the whole, and to +take away, at the same time, that circulation which constitutes so great +a portion of the medium of payment throughout that whole region, is an +operation which, however wisely conducted, cannot but inflict a blow on +the community of tremendous force and frightful consequences. The thing +cannot be done without distress, bankruptcy, and ruin to many....</p> + +<p>"A great majority of the people are satisfied with the bank as it is, +and desirous that it should be continued.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> They wished no change. The +strength of this public sentiment has carried the bill through Congress, +against all the influence of the administration, and all the power of +organized party. But the President has undertaken, on his own +responsibility, to arrest the measure, by refusing his assent to the +bill. He is answerable for the consequences, therefore, which +necessarily follow the change which the expiration of the bank charter +may produce; and if these consequences shall prove disastrous, they can +fairly be ascribed to his policy only, and to the policy of his +administration."</p> + +<p>These alarming consequences were portrayed as the unavoidable result of +a failure on the part of the people to effect a change in our public +councils, before the expiration of the charter of the bank, which could +only be done at the then next election.</p> + +<p>No old school Federalist, who had grown to man's estate with views and +opinions in regard to the character of the people which that faith +seldom failed to inspire, could doubt the efficacy of such an exposition +in turning the minds of all classes of the community in the desired +direction. The idea of producing the catastrophe, thus held up to public +view, through the direct action of the bank—a proceeding justly +stigmatized as "flagitious," in his recent letter to the New York +bankers, by Mr. Appleton of Boston, a distinguished and highly trusted +Whig, who was in those days admitted behind the curtain and had a view +of the whole ground,—had not at that time, I am satisfied, entered into +the mind of Mr. Biddle, or perhaps into that of the most reckless +advocate of the bank. But the sagacious leader of the Whig party +understood too well the extent of General Jackson's popularity and the +strength of the Democratic party to think for a moment that an attempt +to carry a Presidential election against the power of both could safely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +be treated as a holiday affair. He knew that by far the largest portion +of the classes most likely to be affected by appeals to their pecuniary +interests were already on the side of the bank, and that the only chance +of success in the election depended upon their ability to make +impressions favorable to their views upon classes differently situated, +and who in general politics were on the same side with the President. He +was also well aware that among the admirers and sincere friends of +General Jackson, there were in every State not a few who, confiding +fully in his integrity, believing him engaged in continual struggles for +the public good with a reckless opposition and sincerely wishing him +success, yet distrusted his prudence, listened readily to the reports of +his enemies prejudicial to his character, and were kept in constant +apprehension that he would, through passion or ill advisement, commit +some rash act. Virginia abounded in that class of politicians. My +quondam friend Ritchie scarcely ever went to bed in those exciting times +without apprehension that he would wake up to hear of some <i>coup d'etat</i> +by the General, which he would be called on to explain or defend, and +his letters to me were filled with remonstrances and cautions upon the +subject. A vacancy occurring in the office of Attorney-General of the +United States, I recommended the appointment of Mr. Daniel, now one of +the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, for the place. +He came to Washington, was pleased with the invitation to take a seat in +the Cabinet, which the General authorized me to give him, was pleased +also with the office and would have been glad to accept it under other +circumstances, but was, notwithstanding, induced to decline it, after a +day's consultation with me, by considerations of that character +exclusively. The General was not a little amused, after our friend left +us, to hear me attribute his refusal to an apprehension that he might, +in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> the discharge of his official duties be reduced to the necessity of +acting against the principles of '98, or against his, the General's +wishes—an alternative that he preferred not to encounter. I am free to +confess that before I came to understand General Jackson as well as I +subsequently did I had not a little of the same feeling. I had seen +enough of him in the Senate, whilst occupying different sides in mere +party politics, to satisfy me that he was incapable of acting knowingly +against the public interest, but it was some time before I became +thoroughly satisfied that I did not do full justice to his prudence. I +will allude to a single occurrence bearing upon this point. His +successful effort to remove the Indians to their Western home is well +known and ought never to be forgotten, for there has scarcely been a +single act of his life which has proved more beneficial to all parties +than that. When the act conferring upon him the necessary powers was +before Congress, which was at an early period of his administration, it +was found difficult to prevail on the Pennsylvanian members of the House +to support it. They were believed to be influenced by an apprehension +that by supporting it they would give offense to the Quakers who, as is +known, are very numerous in their State. He invited them to an interview +which he asked me to attend. He remonstrated with those who came in an +earnest and really eloquent manner; placed before them very forcibly the +importance of the movement as well to the Indians as to the country; +refuted the reasons which were given for their doubts, and as they rose +to leave him, under indications not favorable to his wishes, he told +them, with much emphasis, that he could not believe that the reasons +they had assigned were the true motives by which they were actuated; +that they were men of too much sense not to see that the measure was a +proper one, but that they were afraid of their popu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>larity; that they +stood more in dread of displeasing the Quakers than they did of doing +wrong; conjured them to rise superior to such motives, and to do what +was right, regardless of personal consequences; told them they would +find that to be the best way to make themselves popular, and concluded +by saying that he should do his duty in this respect, and if the bill +failed for the want of their vote it would not be his fault if their +constituents were not supplied with means for forming a correct judgment +between them and him. This was the substance of what was said, and said +with considerable animation, I observed his eye directed toward me +whilst he was speaking, and the moment the door closed on the retiring +delegation he turned to me with a smile upon his countenance and said +with the blandest manner, "I saw that my remarks disturbed you." I +admitted the fact, and said that although they were his friends, +personal as well as political, I was apprehensive that his observations, +if they were made public, however true and just, might in the then +feverish state of the public mind give countenance to the +representations of his enemies. His reply was: "No, my friend, I have +great respect for your judgment, but you do not understand these +gentlemen as well as I do. They are quite honest, and wish to do what is +right, but are prevented from doing it by precisely the considerations +to which I alluded. They will not be offended, because they know I am +their friend, and act only for the public good, and you will see that +they will show a different disposition upon the subject"—and they did +so. My apprehensions were more on account of what I feared he might say, +from the excited manner in which he spoke, than on account of what he +did actually say; and this was but one of numerous instances in which I +observed a similar contradiction between his apparent undue excitement +and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> real coolness and self-possession in which, I may say with +truth, he was seldom if ever wanting. It was to the class of Jackson's +supporters which I have described, men of Mr. Daniel's school, that +Webster made his most powerful appeal; to alarm and influence them his +powers were exerted to their utmost point. To do this with any chance of +success a perversion of the Veto Message was indispensable. We have seen +that he was obliged to admit that the President had a right, under the +Constitution, to do all that he proposed by the veto. He had sworn to +protect the Constitution as the chief executive officer of the +government; and when an act was offered for his approval which he +honestly believed was contrary to that instrument, he had the right—not +the power only but the right also—to withhold his assent. This Mr. +Webster admitted in so many words, and President Jackson did not by the +message propose to do any thing more. And yet Webster denounced him as a +ruthless tyrant, who was violating the Constitution, and uprooting the +foundations of society. Look at some of his fierce denunciations: "He +asserts a right of individual judgment on constitutional questions, +which is totally inconsistent with any proper administration of the +Government, or any regular execution of the laws. Social disorder, +entire uncertainty in regard to individual rights and individual duties, +the cessation of legal authority, confusion, the dissolution of free +government,—all these are inevitable consequences of the principles +adopted by the message, whenever they shall be carried to their full +extent.... That which is now claimed for the President is, in truth, +nothing less, and nothing else than the old dispensing power asserted by +the Kings of England in the worst of times—the very climax, indeed, of +all the preposterous pretensions of the Tudor and the Stuart races.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span></p> + +<p>"According to the doctrines put forth by the President, although +Congress may have passed a law, and although the Supreme Court may have +pronounced it constitutional, yet it is, nevertheless, no law at all, if +he in his good pleasure, sees fit to deny its effect; in other words, to +repeal and annul it. Sir, no President, and no public man, ever before +advanced such doctrines in the face of the nation. There never was +before a moment in which any President would have been tolerated in +asserting such claim to despotic power.... If these opinions of the +President be maintained, there is an end of all law and all judicial +authority. Statutes are but recommendations, judgments no more than +opinions. Both are equally destitute of binding force. Such a universal +power as is now claimed for him—a power of judging over the laws and +over the decisions of the tribunal—is nothing else than pure despotism. +If conceded to him, it makes him at once what Louis the Fourteenth +proclaimed himself to be when he said 'I am the State.'"</p> + +<p>Now where was his warrant for these scandalous denunciations? Was it to +be found in the words "every officer," etc. to which I have referred? If +so, common fairness required that he should have set them forth so that +the readers of his speech might judge for themselves what the President +intended by them. This he was too sagacious to do, for if he named them +he was bound to give the whole paragraph. If he omitted this the +President's friends would have pointed out the deception. If he gave the +whole his readers would have seen that General Jackson could not have +used the words in the sense attributed to them by Mr. Webster. In this +dilemma he contented himself with substituting bold and reckless +assumption for proof. Mr. Clay was less cautious, as it was his nature +to be; he extracted the obnoxious words<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> without the context, and +founded upon them charges like these,—charges by which none who read +his speech would have been misled if he had quoted the message +fairly:—"There are some parts of his message that ought to excite deep +alarm, and that especially in which the President announces that each +public officer may interpret the Constitution as he pleases. His +language is 'each public officer, who takes an oath to support the +Constitution, swears that he will support it as he understands it and +not as it is understood by others.' 'The opinion of the judges has no +more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the +judges; and on that point the President is independent of both.' Now, +Mr. President, I conceive, with great deference, that the President has +mistaken the purport of the oath to support the Constitution of the +United States. No one swears to support it as he understands it, but to +support it simply as it is in truth. All men are bound to obey the laws, +of which the Constitution is the supreme; but must they obey them as +they are, or as they understand them? If the obligation of obedience is +limited and controlled by the measure of information, in other words if +the party is bound to obey the Constitution only as he understands it, +what would be the consequence?" No warrant for these broad and unfounded +imputations, on the part of either of the senators, was to be found in +the fact that the objections to the new Bank Bill applied equally to the +old, nor for the ground thence assumed that it was the intention of +President Jackson to treat that as a nullity and to embarrass its +directors in winding up its concerns. There was not only nothing in the +message to justify such a charge, but its whole character was directly +opposite, and that too plainly to be controverted. His agency was not +necessary to enable them to wind it up. The courts were sufficient for +that, and they were on the side of the bank.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> Even if it were otherwise, +there were legitimate considerations which would have justified him in +allowing a charter which had received the sanction of a predecessor in +office to proceed to its consummation, whatever he might think of its +constitutionality. Nor had Mr. Webster or Mr. Clay a moment's doubt that +it was his intention to do so. Their violent not to say savage tirades +against the veteran had a different object—and that was the election. +There, fortunately, they were unsuccessful, or we might yet have been in +our Federal relations, as we unhappily are in those of the States, a +bank-ridden people.</p> + +<p>But I cannot allow this great constitutional question, respecting the +relation which the three great departments of the Federal +Government—executive, legislative, and judicial—were by the +Constitution designed to occupy toward each other, to pass without +farther notice. One more vitally important has not arisen nor can ever +arise out of our complex and peculiar form of government, and it is also +one which there is reason to apprehend has not been studied with +adequate care, by many who are in other respects sufficiently astute in +detecting constitutional encroachments.</p> + +<p>General Jackson—though owing to his military employment he had not been +for many years of his life much engaged in party politics—was yet, from +a very early period, strongly imbued with the principles of the fathers +of the republican school in regard to the objects and only legitimate +purposes of Government and the true construction of the Federal +Constitution. His views in these respects were sufficiently disclosed in +the course of his brief services in both Houses of Congress, during the +administration of Washington, and more particularly in his celebrated +letter to Williamson about the year 1800.</p> + +<p>Judge White, then his personal and political friend,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> followed Mr. +Webster in the debate on the Veto Message and in the course of his +speech laid down, in a perspicuous and satisfactory manner, the +principles applicable to the question of the relative powers and duties +of the several departments of the General Government which President +Jackson then, as he had at all times, sustained. Deeply incensed at the +gross perversions of his message, on the part of the advocates of the +bank, but at all times and under all circumstances against parleying +with his enemies in the midst of a battle, the President contented +himself with frequent and unreserved expression of concurrence in the +views which had been taken of the subject, on the floor of the Senate, +by Judge White, and although reėlected under the clamor which had been +raised against him upon that point, and more determined than ever to +prevent, by all constitutional means, the extension of the charter of +the existing bank, he was equally decided, as he had always been, not to +interpose, nor did he interpose, any obstructions to the employment by +it of all the means provided by the charter to conduct business to its +end and to wind up its affairs after its termination.</p> + +<p>Senator White's definition of the Constitution was expressed in the +following words: "The honorable Senator argues that the Constitution has +constituted the Supreme Court a tribunal to decide great constitutional +questions, such as this; and that when they have done so, the question +is put at rest, and every other department of the government must +acquiesce. This doctrine I deny. The Constitution vests 'the judicial +power in a Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may +from time to time ordain and establish.' Whenever a suit is commenced +and prosecuted in the courts of the United States, of which they have +jurisdiction, and such suit is decided by the Supreme Court,—as that is +the court of last resort,—its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> decision is final and conclusive between +the parties. But as an authority it does not bind either the Congress or +the President of the United States. If either of these coördinate +departments is afterwards called upon to perform an official act, and +conscientiously believes the performance of that act will be a violation +of the Constitution, they are not bound to perform it, but, on the +contrary, are as much at liberty to decline acting as if no such +decision had been made.... If different interpretations are put upon the +Constitution by the different departments, the people is the tribunal to +settle the dispute. Each of the departments is the agent of the people, +doing their business according to the powers conferred; and where there +is a disagreement as to the extent of these powers, the people +themselves, through the ballot-boxes, must settle it."</p> + +<p>This is the true view of the Constitution. It is that which was taken by +those who framed and adopted it, and by the founders of the Democratic +party. It is one which was universally acquiesced in at the formation of +the Government, and for some time thereafter. It is a matter of great +moment, and one which cannot be too closely scrutinized, especially at +the present moment when there is abundant reason to apprehend that +heresies of a marked character in respect to it are being infused into +the public mind. The principle which inculcates the necessity of +distributing the powers of government among several departments, and +that they should be independent of each other in the performance of the +duties assigned to them by the Constitution, has united in its favor the +opinions of the friends of liberty everywhere from a very early period +to the present time. Montesquieu said: "There can be no liberty where +the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person or +body of magistrates;" or "if the power of judging be not separated from +the legis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span>lative and executive powers." The American Revolution provided +the fairest opportunity to test the merits of this doctrine that the +world had ever seen, and it was not lost sight of by the statesmen of +that day. Many of the States recorded their adherence to it on the face +of their constitutions, some of which were framed and adopted <i>flagrante +bello</i>, and all paid due respect to it in the construction of their +organic laws. The settlement and ratification of the Federal +Constitution carried the discussion of its merit to our national +councils where, and more particularly in the discussion upon the +question of ratification, the matter was very closely examined and by +very able hands. The opponents of the Constitution resisted it earnestly +and with ability, on the ground, amongst others, that it did not provide +sufficient guarantees to protect the departments from reciprocal +encroachments, and to secure the required independence of each. The +difficulties, inherent in the very nature of government, of carrying +those securities to an extent which would silence cavil in respect to +them, obtained for this objection advantages which, in view of the well +understood reverence of the people for the main principle, caused no +small degree of inquietude to those able defenders of the +Constitution—Madison, Hamilton, and Jay. The numbers of the +"Federalist" which touch upon this point are full of interest and will +well repay re-perusal. They afford the strongest evidence of an earnest +adherence, on the part of those great men, to the general principle, and +will, if I do not deceive myself, be found quite inconsistent with +several positions which have since been taken upon the subject. In the +47th number of the "Federalist," Mr. Madison thus expresses his own +views, and of course those of his associates, Hamilton and Jay, as they +acted in concert: "One of the principal objections inculcated by the +more respectable adversaries to the Constitution, is its supposed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> +violation of the political maxim that the legislative, executive and +judiciary departments ought to be separate and distinct. In the +structure of the Federal Government no regard, it is said, seems to have +been paid to this essential precaution in favor of liberty. The several +departments of power are distributed and blended in such a manner as at +once to destroy all symmetry and beauty of form, and to expose some of +the essential parts of the edifice to the danger of being crushed by the +disproportionate weight of other parts.</p> + +<p>"No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value, or is +stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty, than +that on which the objection is founded. The accumulation of all powers, +legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, +a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may +justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. Were the Federal +Constitution, therefore, really chargeable with this accumulation of +power, or with a mixture of powers having a dangerous tendency to such +an accumulation, no further arguments would be necessary to inspire a +universal reprobation of the system".... In No. 48, speaking of the +three great departments, he says: "It is equally evident that neither of +them ought to possess, directly or indirectly, an overruling influence +over the others in the administration of their respective powers." ... In +No. 49, he notices a proposition of Mr. Jefferson to authorize a +Convention upon a call of two of the three departments, for "altering +the Constitution or correcting breaches of it," and says,—"The several +departments being perfectly coördinate by the terms of their common +commission, neither of them, it is evident, can pretend to an exclusive +or superior right of settling the boundaries between their respective +powers." He then goes on to urge objections to too fre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span>quent appeals to +the people in that form, and sustains the opinion that it would be +better to rely on other safeguards against encroachments which he +details. In Nos. 78 and 81, General Hamilton, admitting that "there is +no liberty where the power of judging be not separated from the +legislative and executive powers," shows at great length the comparative +weakness of the judicial power, and the very slight probability that +"the general liberty of the people can ever be endangered from that +quarter."</p> + +<p>The provisions of the Constitution will be searched in vain fur any +which indicate a design on the part of its framers to give to one of the +departments power to control the action of another in respect to its +departmental duties under that instrument. All <i>legislative power</i> +granted by the Constitution was vested in a Congress, to be composed of +two Houses. The <i>executive power</i> of the Government was vested in a +President. Specific powers to be exercised in conjunction with the +Senate, as well as some in respect to which a question might arise +whether they would otherwise have passed to the executive, were added, +but the Constitution in respect to the legislative power, contained no +limitations or restrictions. All executive authority to be exercised +under it was granted to the President, and he was hence spoken of by the +writers of the "Federalist" as the <i>sole depositary</i> of executive power. +By the third article of the Constitution the same expression is used in +respect to the Supreme Court, &c.: "<i>The judicial power of</i> the United +States shall be vested in <i>one Supreme Court</i> and certain inferior +tribunals." But as these terms would, standing by themselves, have +conveyed all the judicial power of the United States to the Supreme +Court, and as no such grant could be properly made because a large share +of it had, in a previous part of the Constitution, been granted to a +court of impeachment, of which the Supreme Court only supplied the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> +presiding officer on a single occasion,—the trial of a President,—and +was designed to be still farther restricted, the Constitution +immediately proceeds to say, that "The judicial power shall extend to +all cases in law and equity arising under this Constitution, the laws of +the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under +their authority; to all cases affecting, ambassadors, other public +ministers, and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime +jurisdiction, etc." No oath to support the Constitution is prescribed by +it, in regard to the incumbents of the legislative or judicial branches +of the Government, other than the general provision that all officers of +a certain description, (which included them,) whether belonging to the +Federal or State governments, should swear to support the Federal +Constitution.</p> + +<p>In regard to the executive department the case is very different. The +Constitution requires from the President, and from him only, that he +should, in addition to the oath of office, before he enter upon its +duties, swear "<i>that he will, to the best of his ability, preserve, +protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States</i>."</p> + +<p>Is it not surprising that under a Constitution so constructed, +exhibiting on its face such features, the idea should ever have been +advanced that it was to the judicial power of the Government that its +framers looked for the preservation of that sacred instrument? So far as +it concerns the private rights of citizens and foreigners in questions +of <i>meum and tuum</i>, growing out of the laws and Constitution of the +United States, or controversies regarding the separate and special +interests of contending States, or of the United States, and in respect +to the rights of foreign ministers and consuls, it was intended to be +supreme and so made, nor has its supremacy in all these respects ever +been questioned. But it seems very absurd to suppose that it was +intended to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> oblige the President of the United States,—the officer +clothed with the whole executive power of the Government; the only +officer, except the Vice-President, who is chosen by the whole people of +the United States; the champion, designated by the Constitution itself +to "preserve, protect, and defend" it in the performance of the +executive duties committed to his charge,—duties affecting what +Hamilton happily describes as "the general liberty of the people," to +distinguish it from affairs of <i>meum and tuum</i>,—to keep his eye upon +the Supreme Court calendar, and to gather from its decisions in respect +to the private rights of parties litigant the measure of his +constitutional powers, and to stop or go on in the execution of the +important national offices assigned to his department as its judgments +may be deemed to authorize or forbid his further proceeding. I can +easily understand why a class of men, born with certain dispositions and +trained to corresponding opinions, should desire such a construction of +the Federal Constitution; but in the face of facts and considerations +like these, I can find no explanation of the boldness with which so +groundless a pretension has been advanced, other than in the +recklessness by which the spirit of political encroachment is and will +be characterized as long as it finds facilities for its gratification in +the weakness or the passions of mankind. The deeper the subject is +looked into, the more apparent to all <i>bonā fide</i> searchers for truth +will become the fallacy of the principle which claims for the Supreme +Court a controlling power over the other departments in respect to +constitutional questions. Inquirers of this description cannot fail to +appreciate the difficulty, nay the impossibility of reconciling Mr. +Webster's unreserved admission of the President's "undoubted right in +the exercise of his functions, when a bill is presented for his +approval, to consider in all cases whether such a bill be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> compatible +with the Constitution, and whether he can approve it, consistently with +his oath of office," and to approve, or refuse to approve according to +the result, with his severe denunciation of him for regarding an act as +unconstitutional, which had been approved by one of his predecessors, +but which he, notwithstanding, conscientiously believed to be +unconstitutional, and for withholding the power of the executive from +the execution of any such act. Everybody knows that an act which is +contrary to the Constitution is a nullity, although it may have passed +according to the forms of the Constitution. That instrument creates +several departments, whose duty it may become to act upon such a bill, +in the performance of their respective functions. The theory of the +Constitution is that these departments are coördinate and independent of +each other, and that when they act in their appropriate spheres they +each have a right, and it is the duty of each to judge for themselves in +respect to the authority and requirements of the Constitution, without +being controlled or interfered with by their co-departments, and are each +responsible to the people alone who made them for the manner in which +they discharge their respective duties in that regard. It is not +therefore to be presumed that that instrument, after making it the +President's especial duty to take an oath to preserve and uphold the +Constitution and prevent its violation, intended to deny to him the +right to withhold his assent from a measure which he might +conscientiously believe would have that effect, and to impose upon him +the necessity of outraging his conscience, by making himself a party to +such a violation. The Constitution, which was framed by great men, the +form of which has been so much and so justly admired, is not so +imperfect nor subject to such a reproach. The matter does not +necessarily end with a refusal on the part of the executive to do an act +which he believes Con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span>gress had no right, under the Constitution, to +require his department to perform. Although the President, representing +one of the three great departments of the Government, possesses in this +respect a right which neither the citizen nor any other officer or +officers of the Government, not having the control of such a department, +can exercise, yet if he allows himself to be governed by unworthy +motives he is liable to impeachment and expulsion from office. It is in +this way, or by his removal by the people, that the wrong he does to the +public is redressed. But this is not all. If the act has been passed +according to the forms of the Constitution, and is judged to be +constitutional by the judicial department of the Federal Government, it +is obligatory upon the citizens, binds and controls their private rights +and personal interests, and can be carried into effect in respect to +those by the judiciary, which also judges for itself regarding the +constitutionality of such law. It is the department by which laws, +affecting as well the private rights of the citizen as those of the +States, which can be made the subjects of litigation, are carried into +effect. It has ample power conferred upon it to cause its judgments and +decrees to be executed. Officers are appointed whose duty it is made by +law to obey its orders, and these officers have the right given to call +out the civil power of their respective districts to enable them to +execute judicial decrees. Nor do the rights secured to it by the +Constitution stop here. If resistance is offered to the execution of a +judgment or decree—made by the proper court to which jurisdiction of +the matter which such judgment or decree seeks to enforce is given by +the Constitution—too great to be overcome by the civil power, it is the +duty of the President, upon the request of the officers of the court, to +order out the military power to sustain that of the judiciary. It would +be no answer on his part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> to such a call to say that the right which the +decree or judgment seeks to enforce arises under a law which he deems +unconstitutional. That is, under the circumstances, a matter that he has +no right to inquire into. The decision of that question has been +delegated to a different department, and has by that department been +decided differently. The Constitution requires that the judgments of +that department, upon subjects committed to it, should be enforced. It +makes that enforcement, in extreme cases, the duty of the military. The +President is intrusted with the command of that force and, in such a +case, his power in regard to it is ministerial only. It is his duty, in +such a case, to sustain the judicial power by the aid of the military, +and if he failed in its performance he would subject himself to +impeachment and removal from office. Not only is the entire power of the +government thus pledged to the maintenance of judicial authority, whilst +acting in the line of its duties, but there lies no appeal from its +judgments or decrees. They are final and obligatory upon the rights and +interests of the parties. They can neither be reversed by any other +tribunal, nor is it in the power of the remaining departments of the +Government united to set them aside or to treat them as a nullity, +however contrary to the Constitution they may be.</p> + +<p>We are not without experience upon this point. Our history bears +indelible record of the abuse of power in that form during the +administration of the elder Adams. The unconstitutionality of the +Sedition Law will now be scarcely controverted by any ingenuous mind. +The Supreme Court, nevertheless, decided it to be constitutional, tried +citizens for having violated its provisions, and caused fines and +imprisonment to be inflicted upon them. When a majority of the Senate of +the United States, friends of the bank, placed upon its journal an +unconstitutional act of condemnation against President Jackson, for the +steps he had taken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> to relieve the country from that institution, the +same body, after its political complexion had been sufficiently changed +through the influence of an offended public sentiment, not only reversed +the sentence but expunged it from the record. This it had a right to do, +because both acts were committed by the same branch of the same +department. But the executive and legislative departments had no such +power over the unconstitutional sentences that were pronounced under the +Sedition Law, because they had no right to interfere with the acts of a +coördinate department. The President had an express right to pardon such +offenses, and the national legislature had a constitutional right to +return the money collected from those who committed them, and they did +so. But the judgments of the court remained, and will forever remain, +unreversed. In England, judicial convictions, attainders, judgments of +forfeitures of franchises, etc., may be reversed by act of Parliament, +but no such interference by one department of the government with the +authorized proceedings of a coördinate department are permitted by our +Constitution, simply because the great departments of our Government are +by the Constitution made coördinate and independent of each other. Can +any reflecting mind, in view of these facts, doubt the sufficiency of +the protection which that instrument provides for the personal rights of +the citizen and for private interests of every description, or for a +moment apprehend the disorganization of society described by Mr. Webster +as a consequence of carrying into effect the principles avowed by +President Jackson?</p> + +<p>The judicial power of the Federal Government, according to the +description here given of the binding force, the finality and efficiency +of its decisions upon the parties and their rights in all cases which +may be brought before it, answers all the purposes of its institution. +Was it the intention of the framers of the Constitution that it should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +be clothed with other powers, and if so, what are they? The duties +imposed on the executive and legislative departments are of higher +importance than those of the judiciary, in proportion as the interests +of the nation are of more consequence than the separate interests of +individuals and minor associations. They include the question of peace +or of war, and the maintenance of the latter, international obligations +in the forms of treaties, their construction and execution, the +regulation of foreign commerce and commerce among the States, the +regulation of the currency, the establishment of a mint, the assessment +and collection of the national revenue, the raising, regulating, and +command of an army and navy, the establishment of a general and of +particular post-offices, the regulation and protection of the Indian +tribes, and many other duties which it is unnecessary to specify. In +none of these is it contemplated by the Constitution that the judicial +power shall take a part. The powers and duties of the other departments +upon these subjects are to some extent specified in the Constitution, +and the residue are left to the direction of the legislature which acts, +in respect to them, through the Executive as the department especially +charged with the execution of the laws. In the performance of their high +duties these departments are, at almost every step, met by +constitutional questions. The Houses of the legislature, in every law or +resolution that they pass, have to consider whether it is authorized by +the Constitution to which they have sworn to conform, and the President +and Senate, when they make a treaty, are bound to consider and decide +the same question. The President, as the sole depositary of the +executive power, is under a similar obligation. His first inquiry is, +whether the Constitution authorizes him to apply the power of his +department to the execution of the business before him, or, if it is one +of the numerous functions which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> legislature is in the constant +habit of calling upon him to perform, has the legislature power under +the Constitution to direct the thing to be done, and can he do it +consistently with his oath to preserve and uphold that instrument?</p> + +<p>How are they to act in the decision of these questions? By what +considerations are they to be controlled? They know that they are +responsible to the people, under whose commission they act, for all they +do. The Constitution does not give to one department the right to decide +such questions for another, either in terms or by necessary implication, +nor subject them to any other responsibility, nor place before them any +guide for the government of their decisions other than their own +discretion and their own consciences, and has caused to be placed upon +their consciences an oath that they will, in no event, act contrary to +that instrument. Under such circumstances, I ask, what are they to do? +What can they do, consistently with the duty they owe to God, to their +country, and to themselves, other than to decide such questions for +themselves, following the dictates of their own judgment? Can it be +believed that those who framed and adopted the Constitution intended to +place these high functionaries,—the only representatives of the people, +in the great departments of the government, over whose continuance in +office the people possess control—to place them, in respect to their +official acts, about which a constitutional question can be raised, +under the guidance of a department over which the people possess no such +control, to be regulated by its decisions in private actions, to which +such functionaries are not parties, and of which decisions they are, +notwithstanding, to take notice at their peril. If a system so +anti-republican could have been designed by those who made the +Constitution, is it to be supposed that they would have omitted to +declare, on the face of the instrument, that such was their intention, +leav<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>ing those functionaries to grope their way to its discovery. Such a +question—one in which the character of our political institutions is so +much involved, and upon a right understanding of which their ultimate +safety may depend—should be stripped of every uncertainty. The claim +set up for the Supreme Court must be good throughout, or it is not good +at all. The principle, that the final decision of constitutional +questions belongs exclusively to the supreme judicial tribunal, set up +in Mr. Webster's speech, must be true throughout, or it cannot be true +to any extent. It amounts to this: the incumbents of the legislative and +executive departments, in respect to questions of constitutional power, +are <i>ministerial officers only</i>. Constitutional questions are points in +respect to which they have no right to exercise their own discretion, +but are bound, at every important step, to look to the judiciary for +guidance, and if they omit to adopt its decisions, if it has made any, +they do so at their peril:—the former department at the hazard of +having its laws, if the Supreme Court regard them as unconstitutional, +treated as a nullity, not only when they are relied upon "in cases in +law and equity," but in all cases, and everywhere. From the nature of +their action, members of Congress do not subject themselves to personal +responsibility, except when they act corruptly. But the situation of the +incumbent of the executive department is less favorable. Deprived of all +discretion, and bound to thus understand his position, he encounters +personal responsibility, in certain cases, whichever way he may act. If +he find a law upon the statute book, approved by one of his +predecessors—and to relieve the country from which has perhaps been one +of the reasons for the removal of the latter from office—a law which he +deems unauthorized by the Constitution, but which the Supreme Court +holds to be constitutional, he must either violate his oath of office +and ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span>ecute it, or refuse to do so and expose himself to impeachment +for a failure in the discharge of his official duties. If he persists in +the observance of a law which the Supreme Court has, in a private suit, +held to be unconstitutional, he incurs a similar responsibility; and if +he omits its observance, he does violence to his own conscience by +failing to perform his official duties according to his oath. Let me +illustrate this view of the subject by particular and possible cases. +Take that referred to by General Hamilton in his papers written in +defense of President Washington's proclamation of neutrality, over the +signature of "Pacificus."</p> + +<p>The President has power, by and with the advice of the Senate, to make +treaties with foreign governments. Private rights, subject to judicial +investigation, often grow out of public treaties. The interpretation and +enforcement of these rights belong exclusively to the judiciary, and in +the execution of its power it may hold the treaty, under which the claim +arises, unconstitutional for any of the reasons for which laws may be so +regarded. Its decision is binding and final upon the parties and their +interests.</p> + +<p>Then comes the execution of that treaty between the governments that are +parties to it. This, on our part, belongs exclusively to the legislative +and executive departments. The duty of the former is to pass the laws +necessary to its execution, and that of the latter to see to their +enforcement, and to do such other acts as he may do, under the +Constitution, without a law.</p> + +<p>A foreign government calls for the interference of these departments to +redeem the national faith, pledged through executive instrumentality, +and for the redemption of which the executive, and the legislature, +where necessary, are the agents designated by the Constitution. They see +and feel their duty, but have been rendered powerless. The Supreme Court +has decided the treaty to be unconstitutional.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> No matter how obscure +the parties by whom its interference was asked, no matter how +unimportant the interest in respect to which the decision was made, from +the moment it is promulgated, it becomes a rule of action for every +department of the government, and every public functionary as well as +every citizen. If the national legislature passes a law to carry into +effect the void treaty its law becomes a nullity. If the executive +issues an order for its execution, or toward the performance of the +treaty in any way to his subordinates, they are not bound to obey it, +and the Supreme Court will sustain them in their contumacy. If he take +measures to enforce his authority, he makes himself amenable to that +tribunal. Acting in such a matter as a ministerial officer only, without +a right to employ his own discretion, he subjects himself to impeachment +if he persists.</p> + +<p>Alexander Hamilton—who, if he was not the one who suggested the +latitudinarian doctrine of "implied powers," was certainly its most +effective supporter, and through life its watchful guardian—in No. 1 of +Pacificus, has said that though the judiciary department is charged with +the interpretation of treaties, "it exercises this function only where +contending parties bring before it a specific controversy;" that "it has +no concern with pronouncing upon the external political relation of +treaties between government and government;" that "this proposition is +too plain to need being insisted upon;" that "it belongs to the +executive department to exercise the function in question, when a proper +case for it occurs," "as the <i>interpreter</i> of the national treaties, in +those cases in which the judiciary is not competent,—that is, between +government and government; as the <i>power</i> which is charged with the +execution of the laws, of which treaties form a part; as that which is +charged with the command and disposition of the public force."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span></p> + +<p>James Madison, in conjunction with Hamilton and Jay, in the numbers of +the "Federalist," avows doctrines at war with this assumption of power +in the Supreme Court. Thomas Jefferson, whose anxious patriotism was +always alive to such subjects, and the political thoughts and studies of +whose life were exclusively directed toward the protection of human +rights through the instrumentality of free governments, opposed the +doctrine vehemently, from first to last, and long after his retirement +from public life, its passions and excitements, expressed himself in +regard to it, on different occasions, in terms which follow. In 1815, in +answer to the direct question put to him by a citizen of Georgia, he +says:—"The second question, whether the judges are invested with +exclusive authority to decide on the constitutionality of a law, has +been heretofore a subject of consideration with me in the exercise of +official duties. Certainly there is not a word in the Constitution which +has given that power to them more than to the executive or legislative +branches. Questions of property, of character, and of crime, being +ascribed to the judges, through a definite course of legal +proceeding,—laws, involving such questions, belong, of course, to them, +and as they decide on them ultimately and without appeal, they, of +course, decide <i>for themselves</i>. The constitutional validity of the law, +or laws, again prescribing executive action, and to be administered by +that branch ultimately and without appeal, the executive must decide for +<i>themselves</i>, also, whether, under the Constitution, they are valid or +not. So, also, as to laws governing the proceedings of the legislature; +that body must judge <i>for itself</i> the constitutionality of the law, and, +equally, without appeal or control from its coördinate branches. And, in +general, that branch which is to act ultimately, and without appeal, on +any law, is the rightful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> expositor of the validity of the law, +uncontrolled by the opinions of the other coördinate authorities." +Again, so late as 1819, in a very interesting letter to Judge Spencer +Roane, he says:—"My construction of the Constitution is very different +from that you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of +the others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the +meaning of the Constitution in the cases submitted to its action; and +especially, where it is to act ultimately and without appeal.... But you +intimate a wish that my opinion should be known on this subject. No, +dear Sir, I withdraw from all contests of opinion and resign every thing +cheerfully to the generation now in place. They are wiser than we were, +and their successors will be wiser than they, from the progressive +advance of science. Tranquillity is the <i>summum bonum</i> of age. I wish, +therefore, to offend no man's opinion, nor to draw disquieting +animadversions on my own. While duty required it, I met opposition with +a firm and fearless step. But loving mankind in my individual relations +with them, I pray to be permitted to depart in their peace, and, like +the superannuated soldier, '<i>quadragenis stipendiis emeritis</i>,' to hang +my arms on the post."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jefferson, in these letters, speaks of his uniform opposition to the +opposite doctrine, and refers to the inconvenience that may at times +arise from conflicting decisions. But that, he thought, might be safely +dealt with through the prudence of public functionaries, and he names +instances when they were so treated: one in England, where an instance +of difference occurred, in the time of Lord Holt, between the judges of +England and the House of Commons; and another in this country, when a +difference of opinion was found to exist between the Federal Judiciary +and the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court decided, in a case +of <i>meum and tuum</i>, that William Duane<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> was not a citizen, and the +House of Representatives, upon a question of membership, decided that +William Smith, whose character of citizenship stood on precisely the +same ground, was a citizen. These decisions were made in high party +times, whilst the Federalists were in power. Duane was an Irishman, who +had married into the family of Dr. Franklin, and was editor of the +"Aurora," the most prominent Republican newspaper. Smith was an ardent +Federalist from South Carolina, a man of good talents himself, but who +delivered speeches in the House prepared by Hamilton in his closet, as +was charged by Jefferson at the time, and has now been fully proved by +the publication of Hamilton's private papers.</p> + +<p>But the establishment of the constitutional rule sustained by Jefferson +would not have saved the country from practical inconveniences, which he +did not notice because he knew them to be unavoidable. A concession to +the other great departments of the right to decide for themselves +constitutional questions applicable to, and that necessarily arise in +the discharge of, their official functions, still leaves them, to a +serious extent, dependent upon the judicial power. Whilst it would +exempt the incumbents from the penalty of impeachment when they act in +good faith, they and their subordinates remain liable whenever their +acts may be construed into an injurious interference with the property +or personal rights of individuals, to be called before the judicial +tribunal, to be there subjected to a different interpretation of the +Constitution from that which they, or their superiors in authority, have +placed upon it, and to be melted in damages for their public acts, +however pure their motives may have been.</p> + +<p>In a government, constructed like ours in some degree of conflicting +parts, it is ever difficult, if not at times impossible, to prevent such +a discrepancy, and those who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> framed ours, upon the whole, were wise in +not attempting to do so. As a tribute to the personal rights of man and +the security of private property, existing provisions go far to atone +for whatever of individual injustice they may occasion. The legislative +department has the power to indemnify those who suffer in this way and +invariably does so when they have acted in good faith. The losses thus +incurred by individuals, in the first instance, are in the end +transferred to the whole community, which is abundantly remunerated by +the benefits it derives from the system as a whole. Should a federal +organization ever obtain which shall attempt, through an abuse of its +power, to exert a dangerous influence over the Government, to an extent +and in a way to arrest the attention of the people, they will neither be +at a loss for a remedy nor fail in its adoption.</p> + +<p>But to extend the control of the judiciary, through their decisions "in +cases in law and equity," over the action of the other departments in +the discharge of the duties assigned to them, for the extent and gravity +of which we have only to look to the Constitution, and which, for the +most part, steer entirely clear of private and separate interests, would +be a measure of a very different character. It was upon these public +functionaries that the entire political power of the Federal Government +was intended to be conferred, and to the limited tenure by which they +held their offices and to their direct responsibility to the people that +the latter have always looked for the means to control their action. It +is upon this swift and certain responsibility they have hitherto relied +for their ability to bring the government back, without great delay, to +the republican track designed for it by the Constitution, whenever it +might be made to depart from it through, the infidelity of their +representatives. Truly says Mr. Jefferson, in one of his letters last +referred to, "when the legislative or executive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> functionaries act +unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective +capacity. The exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous +enough. I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society +but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough +to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not +to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This +is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."</p> + +<p>Nor have the people been slow to exert their powers to reform abuses +which they honestly, whether erroneously or not, believed to exist, by +displacing representatives whom they considered unfaithful, whenever the +occasion has seemed to them of sufficient magnitude to call for its +exercise. The commencement of the nineteenth century was made forever +memorable in our political annals by a display of this power, and it was +again exerted in 1828, in 1840, in 1844, and in 1852. The result of the +election of 1848 was altogether occasioned by divisions in the +Democratic party, and I feel that I venture nothing in attributing that +of 1840 mainly to a mistake in the public mind, which it has since +magnanimously acknowledged, and with that atonement I am more than +satisfied.</p> + +<p>But if the incumbents of the legislative and executive departments have +no right to decide for themselves constitutional questions that arise in +the performance of their official functions; if it be indeed true that +the National Legislature, in discharging the important duties of laying +and collecting taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; in borrowing money +on the credit of the United States; in regulating commerce with foreign +nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; in +establishing uniform rules of naturalization and on the subject of +bankruptcies; in coining money and regulating the value there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span>of, and of +foreign coins, and fixing the standard of weights and measures; in +providing punishment for counterfeiting the securities and current coin +of the United States; in establishing post-offices and post-roads; in +promoting science and useful arts; in constituting tribunals inferior to +the Supreme Court; in defining and punishing piracies and felonies +committed on the high seas and offences against the law of nations; in +declaring war; granting letters of marque and reprisal, and making rules +concerning captures on land and water; in raising and supporting armies; +in providing and maintaining a navy; in making rules for the government +and regulation of the land and naval forces; in providing for calling +forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress +insurrection and repel invasion; in providing for organizing armies and +disciplining the militia, and for governing such parts of them as may be +employed in the service of the United States; in the exercise of +exclusive jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever in the ten-mile-square +and in the forts of the United States; and in making necessary and +proper laws for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all +other powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United +States, or in <i>any department</i> or officer thereof: and that the +President, in assuming command of the army or navy of the United States +and of the militia of the several States, when called into their +service; in making treaties by and with the advice of the Senate; and in +the appointment of all the officers of the United States, with limited +and specific exceptions, and in filling up all vacancies that may arise +during the recess of the Senate; in receiving ambassadors and other +public ministers; and in taking care that the laws be faithfully +executed,—are both bound to look to the decisions, of the Supreme +Court, "in cases of law and equity" that are brought before them, for +the character<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> and extent of their powers under the Constitution, and to +be governed by them, what becomes of the distinguishing feature of +Republican Government—the responsibility of the representative to the +people for the faithful performance of his duties? A people so +intelligent, and withal so just as ours, would surely never think of +dismissing one branch of their public servants for acts in respect to +which they had placed them under the absolute guidance of another +branch. To single out one department from the rest by placing its +incumbent under a special oath to protect and preserve the Constitution, +and then to make it his duty to obey the directions of another in that +very function, absolutely and unconditionally, would, I cannot but +think, be going quite as far in that direction as the character of any +people for justice and wisdom could bear.</p> + +<p>To whom are the members of the Federal Judiciary responsible for the +truthfulness of their constitutional expositions and for the wisdom of +the steps they take to make them effectual? To no human being. They can +only be displaced by impeachment and criminal conviction. That mere +error of judgment, without positive proof of corruption, can never be +made the basis of such a proceeding, is known to all. Is it not, then, +most apparent that to place the fidelity to the Federal Constitution of +the representatives of the people and of the States and of most of the +effective officers employed in the conduct of public affairs, save only +those that are of a judicial character, under the supervision of that +department, is nothing less than to divest the Government of its +republican features and to substitute in its place the control of an +irresponsible judicial oligarchy—to make the Constitution a lie, and +turn to mockery its most formal provisions, designed to secure to the +people a control over the action of the Government under its authority? +Is it not remarkable that a doctrine,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> so clearly anti-republican in its +character and tendencies, should have been so long kept on foot under a +system so truly republican as ours, and may we not trace its origin to +the same inexhaustible fountain from whence have proceeded the most +tenacious of our party divisions—an inextinguishable distrust, on the +part of numerous and powerful classes, of the capacities and +dispositions of the great body of their fellow-citizens?</p> + +<p>The want of a proper respect for the people, as has been often said, was +Hamilton's great misfortune. If he could have felt otherwise, he would +have been a Republican. This distrust of the capacity and disposition of +the masses, which had been the bane of his life, retained its hold upon +his strong mind and ardent feelings when he bequeathed it to his +political disciples, and it has been the shibboleth of their tribe ever +since. In a large degree wealthy and proud of their social position, +their fear of the popular will, and desire to escape from popular +control, instead of being lessened, is increased by the advance of the +people in education and knowledge. Under no authority do they feel their +interests to be safer than under that which is subject to the judicial +power, and in no way could their policy be more effectually promoted +than by taking power from those departments of the Government over which +the people have full control, and accumulating it in that over which +they may fairly be said to have none.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> The correspondence, including the letters of President +Jackson, has received the same direction with the other MSS. of the +Author. See <a href="#Page_iii">introduction</a> to this volume. <span class="smcap">Eds.</span></p></div> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Exceptional Countenance given by the Democratic Party to the +Federalist Doctrine of the Supremacy of the Judicial over the other +Departments on the Occasion of the Dred Scott Decision—Former +Acquiescence of the Country as to the Power of Congress over +Slavery in the Territories—That Power brought in question by +General Cass, in 1848—The Result a Rupture in the Democratic Party +and Defeat of Cass—The subsequent Election of Pierce—Repeal of +the Missouri Compromise—Dangers of that Step—The Kansas-Nebraska +Act—Opinions of the Judges in the Dred Scott Case how far +extra-Judicial—Probable Motives of the Chief Justice and his +Brethren—The Author's Recollections of Taney—The Motives of the +Judges Good, but their <i>obiter dicta</i> a Mistake—The Course of +President Buchanan, with respect to the Dred Scott Decision, an +Abandonment of the Democratic Principle of the Independence of each +of the three great Departments in deciding Constitutional +Questions—Subsequent Action of the Democratic Party on this +Subject—Importance of returning to original Doctrines of the +Party.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>F this essay shall be ever published, the censures I have bestowed upon +the old Federal party and its successors for their persevering efforts +to destroy the balances of the Constitution, in this respect of the +relative powers of the departments, will doubtless be met by those who +still sympathize with its opinions, by a reference to the proceedings in +the case of Dred Scott. Of this no one will have a right to complain, so +long as those who so refer confine themselves to facts; for truth is +truth, whatever may be the circumstances under which it is applied, and +wrong is wrong, by whomsoever it may be committed and by whatever party +it may be sustained. It will be alleged that the Supreme Court, now +composed of gentlemen who are acknowledged members of the Democratic +party, has in that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> case set up the right to guide the official action +of the executive and legislative departments of the Government upon a +great constitutional question,—that the Executive has recognized that +right, and has promised to conform his own course to it when exercised, +and that these proceedings have received the approbation and support of +the Democratic party.</p> + +<p>In the notice I propose to take of that case, it is not my intention to +discuss the correctness or incorrectness of the decision that was made +in respect to the power of Congress to legislate upon the subject of +slavery in the Territories. I will however state in advance and in few +words the view I now take of the general subject.</p> + +<p>The acquiescence of the country in the power of Congress referred to, +from the Presidency of Washington to that of Polk inclusive, is well +known. Every President signed bills for carrying it into effect, when +any such became necessary and were presented for their approval, and the +other great departments of the Government not only complied with the +rule but, in innumerable instances, recognized its validity. This +continued until the year 1848, when a point, which had so long been +considered settled, was brought in question by an opinion expressed by +General Cass, then being a candidate for the Presidency, in a letter to +Mr. Nicholson, of Tennessee, adverse to the powers of Congress. The +Democratic party, whose candidate he was, adopted his opinions, and the +consequences were a rupture in that party, the elevation of an +old-school Federalist to the Presidency, and an administration of the +Federal Government upon the long exploded principles of Federalism. In +1852 the Democracy of the Union, instructed by experience in regard to +the destructive tendency of slavery agitations, resolved to avoid them +in future, united on General<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> Pierce as their candidate, supported him +on their old and time-honored principles, and elected him by a +triumphant majority.</p> + +<p>This result, so auspicious to the country, was unhappily followed by the +repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and a consequent reopening of the +agitation upon the subject of slavery, in a form and under influences +more portentous of evil than any which had before attended it.</p> + +<p>I received information of that event whilst I was abroad, a sojourner in +a country which was under the dominion of an absolute +monarch,—circumstances which never fail to increase the attachment of a +true-hearted American, however orthodox he may have been before in his +devotion, to home and its inestimable institutions. Although forever +withdrawn from public life, I could not be indifferent to a measure +promising such startling consequences. Having had full opportunities to +become acquainted with the evil which the infusion of slavery agitation +into the partisan feelings of the country was capable of producing, I +felt, in all their force, the dangers to which our political fabric +would be exposed by that act, and mourned over its adoption. Whatever +may be thought or said of it in other respects, in regard to its +influence in exciting sectional animosities to a far more perilous +height than they had ever reached before there is not now room for two +opinions.</p> + +<p>Under the feelings of the moment, I naturally extended to the substitute +Congress had provided, the odium which, in my view, belonged to the act +of repeal, and could see no adequate relief save in a restoration of the +Compromise. But as passion subsided I became convinced of the +impracticability of that step, and turned my attention to a more careful +consideration of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and I became satisfied that, +if honestly executed, it was all that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> could, under existing +circumstances, be done, or, perhaps, desired. Having been a second time +invited by my old political friends of Tammany Hall, before the +Presidential election of 1856, to submit my views upon the then state of +the question, I gave them in a letter which presented the whole subject +in a form and was written in a spirit which many thought well calculated +to make favorable impressions on well-intentioned and sober-minded men. +It contained a simple and truthful description of the position I had +before occupied upon the slavery subject, an exposition of the reasons +by which I was yet satisfied that it had been well taken, and of the +ground of my expectation that Mr. Buchanan would do all in his power to +cause the Kansas-Nebraska Act to be carried into full and fair effect.</p> + +<p>I have read all the opinions given by the judges in the Dred Scott case +with care, and will state the impressions which they have made upon my +mind. I had never examined the question, and learned, with serious +misgivings as to its correctness, that the court had decided that a man +of African birth, though free and, in the State in which he resided, +entitled to all the rights of a citizen, was not also a citizen of the +United States. My mind remained in this state, with partial alleviations +of my anxiety, derived from newspaper sketches of the subject referring +to instances in which the principle had been acted upon in the +administration of public affairs, until I read very deliberately the +voluminous opinions of the judges. The able, judgelike, and I may add, +statesmanlike, views taken by Chief Justice Taney and by Justice Daniel, +of that branch of the subject, have satisfied me that the judgment of +the court upon it was right. I am now convinced that the sense in which +the word "citizen" was used by those who framed and ratified the Federal +Constitution was not intended to embrace the African race, whose +ancestors were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> brought to this country and sold in slavery. I shall +content myself with stating the result of my reflections, without going +into details, as that would be to re-argue the question, which would be +foreign to my present object. I do not say that the subject is free from +difficulties. No adverse opinion could pass through the ordeal of so +subtle and masterly an argument as that of Justice Curtis, who bestowed +more attention upon the point than his dissenting brother, and escape +unscathed.</p> + +<p>The weight of facts and argument is, notwithstanding, in my judgment, on +the side of the decision of the court.</p> + +<p>A decision in favor of a free black man's right to institute a suit in +the Federal court, on the grounds of citizenship and his residence in a +different State from the defendant, would undoubtedly establish his +right under the Constitution to the enjoyment in a slave State of all +the privileges allowed to its own citizens. The extent to which such a +construction and the practical operation of the rights which might be +claimed under it would increase the difficulties, already so great, of +maintaining the unity and harmonious action of the Federal system, will +be more and more apparent the deeper the matter is considered. I think +it is quite certain that if the Constitution had been supposed to +contain a provision legitimately authorizing such consequences, it would +not have been agreed to by the slaveholding States, nor, in view of the +liberal spirit evinced even by the latter at the time of the formation +of the Constitution in regard to the extension of slavery, would such a +provision have been insisted upon by their brethren of the States which +had the happiness to be comparatively free from the institution. The +decision must, therefore, be regarded as fortunate, as I cannot but hold +it to be correct. For though the personal rights of individuals, however +humble their position in society, are not the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> less important and their +protection no less the duty of government, yet the great community may +felicitate itself that claims like these,—the practical enjoyment of +which, while of little value, relatively, to the few who assert them, +may endanger the peace and welfare of millions,—are extinguished +through the agency of the organ of the Government constituted for their +adjustment. It is in such cases, when confined to its necessary and +legitimate duties, that the salutary influence of that high tribunal is +felt by all.</p> + +<p>The plaintiff, Dred Scott, alleged in his declaration—as he was bound +to allege to give the Circuit Court jurisdiction of the cause—that he +was a citizen of Missouri. Sandford, the defendant, plead to the +jurisdiction and alleged for cause of abatement that Scott was not a +citizen of Missouri as averred in his declaration, "<i>because</i> he is a +negro of African descent; his <i>ancestors were of pure African blood and +were brought into this country and sold as negro slaves</i>." To this plea +there was a demurrer by which the facts set forth in the plea were +admitted, and upon the issue in law thus joined the Circuit Court gave +judgment that the demurrer be sustained. The plea, it will be perceived, +did not aver that Scott was a slave, or state any fact from which the +inference that he was such unavoidably resulted. The plaintiff was, +therefore, to be regarded in the decision upon the demurrer as a free +man, and was so regarded by the Circuit Court and by the Supreme +Court.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> The effect of the final decision, assuming it to have been +the opinion of the court, was that the judgment of the Circuit Court +upon the demurrer be reversed, and a mandate issued directing the suit +to be dismissed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> from that court for want of jurisdiction. This disposed +of every question in the case that entered into, or could exert the +slightest influence upon the personal rights of the parties or the +ultimate judgment of the Supreme Court. Judge Daniel in his +opinion—inferior to none that were delivered—admitted this in so many +words: "According to the view taken of the case as applicable to the +demurrer to the plea in abatement in this cause," (said he,) "the +question subsequently raised upon the several pleas in bar <i>might be +passed by, as requiring neither a particular examination nor an +adjudication directly upon them</i>." This was, beyond all doubt, the true +condition of the case. Every other question bore upon one point only, +and that was, whether Scott had become a free man,—a question not put +in issue by the plea in abatement, and according to the opinion of the +court of no real consequence in the decision of the cause.</p> + +<p>The result would, therefore, seem to be that every thing subsequently +said and done by the court was extrajudicial—<i>obiter dicta</i> decisions, +which, not affecting the merits of the case, are of no authority. But +the court, anticipating such an objection, made very considerable +efforts, in advance, to repel and disprove it. Both the Chief Justice +and Judge Wayne insisted earnestly on the circumstance that this was a +writ of error to the Circuit Court and not to a State court; that the +question did not relate to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, but of +its own inferior court, and that in such cases it was the practice and +the duty of the Supreme Bench to take a wider range in the correction of +errors than when the case came up from the State courts, and the +question was whether the Supreme Court had a right to act in the matter. +In the latter case they admitted that the judges ought to stop the +moment they found that none existed, and if they did not, all beyond was +extrajudicial. They urged that the general<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> judgment in favor of the +defendant, in a case in which the Circuit Court had no jurisdiction, was +an error apparent on the record which it was proper in the Supreme Court +to correct by a reversal of that judgment, and that for this purpose it +became necessary to decide the issue presented by the special plea which +involved the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise Act; and, +finally, that the case was one which the court had not sought, but which +had been brought before it in the regular course of judicial +proceedings; that the issues it involved were those which the parties +had presented for the decision of the court, and that it was its duty to +dispose of them.</p> + +<p>That the court had neither sought the case nor exerted any agency in +framing the issues it presented was undeniably true, and the reasons +assigned in justification of its course are certainly entitled to great +respect. How far their strength is impaired by the following +considerations, those who have sufficient curiosity to study the case +will judge for themselves. That the parties, at the commencement of the +proceedings in the Supreme Court, were both desirous to have the issue +joined upon the merits examined and decided upon by that court, is very +evident, but it is questionable whether the wishes and interests of both +were not superseded by its action. The plaintiff secure, as he supposed, +by the stand he had acquired in the Circuit Court through the decision +of that tribunal upon the demurrer in his favor, was of course +solicitous to reverse the judgment which had been given by that court in +favor of the defendant upon the merits. The defendant had two objects in +view,—the first of which was to reverse the judgment upon the demurrer, +and, if he failed in that, to sustain the judgment in his favor upon the +merits. On the argument of the cause it was made a grave question +whether the point raised by the plea to the jurisdiction was legally +before the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> Supreme Court,—a question of no small difficulty and one in +regard to which there was a diversity of opinion to the last, even among +the judges who were in favor of the decision of the court. It was +contended by the plaintiff in error that the defendant had conceded the +jurisdiction of the Circuit Court by pleading over, and that he had not +brought his writ of error to reverse his own judgment. But the Supreme +Court overruled these objections, reversed the judgment in his favor, +and directed the suit to be dismissed from the Circuit Court for the +want of jurisdiction. By this decision, which the plaintiff could not +foresee, and was not bound to anticipate, all his interest in a decision +upon the merits was of course superseded. The defendant having succeeded +in driving the plaintiff out of the court below, could have no possible +desire that the judgment rendered in <i>his own favor</i> should be reversed; +affirmed it could not be on account of the want of jurisdiction in the +Circuit Court. His application to the Supreme Court to have that point +of the case acted upon was therefore superseded by its own act. Such +anomalous proceedings, as an elaborate opinion in favor of all the +claims set up by a party terminating with the reversal of a judgment in +his favor, are happily of rare occurrence in judicial tribunals so able +and elevated as ours. It is perhaps questionable whether the judgments +for the defendant in the court below did not fall with the dismissal of +the cause from before the Circuit Court for want of jurisdiction, +without farther interference on the part of the Supreme Court. Still in +a case involving so many and such extraordinary complications, the +latter might well feel itself at liberty to decide also the questions +that were raised and had been very fully discussed before it upon the +merits of the cause. But on what grounds it could regard such a course +as obligatory and necessary to the complete administration of justice<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +between the parties litigant before it, I cannot see, and I find it +difficult to believe that the members of the court would have given +themselves the trouble to prepare such elaborate opinions upon questions +the decision of which was not necessary to the judgment of the court, if +their solution could have had no other bearing than upon the personal +rights of Dred Scott. I think it more likely that the judges who united +in the opinion that the Missouri Compromise Act was unconstitutional, +seeing the extraordinary revolution which its repeal had produced in the +political and fraternal feelings of the people of the United States, and +sincerely believing the safety of the Union endangered by continued +agitation upon so disturbing a subject, hoped to arrest it by the +judgment of the Supreme Court upon the point in question,—a step which, +if not actually called for, they yet believed fully justified by the +case before them.</p> + +<p>Chief Justice Taney, who, by his superior intellect and elevation of +character, was enabled to give to such a movement its greatest impulse, +was not exempt from an original bias in favor of the doctrine advanced +by Mr. Webster in the discussions upon the Bank Veto, when the latter +declared,—"Hitherto it has been <i>thought</i> that the final decision of +constitutional questions belonged to the supreme judicial tribunal. The +very nature of free government, it has been <i>supposed</i>, enjoins this; +and our Constitution, moreover, has been <i>understood</i> so to provide +clearly and expressly."<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> The peculiarity of these expressions +challenges our attention in passing. The guarded and sly manner in which +they put forth the doctrines of the old Federal party, without assuming +the responsibility of affirming them, is in their author's best manner.</p> + +<p>Nor did the Chief Justice stand alone in that position<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> among his +judicial brethren. He had occupied a distinguished place in the Federal +ranks to an advanced period in his professional life; he had acquired an +enviable fame at the Bar, and had left it, as most old lawyers do, with +feelings of admiration and respect not only for his professional +brethren but for the Bench, in the influence and power of which they +seldom fail to take the deepest interest. It was hardly to be expected +that he should, on taking his seat, have proved insensible to the +<i>esprit du corps</i> which had long prevailed in and around that high +tribunal, and which, directed by the plastic hand of John Marshall, had +charmed minds as strong as his own, even although professing opposite +political principles. Story and Thompson, who had been stars of +considerable magnitude in the old Republican party, were in succession +subdued by Marshall's magnetic influence to conditions in this regard +favorable to the acceptance of almost any extension of the doctrine of +the supremacy of the Supreme Court.</p> + +<p>Although the master-mind which gave it life and by which it was +installed has departed, the proceedings now the subject of our review +give us abundant reason to apprehend that the spirit has retained its +place and power. In respect to many hardly contested issues brought +before the Court, occurring vacancies and new appointments have +doubtless worked important changes in its opinions; but on that of the +supremacy of the judicial over the other departments of the Government +in constitutional questions, there are yet, it is to be feared, few +dissentients on the Bench, and least of all on the question from which +opposition to the decision in the Dred Scott case proceeded. That +decision was therefore pronounced under the full persuasion that, in +addition to its quieting effect upon the public mind, it, of right, +ought to have a controlling influence over the action of the other +departments of the Government; that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> it ought to influence the action of +Congress in particular, and that, if an attempt should be made to revive +the condemned act, it would guide the course of the Executive. Judge +Daniel, in the modest, hesitating terms in which he expressed his +concurrence in the farther proceedings, which he admitted to be +unnecessary, seems to have thought it due to the political school in +which he had been reared to put some qualification upon the power of the +court to settle the conflicting views upon the subject that prevailed +out of doors and might find place in the other departments of the +Government. But my worthy friend, Judge Wayne, had no such reserve. He +thought that the case, in addition to private rights of great value, +involved "constitutional principles of the highest importance, about +which there had become such a difference of opinion that the peace and +harmony of the country required the settlement of them by judicial +decision."</p> + +<p>The Chief Justice was too circumspect not to content himself with +action, and not to avoid expressions open to unfavorable criticism. I +cannot suffer the allusions I have made to circumstances in the previous +career of this excellent man to pass without a disclaimer of the +slightest intention to impeach his motives in any thing. I have known +him long and well. We stood shoulder to shoulder by the side of General +Jackson at the most eventful period of his second term of office, and +did all we could do to sustain him by our coöperation and advice. I do +not know that we differed on any point; and I do know that there could +not have been a more upright and vigilant public officer than he was; +nor could any man have had a more faithful or a more efficient friend +than he proved to that noble old man. I witnessed from beginning to end +the virulent and violent persecutions he experienced at the hands of his +old Federal and Whig friends, and was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> deeply affected by the steady, +self-possessed and manly spirit with which he endured them. This +impressed me with a respect for his character and a personal attachment +which no after-occurrence has weakened. He was my choice as the +candidate of the Democratic party for the Presidency in 1852, and there +has been no time since at which I would not have rejoiced to see him at +the head of the Government. I would have expected to find in him some +defects, which being bred in the bone would come out in the flesh, but +that never was with me, as was known to my familiar associates in +political life, an objection to the elevation to office of gentlemen +whose political <i>status</i> was similar to his own. I took them <i>cum +onere</i>, and sometimes, though certainly not always, gained by the +experiment. He was a man of innate as well as cultivated integrity in +sentiment and action, and the longer we live the higher value we learn +to place on this quality in a public man. Conscious of the importance of +sincerity and truthfulness in all the movements of Government, whose +office it is to enforce the observance of moral obligation, men of this +character can never be induced to countenance public measures unless +they are not only pure in themselves, but supported by pure means. Such +a man was Roger B. Taney, and such men I never suspect of unworthy +motives in any thing they say or do. Neither have I the slightest doubt +of the good intentions by which his associates on the bench were +influenced in the proceedings of which I am speaking. Yet I cannot but +think that in going beyond the necessities of the case they made a +grievous mistake. The question, which the court undertook to settle, was +political, and had assumed a partisan character of great virulence. +There are two classes in every community whose interference in politics +is always and very naturally distasteful to sincere republicans, and +those are judges and clergy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span>men. Their want of sympathy, as a general +rule, for popular rights, is known throughout the world, and in this +country that repugnance received an enduring impulse from the unanimity +with which a vast majority of both classes banded themselves on the side +of power, in the stormy time of the first Adams, and from the bitterness +with which they railed from the bench and the pulpit at the +public-spirited and patriotic men, who sought to relieve the country +from misrule. Both were again called to the political field, though on +different sides, during our recent troubles; yet the circumstance that +the judges took part with a majority of those who constituted the +Democratic party of the United States was not sufficient to neutralize +the dislike to their interference in politics which was seated in the +Democratic mind. To add a deeper shade to this trespass upon the +time-honored creed of the Democratic party, the anti-Democratic doctrine +was conveyed to the public in a form professing to be a necessary +adjudication in the regular course of the administration of justice, +whilst it is, to a considerable extent at least, exposed to the +imputation of having in truth been an extrajudicial opinion, voluntarily +and not necessarily delivered,—a mode of bringing before the country +the opinions of the supreme bench, formerly much in use, but which, +since the case of Marbury and Madison, has been peculiarly repulsive to +Democrats, and which Mr. Jefferson spent much time in holding up to +odium.</p> + +<p>To do full justice to Mr. Buchanan in respect to the extent to which +this action of the Supreme Court received his sanction, it becomes +necessary to state with more precision than might otherwise be deemed +requisite, in connection with admitted facts, his avowals on the +subject, which are contained in his inaugural address.</p> + +<p>The Kansas-Nebraska Act was designed to settle, as far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> as an act of +Congress could do so, two points, viz.—1st, that Congress possessed no +power to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the Territories, and +therefore it repealed the Missouri Compromise Act; and 2d, that it +belongs to the majority of the people of the Territory to decide whether +slavery shall or shall not exist within its bounds.</p> + +<p>President Buchanan treated every point which the Kansas Act professed to +settle as removed from the scope of partisan warfare, and congratulated +the country on the happy conception through which the Congress had +accomplished results so desirable.</p> + +<p>That body recognized in the fullest manner the power and the right of a +majority of the people of Kansas to decide upon their domestic +institutions, including the subject of slavery, but was silent as to the +period when that right should be exercised. That was, therefore, left an +open question, and the President expressed his views in regard to it in +the following words: "A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to +the time when the people of a Territory shall decide this question for +themselves. This is happily a matter of little practical importance, and +besides it is a judicial question, which legitimately belongs to the +Supreme Court of the United States, before whom it is now pending, and +will, it is understood, be speedily and finally settled. To their +decision, in common with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit, +whatever this may be, though it has been my individual opinion," etc.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary for the purpose of this reference to inquire either +how far that question was decided by the Supreme Court, in the case +referred to, or whether the President does justice to its importance. In +respect to the latter point it is well known that a contrary opinion is +extensively entertained. It will not be denied that the case<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span> he speaks +of was that of Dred Scott, and that the questions to be decided in it +related only to the personal rights and interests of the parties to the +suit. It is in the settlement of such only that the Supreme Court could +exercise jurisdiction upon such a subject, and all will admit that if it +belongs to a Territory to determine the question of the toleration of +slavery there, the occasion of the formation of its State constitution +will be a proper time for the settlement of that question, if a majority +consent that the decision shall be so long deferred. The question in +regard to the true time can, therefore, only arise, when a majority wish +to act upon the subject at an earlier period. If such an attempt be +made, the most extreme advocates for judicial supremacy would not +pretend that it would be competent for the Supreme Court to arrest the +proceedings by injunction or writ of prohibition, or any other process. +It could, therefore, only be in cases involving individual interests, +which might be supposed to be affected by such a proceeding on the part +of the Territory, that the judicial tribunals could interfere, and it +was to such a case that the President was understood to refer. It was of +an expected decision of the court in a case in law, brought for the +settlement of private rights, that the President spoke, when he said +that, though he had an opinion of his own, he would, notwithstanding, +submit to the decision of the court upon the point, whatever that might +be. By this declaration he announced to his constituents that in the +exercise of the executive power upon the subject, whenever that might +become necessary, he would take notice of the decision of the Supreme +Court in the case he referred to as then pending, and would feel it to +be his duty to maintain the rule it should lay down in respect to the +particular question of which he spoke, and <i>a fortiori</i> in respect to +the main question, the right of the Territory to act upon the matter,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +and that he would do so because the court had so decided without +reference to his individual opinion in the premises—the consequence of +which would be, that if his official sanction or coöperation should +become necessary to a settlement of the question of slavery by the +people of the Territory, he would give it if the people had acted +conformably to the rule prescribed by the court, or withhold it if they +had acted contrary thereto; and that if Congress should undertake to +legislate upon any part of the subject against the decision of the +Supreme Court, in respect to its constitutional powers, he would +withhold his assent from any bill of that character which the two houses +might pass.</p> + +<p>It is our duty, and must be our aim, to interpret the language employed +by the President according to what we, in good faith, believe to have +been his intention. Attempts to pervert the sense of what is said by a +man placed in his situation and acting under his grave responsibilities, +would not injure him, and could not fail to recoil upon their author. +If, dealing with his avowals in that spirit, we are yet bound to believe +that the declaration which I have described is the legitimate +interpretation and effect of his language, it is not only our right but +our duty to speak of it as we conscientiously think it deserves. It can +be scarcely necessary to say that those who regard the Republican +principles of government applicable to the question before us, as they +have been set forth in this work, as the true and only principles of the +Constitution, must either abandon the tenets of their predecessors and +their own convictions, or treat the declaration of Mr. Buchanan as a +voluntary and seemingly a ready sacrifice of a most cherished principle +of the Democratic faith—the reciprocal independence of the great +departments of government; a principle the importance of which was +apparent to and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> insisted on by the friends of liberty long before the +establishment of our independence, and for the practical enforcement of +which the American Revolution was regarded as presenting the best +opportunity ever offered. For the security of this principle the fathers +of our political school made the greatest efforts, and the invasion of +it was met by Mr. Jefferson, at the commencement of his administration, +with characteristic firmness, and was the subject of his anxious +watchfulness during the closing scenes of his life.</p> + +<p>The recent action of the Democratic party upon this subject must be +considered with many grains of allowance. The long-continued support of +a majority of the people,—the only test of political merit in a +Republic,—has secured a preference for its principles of which it may +well be proud; and the general fidelity of its members to the faith they +profess is creditably illustrated by the fact that after all the changes +to which its organization has been exposed, its ranks, whatever may be +the case as to some of its leaders, are mainly composed of men with like +dispositions with those by whom that organization was effected; yet its +best friends set up in its behalf no claim to infallibility, nor do they +pretend that its members have never failed in their duty to the cause. +They know that men do not escape from their liability to err by uniting +with a political association. Circumstances of the gravest character +have besides put the adherence of its members to the principles of their +party, in the matter under consideration, to a severer test than any to +which they have hitherto been exposed. For the first time since its +ascent to power in the Federal Government, two of the three great +departments, the Executive and the Judicial, are presided over by +gentlemen who, though raised to their places by its favor, had not been +bred in its ranks but joined them at comparatively advanced periods in +their lives, with opinions formed and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> matured in an antagonist school. +The motives by which these gentlemen were led to enlist under the +Democratic banner were, beyond question, of the purest character, and +the high position to which they have been raised by their new friends +shows that they were appreciated as they deserved. Most of the +principles and opinions they formed in the ranks of the adversary have +doubtless been changed, and ours adopted in their stead, but, +unfortunately, that which is the subject of our present remark appears +not to have been among the number.</p> + +<p>Several of the members of the President's cabinet and of the bench of +the Supreme Court, perhaps a majority of each, stand in the same +category. In Congress the state of things is not materially different; +when we look at the gentlemen who have been most prominent in the Kansas +embroilment, on the side of the administration, we find an unprecedented +number of the same class. It is most proper to avoid referring +unnecessarily to names in a work of this character, especially when such +reference is not for particular commendation, but the innocence of the +motive in this case will excuse a slight departure from the rule. Among +the most prominent of those who have taken the lead on the Democratic +side in the two houses of Congress in respect to the affairs of Kansas, +will be found the names of Toombs, of the Senate, and Stephens, of the +House—both from Georgia, and both, for aught I know or have ever known, +honorable men, doubtless actuated by good motives. I know neither +personally, and never heard of either particularly, save as extreme +partisans in the ranks of our opponents. I will not vouch for precise +accuracy as to dates, but I am persuaded I will not err materially in +saying that neither professed to belong to the Democratic party until +after their appointment and election to their present posts. All of +these gentlemen not merely believe,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> as it is very natural that they +should, in this supremacy of the judicial power in such matters,—an +idea always heretofore scouted by the Democracy of the land,—but they +maintain it before the country, under circumstances rendered very +imposing by their high official positions, as a test of party fidelity. +The Executive, whose elevation to power cost the Democracy so fearful a +struggle, and from whose success so much was and still is expected, has +done this clearly and undisguisedly in respect to the support of +Lecompton, and virtually in respect to the question of judicial +supremacy. Mr. Stephens offered a resolution declaring the support of +the Lecompton Act, a measure closely interwoven with the principle of +which we are speaking, as a test question in the Democratic caucus over +which presided Mr. Cochran,—a promising young man from New York, +descended from a family as thoroughly imbued with Hamiltonian Federalism +as any this State has produced (one of them Hamilton's brother-in-law), +brought up till he arrived at man's estate among the straightest of the +sect, and on that account entitled to greater credit for throwing +himself with becoming zeal into the Democratic ranks, but for the same +reason less likely to embrace their creed in its full extent, and less +qualified to instruct them in the principles of their faith.</p> + +<p>But there is an obstacle to an adherence on the part of the Democratic +party to their ancient faith, in respect to these proceedings of the +court, far more potent than those to which I have referred. This arises +from the circumstance that those proceedings had their origin mainly in +a sincere belief that they were necessary to protect a paramount and +absorbing interest in nearly half the States of the Confederacy, with +the security and quiet of which the citizens of those States believe +their happiness and welfare to be inseparably involved. These are also +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> States in which the Democratic party possesses comparatively its +greatest influence, and in some of which the true principles of the +Constitution have in general, and especially at earlier periods in our +history, been sought after with great avidity, and in which that under +consideration found its earliest, ablest, and most persevering +supporters. I need not speak of the control which this belief is capable +of exerting over most of those who are by their position brought within +the range of its practical operation. Minds thus excited find no +insuperable difficulty in placing the object of their solicitude upon +the footing of the <i>salus populi</i>, or in looking upon any measure that +tends to its security as justifiable, because it is in execution of the +<i>suprema lex</i>. Before such a feeling, so widely diffused, constitutional +objections and all the principles which on ordinary occasions bind the +consciences and influence the actions of men, are seldom, if ever, of +much avail.</p> + +<p>Neither will full justice have been done to the subject, notwithstanding +this formidable array of hindrances in the path of duty, if I omit to +refer to the inducement, always so strong with political parties, to +avail themselves of every opportunity that presents or seems to present +itself to "<i>commend the poisoned chalice</i>" to the lips of their +opponents—a temptation they find it hard to resist, however much their +own hands or consciences may have to be soiled in the operation. Few of +the present generation who have made themselves at all conversant with +the course of public affairs, need to be told how constant and openly +professed has been the faith of the old Federalists and their political +successors in the infallibility and omnipotence of the decisions of the +Supreme Court of the United States upon constitutional questions. The +complaints of the old Republicans and their successors upon that head +have been both loud and long continued. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> they made the country ring +with them in respect to the unconstitutionality and tyrannical character +of the Alien and Sedition Laws, the ready and only reply of their +opponents was, that it belonged to the judicial power to decide upon +their constitutionality, and that their expediency was a matter to be +solved in the breast of Congress. In more modern times, when its +unconstitutionality was objected to the second Bank of the United +States, the decision of the Supreme Court in favor of the power of +Congress to establish it was the equally ready and confident answer to +all complaints on that ground. Other and similar instances might be +referred to, but it is unnecessary. For the first time since the +formation of the present Government the supreme bench, considerably +changed in the political complexion of its members and tempted, +doubtless more or less under the pressure of an all-absorbing popular +influence at the South, to borrow a leaf from the book of our political +opponents, has undertaken to control, adversely to the views of those +opponents, a great political question by an extrajudicial decision of +the court. As one of the consequences, a hue and cry has been raised +against that august tribunal, hitherto revered by them as the only +political sanctuary; trusted as the ark of safety;—a clamor reaching to +a demand for the reorganization of the court itself;—a point never even +approached by the Democracy when their displeasure has been raised to +the greatest height by its unauthorized assumptions of political power. +It is not then surprising that portions of the Democratic party should +have been led to give the qualified assent which they have given to the +Federal principle under consideration. I say qualified, for the guarded +manner in which those who so assent have urged the influence which the +decision of the court ought to have upon the question, must have been +apparent to all; and this has been very much to their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> credit, +especially in the slaveholding States. The references which have been +made to the doings of the judiciary, in most instances, have savored +more of what is known in the law as a <i>plea of estoppel</i> than of a claim +of right,—a plea by which the truth or falsity of any matter brought +forward by one party is waived, and its admission resisted on the ground +that the party relying upon it has precluded himself from introducing it +by some act or concession appearing upon the record, or established +<i>aliunde</i>. If the doctrine of estoppel could be applied to politicians, +it would certainly not be difficult to show that the Federal party and +its successors are very clearly estopped from objecting to the action of +the Supreme Court of which we have been speaking.</p> + +<p>It may, under such circumstances, be safely assumed that the Democratic +party has not committed itself to a departure from its professed +principles upon this subject to an extent which it cannot be relieved +from without a sacrifice of self-respect on the part of its members, or +without serious prejudice to its well-earned title to the confidence of +the country. That it will so relieve itself its past good sense and +active patriotism forbid us to doubt. Let us hope that the protecting +care of a kind Providence, which has hitherto carried our country in +safety through so many perils, will in His own good time afford us a +breathing spell at least, from the baleful excitements attendant upon +slavery agitation. When that happy period arrives ... besides the +incalculable advantage it will bring to the highest interests of all +parties and all sections of our country, the Democrats in the +slaveholding States will not fail to see the folly of asking their +political coadjutors in the free States to coöperate in the support of +measures and principles in sustaining which they cannot be sustained at +home. The hair-breadth escape of their common party from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> destruction at +the last Presidential election, and the deplorable condition to which +the Democratic party has been reduced in the non-slaveholding States, by +a past disregard of that consideration, will then be allowed their +proper admonitory effect. All will then acknowledge that in the steps +which have recently been taken, having their origin in the same bitter +and deplorable source, the Democratic party, always before the able and +zealous defender of the Constitution against similar inroads, had +entered upon a path which leads directly and inevitably to a revolution +of the Government in the most important of its functions—a revolution +which would in time substitute for the present healthful and beneficial +action of public opinion the selfish and contracted rule of a judicial +oligarchy, which, sympathizing in feeling and acting in concert with the +money power, would assuredly subvert the best features of a political +system that needs only to be honestly administered to enable it to +realize those anticipations of our country's greatness which now warm +the hearts and animate the patriotism and nerve the arms of her faithful +sons.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> The opinion of the Supreme Court is thus summed up by the +Chief Justice: "And upon a full and careful consideration of the subject +<i>the court</i> is of opinion <i>that upon the facts stated in the plea in +abatement</i> Dred Scott was not a citizen of Missouri within the meaning +of the Constitution of the United States, and not entitled as such to +sue in its courts; and consequently that the Circuit Court had no +jurisdiction of the cause and that the judgment on the plea in abatement +is erroneous."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> The italics are mine.</p></div> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Effects of our Leading Party Conflicts in the Light of Seventy +Years' Experience—Contest as to the Relative Powers of the State +and General Governments—Merits and Faults of the Parties to that +Contest—The Credit of settling the Struggle upon right Grounds due +to Jefferson's Administration—Attempt of the Federalists to give +undue Supremacy to the Judicial Department and Failure of that +Attempt—Hamilton's Funding System—History of its Establishment, +Continuance, and Overthrow—The National Bank Struggle—The +Protective System—Clay's American System—Internal Improvements by +the General Government—Overthrow of these Measures the beneficent +Work of the Democratic Party—No such Contributions to the Public +Welfare made by the Opponents of that Party—The Debt of Gratitude +due from the Country to Madison, to Jackson, and especially to +Jefferson.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>T will not be deemed inappropriate to close this review of the rise and +progress of our political parties, and of the principles upon which they +have acted, with a fuller notice of the advantages and disadvantages +which have resulted to the country from their conflicting acts and +pretensions during an experience of more than seventy years. In deciding +the character of parties by their works we will but follow the dictates +of unerring wisdom, by which we are taught to judge the tree by its +fruit.</p> + +<p>A great question, and naturally the first that arose in the formation of +our political system, related to the power that should be reserved to, +and the treatment that should be extended towards, the State +governments. Rivalries between them and the Federal head could not be +prevented. To mitigate the evil by dealing justly and wisely with the +State authorities, was all that could be done. Each of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> great +parties which have divided the country had, from the beginning, its own, +and they were conflicting opinions, in respect to the spirit in which +this important subject should be dealt with. These, and the acts and +sayings they gave rise to, have been herein freely spoken of, and what +has been said need not be repeated. The facts and circumstances brought +into view, consisting in a considerable degree of the reiterated +declarations of the parties themselves, with a mass of others supplied +by contemporaneous history, fully justify the belief that if Hamilton +and Morris, and the influential men of the party of which the former was +through life the almost absolute leader, could have had their way, the +State governments would have been reduced to conditions in regard to +power and dignity which would not only have destroyed their usefulness, +but from which they must have sunk into insignificance and contempt; to +which state it was the avowed wish of those leaders to depress them. +This desire was frustrated in the Federal Convention, not so much +through favorable feeling towards the State authorities as by a +conviction on the part of a majority—a conviction which could neither +be disguised nor suppressed—that the old Anti-Federal party would be +sufficiently strengthened by a plan of the Constitution, against which a +design clearly hostile to the State governments could be fairly charged, +to enable that party to prevent its ratification. John Quincy Adams, to +his declaration that the "Constitution was extorted from the grinding +necessity of a reluctant nation," might have added, with equal truth, +that the Constitution, in the form it bore on this point, was extorted +from the Convention by a necessity not less effectual. Hamilton's design +to attain the object he had failed to accomplish in the Convention, by +"<i>administrating</i>" the Constitution, in the language of Madison, into a +thing very different from what they both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> knew it was intended to be, +was defeated by the old Republican party.</p> + +<p>The lowest point to which the State governments would have been reduced, +if the influence that was exerted to lessen their power had not been +defeated in the way I have described, must of necessity be matter of +speculation only. Hamilton, as we have seen, declared candidly that he +knew of no reason why he did not advocate their total overthrow other +than the manifest strong desire of the people for their retention; +whilst Morris, with equal openness, said that if they could not abolish +them altogether, it was nevertheless desirable to pull the teeth of the +serpents.</p> + +<p>There can be but little doubt that a complete triumph of the Federal +policy would have resulted in a decline of the State governments, if +they escaped extinguishment, from the condition which they occupied at +the period of the recognition of our Independence to mere municipal +authorities, without sufficient power to render them extensively +useful—fit theatres only for the exercise and enjoyment of the +patronage of the Federal government.</p> + +<p>The Anti-Federalists, like their opponents, could only look with favor +on one side of this great question. I do not complain of their +partiality for the State governments, for it was in them a natural and +inherited feeling, one which had been cherished with equal ardor from a +remote period in our history by men whose places they filled and whom +they most resembled. Their fault was the exclusiveness of their +preference. They could not and did not deny that a general government of +some sort was indispensable, and they should therefore have stood ready +to confer upon it such powers as were necessary to enable it to sustain +itself and to qualify it for the successful performance of the duties to +be assigned to it. This they would not do. They, on the contrary, +allowed their local preju<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span>dices and their suspicious, in some instances +well founded but unwisely indulged, to lead them to persistent refusals +to concede to the Federal head means which a sufficient experience had +shown to be absolutely necessary to good government. Public and private +interests suffered from that cause, and they were justly held +responsible for the consequences. Their conduct was as unjustifiable and +as suicidal as was the unmitigated warfare waged by leading Federalists +against the State governments; and no political course adopted by public +men or political parties, of which it could be said that it was +intentionally wrong, has hitherto, to their honor be it spoken, long +escaped rebuke from the American people.</p> + +<p>The Anti-Federal party by their pertinacious, nay morbid perseverance in +a wrong course, exposed themselves to the same penalty which was at a +later period inflicted upon their old opponents—as a party they were +overthrown and ruined.</p> + +<p>The merit of discouraging and finally extinguishing this unnatural, +unprofitable, and unnecessary struggle between the friends of the +General and State governments, and of vindicating the Federal +Constitution, by placing the peculiar principle it sought to establish +for the government to be constituted under its authority, that of an +<i>imperium in imperio</i>, upon a practicable and safe footing, was reserved +for the administration of Thomas Jefferson. For the evils arising from +the pernicious rivalry between agencies, upon the harmonious coöperation +of which the framers of the Constitution relied for the success of that +instrument, the remedy recommended by Mr. Jefferson in his inaugural +address, as expressed in his own inimitable language, was "the support +of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent +administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwark +against anti-republican<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> tendencies: the preservation of the General +Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our +peace at home and safety abroad." These propositions, so simple, so +natural, and so plainly in accord with the spirit of the Constitution, +though, in common with other suggestions from the same source designed +by their author to give repose to an over-agitated community, received +at the time with indifference by incensed partisans, met with a cordial +welcome from the great body of the people. Their fitness and probable +efficacy could not be successfully controverted, and although they did +not escape factious opposition, a majority of the people, tired of the +unavailing agitation which the subject had undergone, and more and more +satisfied of Mr. Jefferson's sincere desire to advance the general +interest, embraced them with constantly increasing earnestness, and +sustained them until they became the successful as well as settled +policy of the Government. Angry passions, having their origin in this +prolific source of partisan strife, which swept over and convulsed the +country during the Government of the Confederation, and for at least +twenty years after the adoption of the new Constitution, have been +subdued. The State governments, increased in number from thirteen to +more than thirty, with no other powers than those reserved to them by +the undisputed provisions of the Constitution, have advanced to a degree +of dignity and usefulness which has enabled them to extend to their +citizens seven eighths of the aid and protection for which they look to +government, either State or national, and has also removed from their +representatives all fear of the encroachments of the Federal Government; +whilst the latter, having proven itself able to sustain itself without +the aid of constructive powers, and to perform with promptitude and +success all the duties assigned to it, is no longer disturbed by +apprehensions of the factious spirit and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span> grasping designs once so +freely charged upon the State authorities.</p> + +<p>For this auspicious state of things we are beyond all doubt indebted, +more than to any other cause, to the conservative character of +Democratic principles and the unwavering fidelity of the party that +sustains them.</p> + +<p>To understand truly the advantages which the country has derived from +the success of this policy, and the defeat of that to which it was +opposed, we have only to picture to ourselves what the condition of the +State governments must have been if the latter had triumphed, and to +compare it with the actual state of things. Assuming that the desire to +divest them of the authority which they had gradually acquired, as +occasions for its exercise were developed by the necessities of the +public service, at one time so strong with leading Federalists and as we +have seen so openly avowed, had been limited to what was actually +proposed, viz., to give to the General Government the power to appoint +their governors, and through them the most important of their minor +officers, including those of the militia, with an absolute veto upon all +State laws,—what, judging according to the experience we have had, +would now have been the character and condition of those governments? +Without the authority required to make themselves useful, or +respectability sufficient to excite the ambition of individuals to be +honorably employed in their service, and thus to divide their attention +and regard between the Federal and State governments, they would have +sunk gradually into feeble, unimportant, characterless +establishments—mere places for the sinecure appointments of the former. +Contrast institutions like these—and only such could have been possible +under the policy advocated by the leading Federalists—with the galaxy +of independent governments of which we now boast, such as no +confederation, ancient or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> modern, possessed, vested with authority and +dignity, and filling the States respectively with monuments of their +wisdom, enterprise, usefulness, and philanthropy; and contrast the +Federal Government, resting as it now does on these tried and ample +foundations, with one based on establishments like those to which it was +proposed to degrade the States, and we will have some idea of the +dangers that the people of the United States have escaped, and the +advantages they have secured by the wisdom of their course and the +patriotism of those who advised it. If the Democratic party of +Jefferson's time, and under his lead, had effected nothing else for the +country, they would have done enough in this to deserve the perpetual +respect and gratitude of the whole people.</p> + +<p>Yet this was but the beginning of their usefulness, subsequent to the +adoption of the present Constitution.</p> + +<p>No sooner had the efforts of the leaders of the Federal party to break +down the power and influence of the State governments been arrested +through the triumph of the Democratic party in the great contest of +1800, which was to a great extent carried on in their defense, than an +attempt was set on foot to rescue a portion of the political power lost +by the former, by raising the judicial power—the dispensers of which +were to a man on their side—above the executive and legislative +departments of the Federal Government. Of this enterprise, its origin, +progress, and present condition, I have taken the notice which I thought +was demanded by its importance. That it was unsuccessful, and that the +balance of power between those departments, so necessary to the security +of liberty and to the preservation of the Government, has not been +destroyed, is altogether due to the persevering opposition of the +Democratic party under the same bold and capable leader.</p> + +<p>Where the points in issue between political parties have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> been of so +grave a character as those in the United States, it is not an easy +matter to decide on their relative importance, or in which the right and +the wrong was most apparent. Whilst some have resolved themselves mainly +into questions of expediency, in respect to which errors may be +committed without incurable injury to our institutions, there have been +others striking at their roots, which would, if differently decided, +have ended in their inevitable destruction. The two to which I have +referred were emphatically of the latter character, and hence the +inestimable value of the successful resistance that was made on the +Democratic side.</p> + +<p>Hamilton's funding system, though involving in respect to the assumption +of the State debts a grave constitutional question, was in its principal +features one of expediency. Yet it was an important one, by reason of +the serious consequences that were apprehended from its assumed +tendency, and produced impressions upon the public scarcely less marked +than were made by any public question which had before or has since +arisen in this country. The character of that system, and the injuries +that were anticipated from its establishment, have been spoken of in a +previous part of this essay. Only a slight consideration of the +operations of a similar system elsewhere will be sufficient to show how +greatly the welfare of nations has been affected by their course in +respect to it.</p> + +<p>Of these, England, from her present condition in regard to her public +debt, compared with that in which it is believed she might have stood if +her course in that respect had been guided by wiser counsels, presents +the most instructive example. Ours derives interest scarcely less +impressive from the evils we have avoided by abandoning, whilst that was +yet in our power, the further imitation of her example after we had +fully begun to imitate it. That the system was established here with +much <i>éclat</i>, and under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> explanations and circumstances indicative of a +determination on the part of the men in power to adhere to it as long as +and whenever a public debt existed, all know. It is also known that the +practice of funding the public debt, for which it furnished the plan, +has long been discontinued. Through what agency and upon what +inducements that discontinuance has been brought about, and who is +entitled to the credit of protecting the country from the evils flowing +from the practice elsewhere, can only be ascertained by an impartial +examination of its further history. To bestow that attention upon the +subject is perhaps not necessary for instruction or example, as a +national bank has not become more completely an "obsolete idea" amongst +us, or more thoroughly condemned in public opinion than a funding +system. Still there are many considerations which render such an +examination an object of curiosity certainly, and one not destitute of +higher interest. If the change which was effected in the policy and +action of the Government in this regard has been as advantageous as with +the light which experience has thrown upon the subject cannot be longer +doubted, it is highly proper that those who brought about the reform +should have the credit of it.</p> + +<p>No important transaction upon which patriotism of such an order and +intellects of such caliber as distinguished the public men of that day +were earnestly employed, can be without interest to inquiring minds of +this. It is so long since the whole affair has passed from public +attention as to make it an unfamiliar subject to most of us. I confess +it was so to me, and those who read these sheets will not complain if +the interest I have taken in following it to its termination shall at +least save them from some of the trouble that would otherwise have been +necessary to master its details.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span></p> + +<p>Strongly excited by the first appearance of the project at the head of +Hamilton's programme, as well described by Madison in his interesting +statement to Mr. Trist, the old Republicans in and out of Congress, with +Jefferson as their adviser and at their head, rallied promptly in +earnest and unyielding opposition to its consummation. Overborne by a +large majority in the first Congress, devoted as it was to Hamilton and +his measures, they could not defeat the bill for its establishment, and +were obliged to content themselves in the first instance with efforts to +expose its objectionable features to the people, in the hope of +rendering it too odious to be persisted in. They also resorted, as they +often afterwards did on similar occasions, to the State legislatures for +advice and coöperation. That of Virginia, the President's native State, +as well as the place of his residence, denounced the scheme very soon +after its introduction, in resolutions of much power, touching the +subject upon the points in respect to which it was most exceptionable. +Its opponents in Congress also kept a watchful eye upon the steps taken +by the Secretary towards its execution, and followed every important +movement by calls for information and by pertinent resolutions. These +calls were generally upon the Secretary, occasionally on the President +himself. As early as 1792, the Republicans caused the introduction of, +and gave efficient support to, a resolution that "measures ought to be +taken for the redemption of so much of the public debt as by the act +making provision for the debts of the United States, they have the right +to redeem." In this resolution, which was adopted by the House, a +provision was inserted, against the votes of the old Republicans, to +direct the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare the plan for the +contemplated redemption. Those who were opposed to its preparation by +that officer desired to have it done by a committee, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> apprehended +obstacles on his part to an efficient prosecution of the reform they +supported.</p> + +<p>The resolution, though not expressly such in its terms, was obviously +designed as a side-blow at the funding system. That the Secretary so +regarded it was sufficiently apparent from the graceful notice, in his +report, of the circumstance that "the House had predetermined the +question in regard to the expediency of the proposed redemption, and +only submitted to his consideration the best mode of carrying it into +effect." He then proceeded to state the different ways in which the +object in view might be accomplished, designated that which he thought +most expedient, pointed out the increased burdens on the people it would +require, and specified the taxes the imposition of which he thought +would be necessary. His report was drawn up with his accustomed skill +and ability, but the measure was no further prosecuted at that time.</p> + +<p>The President was subsequently called upon, at the instance of the +Republicans, for copies of the commissions and instructions under which +Hamilton had borrowed some twelve millions of dollars in Europe in +virtue of a provision of the act establishing the funding system, and a +call was at the same time made upon Hamilton for an account of the +manner in which the money had been applied. These calls brought from the +President copies of the commission and instructions, the latter of which +were very precise and in strict conformity, in every respect, to the +law, and from Hamilton an elaborate report, drawn with a degree of care +and power unusual even with him. He appears to have anticipated a storm, +and to have prepared himself for every contingency, as far as his +conduct could be sustained by the facts. Those who derive pleasure from +the intellectual efforts of great minds, however remote the occasion +that called them forth, will not begrudge the time spent in reading his +report.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span></p> + +<p>A series of resolutions introduced into the House by Giles of Virginia, +charged the Secretary with having violated both the law and the +President's instructions, by the manner in which he had executed the +authority confided to him. These resolutions, after a long and animated +debate, were thrown out by strong votes, of the composition of which Mr. +Jefferson undertakes to give an account in his annals. But no +unprejudiced mind can read Madison's unanswerable speech, which will be +found in the first volume of "Benton's Abridgment of the Debates of +Congress," p. 431, without being convinced that the truth of both +charges was established. He proves by the Secretary's own letters that +on the very day of the receipt of the President's instructions he +commenced arrangements, which he, notwithstanding, carried into effect, +for an application of the funds diametrically opposite to that which the +President had directed him to make.</p> + +<p>Mr. Randall, in his "Life of Thomas Jefferson,"<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> has accidentally +fallen into a singular mistake in saying that "Mr. Madison voted with +the majority on every division" on that occasion, and on that assumption +proceeds to show "that Jefferson put a less charitable construction on +the motives of the majority," by giving the following entry in his +"Ana": "March the 2d, 1793. See, in the papers of this date, Mr. Giles's +Resolutions. He and one or two others were sanguine enough to believe +that the palpableness of these resolutions rendered it impossible the +House could reject them. Those who knew the composition of the +House,—1. Of bank directors; 2. Holders of bank stock; 3. +Stock-jobbers; 4. Blind devotees; 5. Ignorant persons who did not +comprehend them; 6. Lazy and good-humored persons, who comprehended and +acknowledged them, yet were too lazy to examine or unwilling to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> +pronounce censure,—the persons who knew these characters foresaw that +the three first descriptions making one third of the House, the three +latter would make one half of the residue; and of course that they would +be rejected by a majority of two to one. But they thought that even this +rejection would do good, by showing the public the desperate and +abandoned dispositions with which their affairs were conducted. The +resolutions were proposed, and nothing spared to present them in the +fullness of demonstration. There were not more than three or four who +voted otherwise than had been expected."</p> + +<p>Mr. Madison voted with the minority on every division, and so far was he +from acting otherwise that William Smith, of South Carolina, the devoted +friend of Hamilton, charged him with saying after the vote that "the +opinion of the House on the preceding resolutions would not change the +truth of facts, and that the public would ultimately decide whether the +Secretary's conduct was criminal or not."</p> + +<p>The character of this debate and the open disregard of the President's +instructions by the Secretary, which it established, were not likely to +pass unheeded or even lightly regarded through the proud and sensitive +mind of Washington.</p> + +<p>Other circumstances may be referred to which show quite clearly that the +latter was not at ease upon the subject of the finances. Among these is +one of a very striking character, not known at the time, and only +recently disclosed through the publication of the "Hamilton Papers" by +order of Congress. I allude to the correspondence between him and +Washington, to which I have before referred for another purpose, and +which will be found in the fourth volume of "Hamilton's Works," +commencing at page 510. The committee appointed by Congress to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> examine +the state of the treasury preparatory to Hamilton's resignation, then +expected but postponed for a season, were charged by that body to +"inquire into the authorities, from the President to the Secretary of +the Treasury, respecting the making and disbursing of the loans" which +were the subject of the debate and proceedings above referred to. +Hamilton thought the inquiry beyond the province of the committee, but +wishing to be prepared, if they should decide otherwise, furnished the +President with a statement of the facts, as he understood them to be, +with a view to his approval. Washington indorsed on it a certificate +which was very unsatisfactory to Hamilton, who thereupon addressed to +him a long and earnest letter, in which he complained vehemently, and +with the frankness and boldness natural to him, of not having been +sustained by the President in a delicate and responsible part of his +official duties in respect to the public debt. It does not appear that +Washington made any reply to this extraordinary letter, or that he did +anything further upon the subject which had called it forth.</p> + +<p>Whilst the proceedings which led to the debate of which I have spoken +were going on, a bill was introduced on the recommendation of the +Secretary, for a second assumption of State debts, and authorizing a +loan to be opened for that purpose. Notwithstanding strenuous efforts on +the part of the Republican members to prevent its passage, the bill +passed the House, but only by the casting vote of Mr. Speaker Trumbull. +These circumstances were brought to the notice of the President by +Jefferson, before the bill was acted upon by the Senate, and it was +rejected by that body. He speaks in his "Ana" of the prevalent +impression that the bill had been defeated by the interference of the +President, through Lear, with Langdon, who till that time had gone +steadily for the funding system but now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> opposed its extension. +Jefferson says, "Beckley knows this."</p> + +<p>But whatever may have been the state of feeling between these great men, +arising out of the condition of the finances, or the course of the +Secretary in respect to them, we have the best reasons for believing +that there was a growing sentiment in the Federal party adverse to the +expediency of keeping on foot the funding system. It soon began to lose +the brilliant hues in which it had been clothed, at its first +introduction, by the very imposing report of the Secretary. Our foreign +creditors showed an unwillingness to subject their debts to its +operation, and the means taken to find subjects to be embraced by its +provisions could not fail to excite odium against the measure. The +people were not a little predisposed to listen favorably to the charges +that were made against it on the part of the Republicans, by the +circumstances heretofore noticed that it was so close an imitation of +the English system, and adopted upon the heel of the Revolution. The +growing jealousy of the people, and consequent increase of public clamor +against it, caused a wide-spread conviction through the Federal ranks +that the entire success of the Republican party could only be prevented +by its abandonment,—a conviction greatly strengthened and stimulated to +action by the startling fact that, although the President had just been +reėlected by the unanimous vote of the people, the country was convulsed +by partisan rancors, for which there was no other apology than the +measures of his administration, and the Confederacy which he came into +power to cement was in imminent peril of disruption by their violence. +Neither was this the worst nor the most humiliating view of the case. +For the first time during our existence as an independent nation, even +including the period of the proverbially weak government of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> the +Confederation, our free institutions suffered the discredit of an open +rebellion against the authority of the Federal Government springing up +in the Quaker State, one of the oldest and best settled in the +Confederacy and in which was established the seat of that Government, +against the imposition of a tax always and everywhere odious, an +"infernal tax," as Jefferson called it;—an insurrection of so much +importance as to induce Washington to call into the field a force +numerically larger than was ever concentrated at one place during the +War of the Revolution, or ever organized in one body in the course of +two wars through which the country has since passed, and nearly if not +quite double that with which Scott fought his way through a hostile +nation of eight millions, and entered the City of Mexico in triumph. No +feature in the character of Washington has ever been disclosed which +will allow us to believe for a moment that those scenes could have +failed to disturb and agitate deeply his lofty and sensitive spirit. We +have a fact, now for the first time, as far as I know or believe, +revealed in Randall's "Life of Jefferson," which gives us some clue to +the current of Washington's thoughts at that very critical period of his +life. Hamilton, whose resignation was about to take effect, applied to +have the time prolonged until after the impending insurrection had been +suppressed, on the ground that as it was menaced in consequence of a +measure of his Department, it would not be proper for him to leave his +post until the crisis had terminated, and he had also asked for leave to +attend the troops to the scene of the outbreak. Both of these +applications had been readily agreed to by the President. In the midst +of these movements, between the first Proclamation offering pardon to +the rebels upon their return to duty and the second calling the troops +into the field and announcing the intended application of military +force, an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> express was sent to Mr. Jefferson with an invitation to him +to resume his former place in Washington's cabinet. This fact is +indisputable, for Jefferson's answer declining the invitation is +published by Randall.</p> + +<p>What was the nature and what the extent of Washington's design in this +application? The assumption is justified by the lapse of time and by +other circumstances, that as no record of his intentions has come to +light none exists, and it is therefore a question on which we are only +able to speculate; but there is another question, the answer to which, +though not quite certain, may be made so, and which, when ascertained, +would throw much light upon the subject of our speculations.</p> + +<p>Was Hamilton advised of the application to Jefferson, and was it made +with his approbation? The thorough examinations and publications which +have been made of the papers of both Washington and Hamilton, without +the disclosure of a single reference to the main fact, authorize the +belief that Hamilton never was a party to the movement in any shape. In +respect to Hamilton's papers, this inference is particularly strong, as, +from the quasi-rivalry which has recently been set on foot by his +descendants between his own fame and that of Washington, it may well be +presumed that if they could have furnished evidence of such an act of +disloyalty to Federalism on the part of Washington as his invitation to +Jefferson, who had, after his retirement, openly charged Congress with +the most flagrant corruption, and traced its origin to the measures of +the Secretary of the Treasury, the information would certainly not have +been withheld from publication. The same considerations lead with still +greater confidence to the conclusion that no movement had been made +towards any other than a temporary change of purpose in regard to his +resignation on the part of Hamilton. Washington's letter giving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span> his +consent to the postponement, is published among the "Hamilton Papers," +and from all that was said or done upon the subject it is quite clear +that no attempt was made by him to dissuade Hamilton from carrying his +resolution into effect, and that such resolution was final on the part +of the latter from the beginning.</p> + +<p>Incidents occurring at an early period of their relations were well +calculated to induce circumspection in such a matter on both sides. The +uncertainty in regard to Washington's ulterior intentions in the step he +had just taken will become more apparent the more the question is +considered. Mr. Randall seems to infer from it a desire on his part to +return to the system of <i>a balanced government</i> with which he commenced +his administration. But to the consummation of such a design the assent +of Hamilton was absolutely indispensable, and that, with the lights +before us, we may safely assume was neither asked nor given. I find it, +besides, difficult to resist the conclusion that Washington's preference +for that sort of government must by that time have been greatly weakened +if not entirely extinguished. He had tried it under circumstances far +more eligible than those then existing or than he could reasonably +anticipate, and had found it disastrous. Jefferson had in the most +positive terms declined an attempt to coalesce with Hamilton, as made +impossible by the radical differences in their political principles. The +same differences continued, and their personal relations had now become +much more embittered. For these and other reasons that could be given, +it is extremely difficult to reconcile with his well-known prudence the +design hypothetically attributed to Washington by Randall.</p> + +<p>If there is the force in these suggestions that they appear to me to +possess, we would seem to be driven to the conclusion that Washington +contemplated, in military<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> language, a <i>change of front</i> dependent upon +Jefferson's acceptance; that he meant not only to place Jefferson at the +head of his cabinet, but to give an increased effect to his principles +in the future administration of the Government. I confess that this is a +startling supposition, even to my own mind, and one in respect to which +I feel that I cannot go much beyond surmise. A step of so decided and so +pregnant a character, taken under the pressure of a situation for many +reasons so critical, could not have been thought of by such a man as +Washington without ulterior, well-considered designs. What were they, if +not of the character I have suggested? I can conceive of no other answer +to this question which is not more inconsistent with well-known facts.</p> + +<p>Considerations were not wanting to persuade him that his second term, +under an administration thus directed, would be more agreeable as well +as more auspicious for the country than the first had been. I have +before referred to the contrast between Jefferson and Madison on one +side, and Hamilton on the other, presented by the fact that whilst the +former entered upon the discharge of public offices with feelings and +views similar to those with which they accepted private trusts, +considered themselves under equal obligations to respect the rights and +to carry into full and fair effect the intentions of the parties chiefly +concerned, and would have regarded a failure to do either as much a +violation of the principles of probity and honor in one case as in the +other, the latter neither entertained nor professed to act upon such +opinions; he had on the contrary a conviction, which he never changed, +that there were deficiencies in the popular mind which made it +impracticable on the part of men in power to deal safely with the people +by appeals to their good sense and honesty, and that they could only be +successfully governed through their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> fears or their interests. Hence his +justification of measures addressed to their passions and particular +interests, and hence his indifference to the faithful observance of the +Constitution as a moral or honorable obligation and his utter +recklessness of constitutional restraints in his public career, +notwithstanding the perfect uprightness of his dealings in private life.</p> + +<p>Washington's personal character has been never correctly appreciated, if +the former of these systems or ideas was not more congenial with his +taste and with the suggestions of his heart than the latter. In giving +his assent to the bill for the establishment of the bank, he could not +shut his eyes to the fact that he was sanctioning a measure which he had +conclusive reason to believe was never intended to be authorized by the +Constitution, framed by a convention over which he had presided. Reasons +of supposed state necessity we are warranted in believing reconciled his +conscience to the step, but it cannot be doubted, without injustice to +his character, that it was a hard service and altogether repugnant to +his feelings. His inquietude under these restraints upon his natural +inclinations was exhibited on more than one occasion. His letter to the +venerable Edmund Pendleton, (one of the purest of men,) published by +Randall, was one of them. That rumors were rife in respect to the +measures decided upon by Federal cabals if Washington had refused to +sign the Bank Bill we learn from several sources, and no one who knew +Mr. Madison can doubt that he spoke with full knowledge when he said to +Trist as already quoted, that if the President had vetoed the Bill +"<i>there would have been an effort to nullify it</i>" (the veto), "<i>and +they</i>" (the leading Federalists) "<i>would have arrayed themselves in a +hostile attitude</i>." It is, besides, against nature to suppose that +Washington's consciousness of the past condition of things in this +regard and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> recollection of the scenes referred to by Madison, had not +been painfully revived by the offensive letter he had received from +Hamilton only four months before the period of which we are speaking.</p> + +<p>The probable correctness of the inference under consideration ought not +to be tested by the character of the subsequent relations between +Washington and Hamilton. Jefferson declined the President's invitation +to resume his former seat in his cabinet promptly but respectfully and +kindly. Mr. Randall says that he has read a declaration by President +Washington to the effect that he would have offered the place to +Madison, upon Jefferson's declension, if he had not ascertained that he +would not accept it. These successive and marked steps by the most +prominent leaders of the Republican party, taken in connection with the +results of the preceding Congressional elections, and the avowed +principles upon which they had been conducted, show clearly that the +lines had been distinctly and finally drawn between the Republicans who +had hitherto sustained the administration in general and the Federal +party; the opinion at which Jefferson and the Republicans had arrived +being that the differences which had arisen, founded as they chiefly +were on the interpretation of the Constitution and the degree of +sanctity attaching to that instrument, could not be satisfactorily +settled by any divided counsels, or by any the most liberal and friendly +dispositions of the President; that the season for obtaining present +redress and future security upon those points through such means had +passed away, and that their proper course, whilst continuing their +respect for and their confidence in Washington to the end, was to +support the measures of his administration as far as they could +consistently with their avowed principles, and to place the Government +in the hands of men of their own school at the earliest practicable +moment after his voluntary retirement.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span></p> + +<p>The President, having greatly against his inclination consented to stand +by the helm for another term, and having been reėlected by the unanimous +vote of the country, had no other course to pursue than to carry on the +Government under its existing organization, relying for his support upon +the Federal party, with such coöperation as his measures might draw from +its opponents. Hamilton resigned at the end of the quarter, his +resignation was accepted in the way I have described, and as the actual +and acknowledged leader of the Federal party, though out of office, he +kept up his relations with Washington's administration as well as with +that of his successor, Mr. Adams, as has been already set forth. The +administration having been virtually, and, in the English sense, +actually overthrown by being reduced to a minority in the popular branch +of the national legislature, the President, having signally failed in +his disinterested and patriotic attempt to arrest the adverse current by +a reconstruction of his cabinet so as to place at its head the known and +acknowledged leader of the opposition to the principal measures of the +Government, and obliged by his reėlection to remain at his post till the +expiration of his second term or to retire with discredit, turned his +attention to an earnest survey of the policy to which so disastrous a +state of things might be attributed. That it had not originated in any +objections personal to himself was shown by the fact that the same +election which exhibited the evidence of dissatisfaction, on the part of +a majority of the people, with the measures of Government, demonstrated +also by his unanimous reėlection their continued confidence in him. +Those measures to which the deprecated result was attributed were the +bank and the funding system. Jay's treaty had no agency in producing it, +that disturbing question not having then arisen, and its only effect, in +this respect, was during the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span> last year of Washington's administration +to increase the majority against the Government to so great an extent as +to enable the Republicans to carry Kitchel's resolution condemnatory of +the President's own act in refusing to lay before Congress the +instructions and papers connected with the negotiation of the treaty, by +a vote, including absentees whose sentiments were known, of very nearly +two to one.</p> + +<p>The bank, to the operations of which Jefferson, whilst in retirement, +openly and unreservedly attributed the corruption of Congress, had +passed beyond reach, but the funding system was yet open to the action +of the Government. It was in respect to this ill-omened and ill-fated +measure that the tocsin had been first sounded of that alarm which now +extensively pervaded the public mind, and it was beyond all doubt that +no other act of the Government had proven a more prolific source of +popular discontent. It was not the existence of the debt of which the +people complained; they gladly accepted that burden, on the contrary, as +the price of their liberties; but it was the system devised by Hamilton +for its management and for the treatment of their fiscal affairs +generally that excited their severe displeasure. They believed that the +politico-fiscal agencies congenial with, and cherished features of, +monarchical institutions had been adopted in servile emulation of the +English system, and as they were acknowledged sources of corruption in +that system, that they had been introduced for similar effect here. +Hamilton's oft-avowed preference for the English model gave much color +to the first part of this conclusion, and the exasperated feelings of +our people toward that government predisposed the public mind against +the whole policy. Nor were these resentments without adequate cause. No +independent nation was ever worse treated by another than was ours<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> by +Great Britain from the recognition of our Independence until after the +war of 1812. So arrogant and outrageous was her conduct at this very +period that Washington, as appears by his published letters to Hamilton +in August 1796, found it difficult to keep the expressions of his +dissatisfaction within the bounds demanded by his official position, and +Hamilton was driven to admit in his reply that "we were subject to +inconveniences too nearly approaching a state of war" to be submitted +to. But these were not the only nor even the principal objections of the +people against the funding system. They were satisfied by reason and +observation that there could never be a proper economy in public +expenditures, or a check to the increase of public debt so long as +Government was not only under no obligation to pay the principal of such +debts but had no right so to do or the right only in respect to a mere +pittance, as was the case with our funded debt. The power to convert the +credit of the nation into revenue by such a policy, of which Hamilton +boasted, was a power in which they thought no government could be safely +indulged. If the argument in favor of that opinion, which need not be +repeated here, was not sufficient to establish its soundness, the +experience of the mother country, which was constantly before their +eyes, afforded conclusive demonstration of it. I have elsewhere stated +the extent to which the debt of England had then already increased, and +the force with which her ablest writer on political economy and finance +had traced that alarming growth, by the lights of experience and reason, +to those features in her funding system.</p> + +<p>Hamilton had been throughout and still remained devoted to what we may +call English principles in the management of our finances, and +constantly desirous to extend them to every species of our public debt, +foreign and do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span>mestic. General Washington was wedded to no such views. +The subject belonging peculiarly to Hamilton's department, and having +full confidence in him, he acquiesced in the course he recommended, but +he was always open to conviction, and only wished to leave the question +of its continuance to be decided by its results. In the course of a +conversation with Mr. Jefferson, designed to prevail on him to remain in +the cabinet, the latter says that Washington touched upon the merits of +the funding system, to which he knew that Mr. Jefferson was earnestly +opposed, and expressed himself thus: "There is a difference of opinion +about it, some thinking it very bad, and others very good; experience +was the only criterion of right which he knew, and this alone would +decide which opinion was right." The disappointment generally +experienced by the original friends of the system cannot have failed to +reach Washington, and it is impossible that the discredit which the +measure had brought upon his administration could have escaped the +notice of so sagacious and generally dispassionate an observer of the +course of events. Hamilton was to leave him in a month or two, and he +was destined to pass through an ordeal becoming every day more and more +severe. To relieve his Government as far as practicable from odium from +any source, was therefore a suggestion of duty and interest to which he +could not but give heed. The measure of which we are speaking challenged +his attention. The power of the Government over it, without the consent +of its creditors, was, it is true, very limited, but it could relieve +the system to some extent of a portion of its unpopularity by lessening +its character of irredeemability. The annual eight per cent. for +interest and principal (only two per cent. towards the principal, which +was all the Government had a right to pay, but was never obliged to +pay), it could make itself liable to redeem<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> punctually, and could give +to the creditors securities which would put it out of its power to evade +its undertaking.</p> + +<p>This was all that could be done, and it was not to be doubted that the +accomplishment of this through the interference of Washington, with a +return to the old mode of raising money, would go far to allay honest +apprehensions, and to remove prejudices against his administration +without disadvantage to the public service certainly, and, I may add, +without the slightest departure from the course which it became him to +pursue. He determined to pursue it. That the resolution in regard to the +policy finally adopted upon this point originated with Washington alone, +without consultation with, or advice from, Hamilton, is rendered certain +to my mind from contemporaneous circumstances, some of which will be +referred to. He, of course, communicated his intention to Hamilton, who +proposed to take charge of all the preliminary steps that could be +adopted during the short period of his remaining in office to prepare +the way for the contemplated change. This was proper in itself and +assented to by the President, who thus, as was his way on most +occasions, enabled Hamilton to give to the whole affair the shape he +thought best. The funding system was emphatically his measure, and if it +was to be discontinued, it was proper that he should be permitted to +make its exit as graceful as was practicable.</p> + +<p>The intended movement was preceded by the President's speech to Congress +in November, 1794, from which I extract this passage: "The time which +has elapsed since the commencement of our fiscal measures has developed +our pecuniary resources so as to open a way for a definitive plan for +the redemption of the public debt. It is believed that the result is +such as to encourage Congress to consummate this work without delay. +Nothing can more promote the permanent welfare of the nation, and +nothing would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> be more grateful to our constituents. Indeed, whatsoever +is unfinished of our system of public credit cannot be benefited by +procrastination; and, as far as may be practicable, we ought to place +that credit on grounds which cannot be disturbed, and to prevent that +progressive accumulation of debt which must ultimately endanger all +governments."</p> + +<p>This was substantially the only part of the speech which related to any +other matter than the Pennsylvanian insurrection, and no one familiar +with Hamilton's writings can doubt that the entire paragraph was +prepared by him,—a proceeding common and in this instance particularly +proper. It presented in general terms a gratifying assurance of the +improvement in the revenues of the Government, and the promised +advantages to the national finances. No reference is made to the +character of the measures by which those advantages were to be secured; +these might be provisions for the immediate reduction of the debt, or at +the least for an earlier reduction than that which was authorized by +law.</p> + +<p>On the 25th of January, eleven days before he left the department, +Hamilton tendered to the Senate an elaborate "plan for the further +support of public credit on the basis of the actual revenue." It was not +his annual report, nor had it been called for by the Senate, but had +been prepared, he said, as a part of his duties, according to the Act by +which they were prescribed, and in conformity with the suggestions of +the President. It fills twenty-seven pages, small print, in the large +folio edition of the American State Papers, and, being his last, was of +course prepared with great care and, as much of course, with great +ability. Jefferson thought, at times, that Hamilton did not himself +understand his own complicated and elaborate reports on the finances, +but in this I am persuaded he was entirely mistaken. Hamilton evidently +held the thousand threads<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> which traversed these voluminous works with a +firm and instructed hand, and perfectly understood their several and +manifold connections with the body of the documents and the results to +which the whole and every part tended. That he meant that others should +understand them as well as he did is perhaps not so certain.</p> + +<p>His plan did not even look to a present reduction of the debt, which +would seem to be the natural consequence of a revenue so prosperous as +that he had described in the speech; that would have been an +impossibility. At the date of his report the debt had increased four +millions from what it was when the funding system was established, +independent of the assumption of those of the States, and at the end of +Mr. Adams's administration, the increase stood at eight millions. I have +not examined the result for each year, but am confident that I hazard +little in affirming that there was not a single year, from the first +period to the last, during which the public debt was not increased. Mr. +Jefferson, in a letter to Mr. Madison, written in 1796, expressed the +opinion that, from the commencement of the new government till the time +when he ceased to attend to it, the debt had augmented a million a year. +The preceding statement shows the correctness of his calculation.</p> + +<p>Neither did Hamilton propose any measures by which the payment of the +debt might be accelerated, but the reverse. The whole debt then stood as +follows: foreign debt, between thirteen and fourteen millions; domestic +debt funded, including those of the States, between sixty and sixty-one +millions, and domestic debt unsubscribed, between one and two millions. +The foreign debt was payable by installments, ending at the expiration +of fifteen years. His plan was to offer the foreign creditors one half +of one per cent. interest, annually, more than it then drew, if they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> +would consent to make it a domestic debt, and postpone the redemption of +the principal till 1818, which would defer it between eight and nine +years; or, if they refused that, it might remain redeemable at any time +they proposed, so that the redemption of the principal was not +accelerated by making it less than the fifteen years. A law authorizing +such a change was passed, the offer made and declined. The debt was +suffered to stand as it did, and the last payment was made during the +administration of Mr. Madison. In respect to the funded debt, all that +the report proposed (and that proposition was carried into effect by law +shortly after Hamilton retired) was to add materially to the existing +provisions for the payment of the public debt, and to provide +effectually that the funds set apart for that should be regularly and +inviolably applied, first, to the payment of as much of the funded debt +as the Government had a right to pay annually, which was two per cent. +of the principal besides the interest, and after that to the then +existing public debt generally; that is to say, in regard to the funded +debt, it changed the option of the Government to pay the two per cent. +into a positive obligation, and provided adequate funds for that +purpose. It was calculated that these provisions would redeem the funded +debt bearing an immediate interest in 1818, and the deferred funded debt +in 1824; they did so, and thus the funded debt was extinguished. All +succeeding loans, as well under the administrations of Washington and +Adams as subsequently, were made redeemable at or after a certain +period, save in rare and very limited instances controlled by special +circumstances and not constituting modifications of the general rule of +the Government.</p> + +<p>By this step Congress carried into effect an object for which the +Republicans had striven since soon after the establishment of the +funding system, and upon the resolu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span>tion to accomplish which Hamilton +had interposed a temporary obstruction by his report in December, 1792. +The funded debt was changed into a simple debt payable by regular though +small installments, at stated and certain periods. Its ultimate +redemption was made certain, and the further practice of funding +successfully discountenanced. That was done which Washington desired to +have done; not indeed in the plain, straightforward way in which he +would have done it, for that would have shown that the Government, in +deference to public sentiment, had, to borrow a common phrase, taken the +back track; an exhibition which Hamilton's course was designed to avoid. +What the latter undertook to do he did effectually and in good faith, +but a careful perusal of his last <i>exposé</i> will show how little the +whole proceeding was in harmony with his individual feelings.</p> + +<p>The following are extracts from that extraordinary paper:—</p> + +<p>"To extinguish a debt which exists and to avoid the contracting more are +always ideas favored by public feeling; but to pay taxes for the one or +the other purpose, which are the only means of preventing the evil, is +always more or less unpopular. These contradictions are in human nature; +and happy indeed would be the country that should ever <i>want men to turn +them to the account of their own popularity or to some other sinister +account</i>.</p> + +<p>"Hence it is no uncommon spectacle to see the same men clamoring for +occasions of expense when they happen to be in unison with the present +humor of the community, whether well or ill directed, declaiming against +a public debt and for the reduction of it as an abstract thesis, yet +vehement against every plan of taxation which is proposed to discharge +old debts or to avoid new by the defraying of exigencies as they emerge. +These unhandsome acts throw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> artificial embarrassments in the way of the +administration of a government."</p> + +<p>These observations afford evidence of the wounded spirit under which he +was acting, and also of the strong sense he entertained of the influence +which a necessity for taxation is calculated to exert upon the minds of +a legislature anxious for the redemption of a public debt. Do they not +further explain the motive for the array of taxes that would be required +to carry into effect the Resolution of 1792, in favor of making +provision for the redemption of the funded debt, contained in his report +upon that resolution?</p> + +<p>When speaking of now resorting to the old practice of anticipating +revenues, that is, by making provision for the payment of both principal +and interest, in the departure from which practice the English Funding +System had its birth, he says:—</p> + +<p>"This would be at the same time an antidote against what may be +pronounced the most plausible objections to the system of <i>funding</i> +public debts; which are, that, by facilitating the means of supporting +expense they encourage to enterprises which produce it, and by +furnishing in credit a substitute for revenue, likely to be too freely +used to avoid the odium of laying new taxes, they occasion a tendency to +run in debt. Though these objections to funding systems—which, giving +the greatest possible energy to public credit, are a great source of +national security, strength, and prosperity—are very similar to those +which speculative men urge against national and individual opulence, +drawn from its abuses; and though perhaps, upon a careful analysis of +facts, they would be found to have much less support in them than is +imagined, attributing to those systems effects which are to be ascribed, +more truly, to the passions of men and perhaps to the genius of +particular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> governments; yet, as they are not wholly unfounded, it is +desirable to guard, as far as possible, against the dangers which they +suppose, without renouncing the advantages which these systems +undoubtedly afford."</p> + +<p>When we find him thus dallying with a pet system on the eve of its +abandonment, thus filling a paper designed to prepare the way for that +result with his reasons for deprecating it, who can suppose that its +impending fate was of his own suggestion, or doubt that he looked to its +restoration under more favorable auspices?</p> + +<p>The Secretary very naturally endeavors in this paper to place the +provisions now recommended in respect to the Sinking Fund upon the same +footing with those contained in his first Report upon public credit, +conformably to which his funding system was established. Without the +slightest desire to assail or to weaken any of his attempts to rest his +acts on the most favorable ground consistent with truth, it is yet due +to the memories of the patriotic men who by their fearless and +persevering efforts succeeded in discrediting that dangerous system, and +finally in causing it to be discontinued from the operations of our +Government, that the circumstances under which they acted should not be +misrepresented. The difference between the provisions of the Sinking +Fund first and now adopted was great indeed. The grant of the funds to +the first, to say nothing of their insufficiency, lacked the essential +quality of being irrevocable, but was left subject to the action of +Congress. There was therefore no reason to think that more might be +expected from the Sinking Fund here than had been realized in England, +where it had not only been found entirely ineffectual even in time of +peace, but the funds vested in the Commissioners had on more than one +occasion been used as a basis for new loans. But now, when the business +of redemption was entered upon in earnest, that matter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span> was placed upon +a very different footing. The funds were not only more ample, but they +were vested in the Commissioners as an irrevocable trust, and the faith +of the Government was pledged that its execution should not be +interfered with. As widely different were the dispositions of the +Government and the sentiments of its principal supporters. On the former +occasion the proposals submitted to Congress by the head of the Treasury +Department, and most trusted officer of the Government, were to fund the +entire debt of the United States upon the following terms, viz: 1st. +That the whole principal should be forever irredeemable at the option of +the United States; 2d. That they should not even reserve to themselves a +right to pay more than two dollars upon a hundred of the principal, +however full their coffers, and however great their convenience to pay; +and, that no obstacle might be wanting to the redemption of that +pittance, he proposed further to assume and fund in the same way +twenty-five millions of the debts of the States which the Federal +Government was under no obligations to pay and was not asked to assume. +This policy was entered upon in the face of the fact that the debt of +England, under a similar system, had, in eighty years, increased from +some five millions to two hundred and seventy-six millions of pounds +sterling, and was still increasing.</p> + +<p>After these propositions had been substantially adopted by Congress and +sustained by the Government, Hamilton, having the entire direction of +its affairs, and knowing the spirit and firmness with which those who +disapproved of his schemes always maintained their views of the public +interest, had no right to complain of, and ought not to have been +surprised at, the opposition he encountered from them, under the weight +of which his Funding System, in respect to the future action of the +Government in the management<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span> of its finances, soon became a dead +letter, no further thought of than to get rid of the debts that had been +contracted under it, with the intent to return to the old mode of +anticipating revenue, that of direct loans payable at or after specific +periods, principal as well as interest; the only way by which, as Adam +Smith had demonstrated, a nation could avoid a permanent and ruinous +public debt,—a view of the subject which came too late for England, but +was, happily, in season for us. Though the Government had, by the Act of +March 3d, 1795, passed to carry into effect the improved views of +Washington, placed the management of our finances upon a better footing, +no progress was made in the reduction of the public debt; but the act +doubtless accomplished much in restraining its increase. It was not an +easy thing to keep down the public debt under an administration which, +like that of Mr. Adams, in pursuance of the express advice of Hamilton +to Wolcott, paid upon its loans an annual interest of eight per cent., +the highest that had then ever been paid except by England to her bank +upon the loan obtained from it on its first establishment.</p> + +<p>Upon Jefferson's accession to power he denounced a public debt, in his +message to Congress, as a "moral canker," and invoked the aid of the +legislature for its extinction at the earliest practicable period. The +Committee of Ways and Means, with John Randolph at its head (his +brightest period of public usefulness), entered upon the subject "<i>con +amore</i>." They called upon the Secretary of the Treasury for a thorough +exposition of the state of the public debt, and for his opinion in +regard to the best mode of dealing with it. Mr. Gallatin's reply, which +may be found in the publication of American State Papers,—title +"<span class="smcap">Finance</span>," Vol. I.,—gave a full statement of the then condition of the +debt, and pointed out the defects through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> which the Act of March 3, +1795, had been rendered inadequate to the accomplishment of all the +objects for which it was designed. I will refer to but one of them, +which consisted in its limiting the appropriation for the redemption of +the public debt, beyond that which had been funded, to "surpluses which +shall remain at the end of every calendar year, and which, during the +session of Congress next thereafter, shall not be otherwise specially +appropriated or reserved by law." Our experience of the action of +Congress has been too full to make it necessary to speak of the extreme +improbability of any considerable surpluses being left by that body +acting under no more specific restraint than that which is here +provided, and upon examination of the books of the treasury it was found +that so far from there having been any such surpluses from the +establishment of the present Government in 1789 till the close of the +year 1799, the appropriations charged upon the revenue by Congress had +exceeded, by nearly a million of dollars, the whole amount of such +revenue, whether collected or outstanding.</p> + +<p>To remedy results so unfavorable to the accomplishment of the object in +view, the Secretary advised specific appropriations of such sums as, +upon a fair estimate of the wants and resources of the country, ought in +the opinion of Congress to be applied to the payment of the public debt, +and to make such appropriations irrevocable and their application +mandatory on the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund. The committee +adopted the suggestion with alacrity as one which, in addition to +securing the early performance of a sacred duty, could not in their +opinion fail to induce economy on the part of Congress in its +disposition of the public funds. They therefore reported a bill, which +became a law, appropriating annually to the Sinking Fund seven millions +three hundred thousand dollars for the pay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span>ment of the public debt. This +sum was increased to eight millions in consequence of the purchase of +Louisiana. During the administration of Mr. Madison the annual +appropriation was increased to ten millions, besides an additional +appropriation of nine millions, and one of four millions if the +Secretary of the Treasury should deem it expedient; and all of these +appropriations were made irrevocable and compulsory as respected the +action of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund.</p> + +<p>The consequences of this change in the action of the Government upon the +subject of the public debt and of this liberality of appropriations +under Democratic administrations, were the discharge of thirty-three +millions of the principal of the debt, besides the payment of interest +on the whole, during the Presidency of Mr. Jefferson, and its final +extinguishment under President Jackson, notwithstanding the intervention +of a war with England commenced at a period of the greatest financial +embarrassment.</p> + +<p>I have been induced to take so extended a notice of this matter as well +by the circumstance, to which I have before referred, that it presented +a leading subject of party divisions in this country, as because of the +influence which it and its adjuncts the Bank of the United States and +the Protective System have exerted upon our politics. It has been seen +that the Funding System, however, preceded the bank in its +establishment, and it became also an "obsolete idea" many years before +the latter was declared to be such by its most devoted advocate and +reckless supporter, Daniel Webster. That the bank did not share that +fate at a much earlier period was because Henry Clay and John C. +Calhoun, both disciples of the old Republican school,—the former one of +the ablest among the opponents of the revival of the bank in +1811,—tempted by the political allurements of the day in 1815, +advocated the establishment of a new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> bank, and because that pure man +and patriot, James Madison, under mistaken impressions in respect to the +absolute necessity of such an institution, gave his assent to its +incorporation.</p> + +<p>No public question was ever longer or more severely agitated in any +country than that of the existence of a national bank has been in this. +Madison acquired enduring honor by his unanswerable speech against its +constitutionality. It divided the cabinet of President Washington, and +contributed with other causes to give birth to a political party which +kept his administration at bay, overthrew that of his successor, has +sustained itself in power ever since (with brief and easily explained +interruptions), and is now, after the lapse of nearly seventy years, in +full possession of the Federal Government. It gave position in 1811 to +Henry Clay as one of the strong minds of the country, derived from his +speech against rechartering the bank, by far the best speech he ever +made and nearly equal to that of Madison in 1790, and it enabled that +venerable revolutionary patriot, George Clinton, to add new laurels to +his already great fame by his casting vote against the passage of the +bill for its re-incorporation. Whilst in 1815 it marred forever the +political fortunes of Clay and Calhoun, then standing at the head of the +rising Republican statesmen of the country, in 1830 it made memorable +and glorious the civil career of Andrew Jackson through his celebrated +veto—a noble step in that fearful issue between the respective powers +of the Government and the Bank, on the trial of which that institution +justified and confirmed Jefferson's gloomy forebodings at its first +establishment by spreading recklessly and wantonly (as is now well +understood) panic in the public mind and convulsions in the business +affairs of the people, through which incalculable injury was inflicted +upon the country, and by wasting its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span> entire capital of thirty millions +in wild speculation and in corrupt squandering upon parasites and +political backers. It did not however prove too strong for the +Government, as Mr. Jefferson apprehended, but was itself overwhelmed in +utter defeat and disgrace. So thorough has been its annihilation that +its books and papers were a few months since sold by auction, in +Philadelphia, by the ton, as waste paper!</p> + +<p>Who can call to mind without amazement the extent to which the +impression was fastened on the public judgment that a national bank was +of vital necessity to the healthful action of the Federal Government, +indispensable to the collection of its revenues, to the management of +its finances, to the transfer of its funds from point to point, and, +above all, to the execution and support of domestic exchanges, without +which the most important business of the country would be unavoidably +suspended, and now see that all this was sheer delusion; or who can +reflect upon the bold and profligate action taken by the bank to force a +compliance with its application, without acknowledging and admiring the +wisdom of the Federal Convention in refusing, as it did almost in terms, +to confer upon Congress the power to establish such an institution, so +inefficient for good and so potent for mischief, or without applauding +the true conservatism and patriotic spirit of the Democratic party +during a forty years' struggle to expel from our system so dangerous an +abuse, or without rejoicing that that great object was finally achieved +and blessing the memory of the brave old man to whom the achievement is +mainly to be credited.</p> + +<p>The Protective System was another of the important measures brought +forward at the commencement of the Government, and had its origin in the +prolific mind of Hamilton. Efforts have been made to trace its +commence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span>ment to the legislation of the first Congress, but they have +not been successful. The idea of protection, beyond that which is +incidental to a tariff for revenue and could be effected without losing +sight of the revenue point, was not, at that time, broached in Congress +or inferable from the character of the duties imposed. It was in +Hamilton's masterpiece—his elaborate report, nominally upon +manufactures, but embracing in its range every pursuit of human industry +susceptible of encouragement under an unlimited government—that the +subject was first brought to the notice and recommended to the favorable +consideration of Congress.</p> + +<p>I have already described, more fully, perhaps, than might on first +impression be thought necessary, the length and breadth of that famous +document, the boldness and extravagance of its ultra-latitudinarian +pretensions to power in the Federal Government, including unlimited +authority to raise money by taxes and an equally unlimited power to +spend it in any way which Congress might think would be conducive to the +general welfare. The vehement denunciation of its character by Mr. +Jefferson and his friends, with continually increasing indications of +popular discontent, prevented Hamilton from attempting any measures +worthy of notice to carry into effect his recommendations—and no +assumptions, beyond the revenue standard, were acted upon by the +administrations of either Washington or Adams.</p> + +<p>The enforcement of Hamilton's recommendations was reserved for the close +of the War of 1812, a period of which I have already spoken as one which +brought on the political stage a new class of Presidential aspirants, +members of a succeeding generation and unknown to revolutionary fame. +Among the most prominent of these stood Crawford, Clay, Calhoun, Adams, +Webster, and Lowndes,—the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span> latter, perhaps, the most likely to have +succeeded, if his useful life had not been brought to a premature close.</p> + +<p>In the same year, 1815, was revived the idea of a national bank, and no +fitter associate could have been devised for it than the Protective +System. They had a common origin, even in their political aspects, were +designed for a common effect, and were moreover alike adapted to the +immediate policy of two of the Presidential aspirants of the Republican +stamp, Clay and Calhoun,—that of conciliating the good-will of those +who still clung to the wreck of the Federal party, which having been +shattered and disabled by its course in the war, was at the moment +drifting upon the political seas. Henry Clay, with better qualifications +for success than his not less ambitious rival, seized the prize in view, +and after long competition from the latter, and against perpetual, +though sometimes concealed opposition from Webster, attached the mass of +the Federal party to his fortunes, and held them there to the close of +his remarkable life. Shouldering a large share of responsibility for the +reintroduction of a national bank, he added to his programme the +Protective System, stopping in the first instance at a protective +tariff, but willing, as was clearly seen, to embrace Hamilton's entire +scheme, and superadding to these a system of internal improvements by +the Federal Government, in respect to which he went, on the point of +constitutional power, beyond his great prototype. These were the +elements out of which he constructed his famous "American System." A +convert to theories and measures hostile to the earliest and most +cherished principles of the old Republican party, he of course soon lost +his position in its ranks, and was in due season installed as the leader +of that with which all its wars have been waged. Possessing certain +qualities eminently adapted to attract the popular admiration, and which +could not have failed to elevate him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> to the Presidency if he had +remained in the Democratic party and had adhered to its principles, he +infused into the torpid body of the Federal party elements of strength, +of which it had always stood in need; besides bringing to it a leader of +fascinating manners and brilliant talents, he gave a new and more +captivating form to the platform of principles and policy in support of +which its original members and their descendants had been trained, +excepting only the Funding System, which had not only been tabooed by +the good sense of our people, but as to which England was yet uttering +warnings to other nations of too fearful import to allow its revival +here to be for a moment contemplated even by a politician so bold and +too often reckless as Clay. Thus reinvigorated and backed by the +money-power of the country, during a quarter of a century, and with +never quailing spirit, he conducted that party, under various names but +striving always under the banner of the same "American System," through +a succession of political campaigns which left their injurious traces +upon the country.</p> + +<p>The fruits of this warfare against the Democratic party and its +principles are familiar to politicians and observers of our times. The +Bank of the United States, after filling the country with distress and +ruin, itself perished; the proposed system of internal improvements by +the Federal Government was happily broken down by his opponents before +it involved the country in inextricable embarrassments, and the +Protective System, after being finally overthrown in England, from which +country we had copied it, was abandoned here also, and consigned by the +judgment of the people to the same oblivion with its kindred delusions.</p> + +<p>The promotion of internal improvements by the General Government was an +assumption of power by Congress, against which, from its first inception +till its substantial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span> overthrow, the Democratic party interposed a +steady, persevering, and inflexible resistance. The general character of +the abuse, its origin, progress, and extirpation through Democratic +agencies, are fully presented in another part of this work.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> Here the +probable effect upon the national treasury of arresting the practice +will alone be noticed.</p> + +<p>In his annual message to Congress, December, 1834, President Jackson +says:—</p> + +<p>"When the bill authorizing a subscription on the part of the United +States for stock in the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Companies +passed the two Houses, there had been reported, by the committees of +internal improvements, bills containing appropriations for such objects, +exclusive of those for the Cumberland Road and for harbors and +light-houses, to the amount of about one hundred and six millions of +dollars. In this amount was included authority to the Secretary of the +Treasury to subscribe to the stock of different companies to a great +extent, and the residue was principally for the direct construction of +roads by this Government. In addition to those projects, which had been +presented to the two Houses, under the sanction and recommendation of +their respective committees on internal improvements, there were then +still pending before the committees, and in memorials to Congress, +presented but not referred, different projects for works of a similar +character, the expense of which cannot be estimated with certainty but +must have exceeded one hundred millions of dollars."</p> + +<p>The same message contained also the following suggestions:—</p> + +<p>"From attempts to appropriate the national funds to objects which are +confessedly of a local character, we cannot I trust have any thing +further to apprehend. My views in regard to the expediency of making +appropriations for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span> works which are claimed to be of a national +character, and prosecuted under State authority, assuming that Congress +have the right to do so, were stated in my annual message to Congress in +1830, and also in that containing my objections to the Maysville Road +Bill.</p> + +<p>"So thoroughly convinced am I that no such appropriations ought to be +made by Congress, until a suitable constitutional provision is made upon +the subject, and so essential do I regard the point to the highest +interests of our country, that I could not consider myself as +discharging my duty to my constituents in giving the executive sanction +to any bill containing such an appropriation. If the people of the +United States desire that the public treasury shall be resorted to for +the means to prosecute such works, they will concur in an amendment of +the Constitution prescribing a rule by which the national character of +the works is to be tested, and by which the greatest practicable +equality of benefits may be secured to each member of the Confederacy. +The effects of such a regulation would be most salutary in preventing +unprofitable expenditures, in securing our legislation from the +pernicious consequences of a scramble for the favors of Government, and +in repressing the spirit of discontent which must inevitably arise from +an unequal distribution of treasures which belong alike to all."</p> + +<p>These declarations of President Jackson that he would approve no bill +containing appropriations even for objects of a national character, +until an amendment of the Constitution was adopted placing such +expenditures upon an equal footing towards all the States, were +reiterated in his Maysville veto. My election to the Presidency, and the +knowledge that I cordially approved, and was determined to sustain, the +ground taken in those two state papers upon the subject of internal +improvements, with the large Democratic vote in Congress, always opposed +upon principle to such grants,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span> effectually closed the doors of the +national treasury against them for seven years.</p> + +<p>All similar applications, save for harbor and river appropriations, were +thus driven, as was anticipated, to the State legislatures. The money +expended for such improvements, when authorized by the States, were +chargeable upon the treasuries of the States, to be collected by direct +taxation. When made by incorporated companies under authority derived +from the States they were at the expense of their stockholders. All must +be sensible of the salutary check which these circumstances are +calculated to exert by increasing the circumspection and prudence with +which such expenses are incurred; and yet what immense amounts of money +have been irrecoverably sunk upon such works, and what widespread +embarrassments have they at times created in the financial affairs of +the country, through the headlong enterprise and adventurous spirit of +our people!</p> + +<p>We have only to imagine a transfer of the seat of these operations to +the halls of Congress to estimate the sums that would have been drawn +out of the National Treasury and carried to the States to be, for the +most part, expended upon local objects,—the scenes of log-rolling and +intrigue to which such scrambles would have given rise, and the utter +unscrupulousness of the applications that would thus have been produced. +What millions upon millions of the public funds would have been worse +than uselessly expended during the twenty-seven years that have elapsed +since the Democratic party, through their venerable and fearless +President, took the first effectual step to break up the practice! The +one hundred millions for which bills had been reported, and the other +hundred millions of applications pending before Congress when the +Maysville veto was interposed, according to the President's message, +furnish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span> ample data upon which to found our calculations. No sum would +seem to be too large at which to place the probable amount of our +national debt if the plans of their political opponents had in this +regard been crowned with complete success. In view of such an event who +will be bold enough, with the subsequent experience of the country +before him, to place even a conjectural estimate upon that amount or +upon the extent to which valuable improvements, through individual +enterprise or under State authority, would have been postponed or +arrested forever by a further prosecution of the policy into which such +persevering efforts were made to lead the Federal Government. For +preservation from such prodigality and debt, and from the corruptions +that would have followed in their train, we are plainly and undeniably +indebted to the successful enforcement of the principles of the +Democratic party.</p> + +<blockquote><p>[A space was here reserved in the original Manuscript for an +intended notice of the advantages derived to the country from the +establishment of the Independent Treasury; a measure proposed by +Mr. Van Buren in the first year of his Presidency and in his first +communication to Congress, and supported by the Democratic party.</p> + +<p>In consequence, however, of the interruptions to which this work +was subjected (and which are referred to in the Introduction), the +contemplated addition to it was never supplied.—<span class="smcap">Editors.</span>]</p></blockquote> + +<p>The measures of which I have spoken as the cherished policy of the old +Federal party and its successors taken as a whole were justly described +by Jefferson, in his much-abused letter to Mazzei, as "a contrivance +invented for the purpose of corruption and for assimilating us in all +respects to the rotten as well as the sound parts of the British +Constitution." A persuasion of their practical usefulness in some +respects entered more or less into the motives of the leaders on the +occasions both of their creation and of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span> their attempted resuscitation; +but that they were by both regarded principally as elements of political +strength, and adopted as means by which to build up and sustain an +overshadowing money power in the country, through which the Democratic +spirit of the people might be kept in check, is at least equally +certain. Doubtless both of those political leaders honestly believed +such a check to be necessary to the public good. With Hamilton this +faith had from the beginning constituted an integral part of his +political system. Clay had been, in his youth, too much a man of the +people to avow such a belief, but that he became a convert to it in +after-life I have no doubt. But the Democratic spirit of the country did +not stand in need of any such restraint as that which they designed to +place upon its course.</p> + +<p>I have thus adverted to some of the advantages the country has derived +from the action of the Democratic party, to which must be added the +benefits conferred on the States by an extension of kindred principles +to the administration of the local governments. If its opponents are +asked for a statement of their contributions to the public welfare when +in power and by their efforts to defeat the measures of the Democratic +party, or to name a great measure of which they were the authors and +which has stood the test of experience, or one in the establishment of +which they have been prevented by factious or partisan opposition, but +which would now be received with favor by the people, or a principle +advocated by them for the administration of the Government, in which +they have been defeated but which would now be so received, or an +unsound one set up by their opponents which they have successfully +resisted,—what must be the replies to questions so simple yet so +comprehensive and important! Can it, on the other hand, be now denied +that notwithstanding the conceded capacities of their leaders, and their +possession<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span> of superior facilities for the acquisition and favorable +exercise of political power, their time and their resources have been +mainly employed in efforts to establish principles and build up systems +which have been to all appearance irrevocably condemned by the people, +and in unavailing efforts to defeat measures and principles which, after +a full experience, have proved acceptable to them, and through the +influence and operation of which the country has been gradually raised +to great power and unexampled prosperity.</p> + +<p>The course of events to which I have referred has had the effect of +breaking up as a national organization the party so long opposed to the +Democratic party, leaving the latter the only political association +co-extensive in its power and influence with the Union,—and the sole +survivor of all its national competitors. Of the eleven Presidents +elected since its accession to power in the Federal Government, +including the one in whose election it achieved its first national +triumph, nine were avowed supporters of the cause it sustained, and +eight its exclusive candidates. During the sixty years which will, at +the end of the present Presidential term, have passed away since the +occurrence of that great event, the chief magistracy of this country has +been in the hands of professed supporters of its principles, with the +exception only of four years and one month.</p> + +<p>Born of the spirit which impelled our early colonists to forsake the +abodes of civilization to establish among savages and in the wilderness +the sacred right of opinion, which encouraged and sustained them in all +their wanderings and sufferings and perils, and which finally conducted +the survivors through a long and bloody war to liberty and independence, +and representing the feelings and opinions of a majority of the people, +it has labored zealously and, in the main, successfully, to give effect +to those by which that momentous struggle was produced, to realize its +prom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span>ises, to maintain the sanctity of the Constitution, and to uphold +"that equality of political rights" which Hamilton, though he could not +find it in his judgment to favor, yet truly described as "the foundation +of pure Republicanism."</p> + +<p>For the signal success of its beneficent and glorious mission the +country is indebted to the virtue and intelligence of the men of whom +this great party has from time to time been composed,—much to the +ability, industry, and devoted patriotism of James Madison; largely to +the iron will, fearlessness, and uprightness of Andrew Jackson; and more +conspicuously still to the genius, the honest and firm heart, and +spirit-stirring pen of its founder, Thomas Jefferson, who stands, in my +estimation, as a faithful republican, pure patriot, and wise and +accomplished statesman, unequaled in the history of man. His opinions +deliberately formed on important public questions, do not appear to have +undergone material change or modification, except perhaps in the case of +the issue raised in respect to the necessity of an amendment of the +Constitution to justify the admission of Louisiana into the Union. +Certain it is that he never entertained one which he could justly be +accused of having concealed or recanted to propitiate power or to +promote his own popularity, or which he was not on all suitable +occasions prompt to avow and to defend. The presence of this noble +spirit, and a readiness to encounter any sacrifice necessary to its free +indulgence, were manifest in every crisis of his eventful life; nor were +his last moments on earth without an impressive exhibition of its +continued ascendency, even when reason and sense were passing away.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Vol. II. p. 119.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Referring to the Memoirs of the writer. See +<a href="#Page_iii">Introduction</a>.—<span class="smcap">Eds.</span></p></div> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span></p> +<h2>APPENDIX.</h2> + +<div class="center">FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON,<br /><br /></div> + +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">TO MARTIN VAN BUREN.</span><br /><br /></div> + +<div class="right"><span class="smcap">Monticello</span>, June 29, 1824.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—I have to thank you for Mr. Pickering's elaborate Philippic +against Mr. Adams, Gerry, Smith, and myself; and I have delayed the +acknowledgment until I could read it and make some observations on it.</p> + +<p>I could not have believed that, for so many years, and to such a period +of advanced age, he could have nourished passions so vehement and +viperous. It appears, that for thirty years past, he has been +industriously collecting materials for vituperating the characters he +had marked for his hatred; some of whom, certainly, if enmities towards +him had ever existed, had forgotten them all, or buried them in the +grave with themselves. As to myself, there never had been any thing +personal between us, nothing but the general opposition of party +sentiment; and our personal intercourse had been that of urbanity, as +himself says. But it seems he has been all this time brooding over an +enmity which I had never felt, and yet that with respect to myself as +well as others, he has been writing far and near, and in every +direction, to get hold of original letters, where he could, copies, +where he could not, certificates and journals, catching at every +gossiping story he could hear of in any quarter, supplying by suspicions +what he could find nowhere else, and then arguing on this motley +farrago, as if established on gospel evidence. And while expressing his +wonder that "at the age of eighty-eight, the strong passions of Mr. +Adams should not have cooled;" that on the contrary "they had acquired +the mastery of his soul" (p. 100); that "where these were enlisted, no +reliance could be placed on his statements" (p. 104); "the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span> facility and +little truth with which he could represent facts and occurrences, +concerning persons who were the objects of his hatred" (p. 3); that "he +is capable of making the grossest misrepresentations, and, from detached +facts, and often from bare suspicions, of drawing unwarrantable +inferences, if suited to his purpose at the instant" (p. 174); while +making such charges, I say, on Mr. Adams, instead of his "<i>ecce homo</i>" +(p. 100), how justly might we say to him, "<i>mutato nomine, de te fabula +narratur</i>." For the assiduity and industry he has employed in his +benevolent researches after matter of crimination against us, I refer to +his pages 13, 14, 34, 36, 46, 71, 79, 90, bis. 92, 93, bis. 101, ter. +104, 116, 118, 141, 143, 146, 150, 151, 153, 168, 171, 172. That Mr. +Adams' strictures on him, written and printed, should have excited some +notice on his part, was not perhaps to be wondered at. But the +sufficiency of his motive for the large attack on me may be more +questionable. He says (p. 4), "of Mr. Jefferson I should have said +nothing, but for his letter to Mr. Adams, of October 12th, 1823." Now +the object of that letter was to soothe the feelings of a friend, +wounded by a publication which I thought an "outrage on private +confidence." Not a word or allusion in it respected Mr. Pickering, nor +was it suspected that it would draw forth his pen in justification of +this infidelity, which he has, however, undertaken in the course of his +pamphlet, but more particularly in its conclusion.</p> + +<p>He arraigns me on two grounds, my actions and my motives. The very +actions, however, which he arraigns, have been such as the great +majority of my fellow citizens have approved. The approbation of Mr. +Pickering, and of those who thought with him, I had no right to expect. +My motives he chuses to ascribe to hypocrisy, to ambition, and a passion +for popularity. Of these the world must judge between us. It is no +office of his or mine. To that tribunal I have ever submitted my actions +and motives, without ransacking the Union for certificates, letters, +journals, and gossiping tales, to justify myself and weary them. Nor +shall I do this on the present occasion, but leave still to them these +antiquated party diatribes, now newly revamped and paraded as if they +had not been already a thousand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span> times repeated, refuted, and adjudged +against him, by the nation itself. If no action is to be deemed virtuous +for which malice can imagine a sinister motive, then there never was a +virtuous action; no, not even in the life of our Saviour himself. But he +has taught us to judge the tree by its fruit, and to leave motives to +him who can alone see into them.</p> + +<p>But whilst I leave to its fate the libel of Mr. Pickering, with the +thousands of others like it, to which I have given no other answer than +a steady course of similar action, there are two facts or fancies of his +which I must set to rights. The one respects Mr. Adams, the other +myself. He observes that my letter of October 12th, 1823, acknowledges +the receipt of one from Mr. Adams, of September 18th, which, having been +written a few days after Cunningham's publication, he says was no doubt +written to apologize to me for the pointed reproaches he had uttered +against me in his confidential letters to Cunningham. And thus having +"no doubt" of his conjecture, he considers it as proven, goes on to +suppose the contents of the letter (19, 22), makes it place Mr. Adams at +my feet suing for pardon, and continues to rant upon it, as an undoubted +fact. Now, I do most solemnly declare, that so far from being a letter +of apology, as Mr. Pickering so undoubtingly assumes, there was not a +word nor allusion in it respecting Cunningham's publication.</p> + +<p>The other allegation, respecting myself, is equally false. In page 34, +he quotes Doctor Stuart as having, twenty years ago, informed him that +General Washington, "when he became a private citizen," called me to +account for expressions in a letter to Mazzei, requiring, in a tone of +unusual severity, an explanation of that letter. He adds of himself, "in +what manner the latter humbled himself and appeased the just resentment +of Washington, will never be known, as some time after his death the +correspondence was not to be found, and a diary for an important period +of his Presidency was also missing." The diary being of transactions +during his Presidency, the letter to Mazzei not known here until some +time <i>after he became a private citizen</i>, and the pretended +correspondence of course after that, I know not why this lost diary and +supposed correspond<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span>ence are brought together here, unless for +insinuations worthy of the letter itself. The correspondence could not +be found, indeed, because it had never existed. I do affirm that there +never passed a word, written or verbal, directly or indirectly, between +General Washington and myself on the subject of that letter. He would +never have degraded himself so far as to take to himself the imputation +in that letter on the "Samsons in combat." The whole story is a +fabrication, and I defy the framers of it, and all mankind, to produce a +scrip of a pen between General Washington and myself on the subject, or +any other evidence more worthy of credit than the suspicions, +suppositions and presumptions of the two persons here quoting and quoted +for it. With Doctor Stuart I had not much acquaintance. I supposed him +to be an honest man, knew him to be a very weak one, and, like Mr. +Pickering, very prone to antipathies, boiling with party passions, and +under the dominion of these readily welcoming fancies for facts. But +come the story from whomsoever it might, it is an unqualified falsehood.</p> + +<p>This letter to Mazzei has been a precious theme of crimination for +Federal malice. It was a long letter of business, in which was inserted +a single paragraph only of political information as to the state of our +country. In this information there was not one word which would not then +have been, or would not now be approved by every Republican in the +United States, looking back to those times; as you will see by a +faithful copy now enclosed of the whole of what that letter said on the +subject of the United States, or of its government. This paragraph, +extracted and translated, got into a Paris paper at a time when the +persons in power there were laboring under very general disfavor, and +their friends were eager to catch even at straws to buoy them up. To +them, therefore, I have always imputed the interpolation of an entire +paragraph additional to mine, which makes me charge my own country with +ingratitude and injustice to France. There was not a word in my letter +respecting France, or any of the proceedings or relations between this +country and that. Yet this interpolated paragraph has been the burthen +of Federal calumny, has been constantly quoted by them, made the subject +of unceasing and virulent abuse, and is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span> still quoted, as you see, by +Mr. Pickering, page 33, as if it were genuine, and really written by me. +And even Judge Marshall makes history descend from its dignity, and the +ermine from its sanctity, to exaggerate, to record, and to sanction this +forgery. In the very last note of his book, he says, "a letter from Mr. +Jefferson to Mr. Mazzei, an Italian, was published in Florence, and +republished in the 'Moniteur,' with very severe strictures on the +conduct of the United States." And instead of the letter itself, he +copies what he says are the remarks of the editor, which are an +exaggerated commentary on the fabricated paragraph itself, and silently +leaves to his reader to make the ready inference that these were the +sentiments of the letter. Proof is the duty of the affirmative side. A +negative cannot be positively proved. But, in defect of impossible proof +of what was not in the original letter, I have its press-copy still in +my possession. It has been shown to several, and is open to any one who +wishes to see it. I have presumed only, that the interpolation was done +in Paris. But I never saw the letter in either its Italian or French +dress, and it may have been done here, with the commentary handed down +to posterity by the Judge. The genuine paragraph, retranslated through +Italian and French into English, as it appeared here in a Federal paper, +besides the mutilated hue which these translations and retranslations of +it produced generally, gave a mistranslation of a single word, which +entirely perverted its meaning, and made it a pliant and fertile text of +misrepresentation of my political principles. The original, speaking of +an Anglican, monarchical, and aristocratical party, which had sprung up +since he had left us, states their object to be "to draw over us the +substance, as they had already done the <i>forms</i> of the British +Government." Now the forms here meant, were the levees, birthdays, the +pompous cavalcade to the state house on the meeting of Congress, the +formal speech from the throne, the procession of Congress in a body to +reėcho the speech in an answer, &c., &c. But the translator here, by +substituting <i>form</i> in the singular number, for <i>forms</i> in the plural, +made it mean the frame or organization of our government, or its <i>form</i> +of legislative, executive, and judiciary authorities coördinate and +independent; to which <i>form</i> it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span> to be inferred that I was an enemy. +In this sense they always quoted it, and in this sense Mr. Pickering +still quotes it, pages 34, 35, 38, and countenances the inference. Now +General Washington perfectly understood what I meant by these forms, as +they were frequent subjects of conversation between us. When, on my +return from Europe, I joined the government in March, 1790, at New York, +I was much astonished, indeed, at the mimicry I found established of +royal forms and ceremonies, and more alarmed at the unexpected +phenomenon, by the monarchical sentiments I heard expressed and openly +maintained in every company, and among others by the high members of the +government, executive and judiciary, (General Washington alone +excepted,) and by a great part of the legislature, save only some +members who had been of the old Congress, and a very few of recent +introduction. I took occasion, at various times, of expressing to +General Washington my disappointment at these symptoms of a change of +principle, and that I thought them encouraged by the forms and +ceremonies which I found prevailing, not at all in character with the +simplicity of Republican government, and looking as if wishfully to +those of European courts. His general explanations to me were that when +he arrived at New York, to enter on the executive administration of the +new government, he observed to those who were to assist him, that, +placed as he was in an office entirely new to him, unacquainted with the +forms and ceremonies of other governments, still less apprized of those +which might be properly established here, and himself perfectly +indifferent to all forms, he wished them to consider and prescribe what +they should be; and the task was assigned particularly to General Knox, +a man of parade, and to Colonel Humphreys, who had resided some time at +a foreign court. They, he said, were the authors of the present +regulations, and that others were proposed so highly strained that he +absolutely rejected them. Attentive to the difference of opinion +prevailing on this subject, when the term of his second election arrived +he called the heads of departments together, observed to them the +situation in which he had been at the commencement of the government, +the advice he had taken and the course he had observed in com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span>pliance +with it; that a proper occasion had now arrived of revising that course, +of correcting in it any particulars not approved in experience, and he +desired us to consult together, agree on any changes we should think for +the better, and that he should willingly conform to what we should +advise. We met at my office. Hamilton and myself agreed at once that +there was too much ceremony for the character of our government, and +particularly, that the parade of the installation at New York ought not +to be copied on the present occasion; that the President should desire +the Chief Justice to attend him at his chambers, that he should +administer the oath of office to him in the presence of the higher +officers of the government, and that the certificate of the fact should +be delivered to the Secretary of State to be recorded. Randolph and Knox +differed from us, the latter vehemently; they thought it not advisable +to change any of the established forms, and we authorized Randolph to +report our opinions to the President. As these opinions were divided, +and no positive advice given as to any change, no change was made. Thus +the <i>forms</i> which I had censured in my letter to Mazzei were perfectly +understood by General Washington, and were those which he himself but +barely tolerated. He had furnished me a proper occasion for proposing +their reformation, and, my opinion not prevailing, he knew I could not +have meant any part of the censure for him.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pickering quotes, too (page 34), the expression in the letter of +"the men who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but +who had had their heads shorn by the harlot England;" or, as expressed +in their re-translation, "the men who were Solomons in council, and +Samsons in combat, but whose hair had been cut off by the whore +England." Now this expression also was perfectly understood by General +Washington. He knew that I meant it for the Cincinnati generally, and +that, from what had passed between us at the commencement of that +institution, I could not mean to include him. When the first meeting was +called for its establishment, I was a member of the Congress then +sitting at Annapolis. General Washington wrote to me, asking my opinion +on that proposition, and the course, if any, which I thought Congress +would observe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> respecting it. I wrote him frankly my own disapprobation +of it; that I found the members of Congress generally in the same +sentiment; that I thought they would take no express notice of it, but +that in all appointments of trust, honor, or profit, they would silently +pass by all candidates of that order, and give an uniform preference to +others. On his way to the first meeting in Philadelphia, which I think +was in the spring of 1784, he called on me at Annapolis. It was a little +after candle-light, and he sat with me till after midnight, conversing, +almost exclusively, on that subject. While he was feelingly indulgent to +the motives which might induce the officers to promote it, he concurred +with me entirely in condemning it; and when I expressed an idea that if +the hereditary quality were suppressed, the institution might perhaps be +indulged during the lives of the officers now living, and who had +actually served, "no," he said, "not a fibre of it ought to be left, to +be an eye-sore to the public, a ground of dissatisfaction, and a line of +separation between them and their country;" and he left me with a +determination to use all his influence for its entire suppression. On +his return from the meeting he called on me again, and related to me the +course the thing had taken. He said that from the beginning, he had used +every endeavor to prevail on the officers to renounce the project +altogether, urging the many considerations which would render it odious +to their fellow citizens, and disreputable and injurious to themselves; +that he had at length prevailed on most of the old officers to reject +it, although with great and warm opposition from others, and especially +the younger ones, among whom he named Colonel W. S. Smith as +particularly intemperate. But that, in this state of things, when he +thought the question safe, and the meeting drawing to a close, Major +L'Enfant arrived from France, with a bundle of eagles, for which he had +been sent there, with letters from the French officers who had served in +America, praying for admission into the order, and a solemn act of their +king permitting them to wear its ensign. This, he said, changed the face +of matters at once, produced an entire revulsion of sentiment, and +turned the torrent so strongly in an opposite direction that it could be +no longer withstood; all he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span> could then obtain was a suppression of the +hereditary quality. He added that it was the French applications, and +respect for the approbation of the king, which saved the establishment +in its modified and temporary form. Disapproving thus of the institution +as much as I did, and conscious that I knew him to do so, he could never +suppose I meant to include him among the Samsons in the field, whose +object was to draw over us the <i>form</i>, as they made the letter say, of +the British Government, and especially its aristocratic member, an +hereditary house of lords. Add to this, that the letter saying that "two +out of the three branches of legislature were against us" was an obvious +exception of him; it being well known that the majorities in the two +branches, of Senate and Representatives, were the very instruments which +carried, in opposition to the old and real Republicans, the measures +which were the subjects of condemnation in this letter. General +Washington then, understanding perfectly what and whom I meant to +designate, in both phrases, and that they could not have any application +or view to himself, could find, in neither, any cause of offence to +himself; and therefore neither needed, nor ever asked any explanation of +them from me. Had it even been otherwise, they must know very little of +General Washington, who should believe to be within the laws of his +character what Doctor Stuart is said to have imputed to him. Be this, +however, as it may, the story is infamously false in every article of +it. My last parting with General Washington was at the inauguration of +Mr. Adams, in March, 1797, and was warmly affectionate; and I never had +any reason to believe any change on his part, as there certainly was +none on mine. But one session of Congress intervened between that and +his death, the year following, in my passage to and from which as it +happened to be not convenient to call on him, I never had another +opportunity; and as to the cessation of correspondence observed during +that short interval, no particular circumstance occurred for epistolary +communication, and both of us were too much oppressed with +letter-writing, to trouble, either the other, with a letter about +nothing.</p> + +<p>The truth is that the Federalists, pretending to be the exclusive +friends of General Washington, have ever done what they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> could to sink +his character, by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy +of Republicans him who, of all men, is best entitled to the appellation +of the father of that republic which they were endeavoring to subvert, +and the Republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections +proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the +republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend +to the republican principles of our constitution. His faith, perhaps, in +its duration, might not have been as confident as mine; but he +repeatedly declared to me that he was determined it should have a fair +chance for success; and that he would lose the last drop of his blood in +its support, against any attempt which might be made to change it from +its republican form. He made these declarations the oftener because he +knew my suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet +my jealousies on this subject. For Hamilton frankly avowed that he +considered the British Constitution, with all the corruptions of its +administration, as the most perfect model of government which had ever +been devised by the wit of man; professing however, at the same time, +that the spirit of this country was so fundamentally republican, that it +would be visionary to think of introducing monarchy here, and that, +therefore, it was the duty of its administrators to conduct it on the +principles their constituents had elected.</p> + +<p>General Washington, after the retirement of his first cabinet, and the +composition of his second, entirely Federal, and at the head of which +was Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both sides of +any question. His measures, consequently, took more the hue of the party +in whose hands he was. These measures were certainly not approved by the +Republicans; yet were they not imputed to him, but to the counsellors +around him; and his prudence so far restrained their impassioned course +and bias, that no act of strong mark, during the remainder of his +administration, excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time +after, and too much withdrawn from information, to correct the views +into which he had been deluded; and the continued assiduities of the +party drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career, separated +him still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> farther from his real friends, and excited him to actions and +expressions of dissatisfaction, which grieved them, but could not loosen +their affections from him. They would not suffer this temporary +aberration to weigh against the immeasurable merits of his life; and +although they tumbled his seducers from their places, they preserved his +memory embalmed in their hearts, with undiminished love and devotion; +and there it forever will remain embalmed, in entire oblivion of every +temporary thing which might cloud the glories of his splendid life. It +is vain, then, for Mr. Pickering and his friends to endeavor to falsify +his character, by representing him as an enemy to Republicans and +republican principles, and as exclusively the friend of those who were +so; and had he lived longer, he would have returned to his ancient and +unbiased opinions, would have replaced his confidence in those whom the +people approved and supported, and would have seen that they were only +restoring and acting on the principles of his own first administration.</p> + +<p>I find, my dear Sir, that I have written you a very long letter, or +rather a history. The civility of having sent me a copy of Mr. +Pickering's diatribe, would scarcely justify its address to you. I do +not publish these things, because my rule of life has been never to +harass the public with feedings and provings of personal slanders; and +least of all would I descend into the arena of slander with such a +champion as Mr. Pickering. I have ever trusted to the justice and +consideration of my fellow citizens, and have no reason to repent it, or +to change my course. At this time of life too, tranquillity is the +<i>summum bonum</i>. But although I decline all newspaper controversy, yet, +when falsehoods have been advanced, within the knowledge of no one so +much as myself, I have sometimes deposited a contradiction in the hands +of a friend, which, if worth preservation, may, when I am no more, nor +these whom it might offend, throw light on history, and recall that into +the path of truth. And, if of no other value, the present communication +may amuse you with anecdotes not known to every one.</p> + +<p>I had meant to have added some views on the amalgamation of parties, to +which your favor of the 8th has some allusion;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span> an amalgamation of name, +but not of principle. Tories are tories still, by whatever name they may +be called. But my letter is already too unmercifully long, and I close +it here with assurances of my great esteem and respectful consideration.</p> + +<div class="right">TH. JEFFERSON.<br /><br /></div> + +<div class="center">[<i>Enclosed in the above.</i>]<br /><br /></div> + +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">Extract of a Letter from Th. Jefferson, to Philip Mazzei</span>,<br /></div> + +<div class="center">April 24, 1796.</div> + +<p>"The aspect of our politics has wonderfully changed since you left us. +In place of that noble love of liberty and republican Government which +carried us triumphantly through the war, an Anglican, Monarchical and +Aristocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed object is to draw over +us the substance as they have already done the forms of the British +government. The main body of our citizens, however, remain true to their +republican principles. The whole landed interest is republican, and so +is a great mass of talent. Against us are the Executive, the Judiciary, +two out of three branches of the legislature, all the officers of the +government, all who want to be officers, all timid men who prefer the +calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants, +and Americans trading on British capitals, speculators, and holders in +the banks and public funds,—contrivance invented for the purpose of +corruption, and for assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well +as the sound parts of the British model. It would give you a fever were +I to name to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies; men +who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but who have +had their heads shorn by the harlot England. In short, we are likely to +preserve the liberty we have obtained only by unremitting labors and +perils. But we shall preserve them; and our mass of weight and wealth on +the good side is so great as to leave no danger that force will ever be +attempted against us. We have only to awake and snap the Liliputian +cords with which they have been entangling us during the first sleep +which succeeded our labors."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="notes"><h2>Transcriber's Notes:</h2> + +<p>Footnotes in the original text were marked at the page level, beginning +at Footnote #1 each time footnotes appeared on a page. Footnote numbers +for the whole text have been replaced with sequential footnote numbers, +from 1 to 40.</p> + +<p>Spellings of reelect-, coordinat-, and cooperat- in this +transcription have been normalized for consistency to reėlect-, +coördinat-, coöperat-.</p> + +<p>Page 426: A closing qutotation, absent in the original publication, has +been supplied at the end of the following: "the facility and +little truth with which he could represent facts and occurrences, +concerning persons who were the objects of his hatred"</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of +Political Parties in the United States, by Martin Van Buren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INQUIRY *** + +***** This file should be named 35932-h.htm or 35932-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/9/3/35932/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Gary Rees and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +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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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: Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States + +Author: Martin Van Buren + +Editor: Abraham Van Buren + John Van Buren + +Release Date: April 22, 2011 [EBook #35932] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INQUIRY *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Gary Rees and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: M Van Buren] + + + + + INQUIRY + INTO + THE ORIGIN AND COURSE + OF + POLITICAL PARTIES + IN THE + UNITED STATES. + + + BY THE LATE EX-PRESIDENT + MARTIN VAN BUREN. + + + Nam quis nescit primam esse historiae legem ne quid falsi dicere + audeat? deinde, ne quid veri non audeat? Ne qua suspicio gratiae + sit in scribendo? Ne qua simultatis? CICERO. _De Orat._ Lib. II. + + + EDITED BY HIS SONS. + + + NEW YORK: + PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON. + 1867. + + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by + SMITH T. VAN BUREN, + in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of + New York. + + + RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: + STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY + H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The following pages originally formed part of a much larger work, from +the general course and design of which they constituted a digression. It +seems therefore proper to preface them by a few words of explanation, +relating chiefly to the work from which they are now separated. + +Mr. Van Buren, eighth President of the United States, on the expiration +of his term of office, in the year 1841, retired to a country residence +near Kinderhook, (the place of his birth,) in the State of New York, +which he had then recently purchased, and to which he gave the name of +Lindenwald. Here, with infrequent and brief interruptions, he continued +to reside for some twenty years, or until his death, which occurred in +July, 1862. Although numbering nearly sixty years of age,--two-thirds of +which had been years of almost incessant activity and excitement, +professional, political, and social,--at the period of his withdrawal to +the tranquil scenes and occupations of rural life, he embraced the +latter with an ardor and a relish that surprised not a little the +friends who had known him only as prominent in, and apparently engrossed +by, the public service, but which were happy results of early +predilections, an even and cheerful temper, fitting him for and +constantly inclining him to the enjoyment of domestic intercourse, a +hearty love of Nature, and a sound constitution of mind and body. After +twelve years of the period of his retirement had passed, happily and +contentedly, he began to apply a portion of his "large leisure" to a +written review of his previous life, and to recording his recollections +of his contemporaries and of his times. To this work, as he intimates in +its opening paragraphs, he was mainly induced by the solicitations of +life-long friends, who, (it may be here added,) knowing the importance +and interest of the scenes and incidents of his extended public career, +and the extraordinary influence he had exerted upon public men and +questions of his time, and perceiving the tenaciousness of his memory +and the charm of his conversation unimpaired by the lapse of seventy +years, confidently anticipated a work of much interest in such a record +as they urged upon him to make. + +But although Mr. Van Buren so far complied with these suggestions as to +set about writing his memoirs, he was not inclined to pursue the +employment as a task, or to devote more of his time to it than could be +easily spared from other occupations in which he was interested, and in +order to keep himself from every temptation to exceed this limitation, +he resolved, at the start, that no part of what he might write should be +published in his lifetime. The work which he had commenced, was thus +exposed to frequent interruption, even by unimportant accidents, and at +length was altogether arrested by the serious illness of a member of his +family, and by the failure of his own health, which rapidly supervened. +It resulted that the recorded memoirs of his life and times closed +abruptly when he had brought them down to the date of 1833-34, and that +he never revised for publication what he had written. There is evidence +that he contemplated such a revision when he should reach a convenient +stage of his progress, but from the circumstances under which he wrote +(which have been alluded to) as well as from his comparatively small +interest in the mere graces of composition, the _labor limae_ was +continually postponed, and the "flighty purpose" was never o'ertaken. +When, after his death, the subject of the disposition of these memoirs +was presented to his sons, to whom his papers had been intrusted, they +were embarrassed by questions as to the manner and form in which it was +their duty to give them the publicity intended by their author. Should +they, notwithstanding unaffected distrust of their qualifications, and a +deep sense of special unfitness arising from natural partiality, +undertake to continue the history of their father's life from the point +at which his own account had ceased, to supply, as far as they could, +the gaps in the previous narrative which had been left by him for +further examination or after-construction, and to give to the work the +extensive revision which, in the state in which it came to their hands, +it seemed to require? Or should they publish the unfinished and +unrevised memoirs, as they were left, _as a fragment_ and a +contribution, so far as they might go, to the history of the country? +Would one or the other of these be such a history of the life of a +statesman who had filled a large space in the observation of his +countrymen, and who had exerted a controlling influence in the +Government during interesting and critical periods, as would answer a +natural and just public expectation, or satisfy the many warm friends +who survived him? While occupied with the consideration of these +questions, they received a note from Charles H. Hunt, Esq., informing +them that he felt strongly inclined to write a Biography of Mr. Van +Buren, and requesting the use for that purpose of any materials within +their power to furnish. An additional paragraph of Mr. Hunt's note, +referring to the rumor of writings left by Mr. Van Buren, showed that he +had been entirely misinformed as to the nature and extent of those +writings; he, in effect, supposing them to consist solely of +disquisitions on various political questions. + +The communication of Mr. Hunt not only superseded the necessity of +deciding between the alternative propositions mentioned, but afforded +them in all respects great satisfaction. His ripe and graceful +scholarship, sound judgment, and pure taste were widely known, and +especially to all who, like themselves, enjoyed familiar acquaintance +with him. He had, moreover, recently advanced by a single step to the +first rank among American biographers--a position readily accorded by +recognized authority in the republic of letters, at home and abroad, to +the author of the "Life of Edward Livingston." To such hands they could +not hesitate to commit the work proposed, so far as they were able to +control it, feeling assured that, while Mr. Hunt would bring to its +performance the disinterestedness and impartiality indispensable to give +it value as a history, and which are with difficulty maintained in +family memorials, his inclination to undertake it was evidence of a +general sympathy with, or at least respect for, Mr. Van Buren's +character and public career sufficient to authorize the relinquishment +to him of the materials in their possession. Accordingly the fragmentary +memoirs, with all the correspondence and other manuscripts applicable to +his purpose, and within their reach, were committed to Mr. Hunt, by Mr. +Van Buren's representatives, with entire satisfaction and confidence +that they will be used with fidelity and skill in the construction of +the work he has undertaken,--a confidence that will be shared by Mr. Van +Buren's surviving friends and by the public. + +The main body of manuscripts left by Mr. Van Buren having been thus +applied, some question remained in regard to that portion now published. +Begun as an episode, the subject grew on the author's hands (as he +explains in a note) to such proportions as to seem to stand more +properly as a distinct production, and although, like the principal +work, incomplete, it had been nevertheless carried forward to the point, +chronologically speaking, that had been proposed, and that was in fact +its natural termination. For this reason, and because it had no such +connection with the memoirs as required that they should be printed +together, it has been thought best to publish it without further delay +in the form in which it was left by the writer. The subject is of +peculiar interest at this time when our country, having suffered the +rude shock and disorder of civil war, and our free and popular +institutions having sustained with admirable firmness and substantial +triumph a more fearful trial than any to which they had before been +subjected, the sacred and momentous duty is devolved on patriots and +good citizens throughout our borders to reconstruct whatever valuable +parts have been thrown down, to restore what may have been injured or +defaced in our political system and in the principles on which it rests; +and the occasion seems auspicious for recalling the attention of our +people to the study of the lives and doctrines--the grounds and motives +of action--of the great men by whom the foundations of their government +were laid. + +The work of editing this volume has been inconsiderable, the sum of it +having been to correct a few manifest inadvertencies, to divide it into +chapters, with indexical heads, to furnish the whole with a title, and +to add one or two foot-notes that appeared to be proper. Otherwise the +aim has been to preserve the form and substance of the original. The +citation from Cicero on the title-page was found on Mr. Van Buren's +table, in his library, extracted in his own handwriting; whether only as +a terse declaration of the law by the spirit of which his pen was +guided, or as a possible motto for his complete work, is not known. The +letter from Mr. Jefferson, forming an Appendix, was intended by Mr. Van +Buren to be printed with whatever of his own might reach publication, +and is spoken of in the present volume as "accompanying this work." It +is now printed for the first time from the original manuscript letter, +and a few errors in the edition published (probably from the draft) by +the Library Committees of Congress are corrected. + +The portrait fronting this book is engraved from Brady's imperial +photograph, by Ritchie, and must be pronounced a very favorable specimen +of his art. It represents Mr. Van Buren in the seventy-fifth year of his +age. + + EDGEHILL, FISHKILL-ON-HUDSON, N. Y., + _February, 1867_. + + + + +POLITICAL PARTIES + +IN THE + +UNITED STATES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + Gratifying Period in our History embraced by Administrations of + Jefferson and Madison--The Caucus System and its Abandonment--The + System useful to the Republican or Democratic Party, but not so to + the Federalists--Questions proposed--Difficulties of the + Subject--Two great Parties, under changing Names, have always + divided the Country--Few and imperfect Attempts heretofore made to + trace the Origin and Principles of those Parties--This the first + Attempt with that object on the Republican or Democratic Side--The + Sources of Differences in Opinion and Feeling which gave rise to our + Political Divisions, and _punctum temporis_ of their + Rise--Principles established by the English Revolution of + 1688--Application of those Principles to the Colonies--Grounds of + the American Revolution--Abstract Opinions regain their Influence + after the Settlement of the practical Questions involved in the + Revolution--Diverse Character and Feelings of Emigrants to the + different Colonies--Effect of that Diversity on Principles of + Government and Administration in the New Governments--Repugnance of + the People to any Revival of the System overthrown by the + Revolution--Popular Reluctance to create an Executive Branch of the + Government--Confederacy of the United Colonies of New England in + 1643--Dr. Franklin's Plan of Union in 1755--The Sentiments of the + Colonists those of the Whigs of the + Revolution--Exceptions--Discordant Materials, in certain Respects, + of which the Revolutionary Brotherhood was composed--Effects of that + Discordance upon the subsequent Organization of Political + Parties--The Confederation, and Parties for and against + it--Perversion of Party Names--Conflicts and Questions in + Controversy between Federalists and Anti-Federalists--The + Constitutional Convention of 1787--Different Plans proposed before + it--Motives and Views of the Authors of those Plans--The Views which + determined Congress and the People to acquiesce in the Results of + the Convention--Adoption of the Constitution and Extinction of the + Anti-Federal Party as such. + + +There has been no period in our history, since the establishment of our +Independence, to which the sincere friend of free institutions can turn +with more unalloyed satisfaction, than to that embraced by the +administrations of Jefferson and Madison, moved as they were by a common +impulse. Mr. Jefferson commenced the discharge of his official duties by +an act which, though one of form, involved matter of the highest moment. +I allude to the decision and facility with which, in his intercourse +with the other branches of the Government, he suppressed the observance +of empty ceremonies which had been borrowed from foreign courts by +officers who took an interest in such matters, and were reluctantly +tolerated by Washington, who was himself above them. Instead of +proceeding in state to the capitol to deliver a speech to the +legislature, according to the custom of monarchs, he performed his +constitutional duty by means of a message in writing, sent to each House +by the hands of his private secretary, and they performed theirs by a +reference of its contents to appropriate committees. The Executive +procession, instead of marking the intercourse between the different +branches of the Government, was reserved for the Inauguration, when the +President appeared before the people themselves, and in their presence +took the oath of office. + +A step so appropriate and so much in harmony with our institutions, was +naturally followed by efforts for the abolition of offices and official +establishments not necessary to the public service, the reduction of the +public expenses, and the repeal of odious internal taxes. To these he +added the influence of his individual example to keep the organization +and action of the Federal Government upon that simple and economical +footing which is consistent with the Republican system. In this branch +of his official conduct he established precedents of great value, from +some of which his successors have not ventured to depart. + +With the single exception of his approval of the Bank of the United +States, the administration of Mr. Madison was one of great merit, and +was made especially illustrious by conducting the country through a war +imperishably honorable for its military achievements and the consequent +elevation of our national character. + +Jefferson and Madison were brought forward by caucus nominations; they, +throughout, recognized and adhered to the political party that elected +them; and they left it united and powerful, when, at the close of public +life, they carried into their retirement, and always enjoyed, the +respect, esteem, and confidence of all their countrymen. + +Mr. Monroe's administration did not introduce any very disturbing public +questions. The protective policy was, toward its close, generally +acquiesced in at the North and West, and no part of the South as yet +even contemplated the resistance which was subsequently attempted. The +agitation in regard to internal improvements was yet for the most part +speculative and too far in advance of any contemplated action to stir +the public mind. The Bank of the United States was having its own way +without question on the part of the Government, and with but little if +any suspicion on the part of the people. No very embarrassing questions +had arisen in our foreign relations; yet the first year of Mr. Monroe's +second term had scarcely passed away before the political atmosphere +became inflamed to an unprecedented extent. The Republican party, so +long in the ascendant, and apparently so omnipotent, was literally +shattered into fragments, and we had no fewer than five Republican +Presidential candidates in the field. + +In the place of two great parties arrayed against each other in a fair +and open contest for the establishment of principles in the +administration of Government which they respectively believed most +conducive to the public interest, the country was overrun with personal +factions. These having few higher motives for the selection of their +candidates or stronger incentives to action than individual preferences +or antipathies, moved the bitter waters of political agitation to their +lowest depths. + +The occurrence of scenes discreditable to all had for a long time been +prevented by a steady adherence on the part of the Republican party to +the caucus system; and if Mr. Monroe's views and feelings upon the +subject had been the same as were those of Jefferson and Madison, the +results to which I have alluded, and which were soon sincerely +deprecated, might have been prevented by the same means. There was no +difference in the political condition of the country between 1816--when +Mr. Monroe received a caucus nomination, on a close vote between Mr. +Crawford and himself, and was elected--and 1824, when the caucus system +was appealed to by the supporters of Mr. Crawford, which called for its +abandonment. The Federal party were on both occasions incapable of +successfully resisting a candidate in whose favor the Republicans were +united, and they were on each sufficiently strong to control the +election when the support of their opponents was divided amongst +several. Mr. Monroe and a majority of his cabinet were unfortunately +influenced by different views, and pursued a course well designed to +weaken the influence of the caucus system, and to cause its abandonment. +Mr. Crawford was the only candidate who, it was believed, could be +benefited by adhering to it, and the friends of all the others sustained +the policy of the administration. Those of Jackson, Adams, Clay, and +Calhoun, united in an address to the people condemning the practice of +caucus nominations, and announcing their determination to disregard +them. Already weakened through the adverse influence of the +administration, the agency which had so long preserved the unity of the +Republican party did not retain sufficient strength to resist the +combined assault that was made upon it, and was overthrown. Mr. Crawford +and his friends adhered to it to the last, and fell with it. + +It is a striking fact in our political history that the sagacious +leaders of the Federal party, as well under that name as under others by +which it has at different times been known, have always been desirous to +bring every usage or plan designed to secure party unity into disrepute +with the people, and in proportion to their success in that has been +their success in the elections. When they have found such usage too +strong to be overthrown for the time being, they have adopted it +themselves, but only to return to their denunciations of it after every +defeat. It would, on first impression, seem that a practice which is +good for one political party must be good for another; but when the +matter is more closely looked into, it will be discovered that the +policy of the Federal leaders referred to, like most of the acts of +those far-seeing men, rested upon substantial foundations. It +originated, beyond doubt, in the conviction, on the part of the early +Federalists, that a political organization in support of the particular +principles which they advocated, and to which they intended to adhere, +did not stand as much in need of extraneous means to secure harmony in +its ranks as did that of their opponents. + +The results of general elections for more than half a century have +served to confirm this opinion. With the exception of a single instance, +susceptible of easy explanation, the Republican, now Democratic party, +whenever it has been wise enough to employ the caucus or convention +system, and to use in good faith the influence it is capable of +imparting to the popular cause, has been successful, and it has been +defeated whenever that system has been laid aside or employed unfairly. +With the Federal party and its successors the results have been widely +different; with or without the caucus system they have generally found +no difficulty in uniting whenever union promised success. + +Why is it that a system or practice open to both parties, occasionally +used by both, and apparently equally useful to both, is in fact so much +less necessary to one than to the other? If this consequence springs +from a corresponding difference in the principles for the defense and +spread of which they have respectively been formed, what are those +principles, whence are they derived, and what is their history? + +These are grave questions, which have often presented themselves to the +minds of our public men, and to answer which satisfactorily is neither +an easy nor a short task. + +Histories of struggles for power between individual men or families, +long involved in obscurity, are becoming more frequent than they were, +and far more satisfactory. Aided by a comparatively free access to +public and private papers,--a privilege formerly sturdily refused, but +which the liberal spirit of the age has now made common,--the literary +men of most countries, with improved capacities to weigh conflicting +statements as well as to narrate the results of their researches with +simplicity and perspicuity, are probing the most hidden recesses of the +past, and describing with reliable accuracy transactions of great +interest, the causes and particular circumstances of which have been +hitherto little or not at all understood. But to define the origin and +trace the history of national parties is an undertaking of extraordinary +difficulty; one from which, in view of the embarrassments that surround +it in the case of our own political divisions, I have more than once +retired in despair, and on which I now enter with only slight hopes of +success. Yet it is due as well to the memories of the past as to actual +interests, that a subject which has exerted so great an influence and +which may be made so instructive, should be made plain, if that be +practicable, to the understandings of the present and succeeding +generations; and if my imperfect effort shall have a tendency to turn +stronger minds and abler pens in that direction it will not have been +made in vain. + +The two great parties of this country, with occasional changes in their +names only, have, for the principal part of a century, occupied +antagonistic positions upon all important political questions. They have +maintained an unbroken succession, and have, throughout, been composed +respectively of men agreeing in their party passions and preferences, +and entertaining, with rare exceptions, similar general views on the +subjects of government and its administration. Sons have generally +followed in the footsteps of their fathers, and families originally +differing have in regular succession received, maintained, and +transmitted this opposition. Neither the influences of marriage +connections, nor of sectarian prejudices, nor any of the strong motives +which often determine the ordinary actions of men, have, with limited +exceptions, been sufficient to override the bias of party organization +and sympathy, devotion to which has, on both sides, as a rule, been a +master-passion of their members. + +The names of these parties, like those of their predecessors in older +countries, have from time to time been changed, from suggestions of +policy or from accidental causes. Men of similar and substantially +unchanged views and principles have, at different periods of English +history, been distinguished as Cavaliers or Roundheads, as Jacobites or +Puritans and Presbyterians, as Whigs or Tories. Here, with corresponding +consistency in principle, the same men have at different periods been +known as Federalists, Federal Republicans, and Whigs, or as +Anti-Federalists, Republicans, and Democrats. But no changes of name +have indicated--certainly not until very recently, and the depth and +duration of the exception remain to be seen--a change or material +modification of the true character and principles of the parties +themselves. The difference between the old Republican and the +Anti-Federal parties, arising out of the questions in regard to the new +Constitution, was by far the greatest variation that has occurred. + +Several hasty and but slightly considered attempts have been made to +define the origin, and to mark the progress, of our national parties. +But, with a single exception,--namely, that made by ex-President John +Quincy Adams, in his Jubilee Discourse before the New York Historical +Society, on the 30th of April, 1839, being the Fiftieth Anniversary of +the Inauguration of George Washington as President of the United +States,--they have not professed, so far as they have fallen under my +notice, to do more than glance at the subject. + +To say that this discourse of one hundred and twenty pages was written +with Mr. Adams's accustomed ability, would be a commendation short of +its merits. It was more. The political condition of the country, and the +near approach of the memorable struggle of 1840, superadded to the +stirring considerations connected with the occasion, seem to have +persuaded that distinguished man that he was called upon to make an +extraordinary effort. A severe philippic against his and his father's +political enemies, this discourse, judged in the sense in which such +performances are naturally estimated by contemporaries imbued with +similar feelings, could not fail to be regarded as an eloquent and able +production; but I deceive myself if it can be deemed by a single +ingenuous mind either a dispassionate or an impartial review of the +origin and course of parties in the United States. Such minds will be +more likely to receive a paper, written so long after the transactions +of which it speaks, with feelings of regret at the strong evidence it +affords that the rage of party spirit, upon the assumed extinguishment +of which its author had, years before, exultingly congratulated the +people from the Presidential chair, was yet so active in his own breast. +I say this more in sorrow than in anger. Other portions of this work[1] +will, I am sure, exonerate me from the suspicion of cherishing the +slightest sentiment of unkindness toward the memory of John Quincy +Adams. When my personal acquaintance with him was but slight, and when +our political relations were unfavorable to the cultivation of friendly +feelings, my dispositions toward him were to an unusual extent free from +the prejudices commonly engendered by party differences. In the later +periods of our acquaintance, continuing to the end of his life, +I regarded him with entire personal respect and kindness; and +notwithstanding the occasional fierceness of our political collisions, +I have never heard of any unfriendly expression by him in respect to +myself personally. + + [1] This refers to the Memoirs of the writer, to which the present + essay was intended to be an episode. See Introduction to this + volume. Eds. + +It is not a little remarkable, though in harmony with other striking +features in the relations of our parties, that no serious attempt has +ever been made to trace their origin except by members of the same +political school with Mr. Adams. If I am right in this, mine will at +least have the weight, whatever that may be, due to the narration of one +who, from the beginning to the end of an extended political career, has +been an invariable and ardent member of the opposite school. + +The author of the life of Hamilton confidently pronounces what occurred +on the appointment of Washington as Commander-in-chief of the +Revolutionary army, to be the true source of the party divisions that +have so long and so extensively prevailed in this country. President +John Quincy Adams, in his Inaugural Address, attributes them to the +conflicting prejudices and preferences of the people for and against +Great Britain and France at the commencement of the present government, +and the discontinuance of them to the effects produced by the excesses +of the French Revolution. Matthew L. Davis,--a man of much note and +cleverness, who commenced his career an active member of the old +Republican party, became the especial champion of Colonel Burr, and, +soon seceding from the party to which he was at first attached, spent +the remainder of his life in opposition to it,--in his life of Aaron +Burr, attributes the origin of our two great political parties to the +proceedings of the Federal Constitutional Convention and of the State +Conventions which passed upon the question of ratification. + +These various versions of the matter I shall hereafter notice, +contenting myself, for the present, with the remark that party divisions +which have extended to every corner of a country as large as our own, +and have endured so long, could not spring from slight or even limited +causes. No differences in the views of men on isolated questions +temporary in their nature, could, it seems to me, have produced such +results. Questions of such a character are either finally settled, with +more or less satisfaction, or in time lose their interest, +notwithstanding momentary excitement, and the temporary organizations +springing from them give place in turn to others equally short-lived. + +But when men are brought under one government who differ radically in +opinion as to its proper form, as to the uses for which governments +should be established, as to the spirit in which they should be +administered, as to the best way in which the happiness of those who +are subject to them can be promoted, no less than in regard to the +capacity of the people for self-government, we may well look for party +divisions and political organizations of a deeper foundation and a more +enduring existence. + +Ours arose at the close of the Revolution, and the leading parties to +them were the Whigs, through whose instrumentality, under favor of +Providence, our Independence had been established. They and the Tories +constituted our entire population, and the latter had at first, for +obvious reasons, but little to do in the formation of parties, save to +throw themselves in a body into the ranks of one of them. It became at +once evident that great differences of opinion existed among the Whigs +in respect to the character of the government that should be substituted +for that which had been overthrown, and also in respect to the spirit +and principles which should control the administration of that which +might be established. These spread through the country with great +rapidity, and were respectively maintained with a zeal and determination +which proved that they were not produced by the feelings or impulses of +the moment. To ascertain the origin of those differences, and to trace +their effects, we can adopt no safer course than to look to the +antecedents of the actors in the stirring political scenes that followed +the close of the war, to the characters and opinions of their ancestors, +from whom they had naturally imbibed their first ideas of government +either directly or traditionally, and to the incidents of the memorable +struggle from which the country had just emerged. + +The great principle first formally avowed by Rousseau, "that the right +to exercise sovereignty belongs inalienably to the people," sprung up +spontaneously in the hearts of the colonists, and silently influenced +all their acts from the beginning. The condition of the country in +which they settled,--a wilderness occupied besides themselves only by +savage tribes,--to which many of them were driven by the fiercest +persecutions ever known to the civilized world, and the stern +self-reliance and independent spirit which most of them had acquired in +contests with iron fortune that preceded their exile, combined to induce +the cultivation and to secure the permanent growth of such a sentiment. +Not being, however, for several generations, in a suitable condition, +and from counteracting inducements not even disposed to dispute the +pretensions of the Crown to their allegiance, they were content to look +principally to its patents and other concessions for the measure of +their rights. But their views were greatly changed, and their advance on +the road to freedom materially accelerated, by the English Revolution of +1688. The final overthrow of James II., from whose tyrannical acts, as +well in the character of Duke of York as in that of King, they had +severely suffered, was not the greatest advantage the colonists derived +from that Revolution. The principles upon which that most important of +European movements was founded, and the doctrines it consecrated, paved +the way to a result which, though not upon their tongues, or perhaps to +any great extent the subject of their meditations as immediately +practicable, was, doubtless, from that time, within their contemplation. + +That Revolution, which shattered, "past all surgery," the blasphemous +and absurd dogma of the divine right of kings; which replaced the +slavish doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance with the +principle that the authority of the monarch was no other than a trust +founded on an assumed agreement between him and his subjects that the +power conferred upon him should be used for their advantage, for the +faithful execution of which he was individually responsible, and for a +breach of which resistance to his authority, as a last resort, was a +constitutional remedy; which for the supremacy of the Crown substituted +the supremacy of Parliament; which made the King as well as his subjects +responsible to its authority, and which abrogated the right of the Crown +to govern the colonies in virtue of its prerogative, and vested that +power in Parliament, placed the colonists upon a footing widely +different from that they had theretofore occupied. + +The general principle that they were, by the laws and statutes of +England, entitled to the political rights that appertained to British +subjects, could not be denied, but commercial rivalry and political +jealousies acting upon their excited feelings, soon generated questions +of the gravest import, both as to the extent of the power of Parliament +to legislate for them, and as to the participation in representation +essential to authorize the exercise of that power. + +The subjects of taxation and the regulation of trade by Parliamentary +authority, excited the greatest interest on both sides of the Atlantic. +In respect to the latter, the question was not a little embarrassed by +an alleged acquiescence on the part of the colonists, and the consequent +force of precedents. This circumstance, in connection with the +consideration that, if the right to regulate the trade of the colonies +was denied to the mother country, the allegiance conceded to be due +would be paid to a barren sceptre, was calculated to deprive the cause +of the colonists of the favorable opinion of those just men in England +whose countenance and support were of so much service to them in the +sequel. Duly appreciating the obstacles to success which there was +reason to apprehend from this source, with the prudence and good sense +that belonged to their character, and without waiving any of their +rights, they placed their cause principally upon a ground that lay at +the foundation of the Revolution, and was thoroughly immovable, viz., +that by the fundamental laws of property no taxes could be levied upon +the people but by their own consent or that of their authorized agents, +and that by consequence the connection was indissoluble between taxation +and representation. + +In the justice and constitutionality of this position they were openly +sustained by Lord Chatham, Lord Camden, Burke, Fox, and others,--men who +were in their day and have since been regarded as leading minds of +England. With but little of public sentiment against them beyond what +was influenced by the inveterate hatred and the insane obstinacy of the +King, wielding at will the majority of a notoriously corrupt Parliament +and the brute force of the kingdom, the colonists appealed to the God of +Battles in defense of a sacred principle of freedom, and in resistance +to tyrannical acts of the most odious and oppressive character, and they +were victorious. It is now, and will be in all time, a source of +satisfaction to the people of these States, that the decision of the +sword is not their only nor their highest title to the liberty they +enjoy. The colonists were right in the contest. Of this no serious doubt +is now entertained in any honest and well-informed quarter. The idea of +virtual representation, and the attempt to justify one wrong by the +practice of another, namely, the taxing other British subjects without +giving them an adequate representation in Parliament,--the only replies +that were made to the claim of constitutional rights,--are now well +understood, and, it gives me pleasure to say, generally disavowed in +England. Lord Derby, the manly and highly gifted leader of what is left +of the old Tory party, not long since, in a speech delivered in the +presence of an American minister, unreservedly admitted that we were +right in the Revolutionary contest; and, if that question were now +submitted to the free judgment of the people of England, such would be +found to be the public sense of that great nation. + +The only way in which the right in respect to taxation set up by the +English Parliament could have been sustained consistently with the +English Constitution, would have been by a joint government, securing to +the colonies the representation in that body to which they were entitled +as British subjects,--a plan to which both the mother country and the +colonies were equally decided in their dislike, but for very different +reasons. If a similar question were presented at this day it would, +according to the present state of public opinion in both countries, be +at once settled by an alliance of peace and friendship, substituting +fraternal relations for those of parent and children. + +Well would it have been for the interests of both and of humanity if the +matter had been thus adjusted. + +The immediate question upon which the Revolution turned was, of course, +forever extinguished by its results. But it has been far otherwise with +the opinions, doubtless of various shades and equally sincere, in regard +to the nature of government, the uses to which it could be properly +applied, and the manner and spirit of its application, with which the +colonists entered into the contest, and with the feelings engendered by +those opinions and developed by the war. Upon these points the +characters and successive conditions of the early emigrants exerted a +great influence. Those to Virginia were first in point of time, and +certainly not inferior to any in the elements of character adapted to +the difficulties they were destined to encounter. History, doubtless +authentic, records that the first emigration to that State was a measure +of the patriotic party in England, and sprung from a desire to make an +offering to liberty in the wilderness which the stringency of power had +prevented them from making at home. The accomplishment of that design, +whatever may have been the aid subsequently derived from its authors, +has been eminently successful. Whether as colonists, as citizens of a +free State, or as a part of our great Confederacy, the emigrants to +Virginia, their successors and descendants, have done all that men could +do to realize the anticipations and designs of the founders of that +ancient colony. + +Fully equal to them in devotion to liberty, with the additional merit of +having made greater sacrifices in its defense, stood the Puritans, whose +descendants are said to constitute at this time one fifth (I believe it +is) of the people of the United States. It would be superfluous to +describe either the persecutions to which they were subjected by +arbitrary power or their fidelity to their principles. Their story is +known, and their early character understood, throughout the civilized +world. + +The Huguenots entered largely into the early settlement of several of +the colonies, and their descendants now constitute numerous portions of +several of our States. Indeed, the very first European colony +established in this country was composed of Huguenots, who were +exterminated by the Spaniards,--an event which, indirectly, contributed +greatly to the emigration to Virginia under Sir Walter Raleigh. +Fugitives from the most cruel as well as the most obstinate +persecutions, hunted like wild beasts on account of their devotion to +religious freedom and the right of opinion, they fled to our shores, +detesting irresponsible power of every description, and ready to do +their utmost to prevent its re-incorporation in our virgin system. + +The States General and the Dutch West India Company, although the +former were perhaps not more favorable to popular sovereignty, in our +sense of these words, than the Stuarts, and the latter altogether +mercenary, yet introduced into this country, in the colonization of New +Netherlands, emigrants especially adapted, by character and disposition, +to the scenes through which they were destined to pass. This happy +result was attributable to the peculiar conjuncture of affairs at home +when the establishment of that colony was undertaken. It was during the +continuance of the truce in their War of Independence--the first that +was granted to them by Philip II., after that barbarous contest had +already lasted forty years--that the attention of the United Provinces +was directed to this country. The revolting cruelties which Philip had +caused to be inflicted upon the Dutch, through the instrumentality of +Alva, are as notorious to the world as are those to which the Huguenots +were subjected by Charles IX. and Louis XIV.; and the spirit of +resistance to arbitrary power, whether ecclesiastical or political, was +branded as by fire upon the hearts of both. + +To colonists of these descriptions were from time to time added numerous +other Protestants, who had fled to Holland, as well after the massacre +of St. Bartholomew as from other and kindred demonstrations of political +and priestly despotism in various parts of Europe, with an infusion of +descendants of the disciples of the Bohemian martyr, John Huss, who, +from the stake to which he had been doomed for his resistance to papal +tyranny, conjured his followers not to put their trust in princes. + +The mass of the early colonists having been sufferers at home, as well +from social and political inequalities as from the heavy hand of power +applied to themselves, having left behind them much that they dreaded +and nothing that they approved in the management of public affairs, were +exposed to no influences that could disincline them to the +establishment of just and equal governments in the land of their +adoption. Nothing could therefore be more natural than that they and +their immediate descendants, made familiar with the wrongs and outrages +practiced on their fathers by absolute tyrants, should have been jealous +of their liberties, and disposed to be rigid in their restrictions upon +the grant and exercise of delegated authority. From this disposition +sprang the principles to which they always adhered in the administration +of public affairs, and in the defense of which they appear to have been +always ready to make any necessary sacrifice. These, on the part of by +far the largest portions of the original colonists and their +descendants, were an insurmountable opposition to hereditary political +power in any shape and under any circumstances; a suspicious +watchfulness of all official authority, proportioned to their knowledge +of its liability to be abused; a consequent indisposition to concede +more than was indispensable to good government; the establishment of a +certain, and, as they called it, a swift responsibility for the exercise +of that which was granted; an habitual distrust, exhibited on various +occasions in their history, of every offer of special privileges by +government, and an unwillingness to confer the power to grant them,--the +former springing from suspicion that they were designed to impair their +independence, and the latter from conviction, fully justified by +experience, that such a power will always end in favoritism; and an +early and strong appreciation of the value of union among themselves and +between the colonies, originating in the necessity for their protection +against the savages, and kept alive by perpetual machinations from the +mother country to weaken and restrict their freedom. + +These and kindred feelings and principles were, as I have said, natural +to men whose antecedents, as well as those of their ancestors, had been +such as I have described; and they remained throughout the prevailing +features of colonial politics. They were not only the views of men +prominent in their respective communities, but the matured convictions +of the masses in respect to the line of policy necessary to their +welfare, and therefore the more likely to be perpetuated, for it has +been well and truly said, that "it is the masses alone that live." These +opinions might occasionally and for a season lie dormant, or be made to +yield to power, but neither corruption nor force could eradicate them. +With occasional but brief intermissions, they controlled the action of +the colonial legislatures; were embraced by a majority of the signers of +the Declaration of Independence; directed the course of the +Revolutionary Congress as well as that of the Government of the +Confederation subsequent to the recognition of our Independence, and +were in truth always the real sentiments of a majority of the people. + +It will be hereafter seen when they were for a season rendered +powerless, and when and how their control over the action of the +government was restored. + +The materials for tracing the action of the public mind, and the +proceedings of public bodies during the early periods of our history, +are, in comparison with those applicable to modern times, quite +imperfect. But aided by the facts which the historians of our day, with +great industry and in most cases with equal fidelity, have drawn from +oblivion, and still more by the recent very general publication of the +papers of eminent deceased statesmen, the work has become less +difficult. + +The fidelity of the Puritans to their well-known principles in respect +to hereditary power, was soon exposed to a severe trial. During the +residence of Sir Henry Vane in the Colony of Massachusetts, several +English peers, induced by a desire to remove to that colony and to make +it their place of permanent residence, offered to do so if changes could +be effected in its government, by which the General Court should be +divided into two bodies, and their hereditary right to seats in the +upper branch allowed to them. Strong as was the wish of the colonists +for the acquisition of those distinguished men, they yet declined a +compliance with their wishes. All that they could be induced to allow +was a life-tenure, and they actually made some appointments of that +character; but of this they soon repented, and attached to the offices +held by that tenure a condition which made the concession nugatory by +making it valueless. It is perhaps not assuming too much to suppose that +the regret they experienced at this momentary forgetfulness of their +principles--a regret exhibited in various ways--had no small influence +in inducing them to limit the terms of offices in the New England States +to very short periods, as is still the custom there. + +Similar conduct and feeling were disclosed by the colonists on every +occasion that presented itself for their display, but the necessity for +their exhibition was in a great measure superseded by the Declaration of +Independence and the war that succeeded, during the continuance of which +sentiments favorable to hereditary power were regarded by the country as +crimes to be punished. + +Our Independence was scarcely established when a circumstance occurred +which exhibited in a very striking manner the fixed aversion of the +great body of the people to hereditary distinctions. + +The officers of the army, desirous of perpetuating the memory of the +relations of respect and friendship which had grown up among them during +the trying and momentous scenes through which they had passed, +established, in May, 1783, the "Society of the Cincinnati," and made +the honor of membership hereditary. It has not appeared that General +Washington was consulted upon the subject in the first instance, but +conscious of the purity of his own motives, and confiding fully in those +of his military associates, he allowed his name to be placed at the head +of the list of members and consented to be its president. + +The principle of hereditary distinctions could not well have been placed +before the people in a less exceptionable form, and yet there were but +few occurrences during the war by which the public mind was so deeply +excited as that by which the officers intended to grace the closing +scenes of their meritorious career. The measure was assailed in all the +forms in which an offended public opinion usually finds vent. In +addition to able and eloquent attacks from American pens, the movement +was severely criticised in a pamphlet published in France and written by +Mirabeau, entitled, "Thoughts on the Order of Cincinnatus." + +General Washington informed himself of the extent to which the subject +was agitating the public mind, and, justly alarmed at the consequences +it might produce, determined to do all in his power to arrest its +progress. He wrote to Mr. Jefferson in April, 1784, asking his opinion +and the probable views of Congress (of which Mr. Jefferson was a member) +upon the subject, and his advice in respect to the most eligible +measures to be adopted by the society at their next meeting, which was +to be held in the ensuing month of May. This letter does not appear in +the published writings of Washington, but an extract from it is given by +Mr. Sparks, from which and from Jefferson's reply its contents as stated +are gathered. Mr. Jefferson's answer, containing an unreserved +communication of his opinions in the matter, may be found in Vol. I. of +his Correspondence. He stated at length the objections that were made +to the society, the unfriendliness of Congress to it, and added, in +conclusion, that if, rather than decide themselves upon the best course +to be pursued, the members should, at their approaching meeting, refer +the question to Congress, such a reference would "infallibly produce a +recommendation of total discontinuance." + +General Washington attended the meeting in May, and proposed several +changes in the constitution, and among them, in his own words, taken by +Mr. Sparks from memoranda in his own handwriting, "to discontinue the +hereditary part in all its connections, absolutely, without any +substitution which can be construed into concealment or a change of +ground only, for this would, in my opinion, increase rather than allay +suspicion." This amendment, and others having a similar bearing, were +adopted. + +In Mr. Jefferson's letter to myself, accompanying this volume,[2] to +which, as it was prepared with great care, and avowedly designed "to +throw light on history and to recall that into the path of truth," I +shall have frequent occasion to refer, will be found a highly +interesting account of what took place between himself and General +Washington, on his way to the meeting in Philadelphia, and on his +return, in May, 1784. + + [2] See Appendix. + +Some of the State societies rejected these modifications _in toto_, and +others only agreed to them partially. The agitation of the subject was +thus continued for several years, and as late as 1787 no State had yet +so far yielded its prejudices as to grant the charter for which the +constitution of the society made it the duty of the State meetings to +apply. Whatever opinion may at this day be formed in regard to the +sufficiency of the reasons for the alarm which this transaction +produced, it cannot be doubted that the proceedings in regard to it +afford strong proof that there was, down to the spring of 1787, a +settled aversion in the minds of a majority of the people to any measure +or course of measures which were indicative of the slightest desire to +return in any degree to the system which they had overthrown; and that +as early as 1783 strong suspicion existed that such desires were +concealed in the minds of many who had previously stood faithfully by +the country in all its perils. + +The intense hostility of the colonists and their successors to +monarchical institutions, and the recollection of the cruelties +inflicted upon them and upon their predecessors under the authority of +kings, had produced a determined repugnance on their part to the +concentration of power in the hands of single magistrates. Their minds +had become thoroughly impressed with a conviction that the disposition +to abuse power by those who were intrusted with it was not only inherent +and invariable, but incurable, and that it was therefore unwise to grant +more than was actually indispensable to the management of public +affairs. At no period anterior to the adoption of the present +Constitution, could a majority be obtained in Congress for the creation +of an executive branch of the Government, or an impression be made upon +the public mind favorable to such a measure. The inconveniences +experienced from a want of it during a protracted war, and which were +again encountered in the public service after the recognition of our +independence, were not sufficient to overcome this repugnance. The +tenacity with which they adhered to an equal representation and +influence for the colonies before, and for the States after, the +Declaration of Independence, in the confederacies and governments they +formed, sprang from like considerations. They could not be brought to +believe that a State, to which was allowed a greater power than was +reserved to its confederates, could be restrained from the ultimate +exercise of her superior power to depress her smaller confederates and +to elevate herself. + +Proofs of the existence and force of these opinions are spread through +every portion of our early history. + +In 1643 the New England Colonies, with the exception of those "who ran a +different course" from the Puritans, entered into a Confederacy. Its +avowed design was the better advancement of their general interests, but +its real object was to provide greater security against the savages by +whom they were menaced. It was called the "United Colonies of New +England." The plan was for a season defeated, because Massachusetts +claimed more power than she was willing to concede to the other +colonies; but it was finally established upon principles of perfect +equality, no more power or influence being conceded to Massachusetts, by +far the largest, than to New Haven, the smallest colony. The management +of affairs was intrusted to commissioners, of which each colony had two, +but no executive power was conferred upon them. They might deliberate +and recommend, but the colonies alone could carry their recommendations +into effect. This Confederacy endured for nearly half a century, and +worked well. + +In 1755 a convention of delegates from the colonies was held at Albany, +under the stimulus of French encroachments, and a plan of union, drawn +up by Dr. Franklin, was agreed upon and submitted to the colonies for +their approval. The plan, as was to be expected from the character of +its author, distributed the powers of the government between the people +and the prerogatives of the Crown, much more favorably to the popular +side than it would seem the latter might, in the then condition of +things, have reasonably hoped for. Still the attachments of the +colonists to their local governments, and, above all, their distrust and +dread of a central government, which was provided for, were sufficient +to deprive the plan of their favor, and to cause its ultimate +abandonment. + +The privilege of "Government within themselves," as "their undoubted +right in the sight of God and man," and "to be governed by rulers of +their own choosing and laws of their own making," were from the +beginning objects of absorbing solicitude with the colonists and their +Revolutionary successors. + +The principles and sentiments I have attempted to define, which had +sprung up at the earliest period in the colonies, and had grown with +their growth and strengthened with their strength, and in explanation of +which I have referred to a few of the many illustrations with which +their history abounds, were doubtless those also of a great majority of +the Whigs of the Revolution, in whose breasts was not wanting the +feeling which rarely fails to be seen in those political divisions that +lead to civil war,--a thorough antagonism to the general opinions, as +well as to the particular policy of the power or party opposed; but it +is equally true that those were far from being the principles or +feelings of all by whose efforts the Revolution was achieved. A numerous +portion of the Whigs of the Revolution, many of them greatly +distinguished for their talents, high characters, and great public +services, neither concurred in the principles nor sympathized with the +feelings I have described, but were in a great measure driven by other +considerations to take active parts in the struggle. The number thus +influenced was, fortunately for the result of the contest, increased by +specific tyrannical acts, which a prudent government would have avoided, +but which were forced on the ministry and Parliament of the mother +country by the obstinacy and bigotry of the king. Within a year after +his accession to the throne he wound up a series of unnecessary +interferences with the administration of justice in the colonies, by +changing the tenure of office, which had till that period prevailed in +relation to the colonial judges, from that of good behavior to that of +the will and pleasure of the Crown. By thus using his prerogative to +create a distinction in different parts of the realm degrading to the +colonies, he left the colonial lawyers no other course consistent with +self-respect, to say nothing of patriotism, than to unite with those +engaged in other pursuits in an effort to overthrow a government capable +of such practices. While subjecting the legal profession to such +humiliating proofs of the royal displeasure, his government commenced +its assaults upon that portion of his subjects engaged in commerce. His +indignation against those who scouted the doctrine of the British +Constitution, "that the king can do no wrong," was intense and +unappeasable in proportion to their presumed intelligence. It was in +this spirit that he appears to have selected judges, professional men, +and merchants, as special objects of his wrath, and having exerted his +power against the first two classes, he turned his attention toward the +latter. + +The Navigation Acts, as they stood at the period of his accession, had +been framed in the illiberal and selfish spirit which characterized the +legislation of the age. But though they had proved injurious to the +trade of the colonies, and humiliating to the colonial merchants, in +consequence of the extent to which they made their interests subservient +to those of the mother country, yet their prejudicial effects had in +neither respect been fully developed, in consequence of the remissness +which had prevailed in their execution. This had in a great degree been +occasioned by illicit contrivances between the colonists engaged in +trade and navigation and the officers of government stationed in the +colonies. A vigorous execution of the existing laws not only was +determined upon, but new acts were passed imposing additional +restrictions, and superadding cumulative penalties upon those who +disregarded them. To enforce this vindictive policy the Government +resorted to a measure at once the most arbitrary and odious of any that +had ever been known to the public service,--that of "Writs of +Assistance,"--and converted the army and navy into a police +establishment to aid in the detection and punishment of the colonial +offenders. + +By thus giving vent to his persecuting spirit--a spirit always blind to +its own interests--this infatuated Prince drove into the front rank of +the Revolution two classes of the colonists who were, from the nature of +their pursuits, least likely to embark in popular outbreaks, and most +inclined to favor a strong government,--classes which are usually +caressed by more sagacious rulers, and which had been so here before the +reign of George III. All orders of the colonists, save a few favorites, +were by these and similar means united, as a band of brothers, in a +movement such as the world had never before, and has never since seen, +for the overthrow of a government by which they were so sorely +oppressed. + +This union was in other respects composed of very discordant materials. +It consisted, on the one hand, of men and the descendants of men on +whose hearts the fires of persecution had burned a hatred of royalty too +deep to be erased and too zealous to be trifled with; of men who were at +the same time too conversant with human nature to allow themselves to +believe that the love of power and the proneness to its abuse were +confined to its hereditary possessors, and who were therefore anxious to +restrict grants of authority to their public functionaries to the lowest +point consistent with good government, and to subject what they did +grant to the most stringent responsibilities. They continued, also, to +cherish the same preference for their local organizations, and to +entertain the same distrust of an overshadowing central government, for +which the great body of the people had long been distinguished. They +were men whose highest ambition and desire for themselves and the +country was that it should have a plain, simple, and cheap government +for the management of the affairs of the Confederacy, republican in its +construction and democratic in its spirit,--a government that should, as +far as practicable, be deprived of the power of creating artificial +distinctions in society, and of corrupting and thus subverting the +independence of the people by the possession of a redundant patronage. +Such a government had long been the subject of their meditations, and +they braved the hazards and encountered the hardships of the +Revolutionary contest for the opportunity of establishing it. + +The Revolutionary brotherhood by which the recognition of our +Independence was enforced, contained, on the other hand, men respectable +in numbers, and distinguished by talent, public service, and high social +position, who dissented from many (I may say from most) of these views, +and who regarded them as Utopian in themselves, or as too contracted for +the exigencies of the public service. + +This difference in the opinions of men who had been engaged in such a +contest was all but unavoidable, and was never absent from any political +struggle of sufficient importance to be compared with it. It results, +besides those which have been indicated as peculiar to our own condition +and history, from simple but potent causes of universal operation, such +as diversities in social condition, in education, in the influence and +tendencies of previous pursuits, and in individual character and +temperament, producing diversities of views on such occasions. + +Although an aversion to royalty and opposition to hereditary government +in any form, were sentiments that pervaded the masses and exercised a +controlling influence in the Revolution, there were not a few, of the +character I have described, who, though they doubtless did not at the +moment design the reintegration of those institutions after the +overthrow of the actual Government, could yet contemplate, without great +revulsion of feeling, their ultimate establishment in this country. +Prompt to resist tyranny in any shape, and stung by the oppressions +practiced upon the colonies by the British Government, they hesitated +not to peril their lives for its subversion here, whilst theoretically +they not only tolerated its form and constitution, but regarded them as +the best that could be devised to promote the welfare and to secure the +happiness of mankind. Of the existence of this opinion on the part of +many sincere friends and able advocates of the Revolutionary cause, in +every stage of the contest and for years after its close, we have +indubitable evidence. I will notice a few cases of this description, on +account of the influence exerted on the formation of political parties +by the knowledge of the existence of such opinions, and by the +suspicions, perhaps unjust, and in some respects certainly so, as to the +extent to which those who held them were willing to carry them out. In +so doing, it is by no means my design to cast reproach upon the memories +of the great men who entertained them, and who stood by their country in +her severest extremity, and established the highest claims to her +gratitude and favor. + +No ingenuous mind can doubt that a large majority of the Whigs were +opposed to the substitution of a government similar either in form or +spirit to that from which they had emancipated themselves. Our +Revolutionary creed was, "That all men are created equal; that they are +endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among +these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure +these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just +powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of +government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the +people to alter and abolish it, and to institute a new government, +laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in +such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and +happiness." + +Under such a creed all were entitled as of right to a perfect freedom of +choice in regard to the character of the new government. Neither for the +formation of their opinions, however erroneous these may have been, nor +for the maintenance of them by lawful means, did any subject themselves +to just reproach, or to other forfeiture than perhaps a loss of the +confidence of those who thought differently. + +James Otis, Stephen Hopkins, John Adams, Gouverneur Morris, and +Alexander Hamilton, may be selected from many others as representatives +of the principles of that class to which I have referred as dissenting +from the popular or preponderating ideas of the time. + +I select them the more readily from a desire to avoid mistakes, as they +were possessed of temperaments too sanguine and too fearless to be +deterred from advancing openly opinions they honestly entertained, by +their unpopularity. + +There were certainly not many individuals, if there was one, who did +more to set the ball of the Revolution in motion than James Otis; and if +his career had not been cut short by the hand of violence he would have +taken high rank among the great and good men who survived the struggle. +His speech against the issuing of the Writs of Assistance had an effect +corresponding to those of Patrick Henry. Yet this highly gifted man, +whose patriotic spirit was sufficiently aroused by the oppressions of +the mother country, while yet in their incipiency, to induce him to +peril his life in acts of resistance, was an enthusiastic admirer of the +principles of the English system, and honestly believed, as he said, +"that the British Constitution came nearest the idea of perfection of +any that had been reduced to practice." + +The patriotic Hopkins, one of the Rhode Island Representatives in the +General Congress, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, +wrote--and that colony authoritatively published its concurrence in the +declaration--that "The glorious Constitution of Great Britain is the +best that ever existed among men." + +Gouverneur Morris's unyielding hostility to democratic principles, and +his preference for aristocratic and monarchical institutions, were often +exhibited and unreservedly avowed, as well on the floor of the Federal +Convention as elsewhere, and have become familiar among his countrymen +as household words. There were not many, if indeed there was a single +one of his contemporaries, who went beyond him in hostility to the State +governments. "State attachments and State importance," said he in the +Federal Convention, "have been the bane of this country! We cannot +annihilate them, but we may, perhaps, take out the teeth of the +serpents." Such as were his principles at the commencement of his career +they remained to the close of his life. + +But the opinions of John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, from their larger +agency in the politics of the country, in the administration of its +government, and in the actual formation of parties, are of still greater +importance. A full exposition of these, beyond the single point upon +which there existed the greatest jealousy at the period at which we have +now arrived,--that of their preference for the English system,--will be +best postponed until we come to consider the times and occasions which +were presented for an ampler display of them. I will, therefore, only +refer at this place to the contents of a statement prepared and signed +by Thomas Jefferson, in February, 1818, and designed to explain a +portion of his writings. In this he says, among other things: "But +Hamilton was not only a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on +corruption. In proof of this I will relate an anecdote for the truth of +which I attest the God who made me. Before the President set out upon +his Southern tour, in April, 1791, he addressed a letter of the 4th of +that month, from Mount Vernon, to the Secretaries of State, Treasury, +and War, desiring that if any serious and important cases should arise +during his absence they would consult and act on them, and he requested +that the Vice-President should also be consulted. This was the only +occasion on which that officer was ever requested to take part in a +Cabinet question. Some occasion for consultation arising, I invited +those gentlemen (and the Attorney-General, as well as I remember) to +dine with me, in order to confer on the subject. After the cloth was +removed, and our question argued and dismissed, conversation began on +other matters, and by some circumstance was led to the British +Constitution, on which Mr. Adams observed,--'Purge that Constitution of +its corruption and give to its popular branch equality of +representation, and it would become the most perfect Constitution ever +devised by the wit of man.' Hamilton paused and said,--'Purge it of its +corruptions and give to its popular branch equality of representation, +and it would become an impracticable government: as it stands at +present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most perfect which +ever existed.'" + +The solemn responsibility under which this statement was made, the high +character of its author, the time when it was recorded,--after one of +the principal parties had passed from earth, and the two remaining were +on the brink of the grave; when the passions excited by personal and +political rivalry had died away, and friendly relations had been +restored between the survivors,--would of themselves be sufficient to +establish its accuracy, even if its description of the opinions of Adams +and Hamilton had not been, as it will be seen that they were, abundantly +confirmed as well by the speeches and writings of the parties themselves +as by the recorded declarations of associates and friends who possessed +the best opportunities to become acquainted with their real sentiments. + +The natural presumption is--and there are many facts to prove its +correctness--that opinions with which these most prominent leaders were +so deeply imbued, had, to a very considerable extent at least, been +diffused throughout the ranks of their followers. + +The effects of this discordance on so many and such vital points in the +political doctrines and feelings of those by whom the Revolution had +been achieved, were postponed by the existence of the war; but when that +restraint was removed by the recognition of our Independence they broke +forth unavoidably, and were soon developed in the formation of political +parties. + +The Congress of the Confederation, and--from the dependence of the +Federal Government upon the cooperation of the States for the +performance of its most important duties--the State legislatures, as +well as the public press, became the theatres for the display of these +conflicting opinions. + +The so-called Government of the Confederation was little else than an +alliance between the States--a federal league and compact, the terms of +which were set forth in the Articles of Confederation. Besides a +control over questions of Peace and War, its powers and duties were +chiefly advisory, and dependent for their execution upon the cooperation +of the States. A federal system so defective was justly held responsible +for a large share of the public and private embarrassments that existed +at, or arose after, the termination of the Revolutionary contest. It was +also, as was natural, charged in some degree with those which were, in +truth, unavoidable consequences of a seven years' war, and which would +have existed under any system. It is not surprising, therefore, that a +party bent upon its overthrow should have arisen as soon as the public +mind was by the course of events brought to a proper state to consider +the subject. Of this party Alexander Hamilton became the leader, and its +immediate objects were, of course, very soon frankly developed. These +were in the first instance to divest the State governments of certain +powers, and to confer them upon Congress, the possession of which by the +Federal head they deemed indispensable to the exigencies of the public +service, with the intention of following up this step by an attempt to +abrogate the Articles of Confederation, and to substitute for that +system an independent and effective Federal Government, composed of +executive, legislative, and judicial departments. In respect to the +powers to be given to the new Government, and to its construction +otherwise, there doubtless existed some differences of opinion among the +members of this party; but all agreed that it should be what in the +language of the day was called a "strong government." There may not have +been entire harmony among them in regard to the expediency and +practicability of attempting it, but I do not think there is reasonable +ground to doubt that most of them desired a virtual consolidation of the +two systems--Federal and State. A few were, from an early period, +suspected by those who differed from them, and who became their +opponents, of desiring to return to the English system, and this +suspicion, doubtless, contributed to make the latter more impracticable +than they might otherwise have been. + +The political feelings which lay nearest to the hearts of the great body +of the people, as well during our colonial condition as in the States +after the declaration and establishment of Independence, and of the +strength of which I have referred to such striking and oft-repeated +illustrations, were those of veneration and affection for their local +governments as safeguards of their liberties and adequate to most of +their wants; endeared to them as their refuge from the persecutions of +arbitrary power, and hallowed by the perils and triumphs of the +Revolution. Allied to these feelings, and nearly co-extensive with them +in point of duration, was a distrust, at both periods, on the part of +the masses, of what they called an overshadowing general government. + +When to these sources of opposition to the views of the party which had +arrayed itself against the government of the Confederation is added the +natural and deeply seated hostility of those who dissented from its +views in respect to hereditary government in any form, and the suspicion +of a reserved preference for such, or at least for kindred institutions, +we cannot be at a loss in accounting for the origin of the first two +great parties which sprang up and divided the country so soon after the +establishment of our Independence. + +But the names by which these parties were distinguished are, it must be +admitted, not so intelligible. The name of Anti-Federalists was +strangely enough given by their opponents to those who advocated the +continuance of the Union upon the principles which prevailed in its +establishment, and according to which it was regarded as a Federal +League or Alliance of Free States, upon equal terms, founded upon a +compact (the Articles of Confederation) by which its conditions were +regulated,--to be represented by a general Congress, authorized to +consider and decide all questions appertaining to the interests of the +alliance and committed to its charge, without power either to act upon +the people directly or to apply force to the States, or otherwise to +compel a compliance with its decrees, and without any guarantee for +their execution other than the good faith of the parties to the compact. +On the other hand the name of Federalists was assumed, and, what is +still more extraordinary, retained by those who desired to reduce the +State governments, by the conjunction of which the Federal Union had +been formed, to the condition of corporations to be intrusted with the +performance of those offices only for the discharge of which a new +general government might think them the appropriate functionaries; to +convert the States, not perhaps in name, but practically and +substantially, into one consolidated body politic, and to establish over +it a government which should, at the least, be rendered independent and +effective by the possession of ample powers to devise, adopt, and +execute such measures as it might deem best adapted to common defense +and general welfare. + +That this was a signal perversion of the true relation between party +names and party objects can scarcely be denied. Yet we who have, in +later days, witnessed the caprices in respect to party names to which +the public mind has been occasionally subjected, and the facility with +which one party has, through its superior address or its greater +activity, succeeded in attaching to its adversary an unsuitable and +unwelcome name, have not as much reason to be surprised at that +perversion as had the men of that day who were subjected to it. + +The motive which operated in thus denying to men whose principles were +federal the name which indicated them, and in giving it to their +opponents, must be looked for in the fact that federal principles were +at that time favored by the mass of the people. This was well understood +at the time, and was made still more apparent by the circumstance that +those who really adhered to them, though compelled by the superior +address of their adversaries to act under the name of Anti-Federalists, +maintained their ascendancy in the government of the Confederation to +its close. + +Those who require further proof of the truth of this position beyond +what results from a mere statement of the principles contended for by +the respective parties, will find it fully sustained by definitions of +Gouverneur Morris and James Madison. (2 Madison _Papers_, pp. 747-8, and +893.) Mr. Morris explained the distinction between a _federal_ and a +_national_ supreme government,--the former being a mere compact resting +on the good faith of the parties, the latter having a complete and +_compulsive_ operation. Mr. Madison, in the debate on the propositions +of Mr. Patterson, which constituted the plan of the Anti-Federalists, +and which were rejected by a vote of seven States to three,--one +(Maryland) divided,--said: "Much stress has been laid by some gentlemen +on the want of power in the Convention to propose any other than a +_federal_ plan.... Neither of the characteristics of a federal plan +would support this objection. One characteristic was that in a _federal_ +government the power was exercised, not on the people _individually_, +but on the people _collectively_, on the _States_. The other +characteristic was that a _federal_ government derived its appointments, +not immediately from the people, but from the States which they +respectively composed." + +It cannot be difficult to decide which of these parties was, in truth, +_federal_, and which _anti-federal_, according to these authentic +definitions of a federal government.[3] + + [3] This contradiction between names and principles was obvious even + to intelligent foreigners. The French minister Fauchet, in his + famous despatch to his government (the publication of which worked + the downfall of Edmund Randolph, Washington's Secretary of State) + alluding to political parties in America, speaks of the whimsical + contrast between their names, Federal and Anti-Federal, and their + real opinions;--the former aiming with all their power to annihilate + federalism, while the latter were striving to preserve it. + +Between these parties, thenceforth distinguished by the misnomers of +Federalists and Anti-Federalists, there was, from the close of the war +to the establishment of the present government, an uninterrupted +succession of partisan conflicts, in which the whole country +participated. They grew, for the most part, out of propositions to take +from the State governments the rights of regulating commerce and of +levying and collecting impost duties, and for the call of a Convention +to revise the Articles of Confederation. The first two of these +propositions were introduced by the Federalists, and for six years +vigorously supported by their party, with Hamilton at its head; and, +although advocated by Madison whilst he was in Congress, such was the +strength of the Anti-Federal party in that body and in the States that +they were not able to carry either. Advances were occasionally made in +respect to imposts, but these were so restricted as to the officers by +whom the duties should be collected, whether State or Federal, and in +regard to the application of the money when collected, that the movers +of the principal measure considered its value so much impaired that they +declined to push it further under the existing circumstances. + +A distrust of the motives of the Federal leaders, and an apprehension +that they designed to employ the powers asked for in the establishment +of a strong and absorbing general government, capable of becoming, and +which the Anti-Federalists feared would, in the progress of time, +become, disposed to practice a tyranny upon the people, as oppressive as +that from which the Revolution had relieved them, with the suspicion +already referred to, that many would not be willing to stop at that +point, were doubtless the true causes of these otherwise unaccountable +failures. The accounts which have been brought down to us of the +proceedings of public bodies, and of appeals to the people, through +different channels, abundantly sustain this assumption. These, in a work +like this, can only be glanced at. + +The grounds taken by the opponents of these measures, and which, backed +by popular suspicions, made them so powerful, were that the views of the +Federalists were rather political than financial,--that they were at +least as solicitous to gratify their well-understood passion for power, +through the adoption of these propositions, as they were to maintain +public credit. Beyond all doubt the belief that the government which the +Federalists wished to create would, whatever it might be called, provide +for the greatest practical extent of irresponsible power, led the +Anti-Federalists not unfrequently to oppose measures which they would +otherwise have supported. + +General Hamilton's speech, most able as it was, went far to strengthen +these impressions. The debate commenced on the 28th, and was continued +to the 30th January, 1783, and was throughout one of great power. It +resulted in the adoption, with slight amendments, of a proposition, +submitted and vigorously supported by Mr. Madison, "That it is the +opinion of Congress that the establishment of permanent and adequate +funds to operate generally throughout the United States, is +indispensably necessary for doing complete justice to the creditors of +the United States, for restoring public credit, and for providing for +the future exigencies of the war." Although this proposition finally +passed without a dissenting vote, yet when an attempt was made to carry +it into effect by an impost--the only way in which it was attempted--the +measure was defeated, as has been before remarked, by restrictions in +regard to the officers by whom it should be collected, and to the +application of the money. In the course of his speech General Hamilton +signified, as an additional reason why the impost ought to be collected +by officers under the appointment of Congress, "that as the energy of +the Federal Government was evidently short of the degree necessary for +pervading and uniting the States, it was expedient to introduce the +influence of officers deriving their emoluments from, and consequently +interested in supporting the power of Congress." + +Upon this Mr. Madison, in a note, observes: "This remark was imprudent +and injudicious to the cause which it was meant to serve. This influence +was the very source of jealousy which rendered the States averse to a +revenue under the collection as well as appropriation of Congress. All +the members of Congress who concurred in any degree with the States in +this jealousy, smiled at the disclosure. Mr. Bland, and still more Mr. +Lee, who were of this number, took notice in private conversation that +Mr. Hamilton had let out the secret."[4] + + [4] 1 Madison _Papers_, 291. + +It is scarcely possible, at this distant day, to appreciate the terror +of irresponsible and arbitrary power which had been impressed upon the +minds of men who had themselves suffered from its excesses, or had +witnessed the cruelties it had inflicted on others, or whose fathers had +been victims of its crimes. Even Mr. Jefferson, who differed from the +Anti-Federalists in respect to these questions, as I shall hereafter +have occasion to show, though he sympathized with them in their general +feelings, in a letter to Mr. Madison in December, 1787, from Paris, upon +the subject of the Constitution, did not hesitate to say, "I own I am +not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always +oppressive."[5] + + [5] 2 Jefferson's _Correspondence_, 276. + +Similar feelings were exhibited by Massachusetts in 1785. That leading +State in the confederacy was, during the whole of this period, strongly +imbued with the feelings of the misnamed Anti-Federal party. This was in +no small degree owing to the talents, zeal, and activity displayed in +their behalf by Samuel Adams and John Hancock, two of the three persons +(John Adams having been the third), who were excepted by the British +Government from the offer of pardon to its rebellious subjects. Hancock +was a leading merchant and a zealous Revolutionary patriot, who had the +honor of placing his name first to the Declaration of Independence, and +the higher honor of sustaining the contest which it provoked to its +close with inflexible firmness and at unusual risks, growing out of his +large interests in commerce. Samuel Adams was equal to any man of his +day in intelligence, integrity, and patriotism. He was among the very +first who embraced the Revolution in the sense which it finally +assumed,--that of entire separation from the British Crown,--and he +supported the principles upon which it was founded, as well during the +conflict as for the residue of his long life, with great ability and +unsurpassed devotion. Whilst many of his associates, not less sincere +than himself in resistance to the despotic acts of the mother country, +could yet express their admiration of the English system and were +consequently inclined to limit their efforts to a redress of temporary +grievances, he at the earliest period avowed his hostility to kingly +government, and rallied around himself the advocates for an entire +separation, most of whom became with him early and prominent members of +the Anti-Federal party. + +The legislature of Massachusetts, momentarily diverted from the +Anti-Federal track by influences which will be noticed in another place, +adopted a resolution urging Congress to recommend a convention of the +States "to revise the Confederation, and to report how far it may be +necessary in their opinion to alter and enlarge the same, in order to +secure and perpetuate the primary objects of the Union." Governor +Bowdoin, who had recommended the measure to the legislature in his +message, addressed a letter to Congress including the resolution, and +sent it to the delegates of the State to be presented by them. The +delegates suspended its delivery, and assigned their reasons for doing +so in a letter dated September 3, 1785, addressed to the Governor, with +a request that it should be laid before the legislature. From this +letter, which is ably written and occupies throughout Anti-Federal +ground, I make the following extracts:--"The great object of the +Revolution was the establishment of good government, and each of the +States, in forming their own as well as the Federal Constitution, have +adopted republican principles. Notwithstanding this, plans have been +artfully laid and vigorously pursued, which, had they been successful, +we think would have inevitably changed our republican governments into +baleful aristocracies. These plans are frustrated, but the same spirit +remains in their abettors; and the institution of Cincinnati, honorable +and beneficent as the views may have been of the officers who composed +it, we fear, if not totally abolished, will have the same tendency.... +'More power in Congress,' has been the cry from all quarters, but +especially of those whose views, not being confined to a government +that will best promote the happiness of the people, are extended to one +that will afford lucrative employments, civil and military. Such a +government is an aristocracy, which would require a standing army and a +numerous train of pensioners and placemen to prop and support its +exalted administration. To recommend one's self to such an +administration would be to secure an establishment for life, and at the +same time to provide for his posterity. These are pleasing prospects +which republican governments do not afford, and it is not to be wondered +at that many persons of elevated views and idle habits in these States +are desirous of the change. We are for increasing the power of Congress +as far as it will promote the happiness of the people; but at the same +time, are clearly of opinion that every measure should be avoided which +would strengthen the hands of the enemies to free government, and that +an administration of the present Confederation, with all its +inconveniences, is preferable to the risk of general dissensions and +animosities, which may approach to anarchy and prepare the way to a +ruinous system of government." + +This letter of the delegates was laid before the legislature at their +next session, and produced a vote annulling the resolution recommending +a convention. The letter was signed by Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Holton, +and Rufus King. Mr. King, in the course of the following year, married +Miss Alsop, the only child of John Alsop, a wealthy merchant of New +York, and after having represented his native State with credit in the +Federal Convention of 1787, moved to that city; was appointed one of the +first senators in Congress from the State of New York (General Schuyler +being the other); was the friend and associate of Hamilton, Gouverneur +Morris, and Jay, and became, and continued for many years, a prominent +member of the Federal party. + +Every step that was taken toward a convention was regarded with +distrust,--a distrust founded on a prevalent apprehension that the +talented and, as was believed, ambitious men who would get the control +of it, would in some way defeat those republican principles for the +right to establish which the country had made such great sacrifices. + +The Commercial Convention, representing five States, which originated in +Virginia and met at Annapolis, and by which the movement that resulted +in the present Constitution was commenced, permitted Hamilton to draw up +their Address to the other States, which was also to be laid before +Congress; but insisted on giving a shape to their proposition which +would confine the Federal Convention within narrow bounds. They did this +in deference to the well understood sentiment of the country, and as the +only course, in their opinion, by which a convention could be obtained; +and accordingly they proposed "That a convention should be called to +meet at Philadelphia in May next, to devise such further provisions as +should appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the +Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and to +report such an act for that purpose to the United States in Congress +assembled, as _when agreed to by them, and afterwards confirmed by the +legislatures of every State_, will effectually provide for the same."[6] + + [6] See _Address_; 2 Madison, 698. Not more than one, if one, of the + five States was fully in favor of a Convention. + +The final action of Congress upon the subject, a majority of which +entertained similar views, consisted of a resolution, introduced by the +delegates from Massachusetts, declaring it to be the opinion of Congress +that a convention should be held at the time and place named by the +Commissioners who met at Annapolis, "for _the sole and express purpose_ +of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and +the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as +shall, _when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States_, render +the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and +the preservation of the Union."[7] + + [7] _Journals_ of that Congress, Vol. IV. p. 724. + +But for the sanction thus given to the measure by Congress no convention +would have been held--at least none at that time. Washington, as appears +from his Correspondence, would not have deemed a convention legal +without it, and would not have attended;[8] and his example, added to +the hesitation of most of the States, and the decided opposition of some +of them, would have been sufficient to put a stop to the project. + + [8] Sparks's _Washington_, Vol. IX.; Notes, pp. 237-9. + +It was under such circumstances that the Convention assembled. Its +proceedings have become so familiar to the public mind, from the full +publications that have been made of them, and the extent to which they +have been reviewed, as to render it unnecessary to go very far into +their details. The Anti-Federal plan was introduced by Mr. Patterson, of +New Jersey, more in obedience to the ascertained wishes of his +constituents, than in conformity with his particular views. It proposed +an amendment of the Articles of Confederation for the construction of +executive and judicial departments in the federal government; to make +its laws and treaties the supreme law of the land; to increase the +powers of Congress in several important particulars, among which were +the right to levy and collect taxes and imposts, to regulate foreign +commerce and commerce between the States, and to give to the federal +government power to enforce its requisitions upon the States when it +should become necessary,--and to leave the government in other respects +as it stood. + +The plan which Hamilton desired the Convention to propose to the people +and the States, of which he left a copy with Mr. Madison as a permanent +memorial of his opinions,--now published with Mr. Madison's "Papers," +and in the "Life of Hamilton" by his son, and agreeing with each other +in all respects,--consisted, in its most remarkable features, of the +following provisions, viz:-- + +_First:_ The President should hold his office during good behavior, +removable only on conviction upon impeachment for some crime or +misdemeanor; and he should have an absolute negative upon all bills, +resolutions, and acts of Congress about to be passed into a law. + +_Secondly:_ The Senators should hold their offices by the same tenure, +and should have the exclusive power of declaring war. + +_Thirdly:_ The General Government should have the right to appoint the +future Governors of the States, who might hold their offices during good +behavior, and who should have the power to negative all laws about to be +passed by the respective State legislatures, subject to such regulations +as Congress might prescribe, and also to appoint all the militia +officers if Congress should so direct; and, + +_Fourthly:_ Congress should "have power to pass all laws which they +shall judge necessary to the common defense and general welfare of the +Union." + +The first of these plans, which professed to represent the views of the +Anti-Federalists, was rejected by the Convention, after full discussion, +as has been already mentioned, by a vote of seven States to three, one +being divided. Hamilton's scheme was not brought to a vote, nor, except +by himself, made the subject of particular discussion. This course was +obviously induced, in no small degree, by motives of respect for the +feelings of its author. Every body praised his candor and independence, +but the popular opinions in respect to its provisions were too well +understood to allow of any vote, other than his own, being given in its +favor, whatever private sympathy it may have enlisted. + +Fortunately for the country at this, perhaps the most decisive period in +its history, a majority of the Convention, composed of every shade of +opinion, became thoroughly satisfied that a crisis had arrived which +demanded a liberal sacrifice of extreme views. They were convinced that +whilst, on the one hand, no system would stand the slightest chance to +be acceptable to any thing like a majority either of the States or +people, which was designed, or obnoxious to the suspicion of being +designed, to degrade the State governments, or even to impair their +capacities for the successful management of those portions of public +affairs which, under a proper distribution of the powers of government, +would be left under their control, or which was in the smallest degree +calculated to do violence to the well-known feelings of the people upon +the subjects of hereditary or irresponsible power; so, on the other, +there was no room for two opinions in respect to the ruinous +consequences that would, in the then condition of the country, +inevitably result from the failure of a convention, brought together +with so much difficulty, to remedy the manifest defects of the existing +government by suitable and effectual additions and improvements, and to +make a Constitution which would prove satisfactory both to the States +and people. Kept together by this overruling conviction, they entered +upon the construction of the present Constitution. The State governments +had been until that period, in point of fact, the ruling power. The +federal head, from the want of power to act directly upon the people, +or, in a compulsory manner, upon the State authorities, was dependent on +them for the execution of its most important decisions. Though much +depressed by the adverse current of events, it was yet in the State +governments that the pride of power stood relatively at the highest +point. Any attempt, under such circumstances, to humiliate the State +authorities, would inflame the passions of their supporters; but they +might be, perhaps, to a sufficient extent conciliated, and the +Convention prudently adopted this course. Irritating subjects were, with +that view, as far as possible, avoided. Propositions to give to the new +government a direct negative upon the legislation of the States, and to +empower it to appoint their governors and militia officers, which had +produced so much ill blood, were effectually discountenanced. The +sovereignty of the States, to which State pride was so keenly alive, was +not interfered with in respect to the powers of government which were +left in their hands. An impartial and wise division of powers was made +between them and the government proposed to be established. To remove +apprehensions which had been long entertained, and which had sunk deep +in the minds of many, the State authorities as such were allowed a +liberal participation in the first formation, and their cooperation was +made necessary to the subsequent continuance of the new government. The +manner of choosing the electors of President and Vice-President was, +with the same general view, left to the regulation of the State +legislatures exclusively; and when a failure to choose by the electors +should occur--a result then believed likely to happen frequently--the +President was to be chosen by the House of Representatives of the United +States, and, in the performance of that important duty, each State had +reserved to it the right to appear and act in its federal +character--that of a perfect equality with her sister States--whatever +might be the difference in their respective population, territory, or +wealth. The choice of the Senate of the United States was also left +exclusively to the State legislatures. The result of all these +arrangements was, that the Federal Constitution was so constructed as to +put it in the power of a bare majority of the States to bring the +government proposed by it to a peaceable end, without exposing their +citizens to the necessity of resorting to force, by simply withholding +the appointment of electors, or the choice of their Senators, or both. + +No provisions could have been devised better calculated to remove +apprehension and allay jealousy in respect to the new government. They +hit the nail on the head. Although they might not avert the opposition +of excited partisans, they answered the expectations of moderate +men,--of that large class whose paramount object was the relief of the +country as well as their own private affairs from the embarrassments +under which they were suffering, and which were, as usual on such +occasions, attributed altogether to the defects of the existing system. +The question could with great propriety be put to Anti-Federal opponents +(and doubtless was put),--Are you afraid to trust a numerical majority +of the States? If not, they can at short intervals put an end to the new +government if it proves to be as bad as you apprehend. + +Having already, in a spirit of devotion to duty and a hazardous +disregard of responsibility which was made necessary by the occasion, +set aside the instructions of Congress by making a new Constitution, the +Convention pursued a similar course to the end. Instead of reporting the +result of their labors to Congress for its approval and submission to +the States for their unanimous sanction, according to the Articles of +Confederation, as was proposed at Annapolis and provided by Congress in +the act of sanction to the holding of the Convention, that body sent the +instrument it had framed to Congress, not for its approval, but to be by +it submitted to the States and people in the first instance, under a +provision, prescribed by the Convention, that if it was ratified by nine +of the thirteen States it should be binding upon all,--an heroic though +perhaps a lawless act. + +The dangerous condition of the country, and the general opinion that +some decided step was necessary to its safety, added to the imposing +character of the instrument itself, which, though not satisfactory to +Congress, was yet far less objectionable than had been anticipated, and +a general expectation that important amendments rendering it still more +acceptable to the people would follow its ratification, deterred the +national legislature from refusing to comply with the request of the +Convention, notwithstanding its flagrant disregard of congressional +authority. The same considerations should have induced the Anti-Federal +party to acquiesce in the ratification of the Constitution. They should +have looked upon the marked effect of that instrument upon Congress as a +prophetic warning of the danger to which they would expose themselves as +a party by opposing it. But they did not see their duty, or, perhaps, +their interests, in that light; honest in their intentions and obstinate +in their opinions, they opposed the ratification, were defeated, and, as +a party, finally overthrown. + +The Anti-Federal party represented very fairly the ideas and feelings +that prevailed with the masses during the Revolution. These, as we have +described, having been deeply rooted by the persecutions suffered by +Puritan, Huguenot, Hussite, and Dutch ancestors, and, however crude and +unsystematized at first, having been gradually stimulated into maturity +and shape by the persevering injustice of the mother country, became +political opinions of the most tenacious and enduring character. At the +moment of which we are speaking, alarm in respect to the character of +the General Government about to be established, with increased +attachments to those of the States, were predominant feelings in the +Anti-Federal mind, and closed it against a dispassionate consideration +of the Constitution submitted to their choice. The local governments +were entitled to all the regard which had been cherished for them by the +Anti-Federalists and by their political predecessors under the colonial +system; neither were the dangers which threatened them overrated. +Hamilton could not tolerate the idea that they should be continued +otherwise than as corporations, with very limited powers. Morris, in his +usual rough and strong way, was for "drawing their teeth," as I have +already quoted him; and even the temperate Madison was in favor of +giving the General Government a direct negative upon all their laws,--a +proposition which, though not so humiliating as Hamilton's, or so +harshly expressed as that of Morris, would have been far more fatal to +their future usefulness. Standing now on the vantage-ground of +experience, no sensible man can fail to see that the State governments +would have perished under the treatment thus proposed for them, nor can +any such man doubt the immense advantage they have been and still are to +our system. A short reflection upon what has been accomplished through +their agency, and upon what our condition would probably have been if +they had been blotted out of the system, as was virtually desired in +most influential quarters, must satisfy candid and intelligent minds of +the fatal unsoundness of the policy proposed. The States would under it +have been governed as her numerous colonies were governed by Rome, and +a comparison of our present condition with what it must have been under +the satraps of a consolidated federal government, will cause every +patriotic heart to rejoice at our escape from the latter. For that +escape we are largely indebted to the old Anti-Federal party. They stood +out longest and strongest in behalf of the State governments, after the +establishment of our Independence; and although they failed in other +respects, they made impressions upon the public mind which have never +been effaced, and for which we owe them a debt of gratitude. Their +motives, as is usual in political collisions, were misrepresented; they +were spoken of as men of contracted views, of narrow prejudices; and +their preference for the State governments was attributed to the +preponderance they possessed in them, and to a consciousness that their +greatness and power were derived from local prejudices and from their +skill in fomenting them. Hence was inferred their hostility to an +efficient federal government, whose extensive affairs they were +incapable of managing, and in which, consequently, it was alleged that +they would not retain the influence they possessed at home. + +Although I unite fully in condemning the course pursued by the +Anti-Federalists in respect as well to the Constitution as to their +refusal to grant an adequate revenue to the federal head, and the right +to regulate commerce, I regard those imputations which ascribed to them +a readiness to sacrifice the great interests of the country to merely +factious purposes, as the ebullitions of party spleen produced by party +jealousies, as unjust and unfounded as was the charge brought forward by +the old Republican party against Alexander Hamilton of a design to +plunge the country into war with France to subserve the wishes and +interests of England. I do not think there were ten in every hundred of +that party who did not believe that imputation well founded, and most +of them went to their graves without having yielded that conviction. I +came upon the political stage when this matter was only viewed in the +retrospect, and am free to say that I even believed that, if there was +any thing true in the party criminations of the preceding era, this was +so. Judge, then, of my surprise, on discovering from his papers, as well +as from those of some of his contemporaries recently published, that +there was probably no man in the country more sincerely anxious to +prevent a war with France; that he applied his great mind incessantly to +that object; that he was willing, indeed desirous, to send either Mr. +Jefferson or Mr. Madison as one of the commissioners to negotiate with +France, a proposition in respect to which he could not obtain the +concurrence of either Mr. Adams or his cabinet, the latter of whom were +sufficiently prompt to adopt his advice save when it conflicted with +their party prejudices; and that so far from acting on that occasion at +the instigation or to promote the policy of Great Britain, although +entertaining strong--in my opinion too strong--preferences for England +as between her and France, he was, in respect to every thing that +affected the interests of his own country, purely and strictly American. +Of this no man, whose mind is not debauched by prejudice, can entertain +a doubt on reading the papers referred to. + +The imputations upon the motives of the Anti-Federalists were of the +same general stamp and origin. It was too soon for those who were yet +fresh from the self-sacrificing and patriotic struggle on the field of +the Revolution, where they had nobly done their duty, to fall under the +influence of such petty motives as were attributed to them. Like their +opponents, they might and did peril much of their own standing to +further political views of great magnitude which they honestly, if +erroneously, believed would promote the welfare of their country; but +base incentives and merely factious calculations are not predicable of +the times or of the men. + +We should be slow to attribute narrow views to a political party to +whose principal leaders, more than to any other portion of the Whigs, we +owe the great change in the character of our Revolutionary struggle by +which the assertion of Independence was substituted for the demand of a +redress of grievances. + +If the Anti-Federal party had been accused of cherishing morbid and +impracticable ideas on the subject of a general government, the charge +would have come nearer the truth. Many of them had so vivid a +recollection of cruelties practiced upon their fathers, and had +themselves seen and felt so much of the tyranny of the mother country, +as to destroy all hope on their part that political power could be +vested in remote hands, without the certainty of its being abused. +Although they may have been right in respect to the monarchical +preferences of many who were the most zealous for a convention, still +they overrated the danger that such views would be encouraged by that +body, and in their apprehensions of subsequent efforts to establish +monarchical institutions here, they did not sufficiently appreciate an +existing security against the accomplishment of such an object, the +character and adequacy of which shall be hereafter noticed. We have +every reason to believe that they regarded the project of a general +convention as involving, if successful, the fate of republican +principles in this country; and under the influence of feelings of so +sombre a character, their course, as a party, was, it must be admitted, +substantially adverse to any change, content rather to bear the ills +they had than to encounter others of which they knew not the precise +extent, but which they dreaded more. In this they fell behind the +progress of events. + +If our Revolutionary contest had terminated in a compromise with the +mother country, as was for a long time expected, the existing system, +with the amendments which would then have been generally favored, might +have sufficed. It might have answered all the purposes contemplated by +that which Franklin took so much pains to establish in 1755. But when +our country had taken her position among the nations of the earth as a +sovereign and independent power, she acquired rights and incurred +obligations which could not be properly cared for by any agency short of +a well-constructed and efficient general government, and the existing +organization was neither. By an efficient government I do not mean one +capable of absorbing or neutralizing the State authorities, or not fully +responsible for the faithful exercise of the powers conferred upon it, +or possessing more power than was necessary for the discharge of all the +duties assigned to it, but one amply furnished with the ability to +discharge them by its own means. To this end it was necessary that it +should have competent and well organized executive, legislative, and +judicial departments, and at least the power requisite to raise its +necessary revenues from the people directly. To all this the +Anti-Federal party was opposed, and therein it was wrong. The risk of +having exceptionable principles incorporated into the Constitution was +one that had to be encountered at some time, and there were cogent +reasons for meeting it then. The condition of the country, in regard to +its credit and other interests, presented an argument of great urgency +for the necessity of a competent government. But above all other +considerations stood the fact that the Convention had proposed for the +approval of the people and the States a constitution which, when +interpreted according to its plain and obvious meaning, conferred on the +government proposed by it powers fully adequate to the public service, +but none from which danger could be apprehended to any interest. That +this was so is no longer an open question. Time and experience have +demonstrated the error of the Anti-Federalists, who, under the influence +of strong prejudices, although doubtless honestly, thought differently. +No one will now question the devotion of the people, for whose benefit +it was framed, and who are the best judges in the matter, to the +existing system. With full power to alter or abolish it, they have lived +under it for the greater part of a century, without making or desiring +to make any essential alterations in its structure. By the exercise of +those powers only which were plainly given by the Constitution to the +government established by its authority and expressed on its face, in +regard to which there has been no dispute, and which were at the times +of its adoption well understood by those who made and those who adopted +it, our country has prospered and grown to its present greatness. I say +by those powers only, because the spurious interpolations which have +from time to time been attempted have in no instance been productive of +good. + +The Convention was held with closed doors, and the result of its labors +was not known to the public before it was communicated to Congress, nor +the particulars of its proceedings, the votes, resolutions, and +speeches, till many years afterwards. The public mind, and especially +the Anti-Federal portion of it, was impressed by those circumstances, +operating upon long entertained suspicions, with the most unfavorable +anticipations in respect to the character of the instrument that had +been agreed upon. All found it so different from what it was feared by +many that it would be, and so many received it according to its real +merits, that it carried a large preponderance of the public sentiment, +drawn from both parties, to the conclusion that it ought not to be, and +could not with safety be rejected. The reflection of this sentiment was +distinctly seen in the action of Congress. It had given its assent to +the holding of a Convention, without which that body would not have met; +but it had, as we have seen, restricted its action in two most important +points: 1st, that the Convention should limit its action to a revision +of the Articles of Confederation and to suggestions for their +improvement; and, 2d, that its doings should be reported to Congress, to +be submitted to the States, under those Articles which required the +assent of every State to any alteration. The Convention disregarded +both; it sent to Congress a new constitution, regulated its submission +to the States, and decided that the assent of nine of the thirteen +should make it binding upon all. Congress, with its resolutions and +limitations thus set at nought, and without even a protest, did what was +asked of it. Yet the leaders of the Anti-Federal party in the States +determined upon opposition. The course and character of that opposition +indicate that those who embarked in it were conscious of their +approaching defeat. + +In the three largest and most strongly Anti-Federal States, in which the +power of that party, when cordially united, was irresistible, the +Constitution was ratified. It was adopted by the required number of +States, and the fate of the Anti-Federal party, as such, was forever +sealed by the result of the contest in which it had unwisely engaged. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + The Federal Party in Power under the New Constitution--Agency of + Individuals in the Formation and Ratification of the + latter--Prospects of the Opening Administration of the + Government--Unwise Course of the Federal Party--President + Washington--His Peculiar Relations with the People and with + Parties--His first Cabinet--Character of the Differences between + Jefferson and Hamilton--The latter sustained--Hamilton's Position, + Power, and Influence upon the subsequent Course of Parties--His + Monarchical Views--Various Authorities in Relation to the + latter--Fidelity of Washington to the Republican Form of + Government--Importance of correctly Understanding the Extent of + Hamilton's Influence during the Administrations of Washington and + John Adams--Personal and Official Relations between Washington and + Members of his Cabinet--Evidences of the Spread of Monarchical + Views among Officers and Public Men in Washington's Time--His + Steadfast Adherence to the last to the Republican Form--His + Permanent Hold upon the Affections of the People, even while they + repudiated certain Leading Principles of his Administration. + + +The period in our political history to which our inquiry has conducted +us, was one of the greatest interest. The successful effort that had +been made to compel Great Britain to acknowledge our Independence; the +government of the Confederation, and the causes that led to its +abandonment; the grave step taken in a better direction by the formation +and ratification of the new Constitution, with the hopes and fears +excited by the last great movement, were well calculated to impress +profoundly the minds of those who had been actors in such important +scenes. The success of the Federal party in the first election held +under the new Constitution was complete. For the first time since its +organization, that party possessed the unrestricted control of the +national legislature. If any thing could have been thought wanting to +insure its permanent success, that was believed to be secured by the +consent of General Washington to be the first President of the new +government about to be organized under a constitution, to the paternity +of which they had established so fair a claim. Neither the formation nor +the ratification of that instrument were altogether the work of avowed +members of that party; but as between the two parties they had clearly +the best title to be regarded as its authors. The merits of individuals +in that great work were various. Alexander Hamilton, the able and +undisputed leader of the Federal party, from its origin to his death, +did comparatively nothing either toward its formation or adoption by the +Federal Convention. His most useful services were rendered in the New +York State Convention, by which it was ratified, and in his +contributions to the numbers of "The Federalist." These were formally +declared as the measure of his services in that regard, in reply to a +direct inquiry long after Hamilton's death, by his best informed and +always devoted friend, Gouverneur Morris, as will be seen hereafter. It +was, beyond all doubt, from Madison that the Constitution derived its +greatest aid in respect as well to its construction as to its passage +through the Convention, and its ratification by the States. + +The character and political career of James Madison were _sui +generis_--as much so as though far different from those of John +Randolph. Possessed of intellectual powers inferior to none, and taking +an unsurpassed interest in the course of public affairs, he seemed +invariably to bring to the discussion of public questions a thoroughly +unprejudiced mind. Whilst in the speeches of his contemporaries we +seldom fail to perceive that the argument submitted was framed to +support a foregone conclusion,--to recommend a measure for which the +speaker cherished a personal preference,--it is rare indeed, if ever, +that any such indications are to be found in those of Mr. Madison. +Whilst the former present themselves as advocates, the latter appears in +the attitude of an umpire between rival opinions, who has made it his +business to search for the truth, and is determined to abide the result +of his investigations, uninfluenced in the formation of his decision by +preferences or prejudices of any description. The most acute observer in +reviewing the writings, speeches, and votes of Mr. Madison during the +exciting periods of which we are speaking, when governments as well as +individuals were to an unusual extent in a state of transition, would +find it difficult to place his finger upon any of them in respect to +which the justice of this description would not be manifest. + +Mr. John Quincy Adams, in his Jubilee Address, heretofore alluded to, +describes Mr. Madison and General Hamilton as being, at this period, +"spurred to the rowels by ambition."[9] Both of these gentlemen were, +doubtless, ambitious of the fame which is acquired by serving one's +country honestly and efficiently, and we have no sufficient reason for +assuming that Mr. Adams meant more than that. It is, nevertheless, but +justice to those truly great men to add that so far as high-reaching +ambition is indicated by abjuring unpopular opinions and assuming those +which are believed to be otherwise; by professing attachment to +principles not really cherished for their own sake, or by personal +intrigues of any description to acquire or increase popular favor, I +sincerely believe that there were no two men of their day less liable to +the imputation. Mr. Madison's course at the period of which we are +speaking and during his antecedent public life, was, to a remarkable +extent, divested of a partisan character. He supported, ably and +perseveringly, many, if not most of the propositions for the adoption of +which the Federal party was particularly solicitous, whilst representing +one of the most decided Anti-Federal States in the Confederacy, without +losing the confidence of his constituents, or even hazarding its loss. +He was, throughout, in favor of giving to the federal head an +independent right to levy and collect its necessary revenue and to +regulate commerce, and was from the beginning in favor of a convention +to revise the Constitution. In that body he was one of the majority in +favor of the course I have described, and which resulted in the present +Constitution. His successful and brilliant efforts in favor of the new +system of government placed him at the head of its friends; but there +was no time when Mr. Madison can, with truth and fairness, be said to +have belonged to the Federal party; he all the time represented a State +which took the lead in opposition to that school, his political +affinities and associations were in general adverse to that +organization, and, as I have said, he never forfeited the good opinion +of his State. She seems always to have confided in his sincerity and in +the integrity of his motives, and to have been willing to allow him to +follow the dictates of his own judgment in regard to particular +measures. + + [9] Mr. Van Buren, in making the above quotation from the Jubilee + Address, doubtless relied upon his memory. "Both spurred to the + rowels by rival and antagonist ambition," are the words used by Mr. + Adams; but they, in fact, refer distinctly to _Jefferson_ and + Hamilton, though Mr. Madison's name is incidentally coupled with + that of the latter in the same sentence. Eds. + +The most auspicious prospects beamed upon the opening administration of +the new government, and it is fair to presume that the anticipations +thus inspired would have been triumphantly realized if those who had +been selected to conduct it, and their successors for the ensuing +twelve years, had accepted the Constitution in the sense in which it +was known to have been understood by those who framed it, and by the +people when they adopted it. A course thus right in itself, and thus +acquiescent in the popular will by men, some of whom had been long +suspected by many of their Revolutionary associates of not holding that +will in very high respect, would not have failed to conciliate large +portions of the Anti-Federal party. Their dread of the exercise of +unauthorized power by a general government, of which the responsibility +was, in their estimation, too remote to be safely trusted, and their +apprehensions for the safety of State institutions, always an object of +their greatest solicitude, might have been allayed, if not substantially +subdued. These valuable objects accomplished, the great improvements in +the condition as well of public as of individual affairs, unavoidably +flowing from the reasonably harmonious action of a government which the +Federal party had done so much to establish, and the crowning fact that +these gratifying results were brought about in the name, and with the +active cooperation of Washington, the object of universal respect and +affection, would have secured to that party through the long lapse of +time that has since intervened, at least as large a share in the control +of the government as has been possessed by a party which became its +successful rival, but which can scarcely be said to have then existed. + +But the Federal party rashly turned its back upon the only course by +which these advantages might have been secured, and in doing so, showed +itself regardless of considerations which would not have escaped the +attention of more discreet, if not wiser bodies. Its influential and +leading men forgot that the administration did not, in point of fact, +represent the political opinions in respect to the proper uses and +spirit of governments in general of a majority of the people; that +their party had acquired power solely by its wise course in regard to a +single, though doubtless most important measure; and that even in +respect to that large portions of the people felt, as expressed by John +Quincy Adams, "that the Constitution itself had been extorted from the +grinding necessity of a reluctant nation." The Federal party took its +course also in momentary forgetfulness of the characters of those whose +opinions it was about to violate, whose feelings were to be offended, +and whose resentments it must incur. It overlooked what it had the +fullest reason to know, that those whom it was about to drive into +opposition were men, and the descendants of men, who had from the +beginning, and at all times, and under all circumstances, been +enthusiasts in devotion to liberty, and stern and uncompromising in +demanding stringent restrictions upon delegated authority,--as +inflexible in their opinions, and as incapable of being driven from +their support by the hand of power, or seduced by corruption, as human +nature could be made in the schools of fiery trial in which they had +been trained. The Federalists in power, or rather he who, through the +great confidence of his chief, wielded that power, did nothing, if we +except the personal efforts of Washington in favor of conciliation, +absolutely nothing to soothe the feelings of their defeated opponents, +or to allay their apprehensions, but much to exacerbate the former and +to confirm the latter. + +The justice of these allegations is fully proved by the acts of the +public men of that day. From the official position of the first +President, and the part he consequently took in the management of public +affairs, a faithful survey of these cannot be made without embracing him +in the review. This is treading upon privileged ground. No American, no +good man, can approach it without feeling that it is such, or without +being embarrassed by the apprehension that, however pure his intention, +he may undesignedly outrage the sentiments of admiration and reverence +by which it is naturally and properly intrenched. General Washington +retired gracefully from his military command, with more true glory than +ever fell to the lot of man. There have, doubtless, at times, appeared +military leaders of more professional genius and science, but never one +better adapted to the high duties to which he was called; never one of +whom it could with more truth be said, to use a modern and comprehensive +expression, that he was "the right man in the right place." Certainly +without his seeking it, and doubtless against his wishes, he was +transferred to the civil service of his country by his election to the +office of President under the new Constitution. The administration, of +which he thus became the constitutional head, adopted certain measures, +proposed others, and set up claims to power under that instrument, of +which many of his countrymen and personal friends could not approve, and +which they felt themselves obliged to oppose; these, in the progress of +time and events, became organized as a political party by which those +objectionable measures and claims of power were perseveringly resisted, +but without any diminution of respect for his character, position, and +feelings. They overthrew the administration of his successor, which +claimed to act upon his principles, succeeded to the control of the +Federal Government, and have kept it ever since, with rare and limited +exceptions, attributable to special causes. + +There is, notwithstanding, in this great country, no hamlet, town, city, +or place in which American citizens congregate, where the name of +Washington is ever pronounced without the profoundest reverence, or in +which there does not prevail an undying sense of gratitude for his +public services. The history of the world will be searched in vain for +a tribute of love and gratitude at all comparable to that which the +people of the United States have rendered to him who was the commander +of their armies in the war of the Revolution, and their first republican +chief magistrate--a tribute, in paying which the only contest between +political parties is as to which shall manifest the most zeal, and which +shall attain the highest success. + +Was ever before so great and so gratifying reward bestowed, including in +its wide extent the noble, exalted, and well-won title of _Pater +Patriae_! This, the highest honor that man can receive on earth, was not, +as of old, a title given to an adored chief by victorious soldiers who, +however renowned for their valor, were always open to the influence of +personal and temporary feelings; nor was it obtained through the +instrumentality of a venal senate; neither did it originate in +state-craft or priest-craft, which have in every age paid homage to the +great men of the world for selfish and sinister purposes. The high +honors paid to Washington proceeded from no such sources, nor were they +exposed to the suspicions from which such bestowments are rarely free. +They sprang from the disinterested and deliberate judgment of an +intelligent, virtuous, and free people, who felt that he had, in his +military capacity alone, done incomparably more than any other man for +the establishment of their Independence, and that in all his civil +service he had been actuated by the same upright motives which had +governed his whole previous career, and that in that sphere also, as in +every act of his life, he had placed the performance of public duties +and the advancement of public interests before all other earthly +considerations. Although many of them had differed from him in respect +to some measures which had received his sanction, they were not on that +account the less satisfied that he had, in the exercise of a rightful +discretion, been influenced only by an earnest desire to promote the +welfare of his country. So regarding his whole career, they with one +accord gave him the highest place on the roll of fame and the first in +their hearts. + +This spontaneous and ample recognition of a debt of imperishable +gratitude to a public benefactor, whose modesty was equal to his +unsurpassed merit, was the act of a people often misrepresented, and as +often misunderstood, but who have never been found wanting, in the end, +in what was due to faithful public servants, to themselves, or to their +political institutions. + +We are, perhaps, yet too near the period of these great transactions to +pronounce safely upon the general justice of their dealings with the +contemporaries of Washington. But when time shall have relieved the +subject more thoroughly from the adverse influences of family +connections and partisan feelings, I have not a doubt that some American +historian, loving his country and admiring the character of his +countrymen, will take pleasure in holding up to the world a picture of +the distribution of popular confidence and popular favors in their case +also, which may safely be compared with that drawn from the history of +any people. + +Unbelievers may gainsay, and disappointed aspirants may rail at these +deductions, but they nevertheless do no more than justice to the +character of our people, before whom every public question and the acts +and opinions of every public man, be he whom he may, may be freely +canvassed. All that can be asked of him who seeks to vindicate and +perpetuate the truth of history, is that he shall deal justly and +candidly with his subject. From a scrutiny so conducted, no citizen will +ask or expect that any public transaction, or the course of any public +man shall be exempted. + +No man could have accepted office with fewer temptations to depart from +the line of duty than offered themselves to President Washington. His +claims to the admiration of his countrymen and of the world were +complete; reasonable in all his desires and happy in his domestic +relations, he was possessed of property beyond either his wants or his +desires, and was without children to inherit his estate or to succeed to +the glories already attached to his name. The advantages to be derived +by a republican magistrate from the consciousness of occupying such a +position and of its being also appreciated by his constituents, are very +great. The confidence inspired by these considerations was also +strengthened by the fact that in the high and responsible stations in +which he had been placed he had never failed to increase the good-will +and respect of those by whom he had been appointed. But these +circumstances of encouragement did not blind his cautious mind to a +proper sense of the difficulties incident to the new duties he had +assumed and to his want of experience in regard to them. In addition to +the command of all the military force in the country in a more plenary +form than that in which he had before possessed it, he was now intrusted +with the superintendence and direction of large portions of the domestic +and of all the foreign concerns of a great people just taking their +position in the family of nations. First on the list of his responsible +duties stood that of organizing a government constructed upon new and to +a great extent untried principles, at a moment when the tendency of the +French Revolution had been sufficiently developed to threaten political +convulsions more portentous and more difficult to be dealt with than any +that the world had ever witnessed; and he was called to the performance +of this delicate task amidst party dissensions at home of the most +violent nature, which many people apprehended might extend to a +revolution in the character of the government itself. Firm in all his +purposes Washington did not shrink from the application of his +well-balanced mind to a survey of the difficulties that stood in his +way, in making which no exaggerated estimate of his own capacities +prevented him from foreseeing the embarrassments that might arise, and +to some extent must arise, from the difference in the nature of many of +the duties he was now called upon to discharge from those with which his +past public life had made him familiar; and I have always thought that, +among the great transactions of his career, there was scarcely one in +which were exhibited more strikingly the strength of his judgment and +the nobleness of his disposition, than in the formation of his first +Cabinet. + +It is difficult for one not particularly conversant with such matters to +realize the obstructions which not unfrequently present themselves in +the work of forming a good cabinet. These are sometimes the consequence +of an overestimate of his own qualifications on the part of the chief +magistrate elect, and a resulting disinclination to bring into the +government men whose prominence before the country and whose great +accomplishments as statesmen may depress his own importance in the +action of the administration. This feeling, when it exists in only a +moderate degree, is certain to be encouraged by the flatteries of +friends, or more often by selfish men for the purpose of promoting their +designs upon the patronage at the disposal of the incumbent. Against the +dangerous influences of these classes President Washington was +effectually guarded by elements in his own character decidedly +unpropitious to both. But he was not so free from embarrassments arising +from another source. He was at the commencement of his government +surrounded by his fellow-soldiers, the officers of the army of the +Revolution,--veterans who had acquired high consideration by their +meritorious services, and were endeared to him by their personal +characters and their past and present sufferings. They were generally +men whose judgments he could not but respect, and who, like their class +in all countries, were not disposed to consider the aid of civilians in +the administration of public affairs as imperatively necessary. The +actual state of the country also, in regard to its party divisions and +dissensions, was, as I have already said, perhaps the greatest source of +perplexity and trouble. + +Not discouraged by these difficulties, he proceeded to the formation of +his cabinet in a spirit of patriotism and good sense, manifesting an +anxious desire to allay, if he could not neutralize, the violence of +party spirit, and to enlist in the administration of the new government +and secure to the public service those of highest character and talents +who belonged to, or were disposed to sympathize with, the party which +had opposed the Constitution. With these noble views, he divided his +cabinet equally between gentlemen of that school and members of the +Federal party, and equally also between civilians and military men. For +the two most responsible, as well as most difficult offices, to which +were assigned duties least familiar to himself, he selected two +gentlemen, who from their active patriotism and distinguished talents +occupied high, if not the highest positions in the country, had already +been placed at the head of the rival and conflicting opinions which +divided it, and of whose personal uprightness and political independence +he was well assured. + +Down to the period which we have now reached, President Washington had, +to a remarkable extent, kept himself aloof from partisan strife. This +was partly owing to his great self-command and to his perception of the +incompatibility of a participation in that field of action with the +positions he occupied in the public service; and possibly, to some +extent, to anticipations, not unnatural, that the future held in store +for him a fame which would soar above parties. He had seen and known too +much of men to allow himself to hope that the cabinet he had selected +would be entirely free from disunion, or from those distractions likely +to arise from the conflicting materials of which it was composed; but he +did not at first appreciate fully the extent and bearing of the +differences that existed between the opinions and public views of +Jefferson and Hamilton. Hoping that these would be confined to +particular points in the administration of affairs, he doubtless relied +upon his personal influence to soothe the asperities they might produce, +and at least to limit their adverse effect to the measures to which they +might be from time to time applied. His confidence in this regard was +well warranted by his past good fortune in removing obstacles that +threatened injury to the country, by means of the general respect that +was paid to his opinions and wishes by all classes of his countrymen. +His success in allaying the spirit of insubordination that manifested +itself among the officers of the army at Newburgh and for a season +menaced seriously the character of the army and the peace of the +country; in arresting a design which was supposed to be on foot in +Congress, to make the sufferings and consequent indignation of the +troops subservient to the promotion of the financial schemes of +civilians; and in dispersing the storm which threatened to follow the +establishment of the Cincinnati, with its hereditary honors, strikingly +justified his confidence in the efficacy of any future efforts in the +same direction. + +More could not have been done, or in a better spirit, than Washington +did to preserve harmony between the two leading members of his cabinet, +and to secure their cooperation in the public service. No steps, +consistent with a proper self-respect, as it now appears, were omitted +on his part. If the differences in their views had been less radical +these friendly efforts and applications must have succeeded, received as +they were by both in the most becoming and grateful spirit. + +But these commendable exertions were doomed to an unavoidable and final +disappointment. The President might as well have attempted to combine +the elements of fire and water as to secure a harmonious action in the +administration of the Government between Jefferson and Hamilton. The +antagonistic opinions of these great men upon the subjects of government +and its proper administration were too profoundly planted in their +breasts, and they were both too honest to depart from them without a +corresponding change in their convictions, which there was no reason to +anticipate, to admit of a hope for a different result. + +Of the nature and extent of their differences of opinion it is my +purpose to attempt some explanation in another place; but here I will +only say, as I desire to say in advance, that I do not now believe, +whatever my impression may have been, that they originated in any +difference as to the objects at which they aimed, or that those objects, +in either case, were other than the welfare and happiness of those for +whom they were selected to act. They may have differed in opinion in +respect to the condition, social and political, in which the mass of the +people would be most likely to be prosperous and happy; they certainly +did so, and that very widely, in regard to the public measures by which +that prosperity and happiness would be promoted or diminished; and that +diversity in their opinions arose mainly from their conflicting +estimates of the capacity of the people for self-government. Upon that +point they were opposed diametrically, and that opposition produced an +unavoidable antagonism in their views of almost every public question. + +In a conversation between these gentlemen in 1791, to which a more +particular reference will be made hereafter, General Hamilton thus +expressed himself:--"For that mind must be really depraved which would +not prefer the equality of political rights, which is the foundation of +pure republicanism, if it can be obtained consistently with order." This +was, I do not in the least doubt, his real sentiment; but unhappily +circumstances, to which we may hereafter recur, had impressed his mind +with a conviction, which was never removed, that the great desideratum +which he mentioned--the preservation of order--could not be secured +where the control of public affairs was largely in the hands of the +people. He very correctly regarded the security of the rights of persons +and of property as an indispensable ingredient in good government; and +distrusting the respect of the people, when acting in masses, for both, +he was adverse to that equality of rights which he truly said was "the +foundation of pure republicanism." These great objects he thought could +in no other way be secured than by a strong government, in which there +would be what he called a "stable will," independent of popular control. +This he endeavored openly, and with a candor that belonged to his +character, to obtain in the Convention, and failing there, he hoped to +realize its advantages, in some degree, by strengthening what he +described as the "organs" of the Government, through the action of a +popular President and a good administration. The most important of the +measures by which he designed to accomplish these objects Mr. Jefferson +regarded as so many violations of the Constitution, and he looked upon +the spirit in which they had their origin as evidence of disaffection +to republican government, the differences in opinion between these +master spirits of the cabinet, who engrossed a share of the attention of +the people inferior only to that paid to the President, were therefore, +not limited as Washington hoped they would be, to particular measures +but presented contradictory and irreconcilable theories for the +administration of the Government, which could not even be discussed in +the cabinet without producing interminable distractions. As was to be +expected from minds like their respective systems left no middle ground, +and required the adoption of the one or the other as a rule of action +for the Government. The unavoidable obligation to make a selection +between them devolved therefore on Washington, and he discharged it, as +he did all his duties, courteously and firmly. He gave the preference to +Hamilton, and sustained him in the measures he proposed to carry out the +policy he recommended. + +Mr. Jefferson, sensible that the necessity of his retirement from the +cabinet had thus become absolute, determined to take that step in a way +as little annoying to the President and as little injurious to the +public service as possible. To this end he gave early notice that he +would resign at the expiration of the President's first term of office; +and when that time arrived he retired. This left General Hamilton +without any check from his associates in the administration, save what +might proceed from the Attorney General, Edmund Randolph, who became +Secretary of State on Jefferson's retirement, and of whom the latter +said that his habit was to give his opinions to his friends and his +votes to his opponents. + +Thus, next to Washington, Alexander Hamilton became the most powerful +man in the nation, abundantly able to give to party divisions their form +and pressure, and in effect to shape the action of the Government +according to his judgment by the authority with which he was invested, +and which he exerted with less restraint than had ever before or has +ever since been encountered by any minister in this country or in +Europe. + +To no quarter, therefore, could our attention be more profitably +directed for instruction in the history and course of parties during his +political career than to the opinions and acts of that remarkable man. +The time has been, I am sensible, when, with vision distorted by +partisan prejudices, which seldom allow both sides of any question to be +seen, I could not have reviewed his course with the impartiality due to +truth and justice; but I am happy to believe that those feelings have +sufficiently lost their force to permit me, while dissenting more +thoroughly than ever from his principles, to do justice to his motives, +and to admit his sincerity and his desire to serve his country in the +very acts which I unreservedly condemn. The most obnoxious of his +opinions have here, thank God, become obsolete and exploded theories, +not at all dangerous as examples, and mainly referred to as historical +marks of our progress. Believing, as I think all liberal minds now do, +that they were honestly formed, we can speak of them without reproach to +their author, and censure them without being suspected of a design to +cast obloquy on his memory. The history of our partisan warfare has +presented, since his time, the anomalous feature of a persevering denial +in his name, by some of his followers, of the political opinions which +he not only did not affect to disclaim, but which he made it his +business on all fitting occasions to publish and advocate, believing +them to be right, and to the last moment of his life confidently +expecting that they would become, at no distant day, the general +sentiment of the country. + +I have already referred to contemporaneous declarations, made in April, +1791, by John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, at an informal meeting of +General Washington's Cabinet, to which the Vice-President had been +invited, in favor of monarchical institutions according to the English +model. The terms in which those gentlemen expressed their admiration of, +and preference for, the English system of government, though differing +in particulars, were in no sense equivocal, nor can there be, at this +day, the slightest doubt of their authenticity. On the 13th of August, +in the same year, General Hamilton held another conversation with Mr. +Jefferson, of which the latter leaves the following notes:-- + +"I own," said Hamilton, "it is my own opinion, though I do not publish +it in Dan or Beersheba, that the present government is not that which +will answer the ends of society by giving stability and protection to +its rights, and that it will probably be found to be expedient to go +into the British form. However, since we have undertaken the experiment, +I am for giving it a fair course, whatever my expectations may be. The +success, indeed, is so far greater than I had expected, and therefore +success seems more possible than it had done heretofore, and there are +still other and other stages of improvement which, if the present does +not succeed, may be tried and ought to be tried before we give up the +republican form altogether; for that mind must be really depraved which +would not prefer the equality of political rights, which is the +foundation of pure republicanism, if it can be obtained consistently +with order. Therefore whoever by his writings disturbs the present order +of things is really blamable, however pure his intentions may be, and he +was sure Mr. Adams's were pure." + +"This," Mr. Jefferson adds in his memorandum, "is the substance of a +declaration made in much more lengthy terms, and which seemed to be more +formal than usual for a private conversation between two, and as if +intended to qualify some less guarded expressions which had been dropped +on former occasions. Thomas Jefferson has committed it to writing the +moment of Alexander Hamilton's leaving the room." + +The measures described by Hamilton as the stages of improvement already +adopted were doubtless the bank and funding system, and those still in +reserve were such as are recommended in his report on manufactures, +subsequently made. + +In the Federal Convention which framed our present Constitution General +Hamilton submitted a series of propositions to be adopted as a basis for +the new government, which he supported in an elaborate and very able +speech. The debates of the Convention were reported by Mr. Madison, who +submitted the notes he had taken of his speech to General Hamilton, +which the latter admitted to be correct, contenting himself with a few +formal and verbal amendments. In the year 1810, before the proceedings +of the Convention were ordered to be published, the Rev. Dr. Mason, +intending to write the life of Hamilton, applied to Mr. Madison, then +President of the United States, for a copy of that speech, which was +furnished to him accompanied by the following note:-- + + "James Madison presents his respects to Dr. Mason with the promised + copy of Mr. Hamilton's observations in the General Convention on the + subject of a Federal Constitution, as noted at the time." + + "WASHINGTON, _January 12th, 1810_." + +Dr. Mason abandoned the idea of preparing the life, and a descendant of +his, a few years since, placed in my hands two of the documents +collected by his grandfather, one of which was the above note with a +copy of the speech. The following are extracts from the latter:-- + +"This view of the subject almost led him to despair that a republican +government could be established over a country of so great an extent. He +was sensible at the same time that it would be unwise to propose one of +any other form. In his private opinion he had no scruple in declaring, +supported as he was in the opinion of so many of the wise and the good, +that the British government was the best in the world; and he doubted +very much whether any thing short of it would do in America." + +Speaking of the executive, he said: "As to the executive it seemed to be +admitted that no good one could be established on republican principles. +Was not this giving up the merits of the question, for can there be a +good government without a good executive? The English model was the only +good one on this subject. The hereditary interest of the king was so +interwoven with those of the nation, and his personal emolument so +great, that he was placed above the danger of being corrupted from +abroad," &c. Also, "their House of Lords is a most noble institution. +Having nothing to hope for by a change and a sufficient interest by +means of their property in being faithful to the national interest, they +form a permanent barrier against any pernicious innovation, whether +attempted on the part of the Crown or of the Commons." + +On comparing these extracts with the speech, as published in the +"Madison Papers," I find them to accord in all respects. In the life of +Hamilton, by his son, the author indulges in harsh imputation upon the +conduct of Mr. Madison, in this connection, in the justice of which I am +deceived in the general sentiment of the country if he finds many to +agree with him; and through a fatality which often attends similar +demonstrations, he publishes in the same volume Hamilton's plan of +government, the original draft of which Dr. Mason informed Mr. Madison +was yet among the General's papers, and which is, word for word, the +same as the copy published in the "Madison Papers;" and also Hamilton's +own notes for his great speech in the Convention, which indicate the +character of the speech upon the point in question as fully as notes +ever prefigured a speech, and both of which confirm all that Mr. Madison +has said in regard to it. + +The following are extracts from the notes:-- + +"Here I shall give my sentiments of the best form of government--not as +a thing attainable by us, but as a model which we ought to approach as +near as possible." "British Constitution best form." "There ought to be +a principle in the government capable of resisting the popular current." +"No periodical duration will come up to this." "The principle chiefly +intended to be established is this, that there must be a permanent +_will_." "A democratic assembly is to be checked by a democratic senate, +and both these by a democratic chief magistrate: the end will not be +answered; the means will not be equal to the object." "The monarch must +have proportional strength. He ought to be hereditary, and to have so +much power that it will not be his interest to risk much to acquire +more." "The advantage of a monarch is this, he is above corruption,--he +must always intend in respect to foreign nations the true interests and +glory of the people." "Republics liable to foreign corruption and +intrigue. Holland--Athens." "Effect of the British government." "A +vigorous execution of the laws, and a vigorous defense of the people +will result." "Better chance for a good government." "It is said a +republican government will not admit of a vigorous execution." "It is +therefore bad; for the goodness of a government consists in a vigorous +execution." + +It thus appears that the opinions avowed to Mr. Jefferson on different +occasions, one of which seems to have been sought for the purpose, were +no more than repetitions of those he had avowed on the floor of the +Convention, and of which he knew that Mr. Madison possessed an authentic +record that would some day see the light; indeed, if such had not been +the fact he would have just as frankly repeated them, for they were the +settled convictions of his mind during his life--as fresh when they were +announced to Mr. Jefferson as when promulgated in the Convention. Nor +had he any motives for concealment of his views, if concealment had +been, as it was not, characteristic of the man, for he was equally +convinced that the government which had been established would prove a +failure, and that the wisdom of his plans and the propriety of adopting +them would thus become apparent to all. + +We have here the words of General Hamilton himself--in his declarations +deliberately made and attested in the most solemn and responsible form +by Thomas Jefferson, and in his speech as reported by James Madison, +under still more specific responsibility, confirmed by his own notes for +that speech now published by his son and biographer--all going to the +same end, viz: to show that he was in principle a monarchist, and that +he preferred a monarchical to a republican form of government. + +But Jefferson and Madison were politically his opponents. Let us now see +what his oldest and best friend says upon this point. Gouverneur Morris, +his coadjutor in the Convention and in politics through life, and his +eulogist at the grave, gave in 1811 an unreserved _expose_ of Hamilton's +opinions on this very question, in a letter to Robert Walsh, then +editor of the "National Gazette," written, doubtless, in answer to +inquiries. The reader should procure this letter, and will find in it +much matter of interest. I omit, among other things, what it says in +respect to Hamilton's purity, and his frank and honorable character and +bearing in political matters, having said as much myself, and with no +less sincerity. + +"General Hamilton," says Morris, "had little share in forming the +Constitution. He disliked it, believing all republican government to be +radically defective. He admired, nevertheless, the British Constitution, +which I consider an aristocracy in fact though a monarchy in name.... +General Hamilton hated republican government because he confounded it +with democratical government, and he detested the latter because he +believed it must end in despotism, and be, in the mean time, destructive +to public morality.... But although General Hamilton knew these things +from the study of history, and perceived them by the intuition of +genius, he never failed on every occasion to advocate the excellence of, +and avow his attachment to monarchical government." + +In another part of the letter, "one marked trait in the General's +character was the pertinacious adherence to opinions he had once +formed."[10] + + [10] Sparks's _Life of Gouverneur Morris_, Vol. III. p. 260. + +In a previous letter, written shortly after Hamilton's death, (December, +1804,) to Governor Aaron Ogden, Morris says: "Our poor friend Hamilton +bestrode his hobby to the great annoyance of his friends and not without +injury to himself. More a theoretic than a practical man, he was not +sufficiently convinced that a system may be good in itself and bad in +relation to particular circumstances. He well knew that his favorite +form was inadmissible unless as the result of civil war; and I suspect +that his belief in what he called _an approaching crisis_[11] arose from +a conviction that the kind of government most suitable, in his, opinion, +to this extensive country, could be established in no other way." + + [11] The _italics_ are mine. + +Hamilton not only cherished his preference for monarchical institutions +to the very close of his life, but we have good reason to believe that +the expectation that some crisis in the affairs of the country, +encouraged by the weakness of our political system, would yet arise and +would lead to their introduction, was equally abiding. His letters and +writings will be found to contain many intimations to that effect. I +will notice two instances. His letter to Timothy Pickering in 1803, is +the only attempt that I have ever seen, coming from himself, to explain +his course in the Convention. There may have been others, but I would be +surprised indeed by the production of any thing from his pen denying his +preference for the monarchical form of government, although such was the +standing charge of his political opponents. None such, I feel very +confident, ever existed. That letter concludes with the following very +significant remark:-- + +"I sincerely hope that it may not hereafter be discovered that, through +want of sufficient attention to the last idea," (that of giving adequate +energy to the Government,) "the experiment of Republican Government, +even in this country, has not been as complete, as satisfactory, and as +decisive as could be wished." + +The explanation of "his conduct, motives, and views" in accepting the +challenge of Colonel Burr--probably the last paper containing any +allusion to public affairs that he ever wrote--closes with expressions, +italicized by myself, remarkably in harmony with the intimations of +Gouverneur Morris to Aaron Ogden:-- + +"To those who, with me, abhorring the practice of dueling, may think +that I ought on no account to add to the number of bad examples, I +answer that my relative situation, as well in public as private, +enforcing all the considerations which men of the world designate honor, +imposed on me, as I thought, a peculiar necessity not to decline the +call. The ability to be in future useful, whether in resisting mischief +or effecting good, _in those crises of our public affairs which seem +likely to happen, would probably be inseparable from a conformity with +prejudice in this particular_." + +Although not so pointed in expressing it, his disposition toward the +State governments was scarcely more favorable than toward the plan of +the general government. In his letter to Pickering, at a period when +their usefulness and importance to the system were better appreciated, +he says: "Though I would have enlarged the legislative power of the +General Government, yet I never contemplated the abolition of the State +governments, but, on the contrary, they were in some particulars a +part,--constituent parts,--of my plan." But let us see what part it was +that he would have them perform. He said in the Convention: "If they +(the State governments) are extinguished, he was persuaded that great +economy might be obtained by substituting a general government. He did +not mean, however, to shock the public opinion by proposing such a +measure. _On the other hand, he saw no other necessity for declining +it._ They are not necessary for any of the great purposes of commerce, +revenue, or agriculture. Subordinate authorities, he was aware, would be +necessary. There must be district tribunals, corporations for local +purposes. But _cui bono_ the vast and expensive apparatus now +appertaining to the States?" + +These were Hamilton's views in respect to the State governments, as +expressed in the Convention, according to Mr. Madison's report. In this +case it is also fortunate for the cause of truth that, from a paper +written by Hamilton just as the General Convention adjourned, and +published by his son, it appears very plainly that his views upon the +subject cannot have been greatly misreported by Mr. Madison. In this +paper he speculates upon the probable fate of the Constitution; after +saying, in confirmation of my suggestion that he doubted the +dispositions of the people in other respects than their intelligence and +capacity, that the Constitution would have in its favor "the good will +of men of property in the several States who wish a government of the +Union able to protect them against domestic violence, and the +_depredations which the democratic spirit is apt to make on property_," +he adds: "If the Government be adopted, it is probable General +Washington will be the President of the United States. This will insure +a wise choice of men to administer the Government, and a good +administration. A good administration will conciliate the confidence and +affection of the people, and perhaps enable the Government to acquire +more consistency than the proposed Constitution seems to promise for so +great a country. _It may then triumph over the State governments and +reduce them to entire subordination, dividing the larger States into +smaller districts._ The organs of the General Government may also +acquire additional strength." The _italics_ in the above extracts are +all my own except as to the word _organs_. He would not "shock the +public opinion" by proposing to extinguish the State governments, but +there was _no other_ reason for omitting to do so. It would be well if +it were done, but it was not wise to shock the public mind upon a point +in respect to which it was known to be sensitive. But he would reduce +them to entire subordination, triumph over and consequently humiliate +them. It would be a poor compliment to Hamilton's knowledge of men and +of the effect of public measures, to assume that he did not know that +such would be the surest as well as the safest way to extinguish them in +the end. + +In a letter to Gouverneur Morris, so late as in 1802, a little more than +two years before his death, and which will be found in "The Works of +Hamilton," edited by his son, (Vol. VI. p. 529,) he thus unbosoms +himself to his friend: "Mine is an odd destiny. Perhaps no man in the +United States has sacrificed or done more for the present Constitution +than myself; and contrary to all my anticipations of its fate, as you +know from the very beginning, I am still laboring to prop the frail and +worthless fabric. Yet I have the murmurs of its friends no less than the +curses of its foes for my reward. What can I do better than withdraw +from the scene? Every day proves to me more and more that this American +world was not made for me." + +There would seem to be no force in evidence, however appropriate its +source or credible its character, if that we have produced is not +conclusive in regard to the opinions of General Hamilton upon certain +points. It proves, _first_, that he regarded monarchical institutions, +according to the English model, as being the most perfect government +that ever existed; _secondly_, that he would have preferred the +establishment of such a government here, and was only prevented from +advocating it by a conviction that it was made impracticable by the +adverse public opinion of the time; _thirdly_, that he thought it was +our duty, nevertheless, to approach that model with our Government as +nearly as the prejudices of the people would permit, and that he +introduced into the Convention a plan by which that object might be +reached; _fourthly_, that he regarded the present Federal Constitution, +which, as lately as two years before his death, in a free communication +to his trusted friend, he called "a frail and worthless fabric," as +inadequate to the purposes of a good government; that he had accepted it +at the time as a temporary bond of union, but believed from the +beginning that it would prove a failure and fall into contempt; that he +believed that this result would open the way to popular tumults forcing +intervention, and to convulsions through the evils of which the people +would, at no distant day, become convinced of their error, and consent +to institutions substantially similar to those he favored; and, +_fifthly_, that his preference for monarchical institutions was a fixed +and cherished sentiment; that although at times encouraged by his +success in measures he had no right to hope for under the Constitution +as he knew that instrument was intended to be, he yet invariably +returned to his first opinion adverse to the sufficiency of the +Constitution, and descended to the grave not only without a change in +his opinions, but with increased convictions of their perfect soundness. + +It has been a question often mooted whether the idea of using the power +with which he was or might be clothed to overthrow the actual +government, and to introduce the system he so earnestly preferred, was +ever seriously entertained by Hamilton. Such designs were freely charged +upon him by many of the old Republicans, who, under the full influence +of partisan prejudices, doubtless believed that he waited only for a fit +opportunity to attempt them. His repeated and undisguised expressions of +a preference for monarchical institutions, to friends and foes, when the +people of the United States, whose officer he was, had established a +government which they intended should be so widely different from such +institutions, were well calculated to engender the suspicion. Plain men +naturally imagined that a man like Hamilton would do much and incur +high responsibilities for the accomplishment of an object so near his +heart. Mr. Jefferson, who was not a man of a suspicious temperament, +through the fiery and protracted contests of parties, at the head of +which they respectively stood, was evidently at times alarmed by +similar apprehensions. But toward the close of his life, when +partisan asperities had been long since forgotten, in a letter +to myself he virtually exonerated Hamilton from the charge in these +expressions:--"For Hamilton frankly avowed that he considered the +British Constitution, with all the corruptions of its administration, as +the most perfect model of government that had ever been devised by the +wit of man,--professing, however, at the same time, that the spirit of +this country was so fundamentally republican that it would be visionary +to think of introducing monarchy here, and that therefore it was the +duty of its administrators to conduct it upon the principles their +constituents had elected."[12] + + [12] See Appendix. + +Mr. Charles Francis Adams has placed before us, in his life of his +grandfather, John Adams, a series of facts bearing upon this point with +no ordinary significance. They are not brought forward in support of any +such charge, but as raising a question for the consideration of his +readers, whether it is not possible that in the pains he took to +increase greatly the provisional forces authorized to meet our +difficulties with France, and to convert the whole into a permanent +military establishment; in the readiness with which he fell in with the +scheme of Miranda, to conquer, through the joint operations of Great +Britain and the United States, the Floridas, Louisiana, and the South +American possessions of Spain, in case of a rupture between us and +France; and in his prompt consent to take command of the troops to be +so employed, General Hamilton was influenced by a desire to bring about +the crisis to which he had always looked as one that would present a fit +opportunity for the establishment here of the political institutions he +preferred. + +These are grave matters, and of a nature calculated to challenge a new +and stricter examination of one of those critical periods which have +often occurred in our history, and from which we have had so many +providential deliverances. The subject is treated with becoming delicacy +and great caution by the author, whose conclusion, of which we have only +a hint, may possibly have been influenced by family traditions, +tinctured unavoidably with strong personal prejudices but never wanting +in intelligence. I will not undertake to speculate even as to what +General Hamilton might have done or have left undone if he had found +himself at the head of a large and permanent military force, and the +country convulsed by those popular outbreaks, the expectation of which +seems to have been never absent from his mind or from the minds of his +disciples. He might have mounted his "hobby"--as Morris termed his +passion for monarchical institutions--and have struck a blow in their +behalf, acting in the spirit of other "strong minds" who, as Mr. C. F. +Adams well and truly says, "seldom fail to associate with dreams of +their own glory the modes of exercising power for the good of their +fellow-men. Considering their happiness as mainly dependent upon a sense +of security from domestic convulsions, his first aim would have been to +gain that end at any rate, even if it should be done at some expense of +their liberties." But looking at the subject with no other feeling than +a sincere desire to arrive at a correct solution of the circumstances +narrated by Mr. Adams, I cannot bring my mind to the conclusion referred +to. + +I can well conceive that Hamilton might have been led to avail himself +of such a state of things for a _coup de main_ of some decided character +if its existence had been brought about by others, or had been the +result of fortuitous circumstances--a contingency which his mind had +doubtless often contemplated. But I do not think that he would have +planned or contributed to bring about such a state of things involving +to so grave an extent the public order and the peace of the country. +Such a course would have been at variance with some of his most +cherished principles and inconsistent with his personal character. The +preservation of order, and a respect for the individual rights of +persons and of property, appeared always to be the objects of his +greatest solicitude. It was only because he did not think that these +could be effectually secured under any other form of government that he +preferred monarchical institutions, acknowledging at the same time that +they were at war with the principles of natural justice, and only +allowable upon that of their absolute necessity to secure society +against the occasional waywardness of a majority of its members. It was +mainly because of the very erroneous opinions he had formed of the +dispositions in this respect of a majority of his adopted countrymen +that he was induced to devote his splendid talents to hopeless efforts +to sustain principles so irreconcilable with those for which he had +periled his life in the war of the Revolution. I say erroneous, not only +because I think them such, but because experience, the only unerring +test, has so proved them. We are, at the moment when I write, a half +century from the transactions which form the subject of our +consideration, and I venture nothing in saying that there is no country +in Europe in which order has, in the interim, been better preserved, or +the rights of persons and property been more secure, than in the United +States; none in which the power of government has been more stable or +more adequate to the purposes of its institution. + +But this is a wide field, for which I have neither space nor time. It +becomes me to remember, whilst occupied not without pleasure with these +retrospective investigations and meditations, that I have already passed +by several cheerful years, the allotted threescore-and-ten,--that period +of such solemn import which the undeserved favor of an always kind +Providence has permitted me to pass, not only with life but with the +means and the faculties to enjoy life,--and that if I hope to complete +the work before me I must confine myself more to the highway of my +subject, and leave its by-paths to the explorations of younger men. + +I cannot, nevertheless, refrain from a brief reference to transactions +which have more than once occurred in this country, have made a greater +impression on my mind than they seem to have made on others, and which I +think have a strong bearing upon the question of the American love of +order and respect for property and its rights. Although it is not +probable that the facts of these can ever be sufficiently understood +abroad to be correctly appreciated, it is otherwise here, and they are +well worthy of our profoundest meditations. I allude to scenes which +have been presented at San Francisco, which were at the moment of such +thrilling interest, but appear already to have sunk into oblivion amid +the ceaseless bustle and never-halting progress of American life. + +Look at that young but already large and flourishing city! Regard her as +she stood at the commencement of the extraordinary steps that were taken +for her relief! Think of the scenes through which she was made to pass, +and the condition to which she has been restored! An active and artful +portion of her population thoroughly steeped in corruption, vice, and +crime; her municipal authorities, the direct offspring of that +corruption, not only regardless of duty but fraternizing with criminals, +deriding the complaints of the injured, and scoffing at their prayers +for official interference; despair succeeding hope, and the opinion that +protection is at an end, and that nature may soon reassert her empire at +length ripening into conviction in the breasts of the good of all +classes; the general meeting of the citizens, and the appointment of the +Committee of Vigilance with unlimited powers and subject to +responsibility to no other tribunal than to the congregated mass of the +people from whom they derive their authority and their power; the +regular military organization adopted by the Committee and forthwith +called into the field of duty, sufficient in men, arms, and equipments +to crush resistance to the authority of the Committee in the city, and +to deter the exercise of any other authority at that remote distance +that might have a right to claim cognizance of the crimes they seek to +suppress; all legal rule superseded by that of the Committee of +Vigilance and put down on the instant of its assertion; criminals who +had been set at large by the former authorities re-arrested on charges +of capital offences, tried before the Committee, informally but honestly +and intelligently, found guilty and executed; the functionaries who had +connived at those offences arraigned at the bar of the same tribunal and +dealt with according to their deserts; crimes detected and felons +dragged from their hiding-places to meet a just punishment; men to whom +no specific offence could be traced, but who were notorious enemies of +order and abettors of crime, banished not to return under penalty of +death, and every effort made to resist or defeat the action of the +Committee crushed by an all-sufficient military force. The power of the +Committee continues in active and constant exercise for nearly three +months, when the purification of the city from crime and from criminals +being accomplished, the authority of the laws is restored, also the use +of the ballot-box which had been desecrated; this restoration is by the +order and in pursuance of the authority and power of the Committee which +are voluntarily laid down with the approbation and consent of a +community consisting of from 25,000 to 30,000 persons. + +There is no good reason for saying that during the whole of that period +and in the midst of such stirring scenes the power of the Committee was +in a single instance exercised to divest any innocent man of his +property, or to oppress him in any way, or to interfere with his legal +rights further than to compel submission to the temporary supremacy of +that body, or to punish the innocent, or to enable the guilty to escape, +or to aggrandize the Committee, or to benefit its members, their +friends, or its _employees_, or to do an act of intentional injustice to +any human being. During the government of the Committee the business +concerns of the city and the vocations of its citizens were carried on +with at least as much regularity and success as ever. Since its +resignation and the consequent dispersion of its power not a banished +man has returned contrary to the terms of his expulsion, and no member +of the Committee, nor any one who acted by and within its authority, has +been called to account for his acts within the bounds either of the city +or of the State to which it belongs. + +Is it probable that there is any city in Europe of equal size in which +its legally established authorities could have been suspended by the +irregular action of its own people with similar results,--in which the +substituted power could be exercised with equal wisdom and forbearance, +and laid down with so few causes for individual complaint? My +opportunities for observation, although considerable, have been less +than those of some others, and I may be wrong in thinking as I do that +such things could not be done by any other people in the world. + +The remedy for the social and political crimes which called the +Committee of Vigilance into existence was a fearful one, and must be so +regarded by all thinking and virtuous minds, and it would seem +paradoxical to set up such a crowning act of disorder--that of the +subversion of all legal authority, for even the shortest period--as an +exhibition of a love of order and respect for the rights of persons and +of property on the part of the actors; but I cannot resist the belief +that the transaction afforded the strongest proof of the existence of +those great principles in their minds, and that a proper sense of them +and a determination to maintain them will seldom be wanting on the part +of those who can act as did the Committee of San Francisco and its +supporters. + +But I ask pardon for this digression, and return to my subject. Many +considerations besides those suggested by Hamilton's invariable +solicitude for the preservation of order and by his constant respect for +the individual rights of persons and of property, press themselves upon +my mind against the conclusion intimated by Mr. C. F. Adams, and against +the probability that General Hamilton ever contemplated the creation of +a state of things that would justify or facilitate the employment of +force to establish institutions more congenial with his taste and +judgment than those we possessed. But I forbear to urge them, partly +because I have devoted as much time and space to the subject as I can +afford, and also because I am well satisfied that his knowledge of the +certain opposition of General Washington to any such scheme or design +would have been sufficient to deter him from undertaking either during +the lifetime of the General, even if his own disposition had pointed in +that direction. + +It was at no time the intention of President Washington to give his +sanction to the opinions so generally, and as it now appears so justly, +attributed to General Hamilton. Never was man more strongly pledged to +the support of republican government, or more unchangeably determined to +maintain the responsibilities he had incurred in that regard. Embracing +with all his heart the Declaration of Independence, in which its +principles were delineated with the pencil of truth, he did more than +any other man to overthrow the government against which it was hurled, +and to open the way for the establishment of a republic in its place. +None knew better than he that such was the object of the Revolution, and +his resolution was immovable that the sufferings and sacrifices which +had been incurred in support of that object should not fail to +accomplish it through any act of omission or commission on his part. +Every important act in his eventful career shows that he regarded +himself on that point as invested by his country with a sacred trust. +When the bright prospect which he had largely contributed to open to his +countrymen for the realization of their wishes in this respect was in +danger of being obscured, if not forever blasted, by means similar to +those which have so often prevented or subverted free government, by the +violence of an exasperated soldiery, he threw himself into the breach, +and saved at the same time by his heroic and patriotic effort their +interests and the honor of his brothers-in-arms. When the minds of the +earnest and jealous friends of liberty were frenzied by an ill-advised +attempt in the same quarter to introduce hereditary distinctions amongst +us, he was again found at the post of duty; and, though feelingly +indulgent to his military companions, as well as satisfied of the +perfect purity of their intentions, he nevertheless promptly and +successfully employed the great influence he derived from their respect +for his character and their confidence in his friendship to induce them +to abandon their project. + +In the full possession of such claims to the esteem, gratitude, and +trust of his countrymen, superadded to those which were due for his +military services, he closed the first great period of his splendid life +by presiding over the Federal Convention, and by assenting to, and +recommending to the favor of the people, a Constitution eminently +republican in its form, and in the principles upon which it was founded. +So far was he from encouraging the spread of opposite sentiments that +there is, on the contrary, much reason to believe that it was by making +his views of the subject known to those about him that the +anti-republican tone which Jefferson found, on his arrival from France, +so prevalent in social and political circles at the seat of government, +was kept in check until public opinion became strong enough to +extinguish it altogether. Speaking to this point, Mr. Jefferson says, +"The truth is that the Federalists, pretending to be the exclusive +friends of General Washington, have ever done what they could to sink +his character by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy +of Republicans, him who of all men is best entitled to the appellation +of the father of that Republic which they were endeavoring to subvert, +and the Republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections +proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the +republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend +to the republican principles of the Constitution. His faith perhaps in +its duration might not have been as confident as mine; but he repeatedly +declared to me that he was determined it should have a fair chance of +success, and that he would lose the last drop of his blood in its +support against any attempt which might be made to change it from its +republican form. He made these declarations the oftener because he knew +my suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet my +jealousies upon the subject."[13] + + [13] See Appendix. + +Independently of his principles, which were the main source, doubtless, +of the personal solicitude he often manifested upon this point, General +Washington was a man of too much sense and reflection not to know that +the world would in all future time hold him responsible for the +overthrow of the republican principle here, if its extinguishment +occurred in his day, and he was too careful of his well-earned fame, and +anticipated too correctly the elevation it was destined to reach in +connection with the history of his country, not to do all in his power +to guard it from detriment upon a point at once so delicate and so +momentous. Hamilton was the first man to whom he would make his +sentiments known, and I can find nothing in the positions which they +occupied toward each other which would induce me to entertain the +opinion that Hamilton would have ventured on an attempt to shake his +patriotic resolutions on that point through the influence he was +supposed to possess over the actions of Washington in other respects. + +There is, I am quite sure, nothing more essential to a right +appreciation of many of the most important incidents in our political +history, than a correct understanding of the relations that existed +between those distinguished men. It cannot fail to shed considerable +light on much that occurred during the government of the Confederation, +and is perhaps the only touchstone by which the measures of government +and many other public transactions between 1789 and 1799--between the +organization of the new government and the death of Washington--can be +safely tested. + +I will give my interpretation of the character of those relations, fully +aware of the misrepresentations and misunderstandings to which they have +been subjected, and from which no subject connected with partisan +conflicts can, it appears, be entirely free, but conscious of a single +desire to state things truly, and of an inability to do intentional +injustice to either. It will be for others to judge of my success. + +Mr. Charles F. Adams, in the work to which I have referred,[14] says, +"Without much hold upon the judgment or affections of the people at +large, he (Hamilton) had yet by the effect of his undisputed abilities +and his masculine will gained great sway over the minds of the +intelligent merchants along the Atlantic border. His previous doctrines, +in unison with the feelings and interests of the most conservative +class, had drawn to him their particular confidence, whilst his position +in the first administration had facilitated the establishment by him of +a chain of influence resting for its main support on _his power over the +mind of Washington himself_, but carried equally through all the +ramifications of the executive department. _Thus it happened that even +after he ceased to be personally present his opinions continued to shape +the policy of Washington's second administration, and even that of his +successor._" This declaration extending so far would have been deemed +quite credible at the period to which it relates, and, coming from the +grandson of that "_successor_"--himself the undisguised enemy of +Hamilton--was probably called forth by the recent publication of the +private papers of the latter. + + [14] _Life of John Adams._ The _italics_ are my own. + +As far as Mr. Adams affirms that the policy of Washington's +administration, and also, in many very important respects, that of his +successor, were guided by the opinions of Hamilton, his declaration has +my full concurrence. No candid and intelligent man can, I think, read +the evidence which has recently appeared, in connection with facts +previously known, without acknowledging the undeniable truth of these +positions. But I do not by any means intend to concede the control of +Hamilton over the mind of Washington which is implied by the terms +employed by Mr. Adams without qualifications which limit and very +materially change its character. The policy of both administrations was +guided by the opinions of Hamilton, but those opinions received their +influence through different channels, and were enforced in very +different ways. Hamilton's opinions, when known as his, had very little +weight with the successor of Washington, save, in many cases, to secure +a bad reception for themselves; but that successor had little if any +control over, or influence with, the members of his own cabinet, and not +much with Congress or the Federal party, by whom the policy of his +administration was shaped. With them Hamilton's opinions established the +rule of action. In respect to the two latter, this arose mainly from the +sway he was capable of exerting over them by the force of his great +talents, and from a general concurrence in his views. In respect to the +prominent members of Mr. Adams's cabinet his control arose from the +power he had in part acquired over their minds whilst they were also +members of General Washington's administration. Timothy Pickering, who, +after the retirement of Mr. Jefferson and the brief term of Randolph, +was Secretary of State under both Presidents, was a remarkable man, +sincere and honest, I am willing to believe, in his political opinions, +but savagely bitter in his feelings toward his opponents. It seemed +pretty much a matter of course in him to hate those to whose political +course he was opposed, and, as is usually the case with minds thus +constituted, he was equally bigoted in his devotion to those with whom +he agreed and acted. + +General Hamilton was his _beau ideal_ of a politician and statesman, and +it would not have been an easy matter in him to have dissented from any +opinion positively advanced by Hamilton, whatever his own first +impressions on the subject might have been. Mr. McHenry, Secretary of +War in both cabinets, was undoubtedly an honorable and well-disposed +gentleman. He was, in the opinion of those who had the best +opportunities for judging, including Washington and Hamilton, not +entirely competent for the duties of his office, and that circumstance +drove him the more to rely for support on Hamilton, for whom he +cherished an early and ardent friendship. His personal devotion to +Hamilton was such as to prevent Mr. Adams from longer overlooking his +incompetency, as Washington had done, and precipitated his resignation. +Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, the member of his cabinet +most trusted by President Adams because the least suspected, was, +notwithstanding, the one among his official advisers who went the +greatest lengths to testify his entire allegiance to Hamilton, who had +been the artificer of his political fortunes from the beginning and by +whose influence he had been advanced to the high position he occupied. +Throughout he advised with and was assisted by Hamilton in the +performance of his official duties. Such was Hamilton's "power over his +mind" that he was applied to successfully by the former for evidence of +facts to be derived from the treasury archives to sustain an attack that +Hamilton contemplated making upon the President--an attack that he did +make, although he acknowledged to Wolcott that it would not be regarded +as proper that he should have received the evidence at his hands, and +that that fact ought not therefore to be known. + +No one can read the correspondence between General Hamilton and Mr. +Wolcott, as recently published with Hamilton's Works, without regretting +that the parties to it should have been so forgetful of the proprieties +due to the occasions to which it relates, or without a disposition to +excuse the strong expression of Mr. Charles F. Adams, in speaking of his +grandfather's cabinet, applied to Mr. Wolcott "as the most venomous +serpent of them all." + +Mr. Charles F. Adams places Hamilton's sway over the mind of Washington +upon the same footing with that which he exerted over the executive +department, composed principally of the members of his second cabinet of +whom we have been speaking. From this view I entirely dissent. If +Hamilton possessed any power over the mind of Washington, it was of a +very different character from that which he exercised over those +members. Washington was to an unusual extent free from the weakness of +overrating his own powers; with just conceptions of his capacities for +public service he was always ready to place them at the public disposal, +but he was very far from pretending to qualifications which he did not +possess. No one was more sensible than he that the science of civil +government--the construction of constitutions and the administration of +the civil affairs of the State--were not best learned in the camp, where +so large a portion of his life had been spent. He therefore, as we have +seen, selected two of the ablest statesmen in the country, particularly +versed in those portions of the public business which he devolved upon +them. They differed irreconcilably in respect to the policy of the +administration, and in the performance of his duty he decided between +their conflicting opinions in favor of those of Hamilton. Preferring the +policy of the latter he adopted the measures he recommended to carry it +out, which happened also to appertain principally to Hamilton's +department, and sustained him in their execution. In doing so he but +sustained the measures of his administration and views which were either +originally his own or made such upon conviction. Participating in the +general opinion in favor of Hamilton's remarkable talents, having full +opportunities to judge of his character, and confiding in his integrity, +he extended to him, it is true, but with the purest motives, the degree +of countenance and trust which established his extraordinary power and +influence. Of the consequences, as well to his administration as to the +country, we will have much to say hereafter. But it would be a great +mistake to suppose that there ever was a period at which, or a +transaction between them in which, their relative positions, rights, and +duties were either forgotten or disregarded. It was well understood that +the degree of weight to be attached to Hamilton's advice would depend +upon the unbiased opinion which Washington himself should form of its +soundness, influenced as he naturally would be, and always was, by a +conviction of Hamilton's undoubted integrity, and his superior capacity +for the decision of the question under consideration. There certainly +never was a time when the slightest indication of a desire or design on +the part of Hamilton to sway the mind of Washington in his official acts +through his personal influence, or by any considerations which did not +point distinctly and exclusively to the public good, would not have been +peremptorily and indignantly repelled. It is evident from the whole +tenor of Washington's life that no man ever lived who was more tenacious +of self-respect, or more absolute in his reservation of the right to +judge for himself of what belonged to his individual independence and +personal dignity, or more prompt to resist every attempt to encroach +upon either. No one understood his temperament in that respect better +than General Hamilton, or would have been less likely to bring himself +in conflict with it. Many indications of this understanding and of its +effects are to be found in the accounts of their personal intercourse. +The correspondence between them in regard to the discreditable use that +Washington thought was being made in Congress of the sufferings and +dissatisfaction of the army, already referred to, will be found to throw +much light upon the sense of both as to the nature of their personal +relations. + +In June, 1793, Hamilton announced to President Washington, that +considerations relative both to the public interest and _his own +dignity_ had brought his mind to the conclusion to resign his office at +the termination of the close of the next session of Congress, and one of +the reasons he assigned for delaying his final retirement to that period +was to give Congress an opportunity to complete the investigation that +had been instituted in regard to his official conduct. In March +thereafter Hamilton informed the President that the committee charged to +inquire, among other things, "into the authority of the President +respecting the making and disbursement of the loans under certain acts +of Congress," were about to meet. He sent to him at the same time, a +copy of a paper he had presented to the committee, containing his +opinion in relation to the proper limits of a legislative inquiry, but +said that he deemed it expedient to fix in advance, with the President, +on the true state of facts, of which he proceeded to make a statement, +and requested the President to sanction it. General Washington soon +thereafter made a declaration, in the form of a letter to Hamilton, of +his recollections and opinions in respect to the matter. The latter, in +reply, protested vehemently against the sufficiency of the declaration +for the protection of his honor, and in a letter of considerable length, +written with his usual ability, undertook to show that the character of +the President's declaration would enable, his (Hamilton's) enemies to +say that "the reserve of the President is a proof that he does not think +that Hamilton's representations are true, else his justice would have +led him to rescue the officer concerned even from suspicion upon the +point." + +The subject of loans and their frequency produced much excitement in +Congress, and not a few calls upon the President and the Secretary of +the Treasury for information in regard to them. It does not appear from +the published works of Hamilton, that any answer was made by General +Washington to his letter, or any other explanation of the subject; and +no one, I think, can read the correspondence without feeling that the +interpretation I give to its abrupt termination is the correct one, +viz.: that Washington intended by his silence to reprove the freedom of +Hamilton's letter. The resignation of the latter was deferred, with the +approbation of the President, till January, 1795, when it was accepted +in a letter from General Washington, containing an approval of +Hamilton's official conduct as full as words could make it.[15] + + [15] Hamilton's _Works_, Vol. IV. pp. 436, 510, 516, 562; Vol. V. + pp. 74, 78. + +The construction I have placed upon the character of their personal +relations is also sustained by a correspondence between them in May, +1798, after Hamilton's retirement from office, which will be found in +the sixth volume of Hamilton's "Works," at p. 289. Hamilton's object +appears to have been to impress the mind of Washington with a proper +sense of the dangerous crisis which had arrived in the condition of +public affairs. His letter contains the following extraordinary +paragraph: "I am sincere in declaring my full conviction, as the result +of a long course of observation, that the faction which has for years +opposed the government are ready to remodel our Constitution under the +influence or _coercion_ of France, to form with her a perpetual +alliance, _offensive and defensive_, and to give her a monopoly of our +trade, by _peculiar_ and exclusive privileges. This would be in +substance, whatever it might be in name, to make this country a province +of France. Neither do I doubt that her standard displayed in this +country would be directly or indirectly seconded by them in pursuance of +the project I have mentioned." + +In such a state of things it was impossible, he said, not to look up to +him, (Washington,) and to wish that his influence might, in some proper +way, be brought into direct action, and he added: "Among the ideas that +have passed through my mind for this purpose, I have asked myself +whether it might not be expedient for you to make a circuit through +Virginia and North Carolina under some pretense of health, &c. This +would call forth addresses, public dinners, &c., which would give an +opportunity of expressing sentiments in answers, toasts, &c., which +would throw the weight of your character into the scale of the +government, and revive enthusiasm for your person which might be turned +into the right channel." + +Although Washington himself had been highly excited, by the course of +events, against those to whom Hamilton attributed such treasonable +designs, he was yet enabled by his good sense and by his knowledge of +his countrymen to see at a glance the reckless extravagance of +Hamilton's imputations, and he was doubtless dissatisfied with the uses, +little creditable, which it was proposed to make of himself. His answer +was a truly imposing production. It narrowed Hamilton's description of +the portions of his countrymen whose course he deemed objectionable, +virtually disapproved his charges by giving his own views of the extent +of the danger which was to be apprehended from those whose patriotism +Hamilton so grossly impeached, and placed the objectionable character of +the course recommended to him in a striking light by showing that, his +health never having been better, he would be obliged to commence his +journey with the propagation of a falsehood. + +Those who wish to read these letters will do well to look for them in +Hamilton's "Works," as I am sorry to say that in Mr. Sparks's "Writings +of Washington" the above extract from Hamilton's letter, containing his +suggestion of an electioneering tour in the South by Washington, is +omitted, and the whole paragraph in Washington's reply, in which he +rejects and virtually rebukes it, suppressed. Neither is that part of +Hamilton's letter given in which he denounces "the powerful faction +which has for years opposed the government" with fanatical violence, +(for his description of them deserves no other name,) whilst what +Washington says upon that point is set forth with considerable +aggravation. The results of those omissions and suppressions are not +only to conceal the fact that such a proposition was made to Washington, +and the grounds upon which he declined to adopt it, but his remarks, +condemnatory of a portion of his fellow-citizens, are left to stand as +voluntary denunciations of his own instead of, as they in truth were, +modifications of the charges to which Hamilton had called his attention. + +I have thus selected a few transactions between these great men, +occurring at long intervals and embracing the entire period of their +intercourse, to show that the influence which it must be conceded +Hamilton exercised over Washington's conduct in the civil service of his +country was not of the character which is commonly understood and +intended by the imputation of it in the case of high official +personages, and which necessarily involves the sacrifice of personal +independence and, at least in some degree, of self-respect on the part +of the person influenced. + +Anecdotes of distinguished men are always interesting, although their +accuracy is not so reliable, of course, as that of statements +substantiated by their own writings. I was told of one, several years +since, which struck me as throwing light upon this subject of the +personal relations between Washington and his immediate associates and +friends. So thinking, and especially as General Hamilton was in one +sense a party concerned, I have recently obtained reliable testimony of +its authenticity. Judge Fine, the writer of the following note, is well +known in New York, and not a little in other States; he has been a State +Senator, a Representative in Congress, a State Judge, &c., &c., and is +regarded as a gentleman of the utmost probity and of superior +intelligence. Judge Burnet, with whom I have served in the United States +Senate, was also well known as a gentleman in whose statements entire +confidence might be placed, and was, withal, a Hamiltonian Federalist, +and never, politically, any thing else; in whose eyes, I am very sure, +any statement disparaging to the memory of either Washington or Hamilton +would have appeared a grave offense against morality and truth. + + +FROM JOHN FINE. + + OGDENSBURG, N. Y., _April 30, 1857_. + + Hon. M. VAN BUREN: + + DEAR SIR,--During the session of the Presbyterian General Assembly + in Cincinnati--May, 1852--I dined twice at the hospitable mansion of + Hon. Jacob Burnet, now deceased. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, + in 1770, and was the son of Dr. William Burnet, who was in the + medical service of his country through the Revolution. + + Judge Burnet was acquainted with our early distinguished statesmen, + and his conversation was rich in the recollection of their manners + and characters. He related an anecdote of Washington which he had + from the lips of Alexander Hamilton. + + When the Convention to form a Constitution was sitting in + Philadelphia in 1787, of which General Washington was President, he + had stated evenings to receive the calls of his friends. At an + interview between Hamilton, the Morrises, and others, the former + remarked that Washington was reserved and aristocratic even to his + intimate friends, and allowed no one to be familiar with him. + Gouverneur Morris said that was a mere fancy, and he could be as + familiar with Washington as with any of his other friends. Hamilton + replied, "If you will, at the next reception evening, gently slap + him on the shoulder and say, 'My dear General, how happy I am to see + you look so well!' a supper and wine shall be provided for you and a + dozen of your friends." + + The challenge was accepted. On the evening appointed a large number + attended, and at an early hour Gouverneur Morris entered, bowed, + shook hands, laid his left hand on Washington's shoulder, and said: + "My dear General, I am very happy to see you look so well!" + Washington withdrew his hand, stepped suddenly back, fixed his eye + on Morris for several minutes with an angry frown, until the latter + retreated abashed and sought refuge in the crowd. The company looked + on in silence. + + At the supper which was provided by Hamilton, Morris said: "I have + won the bet but paid dearly for it, and nothing could induce me to + repeat it." + + Yours truly, + JOHN FINE. + + +Better proof of the truth of this statement could not, at this day, be +expected or desired, and assuming it to be substantially true, the +transaction, in my estimation, illustrates the character of the personal +relations that existed between Washington and the two distinguished men, +Hamilton and Morris, who, in respect to the management of public +affairs, enjoyed perhaps his fullest confidence. + +It is without doubt true, that in his intercourse with public men +Washington observed an extraordinary degree of dignified reserve, and +there is every reason to believe that this invariable habit was natural +to him, and in no degree assumed for effect. We indeed know nothing of +his character if he was at all capable of practicing the low device of +hiding mental deficiencies under a wise look and a mysterious manner, +which is sometimes the resort of meaner minds; but some such foundation +(or some degree of it) for his habit must have been presupposed by the +very unusual proceeding of Morris and it is quite impossible to believe +that a man was in danger of being unduly influenced by his personal +friends who could thus, by the power of his eye and the solemnity of his +countenance, abash and punish the presumption of a man of Morris's +standing, confessedly the sauciest man in his society, without causing +the slightest confusion or excitement in the surrounding company. + +He had nothing to conceal; he never desired to pass for more than he was +worth, and there have been few men who formed a juster estimate of their +own qualifications and capacities. In respect to military affairs he was +evidently self-reliant, but not more so than was justified by his large +experience and by the success which had crowned his efforts; but neither +in that nor in any other department was he above receiving advice. In +the intricate and complex affairs of civil administration, and in grave +questions of constitutional construction and of national law, he felt +that his experience and study had been much less than those of some who +were associated with him in the public service, and he did not hesitate +to recognize the difference. The principal aid he could bring to the +settlement of such questions consisted of a clear head, a sound +judgment, and an honest heart. These he never failed to apply after such +questions had been prepared for decision by the previous examination and +discussions of those of his cabinet whose attention had been more +directed to them than his own. To secure these prerequisites he had, as +I have said before, availed himself of the highest talent which the +country afforded, without reference to distinctions of party. + +This was the way in which he dealt with the grave questions that arose +during the early stages of his administration, touching the numerous and +complicated difficulties between us and our old friend and ally France, +the reception and treatment of her ministers, Genet and his successor +Adet, our assumption of a neutral position between European +belligerents, the claims of France under the treaty of alliance and +guaranty, the powers of Congress under the Constitution in relation to a +national bank, and other subjects. In respect to the first of these +matters he went so far as to consult Hamilton by letter on the question +of his own personal demeanor at a Presidential levee toward the French +minister, by whose conduct he had been offended. Whatever may be our +regret at finding the confidential note asking that advice preserved to +so late a period and now recklessly published, we may yet be satisfied +that the step itself only affords additional evidence of the prudence +and manliness of Washington's character. Few men stood less in need of +advice in respect to his treatment of those who had given him offense in +a matter purely personal; but it was natural for him to assume that the +usages of diplomacy had settled rules for the action of the heads of +government in such cases, of which he was not informed and in respect to +which he was not ashamed to ask advice and information from proper +sources. The constancy with which he invoked the aid of his cabinet upon +all questions of the general character to which I have alluded, the +unreserved manner in which he submitted them to their consideration, the +delicacy with which he withheld his opinions until theirs were +pronounced, and the spirit in which these were received, whether +agreeing with or differing from his own, were above all praise. The +information we possess of the details of those interesting proceedings +is principally derived from Mr. Jefferson, and in all that he has +written or in all that we have understood him to have said upon the +subject no word of complaint or allegation at variance with the +description here given of them is to be found. The idea that Washington +ever sought to advance his objects by indirect or exceptionable means, +or that he was actuated in his public measures by any other motive than +an honest desire to promote the good of his country, seems never to have +presented itself to Mr. Jefferson's mind, however erroneous he +considered some of those measures. I spent some days with him, as I have +elsewhere described,[16] two years before his death, and in the course +of our repeated conversations he dwelt long and particularly upon these +early transactions. I attributed the circumstance at the time to a +desire, consistent with his very genial disposition, to gratify my +curiosity, which was strong and not concealed; and it did not occur to +me that he might have had other views, until, after my return home, I +received his long letter avowedly written for the purpose for which I +now use it, "to throw light on history, and to recall that into the path +of truth when he was no more, nor those whom it might offend." In all +that he said--and he spoke with perfect freedom of men and things--there +was nothing inconsistent with the inference I have here drawn from his +writings, but much to confirm it. The President's decisions upon cabinet +questions were generally in favor of Hamilton's views; but that +circumstance, very much to his credit, was not permitted to influence +Jefferson's estimate of motives, but was regarded as the natural result +of Washington's general sympathy with Hamilton's political opinions, and +his confidence in his ability and integrity,--a sympathy, however, that +never even approached the subject of a change in the existing form of +our Government. That was a question as to which we have the best reason +to believe that Washington would have never taken counsel except from +his God and his conscience. He more than once declared to Jefferson +"that he was determined that the republican form of our Government +should have a fair chance of success, and that he would, if necessary, +spill the last drop of his blood in its defense,"--a resolution, and the +likelihood of its being sustained, that no one understood better than +Hamilton. + + [16] See Note on page 9. + +By these repeated declarations to Mr. Jefferson, Washington only renewed +to a civilian, whose character and position made them the more +significant and impressive, a pledge which he had given to the world at +Newburgh in the presence of the companions of his glory, yet with arms +in their hands--that his name should never be added to the list of those +who, having done much to emancipate a people from thralldom, were the +first to blast their hopes and sacrifice their dearest interests at the +promptings of selfish and unhallowed passions. They only proved that the +flattery of the world during the ten intervening years had not corrupted +his heart nor endangered the observance of a pledge which had derived +its value from the character of the man who gave it, and on whose +continued fidelity to the principle it involved the future liberties and +welfare of his country were in so large a degree dependent. + +It has always been believed that if Washington had inclined a favorable +ear to the suggestions of the Newburgh letters, and in due season had +given his name and influence to the counter-revolution they were +intended to promote, it might have been made successful, and the system +which the Revolution had overthrown might have been in some modified +form restored. The disparity between the means which were at his +disposal when propositions looking to such a result were thrown before +the army at Newburgh and those within his reach when the declarations to +Mr. Jefferson were made was not as great as might be supposed. At the +former period it is true that the army of the Revolution was yet in the +field, mortified, irritated, and indeed highly inflamed by the assumed +injustice and ingratitude of their country, and in all probability +prepared to follow his lead in furtherance of any views he might +disclose which did not exceed the proposed limits; and the government to +be overthrown was feeble, distracted, destitute of the sinews of war, +and with but a slight hold upon the confidence and affections of the +people. But it must also be remembered that the fervor and spirit of the +Revolution--that intense hatred of royalty and monarchical institutions +in any shape--which had roused the country to the contest, had as yet in +no sensible degree abated amongst the masses, neither had they +surrendered those sanguine anticipations of the blessings and advantages +of republican government by which their hearts had been fortified and +their arms strengthened for the struggle. That any attempt to bring +about a counter-revolution under such circumstances, however popular the +name and character of him by whom it was sanctioned, or however +imposing the means by which it was sustained, would meet with a +formidable opposition from the great body of the people was certain; and +it was not easy to estimate the nature and extent of the resistance that +might spring from the sources to which I have referred to confront an +army which had so lately been the object of their unalloyed admiration +and affection. + +In the lapse of time between that period and the one at which Mr. +Jefferson received the assurances he describes great changes had taken +place in respect to all these matters, but, as I have said, not so +adverse as might on first impression be supposed to the practicability +of an attempt such as Washington referred to. The army of the Revolution +had indeed been dissolved, and, in regard to the elements of which it +was principally composed, beyond recall; but its officers, who, next to +Washington, were capable of giving a tone and direction to the spirit of +the troops, were alive, several of them again under his command, not a +few about his person, and all filled with unabated admiration and +affection for their idolized chief. If the account given us by Mr. +Jefferson of the feelings he found most prevalent in our principal +cities and at the seat of government on his return from France and in +his progress to Philadelphia, to take upon himself the office of +Secretary of State, is to be relied upon,--and many important +contemporaneous occurrences corroborate his statement,--sad changes had +taken place in the public opinion and feeling, of absorbing interest in +this connection. "The President," he says, "received me cordially, and +my colleagues and the circle of principal citizens apparently with +welcome. The courtesies of dinner-parties given me, as a stranger newly +arrived among them, placed me at once in familiar society. But I cannot +describe the wonder and mortification with which the table conversations +filled me. Politics were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly +over republican governments was evidently the favorite sentiment." In +his description of what he heard and saw there can be no mistake; but it +is more than probable that changes among the people at large, upon the +point spoken of, had not occurred to any thing like the same extent as +among those portions of society to which he more particularly refers. +Still it is undeniably true that from the influence of examples set by +men in high places, from the difficulties under which the late +government had labored, and from other causes, there had been at that +moment a falling off from the true faith respecting governments and the +administration of them which could now be scarcely credited. Add to +these favoring circumstances the fact that the man, without whose +countenance or cooperation no reactionary attempt would have been +thought of even by the rankest advocate for monarchical institutions, +was at the head of the Government to be overthrown, and the unquestioned +object of the national confidence and affection, and the scheme, with +his cooperation, was not likely to be then regarded as so impracticable +as it would now certainly be considered. If such a work were at this day +thought of by any man or men, however elevated in position or loved by +the people, they could reap no other harvest than contempt and derision; +but the single fact that Washington, who always handled serious matters +seriously, and who was not liable to be alarmed by "false fires," +treated the subject as he did, is sufficient to mark the difference +between the condition of the country and of the public mind then and +now. + +But happily for us he was the same man in 1793 that he was in 1783. The +principle upon which he acted upon both occasions was maintained through +life without spot or blemish. The world believed, and for the best +reasons, that he had refused to become the master of a people, whose +liberties he had, through the favor of God and the fortitude and bravery +of his countrymen, been made instrumental to establish, because he +deemed it a higher honor to be their servant. It compared his acts with +those of the Caesars, of Cromwell, and of Napoleon, and glorified his +name above that of any other mortal man. Such has been his reward for +his faithfulness to the most sacred of human trusts--a reward and a +fidelity unparalleled! Services have been rendered in every age which +entitled the actors in them to the gratitude of their country, and to +the thanks of mankind, but lacking the distinguishing feature of +Washington's, their traces have become fainter with the lapse of time, +whilst the remembrance of his unequaled merits grows more distinct and +strong with each revolving year. + +That he committed grave errors in giving his sanction, probably with +considerable reluctance, to some of the measures of his administration, +is certain. I say this not merely on the strength of my own poor +opinion, but because such is the unreserved and irreversible judgment of +the country, to which, under a republican government, the acts of all +public men are subjected. But the assent which he gave to these measures +was never, even by those most opposed to them, attributed to him as a +fault, but was regarded only as an honest error of opinion; and hence +the extraordinary political phenomenon of a party having its origin in +the adoption by him of those measures expelling from power his immediate +successor, who claimed to act upon his principles, placing those +principles by protracted and diligent efforts under the ban of public +opinion, and keeping them and their supporters there, in the main, for +more than half a century--and yet being not a whit behind those who +approved them in its respect for his name and character, because its +members, in the eloquent language of Mr. Jefferson, "would not suffer +the temporary aberration to weigh against the immeasurable merits of his +life; and although they tumbled his seducers from their places, they +preserved his memory embalmed in their hearts with undiminished love and +devotion, and there it forever will remain embalmed in entire oblivion +of every temporary thing which might cloud the glories of his splendid +life." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + The Fact that Hamilton shaped and guided the Administrations of + Washington and John Adams at the Time generally believed, now + clearly established--Occasions when his Influence did not + prevail--His Views and Purposes on entering the Cabinet--Some of + his early Measures not authorized by the Constitution--True + Character of that Instrument--Hamilton as Secretary of the + Treasury--His extraordinary Ability--His exaggerated Ideas as to + the Embarrassments of the Country--Unfounded Alarm at that Period + on the Subjects of the Public Debt and Public Revenues--Device for + surmounting Constitutional Obstacles to Hamilton's Plan--Source of + the Doctrine of Implied Powers--Foundation of Hamilton's Policy + under his Construction of the Constitution--His Measures and the + Effects he anticipated from them--The Funding System--The Weakening + of State Authority a leading Feature of Hamilton's Policy--Further + Aims and other "Stages of Improvement"--Hamilton's Report on + Manufactures; its Ability, Spirit, and Political Effects upon its + Author and his Party--Hamilton's Desire to build up in this Country + a "Money Power" similar to that of England--Such a Power + antagonistic to the Democratic Spirit of our People--The Real + Object of Hamilton in endeavoring to transplant the System + here--His temporary Success, and the Influence thereof in forming a + School that survived him--His Motives and the Convictions upon + which they were Founded. + + +That the policy of every administration of the Federal Government for +the first twelve years of its existence was shaped, and the action of +the Federal party guided, by the opinions and advice of Hamilton, was +the general impression of the opponents of that party, and of course +known to the leading Federalists. I have in another place[17] referred +to the fact that Mr. Jefferson, in all my conversations with him in +1824, when he spoke of the course pursued by the Federal party, +invariably personified it by saying "Hamilton" did or insisted thus; +and, on the other hand, "the Republicans" held or claimed so and so; and +that upon my calling his attention to the peculiarity of his expression, +he smiled and attributed his habit to the universal conviction of the +Republicans that Hamilton directed every thing. But the evidence they +possessed of the truth of that impression was slight indeed in +comparison with that which is now before the country. They had only the +opinions given in the cabinet upon the important public questions that +arose during that period, with the decisions of the President upon them +and other public documents relating to them, and the general conjectural +impressions on the minds of politicians, which can seldom be traced to +any specific authority, in respect to the influence which governs the +action of parties. The additions now made by the publication of +Hamilton's private papers alone, and more especially when they are read +in connection with those of other distinguished public men, prove those +impressions to have been well founded, and to an extent far beyond what +was even imagined in those days. I had read these papers with care, and, +I hope, weighed their contents with candor, before I gave my assent to +the declaration of Mr. Charles F. Adams upon the subject, quoted on +p. 96 above. Many of General Washington's letters to Hamilton are +marked "private," and some "private and confidential." It is not for me +to decide upon the propriety of their publication, however much I may +regret that the friends of the latter should have deemed that course +necessary in respect to many of them. I content myself with a general +reference to those which have a bearing upon the point under +consideration, without making extracts or adding remarks explanatory of +their tendency and effect. The letters between Washington and Hamilton +more particularly in point will be found in the fifth volume of +Hamilton's "Works," p. 106, in answer to letter at p. 12; and in the +sixth volume, at pp. 19, 34, 35, 36, 52, 63, 64, 73, 90, 143, 156, 179, +197; those between Hamilton and members of Washington's cabinet, in the +sixth volume, at pp. 29, 41, 67, 129, 238. + + [17] See note, p. 9. + +The steps taken by General Hamilton to shape the policy and to prescribe +the action of Mr. Adams's administration were designed to embrace its +entire course, and were carried into effect with but little respect for +the wishes or opinions of its constitutional head. Three weeks had not +elapsed after Mr. Adams's inauguration before General Hamilton wrote a +letter to Mr. Pickering, Secretary of State, in which he expressed "his +extreme anxiety that an exactly proper course should be pursued in +regard to France," and suggested for his consideration, under seven +different heads, what he thought that course ought to be. The Secretary +was not requested to submit these views to the President, nor was any +desire indicated that he should do so, nor any notice taken of the +President in the letter further than may be found in the closing +paragraph,--"The executive, before Congress meet, ought to have a +_well-digested plan_ and _cooperate_ in getting it adopted." + +If there was a single instance in which Hamilton, in his numerous +letters of advice to the Secretaries, requested them to submit his views +to the consideration of the President, it has escaped my observation. He +was several times spoken of, but generally as to what he ought to do and +what he might or might not be induced to do. The letters and papers +bearing upon the subject will be found in the sixth volume of Hamilton's +"Works," at pp. 213, 215, 218, 246, 250, 251, 252, 269, 278, 292, 294, +381, 444, 447, 471, 477, 484. + +During the whole period Hamilton was regarded as the leader of the +Federal party by most of the prominent members of that party,--Mr. Adams +and a few of his friends excepted,--by those who represented the country +abroad, by members of Congress, &c., &c. He was considered the fountain +head of partisan authority, was freely applied to for advice, and gave +it when it was asked, and quite as freely when it was not. He from time +to time furnished members of Congress with specifications of steps +proper to be taken, in one of which will be found suggested the passage +of the celebrated sedition law. A few instances of his interference in +this form will be found in Volume V. Hamilton's "Works," pp. 79, 86, and +in Volume VI. at pp. 92, 94, 381, 383, 390. + +The most important, if not the only occasions on which the influence of +Hamilton over the action of the Federal party was exerted without +success, were those of the formation of the Federal Constitution, and +the support of Aaron Burr, by that party, for President, and for +Governor of New York in 1801 and 1804. The first can scarcely be +regarded, however, as such an occasion, because it was one in which +party distinctions were merged in a compromise to which he himself +ultimately assented. The others belong to the number of those occasions +which, from time to time, present themselves in the history of all +political parties, when the lust of power overrides the advice of their +ablest and best friends. A party which has been long out of power, or +which, having long held it, is threatened with imminent danger of losing +it, can rarely resist the temptation when it is presented of securing +success by dividing its opponents. Such a temptation is almost always +strong enough to silence other objections, and Hamilton, on those +occasions, shared the fate of party leaders who place their individual +influence in opposition to the excited passions and short-sighted +schemes of their party. + +It was my fortune to hear Hamilton's great speech against the support of +Burr for the office of Governor of New York by the Federalists of the +State. I happened to visit Albany on the day appointed for the meeting, +in company with William P. Van Ness, who was a few months afterwards +Burr's second in his duel with Hamilton; and we lodged, as we were in +the habit of doing, at _Lewis's Tavern_, the place where the meeting was +to be held. Our room adjoined and communicated with the larger one in +which the meeting took place; and after its organization, Mr. Van Ness +threw open the door between the rooms, giving us a full view of the +assemblage and exposing our presence to them. I mention these +circumstances, which I recollect well, because it is my impression that +it was very unusual at that day for politicians of one party to attend +the meetings of the other. Mr. Van Ness and myself differed +irreconcilably in respect to the support of Colonel Burr, but we were +both members of the Republican party. The meeting consisted of about one +hundred very respectable looking men, generally well advanced in life, +and I remember many gray heads among them. Such was a gathering of the +Federalists, in a city in which they had complete control, called +together to hear the leader of their party, decidedly the most eloquent +man of his day, a little more than fifty years ago. _Quantum mutatus!_ +My seat was so near to Hamilton that I could hear distinctly every word +he said, and three impressions of the scene are still strong in my +memory--his imposing manner and stirring eloquence, the obvious +disinclination of the larger portion of his audience to be governed by +his advice, notwithstanding the unbounded respect and love they bore +him, and the marked indignation which often sparkled on the countenance +of Van Ness whilst he was speaking. + +Preferring monarchical institutions because he conscientiously believed +that republican government could not be maintained "consistently with +order," but satisfied that public opinion would not then admit of their +establishment in this country, and indisposed for the reasons I have +assigned to advocate the use of force for that purpose, yet expecting a +crisis to arrive by which the opinions of the people would be changed, +or the use of force be rendered justifiable, Hamilton entered the +cabinet of President Washington determined to recommend a line of policy +and the adoption of measures, which, whilst they would give the +Government sufficient power to sustain itself against the democratic +spirit of the country,--always the object of his dread,--would not be +out of place when a resort to the English model, the object of his +life-long choice, should have become necessary. If, in the execution of +this policy, he had confined himself to the powers intended to be +conferred upon the Federal Government by the Constitution, however much +his conduct might have been censured on account of the anti-republican +spirit it evinced, it would nevertheless have presented a very different +aspect to posterity. But this was unhappily far from his intention. No +one knew better than Hamilton that power to adopt some of the most +important of the measures included in the chart he had devised for the +action of the Federal Government was not designed to be granted to it +either by those who framed, or by those who had adopted the +Constitution, and that if there had been any reason to suspect that that +instrument conferred such powers there would not have been the slightest +chance for its ratification. + +The Convention that framed the Constitution was well aware that the +portion of its labors which related to the extent of the powers to be +given to the new government was that upon which the public mind was +most sensitive. It was not ignorant how far the apprehensions of the +people upon that point had, through the entire period of our colonial +history, prevented the establishment of any general government, and even +the institution of one since the Declaration of Independence that was +adequate to the necessities of the country. It knew that the powers +given to Congress, particularly, would be the part of the Constitution +to which the attention of the friends of the State governments would be +directed, and upon which their opposition would be most likely to arise. +Understanding these things, the Convention, with that good sense and +prudence by which its entire course was so greatly distinguished, +bestowed upon that branch of its business the utmost care and +circumspection. Instead of describing the power given to Congress in +general terms, as was done by Hamilton, in the plan submitted by him for +its adoption,--viz.: "To pass all laws which they shall judge necessary +to the common defense and general welfare of the Union,"--by which much +would of necessity be left to the discretion of those who were to +execute the power, the Convention specified the powers it intended to +grant under seventeen heads, and described them in the simplest and +plainest language, so that none should be at a loss to understand their +import. So well was this design executed that no room for doubt or cavil +remained to those who had no other desire than to arrive at the meaning +of the framers of the Constitution. + +Here the Convention might have stopped, for no implication could have +been more unavoidable than that Congress should have the right to +promulgate the rules they adopted by the enactment of laws. But as if +aware of the uses which the able men from whom it apprehended opposition +might make of the fact that a necessity of a resort to implication had +been left by the instrument, it granted that power also in express +terms. The principal part of that clause was moreover designed to +constitute Congress the law-maker for the other great departments of the +government, and to exclude the idea that they should also have the power +of legislation. + +Having thus, as it thought, guarded the work of its hands from +misrepresentation or misinterpretation upon what it justly considered +the most delicate and, if disregarded, the most vulnerable point, and +having framed a Constitution with which all friends to republican +principles ought to be satisfied, the Convention appealed with +confidence to the ratifying conventions, and in doing so it did no more +than justice to those bodies,--the instrument, thus guarded, was +ultimately ratified by the votes of all the States. + +If Hamilton, either in the articles of the "Federalist," to which he +largely contributed, or on the floor of the Convention of Ratification, +of which he was a member, had only countenanced that construction of the +Constitution which he set up for it as Secretary of the Treasury, or if +in any other way a suspicion had been produced that it was intended to +give that instrument such a construction after its ratification, its +rejection would have been inevitable. No one who has studied the state +of the public mind at that period can for a moment doubt that this would +have been the result. Such was the true character of the Constitution +which the people of the United States intended to establish, and thought +they had established, and such were the circumstances under which it was +ratified. + +Hamilton was placed by Washington virtually at the head of his +administration; for, although the Secretary of State has, since that +period, been regarded in that light, no such impression had then +obtained, and in the government of Great Britain, to which attention +had been most directed, it was otherwise. The Treasury Department +wielded infinitely the most influence, and the superior confidence of +the President in the incumbent decided the point of priority, at least +for the time being. Perhaps the only question in respect to Hamilton +upon which there has never been any diversity of sentiment was in regard +to his talents. That they were of the highest order was the opinion of +all who knew him. Jefferson scarcely ever spoke of him in his letters to +Madison without admonishing him of the extraordinary powers of his mind, +and in one of them he says,--"Hamilton is really a Colossus to the +Anti-Republican party; without numbers he is a host in himself. In truth +when he comes forward there is nobody but yourself (Madison) that can +meet him." When I was Minister of the United States in England I saw +much of Prince Talleyrand, then French Ambassador at the same Court, and +enjoyed relations of marked kindness with him. In my informal visits to +him we had long and frequent conversations, in which Hamilton, his +acquaintance with him in this country, and incidents in their +intercourse, were his favorite themes. He always spoke with great +admiration of his talents, and during the last evening that I spent with +him he said that he regarded Hamilton as the ablest man he became +acquainted with in America,--he was not sure that he might not add +without injustice, or that he had known in Europe.[18] With such +advantages, greater at that time certainly than the public service of +any country afforded to any other man, it is difficult to conceive of a +more commanding position than that which he occupied. With a mind that +dwelt habitually upon great ideas, the political career of such a man +could not fail to produce important results for good or for evil. It +must not, however, be forgotten, for it is a truth which exerted a +powerful influence on his whole course, that he was at the same time, as +his friend Morris described him, "more a theoretic than a practical +man." It was natural that a mind so easily excited and an imagination so +vivid as Hamilton's seem always to have been, should have formed +exaggerated ideas as well of the extent and character of the +embarrassments under which the country was laboring, as of the causes +from which they sprang. These were undoubtedly very serious, very +difficult to be dealt with; and it is equally true that they had been +greatly aggravated by, if they were not, as he was very willing to +consider them, mainly attributable to the defects of the former federal +system. But there was some misapprehension, and no small degree of +exaggeration upon these points. We are indeed an imaginative people, and +the transfer of our fathers to a new country and climate doubtless +accounts for the great difference in this respect between ours and the +cool, deliberate, and unimpressible temperaments and character retained +by those in Europe who have the same descent. It was not to have been +expected that a country so young as our own, and as unprepared, could +have passed through a seven years' war with a powerful nation without +involving itself in grave embarrassments; but when the extent of those +embarrassments, the difficulties of dealing with them, and the then +resources of the country are now regarded, it seems impossible to avoid +the conclusion that the grounds for the alarm then so prevalent upon the +subjects of the public credit and the public revenues were greatly +overrated. + + [18] At the same interview Talleyrand told me an anecdote which, + considering the depressed condition of Colonel Burr at the period to + which it referred, I thought descriptive of a harsh act on the part + of my informer, and I do not repeat it without hesitation. "Burr," + he said, "called in pursuance of a previous communication from him, + and, his card being brought up, he directed the messenger to say + that he could not receive a visit from Colonel Burr, and referred + him, for an explanation of his refusal, to a painting hanging over + the mantel-piece in the antechamber, which was a portrait of + Hamilton." + + The visit was probably one of courtesy, with a possible hope of + being able to enlist Talleyrand in his (Burr's) Mexican schemes. + +Our whole foreign debt amounted to but twelve millions of dollars, +payable by installments, the last of which did not become due until +seven years thereafter. The domestic debt amounted to forty-two +millions, for the payment of which the Government was under no +obligation to make immediate provision, amounting in all to fifty-four +millions, and the annual expenses of the Government were estimated at +less than six hundred thousand dollars. This was the full extent of +federal responsibilities. Hamilton assumed some fifteen millions of the +State debts, but that was an act entirely voluntary, neither asked nor +desired by the States, unconstitutional and inexpedient, and caused as +much unpopularity to his administration of the department as, perhaps +more than, any act by which it was distinguished. + +To meet these responsibilities the new Constitution had placed in the +hands of the Federal Government the power of collecting a revenue from +imposts and taxes, to borrow money on the credit of the United States to +any amount which the public service might be deemed to require, and to +regulate commerce, both foreign and domestic,--a power from the exercise +of which great improvements in the trade of the country were justly +anticipated. In aid of these resources we possessed a population of some +three and a half millions, as active and enterprising as any on the face +of the earth, just emerging from the discouragements of a defective +government, and bounding with hope into all the varieties of business +and labor, for which a fertile soil and a salubrious climate afforded +the most ample facilities. The comparison may be, and doubtless by many +will be, regarded as inappropriate; but with the views--simple but +practical--which experience has taught me, I cannot but think that if +one were instituted between the liabilities of the United States in 1790 +and those of the State of New York in 1842,--between the means at the +disposal of each, and the extent to which the credit of each had been +depressed,--it would be found that speedier and more substantial relief, +and under less eligible circumstances, was obtained for the latter by +the simple and direct efforts of those unpretending financiers, Michael +Hoffman and Azariah C. Flagg, than was accomplished for the United +States by the manifold schemes that were resorted to at the period of +which we are speaking. Certain I am that if a similar comparison were +made between the difficulties which the Treasury Department of the +Federal Government had to contend with in 1790, and those which it +encountered in 1837, combined with the powerful and active hostility of +the United States Bank, the former would lose much of the apparent +importance with which tradition, the influence of a great name, and the +rhetorical applauses of modern political orators, of the Federal school, +have invested them.[19] + + [19] "He smote the rock of the national resources and abundant + streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the + public credit, and it sprang upon its feet. The fabled birth of + Minerva from the brain of Jove was hardly more sudden or more + perfect than the financial system of the United States, as it burst + forth from the conceptions of Alexander Hamilton."--_Daniel + Webster._ + +The condition of things at the period we are considering was such as to +promise the greatest advantages from the simplest, though persevering +and well-considered, employment of the means then for the first time +placed at the disposal of the General Government. + +If it had fortunately so happened that General Washington had placed +Hamilton at the head of the State Department, in which the theories +which he appears to have studied from his earliest manhood--he having, +though anonymously, at the age of twenty-three, sent to Robert Morris, +then a member of Congress, the first plan for a bank of the United +States, accompanied by an elaborate examination into monetary and +financial affairs generally, and those of the United States in +particular--would not have been called into action, and if he had +appointed Madison to be Secretary of the Treasury, the fate of his +administration and the effects of its measures in respect to parties +would have been very different. The practical character of Madison's +talents and disposition had been exemplified in the whole of his +previous career, and was conspicuous in his course on the subject of +revenue. On the second day after the votes for President and +Vice-President under the new Constitution had been canvassed, and twenty +days before the inauguration of President Washington, he commenced +operations in the new House of Representatives, of which he was a +member, to enable the new government to avail itself of the advantages +secured to it by the Constitution in regard to revenue. + +To this end he introduced a bill to impose impost and tonnage duties by +which he believed all the objects of a national revenue could be secured +without being oppressive to the country, and pursued his object day in +and day out, until his bill became a law. A prompt application of the +means thus acquired to the regular payment of the interest on the public +debt, with a resort to others authorized in express terms by the +Constitution if the impost had not proved adequate to all the objects of +a national revenue, as he believed it would, and a discreet use of the +power to borrow exerted in the ordinary way, accompanied by proper +efforts to keep public expenditures at the lowest point consistent with +an efficient public service, would in all probability have been the sum +of the measures which Mr. Madison would have deemed necessary to place +the public credit at the highest desirable point and to discharge all +the existing obligations of the Government. They constitute all the +means employed by the department now, and for several years past have +proved abundantly sufficient to meet infinitely higher responsibilities, +and there is in truth no conclusive reason to be found in the history of +the period referred to why they would not have performed the same +offices then. + +But these simple and usually efficacious measures did not come up to +Hamilton's standard. They fell short of what he thought necessary to the +actual wants of the public service, and still more so in regard to what +he deemed due to the efficiency, stability, and dignity of the +Government. To secure all of these objects he desired to build up a +financial system which would approach to an equality with the English +model after which he designed to construct it; and he believed that it +was in that way only that the public necessities could be amply provided +for, the public credit placed at the point which he wished it to occupy, +and the respectability of the Government be properly consulted. But this +plan required the adoption of measures which, it is not too much to say, +he knew that neither those who framed nor those who adopted the +Constitution intended to authorize. This difficulty, which to ordinary +minds would have appeared insurmountable, was overcome by a device +either of his own creation or, as I have for many years believed, the +suggestion of another. + +The subject of internal improvements by the Federal Government, in +regard as well to the power of the latter over the subject as to the +expediency of its exercise, was repeatedly and very fully discussed in +Congress, whilst Mr. Rufus King and myself represented the State of New +York in the Senate of the United States. Upon the question of power we +concurred in opinion, he adhering to that of Hamilton--the construction +of such works being one of the very few powers which the latter did not +claim for the Federal Government. Notwithstanding this agreement the +subject was often canvassed between us in respect to the arguments +advanced, from time to time, in Congress, by others. On one of those +occasions, he told me that on Gouverneur Morris's visit to the city of +New York, soon after his return from the Federal Convention, he was +congratulated by his friends on the circumstance that the Convention had +succeeded in agreeing upon a Constitution which would realize the great +object for which it had been convened, and that Morris promptly and, as +Mr. King seemed to have understood it, significantly replied--"_That +will depend upon the construction that is given to it!_" Mr. King did +not state any inference he had drawn from the remark and seemed to me +indisposed to prolong the conversation upon that point, and, knowing his +habitual reserve in speaking of his old associates, I yielded to what I +believed to be his wish not to be questioned, although I was at the +moment strongly impressed by the observation. I referred to it +afterwards in a speech I made in the Senate upon the powers of the +Government, which was extensively published. At a subsequent period this +ready answer of Morris would not have attracted notice; but spoken +before even a single officer had been elected to carry the Constitution +into effect, and of course before any question as to its construction +had arisen, it was to my mind, and, as I believe, to the mind of Mr. +King, evidence of a foregone conclusion to claim under that instrument +powers not anticipated by the great body of those who framed it, or by +those who had given it vitality by their approval. The facts that this +reply had been so long remembered by Mr. King, a prominent and sagacious +member of the Convention, and repeated under the circumstances I have +detailed, were calculated to create such an impression. It gave, at +least to my view, a decided direction in respect to the source from +whence the doctrine of _implied powers_ originated. I had found it +difficult, with the opinions I had formed of Hamilton's character and +dispositions, to reconcile the first suggestion of such a policy with +them. I could believe that, in accordance with the principles which he +avowed, he might be not unwilling to carry it into effect when it was +suggested to him; but that, after advancing his opinions in a manner so +frank and fearless, notwithstanding their well understood unpopularity, +he should be found mousing over the words of the Constitution for +equivocal expressions, containing a meaning intelligible only to the +initiated, and by such methods preparing to spring a trap upon the +people, was, it appeared to me, utterly foreign to his nature and +habits. Neither was I disposed to believe that he would, at the very +moment of signing, have denounced the Constitution as inadequate to the +purposes of good government if he had then regarded it as possessing the +very extensive powers he afterwards assisted in claiming for it, nor +would he have subsequently declared it to be "a frail and worthless +fabric." His complaint upon the latter occasion would have been against +the construction that had been given to it, and not against the +Constitution itself. + +Morris, whose ability no one will question, was a constant attendant +upon the Convention, took an active part in its proceedings throughout, +was on most of its committees and the _working-man_ of the last,--the +duties of which were "to revise the style of, and arrange the articles +which had been agreed to by the House,"--and the second and last draft +of the Constitution was reported by him. But it is now comparatively +unimportant with whom the latitudinarian construction of the +Constitution, which has caused so much strife and contention and so +little advantage to any person, party, or interest, originated. +Hamilton, at least, adopted it as the corner-stone of his constitutional +views, and, by his genius and the weight of his official influence, gave +it a temporary success. + +For reasons which will appear in the sequel, I will confine myself to a +simple statement of the questions that were raised in respect to the +construction of the Constitution, and a few illustrations of their +character. That instrument, as has already been stated, contained a +specific enumeration of the powers given to Congress, and the reasons +have been also described for this particularity. The measures to which +they referred were known by appropriate and distinct names, and applied +to definite and well understood objects, and they have been ever since +known and understood as they were then. This enumeration of the powers +of Congress was followed, as we have seen, by a grant of authority to +that body to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for +carrying into execution the foregoing powers." + +Under this winding-up clause of the Constitutional enumeration of the +powers of Congress, the true sense and object of which was so easy to be +understood, Hamilton claimed for that body the power of authorizing by +law measures of a substantive character, described by well understood +names, altogether different from those employed in the enumeration, such +as the incorporation of banks, &c., &c., if Congress should declare +itself of the opinion that the execution of the enumerated powers would +be materially aided by any such measures, reserving to Congress the +right of deciding whether the proposed measure would be sufficiently +useful to create the "propriety and necessity" required by the +Constitution, and placing in its breast alone the final decision of +every such question. + +The objects of the Constitution, as set forth in its preamble, were "to +form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic +tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general +welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our +posterity." The first of the powers of Congress, contained in the +enumeration of them in the Constitution, is in the following words: + +"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, +imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common +defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, and +imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United +States;"--and then follow all the other powers, to borrow money, &c. + +The terms "common defense and general welfare," used in this +enumeration, were taken from the Articles of Confederation, where they +stood thus: "All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be +incurred for the _common defense and general welfare_, and allowed by +the United States, in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a +common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several States in +proportion," &c. Under those Articles they were never understood as a +substantive grant of power to the Continental Congress, or as +authorizing that body to ask from the States moneys, and to expend them +for any purposes other than those which the Articles afterwards +specified. By the new Constitution the manner of getting the money was +happily changed from State requisitions to taxes, duties, imposts, and +excises, to be expended, however, when so obtained, for the common +defense and general welfare, as before, and the Constitution then, like +the Articles of Confederation, says upon what objects it is to be +expended. The Convention which framed and those which ratified the +instrument, of course, understood the terms as used in the same sense. +But after the Constitution was ratified, without an intimation of such +a construction having been whispered before, it was contended by many +that the manner in which the terms common defense and general welfare +were used in it authorized Congress to adopt _any measure_ which that +body might deem calculated to subserve the common defense and general +welfare of the country, whilst others, less reckless, limited the power +they claimed for Congress to the application of money to any such +measures. Among the former, as to the clause in the preamble, Hamilton +placed himself, insisting that, under the grant of powers to make all +laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying its given powers +into execution, Congress had the power to adopt every measure of +government not expressly denied to it or exclusively granted to the +States, which it should deem useful in the execution of its enumerated +powers, however variant in its name, object, and general understanding; +and under the clause quoted from the preamble an unlimited power of +taxation, and an equally unlimited authority to expend the money so +raised upon objects which it might think would promote the common +defense and general welfare. He thus claimed for Congress substantially +all legislative power, save such as was expressly prohibited to it, +given exclusively to the States, or denied to both, falling but little +if any thing short of the power he assigned to the national legislature +in his propositions submitted to the Convention, which that body would +not even consider, viz.: "to pass all laws which they shall judge +necessary to the common defense and general welfare of the Union." + +When the advocates of these doctrines were asked to remember the state +of public opinion at the time when the Constitution was framed; the +jealousy which then existed and had for so many years existed, of the +power of the General Government; the fact that the apprehensions which +had been entertained had so long prevented the calling of a Convention; +the extreme improbability that the Convention, under such circumstances, +could have intended to give to Congress the power to pass any law it +might be pleased to regard as useful in the execution of an enumerated +power, whatever might be its bearing upon the State governments; to add +to the power to make peace and war and to raise armies and equip fleets; +to make the power to raise money unlimited by authorizing its +expenditure upon any measure Congress might assume to be conducive to +the common defense and general welfare, and the absurdity of the +supposition that the grant of such far-reaching and absorbing powers +would have been conferred in so obscure a way, and that the Constitution +would have passed the scrutiny of so many State Conventions without its +ever having been intimated in any way that there lay concealed in its +general terms grants of power which, if but suspected, would have set +the country in a blaze, and would have produced instant refusals to +ratify on the part of most of the States,--when such considerations were +opposed to those bold pretensions, the only reply was, the Constitution +must be construed by its letter, and we cannot look behind it or beside +it for the means of doing so truly. + +To the answer that extraneous matter has always been allowed by all +laws, state and national, to be used in the interpretation of the +highest acts of sovereignty, such as the construction of treaties +between sovereign powers, of patents issued under the great seal, of +acts of Parliament, of Congress, and of State legislatures, and in +respect to the latter class the old law, the mischief and the proposed +remedy to be taken into consideration in searching for the meaning of +such acts, in the construction of wills, deeds, &c., &c., the only +rejoinder was that a Constitution was an exception to those rules; in +short that a Constitution was the sole exception to the application of +the maxim which has grown out of the observation and experience of +mankind,--_qui haeret in litera haeret in cortice_. + +The nearness of the time when the Constitution was framed to the period +of which we are speaking gave to this construction its most repulsive +aspect. The members of the Federal Convention were yet on the stage of +action, and many of them participators in the measures that were brought +forward on the strength of it. The remonstrances of those who dissented +on the ground of their own knowledge that the Convention did not +contemplate such a construction were disregarded, not because they did +not represent the truth but because the objection was inadmissible upon +principle. This was emphatically the case in respect to the +establishment of a national bank, the pioneer of constitutional +infractions, the "wooden horse" from whose sides the most violent +assaults have been made upon the Constitution. It was a fact well +remembered by the members, and subsequently confirmed by the publication +of the journal of the Convention, that a motion was made to give to +Congress power to grant acts of incorporation, as facilities to public +improvements. This fact was brought to the notice of President +Washington by Mr. Jefferson, in his opinion upon the bank question: "It +is known," said he, "that the very power now proposed as _a means_ was +rejected _as an end_ by the Convention which formed the Constitution; a +proposition was made to them to authorize Congress to open canals, and +an amendatory one to empower them to incorporate, but the whole was +rejected, and one of the reasons of rejection urged in the debate was +that then they would have power to erect a bank, which would render the +great cities, where there were prejudices or jealousies upon this +subject, adverse to the reception of the Constitution." + +This communication was made directly to General Washington, who had been +President of the Convention, and made to defeat a measure of Hamilton's, +who never failed to turn every proposition of his opponents against +themselves when it was in his power to do so. It remained unnoticed, and +its truth was therefore virtually admitted. Upon the very first +question, then, which arose under the Constitution upon Hamilton's +construction, and that one first also in importance, the well-known +intentions of the Convention were directly and intentionally overruled. + +President Washington gave no reasons for his decision in favor of the +Bank Bill. I will hereafter state the principle upon which I think it +fair to presume that he acted. Hamilton was influenced by views which +governed his conduct in every constitutional question that arose in his +day. He did not, because he could not with any show of propriety, deny +that the Constitution ought in strictness to be construed according to +the intentions of those who made it; but believing, doubtless sincerely, +from the beginning, that, so construed, it was insufficient for the +purposes of good government and must prove a failure, he designedly gave +it construction, in cases where he deemed that course necessary to the +public interest, in opposition to what he knew to have been the +intentions of the Convention. The objection that this was setting at +naught the declared will of the people had but little weight with him. +He believed that a majority of the Convention would have been content to +incorporate the powers he now claimed in the Constitution if they had +not been deterred by the fear that it would not be ratified, and for the +opinion of a majority of the people he made proverbial his want of +respect. He held them incapable of judging in such questions. He was as +anxious as any man to promote their happiness and welfare, but he +thought it a political necessity that this could only be done in despite +of themselves; no man could possibly be less prone than he was to the +employment of sinister means in private life, and yet he held them +excusable in dealing with the people; he thought nothing effectual and +salutary could be done with them without appeals to their special +interests, without exciting their passions and turning them to the side +of the Government. This was the vicious feature of his political creed, +and proofs of its existence could be multiplied almost without end; but, +as the subject will unavoidably and often present itself, I will content +myself here with an extract from a letter written by him to his friend +Morris, after the great public transactions in which he had been engaged +were principally ended. The last letter to Morris, from which I have +quoted, spoke of the past; this looks to the future, and shows the +lengths to which he was yet, as he had always been, willing to go. The +letter is dated April 6, 1802, in which, after complimenting Morris upon +his efforts "in resisting the follies of an infatuated administration," +he thus points his friend to the work before them:-- + +"But, my dear sir, we must not content ourselves with a temporary effort +to oppose the approach of evil. We must derive instruction from the +experience before us, and learning to form a just estimate of things to +which we have been attached, there must be a systematic and persevering +endeavor to establish the fortune of a great empire on foundations much +firmer than have yet been devised. What will signify a vibration of +power if it cannot be used with confidence or energy, and must be again +quickly restored to hands which will prostrate much faster than we shall +be able to rear under so frail a system? Nothing will be done until the +structure of our national edifice shall be such as naturally to control +eccentric passions and views, and to keep in check demagogues and +knaves in the disguise of patriots."[20] + + [20] Hamilton's _Works_, Vol. VI. p. 536. + +This speaks for itself, and certainly nothing could be more superfluous +than an attempt to elucidate its import and extent. It deserves to be +remembered that this was in the thirteenth year of the Constitution, now +described as a "frail system," and which, in a previous letter to +Morris, was called a "frail and worthless fabric." Hamilton enforced his +construction, but upon that point we will say no more until we arrive at +a period when it was exposed to a scrutiny by which it was forever +exploded. Looking to the construction of the Constitution which I have +described for his authority to adopt the measures he deemed necessary to +establish his policy, he advanced in his work with his accustomed +industry and perseverance. The outlines of that policy were +substantially portrayed in his speeches in the Federal Convention, in +his letter to General Washington from New York during the session of +that body, and in a paper written by him after its adjournment, and now +published by his son,--all of which have already been referred to. It +was founded on a conviction, doubtless sincere and at all events not +liable to change, that great danger to the federal system was to be +apprehended from the hostility of the State governments, and on a +consequent desire to reduce their power and importance; on an immovable +distrust of the capacities and dispositions of the masses; and on an +unshaken belief that the success of the new government could only be +secured by assimilating its action to that of the English system as +nearly as that could be done without too gross, and therefore dangerous, +violation of the well understood and most cherished sentiments of the +people. + +The power wielded by the English ministry, in Parliament and in the +country, springs from influences derived from various sources, mainly +from the funding system, from the Bank of England, from connection with +the East India Company, and from ability to confer government favors on +individuals and classes in the shape of offices and dignities in church +and state, of titles, pensions, bounties, franchises, and other special +privileges of great value. Its power in these respects is derived from +the crown in virtue of its prerogatives, aided by acts of Parliament +where these are required by the Constitution. + +The measures which Hamilton deemed indispensable to the success of the +new government, in addition to those authorized by the Constitution, +consisted of + +_First._ A funding system upon the English plan, with authority to +assume the separate debts of the States; + +_Second._ A national bank; and, + +_Third._ An unrestricted exercise by Congress of the power to raise +money, and the employment of the national revenue in patronizing +individual, class, and corporate interests, according to the plan +described in his report, nominally on manufactures, but embracing an +infinite variety of other concerns. + +The funding system, as presented to Congress by him, as well as the bank +were not only on the English plan, but as far as that could consistently +be effected were copies of the originals, and substantially the same +reasons for their establishment here were assigned in his report as had +been given for their first creation in England. The third measure, or +rather the third in his system of measures, as set forth in the +Secretary's report, partook largely of the general character of some of +those alluded to above as sources of ministerial power in England, and, +in connection with the means of securing legitimate influence allowed by +our Constitution, would have clothed the administration here with equal +power, even without authority to grant titles of nobility, +ecclesiastical preferments and dignities, and other like privileges. + +The advantages Hamilton anticipated from these measures consisted of the +effect which the fact of their establishment would have upon every +question of constitutional power, the popularity and political influence +which the administration would acquire in and through their +organization, and greater than all, of their inevitable influence upon +the future character of the institutions of the country. He might well +think that he would not thereafter have any serious difficulty in regard +to constitutional power to do what he desired, if he could obtain the +passage of acts, according to the forms of the Constitution, authorizing +Congress to _lend_ money to the States under a provision in that +instrument giving it power to _borrow_ money; to establish a national +bank, when a possible ground for pretense to such a power had been +expressly excluded from the Constitution, and when every body knew that +both the Convention that made it and a vast majority of the States and +people by whom it was adopted were at the time opposed to such an +institution; and not only to raise money upon the principle of an +unlimited power to do so, but also to expend it according to the +pleasure of the Government, subject to no other limitation than that it +should regard the purpose as conducive to the common defense and general +welfare,--a principle he distinctly avowed in his report on +manufactures. If he had succeeded in these points and secured his +advances, he would have been fully warranted in regarding the +enumeration of the powers of Congress contained in the Constitution as a +sham, and the brief clause he proposed to the Convention, giving to the +national legislature power to pass all laws which it should judge +necessary to the common defense and general welfare of the Union, as +inserted in its place. The increased power and influence derived by the +administration in the course of the organization of some of these +measures will be seen as we proceed, and my own views in respect to +their combined effects upon our institutions and upon the character of +the government, will be given hereafter. + +In England the bank was first established, but Hamilton gave precedence +here to the funding system and made it the first great measure of his +administration of the Treasury Department, contenting himself in the +first instance with a declaration, in his report in favor of the funding +system, of his intention to connect a bank with it. The Secretary's +annunciation of the principles upon which he proposed to found that +system, and their resemblance to those by which the English system was +regulated, were received with unmistakable signs of dissatisfaction by +large portions of the people in all parts of the country. The +Legislature of Virginia passed by decided majorities resolutions +denouncing the Secretary's plan with great severity. These, with similar +demonstrations in other States, show the depth of the excitement of the +public mind upon the subject. + +The public debt of England had its origin in an early practice of her +government to anticipate her resources through loans effected upon +pledges of portions of her revenues, to be re-imbursed, principal and +interest, at specific periods. These were made to correspond with the +time of the probable collection of the taxes out of which the loans were +to be paid; and such, it may safely be assumed, was also the origin of +public debt in all countries. For a time these anticipations were +limited in their amounts to the actual value of the fund upon the credit +of which they were obtained, the loans were discharged according to +their terms, and the operation proved to be a great convenience to the +government without prejudice to any interest. It was not long, however, +before a practice, originally no other than a fair business transaction, +was perverted to screen men in power from the odium of enforcing +taxation to repay the principal sum borrowed. The disproportion between +the revenues to be received and the anticipations successively charged +upon them soon became too great to leave the government able to pay both +principal and interest on the loans which its necessities required. Some +device was therefore desirable by which it would be enabled to replenish +the public coffers without a too great increase of taxation, which, for +obvious reasons, is always the peculiar aversion of those intrusted with +the management of public affairs. The plan adopted, in lieu of +anticipations of the revenue of the character I have described, was to +make loans upon the credit of the nation, re-imbursable at the pleasure +of the government, with special and adequate provisions for the payment +of the interest only, or to borrow money upon perpetual annuity +equivalent to the interest of the sum borrowed, government being at +liberty to redeem such annuity at any time by paying back the principal +sum, with authority also to borrow on annuities for terms of years and +for lives. These became thenceforth leading features in the English +funding system. + +These facilities proved amply sufficient for every exigency. The public +debt increased with unheard of rapidity under the influence and the +expenses of the wars in which England was successively engaged. In 1706, +when its foundation was laid, it amounted to but little more than five +millions sterling, and in 1777 it had increased to one hundred and +thirty-six millions sterling. Near the latter period the subjects of +public debt, the principles of the English funding system, and their +effects in all countries where they had been adopted, were brought to a +searching scrutiny by Adam Smith in his "Wealth of Nations," who +demonstrated from reason and experience that they had invariably +enfeebled every nation which had embraced them. He insisted that there +was scarcely an instance in which a public debt contracted and +established upon those principles had been fully paid, and that the +revenues of the countries subject to such incumbrances had been relieved +from the destructive effects of an irredeemable public debt, if relieved +at all, either by avowed bankruptcy or by pretended payments through +such artifices as adulterations of the coin, or raising its +denomination, or by reductions of the rate of interest. + +In 1786, four years before the introduction of Hamilton's funding +system, the public debt of England had already increased to +L276,000,000; and so rapid has been its subsequent growth that the +strictures and predictions of Adam Smith are at this day receiving their +confirmation in the existence of a national debt of more than +L800,000,000. By no people were these facts and circumstances, so far as +they had then transpired, better understood than by ours. They had +watched the condition of England, in regard to her increasing debt, +through the Revolutionary contest in the hope that she would be +compelled by the very extent of her indebtedness to stay the hand she +had uplifted to enslave them. It ought not therefore to have been a +matter of surprise to Hamilton and his associates, and cannot be to us +viewing these matters retrospectively, that his recommendation of a +funding system, upon the English plan, with a national bank as its +adjunct, as the first great measures of the new government, were +received by large portions, probably a majority, of the people, with so +much dissatisfaction and distrust of the motives in which the +recommendation had its origin--a distrust naturally produced by the +precipitate resort to the system of a nation against which the hostile +feelings of the war had not yet subsided, and which under that system, +in the estimation of many sober minded and sagacious men, was rapidly +sinking into the gulf of hopeless indebtedness. + +No necessity can now be perceived for the adoption at that moment of a +scheme of such magnitude as that which Hamilton proposed--one so well +calculated to excite jealousy, and against which the warning voice of +experience had become so audible. The existing debt, sacred as the price +of liberty and entitled to all solicitude for its satisfactory +discharge, was not, in view of the increased resources of the +Government, either very large or, in any other event than a failure in +the payment of interest, ineligibly situated, or in any great danger of +soon becoming impracticable or oppressive. The foreign debt then stood +at eleven millions, the principal payable by moderate instalments, the +last of which, not due till 1808, was never, save a small portion of the +French debt, actually funded, and was paid off during the administration +of Mr. Madison. The domestic debt of the United States amounted to forty +millions, which Secretary Hamilton thought might fairly be regarded as +payable at the pleasure of the Government. The interest and instalments +as they fell due were therefore the principal subjects to be dealt with. + +The change which had at last been effected in the Constitution, securing +to the Federal head full power to levy and collect all necessary +revenue, and the prospects of an improving trade and increasing +prosperity in every branch of business gave of themselves to the +Government a good right to anticipate an improvement in the public +credit sufficient to enable it to make direct loans abroad upon fair +terms, payable at specific and reasonable periods, as had been before +done without these advantages. On the avails of these, with the surplus +of an increasing revenue over and above the six hundred thousand +dollars, which was all that was asked for the support of Government in +other respects than the payment of debts, the Secretary might, it would +seem, have safely relied to meet accruing demands on account of the +public debt. It is well known that such favorable effects resulted from +the change which had taken place in the Government and our credit abroad +was so greatly improved that loans which had before been obtained with +difficulty and in a considerable degree through favor, and in part by +means of specific guaranties, were now sought after and taken with +avidity in Amsterdam and Antwerp. The friends of the Secretary, and +those who favored his policy, naturally claimed that this favorable +change was due to his report, and to the acts that were passed in +pursuance of his recommendation. A portion of the effects produced may +have been attributable to this cause, but it was rendered quite clear +that the improvement could not be thus explained as to Holland, where a +large part of our foreign debt was held and to which country the whole +was soon transferred, by the facts that her bankers not only continued +to lend freely to our Government in the old way, upon direct loans, +payable at specific periods,--principal and interest,--but expressly +declined, as did also our creditors in Antwerp, to accept our proposal +for converting the debts due upon loans of that character into a funded +domestic stock. + +The whole of our foreign debt in Holland, that which was due at the time +of the passage of the act establishing the funding system as well as +that which was subsequently contracted there and at Antwerp, and the +principal part of that held elsewhere, was paid to the entire +satisfaction of the creditors by the means I have described, and +without being funded. The domestic debt, the least difficult or delicate +to deal with, would doubtless have been seasonably and satisfactorily +discharged in the same way, if General Hamilton had not, at an early +age, imbibed an opinion, which he never changed, that a permanent +national debt was an advantage to any country, and likely to be +particularly useful in a confederacy like ours. That such was his +sincere opinion there cannot be the slightest doubt, and that he +contemplated a public debt here of a character as permanent as that was +likely to be which then existed in England is fairly to be inferred from +his acts. + +Hamilton's mind was from a very early period turned to politics, and of +political subjects that of finance was from the beginning the favorite +theme of his meditations, among the most prominent results of which was +a conviction that of the agencies necessary to good government, whatever +might be its form, there were none more useful than a well funded public +debt and a judiciously constructed national bank. At the early age of +twenty-three, whilst filling a post of subordinate rank in the army, he +addressed an anonymous communication (as I have before mentioned) to +Robert Morris, whose mind was inclined in the same direction, and who +was extensively employed in the management of fiscal affairs, enforcing +with much ability his favorite ideas. Some of the contents of this +communication are given in the "Life of Hamilton" by his son. In a +subsequent letter to the same gentleman, he argues in support of kindred +positions. In his report upon public credit he advances the same +favorable opinion, and in substantially the same language, of the +effects of the particular debt he proposed to fund upon terms which +promised perpetuity. He did, it is true, accompany the latter +declaration with a protest against the latitude, inviting to +prodigality, which was sometimes given to the idea of the utility of a +public debt, and with a recommendation in favor of the establishment of +a sinking fund, and other reservations and qualifications, couched in +the guarded terms usually employed by able men in state papers upon +controverted public questions. But the report contained nothing +inconsistent with the idea of keeping on foot a national debt as long as +it did not become "too large,"--a condition that could scarcely fail to +give way to the supposed exigencies of the moment,--and the farther +condition of an indispensable necessity for its continuance never found +a place in his reports or weight in his opinions. On the contrary, the +advantages of a national debt in preparing the people for those periods +of oppressive assessment to which all nations are occasionally exposed, +by constantly levying a reasonable tax to discharge interest, a +principal reason in favor of a public debt assigned in his letter to +Morris; the utility and convenience of having always at hand a band +whose special interest in the stability of the government would promptly +rally them to its support,--an idea never long absent from Hamilton's +mind; the benefits which the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial +interests would derive from the funding of seventy millions of debt in +the form and upon the principles he proposed, giving to it the capacity +of being "substituted for money" and increasing by that amount the +floating capital, and to a great extent the circulating medium of the +country; the beneficial influence of a funded debt in raising the value +of land, in proof of which the experience of England is cited, besides +supplying those important classes with means to improve and enlarge +their respective pursuits, and increasing those facilities by reducing +the rate of interest, constituted the arguments and persuasions set +forth in glowing and captivating terms in his reports, and though not +necessarily confined to a _permanent_ national debt, indicate very +clearly, to my mind at least, that it was such a debt that he had in +view. + +The uses to which the sinking fund had been applied in England and its +inefficiency in the reduction of the national debt were well understood +by the Secretary. The explanations of its greater efficacy here in after +times will be given in another place. They had no connection with the +views that were prevalent in the councils of the nation at the moment of +which we are speaking. Every act of the Secretary was in keeping with +the inference I have stated. In addition to the principle he proposed as +the basis of his system, which, if not perpetual funding in express +terms, postponed redemption to so remote and indefinite a period as to +render it next to certain that it would never occur, there were other +circumstances scarcely less confirmatory of the assumption that such was +his intention. + +The stand taken by Hamilton in the provision he proposed and which was +adopted for a portion of the domestic debt had a great influence in +creating the impression that his funding system had other than fiscal +objects in view. His opponents not thinking either that system or the +bank necessary for the public service--an opinion vindicated and +sustained by subsequent experience--readily attributed the strong desire +manifested for their establishment to political designs on the part of +their author. Jefferson denounced the financial scheme as a "puzzle to +exclude popular understanding and inquiry, and a machine for the +corruption of the Legislature." In aid of the latter charge, besides +going at least some length to sustain the imputation of Hamilton's +desire for an unnecessary increase of the public debt, came these facts: +A large proportion of the domestic debt consisted of certificates of +indebtedness given by the United States to the soldiers who fought our +battles, and to the farmers, manufacturers, and merchants who furnished +supplies for their support. These had been given because the Government +had no money, but under promises of speedy payment. The holders were +frequently driven by their necessities, and by misrepresentations in +respect to the chances of payment, to part with them for trifling +amounts. Had the matter stopped there, however much regretted and +condemned, it might not have attracted the notice which was taken of it. +But when Hamilton proposed to put the original holders and the +fraudulent purchasers of these certificates upon the same footing, and +when it became known to the members of Congress, which sat with closed +doors, that the bill would pass in that shape, every part of the country +was overrun by speculators, sped by horse and packet expresses, buying +up large portions of the certificates still held by those to whom they +were originally given at the rate of five shillings and, in some +instances, of two shillings and sixpence in the pound. It was never +doubted that members of Congress and their particular friends +participated in these speculations, and realized large sums by the +certificates being funded at their nominal amounts. When the bill came +up, several gentlemen, who afterwards became prominent members of the +Republican party, earnestly supported a proposition to make a +composition between the original holders and the assignees of these +papers, allowing to the latter the highest prices they had ever brought +in the market, and settling with the former for the residue. Such an +arrangement might have been effected without embarrassment to the +treasury by satisfactory grants of public lands, and the amount of debts +might have been thus materially reduced. Mr. Madison in a sensible +speech supported the justice of some such composition; but the friends +of the Secretary in Congress, some of them interested in the result, +carried the measure which had been elaborately argued in advance by +Hamilton, in his report, and by which the whole was awarded to the +speculators. The entire transaction caused deep disgust in the minds of +many who felt solicitous for the purity of the Government, and not a few +believed that the scramble which ensued was foreseen and counted upon as +a source of influence to enlist Congress on the side of the +administration. Their hostility to a system susceptible, as they +thought, of such practices, was of course greatly inflamed. + +The construction thus placed upon the Secretary's course received its +strongest confirmation from his proposal and untiring efforts for the +assumption of the State debts. The first object of a prudent financier +would seem to be to keep the debt he has to deal with at the lowest +practicable point. Hamilton, on the contrary, whilst struggling with +embarrassments in respect to the debts for which the United States were +legally bound, upon the largest portion of which many years of interest +had been suffered to accumulate, proposed to increase the liability +twenty-five millions by the voluntary assumption of debts which the +Federal Government was under no obligations to pay; an assumption not +only unsolicited on the part of the indebted States, but to which there +was the best reason for believing that several among them would be +opposed. The special representatives of the latter in the Senate, where +the proposition originated, so earnestly contested it that the clause of +the bill to carry it into effect could only be passed by a majority of +two, was in the first instance rejected in the House of Representatives +against the united influences of the administration, and could only be +reconsidered and barely carried by means of a discreditable intrigue to +which the Secretary and Mr. Jefferson, as the latter has acknowledged +with shame and contrition, were parties. + +The reasons assigned by Hamilton for this forced assumption of a debt +which had never been audited, and the amount of which they were obliged +to guess at, though framed with his usual ability, cannot, I should +think, he now regarded as sufficient to justify the step. The weight +which they might by any be supposed to possess was overbalanced by the +obvious unconstitutionality of the measure. It adopted as well the debts +of the States which, upon the final settlement between them and the +United States, were found in debt to the latter, as of those which +proved to have balances in their favor, and was therefore a loan by the +Federal Government to the former class of States, made under the power +in the Constitution authorizing Congress to borrow money. + +This measure, like that which preceded it, was well calculated to +strengthen the suspicion with which the minds of his opponents became +thoroughly imbued, that Hamilton in all his measures had in view the +advancement of partisan objects, from its peculiar adaptation to the +promotion of a leading point in his whole policy,--that of weakening +State authority and strengthening that of the General Government at +their expense. The distinctness and strength of expression with which +this policy was avowed by him, in papers published by his son, have +already been seen. Among the means suggested was the adoption of +measures by which the attention of the people might be diverted from the +State governments, upon which it was thought to be too intensely fixed, +and turned towards the Federal head, and by which their passions might +be excited and turned in the same channel. What single measure could +exert greater influence in giving effect to this policy or show more +strikingly the hand of a master than that by which the intense and +constant solicitude of the holders of twenty-five millions of debts, +scattered, in comparatively small sums, through the different States, +and embracing, it is fair to presume, the most active of their citizens, +was turned from the local authorities to the Federal Government, first +for the settlement of the amount, and next for the payment of their +demands,--by which the States themselves became liable for the amounts +so paid to a Government which, certainly in some of its departments, +regarded them as rival not to say dangerous powers, and by which also +the disreputable scramble for those debts, commenced in the case of the +certificates of the United States, would be revived. + +The conflicting views entertained upon these subjects by Hamilton and +Jefferson soon assumed the form of a distinct and well defined issue +between the friends and political followers of each,--the former +composing the Federal party, and the latter constituting elements of +which the Republican party, then in embryo, was formed. Hamilton's +doctrine, and for a season the avowed creed of his party, was that there +were advantages in the existence of a national debt which more than +counter-balanced any evils that might arise from its unnecessary +continuance, and this faith shaped the whole course of their action upon +the subject. Its subjection to the operations of a sinking fund, and the +qualification that the amount of the debt should be kept within proper +limits, were of course features in their platform. Estimating the +results of the former here by its efficiency in England, and instructed +by the experience of all nations that restraints upon the accumulation +of debt, however solemnly imposed, are of no account with applicants for +grants from the public treasury, and unhappily little more respected by +men in power when the importunities of friends and supporters are +brought in competition with the interests of posterity, it was not +difficult to foresee the futility of these conditions. Mr. Jefferson, on +the contrary, from the beginning regarded a public debt as a "mortal +canker" from which it was the duty of the Government to relieve the +country at the earliest practicable moment, and in this spirit he and +his friends acted throughout. + +The subject of Finance had not at that early period been made as +familiar to the American mind as it has since become, and the genius of +Hamilton and the sanction of Washington, which his plans were supposed +to receive, were well calculated to discourage opposition to them. But +many of those who disapproved of his course were not to be moved from +what they regarded as the line of duty by any considerations personal to +themselves. They resisted Hamilton's financial schemes from the start, +and it was in the discussions upon this issue that some, who +subsequently became famous leaders in the old Republican party, fleshed +their maiden swords. No two measures ever attracted a larger share of +the attention of the American people, excited more deeply their feelings +and their apprehensions, or exerted a greater influence upon the +politics of this country than did the funding system and the first Bank +of the United States. The peculiar results of the contest that was waged +in respect to them will be noticed hereafter. + +Hamilton had done much by their establishment and organization to +strengthen the Federal arm, and proportionately to weaken the State +governments, but the influence he derived from these measures was not +sufficiently operative upon several classes whom he desired to +conciliate. The wished for impression had been made upon the commercial +class,--at all times a powerful body and by the nature of their pursuits +inclined to favor strong governments, banks, and funding systems,--upon +the domestic creditors of the General Government, upon the creditors of +the several State governments, upon all who had a passion for gambling +in stocks, to whose appetites he furnished so much aliment,--a numerous, +crafty, and influential portion of almost every community,--and upon all +who wanted to borrow or had money to lend, a class still more numerous. +Besides these, whom Mr. Canning called the "train-bands of commerce," in +general the most dangerous to encounter and the most efficient when at +his service, there were still larger interests, and in the aggregate +more powerful, upon whom the Secretary desired to make similar +impressions and to secure their attachment to his system. + +In August, 1791, whilst concocting the measures by which he hoped to +secure the support of these, and flushed by the success which had +hitherto crowned his efforts, he thus (as I have already quoted) +addressed his great rival, Mr. Jefferson:-- + +"I own," said he, "it is my opinion, though I do not publish it in Dan +or Beersheba, that the present Government is not that which will answer +the ends of society, by giving stability and protection to its rights, +and that it will probably be found expedient to go into the British +form; however, since we have undertaken the experiment, I am for giving +it a fair course, whatever my expectations may be. The success, indeed, +so far, is greater than I had expected, and therefore at present success +seems more possible than it had done heretofore, and there are still +other and other stages of improvement, which, if the present does not +succeed, may be tried and ought to be tried before we give up the +republican form altogether." + +First in the order of time among "the other and other stages of +improvement" with which the prolific mind of the Secretary was busied, +were doubtless those embraced in his "Report on Manufactures" which made +its appearance four months afterwards, and was probably then in course +of preparation. It contains more than a hundred folio pages, in print, +and is perhaps the most thoroughly elaborated and artfully devised state +paper to be found in the archives of any country. Manufactures were +alone spoken of in the title, but it embraced every species of industry +that offered the slightest chance of being successfully prosecuted in +the United States, and contained a very full and carefully considered +exposition of their respective conditions, and of the facilities by +which their success might be increased, to extend which to those +diversified interests it undertook to show was within the power and the +duty of the Government. This report, on account of the striking +illustration it affords of the progress of parties, and the powerful +influence it exerted upon their fate, is well entitled to the fullest +notice. But it is not possible within the limits I have prescribed to +myself to go as fully into the review of such a paper as justice to the +subject would require. I must therefore content myself with an abridged +account of the various branches of industry the advancement of which was +the design of its author, and of the manner in which he proposed to +accomplish his object. + +The manufactured articles which he specified as fit subjects for +governmental aid were those made of skins, of iron, of wood, of flax and +hemp, bricks, coarse tiles, and potters' wares, ardent spirits and malt +liquors, writing and printing paper, hats, refined sugars, oils of +animals and seeds, soap and candles, copper and brass wares, tin wares, +carriages of all kinds, snuff, chewing and smoking tobacco, starch, +lampblack and other painters' colors, and gunpowder. This enumeration +was followed by a detailed statement of the great variety of articles +embraced in the general denominations. Besides these, which he said had +attained a considerable degree of maturity, there was a vast sum of +household manufacturing which was made not only sufficient for the use +of the families that made them but for sale also, and in some instances +for exportation, and consisted of great quantities of coarse cloths, +coatings, serges, and flannels, linsey-woolseys, hosiery of wool, cotton +and thread, coarse fustians, jeans and muslins, checked and striped +cotton and linen goods, bedticks, coverlets and counterpanes, tow +linens, coarse shirtings, sheetings, toweling, and table linen, and +various mixtures of wool and cotton, and of cotton and flax. + +These observations were, he said, the pleasing result of the +investigation into which the subject of his report had led, and were +applicable to the Southern as well as to the Middle and Northern States. +He also designated the principal raw materials of which these +manufactures were composed, and which were, or were capable of being, +raised or produced by ourselves. These were iron, copper, lead, fossil +coal, wool, skins, grain, flax and hemp, cotton, wool, silk, &c., &c. + +The Secretary contended that the growth and production of all the +articles last named were, in common with the manufactures of which they +constituted the raw material, entitled to the encouragement _and +specific aid of the Federal Government_. + +He next pointed out the various modes in which that aid might be +afforded, varying its application according to circumstances; viz.: + +1st. By _protecting duties_. + +2d. By _prohibition_ of rival articles, or duties equivalent to +prohibition. + +3d. By _prohibition of the exportation_ of the _materials_ of +manufactures. + +4th. By _pecuniary bounties_. + +5th. By _premiums_. + +6th. By _exemption_ of _the materials_ of _manufactures from duties_. + +7th. By _drawbacks_ of duties on the same materials. + +8th. By _encouragement_ of new inventions at home and the _introduction_ +of others from abroad. + +9th. By _judicious regulations_ for the _inspection_ of manufactured +commodities. + +10th. By facilitating pecuniary remittances; and, + +11th. By facilitating the transportation of commodities _by roads and +canals_. + +Of the power of the Federal Government to promote the objects spoken of +by the means suggested, with two exceptions, he said there could be no +doubt. The exceptions were the encouragement of new inventions and the +facilities to transportation by roads and canals. In respect to the +specific execution of these measures he confessed and regretted that +there was some doubt. But to the power of giving aid, so far as that +could be done by the application of money, he insisted that there was no +exception: "Whatever concerns the general interest of learning, of +agriculture, of manufactures, and of commerce are" he said, "within the +sphere of the national concerns _as far as regards an application of +money_;" and he proposed, first, to raise a fund out of the surplus of +additional duties laid and appropriated to replace defalcations +proceeding from the abolition or diminution of duty diverted for +purposes of protection, which he thought would be more than adequate for +the payment of _all bounties_ which should be decreed; and, _secondly_, +to constitute a fund for the operations of a board to be established for +promoting _arts_, _agriculture_, _manufactures_, and _commerce_. To this +Board he proposed to give power to apply the funds so raised to defray +the expenses of the emigration of artists and manufacturers in +particular branches of extraordinary importance; to induce the +prosecution and introduction of useful discoveries, inventions, and +improvements by proportionate rewards, judiciously held out and applied; +to encourage by premiums, both honorable and lucrative, the exertions of +individuals and classes in relation to the several objects they were +charged with promoting; and to afford such other aids to those objects +as might be generally designated by law;--adding to all this that it +often happens that the capitals employed are not equal to the purposes +of bringing from abroad workmen of a superior kind, and that here, in +cases worthy of it, the auxiliary agency of Government would in all +probability be useful. There are also valuable workmen in every branch +who are prevented from emigrating solely by the want of means. +Occasional aids to such persons, properly administered, might be, he +suggested, the source of valuable acquisitions to the country. + +The thorough and minute consideration bestowed on its numerous details, +the well sustained consistency of the argument with the principles upon +which it was founded, the felicity and clearness with which its author's +views were expressed, and the evidence it furnished of well directed and +comprehensive research, stamp this remarkable document as the ablest +state paper that proceeded from his pen during the whole of his +political career. But able as it was, it yet, as we shall see when we +recur to the action of parties, contributed more than all that he had +before done to the prostration of the political standing of its author +and to the overthrow of his party. Its bold assumptions of power and the +jubilant spirit in which they were expressed afforded the clearest +indications, as well to his opponents as to the country, that he +regarded his victory over the Constitution as complete. He spoke of the +national legislature, unhesitatingly and as one having authority, as +possessing, in virtue of the construction of the Constitution he had +established, all the power with very limited exceptions which he +insisted in the Convention ought to be given to it. + +Mr. Jefferson denounced the recommendations of the report to President +Washington with great warmth and earnestness. He described it as going +far beyond any pretensions to power under the Constitution which had yet +been set up, and as a document to which many eyes were turned as one +which was to let us know whether we lived under a limited or an +unlimited government.[21] + + [21] 4 Jefferson's _Correspondence_, p. 457. + +But the views of the Secretary of the Treasury in the establishment of +the policy of which we have been speaking have as yet been but +imperfectly described. They had a breadth and an extent of which +superficial observers had no idea. The increased strength the General +Government derived from turning towards itself so many and such active +men as the holders and purchasers of the public debt, State and +National, and the influence which the patronage attached to his +financial scheme would give to the existing administration, were both +important, and doubtless entered into Hamilton's designs. The views of +common minds might well have been limited to such acquisitions. But +these results fell far short of Hamilton's anticipations. His partiality +for the English system, it is natural to presume, arose in some degree +from his birth and early training; but study and reflection, I am +inclined to think, had quite as much to do with bringing his mind to the +conclusions it cherished with so much earnestness. Among the public men +of his day there was not one who appears to have devoted a larger share +of his time to examinations into and meditation upon public affairs. +There was not one who wrote more or with more ease upon the subjects of +government in general and public financial questions in particular. +Almost every thing he said and wrote and did, in these respects, went to +show that the elements of power by which the English government had been +raised from a crude and in some degree impracticable condition to the +seemingly palmy state at which it had arrived when his successive +reports were made had been justly reviewed and thoroughly considered by +him. The result of this survey was a conviction that for the favorable +changes, as he regarded them, which had taken place in the condition of +England she was more indebted to the operation of her bank and funding +system than to any other cause. These, like his corresponding systems, +had been originally formed for the accomplishment of immediate and +limited objects. His were avowedly to revive and to uphold our sinking +public credit; theirs, to relieve the government established by the +Revolution of 1688 from its dependence upon the landed aristocracy for +its revenues, and to secure the acquisition of ample means to defray the +expenses of the war in which England was at the time involved. From such +beginnings these principal measures, aided by kindred and affiliated +establishments of which they were the parents, had with astonishing +rapidity developed a great political power in the state, soon and ever +since distinguished from its associates in the government of the country +as the MONEY POWER,--a power destined to produce greater changes in the +workings of the English system than had been accomplished by the +Revolution itself. + +The rival powers of the state had down to that period consisted of the +crown and the landed aristocracy. The measures out of which the money +power was constructed were designed, as has been stated, to render the +former, restored to greater favor with the nation by the Revolution, +more independent of the latter than it had hitherto been. This new power +had not only performed its duty in that regard, acting in the capacity +of umpire between the crown and the landed aristocracy, (the latter +before so omnipotent,) but had at times found itself able to control the +action of both through the influence of public opinion, to which it had +given a vitality and force it never before possessed. + +Mr. Bancroft, in his able history of the United States, has given a +condensed and I have no doubt a very correct account of the rise and of +a part of the progress of the money power in England, as they are +presented by her historians. His entire remarks upon the subject are +full of interest and instruction, and I regret that I am obliged to +restrict myself to the following extract:--"Moreover, as the expenses of +wars soon exceeded the revenue of England, the government prepared to +avail itself of the largest credit which, not the accumulations of +wealth only, but the floating credits of commerce, and the funding +system could supply. The price of such aid was political influence. That +the government should, as its paramount policy, promote commerce, +domestic manufactures, and a favorable balance of trade; that the +classes benefited by this policy should sustain the government with +their credit and their wealth, was the reciprocal relation and +compromise on which rested the fate of parties in England. The floating +credits of commerce, aided by commercial accumulations, soon grew +powerful enough to balance the landed interest; stock aristocracy +competed with feudalism. So imposing was the spectacle of the +introduction of the citizens and of commerce as the arbiter of +alliances, the umpire of factions, the judge of war and peace, that it +roused the attention of speculative men: that at last Bolingbroke, +claiming to speak for the landed aristocracy, described his opponents, +the Whigs, as the party of the banks, the commercial corporations, and +'in general, the moneyed interest;' and the gentle Addison, espousing +the cause of the burghers, declares nothing to be more reasonable than +that 'those who have engrossed the riches of the nation should have the +management of its public treasure, and the direction of its fleets and +armies.' In a word the old English aristocracy was compelled to respect +the innovating element embodied in the moneyed interest."[22] + + [22] 3 Bancroft's _History of the United States_, p. 8. + +The full establishment here of a similar power, by attaching to the bank +and funding systems the political influence they had acquired in +England, was, beyond all doubt, the "other and still other stages of +improvement" alluded to by Hamilton in his encouraging conversation with +Jefferson, in which he expressed a hope, for the first time, that the +inadequacy of the Constitution might yet be overcome, and the necessity +of returning to the English _form_ be at least postponed. That the +leading supporters of his policy at least understood and entered into +Hamilton's views will be seen in the following extract from a letter +written to him by Fisher Ames, which will be found in the first volume +of Randall's "Life of Jefferson," at p. 638: "All the influence of the +moneyed men ought to be wrapped up in the Union (Federal Government) and +in one Bank," &c. + +Of the three great elements of power under the English system--the +crown, the landed aristocracy, and the moneyed interest--Hamilton +regarded the latter, I have no doubt, as the most salutary even in +England. There was little in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of the +kingly office, and still less in the feudal grandeur of a landed +aristocracy, to captivate a mind like his; he advocated the monarchical +form for special reasons of a very different character, and these he +assigned in the Convention. Indeed, he all but expressed this +preference when he said to John Adams,--"Strike out of the English +system its corruptions and you make the government an impracticable +machine." Corruption in some form being the means by which the money +power ordinarily exerts its influence, Hamilton was not slow in +foreseeing the advantages to be derived from that power in the United +States. It is true that the influence it exerted in England was liberal +in its character, and beneficial, at least in its political bearings, to +the middle classes. We have seen that one object and a principal effect +of its establishment was to reduce the overshadowing influence of the +landed aristocracy which existed so long and exerted a sway so imperious +over the country--an object in the accomplishment of which the members +of the "stock aristocracy" were, in all probability, not a little +stimulated by recollections of their past exclusions not only from all +participation in the management of public affairs, but also from many +social distinctions. The landed aristocracy of England is composed of a +race of men superior in manly virtues and consistency of character to +similar classes in other countries, but notwithstanding these undeniable +and commendable traits they are, by force of their condition and by the +law of their minds, in a great degree the result of that condition, +unwilling to extend to their unprivileged fellow-subjects that equality +in public and private rights to which we republicans consider them +justly entitled. In this respect there is no difference between them, be +they Whigs or Tories,--their first duty being, in the estimation of +both, to "stand by their order." It is equally true that it did not +comport with Hamilton's policy to promote the establishment of any power +here the influence of which would enure to the increase and security of +political power in the people, and that, to answer his purposes, the +results of the operations of the money power here must be the reverse +of what they were in England. He was too well versed in politics and +parties not to know that the action of every political organization in a +state takes its direction from the character and condition of its +principal rival, and that all have their rivals. If one is not found to +exist they will soon make one, for such is the natural operation of +political parties in any degree free. + +We differed greatly from England in the condition and political aspect +of affairs; we had no monarchical institutions, no landed aristocracy to +excite the rivalry and opposition of the money power. It was itself, on +the contrary, destined, when firmly established, to become whatever of +aristocracy could co-exist with our political system. Its natural +antagonist would be the democratic spirit of the country,--that spirit +which had been the lion in Hamilton's path from the beginning, the dread +of which had destroyed his usefulness and blasted the fair prospects +that were presented to the youthful patriot,--that spirit which he +doubtless sincerely believed adverse to order, and destitute of due +respect for the rights of property. It was to keep down this spirit that +he desired the establishment of a money power here which should stand by +the Government as its interested ally, and support it against popular +disaffection and tumult. He well understood that, if he accomplished +that desire, they would soon become the principal antagonistic +influences on our political stage. He knew also, what was not less +satisfactory to his feelings, that if the anticipations, not to say +hopes, which he never ceased to entertain, should be realized, of the +presentation of a fair opportunity for the introduction of his favorite +institutions without too great a shock to public feeling; there could be +no class of men who would be better disposed to second his views than +those whose power in the state he had so largely contributed to +establish. To be allied to power, permanent, if possible, in its +character and splendid in its appendages, is one of the strongest +passions which wealth inspires. The grandeur of the Crown and of the +landed aristocracy affords a fair vent to that in England. Here, where +it is deprived of that indulgence, it maintains a constant struggle for +the establishment of a moneyed oligarchy, the most selfish and +monopolizing of all depositories of political power, and is only +prevented from realizing its complete designs by the democratic spirit +of the country. + +Hamilton succeeded for a season in all his wishes. He established the +money power upon precisely the same foundations upon which it had been +raised in England. He founded a political school the implied alliance +between which and the Government was similar to that which was formed +between the money power in England and the Revolutionary Government in +1688. A party adhering inflexibly to the leading principle of that +school had survived his own overthrow, is still in existence, and will +continue to exist as long as ours remains a free Government, and as long +as the characters and dispositions of men remain what they are. To +combat _the democratic spirit_ of the country was the object of its +original establishment, an object which it has pursued with unflagging +diligence, by whatever name it may have been designated. + +Having brought the general subject to this point it is due to truth and +justice that I should, before I proceed farther, refer to considerations +connected with Hamilton's motives which have been already but casually +and partially noticed. + +In all his steps he was doubtless influenced at bottom by a sincere +desire to promote the good of his country, and as little by personal +views as ordinarily falls to the lot of man. A riveted conviction that +the masses were destitute of a sufficient love of order and respect for +private rights, with an entire distrust, consequently, of their capacity +for self-government, lay at the foundation of his whole course,--a +course which the matured judgment of the country has definitively +condemned as to both teacher and doctrine. Subsequent experience of long +duration has shown, as I have remarked already, that the dispositions of +our people are eminently conservative in respect to public order and the +rights of property; exceptions to the general rule have been witnessed +here as well as elsewhere, but they have been of very limited duration +and seldom the cause of much mischief. There have been few if any +countries that have been more fortunate in this regard. + +I have also spoken of Hamilton's preference for monarchical +institutions, upon evidence of which I have not felt myself at liberty +to doubt. But it is due to the memory of that distinguished man that we +should speak of his disposition in that respect with more precision than +might be deemed necessary in other cases. To assume that he was a friend +to monarchy as it existed in England in the times of the Stuarts and +their predecessors would be doing him gross injustice. No man in the +country, in his day, respected less the absurd dogma of the divine right +of kings, or regarded with more contempt the reverence paid by gaping +crowds to the pomp and pageantry of royalty and to the carefully guarded +relics and reliquaries of the hoar institution of monarchy, than +Alexander Hamilton. He was, beyond all doubt, entirely sincere when he +said, in the Federal Convention, that he "was as zealous an advocate for +liberty as any man whatsoever, and trusted he would be as willing a +martyr to it, though he differed as to the form in which it was most +eligible;" and had he been a fellow-subject and contemporary of Russell, +and Sydney, and Hampden, we may believe that he would have proved +himself as prompt as either to make sacrifices equal to theirs in +resistance to arbitrary power. Expectations of personal advantages +through the favor of royalty did not enter into the formation of his +opinions. It was monarchy as modified and re-established by the +Revolution of 1688 that was the object of Hamilton's preference. In the +same speech from which I have just quoted he gave with manly candor his +reasons for believing that the English model presented the fairest +chance of any system then extant for the selection of a good executive. +He contrasted the probable advantages in this regard between a chief +magistrate selected, in the first instance, by Parliament and continued +by descent, and one elected by the people for a limited period, and +frankly argued in favor of the former. His opinion was mainly controlled +by that want of confidence in the capacity of the people for +self-government which he never hesitated to acknowledge, and which, as I +have said, lay at the foundation of his political views. But it was not +the king, as such, that he sought after, but a competent chief +magistrate; and he advocated monarchical institutions only because he +thought them the most likely to produce such an one. In a speech +delivered by him in the New York Ratification Convention, which bears +the stamp of his own revision, he said, "It is an undeniable truth that +the body of the people in every country sincerely desire its prosperity, +but it is equally unquestionable that they do not possess the +discernment and stability necessary for systematic government." He never +exhibited a preference for monarchy in the abstract; no one ever heard +him express a partiality for or an attachment to this or that royal +family save as their acts were more or less meritorious, and I cannot +think that such considerations ever swayed his course. He treated the +question not as one of personal preference, but as one involving the +chances of good government. In deciding this question he may have erred, +and few in our country can deny or seriously doubt that he did greatly +err; but it was a question that he had a right to entertain, more +especially at the formation of the Government, and one in respect to +which, his opinion having been honestly formed, error could not fairly +be made the subject of reproach. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Excitement of the Public Mind caused by Hamilton's Measures--Great + Men brought thus into the Political Field--The Preponderance of + leading Politicians and Commercial Classes on the side of + Hamilton--Not so with the Landed Interest--Character of Farmers and + Planters of the United States--Position of the Landed Interest + toward the Anti-Federal Party and toward Hamilton's System--Success + in maintaining its Principles greater in the Southern than in the + Northern States and the Causes thereof--The Landed Interest the + Fountain of the old Republican Party--Course of that Party toward + Washington and his Administration--Decline of the Federal + Party--Hamilton's Course in the Convention the most Brilliant and + Creditable of his Political Career--His Candor and Devotion to + Principle on that Occasion--His subsequent Loss of the Confidence + of the Friends of Republican Government--Coincidences and Contrasts + in the Public Lives of Hamilton and Madison--Their several + Contributions in the First Congress to the Promotion of the + Financial Branch of the Public Service--The Fate and the Fruits of + each--The Country chiefly indebted to them for the + Constitution--Their Treatment of it after its Adoption not the + same--The Provision authorizing Amendments necessary to save the + Constitution from Rejection--Memorials from New York and + Virginia--Dread of a New Convention on the Part of the + Federalists--Madison's Amendments--Consequences of their + Adoption--Character of Madison's Statesmanship--Different Courses + of Hamilton and Madison on Questions of Constitutional + Power--Unconstitutionality of Hamilton's Measures--His + Consciousness thereof--His Sense of the Obligations of Public + Men--His View of the Constitution as "a Temporary Bond of + Union"--Subsequent Change of Opinion, but Final Return in 1802 to + his Original View--Separation between him and Madison--"Sapping and + Mining Policy" of Hamilton--That Policy counteracted by the + Republican Party--Discrimination between Washington and Hamilton in + the Adoption of the latter's Policy--Probable Ground of + Washington's Official Approval of the Bank Bill--Subsequent similar + Position and Conduct of Madison--Instances of a like Transcending + of Constitutional Limits under a supposed Necessity, by Jefferson + and by Jackson--The Hamiltonian Rule of Construction discarded by + Washington in the case of his Veto of the First Apportionment + Bill--Portions of the Community liable to be attracted to + Hamilton's Policy--The Principles of that Policy inaugurated in + England in 1688--Extension of its Influence in this Country to + almost every Class but the Landed Interest--Points of Agreement and + of Difference between Hamilton and Politicians of his School in our + Time--Exceptions to the General Rule--Influence of the Money Power + in attracting Literary and Professional Men--Great Preponderance in + Numbers of Newspapers and Periodicals supporting the Views of the + Money Power over those devoted to the Advocacy of Democratic + Principles--The same Fact observable in Monarchical + Countries--Caucuses and Conventions not necessary to the Harmony of + the Federal Party--Sagacity indicated by Hamilton's System--The + Secret of its Failure in the Numerical Preponderance, often + underrated, of the Agricultural Class--The Policy best adapted to + succeed with our People is that of a Strict Construction of the + Constitution as to the Powers of the General Government--Such the + Successful Policy of Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson--Struggles of + the Money Power Ineffectual till crowned with Exceptional Success + in the Overthrow of Van Buren's Administration--Latitudinarianism + of Hamilton's School--John Quincy Adams elected as a Convert to the + Principles of the Republican Party--His early Disavowal of those + Principles, and the consequent Overthrow of his + Administration--Relative Power of the Landed Interest--The Safety + of our Institutions depends on the Right Convictions of the great + Agricultural Class--Growth of the Money Power in England--The + Political Influence of that Power Beneficent in Europe but + Injurious in the United States. + + +I have already spoken of the extent to which the public mind was excited +by Hamilton's measures. Large portions of the people regarded the most +prominent among them as violations of the Constitution, and most of them +as servile imitations of the English system, inexpedient in themselves +and contrary to the genius and spirit of our institutions. Their +arraignment and vindication brought into the political field the ablest +men of the country at a period when she abounded in great men. The +American Revolution accomplished here that which the French Revolution, +then at its commencement, and similar crises in all countries and times, +have brought about, namely, the production of great men by great events, +developing and calling into action upon a large scale intellects the +powers of which, but for their application to great transactions, might +have remained unknown alike to their possessors and to the world. Among +the master minds which were thus roused to political activity were +Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Patrick Henry, John +and Samuel Adams, John Jay, Chancellor Livingston, Gouverneur Morris, +George Clinton, Robert Yates, Chancellor Lansing, John Langdon, Elbridge +Gerry, Rufus King, Roger Sherman, John Dickinson, Speight and Williamson +and the Rutledges, Pinckneys, and Middletons of North and South +Carolina, Chace and Luther Martin of Maryland, Jackson, Few, and +Baldwin, of Georgia, John Mason, Marshall, Pendleton, and Wythe of +Virginia, and others; men, some of whom have under various circumstances +added celebrity to the best informed communities in the world and at one +of the brightest periods of the human intellect, and who, if they could +now be congregated, would eclipse the great men of any country. + +Hamilton's measures, of which the funding system was the pioneer, +presented their first field, after the adoption of the Federal +Constitution, for the display of their opinions and talents. They +supported in those grave discussions, with few exceptions, relatively +the same principles by which they had been influenced in respect to +federal politics during the government of the Confederation, by which +also they and men of their stamp had been governed under the colonial +system, and to which they would have adhered, in all probability, +throughout the intermediate period if they had not been driven into open +rebellion by the indiscriminate and intolerable oppression of a bigoted +tyrant, and by their own innate hatred of wrong and outrage, without +immediate regard to the government that should result from their +revolution. + +Jefferson was absent from the country during a large portion of the +government of the Confederation, and through the entire period of the +formation and adoption of the new Constitution. He sympathized +throughout with the feelings and concurred in the opinions of the +Anti-Federal party, with the exceptions that he was not opposed to +conferring on the Federal Government the powers to regulate commerce and +to raise its own revenues; was in favor of a convention for the +construction of a new constitution, and of the formation by that body of +a substantive and effective federal government, composed of legislative, +executive, and judicial departments; approved of the Constitution as +made, with modifications which were principally provided for by +amendments proposed and adopted, and was sincerely anxious for its +ratification. These things have, I know, been controverted and are still +disbelieved by many, but will be found fully established by references +to the following documents, viz.: Jefferson's "Correspondence," Vol. I. +p. 441; Vol. II. pp. 64, 162, 221, 236, 273, 303; Letter to Washington +expressing his anxiety for the adoption of the Constitution; p. 310, +some strong remarks in favor of it; p. 342, to Madison, congratulating +him on its adoption, and p. 348, to John Jay, to the same effect. + +Of Madison's character and general course I have already spoken. His +position at the period now under consideration differed from that of all +his contemporaries in the public service. He had supported all the +commercial and financial measures advocated by the Federal party during +the government of the Confederation, and had been as active, and I think +as efficient, as Hamilton in his efforts to promote the call of the +Federal Convention; had opposed, with ability and firmness, the +Anti-Federal plan of a Constitution; had, as far as we have knowledge of +Washington's opinions, acted in concert with him in the Convention, and +was first selected by him at a later period to prepare his Farewell +Address; had combined his labors with those of Hamilton and Jay to +promote the ratification of the Constitution by the well-known papers of +the "Federalist," and, upon the whole, had done more than any other man +to secure that great object. Yet there had been no time, as before +observed, when he could with propriety have been regarded as a member of +the Federal party, in the sense in which Hamilton, Adams, and Jay were +so regarded, or when he did not possess the confidence of the +Anti-Federal party, in respect to all public questions other than those +to which I have referred, and, what is still more remarkable, there was +not, during the whole of this period, a single occasion on which his +perfect probity and disinterestedness were not very generally felt and +acknowledged. + +Among the leading politicians of the epoch of which I speak, the +preponderance in numbers, in wealth, in social position, and possibly in +talent, was on the side of Hamilton; and when to these were added the +commercial and numerous other classes interested in and dependent upon +the money power then just rising into importance, an estimate may be +formed of his ability to give tone and direction to the state and to +society, and to cover with odium those who disapproved of his measures +by charging them with personal hostility to Washington, who so well +deserved the confidence and good will of all, and who enjoyed them to an +extent that led John Adams, at a much later day, to stigmatize the +deference paid to him as "impious homage." Hamilton wielded this great +power with tremendous effect, for, although his judgment in the +management of men was always deemed defective, he exerted, in the +promotion of his particular objects, talents and industry which could +not fail to produce great results. His activity and capacity for labor +were not equaled by any of his contemporaries save Madison; his powers +of persuasion and the effects of his eloquence were strikingly +exemplified by his success in making Mr. Jefferson believe, on his first +arrival at the seat of government from France, that the safety of the +Union depended upon the passage of the bill for the assumption of the +State debts, which had been at the moment rejected in the House of +Representatives by a majority of one or two, and in inducing him to +"hold the candle," as Jefferson afterwards described it, to a bargain by +which Messrs. White and Lee, Southern members, were prevailed upon to +vote for its reconsideration and passage on condition that Hamilton +would get the requisite number of Northern members to vote for the +establishment of the seat of the Federal Government on slave territory. +Jefferson gives an interesting account of the earnestness of Hamilton's +appeal to him on the subject, and of his own mortification and regret at +having been made a party to so exceptionable a transaction in support of +a measure he soon found the strongest reasons to condemn.[23] + + [23] Jefferson's _Correspondence_, Vol. 4. p. 449. + +The attention of every American community which possessed facilities for +foreign commerce or manufactures, or for any of the various pursuits +enumerated in his great report, and especially when they possessed also +superior skill and enterprise, was at once directed to Hamilton's scheme +of government for encouragement, and they certainly were not always +indisposed to accept the seductive offers held out to them. But +fortunately for the country and for the cause of good government there +was a class, happily formidable in numbers and in great and sterling +qualities, whom no wiles could win from their devotion to early +principles and whom government favors could not corrupt. That class was, +singularly enough, the landed interest. I say singularly, not because +their fidelity to principle was at variance with their history, but with +reference to the circumstance that, whilst in England it had been the +principal object in building up the money power to restrict the +influence of the landed interest, that power was here destined to be +itself kept in check by an interest of the same name, however different +in character. + +Mr. Jefferson in his celebrated letter to Mazzei, in 1796, gives a +description, which could not be improved, of the then political +condition of the country and of its political parties: "Against us," he +says, "are the executive, the judiciary, two out of three branches of +the Legislature, all the officers of the Government, all who want to be +officers, all timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the +boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants and Americans trading on +British capital, speculators and holders in the banks and public +funds,--a contrivance invented for the purpose of corruption, and for +assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well as the sound parts +of the British model. The whole body of our citizens, however, remain +true to their republican principles; the _whole landed interest is +republican_, and so is a great mass of talent." The term "landed +interest" in its general signification, and in the sense in which it was +used by Mr. Jefferson, referred to those who worked as well as owned the +land,--the farmers of the North and the planters of the South,--all who +made Agriculture their pursuit; a class which in the earlier periods of +our colonial condition constituted almost our entire population, and +have at every period in our history vastly exceeded in numbers those +engaged in all other pursuits. There is no point of resemblance between +them and the landed aristocracy of England, save in that they both +represent the landed interest of their respective countries and that +they were led in each to oppose the money power. Their difference in +other respects is sufficiently manifest. + +A more estimable class of men than the farmers and planters of the +United States is not to be found in the world. From the landing of the +Pilgrims to the present day they have exerted an effective and salutary +influence, not only upon the condition of the country, in respect to its +material improvement, but upon the character and strength of our +political institutions. It was to their sagacity and firmness that the +colonies were chiefly indebted for their success in turning away and +defeating the fury of the savages, and in baffling the persevering +efforts of the mother country to enslave the provinces. For the most +part the descendants of ancestors who had been, to an almost +unprecedented extent, exposed to the faithlessness and persecutions of +power, they seldom failed to be on their guard against its approaches, +however artfully disguised. Every attempt to purchase their acquiescence +in measures that they regarded as encroachments upon their liberties or +subversive of their rights, through governmental favors, proved +abortive. + +Grenville, when pressed, as prime minister, by the London merchants with +the dangers that threatened the collection of their American debts from +the effects of the stamp-tax, was prodigal in his offers of governmental +favors to secure the submission of the colonists to the odious measure. +"If one bounty," said he, "will not do, I will add two; if two will not +do, I will add three." But these offers, as well as all the efforts +which had been and were subsequently made by the Crown to quiet the +Colonies through bounties and commercial privileges, were unavailing. +The "landed interest," constituting a great majority of the colonists, +was too wise to be duped, and too honest to be corrupted, by special +favors of any description. Placed by the nature of their pursuits, in a +great measure, beyond the reach of court and official blandishments, and +less dependent on the special privileges of the Crown than those who +looked to them for their support, they uniformly regarded these offers +with distrust rather than desire. They had, from these and other +considerations, been led to embrace the principles upon which the +Revolution was founded with more earnestness, and to cherish them with a +more uncalculating devotion, than many of their Revolutionary +associates. The circumstance that a larger share of the defense of those +principles had devolved upon them, by reason of the excess of their +numbers, naturally commended more warmly to their hearts doctrines for +the establishment of which they had suffered so much inquietude and +encountered so many perils. + +These considerations were alike applicable to, and equally influential +upon, the landed interest of the North and of the South. With +attachments undiminished and unchangeable to republican principles, pure +and simple, subject to such limitations only as were required by +convenience in their execution and necessary to deliberation in council, +principles the fruition of which had been the day-dream of their +ancestors through successive generations, and their own guiding-star in +the gloomiest period of the Revolution, the representatives of this +great interest, North and South, by large majorities, sustained the +Anti-Federal party until that party was overthrown through its great +error in respect to the Constitution, and were still ready to take their +stand in any organization that should have for its object opposition to +the heresies developed by Hamilton in his platform for the government of +the administration. + +The principles upon which the landed interest acted from the start, +have, it must be admitted, been more successfully sustained in the +Southern than in the Northern States; not because they were originally +embraced with more sincerity, but from very different causes. The +commercial, manufacturing, and trading classes, to whom Hamilton's +policy was more particularly addressed, and upon whom it, beyond all +doubt, exerted a powerful influence, were, at the beginning, far more +numerous in the Northern than in the Southern States, and this disparity +in their respective conditions has been constantly increasing. It was +through the growing power of these classes, and of others similarly, +though perhaps not equally, exposed to its influence that the +Hamiltonian policy occasionally triumphed in the Northern States, and +their politics thus became more unstable than those of the South. + +Mr. Bancroft happily and truly describes the peculiar condition of +Southern men in this regard. "An instinctive aversion," says he, "to too +much government was always a trait of Southern character expressed in +the solitary manner of settling in the country, in the absence of +municipal governments, in the indisposition of the scattered inhabitants +to engage in commerce, to collect in towns, or to associate in townships +under corporate powers. As a consequence there was little commercial +industry; and on the soil of Virginia there were no vast accumulations +of commercial wealth. The exchanges were made almost entirely--and it +continued so for more than a century--by factors of foreign merchants. +Thus the influence of wealth, under the modern form of stocks and +accumulations of money, was always inconsiderable; and men were so +widely scattered--like hermits among the heathen--that far the smallest +number were within the reach of the direct influence of the established +Church or of Government."[24] + + [24] Bancroft's _Hist. United States_, Vol. II. p. 189. + +In this description of the early, which is also measurably and +comparatively true of the present, state of the South, we find a +solution of the circumstance that the failure of Hamilton's policy was +so much more signal there than in other quarters, and that the +principles upon which it was founded have there been since so +perseveringly and unitedly resisted. The political principles of the +landed interest, constituting an immense majority of their people, have +prevailed in the administration of their State governments, save in +regard to the ratification of the Federal Constitution, from the +recognition of our Independence to the present day. There has also been +a remarkable consistency in the political positions of their public men. +In Virginia, which State has done so much to give a tone to national +politics, Patrick Henry has been almost, if not quite, the only +prominent man who abandoned the principles by which he had been governed +during the Confederation, and embraced those of Hamilton at the coming +in of the new government. Always admiring his character and conduct +during the Revolutionary era, and strongly impressed by the vehemence +and consistency with which he had, during the government of the +Confederation, opposed every measure that savored of English origin, I +pressed Mr. Jefferson, as far as was allowable, for the reasons of his +sudden and great change. His explanation was, "that Henry had been +smitten by Hamilton's financial policy." + +The Republican party, forced into existence by Hamilton's obnoxious +measures, sprang chiefly from the landed interest. The declaration of +its illustrious founder, in his letter to Mazzei, that the country would +yet preserve its liberties, was mainly based on the fact that "the whole +landed interest was republican," and he could not have placed his +reliance on a surer foundation. Farthest removed, as has been already +said, from the seductive influence of the money power, abounding in +strong common sense and love of country, and always greatly superior in +numbers to the business men of all other classes, it constituted then, +and has ever since constituted, the balance wheel of the Government. All +it asks from administration is the maintenance of order, protection in +the enjoyment of its civil and political rights, and the management of +public affairs in a spirit of equal justice to all men. Whilst the +commercial and manufacturing classes are annually approaching the +National Legislature with appeals for aid and encouragement, and whilst +the Congressional committees charged with their interests are from time +to time convulsing the country with their measures, that which is +nominally the representative and guardian of agriculture not being asked +to do any thing for its support, very properly does nothing; having, +indeed, no power under the Constitution to do any thing for it, the +advantages of which are not common to all classes. What the farmers and +planters desire more than this are "the early and the latter rain," for +which they look to a source purer and more powerful than human +legislation. + +Thus sustained, the Republican party of 1790, headed by Thomas +Jefferson, with the 'laboring oar' in the hands of James Madison, warmed +into action by Jefferson's more fervent though not more deeply seated +patriotism, and embracing "a great mass of talent," determined to oppose +every measure of Washington's administration which they believed to be +unauthorized by the Constitution, or anti-republican in its tendencies. +This resolution was carried out with unflinching firmness, but, whatever +has been said to the contrary, was made and designed to be performed in +a manner consistent with the respect they entertained for the character +and feelings of President Washington, and without even a desire to +displace him from the high office with which they had contributed to +invest him. It would have been strange if, in a state of party violence +so excited as that which naturally sprung up, the dominant party should +have refrained from aspersing the motives of their opponents by +attributing to them personal hostility to a chief so justly beloved by +the people as was Washington. Mr. Jefferson, in his letter to me, +referring to similar charges but speaking of a subsequent period, says +"General Washington, after the retirement of his first cabinet and the +composition of his second, entirely Federal, and at the head of which +was Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both sides of +any question. His measures consequently took more the hue of the party +in whose hands he was. These measures were certainly not approved by the +Republicans; yet they were not imputed to him, but to the counselors +around him; and his prudence so far restrained their impassioned course +and bias that no act of strong mark during the remainder of his +administration excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time +after, and too much withdrawn from information to correct the views into +which he had been deluded, and the continued assiduities of the party +drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career, separated him +still farther from his real friends, and excited him to actions and +expressions of dissatisfaction which grieved them but could not loosen +their affections from him."[25] + + [25] See Appendix. + +Such charges were freely made and with unsparing bitterness; yet I +cannot but think that unprejudiced minds, if it is not too soon to +expect to find many such upon this subject, would, on a careful review +of facts, acquit the Republican party of them. Madcaps, and those who, +looking to party for their daily bread, hope to commend themselves by +extremes and by violence to those whom they sustain, are to be found in +all parties and should not be allowed to make those to which they attach +themselves responsible for their acts. Nothing has ever been adduced +that may fairly be regarded as the act of the Republican party which +proves the existence of the disposition charged against it in regard to +General Washington; and the single fact that, although its opposition +commenced three years before the expiration of his first term, there was +not the slightest effort made to prevent his reelection, or the +exhibition of any desire to prevent it, is, of itself, sufficient to +refute the charge of personal unfriendliness toward him. Nor did the +Republicans desire to embarrass his administration beyond what was +inevitable from their opposition to measures which they regarded as +unconstitutional or in the highest degree inexpedient, of which the bank +and funding system were appropriate illustrations. + +The Federal party, without extraordinary or difficult attention and +care, might have preserved untarnished a character made respectable by +illustrious names and honorable history, notwithstanding the +overwhelming defeat to which it was subsequently exposed, and its +principles, however erroneous, might have stood a chance of restoration +to power in the course of those changes and overturns of men and things +to which public affairs and political parties have ever been subject. +Even error of opinion not unfrequently regains a lost ascendancy by +means of the perseverance and consistency with which it is adhered to, +and when the organization by which it has been upheld is maintained with +the fidelity and dignity that belong to a good cause. In all these +respects there was, on the part of the members of the Federal party, a +complete failure. They suffered its lead to fall into less respectable +hands, and its support to be lent to seceders (one after another) from +the Republican ranks between whom and themselves there was no identity +of political feeling, and still less of principle. The motives for this +course were usually censurable, and the results generally disastrous +from the beginning, and always so in the sequel. Hamilton, as has been +seen, twice threw himself in the path of his party to save it from such +degradation, for his intelligence and integrity appreciated the +impossibility of preserving the respect of the people at large for +principles, whose special advocates showed by their acts that they did +not themselves respect them. His counsels were unheeded, and the banner +of a once highly honored party continued to be trailed in the dust until +its name was disowned by its adherents with shame and disgust. + +Those who agree with me in believing that General Hamilton was sincere +in the opinion he expressed that the republican system could not be made +adequate to the purpose of good government here, and that the welfare of +the country would be best promoted by approaching as near to the English +model as public sentiment would tolerate, are well justified in holding +him undeserving of censure for his introduction of the anti-republican +plan which he submitted to the Federal Convention. The right of the +people to "alter or abolish" existing systems, and "to institute new +government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its +powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their +safety and happiness," was the corner-stone of the Revolution, in +defense of which he had freely ventured his life. The Convention was not +only an appropriate but the appointed place for the assertion and +exercise of that right. So far from being a fit subject for censure, the +submission to that body by a man in Hamilton's position, with the claims +he had established upon the confidence and support of the people by his +superior abilities and his Revolutionary services, of propositions which +every body knew, and which he himself felt, were strongly adverse to the +prevailing current of public sentiment, and the intrepidity and +extraordinary talent with which he sustained them, without a single open +supporter in the Convention, solely because he believed them to be right +and their adoption necessary to the public good, exhibited a patriotic +and self-sacrificing spirit alike honorable to himself and to his +principles. His course in the Convention, for which he has been +extensively reviled, was in my judgment the most brilliant and +creditable portion of his political career. It presented an example of +candor and devotion to principle which there was not a single one among +his friends willing to follow, although there were, doubtless, a few who +felt substantially as he did and sympathized with all he said, and +although they all admired his gallant hearing while lamenting his +indiscretion. It was, unhappily for himself, the culminating point in +his political life, from which every subsequent step gradually lowered +him, until he justly forfeited the confidence and countenance of every +sincere friend to republican government. + +Alas! how deeply is it to be lamented that this great statesman, as able +as an impracticable man can be, when he knew that he was about to +attempt a ladder upon the first round of which his boldest friend dared +not even to place his foot, had not rather followed, in some respects at +least, the example of his coadjutor and friend, James Madison. The +coincidences in the occurrence of opportunities to make themselves +useful to their country, and the contrasts in the ways in which these +were improved and the consequences that followed, to be found in the +public lives of these illustrious men, are both striking and +instructive. In regard to one subject a partial reference to them has +already been made. They were co-workers in a series of efforts to obtain +from the Congress of the Confederation authority for the Federal head to +levy and collect impost duties to enable it to perform the offices +devolved upon the General Government by the Articles of Confederation, +instead of trusting to the unsafe and unstable requisitions upon the +States. No sooner had the first Congress of the new Government, +established for that and other purposes, formed a quorum, than Mr. +Madison, as we have already seen, before the executive branch had been +organized, or even the President elect been informed of his election, +introduced bills for the imposition and collection of duties on imported +goods, which he pushed forward _de die in diem_ until they became laws, +and the duties were in the process of being collected, and the public +coffers in the way of being replenished. This good work he followed up +in due time by the introduction into Congress of resolutions (and the +most able support of them on its floor) in favor of a commercial policy +recommended by the Secretary of State, Mr. Jefferson, to improve our +trade and thus increase our revenue. These were the contributions of Mr. +Madison, simple, practical, and direct like their author, for promoting +the financial branch of the public service under the new Government, +which was committed by President Washington to the special +superintendence of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury. + +The Secretary's contributions to the same objects consisted of two very +elaborate and very able reports, the first upon public credit, +recommending the establishment of a funding system, and the second in +favor of a national bank, embracing plans for each and, in the former, a +scheme to raise funds for the payment of the interest of a debt to be +funded. The _eclat_ which he acquired by these imposing state papers was +so great, and many minds are still so much dazzled by the traditional +splendor of their effects upon the credit and resources of the country +as to render it not a little embarrassing to discuss, in a plain, +matter-of-fact way, the questions of their real influence or +non-influence upon our finances. + +In previous as well as in subsequent parts of this work will be found +notices of the rise, progress, and effects of Hamilton's funding system, +which, if they do not show that the measure, judged by its results, +partook more of the character of a castle in the air than of a wise and +practicable financial scheme, do not, I think, fall far short of it. But +both it and the bank are now only "obsolete ideas"--to remain so +probably while our Government endures. References, under such +circumstances, can only be usefully made to them to show the principles +and objects of men and parties. + +Whilst Hamilton's measures have been, it is hoped and believed, forever +abandoned--the funding system by his own political friends, and a +national bank in consequence of its explicit and emphatic condemnation +by the whole country--those put into immediate and successful operation +by Madison not only performed at the time the useful office designed for +them by the Constitution, and gradually provided for the wants of the +existing Government, but have supplied it with a revenue abundantly +sufficient to pay the public debt and to defray all expenses and +disbursements required by the public service in war and in peace, with +rare and limited additions, for nearly three quarters of a century, and +will, in all likelihood, continue so to do to the end. + +But the most interesting aspect of these coincidences and contrasts to +which I refer is to be found in the illustrations they furnish of the +use and abuse of the Constitution by those distinguished men and by +their followers respectively. Co-workers again in persevering efforts to +obtain from Congress or the States a call for a general convention to +revise the Articles of Confederation, it would be difficult to decide +which contributed most to effect that object, and it is not too much to +say that it would not have been then accomplished if the efforts of +either had been withheld. They were neither of them satisfied with the +Constitution framed by the Convention; Madison not entirely, Hamilton +scarcely at all. The former sympathized, as I have already said, with +Hamilton's distrust of the State governments, made unsuccessful efforts +to impose stringent restrictions upon their power, and would have been +better pleased with the Constitution if it had inclined more decidedly +in that direction. + +They both signed the instrument notwithstanding; Hamilton under a sort +of protest against its sufficiency (or rather its want of it), and +Madison with apparent and, I doubt not, real cordiality. In the numbers +of the "Federalist," (of which they were the principal authors,) they +offered a joint and honorable testimonial to the Constitution, which +became in the sequel an enduring monument to their own associated +memories. Each rendered "yeoman's service" in the conventions, +respectively, of New York and Virginia, to decide upon its ratification; +in neither of which was the ratification probable at the beginning, and +in both there is the best reason to believe that, without their powerful +aid, it must have ultimately failed. In such an event the failure of the +Constitution would have been next to certain. + +Although Gouverneur Morris's assertion that Hamilton had comparatively +nothing to do with the construction of the Federal Constitution is true, +yet as Madison had a greater agency in that work than any other +individual, and as the obtaining the call of the Convention and the +ratification of the Constitution, in which Madison and Hamilton acted +the chief parts, were also the portions of the whole transaction most +exposed to the action of the States and of the public mind, and +therefore the most difficult of accomplishment, it may with truth be +affirmed that there were not any fifty or a hundred other men taken +together to whom the country was as much indebted for the Federal +Constitution as to those two gentlemen. But in their subsequent +treatment of that sacred instrument, which each had done so much to +bring to maturity, they, unfortunately for the country, differed very +widely. The Constitution was ratified and adopted in the first instance +by more than the requisite number of States, and finally by the whole +thirteen. General Washington was elected President. He appointed +Alexander Hamilton to be Secretary of the Treasury, and James Madison +was elected a member of the first Congress. The latter, although +overruled in the Convention upon points which he deemed important, +acquiesced in the decisions of the majority, accepted the Constitution +in good faith with a determination to do all in his power, not only to +secure its ratification, but to give to the people and the States the +full benefit of its provisions as those were understood by them, and to +do this with the same fidelity and honor with which he would perform any +private arrangement to which he had made himself a party. Satisfied from +numerous exhibitions of public sentiment elsewhere as well as in the +State conventions, and perhaps more particularly in that of his own +State, not only that there was far greater opposition in the minds of +the people at large to the Constitution as it came from the hands of +the Convention than he at first supposed, but that it was, in point of +fact, defective in some particulars important in themselves and well +calculated to excite the solicitude of the masses, he determined to +leave no means within his reach unimproved to make it, by suitable and +seasonable amendments, what a brief experience convinced him that it +ought to be. It might perhaps be inferred, from some general expressions +used by him in the first Congress, that he felt as if something had been +said or done on his part rendering his attention to this matter a +special duty, although nothing of that nature is apparent; but, be that +as it may, there were other considerations imperative upon a mind so +circumspect and so just to prevent his losing sight of the subject. + +Mr. John Quincy Adams asserts that the Constitution "was extorted from +the grinding necessity of a reluctant nation." Although this may be +deemed an exaggerated description no one can make himself familiar with +the history of that period without becoming sensible of the truth of two +positions, viz.: that vast numbers who were greatly dissatisfied with +the Constitution were induced to withhold their active opposition by the +embarrassed condition of the country, and that even this consideration +would not have sufficed to overcome the decided Anti-Federal majority +against it but for the provision authorizing amendments, and the +confident anticipation that such as were proper and necessary would be +speedily made. The consciousness of these truths, and a conviction that +a successful operation of, and general acquiescence in, the provisions +of the new Constitution were not to be expected unless proper steps were +immediately taken to appease the opposition still in force among the +Anti-Federalists, secured the early and unremitting attention of Mr. +Madison to that point. + +This view of the expectations of the country upon the subject of +amendment and of the condition of the public mind in respect to it was +strongly confirmed by memorials presented to the first Congress, at its +first session, by the States of New York and Virginia, containing +averments framed in the strongest terms, that whilst they dreaded the +operation of the Constitution in its then imperfect state, they had, +notwithstanding, yielded their assent to its ratification from motives +of affection for their sister States, and from an invincible reluctance +to separate from them, and with a full confidence that its imperfections +would be speedily removed; that the existence of great and vital defects +in the Constitution was the prevailing conviction of those States; that +the dissatisfaction and uneasiness upon the subject amongst their people +would never cease to distract the country until the causes of them were +satisfactorily removed; that the matter would ill admit of postponement, +and concluding with applications to Congress that they should, without +delay, call a new convention with full powers to revise and amend the +Constitution. Although these memorials referred to the opinions +expressed by their respective State conventions that that instrument +ought to undergo further revision, which, in one of them, was a +unanimous expression, Congress nevertheless took no steps toward a +compliance with the request they contained. But the whole subject was +brought before it by Mr. Madison as soon as he had perfected his revenue +measures, and he caused amendments to be carried through that body, I +had almost said by his own unaided efforts, which were satisfactory to +the people--certainly to that portion of them by whom the Constitution +had been opposed. + +A tolerably full and obviously fair account of the debates and +proceedings in the House of Representatives upon this subject--those in +the Senate, I fear, are lost--may be found in the first and second +volumes of Lloyd's "Register of the Proceedings and Debates of the +First House of Representatives of the United States," which I am sorry +to find has not been transferred to Colonel Benton's "Abridgment." The +subject, speaking of the ten amendments as one measure, was only second +in intrinsic importance, on account of the influence its success exerted +on the solidity and perpetuity of the new system, to the Constitution +itself, and the debates in point of ability and earnestness, +particularly on the part of Mr. Madison, not inferior to any of the +discussions by which that interesting period when the foundations of the +present government were laid was so greatly distinguished; one cannot +read them without acknowledging the difficulty of recalling another +instance in which a measure of equal gravity was so successfully carried +through a public body against the obvious and decided preferences of a +large majority of its members, or without admiring the extent to which +that success was achieved by the exertions of one man. + +Now that the dangers which environed these proceedings have passed away, +they afford amusement to the curious in such matters by the picture they +furnish of the twists and turns to which men in high positions and of +generally fair views will sometimes resort to stave off distasteful +propositions, with the hope of ultimately defeating what they do not +feel it to be safe directly to oppose. The Virginia and New York +applications were presented by Mr. Bland, of the former, and Mr. +Lawrence, of the latter State, both friends of Hamilton; and although +both were solicitous that the applications should be respectfully +received, neither of them ever took a step to make them successful, nor +were they in favor of the amendments proposed by Mr. Madison. That +gentleman gave notice of his intention to bring the subject before the +House several weeks before the day he named for that purpose. When that +day arrived he moved that the House should resolve itself into a +committee of the whole to receive the amendments he proposed to offer. +Opposition to going into such committee came from almost all sides of +the House, some urging one species of objections and some another, but +generally indicative of decided unfriendliness to the views of the +mover. Perceiving that his motion was neither satisfactory nor likely to +succeed, Mr. Madison withdrew it, and submitted a proposition for the +appointment of a select committee to report such amendments to the +Constitution as they should think proper. Having done this, he, in a +very able speech, went over the whole subject, stated at length the +necessity that existed for some amendments, and the high expediency of +proposing others, and furnished a statement of those he had intended to +offer to the committee of the whole; these he trusted would now be +referred to the select committee, and thus the matter would proceed +there without interruption to the other business of the House. + +The proposition for a select committee was not more fortunate or +acceptable than its predecessor. It was opposed from the same quarters, +and several who had evinced no favor toward the motion to go into +committee of the whole now said that, if the subject was to be taken up +at all, that would have been, but for its withdrawal, the preferable +mode. Mr. Madison declared himself, as he said, "unfortunate in not +satisfying gentlemen with respect to the mode of introducing the +business; he had thought, from the dignity and peculiarity of the +subject, that it ought to be referred to a committee of the whole; he +had accordingly made that motion first, but finding himself not likely +to succeed in that way, he had changed his ground. Fearing again to be +discomfited on his motion for a select committee, he would change his +mode, and move the propositions he had stated before directly to the +House, and it might then do what it thought proper with them. He +accordingly moved the propositions by way of Resolutions to be adopted +by the House." + +This course was also objected to on several grounds; but the majority +saw that if the game of staving off the subject was not broken up by Mr. +Madison's third proposition, it had at least been so far exposed as to +require time to put it in some new form, and with that view Mr. +Lawrence, who, as already said, was not in favor of amendments, moved +that the subject be referred to a committee of the whole,--the +proposition first submitted by Mr. Madison,--which was done. This +occurred on the 8th of June. On the 21st of July thereafter Mr. Madison +"begged the House to indulge him in the further consideration of the +subject of amendments to the Constitution, and as there appeared, in +some degree, a moment of leisure, he would move to go into a committee +of the whole upon the subject, conformably to the order of the 8th of +last month." + +This proposition was met by a motion from Mr. Fisher Ames, of +Massachusetts, to rescind the vote of the 8th of June, and to refer the +business to a select committee. This motion gave rise to speeches +professing not to be opposed to the consideration of amendments at a +proper time and under proper circumstances, but showing a decided +distrust of and distaste for the whole proceeding. The motion prevailed +by a vote of 34 to 15, and a select committee was appointed, of which +Mr. Vining, an opponent, was made chairman. The report of this committee +contained substantially the amendments proposed by Mr. Madison, with +some alterations and additions. These, after revision by the House, were +finally passed by a vote of two thirds in both Houses, submitted to the +States and ratified by them, as they now appear as the first ten of the +twelve amendments that have been made to the Federal Constitution since +its first adoption. + +Some of Mr. Madison's colleagues occasionally expressed a desire for the +success of his propositions, and similar avowals were sometimes made by +two or three members from other States; but of substantial, persevering, +and effective assistance, he may, with truth, be said to have had none, +and two thirds of the House were at heart decidedly opposed to the +amendments that were made. With all his talents, industry, and +perseverance, Mr. Madison would not have been able to carry them if his +exertions had not been seconded by an influence still more efficacious. +The legislature of Virginia alluded to the defects of the Constitution +as "involving all the great and inalienable rights of freemen," declared +that its objections were not founded on speculative theory, but deduced +from principles which had been established by the melancholy examples of +other nations in different ages, and said, "they will never be removed +until the cause shall cease to exist." It announced the "cause of +amendment as a common cause," and its trust that commendable zeal would +be shown by others also for obtaining those "provisions which experience +had taught them were necessary to secure from danger the inalienable +rights of human nature." It expressed its impatience of delay and its +doubt as to the disposition of Congress; complained of the slowness of +its forms, but congratulated itself on the possession of another remedy, +which it was determined to pursue, under the Constitution itself--that +of a convention of The States. + +The New York application, signed, as Speaker, by John Lansing, Jr., who +had left the Federal Convention in consequence of his dissatisfaction +with its proceedings and never returned to it, though not going as much +into details, employed language equally bold and uncompromising in +demanding from Congress another convention, which might propose such +amendments "as it might find best calculated to promote our common +interests, and secure to ourselves and our latest posterity the great +and inalienable rights of mankind." This memorial asserted not only that +the New York Convention had ratified "in the fullest confidence of +obtaining a revision of the Constitution by a general convention, as +appeared on the face of its ratification," but that that body (of which +Hamilton was a member) were unanimous in the opinion that such a +revision was necessary to recommend that instrument to the approbation +and support of a numerous body of its constituents. + +These documents, and especially that of Virginia, pointed very +emphatically to the source of that discontent with the Constitution +which so extensively prevailed in the old Anti-Federal ranks. Even they +felt that the Constitution was much better than they had expected, and +the most considerate among them, those who were most capable of +suspending their suspicions as to the designs of their opponents long +enough to give the instrument a dispassionate consideration, were soon +satisfied--and Samuel Adams, who stood at the head of the Anti-Federal +party, admitted--that its general structure was free from any +insuperable objection. The life-tenure given to the Federal Judges was, +as it indeed might well be, regarded as inconsistent with republican +principles; but it was to be remembered that those officers were +expected to be, as they ought always to be, non-combatants in partisan +politics by reason of their appointment to act as arbiters of the fates +and fortunes of their countrymen. Upon the great point to which the +attention of such men was first directed, that of the ability of the +State governments to maintain their sovereignty and independence under +the new system, there was no real ground for apprehension. But the +Constitution was principally confined to what were more strictly public +concerns, the powers and duties of the Federal and State Governments in +regard to National and State affairs, with only a slight sprinkling of +provisions looking particularly to the protection of the citizen against +the exercise of arbitrary power; and it was accompanied by no Bill of +Rights, such as those to which the people had been accustomed in respect +to their State governments. In the latter cases they might more readily +have been reconciled to the absence of such provisions, as those +governments were carried on under their immediate observation, and they +formed a part of them in much larger portions than they could expect to +do of the Federal Government. The latter they were too much in the habit +of regarding, at that early period, as a foreign government only +remotely responsible to them. We have already spoken of the settled +character of their distrust of power for which there was only a remote, +if any, responsibility, and of their having been trained by experience +to expect only abuses from the exercise of such authority, whether in +State or Church,--an experience embracing the sorrowful and +well-remembered accounts of outrage and persecution against their +ancestors, and the cruel oppression of the then existing generation by +the distant government of the mother country. We have seen how great had +been their aversion and that of their ancestors to the establishment of +a general government, and with what difficulties their consent to the +call of the then recent Convention had been obtained, and what care had +been taken to restrict its power. It was not therefore surprising that a +large majority of them should have manifested such intense +dissatisfaction when a Constitution was presented for their approval +containing so few, so very few safeguards for the protection of "the +great and inalienable rights of freemen," as Virginia described +them--of the "great and inalienable rights of mankind," as the New York +Legislature styled them--points to which the masses, especially of the +Anti-Federalists, were so keenly alive. + +These considerations and circumstances produced a sudden and extensive +spirit of discontent which, as those States avowed, never would be +appeased until its causes were removed, and with which Mr. Madison was +well satisfied the new Government would not be able to contend unless +some mode was devised to appease it. Although never a member of it, he +had, in his long and persevering efforts to obtain the Constitution, +"tasted the quality," so to speak, of the old Anti-Federal party, and +understood the stuff of which it was composed. He knew very well that +the call of Virginia upon her co-States to make the demand for +amendments "a common cause" would not be _brutum fulmen_, but that the +agitation for a new convention in such hands, and commenced under such +favorable circumstances, with so many materials of discontent already +made to their hands, would not cease until its object was gained, and +what would follow no man could tell. He was not so much of a Bourbon as +Hamilton; he had not pursued his thorny path through those trying scenes +without learning something of the character and temper of the people, or +without having his mind disabused of much that it had once entertained. +No man in the country was more opposed to the call of a new convention, +or more unwilling to make any amendments that would materially impair +the original structure of the Constitution. The former he omitted to +avow out of respect to the declared wishes of his State but the latter +he repeatedly announced because it was only in harmony with his past +course. But he knew that matters could not remain as they stood, and he +thought a series of amendments could be made, some of which he deemed +highly proper and all expedient, through which a large portion of the +Anti-Federalists might be conciliated without prejudice to the system +which had been adopted. This course, to be useful, must, he was +satisfied, be pursued at the very commencement of the new government. He +devoted himself, body and mind, to that object, and we have seen some of +the difficulties with which he had to contend. Although Hamilton was not +personally in Congress, he was well represented, and Madison found +there, besides, many other Bourbons, in the sense in which I use that +term. He prepared a plan according to the views I have described; and +few exhibitions of that kind can have been more interesting than to see +him stand between the Federal majority in the House and the few old +Anti-Federalists who were there, and avail himself of the votes of each +in turn to defeat the obnoxious efforts of the other; first to arrest by +Federal aid every attempt on the part of the few Anti-Federalists to mar +his project by seeking amendments which he was not himself prepared to +adopt, and then to frustrate by Anti-Federal votes the efforts of a +majority of the Federalists (though less than a majority of the House) +to defeat his entire scheme. + +That the only alternative was between a new convention and the adoption +of amendments substantially like his, was the great fact which he +labored to impress upon the minds of the Federal members. He introduced +it in his public speeches with never-failing delicacy, but with +sufficient clearness to be understood, and doubtless enforced it at +private interviews as far as it was his habit to do such things. That +important truth was the fulcrum on which he rested his lever, and he +engineered his plan through the House and afterwards, as chairman of the +Committee of Conference, through both Houses (the majorities in each +alike unfriendly to it) with triumphant and under the circumstances most +extraordinary success. + +The dread of another Federal Convention has never failed, when the +circumstances were sufficient to justify apprehension of its call, to +deter the Federalists from the adoption of projects obnoxious to the +democratic spirit of the country, however anxiously desired by +themselves. Pending the election of President in the House, between +Jefferson and Burr, the Republicans replied to the threat of putting the +Government in the hands of an officer by act of Congress, by an open, +united, and firm declaration that the day such an act passed, the Middle +States would arm, and that they would "call a convention to reorganize +and amend the Constitution;" upon the effect of which Mr. Jefferson +remarks, "the very word convention gives them the horrors, as, in the +present democratical spirit of America, they fear they should lose some +of the favorite morsels of the Constitution." + +Mr. Madison's ten amendments consisted of provisions in favor of the +free exercise of religion, of speech, and of the press; of assembling +peaceably to petition the Government for a redress of grievances; of the +right to keep and bear arms; against quartering soldiers in any house +without the consent of the owner, except under certain qualifications; +against unreasonable searches and general warrants; against being held +to answer for crimes unless on presentment by a grand jury, with certain +exceptions; against being twice put in jeopardy for the same offense; +against being compelled to be a witness against one's self, or being +deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; +against taking private property for public use without just +compensation; in favor of a trial by an impartial jury of the district +in certain cases at common law and in all criminal prosecutions, of the +party charged being informed of the nature of the accusation, of being +confronted with the witnesses against him, of having compulsory process +for obtaining witnesses and the assistance of counsel in his defense; +against excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel punishments; against +the enumeration of certain rights being construed to deny or disparage +others retained by the people; and, finally, that powers not delegated +to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the +States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people. + +These provisions embraced the points upon which the public mind was most +susceptible, and upon which the old Anti-Federal party in particular had +been, with obvious reason, most excited. + +That Mr. Madison's success in this great measure saved the Constitution +from the ordeal of another Federal Convention is a conclusion as certain +as any that rests upon a contingency which has not actually occurred, +and that it converted the residue of the Anti-Federal party which had +not supported the Constitution, whose members, as well as their +political predecessors in every stage of our history, constituted a +majority of the people, from opponents of that instrument into its +warmest friends, and that they and their successors have from that time +to the present period, either as Republicans or Democrats, occupied the +position of its _bona fide_ defenders in the sense in which it was +designed to be understood by those who constructed and by those who +ratified it, against every attempt to undermine or subvert it, are +undeniable facts. + +It was by adding this great service to those he had rendered in +obtaining the Convention, and in framing the Constitution in that body, +that he deservedly won the noble title of "Father of the Constitution." +He was neither as great a man nor as thorough a Republican, certainly +not as thorough a Democrat, as Mr. Jefferson; he had less genius than +Hamilton; yet it is doing him no more than justice to say that, as a +civilian, he succeeded in making himself more practically useful to his +country than any other man she has produced. No one would have been more +ready than Mr. Jefferson to award to Mr. Madison this high distinction. +He either told me at Monticello, or I heard it from him at second-hand, +(I am uncertain which was the case,) that whilst he was in France, some +one whom he named asked him to say whom he thought the greatest man in +America, and that he replied, if the gentleman would ask him to name the +greatest man in the world he would comply with the request, which +addition being made, he answered "James Madison!" + +This brings us to the consideration of the contrast between the conduct +of Hamilton and Madison in respect to their treatment of a Constitution +which they had both taken such unwearied pains to bring into existence. +The course they respectively pursued upon the subjects of finance and +revenue, and the measures they respectively preferred, without regard to +questions of constitutional power, only indicated differences of opinion +upon subjects in which such differences are apt to arise, and did not +necessarily involve the political integrity of either. But we have now +arrived at a point of departure in the relative course of these great +men involving graver considerations, and to which it is to be regretted +that the last reservation cannot be truly applied. There was no warrant +in the Constitution for the establishment of a national bank, or for the +assumption of the State debts, or for the unlimited claim of power by +the Federal Government over the collection and disbursement of national +revenue, and for its patronage of by far the largest proportion of the +pursuits and interests of the country, all of which were effected by +Hamilton or recommended in his Report on Manufactures, and he understood +perfectly well that the Constitution conferred no such powers when he +advocated successfully the first two of those measures, and asserted the +power and recommended its exercise in respect to the latter. + +It is not agreeable to be obliged to assume that a gentleman of General +Hamilton's elevated character in private life, upon whose integrity and +fidelity in his personal dealings and in the discharge of every private +trust that was reposed in him no shadow rested, who was indifferent to +the accumulation of wealth, who as a public man was so free from +intrigues for personal advancement, and whose thoughts and acts in that +character were so constantly directed to great questions and great +interests, could yet prove faithless to one of the most sacred public +trusts that can be placed in man--the execution of the fundamental law +of the land. If Hamilton had been asked, as a private man, whether he +believed it was the intention of the framers of the Constitution to +confer upon Congress the power to establish a national bank, and whether +he believed that the people when they ratified it supposed that it +contained such a power, he would, if he answered at all, have answered +"No!" He was incapable of willful deception on the subject. This +discrepancy between his conduct as a statesman in the management of +public affairs and his integrity and truthfulness in private life was +the result of a vicious opinion as to the obligations of a public man, +and in no degree attributable to any inferior sense of personal honor, +nor was it ever otherwise regarded. + +His position upon this point is understood to have been founded on the +following opinions: That the people as a body were not capable of +managing their public affairs with safety to their happiness and +welfare; that it was, therefore, a proper exercise of power to give the +management of them into the hands of those who were capable, and to +place the latter in positions, as far as practicable under the +circumstances, beyond popular control; that it was the sacred duty of +those who were so intrusted to exercise their power truly and sincerely +for the best interests of those for whom they acted; that if those +interests could be well administered without transcending the power with +which the public functionary was invested, or without the practice of +deception or corruption, such would be the preferable and proper course; +but if violations of the popular will, deception, or corruptions--not +those of the grosser kind, like direct bribery, but such as belonged to +the class he spoke of to Mr. Adams as constituting the life-giving +principle of the English system--were necessary, in the best judgment of +men in power, to the security or advancement of the public welfare, the +employment of such means was justifiable. + +Without stopping to cite authorities, I assume--on the strength of the +opinion of the age in which he lived, of his writings, of his +declarations, which were, beyond almost all other public men, without +reserve, and of his acts--that such were his views, and content myself +with the declaration that the existence of such views is the best, if +not the only, excuse that can be made for his official course. + +At the close of the Convention, and just before signing the +Constitution, he declared that the latter might serve as a temporary +bond of union, but could never suffice to secure good government. After +he had succeeded in his first two interpolations, he spoke exultingly of +the success of the Constitution, and hopefully of the future; this was +because he knew that he had prospered in his attempt to give it a +construction not dreamed of at the former period by himself, or others +to his knowledge; and his hopes of the future were founded on his +success also in his plan set forth in his Report on Manufactures, +widening very greatly the breach he had already effected in the +Constitution. In February, 1802, after his latitudinarian scheme had +been arrested and was in danger of being permanently overthrown, he +described the Constitution to Gouverneur Morris as a "frail and +worthless fabric," the "fate" of which he had "anticipated from the very +beginning." He never reproached his friends with an unwillingness to go +as far as the Constitution would justify, but always attributed their +failure to defects in the system, thus admitting that the measures in +which he exulted and from which he hoped so much, had been established +by him, not under, but outside of that instrument. + +The first marked effect of Hamilton's determination to pursue the course +I have described was a separation between him and his most efficient +coadjutor upon many points during the government of the Confederation, +and the next was the formation of the old Republican party. The motives +for the separation between those distinguished associates have been made +the subject, as might have been expected, of various and extensive +comment. So far as I know, Hamilton never spoke of Madison, after their +separation, in any other terms than those which were consistent with the +knowledge he possessed of the purity and integrity of his character. Few +men had such perfect control over their feelings as Mr. Madison, and few +exercised more reserve in speaking of the motives of his political +opponents. It has been rare indeed that he has ventured to touch upon +them even when necessary to his vindication from aspersions upon his own +character, a truth obvious to any one familiar with his life and +writings. I however accidentally came into the possession of +information upon this precise question of very great interest, which +will be found in the letter below from Nicholas P. Trist, Esq. In the +course of a conversation between Mr. Trist, myself, and other gentlemen, +at Philadelphia, last spring,[26] upon the subject of which they had +only a general bearing, the former alluded to the circumstances here +given in detail, and subsequently, at my request, reduced them to the +shape in which they now appear. + + [26] In the spring of 1857. Eds. + +Mr. Trist was a much esteemed and highly trusted friend of Mr. +Jefferson, and married his favorite grand-daughter, a lady of superior +intelligence, with whom I was well acquainted. He was also for many +years a neighbor and confidential friend of Mr. Madison, toward the +decline of the life of the latter. My knowledge of him has been derived +from long and familiar intercourse with him as a confidential clerk in +my department whilst I was Secretary of State, as consul of the United +States at Havana, and as private secretary of President Jackson, and I +do not hesitate to say that I never knew a more upright man. No one who +has had opportunities to become well acquainted with his character, +however politically or personally prepossessed in regard to him in other +respects, will, I am very sure, fail to admit his perfect truthfulness, +and the authenticity of any relation he might make upon the strength of +his own knowledge. + + +FROM MR. TRIST. + + PHILADELPHIA, _May 31, 1857_. + + MY DEAR SIR,--My promise, however tardily performed, has never been + forgotten; and now, complying with your request preferred at the + time and since renewed, I give you in writing the statement made by + me a month or two ago in conversation at Mr. Gilpin's; which + statement you will recollect was casually elicited, as the proper + commentary upon the charge mentioned by one of the company as being + brought against Mr. Jefferson--the charge, namely, that he had + "stolen Mr. Madison from the Federalists." This notion, by the way, + involves an utterly erroneous conception of the relation which + existed between the minds and characters of the two men. But I must + here confine myself to doing what you asked of me. + + During the latter years of Mr. Madison's life, (the exact date is + recorded in a memorandum not now at hand,) the following incident + occurred. + + My intimate friend Mr. Davis, Law Professor in the University of + Virginia, mentioned to me, as a thing which he thought Mr. Madison + ought to be apprised of, that in a forthcoming Life of Colonel + Hamilton, by one of his sons, the authenticity of his (Mr. M.'s) + report of Colonel H.'s speech in the Federal Convention was to be + denied; and furthermore he was to be represented as having + "abandoned" Colonel Hamilton. This Davis had learnt from Professor + George Tucker, of the same University, then recently returned from a + trip to the North. + + Of course, on my first visit to Mr. Madison, which occurred soon + after, I told him of what Davis had said. + + The effect upon his countenance was an expression of painful + surprise, succeeded by a very remarkable look his face assumed + sometimes, and which was deeply impressive from its concentration + and solemnity. A silence of some moments was broken by his saying, + in a tone corresponding to that look, "Sorry to hear it." Then a + pause, followed by these words, "I abandoned Colonel Hamilton,--or + Colonel Hamilton abandoned me,--in a word, we _parted_,--upon its + plainly becoming his purpose and endeavor to _adminis_TRATION + (administer) the government into a thing totally different from + that which he and I both knew perfectly well had been understood and + intended by the Convention which framed it, and by the people in + adopting it." + + Upon the two words which I have underscored, especially the second, + and most especially its last two syllables, a marked emphasis was + laid. The latter (the word _administration_ used as a verb) is the + only instance of neologism I ever observed in Mr. Madison. Its + effectiveness was most striking; it hit the nail plumb on the head, + and drove it home at one blow. The whole history of that business, + the entire truth of the matter, was compressed into that one word. + As uttered by him there was a pause at "_adminis_"--and then came + out "TRATION." It was followed by the word "administer," thrown in + parenthetically, and in an under-tone; as much as to say, "I have + been coining a word here, which, as you are aware, is not my habit; + but just as I was about to say _administer_ the government, I felt + that this term is too general, too commonplace, too tame to convey + the idea present to my mind; and this modification of it presented + itself as exactly suited to the case." + + As regards the speech, Mr. M. seemed painfully troubled at the + thought of the fidelity of his report of it being disputed, and at a + loss to realize the possibility of such a thing. "Why, as I once + related to you, that speech was placed by me in Colonel Hamilton's + own hand; and was, after deliberate perusal, returned by him with an + explicit recognition of its correctness--all to a very few verbal + alterations, which were made; on which occasion he placed in my + hands, as the proper accompaniment of his speech in my record, and + as presenting in a precise and exact shape his views as to the + government which it was desirable to establish, the draft of a + Constitution which he had prepared before coming to the + Convention." + + This substantially, if not exactly, is what Mr. M. said upon that + point. He then went on to conjecture in what way Colonel H.'s + biographer might have been misled into this error; not a doubt being + intimated or evinced by him as to its being honestly an error. + Colonel H. spoke several times in the Convention--at greater or less + length, as would be seen when his (Mr. M.'s) notes were given to the + world. Perhaps, among his papers notes had been found, which, in the + absence of means of discriminating between remarks made on different + occasions, and between notes for an intended speech and that which + the speaker had actually said, might have given rise to the + misconception. + + To the foregoing incident you wished me to add what I was led to + say, in the course of the same conversation, regarding Mr. + Jefferson's habitual tone in speaking of Colonel Hamilton. This was + always the very reverse of that in which he spoke of those whose + _characters_, personal or political, were objects of his disesteem. + It was invariably such as to indicate, and to infuse (certainly this + effect was produced upon my mind) a high estimate of Colonel + Hamilton _as a man_, whether considered with reference to personal + matters or to political matters. He was never spoken of otherwise + than as being a gentleman--a lofty-minded, high-toned man. As + regards politics, their convictions, their creeds, were + diametrically opposite. Colonel H. had no faith in republican + government. In his eyes the British Government was the perfection of + human government, the model of all that was practically attainable + in politics. His doctrine, openly avowed, was that there are but two + ways of governing men, but two ways in which the business of + government can be conducted: the one is through fear, the other + through self-interest--that is, influencing the conduct of those + upon whom the course of political affairs depends, through their + desire for personal advantages, for position, for wealth, and so + forth. In this country, to operate upon men through their fears was + out of the question; and consequently the latter constituted the + only practicable means. These political convictions on the part of + Colonel H., united as they were with his splendid abilities _and_ + his lofty character as a man, both _public_ and _private_, were + regarded by Mr. Jefferson as having constituted the great peril to + which republicanism had been exposed in our country. But for the + _character_ of Colonel H., for the _man_, for his honesty and + sincerity and single-mindedness,--I mean considered with reference + to politics,--there was never the least indication of depreciation + or disrespect on the part of Mr. Jefferson; always the direct + reverse. + + Never, in a single instance, when Colonel H. was the subject of + conversation with me, or in my presence, was it otherwise than + perfectly manifest that, in Mr. J.'s habitual feeling toward him, + the broadest possible line of demarcation existed between the man, + the character, (the _public_ character, I repeat, no less than the + _private_,) and the creed by which the action and course of that + character were determined; and that whilst the latter was abhorrent + to his own cherished faith, and had been for him the cause of the + intensest anxiety and gloomiest forebodings ever suffered by him, + the former was nevertheless no less truly an object of sincere + respect. + + Having thus, my dear sir, at length fulfilled my promise,--though + not within the limited space (far from it) which you intimated,--I + tender the assurance of my respectful regard and friendly + remembrance. + + N. P. TRIST. + + MARTIN VAN BUREN, + _Ex-President of the U. S._ + +Hamilton took the position of which the virtuous Madison, whilst +standing at the brink of his grave, left behind him a description so +graphic, promptly and, as was his habit, immovably. The crisis met him +in his last intrenchment. He believed honestly, sincerely, and without +any designs other than such as related to the public welfare, that +nothing short of monarchical institutions would prove adequate to the +wants of the country, but these he was well satisfied could not be +obtained then, and possibly not for a long period. He had approached +them in the Convention as nearly, in respect to the point of efficiency, +as would afford the slightest chance of success for his plan, and he had +been left without a single open supporter in that body. Regarding the +Constitution, as framed by the Convention, as the only avenue to escape +from anarchy, he finally promoted its passage there and its ratification +by the States and people, avowedly as a temporary bond of union. +Appointed to assist in carrying it into effect, and sincerely believing +that, with no other powers than those only which he and Madison so well +knew it was intended to authorize, it must prove a failure and the +government established under it must go to pieces, he decided, +unhesitatingly and absolutely, to do under it whatever he in good faith +might think would promote the general welfare, without reference to the +intentions of its authors. He was a man of too much good sense to do +unnecessary violence to public feeling,--as he said to Jefferson "to +publish it in Dan or Beersheba,"--but such was his unchangeable design. +On the contrary, he entered into labored and able discussions to show +that his principal measures were authorized by the Constitution, but +these were in deference to the prejudices and ideas of the people, +nothing more. + +There is nothing in the writings, speeches, or declarations of General +Hamilton inconsistent with the truth of this statement. In papers which +have been referred to, and others, he submitted ingenious arguments to +show that the Convention might have so intended, and that Congress had a +right to hold from the words employed that it did so intend, but he was +too circumspect to insist that the intention of the Convention ought not +to prevail when it could be ascertained, or to make the actual +intention, as a matter of fact, a point in the argument. Giving due +weight to the intention of the body when that was ascertained, he +adopted a course of reasoning which every body understood went to defeat +it, desiring no other efficacy for the opinion he labored to establish +than the vote of the majority. The better knowledge of the country +overthrew his specious deductions in a short time, and its traditions +will, it is to be hoped, render them forever harmless. + +The principle of construction contended for by Hamilton, and for a +season to some extent made successful, was not designed for the +promotion of a particular measure, for which the powers of Congress +under the Constitution were to be unduly extended, on account of its +assumed indispensable importance to the public safety, but intended as a +sweeping rule by which those powers, instead of being confined to the +constitutional enumeration, were to authorize the passage of all laws +which Congress might deem conducive to the general welfare and which +were not expressly prohibited; a power similar to that contained in the +plan he proposed in the Convention. He desired, in short, to make the +Constitution a tablet of wax upon which each successive administration +would be at liberty to impress its rescripts, to be promulgated as +constitutional edicts. + +Hamilton never well understood the distinctive character of our people, +but he understood human nature too well to believe that any people could +long respect or desire to uphold a Constitution the most stringent +provisions of which were thus regarded or treated. Its inevitable fate +is illustrated in the experience of France, after one of her +unscrupulous wits had aided in consigning to general derision that +litter of Constitutions which had rapidly followed one after the other, +by accompanying his oath with a grimace and a jest upon the number which +he had successively and with equal solemnity sworn to support. The +example of France was not lost upon a mind so watchful as Hamilton's, +and he did not doubt that our Constitution would be overthrown with the +same certainty, if not with equal facility, after it had been long +enough treated with similar disrespect, and that the door would be thus +opened for the ultimate introduction, under the influence of the money +power, of the only political institutions in which he placed absolute +confidence. He declared it to be his opinion, in the Convention, that he +regarded ours as the last chance for a republican government, and +assigned that opinion as a reason for his attempt to infuse into the new +system qualities as stringent as those he proposed and which he knew +very well were not generally regarded as belonging to a republican +system. No man better understood than he that the inviolate sanctity of +a written Constitution was the life of a republican government, and that +its days were numbered from the moment its people and rulers ceased thus +to preserve, protect, and defend it. Mr. Jefferson spoke, in his letter, +of Hamilton as "_professing_" that it was "the duty of its +administrators to conduct the Government on the principles their +constituents had elected." I did not at first, and for a long time +afterwards, attach as much significance to the word I have here +italicized, as I do now, when I have studied Hamilton's course more +carefully. I knew the letter was written in a liberal spirit toward his +memory. As I have elsewhere said, during my visit to Mr. Jefferson we +talked most of Hamilton, and the general course of Mr. J.'s remarks was +substantially similar to those now related, more than thirty years after +his decease, and without the slightest knowledge of what I have said +upon the same subject, by his relative, Mr. Trist, who was also a member +of his family. Mr. Jefferson was evidently disposed to confirm the +favorable impressions I had imbibed of the personal side of Hamilton's +character, and the words quoted above from his letter were designed to +qualify his imputation of monarchical principles to the latter, and I +can now appreciate the motive for the expression used, which did not +commit him to a concession that the opinion of Hamilton in regard to the +duty of administration was that upon which he acted. + +With all these considerations before him, Hamilton did more than any, +and I had almost said than all, his contemporaries together, to +counteract the will of the people and to subvert by undermining the +Constitution of their choice. If his sapping and mining policy had been +finally successful, if the Republican party, mostly composed of old +Anti-Federalists, led by so bold a spirit and such a root-and-branch +Republican as Mr. Jefferson, had not arrested the farther progress of +his principles and demolished his scheme, this glorious old Constitution +of ours, of which we all seem so proud, of which it is so great an honor +to have been and of which so many have been ambitious to be, regarded as +the faithful expounder, under the wings of which we have risen from +small beginnings to be a puissant nation,--attracting the admiration and +able to command the respect of the civilized world,--would long since +have sunk beneath the waters of time, an object of neglect and scorn. +Our system might then have dissolved in anarchy, or crouched under +despotism or under some milder type of arbitrary government,--a +monarchy, an aristocracy, or, most ignoble of all, a moneyed +oligarchy,--but as a Republic it would have endured no longer. In this +aspect, notwithstanding his great and good qualities,--and he had +many,--Hamilton's course was an outrage upon liberty and a crime against +free government. + +How happy would it have been for himself and for every interest if he +had not parted from his friend and faithful fellow-laborer through so +many and such trying scenes,--if, like Madison, not entirely satisfied +with the Constitution, but knowing that many others were in the same +predicament, he had applied his great talents to the business of making +it as generally acceptable as possible, and in giving to the masses an +administration of the Government according not only to the form but to +the spirit also in which it had been framed. The country would then at +length have rested after so many storms, and his great and good friend +Washington, instead of being steeped to the lips in partisan anxieties, +(as his nephew, Judge Bushrod Washington, described him to me to have +been within the year of his death,) would not only have had a glorious +and successful administration, but would have lived in his retirement +and finally passed from earth without having been ever annoyed by the +canker of party spirit. His own political career would doubtless have +been far more prosperous and more agreeable; no occasion would then have +arisen for such reflections as he expressed to his confidential friend +describing his only reward, after all his efforts and sacrifices, as +"the murmurs of the friends of the Constitution and the curses of its +foes," and concluding, sadly enough for one who had so greatly +distinguished himself in its service, that "the American world was not +made for him!" + +In these views of General Hamilton's course and in the opinions +expressed in respect to it, I have designed to confine myself strictly +to what I consider the deliberate judgment of the country, pronounced in +various ways and among others through the ballot-box--its constitutional +exponent. The most prominent of his measures have been, as already said, +discarded, and those who constituted the party in whose name they were +first introduced have so far yielded to the current of public opinion as +to abandon them forever. I have also before alluded to the gratifying +circumstance that the odium attached to those measures never in any +degree affected the confidence of the people in the patriotism of +Washington or in his fidelity to republican institutions, or weakened +their affection for him while he lived, or their respect for his memory +when he was no more. These were not the results of mere personal +devotion, but of an intelligent and just discrimination on the part of +the people. Hamilton designed to effect a civil revolution by changing +the powers of Congress from the restricted character given to them in +obedience to the wishes of the people to one in effect unlimited. +Washington entertained no such views. His constructions of the +Constitution were designed for the cases that called them forth, and had +no ulterior views. + +The subject of the bank presented the principal and almost the only +question upon which President Washington gave a construction to that +instrument which met the disapprobation and excited the apprehensions of +the old Republicans. To the assumption of the State debts Hamilton, as +has been seen, succeeded in obtaining--how much to his mortification and +regret his writings show--the cooperation of Mr. Jefferson, and thereby +the unanimous support of the cabinet; and his Report on Manufactures, as +to most of its obnoxious details, was not acted upon during Washington's +administration, but in respect to its principal objects remained a dead +letter. President Washington, notwithstanding the conflicting opinions +of his cabinet, gave no reasons for his approval of the Bank Bill. The +public were therefore left to draw their own inferences in regard to +their character. Diverse opinions upon the point of course arose, and +there is much reason to believe (and that belief is strengthened by his +subsequent course in respect to another important matter) that he was +induced to regard a bank as indispensable, in the then condition of the +country, to the success of the new Government--an exigency in public +affairs of that peculiar sort which men in power assume to deal with +under the sanction of the great principle, _Salus populi suprema lex._ +(See note.) Mr. Madison, who had demonstrated in Congress its +unconstitutionality at its creation, who had opposed the banking system +through his whole public life, and whose fame was in a very great degree +founded on the ability with which he had defined the true principles of +constitutional construction, in a way to exclude the idea of any power +in Congress to establish such an institution, did, notwithstanding, at +the close of his public career, in a condition of the country not unlike +that in which President Washington acted, and viewing the subject from +the same official station, arrive at the same conclusion in regard to +its imperative necessity, and gave his approval to the erection of a new +national bank. + + NOTE.--(_Feb. 16th, 1858_.) Whilst reviewing the "era of + good-feeling," as it was called, during the administration of Mr. + Monroe, I conceived the idea of adding some account of the rise and + progress of our political parties, and entered upon the task + immediately, designing it to stand as an episode in my Memoirs. The + subject grew upon my hands to such an extent that for the last two + years it has, in necessary reading and examinations into facts, + &c., occupied most of the time that could be devoted to the general + object. The idea of limiting this portion to a mere digression was + therefore substantially laid aside, and the dignity of a separate + and distinct consideration, to which its dimensions, if nothing + else, entitled it, was assigned to it. Accordingly I continued my + examination of the course of parties in the United States down to + the present time, including the first months of President + Buchanan's administration. Whilst engaged in correcting the + manuscript and arranging it to be copied, and after I had, by many + pages, passed the place in the text to which this note is appended, + the first volume of Mr. Randall's _Life of Jefferson_, recently + published, came to my hands, and on reading its last two chapters + first, because they have a more immediate bearing on my subject, I + find the following very striking confirmation of the correctness of + my inference as to the state of General Washington's mind, on the + occasion spoken of:-- + + FROM RANDALL'S "LIFE OF JEFFERSON," VOL. 1. p. 631. + + "On the subject of President Washington's feelings on the Bank Bill + we find the following entry in Mr. Trist's memoranda:-- + + "'MONTPELIER, _Friday, May 25, 1827_. + + * * * * * + + "'_Mr. Madison:_ "General Washington signed Jay's Treaty, but he + did not at all like it. He also signed the Bank. But he was _very_ + near not doing so; and if he had refused, it would, in my opinion, + have produced a crisis. I will mention to you a circumstance which + I have never imparted, except in strict confidence. You know, by + the Constitution, ten days are allowed for the President's veto to + come in. If it does not appear within that time, the bill becomes a + law. I was conversing with a distinguished member of the Federal + party, who observed that according to his computation the time was + running out, or indeed _was run_ out; when just at this moment, + Lear[27] came in with the President's sanction. _I am satisfied + that had it been his veto, there would have been an effort to + nullify it, and they would have arrayed themselves in a hostile + attitude._ Between the two parties, General Washington had a most + difficult course to steer." + + * * * * * + + "'The foregoing is written immediately after the conversation, + which has not lasted half an hour,--Mr. Madison having stepped out, + and I taking advantage of this interruption to retire to my room + and commit the substance to paper. The very words I have retained, + as near as I could. In many instances (where I have run a line over + the words[28]) I have done this exactly.'" + + This statement by Mr. Madison substantially sustains the view I + have taken of General Washington's position at that period. The + letters of all the leading Federalists of that day, and those that + followed it for some years, show that they looked with great + unanimity to Hamilton rather than to Washington for the tone and + direction that was to be given to the movements of the Federal + party, and leave scarcely a doubt that they would have sided with + Hamilton if a difference had arisen between the two, as is here + intimated by Mr. Madison. + + How much is it to be regretted that the latter did not leave behind + him a history of the events of his life and an account of what he + knew of the views of others. No man was better informed upon all + political subjects than himself. At the time he referred to, in his + observations to Mr. Trist, he probably enjoyed as large a share of + Washington's confidence as any other man, and was at all times most + reluctant to be placed in opposition to him. Afterwards General + Washington placed in his hands the papers from which to write his + Farewell Address. But it was a rule of Mr. Madison's life, as I + have noticed before, never to injure the feelings of any man as + long as it could possibly be avoided, and he suffered long and much + to avoid it. His papers will be examined in vain for imputations of + faults to his contemporaries. They are even omitted in cases where + they would have been the readiest and apparently the indispensable + means of repelling unjust imputations upon himself. He carried this + self-denial farther than any other public man. The pain and regret + that he exhibited in his conversation with Mr. Trist, in respect to + the parting between Hamilton and himself, were obviously genuine, + but the necessity was absolute, and the danger that justice might + not otherwise he done to his character imminent. He was on the eve + of his departure for another world,--his well earned and well + established reputation was about to lose his own personal + guardianship,--and the subject was brought before him in such a way + that he must either confess the forthcoming impeachments by his + silence, or repel them by declaring the truth. + + Some other citations which I have found occasion to make from Mr. + Randall's work are incorporated in the text. + + [27] President Washington's Private Secretary. + + [28] We have italicized these words. + +Other instances have occurred in our Government and elsewhere in which +statesmen have transcended the constitutional limits of their power +under a necessity sincerely believed to be controlling, trusting to that +circumstance for the indulgence of their constituents; and in no case +which has presented itself here has that indulgence been withheld where +the motives for the assumption of responsibility were pure. Mr. +Jefferson's course in the purchase of Louisiana and General Jackson's +conduct at New Orleans were striking cases of that description. + +But we have, fortunately, evidence the most authentic and unequivocal +that President Washington never intended by his approval of the Bank +Bill to express an approval of the systematic and general disregard of +the intentions of the framers of the Constitution, in respect to the +powers of Congress, whenever such disregard should be deemed expedient. +The provisions of the first Apportionment Bill sent to him for his +approval were contrary to the Constitution, and Mr. Jefferson gave an +opinion to that effect and recommending a veto, whilst the opinion of +General Hamilton was in favor of their constitutionality. The division +by which the bill passed had been exclusively sectional, and the +objection of unconstitutionality was raised by the South. The Union was, +at that early period, believed to stand upon a precarious footing, and +the President was seriously apprehensive that the worst consequences +might result, in the then state of the public mind, if he were to throw +himself on the side of his own section by a veto. + +His embarrassment and concern were great, and he was sincerely desirous +to avoid a resort to what was then regarded as an extreme measure. He +agreed that the method prescribed by the bill "was contrary to the +common understanding of that instrument (the Constitution), and to what +was understood at the time by the makers of it," but thought "it would +bear the construction assumed by the bill." This was the precise issue +that was raised upon the passage of the bill to establish the bank, +viz.: whether the actual intention, or that which was only inferential, +was to prevail. That he would have withheld the veto if he had felt +himself at liberty in such a case to follow the letter of the +Constitution, and thereby defeat the intention of those who made it, no +one, who examines the matter, will for a moment doubt. He appears to +have been duly sensible of the magnitude of the question in all its +bearings. On the one hand were the evils to be apprehended from a +decision in favor of the South upon a disturbing question by a Southern +President, in a form not only without precedent here, but very +unpalatable--that of a veto; on the other was the grave objection to his +committing himself in favor of the principle which had prevailed on the +question of the bank in a case that did not furnish any thing like an +equal excuse for departing from the honest and straightforward rule of +interpreting the Constitution, like any other instrument, by the +intention of those who made it. He did not fail to see that to act +again, and under existing circumstances, upon the principle to which he +had given his sanction in the case of the bank, would be to commit +himself to Hamilton's latitudinarian doctrines in respect to the +construction of the Constitution, and he vetoed the bill.[29] + + [29] Jefferson's _Correspondence_, Vol. IV. p. 466. + +It would have been well for the country if the injurious effects of +Hamilton's policy and principles had been confined to his own times, but +men of such rare genius, distinguished by the same eagerness, industry, +and energy in pursuit of their objects, seldom fail to leave a durable +mark upon the world in which they have bustled, especially when their +day is contemporaneous with the commencement of a new government, and +when they are intrusted with great power, as was emphatically the case +with Hamilton. He and Jefferson, both answering to this description, +have always been regarded by me as the bane and antidote of our +political system. Every speech and every writing of Hamilton exhibited +proof of deep research and laborious study. Men, governments, and +political measures, were his favorite subjects of reflection and +discussion. Of the former, more particularly of the mass, he had (as I +have elsewhere said) formed unfavorable opinions; not that he was less +desirous than others for their welfare--for few men were more +philanthropic in disposition--but because of the early and ineffaceable +impression upon his mind that the majority of men, in their collective +capacity, were radically deficient in respect for order and for the +rights of persons and of property. As he thought their fears or their +private interests and passions the only alternative methods of managing +them and the former inapplicable to our people, so he considered those +measures of government "discreetest, wisest, best," which were most +likely to enlist their personal interests and feelings on its side. Such +measures he deemed indeed indispensable, and his whole scheme for the +administration of the Government was founded upon this theory. + +Anti-republican as these views undoubtedly were, they nevertheless +pointed to principles and to a policy well calculated to make deep +impressions upon large portions of the community, in which were, and +will always be, found many liable to be influenced by such +considerations, and ready to follow the political party organized upon +them; many, if not born in the belief, certainly educated in it, that +they have something to fear from the major part of their +fellow-creatures, and seeing few more important objects for the +establishment of governments among men than to keep these in order and +to protect the well-disposed portions of society like themselves from +the vices and follies of the masses. In the performance of such duties +they very naturally conclude that government should look to the more +intelligent and better informed classes for support, and as naturally +that to enable them to render such support they should receive partial +favors and extraordinary advantages from its administration. Men of this +class, their associates and dependents, as was foreseen, embraced with +alacrity and supported with the energy inspired by self-interest the +principle of political reciprocity between government and its supporters +inaugurated in England at the Revolution of 1688, and ingrafted upon our +system by Hamilton in 1790. He found in the old Federal party a soil +well adapted to the cultivation of that policy, and in conjunction with +those who expected to share in the profits exerted all the faculties of +his great mind to extend the field for its operation. + +That extension soon became so great under the fostering influence of +Government and the money power as to include among its supporters, +either as principals or sympathizers, almost every business class in the +community, saving always the landed interest, properly so called, the +mechanics not manufacturers, and the working classes. When I speak of +the landed interest, I allude (as I have before explained) to those only +who cultivate the soil themselves directly or by the aid of +_employees_--to the farmers and planters of the country--and do not of +course include speculators in lands, who buy to sell and sell to buy, +and who, of all classes, are most dependent upon the friendship and most +subject to the influence of the money power. + +Such a principle of political action, once fairly started in business +communities, is not easily uprooted. It continued to govern the +successors to the Federal party by whatever name they were called. +Indeed, the discrepancy that existed between its name and its principles +when it was first called _Federal_ has obtained in all its mutations. +Its principles have been the same, with a single exception, under every +name, until the perturbation of party names and systems recently +produced by the disturbing subject of slavery. When that influence is +spent, the individuals who now constitute the so-called Republican party +will in the main revert to their original positions. The exception +referred to consists in the exemption on the part of his political +disciples of the present day from the hallucination which Hamilton +carried to his grave in regard to the possibility of the ultimate +re-establishment of monarchical institutions in this country. In all +other respects we have had unvarying exhibitions of his well-known +sentiments upon the subjects of government and its administration; the +same preference for artificial constructions of the Constitution, +devised to defeat instead of to develop the intentions of those who made +it; the same inclination to strengthen the money power and to increase +its political influence--an object that occupied the first place in +Hamilton's wishes; the same disposition to restrict the powers of the +State governments, and to enlarge those of the Federal head; the same +distrust of the capacity of the people to control the management of +public affairs, and the same desire also for governmental interference +in the private pursuits of men and for influencing them by special +advantages to favored individuals and classes. A statement of the +extent to which the business, as distinguished from the agricultural and +other laboring classes, have been banded together in our political +contests by a preference for Hamilton's principles and by the +instrumentality of the money power, would be regarded as incredible if +the facts were not indisputable and notorious. Such has been the case +with those who hold the stock of our banks, and control their +action--agencies which enter into some of the minutest as well as the +most important of the business transactions of these great communities. +A vast majority in number as well as in interest of these are men deeply +imbued with Hamiltonian principles. The same thing may be said of our +insurance companies which have been invested with special privileges of +various grades, and are authorized to insure against perils by land, and +perils by sea, and against perils of almost every description. The same +in respect to our incorporated companies invested with like privileges, +and established for the manufacture of articles made of cotton, of wool, +of flax, of hemp, of silk, of iron, of steel, of lead, of clay, &c., &c. +The same of companies with like privileges for the construction of +railroads, of bridges, of canals, where they can be made profitable, and +other constructions to which the invention and industry of man can be +successfully applied. Individuals frequently go into these powerful +associations with opposite political feelings, but are ultimately almost +invariably induced to change them altogether, or to modify them so much +as to satisfy their partners that their democratic principles are not +sufficiently stringent to be troublesome. The possession of special and, +in some of these cases, of exclusive privileges, is certain sooner or +later to produce distrust of the less favored body of the people, and +distrust grows apace to the proportions of prejudice and dislike. There +are of course striking exceptions to this rule, as to every other. +There are always men connected with these associations whose democratic +principles are so deeply implanted in their very natures as to place +them above the influence of circumstances; but they are few and far +between. These changes are not the fruit of infirm purposes or +characters, but are produced by influences which seem no farther +traceable than is here imperfectly done, and are yet sufficiently +effective to convert to Hamiltonian principles more than three fourths +of the Democrats who become members of the associations of which I have +spoken. + +Such aggregations of wealth and influence, connected as they usually are +or soon become with social distinctions, naturally come to be regarded +as the fountains of patronage by those who are in search of it. The +press, men of letters, artists, and professional men of every +denomination, and those engaged in subordinate pursuits who live upon +the luxurious indulgences of the rich, are all brought within the scope +of this influence. It is perhaps in this way only that we can account +for the remarkable disparity in number between the newspapers and other +periodicals advocating Democratic principles and those which support the +views of the money power and its adherents--a disparity the +extraordinary extent of which will strike any one who visits a common +reading-room, in which, amid the well-furnished shelves and full files +of the publications of the latter class, it is rare that we find many of +the former, often not more than a single newspaper, sometimes not one. +Yet those which we do not find there represent the political principles +of a large majority of the people. The same fact attracts the attention +of the observer in passing through countries abroad which are under +monarchical institutions. + +These are among the political accretions of the money power in this +country, made in a comparatively short period--these, the foreseen +operations of Hamilton's policy and principles and the _strata_ on which +he designed at some time, when the prejudices of the day should have +passed away, or in some crisis in the affairs of the country which might +make the work easier or more agreeable to the people, to found political +institutions of the same general character at least with those the +realization of which had been the day-dream of his life. + +To return to the point from which I started in this long and doubtless +prolix review--a political party founded on such principles and looking +to such sources for its support does not often stand in need of caucuses +and conventions to preserve harmony in its ranks. Constructed +principally of a network of special interests,--almost all of them +looking to Government for encouragement of some sort,--the feelings and +opinions of its members spontaneously point in the same direction, and +when those interests are thought in danger, or new inducements are held +out for their advancement, notice of the apprehended assault or promised +encouragement is circulated through their ranks with a facility always +supplied by the sharpened wit of cupidity. Their conflicts in council, +when such occur, are for the same reasons less likely to be obstinate +and more easily reconciled. Sensible of these facts, the policy of their +leaders has been from the beginning to discountenance and explode all +usages or plans designed to secure party unity, so essential to their +opponents and substantially unnecessary to themselves. + +Hamilton's system considered with reference to the effect it was +calculated to exert upon most of the classes at whom it aimed, did great +credit to his sagacity. The wonder has always been that a party which +has had at its command so large a portion of the appliances generally +most effective in partisan warfare should meet with such infrequent +success in the elections. Strangers who visit us are especially struck +with this to them unaccountable circumstance, and superficial observers +at home are often scarcely less impressed by it; and yet the secret of +its failure lies on the surface. Although Hamilton's policy was +successful with many, it failed signally, as has been stated, with the +most numerous and consequently the most powerful class of our +citizens--those engaged in agriculture; a class with which the +intercourse of strangers is the most limited, and the strength of which, +from the seclusion and unobtrusiveness of its common life, is very apt +to be underrated by other ranks even of our own people. It not only +failed to attract their sympathies in his favor, but excited their +dissatisfaction by its extension of governmental favors to others in +which they could not participate consistently with their inherited and +cherished principles, and which were not necessary to their pursuits; +thus increasing that antagonism to some extent between those who live by +the sweat of their brow and those who live by their wits. These adverse +results of his policy continued after its execution devolved upon his +disciples. Farmers and planters--the main-stay of the Democratic +party--seldom allow themselves, as I have before said, to be drawn +before Congress or into the audience chambers of Presidents and +Cabinets, suppliants for special favors to the interest in which they +are engaged. The indifference exhibited by the agriculturists of +America, at the period of the Stamp Act, to the overflowing offers of +bounties, is still shown by their uncorrupted successors. The promised +aid to their business held out by Hamilton in his famous Report on +Manufactures, both direct and consequential, therefore excited no +feeling in their breasts save strong suspicions of his motives. + +Our political history abounds with instances in which similar attempts +to obtain the support of the many by appeals to the self-interest of the +few have shared the same fate. They seldom fail to prove offensive to +the taste and humiliating to the pride of our people. The wisest way to +the confidence and support of the latter is to confine the action of the +administration of the Federal Government to the duties specifically +enjoined upon it by the Constitution, and to the able and honest +discharge of them. Statesmen who act upon this rule are much more likely +to close their official careers with credit to themselves and advantage +to the country than by resort to experiments, however splendid or +plausible. Occasions may indeed be presented on which temporary +derangements in the affairs of the State and of individuals are produced +of sufficient magnitude to baffle all calculations and to disappoint the +best intentions and the wisest measures, but these must of necessity be +of rare occurrence. + +The administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson were thus +conducted, and they had their reward. The success of Mr. Madison's was, +it is true, greatly retarded by obstructions placed in its way by the +money power, with a view to drive him to a dishonorable peace by +crippling his resources; but he and his associates in the Government +triumphed, notwithstanding, for that power had not then acquired the +strength which it subsequently attained, and the field for the display +of that which it possessed was not a safe one, while the passions of the +people were excited by a state of open war and were liable to be turned +with augmented fury against such as virtually aided the public enemy. It +was in its palmiest state in 1832, when it demanded a re-charter of the +Bank of the United States, and when, this being refused, it commenced +the struggle for the expulsion of President Jackson from the chair of +State. Although it lacked time to mature its measures sufficiently for +the accomplishment of that particular object, it continued its assaults +upon the Executive, materially weakened its influence in the National +Legislature, and after a ruthless war of eight years succeeded in +overthrowing the administration of his successor and in obtaining +possession of the Government. + +But the methods of the great men and successful Presidents whom I have +named were too simple, and the tenor of their way too noiseless and even +for the adventurous genius of Hamilton's school. To devise elaborate +schemes for the management of that branch of the Government intrusted to +his control, and of such as fell within the scope of his influence, was +more to his liking. The construction and execution of these made +necessary the use of powers not granted by the Constitution, and led to +a perversion of its provisions, of which we have seen the consequences. + +John Quincy Adams was the first President, after the civil revolution of +1800, who entered upon the duties of his office with views of the +Constitution as latitudinarian as were those of Hamilton, and the only +one of that stamp who possessed sufficient force of character to make +his will the rule of action for his cabinet, and who lived long enough +to make it to some extent effectual. Although elected as a convert to +the principles of the then Republican party, he was no sooner seated in +the Presidential chair than he disavowed those principles in their most +important features--those of Constitutional construction--and marked out +a course in that regard which he intended to pursue. He thereby united +that party against his reelection to an extent sufficient to defeat it +by an overwhelming majority. + +Of the party which thus a second time vindicated the Constitution, by +far the most effective ingredient was the landed interest. But though +the most powerful, it was yet far from being its only valuable element, +for, to use Mr. Jefferson's words on the former occasion, there was +besides "a great mass of talent on the Republican side." + +If there be any whom experience has not yet satisfied of the power of +the landed interest, and of its capacity to cope successfully with the +money power of the country, enormous as has been the growth of the +latter, let them consider the facts disclosed by the census. By that of +1850, our population, as affecting the point under consideration, is +shown to have consisted at that time of _farmers_, two millions three +hundred and sixty thousand; of planters, twenty-seven thousand; of +laborers engaged in agriculture, thirty-seven thousand; of persons +engaged in commerce, trade, manufactures, mechanic arts, and mining, one +million six hundred thousand; in law, medicine, and divinity, +ninety-four thousand. Let them compare these with previous enumerations, +and they will see how invariable and large is the disproportion in +numbers between the agricultural and other classes. That disproportion +must of course have been greater during our colonial existence and at +the Revolutionary period, when our commerce was trifling, and we were +almost if not entirely destitute of manufactures. We are hence able to +form an idea of the extent to which the defense of the principles which +the colonists cherished, and for the maintenance of which the Revolution +was made, rested on the broad shoulders of the landed interest from the +beginning to the end of that great contest. + +Without the hearty and constant cooperation of that interest the +impassable barrier that has been erected against the politically +demoralizing and anti-republican tendency of the Hamiltonian policy +could never have been maintained. I have alluded to the reasons for my +belief that it is placed by its position and by the law of its nature +beyond the reach of that policy, and my firm conviction that it will +secure to our people the blessings of republican government as long as +it remains the predominant interest in the country. It can only be when +the agriculturists abandon the implements and the field of their labor +and become, with those who now assist them, shopkeepers, manufacturers, +carriers, and traders, that the Republic will be brought in danger of +the influences of the money power. But this can never happen. Every +inclination of the landed interest, however slight, in that direction +has been to it a prolific source of loss, regret, and repentance. +Between 1835 and 1840, when the country was stimulated to madness by the +Bank of the United States and its allies, the interests of agriculture +were so much neglected as to lead to large importations of breadstuffs +from Europe, whilst the land was covered with luxury, soon succeeded by +bankruptcy and want. But the sober second-thought of the people, in a +remarkably brief period, not only brought that great branch of the +industry of the country back to the point from which it had been +seduced, but drove from power those who had risen to it upon the +strength of a temporary popular delusion. + +If any doubt the existence and agency of a political influence such as I +have described under the name of the money power, or think the +description exaggerated, let me ask them to ponder upon its achievements +in the country from which it has been transplanted to our shores. It is +but little more than a century and a half since it was first +interpolated upon the English system, and we have seen the results it +has in that period produced upon its rivals: every vestige of the feudal +system that survived the Revolution of 1688 extinguished; the landed +aristocracy, once lords paramount, depressed to an average power in the +State; the Crown, still respected, and its possessor at this moment +justly beloved by all, yet substantially reduced to a pageant, protected +indeed by the prejudices of John Bull in favor of ancestral forms and +state ceremonies, but of almost no account as an element of power when +weighed against the well-ascertained opinion of the people of England. +Who does not know that it holds in its hands, more often than any other +power, questions of peace or war, not only in England but over Europe! +How often have previous consultations with a respectable family of Jews +decided the question of a declaration of war! Indeed it would have been +well for humanity if so salutary a check upon the brutal passions of men +and monarchs had been always equally potent--if some conservative and +life-sparing Rothschilds had been able to restrain the Henries, the +Louises, the Fredericks, and the Napoleons of the past. + +The money power, designed from the beginning to exert a liberal +influence in England as the antagonist of arbitrary power, has done much +good there by the prominence and influence to which it has elevated +public opinion, and this to some extent is true of other European +countries. Here it was from its start, as I have said, designed to +control the public will by undermining and corrupting its free and +virtuous impulse and determination, and its political effects have been +continually injurious. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Slight Notice so far in this Work bestowed upon the Course of the + Democratic Party, and Reasons therefor--Four great Crises in our + National Affairs, viz.: The Revolution; the Confederation; the + Struggle resulting in the Adoption of the Constitution, and + Hamilton's Attempt to pave the way for its Overthrow--Equal Merit + during the Revolution of those who afterwards formed the Federalist + and Anti-Federalist Parties--Condition of the Country under the + Confederation--During that Period and in the Struggle for the + Constitution the Measures and Conduct of the Federalists Wiser than + those of their Opponents--Culmination of the Contest of Principle + between the two great Parties during the Administration of John + Adams--The Object of this Work to give a general Account of the + Origin and Organization of Parties, and not a History of Partisan + Conflicts arising afterwards--Party Spirit, its Evils and + Benefits--Randall's "Life of Jefferson"--Leadership of Hamilton and + Jefferson--Their Character and Influence--Contrasts in their + Careers, Principles, and Aims--John Adams's Political + Principles--State of Parties in the time of Washington's + Administration as described by John Q. Adams--Character of John + Adams--His Services in the Revolution--Change in his Political + Opinions from his Residence in England--Fidelity of Jefferson, + Samuel Adams, and others to their Original Principles--Vigor and + Efficiency of the Organization of the Old Republican Party--Firm + Establishment of Popular Convictions against Monarchical + Institutions--"Sapping and Mining Policy" of Hamilton--Growing + Attachment of Republicans to the Constitution, and corresponding + Dislike of that Instrument on the part of Federalists--Issue + presented by Madison in the Legislature of Virginia--His Report a + Synopsis of Republican Doctrines--Triumph and general Success of + the Party--Lasting Effects of Hamilton's Teachings--Erroneous + Theories of the Origin of Parties--Identity of the Anti-Federal, + Republican, and Democratic Parties--Apparent Agreement of all + Parties upon Fundamental Questions after the Ratification of the + Constitution--Subsequent Controversy arose from the Efforts of the + Federalists for a Latitudinarian, and of their Opponents for a + Strict Construction of that Instrument. + + +It cannot have failed to strike the reader of these pages that a +comparatively slight notice has been taken of that party which has for +more than half a century, with rare and limited exceptions, administered +the Government of our country. This is easily explained. During the +first twelve years of the existence of this Government, the period +during which the two great parties of the country received that "form +and pressure" which they have never lost, the Federalists were in power, +and of course principal actors in the management of public affairs. +Expositions of their measures and of the circumstances under which they +were brought forward, and criticisms upon those measures, naturally +acquire greater prominence in a review of the period than the less +salient manifestations of the opposition permit. The resistance made by +the latter to those measures involved a succession of sacrifices and +services which it is now difficult to appreciate at their full value, +but which, when correctly estimated, reflect the highest honor upon +those engaged in it and deserve the fullest notice. + +The four great crises in our national affairs were, _first_, the +Revolution; _second_, the government of the Confederation between the +recognition of our Independence and the adoption of the present +Constitution; _third_, the struggle for and the acquisition of that +instrument; and _fourth_, Hamilton's attempt to make of the Government +which had been established under it a delusion, and the Constitution a +sham, to pave the way for its overthrow and for the final introduction +of institutions more accordant with his opinions;--for, as I have +remarked, no intelligent man could have expected that the people of +America would long endure a Constitution subject to the treatment to +which he had exposed it, and to such as he had still in store for it. + +In the crisis of the Revolution, the conduct of all who subsequently +composed the two great parties in the country--save the Tories, who were +soon absorbed by one of them,--was equally meritorious. The difference +between them in point of numbers was largely in favor of those who were +afterwards called Anti-Federalists, and, still later, Republicans, and +in point of talents and perhaps in social position on the side of the +Federalists. + +The condition of the country, during the second important juncture, may +be not inaptly illustrated by the common figure of a strong man +struggling in a morass. Nothing was stable, and nothing which promised +substantial relief seemed for a season practicable. Of the prominent +measures brought forward by both parties to extricate the country from +its embarrassments, those proposed by the Federalists were the wisest, +and, as the result proved, well adapted to the exigences of the +occasion. + +In the contest for the Constitution that party was also throughout more +useful than its opponents. In this estimate the course taken by Hamilton +is not regarded as the act of his party, except as to that portion of it +which consisted in signing the Constitution and in aiding its adoption. + +The issues involved in the fourth decisive crisis in our political +fortunes were contested during the presidency of John Adams. The whole +of that administration was a political campaign, occupied by bitter and +uninterrupted struggles for predominance between the conflicting +principles of two great parties. The most important, although perhaps +not the most exciting, of the questions and measures in dispute had +arisen during the administration of President Washington; but his +presence and participation in the Government held the parties at bay. +Political alienations had then taken place, and wounds had been +inflicted which were never healed, and bitter fountains sprang up and +struggled for an outlet, but they were in a great degree restrained by +that consideration. The leading men among those who soon after +organized the first Republican, now called the old Republican, party, +made it a point to abstain from violent action, and to content +themselves with protests against measures of which they disapproved, but +which they could not defeat. Jefferson gave his opinion in the cabinet, +and Madison made his unanswerable speech in the Congress against the +bank, and the latter, with other Republicans, spoke strongly against +particular features of the funding system, but both measures were +nevertheless adopted by decisive majorities; and still, as far as +practicable, harsh invective and reproaches against those majorities +were withheld or delayed. The removal of the salient point of attack, by +the withdrawal of Hamilton from the cabinet, served also to stay +partisan outbreaks on the part of the Republicans, who were, throughout, +not unmindful of the advantages they would give to their opponents by +bringing matters to a crisis whilst Washington was at the head of the +Government. On the other hand, Hamilton evidently was discouraged by the +restrictions imposed upon him by the prudence of Washington. It is +apparent that, although by far more confided in, on the score of his +great talents, than any other member of the administration, he was yet +not allowed the latitude which he thought necessary to success. No one +can read his remarkable letter to Washington (to which I have referred +in another connection) without perceiving that he was seriously +discontented. He thought that there were men about the President who +interfered with and opposed his counsels, and he avowed his suspicions +to that effect in that letter to Washington, with the expression of a +hope that the latter would one day understand those men better. There +was, besides, as Jefferson admits, "no act of strong mark during the +remainder of his" (Washington's) "administration that excited much +complaint." + +Discontents were, therefore, in a great degree, held in abeyance waiting +the succession for more active resistance and redress. The arrival of +that period--the retirement of Washington and the election of +Adams--found the field clear for the great contest for which the +materials had been gathered and the hearts of the combatants prepared. + +Mr. Jefferson endeavored, as far as was proper, to prevent himself from +being regarded as a competitor with Mr. Adams, when the latter was +elected. He wrote to Mr. Madison, requesting him to withdraw his name if +there should be an equality of votes between himself and Mr. Adams, +which was not an improbable result, assigning, as a reason, that the +latter was greatly his senior in years, and had always stood in advance +of him in public life. But notwithstanding the friendly feelings that +had existed between them down to that period, their relations soon +assumed a very decided character of political opposition. Then commenced +that fierce partisan struggle which has never been equaled here and +seldom, if ever, in any country, either in respect to the gravity and +interest of the principles involved, or to the ability and firmness with +which the ground of the respective parties was sustained. + +A full account of the incidents of this four years' controversy would +carry this work far beyond the limits of my plan and of my time. My +object has been to trace the origin and first organization of our +political parties. To this full notices of the early measures out of +which they sprang were indispensable. Partisan conflicts upon questions +that arose after their organization was completed, are to be regarded as +effects rather than as causes of their existence. The spirit which +controls the action of sects and parties, in church or state, is indeed +selfish and perverse, becoming more and more characterized by those +qualities the longer they are kept on foot. When a new measure is +proposed, or doctrine announced, on either side, the problem presenting +itself for deliberation _eo instanti_ to the minds of the opposite +faction, is as to the degree of strength and credit which its +introduction and success may be expected to bring to its authors, and of +consequent damage to their own party,--degrees, of course, dependent +upon the extent of its probable advantage to the interests of religion, +in one case, or of the country, in the other,--and in such deliberation +the claims of religion and country are in great danger of being +postponed for the interests of parties, and the new doctrine or measure +of meeting with a resistance proportioned to its probable merit. It +results as a general rule that it is sufficient to induce one party to +oppose any given measure to know that it has been introduced by its +adversary. This is an unfavorable and humiliating view of a subject +which nevertheless includes great advantages in a free State, but its +truth is unhappily too obvious. + +The angry contests which followed each other in rapid and uninterrupted +succession during the administration of the elder Adams, partook +strongly of this character. They sprung out of questions which arose +after the two great parties of the country--which have been +substantially kept on foot ever since--had been completely organized and +had taken the field, the one to accomplish and the other to resist a +great national reform which could only be constitutionally determined +through the medium of a struggle for the succession. Of these I have +only noticed the alien and sedition laws, and have been induced to make +that discrimination partly by a conviction of their superior influence +in settling the fate of parties, but principally from their relation to +the report upon the question of their constitutionality prepared by +Madison, under the invigorating stimulus administered by the ever +active and zealous mind of Jefferson. Of this great paper I shall speak +again. + +For an account of those interesting partisan conflicts--which, in +comparison with the men and issues of the present day, I may, without, I +think, being justly reproached with overpraising the past, call a war of +giants--the reader cannot, in my judgment, be referred to a source which +is in the main more reliable than Randall's "Life of Jefferson." The +descendants of that great and good man have contributed to the +preparation of that work, apparently without reserve, a body of +information of intense interest with which they have been intrusted, and +which has never before been made public. With many of the members of +this family it has been my good fortune to become intimately acquainted; +it would be difficult to find people anywhere more unobtrusive, +notwithstanding their claims upon the respect and consideration of the +community, whilst in individual temperament and character they are +richly endowed with those amiable, truthful, disinterested, and upright +traits for which their progenitor was so greatly distinguished in the +estimation of those who knew him well, and who were disposed to do him +justice. Mr. Randall has faithfully embodied the valuable materials +furnished by them in his work, to the execution of which he has brought, +besides talent and industry, a thoroughly democratic spirit. He has +entitled himself to credit for permitting Mr. Jefferson and his +contemporaries, as well opponents as coadjutors, to speak for themselves +in respect to public questions generally. If it should be thought in any +quarter that his own commentaries betray too much warmth; and are in +some instances of too partisan a character for the right tone of +history, it should be remembered that they fall in those respects far +short of the writers of the Federal school who have treated of +Jefferson; his volumes may with truth be regarded as the first +systematic defense of that statesman's entire political career, and it +would not be an easy matter for any one, especially for one of Randall's +years, after wading through the volumes of political and personal +detraction which have been written against him, to read for the first +time vindications authentic, simple, and conclusive without being +sometimes betrayed into expressions which would not have been indulged +at moments of less excitement. + +Occasional mistakes in a work of such extent, even with the best +intentions, and with what may well be regarded as the most reliable +sources of information, are still unavoidable. I have elsewhere +corrected a very important one in respect to Mr. Madison's vote on +Giles's resolution censuring the conduct of Hamilton. I dissent also +from the inferences drawn in a few instances from facts about which +there is no mistake,--such as Washington's intentions respecting the +rank of the major-generals for the provisional army, and the blame +imputed to Jefferson and Madison,--to the latter for not accepting the +office of Secretary of State when the former resigned, and to Jefferson +for declining Washington's invitation to return to it; but I have not +seen any statement in the whole work which I do not believe was intended +to be correct, or any construction of ascertained results which does not +appear to have been made in good faith. + +It is conceded on all sides that Hamilton and Jefferson, during the +presidency of John Adams, were the leaders of the two great parties--the +substantial amalgamation of the old Anti-Federal and Republican parties +leaving but two. Hamilton's position was unprecedented. Although the +President and himself were, almost from the commencement of the +campaign, upon very bad terms--feeling strong personal dislike towards +each other, and holding no really friendly intercourse--he +notwithstanding directed the course of the administration, and +controlled the entire action of the Government to a greater extent than +he had done at any time during the presidency of Washington. These +extraordinary results he accomplished by means of the complete +ascendancy, to which I have heretofore alluded, which he possessed over +the three principal members of Mr. Adams's cabinet,--Pickering, Wolcott +and McHenry,--and by the peculiar influence that he was capable of +exerting over the Federal members of Congress. I have referred to +letters, state papers, briefs, and instructions for the action of those +parties establishing the truth of this position. With very limited +exceptions the control of Mr. Adams over his own administration was +little more than nominal. He served the purpose, and that was his chief +burden, of bearing the responsibility of unpopular measures--a fortunate +circumstance for the Republicans, as he excelled most men in his +capacity for adding to the odium of an obnoxious measure by the manner +of executing it. + +I doubt whether, in the history of the world, another occasion can be +found when any two men were as successful as were Jefferson and Hamilton +in impressing such great numbers of intelligent people with their own +opinions and views upon the subjects of government and its proper +administration. + +Acts and avowed opinions speak for themselves, but to determine the +motives of parties in the adoption of their measures no safer tests +perhaps can be employed than the characters and dispositions of those by +whom the parties themselves were founded and, in their early stages, +guided. Hamilton's character, qualifications, and views have already +occupied a large space in these pages. If they have been spoken of in +any other than a faithful and liberal spirit, I have certainly failed +to do justice to my own feelings. Of Thomas Jefferson, the founder as +well as leader of the old Republican, now Democratic, party, +comparatively little has been said. Opposed as they were in their +opinions upon almost every public question that arose after the adoption +of the Federal Constitution, there were yet occasional coincidences of +sentiment which served to illustrate the elevated character of their +minds, as there were also many features of their respective careers +which, while broadly contrasted, furnished the strongest evidence of the +sincerity and integrity of both. Not the least striking among the latter +may be found in the circumstances and conditions of life in which they +respectively started in the "race set before them," as connected with +the ideas and opinions at which they arrived, so variant from those +commonly impressed upon men by similar accidents. + +Descended from a highly honored stock, it was yet Hamilton's lot to be +born poor and to be left solely dependent upon his own exertions for his +success in life. After a service of three years as clerk in a +counting-house he was sent to this country for the completion of his +education, at the expense of relatives on his mother's side. Here he +made himself acquainted with the character of our dispute with the +mother country, and took sides with the colonists in a manner and under +circumstances highly creditable to him, and after five years' military +service, in which he acquired great reputation in comparatively +subordinate stations, he retired to private life, adopting the legal +profession as his only resource for the support of his family. + +That a man trained in such a school, and who at the same time possessed +capacities to influence the public mind, when his efforts were properly +directed, far superior to any of his contemporaries, would, in the +condition in which he was placed, and under a government like our own, +take his political position on the popular side, was an anticipation +naturally entertained by the zealous friends of republican government. +But we have seen, on the contrary, that there was not, throughout the +wide extent of the Republic, a single man of respectable standing, more +deeply (and, let me add, more sincerely) distrustful of the judgment and +dispositions of the great body of the people, or more anxious to impose +restraints upon the popular will, and, for the accomplishment of that +object, to add to the intrinsic influence of associated wealth the +facilities for its exercise afforded by the possession of political +power. His case must not, however, be confounded with that of the +"candied tongues" found in every community which + + "Lick absurd pomp, + And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee + That thrift may follow fawning." + +Hamilton's mind was incapable of that condescension, or, as Mr. +Jefferson observed to me of him in connection with other matters, "he +was far above that." He participated largely as a professional man in +the favor and patronage of the commercial and manufacturing classes, but +instead of his own political course being influenced by the receipt of +such favors, he seldom failed to govern theirs. He was not a man to +mortgage his great abilities for personal benefits of any description, +and so well was his character in that respect understood that no one +would have ventured to tender him any inducement which might in the +estimation of the most prejudiced expose his personal independence to +the slightest question or suspicion. The fact, therefore, that he +pursued a course so different from what might have been naturally +expected of him by people generally--a course so much less eligible for +the gratification of ambitious views--affords high evidence of the +integrity of his motives. It proved that he acted under the influence of +opinions which had been honestly formed, and in the correctness of which +he confided to the end; opinions which he doubtless hoped would in the +sequel prove acceptable to the majority, but to which he felt it his +duty to adhere, whatever might be the consequences to himself of his +perseverance. + +Mr. Jefferson, on the other hand, succeeded at the age of fourteen, in +addition to other rights of primogeniture, to an inheritance which, with +competent management, was sufficient to satisfy all his wants, and to a +social position, when he became a man, which required no pecuniary aids +to make his condition in every respect all that was desirable, and one +that could scarcely be improved by any change in the government of his +country. To an unusual extent devoid of the gift of oratory, personal +ambition was less likely to tempt him into the paths of politics. +Cherishing always a love of letters, science and the arts, blessed with +a genial temper, and in every respect well qualified to adorn and to +enjoy the social circle, he seemed destined for a life of elegant ease. +But, happily for the cause of human rights throughout the world, and for +the welfare especially of his own country, he was impressed by his Maker +with an ardent love of liberty, and a zealous devotion to the generous +and equalizing principles of republican government, which impelled him +into the political field, and placed him from the beginning in +unreserved hostility to hereditary political power in any form, to all +institutions in the State which secure to particular classes or +individuals a preference over others of equal merit, and to all power in +government, or in individuals or associations, civil or ecclesiastical, +which can be exerted to control the opinions or to coerce the +consciences of men. + +Moved by such impulses, and having "sworn eternal hostility against +every form of tyranny over the mind of man," he entered, at an early +age, upon his public career, destined to be long and eventful, and +sustained throughout the character given of him on his first appearance +in Congress in 1775, by John Adams,--"prompt, frank, explicit, and +decisive"--"not even Samuel Adams was more so." From that time until the +day of his death he gave his support, never for a moment diminished in +zeal or sincerity, and varied only in its efficiency according to the +positions he occupied and the influence they afforded for the purpose, +to the great principle of "the equality of political rights" which +Hamilton well described as "the foundation of pure Republicanism." + +At the age of twenty-two--a period in Hamilton's life when his already +teeming mind was meditating the establishment of institutions, and the +adoption of measures to strengthen the Government, and to enable it to +exercise what he deemed a salutary and necessary restraint upon the +popular will, institutions and measures in the working of which, from +their nature, none but moneyed men could be expected to +participate--Jefferson was as actively and constantly employed in the +Virginia House of Delegates, in concert with the earliest Revolutionary +patriots of that State, in preparing her, as well as the hearts of the +people, for the great movement then already the subject of confident +anticipation with minds like theirs. There he remained until 1775, when +he was appointed a delegate to the Continental Congress. Of his agency, +whilst a member of that body, in preparing the Declaration of +Independence, and in promoting its adoption, it is unnecessary here to +speak. As soon as that noble work had been accomplished, he resigned his +seat, accepted a reelection to the State Legislature as the position in +which, though less exalted, he could render more useful services to the +cause, and the measures to which his exertions were there directed were +in harmony with the spirit of the Revolution, and designed, as avowed by +himself, "to eradicate every fibre of ancient or future aristocracy, and +to lay a foundation for a government truly republican." The results of +the joint labors of himself and his patriotic associates were: + +1st. An act to prevent the further importation of slaves, a practice +which he had denounced in the Declaration of Independence as a +"piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers;" + +2d. An act to abolish entailments; + +3d. An act to abolish primogenitureship--a right which had vested in +himself; + +4th. An act for religious freedom; and + +5th. A bill for general education. + +These were not only appropriate but indispensable steps to lay a sure +foundation for republican government, State as well as National. Most, +if not all of the States, followed her lead, but to Virginia belongs the +high merit of having been in this respect the first in the field, and to +Jefferson a large share of that merit. + +Such were the men who were by common consent placed at the respective +heads of the two great parties in that national struggle which resulted +in what has ever since been known as "the Civil Revolution of Eighteen +Hundred," a name given to it by the victors on the assumption that, +although the weapons were different, the principles which were involved +in it and the spirit which achieved the triumph were akin to those which +distinguished the Revolution by the sword. The knowledge that Hamilton +preferred monarchical institutions to every other form, that John Adams, +who was at the head of the Government, sympathized very cordially with +that sentiment, and the belief that most of the leaders of the Federal +party partook largely of the same feeling, and were only prevented from +avowing the fact by their perception of its unpopularity, caused a +wide-spread and sincere alarm on the side of the Republican party for +the safety of republican government in the United States. This +apprehension imparted a graver character to the contest than any other +considerations could have produced, and called into vigorous action much +of the spirit by which the minds of the masses had been influenced in +the Revolutionary War. It served to weld the members of the old +Anti-Federal party and the Republicans--between whom a concert of action +had previously arisen--into a thorough union, which became permanent, +because it was founded on a principle in which they heartily concurred, +and which was of sufficient magnitude to absorb minor differences in +their political views. + +That Hamilton's settled opinion and preference were such as I have +described is a point which has been, it is hoped, already too well +established to admit, at this day, of an honest difference of opinion. +He avowed them on the floor of the Convention in the presence of the +assembled representatives, and this is equally clear, whether the sum of +that declaration is tested by the copy of the speech which he himself +delivered to Mr. Madison as a permanent record of his opinions, or by +the notes for that speech now published by his son. He announced them to +his political rival, Mr. Jefferson, in the presence of Mr. John Adams, +and reaffirmed them to the former in a conversation obviously sought for +the purpose of giving the form he desired to expressions of a less +guarded character, and which were, under that impression, immediately +reduced to writing by Mr. Jefferson, who, for the truth of his record, +"attests the God that made him." He so thoroughly impressed his +political coadjutor and most trusted friend--him to whom it was +appointed to pronounce his eulogy at his funeral--Gouverneur Morris, +with a sense of his devotion to monarchical institutions, that within +six months after his death, Morris, writing to his friend Ogden, speaks +of that devotion as "hobby" which Hamilton "bestrode to the great +annoyance of his friends, and not without injury to himself;" also to +Robert Walsh, the well-known editor of a leading Federal journal, in +answer to inquiries on the subject, that "Hamilton hated republican +government because he confounded it with democratical government, and he +detested the latter because he believed it must end in despotism, and be +in the mean time destructive to morality;" and that "he never failed on +every occasion to advocate the excellence of, and his attachment to, +monarchical government." It was in perfect keeping with the character of +Hamilton that never, throughout his life, though constantly charged with +entertaining such opinions, did he deny the imputation; he who denies it +now must assume that Hamilton either did not know his own mind upon the +subject, or that he had some motive for misrepresenting it, or that Mr. +Jefferson deliberately falsified his repeated declarations, and that +Gouverneur Morris was capable of misrepresenting his friend upon a point +of so much importance when that friend had descended to his grave. + +To what lengths Hamilton would have gone to subvert the existing +government, and to substitute monarchical institutions, or under what +circumstances he would have deemed an attempt to do so justifiable, are +questions open to investigation and comment, but to discuss the fact of +his constant preference for such institutions, and desire to see them +established here, would be to trifle with the subject. + +Mr. Adams, who was President, and in whose name the battle was fought, +fell but little if any thing short of General Hamilton in his partiality +for the English system. To purge the British Constitution of its +corruptions, and to give to its popular branch equality of +representation, were alone necessary, he thought, to make it "the most +perfect Constitution ever devised by the wit of man." The alterations or +amendments he suggested, sound and creditable to himself as they were, +were no more than qualifications of his general preference for the +English model. If Hamilton's admiration of that model was less qualified +than that of Adams, it must at the same time be admitted that the former +was freest from the fault of seeking to degrade and discredit republican +institutions by his writings. Without undertaking to describe the +specific design of Mr. Adams's "Defense of the Constitutions of +Government of the United States," or of his "Discourse on Davila,"--a +task, for obvious reasons, very difficult,--it may, I think, be safely +assumed that such was their manifest tendency. Hamilton at least thought +so at a time when the reciprocal prejudices which afterwards separated +them so widely had not yet acquired a strong hold upon the feelings of +either. In his interview with Mr. Jefferson on the 13th of August, 1791, +before referred to, when the conversation was turned to the writings of +Mr. Adams, Hamilton condemned them, and "most particularly Davila, as +having a tendency to weaken the present Government;" and, after other +remarks in relation to the existing Government and its chances of +success, he added,--"Whoever by his writings disturbs the present order +of things is really blamable, however pure his intentions might be, and +he was sure Mr. Adams's were pure." + +The division by Mr. Adams of governments designated as republics, into +democratic republics, aristocratic republics and monarchical, or regal +republics,--embracing a minute description of each, in which the +Government of the "United Provinces of the Low Countries," whose powers +are held by the persons intrusted with them either by hereditary title +or by the selection of associates, after the manlier of close +corporations, is called a "democratic Republic," and that of England a +"monarchical, or regal Republic,"--was naturally displeasing to the +sense and feeling of those who regarded aristocratical or monarchical or +regal features as absolutely incompatible with the true idea of +republican government. The voluminous and doubtless violent attacks that +were made upon his writings were scarcely necessary to satisfy those who +had freely undergone the sufferings and sacrifices of a long and bloody +war to secure to themselves and their posterity the blessings of +republican institutions, according to their acceptation of them, that +the writings of Mr. Adams were designed, as was charged, to cause the +term "Republican Government" to mean "any thing or nothing." + +The notices taken of the general subject and of these writings in +particular, by John Adams himself, by his son, John Quincy Adams, and by +his grandson, Charles Francis Adams, go far to show that if not fairly +liable to this construction, they were too much open to it to be +persisted in. In a note attached by the author, in 1812, to the +"Discourse on Davila," as published in his "Life and Works," he says: +"The work, however, powerfully operated upon his (J. A.'s) popularity. +It was urged as full proof that he was an advocate for monarchy, and +laboring to introduce a hereditary President in the United States." His +grandson, Charles F. Adams, introducing the "Discourse" in his "Life and +Works of John Adams," says: "They furnished to the partisans of the day +so much material for immediate political use in the contest then +beginning (1790), that the author thought it best to desist, and they +were left incomplete." + +John Quincy Adams, in his Jubilee Address,--the occasion and character +of which have been heretofore noticed,--describes the state of parties +at the accession of General Washington to the Presidency in the +following terms: "On the other hand no small number of the Federalists, +sickened by the wretched and ignominious failure of the Articles of +Confederation to fulfill the promise of the Revolution; provoked at once +and discouraged by the violence and rancor of the opposition against +their strenuous and toilsome endeavors to raise their country from her +state of prostration; chafed and goaded by the misrepresentations of +their motives, and the reproaches of their adversaries, and imputing to +them in turn deliberate and settled purposes to dissolve the Union and +resort to anarchy for the repair of ruined fortunes,--distrusted ever +the efficacy of the Constitution itself, and with a weakened confidence +in the virtue of the people were inclined to the opinion that the only +practicable substitute for it would be a government of greater energy +than that presented by the Convention. There were among them numerous +warm admirers of the British Constitution, disposed to confide rather to +the inherent strength of the Government than to the self-evident truths +of the Declaration of Independence for the preservation of the rights of +property and perhaps of persons." + +This is language which it is easy to understand, and which covers very +fairly the subject of our immediate attention. Few men enjoyed better +opportunities to possess himself of correct views in regard to the +opinions of his own political party than John Quincy Adams. He was by +nature truthful, or if at times blinded by prejudice, never, I firmly +believe, induced to swerve by sinister considerations. Accustomed from +early life to indulgence in the strong expressions (both in manner and +form) common to his race, he was apt to exaggerate under great +excitement, but was not capable of designedly falsifying facts. In the +case before us the greatest reliance may be placed upon his statements +in regard to the opinions and views of a class of men of whom he thought +well. The Federal party entered upon the first administration under the +new Constitution, of which the election had placed it in full +possession, with a weakened confidence, Mr. Adams says, in the virtue of +the people,--distrustful even of the efficacy of the Constitution +itself, and inclined to the opinion that the only practical substitute +for it would be a government of greater energy than that presented by +the Convention, and a portion of them (how large it was difficult for +manifest reasons to determine, but Mr. Adams describes it as +"numerous,") warmly admiring the British Constitution, and disposed to +confide to the inherent strength of such a government rather than to one +founded on the principles of the Declaration of Independence. In what +class or division it was the intention of Mr. Adams to place his +venerable father does not appear, nor is it very clear to which he +should be assigned. That he considered his opinions, which had been more +impugned in all respects than those of any, save perhaps of Hamilton, as +not placing him in either, is not at all probable. + +John Adams's "Defense" and "Discourse" were written at different periods +remote from each other, and when he himself occupied very different +situations; the former before the formation of the Federal Constitution, +when he represented his country as Minister to England, and the latter, +which was universally regarded as the most Anti-Republican of the two, +after he had been elected Vice-President. That his views were in some +degree changed by time and circumstances is not improbable. Mr. +Jefferson thought that he owed his support for the Vice-Presidency to +the Anti-Republican tendencies of the first work, and that his election +to that office and the federal sentiment that he found prevalent on his +return from England, and down to the commencement of the new government, +induced him to write the "Discourse," and to give to it a higher tone in +the same direction. The diffusive and (if that expression is not too +strong when speaking of writings of so much learning and ability) the +incoherent manner in which these works were constructed, particularly +the earlier one, makes it unsafe to venture to specify the precise +principles they were designed to sustain. His grandson was so sensible +of the deficiencies of the "Defense" in these respects that he +reconstructed and improved it in his publication, but without, as he +says, changing the sense, and I have no doubt that he has carried out +the latter idea in good faith. + +That few if any American citizens went beyond John Adams in his +admiration of the British Constitution is undeniably true. In the third +chapter of the "Defense,"--(see Vol. IV. p. 358, of his "Life and +Works,") he pronounces an eulogium on that Constitution which goes far +beyond that reported by Mr. Jefferson, (in his account of the +conversation between Adams and Hamilton in April, 1791,) calling it "the +most stupendous fabric of human invention," adding, that "not the +formation of languages, not the whole art of navigation and +ship-building, does more honor to the human understanding than this +system of government." But on the very next page he commends the United +States for not having followed the English model, so far as to make +"their first magistrates or their senators hereditary"--differing +substantially in that regard from the opinion reported by Mr. Jefferson, +and showing how unsafe if not futile would be the attempt to define +exactly the principles which he favored. + +It may, notwithstanding, be safely assumed, _first_, that he was +foremost among the warm admirers of the British Constitution spoken of +by his son, and _secondly_, that he deemed our Constitution defective in +omitting to provide for some depository of political power in the +government, variant in principle from its general provisions, one which +should be either not at all or only very remotely subject to popular +control, and that he stood almost at the head of those whose confidence +in the virtue of the people had been greatly weakened by occurrences +following the Revolution. + +The latter assumption would seem very fully warranted by the following +citations from his "Defense:"[30] + +"The proposition, that the people are the best keepers of their own +liberties, is not true; they are the worst conceivable; they are no +keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will as a +political body." + +"If it is meant by our author a representative assembly, they are not +still the best keepers of the liberties of the people; at least the +majority would invade the liberty of the minority sooner and oftener +than an absolute monarchy." + +"A great writer has said that a people will never oppress themselves, or +invade their own rights. This compliment, if applied to any nation or +people in being or memory, is more than has been merited." + +"Aristides, Fabricius, and Cincinnatus, are always quoted, as if such +characters were always to be found in sufficient numbers to protect +liberty; and a cry and show of liberty is set up by the profligate and +abandoned, such as would sell their fathers, their country, and their +God for profit, place, and power. Hypocrisy, simulation, and finesse are +not more practiced in the courts of princes than in popular elections, +nor more encouraged by kings than people." + +"The real merit of public men is rarely known and impartially +considered. When men arise who to real services add political +empiricism, conform to the errors of the people, comply with their +prejudices, gain their hearts and excite their enthusiasm, then +gratitude is a contagion--it is a whirlwind." + + [30] See Randall's _Life of Jefferson_, Vol. I. p. 587. + +The same volume (of Randall's Work) contains copious extracts from the +letters of Fisher Ames and a number of other leading Federalists, +derived from Hamilton's recently published papers and other sources. +They breathe in general the same spirit, hankering after +pre-revolutionary institutions and systems, though less boldly expressed +than was done by Hamilton and Adams, and the same distrust of the +sufficiency of the Constitution and above all of the capacities and +dispositions of the people, the latter exhibited in assaults upon +democracy and the democratic spirit of the country. + +John Adams was in every sense a remarkable man. Nature seems to have +employed in his construction intellectual materials sufficient to have +furnished many minds respectably. It would not be easy to name men, +either of his day or of any period, whose characters present a deeper or +a stronger soil, one which during his long and somewhat boisterous +public life was thoroughly probed by his enemies without disclosing any +variation in its depths from the qualities and indications of its +surface. Still more deeply was it turned up and exposed to the light by +himself with the same result. His writings, which have been more +extensive and more various than those of any of his contemporaries, have +been given to the world apparently without reserve. These, with his +diaries and autobiography, have turned his character inside out and +shown us, without disguise of any sort, the kind of man he was: and the +representation is invariably that of the same "always honest man" that +he was three quarters of a century ago when that high praise was +accorded to him by his not too partial friend, Benjamin Franklin, in a +communication not designed to be over civil. + +Whatever diversities may have arisen in the opinions of men in relation +to the merits or demerits of his after conduct, all agree in conceding +to him credit for patriotic and useful services in the times which have +been happily described as those which tried men's souls. Mr. Jefferson, +but two years before the death of both of them, on referring to that +period, and to Mr. Adams's great services, in my presence, was warmed by +the subject, and spoke of him as having been the mainmast of the +ship--the orator of the Revolution, &c. It is in all probability no +exaggeration of his merits to assume that there was no man in the United +States, (perhaps, but not without doubt, excepting Samuel Adams,) who, +before he was sent abroad in their service, did more than himself in a +civil capacity to promote the cause of the Revolution. This is a high +distinction--one which entitles his memory to the perpetual reverence of +his countrymen. No subsequent errors of opinion, nothing short of +personal dishonor and degradation, of which he was incapable, could +extinguish a claim to the enduring gratitude and respect of a nation +founded on such services. + +He left our shores upon his foreign mission a noble specimen of a +republican statesman--his heart and mind filled to overflowing with +right principles, and capable of vindicating them whenever and wherever +they might stand in need of support or defense. He performed his public +duties with fidelity and honor, but in respect to his political opinions +he returned an altered man. His "Defense of the Constitutions of +Government of the United States of America," written and published in +England whilst representing his country there, notwithstanding an +imposing title, though agreeable to some excited painful emotions in +the breasts of most of his Revolutionary associates. The dissatisfaction +of the latter was not a little increased by the circumstance that +sentiments and opinions, so disparaging to a form of government which +had been the unceasing object of their desire, should have been +ostentatiously promulgated in a country and in the presence of a +government from which the right to establish it had been wrested by +arms, and on the part of which the most unfriendly feelings in respect +to our advancement were still entertained. It was, nevertheless, true +that no circumstance contributed more toward his selection by the +Federal party as their candidate for the office of Vice-President than +these very avowals. His own sense of their efficacy in that respect is +clearly to be inferred from the fact that he devoted the first moments +of his time, whilst occupying that station, to the prosecution of the +same general object, with less disguise and increased boldness, through +his "Discourses on Davila." + +Jefferson and Samuel Adams and others of their stamp, who had embarked +in the Revolution with a spirit that could neither be appalled by danger +whilst the battle raged, nor seduced by considerations of any +description after it had been fought, were not slow in perceiving that +Mr. Adams had not only deserted from the cause of free government, but +that he regarded his first success under the new system and aspired to +the still higher honor in the gift of his countrymen as fruits of his +desertion. Whilst his early and best friends felt that the fabric, the +erection of which had cost them so much labor and so many sacrifices, +had lost one of its strongest pillars by his falling off, they were +neither dismayed nor did they despair of its safety. They met his second +attempt to bring free governments into disrepute with an energy that +drove him, as he himself admits, stubborn and inflexible in his +purposes as he always had been, to discontinue, at least in that form, +assaults upon a political faith, once the object of their common +devotion. This desertion on the part of one in whom they had confided so +fully, and upon whose cooperation, in securing to them the full +enjoyment of the political rights for the acquisition of which they had +endured so many perils, they had largely depended, sank deeply into the +hearts and minds of the people. The spirit of discontent was naturally +much increased by the discovery that Hamilton, who had done himself so +much honor, and who had raised such favorable anticipations by the +chivalrous spirit and gallantry with which he had embraced and sustained +the national cause was, after all, irreconcilably hostile to that system +of republican government which they so highly prized, and upon the +ultimate enjoyment of which they had so long meditated; that his +opposition was not only open and unreserved, but that he assigned as a +reason for it their incapacity and unfitness for the support and +enjoyment of free institutions. + +A sense of danger to the cause of republicanism in the United States was +widely diffused through the public mind. There were indignities to be +resented and wrongs to be redressed, besides new securities to be +devised for the safety of long-cherished principles. These were +considerations quite sufficient to rouse the lion of the Revolution from +his lair to defend its choicest fruit from further profanation. Those +classes, among the surviving patriots of that eventful day, of whom I +have spoken as pervaded by a deeper hatred of kingly government than +others among their Revolutionary associates, sprang to the rescue with +alacrity and zeal. The descendants of the devoted spirits who first +settled the ancient colony of Virginia were not unmindful of their +hereditary obligations to resist the exercise of lawless power. Neither +could the appeal fall unheeded on the ears of the representatives of the +persecuted Huguenots, who had suffered so cruelly from the exercise of +powers now sought to be revived, or of the Netherlanders of the Middle +States, or on those sons of the Puritans of the East whose zeal in +behalf of liberty had not been tempted to spend itself on trade and +manufactures by the seductive influence of Hamilton's policy, and by the +facilities they possessed for those pursuits. + +Drawing its power from such sources, and sustained by a great +preponderance of the landed interest in every part of the country, the +old Republican party attained a degree of vigor and efficiency superior +to that of any partisan organization which had before or has since +appeared on the political stage. Mr. John Quincy Adams described it +truly when he said that it had acquired a head which would have enabled +it, if so disposed, "to have overthrown Washington's administration as +it did that of his successor acting upon its principles." Jefferson's +declaration to Mazzei that "we have only to awake and snap the +Lilliputian cords with which they have attempted to bind us during the +first slumbers that succeed our labors," was borne out by the result. + +Although the audacious passion for monarchical government, which the +leading Federalists had ventured to revive so soon after the Revolution, +was the most exciting of the causes which inflamed the hearts and braced +the nerves of the Republicans for the conflict,[31] that was not the +first issue to be tried. The nature of the government to be substituted +was a question that would not, in the natural order of things, arise +until the fate of the existing Constitution had been settled; but as +their blood was up and their hands at work, the Republicans resolved, if +possible, to strangle the conspiracy against the new-born liberties of +the country in both its branches by the same effort. The severity and +success of the blows they directed against the restoration of the power +and influence of the Crown, in any form, is strikingly illustrated by a +comparison of the state in which that question was found and that in +which it was left by the civil revolution of 1800. Whilst at the former +period the superiority of kingly over republican government was the +prevailing and absorbing sentiment among what were called the higher +classes, as graphically described by Mr. Jefferson, and substantially +corroborated by Gouverneur Morris's letter to Rufus King, the notion +that the former would be ever practicable in this country was so +thoroughly annihilated by that great struggle as never again to have +been whispered in our politics. There is no exaggeration in the +affirmation that there has been no day within the last forty years when +a proposition for the reestablishment of monarchy in the United States, +however seriously made, could have excited any other emotion than +ridicule or contempt, or would not have been deemed more appropriately +punished by the administration of the straight-jacket than by a trial +for treason. But there has been far greater difficulty in completing the +work of resistance to Hamilton's efforts to overthrow the Constitution +by subverting it, through the agency of his sapping and mining policy, +which was the direct issue in the election of 1800. A constitution had +been established, in the construction and ratification of which the +Federal party had performed a greater and more effectual part than the +party opposed to it. Its general provisions were fully adequate to the +support of a republican government. By a successful incorporation of the +representative system with the republican form, pure and simple, its +framers had happily qualified and adapted the instrument to our +extensive territory, and a provision for amendments furnished a remedy +against existing defects. Of the latter the omission to secure +specifically and adequately the individual natural rights of men against +the exercise of arbitrary power was the most important--a defect in +respect to which a large majority of the Anti-Federalists were, for +reasons frequently referred to, most sensitive. The Constitution was +ratified by several of the States, and amongst them by Virginia and New +York, with accompanying resolutions, some of them passed by the State +conventions with perfect unanimity, expressing opinions that it deserved +revision and required amendments. Without such resolutions the +ratification could not, we are forced to believe, have been effected. We +have seen with what reluctance the first Congress, Federal by a large +majority, consented to make any constitutional amendments, and that +nothing short of Mr. Madison's wonderful perseverance could, in all +probability, have effected their adoption; but they were obtained, +proved satisfactory to the Anti-Federalists, and made them fast friends +of the new Constitution. + + [31] See _Life of Morris_, Vol. III. p. 128. "But the thing which in + my opinion has done more mischief to the Federal party is the ground + given by some of them to believe that they wish to establish a + monarchy."--_Letter from Morris to King._ + +From that moment that instrument ceased to be an object of solicitude +with the leaders of the Federal party, hardly retaining favor with any +of them. This result is by no means an unusual one in the history of +parties whose feelings have become to any great extent embittered. The +instances are rare indeed in which any public measure or act is at the +same time entirely acceptable to all sides. The "Independent Treasury" +is the only clear case of the kind among us that has fallen under my +observation. The letters of the leading Federalists, which have now for +the first time seen the light, prove their subsequent indifference, and, +in many instances, active hostility to the Constitution. Not a few who +imbibed Hamilton's feelings and shared in his views upon this point had +been members of the Convention, and among those to whom I have awarded +so large a share of credit for their conduct in making the Constitution +what it is. This was justly their due. It is not to be doubted that +several of them, as I have before said, participated largely in +Hamilton's objections, and would have preferred a very different +instrument; but they knew that none less favorable to the supposed +interests of the State governments, or less liberal in other respects, +would stand the slightest chance of ratification, more especially when +the circumstance of disregard to the limits and restrictions of the +authority by which they had been convened was taken into consideration. +They saw nothing but injury, vast and complicated, to the country from +their failure, and they evinced their patriotism in yielding to this +wise foresight at the sacrifice of their individual preferences. +Although many of them, doubtless, did not fully share Hamilton's +absorbing preference for monarchy, they very generally went to the +extent pointed out by John Quincy Adams in his Jubilee Address--that was +for a government of more energy than was provided for by the +Constitution presented by the Convention. This they had a right to +desire and to work for through amendments in the way appointed by the +Constitution, but in this way they knew they could not obtain what they +wanted, and they therefore yielded their ready aid to the measures he +proposed by which the Constitution was to be made to mean any thing, +substantially, which those who were intrusted with its execution might +believe would promote the general welfare. Hamilton's course in this +regard seemed to the uninitiated extremely reckless, as he appeared +desirous to select objects in respect to which the excess of authority +under the Constitution which he exerted was most obvious, and the +subjects themselves were those in respect to which the sensibilities of +his opponents were the keenest. In the whole range of measures, which, +if constitutional, might appropriately proceed from his department, he +could not have found a single one as to which the intention of the +framers of the Constitution, adverse to the power he exercised, was +better understood than a United States Bank. Mr. Jefferson brought the +facts which transpired in the Convention proving such intention to his +notice, and to that of the President, and they were not controverted by +either. + +So in regard to the Sedition Law. One of the ten amendments was +especially designed to prohibit such legislation, and there were no +subjects to which the Anti-Federalists and Republicans were more alive +than to the liberty of speech and of the press. The same thing may be +said, in respect to public sensibilities, of the Alien Act. That Act +conferred a power on the President, which, though one of the +prerogatives of the Crown, no prime minister dare exercise at this day +in the sense in which the President was authorized to exercise it. + +Yet it is now known that of these last measures the first was passed +upon Hamilton's suggestion, and Mr. Charles F. Adams informs us that +neither was ever made the subject of executive consultation. + +But I can well conceive that these considerations, which might deter +other men, were but so many recommendations with Hamilton for the course +he pursued. From first to last he thought the Constitution inadequate to +the purposes of what he regarded as good government, and that the sooner +it was gotten rid of the better for the country. There were moments when +he allowed himself to hope that he might make it answer the purpose if +he were allowed to go on with it as he began. But these were only +momentary impressions that soon gave way to the settled convictions of +his mind, his avowals of which were uniformly the same. He declared to +Jefferson in 1792, "that the Constitution was a shilly-shally thing of +mere milk and water, and was only good as a step to something +better,"--a declaration which the latter communicated in self-defense to +Washington; and in 1802 he describes it to his friend Morris, as we have +seen, as "a frail and worthless fabric," reminding him at the same time +of his knowledge that such had been his (Hamilton's) opinion "from the +very beginning." It was, therefore, natural that a man of his +intelligence and resolution, looking with entire confidence to its +failure, should think it expedient to select the most palpable as well +as the most flagrant violations of the Constitution, while it was yet in +its infancy and feeblest condition, and thus to prepare the public mind +for the degradation he had in store for it, and to insure its speedy +overthrow. + +These severe measures were rendered doubly odious by the manner in which +the Sedition Law was executed, and by the steps adopted to suppress +outbreaks of popular discontent, but which only swelled comparative +rivulets into resistless torrents and rendered the Republican cause +invaluable service by giving occasion to Madison's great Report on the +Constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws. The judgment of the +country has ever been that a more able state paper never issued from the +pen of any man. It covered the entire controversy between the two +parties, traced its origin to the different views they entertained of +the construction and obligatory character of the Constitution, and +placed the republican creed in those respects upon grounds absolutely +impregnable. Hamilton was a laborious writer, but only so because his +writings were so voluminous; to write was with him a labor of love, and +there was no man of his day who devoted more time to political +disquisitions. There was scarcely any other great public question that +occupied the public mind during that period on which a publication, +offensive or defensive, is not to be found in his Works. Yet if he ever +attempted a reply to that Report, which attracted general attention and +became the flag under which the Republicans fought, I have never seen or +heard of it. I may safely assume that he never did make such attempt. + +The issue was fairly presented by Mr. Madison, through the Virginia +Legislature, as depending upon the answers to the following questions:-- + +1. What are the true principles that should be applied to the +construction of the Constitution? + +2. Are those who are elected by the people bound to execute it according +to the intention of its framers and the understanding of those who +ratified it? + +3. Is it in that sense sacredly obligatory upon all who are subject to +its authority? + +The charge presented against the Federal party and its representatives +was that they had trampled upon the sanctity of the Constitution by the +application to its construction of principles known to be unsound, by +setting at defiance the intentions of those who made it and for whom it +was made, and by prostituting it, and claiming the right to prostitute +it, to the promotion of their particular views of the public interests, +regardless of such intentions, however well understood. + +This Report stands as a perpetual record of that issue. The Republicans +regarded its decision as involving the existence of republican +government, inasmuch as no such government could be sustained for a +moment longer than the Constitution was looked to as a sacred and +inviolable line of duty for both rulers and ruled. They triumphed in +the great contest, and they expelled from power the men who refused to +recognize that principle in the administration of the government, and +for that reason they placed in their stead those who would recognize it. + +Madison's Report presented a faithful synopsis of the principles of the +old Republicans upon fundamental questions,--those which relate to the +powers of government and to the responsibilities under which they should +be exercised,--the only questions which gave rise to permanent political +parties. Whilst divisions in regard to particular measures disappear +with the falling off of interest in the subjects of them, those which I +have described as growing out of such primordial tenets are kept alive +as long as the government itself endures. So it has been in all +countries where there has been any appreciable degree of freedom of +opinion. England is almost, if not altogether, the only country whose +institutions are sufficiently analogous to ours to admit of useful +comparisons. From the time when her sovereigns traced their authority +from God, and acknowledged responsibility to Him alone for the manner of +its exercise, to the Revolution of 1688, by which absolutism was forever +abolished and government declared to be a trust for the abuse of which +the sovereign is responsible to the people, and always since, her party +divisions, regarded as national, have had relation to the powers of +government and to the degrees of responsibility under which they should +be exercised. Whether these parties were called Cavaliers and +Roundheads, Presbyterians and Jacobites, Whig and Tory, or Conservatives +and Liberals, such have always been the essential dividing points. Like +ourselves they have had a succession of exciting public questions not of +this character which have for a time divided the community, and were +earnestly contested, but which passed away without making material +inroads upon ancient party divisions, and the latter resumed their sway +when the temporary interruption ceased in much the same general array +they would have presented if it had not occurred. + +I have said that Madison's report was the flag under which the +Republicans conquered. It defines the constitutional creed by which they +were influenced in the administration of the government for twenty-four +years successively, and under which the Democratic party, their +successors, have since held the reins of the Federal Government, with +infrequent exceptions--the latter never extending to two Presidential +terms, and always the result of special circumstances having little +bearing upon general politics. + +But the political seed sown by Hamilton has not in other respects proved +as perishable as have his teachings in favor of monarchical +institutions. The former has never been eradicated--it seems not +susceptible of eradication. I have given the reasons why this has been +so with a description of the fruit it has continued to produce. These +results have fostered kindred doctrines in respect to constitutions, +their sanctity, their uses, and their abuses. I have also said that +these doctrines have been ever cherished and enforced when circumstances +were auspicious, and have constituted the chief element of our party +divisions. Hence it has been that those divisions have been so uniform +in their general outlines. The opposite dispositions which lead men to +take different sides upon such questions have worked to the same ends +from the close of the Revolution, and have been developed on all +occasions of a nature to call them into action. The execution of the +present Federal Constitution presented an opportunity to give them a +definite and more permanent form and classification which they have +maintained ever since. Individuals have changed from side to side under +the influence of what they have regarded as stronger inducements, and +when they have been disappointed, have generally returned to their first +bias. Questions of public policy, disconnected from considerations of +constitutional power, have arisen, been discussed, decided or abandoned +and forgotten, whilst the political parties of the country have remained +as they were. + +With the authentic record before us of the issue, the contest, the +result, and the efforts on the part of the defeated party to recover the +ground it had lost, the supposition seems preposterous that our party +divisions had their origin in the circumstances that occurred on the +appointment of General Washington to be Commander-in-Chief of our +Revolutionary army, as is alleged by a son of General Hamilton, in his +history of the life of his father. Of the same character, though not +quite so unreasonable, are the attempts which have been made by several +to find their origin in the Federal Convention. That body did indeed +present an occasion for the application of different opinions to the +original formation of the Federal Constitution, but those opinions grew +out of conflicting tenets which had divided the country into parties +long before, and they were not then determined either way, but +compromised upon grounds of expediency by a result which was not in +point of fact satisfactory to any side, but acquiesced in by a majority +obtained from the ranks of both. The proposition of President John +Quincy Adams in his Inaugural Address, tracing their rise to the +opposing sides taken by the people of the United States, as between +England and France, and their final discontinuance to the disastrous +career and termination of the French Revolution, would seem to be not +less wide of the mark. The continuance of the two great parties of the +country in the same state, in respect to the principles they espoused +and the characters and dispositions of those who composed them, for more +than half a century and for a quarter of a century before his address +was delivered, is not to be denied. If it was even supposed possible +that an intelligent and high spirited people like our own, with +traditions and a history so eventful, and with domestic interests so +important, could have been arrayed in hostile political opinions and +party divisions by the influence of purely foreign questions, the +continuance of those divisions in the same form and spirit for so many +years after all pretense of the operation of such an influence had +ceased would of itself be sufficient to refute the theory. But the +objections to it are too numerous, too conclusive in their character, +and too obvious to make it necessary to press them farther. The French +Revolution had sufficiently developed itself to weaken, if not +extinguish, the solicitude of the Republicans for its success, (who, +with their leader, Thomas Jefferson, regarded its excesses with +abhorrence,) before they expelled John Adams from the Presidency for the +aid and sanction which he gave to Hamilton's violations of the +Constitution, and his son, John Quincy Adams, was twenty-eight years +afterwards driven from power for the same cause and by the same party, a +party which he supposed had ceased to exist for some thirty years +previous. It was by his latitudinarian avowals in respect to the +constitutional powers of Congress,--when he began to talk of erecting +"light-houses of the skies," and of the folly of paralyzing +representatives by the will of their constituents,--that his political +destiny was sealed. + +That existing political divisions among the people of the United States +induced the formation of preferences and prejudices in respect to +England and France, was, doubtless, true, but to suppose that these +constituted the foundation of their own divisions is to mistake for the +cause one of its least important effects. + +The Anti-Federal, Republican, and Democratic parties have been from the +beginning composed of men entertaining the same general views in regard +to the most desirable form of government, and to the spirit in which, +and the objects for which, it should be administered. The morbid +feelings of large portions of the old Anti-Federalists produced by their +distrust of delegated power, founded on their knowledge of the extent to +which it had been everywhere abused, led to a difference between them +and the Republicans on the question of clothing the Federal Government +with power to collect its own revenues, to regulate commerce, &c., and +induced them to oppose the ratification of the new Constitution on that +account, and on account of its deficiencies in regard to proper +securities for personal rights. Their party was thereby broken down, but +Jefferson and Samuel Adams, and men like them, succeeded in satisfying +them of their error in respect to the outlines of the Constitution, and +Madison procured the adoption of amendments that obviated their other +objections and, as I have before said, a cordial and enduring union was +formed between them and the Republicans, under the latter name. Since +that period the party has undergone no change, either in its +organization, its principles, or the general political dispositions of +the individuals of which it has been composed. Its name has been changed +from Republican to Democratic, in consequence of the increasing popular +development of its course and principles, and in some degree by the +circumstance that its old opponent had assumed the name of Federal +Republican and by a natural desire to keep the line of demarcation +between them as broad and as well defined as possible. + +The formation and ratification of the Federal Constitution, mainly +through Federal agency, the union of the Anti-Federalists and +Republicans and the cordial acceptance of the Constitution, after its +amendment, by both, presented, at the commencement of Washington's +administration, the fairest opportunity for a real "era of good feeling" +that the country has ever known. All controversy upon fundamental +questions having been removed, the doors seemed to be thrown open for an +amalgamation of parties like that of which so much was said, and with so +little result, during the administration of Mr. Monroe. Without any open +question affecting permanently every interest, and all the people and +all alike, as is the case with such as relate to and embrace the sources +of power and the foundations of the government, if the Constitution had +been upheld in good faith on both sides partisan contests must of +necessity have been limited to local or temporary and evanescent +measures and to popular excitements and opposing organizations as +shifting and short-lived as the subjects which gave rise to them. But +Hamilton took especial care that such halcyon days should not even dawn +on the country. He had a riveted conviction--a conviction he took no +pains to conceal--that the Constitution must prove a signal failure, +unless it could be made to bear measures little dreamed of by those who +made and had adopted it; and in his view of the welfare of the country +that question could not be too soon decided. The name and influence of +Washington was an element of strength toward the accomplishment of his +project in that regard, upon which he had expressed a strong reliance in +the letter now published by his son, without date but written between +the formation and ratification of the Constitution, and he was, of +course, desirous to bring all such questions to an early decision, as +Washington's long continuance in office was far from probable. He, +therefore, promptly seized his opportunity, and at the earliest +suitable moment after the organization of the new Government, proposed +the incorporation of a national bank. I have already said, and given my +reasons for the assertion, that in the whole range of the affairs of the +government committed to his charge, he could not have taken a single +step which would have afforded such unmistakable evidence of his +determination not to be controlled in his administration of the +government under the new Constitution by the intentions of those who +framed, or of those who ratified it; not one more likely to revive +former distrusts, and to infuse new jealousies among the +Anti-Federalists in respect to his hostility to republican principles, +or better calculated to give new strength to their energies when the +proper time arrived for the blast of the trumpet that called every man +to his tent. His old friend, Madison, was one of the first to take up +the gauntlet thus boldly thrown before the sincere friends of the +Constitution. This was done by his masterly and unanswerable speech in +Congress against the constitutionality of the bank. No one can make +himself acquainted with Mr. Madison's course, and with the state of his +feeling towards President Washington at that period, and fail to +appreciate the regret and pain he suffered from the performance of that +act of duty, not on his own account but from his extreme reluctance to +be placed in the attitude of opposition to one for whom he cherished +feelings of such unbounded respect and affection, and whose confidence +he fully enjoyed. But for the strong and audacious movements of +Hamilton, there is every reason to believe that Mr. Madison would have +cooperated very cordially in the support of President Washington's +administration throughout. In respect to mere questions of expediency, +he would have done all in his power to give them the most desirable form +and direction, and, if disappointed, would, doubtless, have been silent +as to the result. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Glance at the General Subject as heretofore discussed in this + Essay--One important Topic not yet touched upon, viz.: the Effort + that has been made to secure to the Judicial Department a Superior + Controlling and Dangerous Power over the Executive and Legislative + Departments--The constant Aim of the leading Federalists to give + undue Influence to one of the Three Great Departments--The Judicial + not the Department originally preferred by Hamilton as the + Depository of this Power--How that Department came to be selected + for that Purpose--The Election of Jefferson the Overthrow of the + Federalists in the Executive and Legislative Departments--Efforts + of the latter to retain Control of the Judicial + Department--Character and Career of Chief Justice Marshall--His + Efforts to control the Action of the Executive by + Mandamus--Resistance by Jefferson--Account of the Proceeding by + Mandamus against the Secretary of State, Madison--Opinion of the + Court in Marbury _v._ Madison--Merits and Result of the + case--Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under the + Constitution--Great Addition to its Power conferred by the + Judiciary Act of 1789--Encroachment by the Federal Judiciary upon + the Jurisdiction of State Courts, the Distinct Policy of the + Federalists--Popular Respect for the Court and Judges favorable to + the Success of that Policy--Jefferson directed the Resistance which + was made to Orders of the Supreme Court, in Marbury _v._ + Madison--His Action sustained by Congress and approved by the + People--The Federalists hesitate and abandon their Attempt to carry + the Encroachment they had undertaken in the Case of Marbury _v._ + Madison--High Character of Marshall. + + +I have proceeded thus far in my endeavor to search out the origin, trace +the progress, and define the principles of political parties in the +United States. To accomplish these objects the measures they have from +time to time advocated have been brought into view; opinions they have +advanced partially discussed, and the means that have been employed to +make them effectual considered. + +The general subject, considering the interest and the importance +attached to it in several aspects, has been but little canvassed, and +is at best but imperfectly understood. The most important points put in +issue, so far as they have arisen out of principles advanced or +pretenses set up by either party prior to the election of 1800, have, it +is believed, been fully, and, it is hoped, fairly presented. Here, on +account of the unforeseen extent to which the subject has grown upon my +hands, it would be my wish to dismiss it and to resume the thread of my +Memoirs at the point at which I left it for the consideration of what I +then regarded as incidental matter. To do so has been my intention +through the last two hundred pages of my manuscript. But, at the stage +to which I had looked as the termination of this branch of my labors, I +am met by the reflection that in all I have said in respect to the +doctrines, theories, and acts of parties, I have not even touched upon a +great principle subsequently advanced for the action of the Federal +Government, which, for reasons that will be seen and appreciated as we +proceed, is of equal interest, and which, from considerations of recent +application, is perhaps of more urgent importance than those upon which +my attention has been bestowed. + +I allude to the effort which has been made to secure to one of the three +great departments of the Government--the judicial--a superior and +controlling power over its departmental associates, the executive and +the legislative, all of which were designed by the Constitution to be +coordinate, and, in respect to their relative powers, independent of +each other. This pretension, though successfully discouraged at its +origin, instead of sharing the fate of other constitutional heresies +which sprang from the same source, has been revived with increased +earnestness at critical periods, and at this time seems to threaten to +exert a dangerous influence upon our political system. + +I have not noticed it before, because it was not set up until after the +great struggle of 1800, and was thus separated from the questions which +originated under the previous administration, most of which have been +agitated to the present day, and because the period of its most imposing +if not its first introduction into the political arena, unconnected with +judicial proceedings,--that of President Jackson's veto against the +passage of the Bank Bill,--occurred at a later period than that to which +my account of political movements has been brought in my Memoirs. + +It has from the beginning been the constant aim of the leading +Federalists to select some department, or some nook or corner in our +political system, and to make it the depository of power which public +sentiment could not reach nor the people control. The judicial was not +the department which Hamilton deemed the best adapted to that end, and +his opinion upon such points seldom failed to become that of his party. +He liked the judiciary as well on account of its being the only branch +of the Government that was constituted, in regard to the tenure of +office, upon the principles he preferred, and which he had proposed in +the Convention for other offices also, as on account of its usefulness +in protecting the rights of persons and property against vicious +legislation or lawless violence. But regarding the exercise of its +powers in no other light than through its judgments in cases "in law and +equity" that were brought before it by parties litigant, the only sense +in which they were regarded by the framers of the Constitution, he +thought it too weak a department for his purpose. This was nominally to +influence, but really to control, the action of the public mind--an +object which, he never hesitated to declare, could only be effected by +appeals to the interests or the fears of the people, and the judicial +power did not possess the means to make either effectual. This opinion +of the weakness of the judicial power he frequently avowed, and +particularly in the 78th No. of the "Federalist." The judiciary, he +there said, "was incontestibly the weakest of the three departments of +power;"--that "though individual oppression might now and then proceed +from the courts of justice, the general liberty of the people could +never be endangered from that quarter;"--that it had "no influence over +either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of +the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. +It may truly be said to have neither _force_ nor _will_, but merely +judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm +for the efficacious exercise even of this faculty." In support of these +views he cited Montesquieu, who, speaking of them says: "_Of the three +powers above mentioned, the Judiciary is next to nothing._" Thus +regarding the judicial department, Hamilton selected the executive and +legislative as those best adapted to his purposes. Of the means which +those departments possessed he spoke in the same number of the +"Federalist" in the following strain: "The executive not only dispenses +the honors, but holds the sword of the community; the legislative not +only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties +and rights of every citizen are to be regulated." These were the +departments, through the instrumentality of which, invigorated as he +designed to invigorate them by his construction of the Constitution, he +hoped to make ours a practicable government. Sustained by a Congress, a +majority of whom stood ready to follow his lead, and by the almost +unbounded confidence of the executive, he for a season carried out his +plans with great success, and enjoyed that momentary confidence which +produced his jubilant remark to Mr. Jefferson. + +But he soon found that, like the scriptural foolish man, he had built +his house upon the sand, and the rain descended and the floods came and +the winds blew, and it fell. Within the short period that he remained in +the Government, some of the measures that he had brought into existence +were already discredited by an offended public sentiment, and toward the +close of Mr. Adams' administration--one still guided by his +superintending genius--the political fabric which he had created was, by +the same power, blown into atoms. It was this great overthrow that +brought home to him the unwelcome conviction that other constitutional +foundations than those which the Federal Convention, the people, and the +States had laid, no man, without the same aid, could lay. It presented +to his mind, under circumstances the most impressive, a truth which he +had overlooked in the eagerness of his pursuit after power, viz., that +the people were enabled by the popular provisions of the Constitution in +respect to the executive and legislative departments, to break down the +greater part of such structures as those which he had reared, by +dismissing from their places those who had assisted in their +construction, and substituting others, who, knowing their wishes, would +feel it their interest to respect them; and what was passing before his +eyes afforded the most reliable evidence that they would not be slow in +the exercise of the rights that belonged to them. This was the +handwriting on the wall that foretold the fate of all his plans, and +called forth, during the brief period of his subsequent existence, his +continued denunciation of the Constitution as "a frail and worthless +fabric." + +It was at the moment of this great disaster, when dismay prevailed in +the Federal councils, whilst Hamilton was brooding over a defective +Constitution which he knew the States would not alter to suit his wishes +and which it was evident the people would not permit him to pervert, +that the Federal party was conducted to the judicial department of the +Government, as to an ark of future safety which the Constitution placed +beyond the reach of public opinion. The man who planned this retreat was +John Marshall--a statesman of great power, one who partook largely of +Hamilton's genius, was better acquainted with the character of the +people, and possessed more control over his own actions. + +The period when this once powerful party was thus counseled and guided +was one well calculated to cause its members to embrace the advice given +to them with avidity. They had just been expelled, root and branch, from +those departments of the government which the Constitution had made +accessible to public opinion and subject to the voice of the people; +whilst over that to which they were recommended to extend their +preference and favor, the people possessed but little if any control. +This difference, so acceptable to their most cherished feelings, was +besides greatly increased in value by the grossly irrational +apprehensions under which they labored in regard to the course of the +President elect and to the dispositions of the party by which he had +been elevated to power. That he participated largely in the feelings and +views of the Jacobins of France, and was prepared for the introduction +of their opinions and practices in this country; that religion, the +rights of persons and property, and all the interests which are regarded +as sacred under well regulated governments, were put in jeopardy by his +election, were opinions to which there were but few dissentients in the +Federal ranks. I have elsewhere referred to a letter, written during the +then recent canvass by Hamilton to Washington, in which he avowed in the +most solemn and deliberate manner his conviction that the Republican +party desired to make our Government subservient to the policy of that +of France, and would, in all probability, rally under her banner if it +was unfurled in force on our shores. Similar sentiments were fulminated +from pulpit and press; and there are yet, here and there, living +witnesses, who will not partake of the surprise this description of the +then condition of the public mind is calculated to excite on the part of +the present generation because they know it to be true, and yet remember +how often and with what solemnity the warning was uttered from sacred +desks that Jefferson's election would be the signal for the prostration +of our pulpits, the burning of our Bibles, and the substitution of some +Goddess of Reason. + +The promises of the mild sway of reason and justice, installed and +enforced by that great statesman, with no other limitation than the +removal from office of factious incumbents whose violence was calculated +to obstruct the successful action of the principles he was elected to +sustain, and the revocation of judicial trusts created in the last +moments of a power already condemned by the people, and which were +designed to counteract their will--a sway which bore upon its wings the +repeal of odious taxes, the reduction of superfluous expense, the +payment of the public debt, and the avoidance of all unnecessary public +burdens, with a zealous concern for the rights of the States as well as +for those of individuals,--made impressions upon the public mind in +favor of the principles upon which it was founded, which now, after the +lapse of more than half a century, are as fixed and as powerful as they +were then; but at the time were scouted by Federal leaders and presses +as false pretences designed to deceive the people and to clear the way +for destructive changes. + +Under such impressions the first object of solicitude on the part of the +Federalists was to strengthen the existing organization of the +judiciary by increasing the number of its tribunals and those employed +in its administration, and thus to place it before the country in a more +imposing attitude; and the second to enlarge its powers beyond the +bounds intended to be assigned to them by the Constitution. To +accomplish the first object they resorted to a stretch of power which +now, when the feelings it excited have long since died away and the +actors concerned in it have without exception descended to their tombs, +will not, I feel confident, find a justification in the breast of a +single upright man, whatever disposition he may entertain to excuse it +on account of the violence of public feeling prevalent at the time. + +After the fiat of the people had pronounced the absolute expulsion from +office of the Federal executive within a brief and fixed period, and +virtually that of the Federal party from power, they availed themselves +of the remnant of authority unavoidably left to them by the forms of the +Constitution to establish new courts, embracing within the jurisdiction +assigned to them all the States of the Confederacy, and the district +which had been set apart for the seat of the Federal Government; +appointed three judges for each court, to hold their offices nominally +during good behavior, virtually for life, with liberal salaries,--making +in all twenty-one judges, besides clerks, etc.,--all designed to be +placed beyond the power of the government that had been selected by the +people to succeed them. Thus, much was done toward the accomplishment of +their first object. The enlargement of the judicial power of the +department was to be effected by a different process. + +Among the "_midnight appointments_" by President Adams, (a stigma +attached to them at the time, and from which they have never been +rescued,) were forty-two magistrates, nominated for the District of +Columbia. The list, though containing many highly respectable names, +was in the main made up of opponents of the President elect, not a few +of them strongly imbued with the partisan _furor_ of the day. They were +to hold their offices for a period extending beyond that for which the +President himself was elected, and it was upon their cooperation Mr. +Adams and his cabinet intended that his successor should be mainly +dependent for the discharge of the high duty imposed upon him by the +Constitution--that of causing the laws to be executed in the Federal +District. The nominations were sent to the Senate on the second of +March, confirmed during the night of the third, and Mr. Jefferson +entered upon the duties of his office the next morning. The commissions +were found on the table in the State Department with its seal attached, +signed by President Adams, and if signed also by a Secretary it must +have been by a _locum tenens_, as Mr. Marshall had some days before been +transferred from the office of Secretary of State to that of Chief +Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The commissions had +not been delivered,--an act which Mr. Jefferson, as the head of the +executive department of the Government, decided to be necessary to the +completion of the appointment. Under such circumstances, and, doubtless, +stung by the ungraciousness of the treatment he had received, he +directed that the commissions should neither be recorded nor delivered, +but treated as nullities. Believing the number far too large, he issued +new commissions during the recess to twenty of those selected by Mr. +Adams and to five others designated by himself, nominated them to the +Senate at its next session, by which body they were confirmed. + +This transaction furnished the desired occasion to apply the opening +wedge for the enlargement of the judicial power of the Federal +Government, and it was promptly and fully embraced through the +proceedings that were had in the celebrated case of Marbury and Madison. +The judges of the Supreme Court were to a man Federalists, and at the +head of them stood, as chief justice, President Jefferson's persevering +and consistent old political antagonist--John Marshall. + +The Chief Justice may not have been the severest student or the most +learned lawyer, but he was certainly, all things considered, the ablest +judge that had ever occupied a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court +of the United States. No man was ever more rigidly just or strictly +impartial in all cases of _meum and tuum_ that were brought before him +for adjudication. Under a disposition the most genial, and a childlike +simplicity and frankness of manner he cherished during his whole life, +as all his race have done, Federal principles and Federal prejudices of +the most ultra character. These, though ordinarily kept in due check by +a commendable and exemplary self-command,--a virtue he shared with, if +he had not in some degree imbibed it from, his friend and neighbor, +General Washington,--had nevertheless been warmed by the circumstances +of the moment to a high temperature. The inducements by which he was +almost forced into public life by the General, shortly before the death +of the latter, have been narrated in the account I have given of my +conversation with his nephew, Judge Washington, at Mount Vernon.[32] +Unhappily impressed with the idea that his own as well as the interests +of the country depended upon the support of Mr. Adams' administration, +General Washington for once, and fortunately only for a brief season, +lent himself to partisan movements and used his controlling influence to +induce Mr. Marshall to offer for Congress, and in no other case has the +high estimate he formed of a man's capacity been more signally verified +by the result. Marshall became at once, through the influence of a +single speech of extraordinary power, a leader in the House of +Representatives during the most stormy period of the administration of +John Adams, was subsequently appointed Secretary of War and Secretary of +State by Mr. Adams, and held the latter office until his party, and the +administration with it, were overthrown by the Republicans under the +lead of Mr. Jefferson. He was then transferred by Mr. Adams to the place +of Chief Justice. Other circumstances lent their influence to infuse +ill-will into the personal relations of Jefferson and Marshall. They +were natives of the same State, and although they had stood as Whigs +side by side in the Revolution, the political principles maintained by +Mr. Jefferson, after the establishment of our Independence, were so much +more in harmony with those of Virginia as to place Marshall's views ever +after under the ban of her opinion, notwithstanding the qualified +sanction they received front General Washington. On the part of Mr. +Jefferson, the unfriendly feelings which he believed were entertained +toward him by the Chief Justice were, for him, quite earnestly +reciprocated. This is shown by the following pointed extract from his +letter to myself, in which, speaking of the alterations and other uses +that had been made of his letter to Mazzei, he adds, "and even Judge +Marshall makes history descend from its dignity and the ermine from its +sanctity to exaggerate, to record, and to sanction this forgery."[33] + + [32] See Note on p. 9. + + [33] See Appendix. + +Mr. Jefferson, apprised that steps were being taken to bring his acts in +respect to the commissions under the supervision of the Supreme Court, +at once penetrated the design that lay behind the particular measure, +and, with that moral courage that never deserted him, prepared to defend +the department committed to his charge. The head of the State +Department was advised, and the clerks instructed, to make themselves +parties to no act which would justly be regarded as recognizing the +authority of the court to meddle in the affair, and his views were, of +course, faithfully carried out by Mr. Madison, as well as by the +subordinates in the department. A motion was made at the December term +of the court in 1801, for a rule requiring James Madison to show cause +why a mandamus should not issue commanding him to deliver those +commissions to the nominees. Notice of motion was served upon Mr. +Madison, but he declined to appear. He was asked by the relator whether +the commissions were signed and sealed, but declined to respond to such +inquiries, as did also the officers of the department. Application was +also made to the Secretary of the Senate for a certificate that the +nominations had been confirmed, which was also refused. A resolution was +offered in the Senate directing the Secretary of the Senate to give the +certificate. It was laid upon the table and no further acted upon. Upon +affidavits stating these facts, except the last, a rule was obtained +requiring the Secretary to show cause why the mandamus should not be +issued on a day certain, of which he took no notice. The court, +notwithstanding, proceeded to an _ex parte_ hearing. "Two clerks were +summoned from the department as witnesses, who objected to be sworn +because they were not bound to disclose any facts relating to the +business or transactions of the office. The court ordered the witnesses +to be sworn, and their testimony taken in writing; but informed them +that, when the questions were asked, they might state their objections +to answering each particular question, if they had any. Mr. Lincoln, who +had been Acting Secretary of State when the circumstances stated in the +affidavits occurred, was called upon to give testimony. He objected to +answering. The questions were put in writing. The Court said there was +nothing confidential required to be disclosed. If there had been, he was +not obliged to answer that, nor was he obliged to state any thing which +would criminate himself."[34] + + [34] Taken from the report of the case. + +The testimony that was given is not set forth in the report of the case. + +The counsel for the relator argued the questions he presented for the +consideration of the court in the following order, viz.: + +1st. Whether the Supreme Court can award the writ of mandamus in any +case. + +2d. Whether it would lie to a Secretary of State in any case whatever. + +3d. Whether in the present case the court may award a mandamus to James +Madison, Secretary of State. + +The point involving the question of jurisdiction was, according to the +invariable course of legal proceeding, the first in order of +consideration, upon the plain and simple principle that if the court +have no right to act definitively in the matter there is neither use nor +propriety in considering even, and much less in making a decision upon, +the merits of the case. That belongs to the tribunal that possesses +jurisdiction. No point was clearer than the want of jurisdiction on the +part of the Supreme Court, and such it will be seen was the unanimous +and unhesitating opinion of the court itself. The Constitution divides +the jurisdiction conferred on that high tribunal into that which may be +exercised as original, and that which shall only be appellate, and +separates the two in terms which leave no room for misapprehension or +mistake. The language of the Constitution is--"In all cases affecting +ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a +State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original +jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned the Supreme Court +shall have appellate jurisdiction" both as to the law and fact, with +such exceptions and under such regulations as Congress shall make. The +motion before the court was clearly an original proceeding in a matter +in which it confessedly had no original jurisdiction; so the court was +obliged to say, and so it ultimately said. + +A pretense was set up by the relator's counsel that the court might +claim the desired authority under that part of the Judiciary Act +providing necessary means to enforce its appellate jurisdiction, which, +after specifying the cases in which such jurisdiction may be exercised, +and pointing out the way in which it may be carried into effect, adds to +the authority to issue writs of prohibition to the district courts in +certain cases--"and writs of mandamus, in cases warranted by the +principles and usages of law, to any courts appointed or persons holding +office under the authority of the United States." Now the plain +intention of this clause of the sentence was to extend the right of +issuing a mandamus, in the exercise of its _appellate jurisdiction_, to +any subordinate authorities upon whom Congress might confer judicial +power, whether that power was given to a court, or to a single officer +not constituting a court according to the ordinary interpretation of +that word. The commissioners subsequently appointed under the Fugitive +Slave Act are officers of that description. To think otherwise is to +suppose that the men who framed the Judiciary Act of 1789 designed by +the terms they employed to give to the Supreme Court original +jurisdiction in cases in which it was denied to it by the +Constitution--a design too absurd and too disingenuous to have found +even a momentary resting-place in the minds of those great men. The +court so far countenanced this interpretation as to assume, for the sake +of the argument, that the words "or persons holding office," might +embrace the case before it. But it immediately proceeded to disprove the +assumption by saying, "It has been stated at the bar that the appellate +jurisdiction may be exercised in a variety of forms, and that if it be +the will of the legislature that a _mandamus_ should be issued for that +purpose that will must be obeyed. _This is true_; yet the jurisdiction +must be _appellate_ not _original_,"--and the court goes on to show that +this proceeding would in no sense be regarded as an exercise of +appellate jurisdiction; adding to that demonstrative refutation the +declaration, that if the act would bear the interpretation given to it +by the counsel, it would be directly contrary to the Constitution and +therefore void. That the court had not the slightest right to do what it +was asked to do, or to take original jurisdiction of the matter in any +form, was a point upon which it expressed no doubt; and if it had +decided the questions in the order in which they were presented by the +relator's counsel, the necessity of dismissing the motion before coming +to the consideration of the merits of the case would have been too +imperative to be overcome. + +Under these circumstances what was the course pursued by the Chief +Justice, who gave the opinion of the court, and who alone of its members +appears, in the report, to have taken part in the case? He reversed the +order in which the relator's counsel had presented their client's case +and substituted the following:-- + +1st. Has the applicant a right to the commission he demanded? + +2d. If he has a right and that right has been violated, do the laws of +his country afford him a remedy? + +3d. If they do afford him a remedy, is it a mandamus from this court? + +That the question of jurisdiction is always the first in order is a +proposition too plain and too well-established to be discussed. It is +not only a rule in our judicial system and in that from which ours has +been derived, but must of necessity be a feature in every enlightened +system of jurisprudence. + +This order was observed by the counsel for the relator, but was so +changed in the opinion of the court as to make the consideration of the +merits precede the question of jurisdiction--an arrangement for which no +good reason could be given, and for which therefore none was attempted +to be given. The motive lay on the face of the transaction. It was the +only way in which the court could avoid the necessity of saying that +they had no jurisdiction over the subject before proceeding to discuss +and decide upon its merits. It was to avoid, though in appearance only, +this judicial deformity that the Chief Justice reversed the order of the +questions, and then in an opinion, which occupies some twenty-six pages +in Cranch's Reports,[35] he attempted to prove that the withholding of +the commissions was an act not warranted by law, but a violation of a +vested legal right which the court pronounced it to be; yet wound up +with an admission that the court had no jurisdiction of the subject, and +of course no right to act upon it. + + [35] See Cranch's _Supreme Court Reports_, Vol. I. p. 137. + +If this statement is not in all respects true, then I do injustice to +the Chief Justice and his associates, and the inferences I draw from it +are to be turned not only from them but against myself. But if the +matter, as described by the Chief Justice himself, stood in every +respect as I have here narrated, then I insist--and I cannot, I am very +sure, deceive myself in believing that every ingenuous mind, whatever +may be its political bias, will concur with me in the position--that the +course pursued by the Chief Justice and sanctioned by his associates +was exceptionable in the highest degree. With the Constitution before +them, it was entirely clear at the first introduction of the matter that +they had no original jurisdiction of the subject, and could not, under +any state of facts, comply with the application of the relator. The +course should therefore have been, and doubtless under ordinary +circumstances would have been, to direct the relator's counsel to +confine their argument to that preliminary point and at its close, with +the want of jurisdiction as apparent to the court as it proved to be, to +have discharged the rule. But if the court had for any reason thought it +desirable to hear the whole case, the same course should have been +pursued when it came to their decision, and the merits of the case +should have been left unacted upon. No end could be answered by an +unauthorized decision on the merits, other than to show to the inferior +tribunals what the Supreme Court would do if the case was brought before +it on appeal; and that was the design attributed to the Chief Justice by +Mr. Jefferson and severely reprobated. Such is not the way in which it +is admissible for superior tribunals to treat such subjects; but if it +could in any case be deemed excusable, it could never be so on an _ex +parte_ hearing. For myself I cannot, with equal and great respect for +the principal actors, help regarding the proceedings, from the granting +of the rule to show cause to the final decision, as exhibiting a +culpable want of courtesy on the part of one of the three great +departments of the Federal Government toward a coordinate member, at +least equal in dignity and power, greatly aggravated by the political +relations in which the President and the Chief Justice stood toward each +other, and by the temper of the times in which they occurred. + +I apply the remark to them individually, because Chief Justice Marshall +was the principal, and seemingly the sole actor, in the proceedings on +the part of the court, and because the retention of the commissions--the +grievance those proceedings were designed to redress--was not merely an +executive act, but one committed in pursuance of the specific direction +of President Jefferson. This was always avowed by the latter, and the +guarded manner in which the replies of Mr. Madison are stated in the +report of the case is, to my mind at least, sufficient proof that the +President was throughout considered and treated by the Chief Justice as +the actual offender in the matter. + +In respect to the soundness of the volunteer opinion of the court it +would be superfluous, considering the fate that awaited it, to do more +than to restate the question. This may certainly be done with more +brevity and perhaps with equal distinctness. + +It will not be denied that President Jefferson had the same power over +the subject on the 4th March that Mr. Adams would have possessed if his +term of office had not expired on the 3d. The President under our +system, like the king in a monarchy, never dies. Let us then suppose +that Mr. Adams, after he had signed the commission and caused the seal +to be affixed to it, but before it had been recorded or delivered, had +discovered that the appointee was a felon, or for any reason an +obviously improper person to be made a conservator of the public peace, +was he not authorized to withhold it? The appointment is made by the +Constitution to consist of three acts--the nomination, the approval by +the Senate, and the commissioning. The first and last devolve on the +President. The signatures to them must necessarily be his own act; but +Congress supplies him with a Secretary of State subject to his own +directions, to do whatever else is necessary, viz.: to affix the seal to +the commission; to record it; and to cause it to be delivered or +transmitted to the appointee. The President is apprised of the +impropriety of the appointment,--an act which the Constitution had +devolved on him alone,--the commission is yet in his possession, for the +office of Secretary of State is, for all such purposes, his office, and +the question would not have been changed if the seal had been affixed at +the President's House; can it be for a moment supposed that the +Constitution intended that his power over the commission ceased the +moment he attached his signature, or the Secretary the public seal, and +that after that he had no right to arrest further proceedings, however +strong his reasons for so doing? Can it be presumed that its framers +intended to invest the President in the discharge of his responsible +duty to "commission all the officers of the United States" with an +authority so precise and technical? It is on all sides conceded that he +is not bound to commission after the Senate has approved, but has still +a right to withhold the commission at his pleasure; and it would be +strange, indeed, if it was not intended to give him the power also to +arrest its being put on record and delivered after he had signed it, if +he saw good cause to do so. But it is not now important to weigh +accurately the reasoning of the Chief Justice, which certainly partakes +largely of the art and precision of special pleading; as the case was +abandoned then, and no similar case has arisen for more than half a +century. That the claim of Mr. Marbury and his associates, with ample +facilities for its prosecution in the inferior tribunals within their +reach, (Judge Cranch, the reporter of the case of Marbury _v._ Madison, +a full believer in the judicial as well as the political infallibility +of the Chief Justice, being the Federal judge in the District) should +have been given up, after the determination with which it had been +asserted, and the care and favor with which it had been considered and +elaborated by the Chief Justice, would at the first blush seem not a +little unaccountable. The fact of abandonment, in the absence of other +explanation, would justify the inference that it was the result of a +subsequent conviction that the proceedings were erroneous. But changes +of opinion or disposition under such circumstances seldom arise, and the +solution of their subsequent course is, I think, to be found in other +considerations. The course pursued by the President afforded +unmistakable evidence of his determination to resist at the threshold, +and to the bitter end, the supervisory power of the judiciary over the +other great departments of the Government, which was then for the first +time sought to be introduced through the _ex parte_ proceedings in the +case of Marbury _v._ Madison. + +With such a demonstration before them it became the Supreme Court and +its supporters, before it committed itself more deeply in the attempt it +had entered upon to control the action of the aroused democracy of the +country represented in the executive and legislative departments of the +Federal Government, to survey, with more care than had perhaps been +hitherto used, the means of offense and defense with which the +Constitution had invested each. + +The result of such a scrutiny could not have failed to satisfy sensible +men that the President elect, the new Senate, and the new House of +Representatives,--who in their respective positions had frustrated the +effort of the late President to subject his successor to a dependence +during his entire official term, for the performance of a highly +important part of his official duties in the Federal District, upon a +magistracy not of his own selection, and had thus far also defeated an +attempt, springing from the same spirit and upon an enlarged scale, to +saddle the country with an uncalled-for and enormous addition to the +existing judicial corps, clothed with extensive authority, and to all +substantial purposes irresponsible to the people,--were also invested by +the Constitution with ample power not only to defeat a new effort to +carry into effect before the appropriate tribunal the hostile views +indicated by the proceedings in the case of Marbury _v._ Madison, but to +reduce the power and dignity of the Supreme Court itself to a standard +far inferior to those it then possessed. + +The Federal Constitution declares, that "all the appellate jurisdiction +conferred on the Supreme Court shall in all cases be subject to such +exceptions and under such regulations as Congress shall make." Thus by +the words of the Constitution the whole subject is placed under the +revision of Congress and is made subject to its action. If any attempt +had been made to set up anew the importance that had been constructively +attached, in the case of Marbury _v._ Madison, to the words "or persons +holding office" in the Judiciary Act, that body would instantly have +relieved that act and its authors from the preposterous aspersions which +had been cast upon them. + +But there was matter in the background of far greater moment. + +The _original_ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was limited to cases +affecting ambassadors and those in which a State was a party. This +branch of its jurisdiction has, it is well known, occupied but little of +the time of the court, and has been withal very unimportant either in +its character or consequences. Deprived of the influence and _eclat_ it +has derived from the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction, the court +would have stood as a pageant in the federal system of but little +account for good or evil. With the addition of that obtained from +appeals and writs of error from the inferior tribunals of the United +States, its position before the country would still have been one of +little consideration. + +Both branches of the jurisdiction in these respects taken collectively, +their results would not have been any thing like the power and influence +and dignity which the Supreme Court of the United States derived from a +single clause in the Judiciary Act of 1789, extending its appellate +jurisdiction to the decisions of the State courts. The assemblage of +cases for its application arrayed in that pregnant section, aided by the +power derived from the construction given to the provision in the +Federal Constitution prohibiting the passage of State laws violating the +obligation of contracts--a provision always understood to have been +introduced to prevent State obstructions to the collection of British +debts, but now made to override the insolvent systems of the States, +etc.,--gave the Supreme Court the supervision and control of the most +valuable and hitherto the most cherished portion of the legislation and +jurisprudence of the State governments. To secure this control was an +object always near to Hamilton's heart. He attempted it openly in the +Convention by his proposition for a negative upon State laws, etc. But +in the hands of the court the control of the Federal Government over +State legislation was equally effective, less likely to become +obnoxious, and infinitely more secure; for if it had been placed, as he +proposed, in the hands of the President, or of the President and Senate, +or of Congress, it would still have been deposited in places accessible +to the people, and at short and stated periods liable to be overruled by +their will. But here it was in the only sanctuary in a republican +government he deemed safe against popular inroads, and it was this +provision _in the Judiciary Act_ which, more than all other things +combined, made that department--which Montesquieu described as next to +nothing in point of power, and upon the weakness of which Hamilton, +before the passage of that act, descanted so freely--the most formidable +and overshadowing branch of the government. The section bears the +impress of his mind, and if not the work of his pen was beyond all doubt +the result of his suggestions. Hamilton was not a member then, but we +have seen that he made speeches in Congress through another, and I have +not a doubt that, if the truth could now be known, it would appear that +but few things were said or done on one side, in either branch of that +body, of which he did not make a part in some form. Is it not passing +strange that not a word is to be found in the Constitution to authorize +Congress to confer such a jurisdiction upon the Supreme Court? Can it be +for a moment supposed that such a power,--one so nearly akin to the +proposition to place a veto in the hands of the Federal Government upon +State legislation, one so eminently calculated to alarm the State-rights +party,--would have been allowed, if it had been by anybody believed to +be in the Constitution, to pass the State Conventions _sub silentio_? +What is said in the Constitution about the appellate jurisdiction of the +Supreme Court is not only satisfied by referring it to the inferior +courts which Congress were authorized to "ordain and establish," but is, +by the terms employed, fairly confined to them. The place in the +Constitution where the authority is given to establish inferior courts +to exercise those parts of the judicial power of which no original +jurisdiction was given to the Supreme Court, and which were to +constitute the basis for the operation of that which was to be appellate +only, would have been, one would suppose, the very place in which the +authority to extend that jurisdiction to the State courts would have +been inserted if it was intended to be given. Again, the whole judicial +power of the United States is by the Constitution vested in the Supreme +Court, and in _such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to +time ordain and establish_. That the words used embrace, and seem +intended to embrace, the _whole power_, is apparent from the face of the +Constitution, and was, besides, demonstrated by Hamilton in the first +number of his "Pacificus." Madison said in the Virginia Convention, that +it would be in the power of Congress to _vest the inferior Federal +jurisdiction in the State courts_; and Pendleton and Mason intimated an +expectation that this would be done; whilst Grayson said that State +judges formed the principal defense of the rights of the States, and +that Congress should not take from them their "only defensive armor;" +and Patrick Henry, who in the days of his political orthodoxy could +snuff danger to State rights in almost every breeze, apprehended that +"by construction the Supreme Court would completely annihilate the State +courts." Had Congress invested the inferior Federal jurisdiction in the +State courts, and had they accepted the extension, the appellate +jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to those courts in the cases +enumerated would have been in all respects proper. But the Congress, a +majority of whose members were Hamiltonian Federalists, were not, for +reasons it is now unnecessary to consider, willing to admit the State +courts to a participation in the administration of the judicial power +reserved to the Federal Government, and proceeded at once to ordain and +establish inferior courts of their own. These consisting of district +courts, circuit courts and the one Supreme Court named in the +Constitution, completed the organization of the Federal judiciary. Their +respective jurisdictions were wisely separated and accurately defined. A +small portion of that which was original was, for well-understood +reasons, vested in the Supreme Court. The residue was separated and +distributed among the inferior tribunals, subject to an appellate +jurisdiction and supervisory power in the Supreme Court over all their +proceedings. The system thus arranged was not only complete but +harmonious in all its parts. The courts were clothed with the entire +judicial power of the Government; were only authorized to act upon one +class of subjects--those which appertained to the judicial power of the +United States. The judges received their appointments from the same +source, and were responsible for their conduct to one head. Looking only +to judicial objects this might well be regarded as the judicial system +designed by the framers of the Constitution. + +If ours had been a consolidated government these provisions would have +embraced the whole subject, and satisfied the wants of the whole +country. But in the actual state of things in that regard they were +inadequate to the accomplishment of that end. Instead of one +consolidated government ours was a confederacy of sovereign States, +presided over by a Federal Government which they had themselves created +and clothed with such powers as they deemed necessary to its efficiency +and usefulness, and as would be most likely to conduce to the freedom, +prosperity, and happiness of all. + +With no other bond of union during the first years of the Revolutionary +contest than common danger, and obliged to struggle with a defective +Federal organization, these States succeeded in constructing for +themselves republican constitutions, and in several instances, before +the establishment of our Independence, sustained the brunt of that +struggle and came out of it with institutions fully adequate to all the +purposes of good government, including systems of jurisprudence and +competent tribunals for their administration. The administrators of +these institutions, driven to desperation by great public and private +distress,--the direct results of the oppression of the mother +country,--may in a few cases, and for a short period, have forgotten +that interests liable to sequestration in war were inviolable in peace, +and failed to interpose with sufficient alacrity a judicial barrier +against the attempts of some of the State legislatures to throw +obstructions in the way of the collection of British debts. But those +were limited and temporary aberrations, which would soon have yielded to +proper treatment on the part of the Federal Government. At the period of +the passage of the Judiciary Act the judges who presided in most of the +State courts might be compared without discredit to those who filled the +benches of the Federal courts, and this relative equality has ever since +been well maintained. Such has certainly been the case in the State of +New York. The name of Chancellor Livingston, who was then at the head of +our equity system, would lose nothing from a comparison with Chief +Justice Jay, when the latter was placed at the head of the Federal +courts. Our equity and common-law courts have since been graced by +Chancellor Lansing, Chief Justices Lewis and Kent, and Judges Brockholst +Livingston, Smith Thompson, Ambrose Spencer, Wm. W. Van Ness, and +others, all men of great talents and acquirements. Nor have the courts +of our sister States been wanting in this regard. The names of +Theophilus Parsons of Massachusetts, Tappan Reeves of Connecticut, and +Pendleton, Wythe and Roane of Virginia, with numerous others, might be +added to the list. It would not be an easy matter to match these by +selections from the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, +highly distinguished as its incumbents have been. + +The State courts had, for nearly fifteen years before the passage of the +Judiciary Act of 1789, performed, as well in peace as in war, most of +the duties which the new Constitution devolved upon the Federal +judiciary. The Federal Government was authorized, by the articles of +Confederation, to establish inferior courts for the trial of piracies +and felonies committed on the high seas, and courts for the trial of +Admiralty cases, yet these powers had been carried into effect through +the State judiciaries. But all at once the State courts were deemed +unworthy of trust. Whence this change? Had the State courts degenerated? +No such thing; they were constantly improving, the supineness of a few +in respect to the interests of the mother country, blamable as it +certainly was, to the contrary notwithstanding. No, the State courts had +not become worse, but the implacable opponents of those whose judicial +power they represented had become stronger! The old Anti-Federal party, +the inflexible and powerful champion for the rights of the States, had +been overthrown--forever demolished, at least in that array. The State +governments were for a season helpless. Those who were always hostile to +their power--who, in the language of Hamilton after the Convention, and +in the act of foreshadowing the effects of such an administration as +actually succeeded, were desirous of a "triumph altogether over the +State governments, and to reduce them to an entire subordination"--were +all powerful in Congress. Nor was their power confined to Congress or to +any particular branch of the Government. The result of the question of +ratification in the different State Conventions, and the idea present to +every mind that material prosperity, public and private, would be much +promoted by that result, produced a great change in public sentiment +adverse to the authority and influence of the State governments. It was +made fashionable to deride them. The organization of the Federal +judiciary was the very first opportunity that was afforded after the +adoption of the Constitution to make the States feel the power which +their inveterate opponents had acquired by that event, and most +unsparingly was that power exercised. + +The few members of that Congress who had not been entirely carried away +by this current, and had the boldness to stand by the States and their +tribunals--among whom that firm and incorruptible republican, James +Jackson of Georgia, was by far the most effective--were willing that a +right to supervise and reverse the decisions of the State tribunals in +all matters of Federal jurisdiction, should be conferred on the Supreme +Court of the United States, provided only that the State courts were +intrusted, as they had hitherto been, with the administration of the +inferior Federal jurisdiction in lieu of the inferior Federal courts +which the Bill proposed to establish. This they contended would make the +system an harmonious and consistent one, and preserve the respect and +consideration which was due to the State tribunals. + +The proposition was literally scouted in debate and rejected by a vote +of two to one in the House, and in the Senate by a still larger +majority. The Bill was so constructed as to clothe the Supreme Court and +the inferior courts it established with all the judicial power allowed +to the Federal Government by the Constitution, with unimportant +reservations which did not diminish their authority and do not require +to be noticed. Ample means were thus provided for its practical +extension to every party entitled to its protection, and if those who +regulated the action of Congress had not been influenced by any views +other than such as related to the administration of justice, its +legislation would have terminated there. But that body went further. A +clause was added to the Judiciary Bill professing to give to the Supreme +Court appellate jurisdiction over the final judgments and decrees of the +highest courts of law and equity of a State, whoever might be the +parties to the suit, or whatever might have been the objects for which +it had been brought, provided only that the relative powers of the +Federal and State governments under the Federal Constitution in respect +to several enumerated subjects had in the course of prosecution of such +suit been "drawn in question," and decided against the Federal power. No +matter to what extent the rights of the parties were concluded by that +question, or in what form or how incidentally it had been introduced, it +was sufficient that it had been raised and decided against the Federal, +or in favor of the State authority, to subject the judgment or decree +given by the State court to be reexamined or reversed in the Supreme +Court of the United States. To confer upon that tribunal, the anomalous +authority of issuing writs of error to the highest courts of other +States confessedly sovereign, and which in all such matters might well +be regarded as foreign States,--courts which were not established by the +Federal Government, and between which and it there existed no judicial +relations,--commanding those courts to send to it for reexamination, +reversal, or affirmance, the record of judgments and decrees which had +neither been made under Federal authority nor by judges in any sense +amenable to it for the discharge of their official duties, was an idea +never broached in the Federal Convention, or in the slightest degree +alluded to in the Constitution it adopted. + +Disputes in respect to the boundaries of power between the Federal and +State governments were foreseen, and the means for acquisition and +defense sought after by the special friends of each. Both looked to +their respective legislatures as the theatres of encroachment, and a +very serious effort was made to obtain authority for the Federal +Government to confer important State appointments, and to interpose a +negative upon State laws. These concessions were sternly refused by the +friends of the State authorities, and if they had been granted the new +Constitution would never have been ratified. No efforts have been made +by Congress through direct legislation to restrain the State +legislatures from encroaching on the power of the Federal Government, +and it would not be an easy matter--the Constitution being silent on the +subject--to establish a right on the part of the judicial power to +interfere in that direction which would not also devolve on the Federal +legislature, the power more particularly interested in the matter. The +clause referred to in the Federal Judiciary Act looks in an especial +manner to the legislative acts of each government, and seeks to +establish the supremacy in the Federal system. It is possible that the +framers of the Constitution intended to give Congress a right to confer +such a power on the Supreme Court, but it is certainly most +extraordinary if that was so that the subject should have remained +unnoticed in the Convention, and have been so entirely excluded from the +face of the Constitution. Be that as it may, it is well known that the +authority given to the court by the statute for a long time lay in its +hands a dormant power. Those who conferred it had too much their own way +in the administration of the Federal Government, during the first twelve +years of its existence, to require extraneous aid to push its power to +the extremes they desired. It was when they had been expelled from its +executive and legislative departments by the uprising of the people that +their attention was more earnestly turned to that of the judiciary as +one which--as well from the peculiarity of its constitution as from the +views of those who were in possession of it--was best qualified for the +protection of rights which they, no doubt honestly, believed in danger. +Hence the movement in the case of Marbury _v._ Madison. + +We cannot now form a complete estimate of the extent to which the +character of our institutions, in view of that step and of measures of +which it might have been the opening wedge, hinged upon the character +and disposition of those whom the people had then just raised to power. +The respect and reverence with which the minds of a vast majority of our +citizens were impressed for their courts of justice, the confidence +which had been reposed in their purity as indicated by the tenure of +their offices, and the imposing character of those who filled them at +the moment combined to deter feeble and irresolute minds from resistance +to the authority of the Supreme Court of the United States, however +unfavorable their estimation of the course upon which it was entering. + +No unauthorized exercise of power would, for any considerable period, +have passed unchecked by a people like ours, then yet fresh from a +national struggle for principles better defined and defended with more +steadiness and by purer means than any the world had ever witnessed in +revolutionary contests. But the class of men, in any community where +deference for the ermine is habitual, who will meet danger at the very +threshold, and oppose resistance to judicial usurpation at the instant +of its appearance, is not likely to be numerous. + +Hostile to every assumption of power over the conduct or mind of man not +originally authorized by man himself, however plausible the pretences +upon which it might be exerted, an opposition deeply seated in his +nature, matured and confirmed by study and by all the observation and +experience of his eventful career, Jefferson was not the man to submit +to encroachments upon institutions he had sworn to protect, and more +especially upon that branch of them which a great and free people had +confided to his particular care. It was no matter to a man of his +knowledge of the world and approved moral courage from what quarter such +encroachments proceeded, they were certain to meet with a firm and +spirited opposition on his part. + +The course pursued by the State department was by his express direction, +and of course upon his responsibility. This he always avowed, and this +would have appeared in the report of the case of Marbury and Madison, if +the fact had not been designedly and for obvious reasons suppressed. It +was to accomplish this object that the statement of the case which +accompanies the elaborate opinion of Chief Justice Marshall was made to +present an appearance so ambiguous and unlawyer-like. Mr. Madison, it is +stated, refused to deliver the commission. On what grounds? That is not +stated, only that his explanations were not satisfactory to the relator. +If they had been given the fact referred to would have appeared on the +face of the record, and would have gone down to posterity as an answer +to the reasoning of the opinion. The refusal of the witnesses--clerks in +the department--to be sworn or to answer, and the decision of the court +that they should be sworn and answer under certain restrictions, and +that they were sworn, are all stated with much particularity, but what +they said is not stated. Here, again, the fact is suppressed that the +commission was retained in the executive department by the orders of the +President, who, in the exercise of executive discretion, regarded it as +the evidence of an appointment not completed, and which he decided not +to complete. + +But this was only a foretaste of the spirit with which the scheme of the +Federal party to raise the judicial department of the Federal +Government, not only over the States and their judicatories but over the +two other departments of the General Government, was to be met. Two +months had not elapsed after the delivery of the opinion of the Chief +Justice in Marbury _v._ Madison, before the entire judicial fabric which +that party had erected during the last moments of their expiring power, +by which twenty-one additional federal judges were appointed, eighteen +in the States and three in the District of Columbia, with large salaries +and still larger power, to hold their offices virtually for life, was +overthrown by the vote of a majority of Congress, a majority more +confiding, more harmonious, and better disposed to second and sustain +the measures of the executive than any we have ever had. + +This measure--the least important effect of which was to relieve the +national treasury from the payment of salaries to some twenty-seven or +thirty gentlemen, whose services an experience of more than half a +century has shown to have been unnecessary--was assailed with +unprecedented violence. Gouverneur Morris said it had stricken down the +sanctity of the judiciary, and his political associates in Congress +denounced it as a gross infraction of the Constitution. He spoke of it +with the same vehemence and heat with which he taunted the men who had +passed it and their successors, twelve years afterwards, at the federal +celebration of the restoration of the Bourbons, when he invited them, by +the appellation of the "savage and wild democracy," to see, "though it +should blast their eye-balls, royal princes surrounded by loyal +subjects!" The attempts of Mr. Morris and his coadjutors to exasperate +the public mind against the repeal of the midnight Judiciary Act +recoiled upon their party. The only effects they produced were to rivet +the convictions of a large majority of the people that they had acted +wisely in changing their rulers, and to evoke a determination to sustain +the men in power as long as they adhered to the course upon which they +had entered. To the Chief Justice, his associates on the bench, and the +leaders of the defeated party, this condition of public opinion +presented considerations of the gravest import. The court had decided, +and their decision was sustained by the latter with perfect unanimity, +that the appointment of Marbury had been completed before Mr. Jefferson +came into office, that the Secretary of State had therefore no right to +withhold his commission, and that he could be compelled to deliver it by +_mandamus_, provided only that the proceedings should originate in an +inferior court. There was no ground for question in respect to the +legality of the appointments of the midnight judges, or their clerks, if +the repealing law was unconstitutional, nor of their right to their +salaries. This was certainly a question for the judiciary in respect to +private rights; and if the courts could compel the one Secretary by +_mandamus_ to deliver a commission wrongfully withheld, _a fortiori_ +could they compel another to pay salaries undeniably due if the +repealing law was unconstitutional. The field for the writ of _mandamus_ +was thus greatly enlarged. If the withholding of a few justices' +commissions constituted good ground for the institution of such +proceedings as those we have referred to, the case now presented was one +of much greater magnitude, and no party was ever more deeply committed +before the country on a public question than they were in regard to the +unconstitutionality of the Repealing Act. If they were right in that, +and also in their views in respect to the powers of the Supreme Court, a +_mandamus_ would of course have been authorized to compel the treasury +to pay the judges their salaries. Should they resume the Marbury and +Madison case in the inferior courts, and proceed in this also, or should +they abandon both and submit themselves to the stigma of having been the +authors of false pretences and unfounded clamor, was the question to be +met. + +The Republican party of the Union, as then constituted, was for the +first time in possession of two departments of the Federal Government. +Whilst in a minority they had not been regarded by their high-reaching +opponents with feelings of much respect. Whatever might still have been +the federal impressions of their principles or designs, there was no +longer room for two opinions, in respect to their determination, their +firmness and their capacity to carry out the measures they deemed +necessary to the public service. Such being the circumstances in which +they were placed, the Chief Justice, his associates and friends, +surveyed the exposures and defenses of the only department that was left +under their control, and it was natural that they should ponder upon +possible consequences before they proceeded another step in a course +which the other departments regarded as one of aggression. + +The supervision and control of the Supreme Court of the United States +over the largest portion of the legislation and jurisprudence of the +State governments, designed to be secured by the twenty-fifth section of +the Federal Judiciary Act and the extent to which they might be carried, +were, in their political aspects, looked upon by Hamilton and his +followers as constituting the only remaining sheet-anchor of the +government, in the sense in which they desired to see it administered. +This lay completely at the mercy of their opponents. No matter what +might be their confidence in the constitutionality of the provision, the +whole appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is, by the express +letter of the Constitution, to be exercised subject to "such exceptions +and such regulations as the Congress shall make." An act of three lines +repealing the clause of the Judiciary Act would except writs of error to +State courts from the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and +another might abolish the use of the writ of _mandamus_. The members of +that court had seen too much of the temper and firmness of the President +and Congress to doubt the immediate adoption of such measures if the +contest in regard to the boundaries of power between the departments +was continued, and were too sensible of the extent to which that high +tribunal was indebted for its power and dignity to that branch of their +jurisdiction to push so unprofitable a collision one step farther under +their present auspices. The consequence was a suspension of all +movements in that direction. No more was heard of Mr. Marbury's claims +to his commission, and the new judges quietly submitted to expulsions +from their life-estates in offices by a law they claimed to be +unconstitutional, with a court within their reach authorized to declare +it such if it so believed. + +Chief Justice Marshall remained at the head of the Supreme Court many +years after the delivery of his opinion in the case of Marbury and +Madison. During that long period he not only acquired, by the exercise +of his great talent, the high distinction of which I have already +spoken, but endeared himself by his personal demeanor to all who were +drawn within the circle of his acquaintance. No generous mind could +contemplate a man possessed of such towering intellect, placed in so +elevated a position and bearing his honors with such modesty and +unaffected simplicity as he habitually displayed, without being +impressed with a deep interest in his character. I was not among the +least cordial of his admirers, and would not for the world speak a +wanton or unkind word in disparagement of his memory. But the public +acts of public men are always and under all circumstances legitimate +materials for history, and may be canvassed with freedom, provided they +are spoken of truly, and reviewed "with good motives and for justifiable +ends." To this limitation it shall be my endeavor to confine myself on +this as on all other occasions. + +No part of the fame which Chief Justice Marshall acquired on the bench +was due to his course and conduct in the case of Marbury and Madison, +which may with truth be regarded as his judicial _debut_. He had been +snatched from the political caldron, heated to redness by human +passions, almost at the moment of his first appearance on the bench. In +his rapid transition from the halls of Congress and the Departments of +War and State to that of the Judiciary, he had, as it were, been driven +to the bench as to a place of safety before a tempest of public +indignation created by the abuses of the administration of which he had +been a part. Among his first acts after reaching it, and before time had +been allowed for his passions to cool, before he had acquired judicial +habits or had leisure to think even of the amenities that should +distinguish his new position, was a severe blow at the wizard who, he +believed, had raised the wind and directed the storm. But Jefferson, the +"dreaming Condorcet," as Hamilton sometimes called him, proved an +accomplished statesman. Wide awake, he made ample preparations for the +assault, interposed effectual resistance, and the recoil and ultimate +abandonment were the result. I have heretofore referred to the +non-observance in these proceedings of due respect toward the acts of a +coordinate department of the Government,--an obligation on the part of +each from which no consideration can release them, and which in this +case was rendered still more imperative by the relations, personal and +political, that had existed between the President and the Chief Justice. +Whatever weaknesses I may be subject to,--and doubtless they are +numerous,--dogmatism, I am very sure, is not one of them. My endeavor +always is to state my positions with deference to the judgments of +others. But on this point I cannot refrain from insisting that no man +who can divest himself of prejudice to only a reasonable extent can +review these proceedings without being satisfied that the objection I +have made to the course of the Chief Justice in this regard is well +founded. No such omission was ever chargeable to him at a more advanced +period in his judicial career; whatever exception may have been taken to +the course of his decisions no one ever had reason to complain of a want +of courtesy toward any branch of the government or toward individuals. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Renewed Attempt of the Federalists to give the Judiciary a + controlling power over the other Departments on the occasion of the + Bank Veto by President Jackson--Importance of the Principle of a + clear Division of Powers between the several Departments, and the + Independence of each--Assertion of the Principle by Jackson in his + Veto Message--Unguarded expression therein--Substantial Endorsement + by Webster of Jackson's Doctrine as to the Independence of the + Executive--Character of the Contest waged against Jackson on behalf + of the Bank--Violent and disingenuous course of Webster and Clay in + the Debate--The true Doctrine declared by Senator White--Its great + Importance--Merits of the Question discussed--The Judgment of the + People the ultimate Test--Instances of the effectual exercise of + that Judgment--Distrust of the Federalist Leaders as to the + Capacity of the People. + + +The most imposing, and I may add the most important occasion, +unconnected with judicial proceedings, on which the successors of the +old Federal party, encouraged by the success of the Supreme Court in +modern times, sought to avail themselves of the principle of the +controlling power of the judiciary over the other departments of the +Government in regard to questions of constitutional power, for which it +had early and long contended, was that of the veto of President Jackson +against the passage of the bill for the incorporation of the Bank of the +United States. + +In addition to the great and permanent importance it is to the +Government and the country to keep down this heresy, we have in this +case a scarcely less potent inducement for giving the matter a very +thorough consideration, founded in a desire to do justice to the conduct +and character of that great and good man. + +The division of the powers of the Federal Government into distinct and +independent departments is founded on a principle the value of which has +never been lost sight of by the framers of governments designed to be +free. It must at the same time be admitted that, among the principles +which necessarily enter into such a system, there are not many so +difficult to define with desirable certainty or to uphold in practice. +The faithful and capable men who constructed ours, state as well as +national, have been as successful, I believe, in this respect as any who +have gone before them; and the efforts which have been so perseveringly +made to counteract their patriotic designs must be attributed to an +inherent spirit of encroachment which is inseparable from power in whose +hands soever it may be placed. + +The veto message contained the following passage:--"If the opinion of +the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of this act, it ought not to +control the coordinate authorities of this Government. The Congress, the +executive, and the court must each for itself be guided by its own +opinion of the Constitution. Each public officer, who takes an oath to +support the Constitution, swears that he will support it as he +understands it, and not as it is understood by others. It is as much the +duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate and of the +President, to decide upon the constitutionality of any bill or +resolution which may be presented to them for passage or approval, as it +is of the supreme judges when it may be brought before them for judicial +decision. The opinion of the judges has no more authority over Congress +than the opinion of Congress has over the judges; and on that point the +President is independent of both. The authority of the Supreme Court +must not, therefore, be permitted to control the Congress or the +executive when acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only +such influence as the force of their reasoning may deserve." + +To present an intelligible view of this matter, the gravity of which +cannot fail to be appreciated as we proceed, it is necessary that we +should in the first place ascertain and define the leading idea which +its author intended to convey by the words he employed. The entire +paragraph is replete with distinct avowals of his meaning, but in the +midst of them are to be found a few words by which its true sense is +exposed to cavil and perversion. This was a point upon which General +Jackson was very liable to err, notwithstanding his natural and in other +matters practiced wariness,--a qualification with which few men were +more amply endowed than himself. The spirit by which alone free +governments can be sustained was deeply planted in his breast by the +hand of Nature; quickened into life by the blows of the enemy, whilst a +prisoner and yet a stripling, it grew with his growth and strengthened +with his strength. But possessed of a mind that was ever dealing with +the substance of things, he was not very careful in regard to the +precise terms in which his principles were defined. He was, besides, at +that moment placed in a peculiar as well as difficult situation. Whilst +struggling with an institution which felt itself sufficiently powerful +to measure strength with the Government, and which had been itself stung +to madness by his refusal to submit to its arbitrary demands, he was +deprived of the assistance of the leading members of his cabinet. The +Secretary of the Treasury, to whose department the subject belonged, +had, in his report to Congress, placed himself on record in favor of the +bank, and the Secretaries of State and of War concurred in his opinion; +all three openly disapproved of, and could not cordially cooperate in, +the measure the President was about to adopt--the Secretaries of the +Treasury and of War, as will be seen by the letters of General Jackson +to myself, which on account of the interesting matters to which they +relate will be given with these memoirs,[36] pressing their opposition +so far as to make it sufficient ground for proposing to retire from his +cabinet--a step they were with difficulty prevented from carrying into +immediate effect. That a document of such length, prepared on the spur +of the occasion and under such untoward and exciting circumstances, +should not have been even more vulnerable to the assaults of his astute +and implacable opponents, is not a little surprising. + + [36] The correspondence, including the letters of President Jackson, + has received the same direction with the other MSS. of the Author. + See introduction to this volume. Eds. + +Few had better opportunities for knowing the state of feeling which +prevailed at the Presidential mansion, whilst this matter was in +progress, than myself. I arrived at New York from my brief mission to +England after the Bank Bill had passed both Houses and on the day it was +sent to President Jackson for his approval, and left the next morning +for Washington. Arriving there at midnight, I proceeded at once to the +White House, in pursuance of an invitation he had sent to New York in +anticipation of my coming. I found the General in bed, supported by +pillows, in miserable health, but awake and awaiting and expecting me. +Before suffering me to take a seat, and whilst still holding my hand he, +with characteristic eagerness when in the execution of weighty concerns, +spoke to me of the bank--of the bill that had been sent for his +approval, and of the satisfaction he derived from my arrival at so +critical a moment; and I have not forgotten the gratification which +beamed from his countenance when I expressed a hope that he would veto +it, and when I declared my opinion that it was in that way only he could +discharge the great duty he owed to the country and to himself. Not +that he was ignorant of my views upon the subject, for in all our +conversations in respect to it before I left the country,--and they had +been frequent and anxious,--my voice had been decided as well against +the then existing, as against any other national bank. Neither that he +was himself in doubt as to the course that he ought to pursue, for he +entertained none. But the satisfaction he evinced, and which he +expressed in the most gratifying terms, arose solely from the relief he +derived from finding himself so cordially sustained in a step he had +determined to take but in respect to which he had been severely +harassed, by the stand taken by the leading members of his cabinet and +by the remonstrances of many timid and not a few false friends, and had +as yet been encouraged only by the few about him in comparatively +subordinate positions who were alike faithful to principle and to +himself. + +The veto message was prepared and sent in whilst I remained at +Washington. The manuscript was at all times open to my inspection, +although I had but little direct agency in its construction. Had it been +otherwise, the few words which subsequently made that part in which they +appear so conspicuous could not have escaped my notice. + +The paragraph in the message which sets forth the constitutional +principles which President Jackson intended to avow, contains the +following declarations: 1st. That if the opinion of the Supreme Court +covered the whole ground of the act under consideration, still it ought +not to control the coordinate authorities of the Government. 2d. That +the Congress, the Executive, and the Court must each for itself be +guided by its own opinions of the Constitution. 3d. That it is as much +the duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of the +President, to decide upon any Bill or Resolution that may be presented +to them for passage or approval, as it is for the supreme judges when +brought before them for judicial decision. 4th. That the opinion of the +judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress +has over the judges, and that on that point the President is independent +of both. 5th. That the authority of the Supreme Court should not +therefore be permitted to control the Congress or the Executive, when +acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only such influence +as the force of their reasoning may deserve. In none of these avowals is +the principle of irresponsibility in respect to the opinion of the +Supreme Court, by fair construction much less by necessary implication, +carried farther than to include the President when discharging his +official duties as the depository of the executive power of the +Government in approving or disapproving of a Bill or Resolution sent to +him by Congress for his executive action. That in all this he was +perfectly right, it will be seen even Mr. Webster, latitudinarian as he +was, did not venture to controvert. + +But in the midst of these declarations are found these unguarded words: +"Each public officer who takes an oath to support the Constitution, +swears that he will support it as he understands it and not as it is +understood by others." Either this declaration was applied by the +President only to all _such_ officers as those of whom he had been +speaking before and of whom alone he spoke afterwards, all in the same +paragraph,--to that class of officers who, singly as was his own case, +or in conjunction with others as was the case with some, constituted the +three great departments of the Government, whilst acting in their +respective official capacities, as it was beyond all doubt intended to +be applied; or he must be supposed to have held that the inferior judges +of the federal courts had a right to say to the superior court, "We do +not understand the Constitution as you have expounded it, and we will +therefore not submit to your decision;" the same as to the judges of the +State courts of every grade, and as to the officers of the custom-house +and innumerable other officers of his own appointment; empowering the +latter on the same ground to refuse to conform to the instructions sent +to them, &c., &c. A construction, one would think, too preposterous for +credulity itself to swallow. + +The plain and well-understood substance of what he said was that in +giving or withholding his assent to the bill for the re-charter of the +bank it was his right and duty to decide the question of its +constitutionality for himself, uninfluenced by any opinion or judgment +which the Supreme Court had pronounced upon that point, farther than his +judgment was satisfied by the reason which it had given for its +decision. This covered the whole ground. It explained fully his views of +the Constitution in respect to what he was doing. All beyond was both +uncalled for and unnecessary. To this view of the President's power and +duty under the Constitution Mr. Webster assented in the fullest manner. +He said,--"It is true that each branch of the legislature has an +undoubted right, in the exercise of its functions, to consider the +constitutionality of a law proposed to be passed. This is naturally a +part of its duty, and neither branch can be compelled to pass any law, +or do any other act, which it deems to be beyond the reach of its +constitutional power. The President has the same right when a bill is +presented for his approval; for he is doubtless bound to consider, in +all cases, whether such bill be compatible with the Constitution, and +whether he can approve it consistently with his oath of office." + +If the supporters of the bank had been willing to judge the President by +the claim of power under the Constitution which he intended to advance +in his veto message, there would have been a perfect accord of opinion +between him and their great leader in the debate upon that document, and +one disturbing element would have been withdrawn from the severe +agitation to which the public mind was exposed. But this course neither +suited the interest of the bank, nor would it have comported with the +excited feelings of the implacable enemies of the President. Matters had +worked to their liking. By forcing the bill through the two Houses at +the eve of the struggle for the President's reelection, and thus +compelling him either to sign or to encounter the responsibility of +defeating it, they felt that they had involved the great opponent of the +bank,--the only man whose power with the people they really dreaded--in +toils from which his escape would be impossible. They were engaged in +framing an issue with President Jackson and the Democratic party, +looking at that time only to the defeat of his reelection but which was +in 1834 so extended as to involve consequences second only in their +importance to those of our struggle for independence from the mother +country,--an issue, which was to decide whether the control by the +people in affairs of government, the fruit of that great contest, should +be continued, or be made to give place to a government controlled by the +money power of the country, the trial of which continued much longer +than that of the Revolution, and the ultimate results of which were the +extinguishment of the bank and the first direct overthrow of the +Democratic party since its accession to power in 1800. Able to count +their votes in both Houses, and certain of a majority in each, the +leading friends of the bank reserved their greatest efforts for the +discussion of the veto, the interposition of which they understood the +man they had to contend with too well to doubt. + +Mr. Webster was designated by the supporters of the bank to open the +discussion, and a more competent man, or one better suited for the +purpose, could not have been selected. Among our public men there have +doubtless been several whose mental endowments were in some particulars +superior to his. Hamilton possessed more genius and eloquence. Between +Clay and Webster the same disparity existed, though not in the same +degree. But as a close and powerful reasoner, an adroit and wary +debater,--one capable of taking comprehensive, and at the same time +close views of his subject; who surveyed all the points in his case, the +weak as well as the strong, and dealt with each in the way best +calculated to serve his purpose, and to reduce the advantage of his +antagonist to the lowest allowable point, and who was withal +unscrupulous in the employment of his great powers,--he was in his day +unsurpassed. Backed by a powerful moneyed institution--prepared to use +its overflowing resources to any necessary extent; having Mr. Clay on +his side; and knowing that what he said would, by means of the money of +the bank, be brought to every mansion, and forced into every cabin, and +made the subject of eulogy by a vast preponderance of the public press; +it is not possible to conceive of circumstances better calculated to +bring out Mr. Webster's capacities to the utmost. Those who have the +curiosity to turn to the record of his vigorous effort on that occasion +will see a favorable specimen of the art in which he was so great a +master. His opening speech was designed to give the cue to his party, +its orators and presses, in respect to the grounds upon which the +election was to be contested. It contained an official programme of the +campaign, showing that denunciation and intimidation were the principal +weapons to be employed, and was itself the first gun fired in that +direction--the signal that was to summon their political friends to the +field, and to begin the attempt to fright the country from its +propriety. + +Mr. Webster opened his speech with statements from which the following +are extracts: "Let us look at known facts. Thirty millions of the +capital of the bank are now out, on loans and discounts, in the States +on the Mississippi and its waters; ten of these millions on the discount +of bills of exchange, foreign and domestic, and twenty millions loaned +on promissory notes. The whole debt is to be paid, and within the same +time the circulation withdrawn. + +"The local banks, where there are such, will be able to afford little +assistance, because they themselves will feel a full share of the +pressure. They will not be in a condition to extend their discounts; but +in all probability, obliged to curtail them.... I hesitate not to say +that, as this veto travels to the West, it will depreciate the value of +every man's property from the Atlantic States to the capital of +Missouri. Its effects will be felt in the price of lands--the great and +leading article of Western property; in the price of crops; in the +products of labor; in the repression of enterprise; and in embarrassment +to every kind of business and occupation. I state this opinion strongly, +because I have no doubt of its truth, and am willing its correctness +should be judged by the event.... To call in this loan at the rate of +eight millions a year, in addition to the interest on the whole, and to +take away, at the same time, that circulation which constitutes so great +a portion of the medium of payment throughout that whole region, is an +operation which, however wisely conducted, cannot but inflict a blow on +the community of tremendous force and frightful consequences. The thing +cannot be done without distress, bankruptcy, and ruin to many.... + +"A great majority of the people are satisfied with the bank as it is, +and desirous that it should be continued. They wished no change. The +strength of this public sentiment has carried the bill through Congress, +against all the influence of the administration, and all the power of +organized party. But the President has undertaken, on his own +responsibility, to arrest the measure, by refusing his assent to the +bill. He is answerable for the consequences, therefore, which +necessarily follow the change which the expiration of the bank charter +may produce; and if these consequences shall prove disastrous, they can +fairly be ascribed to his policy only, and to the policy of his +administration." + +These alarming consequences were portrayed as the unavoidable result of +a failure on the part of the people to effect a change in our public +councils, before the expiration of the charter of the bank, which could +only be done at the then next election. + +No old school Federalist, who had grown to man's estate with views and +opinions in regard to the character of the people which that faith +seldom failed to inspire, could doubt the efficacy of such an exposition +in turning the minds of all classes of the community in the desired +direction. The idea of producing the catastrophe, thus held up to public +view, through the direct action of the bank--a proceeding justly +stigmatized as "flagitious," in his recent letter to the New York +bankers, by Mr. Appleton of Boston, a distinguished and highly trusted +Whig, who was in those days admitted behind the curtain and had a view +of the whole ground,--had not at that time, I am satisfied, entered into +the mind of Mr. Biddle, or perhaps into that of the most reckless +advocate of the bank. But the sagacious leader of the Whig party +understood too well the extent of General Jackson's popularity and the +strength of the Democratic party to think for a moment that an attempt +to carry a Presidential election against the power of both could safely +be treated as a holiday affair. He knew that by far the largest portion +of the classes most likely to be affected by appeals to their pecuniary +interests were already on the side of the bank, and that the only chance +of success in the election depended upon their ability to make +impressions favorable to their views upon classes differently situated, +and who in general politics were on the same side with the President. He +was also well aware that among the admirers and sincere friends of +General Jackson, there were in every State not a few who, confiding +fully in his integrity, believing him engaged in continual struggles for +the public good with a reckless opposition and sincerely wishing him +success, yet distrusted his prudence, listened readily to the reports of +his enemies prejudicial to his character, and were kept in constant +apprehension that he would, through passion or ill advisement, commit +some rash act. Virginia abounded in that class of politicians. My +quondam friend Ritchie scarcely ever went to bed in those exciting times +without apprehension that he would wake up to hear of some _coup d'etat_ +by the General, which he would be called on to explain or defend, and +his letters to me were filled with remonstrances and cautions upon the +subject. A vacancy occurring in the office of Attorney-General of the +United States, I recommended the appointment of Mr. Daniel, now one of +the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, for the place. +He came to Washington, was pleased with the invitation to take a seat in +the Cabinet, which the General authorized me to give him, was pleased +also with the office and would have been glad to accept it under other +circumstances, but was, notwithstanding, induced to decline it, after a +day's consultation with me, by considerations of that character +exclusively. The General was not a little amused, after our friend left +us, to hear me attribute his refusal to an apprehension that he might, +in the discharge of his official duties be reduced to the necessity of +acting against the principles of '98, or against his, the General's +wishes--an alternative that he preferred not to encounter. I am free to +confess that before I came to understand General Jackson as well as I +subsequently did I had not a little of the same feeling. I had seen +enough of him in the Senate, whilst occupying different sides in mere +party politics, to satisfy me that he was incapable of acting knowingly +against the public interest, but it was some time before I became +thoroughly satisfied that I did not do full justice to his prudence. I +will allude to a single occurrence bearing upon this point. His +successful effort to remove the Indians to their Western home is well +known and ought never to be forgotten, for there has scarcely been a +single act of his life which has proved more beneficial to all parties +than that. When the act conferring upon him the necessary powers was +before Congress, which was at an early period of his administration, it +was found difficult to prevail on the Pennsylvanian members of the House +to support it. They were believed to be influenced by an apprehension +that by supporting it they would give offense to the Quakers who, as is +known, are very numerous in their State. He invited them to an interview +which he asked me to attend. He remonstrated with those who came in an +earnest and really eloquent manner; placed before them very forcibly the +importance of the movement as well to the Indians as to the country; +refuted the reasons which were given for their doubts, and as they rose +to leave him, under indications not favorable to his wishes, he told +them, with much emphasis, that he could not believe that the reasons +they had assigned were the true motives by which they were actuated; +that they were men of too much sense not to see that the measure was a +proper one, but that they were afraid of their popularity; that they +stood more in dread of displeasing the Quakers than they did of doing +wrong; conjured them to rise superior to such motives, and to do what +was right, regardless of personal consequences; told them they would +find that to be the best way to make themselves popular, and concluded +by saying that he should do his duty in this respect, and if the bill +failed for the want of their vote it would not be his fault if their +constituents were not supplied with means for forming a correct judgment +between them and him. This was the substance of what was said, and said +with considerable animation, I observed his eye directed toward me +whilst he was speaking, and the moment the door closed on the retiring +delegation he turned to me with a smile upon his countenance and said +with the blandest manner, "I saw that my remarks disturbed you." I +admitted the fact, and said that although they were his friends, +personal as well as political, I was apprehensive that his observations, +if they were made public, however true and just, might in the then +feverish state of the public mind give countenance to the +representations of his enemies. His reply was: "No, my friend, I have +great respect for your judgment, but you do not understand these +gentlemen as well as I do. They are quite honest, and wish to do what is +right, but are prevented from doing it by precisely the considerations +to which I alluded. They will not be offended, because they know I am +their friend, and act only for the public good, and you will see that +they will show a different disposition upon the subject"--and they did +so. My apprehensions were more on account of what I feared he might say, +from the excited manner in which he spoke, than on account of what he +did actually say; and this was but one of numerous instances in which I +observed a similar contradiction between his apparent undue excitement +and his real coolness and self-possession in which, I may say with +truth, he was seldom if ever wanting. It was to the class of Jackson's +supporters which I have described, men of Mr. Daniel's school, that +Webster made his most powerful appeal; to alarm and influence them his +powers were exerted to their utmost point. To do this with any chance of +success a perversion of the Veto Message was indispensable. We have seen +that he was obliged to admit that the President had a right, under the +Constitution, to do all that he proposed by the veto. He had sworn to +protect the Constitution as the chief executive officer of the +government; and when an act was offered for his approval which he +honestly believed was contrary to that instrument, he had the right--not +the power only but the right also--to withhold his assent. This Mr. +Webster admitted in so many words, and President Jackson did not by the +message propose to do any thing more. And yet Webster denounced him as a +ruthless tyrant, who was violating the Constitution, and uprooting the +foundations of society. Look at some of his fierce denunciations: "He +asserts a right of individual judgment on constitutional questions, +which is totally inconsistent with any proper administration of the +Government, or any regular execution of the laws. Social disorder, +entire uncertainty in regard to individual rights and individual duties, +the cessation of legal authority, confusion, the dissolution of free +government,--all these are inevitable consequences of the principles +adopted by the message, whenever they shall be carried to their full +extent.... That which is now claimed for the President is, in truth, +nothing less, and nothing else than the old dispensing power asserted by +the Kings of England in the worst of times--the very climax, indeed, of +all the preposterous pretensions of the Tudor and the Stuart races. + +"According to the doctrines put forth by the President, although +Congress may have passed a law, and although the Supreme Court may have +pronounced it constitutional, yet it is, nevertheless, no law at all, if +he in his good pleasure, sees fit to deny its effect; in other words, to +repeal and annul it. Sir, no President, and no public man, ever before +advanced such doctrines in the face of the nation. There never was +before a moment in which any President would have been tolerated in +asserting such claim to despotic power.... If these opinions of the +President be maintained, there is an end of all law and all judicial +authority. Statutes are but recommendations, judgments no more than +opinions. Both are equally destitute of binding force. Such a universal +power as is now claimed for him--a power of judging over the laws and +over the decisions of the tribunal--is nothing else than pure despotism. +If conceded to him, it makes him at once what Louis the Fourteenth +proclaimed himself to be when he said 'I am the State.'" + +Now where was his warrant for these scandalous denunciations? Was it to +be found in the words "every officer," etc. to which I have referred? If +so, common fairness required that he should have set them forth so that +the readers of his speech might judge for themselves what the President +intended by them. This he was too sagacious to do, for if he named them +he was bound to give the whole paragraph. If he omitted this the +President's friends would have pointed out the deception. If he gave the +whole his readers would have seen that General Jackson could not have +used the words in the sense attributed to them by Mr. Webster. In this +dilemma he contented himself with substituting bold and reckless +assumption for proof. Mr. Clay was less cautious, as it was his nature +to be; he extracted the obnoxious words without the context, and +founded upon them charges like these,--charges by which none who read +his speech would have been misled if he had quoted the message +fairly:--"There are some parts of his message that ought to excite deep +alarm, and that especially in which the President announces that each +public officer may interpret the Constitution as he pleases. His +language is 'each public officer, who takes an oath to support the +Constitution, swears that he will support it as he understands it and +not as it is understood by others.' 'The opinion of the judges has no +more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the +judges; and on that point the President is independent of both.' Now, +Mr. President, I conceive, with great deference, that the President has +mistaken the purport of the oath to support the Constitution of the +United States. No one swears to support it as he understands it, but to +support it simply as it is in truth. All men are bound to obey the laws, +of which the Constitution is the supreme; but must they obey them as +they are, or as they understand them? If the obligation of obedience is +limited and controlled by the measure of information, in other words if +the party is bound to obey the Constitution only as he understands it, +what would be the consequence?" No warrant for these broad and unfounded +imputations, on the part of either of the senators, was to be found in +the fact that the objections to the new Bank Bill applied equally to the +old, nor for the ground thence assumed that it was the intention of +President Jackson to treat that as a nullity and to embarrass its +directors in winding up its concerns. There was not only nothing in the +message to justify such a charge, but its whole character was directly +opposite, and that too plainly to be controverted. His agency was not +necessary to enable them to wind it up. The courts were sufficient for +that, and they were on the side of the bank. Even if it were otherwise, +there were legitimate considerations which would have justified him in +allowing a charter which had received the sanction of a predecessor in +office to proceed to its consummation, whatever he might think of its +constitutionality. Nor had Mr. Webster or Mr. Clay a moment's doubt that +it was his intention to do so. Their violent not to say savage tirades +against the veteran had a different object--and that was the election. +There, fortunately, they were unsuccessful, or we might yet have been in +our Federal relations, as we unhappily are in those of the States, a +bank-ridden people. + +But I cannot allow this great constitutional question, respecting the +relation which the three great departments of the Federal +Government--executive, legislative, and judicial--were by the +Constitution designed to occupy toward each other, to pass without +farther notice. One more vitally important has not arisen nor can ever +arise out of our complex and peculiar form of government, and it is also +one which there is reason to apprehend has not been studied with +adequate care, by many who are in other respects sufficiently astute in +detecting constitutional encroachments. + +General Jackson--though owing to his military employment he had not been +for many years of his life much engaged in party politics--was yet, from +a very early period, strongly imbued with the principles of the fathers +of the republican school in regard to the objects and only legitimate +purposes of Government and the true construction of the Federal +Constitution. His views in these respects were sufficiently disclosed in +the course of his brief services in both Houses of Congress, during the +administration of Washington, and more particularly in his celebrated +letter to Williamson about the year 1800. + +Judge White, then his personal and political friend, followed Mr. +Webster in the debate on the Veto Message and in the course of his +speech laid down, in a perspicuous and satisfactory manner, the +principles applicable to the question of the relative powers and duties +of the several departments of the General Government which President +Jackson then, as he had at all times, sustained. Deeply incensed at the +gross perversions of his message, on the part of the advocates of the +bank, but at all times and under all circumstances against parleying +with his enemies in the midst of a battle, the President contented +himself with frequent and unreserved expression of concurrence in the +views which had been taken of the subject, on the floor of the Senate, +by Judge White, and although reelected under the clamor which had been +raised against him upon that point, and more determined than ever to +prevent, by all constitutional means, the extension of the charter of +the existing bank, he was equally decided, as he had always been, not to +interpose, nor did he interpose, any obstructions to the employment by +it of all the means provided by the charter to conduct business to its +end and to wind up its affairs after its termination. + +Senator White's definition of the Constitution was expressed in the +following words: "The honorable Senator argues that the Constitution has +constituted the Supreme Court a tribunal to decide great constitutional +questions, such as this; and that when they have done so, the question +is put at rest, and every other department of the government must +acquiesce. This doctrine I deny. The Constitution vests 'the judicial +power in a Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may +from time to time ordain and establish.' Whenever a suit is commenced +and prosecuted in the courts of the United States, of which they have +jurisdiction, and such suit is decided by the Supreme Court,--as that is +the court of last resort,--its decision is final and conclusive between +the parties. But as an authority it does not bind either the Congress or +the President of the United States. If either of these coordinate +departments is afterwards called upon to perform an official act, and +conscientiously believes the performance of that act will be a violation +of the Constitution, they are not bound to perform it, but, on the +contrary, are as much at liberty to decline acting as if no such +decision had been made.... If different interpretations are put upon the +Constitution by the different departments, the people is the tribunal to +settle the dispute. Each of the departments is the agent of the people, +doing their business according to the powers conferred; and where there +is a disagreement as to the extent of these powers, the people +themselves, through the ballot-boxes, must settle it." + +This is the true view of the Constitution. It is that which was taken by +those who framed and adopted it, and by the founders of the Democratic +party. It is one which was universally acquiesced in at the formation of +the Government, and for some time thereafter. It is a matter of great +moment, and one which cannot be too closely scrutinized, especially at +the present moment when there is abundant reason to apprehend that +heresies of a marked character in respect to it are being infused into +the public mind. The principle which inculcates the necessity of +distributing the powers of government among several departments, and +that they should be independent of each other in the performance of the +duties assigned to them by the Constitution, has united in its favor the +opinions of the friends of liberty everywhere from a very early period +to the present time. Montesquieu said: "There can be no liberty where +the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person or +body of magistrates;" or "if the power of judging be not separated from +the legislative and executive powers." The American Revolution provided +the fairest opportunity to test the merits of this doctrine that the +world had ever seen, and it was not lost sight of by the statesmen of +that day. Many of the States recorded their adherence to it on the face +of their constitutions, some of which were framed and adopted _flagrante +bello_, and all paid due respect to it in the construction of their +organic laws. The settlement and ratification of the Federal +Constitution carried the discussion of its merit to our national +councils where, and more particularly in the discussion upon the +question of ratification, the matter was very closely examined and by +very able hands. The opponents of the Constitution resisted it earnestly +and with ability, on the ground, amongst others, that it did not provide +sufficient guarantees to protect the departments from reciprocal +encroachments, and to secure the required independence of each. The +difficulties, inherent in the very nature of government, of carrying +those securities to an extent which would silence cavil in respect to +them, obtained for this objection advantages which, in view of the well +understood reverence of the people for the main principle, caused no +small degree of inquietude to those able defenders of the +Constitution--Madison, Hamilton, and Jay. The numbers of the +"Federalist" which touch upon this point are full of interest and will +well repay re-perusal. They afford the strongest evidence of an earnest +adherence, on the part of those great men, to the general principle, and +will, if I do not deceive myself, be found quite inconsistent with +several positions which have since been taken upon the subject. In the +47th number of the "Federalist," Mr. Madison thus expresses his own +views, and of course those of his associates, Hamilton and Jay, as they +acted in concert: "One of the principal objections inculcated by the +more respectable adversaries to the Constitution, is its supposed +violation of the political maxim that the legislative, executive and +judiciary departments ought to be separate and distinct. In the +structure of the Federal Government no regard, it is said, seems to have +been paid to this essential precaution in favor of liberty. The several +departments of power are distributed and blended in such a manner as at +once to destroy all symmetry and beauty of form, and to expose some of +the essential parts of the edifice to the danger of being crushed by the +disproportionate weight of other parts. + +"No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value, or is +stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty, than +that on which the objection is founded. The accumulation of all powers, +legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, +a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may +justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. Were the Federal +Constitution, therefore, really chargeable with this accumulation of +power, or with a mixture of powers having a dangerous tendency to such +an accumulation, no further arguments would be necessary to inspire a +universal reprobation of the system".... In No. 48, speaking of the +three great departments, he says: "It is equally evident that neither of +them ought to possess, directly or indirectly, an overruling influence +over the others in the administration of their respective powers." ... +In No. 49, he notices a proposition of Mr. Jefferson to authorize a +Convention upon a call of two of the three departments, for "altering +the Constitution or correcting breaches of it," and says,--"The several +departments being perfectly coordinate by the terms of their common +commission, neither of them, it is evident, can pretend to an exclusive +or superior right of settling the boundaries between their respective +powers." He then goes on to urge objections to too frequent appeals to +the people in that form, and sustains the opinion that it would be +better to rely on other safeguards against encroachments which he +details. In Nos. 78 and 81, General Hamilton, admitting that "there is +no liberty where the power of judging be not separated from the +legislative and executive powers," shows at great length the comparative +weakness of the judicial power, and the very slight probability that +"the general liberty of the people can ever be endangered from that +quarter." + +The provisions of the Constitution will be searched in vain for any +which indicate a design on the part of its framers to give to one of the +departments power to control the action of another in respect to its +departmental duties under that instrument. All _legislative power_ +granted by the Constitution was vested in a Congress, to be composed of +two Houses. The _executive power_ of the Government was vested in a +President. Specific powers to be exercised in conjunction with the +Senate, as well as some in respect to which a question might arise +whether they would otherwise have passed to the executive, were added, +but the Constitution in respect to the legislative power, contained no +limitations or restrictions. All executive authority to be exercised +under it was granted to the President, and he was hence spoken of by the +writers of the "Federalist" as the _sole depositary_ of executive power. +By the third article of the Constitution the same expression is used in +respect to the Supreme Court, &c.: "_The judicial power of_ the United +States shall be vested in _one Supreme Court_ and certain inferior +tribunals." But as these terms would, standing by themselves, have +conveyed all the judicial power of the United States to the Supreme +Court, and as no such grant could be properly made because a large share +of it had, in a previous part of the Constitution, been granted to a +court of impeachment, of which the Supreme Court only supplied the +presiding officer on a single occasion,--the trial of a President,--and +was designed to be still farther restricted, the Constitution +immediately proceeds to say, that "The judicial power shall extend to +all cases in law and equity arising under this Constitution, the laws of +the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under +their authority; to all cases affecting, ambassadors, other public +ministers, and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime +jurisdiction, etc." No oath to support the Constitution is prescribed by +it, in regard to the incumbents of the legislative or judicial branches +of the Government, other than the general provision that all officers of +a certain description, (which included them,) whether belonging to the +Federal or State governments, should swear to support the Federal +Constitution. + +In regard to the executive department the case is very different. The +Constitution requires from the President, and from him only, that he +should, in addition to the oath of office, before he enter upon its +duties, swear "_that he will, to the best of his ability, preserve, +protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States_." + +Is it not surprising that under a Constitution so constructed, +exhibiting on its face such features, the idea should ever have been +advanced that it was to the judicial power of the Government that its +framers looked for the preservation of that sacred instrument? So far as +it concerns the private rights of citizens and foreigners in questions +of _meum and tuum_, growing out of the laws and Constitution of the +United States, or controversies regarding the separate and special +interests of contending States, or of the United States, and in respect +to the rights of foreign ministers and consuls, it was intended to be +supreme and so made, nor has its supremacy in all these respects ever +been questioned. But it seems very absurd to suppose that it was +intended to oblige the President of the United States,--the officer +clothed with the whole executive power of the Government; the only +officer, except the Vice-President, who is chosen by the whole people of +the United States; the champion, designated by the Constitution itself +to "preserve, protect, and defend" it in the performance of the +executive duties committed to his charge,--duties affecting what +Hamilton happily describes as "the general liberty of the people," to +distinguish it from affairs of _meum and tuum_,--to keep his eye upon +the Supreme Court calendar, and to gather from its decisions in respect +to the private rights of parties litigant the measure of his +constitutional powers, and to stop or go on in the execution of the +important national offices assigned to his department as its judgments +may be deemed to authorize or forbid his further proceeding. I can +easily understand why a class of men, born with certain dispositions and +trained to corresponding opinions, should desire such a construction of +the Federal Constitution; but in the face of facts and considerations +like these, I can find no explanation of the boldness with which so +groundless a pretension has been advanced, other than in the +recklessness by which the spirit of political encroachment is and will +be characterized as long as it finds facilities for its gratification in +the weakness or the passions of mankind. The deeper the subject is +looked into, the more apparent to all _bona fide_ searchers for truth +will become the fallacy of the principle which claims for the Supreme +Court a controlling power over the other departments in respect to +constitutional questions. Inquirers of this description cannot fail to +appreciate the difficulty, nay the impossibility of reconciling Mr. +Webster's unreserved admission of the President's "undoubted right in +the exercise of his functions, when a bill is presented for his +approval, to consider in all cases whether such a bill be compatible +with the Constitution, and whether he can approve it, consistently with +his oath of office," and to approve, or refuse to approve according to +the result, with his severe denunciation of him for regarding an act as +unconstitutional, which had been approved by one of his predecessors, +but which he, notwithstanding, conscientiously believed to be +unconstitutional, and for withholding the power of the executive from +the execution of any such act. Everybody knows that an act which is +contrary to the Constitution is a nullity, although it may have passed +according to the forms of the Constitution. That instrument creates +several departments, whose duty it may become to act upon such a bill, +in the performance of their respective functions. The theory of the +Constitution is that these departments are coordinate and independent of +each other, and that when they act in their appropriate spheres they +each have a right, and it is the duty of each to judge for themselves in +respect to the authority and requirements of the Constitution, without +being controlled or interfered with by their co-departments, and are +each responsible to the people alone who made them for the manner in +which they discharge their respective duties in that regard. It is not +therefore to be presumed that that instrument, after making it the +President's especial duty to take an oath to preserve and uphold the +Constitution and prevent its violation, intended to deny to him the +right to withhold his assent from a measure which he might +conscientiously believe would have that effect, and to impose upon him +the necessity of outraging his conscience, by making himself a party to +such a violation. The Constitution, which was framed by great men, the +form of which has been so much and so justly admired, is not so +imperfect nor subject to such a reproach. The matter does not +necessarily end with a refusal on the part of the executive to do an act +which he believes Congress had no right, under the Constitution, to +require his department to perform. Although the President, representing +one of the three great departments of the Government, possesses in this +respect a right which neither the citizen nor any other officer or +officers of the Government, not having the control of such a department, +can exercise, yet if he allows himself to be governed by unworthy +motives he is liable to impeachment and expulsion from office. It is in +this way, or by his removal by the people, that the wrong he does to the +public is redressed. But this is not all. If the act has been passed +according to the forms of the Constitution, and is judged to be +constitutional by the judicial department of the Federal Government, it +is obligatory upon the citizens, binds and controls their private rights +and personal interests, and can be carried into effect in respect to +those by the judiciary, which also judges for itself regarding the +constitutionality of such law. It is the department by which laws, +affecting as well the private rights of the citizen as those of the +States, which can be made the subjects of litigation, are carried into +effect. It has ample power conferred upon it to cause its judgments and +decrees to be executed. Officers are appointed whose duty it is made by +law to obey its orders, and these officers have the right given to call +out the civil power of their respective districts to enable them to +execute judicial decrees. Nor do the rights secured to it by the +Constitution stop here. If resistance is offered to the execution of a +judgment or decree--made by the proper court to which jurisdiction of +the matter which such judgment or decree seeks to enforce is given by +the Constitution--too great to be overcome by the civil power, it is the +duty of the President, upon the request of the officers of the court, to +order out the military power to sustain that of the judiciary. It would +be no answer on his part to such a call to say that the right which the +decree or judgment seeks to enforce arises under a law which he deems +unconstitutional. That is, under the circumstances, a matter that he has +no right to inquire into. The decision of that question has been +delegated to a different department, and has by that department been +decided differently. The Constitution requires that the judgments of +that department, upon subjects committed to it, should be enforced. It +makes that enforcement, in extreme cases, the duty of the military. The +President is intrusted with the command of that force and, in such a +case, his power in regard to it is ministerial only. It is his duty, in +such a case, to sustain the judicial power by the aid of the military, +and if he failed in its performance he would subject himself to +impeachment and removal from office. Not only is the entire power of the +government thus pledged to the maintenance of judicial authority, whilst +acting in the line of its duties, but there lies no appeal from its +judgments or decrees. They are final and obligatory upon the rights and +interests of the parties. They can neither be reversed by any other +tribunal, nor is it in the power of the remaining departments of the +Government united to set them aside or to treat them as a nullity, +however contrary to the Constitution they may be. + +We are not without experience upon this point. Our history bears +indelible record of the abuse of power in that form during the +administration of the elder Adams. The unconstitutionality of the +Sedition Law will now be scarcely controverted by any ingenuous mind. +The Supreme Court, nevertheless, decided it to be constitutional, tried +citizens for having violated its provisions, and caused fines and +imprisonment to be inflicted upon them. When a majority of the Senate of +the United States, friends of the bank, placed upon its journal an +unconstitutional act of condemnation against President Jackson, for the +steps he had taken to relieve the country from that institution, the +same body, after its political complexion had been sufficiently changed +through the influence of an offended public sentiment, not only reversed +the sentence but expunged it from the record. This it had a right to do, +because both acts were committed by the same branch of the same +department. But the executive and legislative departments had no such +power over the unconstitutional sentences that were pronounced under the +Sedition Law, because they had no right to interfere with the acts of a +coordinate department. The President had an express right to pardon such +offenses, and the national legislature had a constitutional right to +return the money collected from those who committed them, and they did +so. But the judgments of the court remained, and will forever remain, +unreversed. In England, judicial convictions, attainders, judgments of +forfeitures of franchises, etc., may be reversed by act of Parliament, +but no such interference by one department of the government with the +authorized proceedings of a coordinate department are permitted by our +Constitution, simply because the great departments of our Government are +by the Constitution made coordinate and independent of each other. Can +any reflecting mind, in view of these facts, doubt the sufficiency of +the protection which that instrument provides for the personal rights of +the citizen and for private interests of every description, or for a +moment apprehend the disorganization of society described by Mr. Webster +as a consequence of carrying into effect the principles avowed by +President Jackson? + +The judicial power of the Federal Government, according to the +description here given of the binding force, the finality and efficiency +of its decisions upon the parties and their rights in all cases which +may be brought before it, answers all the purposes of its institution. +Was it the intention of the framers of the Constitution that it should +be clothed with other powers, and if so, what are they? The duties +imposed on the executive and legislative departments are of higher +importance than those of the judiciary, in proportion as the interests +of the nation are of more consequence than the separate interests of +individuals and minor associations. They include the question of peace +or of war, and the maintenance of the latter, international obligations +in the forms of treaties, their construction and execution, the +regulation of foreign commerce and commerce among the States, the +regulation of the currency, the establishment of a mint, the assessment +and collection of the national revenue, the raising, regulating, and +command of an army and navy, the establishment of a general and of +particular post-offices, the regulation and protection of the Indian +tribes, and many other duties which it is unnecessary to specify. In +none of these is it contemplated by the Constitution that the judicial +power shall take a part. The powers and duties of the other departments +upon these subjects are to some extent specified in the Constitution, +and the residue are left to the direction of the legislature which acts, +in respect to them, through the Executive as the department especially +charged with the execution of the laws. In the performance of their high +duties these departments are, at almost every step, met by +constitutional questions. The Houses of the legislature, in every law or +resolution that they pass, have to consider whether it is authorized by +the Constitution to which they have sworn to conform, and the President +and Senate, when they make a treaty, are bound to consider and decide +the same question. The President, as the sole depositary of the +executive power, is under a similar obligation. His first inquiry is, +whether the Constitution authorizes him to apply the power of his +department to the execution of the business before him, or, if it is one +of the numerous functions which the legislature is in the constant +habit of calling upon him to perform, has the legislature power under +the Constitution to direct the thing to be done, and can he do it +consistently with his oath to preserve and uphold that instrument? + +How are they to act in the decision of these questions? By what +considerations are they to be controlled? They know that they are +responsible to the people, under whose commission they act, for all they +do. The Constitution does not give to one department the right to decide +such questions for another, either in terms or by necessary implication, +nor subject them to any other responsibility, nor place before them any +guide for the government of their decisions other than their own +discretion and their own consciences, and has caused to be placed upon +their consciences an oath that they will, in no event, act contrary to +that instrument. Under such circumstances, I ask, what are they to do? +What can they do, consistently with the duty they owe to God, to their +country, and to themselves, other than to decide such questions for +themselves, following the dictates of their own judgment? Can it be +believed that those who framed and adopted the Constitution intended to +place these high functionaries,--the only representatives of the people, +in the great departments of the government, over whose continuance in +office the people possess control--to place them, in respect to their +official acts, about which a constitutional question can be raised, +under the guidance of a department over which the people possess no such +control, to be regulated by its decisions in private actions, to which +such functionaries are not parties, and of which decisions they are, +notwithstanding, to take notice at their peril. If a system so +anti-republican could have been designed by those who made the +Constitution, is it to be supposed that they would have omitted to +declare, on the face of the instrument, that such was their intention, +leaving those functionaries to grope their way to its discovery. Such a +question--one in which the character of our political institutions is so +much involved, and upon a right understanding of which their ultimate +safety may depend--should be stripped of every uncertainty. The claim +set up for the Supreme Court must be good throughout, or it is not good +at all. The principle, that the final decision of constitutional +questions belongs exclusively to the supreme judicial tribunal, set up +in Mr. Webster's speech, must be true throughout, or it cannot be true +to any extent. It amounts to this: the incumbents of the legislative and +executive departments, in respect to questions of constitutional power, +are _ministerial officers only_. Constitutional questions are points in +respect to which they have no right to exercise their own discretion, +but are bound, at every important step, to look to the judiciary for +guidance, and if they omit to adopt its decisions, if it has made any, +they do so at their peril:--the former department at the hazard of +having its laws, if the Supreme Court regard them as unconstitutional, +treated as a nullity, not only when they are relied upon "in cases in +law and equity," but in all cases, and everywhere. From the nature of +their action, members of Congress do not subject themselves to personal +responsibility, except when they act corruptly. But the situation of the +incumbent of the executive department is less favorable. Deprived of all +discretion, and bound to thus understand his position, he encounters +personal responsibility, in certain cases, whichever way he may act. If +he find a law upon the statute book, approved by one of his +predecessors--and to relieve the country from which has perhaps been one +of the reasons for the removal of the latter from office--a law which he +deems unauthorized by the Constitution, but which the Supreme Court +holds to be constitutional, he must either violate his oath of office +and execute it, or refuse to do so and expose himself to impeachment +for a failure in the discharge of his official duties. If he persists in +the observance of a law which the Supreme Court has, in a private suit, +held to be unconstitutional, he incurs a similar responsibility; and if +he omits its observance, he does violence to his own conscience by +failing to perform his official duties according to his oath. Let me +illustrate this view of the subject by particular and possible cases. +Take that referred to by General Hamilton in his papers written in +defense of President Washington's proclamation of neutrality, over the +signature of "Pacificus." + +The President has power, by and with the advice of the Senate, to make +treaties with foreign governments. Private rights, subject to judicial +investigation, often grow out of public treaties. The interpretation and +enforcement of these rights belong exclusively to the judiciary, and in +the execution of its power it may hold the treaty, under which the claim +arises, unconstitutional for any of the reasons for which laws may be so +regarded. Its decision is binding and final upon the parties and their +interests. + +Then comes the execution of that treaty between the governments that are +parties to it. This, on our part, belongs exclusively to the legislative +and executive departments. The duty of the former is to pass the laws +necessary to its execution, and that of the latter to see to their +enforcement, and to do such other acts as he may do, under the +Constitution, without a law. + +A foreign government calls for the interference of these departments to +redeem the national faith, pledged through executive instrumentality, +and for the redemption of which the executive, and the legislature, +where necessary, are the agents designated by the Constitution. They see +and feel their duty, but have been rendered powerless. The Supreme Court +has decided the treaty to be unconstitutional. No matter how obscure +the parties by whom its interference was asked, no matter how +unimportant the interest in respect to which the decision was made, from +the moment it is promulgated, it becomes a rule of action for every +department of the government, and every public functionary as well as +every citizen. If the national legislature passes a law to carry into +effect the void treaty its law becomes a nullity. If the executive +issues an order for its execution, or toward the performance of the +treaty in any way to his subordinates, they are not bound to obey it, +and the Supreme Court will sustain them in their contumacy. If he take +measures to enforce his authority, he makes himself amenable to that +tribunal. Acting in such a matter as a ministerial officer only, without +a right to employ his own discretion, he subjects himself to impeachment +if he persists. + +Alexander Hamilton--who, if he was not the one who suggested the +latitudinarian doctrine of "implied powers," was certainly its most +effective supporter, and through life its watchful guardian--in No. 1 of +Pacificus, has said that though the judiciary department is charged with +the interpretation of treaties, "it exercises this function only where +contending parties bring before it a specific controversy;" that "it has +no concern with pronouncing upon the external political relation of +treaties between government and government;" that "this proposition is +too plain to need being insisted upon;" that "it belongs to the +executive department to exercise the function in question, when a proper +case for it occurs," "as the _interpreter_ of the national treaties, in +those cases in which the judiciary is not competent,--that is, between +government and government; as the _power_ which is charged with the +execution of the laws, of which treaties form a part; as that which is +charged with the command and disposition of the public force." + +James Madison, in conjunction with Hamilton and Jay, in the numbers of +the "Federalist," avows doctrines at war with this assumption of power +in the Supreme Court. Thomas Jefferson, whose anxious patriotism was +always alive to such subjects, and the political thoughts and studies of +whose life were exclusively directed toward the protection of human +rights through the instrumentality of free governments, opposed the +doctrine vehemently, from first to last, and long after his retirement +from public life, its passions and excitements, expressed himself in +regard to it, on different occasions, in terms which follow. In 1815, in +answer to the direct question put to him by a citizen of Georgia, he +says:--"The second question, whether the judges are invested with +exclusive authority to decide on the constitutionality of a law, has +been heretofore a subject of consideration with me in the exercise of +official duties. Certainly there is not a word in the Constitution which +has given that power to them more than to the executive or legislative +branches. Questions of property, of character, and of crime, being +ascribed to the judges, through a definite course of legal +proceeding,--laws, involving such questions, belong, of course, to them, +and as they decide on them ultimately and without appeal, they, of +course, decide _for themselves_. The constitutional validity of the law, +or laws, again prescribing executive action, and to be administered by +that branch ultimately and without appeal, the executive must decide for +_themselves_, also, whether, under the Constitution, they are valid or +not. So, also, as to laws governing the proceedings of the legislature; +that body must judge _for itself_ the constitutionality of the law, and, +equally, without appeal or control from its coordinate branches. And, in +general, that branch which is to act ultimately, and without appeal, on +any law, is the rightful expositor of the validity of the law, +uncontrolled by the opinions of the other coordinate authorities." +Again, so late as 1819, in a very interesting letter to Judge Spencer +Roane, he says:--"My construction of the Constitution is very different +from that you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of +the others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the +meaning of the Constitution in the cases submitted to its action; and +especially, where it is to act ultimately and without appeal.... But you +intimate a wish that my opinion should be known on this subject. No, +dear Sir, I withdraw from all contests of opinion and resign every thing +cheerfully to the generation now in place. They are wiser than we were, +and their successors will be wiser than they, from the progressive +advance of science. Tranquillity is the _summum bonum_ of age. I wish, +therefore, to offend no man's opinion, nor to draw disquieting +animadversions on my own. While duty required it, I met opposition with +a firm and fearless step. But loving mankind in my individual relations +with them, I pray to be permitted to depart in their peace, and, like +the superannuated soldier, '_quadragenis stipendiis emeritis_,' to hang +my arms on the post." + +Mr. Jefferson, in these letters, speaks of his uniform opposition to the +opposite doctrine, and refers to the inconvenience that may at times +arise from conflicting decisions. But that, he thought, might be safely +dealt with through the prudence of public functionaries, and he names +instances when they were so treated: one in England, where an instance +of difference occurred, in the time of Lord Holt, between the judges of +England and the House of Commons; and another in this country, when a +difference of opinion was found to exist between the Federal Judiciary +and the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court decided, in a case +of _meum and tuum_, that William Duane was not a citizen, and the +House of Representatives, upon a question of membership, decided that +William Smith, whose character of citizenship stood on precisely the +same ground, was a citizen. These decisions were made in high party +times, whilst the Federalists were in power. Duane was an Irishman, who +had married into the family of Dr. Franklin, and was editor of the +"Aurora," the most prominent Republican newspaper. Smith was an ardent +Federalist from South Carolina, a man of good talents himself, but who +delivered speeches in the House prepared by Hamilton in his closet, as +was charged by Jefferson at the time, and has now been fully proved by +the publication of Hamilton's private papers. + +But the establishment of the constitutional rule sustained by Jefferson +would not have saved the country from practical inconveniences, which he +did not notice because he knew them to be unavoidable. A concession to +the other great departments of the right to decide for themselves +constitutional questions applicable to, and that necessarily arise in +the discharge of, their official functions, still leaves them, to a +serious extent, dependent upon the judicial power. Whilst it would +exempt the incumbents from the penalty of impeachment when they act in +good faith, they and their subordinates remain liable whenever their +acts may be construed into an injurious interference with the property +or personal rights of individuals, to be called before the judicial +tribunal, to be there subjected to a different interpretation of the +Constitution from that which they, or their superiors in authority, have +placed upon it, and to be melted in damages for their public acts, +however pure their motives may have been. + +In a government, constructed like ours in some degree of conflicting +parts, it is ever difficult, if not at times impossible, to prevent such +a discrepancy, and those who framed ours, upon the whole, were wise in +not attempting to do so. As a tribute to the personal rights of man and +the security of private property, existing provisions go far to atone +for whatever of individual injustice they may occasion. The legislative +department has the power to indemnify those who suffer in this way and +invariably does so when they have acted in good faith. The losses thus +incurred by individuals, in the first instance, are in the end +transferred to the whole community, which is abundantly remunerated by +the benefits it derives from the system as a whole. Should a federal +organization ever obtain which shall attempt, through an abuse of its +power, to exert a dangerous influence over the Government, to an extent +and in a way to arrest the attention of the people, they will neither be +at a loss for a remedy nor fail in its adoption. + +But to extend the control of the judiciary, through their decisions "in +cases in law and equity," over the action of the other departments in +the discharge of the duties assigned to them, for the extent and gravity +of which we have only to look to the Constitution, and which, for the +most part, steer entirely clear of private and separate interests, would +be a measure of a very different character. It was upon these public +functionaries that the entire political power of the Federal Government +was intended to be conferred, and to the limited tenure by which they +held their offices and to their direct responsibility to the people that +the latter have always looked for the means to control their action. It +is upon this swift and certain responsibility they have hitherto relied +for their ability to bring the government back, without great delay, to +the republican track designed for it by the Constitution, whenever it +might be made to depart from it through, the infidelity of their +representatives. Truly says Mr. Jefferson, in one of his letters last +referred to, "when the legislative or executive functionaries act +unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective +capacity. The exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous +enough. I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society +but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough +to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not +to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This +is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." + +Nor have the people been slow to exert their powers to reform abuses +which they honestly, whether erroneously or not, believed to exist, by +displacing representatives whom they considered unfaithful, whenever the +occasion has seemed to them of sufficient magnitude to call for its +exercise. The commencement of the nineteenth century was made forever +memorable in our political annals by a display of this power, and it was +again exerted in 1828, in 1840, in 1844, and in 1852. The result of the +election of 1848 was altogether occasioned by divisions in the +Democratic party, and I feel that I venture nothing in attributing that +of 1840 mainly to a mistake in the public mind, which it has since +magnanimously acknowledged, and with that atonement I am more than +satisfied. + +But if the incumbents of the legislative and executive departments have +no right to decide for themselves constitutional questions that arise in +the performance of their official functions; if it be indeed true that +the National Legislature, in discharging the important duties of laying +and collecting taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; in borrowing money +on the credit of the United States; in regulating commerce with foreign +nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; in +establishing uniform rules of naturalization and on the subject of +bankruptcies; in coining money and regulating the value thereof, and of +foreign coins, and fixing the standard of weights and measures; in +providing punishment for counterfeiting the securities and current coin +of the United States; in establishing post-offices and post-roads; in +promoting science and useful arts; in constituting tribunals inferior to +the Supreme Court; in defining and punishing piracies and felonies +committed on the high seas and offences against the law of nations; in +declaring war; granting letters of marque and reprisal, and making rules +concerning captures on land and water; in raising and supporting armies; +in providing and maintaining a navy; in making rules for the government +and regulation of the land and naval forces; in providing for calling +forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress +insurrection and repel invasion; in providing for organizing armies and +disciplining the militia, and for governing such parts of them as may be +employed in the service of the United States; in the exercise of +exclusive jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever in the ten-mile-square +and in the forts of the United States; and in making necessary and +proper laws for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all +other powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United +States, or in _any department_ or officer thereof: and that the +President, in assuming command of the army or navy of the United States +and of the militia of the several States, when called into their +service; in making treaties by and with the advice of the Senate; and in +the appointment of all the officers of the United States, with limited +and specific exceptions, and in filling up all vacancies that may arise +during the recess of the Senate; in receiving ambassadors and other +public ministers; and in taking care that the laws be faithfully +executed,--are both bound to look to the decisions, of the Supreme +Court, "in cases of law and equity" that are brought before them, for +the character and extent of their powers under the Constitution, and to +be governed by them, what becomes of the distinguishing feature of +Republican Government--the responsibility of the representative to the +people for the faithful performance of his duties? A people so +intelligent, and withal so just as ours, would surely never think of +dismissing one branch of their public servants for acts in respect to +which they had placed them under the absolute guidance of another +branch. To single out one department from the rest by placing its +incumbent under a special oath to protect and preserve the Constitution, +and then to make it his duty to obey the directions of another in that +very function, absolutely and unconditionally, would, I cannot but +think, be going quite as far in that direction as the character of any +people for justice and wisdom could bear. + +To whom are the members of the Federal Judiciary responsible for the +truthfulness of their constitutional expositions and for the wisdom of +the steps they take to make them effectual? To no human being. They can +only be displaced by impeachment and criminal conviction. That mere +error of judgment, without positive proof of corruption, can never be +made the basis of such a proceeding, is known to all. Is it not, then, +most apparent that to place the fidelity to the Federal Constitution of +the representatives of the people and of the States and of most of the +effective officers employed in the conduct of public affairs, save only +those that are of a judicial character, under the supervision of that +department, is nothing less than to divest the Government of its +republican features and to substitute in its place the control of an +irresponsible judicial oligarchy--to make the Constitution a lie, and +turn to mockery its most formal provisions, designed to secure to the +people a control over the action of the Government under its authority? +Is it not remarkable that a doctrine, so clearly anti-republican in its +character and tendencies, should have been so long kept on foot under a +system so truly republican as ours, and may we not trace its origin to +the same inexhaustible fountain from whence have proceeded the most +tenacious of our party divisions--an inextinguishable distrust, on the +part of numerous and powerful classes, of the capacities and +dispositions of the great body of their fellow-citizens? + +The want of a proper respect for the people, as has been often said, was +Hamilton's great misfortune. If he could have felt otherwise, he would +have been a Republican. This distrust of the capacity and disposition of +the masses, which had been the bane of his life, retained its hold upon +his strong mind and ardent feelings when he bequeathed it to his +political disciples, and it has been the shibboleth of their tribe ever +since. In a large degree wealthy and proud of their social position, +their fear of the popular will, and desire to escape from popular +control, instead of being lessened, is increased by the advance of the +people in education and knowledge. Under no authority do they feel their +interests to be safer than under that which is subject to the judicial +power, and in no way could their policy be more effectually promoted +than by taking power from those departments of the Government over which +the people have full control, and accumulating it in that over which +they may fairly be said to have none. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Exceptional Countenance given by the Democratic Party to the + Federalist Doctrine of the Supremacy of the Judicial over the other + Departments on the Occasion of the Dred Scott Decision--Former + Acquiescence of the Country as to the Power of Congress over + Slavery in the Territories--That Power brought in question by + General Cass, in 1848--The Result a Rupture in the Democratic Party + and Defeat of Cass--The subsequent Election of Pierce--Repeal of + the Missouri Compromise--Dangers of that Step--The Kansas-Nebraska + Act--Opinions of the Judges in the Dred Scott Case how far + extra-Judicial--Probable Motives of the Chief Justice and his + Brethren--The Author's Recollections of Taney--The Motives of the + Judges Good, but their _obiter dicta_ a Mistake--The Course of + President Buchanan, with respect to the Dred Scott Decision, an + Abandonment of the Democratic Principle of the Independence of each + of the three great Departments in deciding Constitutional + Questions--Subsequent Action of the Democratic Party on this + Subject--Importance of returning to original Doctrines of the + Party. + + +If this essay shall be ever published, the censures I have bestowed upon +the old Federal party and its successors for their persevering efforts +to destroy the balances of the Constitution, in this respect of the +relative powers of the departments, will doubtless be met by those who +still sympathize with its opinions, by a reference to the proceedings in +the case of Dred Scott. Of this no one will have a right to complain, so +long as those who so refer confine themselves to facts; for truth is +truth, whatever may be the circumstances under which it is applied, and +wrong is wrong, by whomsoever it may be committed and by whatever party +it may be sustained. It will be alleged that the Supreme Court, now +composed of gentlemen who are acknowledged members of the Democratic +party, has in that case set up the right to guide the official action +of the executive and legislative departments of the Government upon a +great constitutional question,--that the Executive has recognized that +right, and has promised to conform his own course to it when exercised, +and that these proceedings have received the approbation and support of +the Democratic party. + +In the notice I propose to take of that case, it is not my intention to +discuss the correctness or incorrectness of the decision that was made +in respect to the power of Congress to legislate upon the subject of +slavery in the Territories. I will however state in advance and in few +words the view I now take of the general subject. + +The acquiescence of the country in the power of Congress referred to, +from the Presidency of Washington to that of Polk inclusive, is well +known. Every President signed bills for carrying it into effect, when +any such became necessary and were presented for their approval, and the +other great departments of the Government not only complied with the +rule but, in innumerable instances, recognized its validity. This +continued until the year 1848, when a point, which had so long been +considered settled, was brought in question by an opinion expressed by +General Cass, then being a candidate for the Presidency, in a letter to +Mr. Nicholson, of Tennessee, adverse to the powers of Congress. The +Democratic party, whose candidate he was, adopted his opinions, and the +consequences were a rupture in that party, the elevation of an +old-school Federalist to the Presidency, and an administration of the +Federal Government upon the long exploded principles of Federalism. In +1852 the Democracy of the Union, instructed by experience in regard to +the destructive tendency of slavery agitations, resolved to avoid them +in future, united on General Pierce as their candidate, supported him +on their old and time-honored principles, and elected him by a +triumphant majority. + +This result, so auspicious to the country, was unhappily followed by the +repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and a consequent reopening of the +agitation upon the subject of slavery, in a form and under influences +more portentous of evil than any which had before attended it. + +I received information of that event whilst I was abroad, a +sojourner in a country which was under the dominion of an absolute +monarch,--circumstances which never fail to increase the attachment of a +true-hearted American, however orthodox he may have been before in his +devotion, to home and its inestimable institutions. Although forever +withdrawn from public life, I could not be indifferent to a measure +promising such startling consequences. Having had full opportunities to +become acquainted with the evil which the infusion of slavery agitation +into the partisan feelings of the country was capable of producing, I +felt, in all their force, the dangers to which our political fabric +would be exposed by that act, and mourned over its adoption. Whatever +may be thought or said of it in other respects, in regard to its +influence in exciting sectional animosities to a far more perilous +height than they had ever reached before there is not now room for two +opinions. + +Under the feelings of the moment, I naturally extended to the substitute +Congress had provided, the odium which, in my view, belonged to the act +of repeal, and could see no adequate relief save in a restoration of the +Compromise. But as passion subsided I became convinced of the +impracticability of that step, and turned my attention to a more careful +consideration of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and I became satisfied that, +if honestly executed, it was all that could, under existing +circumstances, be done, or, perhaps, desired. Having been a second time +invited by my old political friends of Tammany Hall, before the +Presidential election of 1856, to submit my views upon the then state of +the question, I gave them in a letter which presented the whole subject +in a form and was written in a spirit which many thought well calculated +to make favorable impressions on well-intentioned and sober-minded men. +It contained a simple and truthful description of the position I had +before occupied upon the slavery subject, an exposition of the reasons +by which I was yet satisfied that it had been well taken, and of the +ground of my expectation that Mr. Buchanan would do all in his power to +cause the Kansas-Nebraska Act to be carried into full and fair effect. + +I have read all the opinions given by the judges in the Dred Scott case +with care, and will state the impressions which they have made upon my +mind. I had never examined the question, and learned, with serious +misgivings as to its correctness, that the court had decided that a man +of African birth, though free and, in the State in which he resided, +entitled to all the rights of a citizen, was not also a citizen of the +United States. My mind remained in this state, with partial alleviations +of my anxiety, derived from newspaper sketches of the subject referring +to instances in which the principle had been acted upon in the +administration of public affairs, until I read very deliberately the +voluminous opinions of the judges. The able, judgelike, and I may add, +statesmanlike, views taken by Chief Justice Taney and by Justice Daniel, +of that branch of the subject, have satisfied me that the judgment of +the court upon it was right. I am now convinced that the sense in which +the word "citizen" was used by those who framed and ratified the Federal +Constitution was not intended to embrace the African race, whose +ancestors were brought to this country and sold in slavery. I shall +content myself with stating the result of my reflections, without going +into details, as that would be to re-argue the question, which would be +foreign to my present object. I do not say that the subject is free from +difficulties. No adverse opinion could pass through the ordeal of so +subtle and masterly an argument as that of Justice Curtis, who bestowed +more attention upon the point than his dissenting brother, and escape +unscathed. + +The weight of facts and argument is, notwithstanding, in my judgment, on +the side of the decision of the court. + +A decision in favor of a free black man's right to institute a suit in +the Federal court, on the grounds of citizenship and his residence in a +different State from the defendant, would undoubtedly establish his +right under the Constitution to the enjoyment in a slave State of all +the privileges allowed to its own citizens. The extent to which such a +construction and the practical operation of the rights which might be +claimed under it would increase the difficulties, already so great, of +maintaining the unity and harmonious action of the Federal system, will +be more and more apparent the deeper the matter is considered. I think +it is quite certain that if the Constitution had been supposed to +contain a provision legitimately authorizing such consequences, it would +not have been agreed to by the slaveholding States, nor, in view of the +liberal spirit evinced even by the latter at the time of the formation +of the Constitution in regard to the extension of slavery, would such a +provision have been insisted upon by their brethren of the States which +had the happiness to be comparatively free from the institution. The +decision must, therefore, be regarded as fortunate, as I cannot but hold +it to be correct. For though the personal rights of individuals, however +humble their position in society, are not the less important and their +protection no less the duty of government, yet the great community may +felicitate itself that claims like these,--the practical enjoyment of +which, while of little value, relatively, to the few who assert them, +may endanger the peace and welfare of millions,--are extinguished +through the agency of the organ of the Government constituted for their +adjustment. It is in such cases, when confined to its necessary and +legitimate duties, that the salutary influence of that high tribunal is +felt by all. + +The plaintiff, Dred Scott, alleged in his declaration--as he was bound +to allege to give the Circuit Court jurisdiction of the cause--that he +was a citizen of Missouri. Sandford, the defendant, plead to the +jurisdiction and alleged for cause of abatement that Scott was not a +citizen of Missouri as averred in his declaration, "_because_ he is a +negro of African descent; his _ancestors were of pure African blood and +were brought into this country and sold as negro slaves_." To this plea +there was a demurrer by which the facts set forth in the plea were +admitted, and upon the issue in law thus joined the Circuit Court gave +judgment that the demurrer be sustained. The plea, it will be perceived, +did not aver that Scott was a slave, or state any fact from which the +inference that he was such unavoidably resulted. The plaintiff was, +therefore, to be regarded in the decision upon the demurrer as a free +man, and was so regarded by the Circuit Court and by the Supreme +Court.[37] The effect of the final decision, assuming it to have been +the opinion of the court, was that the judgment of the Circuit Court +upon the demurrer be reversed, and a mandate issued directing the suit +to be dismissed from that court for want of jurisdiction. This disposed +of every question in the case that entered into, or could exert the +slightest influence upon the personal rights of the parties or the +ultimate judgment of the Supreme Court. Judge Daniel in his +opinion--inferior to none that were delivered--admitted this in so many +words: "According to the view taken of the case as applicable to the +demurrer to the plea in abatement in this cause," (said he,) "the +question subsequently raised upon the several pleas in bar _might be +passed by, as requiring neither a particular examination nor an +adjudication directly upon them_." This was, beyond all doubt, the true +condition of the case. Every other question bore upon one point only, +and that was, whether Scott had become a free man,--a question not put +in issue by the plea in abatement, and according to the opinion of the +court of no real consequence in the decision of the cause. + + [37] The opinion of the Supreme Court is thus summed up by the Chief + Justice: "And upon a full and careful consideration of the subject + _the court_ is of opinion _that upon the facts stated in the plea in + abatement_ Dred Scott was not a citizen of Missouri within the + meaning of the Constitution of the United States, and not entitled + as such to sue in its courts; and consequently that the Circuit + Court had no jurisdiction of the cause and that the judgment on the + plea in abatement is erroneous." + +The result would, therefore, seem to be that every thing subsequently +said and done by the court was extrajudicial--_obiter dicta_ decisions, +which, not affecting the merits of the case, are of no authority. But +the court, anticipating such an objection, made very considerable +efforts, in advance, to repel and disprove it. Both the Chief Justice +and Judge Wayne insisted earnestly on the circumstance that this was a +writ of error to the Circuit Court and not to a State court; that the +question did not relate to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, but of +its own inferior court, and that in such cases it was the practice and +the duty of the Supreme Bench to take a wider range in the correction of +errors than when the case came up from the State courts, and the +question was whether the Supreme Court had a right to act in the matter. +In the latter case they admitted that the judges ought to stop the +moment they found that none existed, and if they did not, all beyond was +extrajudicial. They urged that the general judgment in favor of the +defendant, in a case in which the Circuit Court had no jurisdiction, was +an error apparent on the record which it was proper in the Supreme Court +to correct by a reversal of that judgment, and that for this purpose it +became necessary to decide the issue presented by the special plea which +involved the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise Act; and, +finally, that the case was one which the court had not sought, but which +had been brought before it in the regular course of judicial +proceedings; that the issues it involved were those which the parties +had presented for the decision of the court, and that it was its duty to +dispose of them. + +That the court had neither sought the case nor exerted any agency in +framing the issues it presented was undeniably true, and the reasons +assigned in justification of its course are certainly entitled to great +respect. How far their strength is impaired by the following +considerations, those who have sufficient curiosity to study the case +will judge for themselves. That the parties, at the commencement of the +proceedings in the Supreme Court, were both desirous to have the issue +joined upon the merits examined and decided upon by that court, is very +evident, but it is questionable whether the wishes and interests of both +were not superseded by its action. The plaintiff secure, as he supposed, +by the stand he had acquired in the Circuit Court through the decision +of that tribunal upon the demurrer in his favor, was of course +solicitous to reverse the judgment which had been given by that court in +favor of the defendant upon the merits. The defendant had two objects in +view,--the first of which was to reverse the judgment upon the demurrer, +and, if he failed in that, to sustain the judgment in his favor upon the +merits. On the argument of the cause it was made a grave question +whether the point raised by the plea to the jurisdiction was legally +before the Supreme Court,--a question of no small difficulty and one in +regard to which there was a diversity of opinion to the last, even among +the judges who were in favor of the decision of the court. It was +contended by the plaintiff in error that the defendant had conceded the +jurisdiction of the Circuit Court by pleading over, and that he had not +brought his writ of error to reverse his own judgment. But the Supreme +Court overruled these objections, reversed the judgment in his favor, +and directed the suit to be dismissed from the Circuit Court for the +want of jurisdiction. By this decision, which the plaintiff could not +foresee, and was not bound to anticipate, all his interest in a decision +upon the merits was of course superseded. The defendant having succeeded +in driving the plaintiff out of the court below, could have no possible +desire that the judgment rendered in _his own favor_ should be reversed; +affirmed it could not be on account of the want of jurisdiction in the +Circuit Court. His application to the Supreme Court to have that point +of the case acted upon was therefore superseded by its own act. Such +anomalous proceedings, as an elaborate opinion in favor of all the +claims set up by a party terminating with the reversal of a judgment in +his favor, are happily of rare occurrence in judicial tribunals so able +and elevated as ours. It is perhaps questionable whether the judgments +for the defendant in the court below did not fall with the dismissal of +the cause from before the Circuit Court for want of jurisdiction, +without farther interference on the part of the Supreme Court. Still in +a case involving so many and such extraordinary complications, the +latter might well feel itself at liberty to decide also the questions +that were raised and had been very fully discussed before it upon the +merits of the cause. But on what grounds it could regard such a course +as obligatory and necessary to the complete administration of justice +between the parties litigant before it, I cannot see, and I find it +difficult to believe that the members of the court would have given +themselves the trouble to prepare such elaborate opinions upon questions +the decision of which was not necessary to the judgment of the court, if +their solution could have had no other bearing than upon the personal +rights of Dred Scott. I think it more likely that the judges who united +in the opinion that the Missouri Compromise Act was unconstitutional, +seeing the extraordinary revolution which its repeal had produced in the +political and fraternal feelings of the people of the United States, and +sincerely believing the safety of the Union endangered by continued +agitation upon so disturbing a subject, hoped to arrest it by the +judgment of the Supreme Court upon the point in question,--a step which, +if not actually called for, they yet believed fully justified by the +case before them. + +Chief Justice Taney, who, by his superior intellect and elevation of +character, was enabled to give to such a movement its greatest impulse, +was not exempt from an original bias in favor of the doctrine advanced +by Mr. Webster in the discussions upon the Bank Veto, when the latter +declared,--"Hitherto it has been _thought_ that the final decision of +constitutional questions belonged to the supreme judicial tribunal. The +very nature of free government, it has been _supposed_, enjoins this; +and our Constitution, moreover, has been _understood_ so to provide +clearly and expressly."[38] The peculiarity of these expressions +challenges our attention in passing. The guarded and sly manner in which +they put forth the doctrines of the old Federal party, without assuming +the responsibility of affirming them, is in their author's best manner. + + [38] The italics are mine. + +Nor did the Chief Justice stand alone in that position among his +judicial brethren. He had occupied a distinguished place in the Federal +ranks to an advanced period in his professional life; he had acquired an +enviable fame at the Bar, and had left it, as most old lawyers do, with +feelings of admiration and respect not only for his professional +brethren but for the Bench, in the influence and power of which they +seldom fail to take the deepest interest. It was hardly to be expected +that he should, on taking his seat, have proved insensible to the +_esprit du corps_ which had long prevailed in and around that high +tribunal, and which, directed by the plastic hand of John Marshall, had +charmed minds as strong as his own, even although professing opposite +political principles. Story and Thompson, who had been stars of +considerable magnitude in the old Republican party, were in succession +subdued by Marshall's magnetic influence to conditions in this regard +favorable to the acceptance of almost any extension of the doctrine of +the supremacy of the Supreme Court. + +Although the master-mind which gave it life and by which it was +installed has departed, the proceedings now the subject of our review +give us abundant reason to apprehend that the spirit has retained its +place and power. In respect to many hardly contested issues brought +before the Court, occurring vacancies and new appointments have +doubtless worked important changes in its opinions; but on that of the +supremacy of the judicial over the other departments of the Government +in constitutional questions, there are yet, it is to be feared, few +dissentients on the Bench, and least of all on the question from which +opposition to the decision in the Dred Scott case proceeded. That +decision was therefore pronounced under the full persuasion that, in +addition to its quieting effect upon the public mind, it, of right, +ought to have a controlling influence over the action of the other +departments of the Government; that it ought to influence the action of +Congress in particular, and that, if an attempt should be made to revive +the condemned act, it would guide the course of the Executive. Judge +Daniel, in the modest, hesitating terms in which he expressed his +concurrence in the farther proceedings, which he admitted to be +unnecessary, seems to have thought it due to the political school in +which he had been reared to put some qualification upon the power of the +court to settle the conflicting views upon the subject that prevailed +out of doors and might find place in the other departments of the +Government. But my worthy friend, Judge Wayne, had no such reserve. He +thought that the case, in addition to private rights of great value, +involved "constitutional principles of the highest importance, about +which there had become such a difference of opinion that the peace and +harmony of the country required the settlement of them by judicial +decision." + +The Chief Justice was too circumspect not to content himself with +action, and not to avoid expressions open to unfavorable criticism. I +cannot suffer the allusions I have made to circumstances in the previous +career of this excellent man to pass without a disclaimer of the +slightest intention to impeach his motives in any thing. I have known +him long and well. We stood shoulder to shoulder by the side of General +Jackson at the most eventful period of his second term of office, and +did all we could do to sustain him by our cooperation and advice. I do +not know that we differed on any point; and I do know that there could +not have been a more upright and vigilant public officer than he was; +nor could any man have had a more faithful or a more efficient friend +than he proved to that noble old man. I witnessed from beginning to end +the virulent and violent persecutions he experienced at the hands of his +old Federal and Whig friends, and was deeply affected by the steady, +self-possessed and manly spirit with which he endured them. This +impressed me with a respect for his character and a personal attachment +which no after-occurrence has weakened. He was my choice as the +candidate of the Democratic party for the Presidency in 1852, and there +has been no time since at which I would not have rejoiced to see him at +the head of the Government. I would have expected to find in him some +defects, which being bred in the bone would come out in the flesh, but +that never was with me, as was known to my familiar associates in +political life, an objection to the elevation to office of gentlemen +whose political _status_ was similar to his own. I took them _cum +onere_, and sometimes, though certainly not always, gained by the +experiment. He was a man of innate as well as cultivated integrity in +sentiment and action, and the longer we live the higher value we learn +to place on this quality in a public man. Conscious of the importance of +sincerity and truthfulness in all the movements of Government, whose +office it is to enforce the observance of moral obligation, men of this +character can never be induced to countenance public measures unless +they are not only pure in themselves, but supported by pure means. Such +a man was Roger B. Taney, and such men I never suspect of unworthy +motives in any thing they say or do. Neither have I the slightest doubt +of the good intentions by which his associates on the bench were +influenced in the proceedings of which I am speaking. Yet I cannot but +think that in going beyond the necessities of the case they made a +grievous mistake. The question, which the court undertook to settle, was +political, and had assumed a partisan character of great virulence. +There are two classes in every community whose interference in politics +is always and very naturally distasteful to sincere republicans, and +those are judges and clergymen. Their want of sympathy, as a general +rule, for popular rights, is known throughout the world, and in this +country that repugnance received an enduring impulse from the unanimity +with which a vast majority of both classes banded themselves on the side +of power, in the stormy time of the first Adams, and from the bitterness +with which they railed from the bench and the pulpit at the +public-spirited and patriotic men, who sought to relieve the country +from misrule. Both were again called to the political field, though on +different sides, during our recent troubles; yet the circumstance that +the judges took part with a majority of those who constituted the +Democratic party of the United States was not sufficient to neutralize +the dislike to their interference in politics which was seated in the +Democratic mind. To add a deeper shade to this trespass upon the +time-honored creed of the Democratic party, the anti-Democratic doctrine +was conveyed to the public in a form professing to be a necessary +adjudication in the regular course of the administration of justice, +whilst it is, to a considerable extent at least, exposed to the +imputation of having in truth been an extrajudicial opinion, voluntarily +and not necessarily delivered,--a mode of bringing before the country +the opinions of the supreme bench, formerly much in use, but which, +since the case of Marbury and Madison, has been peculiarly repulsive to +Democrats, and which Mr. Jefferson spent much time in holding up to +odium. + +To do full justice to Mr. Buchanan in respect to the extent to which +this action of the Supreme Court received his sanction, it becomes +necessary to state with more precision than might otherwise be deemed +requisite, in connection with admitted facts, his avowals on the +subject, which are contained in his inaugural address. + +The Kansas-Nebraska Act was designed to settle, as far as an act of +Congress could do so, two points, viz.--1st, that Congress possessed no +power to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the Territories, and +therefore it repealed the Missouri Compromise Act; and 2d, that it +belongs to the majority of the people of the Territory to decide whether +slavery shall or shall not exist within its bounds. + +President Buchanan treated every point which the Kansas Act professed to +settle as removed from the scope of partisan warfare, and congratulated +the country on the happy conception through which the Congress had +accomplished results so desirable. + +That body recognized in the fullest manner the power and the right of a +majority of the people of Kansas to decide upon their domestic +institutions, including the subject of slavery, but was silent as to the +period when that right should be exercised. That was, therefore, left an +open question, and the President expressed his views in regard to it in +the following words: "A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to +the time when the people of a Territory shall decide this question for +themselves. This is happily a matter of little practical importance, and +besides it is a judicial question, which legitimately belongs to the +Supreme Court of the United States, before whom it is now pending, and +will, it is understood, be speedily and finally settled. To their +decision, in common with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit, +whatever this may be, though it has been my individual opinion," etc. + +It is not necessary for the purpose of this reference to inquire either +how far that question was decided by the Supreme Court, in the case +referred to, or whether the President does justice to its importance. In +respect to the latter point it is well known that a contrary opinion is +extensively entertained. It will not be denied that the case he speaks +of was that of Dred Scott, and that the questions to be decided in it +related only to the personal rights and interests of the parties to the +suit. It is in the settlement of such only that the Supreme Court could +exercise jurisdiction upon such a subject, and all will admit that if it +belongs to a Territory to determine the question of the toleration of +slavery there, the occasion of the formation of its State constitution +will be a proper time for the settlement of that question, if a majority +consent that the decision shall be so long deferred. The question in +regard to the true time can, therefore, only arise, when a majority wish +to act upon the subject at an earlier period. If such an attempt be +made, the most extreme advocates for judicial supremacy would not +pretend that it would be competent for the Supreme Court to arrest the +proceedings by injunction or writ of prohibition, or any other process. +It could, therefore, only be in cases involving individual interests, +which might be supposed to be affected by such a proceeding on the part +of the Territory, that the judicial tribunals could interfere, and it +was to such a case that the President was understood to refer. It was of +an expected decision of the court in a case in law, brought for the +settlement of private rights, that the President spoke, when he said +that, though he had an opinion of his own, he would, notwithstanding, +submit to the decision of the court upon the point, whatever that might +be. By this declaration he announced to his constituents that in the +exercise of the executive power upon the subject, whenever that might +become necessary, he would take notice of the decision of the Supreme +Court in the case he referred to as then pending, and would feel it to +be his duty to maintain the rule it should lay down in respect to the +particular question of which he spoke, and _a fortiori_ in respect to +the main question, the right of the Territory to act upon the matter, +and that he would do so because the court had so decided without +reference to his individual opinion in the premises--the consequence of +which would be, that if his official sanction or cooperation should +become necessary to a settlement of the question of slavery by the +people of the Territory, he would give it if the people had acted +conformably to the rule prescribed by the court, or withhold it if they +had acted contrary thereto; and that if Congress should undertake to +legislate upon any part of the subject against the decision of the +Supreme Court, in respect to its constitutional powers, he would +withhold his assent from any bill of that character which the two houses +might pass. + +It is our duty, and must be our aim, to interpret the language employed +by the President according to what we, in good faith, believe to have +been his intention. Attempts to pervert the sense of what is said by a +man placed in his situation and acting under his grave responsibilities, +would not injure him, and could not fail to recoil upon their author. +If, dealing with his avowals in that spirit, we are yet bound to believe +that the declaration which I have described is the legitimate +interpretation and effect of his language, it is not only our right but +our duty to speak of it as we conscientiously think it deserves. It can +be scarcely necessary to say that those who regard the Republican +principles of government applicable to the question before us, as they +have been set forth in this work, as the true and only principles of the +Constitution, must either abandon the tenets of their predecessors and +their own convictions, or treat the declaration of Mr. Buchanan as a +voluntary and seemingly a ready sacrifice of a most cherished principle +of the Democratic faith--the reciprocal independence of the great +departments of government; a principle the importance of which was +apparent to and insisted on by the friends of liberty long before the +establishment of our independence, and for the practical enforcement of +which the American Revolution was regarded as presenting the best +opportunity ever offered. For the security of this principle the fathers +of our political school made the greatest efforts, and the invasion of +it was met by Mr. Jefferson, at the commencement of his administration, +with characteristic firmness, and was the subject of his anxious +watchfulness during the closing scenes of his life. + +The recent action of the Democratic party upon this subject must be +considered with many grains of allowance. The long-continued support of +a majority of the people,--the only test of political merit in a +Republic,--has secured a preference for its principles of which it may +well be proud; and the general fidelity of its members to the faith they +profess is creditably illustrated by the fact that after all the changes +to which its organization has been exposed, its ranks, whatever may be +the case as to some of its leaders, are mainly composed of men with like +dispositions with those by whom that organization was effected; yet its +best friends set up in its behalf no claim to infallibility, nor do they +pretend that its members have never failed in their duty to the cause. +They know that men do not escape from their liability to err by uniting +with a political association. Circumstances of the gravest character +have besides put the adherence of its members to the principles of their +party, in the matter under consideration, to a severer test than any to +which they have hitherto been exposed. For the first time since its +ascent to power in the Federal Government, two of the three great +departments, the Executive and the Judicial, are presided over by +gentlemen who, though raised to their places by its favor, had not been +bred in its ranks but joined them at comparatively advanced periods in +their lives, with opinions formed and matured in an antagonist school. +The motives by which these gentlemen were led to enlist under the +Democratic banner were, beyond question, of the purest character, and +the high position to which they have been raised by their new friends +shows that they were appreciated as they deserved. Most of the +principles and opinions they formed in the ranks of the adversary have +doubtless been changed, and ours adopted in their stead, but, +unfortunately, that which is the subject of our present remark appears +not to have been among the number. + +Several of the members of the President's cabinet and of the bench of +the Supreme Court, perhaps a majority of each, stand in the same +category. In Congress the state of things is not materially different; +when we look at the gentlemen who have been most prominent in the Kansas +embroilment, on the side of the administration, we find an unprecedented +number of the same class. It is most proper to avoid referring +unnecessarily to names in a work of this character, especially when such +reference is not for particular commendation, but the innocence of the +motive in this case will excuse a slight departure from the rule. Among +the most prominent of those who have taken the lead on the Democratic +side in the two houses of Congress in respect to the affairs of Kansas, +will be found the names of Toombs, of the Senate, and Stephens, of the +House--both from Georgia, and both, for aught I know or have ever known, +honorable men, doubtless actuated by good motives. I know neither +personally, and never heard of either particularly, save as extreme +partisans in the ranks of our opponents. I will not vouch for precise +accuracy as to dates, but I am persuaded I will not err materially in +saying that neither professed to belong to the Democratic party until +after their appointment and election to their present posts. All of +these gentlemen not merely believe, as it is very natural that they +should, in this supremacy of the judicial power in such matters,--an +idea always heretofore scouted by the Democracy of the land,--but they +maintain it before the country, under circumstances rendered very +imposing by their high official positions, as a test of party fidelity. +The Executive, whose elevation to power cost the Democracy so fearful a +struggle, and from whose success so much was and still is expected, has +done this clearly and undisguisedly in respect to the support of +Lecompton, and virtually in respect to the question of judicial +supremacy. Mr. Stephens offered a resolution declaring the support of +the Lecompton Act, a measure closely interwoven with the principle of +which we are speaking, as a test question in the Democratic caucus over +which presided Mr. Cochran,--a promising young man from New York, +descended from a family as thoroughly imbued with Hamiltonian Federalism +as any this State has produced (one of them Hamilton's brother-in-law), +brought up till he arrived at man's estate among the straightest of the +sect, and on that account entitled to greater credit for throwing +himself with becoming zeal into the Democratic ranks, but for the same +reason less likely to embrace their creed in its full extent, and less +qualified to instruct them in the principles of their faith. + +But there is an obstacle to an adherence on the part of the Democratic +party to their ancient faith, in respect to these proceedings of the +court, far more potent than those to which I have referred. This arises +from the circumstance that those proceedings had their origin mainly in +a sincere belief that they were necessary to protect a paramount and +absorbing interest in nearly half the States of the Confederacy, with +the security and quiet of which the citizens of those States believe +their happiness and welfare to be inseparably involved. These are also +the States in which the Democratic party possesses comparatively its +greatest influence, and in some of which the true principles of the +Constitution have in general, and especially at earlier periods in our +history, been sought after with great avidity, and in which that under +consideration found its earliest, ablest, and most persevering +supporters. I need not speak of the control which this belief is capable +of exerting over most of those who are by their position brought within +the range of its practical operation. Minds thus excited find no +insuperable difficulty in placing the object of their solicitude upon +the footing of the _salus populi_, or in looking upon any measure that +tends to its security as justifiable, because it is in execution of the +_suprema lex_. Before such a feeling, so widely diffused, constitutional +objections and all the principles which on ordinary occasions bind the +consciences and influence the actions of men, are seldom, if ever, of +much avail. + +Neither will full justice have been done to the subject, notwithstanding +this formidable array of hindrances in the path of duty, if I omit to +refer to the inducement, always so strong with political parties, to +avail themselves of every opportunity that presents or seems to present +itself to "_commend the poisoned chalice_" to the lips of their +opponents--a temptation they find it hard to resist, however much their +own hands or consciences may have to be soiled in the operation. Few of +the present generation who have made themselves at all conversant with +the course of public affairs, need to be told how constant and openly +professed has been the faith of the old Federalists and their political +successors in the infallibility and omnipotence of the decisions of the +Supreme Court of the United States upon constitutional questions. The +complaints of the old Republicans and their successors upon that head +have been both loud and long continued. When they made the country ring +with them in respect to the unconstitutionality and tyrannical character +of the Alien and Sedition Laws, the ready and only reply of their +opponents was, that it belonged to the judicial power to decide upon +their constitutionality, and that their expediency was a matter to be +solved in the breast of Congress. In more modern times, when its +unconstitutionality was objected to the second Bank of the United +States, the decision of the Supreme Court in favor of the power of +Congress to establish it was the equally ready and confident answer to +all complaints on that ground. Other and similar instances might be +referred to, but it is unnecessary. For the first time since the +formation of the present Government the supreme bench, considerably +changed in the political complexion of its members and tempted, +doubtless more or less under the pressure of an all-absorbing popular +influence at the South, to borrow a leaf from the book of our political +opponents, has undertaken to control, adversely to the views of those +opponents, a great political question by an extrajudicial decision of +the court. As one of the consequences, a hue and cry has been raised +against that august tribunal, hitherto revered by them as the only +political sanctuary; trusted as the ark of safety;--a clamor reaching to +a demand for the reorganization of the court itself;--a point never even +approached by the Democracy when their displeasure has been raised to +the greatest height by its unauthorized assumptions of political power. +It is not then surprising that portions of the Democratic party should +have been led to give the qualified assent which they have given to the +Federal principle under consideration. I say qualified, for the guarded +manner in which those who so assent have urged the influence which the +decision of the court ought to have upon the question, must have been +apparent to all; and this has been very much to their credit, +especially in the slaveholding States. The references which have been +made to the doings of the judiciary, in most instances, have savored +more of what is known in the law as a _plea of estoppel_ than of a claim +of right,--a plea by which the truth or falsity of any matter brought +forward by one party is waived, and its admission resisted on the ground +that the party relying upon it has precluded himself from introducing it +by some act or concession appearing upon the record, or established +_aliunde_. If the doctrine of estoppel could be applied to politicians, +it would certainly not be difficult to show that the Federal party and +its successors are very clearly estopped from objecting to the action of +the Supreme Court of which we have been speaking. + +It may, under such circumstances, be safely assumed that the Democratic +party has not committed itself to a departure from its professed +principles upon this subject to an extent which it cannot be relieved +from without a sacrifice of self-respect on the part of its members, or +without serious prejudice to its well-earned title to the confidence of +the country. That it will so relieve itself its past good sense and +active patriotism forbid us to doubt. Let us hope that the protecting +care of a kind Providence, which has hitherto carried our country in +safety through so many perils, will in His own good time afford us a +breathing spell at least, from the baleful excitements attendant upon +slavery agitation. When that happy period arrives ... besides the +incalculable advantage it will bring to the highest interests of all +parties and all sections of our country, the Democrats in the +slaveholding States will not fail to see the folly of asking their +political coadjutors in the free States to cooperate in the support of +measures and principles in sustaining which they cannot be sustained at +home. The hair-breadth escape of their common party from destruction at +the last Presidential election, and the deplorable condition to which +the Democratic party has been reduced in the non-slaveholding States, by +a past disregard of that consideration, will then be allowed their +proper admonitory effect. All will then acknowledge that in the steps +which have recently been taken, having their origin in the same bitter +and deplorable source, the Democratic party, always before the able and +zealous defender of the Constitution against similar inroads, had +entered upon a path which leads directly and inevitably to a revolution +of the Government in the most important of its functions--a revolution +which would in time substitute for the present healthful and beneficial +action of public opinion the selfish and contracted rule of a judicial +oligarchy, which, sympathizing in feeling and acting in concert with the +money power, would assuredly subvert the best features of a political +system that needs only to be honestly administered to enable it to +realize those anticipations of our country's greatness which now warm +the hearts and animate the patriotism and nerve the arms of her faithful +sons. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Effects of our Leading Party Conflicts in the Light of Seventy + Years' Experience--Contest as to the Relative Powers of the State + and General Governments--Merits and Faults of the Parties to that + Contest--The Credit of settling the Struggle upon right Grounds due + to Jefferson's Administration--Attempt of the Federalists to give + undue Supremacy to the Judicial Department and Failure of that + Attempt--Hamilton's Funding System--History of its Establishment, + Continuance, and Overthrow--The National Bank Struggle--The + Protective System--Clay's American System--Internal Improvements by + the General Government--Overthrow of these Measures the beneficent + Work of the Democratic Party--No such Contributions to the Public + Welfare made by the Opponents of that Party--The Debt of Gratitude + due from the Country to Madison, to Jackson, and especially to + Jefferson. + + +It will not be deemed inappropriate to close this review of the rise and +progress of our political parties, and of the principles upon which they +have acted, with a fuller notice of the advantages and disadvantages +which have resulted to the country from their conflicting acts and +pretensions during an experience of more than seventy years. In deciding +the character of parties by their works we will but follow the dictates +of unerring wisdom, by which we are taught to judge the tree by its +fruit. + +A great question, and naturally the first that arose in the formation of +our political system, related to the power that should be reserved to, +and the treatment that should be extended towards, the State +governments. Rivalries between them and the Federal head could not be +prevented. To mitigate the evil by dealing justly and wisely with the +State authorities, was all that could be done. Each of the great +parties which have divided the country had, from the beginning, its own, +and they were conflicting opinions, in respect to the spirit in which +this important subject should be dealt with. These, and the acts and +sayings they gave rise to, have been herein freely spoken of, and what +has been said need not be repeated. The facts and circumstances brought +into view, consisting in a considerable degree of the reiterated +declarations of the parties themselves, with a mass of others supplied +by contemporaneous history, fully justify the belief that if Hamilton +and Morris, and the influential men of the party of which the former was +through life the almost absolute leader, could have had their way, the +State governments would have been reduced to conditions in regard to +power and dignity which would not only have destroyed their usefulness, +but from which they must have sunk into insignificance and contempt; to +which state it was the avowed wish of those leaders to depress them. +This desire was frustrated in the Federal Convention, not so much +through favorable feeling towards the State authorities as by a +conviction on the part of a majority--a conviction which could neither +be disguised nor suppressed--that the old Anti-Federal party would be +sufficiently strengthened by a plan of the Constitution, against which a +design clearly hostile to the State governments could be fairly charged, +to enable that party to prevent its ratification. John Quincy Adams, to +his declaration that the "Constitution was extorted from the grinding +necessity of a reluctant nation," might have added, with equal truth, +that the Constitution, in the form it bore on this point, was extorted +from the Convention by a necessity not less effectual. Hamilton's design +to attain the object he had failed to accomplish in the Convention, by +"_administrating_" the Constitution, in the language of Madison, into a +thing very different from what they both knew it was intended to be, +was defeated by the old Republican party. + +The lowest point to which the State governments would have been reduced, +if the influence that was exerted to lessen their power had not been +defeated in the way I have described, must of necessity be matter of +speculation only. Hamilton, as we have seen, declared candidly that he +knew of no reason why he did not advocate their total overthrow other +than the manifest strong desire of the people for their retention; +whilst Morris, with equal openness, said that if they could not abolish +them altogether, it was nevertheless desirable to pull the teeth of the +serpents. + +There can be but little doubt that a complete triumph of the Federal +policy would have resulted in a decline of the State governments, if +they escaped extinguishment, from the condition which they occupied at +the period of the recognition of our Independence to mere municipal +authorities, without sufficient power to render them extensively +useful--fit theatres only for the exercise and enjoyment of the +patronage of the Federal government. + +The Anti-Federalists, like their opponents, could only look with favor +on one side of this great question. I do not complain of their +partiality for the State governments, for it was in them a natural and +inherited feeling, one which had been cherished with equal ardor from a +remote period in our history by men whose places they filled and whom +they most resembled. Their fault was the exclusiveness of their +preference. They could not and did not deny that a general government of +some sort was indispensable, and they should therefore have stood ready +to confer upon it such powers as were necessary to enable it to sustain +itself and to qualify it for the successful performance of the duties to +be assigned to it. This they would not do. They, on the contrary, +allowed their local prejudices and their suspicious, in some instances +well founded but unwisely indulged, to lead them to persistent refusals +to concede to the Federal head means which a sufficient experience had +shown to be absolutely necessary to good government. Public and private +interests suffered from that cause, and they were justly held +responsible for the consequences. Their conduct was as unjustifiable and +as suicidal as was the unmitigated warfare waged by leading Federalists +against the State governments; and no political course adopted by public +men or political parties, of which it could be said that it was +intentionally wrong, has hitherto, to their honor be it spoken, long +escaped rebuke from the American people. + +The Anti-Federal party by their pertinacious, nay morbid perseverance in +a wrong course, exposed themselves to the same penalty which was at a +later period inflicted upon their old opponents--as a party they were +overthrown and ruined. + +The merit of discouraging and finally extinguishing this unnatural, +unprofitable, and unnecessary struggle between the friends of the +General and State governments, and of vindicating the Federal +Constitution, by placing the peculiar principle it sought to establish +for the government to be constituted under its authority, that of an +_imperium in imperio_, upon a practicable and safe footing, was reserved +for the administration of Thomas Jefferson. For the evils arising from +the pernicious rivalry between agencies, upon the harmonious cooperation +of which the framers of the Constitution relied for the success of that +instrument, the remedy recommended by Mr. Jefferson in his inaugural +address, as expressed in his own inimitable language, was "the support +of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent +administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwark +against anti-republican tendencies: the preservation of the General +Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our +peace at home and safety abroad." These propositions, so simple, so +natural, and so plainly in accord with the spirit of the Constitution, +though, in common with other suggestions from the same source designed +by their author to give repose to an over-agitated community, received +at the time with indifference by incensed partisans, met with a cordial +welcome from the great body of the people. Their fitness and probable +efficacy could not be successfully controverted, and although they did +not escape factious opposition, a majority of the people, tired of the +unavailing agitation which the subject had undergone, and more and more +satisfied of Mr. Jefferson's sincere desire to advance the general +interest, embraced them with constantly increasing earnestness, and +sustained them until they became the successful as well as settled +policy of the Government. Angry passions, having their origin in this +prolific source of partisan strife, which swept over and convulsed the +country during the Government of the Confederation, and for at least +twenty years after the adoption of the new Constitution, have been +subdued. The State governments, increased in number from thirteen to +more than thirty, with no other powers than those reserved to them by +the undisputed provisions of the Constitution, have advanced to a degree +of dignity and usefulness which has enabled them to extend to their +citizens seven eighths of the aid and protection for which they look to +government, either State or national, and has also removed from their +representatives all fear of the encroachments of the Federal Government; +whilst the latter, having proven itself able to sustain itself without +the aid of constructive powers, and to perform with promptitude and +success all the duties assigned to it, is no longer disturbed by +apprehensions of the factious spirit and grasping designs once so +freely charged upon the State authorities. + +For this auspicious state of things we are beyond all doubt indebted, +more than to any other cause, to the conservative character of +Democratic principles and the unwavering fidelity of the party that +sustains them. + +To understand truly the advantages which the country has derived from +the success of this policy, and the defeat of that to which it was +opposed, we have only to picture to ourselves what the condition of the +State governments must have been if the latter had triumphed, and to +compare it with the actual state of things. Assuming that the desire to +divest them of the authority which they had gradually acquired, as +occasions for its exercise were developed by the necessities of the +public service, at one time so strong with leading Federalists and as we +have seen so openly avowed, had been limited to what was actually +proposed, viz., to give to the General Government the power to appoint +their governors, and through them the most important of their minor +officers, including those of the militia, with an absolute veto upon all +State laws,--what, judging according to the experience we have had, +would now have been the character and condition of those governments? +Without the authority required to make themselves useful, or +respectability sufficient to excite the ambition of individuals to be +honorably employed in their service, and thus to divide their attention +and regard between the Federal and State governments, they would +have sunk gradually into feeble, unimportant, characterless +establishments--mere places for the sinecure appointments of the former. +Contrast institutions like these--and only such could have been possible +under the policy advocated by the leading Federalists--with the galaxy +of independent governments of which we now boast, such as no +confederation, ancient or modern, possessed, vested with authority and +dignity, and filling the States respectively with monuments of their +wisdom, enterprise, usefulness, and philanthropy; and contrast the +Federal Government, resting as it now does on these tried and ample +foundations, with one based on establishments like those to which it was +proposed to degrade the States, and we will have some idea of the +dangers that the people of the United States have escaped, and the +advantages they have secured by the wisdom of their course and the +patriotism of those who advised it. If the Democratic party of +Jefferson's time, and under his lead, had effected nothing else for the +country, they would have done enough in this to deserve the perpetual +respect and gratitude of the whole people. + +Yet this was but the beginning of their usefulness, subsequent to the +adoption of the present Constitution. + +No sooner had the efforts of the leaders of the Federal party to break +down the power and influence of the State governments been arrested +through the triumph of the Democratic party in the great contest of +1800, which was to a great extent carried on in their defense, than an +attempt was set on foot to rescue a portion of the political power lost +by the former, by raising the judicial power--the dispensers of which +were to a man on their side--above the executive and legislative +departments of the Federal Government. Of this enterprise, its origin, +progress, and present condition, I have taken the notice which I thought +was demanded by its importance. That it was unsuccessful, and that the +balance of power between those departments, so necessary to the security +of liberty and to the preservation of the Government, has not been +destroyed, is altogether due to the persevering opposition of the +Democratic party under the same bold and capable leader. + +Where the points in issue between political parties have been of so +grave a character as those in the United States, it is not an easy +matter to decide on their relative importance, or in which the right and +the wrong was most apparent. Whilst some have resolved themselves mainly +into questions of expediency, in respect to which errors may be +committed without incurable injury to our institutions, there have been +others striking at their roots, which would, if differently decided, +have ended in their inevitable destruction. The two to which I have +referred were emphatically of the latter character, and hence the +inestimable value of the successful resistance that was made on the +Democratic side. + +Hamilton's funding system, though involving in respect to the assumption +of the State debts a grave constitutional question, was in its principal +features one of expediency. Yet it was an important one, by reason of +the serious consequences that were apprehended from its assumed +tendency, and produced impressions upon the public scarcely less marked +than were made by any public question which had before or has since +arisen in this country. The character of that system, and the injuries +that were anticipated from its establishment, have been spoken of in a +previous part of this essay. Only a slight consideration of the +operations of a similar system elsewhere will be sufficient to show how +greatly the welfare of nations has been affected by their course in +respect to it. + +Of these, England, from her present condition in regard to her public +debt, compared with that in which it is believed she might have stood if +her course in that respect had been guided by wiser counsels, presents +the most instructive example. Ours derives interest scarcely less +impressive from the evils we have avoided by abandoning, whilst that was +yet in our power, the further imitation of her example after we had +fully begun to imitate it. That the system was established here with +much _eclat_, and under explanations and circumstances indicative of a +determination on the part of the men in power to adhere to it as long as +and whenever a public debt existed, all know. It is also known that the +practice of funding the public debt, for which it furnished the plan, +has long been discontinued. Through what agency and upon what +inducements that discontinuance has been brought about, and who is +entitled to the credit of protecting the country from the evils flowing +from the practice elsewhere, can only be ascertained by an impartial +examination of its further history. To bestow that attention upon the +subject is perhaps not necessary for instruction or example, as a +national bank has not become more completely an "obsolete idea" amongst +us, or more thoroughly condemned in public opinion than a funding +system. Still there are many considerations which render such an +examination an object of curiosity certainly, and one not destitute of +higher interest. If the change which was effected in the policy and +action of the Government in this regard has been as advantageous as with +the light which experience has thrown upon the subject cannot be longer +doubted, it is highly proper that those who brought about the reform +should have the credit of it. + +No important transaction upon which patriotism of such an order and +intellects of such caliber as distinguished the public men of that day +were earnestly employed, can be without interest to inquiring minds of +this. It is so long since the whole affair has passed from public +attention as to make it an unfamiliar subject to most of us. I confess +it was so to me, and those who read these sheets will not complain if +the interest I have taken in following it to its termination shall at +least save them from some of the trouble that would otherwise have been +necessary to master its details. + +Strongly excited by the first appearance of the project at the head of +Hamilton's programme, as well described by Madison in his interesting +statement to Mr. Trist, the old Republicans in and out of Congress, with +Jefferson as their adviser and at their head, rallied promptly in +earnest and unyielding opposition to its consummation. Overborne by a +large majority in the first Congress, devoted as it was to Hamilton and +his measures, they could not defeat the bill for its establishment, and +were obliged to content themselves in the first instance with efforts to +expose its objectionable features to the people, in the hope of +rendering it too odious to be persisted in. They also resorted, as they +often afterwards did on similar occasions, to the State legislatures for +advice and cooperation. That of Virginia, the President's native State, +as well as the place of his residence, denounced the scheme very soon +after its introduction, in resolutions of much power, touching the +subject upon the points in respect to which it was most exceptionable. +Its opponents in Congress also kept a watchful eye upon the steps taken +by the Secretary towards its execution, and followed every important +movement by calls for information and by pertinent resolutions. These +calls were generally upon the Secretary, occasionally on the President +himself. As early as 1792, the Republicans caused the introduction of, +and gave efficient support to, a resolution that "measures ought to be +taken for the redemption of so much of the public debt as by the act +making provision for the debts of the United States, they have the right +to redeem." In this resolution, which was adopted by the House, a +provision was inserted, against the votes of the old Republicans, to +direct the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare the plan for the +contemplated redemption. Those who were opposed to its preparation by +that officer desired to have it done by a committee, and apprehended +obstacles on his part to an efficient prosecution of the reform they +supported. + +The resolution, though not expressly such in its terms, was obviously +designed as a side-blow at the funding system. That the Secretary so +regarded it was sufficiently apparent from the graceful notice, in his +report, of the circumstance that "the House had predetermined the +question in regard to the expediency of the proposed redemption, and +only submitted to his consideration the best mode of carrying it into +effect." He then proceeded to state the different ways in which the +object in view might be accomplished, designated that which he thought +most expedient, pointed out the increased burdens on the people it would +require, and specified the taxes the imposition of which he thought +would be necessary. His report was drawn up with his accustomed skill +and ability, but the measure was no further prosecuted at that time. + +The President was subsequently called upon, at the instance of the +Republicans, for copies of the commissions and instructions under which +Hamilton had borrowed some twelve millions of dollars in Europe in +virtue of a provision of the act establishing the funding system, and a +call was at the same time made upon Hamilton for an account of the +manner in which the money had been applied. These calls brought from the +President copies of the commission and instructions, the latter of which +were very precise and in strict conformity, in every respect, to the +law, and from Hamilton an elaborate report, drawn with a degree of care +and power unusual even with him. He appears to have anticipated a storm, +and to have prepared himself for every contingency, as far as his +conduct could be sustained by the facts. Those who derive pleasure from +the intellectual efforts of great minds, however remote the occasion +that called them forth, will not begrudge the time spent in reading his +report. + +A series of resolutions introduced into the House by Giles of Virginia, +charged the Secretary with having violated both the law and the +President's instructions, by the manner in which he had executed the +authority confided to him. These resolutions, after a long and animated +debate, were thrown out by strong votes, of the composition of which Mr. +Jefferson undertakes to give an account in his annals. But no +unprejudiced mind can read Madison's unanswerable speech, which will be +found in the first volume of "Benton's Abridgment of the Debates of +Congress," p. 431, without being convinced that the truth of both +charges was established. He proves by the Secretary's own letters that +on the very day of the receipt of the President's instructions he +commenced arrangements, which he, notwithstanding, carried into effect, +for an application of the funds diametrically opposite to that which the +President had directed him to make. + +Mr. Randall, in his "Life of Thomas Jefferson,"[39] has accidentally +fallen into a singular mistake in saying that "Mr. Madison voted with +the majority on every division" on that occasion, and on that assumption +proceeds to show "that Jefferson put a less charitable construction on +the motives of the majority," by giving the following entry in his +"Ana": "March the 2d, 1793. See, in the papers of this date, Mr. Giles's +Resolutions. He and one or two others were sanguine enough to believe +that the palpableness of these resolutions rendered it impossible the +House could reject them. Those who knew the composition of the +House,--1. Of bank directors; 2. Holders of bank stock; 3. +Stock-jobbers; 4. Blind devotees; 5. Ignorant persons who did not +comprehend them; 6. Lazy and good-humored persons, who comprehended and +acknowledged them, yet were too lazy to examine or unwilling to +pronounce censure,--the persons who knew these characters foresaw that +the three first descriptions making one third of the House, the three +latter would make one half of the residue; and of course that they would +be rejected by a majority of two to one. But they thought that even this +rejection would do good, by showing the public the desperate and +abandoned dispositions with which their affairs were conducted. The +resolutions were proposed, and nothing spared to present them in the +fullness of demonstration. There were not more than three or four who +voted otherwise than had been expected." + + [39] Vol. II. p. 119. + +Mr. Madison voted with the minority on every division, and so far was he +from acting otherwise that William Smith, of South Carolina, the devoted +friend of Hamilton, charged him with saying after the vote that "the +opinion of the House on the preceding resolutions would not change the +truth of facts, and that the public would ultimately decide whether the +Secretary's conduct was criminal or not." + +The character of this debate and the open disregard of the President's +instructions by the Secretary, which it established, were not likely to +pass unheeded or even lightly regarded through the proud and sensitive +mind of Washington. + +Other circumstances may be referred to which show quite clearly that the +latter was not at ease upon the subject of the finances. Among these is +one of a very striking character, not known at the time, and only +recently disclosed through the publication of the "Hamilton Papers" by +order of Congress. I allude to the correspondence between him and +Washington, to which I have before referred for another purpose, and +which will be found in the fourth volume of "Hamilton's Works," +commencing at page 510. The committee appointed by Congress to examine +the state of the treasury preparatory to Hamilton's resignation, then +expected but postponed for a season, were charged by that body to +"inquire into the authorities, from the President to the Secretary of +the Treasury, respecting the making and disbursing of the loans" which +were the subject of the debate and proceedings above referred to. +Hamilton thought the inquiry beyond the province of the committee, but +wishing to be prepared, if they should decide otherwise, furnished the +President with a statement of the facts, as he understood them to be, +with a view to his approval. Washington indorsed on it a certificate +which was very unsatisfactory to Hamilton, who thereupon addressed to +him a long and earnest letter, in which he complained vehemently, and +with the frankness and boldness natural to him, of not having been +sustained by the President in a delicate and responsible part of his +official duties in respect to the public debt. It does not appear that +Washington made any reply to this extraordinary letter, or that he did +anything further upon the subject which had called it forth. + +Whilst the proceedings which led to the debate of which I have spoken +were going on, a bill was introduced on the recommendation of the +Secretary, for a second assumption of State debts, and authorizing a +loan to be opened for that purpose. Notwithstanding strenuous efforts on +the part of the Republican members to prevent its passage, the bill +passed the House, but only by the casting vote of Mr. Speaker Trumbull. +These circumstances were brought to the notice of the President by +Jefferson, before the bill was acted upon by the Senate, and it was +rejected by that body. He speaks in his "Ana" of the prevalent +impression that the bill had been defeated by the interference of the +President, through Lear, with Langdon, who till that time had gone +steadily for the funding system but now opposed its extension. +Jefferson says, "Beckley knows this." + +But whatever may have been the state of feeling between these great men, +arising out of the condition of the finances, or the course of the +Secretary in respect to them, we have the best reasons for believing +that there was a growing sentiment in the Federal party adverse to the +expediency of keeping on foot the funding system. It soon began to lose +the brilliant hues in which it had been clothed, at its first +introduction, by the very imposing report of the Secretary. Our foreign +creditors showed an unwillingness to subject their debts to its +operation, and the means taken to find subjects to be embraced by its +provisions could not fail to excite odium against the measure. The +people were not a little predisposed to listen favorably to the charges +that were made against it on the part of the Republicans, by the +circumstances heretofore noticed that it was so close an imitation of +the English system, and adopted upon the heel of the Revolution. The +growing jealousy of the people, and consequent increase of public clamor +against it, caused a wide-spread conviction through the Federal ranks +that the entire success of the Republican party could only be prevented +by its abandonment,--a conviction greatly strengthened and stimulated to +action by the startling fact that, although the President had just been +reelected by the unanimous vote of the people, the country was convulsed +by partisan rancors, for which there was no other apology than the +measures of his administration, and the Confederacy which he came into +power to cement was in imminent peril of disruption by their violence. +Neither was this the worst nor the most humiliating view of the case. +For the first time during our existence as an independent nation, even +including the period of the proverbially weak government of the +Confederation, our free institutions suffered the discredit of an open +rebellion against the authority of the Federal Government springing up +in the Quaker State, one of the oldest and best settled in the +Confederacy and in which was established the seat of that Government, +against the imposition of a tax always and everywhere odious, an +"infernal tax," as Jefferson called it;--an insurrection of so much +importance as to induce Washington to call into the field a force +numerically larger than was ever concentrated at one place during the +War of the Revolution, or ever organized in one body in the course of +two wars through which the country has since passed, and nearly if not +quite double that with which Scott fought his way through a hostile +nation of eight millions, and entered the City of Mexico in triumph. No +feature in the character of Washington has ever been disclosed which +will allow us to believe for a moment that those scenes could have +failed to disturb and agitate deeply his lofty and sensitive spirit. We +have a fact, now for the first time, as far as I know or believe, +revealed in Randall's "Life of Jefferson," which gives us some clue to +the current of Washington's thoughts at that very critical period of his +life. Hamilton, whose resignation was about to take effect, applied to +have the time prolonged until after the impending insurrection had been +suppressed, on the ground that as it was menaced in consequence of a +measure of his Department, it would not be proper for him to leave his +post until the crisis had terminated, and he had also asked for leave to +attend the troops to the scene of the outbreak. Both of these +applications had been readily agreed to by the President. In the midst +of these movements, between the first Proclamation offering pardon to +the rebels upon their return to duty and the second calling the troops +into the field and announcing the intended application of military +force, an express was sent to Mr. Jefferson with an invitation to him +to resume his former place in Washington's cabinet. This fact is +indisputable, for Jefferson's answer declining the invitation is +published by Randall. + +What was the nature and what the extent of Washington's design in this +application? The assumption is justified by the lapse of time and by +other circumstances, that as no record of his intentions has come to +light none exists, and it is therefore a question on which we are only +able to speculate; but there is another question, the answer to which, +though not quite certain, may be made so, and which, when ascertained, +would throw much light upon the subject of our speculations. + +Was Hamilton advised of the application to Jefferson, and was it made +with his approbation? The thorough examinations and publications which +have been made of the papers of both Washington and Hamilton, without +the disclosure of a single reference to the main fact, authorize the +belief that Hamilton never was a party to the movement in any shape. In +respect to Hamilton's papers, this inference is particularly strong, as, +from the quasi-rivalry which has recently been set on foot by his +descendants between his own fame and that of Washington, it may well be +presumed that if they could have furnished evidence of such an act of +disloyalty to Federalism on the part of Washington as his invitation to +Jefferson, who had, after his retirement, openly charged Congress with +the most flagrant corruption, and traced its origin to the measures of +the Secretary of the Treasury, the information would certainly not have +been withheld from publication. The same considerations lead with still +greater confidence to the conclusion that no movement had been made +towards any other than a temporary change of purpose in regard to his +resignation on the part of Hamilton. Washington's letter giving his +consent to the postponement, is published among the "Hamilton Papers," +and from all that was said or done upon the subject it is quite clear +that no attempt was made by him to dissuade Hamilton from carrying his +resolution into effect, and that such resolution was final on the part +of the latter from the beginning. + +Incidents occurring at an early period of their relations were well +calculated to induce circumspection in such a matter on both sides. The +uncertainty in regard to Washington's ulterior intentions in the step he +had just taken will become more apparent the more the question is +considered. Mr. Randall seems to infer from it a desire on his part to +return to the system of _a balanced government_ with which he commenced +his administration. But to the consummation of such a design the assent +of Hamilton was absolutely indispensable, and that, with the lights +before us, we may safely assume was neither asked nor given. I find it, +besides, difficult to resist the conclusion that Washington's preference +for that sort of government must by that time have been greatly weakened +if not entirely extinguished. He had tried it under circumstances far +more eligible than those then existing or than he could reasonably +anticipate, and had found it disastrous. Jefferson had in the most +positive terms declined an attempt to coalesce with Hamilton, as made +impossible by the radical differences in their political principles. The +same differences continued, and their personal relations had now become +much more embittered. For these and other reasons that could be given, +it is extremely difficult to reconcile with his well-known prudence the +design hypothetically attributed to Washington by Randall. + +If there is the force in these suggestions that they appear to me to +possess, we would seem to be driven to the conclusion that Washington +contemplated, in military language, a _change of front_ dependent upon +Jefferson's acceptance; that he meant not only to place Jefferson at the +head of his cabinet, but to give an increased effect to his principles +in the future administration of the Government. I confess that this is a +startling supposition, even to my own mind, and one in respect to which +I feel that I cannot go much beyond surmise. A step of so decided and so +pregnant a character, taken under the pressure of a situation for many +reasons so critical, could not have been thought of by such a man as +Washington without ulterior, well-considered designs. What were they, if +not of the character I have suggested? I can conceive of no other answer +to this question which is not more inconsistent with well-known facts. + +Considerations were not wanting to persuade him that his second term, +under an administration thus directed, would be more agreeable as well +as more auspicious for the country than the first had been. I have +before referred to the contrast between Jefferson and Madison on one +side, and Hamilton on the other, presented by the fact that whilst the +former entered upon the discharge of public offices with feelings and +views similar to those with which they accepted private trusts, +considered themselves under equal obligations to respect the rights and +to carry into full and fair effect the intentions of the parties chiefly +concerned, and would have regarded a failure to do either as much a +violation of the principles of probity and honor in one case as in the +other, the latter neither entertained nor professed to act upon such +opinions; he had on the contrary a conviction, which he never changed, +that there were deficiencies in the popular mind which made it +impracticable on the part of men in power to deal safely with the people +by appeals to their good sense and honesty, and that they could only be +successfully governed through their fears or their interests. Hence his +justification of measures addressed to their passions and particular +interests, and hence his indifference to the faithful observance of the +Constitution as a moral or honorable obligation and his utter +recklessness of constitutional restraints in his public career, +notwithstanding the perfect uprightness of his dealings in private life. + +Washington's personal character has been never correctly appreciated, if +the former of these systems or ideas was not more congenial with his +taste and with the suggestions of his heart than the latter. In giving +his assent to the bill for the establishment of the bank, he could not +shut his eyes to the fact that he was sanctioning a measure which he had +conclusive reason to believe was never intended to be authorized by the +Constitution, framed by a convention over which he had presided. Reasons +of supposed state necessity we are warranted in believing reconciled his +conscience to the step, but it cannot be doubted, without injustice to +his character, that it was a hard service and altogether repugnant to +his feelings. His inquietude under these restraints upon his natural +inclinations was exhibited on more than one occasion. His letter to the +venerable Edmund Pendleton, (one of the purest of men,) published by +Randall, was one of them. That rumors were rife in respect to the +measures decided upon by Federal cabals if Washington had refused to +sign the Bank Bill we learn from several sources, and no one who knew +Mr. Madison can doubt that he spoke with full knowledge when he said to +Trist as already quoted, that if the President had vetoed the Bill +"_there would have been an effort to nullify it_" (the veto), "_and +they_" (the leading Federalists) "_would have arrayed themselves in a +hostile attitude_." It is, besides, against nature to suppose that +Washington's consciousness of the past condition of things in this +regard and recollection of the scenes referred to by Madison, had not +been painfully revived by the offensive letter he had received from +Hamilton only four months before the period of which we are speaking. + +The probable correctness of the inference under consideration ought not +to be tested by the character of the subsequent relations between +Washington and Hamilton. Jefferson declined the President's invitation +to resume his former seat in his cabinet promptly but respectfully and +kindly. Mr. Randall says that he has read a declaration by President +Washington to the effect that he would have offered the place to +Madison, upon Jefferson's declension, if he had not ascertained that he +would not accept it. These successive and marked steps by the most +prominent leaders of the Republican party, taken in connection with the +results of the preceding Congressional elections, and the avowed +principles upon which they had been conducted, show clearly that the +lines had been distinctly and finally drawn between the Republicans who +had hitherto sustained the administration in general and the Federal +party; the opinion at which Jefferson and the Republicans had arrived +being that the differences which had arisen, founded as they chiefly +were on the interpretation of the Constitution and the degree of +sanctity attaching to that instrument, could not be satisfactorily +settled by any divided counsels, or by any the most liberal and friendly +dispositions of the President; that the season for obtaining present +redress and future security upon those points through such means had +passed away, and that their proper course, whilst continuing their +respect for and their confidence in Washington to the end, was to +support the measures of his administration as far as they could +consistently with their avowed principles, and to place the Government +in the hands of men of their own school at the earliest practicable +moment after his voluntary retirement. + +The President, having greatly against his inclination consented to stand +by the helm for another term, and having been reelected by the unanimous +vote of the country, had no other course to pursue than to carry on the +Government under its existing organization, relying for his support upon +the Federal party, with such cooperation as his measures might draw from +its opponents. Hamilton resigned at the end of the quarter, his +resignation was accepted in the way I have described, and as the actual +and acknowledged leader of the Federal party, though out of office, he +kept up his relations with Washington's administration as well as with +that of his successor, Mr. Adams, as has been already set forth. The +administration having been virtually, and, in the English sense, +actually overthrown by being reduced to a minority in the popular branch +of the national legislature, the President, having signally failed in +his disinterested and patriotic attempt to arrest the adverse current by +a reconstruction of his cabinet so as to place at its head the known and +acknowledged leader of the opposition to the principal measures of the +Government, and obliged by his reelection to remain at his post till the +expiration of his second term or to retire with discredit, turned his +attention to an earnest survey of the policy to which so disastrous a +state of things might be attributed. That it had not originated in any +objections personal to himself was shown by the fact that the same +election which exhibited the evidence of dissatisfaction, on the part of +a majority of the people, with the measures of Government, demonstrated +also by his unanimous reelection their continued confidence in him. +Those measures to which the deprecated result was attributed were the +bank and the funding system. Jay's treaty had no agency in producing it, +that disturbing question not having then arisen, and its only effect, in +this respect, was during the last year of Washington's administration +to increase the majority against the Government to so great an extent as +to enable the Republicans to carry Kitchel's resolution condemnatory of +the President's own act in refusing to lay before Congress the +instructions and papers connected with the negotiation of the treaty, by +a vote, including absentees whose sentiments were known, of very nearly +two to one. + +The bank, to the operations of which Jefferson, whilst in retirement, +openly and unreservedly attributed the corruption of Congress, had +passed beyond reach, but the funding system was yet open to the action +of the Government. It was in respect to this ill-omened and ill-fated +measure that the tocsin had been first sounded of that alarm which now +extensively pervaded the public mind, and it was beyond all doubt that +no other act of the Government had proven a more prolific source of +popular discontent. It was not the existence of the debt of which the +people complained; they gladly accepted that burden, on the contrary, as +the price of their liberties; but it was the system devised by Hamilton +for its management and for the treatment of their fiscal affairs +generally that excited their severe displeasure. They believed that the +politico-fiscal agencies congenial with, and cherished features of, +monarchical institutions had been adopted in servile emulation of the +English system, and as they were acknowledged sources of corruption in +that system, that they had been introduced for similar effect here. +Hamilton's oft-avowed preference for the English model gave much color +to the first part of this conclusion, and the exasperated feelings of +our people toward that government predisposed the public mind against +the whole policy. Nor were these resentments without adequate cause. No +independent nation was ever worse treated by another than was ours by +Great Britain from the recognition of our Independence until after the +war of 1812. So arrogant and outrageous was her conduct at this very +period that Washington, as appears by his published letters to Hamilton +in August 1796, found it difficult to keep the expressions of his +dissatisfaction within the bounds demanded by his official position, and +Hamilton was driven to admit in his reply that "we were subject to +inconveniences too nearly approaching a state of war" to be submitted +to. But these were not the only nor even the principal objections of the +people against the funding system. They were satisfied by reason and +observation that there could never be a proper economy in public +expenditures, or a check to the increase of public debt so long as +Government was not only under no obligation to pay the principal of such +debts but had no right so to do or the right only in respect to a mere +pittance, as was the case with our funded debt. The power to convert the +credit of the nation into revenue by such a policy, of which Hamilton +boasted, was a power in which they thought no government could be safely +indulged. If the argument in favor of that opinion, which need not be +repeated here, was not sufficient to establish its soundness, the +experience of the mother country, which was constantly before their +eyes, afforded conclusive demonstration of it. I have elsewhere stated +the extent to which the debt of England had then already increased, and +the force with which her ablest writer on political economy and finance +had traced that alarming growth, by the lights of experience and reason, +to those features in her funding system. + +Hamilton had been throughout and still remained devoted to what we may +call English principles in the management of our finances, and +constantly desirous to extend them to every species of our public debt, +foreign and domestic. General Washington was wedded to no such views. +The subject belonging peculiarly to Hamilton's department, and having +full confidence in him, he acquiesced in the course he recommended, but +he was always open to conviction, and only wished to leave the question +of its continuance to be decided by its results. In the course of a +conversation with Mr. Jefferson, designed to prevail on him to remain in +the cabinet, the latter says that Washington touched upon the merits of +the funding system, to which he knew that Mr. Jefferson was earnestly +opposed, and expressed himself thus: "There is a difference of opinion +about it, some thinking it very bad, and others very good; experience +was the only criterion of right which he knew, and this alone would +decide which opinion was right." The disappointment generally +experienced by the original friends of the system cannot have failed to +reach Washington, and it is impossible that the discredit which the +measure had brought upon his administration could have escaped the +notice of so sagacious and generally dispassionate an observer of the +course of events. Hamilton was to leave him in a month or two, and he +was destined to pass through an ordeal becoming every day more and more +severe. To relieve his Government as far as practicable from odium from +any source, was therefore a suggestion of duty and interest to which he +could not but give heed. The measure of which we are speaking challenged +his attention. The power of the Government over it, without the consent +of its creditors, was, it is true, very limited, but it could relieve +the system to some extent of a portion of its unpopularity by lessening +its character of irredeemability. The annual eight per cent. for +interest and principal (only two per cent. towards the principal, which +was all the Government had a right to pay, but was never obliged to +pay), it could make itself liable to redeem punctually, and could give +to the creditors securities which would put it out of its power to evade +its undertaking. + +This was all that could be done, and it was not to be doubted that the +accomplishment of this through the interference of Washington, with a +return to the old mode of raising money, would go far to allay honest +apprehensions, and to remove prejudices against his administration +without disadvantage to the public service certainly, and, I may add, +without the slightest departure from the course which it became him to +pursue. He determined to pursue it. That the resolution in regard to the +policy finally adopted upon this point originated with Washington alone, +without consultation with, or advice from, Hamilton, is rendered certain +to my mind from contemporaneous circumstances, some of which will be +referred to. He, of course, communicated his intention to Hamilton, who +proposed to take charge of all the preliminary steps that could be +adopted during the short period of his remaining in office to prepare +the way for the contemplated change. This was proper in itself and +assented to by the President, who thus, as was his way on most +occasions, enabled Hamilton to give to the whole affair the shape he +thought best. The funding system was emphatically his measure, and if it +was to be discontinued, it was proper that he should be permitted to +make its exit as graceful as was practicable. + +The intended movement was preceded by the President's speech to Congress +in November, 1794, from which I extract this passage: "The time which +has elapsed since the commencement of our fiscal measures has developed +our pecuniary resources so as to open a way for a definitive plan for +the redemption of the public debt. It is believed that the result is +such as to encourage Congress to consummate this work without delay. +Nothing can more promote the permanent welfare of the nation, and +nothing would be more grateful to our constituents. Indeed, whatsoever +is unfinished of our system of public credit cannot be benefited by +procrastination; and, as far as may be practicable, we ought to place +that credit on grounds which cannot be disturbed, and to prevent that +progressive accumulation of debt which must ultimately endanger all +governments." + +This was substantially the only part of the speech which related to any +other matter than the Pennsylvanian insurrection, and no one familiar +with Hamilton's writings can doubt that the entire paragraph was +prepared by him,--a proceeding common and in this instance particularly +proper. It presented in general terms a gratifying assurance of the +improvement in the revenues of the Government, and the promised +advantages to the national finances. No reference is made to the +character of the measures by which those advantages were to be secured; +these might be provisions for the immediate reduction of the debt, or at +the least for an earlier reduction than that which was authorized by +law. + +On the 25th of January, eleven days before he left the department, +Hamilton tendered to the Senate an elaborate "plan for the further +support of public credit on the basis of the actual revenue." It was not +his annual report, nor had it been called for by the Senate, but had +been prepared, he said, as a part of his duties, according to the Act by +which they were prescribed, and in conformity with the suggestions of +the President. It fills twenty-seven pages, small print, in the large +folio edition of the American State Papers, and, being his last, was of +course prepared with great care and, as much of course, with great +ability. Jefferson thought, at times, that Hamilton did not himself +understand his own complicated and elaborate reports on the finances, +but in this I am persuaded he was entirely mistaken. Hamilton evidently +held the thousand threads which traversed these voluminous works with a +firm and instructed hand, and perfectly understood their several and +manifold connections with the body of the documents and the results to +which the whole and every part tended. That he meant that others should +understand them as well as he did is perhaps not so certain. + +His plan did not even look to a present reduction of the debt, which +would seem to be the natural consequence of a revenue so prosperous as +that he had described in the speech; that would have been an +impossibility. At the date of his report the debt had increased four +millions from what it was when the funding system was established, +independent of the assumption of those of the States, and at the end of +Mr. Adams's administration, the increase stood at eight millions. I have +not examined the result for each year, but am confident that I hazard +little in affirming that there was not a single year, from the first +period to the last, during which the public debt was not increased. Mr. +Jefferson, in a letter to Mr. Madison, written in 1796, expressed the +opinion that, from the commencement of the new government till the time +when he ceased to attend to it, the debt had augmented a million a year. +The preceding statement shows the correctness of his calculation. + +Neither did Hamilton propose any measures by which the payment of the +debt might be accelerated, but the reverse. The whole debt then stood as +follows: foreign debt, between thirteen and fourteen millions; domestic +debt funded, including those of the States, between sixty and sixty-one +millions, and domestic debt unsubscribed, between one and two millions. +The foreign debt was payable by installments, ending at the expiration +of fifteen years. His plan was to offer the foreign creditors one half +of one per cent. interest, annually, more than it then drew, if they +would consent to make it a domestic debt, and postpone the redemption of +the principal till 1818, which would defer it between eight and nine +years; or, if they refused that, it might remain redeemable at any time +they proposed, so that the redemption of the principal was not +accelerated by making it less than the fifteen years. A law authorizing +such a change was passed, the offer made and declined. The debt was +suffered to stand as it did, and the last payment was made during the +administration of Mr. Madison. In respect to the funded debt, all that +the report proposed (and that proposition was carried into effect by law +shortly after Hamilton retired) was to add materially to the existing +provisions for the payment of the public debt, and to provide +effectually that the funds set apart for that should be regularly and +inviolably applied, first, to the payment of as much of the funded debt +as the Government had a right to pay annually, which was two per cent. +of the principal besides the interest, and after that to the then +existing public debt generally; that is to say, in regard to the funded +debt, it changed the option of the Government to pay the two per cent. +into a positive obligation, and provided adequate funds for that +purpose. It was calculated that these provisions would redeem the funded +debt bearing an immediate interest in 1818, and the deferred funded debt +in 1824; they did so, and thus the funded debt was extinguished. All +succeeding loans, as well under the administrations of Washington and +Adams as subsequently, were made redeemable at or after a certain +period, save in rare and very limited instances controlled by special +circumstances and not constituting modifications of the general rule of +the Government. + +By this step Congress carried into effect an object for which the +Republicans had striven since soon after the establishment of the +funding system, and upon the resolution to accomplish which Hamilton +had interposed a temporary obstruction by his report in December, 1792. +The funded debt was changed into a simple debt payable by regular though +small installments, at stated and certain periods. Its ultimate +redemption was made certain, and the further practice of funding +successfully discountenanced. That was done which Washington desired to +have done; not indeed in the plain, straightforward way in which he +would have done it, for that would have shown that the Government, in +deference to public sentiment, had, to borrow a common phrase, taken the +back track; an exhibition which Hamilton's course was designed to avoid. +What the latter undertook to do he did effectually and in good faith, +but a careful perusal of his last _expose_ will show how little the +whole proceeding was in harmony with his individual feelings. + +The following are extracts from that extraordinary paper:-- + +"To extinguish a debt which exists and to avoid the contracting more are +always ideas favored by public feeling; but to pay taxes for the one or +the other purpose, which are the only means of preventing the evil, is +always more or less unpopular. These contradictions are in human nature; +and happy indeed would be the country that should ever _want men to turn +them to the account of their own popularity or to some other sinister +account_. + +"Hence it is no uncommon spectacle to see the same men clamoring for +occasions of expense when they happen to be in unison with the present +humor of the community, whether well or ill directed, declaiming against +a public debt and for the reduction of it as an abstract thesis, yet +vehement against every plan of taxation which is proposed to discharge +old debts or to avoid new by the defraying of exigencies as they emerge. +These unhandsome acts throw artificial embarrassments in the way of the +administration of a government." + +These observations afford evidence of the wounded spirit under which he +was acting, and also of the strong sense he entertained of the influence +which a necessity for taxation is calculated to exert upon the minds of +a legislature anxious for the redemption of a public debt. Do they not +further explain the motive for the array of taxes that would be required +to carry into effect the Resolution of 1792, in favor of making +provision for the redemption of the funded debt, contained in his report +upon that resolution? + +When speaking of now resorting to the old practice of anticipating +revenues, that is, by making provision for the payment of both principal +and interest, in the departure from which practice the English Funding +System had its birth, he says:-- + +"This would be at the same time an antidote against what may be +pronounced the most plausible objections to the system of _funding_ +public debts; which are, that, by facilitating the means of supporting +expense they encourage to enterprises which produce it, and by +furnishing in credit a substitute for revenue, likely to be too freely +used to avoid the odium of laying new taxes, they occasion a tendency to +run in debt. Though these objections to funding systems--which, giving +the greatest possible energy to public credit, are a great source of +national security, strength, and prosperity--are very similar to those +which speculative men urge against national and individual opulence, +drawn from its abuses; and though perhaps, upon a careful analysis of +facts, they would be found to have much less support in them than is +imagined, attributing to those systems effects which are to be ascribed, +more truly, to the passions of men and perhaps to the genius of +particular governments; yet, as they are not wholly unfounded, it is +desirable to guard, as far as possible, against the dangers which they +suppose, without renouncing the advantages which these systems +undoubtedly afford." + +When we find him thus dallying with a pet system on the eve of its +abandonment, thus filling a paper designed to prepare the way for that +result with his reasons for deprecating it, who can suppose that its +impending fate was of his own suggestion, or doubt that he looked to its +restoration under more favorable auspices? + +The Secretary very naturally endeavors in this paper to place the +provisions now recommended in respect to the Sinking Fund upon the same +footing with those contained in his first Report upon public credit, +conformably to which his funding system was established. Without the +slightest desire to assail or to weaken any of his attempts to rest his +acts on the most favorable ground consistent with truth, it is yet due +to the memories of the patriotic men who by their fearless and +persevering efforts succeeded in discrediting that dangerous system, and +finally in causing it to be discontinued from the operations of our +Government, that the circumstances under which they acted should not be +misrepresented. The difference between the provisions of the Sinking +Fund first and now adopted was great indeed. The grant of the funds to +the first, to say nothing of their insufficiency, lacked the essential +quality of being irrevocable, but was left subject to the action of +Congress. There was therefore no reason to think that more might be +expected from the Sinking Fund here than had been realized in England, +where it had not only been found entirely ineffectual even in time of +peace, but the funds vested in the Commissioners had on more than one +occasion been used as a basis for new loans. But now, when the business +of redemption was entered upon in earnest, that matter was placed upon +a very different footing. The funds were not only more ample, but they +were vested in the Commissioners as an irrevocable trust, and the faith +of the Government was pledged that its execution should not be +interfered with. As widely different were the dispositions of the +Government and the sentiments of its principal supporters. On the former +occasion the proposals submitted to Congress by the head of the Treasury +Department, and most trusted officer of the Government, were to fund the +entire debt of the United States upon the following terms, viz: 1st. +That the whole principal should be forever irredeemable at the option of +the United States; 2d. That they should not even reserve to themselves a +right to pay more than two dollars upon a hundred of the principal, +however full their coffers, and however great their convenience to pay; +and, that no obstacle might be wanting to the redemption of that +pittance, he proposed further to assume and fund in the same way +twenty-five millions of the debts of the States which the Federal +Government was under no obligations to pay and was not asked to assume. +This policy was entered upon in the face of the fact that the debt of +England, under a similar system, had, in eighty years, increased from +some five millions to two hundred and seventy-six millions of pounds +sterling, and was still increasing. + +After these propositions had been substantially adopted by Congress and +sustained by the Government, Hamilton, having the entire direction of +its affairs, and knowing the spirit and firmness with which those who +disapproved of his schemes always maintained their views of the public +interest, had no right to complain of, and ought not to have been +surprised at, the opposition he encountered from them, under the weight +of which his Funding System, in respect to the future action of the +Government in the management of its finances, soon became a dead +letter, no further thought of than to get rid of the debts that had been +contracted under it, with the intent to return to the old mode of +anticipating revenue, that of direct loans payable at or after specific +periods, principal as well as interest; the only way by which, as Adam +Smith had demonstrated, a nation could avoid a permanent and ruinous +public debt,--a view of the subject which came too late for England, but +was, happily, in season for us. Though the Government had, by the Act of +March 3d, 1795, passed to carry into effect the improved views of +Washington, placed the management of our finances upon a better footing, +no progress was made in the reduction of the public debt; but the act +doubtless accomplished much in restraining its increase. It was not an +easy thing to keep down the public debt under an administration which, +like that of Mr. Adams, in pursuance of the express advice of Hamilton +to Wolcott, paid upon its loans an annual interest of eight per cent., +the highest that had then ever been paid except by England to her bank +upon the loan obtained from it on its first establishment. + +Upon Jefferson's accession to power he denounced a public debt, in his +message to Congress, as a "moral canker," and invoked the aid of the +legislature for its extinction at the earliest practicable period. The +Committee of Ways and Means, with John Randolph at its head (his +brightest period of public usefulness), entered upon the subject "_con +amore_." They called upon the Secretary of the Treasury for a thorough +exposition of the state of the public debt, and for his opinion in +regard to the best mode of dealing with it. Mr. Gallatin's reply, which +may be found in the publication of American State Papers,--title +"FINANCE," Vol. I.,--gave a full statement of the then condition of the +debt, and pointed out the defects through which the Act of March 3, +1795, had been rendered inadequate to the accomplishment of all the +objects for which it was designed. I will refer to but one of them, +which consisted in its limiting the appropriation for the redemption of +the public debt, beyond that which had been funded, to "surpluses which +shall remain at the end of every calendar year, and which, during the +session of Congress next thereafter, shall not be otherwise specially +appropriated or reserved by law." Our experience of the action of +Congress has been too full to make it necessary to speak of the extreme +improbability of any considerable surpluses being left by that body +acting under no more specific restraint than that which is here +provided, and upon examination of the books of the treasury it was found +that so far from there having been any such surpluses from the +establishment of the present Government in 1789 till the close of the +year 1799, the appropriations charged upon the revenue by Congress had +exceeded, by nearly a million of dollars, the whole amount of such +revenue, whether collected or outstanding. + +To remedy results so unfavorable to the accomplishment of the object in +view, the Secretary advised specific appropriations of such sums as, +upon a fair estimate of the wants and resources of the country, ought in +the opinion of Congress to be applied to the payment of the public debt, +and to make such appropriations irrevocable and their application +mandatory on the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund. The committee +adopted the suggestion with alacrity as one which, in addition to +securing the early performance of a sacred duty, could not in their +opinion fail to induce economy on the part of Congress in its +disposition of the public funds. They therefore reported a bill, which +became a law, appropriating annually to the Sinking Fund seven millions +three hundred thousand dollars for the payment of the public debt. This +sum was increased to eight millions in consequence of the purchase of +Louisiana. During the administration of Mr. Madison the annual +appropriation was increased to ten millions, besides an additional +appropriation of nine millions, and one of four millions if the +Secretary of the Treasury should deem it expedient; and all of these +appropriations were made irrevocable and compulsory as respected the +action of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund. + +The consequences of this change in the action of the Government upon the +subject of the public debt and of this liberality of appropriations +under Democratic administrations, were the discharge of thirty-three +millions of the principal of the debt, besides the payment of interest +on the whole, during the Presidency of Mr. Jefferson, and its final +extinguishment under President Jackson, notwithstanding the intervention +of a war with England commenced at a period of the greatest financial +embarrassment. + +I have been induced to take so extended a notice of this matter as well +by the circumstance, to which I have before referred, that it presented +a leading subject of party divisions in this country, as because of the +influence which it and its adjuncts the Bank of the United States and +the Protective System have exerted upon our politics. It has been seen +that the Funding System, however, preceded the bank in its +establishment, and it became also an "obsolete idea" many years before +the latter was declared to be such by its most devoted advocate and +reckless supporter, Daniel Webster. That the bank did not share that +fate at a much earlier period was because Henry Clay and John C. +Calhoun, both disciples of the old Republican school,--the former one of +the ablest among the opponents of the revival of the bank in +1811,--tempted by the political allurements of the day in 1815, +advocated the establishment of a new bank, and because that pure man +and patriot, James Madison, under mistaken impressions in respect to the +absolute necessity of such an institution, gave his assent to its +incorporation. + +No public question was ever longer or more severely agitated in any +country than that of the existence of a national bank has been in this. +Madison acquired enduring honor by his unanswerable speech against its +constitutionality. It divided the cabinet of President Washington, and +contributed with other causes to give birth to a political party which +kept his administration at bay, overthrew that of his successor, has +sustained itself in power ever since (with brief and easily explained +interruptions), and is now, after the lapse of nearly seventy years, in +full possession of the Federal Government. It gave position in 1811 to +Henry Clay as one of the strong minds of the country, derived from his +speech against rechartering the bank, by far the best speech he ever +made and nearly equal to that of Madison in 1790, and it enabled that +venerable revolutionary patriot, George Clinton, to add new laurels to +his already great fame by his casting vote against the passage of the +bill for its re-incorporation. Whilst in 1815 it marred forever the +political fortunes of Clay and Calhoun, then standing at the head of the +rising Republican statesmen of the country, in 1830 it made memorable +and glorious the civil career of Andrew Jackson through his celebrated +veto--a noble step in that fearful issue between the respective powers +of the Government and the Bank, on the trial of which that institution +justified and confirmed Jefferson's gloomy forebodings at its first +establishment by spreading recklessly and wantonly (as is now well +understood) panic in the public mind and convulsions in the business +affairs of the people, through which incalculable injury was inflicted +upon the country, and by wasting its entire capital of thirty millions +in wild speculation and in corrupt squandering upon parasites and +political backers. It did not however prove too strong for the +Government, as Mr. Jefferson apprehended, but was itself overwhelmed in +utter defeat and disgrace. So thorough has been its annihilation that +its books and papers were a few months since sold by auction, in +Philadelphia, by the ton, as waste paper! + +Who can call to mind without amazement the extent to which the +impression was fastened on the public judgment that a national bank was +of vital necessity to the healthful action of the Federal Government, +indispensable to the collection of its revenues, to the management of +its finances, to the transfer of its funds from point to point, and, +above all, to the execution and support of domestic exchanges, without +which the most important business of the country would be unavoidably +suspended, and now see that all this was sheer delusion; or who can +reflect upon the bold and profligate action taken by the bank to force a +compliance with its application, without acknowledging and admiring the +wisdom of the Federal Convention in refusing, as it did almost in terms, +to confer upon Congress the power to establish such an institution, so +inefficient for good and so potent for mischief, or without applauding +the true conservatism and patriotic spirit of the Democratic party +during a forty years' struggle to expel from our system so dangerous an +abuse, or without rejoicing that that great object was finally achieved +and blessing the memory of the brave old man to whom the achievement is +mainly to be credited. + +The Protective System was another of the important measures brought +forward at the commencement of the Government, and had its origin in the +prolific mind of Hamilton. Efforts have been made to trace its +commencement to the legislation of the first Congress, but they have +not been successful. The idea of protection, beyond that which is +incidental to a tariff for revenue and could be effected without losing +sight of the revenue point, was not, at that time, broached in Congress +or inferable from the character of the duties imposed. It was in +Hamilton's masterpiece--his elaborate report, nominally upon +manufactures, but embracing in its range every pursuit of human industry +susceptible of encouragement under an unlimited government--that the +subject was first brought to the notice and recommended to the favorable +consideration of Congress. + +I have already described, more fully, perhaps, than might on first +impression be thought necessary, the length and breadth of that famous +document, the boldness and extravagance of its ultra-latitudinarian +pretensions to power in the Federal Government, including unlimited +authority to raise money by taxes and an equally unlimited power to +spend it in any way which Congress might think would be conducive to the +general welfare. The vehement denunciation of its character by Mr. +Jefferson and his friends, with continually increasing indications of +popular discontent, prevented Hamilton from attempting any measures +worthy of notice to carry into effect his recommendations--and no +assumptions, beyond the revenue standard, were acted upon by the +administrations of either Washington or Adams. + +The enforcement of Hamilton's recommendations was reserved for the close +of the War of 1812, a period of which I have already spoken as one which +brought on the political stage a new class of Presidential aspirants, +members of a succeeding generation and unknown to revolutionary fame. +Among the most prominent of these stood Crawford, Clay, Calhoun, Adams, +Webster, and Lowndes,--the latter, perhaps, the most likely to have +succeeded, if his useful life had not been brought to a premature close. + +In the same year, 1815, was revived the idea of a national bank, and no +fitter associate could have been devised for it than the Protective +System. They had a common origin, even in their political aspects, were +designed for a common effect, and were moreover alike adapted to the +immediate policy of two of the Presidential aspirants of the Republican +stamp, Clay and Calhoun,--that of conciliating the good-will of those +who still clung to the wreck of the Federal party, which having been +shattered and disabled by its course in the war, was at the moment +drifting upon the political seas. Henry Clay, with better qualifications +for success than his not less ambitious rival, seized the prize in view, +and after long competition from the latter, and against perpetual, +though sometimes concealed opposition from Webster, attached the mass of +the Federal party to his fortunes, and held them there to the close of +his remarkable life. Shouldering a large share of responsibility for the +reintroduction of a national bank, he added to his programme the +Protective System, stopping in the first instance at a protective +tariff, but willing, as was clearly seen, to embrace Hamilton's entire +scheme, and superadding to these a system of internal improvements by +the Federal Government, in respect to which he went, on the point of +constitutional power, beyond his great prototype. These were the +elements out of which he constructed his famous "American System." A +convert to theories and measures hostile to the earliest and most +cherished principles of the old Republican party, he of course soon lost +his position in its ranks, and was in due season installed as the leader +of that with which all its wars have been waged. Possessing certain +qualities eminently adapted to attract the popular admiration, and which +could not have failed to elevate him to the Presidency if he had +remained in the Democratic party and had adhered to its principles, he +infused into the torpid body of the Federal party elements of strength, +of which it had always stood in need; besides bringing to it a leader of +fascinating manners and brilliant talents, he gave a new and more +captivating form to the platform of principles and policy in support of +which its original members and their descendants had been trained, +excepting only the Funding System, which had not only been tabooed by +the good sense of our people, but as to which England was yet uttering +warnings to other nations of too fearful import to allow its revival +here to be for a moment contemplated even by a politician so bold and +too often reckless as Clay. Thus reinvigorated and backed by the +money-power of the country, during a quarter of a century, and with +never quailing spirit, he conducted that party, under various names but +striving always under the banner of the same "American System," through +a succession of political campaigns which left their injurious traces +upon the country. + +The fruits of this warfare against the Democratic party and its +principles are familiar to politicians and observers of our times. The +Bank of the United States, after filling the country with distress and +ruin, itself perished; the proposed system of internal improvements by +the Federal Government was happily broken down by his opponents before +it involved the country in inextricable embarrassments, and the +Protective System, after being finally overthrown in England, from which +country we had copied it, was abandoned here also, and consigned by the +judgment of the people to the same oblivion with its kindred delusions. + +The promotion of internal improvements by the General Government was an +assumption of power by Congress, against which, from its first inception +till its substantial overthrow, the Democratic party interposed a +steady, persevering, and inflexible resistance. The general character of +the abuse, its origin, progress, and extirpation through Democratic +agencies, are fully presented in another part of this work.[40] Here the +probable effect upon the national treasury of arresting the practice +will alone be noticed. + + [40] Referring to the Memoirs of the writer. See Introduction. Eds. + +In his annual message to Congress, December, 1834, President Jackson +says:-- + +"When the bill authorizing a subscription on the part of the United +States for stock in the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Companies +passed the two Houses, there had been reported, by the committees of +internal improvements, bills containing appropriations for such objects, +exclusive of those for the Cumberland Road and for harbors and +light-houses, to the amount of about one hundred and six millions of +dollars. In this amount was included authority to the Secretary of the +Treasury to subscribe to the stock of different companies to a great +extent, and the residue was principally for the direct construction of +roads by this Government. In addition to those projects, which had been +presented to the two Houses, under the sanction and recommendation of +their respective committees on internal improvements, there were then +still pending before the committees, and in memorials to Congress, +presented but not referred, different projects for works of a similar +character, the expense of which cannot be estimated with certainty but +must have exceeded one hundred millions of dollars." + +The same message contained also the following suggestions:-- + +"From attempts to appropriate the national funds to objects which are +confessedly of a local character, we cannot I trust have any thing +further to apprehend. My views in regard to the expediency of making +appropriations for works which are claimed to be of a national +character, and prosecuted under State authority, assuming that Congress +have the right to do so, were stated in my annual message to Congress in +1830, and also in that containing my objections to the Maysville Road +Bill. + +"So thoroughly convinced am I that no such appropriations ought to be +made by Congress, until a suitable constitutional provision is made upon +the subject, and so essential do I regard the point to the highest +interests of our country, that I could not consider myself as +discharging my duty to my constituents in giving the executive sanction +to any bill containing such an appropriation. If the people of the +United States desire that the public treasury shall be resorted to for +the means to prosecute such works, they will concur in an amendment of +the Constitution prescribing a rule by which the national character of +the works is to be tested, and by which the greatest practicable +equality of benefits may be secured to each member of the Confederacy. +The effects of such a regulation would be most salutary in preventing +unprofitable expenditures, in securing our legislation from the +pernicious consequences of a scramble for the favors of Government, and +in repressing the spirit of discontent which must inevitably arise from +an unequal distribution of treasures which belong alike to all." + +These declarations of President Jackson that he would approve no bill +containing appropriations even for objects of a national character, +until an amendment of the Constitution was adopted placing such +expenditures upon an equal footing towards all the States, were +reiterated in his Maysville veto. My election to the Presidency, and the +knowledge that I cordially approved, and was determined to sustain, the +ground taken in those two state papers upon the subject of internal +improvements, with the large Democratic vote in Congress, always opposed +upon principle to such grants, effectually closed the doors of the +national treasury against them for seven years. + +All similar applications, save for harbor and river appropriations, were +thus driven, as was anticipated, to the State legislatures. The money +expended for such improvements, when authorized by the States, were +chargeable upon the treasuries of the States, to be collected by direct +taxation. When made by incorporated companies under authority derived +from the States they were at the expense of their stockholders. All must +be sensible of the salutary check which these circumstances are +calculated to exert by increasing the circumspection and prudence with +which such expenses are incurred; and yet what immense amounts of money +have been irrecoverably sunk upon such works, and what widespread +embarrassments have they at times created in the financial affairs of +the country, through the headlong enterprise and adventurous spirit of +our people! + +We have only to imagine a transfer of the seat of these operations to +the halls of Congress to estimate the sums that would have been drawn +out of the National Treasury and carried to the States to be, for the +most part, expended upon local objects,--the scenes of log-rolling and +intrigue to which such scrambles would have given rise, and the utter +unscrupulousness of the applications that would thus have been produced. +What millions upon millions of the public funds would have been worse +than uselessly expended during the twenty-seven years that have elapsed +since the Democratic party, through their venerable and fearless +President, took the first effectual step to break up the practice! The +one hundred millions for which bills had been reported, and the other +hundred millions of applications pending before Congress when the +Maysville veto was interposed, according to the President's message, +furnish ample data upon which to found our calculations. No sum would +seem to be too large at which to place the probable amount of our +national debt if the plans of their political opponents had in this +regard been crowned with complete success. In view of such an event who +will be bold enough, with the subsequent experience of the country +before him, to place even a conjectural estimate upon that amount or +upon the extent to which valuable improvements, through individual +enterprise or under State authority, would have been postponed or +arrested forever by a further prosecution of the policy into which such +persevering efforts were made to lead the Federal Government. For +preservation from such prodigality and debt, and from the corruptions +that would have followed in their train, we are plainly and undeniably +indebted to the successful enforcement of the principles of the +Democratic party. + + [A space was here reserved in the original Manuscript for an + intended notice of the advantages derived to the country from the + establishment of the Independent Treasury; a measure proposed by + Mr. Van Buren in the first year of his Presidency and in his first + communication to Congress, and supported by the Democratic party. + + In consequence, however, of the interruptions to which this work + was subjected (and which are referred to in the Introduction), the + contemplated addition to it was never supplied.--EDITORS.] + +The measures of which I have spoken as the cherished policy of the old +Federal party and its successors taken as a whole were justly described +by Jefferson, in his much-abused letter to Mazzei, as "a contrivance +invented for the purpose of corruption and for assimilating us in all +respects to the rotten as well as the sound parts of the British +Constitution." A persuasion of their practical usefulness in some +respects entered more or less into the motives of the leaders on the +occasions both of their creation and of their attempted resuscitation; +but that they were by both regarded principally as elements of political +strength, and adopted as means by which to build up and sustain an +overshadowing money power in the country, through which the Democratic +spirit of the people might be kept in check, is at least equally +certain. Doubtless both of those political leaders honestly believed +such a check to be necessary to the public good. With Hamilton this +faith had from the beginning constituted an integral part of his +political system. Clay had been, in his youth, too much a man of the +people to avow such a belief, but that he became a convert to it in +after-life I have no doubt. But the Democratic spirit of the country did +not stand in need of any such restraint as that which they designed to +place upon its course. + +I have thus adverted to some of the advantages the country has derived +from the action of the Democratic party, to which must be added the +benefits conferred on the States by an extension of kindred principles +to the administration of the local governments. If its opponents are +asked for a statement of their contributions to the public welfare when +in power and by their efforts to defeat the measures of the Democratic +party, or to name a great measure of which they were the authors and +which has stood the test of experience, or one in the establishment of +which they have been prevented by factious or partisan opposition, but +which would now be received with favor by the people, or a principle +advocated by them for the administration of the Government, in which +they have been defeated but which would now be so received, or an +unsound one set up by their opponents which they have successfully +resisted,--what must be the replies to questions so simple yet so +comprehensive and important! Can it, on the other hand, be now denied +that notwithstanding the conceded capacities of their leaders, and their +possession of superior facilities for the acquisition and favorable +exercise of political power, their time and their resources have been +mainly employed in efforts to establish principles and build up systems +which have been to all appearance irrevocably condemned by the people, +and in unavailing efforts to defeat measures and principles which, after +a full experience, have proved acceptable to them, and through the +influence and operation of which the country has been gradually raised +to great power and unexampled prosperity. + +The course of events to which I have referred has had the effect of +breaking up as a national organization the party so long opposed to the +Democratic party, leaving the latter the only political association +co-extensive in its power and influence with the Union,--and the sole +survivor of all its national competitors. Of the eleven Presidents +elected since its accession to power in the Federal Government, +including the one in whose election it achieved its first national +triumph, nine were avowed supporters of the cause it sustained, and +eight its exclusive candidates. During the sixty years which will, at +the end of the present Presidential term, have passed away since the +occurrence of that great event, the chief magistracy of this country has +been in the hands of professed supporters of its principles, with the +exception only of four years and one month. + +Born of the spirit which impelled our early colonists to forsake the +abodes of civilization to establish among savages and in the wilderness +the sacred right of opinion, which encouraged and sustained them in all +their wanderings and sufferings and perils, and which finally conducted +the survivors through a long and bloody war to liberty and independence, +and representing the feelings and opinions of a majority of the people, +it has labored zealously and, in the main, successfully, to give effect +to those by which that momentous struggle was produced, to realize its +promises, to maintain the sanctity of the Constitution, and to uphold +"that equality of political rights" which Hamilton, though he could not +find it in his judgment to favor, yet truly described as "the foundation +of pure Republicanism." + +For the signal success of its beneficent and glorious mission the +country is indebted to the virtue and intelligence of the men of whom +this great party has from time to time been composed,--much to the +ability, industry, and devoted patriotism of James Madison; largely to +the iron will, fearlessness, and uprightness of Andrew Jackson; and more +conspicuously still to the genius, the honest and firm heart, and +spirit-stirring pen of its founder, Thomas Jefferson, who stands, in my +estimation, as a faithful republican, pure patriot, and wise and +accomplished statesman, unequaled in the history of man. His opinions +deliberately formed on important public questions, do not appear to have +undergone material change or modification, except perhaps in the case of +the issue raised in respect to the necessity of an amendment of the +Constitution to justify the admission of Louisiana into the Union. +Certain it is that he never entertained one which he could justly be +accused of having concealed or recanted to propitiate power or to +promote his own popularity, or which he was not on all suitable +occasions prompt to avow and to defend. The presence of this noble +spirit, and a readiness to encounter any sacrifice necessary to its free +indulgence, were manifest in every crisis of his eventful life; nor were +his last moments on earth without an impressive exhibition of its +continued ascendency, even when reason and sense were passing away. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON, + +TO MARTIN VAN BUREN. + + MONTICELLO, June 29, 1824. + +DEAR SIR,--I have to thank you for Mr. Pickering's elaborate Philippic +against Mr. Adams, Gerry, Smith, and myself; and I have delayed the +acknowledgment until I could read it and make some observations on it. + +I could not have believed that, for so many years, and to such a period +of advanced age, he could have nourished passions so vehement and +viperous. It appears, that for thirty years past, he has been +industriously collecting materials for vituperating the characters he +had marked for his hatred; some of whom, certainly, if enmities towards +him had ever existed, had forgotten them all, or buried them in the +grave with themselves. As to myself, there never had been any thing +personal between us, nothing but the general opposition of party +sentiment; and our personal intercourse had been that of urbanity, as +himself says. But it seems he has been all this time brooding over an +enmity which I had never felt, and yet that with respect to myself as +well as others, he has been writing far and near, and in every +direction, to get hold of original letters, where he could, copies, +where he could not, certificates and journals, catching at every +gossiping story he could hear of in any quarter, supplying by suspicions +what he could find nowhere else, and then arguing on this motley +farrago, as if established on gospel evidence. And while expressing his +wonder that "at the age of eighty-eight, the strong passions of Mr. +Adams should not have cooled;" that on the contrary "they had acquired +the mastery of his soul" (p. 100); that "where these were enlisted, no +reliance could be placed on his statements" (p. 104); "the facility and +little truth with which he could represent facts and occurrences, +concerning persons who were the objects of his hatred" (p. 3); that "he +is capable of making the grossest misrepresentations, and, from detached +facts, and often from bare suspicions, of drawing unwarrantable +inferences, if suited to his purpose at the instant" (p. 174); while +making such charges, I say, on Mr. Adams, instead of his "_ecce homo_" +(p. 100), how justly might we say to him, "_mutato nomine, de te fabula +narratur_." For the assiduity and industry he has employed in his +benevolent researches after matter of crimination against us, I refer to +his pages 13, 14, 34, 36, 46, 71, 79, 90, bis. 92, 93, bis. 101, ter. +104, 116, 118, 141, 143, 146, 150, 151, 153, 168, 171, 172. That Mr. +Adams' strictures on him, written and printed, should have excited some +notice on his part, was not perhaps to be wondered at. But the +sufficiency of his motive for the large attack on me may be more +questionable. He says (p. 4), "of Mr. Jefferson I should have said +nothing, but for his letter to Mr. Adams, of October 12th, 1823." Now +the object of that letter was to soothe the feelings of a friend, +wounded by a publication which I thought an "outrage on private +confidence." Not a word or allusion in it respected Mr. Pickering, nor +was it suspected that it would draw forth his pen in justification of +this infidelity, which he has, however, undertaken in the course of his +pamphlet, but more particularly in its conclusion. + +He arraigns me on two grounds, my actions and my motives. The very +actions, however, which he arraigns, have been such as the great +majority of my fellow citizens have approved. The approbation of Mr. +Pickering, and of those who thought with him, I had no right to expect. +My motives he chuses to ascribe to hypocrisy, to ambition, and a passion +for popularity. Of these the world must judge between us. It is no +office of his or mine. To that tribunal I have ever submitted my actions +and motives, without ransacking the Union for certificates, letters, +journals, and gossiping tales, to justify myself and weary them. Nor +shall I do this on the present occasion, but leave still to them these +antiquated party diatribes, now newly revamped and paraded as if they +had not been already a thousand times repeated, refuted, and adjudged +against him, by the nation itself. If no action is to be deemed virtuous +for which malice can imagine a sinister motive, then there never was a +virtuous action; no, not even in the life of our Saviour himself. But he +has taught us to judge the tree by its fruit, and to leave motives to +him who can alone see into them. + +But whilst I leave to its fate the libel of Mr. Pickering, with the +thousands of others like it, to which I have given no other answer than +a steady course of similar action, there are two facts or fancies of his +which I must set to rights. The one respects Mr. Adams, the other +myself. He observes that my letter of October 12th, 1823, acknowledges +the receipt of one from Mr. Adams, of September 18th, which, having been +written a few days after Cunningham's publication, he says was no doubt +written to apologize to me for the pointed reproaches he had uttered +against me in his confidential letters to Cunningham. And thus having +"no doubt" of his conjecture, he considers it as proven, goes on to +suppose the contents of the letter (19, 22), makes it place Mr. Adams at +my feet suing for pardon, and continues to rant upon it, as an undoubted +fact. Now, I do most solemnly declare, that so far from being a letter +of apology, as Mr. Pickering so undoubtingly assumes, there was not a +word nor allusion in it respecting Cunningham's publication. + +The other allegation, respecting myself, is equally false. In page 34, +he quotes Doctor Stuart as having, twenty years ago, informed him that +General Washington, "when he became a private citizen," called me to +account for expressions in a letter to Mazzei, requiring, in a tone of +unusual severity, an explanation of that letter. He adds of himself, "in +what manner the latter humbled himself and appeased the just resentment +of Washington, will never be known, as some time after his death the +correspondence was not to be found, and a diary for an important period +of his Presidency was also missing." The diary being of transactions +during his Presidency, the letter to Mazzei not known here until some +time _after he became a private citizen_, and the pretended +correspondence of course after that, I know not why this lost diary and +supposed correspondence are brought together here, unless for +insinuations worthy of the letter itself. The correspondence could not +be found, indeed, because it had never existed. I do affirm that there +never passed a word, written or verbal, directly or indirectly, between +General Washington and myself on the subject of that letter. He would +never have degraded himself so far as to take to himself the imputation +in that letter on the "Samsons in combat." The whole story is a +fabrication, and I defy the framers of it, and all mankind, to produce a +scrip of a pen between General Washington and myself on the subject, or +any other evidence more worthy of credit than the suspicions, +suppositions and presumptions of the two persons here quoting and quoted +for it. With Doctor Stuart I had not much acquaintance. I supposed him +to be an honest man, knew him to be a very weak one, and, like Mr. +Pickering, very prone to antipathies, boiling with party passions, and +under the dominion of these readily welcoming fancies for facts. But +come the story from whomsoever it might, it is an unqualified falsehood. + +This letter to Mazzei has been a precious theme of crimination for +Federal malice. It was a long letter of business, in which was inserted +a single paragraph only of political information as to the state of our +country. In this information there was not one word which would not then +have been, or would not now be approved by every Republican in the +United States, looking back to those times; as you will see by a +faithful copy now enclosed of the whole of what that letter said on the +subject of the United States, or of its government. This paragraph, +extracted and translated, got into a Paris paper at a time when the +persons in power there were laboring under very general disfavor, and +their friends were eager to catch even at straws to buoy them up. To +them, therefore, I have always imputed the interpolation of an entire +paragraph additional to mine, which makes me charge my own country with +ingratitude and injustice to France. There was not a word in my letter +respecting France, or any of the proceedings or relations between this +country and that. Yet this interpolated paragraph has been the burthen +of Federal calumny, has been constantly quoted by them, made the subject +of unceasing and virulent abuse, and is still quoted, as you see, by +Mr. Pickering, page 33, as if it were genuine, and really written by me. +And even Judge Marshall makes history descend from its dignity, and the +ermine from its sanctity, to exaggerate, to record, and to sanction this +forgery. In the very last note of his book, he says, "a letter from Mr. +Jefferson to Mr. Mazzei, an Italian, was published in Florence, and +republished in the 'Moniteur,' with very severe strictures on the +conduct of the United States." And instead of the letter itself, he +copies what he says are the remarks of the editor, which are an +exaggerated commentary on the fabricated paragraph itself, and silently +leaves to his reader to make the ready inference that these were the +sentiments of the letter. Proof is the duty of the affirmative side. A +negative cannot be positively proved. But, in defect of impossible proof +of what was not in the original letter, I have its press-copy still in +my possession. It has been shown to several, and is open to any one who +wishes to see it. I have presumed only, that the interpolation was done +in Paris. But I never saw the letter in either its Italian or French +dress, and it may have been done here, with the commentary handed down +to posterity by the Judge. The genuine paragraph, retranslated through +Italian and French into English, as it appeared here in a Federal paper, +besides the mutilated hue which these translations and retranslations of +it produced generally, gave a mistranslation of a single word, which +entirely perverted its meaning, and made it a pliant and fertile text of +misrepresentation of my political principles. The original, speaking of +an Anglican, monarchical, and aristocratical party, which had sprung up +since he had left us, states their object to be "to draw over us the +substance, as they had already done the _forms_ of the British +Government." Now the forms here meant, were the levees, birthdays, the +pompous cavalcade to the state house on the meeting of Congress, the +formal speech from the throne, the procession of Congress in a body to +reecho the speech in an answer, &c., &c. But the translator here, by +substituting _form_ in the singular number, for _forms_ in the plural, +made it mean the frame or organization of our government, or its _form_ +of legislative, executive, and judiciary authorities coordinate and +independent; to which _form_ it was to be inferred that I was an enemy. +In this sense they always quoted it, and in this sense Mr. Pickering +still quotes it, pages 34, 35, 38, and countenances the inference. Now +General Washington perfectly understood what I meant by these forms, as +they were frequent subjects of conversation between us. When, on my +return from Europe, I joined the government in March, 1790, at New York, +I was much astonished, indeed, at the mimicry I found established of +royal forms and ceremonies, and more alarmed at the unexpected +phenomenon, by the monarchical sentiments I heard expressed and openly +maintained in every company, and among others by the high members of the +government, executive and judiciary, (General Washington alone +excepted,) and by a great part of the legislature, save only some +members who had been of the old Congress, and a very few of recent +introduction. I took occasion, at various times, of expressing to +General Washington my disappointment at these symptoms of a change of +principle, and that I thought them encouraged by the forms and +ceremonies which I found prevailing, not at all in character with the +simplicity of Republican government, and looking as if wishfully to +those of European courts. His general explanations to me were that when +he arrived at New York, to enter on the executive administration of the +new government, he observed to those who were to assist him, that, +placed as he was in an office entirely new to him, unacquainted with the +forms and ceremonies of other governments, still less apprized of those +which might be properly established here, and himself perfectly +indifferent to all forms, he wished them to consider and prescribe what +they should be; and the task was assigned particularly to General Knox, +a man of parade, and to Colonel Humphreys, who had resided some time at +a foreign court. They, he said, were the authors of the present +regulations, and that others were proposed so highly strained that he +absolutely rejected them. Attentive to the difference of opinion +prevailing on this subject, when the term of his second election arrived +he called the heads of departments together, observed to them the +situation in which he had been at the commencement of the government, +the advice he had taken and the course he had observed in compliance +with it; that a proper occasion had now arrived of revising that course, +of correcting in it any particulars not approved in experience, and he +desired us to consult together, agree on any changes we should think for +the better, and that he should willingly conform to what we should +advise. We met at my office. Hamilton and myself agreed at once that +there was too much ceremony for the character of our government, and +particularly, that the parade of the installation at New York ought not +to be copied on the present occasion; that the President should desire +the Chief Justice to attend him at his chambers, that he should +administer the oath of office to him in the presence of the higher +officers of the government, and that the certificate of the fact should +be delivered to the Secretary of State to be recorded. Randolph and Knox +differed from us, the latter vehemently; they thought it not advisable +to change any of the established forms, and we authorized Randolph to +report our opinions to the President. As these opinions were divided, +and no positive advice given as to any change, no change was made. Thus +the _forms_ which I had censured in my letter to Mazzei were perfectly +understood by General Washington, and were those which he himself but +barely tolerated. He had furnished me a proper occasion for proposing +their reformation, and, my opinion not prevailing, he knew I could not +have meant any part of the censure for him. + +Mr. Pickering quotes, too (page 34), the expression in the letter of +"the men who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but +who had had their heads shorn by the harlot England;" or, as expressed +in their re-translation, "the men who were Solomons in council, and +Samsons in combat, but whose hair had been cut off by the whore +England." Now this expression also was perfectly understood by General +Washington. He knew that I meant it for the Cincinnati generally, and +that, from what had passed between us at the commencement of that +institution, I could not mean to include him. When the first meeting was +called for its establishment, I was a member of the Congress then +sitting at Annapolis. General Washington wrote to me, asking my opinion +on that proposition, and the course, if any, which I thought Congress +would observe respecting it. I wrote him frankly my own disapprobation +of it; that I found the members of Congress generally in the same +sentiment; that I thought they would take no express notice of it, but +that in all appointments of trust, honor, or profit, they would silently +pass by all candidates of that order, and give an uniform preference to +others. On his way to the first meeting in Philadelphia, which I think +was in the spring of 1784, he called on me at Annapolis. It was a little +after candle-light, and he sat with me till after midnight, conversing, +almost exclusively, on that subject. While he was feelingly indulgent to +the motives which might induce the officers to promote it, he concurred +with me entirely in condemning it; and when I expressed an idea that if +the hereditary quality were suppressed, the institution might perhaps be +indulged during the lives of the officers now living, and who had +actually served, "no," he said, "not a fibre of it ought to be left, to +be an eye-sore to the public, a ground of dissatisfaction, and a line of +separation between them and their country;" and he left me with a +determination to use all his influence for its entire suppression. On +his return from the meeting he called on me again, and related to me the +course the thing had taken. He said that from the beginning, he had used +every endeavor to prevail on the officers to renounce the project +altogether, urging the many considerations which would render it odious +to their fellow citizens, and disreputable and injurious to themselves; +that he had at length prevailed on most of the old officers to reject +it, although with great and warm opposition from others, and especially +the younger ones, among whom he named Colonel W. S. Smith as +particularly intemperate. But that, in this state of things, when he +thought the question safe, and the meeting drawing to a close, Major +L'Enfant arrived from France, with a bundle of eagles, for which he had +been sent there, with letters from the French officers who had served in +America, praying for admission into the order, and a solemn act of their +king permitting them to wear its ensign. This, he said, changed the face +of matters at once, produced an entire revulsion of sentiment, and +turned the torrent so strongly in an opposite direction that it could be +no longer withstood; all he could then obtain was a suppression of the +hereditary quality. He added that it was the French applications, and +respect for the approbation of the king, which saved the establishment +in its modified and temporary form. Disapproving thus of the institution +as much as I did, and conscious that I knew him to do so, he could never +suppose I meant to include him among the Samsons in the field, whose +object was to draw over us the _form_, as they made the letter say, of +the British Government, and especially its aristocratic member, an +hereditary house of lords. Add to this, that the letter saying that "two +out of the three branches of legislature were against us" was an obvious +exception of him; it being well known that the majorities in the two +branches, of Senate and Representatives, were the very instruments which +carried, in opposition to the old and real Republicans, the measures +which were the subjects of condemnation in this letter. General +Washington then, understanding perfectly what and whom I meant to +designate, in both phrases, and that they could not have any application +or view to himself, could find, in neither, any cause of offence to +himself; and therefore neither needed, nor ever asked any explanation of +them from me. Had it even been otherwise, they must know very little of +General Washington, who should believe to be within the laws of his +character what Doctor Stuart is said to have imputed to him. Be this, +however, as it may, the story is infamously false in every article of +it. My last parting with General Washington was at the inauguration of +Mr. Adams, in March, 1797, and was warmly affectionate; and I never had +any reason to believe any change on his part, as there certainly was +none on mine. But one session of Congress intervened between that and +his death, the year following, in my passage to and from which as it +happened to be not convenient to call on him, I never had another +opportunity; and as to the cessation of correspondence observed during +that short interval, no particular circumstance occurred for epistolary +communication, and both of us were too much oppressed with +letter-writing, to trouble, either the other, with a letter about +nothing. + +The truth is that the Federalists, pretending to be the exclusive +friends of General Washington, have ever done what they could to sink +his character, by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy +of Republicans him who, of all men, is best entitled to the appellation +of the father of that republic which they were endeavoring to subvert, +and the Republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections +proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the +republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend +to the republican principles of our constitution. His faith, perhaps, in +its duration, might not have been as confident as mine; but he +repeatedly declared to me that he was determined it should have a fair +chance for success; and that he would lose the last drop of his blood in +its support, against any attempt which might be made to change it from +its republican form. He made these declarations the oftener because he +knew my suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet +my jealousies on this subject. For Hamilton frankly avowed that he +considered the British Constitution, with all the corruptions of its +administration, as the most perfect model of government which had ever +been devised by the wit of man; professing however, at the same time, +that the spirit of this country was so fundamentally republican, that it +would be visionary to think of introducing monarchy here, and that, +therefore, it was the duty of its administrators to conduct it on the +principles their constituents had elected. + +General Washington, after the retirement of his first cabinet, and the +composition of his second, entirely Federal, and at the head of which +was Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both sides of +any question. His measures, consequently, took more the hue of the party +in whose hands he was. These measures were certainly not approved by the +Republicans; yet were they not imputed to him, but to the counsellors +around him; and his prudence so far restrained their impassioned course +and bias, that no act of strong mark, during the remainder of his +administration, excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time +after, and too much withdrawn from information, to correct the views +into which he had been deluded; and the continued assiduities of the +party drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career, separated +him still farther from his real friends, and excited him to actions and +expressions of dissatisfaction, which grieved them, but could not loosen +their affections from him. They would not suffer this temporary +aberration to weigh against the immeasurable merits of his life; and +although they tumbled his seducers from their places, they preserved his +memory embalmed in their hearts, with undiminished love and devotion; +and there it forever will remain embalmed, in entire oblivion of every +temporary thing which might cloud the glories of his splendid life. It +is vain, then, for Mr. Pickering and his friends to endeavor to falsify +his character, by representing him as an enemy to Republicans and +republican principles, and as exclusively the friend of those who were +so; and had he lived longer, he would have returned to his ancient and +unbiased opinions, would have replaced his confidence in those whom the +people approved and supported, and would have seen that they were only +restoring and acting on the principles of his own first administration. + +I find, my dear Sir, that I have written you a very long letter, or +rather a history. The civility of having sent me a copy of Mr. +Pickering's diatribe, would scarcely justify its address to you. I do +not publish these things, because my rule of life has been never to +harass the public with feedings and provings of personal slanders; and +least of all would I descend into the arena of slander with such a +champion as Mr. Pickering. I have ever trusted to the justice and +consideration of my fellow citizens, and have no reason to repent it, or +to change my course. At this time of life too, tranquillity is the +_summum bonum_. But although I decline all newspaper controversy, yet, +when falsehoods have been advanced, within the knowledge of no one so +much as myself, I have sometimes deposited a contradiction in the hands +of a friend, which, if worth preservation, may, when I am no more, nor +these whom it might offend, throw light on history, and recall that into +the path of truth. And, if of no other value, the present communication +may amuse you with anecdotes not known to every one. + +I had meant to have added some views on the amalgamation of parties, to +which your favor of the 8th has some allusion; an amalgamation of name, +but not of principle. Tories are tories still, by whatever name they may +be called. But my letter is already too unmercifully long, and I close +it here with assurances of my great esteem and respectful consideration. + +TH. JEFFERSON. + + +[_Enclosed in the above._] + +EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM TH. JEFFERSON, TO PHILIP MAZZEI, + +April 24, 1796. + +"The aspect of our politics has wonderfully changed since you left us. +In place of that noble love of liberty and republican Government which +carried us triumphantly through the war, an Anglican, Monarchical and +Aristocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed object is to draw over +us the substance as they have already done the forms of the British +government. The main body of our citizens, however, remain true to their +republican principles. The whole landed interest is republican, and so +is a great mass of talent. Against us are the Executive, the Judiciary, +two out of three branches of the legislature, all the officers of the +government, all who want to be officers, all timid men who prefer the +calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants, +and Americans trading on British capitals, speculators, and holders in +the banks and public funds,--contrivance invented for the purpose of +corruption, and for assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well +as the sound parts of the British model. It would give you a fever were +I to name to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies; men +who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but who have +had their heads shorn by the harlot England. In short, we are likely to +preserve the liberty we have obtained only by unremitting labors and +perils. But we shall preserve them; and our mass of weight and wealth on +the good side is so great as to leave no danger that force will ever be +attempted against us. We have only to awake and snap the Liliputian +cords with which they have been entangling us during the first sleep +which succeeded our labors." + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + +Footnotes in the original text were marked at the page level, beginning +at Footnote #1 each time footnotes appeared on a page. Footnote numbers +for the whole text have been replaced with sequential footnote numbers, +from 1 to 40. + +Spellings of reelect-, coordinat-, and cooperat- in this +transcription have been normalized for consistency to reelect-, +coordinat-, and cooperat-. + +Page 426: A closing qutotation, absent in the original publication, has +been supplied at the end of the following: "the facility and +little truth with which he could represent facts and occurrences, +concerning persons who were the objects of his hatred". + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of +Political Parties in the United States, by Martin Van Buren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INQUIRY *** + +***** This file should be named 35932.txt or 35932.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/9/3/35932/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Gary Rees and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +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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