Congress, an expedition was organised, the members of which, to the number of thirty, left the Mississippi on the 14th of May, 1804. They were absent about two years and a quarter, and returned laden with information which gave a more clear conception than had hitherto existed of the vast and important region lying between the great river and the Western Ocean. One tragical incident threw a lurid stain on the political contests of America during the year 1804. A quarrel occurred between Alexander Hamilton and the Vice-President. The former had reflected upon the character of the latter in public, and had in this way caused him to lose his election as Governor of New York; and Burr demanded a retractation, which Hamilton refused. Burr challenged him, and they met on the 12th of July at a spot on the west side of the Hudson, near Hoboken, where, by a strange fatality, a son of Hamilton had perished in a duel some few years before. Hamilton discharged his pistol in the air, but the fire of Burr's weapon took deadly effect. The wounded man expired next day, at about forty-seven years of age, and the event produced a general sense of indignation throughout the Union. At the re-elections for the offices of President and Vice-President, Burr was set aside in favour of George Clinton, of New York, while Jefferson was again chosen for the chief position. Burr found himself utterly discredited in the older parts of the Federation, and, believing that the Spanish and French population of Louisiana would not submit to the rule of the United States, he departed for that territory in April, 1805, to take advantage of any insubordination which might exist. His more immediate object, however, seems to have been to form an army of adventurers for the invasion of Mexico. Many of the new settlers in Louisiana were persons of desperate character, and Burr was soon joined by General Wilkinson, Commander-in-Chief of the Federal army in those parts, and a man who afterwards proved himself capable of more loyal conduct. Besides his military position, Wilkinson was acting as Governor of Louisiana, so that his conspiracy with Burr is open to a double imputation of bad faith. The Eastern States, however, knew nothing of what was being plotted. They were glad to be rid of one whom they described as the murderer of Hamilton, and as yet they did not guess the full extent of Burr's political dishonesty.

The Democratic policy of Jefferson continued to receive the support of a large section of the American people. In many points, that policy was characterised by a spirit of wise and liberal

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statesmanship, peculiarly adapted to the nature of American life. In one respect, however, the President was regarded with distrust by a considerable number of his countrymen. As a man standing equally aloof from all established religious sects, he was disinclined to the predominance of any one over any other. He objected to the principle of Church establishments, and, in his native State of Virginia, had effected the erasure from the statutebook of all laws giving an exceptional position to any religious body. His measures in favour of religious liberty excited considerable opposition in many quarters; but they triumphed, because they were true expressions of the American genius, of the legitimate tendencies of the nineteenth century, of the highest liberality and the deepest justice. In some personal reminiscences which Jefferson wrote towards the latter end of his life, he alludes to his action in this matter as among the chief services which he believes he rendered to his State. "The attack on the establishment of the dominant religion," he says, was first made by myself. It could be carried at first only by a suspension of salaries for one year, by battling it again at the next session for another year, and so on from year to year until the public mind was ripened for the Bill for establishing religious freedom which I had prepared for the revised code also. This was at length established permanently, and by the efforts of Mr. Madison, being myself in Europe at the time that work was brought forward." The entire freedom with which the religious life in America is now enabled to assume whatever forms it pleases, without injury or prejudice to the views of others, and which was so emphatically asserted by Jefferson in Virginia, is one of the greatest glories of that Confederation which the descendants of Englishmen have established on the western side of the Atlantic. There is no reasonable middle ground between the principle of the Papacy and that of the perfect liberty of the individual to determine for himself the rule and practice of his faith. If this development of modern ideas is difficult to realise in older States, where it is never easy to escape altogether from the traditions of an earlier and a darker age, that is no reason why America, circumstanced as she was, should voluntarily adopt the shackles of a social condition which in other respects she had cast off. In America at the present day, religious establishments do not exist; but in no country is there a wider range of religious sentiment, or a deeper sense of religious claims. The principles of Jefferson, however, made him numerous enemies among the fanatical and the timid, who did not

forget his Virginian policy of earlier years when he had attained the higher dignity of President of the United States.

It was not long ere the designs of Aaron Burr began to attract attention. Surrounding his plans with an air of mystery, and giving to them a character of vastness and splendour which kindled the imaginations of the enthusiastic, he contrived to obtain the support of some honourable men, as well as of several who were quite the reverse; among the former, of Andrew Jackson, then in command of the militia of Tennessee, and in after years seventh President of the United States. Several persons in the West believed that the Government was secretly favouring Burr's projects against Mexico, and on that account gave the schemer their countenance and aid. In the summer of 1806, he was busy organising a military expedition, purchasing and building boats on the Ohio, and engaging men to descend the river. His declared object was to form a settlement on the banks of the Washita, in Louisiana; but it was suspected by the authorities that the true object was either to gain possession of New Orleans, and make it the seat of an independent Government, of which Burr himself should be the head, or to invade Mexico from the territories of the United States. Probably both ideas were combined in the daring and unscrupulous intellect of this adventurer. It is even said that he intrigued with the Spanish Governor of Mexico for separating the Western from the Atlantic States, and forming a new Confederation, in which of course the two arch-conspirators would be the ruling spirits; but the friends of Burr have always denied that he had any such intention. However that may have been, he was manifestly carrying out some secret plot, which could not fail to excite suspicion. Jackson, who had at first listened to his fervid representations, began to see in them an element of disloyalty; and he found himself abandoned by all but the desperate and disreputable. Information of what was going on was conveyed to the Government. Agents were sent to watch him, and at Natchez, while on his way to New Orleans, he was cited to appear before the Supreme Court of the Mississippi Territory. Sufficient evidence to convict him, however, was

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not forthcoming, and he was discharged. But his schemes were destroyed, and a fear of renewed proceedings paralysed all action on his part. Hearing that several of his accomplices had been arrested at New Orleans and other places, he fled in disguise from Natchez, but, being apprehended in February, 1807, was taken a prisoner to Richmond, Virginia. In the following August he was tried upon two indictments, charging him with treason against the United States, and with preparing and commencing an expedition against the dominions of Spain. The judge was John Marshall, and he leant to the side of the prisoner. A large amount of political feeling was evoked by the trial. Burr had at one time belonged to the Federal party, and the members of that body took up his cause somewhat warmly. Marshall and the other judges were Federals, and the Government complained of being obstructed in its endeavours to vindicate the good faith of the country. The President was even summoned to appear before the court which was engaged in the trial of Burr. Much discreditable altercation took place between the executive and judicial authorities, and the institutions of the United States were lowered in the eyes of foreigners, and even of many of their own citizens, by this admixture of political feeling in a matter which should have been guided by no other sentiments than those of law and justice. The result of the second trial of Burr was that he was again acquitted. Nevertheless, a large proportion of the American people believed him to be guilty, and he was so generally deserted that a further prosecution of his designs, whatever they were, became impossible. He fell into a state of abject wretchedness, and was never again able to exercise any control over American affairs. He was a native of New Jersey, where he was born in 1756; and in his twentieth year accompanied Benedict Arnold in the expedition against Quebec. Quitting the army in 1779, he studied the law, and in time entered the field of politics; but his position there was never very eminent. His death took place on Staten Island, near New York, in 1836, at the age of eighty years. He was a man of ability and enterprise; but a defective moral sense destroyed all the better germs of his nature, and involved his whole career in ruin.

1806.]

sulted their feelings; but that peace was exceedingly desirable in a country burdened with a public debt which still absorbed two-thirds of its annual revenue. They consequently cherished the hope that an amicable arrangement would yet be made, but in the meanwhile submitted a resolution, that as many troops as the President might deem sufficient to protect the southern frontier from insult should be immediately raised.

The Administration considered that this resolution was likely to involve the nation in a war with Spain, and perhaps also with France; and they accordingly gave their support to another motion, the object of which was to authorise an appropriation for the purpose of buying the Floridas. The first resolution was rejected by 72 against 58, but amongst the minority were from fifteen to twenty Democrats. The undisputed reign of Jefferson over that party was now at an end, and Randolph was one of those who forsook their old allegiance. Nevertheless, the resolution respecting the appropriation of money for the acquisition of Florida was carried after an animated debate, and the sum assigned for the purpose was two million dollars. But the Opposition in the Lower House, now reinforced by Randolph and a few of his adherents, attacked the policy of the Government with great vigour. It was urged that the President, in his secret message, had brought to the notice of the House the injuries and insults received from Spain, and had called on the representatives of the people to vindicate the national honour; that it afterwards appeared that what he really desired was to obtain redress by negotiation; and that he had thus sought to appropriate to himself the credit of a spirited assertion of the nation's rights, while he threw on Congress the odium of abandoning them. The design of buying Florida was described as in itself highly objectionable, since it was an offer to compromise the national wrongs for a material advantage; and it was added that, in the pursuit of a policy thus unwise and dishonourable, the Executive had throughout been regardless of the rights of the Legislature, had suppressed important despatches from Mr. Monroe (then acting as Special Envoy at Madrid) until the appropriation had been made, and had even, before obtaining that authority, attempted to draw money from the Treasury for the purchase of the Spanish possessions. The President had, in truth, proposed to his Cabinet to make the purchase without waiting for the sanction of Congress, but in this respect had been overruled. Although the Opposition were always beaten on a division, they contrived to delay the necessary measures for effecting the proposed

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object until altered circumstances rendered it impracticable for the time; and it was not until fifteen years later that Florida passed into the possession of the United States.

The disagreements with Spain, however, were far less important than those with Great Britain, consequent on the existing war with France. England had laid it down as an axiom that a neutral cannot prosecute a trade in time of war which is not permitted in time of peace. The commerce of America had been much interrupted by the British. The coasts of the United States were troubled by foreign privateers who were in the habit of burning those captures to which they thought their claim questionable, and by public vessels which scrupled not to enter every creek and harbour that they cared to examine. American ships had been seized in the very act of entering American ports; in some instances their crews had been taken out, maltreated, and abandoned; and it had been found necessary by the President's Government to equip a force to cruise along the coast, and bring the offenders to trial as pirates. For some time, the United States were allowed to import West Indian produce into their dominions, and afterwards to export it to Europe; so that what was prohibited by a direct was sanctioned by a circuitous route. This privilege was now rescinded by the British Government, and the Courts of Admiralty declared that all vessels engaged in the trade would thenceforth be considered legal prizes. Another subject of complaint on the part of the Americans was the impressment of United States seamen, the plea that they were British subjects by birth, and could not free themselves from their allegiance. These grievances, taken altogether, inflamed the popular mind in America to the utmost. Meetings were held in the great cities, petitions were forwarded to the Legislature, and measures of retaliation were loudly demanded. On the 17th of January, 1806, the President sent to the House of Representatives a message on the subject of the disagreements with England. The questions involved were debated for several weeks, and on the 17th of March the House agreed to the policy of prohibiting specific articles of British growth or manufacture, by a vote of 87 to 35. The Bill sanctioning this prohibition, which was to take effect from the 15th of November, passed both Houses by large majorities, though in the Senate an attempt was made to postpone it, in consequence of a more favourable line of conduct on the part of Great Britain. National honour and national safety were believed to be equally concerned in resistance to the claims of England,

on

and all opposition to the prevalent sentiment was swept away by a tide of indignant feeling.

The minority consisted of the greater number of the Federalist party, together with some few Democrats who followed the lead of Randolph. Although it was chiefly the commercial towns in the North-eastern States which suffered from the action of Great Britain, it was precisely in those places that the least disposition was shown for a rupture, because it was there that the greatest injury would be inflicted by a state of war. The pretensions of the British Government, consequently, found some hesitating excusers amongst

retaliated, on the 21st of November, with the celebrated Berlin decree, blockading all the ports of the British Islands. The commerce of the United States suffered equally from both orders, for the blockaded ports were not invested with a naval force such as would render hopeless any attempt to enter them, and American vessels on their way to Europe were liable to be captured and condemned. In consequence of these measures, the mercantile ships of the United States were largely seized by English and French cruisers. The Federal Government possessed scarcely any navy, and was therefore without the means of giving

the people of New England and the adjacent States, and it was feared that Jefferson was endeavouring covertly to support the cause of Napoleon by fomenting a quarrel with his chief enemy. The Democrats, on their part, charged the Federals with designing to bring back America to the dominion of the mother country. Imputations of this nature are common in times of excitement, and are often without any foundation in truth. But the incidents of the war in Europe, and the measures taken by the belligerents, were such as to arouse a very natural feeling of dissatisfaction in the United States. By an Order in Council, dated May 16th, 1806, the British Government declared the whole coast of Europe, from the Elbe, in Germany, to Brest, in France, in a state of blockade. Napoleon, then Emperor of the French,

adequate protection. It had been part of Jefferson's policy to cut down the small fleet which was commenced by his two predecessors, and the country now felt the evil effects of that mistaken economy. A number of gun-boats had indeed been built, for the purpose of affording protection; but they were nothing more they were nothing more than small suling vessels, having a cannon at the bow and another at the stern, and were manned only by a few armed sailors. They proved wholly inefficient, and the merchant-ships of the United States had nothing to shield them from the naval power of France on the one hand, and of England on the other.

Some hope of a general peace in Europe was entertained during the year 1806, from the fact of Charles James Fox having become Secretary of