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 u^ick, N^Kiry Qr^yootT 
 
 LIVES 
 
 JOHN JAY 
 
 ALEXANDER 
 
 L T N. 
 
 -YORK: 
 
 PUBLISW^ «3r HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 N O.^^ CLIFF-STREET, 
 
 1841. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by 
 
 Harper & Brothers, 
 
 In the Clerli's Office of the Southern District of New-York. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Life of John Jay. 
 
 Pago 
 
 Preface .11 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 French origin of the Family of Jay. — Brief 
 Memoir of his immediate Ancestors. — His 
 Birth and early Education. — He enters Co- 
 lumhia College, and graduates with Honour. 
 •'—He studies Law, and is admitted to its 
 Practice. — He is appointed Secretary to the 
 Commission for running the Boundary be- 
 tween JYew-Jersey and JYew-York. — He 
 marries 13 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Committee of Correspondence appointed hy 
 the Citizens of Mew-York. — Jay is chosen 
 a Member. — Proposal for a General Con- 
 gress. — Jay is elected a Delegate to the first 
 General Congress. — Address of Congress to 
 the People of England. — Provisional Con- 
 gress of JYew-York. — Commencement of 
 Hostilities. — Appeal of Congress to the In- 
 habitants of Canada. — Declaration hy Con- 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 gress of the Causes for taking up Arms. — 
 Petition of Congress to the King of Great 
 Britain, — Moral Consequences of this Pe- 
 tition. — Jay is named a Colonel of Infantry, 
 — Overtures of the French Government. — 
 Measures for the repression of the Tories.- — 
 Manifesto of Congress hi relation to Pri- 
 vateers. — Convention in JYew-York for 
 the formation of a Constitution. — First 
 Draught of that Constitution hy Jay. — 
 Reflections on the Character of that In- 
 strument 26 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 Council of Safety of the State of J^ew-York, 
 — Appeal to the Inhabitants of Try cm Coun- 
 ty. — Jay is named Chief-justice of JYew- 
 York. — Visit of Washington to Jay. — 
 Scheme for the Conquest of Canada. — Jay 
 returns as a Delegate to Congress, and re- 
 signs his seat on the Bench. — He is chosen 
 President of Congress. — He is appointed 
 Ambassador to Spain.— He sails on that 
 Mission. — He is driven by Stress of Weath- 
 er into Martinique. — He re-embarks, and 
 lands at Cadiz. — He is invited to Madrid, 
 but not formally received. — Question in re- 
 lation to the Right of navigating the Mis- 
 sissippi. — Draughts of Congress upon Jay, 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 
 Page 
 
 and Difficulties to which he is exposed in 
 consequence. — Jay is named a Commission- 
 er to negotiate a Treaty w^'th Great Britain. 
 — Impolitic and humiliating Instructions to 
 the Commissioners 45 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JVegotiations at Paris for a general Peace, — 
 Jay^s Acts as Commissioner on the part of 
 the United States. — Attempt of the French 
 Ministry to control the Commissioners, 
 which is frustrated hy Jay. — He communi- 
 cates with the British Ministry through Mr. 
 Vaughan. — Preliminary Articles agreed 
 upon between the United States and Eng- 
 land. — Jay is offered the Embassy to Eng- 
 land. — A general Peace concluded . . .63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Jay visits London. — He is taken ill, and com- 
 pelled to have recourse to the Bath Waters, 
 — Delays attending the audit of his Ac- 
 counts. — He embarks for the United States, 
 and lands at JVew-York. — His distinguish- 
 ed Reception by the Inhabitants of that City, 
 — He is chosen Secretary of Foreign Af- 
 fairs by Congress, and elected a Delegate 
 from the State of JVew-York. — He negoti- 
 ates with the Spanish Minister. — Hostili- 
 A2 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 ties commenced hy Algiers, and Report of 
 Mr. Jay on the subject. — He is assailed hy 
 Littlepage, and vindicates himself triumph- 
 antly. — He is chosen President of the Abo- 
 lition Society. — Failure of the JYegotiation 
 with Spain, and Beport of Mr. Jay on the 
 siibject. — His Report on the F7'ontier Posts, 
 on the Slaves retained by Great Britain, 
 and the collection of Debts by British sub- 
 jects 74 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Jay^s Opinions of the inefficiency of the Con- 
 federation. — Origin of the Federal Party, 
 — He is elected a Member of the Episcopal 
 Convention — Acts of that Convention. — 
 Convention at Annapolis. — Jay^s Corre- 
 spondence with Washington in relatio7i to 
 a Federal Union. — Convention at Philadel- 
 phia, and adoption of the Federal Con- 
 stitution. — Jay is associated with Hamilton 
 and Madison in the publication of " The 
 Federalist.'' — The Doctors' Mob in Mew- 
 York. — State Convention in JVew-York. — 
 The Federal Constitution goes into effect, 
 and Jay is named Chief -justice of the Su- 
 preme Court. — He holds the first Court.-^ 
 His Charge to the Grand Jury. — He is 
 nominated as candidate for Governor of the 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 -'" ' Page 
 
 State of JVew-York, and his Election is 
 defeated. — Public expressions of Dissatis- 
 faction at that result. — Jay's Decision that 
 a State might be sued. — Amendment of the 
 Constitution in consequence. — Refections 
 on that Decision 89 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 Question of JYeutrality in the War between 
 France and Englarid. — Washington's Proc- 
 lamation. — Arrival of Genet. — Attempt 
 at fitting out French Privateers. — Jay^s 
 Charge to the Grand Jury at Richmond. — 
 Aggressions of Great Britain. — Washing- 
 ton determines to send a special Minister 
 to England, and selects Jay for the purpose, 
 — Jay proceeds to London. — His JYegoti- 
 ations with Lord Gi'enville. — He concludes 
 a Treaty. — Loud Dissatisfaction expressed 
 by the anti-Federal Party. — Treaty ratified 
 by the President and Senate. — Its Provis- 
 ions approved by the House of Representa^ 
 tives. — Merits of Jay's Treaty, and com^ 
 parison of it with that negotiated by Mr. 
 Monroe 104 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Jay is elected Governor of Jfew-York during 
 his Absence in Europe, — Appearance of 
 
VIU CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 the Yellow Fever in the City ofJYew-York, 
 — Jay recommends a Day of Thanksgiving 
 on its disappearance. — Question in rela- 
 tion to the Appointing Power. — Change in 
 Criminal Punishments. — Law enforcing 
 the Observance of the Sabbath. — Jay is 
 again elected Governor. — Unanimity of 
 Parties on the subject of Defence. — Passage 
 of the Abolition Law.—-Jay^s Firmness in 
 the Execution of the Laws. — Legislature 
 in opposition to the Governor. — The Ques- 
 tion in relation to the Appointing Power re- 
 newed. — Jay adjourns the Council of Ap- 
 pointment. — Decision of this Question and 
 its consequences. — Jay is ojfered a Reap- 
 pointment as Chief-justice of the United 
 States. — He declines to be a Candidate for 
 re-election as Governor, and retires from 
 Office 119 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Jay^s mode of Life in his Retirement at Bed- 
 ford. — Loss of his Wife. — His Independ- 
 ence of Character. — His Exertions in the 
 cause of Abolition. — He is chosen an Officer 
 of the Bible Society. — His Opinion on the 
 Missouri Question. — He is struck by the 
 Palsy. — His Death. — His Charade)' fur- 
 ther developed 133 
 
contents. ix 
 
 Life of Alexander Hamilton. 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface 147 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birth and Parentage of Alexander Hamilton, 
 — He enters a Counting-house in St. Croix, 
 — He proceeds to JYew-York for his Edu- 
 cation, and enters King's College. — His 
 Distinction as a Student, and as a Writer 
 of Political Papers. — He makes his appear- 
 ance as a Speaker in Popular Assemblies, 
 — His Success as an Orator. — He studies 
 Military Tactics, and receives a Commis- 
 sion in the JVew-York Line. — His Services 
 in the Campaign of 1776. — He accepts the 
 appointment of Aid-de-camp to Washing- 
 ton 149 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Washington at his zenith of Popularity. — 
 Character of the Relations between Ham- 
 ilton and Washington. — Review of the 
 Campaign of 1776. — Campaign of 1777. 
 — Failure of its most Important Objects, 
 — Causes of that Failure, and Reflections . 160 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Page 
 
 Influences which were brought to bear against 
 Washington. — Lee looked up to as a Leader. 
 — Gates brought forward in that Capacity. 
 — Accession of Mifflin. — Jicts of Congress. 
 ■—Their probable Motives. — State of the 
 Public Mind. — Cessation of active War- 
 fare in the JVorth. — Hamilton resigns his 
 Station of Aid-de-camp. — Views of the 
 British Government 172 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Consider atiom on the Origin of the Revolu- 
 tion. — Effects of the earlier Measures of 
 Passive Resistance. — Emission of Bills of 
 Credit by Cmigress. — Consequence of that 
 Measure. — Decay of Public Credit. — State 
 of Fijumcial Affairs. — Hamilton proposes 
 a JVational Bank as a Remedy .... 182 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Hamilton corresponds loith Duane. — Second 
 Letter to Morris, and his Reply. — First 
 proposition for a Convention to establish a 
 Federative Republic. — Reflections on State 
 and Federal Sovereignty. — He edits " the 
 Continentalist.^^ — Obtains the command of 
 a Corps of Light Infantry. — Serves at 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 Page 
 
 Yorktoum, and leads the Forlorm Hope. — 
 Retires from active Service, and commences 
 the study of Law. — His Marriage, — He 
 is appointed by Morris receiver of Tax- 
 es for the State of JYew-York .... 193 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Hamilton takes his Seat in Congress. — Ques- 
 tion in relation to Vermont. — Plan for a 
 uniform System of Duties on Imports. — 
 Opposition of Rhode Island. — Anonymous 
 Letter published in that State. — Proceed- 
 ings of Congress in relation thereto. — Vir- 
 ginia withdraws its Assent. — Report of the 
 Committee of Finance. — Hamilton proposes 
 a Substitute, which is rejected. — Report of 
 the Committee of Finance, and Documents 
 appended. — The JYewburgh Letters . . . 207 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 Hamilton takes up his Residence in the City 
 of Mew-York. — His Rivals and Associates 
 at the Bar. — Popular Violence directed 
 against the Tories. — Hamilton's publica- 
 tion on this Occasion. — He is chosen a 
 Member of Assembly. — His Agency in the 
 Pacification of Vermont. — Causes which 
 led to the call of a Convention for amend- 
 ing the Confederacy. — Previous Convention 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 at Annapolis. — Hamilton draws the Report 
 
 of that Convention 224 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 Federal Convention meets at Philadelphia. — 
 Resolutions offered by Edmund Randolph, 
 — Resolutions of Judge Patterson. — Plan 
 offered by Pinckney. — Hamilton's great 
 Speech in the Convention, in which he 
 offers a Draught of a Constitution. — Ex- 
 amination of its Features. — The Delega- 
 tion from JYew-York retires from the Con- 
 vention. — Hamilton alone returns and re- 
 sumes his Seat. — Franklin's Speech. — 
 Hamilton urges that all the Members should 
 sign. — Hamilton's Speech on that Occasion, 
 — Consideration of his Services in fra- 
 ming the Constitution 239 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Discussions in respect to the Federal Consti- 
 tution. — Hamilton unites with Jay and 
 Madison in writing the Federalist. — Let- 
 ters of Philo-Publius. — State Convention 
 at Poughkeepsie. — Hamilton is a mem- 
 ber of that Convention^ and takes an 
 active 'part in its Proceedings. — The 
 Federal Constitution ratified hy that 
 Convention. — Refections on the Con- 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 Paga 
 
 stitution. — Change of Popular Feeling, 
 and Rejoicings in New-York on its final 
 Adoption 259 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 /ashington is chosen President. — Organ- 
 ization of the Executive Departments. — 
 Hamilton is appointed Secretary of the 
 Treasury. — His Report on Public Cred- 
 it, in which he recommends the funding 
 of the Debt and the laying of an Excise. 
 
 — Opposition to the Funding System, 
 which is, however, carried. — The Excise 
 is also opposed, but carried. — Plan of a 
 National Bank, which receives a Cha?'- 
 ter. — Constitutional Question raised in 
 relation to it 273 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Success of the Bank of the United States. 
 — Hamilton's Report on Manufactures. 
 
 — His Report on a Mint. — Dissensions 
 in the Cabinet. — Origin of the tivo great 
 Parties. — Proclamation of Neutrality. — 
 Mission of Genet, and his offensive Acts. 
 — Proceedings of the Government in re- 
 lation to them. — Letters of Pacificus . . 287 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Paga 
 
 Armed resistance to the Excise Law. — 
 Hamilton resigns the Office of Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury^ and resumes the 
 practice of Law. — His brilliant Success. 
 — His Disinterestedness as a Politician. 
 — Continued Aggressions of France, and 
 her Refusal to grant Redress. — Excite- 
 ment of Popular Feeling. — The Pro- 
 visional Army is voted by Congress. — 
 Hamilton is named Inspector-general. — 
 His Services in that Capacity . . .301 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Causes of the decline of the Federal Party. 
 — Origin of the enmity of Burr against 
 Hamilton. — Settlement of the Differ- 
 ences ivith France. — The Provisional 
 Army is disbanded, and Hamilton re- 
 sumes the profession of Law. — He loses 
 his eldest Son in a Duel. — Burr appears 
 as a candidate for the office of Gov- 
 ernor, and is prevented by Hamilton 
 from receiving the support of the Fed- 
 eral Party 316 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Pago 
 Burr demands an Explanation from Ham- 
 ilton. — Correspondence between them. — 
 A Duel is the result. — Examination of 
 Hamilton's motives in consenting to it. — 
 He is mortally wounded and dies. — His 
 public Character and Views of Govern- 
 ment 330 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Having undertaken to furnish a sketch of the 
 Life of Jay for the " School District Library," the 
 assent of his son, the Hon. WilUam Jay, was asked 
 and hberally granted. The large and interesting 
 memoir which he has published of his father was 
 then placed in the hands of one of my sons for the 
 purpose of selecting the dates and facts necessary 
 for the purpose. This task was executed by him 
 in such a manner as to leave me little else to do 
 but suppress some parts which would have swell- 
 ed the sketch beyond the proposed limits. It is 
 therefore given to the world under his name. 
 i It will probably be seen, that, adopting on al- 
 most all occasions the views entertained by Judge 
 William Jay of the character and merits of his 
 father, there are slight differences in the colour 
 given to public acts, and in estimates of men and 
 measures, from those adopted by me in the bio- 
 graphical sketches of Clinton and Hamilton. It 
 has not been thought necessary to reconcile these 
 discrepances, particularly as they will afford the 
 reader a better opportunity of forming his own 
 opinion. 
 
 James Renwick. 
 
 Columbia College, 1st August, 1840. 
 
LIFE 
 
 JOHN JAY 
 
 HENRY B. REN WICK. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 JAMES R E N W I C K, L L. D. 
 
JOHN JAY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 French origin of the Family of Jay. — Brief 
 Memoir of his immediate Ancestors. — His 
 Birth and early Education. — He enters Columbia 
 College^ and graduates with Honour. — He stud- 
 ies Law, and is admitted to its Practice. — He is 
 appointed Secretary to the Commission for run- 
 ning the Boundary between JVew-Jersey and 
 JYew-York. — He marries. 
 
 To a youthful mind, the military deeds of the 
 heroes of the Revolution generally present them- 
 selves in more striking lights and glowing colours 
 than the less glaring, though equally useful and 
 patriotic, actions of the statesmen and councillors 
 of the same period. This predilection for those 
 who were covered with military glory has, in our 
 own time, not been confined to youth alone, and 
 we have seen the successful general considered by 
 a majority of the nation fit to perform the duties of 
 any and every other office. Although such a pre- 
 dilection may naturally exist, yet we should not 
 neglect the claims on our admiration and the grat- 
 B 
 
14 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 itude due to those who, though they never perilled 
 themselves on the field of battle, yet still were 
 equally patriotic, equally forgetful of self-interest, 
 and displayed as ^reat talent in the senate, the 
 council chamber, and the closet. 
 
 John Jay, the subject of the present memoir, 
 was one of the latter class ; and we find him, in 
 various periods of his long and eventful life, ful- 
 filling the duties and holding the stations of a 
 wise councillor, a skilful statesman, an upright 
 judge, and a framer of treaties and state papers, 
 by which the successes of others in the field were 
 secured and turned to advantage. 
 
 The account that we have of his ancestors ex- 
 tends as far back as the time of his great-grand- 
 father, and is derived from a paper prepared by 
 himself for the perusal of his children. Pierre or 
 Peter Jay, the person referred to, was a native of 
 France, and resided in the City of Rochelle. His 
 business was that of a merchant, and, from collat- 
 eral facts, we have reason to believe that he was 
 both wealthy and enterprising. Like many of the 
 most industrious and most respectable inhabitants 
 of that part of the country, he was a Protestant, 
 and doomed, as we shall see, to undergo much 
 trouble and persecution on account of his religion. 
 He seems to have had a sort of presentiment, 
 probably derived from the growing disfavour of 
 the Protestants in the sight of the government. 
 
J O H N J A Y. 15 
 
 that it would at some time or other be necessary 
 for him to sacrifice both country and property on 
 account of his rehgion. On this account he deter- 
 mined to send one of his sons to England, to ac- 
 quire a knowledge of that language, and be edu- 
 cated there. His eldest son was the one chosen 
 for this purpose, but he unfortunately died on the 
 voyage. With great promptness, the father sent 
 his second son, Augustus, who was then barely 
 12 years old, to take his place. This happened 
 A.D. 1677. The troubles and persecutions which 
 Mr. Jay seemed to have foreseen, and which pre- 
 ceded the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, now 
 commenced, and in January, 1685, the Protestant 
 church at Rochelle was pulled down, pursuant to 
 a decree passed at that time. Finding that the 
 Protestants still continued the exercise of their re- 
 ligion, and were not to be forced to change it by 
 any ordinary means, a regiment of dragoons was 
 despatched to that portion of the country, and 
 quartered upon the Protestant inhabitants. We 
 have full evidence that these armed missionaries 
 had free license to make their hosts as uncomfort- 
 able as possible, and were encouraged to practise 
 upon them those insults so easily perpetrated by 
 an unrestrained and licentious soldiery. 
 
 We can easily imagine to ourselves what must 
 have been the situation of a pious fanuly, and 
 what the feelings of a husband and a father, under 
 
16 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 such circumstances. Mr. Jay's were such that he 
 determined that those nearest and dearest to him 
 should no longer be exposed to such insult and 
 contamination ; and, finding an opportunity that 
 was at once safe and secret, he sent his family, 
 together with several articles of value, on board 
 a vessel bound for England. This vessel luckily 
 arrived in safety ; and now the mind of Mr. Jay 
 must have been comparatively at ease, for those 
 who were most exposed and least fit to defend 
 themselves were rescued from persecution. The 
 departure of his family did not long remain un- 
 discovered ; and suspicions arising from it of his 
 own intentions, he was arrested and thrown into 
 prison. From thence, by the intervention of some 
 worthy Catholics, his friends, he was rescued ; and 
 now, perceiving that France was no longer a resi- 
 dence for him, he only awaited an opportunity to 
 leave it for ever. Before this intention could be 
 put in practice, it was necessary to secure some 
 support for himself and family in a strange land ; 
 this he could not procure by turning any of his 
 French property into money, because his motives 
 would easily have been seen, and a second arrest 
 have followed. At this time several of his ships 
 were expected to arrive, loaded with merchandise 
 belonging to him, and one of them was to be the 
 means of his escape. In order to effect this, an 
 agreement was entered into with one of the pilots 
 
JOHN JAY. 17 
 
 of the poit, in conformity with which the first of 
 his ships that arrived was to anchor at some dis- 
 tance, and not come up to the town. The first of 
 his vessels that made its appearance was one from 
 a Spanish port, loaded chiefly with iron ; and for- 
 tunately, both for his honour and his future means 
 of living, both ship and cargo belonged entirely to 
 himself. The pilot, faithful to his promise, an- 
 chored the vessel in the place determined on. 
 With his assistance, Mr. Jay was enabled to em- 
 bark, and sail was immediately made for England. 
 He arrived in safety, and happy must have been 
 the meeting between him and his family. They 
 were now out of danger, free from persecution, 
 and in the enjoyment of their own chosen religion ; 
 and although their means were not so great as for- 
 merly, yet they still had a sufficiency. 
 
 On his escape from France being made pubUc, 
 all his property was confiscated, and never was 
 returned so as to be of any use either to him or to 
 his children. But one thing was wanting to their 
 complete happiness ; this w^as their uncertainty as 
 to what would be the fate of their second, now 
 their oldest, son, who was at that time probably 
 in Africa, on commercial business of his father's. 
 This son, Augustus, the grandfather of John Jay, 
 returned (not knowing his parents' escape) to 
 Rochelle. Thence, facilitated by the kindness of 
 his friends, he managed to procure a passage to 
 B2 
 
18 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Charleston, S. C. ; for he also, like his parents, 
 was resolute in sacrificing everything for his reli- 
 gion. From Charleston, driven by a cUmate un- 
 healthy even to natives, and doubly so to foreign- 
 ers, he travelled to Philadelphia ; but finding in 
 that city, then in an infant state, no field for the 
 exercise of commerce, to which business he had 
 been brought up, he thence made his way to New- 
 York. Here he not only found occupation, but 
 friends, driven, like himself, by persecution, to carry 
 the arts and industry of France to other shores. 
 Here also he found churches built and attended 
 by French refugees, and a service performed in his 
 own language. Finding that his success in life 
 must wholly depend upon his own exertions, he 
 applied himself with diligence and skill to busi- 
 ness, and followed for many years the calling of a 
 supercargo. During this time he both heard from 
 his parents and made them acquainted with his 
 welfare. 
 
 Leaving his fortunes for a while, we turn to 
 those of his younger brother, Isaac. At this time 
 the war between William of Orange and James 
 II. of England was in progress, and a regiment 
 of French refugees was formed by the former 
 to assist in driving from Ireland his Catholic 
 competitor for the throne. Into this regiment 
 Isaac entered, impelled by the ardour of youth, 
 and, no doubt, not a little by the lecoUection of 
 
JOHN JAY. 19 
 
 the many insults and injuries he and his family had 
 received at the hands of those who professed the 
 Romish religion. He sealed his conviction of the 
 justice of his own cause with his blood, and died 
 not long after the battle of the Boyne, from the ef- 
 fects of wounds received in that engagement. 
 
 In the year 1692, Augustus, while pursuing his 
 commercial avocations, started on a voyage from 
 New-York to Hamburg ; on the passage the ves- 
 sel was captured by a French privateer, and car- 
 ried into St. Maloes. He, w^ith other prisoners, 
 was confined, not very closely, as it appears by 
 subsequent events, in a fortress about 15 miles 
 from that place. While there, news arrived of 
 the battle of La Hogue, and the prisoners were 
 ordered into closer confinement. They in some 
 way received news of this order, and determined, 
 before it was put in force, to effect their escape. 
 Accordingly, on the evening that was to precede 
 their imprisonment, Augustus and some of his 
 companions succeeded in scaling the wall and 
 dropping into the ditch. Whether they were 
 stunned by the fall or were recaptured, he had no 
 means of ascertaining. He himself, however, got 
 out of the ditch, took the road to, and arrived 
 safely at, Rochelle. Here he was secreted and 
 protected by his aunt, until she found means to 
 send him to the Isle Aux Rhe, whence he got 
 passage to Denmark. On his way home he pass- 
 
20 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 ed through Holland, performed his business there, 
 and then crossed over to England, where he saw 
 his father and sister for the first time since their 
 separation so many years before. There was one 
 drawback to their joy, one cause of grief; the 
 mother, who had gone through so many trials with 
 them, was no more. The calls of business soon 
 separated this happy party, and Augustus took a 
 last farewell, and returned to his business in Amer- 
 ica. 
 
 A few years after his return he married. His 
 wife was Anna Maria, daughter of Mr. Balthazar 
 Bayard ; and she too, like himself, was descended 
 from a family that had suffered from religious per- 
 secution. Her great-grandfather was a French- 
 man, a Protestant professor of theology in one of 
 the colleges at Paris, who was forced either to give 
 up his religion or leave his country during the 
 reign of Louis XIII. He chose the latter alterna- 
 tive, and fled to Holland, whence his grandson 
 emigrated to this country. 
 
 By this marriage, Augustus Jay found himself 
 surrounded by a numerous and influential Dutch 
 connexion. In the colony of New-York, the de- 
 scendants of the Dutch were the most numerous 
 class of the population, and they were remark- 
 able for the liberal manner in which they befriend- 
 ed and assisted their countrymen, or those connect- 
 ed with them. Soon after his marriage, finding 
 
JOHN JAY. 21 
 
 himself in comfortable and respectable circumstan- 
 ces, Mr. Jay sent out for his father and sister ; but 
 the father felt that his declining years would not 
 permit such a voyage, and the sister would on no 
 account leave him. Augustus Jay went on for 
 many years increasing his wealth and influence ; 
 and, after having had three children, all of whom 
 were daughters, he was at last made happy by the 
 birth of a son in the year 1704. This son, the 
 father of John Jay, he named Peter. No other 
 children were born, and Peter therefore, at his 
 father's death, which did not take place until he 
 had reached the age of 84, found himself sole 
 bearer of the name of Jay. 
 
 Peter Jay, like his father and grandfather, was 
 a merchant, and followed his business with such 
 success, that, at the age of forty, he was able to re- 
 tire, and live on the proceeds of his former indus- 
 try. At the age of 24 he had married Mary Van 
 Cortlandt, and she, with their ten children, now 
 accompanied him to Rye, a small village on Long 
 Island Sound, where he had purchased a farm. 
 Their eighth child, John Jay, was born on the 12th 
 of December, 1745, and even in his childhood 
 displayed some inklings of the spirit which was to 
 animate him in after years. His early education 
 was principally derived from his mother, who was 
 a woman both of talents and information. She 
 also instilled into his mind those Chiistian princi- 
 
^2 AMERICAN B OGRAPHY. 
 
 ciples which we shall find exhibiting themselves 
 in his future career. At the age of eight he was 
 sent to a grammar school at New-Rochelle. His 
 instructer there was the Rev. Mr. Stoope, a native 
 of Switzerland, and pastor of the French church. 
 To great learning and fondness for mathematical 
 pursuits he united absence of mind ; and his pupil 
 suffered from the latter almost as much as he gained 
 from the former. To his wife, who was as miser- 
 ly as he was careless, the care of his household 
 was committed, and several anecdotes are record- 
 ed of the sufferings of young Jay, both as to food 
 and treatment. 
 
 John Jay remained under the tuition of Stoope 
 for three years, and was then placed by his father 
 under the care of a private tutor, who prepa- 
 red him for a college. The one selected was 
 King's, now Columbia College, an institution which 
 boasts of many celebrated men among its alumni. 
 He now seems to have commenced with energy 
 and perseverance to conquer some defects and ac- 
 quire many excellences; among the former were an 
 indistinctness of articulation, and a habit of read- 
 ing aloud with such speed that it was impossible for 
 him to be understood ; both these faults he over- 
 came. He applied himself to all his. studies with 
 diligence, and in composition was so anxious not 
 to lose any ideas, that even when in bed he kept 
 paper and pencil beside him, in order to secure any 
 
J O H N J A Y. 23 
 
 new thought that might strike him when he awoke. 
 In fine, he obtained both praise and esteem from 
 all his teachers by his application and his correct 
 deportment. In his fourth collegiate year he de- 
 cided upon the law as his future profession, and 
 commenced his studies by reading with a fellow- 
 student " Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis." Be- 
 fore taking his degree, he was, on account of con- 
 duct to which no moral blame could have been 
 imputed, for a time suspended. He soon returned, 
 and was first in his class when the term of their 
 collegiate education expired. At the Commence- 
 ment he spoke the Latin salutatory address, then, 
 as now, considered the highest honour, and receiv- 
 ed his degree of Bachelor of Arts on the 15th of 
 May, 1764. 
 
 Two weeks afterward he began his professional 
 studies in the office of Benjamin Kissam, a law- 
 yer of some repute in the City of New-York. 
 The respect and esteem between master and pupil 
 soon became mutual, and some pleasing letters are 
 still preserved, which show the good understanding 
 that existed between them. In 1768 Mr. Jay was 
 examined and admitted to practice, and soon, by 
 his talents and industry, was possessed of a lu- 
 crative business. His intense application and con- 
 finement produced ill. health; as a remedy, he took 
 lodgings six miles from town, and rode in and out 
 on horseback daily. 
 
24 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Commissioners were at this time appointed by 
 the king to determine a disputed boundary-line 
 between the provinces of New-York and New- 
 Jersey. Mr. Jay was named secretary of that 
 commission, and thus commenced his pubhc ca- 
 reer as a servant of that king to whom he was af- 
 terward so long and so successfully opposed. 
 
 In the year 1774, Jay, being then twenty-nine 
 years of age, was united in marriage to Miss Sarah 
 Livingston. William Livingston, the father of this 
 lady, had distinguished himself as an ardent and 
 active patriot, and, from the lead he took among the 
 Whigs of New-Jersey, became the first governor 
 of that state after the declaration of independence. 
 Jay, by the father's side descended froai the 
 French Huguenots, by his mother's from a family 
 of the first note among the Batavian settlers of 
 the New-Netherlands, was by this marriage allied 
 to the most influential persons of British origin 
 among the inhabitants of the State of New-York. 
 He was thus saved from all risk of becoming obnox- 
 ious to the petty jealousies which difference of race 
 and origin often give rise to. The circumstances of 
 birth and connexion with the three prevailing ra- 
 ces, especially with the most noted and respectable 
 in all, could, at a time when equalit}' had hardly 
 become a theory, and was still farther from being 
 practically acted upon, have had no little influence 
 in bringing him early before the pubhc eye. Jay 
 
JOHN JAY. 26 
 
 was not one of those who disappoint the expecta- 
 tions derived from their nativity and alHances, but 
 fully warranted by his valuable services the hon- 
 ours which were showered upon him at a very 
 early period of his life. 
 C 
 
26 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Committee of Correspondence appointed hy the 
 Citizens of JYew-York. — Jay is chosen a Mem- 
 her. — Proposal for a General Congress. — Jay 
 is elected a Delegate to the first General Con- 
 gress. — Address of Congress to the People of 
 England. — Provisional Congress of J^ew-York. 
 — Commencement of Hostilities.- — Appeal of 
 Congress to the Inhabitants of Canada. — Decla- 
 ration by Congress of the Causes for taking up 
 Arms. — Petition of Congress to the King of 
 Great Britain. — Moral Consequences of this 
 Petition. — Jay is named a Colonel of Infofatry, 
 — Overtures of the French Government. — Meas- 
 ures for the repression of the Tories. — Manifesto 
 of Congress in relation to Privateers. — Conven- 
 tion in JYew-York for the formation of a Con- 
 stitution. — First Draught of that Constitution 
 by Jay. — Reflections on the Character of that 
 Instrument. 
 
 The clouds which had long been gathering 
 upon the political horizon of America now began 
 to roll themselves towards the zenith, and burst in 
 storms on the devoted heads of the colonists. 
 Acts of aggression on the one side were followed 
 
JOHN JAY. 27 
 
 on the other by resistance to oppression and injus- 
 tice. Men were called from the bosom of their 
 families and from the pleasures of domestic life 
 to act for their country, and to give themselves up 
 wholly to what was required for the maintenance 
 of its liberty. Among these was Mr. Jay, and his 
 first office in the service of the patriots was as one 
 of a committee appointed by the citizens of New- 
 York to correspond with their fellow-colonists on 
 all matters of moment, and especially upon the 
 manner of their resistance to the oppression of the 
 mother country. Mr. Jay was appointed on a sub- 
 committee, whose business was to prepare answers 
 to such communications as might be received. 
 
 Among the labours of this sub-committee, an 
 answer was framed to a letter from the people of 
 Boston. The draught of this is supposed to have 
 come from the hands of Jay. It is not a little re- 
 markable, as it contains the first proposition for 
 the provinces to elect deputies to a general Con- 
 gress. The New-York committee, on the 4th of 
 July, 1774, passed resolutions that their city ought 
 to send delegates to this Congress, when and wher- 
 ever it might be held ; they also nominated five 
 gentlemen, among whom was Jay, as suitable rep- 
 resentatives. They were elected; but Mr. Jay 
 and two of his colleagues, conceiving, from the 
 manner of the election, that they were unfairly 
 appointed, refused to serve^ unless another election 
 
28 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 was held. Accordingly, a second election was 
 held, and in a more formal manner ; all who paid 
 taxes voted, and the proceedings were countenan- 
 ced and controlled by the corporation of the city. 
 Mr. Jay was again elected, and proceeded with 
 alacrity and cheerfulness to take his seat in a body 
 whose existence was not countenanced by the laws 
 of the country, and whose members would be lia- 
 ble to royal persecution. 
 
 The situation of a delegate to Congress seems 
 to have been by no means considered as one that 
 ought to be coveted, and many counties were not 
 represented in consequence of the difficulty of 
 finding proper persons who were willing to serve. 
 The towns along the Hudson, unable, from these 
 causes, to elect members, committed to the New- 
 York delegation the right of voting and acting for 
 them. 
 
 Congress assembled in Philadelphia on the 5th 
 of September, 1774. Mr. Jay took his seat on 
 the first day of the session, and, although the 
 youngest member, occupied a prominent place in 
 the business of the assembly. One of the first 
 measures of the house was the passage and rec- 
 ommendation of a strict non-importation act, by 
 which the colonists bound themselves to use no 
 production of the mother country. This act, it was 
 fondly hoped, would, by depriving English mer- 
 chants of their trade, induce them to remonstrate 
 
JOHN JAY. 29 
 
 against the decrees of government, and procure 
 their repeal. No such action followed, and, by 
 their rigid observance of this agreement, the col- 
 onists found that they had not so much injured 
 England as almost ruined themselves ; for, at the 
 commencement of actual hostilities, they were des- 
 titute of every munition of war, every manufac- 
 tured necessary of life. 
 
 Congress appointed several committees, and, 
 among others, one for drawing up an address to the 
 people of England, and a memorial to the inhabi- 
 tants of British America 3 of this committee Jay was 
 a member, and to him, young though he was, was 
 assigned the duty of preparing the former paper. 
 He acquitted himself well ; the address was adopt- 
 ed by Congress, and w^as considered by all as no 
 less remarkable for the sentiments it contained, 
 than for the manner in which they were expressed. 
 After a short session of six weeks Congress ad- 
 journed, but not until they had made provision for 
 reassembling. 
 
 In the interval between the sessions, the City of 
 New-York took measures, by the appointment of a 
 committee with powers, to secure the observance 
 of the non -importation agreement. Of this com- 
 mittee Mr. Jay was one. It was soon seen that 
 other business was to be transacted than the mere 
 interruption of a commerce with England, and, in 
 order to do this, it was necessary to invest some 
 C2 
 
30 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 public body with higher and more extended pow- 
 ers; the citizens of New- York wished also to 
 have the sanction of the other inhabitants of the 
 state to their measures. The Legislature of the 
 state no longer possessed the confidence of the 
 patriotic portion of the people, and it was advised 
 by the existing committee (to meet all these exi- 
 gencies), that an elective body should meet at 
 New-York, performing the functions and wielding 
 the power of that part of the government. This 
 recommendation was acted upon. A provisional 
 Congress, as it was called, assembled in New- 
 York, with Jay as a member, who was thus a 
 third time elected to a situation of responsibility 
 and danger. 
 
 On the 15th of May, 1775, the general Con- 
 gress again assembled at Philadelphia; and al- 
 though, at that time, active resistance and aggres- 
 sion on their part seems not to have been contempla- 
 ted, yet they took every peaceable measure dictated 
 by prudence for the maintenance of their civil 
 liberties. The battle of Lexington seems to have 
 developed fully to them the plans of the British 
 government, and showed them that it was deter- 
 mined upon using force when other means failed. 
 The act of open hostility to the mother country 
 seemed to them so decided and wholly novel a 
 step, that they were only willing to use it as a last 
 resort ; but to this resort they were soon forced, 
 
JOHN JAY. 31 
 
 and Congress took measures for the enlistment of 
 an American army and the formation of an Amer- 
 ican navy. 
 
 On the 15th of June Washington was appoint- 
 ed commander-in-chief, and soon after other gen- 
 erals were chosen. While this was going on, Mr. 
 Jay manifested his discrimination of character by 
 nominating as brigadier John Sullivan, saying that 
 his good sense was known to the house, and that 
 he would take his chance for his military talents-^ 
 The after career of General Sullivan justified this 
 recommendation. 
 
 Congress soon perceived the necessity of uni- 
 ting the Canadas to them in the contest that was 
 about to take place. They well knew the impor- 
 tance of the decision of that province as to which 
 cause it would espouse in the approaching contest ; 
 they easily saw that it would be impossible for 
 Canada to be neutral ; that she must be either their 
 friend or their foe. They therefore appointed Mr. 
 Jay to draw up a call to the inhabitants of that 
 country to join with their Southern brethren in re- 
 pelling the aggressions of England. This paper 
 calls on the inhabitants of that country, and in- 
 vokes them, by every sentiment of their honour, 
 every love for freedom, every conviction of the 
 justice of the quarrel, and by every even pruden- 
 tial consideration, to make common cause with the 
 united provinces against their common enemy 
 
32 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Great Britain. This appeal, as is now a matter 
 of history, was in vain. 
 
 In July Congress published a declaration, " set- 
 ting forth the causes and necessity for taking up 
 arms." Mr. Jay was one of the committee which 
 drew this paper, but it is not positively known 
 whether or not he was the author. In this decla- 
 ration Congress made it clear that they had not 
 appealed to arms actuated by any vain ambition 
 of becoming independent states, but that they 
 were driven into the field for the protection of 
 their liberties, their lives, and their property. 
 
 On the eighth of the same month Mr. Jay suc- 
 ceeded, against strenuous opposition, in procuring 
 an act of Congress sending a petition, signed by its 
 members, to the king. The passage of this act 
 was opposed, on the grounds that a like memorial 
 from the former Congress had been treated with 
 neglect; but Jay vindicated its adoption on the 
 plea that, if this also were neglected, the world 
 would see that there was no other course left 
 them ; that they were without other means of re- 
 lief ; and were driven, almost without their own 
 consent, to resort to actual hostilities. Mr. Jay, 
 even to the latest period of his life, was accustom- 
 ed to refer to this paper, and to state his convic- 
 tion that it had great effect in producing unity of 
 purpose among his countrymen. Congress, hav- 
 ing made an appeal to the people of Canada, 
 
JOHN JAY. 33 
 
 thought it judicious to enlist in their favour the 
 sympathies of other countries under the same tyr- 
 anny as themselves ; and, in accordance with this 
 resolve, Mr. Jay, as a member of a committee, 
 drew up an able and judicious document, address- 
 ed to the people of Ireland and Jamaica. 
 
 Moved by the situation of New-York, a city 
 which, remarkable even then for its wealth, as well 
 as for its easiness of access from the sea, its long 
 inland water communication, and for the numbers 
 of its Tory population, would present itself to the 
 British government as an easy conquest, and, when 
 conquered, would furnish an excellent place of 
 arms, Congress recommended measures for its 
 defence. The provincial Congress of that colony 
 (as it yet must be styled) called out the militia, and 
 proceeded to officer and equip them. They found 
 great difficulty, however, in procuring talented of- 
 ficers, and were obliged to tender a commission to 
 Mr. Jay, although he was already a member of 
 two legislative bodies. Ever ready to serve his 
 country, he accepted the tender, and became colo- 
 nel of the 2d militia regiment of infantry. His 
 duties as a legislator were more necessary to the 
 state than those of a soldier, and this command 
 was never assumed. 
 
 America had taken up arms relying solely on it- 
 self, without hope of foreign aid, and the Conti- 
 nental Congress was therefore not a httle surpri- 
 
34 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 sed and delighted by receiving informal intelli- 
 gence that there was a foreigner at that time in 
 Philadelphia who had important communications 
 to make to them from his government. No notice 
 was at first taken of the fact 3 but, the informa- 
 tion having been reiterated, Congress appointed a 
 committee, consisting of Jay, Jefferson, and Frank- 
 lin, to confer with this envoy. Accordingly, they 
 had a meeting with an old French gentleman, who 
 assured them of the sympathy of his most Chris- 
 tian majesty, and informed them that he would 
 supply them, if they required, with money, ammu- 
 nition, and arms. To their requests to give up his 
 authority, he would only reply by saying, " Gen- 
 tlemen, I shall take care of my head ;" thus inti- 
 mating that his government wished to give assu- 
 rances that they might deny if necessary. 
 
 This communication produced a strong effect 
 upon Congress, and led to the formation of a se- 
 cret committee to correspond with the friends of 
 America in Great Britain, Ireland, and other parts 
 of the world ; of this committee Jay was a mem- 
 ber. 
 
 The colony, as well as the City of New-York, 
 contained many Tories, and was far from being 
 unanimous on the great question of the time. The 
 inhabitants of Queen's county. Long Island, had 
 proceeded so far as to refuse to send members to 
 the colonial Congress, and had declared themselves 
 
JOHN JAY. 35 
 
 neutral in the present struggle. Congress, at the 
 instigation of Mr. Jay, passed resolutions com- 
 menting severely on the indecision and cowardice 
 of their course, and also, as was necessary, took 
 measures, by sending troops, for disarming the in- 
 habitants and arresting the most odious. 
 
 Congress became every day more strongly con- 
 vinced that it was absolutely necessary for them 
 not only to defend themselves from direct aggres- 
 sion, but also, in turn, to become the assailants. 
 The commerce of the enemy w^as most open to at- 
 tack, and commissions were accordingly issued to 
 privateers, authorizing them to capture vessels be- 
 longing to the English. This measure was more 
 decided than any that government had yet resolv- 
 ed upon, and they felt it due to themselves to ex- 
 plain their reasons ; Mr. Jay, as usual, was direct- 
 ed to prepare this statement, which task he per- 
 formed with his customary judgment and elegance. 
 
 The several papers which have been mentioned 
 as drawn up by Jay, in the name and on behalf of 
 Congress, may be cited as models. The effect 
 which they produced, not only upon the population 
 of the United States, but on the nations of the old 
 Continent, was prodigious. On the floor of the 
 British Parliament they were quoted as equal in 
 beauty of style, vigour of expression, and sound 
 argument, to the most celebrated and admired 
 productions of the classic authors of antiquity. 
 
36 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 " When your lordships," said Chatham, in a cele- 
 brated and often-quoted speech, " look at the pa- 
 pers transmitted to us from America ; when you 
 consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you 
 cannot but respect their cause, and wish to make 
 it your own. For myself, I must declare and 
 avow that, in all my reading and observation (and 
 it has been my favourite study ; I have read Thu- 
 cydides, and studied and admired the master 
 states of the world) — I say I must declare, that 
 for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and 
 wisdom of conclusion under such a complication 
 of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of 
 men can stand in preference to the general Con- 
 gress at Philadelphia." 
 
 The last which has been cited had the effect of 
 preparing the public mind for the reception of the 
 great and starthng question of independence. The 
 colonists in it made their last appeal to the justice 
 of the monarch whose authority as sovereign they 
 still recognised, although in arms against him ; and 
 having done so ineffectually, the abjuration of their 
 allegiance became an inevitable step. The strug- 
 gle was commenced for the enjoyment of their 
 rights as British subjects ; and, failing in redress by 
 humble petition to the throne, no resource was left 
 but that of renouncing all fealty to the authority 
 which had not fulfilled its part of the unwritten 
 compact between sovereign and people. 
 
J O H N J A Y. 37 
 
 Mr. Jay, while in attendance upon the Conti- 
 nental Congress, was elected a member of the Con- 
 gress of his native colony ; and as the former body 
 had passed resolutions calling upon the colonies to 
 adopt forms of government for themselves, our 
 statesman was recalled by the convention to giv<^ 
 his assistance in the formation of a state govern- 
 ment. We see, from the history of the former pa- 
 ges, how strongly his countrymen relied upon the 
 talents and patriotism of Mr. Jay ; he was called 
 to every office, civil or military, in which there 
 was opportunity for displaying his judgment. We 
 now find him holding three appointments at once, 
 so well were all convinced of his fitness for every 
 duty that was imposed upon him. 
 
 On the 31st of May he reported resolutions, in 
 which the provisional Congress called upon their 
 constituents to elect a new body, which should 
 have, besides the usual powers, that necessary for 
 the formation and putting in practice a new form 
 of government. These measures were resolved 
 upon, a new Convention was elected, aud Mr. Jay 
 as one of its members. 
 
 On the 29th of June, Lord Howe, with a fleet 
 and army, arrived at the harbour of New-York ; 
 and the Convention, after giving orders, which 
 show how little they were prepared ibr de- 
 fence, retired to White Plains. While there they 
 received a copy of the Declaration of Independ- 
 D 
 
38 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 ence. On this occasion Mr. Jay reported a reso- 
 lution, which was unanimously adopted, by which 
 the colony pledged itself heart and hand to aid 
 Congress in carrying out that declaration. 
 
 Even at this early period we see the states 
 standing upon their rights and their separate sov- 
 ereignty, and we find Mr. Jay resisting an act of 
 the Continental Congress, by which they appoint- 
 ed officers to a battalion that had been raised by 
 the State of New-York. He gave such reasons 
 for his course as convinced the Convention, and 
 they remonstrated with Congress on this straining 
 of their authority. 
 
 On the 16th of July Mr. Jay succeeded in car- 
 rying resolutions declaring all persons who in 
 any way aided or assisted England guilty of trea- 
 son to the new state, and liable to be pimished ac- 
 cordingly. This measure was rendered justifiable 
 by the Declaration of Independence, which decla- 
 red that the country was no longer a colony, but a 
 separate state, and had perfect right to provide in 
 every way for its own safety. 
 
 Some of the British fleet passed up the Hudson 
 River, and the Convention, fearful of the conse- 
 quences of the enemy's having control of that im- 
 portant means of communication, appointed a com- 
 mittee to place obstacles in the channel and annoy 
 the shipping. Mr. Jay, as a member of this body, 
 was despatched to Connecticut in order to obtain 
 
J O H N J A Y. 39 
 
 cannon and shot, and was invested with almost 
 absolute powers for forwarding the business of his 
 mission. He succeeded after much trouble, and 
 delivered twenty cannon at West Point. 
 
 On the first of August the Convention appoint- 
 ed Mr. Jay as member of a committee to draught 
 a new constitution, and, shortly after, placed him 
 in the exercise of what, at the present time, would 
 appear to us dictatorial power. The exigences 
 of the case demanded that strenuous exertions 
 should be made for the development of the nu- 
 merous plots against the new government, and for 
 the conviction and punishment of those engaged 
 in them. Mr. Jay was chairman of the commit- 
 tee which wielded the power for this purpose, and 
 was for a long time actively engaged in perform- 
 ing this duty. Many Tories were imprisoned, ban- 
 ished, or put under surveillance by their orders, 
 and the whole state was purified and kept in strict 
 allegiance to the Union. 
 
 Now arrived the period of greatest despond- 
 ency and gloom during the time of the Revolu- 
 tion. The British arms succeeded everywhere ; 
 our waters were filled with their shipping, our 
 shores crowded with their armies. The American 
 troops, enfeebled by want and dispirited by defeat, 
 were retreating through New- Jersey, pursued by 
 an overwhelming force. At this crisis, then, at 
 this period of general despondency and dismay, 
 
40 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Mr. Jay aroused himself, and implored his coimtry- 
 men, in spirit-stirring language, not to be cast 
 down, but to gird themselves to the work, and use 
 every honourable means for the welfare of the 
 glorious cause in which they were engaged. Of 
 this appeal Congress thought so highly, that they 
 caused it to be printed at their expense, and rec- 
 ommended it to the attention of all. In this long 
 and well-written address, Mr. Jay recommends a 
 patriotism stern, decided, and devoted ; and calls 
 upon his countrymen, by the examples of antiquity, 
 by what they owe to themselves and to their chil- 
 dren, by their sensitiveness to the praise or censure 
 of the world ; in fine, by every incitement, to do 
 their duty to themselves and to their country. 
 
 Although he was thus earnest in calling upon 
 the friends of the cause, he was no advocate for 
 too great severity upon its enemies, and on every 
 occasion softened, as much as possible, the punish- 
 ment of the disaffected and Tories. He even 
 went so far as to procure a vote of censure from 
 the Convention, directed to one who he thought 
 had abused the power intrusted to him. 
 
 At this time the parents of Mr. Jay, in their re- 
 tirement at Rye, were exposed to inconvenience, 
 if not to danger, on account of the presence of the 
 invading force ; and, with his customary high-toned 
 notions of duty, judging that their welfare ought 
 to be his first care, he procured leave of absence 
 
J O H N J A Y. 41 
 
 from the Convention, and succeeded in placing his 
 parents in safety at Fishkill. The family mansion 
 fell into the hands of the enemy, and was not oc- 
 cupied by its lawful owners until the end of the 
 war. 
 
 In 1775, on account of the statements of the 
 French envoy, Congress had appointed a secret 
 committee of correspondence with the other parts 
 of the world. 
 
 This committee enumerated Mr. Jay among its 
 members, and had now sufficiently advanced in its 
 business to feel itself justified in sending an agent 
 to France, to endeavour there to obtain munitions 
 of war. An interview with the French minister 
 was secured to him through the intervention of 
 some influential merchants in France and Holland, 
 whose good offices the committee had secured. 
 The agent was Mr. Silas Deane, and he was di- 
 rected to correspond with Mr. Jay, making use of 
 sympathetic ink, as it was important that England, 
 at that time at peace with France, should have no 
 suspicion of the proposed assistance. Some of 
 these letters still exist, and of others copies remain 
 in Mr. Jay's handwriting. 
 
 We are now about to behold Mr. Jay in a far 
 more important station than any he yet had held, 
 and are to recognise him as the framer of a con- 
 stitution that long governed one of the most im- 
 portant states of the Union, and under which it 
 D2 
 
42 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 rose to unexampled influence and prosperity 
 There is no doubt, both from the testimony of col 
 lateral circumstance and from the fact of the first 
 draught being in his own handwriting, that this 
 constitution was mainly the production of Jay. 
 The document was important on many accounts, 
 was a task of no small difficulty, and one that re- 
 quired peculiar tact and skill. It was not only 
 requisite, as in all constitutions, that it should pro- 
 vide a safe form of government, but also that it 
 should reconcile itself to many contradictory opin- 
 ions, bind together many antagonist parties, and, 
 in the face of danger and opposition, be able to 
 maintain itself. For these reasons, this constitu- 
 tion is one of the most enduring monuments to the 
 fame of Jay ; and, had it not happened that he 
 was unable to be present at its adoption by the 
 Convention, we should have had still more reason 
 to admire it. 
 
 The circumstances that prevented this constitu- 
 tion from being all that Mr. Jay desired happened 
 in this wise. On account of the peculiar character 
 of many members of the Convention, he thought 
 that his measures would have greater chance of 
 success were he only to propose some of them in 
 the first draught, and move others by way of 
 amendment; being, however, suddenly called upon 
 to attend the deathbed of his mother, he was pre- 
 vented from being present at the adoption of the 
 
JOHN JAY. 43 
 
 constitution by the Convention, and thus disabled 
 from amending it. This constitution was adopted 
 on the 20th of April, 1777, and governed the 
 State of New-York until 1821. 
 
 The Constitution of the State of New- York, 
 as framed by the Convention of 1776, and in the 
 draught of which Jay bore, so great a part, was 
 one of the most masterly applications of sound 
 principles which the w^orld has ever witnessed. 
 While it gave the most perfect security to life, 
 liberty, and property, it opposed an efficient bar- 
 rier to the licentiousness which has, in so many in- 
 stances, accompanied the progress of revolutions. 
 It was, in truth, exactly suited to the times and 
 circumstances which gave it birth ; and if, in the 
 course of events, it ceased to be applicable, it 
 was rather because the circumstances had changed 
 than because it was defective in its origin. Nay, 
 we may still be permitted to question whether the 
 principle which had served as the groundwork 
 of the freedom of Britain, and so long maintained 
 in Belgium and Spain, namely, that taxation is the 
 basis of representation, be not more likely to give 
 permanency to government and stability to free- 
 dom, than that which classes all men as free and 
 equal. The former we derive from the Hampdens 
 and Sidneys of England, the latter is the later 
 growth of the French Revolution. It is a remark- 
 able fact, that the call for a convention to remodel 
 
44 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 the Constitution of New-York grew out of no com- 
 plaint against the principle of representation, or 
 the forms of the legislative and judicial bodies, 
 but arose from dissatisfaction at the construction 
 which had been given to the original instrument 
 by a subsequent convention ; a construction which 
 Jay, as governor of the state, had resisted, because 
 contrary to its spirit. When, however, a conven- 
 tion was assembled to amend the Constitution, the 
 leaders of both the parties into which the people 
 of the state was then divided entered into the 
 race of popularity, and the elective franchise was 
 by common consent rendered universal. 
 
 However well the old Constitution may have 
 worked, and however different may be the princi- 
 ple on which the new one is founded, no fear, we 
 may confidently trust, need be entertained that it 
 will not continue to be equally conducive to public 
 happiness and prosperity. That it shall do so 
 must depend upon the virtue and intelligence of 
 the people ; and the duration of our liberties will 
 be the necessary result of the diffusion of educa- 
 tion and knowledge to the same wide extent as the 
 right of suffrage. 
 
JOHNJAY 45 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 Council of Safety of the State of JYew-Ym-k. — 
 Appeal to the Inhabitants of Tryon County. — 
 Jay is named Chief-justice of JVew-York. — 
 Visit of Washington to Jay, — Scheme for the 
 Conquest of Canada. — Jay returns as a Dele- 
 gate to Congress f and resigns his seat on the 
 Bench. — He is chosen President of Congress. — 
 He is appointed Ambassador to Spain. — He sails 
 on that Mission. — He is driven by Stress of 
 Weather into Martinique. — He re-embarks, and 
 lands at Cadiz. — He is invited to Madrid, but 
 not formally received. — Question in relation to 
 the Right of navigating the Mississippi. — 
 Draughts of Congress upon Jay, and Difficulties 
 to which he is exposed in consequence. — Jay is 
 named a Commissioner to negotiate a Treaty 
 with Great Britain. — Impolitic and humiliating 
 Instructions to the Commissioners. 
 
 In our last chapter we have followed the life of 
 Mr. Jay up to the time of the formation of a sys- 
 tem of government for his native state. It now 
 became necessary to put this form into operation. 
 The Convention accordingly appointed such offi- 
 cers under the new Constitution as were actually 
 
46 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 necessary for the administration of affairs, and then 
 dissolved themselves, having first indicated certain 
 of their o^m members as a " Council of Safety," 
 to hold the reins of government until the election 
 of a governor and Legislature by the people. Mr. 
 Jay was a member of this council, and v^^as also 
 appointed chief-justice of the Supreme Court. 
 This council, as was necessary on account of the 
 times, held arbitrary and absolute power. While 
 a member of it, the state was placed in a most try- 
 ing situation. The enemy held possession of New- 
 York in the South, and an invading army from 
 Canada entered it from the north ; even true men 
 began to despond, and those disaffected arrayed 
 themselves in open hostility. At this time Mr. 
 Jay, at the request of his colleagues, addressed 
 an appeal to the inhabitants of Tryon County, im- 
 ploring them not to rely on the promises and pro- 
 tection of the enemy, but upon themselves and the 
 assistance of their fellow-citizens. In the course 
 of events, it was now imperative that a governor 
 should be chosen. Mr. Jay was regarded by 
 many as a fit occupant for that office, and was 
 desired to present himself as a candidate. He 
 refused the offer on the grounds that he could be 
 of more use to the state in the office which he at 
 present held ; at the same time declaring that he 
 was fully sensible that it was an office both of 
 greater profit and greater honour, but that his pa- 
 
J H N J A Y. 47 
 
 triotism taught him to work, not for his own good, 
 but for that of his country. Mr. Jay appears at 
 this time, from the tenour of his letters, to have been 
 much worried at some imputations cast against the 
 fair fame of an old friend of his, General Schuyler, 
 who then commanded the army in the northern 
 part of the state. These charges were apparently 
 confirmed by Congress, for they recalled the gen- 
 eral from his command ; but the true reason was 
 given in a letter from a member of Congress to 
 Mr. Jay, stating that he was recalled to humour 
 the eastern militia, who would not fight under his 
 command. 
 
 On the 9th of September, the first term of the 
 Supreme Court under the new Constitution was 
 held at the village of Kingston, on the Hudson 
 River. Mr. Jay presided at this court ; and the 
 circumstances under which it was held seem to 
 have made a deep impression on his mind. In his 
 charge to the jury, he pointed out to them, in 
 glowing colours, the situation that they were in, 
 and the, to them, particularly happy and pleasura- 
 ble fact, that they were the first judicial body as- 
 sembled under a new and free Constitution. 
 
 Mr. Jay, as member of a council to whom it 
 was necessary that all bills should be referred, 
 and by whom they must be approved before they 
 became laws, was obliged to be in attendance 
 upon the Legislature during its entire session. 
 
48 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The only relaxation that his duties permitted were 
 occasional visits to his only surviving parent at 
 Fishkill. While there he was visited by General 
 Washington, who gave proof of the high esteem 
 in which he held Mr. Jay by imparting to him a 
 confidential communication from Congress on the 
 subject of the invasion of Canada. This invasion 
 was to have been conducted by a combined 
 French and American land force, accompanied 
 and supported by a French fleet in the St. Law- 
 rence. Both the commander-in-chief and Mr. Jay 
 disapproved of this plan of operation ; but their 
 real and chief objection was not set forth in the 
 letter addressed by the general to Congress on the 
 subject. The reason was this : that, were Canada 
 once conquered, and the French permitted to set 
 foot in their old possessions, they would be unwill- 
 ing to give them up to the United States, and dan- 
 ger was apprehended from a French colony so 
 near at hand. 
 
 The question thus presented was one of vast im- 
 portance to the future interests of the United States. 
 The French had claimed to include in their two 
 colonies of Canada and Louisiana the whole Val- 
 ley of the Mississippi ; and, had they been again 
 put in possession of the former, there is little doubt 
 that the claim would have been renewed. Still, 
 the assistance of France w^as of such importance 
 to the rising liberties of America, that it became a 
 
JOHN JAY. 49 
 
 nice and delicate question how this proposition 
 could be rejected without giving displeasure to so 
 useful an ally. We shall see, on a subsequent oc- 
 casion, how far this old territorial claim on the 
 part of France influenced the conduct of its min- 
 istry in the negotiations for a general peace ; and 
 it seems to have been fortunate that a jealousy was 
 at this early period awakened in Jay's mind as to 
 the designs of that nation. No one can now be- 
 lieve that the French government gave its support 
 to the rebellion of the British colonies except from 
 interested motives, however speedily the spark of 
 liberty was communicated to the people of France, 
 where it was destined to excite such a vast and 
 terrific conflagration, in which the thrones of Eu- 
 rope w^ere in danger of being utterly consumed. 
 
 While the affairs of the State of New-York 
 were still in confusion, and fixed governments were 
 just getting into operation in the other states, the 
 people inhabiting the present State of Vermont, 
 then a territory claimed both by New-York and 
 New-Hampshire, took advantage of the state of 
 anarchy, and resolved themselves into an inde- 
 pendent community. 
 
 By the Constitution of the State of New-York, 
 the chief-justice was rendered incapable of holding 
 any other office at the same time except that of 
 delegate to Congress, and that only on special 
 occasions. The Legislature of his ov/n state were 
 E 
 
50 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 anxious to be represented by Mr. Jay while this 
 cause was pending against Vermont ; they there- 
 fore resolved that the present occasion was a spe- 
 cial one, and elected him as their delegate to the 
 Continental Congress : after an absence of two 
 years he again took his seat in that body, and was, 
 on the resignation of their then president, elected 
 to that office, the highest in the gift of the repub- 
 lic. While holding this office, he thought that a 
 due attention to its duties would prevent his per- 
 forming those which were incumbent on him as 
 chief-justice ; and, accordingly, he wrote to the 
 governor of New- York, resigning the latter place. 
 After some objections his resignation was accepted. 
 In his after correspondence he remarks to the gov- 
 ernor, that the Legislature may now be inclined to 
 keep him in Congress ; but that, unless he could 
 provide satisfactorily for the comfort of his father, 
 it would be impossible for him to remain. Satis- 
 factory arrangements were made, and Mr. Jay 
 continued at his post. 
 
 The funds for the support of the war had hith- 
 erto been supplied by an emission of paper money 
 by Congress. This money was issued without any 
 limit except that of their necessities, and had de- 
 preciated so far as to be almost valueless. The 
 English encouraged the counterfeiting it as one 
 means of annoyance ; and this currency w^as now 
 so little worth, that, in the words of a hero of the 
 
JOHN JAY. 51 
 
 Revolution, a cartload of provision could only be 
 purchased by a cartload of money. We ourselves 
 ha^e seen sheets of it lying in garrets, and worth 
 no more than so much wrapping-paper. Congress 
 set themselves seriously to work to obtain some 
 better means of carrying on the war, and were res- 
 olute in the opinion that all ought to be lost rath- 
 er than the government of the United States should 
 become bankrupt, and thus lose its honour ; they 
 therefore decided that the separate states of the 
 confederacy should furnish contributions, and ad- 
 dressed a letter to them explaining their reasons 
 for coming to this decision. Mr. Jay, their presi- 
 dent, was directed to compose this letter ; and, in 
 accordance with their instructions, he in a few 
 days furnished a document that is still preserved 
 and admired, no less for its business-like state- 
 ments than its eloquence. 
 
 It will be recollected that Mr. Jay was elected 
 to Congress to sustain the claim of the State 
 of New-York ag-ainst Vermont. To fulfil this 
 duty, he proposed and carried certain resolutions, 
 and transmitted them to the Legislature, accom- 
 panied by a letter to the governor, explaining the 
 objections of Congress to move further in the 
 matter for the present. 
 
 In the treaty entered into between France and 
 the United States, a secret stipulation had been in- 
 serted, according to Spain the right of becoming a 
 
52 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 party to that treaty whenever she might think fit. 
 Congress, on the 27th of September, determined 
 to send Mr. Jay as minister plenipotentiary to 
 Spain. He accepted the appointment, and re- 
 signed the presidency of Congress, which office 
 he had filled for nearly a year. 
 
 Out of the few vessels of their navy Congress 
 had selected one, the frigate Confederacy, to car- 
 ry out the French ambassador, and thus honour 
 their ally. It was determined that Mr. Jay should 
 take passage in the same vessel, thus securing to 
 him not only greater comfort, but greater safety. 
 On the 20th of October, only a few days after his 
 instructions were received, Mr. Jay and his wife 
 set sail, without even having had the satisfaction 
 of bidding adieu to their parents and friends. He 
 was now about to carry to other climes that useful- 
 ness and zeal which had long distinguished him in 
 his own country. He was destined to be the up- 
 holder of the credit of his nation, the uncompro- 
 mising supporter of her dignity, and the zealous 
 framer of a treaty by which peace and independ- 
 ence, as well as commercial advantages, were to 
 be secured to her. He was destined, too, to go 
 through many trials before these measures were 
 accomplished, and was placed in situations w^here 
 he was forced, by his own convictions, to take res- 
 ponsibility, and be guided more by his own senti- 
 ments than his instructions while fulfilling the du- 
 ties of his mission. 
 
JOHN JAY. 53 
 
 On the voyage, as is well known to those con- 
 versant with the naval history of our country, the 
 frigate w^as, after being deprived in a storm of all 
 her masts, forced to bear away for the Island of 
 Martinique, where, after many difficulties and a 
 narrow escape from the enemy's fleet, they arri- 
 ved in safety. 
 
 The Aurora, a French frigate, was detailed by 
 the governor of the island to carry the two minis- 
 ters to France. After only ten days' detention, 
 Mr. Jay pursued his voyage, and was landed at 
 Cadiz ; it being found impossible, on account of 
 the superiority of the English at sea, for the frig- 
 ate to make her port of destination, which was 
 Toulon. On the voyage the frigate was chased by 
 an English man-of-war, and escaped through her 
 superiority in sailing. 
 
 This termination of the voyage proved not only 
 uncomfortable, but seriously annoying to our am- 
 bassador, for he was without letters of introduc- 
 tion, or other usual means of making acquaintance. 
 He, besides, was not furnished with letters of cred- 
 it to persons at that place, on which account he 
 was unable to procure funds. He soon, however, 
 made acquaintances at Cadiz, and, among others, 
 that of the governor of Andalusia, from whom he 
 received much kindness, and by whom he was in- 
 itiated into the policy of the Spanish court, and 
 made acquainted with the characters of the po- 
 E2 
 
54 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 litical leaders. Soon after his landing, a note, sta- 
 ting his arrival and his business, was carried by- 
 one of the secretaries of Mr. Jay to the Spanish 
 minister, who returned one in answer, desiring his 
 presence at Madrid, but at the same time inform- 
 ing him that he would be received informally, and 
 not as the ambassador of an independent nation. 
 
 A few months previous to this time the Spanish 
 governor of Cuba had made a successful attack on 
 the English posts on the Mississippi, and had thus, 
 in effect, declared war upon England, although 
 the formal declaration by their minister in that 
 country was yet to follow. This event showed 
 clearly to Mr. Jay what must be the policy of the 
 Spanish court towards his own land ; that, in the 
 end, an alliance would be necessary. At the same 
 time, Spain had many projects for her own ad- 
 vancement in America, and her policy led her to 
 demand as much as possible from the United 
 States, in return for the advantages of her alliance 
 and the recognition by her of American independ- 
 ence. i\mong these objects was the exclusive 
 navigation of the Mississippi. Had it not been 
 for the precipitation of Spain, Congress would 
 have been prepared to surrender this right, consid- 
 ering that, although a great, still it was only a 
 secondary object when compared to the assistance 
 of Spain. But now Spain, in alliance with France, 
 had armed herself against England; therefore the 
 
J O H N J A Y. 55 
 
 United States would experience her indirect aid, 
 even if they did not enter into positive treaty. 
 Taking all these subjects into consideration, Mr. 
 Jay resolved to make no treaty except on terms 
 equally advantageous, and to give way to no 
 claims that would operate unfavourably to the fu- 
 ture interests of his country. 
 
 Dr. Franklin, in one of his letters to Mr. Jay, 
 confirms the opinion of the latter as to not surren- 
 dering the navigation of the Mississippi ; and, in 
 one of his usual aphorisms, observes, that such an 
 act would be as sensible as a man's selling his 
 street door. 
 
 The question of the navigation of the Mis- 
 sissippi was most momentous. Had the right 
 been ceded to Spain, the population of the Uni- 
 ted States must either have been confined be- 
 tween the Apalachian group of mountains and 
 the sea, or that portion of it which, by a spirit of 
 enterprise, should have been led into the fertile re- 
 gions of the West, must have formed attachments 
 and connexions incompatible with their remaining 
 in the American Union. The colonists of the pres- 
 ent western states, compelled to use the flag of 
 Spain in their commerce, would have lost their 
 feelings of nationality ; and, although there would 
 have been little probabihty that they could have 
 been converted into the obedient subjects of the 
 Spanish monajxhy, they would have been more 
 
56 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 likely to have assumed the position in which we 
 now find the settlers of Texas than to have re- 
 mained the citizens of the Union. 
 
 Jay was thus placed in a most responsible and 
 delicate position. His instructions would have 
 warranted the admission of the pretensions of 
 Spain, and he was aware that a majority of Con- 
 gress was prepared to make even this great sacri- 
 fice to secure her alliance, and particularly her pe- 
 cuniary aid. The negotiations, indeed, had hard- 
 ly commenced, when he was thrown into the 
 position of a suppliant for money, and thus the 
 moral force of his position, as the ambassador of 
 the United States, was diminished. In spite of 
 these difficulties, he saw the question in its proper 
 light, and wisely determined that no prospect of 
 immediate relief should induce him to forego what 
 he saw was indispensable to the consolidation of 
 the Union. In this resolution he continued unsha- 
 ken, and by his steadiness preserved the American 
 confederation from the greatest dangers to which 
 it had ever been exposed, those of falling, at an 
 early period, into comparative insignificance, and 
 of being finally dismembered. 
 
 The circumstances by which the difficulties of 
 this negotiation were increased were as follows : 
 
 Congress, forced by the necessities of their coun- 
 try, and not doubting the speedy formation of an 
 alliance with Spain, had, in order to pay and sup- 
 
JOHN JAY. ' 57 
 
 ply their army, drawn bills to the amount of half 
 a million, payable in six months, upon Mr. Jay. 
 These bills, they hoped, would be met by a subsidy 
 to be obtained from Spain ; and their almost des- 
 perate situation forced them to rely even upon 
 hope, could they by that means procure funds. 
 On receiving information of this procedure, Mr. Jay 
 w^as placed in a more unpleasant predicament than 
 formerly, as the knowledge that she could pro- 
 test these bills, and thus ruin American credit, gave 
 Spain a greater hold upon the United States, and 
 a better opportunity to urge her claims. Still our 
 ambassador put the best face on the matter, and 
 represented it to Spain as showing the conviction 
 of Congress that a treaty would soon be made. 
 The Spanish minister kept the advantage his 
 government had obtained, and refused to pay the 
 bills unless America agreed to furnish ships-of-war 
 as an equivalent to the money. This proposal 
 Mr. Jay refused. On the arrival of the bills Mr. 
 Jay was forced to obtain leave from the Spanish 
 government to accept them as they arrived, thus 
 procuring a loan to the extent of each bill. When 
 $13,000 had thus been procured, the American 
 minister was informed that Spain would advance 
 no more without receiving from the United States 
 the right of sole navigation of the Mississippi ; 
 but, anxious at the same time not to close the ne- 
 gotiation wholly, they offered to secure the payment 
 
58 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 of $150,000 in three years, could Mr. Jay make a 
 loan to that amount. All his attempts to make 
 such a loan proved fruitless -, and this patriotic man, 
 determined at all hazards to preserve the credit of 
 his country, resolved to accept the bills in his 
 own name and at his own risk. 
 
 Soon after coming to this determination, and af- 
 ter having accepted to the amount of $50,000, he 
 was cheered by the arrival of $25,000, sent by 
 Dr. Franklin, who had procured it from France. 
 This opportune aid revived his hopes, and he ac- 
 cepted all bills when presented. Spain, now per- 
 ceiving that there was danger of America recover- 
 ing from her embarrassments w^ithout her aid, and 
 that, if such were the case, the prospect of an ad- 
 vantageous treaty would be small, stepped for- 
 ward and became responsible for the payment of 
 $150,000. 
 
 The private embarrassments and annoyances of 
 this year were equal to the public ones of Mr. Jay. 
 In receipt of but a small salary, and that irregu- 
 larly paid, he was forced to follow the court from 
 one place to another, and often, through motives 
 of economy, to leave behind him, exposed to the 
 dangers of a foreign land, a wife Avhom he fondly 
 loved. He w^as also dispirited by want of infor- 
 mation from his family and friends in America ; 
 yet, in spite of all this, he bore up manfully, and 
 managed to send to his family presents of clothing 
 
J O H N J A Y. 59 
 
 and other necessaries economized even from his 
 own scanty means. 
 
 On the 15th of February Congress had passed 
 a resolution, instructing their minister to Spain to 
 give up their claim to the navigation of the Mis- 
 sissippi. Mr. Jay received notice of this resolution 
 through a private letter, but was astonished at re- 
 ceiving no public communication on the subject. 
 He was still more surprised when the Spanish sec- 
 retary of state gave him a letter from the presi- 
 dent of Congress acquainting him with their reso- 
 lution. This document had been placed in the 
 postoffice, whence it was obtained and opened 
 before its delivery. At the same time, Mr. Jay re- 
 ceived notice of his appointment as commissioner 
 to negotiate peace with England, and also instruc- 
 tions to accept the mediation of Russia and Ger- 
 many. In his letter to the president of Congress 
 acknowdedging these despatches, he strongly ur- 
 ges the impropriety of the latter measure, and 
 states how galling it was to his feelings for the 
 United States, who had solemnly declared them- 
 selves independent, thus to humble themselves. 
 He also states that it was not his feelings of pri- 
 vate humiliation that he most severely felt, for he 
 had always been ready to sacrifice his own pleas- 
 ure to that of the public, but it was the humilia- 
 tion of his country ; and, had it not been for the 
 confidence Congress had reposed in him, and the 
 
60 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 difficulty of fuidino' a suitable substitute, he would 
 have relused to bo their agent in this matter. 
 
 Ill compliance with the former of these instruc- 
 tions, he drew up a form of treaty with Spain, by 
 an article in which the United States gave up their 
 long-disputed claim to the navigation of the Mis- 
 sissippi ; but, at the same time, he took it upon him- 
 self to state, that, were this treaty not concluded 
 before a general peace, then that clause should be 
 void. 
 
 Associated with Jay as commissioners for peace 
 were Adams, Franklin, and Jetlerson ; and the in- 
 structions to Adams, even more humiliating than 
 those to Jay, directed him to proceed in every 
 matter with the advice and concurrence of the 
 French court. The conditions of these instruc- 
 tions had been forced upon Congress by the 
 French ambassador. 
 
 France, in her alliance with the United States, 
 proposed to herself merely to secure their inde- 
 pendence of the British crown. This, of itself, 
 would be a sufficient humiliation to England ; and 
 it would be much more advantageous to France 
 were they left as dependants on her, and not ele- 
 vated to the rank of a powerful and, possibly, 
 a rival nation. France therefore demanded to 
 have full knowledge of all the articles of a treaty 
 between Great Britain and the United States; 
 and, while she secured independence to the latter, 
 
JOHN JAY. €1 
 
 desired, at the same time, that their boundaries 
 should be as contracted, their powers as hmited as 
 possible. 
 
 It is a mistaken notion to suppose, as is some- 
 times done, that France and Spain entered into 
 the Revolutionary contest from motives of affec- 
 tion to America. They did it chiefly because, in 
 so doing, they had an opportunity of humbling 
 the naval power of England, and reducing her 
 superiority in the V/estern hemisphere. With all 
 these facts, and many more subordmate to them, 
 Mr. Jay was well acquainted ; and, in consequence, 
 was resolved, while he obeyed the letter of his in- 
 structions, to disregard their spirit -, and, while ma- 
 king an advantageous treaty, to uphold, as far as 
 possible, the honour of his own land. 
 
 In 1781 Congress established an office of for- 
 eign affairs, and their minister's intercourse with 
 them was in future carried on with the head of 
 that office, and not with the president of Congress. 
 
 The government of Spain, which had furnished 
 security for the payment of the bills accepted by 
 Mr. Jay, retired from its agreement, and thus for- 
 ced him to decline their payment. From this em- 
 barrassment he was again relieved by Franklin, 
 who informed him of a loan made by France, and 
 gave him permission to liquidate the bills from its 
 proceeds. Mr. Jay again resumed their payment, 
 and thus successfully finished a transaction to 
 F 
 
62 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 which he had been impelled more by the necessi- 
 ties of his country than his own convictions of its 
 prudence. Another letter was soon received from 
 Dr. Franklin, urging upon Jay his departure for 
 Paris, where all things tended to the opening of 
 negotiations with England. In this letter Frank- 
 lin observed, as was perfectly true, that time 
 enough had been given to Spain to form an alli- 
 ance if she desired ; and that, if she did not, forty 
 years would no more forward the matter than 
 the four already spent. These opinions coinci- 
 ded with those of Mr. Jay ; and on his principle 
 of always making himself most useful, he soon 
 after took his departure for Paris, where he joined 
 Franklin, who had long represented his country at 
 the court of France, and by whom many successful 
 schemes had been planned for the aid of America 
 and the annoyance of her enemies. 
 
JOHN JAY. 63 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JVegotiations at Paris for a general Peace. — Jay's 
 Acts as Commissioner on the part of the United 
 States. — Attempt of the French Ministry to 
 control the Commissioners, which is frustrated 
 by Jay. — He communicates with the British 
 Ministry through Mr. Vaughan. — Preliminary 
 Articles agreed upon between England and the 
 United States. — Jay is offered the Embassy to 
 England. — A general Peace concluded. 
 
 As soon as the commission was organized at 
 Paris, the French government, in accordance with 
 the pohcy detailed in the last chapter, commenced 
 an active interference, in order that a treaty with 
 England might be so formed by the United States 
 as to suit the views of the French cabinet. Con- 
 gress, by instructions to their ministers, had given 
 their sanction to this interference ; and we find it 
 exerted in the case of the treaty between the Uni- 
 ted States and Holland. 
 
 In this case the French court had the unparal- 
 leled impudence to transmit a correspondence to 
 Congress, informing them that the French ambas- 
 sador in Holland had given no assistance to the 
 American one in procuring a recognition of Amer- 
 
64 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 ican independence, because France thought that 
 an apphcation for such recognition " would have 
 no favourable influence." 
 
 Mr. Adams, nevertheless, asked for and procu- 
 red the recognition of the United States as inde- 
 pendent. 
 
 Not content with intermeddling in this case, the 
 French ministry transmitted many communications 
 to Congress, stating what were their views in rela- 
 tion to a treaty with England. From the tenour 
 of these communications, Congress began too late 
 to perceive that, in their desire to please a power- 
 ful ally, they had too far committed themselves, 
 and given a right of interference to a nation 
 which would use that right only for its own ad- 
 vantage. We find Mr. Jay, during his residence 
 in France, busily counteracting this French influ- 
 ence, in all cases with success, and chiefly on his 
 own responsibility. He arrived in Paris on the 
 23d of June, 1782, and in an interview with Dr. 
 Franklin at Passy, was informed of the state of 
 the negotiation. Parliament had passed a resolu- 
 tion asking the king to terminate the war in Amer- 
 ica. Ministers had found themselves in a minori- 
 ty on this resolution, and had resigned. The new 
 ones that were appointed had sent to Paris Mr. 
 Grenville, who had authority to make a treaty 
 with France, and with the " ministers of any 
 prince or state whom it might concern." His 
 mission led to no results. 
 
JOHN JAY. 65 
 
 Previous to his departure from Spain, Mr. Jay 
 had been informed that the Spanish ambassador 
 at Paris would be furnished with authority to con- 
 tinue the negotiations for a treaty. Mr. Jay ac- 
 cordingly waited on that ambassador, and was 
 furnished by him with a map on which the bound- 
 ary-line that Spain would agree to was marked. 
 This line ran far to the east of the Mississippi. 
 Mr. Jay did not discuss the subject, as he had not 
 yet seen the ambassador's commission. 
 
 After a short delay he showed the map to the 
 Count de Vergennes, minister of France, whose 
 secretary was present at the interview. This secre- 
 tary a few days afterward addressed a note to Mr. 
 Jay, giving, unasked, his opinion on the subject. 
 In this note he proposed what he called a concil- 
 iatory boundary, contracting the United States to 
 still narrower limits ; thus showing, though in an 
 informal manner, that, while the French govern- 
 ment desired the independence of America, it at 
 the same time wished them, when independent, to 
 be as powerless as possible. Mr. Jay penetrated 
 these designs. 
 
 Mr. Jay had sent a copy of his commission to 
 the Spanish ambassador, and, before he would ne- 
 gotiate with him, insisted that a similar copy 
 should be sent to himself This course of Mr. 
 Jay's placed France again in a dilemma ; for, 
 should the Spanish ambassador deliver to Mr. Jay 
 F2 
 
66 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 a copy of the commission authorizing him to treat 
 with the United States, by that very act Spain 
 acknowledged them as independent, and thus 
 France had less hold upon them ; but, on the oth- 
 er hand, if he withheld that paper, then Mr. Jay 
 refused to treat at all, and thus Spain could define 
 no boundary, and America was at liberty to take 
 as large a one as she could, and thus be less de- 
 pendant on France. Many means were tried to 
 force Mr. Jay from this position, but he mana- 
 ged to overcome or evade them all. The ambas- 
 sador of Spain became convinced that a treaty 
 was impossible unless American independence was 
 recognised. He therefore put an end to his polit- 
 ical intercourse with Mr. Jay, but, at the same 
 time, became more intimate and friendly with him 
 in private life ; thus showing that, although oppo- 
 sed to him on public grounds, he yielded to him 
 his personal esteem. 
 
 On the 25th of July the king of England di- 
 rected an order to be sent to Richard Oswald, then 
 at Paris, empowering him to treat with the com- 
 missioners of the thirteen colonies or plantations 
 in North America. Mr. Oswald soon received 
 this order, and communicated it to the American 
 commissioners, who, according to their instruc- 
 tions, laid it before the Count de Vergennes. This 
 minister advised them to go on, and stated that the 
 power was sufficient. Even Franklin, when con- 
 
JOHN JAY. 67 
 
 suited, replied that he thought it would do. Bu]t 
 Mr. Jay indignantly refused, and was firm in the 
 stand he had taken not to treat with a power 
 which recognised them only as thirteen colonies, 
 and not as an independent nation. He tried, by 
 many arguments, to bring, over Franklin to his 
 opinion, but that gentleman considered it only as 
 a point of form. Mr. Jay was now placed in a 
 singularly unenviable and unpleasant situation. 
 He was obliged either to obey his instructions, join 
 with Dr. Franklin, and, according to his view, dis- 
 honour his country, or else refuse to treat until by 
 his own measures he should produce such a pos- 
 ture of affairs as would enable him to negotiate. 
 He chose the latter course, and was, in the end, 
 successful. 
 
 He commenced by assuring Mr. Oswald that he 
 would make no treaty w^ith him under the present 
 commission of Great Britain ; and, having suc- 
 ceeded in convincing that gentleman that such a 
 course would operate greatly to the disadvantage 
 of his government, he afterward, at Mr. Oswald's 
 request, drew up a proper form of commission, 
 which was sent by courier to London. 
 
 The next day Count Vergennes requested Mr. 
 Jay to go on with the treaty. He refused. The 
 French minister then suspected what had taken 
 place, and, after consultation with the English 
 minister, Mr. Herbert, another courier was de- 
 
68 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 spatched, whose mission it was afterward found 
 was to give information to the Enghsh court that 
 the French ministry considered the commission 
 sufficient. 
 
 The English therefore returned for answer that 
 they would grant independence by treaty, but 
 would not acknowledge it beforehand. 
 
 On the receipt of this intelligence, and from its 
 tenour, Mr. Jay observed to Mr. Oswald that the 
 Count Vergennes must have interfered. The fact 
 was acknowledged, and Mr. Jay now considered 
 himself at liberty to expose to Mr. Oswald the pol- 
 icy of the French government, at the same time 
 pointing out to him the desire of America to be 
 as independent of France as of England. He also 
 drew up the form of a joint letter from himself 
 and Franklin, reiterating their refusal to negotiate 
 unless on the basis of independence. This letter 
 Franklin refused to sign, and it was therefore left 
 imsigned by either ; but it was, nevertheless, trans- 
 mitted to England as explanatory of the views of 
 the American commission. The turn which cir- 
 cumstances now took, and a letter of which Mr. 
 Jay became possessed, convinced him that other 
 machinations were going on, not only against his 
 country's honour, but her interest. He therefore 
 was convinced that decided measures were neces- 
 sary, and took a step as bold as successful. He 
 sent Mr. Vaughan, an English gentleman then in 
 
JOHN JAY. bS3 
 
 Paris, as his messenger to the court of England, 
 and by him intimated that it was now well known 
 that America could not be conquered ; that peace 
 was as necessary to England as to America; and 
 that there would be no treaty unless on an equal 
 footing. This measure of Jay's was concealed as 
 well from his own colleague as from the French 
 minister. The representations of Mr. Vaughan 
 were convincing, his efforts were successful, and 
 he returned to Mr. Jay, accompanied by a courier 
 bearing a commission to Mr. Oswald, which ein- 
 powered him to treat with the commissioners of the 
 United States of America. 
 
 Negotiations now commenced in reality; and 
 the labour of Mr. Jay was cheered by the conviction 
 that, notwithstanding he was unaided by his col- 
 league, and opposed by all others, he had succeed- 
 ed in placing his country upon a footing that was 
 as advantageous as honourable. 
 
 A draught of the treaty by Mr. Jay was soon 
 agreed upon by the commissioner, and sent to 
 the English ministry for approval ; but, at the 
 same time, its provisions were concealed from the 
 French, and farther action on the treaty was delay- 
 ed until such time as France and England should 
 be ready to make peace. 
 
 Mr. Adams arrived on the 20th of October, to 
 the great satisfaction of Mr. Jay ; for in him he 
 hoped to find a zealous assistant, and one whose 
 
70 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 opinions in all points would coincide with his own. 
 Soon after his arrival Mr. Jay held a consultation 
 with him, in which he explained the views, policy, 
 and machinations of the French and Spanish gov- 
 ernments, and was gratified by hearing in turn 
 that Mr. Adams coincided with him in everything, 
 and was much pleased with the course he had 
 taken. 
 
 Mr. Adams soon succeeded in impressing these 
 opinions on Dr. Franklin, and the commissioners 
 were now united in every respect, determining, 
 while disobeying their instructions, to uphold the 
 honour and interests of their own country. 
 
 We can imagine the gratification of Mr. Jay 
 on finding his measures thus confirmed, and the 
 course he had taken, while relying upon himself, 
 not only justified, but approved of. 
 
 The negotiation was soon completed, and a 
 compact was signed by which the commissioners 
 on both sides bound themselves, when the proper 
 time arrived, to enter into a treaty whose articles 
 were defined in that compact. France was now 
 left to make peace for herself, without deriving 
 any advantage from her supposed power of influ- 
 encing America. The course of Dr. Franklin 
 throughout tjiis negotiation can only be explained 
 on the supposition that he was influenced by feel- 
 ings of charity towards the motives of France. 
 
 He could not believe that a nation which, with 
 
JOHN JA ■ 71 
 
 such seeming disinterestedness, had fought our bat- 
 tles, and spent for us her treasure, would end by- 
 injuring that ally whose cause she had advocated, 
 in whose defence she had bled. He had been for 
 many years a resident at the French court ; the re- 
 cipient of admiration and adulation to himself, of 
 money, troops, navies for his country ; but his eyes 
 were at length opened, and he saw that France 
 had aided America, not so much from feelings of 
 friendship to her as of enmity to England.* In 
 despite of these motives, w^e Americans ought not 
 to forget the services of France, and must ever re- 
 member with gratitude that, although that nation 
 aided us to gratify her own hatred, to obtain her 
 own ends, yet, nevertheless, that aid w^as of the 
 last importance to our country, and that without it 
 we should have undergone years of suffering and 
 bloodshed, although, in the end, w^e must have 
 conquered. 
 
 * Mr. Fitz-Herbert, English minister at Paris at that time, 
 has lately given full proof of what were the intentions of 
 France with regard to America, by stating, in writing, that in all 
 his conversations with the Count de Vergennes, that minister 
 "never failed to insist on the expediency of a concert of meas- 
 ures between France and England, for the purpose of excluding 
 the American states from the fisheries, lest they should become 
 a nursery for seamen." 
 
 The same gentleman also declares that he can safely assert, 
 " that it was not chiefly, but solely, through Mr. Jay's means that 
 the negotiations of that period between England and the United 
 States were brought to a successful conclusion." 
 
72 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 It was not until the 20th of January that nego- 
 tiations were in such a train that the powers at 
 war in Europe agreed to suspend hostihties. The 
 American ministers had obtained the great ends 
 they sought as to boundaries and independence, 
 and were now more slowly proceeding with a ne- 
 gotiation securing to us commercial advantages. 
 Mr. Oswald was about this time recalled, and was 
 not succeeded by Mr. Hartley until the spring of 
 1783. This interval afforded some moments of lei- 
 sure to Mr. Jay, for the first time since he had en- 
 tered the service of his country. These moments 
 were, however, imbittered by declining health. 
 About this time he received a letter from Thomas 
 Jefferson, and also a communication from Congress, 
 intimating that he would, if pleasing to him, be 
 appointed, after peace, ambassador to England, or 
 to any other court he might choose. This offer he 
 declined, principally because he thought that the 
 post of minister to England was desired by Mr. 
 Adams, and that the appointment was due to him 
 as a reward for long and faithful service ; another 
 reason for his refusal was his determination to re- 
 turn, as soon as duty permitted, to his own country. 
 He was at this time invited by Spain to return 
 to Madrid, and finish the negotiations commenced 
 there. This invitation he accepted, but was pre- 
 vented from accomplishing his purpose by increas- 
 ing ill health. 
 
J O H N J A Y. 73* 
 
 All the belligerant powers in Europe, tired of a 
 long war, were at this time represented at Paris 
 by ministers negotiating a general peace. The 
 terms between all but England and Holland were 
 agreed upon before the summer ended. This trea- 
 ty was delayed by an interference of France sim- 
 ilar to that she had exerted towards America. 
 Mr. Jay had the satisfaction of obtaining copies 
 of the instructions from their government to the 
 ambassadors of Holland, and found that they, like 
 himself, had been ordered to proceed with the con- 
 fidence and consent of the French government. 
 They were not as successful in evading these in- 
 structions as the American ministers had been, as 
 is proved by the terms of their treaty. 
 
 The 3d of September, 1783, was appointed for 
 signing all the treaties, and on that day Mr. Jay 
 had the satisfaction of consummating that which 
 he had so long been working for, and of securing 
 to his own country not only honour, but great com- 
 mercial advantages. By this treaty America was 
 in the first place recognised as independent, and 
 was also given boundaries as large as she could 
 desire. A share in the fisheries, then of great im- 
 portance to our infant commerce, was conceded; 
 and, in fact, every advantage proposed to be ob- 
 tained by the Revolution was secured. 
 G 
 
74 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Jay visits London. — He is taken ill, and compell- 
 ed to have recourse to the Bath Waters. — Belays 
 attending the audit of his Accounts. — He em- 
 harks for the United States, and lands at Mew- 
 York. — His distinguished Reception by the In- 
 habitants of that City. — He is chosen Secretary 
 of Foreign Affairs by Congress, and elected a 
 Delegate from the State of New-York. — He ne- 
 gotiates with the Spanish Minister. — Hostilities 
 commenced by Algiers, and Report of Mr. Jay 
 on the subject. — He is assailed by Littlepage, and 
 vindicates himself triumphantly. — He is cho- 
 sen President of the Abolition Society. — Fail- 
 ure of the JYegotiation with Spain, and Report 
 of Mr. Jay on the subject. — His Report on the 
 Frontier Posts, on the Slaves retained by Great 
 Britain, and the collection of Debts by British 
 subjects. 
 
 The objects of Mr. Jay's mission were now ac- 
 complished, the claims of his country on him were 
 for the present ended, and he determined to do 
 what ref^ard for himself would have warranted 
 him in doing long before ; namely, to take proper 
 measures for the preservation of a life equally pre- 
 cious to himself, his friends, and his country. 
 
JOHN JAY. 75 
 
 Leaving his family in Paris, he proceeded to 
 London, and we find him received with honour 
 and respect in a country where, but a few years 
 before, he would have been considered as a rebel 
 and imprisoned. While at London his life was 
 despaired of; but he recovered, and journeyed to 
 Bath, where he received great benefit from the 
 waters. In January he returned to Paris. 
 
 His situation there was one of great pleasure 
 and improvement. He was well and favourably 
 known by many of the great men of the day ; 
 was honoured for his course in the business of his 
 country, respected for the uprightness of , his char- 
 acter and the talents that he was known to pos- 
 sess. His own mind was almost free from care, 
 and we find him entering with pleasure into those 
 reunions which have always been one characteris- 
 tic of French society. One subject only disquieted 
 him. He had been engaged in many pecuniary 
 transactions on account of the United States, and 
 those of great amount. Congress had appoint- 
 ed an auditor in Europe to settle their accounts. 
 To this auditor Mr. Jay was to account for the 
 sums that had passed through his hands. Many 
 considerations demanded his return to America, but 
 nothing could persuade him to leave Europe with 
 any, even the slightest, imputation on his honour, 
 to afford any handle that calumny could lay hold 
 of, to insinuate that his mission was as much for 
 
76 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 his own benefit as that of the state. The vouch 
 ers of his accounts while in Spain were still at 
 Madrid, in the hands of his former secretary, Mr 
 Carmichael, whom he had left there as charge d'af 
 faires. He reiterated to Mr. Carmichael his de- 
 sire that he would proceed to Paris with these doc- 
 uments, and thus enable him to audit the accounts ; 
 the charge d'affaires refused, and informed him of 
 his determination not to leave Madrid unless or- 
 dered by Congress. Mr. Jay now found himself 
 under the necessity of writing to Congress, request- 
 ing that such an order might be sent. On its ar- 
 rival Mr» Carmichael obeyed, and in the spring of 
 1784, all the business that could detain Mr. Jay in 
 Europe was finished. He therefore was at liberty 
 to return, and travelled with his family for Dover, 
 whence he took shipping for New-York, at which 
 place he arrived on the 24th of July. Loud were 
 the congratulations with which he was received ; 
 many were the honours showered upon him ; and 
 his landing more resembled the return of a tri- 
 umphant conqueror than that of a peaceful states- 
 man. All classes united to honour him. At that 
 early period of our Union political parties were al- 
 most unknown, therefore no prejudiced party voice 
 was heard to condemn him. 
 
 The citizens of New-York presented him, 
 through their corporation, with a congratulatory 
 address and the freedom of the city. He was 
 
JOHN JAY. 77 
 
 also desired to become a member of the Society 
 of the Cincinnati, but dechned. From the ten- 
 our of one of his letters written at this time, we 
 perceive that it had been his intention, after a re- 
 turn to the United States, to resume the practice 
 of his profession. This determination he was pre- 
 vented from acting upon by the offer of Congress 
 to confer upon him the office of secretary for for- 
 eign affairs. This office was, without doubt, the 
 most important that could be held under the old 
 confederacy. The secretary conducted all for- 
 eign correspondence, as well as that with the 
 separate states ; through him passed all instruc- 
 tions to ministers abroad ; it was his duty to pre- 
 pare plans of treaties, and to make reports to 
 Congress on such subjects as they desired. He 
 had the right of being present at the meetings of 
 Congress, and of laying before them such infor- 
 mation as he considered necessary. This office 
 had been occupied by Chancellor Livingston, by 
 whom it was resigned. On his resignation Con- 
 gress requested him to hold the office until the 
 election of a successor. With this request he 
 complied for a time, but vacated the office defini- 
 tively soon after, thinking that there was no pres- 
 ent prospect of his being replaced. Congress 
 had five times appointed a day for the election, 
 which was as often postponed. This embarrass- 
 ment arose from the difficulty of finding a proper 
 G2 
 
78 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 person to fill the office, and was not removed un- 
 til news was received that Mr. Jay was on his re- 
 turn, when he was immediately elected. For 
 some time he decKned the office, not because he 
 was unwilling to serve his country when it was ab- 
 solutely necessary, but that he considered the time 
 was past when it was incumbent upon him to take 
 such service to the prejudice of the duties and 
 comforts of private life. His own property was 
 to be attended to ; he was desirous to enjoy the so- 
 ciety of those friends and relations from whom he 
 had been so long separated. Congress then sat at 
 Trenton, and it was thus impossible for him at once 
 to attend to both public and private duties. Be- 
 sides, the appointment of the clerks in this foreign 
 office was in the hands of Congress, and he was 
 unwilling to repose confidence in those who had 
 not been chosen by himself. While the matter 
 was thus in uncertainty, he was elected as dele- 
 gate to Congress from his native state. It Avas 
 soon discovered that Trenton was not a fit place 
 for holding the meetings of that body, and on the 
 23d of December, 1784, they adjourned to New- 
 York, giving, at the same time, permission to Mr. 
 Jay to appoint the clerks requisite for carrying on 
 the business of his office. Both his objections were 
 now removed, and early in the following year he 
 entered upon his new duties. These duties, in 
 themselves sufficiently arduous, were increased by 
 
J H N J A y. 79 
 
 the attention necessary to bring up the business of 
 the office, to which, for two years, there had been 
 no head. 
 
 The first report which Jay made to Congress in 
 the capacity of secretary for foreign affairs was 
 one asking the passage of a resolution rendering 
 foreign consuls amenable to the laws of the land, 
 bearing upon crime and debt. This subject had 
 been called up by a petition requesting Congi-ess 
 not to recognise a Swedish consul who was at that 
 time in debt to citizens of America. Mr. Jay's 
 resolution was passed. We next find him laying 
 before Congress the account of a voyage of an 
 American ship to China; a subject that was at 
 that time thought of sufficient importance to be 
 communicated to the assembled states, and we find 
 that body passing a resolution approving the voy- 
 age, of which a detailed account had been pre- 
 sented to Mr. Jay by the supercargo of the ship. 
 
 The State of New- York was at this time gov- 
 erned very httle to the satisfaction of a large pro- 
 portion of the people, and Mr. Jay was solicited 
 by many of his friends to become a candidate for 
 the office of governor. This invitation he refused, 
 and gave the reason for such refusal in a letter 
 to General Schuyler. In this he states that he 
 was well convinced that the office of governor 
 was more lucrative, more honourable, and less la- 
 borious than that which he held, but that he had 
 
80 AMEPwICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 been well treated by Congress ; that he possessed 
 the confidence of that body ; that his gi'atitude was 
 owing to them for many favours ; and that " it was 
 his deliberate opinion, that a servant should not 
 leave a good old master for the sake of a little 
 more pay or a prettier livery." 
 
 We are now about to record what must have 
 been to Mr. Jay one of the most gratifying events 
 of his life. It will be recollected how long and 
 how fruitlessly he had negotiated with Spain; 
 with what indignity he had been treated ; and that 
 he had never even been recognised as an ambas- 
 sador. He was now to resume this negotiation in 
 his own country ; to play the part, not of the sup- 
 pliant, but of the supplicated ; to confer about a 
 treaty, the terms of which he held in his own 
 power ; for, by the treaty of 1783, the navigation 
 of the Mississippi and the possession of its eastern 
 shore had been guarantied to the United States. 
 Spain now found that it was necessary for her own 
 interest to make an alliance. We accordingly 
 find her sending an ambassador, the forms and 
 ceremonies of whose reception by Congress were 
 dictated by Mr. Jay, who, as holding a seat in that 
 body, was one of those who, as sovereigns cover- 
 ed and sitting, received the envoys of a foreign 
 power. Mr. Jay seems from the first to have had 
 no great hope that a treaty would result from this 
 negotiation, and his anticipations were realized ; 
 
JOHN JAY. 81 
 
 for the disputed question of the navigation of the 
 Mississippi presented difficulties which could not 
 be overcome. 
 
 On the 7th of September Mr. Jay was author- 
 ized by Congress to break seals and examine let- 
 ters passing through the postoffice ; this power 
 was given him, that he might examine the instruc- 
 tions given to the commanders of posts within the 
 United Sates which were not yet evacuated by the 
 British. 
 
 On the 13th of October Mr. Jay made a com- 
 munication to Congress, informing them that war 
 had been declared upon them by Algiers. In this 
 letter he gives it as his opinion that this declara- 
 tion was no great evil, as it would consolidate the 
 states in a common cause, and prove a nursery for 
 seamen. The communication was referred back 
 to its author for a report on it. He then recom- 
 mended the arming, at the public expense, of all 
 vessels trading to the Mediterranean, and the 
 building by government of five vessels of war. 
 This recommendation was not acted upon, on ac- 
 count of the weakness of the government. 
 
 The next occurrence in Mr. Jay's life was one 
 which was productive of no little annoyance to 
 himself, while, at the same time, it convinced the 
 public how pure were his motives, how upright his 
 actions in every case. It was a long newspaper 
 controversy, produced by an attack on Mr. Jay by 
 
82 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Lewis Littlepage, a young man who had been 
 treated with examplary kindness by him, and 
 who had rewarded that kindness by misrepresent- 
 ing his motives and actions. Littlepage had so 
 far succeeded in his machinations as to produce a 
 coolness between Jay and some of his friends. It 
 only remains for us to say, that the course Mr. 
 Jay had taken towards Littlepage was fully justi- 
 fied, although, at the same time, we think that it 
 would have redounded equally to his credit, and 
 been more consistent with his dignity, had he ta- 
 ken no notice of the attack when made, and let it 
 have been refuted by the general tenour of his ac- 
 tions. He, however, seems to have considered it 
 due to his reputation to refute the charges that 
 had been brought against him ; and from the ten- 
 our of his letters to his friends, his feelings seem 
 to have been irritated by this first public attack 
 upon his character. 
 
 In 1785 a society w^as formed in New- York for 
 " promoting the manumission of slaves." Of this 
 society Mr. Jay was elected president, and found 
 time to fulfil its duties, notwithstanding the press- 
 ure of other business. By this election he was 
 given an opportunity of publicly declaring the sen- 
 timents he entertained towards slavery. He had, 
 at the time of the adoption of a constitution by 
 New- York, desired to form some plan for the ab- 
 olition of slavery in that state, and seems always 
 
JOHN JAY. 83 
 
 to have considered that such a course was to be 
 supported as well on grounds of political expedi- 
 ency as of moral right. In his situation as presi- 
 dent of this society, Mr. Jay addressed a memo- 
 rial to the Legislature of New-York, praying that 
 they would prohibit the exportation of slaves from 
 that state. A few years afterward he opened a 
 correspondence with similar societies in France 
 and England. He continued president of this so- 
 ciety until appointed chief-justice of the United 
 States, when he resigned, thinking that cases 
 might be brought before him in his official capa- 
 city having a bearing upon the objects of its asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 Until the year 1786, the negotiation between Mr. 
 Jay and the Spanish minister had been going on, 
 \\^thout having approached any nearer to the ad- 
 justment of the difficulties between their respect- 
 ive nations. Congress had ordered Mr. Jay to in- 
 sist upon the free navigation of the Mississippi. 
 The court of Spain had as positively commanded 
 their minister not to permit such navigation, or to 
 give up their claim to the eastern shore of that riv- 
 er, possession of which had been guarantied to the 
 United States by their treaty with Great Britain. 
 
 In this state of the affair only two courses were 
 left to the United States, either to secure their 
 claim by force of arms, or to let the matter re- 
 main totally unsettled. 
 
84 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 They therefore, on the 3d of September, called 
 upon their secretary, who, in a speech which is re- 
 corded upon the minutes of Congress, gave his 
 opinion on the subject. After premising that 
 Spain was able and willing to afford us many 
 commercial facilities in case of a treaty, or that, 
 if war were determined upon, she could injure our 
 commerce, as well by exciting the hostility of the 
 Barbary powders as by her own arms ; that the 
 Union w^as weak ; that many of the states would 
 be unwilling to support a war undertaken for such 
 a cause : he went on to state, that the course of 
 the United States should be to make a treaty for- 
 bearing their right of navigation for 80 years, 
 thus closing the matter in dispute for the present, 
 but leaving an opening for future consideration. 
 
 This speech was very disagreeable to the South- 
 ern members, to whom the navigation of the Mis- 
 sissippi was now a matter of importance, and they 
 unanimously supported a resolution to deprive Mr. 
 Jay of the power that had been given him to 
 make the terms of a treaty. This resolution w^as 
 as unanimously, and in greater numbers, oppo- 
 sed by the Northern delegates, who saw and ap- 
 proved of the steady policy of Mr. Jay through 
 the whole negotiation. They knew that he had 
 been unwilling to surrender that navigation unless 
 in exchange for the recognition of independence. 
 After independence was secured, the delegation 
 
J O H N J A Y. 85 
 
 from Virginia had proposed and carried a resolu- 
 tion, authorizing the surrender of the right of nav- 
 igation of the Mississippi south of the thirty-first de- 
 gree of north latitude, in exchange for a free navi- 
 gation of the river above that point ; and now we 
 find a party in Congress, in which the delegates of 
 that state were found, trying to disgrace their sec- 
 retary, because he proposed a measure leaving that 
 right in abeyance, a right of the importance of 
 which they now, for the first time, became sensible. 
 
 The Spanish minister refused to come into any 
 arrangement even implying a surrender of the 
 right on his part, and the negotiation was ended 
 by his return to Spain. 
 
 On the 30th of November, Mr. Jay, at the re- 
 quest of Congress, presented a report on the fol- 
 lowing subjects. Many posts within the limits of 
 the United States were still held by British troops, 
 in defiance of the terms of the treaty which pro- 
 vided for their immediate evacuation. Much un- 
 easiness was caused by this violation of the treaty, 
 and Congress directed their minister at London to 
 remonstrate with the British government. The 
 British ministry replied by stating that there was 
 another article in the treaty, stipulating that 
 "creditors on either side should meet with no 
 lawful impediment in the collection of debts," 
 and that this article had been violated by the 
 Union, inasmuch as there were in many of the 
 H 
 
86 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 states laws preventing the recovery of British 
 debts. 
 
 The report of Mr. Jay on this subject was char- 
 acterized by fairness and honesty. He felt it his 
 duty to point out, that in many of the states the 
 laws prevented the recovery of English debts; 
 he, on the other hand, asserted that many slaves, 
 taken under British protection during the war, had 
 not been returned to their masters according to 
 the terms of the treaty ; this course of England, he 
 showed, might be vindicated on the ground of mor- 
 al right, but that the provision of the treaty might, 
 and ought to be satisfied, by her paying to the for- 
 mer masters of the slaves an equivalent in money. 
 He, however, made it clear that the United States 
 had been the first to violate their faith, and advi- 
 sed Congress to desire the states to repeal their 
 laws on the subject of foreign debts. He at the 
 same time proposed that their minister should be 
 required to demand payment for the negroes, and 
 the evacuation of the posts the moment these laws 
 were repealed. 
 
 Congress accordingly required the states to re- 
 peal these laws, but under the confederation no 
 power to enforce the demand existed. 
 
 These reports of Mr. Jay form a memorable 
 epoch in the history of parties in the United States, 
 The stern and decided expression of his views of 
 moral right in respect to the abducted slaves, and 
 
J O H N J A Y. 87 
 
 the laws opposing obstacles to the collection of 
 foreign debts, were unpopular in the exti-eme with 
 the Southern states. The better informed had, in- 
 deed, no argument to advance against the correct- 
 ness of his views, but the less intelligent were in- 
 fluenced by their passions ; and although the views 
 thus expressed by Jay became the principles of 
 settled action under the administration of Wash- 
 ington, and were, as we shall see, carried out by 
 Jay himself in a treaty with Great Britain, ambi- 
 tious men saw that the popular feehng was such 
 as would enable them to build an opposition upon 
 it as a basis. It may, indeed, be questioned by 
 many, whether offering liberty to slaves be a legit- 
 imate mode of warfare ; none, however, can deny, 
 that they may be received as soldiers with no 
 more moral wrong than the deserters of a hostile 
 army. In such a case, it w^ill be a matter of ne- 
 gotiation whether they are to be paid for at a 
 peace or not ; but honour will forbid that they 
 should be returned to their masters. In respect 
 to debts due to an enemy's subject, it was once the 
 custom of war to confiscate them to the use of the 
 government ; but the progress of humane feeling, 
 by which the miseries of warfare have been grad- 
 ually lessened, now forbids such means of annoy- 
 ance. That individual debtors should avail them- 
 selves of a state of war to avoid the payment of 
 their just debts, is a pretension which has never 
 
OO AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 been maintained by any nation ; and the laws 
 passed by many of the states for this object are 
 the foulest blot which has ever fallen on American 
 honour. 
 
JOHNJAY. Sd 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Jay^s Opinions of the inefficiency of the Confeder- 
 ation. — Origin of the Federal Party. — He is 
 elected a Member of the Episcopal Convention. 
 — Jlcts of that Convention. — Convention at An- 
 napolis. — Jay^s Correspondence vnth Washing- 
 ton in relation to a Federal Union. — Convention 
 at Philadelphia, and adoption of the Federal 
 Constitution. — Jay is associated with Hamilton 
 and Madison in the publication of " The Feder- 
 alist." — The Doctors^ Mob in JYew-York. — 
 State Convention in J^ew-York. — The Federal 
 Constitution goes into effect, and Jay is named 
 Chief-justice of the Supreme Court. — He holds 
 the first Court. — His Charge to the Grand Jury. 
 — He is nominated as candidate for Governor 
 of the State of JYew-York, and his Election is 
 defeated. — Public expressions of Dissatisfaction 
 at that result. — Jay^s Decision that a State 
 might be sued. — Amendment of the Constitution 
 in consequence. — Reflections on that Decision. 
 
 The weakness and inefficiency of the general 
 
 government had long been a source of anxiety to 
 
 Mr. Jay ; he saw that, so long as no bond but the 
 
 confederation existed, the United States could never 
 
 H2 
 
90 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 rise to the condition of a great nation. Under it 
 he perceived that they were able to make no war 
 without unanimous consent, to observe no treaty 
 when made, and that they were even not justified 
 in getting a loan, because they could provide no 
 certain means for its honest payment. 
 
 These opinions of Mr. Jay were certainly un- 
 biased by private considerations, for he held by 
 far the most honourable and most lucrative office 
 under the existing government. 
 
 These opinions he enlarged upon, and, in his 
 correspondence, forcibly presented them to the no- 
 tice of many distinguished men of the day. In 
 fact, at this time many began to perceive the ina- 
 bility of the general government to sustain itself, 
 and as many were the plans proposed for its re- 
 construction or amendment. It was, as the Fa- 
 ther of our country observed, a government found- 
 ed on too good an opinion of mankind. Those 
 who saw its deficiencies and advocated its amend- 
 ment took the name of Federalists. Mr. Jay was 
 a member of this party, and always continued so. 
 
 About this time Mr. Jay had been elected 
 a member of an Episcopal convention, one of 
 whose objects was to secure the consecration of 
 American bishops by those holding that station in 
 England. A communication requesting this fa- 
 vour had been transmitted, and a reply was re- 
 ceived granting the request, provided some speci- 
 
JOHN JAY. 91 
 
 fied alterations were made in the liturgy. The 
 Convention appointed a committee to draw an an- 
 swer to this communication. Mr. Jay objected to 
 the proposed answer as too submissive ; he was 
 then placed on the committee himself, and framed 
 an answer w^hich was approved of. By his con- 
 sent to serve in this convention, he manifested that 
 regard for the observances of religion, and that 
 piety which had characterized him from his early 
 years. This trait in his character is one that may 
 be referred to as the mainspring of his actions in 
 many cases. 
 
 In January, 1786, the delegates from Virginia to 
 Congress had proposed a convention of the states 
 at Annapolis, to take measures to secure a uniform 
 system of commercial regulations amongthe states, 
 and this proposed measure is referred to by Mr. 
 Jay in his letters as the first act taken to bring 
 about a better state of affairs. The convention 
 consisted of the delegates of only five states, prob- 
 ably because the measures it proposed were too 
 limited to excite general interest. These few del- 
 egates, however, recommended that another con- 
 vention, to revise the articles of confederation, 
 should assemble in Philadelphia the next spring. 
 
 In a letter to General Washington, written in 
 January, 1787, Mr. Jay discusses the plan of a 
 new government; he states that experience has 
 proved that the executive power ought not to be 
 
92 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 vested in a large body ; that in such a body secre- 
 cy was impossible, promptness not to be expected, 
 and responsibility so divided that a sense of it could 
 not be counted on ; that therefore it was neces- 
 sary that there should be one executive individ- 
 ually responsible. He did not wish this officer to 
 be a king, unless as a last resource ; but thought 
 that he might be elective, and styled a governor- 
 general. He also proposed the division of the 
 Legislature into an upper and lower house ; and 
 thus shadow^s forth some of the features of the 
 constitution that was adopted. 
 
 In General Washington's reply, he admits the 
 conclusiveness of the arguments of Jay, but doubts 
 whether the country is yet ripe for the measure, 
 and whether, even if carried into operation, the 
 new government would be able to withstand the 
 opposition of those who were sticklers for state 
 sovereignty. 
 
 In the succeeding February Congress recom- 
 mended a Convention, and it accordingly assem- 
 bled in Philadelphia. Mr. Jay was not a member 
 of it, probably because other duties detained him 
 in New-York. 
 
 On the 17th of September the new Constitution 
 was agreed upon. This constitution was not ex- 
 actly what Mr. Jay had desired, yet it was so far 
 superior to the old constitution, that he immediate- 
 ly enrolled himself as one of its most active, elo- 
 
JOHN JAY. 93 
 
 quent, and influential advocates and defenders. 
 He joined with Hamilton and Madison in publish- 
 ing the Federalist, a paper as well known as his 
 own name. In the successive numbers of this 
 publication the new Constitution was explained ; 
 the bearing it would have on points of state 
 rights clearly pointed out ; and the instrument de- 
 fended from the attacks of those who, influenced 
 by the possession of state ofiices, desired no instru- 
 ment to go into operation that would curtail their 
 powers. 
 
 Mr. Jay's labours in behalf of the new Consti- 
 tution were interrupted by an unhappy accident. 
 The surgeons of New-York at this time were im- 
 prudent in not sufficiently regarding the prejudi- 
 ces of the multitude on the subject of dissection. 
 They pursued this branch of their studies too open- 
 ly : the passions of the people were excited, and 
 finally broke out into fury on seeing a human arm 
 suspended from the window of one of the stu- 
 dents of medicine. A mob arose ; several of the 
 physicians were confined in jail to protect them 
 from its vengeance ; but the mob were determin- 
 ed to take the law into their own hands, and again 
 assembled for the purpose of breaking open the 
 prison. Mr. Jay being informed of this, seized a 
 sword, and, accompanied by some others, rushed 
 to prevent their purpose ; they were attacked, and 
 a stone thrown by one of the mob wounded Mr. 
 
94 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Jay dangerously in the temple, and for some time 
 confined him to the house. When he recovered 
 he published in a pamphlet an address to the peo- 
 ple, desiring them to support the new Constitution 
 on the following grounds : first, that a better plan 
 could not probably be obtained ; secondly, that, if 
 obtained, it would be too late; and, thirdly, he call- 
 ed their attention to what their situation would be 
 if, after rejecting this constitution, they could ob- 
 tain no other. The good sense, correct state- 
 ments, and forcible arguments of this paper soon 
 procured for it extensive circulation; and, al- 
 though published without the name of its author, 
 many of his friends attributed it to the right source. 
 , Mr. Jay was elected one of the members of 
 the Convention called together by the people of 
 New- York for the purpose of accepting or reject- 
 ing the new Constitution ; out of 57 members only 
 10 were of the same opinion with Mr. Jay. When 
 assembled, the Convention was for three weeks 
 occupied in debating upon the Constitution ; both 
 sides gave their opinions, but they did not test the 
 strength of their parties by a vote. Mr. Jay of- 
 fered a motion to accept the Constitution, and to 
 recommend such alterations as should be deemed 
 expedient. This resolution, when modified so as to 
 read on condition of such alterations, was passed, 
 and was finally modified by inserting in place of 
 " on condition," the words " in full confidence." 
 
J H N J A Y. 95 
 
 To Mr. Jay the Convention assigned the duty of 
 preparing a letter recommending these amend- 
 ments to the other states, conscious that, aUhough 
 opposed to them, he would discharge the duty fair- 
 ly and honestly, if not feelingly. 
 
 In the City of New-York, a majority of whose in- 
 habitants were Federalists, the news was received 
 with every demonstration of public joy; and ap- 
 plauding crowds testified their approbation of the 
 course of their delegates, while, at the same time, 
 they rejoiced at the ratification of that constitution, 
 under the guidance of w^hich the country was to 
 proceed onward in its course of prosperity. The 
 feelings of Mr. Jay must have been as joyful as 
 those of the multitude, and more lasting ; for, ar- 
 dent patriot as he was, he had long seen the want 
 of this constitution ; long, and at last successfully, 
 advocated it. 
 
 Measures were now taken for carrying into op- 
 eration the new government ; a president, vice- 
 president, and Congress were elected. General 
 Washington was unanimously called to the former 
 office, and preparations were made for his recep- 
 tion in New-York. Mr. Jay, fearing that these 
 would not be completed in time, wrote to General 
 Washington, asking him to consider his house as 
 his home, and thanking him for the pleasure he 
 had afforded the country by his acceptatance of 
 this high office. 
 
96 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Washington was inaugurated in New-York on 
 the 30th of April, 1789, and immediately entered 
 on the duties of his office. The president entertain- 
 ed the highest opinion of the talents and patriotism 
 of Mr. Jay, and manifested it by desiring him to 
 accept such office as was most agreeable to him, 
 and in which he could best display his abilities. 
 His early education, his after career, and the pe- 
 culiar bias of his mind, combining with the con- 
 viction that in it he could be most useful, led him 
 to choose the office of chief-justice of the United 
 States. His post as secretary of foreign affairs 
 was vacated by the formation of a new govern- 
 ment ; but, at the request of Washington, he per- 
 formed the duties of secretary of state until Mr. 
 Jefferson arrived from France. 
 
 On the 3d of April, 1790, the chief-justice held 
 at New-York his first court. In his charge to the 
 jury he thought proper to remind them of the sit- 
 uation in which they were placed, and brought be- 
 fore them some of his own thoughts upon the char- 
 acter, mode of formation, and uses of the new 
 government, and also the duties required from the 
 citizen by it. During this month he made a cir- 
 cuit through the New-England states, and was 
 everywhere received, not only with respect, but 
 with honour. Institutions of learning conferred 
 their degrees upon him ; local governments gave 
 him public receptions. In the fall he again rode 
 
J O H N J A Y. 97 
 
 a circuit, and, while so doing, manifested the 
 confidence reposed in him by the first man in 
 th^ country, by writing to the president, propo- 
 sing to him subjects to be brought before Con- 
 gress at their ensuing session. Among these, he 
 recommended measures for the improvement of 
 our intercourse with the Indians ; laws for the 
 coinage; the preservation of old and establish- 
 ment of new fortresses ; and also the inspection 
 of articles of export. The president replied by 
 requesting farther communications, and indicating 
 the way of forwarding them so that they might be 
 received. 
 
 During the year 1791, the time of the chief- 
 justice was wholly taken up by attending to his 
 official duties. The charges of the chief-justice 
 to juries during this year were generally w^ell-writ- 
 ten essays, in which he laid down moral and po- 
 litical principles, and proved the necessity of con- 
 forming to them. 
 
 During the year 1792 much dissatisfaction was 
 expressed by many of the inhabitants of New- 
 York at the course pursued by their governor; it 
 w^as therefore determined to oppose him, and, if 
 possible, prevent his re-election. It was necessa- 
 ry to decide upon an opposition candidate, and 
 Mr. Jay w^as honoured by the choice. His nom- 
 ination was first decided upon at a meeting of the 
 citizens of New-York, and was soon approved of 
 I 
 
98 jtTMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 by the opposition throughout the state. Mr. Jay 
 accepted this nomination, in conformity with the 
 opinions he had expressed when rejecting a Hke 
 nomination some years before. He thought that 
 the time had now arrived when he was called upon 
 by a prevailing discontent, and by a general con- 
 viction of the insufficiency of their ruler, to accept 
 that office, the reform of which he was the most 
 capable to perfect. He could have been actuated 
 by no motives of private benefit in accepting this 
 nomination; for, if he were elected, he would be 
 obliged to resign an office equally honourable, 
 less dependant for its permanency on mere popu- 
 larity, while, at the same time, it was more lucra- 
 tive, and more congenial to his inclinations. The 
 friends of the party in power roused themselves to 
 combat this powerful opposition ; and, as one means 
 of doing so, attacked and exaggerated many of 
 the actions and well-known opinions of Jay. 
 They, in a state, the majority of whose inhabi- 
 tants had been antifederalists, attacked his course, 
 and misrepresented his motives in regard to the 
 adoption of the Constitution. They tried to carry 
 into politics his opinions on the subject of slavery, 
 and incited against him slave owners, by decla- 
 ring that, if in powder, he would rob them of their 
 slaves v;ho were fit to labour, and oblige them to 
 educate those who were yet too young to work. 
 Of these attacks and insinuations he took no pub- 
 
JOHN JAY. 99 
 
 lie notice ; but his private feelings were excited 
 by the turning against him and the active oppo- 
 sition of his old friend Chancellor Livingston. 
 A letter was addressed to Livingston, in one of 
 the papers, couched in a high tone of feeling ; 
 many of his partisans spread the opinion that this 
 was a production of Mr. Jay ; and one of them, in 
 the same newspaper, replied to Mr. Jay as its au- 
 thor. He publicly disavowed it as his production. 
 
 Mr. Jay was absent from the state during the 
 election. His letters during this period show how 
 little his feelings were interested in the result; 
 even to his wife he never alludes to the subject, 
 except when forced, and declares that he is per- 
 fectly resigned and unconcerned about his success 
 or defeat. 
 
 Although Mr. Jay had, without doubt, a majori- 
 ty of votes, he w^as not returned as elected, for 
 reasons which we shall proceed to explain. By 
 law, all the ballots were to be transmitted by the 
 sheriffs of the different counties to a committee ap- 
 pointed by the Legislature to canvass them. This 
 committee, named by the party in power, took ad- 
 vantage of an informality in the appointment of 
 sheriffs. The sheriffs had been in the habit of per- 
 forming the duties of their office beyond the time 
 for which they had been appointed, and until it 
 was found convenient to nominate and induct into 
 office a successor. Custom and expediency alone. 
 
100 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 not positive law, had sanctioned this practice. 
 The committee on elections so decided, and threw 
 out the votes of those counties which were brought 
 in by sheriffs holding office according to this cus- 
 tom. By taking advantage of this and some oth- 
 er slight informalities, they reduced Mr. Jay's votes 
 from a majority to a minority, and declared Mr. 
 Clinton elected governor of the state. The minor- 
 ity of the committee entered a protest against these 
 proceedings. An intense public feeling was exci- 
 ted throughout the state ; and those were not want- 
 ing who advised Mr. Jay to assume the office of 
 governor, assuring him that he would be support- 
 ed in such a course by a majority of the inhabi- 
 tants of the state. Happily for the community, 
 he was no demagogue ambitious for party superi- 
 ority and public power, and therefore refused this 
 advice, considering that it was the duty of him- 
 self and all good citizens rather to suffer a pres- 
 ent wrong than to right themselves by violence. 
 
 In February, 1793, the Supreme Court was 
 held at Philadelphia, and a case perfectly novel, 
 and interesting from its bearing upon the new 
 Constitution, was brought before it for decision. 
 The case was this : an inhabitant of one state 
 sued the government of another state. The state 
 so sued refused to appear, on the grounds that, be- 
 ing sovereign and independent, it could be brought 
 before no tribunal. One of the principal objec- 
 
JOHN JAY. 101 
 
 tions to the new Constitution had been that, when 
 carried into effect, it would impair state rights 
 and do away with state sovereignty. It no doubt 
 did this in some degree, and it was now to be 
 seen whether the officer charged with that duty 
 would carry into effect such a provision in the 
 face of a strong opposition. But Mr. Jay had 
 firmness enough to avow any opinion, provided he 
 knew it to be consistent with his duty and his 
 principles. He therefore, on the following grounds, 
 decided that the State of Georgia could be sued. 
 He admitted that the state was sovereign, and then 
 inquired who exercised the sovereignty; it was 
 not the governor, it w^as not the legislature, but the 
 people ; the people were the sovereigns : there- 
 fore it was not an individual suing a kingdom, 
 but one sovereign contending against others; it 
 was a contest between equals. He declared that 
 all admitted that one city might sue another ; one 
 state bring an action against another state ; then 
 why not one citizen, who exercised a portion of 
 the state sovereignty. He admitted that it would 
 be impossible to sue the United States, because 
 there was no superior power to enforce a decision 
 when given ; this was not the case with a state, 
 to whom the United States was a superior. 
 
 By this decision great jealousy was excited in 
 the different states, great alarm for the deprival of 
 their power. Their legislatures therefore took 
 12 
 
102 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 measures for amending such portions of the Con- 
 stitution as gave authority for this opinion of the 
 chief-justice, and at the ensuing session of Con- 
 gress the amendment was agreed to. 
 
 There can be Httle doubt that the decision of 
 Mr. Jay was not only consistent with the existing 
 provisions of the Constitution, but was founded 
 on strict justice. That the general government 
 should, by an amendment of the Constitution, re- 
 move the ground for popular clamour, was per- 
 haps politic and expedient, but the strength of the 
 Union has been manifestly impaired by the deci- 
 sion. It is within the limits of probability that 
 acts may be committed by some one state against 
 the citizens of another, which, if there be no tri- 
 bunal possessed of power to afford redress, may 
 lead to reprisals and involve actual hostilities. 
 We might, however, have expected that, on this 
 occasion, the chief-justice would have emancipated 
 himself at once from the shackles of the old feu- 
 dal doctrine that " the king can do no wrong." 
 Had he boldly declared that the government of 
 the United States itself could be made the defend- 
 ant in a civil action, in consequence of the source of 
 power having passed from a monarch to the peo- 
 ple, he would have met the difficulty in its very 
 origin, and would have removed at once the only 
 legal oppression to which the citizens of the Uni- 
 ted States are now subjected. 
 
JOHN JAY. 103 
 
 It seems an anomaly, that, in a government 
 founded upon the principle of popular sovereign- 
 ty, the individual members of the ruling body 
 should have no legal remedy for the oppression of 
 their own servants, no means of obtaining a judi- 
 cial decision in respect to disputed accounts. 
 
 The time seems to be at hand when the neces- 
 sity of affording to the public creditor, whether of 
 the state or of the general government, a remedy 
 by law, and to those stigmatized as defaulters the 
 means of proving their purity in open court, can- 
 not be gainsaid. We may therefore hope for 
 a legislative action on this subject by Congress, 
 which will allow the general government to be 
 impleaded as a defendant in a suit at law, and 
 that this will be imitated by the state legislatures. 
 
104 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 Question of Neutrality in the War between France 
 and England. — Washington'' s Proclamation. — 
 Arrival of Genet. — Jittempt at fitting out 
 French Privateers. — Jay^s Charge to the Grand 
 Jury at RlcJwiond. — Aggressions of Great 
 Britain. — Washington determines to send a 
 special Minister to England, and selects Jay for 
 the purpose. — Jay proceeds to London. — His 
 JYegotiations with Lord Grenville. — He con- 
 cludes a Treaty. — Loud Dissatisfaction express- 
 ed by the anti-Federal Pai'ty. — Treaty ratified 
 by the President and Senate. — Its Provisions ap- 
 proved by the House of Representatives. — Mer- 
 its of Jay^s Treaty, and comparison of it with 
 that negotiated by Mr. Monroe. 
 
 Our foreign relations now began to excite great 
 attention. It became necessary for the govern- 
 ment of the United States to decide upon its 
 course with regard to neutraUty with all, or a war 
 with some of the powers in Europe. The French 
 king had been dethroned, and republican France 
 appealed strongly to the sympathies of America. 
 If the latter assisted France, she must have warred 
 against England j and many would have appro- 
 
JOHN JAY. 105 
 
 ved of such a measure, impelled by ancient ani- 
 mosity against the latter country, and hating her, 
 not only for this reason, but because she had not 
 fulfilled some of the obligations imposed upon her 
 by the late treaty. A strong French party was 
 formed, and Washington found it necessary to is- 
 sue his celebrated proclamation of neutrality. 
 When his opinions were thus publicly declared, 
 his decision was arraigned, the purity of his mo- 
 tives was questioned by that party w'hich had, as 
 anti-Federalists, been opposed to him, and who 
 now arrayed themselves on the side of France. 
 These dissensions were fomented, these hostilities 
 to government encouraged, by the arrival in the 
 country of Genet, who was openly the minister of 
 France, secretly an agent to stir up this country 
 to a war with England. This man, on his arrival 
 at Charleston, distributed French commissions ; and 
 w^hen he reached Philadelphia, with utter disre- 
 gard of the laws, and in despite of the president's 
 proclamation, proceeded to fit out French priva- 
 teers at various ports, thus proving by what a 
 strong party he was supported. Mr. Jay, in his 
 charge to the grand-jury of the Circuit Court of 
 the United States then assembled at Richmond, 
 alludes to these troubles, and declares it to be 
 their duty to present for prosecution those who vi- 
 olated the national neutrality. When Mr. Genet, 
 the French minister, was informed that force would 
 
106 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 be used, if necessary, to prevent a privateer he had 
 equipped from proceeding to sea, he declared his 
 intentions of appeahng from the president to the 
 people, and thus of executing his intentions by vi- 
 olence. Some of the papers defended this course, 
 and encouraged this insult to the Father of his 
 Country. Mr. Jay and Rufus King published a 
 communication in one of the papers, stating that 
 Mr. Genet had avowed such intentions; they 
 were, in consequence, bitterly assailed by those 
 who sided with the French interest. 
 
 These dissensions were increased by the acts of 
 England ; and, to the animosity already excited 
 against her, she added fresh force by her vexatious 
 interference with American commerce. She is- 
 sued an order, by which it was rendered lawful 
 for all vessels carrying grain to France to be seiz- 
 ed and carried to England, where the cargoes 
 might be purchased for the use of government. 
 This order was followed by one authorizing the 
 capture of all vessels carrying supplies to French 
 colonies. Both these edicts fell heavily on the 
 commerce of the United States. The right of 
 searching American vessels, and impressing from 
 them seamen called Enghsh, was insisted upon and 
 practised. Congress viewed these measures with 
 alarm and distrust; a portion of the nation protest- 
 ed against them in terms equally disrespectful to 
 their own government and that of England ; meas- 
 
JOHN JAY. 107 
 
 ures for retaliation were agitated by both, and, in 
 the mean time, an embargo for thirty days was 
 laid upon the American vessels then in port and 
 bound for foreign countries. General Washing- 
 ton, whose measures were then supported only by 
 a minority in Congress, was opposed to all hesi- 
 tating policy, and determined either to obtain 
 honourable peace or wage open war. He Avisely 
 thought the former course as consistent with the 
 honour, and more advantageous to the interests of 
 his country. He was assailed in this course by 
 party enmity, by political opprobrium ; yet, in 
 despite of all this, in despite of the loss of popu- 
 larity, he determined, with his usual wisdom, to 
 make one more effort for peace. He resolved 
 to send an envoy to England, to remonstrate 
 with the British government, and urge upon it the 
 advantages of the preservation of peace with 
 America. He selected Mr. Jay for this important 
 office, and thus publicly manifested that faith and 
 confidence which he had long privately reposed 
 in him. The nomination of Mr. Jay was opposed 
 in the Senate, but finally approved of by a vote 
 of eighteen to eight. 
 
 A few days after Mr. Jay's appointment, the 
 House of Representatives desiring, as they were 
 not able to prevent his mission, at least to do 
 away all the good effects of it, passed a resolution 
 prohibiting the importation of all articles manufac- 
 
10§ AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 tured or grown in Great Britain. If this resolu- 
 tion, so injurious and insulting to England, had 
 gone into effect, all hope of accommodation would 
 have been vain ; but the bill was thrown out in 
 the Senate by the casting vote of the vice-presi- 
 dent. These measures were not confined to pub- 
 lic bodies ; but Jacobin clubs were organized, Jac- 
 obin dinners eaten. Jacobin processions marched 
 through our streets ; and every measure was ta- 
 ken to increase the popular fermentation, and dis- 
 credit and disgrace the president. He, however,, 
 stood firm to his resolve ; and the only effect these 
 measures had on him was to induce him to urge 
 more quickly the departure of Mr. Jay. That 
 gentleman accordingly set sail on the 12th of 
 May, and arrived at Falmouth, accompanied by 
 his eldest son and secretary, after a short passage 
 of twenty-six days. 
 
 Immediately after his arrival in London he had 
 an interview with Lord Grenville, the secretary 
 for foreign affairs, who had been commissioned to 
 negotiate with Mr. Jay. The negotiations were 
 carried on with good feeling and friendship be- 
 tween the two commissioners, although such was 
 far from being the state of the case between the 
 two nations that they represented ; and Mr. Jay 
 and Lord Grenville negotiated in familiar conver- 
 sation, and not according to the usual rules of di- 
 plomacy. They were both actuated by a desire 
 
JOHN JAY. lOf 
 
 to explain clearly what terras they were willing 
 to grant, and what concessions were demanded 
 by either country. Mr. Jay's instructions bound 
 him strictly in two respects. One was, not to en- 
 ter into any treaty inconsistent with American 
 agreements with France ; the other, to conclude 
 no treaty of commerce, unless it provided for a, 
 trade in American bottoms between that country 
 and the British West India colonies. He was 
 also requested, if possible, to secure an indemnity 
 to American merchants; to make a general treaty 
 of commerce, and to settle all disputes arising out 
 of the existing treaty of peace. Mr. Jay perceiv- 
 ed that the greatest difficulty would lie in obtain- 
 ing the first of the last-mentioned provisions of the 
 treaty. He knew that, unless it were obtained, 
 American merchants would, and with justice, too, 
 demand and obtain war; he knew it would be 
 humiliating to Britain to give up vessels captured 
 by her orders, to acknowledge to all that she was 
 in error when issuing such decrees. He therefore 
 laboured so to form this portion of the treaty that 
 the wording of it should be inoffensive, its condi- 
 tions not humiliating to England, while seeking 
 to secure justice to his own country ; and he suc- 
 ceeded. Its conditions were, that a mixed Ameri- 
 can and English commission should assemble at 
 London, which, on proper proof, should award a 
 recompense for all American vessels illegally cap- 
 K 
 
110 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 tured under colour of British orders and commis- 
 sions. The disputes growing out of the treaty 
 of peace were chiefly these : America demanded 
 payment for the negroes carried off, and an evac- 
 uation of posts held by the British in the United 
 States: England required that laws should be 
 passed by Congress, authorizing and facilitating 
 the collection of British debts. 
 
 Mr. Jay found that England put such a con- 
 struction on the words of the treaty as to enable 
 her to refuse payment for the negroes. He was 
 therefore obliged to abandon this claim, and could 
 not, with justice, prosecute the other, without, at 
 the same time, making provisions for securing the 
 claim of England on his own country. He there- 
 fore agreed to the appointment of commissioners, 
 v/ho were authorized to secure the collection of 
 such debts as could not otherwise be collected by 
 the ordinary course of justice ; England, on the 
 other hand, agreed to evacuate those posts mthin 
 the United States still garrisoned by her troops. 
 Mr. Jay also agreed to authorize another com- 
 mission, which should award to England indem- 
 nity for vessels captured by French privateers fit- 
 ted out in American ports. 
 
 All difficulties were thus adjusted, and it re- 
 mained to agree to provisions for the future inter- 
 course between the two countries. Arrangements 
 were therefore made regulating the intercourse 
 
JOHN JAY. Ill 
 
 between the United States and Canada, and an 
 article was inserted providincr for the appoint- 
 ment of commissioners to survey and fix disputed 
 bound ary-hnes. Congress had proposed to se- 
 quester British debts as one means of annoyance. 
 Mr. Jay considered that such a measure would 
 have unnecessarily increased the hardships of war, 
 and therefore, with the concurrence of Lord Gren- 
 ville, inserted an article forbidding such confisca- 
 tion on either side in case of a future war. Mr. 
 Jay, actuated by similar reasons, wished to insert 
 an article forbidding the employment of privateers 
 by either party ; but Lord Grenville refused his 
 consent to it. In pursuance of his instructions, 
 Mr. Jay now turned his attention to securing to 
 the United States a trade with the British West 
 India Islands. He succeeded in gaining such a 
 permission, but it was accompanied by certain re- 
 strictions, the chief of which were, that the trade 
 should be carried on in vessels of no more than 
 seventy tons, and that the United States should 
 bind themselves not to ship any West India pro- 
 duct, cotton included, to any part of the world. 
 The first of these restrictions was cavilled at at 
 the time of the treaty, as tending, in effect, wholly 
 to destroy the trade ; but in the end the very re- 
 striction turned out to be a source of advantage. 
 Every New-England farmer on the coast became 
 master and owner of a vessel; he cultivated his 
 
112 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 farm in summer; and in winter, loaded with its 
 produce or that of the forest, sailed for the West 
 Indies. Thus the trade was carried on largely 
 and profitably, and became the nursery for a pe- 
 culiarly hardy race of seamen; those seamen who 
 afterward fought so well the naval battles of their 
 country. To the second restriction, it seems sin- 
 gular in our day that consent should have been 
 given by any American ; but at that day cotton 
 was not generally known to be an American sta- 
 ple, although a small quantity had made its ap- 
 pearance in the market of Charleston. Mr. Jay 
 also demanded and obtained the insertion of an 
 article authorizing American trade with the East 
 Indies, and a commerce perfectly free and recip- 
 rocal between the two nations themselves. Pro- 
 visions were also inserted in the treaty declaring 
 in what manner the two nations would construe 
 the law of nations bearing upon certain cases. 
 The articles respecting the West India trade and 
 the settlement of difficulties were to be perma- 
 nent, the rest of the treaty was to endure for twelve 
 years. 
 
 This treaty was signed on the 19th of Novem- 
 ber, 1794, and the terms secured tended greatly 
 to increase that reputation for talent that Mr. Jay 
 already possessed. Lord Grenville took an early 
 opportunity of conveying to Mr. Jay his opinion 
 of the sincere, open, candid, and honourable man- 
 
JOHN JAY. 113 
 
 ner in which he had conducted the negotiation; 
 and Mr. Jay, in a letter to the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, states, that the great and almost irrecon- 
 cilable difficulties had only yielded to the open- 
 ness and honesty of both parties, and their desire to 
 preserve peace. He also took occasion to commu- 
 nicate to James Monroe, the American minister at 
 Paris, the fact that the treaty was concluded ; that 
 it w^as in no respect at variance with the existing 
 treaty with France ; and that he would soon make 
 known to him, in confidence, its chief provisions. 
 Mr. Monroe wrote in answ^er, explaining the un- 
 easiness excited in France by the news of the 
 treaty, and observed that nothing but a copy of it 
 would satisfy that government. The recollection 
 of French interference in the treaty of peace was 
 too recent for a farther manifestation of it to ex- 
 cite any surprise in Jay's mind ; but he was re- 
 solved, as before, not to submit to it. He there- 
 fore replied to Mr. Monroe by saying that it was 
 altogether inconsistent with the honour and dig- 
 nity of the United States to make known to any 
 foreign power the conditions of a treaty, before 
 that treaty was generally published and ratified. 
 
 The delicate state of Mr. Jay's health induced 
 him to defer hie return to America until the spring. 
 
 Even before the conditions of Mr. Jay's treaty 
 were made known, the large French party in the 
 United States strongly objected to it, knowing, as 
 K2 
 
114 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 they well did, that an honourable treaty with Eng- 
 land would end all hopes of war with that coun- 
 try. They therefore successfully exerted them- 
 selves to raise an opposition, on the general 
 grounds that treaties with any monarchy were in- 
 compatible with republican institutions. 
 
 Such a treaty, they alleged, was unnecessary to 
 the United States, especially with a monarchy that 
 had always proved itself so inimical as England ; 
 they called upon the people by their gratitude for 
 the French aid, their abhorrence of English tyr- 
 anny ; they stigmatized Mr. Jay as a traitor to his 
 country, a British emissary bought with British 
 gold. Public meetings were called to express their 
 dissatisfaction with the terms of the treaty; a 
 party press fulminated its thunders against it ; tu- 
 multuous mobs assembled in the streets, threaten- 
 ing those who favoured it ; and so far did this fac- 
 tious and opposing spirit proceed, that a mob in 
 the City of New-York, that city which had been 
 always first to honour Mr. Jay, marched to his 
 residence and burned the treaty before his door. 
 Nothwithstanding these expressions of popular 
 opinion, the Senate advised the president to ratify 
 the treaty ; then were still stronger measures re- 
 sorted to ; then did the mob mora strongly strive 
 to turn from his course him on whose will alone 
 the conclusion of the treaty now rested ; but 
 Washington was not the man to be turned from a 
 
JOHN JAY. 115 
 
 deliberate conviction by senseless clamour; he 
 was not to be diverted from his course by the fear 
 of losing his hitherto unbounded popularity : he 
 persevered in the line of conduct that he had laid 
 down as most conducive to the welfare of his 
 country, and he signed and ratified the treaty. 
 Only one expedient was now left to those oppo- 
 sed to it ; this was, to persuade the House of Rep- 
 resentatives to refuse to pass the laws which were 
 required to give effect to a treaty that had re- 
 ceived such ratification as was sufficient under the 
 Constitution to make it the law of the land. A 
 motion was introduced, declaring it to be inexpe- 
 dient to pass such laws : the house was equally 
 divided on the question, and the casting vote of 
 the speaker was all that carried the appropria- 
 tion necessary for fulfilling the conditions of the 
 treaty. The house was thus preserved from an 
 act which would have been a gross breach of 
 national faith, and would have dishonoured that 
 legislative body, disgraced the country, and in- 
 flicted a direct censure on the pure and godlike 
 Washington. 
 
 The majority of the citizens of Jay's native state 
 did not partake of the feelings to which we have 
 referred, as was manifested by the result of the 
 election for governor ; but the opponents of the 
 treaty, if not the most numerous, w^ere the most 
 noisy, and, in addition, arrogated to themselves the 
 
116 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 office of being the sole expounders of the popular 
 will. It is somewhat mortifying to those who 
 maintain with truth and sincerity republican prin- 
 ciples, to see the ease with which noisy dema- 
 gogues can in some cases abuse the public ear. 
 Jay had been among the earliest movers of the 
 opposition to Great Britain ; had perilled himself 
 in the very van of the projectors of armed resist- 
 ance ; and would, in case of the success of the 
 British arms, have been a certain martyr in the 
 cause of freedom. In his negotiation with Spain, 
 and for the general peace, he had maintained the 
 honour of his country with success, when Con- 
 gress itself had been willing to sacrifice it to the 
 pleasure of an imperious ally. He had held the 
 hio-hest office which the confederation could be- 
 stow, and had yet willingly joined in the efforts for 
 forming the federal Constitution, by which he was 
 sure to fall into a subordinate position. Yet, in 
 spite of all these proofs of the purity and sincerity 
 of his patriotism, there were those found who 
 could venture to charge him with being purchased 
 by British gold, and, what was still more extraor- 
 dinary, others who could honestly believe the 
 charge. 
 
 The merits of Jay's treaty may be best under- 
 stood by comparing it with that which was nego- 
 tiated when the commercial provisions it had in- 
 cluded expired. The latter treaty was ratified 
 
JOHN JAY. 117 
 
 under the administration of Mr. Jefferson, who had 
 been the loudest of the declaimers against Mr. Jay, 
 and had even descended to personal abuse. The 
 negotiator was Mr. Monroe, who had interfered 
 from Paris with the mission of Jay. 
 
 In Mr. Monroe's treaty no indemnity was al- 
 lowed for the depredations of British cruisers on 
 American commerce. In Jay's a stipulation was 
 obtained for a joint commission, which awarded to 
 the merchants of the United States upward of teh 
 inillions of dollars. 
 
 By Jay's treaty the right of trading with the 
 British possessions in India was clogged with the 
 sole condition that the return cargo should be 
 landed in the United States ; Monroe admitted, in 
 addition, that the outward voyage should begin in 
 the United States. 
 
 Monroe surrendered the right of trading in 
 American vessels between Europe and the colonies 
 of all nations at war with Great Britain, and was 
 unable to obtain a renewal of the privilege of tra- 
 ding with the British provinces contiguous to the 
 United States, thus consenting to our exclusion 
 from the outlet of the lakes, the use of which 
 might have otherwise been claimed as a natural 
 and indefeasible right. 
 
 The mutual right, reserved by both governments 
 in Jay's treaty, to lay indisciiminating and alien 
 tonnage duties, operated wholly to the advantage 
 
118 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 of the United States ; the principle of reciprocity 
 introduced in Monroe's admitted, in its conse- 
 quence, British vessels to a participation in trade 
 wholly enjoyed before by Americans. 
 
 Monroe, indeed, succeeded in having provisions 
 excluded from the list of goods contraband of 
 war, but Jay had obtained the right of being paid 
 for them in case of their being intercepted. 
 
 Finally, under Jay's treaty, a mutual good un- 
 derstanding prevailed for ten years, in consequence 
 of the adjustment, with a single exception, of ev- 
 ery point in dispute; under Monroe's, barely two 
 years of quiet were enjoyed, and it became neces- 
 sary to resort to a series of retaliatory acts, which 
 finally terminated in w^ir. 
 
JOHN JAY. 119 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 Jay is elected Governor of JVew-York during his 
 Absence in Europe. — Appearance of the Yellow 
 Fever in the City of JYew-York. — Jay recom^ 
 mends a Day of Thanksgiving on its disappear' 
 ance. — Question in relation' to the Appointing 
 Power. — Change in CHminal Pwiishments. — 
 Law enforcing the Observance of the Sabbath. — 
 Jay is again elected Governor. — Unanimity of 
 Parties on the subject of Defence. — Passage of 
 the Abolition Law. — Jay^s Firmness in the Ex- 
 ecution of the Laws. — Legislature in o'pposition 
 to the Governor. — The Questio?i in relation to 
 the Appointing Power renewed. — Jay adjourns 
 the Council of Appointment. — Decision of this 
 Question and its consequences. — Jay is offered a 
 Reappointment as Chief-justice of the United 
 States. — He declines to be a Candidate for re- 
 election as Governor, and retires from Office. 
 
 LooD as were the expressions of disapprobation 
 ■which were uttered against the treaty made with 
 England by Jay, they did not proceed from a ma- 
 jority of the people of the State of New-York. 
 As a proof of the confidence which was reposed 
 in him, and the unabated esteem of even an in- 
 
120 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 creased number of electors, he found, on his re- 
 turn from Europe, that he had, in his absence, 
 been elected governor of his native state. 
 
 The election in which he had previously stood as 
 a candidate, and received a majority of votes, will 
 be remembered, as well as the manner in which 
 his election was defeated by a technical objection. 
 The mode in which this suppression of the popu- 
 lar will was brought about had excited feelings of 
 anger and disgust in the minds of those w^ho had 
 on that occasion supported Mr. Jay, and they de- 
 termined, as soon as possible legally, to elect him 
 to that office which he had been before called to 
 hold by a majority of the inhabitants. Justice to 
 Mr. Jay, as well as their own feelings, incited them 
 to this course, though prudence would have dic- 
 tated that it was unwise to elect one, the time of 
 whose return to his country was unknown, and 
 with whom the acceptance of the office was op- 
 tional when returned. But they relied on the 
 once expressed opinion of Mr. Jay of his readi- 
 ness to serve, and they were not disappointed ; he 
 accepted the appointment, and, on the 1st of July, 
 1795, took the prescribed oath. Jay was tlrus in- 
 stalled in an office that must to him have been 
 more agreeable than any other in the gift of the 
 people ; he was called by a large majority to gov- 
 ern that state, the independence of which he had 
 been a chief instrument in securing ; to administer 
 
JOHN JAY. 121 
 
 those laws and be guided by that Constitution 
 which he himself had framed. 
 
 Mr. Jay's first act as governor was the pubhsh- 
 ing of a proclamation directing the measures ne- 
 cessary to prevent the entrance of the yellow fever 
 into New-York. These measures unhappily pro- 
 ved of no effect. The city was desolated by this 
 scourge ; but, during its continuance, Mr. Jay, in- 
 fluenced by his sense of duty, remained in town. 
 When the pestilence departed, Mr. Jay issued an- 
 other proclamation, instituting a day of public 
 prayer and thanksgiving. Conscious that he was 
 not authorized by law to require the observance 
 of such a day, and knowing that all his actions 
 were commented upon by a strong opposing par- 
 ty, he in his proclamation stated that he merely 
 recommended the religious solemnity, and showed 
 that such a thanksgiving was required by public 
 gratitude. His motives were nevertheless assail- 
 ed ; and one portion of his proclamation, advising 
 prayers for the preservation of the life and useful- 
 ness of Washington, was commented upon as in- 
 sulting to those who did not acknowledge that use- 
 fulness. 
 
 On the 6th of January, 1796, Governor Jay 
 read his first message ; in it he declared how high- 
 ly he esteemed the confidence of his constituents in 
 electing him to such an office, an office the duties 
 of which he pledged himself to perform " with en- 
 L 
 
122 "* AMERICAN BIOGRAP.HY. 
 
 ergy, impartiality, and freedom." He recommend- 
 ed measures of internal improvement ; a reform 
 and alteration in the criminal laws ; and the for- 
 mation of establishments for the detaining and 
 punishment of criminals. The sole right of the 
 governor to nominate for office having been de- 
 nied, he advised the passage of a law defining his 
 power in that respect. 
 
 The two houses took measures for carrying into 
 effect all that had been recommended by Mr. Jay ; 
 thus proving that their confidence in him had suf- 
 fered no diminution on account of his negotiation 
 with England. The governor was soon called 
 upon to put in practice the opinion that he had 
 avowed, namely, that he would govern with, and 
 be governed by, impartiality. Governor Clinton 
 had held his station for eighteen years. Every 
 office in the gift of government was therefore 
 occupied by his political friends. Those who had 
 exerted themselves to procure the election of Jay, 
 thought, and, perhaps, not unreasonably, that " to 
 the victors belong the spoils." They desired some 
 reward for their services. They demanded that 
 power in the gift of the governor should be pre- 
 vented from being turned against himself; but 
 Mr. Jay steadily refused to turn from office on 
 political grounds alone; he inquired not, w^hat 
 were the incumbent's politics, but what was his 
 fitness for the office. 
 
JOHN JAY. 123 
 
 In the ensuing September General "Washington ■ 
 published his Farewell Address, in preparing 
 which he had taken the advice of Jay ; and in 
 November it became the duty of the governor to 
 call a special meeting of the Legislature for the 
 purpose of appointing electors of a president 
 While admonishing that body that this was their 
 most important business, and demanded " their 
 greatest care and circumspection," he at the same 
 time took occasion to hold up to admiration the 
 character and actions of the great man by whom 
 the^ office hud lately been filled. 
 
 On the 25th of November, 1797, the new state 
 prison was completed. A great change had been 
 made in the criminal law, by which sanguinary 
 punishments were almost abolished. The power 
 of pardoning was vested in the governor, and his 
 sense of duty and regard for the public good often 
 conflicted with his feelings in the exercise of this 
 right. He refused all applications for pardon 
 where he was convinced the sentence was just; 
 and it often required all his firmness to deny the 
 solicitations of the relatives and friends of the 
 criminals, and sometimes even those of the gov- 
 ernors of contiguous states. Some of these peti- 
 tions were based upon the respectability of the 
 connexions or parents of the criminals; but the 
 governor thought that the respectability of the pa- 
 rent was no reason for demanding lenity for the 
 child. 
 
124 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 During this year, a bill for the gradual abolition 
 of slavery was again agitated in the Legislature, 
 but that body adjourned without deciding upon it 
 in either way. 
 
 In this the last year of his term of office, those 
 opposed to Mr. Jay commenced such operations 
 as were necessary to prevent his re-election. This 
 was a matter of course to Mr. Jay, as he well 
 knew the strength of the party opposed to him ; 
 but he was not a httle surprised at learning that 
 his old friend Chancellor Livingston was nomina- 
 ted as the opposition candidate for governor. . 
 
 On the 2d of January, 1798, Governor Jay, as 
 was customary, opened the session with a speech, 
 in which, among other matters, he recommended 
 the passage of an act enjoining the better observ- 
 ance of the Sabbath. Such an act was supported 
 by the leaders of both parties, and carried by a 
 large majority. 
 
 It may now be questioned how far the views of 
 the governor and Legislature, in passing this law, 
 were correct. It is well known that there are 
 many sects of Christians of the most sincere, and, 
 in other respects, orthodox faith, who do not con- 
 sider the observance of the first day of the w^eek 
 as a Sabbath to be prescribed by the Scriptures. 
 Among these are not only the Catholics, but all 
 the Reformed Churches of the Continent of Eu- 
 rope ; and this opinion was held by many distin- 
 
JOHN JAY. 125 
 
 guished divines of the early age of the Reforma- 
 tion in England. The law has, in consequence, 
 been but partially enforced, and has had a ten- 
 dency to injure rather than aid the cause of reli- 
 gion. It may be justly considered as one of those 
 which tend to abridge liberty of conscience, un- 
 less limited in its .execution to the assurance that 
 the rehgious feelings of the majority shall not be 
 exposed to be shocked, by what they conscien- 
 tiously believe to be impiety. So far, also, as it 
 regards the labour of slaves and domestic animals, 
 it is founded as well in nature as in religion, and 
 is therefore not only proper, but almost imperative 
 upon a people which professes Christianity. 
 
 In April, 1798, Mr. Jay, in spite of a fonnida- 
 ble opposition, was re-elected governor, and soon 
 afterward assembled the Legislature, in order that 
 they might take measures for the defence of New- 
 York. The country was then threatened with a 
 French war; in anticipation of which, Washington 
 had been again called upon to fill the office of 
 commander-in-chief. Mr. Jay opened this ses- 
 sion with a speech, in which he declared how ne- 
 cessary it was to provide for the security and 
 dignity of the United States, and exposed the in- 
 sults that his country had received at the hands of 
 the French. The governor's* speech met with ap- 
 probation in the Legislature, and all the measures 
 recommended or advised by him as necessary 
 L2 
 
126 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 were promptly and unanimously acted upon. A 
 large sum of money was placed at the disposal of 
 the governor, to be expended in the purchase of 
 arms and the erection of fortresses. Internal dis- 
 sensions were forgotten through fear of external 
 danger ; and even the opposing party admired the 
 spirit and promptness of the governor. 
 
 The Legislature adjourned immediately after 
 the passage of the acts recommended in the gov- 
 ernor's speech, and held their usual session in Jan* 
 uary. But one act, bearing strongly on the feel- 
 ings of the governor or the prosperity of the state, 
 was passed. This law was that providing for 
 the gradual abolition of slavery, which was well 
 known to be one in which the governor was deep- 
 ly interested; he had indeed declared, long before, 
 that, were he a member of the Legislature, he 
 would not rest until such a law were passed or 
 his term of service was ended; three times al- 
 ready had this question been agitated ; it was now 
 brought up for the fourth time and passed. The 
 opinions of the governor on this subject were 
 founded on sound views of policy. He felt the 
 necessity of putting an end to slavery, and, ac- 
 cording to his views, its aboHtion was demand- 
 ed, not only for the prosperity, but even the secu- 
 rity of his native state. Feeling deeply as he did, 
 he was no advocate for rash or sudden measures; 
 he was no wisher for immediate and universal 
 
JOHN JAY. 127 
 
 abolition. He saw the danger of freeing sud- 
 denly a population uneducated and long smarting 
 under injury ; he therefore sought no more than a 
 gradual emancipation; he desired slave children 
 to be educated for freedom, and, while receiving 
 that education, to be assured that at one day they 
 would be called upon by the laws to use and en- 
 joy it as freemen. Such were the principles im- 
 bodied in the bill referred to, under the action of 
 which the State of New-York has been freed 
 from the danger of a servile rebellion, and its cit- 
 izens from the listlessness and inactivity which of- 
 ten mark those owning a slave population. 
 
 Mr. Jay was conscientiously strict in providing 
 for the prompt action of the laws, and twice call- 
 ed upon the military to overawe a force resisting 
 the execution of justice. 
 
 Public affairs were now inclining more to peace. 
 The treaty concluded by Mr. Jay had gone into 
 operation. Its good effects had been seen. War 
 with England was for the time impossible, and 
 the efforts of the party which had urged that 
 measure were now limited to the maintenance of 
 peace with France. In this state of affairs Mr. 
 Jay looked forward with pleasure to the time, now 
 close at hand, when he would be able, without 
 injustice to his supporters, to retire from public 
 life ; this he determined to do as soon as his pres- 
 ent term of office expired, and therefore com- 
 
128 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 menced the erection of a building suitable for his 
 habitation on his farm at Bedford. 
 
 The meeting of the New- York Legislature in 
 January, 1800, afforded to the governor a fit op- 
 portunity for descanting upon the character and 
 services of Washington, who was then but lately 
 dead. This honourable tribute was becoming to 
 Mr. Jay, for he could speak of the worth of the 
 departed warrior and statesman, actuated not by 
 public gratitude alone, or the common bond of pa- 
 triotism ; for he could also bear testimony, from ex- 
 perience, to the strength of his friendship and to 
 his many virtues in private life. The governor 
 reminded the Legislature of the unvarying virtue 
 of him who was gone, and recommended to them, 
 as the best tribute to his memory, the performance 
 of such actions, the enactment of such laws, as 
 would have been approved of by him when liv- 
 ing. These and other opinions of the governor 
 were respectfully listened to and concurred in by 
 the Legislature, which was yet, as always hereto- 
 fore during Mr. Jay's governorship, a body with 
 a strong federal majority. It was, however, its 
 last session while so constituted, for the principles 
 maintained by the federal party were on the de- 
 cline. The conduct of Mr. Adams, then presi- 
 dent, had caused much dissatisfaction, and many 
 joined the ranks of the opposite party. In No- 
 vember, 1800, the Legislature again assembled. 
 
JOHN JAY. 129 
 
 and the governor was opposed by a majority in 
 that body ; he therefore, in his speech, confined 
 himself to general and less important topics ; and 
 the Legislature, although from his prudence they 
 could not treat him with disrespect, responded 
 coldly and inanimately to his words. 
 
 He was about this time waited upon by a com- 
 mittee who desired him again to become a candi- 
 date for the office of governor: he refused this 
 offer, and soon afterward declined to fill the sta- 
 tion of chief-justice of the United States, to which 
 he had been again appointed. The letter advi- 
 sing him of the latter office was from Mr. Adams, 
 then president, who strongly urged him to accept 
 a post for which he was so well qualified, and 
 the tenure of which did not depend on party su- 
 premacy. But Mr. Jay's resolutions of retirement 
 were based upon conviction, and he refused to 
 serve, on the grounds that retirement was more 
 agreeable to himself, and that service from him to 
 his country was no longer a duty. 
 
 In February the governor had a difficulty with 
 the Legislature, caused by a difference in their 
 construction of that part of the Constitution which 
 referred to the power of appointment. On Mr. 
 Jay's first entering upon office, he had urged upon 
 the Legislature the necessity of so defining in 
 whom the power of nomination lay that there 
 could be but one construction of the law. This 
 
130 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 request the Legislature had not complied with; 
 and as hitherto the governor and that body had 
 been politically one, no bad effects had resulted 
 from this negligence. Now, however, the Legis- 
 lature and the governor were opposing parties; 
 the former had just been elected, and were the 
 first fruits of a political revolution : those who had 
 contributed to the change sought for their reward, 
 which could not be gained as long as the govern- 
 or nominated to office. The council of appoint- 
 ment therefore rejected all who were proposed 
 by him, and finally, taking the matter into their 
 own hands, nominated for themselves. To this 
 dictation they supposed the governor would submit, 
 merely entering his protest on the minutes, as had 
 been done before ; but they acted upon a mista- 
 ken opinion of his character. He took the re- 
 sponsibility upon himself, and adjourned the coun- 
 cil, which could not meet unless he called them 
 together ; and although the civil offices of eleven 
 counties were then vacant, he resolved to abide by 
 his own construction of the Constitution, and thus 
 keep his oath of office requiring him to maintain 
 its provisions. Nevertheless, to show that he was 
 not actuated by mere party motives, he took meas- 
 ures for settling the controversy as soon as possible, 
 and sent a message to the Legislature, requesting 
 them to decide the question, declaring his readi- 
 ness to abide by that decision when legally made. 
 
JOHN JAY. 131 
 
 The Senate declared their wilUngness to decide the 
 measure, but the Assembly resolved that it was 
 beyond their power to interfere in the matter, ho- 
 ping, by thus keeping the subject in abeyance, to 
 render the load of responsibility too heavy for the 
 governor to bear. Other measures were also taken 
 to intimidate him, but without success ; and no ap- 
 pointments w^ere made during the remainder of his 
 term. It will be interesting to trace the course 
 that the affair afterward took, bearing out, as it 
 does, the justice of Mr. Jay's views on the sub- 
 ject. When another governor was elected, the 
 Legislature, finding that the responsibility in reali- 
 ty rested upon themselves, called a Convention, 
 which revised this part of the Constitution, and 
 vested the power of appointment entirely in the 
 council ; by this measure the governor was depri- 
 ved of every power except that of the mere exe- 
 cution of the laws. The tenure of office, depend- 
 ing upon the w^ill of a constantly changing body, 
 became as fickle as the wall of that body ; and we 
 sometimes find the same office filled by three dif- 
 ferent occupants in the com^se of a single year. 
 At the revision of the Constitution in 1821, this 
 defect was perceived, and the power of nomina- 
 tion was secured wholly to the governor, in whom 
 Mr. Jay had always insisted that it ought to rest. 
 This was the last public political decision of Mr. 
 Jay On the expiration of the term of his office, 
 
132 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 he carried into effect his long-cherished plan of 
 retirement to his farm at Bedford, and we thus be- 
 hold the character that he had so long played, of 
 the active politician, the upright judge, the skil- 
 ful negotiator, and the prompt and prudent gov- 
 ernor, laid aside at once and for ever. 
 
JOHN JAY. 133 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Jay*s mode of Life in his Retirement at Bedford. 
 — Loss of his Wife. — His Independence of 
 Character. — His Exertions in the cause of Ah- 
 olition. — He is chosen an Officer of the Bible 
 Society. — His Opinion on the Missouri Question. 
 — He is struck hy the Palsy. — His Death. — 
 His Character further developed. 
 
 The retirement now entered into by Mr. Jay 
 was not of such a character as that which is 
 forced upon the disappointed poUtician or the dis- 
 graced minister. His retreat was harassed by no 
 feehngs of political disappointment, his conscience 
 disquieted by no recollections of ill-devoted talents, 
 of principles prostrated to selfish and party purpo- 
 ses, or of power sought for and secured for the ben- 
 efit of a faction. He could dwell with pleasure 
 upon the recollection of energies well devoted, of 
 talent well applied. In his letters to his friends, 
 he states that it was sufficient occupation for him 
 to muse upon the past, to prepare for eternity. 
 He now conscientiously devoted himself to the du- 
 ties of a private life j he improved his paternal 
 acres ; he rebuilt the mansion of his fathers ; he 
 was kind to his dependants, useful to his equals.] 
 M 
 
134 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 He busied himself with all the little interesting 
 occupations of a country life ; he rode round his 
 fields ; he cultivated his farm ; he interested him- 
 self in county business ; he was a promoter of, a 
 member of societies for the diffusion of knowledge 
 and religion, and instructed his relations and ser- 
 vants in those Christian principles which had al- 
 ways been the guides of his own course. 
 
 The manner of his life was simple and regular. 
 He rose with or before the sun, read prayers to his 
 family, breakfasted, and then spent the greater 
 portion of the day in the open air, often on horse- 
 back. In the evening he retired early, after hav- 
 ing again led the worship of his family. His re- 
 tirement was seldom broken in upon, and he 
 regarded the political dissensions of the day with 
 the philosophic gaze of a mere spectator, not with 
 the eager look of the interested advocate of prin- 
 ciples that he had formerly brought forward and 
 defended. The first and greatest affliction in his 
 retirement w^as caused by the death of his v^^fe ; 
 she whom he had tenderly loved, and who had 
 been his partner, not only in the every-day events 
 of life, but who had accompanied and cheered him 
 in his political missions, performing the duties of 
 a secretary and most confidential assistant. He 
 bore the loss with a resignation becoming one pos- 
 sessing his Christian principles, and pressed upon 
 his children the duty of bearing their bereavement 
 
JOHN JAY. 135 
 
 with a similar confidence in the justice of their 
 Creator's decrees. Soon after this event we find 
 Mr. Jay exerting himself to found an Episcopalian 
 church near his dwelling. The church was built, 
 and a large portion of the salary of the minister 
 was contributed by Mr. Jay while he lived, and 
 he secured an annuity to serve the same purpose 
 after his death. Occasional visits to his children 
 at Albany and New- York diversified his life at 
 this time ; but, soon afterward, circumstances per- 
 mitted him to enjoy more of their society, and 
 his family was enlarged by the addition of grand- 
 children. When war commenced with England, 
 he, at the request of some of his old friends, gave 
 his opinions on that subject in letters to them ; and 
 we find him at one time so far drawn from retire- 
 ment as to busy himself in the election of sena- 
 tors. His influence was supposed in a great meas- 
 ure to have secured the election of two out of 
 three in the district in which he then lived ; to the 
 third he refused his support, believing him un- 
 worthy of it, because guilty of tergiversation. He 
 was severely arraigned for this disobedience to 
 party discipline, but defended himself with success. 
 The fearless independence which he manifested 
 in this last political act of his life was no more 
 than a continuation of the principle which had 
 governed his actions both in a private and public 
 capacity from the earhest exercise of his reason. 
 
136 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 While still a boy, we have seen him resisting the 
 authority of the faculty of the college in which he 
 was educated, not from a youthful inclination to 
 turbulence, but on a point in which his conscience 
 was concerned. 
 
 In the opening scenes of the Revolution, he was 
 fully aware of the penalty which would fall, in 
 case of failure, upon the leaders of what the Brit- 
 ish government called a rebellion, yet he placed 
 himself foremost in the discussions, and was speed- 
 ily called by his compeers to hold the highest 
 place. In his mission to Spain he manifested the 
 same fearlessness and independence, disregarding 
 his instructions from Congress when he found that, 
 by obeying them, he would waive advantages 
 which the course of the government of that nation 
 had secured to the United States. The negotia- 
 tion of the treaty of Paris is a still more marked 
 instance of this fearless independence of charac- 
 ter. He saw, or thought he saw, that the French 
 government desired to retain the United States as 
 a vassal nation ; and, although unsupported for a 
 time by his colleague, he boldly pursued the 
 course his sense of right and patriotism dictated. 
 It must not be forgotten that this colleague was 
 Franklin, a man who at no remote period had 
 stood first in the affections of the American peo- 
 ple, who still was second only to Washington in 
 their love, and who, in their esteem for his talents 
 
JOHN JAY. 137 
 
 and services, did not fall behind that gi'eat public 
 benefactor. The communication which he opened, 
 "without the knowledge of that distinguished man, 
 with the British ministry, is one of the boldest acts 
 in the history of diplomacy, and one, the failure 
 of which, he well knew, must have, at least for a 
 time, involved him in disgrace ; yet he saw that 
 its success would prevent all risk of his country 
 becoming only nominally independent, and he 
 was willing to become a sacrifice in case it should 
 fail. His success justified his conduct ; but, even 
 in case of failure, he would have retained the proud 
 conviction of the integrity of his motives. It is 
 only one who can find in such convictions a rec- 
 ompense for loss of popularity and pohtical con- 
 sequence who can thus nobly dare. 
 
 When, as chief-justice, he decided that a state 
 claiming to be sovereign must appear and answer 
 at his tribunal, he knew that he was re-awakening 
 the whole fuiy of the anti-federal contest, and the 
 popularity he then enjoyed with the whole nation 
 would be thenceforth confined to the hmits of a 
 party ; yet did he not hesitate. What he knew 
 to be the sense of the Constitution, he was pre- 
 pared to carry into effect, regardless of personal 
 consequences. 
 
 To accept a mission to Great Britain at the mo* 
 ment he did, called for the exercise of the same 
 quality. The feeling of sympathy for the strug" 
 M2 
 
138 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 gles of revolutionary France was naturally strong 
 in all American breasts until her cause was sullied 
 by so many criminal excesses. Even these had 
 not extinguished the feeling altogether ; and, when 
 combined with a hatred of Great Britain, arising 
 out of the recent recollection of hostilities, it might 
 possibly have been too powerful to be controlled. 
 Jay could not have been a stranger to the former 
 influence. He, too, had perilled his life, fortune, 
 and honour in the contest for freedom. Neither 
 could the latter have been without its effect, for he 
 had for seven years been an exile from the home 
 of his fathers, while his paternal estate was wast- 
 ed by a hostile force. But he saw in adherence 
 to the cause of France a risk of the destruction of 
 the institutions which his country had derived 
 from the Saxon race, and which had been reno- 
 vated, not destroyed, by the assertion of independ- 
 ence; he saw in prospective a long and intermina- 
 ble war for a quarrel not her own, in which her 
 commerce would have been swept from every sea, 
 and her reviving industry checked perhaps for 
 ever. His judgment therefore overcame his feel- 
 ings, and he gave his official influence as judge to 
 the support of the proclamation of neutrality. 
 
 His bold resistance to what he considered an 
 encroachment on the rights of his office as gov- 
 ernor by the Council of Appointment has already 
 been referred to; he did not hesitate to leave 
 
JOHN JAY. 139 
 
 many counties of the state without officers, in pref- 
 erence to submitting to what he considered a 
 usurpation of his prerogatives. In another person 
 this might have been considered, what his oppo- 
 nents represented it at the time, as a high-handed 
 measure for the support of the party to which he 
 belonged. That such was not the case he had an 
 opportunity of proving. A year before the close 
 of his second term of service as governor, the elec- 
 tion of president was to be held, and parties were 
 almost equally balanced. The existing law pro- 
 vided that the electors of president should be cho- 
 sen in the State of New-York by the Legislature. 
 It became probable that the vote of New-York 
 would turn the scale, and give the office of presi- 
 dent to the candidate for whom the vote of its 
 electoral college should be cast. It was also ren- 
 dered certain, by the progress of events, that this 
 vote would be against the candidate of the party 
 with which Jay was associated. A remedy, how- 
 ever, remained. In the existing Legislature, the 
 federal party still held a majority; and, although it 
 had held its ordinary sessions, some months re- 
 mained before the term of service of the new 
 House of Assembly and the senators elected in ro- 
 tation should commence. It was proposed by no 
 mean authority that the old Legislature should be 
 reconvened by the governor, for the object of 
 changing the mode of choosing presidential elec- 
 
140 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 tors. Had this been done, it is now certain, as it 
 was then highly probable, that the election of 
 Mr. Jefferson would have been defeated, and the 
 federal party retained in power. To Governor 
 Jay a double temptation existed for pursuing this 
 course. He could have defeated a party which 
 had not only been in constant opposition to that 
 of whose principles his conscience approved, and 
 might also have had an opportunity of exercising 
 a measure of retaliation for the act by which his 
 election had been defeated in the first instance, 
 and under the same cover of strict compliance 
 with legal forms. In the present generation of 
 politicians, the virtue which could have resisted 
 that double temptation may seem almost incredi- 
 ble. 
 
 We have adverted on more than one occasion 
 to the exertions of Jay in the cause of abolition. 
 Enough has perhaps been said to show the position 
 he maintained in relation to this question. Yet so 
 much excitement has recently prevailed on this sub- 
 ject, that his course, perhaps, calls for a full ex- 
 planation. While Jay, as has been stated, was fa- 
 vourable to, and instrumental in, obtaining a law 
 for gradual emancipation in the State of New- 
 York, it is obvious that he was not prepared to go 
 the lengths of the modern abolitionists. He did 
 not deny the abstract right of holding slaves, or 
 stigmatize those who did so as offenders against 
 
JOHN JAY. 141 
 
 the codes of morals and religion ; for he made use 
 of the services of slaves, both received by inheri- 
 tance and obtained by purchase. With a sound 
 view of the provisions of the Constitution and of 
 the rights of the states, his efforts at emancipation 
 were limited to the state in which he lived ; and 
 his very position as an owner of slaves and a sharer 
 in the probable loss by abolition, rendered his ef- 
 forts more disinterested. If he forbore to apply 
 to the general government for the exertion of au- 
 thority which neither by grant nor by implication 
 does it possess, he equally avoided any attempt at 
 agitation in those states where the condition of so- 
 ciety had not prepared them for the measure. His 
 views, in fine, were those of a sound statesman 
 and enlightened politician, not those of a fanatic 
 and disorganizes 
 
 Mr. Jay became a member of several religious 
 societies ; he was elected president of the West 
 Chester Bible Society, vice-president of the Amer- 
 ican Bible Society when formed, and was, on the 
 death of its president, requested to fill that office. 
 When informed that its functions were such as 
 could be conscientiously performed by him with- 
 out interfering with his private duties or hastening 
 to its end an already declining constitution, he ac- 
 cepted the office, and continued for several years 
 to prepare the address to the society delivered 
 at its annual anniversaries. He was once again 
 
142 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 called to give an opinion upon a political subject. 
 When the present State of Missouri was about be- 
 ing admitted into the Union, a debate arose in 
 Congress upon the propriety of tolerating slavery- 
 there, and Mr. Jay was applied to to state whether 
 that body had the power of deciding upon the 
 subject. He wrote to the committee who applied 
 to him, saying, that he construed one clause of 
 the Constitution as giving this power to Congress, 
 and that they would be justified in laying down 
 laws upon the subject of slavery to be observed 
 by any of the new states ; he also regretted that 
 ill health would prevent him from co-operating 
 actively with those who were to take measures 
 to exclude slavery from the new state. On this 
 point his opinion received the sanction of other 
 distinguished jurists, and the question became, in 
 fact, one of expediency alone. 
 
 In the year 1827 Mr. Jay was visited by a dan- 
 gerous disease, during which he was given over by 
 his physicians. The strength of his constitution, 
 undiminished by early excesses, triumphed over 
 the malady, and for two years longer his friends 
 were permitted to enjoy the pleasure of his pres- 
 ence, the profit of his living example. 
 
 On the 14th of May, 1829, he was seized by 
 the palsy while in bed, to which he had retired in 
 the enjoyment of his customary health ; his pow- 
 ers of speech were so much affected as to render 
 
JOHN JAY. 143 
 
 it almost impossible for him to converse ; but, 
 from the few sentences that he uttered, it was easy 
 for his friends to perceive that his mind was not 
 impaired. 
 
 Medicine afforded him no relief; and on the 
 17th of the same month he expired, leaving be- 
 hind him such a reputation both for public and 
 private character as has been attained by but few. 
 
 In private life he seems to have been a perfect 
 model ; an obedient son, an affectionate husband, 
 and a kind though firm parent. Many acts of 
 unostentatious charity that he had performed were 
 brought to liorht at his death. His tender sohci- 
 tude for his aged parents, and his blind brother and 
 sister, afford many proofs of the goodness of his 
 heart. To sum up in one word all these perfec- 
 tions, he was a Christian in the fullest sense of 
 the term ; his faith pointed out to him his course, 
 was the solace of his after years, the hope that 
 made happy his deathbed. He did not preserve 
 his religion, as many do, like a precious jewel, to 
 be generally kept concealed, and only brought to 
 light on particular occasions ; but in every act of 
 his life, however unimportant, his course seems to 
 have been actuated, first by the desire of pleasing 
 his Maker, and next by the wish to benefit his 
 country. 
 
LIFE 
 
 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 JAMES RENWICK, LL.D. 
 
 N 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The materials for a biography of Hamilton are 
 copious. The early part of his life has been re- 
 corded in the first volume of a memoir drawn up 
 by his son John C. Hamilton, Esq., and to the il- 
 lustration of the virtues and talents of his father 
 he has devoted the pious labour of several years. 
 The public, however, is still anxiously waiting the 
 appearance of the remaining volumes ; and if by 
 his consent the published volume has been freely 
 used in the compilation of the present sketch, it is 
 probably less perfect than it would have been, had 
 the unpublished volumes been within reach. 
 
 In the absence of this invaluable material, much 
 aid has been obtained from him in pointing out 
 the sources whence information might be derived ; 
 and thus, although this short sketch can in no 
 ■way forestal the new matter which will form so 
 large a portion of the expected volumes, it may, 
 notwithstanding, serve to awaken curiosity in re- 
 spect to the character and services of one, who, 
 among the heroes and patriots of the Revolution, 
 will probably be placed by posterity in a rank 
 second to Washington alone. 
 
 Columbia College, Ist August, 1840. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birth and Parentage of Alexander Hamilton. — He 
 enters a Counting-house in St. Croix. — He -pro- 
 ceeds to JYew-York for his Education, and en- 
 ters King^s College. — His Distinction as a Stu- 
 dent, and as a Writer of Political Papers. — He 
 makes his appearance as a Speaker in Popular 
 Jlssemhlies. — His Success as an Orator. — He 
 studies Military Tactics, and receives a Com- 
 mission in the JYew-York Line. — His Services 
 in the Campaign of 1776. — He accepts the ap- 
 pointment of Aid-de-camp to Washington. 
 
 Among the names of those who have contribu- 
 ted to the prosperity of the United States of Amer- 
 ica, that of Alexander Hamilton occupies no hum- 
 ble rank. We shall find him distinguished not 
 only as a zealous and useful public servant during 
 the important administration of which Washing- 
 ton was the head, but as an actor in the earlier 
 scenes of the Revolution, as an officer of the high- 
 est merit during the war by which it was effected, 
 and as the master spirit in the deliberations which 
 N2' 
 
150 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 led to the restoration of order and good govern- 
 ment under the existing Constitution of the feder- 
 al government. 
 
 No person of all our worthies has been more 
 the object of unbounded praise on the one hand, 
 and unmerited obloquy on the other, than Ham- 
 ilton. Of one of the two great parties into which 
 the people were for many years divided, he was 
 the idol, and of their principles the personification 
 and imbodied spirit. By the other he has been 
 stigmatized as a monarchist and the advocate of 
 an aristocracy. 
 
 Even at the present distant period, it is hardly 
 possible to treat of his public services and official 
 acts without opening anew the wounds of political 
 warfare. Still the epoch has arrived when the 
 character of Hamilton may be duly appreciated ; 
 when his military and civic services may receive 
 their due meed of praise, not from the rehcs of a 
 broken party, but from the unbiased verdict of 
 his fellow-citizens. 
 
 Perfect unanimity, even in respect to remote 
 events, is not, indeed, to be expected in a popular 
 government ; but the American people, as a mass, 
 thinks and reasons, and is now in that state of 
 mind in which a calm and deliberate opinion may 
 be formed. Our countrymen, although often hur- 
 ried by their passions into acts that a cooler re- 
 flection disapproves; although fickle in their af- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 151 
 
 fectlons to the Ihing, whom they alternately exalt 
 above and depress beneath their true level, still 
 they have rarely failed to awaken to a just sense 
 of their duties and interest, and to render finally to 
 the departed patriot the praise to which his acts, 
 while living, ought to have entitled him. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton was born in the Island of 
 Nevis, then, as now, a possession of Great Britain, 
 on the 11th of January, 1757. Pride in the high 
 distinction he attained has led the European 
 branches of the princely family of that name to 
 claim kindred w^ith him, and prove him a lineal 
 descendant of that race which little more than a 
 century since stood next to the Stuarts in their 
 clahn to the British throne. His father was the 
 fourth son of Alexander Hamilton, of the Grange, 
 in Ayrshire, who settled in the AVest Indies as a 
 merchant. In this pursuit he was unfortunate, 
 and derived, in his declining years, his means of 
 support from the remittances of his distinguished 
 son. His mother was descended from a French 
 Huguenot family. Alexander was the youngest 
 child of this marriage. He thus w^as not a native 
 of the present United States; still the island of his 
 birth had, perhaps, from its position as a colony, 
 more of fellow-feeling for a great portion of our 
 confederation than existed, at the time the Revo- 
 lution broke out, between the eastern and south- 
 ern states. Transplanted to our soil at an early 
 
152 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 period of his life, he soon entered, with all the 
 feeling of a native, into its wrongs and sufferings. 
 A similar spirit pervaded all the insular colonies 
 of Great Britain, but their exposed condition made 
 them cautious in expressing it. Long years of es- 
 trangement may have broken the ties that once 
 existed between the British colonies in the West 
 Indies and those which now constitute the United 
 States; but there was a time when they would 
 willingly have made common cause with us, air- 
 symptoms of a similar spirit have recently mani- 
 fested themselves. 
 
 Hamilton, at an early age, was compelled, by 
 the pecuniary embarrassments of his father, to seek 
 his own means of support. For this purpose he 
 applied himself to commerce, and, entering the 
 counting-house of an eminent merchant in St. 
 Croix, manifested such talent and capacity as to 
 entitle him to be intrusted with the whole man- 
 agement of the affairs of his principal during a 
 necessary absence. At the time when made the 
 repository of so important a trust, he numbered 
 only fourteen years. Mercantile affairs were not, 
 however, to his taste ; he sighed for the means of 
 obtaining the advantages of education, and for a 
 sphere of activity more extensive than could be 
 afforded within the narrow circuit of a sugar isl- 
 and. 
 
 An occasional literary essay showed his friends 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 153 
 
 his capabilities, and he was furnished, from the 
 separate estate of his mother, Avith the means of 
 prosecuting classical studies in the Continental 
 colonies, where a wise policy had provided more 
 extensive facilities of education than existed in 
 the West Indies. We cannot, however, but con- 
 sider his early introduction to the business of a 
 counting-house as having exerted a favourable 
 influence upon his subsequent career. The habits 
 of order and regularity in a well-conducted com- 
 mercial establishment are never forgotten, and are 
 applicable to every possible pursuit. Nor is the 
 exercise of a mercantile correspondence without 
 its value in a literary point of view. To those 
 with little previous education, or who have not 
 an opportunity of improving themselves afterward, 
 this exercise may communicate no elegance of 
 style; but where the use of language has once 
 been attained, the compression of thought and 
 conciseness of expression on which merchants 
 pride themselves, give a terseness and precision of 
 diction which those educated in any other profes- 
 sion can rarely equal. 
 
 Hamilton arrived in New-York at a most inter- 
 esting epoch. A spirit of resistance to the acts of 
 the Parhament of Great Britain, which were justly 
 considered as not only contrary to natural rights, 
 but even to the admitted privileges of Britons, was 
 fast rising to that height at which the colonists 
 
154 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 finally threw off, not only the obnoxious usurpa- 
 tions of the Legislature, but even their own char- 
 acter of subjects to a king. 
 
 The dispute was indeed of no recent origin. 
 Former kings had reproved their parliaments for 
 interfering with the affairs of the colonies, and a 
 colonial jury had on one occasion pronounced a 
 verdict of guilty on a charge of treason against a 
 distinguished individual who had sought redress 
 from the houses of peers and commons of Eng- 
 land for real or fancied wrongs committed by the 
 government of his native colony. But the parlia- 
 ment had fallen to the state of a convenient en- 
 gine of royal power, and the monarch was willing 
 to take advantage of its subserviency to give legal 
 form to his measures of taxation. The struggle 
 therefore began, strange as it may now seem, on 
 the part of the colonists, in an appeal to the pre- 
 rogative of the crown against the acts of a legis- 
 lature. 
 
 Coming last from an island not in the posses- 
 sion of England, Hamilton was not at first pre- 
 pared to enter into all the feelings of the people 
 among whom he was about to take up his perma- 
 nent residence. He, however, speedily applied 
 himself to the study of the controversy, and was 
 not slow in admitting, in its fullest extent, the jus- 
 tice of the motives of the coarse of the provin- 
 cials. From that moment he gave to its support 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 155 
 
 the whole powers of his precocious and ardent 
 mindj and by continual reflection and meditation 
 prepared himself for the post he was destined to 
 take in the forensic and literary struggles which 
 preceded an appeal to the sword. The deep 
 thought he was known to have devoted to the 
 controversies between the parent country and the 
 colonies led to his being urged to address a pub- 
 lic meeting of the citizens of New- York. This 
 was his first appearance as a public speaker, and 
 was made under many disadvantages. His real 
 youth, and still more the appearance of it, grow- 
 ing out of his slender figure and small stature, 
 must have given him the appearance of a boy pre- 
 suming to mingle in the councils of men. Such 
 premature attempts are rarely successful, but this 
 was not the case in the present instance. He is 
 reported at first to have hesitated and faltered ; 
 but, speedily recovering himself, poured out a 
 burst of impassioned eloquence, depicting the long- 
 continued oppression of the mother country, and, 
 insisting on the duty of resistance, pointed out the 
 certainty of success. In figurative style, he rep- 
 resented " the waves of rebellion sparkling with 
 fire, and washing back on the shores of England 
 the wrecks of her power, her wealth, and her glo- 
 ry." A breathless silence attended the delivery 
 of his speech, which was succeeded by loud bursts 
 
156 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 of applause, accompanied by wonder at the extra- 
 ordinary eloquence of so young a person. 
 
 About this epoch he became a frequent writer 
 in the columns of one of the New-York newspa- 
 pers, and was actually drawn into direct collision 
 with his preceptor. Dr. Cooper, the president of 
 the college in which Hamilton was pursuing his 
 studies. This reverend gentleman, educated in 
 the tenets of the High Church and in the politics 
 of the Tories at the University of Oxford, was dis- 
 tinguished, not only for his success as a teacher, 
 but for his abihties as a writer, and his delicate 
 and pungent wit. It is sufficient praise for Ham- 
 ilton to say, that in this keen encounter he did 
 not sustain a defeat. i 
 
 Other and important publications were contrib- 
 uted by him to the cause of freedom; but we 
 should do injustice to them were we to attempt an 
 abridgment. They had no httle influence in pre- 
 paring the public mind for the arduous struggle 
 which was about to ensue. 
 
 It is to the honour of Hamilton, that, while he 
 exerted himself thus strenuously in disseminating 
 the doctrines of the Revolution, he set his face 
 against every species of disorder and violence. 
 Popular commotions became frequent; and per- 
 sons, obnoxious either from their principles or their 
 infractions of the non-importation agreement, were 
 sought and maltreated by mobs. Among these 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 157 
 
 was Dr. Cooper, at the same time the preceptor 
 and literary antagonist of Hamilton. His escape 
 from the hands of an enraged assemblage is main- 
 ly to be attributed to the delay afforded by Ham- 
 ilton's eloquent address to them, during which an- 
 other student roused the president from his bed, 
 and conveyed him, almost in a state of nudity, to 
 a recess beneath the gravel cliffs which then bor- 
 dered the Hudson in the rear of the college. 
 
 On another occasion he interposed his eloquence 
 to disperse a tumultuous assemblage known as 
 Travis's mob, which menaced the life of an ob- 
 noxious individual. 
 
 When the press of Rivington, the Tory printer, 
 was destroyed by a party of men from Connecti- 
 cut, Hamilton again endeavoured to repress the 
 imlawful act, but unsuccessfully. 
 
 When an appeal to arms appeared to be inevi- 
 table, Hamilton, with an ardour equal to that he 
 had shown in argument, applied himself to the 
 study of military tactics. In particular, he paid 
 the greatest attention to the branch of artillery. 
 He had previously become a member of a company 
 of volunteers, where he had made himself thor- 
 oughly acquainted with the infantry drill ; he now 
 applied himself to the study in books of the high- 
 er branches of the profession, and, at the same 
 time, sought instruction in gunnery from a veteran 
 bombardier. His collegiate studies were brought 
 O 
 
158 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 in aid of his military aspirations ; and when the 
 Convention of New- York determined to form a 
 military establishment, Hamilton, in spite of his 
 youth and still more juvenile appearance, was, af- 
 ter a strict examination, appointed captain of the 
 Provincial Company of Artillery. To raise this 
 company and equip the recruits, he expended the 
 last remittance which he received from St. Croix. 
 
 In command of this company he took a part in 
 the disastrous battle of Long Island, and covered 
 the retreat across the East River; distinguished 
 himself at the battle of White Plains ; and again 
 protected the passage of the army over the Rari- 
 tan, where, by the judicious position of his field- 
 pieces, he retarded the progress of the pursuing 
 enemy until night came on. In the brilliant en- 
 terprises of Trenton and Princeton he and his com- 
 pany bore a distinguished part, and entered winter- 
 quarters at Morristown with numbers diminished 
 to one fourth of the original establishment ; a dim- 
 inution arising wholly from the casualties of the 
 service. In the mean time, the main army had 
 fallen away, partly by the loss of the garrison of 
 Fort Washington, and by the slain of Long Island 
 and White Plains, but still more from desertions, 
 and the refusal of those whose term of service had 
 expired to re-enlist, to less than a tenth of the 
 numbers with which it had entered the campaign. 
 
 At Morristown Hamilton accepted from Wash- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 159 
 
 ington ihe. appointment of aid to the commander- 
 in-chief; and here his active duties as a soldier 
 closed for a time. It was not without reluctance 
 that he relinquished the prospect of promotion in 
 the line of the army, to which his distinguished 
 services during the most arduous campaign of the 
 Revolution would have entitled him, for a place 
 in the staff. 
 
 Hamilton therefore made no small sacrifices to 
 the cause of the revolted colonies. He had ex- 
 pended in the equipment of his company the last 
 remnant of his patrimony ; he now sacrificed much 
 of military pride and ambition, for the rank which 
 is acquired by a mere staff appointment is never 
 recognised, except with reluctance, by those who 
 serve in the line of the army. This feeling, how- 
 ever natural, is often unjust, and the case of Ham- 
 ilton is a striking instance ; for while his exposure 
 to danger and share in military operations was as 
 great as it could have been had he remained in 
 the line, his return to no higher rank than he must 
 have reached by mere seniority was, as we shall 
 find, strongly opposed. 
 
160 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Washington at his zenith of Popularity. — Char- 
 acter of the Relations between Hamilton and 
 Washington. — Review of the Campaign of 
 1776. — Campaign of 1777. — Failure of its 
 most Important Objects. — Causes of that Fail- 
 ure, and Reflections. 
 
 At the moment Hamilton received an appoint- 
 ment in the staif of Washington, the latter enjoyed 
 a popularity and reputation more unanimously 
 granted than he ever again acquired in the course 
 of his illustrious life ; he was mature in age, pos- 
 sessed of the entire confidence of the public, and 
 the admired object of every eye. Hamilton was 
 still a mere boy, endued indeed with intelligence 
 beyond his years, the author of able and popular 
 pamphlets, and finally a company officer of bra- 
 very, and likely to rise in the profession of arms. 
 It is not possible that, in such a difference in their 
 respective positions, any other relation could have 
 existed than that of high respect and humble def- 
 erence on the one hand, and, if the strict line of 
 military etiquette was ever passed, of paternal in- 
 terest on the other. But Washington was one of 
 the few men who retain equal grandeur and excite 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 161 
 
 equal reverence in every possible position. One 
 man only, it is said, and he alike remarkable for 
 his impudence and his abilities, ever ventured to 
 draw aside the mantle of dignity which invested 
 Washington, even in private hfe, and he shrunk 
 abashed from the abortive undertaking. Under 
 such a chief, the duty of his aids became that of 
 studying his thoughts, opinions, and feelings, 
 which they were then to clothe each in his own 
 peculiar style. From the period of his appoint- 
 ment to the command of the army until the close 
 of the Revolutionary war, the active duties of the 
 field left Washington but little leisure for the 
 occupations of the cabinet. Much of his corre- 
 spondence devolved upon his secretary and aids, 
 but the thoughts and principles w^hich it imbod- 
 ied were not the less his own. In the distribu- 
 tion of duties among the members of his staff, he 
 showed the rare talent of distinguishing at once 
 the exact sphere in which each might be most 
 usefully employed ; while in his selection from the 
 line of the army or from civil life, the same power 
 of discrimination was exhibited along with the 
 total absence of jealousy. In no other point of 
 view is the grandeur of Washington's mind more 
 marked than in this. Some men, in other respects 
 great, permit themselves to be surrounded by par- 
 asites and flatterers, whose unconditional subserv- 
 iency to their own views they mistake for acute- 
 2 
 
 / 
 
162 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 ness of intellect: others dread the approach of 
 men of talent for fear of fostering rivals, and are 
 content to act by inadequate instruments rather 
 than run the risk of converting their tools into 
 prime movers. The eagle glance with which 
 Washington penetrated the thoughts and springs 
 of action of others, preserved him from the first of 
 these errors; his own consciousness of greatness 
 from the other. 
 
 Delighting in the study of Plutarch, Hamilton 
 had formed for himself a heau-ideal of human 
 character. This vision of his mind appeared im- 
 bodied in the person of Washington, who united 
 the best portions of the most illustrious characters 
 of that author with the graces which are the 
 growth of Christian nurture alone. Thus quali- 
 fied to appreciate the virtues and intellect of 
 Washington, and possessed of a faculty of expres- 
 sion in written language almost unrivalled, Ham- 
 ilton became the depository of the most secret 
 thoughts of his chief, and the organ of their pro- 
 mulgation. It cannot be doubted that, excelling 
 as Hamilton did all his contemporaries in the ra- 
 pidity with which he reached sound conclusions, 
 he must sometimes have anticipated the more 
 slow and cautious inductions of his commander, 
 and that the latter may have accepted them as 
 the results to which his own mind would finally 
 have led him. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 163 
 
 Such, then, was the original relation between 
 Hamilton and Washington^ a relation equally- 
 honourable to both parties, and which, with a 
 single instance of temporary alienation, continued 
 until the close of the life of the latter. 
 
 The campaign of 1776 had been generally fa- 
 vourable to the British arms. Lee, who com- 
 manded at New- York until the arrival of the 
 commander-in-chief, had exposed a large portion 
 of the army by taking up a false position on the 
 heights of Long Island. It was at first a question 
 whether this part of the forces should be with- 
 drawn or re-enforced. The landing of the enemy 
 at Gravesend settled the question by making a re- 
 treat in their face almost as dangerous, and in its 
 disheartening results quite as efficient, as a defeat. 
 The battle which followed exhibited the tactical 
 skill of the British general in a most favourable 
 point of view; the Americans were rather out- 
 manoeuvred than beaten. The project of the 
 British, by which they abandoned New-York to 
 the charge of a small garrison, and moved by 
 way of the Sound to the rear of the American 
 army, and by which it w^as hoped to cause it to 
 fight again without the means of retreat, was frus- 
 trated by the prudence of Washington ; he gained 
 by the battle of White Plains the object of his 
 wishes, the safe retreat of his army. In his sub- 
 sequent manoeuvres on the Hackensack and Pas- 
 
164 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 saic, Washington showed himself fully equal to 
 his antagonists, but he afterward sacrificed all 
 mere military questions to the great object of 
 covering Philadelphia. That city being placed 
 out of all immediate danger by the affair of Tren- 
 ton, he assumed the position of Morristown, by 
 the occupation of which he in a moment repaired 
 all the many misfortunes of the campaign, except 
 the loss of New- York and the diminution of his 
 effective numbers. 
 
 In the next campaign the British government 
 committed a most important error in strategy 
 An army had been formed in Canada, which un- 
 dertook to penetrate into the State of New-York 
 by the way of Lakes Champlain and George. It 
 appeared probable that, to aid this inroad. Gen- 
 eral Howe would have acted upon the Hudson 
 with the force under his command, amounting 
 to thirty-five thousand effective men. Whether 
 he had satisfied himself that the defences of the 
 highlands of the Hudson could not be forced in 
 the presence of Washington's army, or w^hether 
 he was determined, in any event, to pursue the ob- 
 ject of his last year's efforts, is uncertain. Under 
 one or other of these motives, he committed the 
 irretrievable mistake of dividing his force. The 
 greater part of it was directed by himself to the 
 Chesapeake, leaving a strong garrison in New- 
 York. He gamed the object of his expedition. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 165 
 
 and Philadelphia fell; but the Americans were 
 enabled, by this division of the British army, 
 through the exertions of Schuyler, to collect a 
 force which, under Gates, surrounded Burgoyne, 
 and compelled him to a surrender. Now was the 
 moment at which the star of America was in the 
 ascendant ; had the battalions which foiled in the 
 open field the veterans of England and Germany, 
 and which, aided by the militia, prevented their 
 retreat, been forthwith despatched to the assist- 
 ance of Washington, Howe must also have laid 
 down his arms. The water defences of the Dela- 
 ware were still unbroken, and he had no means 
 of retreat nor of receiving re-enforcements: he 
 could not, in consequence, have adopted the bold 
 measure which his successor in command was 
 enabled to carry into effect the next summer, of 
 marching across Jersey in the very face of the 
 American army. 
 
 Washington was, however, now sensible of a 
 public feeling which would have supported Gates 
 in refusing to obey orders to join him with his 
 whole force; he had also reason to suspect the 
 existence of a party that would have taken ad- 
 vantage of any disaster which might have follow- 
 ed the weakening of the Northern army, to pursue 
 him to ruin. He was, in consequence, compelled 
 to limit his demands for re-enforcements to a mere 
 request, subject to the discretion of Gates himself. 
 
166 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 This request he however followed up by the mis- 
 sion of a trusty agent, empowered to issue orders 
 in his name in case of need. This agent was 
 Hamilton, and he executed his delicate and dif- 
 ficult task to the entire satisfaction of his com- 
 mander. But, honourable as was the result of the 
 mission to the agent who performed it, the antici- 
 pated advantages were lost by delay. The wa- 
 ter-guard was forced before the re-enforcements 
 joined the army, and Howe received by the way 
 of the Delaware such additional strength as ena- 
 bled him to defy the attack of the Americans, 
 although he did not venture to engage in a battle 
 which he had at first sought. 
 
 It may at the present epoch be no subject of re- 
 gret, that the war was not closed by the captm*e 
 of Howe at the end of the campaign of 1777 ; 
 much of individual suffering, much loss of private 
 wealth might indeed have been spared, but we 
 question whether the nation would have emerged 
 from the conquest with that capacity for self-gov- 
 ernment it has since exhibited. The trials and 
 sufferings which attended the latter years of the 
 Revolutionary war ; the total downfall of public 
 credit, which began in and followed them ; the lo- 
 cal disturbances, which threatened to break up the 
 confederated colonies into numerous petty and 
 hostile states, were all necessary to prepare us for 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 167 
 
 that happy Constitution which has been for so 
 many years the pride and boast of America. 
 
 The vakie of which such lessons of adversity 
 have been to the people of the United States, fur- 
 nishes no excuse for those w^ho were the instru- 
 ments by which they were taught. We are at 
 this distant day often inclined to speak and think 
 of the Revolution as a series of events out of 
 the ordinary course of human experience. We 
 seem to find in it a civil war without vices or in- 
 trigues on the side of the successful party. We 
 clothe the WTiigs of the Revolution with all the 
 virtues of humanity, while the Tories, unfortu- 
 nate not only in the downfal of their cause, but 
 in the estimate which has been formed of their 
 character, are held up to posterity as examples 
 of perfidy and cruelty. Much, however, is to be 
 said in favour of the latter. It is no easy matter 
 to dissolve at once the prejudices of education, 
 to sever the ties of consanguinity and fellow-citi- 
 zenship. Nor did the W^higs and Tories differ in 
 the first instance to the extreme extent to which, 
 by subsequent events, they were carried. Some 
 of those who were in the beginning ardent op- 
 ponents to the oppressive acts of Great Britain, 
 hesitated when the Declaration of Independence 
 was discussed, and withdrew from the councils of 
 the nation rather than sign it. They could not 
 bring their minds to forego those very rights and 
 
168 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 privileges as Britons, for the assertion of which 
 they had been wilhng to take up arms, and peril 
 their Uves, fortunes, and honours. In other in- 
 stances, the opponents of the ministry which had 
 laid the stamp tax, and thus the very leaders of 
 the resistance of the colonies, had become the 
 confidential agents of their successors in office. 
 
 Of those Tories who joined the royal cause in 
 the hope of enriching themselves by the confisca- 
 tion of rebel estates, or who bore arms against 
 their country i^ the pursuit of plunder and pillage, 
 no language is too strong to express the crimes. 
 But to those who, from a sense of loyal devotion, 
 assumed the position of fair and honourable foes, 
 or who would not betray the confidence which 
 had been placed in them by the British govern- 
 ment, we may now speak with feelings such as 
 the unfortunate adherents of the house of Stuart 
 in 1745 are regarded in England. In both cases, 
 many jeoparded their lives and fortunes in a cause 
 they knew to be hopeless, and in compliance rath- 
 er with a sense of honour than a conviction of its 
 justice. 
 
 The cause of the Whigs, on the other hand, was 
 not espoused by all from motives equally pure. 
 Young and ardent spirits saw in the convulsions 
 of a revolution openings for promotion which the 
 royal government had denied them. Covetous 
 and calculating men looked to the estates of the 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 169 
 
 rich loyalists as a si^bject of confiscation and di- 
 vision, while those of less ambition were content 
 with treating as enemies those of their country- 
 men whose misfortmie rather than their fault had 
 enclosed as submissive captives within the out- 
 posts of the British army; and there were some 
 who, like vultures, hovered between the lines of 
 the contending parties, and impartially plundered 
 both. 
 
 As in all other revolutions, personal motives 
 were mixed up in that of America even with 
 real patriotism; and demagogues who possessed 
 none of the latter feeling, assumed its mask to 
 cover their ambitious designs. 
 
 The ardent love of country which had distin- 
 guished the first two Congresses may still have 
 influenced their successors, but it was no longer 
 pure from all interested motives. The appoint- 
 ment of Washington as commander-in-chief had 
 been made by a resolution of which the mover 
 was the representative of an Eastern state, and 
 for a time all sectional jealousies were unfelt. In 
 the second year of his service in this capacity he 
 received from Congress a proof of confidence 
 never since given to any citizen, for he was, in 
 fact, invested with all the power of a dictator. 
 But a succeeding Congress not only gave up, un- 
 called, the supreme authority which their prede- 
 cessors had thus exercised, contenting themselves 
 P 
 
170 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 with the mere privilege of advice, but became the 
 sport of an intrigue, by which Washington was to 
 have been hurled from his elevated station with 
 as little ceremony as if he had been a mere sol- 
 dier of fortune. At this distant day it is hardly 
 possible to trace the hidden movements of the ca- 
 bal by which this attempt to force him into retire- 
 ment was made ; still there is positive evidence of 
 the existence of a combination for the purpose ; 
 and, although it was ineffectual in attaining its 
 object, it prevented the war from being brought to 
 a decisive result for several years. 
 
 The movements of this cabal had so great an 
 influence upon the subsequent fortunes of Hamil- 
 ton, that they require to be examined in detail. 
 As the aid of the commander-in-chief, he was the 
 confidential minister of his magnanimous efforts to 
 meet the envy and malevolence of some, and the 
 misdirected energy of others ; and it was proba- 
 bly from his tried and faithful service at this junc- 
 ture that he acquired the unalterable good opin- 
 ion of Washington, and secured himself in that 
 relation which gave him so great an influence in 
 the events which led to and succeeded the adop- 
 tion of the federal Constitution. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 171 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 Influences which were brought to bear against 
 Washington. — Lee looked up to as a Leader. — 
 Gates brought forward in that Capacity. — Jic- 
 cession of Mifflin. — Jicts of Congress. — Their 
 probable Motives. — State of the Public Mind. — 
 Cessation of active Warfare in the JSTorth. — 
 Hamilton resigns his Station of Aid-de-camp. — 
 Views of the British Government. 
 
 The secret influences that nearly caused the loss 
 of the services of Washington to his country may 
 be briefly comprised under the following heads : 
 1. The objection of the Eastern states, whose pop- 
 ulation filled the ranks of the army, to a com- 
 mander of Southern birth. 2. The disaffection 
 growing out of the frequent demand of the servi- 
 ces of the militia, and its repugnance to strict dis- 
 cipline. 3. The existence of a party opposed to 
 Washington among the officers of the army itself, 
 and the final accession to this party of a cabal in 
 the general Congress. 
 
 It was necessary to find a person of distinguish- 
 ed rank in the army, and prominent in the eyes of 
 the public, to serve either as the instrument or 
 leader of this cabal. Lee, who had high reputa- 
 
172 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 tion for military talent, and had contrived, by 
 caustic and disparaging remarks, to cause the re- 
 sources of Washington's mind to be called in 
 question, might have figured in the latter capaci- 
 ty. Circumstances, developed in Wilkinson's Me- 
 moirs, seem to intimate that he was meditating a 
 brilliant enterprise at the moment in which he was 
 captured, that should have offered a marked con- 
 trast to the hurried retreat of Washington across 
 Jersey before the active Cornwallis. His capture 
 was, however, attended with circumstances little 
 creditable to him ; and his position as a native of 
 Great Britain was a cause of the failure of a gen- 
 eral arrangement for the exchange of prisoners. 
 He therefore remained long in captivity, although 
 Washington's exertions to establish a cartel were 
 unceasing, and generous in the extreme, when we 
 consider that the principal point of difference was 
 in respect to a person whom he must have known 
 for a rival. 
 
 The fame and popularity acquired by Gates for 
 the capture of Burgoyne pointed him out as a 
 proper instrument in the hands of the cabal. 
 Weak and vainglorious, he was unfit to perform 
 the part of a leader, but was easily induced to be- 
 come a tool, although his vanity was such as to 
 aspire to the highest station. His first act in op- 
 position to Washington was probably suggested 
 by his desire to remain at the head of an impor- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 173 
 
 tant and separate command. In this he was aid- 
 ed by the anxiety that was naturally felt for the 
 recovery of the posts on the Hudson, captured by 
 General Clinton in his unavailing- attempt to re- 
 lieve Burgoyne. For this reason Congress limit- 
 ed their orders to Gates for a detachment to re- 
 enforce the army of Washington to twenty-five 
 hundred men, although the latter expressed his 
 wish to receive seven thousand five hundred, which 
 were absolutely necessary to put him in a condition 
 to retake Philadelphia. 
 
 The thanks which were justly due to Gates as 
 the commander of the army by which so brilliant 
 an exploit as the capture of a British general with 
 his whole army, were freely voted by Congress. 
 But it escaped notice, that the convention under 
 which the arms of that formidable expedition were 
 laid down, was far less favourable to the United 
 States than might have been obtained under the 
 circumstances of the case. Gates himself was so 
 sensible of this, that he volunteered an apology, 
 through his aid-de-camp Wilkinson, for the terms 
 which he had granted. The conditions, which 
 Congress afterward found it necessary to refuse to 
 comply with, were voted honourable and advan- 
 tageous ; and Gates, whose task had, in fact, been 
 accomplished, was left in absolute control of the 
 force he had commanded, under the pretence of a 
 necessity to recover the posts on the Hudson, which 
 P2 
 
174 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 the enemy soon abandoned as untenable by them. 
 This absolute control was vested in G ates by a res- 
 olution, making it obligatory on General Washing- 
 ton to consult with him as to the amount of the re- 
 enforcement he was to receive ; and it was strongly 
 urged that he should not be permitted to call for 
 any re-enforcement without the concurrence of 
 that officer. 
 
 The opposition to General Washington in the 
 army mustered also in its ranks Mifflin, who had 
 succeeded Gates in the appointment of quarter- 
 master-general, and a number of foreigners who 
 had been disappointed in their expectations of ob- 
 taining rank and influence. Among these, the most 
 prominent was Conway. The wilful negligence 
 or incompetency of Mifflin was productive of 
 most disastrous effects ; and to one or other, or to 
 both united, is to be attributed the distress of the 
 army in the winter-quarters of Valley Forge. If 
 wilful negligence was the cause, he appears to 
 have been prompted to it, as he was certainly sup- 
 ported when its effects became manifest, by a par- 
 ty in Congress. It thus happened, that at the 
 close of the campaign in which so great success 
 had been obtained as to secure the recognition of 
 the United States as a nation, and thus to give fa- 
 cilities for supplies that had not before existed, 
 the army was exposed to sufferings almost unex- 
 ampled even in defeat. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 175 
 
 Although the force of public opinion compelled 
 Congress to accept Mifflin's resignation of his of- 
 fice as quartermaster-general, yet on the very same 
 day he was placed at the head of the Board of 
 War. On the representation of Mifflin that the 
 numbers of this board were not sufficient to give 
 weight to its decisions, Gates, with another com- 
 missioner, was added, and that general became its 
 president. He was, however, wholly unfitted to 
 carry into effect the views of the cabal, and, in a 
 rash moment, gave Washington an opportunity of 
 effectually counteracting their schemes. 
 
 While Washington, at Valley Forge, was enga- 
 ged in attempts to provide for his famishing and 
 almost naked army, he received a letter from 
 Gates marked with all the insolence of anticipa- 
 ted triumph. This letter was not only offensive in 
 its tone, but conveyed an indirect insinuation that 
 Washington had used unfair means in obtaining 
 an extract of a letter from Conway to Gates, in 
 which the conduct of General Washington, and 
 his talents as a commander, were severely censu- 
 red. It, in addition, contained a direct express- 
 ion of the belief that persons in the military fam- 
 ily of General Washington had been concerned 
 in the acts of which Gates complained. The per- 
 sons pointed at were Colonels Troup and Hamil- 
 ton. In the correspondence which ensued, the 
 honour of these gentlemen was most triumphantly 
 
176 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 vindicated, and public opinion was once more en- 
 listed on the side of Washington. The cabal, 
 however, was only weakened, not destroyed. Ta- 
 king advantage of the disorganization and distress 
 which were the consequence of the insufficient ad- 
 ministration of the department of quartermaster- 
 general, the new board of war recommended to 
 Congress the appointment of inspectors-general, 
 with powers which were, in fact, paramount to 
 those of the commander-in-chief. Rumours also 
 were circulated that Washington intended to re- 
 sign, and these at last reached his own ears 
 through those members of the Congress who saw 
 that his honour and the continuance of his services 
 were indissolubly united to the cause of American 
 liberty. 
 
 The attempt to appoint inspectors-general was 
 defeated by a manly and decided letter of Gener- 
 al Greene to Congress, and by a strong remon- 
 strance from the general and field officers of the 
 army. This scheme having proved abortive, a 
 committee of three members of Congress and 
 three members of the board of war was appointed, 
 with such powers as made them a permanent court 
 of inquiry on the conduct of the commander-in- 
 chief. 
 
 The next step was to enlist Lafayette in the op- 
 position, by the tender of a separate command of 
 an army intended to invade Canada. This he with 
 
ALEXANDEK HAMILTON. 177 
 
 great magnanimity declined, and agreed to serve 
 only on the condition of his receiving orders from 
 Washington, 
 
 At this distant date, and in the absence of ex- 
 act records of the votes and acts of the Continen- 
 tal Congress, it is difficult to point out the mem- 
 bers of that body who took an active part in the 
 attempt to degrade and disgust Washington. 
 Some, no doubt, were, for reasons personal or sec- 
 tional, his political opponents ; others may have 
 been envious of the lofty distinction he had ac- 
 quired ; and others, again, from a well-grounded 
 distrust, founded on a knowledge of historical 
 events, were unwilling that any one man should 
 attain a paramount influence by the weight of his 
 character in the infant republic. They well 
 knew how dazzling is military glory to the unen- 
 lightened, how strong the attachment which is 
 excited in the breast of a soldier towards him un- 
 der w^hom he has successfully served. The ex- 
 ample of Cromwell could not fail to have been 
 present to their remembrance; and the strong 
 similarity in the origin and course of the civil war 
 of England and that of the Revolution might well 
 have excited distrust of one who stood so strongly 
 in the affections of his brothers in arms. Since 
 that day a still more remarkable instance has oc- 
 curred, of one who began life so ardent a republi- 
 can that no name would suit him but that of the 
 
17S AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 king-quelling Brutus, and who closed his success- 
 es by placing on his brow the imperial diadem, 
 and allying himself to the family which proudly 
 claimed to be the successors of the Caesars. To 
 judge from all former examples, such views were 
 well founded ; and it was not an ill-calculated 
 scheme to raise up as a rival of Washington one 
 who had achieved high applause as a command- 
 er, and who must not have appeared to them to 
 possess the high attributes of moral superiority 
 which would have rendered Washington, had he 
 been actuated by personal motives, trebly danger- 
 ous. Even with all the admiration which we, 
 with all posterity, must regard that extraordinary 
 instance of self-denial and public virtue, it may 
 be reckoned a most fortunate circumstance, both 
 for his own fame and the happiness of his coun- 
 try, that Washington was childless, and hence had 
 one temptation less than Cromwell. We shall 
 find that there was a time when but a single 
 spark was required to set into a flame the feelings 
 of an army, flushed on the one hand with the glo- 
 rious termination of their labours and warlike 
 toils, and goaded on the other by positive distress 
 and a want of consideration for their invaluable 
 services. Nay, the spark was actually applied; 
 and it required all the talent and influence of 
 Washington to stifle the conflagration in its birth. 
 Men are so prone to deceive themselves in mat- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 179 
 
 ters which concern their own interests, that the 
 commander of the American army, had he, at the 
 close of the Revolution, imited it, as might easily 
 have been done, in a refusal to lay down their 
 arms until their just claims had been satisfied, 
 might have felt himself warranted, not merely by 
 the justice of the demand itself, but by a feeling 
 of regard to the honour of his country. 
 
 The prevalence for so long a time of a party 
 that would, if possible, have probably defeated all 
 the beneficial results of the Revolution, by substi- 
 tuting for the civic and martial virtues of Wash- 
 ington a merely military chief, who, if victorious, 
 would not have exercised the forbearance and 
 discretion which on subsequent occasions marked 
 the conduct of that great man, seems to be prin- 
 cipally owing to the imperfect form of the confed- 
 eration and the anomalous position of the Con- 
 gress. 
 
 Hamilton remained in the staff of the com- 
 mander-in-chief until February, 1781, at which 
 time a misunderstanding occurred, which made 
 him feel the necessity of retiring from a station of 
 which he had faithfully fulfilled the duties, al- 
 though he had unwillingly assumed them. It is 
 gratifying to observe, that, although Hamilton de- 
 termined to retire from the family ot' Washing- 
 ton, this event did not in any degree lessen the 
 esteem in which they held each other. Hamilton, 
 
180 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY* 
 
 indeed, probably rose in estimation, both with his 
 general and the public ; the former feeling the 
 want of his valuable services, and the latter see- 
 ing him in such a light as proved that he was not 
 merely a useful engine in the hands of a superior, 
 but capable himself of acting and directing. The 
 great value of his services on the staff of the com- 
 mander-in-chief was well understood by the few 
 who possessed the confidence of Washington ; and 
 hence, when the station of adjutant-general be- 
 came vacant in 1777, the nomination of Hamil- 
 ton to that office was urged by Lafayette and 
 Greene, who recommended him as of all other 
 persons the most highly qualified. 
 
 During the interval which elapsed between the 
 retreat of the British army from Philadelphia and 
 the time when Hamilton resigned his appointment 
 as aid-de-camp, the military events are of less in- 
 terest than in the preceding years. Many plans 
 of operation were discussed and schemes formed, 
 which were prevented from going into effect by 
 circumstances beyond control, or by the true and 
 enlightened views which were entertained, that 
 the integrity of the American nation resided in its 
 army, which was not, therefore, to be lightly risked 
 in any enterprise which did not promise a cer- 
 tainty of success. Among these projects may be 
 mentioned those of attacking New-York and of 
 invading Canada 3 the first by the aid of a French 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 181 
 
 fleet, the latter by a combined army of the two 
 nations. 
 
 In the Northern states the motions of the Brit- 
 ish armies had ceased after the battle of Mon- 
 mouth ; content to bridle the United States by the 
 possession of the important position of New-York, 
 which, so long as they held the command of its 
 waters, was almost impregnable, the British gener- 
 als ceased from all attempts at acting with energy. 
 
 The w^ar had, in fact, ceased to be a purely 
 military question. The British government had 
 ascertained that arms alone could not decide the 
 contest; and the Americans had been satisfied of 
 the wisdom of Washington's policy, who was 
 content to keep an army in the field, and was de- 
 termined not to risk it in a general action, unless 
 all the probabilities of success should be with him. 
 This army \vas, in fact, the essence of the national 
 existence ; the occupation of the principal tow^ns 
 in rotation had no effect upon the issue of the 
 war ; it augmented, indeed, the general suffering, 
 but tended only to induce the people to a more 
 obstinate resistance. This army, however, was 
 continually on the brink of ruin from the want of 
 means to sustain it. Mutinies of serious character 
 broke out, and the British government began to 
 entertain hopes that the armed force would melt 
 away, and the people become weary of a pro- 
 tracted war. 
 
 Q 
 
182 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Considerations on the Origin of the Revolution. — 
 Effects of the earlier Measures of Passive Re- 
 sistance. — Emission of Bills of Credit by Con- 
 gress. — Consequence of that Measure. — Decay 
 of Public Credit. — State of Financial Affairs. 
 — Hamilton proposes a JYational Bank as a 
 Remedy, 
 
 The mode in which the colonies were first ex- 
 cited to a passive resistance, then to the enrol- 
 ment of local forces, next to the formation of an 
 army under the control of the general Congress, 
 and, finally, to the assumption of an independent 
 position among nations, has been previously indi- 
 cated. Whatever there may have been of plan 
 and determination to establish a general govern- 
 ment among the master spirits, and however evi- 
 dent it may have been to those who possessed a 
 just view of the state of things, that the sole 
 choice lay between entire submission or final 
 separation, the people were not prepared, at the 
 time hostilities broke out, even for the discussion 
 of the latter alternative. War was waged against 
 the troops of the King of England by men who 
 had united in petitions to his throne, and still styled 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 183 
 
 themselves his faithful subjects. All the measures, 
 therefore, necessary to maintain existence as a na- 
 tion followed, and were dictated by the course of 
 events, instead of preceding and controlling them. 
 In the beginning of the struggle, each state raised 
 its own troops, and sought the means of supporting 
 and paying them. The troops were next put upon 
 the continental estabhshment, and the direct pay 
 and subsistence were to be furnished by Congress. 
 It is no impeachment of the wisdom of that 
 body that they refrained from the imposition of 
 direct and heavy taxes. Even those they ven- 
 tured to recommend to the State legislatures, 
 which had retained the power of lev^'ing them, 
 were collected with difficult}^, and imposed only 
 under the pressure of the most urgent necessity. 
 The country, in truth, entered upon the contest in 
 a state of impoverishment. The threatening as- 
 pect of the times had induced the few men of 
 moneyed capital to remove their funds to foreign 
 countries ; the measures of non-intercourse had put 
 a stop to trade and to the circulation of money. 
 The latter, however well intended as a method 
 of passive resistance, was perhaps the very worst 
 measure that could have been adopted in ref- 
 erence to an actual war. The colonies had no 
 manufactures, and practised only the rudest me- 
 chanical arts. The merchants, whom the fore- 
 sight for which that class of citizens are prover- 
 
184 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 bial, would have induced to lay in stocks, not 
 only of munitions of war, but of the articles of 
 prime necessity for which the colonies were then 
 wholly dependant upon Europe, were either led 
 by patriotic motives or coerced by law to aban- 
 don their trade. The large foreign capital which 
 they were in the habit of employing in their busi- 
 ness was withdrawn, and their own resources di- 
 minished, by their being thrown for the support of 
 their families upon their stock instead of their 
 annual profits. Many of the sufferings of the 
 revolutionary army arose from the absolute want 
 of the usual supplies of materials for clothing, 
 even more than from the want of means for pay- 
 ing for them. An unwise policy still farther en- 
 hanced the evil, for those who traded in British 
 goods were considered as traitors to the cause, 
 and the invested capital of foreigners was treated 
 as a fair object of confiscation. 
 
 Congress, in the absence of other resources, had 
 recourse to the emission of bills of credit. This 
 was no new measure in America. All the Brit- 
 ish colonies had from time to time resorted to the 
 same expedient, in the efforts they made to aid the 
 mother country in its numerous wars. The conse- 
 quences had been everywhere the same in charac- 
 ter, although different in degree ; and the Spanish 
 dollar, originally worth less than 4^. 6d. ster- 
 ling, had been enhanced in its measure in the lo- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 185 
 
 cal currencies to different rates between 5^. and 
 
 8s. These efForts, however burdensome and ob- 
 noxious to those who felt little direct interest in 
 their object, were far inferior to those required to 
 change the condition of the states from that of 
 colonies to that of an independent nation. The 
 issues which were demanded were more copious, 
 the depreciation which ensued more rapid and 
 vastly greater. 
 
 Had this paper money been resorted to as a 
 mere temporary expedient, and had the govern- 
 ment cotemporaneously undertaken the prepara- 
 tion of a sound scheme of finance, the first emis- 
 sions might have been redeemed, and no disastrous 
 consequences need have ensued. The success of 
 the measure, however, was so great at first as to 
 mislead its planners. The patriotism of a large 
 part of the people was such as to induce them to 
 give ready currency to the new medium. We 
 could cite instances where families, driven from 
 their homes by the events of war, with ample 
 means, spent their gold and hoarded the new 
 paper. 
 
 The disastrous campaign of 1776 broke the de- 
 lusion, and, even before an issue beyond the de- 
 mand for a circulating medium had taken place, 
 the fall in value became alarming. The old reme- 
 dy of making the money a legal tender was resort- 
 ed to, and, as it has always done, increased instead 
 Q2 
 
186 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 of palliating the disease. The sanctity of con- 
 tracts was invaded, the httle vested capital de- 
 stroyed, by payments in the debased medium ; tax- 
 es, graduated to a specie value or to successive 
 stages of depreciation, were received in a still 
 baser money ; while the prices of all articles nom- 
 inally rose as rapidly as the paper fell in value. 
 The bill for a dinner furnished some of the Brit- 
 ish officers captured with Burgoyne, at Philadel- 
 phia, was published by them in England, and is 
 one of the most characteristic illustrations of the 
 state of the times. It amounted to several thou- 
 sand dollars, and was liquidated for two or three 
 guineas. 
 
 In 1779 it appeared that the emission of bills 
 of credit had amounted to the vast sum of one 
 hundred and sixty millions of dollars ; that the 
 public debt for loans from citizens and foreigners 
 had reached the sum of forty miUions. Congress, 
 in order to sustain or revive a credit which ap- 
 peared to be nearly extinguished, now resolved, 
 and pledged itself that the whole issue of bills of 
 credit should not exceed two hundred millions. 
 In spite of a full exposition of the resources of the 
 country, intended to show that full confidence 
 might be placed in the public faith, paper money 
 continued to fall in value, and in less than two 
 months the additional issue of forty millions, to 
 which Congress had restricted itself, was ex- 
 hausted. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 187 
 
 As a new resource, bills of exchange were 
 drawn on the American envoys in Europe, and 
 sold at the rate of one dollar for twenty-five dol- 
 lars in paper ; and, finally, a new issue of bills of 
 credit was voted, for which the faith of the indi- 
 vidual states was to be pledged ; for each dollar 
 of these, forty of the old emission were receivable. 
 All these attempts, however, did but delay the ca- 
 tastrophe, and the faith in the paper money fell to 
 rise no more. 
 
 This state of things gave birth to extravagant 
 speculation. The public, having nothing where- 
 with to pay for its supplies but a disgraced paper, 
 was placed at the mercy of those individuals who 
 had either husbanded their resources or succeeded 
 in maintaining their credit. The holders of the 
 paper money, forcing it into the market with a 
 view of realizing any part of it, however small, 
 raised the price of every necessary' of life, while 
 those who possessed gold and silver coin hoard- 
 ed it. 
 
 The laws which made continental money, as the 
 bills of credit were called, a legal tender, created 
 a fierce war between debtor and creditor; and 
 when the credit of that circulating medium had 
 reached its lowest ebb, internal trade was at an 
 end, from the ruinous rate of exchanges, and the 
 impossibility of transmitting the precious metals 
 from place to place in so disturbed a state of the 
 national affairs. 
 
188 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Hamilton was an attentive and interested spec- 
 tator of the state of things. His position in the 
 staff of the commander-in-chief showed him the 
 difficulties of the government in the strongest 
 point of view. His intimacy with the officers of 
 the French army, growing not only out of his sta- 
 tion, but of the facility with which he spoke and 
 wrote their language, had convinced him that it 
 was possible that France might fail in her engage- 
 ments ; and it was a matter of notoriety, from the 
 debates of the British Parliament, that the minis- 
 try now began to hope that a continuance of the 
 war might cause a dismemberment of the Union, 
 arising from financial distress. 
 
 At a date as early as the winter of 1778-9, 
 when the headquarters of the army were at Mor- 
 ristown, Hamilton addressed an anonymous letter 
 to Robert Morris on the subject of the public dis- 
 tress and the means of remedying it. Morris was 
 then, as for several years afterward, a delegate in 
 Congress from Pennsylvania ; and, from his skill 
 and success as a merchant, w^as looked up to as 
 the leading member in all questions of finance. 
 
 In this letter, after an examination of the caus- 
 es of the difficulty, he proposes, as the only reme- 
 dy, the obtaining of a foreign loan, but goes on to 
 exhibit that this would not be effisctual unless 
 properly applied. He then examines plans which 
 appear to have been proposed for the employ- 
 ment of such a loan, namely, that of buying up a 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 189 
 
 part of the paper, and of importing merchandise 
 on public account. Rejecting these as insufficient, 
 he proposes as his plan a J\^ational Bank, to be 
 founded on a foreign loan of two millions, and 
 two hundred millions of paper money, to be val- 
 ued at ten millions in specie. 
 
 This, as far as we have been able to ascertain, 
 is the earliest plan of a National Bank. It is not 
 improbable that the advantages and facilities ob- 
 tained by the governments of Europe, as well as 
 by individuals engaged in commerce, from such 
 institutions, had presented themselves to many re- 
 flecting persons. But all existing institutions had 
 arisen under circumstances widely different from 
 those in which the United States were placed. 
 Even the Bank of England had not been estab- 
 lished for the purpose of restoring a credit already 
 fallen, but to give stability to one about to be 
 impaired. It was left for Hamilton to perceive 
 iiow such an institution might be made the means 
 of rebuilding a confidence, fallen, to all appear- 
 ance, beyond the chance of repair. 
 
 The communication of Hamilton to Morris is 
 marked by sound and clear views of the condition 
 of the currency, and w^as far in advance of the 
 knowledge of the day. It is distinguished by the 
 rejection of the whole system of temporary expe- 
 dients to which the necessities of the times and 
 the dread of imposing direct burdens on the peo- 
 ple had given birth. The scheme, however, was 
 
190 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 too bold even for the eminent financier to whom 
 it was addressed. Whether it had any influence 
 on his mind does not appear. Certain, however, 
 it is, that within fourteen months of its date Mor- 
 ris submitted to Congress a plan of a bank in the 
 State of Pennsylvania. He did not, however, 
 venture to adopt any of the bold features of the 
 scheme proposed by Hamilton, but contented 
 himself with an institution founded on a moneyed 
 capital alone. Even this was attended with ben- 
 eficial results, but was ineffectual towards the 
 great object of checking the rapid downfal of 
 public credit. 
 
 Hamilton had suggested the idea of using the 
 credit of the government in mercantile adventures, 
 not as a principle of steady action, but as a tem- 
 porary expedient for paying the interest on the 
 foreign debtj and this plan, we find, was adopted 
 by Morris. * 
 
 The project submitted by Hamilton to Robert 
 Morris bears date in 1779 ; the Bank of Pennsyl- 
 vania was not reported to Congress until June 
 22d, 1780, nor the Bank of North America pro- 
 posed until May, 1781. Gouverneur Morris, who 
 has claimed the merit of planning the latter, was 
 not appointed assistant to the superintendent of 
 finance until July 6th, 1781. He may, however, 
 have been consulted previously, but there is no 
 probability that he had moved on the question as 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 191 
 
 early as 1779. The anonymous communications 
 of Hamilton were not intended to gain reputation 
 for himself, but made from purely patriotic mo- 
 tives; the superintendent of finance was at full 
 liberty to use them as he saw fit, and precluded 
 from even guessing at the author; hence, that 
 the statement of Gouverneur Morris was made in 
 good faith, is not rendered doubtful by the discov- 
 ery of this interesting document among Hamil- 
 ton's papers : it, however, destroys his right to 
 the merit of priority. 
 
 All that relates to the necessities and embar- 
 rassments for which a National Bank was pro- 
 posed as a remedy, must be for ever interesting. 
 The question of a bank, both in its expediency 
 and its constitutionality, has been one of those 
 which has caused fierce debates in our legislative 
 bodies, and excited the fury of party difference. 
 Wise and patriotic men have espoused both sides 
 of this question, and have been supported by those 
 possessed equally of honest and public-spirited 
 views. There can be no doubt that, when a bank 
 was established in conformity with the views of 
 Hamilton, it fulfilled all the purposes for which he 
 intended it, and was attended with none of the 
 evils which its opponents predicted. Nor does it 
 appear probable that, in the low state to which 
 public credit was then reduced, any other measure 
 could possibly have produced similar results. In 
 
192 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 this case the prostration of private interests grew 
 out of the failure of the pubUc to meet its engage- 
 ments. 
 
 J, So fully was the expediency of a bank demon- 
 strated, that when, at the close of the war of 
 1812, a similar but far less embarrassed state 
 of things existed, a like remedy was adopted, 
 and equally beneficial consequences followed. 
 Since that period new experience has been ac- 
 quired from the practice of foreign countries, and 
 it does not appear to be impossible that the gov- 
 ernment may itself, if in possession of good credit, 
 perform its own fiscal operations, and, at the same 
 time, subserve the purposes of trade. To unite 
 these objects successfully will require great talent 
 and honesty of purpose ; and yet there seems to 
 be little probability that the purposes of the gov- 
 ernment can be attained without providing for the 
 wants of commerce. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 193 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Hamilton corresponds with Duane. — Second Let- 
 ter to Morris f arid his Reply. — First proposition 
 
 for a Convention to establish a Federative Re- 
 public. — Reflections on State and Federal Sov- 
 ereignty. — He edits " the Contineiitalist.^^ — Ob- 
 tains the command of a Corps of Light Infan- 
 try. — Serves at Yor'ktomi, and leads the Forlorn 
 Hope. — Retires from active Service, and com- 
 mences the study of Law. — His Marriage. — 
 He is appointed by Morris receiver of Taxes 
 
 for the State of J>^eiv-York. 
 
 Soon after addressing the anonymous commu- 
 nication to Robert Morris which has been refer- 
 red to in the last chapter, Hamilton commenced a 
 correspondence on the same subject with the 
 Hon. James Duane, then a member of Congress 
 from the State of New-York. In one of his let- 
 ters written at this time, he alludes to the first 
 bank established at the instance of Morris, that 
 of Pennsylvania, and then proceeds to illustrate 
 the advantages of a more extensive and power- 
 ful fiscal agent. 
 
 A letter to Morris, dated April 30, 1781, dis- 
 cusses the question still more amply j after pro- 
 R 
 
194 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 posing a National Bank as " a plan which will 
 not only advance the interests of the traders, se- 
 cure the independence of the country, and in its 
 progress have the most beneficial influence upon 
 its future commerce," he states that there is no 
 other possible method w^hich could relieve the 
 public distress, and that the longer such a project 
 was delayed the more difficult it would become. 
 He next cites and refutes the objections which 
 have been made to banks, showing that they 
 merely prove that banks, like all other good 
 things, are liable to abuse; and that the same ar- 
 guments -were equally apphcable to the precious 
 metals themselves, or to great power, extensive 
 commerce, and riches; that, in fact, they were 
 directed against national prosperity itself. 
 
 He next quotes the examples of the beneficial 
 effects of national banks in the cases of Venice, 
 Genoa, Hamburg, Holland, and England, all 
 raised to a consequence far beyond that to Avhich 
 they were entitled by their population or territorial 
 resources, by the wisdom of their fiscal arrange- 
 ments. The example of the last-named country 
 is examined at great length, and shows that the 
 United States were at the time in exactly the 
 same position as England was at the end of the 
 long and expensive w^ars of William III. Next 
 follows a plan of a bank adapted to the condi- 
 tion and circumstances of the United States. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 195 
 
 We shall not comment upon this splendid plan, 
 nor exhibit the arguments adduced to show its 
 practicability, even in the forlorn state of the pub- 
 lic credit of the day. It had no result, and is 
 therefore only quoted to prove the sagacity of 
 Hamilton. 
 
 On the 26th of May, 1781, Morris informed 
 Hamilton that he would speedily see the plan of 
 a bank which had already received the sanction of 
 Congress. He admits that its capital was too 
 small to accomplish all the desired ends, but ex- 
 presses the opinion that, beginning upon a limited 
 plan, it would, if successful, command a future in- 
 crease of capital. 
 
 The votes on the question of establishing this 
 bank are interesting, as exhibiting the state of 
 public opinion at that time in respect to the expe- 
 diency of a bank. They are still more important 
 considered in relation to the question of its consti- 
 tutionality, for the powers of Congress under the 
 confederation had by that time been construed to 
 be far less than the present government possesses 
 by express grant. Upon this vote New- York and 
 Delaware were not represented ; the minority was 
 composed of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts; 
 while Virginia, with all the other Southern states, 
 voted in the affirmative. Of the individual mem- 
 bers, Madison was the only one from Virginia who 
 was opposed to the plan. 
 
196 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The inquiries of Hamilton were not confined to 
 the means of reUeving a distress merely pecunia- 
 ry, but were extended to the whole organization of 
 the federal government. In notes appended to 
 his anonymous communication to Morris, he points 
 out the evils growing out of the mode in which 
 the public affairs were conducted, and proposes a 
 remedy. This was found, on its adoption, to be ef- 
 ficient, and constitutes the very system which has 
 been followed up to the present day. In the let- 
 ter to Mr. Duane, the same plan is more fully de- 
 veloped, and farther imperfections^ with their ap- 
 propriate cures, are noted. This letter was the 
 germ of the present Constitution of the United 
 States, and ought to be read and studied by every 
 American citizen. It will be found at full length 
 in the Life of Hamilton by his son. 
 
 In this letter he points out, as the fundamental 
 defect in the existing system, a want of po-^er in 
 Congress, in consequence of which its influence 
 and credit with the army had been ruined, and 
 the dependance of the several corps of that body 
 upon separate states, rather than upon the confed- 
 eration, established. He then alludes to the argu- 
 ment that Congress never had any definite powers 
 granted to it, and shows, in reply, that it had ex- 
 ercised all the highest acts of sovereignty, and 
 that these acts had been cheerfully submitted to ; 
 instancing the declaration of independence, the 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 197 
 
 declaration of war, the levying an army, creating 
 a navy, appointing a dictator, emitting money, ma- 
 king alliances with foreign powers, all implica- 
 tions of complete sovereignty. He then states 
 that undefined powers are, in fact, discretionary 
 powers, limited only by the object for which they 
 were given. 
 
 In continuation, he cites a fact which he must 
 have had full means of knowing, that the lines of 
 the army were ready to obey their states in oppo- 
 sition to Congress, and that the onty obstacle to 
 this lay in the personal influence of the general. 
 He then shows the wide difference between the 
 situation of the United States and that of a coun- 
 try simply distributed into coimties, &c. ; that, in 
 the former case, the danger is, that the confederate 
 government shall not have power enough to unite 
 the different members together, and direct the 
 common strength to the interest and happiness of 
 the whole. 
 
 In illustration of this position he quotes the ex- 
 amples of the Greek republics, the Swiss can- 
 tons, and the Germanic body, and shows that the 
 instance of the United Provinces does not militate 
 against it, in consequence of an influence exerted 
 by the family of Orange almost equal to that of 
 a limited monarch. 
 
 His next argument is drawn from the experi- 
 ence of the United States, which he thinks should 
 R2 
 
198 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 be satisfactory. He shows the futiUty of the at- 
 tempt to induce the separate states, by individual 
 acts of legislation, to combine in equal exertions 
 for the common cause ; and points out the defect 
 arising from uniting the functions of a deliberative 
 and executive body, a defect not remedied by the 
 division of Congress into boards where responsi- 
 bility did not exist. In considering the remedies, 
 while he thinks that Congress might with propri- 
 ety resume and exercise the discretionary powers 
 originally vested in it, he proposes, as a far pref- 
 erable method, the call of a convention of the 
 states, vested with full authority to conclude final- 
 ly on a general confederation ; and this is the very 
 earliest proposal of this mode of putting an end 
 to the existing evils. 
 
 The powers which should be given to Congress 
 under a new confederation are then enumerated, 
 and are, with few exceptions, such as are given to 
 the federal government by the existing Constitution. 
 
 It is here to be remarked, that the particular 
 power of establishing banks, and evidently intend- 
 ed to be exclusive of any such power in the indi- 
 vidual states, is enumerated, instead of the gener- 
 al povv^er of regulating the currency which is con- 
 tained in the federal Constitution ; thus leaving no 
 doubt of the intention of the mind which conceiv- 
 ed the federal Constitution as to the meaning of 
 that clause of our national charter. The power of 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 199 
 
 the purse is, however, guarded more strictly than in 
 the finished instrument ; certain sources of revenue 
 are enumerated as proper to be granted to the con- 
 federation, while for any farther supplies he pro- 
 poses that the assent of the state legislatures should 
 be necessary. 
 
 As a partial measure, to fill the interval required 
 for the call and the action of the convention, he 
 finally proposes the formation of an executive 
 body, composed of five heads of departments, to 
 be nominated by the existing Congress. 
 
 It is hardly possible at the present day to ap- 
 preciate the entire merit of the plans of Hamilton. 
 His views are to many so familiar, and his posi- 
 tions so completely established in all their points, 
 as to assume an air almost commonplace. But we 
 have to recollect that these letters preceded the 
 close of the revolutionary war, and were, in con- 
 sequence, years in advance of the opinions even 
 of the most enlightened statesmen. 
 
 The beautiful course of inductive reasoning, from 
 the misfortunes and experience of other nations, 
 by which he attained his results, cannot fail to 
 strike all who read it. It is now the fashion to 
 neglect the lessons of experience, and despise 
 the examples, whether of encouragement or of 
 warning, which the fate and destinies of other 
 governments afford. We reason in respect to gov- 
 ernment, national economy, and pohtical actions 
 
200 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 upon abstract principles, such as have never been 
 found sure guides to point out in advance the re- 
 sults of contemplated measures, however well they 
 may seem to explain a course of events that has 
 already occurred. After all, the passions, the 
 fears, and the prejudices of mankind are far more 
 important elements in national prosperity than is 
 admitted by the school of Adam Smith. It is not 
 merely necessary that a nation should have ampl 
 resources in order to enjoy good credit; it mus . 
 besides, possess an unblemished reputation for faith ; 
 and such reputation is even more delicate than 
 that of the merchant ; for, if his resources be suf- 
 ficient, the law is generally adequate to make him 
 fulfil his engagements. But nations lie beyond 
 the reach of civil process ; and a rash act, or even 
 an ill-considered phrase on the part of an admin- 
 istration, may impair the best-founded fabric of 
 credit. This will not affect its government mere- 
 ly, but will be felt in the foreign traffic of its in- 
 dividual citizens. 
 
 If the greatest caution be necessary to retain 
 unimpeached the credit of European nations, it is 
 even more essential in our own. Many of them 
 are in possession of capital exceeding in amount 
 all the means of profitable investment. Thus, 
 even when their governments are loaded with 
 debt, they rarely find it difficult to obtain new 
 loans ; and all private enterprises which promise 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 201 
 
 safet}^ in the investment and reasonable profits, 
 find a sure supply of funds. 
 
 With us the case is widely different. Our com- 
 mercial capital is far beneath the amount which is 
 needed even in our domestic trade. Our merchants 
 anticipate the proceeds of their shipments to Eu- 
 rope by bills upon the consignees ; our importers 
 buy in foreign countries upon a long credit ; and 
 thus, in fact, the whole of our foreign trade may 
 be said to be conducted by the funds of other 
 countries. So also is a great part of our inland 
 trade. The length of the foreign credit enables 
 the importers to trust their customers; and it is 
 only in the intervals which elapse between the re- 
 ceipt and the sale of goods that American capital 
 becomes necessary. We know, indeed, that a 
 gradual increase of wealth is rendering this sys- 
 tem less common. Purchases are occasionally 
 made with cash in Europe, and a profit is thus 
 realized, not only in interest, but in the large al- 
 lowance the manufacturers can afford to make as 
 an equivalent for the risk of bad debts ; but that 
 our trade is chiefly built upon foreign capital is 
 still true in the main. 
 
 Not only is our mercantile capital insufficient for 
 our trade, but the vested capital of the nation is 
 comparatively small, and every addition from an 
 extrinsic source, if judiciously applied, is attended 
 with an increase in the value of property wholly 
 
202 AMERICAN BIOGKAPHY. 
 
 unexampled. If the products of our own labour 
 suffice to form the thousands of miles of new 
 roads which the continual extension of our inhab- 
 ited country annually demands ; to clear and en- 
 close our new fields ; to erect our farm-buildings, 
 and furnish the few and simple implements our 
 agriculturists have yet learned to employ, the same 
 is not the case with our great public works. The 
 canals of New- York and Ohio, the great combi- 
 ned system of public improvements in Pennsylva- 
 nia, have all been effected by foreign capital, and 
 have added so much to the wealth of their neigh- 
 bourhoods, that, were the works themselves mere- 
 ly to pay the cost of their own repairs, taxes 
 competent to the payment of interest and the re- 
 demption of the loans might be imposed without 
 injustice, and paid without hardship. 
 
 To return to our more immediate subject: Ham- 
 ilton, not content with urging his views upon the 
 consideration of members of Congress, undertook, 
 in 1781, to draw the pubUc attention towards them. 
 For this purpose he published a series of papers, un- 
 der the title of the Continentalist. Some of these 
 have been lost; those which are still to be procured 
 place the principles he had before urged upon Du- 
 ane and Morris in a more familiar and popular light. 
 They had, doubtless, no unimportant influence upon 
 the public mind, and served to prepare the way 
 for the deliberations of that illustrious assembly 
 
A T- E X A N D E R HAMILTON. 203 
 
 which formed our present Constitution. From one 
 of these papers we cannot avoid making an ex- 
 tract. " There is something noble and magnifi- 
 cent in the perspective of a great federative re- 
 pubUc, closely linked in the pursuit of a common 
 interest, tranquil and prosperous at home, respect- 
 able abroad ; there is something proportionably 
 diminutive and contemptible in the prospect of a 
 number of petty states, with the appearance only 
 of union — -jarring, jealous, and perverse — without 
 any determinate direction ; fluctuating and unhap- 
 py at home, weak and insignificant by their dis- 
 sensions in the eye of other nations." 
 
 On leaving the staff of Washington, Hamilton 
 sought to be reinstated in the line of the army. 
 To this there were many obstacles. The jealousy 
 always entertained by officers of the line in rela- 
 tion to those who obtain their rank in staff em- 
 ployments, is proverbial, and Hamilton found it 
 existing in his case. No objection seems to have 
 been made to his return to the corps of artillery 
 with a rank equal to that he held as aid-de-camp 
 to the commander-in-chief But in this event he 
 would have been the youngest lieutenant-colonel, 
 while, had he retained his active command, he 
 must by that time have been the oldest. He 
 finally succeeded, after much negotiation, in ob- 
 taining the command of a battalion of hght-infan- 
 try. At the head of this he made the campaign 
 
204 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 of 1787, and led the forlorn hope at the storm of 
 the redoubts of Yorktown. 
 
 On this occasion, the light-infantry of the Amer- 
 ican army and the grenadiers of the French, in 
 noble emulation, undertook the attack of strong 
 and still uninjured field-works, and both succeed- 
 ed, in spite of the gallant and determined resist- 
 ance of veterans, who, in all the chances of war, 
 had never before sustained absolute defeat. Yet 
 in the success there was a diversity; the redoubt 
 attacked by Hamilton was first carried, and with 
 least loss ; while his troops, in the flush of victory 
 over a determined opposition, exhibited, perhaps, 
 the only instance on record of a non-compliance 
 with the stern laws of war, which refuse quarter 
 to a foe who has withstood an assault, and from 
 whose other forces resistance or relief is still to be 
 apprehended. 
 
 After the capture of Cornwallis, the troops com- 
 manded by Hamilton returned to the regiments 
 whence they had been detached, and his military 
 occupations ceased. Unwilling to lose the oppor- 
 tunity of being useful, he retained his commission; 
 but, with praiseworthy independence, he refused 
 to receive the emoluments to which it entitled 
 him. 
 
 This act of disinterestedness is the more to be 
 admired, inasmuch as he had exhausted the small 
 remnant of his maternal estate in the equipment of 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 205 
 
 his company at the commencement of the war, 
 and might in equity have looked to be repaid his 
 advances. He had also entered into new ties, 
 and had claims upon him that would, in most 
 minds, have justified him in taking advantage of 
 the emoluments which his long services had earn- 
 ed. 
 
 Shortly after his leaving the staff of Washing- 
 ton, and before the expedition against Cornwallis, 
 he had been united in marriage to a daughter of 
 General Schuyler; and the act of declining to re- 
 ceive his pay was about contemporaneous with 
 the birth of his first child. 
 
 In order to provide for the support of his fami- 
 ly, he determined to prepare himself for the pro- 
 fession of the law. In this study he made such 
 proficiency, that he was enabled, in the course of 
 a few months, to present himself for examination, 
 and obtained a license to practise. While occu- 
 pied in his legal studies, he received an offer from 
 Robert Morris of the situation of receiver of taxes 
 for the State of New-York. This he at first de- 
 clined, from the fear of its interfering with his 
 professional pursuits. Morris was, however, too 
 sensible of the value which his services would 
 be to the country to permit him to refuse, and, at 
 his strong instance, he undertook the duties. The 
 time is long past when the history of the financial 
 transactions of the confederation with the separate 
 S 
 
206 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, 
 
 states can possess any interest to the reader; it is 
 only necessary to remark, that the exertions of 
 Hamilton to produce a harmonious co-operation 
 between the general and state government were 
 unwearied, and entitled him to the gratitude and 
 confidence of both parties. To Hamilton this 
 appointment was of no little importance, for it 
 gave him an opportunity of establishing his repu- 
 tation for business talent and political ability in 
 the eye of the Legislature of that state which he 
 had chosen for his future residence. The nation, 
 too, was the gainer, for Hamilton was thus intro- 
 duced into public life many years before he would 
 have reached notoriety as a statesman through the 
 slow course of forensic occupations. 
 
 m 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 207 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Hamilton takes his Seat in Congress — Question 
 in relation to Vermont. — Plan for a uniform 
 System of Duties on Imports. — Opposition of 
 Rhode Island. — Anonymous Letter published in 
 that State. — Proceedings of Congress in relation 
 thereto. — Virginia withdraws its Assent. — Re- 
 port of the Committee of Finance. — Hamilton 
 proposes a Substitute, which is rejected. — Report 
 of the Committee of Finance, and Documents 
 appejided. — The JYewburgh Letters. 
 
 Hamilton took his seat in the Congress of the 
 United States, as a delegate from the State of 
 New-York, in 1782. The pressure of the war 
 was over ; for the capture of Cornwalhs and his 
 army had proved to the British government that 
 nothing more was to be expected from attempts to 
 occupy or even overrun the country. It had been 
 found, that while their generals, at the head of 
 well-equipped and admirably-disciplined forces, 
 could at the first onset prevail in their incursions, 
 they, at best, had never been able to occupy more 
 ground than the mere position of their camps; 
 and, however successful at first, had been invaria- 
 blv worsted in the end. The advance of Bur- 
 
208 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 goyne into the State of New-York had terminated 
 in his laying down his arms ; the capture of Phil- 
 adelphia had been followed by a disgraceful re- 
 treat through New-Jersey ; and the march of 
 Cornwallis through the Carolinas into Virginia 
 had resulted in the surrender of his army. Still, 
 the hope of gaining by weariness and suiTering 
 what could not be accomplished by arms was not 
 wholly abandoned. The strong and advanta- 
 geous position of New-York w^as occupied by a 
 large army, and made impregnable to any force 
 which could be brought against it, even by the 
 union of the French and American armies. In ad- 
 dition, the navy of England had regained its su- 
 premacy at sea, and the side on which New-York 
 is most vulnerable was thus covered from attack. 
 All parties, however, were wearied with the war, 
 and negotiations for a general peace were speedi- 
 ly opened in Paris. 
 
 Congress had now many important duties to 
 perform, under circumstances of considerable dif- 
 ficulty. An army was to be kept up after the ex- 
 citement of actual danger had passed away, and 
 when the resources of the country had been much 
 impaired by a long continuation of hostilities ; the 
 negotiations for a peace were to be directed, and, 
 as it soon appeared, under circumstances very un- 
 favourable to the maintenance of the power or 
 even of the security of the United States ; terri- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 209 
 
 torial disputes had proceeded to a great extent 
 among the members of the confederacy, and, in 
 particular, a district inhabited by a hardy pop- 
 ulation was in a position "which rendered it prob- 
 able that arms must be resorted to to settle the 
 matter in litigation. The present State of Ver- 
 mont had been principally settled from the other 
 colonies of New-England. The State of New- 
 Hampshire had assumed the right of making 
 grants within that region, under which possession 
 had been taken. The colonial government of 
 New- York had also issued land-titles, and some of 
 the citizens of the state had attempted to occupy 
 the property so granted. To this attempt resist- 
 ance amounting to force had been opposed, so that 
 the civil officers of New-York had been prevented 
 from executing their offices. Congress had been 
 appealed to by both parties ; and while the jus- 
 tice of the question was beyond doubt on the side 
 of New-York, considerations of expediency pre- 
 vented any attempt to enforce the claim, for fear 
 of driving the whole of the frontier State of Ver- 
 mont to a reconcihation with the mother country. 
 
 Of this question Hamilton took an impartial 
 view ; and while he united with his colleagues in 
 the support of the claim of the state he represent- 
 ed, he doubted the propriety of attempting to en- 
 force it by arms. 
 
 The acts of the people of Vermont had, how- 
 S2 
 
210 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 ever, passed the limit of discretion, and, in defi- 
 ance of resolutions of Congress, they bad proceed- 
 ed to exercise jurisdiction over persons professing 
 to be subjects of the State of New-York, even 
 beyond the line of the disputed territory. Some 
 of these were condemned to banishment, under 
 penalty of death and confiscation in case they 
 should return ; while others were fined in large 
 sums, and otherwise injured in their property. 
 
 In order to appease these dissensions for the 
 time being, resolutions were introduced by Mr. 
 M'Kean of Delaware, which were seconded by 
 Hamilton, requiring, on the one hand, that the 
 banished persons should be permitted to return, 
 and full and ample restitution be made to them ; 
 and, on the other, that no person holding commis- 
 sions under the State of New-York should exer- 
 cise authority over the persons and properties of 
 the inhabitants of Vermont. The resolutions also 
 declared that the United States would take meas- 
 ures to enforce them. An unsuccessful attempt 
 was made to strike out this clause, without which 
 the whole would have been nugatory ; and the 
 resolutions, with a slight amendment, passed. 
 
 Hamilton, although one of the youngest mem- 
 bers, immediately took a high stand in the debates 
 and business of Congress, serving, frequently as 
 chairman, on important committees, and moving 
 many valuable resolutions. Before he took his 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 211 
 
 seat, the attention of Congress had been directed 
 to the condition of the finances, which, although 
 somewhat improved under the administration of 
 Robert Morris, were still in a state of great confu- 
 sion. On the 3d of February, 1781, a resolution 
 had passed, recommending to the states the impo- 
 sition of duties on the imports of merchandise and 
 on the sale of prizes. This, w^hich, in order to be 
 successful, must have been general, had been de- 
 feated by the opposition of Rhode Island, which had 
 refused to come into the measure. It was, how- 
 ever, evident that, without some such provision, 
 the credit of the country could not be sustained. 
 Hamilton therefore, within a few days after taking 
 his seat, moved that the superintendent of finance 
 be directed to represent to the several states the 
 necessity of their complying w^ith the requisitions 
 of Congress for raising $ 1,200,000 to pay the in- 
 terest on the debt, and $2,000,000 to defray the 
 current expenses of the year ; the resolution went 
 on to declare that Congress was determined to 
 make the fullest justice to the public creditors an 
 invariable object of their counsels and exertions. 
 Thus far, on a division of the question, the resolu- 
 tion was passed by a unanimous vote. The last 
 part of it provided that a deputation should be 
 sent to Rhode Island, for the purpose of making a 
 representation of the state of pubhc affairs, and of 
 urging the necessity of a compHance with the res- 
 
212 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 olution in relation to duties and prizes. This part 
 was also carried, the State of Rhode Island alone 
 voting in the negative. A draught of a letter 
 was in consequence reported by Hamilton to be 
 sent with the deputation, and was adopted. 
 
 An attempt was now made by the delegation 
 from Rhode Island to rescind that part of the reso- 
 lution providing for sending a deputation; but this 
 attempt was defeated. The next step was a re- 
 port from Hamilton as chairman of a committee, 
 that the deputation ought to proceed to Rhode 
 Island as soon as possible. Of the acts of this 
 deputation no notice appears on the journals of 
 Congress. The great measure of a general and 
 uniform system of duties, the proceeds of which 
 should go into the public treasury, was delayed, to 
 the d.etrira.ent of national credit and the breach of 
 the public faith. In order to furnish an excuse 
 for the refusal of Rhode Island to comply with 
 the requisitions of Congress, an anonymous letter 
 was published in that state, purporting to be from 
 a gentleman in Philadelphia. This letter stated 
 that the finances were prosperous, and that the 
 credit of the country stood so high abroad that 
 the only danger was that of contracting too great 
 a debt. The appearance of this letter caused a 
 feeling of indignation in Congress, and it was re- 
 solved, in conformity with the report of a com- 
 mittee, that the secretary of foreign affairs should 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 213 
 
 write to the executive of Rhode Island to inquire 
 through what channel the communication had 
 been made. No sooner had the resolution passed 
 than one of the delegates from Rhode Island re- 
 quested leave of absence. A few days afterward 
 the same delegate, having returned, avowed him- 
 self the author of the letter, and introduced a mo- 
 tion prefaced by a long defensive preamble. A 
 resolution was then moved by Hamilton, that a 
 committee be appointed to report such measures 
 as it would be proper for Congress to take in re- 
 spect to the motion which, in compliance with the 
 articles of confederation, had been entered on the 
 minutes, but which was " derogatory to the hon- 
 our and dignity of the United States in Congress 
 assembled." The committee, of which Hamilton 
 was one, reported a resolution, that the several 
 motions, with an account of the state of the foreign 
 loans, should be communicated to the executive 
 authority of the State of Rhode Island. The pas- 
 sage of this resolution was a virtual expulsion of 
 the offending delegate, whose name speedily ceas- 
 es to appear on the minutes of Congress, where he 
 did not show himself for several months. 
 
 The opposition of Rhode Island, however, lost 
 its importance ; for the measure of duties on im- 
 ports was rendered impracticable by the with- 
 drawal of the powerful State of Virginia, then by 
 
214 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 far the first in the confederation, of the assent 
 which she had before given. 
 
 Of this question of securing to the government 
 of the confederation the proceeds of general and 
 equal duties on imports for a term of years, Ham- 
 ilton was, as we have seen, a constant and uni- 
 form supporter. Had it prevailed, much of the 
 distress which followed might have been prevent- 
 ed j but the delay of Rhode Island, and the subse- 
 quent change in the decision of Virginia, prevent- 
 ed this all-important measure from being adopted. 
 
 The State of New-York, which was the seat 
 of war almost from its commencement, and had 
 been, with but small exceptions, overrun by the 
 enemy, was unable to pay its contingent of the 
 public burdens. Morris, the financier, knew its 
 impoverished and suffering state, and never in- 
 cluded its quota among his estimates of ways and 
 means. On the other hand, it had, in the subsist- 
 ence of the army, often destitute of all means 
 of payment ; in the personal services of its citi- 
 zens, all of whom had at one time or other been 
 under arms ; and in the injuries it had sustained 
 from both belligerents, borne more than its full 
 share of the public burdens. These were paid, 
 f]om states more fortunately situated, in money, 
 in New-York by personal suffering. Of this lat- 
 ter, however, no estimate could be made, and 
 New-York appeared in the light of a debtor 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 215 
 
 state. Hamilton, in order to free it from this 
 painful position, moved that, in the final adjust- 
 ment of accounts, equitable allowances should be 
 made in favour of the states which had been at 
 different periods in possession of the enemy ; but 
 the motion was lost, in spite of its obvious justice 
 and expediency. 
 
 The most important committee of Congress on 
 which Hamilton served was that of finance. We 
 have already seen the difficulty which had been 
 interposed in the way of duties on importations 
 by the State of Rhode Island. Still, the hope of 
 obtaining what were styled " substantial funds" 
 from the states, in this and other forms, was not 
 abandoned. The committee therefore reported 
 resolutions, in which the duty on imports was 
 again recommended to the states, for the sole pur- 
 pose of the discharge of the principal and interest 
 on the debt contracted during the war, and for a 
 term not longer than twenty-five years. These 
 duties on enumerated articles were very low, and 
 on articles not enumerated only 5 per cent, ad 
 valorem. The report also recommended that sub- 
 stantial revenues be provided by the states in pro- 
 portions to be adjusted ; and that the states which 
 had not completed territorial sessions should make 
 them. The report further proposed an alteration 
 in the articles of confederation, by which the ratio 
 of contribution should be thenceforth founded on 
 
216 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 the number of inhabitants. Hamilton, from the 
 minority of the said committee, presented a substi- 
 tute for these resohitions. The duties on imports 
 being assessed at the same rate as before, arms, 
 ammunition, wool and cotton cards, and wire for 
 making them, were excepted, thus exhibiting the 
 first feature of the policy to which he so long ad- 
 hered, of encouraging domestic industry. In 
 place of the contribution from the states, to be 
 raised in such manner as they should think prop- 
 er, he proposed a tax on all located and surveyed 
 land, and a house tax, at the rate of half a dollar 
 on each dwelling, in addition to 2^ per cent, on 
 the rental. 
 
 Of these he proposed that the duties should ac- 
 crue to the general benefit of the United States, 
 but that the proceeds of the land and house tax 
 should be credited to the states respectively in 
 which they should be collected. 
 
 This plan of Hamilton's, although it cannot but 
 be considered as more equitable than the other, was 
 not admitted as a substitute. He did not on this 
 account withdraw his support and attention from 
 the main object of the resolutions. The proposed 
 change in the articles of confederation, as to the 
 mode of apportioning the contribution of the sev- 
 eral states according to the number of free inhab- 
 itants, had been coldly listened to. Room had 
 indeed been left for a reduction of the assessment, 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 12 17 
 
 by counting only such persons held to servitude as 
 were between ages left blank in the report. An 
 amendment had then been introduced, directing 
 that three fifths of the slaves should be counted; 
 but even with this amendment the whole proposed 
 change of the articles of confederation was strick* 
 en out of the report by the united vote of the 
 Southern and Eastern states. That both should 
 have been dissatisfied by it seemed the strongest 
 proof of its equity. Hamilton therefore, three 
 days afterward, moved a reconsideration of the ar- 
 ticle, and proposed a slight amendment. The re- 
 consideration was admitted, and the amended ar- 
 ticle passed, Rhode Island alone voting in the 
 negative, the vote of Massachusetts being lost by 
 a division of its delegates ; while from New- 
 Hampshire and Delaware no more than a single 
 delegate of each was present, and their votes, 
 which were in the affirmative, were lost. Hamil- 
 ton therefore appears to have been the prominent 
 instrument in that compromise between the slave- 
 holding and other states which was subsequently 
 adopted in the federal constitution. 
 
 On the 18th of March, 1783, the resolutions 
 were finally adopted ; and the sum to be raised by 
 the direct contributions of the several states was 
 fixed at a milhon and a half of dollars. This was 
 apportioned among them in a manner which it 
 may be interesting now to peruse, from the con- 
 T 
 
218 
 
 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 trast which the relative wealth of the several 
 states bears to that which they now possess. 
 We therefore insert this apportionment : 
 
 New-Hampshire 
 Massachusetts 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Connecticut 
 New-York 
 New- Jersey 
 
 $52,708 
 224,427 
 
 32,318 
 132,091 
 128,243 
 
 83,358 
 
 Pennsylvania . . . $205,189 
 
 Delaware 22,433 
 
 Maryland 141,517 
 
 Virginia 256,487 
 
 North Carolina . . . 109,006 
 
 South Carolina . . . 96,183 
 
 Georgia $16,050. 
 
 A committee was then appointed, composed of 
 Madison, Hamilton, and Ellsworth, to prepare an 
 address to the states, which was brought in by 
 them and agreed to. 
 
 This paper is one of great ability, and is accom- 
 panied by a number of interesting documents. 
 The first is an exhibit of the debt, amounting to 
 forty-two millions of dollars, and requiring a pro- 
 vision of $2,400,000 to meet the interest upon it ; 
 the third is an estimate of the product of the pro- 
 posed duties on imports, amoimting to little more 
 than $900,000; the fourth is an extract of let- 
 ters from Franklin, then ambassador in France, in 
 which, among other things, it is stated that, with- 
 out a speedy establishment of solid general rev- 
 enue, and an exact performance of the engage- 
 ments which Congress had made, the United States 
 must renounce the expectation of loans in Europe ; 
 the seventh is a petition from the officers, exhib- 
 iting the distress of the army ; and the last is the 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 219 
 
 official history of the celebrated proceedings at 
 Newburgh, which threatened to have altered the 
 whole character of the Revolution, and to have 
 substituted a military government for one of laws 
 and constitutions. These proceedings are w^orthy 
 of being here noticed. On the 10th of March, 
 1782, two anonymous papers were circulated in 
 the army quartered in the neighbourhood of New- 
 burgh. The first was a call of a meeting of gen- 
 eral and field officers, with a commissioned officer 
 from each company. The second was a most able 
 and powerful appeal to the officers of the army, 
 exhibiting the wrongs and sufferings they had sus- 
 tained, and the neglect with which their petitions 
 for redress had been treated. It also urged the 
 army, in case of peace, not to lay down its arms 
 until it had obtained redress; or, should the war 
 continue, to retire to some unsettled country, and 
 leave their ungrateful country to its fate. 
 
 The manner in which this threatening move- 
 ment was quieted by the address of the command- 
 er-in-chief is a part of the history of the United 
 States ; it is, however, claimed for Hamilton that 
 he was consulted by Washington on the occasion, 
 and aided in producing that decisive action by 
 which the danger was removed. In support of 
 this claim we have not only the belief of the im- 
 mediate friends of Hamilton, but the testimony, in 
 tliis case unquestionable, of Madison, who, in a 
 
Q2Q AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 letter written just before the transaction, speaks of 
 the apprehensions entertained of the discontents in 
 the army, and states that Hamilton had written to 
 Washington to advise the proper course for him to 
 take. This course is exactly that which was fol- 
 lowed by him. Instead of attempting forcibly to 
 suppress the indignant feeling of the army, he, in 
 his first general order, merely comments on the 
 breach of discipline committed by the call of the 
 meeting, and makes no remark on the proposals 
 contained in the letter. In the place of the meet- 
 ing called in the obnoxious manner, one is direct- 
 ed to assemble at a subsequent period. This ap- 
 parent want of decision was seized by the author 
 of the letter, who, in a second address to the army, 
 assumes that Washington has manifested a con- 
 currence in his views. By this prudent and cau- 
 tious method Washington placed himself in the 
 position of the director of the movement of the 
 array, and was enabled to lead the sentiments of 
 the meeting to a just and patriotic action -, while, 
 had he attempted to check its course by the exer- 
 cise of authority, the event which he dreaded must 
 have occurred, and himself have been the first vic- 
 tim of the lawless action. 
 
 It was indeed a fearful moment. Of all parties, 
 Washington himself had the most reason to be 
 dissatisfied ; for his recommendations and earnest 
 instances on behalf of the army and its officers 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 221 
 
 had been neglected, and he had every plausible 
 excuse for placing himself at the head of an at- 
 tempt to obtain redress. He is, in fact, the first 
 and only instance of a successful general who has 
 resisted so tempting an opportunity to aggrandize 
 himself It is in this very juncture that he es- 
 tablished that lofty character which places him 
 above all mortal men, and separates him from the 
 vulgar herd of military chiefs. He might have 
 been the Cromwell or Napoleon of the Revolu- 
 tion ; he preferred a course for which histor}" gave 
 no example, and for which neither former ages, 
 nor the period so fruitful in revolutions which has 
 followed, can afford a parallel. 
 
 The news of the signature of the preliminaries 
 of peace followed soon after the adoption of the 
 resolutions and address to the states of which we 
 have spoken. The army was forthwith separated 
 into detachments, which were directed to be re^ 
 moved into the states where they had been raised, 
 and liberal indulgences of furlough were granted. 
 
 An event now occurred which showed how 
 great had been the danger to the freedom of the 
 country from the Newburgh letters. A party of 
 soldiers on furlough, belonging to the Pennsylva- 
 nia line, committed a gross insult upon Congress 
 by assembling in arms in a menacing manner 
 around their place of meeting; and it appeared 
 that a party of eighty more were on their march 
 T2 
 
222 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 from the barracks at Lancaster to join the muti- 
 neers. Congress, in consequence, applied by a 
 committee, of which Hamilton was chairman, to 
 the executive council of Pennsylvania for protec- 
 tion by a detachment of militia. This council, 
 with professions of zeal and good-will, declared 
 that the request could not be complied with, part- 
 ly in consequence of the disorganized state of the 
 aiilitia, but more particularly because the citizens 
 were rather inclined to take part with than to op- 
 pose the soldiery. Congress, thus left without 
 protection, saw no step for maintaining its digni- 
 ty, or even the personal safety of its members, 
 and adjourned to meet at Princeton, N. J., thus 
 leaving Philadelphia with as much precipitation 
 as it had done when the British army under Howe 
 had approached that city. 
 
 With his service on the above-mentioned com- 
 mittee Hamilton's duties in Congress terminated. 
 
 The result of this insult upon Congress, and its 
 finding that it could not be protected by the ex- 
 ecutive of the state in which it sat, was the resolu- 
 tion to obtain the cession of a district in which its 
 subsequent meetings should be held, and in which 
 the militia should be under its own immediate or- 
 ders. This plan was adopted in the Constitution 
 of the United States, and the present District of 
 Columbia was formed in consequence, on land, ju- 
 risdiction over which was ceded by the States of 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 223 
 
 Virginia and Maryland, and in which the City of 
 Washington was laid out. 
 
 The danger to which Congress w^as exposed 
 from so small a band of mutineers, and the utter 
 inefficiency for their protection of a state so pow- 
 erful as Pennsylvania, shows how completely the 
 country was at the mercy of the army, which, in 
 the hands of one who sought his own aggrandize- 
 ment, might have possessed itself of the persons 
 of the delegates to Congress, and overawed the 
 legislatures of the states. 
 
224 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Hamilton takes up his Residence in the City of 
 JVew-York. — His Rivals and Associates at the 
 Bar. — Popular Violence directed against the 
 Tories. — Hamilton's publication on this Occa- 
 sicm. — He is chosen a Member of Assembly. — 
 His Agency in the Pacification of Vermont. — 
 Causes which led to the call of a Convention 
 ffor amending the Confederacy. — Previous Con- 
 vention at Annapolis. — Hamilton draws the Re- 
 port of that Convention. 
 
 Hamilton, in attending his duties as a delegate 
 in Congress, made no little sacrifice. His intended 
 profession, in order to be profitable, demanded a 
 fixed residence and undivided attention ; the wants 
 of a growing family required that he should derive 
 emolument from practice at the bar. In order to 
 serve his country, he gave up the first, and devo- 
 ted the whole of his time to the sessions of Con- 
 gress. It had become very difficult to obtain 
 proper persons to serve in Congress, now that the 
 pressure of danger was over. No state appears 
 to have been represented during 1782 by more 
 than two delegates, and in 1783 the absences be- 
 came so numerous that it was often impossible to 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 225 
 
 form a house for the despatch of business, for the 
 want of the representation of a quorum of the 
 states. In fact, the state legislatures, organized in 
 such manner as to express the immediate senti- 
 ment of the people, had obtained a moral influ- 
 ence far beyond that exerted by the general Con- 
 gress, and the aspirants for popular favour sought 
 it through the former rather than the latter chan- 
 nel. 
 
 The evacuation of New-York took place in No- 
 vember, 1783. Hamilton immediately removed 
 with his family to that city, and, resigning all oth- 
 er offices, applied himself to the practice of the 
 law. The bar of New-York was at that time 
 feeble in numbers, but powerful in talent. Of 
 those who resumed their labours, now that the 
 war which had interrupted them was over, were 
 Samuel Jones and Richard Harrison, names of no 
 ordinary distinction for learning and eloquence; 
 while among the contemporaries of Hamilton were 
 Brockholst Livingston and Aaron Burr. The 
 latter and Hamilton speedily became rivals, and 
 were not only opposed to each other as counsel, 
 but in the more lasting contests of party. 
 
 An opportunity now presented itself for Ham- 
 ilton to reassert the reputation of a powerful and 
 conclusive writer, which he had attained before 
 hostilities broke out. The articles of peace being 
 signed, not only did those who had been so long 
 
226 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 exiled return, but many of those who had contin- 
 ued to reside in the city were anxious to remain 
 within its walls. The latter were very obnoxious 
 to many of the former. They had in some in- 
 stances borne arms, but had in all exhibited the 
 outward marks of loyalty to the royal authority. 
 Some also, who felt themselves insecure at first, 
 and had retired with the British army to Halifax, 
 began to show themselves in the land of their 
 birth. The State of New-York had manifested a 
 vindictive spirit against the Tories, and had ful- 
 minated confiscations and attainders against them. 
 When possession of the city and neighbouring 
 country was regained by the evacuation, these 
 penalties were re-enforced on their estates, and 
 their persons were also threatened with violence 
 by the people. 
 
 There were many of those who had been active 
 in the Revolution who did not realize the change 
 from hostilities and the struggles of a civil war to 
 a state of peace and settled government. These 
 were inclined to exercise tyranny over suspected 
 Tories, and inflict punishment upon their persons 
 without the sanction of the law. Tmnults arose, 
 in which the lives of the latter were endangered. 
 George Clinton, who then held the office of gov- 
 ernor of the state, exerted himself most efficiently 
 to repress the outbreaks of popular zeal. He in- 
 terfered in person to disperse tumultuous assem- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 227 
 
 blies, and in more than one instance protected the 
 real or suspected Tories from violence. It was 
 necessary, however, that a new impulse should be 
 given to the popular feeling, and that the reason 
 of the people should be convinced of the impro- 
 priety of the outrages. This office w^as underta- 
 ken by Hamilton, who published in the New- 
 York Gazette a series of papers under the signa- 
 ture of Phocion. These had the desired effect ; 
 and the great body of the populace, partly deter- 
 red by the determined energy of Clinton, and 
 partly satisfied by the sound arguments of Hamil- 
 ton, abstained from farther outrage. 
 
 In 1786 Hamilton was elected a member of 
 Assembly from the City of New-York. This ses- 
 sion was marked by two important measures. 
 The Vermont question was discussed at length, 
 and resolutions taken which put a resort to arms 
 beyond all reach of probability. In the settle- 
 ment of this important subject Hamilton bore a 
 distinguished part, and introduced broad views of 
 policy to which the discussion had hitherto been 
 a stranger. It had been debated on the ground 
 of strict legal rights ; Hamilton brought consider- 
 ations of national policy to bear upon it. 
 
 The happy result of the Vermont question has 
 been universally and justly ascribed to the exer- 
 tions of Hamilton. Nothing could exceed the 
 wisdom of the measures he proposed j and these 
 
228 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 were rendered victorious in the Legislature by the 
 influence of his character and the power of his el- 
 oquence. 
 
 During the session of 1786, the State of New- 
 York took the earliest step towards an amendment 
 of the articles of confederation, and thus led the 
 way in the proceedings which terminated in the 
 adoption of the federal Constitution. 
 
 These articles, which had been formed in haste 
 and on the spur of the occasion, had produced a 
 certain degree of good ; but this is rather to be 
 attributed to the pressure of a common danger, 
 which gave to the proceedings of Congress an 
 authority which was not granted in terms. The 
 Congress, which, as has been seen, had at first ex- 
 erted powers of unrestrained sovereignty, grad- 
 ually fell to the level of a mere council of inde- 
 pendent states, whose decisions had none of the 
 authority of law, and whose recommendations 
 were disregarded as soon as the necessity of com- 
 bating a common enemy had ceased. In spite of 
 the urgent instances Of Congress upon the states 
 to provide a permanent revenue, and to create a 
 uniform rate of duties upon imports, to be pledged 
 for the payment of the principal and interest of 
 the debt, the resistance of the petty government 
 of Rhode Island had defeated the measure, and 
 the more powerful states withdrew the assent they 
 had at first granted. The individual states, so far 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 229 
 
 from applying the means in their possession, and 
 which they refused to the general use, in provi- 
 ding for their own debts, continued the ruinous is- 
 sue of paper money, which rapidly depreciated, 
 until in some instances it ceased to have even a 
 nominal value. The exchanges were so deranged 
 that the remittance of money from one part of the 
 country to another became almost impracticable, 
 and commercial jealousies began to spring up, 
 which led to countervailing measures calculated 
 to place the members of the confederation in the 
 attitude of foreigners and rivals to each other. 
 
 The coimtry, on the return of peace, had anti- 
 cipated a renewal of the traffic it had formerly 
 carried on, with the addition of a trade with coun- 
 tries, to which, by the British navigation acts, its 
 ships and commodities had been denied access. 
 This hope was completely disappointed. The 
 supply of the West India possessions of Great 
 Britain with lumber, provisions, and live-stock had 
 formerly been a trade of much importance j but, 
 although these islands had suffered in as great a 
 degree from the suspension of intercourse as the 
 colonies which had become independent, they were 
 not allowed to repair their losses by a resort to 
 the productions of the United States. For a time, 
 indeed, their necessities were so great that the civ- 
 il authorities were compelled to wink at an illicit 
 trade. The officers of the British navy, however, 
 U 
 
230 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 were deterred by no such considerations, and saw 
 in the growing trade a prospect of prize-money 
 from seizures more alluring than captures in ac- 
 tual war. By a single operation, planned by Nel- 
 son, all the vessels trading with the British colo- 
 nies in the West Indies from the United States 
 were seized. 
 
 The fisheries might still have flourished, but the 
 original markets had been closed against them, 
 and new ones had not yet been opened. The 
 whale fishery had been sustained by a bounty from 
 the British government, the loss of which was 
 sensibly felt; and colonies of the hardy seamen 
 trained in that art had been established in both 
 England and France, to be the rivals of the ports 
 whence they had emigrated. 
 
 The treaty of peace with Great Biitain had 
 made provision for the collection of debts due 
 to subjects of that country before the breaking 
 out of the Revolution. This provision was frus- 
 trated by the laws of several of the states, which 
 forbade the recovery of such debts. No tribunal 
 existed in which the terms of the treaty could be 
 made a plea, nor any constitutional provision ma- 
 king treaties the supreme law. Individual cupid- 
 ity, conspiring with popular prejudice, prevented 
 the repeal of the obnoxious acts, and Great Brit- 
 ain was thus furnished with a pretence for refusing 
 to give up the posts she held in the Western coun- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 231 
 
 try. By these she controlled and influenced the 
 Indians, whom the traders of Canada furnished 
 with arms and excited to hostility. 
 
 No sooner had the flag of the United States 
 made its appearance in the Mediterranean, than 
 the pirates of the Barbary coast, seeing it unpro- 
 tected by a navy, and having received, as was 
 then yielded even by the most powerful maritime 
 nations, no tribute as the price of forbearance, 
 pounced upon it, making prize of vessel and car- 
 go, and carrying the crews into bondage. 
 
 The very opening of the war found the country 
 exhausted of all the foreign manufactures which 
 are necessaries of civilized life, in consequence of 
 the agreements of non-importation ; the occasional 
 superiority of the French fleet had allowed the 
 importation of some of these from that country, 
 but they were of a character foreign to the taste 
 and habits founded on the use of British fabrics. 
 
 Manufactures of limited extent had sprung up, 
 but they were inadequate to supply more than a 
 small part of the domestic demand. The peace, 
 therefore, found the population greedy for British 
 manufactures, and the first adventurers in those 
 articles realized enormous profits. The manufac- 
 turers of Great Britain, thus stimulated, poured in 
 a vast amount of their goods. The merchants of 
 the seaports of the United States purchased these 
 with avidity on credit, and gave credits to the 
 
232 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 traders of the country, who also sought these fat 
 lies with greediness. The supply, however, vast 
 ly exceeded the means of payment in the impov 
 erished state of the country. In the first place, 
 the whole of the precious metals were swept 
 away, the goods were next offered at large sacri- 
 fices, and those who had laid in stocks were ruin- 
 ed by the depreciation and by the inability of the 
 purchasers at second hand to collect from their 
 debtors. 
 
 Public and private credit were thus equally 
 prostrated. The opponents of the Revolution be- 
 gan to exult over it as a failure, and contrasted 
 the prosperity enjoyed as colonies with the im- 
 poverished state of the independent republics. 
 
 The people themselves became restless and dis- 
 satisfied w^ith their condition. The states, in de- 
 nying power to Congress, had not strengthened 
 their own. We have seen that the executive of 
 Pennsylvania could not muster a force sufficient to 
 defend Congress from the insults of a few muti- 
 neers, and the other states were not more power- 
 ful. Imboldened by this feebleness of the gov- 
 ernment, an insurrection broke out in the western 
 part of Massachusetts which threatened to destroy 
 the supremacy of its laws. This rebellion, known 
 from the name of its leader. Shay, was suppressed 
 with difficulty, and furnished the enemies of civil 
 liberty in Europe with a text whence they des- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 233 
 
 canted on the utter inefficiency of a republican 
 form of government. 
 
 i The state of things we have described impress- 
 ed lessons of the most salutary character on the 
 people. It was at first popular to refuse to con- 
 tribute by taxes and imposts to the support of 
 government. Independence seemed to be achiev- 
 ed by a species of miracle, by the sole resource of 
 a credit which failed as soon as the emergency 
 was over. The suffering fell, as was necessary, 
 in the first place, upon the army, and on those 
 who were rich enough to loan money to the gov- 
 ernment, or were compelled to accept its paper 
 and engagements in payment of debts due to 
 them. It next reached the merchant and master 
 manufacturer, whom the mechanical workmen 
 and day labourers, by some strange obliquity of 
 reason, regard with jealousy, and whose distresses 
 were rather rejoiced over than pitied. Even the 
 agricultural classes did not sympathize with those 
 who, labouring at the desk or borne down by the 
 cares of traffic, are, notwithstanding, excluded in 
 vulgar opinion from the list of working-men or 
 productive labourers. 
 
 The sound wisdom which dictated the fable of 
 the belly and the members is, however, more 
 applicable in our country than in that where it 
 quelled the sedition of the plebeian order. When 
 the resources of the capitalist are impaired and 
 U2 
 
234 AMEEICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 his confidence is diminished, the trader and manu- 
 facturer speedily feel the shock; the distress is 
 propagated more slowly to the mechanic and far- 
 mer, and strikes the labourer last of all, but at 
 each successive step the blow is more violent 
 Those possessed of solid wealth feel no more than 
 the nominal reduction of their funds, which is 
 more than compensated by an increase in the rate 
 of interest, and a fall in wages and the prices of 
 articles of luxury ; while he who looks to daily 
 labour for the means of subsistence finds a dimi- 
 nution in the opportunities of occupation, and is 
 not only in the receipt of wages lower, even when 
 estimated in food and clothing, but is often left 
 without employment. 
 
 In the instance before us, the universal preva- 
 lence of distress brought the community to a sense 
 of the truth of the warnings which the sages of 
 the Revolution had so repeatedly uttered, predict- 
 ing that the downfall of public credit would be 
 surely followed by individual distress, and that the 
 want of an efficient superintending government 
 would certainly react to the destruction of private 
 happiness. There were not wanting ambitious 
 politicians w^ho stood in opposition to these salu- 
 tary, but, for a time, unpopular truths; but their in- 
 fluence was on the wane, and many of them w^ere, 
 with nice instinct, preparing to support measm'es 
 which were soon to be carried by popular accla- 
 mation. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 235 
 
 The separate states had derived then* territories 
 from the charters of the British government, and 
 were included by boundaries having no reference 
 to natural advantages or to the facilities of foreign 
 commerce. Some of them, therefore, were in pos- 
 session of the great marts of commerce, while oth- 
 ers were compelled to receive all their supplies 
 of foreign goods through the former. Thus New- 
 Jersey, situated between the great emporia of 
 New- York and Philadelphia, paid to those states 
 a duty on all its consumption of imported mer- 
 chandise, without having the means of counter- 
 vailing the tax. North Carolina was in the same 
 position in respect to Charleston and Norfolk; and, 
 at the time of these discussions, Rhode Island im- 
 ported for Connecticut and the western part of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 The embarrassments of trade and the conse- 
 quent distresses, seem to have been the influential 
 causes in leading to the call of the convention by 
 which the present Constitution was formed. The 
 State of Virginia had attempted to retaliate on 
 Great Britain for the heavy tax to which her sta- 
 ple was liable on entrance into that country, and 
 had thus driven the trade into Maryland. Mary- 
 land, however, was, for like reasons, disposed to 
 make common cause with Virginia; but it was 
 found that the only effect of its adhesion to this 
 policy would be to cause the importations to be 
 made through Delaware and Pennsylvania. 
 
236 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 In view of this subject, the commissioners ap- 
 pointed by Maryland and Virginia to settle a dis- 
 puted boundary had recommended a uniformity 
 in the commercial regulations of the two states, 
 but had seen the necessity of including the other 
 two states which have been mentioned ; and it was 
 obvious that similar reasons would require that 
 Jersey and New-York should unite in the same 
 policy. It was, in consequence, resolved by the 
 Legislature of Virginia, that commissioners should 
 be named to meet such as might be appointed by 
 other states of the Union, for the purpose of ta- 
 king into consideration the state of trade, and ex- 
 amining how far a uniform system in their com- 
 mercial regulations might be advisable. A con- 
 vention, in consequence, met at Annapolis in 1786, 
 which was attended by delegates from five states, 
 namely, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and New- York. Hamilton was among the 
 commissioners of the latter state, and took a deci- 
 ded lead in the proceedings. This convention de- 
 chned to execute the limited task assigned to it, 
 and determined to recommend the calling of a new 
 convention, with powers adequate to meet the gen- 
 eral exigences of the Union. A report was in con- 
 sequence adopted and addressed to the legisla- 
 tures of the five states represented in the conven- 
 tion. Of this report Hamilton was the author. 
 After stating that it was not considered advisable 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 237 
 
 to proceed on the business of the session under 
 circumstances of a partial and defective represent- 
 ation, the report goes on to say, " that the power 
 of regulating trade is of such comprehensive ex- 
 tent, and will enter so far into the general system 
 of the federal government, that to give it efficacy, 
 and to obviate questions and doubts concerning 
 its precise nature and limits, may require a cor- 
 respondent adjustment of other parts of the fed- 
 eral system." 
 
 After intimating that national circumstances 
 exist " of a nature so serious as to render the sit- 
 uation of the United States delicate and critical, 
 and calling for an exertion of the united virtue 
 and wisdom of all the members of the confed- 
 eracy," the report closes as follows : *- 
 
 " Your commissioners beg leave to suggest their 
 unanimous conviction, that it may essentially tend 
 to advance the interests of the Union, if the states 
 by which they have respectively been delegated, 
 would themselves concur, and use their endeav- 
 ours to procure the concurrence of the other states 
 in the appointment of commissioners, to meet at 
 Philadelphia on the second Monday in May next, 
 to take into consideration the situation of the 
 United States; to devise such further provisions 
 as shall appear to them necessary to render the 
 Constitution of the federal government adequate 
 to the exigences of the Union ; and to report such 
 
238 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 an act for the purpose to the United States in 
 Congress assembled, as, when agreed to by them, 
 and afterward confomed by the legislatures of 
 every state, will effectually provide for the same." 
 The plan of a convention of the states for the 
 adoption of a more close and federal union, which 
 had been proposed by Hamilton in his letters to 
 Morris and Duane, was thus, by his instrumentali- 
 ty, brought before the states in a manner which 
 carried with it enough of authority to require 
 some definite action. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 239 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 Federal Convention assembles at Philadelphia. — 
 Resolutions offered hy Edmund Randolph. — 
 Resolutions of Judge Patterson. — Plan offered 
 hy Pinckney. — Hamilton's great Speech in the 
 Convention, in which he offers a Draught of a 
 Constitution. — Examination of its Features. — 
 The Delegation from JYew-York retires from the 
 Convention!. — Hamilton alone returns and re- 
 sumes his Seat. — Franklin's Speech. — Hamil- 
 ton urges that all the Members should sign. — 
 Hamilton's Speech on that Occasion. — Consider- 
 ation of his Services in framing the Consti- 
 tution. 
 
 The public did not hesitate to ascribe to Ham- 
 ilton the principal agency in procuring the report 
 of the Convention at Annapolis. He was there- 
 fore lauded by some and decried by others, ac- 
 cording to their feelings on the question, as the 
 founder of the Union which superseded the con- 
 federacy. More recently, when all parties have 
 united in admitting the merits of the federal Con- 
 stitution, his claims have been disputed. We 
 conceive, however, that it is too late to bring 
 forward names to divide or divert the honour 
 
240 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 from him. So long as it was questionable how 
 far the popular voice would sanction the new Con- 
 stitution, these claims were not advanced ; while 
 Hamilton boldly, and on all occasions, maintained, 
 even in opposition to the voice of the majority of 
 the community of which he was a member, the 
 wisdom and propriety of forming a strong and ef- 
 ficient government in the place of a feeble confed- 
 eracy. His colleagues in the Annapolis Conven- 
 tion saw in the change pointed at in their report a 
 scheme likely to enhance their local popularity; 
 Hamilton could not have been unaware that he 
 would have to encounter a powerful opposition 
 in the state which he had represented. 
 
 The other membei-s of the Annapohs Conven- 
 tion were natives of the states by which they were 
 delegated, and, particularly in the case of Virginia, 
 entertained feelings of state pride and local par- 
 tiality which were ill suited to the discussion of 
 the subject committed to them on broad and na- 
 tional grounds. Hamilton was perhaps the only 
 one of the members who w^as free from such in- 
 fluences. He had made the general cause of the 
 states the object of his exertions, had no partial 
 attachments derived from circumstances of birth or 
 early associations ; he bad become a resident of 
 the United States at an age which permitted him 
 to forget his more early ties, and yet too advanced 
 to give him for any particular spot the feehngs of 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 241 
 
 a native. He was thus enabled to view the ques- 
 tion of trade in reference to principles of general 
 utility ; and it happened most fortunately, that the 
 local interests of the powerful State of Virginia 
 were at that time in obvious accordance with those 
 of the states as a nation. 
 
 By a resolution of the Annapolis Convention, 
 their report was communicated, not only to the 
 states represented in it, but to the others, and to 
 Congress. Virginia was the first state which act- 
 ed upon the report ; and by a vote of the Legis- 
 lature almost unanimous, a deputation was named 
 to attend the Convention in Philadelphia. As a 
 proof of the importance attached to the object, 
 Washington himself was placed at the head of the 
 delegation, and Edmund Randolph, who had just 
 filled the office of governor, w^as associated with 
 him. Among the other members from Virginia 
 was James Madison, who had already distinguish- 
 ed himself in the Legislature of his native state 
 and in Congress, and who had been a member of 
 the Convention at Annapolis. Eleven other states 
 speedily adopted similar resolutions ; but Rhode 
 Island did not appoint delegates. Hamilton was 
 named by the State of New-York along with 
 Robert Yates and John Lansing, Jr. 
 
 The Convent' on assembled at Philadelphia on 
 the appointed day, when the delegates of nine 
 states assembled, namely, Massachusetts, New- 
 X 
 
242 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Vir- 
 ginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, 
 In a few days the members from Connecticut and 
 Maryland made their appearance, but those from 
 New-Hampshire did not attend until the 31st of 
 July. 
 
 It has rarely happened that an assembly has 
 ever met imbodying so much dignity of character 
 and talent. Proudly conspicuous among their fel- 
 lows were Franklin and Washington, and with 
 them are recorded the names of King, Patterson, 
 the two Morrises, Wilson, Fitzsimmons, Edmund 
 Randolph, Madison, Wythe, and the two Pinck- 
 neys. To these were speedily added Strong, Ells- 
 worth, Gerry, and Governor Livingston. 
 
 The choice of the meeting might well have 
 hesitated between Franklin and Washington as 
 the presiding officer ; but all difficulty was at 
 once obviated by a motion from the State of Penn- 
 sylvania for the appointment of the latter. On 
 the motion of Hamilton, Major Jackson was cho- 
 sen secretary. 
 
 Before the Convention thus organized, the del- 
 egates of Virginia, through Governor Randolph^ 
 laid a series of resolutions imbodying the principles 
 of a federative government. These were made 
 the basis of discussion. A few days afterward 
 another scheme was presented by Charles Pinck- 
 ney of South Carolina. It is, however, stated by 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 243 
 
 Madison, in a note to the proceedings of the Con- 
 vention, that the pubhshed paper is not the origi- 
 nal form presented by Mr. Pinckney, but that the 
 manuscript bears marks of having been interlined 
 with details which grew up during the proceed- 
 ings of the Convention. 
 
 The resolutions offered by Governor Randolph 
 were fifteen in number ; they proposed, a right of 
 suffrage proportioned to the quotas of contribution 
 or the number of free inhabitants ; a national le- 
 gislature in two branches, the first to be elected by 
 the people of the states, the second to be chosen 
 by the first out of candidates named by the state 
 legislatures; a national executive, with a council 
 of revision; and a national judiciary. 
 
 The first proposition was a change in the whole 
 system of the confederation, in which the states 
 had hitherto possessed an equal voice, however 
 different in population or in wealth. It also exci- 
 ted the question of slavery, as in its very terms 
 it left open the discussion, whether that part of 
 the population was to be counted in apportioning 
 the number of representatives. After much discus- 
 sion, the ratio which we have seen had been pro- 
 posed by Hamilton in the Congress of 1782, 
 namely, the addition of three fifths of the slave 
 to the free population, was adopted. The smaller 
 states, however, seeing their proportional influence 
 was thus to be lessened, determined on an effort to 
 
244 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 retain it. In this they found assistance from Ham 
 ilton's colleagues in the New- York delegation, and 
 thus secured the vote of that state in their behalf. 
 At the instance, therefore, of the states of Con- 
 necticut, New-York, New-Jersey, and Delaware, 
 wdth one of the members from Maryland, Judge 
 Patterson offered a counter project to the plan of 
 Governor Randolph. This proposed, as additions 
 to the powers already vested in the Congress of 
 the confederacy, the authority to raise a revenue 
 by import duties, stamps, and postages ; the right 
 of regulating commerce with foreign nations and 
 between the states ; the power of enforcing requi- 
 sitions, according to the ratio of Hamilton, by ma- 
 king laws for the collection in case the states 
 should neglect to comply. It also proposed a fed- 
 eral executive and judiciary, and that treaties 
 should be the supreme law of the land. 
 
 It was evident that the principles of the two 
 propositions of New-Jersey and Virginia were 
 wholly incompatible. The first maintained the 
 equality of states differing vastly in wealth and 
 population, and gave to their representatives in 
 Congress powers of great magnitude, which it 
 would have hardly been possible to exercise in 
 such manner as to secure the support of a ma- 
 jority of the numbers of the people. The second 
 swept from the national government all trace of 
 the individual sovereignty of the states, and must, 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 245 
 
 had it been carried, have reduced them to the 
 level of mere corporations. It comprised, in ad- 
 dition, the power of negativing acts of the state 
 legislatures, and of employing force to coerce re- 
 fractory members of the Union. Such were the 
 views of the statesmen of Virginia at this epoch, 
 and Madison fully concurred with his colleagues. 
 By a number of votes, each preceded by a long 
 discussion, the articles proposed by Mr. Randolph 
 had been materially modified, while the plan of 
 Mr. Patterson had received the support of no more 
 than four states. Nothing had been done, after a 
 session of more than three weeks, towards the de- 
 tails of a constitution; and opposition to those 
 parts of the project of Randolph which tended 
 to regulate the distribution of the vote in both 
 branches by numbers and not by states, seemed to 
 be increasmg. The prospects of a favourable re- 
 sult appeared to be small; for, even should the 
 smaller states be outvoted in the Convention, they 
 would probably refuse to accept a constitution 
 founded on the propositions of Randolph. Ham- 
 ilton bad hitherto been a silent listener to the de- 
 bates, partly, as he himself stated, from respect to 
 the abilities, age, and experience of the other 
 members, and partly from his delicate position in 
 relation to his colleagues, with whose sentiments 
 he could not agree. Randolph had at last ex- 
 pressed almost absolute despair of the success of 
 X2 
 
246 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 the Convention, and Hamilton could no longer re- 
 frain from uttering his sentiments. His speech oc- 
 cupied six hours, and is said to have been one of 
 his greatest performances. Nothing, however, 
 has been preserved of it in a published form, ex- 
 cept a meager report in the minutes of the de- 
 bates kept by Madison. From this it is impossi- 
 ble to form any just opinion of the eloquence and 
 argument it is said to have exhibited. In the 
 course of the speech a written paper was read, 
 comprising his views of the form of government 
 and kind of constitution he would have proposed, 
 and parts of which he had it in contemplation to 
 offer as amendments to the propositions of Mr. 
 Randolph. Of this paper a copy is said to be 
 given in the published journals and in the debates 
 by Madison. It does not, however, appear proba- 
 ble that this can be more than a mere synopsis, 
 and a variety of evidence leads to the conclusion 
 that the paper actually read by him is that 
 which is given by Madison in the appendix to 
 his posthumous work. Of this the propositions 
 in the journals are evidently an abstract, and it 
 seems to have been admitted that a different plan 
 was subsequently proposed by Hamilton of a more 
 practicable character. The first scheme appears 
 to have been his beau ideal of a government, 
 which he did not even offer as a subject of dis- 
 cussion to the Convention. Taking the British 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 247 
 
 Constitution as the best model of government 
 which the world had then seen, he seems to have 
 endeavoured to fit it to the circumstances of the 
 people of the United States, and by throwing out 
 all its corrupt, its aristocratic and royal features, 
 to give it the most liberal character consistent 
 with efficiency. 
 
 The fundamental feature of this scheme is a 
 popular legislative body, to be elected by the 
 votes of all the free white male inhabitants of the 
 several slates of the Union, for terms to be fixed 
 by law, but not to exceed three years. In this 
 popular branch, thus frequently brought before 
 their constituents, all bills for raising revenue, for 
 appropriating moneys to pay fleets and armies, 
 and for paying salaries, were to originate ; but 
 they might be altered or amended in the other 
 branch of the Legislature. In this, the democrat- 
 ic part of his proposed constitution, he went far 
 greater lengths than the Convention did finally; 
 for, although that body adopted the mode pro- 
 posed by him for apportioning the members of 
 representatives among the states, it left the right 
 of suffrage to be regulated by the local laws, 
 which at that time required freehold qualifica- 
 tions in many of the states. The plan went even 
 as far in the election of the popular branch of the 
 Legislature as has been done in the late extension 
 of suffrage by the new Constitution of the State of 
 
248 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 New-York. It seems strange that the framer of 
 such a project should have been afterward stig- 
 matized as a monarchist and an enemy to the pop- 
 ular cause. 
 
 The Senate was intended by him to be a body 
 capable of giving stability to the government, and 
 of controlling the changes in policy which might 
 result from the frequent popular elections of the 
 lower house. To meet this requisite he proposed 
 that the members should hold their seats for life 
 and good behaviour. They were to be appointed 
 by electors chosen by the freeholders; but there 
 was no limit to the requisite landed property, so that 
 the smallest possible possession would have giv- 
 en a right to vote. It was in the apportionment 
 of the numbers of this Senate among the states 
 that his refined policy is most obvious. The elec- 
 tion being made by districts, every state, however 
 small, w^as to constitute a district, while the lar- 
 ger states were to be divided into two or more 
 districts. The members of the Senate being limit- 
 ed to four tenths of those of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, it is obvious that the smaller states 
 would have enjoyed more than a proportionate 
 representation, while the larger would not have 
 had reason to complain, as they may at present, 
 that their power and numbers do not give them 
 an adequate influence. Yet the numerous repre- 
 sentation in the Senate of the larger states would 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 249 
 
 not have been objectionable in consequence of the 
 system of districts, and the votes being by pei^ons, 
 and not, as in the old Congress, by states. While 
 we may doubt how far it would have been expe- 
 dient to have adopted the tenure for hfe in the of- 
 fice of senator, we must avow our belief that the 
 mode of apportioning the numbers of this branch 
 of the Legislature proposed in this scheme would 
 have been more advantageous than that which 
 was adopted. To the Senate, so constituted, the 
 exclusive power of declaring war was given, and 
 treaties were to be made with its advice and con- 
 sent. The Senate was to choose its own presiding 
 officer, who was to be ex officio vice-president of 
 the Union, and the temporary occupant of a va- 
 cancy in the presidency. 
 
 The tenure for life of the senators was not as 
 repugnant to the feeUngs of the day as it would at 
 present appear. It was universally admitted in the 
 Convention, and the public voice sanctioned the 
 opinion, that the term for which the senators were 
 elected should be long enough to enable them to 
 fulfil their duties independently, and without any 
 reference to popular excitement of a temporary 
 character. The doctrine of instructions, under 
 which votes have been given in opposition to the 
 conscience of the senator, was not then invented ; 
 and there is every reason to believe that this part 
 of Hamilton's plan might have been favourably 
 
250 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 entertained by the Convention, had it not appear- 
 ed to be liable to attack from those opposed to the 
 Constitution on other grounds. 
 
 The president was to have been chosen by 
 electors, of the same number, and in the same 
 manner as the present Constitution points out, 
 but the qualifications of the voters were to be the 
 same as in the case of senators. A more artificial 
 mode than has been adopted of verifying the votes 
 of the electoral colleges, and meeting the case of 
 no candidate having a majority of the whole votes, 
 by means of a college of second electors, to be as- 
 sembled at the seat of government, under the pres- 
 idency of a judge of the Supreme Court, was pro- 
 posed. This is not liable to the objections to 
 which the choice by the House of Representatives 
 in case of no election by the colleges, is obnox- 
 ious. 
 
 The tenure of the president's office was to be 
 the same as that of a senator, until death, resigna- 
 tion, or impeachment. He was to have a nega- 
 tive on all bills, resolutions, and acts; to have the 
 power of proroguing the Legislature for forty 
 days ; to be commander-in-chief of the army and 
 navy ; to have the absolute appointment of the 
 heads of the four great departments of foreign af- 
 fairs, navy, army, and finance ; and, with the con- 
 sent of the Senate, the nomination of all officers not 
 otherwise provided for in the Constitution ; he was 
 
ALEXANnER HAMILTON. 251 
 
 to have the power of pardon except in cases of 
 treason, which was to require the concurrence of 
 the legislative bodies. These high powers were, 
 however, to be limited by his being prevented from 
 exercising any control over the public purse. The 
 planning of the ways and means fell w^ithin the 
 duties of the head of the financial department ; but 
 the actual custody of the money, in order to its ex- 
 penditure according to specific appropriation, was 
 to be vested in a treasurer chosen by the Senate 
 and House of Representatives ; and the choice was 
 not subject to the veto of the president. This pro- 
 vision was incorporated in the earlier draughts of 
 the Constitution adopted by the Convention, but 
 was finally stricken out ; probably because it was 
 thought that the management of the finances was 
 inseparable from the custody of the money. 
 
 The tenure proposed in this plan by Hamilton 
 for the office of president, is probably the reason 
 why his political opponents in after days stigma- 
 tized him as a monarchist ; and it is obvious that 
 the stability of the government might have been 
 threatened in the case of a president for life be- 
 coming obnoxious to the people. Hamilton, how- 
 ever, while he did not exempt the president from 
 impeachment, or adopt the feudal doctrine that the 
 king can do no wrong, gave him the sole power of 
 appointing his cabinet. By this provision that offi- 
 cer would have had the opportunity, without loss 
 
252 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 of consideration, of changing his official advisers, 
 and thus of adapting his course of action to a com- 
 phance with the popular will, expressed through 
 the House of Representatives ; and the latter body 
 had absolute power of coercion over the heads of 
 departments, the Senate, and the president himself, 
 in the right of originating annual bills for the pay- 
 ment of their salaries. Under the present Con- 
 stitution, opposition or delay in the passage of ap- 
 propriations for the support of government may be 
 stigmatized as factious and unpatriotic, while, 
 had the president held his office for life, they 
 might have in many cases secured praise as a 
 legitimate mode of popular resistance to an un- 
 popular ruler. 
 
 In making the term of the president's office no 
 more than four years, and permitting him to be re- 
 eligible, as in the existing Constitution, the whole 
 poHcy of the country, and all the divisions of par- 
 ty throughout the Union, have been made to hinge 
 on the presidential election. The president him- 
 self, during his first term, strains every nerve to 
 secure a re-election; while, during the second, 
 he is either engaged in intrigues to secure the suc- 
 cession of a favourite, or gives up his proper and 
 legitimate influence to the candidates. Questions, 
 however important they may be in their own mer- 
 its, are considered wholly in reference to their 
 bearing upon the contest for the presidency. A 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 253 
 
 good and wise measure will be opposed for fear it 
 should increase the popularity of the person who 
 proposes it, and plans of doubtful expediency will 
 be urged for the sake of enlisting popular feeling 
 on the side of the administration. The evils of 
 the present system are obvious by trial ; what might 
 have been those which w^ould have attended an 
 election for life, conjecture can alone exhibit. 
 
 The objectionable part of this scheme of Ham- 
 ilton's lies in its requiring the chief magistrates 
 of the several states to receive their appointment 
 from the administration of the general government. 
 He must, in proposing this, have foreseen the case 
 of the legislative bodies of a state placing them- 
 selves in opposition to the general government. 
 The remedy, however, appears to be of a nature 
 that would tend rather to widen than to close 
 the breach; for the veto of a chief magistrate, 
 deriving his power from an extrinsic source, would 
 have been likely to unite all parties in the indi- 
 vidual state. The scenes which were enacted be- 
 tween the governors and legislatures of the crown 
 colonies would probably have been renewed by 
 such a provision. 
 
 The merits of this proposed constitution in point 
 of style are very great, and in this respect it cer- 
 tainly exceeds that which has been adopted j it 
 has also evidently exercised no little influence 
 upon the detiils of the latter. 
 Y 
 
254 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The other members of the New-York delega- 
 tion retired from the Convention as soon as it was 
 decided, beyond the chance of revocation, that the 
 representation should be apportioned upon anoth- 
 er principle than that of equality among the sev- 
 eral states. Hamilton, finding that the vote of the 
 state was thus lost, retired also, although from 
 very different motives. His return was caused by 
 a letter he received from the president of the Con- 
 vention. In this, Washington informs him that 
 the counsels of the Convention were, " if possible, 
 in a worse train than ever ;" that he despaired of 
 " seeing a favourable issue to the proceedings ;" 
 and therefore " repents having any agency in the 
 business." He finally states his sorrow that Ham- 
 ilton had gone away, and his wishes for his return. 
 
 Hamilton could not resist this appeal, and again 
 took his seat in that body, where he aided in no 
 small degree in bringing its labours to a happy 
 conclusion. 
 
 The importance of his services cannot be un- 
 derstood from the published minutes, nor from the 
 more copious report of the debates. They have, 
 however, been demonstrated by the testimony of 
 one of the members* in the following terms. 
 
 " If the Constitution should not succeed on trial, 
 Mr. Hamilton was less responsible for such a re- 
 sult than any other member; for he fully and 
 * W. S. Johnson, LL.D. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 255 
 
 frankly pointed out to the Convention the infirmi- 
 ties to which it was Hable : and if it answered the 
 fond expectations of the public, the community 
 would be more indebted to him than to any other 
 member ; for, after its essential outlines were agreed 
 to, he laboured most indefatigably to heal those 
 infirmities, and to guard against the evils to which 
 they might expose it." 
 
 Much of the real business of the Convention 
 does not appear on the minutes ; for it consisted in 
 the reconciliation of opposing interests, in antici- 
 pation of the vote and argument before the formal 
 meeting. The questions which disturbed the har- 
 monious action of the Convention were as follows : 
 
 1. The equality of the votes of the respective 
 states, as distinguished from a representation in 
 proportion to population. 
 
 2. The representation of the slave population, 
 which, it was urged on the one hand, ought to be 
 excluded altogether, and, on the other, that it 
 ought to be counted in full. 
 
 3. The question whether the importation of Af- 
 ricans should be permitted or prevented. 
 
 So irreconcilable did the opinions of the mem- 
 bers from different sections of the country appear 
 on these questions, that, after four or five weeks 
 spent in fruitless discussions, Franklin, the Nestor 
 of the Convention, inquired, " that, groping, as it 
 were, in the dark to find political truth, and 
 
256 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 scarce able to distinguish it when presented, how 
 it had happened that they had hitherto not once 
 thought of humbly applying to the Father of 
 Lights to illuminate their understandings ?" 
 
 "We have been assured," said he, in continua- 
 tion, " in the sacred writings, that, except the Lord 
 ' build the house, they labour in vain that build 
 it' I firmly believe this; and I also firmly be- 
 lieve, that without his concurring aid we shall 
 succeed in this political building no better than the 
 builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our 
 little partial interests ; our projects will be con- 
 founded; and we ourselves shall become a re- 
 proach and a by-word down to future ages ; and, 
 what is worse, mankind may henceforth, from this 
 unfortunate instance, despair of establishing gov- 
 ernments by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, 
 war, and conquest." He, in consequence, moved 
 that the meetings of the Convention be opened by 
 prayer. 
 
 In the closing scene of the Convention Hamil- 
 ton strenuously urged upon all present to sign the 
 Constitution that had been adopted by a majority 
 of the members, and by a unanimous vote of the 
 states represented. In corroboration of his appeal 
 he stated his own case, who did not assent in his 
 judgment to the plan as adopted, and yet had de- 
 termined to sign the instrument, and maintain its 
 excellences in opposition to gainsayers. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 257 
 
 It is very evident that his expressions of dissat- 
 isfaction with the provisions of the Constitution re- 
 fer not to the practical working of the instrument, 
 but to the difference between it and the model of 
 perfection he had formed in his own mind. He 
 had, indeed, combated those who differed from him 
 in their views step by step, in the hopes of amend- 
 ing its provisions, or of introducing changes more 
 likely to render the government stable and effi- 
 cient ; but he unquestionably agreed with Frank- 
 lin in the opinion which that venerable patriot pro- 
 nounced, that it was the best which could be car- 
 ried, nay, perhaps the best for its objects which 
 could be framed. 
 
 We have thus seen that Hamilton was the first 
 to propose an amendment to the old articles of 
 confederation by a convention of the states ; that 
 he in various ways rendered efficient aid in awa- 
 kening the public mind to the importance of a 
 more firm union, and of the necessity of a gener- 
 al government which should emanate from, and 
 act directly upon, the people ; that he was the fra- 
 mer of the address of the partial Convention at 
 Annapolis, in conformity with which the general 
 Congress recommended the Convention of 1789, 
 and the several states appointed delegates ; that 
 he was an active member of the latter Conven- 
 tion, and the first to propose a constitution in such 
 a form as could have been carried into effect. 
 Y2 
 
258 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 His admirers have therefore been fully warranted 
 in claiming for him a conspicuous agency in giv- 
 ing to the country the blessings it now enjoys, of 
 a stable, energetic, and yet popular form of gov- 
 ernment. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 259 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Discussions in respect to the Federal Constitution. 
 — Hamilton unites vyith Jay and Madison in 
 writing the Federalist. — Letters of Philo~Pub- 
 lius. — State Convention at Poughkeepsie. — 
 Hamilton is a member of that Convention, 
 and takes an active 'part in its Proceedings. 
 — The Federal Constitution Ratified by that 
 Convention. — Reflections on the Constitution. 
 — Change of Popular Feeling, and Rejoi- 
 cings in New-York on its final Adoption. 
 
 No sooner had the Convention completed its 
 labours, and the proposed Constitution been given 
 to the pubHc, than discussions arose in relation to 
 the propriety of adopting it. The great majority 
 of the members of the Convention had, in signing 
 it, abandoned all their individual views, and, satis- 
 fied that it was the best plan of government which 
 could be obtained, resolved to unite all their ener- 
 gies in procuring its ratification by Congress and 
 by the Conventions of the States. There were, 
 however, some members of the Convention, be- 
 longing to the party which had desired to retain 
 the equal influence of the states in the govern- 
 ment, who had not signed, or had €ven withdrawn 
 
260 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 before the declarations were closed. These car- 
 ried to their homes a feeling hostile to the propo- 
 sed Constitution, and the disposition to arouse an 
 opposition to its ratification. Among these were 
 Hamilton's colleagues from New-York, who rep- 
 resented the feelings and wishes of the adminis- 
 tration of that state. 
 
 It was apparent that the refusal of New-York 
 to join in the federal union would be fatal to the 
 plan. No other of the states which appeared to 
 be opposed to it had equal power, or had such 
 advantages of position as would render a union 
 among the others nugatory. The majority of the 
 delegates from the other eleven states had acqui- 
 esced finally in the draught of the Constitution, 
 and had assented to the compromises which had 
 ensured its adoption; the New-York delegation 
 had withdrawn from the Convention; and, al- 
 though Hamilton returned and had signed the 
 Constitution as a delegate, by rules borrowed from 
 those of the old Congress, more than a single del- 
 egate was necessary to give a state a vote. 
 
 It was, for the above reasons, admitted on all 
 hands that the battle for the Constitution was to 
 be fought in New-York, and that it could only be 
 gained by the overthrow of the influence of the 
 governor of that state and a change in the popu- 
 lar sentiment. To effect these objects would re- 
 quire -great talent, skill in the management of 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 261 
 
 men, with ability in the exhibition of the advan- 
 tages to flow from the Constitution, and of the 
 dangers to be apprehended from its rejection. 
 
 Hamilton saw, and felt more clearly than any 
 other person, how important was the ratification of 
 the Constitution by the state he had represented ; 
 and no sooner had the Convention adjourned, than 
 he undertook the task of exhibiting these advan- 
 tages on the one hand, and dangers on the other, 
 to the people of the State of New-York directly, 
 and, through them, to the citizens of the remain- 
 der of the states. For this purpose he commen- 
 ced the publication of a series of papers in the 
 New-York Gazette, under the signature of Pub- 
 Lius. In these, addressed to the people of the 
 State of New-York, he proposed to consider " the 
 utility of the Union to their political prosperity; 
 the insufficiency of the existing confederation to 
 preserve that Union; the necessity of a govern- 
 ment, at least equally energetic with the one pro- 
 posed, to the attainment of that object ; the con- 
 formity of the proposed Constitution to the true 
 principles of republican government; its analogy 
 to the Constitution of their own state ; and, lastly, 
 the additional security its adoption would afford 
 to the preservation of that species of government, 
 to liberty, and to property." 
 
 Well aware of the vast interests at stake, Ham- 
 ilton was unwilling to rely upon his own strength 
 
262 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 for the illustration of these important topics; he 
 therefore sought and obtained able coadjutors. 
 The opening number of the series is immediately 
 followed by four written by John Jay, and the 
 same veteran statesman contributed a fifth in the 
 course of the publication. A far greater amount 
 of assistance was obtained from Madison, who, 
 according to memoranda left by Hamilton in his 
 own hand, and which are deposited in the New- 
 York Society Library, wrote thirteen of the num- 
 bers, and was the joint author of three more. 
 Madison has himself claimed a greater share in 
 the authorship of these papers, and we thus have 
 the conflicting claims of these two distinguished 
 men, each under his own hand. 
 
 It is stated that Hamilton's papers contain con- 
 clusive evidence that the ideas and even the lan- 
 guage of the disputed letters are to be found in 
 briefs prepared by him for speeches delivered in 
 the Convention. If this be the case, the ground 
 of the conflicting claim will be apparent, and the 
 discrepancy reconciled; for Hamilton may well 
 and justly have claimed authorship in papers 
 drawn up by Madison from his memoranda. At 
 all events, even were Madison's claims admitted 
 to its utmost extent, Hamilton will still retain the 
 honour of being the projector of the publication, 
 and of having contributed the greater part, as 
 well as the most valuable, of the papers of Pub- 
 lius. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 263 
 
 These papers were not permitted to remain un- 
 answered, and several able writers arrayed them- 
 selves in opposition to their argimients, and to the 
 adoption of the Constitution itself. These replies 
 are rarely alluded to in the course of the num- 
 bers ; but a separate series, under the name of Phi- 
 lo-Publius, was commenced in another newspaper, 
 to which the task of rebutting objections was con- 
 fined. The original plan of Publius was thus 
 carried out without deviation, while all the neces- 
 sary illustrations, and the refutal of all opponents, 
 made their appearance in the other series. In 
 this Hamilton also took the lead, but received as- 
 sistance from various other quarters. Among the 
 writers of Philo-Publius is particularly to be nam- 
 ed Colonel Duer, who undertook the subject of 
 finance, and exhibited much ability in the con- 
 troversy. 
 
 The plan of dividing the subjects likely to be of 
 general and lasting interest from those local and 
 .general, has been attended with happy results. 
 The papers of Publius have been collected and 
 published, while those of Philo-Pubhus ceased to 
 be remembered as soon as the occasion which 
 called for them had ceased to exist. Had the 
 whole been united in one series, it would have 
 been so cumbrous, and loaded with so much mat- 
 ter wholly irrelevant at the present day, that it 
 would probably have found but few readers ; b"^ 
 
264 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 by confining the series of Publius to the objects 
 stated on setting out, these papers, collected in 
 two volumes under the name of "The Federal- 
 ist," have gone through many editions, and are 
 the best commentary which has yet appeared on 
 the provisions of the Constitution. 
 
 These letters of Publius have therefore deter- 
 mined the sense of all doubtful passages in that 
 instrument. They are now consulted by all par- 
 ties as authority, and are the ablest exposition of 
 its general features which has yet appeared. 
 
 The letters of Publius were not allowed to re- 
 main unanswered, and the anti-federal press teem- 
 ed with paragraphs and pamphlets condemning 
 the proposed Constitution. These were not with- 
 out their effect in confirming many in their old 
 prejudices ; but the Federalist carried conviction 
 on all the most important points to the great body 
 of the people. It thus happened, that although 
 the majority of the New- York State Convention, 
 which was convened to deliberate on the proprie- 
 ty of adopting or rejecting that instrument, was in 
 favour of the latter alternative, it was yet under 
 the necessity of giving its provisions a patient 
 hearing, and of submitting the question to the 
 test of argument rather than of party feeling. 
 
 Hamilton w^as chosen a member of this Conven- 
 tion, wdiich assembled at Poughkeepsie. He, with 
 all who were committed in its favour, counted no 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 265 
 
 more than ten votes, while its opponents were 
 nearly four times that number. But he had with 
 him Jay and Chancellor Livingston, who were in 
 themselves a host. 
 
 On the opening of the Convention, Chancellor 
 Livingston, who, from high station and long pub- 
 lic service, deservedly claimed to be placed in the 
 front of the federal party, moved the considera- 
 tion of the instrument by sections. The great 
 question of acceptance or rejection was, by the 
 adoption of this motion, left to the close of the 
 proceedings instead of being encountered at the 
 beginning. In the discussion, thus adroitly com- 
 menced, the majority became committed to the 
 general policy of a more close union of the states, 
 and the questions were confined to the detail. 
 The opponents of the Constitution thus wasted 
 their strength in the proposal of amendments and 
 changes. Many of these, and among the rest a 
 bill of rights, were unobjectionable in themselves, 
 and only to be opposed on the ground that they 
 were in fact unnecessary, as being implied or cov- 
 ered by the common law. 
 
 It now became a matter of consideration wheth- 
 er they should be adopted by the Federalists with 
 a view of conciliation, or opposed. The latter 
 policy prevailed, it being discovered that a ready 
 acquiescence would have caused new grounds of 
 objection to be sought for. In the discussions 
 Z 
 
266 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 which were thus protracted, every occasion was 
 seized by Hamilton to portray, with all the pow- 
 ers of his eloquence, the advantages of union, the 
 dano"ers of a broken confederacy, and the other 
 evils which would follow in case the Constitution 
 were not adopted. Every means of conciliation 
 and compromise that could be employed were ex- 
 hausted, until the majority was broken into two 
 parties, directed by diferent motives. During the 
 debates, the news of the ratification by other states 
 were received in succession, until finally it appear- 
 ed that the condition upon which the Constitution 
 was to go into effect had been fulfilled, and that 
 New-York was likely to be left almost alone if it 
 should refuse to enter into the federal Union. 
 
 Finally, after a long and protracted discussion, 
 the Convention of the state adopted the Constitu- 
 tion unconditionally. In the instrument of rat- 
 ification, however, a declaration of rights is insert- 
 ed, as explanatory and consistent with the Con- 
 stitution; full confidence is there expressed that, 
 until amendments for the purpose be made in the 
 Constitution, the militia shall not be called to serve 
 out of the state for a longer term than six weeks 
 without the consent of the Legislature ; that Con- 
 gress will not make or alter any law of the state 
 in relation to the election of senators and repre- 
 sentatives in Congress, unless the state Legislature 
 shall neglect or refuse to make provision in the 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 267 
 
 premises ; that no excise should be laid except on 
 ardent spirits; that the general government should 
 not levy direct taxes, unless a requisition had first 
 been made and neglected. 
 
 To the instrument of ratification is appended an 
 injunction on the representatives of the state in 
 Congress to use their exertions to obtain certain 
 amendments to the Constitution, including the 
 foregoing points. These proposed amendments 
 contain, in addition, a restriction of the right of 
 sitting in Congress to native-born citizens, and 
 those of foreign birth already possessed of the 
 right of citizenship ; a clause forbidding monopo- 
 lies ; others prohibiting standing armies in time of 
 peace, without the consent of two thirds of both 
 houses j and forbidding the borrowing of money 
 or the declaration of war except by a similar vote. 
 Of the amendments thus proposed several were 
 speedily brought forward, and, after a compliance 
 with the mode prescribed in the Constitution, were 
 ingrafted on that instrument. 
 
 It is remarkable, that, among all the objections 
 urged and amendments proposed to the federal 
 Constitution at the time of its ratification, none of 
 those which have become apparent in its action 
 were pointed out. With all its defects, it is, be- 
 yond doubt, the most perfect plan of government 
 which has ever been formed by a WTitten instru- 
 ment. The democratic principle, which bears 
 
268 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 such sway in the composition of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, is so well balanced by the influence 
 of state sovereignties in the Senate, the responsi- 
 bility of the executive is so adequate on the face 
 of the instrument to the great extent of its powers, 
 and the whole so justly controlled by an independ- 
 ent judiciary, that the jurisconsult can hardly de- 
 tect a flaw. Nor has its working been less admi- 
 rable than its theory ; and foreign nations still look 
 with surprise to the spectacle of a country possess- 
 ed of unbounded personal freedom, in which the 
 law is administered to the adequate security of 
 life, hberty, and property, without the semblance 
 of physical force to maintain it. 
 
 Those, however, who, with feelings of disinter- 
 ested patriotism, look into the internal workings 
 of the machine, are apt to detect an extension of 
 executive influence through the innumerable of- 
 fices of which that branch of the government has 
 the disposal, that seems likely to control the de- 
 liberations of the popular branch by the hope of 
 reward. The oflfice of president has become of 
 such importance, that all questions are merged in * 
 the election of that magistrate; and the great in- i 
 terests of the country are neglected, or considered 
 only in reference to the manner in which they 
 may promote or impair the prospects of a presi- 
 dential candidate. 
 
 In these discussions, the wise compromises of 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 269 
 
 &e framers of the Constitution have been set at 
 naught; the people have been told, and many 
 have beheved, that different portions of the coun- 
 try have different interests ; and that the agricul- 
 ture, the commerce, and the manufactures of the 
 Union, so far from being bound up in one insepar- 
 able chain, are hostile to each other's prosperity. 
 Divide et impera has been the motto of the inter- 
 ested politician; the doctrine of states' rights has 
 been preached by those most interested to maintain 
 the ascendancy of the federal power; the yeo- 
 manry of the North have been excited against the 
 slaveholders of the South; the planters against the 
 manufacturers, and the farmers against the mer- 
 chants. The country is now suffering under the 
 consequences of these heretical doctrines, and is, 
 with all the elements of unexampled prosperity, 
 in a state of incredible distress. 
 
 The theory of the government, that the intelli- 
 gence of the people, however slowly reached, must 
 finally compel the administration and legislative 
 bodies to the course most conducive to the general 
 interests, seems, however, to be fully established 
 as correct. Fifty years of stability, and most of 
 that time of great prosperity, have elapsed, and 
 thus our government can no longer be regarded 
 as a mere experiment how far the people are fitted 
 for self-government; or, if it have been an experi-r 
 ment, that experiment is successful. 
 Z2 
 
270 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Experience seems to have fully proved that the 
 permanence of our institutions is in no danger from 
 any of the causes which have in other climes em- 
 barrassed popular governments. We have no am- 
 bitious royal neighbour possessed of power suffi- 
 cient to conquer and destroy our freedom, as Philip 
 and Alexander did that of the Grecian republics. 
 Fond as we are of military renown and grateful 
 for martial service, the army, as a body, can never 
 control our elections or prevent their occurrence. 
 The military establishment, so far from being the 
 probable instrument of a tyranny, is the most in- 
 dependent of executive influence of all the depart- 
 ments of national organization. We need, there- 
 fore, never apprehend the appearance of a Caesar, 
 a Cromwell, or a Napoleon. The breaking up of 
 entails, and the division of property at every new 
 generation, will for ever prevent the formation of 
 an aristocracy, and the utmost sway which it can 
 attain is that over the fashionable world of our 
 cities, which experience has shown to be without 
 the pale of political influence. Nay, could any 
 one of these causes influence the general govern- 
 ment, the sovereignty of the states furnishes a se- 
 cure barrier against any actual encroachment on 
 popular liberty. 
 
 Party spirit has, however, erected a tyranny 
 which may, in the semblance of respect for the 
 popular will, end in rendering that will nugatory. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 271 
 
 Political men now no longer dare to avow their 
 real sentiments, or are compelled to act in oppo- 
 sition to them. The members of a defeated party 
 are often, to all intents and purposes, disfranchised 
 unless they abandon the principles for which they 
 may have conscientiously contended. 
 
 After the State Convention adjourned, the popu- 
 lar voice speedily confirmed its decision. The op- 
 ponents of the federal Union, who had previously 
 enjoyed the entire confidence of the people, lost 
 much of their influence, and would have been de- 
 prived of it altogether had they not joined in the 
 popular feeling. This was strongest in the city, 
 and the final ratification by the required number 
 of states was celebrated there with demonstrations 
 of joy such as have never been surpassed. In 
 these, the very persons who had lately prided 
 themselves in the name of anti-federalist, and 
 were shortly to be arrayed against the adminis- 
 tration of the federal government upon new ques- 
 tions of policy, bore their full share. Many were 
 sincere converts ; and, either in the hopes of per- 
 sonal advantage under the new government, or 
 influenced by more pure motives, gave to its early 
 steps their devoted support. There were, how- 
 ever, others, who had been influenced in their sup- 
 port of the proceedings of the Convention, and in 
 urging the ratification of the Constitution by the 
 states, by motives of ambition or desire of emolu-r 
 
272 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 ment, who were disappointed in its action upon 
 their interests, and stood ready to seize any op- 
 portunity which might present itself to form an 
 opposition to its administration. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 273 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Washington is chosen President. — Organiza- 
 tion of the Executive Departments. — Hamil- 
 ton is appointed Secretary of the Treasury. — 
 His Report on Public Credit, in which he 
 recommends the funding of the Debt and the 
 laying of an Excise. — Opposition to the Fund- 
 ing System, which is, however, carried. — The 
 Excise is also opposed, but carried. — Plan of 
 a National Bank, which receives a Charter. — 
 Constitutional Question raised in relation 
 to it. 
 
 The advanced age of Franklin rendered it in- 
 expedient that he should be a candidate for the 
 presidency, nor is it probable that he would have 
 permitted himself to be proposed. Washington 
 was, in consequence, the only person who would 
 be likely to unite all suffrages. He had, however, 
 on resigning his commission at the close of the 
 war, announced his intention of retiring from pub- 
 lic business, and had been with difficulty induced 
 to act as a member of the Convention. To aban- 
 don his retirement for the labours of the office of 
 president was even more repugnant to his wishes. 
 Still, in the mmds of all the friends of the new 
 
274 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Constitution, the belief was universal, that the 
 only chance of its receiving a fair trial depended 
 upon his acceptance of that office. 
 
 The opposition to the Constitution was so strong, 
 and had been so violent, that the authority of any 
 name less potent than his would have been insuf- 
 ficient to prevent acts which might have been fa- 
 tal to the success of the experiment. His repug- 
 nance was such that it became necessary that he 
 should be strongly urged to allow his being pro- 
 posed as a candidate for the presidency; and, 
 among others, we find Hamilton writing to him on 
 the subject, and pressing him to undertake this im- 
 portant office. Washington, convinced by these 
 arguments, no longer attempted to shun the re- 
 sponsibilities involved in the executive duties of 
 the new Constitution, and his name was proposed 
 to the electoral colleges. 
 
 It was speedily known that his election had 
 been effected with no other want of unanimity 
 than was sufficient to obtain a choice of vice-pres- 
 ident. So much apathy, however, existed, and 
 so little hope of improvement in the prosperity of 
 the country, that a month elapsed from the day ap- 
 pointed for the meeting before a quorum of both 
 houses could be formed for the purpose of count- 
 ing the votes, and giving official notice to Wash- 
 ington of his election. 
 
 The president having assumed his duties, the 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 275 
 
 two houses applied themselves diligently to organ- 
 ize the executive departments. Three of these 
 were formed, each under the direction of a head 
 styled a secretary ; namely, that of foreign affairs, 
 that of the treasury, and that of war ; the latter 
 of which included the superintendence of naval 
 affairs as well as of the army. Of these three 
 heads of departments, with the attorney-general, 
 a cabinet was formed, and Washington introdu- 
 ced the practice of performing no important exec- 
 utive act without consulting it. His method, how- 
 ever, was that of requiring their separate written 
 opinions, after a careful perusal of which his own 
 was made up and acted upon. He thus, without 
 attempting to avoid responsibility, had the advan- 
 tage of the separate deliberate reflections of four 
 men of the highest eminence. 
 
 The law which organized the treasury depart- 
 ment was drawn, it is said, by Hamilton. It un- 
 derwent some alterations before it passed, but is, 
 in its great principles, the offspring of his mind. 
 It contains a provision intended to obviate the de- 
 fect which has been noted as existing in the Con- 
 stitution, by which the custody of the purse is in- 
 trusted to the nominee of the executive. This 
 provision requires the secretary of the treasury to 
 report directly to the House of Representatives. 
 It was also intended to have given the head of the 
 department more of a ministerial character, by al- 
 
276 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 lowing him a seat, and a right to speak in the 
 House of Representatives. 
 
 Hamilton, in truth, seems to have understood 
 b6tter the dangers to which the liberties of our 
 country may at some future time be subjected than 
 most other persons. He saw no chance of an at- 
 tempt at changing the popular forms and institu- 
 tions; he was aware that the natural bias was 
 rather to render them more than less democratic 
 in their external character ; but he did see a dan- 
 ger in vesting the whole control of the public 
 purse in the same hands which bore the sword ; 
 he wished to make the executive stronger in the 
 exercise of its necessary prerogatives, but to de- 
 prive it of the means of corruption. 
 
 When the bills creating the departments had 
 become laws, Washington, who had hitherto, with 
 his accustomed reserve, avoided all committal in 
 respect to persons, called Hamilton to preside 
 over the treasury. The department of foreign af- 
 fairs was intrusted to Jefferson, who had been a 
 stranger to the discussions of the Convention, and 
 had been, until a late period, considered inimical to 
 the new Constitution. Knox, who had held the 
 war department under the confederation, was re- 
 tained in the same position, and Edmund Ran- 
 dolph was appointed attorney-general. With 
 these nominations the public at large was well 
 satisfied ; but there were individuals who had as- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 277 
 
 pired to stations in the cabinet that were disap- 
 pointed. We shall have occasion to see the re- 
 sults of this feeling as we proceed. 
 
 Among the earhest duties which the Secretary 
 of the Treasury was called upon to perform, was 
 a report to Congress on public credit. This had 
 been required of him by a resolution of the House 
 of Representatives passed 21st September, 1789, 
 and his report was presented on the 9th of Jan- 
 uary, 1790. The resolution expressed the opin- 
 ion " that an adequate provision for the support of 
 public credit is a matter of high importance to the 
 honour and prosperity of the United States," and 
 called on the secretary for a plan for redeeming 
 it from the low ebb to which, as we have seen, it 
 had fallen. 
 
 Setting out from principles which he considers 
 undeniable, namely, that exigencies will occur in 
 which nations must borrow; that, to borrow on 
 good terms, the credit of the nation should be well 
 established : he infers, that on the observance of 
 these principles must depend not merely the 
 possibility of obtaining future loans on good 
 terms, but "the individual and aggregate pros- 
 perity of the citizens of the United States ; their 
 relief from existing embarrassments; their char- 
 acter as a people; and the cause of good gov- 
 ernment." 
 
 He next shows how public credit is injured by 
 A A 
 
278 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 the breach of pubhc engagements ; the moral ob- 
 ligation to observe good faith with the public 
 creditor, and its pecuhar sanction in relation to 
 the debt of the United States, which was "the 
 price of liberty." 
 
 In continuation, he shows the advantage to be 
 gained in funding the floating debt, by converting 
 a dead into an active capital, and the great ben- 
 efit this conversion would confer on the landed 
 interest. 
 
 He then takes up the question whether the 
 holder of the pubhc securities should alone be en- 
 titled to the benefit derived from funding them, 
 or whether regard should be had to the manner 
 and terms on which he became possessed of 
 them ; and, by an unanswerable argument, shows 
 that all considerations of policy and justice were 
 in favour of the former course. 
 
 He next proceeds to examine whether any dis- 
 tinction ought to be drawn between the creditors 
 of the general government and those of the indi- 
 vidual states, and comes to the conclusion that 
 both were equally entitled to consideration. 
 
 It is subsequently inquired whether the arrears 
 of the interest ought to be put on the same footing 
 with the principal, and is decided in the affirma- 
 tive. 
 
 These preliminaries settled, he gives a state- 
 ment of the amount of debt due by Congress for 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 279 
 
 principal and interest, together with an estimate 
 of that due by the separate states. The cinnual 
 interest on the two is then inferred to be about 
 four and a half millions of dollars. Six different 
 plans for funding the debt are then presented, and 
 each contains a provision for its extinction, by the 
 annual payment of a gxeater sum than the pro- 
 posed interest ; while, on the other hand, it is pro- 
 posed as a stipulation, that no more than this an- 
 nual payment shall be directly apphed to the re- 
 demption of the debt. 
 
 The secretary next enters into an estimate of 
 the ways and means for providing for the interest 
 and redemption of the debt proposed to be fund- 
 ed. During the first session of Congress a tariff 
 had been adopted. In this the imposts on some 
 articles had been carried to an extent as large as 
 they could possibly bear, yet a deficiency of in- 
 come was still left. A further increase would have 
 led to smuggling. To meet this deficiency by a 
 tax on property was contrary to the policy of Ham- 
 ilton. He therefore had recourse to an excise. 
 Retaining the existing duties on imports and ton- 
 nage, he proposes to levy a tax on wines, spirits, 
 teas, and coffee, including an excise on spirits 
 distilled within the United States. This part of 
 his report refers to a draught of a law submitted 
 with it, which was passed almost verbatim. 
 
 As a further source of revenue, he speaks of the 
 
280 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 postoffice, whence he estimates that a million of 
 dollars might be derived to the general use. 
 
 Convinced that the maintenance of the public 
 credit required the appropriation of specific funds 
 for the interest and redemption of the debt, he 
 proposes the application of the product of the ex- 
 cise on spirits to the payment of the interest on 
 the foreign debt, while the revenue of the post- 
 office, to the extent of $1,000,000, was to be vest- 
 ed in commissioners as a sinking fund. 
 
 Finally, after exhibiting the great advantages 
 to be derived from bringing the stock, at as 
 early a period as possible, to its par value in the 
 market, he proposes, as a step to this desirable re- 
 sult, the establishment of a National Bank, for 
 which he promises to submit a plan. 
 
 This scheme met with strong opposition in Con- 
 gress. No voice, indeed, was raised against the 
 funding of the foreign debt ; but such a provision 
 for that due to Americans, and, still more, the as- 
 sumption of the debts of the states, excited much 
 clamour. It was argued that, inasmuch as the 
 greater part of the actual holders of claims on the 
 government had obtained them at prices far be- 
 low their nominal amount, it would be proper that 
 the government should not admit their claims for 
 more than they had actually paid. This ground 
 was taken by Madison, who, after having been 
 for several years the close intimate of Hamilton, 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 281 
 
 and his coadjutor in the measures which led to 
 the adoption of the Constitution, now appeared as 
 the opponent of all his propositions. 
 
 The proposal for the assumption of the state 
 debts excited all the sectional feelings which had 
 embarrassed the proceedings of the Convention, 
 and caused much angry recrimination. After a 
 lengthened debate, the policy of Hamilton pre- 
 vailed ; the holders of the domestic debt were ad- 
 mitted to the privilege of having it funded, while 
 a gross sum of twenty-one millions was ordered to 
 be allowed to the states for the amount of their 
 debts. 
 
 "Whatever of praise or blame may be attached 
 to these measures, Hamilton alone is entitled to 
 the one or liable to the other. The president 
 kept himself aloof, nor did he call for its discus- 
 sion in the cabinet until the bills had passed 
 both houses. He rightly considered the plan as 
 falling specifically within the ministerial duties 
 of the Secretary of the Treasury, and its adop- 
 tion or rejection as the prerogative of the repre- 
 sentative bodies. When, however, it became his 
 duty to sign or return the bill, he promptly gave 
 it his official sanction, although it is believed 
 that, of the other heads of departments, Knox 
 alone entered fully into the views of Hamilton, 
 while Jefferson and Randolph were opposed to 
 the funding system. After maturely weighing 
 the several arguments, the president decided in 
 
28^ AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 favour of the plan of Hamilton, and signed the 
 bill. 
 
 The subject of an excise was not reached by 
 the first Congress, but was taken up by that 
 which commenced its sittings in December, 1790. 
 This question was debated with great warmth, 
 and the plan of Hamilton was violently opposed. 
 The resistance it met with in Congress was, not- 
 withstanding, far less than that which was speedi- 
 ly excited among the more ignorant members of 
 the community. By a mistaken notion in physi- 
 ology, it had become an opinion almost universal, 
 that in the climate of a great portion of the 
 United States, ardent spirit was a necessary bev- 
 erage, alone or diluted with water. Hence al- 
 most every adult in the United States was a con- 
 sumer of it ; and, although in most cases in great 
 moderation, there were still multitudes who, under 
 the popular error, had no sense of shame in in- 
 dulging in alcoholic liquids to excess. The trade 
 in this article was thus an important branch of 
 commerce, and its manufacture one of the most 
 extensive branches of national industry. It was 
 thus easy for those who had been compelled to 
 abandon their opposition to the federal Constitu- 
 tion to awaken a powerful feeling against the ex- 
 cise. The measure, in spite of all opposition 
 withm or without the halls of Congress, became a 
 law. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 283 
 
 By the funding of the national debt, the forma- 
 tion of a system of duties and excise, by which 
 the payment of its interest regularly, and its gradu- 
 al redemption were ensured, public credit was re- 
 stored. The country almost instantly passed from 
 a state of misery, despondence, and inactivity, to 
 one of prosperity, buoyant hope, and prosperous 
 industry. Hamilton, however, did not consider 
 his great system of ameliorating policy complete. 
 The debt was still, in a great degree, a dead capi- 
 tal ; the rate of interest was still too high to per- 
 mit it to assume its par value. Agriculture was 
 the only branch of industry which had revived ; 
 commerce, although improved, was still in a lan- 
 guishing state ; while manufactures were wanting 
 to complete the great circle of national prosperity. 
 We have seen that, in the very lowest ebb of 
 the credit of the Convention, Hamilton had looked 
 to a bank as a sure mode of restoring it. Those 
 less clear-sighted than himself could not perceive 
 the connexion between such an institution and a 
 trust in the good faith and ability of the govern- 
 ment, and ridiculed the idea. Morris had, howev- 
 er, tried the experiment on a limited scale, and the 
 result had shown the magical power of such an in- 
 stitution. Hamilton now brought forward the 
 scheme of a National Bank as his final measure 
 of finance. By forming the capital of this in a 
 great measure of the funded debt, he proposed to 
 
284 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 I 
 
 convert so much dead into active capital, rightly 
 concluding that the deposites and circulation which 
 confidence in an institution founded on such a se- 
 curity must attain, would equal the stock thus en- 
 gaged in its business. 
 
 The idea of creating a National Bank was in- 
 timated to Congress in his report on public credit. 
 The House of Representatives speedily called 
 upon him for a plan of such an institution, which 
 he submitted on the 13th December, 1790. The 
 arguments in favour and against a National Bank 
 are too familiar to require that the merits of this 
 question should be here discussed. It is sufficient 
 to say, that in his report every argument by which 
 the expediency and utility of such an institution 
 can be supported is ably and fully set forth. The 
 subject is in truth exhausted ; and while this report 
 has served as the text of innumerable laboured 
 and copious glosses, no new views have been elici- 
 ted either by experience or study. The plan 
 which he submitted, as imbodied in the first Bank 
 of the United States, was perfect ; and all the 
 changes which have been proposed, and the mod- 
 ifications which were introduced in the charter of 
 the second bank, have tended to impair the effi- 
 ciency of Hamilton's original plan. 
 
 The attempt made by the leaders of the anti- 
 fedcTalists and the disappointed expectants of of- 
 fice lo rally an opposition on the questions of fund- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 285 
 
 mg the debt and creating an excise, appeared like- 
 ly to be a failure. The question of a bank held out 
 a more promising foundation for principles which 
 might serve as the landmarks of a party. The 
 fact that no express authority had been given to 
 the general government to create a bank was 
 eagerly seized upon, and the constitutionality of 
 such an institution was denied. Madison, as on the 
 former occasions, led the opposition, and framed 
 the arguments by which the power of Congress in 
 the premises was disproved. With how much sin- 
 cerity he entertained the opinions he thus brought 
 forward may be inferred from the fact, that, when 
 president, he repeatedly recommended a bank as 
 the only cure for evils similar to those which exist- 
 ed at the adoption of the Constitution, and finally 
 signed the charter of the second Bank of the Uni- 
 ted States. The ingenious casuistry employed on 
 this occasion has the merit of bending itself to ev- 
 ery variety of circumstances, and will enable an 
 adroit chief magistrate to shelter his rejection of 
 almost any questionable measure under the cloak 
 of constitutional scruples. So nice is the web 
 of the argument, that it did not prevent Madison 
 himself from maintaining his perfect consistency 
 in declaring a bank unconstitutional as member 
 of Congress, and aiding in his legislative capacity 
 to create one when president. 
 
 The charter of the bank, in spite of this power- 
 
286 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 ful and ingenious opposition, passed both houses of 
 Congress, and was submitted to the president for 
 his signature. He now demanded the opinions 
 of his cabinet. Jefferson and Randolph had be- 
 come converts to the doctrine of a strict construc- 
 tion of the Constitution, if the former, in his jeal- 
 ousy of Hamilton, which had become the obvious 
 spring of his actions, had not, in fact, prompted 
 the argument of Madison. Knox, on the other 
 hand, concurred with Hamilton; and the latter 
 replied to the opinions of the secretary of state and 
 attorney-general in an argument which, to the 
 present day, is the admiration of all who read it. 
 It was successful in removing all the patriotic scru- 
 ples of Washington, and the charter received his 
 signature. It has since been confirmed by the suc- 
 cessive judicial opinions of Jay, of Ellsworth, and 
 of Marshall ; been sanctioned by the practice of 
 Jefferson ; and has governed the course of Madi- 
 son himself. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON^ 287 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Success of the Bank of the United States. — 
 Hamilton's Report on Manufactures. — His 
 Report on a Mint. — Dissensions in the Cabi- 
 net. — Origin of the two great Parties. — Proc- 
 lamation of Neutrality. — Mission of Genet, 
 and his offensive Acts. — Proceedings of the 
 Government in relation to them. — Letters of 
 Pacifcus. 
 
 The institution of the Bank of the United 
 States speedily fulfilled the expectations of its 
 founders. Commerce revived completely ; the 
 intercourse between the states, facilitated by an 
 equalization of the exchanges, became more inti- 
 mate ; the price of the debt rose to its par value ; 
 the revenues of the government were placed be- 
 yond the reach of peculation, and disbursed in the 
 most distant parts of the Union without expense 
 to the government. Hamilton, however, believed 
 that one element was yet wanting to establish 
 the national prosperity on sure grounds. While 
 the practice of some countries had exclusive- 
 ly favoured agriculture, others had directed their 
 chief efforts to the encouragement of commerce ; 
 and others, again, had thought that manufactures 
 
288 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 alone were entitled to national encouragement. 
 Different European nations had adopted different 
 systems of policy in relation to these three great 
 sources of prosperity. Hamilton saw that the sage 
 measures of which we have spoken in the prece- 
 ding chapter had given an impulse to agriculture 
 which could not be checked until the surplus for 
 export should exceed the foreign demand; that 
 commerce was in like manner in a state of prog- 
 ress which would be limited only by the demands 
 of the agriculturist. These, therefore, required no 
 direct aid from the government. He also saw that 
 the surplus agricultural products might be deprived 
 of a market by the acts of foreign powers ; that 
 the trade of the merchant would thus be deprived 
 of its customers ; and that the prosperity of both 
 might, in consequence, be impaired by circumstan- 
 ces over which the government could have no con- 
 trol. The agriculturist, however, was, in most 
 parts of the United States, so far from a market, 
 that he could derive none of the profit arising 
 from the supply of cities or large communities 
 ■with perishable and bulky articles. The products 
 of the dairy, the growth of the kitchen and fruit 
 garden, and the innumerable small crops, were thus 
 in a measure valueless, except in the immediate 
 vicinity of the existing large towns. But he also 
 saw that a community wholly agricultural must for 
 ever be the tributary, or, in effect, the colony of 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 289 
 
 that by which it is supphed with manufactured ar- 
 ticles, and read in history the slow but sure decay 
 in fertility which follows the export of all the ar-^ 
 tides which the agricultural labourer cannot him- 
 self consume. 
 
 He inferred that independence on foreign coun- 
 tries, and the perpetuation of the fertility and val-» 
 ue even of farming land, were only to be attained 
 by the creation of manufactures. The encourage- 
 ment of these, he concluded, was an important 
 and indispensable feature of the policy adapted to 
 give the United States their proper standing in the 
 world of civilization. 
 
 Being again called upon by Congress for infor- 
 mation, he presented a voluminous and convincing 
 report, in which he recommends the encourage- 
 ment of manufactures by every means within the 
 legitimate authority of the government. In this 
 report he assigns to agriculture, commerce, and 
 manufactures their true relative value, in direct 
 contradiction to the schemes of political economy, 
 which had in turn elevated each of them above 
 or decried it below its true co-ordinate rank in a 
 national system. This report produced no imme- 
 diate consequences, but may be advantageously 
 consulted even at the present time. It points out 
 the true system on which national greatness may 
 be founded, by a just balance of the three great 
 interests; it is consistent with that instinctive 
 Bb 
 
290 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 sense which induces us to prefer the productions 
 of our native country to those of foreign chmes ; 
 and it has been successfully acted upon in all 
 countries which have enjoyed a high degree of 
 wealth and prosperity. 
 
 Hamilton was, on all the subjects of finance and 
 national policy, emphatically a practical man. 
 His early associations with mercantile business 
 had shown him the true nature of credit, and the 
 prodigious effect of good faith in maintaining it; 
 while he was aware of its sensitiveness, and the 
 ease by which carelessness or want of punctuality 
 could destroy it. He founded his plans of finance, 
 of a bank, and for the encouragement of manufac- 
 tures, not upon general and vague theories, but 
 by means of sound induction from the experi- 
 ence of other nations, on a careful examination of 
 the legislative steps by which they had attained 
 prosperity or destroyed their natural advantages. 
 Political economy, to be applicable to any useful 
 purpose, must be pursued as an inductive science ; 
 it may otherwise set out from undeniable princi- 
 ples — may proceed by steps of synthetic reason- 
 ing, in which no flaw can be detected, and yet the 
 results of the argument may be in absolute con- 
 tradiction to facts. We may by this process explain 
 the reasons of a particular course of events after 
 they have occurred, but it is impossible to predict 
 them. It is in vain to hope for greater certainty 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 291 
 
 in political than can be reached in physical sci- 
 ence ; and in the latter it is well known that the 
 most accurate mathematical reasoning, fomided on 
 principles absolutely true, may yet lead to erro- 
 neous results, because all the circumstances can- 
 not be taken into account. 
 
 The last of Hamilton's great official reports 
 was that on the establishment of a mint. This 
 was adopted in most of its details, and its princi- 
 ples governed the practice of that institution for 
 upward of forty years. 
 
 On the subjects of credit, of finance, of an ex- 
 cise, and of a National Bank, the cabinet of 
 Washington had been divided. Jefferson had 
 appeared as the decided opponent of all the great 
 measures proposed by Hamilton. A gradual es- 
 trangement, and, finally, a cessation of friendly in- 
 tercourse between them, had thus arisen. Wash- 
 ington had applied himself assiduously to heal 
 the breach, but unsuccessfully. The president re- 
 posed perfect reliance on the integrity and hon- 
 esty of purpose of both; and although he had been, 
 in all the instances we have cited, convinced by 
 the sound and irrefutable arguments of Hamilton, 
 he appears to have determined to commit himself 
 in no shape with a party which might be formed 
 to sustain the opinions of either. The end of his 
 first term of office was about to expire, and he 
 longed to retire to private fife. This wish was 
 
292 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 combated by the members of his cabinet. Ham- 
 ilton, Jefferson, and Randolph each addressed him 
 letters expressive of their opinions on this subject; 
 and, however various were their views and the 
 reasons they alleged, concurred in urging him to 
 serve for a second term. His consent to be con- 
 sidered as a candidate was reluctantly given, and 
 he was elected and again inaugurated. 
 
 Up to this time little distinction of party existed, 
 save that founded on the old difference between 
 the friends and the opponents of the federal Con- 
 stitution. The latter, beaten and discomfited, 
 dropped their distinctive name and waited the 
 course of events. The personal popularity of 
 Washington, and the reverence in which he was 
 held by the great body of the people, would have 
 rendered any direct attempt to oppose his admin- 
 istration fatal to those who made it. 
 
 The debates on the funded system and excise, 
 and more particularly the question of the consti- 
 tutionality of a National Bank, led to a distinc- 
 tion among political men which speedily caused 
 the formation of two great factions, whose con- 
 tests continued for more than twenty years. Ham- 
 ilton became the leader of the federal party, 
 which adopted his principles. It was original- 
 ly composed of the friends of the new Constitu- 
 tion, bat received great and powerful accessions 
 from the mercantile interest, which found in his 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 293 
 
 measures the source of a prosperity almost unex- 
 ampled, and hardly expected by the most san- 
 guine. The plan of funding the debt had been fol- 
 lowed by the conversion of dead and useless certi- 
 ficates into a readily saleable article, which, from 
 its rapid rise, left a profit in the hands of each 
 successive holder; the providing of a sufficient 
 revenue to pay the interest, and finally to dis- 
 charge the debt, caused a still greater rise in the 
 funds ; and, lastly, the creation of the bank, 
 w^hich converted a portion of the funded debt 
 into an active capital accessible to the enterpri- 
 sing and intelligent, stimulated every branch of in- 
 dustry, and aroused the nation from a state of 
 collapse to one of active and successful exertion. 
 In the same party w^ere ranked the great body 
 of the officers of the revolutionary army — the men 
 w^ho had persevered to the end in the service of 
 their country, and had, from motives of patriotism, 
 undergone privations whence others less firm had 
 shrunk. These saw in the success of the new gov- 
 ernment the fruition of the objects for which they 
 had fought, and rejoiced that their toil and blood 
 had not been expended in vain. Even the labour- 
 ing population of the great cities had not yet 
 been taught to look on their mercantile employers 
 with distrust and jealousy, or to consider that the 
 capitalist and his workmen had dififerent interests ; 
 and thus, for a time, the strong seats of the Fed- 
 Bb2 
 
294 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 eral party were in New-York, Philadelphiaj and 
 Boston. 
 
 The accession of the mercantile interest aliena- 
 ted from this party the strong and powerful body 
 of Southern planters, who entertained a jealousy 
 of their factors, which they concealed under the 
 mask of contempt. The whole of the opponents 
 of the Constitution united under the banner of 
 Jefferson and Madison, from those who, like Ran- 
 dolph, refused to sign it because it did not meet 
 the demands of the great states, to those who were 
 dissatisfied because the small states had lost their 
 equality of representation in Congress. Finally, 
 many, who, with Madison and R. L. Livingston 
 at their head, had been disappointed in their hopes 
 of personal consequence, swelled the ranks of the 
 anti-federal party. 
 
 Washington had resolved that he would not 
 govern as the president of a faction, and knew his 
 power of making the discordant materials of his 
 cabinet work together for the general good. The 
 new party, therefore, did not assume the form of 
 an opposition to him, but charged the measures 
 obnoxious to them upon the secretary of the treas- 
 ury. Professing personal attachment to the presi- 
 dent and confidence in his virtues, they notwith- 
 standing arrayed themselves against measures to 
 which he had given his hearty assent, on the 
 plea that be had been deceived. The funded 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 295 
 
 system, the excise, and the bank, were equally ob- 
 noxious to them. It was urged that the debt had 
 been unwarrantably increased in amount by the as- 
 sumption of the state debts ; that the provision by 
 which the debt would be redeemed within a stated 
 time, and not before, was impolitic and injudicious, 
 because it gave the debt a currency in foreign 
 countries, and would lead, as was imagined, to an 
 export of specie to pay the interest ; that the prof- 
 it of the holders of the stock in the bank was ta- 
 ken out of the pockets of the people; that all 
 capital employed in banking operations was bar- 
 ren and unproductive ; and that the Legislature 
 was corrupted by this capital. 
 
 Such were the allegations of Jefferson in a let- 
 ter to Washington, in which he, notwithstanding, 
 urges him to permit himself to be re-elected. 
 They exhibit the grounds which he considered as 
 tenable, and form the foundation of what he, even 
 at this early period, calls the Republican doctrine. 
 However well suited to popular feelings these 
 propositions may appear, they were but coldly re- 
 ceived ; with the people the Federalists still exert- 
 ed the greatest influence, and in Congress their 
 party was triumphant. 
 
 The entrance of Washington upon his second 
 term of office as president was followed by the 
 intelligence that a war had broken out between 
 England and France. This was the result of the 
 
296 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 French Revolution. The efforts of the people of 
 that country to obtain a free government had ex- 
 cited the sympathy of all the citizens of the United 
 States, and it had been felt in no moderate degree 
 by Hamilton, as well as by Washington himself. 
 The revolution was, however, speedily sullied by 
 sanguinary excesses, which awakened the jealous 
 fears of the governments of Europe. These, in 
 endeavouring to crush the revolution in its cradle, 
 had excited a hostile spirit among the republicans ; 
 and the early successes of their arms gave birth to 
 the hopes of conquest, while they sought by all 
 possible means to injure and ruin their enemies. 
 The treaties which existed between France and 
 the United States bound the latter to certain ob- 
 ligations, which, if fulfilled according to the con- 
 struction put upon them by the former, made them 
 allies in the war. To a certain extent the claim 
 was admitted, and money was freely advanced to 
 aid in the attempt to quiet the troubles of St. Do- 
 mingo. The new government of France, how- 
 ever, seemed to have determined to compel the 
 United States to become a party in the war, or to 
 make such use of the ports and people of Ameri- 
 ca as would be more injurious to England than 
 actual hostility. Active preparations were soon 
 known to be making to fit out privateers under 
 the French flag in American ports, for the pur- 
 pose of preying on British commerce. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 297 
 
 In this state of things, the president submitted 
 to his cabinet the questions : whether a proclama- 
 tion of neutrahty ought not to be issued ? whether 
 a minister from the I rench repubUc should be re- 
 ceived ? whether his reception should be absolute 
 or qualified ? and whether the guarantee in the 
 treaty of alliance was binding under existing cir- 
 cumstances 1 The cabinet decided unanimously 
 that a proclamation, forbidding the citizens of the 
 United States to take part with either belligerent, 
 ought to be published, and that the minister from 
 the French republic ought to be received. On 
 the other points a diversity of opinion existed; 
 Jefferson and Randolph saw no reason for express- 
 ing any qualification in the reception of the ex- 
 pected ambassador, while Hamilton and Knox 
 were opposed to any direct recognition of the ex- 
 isting government of France, which they did not 
 think likely to be permanent, for fear of creating 
 difficulties with other powers. The two latter 
 concurred in opinion, that the guarantees in the 
 treaty had reference only to a defensive war; 
 while the former did not consider it necessary that 
 an opinion should be expressed on this head. 
 
 Washing-ton, on this occasion, was governed by 
 the opinions of Jefferson and Randolph. The 
 proclamation of neutrality was promulgated ; the 
 ambassador was received on the same terms as 
 the representative of the king had been ; and the 
 
298 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 provisions of the treaty were left to take the 
 course of events. Hamilton's doubts of the sta- 
 bility of the revolutionary government were justi- 
 fied by the course which things took in France, 
 where faction after faction succeeded to power; 
 but, on the other hand, the forms of a republic 
 were maintained until Napoleon grasped the reins 
 of empire. We may also express the belief, that 
 a declaration that the war then waging by France 
 was offensive, and, in consequence, not provided 
 for by the treaty, would have been a more open 
 and manly course than that which was pursued. 
 
 Hardly had the proclamation of neutrality been 
 issued, than the expected ambassador from France 
 landed at Charleston, S. C. This minister was 
 the famous Genet. Immediately after his arrival, 
 he issued commissions to privateers, which were 
 fitted out and speedily returned with prizes. His 
 journey from Charleston to Philadelphia was al- 
 most a triumph, and he received everywhere such 
 marks of attention as impressed him with the idea 
 that the great body of the people was ready to 
 make common cause with France. On consulta- 
 tion with his cabinet, Washington issued a decla- 
 ration that the fitting out of privateers was a vio- 
 lation of neutrality which the government was 
 bound to prevent. A communication was also 
 made to the French minister, informing him that 
 it was expected that he would cause restitution 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 299 
 
 to be made of all prizes brought into American 
 ports by vessels fitted out within them, otherwise 
 the United States would consider themselves bound 
 to indemnify the owners, and call on France to re- 
 imburse the indemnity. 
 
 Active steps were then taken to prevent the 
 sailing of privateers ; and in at least one instance, 
 a prize was taken possession of and restored to 
 her crew. 
 
 Genet was deeply dissatisfied with these meas- 
 ures, and threatened to appeal from the president 
 to the people. Roused by this insult, Washing- 
 ton, by the advice of his cabinet, demanded from 
 the French government the recall of Genet. 
 
 On all these points the cabinet was unanimous ; 
 and although it is apparent that Hamilton was the 
 main supporter of the president in these measures, 
 Jefferson and Randolph concurred, and signed the 
 opinions. The sincerity of the last two has been 
 questioned ; it is at all events certain, that the 
 opinions of these gentlemen did not continue con- 
 sistent with the declarations issued by the gov- 
 ernment. Randolph was ere long charged w^th 
 entertaining relations with the French minister in- 
 compatible with his position in the cabinet. To 
 this charge he made no defence, but forthwith re- 
 signed his office. Jefferson was speedily intimate- 
 ly leagued with those who had espoused the cause 
 of France. 
 
300 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Genet, with a view of realizing his threat of 
 an appeal to the people, proceeded to organize 
 Democratic societies. These were modelled on 
 the Jacobin clubs of Paris, and were by far the 
 most efficient engines for party discipline that had 
 been yet seen. These societies not only borrowed 
 their organization from France, but adopted the 
 terms of reproach which had been so efficient in 
 the reign of terror. All who opposed their plans 
 were stigmatized as aristocrats; and it is more 
 than probable that the federal party w^as made 
 odious by its being w^ilfully confounded with the 
 obnoxious French faction which bore the same 
 name. 
 
 In this crisis Hamilton was true to his country 
 and his illustrious chief. The proclamation of 
 neutrality, and the acts which grew out of it, were 
 ably defended by him in a series of papers bear- 
 ing the signature of Pacificus. A strong revul- 
 sion was effected by them in popular feeling, and 
 the administration finally received the support of 
 a decided majority of the nation. At first, indeed, 
 it could reckon on no more than a minority of the 
 House of Representatives, while the Senate was 
 equally divided. This state of parties was exhib- 
 ited when the treaty made by Jay with Great 
 Britain was promulgated. The proceedings in ref- 
 erence to his mission, and the treaty which he 
 formed, are foreign to our present subject. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 301 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Armed 7^esistance to the Excise Law. — Hainil- 
 ton resigns the Office of Secretary of the 
 Treasury^ and resumes the practice of Law. — 
 His brilliant Success. — His Disinterestedness 
 as a Politician.^Continued Aggressions of 
 France, and her Refusal to grant Redress. — • 
 Excitement of Popular Feeling. — The Pro- 
 visional Army is voted by Congress. — Hamil' 
 ton is named Inspector-general. — His Servi' 
 ces in that Capacity, 
 
 The excise was not only warmly opposed in 
 Congress, but the operation of it was met by a 
 determined spirit of resistance. This was at first 
 manifested in an evasion of the law ; next by 
 threats and insults to the revenue officers ; finally, 
 when indictments were found against the delin- 
 quents, the serving of the process was resisted by 
 an armed force. This last act of outrage was as- 
 cribed by Washington, and with every appearance 
 of probability, to the influence of the Democratic 
 societies. To put down this insurrection, the mi- 
 litia of the states of Virginia, Maryland, and New- 
 Jersey was called out, after a proclamation had 
 been issued requiring the insurgents to disperse. 
 Cc 
 
302 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 This force was accompanied by the president him- 
 self nearly to the scene of action, and Hamilton, 
 who had been the companion of his journey, pro 
 ceeded with the troops as far as Pittsburg. He 
 may, in fact, be considered as the actual leader of 
 the patriotic body by whose bloodless services the 
 only direct resistance that has ever been offered to 
 the laws of the United States was put down. 
 
 This occasion afforded an experiment by which 
 the stability and energy of the federal govern- 
 ment could be tested, and the result was satisfac- 
 tory. 
 
 Hamilton had for some time been anxious to re- 
 tire from the cares of office to private life. He 
 now saw that he could do so without detriment to 
 the public service. He therefore tendered his res- 
 ignation to the president, which, after some delay, 
 was accepted. His continuance in office was de- 
 sired until he should close his previous labours by 
 the plan of a sinking fund. This was recommend- 
 ed by Washington in his annual message, and the 
 means for establishing it were planned by Hamil- 
 ton. His report on this subject was his last act as 
 a member of the cabinet. 
 
 Hamilton, after resigning the office of secretary 
 of the treasury, returned to New- York and re- 
 commenced the practice of the law. In those days 
 of official purity, it was not yet imagined that 
 the possession of a public trust could ever be made 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 303 
 
 a source of fortune, either directly or indirectly. 
 The salaries were fixed at the lowest hmit believed 
 to be ^compatible with the decent support of the 
 incumbent; and an attempt to save what was 
 granted for public purposes would have been visit- 
 ed by contempt. Speculations growing out of the 
 opportunity for information possessed by the de- 
 partments would have been reckoned criminal, if 
 not within the strict letter of the laws, at least in 
 the eye of the community. Hamilton, however, 
 never seems to have imagined the possibility of 
 acquiring wealth in the latter way. Had this been 
 his object, he had opportunities such as no other 
 public man has ever possessed. The debt of the 
 government rose under his administration from a 
 value almost nominal to more than par, while the 
 rise on the subscription price of the stock of the 
 bank was such as to create many large fortunes. 
 His opponents were so sensible of the advantages 
 of his position, that they saw that nothing but vir- 
 tue of transcendant character could preserve him 
 from the temptations to which he was exposed; 
 and judging of him from the scale of ordinary 
 men, boldly, and upon very trifling grounds, char- 
 ged him with collusion in stock speculations. On 
 this occasion Hamilton valued his character as a 
 public servant beyond his domestic peace; and, 
 rather than leave any imputation on his official pu- 
 rity, exposed frailties which he was not suspected 
 
304 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 of. The temporary aberration of passion which 
 was thus laid open may lower the opinion which 
 we might otherwise entertain of the absolute spot- 
 lessness of his moral character, but his avowal 
 serves to enhance our estimate of his delicate 
 sense of official purity. 
 
 Hamilton, therefore, retired from his station 
 as secretary of the treasury, after nearly twenty 
 years of public service, with less of wealth than 
 he had entered it; and the necessity for provi- 
 ding a support for his family was his strongest 
 reason for resigning. His hopes of success at the 
 bar were fully realized. He at once placed him- 
 self first among the many distinguished barristers 
 which the courts of New- York then counted, and 
 was speedily in the receipt of the largest income 
 which a professional man has ever acquired among 
 us. In this capacity he has left a reputation for 
 depth of knowledge, soundness of argument, brill- 
 iancy of eloquence, and splendour of illustration, 
 which is as yet unrivalled. It would be impossi- 
 ble, indeed, to convey in words any idea of his 
 grace of manner and elegance of diction. In this 
 he shares the fate of all orators ; but, while oth- 
 ers have taken care to record their more brilliant 
 efforts, few of his speeches have been preserved. 
 
 His reputation as an orator was no doubt due, 
 not only to his physical advantages and the vast 
 range of his intellect, but to the earnestness with 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 305 
 
 which he entered into his subject. Each speech 
 was therefore adapted to the circumstances under 
 which it was dehvered, and derived its greatest 
 charm from its suitableness to the occasion. The 
 direct object having been obtained, it never 
 seems to have occurred to him that posterity could 
 take an interest in the evanescent topic, and he 
 took no precautions for the preservation of speci- 
 mens of his eloquence. 
 
 While thus engaged in the industrious practice 
 of his profession, he calmly permitted the most 
 tempting objects of ambition to pass him. The 
 administration of Washington was drawing to a 
 close, and he had determined not to serve a third 
 time. The two great parties had been fully de- 
 veloped, and Jefferson had been placed at the 
 head of that which, after passing through the 
 phases of Anti-federal and Democratic, had assu- 
 med the style of Republican. The Federal party 
 had, in point of fact, been formed to support prin- 
 ciples, of which Hamilton was the author or the 
 most efficient supporter. Its practice consisted in 
 the funding of the debt, with the creation of a 
 sufficient revenue to meet the interest and redeem 
 it ; in maintaining the Constitutional right of the 
 government to charter a bank ; in observing the 
 strictest neutrality between the belligerent pow- 
 ers of Europe, and being at the same time prepa- 
 red to resist or retaliate the aggressions of either. 
 Cc2 
 
306 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 It is easy to see that, had Hamilton been actu- 
 ated by personal ambition, he might have made 
 himself the candidate of this powerful and influ- 
 ential party. His writings, acts, and views of the 
 Constitution were adopted by it; and, although 
 willing to serve in a private capacity, he was its 
 acknowledged leader, and held in its estimation a 
 rank second to Washington alone. He, however, 
 took no steps to avail himself of his standing with 
 this party, and rather avoided than courted popu- 
 lar applause. 
 
 At this juncture he received a new proof of the 
 confidence of Washington in his honesty and abil- 
 ity. That great man, on quitting office, had deter- 
 mined to leave behind him as a legacy the decla- 
 ration of his principles of action, to serve as an 
 example to his successors. With this he proposed 
 to combine the advice he conceived most likely to 
 maintain the stability and usefulness of the federal 
 government. Here was an extra-official act, in 
 which his cabinet had no concern ; and yet, with 
 his characteristic prudence, he was unwilling to 
 trust to his own unassisted exertions for the prep- 
 aration of so important a paper. He chose as 
 his advisers on this occasion Jay and Hamilton ; 
 and while the great features of this almost super- 
 human production are unquestionably his own, he 
 adopted their suggestions almost implicitly. So 
 decided is the evidence of Hamilton's style in this 
 
ALEXANDER HAMIL.TON. 307 
 
 document, that those have not been wanting who 
 have ascribed it solely to him, forgetting the air 
 of majestic grandeur which breathes in every line, 
 and which no other mind, however familiar with 
 the inmost thoughts of Washington, could have 
 assumed. 
 
 Examples of the perfect union of the mind of 
 one great man with the style of another are not 
 wanting in other instances. Pictures are yet to be 
 seen which bear the autograph of Rubens, while 
 the practised connoisseur can trace in them the 
 evident marks of the hand of his pupil Van Dyck. 
 The pictures, in grandeur of design, are worthy of 
 the former; in deUcacy of taste and feeling of 
 beauty, of the latter ; while the union presents a 
 whole superior to the separate productions of ei- 
 ther. So of the farewell address : its conception 
 could only have arisen in the mind of Washing- 
 ton himself, yet it would have been less perfect as 
 a composition had it not passed through the hands 
 of Hamilton ; and even their united efforts might 
 not have exhibited the high and delicate finish 
 afforded by the classical pen of Jay. 
 
 The administration of Adams, which succeeded 
 that of Washington, professed to follow in the 
 path the latter had pointed out. The heads of 
 departments who had succeeded Hamilton and 
 his colleagues were retained in office, and all the 
 great features of national policy remained for a 
 
308 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY* 
 
 time unaltered. Adams, however, speedily be- 
 came unpopular. The fact that he had been the 
 apparent opponent of Washington in the election 
 for president, which was necessary, in the original 
 form of the Constitution, to make him vice-presi- 
 dent ; and the large majority by which he was 
 chosen as the successor, seem to have given him 
 an overweening estimate of his personal impor- 
 tance. Beginning his political career by profes- 
 sions of implicit obedience to the popular will, he 
 underwent, when he obtained power, the transfor- 
 mation almost certain to demagogues, from supple 
 subserviency to arbitrary exertion of authority. 
 Familiar with the etiquette of the courts of Eu- 
 rope, he felt inclined to mimic the state and seclu- 
 sion of monarchs. The reserve and distance of 
 manner, natural and dignified in Washington, 
 might awe, but they never excited resentment. 
 Manners of the same description, ingrafted unnat^ 
 urally on the less imposing person of Adams, ex- 
 cited derision in some, and roused the anger ot 
 others. The sterling honesty of his purposes was 
 no compensation for the faults of his manner. 
 Advantage was taken by the opposition of the 
 defects of his character, and the popularity of his 
 administration speedily declined. 
 
 The aggressions of Great Britain on our com- 
 merce had been in a great measure checked by 
 the treaty of Jay. A feeling of cordiality had 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 309 
 
 arisen between the two governments, which their 
 mutual interest in commerce might have extend- 
 ed throughout both countries. England was the 
 best market for many of the products of the Uni- 
 ted States ; the latter the largest customer for the 
 manufactures of Great Britain. The folly of the 
 administration of England, and the arrogance of 
 her naval commanders, alone prevented a good 
 and cordial understanding between the two na- 
 tions. 
 
 France, on the other hand, not only continued 
 her pillage of the commerce of the United States, 
 but exhibited resentment in other ways at the 
 steady adherence of the latter to a strict neutral- 
 ity. The hst of wrongs and injuries had swell- 
 ed to a fearful amount. In this state of the case, 
 it was resolved by Adams to follow, in relation 
 to France, the method adopted by Washington 
 towards England in the mission of Jay. Com- 
 missioners were therefore despatched to Paris, 
 bearing the ultimatum, as it purported to be, of 
 the United States. These were received almost 
 with insult ; and, as a preliminary to any negotia- 
 tion, money was demanded. To this the memora- 
 ble answer was given, "Millions for defence: 
 not a cent for tribute !" 
 
 The Directory was probably incited to this ar- 
 rogant course by the belief that a large and pow- 
 erful party in the United States would not sustain 
 
310 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 the government in a war with France. The op- 
 position to Jay's treaty had assumed the form of a 
 French party, while the old wounds of the Revo- 
 lutionary war were yet unhealed, and festered 
 with resentment against Great Britain. That 
 there were party leaders who, in the ardour of 
 their political strife, had lost sight of national and 
 patriotic feelings, and were, from opposite views, 
 partisans of either belligerent, cannot be doubted; 
 but the body of the people was sound in its at- 
 tachment to its own soil and institutions. 
 
 No sooner had the treatment of the envoys be- 
 come known, than a spontaneous burst of popular 
 feeling arose. Congress passed a law authorizing 
 the enlistment of an army of ten thousand men, 
 and made provision for the increase of the navy. 
 The cruisers were authorized to capture and bring 
 into port all French armed vessels found hovering 
 on the coasts. The capture of one French frigate, 
 and the defeat of another, gave an earnest of that 
 glory which has since encompassed the navy, and 
 exalted it in popular opinion. The flower of the 
 youth of the country either sought commissions in 
 the army, or enrolled themselves in volunteer 
 corps, without reference to the former distinctions 
 of party. 
 
 All eyes were now directed to Washington as 
 the only person worthy of commanding the new 
 army ; and Hamilton, in anticipation of the unfa-, 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 311 
 
 voui'able result of the negotiations with France, had 
 written to tell him that it was the general opinion 
 that he must again sacrifice his priA^ate interests 
 to the public good. That his services would be 
 demanded was also intimated to him by the pres- 
 ident ; but the latter, with singular bad taste, had 
 nominated him to the Senate as commander-in- 
 chief before the reply was received. Washing- 
 ton accepted the appointment without hesitation, 
 however ungracious the manner, but stipulated 
 that he should have the selection of the general 
 officers. The law had provided for two major- 
 generals, and an inspector-general of that same 
 rank. For the two former offices Washington 
 named Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and General 
 Knox ; for the latter he proposed Hamilton ; but 
 he placed him first on the hst, with the intention 
 of giving him seniority of rank, and of making 
 him his substitute unless the army should actually 
 take the field, as well as his eventual successor. 
 
 Washington subsequently explained why he 
 thus preferred Hamilton to be the first under him. 
 The reasons were, his general ability and high 
 military talent, which placed him in advance of 
 any revolutionary officer whose age would per- 
 mit him to serve ; his standing as a statesman and 
 politician, which was second to none ; and, finally, 
 that the country had no right to ask him to quit a 
 lucrative profession for an office whose pay would 
 
312 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 be swallowed up in the necessary expenditures, 
 without an equivalent at least in rank and hon- 
 our. 
 
 The president appeared at first to acquiesce, 
 and named the three officers to the Senate on the 
 same day, and in the order set down by Wash- 
 ington. A question of relative rank was speedily 
 raised, and the president gave it as his opinion, 
 that, bearing commissions of even date for identi- 
 cal rank, their relative standing was to be gov- 
 erned by their ancient precedence in the revolu- 
 tionary army. By this decision the order proposed 
 by Washington would have been inverted ; Ham- 
 ilton being last, and Knox first in seniority. 
 
 Hamilton was not left the option of accepting 
 or dechning to serve under this decision. Wash- 
 ington himself, without being requested, or any 
 complaint from Hamilton being heard, interfered 
 and insisted that his original intention should be 
 complied with. To this the president consented, 
 but with obvious reluctance, while Knox refused 
 to accept the commission tendered to him unless 
 he should take precedence both of Hamilton and 
 Pinckney. Pinckney exhibited a more generous 
 spirit. He at once acquiesced in the superior 
 claims of Hamilton, and said he would have also 
 offered to waive his priority to Knox and to serve 
 under him, had he not been made aware, on his 
 return from France, that Knox had positively de- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 313 
 
 raanded to be considered as the senior major-gen- 
 eral. 
 
 The administration at first appeared to be in 
 earnest in the formation of the army. Washing- 
 ton was desired to consider himself in actual ser- 
 vice; and a board, composed of himself, Pinckney, 
 and Hamilton, was convened at Trenton, for the 
 purpose of forming a plan of organization, and 
 selecting officers from the numerous applicants. 
 The plan for the organization of the army was 
 due to Hamilton, and showed how closely he 
 had watched the improvements in military tactics 
 which had been developed during the war of the 
 French Revolution. It is not to be considered as 
 one which would be received at the present day 
 as the best, but was so far consistent with the 
 progress of military knowledge that it was adopt- 
 ed almost implicitly, after a lapse of fourteen years, 
 in the organization of the army raised to act in 
 the war against Great Britain. 
 
 The board completed a list of oflScers, which 
 was communicated to the president ; and the pre- 
 liminary steps having been thus taken, it w^as to 
 have been expected that the enlistment of sol- 
 diers would be permitted to proceed without de- 
 lay. But the president appeared on a sudden to 
 grow cool in the cause. He must have easily 
 seen that the greater part of his cabinet enter- 
 tained a higher respect for the opinions of the 
 Dd 
 
314 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, 
 
 commander-in-chief than for his own. Hence ap- 
 pears to have arisen a jealousy of power, while 
 Hamilton appeared to be the favom^ite of the very 
 party to which he owed his own elevation to of- 
 fice. Instead of accepting this discovery as a 
 proof of Hamilton's forbearance and moderation 
 towards him, he seems to have looked upon him 
 as a dangerous rival. Retiring from the seat of 
 government, he, in a letter to the secretary of 
 state, charged that the advancement of Hamilton 
 to the high military rank which had been accord- 
 ed him was the fruit of an intrigue. 
 
 In the mean time, Hamilton was assiduously 
 engaged in the formation of the provisional army, 
 of which the whole labour of command devolved 
 on him, by the conditions on which Washington 
 had accepted his commission. The delays which 
 arose from inefficiency in the war department, 
 and the growing coolness of the president, made 
 this an ungrateful task. 
 
 It was, however, to all appearance a necessary 
 one. The naval power of France had not yet re- 
 ceived its first great check from Nelson at Abou- 
 kir, and, united to the fleets of Spain and Hoi* 
 land, might, in all human probability, be again 
 supreme even in the Narrow Seas. St. Domingo 
 still constituted an integral part of the one and in- 
 divisible republic, and in it 40,000 black troops, 
 commanded by officers of experience, stood ready 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 315 
 
 to invade and excite a servile war in the Southern 
 states. Serious and well-grounded apprehensions 
 were entertained, that the aggressions of France 
 were not so much directed by the individual cu- 
 pidity of her privateersraen, as by the studied de- 
 termination to extend her disorganizing principles 
 to the Continent. 
 
 Engrossed in these warlike cares, and purposely 
 excluded from the civil councils of the administra- 
 tion, Hamilton was not responsible for the errors 
 of judgment which deprived Adams of the confi- 
 dence of the federal party, and undermined its 
 well-founded strength. 
 
316 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 Causes of the decline of the Federal Party. — 
 Origin of the enmity of Burr against Ham- 
 ilton. — Settlement of the Differences with 
 France. — The Provisional Army is disband- 
 ed, and Hamilton resumes the Profession of 
 Law. — He loses his eldest Son in a Duel. — 
 Burr appears as a candidate for the office 
 of Governor, and is prevented by Hamilton 
 from receiving the support of the Federal 
 Party. 
 
 In spite of the strong popular feeling excited 
 by the aggressions of France and the insolence 
 of her government, a formidable party remained, 
 which openly attempted to palliate her conduct, 
 and covertly desired a French alliance. This par- 
 ty took measures, through a sure agent, to commu- 
 nicate to influential persons in France, that the be- 
 lief in the existence of such a feeling in the peo- 
 ple of the United States as would forbid a war 
 w^as unfounded ; that all hope of an alliance be- 
 tween the two countries would be at an end unless 
 there were a total change of measures. 
 
 In the mean time, the administration, with a 
 vacillating policy, decided on the appointment of 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 317 
 
 a new commission to proceed to France, to renew 
 a negotiation which seemed ah-eady to have fail- 
 ed. It appears that it was not the intention of the 
 cabinet that this commission should depart until 
 some assurance were given that it would be fa- 
 vourably received. The president, as we have 
 seen, had manifested a jealousy of the paramount 
 influence of Washington, and appears to have se- 
 cretly feared Hamilton as a rival. At all events, 
 he seems to have ceased to take the advice of 
 those best qualified to give it, and even omitted 
 the usual ceremony of consulting his cabinet. 
 The commissioners for treating with France were 
 suddenly and unexpectedly ordered by him to pro- 
 ceed on their mission. This important step was 
 taken without the knowledge of any of the heads 
 of departments except the secretary of the navy, 
 through whom orders for a frigate to convey them 
 were transmitted. 
 
 This measure, by sanctioning the opinion that 
 the danger was not pressing, nor the insults of 
 France such as could not be submitted to, put 
 an instant period to popular enthusiasm. Those 
 who had failed in obtaining commissions in *the 
 army were not more dissatisfied than those who 
 had received appointments, and both were in a 
 fit state of mind to be acted upon by those wish- 
 ing to convert them into opponents to the adminis- 
 tration. Other active young men who had en- 
 Dd2 
 
318 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 rolled themselves in volunteer corps, laid aside 
 their arms with anger and disappointment. On 
 these classes Burr commenced a system of seduc- 
 tive wiles well calculated to entrap the unwary. 
 Many of those who had been most anxious for 
 a war with France, and some who had received 
 the black cockade from the hands of Mrs. Adams 
 herself, became the personal adherents of Burr, 
 and finally gave their votes to the Republican 
 party. The history of the corruption which Cat- 
 iline exercised on the Roman youth was renewed 
 in the United States. 
 
 Burr directed his wonderful powers of address 
 to another quarter, and, exciting the jealousy of 
 the poorer classes, effected a revolution in the pol- 
 itics of the City of New-York, which had hitherto 
 "been a stronghold of the Federal party. 
 
 His exertions to bring this about were fostered 
 by the imprudence of the leading Federalists. 
 The continual victories which had been gained 
 by their party from the time the Convention 
 which framed the Constitution assembled, caused 
 them to forget the absolute dependance of our 
 politicians on popular favour. They held them- 
 selves aloof from the mass of the people, and thus 
 gave force to the charge of aristocratic feeling 
 which was urged against them. This charge was 
 reiterated until it was believed by many, and 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 319 
 
 alienated the yeomanry of the country from the 
 administration. 
 
 The warhke preparations required more money 
 than the revenue from imports was capable of 
 furnishing. Hence resort was had to direct tax- 
 es ; and these, which would have been cheerfully 
 borne had the public good required their imposi- 
 tion in actual war, were a source of general dis- 
 content now that no such state of things appear- 
 ed probable. Among these taxes was that of 
 stamps, which was adroitly coupled with the sim- 
 ilar measure that, when enacted by the British 
 Parliament, had operated as one of the prominent 
 causes of the revolutionary struggle. 
 
 Finally, two laws were passed repugnant to 
 the feelings of the people ; the one imposing pen- 
 alties on political writers, and creating the crime 
 of sedition ; the other placing the personal liberty 
 of emigrants at the disposal of the executive. By 
 these acts many of those who had swelled the 
 Federal majorities became alienated, and, if they 
 did not join their strength to the Republican par- 
 ty, withdrew their support from the administration. 
 
 We might have ranked among the prominent 
 causes of the decline of the strength of the Federal 
 party the death of Washington himself. We 
 have seen that he had with such prudence held 
 the balance between the members of his cabinet, 
 that, while he in general adopted the views ^ 
 
320 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Hamilton, he gave Jefferson no just cause of of- 
 fence. The opposition during his administration 
 did not become a personal one, but was directed 
 against his advisers. It, in fact, was almost im- 
 possible for party malevolence to impeach his mo- 
 tives, and the arguments of the opposition did lit- 
 tle to destroy the general belief in his wisdom. 
 More than all, he was regarded by all classes with 
 strong feelings of personal attachment, and with 
 the most profound admiration. The course of 
 the leaders of the Republican party, by which his 
 name was kept out of view, was therefore as much 
 dictated by policy as by principle. Some of the 
 underlings of a factious press, however, did not 
 hesitate to attack him, but the aggression reacted 
 upon the party they supported. He had by no 
 public act, save the acceptance of the command of 
 the army, given his support to the administration of 
 Adams; but the time seems to have been at hand 
 when he would have felt it his duty to his country 
 to declare himself openly against the Democratic 
 party; while his dissatisfaction with the policy 
 of Adams was such, that it appears possible that 
 he might have been induced to stand again as a 
 candidate for the presidency. He was still in the 
 full vigour of his faculties, and little impaired in 
 personal activity ; and his convictions of the dan- 
 ger to which the country was exposed from the 
 prevalence ^f the principles of the French Revo- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 321 
 
 lutionists were such, that it is not improbable that 
 he might again have left his beloved retii-ement, 
 could he have been satisfied that by so doing he 
 would have again become the ruler of a nation, 
 not the head of a party. 
 
 The consmnmate prudence and political tact of 
 Jefferson prevented the forebodings of Washington 
 from being realized. The funded debt was not 
 meddled with; the National Bank was not only 
 left undisturbed, but continued as the fiscal agent 
 of the government ; an alliance with France was 
 cautiously shunned, even after the insults of Great 
 Britain and the violation of our territory afforded 
 good and popular grounds of war; the provisional 
 army had, as we have seen, been disbanded before 
 the close of the administration of Adams ; but an 
 establishment of the full extent of that which was 
 on foot at the close of Washington's second term 
 of office was maintained. Jefferson even studious- 
 ly avoided the exercise of his constitutional pow- 
 ers of removal from office for the mere purpose of 
 rewarding his political adherents. With the ex- 
 ception of a reduction of the naval establishment, 
 and the abolition of a useless branch of the judi- 
 ciary, it might have appeared as if nothing had 
 occurred but a change in the person of the chief 
 magistrate. 
 
 Such was the number of seceders from the Fed- 
 eral party after the death of Washington, that 
 
322 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 their opponents resolved to adopt the bold policy 
 of running two candidates in order to secure the 
 election of a vice-president, and thus, although a 
 choice by the electoral colleges vv^as not effected, 
 the two candidates of the Democratic party were 
 brought before the House of Representatives wdth 
 claims apparently equal. In the vote of this body 
 by states, it soon appeared that the Federal mem- 
 bers had it in their power to determine which of 
 the two, Jefferson or Burr, should be president. 
 Many violent Federal partisans were inclined to 
 throw a brand of discord into the Republican 
 party, b)'' conferring the dignity on Burr ; and he 
 is accused of intriguing Avith them for the pur- 
 pose. The charge has recently been retorted on 
 Jefferson. It seems probable that Hamilton, whom 
 the death of Washington had placed in the first 
 rank of the Federal party, interfered to prevent 
 the votes of his friends being cast for Burr. For 
 Jefferson he had no affection, nor did he believe 
 in the honesty of his views ; but he knew^ that he 
 would at least be governed by the prescribed 
 forms of legislation, and that the alterations which 
 his advent might cause in the policy of the gov- 
 ernment would be in conformity with the letter 
 of the Constitution, and directed by the sanctions 
 of legal enactment. 
 
 Burr, in consequence, appears to have ascribed 
 the disappointment he felt, but did not venture 
 
ALEXANDER. HAMILTON. 323 
 
 openly to avow, to Hamilton. He had, at the be- 
 ginning of the Revolution, been excluded from the 
 military family of Washington on account of his 
 open profligacy, and he had seen Hamilton occu- 
 pying the station to which he had aspired. Pro- 
 fessional rivalry had existed between them at the 
 New-York bar, and while, in point of mere talent, 
 they ranked as equals, Burr saw that the universal- 
 ly admitted purity of Hamilton's character gave 
 him an ascendancy against which it was vain to 
 strive. All these causes united excited in the 
 breast of Burr a vindictive spirit, the more furious 
 in consequence of the necessity of repressing it. 
 
 The commissioners who were sent to France 
 found there a new state of things. Bonaparte 
 had returned from Egypt, and had effected a rev- 
 olution in the government. Personal interests no 
 longer interfered, and money was not, as before, 
 demanded. The American commissioners appear- 
 ed rather as suppliants for peace than as claimants 
 for satisfaction. The terms which they accepted 
 were therefore far from favourable. No security 
 was obtained against future aggressions, no indem- 
 nity for former outrages. A release was, howev- 
 er, procured from the implied obligations of the 
 treaty of alliance, by which the possessions of the 
 French in the West Indies were guarantied. Had 
 the obligation to this condition been insuperable, 
 the relinquishment of it would have been cheaply 
 
324 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 purchased by giving up the claim for spoliations ; 
 but this would have only been justified by the 
 American government assuming the indemnity of 
 its citizens. This point was left vague in the trea- 
 ty, and thus the heavy losses incurred by the mer- 
 cantile community from the cruisers and privateers 
 of France have never yet been compensated. To 
 complete the measure of humiliation, the prizes 
 taken by the American navy were restored, the 
 proud trophies of victory relinquished. 
 
 It is not surprising, then, that within a few 
 years Napoleon should have treated the United 
 States as a vassal nation, bound to aid him in his 
 schemes of ambition ; and that England, seeing the 
 Sacrifices, both of interest and honour, which were 
 made to France for the sake of peace, should have 
 presumed to renew the insults which the treaty of 
 Jay had for a time interrupted. 
 
 The treaty with France was received by the 
 Republican party as a triumph. They forgot their 
 country in the pride of victory over their political 
 opponents, and the predilection for a French alli- 
 ance became a strong and settled principle of ac- 
 tion. On the other hand, the mercantile interest, 
 powerful from its wealth, intelligence, and activi- 
 ty, contrasting the readiness with which England 
 had accorded indemnity in the treaty of Jay with 
 the refusal of all compensation by France, became 
 the partisans of the former country ; and thus two 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON, 325 
 
 antagonist principles were brought into action, by 
 which it was attempted to regulate the policy of 
 the United States, not on broad feelings of nation- 
 al honour, but in reference to the hostilities and 
 interests of the two great European rivals. 
 
 The settlement with France rendered the pro- 
 visional army unnecessary, and it was, in conse- 
 quence, disbanded. Hamilton was thus released 
 from his military duties, and returned to his pro- 
 fessional pursuits. In this he was again success- 
 ful, and speedily resumed his high standing at the 
 bar and the receipt of a large income. 
 
 The violence of party politics was far from be- 
 ing abated by the election of Jefferson, and Ham- 
 ilton was looked to from all quarters as the leader 
 of the opposition. He gave to its cause the aid 
 of his powerful pen, and restored the unity of the 
 Federal party, which had been impaired by the 
 impolitic acts of Adams. The administration party 
 retorted by attacks upon his political character, 
 and the principles of government w^hich they ac- 
 cused him and his party of maintaining. 
 
 The excitement was such that the younger 
 members of either party could not be restrained 
 to the weapons of argument, but sought each oth- 
 er's blood. The eldest son of Hamilton, who had 
 just reached man's estate, was one of the first vic- 
 tims of this spirit. Excited by the attacks which 
 were continually uttered against the principles of 
 Ee 
 
326 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 his father, he singled out and insulted the author 
 of a public address, in which the language of the 
 party, ascribing a desire of monarchical govern- 
 ment and the establishment of an aristocracy to 
 the Federahsts, had been adopted with the rash- 
 ness of youth and the ardour of conviction. A 
 hostile meeting at Hoboken was the consequence, 
 in which Philip Hamilton fell. The surviver of 
 the duel, who appears to have been unwillingly 
 forced by his political friends into a course which 
 his conscience reprobated, was even more to be 
 pitied than his victim ; for, in spite of the support 
 of his partisans, and the applause they lavished on 
 his courage, he sunk to the grave before the lapse 
 of many months, a prey to feelings of remorse. It 
 is unnecessary to say how severe was this affliction 
 to one of Hamilton's sensibilities. The loss of a 
 child is in all cases one of the severest trials to 
 which our race is subjected, and the suffering was 
 in this case aggravated by the cause and the 
 manner of the infliction. 
 
 Burr, in the mean time, did not cease from his 
 intrigues. Drawing a body of young men from 
 the Democratic party, with many of those who 
 had been disgusted with the vacillating pohcy of 
 Adams, he led a devoted band, remarkable for its 
 talent and activity. By the aid of these he form- 
 ed a division in the Republican ranks, and obtain- 
 ed a nomination for the ofhce of governor of the 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 327 
 
 state. For his success in this election his hopes 
 were mainly founded upon the support of the 
 Federalists, who, he believed, would support him 
 merely for the purpose of overwhelming their po- 
 litical opponents. Many Federalists fell into the 
 snare, and there was at one time a probability 
 that they would unite as a party in his support, 
 and thus ensure his success. 
 
 Hamilton was decidedly opposed to the support 
 of Burr by his political friends, and endeavoured 
 to prevent it by all the means in his power. To 
 accomplish this object, he did not hesitate to rep- 
 resent that ambitious man as dangerous, and unfit 
 to be trusted A\dth power. He believed him to be 
 governed in politics by no other motives than 
 those of personal aggrandizement, and in his pri- 
 vate life to be wanting in all perception of either 
 religious or moral obligation. The universal as- 
 sent of the American people has proved the accu- 
 racy of Hamilton's estimate of the character of 
 Burr ; and the publication of his papers, although 
 sifted by friendly hands, gives undoubted evidence 
 that the judgment of the community was correct. 
 
 At this time, however, Burr stood on a position 
 of lofty eminence. He filled the second office in 
 dignity within the gift of the people ; to all ap- 
 pearance, he had not yet lost the confidence of a 
 victorious party; and he was surrounded by a 
 phalanx of talent and devoted friends, such as no 
 
328 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 other aspirant for popular honours has ever as- 
 sembled. 
 
 In his opposition to Burr Hamilton showed how 
 far he was superior to personal feeling. The con- 
 test for the presidency had lain between Burr and 
 Jefferson, and we have seen how broad had become 
 the difference in Washington's cabinet between 
 him and the latter. The breach had finally been 
 widened to a degree which precluded all personal 
 intercourse, and even the earnest endeavours of 
 Washington himself had been insufficient to effect 
 a reconciliation. Jefferson had both publicly and 
 privately attacked the principles' and motives of 
 Hamilton, in addition to a decided opposition to 
 all his favourite measures, while of Burr he could 
 only complain that he had been his political ad- 
 versary. But he believed that in Jefferson's 
 hands the liberties of the country were safe, while 
 he feared that the ambition of Burr would not be 
 satisfied with the powers accorded by the Consti- 
 tution. Had he made common cause with Burr 
 against Jefferson and his partisans in New-York, 
 he might have hoped for the creation of a new 
 party, in which he himself must have taken the 
 second rank, and which would in all probabihty 
 have been powerful enough to limit Jefferson's te- 
 nure of office to a single term ; nay, it even seems 
 probable that, had Hamilton been willing to barter 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 329 
 
 his influence with his party, he might have secur- 
 ed the first place in a coalition. 
 
 Hamilton's course on this occasion offers a 
 marked contrast to that of almost all other poli- 
 ticians. The dissatisfied members of a victorious 
 party have in all other instances been received with 
 open arms by the defeated faction, and e^^en those 
 who have abandoned the losing side have in many 
 instances been placed in the front of the party 
 to which they have revolted. In no particular, 
 therefore, is the purity of Hamilton's motives more 
 apparent than on this occasion. 
 
 The result of Hamilton's remonstrances was to 
 withdraw from Burr a large part of the support 
 on which he had relied, and the election of 1804 
 terminated, after a severe and, for a time, doubtful 
 contest, in favour of his opponent, General Lewis. 
 Ee2 
 
330 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Burr demands an Explanation from Hamilton. — 
 Correspondence between them. — A Duel is the 
 result. — Examination of Hamilton's motives 
 in consenting to it. — He is mortally wounded 
 and dies. — His public Character and Views 
 of Government. 
 
 In the open and decided opposition which Ham- 
 ilton had manifested to the election of Burr as 
 governor of New-York, the latter saw an opening 
 for satisfying his vindictive feelings. His ambi- 
 tious projects were all blasted -, for he had, by per- 
 mitting himself to be held up as a candidate, lost 
 all claim on the Republican party, while by the 
 Federalists he was repudiated. His pecuniary 
 fortunes were in as dilapidated a condition as his 
 political, and he was, in fact, in that state of des- 
 peration in which the exposure of his own life 
 would be no obstacle to a desire of vengeance. 
 
 Hamilton, on the other hand, was a fit subject 
 for his designs. Proud of his character as a sol- 
 dier, it was almost certain that he would not re- 
 fuse a hostile meeting if called for on any reason- 
 able grounds ; while it was possible that, with a 
 solemn sense of religious obligation, he might at- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 331 
 
 tempt to satisfy the point of honour by the expo- 
 sure of his own hfe, without attempting that of 
 his adversary. Evidence exists which proves sat- 
 isfactorily that, when his friends began to fear that 
 Burr sought his hfe, he declared, that, although 
 he might meet him, he would not fire at him. 
 Whether this declaration ever reached the ears of 
 Burr, is unknown ; yet his com'se can only be ac- 
 counted for from a feeling either of perfect secmi- 
 ty or absolute recklessness. 
 
 Early in June, 1804, Burr addressed a note to 
 Hamilton, enclosing a copy of one from Charles 
 D. Cooper. The latter stated that both Hamilton 
 and Judge Kent concurred in the opinion that 
 Burr was " a dangerous man, and one that ought 
 not to be trusted with the reins of government ; 
 and that he could detail a still more despicable 
 opinion which General Hamilton had expressed 
 of Colonel Burr." Of the use of any expressions 
 which would warrant the assertions of Dr. Coop- 
 er, a prompt acknowledgment or denial was de- 
 manded. Hamilton saw in this demand a de- 
 termination to force him into a duel, and seems to 
 have felt the conviction that no step that he could 
 take with honour would enable him to avoid it. 
 Under these impressions, he called to his councils 
 none of those devoted and prudent friends, who 
 would have seen that the preservation of his life 
 was the most important of all objects. 
 
332 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 His reply, while it exhibits the injustice of call- 
 ing upon him to avow or deny so vague a charge, 
 and interrogatories as to the justice of inferences 
 drawn by others from what he may have said of 
 a political opponent during a competition of fifteen 
 years, intimates his willingness to avow or disavow 
 any definite opinion which he may be charged with 
 having declared. Expressing a trust that Burr 
 would see the matter in the same light, the reply 
 concludes by saying that, if he does not, " he can 
 only regret the circumstances, and must abide the 
 consequences." 
 
 The rejoinder of Burr, which was delivered by 
 William P. Van Ness, was properly characterized 
 by Hamilton as rude and offensive. He therefore 
 dechned a reply, and now, for the first time, call- 
 ed in his friend Judge Pendleton. This gentle- 
 man found that the affair had made such progress 
 that it would be difficult for him to bring it to a 
 peaceful issue, and, indeed, appeared rather to be 
 called in to arrange the terms and time of a com- 
 bat than to prevent a hostile meeting. 
 
 At the present day, the nicest casuist in affairs of 
 honour would be unable to detect any plausible 
 grounds on which Burr could found a claim to 
 hold Hamilton responsible ; and even at that day, 
 when the pistol was one of the instruments of par- 
 ty warfare, it seems almost incredible that a de- 
 mand for satisfaction could have been made and 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 333 
 
 acceded to on such slight grounds. The very ex- 
 pressions cited and the inferences drawn from them 
 were contradictory, as the epithet dangerous was 
 incompatible with that of despicable. Hamilton 
 was, however, governed by the feelings of a sol- 
 dier, not by those of a civilian ; and, with chival- 
 ric gallantry, removed the flimsy pretences under 
 which Burr veiled his determination to compel 
 Hamilton to fight him. 
 
 Such was the openness with which this wSS 
 done, that it was for a time attempted to defend 
 the conduct of the former on the ground that 
 the duel was of Hamilton's seeking. We have, 
 however, the recorded evidence of the« struggles 
 of Hamilton's mind before he took the step which 
 committed him to meet Burr. 
 
 From the paper which he left explanatory of 
 his course, it appears that, with perfect conviction 
 of the impropriety of duelling, he did not feci 
 himself so far elevated above other political men as 
 to be emancipated from its absurd laws ; and that 
 he believed that, in the existing tone of popular 
 feeling on the subject, his future usefulness to his 
 country would be destroyed by a refusal to fight. 
 It did not occur to him that he w^ho had aided 
 Washington in rallying the retreating battalions at 
 Monmouth, and had led the forlorn hope at York- 
 town, could not be charged with personal coward- 
 ice f nor was he aware of the deep rehgious feel- 
 
334 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 ing of a large body of the people, which would 
 have supported one who should decline a duel 
 from conscientious motives, such as Hamilton sin- 
 cerely entertained. In spite of the proud eviden- 
 ces of his courage and the growing feeling of re- 
 ligion in the community, it would be difficult to 
 assert that Hamilton had not formed a proper view 
 of the tendency of public opinion. It was his 
 own death which first exhibited, in a light too 
 strong to be resisted, the fallacy and sophistry of 
 the opinions which held that the bloody law of 
 honour was a necessary substitute for the deficien- 
 cies of the civil code, and the only possible method 
 of maintaining the decency of political discussion. 
 The professors of religion themselves were not 
 unanimous in their belief of the practice of duel- 
 ling being contrary to the divine law, and by the 
 civil tribunals it was almost sanctioned. Even at 
 a recent date, the highest court of one of the most 
 religious countries in Europe has by its verdict 
 almost sanctioned duelling ; and, when no unfair 
 advantages were taken, there had, up to that time, 
 been no instance of killing in a duel having been 
 treated as a crime. If, therefore, we cannot, on 
 grounds of moral and religious principle, offer the 
 least defence for the consent of Hamilton to meet 
 Burr, we may find strong palliations for his con- 
 duct in his military character, and in the absurd 
 prejudices of the times in which he lived. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 335 
 
 By Hamilton's desire, the meeting was post- 
 poned until the close of a court then sitting in 
 New- York. The interval was calmly and steadily 
 applied by him to the promotion of the interests 
 of his clients ; nor did there appear any failure in 
 his accustomed zeal, or any want of the undisturb- 
 ed devotion of his mind to the consideration of 
 their causes. Yet he must have known that his 
 life was in extreme danger. Burr's adroitness in 
 the use of the pistol was notorious, and Hamilton 
 had good reasons for believing that he would not 
 be satisfied but with his blood. 
 
 The meeting took place beneath the cliff of 
 Wehawken, and on the first fire Hamilton fell. 
 His own pistol was discharged while in the act of 
 falling, and obviously without any attempt at aim. 
 The wound was not immediately fatal, and he 
 was removed across the Hudson to the country- 
 seat of his friend William Bayard. Here he lin- 
 gered without the least hope of recovery for thir- 
 ty hours. His first desire was to receive the con- 
 solations which religion alone can afford. His in- 
 timate and valued friend, Dr. J. M. Mason, was 
 immediately sent for, and to him he expressed the 
 sincerity of his behef in the Christian religion, his 
 hopes through the atonement by a Saviour, and 
 desired to receive the sacrament of the Supper of 
 the Lord. The tenets of the sect of which Dr. 
 Mason was a preacher forbade that this rite should 
 
336 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 be administered except at a meeting of the con- 
 gregation, and Hamilton therefore apphed for the 
 same purpose to Bishop Moore, by whom the sa- 
 cred office was performed. 
 
 The anxiety with which he thus sought the sup- 
 port of the ordinances of the Christian church was 
 founded on no weak and superstitious fears sud- 
 denly awakened by the certain approach of death. 
 He exhibited all the fortitude of the hero, while 
 he manifested the humble reliance of the Chris- 
 tian on the merits of the Redeemer alone. Grace- 
 ful and dignified as had been his conduct through- 
 out his life, no part of it was more fit to be an ex- 
 ample than the few hours which intervened be- 
 tween his fatal wound and his death. Nor was 
 his melancholy end without profit to his country- 
 men. From that epoch the duellist has been laid 
 in a great degree under the ban of public opin- 
 ion in all the Northern states, where an attempt to 
 seek redress for real or supposed injuries in single 
 combat would be fatal to the hopes of the aspi- 
 rant for popular honours. 
 
 His murderer, for many circumstances justify 
 that epithet, was visited forthwith by a storm of 
 indignation, beneath which he instantly sunk. 
 Within a few months he departed, a voluntary 
 exile from his country, and abjectly claimed to be 
 allowed to avow allegiance to the power against 
 whose rule he had successfully fought. On Iiis 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 337 
 
 return he was shunned even by those who had 
 been most captivated by his popular arts; and, 
 although he resumed his place at the bar, a con- 
 scious feeling of disgrace bowed dow^n his talent, 
 and placed him in a low rank where he had be- 
 fore reigned almost supreme. His history will be 
 a beacon by which the aspiring politician may be 
 enabled to shun the paths of an unhallowed and 
 selfish ambition. 
 
 Hamilton was rather below the middle size, 
 and in his youth extremely slender. In more ma- 
 ture age his figure assumed a degree of fulness, 
 without approaching to corpulency. His eyes 
 were blue, and his hair probably a light brown, 
 although, in the fashion of the day, it was always 
 covered with powder. His bust by Houdon may 
 be ranked, in point of manly beauty, mth those of 
 the best days of Rome, although wanting in some 
 points the ideal regularity which distinguishes 
 them. 
 
 His motions were graceful, and the tones of his 
 voice agreeable in the highest degree. To these 
 natural requisites he added high powers of argu- 
 ment, readiness of expression, and simple elegance 
 of thought and diction. He thus, as an orator, is 
 said to have been pre-eminent even in a country 
 so prolific in public speakers. Whether at the 
 bar or in the deliberative assembly, he was equally 
 distinguished for his commanding eloquence. Am- 
 Ff 
 
338 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 bitious to no little degree, he sought no offices of 
 honour and emolument, nor would have accepted 
 them except as opportunities of being useful to 
 his country. He looked for his recompense in the 
 consideration of the virtuous and patriotic of his 
 fellow-citizens, or the more sure gratitude of pos- 
 terity, not in wealth or the pride of elevated rank, 
 "With such disinterested views, each call to the 
 public service involved him in pecuniary loss, and 
 he gradually contracted a debt of considerable 
 amount, which remained unpaid at his decease. 
 His appointment as inspector-general in the pro- 
 visional army interrupted the growth of a lucra- 
 tive professional business, and, at the same time, 
 deprived him of the means of meeting the interest 
 on large purchases of land which he had entered 
 into, in full confidence that his labours as a legal 
 man w^ould enable him to hold it. To prevent 
 the absolute sacrifice of his landed property, his 
 friends and admirers united after his death in a 
 subscription, by which his debts were paid, and 
 the proceeds of the estate finally reimbursed their 
 advances, but left little or no surplus to his family. 
 Hamilton's view^s of government and national 
 policy wxre founded on the classic authors of 
 Greece and Rome, and the works of the great 
 men who maintained in England a struggle 
 against the royal prerogative. To this he added 
 an intimate knowledge of that umvritten cod« 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 339 
 
 which probably took its birth in the fastnesses of 
 Caucasus, and acquired its first strength in the 
 forests and marshes of Germany, whence by our 
 Anglo-Saxon ancestors it was brought into Brit- 
 ain. He found this in our own country stripped 
 of the feudal features with which the Norman 
 conquerors had defaced it, and, with the greater 
 part of the actors in the Revolution, sought no 
 more than the maintenance of privileges already 
 existing as a birthright. To these privileges, com- 
 prising the safety of life, liberty, and property, he 
 considered every citizen to have a right, unless 
 deprived of them as a punishment for crime, and 
 independently of the will of his fellows, whether 
 they constituted a majority or not. A knowledge 
 of the republics of antiquity had shown him that, 
 in the absence of such a safeguard, no tyranny 
 was ever more oppressive than that exercised in 
 the name of the people. Hence he set his face 
 against the principles imported from France at the 
 breaking out of her revolution, believing that if 
 they became the settled policy of the government, 
 they would be subversive of individual rights and 
 personal liberty. 
 
 With these views, he looked upon the British 
 constitution as the noblest monument of human 
 wisdom; and while he did not defend its cor- 
 ruptions, nor propose its monarchical and aristo- 
 cratic features for imitation, he considered it as Sk 
 
340 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 model after which a permanently free government 
 might best be formed. Those who, with the 
 French democrats, maintained the unUmited sov- 
 ereignty of the majority, have found room for ac- 
 cusing him of being in favour of regal power, and 
 of wishing to ingraft a house of lords on our in- 
 stitutions. With how little reason this accusation 
 was made has already been exhibited. 
 
 In the political struggles which succeeded his 
 death, the party which was opposed to him tri- 
 umphed ; but that very triumph has shown how 
 deeply seated were the principles maintained by 
 Hamilton in the hearts, if not in the judgment, of 
 the American people. However loud may have 
 been the tone in which an opposing theory has 
 been proclaimed, the practice of the government 
 has been, in ahnost all respects, such as Hamilton 
 would have himself directed. The public faith 
 has been maintained inviolate to the national cred- 
 itor ; the executive has acted upon and avowed its 
 responsibility ; the independence of the judiciary, 
 if threatened, has never been directly assailed; 
 the supremacy of the general government has been 
 asserted in a proclamation worthy of Hamilton's 
 own genius ; an efficient army has been maintain- 
 ed in time of peace, and applied to curb a generous 
 but mistaken sympathy ; a navy has become the 
 favourite institution of the country ; and, except 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 341 
 
 m a single local instance, the natural rights of 
 individuals have been held sacred. 
 
 Among his great measures, a National Bank 
 was adopted by the successful party ; and if, by 
 the errors of its management and the multiplicity 
 of state institutions, it has become unpopular, the 
 wisdom of his course, and its consistency with the 
 letter of the Constitution, has been established by 
 judicial decisions and legislative enactments. The 
 policy in relation to manufactures, which he fail- 
 ed in carrying, has since been for a time adopted ; 
 but, although again abandoned, the judgment of 
 the public appears to be rapidly resuming a sound 
 tone in this respect, when the cotton growers of 
 the South shall see that the spinners and weavers 
 of the North are inseparably connected with them 
 by the ties of a common interest. 
 
 When the angry feelings excited by the long 
 struggle between the Federal and Republican par- 
 ties shall have cooled, and all the actors in those 
 stirring scenes shall have retired from the stage, it 
 requires little prescience to predict that Hamilton 
 will assume, by general consent, the first place 
 among American statesmen, and will be held, in 
 the estimate of his patriotic services, as second to 
 Washington alone. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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