1793.1

but even this was going much farther than could be justified; and it appears that several native-born Americans were seized also. Of course these acts excited the most vehement indignation among such of the Americans as inclined towards the French; but in truth they were not tolerable by any division of the people. When Congress re-assembled, in December, 1793, the President felt compelled to draw attention to the chief subjects of controversy. He asked for an increase of taxes, and an augmentation of the national force, to enable him to repel the designs of either France or England, and to maintain the neutrality necessary to the well-being and honour of his country. His Government was much shaken by these unusual disturbances. Jefferson in particular was in a very painful position, for in opposing Genet he had been compelled to oppose also the party to which he himself belonged. This did not draw him any the nearer to the opposite party, and his dislike and suspicion of Hamilton were as great as ever. The newspaper which expounded Jefferson's views was edited by a man named Freneau, who observed no measure in his abuse of the Government and of the President. Washington not unnaturally complained of such a licence, and Jefferson determined to retire -a measure which he had been contemplating for some time. Before leaving office (which he quitted at the close of 1793), he drew up an elaborate report on the commerce of the United States, and on the privileges and restrictions attending mercantile intercourse with foreign nations. The upshot of this document, as might be expected from its author, was to favour the interests of France as against those of England. The hostility of the latter country to American trade predisposed a great many persons, even beyond the lines of the Anti-Federal party, to receive these suggestions with favour. Jefferson was followed by Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, as Secretary of State; but the views of the retiring Minister had more influence than those of his successor.

Very early in the session of 1794, the House of Representatives exhibited a disposition to adopt hostile measures against Great Britain. The Opposition, no longer hampered by the presence of their real leader, Jefferson, in the Cabinet, felt themselves more free to attack the policy of the Government with vigour, and they were now aided by many not belonging to the same connection, who were angered by the policy of England towards the United States. Jefferson had an able auxiliary in the Lower House, in the person of James Madison, a man generally acknowledged as the leader of that House, a close thinker, a politician of large expe

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rience, and one who was destined in time to be President of the United States. Although he had hitherto been identified with the principles of the Federalists, he was at one with the Democrats on the particular matters now occupying the public mind. Like Jefferson, and like Washington, he was a native of Virginia, and the Virginians, as a rule, were less disposed than the New Englanders to take a British view of American affairs. The attention of Congress was soon called to the report of Jefferson, and to the measures which it recommended. Among those measures was a tonnage duty on British vessels, from which French vessels were to be exempt. Public opinion, irritated for a time by the insolence of Genet, had now once more gone round to the side of France. It was not that the political ideas of French Republicans had become any more acceptable to the majority of the American people; it was simply that American commerce was injured, and American pride wounded, by the British Government, and that any method of retaliating upon England was consequently acceptable to the popular mind. The Americans had recently been additionally exasperated by the removal of the Portuguese cruisers from before the Straits of Gibraltar-an act said to be owing to the representations of England, and certainly resulting in the escape of many Algerine corsairs into the Atlantic, and in serious depredations on American vessels. It was thought, moreover, that the hostile movements of the frontier Indians were prompted by the Governor of Canada and other British officials; and all these occasions of irritation, taken together, had produced a very widespread feeling of enmity towards Great Britain.

Such were the sentiments which influenced the House of Representatives in no slight degree when the debate on the commercial resolutions commenced in that Assembly. The discussions were long and violent. Mr. Smith, a Southern member, denounced the proposed plan as unjust and politically vindictive. He enlarged on the benefits of commercial intercourse with England, and maintained that it had been regulated as fairly by that country as the commerce of France by the French Republic, besides being much more remunerative. The objections to a prohibitory system he showed to be numerous, and he pointed out the inconvenience of forcing the small capital of the United States from its natural channel of agriculture into manufactures and navigation, the advantages of which were less known and more problematical. Madison very

strongly expressed the contrary view. He seemed desirous of obtaining for America the same doubtful benefits which had accrued to England from her

Navigation Acts.

America, he believed, would thrive more from exclusion and contest than from a conciliatory policy; and he vehemently insisted that the existing moment, above all others, was the time for effecting such a purpose, since England was then engaged in a mortal struggle with France. The plans of Madison may have been politic for the moment; but they lacked the deeper wisdom which provides for succeeding as well as for present times. He furnished for successive generations of his countrymen the basis of that Protectionist policy which exists even to the present day, and which has been so injurious to the true interests of America. His theories, however, fell in with the prevailing mood, and the anti-British resolutions were carried by a majority of five votes.

In this excited condition of the public mind, Government thought to divert the attention of the people from the vexed questions with England by undertaking an expedition against the Algerines. It was proposed to equip six frigates, to reduce those troublesome pirates to submission; naval constructors and navy agents were set to work; captains and superintendents were commissioned; and the foundations of a national fleet were thus laid. Something of a naval power had been created during the Revolution, and many gallant deeds had been performed by Hopkins, the Commander-inChief, and by Paul Jones. But this force had since been neglected, and even the necessity of chastising the Algerines did not do much towards reviving it. The Democrats, now all-powerful, determined not to lose sight of their complaints against England. They considered that a war on the Continent of America was imminent, and they determined to concentrate their force at home, so as to be prepared for the worst. Hostilities began to be openly talked of; Lord Dorchester, the Canadian Governor, seemed himself to contemplate a war; and frequent captures of American vessels by British cruisers excited the popular fury to the utmost. Congress therefore proceeded to consider the raising of a military force, the fortification of the ports, and other measures of protection. It was even proposed by Madison to break off all commercial intercourse with England, and to sequester her debts. Mutual accusations passed between the American and British Governments, and each charged the other with violating the treaty of peace concluded in 1783. The Americans complained that no indemnification had been made for negroes carried away at the close of the War of Independence; that the British still held possession of certain military posts on their frontiers; and

that the whole policy of England was directed towards the ruin and humiliation of the United States. The British, on their side, alleged that the stipulations concerning the property of loyalists, and also in relation to debts contracted in England before the Revolution, had been disregarded. As the year advanced, the English Government moderated or withdrew some of its obnoxious acts; and this enabled the Federal or British party in America to regain something of its former strength, and to make advances towards removing the causes of dissension. The Democratic or French party became all the more violent at these prospects of pacification, and its members, imitating the habits of Parisian life, continued to establish clubs professing extreme opinions, and applauded all the most violent actions of the Republican body in France.

The condition of the country had now become so serious that the necessity for taking some step, even of an unusual character, was apparent to the President and his Ministers. It was resolved to send Jay as a special Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, for the purpose of attempting a settlement of the questions in dispute by means of a treaty. This measure of the Executive was met by a very threatening movement on the part of the Legislature. Madison's suggestion for breaking off commercial intercourse with the offending country was adopted in the House of Representatives, in a Bill prohibiting the admission of all commodities from Great Britain until the grievances complained of should be entirely redressed. The great object of this measure, it can hardly be questioned, was to render the proposed mission of Jay abortive, and to precipitate a war with England, in which the United States would have appeared as the ally of Republican France. The result might have been fatal to the rising fortunes of America, for she was certainly not then in a position to bear the drain of such a contest; but the peril was averted by the wisdom of John Adams. When the Bill came before the Senate, that body was almost equally divided, and on the third reading was absolutely so. The numbers were then thirteen to thirteen, and it devolved on Adams, as Vic President, to give the casting vote. He did so oni the side of the non-contents, and the Bill was cullsequently lost.

This exceptional power was very frequently exercised by Adams, and always on the side of the Federalist party. A short time previous to the rejection of Madison's commercial Bill, the Lower House had sent up a measure framed to prevent violations of neutrality like those committed by Citizen Genet, which, in spite of the President's

Proclamation, the law did not seem strong enough. to check. This was an effect which the Democrats were by no means desirous of promoting, and the opposition to the measure was so strong that the casting vote of Adams was three times required to pass it through. The Vice-President detested the Gallic party, and saw how much of mere insubordination and anarchy lay behind its plausible phrases. Although he believed that his country was being badly used by England, and was always ready to support her rights, it is probable that, as between England and France, his sympathy was to a great extent with the former. In a letter to his wife, dated the 4th of February, 1794, he ridicules what he calls a 66 rascally lie," a "red-hot lie," to the effect that the Duke of York was in a cage at Paris, and that the English fleet was in the hands of the French. On the receipt of this monstrous report, the bells of Philadelphia were set ringing, and an attempt was made to get Adams to read the glorious news in the Senate; but he very wisely refused. Judging from his private and familiar letters at this time, Adams would appear to have been in a mood of general despondency and depression, like that of Hamlet after the supernatural disclosures of his buried father. He was satisfied neither with the French nor with the English, and dreaded lest his own countrymen were going wild with faction. The retirement of Jefferson was followed in

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time by that of his rival, Hamilton, who, on the 31st of January, 1795, left the Ministry of Finance, in which he had effected so many remarkable results. Before quitting the scene of his labours, he issued a report on the finances of the United States, containing a further development of his plans. He was undoubtedly a man of very re markable powers. Jefferson himself admitted that he was a Colossus to the Federal party, and a host in himself. Distinguished alike in administration and in debate, he must be reckoned among the most eminent of those statesmen who founded the American Republic. But he was hated by the Democrats, and described by them as a Royalist, mainly because he inclined to English rather than to French ideas in the working of free institutions, though it must be admitted that some of his political principles were out of harmony with the Republican institutions of America. He was more than once accused of peculation in his office, but, it would seem, unjustly. When he relinquished power, he was so far from being enriched by his association with the Government that he was actually embarrassed in his private means. Whatever blots may rest upon his private life, he had done the State good service in very difficult times. He had restored the credit of his country, and he left its service a poorer man than when he entered on that thankless task,

WASHINGTON felt himself considerably weakened by the retirement of Hamilton, the strongest and most gifted supporter of his Federalist policy, and of his inclinations towards peace. He had also lost the assistance of his old friend, General Knox, who quitted the War Office a little before. The retiring Ministers were succeeded by Mr. Wolcott and Colonel Pickering, and the President could now count on but slight assistance of an effective kind in repelling the attacks of the Democratic

party. Unfortunately, he wanted all the assistance he could get. Jay, who had been sent as special Envoy to England in the spring of 1794, for the adjustment of the long-standing differences between the two countries, concluded a treaty, which, in June, 1795, was laid before the Senate. On the whole, it was a favourable treaty; yet some of its features were such as to excite great disapprobation. England was not likely to yield everything, and that was exactly what the Demo