•YALE-visnnfEiasjnnf- • iLniBiB^amr •

Gift of
HENRY R. GRUENER
1929

THE MAKING OF THE NATION

THE AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES.
Floe volumes, 12mo, with maps and plans, each, $1.25.

THE COLONIAL ERA.— By Rev. George P. Fisher.
D.D., LL.D., Professor ol Ecclesiastical History in
Yale University.
THE FRENCH WAR AND THE REVOLUTION.— By
William M. Sloane, Ph.D., Professor of History in
Princeton University.
THE MAKING OP THE NATION.— By Gen. Francis
A. Walker, President of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.
FROM THE CONCLUSION OF PEACE IN 1815 TO
THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION. (2 vols.)— By
John W. Burgess, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of His
tory, PoUtical Science, and Constitutional Law in
Columbia College. (I?i preparation.)

THE AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES
 i_n 
THE
MAKING OF THE NATION
1783-1817

FRANCIS A. WALKER, Ph.D., LL.D.
PRESIDENT MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

WITH MAPS AND APPENDICES

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1895

Copyright, 1896, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SOHS

TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK

PREFACE

I desire most cordially to acknowledge my obli
gations to Professor Charles H. Levermore and to Pro
fessor Charles F. A. Currier for their assistance in
reading the manuscripts or the proofs of this volume,
and for suggestions at many points by which I have
been saved from errors such as beset every one who
undertakes to write of the life of any people through
any considerable period of time, or by which I have
been helped to make this narrative more comprehensive
and life-like. Neither of these gentlemen, however, can
be held responsible for any mistakes which may be found
to exist in spite of their friendly revision. All of these
are wholly my own. Professor Currier has made up the
bibliography, which is appended, with far more knowl
edge of the historical literature of the period than I
could claim to possess.
Boston, March 22, 1895.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
PAQE
The Confederation, 1783-87,  1
Weakness of the Confederation — Reasons for the Lack of an
Adequate Peeling of American Nationality — Geographical
Relations of the Thirteen Colonies — Differences of Race,
Language, and Religion — Danger of Disunion at Close of
Revolution — Principal Points of Weakness in the Con
federation — -Financial Embarrassments Resulting from the
Refusal of States to Comply with the Requisitions of Con
gress — Revenue System, Proposed in 1783, Fails — Au
thority of Confederation Defied in Disputes between
States — Decline of Congress in Character and Influence
— Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts — Failure of Com
mercial Convention at Annapolis, in 1786 — Constitutional
Convention called at Philadelphia, in 1787.

CHAPTER II.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787, . . .21
The Convention meets May 14th — Absence of Rhode Island
— Delegates Appointed, 62 — Number Attending at any
Time, 55 — Number Signing the Constitution, 39 — Eminent
Character of the State Delegations — Respective Contribu
tions of Different Classes of Delegates — The Party of Ob
struction — The Leading Spirits of the Convention — Doubts
as to a Successful Result — Views Held as to the Relations
between the Confederation and the States — The Three
Dominating Issues of the Convention — A Federal or a Na
tional Government— Equal or Proportional Representation
of the States— Representation on Account of Slaves— Re
suits on these Issues — The Work of the Committee on
Detail Introduces Three New Issues— Taxation of Exports

Vlll CONTENTS PAOE
—The Slave-trade— Two-thirds Vote on Navigation Acts-
Extensive Disaffection of Delegates— Withdrawal of Some
—Adoption of the Constitution— Nine States Sufficient for
Ratification— This Measure Revolutionary— The Whole
Work of the Convention Revolutionary— Called to Amend
the Articles of Confederation, it Throws them Over at the
Beginning — Impossibility of Deriving the Constitution
Legitimately from Either the Confederation or the Revolu
tionary Congress — The Ordinance of 1787 among the Clos
ing Acts of the Congress of the Confederation— Importance
of this Measure. CHAPTER III.
The Constitution as Submitted to the People, . . 41
A National Form of Government — Organization of Congress
— Rule as to Suffrage in National Elections : The Cause of
this Found in the Varying Rules of the Several States —
The Powers of Congress — Acts Forbidden to Congress — Acts
Forbidden to the States — Powers and Duties of the Exec
utive — The Judiciary : Its Jurisdiction — Trials of all
Crimes to be by Jury — Definition of Treason — Relations
between Individual States and between the States and the
United States : Mutual Faith and Credit, the Rule — New
States — The Territories — Guarantee to the States of a Re
publican Form of Government — Future Amendments to
the Constitution — Integrity of the Financial Obligations of
the Confederation — The Constitution to be the Supreme
Law of the Land — National and State Officers to be Bound
by Oath to Support the Constitution — The Ratification
of Nine States Sufficient to Establish the New Govern
ment. CHAPTER IV.
Ratification and the Inauguration of the Govern
ment,  51
Difficulties Attending Ratification — Pennsylvania and the
Smaller States Promptly Accept the Constitution — Grounds
of Opposition in the Larger States— Absence of a Bill of
Rights— "The Federalist "—The Tories Support the Con-

CONTENTS ix

PAGE

stitution— The Massachusetts Convention Ratifies, 187 to
168— Maryland and South Carolina Join the Union— New
Hampshire, the Ninth State, Accedes— The Constitution
Formally Accepted— Great Importance of Securing, also,
New York and Virginia — The Conventions in those
States— The Constitution Fiercely Opposed— General Con
sent to the Subsequent Adoption of Amendments in the
Nature of a Bill of Rights— Virginia and New York Fi
nally Ratify, the Latter, 30 to 27— North Carolina and
Rhode Island Stay Out— The Government Organized-
George Washington Chosen President— John Adams, Vice-
President— Congress Assembles, March 4, 1789 : No Quo
rum until April 6th— Inauguration of Washington, April
30th — The Beneficent Influence of Washington- in the
Establishment of the New Government — Extent of the
United States : Population— The Western Colonies— The
State of the Arts — Agriculture the Predominant Occupa
tion of the People — Reasons for the High Productive
Power of the United States : A Vast Breadth of Virgin
Lands ; Popular Tenure of the Soil ; the Cultivating Class
not a Peasantry — The Remarkable Mechanical and In
ventive Genius of the People : The Genesis of this Trait
Explained.

CHAPTER V.
Washington's First Term,  73
Acts and Events Completing the Union and Closing the
Career of the Confederation — The Accession of North Caro
lina and Rhode Island — The First Ten Amendments to the
Constitution — The Funding of the Debts of the Confedera
tion and the Assumption of State Debts — The other Finan
cial Measures of Washington's First Term — The Mint —
The National Bank — Tonnage Duties — Customs Duties
— Excise Duties — Great Opposition to the Bank — The
Division of the Cabinet — The Constitutional Doctrine of
Implied Powers — Excise Duties Fiercely Antagonized in
Congress — Mr. Jefferson Takes the Lead in Opposition —
Unpopularity of the Whiskey Tax — Special Reasons there
for.

X CONTENTS
CHAPTER VI. PAGE
Washington's First Term— Continued, . . • .88
Formation of Executive Departments— Development of the
Cabinet— The Constitution Silent on this Subject— Con
gress Establishes the Departments of State, of Treasury,
and of War— Also Provides for the Appointment of an
Attorney-General— Practice of the Early Presidents Re
garding the Function of the Cabinet— Should Cabinet
Officers Sit in Congress, or Occasionally Meet with Con
gress, or Communicate with that Body Only in Writing ?
— The Last Procedure Adopted — Washington's Cabinet :
Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox, Randolph — Parties Under the
Constitution not yet Formed — Antagonism Developed be
tween Jefferson and Hamilton — State's Rights vs. National
Aggrandizement — Washington Consents to Re-election —
Opposition of Antifederalists to Mr. Adams — Organiza
tion of the Supreme Court — Washington's Appointments
Strongly Federalist — John Jay, Chief -Justice — The Foreign
Relations of Washington's First Term — Weakness of the
United States Abroad — Washington's Policy of Neutrality,
especially as between France and England — Rising Passion
of Antifederalist Sympathizers with French Revolutionists
— Colonialism in American Public Life — War with the
Miamis — The Indian Policy of the United States — The
Permanent Seat of Government — The District of Columbia
and the City of Washington — The First Census and the
Redistribution of Representation in Congress — The Fugi
tive-Slave Law — Admission of New States — Influence of
the States beyond the Alleghanies upon the Growth of
American Nationality — Difficulties Arising at the West
from the Spanish Control of the Mississippi — Unanimous
Re-election of Washington — Adams Re-elected by a
Smaller Vote. CHAPTER VII.
Washington's Second Term, . , 115
Foreign Relations — The Genet Episode — Difficulties with
France— England and France Vying with each Other in
Wrong to the United States— With which should We go to
War ?— The Whiskey Insurrection— The Militia Called

CONTENTS XI
PAGE
Out— Democratic Societies— The Funding System— The
Admission of Tennessee— Oliver Ellsworth becomes Chief-
Justice— The Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution—
The Disruption of the Cabinet and the Movement of
Parties— Jefferson's Commercial Report— New Cabinet Ap
pointments — Randolph Retires from Office under a Cloud
— Hamilton Resigns : His Services to the New Govern
ment — Knox is Succeeded by Timothy Pickering— Wash
ington's Last Cabinet : Painful Decline in Ability— Party
Divisions go Rapidly Forward— The Third Presidential
Election : John Adams Chosen — Jefferson Becomes Vice-
President, though of the Opposite Party— Defective Method
of Choosing President and Vice-President.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Administration of John Adams, .... 137
President Adams Retains Washington's Cabinet — Foreign
Affairs — Difficulties with France Aggravated— A Special
Mission Sent — Envoys Insulted — War Imminent — Feder
alist Enthusiasm — Washington Appointed Commander-in-
Chief — Schemes of Hamilton and Miranda — Spanish Pos
sessions to be Seized — President Adams Sends a New
Mission — The French Treaty — The Spoliation Claims —
Taxation in this Administration — Stamp Duties Arouse
Opposition — The Direct Tax — Inefficiency of this Tax
in the United States — Resistance to the Law — Con
viction of the Rioters— Fries Pardoned — Anger of the
Federalists — What Constitutes Treason ? — Navy Depart
ment Created — Alien and Sedition Laws — Furious Opposi
tion by the Republicans— Nullification Resolutions of Vir
ginia and Kentucky — Responses of Federalist States^—
Madison's Defence— Congress Meets in the New Capital
— The First Bankruptcy Law — The Second Census — Death
of Washington — Split in the Cabinet — Secretaries Intrigue
against the President — Hamilton's Opposition to Adams —
His Pamphlet — The Fourth Presidential Election— Adams
Defeated — Jefferson and Burr Receive an Equal Vote — ¦
Contest in the House — Federalists take up Burr — Jeffer
son Finally Chosen President — Causes of the Defeat of the
Federalists — Marshall Becomes Chief-Justice.

Xll CONTENTS
CHAPTER IX. PAGE
Jefferson's First Term,  168
Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution— Alleged Corrupt
Bargain— Removal of Officeholders— Repeal of the Circuit
Courts Bill — War on the Judiciary — Impeachment of
Judges Addison, Chase, and Others— Admission of Ohio-
Reapportionment of Representation — Military Academy
Founded— Repeal of Excise Duties— Naturalization— Re
peal of Bankruptcy Act— Florida and Louisiana— Spain
Cedes Louisiana to France — Napoleon Sells it to the
United States — Political Consequences of this Measure —
Republican Party Surrenders Principle of Strict Construc
tion — Difficulty with Spain — Abortive Treaty with Eng
land — Changes in the Cabinet — Re-election of Jefferson —
Burr Kills Hamilton. CHAPTER X.
Jefferson's Second Term,  190
Foreign Affairs — English and French Outrages — The Right
of Search — Insolently Exercised by British Cruisers— Im
pressment of American Seamen — The Affair of the Chesa
peake — "Contraband of War" — Right of Blockade —
England and France Compete in Injuries to our Commerce
—England Sets up the "Rule of 1756"— The British
Blockades — Napoleon Retaliates upon the "Orders in
Council " with his Berlin and Milan Decrees — The Bay-
onne Decree — The Monroe Treaty with England — Jefferson
Refuses to Send it to the Senate — Jefferson's Proclamation
Ordering British Men-of-War out of American Waters —
The Non-Importation Act— The Embargo— Resentment of
the Commercial States— Mr. Jefferson Hostile to the Carry
ing Trade and to General Commerce— The Embargo Breaks
Down— Troubles with Spain— Proposed Purchase of Flor
ida—Measures of National Defence— Jefferson's " Mosquito
Fleet"— The Cumberland Road— The Policy of Internal
Improvements— Fulton's Steamboat— Trial of Aaron Burr
for Treason— Burr's Designs— The Finances under Presi
dent Jefferson — Abolition of the Slave-trade in 1808 
Anti-slavery Agitation— Lewis and Clarke's Expedition

CONTENTS Xiii PAGE
—Cabinet Changes— Mr. Jefferson Refuses a Renomina-
tion — The Sixth Presidential Election — No Longer the Vice-
President Succeeds ; It is Now the Secretary of State-
James Madison of Virginia Nominated— His Services to
his Party and to the Country.

CHAPTER XI.
The Controversy with England,  214
Madison's Cabinet — His Policy of Conciliation toward the
Federalists — Rapprochement of the Two Parties — Ran
dolph's Faction of "Old Republicans" and the Irrecon
cilable Federalists of New England Hold Aloof — The
Trouble with England — Napoleon Retaliates with the
Rambouillei^Decree — Alleged Repeal of the French De
crees — Non-Intercourse Act Withdrawn as Against France
— Controversy over this Action — Secretary Smith Re
signs — His Protest— James Monroe Becomes Secretary of
State and Heir- Apparent — Of the Two Nations Doing us
Wrong, the Administration Selects England as an Antago
nist — The War Party — The New Men — Congress Meets —
Warlike Preparations — The Henry Episode — Madison's
Renomination — War Declared against England — The Fed
eralist Protest — Failure of Further Negotiations — The
Hanson Riot in Baltimore. CHAPTER XIL
The War of 1812-15,  230
Our Remarkable Success on the Ocean — The Privateers —
Ignominious Failure on Land — Our Naval Victories Ac
counted for — Comparative Strength of the Belligerents —
The Invasion of Canada Collapses - Perry's Victory on
Lake Erie — Further Disasters on the Canada Line — Credit
able Actions under Brown and Scott — McDonough's Vic
tory on Lake Champlain — Burning of Washington — Suc
cessful Defence of Baltimore — Jackson's Victories at the
South — Battle of New Orleans — The Treaty of Peace —
The Objects of the War not Mentioned — Opposition to the
War — Mr. Jefferson Believed to be Hostile to Commercial

XIV CONTENTS PAGE
Interests — His Remarkable Political Economy — Alleged
Treasonable Acts in New England — Refusal of the Gover
nors of Massachusetts and Connecticut to Allow the Mili
tia to March— The Hartford Convention : Its Personnel;
Popular Denunciation of the Convention : The Actual
Work of the Convention : Suggested Amendments to the
Constitution ; Nullifying Measures Proposed ; Constitu
tional Objections to any such Gathering — The Terms of
Peace : The Fisheries : The General Neutrality Law —
Coercion of the Barbary States — The Indian Allies of
Great Britain. CHAPTER XIII.
The Civil Events of Madison's Administration, . . 250
The Seventh Presidential Election — DeWitt Clinton Nomi
nated by the Disaffected Republicans and Supported by
the Federalists — Madison Re-elected — The Third Census —
Redistribution of Representatives — The Strengthening of
National Authority — The Olmstead Case — Chief-Justice
Marshall's Contributions to American Nationality — Expiry
of the National Bank — Financial Measures Incident to the
War — The Republican Party Driven to Direct Taxes and
other Offensive Means of Obtaining Revenue — The Salary-
grab Bill — New States — Economic Measures — The New
Age — President Madison Advocates a Protective Tariff —
The Protectionist Argument of that time — Position of the
South— The Tariff of 1816— The Second National Bank—
The Navigation Act — Internal Improvements — Changes in
the Cabinet— Mr. Monroe Chosen President — Retrospect.
APPENDIX I.
The Electoral Vote in Detail, 1789-1816, . . .275
APPENDIX II.
I.— Population at the First Four Censuses. II.— Net
Ordinary Receipts and Expenditures, and Dis
bursements on Account of the Public Debt 1790-
1817,  '. .281

CONTENTS XV

APPENDIX III. PAGE
The Cabinets of Washington, John Adams, Jeffer
son, and Madison, 1789 to March 3, 1817, 287

BIBLIOGRAPHY, . . . .293
INDEX, . . . .... 299
MAPS
Distribution of Population, 1790, .... 1
Distribution of Population, 1820, . 274

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION 171)0

THE MAKING OF THE NATION
CHAPTER I
THE CONFEDERATION, 1783-87
Weakness of the Confederation — Reasons for the Lack of an Ade
quate Feeling of American Nationality — Geographical Relations
of the Thirteen Colonies — Differences of Race, Language, and
Religion — Danger of Disunion at Close of Revolution — Princi
pal Points of Weakness in the Confederation — Financial Em
barrassments Resulting from the Refusal of States to Comply
with the Requisitions of Congress — Revenue System, Proposed
in 1783, Fails — Authority of Confederation Defied in Disputes
between States — Decline of Congress in Character and Influ
ence — Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts — Failure of Commer
cial Convention at Annapolis, in 1786— Constitutional Conven
tion called at Philadelphia, in 1787.
The close of the Revolutionary War found the States
which had, by their common efforts and sacrifices,
achieved independence of Great Britain very
loosely bound together. The ties between of theconfed-
them were such as were not unlikely to snap
in the first serious strain, even if they did not wear out
and drop away under the mere commonplace, vulgar
irritation and dissatisfaction inseparable from the re
straints and obligations of ordinary, peaceful political
life. One great object had brought the insurgent col
onies together, though it had not sufficed to make them
hearty and harmonious in council, in camp, and in battle.
That object attained, the force which had produced a

2 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
very incomplete and unsatisfactory confederation was
found to be largely exhausted.
It is hard for Americans, in this day, to feel there
could have been any question whether there should be
an American nation, or not. To us it seems a matter
of course. Yet, in fact, the gravest doubts existed, in
1783, whether the union, formed at first for the pur
poses of resisting the aggressions of the mother country,
and afterward for the achievement of independence,
would long be continued. The most probable result, to
the mind of an enlightened thinker, at the time our story
begins, was that there would be two or three nations, or
leagues of States, established along the Atlantic coast.
Prior to the outbreak of the Revolution, in 1775, hardly
a trace of a sentiment of American nationality had man
ifested itself among the colonies. Carolinians were con
tent to be Carolinians ; Virginians to be Vir-
American na- ginians ; New Yorkers to be New Yorkers.
Even the exigencies of war against a common
enemy, the French and the Indians, had not developed
the sense of common interest and a common destiny.
In large part, the indifference to union, prior to the
Revolution, had been due to the geographical relations
Geographi- of the colonies. The early settlements had
of Itnetic°o?o- Deen made along the seaboard, with the re-
nieB- suit, speaking generally, that each colony had
its own coast-line, its own harbors, its own interior water
ways. In consequence, the colonies had little depend
ence upon each other, and few causes of dispute among
themselves. Massachusetts and Connecticut did, in
deed, for a little while (1647-50) quarrel, in a small way,
over the dues levied at the mouth of the Connecticut
River (Saybrook) upon goods destined for Springfield ;
New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey might quarrel,
as, in fact, they did, after a fashion, even subsequently to

THE CONFEDERATION, 1783-87 3
the adoption of the Constitution, over the navigation of
the waters of New York Bay ; * Virginia and Maryland
had cause of dispute, traditions of which survive to this
day in the petty war of oyster -men in the Chesapeake
and the Potomac ; and several of the colonies had reason
to complain that their neighbors took advantage of a bet
ter geographical position to tax their products, f Perhaps
the greatest apparent danger to the peace of the early
colonies arose from the geographical relations of Penn
sylvania and Delaware, the former being inland from the
latter. But the danger in this case was practically re
moved by the fact that, even after Delaware secured a
separate legislature, the two colonies had a common gov
ernor. If, on the contrary, we suppose the thirteen col
onies to have been planted up and down the Mississippi
and its tributaries, we shall see how strong would have
been the reason, almost the necessity, for an early union,
arising from their geographical relations. Some colonies
would have been at the mercy of those who controlled
the navigation of the streams below. In such a situa
tion even the Crown could hardly have kept the peace,
unless there had been some form of government com-
* The question was as to the exclusive right of certain patentees of
New York State to navigate the waters of New York with steam-vessels.
Mr. Webster, in his argument in Gibbons and Ogden, describes the sit
uation as follows : ' ' The North River shut up by a monopoly from New
York ; the Sound interdicted by a penal law of Connecticut ; reprisals
authorized by New Jersey against citizens of New York."
t Virginia had taxed the tobacco of North Carolina ; Pennsylvania had
taxed the products of Maryland, of New Jersey, and Delaware (Curtis,
History of the Constitution, vol. i., p. 290). Newport took advantage
of certain Massachusetts towns in its vicinity ; and was enabled to levy
duties on imported goods which those towns paid, rather than go to the
expense of carting goods overland. It was, later, one of the arguments
of the opponents of the Constitution in New York, that that State would,
by the adoption of such a form of government, lose the large income it
derived from taxing products entering the port of New York but des
tined for consumption by the people of Connecticut and New Jersey.

4 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
mon to all the colonies, which the most grasping and
aggressive would have been compelled to respect. This
view is corroborated when we consider how quickly the
free navigation of the Mississippi became a vital issue
with the pioneers who passed the Alleghanies after the
peace of 1783 ; and how constantly, ever after, until the
question was finally settled by the acquisition of Louisi
ana, that region was embroiled by disputes arising from
this source.
Other causes which had from the beginning tended to
keep the colonies apart from each other were found in
differences of race, of religion, and, though to a smaller
degree, of language,* giving rise to prejudices, to jeal
ousies, and even to practical difficulties in arranging for
any form of common government. While the settlers
of the Atlantic coast were predominantly English,
there were important exceptions ; and those exceptions
existed at just that point, geographically, where they
would naturally exert the greatest force in opposing a
movement for confederation, f The two almost purely
English groups of colonies, those of New England and
those of the South, were separated from each other by
the middle group, consisting of New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Delaware, three of which,
Differences
of race and the first and the last two, had been exten
sively settled by people of other races, chiefly
Dutch, Germans, and Swedes, with an admixture of
French and even of Finns. It does not need to be said
that differences of race and speech, with the differences
as to usage, habits, and institutions which are sure to
* There was a time when the laws of New York were regularly printed
in three languages.
t One will obtain a lively sense of the prejudices which existed, for ex
ample, between the Dutch of New York and their New England neigh
bors, and which remained in full force far into the present century, by
reading some of the local novels of Fenimore Cooper.

THE CONFEDERATION, 1783-87

accompany these, constitute a powerful obstacle to po
litical union, even as against a strong and earnest move
ment toward union. In the absence of any such im
pulse, they might suffice to keep neighboring communi
ties apart and distinct for centuries.
Perhaps differences of religious belief and practice
exerted even more influence than did differences of race
and speech, in producing among the colonies that dis
trust and dislike, those prejudices and animosities,
which would have withstood even a strong motive to
confederation. When one mentions religious differ
ences, the instances first rising to the mind are apt to
be those of the Catholics of Maryland, the Quakers of
Pennsylvania, and the Baptists of Rhode Island, the
last two confessions being almost as fully EeUgiona dif.
outlawed, in the view of the Englishmen of ferences.
the eighteenth century, as the first. But it is doubtful
whether these three communions exerted an influence
hostile to a common government equal to that exerted
by divisions of belief, of practice, and of organization
among the other colonists. The bitterness of religious
controversy is often not according to the largeness of
the differences existing, but according to the smallness
of them. With reference to the subject we are consid
ering, the distinction between Lutheran and Calvinist,
between the Independent and the disciple of the Church
of England, was even more important than that between
Protestant and Catholic.
Finally, since we are asking why there was not earlier
a movement toward American nationality, it is to be re
membered that population was still sparse sparseness of
upon the Atlantic shore ; that many com- P°Pulati011-
munities were separated from their nearest neighbors by
bays, swamps, and streams, by mountains or barren
lands ; that the industries of the people were as yet

6 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
primitive and simple, involving little intercourse with
distant points, while the means of transport and travel
were not much more advanced than they had been two
thousand years before. Not only does the close contact
of population tend to remove the prejudices which are
founded upon report and tradition, but from it arise
many positive reasons for political association.
Such are the considerations which may serve to ex
plain the absence of any strong sentiment of American
nationality prior to the beginning of the quarrel with
the mother country. Increasing resistance on the part
of the colonists to what they regarded as unconstitu
tional and oppressive taxation, and finally the actual
outbreak of the Revolution, led to the meeting of a
Continental Congress. As the war progressed, the ex
igencies of the struggle induced the people to give the
Congress some part of the powers of government ; but
The confeder- the most that was thus conceded was pain-
ation formed, f unv inadequate to the gigantic task of com
bating Great Britain in arms. Late in 1777, Congress
had been educated by bitter experience up to the point
of proposing to the several States the formation of a
permanent Confederation. Yet, notwithstanding the
urgent, the overwhelming, reasons for at once creating
some form of real government, it required nearly three
years and a half to secure the ratification of the Arti
cles by all the insurgent States. It should be said, how-
cession of ever> that this almost suicidal delay was in
Western lands. part due to the fact t]lat gome of the gtateg
had a vast extent of public lands in the West beyond
the mountains, while others had none.* At last, the
* The objections of the States which, like Delaware, Maryland, New
Jersey, and others, had no Western lands, to the adoption of the Arti
cles of Confederation without the cession of the lands belonging to the
more favored States, were two : First, that the latter States could pay
their share of the requisitions of the common government by sales of

THE CONFEDERATION, 1783-87 7
cession of the Western lands by individual States had
gone so far as to make it reasonably certain that the
whole would ultimately be accomplished ; and in March,
1781, the Articles of Confederation were ratified.
It would not be reasonable to attribute much of the
final result of independence to this cause ; the war was
nearly over ; Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown to the
united armies of Washington and Rocharnbeau in the
October following ; the courage and the endurance of
the Americans, aided greatly by the alliance with France,
had already substantially achieved the victory. It is by
its workings as the fundamental law of the United
States, not in war, but in peace, after the treaty of 1783,
that the Confederation is to be judged. It is here our
story properly begins. Not only did the close of the
war remove the principal force which had been making
for nationality ; there was even, in some quarters and in
a multitude of minds, a reaction toward sep
arate Statehood. The State governments ward separate
had a real and vital existence. They were
well organized, with compulsory powers. The town
governments at the North, the county governments at
the South, while efficiently securing local interests, were
held in due subordination. The States dealt with the
really larger interests of society, the care of the peace,
the protection of person and property, the domestic re
lations, the ordinary course of private, social, and indus
trial life. They had control of the resources of their
people as a whole ; and they exercised complete com
mand over the acts and lives of their individual citizens,
subject only to the established principles of English lib-
land, instead of by taxes ; secondly, that the communities to be founded
west of the mountains, upon the soil belonging to, say, Virginia, would
become Virginian in political thought and feeling, and would make them
selves the allies, on all public questions, of the parent State.

8 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
erty. On the other hand, the Confederation, which had
been made up into the feeble resemblance of a nation,
had no real and vital control. It had no compulsory
powers ; it could not even protect itself. It stood for
nothing which the people cared much about. Its func
tions were only in the lowest degree beneficent. It had
to do mainly with debts and financial obligations, matters
which were wholly in the nature of a burden upon the
people, and which were associated with much that was un
pleasant in the past. Even so, however, the Confedera
tion might have maintained itself, at least for a while,
and have done its work tolerably well, but for certain
specific defects of organization which were soon made
manifest. The Articles of Confederation presented several points
of weakness. Among these, three were almost inevitably
fatal. First, the government had no power of taxation ;
but was obliged to depend for its revenues wholly upon
contributions by the States, in response to the requisi
tions of Congress. Secondly, the Confederation had no
adequate control of foreign commerce. Thirdly, the
Confederation had no power of enforcing its authority
by the arrest and trial of offending and delinquent indi-
Thesourcesof viduals ; but was obliged to look to the
weakness, states, as bodies, to assert and maintain its
rights. A government lacking these powers can scarce
ly be said to be a government at all. The Confedera
tion, as instituted, was not, even in form, a nation, but
only a league of sovereign states.
Of the three points of weakness indicated, the first
was that which during the few years following came to
Lack of reve- manifest itself most conspicuously, though
nue powers. the others could not have failedj Qn fuJ>
ther trial, to prove the source of disaster. It was the
lack of any power of taxation which brought the Con-

THE CONFEDERATION, 1783-87 9
federation to ruin almost at the start. The war had
left a debt which was very formidable, according to
the standards of those days ; and the recurring inter
est-charges required a large and constant income, in ad
dition to all that was needed for the support of the
offices and services of peace. That income, as the result
proved, and as might have been anticipated, was not
to be obtained by the system of requisitions upon the
States. Instead of responding cheerfully and promptly
to the calls upon them, the States vied with each other
in delinquency, each making the delay of its neighbors to
pay their quotas an excuse for its own tardiness. Thus
delinquency grew to be a habit, and was almost es
teemed a virtue. As each State was afraid it should
pay more than others, the most backward set the pace
for all. Under a thoroughly false system, such as this
was, it is amazing how much meanness and selfishness
will come out. Our fathers at the close of the Revolu
tionary War were not an impoverished people. They
were able to give all that was demanded of them. It
chiefly was a bad political mechanism which set every
man and every State to evading obligations or procras
tinating payments. During this period, 1783-87, after
independence had been won, there was little for an
American to be proud of, much to make him ashamed. *
Two things, however, should be said in explanation
of, and partial excuse for, the conduct of Expiana-
our fathers. One was that the Confederation tion of the
States delm-
was not the every-day government of the peo- inency.
pie. The States provided for the common interests of
* From the 1st of November, 1781, to the 1st of January, 1786, less
than two and a half millions of dollars had been received from the re
quisitions, made during that period, amounting to more than ten millions.
For the last fourteen months the receipts from requisitions amounted
to no more than four hundred thousand dollars, which was less than the
interest due on the foreign debt alone.

10 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
life, for the care of the peace, the preservation of prop
erty, the protection of the home and of the domestic re
lations, the building of highways and bridges, the sup
port of schools. To the States, then, the Americans of
this period felt that they owed their first obligations.
Those obligations, especially as the States had the power
of direct individual taxation, to be enforced if necessary
by bringing the delinquents into court, were on the
whole cheerfully met. On the other hand, the people
encountered the Federal Government at few points ;
they knew it mainly as the authority having control of
relations with foreign nations.
The other thing which requires to be said, in ex
planation of the backwardness to honor the requisitions
of the new Congress, is that these demands were mainly
made for the purpose of paying the war debts of the
Revolution. In communities which are still in a primi
tive financial and industrial state, nothing tries men's
honesty so much as the payment of debt. Where one
man will steal, many will, unless brought up by the law,
do what is little better than stealing, in order to avoid
or procrastinate the payment of indisputable obligations.
When money has been had and spent, when the object
for which it was borrowed has already been enjoyed,
there are few who do not instinctively grudge to pay it
back. It almost seems as though a wrong was being
done to require them to forego present enjoyment, per
haps the comforts of life, to make good a transaction of
the past. It is, however, not private but public debts
which bring the hardest strain upon the virtue of a peo
ple. Long after a community has been educated up to
indisposition the point of paying individual debts prompt-
to pay debts. ly> its members will shrink from the burden
of providing for the payment of obligations contracted
for general uses, of which they have individually had no

THE CONFEDERATION, 1783-87 11
enjoyment ; no part of the consideration for which has
passed through their own hands. We have seen abun
dant instances of this in our own day ; yet the Ameri
cans of the last century were far behind those of the
present age in the matter of political and financial edu
cation. They had, indeed, been brought up in a very
bad school, so far as this matter was concerned. Al
most all the colonies had indulged in paper-money is
sues of the worst character. The people had been ac
customed to see public credit depreciated and the notes
of their commonwealths at a discount, if not, indeed,
treated as worthless rags. Some of the colonies had
" run a rig " of paper money inflation which had bor
dered on madness. During the Revolution the ex
igencies of the general treasury had seemed to require
issues of " continental currency," which rose by millions
until the officers who put it out ceased to keep a record
of the amount ; and its value sank to a point where it
almost took " a wagon-load of money to buy a wagon-
load of provisions." It is not altogether strange that a
people with such an experience should be reluctant to
contribute toward the payment of the foreign and do
mestic creditors who had furnished the means of carry
ing on a war which was ended and over.
But however we may explain or excuse the delays of
the States in answering the requisitions of the Congress
of the Confederation, the fact of such delay made the
maintenance of the new government impossible. That
government began its career without resources or credit ;
and every day sank lower and lower into the abyss of
bankruptcy. The volume of the public debt Bmbarrass-
was continually swelling, under accretions of con! e°i era-
unpaid interest ; and at last even the means Hon-
of carrying on the public service were wanting. In
1781, and again in 1783, Congress proposed to the

12 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
States the adoption * of a revenue system, under which
it should have power to levy customs duties for its own
support. This system was not adopted ; but the discus
sion of the proposition paved the way for the reform of
the government.
The embarrassments of the Confederation were not
wholly financial. Though the Congress was, by the Ar
ticles of 1781, empowered to settle disputes between the
States as to boundary, and to make treaties of commerce
with foreign countries, its authority might be denied
and defied with impunity by any State which felt itself
aggrieved. In 1784 the residents of Eastern
States defy
the confeder- Tennessee, which then belonged to North
Carolina, angered by the action of that State
in regard to the cession of its Western lands, under
took, in conjunction with a section of Virginia, to set
up a State under the name of Franklin or Frankland.
In 1786 a convention met at Portland to effect the sepa
ration of the district of Maine from the State of Massa
chusetts. Other instances amounting to little less than
flat rebellion occurred. The decisions of Congress were
treated as of no account. Even the provisions of the
treaty of peace with Great Britain could not be carried
out because individual States refused to allow the pay
ment of English creditors and the restoration of the con
fiscated estates of American "loyalists;" and England
kept possession of some of the Western posts as a means
of compelling the United States to comply with its
promises : a condition, surely, of great humiliation !
Meanwhile the country had been suffering continual
loss in its trade and industry through the lack of ade
quate powers to regulate commerce. The Articles of
Confederation reserved to the States the right of laying
* Unanimous consent to a measure of this character was necessary
under the articles of Confederation.

THE CONFEDERATION, 1783-87 13
duties on imports, excepting such as would interfere with
any treaties that might be made pursuant to the treaties
proposed to France and Spain. As a result Lack of
of this, any State could, for itself, practically ^laTe^m-
nullify any treaty which Congress might en- merce-
ter into with foreign countries. A striking example of
the evil effect of this appears in the almost total fail
ure of the efforts made by the Confederation, in 1784
and the following year, to frame advantageous treaties
of commerce with the nations of Europe. A spe
cial commission, consisting of three most distinguished
citizens — John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thom
as Jefferson — was appointed for this purpose ; but of
the fifteen governments approached, only one, and that
a country of little commercial importance, Prussia,
thought it worth while to go to the trouble of making a
treaty with a country which could not enforce it.
In such a situation as has thus been described, it was
inevitable that Congress should fall off rapidly, both in
the character of its members and in its repu- Dcciine °f
tation and authority among the people ; and congress.
this in turn reacted to increase the weakness of the
Government. The Continental Congress had at the be
ginning been a most illustrious body ; but, as the war
went on, its membership steadily declined. Some went
into the military service ; some returned to their States
and became governors or legislators ; some, and those
among the ablest, were sent abroad as ministers to foreign
countries ; some States withdrew the whole or a greater
part of their delegations from motives of economy or from
lack of interest, until, in the later part of the war, Con
gress became a very inferior body, at times almost de
serving the designation of a Rump. The Articles of
Confederation required the assent of nine States in Con
gress to all matters of principal importance, and of seven

14 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
States to all other matters except adjournment. Al
though a full Congress would have consisted of ninety-
one members, only twenty or even fifteen members were
at times present, perhaps from seven, perhaps from only
five, States. Washington's resignation was received by
a body of twenty members, representing seven States.
The States voted as bodies, and as equal bodies, in the
single house which was provided for by the Articles of
1781 ; and much of the dignity and authority belonging
to a representative who speaks and votes in his own
right and name was thereby lost. Men of character
and influence found little to attract them ; and pre
ferred public service at home. The delegates were
poorly and irregularly paid by the States which sent
them. At times Congress was obliged for weeks to
await the arrival of a sufficient number of delegates to
transact business. Even the ratification of the Treaty
of Peace was delayed by lack of a quorum. Poor as it
was in its membership, the government of the Con
federation had not even a fixed seat ; and Congress went
from city to city, a vagrant body, commanding less and
less respect with each migration.
Finally domestic violence began to threaten the new
nation. In addition to the selfish and malignant forces
.... which are in all countries always ready to
turhance due break the bounds of law, if not held in
to Revolution- . . ,
ary paper check by a strong and resolute government,
there were special causes of disorder in
the situation of the United States at this time. The
war, especially through the pernicious agency of an ir
redeemable and rapidly depreciating paper money, had
effected an enormous disturbance in the distribution
of wealth. Every time the value of money changed, a
certain amount of wealth was thrown, unearned, into
the hands of the trading and speculative, at the cost of

THE CONFEDERATION, 1783-87 15
the productive, classes ; into the hands of those already
rich, at the expense of those less favored by fortune.
Any man of nerve can pick up a live coal and throw it
into the fire without pain. This is because he holds it
only a fraction of a second. Let him retain it a little
longer and he will be burned to the bone. So it always
is with depreciating paper money. Those who are in a
position of advantage, who have means to pay with, who
are close to the market, who are dealing largely, who have
abundant and often secret opportunities of securing in
formation, all these gain. On the other hand, the poor,
the ignorant, those who have not capital and cannot
readily command credit, those who deal only on a small
scale and at irregular intervals, those who are at a dis
tance from the market, those who buy raw materials for
the manufacture of goods which will not be ready to be
sold for weeks or months to come — all these classes lose
and lose every time. The fluctuations of the " Conti
nental currency " during the first few years of the war
had been extreme ; its discredit at the end became total.
There were those whose farms were deeply mortgaged
and who yet had in their attics boxes full of paper
money ; while those who had bought cattle, grain, and
provisions, to sell them to the army, and had quickly
turned the funds into houses and lands, or into mort
gages on houses and lands, had become rich. A vulgar
aristocracy, such as is always created by a paper-money
era, flourished under the public eye, while names which
had been honored throughout colonial history disap
peared through a poverty which had come without blame,
perhaps only through trusting the government too readily
in its hour of need. In addition to all that was involved
in this state of things, the close of the war itself brought
distress, in the immediate instance, to many. The
farmers missed the market for their produce which the

16 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
army had afforded. The soldiers thrown out of service
could not readily find employment and remained too
often discontented and dangerous men. One class pros
pered ; but its good fortune was at the expense of the
general welfare ; and in time excited envy and animos
ity. These were the lawyers, who flourished on the
multiplicity of suits growing out of the extensive trans
fer of values and the general unsettlement of society.
Such a condition was most unfortunate and deeply to
be regretted. It would not have been dangerous but for
a vicious political organization. As things were in
1783-87, it was possible that the elements of disorder
and violence in a group of States might at any time con
front the military and political forces of one State * of
that group. For example, if resistance to the law were
to break out in Massachusetts, the discontented classes
of all New England might pour into that State, con
fident that they would have to deal with its power alone.
This was, in fact, what occurred in the latter part of
1786. Under the leadership of Daniel Shays, formerly
sbays's Re- a captain in the Continental Army, those in
Mas'sacYu" Worcester County and in Western Massachu
setts. setts vh0 felt themselves wronged by suits
at law, and by the foreclosure of mortgages of which the
depreciated paper-money of the Revolutionary govern
ment had been the real cause, gathered together, with the
purpose of closing the courts which had especial juris
diction in their cases. With the ordinary operation of
the courts, in the preservation of the peace and the pro
tection of life and person, they did not wish to interfere ;
but they mistakenly believed that by unlawful violence
* " In the convention which framed the Constitution it was very early
declared that the Confederation had neither constitutional power nor
means to interfere in the case of a rebellion in any State."— Curtis, His
tory of the Constitution.

THE CONFEDERATION, 1783-87 17
they could undo some part of the injustice which had
been wrought by unsound and pernicious financial condi
tions. The insurgents were largely, at least in the first
instance, sober, decent, and industrious men, wrought
to madness by what they deemed their wrongs ; but they
were, of course, joined by the idle, the dissipated, the
discontented, the destructive classes, as the insurrection
grew. The insurgents complained, not merely of the
enforcement of payment in case of debts contracted in
continental currency, and of the foreclosure of mortgages
due to the same cause, but of the excessive cost of the
collection of debts, fattening the legal profession at the
expense of the debtor class, and of the scarcity of money
in which to make the payments required, even where
sufficient property for the purpose existed. These last
complaints the General Court had sought to remove, at
a previous session, by reducing the legal fees and by
allowing payments of tax-arrears and of private debts in
certain articles of produce at specified prices. But the
discontent had become too deep to be appeased.
In December, Shays, at the head of an armed force,
prevented the sitting of the Supreme Court at Worces
ter ; and, a few days later, repeated the same acts of
violence in Springfield. At the latter point the gath
ering of the insurgents menaced society with a new
danger, since the United States arsenal was then, as
now, situated in Springfield, and though Shays's fol
lowers had manifested no intention of destroying the
State government or of proceeding further than to arrest
the action of the courts in issuing executions for debts
and in foreclosing mortgages, it was impossible to fore
see to what extremities they might not proceed, should
they secure an abundant supply of arms. In view of
the threatening state of things, Congress had already,
under pretence of making war upon the Northwestern
2

18 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
Indians, voted to enlist a considerable force and had
made a special requisition for funds ; but the inter
vention of the Federal government was certain to be
too tardy for the emergency. The threatened common
wealth was saved by the promptness and energy of its
chief executive, and the public spirit of a few citizens
who contributed the necessary funds out of their own
means and at their own risk. Governor Bowdoin at
once called out the militia of Eastern Massachusetts,
under the command of General Benjamin Lincoln, a
distinguished veteran of the Revolution. These troops
promptly marched, in the depth of a severe winter, to
the relief of the beleaguered garrison. Before they
The Reheiiion arrived the insurgents had been repulsed
put down, w^h some loss of life ; and the approach of
the relieving force caused them to withdraw to a more
difficult country. By the rapid movements of Gen
eral Lincoln the rebels were finally broken up and dis
persed. While Massachusetts was thus struggling for its life
with armed insurgents, other communities were being
rapidly drawn toward the fatal vortex of inconvertible
paper-money. A fresh craze for this delusive resort,
New paper- " this alcohol of commerce," broke out in
money craze. 1785-86, and soon infected a majority of the
States. All the teachings of the past seemed to have
been forgotten ; and one commonwealth after another
took the plunge into the abyss of discredit and dishonor.
In some States the new paper-money was not made a
legal tender ; in some, its acceptance was compulsory ;
in others, still, it was sought to give the notes currency
by means of physical violence or of "boycotts " (to use
a modern phrase) directed against those who should de
cline to receive them. But, whatever form the issues
took, there could possibly be but one end for them all,

THE CONFEDERATION, 1783-87 19
unless some superior authority should be established
which could curb this delusive and destructive passion.
Shays's rebellion and the paper-money craze of 1785-86
completed the demonstration of the entire insufficiency
of the Confederation under the Articles of 1781. The
leaders of political opinion, the statesmen of that period,
had not waited so long to be of the opinion that some
thing must be done if the States which together had won
independence were to remain in concord and union. In
1785 Governor Bowdoin suggested the appointment of
delegates from the several States, to settle and define
the powers with which Congress should be invested ;
but, the representatives from Massachusetts not con
curring in this proposal, it was not submitted to Con
gress. Virginia was more active in the work of re
form. That State, having been in controversy with
Maryland over the navigation of the Chesapeake and
the Potomac, appointed commissioners to confer with
representatives of the latter State regarding their con
flicting rights. This negotiation failed ; but it led to an
invitation given by Virginia, in January, 1786, to all
the States to meet in convention, to decide upon the
commercial relations of the country. Twelve States had
already agreed to the proposed revenue system of 1783 ;
but the hostile action of New York killed the measure.
That State, however, while refusing to assent to this
scheme, sent delegates, foremost among them Alexan
der Hamilton, to the convention, which was held at
Annapolis, in September, 1786. The convention itself
was a failure, since only New York, New Jer- The An
sey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia °!is conven-
were represented ; but it opened the way to
a larger success than had even been in contemplation.
That very failure showed the uselessness of any effort
short of a general constitutional convention. The dele-

20 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
gates to Annapolis departed after addressing Congress in
terms, drawn by Hamilton, which induced that body to
call a convention of the States, to meet at Philadelphia
in May, 1787, "for the sole and express purpose of revis
ing the Articles of Confederation." So desperate had
the situation become, that the call of Congress was not
unheeded, although one of the States was not represented,
and the delegates came with very different minds as to
what could and should be done. It is the proceedings
of the body thus assembled, the Constitutional Conven
tion of 1787, which is to form the subject of our next
chapter. Only one word more remains to be said.
While the career of the Confederation had been a most
unhappy one, its existence had not been wholly without
results of good. It had bridged over the interval till the
people should be ready to establish a real and effective
government ; it had kept the idea of American nation
ality before the minds of all ; and its very misfortunes
and calamities had served to convince the country that
something more must be done to secure the union of the
States which had together won their independence.

CHAPTER II
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787
The Convention meets May 14th — Absence of Rhode Island— Del
egates Appointed, 62 — Number Attending at any Time, 55 —
Number Signing the Constitution, 39 — Eminent Character of
the State Delegations — Respective Contributions of Different
Classes of Delegates — The Party of Obstruction — The Leading
Spirits of the Convention — Doubts as to a Successful Result —
Views Held as to the Relations between the Confederation and
the States — The Three dominating Issues of the Convention — A
Federal or a National Government — Equal or Proportional
Representation of the States — Representation on Account of
Slaves — Results on these Issues — The Work of the Committee
on Detail Introduces Three New Issues — Taxation of Exports
— The Slave-trade — Two-thirds Vote on Navigation Acts — Ex
tensive Disaffection of Delegates — Withdrawal of Some — Adop
tion of the Constitution — Nine States Sufficient for Ratification
— This Measure Revolutionary — The Whole Work of the Con
vention Revolutionary — Called to Amend the Articles of Con
federation, it Throws them Over at the Beginning — Impossi
bility of Deriving the . Constitution Legitimately from Either
the Confederation or the Revolutionary Congress — The Ordi
nance of 1787 among the Closing Acts of the Congress of the
Confederation — Importance of this Measure.
The Convention met on May 14th ; but there were
not, on that day, delegates present from a majority of
the States. Rhode Island was not represent- Absence of
ed then or at any stage of the Convention ; §om thecon^
but its Governor sent an address urging the Tention-
Convention to consider the interests and rights of that
State in their deliberations, and holding out hopes that
it would join the movement at a later period. The ab-

22 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
sence of Rhode Island has generally been explained by
the domination of the paper-money party in the Legisla
ture. Of all the offenders in the matter of paper-issues
before the Revolution, Rhode Island had easily been the
worst ; and the passion for bad money thus created had
not lost its hold upon the public mind. Now, if any
thing was certain in regard to a new Constitution, it was
that it would prohibit paper-money issues by the States.
Other and perhaps equally valid explanations of Rhode
Island's absence from the Constitutional Convention
have, however, been given.* From New Hampshire
delegates did not arrive till July 23d ; but by May 25th,
a quorum, that is, at least two delegates from each of a
majority of the thirteen States, had been obtained ; and
the Convention proceeded to its immensely important
business. That business was in form, that is, according
to the call, a revision of the Articles of Confederation of
1781 ; but only the briefest time elapsed before it was
clearly seen that, if the Convention was to accomplish
anything at all, it would be not through revision, but
through the adoption of a substantially new form of
government. The Articles of Confederation had been
too conclusively found wanting, to make any change in
them, however extensive, satisfactory.
The total number of delegates, by all the States ap
pointed, was 62. Of these, however, only 55 were at
any time, earlier or later, in attendance. In
Member--7 ' '
ship of the the final result only 39 members signed the
' ''' '" Constitution. In its membership the Con
vention was a noble body, recalling the early days of the
Revolutionary Congress. After the unhappy experi
ences of the Congress of the Confederation, through so
many years, this change was indeed refreshing, and gave
* See a very able paper read before the Rhode Island Historical Soci
ety, in 1890, by Hon. Horatio Rogers.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787 23
at least the hope of doing something. No commonplace
gathering of second-rate men would have had the slight
est chance of carrying the country with them in any
thing which they might propose.
The contributions which the several members of the
Convention were destined to make to the successful re
sult of its deliberations and decisions were contribu-
very different. Some stood, first, foremost, ent'ciMsefof
and always, for union — for union in spite of QeIeeates-
obstacles ; for union in defiance of State rights and local
interests ; for union under almost any form, provided
only a strong and self-supporting government should be
created. This was their contribution : zeal for union,
devotion to the prime object of the Convention. Some
of these delegates enjoyed the advantage of skill in de
bate, persuasive discourse, and fiery eloquence. Others
made their influence felt mainly in personal conference
and in the spirit with which, simply as voting members,
they met and rose over the successive obstacles which for
the time stopped the work of the Convention or threat
ened its dissolution. Others there were whose qualities
of mind and temper fitted them especially to contribute
to a fortunate result through the analysis of methods
and details. A few were jurists and publicists, widely
read in constitutional history and of a learning and in
tellectual power to lift discussion, at critical points, out
of the common and the vulgar, up to high planes of
statesmanship. Some contributed through prestige, de
rived from services in peace and in war, lending dig
nity and authority to the cause of union, both within
and without the Convention, whether _ or not they were
adroit in debate, or learned in political history, or pow
erful in appeal. Some contributed by parliamentary
skill and tact, knowing how to avoid difficulties ; how
to pass around obstacles ; how to conciliate opposition ;

24 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
when to yield and when to press vigorously for an ad
vantage. All were needed ; without the help of any one
we cannot confidently say that the Convention would,
in the final result, have proposed the Constitution.
A few there were whose part was a less gracious one,
that, namely, of making objections ; of insisting upon
concessions to State prejudices and to local
The party r J
of obstmc- interests ; of seeming to be ready, perhaps 01
being ready, to abandon the entire object of
the Convention rather than that certain results should
not be secured. We will not liken them to the false
mother in the story of Solomon's judgment. Perhaps,
had they not made these issues in the Convention, the
work of the Convention would have been defeated before
the people by the very prejudices and interests which
they represented. But it is at least allowable to say that
the spirit of the true mother in that beautiful tale ani
mated not a few noble souls : rather than that the life
they loved should be sacrificed, they were ready to make
any concession, to mortify their own pride, to surrender
their cherished views and purposes, and to yield the
guardianship of the nation to other hands.
First among the delegates must be named George
Washington. Unskilled in debate, destitute of juri-
washington dical and historical learning, he yet stood
and B'rankiin. a\\ the time f or union, for union somehow,
for union anyhow ; and the splendor of his fame shone
through the Convention and over the whole land, giving
hope amid the deepest despondency. Benjamin Frank
lin, too, was there, infirm in body and nearly past the
time of public usefulness, but still holding authority by
virtue of his great services. The measures he proposed
were of comparatively little value ; listened to rather
from respect to the man than from concurrence with his
views ; but his presence, his prudence, and his devotion

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787 25
to the larger interests of the country were a constant
force in the Convention. Not only did Dr. Franklin ex
ert a strong influence through his zeal for union ; but
his thoroughly democratic sentiments were of excellent
effect, as opposed to the decidedly aristocratic tendencies
of many members.* The American of to-day is amazed
to read in Madison's " Journal " the frank expression of
opinions hostile to popular suffrage, distrust of the peo
ple, and even imputations against the honesty and pa
triotism of the country. The history of the nation has
shown that the aged philosopher was more nearly right
in his estimate of the virtue and public spirit of the
American people than were his more conservative col
leagues. With Washington and Franklin was another
of the noble group of five, who, in 1776, laid -upon the
table of the President of Congress the Declaration of In
dependence, viz., Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, de
voted to the cause of union, though perhaps too persist
ent at times in presenting objections to the wishes of
the majority of the Convention. Among those who con
tributed most through juridical and historical knowl
edge, or through long experience in public affairs, were
George Mason and James Madison, of Virginia ; Rufus
King, of Massachusetts ; James Wilson, of Pennsylvania ;
Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut.
But amid that brilliant assemblage one spirit burned
with a fire surpassing all in its zeal for union. Alexan
der Hamilton, of New York, had been for Alexander
many years the most conspicuous advocate Hamilton.
of a strong and efficient government for the insurgent,
*The proposition was even made, and was strenuously supported,
that wealth should be the basis of representation in the Senate. Let
the reader try to imagine anyone daring to make such a proposal in
this day. For a time, the principle that there should be property quali
fications for the executive, the members of the legislature, and the ju
diciary triumphed in the Convention, though ultimately defeated.

26 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
and finally for the independent, States. Possessed of a
singular eloquence, he had, since 1780, labored by
speech and pen to bring the American people to appre
ciate the necessity of conceding ample powers to the
common Congress. Upon his own State he had not
ceased to urge the grant of liberal rights of revenue ;
and he had been foremost in the measures which led to
the Annapolis Convention, and subsequently to the Con
stitutional Convention at Philadelphia. In the latter
body his usefulness, so far as constructive details were
concerned, was greatly impaired by his desire for a
more consolidated organization of the country and a
more aristocratic form of government than would have
met the sympathy of perhaps a single one of his col
leagues, so that few of his practical propositions were
adopted ; but his burning zeal for a real and vital union
of some kind, his eloquence, and his readiness to con
cede anything and everything to reach that end, made
him an immense power for good. Thus, while Hamil
ton contributed little to the text of the Constitution, he
did perhaps as much as any man to give it being.
Among delegates from States south of Virginia were
several men, notably Rutledge and the two Pinckneys,
who were of the highest character and abil-
treme south- ities, and of unquestioned patriotism ; but
era e ega es. ^ r^e ^ey ^-^ tnemSelves obliged to act,
namely, that of objecting to the progress of the work,
unless certain concessions should be made to the views
and interests peculiar to their constituents, must al
ways give them a lower place and make them less ro
mantic figures in the history of the Convention of 1787.
Perhaps the part they played was as necessary as that of
others who were unconditionally for union ; certainly
we have no right to impute selfish or sinister motives to
them. Still, if that part was necessary, it was not

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787 27
heroic ; and has not aroused in the American people the
same gratitude as has been accorded to their colleagues.
Among the members of the Convention who took a
very prominent part in its proceedings were three we
have not mentioned — Edmund Randolph,
of Virginia ; John Dickinson, of Delaware; Dickinson]
and Luther Martin, of Maryland. Ran- aDdMartin-
dolph, as we shall see, prepared the general plan of
government which was in substance adopted ; but his
subsequent course produced an impression of vacillation
and inconsistency which seriously impaired the prestige
he might have expected to derive from this source.
Dickinson's part was marked by such a degree of con
servatism, and by so much of what was considered,
whether rightly or wrongly, a disposition to cavil and
find fault, that his influence was deemed rather a bur
den than a help to constructive work. Martin, strong,
impatient, and aggressive in disposition, was at several
stages foremost in opposition to what then seemed to be,
and is now seen to have been, essential to any real prog
ress toward the union of the States. In such a body
as we have described, there could be but one first choice
for president ; and George Washington, with the im
mortal laurels of a patriot war carried to a successful
conclusion by his matchless resolution, patriotism, and
fidelity, was chosen to preside over its deliberations.
But while the Convention was thus nobly constituted,
and while its members had generally, perhaps without
exception, come together desirous of framing a form of
government which should secure the continuance of an
American union ; and while all probably were in a
frame of mind to make some concessions from Doubts as to
what they would individually have desired ; suit.
yet the prospect of any considerable positive result was
not favorable. The questions at issue were of the gray-

28 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
est nature ; and the feelings and sentiments which drew
the delegates to one side or the other of these questions
were deeply founded and often passionately held.
There were not a few who were known to regard their
positions on certain points as of a higher value than the
formation of a new constitution, if not, indeed, of more
consequence than the continuance of union under any
form. There were some who, while willing fairly to
consider the schemes suggested, had from the start so
little expectation of any successful result, that their in
fluence was almost the same as if they had desired a
failure. Possibly some even felt that it would not be a
wholly unfortunate outcome if the country were com
pelled to drag itself along for a few years more under
the Articles'of 1781, bad as these were and certain to be
in time changed, rather than force an issue at present
and rush on to decisions which would be irrevocable.
Altogether the mood of at least a majority of the Con
vention was unfavorable. Yet there were among the
delegates some who believed that it was a case of "now
or never ; " who burned with zeal to consummate a de
finitive union ; and to this end were ready to make al
most any concession and accept almost any plan. The
energy and devotion of these men could not fail pro
foundly to move their more sceptical colleagues. A
few there were, and these among the greatest intellects
of the Convention, who were fairly on fire with their
enthusiasm and determination. These men seem, in
their passion for union, to have risen to the heights of
prophecy, and fully to have appreciated the momentous
consequences of what should there be done in that
summer of 1787, as if they could look down the ages and
see the puissant nation which was to rise out of the
gloom and the confusion of the present ; but there were
more who, whether because they were commonplace by

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787 29
nature, or because they had been so deeply infected by
the distrust, doubts, and jealousies of the miserable
period then closing, looked at everything with the nar
rowest vision, and found it impossible to lift themselves
above sectional interests and personal prejudices.
On the subject of the relations of the several States to
the United States, there was in the Convention a great
diversity of opinion ; but, in a general way, three dis
tinct views may be said to have been held. First, that
the States still remained, in spite of all that had been
granted to the Revolutionary Congress for the sake of
carrying on the war, and in spite of all that had been
conceded in the Articles of 1781, sovereign and inde
pendent States, of undiminished authority and competent
at any time to resume the entire control of their own in
terests, by simply " denouncing" the Articles of Confed
eration. The second view was that which held that the
course of events during the Revolution and the grants of
power made to the Continental Congress and Two yiem
the Confederacy of 1781 had established a ^'{^S
nation which existed of its own right, which t° the confed-
° eration.
had the full constitutional authority, even
though the power might be lacking, to assert itself
against individual States, were that necessary. Some
who held this view went even so far as to claim, not that
the States themselves had by an irrevocable act created
a nation ; but that the United States did, in fact, by
and through the Declaration of Independence, pre
exist ; and that the States came into existence only as
integral parts of the Union. The advocates of this view
pointed to the record that the Continental Congress
recommended to the States to form constitutions and
organize governments which should meet the fact of
separation from the mother country. This view of the
relations of the several States to the United States we

30 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
may call the High Federalist view. It is the view set
forth by Chief - Justice Jay in 1792, in the case of
Chisholm vs. the State of Georgia. It is the view sub
sequently defended by Mr. Webster in the Senate ; the
view adopted by Judge Story, in his " Commentaries on
the Constitution ; " the view elaborately expounded by
Mr. George Ticknor Curtis in his " History of the Consti
tution." So strongly was the opinion of the supremacy
of the United States maintained by some members of the
Convention, that they proposed that the existing States
should be broken up and the territory redivided into
States more nearly equal in extent and population. Even
those high Federalists who would not have approved of
breaking up the States, agreed with their brethren in
looking upon them as existing for the purposes of local,
as distinguished from national, government, and in deny
ing to them the attributes of sovereignty. It is a curious
fact that those who held advanced views on this ques
tion were able to quote in their own support the words
of so ardent a defender of State rights as Patrick Henry,
who had once, in the passion of his eloquence, spoken
of the country as " thrown into one mass."
Between the two extreme views which have been de
scribed Avas the opinion held, probably with better rea
son, which may be expressed in the language of Elbridge
Gerry : " We were neither the same nation nor differ
ent nations." These members held both that the States
had, by their own repeated acts, deeply compromised
their independent existence ; and that powerful consid
erations of public policy, and even of public necessity,
urged them, here and now, to create an indestructible
The middle union of a truly national character. But, on
™w- the other hand, they maintained that the
States were still, in spite of all, free political agents ;
nor did they admit that the States, in entering such a

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787 31
union as was to be desired, would become mere territo
rial subdivisions, for purposes of local government, like
the counties which in turn made up the State. The two
extreme views of the relations of the several States to the
United States were characteristic of the lawyer. The
middle view was more worthy of the statesman.
While there were a hundred matters, no one of them
unimportant, which were necessarily to be subjects of
debate and division in the Convention, there , „ .
' A national
were certain dominating issues with which or a federal
the members had at once to deal, if the first
step of progress was to be made. One of these was the
issue between a strong and a weak government ; be
tween a Constitution which should recognize the exist
ence of a nation, or of what might in time become a
nation, and a Constitution which should establish a
league of States, brought together only for a few pur
poses, with little or no surrender of political power on
the part of the constituent members. This issue was
made in the very earliest days of the Convention when
Edmund Randolph, on behalf of the delegates from Vir
ginia, as the State at whose invitation the Convention
had been called, presented a series of resolutions out
lining a National Constitution for the United States
of America. The resolutions were at once considered
in Committee of the Whole, where the general idea of a
strong and self-sufficient government was adopted by a
narrow majority, made up mostly of the larger States.
Had New Hampshire and Rhode Island, two small
States, been represented, the decision would probably
have been the other way. But, while the principle of a
close union, instead of a loose confederation, prevailed
thus in the first encounter, that victory was a dear one,
in that it cost the influence and the interest of some
delegates in the Convention and of a large number of

32 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
citizens outside. These persons were not prepared to
establish a national government : they did not believe in
it : they dreaded it : and, as they saw things inclining
that way, they became disaffected, if not inimical.
An issue which arose at the same time with the fore
going, and which was intimately, though not logically,
connected with it, in debate and in vote, was that be
tween equal and proportional representation in the leg
islature of the proposed new government.
proponfonai The larger, that is, the more populous,
represen on. g^a^eg were generally disposed to insist upon
having power in Congress in proportion to their inhabi
tants. The small States declared that they would not
enter a government in which three or four of them
might be weighed down by a single large State. This
contest was a fierce one ; and without a compromise it
would have been impossible to frame a constitution and
then secure its adoption. Yet no compromise was hit
upon in Committee of the Whole ; and the principle of
proportional representation was accepted by a majority
of six States to five. Here, again, was a victory which
was costly, so costly, indeed, that, had it been pressed,
the whole scheme of union would have gone to pieces.
The third great issue in the Convention was how the
slaves, who were very numerous in the four southern-
Eepresenta- most States — Virginia, North and South
tion of slaves. caroimai) and Georgia — should be considered
and treated in dealing with the basis of representation.
Should they be counted as a part of the population, or
not ? The States named were earnest in holding that
the slaves should be included. The other States, most
of which had few slaves, were indisposed to yield this
point. Slaves were property : why should they be
treated as persons for the purposes of representation ?
Why should certain States have vastly increased power

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787 33
in Congress because they had many slaves ? The con
test here was a severe one, and not a little embit
tered. There was great danger of wrecking the whole
scheme upon this obstacle. A compromise, suggested
by James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, was adopted, to
the effect that slaves should be counted in the basis
of representation to the extent of three - fifths their
actual number. That is, if a State had two hundred
thousand, each, of free persons and of slaves, it
should be taken, for this purpose, to have a popula
tion of 320,000. Such were the three main issues of
the Convention in the first stage of its deliberations.
Other matters were debated and decided which were im
portant, which were, indeed, certain to be of the high
est consequence in the history of the new government,
if it should be founded ; but none of these were vital in
the sense that upon them turned the question whether
there should be a union, or, rather, whether a constitu
tion should even be framed for the States to consider.
The continued existence of slavery was not among mat
ters dealt with, for it was assumed from the start that
the Convention could not interfere with this relation as
existing within individual States.
The Committee of the Whole having reported the re
sults which have been stated, the contest at once began
all over again upon the presentation by Mr. Patterson, a
delegate from New Jersey, of a series of resolutions pro
viding for the establishment of a federal, instead of a
national, government. In this stage of the proceed
ings, a compromise as to the basis of representation was
reached, upon the suggestion of the delegates The com-
from Connecticut. It was agreed that the f^Tentt-
States should have equal power in the Sen- tion-
ate, while in the House they should have representation
in proportion to population. The rule as to the count-
3

34 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
ing of slaves, which has already been mentioned, was also,
after a passionate debate, reaffirmed. The compromise
thus effected was of the highest importance. Without
this, it is not reasonable to suppose that a constitu
tion would have been recommended to the States for
consideration. Even this did not secure the ultimate
adoption of the work of the Convention, but it did make
it tolerably certain that that body would itself come to
an agreement of some sort.
The contest over the basis of representation had been
severe, and much sectional feeling had been developed.
New York, not then counted among the large States,
though now largest of all, and consequently deriving
most benefit from proportional representation, had op
posed the adoption of that principle in regard to the
House of Representatives ; and, upon the success of that
plan, Yates and Lansing returned home in disgust, leav
ing Hamilton alone to speak for New York in the Con
vention, though without any authority to bind his State.
The struggle had left other wounds which would en
danger ratification; but from this time forward the
work of framing a constitution on the Virginia plan,
with the compromises already agreed to, went rapidly
on. A Committee of Detail was appointed, consisting of
Rutledge, Randolph, Gorham, and Wilson. After what
seemed an impossibly brief delay, this committee brought
in a rough draft of the Constitution as it was finally
adopted. The committee gave to the chief Executive of
committee the proposed government the title of Presi-
troduces1 n£w dent ; to its legislature, the name of Congress,
issues. ^ile the upper chamber was to be known
as the Senate, and the lower as the House of Represen
tatives. The most important features introduced by the
committee upon their own judgment were the provisions
that no duties should be levied upon exports ; that the

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787 35
slave-trade should not be prohibited; and that no "navi
gation act" should be passed except by a two-thirds
vote. All these provisions had been inserted upon the
demands of delegates from the southernmost States.
The provision as to the taxation of exports was for the
protection of the rice and indigo of Georgia and South
Carolina. The provision of the two-thirds vote on navi
gation acts was proposed because the ship-building of
the country was mainly in the northern States. The
provision regarding the slave-trade requires no explana
tion. Each of these new provisions added by the Com
mittee on Detail led to earnest and even acrimonious
debate. The third was finally given up by the southern
representatives, but the first and second were adopted,
except that the prohibition of interference with the
slave-trade was limited to the term of twenty years.
Thus the last of the " Compromises of the Constitu
tion " was effected. Much as anyone may dislike the
principle on which these were based, it is hardly possible
for a candid man to deny that, without them,- or some
thing very like them, that instrument could not have
been framed by the Convention and adopted by the
States. Who, in this age, can doubt that it was far bet
ter for the States to come together, as they then did,
than that the effort at union should have been aban
doned, and the American people have remained apart in
separate States, or have founded two or three confedera
tions along the Atlantic slope, with the vast western
country to fight over in the near future ? * The last clause
brings to view a consideration which, though not the
work of the Convention, had been a constant force mak-
* The idea that, upon the failure of the Convention to agree upon a
form of government, there would arise two confederacies on the Atlantic
coast, was a very common one. Mr. Wilson remarked during one of the
debates, that "he knew there were some respectable men who preferred
three confederacies, united by offensive and defensive alliances."

36 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
ing steadily for agreement and co-operation. The exist
ence beyond the Alleghanies of nearly half a million
square miles of territory, much of which had been for
mally ceded to the United States, constituted an argu
ment for union, the force of which it would be impossi
ble to over-estimate. As Webster, in his famous speech
on the Compromise of 1850, asked, What is to become
of the public lands in the event of dissolution ? so no
member of the Convention of 1787 could fail to ask, in
his own mind, What is to become of the public lands in
case the States should not succeed in establishing a com
mon government ?
After agreement on the points already mentioned had
been reached, though in no instance without severely
straining the patience of some among the delegates, if
not indeed greatly impairing their interest in the gener
al result,* the work went swiftly forward. There still
remained many matters of important detail to be de
cided, such as the method of choice, the term of service,
and the eligibility of the chief Executive to re-election ; f
the provision for a Vice-President, the President's veto
upon legislation, the appointment of judges, the meth
ods of amending the Constitution, should it be adopted,
* For example, Mr. Randolph, of Virginia, who himself proposed the
general plan which, with important modifications, had prevailed in the
Convention, declared in the debate over the navigation clause that the
scheme as it stood contained " so many odious features that he hardly
knew if he could agree to it." At a later stage, Mr. Mason, also of Vir
ginia, one of the ablest and most influential members, expressed the be
lief that the proposed form of government would result in a monarchy or
a tyrannical aristocracy, and signified his intention to withhold his signa
ture. On August 31st he declared that "he would sooner chop off his
right hand than put it to the Constitution as it now stands." Mr. Gerry,
of Massachusetts, spoke in the same vein.
t In its earlier stages the Convention fixed the term of the President
at seven years, and made him ineligible to re-election. When near ad
journment, the Convention reduced the term to four years, and struck out
the provision of non-reeligibility.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787 37
the method of submitting the Constitution to the States,
and the number of States whose ratification should suf
fice to bring the new government into being. On the
last-named point the action of the Convention was most
important. It was provided that the new Constitution
should go into operation when ratified by nine States.
This provision, eminently wise as it was, made the whole
proceedings of the Convention revolutionary. The Arti
cles of 1781 had provided for a "Perpetual Union;"
and it had been explicitly declared that no alteration
should at any time be made in any of them unless such
alteration should be confirmed by the legislature of every
State. The Convention of 1787 had been called for the
sole purpose of revising those articles ; but from the first
its proceedings had been such as amounted to throwing
the Confederation overboard and making a substantially
new form of government. * The action taken regarding
ratification was even more distinctly in violation of the
principles of the Confederation. Instead of Njne state3
unanimous consent, the ratification of nine sufficient for
ratification.
States was to suffice to set up the new gov
ernment, while the States not consenting, be they one
or two or three or four, were to be left out in the cold,
having no part or lot with those whom they had
helped to achieve independence, and with whom they
had been closely associated ever since the Congress of
1774. Such a procedure was, as has been said; distinctly
revolutionary in its character. The fundamental law,
* This ohange of purpose is indicated by Mr. Randolph's change in his
first resolution. As originally drawn, this read as follows : "Resolved,
That the Articles of Confederation ought to be so corrected and enlarged
as to accomplish the objects proposed by their institution, namely, 'com
mon defence, security of liberty and general welfare.' " This was subse
quently modified by Mr. Randolph toi-ead, "Resolved, That a national
government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme legislative,
executive, and judiciary."

38 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
as existing, was to be violated in the formation of the
new government. The dismemberment of the Confed
eration was to be made, if necessary — in fact was made
— a means to the creation of the union. The American
people, as they sprang to a higher political plane,
spurned away the support which had upheld them in
days of greater trial and weakness.
This fact of the revolutionary origin of the instrument
of 1787 is one of no little consequence to the student of
m,. ^, ..- constitutional law. Those political writers
The Consti- *
tution revoiu- -who have sought, lawyer-like, to trace an
uninterrupted descent from the Congress
which promulgated the Declaration of Independence,
through the Confederation of 1781, down to the first
Congress under the Union, have a difficult task to per
form. Here, at the point we have now reached, yawns
an abyss which they can neither leap nor bridge. The
solution of continuity is complete. It is idle to seek to
derive the authority of the new government from what
ever grants or concessions of power had been made to
the antecedent Confederation or to the revolutionary
Congress. But, even if the descent of the Constitution
from the Articles of Confederation, or from the acts
and proceedings of the Revolutionary Congress, had
been clear and uninterrupted, from the lawyer's point
of view, it would still have been true that the character
of the nation sought to be set up in 1787 was not to be
determined wholly by what was found in the Constitu
tion as offered to the people. Governments are what
peoples by their acts make them. Even in the impor
tant step now taken, the real nature of the new gov
ernment was to be determined, not wholly or mainly, by
the terms of the Constitution, but by the logic of events ;
by the fortunes of the nation ; by the growth of popu
lation ; the quickening of transportation ; the diversifi-

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787 39
cation of industry ; the acquisition of territory ; by a
gradual process of evolution under the impulse or con
straint of forces, some of which had not appeared in
1787 ; and, lastly, by act of war.
Even while the Convention was engaged in its con
structive work, the Congress of the Confederation, on
July 13th, enacted the ever-memorable Ordinance re
garding the territory northwest of the Ohio, which
comprised what are now the five States of Ohio, Illi
nois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This vast
territory had been ceded to the United States * by the
acts of the several States making claim thereto under
their colonial charters. By the Ordinance referred to,
Congress made provision, not merely for the The ordi-
government of that territory in all ordinary nauce o£ 1T8T-
civil respects and particulars ; but provided that there
should be formed out of it not less than three or
more than five States which should "forever remain a
part of this confederacy of the United States of Amer
ica, subject to the Articles of Confederation, and to
such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally
made ; and to all the acts and ordinances of the United
States in Congress assembled, conformable thereto."
The Ordinance of 1787 is one of the monumental
charters of American constitutional history. It not
only provided for building up great States im or_
on that noble territory : it also established tancc of this
it, ¦, t ->¦-, measure.
presonal liberty as the perpetual and inde
feasible law of those States, for it declared that slavery
and involuntary servitude, except for crime, should
never be known in that vast empire. The honor of
* Virginia made exception of the proceeds of sales of certain lands in
Southern Ohio, which were needed to discharge her obligations to her
revolutionary soldiers; and Connecticut made the same exception as to
that portion of Northern Ohio known as the Western Reserve.

40 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
this enactment (which passed in a Congress of only
eighteen delegates) has been claimed for several per
sons. It is most commonly given by fame to Nathan
Dane, a member of Congress from Massachusetts, and to
Dr. Manasseh Cutler, of the same State. It was another
Massachusetts man, General Rufus Putnam, who was to
lead the great enterprise of the practical settlement of
the Northwest territory. The Ordinance of 1787 pro
vided for the immediate establishment of a territorial
government. It is interesting to note, as an evidence
of the aristocratic political ideas of the time, that the
governor was required to own a freehold of one thou
sand acres ; the secretary, judges, and members of the
council, to have freeholds of five hundred acres each ;
representatives to hold in their own right two hundred
acres each ; while no resident should be a qualified
elector who had not a freehold of fifty acres.

CHAPTER III
THE CONSTITUTION AS SUBMITTED TO THE PEOPLE
A National Form of Government — Organization of Congress — Rule
as to Suffrage in National Elections : The Cause of this found
in the varying Rules of the several States — The Powers of Con
gress — Acts Forbidden to Congress — Acts Forbidden to the
States — Powers and Duties of the Executive — The Judiciary :
Its Jurisdiction — Trials of all Crimes to be by Jury — Definition
of Treason — Relations between Individual States and between
the States and the United States : Mutual Faith and Credit,
the Rule — New States — The Territories — Guarantee to the
States of a Republican Form of Government — Future Amend
ments to the Constitution — Integrity of the Financial Obliga
tions of the Confederation — The Constitution to be the Supreme
Law of the Land — National and State Officers to be bound by
Oath to Support the Constitution — The Ratification of Nine
States sufficient to Establish the New Government.
As finally adopted by the Convention of 1787, and
submitted to the people, the Constitution established a
national legislature, a national executive and a national
judiciary, each duly independent of the others. Of the
seven Articles which made up the Constitution, the first
provided for a Congress to consist of two houses, a
Senate and a House of Representatives, following, in
this division of the legislative authority, the example of
most of the individual States. The House of Repre
sentatives was to be composed of members chosen every
second year by the people of the several organization
States. In order not to impose a uniform of congress.
rule of suffrage upon the States, it was provided that
those who in each State had the qualifications there

42 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
requisite for electors of the more numerous branch of
the legislature should be the electors of the repre
sentatives in Congress. The number of representatives
in Congress was to be proportional to the respective
numbers of the several States, three-fifths of the slaves
being counted for this purpose. The Senate was to be
composed of two senators from each State, chosen by
the legislature thereof for the term of six years, each
senator to have an individual vote. The Vice-President
of the United States was to be President of the Senate.
It was provided that the time, place, and manner of
holding elections for senators and representatives should
be prescribed by the legislature of each State ; but that
Congress might at any time make or alter such regula
tions, except as to the place of choosing senators. The
purpose in this exception was that Congress should not
fix a place for choosing senators away from that in which
the State legislature, which was to choose the senators,
should by law be sitting. Each house was to be the
judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its
own members ; and might determine the rules of its
proceedings, punish its members for disorderly be
havior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a
member. Neither house could, during the session of
Congress, without the consent of the other, adjourn for
more than three days, or adjourn to any other place
than that in which the two houses should be sitting.
Senators and representatives were to receive a compensa
tion for their services, to be fixed by law, and to be paid
out of the treasury of the United States. They were to
be in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the
peace, privileged from arrest during attendance and in
going to and returning from their homes ; and it was
provided that they should not be questioned in any
other place — that is, in courts of law — for any speech or

THE CONSTITUTION AS SUBMITTED 43
debate. The Senate should have the sole power to try
all impeachments. When the President of the United
States was to be tried, the Chief-Justice should pre
side. No person should be convicted on impeachment
without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members
present. Judgment should not extend further than re
moval from office and future disqualification ; but the
party convicted should still be liable to punishment at
law. Bills for raising revenue should originate in the
House of Representatives, only, as the more popular
branch ; but the Senate might propose or concur in
amendments to such bills. Bills which had passed both
houses should become law only after receiving the ap
proval of the President, except that Congress might, by
a two-thirds vote of both houses, pass a bill which had
been disapproved, or " vetoed," by the President.
The powers of Congress were expressed to be : To lay
and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, uniform
throughout the United States, to pay the The power8
debts and provide for the common defence ofcongresB.
and the general welfare of the United States ; to
borrow money on the credit of the United States ;
to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the
several States and with the Indian tribes ; to establish
a uniform rule of naturalization and uniform laws on
the subject of bankruptcies ; to coin money and to
punish the counterfeiting of the coin or current securi
ties of the United States ; to establish post-offices and
post-roads ; to provide for the granting of patent rights
or copyrights for terms of years ; to define and punish
piracies and felonies on the high seas and offences
against the laws of nations ; to declare war, grant
"letters of marque and reprisal," and make rules con
cerning captures by land and water ; to maintain armies
and a navy ; to provide for calling out the militia, to

44 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and
repel invasion ; to organize and discipline the militia,*
and to govern such of them as might be employed in
the service of the United States ; to exercise exclusive
jurisdiction over such district, not exceeding ten miles
square, as might, by cession of particular States and the
acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government ;
and to exercise a like authority over all places pur
chased, with consent of the legislature of the State in
which the same might be, for the erection of forts, mag
azines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful build
ings ; to malce all laws which should ie necessary and
proper for carry 'ing into effect the foregoing powers, and
all other powers vested by the Constitution in the govern
ment of the United States or in any department or officer
thereof. To Congress it was expressly forbidden : To pro
hibit the migration or importation of such persons {i.e.,
blacks, imported as slaves) as any of the ex
hibited to isting States might think proper to admit,
prior to 1808 ; to suspend the writ of habeas
corpus, unless when, in cases of invasion or rebellion,
the public safety might require it ; to pass any bill of
attainder or ex-post facto law ; to levy any capitation
or other direct tax unless in proportion to population ; to
lay any tax or duty on articles exported from any State ;
to give preference, by any regulation of commerce or
revenue, to the ports of one State over those of another.
To the States it was expressly forbidden : To enter
Acts ro- *n*° any treaty, alliance, or confederation ;
Mbited to the grant "letters of marque and reprisal;"
coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make any
thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of
* To the States was reserved the appointment of officers and the train
ing of the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.

THE CONSTITUTION AS SUBMITTED 45
debts ; pass any bill of attainder or ex-post facto law or
laws impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any
title of nobility ; to levy, without the consent of Con
gress, any imposts or duties on imports or exports ex
cept what might be absolutely necessary for executing
the inspection laws * of any State ; to lay, without the
consent of Congress, any duty of tonnage ; keep troops
or ships of war in times of peace ; or engage in war un
less actually invaded or in such imminent danger as
would not admit of delay.
In the Second Article, relating to the Executive, it
was declared : That the executive power should be vested
in the President of the United States, a natural-born citi
zen, who, with a Vice-President, should hold office for
four years ; that the President and the Vice-President
should be chosen by Electors, who, for each State, should
be equal to the whole number of senators and represen
tatives to which that State might be entitled in Con
gress — the time of choosing Electors and the day on
which they should give their votes (uniform through
out the United States) being determined by Congress ;
that, in case of the removal of the President from office,
or of his death, resignation, or inability, the Vice-Presi
dent should succeed, Congress being authorized to pro
vide by law for a further succession ; that the President
should be commander-in-chief of the military and naval
forces ; and should have power to grant re- - Powers and
prieves and pardons for offences against the duties of the
United States, except in cases of impeach
ment ; that he should have power, by and with the con
sent of two-thirds of the Senate, to make treaties with
foreign nations ; that he should nominate, and, by and
*Such inspection laws to be subject to the revision and control of
Congress ; and the net produce of all such duties and imposts to be for
the use of the United States.

46 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint am
bassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of
the Supreme Court and all other officers of the United
States whose appointment should not otherwise be pro
vided for * and which should be established by law ; that
in the recess of the Senate the President should have
power to fill all vacancies which might occur, such com
missions to expire at the end of the next session ; that
the President should from time to time give Congress
information of the state of the Union and recommend
such measures as he might deem necessary and expedi
ent ; that the President should receive ambassadors and
other public ministers ; that he should take care that the
laws be faithfully executed, and should commission all
officers of the United States ; that the President, Vice-
President, and all the civil officers of the United States
should be removed from office on impeachment for, and
conviction of, treason, bribery, and other high crimes
and misdemeanors.
The Third Article provided for the Judiciary. It was
declared that the judicial power of the United States
The udiciai snoul(l De vested in one Supreme Court and
power and in such inferior tribunals as Congress might
from time to time establish, the judges holding
their offices during good behavior ; that the judicial power
should extend to all cases, in law or equity, arising under
the Constitution, the laws of the United States, and trea
ties made under their authority, to all cases affecting
ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, .to all
cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, to all con
troversies to which the United States should be a party,
to controversies between two or more States, between a
* Congress having the power to vest by law the appointment of such
inferior officers as they might think proper in the President alone, in the
courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

THE CONSTITUTION AS SUBMITTED 47
State and citizens of another State, between citizens of
different States, between citizens of the same State
claiming lands under grants of different States, and be
tween a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States,
citizens, or subjects. In all cases affecting ambassadors,
other public ministers, and consuls, and those in which
a State should be a party, the Supreme Court should
have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases be
fore mentioned the Supreme Court should have appel
late jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such
exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress
might make. The trial of all crimes, except in case of
impeachment, should be by jury, such trial being held
in the State in which such crimes should have been com
mitted. Treason against the United States should con
sist only in levying war against them or in giving aid and
comfort to their enemies : no person to be convicted of
treason except upon the testimony of two witnesses to
the same overt act, or upon confession in open court. In
another place it was provided that Congress should have
power to declare the punishment of treason ; but that no
attainder of treason should work corruption of blood, or
forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.
The Fourth Article governed the relations between in
dividual States and between the States and the United
States. It was provided : That full faith _ , t .
n t, n it n ¦ • to,, Gelations
and credit should be given m each State between the
to the public acts, records, and judicial pro- with the Unit-
ceedings of every other State; that the
citizens of each State should be entitled to all the
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several
States ; that any person charged in any State with
treason, felony, or other crime, who should flee from
justice and be found in another State, should, on the
demand of the executive authority of the State from

48 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
which he fled, be delivered up ; that no person held to
service or labor (apprentice or slave) in one State, un
der the laws thereof, escaping into another, should, in
consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis
charged from such service or labor, but should be de
livered up on claim of the party to whom such service
or labor was due ; that new States might be admitted
into the Union ; but that no new State should be formed
or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State, nor
any State be formed by the junction of two or more States
or parts of States, without the consent of the legis
latures of the States concerned, as well as of Congress ;
that Congress should have power to dispose of, and make
all needful rules and regulations respecting, the territory
belonging to the United States ; that the United States
should guarantee to every State a republican form of
government ; and should protect each of them against
invasion, and on application of the legislature, or of the
executive (when the legislature could not be convened),
against domestic violence.
The Eifth Article provided for amendments to the
Constitution, as follows : Congress, whenever two-thirds
of both Houses should deem it necessary,
should propose amendments to the Constitu
tion, or, on the application of the legislature of two-
thirds of the several States, should call a convention for
proposing amendments, which in either case should be
valid, as part of the Constitution, when ratified by the
legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by
Conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the
other mode of ratification might be proposed by Con
gress ; provided that no State without its consent should
be deprived of its. equal suffrage in the Senate.
The Sixth Article declared : That all debts con
tracted and engagements entered into before the adop-

THE CONSTITUTION AS SUBMITTED 49
tion of the Constitution should be as valid against the
United States as under the Confederation ; that the
Constitution, and the laws of the United States made in
pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or to be made
under the authority of the United States, should be the
supreme law of the land ; and that the The Consti-
judges in every State should be bound there- tution the su-
by, despite anything in the constitution or preme aw'
the laws of any State ; that the senators and represen
tatives of the United States, and the members of the
several State legislatures, and all the executive and ju
dicial officers, both of the United States and of the several
States, should be bound by oath or affirmation to sup
port the Constitution ; but that no religious test should
ever be required as a qualification to any office or public
trust under the United States.
The Seventh and last Article provided that the rati
fication of the conventions of nine States should be
sufficient for the establishment of the Con-
stitution between the States so ratifying the
same. It has been said that Congress purposely avoided es
tablishing a uniform rule of suffrage throughout the
Union. In the early settlement of the coun- The rule of
try the conditions imposed upon suffrage in suffrage.
the different colonies were of great variety. The New
England colonies generally seem to have regarded them
selves, not as open communities into which anyone might
enter who chose to come and behave himself, but as
corporations in which regular members alone had any
share. Even in colonies more hospitable to foreigners,
the qualifications for suffrage were numerous and often
exacting. At the South, generally, no Indian or negro,
even if otherwise qualified, could vote. In at least two
colonies, Jews could not vote. The usual voting age
4

50 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
was twenty-one years ; but in two colonies the age-
limit was twenty-four years ; while in two it was ap
parently fixed below the standard. Religious qualifica
tions existed in many colonies. Quakers were excluded
in a few colonies, and Roman Catholics in more. Prop
erty qualifications also were usual. At one time in Rhode
Island not less than £400, or £20 annual income, was
required. Sometimes land — say fifty acres — was neces
sary, with or without " a house twelve feet square." In
other cases the qualification might be either land or
money. In some colonies the estate must be in fee ; in
others, an estate for life sufficed ; in others still, an
estate for the life of the voter's wife would answer. The
foregoing instances will give an idea of the extent and
variety of the qualifications for full citizenship in the
early colonies. By the time the Revolution broke out,
these had been not a little reduced and simplified ; but
there remained differences enough to make it eminently
desirable that the Constitution should avoid the impo
sition of an uniform rule of suffrage. This was effected
by the adoption of the provision stated above.

CHAPTER IV
RATIFICATION AND THE INAUGURATION OF THE GOV
ERNMENT
Difficulties Attending Ratification — Pennsylvania and the Smaller
States Promptly Accept the Constitution — Grounds of Opposi
tion in the Larger States — Absence of a Bill of Rights — " The
Federalist " — The Tories Support the Constitution — The Massa
chusetts Convention Ratifies, 187 to 168 — Maryland and South
Carolina Join the Union — New Hampshire, the Ninth State,
Accedes — The Constitution Formally Accepted — Great Impor
tance of Securing, also, New York and Virginia — The Conven
tions in those States — The Constitution Fiercely Opposed —
General Consent to the Subsequent Adoption of Amendments
in the Nature of a Bill of Rights — Virginia and New York Fi
nally Ratify, the Latter, 30 to 27 — North Carolina and Rhode
Island Stay Out — The Government Organized — George Wash
ington Chosen President — John Adams, Vice President — Con
gress Assembles, March 4, 1789 : No Quorum until April 6th —
Inauguration of Washington, April 30th — The Beneficent Influ
ence of Washington in the Establishment of the New Govern
ment — Extent of the United States : Population — The Western
Colonies — The State of the Arts — Agriculture the Predominant
Occupation of the People — Reasons for the High Productive
Power of the United States : A Vast Breadth of Virgin Lands ;
Popular Tenure of the Soil ; the Cultivating Class not a Peas
antry — The Remarkable Mechanical and Inventive Genius of
the People : The Genesis of this Trait Explained.
The national principle had, as we have seen, tri
umphed in the Convention of 1787 ; but every one of its
successive victories had lost the new Constitution some
supporter in the Convention ; while, in the wider field
of the country at large, alike the concessions made by
the dominant party of the Convention and the most

52 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
characteristic features which they introduced into the
Constitution had alienated large numbers who, in a gen
eral way, were prepared to say that they were for a real
and permanent union, but did not relish one of exactly
this kind. The question, whether the instrument pre
sented to the States on September 17, 1787, could possi
bly secure the ratification of the needed nine States, was
Doubts as to enveloped in grave doubt : that a unanimous
ratification, ratification could be obtained no one prob
ably imagined. It is related, how truly one cannot say,
that Washington, on laying down his pen after sign
ing the Constitution, remarked to those around him.
"Should the States reject this excellent Constitution,
the next will be drawn in blood."
Several of the States promptly accepted the Constitu
tion : Delaware, the smallest State, first of all. Penn-
The small sylvania, under the lead of James Wilson,
states accede, ^q ]ia(j contributed largely to the forma
tion of the Constitution, came next, though here strong
opposition was manifested from the great interior high
land district. Then followed New Jersey, by a unani
mous vote ; then Georgia and Connecticut. All but
one of the foregoing, it will be observed, were among
the smaller States, to which an immense concession had
been made in the matter of equal representation in the
Senate ; and which had, therefore, most to hope for and
least to fear under the proposed new government. In
Georgia the argument for ratification had been greatly
strengthened by the fact that the larger part of the pres
ent State was held by powerful Indian tribes, whose ill-
repressed hostility made the existence of an effective
government very desirable for the white inhabitants.
Thus far the work of ratification had gone on swim
mingly ; but all this proved nothing ; promised noth
ing. The real struggle was to come. Nearly all the re-

RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION 53
maining States were doubtful. Many political reasons,
many personal forces, opposed themselves to further
ratification. The more important of these will be suf
ficiently intimated in what will be said regarding indi
vidual States ; but one general ground of opposition re
quires to be stated.
Among the strongest objections, urged sincerely by
some, urged by others as a cover to more real reasons,
was the absence from the Constitution of a proper Bill
of Rights, that is, a body of express provisions protect
ing the citizens from certain wrongs and
• .Absence of
abuses which had been made very familiar a b i 1 1 of
to the minds of Americans through the his- lg s'
tory of the mother country. The traditions and modes
of political thinking among our people were such as to
make this omission from the Constitution, first, a real
grievance, and, secondly and in a much higher degree,
a taking popular objection. The cause of that omission
had been found partly in the fact that the members of
the Convention had been engrossed in adjusting the
conflicting claims and interests of the different States
and sections : of the small, as opposed to the large,
States ; of the Northern, as opposed to the Southern,
States ; of the commercial, as opposed to the planting,
States. In part, also, the cause of the omission of the
desired guaranties had been found in the opposition of
the Southern States. During the discussion in the con
vention of South Carolina, in justifying the absence of a
Bill of Rights, General C. C. Pinckney said : " Such
bills generally begin by declaring that all men by nature
are born free. Now, we should make that declaration
with a very bad grace when a large part of our property
consists in men who are actually born slaves." In his
"Journal of the Convention," Mr. Madison gives Mary
land, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia

54 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
as voting against a Bill of Rights. But although the
Southern delegates largely took this position in the Con
vention, the absence of such provisions became one of
the chief issues in the contest over the ratification, even
in their own section. Such was one important obstacle
which the Constitution encountered. Nothing could be
more expressive of the good sense and good feeling of
the American people than the fact that, while the ab
sence of a Bill of Rights came to be more and more gen
erally regretted and complained of as the debate over
ratification progressed, this was not at last allowed to
become a fatal objection. More and more it came to be
understood and agreed that the omission should be sup
plied subsequently to ratification ; and, though some ex
tremists sought to hold back the assent of their States
until the desired guaranties should be secured, State
after State waived its objections and accepted the Con
stitution upon the general understanding referred to.
The adoption of the Constitution was promoted, we
cannot say in what degree, but beyond question very
greatly, by a series of papers, conceived by Hamilton
and by him mainly executed, though with great assist
ance from Madison and some also from Jay,* which have
-TheFeder- ever since been known as " The Federalist,"
all8t" a body of essays which, though written for
what in these days we should call " campaign " pur
poses, has not only become a classic in our national po
litical literature, but is the repository of the best, and,
apart from judicial decisions, the most authoritative, ex
positions of the extensive text of the Constitution.
That, in a task like this, Hamilton, the great coming
leader of the Federalists, at least on the intellectual side,
* Forty-six of the papers are attributed to Hamilton ; twenty-nine to
Madison, in some of whioh Hamilton probably had a share ; and five to
Jay.

RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION 55
should have been able to write in such harmony of views
with Madison, who was destined to be Jefferson's chief
lieutenant in the organization and control of the Repub
lican-Democratic party, shows how well the Convention
had done its part, in laying down the main lines of the
Constitution ; how well the Committee on Detail had
done its part, in working out the subordinate features
of the scheme ; how well the Committee on Style and
Revision, through Gouverneur Morris, had done its part,
by putting the Constitution into clear and simple lan
guage ; more than all, how closely the two leading au
thors of " The Federalist " had worked together at
Philadelphia, how thoroughly they understood each
other's views and notions, how strong was their common
interest in the triumph of their cause.
Another and very curious feature of the contest over
the Constitution deserves to be mentioned. This was
the general accession of the Tories of the Tovies sup.
Revolution to the party of ratification. These p°]* jhe Con-
» t ¦ t ¦ Stitution.
persons, still to be found m great numbers in
some States, notably in Massachusetts, New York, Mary
land, and South Carolina, were strongly drawn toward
the proposed form of government by the persecutions
to which they continued to be subjected. They thought
they saw, in the establishment of an effective govern
ment for the whole country, a safeguard against the
malignity of their immediate neighbors. It is also to be
said that the Tories comprised many men of wealth and
prosperous merchants, who favored an efficient govern
ment on commercial and financial grounds.
Let us now return to the separate acts of ratification.
Five States had accepted the Constitution when the
Convention met in Massachusetts, to determine what
the State whose people had been foremost in resistance
to the encroachments of the Crown would do with that

56 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
government which was the outcome of so much toil,
treasure, and blood. The elements here opposed to the
, 4 Constitution were most formidable. On the
The contest . n . .
in Massachu- side of ratification were arrayed the law
yers, the clergy, the mercantile class, and the
men of property, generally, with the almost unanimous
support of the officers of the late Continental army. All
these classes believed in a strong and efficient govern
ment, which should pay the debts of the Revolution,
put a stop to paper-money, secure the country against
domestic disturbances, and make the nation powerful
at home and respected abroad. The Constitution was
opposed very largely by the less favored classes ; by the
advocates of paper-money ; by the promoters of Shays's
Rebellion, of whom a number found their way into the
Convention ; by some of the old Revolutionary leaders,
soured at finding themselves "back numbers" in the
general movement of American life ; by many small
politicians, who "feared they should lose influence under
a really national government ; by the delegates from the
District of Maine, who were disposed to hold that their
chances of separate Statehood would be better without
the new Constitution than with it ; and, finally, by
some patriotic and able men who sincerely believed that
the proposed government was too aristocratic in its or
ganization, and that it would be used to crush out the
rights and interests of the States, if not, also, the per
sonal liberties of the people.
With the parties for and against ratification thus
made up, the issue of the struggle was looked for with
intense interest by the whole country, particularly in
view of the fact that Massachusetts lay between two
other doubtful States, New York and New Hampshire.
John Hancock, President of the Congress which had
promulgated the Declaration of Independence, presided

RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION 57
over the Massachusetts Convention ; and his attitude
aroused much apprehension. Samuel Adams, the pop
ular agitator of the pre-Revolutionary period, Th
was understood to be opposed to ratification, chusetts con-
like his great ally in those burning days, Tentlon'
Patrick Henry, of Virginia. Elbridge Gerry, who, as a
delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, had refused
to sign the Constitution, was also present. At last, on
the strength of nine amendments formally proposed to
the proposed Constitution, mainly in the nature of a
Bill of Rights, the vote for unconditional ratification
was carried, February 7, 1788, by the small majority of
187 to 168. Thus was one perilous stage safely passed,
though by an escape so narrow that, even now, we hold
our breath in contemplating it.
In Maryland, the last State to join the Confederation
in 1781, the opposition was led with great ability and
much acrimony by Luther Martin, who had been one of
the chief figures of the Convention ; but that State, its
former objections regarding Western lands having been
removed, handsomely acceded to the new form of govern
ment on April 28th. South Carolina followed on May
23d, by a large majority. Eight States had now ratified
the Constitution. In the New Hampshire Maryland,
Convention so doubtful, at first, was the out- ina'andaNew
look that the friends of the Constitution con- Hampshire.
sented to an adjournment, rather than take the chances
of an adverse or of a too close vote ; but the action of
Massachusetts turned the scale, and New Hampshire fell
into line on June 9th.
Technically this completed the union, since the rati
fication of nine States had been made sufficient, as be
tween the States ratifying ; but the strain and anxiety
were yet far from over. While it would have been law
ful to set up the government with as many as four

58 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
States outside, including both New York and Virginia,
it would yet have been little less than hopeless to do
The states so- A government established under these
outside. conditions would have been looked upon
with the gravest apprehension of disaster. At least one
more from the missing States, and that one of the two
just named, was, if not constitutionally, at least polit
ically, essential to a fair trial of the Constitution. All
eyes were therefore turned to New York and Virginia,
whose conventions met during the month of June, and
were for a few days simultaneously in session.
In the latter State the result was long doubtful.
Virginia had called the Convention at Philadelphia ;
The Virginia an<l it had Deen ner delegation which offered
convention. ^e National plan of government, adopted in
preference to the Federal plan from New Jersey. Vir
ginia might, therefore, have been looked to for an early
and enthusiastic ratification. But, on the other hand,
as the largest State, Virginia had been deeply alienated
by the adoption of the principle of equality in the Sen
ate, which placed her on a par in that respect with
Delaware and Rhode Island, as well as by many other
things which occurred in the course of the Convention :
so that, in the result, two of her leading delegates,
George Mason and Edmund Randolph, refused to sign
the Constitution. When that instrument was laid be
fore the people, great popular opposition was devel
oped. The belief was expressed that the navigation of
the Mississippi, in which Virginia, and especially the
sons of Virginia across the mountains, in the present
State of Kentucky, were vitally interested, would be
sacrificed to the commercial selfishness of the North and
East. The absence of a Bill of Rights was also made
the subject of strong objections ; and, finally, we have
the same painful feature that was exhibited in Massa-

RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION 59
chusetts, namely, a great orator of the ante-revolution
ary period, opposing what was the only possible fortu
nate issue of the Revolution. Patrick Henry was among
the ardent opponents of the proposed government ; and
threw himself into the contest with all the vehemence
of his impulsive nature. Fortunately, Mr. Randolph
had repented of his refusal to sign the Constitution,
and appeared as the advocate of ratification.
Mr. Madison was there, sagacious, politic, plausible,
adroit, perhaps the very best person to counteract such
opposition as that of Mr. Henry. He knew Mr. Madi-
his case better than any other man in the cy'of tne™on-
Convention ; and, though destitute of elo- 8tltuti011-
quence, in the unfortunate American sense of that word,
was a clear reasoner and an effective debater. The very
defects alleged by the opponents of the Constitution
were artfully wrought by Mr. Madison into an argu
ment which made that instrument appear fair and ra
tional to the " average mind." The proposed govern
ment, he said, was neither federal nor national ; it had
a mixed character, in some parts federal, in others na
tional. The parties to the government would be the
people ; but the people as composing thirteen sover
eignties, not as composing one great society. Its mixed
character is also shown by the mode of ratification pre
scribed. If purely national, the assent of a popular
majority would suffice. In fact, it must be adopted by
the States ; yet within each State it is not the State
legislature, but a convention of the people, which gives
assent. The mode of possible amendment also shows
that mixed character. A majority of the States cannot
amend the Constitution, which is a departure from a
national plan. Nor is the assent of all the States nec
essary for amendment, which is a departure from the
federal plan. The rule of representation, finally, shows

60 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
the mixed character of the new government, since the .
members of the first house are to be in proportion to
population, which is a recognition of the national char
acter ; while the members of the second house are to be
elected by the States in their equal capacity, which is a
recognition of the federal character. This complex
character, Mr. Madison urged, was necessary in order to
secure at once power and liberty ; and it was hoped
thereby to exclude the evils of absolute consolidation on
the one side, and those of mere confederation on the
other. To a people of English blood such a line of
argument could not fail to commend itself.
In Virginia, as in almost every other State, the prog
ress of the discussion steadily strengthened the friends
of the Constitution ; and at last, on June 25th, the Con
vention, by a small majority, gave in the adhesion of
that State. But it was still exceedingly important to
secure New York, alike on account of its geographical
position, its commercial importance, and the distin
guished character of its political leaders. The Conven
tion here met on June 17th, and the great
The New
Yorkconven- debate was at once opened. Hamilton ad
vocated ratification with all his marvellous
eloquence and personal influence. He was ably sec
onded by Jay and Livingston. The opposition was led
by Melancthon Smith, no unworthy antagonist, sup
ported by Yates and Lansing, who had been Hamilton's
colleagues at Philadelphia, and had refused to sign the
Constitution. More, perhaps, than all, George Clinton,
the War Governor of New York, was a bitter and seem
ingly irreconcilable opponent of the Constitution. But
the friends of ratification now enjoyed one tremendous
advantage. So many States had already acceded that it
was beyond a doubt the necessary number would soon
be had to inaugurate the new Government. It was,

INAUGURATION OF THE GOVERNMENT 61
therefore, pertinent to ask — and the question was put
with overwhelming force — not, do you altogether like
the Constitution ? but, is New York to stay out of the
Union and become a foreign State ? Soon arrived news
that New Hampshire had joined, the ninth State. The
debate still continued, but the tone of discussion was
somewhat changed. The question now was, not of adop
tion or rejection, but of securing amendments. The
friends of ratification were ready to afford every assur
ance that amendments should be passed as soon as the
new government came into operation. The opponents
still held out for conditional ratification or for postpone
ment pending amendment ; but their strength was con
tinually failing, alike under the unceasing assaults of
the friends of the Constitution and under the relentless
logic of events. At last, by the slow despatches of those
days, came the news that Virginia had joined. The
opposition vainly tried to keep up the fight. Though
they started out with claiming forty-six of the sixty-
five delegates, they were clearly beaten. After some
more tedious weeks spent upon proposals to amend, rat
ification was finally carried on July 26th, though only by
a majority of thirty to twenty-seven ; and the great con
stitutional battle was won.
North Carolina and Rhode Island still remained out
side. It was, however, so desirable that these should be
won over, and withal so evident that they The recalci.
must sooner or later come in, that, though trant states.
they were technically foreign States, their vessels were
for the present put on the same terms as regards tonnage
duties with those of the United States ; and all goods, the
growth or manufacture of these States, were exempted
from import duties. Without waiting for their acces
sion, the eleven States already in the Union proceeded to
organize the Government under the Constitution. The

62 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
first Wednesday in January, 1789, was fixed for choice
of presidential electors ; the first Wednesday in February
for their balloting ; the first Wednesday in March, the
4th, for inaugurating proceedings under the Constitution.
For the presidency no name but that of Washington
had been suggested or was considered by the electors.
„ It had generally been agreed that John
chosen presi- Adams, of Massachusetts, should, both from
considerations of "locality" (so potent in
American political affairs) and also with reference to his
long and eminent services to the cause of American in
dependence, before and during the Revolution, be chosen
Vice-President ; * but in the electoral colleges of the sev
eral States there was a wide scattering of the votes for
this office ; and Mr. Adams actually came in by one less
than a majority of the total vote. For this Mr. Adams
and his friends blamed Hamilton, charging that the re
sult had been effected by his intrigues, for the purpose
of impairing Mr. Adams's prestige and influence. Con
gress assembled, pursuant to appointment, at New York,
on March 4, 1789 ; but such were the vicious traditions
of the old Confederation, that a quorum of both houses
could not be obtained for several weeks. " The States
most convenient," wrote Mr. Madison, "are among the
defaulters." At last, on April 6th, members had ar
rived in sufficient numbers to transact business. On
April 30th the President was inaugurated. The elec
tion of Washington had been, as we have said, unani
mous. Even if party spirit had already arisen, it would
have been hushed in that majestic presence. Assuredly
no man was ever more truly " first in war, first in peace,
and first in the hearts of his countrymen." The grate-
* The peculiar and highly objectionable method of choosing the Vice-
President, under the Constitution as it went into operation, will be de
scribed in connection with the third presidential election.

INAUGURATION OF THE GOVERNMENT 63
ful nation recognized him as its saviour in a long and
wasting war ; the new Constitution, inaugurated with so
many hopes, was in no small measure due to his influ
ence. John Adams said of him : " Were I blessed with
powers to do justice to his character, it would be impos
sible to increase the confidence and affection of his coun
try or to make the smallest additions to his glory. If
we look over the catalogue of the first magistrates of na
tions, whether they have been denominated presidents
or consuls, kings or princes, where should we find one
whose commanding talents and virtues, whose over
ruling good fortune have so completely united all hearts
and voices in his favor ; who enjoyed the esteem and
admiration of foreign nations and fellow-citizens with
equal unanimity." The closing sentiment of this ex
tract is unqualifiedly just. It is not American partial
ity which exalts the name of Washington. To-day all
nations revere our first President as the finest and no
blest character of political history. But, while the po
sition and prestige of Washington were such as to have
commanded for him the election without reference to
political opinions or predilections, parties could not be
said to exist. It was not doubtful that they would soon
arise ; nay, sentiments of attachment or repugnance had
already pretty clearly marked out those who would be
found on one side and on the other of the political divis
ion when it should take place ; but as yet the questions
of the national life had not come into shape, and all
sections and classes, including men of all tastes and pre
dilections, stood in suspense until the issues of our pol
itics should be defined.
Before proceeding to the administration of Washington,
let us for a moment consider the extent and population *
* In the statistics immediately following we use the figures of the first
census, taken in 1790.

64 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
of the country. The States were thirteen in number.
Of these, two still remained out — North Carolina, with
Extent and a population of 393,751 ; Rhode Island,
t)hPe1uSite0a with 68'825- The geographical relations
states. 0f these States, however, were sufficient to
give assurance of their ultimate accession to the Union,
which, in that case, would embrace a population of
3,929,214. Vermont, with 35,691, was, formally, a
part of New York ; Maine, with 96,540, a part of
Massachusetts. With the exception of about one hun
dred and twenty-five thousand souls, all the population
was found east of the Appalachian chain. Two im
portant colonies only had been planted at the West,
upon territory belonging to Virginia and North Caro
lina. Of these, the District of Kentucky had a popula
tion of 73,677. Tennessee had 35,691 inhabitants.
Central New York was still an almost unbroken wil
derness, as was Western Pennsylvania, though some not
inconsiderable settlements had been made around the
junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers.
At the South, the line of white occupation was almost
parallel to the Savannah River, and distant therefrom
a short distance ; the remainder of the State of Georgia
was occupied by powerful and not over-friendly Ind
ian tribes. The population of Philadelphia was 42,-
520 ; of New York, 33,131 ; of Boston, 18,038 ; of
Charleston, 16,359 ; of Baltimore, 13,503 ; of Richmond,
3,761. The total value of the exports and of the im
ports of the United States was about twenty million
dollars each. The shipment of American cotton had as
yet hardly begun, the export of 1791 only reaching 19,200
pounds, the equivalent of forty-eight modern bales.
The exports from the Southern States at this time were
mainly tobacco and rice, with some indigo, and also
"naval stores," viz., tar, pitch, and turpentine.

INAUGURATION OF THE GOVERNMENT 65
As we begin this story of the life of the American
nation during the first years of its accomplished and rec
ognized independence, it is appropriate to state of the
call the reader's attention to the fact that he artB-
is contemplating the experiences of a people born, bred,
and living under conditions, many of them now gone
forever ; belonging to a time earlier by a century than
our own ; a time when arts familiar to us were unknown
and unthought of ; when chemistry had as yet wrought
not one of its marvels,* the discovery of oxygen, by
Priestley, having taken place near the beginning of our
narrative ; when electricity was recognized only through
its terrific and destructive agency as lightning ; when
biology, with its wondrous revelations of natural life
and its not less startling lights cast on social and politi
cal philosophy, was still deeply buried under ignorance,
prejudice, and superstition. It was an age in which
many of the ordinary phenomena of physics met the eye
of peasant and gentleman, alike, either as miracles, due
to direct, immediate, particular intervention of divine
power, or as matters of course, as completely outside the
relations of cause and effect as they appear to the ox in
the furrow. Though the expansive power of steam had
been already adapted in some small measure to forms of
manufacture then practically unknown in the United
States, it had not yet been applied to transportation,
either by land or by water. In agriculture the imple
ments were hardly a whit improved from those in use
twenty-five hundred years before. Medicine, though
stripped of its mediaeval elements of charlatanry and
imposture, was still barbarous in its cautery, its surgery,
its blood-letting, its dosing. History as a science was
not known ; what was called by that name being but a
collection of fables, of heroic and sentimental legends,
* Perhaps we ought to say, except gunpowder.
5

G6 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
of unauthenticated traditions, of records half-read or
misread. But, on the other hand, political philosophy,
which in logical order should have awaited the birth of
history, had already attained a robust manhood, through
the splendid virile efforts of the English, French, and
German peoples to achieve a practical political freedom ;
and the art of constructing constitutions and framing
laws had been developed to great perfection through er
rors and mistakes innumerable and of infinite conse
quence to untold numbers, through speculations daring
and profound, through experiments in which the lives
of millions had been distilled into policies.
Agriculture was the chief occupation in the United
States at the achievement of independence ; and even
with the rude implements and the defective knowledge
of the time, our people had, through certain fortunate
conditions, and also through the possession of a faculty
which, in degree and almost in kind, distinguishes them
from all other peoples on the face of the earth, attained
a marvellous productive power. The fortunate condi-
c a uses of tions referred to were, first, a vast breadth of
able'produe- virgin lands, which required only the culti-
ATme'rTca0n vation of the best soils, and, even upon these,
agriculture, exempted the occupier from the tremendous
tax which, in the agriculture of all old countries, has
every year to be paid to keep up the fertility of the
land ; secondly, the popular tenure of the soil and excel
lent laws for the registration of titles and the transfer of
real property ; and, thirdly, the fact that the agricult
ural class, unlike the body of cultivators in every coun
try of Europe, except only Switzerland and perhaps also
Scotland, had never constituted a peasantry, in any
proper sense of that term. The men who tilled the soil
here were the same kind of men, precisely, as those who
filled the professions or were engaged in commercial or

INAUGURATION OF THE GOVERNMENT 67
mechanical pursuits. Of two sons of the same mother
one became a lawyer, perhaps a judge, or went down to
the city and became a merchant, or gave himself to po
litical affairs and became a governor or a member of
Congress. The other stayed upon the ancestral home
stead, or made a new one for himself and his children
out of the public domain further west, remaining
through his life a plain, hard-working farmer. This
state of things made American to differ from European
agriculture by a wide interval. There was then no other
country in the world, there is now no other considerable
country, where equal mental activity and alertness have
been applied to the soil as to trade and industry.
But more even than the total effect of the fortunate
conditions which have been indicated, American agri
culture in those days owed its really remarkable pro
ductive power to a special, almost a technical, quality
of our people, namely, mechanical insight and invention.
It is difficult to write of this subject with- „ .
•' Theme-
OUt producing the impression of exaggera- chanicai gen-
tion. There is only one nation in the world American peo-
pie
to the mass of whose population this form
of genius can be attributed. That nation is our own.
In other countries it is only picked men, a select few,
who possess mechanical insight and aptitude, the pow
er of instantaneously, because instinctively, seizing up
on mechanical relations, together with a high degree
of native efficiency in the use of tools. With us the
rule is the other way : there are few Americans of
American stock, at least throughout the Northern
States, who have not mechanical insight and aptitude
in a measure which elsewhere would make them marked
men. As a great organ of English opinion has said,
"Invention is a normal function of the American
brain. The American invents as the Greek chiselled,

68 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
as the Venetian painted, as the modern Italian sings."
By some persons the wonderful mechanical develop
ments of our history have been attributed to our pat
ent laws. But there is reason to believe that the power
to invent was created altogether irrespective of and long
antecedently to that system of legislation. It was with
us an inheritance ; and it is fairly a question whether
this inheritance has not been impaired rather than in
creased during the period covered by our patent laws.
Why was it that the American of the time of which we
write possessed this quality in such a remarkable de
gree ? It was not because of long training in manu
factures. On the contrary, the jealous and repressive
Not due to policy of England had prevented the de-
manufactures. veiopment 0f technical industry. In 1699
Parliament declared that no wool, yarn, or woollen
manufactures of their American plantations should be
shipped, or even laden in order to be transported from
thence to any place whatsoever. In 1719 the House
of Commons declared that the erecting of manufactures
in the colonies tended to lessen their dependence on
Great Britain. In 1731, in consequence of numerous
complaints from interested persons, among whom the
London Company of Hatters were conspicuous, Par
liament directed the Board of Trade to inquire and
report with respect to laws made, manufactures set up,
or trade carried on detrimental to the trade, manu
factures, or navigation of the mother country. The
immediate outcome of this investigation was an Act of
Parliament, in 1732, which not only prohibited the ex
port of colonial hats to a foreign port, but forbade,
under severe penalties, their transportation from one
British plantation to another. Eighteen years later,
the griefs of another body of British manfacturers
called for remedy from Parliament ; and an act of

INAUGURATION OF THE GOVERNMENT 69
1750 prohibited the erection or continuance of any mill
or other engine for slitting or rolling iron, or any
plating forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or any fur
nace for making steel, throughout the colonies. And
every such mill, engine, forge, or furnace was de
clared to be a " common nuisance ;" and colonial gov
ernors were required to cause the same to be "abated."
But while the Americans of the days before the Revo
lution were thus forbidden to practise any branch of in
dustry which might interfere with the market for Brit
ish produce, the foundations of future greatness were
being laid where the power of Parliament and all the
armies of the king could not reach them. In a very high
sense, the history of American manufactures reaches
back beyond the Revolution, for it was in that period
that the peculiar industrial character of our people was
developed. In inquiring into the genesis of this truly national
trait we note, first, that the country was settled pre
dominantly by men of the great inventive Genesis of
Teutonic race ; and that, of this race, it was thi8 trait'
the most ingenious branch, the English, which fur
nished by far the largest part of the population of the
Atlantic coast. Secondly, the early settlers constituted,
in the main, a picked population. The possibilities of
improvement which reside in breeding from the higher,
stronger, more alert, and aggressive individuals of a
species are well recognized in the case of the domestic
animals ; but there have been few opportunities for ob
taining a measure of the effect that could be produced
upon the human race, by excluding from propagation
the weak, the vicious, the cowardly, the effeminate,
persons of dwarfed stature, of tainted blood, or of im
perfect organization. The inhabitants of the English
colonies, especially in New England, constituted a popu-

70 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
lation which was more truly selected, in the respects
of mental vigor, intellectual inquisitiveness, enterprise,
and self-reliance than any other considerable popula
tion which history knows. Thirdly, upon a com
munity thus constituted were laid the severe require
ments of existence under an exceptionally rigorous
climate. The first settlers brought with them from the
old country all the desires, tastes, and ambitions proper
to a highly advanced society ; while yet there was but
small means for their gratification. It was not, at
least after the first few winters, the dread of physical
privation, but wants of the higher nature, which af
forded the most acute stimulus to the scheming, de
vising, calculating faculty in early American life, out of
which in the course of generations was developed that
inventive power of which we write. To make shifts ; to
save time ; to shorten labor ; to search out substitutes
for what was inaccessible or costly ; to cut corners and
break through barriers in reaching an object ; to force
one tool to serve three or four uses, and to compel re
fractory or inappropriate material to answer urgent
needs — this was the constant occupation of our an
cestors. Life was no routine, work was no routine, to
them, as it is to the peasantry of every country of
Europe, as it is fast coming to be among us. Then,
everywhere and at all times, it was possible, by thought
and care and pains, to save something from labor, to add
something to comfort and social decency. Originality
of conception, boldness in framing expedients, and
fertility of resource grew by constant exercise in father
and mother, and were transmitted with increasing force
to sons and daughters, until invention came to be " a
normal function of the American brain," the American
inventing as the fireek chiselled, as the Venetian
painted, as the Italian sings.

INAUGURATION OF THE GOVERNMENT 71
This wide popular appreciation of mechanical forces
and relations was later to constitute a most important
element in the development of American manufactures ;
but down to the time of which we are writing it had
been mainly applied in promoting the rapid, effective
settlement of the country and in increasing the pro
ductive power of the American farmer. It was not
merely or mainly that the mechanical genius of the
whole people secured the progressive improvement of
all the known tools and implements of husbandry, so
that the American axe, the American spade and shovel,
the American plough, and the American farm-wagon
early became the best of their kind in the world, being
little less than marvels of combined lightness, efficiency,
and strength. It was not merely or mainly that this
mechanical genius of the whole people gave the widest
possible, indeed a universal, application of
every agricultural tool, improvement, and in- mechanical
vention to its appropriate work, though this American lg
constituted an enormous advantage. "Ex
perienced mechanicians," says Professor Hearn, "assert
that, notwithstanding the progress of machinery in
agriculture, there is probably as much sound, practical,
labor-saving invention and machinery unused as there
is used ; and that it is unused solely in consequence of
the ignorance and incompetency of the working peo
ple." Such a remark would utterly fail of significance
if applied to the United States in the time of which we
are writing. It was because mechanical insight and
aptitude were found throughout the whole mass of the
American people, that every product of invention and
skill was speedily made of service on petty farms all
over the land, even in the most remote districts.
But it was neither through the invention and im
provement of agricultural tools and implements, nor

72 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
through the wide application of every such invention
or improvement, that the peculiar and extraordinary
mechanical genius of the American people made its
largest contribution toward increasing the national
capacity for agricultural production. In the daily use
of this faculty throughout the pioneer period, and in
some degree through every subsequent stage of settle
ment and cultivation, the American farmer, a natural
, mechanic and a natural engineer, derived
Influence of °
mechanical f rom this source an advantage beyond estima-
moUng1 settle- tion. The way in which the pioneer of New
England birth or blood, stopping his cattle in
the wilderness, and tumbling axe and spade, bundles and
barrels out upon the unbroken ground, set about the task
of providing shelter for his children and his animals,
clearing the ground and getting a first crop out of the
soil, was not admirable merely as an exhibition of cour
age, faith, and enterprise, but, if we look at the results
accomplished for the time and labor expended, it con
stitutes a triumph of mechanical, we might fairly say of
engineering genius. We shall have occasion at a later
period to refer again to this quality of the American
people as promoting, and indeed alone making possible,
the extraordinary progress of population westward over
new lands, enabling vast tracts to be brought yearly
within the frontier of settlement, and building up em
pires in a decade. At present we make use of it mainly
as explaining the high degree of comfort, and even of
comparative luxury, in which our people lived within
their more familiar seats. Beside any other agricultural
population on the globe, the Americans of the close of
the last century were rich and prosperous. The excep
tions to agriculture as the general occupation of the
time were found in the commerce of New York and in
the commerce and fisheries of New England.

CHAPTER V
WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM
Acts and Events Completing the Union and Closing the Career of
the Confederation — The Accession of North Carolina and
Rhode Island — The first Ten Amendments to the Constitution
— The Funding of the Debts of the Confederation and the As
sumption of State Debts — The other Financial Measures of
Washington's First Term— The Mint — The National Bank —
Tonnage Duties — Customs Duties — Excise Duties — Great Oppo
sition to the Bank — The Division of the Cabinet— The Consti
tutional Doctrine of Implied Powers — Excise Duties fiercely
Antagonized in Congress — Mr. Jefferson takes the Lead in Op
position — Unpopularity of the Whiskey Tax — Special Reasons
therefor.
The acts and events of Washington's first term will
not be considered in chronological order, except so far
as the succession of one upon another was significant ;
but will be grouped according to essential relations, or
for the greater convenience of consideration or recol
lection. And first let us speak of those which may be
regarded as completing the Union of the States and
closing the career of the antecedent Confederation.
Most important of these was the accession of North
Carolina and Rhode Island. The causes of Accession
delay in these States need not be dwelt upon. $ *fh ^°J
In Rhode Island much of the opposition had Ehoae lBland-
arisen from the paper-money party, although a curious
conservatism, characteristic of the people of this State,
and due to causes appearing in the course of its history,
has also been adduced in explanation. In North Caro-

74 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
lina Mr. Madison attributed the opposition to " the in
fluence of the minority in Virginia which lies mostly in
the southern part of the State and to the management
of its leader." The leader referred to was Patrick
Henry, who had with all his soul resisted ratification
in his own State, and whose influence was very great
throughout the parts of North Carolina contiguous to
his own home. The opposition is also largely attributed
to a fear that the free navigation of the Mississippi, in
which the State's western colony, Tennessee, was vitally
interested, would be sacrificed under the new govern
ment. It has been stated that the first Congress of the
Union kept open a place for the two recusant States,
going so far as to admit their ships and productions
to equal benefits with those of other States. North
Carolina succumbed on November 21, 1789. Rhode
Island came in on May 29, 1790.
It was shown that the adoption of the Constitution
was impeded, if not indeed gravely imperilled, by the
Amendment absence of a Bill of Rights. A few of the
tution. features proper to such a bill had, it is true,
been incorporated in the Constitution — such as the
provision against the extension of attaint beyond the
offending person, even by sentence of court ; the im
munity of senators and representatives for speech or
debate ; the prohibition of the suspension of habeas
corpus in times of peace and order ; the prohibition of
ex post facto laws and legislative bills of attainder ; the
requirement of trial for offences to be held in the State
or district where the offences were committed ; the
definition given to treason, and the limitation placed
upon the evidence necessary to convict of this crime.
But all these together fell far short of making up what
was deemed essential to the due security of popular
rights and personal liberty. We have already said that

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 75
by many this defect was considered an insuperable ob
jection, some of the State conventions seeming prepared
to make the incorporation of such provisions a condi
tion of aoceptance, or even to postpone action altogether
until this should have been effected ; but that, as the
great debate went on all over the land, it became so
generally conceded that the necessary amendments would
be proposed and ratified that the most backward were
at last satisfied they might safely leave the matter to
subsequent action. That trust was not misplaced.
Among the acts of the first Congress was the submission
of twelve amendments, of which ten were ratified by
the requisite three-fourths of the States. Of the two
which were rejected, the first established limits within
which Congress might reapportion the membership of
the House of Representatives. The second prohibited
any change in the compensation of members of Congress
until an election of Representatives should have inter
vened, a provision, which, if adopted, would have pre
vented the several "back-pay " scandals of our history.
The amendments adopted provided, in effect,
(Article 1.) That Congress should make no law re
specting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof ; or abridging the free- T h e t e n
dom of speech or the press, or the right of Amendments.
the people peaceably to assemble and petition for the re
dress of grievances.
(Article 2.) That the right of the people to keep and
bear arms should not be infringed.
(Article 3.) That no soldier should in time of peace
be quartered in any house without the consent of the
owner ; or in time of war, except in a manner prescribed
by law.
(Article 4.) That the right of the people to be se
cure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against

76 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
unwarrantable searches and seizures should not be vio
lated ; and that no warrant should issue except for prob
able cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and par
ticularly describing the places to be searched and the
persons or things to be seized.
(Article 5.) That no person should be held to answer
for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless upon the
presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in
cases arising in the land or naval forces or in the militia
when in actual service in time of war or public danger ;
nor should any person be subject to be twice put in
jeopardy for the same offence, or be compelled in any
criminal case to be witness against himself, or be de
prived of life, liberty, or property without due process
of law ; nor should private property be taken for public
use without just compensation.
(Article 6.) That in all criminal prosecutions, the
accused should enjoy the right of a speedy and public
trial by an impartial jury of the State and district where
in the crime was committed, which district should have
been previously ascertained by law ; to be informed of
the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confront
ed with the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory
process for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and to have
the assistance of counsel.
(Article 7.) That in suits at common law where the
value in controversy should exceed $20, the right of trial
by jury should be preserved ; and that no fact tried by a
jury should otherwise be examined in any court of the
United States than according to the rules of common law.
(Article 8.) That excessive bail should not be re
quired, or cruel or unusual punishments inflicted.
(Article 9.) That the enumeration in the Constitu
tion of certain rights should not be construed to deny or
disparage others retained by the people ; and finally,

Washington's first term 77
(Article 10.) That the powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, or by it prohibited to
the States, should be reserved to the States respectively
or to the people.
A great deal of persistent popular misconception re
garding our government and the liberties and immu
nities of the American people has been due to the fact
that the foregoing amendments do not explicitly state
that the things therein enjoined or prohibit
ed are enjoined upon or prohibited to the end ments
United States only, and not also upon or to general gov-
the several States.* Thus, where the amend- ernment
ment says the right of the people to bear arms shall not
be infringed, most persons suppose that this binds the
several States ; whereas it is only a prohibition to the
United States. Similar misconceptions have existed in
the public mind regarding the effect of nearly every
other provision of these amendments. Again, it is to
be regretted that these ten amendments were treated as
amendments, and were not declared to be a part of the
original Constitution and incorporated into its body and
substance. When a student of our history is told that
there have been fifteen amendments, he necessarily forms
a greatly exaggerated idea of the amount of change
which has been wrought in that instrument. The first
amendments having been, virtually, a condition of rati
fication, there have been but five real amendments,
namely, those numbered from 11 to 15. A statement like
this would give a much more just idea of the extent of
the alterations which our organic law has undergone
during a hundred years of actual trial. In fact, there
was a period of more than sixty years during which not
an amendment was adopted.
* See Barron vs. Baltimore, 7 Peters, 343,

78 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
The reader will recall the statements made regarding
the distress and dishonor into which the Confederation
Th fund- was Pmnge<l by its inability to meet the de-
ing of the mands of foreign and domestic creditors.
confederation The Union inherited from its predecessor an
sumption "of enormous burden. The foreign debt, in-
tate e ts. eluding arrears of interest, amounted to
nearly twelve millions, due mostly in France and Hol
land, on account of loans which had been made to us
during the Revolution from political friendship and
sympathy. The domestic debt exceeded forty-two mill
ions, of which nearly one-third represented unpaid in
terest. In such a condition it is small wonder that the
value of government certificates had sunk to one-eighth
of their face value. Moreover, there was outstanding,
as estimated, seventy-eight to eighty millions of " conti
nental currency," the history of which is significant of
the whole philosophy of fiat-money. In March, 1778,
a dollar of coin had been worth $1.75 in paper ; in Sep
tember of the same year it was worth $4 ; in March,
1779, $10 ; in September of the same year, $18 ; in
March, 1780, $40. At the last stage, Congress provided
for funding the money at $40 to $1. About two hun
dred millions were so funded. The new certificates
themselves, however, soon depreciated to about one-
eighth of their face value. Such was the body of in
debtedness, the legacy of the war of the Revolution, for
which the new government was called to provide.
In regard to the necessity and propriety of discharg
ing fully and promptly the foreign debt, no difference
The foreign °* opinion existed. This was well, though
debt. we cannot; accept the reason for making a
distinction between the foreign and domestic debt given
by Mr. Jefferson. The claim that Congress was, in the
case of the domestic debt, the representative of both

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 79
parties to the contract, and could therefore alter the
terms of the transaction, provided only " substantial
justice " was secured, is unfounded, immoral, and de
structive of national credit. The slightest departure
from the exact terms of a contract must be sanctioned,
if at all, by the plea of absolute necessity overriding
all law, an exigency which leaves no room for choice,
the same exigency which would justify the taking of
private property without compensation.
To the payment of the domestic debt at the par value
of the certificates, vehement opposition was made, on
the ground that these certificates had long The domestic
been depreciated and had been so largely debt
transferred, at less than par, that the present holders
were not entitled to be paid in full. It was said that
the wrong done to the original subscribers or to inter
mediate holders was irremediable ; while to pay the
debt at par was to throw the money away upon specu
lators who had bought the stock for a song. On the
other hand, Hamilton argued in favor of paying the
holders of the debt, in full, as follows : " Whatever ne
cessity the seller may have been under, was occasioned
by the Government not making a proper provision for
its debts. The buyer had no agency in it, and there
fore ought not to suffer. He is not even chargeable
with having taken an unfair advantage. He paid what
the commodity was worth in the market, and took the
risks of reimbursement upon himself." The act, as
finally passed by Congress, authorized the borrowing of
not exceeding twelve millions for the payment of the
foreign debt [this, unanimously], the money to be re
imbursable within fifteen years. It also authorized a
loan for the domestic debt : two-thirds of the principal
to draw interest at six per cent, from January 1, 1791 ;
the remaining one-third at the same rate, from 1800 ;

SO THE MAKING OF THK NATION
arrears of interest to be funded at full value, but to
draw interest at only three per cent., from July 1, 1791,
and to be redeemable at the pleasure of the Govern
ment. Subscriptions to the loan were to be payable in
certificates of the national debt, or in continental paper-
money at 100 to 1. Nonsubscribing creditors were to
take their chances out of any surplus in the treasury.
The action of Congress in paying the Revolutionary
debt as nearly in full as was done has been strongly ap
proved by posterity. After such a career of financial
distress and dishonor as had prevailed between 1777 and
1789, there are always a plenty of good rascally reasons
for " cutting away the broken mast of the public credit,"
to use the striking phrase of Sir James Graham ; but
the considerations advanced by Hamilton will always be
sufficient for the statesman and ought to satisfy every
true lover of his country.
But the measures regarding the public debt were not
yet complete. The proposition was made to assume the
Assumption State debts occasioned by the war. To this
fl£htthe state ^e most passionate objections were made.
It was argued : (1) That the amount of the
State debts was unknown ; (2) that assumption would
be unjust as between States, giving advantage to such
as had most freely contracted debts during the war, in
place of raising money by taxation, and doing a double
wrong to those which had made the greatest exertions
since the war to pay off their debts, which some had al
ready done to nearly the extent of one-half, while others
had done nothing ; (3) that it would be a usurpation of
powers not conferred by the Constitution ; (4) that it
would make necessary a resort to internal taxation. As
sumption was finally carried in a qualified form, $21,-
500,000 being apportioned among the several States,
according to a schedule incorporated in the law, Massa-

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 81
chusetts and South Carolina receiving $4,000,000 each ;
Virginia, $3,500,000 ; and so on, down to $200,000,
each, for Rhode Island and Delaware. Even this was
not effected without a good deal of artifice and outside
pressure. Jefferson afterward bitterly complained of
having been cheated by Hamilton into favoring a meas
ure which he misunderstood ; while it is admitted that
the friends of assumption made a distinct bargain with
the advocates of another measure, hereafter to be men
tioned, by which a joint support Avas given to both
bills. Hamilton had triumphed in his comprehensive
scheme for funding the debts of the Revolution ; he
had placed the credit of the new nation on a secure
foundation ; and he had won to the support of Govern
ment the whole power of the capitalist and commercial
classes. But he had aroused, almost to madness, the
opponents of his financial measures ; and he had created
throughout large sections of the country a deep distrust
and dislike of federal authority. Let us now pass to
consider the other financial measures of Washington's
first term. These related to the mint ; the national
bank ; tonnage duties ; custom duties ; excise duties.
By an early resolution of the First Congress, steps
were taken toward the establishment of a national mint.
Under an act of 1792, the mint was set up
in Philadelphia, the distinguished mathe
matician and astronomer, David Rittenhouse, being ap
pointed director. The coinage provided for was to be
both of gold and of silver, at the legal ratio of 15 to 1,
an under-valuation of gold according to the market
ratio of the time. The gold coins were to be the eagle
($10), the half-eagle, and the quarter-eagle, the silver
coins being the dollar, half-dollar, quarter-dollar, dime,
and half -dime. It is worth noting that the bill, as first
reported, provided that upon one side of the coins
6

82 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
should be an impression or representation of " the head
of the President of the United States for the time be
ing." This proposition aroused the sharpest objections,
which rose into furious denunciation. Some who took
p-irt in the debate talked as though only this was neces
sary in order to establish an absolute despotism. An
amendment was offered to make the image on the coin
that of Washington only ; but this did not satisfy the
objectors. After a severe contest, in which the houses
of Congress came for a time to a "deadlock," both re
fusing to yield, the offensive provision was stricken out,
and " an emblematical figure of Liberty " was substi
tuted. To this conclusion we owe the image, emblem
atical or enigmatical, as one chooses to consider it, but
in either view exceedingly ugly, so long presented on
our national coins.
A bank had been incorporated by the Congress of the
Confederation in 1781. It was a comparatively small
affair ; and had, at the time of which we are writing,
gone under a charter from the State of Pennsylvania.
There is a very common assumption that it contributed
largely to independence. That theory has been com
bated by Mr. William M. Gouge, who argues that the
The National bank did not go into operation until after
Bank- the capitulation of Cornwallis ; and that the
net advances made by it to the government were of the
most petty character. However this may be, it is cer
tain that the popular opinion as to the services of the
bank during the Revolution did much toward establish
ing a bank in 1791.
The project was opposed by Mr. Madison for financial
reasons, and also on the ground of unconstitutionality,
a power to grant charters of incorporation having been
proposed and defeated in the Convention of 1787. Mr.
Hamilton was the main champion of the measure, press-

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 83
ing it with the full force of his personal influence and
his official position. His Report on the Bank is one of
his masterpieces. The bill passed the House of Repre
sentatives, 39 to 20. The division was highly sectional.
All, except one, who voted in the negative were from
the Southern States. All who were present from the
Northern States, except one from Massachusetts, voted
in the affirmative. Before signing the bill Washington
took the advice of his cabinet on the question of consti
tutionality. Jefferson, Secretary of State, and Ran
dolph, Attorney-General, both from Virginia, were ad
verse. General Knox, Secretary of AVar, supported
Hamilton in his view that the right of Congress to
charter a bank was carried by the "implied The do
powers" of the Constitution. This doctrine tnne of im-
* • v j x u • i j. plied P°wers-
of implied powers was to become a mighty
weapon in the hands of those who desired to magnify
the general government and to make the United States
more and more a nation. As that was the first occa
sion on which the doctrine had come strongly into view
in an important issue, Washington hesitated, but finally
accepted it and afterward stood strongly by it.
The capital stock of the bank was to be $10,000,000,
one-fifth to be owned by the United States : four-fifths
to be subscribed by individuals. Of the sub- organization
scriptions three-fourths were to be paid in oftliebank-
gold and silver. The corporation was not to own prop
erty exceeding $15,000,000 or to owe (exclusive of de
posits) exceeding $10,000,000. It might sell any part of
the public debt composing its capital ; but not purchase
any public debt, or tradein anything but bills of exchange
and gold and silver bullion, or take any rate of interest
higher than six per cent. It was to be a bank of de
posit and discount. Its notes were to be payable in
specie and receivable in all payments to the United

84 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
States. No loan was to be made to the United States
exceeding $100,000 ; or to any State, exceeding $50,000 ;
or to any foreign prince or state, in any amount. The
bank was to be located in Philadelphia, with power to
establish in other places offices of discount and deposit,
only. Eight branches were, in fact, established. The
charter was to be in force twenty years, that is, from
1791 to 1811. No other bank was to be established by
Congress in that time.
By an act framed at the first session of Congress, dis
criminating duties were laid on tonnage : six cents per
Tonnage du- ton on American and fifty cents per ton on
ties. foreign ships. Duties on goods imported in
American bottoms were to be one-tenth less than on
goods imported in foreign bottoms. Mr. Madison
argued strongly in favor of discrimination, as building
up an American navy. The objection came mainly
from the extreme Southern States, on the ground which
was indicated in the discussion of the two-thirds vote
question in the Constitutional Convention, viz., that
Georgia and the two Carolinas, while they furnished a
vast amount of freight for export, built and owned few
ships, and would thus have to pay the higher rates of
freight without a proportional benefit. But the oppo
sition was not violent, the acts of England adverse to
American trade having made the idea of building up an
American marine highly popular.
Congress had not been organized seventy hours when
the question of taxing foreign imports for revenue was
introduced ; and the question of indirectly favoring
American manufactures came under discussion. Mr.
Madison brought forward the tariff bill in the House of
Representatives. He professed himself what would be
called a free-trader, although the preamble of the bill
contained the phrase, "for the encouragement and

Washington's first term 85
protection of manufactures." Mr. Hartley of Penn
sylvania, was the principal advocate of "protection."
The bill contained certain specific and cer-
1 Customs,
tain ad valorem duties ; and imposed a uni- duties: protec-
form tax of five per cent, on all other articles
imported. The purpose of affording encouragement to
domestic manufactures is nowhere conspicuous, revenue
being chiefly considered. The social question, i.e., the
American rate of wages and the American standard of
living, had not yet come out in the discussion of pro
tection. So far as the encouragement of domestic man
ufactures was then sought, it was for the purpose of
making the United States independent of foreign na
tions in the supply of necessary articles.
The imposition of customs duties had incurred no
passionate objections from any quarter. It had been
distinctly understood and agreed that the government
would raise its revenue largely from foreign goods im
ported. But the imposition of excise duties,
7, , . t , • t • t , • t Excise duties.
that is, duties levied upon articles grown or
produced within the country, or duties, like stamps and
licenses, upon the occupations and business of the peo
ple : these were an altogether different thing. It is
true, the word " excises " was contained in the grant of
powers to Congress ; but this did not prevent a large
party, especially at the South, from strenuously main
taining that the power should be exercised very rarely
and only in extreme necessity. This party held that
the States should be allowed to obtain their revenue
from excises, according to the needs and feelings of
their own peoples. Moreover, it is historically true
that excise taxes arouse far more popular discontent
than do customs or tariff duties. What is paid by great
merchants at the ports of entry is, speaking generally,
added to the price of the goods without being seen or

86 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
scarcely felt by the consumer ; but when a government
undertakes to raise a revenue by internal or excise
taxes it is obliged to interfere with private business in
a very annoying way, to exercise espionage and super
vision, and to collect its money often at the most in
convenient times and by the most irritating methods.
Mr. Jefferson was the leader of those throughout the
United States who objected most strongly to the use of
this power in any degree by Congress. It was his idea
that the American farmer, the American mechanic, the
American laborer, should never see a tax-gatherer of the
United States. But Mr. Hamilton's extensive scheme
for funding the national and State debts had made a
large revenue necessary ; and consequently Congress, by
The whiskey a°t of March 3, 1791, imposed heavy duties
tax- upon spirits distilled in the United States.
The selection of that article as the subject of taxation
was justified by many reasons ; but the conditions of
the manufacture at the time were such as to render
this tax peculiarly galling and odious. At present a
comparatively few vast distilleries produce nearly all the
spirits made in the country. In such a case the pay
ment of even high duties is a matter of little conse
quence ; the distillers are men of large capital, and im
mediately add the tax to the price of their product. At
the time of which we are writing, however, there was
an immense number of petty distilleries spread all over
the country. It was estimated that there were three
thousand in Pennsylvania alone ; and small stills
abounded equally in Virginia and the Carolinas. To
the proprietors of these, the payment of a tax, in ad
vance of marketing their product, or personally consum
ing it, as was quite commonly the case, constituted a
great hardship, and aroused the most bitter feelings of
indignation. Moreover, there' was another feature of

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 87
the situation which has not been sufficiently dwelt upon.
The enterprise characteristic of the American people
had carried tens and hundreds of thousands far away
from the Atlantic coast, and even from navigable wa
ters, to build up homes for themselves and their chil
dren. With the rude and inadequate facilities for
transportation existing, the grain which these pioneers
raised upon the soil would not "bear transportation"
to market. If, however, the grain could be reduced,
both in bulk and weight, to the form of spirits, the
cost of transportation would be greatly diminished and
the price of the product greatly enhanced. Yet, since
the Constitution prescribed that all taxes, duties, im
posts, and excises should be uniform throughout the
United States, it was necessary to tax the whiskey of
Western Pennsylvania or of Kentucky at the same rate
as that imposed upon spirits distilled along tide-water
or upon the banks of navigable streams. We shall, a
little later, see how the whiskey tax of 1791 not only
aroused great opposition throughout the country, but
led to armed resistance, and even open rebellion.

CHAPTER VI
WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM— CONTINUED
Formation of Executive Departments— Development of the Cabi
net—The Constitution Silent on this Subject— Congress Estab
lishes the Departments of State, of Treasury, and of War— Also
Provides for the Appointment of an Attorney-General— Prac
tice of the Early Presidents Regarding the Function of the
Cabinet— Should Cabinet Officers Sit in Congress, or Occasion
ally Meet with Congress, or Communicate with that Body Only
in Writing ? — The Last Procedure Adopted — Washington's Cabi
net : Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox, Randolph — Parties Under the
Constitution not yet Formed — Antagonism Developed between
Jefferson and Hamilton— State's Rights rs. National Aggrandize
ment—Washington Consents to Re - election— Opposition of
Antifederalists to Mr. Adams — Organization of the Supreme
Court — Washington's Appointments strongly Federalist — John
Jay, Chief-Justice — The Foreign Relations of Washington's
First Term — Weakness of the United States Abroad — Wash
ington's Policy of Neutrality, especially as between France and
England — Rising Passion of Antifederalist Sympathizers with
French Revolutionists — Colonialism in American Public Life
— War with the Miamis— The Indian Policy of the United
States — The Permanent Seat of Government— The District of
Columbia and the City of Washington — The First Census and
the Redistribution of Representation in Congress — The Fugi
tive-Slave Law — Admission of New States — Influence of the
States beyond the Alleghanies upon the Growth of American
Nationality— Difficulties Arising at the West from the Spanish
Control of the Mississippi — Unanimous Re eleotion of Wash
ington — Adams Re-elected by a Smaller Vote.
We continue the narrative of the first term of Wash
ington's administration. Let us now consider the for
mation of executive departments, and the relation of

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 89
the cabinet to the President and to Congress. It is a
curious, though excellent, feature of the Constitution
that it prescribes nothing regarding executive depart
ments. In the Convention it was proposed to form a
Council of State, to be composed of certain high officers,
to assist, and in a measure control, the President in the
discharge of his duties. This project having failed, it
would have been natural that the Convention should
provide at least for a cabinet to surround and support
the President in his office, to be composed of the prin
cipal officers of state. Even this it failed to do, only in
serting a provision which gives the President power to
" require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer
in each of the executive departments, upon any subject
relating to the duties of their respective offices." It
will be seen from this that, not only did the Convention
not constitute a cabinet, but that all the intimation there
is regarding the subject in the Constitution goes rather
the other way, the President being contemplated as con
sulting the heads of departments separately regarding the
duties of their several offices, and not as assembling them
together for consultation concerning matters of general
interest to the administration.
When Congress met under the Constitution, it at once
proceeded to form three executive departments, viz.,
State (at first called Foreign Affairs), Treas- Executive de-
nry, and War. The head of each department Partment8-
was to bear the title, Secretary. Provision was also
made for the appointment of an Attorney-General ; but
this officer was not the head of an executive department,
nor did he become so until 1870, when the Department
of Justice was established.
In creating these high offices a most important ques
tion arose, viz., whether heads of departments could be
removed by the President alone, or the concurrence of

90 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
the Senate should be necessary, as in their appointment.
Mr. Hamilton, in the Federalist, had taken it for granted
Power of re- that such concurrence would be essential to
movai. removal in the case of all officers, and had ar
gued that this would contribute to the stability of ad
ministration ; but when Congress came to deal with the
matter, the question above stated came under active dis
cussion. Mr. Madison, Hamilton's colleague in the
Federalist, strongly argued that the President should
have the sole power of removal. The opposite side was
taken by Messrs. Sherman and Gerry. Congress decided
in favor of conferring on the President the power of re
moval. This result was of beneficial and far-reaching
consequences. Had the decision been the other way,
heads of executive departments would have been able,
by cultivating personal and political relations with the
Senate, to intrench themselves against the President and
to defy his power. Only mischief could have ensued.
Executive departments having been constituted, it
became a question for the President whether he should
The cabinet f°r ^'s own purposes bring the heads of these
injrton Wanh<i departments together into a cabinet ; or
Adams. should deal with them separately, as tho
Constitution seemed to contemplate. We may antici
pate results so far as to say that the practice varied dur
ing the first few administrations. President AVashington
was in the habit of taking the opinions of his secretaries
in separate consultations or by letter ; while upon occa
sions of greater importance he assembled them for oral
discussion in the form of a council. Having heard the
opinion of each, he decided upon the course to be pur
sued. The second President, Adams, followed substan
tially the same practice, though we shall see that the mem
bers of his cabinet were disposed to put forward something
like a claim to an integral share in the executive office.

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 91
"The third President, Jefferson," says Mr. George
Ticknor Curtis, " adopted a somewhat different prac
tice. When a question occurred of sufficient „ . „
magnitude to require the opinions of all the son and his
heads of departments, he called them together,
had the subject discussed and a vote taken, in which he
counted himself as but one. But he always seemed to
have considered that he had the power to decide against
the opinion of his cabinet. That he never or rarely ex
ercised it was owing partly to the unanimity of senti
ment that prevailed in his cabinet and to his desire to
preserve that unanimity, and partly to his disinclination
to the exercise of personal power. When there were
differences of opinion, he aimed to produce a unanimous
result by discussion, and almost always succeeded. But
he admits that this practice made the executive, in fact,
a directory." Later in our constitutional history the
cabinet was more fully recognized in practice, though
still not known to the Constitution ; its meetings were
more regular and frequent ; and its function of at once
advising the President, checking his impulses, and bring
ing to the administration the support of the different
sections of the country, became of more and more im
portance in the real, as distinguished from the written,
government of the United States.
So much for the relations of heads of departments to
the President. It was quite another question whether
these officers should sit in Congress and Relation of
, , , . . ,. , the cabi net
present their measures, or occasionally meet to congress.
Congress for that purpose, or communicate only with
Congress as a whole by writing, leaving their personal
communications to be made to individual Congress
men or to committees, as is at present done. A great
deal has of late been written in advocacy of a cabinet
government for the United States, like that which

92 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
has been to successfully carried on in England. This
would involve a change in the Constitution, by which
the President should be obliged to select his heads of de
partments from among actual members of Congress, in
one or the other house. Taking it for granted that
such a change in the Constitution would be impracti
cable, it has thereupon been urged that the heads of ex
ecutive departments should still be authorized by law to
sit in Congress, having a voice but no vote, so that they
might present, explain, and defend their proposed
measures in person. The matter is perhaps worth
further discussion ; but it appears extremely doubtful
whether cabinet officers occupying seats by sufferance,
having no vote as members, would attain to anything
like the authority and influence which the advocates of
this scheme expect. It would even be something to he
dreaded, lest, with the rude parliamentary manners of
our country, these officers might be so treated in speech
and debate as to impair their dignity and influence.
Assuming, then, that under existing constitutional
provisions, it is not desirable that heads of executive de
partments should regularly sit in Congress, the question
arises why they should not meet that body upon im
portant occasions, for the presentation of reports or the
advocacy of measures. No constitutional objection is
known to exist ; and it would appear that we came very
near having this established as a recognized form of
procedure. Mr. Hamilton, early in the first adminis
tration, expressed his desire to present to the House of
Representatives certain financial measures. Had this
been done, it would probably have passed into precedent
and been extensively followed. But the opponents of
Mr. Hamilton, jealous of his rising fame, or fearful of
his eloquence and personal influence, secured a decision
adverse to his wishes in this specific instance ; and that

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 93
decision, though purely individual and personal, became
a precedent * unrevoked to this day, so that, ever since,
the heads of our executive departments have communi
cated with Congress only in writing or by personal con
ference with committees.
We have already named the distinguished citizens
who were appointed to the highest offices at the be
ginning of Washington's administration, and Wa8 h , n g.
who became his cabinet, in the modern ton's cabinet.
American sense of that term. It is now appropriate to
speak of the cabinet as a whole ; and of the relations of
its members to each other, to the President, and to the
issues which were beginning to emerge from the surface
of American political life. It is customary to say that
AVashington's choice of his cabinet officers was non
partisan. This is strictly true ; but those Avho say it
sometimes explain their meaning by adding that he took
men of both political parties. This is not true. The
only political division, as yet, had been as to the adop
tion or rejection of the Constitution ; and we have seen
how large and formidable was the minority on this
question. When AVashington came to make up his cabi
net, he selected the members wholly from those who
had supported the Constitution. So that, in one sense,
that body was purely partisan. It is true that the four
men chosen for his chief advisers constituted two groups,
Jefferson and Randolph, Hamilton and Knox, having
* It appears that President Washington, accompanied by General
Knox, Secretary of War, went once into the Senate, in the days of the
first Congress, and suggested that General Knox should explain to the
Senate the provisions of a pending Indian treaty. The Senate would
seem to have put the matter off, at the time, for the purpose of getting
rid of the President and the Secretary. Inasmuch, however, as the ques
tion at issue was the ratification of a treaty, by the Senate alone, and
that in executive session, we have chosen not to consider this as an in
stance of a cabinet officer offering himself to assist in the legislation of
Congress.

94 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
widely different and strongly antagonistic views as to
what should be done under the Constitution ; as to the
degree in which the powers of the new government
should be called into action for the general good ; as to
the relations of the new organization to the States and
to the people. But parties did not then exist through
out the country ; the issues upon which citizens were to
range themselves, on the one side and the other, had not
been defined, had not even arisen.
No prescient mind, however, could fail to discern the
signs of an early and a deep division of the people on
The coming questions of vital interest. It was evident
pames. ^^ jeffer30n wouid soon be at the head of
those who favored a strict construction of the Constitu
tion, a close limitation of the powers of the general
government, and the reduction of federal agency to a
minimum ; while Hamilton would become the recognized
leader of those who wished to make the nation power
ful and imposing. At first the relations of the several
members of the cabinet were friendly and harmonious.
All rejoiced in the establishment of a union of the
States ; all respected the great leader who had carried
the country triumphantly through its war of Inde
pendence, who had become the head of the new
nation in peace, and who was now their official chief.
Hamilton had even been able, as recited, upon Mr.
Jefferson's somewhat late arrival from his post of duty
as Minister at Paris, to draw that astute politician
into the support of the measure for funding the State
debts. But, as Hamilton's financial measures developed
his purpose to build up commerce and manufactures, to
make the national debt a means of both financial and
political power to the government, and in other respects
to- magnify the Nation in comparison with the State,
Jefferson, who was not only a strong States Rights man,

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 95
but was also a protectionist of a peculiar type, disliking
commerce, and favoring manufactures only as developed
in small groups around the plantation and the farm,
became first alienated and then angry. With Hamilton's
successive triumphs he became furious. There was an
other very marked difference between these two great
leaders. Hamilton was essentially an aristocrat, dis
trusting the impulses of the masses of the people, be
lieving in the absolute necessity of a leadership by men
of wealth and education, and regarding it as good gov
ernment to build up powerful interests within the com
monwealth which should support law and to a great
extent influence political action. He had even, in the
Constitutional Convention, frankly professed his pref
erence for monarchical institutions ; and he still be
lieved it to be desirable to break-up and make -over
the existing States. Jefferson was a democrat of demo
crats ; with all his mind and soul he believed in the
honest}^, intelligence, and patriotism of the common
people ; he disliked vested interests, estates, or powers
within the commonwealth ; he favored primitive and
simple habits of life, and primitive and simple forms
of government ; he held strongly to the perpetual in
tegrity of the existing States.
Between two men with such conflicting views, each of
the highest intellectual power, not even the presence of
AVashington could long keep peace ; while the command
ing influence of each leader soon rallied a great follow
ing from out a people exhibiting the widest diversities
of political and social conditions, thoughts, and feelings.
The party of Hamilton became known as "Federalists,"
a term previously applied to those who sup- The Federai-
ported the Constitution, as against those who ists-
opposed ratification. To this party belonged Mr.
Adams, the Vice-President, who was, indeed, in many

96 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
respects, more truly its leader than Mr. Hamilton him
self, possessing a degree of confidence, on the part of
vast numbers of that general way of thinking, which
was withheld from the more showy and brilliant cham
pion of federal ascendency. In his general views and
political predilections President AVashington inclined
strongly toward the Federalists ; though in his high of
fice he held the scales with so much of dignity and im
partiality that Jefferson was able afterward to deny that
AVashington was, in any true sense, a Federalist.
Within his own party, which at first was known only
by the name of Antifederalists, Mr. Jefferson enjoyed
„ „ such pre-eminence that he was and remained
Jefferson i , • •
and the Ana- to the end without a rival, and swayed his
vast and growing constituency almost at his
will. But while Mr. Jefferson found no one who could
dispute his claim to leadership, he possessed a remark
ably good second in Mr. Madison, then a member of the
House of Representatives from Virginia. Madison was
a man much calmer than his great chief, much more
sensible and practical in matters of detail, a strong and
judicious speaker and writer. No general ever had a
more useful lieutenant. The division of the people was
still, as in the Convention, largely sectional. While Ad
ams and Hamilton had not a united North behind them,
the South from the first took position overwhelmingly*
in support of Jefferson. The warmth of feeling and of
expression characteristic of the latter section tended to
widen the breach. "I am unable," wrote Mr. AA'olcott,
" to form any opinion as to the real condition of the
Southern States. AYere the representatives of the north
ern country to express the same sentiments and oppose
the projects of the government with the same vehe-
* Tho most marked exception being in South Carolina, where a strong
Federalist district surrounded the commercial oity of Charleston.

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 97
mence, I should imagine the people were on the eve of a
rebellion." The antagonism thus developed culminated
at the close of Washington's first term. For a while it
was uncertain whether he would consent to serve again ;
indeed, he had expressed his purpose not to do so ; and
the prospect of a succession brought sharply and strong
ly out the relations of party. When Washington con
sented to re-election, the opposition to what was consid
ered the dominating influence of the administration
turned itself to advocating the choice of another Vice-
President in place of Mr. Adams. The Antifederalists
now began to call themselves " Republicans."
The Constitution had provided for a Judiciary ; but
the effect of that provision had been but faintly appre
hended, even by the most sagacious of those
who took part in framing it. The third ar- Hon of the su-
ticle was, in truth, the "sleeping lion "of preme
the Constitution, not because its phraseology was ob
scure, but because no one had been able to lift himself
high enough to see the full scope of that terrific power
which should decide alike laws of Congress and the acts
of State Legislatures to be contrary to the Constitution ;
which should sit in judgment alike on measures and on
men, from highest to lowest ; which should become the
" supreme arbiter " between State and Nation ; which
should, in the result, determine, in spite of nullifica
tion, secession, and rebellion, what kind of a government
ours was to be. Whatever Jefferson may say about
Washington not being a Federalist, the appointment of
Justices of the Supreme Court affords a test which will
satisfy most minds on which side the President stood.
His choice for Chief-Justice was John Jay, of New
York. Judge Jay was one of those rare men who, with
clear views and strong convictions, are yet capable of
being absolutely fair, just, and right-minded. Though
7

98 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
not a very great judge, from the juridical point of view,
his lofty character, his fervent patriotism, the nobility
of his aims, the simplicity of his mind, with a fair store
of learning, made him a better Chief-Justice than a
much greater lawyer might have been. The Associate
Justices were John Rutledge, of South Carolina ; William
Cushing, of Massachusetts ; Robert H. Harrison, of
Maryland ; James Wilson, of Pennsylvania ; John Blair,
of Virginia. During his first term, Harrison and Rut
ledge resigning, the President appointed in their places
James Iredell, of North Carolina ; and Thomas John
son, of Maryland.
It has been stated, in connection with the establish
ment of the Mint, that the proposition to place the head
of the President, for the time being, upon the national
coins, gave rise to an embittered contest, in which that
proposition was finally defeated. Other matters relating
to the degree of state to be assumed by the chief execu
tive or affecting his relations to Congress and to the
people, called forth an almost incredible amount of
feeling during the administration of Washington ; and
official eti- ^s> we may believe, had not a little to do,
ouetteandthe not, indeed, with the formation of parties
mannersof ., .. .. . . r
the executive under the constitution, but with the party
affiliations of large numbers of citizens. Many
leading Federalists were disposed to hold that the Pres
ident should assume a great deal of state in the adminis
tration of his office ; they desired that he should have
high-sounding titles,* like those given to potentates of
the old world ; that his intercourse with the public
* The Senate Committee reported in favor of addressing the President
as " His Highness the President of the United States and the Protector
of their Liberties." The House of Representatives, however, contented
itself with addressing him solely as the President of the United States,
and this mode of address fortunately passed into precedent.

Washington's first term 99
should be marked by a distinct reserve ; and that the
executive mansion should take on somewhat the aspect
and air of a court. This, in general, was not distaste
ful to Washington, who was of a highly aristocratic turn
of thought and feeling ; who shrank instinctively from
indiscriminate contact and approach ; who wore a sword
at his inauguration and upon important occasions ; who
did not object to having his birth-day celebrated like
the King of England's ; and in all respects bore himself
as a great man among men. The Antifederalists, or
Republicans, were strongly opposed to this sort of thing,
both from their ordinary way of thinking and, particu
larly, from the influence of the extreme democratic, or
" levelling," ideas then prevalent in France, from which
country Mr. Jefferson had recently returned thoroughly
imbued with a distaste for all titles, even for one so
harmless as Esquire, and with a passion for that plainness
of dress and that freedom of intercourse which subse
quently gave rise to the expression " Jeffersonian Sim
plicity." The political literature of the time abounds
in slurs and sneers regarding the manners of the execu
tive mansion ; and there is reason to believe that the
popular dislike of the little, harmless, pomp and pag
eantry there displayed had much to do with re-enforcing
the ranks of opposition to the dominant influences of
the administration.
Let us now proceed to contemplate the foreign re
lations of Washington's first term. The inauguration
of the government found these in a most unsatisfactory
condition. The United States had not acquired by war
so much reputation among the nations of Europe as we
are apt to imagine. The alliance with France had, in
deed, been subsequent to the surrender of Burgoyne at
Saratoga ; but the long interval of despondency which
followed, and the achievement of the victory at York-

100 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
town so conspicuously through the aid of the French
army and the French fleet, had not unnaturally tended
to produce abroad the belief that the colonists owed their
independence more to the prowess of their ally than to
their own strength. Nor was French deli-
TrrprtTj--r\ pan -¦ • n
in foreign re- cacy likely to disparage the services of
lations. Rochambeau and de Grasse. Regular troops
serving with militia and volunteeers, even of their own
nationality, never do justice to them ; much less are
they likely to do so when of another race and another
speech. If such had been the division of honors be
tween the allies in the closing scenes of the struggle
which we denominate the War of the Revolution, the
conduct of our foreign affairs under the Confederation,
from 1781-89, had not been of a character to exalt our
national credit. Enough has been said of the weakness
of that government in its foreign aspects. That weak
ness had made more bitter the enmity of England ; had
come nigh to alienating fast friends, like France and
Holland ; and had inspired contempt for the young re
public among the neutral and indifferent nations of
Europe. Toward England we were delinquent in fail
ing to comply with provisions of the treaty of peace
which provided for the payment of debts due to British
merchants by American citizens, and which looked to
the restitution of the estates of royalists confiscated
under State laws. Toward France and Holland we were
delinquent in respect to moneys borrowed in our neces
sity. AVith Spain we had a standing quarrel regarding
the boundary of Florida and the navigation of the Mis
sissippi. Toward other powers our attitude was merely
that of a weak confederation, without means of enforc
ing its decrees upon the constituent members, even in a
matter so purely federal as a treaty of commerce.
Such were the difficulties under which the new nation,

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 101
with its new Constitution, entered upon its career as one
of the powers of the world. But those difficulties were
only such as the United States might reasonably hope to
overcome by steady adherence to the policy of avoiding
entangling alliances, of cultivating carefully its financial
credit, and of devoting its energies in peace to the de
velopment of its marvellous natural advantages and re
sources. In his view of the needs of his country at this
time, Washington was wisest among the wise, and
patriotic above all. In 1795 he wrote to Morris, " My
policy has been and will continue to be, while I have
the honor to remain in the administration, to maintain
friendly terms with, but to be independent of, all the
nations of the earth ; to share in the broils of none ; to
fulfil our own engagements ; to supply the wants and
be the carriers for them all ; being thoroughly con
vinced that it is our policy and interest to do so. Noth
ing short of self-respect and that justice
. Wash in s-
which is essential to a national character ton's policy of
ought to involve us in war ; for, sure I am, if ueu ra
this country is preserved in tranquillity twenty years
longer, it may bid defiance in a just cause to any power
whatever ; such in that time would be its population,
wealth, and resources."
We shall see how the progress of the revolutionary
movement in France and the tremendous wars which
arose out of that event, in spite of the warnings and the
influence of Washington drew the young republic of the
western world into their own mad turmoil, and, if they
did not engulf the untried bark with its untried crew,
at least kept the politics of the United States in agita
tion for twenty years, diverting the attention of the
nation from its own true interests. But in the first
term of Washington's administration, of which we now
speak, these things had not taken place ; nor were they

102 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
yet evident, in anything like their full extent, even to
the most prophetic eye. AYe need here only note that
the government during the first four years of its ex
istence steadily improved its position abroad.
But while the revolution in France had not yet dis
turbed the foreign relations of the United States, it
had gone far to intensify the bitterness of parties here,
and to draw deep lines across the face of the republic.
The new Constitution of France had been adopted after
the inauguration of our own government ; but before the
close of 1792 revolutionary frenzy had proceeded to the
point of abolishing monarchy, soon followed by the
murder of the king. The intensity of interest with
which these events were watched in the United States
French s y m- can scarcely be understood in this generation.
pathizers. rrwo explanations are necessary before we can
see how it was that the Republicans, so called, of that
day could give themselves to the French cause with
such passionate eagerness. The first is that the world
had not yet learned by sad experience that revolution
makes no people free. The painful and humiliating
spectacle of nations building up liberal constitutions
and professing the noblest political sentiments, only to
fall into anarchy on the one hand, or into tyranny on
the other, had not then been repeated so often as to
teach mankind that popular government is a thing of
slow growth, and that those institutions only can be du
rable which have their roots deeply in the past and have
grown into close and intimate adaptation to the needs,
feelings, habits, and aspirations of their people. It was
an age of political optimism, when it was believed that
nations might spring with a bound into liberty ; and
that the execution of a king or the massacre of a privi
leged class would open the way to peace and order.
The second explanation of the state of feeling which

WASHINGTON S FIRST TERM 103
existed at the time of which we are writing is found in
the wretched colonialism which tainted our social life,
degraded our politics, and prevented the formation of a
national literature during the first fifty years of our
separate existence. Colonialism is the disposition of a
country, be it great or small, to look abroad for its
standards of action, thought, or manners ; not to be
satisfied with the approbation of its own taste, judgment,
and conscience ; to be forever craving recognition, no
matter how patronizingly given. Colonialism, which,
in other words, is simply want of self-respect in a
community, was the curse of our earlier politics, as it
was of our earlier society. The States which had be
come independent in government were still unduly de
pendent in thought and feeling upon the old world,
from which they had cut themselves off by the Declara
tion of July 4th. In spite of the prophetic warnings of
AYashington, the whole nation acted as though America
was of necessity to be a tender to one of the American
two great powers which disputed the suprem- colonialism.
acy of Europe. Few and faint are the traces of any
thing like a true respect for the position and future of the
United States which we find in the political literature of
the times ; while the conduct of both parties was equally
far from making good that high-sounding declaration,
" We hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, ene
mies in war, in peace friends."
Certain other events and measures remain to be con
sidered before we can take leave of Washington's first
term. Foremost among these is the war with the
Indians northwest of the river Ohio. The policy of
the whites, from the first settlement of the country to
the inauguration of the Constitution, had generally
been to postpone contests with the Indian tribes ; to
evade the inevitable issue ; and, by playing off one

104 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
chieftain against another, one tribe against another, to
reduce the strength of the savages without engaging in
a distinct struggle for supremacy. The AYar of the
Revolution had incidentally destroyed the prestige and
almost the existence of some of the most formidable
tribes ; and the concentration of the fighting power of
the nation in a single hand, together with the owner
ship by the general government of the western lands
formerly held by the several States, had tended to pro
duce a greater readiness to meet the issue frankly and
at once. Accordingly, we find much less of a disposi
tion to resort to indirection in accomplishing the settle
ment of the country contiguous to the range of hostile
tribes. The occasions for conflict were not far to seek.
Kentucky and Tennessee were already partially occupied ;
and population was pushing across the Alleghanies into
the fertile lands of the Ohio and the AYabash. The be
ginnings of the future State of Ohio had already been
made at Marietta. Murders by the savages were con
tinually reported to influence the public mind ; and
early in 1790 a powerful expedition under General
War with the Harmer was despatched to subdue the Miamis
Miamis. arL(j t0 change their confederates. This ex
pedition met a severe repulse at the junction of the
Great Wabash and the Wabash of the Lakes. Early in
the next year Colonel Scott, with a mounted force,
pushed into the Indian country, and by rapid move
ments achieved some partial successes ; but in the fall
of that year General Arthur St. Clair, with a powerful
army, was routed with terrible slaughter by this deter
mined confederacy. His defeat led to the appointment
of General Anthony Wayne, the hero of Stony Point,
who had ten years before distinguished himself in battle
against the Creeks of the South. General Wayne was
destined to become the pacificator of this vast region ;

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 105
but his preparations carried the war over into the second
term of Washington, the final defeat of the Indians
taking place in 1794, and the treaty by which they ceded
their lands bearing date 1795.
It may be asked, Why should, how could, the United
States make " a treaty " with some of its own inhabi
tants ? The answer to this question will Relations of
serve to indicate the highly peculiar position 'he govern"
which, from the beginning of the govern- ment
ment down to 1871, was held by the Indian tribes
within our domain. This position was that of " domes
tic dependent nations," in the phrase of Chief-Justice
Marshall. Their exclusive right to occupy the land
they had inherited from their ancestors, until such time
as they should voluntarily cede it to the United States,
was fully recognized in the policy of the government, in
annual acts of Congress, and in numerous treaties rati
fied by the Senate. Of course they could not cede
their land to any foreign government. Residing thus
upon their territory, the Indian tribes which were
not within the limits of any State were, as a rule, left
to govern themselves as to all internal affairs, according
to their own laws and traditions, or as their own inter
ests and passions might dictate. The right of the
United States to intervene, at any time, in the punish
ment of crime was fully asserted ; but, as a matter of
policy, the United States forebore to assume the re
sponsibility for the administration of justice between
Indian and Indian in the same tribe. The "Agent" ap
pointed to any tribe was at once a sort of pension-agent,
to disburse the annuities provided for by treaty or the
supplies voted by Congress out of charity, and a sort of
minister-resident at the court or in the camp of a do
mestic, dependent nation, which, so long as it kept the
peace, Congress chose to indulge, or perhaps felt it

106 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
right to entrust, with self-government. To this policy
there had been a certain reservation to the effect that a
tribe might " become so degraded or reduced in num
bers " (Justice McLean, 6 Peters, 593, 594) as to fall
out of its high estate and become fully subject to the
ordinary control of tho law.
In pursuance of this policy the United States made,
as I count them, three hundred and eighty-two treaties
Indian trea- with Indian tribes, down to the time when,
ties- in 1871, Congress declared that, "Hereafter
no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the
United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an
independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the
United States may contract by treaty." These would
have seemed bold words, the very tallest of " tall talk,"
to Anthony Wayne. Times had, indeed, changed ; and
men's minds had naturally changed with them. But,
in the period with which we are here dealing, it was
not deemed derogatory to the national honor and dig
nity to make treaties with the Indian tribes ; and the
government was, in general, only anxious about getting
the better of the bargain.
Recurring to the Miamis, it is curious to observe that
the Federalists and the Antifederalists, while agreed as
to the necessity of war, found opportunity for antago
nizing each other, in preparing for the conflict, as to
the use of militia. or of "regulars." The first suggestion
of enlarging the army for this purpose brought up again
to Mr. Jefferson's eager mind "the corrupt squadrons
in Congress " which had filled his vision during the
progress of Mr. Hamilton's funding measures. " The
least rag of Indian depredation," he writes, " will be an
excuse to raise troops, for those who love to have troops
and for those who think the public debt is a good
thing." The same question arose in connection with

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 107
all the early Indian troubles ; and Mr. Jefferson's party
invariably opposed the organization of regular troops for
'the purpose, and demanded the use of local jje^^ vs
militia. While government was thus en- mmtia.
gaged in desperate contest with Indians in the North
west, the people of Georgia became embroiled with the
Creeks, who still held a large part of the territory now
embraced in that State ; but the earnest efforts of
AVashington to prevent an outbreak here were for the
time successful.
Congress first met under the Constitution at New
York. The struggle as to the permanent location of the
seat of government was marked by an inten
sity of feeling which found expression in a nent seat of
bitter sectional strife. The southern mem- governmen •
bers proposed the banks of the Potomac ; and this sug
gestion was very grateful to Washington, whose own
home was Mount Vernon. The northern members de
sired to have the capital in their section. It seems to
have been generally agreed that the capital must be on
some river, because Rome was on the Tiber ; and nearly
half the rivers of the country were, first or last, brought
into the debate. The question, finally, was made a part
of a parliamentary bargain. The advocates of the as
sumption of State debts adroitly got the two issues joined
together, and, finally, by that most dangerous form of
political corruption known as " log-rolling," * both
measures were carried together. The result was that
Congress was to meet for ten years at Philadelphia, and
afterward have its home on the Potomac. Maryland and
Virginia made cession of a district, ten miles square, on
both sides of the Potomac, to become the seat of govern
ment. The Virginia portion was subsequently retro-
* " You help roll my log, and I will help roll yours."

108 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
ceded, as not needed for the purpose. The Maryland
cession is known as the District of Columbia.
In providing for the election of the First Congress,
the Constitution apportioned the total number of Repre-
sentatives — sixty-five — among the States, ac
tion of repre- cording to certain rude estimates of numbers.
The first census having been taken in 1790,
the number was fixed at one hundred and five ; and
these were reapportioned among the States according
to their ascertained population, three-fifths of the slaves
being included in the schedule, according to one of the
compromises of the Constitution. The population of the
country had been ascertained to be 3,929,214. The
four largest States were, in order, Virginia, Massachu
setts, Pennsylvania, New York. The three smallest,
Georgia, Rhode Island, Delaware.
Under the provision of the Constitution that "no
person held to service or labor in one State, under the
laws thereof, escaping into another shall, in consequence
of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from
such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim
of the party to whom such service or labor may be due,"
Congress, on the 5th of February, 1793, passed the first
Fugitive Slave Law. The measure at the time aroused
little opposition, and indeed attracted slight
Fugitive slave attention, though it will appear in a later
volume of this series that the Fugitive Slave
Act of 1850 set the nation on fire. The change was
mainly in the times. While the later law contained
some features which were very objectionable from a
purely legal point of view, it is questionable whether
that of 1793 was not worse. Under it gangs of slave-
hunters perpetrated a great amount of most brutal kid
napping of colored persons on whom no master had eveD
a shadow of a claim.

WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 109
Two States were admitted to the Union during Wash
ington's first term : Vermont, March, 1791, with a
population, by the census of 1790, of 85,425 ; AdmiBsion of
Kentucky, June, 1792, with 73,677 inhabi- new states.
tants, of whom 11,430 were slaves. Vermont was formed
from territory long disputed, under royal grants, be
tween New York and New Hampshire, but undoubtedly
belonging to New York. Kentucky was formed from
territory belonging to Virginia.
The admission of Vermont introduced no new element
into the Union. The admission of Kentucky marks
the first operation of a force which was to exert a tre
mendous and always increasing influence upon the des
tinies of the republic, and even upon the nature of the
government itself. It does not seem too much to say
that but for the growth of great communities upon
the western territory, and their admission, one after
another, as new States, the least probable result of the
formation of the Union in 1789 is that it would have
continued to our time. Massachusetts, New York,
Virginia, South Carolina, had existed as separate commu
nities before confederation had been practically accom
plished. Each had its laws and social institutions, its
consciousness of statehood, its definite character, its
history. When these communities entered into the
Union, it was, even for those most strongly federalist in
feeling, inevitably with large reservations of pride, in
terest, and affection ; with some grudging as to every
grant of power to the new government ; with much of
hesitation, jealousy, and suspicion regarding the motives
and actions of its allies. How different the case in re
spect to the States which, during the next twenty or
fifty years, were to be introduced into the giant league
from the territory beyond the AUeghenies ! What is
about to be said of them was not wholly true of Ken-

110 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
tucky, because of the close relations of that colony with
Virginia ; but in general it may be asserted that they
came into the Union with vastly less of reservation, both
of purpose and of feeling, than was possible to any of
the original members. They had grown up, as weak
and isolated communities, upon territory belonging in
fee to the United States, and under the protection of its
military power. They had been governed, while in a
territorial condition, directly by the United States, with
such concessions as to local self-government as might
seem to Congress for their good. They had learned,
from the very first, to look to the general government
for protection against the Indians, for the means of
opening their rivers to navigation, for the survey of
their lands. If, in their zeal for " the old flag — and an
appropriation," something of greed mingled with the
impulses of patriotism, this was yet all for the increase
of national feeling and the strengthening of the bonds of
influence of Union. No one can rightly read the history
Americannpn™ of the United States who does not recognize
tionaiity. fae prodigious influence exerted in the di
rection of unreserving nationality by the growth of
great communities beyond the mountains, and their
successive admission as States of the Union.
Such, as we now, after the fact, regard it, was the in
fluence of the Great West upon the fortunes, and even
Fears of the the fate, of the republic. The forecast of
convention 'of that influence by the men of the Constitu-
1T9T- tional Convention had been less favorable, if,
indeed, it may not be said to have been gloomy in the ex
treme. At various stages of the debate, apprehensions
were expressed regarding the power of the new States
which were to be formed within the public territory.
To prevent the Eastern States from being ultimately
overwhelmed from this source, it had even been pro-

Washington's first term ill
posed to limit the number of Representatives in Con
gress which should ever be allowed, in the aggregate, to
States beyond the AUeghenies.
But while the opinion we have expressed regarding
the influence of the AYest upon the main point of the
stability and the integrity of the Union is thus highly
favorable, it should be added that two dangers, one tem
porary, the other more permanent, came from this quar
ter. The transient danger alluded to is that which
arose, during the first fifteen years under the Constitu
tion, from the passionate desire of the settlers beyond
the mountains to secure the free navigation of the Mis
sissippi. To this end these hardy pioneers
were ready almost to sacrifice their allegiance Hon oTl^e
to the Union. That a foreign power should MissiB6ippi-
keep its grasp upon what was, to them, of vital impor
tance, seemed intolerable ; and we can hardly blame them
for their impatience, though a keener appreciation of
the difficulties of the new government in attaining that
object would have been more creditable to their patriot
ism. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the
first administration, and especially Washington and
Judge Jay, showed a singular obtuseness in dealing with
the eager demands of the West upon this point. Wash
ington, having penetrated as a surveyor beyond the
mountains, even before the outbreak of the French War,
had become so deeply interested in projects for opening
up communication between the AYest and the seaboard
as to be almost infatuated with that idea, believing that,
in the matter of transportation, all would thus be effect
ed which the West could reasonably ask. Jay, on his
part, held, with the utmost sincerity and disinterested
ness, that the benefits which would result to the whole
country from favorable commercial treaties with Spain,
would be so great as fairly to justify the government in

112 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
asking the western people to submit, for twenty-five
years longer, to restrictions upon the navigation of the
Mississippi. There are few things more instructive than
the fact that men like Washington and Jay could have
been so far wrong in such a vital matter.
The second and more permanent danger arising to
the country from the influence of the Western States,
has been through the aversion of the people of that re
gion to measures proposed in the interest of financial in-
. tegrity, commercial credit, and the national
unsoundness honor. The opposition from this quarter to
of the West. . t it a ¦ j j.i
proper laws regarding bankruptcies, and the
predilection there manifested for cheap money, have
been a constant menace and a frequent cause of mischief.
This, however, we may regard as due to the stage of set
tlement and civilization reached. As fast as manufact
ures, commerce, and banking have made their way into
that section, the communities concerned have become
sound and conservative.
The consent of Washington to be a candidate for re
election put at rest all thoughts of a contest for the
presidency in 1792. Faction had not raised
presidential itself so high as to dispute his pre-eminent
claims to the confidence and respect of his
countrymen. Not only did his position and reputation
make it vain for any body of men, if so disposed, to as
sail him ; but his impartiality, his truthfulness, and his
singleness of patriotic purpose had enabled him so to
mediate between the embittered factions in his cabinet
and in Congress that each by turns was ready to accept
his action in all important cases as wise and just. It
was fortunate for the young republic that its great lead
er still lived and gave to its councils his benign presence,
thus securing a short interval of comparative repose.
The contests between the Federalists and the Republi-

113
cans had become so bitter and furious that, had either
controlled the executive office in the critical times of
1793-97, the results might have been disastrous to our
destinies. " Monocrats " was the mildest term which
Jefferson could find whereby to characterize the party
of Hamilton, Adams, and Jay, while the Federalists
hurled back the epithet " Jacobins," in allusion to the
crazed and bloodthirsty revolutionists of France. Nei
ther party was content to charge the other with less than
disloyalty to the Constitution.
The consent of Washington to be a candidate took the
life out of the election of 1792, although the Republi
cans made an ineffectual and perhaps not The re.e]ec.
very sincere effort to capture the vice-presi- f°£t0°* waa*d"
dency by " running," in the phrase of our Adams.
modern politics, George Clinton, the "AYar Governor"
of New York, and still the incumbent of that office, a
man of great natural powers, a hard fighter and a bitter
hater, who had made himself peculiarly obnoxious to
the Federalists, not only by his opposition to the ratifi
cation of the Constitution, but by his conduct and bear
ing upon all occasions. He received 50 votes, viz., all
21 of Virginia ; all 12 of New York ; all 12 of North
Carolina ; all 4 of Georgia ; and 1 from Pennsylvania.
Adams received 77 votes. Five were "scattering."
Washington received an unanimous vote, 132 in all ; and
the new government was inaugurated March 4, 1793.
Clinton's vote is scarcely to be accepted as showing the
actual strength of the opposition. The fact that the
Republicans were precluded from nominating a presi
dent distinctly of their own side, was calculated to pre
vent their putting forth much effort to capture an office
comparatively insignificant. Their power would be bet
ter measured by the result of the elections to the House
of Representatives, inTvhich that party secured a major-
8

114 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
ity. The Senate, however, from the fact that the popu
lar strength of the Republicans was, as yet, chiefly in the
large States, as well as from the longer duration of the
senatorial term, remained strongly Federalist. We have
thus, only four years from the beginning, that distinct
opposition of the two branches of the legislature, the
possibility of which many persons regard as largely neu
tralizing the advantages of our form of government.

CHAPTER VII
WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM
Foreign Relations — The Genet Episode — Difficulties with France
— England and France Vying with each Other in Wrong to the
United States— With whioh should We go to War ?— The
Whiskey Insurrection — The Militia CaUed Out — Democratic
Societies — The Funding System — The Admission of Tennes
see — Oliver Ellsworth becomes Chief-Justice — The Eleventh
Amendment to the Constitution — The Disruption of the Cabi
net and the Movement of Parties— Jefferson's Commercial Re
port — New Cabinet Appointments — Randolph Retires from
Office under a Cloud — Hamilton Resigns : His Services to the
New Government — Knox is Succeeded by Timothy Pickering
¦ — Washington's Last Cabinet : Painful Decline in Ability —
Party Divisions go Rapidly Forward — The Third Presiden
tial Election: John Adams Chosen — Jefferson becomes Vice-
President, though of the Opposite Party — Defective Method of
Choosing President and Vice-President.
Let us speak of the foreign relations of Washington's
second term, and first, of the Genet episode. Early in
1793 France proclaimed war against Great Britain and
Holland. It is not necessary to go into the reasons, or
pretexts, put forward to justify her act. On April 22d,
as in duty bound, President Washington issued a proc
lamation of neutrality. Close upon this occurred an ex
traordinary series of events, which we have chosen to
call the Genet episode. The Federalists, indeed, insisted
that the acts of Genet were under instructions from his
government and constituted a part of its policy. But
as it appears that much of what Genet did was the
result of his own Jacobinical fanaticism, his extrava-

116 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
gance, and bad temper, we prefer to isolate all those
things which were not unmistakably chargeable to the
French government, and to style them the Genet episode.
Mr. Edmond C. Genet, or " Citizen Genet," as he was
called, under the frivolous democratic impulse in France
The Genet (imitated, for a time, more frivolously in the
episode. Tjnited states) to abolish all titles, having
been appointed minister from France to this country,
arrived at Charleston, S.C., on April 8th. With an ex
traordinary contempt for the authority to which he was
accredited, he immediately set about enlisting American
citizens for service against Great Britain, and fitting out
and commissioning vessels against the enemies of France.
From Charleston to Philadelphia, after a considerable
delay, he journeyed in a sort of Jacobinical procession,
receiving ovations from the admirers of the French Con
vention, and declaiming against those who should seek
to restrain the United States from active co-operation
with France : all after a fashion derogatory to our na
tional dignity and compromising our neutral position.
After Genet's arrival in Philadelphia he made direct
issue with the government on several points which were
decided against him, even Mr. Jefferson repudiating his
claims ; and had the astonishing impudence to appeal to
Congress and the country against the administration.
He insisted upon his right, under the treaty of 1778, to
arm vessels and to try and sell prizes in American ports.*
In spite of expressed prohibitions, the consuls of France,
at his instigation, exercised admiralty powers in holding
courts and in condemning and selling prizes. His inso
lence only grew by contradiction, until, encouraged by
the democratic frenzy aroused in many parts of the
United States by the progress of the French Revolution,
* It was not in dispute that French privateerB and prizes were entitled
to shelter in American ports.

WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM 117
which had now proceeded to a Reign of Terror, and by
the formation here of " Democratic Societies " for the
purpose of giving sympathy and support to the revolu
tionary movement in Europe, Genet broke all diplomatic
bounds. He insulted the President and his advisers ;
set on foot within our territory military expeditions
against the Spanish dominions ; issued commissions for
enlistment ; and, in the case of the Little Sarah, a
prize that had been fitted up as a privateer, openly de
fied the government. It is not to be wondered at that,
after such acts, the French consul at Boston, M. Du-
plaine, should have dared to rescue a vessel by armed
force out of the hands of a United States marshal. M.
Duplaine was, however, made to learn the difference be
tween an ambassador and a consul in point of privilege.
His exequatur was promptly revoked.
These outrageous acts of Genet at a very early date
called for remonstrance by our government with France ;
and, the fanatical minister still persisting in his acts of
contempt, his recall was requested. A successor was ap
pointed by the government of France, which, as the
party to which Genet belonged had already
fallen from power, was at no pains to spare
its minister humiliation. Genet, having reason to fear
he might be made to taste the sweets of liberty in the
arms of La Guillotine, wisely concluded not to return
home. He remained in the United States ; married a
daughter of Governor Clinton ; became a citizen, and
left children and grandchildren who were Americans by
birth. Stripped of the extravagance and folly of Genet's
demonstrations, the claims of France upon us were two.
First that, by a stipulation in the treaty of alliance
(1778), the United States was expressly bound to guar
antee against all enemies the French possessions in

118 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
America. Of the cabinet, Hamilton and Knox main
tained that this guarantee was applicable only to a de-
The dispute fensive war; and hence was not binding in
with France, the present war, which was commenced by
France. Jefferson and Randolph, without touching the
latter point, recommended the issue of the proclamation
of neutrality spoken of above. The question of guar
antee Jefferson regarded as reserved to the meeting of
Congress, which alone could, in his opinion, properly
judge of the effect of the treaty. Secondly, the French
government claimed that the United States was bound
to give the French government, in case of war, peculiar
facilities for fitting out privateers within our ports, and
for the trial and condemnation of prizes. This claim
was based upon the article by which the parties agreed
not to permit the enemies of either to fit out privateers
in their ports. The express prohibition of this privilege
to enemies the French considered as implying a promise
to the parties themselves. This claim the United States
peremptorily denied ; and there can be little question of
the rightfulness of that position. No nation ought to
allow itself to be dragged into war, against its wishes
and its interests, by a stipulation of such doubtful sig
nificance. Nothing but the extravagant sympathy of
the Republicans with the French cause could have made
an accession to this proposal possible. On the other
hand, perhaps nothing but the effrontery of Genet and
the stern, calm decision of Washington would, against
the Jacobinical frenzy of the hour, have prevented such
a lamentable result. But, whatever may have been the
claims of France upon us, as her ancient ally and by
virtue of the treaty of 1778, she soon forfeited all right
to peculiar consideration by ordering that neutral vessels
containing goods belonging to her enemies should be
captured, and also by laying an embargo upon our

Washington's second term 119
shipping at Bordeaux, and by other acts in distinct
violation of that treaty.
With England our difficulties were of a more substan
tial, and, for the present, serious character. England
still held our western posts, under the plea „.„ u,
r ' r Difficulties
that the conditions of the treaty of 1783 had with Eng-
not been fulfilled on our part ; and the same
political forces which had in vain urged an alliance with
France, for the sake of France, urged, with more reason
and with more prospect of success, a war against Eng
land (which would have amounted to the same thing),
for the sake of vindicating our national rights and dig
nity. But that arrogance which has always marked the
commercial policy of England did not long leave us this
as the only cause of war. In June, 1793, that power
ordered that the goods of neutral nations, if consisting
of provisions for the enemy, should be captured or
bought up, unless shipped to a friendly port. This was
followed by an order that all vessels laden with produce
of a French colony, or with supplies for the same, were
lawful prize. More than all, Great Britain claimed and
exercised the right to impress into her service seamen
of British birth, wherever found, and for this purpose
to stop and search the ships of the United States.
Measures so outrageous made war, in the then feel
ing of the nation, imminent and seemingly inevitable.
More than all others, the United States had come, by
force both of tradition and of interest, to represent and
champion the rights of neutral trade. Our "carrying"
business was very large ; and our people were fully de
termined to protect it, not only from motives of gain
but from sentiments of national pride. A temporary
embargo upon American ports was voted in March, 1794,
in order that our ships might not be caught at sea in
the event of war. A bill was passed for fortifying cer-

120 the making of the nation
tain rivers and harbors, and a report was adopted largely
increasing the army. AYar would have been justifiable,
but the great interest of the nation was peace. So
AVashington saw it ; so we now see it to have been, and
in spite of clamor, in the face of passion, the president
determined upon a last effort for a peaceful solution of
the difficulties. To this end he selected Chief-Justice
The Jay Jay, a Federalist, and therefore esteemed by
treaty. ^he opposition a friend of England, but a
man of the loftiest character and the most fervent
patriotism, to proceed to England and open negotiations.
In November, 1794, Judge Jay concluded a treaty ; and
in June, 1795, the Senate ratified the same.
We should despair of giving the reader an idea of the
intensity of the indignation with which the Republican
party opposed the mission of Jay and denounced the out
come. The debates on the ¦" British Treaty" are among
o p p o s i - ^e most memorable of the Senate, while the
tion to the agitation in the House of Representatives,
which was Republican, and throughout the
country, was wholly unparalleled. Then it was that
the House struck out the phrase " undiminished confi
dence " from an address to the president ; then it was
that Virginia, by her legislature, refused to declare her
trust in Washington ; then it was that vituperation
spared not the august chief who had conducted the
States thus far in war and in peace with the universal
acclaim of his countrymen. Anti-treaty mobs filled the
streets of New York and Boston ; Jay was burned in
effigy ; Hamilton stoned.
Looking back calmly at this series of events we can
say that, while the treaty sacrificed no American rights,
it granted far less than our people were entitled to
claim ; and was therefore open to criticism. The west
ern posts were, indeed, to be surrendered, and indemnity

WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM 121
granted to the sufferers by search or capture. A few
concessions, also, were made to American commerce.
But, in the main, the British government maintained
its commercial system in full rigor, and by no means re
nounced the right of search and impressment on the
high seas. Those great questions the Jay treaty still
left to be decided later, as it proved, by the arbitrament
of war ; but we cannot doubt that the United States
were fortunate in attaining a postponement of that
contest until twenty years more had nearly doubled
their population and had compacted the national
strength. It will be observed that the United States were
brought by these differences with France and with Eng
land into a very singular and most embarrassing position.
From each of the two antagonists we were receiving both
insults and injuries. With which should we go to war ?
or, should the young republic defy both these powerful
nations, and assert its rights and interests against each
in turn ? Of this dilemma Jefferson afterward wrote :
"The difficulty of selecting a foe between them has
spared us many years of war, and enabled us Two
to enter into it with less debt, more strength at once-
and preparation. France has kept pace with England
in iniquity of principle, although not in the power of
inflicting wrongs upon us." The usurpations of Bona
parte had by that time cured Mr. Jefferson of an admi
ration which the " Reign of Terror " did not abate ; so
that he could write : "As for France and England, with
all their prominence in science, one is a den of robbers
and the other of pirates." It is worth while to note
here that the acts of Congress necessary to carrying into
effect the Jay treaty gave rise to a struggle in which the
House of Representatives asserted the claim to have a
voice in the adjustment of international relations under

fo enemies

122 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
the form of treaties, a claim frequently reappearing in
the course of our constitutional history.
But if the Jay treaty settled provisionally the difficul
ties with England, the negotiation and ratification of
that treaty proved a grave offence to France ; and angry
remonstrances and threats of war came from Paris,
where Mr. Monroe was representing the United States,
not at all to the satisfaction of Washington. The French
government in 1796 declared the alliance with the United
States under the treaty of 1778, which had ceased to be
France re- °^ importance to France when our govern
ments the Jay ment refused to be drawn by it into hostil-
treaty. . . J
ities with England, to be at an end, by reason
of the fact that the United States had, in the treaty with
Great Britain, abandoned the principle that "free ships
make free goods," while naval stores and provisions were
rendered contraband of war. This France insisted, not
without some reason, was a hardship to her ; and for a
time Spain and Holland seemed determined to make
common cause with her to compel the United States to
protect the property of their citizens when in American
vessels. Spain, which on October 27, 1795, had con
cluded a treaty with the United States, negotiated by
Thomas Pinckney, our minister to that country, most
favorable to our claims in respect to the navigation of
the Mississippi and the boundary of Florida, now refused
to make good the stipulations of that treaty. Mr.
Monroe's conduct of affairs at Paris being increasingly
unsatisfactory to the administration, that gentleman was
recalled, and Charles C. Pinckney was appointed in his
place. Mr. Monroe returned home in great dudgeon,
and the French government (to which Mr. Monroe had
been highly " grateful ") refused to receive Mr. Pinck
ney, declaring that it would not again recognize a min
ister from the United States until reparation had been

Washington's second term 123
afforded for the injuries which the French nation had
suffered. So in clouds of war set the sun of Washing
ton's administration.
It now seems incredible that, not only our own peo
ple, but the proudest and most warlike nations of
Europe should long have paid tribute to the corsairs of
Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, who claimed the sovereignty
of the Mediterranean ; yet such was the fact.
AYe shall later see by what acts of heroic of the Barbary'
t • States
daring our young navy freed the republic
forever from this shameful dependence. It is only
necessary here to refer to the treaty of 1795 with the
Dey of Algiers, who, on condition of large payments,
consented to release the crews of American merchant
men who had for years been held by him in captivity,
and thereafter to respect our commerce.
Let us now turn to the internal affairs of AYashington's
second term. The year 1795 witnessed the successful
conclusion of the Indian AYar in the North- The in d i a n
west, against the Miamis and their confed- War-
erates, and the cession of what is substantially the
present State of Ohio.
In noticing the passage of the excise law, which im
posed duties on spirits, in AYashington's first term,
reference was made to considerations which rendered
that tax peculiarly odious and obnoxious, especially at
the West. From the first, grave trouble had been ex
perienced in collecting the revenue ; and
soon actual resistance began to be offered by key msurrec-
the persons directly concerned, while large
districts became highly inflamed. The measures of
resistance were, as usual in such cases, compounded of
acts wholly outrageous and unlawful, mingled with
remonstrance, petition, and protest from citizens of
character and standing. The movement soon became

124 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
a really capital parody of the proceedings prior to
the Revolution ; and there is little doubt that the
prestige which had long attended such acts as the
" Boston Tea Party " and the riotous intimidation of
the stamp collectors in New Haven, Charleston, and
elsewhere, encouraged the opponents of the whiskey
duty to defy the law and to commit outrages on the
revenue officers. Certain it is that many of the leaders
of the Republican party manifested no small sympathy
with the mobs ; and gave their breath to ridiculing the
militia called out to vindicate the authority of the gov
ernment, rather than to denunciation of incipient re
bellion. As early as 1792 the President had found it
necessary to issue a proclamation, calling on his fellow-
citizens to support the law. But in 1794 opposition
rose to such a point that collectors of revenue were
driven from their homes, government mails seized, and
the United States Marshal fired upon in the course
of his duty. The culminating point of the Rebellion
was at Pittsburg. We have already referred to the
conditions which rendered the tax a peculiar hardship to
the people of this region ; but there was something
in the character of the people themselves which made
rebellion easy, on such a theme. Just prior to the
outbreak of the Revolution, there had been an ex
traordinary immigration of Irish, who settled in large
numbers at the junction of the Allegheny and Mo-
nongahela rivers. Hatred of excise and skill in evad
ing duties on whiskey had been among the virtues
of the Irish peasant at home ; and among the promoters
of opposition to the tax in western Pennsylvania the
men of this race were conspicuous. In August, 1794,
an armed convention met on Braddock's Field, to de
nounce the law and defy the government. The secre
tary of the meeting was none other than Albert Gallatin,

WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM 125
a Swiss immigrant, afterward Secretary of the Treasury.
Such acts satisfied both the President and Governor
Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, that the time for vigorous
measures had come. Fifteen thousand militia were
called out ; but were preceded by commissioners with
offers of general amnesty on condition of The militia
peaceable submission. It was, however, called out.
only by the actual presence of the troops that quiet
was restored and the authority of the government
vindicated. The enactment of the whiskey tax was un
questionably one of the most serious political mistakes of
the Federalist party ; but the result of this legislation
which we have least to regret was the energetic action
of the executive in putting down resistance to the law.
The Republican leaders might, as many of them did,
sneer at the militia who marched to western Pennsyl
vania ; but the rioters themselves and the country at
large made no mistake about the matter ; they under
stood that, at last, there was a government in the
United States which could not be defied. The learn
ing of this lesson was worth all it cost.
So manifestly had the " Democratic Societies," which
had been formed very generally throughout the Unit
ed States on the abolition of the monarchy Democra 1 1 c
in France, contributed at once to foreign in- societies.
solence, as in the case of Genet, and to domestic dis
turbance, as in the case of the whiskey insurrection,
that AYashington, in his annual message of 1794,
strongly denounced these organizations as unpatriotic
and dangerous. It must be confessed that the Presi
dent's position was somewhat weakened by the fact that
he himself was, and had long been, the head of the So
ciety of the Cincinnati, an organization of officers of
the Revolutionary army which, as then organized, was
charged with a strong aristocratic tendency. With the

126 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
fall of Robespierre, however, of whose clubs they were
an imitation, the Democratic Societies rapidly declined,
more probably from that cause than from the effect of
Washington's deserved denunciations.
During the summer of 1793 yellow fever broke out
with frightful violence in Philadelphia, then the seat
of the general government. For months
in Phiiadei- terror reigned in the devoted city. Over four
thousand interments took place from August
to November, the first month of frost. It is said that,
at the time the panic was at its height, seventeen thou
sand citizens were absent from their homes, seeking safety
among the mountains or in the rural districts. The
pestilence extended southward to Charleston, and as
far north even as Boston and Newburyport ; but Phil
adelphia remained the greatest sufferer. The same
dread scourge reappeared in 1797 and 1798, though
working far less mischief, probably because of a better
knowledge of the evil and its remedies.
Upon a report of Mr. Hamilton, the last of his " Re
ports," so called, Congress proceeded to make per-
The funding manent provision-for the debt of the United
system, states. The principal feature of this scheme
was the establishment of a sinking fund, consisting
of the surplus revenues, of the bank-dividends pay
able to the government, of the proceeds of the sale of
public lands, and of the taxes on spirits and stills until
1801. This measure may be regarded as a creditable
one in its conception, though the praise awarded for it
to Hamilton is hardly deserved, since it was largely in
imitation of Mr. Pitt's English system.
In June, 1796, Tennessee was admitted as a State
The state of of the Union, from territory ceded by North
Tennessee. Carolina. The population of Tennessee in
1790 was 35,691 ; in 1800, 105,602. Judge Jay, having

Washington's second term 127
been elected Governor of the State of New York, re
signed his office as Chief-Justice. The Senate having
refused to confirm * John Rutledge, of South
Carolina, whom President AYashington nomi- in the cwef-
nated, and Judge Cushing, of Massachusetts, UB J<
having declined, the office was conferred upon Oliver
Ellsworth, of Connecticut.
It was said that apparently not a member of the Con
stitutional Convention of 1787 adequately appreciated
the tremendous powers with which the judiciary had
been invested ; and it was intimated that, should the
courts of the United States actually be permitted to ex
ercise the jurisdiction granted them by that instrument,
a really effective national government could not fail to
result, subject only to those liabilities to insurrection
or rebellion which beset all governments, of whatever
type. The Constitution had not been long in operation,
however, when it was ascertained that, at least in one
instance, the Supreme Court would not be permitted
to exercise that jurisdiction. In the case of Chisholm
vs. the State of Georgia, the party defendant re
fused to plead except to the jurisdiction of the court.
Georgia declared, through its legal representatives, that
it could not be brought into the courts as a defendant ;
and challenged the construction given to the first clause
of the second section of the third Article of the Consti
tution by the law officers of the government. The
court, Chief -Justice Jay presiding, maintained its juris
diction ; f but the excitement caused by the case, and a
general sense of the impropriety of thus bringing a
* Largely on account of extraordinary and intolerable language used
by Rutledge in connection with the Jay treaty.
t It is interesting to note that, in the debate in the Virginia Conven
tion over the adoption of the Constitution, John Marshall, afterward the
great Chief-Justice, declared that, under Article 3, a State could not be
sued by a citizen of another State.

128 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
State into court, led Congress, on December 2, 1793,
to propose the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitu-
The Eiev- tion — which was, in fact, the first real amend
ment t?ethe ment of tnat instrument; — providing that the
constitution, judicial power of the United States should
not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity,
commenced or prosecuted against one of the United
States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or sub
jects of any foreign State. This amendment, having
been duly ratified, became a part of the organic law.
It is to be said that this amendment made no important
breach in our constitutional system. It has, indeed,
enabled some of the States to do very rascally things in
the way of repudiating debts or neglecting obligations ;
but enough remained of the jurisdiction of the United
States courts to enable them to perform their great part
in the making of the nation.
We have seen that Washington began his administra
tion, in 1789, with a cabinet comprising some of the
most illustrious men of the republic, yet containing
within itself elements of discord and even of strong an
tagonisms. The cabinet remained intact during the
whole of Washington's first term ; but in the very year
„ . of his second inauguration it began to so to
Disruption ° o b
of the cabinet pieces. Jefferson had felt outraged, to the
ment of par- very depths of his being, by what he re
garded as the corrupt and dangerous finan
cial measures of Hamilton and by the general tendency
of the government toward consolidation and monarchy.
The course of the administration, as between France
, and England, had been very painful and not
commercial a little mortifying to him. On December
16, 1793, Mr. Jefferson made a special report
to Congress on the commercial relations of the United
States ; and, within a day or two thereafter, retired

WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM 129
from the State Department. His report was regarded
by the Federalists as ingeniously designed to embarrass
the administration he was leaving. Upon its reception
by the House of Representatives, Mr. Madison offered
resolutions for carrying out the principles of the report.
These were opposed by the Federalists, led by Mr.
Smith, of South Carolina, on the ground that the meas
ure was designed to punish England and to favor
France. Mr. Jefferson's allegations were denounced
as false and misleading. The Federalists declared that
our commerce was as much favored by England as by
France ; while our relations with the former country
were vastly more important. Messrs. Jefferson and
Madison were taunted with having forgotten to be free
traders in their eagerness to injure England.
Upon Mr. Jefferson's retirement from the State De
partment, Mr. Randolph was transferred from the of
fice of Attorney-General to succeed him. Mr. Eand 0 j ph,B
Randolph's course while in office had been error-
marked by the same indecision and vacillation which
characterized his actions regarding the formation and
ratification of the Constitution. He had appeared de
sirous to " trim " between the two parties, and in con
sequence had not won the support of either. He was
not destined to remain long in his new office. In Au
gust, 1795, he resigned, in consequence of the publica
tion of a very compromising letter from Mr. Fauchet,
the French minister, which forfeited for him the con
fidence of Washington. Charges of corrupt action were
then and subsequently made against Mr. Randolph.
The results of recent investigation have disproved these
charges, though they have not restored Mr. Randolph
to the historical rank of a great statesman. He was
succeeded in the State Department by Timothy Picker
ing, of Pennsylvania, formerly of Massachusetts.
9

130 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
In June, 1795, Mr. Hamilton retired from the Treas
ury Department, where he had won such fame as has
never been even approached by any of his
retires ; his successors, though that office has been filled
services to the . „ , , . . .... -„
new govern- by many men of remarkable ability, .bor
good or for ill, according to one's political
predilections, it is admitted by all that Mr. Hamilton
had done more to give form to the new government, to
fill its veins with life-blood, and to inspire its actions
with energy, than any other man of his time. Much of
what Mr. Hamilton did could, in the nature of the case,
never be undone ; and by consequence he must be re
garded as having been a great creative force within the
government. He was succeeded in the Treasury by
Oliver Wolcott, Jr., of Connecticut, who had filled the
office of Comptroller. General Knox retired from the
War Department toward the close of 1794, and was suc
ceeded by Colonel Pickering, who, as we have seen, was
soon transferred to the State Department, being suc
ceeded by James McHenry, of Maryland. William
Bradford, of Pennsylvania, who had succeeded Ran
dolph as Attorney- General, died in August, 1795 ; and
Charles Lee, of Virginia, was appointed in his place.
At the close of Washington's administration, there
fore, the cabinet consisted of the following members :
Washington's Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State ; Oli-
last cabinet. ver "Wolcott, Jr., Secretary of Treasury;
James McHenry, Secretary of War; Charles Lee, At
torney-General. One cannot let his eye fall on this list
without being painfully struck with the decline which
had taken place in so short a time in the dignity and
authority of the cabinet. Three of the gentlemen
named were of good abilities and character ; but not
one of them approached the rank of his predecessor ;
nor was this change the result of accident. In some

WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM 131
part, it was undoubtedly due to the expenses of living
for a cabinet officer at Philadelphia in this time, which
were far in excess of the means of all but wealthy citi
zens. But in still greater part it was due to a lack of
respect for the office, arising from the obloquy and
abuse which had been heaped upon Washington's ear
lier advisers ; from the quarrels and antagonisms which
had developed among them ; and from the fact that the
position of cabinet officer in the government had not
yet been properly distinguished and emphasized to the
public mind. Mr. Adams states that Washington of
fered the post of Secretary of State, between 1795 and
1796, to four persons whom he names, and to three
others whom he does not recall. He adds : " He has
not been able to find anyone to accept the War Office."
During the whole period of which we have been writ
ing, the division of the country into two parties had
steadily gone forward. Little by little those pr0gress o f
who had been doubtful in sentiment, or who party fee]ins-
had been disposed to find something good in the prin
ciples of either party, had ranged themselves defini
tively upon one or the other side of the dividing line.
The parties themselves had come to recognize their
natural leaders, to fall into order, and to acquire disci
pline. This, of itself, was not a thing to be regretted.
Indeed, the existence of a formulated opposition, at the
outset of the new government, was essential to bringing
out the true theory of the Constitution. Without two
parties closely watching and strongly opposing each
other, things might have come to be lightly done, from
lack of criticism and objection, which would have been
mischievous in their ultimate results. But the alto
gether unnecessary and unreasonable animosities which
were developed by public measures exerted a most prej
udicial influence. Party differences cut deep into so-

132 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
cial life and personal relationship. Our people were
politically raw and unformed ; they had not learned to
hold their beliefs temperately and to respect the con
victions of others. Even political morality had as yet
been but vaguely outlined in the public thought ; and
things were done by men of good standing which would
be universally reprobated at the present time.
Upon the conclusion of his second term Washington
declined re-election, setting a precedent which there is
mx. ^- a reason to believe will never be departed
The third ,r
presidential from. Certainly no man can ever again have
such claims upon his countrymen, or be so
necessary to his country, as was Washington when he
declined a third term. John Adams, of Massachusetts,
was nominated by the Federalists ; Thomas Jefferson,
of Virginia, by the Republicans. The latter had
been the author of the Declaration of Independence;
the former, its great champion on the floor of Congress.
They had long been associated in friendship ; but per
sonal ambition and party strife had made deep division
between them. Many years afterward, when the battles
of their lives had been fought, they were again, by an
accident, to be brought into friendly relations ; and, in
the leisure of declining years, to gossip together, in
long, old-fashioned letters (impossible forevermore in
these days of telegraph and postal cards), about their
early achievements, their common friends and foes, and
even about the very events which once made them speak
so disparagingly and harshly of each other.
A word concerning the manner in which nominations
to the presidency were made. The National Convention,
made up of delegates of the voting members of the par
ty and giving forth a " platform " of principles and se
lecting candidates for the support of the people, was
then unknown. "A caucus, as it is called" (Gibbs,

Washington's second term 133
ii., 347) of the members of Congress acting together on
national issues was held before a presidential election ;
and, with as little machinery as is now used Methoa 0 f
for the nomination of a sergeant-at-arms, the 5.0mAna"ns
° the President
party ticket was made up. It must not be a n d vi c e-
PTPftinprit1
inferred, however, that, because the nomi
nation was simple, the system was a desirable one. Un
doubtedly it encouraged congressional intrigue, to a de
gree not now experienced ; and tended toward a danger
ous confusion of the parts of government. This is the
place, too, in which to speak of the system first estab
lished by the Constitution for the choice of President
and Vice-President. The electors chosen by the several
States were to vote, each, for two persons, without desig
nating either for the office of President or Vice-Presi
dent. The person receiving in the aggregate the largest
number of electoral votes became President ; the person
receiving the next largest number of votes, whether of
the same party or not, became Vice-President. A more
senseless arrangement could hardly have been devised.
Should each one of the electors of the victorious party
vote for both persons nominated by his party, each of
these would receive the same number of votes ; and
there would be nothing to determine who should be
President and who Vice-President. Neither would have
been elected to office ; and the election would thus be
thrown into the House of Representatives, as was done
in 1801. In order to avoid such a result, it would
be necessary that one or more electors should throw
away his second vote ; but, as this would be a difficult
matter to arrange, especially in those days of slow com
munication, and as there would always be a danger of
treachery in the matter, a considerable number of elec
tors might throw away their second votes, to prevent a
tie. In this case it might happen that one of the can-

134 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
didates of the other party would be brought in as Vice-
President. Just this, as we shall see, occurred in 1797.
Let us now return to the candidates at the third presi
dential election. In addition to the advantages which
Jefferson's Mr. Jeff erson derived from the definitive re-
strengtn. tirement of Washington from public life,
from the unpopularity of many of the measures of the
closing administration, and from the growing demo
cratic spirit of the country, he possessed an immense
source of power in the fact that he was the sole possible
candidate of his party and its universally recognized
leader. No man stood near him for the nomination ;
no rival divided with him the confidence and support of
the Republicans of the United States. On the other
hand, Mr. Adams was only one of three great leaders
of the Federalist party. Hamilton and Jay came also
within the possible range of nomination. Each of them
had hosts of followers, who held Mr. Adams in less es
teem. Jay, however, just at this time, was an unde
sirable candidate, on account of the British treaty ; and
his own support of Adams was loyal and hearty ; but
between Adams and Hamilton was mutual distrust,
while the soaring ambition of the younger statesman
and his consciousness of vast powers made him unhappy
at seeing another preferred to himself, mainly on the
ground of revolutionary services. Adams had always
been disposed to charge Hamilton with the responsi
bility for the large reduction of his vote in 1789 ; and in
1796 he fully believed that, at the election then impend
ing, Hamilton was not indisposed to secure his defeat,
even at the cost of bringing in Jefferson. But wliile the
Republicans thus entered upon the third presidential
election with greatly increased force, the time had not
as yet been long enough completely to wear away the
hold which the Federalist party had, at the beginning,

Washington's second term 135
upon the mind of the country. It was to require four
years more to break down Federalist supremacy and give
the leadership to the party which Mr. Jefferson had been
so assiduously and astutely building up.
Mr. Adams triumphed ; but it was only by the nar
rowest majority. He received seventy-one votes in the
electoral college ; Mr. Jefferson, sixty-eight. AdamB e]ect.
Even this hairbreadth escape was due more to ed °y a nar-
... t,-t ».t row majority.
personal than political reasons. " A single
voice in Virginia and one in North Carolina," writes
Mr. Charles Francis Adams, "prompted by the linger
ing memory of revolutionary services, had turned the
scale." Had these two electors consented to forget how
John Adams stood up for American liberty in the days of
the Stamp Act and the Boston port bill ; how he urged
on the cause of Independence and defended the Declar
ation upon the floor of the Revolutionary Congress, Jeffer
son might have been elected in 1797, for those two votes
would have just brought him in. The narrowness of his
majority could not have been pleasant to Mr. Adams.
He jocosely called himself " a President of three votes,"
but there is reason to believe that he took the matter in
his heart more seriously. It would even appear that the
Republicans made an attempt, or at least put out " feel
ers" in that direction, to draw Mr. Adams, in his natural
irritation at the manner in which he had been dealt with,
over to themselves ; but if they really thought that this
was possible, they did know their man, who was as sturdy,
sincere, and loyal, as he was vain, dogmatic, and obstinate.
In the same connection we see the evil consequences
of the peculiar provision we have recited regarding the
choice of Vice-President. Thomas Pinckney had been
nominated for this office with Adams ; but, in fact, he
received fewer votes than Mr. Jefferson, who thus,
though the Republican candidate for the presidency, be-

136 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
came Vice-President under a Federalist chief, a result
conducive neither to his own dignity and pleasure, nor
Jefferson to honest politics and good government. The
becomes Vice- reason for " cutting " Mr. Pinckney had
largely been the fear of the Federalist electors
that there might be a tie between him and Adams.
On retiring from public office, Washington issued an
address to the American people, of whom he had for
twenty-two years been the leader, alike in
ton's "Farewell war and in peace. This Farewell Message
is among the most precious of the nation's
many legacies from its great men of thought and action.
Written simply and without rhetorical artifice, it is
dignified in form, earnest in tone, clear in statement,
effective in argument, impressive in admonition, power
ful in appeal. As was natural on such an occasion, the
address deals less with policies and with positive rec
ommendations than with the dangers to which the new
nation, so strangely and curiously composed, would
surely be subjected in the days of its trial and experi
ment; less with precepts than with warnings. Chief
among its themes are the evils of entangling alliances
with foreign nations and of sectional animosities and
jealousies at home. On these two points the address
dwells with a fulness which reveals how strongly the ap
prehension of them had taken possession of the great
patriot-chieftain's mind and heart. In the most solemn
terms he adjures his fellow-citizens to be Americans
above all things and in all things, cherishing the interests
of their whole country with equal affection, and know
ing no foes and no friends, politically, but the foes
and friends of the United States. Respect for law, the
sacredness of national credit, moderation in party feel
ing, public and private virtue are all made the subjects
of earnest admonition and argument.

CHAPTER VIII
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS
President Adams Retains Washington's Cabinet — Foreign Affairs —
Difficulties with France Aggravated — A Special Mission sent
— Envoys Insulted — War Imminent — Federalist Enthusiasm —
Washington appointed Commander-in-Chief — Schemes of
Hamilton and Miranda — Spanish Possessions to be Seized —
President Adams sends a New Mission — The French Treaty
— The Spoliation Claims — Taxation in this Administration —
Stamp Duties arouse Opposition — The Direct Tax — Inefficiency
of this Tax in the United States — Resistance to the Law —
Conviction of the Rioters — Fries Pardoned — Anger of the Fed
eralists — What Constitutes Treason ? — Navy Department Cre
ated — Alien and Sedition Laws — Furious Opposition by the
Republicans — Nullification Resolutions of Virginia and Ken
tucky — Responses of Federalist States — Madison's Defence —
— Congress Meets in the New Capital — The First Bankruptcy
Law — The Second Census — Death of Washington — Split in the
Cabinet — Secretaries Intrigue against the President — Hamil
ton's Opposition to Adams — His Pamphlet — The Fourth Presi
dential Election — Adams Defeated — Jefferson and Burr re
ceive an Equal Vote — Contest in the House — Federalists take
up Burr — Jefferson finally chosen President — Causes of the
Defeat of the Federalists — Marshall becomes Chief- Justice.
Upon his inauguration, March 4, 1797, Mr. Adams
retained in office the cabinet of Washington. This,
as we shall see, became the cause of much mv _, ,. .
' The Cabinet.
trouble to him. The Senate was still strong
ly Federalist ; but many of its members were not well
disposed toward the President.
The importance of foreign affairs under this adminis
tration seems to require that we should deal first with

138 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
them. It has been said that France deemed itself in
jured by the British treaty ; and that General Pinckney
was notified that the French government would receive
no minister from the United States until reparation
should be made. Soon news arrived that Pinckney had
been ordered out of France. French cruisers were
already seizing our ships, under a decree of their govern
ment authorizing the capture of neutral vessels having
on board any of the productions of Great Britain or of
any of her possessions. AYar seemed * imminent ; and
Congress was convened for a special session. It met
War with w^ an ^ministration majority in both
France immi- branches. In his opening message, Presi
dent Adams used language so strong that it
was resented by the French Directory as an additional
grievance. Having effected its organization, Congress
proceeded to make provision for defence.
Mr. Adams, however, was resolved to make one more
effort to secure a peaceful settlement ; and, with this
The mission m view, nominated to the Senate as envoys
to France. to France, Charles C. Pinckney, Elbridge
Gerry, and John Marshall — Gerry being a Republican
but an intimate personal friend of Adams. Time would
fail to describe the ludicrous and shameful incidents of
that embassy. Suffice it to say that, the French Direc
tory being composed of low and irresponsible persons,
the negotiations soon degenerated into an attempt to
fleece the American envoys, apparently for the benefit
of covetous individuals in the Directory. After our
representatives had been for some time kept waiting,
certain " strikers " (in the phrase of modern municipal
* Whether, in the result, France, engaged, as she was, in a deadly
struggle, would have carried matters so far with us, may now be doubted ;
but that was the way in which it appeared to the statesmen and people
of the time.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 139
politics), known in our diplomatic records as Messrs.
X., Y., and Z., made their appearance and offered to se
cure an audience and promote the objects of the em
bassy, upon the condition of ample payments. At last,
after very humiliating rebuffs, the Directory refusing to
give an audience except through Messrs. X., Y., and Z.,
or to communicate officially in writing, Messrs. Pinck
ney and Marshall left Paris, the former going to the
south of France for his daughter's health, the latter re
turning home. Gerry still remained in Paris. For this
he was at the time severely blamed. On June 21, 1798,
President Adams transmitted to Congress a letter from
Gerry, which enclosed correspondence with Talleyrand,
the French minister. In his letter of transmittal the
President said, "I will never send another minister
to France without assurance that he will be received,
respected, and honored as the representative of a gre#t>
free, powerful, and independent nation." In his message
upon the meeting of Congress, in December, 1798, he
further said, " To send another minister without more
determinate assurances that he would be received,
would be an act of humiliation to which the United
States ought not to submit. It must, therefore, be left
with France (if she is, indeed, desirous of accommoda
tion) to take the requisite steps." To these declara
tions the country responded heartily.
It was the failure, as charged by his opponents, to
duly observe this laudable resolution, which brought
Mr. Adams's griefs upon him and went far to wreck the
Federalist party forever. Meanwhile the armament of
the country went forward. The publication of the cor
respondence had caused a great outburst of popular in
dignation, and had for the time immensely strengthened
the administration. At the South, particularly, there
were large accessions to the Federalist party. This was

140 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
the period of the Black Cockades and the composition
of " Hail, Columbia !" The land forces were increased,
Preparations ships of war were built, and the defence of
for war. p0rts and harbors provided for. Vessels of
the United States were prohibited from going to the do
mains of France, or being employed in trade with or for
persons residing therein, upon penalty of forfeiture of
vessel and cargo. French vessels were not allowed to
enter or to remain in the United States without pass
ports, except in cases of distress. War being con
sidered inevitable, Washington was solicited to take
command of the army, and with much reluctance ac
cepted the appointment of Lieutenant-General, with
Hamilton as Inspector-General and second in rank.
The last fact constituted another of President Adams's
grievances against his distinguished rival. He alleged
that Washington had been induced by an intrigue to
demand Hamilton's appointment and his promotion over
the gallant revolutionary veteran, Knox, who, in con
sequence of that indignity, declined his own appoint
ment as Major-General. The ultimate object of the
intrigue was supposed to be that, in Washington's in
firmity and advanced age, Hamilton would take com
mand of the armies in the field, and thus have an op
portunity to prove himself as great in war as he
had shown himself in finance.* The President could,
of course, refuse no demand of Washington under the
circumstances ; but he complied only with the deepest
resentment against those whom he believed to have pro
moted this result.
It would at first seem that a war with France must
have been a naval war mainly. But the plans of the
* " Military glory appealed strongly to a sweeping intellect and power
ful nature like Hamilton's ; and we may readily believe that he dreamed
of extensive conquests and great deeds of arms. "—Lodge's Hamilton.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 141
leading spirits among the fighting Federalists were more
far-reaching. It was upon the possessions of Spain,
along our southern border, that their eager
„ n „ . , , ° Secret de-
eyes were fixed. Spam, to be sure, was at signs of t h e
peace with us, but that did not greatly v"" '' """'
matter ; she was an ally of France ; and it would be
easy to bring at once to a point the long-standing dis
putes we had with her regarding the Florida boundary,
the "right of deposit" at New Orleans, and the naviga
tion of the Mississippi. But 'not even such extensive
conquests could satisfy the ambition of those who were
now urging on the war with France. The South
American provinces were believed to be an easy prize.
A restless adventurer, of the true Latin type, Francisco
de Miranda by name, had long cherished the project of
drawing England and the United States into an invasion
of that continent, in which case, it was assumed, the
Spanish dominion there would speedily fall to pieces.
The thought was one well suited to fire Hamilton's
mind ; and his soaring plans soon came to embrace this
as at least among the possibilities of the situation. He
entered into confidential correspondence with Miranda ;
and his agents in Mr. Adams's cabinet became all agog
with the notion. The United States and Great Britain
were not to be allies exactly in this matter. But there
was to be "co-operation" between them. The latter
country was to loan the ships to convey the expedi
tion, and to keep open the communications by sea ;
the former was to furnish all the land force required —
this last, in order that England might not be in a po
sition to keep too large a share of whatever might be
gained. Such was the precious scheme in which the
war-federalists proposed to throw to the winds that
neutrality which Washington had so highly valued, and
to embark the new nation in a career of glory and con-

142 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
quest. All of this, however, had not appeared upon the
surface. Ostensibly the object of the government was
to resent and resist the encroachments of France.
But a very remarkable change was soon to take place.
Though no declaration of war had been made, engage
ments had occurred at sea and many captures made of
American merchantmen, when France unexpectedly in
timated, in a very roundabout and hardly decent man
ner, a willingness again to receive envoys from the Unit
ed States. It was what the Federalists, eager for war,
regarded as the President's undue haste in the matter,
and his choice of envoys especially acceptable to France,
which, as we shall see, broke up both his cabinet and
the party which had elected him. AYe have now, how
ever, only to do with the negotiations thus reopened.
In February, 1799, President Adams nominated Mr.
Murray as envoy to France ; and subsequently joined
The new mis- with him in the mission Chief -Justice EUs-
sion to France. worth and William R. Davie, of North Caro
lina. Before, however, the embassy could reach Paris,
another revolution had taken place ; and a new Direc
tory had obtained control. After delays, vexatious
enough anyway, and certainly not calculated to remove
the discredit attaching to previous negotiations, the
envoys succeeded in framing a treaty, September 30,
1800, of which the following were the principal stipula
tions :
The binding force of the old treaties and the mutual
claims for indemnities were reserved for future negotia
tions. All public ships and all property captured by either
party and not yet condemned were to be restored.
All government and individual debts due were to be
paid. The vessels of either party were to enjoy, in the ports

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 143
of the other, equal privileges with those of the most
favored nation.
The rule of the old treaty, that free ships should make
free goods, was retained, except as to articles properly
contraband of war.
Provision was also made for the security of American
commerce in the future.
On being laid before the Senate, in December, op--
position was made by Federalist Senators who were in
imical to the President, because the payment x^e jrencll
of indemnities and the renunciation of the treaty-
old treaties were not provided for. The result was the
adoption of an article limiting the term of the treaty to
eight years, as a substitute for the article which referred
to indemnities and the former treaties. When the
amended treaty came to be submitted to Bonaparte,
then ruling France, he added a proviso that the ex
punging of the article relating to indemnities, etc.,
should be considered as a relinquishment of all claims
to indemnity. In this form the treaty was ratified by
our government ; and thus France obtained a new
treaty without indemnities. Herein was the origin of
one of the most vexed questions of our history, the
French Spoliation Claims, which was destined to re
cur, at intervals, through a period of ninety years.
Such was the famous French treaty, which was to the
administration of Adams, in large measure, what the
British treaty had been to the administration of Wash
ington. Of its effects upon the fortunes of Adams and
the fate of the Federalist party, we shall speak here
after. AYith other countries our relations were gener
ally pacific ; and we were making progress q^^ foreigri
toward a good international position. A relations.
mission to Prussia was created in 1797 ; and John
Quincy Adams, the able and accomplished son of the

144 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
President, afterward himself the sixth President of the
United States, was with general approbation transferred
to this post from The Hague, where he had been minis
ter. Near the close of the administration an appropri
ation was made for the payment of debts due to British
subjects from American citizens, which had remained
unpaid, in defiance of treaty obligations, by reason of
State laws obstructing or denying payment.
The imminence of war with France created fiscal
necessities which render important the history of taxa
tion in this administration. To provide necessary funds
for national defence, an act was passed at the special
session, laying duties on stamped vellum, parchment,
and paper. These "Stamp Duties" were graded ac
cording to the purposes for which the paper
Stamp duties. ° , , ¦, -i -n i
was used or to be used. Jbor example, a
piece on which a certificate of naturalization was to
be written or printed, was taxed five dollars ; a license
to practice law, ten dollars ; a paper containing the seal
of the United States, four dollars ; receipts, notes, and
other ordinary business instruments, from twenty-five
cents to one dollar, according to the amounts for which
they were given. Insurance policies, inventories, and
protests were all liable to duty. This act proved very
obnoxious, its title and its provisions unpleasantly re
calling the impositions of Great Britain, against which
the colonies had made war. So far is the human mind
subject to prejudice ! The Stamp Act of George III.
had been resisted, not because it was a bad form of tax,
but because the patriots denied the right of George III.
to levy any kind of tax upon them. If money is to be
raised, stamp duties are a very cheap and effective mode
of doing it. But men are largely the creatures of names,
appearances, and traditions ; and the Americans of
Adams's administration resented stamp duties enacted

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 145
by a Congress of their own choosing, just because then-
fathers had in 1765 opposed stamp duties enacted by
the British Parliament. It would have been as reason
able to oppose the issue of stamps for postage. The
President signed the stamp-duties bill with reluctance,
not from any objection to this form of tax, but on ac
count of certain provisions of the bill which he regarded
as intended to make the Secretary of the Treasury his
rival in influence and authority. In the original organ
ization of that department a remarkable variation had
been introduced, by which the Secretary was to report
directly to Congress, instead of to the President as in
the case of other departments. The Stamp-Duties Act
further magnified the authority of the Secretary of the
Treasury, with the purpose, as Mr. Adams conceived, of
diminishing the proper influence of the President.
The proceeds of the stamp duties not proving suffi
cient, an act was passed at the regular session, 1797-98,
for laying a direct tax of $2,000,000 on The direct tax
real estate and slaves. The enactment of o£im
this law, and, still more, the experiences of the Treasury
in collecting the tax, brought out strikingly one of the
principal defects of our revenue system. We have al
ready seen, in reciting the inhibitions of the Constitu
tion, that the United. States can lay no duties on ex
ports ; so that here one large source of possible revenue
is struck off at a blow. The Supreme Court having de
cided that income-taxes are not direct taxes, within the
meaning of the Constitution, this source of revenue is
left to the general government, though it is difficult for
the lay mind to apprehend the reason for the decision
referred to. The provisions of the Constitution regard
ing direct taxes, again, are such that it might just about
as well have been declared that such taxes should not be
imposed at all. The difficulty in this case is that Con-
10

146 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
gress is permitted to levy direct taxes only in propor
tion to the population of the several States. But since,
in a country growing and extending itself as ours has
done during the past hundred years, some States, viz.,
those newly or sparsely settled, will always possess very
little accumulated wealth and have very little ready
money, the condition referred to practically destroys
the value of a direct tax. If the amount of tax were to
be made large enough really to bring out the resources
of the older and richer States, the newer and poorer
States could not pay their share. If, on the other
hand, the amount is kept so low as to be within the
means of the frontier States, the proceeds for the whole
country will be insignificant. This is the dilemma
which has always confronted Congress in the enactment
of a direct tax. Three times has the general govern
ment undertaken to levy such a tax ; but in each case
the amount raised was small in proportion to receipts
from other sources. In each case the collection of the
tax excited bitter opposition. In each case large por
tions of the tax were left uncollected, after the lapse of
years. It would not be a very hazardous prediction
that the United States government will never again re
sort to this mode of raising revenue.
Let us now recur to the direct tax of 1798. The
amount, $2,000,000, was apportioned among the States,
beginning with Virginia, at $345,489, and going down
to Tennessee, the youngest State, at $18,806. Time
will not serve to give the details of this tax. A year
later, open resistance was made to the law in Pennsyl-
Eesistance to vania, where the measurement of houses was
the direct tax. violently opposed. A number of the rioters
were arrested, but were rescued by a party of armed
horsemen under a man named Fries. Thereupon the
President issued a proclamation and made requisition

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 147
upon the Governor of Pennsylvania for a military force.
Fries was tried and convicted of treason. Others were
convicted of misdemeanor. All were pardoned, to the
great discontent of the Federalists, who demanded that
an example should be made. Some of the cabinet were ve
hement in insisting upon the execution of the sentence
against Fries, and deeply resented the President's course.
A case like that of Fries brings up the question, What
is fairly to be considered treason in our country ? The
Constitution says : " Treason against the what consti-
United States shall consist only in levying tutes treason?
war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giv
ing them aid and comfort." Are riotous acts, in a state
otherwise one of peace, aimed only at a particular law
or done in resistance to particular acts of executive
power, and not seeking the destruction of the govern
ment or the dismemberment of its territory, rightly to
be considered treason, under the definition of the Con
stitution ? Such a construction seems to be without
reason. Yet we have a series of judicial decisions, by
which acts like that of Fries, or even less outrageous,
have been declared treasonable. The party in power has
always favored the straining of the law ; and the inge
nuity of judges has been heavily taxed to make out a
case. During the times of anti-slavery excitement, the
doctrine of Constructive Treason was invented. It
would certainly seem that penalties upon riotous re
sistance to the law, coupled with full accountability
for any deaths occurring in consequence of such acts,
could be made sufficiently severe to vindicate the au
thority of government, without forcing the definition of
treason so wisely incorporated in the Constitution.
The preparations for the anticipated contest with
France led to the establishment of the Navy Department.
During the Revolution, Washington had been command-

148 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
er-in-chief of both services ; and the officers of our war-
vessels had been commissioned as officers in the United
States Army. The division of the two ser-
avy' vices — the army and the navy — between in
dependent departments, is according to the example of
most nations ; but there are n,ot a few reasons for doubt
ing its expediency. Benjamin Stoddert, of Maryland,
was appointed Secretary of the Navy. Toward the close
of the second session of the Sixth Congress provision
was made for a naval peace establishment. Apprehen
sions of a war with France having subsided, the Presi
dent was authorized to sell all vessels except thirteen.
With President Adams a navy had always been, as he
himself expresses it, a hobby-horse. Jefferson strenu
ously opposed the formation of a navy. We shall later
see how, in his own administration, he undertook to
deal with the problem of protecting our coasts against
the fleets of Great Britain.
Party spirit had now proceeded to the most extrava
gant abuse and vituperation. Ferocious denunciations of
the government were heard on every side. Charges and
challenges were hurled across the political arena with a
fury which exceeded the bounds of sanity. The intem
perance and extravagance of controversy were greatly
enhanced by a few imported foreign editors and pam
phleteers — Duane, Collot, William Cobbett, and others —
who seemed to find the air of this western continent
peculiarly stimulating. The revolutionary madness of
France, now held firmly in check at home by the mas
terful grasp of Napoleon, appeared to have overflowed
into England and the United States, to try the utmost
that could be done to defy law, order, and decency. In
stead of looking at these ebullitions of democratic frenzy
as a mere passing stage of political development, the
conservative element of both the Anglo-Saxon countries

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 149
saw in them the beginning of anarchy, and proceeded
to deal with them in the spirit of repression. The Fed
eralists of the United States imitated the Repressive ieg-
methods of the Tories of Great Britain, and, Nation.
by their ill-advised efforts to gag the foul mouth of par
tisan vituperation, prepared the way fpr the destruction
of their own party. By no instigation of the President,
Congress, in 1798, passed two laws, known as the Alien
and Sedition Acts, to deal with these abuses.
The Alien Act * was to continue in force two years.
It authorized the President to order all such aliens as
he should deem dangerous to the peace and Tne j^^
safety of the United States, or should have Law-
reasonable grounds to suspect were concerned in any
treasonable or secret machinations against the govern
ment, to depart out of the country within a given time.
Any alien, so ordered to depart, who should be found
at large after the time limited, and not having obtained
a license to reside in the country, or having obtained
such a license had not conformed thereto, was liable to
imprisonment not exceeding three years.
The Sedition Law was to expire in 1801. It pro
vided for the punishment, by fine and imprisonment,
of persons convicted of combining or con- The Seaition
spiring together to oppose any measures of Law-
the government directed by proper authority, or impede
the operation of any law of the United States, or to in
timidate or to prevent any officer under the government
from performing his duty ; and secondly, for the pun
ishment, by fine or imprisonment, of any person who
* Another Alien Act, passed at about the same time, related to ' ' alien
enemies," that is, citizens of countries with which the United States
might be at war. This act is still in force. Its provisions are unex
ceptionable. It permits the President in time of war or invasion, after
suitable proclamation, to restrain or remove all natives, citizens, denizens,
or subjects of governments at war with the United States.

150 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
should write, print, utter, or publish, or aid therein, any
false, scandalous, or malicious writing against the gov
ernment, Congress, or President of the United States,
with intent to defame them, or to bring them into disre
pute, or to stir up sedition, or to excite unlawful com
binations for opposing or resisting laws of the United
States, or any act of the President done in accordance
with those laws. Now, all these offences were already
punishable at common law, in the State courts. Where
in, then, consisted the obnoxious character of this meas
ure ? We answer, the statutory enactment of a com
mon-law principle emphasizes it, renews it, and gives
vigor to the enforcement of what may perhaps have been
for an indefinite period practically obsolete. In this
case the Sedition Law was understood and accepted by
the opposition as showing the determination of the party
in power to break down the free discussion of its meas
ures and to provide new federal agencies apt and efficient
to that end. While we admit that, so far as the offen
ders themselves were concerned, nothing would have been
too bad, considering the foulness of the abuse in which
they indulged, we must assert that repressive measures of
such a character are unworthy of the statesmen of a free
government. If political blackguardism will not cure
itself, it will never be cured by fines and imprisonment.
As Mr. Jefferson well remarked in his inaugural address,
nothing is more impotent in public affairs than libel.
The blunder of the Federalists in enacting the Sedi
tion Law was not an accidental one. On the contrary,
The blunder ** was thoroughly characteristic. It sprang
of tneFeder- out of a distrust of the masses ; a belief that
the people must always be led or repressed ;
a reliance on powers, estates, and vested interests within
the commonwealth ; a readiness to use force — all of
which were of the very essence of the aristocratic poli-

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 151
tics of the last quarter of the eighteenth century. It
should be said, however, that, as President Adams had
taken no part in making this law, beyond affixing his
signature to the bill after it had passed both branches
of Congress, so he showed little interest in having the
offenders under it prosecuted. The number of cases
brought to trial was insignificant, only about six in all.
The Alien and Sedition Laws were generally approved
throughout the Federalist districts ; but aroused the
most intense opposition on the part of the Republicans,
which culminated in the famous Nullification Reso
lutions of Virginia and Kentucky. The draft of the
Kentucky resolutions, which were presented in the leg
islature of that State by Mr. Nicholas, is known to
have been made by Mr. Jefferson. The Virginia reso
lutions were drawn by Madison, then out of office and
living at home. Mr. Madison had Mr. Jefferson's draft
of the Kentucky resolutions before him ; but, with
his more conservative temperament, modified consider
ably the declaration of nullification which it contained.
Both sets of resolutions occupied themselves at length
with the special cases of the Alien and Sedition Laws ;
but their importance in our constitutional history is
chiefly due to the doctrine enunciated in each, of the
right, on the part of any State, to declare and make void
within its own limits any law of Congress which it may
deem unconstitutional. The language of the Virginia
resolutions on this subject is as follows :
" That, in case of a deliberate, palpable, and danger
ous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said
compact [i.e., the Constitution], the States, who are
parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound,
to interpose, for arresting the progress of the evil and
for maintaining, within their respective limits, the au
thorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them."

152 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
The Kentucky legislature, with less reservation, de
clared : " That, whensoever the general government as
sumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative,
void, and of no force . . . that this government
created by this compact [i. e., the Constitution], was
not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of
the powers delegated to itself, since that would have
made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the meas
ure of its powers ; but that, as in all other cases of com
pact among parties having no common judge, each party
has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infrac
tions * as of the mode and measure of redress."
It must have been a great stress of party passion
which could bring two statesmen who had done so much
toward the foundation of the republic to put forward
views of the Constitution which, if accepted and made
good, would have rendered a real nation forever impos
sible. Mr. Madison, indeed, afterward claimed that
there was nothing like nullification in these resolutions ;
and spent no little time, during his declining years, in
arguing against the construction once universally given
to them. But the American people, from Maine to
Georgia, were not likely to be mistaken in such a case ;
and no student of constitutional history can fail to see
in the resolutions of 1798-99 not only the spirit but the
full-grown body of the demon, nullification.
The Virginia resolutions were sent, by the legisla
ture which had passed them, to the other States, but met
Nuiiifica- a generally cold reception, while certain of
edbytneothe'r the State legislatures took the occasion to
states. denounce their doctrines in most vigorous
terms. The Senate and House of Representatives of
Delaware contented themselves with declaring: "That
they consider the resolutions from the State of Virginia
* That is, as to the fact of an infraction of the Constitution.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 153
as a very unjustifiable interference with the general
government and constituted authorities of the United
States, and of dangerous tendency, and, therefore, not
fit subject for the further consideration of the Gen
eral Assembly." Rhode Island, however, condescended
to argue the question raised in the nullification resolu
tions, and in so doing hit the nail squarely on the head
by declaring : " That, in the opinion of this Legisla
ture, the second section of the third article of the Con
stitution of the United States, in these words, to wit,
' the judicial power shall extend to all cases arising un
der the laws of the United States,' vests in the Federal
courts, exclusively, and in the Supreme Court of the
United States ultimately, the authority of deciding on
the constitutionality of any act or law of the Congress
of the United States." Other States responded in the
same vein.
The resolution of Rhode Island contains the true con
stitutional doctrine of the relations of the State and the
nation. When Mr. Jefferson, through the Kentucky
resolutions, declared that State and Nation had "no
common judge," he denied to the Supreme Court of the
United States that great and beneficent function, the
exercise of which has made this country what it is, and
through the continued exercise of which alone can
American nationality be sustained. In a report made to
the Virginia legislature, Mr. Madison, who had then
become a member, probably for that purpose, sought to
break the force of the hostile r sponses from the other
States by declaring, first, that it had not been proposed
that nullification should be resorted to for trivial rea
sons, but only in case of long-continued and outrageous
violation of the reserved rights of the States ; and, sec
ondly, that nullification should only be resorted to in
cases where the Supreme Court itself had joined with

154 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
Congress in approving such violations. Mr. Madison
was logically correct in assuming that a situation might
conceivably arise in which the Judiciary should join
with Congress in flagrant and outrageous invasions of
the rights of the States ; and he was also logically cor
rect in stating that, in such a situation, if redress be
came hopeless, the right to resist these invasions must
exist somewhere. But Mr. Madison was both logically
and politically in error when he pointed to nullification
as the proper resort. In such a situation as he describes,
the right to redress wrongs done under the Constitution
would lie with the people who established the Constitu
tion which had thus been perverted, and who might, for
sufficient reasons, destroy it. The true rem-
True rem- . J .
edy against edy, then, is not nullification, but rebellion.
The latter right always exists ; and no polit
ical writer in these days would venture to deny that, if
any government, whether a monarchy or a republic,
becomes thoroughly and hopelessly perverted from its
proper office of serving the interests and the liberties of
its people, the people may rise and put it down. This
is the doctrine of the Declaration of Independence ; it is
the doctrine of modern freedom, the doctrine of com
mon-sense. To inject nullification into a perverted
political situation would be to add anarchy to tyranny.
The battle over the resolutions of 1798-99 went
against the advocates of nullification. That heresy, in-
Fatuous- deed, was not stamped out. It was even yet
resolutions* o? to reappear in our politics ; but the great
1T98-99. debate which has been hurriedly described
destroyed its prestige and greatly crippled its malignant
power. When, long years after, it was again asserted,
during the fierce contest over the tariff of 1832, it found
a people who had been educated to regard the Supreme
Court of the United States as " the common judge "

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 155
between Nation and State. But more remains to be
said regarding the resolutions of 1798-99. Had the spe
cial friends of the general government been permitted
to choose the occasion on which the doctrine of nullifi
cation should be put forward, they could not have found
another which was so well suited to bring that doctrine
into contempt. The Alien and Sedition Laws had fur
nished the grievance which led Kentucky and Virginia
to take this most doubtful and dangerous position ; yet
each of these laws was to expire by limitation within
three years ; and, in fact, before that term closed, a
Congress and a President had been elected intensely
hostile to the principles of this legislation, thus putting
the renewal or continuance of those laws out of the
question. It was against alleged abuses so brief and
transient that Jefferson and Madison would have in
voked the evil spirit of nullification, which would make
stable government and a permanent union impossible.
Rather than bear with patience and manly fortitude a
wrong, however severe, during a space so short, these
two statesmen of the Revolution would have had the na
tion submit to anarchy in the immediate instance, with
civil war in the background.
There remain to be considered certain other acts and
events of this administration which had not much to do
with the movement of parties and the development of
politics, but which still require to be considered. In
1798 was formed the so-called Mississippi Territory,
comprising substantially the present States of Missis
sippi and Alabama ; and, in 1800, the Indiana Territory,
comprising substantially the present States of Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The word Territory
had now come to be used with a perfectly definite sig
nification, to characterize a region which had not yet
become ripe for Statehood ; but which was organized

156 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
provisionally, for political purposes, by act of Con
gress. As such a territory became more densely settled,
. it might either be admitted entire, as a State,
toriai organi- with a constitution framed by a convention
of its own people ; or the nearer and more
populous part might be admitted, the remainder being
still left in a territorial condition, to become in time
itself a State.
Congress met in the new capital, on the banks of the
Potomac, November 17, 1800. The name of Washing-
The new capi- ton was given to the permanent seat of gov-
taL ernment, which had been laid out as a city
by Major l'Enfant, a French engineer in the employ of
the United States. The plan had been drawn on such
an immense scale that Washington was destined to re
main for sixty years " a city of magnificent distances,"
with dreary and desolate intervals, and with bad and at
times almost impassable streets. But as, in the won
derful growth of the nation, the outlines of the city
were filled in with comely dwellings and splendid pub
lic buildings, Washington was to become one of the
most beautiful capitals of the world.
Congress in 1800 enacted the first bankruptcy law of
the United States. The passage of this law was due to
the fact that the Federalist party comprised
bankruptcy the greater portion of the commercial and
capitalist interests of the country. AYe shall
see how quickly, when the Republicans came into power
under Jefferson, this law was repealed.
In 1800 was taken the second census of the United
States. The total population was ascertained to be
The second 5,308,483. The gain since 1790 had been
census. thirty -five per cent., a rate of increase which
would allow population to double in twenty-two or
twenty-three years.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 157
On December 14, 1799, Washington died at Mount
Vernon, after a brief illness. Although definitively
retired from public life, his presence with Death of
his countrymen had been a force continually Washington.
operating for union, peace, and harmony. His removal
was a blow to the new nation, which needed his infm
ence hardly less in those stormy times than in some of
the more manifest crises of our history. It does not
need to be said that the death of Washington moved the
country profoundly, and that he was mourned by all
classes and all sections.
Our narrative from this point has to deal with ever-
deepening divisions among the Federalists ; and first
let us speak of the split in the cabinet. It An inherited
has been stated that Mr. Adams retained the <=aDiIiet-
Secretaries who had been left in office by AATashington.
This fact proved to be the spring and fountain of un
numbered woes. It was distinctly bad policy. A new
President should have a new cabinet all his own, each
member owing his place to the distinct preference of his
chief. Men left over from a former administration can
not be expected to be as loyal and single-minded as if
they had been called to office fresh from the people or
from congressional life. But the objection to the reten
tion of the members of a previous cabinet rises to a
maximum where the late President has been of tran
scendent fame and power, like Washington. In such a
case the retained Secretaries, being human, could hardly
fail to feel as if the traditions of the government were
in their keeping, and as if the fact that they had been
the confidential advisers of such a man gave them a cer
tain authority and influence above what belonged to
them personally. We might have supposed that Mr.
Adams retained his predecessor's Secretaries, not so
much out of deference to Washington as on account of

158 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
the scarcity of "cabinet timber" (Washington having
been, at the last, not a little troubled to get anybody at all
to serve in this capacity), were it not that Mr. Adams has
himself stated that at the beginning he had no objection
to any of these officers and entertained no thought of
removing them.* Mr. Adams afterward came to con
sider this the great mistake of his administration. His
subsequent troubles he attributed largely to the mem
bers of his cabinet, whom he regarded as disposed not
only openly to domineer over him, but secretly to in
trigue against him.
That at least three of Mr. Adams's cabinet were, dur
ing the greater part of his term of office, in close corre-
The secre- spondence with a person whom Mr. Adams
againsT'The regarded as his rival, if not his enemy ; that
President. tHey communicated to that person and to
others information which Mr. Adams did not desire
communicated, and which was intended to be used
against him ; and that his Secretaries did frequently in
voke, as the means of restraining him in his fixed pur
poses, influences which Mr. Adams deprecated as prej
udicial to his interests and disparaging to his dignity :
these things cannot be questioned. It does not need to
be said that nothing would justify such action except
some great emergency involving the safety of the nation.
Circumstances may, indeed, be conceived where cabinet
officers would rightly deem it their duty to " stick" (as
Senator Sumner wrote to Secretary Stanton), and to
perform such an odious and offensive part as the sole
means of checking designs immediately dangerous to
the liberties or the life of their country. Such an
emergency, for instance, existed in the last year of Mr.
* Before his inauguration he had written: "Pickering and all his
colleagues are as much attached to me as I desire. I have no jealousies
from that quarter."

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 159
Buchanan's administration, while the war of secession
was impending. But no claim of this kind can be put
forward in behalf of Mr. Adams's Secretaries. The Pres-
dent was as honest and brave a man as ever lived ; he
was deeply devoted to the interests of his country.
But while nothing can justify the actions recited, sev
eral things may be adduced to qualify the condemnation
to be pronounced. In the first place, these
ii i. j ¦ j: j-i • Excuses for
gentlemen had an overweening sense of their t h e Secreta-
own importance from having been the advisers
of Washington, and regarded themselves as being, in a
certain sense, the depositories of the first President's
opinions, wishes, and plans. Had they been greater men
themselves, they would probably have been less puffed
up by that relationship. In the second place, they ap
pear to have been much influenced by a view of their
official position which made them out to be, not the
President's confidential advisers and supporters, bound
to be loyal to him so long as they remained in his cab
inet, but as persons having a claim upon a share of the
executive office. In the third place, they were all deeply
under the influence of Mr. Hamilton ; looked up to him
as the great light of their party and its true leader ; and
deceived themselves into a feeling that their allegiance
was to him rather than to Mr. Adams, whom they re
garded as smashing the Federalist crockery by his bun
gling obstinacy. Finally, it should be said that the tra
ditions of the government were then unformed, and the
ethics of cabinet office were not well understood. Now
adays such a course would be impossible in the case of
any man of character.
This matter of the relations of President Adams to his
cabinet would not justify so much attention, were it of
personal interest only ; but the condition of things we
have recited became no inconsiderable part of the causes

160 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
which transferred the control of the country to the
opposition party and changed the history of the United
States. Mr. Hamilton had been profoundly disaffected
Hamilton's ^y *ae action of the President in seeking to
opposition to avert war with France. He sincerely believed
Adams. . u
that the time for war had fully come ; but it
was his own personal ambitions which drove him on to
thwart and injure Mr. Adams in Congress and before
the country. Hamilton had no thought of his own
election ; that was clearly impossible. But he believed
that by joining with Mr. Adams in the nomination *
some moderate Federalist of high standing who should
be unobjectionable to any of the party, he might then,
by influencing the votes in the Electoral Colleges, throw
Mr. Adams out. For this purpose he selected General
Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, of whom it is
sufficient to say in a word that he was entirely incapable
of being a party to such an intrigue. In furtherance of
his plan Mr. Hamilton, in 1800, made a tour through
New England, where he found the people little disposed
to sacrifice Mr. Adams.
It was at about this point that the President became
sufficiently aware of the situation to determine him to
Disruption of Part with two of his Secretaries. Mr. Mc-
the cabinet. Henry, the head of the War Department, had
been, on all accounts, the least satisfactory member of
the cabinet, while he had been- very active in the in
trigues of Hamilton. Colonel Pickering was a man of
far higher ability ; but his antagonism to the President's
policy had become so pronounced that Mr. Adams sought
and obtained his resignation also. Mr. AYolcott, how
ever, still remained in office, the President entertaining
no doubt of his fidelity. The charge of suspiciousness,
* It is to be remembered that, at this time, each elector voted for two
persons, without designating which he intended to make President.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 161
so frequently made against Mr. Adams, seems almost
ludicrous in view of the fact that he had for years re
tained in his " political family " three men who were in
immediate communication with his great rival. The
place of Colonel Pickering was taken by John Marshall,
of Virginia, soon to become Chief-Justice ; and that
of Mr. McHenry by Samuel Dexter, of Massachusetts.
Both of these appointments were of a high order. Had
Mr. Adams possessed such advisers from the first, his
administration might have had a different issue. Mr.
Wolcott held on until November, in the meantime fur
nishing confidential information to Mr. Hamilton, for
the express purpose of its being used against Mr. Adams.
Upon his resignation Mr. Dexter was transferred to the
Treasury ; and, a little later, Roger Griswold, of Con
necticut, was made Secretary of War.
Finding himself foiled in his efforts to secure, in ad
vance, by personal and private communications and
arrangements, the substitution of General Pinckney for
Mr. Adams in the coming election ; irritated at some
of the rebuffs he had received ; made doubly angry with
Mr. Adams because there was so little that could be
alleged against him ; borne on by his overweening am
bition, Mr. Hamilton proceeded to the extraordinary
step of issuing a pamphlet against the President, just on
the eve (October, 1800) of the election, in which Mr.
Adams was to be the candidate of his own party. The
pamphlet was entitled, " Letter from Alexander Hamil
ton, concerning the public conduct and character of
John Adams, Esq., President of the United States." It
severely reflected upon the President for his pardon of
Fries and for his initiation of the new mission to France,
matters certainly within the discretion of the chief magis
trate of a nation. For the rest, the pamphlet contained
little more than accusations against Mr. Adams of an im-
11

162 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
practicable spirit, of an inordinate vanity, of imperfections
of temper. Even so, Mr. Hamilton did not reach the re
sult of advising his countrymen to vote against Mr. Adams.
A more "lame and impotent conclusion " was never seen.
The publication was an act of spite and angry impatience
Hamilton's an<^ armless rage> which are only matter of
fatuous pam- sorrow when one remembers the services of
pnlet. the author to the cause of American inde
pendence and union, and his transcendent abilities. A
little more of the greatness of soul which lifted Wash
ington and Jay so high in the esteem of their country
men, would have prevented this painful exhibition.
It was under auspices so unfavorable, with internal
divisions and intrigues so discreditable, that the Feder
alist party went into the fourth presidential election, to
fight a losing battle. With the single exception of the
public indignation aroused by the conduct of the French
Directory, which has been recited, the drift had been
steadily against them. The country was every year be
coming more democratic. The Republican party was a
unit, controlled by a masterly politician, who was now
to be for the second time its candidate for the presi
dency ; while in the cardinal State of New York,* on
which the coming national election was to turn, Mr.
The fourth Jeff erson had as his political manager an able,
presidential brilliant, and unscrupulous man, the soon-to-
be-forever infamous Aaron Burr, in whom
strong ambition joined with intense hatred of Hamilton
to induce him to strain every nerve to detach that now
wavering State from its traditional allegiance to Federal
ist principles. As the leading Federalists had too well
* The Republicans had carried the city in 1798, and early in 1800
carried the State in the Gubernatorial election. The political organ
ization of that party in the city was then almost as complete and effec
tive as in these later days.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 163
foreseen, their party was doomed to defeat. New York,
which before had voted for Adams, transferred its votes
to Jefferson and Burr, who received, in all, TheKepub-
seventy-three votes each, against sixty-five 1!^^"™?-
for Adams and sixty-four for C. C. Pinckney. feated'
It had been thought that South Carolina might possibly
change the result by casting her electoral votes for her
own son, Pinckney, while rejecting Adams, just as, four
years before, she had voted for the other Pinckney, then
the Federalist candidate for Vice-President, while voting
also for Jefferson. Indeed, it was charged that precisely
this had been Mr. Hamilton's expectation and the pur
pose of his efforts. He had strongly urged the northern
Federalists to vote for Pinckney and not to throw away
a single ballot. In fact they had done so, with the ex
ception of one vote given to John Jay by Rhode Island.
But if Mr. Hamilton really expected South Carolina to
vote for Pinckney, while voting also for Jefferson, he
was disappointed, as that State gave an equal vote to
the Republican candidates. General Pinckney through
out refused to be a party to the plot to bring him
self in, instead of Mr. Adams. There had been but
one other opportunity to avert the impending result.
Hamilton had written to Jay, then Governor of New
York, urging that, inasmuch as the State had gone Re
publican, the legislature, which, though adjourned for
the year, had still some weeks of its legal term unex
pired, should be called together, in special session, to
anticipate the action of its successors and provide for
the choice of Electors by congressional districts. This
letter the high-minded Governor filed away, with the
endorsement, "Proposing a measure for party pur
poses, which I think it would not become me to
adopt." But, while the Republicans had defeated their oppo-

164 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
nents they had not themselves elected anyone either
President or Vice-President, owing to the absurd provi
sion of the Constitution already mentioned. The elec
tion had resulted in a tie. The contest was, therefore,
according to the Constitution, thrown into the House
The eiectio °^ RePresentatives, where each State was to
thrown into have one vote. The number of States being;
the House— . °
Burr's in- now sixteen, nine were necessary for a
choice. Here was a situation which gave
room for those great talents for intrigue which after
ward made Burr so evilly famous. He believed that the
Federalists would rather have him President than Jef
ferson ; and he determined to betray his party and his
own chief and secure the glittering prize for himself.
Such a contest was an immorality. Burr's action was
simply rascally. The course of the Federalists in Con
gress, who were willing to vote for him in order to de
feat Jefferson, was bad enough, though it did not in
volve personal or party infidelity. For a while it seemed
as though Burr would succeed in his design. The bal
loting continued about a week without choice, Jefferson
receiving the votes of New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl
vania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and
Tennessee ; Burr receiving those of New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware,
and South Carolina. Vermont and Maryland were di
vided. The Federalists, with but two or three excep
tions, voted steadily for Burr. At last, a growing sense
of the impropriety of the Federalist course, and an in
creasing savor from Burr's bad fame, combined with
the fear that March 4th might come without an elec
tion, put an end to this disgraceful contest. On the
thirty-sixth ballot the Federalist member from Vermont
purposely stayed away, while the Maryland Federalists
cast blank ballots in their State delegation. As a re-

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 165
suit, Jefferson was elected by the votes of ten States,
Burr becoming Vice-President.
Such was the outcome of the fourth presidential elec
tion, which effected a most important change of direc
tion in the politics of the United States. O A 11 fl P fl Or
The downfall of the Federalist party had the Federalist
been due, first, to mistaken legislation, as in
the case of the Alien and Sedition Laws, to divided coun
cils, and to jealousies and animosities among its leaders ;
secondly, to the remarkable political astuteness and sa
gacity of Mr. Jefferson, and to the unrelenting persist
ency with which for twelve years he followed out his ideas
and purposes ; thirdly, to the organized power of the
first New York Democratic "machine," under Aaron
Burr ; and lastly to a steady change which had been
going on in the body of the American people in the
direction of democracy. That change had in it much
that was good. The distrust of " the plain people," to
use the phrase of President Lincoln, the unwillingness
to believe in the essential patriotism, justice, and honesty
of the masses, which had been so freely avowed in the
Constitutional Convention of 1787, and which through
out had profoundly affected the Federalist policy ; the
reliance upon estates and powers within the common
wealth, which was of the very essence of Hamilton's
philosophy of government, and in which even Wash
ington and John Adams shared ; the disposition to re
sort, on one side, to the influence of wealth, and on
the other, to intimidation and repression for checking
the violence of political discussion : these things were
to disappear, and disappear forever, from American pub
lic life. For good or for evil, but altogether, as we may
well believe, for good, in the large, the long result, the
American people had taken the direction of more pure
and intense democracy ; and the nation was hereafter

166 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
to be governed by men who professed to believe and in
general did believe, in the integrity, honesty, and patriot
ism of the masses. From the time of the defeat of the
Federalists onward, no man, of whatsoever party, could
long hold a conspicuous place in American public life
while avowing sentiments such as had been in a high
degree characteristic of those to whom the destinies of
the nation were at first entrusted. All this we may well
believe to have been of good. On the other hand, the
incoming party, alike through reaction and through
lowness of aims and ideas on the part of many leaders,
was long to manifest a jealousy of wealth and culture,
a preference for mean motives and unworthy arts, and
even a disposition to truckle to the dishonest elements
of society, especially in matters of financial legislation,
which cannot be too severely condemned.
For the defeat of the Federalist party Mr. Adams long
had to bear the chief blame. Mr. Hamilton and the
late President's Secretaries did not cease to declare that
it was Mr. Adams's vanity, wilfulness and obstinacy, and
especially his disregard of their advice and influence,
which had brought about the disaster. And this view
has, thinkingly or unthinkingly, been adopted by most
writers on the history of that time. But at this dis
tance we may well inquire who made Mr. Hamilton a
ruler and a judge over Mr. Adams ? Both through his
official position and through the wider confidence re
posed in Mr. Adams than in Mr. Hamilton by the mass
of the Federalist party, the President was far better en
titled to decide upon the policy of the administration
than was his great rival or his small critics. Certainly
in the greatest matter of all, impending war with
France, Mr. Adams took the more sagacious and the
more patriotic part. With respect to the Alien and
Sedition Laws he had no responsibility, except for not

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS 167
vetoing bills which had been passed without any initia
tive or impulse from him. Mr. Adams had undoubtedly
faults of bearing, of manner, and in some The degree
degree, also, of character. But his name ams'srespon-
will go down to the later generations of his "ibiiity.
countrymen as that of one of the most brave, loyal, and
pure-minded among the statesmen of the early republic.
In one quality he surpassed them all, except only Wash
ington, in that he had neither Gallican nor Anglican
sympathies. An unfriendly critic might indeed say that
he hated both England and France equally ; but at any
rate, and this was a virtue in those times, he was neither
for one nor for the other, but for America, first, last, and
all the time, holding every other nation friend or foe ac
cording as its power was exerted for the welfare or the
injury of his own country.
But while the Republicans thus triumphed, Mr.
Adams was yet, in the closing hours of his administra
tion, to perform an act which should have a great in
fluence upon the destinies of the United States through
a long future. On January 31st, Judge Ellsworth hav
ing resigned his office, John Marshall became Chief-
Justice, an event second to but few in our
history. Marshall had nothing to do with Bhaii, chief-
making the written Constitution. Perhaps Ju8tice-
no man has had so much to do with making the Consti
tution as it really is. For thirty-four years Chief-Jus
tice, it is to him, more than to all other judges, we owe
that splendid series of judicial decisions — masterly, com
prehensive, and overwhelming — which have established
American nationality upon an impregnable basis.

CHAPTER IX
JEFFERSON'S FIRST TERM
Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution — Alleged Corrupt Bargain
— Removal of Officeholders — Repeal of the Circuit Courts Bill
—War on the Judiciary — Impeachment of Judges Addison,
Chase and others — Admission of Ohio — Reapportionment of
Representation — Military Academy Founded — Repeal of Excise
Duties — Naturalization — Repeal of Bankruptcy Act— Florida
and Louisiana — Spain Cedes Louisiana to France — Napoleon
Sells it to the United States — Political Consequences of this
Measure — Republican Party Surrenders Principle of Strict
Construction — Difficulty with Spain — Abortive Treaty with
England — Changes in the Cabinet — Re-election of Jefferson —
Burr Kills Hamilton.
The country had borne long enough with the stupid
provision regarding the choice of President and Vice-
President. Such a source of mischief and annoyance
could no longer be tolerated. Accordingly, Congress
TheTweifth proposed the Twelfth Amendment to the Con-
tomtned<£nsti- stitution, which provided that, in the electoral
tution. ballots, persons voted for as President should
be distinctly named, and likewise the persons voted for
as Vice-President ; and that separate lists of all persons
voted for as President and of all persons voted for as
Vice-President, with the number of votes for each, should
be sent to the President of the Senate. In case no per
son had received the votes for President of a majority of
the whole number of electors appointed, then from the
persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding
three, on the list of those voted for, the House of Rep
resentatives should elect the President. But in choosing

Jefferson's first term 169
the President the votes should be taken by States, the
representation from each State having one vote. The
quorum for this purpose should consist of a member or
members from two-thirds of the States ; and a majority
of all the States should be necessary to a choice. Should
the House fail thus to choose a President before the
fourth day of March, then the Vice-President should act
as President. In like manner should no person receive
the votes of a majority of the whole number of electors
appointed, for Vice-President, then, from the two high
est on the list, the Senate should choose the Vice-Presi
dent ; a quorum for the purpose to consist of two-thirds
of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the
whole number to be necessary to a choice. The amend
ment thus proposed was ratified and became a part of
the Constitution.
Let us now consider the civil service under Mr. Jef
ferson. Congress having, just before the close of Mr.
Adams's administration, provided for additional officers
— judges, attorneys, and marshals, in connection with a
large extension of the United States courts * — Mr. Adams
proceeded, during the last three weeks of his term, to
make appointments for these offices, mainly „ . ,
rr > j Mr Adams s
out of his own immediate supporters. These "midni ght"
,. j , ,, , , appointments.
appointments were continued up to the last
day. One dramatic story, with perhaps more of poetry
than of truth, represents Mr. Adams as engaged in sign
ing commissions until the clock struck twelve on the
night of the third of March. Hence the term " mid
night," as applied to this whole batch of appointments.
Even the Federalists could hardly blame Mr. Jefferson
for refusing to consider himself bound by commissions
issued thus in the last hours of a dying administration.
* It was by this act that the Circuit Courts of the United States were
established.

170 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
Mr. Jefferson, however, in not a few cases, issued new
commissions to the persons selected by Mr. Adams.
But the President was subjected to censure for his
dealings with public offices, at this time, in two other
respects. It was charged, and deposition to that effect
was formally made, by James A. Bayard, of Delaware,
afterward Senator from that State, and one of the Com
missioners who negotiated the treaty of peace with Great
Britain, in 1814, to the effect that, while the presidential
election was pending in the House of Representatives,
he sought and obtained, through General Smith, assur
ances from Mr. Jefferson that, if elected, he would not,
on political grounds, disturb "subordinate public offi
cers employed only in the execution of details established
by law." Among those specifically mentioned by Mr.
Bayard, in conversation with General Smith, were the
collectors of customs at Philadelphia and Wilmington.
That assurance proving sufficient, according to Mr. Bay
ard's deposition, "the opposition of Vermont, Mary
land, and Delaware was immediately withdrawn, and
Mr. Jefferson was made President by the votes of ten
States." This charge produced a great sensation at the
time ; but, looking back upon the situation, we may see
how the circumstances could have arisen without any
The alleged thought of a corrupt bargain on Mr. Jeffer-
cormpt bar- son's part. General Smith might naturally
enough have asked Mr. Jefferson if it was
in accordance with his views that subordinate officers
charged by law with precise duties should be removed
on political grounds. If General Smith had asked the
question of Mr. Jefferson, that gentleman would assur
edly have given but one answer, a decided "No." This,
being communicated to Mr. Bayard, might easily have
satisfied that gentleman and his friends, and have led to
the result stated. The whole tenor of Mr. Jefferson's

Jefferson's first term 171
life is so strongly adverse to anything like a corrupt
bargain that no shadow of imputation from this source
should rest upon his name.
Mr. Jefferson did, however, shortly after his inaugu
ration, give cause for some complaints by his removal of
civil officers fairly belonging to the class characterized
by Mr. Bayard. The case which caused the greatest
scandal was the displacement of Elizur Goodrich, as
collector at New Haven, and the appointment of an aged
and infirm man to the position. Upon this the mer
chants of that city addressed a remonstrance to the Pres
ident. In his reply, Mr. Jefferson insisted upon the
propriety of his action ; and, in closing his letter, made
use of the expression which afterward became so famous,
" that state of things when the only questions concern
ing a candidate shall be, is he honest ? is he capable ? is
he faithful to the Constitution ? " However virtuously
Mr. Jefferson might write, he in fact made not a few
removals upon partisan grounds. Yet that Parti8an re.
number was ludicrously small in comparison movais from
with what we have become accustomed to in
the later days of the republic. A good, smart assistant-
postmaster-general, of these times, would not think he
had earned his luncheon if he had not taken off more
heads in one morning than Mr. Jefferson did in eight
years. The natural antagonism of the Republican party to
any extension of the jurisdiction or any magnifying of
the authority of the national judiciary, combined with
the indignation aroused by the judicial appointments
made by President Adams in the last hours of his ad
ministration, secured an early repeal of the law estab
lishing the Circuit Courts of the United States and cre
ating a new body of judges and law officers therefor.
The repeal was the more easily effected because it was

172 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
shown that the business of the national courts was not
increasing in a degree to require this addition to the ju
dicial system. But the wrath of the Republicans was
not satisfied by this measure ; and the repre-
on thejudi- sentatives of that party proceeded to some
thing like war upon the judiciary, under
cover of the constitutional power of impeachment.
Pennsylvania led off in this direction by impeaching
and removing one of her own Federalist judges, Addi
son, a man of the highest character and ability. In
1804 the House of Representatives, at Washington, im
peached and secured the conviction and removal, for
good and sufficient cause, it must be confessed, of a Dis
trict Judge of the United States, Pickering ; and then
proceeded, under the instigation of the President, to
the impeachment of Judge Chase, of the Supreme
Court, whose bearing in the cases under the Sedition
Law had been deeply resented. That Judge Chase had
done much which was properly the subject of animad
version was undeniable ; but there is reason to believe
that the impeachment was really for the purpose of in
timidating the national judiciary in general, and dimin
ishing the influence which this new force was exerting
in moulding the Constitution and shaping the develop
ment of the nation. The trial,* poorly conducted by
John Randolph on behalf of the impeaching House, re
sulted in the acquittal of Judge Chase on most of the
eight articles, while on none did the vote for conviction
reach the required two-thirds. This most fortunate
result terminated a movement which, had it been car
ried as far as its promoters desired, might have broken
the spirit of the national judiciary and seriously im
paired its great and beneficent function in the develop-
* It seems strange to read that at this trial Aaron Burr, then under in
dictment for the murder of Hamilton, presided over the Senate, by virt
ue of his office as Vice-President.

JEFFERSON'S FIRST TERM 173
ment of the nation. The Legislature of Pennsylvania,
indeed, sought to pursue this war upon Federalist
judges, and impeached three judges of the Supreme
Court of that State ; but here again the requisite two-
thirds vote for conviction could not be obtained. Prob
ably these rude assaults upon the judiciary, both State
and national, were not altogether without an effect for
good, in teaching our judges to be careful regarding the
display of partisanship upon the bench ; but, while we
may not wonder at the vindictiveness of the triumphant
Republicans toward those who had been engaged in the
odious prosecutions under the now extinct Federalist
regime, we may rejoice that the issue was so far nuga
tory as to leave the judiciary independent and in unim
paired efficiency. Even in the height of this crusade
no responsible Republican had dared to attempt to re
constitute the Supreme Court or to take away any part
of its jurisdiction, though there were many men prom
inent in that party who would have delighted to do so,
had they not been restrained by the fear of weakening
the hold of their party upon the northern States. These
men saw " the writing on the wall," although even then,
perhaps, they did not fully realize the extent of the
influence which the Supreme Court, under the Chief-
Justiceship of Marshall, was to exert in moulding the
Constitution and building up a real nation.
It was in this administration that the great and splen
did State of Ohio was added to the Union. No citizen
of the republic can glance over the history
of the nation, and not be thrilled as he con
templates the part which this State has played in that
mighty drama, both in war and in peace ; and as he
reads the roll of its great men, its judges, its generals,*
* To speak of generals only, Ohio produced Grant, Sherman, Sheridan,
Buell, McPherson, McDowell, Rosecrans, D. S. Stanley, and A. D. Mc-
Cook.

174 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
its statesmen. The population of Ohio at the date of its
admission was only 45,365. It is now nearly one hun
dred times as much.
In the reapportionment of representation in Congress
which followed the second census, the total number of
Reapportion- members of the House was increased from
ment. ^qq ^0 14-^ the ra^j0 taken being one repre
sentative to 33,000 people. The number assigned to
each State was as follows : New Hampshire, 5 ; Massa
chusetts, 17 ; Vermont, 4 ; Rhode Island, 2 ; Connecti
cut, 7 ; New York, 17 ; New Jersey, 6 ; Pennsylvania,
18 ; Delaware, 1 ; Maryland, 9 ; Virginia, 22 ; North
Carolina, 12 ; South Carolina, 8 ; Georgia, 4 ; Ken
tucky, 6 ; Tennessee, 3. From the foregoing it will ap
pear that there were now four distinctly large States
which, together, sent 72 representatives to Congress, or
more than one-half the total number. We have also to
note that there was no proper group of States of the
second rank, North Carolina, with twelve, being the
only State which had more than nine and fewer than
seventeen representatives.
It was in this administration that the Military Acad
emy, destined to such a glorious career, was established
The Military at AYest Point. It may with confidence be
Academy, asserted that no equally successful school is
known to history. When the war of 1861-65 broke out,
there were probably fewer living graduates of West
Point than of Williams, Dartmouth, or Amherst ; yet
out of this small number arose a Grant, a Lee, a Sher
man, a Meade, a Jackson, a Thomas, the two Johnstons,
a Hancock, a Longstreet, a Reno, a Reynolds, and a
Sheridan, not to mention scores of others who com
manded divisions and corps with a skill, courage, and
address which have excited the admiration of the pro
fessional soldiers of Europe.

Jefferson's first term 175
We now come to a series of legislative measures which,
while they do not seem, on the face of them, of a parti
san character, were all essentially involved in the down
fall of the Federalists and in the accession to power of
the more democratic party. The first of these was the
repeal of the internal duties imposed in the Tog rpnpfil
administrations of Washington and Adams, of internal
This was done, not as a matter of expediency,
but as a matter of preference and definite policy. It
was not alone because the whiskey tax and the stamp
duties had aroused public opposition, even to the point
of armed rebellion ; it was in a far higher degree be
cause Mr. Jefferson's party, and particularly Mr. Jeffer
son himself, hated internal duties and eschewed them as
any proper part of the revenue system of the United
States, that it was perfectly safe, on March 4, 1801, to
predict that these laws would not long remain on the
statute-book. The repeal was effected by an act ap
proved April 6, 1802 ; and the United States were thus
thrown back upon customs and the sale of public lands
as their principal sources of revenue. The loss of rev
enue Mr. Jefferson hoped to see partly compensated by
an increase in the customs duties, and partly provided
for by a reduction of expenses all along the line, but
especially at the cost of the army, the navy, and the ju
diciary. All these services were subjected to a search
ing retrenchment, which was bitterly resented by the
victims and by the now helpless Federalists. The an
ticipated increase of receipts from customs did not take
place within the time allowed, so that the readjustment
of expenditures and income was mainly effected by re
ductions in the military and civil list. In the retrench
ments proposed at the outset of Mr. Jefferson's admin
istration, because of the loss of revenue from internal
duties and for the sake of diminishing the patronage of

176 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
the general government, it was even proposed to abolish
the mint. It was disagreeable to the extreme opponents
of national power, headed by John Randolph, to see
the emblems and insignia of sovereignty circulating
among the people, even though it were in no more im
pressive form than copper cents, then practically our sole
coinage. These statesmen desired to have foreign coins
used in our currency, that the people might not be daily
reminded that there was a nation.
Another measure of Mr. Jefferson's first Congress was
not less expressive of the sentiments and purposes of the
Republican party. On the inauguration of
Naturalization. , . , -, -, t , , „
government it had become necessary to define
the terms on which foreigners should be admitted to
citizenship. By an act of 1790 an alien might become
a citizen after two years' residence, upon application to
the proper courts of any State in which he had resided
one year. By an act of 1795, in Washington's second
term, five years' residence was required, application to
be made three years before admission. In Mr. Adams's
administration distrust and dislike of foreigners had be
come almost a characteristic virtue of the Federalists ;
and, in 1798, the year of the Alien and Sedition Laws, an
act was passed requiring not less than fourteen years'
residence, application to be made five years previous to
admission. Moreover, this act, in the very spirit of the
obnoxious Alien Law, placed under surveillance all
white aliens who resided or who should arrive in the
United States, requiring such persons to be reported
and registered. It is not to be wondered at that the ac
cession to power of the Republican party, which had al
ways been exceedingly favorable to foreigners, led to the
early repeal of a rule of naturalization so severe, inhos
pitable, and almost proscriptive, as that which the Fed
eralists had set up. Eight days after, the repeal of the

Jefferson's first term 177
internal duties, Congress restored the term of residence
to what it had been by the act of 1795.
But even more expressive still of the affiliations, sen
timents, and purposes of the party newly come to power,
was the act of December 19, 1803, by which Th
Congress repealed the general bankruptcy of the bank-
law of 1800. Although no power of the
general government was more explicitly and unreserv
edly granted in the Constitution, the Republican, or
Democratic, party has always been unfavorable, both in
the early and in the latter days of the republic, to the
exercise of this power. Mr. Jefferson himself had a
peculiar animosity to bankruptcy laws, growing out
of his dislike of commerce, to which allusion has been
made. " Is commerce so much the basis of the exist
ence of the United States as to call for a bankruptcy
law ?" he writes. " On the contrary, are we not al
most merely agricultural ? Should not all laws be
made with a view, essentially, to the poor husband
men ? " Those same " poor husbandmen " have been
made the excuse for a good deal of rascality in the
United States. The bankruptcy system was doomed
when Mr. Jefferson was elected President ; and by act
of December 9, 1803, Congress repealed the law of 1800,
throwing the credit and commerce of the country back
upon the widely varying, inconsistent, and often dis
honest legislation of the several States.
Such were some of the measures of internal policy
which signalized the accession of the Republican [Demo
cratic] party to power for the first time, in 1801. Let
us now consider the course of foreign affairs in the ear
lier part of Jefferson's administration. Al- ^ SvwiBh
though by the heroic enterprises of Ponce de P°wer-
Leon and Fernando de Soto, the Spaniards were the
discoverers of both the Floridas (East and West) and of
13

178 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
Louisiana ; and although the organization of our gov
ernment found that power in possession of these vast
territories, the Spanish occupation had not been con
tinuous. France had, prior to the close of the Seven
Years' War, 1756-63, asserted and maintained her claim
to Louisiana; and when France and Spain, the con
quered in that struggle of giants, came to make terms
with victorious England, Spain was obliged to relin
quish the Floridas to England, while France indemni
fied her ally and companion in misfortune by the cession
of Louisiana. England was not, however, long to be
left in possession of her conquests at the South. The
close of the Revolutionary AYar, 1783, found her glad to
accept peace on less favorable terms than in 1763, and
Florida returned to Spain. The same treaty bounded
' the possessions of the United States upon the west by
the Mississippi River. AVe have already referred to the
difficulties which the new government encountered in
dealing with Spain respecting the navigation of the
Mississippi and the right to land and store goods at
New Orleans. Undoubtedly one great reason for the
value which Spain, and afterward France, was disposed
to put upon the lower Mississippi, was found in the ex
pectation, not extravagant at the time, that a confedera
tion would yet be formed in the great valley, the patron
and protector of which would naturally be that power
which could give or withhold access to the sea. To
European diplomatists and statesmen the AUeghenies
appeared a barrier to sovereignty not easily to be passed.
By Louisiana is here to be understood not merely the
present State of that name, but the vast region west of
the Mississippi, extending from the Gulf of Mexico
northward to the British possessions, westward at least
as far as the Rocky Mountains.
In 1800, by a secret treaty, Spain ceded back to

jefferson's first term 179
France the Louisiana which she had received from her
by the treaty of 1763. Rumors of this negotiation hav
ing reached Washington, our ministers at Madrid and
Paris were instructed to oppose the cession by every
argument in their power. The French government,
however, persistently denied the fact of such a ces
sion for more than a year. It then became known that
an expedition, under General Victor, was fitting out
to take possession of the province. At this juncture
President Jefferson appointed Mr. Monroe to be an as
sociate of Mr. Livingston, our minister at Paris, and
also, if necessary, of Mr. Pinckney at Madrid. The
instructions were to prevent the cession of the Floridas
and of New Orleans. But before Mr. Monroe's arrival
negotiations of a surprising character were begun, which
were destined to end these difficulties in a manner alto
gether unexpected and with consequences the most tre
mendous. The French Minister of the Treasury, Mar-
bois, proposed nothing less than the cession of Louisiana.
Mr. Livingston was not prepared for such a
stroke of business ; but, on the arrival of chase of Lou-
Mr. Monroe, the vast importance of the set
tlement so pressed upon the ministers of the United
States that they assumed the responsibility of transcend
ing their instructions, and on April 30, 1803, concluded
a treaty by which France ceded to the United States the
whole vast territory of Louisiana, " forever and in full
sovereignty." The consideration for the cession was
60,000,000 francs and the relinquishment of debts due
by France to citizens of the United States, amounting
to about fifteen millions more. Napoleon's reasons for
thus alienating an empire can only be conjectured. Most
probably the dominating consideration was an apprehen
sion that, in the then impending war, an English fleet
would seize New Orleans and thus practically control

180 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
the Mississippi Valley. Moreover, it is to be said that
the First Consul's thoughts were at this period almost
wholly engrossed by his plans of conquest and glory in
the Orient. Egypt, Constantinople, and India had be
come the immediate objects of his high-soaring ambi
tion. On the other hand was the possibility that, should
he cede Louisiana to the United States, it might become
the means of embroiling us with England, which would
give him a new ally. Then there was the fact of a large
money payment to be made at once, a welcome addition
to his finances. Finally, we are not to forget the levity,
petulance, and fickleness which mingled so strangely
with the greatness and daring of Napoleon's mind.
Although the treaty was contrary to the instructions
of our ministers, and also, as the dominant party in the
Political government was bound to believe, contrary
th?Lom?stoa£ to the Constitution, yet, in view of the su-
purchase. preme importance of the transaction, it was
promptly ratified by the Senate ; and the necessary
steps taken for the temporary government of the terri
tory, and for the payment of the consideration. An act
of 1804 organized the Territory of Orleans (the present
State of Louisiana) and the District of Louisiana, the
latter having its principal settlement at St. Louis. It
has been said that the dominant political party in the
government, viz., the Republican party, was bound to
hold this acquisition of territory unconstitutional. Not
only can no authority be found in the Constitution,
through any exercise of a strict construction, for such
an acquisition of territory without the consent of the
States parties to the original compact ; but the palpable,
necessary consequences of this acquisition, through its
effect upon the membership of the Union and upon the
"balance of power" within the government, were so
overwhelming as to amount to almost a revolution.

Jefferson's first term 181
We have seen that, in the Convention of 1787, grave
apprehensions were expressed lest the States to be
formed from the territory west of the AUeghenies
should, in time, weigh down the Atlantic States ; and it
was even proposed to set a limit to the total number of
members who should ever be admitted to Congress from
that region. Yet here was a new territory, of a million
square miles, which did not belong to us and never had
belonged to us ; which, so far as occupied at all, was
settled by other races than our own ; and Mr. Jefferson
had undertaken, upon his own motion and notion, to
say that this vast territory should become a part of the
United States forever ; and that its inhabitants should
be " incorporated in the Union of the United States and
admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles
of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the
rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the
United States." If we look at the usurpation of au
thority involved in framing such a treaty, it may fairly
be said that all the encroachments which had been in
contemplation by any member of the Constitutional
Convention, as to be apprehended from the executive,
were child's play in comparison. On the other hand, if
we look at the practical consequences of this treaty, as
affecting the future membership of the Union, as threat
ening the rights and powers of the original parties * to
the "federal compact," and as bearing upon the balance
of power within the government, we shall not the less
admit this measure to have been of an absolutely revo
lutionary character. The original thirteen States com
prised about half a million square miles ; and we have
seen that they felt grave apprehensions lest their rights
* John Randolph had refused to vote even for the admission of Ohio
on the ground that the admission of a new party without the consent of
the original members constituted an infraction of the compact between
the States.

182 the making of the nation
and proper influence should, in time, be overborne in
Congress by votes from the trans- Appalachian territory,
The Louis- wmcn was of nearry equal extent. Yet here
iana purchase we have a new territory, equal to both halves
revo utionary. ^ ^e original country, brought into the
Union by act of the executive, with the assent of a Sen
ate not especially authorized thereto, without any par
ticipation in the matter by the House of Representa
tives, and without any reference of the question either
to the States or to the people. With no opportunity to
assent or to object, the original States were at once made
to become only one-quarter part of the Union, if we take
territory as the measure. And, indeed, we have al
ready, in 1895, come to the point where the original
thirteen States form but a little more than a quarter of
the actual number of constituent members. If the
Union was, indeed, as according to the States-rights' doc
trine, merely a federal compact, then we must say that
the cession and acceptance of Louisiana constituted not
less than a revolution. This, too, was a revolution in
the direction of centralization and the impairment of the
powers of the original States, brought about by the very
party which had undertaken to maintain the principle
of strict construction and to provide the needed opposi
tion to inevitable tendencies toward encroachment on
the part of the general government.
In the last clause is found the chief significance of
that momentous transaction. It was the States' rights
party which had done this imperial act. It was the very
founder of that party who had put his hand to what he
admitted was an extra-constitutional, if not unconstitu
tional, measure,* for the purpose of aggrandizing the na-
* Mr. Jefferson said, "The Executive has done an act beyond the Con
stitution. The Legislature must ratify it and throw themselves upon
the country for an aot of indemnity." In further urging this view upon

Jefferson's first term 183
tion beyond what had been conceived by the most san
guine. There had been two parties to the interpre
tation of the Constitution. One consistently declared
that that instrument created a nation from which its
members could not secede ; a nation which was com
petent to determine all matters of common concern
through its own judiciary, executive, and legislature ;
which was sovereign in its sphere. This party had uni
formly asserted that the revenues should be ample ; that
there should be an adequate army to enforce the laws ;
that the dignity and authority of the general govern
ment should be magnified and extended just so far and
just so fast as the common good might require. The
other party had uniformly maintained the idea of a fed
eral compact ; of a strict construction of the powers given
to the general government ; of holding the revenues and
the agencies of that government down to its absolutely
necessary uses. This latter party, under the immense
temptation offered by Bonaparte, had surrendered its
principles ; had committed an imperial act The Bepub-
of far-reaching and permanent consequences ; 1Burr*endera the
had overwhelmed the original States by the B°reitctI1coS-
certain future access of an indefinite number struction.
of new members, all of them possible rivals and competi
tors, perhaps unfriendly, perhaps hostile ; had magni
fied the Union vastly beyond what had been in contem
plation only sixteen years before. The influence of this
surrender of the federal, as distinguished from the na
tional principle, by the only party which had under
taken to maintain it, upon the subsequent course of our
constitutional history, cannot be estimated. The Re-
his supporters he said : " Our peculiar security is in the possession of a
written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construc
tion." Yet, after saying so much, Mr. Jefferson finally acquiesced in
allowing the Louisiana purchase to pass as done solely by himself and a
score, or so, of senators.

184 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
publican party never did and never could get back to its
original position as the advocate of a strict construction.
However its statesmen might declaim about the original
compact, whatever Republican conventions might de
clare, the great empire beyond the Mississippi was to
stand forever as a contradiction of their theories. There
after no man could, in the country-store, around the
post-office stove, on the court-house steps, at the county
fair, or upon the road, advance the " compact " theory
of the government, without being liable to have the
Louisiana purchase thrown in his face. No human in
genuity could twist this act so as to make it fit into the
States' rights doctrine. Looking at it in its relations
to the development of American nationality, we do not
hesitate to say that the purchase of Louisiana was an
act second in our history only to the adoption by the
Constitutional Convention of Randolph's resolution :
" That the government of the United States ought to
consist of a supreme legislative, judiciary, and execu
tive." There was one ultimate consequence of the purchase
of Louisiana which requires to be noted at this point,
. though the full effect of it was not for some
Influence of . °
the Louisiana time to be made manifest, and the considera
ble slavery tion of its influence upon the politics of the
United States falls within the province of
my successor in this series. That was the enormous im
pulse thereby given to the domestic trade in slaves.
The opening of the vast region beyond the Mississippi,
to be settled under the laws and the protection of the
Union, was destined to create a demand for negro labor,
to cultivate the cotton-fields of Louisiana, Arkansas, and
southeastern Missouri, which should long make slave-
holding profitable in Virginia and Kentucky.
The French cession of Louisiana did not, however,

Jefferson's first term 185
conclude our difficulties respecting the navigation of the
Mississippi. Spain was equally surprised and disappoint
ed at the use made by France of her cession Difficulties
of 1800. To cede the territory to France, with Spain.
her ally, was one thing ; to have it ceded to the United
States, a power already so great as to threaten the se
curity of the Floridas and the West Indies, was quite a
different thing. Only reluctantly did Spain withdraw
her objections to the cession;* while the transaction
was undoubtedly the cause of her long delaying the rati
fication of a treaty which she had concluded with the
United States in 1802, providing for the adjustment of
claims for spoliations upon our commerce. Nor did the
assent of Spain to the acquisition of Louisiana determine
the vexed question of boundary. By a diplomatic com
plication which we need not take time to narrate, the
line between the Louisiana ceded to France and by
France to the United States, and the Florida retained
by Spain, was in dispute. Spain claimed that her ter
ritory extended to the Mississippi and Lakes Pontchar-
train and Borgue, while the United States claimed east
ward to the river Perdido. This question was left to be
settled later, partly by force of arms, partly by negotia
tion ; but meanwhile the United States had to complain
of the conduct of Spanish cruisers, which infested our
southern coasts and harassed our trade with the West
Indies. In 1806, at the dictation of Napoleon, rein
forced by the eager demands of the slave-holding States,
which feared the influence of a successful slave-insurrec-
* Spain having ceded the territory to France on the express stipulation
that that power should not transfer it to any other, some were at first
disposed to hold that the cession to us was not valid without the consent
of Spain. But our government very properly took the position that the
matter of such a stipulation was wholly a question between Spain and
France, and could not affect our rights. This was sound reasoning
enough, but did not dispose of the possibility that Spain might attempt
to prevent our acquiring the territory.

186 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
tion, Congress passed an act prohibiting trade with the
revolted blacks of San Domingo. This measure was
really a part of the negotiation with France and Spain
regarding the interests of the latter power.
In 1803, Rufus King, our minister at London, con
cluded a treaty which adjusted the boundary line be
tween the two countries. The Senate, how-
Bound ary , . „ . , ,.
between the ever, m its ratification, excepted one article ;
andGreatBrft- and the amended treaty was sent back to
London for concurrence. Great Britain
failed to give her assent to the amendment, and the
treaty failed, the question being left to long and angry
negotiations to take place one and two generations later,
when the United States should be grown stronger and
better able to enforce its claims.
We have already alluded to the tribute exacted by the
Barbary powers, as the condition upon which they con-
sen ted to permit the navigation of the Med-
the Barbary iterranean by American vessels. The inso
lence of these licensed pirates only grew by
indulgence. When Captain Bainbridge, of our navy,
in 1800, bore to Algiers the stipulated tribute for that
year, the Dey actually compelled him to carry despatches
to the Sultan of Constantinople. Tripoli and Tunis
also made outrageous demands, accompanied by threats.
But the growing sense of American nationality would
not allow this humiliating state of things to continue.
Mr. Jefferson was not much of a fighting man ; but on
this occasion he acted with decision. Commodore Dale
was sent to the Mediterranean with a small fleet ; and
by his energetic demonstrations, which included the
capture of one Tripolitan cruiser, for a time overawed
the piratical governments. Tripoli, however, renewing
her acts of outrage, Congress recognized a state of war
as existing, and the Mediterranean fleet was reinforced.

Jefferson's first term 187
In the summer of 1803 several of the enemy's cruisers
were captured or destroyed. This display of energy,
followed by the arrival of additional vessels, under
Commodore Preble, sufficed to keep the other Barbary
states out of the contest, for which they had been han
kering, and left Tripoli to be dealt with alone. Unfort
unately, the frigate Philadelphia, under Bainbridge,
while pursuing a ship of the enemy, ran upon a rock
and was captured. The vessel was set on fire in the
most gallant manner by Lieutenant, afterward Commo
dore, Decatur ; but her crew were still held as slaves.
The war now having become a serious affair, the Medi
terranean fleet was further reinforced, and Commodore
Barron was sent out to take command. The town of
Tripoli was invested and bombarded, and the hostile
cruisers were driven in or destroyed ; but the enemy
kept Bainbridge and his men prisoners. At last, in
June, 1805, a treaty of peace was framed, which pro
vided for the restoration of the captives and for the rec
ognition of our rights in the Mediterranean. The spir
ited action of the United States in respect to Tripoli
not only served to deter the other Barbary powers,
but became an example to the European states, which
did not much longer submit to blackmail from that
source. Let us now consider the cabinet, the movement of
parties, and the fifth presidential election. Mr. Jeffer
son had originally selected his cabinet as Jefferson's
follows : James Madison, of Virginia, Secre- the movement
tary of State ; Henry Dearborn, of Massa- of Parties-
chusetts, Secretary of War ; Levi Lincoln, of Massachu
setts, Attorney-General. Dexter and Stoddert were for
a short time continued in office, after which Albert
Gallatin became Secretary of the Treasury, and Robert
Smith, Secretary of the Navy. Joseph Habersham, of

188 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
Georgia, who had been appointed Postmaster-General in
1795, was for a few months continued in office. He
was then succeeded by Gideon Granger, of Connecticut.
The head of the Post-office Department, however, was
not called into the cabinet until the administration of
General Jackson. The National Intelligencer, so long
famous in the history of our politics, was started in Mr.
Jefferson's administration, as the official organ of the
government. The popular revulsion from the Federalist
principles of the late administration continued in full
force, reducing the party which had represented them
to a state of extreme weakness. That this was in a de
gree due to the increasing insolence of England, and
not wholly to the acts and principles of the Federalists
themselves, is most probable. England, with her gigan
tic naval power, was again looming up on the national
horizon as our great "natural enemy." The steady
gains of the Republicans were, also, in no small measure,
due to the popularity of Mr. Jefferson, whose easy man
ners, whose philosophical habit of mind, whose opti
mistic way of looking at public affairs, and whose un
questioning confidence in the integrity, honesty, and
patriotism of the masses, " just suited " the American
people. State after State, traditionally Federalist, came
over to the support of the administration in its first
year. In 1804 the usual party nominations were made
Jefferson's re- for the approaching presidential election.
election. Burr, having entirely fallen out of the con
fidence and sympathy of his party, was dropped ; and
George Clinton, of New York, was substituted as the
candidate for Vice-President. Charles C. Pinckney and
Rufus King were nominated by the Federalists. They
received, however, only 14 votes — 9 from Connecticut,
3 from Delaware, and 2 (out of 11) from Maryland.
Jefferson and Clinton received 164 votes each, and were

JEFFERSON'S FIRST TERM 189
overwhelmingly elected. Even Massachusetts cast her
votes for Jefferson.
But we cannot close this account of Jefferson's first
term without alluding to a tragedy of which only a faint
shadow has been thrown over the generation in which
we live ; but which to our fathers was scarcely less im
pressive and terrible than many of us remember the
murder of Lincoln to have been in our day. Aaron
Burr, cast off by his party, took his broken fortunes
and his bad name to the Federalists of New York, who
nominated him for Governor in 1804. Defeated by the
bitter opposition of many of the party which had
adopted him, chief among them Hamilton, who had re
turned to the practice of law in New York City, and
goaded to fury by attacks upon his life and character,
he challenged Hamilton to mortal combat. The an
tagonists met at AYeehawken, on July 11th, Hamilton's
and Hamilton received a wound of which he tragic deatl1-
died the next day. Thus perished, at the age of forty-
seven, in the prime of his powers, a statesman whose
name has been held second to none, in point of ability,
among those who framed the Constitution and inaugu
rated the Union. His rival and murderer dragged out
his dishonored life, " by reason of strength," to four
score years.

CHAPTER X
JEFFERSON'S SECOND TERM
Foreign Affairs— English and French Outrages — The Right of
Search — Insolently Exercised by British Cruisers — Impress
ment of American Seamen — The Affair of the Chesapeake —
"Contraband of War" — Right of Blockade — England and
France Compete in Injuries to our Commerce — England Sets
up the " Rule of 1756 "—The British Blockades— Napoleon
Retaliates upon the "Orders in Council" with His Berlin
and Milan Decrees — The Bayonne Decree — The Monroe Treaty
with England — Jefferson Refuses to send it to the Senate — Jef
ferson's Proclamation Ordering British Men-of-War out of
American Waters — The Non-Importation Act — The Embargo
— Resentment of the Commercial States— Mr. Jefferson Hostile
to the Carrying Trade and to General Commerce — The Em
bargo Breaks Down — Troubles with Spain — Proposed Purchase
of Florida— Measures of National Defence— Jefferson's "Mos
quito Fleet " — The Cumberland Road — The Policy of Internal
Improvements — Fulton's Steamboat— Trial of Aaron Burr for
Treason — Burr's Designs — The Finances under President Jef
ferson—Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1808— Anti-Slavery
Agitation — Lewis and Clarke's Expedition — Cabinet Changes
— Mr. Jefferson Refuses a Re-nomination — The Sixth Presiden
tial Election — No longer the Vice-President Succeeds ; It is
Now the Secretary of State — James Madison of Virginia Nom
inated — His Services to his Party and to the Country.
Foreign affairs demand our first attention. The re-
inauguration of Jefferson, March 4, 1805, found the sky
Foreign af- black with coming war. Great Britain and
fairs. Prance were engaged in their deadly grapple.
Napoleon was sweeping all before him on the continent
of Europe ; England dominated the seas with a resist-

JEFFERSON'S SECOND TERM 191
less sway. Neither, in such a contest, could be ex
pected to show much consideration for the young repub
lic. Contempt for the rights of the United States and
for the laws of neutral trade characterized the acts of
both combatants. England, however, as the great naval
power, was in the position to do us the deeper wrong.
It was stated in connection with the notice of the Jay
treaty that England reserved the question of the right
of search and impressment, and maintained EngliBhana
the rigor of its commercial system. The French out-
° J . rages.
time had come when these questions were of
supreme importance. The necessities of England's naval
warfare would not allow the right of impressment to re
main a right unexercised ; while, with the steady prog
ress of the arms of Napoleon on the continent, the
occasion for starving France and choking her off from
the trade of the world became imperative. It is scarcely
possible to say which of the two forms of injury adopted
by England more roused and exasperated the United
States. The " right of search," with wanton impress
ment of American seamen, was not only exercised on the
largest scale against our merchant marine, and that, too,
with the greatest insolence and brutality ; but the arro
gance of England went to the astonishing extent of
stopping armed vessels upon the seas, searching them
against the protests of their officers, and taking from
them all persons whom the British commander, in
greater or less straits for men to work his vessel, might
choose to regard as British subjects.
Of the right of search, a few words : The right of
search exists. This is not questioned. What are its
limits and conditions ? No right of search The right of
exists as against the national vessels of recog- Be»r<=h.
nized powers. Toward merchant vessels, of whatever
name and nationality, the right of search exists, but for

192 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
two purposes only. For determining whether the vessel
searched is a pirate, i.e., is making war upon all na
tions ; and secondly, for determining whether that ves
sel is engaged unlawfully in assisting the enemies of the
power to which the vessel conducting the search belongs,
by carrying " contraband of war." The right of search
does not exist for the purpose of recovering escaped sea
men. Much less could it be said to exist for the pur
pose of exercising impressment upon persons who had
never entered the service of the power exercising the
search. But while the right of search for such objects
exists, yet, being a right to be exercised only in exception
to the general exercise of a contrary right in all vessels
to pursue their course unmolested, search much be bona
fide, that is, upon reasonable ground of suspicion ; must
be carefully conducted within the limits of the necessity
which alone justifies it at all ; and must be free from dis
courtesy or unnecessary violence. As a matter of fact,
the British men-of-war exercised this right unnecessarily,
insolently, and violently. That they did so was partly
due to the traditions of the British naval service, which
had erected arrogance and brutality into a virtue. It
was perhaps in greater part due to the special exigencies
of that service at this time, which were so great as to
lead naval officers to break all bounds of law and justice,
even in dealing with their own countrymen at home.
Press-gangs swept at night through the streets of Eng
lish seaports, carrying away their helpless victims ; and
naval officers dared to say in Parliament that no British
ship-of-war should put to sea undermanned, whatever
had to be done to secure her proper complement. Under
such circumstances it can hardly be wondered at that,
as against foreigners whom they still continued to regard
as rebels, the bullies of the quarterdeck hesitated not to
resort to any measure of violence to fill up their depleted

Jefferson's second term 193
crews. Outrageous as was the quality of the wrong in
flicted by England through the exercise of impressment
upon our helpless merchant marine, the quantity of that
wrong was something monstrous. Six thousand of our
seamen were alleged to have been, first or last, seized by
British cruisers, while the number certainly exceeded
four thousand. British frigates were kept permanently
"on station" off the port of New York, for the purpose
of recruiting their fleets by these captures.
Allusion has been made to search and impressment as
conducted against our national vessels. Incredible as
this may seem, it was actually done. In 1798, the com
mander of an American ship, the Baltimore, was com
pelled to send a large number of his crew on to the deck
of a British cruiser, that they might there be inspected
as to their nationality. Of these the British commander
picked out five as subjects of the king, and returned
the others. This outrage was vehemently resented by
President Adams, and the British government disavowed
the-act. In 1805, however, Admiral Collingwood took
three men from an American gunboat, off Cadiz ; and
this time the act was not disavowed. But the climax of
insolent aggression was reached on June 22, 1807, when
the British frigate Leopard overhauled the frigate Ches
apeake, putting out to sea from Hampton Roads, under
command of Commodore Barron ; and, after receiving a
refusal to surrender three seamen, alleged to be deserters
from the British navy, opened fire. The American ship
was of inferior strength, and was, moreover, utterly and
culpably unprepared for action, unable to discharge a
single one of its guns. Barron was, therefore, after sus
taining considerable loss, compelled to strike his flag and
surrender the seamen. The last outrage which has been
recited aroused the country to fury ; and for a time an
outbreak seemed inevitable. Men wore crape for the
13

194 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
dead of the Chesapeake, as for personal friends, and a
cry for war came from every quarter. " This country,"
The affair wr°te Mr. Jefferson, " has never been in
of the chesa- ^ch a state of excitement since the battle of
1 • 6 I i lilt; . Lexington." Preparations for the contest
were at once begun ; but years were to pass before the
dastardly act of Hampton Roads should be avenged.
While the insult to our national dignity through the
exercise of impressment was so great, the practical wrong
done us by the measures relating to neutral trade which
were adopted in swift succession by England and France,
was not less difficult to be endured. Let us here state
briefly and simply two principles of international law
relating to neutral trade, avoiding all discussion of the
difficult question what shall be done with the goods of
a neutral found in an enemy's ship, or with the goods
of an enemy found in a neutral's ship : First, a certain
line of articles, not to be defined without dispute (the
definition, indeed, depending in a degree upon subsist
ing treaties ; depending, also, in a degree, upon existing
circumstances), yet having certain generally recognized
-contra- bounds, are "contraband of war; "and, if
and5 the right destined to an enemy's ports, may be capt-
of blockade. nred in vessels to whomsoever belonging.
Secondly, a nation at war may lay under " blockade "
the ports of its enemy, just so far as it has the power
substantially to close such ports against ingress and
egress, and to render it clearly and highly dangerous
for vessels to try to enter. Doing this, it may give
public notice of blockade ; and all vessels thereafter
tending to such ports, or found in suspicious proximity
thereto, are liable to seizure. If convicted of attempt
ing to " run the blockade," vessel and cargo are forfeit,
and passengers and crew are subject to detention and
annoyance without just cause of complaint. A notice

JEFFERSON'S SECOND TERM 195
of blockade, unaccompanied by an actual naval force
off the blockaded port, competent to support it, consti
tutes of itself an imposition and a wrong.
The things which have been recited are all, absolutely
all, which a nation at war may do to hinder undoubted
and unmixed neutral trade. Subject to these restric
tions the nations which choose to remain at peace may
continue their industry and commerce unharmed, un
hindered. But in the time we are considering, England
was held by our statesmen to encroach grievously upon
the rights of neutral trade in two important respects.
First, she had attempted to establish a rule, most preju
dicial to neutral rights and American interests, known
as the Rule of 1756, namely, that a trade from a colony
to its parent country, not permitted to other nations in
time of peace, cannot be made lawful in time of war.
This rule was contrary, not only to the law of nations,
but to England's own practice. Secondly, England
was charged with abusing the privilege of blockade.
By Orders in Council, August, 1804, she The British
declared all ports, from Ostend to the Seine, blockades.
in a state of rigorous blockade ; and in May, 1806, our
government was notified that measures had been di
rected to be taken for the blockade of the coasts, rivers,
and ports, from the river Elbe to Brest. The latter
blockade our government insisted as regarding "a
paper blockade," that is, one not supported by a suffi
cient force to preserve continuously the state of things
described above as the proper condition of a blockade.
But we were not to suffer wrong from England alone.
In November, 1806, Napoleon retorted upon England
with the Berlin decree, which declared the British Isl
ands in a state of blockade and prohibited all commerce
and correspondence with them. This was so outrageous
as to be positively funny. At the time, a French man-

196 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
of -war could not have been insured, for ninety per cent.
of its value, to go over-night within ten miles of the
British coast. The Berlin decree was answered by Or
ders in Council, of January 7, 1807, known as Lord
Howick's Orders, subsequently superseded or merged in
Orders of November 11th, known as Percival's Orders,
by which all ports and places belonging to France and
her allies from which the British flag was excluded, and
all colonies of his Britannic majesty's enemies, were de
clared in a state of blockade. All trade in the produce
or manufactures of those countries or colonies was pro
hibited ; and all vessels trading to or from them, and
all merchandise on board, were made subject to capture
and condemnation ; with an exception only in favor of
direct trade between neutral countries and the colonies
France and °^ ^is maJesty's enemies. To this France
England com- replied with the Milan decree, December,
pete in wrongs _„„_, ..,.. -, .. .,
to the united 1807, which declared every ship, whatever
its nationality and whatever its cargo, sailing
from the ports of England or of her colonies, or of coun
tries occupied by British troops, and proceeding to Eng
land or to her colonies, or to countries occupied by the
English, to be good prize. And every ship, of whatever
nation, which had submitted to search by an English
ship, or had made a voyage to England, or had paid
any tax to that government, was declared denationalized
and lawful prize. It has by some been alleged that the
French people, while exceedingly witty, are destitute
of humor ; and certainly the Berlin and. Milan decrees
afford a striking corroboration of this view. The claim
of England that such extensive blockade as was ex
pressed in her Orders of Council was or could be made
effectual, was never admitted by our government or by
other neutral powers ; but the declaration by France of
blockade, not only of the British Islands, but of British

Jefferson's second term 197
colonies and of all countries occupied by British troops,
exceeds anything seen upon the stage in opera bouffe.
In April, 1808, Napoleon issued the decree of Bayonne,
which directed all American vessels entering the ports
of France, Italy, or the Hanse towns, to be seized and
condemned. The recital of the successive decrees, is
sued in retaliation by the French and English govern
ments, shows those two powerful nations eagerly com
peting with each other in outrages upon neutral
commerce. The struggle between them had become
one of life and death ; and no consideration of neutral
rights was for a moment allowed by either to give the
slightest additional chance of success to the other. Be
tween these two giants, in their death-grapple, the young
republic was in great danger of being crushed ; and
was certain, at the best, to be sorely crowded and hus
tled, to the great impairment of its dignity and with
much loss of its legitimate trade.
Through all this course of outrage what did the
United States do ? In May, 1806, James Monroe, of
Virginia, and William Pinkney, of Maryland, T h e Monroe
were associated as envoys to Great Britain ; treaty'
and on December 31st concluded a treaty. By this
treaty England did not relinquish the right of search
and impressment ; but the treaty was accompanied by
assurances to our ministers that, while Great Britain
did not feel able to relinquish this right in the existing
situation of Europe, yet the practice would be essen
tially if not completely abandoned, so much so that the
United States would be in fact as secure against impress
ment as if these had been formally given up. This
treaty Mr. Jefferson did not even submit to the Senate,
regarding it as unworthy of the United States. His
course in this respect caused great public dissatisfaction
on grounds both of constitutionality and expediency.

198 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
Of the policy of ratifying this treaty different opinions
might reasonably be held. On the one side it might be
said that we had had treaties enough with England
which reserved the great questions at issue between that
power and ourselves, leaving her still at liberty to pur
sue her course of outrage and insult. On the other side
it was said that the United States sacrificed none of its
claims by the treaty ; that those claims could only be
enforced by war ; and that the United States was not in
a condition to go to war. But, if the United States did
not propose to make its claims good by arms, wisdom re
quired that the state of peace should be made as toler
able as possible. Moreover, it was urged with some rea
son that the wrongs done by Great Britain were to be
looked at in a different light from what they would have
been had Great Britain taken its course gratuitously and
under ordinary circumstances. Great Britain had no'
wish to distress or insult us. The acts we complained
of were primarily intended to harass and injure
France. AYhile this did not make Great Britain right,
it put the question of national honor in a very different
relation. The hostile animus was against France and
France alone. AYe suffered wrong incidentally to the
great contest for life or death between the European
powers. So the British treaty of 1806 was not ratified.
Mr. Monroe was much displeased at the rejection of the
treaty, which he deemed honorable and advantageous.
It is only fair to say that the assurances given our com
missioners had been explicit, direct, and emphatic. On
the other hand, in view of England's subsequent wrong
ful and violent acts, it is not unreasonable to doubt
whether those assurances would have been made good
had the treaty been ratified.
The outrage upon the Chesapeake was resented by Mr.
Jefferson in a proclamation which ordered all British

Jefferson's second term '199
men-of-war out of American waters. This the British
government made an excuse for refusing to enter into
negotiations for the reparation admittedly jefler son's
due for that outrage. They demanded that proclamation.
the proclamation be withdrawn before they would pro
ceed to treat. To this our government replied, first,
that the proclamation was not issued solely on account
of the affair of the Chesapeake, but by reason of a long
train of injurious acts of which this was the latest and
most flagrant ; secondly, that, as the British government
still held the seamen taken from the Chesapeake, the
aggression of England still continued. Negotiations
being thus broken off, the reparation of England was
delayed for four years.
AYe now come to the positive acts of our government
to redress or retaliate the wrongs to our trade. Early in
1806 Congress passed an act, which, however, The Non.im.
was not to go into effect until November,* portation Act.
prohibiting the importation, from any of the ports of
Great Britain or of her colonies, of a long list of manu
factured articles. The idea of bringing England, as a
great industrial and trading nation, to terms by means
of commercial war, instead of by force of arms, had a
strong hold upon the popular mind at this time and in
succeeding years. It had come down from the period of
the contest of the colonies with the mother country be
fore the outbreak of the Revolution, when there was no
other course which we could take. To touch the pock
ets of the wrong-doer was believed to be a more potent
means of securing redress than to appeal either to his
conscience or his fears. Great Britain had need to ob
tain food and cotton and " naval stores " from the United
States ; and, on the other hand, had been accustomed to
* "A dose of chicken-broth to be taken nine months hence,'' as Mr.
John Randolph called it.

200 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
look to this country as its best customer in respect to its
fabrics and its hardware. By non-intercourse it was
hoped so to distress the trading and industrial classes as
to bring a pressure upon the offending government
strong enough to secure the repeal of the Orders in
Council and the discontinuance of the lawless practice
of impressment. This notion was peculiarly suited to
the mind and temper of the President, and scarcely less
to that of Mr. Madison. The Non-importation Act did,
indeed, cause great suffering in the industrial and com
mercial counties of England ; and month after month
petitions and addresses poured in upon Parliament and
the government, urging a friendly settlement of the dif-
culties with America. But it was to require a long and
humiliating experience to show the inefficiency of this
resort, as against a nation engaged, as England was, in a
struggle for life and death with a powerful continental
antagonist. In view of the wrongs done us in the Orders in Coun
cil and by the Berlin decree, Mr. Jefferson recommended,
The Embar- and Congress, on the 22dof December, 1807,
g0- enacted, a law, without limit of time,
famous as the Embargo Act, by which all vessels
in the jurisdiction of the United States, bound to
a foreign port, were prohibited from sailing, except
ing foreign armed vessels and foreign merchantmen
which were either in ballast or with goods on board
when notified of the act. Coasting vessels were re
quired before departure to give bonds to land their car
go at some port of the United States. John Quincy
Adams, the son of the second President, formerly min
ister to the Hague and to Berlin, and then a member
of Congress, at this point broke with the Federalists and
gave in his adhesion to the embargo as a measure neces
sary to vindicate the rights, the interests, and the dignity

Jefferson's second term 201
of the United States. The embargo to all appearances
passed through Congress solely on the strength of the
President's recommendation, so powerful was Mr. Jef
ferson with his party in and out of Congress. No
adequate discussion was had ; even the usual parlia
mentary delays were waived. So hurriedly had the bill
been pressed to a conclusion that it became necessary to
enact two supplementary measures, and a little later, to
pass an Enforcing Act, which gave the executive the
most despotic powers in dealing with both foreign and
domestic trade.
The embargo was hailed by one party as the height of
wisdom ; by the other denounced as the depth of folly.
Sectional feeling was aroused to an incredi- opposition
ble extent. The commercial States deemed ^th^com^
the measure a blow maliciously dealt at merciai states.
them ; and with every day their sufferings were pro
tracted their hatred and exasperation increased. Mr.
Jefferson was charged with suppressing correspondence
which went to show that the embargo was not answer
ing its sole, avowed purpose of distressing the two na
tions which were competing in injuries to our com
merce ; and also to show that England had, through
Mr. Canning, expressed a willingness to mitigate the
severity of the Orders in Council so far as they affected
American trade. If we concede the President's entire
honesty in the business of the embargo, we must at the
least admit that he had a very unfortunate record in
such matters. Mr. Jefferson had been much given to
denouncing international commerce as a curse ; he had
expressed his unwillingness to see great commercial
cities built up within the United States. His hostility
to the banking and financial interests was notorious. It
was, therefore, easy for those who suffered by the em
bargo to assert that he was rather pleased, than other-

202 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
wise, to have this opportunity of striking a blow at trade
and navigation. Had the embargo been the work of a
statesman friendly to commerce, it might have been ac
cepted by the sufferers as a necessary act of national de
fence ; but Mr. Jefferson, however conscious he might
be of his own integrity in the matter, had no right to
complain if New York and Boston believed the measure
to have been gratuitous, and even a wilful blow at their
interests. During the latter part of 1808 the exasperation in
New England over the embargo had reached the point of
threatening the secession of that section from the Union.
The Republicans in power had now to learn how ill this
talk sounded, by hearing it from the lips of their op
ponents. There is no such mode of teaching as through
the objective study of a subject, especially across the
barriers of party. To Virginia statesmen, doctrines of
nullification and secession seemed only wicked when
advanced by hot-headed Federalists in Massachusetts.
Mr. Jefferson was alarmed at the prospect and began to
be doubtful of the virtue of his panacea. The connec
tion between making grass grow in the streets of Boston,
Salem, Newport, and New Haven, and overthrowing the
British government, appeared to him somewhat less
plain than at the beginning. The customs of oriental
nations were not so well known at that time as at
present ; and Mr. Jefferson was not able to strengthen
his own convictions by a reference to the usage in cer
tain provinces of India, by which a person who has been
wronged sits down before the door of the evil-doer and
there rips open his abdomen, in order to bring a curse
down upon his enemy. Had Mr. Jefferson known this,
it might have been a great comfort to him. As it was,
unfortified by such a classical example, his courage gave
way ; and in February, 1809, the last month of his term

Jefferson's second term 203
of office, the embargo was repealed, and the policy of
non-intercourse with England and France was substi
tuted, the change to take effect in March. Th.6 GQlDflr"
We thus see Mr. Jefferson's administration go breaks
close with our foreign difficulties unad
justed, while the questions of search and impressment
were handed on to his successor. There can be no
doubt that the last part of Mr. Jefferson's otherwise re
markably successful administration had been to him
a very painful one, and embittered his cup for many
years. Long after, when the war which he sought so
carefully to avoid had come and gone, and his country
had taken its proper place among the nations of the
earth, he could review this period of his life and satisfy
himself that what he did was best to be done. But at
the time, the foreign difficulties of his administration
must often have caused him to wish he had remained
the serene philosopher of Monticello, instead of ventur
ing upon the stormy ocean of practical politics.
During the session of 1805-06 an appropriation of two
million dollars was made for extraordinary expenses of
foreign intercourse, the real object being to
secure Florida, or at least the western part of
it, by purchase, from Spain, thereby solving our dif
ficulties with that power. A resolution was adopted,
however, declaring that " an exchange of territory be
tween the United States and Spain would be the most
advantageous mode of settling the existing differences
about their respective boundaries." At this time our
relations with Spain were very much strained, owing to
the dispute regarding Florida and to the action of the
Spanish cruisers which infested the Gulf of Mexico.
There was a large, active party among the supporters of
the administration who desired to see the Spanish pos
sessions on our border invaded and the questions at issue

204 the making of the nation
settled by the expulsion of the Spaniards. The two
million appropriation was a sop to this faction.
With such a condition of our foreign relations it
scarcely needs to be stated that preparations for war
Measures of were made by Congress. It is, perhaps, of
national de- sufficient curious interest to be mentioned,
I6UC6 that Mr. Jefferson's fixed aversion to large
armaments, combined with his inveterate propensity to
dabble in every art, science, or device, gave rise to a very
peculiar system of coast defence. Although Mr. Jeffer
son knew absolutely nothing about naval warfare, or any
kind of warfare, he was yet serenely confident that his
opinions on the subject of a navy were wiser than those
of all the men who had learned their profession under
Nelson and Collingwood. His scheme was, and he
urged it so strongly upon Congress as to secure its par
tial and temporary adoption, that the government should
build gunboats, of diminutive size, each manned by five
to seven men, and carrying one gun, instead of the pow
erful ships of war then sanctioned by the naval science
of the world. In 1803 Congress appropriated $50,000,
for fifteen boats ; and later, in 1806, $250,000 for fifty
more. The "mosquito fleet" was brought into exist
ence ; but its utter inefficiency was soon demonstrated
to the entire satisfaction of everybody but Mr. Jeffer
son. After so much space devoted to foreign affairs, let us
now pass to the consideration of domestic affairs in this
administration. In 1806 an act was passed authorizing
the construction of a road from Cumberland, Md., into
The cumber- the, State of Ohio. Although the construc-
landroad. ^ion of this road was urged upon the ground
that it would open up the public lands to settlement,
and though the cost of construction was defrayed, or
supposed to be defrayed, out of the proceeds of sales,

JEFFERSON'S SECOND TERM 205
this act is yet of considerable historical interest with re
spect to the question of internal improvements, the
question which became of so much impor- Internai im_
tance immediately after the peace of 1815. pavements.
The propriety of opening rivers for the purposes of
navigation, of improving and protecting the ports of
commerce, of building lighthouses and breakwaters,
never came into question. It was by all parties ad
mitted that the United States had ample authority
under the Constitution to do just as much of these
things, pertaining to commerce, as its means allowed
and as the public good seemed to require. The right of
the United States, again, to construct forts, arsenals,
and navy-yards, as well as appropriate buildings for all
branches of the civil government, could not be ques
tioned, although the influence of the Democratic-Re
publican party was always thrown in favor of diminished
appropriations for such purposes, whether from opposi
tion to a large establishment or from a preference for
primitive simplicity in carrying on the public service.
But in regard to another class of constructive works,
namely, main roads and canals, the party of Jefferson
and Madison from the first took high ground, declaring
that appropriations for this purpose were in violation
of the Constitution. If the members of this party were
not always consistent in the matter, it was because of
the seductions of local interest and the additional charm
which an appropriation acquires to the mind of any citi
zen when it is to be expended in his own immediate
locality. The contest over this question went on for
about one human generation. Then, in the develop
ment of science and the arts, the railroad came into
being, and relegated both the " national road " and the
canal to insignificance and obscurity. Inasmuch as no
one, not even the most ardent Whig, was ready to pro-

206 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
pose that railroads should be built by the national gov
ernment, the issue died out of our politics, affording
a rather curious instance how far laws and policies and
constitutions may be affected by social and industrial
developments. But while the steam-railway was yet far in the dis
tance, the steamboat was just coming into use on the
The steam- great rivers of the United States. Repeated
boat. efforts had been made to apply the new mo
tive-power to the propulsion of vessels ; but it was not
until 1807 that Robert Fulton, upon the Hudson, solved
the problem by sending his paddle-wheel steamer, of
twenty horse-power, with berths for one hundred passen
gers, from New York to Albany, " sail-less, against the
tide," in two-and-thirty hours. By an act of the State
Legislature, Fulton and his patron, Chancellor Living
ston, were given a monopoly for thirty years of steam
navigation in New York. This monopoly was, in 1824,
declared by the Supreme Court of the United States
[Gibbons vs. Ogden] to be in collision with acts of Con
gress regulating the coasting-trade, and therefore void.
Long before this our rivers and lakes had become cov
ered with steamboats, of ever-increasing capacity and
speed. The enormous extension thus given to inter
communication between States and communities not
only served to promote the rapid settlement of the great
West, but became a powerful factor in the development
of American nationality.
Aaron Burr, a hounded outcast, was arrested by the
authorities of Mississippi Territory, and tried before
Chief -Justice Marshall and the District Judge
The Burr trial of Virginia, for treason. It was charged that
he had, in Virginia and elsewhere, organized an expedi
tion to take possession of portions of Mexico and of our
own southwestern territory, for the purpose of setting

JEFFERSON'S SECOND TERM 207
up an independent government. The question of Burr's
guilt was largely made a party question, as was nearly
everything in those days. Greatly to Mr. Jefferson's
wrath and disgust, Burr was acquitted, in September,
1807, on technical points, not reaching the merits of the
case. The President persisted in regarding himself as
very much abused by the result of the trial, charging the
fault upon the Federalists generally, and especially upon
the Chief-Justice. The fact appears to be that Mr. Jef
ferson had himself to thank, having, in his own pecul
iar laissez-faire fashion, failed to take any adequate
means to secure competent legal evidence regarding
Burr's operations, either at the time or before the trial.
The President might, and doubtless would, have been
willing to hang Burr upon his character or on general
fame ; but judges and juries cannot be blamed if they
insist upon something more concrete, objective, and sub
stantial. It is to be remembered that the definition of
treason by our Constitution is a very strict one ; and
that the requirement as to the evidence necessary to con
vict of this crime is exceptionally severe.
Just what it was Burr had in view will never be
known. Possibly he did not exactly know, himself ;
probably he had several things in contem-
¦¦ ,¦ , t t . . .„ ,, Burr's designs.
plation, as to be done m succession, if the
earlier enterprises went off well, or as alternatives, if
these failed. Almost certain it is that, to different per
sons whom he sought to enlist, he made different repre
sentations and held forth inducements adapted to the
needs or the weaknesses of the individuals addressed.
To seize Florida from Spain ; to annex Texas and Mex
ico to the United States ; to detach the Mississippi Ter
ritory from the United States ; to pillage New Orleans ;
to undertake a harmless but gigantic scheme of settle
ment and land speculation : each one of these things

208 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
seems to have been in the mind of some one of Burr's
dupes or tools. It is needless further to inquire into the
matter. One thing is certain : General Wilkinson, the
commander of the United States forces, and the Governor
of the Mississippi Territory, was improperly, if not crimi
nally, enlisted in the conspiracy. It is certain, also, that
Burr would never have undertaken his scheme, whatever
that scheme in fact was, but for the long-smouldering
discontent of the trans- Appalachian communities at the
failure of the government at Washington to see to it
that "the Mississippi ran unvexed to the sea." The
disaffection of the Creole population of Louisiana, who,
without their own consent, had been transferred first
by Spain to France, and then by France to the United
States, was in all probability an important element in
Burr's schemes and plans.
The finances of the United States had been singularly
prosperous throughout Mr. Jefferson's entire adminis
tration, partly through the parsimony which
The finances. refused the means requisite for putting the
nation on a footing to resent and repel the injuries suf
fered at the hands of England and France ; but more
through the growth of the customs revenue, in conse
quence of the marvellous extension of our carrying trade
during the wars which convulsed Europe. The receipts
of the government rose continually, until the annual
surplus amounted to many millions, which were system
atically devoted to the still further reduction of the
Revolutionary debt, now almost extinguished.
The Constitution had provided that the migration or
importation of such persons as any of the States then
existing might think it proper to admit, should not be
prohibited by Congress prior to the year 1808. It is to
the honor of our government that not one day's grace
was allowed this infamous traffic, after Congress ac-

Jefferson's second term 209
quired the constitutional competence to deal with it.
By an act of the session of 1806-7, it was declared a high
misdemeanor to take on board, in any foreign country,
any colored person, with intent to sell him in the United
States. Severe penalties were imposed upon the viola
tion of the act, and the purchase of any person who had
been so imported was punishable by fine. The fitting
out of vessels for this trade involved forfeit- The aboli_
ure and heavy fines. The president was tion of the
, . , t . . slave-trade.
authorized to man and equip cruisers to en
force the law and bring its violators to punishment. On
the question what should be done with slaves when un
lawfully brought into the country, there was naturally
much controversy. It was finally disposed of by refer
ring the subject to the States.
But while, in the immediate matter of the slave-trade,
the year 1808 witnessed a great victory on the behalf of
human rights, that period marks "the parting of the
ways" in the still more important issue of domestic
slavery. At the close of the War of Independence
every State, except possibly Massachusetts, had slaves
within its borders ; although throughout -New England
and the Middle States these were so few, and the profits
of their labor so slight, that it was not to be doubted
that " the domestic institution " must there soon cease
to exist. By the time the Constitution was adopted, all
the New England States, with Pennsylvania, had abol
ished slavery outright, or had provided for its gradual
extinction. New York passed her act of emancipation
in 1799, New Jersey in 1804. Throughout the border
Slave States of 1789, viz. — Delaware, Maryland, and Vir
ginia — slaves were found in considerable numbers ; but
here, again, the profits of their labor, mainly employed
in raising tobacco and the cereal crops, were not so great
but that the sentiments and scruples of large numbers
14

210 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
of citizens, embracing perhaps a majority of the men of
influence and of social importance, favored the project
of ultimate emancipation. In the Constitutional Con-
Ant j -slavery vention some of the strongest declarations
agitation, against slavery had come from Virginians ;
and it long remained within the bounds of possibility
that this State would lead its immediate neighbors in
some act of gradual abolition. But by 1808 the course
of events, both economic and political, had put a stop to
all movements for emancipation throughout that sec
tion, and had committed the border States definitively to
the side of slavery. Among the forces thus operating
were, on the one hand, the increasing profitableness of
cotton-culture at the South and the Southwest, which
created an active market for slave labor ; and, on the
other hand, the irritation felt by the slave-holding pop
ulations, generally, at the agitation for abolition which
had been so actively prosecuted at the North, and par
ticularly, during this period, in Pennsylvania, where
the powerful Quaker element arrayed itself solidly upon
that side. This agitation had naturally involved the
most passionate denunciations ; and, while it had cre
ated a deep aversion to slavery throughout the North,
it had, by a necessary reaction, solidified and strength
ened the slave-holding sentiment of the South.
It was during the administration of Mr. Jefferson that
the northern portions of the newly acquired territory
were explored by two gallant adventurers, whose names
are now familiar as household words, Lewis and Clarke.
Lewis and ^ie expedition was honorable to the United
ciarkcs expe- States, and has connected the names of the
explorers, and of their political patrons, Gal
latin and Jefferson, with some of the grandest features
of the great northwestern empire.
The cabinet changes in Jefferson's second term really

jefferson's second term 211
affected only the Attorney-Generalship. In 1805 Robert
Smith, of Maryland, up to this time Secretary of the
Navy, became Attorney - General. Jacob cabinet
Crowninshield, of Massachusetts, who had changes.
been appointed to the Navy Department, preferred to
retain his seat in Congress, and Smith returned at the
close of the year to his former office, being succeeded in
the Attorney-Generalship by John Breckinridge, of Ken
tucky. Upon Breckinridge's death, Cassar A. Rodney,
of Delaware, became Attorney-General, in January, 1807.
The remaining officers of the cabinet in the first term
were continued through the second.
As the sixth presidential election approached, it was
manifest to all that there would be very little politics in
it. The Federalist party was so completely broken up
as to offer but slight resistance. Mr. Jefferson firmly
and consistently refused to be considered a Mr. Jefferson
candidate for re-election. In addition to a retlres-
sense of increasing infirmities, he had long entertained a
sincere conviction that the period of the presidential of
fice should not be extended beyond that of Washington,
namely, two terms of four years each. "If some period,"
he had once written, "be not fixed, either by the Con
stitution or by practice, the office will, though nominally
elective, become for life, and then hereditary."
In deciding upon the candidate of the dominant
party we note a change regarding the natural succes
sion to the presidency. At first it had
seemed appropriate that the vice-president presidential
should succeed. John Adams had been
Washington's vice-president, and followed him in of
fice. Indeed, during his vice-presidency Adams hu
morously, and yet not altogether without serious in
tention, referred to himself as the "heir-apparent."
Jefferson, again, had been vice-president with Adams,

212 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
and in turn succeeded him, though, it must be admitted,
for other reasons than those which brought Adams to
the executive chair. But now, at the close of Jeffer
son's administration, we find that it is Madison, the
Secretary of State, who is nominated for the succes
sion. And if we look forward eight years, to the close
of Madison's administration, we shall see that it is
his Secretary of State, Monrod, who is nominated. And,
going still further forward, to the close of Monroe's
administration, we find that it is his Secretary of State,
John Quincy Adams, who takes the succession. The
change upon which we have thus dwelt was not acci
dental. It was due to the overwhelming predominance
which our foreign relations had acquired in the politics
of the country.
It is not, however, improbable that, but for the strong
hold which the Virginians had upon the politics of the
nation at this time, the claims of Governor George
Clinton, of New York, who, as vice-president with Jef
ferson, during his second term, felt himself to have ac
quired a certain prescriptive right, according to previ
ous usage, and who had, moreover, a very remarkable
record of public and party services, might have been
recognized by a nomination for the presidency. But
the grip of the "Virginia Dynasty" upon that office
was, as yet, too strong to give a northern republican
anything like an equal chance. If it had not been Mad
ison, it would not have been Clinton ; it would have
been Monroe. Indeed, as it was, the president had
much difficulty in holding Monroe's partisans back and
in appeasing Monroe's own sense of injustice. That it
was, after all, for Mr. Jefferson to select his successor,
seems to have been generally conceded, even by the
Monroe faction. Was he not the party's founder,
leader, and owner ?

JEFFERSON'S SECOND TERM 213
Personally Mr. Madison had earned the promotion he
was to receive. Mr. Jefferson owed him support, for
no political chieftain ever had a more faith-
ful and efficient lieutenant. For twenty nomination
years he had thought Mr. Jefferson's thoughts
and fought his battles. He had carried out Mr. Jef
ferson's political plans with more of steadiness, more
of discretion, and more of capacity for detail, than the
chief himself possessed. The Republican party, too, was
under profound obligations to give its support to Mr.
Madison before any other man. With clear convic
tions, with untiring industry, and with high partisan
fidelity, he had, next to Jefferson, contributed to its
success. Finally, the nation did well to raise Mr. Madi
son to this exalted station. He had been one of the
leading spirits of the Convention of 1787, and one of the
chief defenders of the Constitution before the people.
In setting the government fairly on foot, in organizing
the departments which should carry on the public ser
vice, and in shaping the legislation of the first critical
years, his influence had been great, and, on the whole,
highly useful. If we may rejoice that the United
States have not become altogether what Mr. Madison
planned and desired, the bitterest partisan cannot re
gret that his labors were so rewarded. The result of
the election was a foregone conclusion. Mr. Madison
received 122 votes, against 47 for General C. C. Pinck
ney and 6 for George Clinton. The last named also re
ceived 113 votes for vice-president and was elected.
Rufus King, formerly of Massachusetts and then of New
York, received, as the federalist candidate for the vice-
presidency, an equal vote with General Pinckney.

CHAPTER XI
THE CONTROVERSY WITH ENGLAND
Madison's Cabinet — His Policy of Conciliation toward the Federal
ists — Rapprochement of the two Parties — Randolph's Faction
of " Old Republicans " and the Irreconcilable Federalists of
New England Hold Aloof — The Trouble with England — Na
poleon Retaliates with the Rambouillet Decree — Alleged Re
peal of the French Decrees — Non-Intercourse Act Withdrawn
as Against France — Controversy over this Action — Secretary
Smith Resigns — His Protest — James Monroe becomes Secre
tary of State and Heir-Apparent — Of the two Nations Doing us
Wrong, the Administration Selects England as an Antagonist
— The War Party — The New Men — Congress Meets — Warlike
Preparations — The Henry Episode — Madison's Renomination
— War Declared against England — The Federalist Protest —
Failure of Further Negotiations — The Hanson Riot in Balti
more.
Mr. Madison constituted his cabinet as follows :
Robert Smith, of Maryland, Secretary of State ; William
Madison's Eustis, of Massachusetts, Secretary of War ;
cabinet. Paul Hamilton, of South Carolina, Secretary
of the Navy. Gallatin and Rodney continued in office
as Secretary of the Treasury and Attorney-General, re
spectively. The cabinet thus formed was not a strong
one as a whole, although it contained some good men.
Smith was by far the weakest of the lot. The worst
feature of its organization was in the failure to promote
Mr. Gallatin to the then all-important post of Secretary
of State, as he, and as the country, had reason to expect.
Gallatin was, far away, the ablest man of the group —
the only truly great man of the Cabinet, ranking next
to Hamilton among all the men who have held the

THE CONTROVERSY WITH ENGLAND 215
office of Secretary of the Treasury. Had he been left in
the Treasury simply because he was a masterly financier,
it might have been considered in the interest of good
government. But he had shown himself as great in state
craft as in finance ; and every one knew that the reason
why he was not made Secretary of State was to be found
in the jealousy and envy which existed among many
leaders of the administration party in Congress, and es
pecially in the intrigues of the Smith brothers — one a
Senator from Maryland ; the other, the man chosen to
take the place destined for his better. The arrange
ment, therefore, became one which, from the start,
weakened Gallatin's influence, and exposed him to the
insults and assaults of venomous enemies and impaired
the harmony of the Cabinet within, and its prestige
before Congress and the country.
From the first Mr. Madison, partly by force of temper
ament, partly by intention, adopted a conciliatory pol
icy toward the moderate federalists, whom Madison's
the aggressions of England were driving PoU°y-
into something like an approach to the administra
tion. It suited Mr. Madison's interests, as well as his
disposition, to strengthen his party from this quarter.
On the opposite side, there was some disaffection, owing
to Mr. Madison's comparative moderation. A section,*
under the half-famous "Randolph of Roanoke," had
long done all in its power to embarrass the administra
tion in Congress ; had disputed Mr. Madison's nomina
tion, presenting Mr. Monroe instead, even going so far
as to attempt to set that gentleman up as an indepen
dent candidate, and were now not unprepared to make
it hot for Mr. Madison.
* Known as the " Quids.'' This faction, attempting to pose as a third
party, had been at first called a tertium quid (a third something). The
epithet was finally abridged, as stated.

216 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
The foregoing statements rather represent the form
which the politics of that day took, than express their
^ 3 real significance. The essential fact was
Changed po- , °
sitionsoftne that while old federalists were rapidly giv
ing up their party organization, individu
ally, yet still in vast numbers, owing to the defeats
and humiliations which they had sustained at the
polls, to the disgust and anger which they felt at the
recent conduct of England, once the object of their ad
miration and attachment, and to the lack of anything
like bold, strong, and able leadership on their side, the
republican party, on the other hand, had, during the past
few years, been going over bodily to meet the federal
ists, and that, even more than half-way. In truth, the
republican party of the last days of Jefferson's admin
istration had come to occupy no small portion of the
ground on which the federalists of AYashington's and
Adams's administrations had stood. This was due partly
to an increasing sense of American nationality, the
natural product of twenty years living together under
the Constitution, but even more to the inevitable effect
upon the republican party of coming into power and
taking up the duties and responsibilities of office. No
body of men in the world's history ever did this without
becoming self-assertive, and without magnifying the au
thority of the government they administered.
Against this rapprochement of the large majority of
the former federalists, and of almost the whole mass of
former republicans, at the outset of Madison's adminis
tration, and that, too, chiefly upon traditional federal
ist ground, there were two bodies of remonstrants and
protestants, the one consisting of John Randolph's
" Quids," now a mere handful, who denounced Madison,
and even Jefferson, for their aggrandizing tendency, be
wailed the spirit of consolidation, and clamored for a re-

THE CONTROVERSY WITH ENGLAND 217
turn to the " old Republicanism " of 1798-99 ; the other
consisting of the remnant, now " a feeble folk," of the
once omnipotent federalist party, represented in the
Senate from only three or four States, and in the House
by a small but courageous, aggressive, and
vindictive band, hardly numerous enough to conciiabie fac-
enforce the briefest parliamentary delays
upon the strictly party measures of the administration,
as was strikingly shown in the case of the embargo
law, which passed the House in three days and the
Senate in about the same number of hours. Just as
the triumphant republicans had largely passed over to
the ground once occupied by their political opponents,
so the unreconciled federalists, now found mainly in
New England, and there chiefly in Massachusetts and
Connecticut, had, in the vehemence and bitterness of
their antagonism to the measures of the government,
completely apostatized from the doctrines of Hamilton
and Adams, and had taken up positions scarcely less
hostile to the authority of the government than those
represented in the nullification resolutions of 1798-99.
The new administration took up the questions pend
ing between the United States and England where they
had been left, without any progress toward The troubie8
adjustment, but after much meddling and with England.
muddling, by Mr. Jefferson. In April (1809) Mr. Ers-
kine, the British minister at Washington, represented
that if the United States would rescind the Non-inter
course Act in favor of Great Britain, that power would
recall its Orders in Council. In accordance with this
suggestion Mr. Madison issued a proclamation reopen
ing trade with Great Britain. That government, how
ever, disavowed Mr. Erskine's act and promptly recalled
him ; so that the President was obliged, on August 3d,
with no great addition to the dignity of our position, to

21S THE MAKING OF THE NATION
issue another proclamation declaring the Non-intercourse
Act still in force. The new British minister, " Copen
hagen Jackson," a man with an evil reputation in the
matter of neutral rights, immediately gave cause of
offence by declaring that the United States had all along
known that Mr. Erskine was exceeding his instructions.
Our government, stirred by this imputation of ill faith,
declined to hold any further communication with him,
and he accordingly returned home. No successor was
appointed by his government until 1811.
Now, on his part, Napoleon issued what is known as
the Rambouillet decree, March 23, 1810, by which every
Napoleon re- American vessel and cargo which, since May
tahates. goth previous, had entered, or which should
thereafter enter, any port of France, or her colonies, or
of any country occupied by the French, was liable to be
seized and sold. The scope of the order extended to
Spain, Holland, and Naples. This measure can only be
characterized as an outrageous and monstrous aggression
upon our rights, dictated by the insolence of Napoleon,
now grown to a masterful and self-destroying passion.
The practical consequences- of the Rambouillet decree
were most disastrous to our interests, vessels numbered
by the hundreds being seized thereunder.
The Non-intercourse Act, having been limited in
its duration, expired early in 1810 ; and on May 1st
Congress passed a new act,* providing that, if either
Great Britain or France should, before March 3, 1811,
revoke or so modify her edicts that they should cease to
violate our neutral commerce, and if the other nation
should not, within three months thereafter, do the same,
then the act interdicting intercourse should be revived
against the nation refusing to revoke. On August 5th
the Due de Cadore, French Minister of Foreign Affairs,
* Known as " Macon Bill, No. 3."

THE CONTROVERSY WITH ENGLAND 219
informed General Armstrong, our minister at Paris,
that " the Berlin and Milan decrees were revoked and
would cease to have effect after November 1st follow
ing." The reason stated was that " the Congress of the
United States had retraced its steps and had engaged to
oppose the belligerent (Great Britain) which refused to
acknowledge the rights of neutrals." The condition
of the revocation was "that the English shall revoke
their Orders in Council and renounce the new principle
of blockade (i.e., that blockade might lawfully be ex
tended to unfortified ports and to the mouths of rivers),
which they have wished to establish, or that the United
States shall cause their rights to be respected by the
English." Now, inasmuch as the reason stated was false,
the United States never having announced any such de
termination as was assumed, and inasmuch as the con
dition proposed was one the United States never accepted,
it is difficult to see how this amounted to a repeal of the
French decrees, in the sense of the act of The alleged
May 1, 1810. Yet Mr. Madison jumped over ^epfnc0^ ahe!
these difficulties, and, receiving the report of crees-
General Armstrong as conclusive of the action of the
French government, issued a proclamation, November 2,
1810, declaring the restrictions removed as respected
France and her dependencies. Three months later,
namely, March 2, 1811, Congress passed an act declar
ing these restrictions in force against Great Britain.
This measure was followed by the retirement from
office of Mr. Robert Smith, the Secretary of State, who
appealed to the country in a review of the secretary
whole subject. Mr. Smith declared that the *jj?a'B Pro"
decrees of France had not been actually re
pealed ; and that, therefore, the proclamation restoring
intercourse with France and the act prohibiting inter
course with England were unwarranted. Mr. Smith

220 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
adduced the following facts in support of his opposition :
First, that France had notified us, before the passage of
the act of March 2d, that she would not restore the
property seized under the recent decree, although the
State Department had informed France that this would
be a condition, sine qua non, of our favorable action.
Secondly, that he (Secretary Smith) had by Mr. Madi
son's indifference been checked in his intentions to
obtain from the French minister definite and positive
statements regarding the position of his government;
that Mr. Madison modified in an important degree Mr.
Smith's despatches seeking to place the United States
right in the matter of the outrages perpetrated under
the Rambouillet decree, and that Mr. Madison had finally
refused to allow a letter to be despatched which con
tained specific inquiries deemed by the Secretary essen
tial to the proper determination of the question whether
France had, in truth and fully, repealed the obnoxious
decrees. Mr. Smith was succeeded, as Secretary of
State, by Mr. Monroe, who, in assuming the office be-
. came recognized as the " heir-apparent " to
Monroe be- ° rr .
comes heir-ap- the presidency. Down to this time Mr.
Monroe had been put forward by Randolph's
faction, and by Mr. Madison's opponents generally, as
the champion of the " old Republicanism," and had
been incited by them, on every occasion, to exert his in
fluence against the administration. His public "adop
tion " by Mr. Madison brought all this to an end, and
removed the most important of the President's enemies
or rivals within his own party.
Of course, England was not satisfied with the action
of the United States regarding the French decrees, and
in a lengthy correspondence asserted the bad faith of
the French government ; the insufficiency of the so-
called revocation; and the partiality of the United

THE CONTROVERSY WITH ENGLAND 221
States, at the expense of Great Britain. Our govern
ment, through Mr. Pinkney, at London, and through
Mr. Monroe, at Washington, maintained the , ^ t
° _ . _ As between
iustice and impartiality of its acts. It was France and
J , , , , ,-, i -r, ¦, • -xt England.
easy to show that Great Britain was m the
wrong toward us, and had little cause of complaint what
ever measures of self-defence we might adopt. It was not
easy to show that France was not equally to blame ; and
this part of our case must be esteemed much less satis
factory than the other. But the true explanation of the
situation is not found to be in the diplomatic expres
sions of the State department and of our minister in
London. The dominant party had made up their minds
that war with England must come ; and that, therefore,
war with France must be avoided. To this latter end we
would accept from France, not what we wanted, not
what we ought to have, but what we could get. Our
people had long been, through the powerful attraction
of an unsettled question, producing an ever wider and
deeper irritation, drifting into war with England, just
as England, forty years later, in the phrase of Lord
Aberdeen, drifted into the Crimean War. The meas
ures of non-intercourse could scarcely be considered as
rational means of preparation. They left the country
no better off for the great struggle. They were rather
the acts of annoyance and offence by which those who
know they must come to blows work themselves up to
the fighting point. Meanwhile the angry feelings of
the two nations received further exasperation by an acci
dental collision between the American frigate President
and the British sloop-of-war Little Belt, in May, 1811.
We do not say that war with England was inevitable ;
that it was even likely to relieve the hardships which
the United States had indisputably suffered through the
arrogance of England ; but the ill-suppressed hostility

222 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
of twenty years was now culminating. Of all the prom
inent republican politicians, the president probably was
the one least disposed to conflict. Indeed, Mr. Madison
had of late been writing and talking much more about
the outrages of France than those of England ; he had
even sent very threatening letters to Mr. Barlow, our
minister at Paris, denouncing the course of that coun
try and not vaguely intimating hostile intentions toward
her ; but the tide now running strongly against Eng
land carried him steadily forward to the end which was
in view of the most ardent fire-eaters of his party.
And here we have to note that the impetus to war was
not being supplied by the older statesmen of the coun
try, the men who had opposed the British treaty of
John Jay, and who had long been known as the anti-
Anglican leaders, but by young men of mark who be
longed to a new generation — foremost among them,
Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and John C. Cal-
party;the houn, of South Carolina. But for these, it
is probable the result of war would not have
been reached. The United States had borne with the
injurious acts of France and England for six years.
Two years more would have seen all the issues — search,
impressment, blockade, and infringements of neutral
trade — disappear in the downfall of Napoleon and the
restoration of peace in Europe.
The regular meeting of Congress was anticipated in
consequence of the political situation ; and that body
congress met on November 4, 1811, when the Presi-
meets. ^en^ comnmnicated the diplomatic proceed
ings of the government during the year. He declared
that " the period had arrived which claimed from the
legislative guardians of the national rights a system of
more ample provision for maintaining them." On the
29th of the month the Committee on Foreign Relations,

THE CONTROVERSY WITH ENGLAND 223
under the chairmanship of Mr. Peter B. Porter, of New
York, made a very warlike report, which concluded with
the recommendation that the army be increased, that
the navy be put into condition for service ; and that
merchant vessels be allowed to arm in self-defence.
On March 9, 1812, the President communicated an
alleged attempt of the British government to disaffect
and detach from the Union the northern The Henry
and northeastern States. The fact disclosed episode-
was that Sir James Craig, Governor-General of Canada,
had employed one John Henry to proceed to Boston and
to keep him informed as to the state of public opinion
with regard to general politics and to the probability of
war with England ; as to the comparative strength of
the parties ; and the views and designs of that which
might ultimately prevail. Henry passed through Vermont
and New Hampshire to Boston, whence he wrote a num
ber of letters to the Governor-General and his secretary.
It does not appear that he communicated directly on
the subject of separation with any person of impor
tance, or that his mission amounted to anything in fact.
He was recalled ; and upon the Governor-General fail
ing to confer upon him the office he had promised,
Henry sold information of his mission to our State De
partment, which is exactly what the man who would
volunteer for such a service would be likely to do. Con
siderable excitement was caused by the discovery, both
here and in England, where the opposition assailed the
course of the Governor-General as treacherous and of a
hostile tendency. It cannot be said that the mission
of Henry was in violation of international usage, though
it certainly was not a friendly act. The matter would
hardly be worth mentioning, but for the notoriety
which the whole affair assumed to exist as to the disaf
fection of the New England States, and the intimation

224 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
it conveyed of a possible antagonism between the two
sections of the country in the event of war.
On April 1st the President sent to Congress a confi
dential message, recommending an embargo for sixty
days. This, as preliminary to a declaration of war, was
a sound and sensible measure, differing widely from Mr.
Jefferson's embargo, as a policy of negotiation. On May
18th, the Republican caucus was held for the nomina
tion of candidates for the seventh presidential election.
Mr. Madison was unanimously renominated, Elbridge
Madison's re- Gerry, of Massachusetts, being named as
nomination. yiCe-president with him. Here we have to
note the familiar charge that Mr. Madison, who had
been known to be strongly disposed to peace, accepted
war as the condition of his renomination. This is one
of those charges which are certain under such circum
stances to be made ; but which can neither be proved
nor disproved. Probably Mr. Madison could not have
told how far he was influenced by the fact that his sup
porters were resolutely bent on resenting the aggressions
of Great Britain. At the same time it is to be said that
Mr. Madison's own previous declarations gave a high
degree of probability to the charge of being thus influ
enced. Mr. Madison was, in due course, elected.
A fortnight later, i.e., on June 1st, the President sent
in another confidential message, recommending war.
war ith Foremost among the causes mentioned was
England de- the impressment of our seamen. Next came
the blockades, in violation of the accepted
rules and definitions of international law, persisted in
after the French had withdrawn the decrees by which
the English government had sought to justify its own
acts. Finally, the President expressed the belief that
the recent renewal of hostilities by the northwestern
Indians was due to British instigation. Meanwhile a

THE CONTROVERSY WITH ENGLAND 225
fresh correspondence was going on between Mr. Monroe
and the British minister at Washington, covering the
whole ground at issue between the two countries. No
result, however, could be reached so long as the United
States insisted upon regarding the announcement to
General Armstrong as sufficient evidence of the repeal
of the offensive decrees ; while the English government
looked upon this as "a deceitful declaration." Justin
this crisis of affairs information was received of the full
and unconditional revocation of the Berlin and Milan
decrees by Napoleon. The order making the revocation
was dated nearly a year previous. It was naturally
charged that this was a trick, the order having been
called out by the exigency which had arisen in the
United States, and having been dated back to make
good the assertions of our government in respect to the
action of France. It would seem, now, as if a little
time should have been given to ascertain what England
would do ; whether she would revoke her Orders in
Council since France had recalled her decrees. It did
not, however, suit party purposes to await the action of
England, and June 18, 1812, war was declared. The
vote on the final passage was 19 to 13 in the Senate, and
79 to 49 in the House of Representatives. The division
was largely on sectional lines. Fourteen of the nineteen
senators voting for the declaration lived south of the
Delaware River; sixty-two of the seventy-nine repre
sentatives who constituted the majority came from the
same region.
Before adjournment the federalist members pub
lished an address to the people, which strongly arrayed
the reasons against war and vindicated their The Federal-
course in opposing the declaration. It was «t protest.
charged that the war had been urged on by party con
siderations ; that the conquest of Canada, and not redress
15

226 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
for alleged injuries, was the real object in view. It was
asserted that the acts of the British government in re
spect to impressment were accordant with the usages of
all the governments of Europe, including France ; and
that England had shown an earnest disposition to effect
an amicable adjustment of this vexed subject, having, in
1802, made an offer to renounce the right of impressing
American seamen, whether native or naturalized Eng
lishmen, upon the high seas, only retaining the right upon
the narrow seas ; the ministry, on another occasion, hav
ing offered to pass laws making it penal for British com
manders to impress American citizens upon the high
seas, provided the United States would pass laws making
it penal for its officers to grant certificates of citizenship
to British subjects. The address undertook to show
that the blockade of 1806 was at first accepted by our
government as favorable to the United States. In proof
it was alleged that when Mr. Jefferson's administration,
in 1808, offered to repeal the embargo upon certain con
ditions, the withdrawal of the blockade was not one of
them ; nor was this made a part of the negotiations with
Mr. Erskine in 1809. The address further dwelt on the
matter already adduced, to show that the Berlin and
Milan decrees had not been in good faith and fully re
voked. This address was signed by thirty-four members
of the House of Representatives, all federalists — nine
teen from New England ; six from New York, Pennsyl
vania, and Delaware ; nine from Maryland, Virginia, and
North Carolina. Fifteen republicans had voted against
the declaration, eleven of them being from New York
and New Jersey ; one, each, from Massachusetts, Penn
sylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina.
But though war was declared, negotiations were not
yet concluded. Soon after the declaration the British
minister left for London, bearing a letter from Mr. Mon-

THE CONTROVERSY WITH ENGLAND 227
roe to our charge at the court of St. James, instructing
him to propose an armistice upon certain conditions,
which were made more liberal by a second letter.
Meanwhile the news was travelling across the Atlantic
that England had, on June 23d, only five days after the
declaration, revoked her Orders in Council. To detail
the miserable contretemps and misunderstandings by
which the two nations, which had thus reduced their
causes of quarrel from two to one, about which both
parties professed to be anxious to reach a satisfactory
adjustment, allowed themselves to go on to actual hos
tilities, would occupy more time than we can spare.
The Atlantic cable would in all probability have made
war impossible. As it was, with the tedious communi
cations of that day, our government professed to fear
that awaiting negotiations would enable Eng- Failare o£
land to fortify Canada and give time for the negotiations
J ° for peace.
Indians, who had taken the British side, to
commit wholesale ravages on our settlements. And so,
after one or two abortive attempts of the two govern
ments to get together, hostilities commenced. The
history of the war of 1812 is not an entertaining one for
Americans ; yet it will not be from an excess of patriotic
sensibility that we shall make our account of it very
short, but because there is little in it which belongs to
the story of American political development.
The war opened with an evil omen, for the first blood
shed was that of Americans, spilled in miserable civil
strife. One Hanson had set up in Baltimore
a paper opposed to the administration and to riot in Baiti-
the war policy. This so exasperated some of
the " lewd fellows of the baser sort " that they destroyed
Hanson's printing-office and presses, and for a time put
a stop to his enterprise. A few weeks later, however,
he resumed publication, this time under the protection

228 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
of some prominent federalists, among them two distin
guished revolutionary officers, General Lingan and Gen
eral Harry Lee, the latter famous for the eulogy on
Washington, pronounced before Congress, in which oc
curred the words, " first in war, first in peace, and first
in the hearts of his countrymen." A mob having at
tacked Hanson's office by night, these gentlemen with a
small party conducted a desperate defence, which was
only relinquished upon the assurance of the Mayor that
they should be given a legal trial for the deaths which
had occurred, with full protection meanwhile. Having
surrendered upon this promise, the defenders were sub
jected to the most cowardly indignities while on their
way to prison. The night following, the prison was
broken open by armed men ; General Lingan was beaten
to death ; General Lee was crippled for life ; and their
comrades were subjected to abuse and torture of the
most monstrous character. The very spirit of hell was
manifested by the ruffians, who worked their mischief
under the eye of the Mayor and the commander of the
city militia. At last, upon the mob threatening to break
open the United States post-office, in order to seize the
copies of the offending publications which had been de
posited in the mails, the authorities actively intervened ;
and the riot was quelled. But the prosecutions insti
tuted against the perpetrators of these crimes complete
ly failed through the culpable delinquency of the At
torney-General, who openly expressed his regret that
every person concerned in the defence of Hanson's house
had not been killed, and refused to demand a change of
venue ; while the city council, after a professed investi
gation of the affair, laid the whole blame upon Hanson,
who had presumed to publish a paper not agreeable to
the rioters, and upon his friends who had defended him
from murder and arson. There is little doubt that the

THE CONTROVERSY WITH ENGLAND 229
Baltimore riot was welcomed by many hot-headed parti
sans of the war in other sections of the country, as likely
to exert a wholesome effect in deterring federalists from
the public expression of their views. To the honor of
the people of Maryland, it should be mentioned that
this dastardly outrage worked a complete political revo
lution in the State, which at the next election went
federalist by a large majority, Hanson himself being
sent to Congress, where, it may be added, he did not
distinguish himself by patriotism or good sense. " Mar
tyrs " of that sort rarely do.

CHAPTER XII
THE WAR OF 1812-15
Our Remarkable Success on the Ocean — The Privateers — Ignomin
ious Failure on Land — Our Naval Victories Accounted for — Com
parative Strength of the Belligerents — The Invasion of Canada
Collapses — Perry's Victory on Lake Erie— Further Disasters on
the Canada Line — Creditable Actions under Brown and Scott
— McDonough's Victory on Lake Champlain — Burning of
Washington — Successful Defence of Baltimore — Jackson's
Victories at the South — Battle of New Orleans — The Treaty of
Peace— The Objects of the War not Mentioned — Opposition to
the War — Mr. Jefferson Believed to be Hostile to Commercial
Interests — His Remarkable Political Economy — Alleged Trea
sonable Acts in New England — Refusal of the Governors of
Massachusetts and Connecticut to Allow the Militia to March —
The Hartford Convention: Its Personnel ; Popular Denuncia
tion of the Convention : The Actual Work of the Conven
tion : Suggested Amendments to the Constitution ; Nullifying
Measures Proposed ; Constitutional Objections to any such
Gathering — The Terms of Peace : The Fisheries : The Gen
eral Neutrality Law — Coercion of the Barbary States — The In
dian Allies of Great Britain.
If those are in the right who charge that the adminis
tration of Mr. Madison provoked war, not to redress our
wrongs upon the ocean, but to gain glory and territory
by the conquest of Canada,* then the general results of
the war would seem to show the most remarkable dis
crimination upon the part of Providence in apportioning
honor and shame, success and failure, according to the
direction in which our efforts were put forth. Upon
* " The cession of Canada, the fulcrum for these Machiavellian levers,
must be a si?te qua non at a treaty of peace " (Jeff., vi., 70, cf. 78).

THE WAR OF 1812-15 231
the ocean, our little navy of eight or ten frigates and as
many sloops and brigs, was, in anything like equal com
bat, almost uniformly victorious. The nation which
had learned to think itself invincible on the ocean,
" mistress of the seas," was astonished to find its vessels
of war beaten and captured by hastily built and rudely
equipped ships, manned by sailors taken from the fish
ing fleets of New Bedford, Marblehead, and Gloucester.
Again and again the flag of England went down before
the fire of our extemporized gunners, commanded by
such heroes as Hull, Jones, Porter, Bainbridge, and De
catur. It is true these brilliant successes did not give
us the command even of our own waters ; „
Our TPTnflrlr-
and that, when the British squadrons finally able success
ln. „ j, . . -,. , on the water.
closed in, our lew frigates were driven under
cover of the guns of the forts, or fell into the hands
of the enemy through an overwhelming superiority of
force, while our coast was ravaged from Maine to Vir
ginia. Not the less did these gallant exploits raise the
fame of the American nation all over the world, and go
far to redeem the failures and disgraces of the war.
Twice, upon the Lakes, hastily built squadrons, under
Perry and McDonough, defeated superior forces of the
enemy, and compelled the retreat of formidable armies.
Remarkable as were the achievements of our national
vessels, these were equalled, if not surpassed, by the
enterprise, audacity, and resourcefulness of the private
armed vessels which, under cover of "letters of marque,"
poured forth from all the seaports of the Atlantic, from
Machias to Baltimore, and swiftly and terribly avenged
the wrongs to which the merchantmen of the United
States had been helplessly subjected during The priva-
twenty years. American " privateers," free teerB-
lances on the ocean, commanded by men of the ut
most daring, manned by powerful crews of expert and

232 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
hardy seamen, largely fishermen from Newfoundland
and the banks of St. George, worked havoc with the
commerce of England, and did not hesitate upon occa
sion to match themselves against the royal cruisers. It
is stated that during the three years of the war seven
teen hundred British ships were captured. The cul
mination of the achievements of the privateers was when
the brig General Armstrong, lying at Fayal, beat off,
with terrible slaughter, the boats of three British war-
vessels. On the other hand, our ambitious enterprises against
Canada were in the main characterized by blundering
ignominious incompetence on the part of our generals,
failure on land. an(j ^QQ 0ften ^y misconduct and seeming
cowardice on the part of the troops engaged. Alto
gether our efforts in that direction were not only futile,
but humiliated us at home and disgraced us abroad.
So it came about that many persons who doubted the
good faith of the administration in going to war, were
much disposed to see, in the distribution of success and
failure, as between the sea, where we had undoubtedly
suffered wrong, and the land, where these persons
deemed us the aggressors, something in the nature of
divine retribution.
More strictly natural causes may, however, be assigned
for our differing fortunes by land and by sea. If there
, is any work or knowledge or device under the
Our naval •>. . . ?
victories ac- sun m which the single quality of gump
tion "tells, it is in working and fighting a
ship ; and if there ever was a people who pre-eminently
possessed that quality, it was the northern half of the
American people, in the time of which we are speaking.
Our ships were worked by volunteers, all good seamen,
hot for fight and eager for prizes ; all of them natural
mechanics, quick to spread or take in sail, quick to cut

THE WAR OF 1812-15 233
away the wreckage of battle and to rig masts or put out
spars to draw their vessels out of fire. Our ships, too,
were more liberally manned than the English. It ought
not to be a matter of surprise, therefore, that the steady
discipline, unflinching courage, and bulldog tenacity of
the English sailors did not carry the day against the
adroitness, adaptability, suppleness, and fertility of re
source which characterize the Yankee, and pre-emi
nently the Yankee sailor. On the other hand, our land
forces were composed largely of fresh levies, through
the traditional policy of the Republican party, which
had discouraged the increase of the regular army. The
rank and file were men of generous strain enough, but
they were new to the business ; they were not well dis
ciplined ; they had little confidence in themselves, and
in the majority of cases, and with better reason, less
confidence in their officers. Then, again (which has a
great deal to do with this question of courage or cow
ardice), being inland and with land behind, they could
run away, which sailors cannot do.
The census of 1810 had shown the population of the
United States to be about seven and a quarter millions,
while the population of the United King- Compara.
dom was eighteen and a half millions. But ^eMufe*?-
this difference in numbers does not fully ex- ents-
press the difference in strength and resources. England
was a rich and powerful nation, packed with the accu
mulations of successful industry. By the side of every
Englishman employed in her mills or mines or on her
fields worked one, two, three laborers, asking no wages,
costing nothing for their support, representing the
power of past production — capital. To this people were
tributary scores of millions of human beings, in all quar
ters of the globe, whose industry and trade were despot
ically controlled so as to yield the largest possible tax to

234 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
the public and private revenues of Great Britain. This
nation, moreover, with such power and resources, was
organized for war. Her army was large, compact, and
highly disciplined. Her fleets, though no longer com
manded by Nelson, were the terror of the seas. There
is no doubt that, comparing the two nations with each
other, as to their offensive power upon neutral, interme
diate ground, had such existed, Great Britain would
have been as five to one. It is true that, on our chosen
battlefield, Canada, we had the advantage of proximity.
On the other hand, Great Britain enjoyed there the pos
session of many strongholds. What, then, made it less
than madness for us to enter upon the AYar of 1812 ?
We answer, the fact that England was still engaged with
her great enemy, Napoleon, upon the continent of Eu
rope. Although the disasters of successive Spanish
campaigns had already befallen that aspiring conqueror,
Russia and Moscow were still to come. Had it been
1813 instead of 1812, we should scarcely have declared
war. Had it been 1814, we should have had no occasion
to declare war, for the questions at issue would then
have disappeared of themselves.
We had refused to delay hostilities lest we should lose
the advantage we assumed we had in invading Canada *
before she was fully prepared. We were now to find out
how contemptible were the dispositions of the govern
ment for the conquest of this territory, how destitute
of all administrative efficiency was Mr. Madison, and
how great was the incompetence of our commanders.
In July, less than a month after the declaration, Gen
eral Hull, Governor of Michigan Territory, crossed from
Detroit into Canada. In August, without striking a
*In the debate on the Non-intercourse Act of 1806, Mr. Crownin-
shield, of Massachusetts, confidently asserted the ability of the militia of
Vermont and Massachusetts, alone, to capture Canada and Nova Scotia.

THE WAR OF 1812-15 235
blow, he surrendered to General Brock. This invasion
of Canada was over. At once we were put on the de
fensive. The British occupied the whole of _ .
x The 1 n va-
Michigan, and pressed our troops, now com- sion of cana-
manded by General William Henry Harrison, a c° apBe'
afterward President, in their efforts to capture Ohio.
In January, 1813, a detachment of Kentucky troops un
der AYinehester surrendered at Frenchtown, on the river
Raisin ; and during April and May, and again in July,
our forces stood siege at Fort Meigs, on the Maumee.
Nothing, seemingly, saved Ohio but our quickly raised
fleet on Lake Erie. On the 10th of September, 1813,
Lieutenant Oliver Hazard Perry, of the United p ,s vic.
States Navy, then twenty-seven years of age, fc>ry on Lake
leading a motley crowd of vessels, all but two
of which had been hastily converted from peaceful to
warlike purposes, engaged the British squadron, of
slightly superior force as respected men and guns, led
by an officer who had served under Nelson at Trafalgar,
and, by pure force of pluck and brains, won a complete
victory, capturing the entire force of the enemy. This
action saved Ohio and recovered the greater part of
Michigan. General Harrison, in command of the lake,
was able to throw troops upon the enemy's lines of com
munication, compelling the evacuation of Detroit. In
his pursuit, General Harrison brought on a battle, upon
the banks of the Thames, in which the famous Indian
ally of the British, Tecumseh, was slain.
So much for the operations on the Michigan end
of the line. On the New York frontier General Van
Rensselaer was in command of the Ameri- „ ^ ..
Further die-
can forces. In October, 1812, he crossed and asters on the
attacked Queenstown, but was driven back
and a portion of his force captured. The British
commander, Brock, was killed. General Van Rensselaer

236 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
resigned immediately after. In the spring of 1813
General Henry Dearborn, who had been Secretary of
War under Jefferson, took Toronto, then York, burn
ing the Parliament House and captured the forts on
the Niagara River. Dearborn having been relieved,
Generals Wilkinson and Hampton undertook a cam
paign against Montreal, which resulted in shameful fail
ure. Meanwhile we were driven out of Fort George ;
and our commander retired to the American side,
burning the village of Newark. During the winter
the British crossed in turn, captured Fort Niagara,
which they held to the close of the war, and swept
the country with fire and sword as far as Buffalo.
In the spring of 1814 General Wilkinson again left his
quarters, only to make another exhibition of helpless
imbecility. And thus we come to the third year of the
war in which Canada was to be conquered and glory
gained to the administration : nothing done but what
the navy had done ; much suffered, both of loss and
of disgrace. Hereafter the operations on the Canada
line were destined to be less discreditable to the Ameri
can arms, though still wholly fruitless.
The British forces were now greatly strengthened by
arrivals from Europe, the fall of Napoleon having en
abled the government to send hither a large body of
veterans, under eminent officers. On the American
side our troops were settling down more and more to the
real business of war ; while they were rid of the genera
tion of incompetents who had thrown away the royal
opportunity afforded them when England was engaged
in its deadly struggle on the Continent. Younger
commanders of merit were coming to the front, as has
to be the case in nearly every war before success be
comes possible. Major-General Jacob Brown, afterward
Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army, who

THE WAR OF 1812-15 237
had distinguished himself in the defence of Sackett's
Harbor, in 1813, had succeeded to the command of our
forces on the frontier. With him was Colo- creditable
nel Winfield Scott, also destined to become in f^n^l
time General-in-Chief. On the 2d of July, Scott-
having crossed to the Canada side, Brown took Fort
Erie ; and three days later, at Chippewa defeated the
enemy under General Riall. The latter, having been
reinforced by Drummond, pushed back our column ;
and on the 25th of July was fought the fiercely con
tested action of Lundy's Lane, within the roar of Niag
ara. The American forces were successful upon the
field ; but were obliged to fall back to Fort Erie, where
they stood siege (under General Gaines, Brown having
been wounded) until September, when Fort Erie was
blown up and abandoned.
Meanwhile an action had been fought on Lake Cham-
plain which "added much to the credit of the American
name. The British General Prevost, with McDon-
12,000 regular troops, supported by a squad- oSlhaLcnarS
ron, attacked Plattsburg ; but before the Po
land forces could fairly engage each other (our infan
try being much inferior in numbers), Captain McDon-
ough, commanding the American squadron upon the
lake, brought to utter defeat the superior naval force
of the enemy, involving the precipitate retreat of Pre
vost and putting a stop to all projects for invading the
territory of the United States from that quarter. And
this was how we took Canada in the War of 1812.
Turn we now to other quarters, where the British
forces were pushing strongly against us, with full and
fell determination to punish the insolence of the young
republic. By the close of 1813 we had scarcely a vessel
on the water. Our gallant cruisers had been driven
under cover of the forts or captured by the powerful

238 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
squadrons closing in upon our coasts. From Machias
to Alexandria our harbors were blockaded and our
towns and villages burned. The barbarities of the
English fleet, under distinct orders to " destroy and lay
waste all towns and districts of the United States, found
accessive to the attack of the British armaments," were
doubtless an unwarrantable extension of the ravages
of war ; but we must not fail to remember the burning
of Newark and of the Parliament House at Toronto.
Burning of In August, 1814, two powerful fleets, under
Def8encteI1of Admirals Cockburn and Cochrane, occupied
Baltimore. ^e Chesapeake and the Potomac, and landed
a detachment of troops, under General Ross, which
marched on Washington. At Bladensburg, five or six
miles from the capital, the British put to disgraceful
rout the militia which had been assembled to oppose
them. The day following, the public buildings, in
cluding the Capitol and the President's mansion, were
plundered and burned, whereupon the British troops
retired. There was worse fortune for the invaders
when they appeared, two weeks later, before Baltimore.
At the battle of North Point the American forces,
though ultimately obliged to retire, gallantly held
their ground, General Ross, the British commander,
being killed ; and upon the fleet moving up to attack
Fort McHenry, the defence was so spirited that the
British withdrew with loss. It is to the bombardment
of Fort McHenry, upon this occasion, that the " Star-
Spangled Banner " has reference.
Let us once more shift our place, this time to the
scene of operations in the Southwest, where we may see
the last of the War of 1812. It has been noted that
the Northwest Indians, under Tecumseh, had made
themselves the allies of the British. In 1813 the Creeks
at the South rose in arms, and, after inflicting severe

THE WAR OF 1812-15 239
loss upon our volunteers, were brought to extremity
and routed with terrible slaughter at Tohopeka, March
27, 1814, by General Andrew Jackson, of
Tennessee, a man new to fame but possessing victories at
¦ -,¦ t , • tt,. the South.
extraordinary qualities as a leader of men,
whether in war or in peace. This victory led to the
submission of the Creeks and the cession of the larger
part of their lands. In the fall of the same year we
find General Jackson operating against the British
forces in the direction of Pensacola and Mobile. A
little later, the British, in heavy force of veteran troops,
advanced to the attack upon New Orleans. On the
23d of December, Jackson, with a far inferior force of
raw troops, made a successful night-attack upon the
British camp, inflicting considerable loss. On the
8th of January, 1815, General Pakenham, commanding
the invading forces, attacked Jackson's position cover
ing New Orleans, but was repelled with great slaughter,
Pakenham and his second in command being killed.
The battle of New Orleans was in all respects a very
remarkable action. When it was fought, England and
the United States were at peace, a treaty The treaty of
having been signed at Ghent, in the Decern- peace"
ber previous, by the commissioners of the two powers.
The objects of the war on the part of the United States
were not even mentioned. The rights of neutral trade
were not defined in the treaty. England did not with
draw her claims to the right of impressment ; and the
status quo was stipulated as to territory. A week later
the President recommended the navigation of Ameri
can vessels exclusively by American seamen, either na
tives or such as had been naturalized. But while thus,
so far as appears by the treaty of peace, the United
States obtained nothing for which it had fought, the
issues as to neutral rights and impressment had, of

240 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
themselves, sunk out of all practical importance, in the
course of events. As war had ceased in Europe, there
was no longer any question of neutral rights ; while the
wholesale reduction of the English navy, upon the con
clusion of peace, made it no longer necessary to resort
to impressment to man its ships.

We have thus far confined our account of the War of
1812 to its purely military features, in order that we
might get a connected view of the whole, without the
intrusion of the civil and political embarrassments of the
administration. In point of fact, the conduct of the
war was greatly interfered with by the persistent op-
opposition to position of the federalist party, which still
the war. controlled the commercial States. These
States had opposed the embargo, and still hated its
memory and execrated its author. They believed that
Mr. Jefferson's policy was dictated by a desire to estab
lish, in his own words, " an equilibrium between the oc
cupations of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce,
which shall simplify our foreign concerns to the ex
change of that surplus which we cannot consume for
those articles of reasonable comfort or convenience
which we cannot produce." If these persons misunder
stood Mr. Jefferson in this respect, it was his fault, not
theirs. His writings abound in expressions of reluct
ance to see the United States become a commercial na
tion ; and upon retiring from the presidency we find
him congratulating his countrymen (as represented by
the Democratic-Republican delegates from the town
ships of AVashington County, Penn.) upon the fact
that, if the embargo laws "had not had all the effect in
bringing the powers of Europe to a sense of justice

THE WAR OF 1812-15 241
which a more faithful observance of them might have
produced," they had at least tended to establish the
equilibrium described above in his own words ; that is,
they had served the interests of the country by distress
ing, and in a degree destroying, that commerce which
other statesmen valued and sought to cherish, but
which he regarded as baleful and dangerous.
Mr. Jefferson may have been right in his estimation
of general commerce, i.e., trade carried beyond the mere
exchange of the national surplus for articles ^ jeffer-
destined to consumption by the nation itself ; son'8 political
but it can scarcely be a matter of surprise
that the commercial communities of the North and
Northeast, whose enterprise had developed an enormous
" carrying trade," in which their capital was invested
and upon which their people depended for subsistence,
failed to take the same view, or that deep and bitter
hatred was engendered by what they deemed the wanton
and unconstitutional destruction of the navigation in
terests of the country. The fact is, Mr. Jefferson was
the most extravagant protectionist ever placed in a posi
tion importantly to influence the trade and industry' of
a civilized nation. Other protectionists have sought to
build up manufactures or commerce. Mr. Jefferson is
the only one in the range of our reading who could con
gratulate himself and the country upon the success of
measures for the destruction of trade, as promoting the
harmonious development of national life. His writings
at about the time to which we refer contain easy-gliding
descriptions of how the surplus commercial capital of
the Northeast could be diverted to other uses.
The embargo, so bitterly opposed in New England,
was repealed, as we have seen, in 1809 ; and three years
later came the war, brought on, as the same States per
sisted in believing, for the purpose of strengthening the
16

242 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
administration with the agricultural and planting sec
tions, through the enhancement of the prices of their
products,* and for the glory of conquering and annex
ing Canada. To this end, their principal means of sub
sistence, trade and the fisheries, must again be cut up
by the roots ; their coast be ravaged from one end to
the other ; their vessels rot at the wharves. It is no
matter for wonder that the idea of war was exceedingly
obnoxious to these communities ; that their representa
tives opposed the declaration bitterly to the last ; and
that the continuance of hostilities was felt to be a griev
ous and almost intolerable affliction. But it is charged
that these States, particularly Massachusetts and Con
necticut, carried their rightful political opposition to
the war, as a measure proposed, over into the war itself,
Alleged as a fact existing and for the present inevit-
opposltion to a°le j an(i that, by their public acts and by
the war. yie language and behavior of the great body
of their citizens, they embarrassed the government in
the conduct of the war, and gave aid and comfort to the
enemy. If the federalist party was not guilty of this,
it was at least the appearance of this which destroyed
the federalist party. Those who will not be careful to
avoid the appearance of evil may not complain if they
suffer the blame of it. The language used by the oppo
nents of the war was extremely violent. We have seen
how the knowledge of disaffection led Governor-General
Craig to send his emissary into New England, to observe
* " To keep the war popular, we must keep open the markets. So long
as good prices can be had, the people will support the war cheerfully."
— Jefferson, vi., 93.
"That grain (wheat) has got to $2 at Richmond, this is the true ba
rometer of the popularity of the war." — Jefferson, vi., 102.
Exactly what was to make the war popular with the people who lived
by other means than by raising wheat and tobacco, Mr. Jefferson does
not state.

THE WAR OF 1812-15 243
how far these States might be ripe for separation from
the rest of the Union. There is reason to believe that
the possibility of a rising in this quarter mingled with
the strictly military plans of the British commanders,
however much or however little ground there may have
been for such an expectation. But in addition to much
wild and ferocious talk, two distinct things * are alleged
against the federalist party in New England.
The first of these was the refusal of the governors of
Connecticut and Massachusetts to allow the militia of
their States to march upon the president's
.... m, „ , t j The militia.
lequisitions. These refusals were based on
the assumption that no invasion was in progress ; and
that no danger thereof existed in any such degree as to
raise a constitutional obligation to comply with the
requisitions. It will be seen that the governors of these
States made themselves judges of the exigency. It is
not altogether certain that, however unpatriotic their
action may be considered, they were yet outside their
authority in so doing. The Constitution had author
ized Congress " to provide for the calling forth of the
militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insur
rections, and repel invasions." Congress had, by the act
of February 28, 1795, prescribed the limits within which
the executive might make requisitions for this purpose.
It is fairly a question whether such a requisition from
the president does anything more than create an occa
sion which justifies a State executive in calling out the
militia ; whether it imposes upon him any legal duty, as
distinguished from a patriotic obligation. It is still
more a question whether the governors of Connecticut
and Massachusetts may not have been technically, as
* We take no account of the charge that false signals were put up on
the shore to mislead our vessels or betray them to the enemy. Those
tales, which gave rise to the expression "Blue-light Federalists," are
too monstrous to be believed.

244 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
distinguished from morally, right in asserting that, if
they officially knew that the exigency assumed in the
requisition did, in fact, not exist, it was competent to
them to withhold compliance : in a word, that they were
rightful judges of the situation.
The second measure on the part of the New England
federalists, alleged to be of a disloyal if not treasonable
mt _ t nature, was the Hartford Convention. This
fordconven- famous gathering of the disaffected took
place in December, 1814. The idea of a
convention of the States opposing the war was started in
Massachusetts. It was later modified to the form of a
" Conference " between the New England States, action
upon subjects of a national nature to be left to a future
convention of all the States. The Massachusetts legis
lature appointed twelve delegates, and invited other
New England States to send representatives. Connect
icut appointed seven ; and designated Hartford as the
place of meeting. Rhode Island appointed four. Two
counties in New Hampshire and one in Vermont ap
pointed one delegate each. The personnel of the gather
ing was of the most distinguished character, as to abil
ity and social position. The list of the Massachusetts
members will suffice : George Cabot, Nathan Dane,
William Prescott, Harrison Gray Otis, Timothy Bige-
low, Joshua Thomas, Stephen Longfellow, Jr., Daniel
Waldo. Mr. Cabot was chosen president.
At the time, and for many years after, the Convention
was spoken of by the republicans, and their successors,
the democrats, as a treasonable gathering. On the 6th
of January, 1817, General Jackson, writing to the
president-elect (Monroe), says, " Had I commanded the
military department where the Hartford Convention
met, if it had been the last act of my life, I should have
punished the three principal leaders of the party."

THE WAR OF 1812-15 245
Punishing, with General Jackson, meant hanging or
shooting. He was very apt to say such things ; and
what is more to the point, he was, as Arbuthnot and
Ambrister found, very apt to do them. It
J x Denun c 1 a -
will be remembered that he promised the tions of the
leaders of the nullification movement of
1832-33, that he would hang them from the walls of
the Capitol. The publication of the journal of the
Convention and of a history of its inception and pro
ceedings by the secretary, Theodore Dwight, has com
pletely controverted the charges of treasonable delib
erations and conspiracy. And, indeed, to all but the
bitterest partisans, the slightest knowledge of the men
composing the Convention would have been a guaranty
that nothing of such a nature was possible. Yet for
many a long year the term " Hartford Conventionist "
was, in the ears of a great majority of the American
people, synonymous with traitor. Not only did the
Convention destroy the federalist party beyond all pos
sibility of a resurrection ; but it proved to be the blight
ing of many a fair and promising career. Every man
who took part in it was a marked man ; and, so far as
the utmost rage of the republican party and press
could go, he was outcast and outlawed politically.
The actual work of the Convention issued in a lengthy
report, containing four resolutions, the last of which
presented to the States seven proposed Theworkof
amendments to the Constitution, some good, the Hartford
some bad, which were as follows :
1. Excluding slaves from the basis on which repre
sentation and direct taxes are apportioned.
2. Requiring for the admission of new States the con
currence of two-thirds of both houses.
3. Prohibiting Congress from laying an embargo for
more than sixty days.

246 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
4. Prohibiting Congress from interdicting commer
cial intercourse with foreign nations without a two-
thirds vote of both houses.
5. Requiring a two -thirds vote to declare war or
authorize acts of hostility against a foreign nation, ex
cept in defence and in cases of actual invasion.
6. Making ineligible to any civil office under the gen
eral government any person thereafter naturalized.
7. The president to be eligible only for a single term
and not to be chosen two terms in succession from the
same State.
The latter clause was aimed at Virginia, which had
already furnished three out of the four presidents ;
while Mr. Monroe was closely in line of succession as a
fourth Virginian.
The most seriously objectionable portions of the re
port, however, were those which recommended to the
States the adoption of measures to prevent the execution
of certain provisions of the enlistment laws of the United
States, deemed unconstitutional, and which contem
plated independent provision for defence on the part of
States, or groups of States, in case of invasion. All mili
tary and political considerations oppose the latter recom
mendation. The former is in the true spirit of the nulli
fication resolutions of 1798 ; and indeed it must be said
that, since 1808, the extreme federalists of New England
had not refrained from expressing opinions which, if
made good by action, would have destroyed the author
ity and even the existence of the government under the
Union. But, after all, the great objection to be made
to the Hartford Convention lies against the mere fact
of the Convention itself. For all purposes not of mere
courtesy and ceremony the only place where the States
ought to be found represented is in Congress. It is to
be confessed, however, that such gatherings have been

THE WAR OF 1812-15 247
since held, some of them for very highly patriotic pur
poses, as in the case of conventions of the governors of
the loyal States during the War of Secession.

One is tempted to say that the terms of peace were
creditable neither to our diplomacy nor to our arms ;
yet, when it is considered that the negotia- The terms of
tors, upon the part of the United States, in- peace'
eluded John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Albert Gal
latin, it is doubtless only just to lay the blame for an un
satisfactory settlement wholly upon our lack of national
prestige and upon the failure of our warlike enterprises.
AYe had gone to war chiefly on the question of impress
ment, refusing to accept the compromises offered by
England on that subject. In the treaty which closed
three years of doubtful fighting, our commissioners
were obliged to waive the question of impressment, re-,
serving it for future settlement, as it had been reserved
by the Jay treaty twenty years before. Two extravagant
and wholly impossible demands were made by England
during the negotiations which deserve to be noted. One
was, that not only should the Indian allies of England
be included in the pacification (which was well enough),
but that a definite and permanent boundary should be
established between them and the United States, our
government to be precluded from any future purchase
of their territory. The second demand was that the
United States should relinquish the right of maintain
ing military posts on the northern lakes. Both these
demands were decisively denied by our commissioners.
The treaty as signed provided for the mutual restoration
of conquered territory, and for the appointment of com
missioners to settle the boundary on the northeast and
to run the northern line as far as the Lake of the Woods.

248 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
As to fishing on the shores of British America, the Eng
lish commissioners declined to renew the privileges
formerly enjoyed by our citizens, which they deemed to
have been terminated by the war. The loss of the right
to fish on the shores of British America, thus occurring,
continued, in spite of a partial adjustment in 1818, at
intervals to threaten the peace of the two nations until,
by the treaty of Washington, in 1870, this right was re
gained in the exchange of benefits and payments therein
provided for.
In this connection let us note an act, passed before the
close of Mr. Madison's administration, which has re
mained in force down to the present time, to regulate
the relations of our people toward foreign powers, friend
ly to us but at war with each other. This was the gen-
The Neutrality era* Neutrality law of 1817, which made pre
law, vision against fitting out vessels within the
jurisdiction of the United States, to aid or co-operate in
warlike measures against nations with which we should
be at peace. This act has been of great service, having
frequently been invoked against " filibustering " enter
prises, whether under the impulse of the slave power
or due to misguided sympathy with communities strug
gling for independence.
Fresh acts of hostility on the part of Algiers had fol
lowed the outbreak of our war with England;' but of
these the government at Washington wisely took little
notice until the conclusion of the treaty of peace left
our hands free, when a powerful fleet, under Commodore
Decatur, was sent to the Mediterranean and speedily
coercion of coerce<l the pirates, the Dey being compelled
power"1"1 ry *° s*&n terms, upon Decatur's quarter-deck,
by which he renounced all claims to future
tribute or presents from the United States, and agreed
to surrender American captives held in slavery by his

THE WAR OF 1812-15 249
people. Tripoli and Tunis were also brought to sub
mission, and the " Barbary powers " ceased from that
time to vex our commerce.
Indian troubles had preceded the AYar of 1812. These
still continued, in some degree, after its close. We have
seen that Great Britain had sought, in the mv T ,.
0 ' The Indian
treaty of peace, to give special and extraor- allies of Great
dinary protection to her late allies by secur
ing them their lands in perpetuity ; but that the com
missioners on the part of the United States accorded to
that part of the British propositions little consideration.
In September, 1815, peace was made with the tribes
lately at war.

CHAPTER XIII
THE CIVIL EVENTS OF MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION
The Seventh Presidential Election — DeWitt Clinton Nominated by
the Disaffected Republicans and Supported by the Federalists
— Madison Re-elected — The Third Census — Redistribution of
Representatives — The Strengthening of National Authority
— The Olmstead Case — Chief Justice Marshall's Contributions
to American Nationality — Expiry of the National Bank — Fi
nancial Measures Incident to the War — The Republican Party
Driven to Direct Taxes and other Offensive Means of Obtaining
Revenue — The Salary-Grab Bill — New States — Economic
Measures — The New Age — President Madison Advocates a
Protective Tariff — The Protectionist Argument of that time
—Position of the South— The Tariff of 1816— The Second Na
tional Bank — The Navigation Act — Internal Improvements
— Changes in the Cabinet — Mr. Monroe Chosen President — Ret
rospect.
Having briefly described the war with England, let us
return to consider the chief civil events and measures of
Madison's administration. The interest taken by the
people in the controversy which resulted in the declara
tion of July 18, 1812, was so intense and absorbing that
nearly all the political thought and feeling of Mr. Madi
son's first three years expended itself in discussing our
national wrongs and in considering the political meas
ures of retaliation or redress. Mr. Madison having, as
The seventh stated, been nominated by the administration
SeecUonntial Party> DeWitt Clinton, of New York, was
put up by the disaffected republicans, with
the understanding that he would receive the votes of the
federalists. Mr. Clinton, the nephew of George Clin-

251
ton, had become early distinguished in the ranks of the
republicans ; but he now placed himself in opposition,
partly from ambition, partly from his dislike of the
"Virginia Dynasty." He received 89 electoral votes,
all the votes of New York, Massachusetts, New Jer
sey, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and
Delaware, with 5 from Maryland. These were substan
tially federalist votes, reenforced by opposition to the
war and dislike of Virginian domination within the
government. One blank vote was thrown from Ohio.
Mr. Madison received 128 votes, all the votes of Ver
mont and Pennsylvania ; 7 from Ohio, 6 from Mary
land, and the full vote of the southern and southwest
ern States except those already named. Elbridge Gerry,
of Massachusetts, received 131 votes as vice-president.
Ohio, as a State settled mainly from the northeast, ex
hibited its natural affiliations with New England and
New York. Kentucky and Tennessee went with Vir
ginia and North Carolina, their parent States, respect
ively. The third census, taken in 1810, showed a total popu
lation of 7,239,903, of whom 1,191,364 were slaves. The
four largest States were Virginia, with 977,622 ; New
York, with 959,049 ; Pennsylvania, with 810,091 ; Mas
sachusetts (still including Maine), with 700,745. These
four States obtained 93 representatives out of a total of
182, or more than half. Though Virginia was the most
populous of all, yet the three-fifths rule, applied to her
slaves, brought her representation in Con- Eepresenta-
gress below that of New York (27) and ex- tion-
actly on a level with that of Pennsylvania (23), while
Massachusetts obtained 20. The three smallest States
were Rhode Island, Delaware, and Louisiana, which, to
gether, had only 5 representatives. North Carolina had
13 ; Kentucky, 10 ; South Carolina and Maryland, 9

252 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
each ; Connecticut 7 ; while, by a curious coincidence,
the six remaining States had 6 each. Here again we
note the absence of any considerable group of the second
rank, North Carolina alone being about at the mean
of such a group as might naturally have been expected
to be formed among so many as eighteen States.
We have seen how, little by little, the Constitution
set up in 1789 was being " tried on " in application to
the life of the American people, to find how it would fit
and whether it would work in practice. We have seen
Kentucky and Virginia, by the nullification resolutions
of 1798-99, declaring that there was " no common judge "
The strength- between State and Nation, in cases of con- .
tional author- rhcting authority or of abuses of federal
ity- power. AYe have noted the hostility of the
republican party to all enlargements of the judicial
function in our government ; we have witnessed the
attempts, which followed the accession of that party to
power, to break down the judiciary by the process of
impeachment. We have seen President Adams, in the
last days of his administration, place upon the supreme
bench of the United States the great Chief-Justice,
Marshall, who was to make history faster than it could
be unmade by all the opponents of American nation
ality. We are now to see the government of the United
States and of one of its original constituent States in
actual collision over a mandate of the Supreme Court.
In the first weeks of Madison's administration a case
of long standing — the Olmstead case — concerning the
disposition of certain moneys, the proceeds of a Brit
ish prize, taken away back during the Revolutionary
war, came to a final decision. The United States mar
shal, attempting to carry out the decree of the bench,
was forcibly resisted, in Philadelphia, by militia acting

EVENTS OF MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION 253
under instructions from the legislature and Governor
of Pennsylvania, to make good the decisions of the
State courts regarding the same subject-matter. A
bloody issue was for the moment postponed ; and, dur
ing the respite accorded, the authorities of Pennsylvania
withdrew from their attitude of resistance, intimidated
by the firm front of Mr. Madison, who without any fal
tering asserted the powers of the national judiciary.
The precept of the court was in time duly executed.
The officer commanding the militia and cer- The oimstead
tain of his men were tried by the United caae-
States Circuit Court and convicted of unlawfully resist
ing the service of judicial process ; but their sentences
were wisely remitted by the President, on the ground
that they had acted under a mistaken sense of duty. So
ended, in favor of the national authority, a contest which
had at one time threatened the gravest issues. The
two great constitutional principles, the establishments
which, beyond all the power of men to subvert or up
root them, we owe chiefly to Marshall are these : First,
that, while the general government is limited as to its
objects, it is yet, as to those objects, supreme. Secondly,
that in enforcing its constitutional authority, in doing
its constitutional work, in reaching its constitutional
ends, the United States government is not confined to
narrow courses ; is not shut up to any single line of ac
tion ; is not limited in its agencies or methods. It has
a full, fair, and free choice among all the means, not
expressly forbidden in the Constitution, which are rea
sonable, expedient, and politic means to those ends ; a
choice as full, fair, and free as if the objects of the
government were not limited.
As has been stated, the charter of the first National
Bank ran twenty years from 1791. Application for a
renewal of the charter was made in ample season to

254 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
allow a full discussion as to the merits of that measure.
The bank had been highly successful, from a stock-
„ . , holder's point of view ; and there was little
Expiry of -1 '
the National reason for questioning its usefulness alike to
people and to government. The management
had, in general, been conservative and sound ; and the
bank had been a capable and honest agent in the custody
and transmission of public funds, as well as a convenient
source of occasional loans and supplies to the Treasury.
But, rapidly as the republican party of that day had
progressed toward occupying the federalist position of
1789-91, it had not yet got so far that " the rank and
file " were prepared, without strong opposition, to accept
Hamilton's bank as one of the permanent institutions of
the country. Moreover, an interested competition had
sprung up, through the establishment of State banks,
generally of a low order, deeply infected with political
animus, with little capital actually paid in, and often
managed speculatively, if not dishonestly. The unfortu
nate result was that, although the recharter was urged
by Gallatin, our strongest as well as safest financier
since the day of Hamilton, and was supported by many
leading republicans, it just failed of success. In the
House of Representatives indefinite postponement was
carried, 65 to 64. In the Senate a separate bill was
defeated by the casting vote of Vice-President Clinton.
The bank, therefore, went out of existence through the
expiry of its charter.
Notwithstanding the tremendous drain on the Treas
ury involved in the military and naval enterprises which
Financial have been recited, no serious proposition was
Sdent'to 'the made to resort to legal-tender paper-money.
war. rpjjjg fac(- js crerlitable to President Madison,
to Mr. Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, and to the
Congress of that time. It is to be said, however, that

EVENTS OF MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION 255
this result was due more to a belief that such a power
did not inhere in Congress than to any enlightened con
victions as to the economic folly of such a resort.
" Treasury notes," without the legal-tender quality,
were issued according to the exigencies of the govern
ment ; and as those exigencies were always of the most
trying character, the notes became greatly depreciated.
As they were receivable for taxes, the Treasury was con
tinually taking in notes which it found difficult to put
out again. In November, 1814, the Secretary of the
Treasury was compelled to give notice that he would be
unable to meet the interest due on the public debt. The
general suspension of banks throughout the country
added to the financial disorder. The normal industry
of the nation was crippled ; and the profitable trade of
the north and the northeast was practically destroyed,
not only by the proper effects of war, but by the Em
bargo Act of 1813-14, which was so stringent that even
the coasting-trade was almost annihilated. Everywhere,
except in the agricultural regions, deep distress pre
vailed. Notwithstanding these adverse conditions Con
gress made a manful effort to increase the revenue from
taxation. At the outset the duties on imports were in
creased. In the second year of the war a direct tax of
$3,000,000 was laid upon real estate and slaves. A duty
of four cents a pound was levied on all sugars refined in
the United States ; stills were taxed upon their capacity ;
licenses for retailing spirits and wine were also taxed ;
stamp duties were imposed on bank-notes, on bonds or
promissory notes discounted by banks, and on bills of
exchange ; pleasure-carriages were taxed heavily, and all
other carriages in smaller amounts.
It seems very strange to read of whiskey taxes, stamp
duties, and direct taxes levied by a Congress controlled
by a republican majority. But that party had met the

256 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
inevitable fate of all parties coming into power. It had
taken the government upon its own hands ; it had be-
The repub- gun war upon its own declaration ; and it
impnoBesrd£ had to get the means to carry on the war
rect taxes. an(j sugtam ^g government as best it could.
The financial measures it had denounced in opposi
tion it was now obliged to defend. In spite of the
utmost efforts to collect revenue, the public debt rose,
in great waves, until it reached the enormous sum, as it
seemed in those days, of $127,000,000. Mr. Gallatin
remained in the Treasury until 1814, when he was suc
ceeded by George W. Campbell, of Tennessee, who,
after a brief service, gave way to Alexander J. Dallas, of
Pennsylvania. The year following the close of the war,
Congress passed a joint resolution requiring the Secre
tary of the Treasury to cause, as soon as might be, all
public dues to be collected and paid in specie or Treas
ury notes or notes of specie-paying banks. By the ef
forts of the Treasury and the improved industrial con
ditions of the country, specie payments were restored at
the beginning of 1817. Before the close of Mr. Madi
son's administration Congress passed an act appropriat
ing $10,000,000 annually, out of current revenues, as a
sinking fund to provide for the public debt at its matur
ity. The embargo of 1813-14, which we spoke of as
causing dire distress, had been soon repealed, whether in
consequence of the outcry raised against it or of the com
plete destruction of Napoleon's continental system, fol
lowing the fatal battle of Leipsic.
In speaking of the first ten amendments of the Con
stitution we referred to an amendment proposed at the
The salary same time to the States, but not by them
Grab bui. adopted, according to which it would have
been impossible for Congress to change the compen
sation of its own members until an election should

events of madison's administration 257
have intervened. By an act of the session of 1815-16,
the compensation of members, which had been at the
rate of $6 per day of actual attendance, was placed at
$1,500 per year, with the usual mileage. Writing to
Mr. Gallatin, June 16, 1817, Mr. Jefferson says : "Ac
cording to the opinion I hazarded to you a little before
your departure, we have had an almost entire change in
the body of Congress. ... In some States, it is
said, every member of Congress is changed ; in all,
many. ... I have never known so unanimous a
sentiment of disapprobation ; and what is remarkable is
that it was spontaneous. The newspapers were almost
entirely silent ; and the people, not only unled by their
leaders, but in opposition to them."
In 1812 Louisiana was admitted as a State, with its
present boundaries. The resistance to this act from the
unreconciled federalists was of the most in
tense and furious nature. In his speech ew ae8'
against the bill, Mr. Quincy said, " If this bill passes, it
is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a dissolution
of the Union ; that it will free the States from their
moral obligation ; and, as it will be the right of all, so
it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a
separation, amicably if they can, forcibly if they must."
Here was the " old Republicanism " of 1798-99 with a
vengeance ; and this time from a Massachusetts fed
eralist ! In 1816, without any such antagonism, Indiana
was admitted. In 1810 its population had been 24,820 ;
in 1820 it had risen to 147,178. At the session follow
ing, Mississippi, with a population estimated at 64,000,
was authorized to form a constitution and State govern
ment. The remainder of what had been the Mississippi
territory was constituted the territory of Alabama.
We now come to a group of economic measures, passed
by Congress in the brief interval between the conclu-
17

258 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
sion of the war with England and the close of Mr. Madi
son's administration, which were not only of great im
portance in themselves, but which have an
Economic x ......
measures— even higher interest, historically, m that they
marked a vast change in the ideas, feelings,
and purposes of the American people. The group of
measures to which we refer not only presaged but intro
duced a new era in the life of the United States. Down to
this time the political thought of our people had been al
most entirely absorbed by foreign affairs. We have now
reached the period when economic concerns became su
preme. It was by no accidental coincidence that the
years immediately following the peace of 1815 witnessed
the enactment of a large body of important commercial
and financial legislation.
Mr. Madison had been the leader of the opposition
to protection in Washington's administration. He was
now, under the pressure of the financial difficulties
created by the war, and under the impulse of his sup
porters from the extreme South, where the cotton-plant
ing interest had become dominant, to appear in the rSle
of an advocate of incidental protection. In his message
President °f December, 1815, he said to Congress, "In
vocatesna pro! adjusting the duties on imports to the object
tecave tariff. 0f revenue, the influence of the tariff on
manufactures will necessarily present itself for consid
eration. However wise the theory may be which leaves
to the sagacity and interest of individuals the applica
tion of their industry and resources, there are, in this as
in other cases, exceptions to the general rule. Besides
the condition, which the theory itself implies, of a re
ciprocal adoption by other nations, experience teaches
that so many circumstances must occur in introducing
and maturing manufacturing establishments, especially
of the more complicated kinds, that a country may re-

EVENTS OF MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION 259
main long without them, although sufficiently advanced,
and in some respects even peculiarly fitted, for carrying
them on with success. Under circumstances giving a
powerful impulse to manufacturing industry, it has
made among us a progress and exhibited an efficiency
which justify the belief that, with a protection not more
than is due to the enterprising citizens whose inter
ests are now at stake, it will become at an early day
not only safe against occasional competition from
abroad but a source of domestic wealth and even of ex
ternal commerce. In selecting the branches more es
pecially entitled to the public patronage, a preference is
obviously claimed by such as will relieve the United
States from a dependence on foreign supplies, ever sub
ject to casual failures, for articles necessary for the pub
lic defence or connected with the primary wants of in
dividuals. It will be an additional recommendation of
particular manufactures when the materials for them
are extensively drawn from our agriculture, and conse
quently impart and insure to that great fund of national
prosperity and independence an encouragement which
cannot fail to be rewarded."
Three features of the protectionist argument of 1816
require to be clearly indicated. The first claim for
protection was not then for the defence of The protec-
American wages and the American standard mentstofat1iat
of living, but for securing to government time-
and people an indefeasible supply of articles necessary to
life, and especially to national defence. The second claim
was made in the interest of agriculture, not as furnishing
the food for large operative classes (so favored an argu
ment in later days) but as furnishing the materials for
manufacture. We shall, further on, see the special sig
nificance of this argument. The third claim was on the
ground that manufactures had been brought into exist-

260 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
ence by the embargo and by the war, as a means of sup
plying our people with the necessaries of life ; and that,
in all fairness, those enterprises, in which so much capi
tal had been invested, should not be allowed to collapse
under foreign competition, now that peace was restored.
What was it that made the South, always the advo
cate of a strict construction of the powers of govern-
The position ment, and also naturally, as composed of
toward the°ta?- planting communities, opposed to duties on
ifl- manufactured goods — what was it that made
this section now support a protective tariff ? In the
answer to this question we find the significance of Mr.
Madison's argument. The profits of cotton culture had
become enormous, thanks to the ingenuity of a Yankee
schoolmaster. We saw that, at the inauguration of the
government, the export of cotton amounted to but a few
thousand pounds a year. The difficulty was not, then,
in raising the plant, but in treating it for the market.
Any amount of cotton could be produced upon the rich,
moist lands of the South, under its warm sun ; but only
a very small amount could be cleaned. At the time of
which we speak, Eli Whitney's cotton-gin had done its
great work, effecting a revolution, industrially, socially,
commercially, and politically, hardly equalled in the his
tory of invention. Any amount of cotton could be
cheaply and effectively cleaned ; the only limit to its use
was found in the amount which could be produced ;
and, as the merits of this wonderful fibre were every
year becoming more fully recognized, the profits of the
culture had become, as we have said, enormous. In con
sequence, the cotton States were at this time in favor of
protective duties on cotton goods, as a means of build
ing up American manufactures which should take off
their entire supply. Of the gigantic possibilities at
tending the export of that staple to Europe, they had

EVENTS OF MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION 261
no conception ; or they would not have taken this side
in 1816. Subsequent history shows that, as the export
rose, their interest in domestic manufactures fell.
AYithin twelve years after Mr. Madison's tariff, the plant
ing States became the bitterest enemies of protection.
The bill of 1816, prepared by Mr. Dallas upon the
principle of Mr. Madison's recommendations, had the
urgent advocacy of Messrs. Calhoun and The tariff of
Lowndes, of South Carolina ; but the strong- 1816-
est support of the tariff came from a less interested
source. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, who was to come to
be known as the father of the American (i.e., the Protec
tive) System, made this the occasion of assuming that
leadership in the advocacy of measures for building up
American manufactures which characterized his whole
subsequent career. AVhatever may be said of Messrs.
Calhoun and Lowndes in 1816, or of Pennsylvania states
men in all periods of our history, Mr. Clay was un
doubtedly influenced, in his championship of protection,
by large, unselfish, and patriotic motives. On the other
hand, the New England States, being still mainly com
mercial, notwithstanding the destructive effects of the
embargo and the war, opposed the bill. Daniel Webster,
then a young member of the House of Representatives,
made a powerful speech against it. John Randolph
lent the aid of his restless genius to the opposition.
The act passed, imposing duties ranging from twenty to
thirty-five per cent.
The second of the great financial measures of this ad
ministration was the creation of a new national bank.
We have seen how the bank of 1791 failed to secure a
recharter in 1811. In 1814 Mr. Dallas, Secretary of
the Treasury, prepared a huge banking scheme which,
in its essential features, passed the Senate, but was de
feated in the House by the casting vote of the Speaker.

262 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
Subsequently a compromise between this proposition and
one offered by Mr. Calhoun was passed by both Houses,
but was vetoed by Mr. Madison. In 1816 the scheme
The second of a national bank was stronger than in 1811
National Bank. or in 1814_ Mr_ 01ayj then Speaker of the
House, led in its advocacy ; and a bill was passed which
received Mr. Madison's approval, April 10th. The cap
ital was to be $35,000,000, of which one-fifth was to be
owned by the United States. Of all subscriptions one-
fifth was to be paid in specie. The bank was to pay the
government $1,500,000 as a bonus. One-fifth of the
directors were to be appointed by the president and con
firmed by the Senate. The deposits of the United States
were to be removable by the Secretary of the Treasury,
for sufficient reasons, to be laid before Congress.
The third of the important economic measures of this
administration was the Navigation Act, which restricted
The Naviga- the coasting trade to vessels wholly owned
tion Act. by om. citizens ; encouraged the employment
of American seamen therein, through discriminating
duties ; and restricted importations to vessels of the
United States or of the country of production. The
latter regulation, however, was to apply only to vessels
of those nations which had similar regulations.
Finally, in the same period, an act was passed by
Congress (86 to 84 in the House ; 20 to 15 in the Sen
ate), but vetoed by the President upon the ground of
unconstitutionality, which provided for a fund, out of
the bonus to be paid by the bank and out of the divi
dends of the government stock therein : that fund to be
applied, from time to time as Congress should direct,
internal im- to measures of internal improvement. Mr.
provements. Calhoun, of South Carolina, afterward the
recognized leader of the States'-rights party, had been
foremost in pressing this measure through Congress. It

EVENTS OF MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION 263
is not improbable that the smallness of the majorities by
which the bill had passed the two houses had something
to do with Mr. Madison's constitutional scruples.
We now turn to consider the changes in the cabinet
and the eighth presidential election. We have already
referred to certain changes in the office of Secretary of
the Treasury, after Mr. Gallatin's withdrawal. Late in
1816 Mr. William H. Crawford, of Georgia, who was to
be one of the conspicuous figures in the politics of the
next ten years, became Secretary of the Treasury, being
transferred to that office from the War Department.
Other changes in Mr. Madison's cabinet were too numer
ous to be mentioned in full. It has already changes in the
been stated that Mr. Smith was succeeded as cabinet.
Secretary of State, by Mr. Monroe, who in September,
1814, also assumed the duties of Secretary of War. Mr.
Rodney was succeeded as Attorney-General, in 1811, by
William Pinkney, of Maryland, whom tradition declares
to have been the most eloquent advocate of the Ameri
can bar in his time. Pinkney was in turn succeeded,
early in 1814, by Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, a man
of great ability and one of the finer characters of our
political history. In all, fourteen persons occupied
seats in Mr. Madison's cabinet during the eight years of
his administration.
On the 16th of March, the usual congressional caucus
was held for the nomination of Mr. Madison's successor.
We have already spoken of practical objec-
tions to this procedure. In 1816 Mr. Clay chosen Presi-
and others strongly opposed the practice,
but were overruled by their colleagues. Upon the first
ballot Mr. Monroe was nominated by a large majority,
Mr. Crawford being his competitor. Daniel D. Tomp
kins, of New York, was nominated for vice-president.
Mr. Monroe had been urged by a section of the repub-

264 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
lican party, in place of Mr. Madison, eight years before ;
but various causes, especially the intervention of Mr.
Jefferson, had prevented a serious contest at that time.
Mr. Monroe was now to have his turn. He was elected
by 183 votes, against 34 given to Rufus King, the fed
eralist candidate.

RETROSPECT.
During the period of thirty-four years covered by this
narrative, a movement had been in continuous progress
for the westward extension of population, which far
transcended the limits of any of the great migrations of
mankind upon the older continents. The story of the
geographical process of our national growth is among
the marvels of the human race. Over the natural
water-way of the great Northern Lakes ; along the road
to Pittsburg, and thence down the Ohio ; up the road
which skirts the Potomac, and then down the Ohio;
over the passes of Southwestern Virginia, into Ken
tucky ; and far to the south, around the end of the Al-
leghanies, into the Gulf States, the hardy pioneers
poured in an unceasing stream, carrying with them lit
tle but axe, spade, and rifle, some scanty household
effects, a small store of provisions, a liberal supply of
ammunition, and boundless faith, enterprise, and cour
age. From 1790 to 1800, the mean population of the
period being about four and a half millions, sixty-five
thousand square miles were brought within the limits
of settlement ; crossed with rude roads and bridges ;
built up with rude houses and barns ; much of it, also,
cleared of primeval forests.
In the next ten years, the mean population of the de
cade being about six and a half millions, the people of
the United States extended settlement over one hun-

events of madison's administration 265
dred and two thousand square miles of absolutely new
territory ; annexed this from the wilderness ; conquered,
subdued, improved, cultivated, civilized it, all, of
course, in rough pioneer fashion. During this time
population was deepening upon the older fields ; cities
and towns were everywhere springing up and growing
into industrial and commercial importance. Philosoph
ic historians have been wont to attribute the long and
hopeless decay of Spain to the drain upon its physical
and intellectual powers involved in the conquest and
occupation of Mexico and South America. Did the
prodigious efforts of its first twenty years exhaust the
vital force of the new nation of the West ? Did a period
of long sterility, with decay here and there of great
branches, show that too much life had been allowed to
flow into these new limbs of the great Northern Re
public ? The answer is found in this, that between
1810 and 1817, besides increasing the density of popu
lation upon almost every league of the older territory,
and in spite of a three years' war waged against the
powerful fleets and armies of England, the people of
the United States advanced their frontier to occupy
seventy thousand additional square miles, nearly equal
to the combined areas of Belgium, Holland, Switzer
land, Denmark, and Greece.
In 1790 the population of the United States had been
3,929,214 ; in 1817 it was, as nearly as can be com
puted, 8,866,000. In 1790 the area, more or less
sparsely populated, had been two hundred and forty
thousand square miles ; in 1817 it was about four hun
dred and seventy-eight thousand. When Washington
was inaugurated in 1789, the centre of population for
the whole country was thirty miles east of Baltimore !
At the close of Madison's administration, it had moved
westward, past Washington, across the Potomac, across

THE MAKING OF THE NATION
the Shenandoah, one hundred and twenty miles in all,
but keeping ever close to the 39th degree of north lati
tude, as it was destined to do for a hundred years.*
No other race that ever dwelt upon the globe could
have extended settlement in so short a time over so
vast a field ; have fenced and ditched it ; have covered
the land with roads and the streams with bridges,
have dotted the plains and hills over with houses, barns,
schools, and churches of such an order of comfort and
decency, and, from the soil thus enclosed, after main
taining the population in such an abundance and qual
ity of food and clothing, have had left for export so
many million tons of animal and vegetable produce in
meat, in fibres, and in grain. No other people could
have done this. No : nor the half of it. Any other of
the great migratory races — Tartar, Slav, or German —
would have broken hopelessly down in an effort to com
pass such a field in such a term of years. We have
already indicated, when writing of the agriculture of
the United States, the causes which made possible this
astonishing increase of population and extension of the
• It is, indeed, one of the most remarkable facts in human history that
during the first century of our national existence, while population in
creased sixteenfold, while settlement was extended over an area eight
times as large as that occupied at the beginning, including vast territories
not belonging to the United States in 1789 — Florida, Louisiana, Texas,
California, Oregon — the centre of population never moved away from the
39th parallel by more than nineteen " minutes " of latitude. This does
not imply that population increased equally at the South and at the
North. On the contrary, the increase in the latter section was, owing to
immigration, always much the greater. But our territory extended north
ward from the 39th parallel only eight degrees, at the first, and only ten
degrees, later, while toward the south it extended over nearly twice as
many degrees. Consequently, inasmuch as the Southerner was, on the
average, let us for brevity say, twice as far from the 39th parallel as the
Northerner, he counted for twice as much in determining the " Centre of
Population." He, so to speak, "bore down" twice as heavily upon the
fulcrum.

events of Madison's administration 267
settled area, namely, the popular tenure of the soil, the
character of the agricultural class, and the mechanical
and inventive genius of our people. The marvellous
work that has just now been recited constitutes the
main reason for the slow development of technical
manufactures during the early stages of our history.
The great manufacture of the United States, during its
first fifty years, was the manufacture of farms.
While thus the new nation had been increasing with
wonderful rapidity, both as to numbers and as to its oc
cupied area, what had taken place to influence its char
acter and to determine the direction of its ever-growing
political forces ? We have traced the course of events
from 1783 to the close of Mr. Madison's administration,
in 1817. We have seen that the consciousness of Amer
ican nationality and a common destiny, faint, feeble,
and fluttering as it had been at the close of the war for
Independence, was, through the great debate over the
Constitution, alike in the Convention and before the
People, so quickened and strengthened that the Thir
teen States, resigning much of their independent pow
er, renouncing many of their prerogatives of statehood,
agreed together to form what promised to be a per
petual union. We have seen that, in the course of the
twenty-eight years following, under the administrations
of AYashington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, the
United States, which at the beginning was only what
might under fortunate conditions, if everything, or at
least the great weight of events, should tend that way,
become a nation, had become a nation in fact, as fully
as any of the powers known to the diplomacy of 1817.
It might, indeed, be destroyed by insurrection and re
bellion, as might any of its contemporaries ; but it was,
to all intents and purposes, a single, sovereign people.
It has of late become the fashion among those who

268 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
renounce, as all real students of political history must
do, the purely lawyer-like theory of the formation of the
Constitution held by Story, Webster, and Curtis, to de
clare that the United States became a nation only by
act of war, in the great struggle from 1861 to 1865.
This is the view advanced by Mr. Randolph Tucker, in
his able address before the American Social Science As
sociation, at Saratoga, in 1877 ; and it has been more re
cently put forward by Dr. Albion W. Small, in his tract,
"The Beginnings of American Nationality." Dr.
Small says : " The people of the United States simply
dodged the responsibility of formulating their will upon
the distinct subject of national sovereignty, until the
legislation of the sword began in 1861." We cannot
accede to this view. Midway between those who hold
that the adoption of the Constitution established an
" indissoluble union of indestructible States," and those
who hold that the question of nationality was decided
seventy-five years later, by the arbitrament of arms, we
assert that the United States became a true and virtual
nation during the first three or four decades of its his
tory. It is perfectly true that the Convention of 1787
dodged the vital question of nationality. Had the Con
stitution contained an explicit declaration that, in any
attempt of nullification or secession, the general govern
ment might raise the military force of the country, as
was done in 1861, that instrument would not have had
a chance of ratification by the States. On the other
hand, it is also true that, even after the point reached
in our story, the right of nullification was once practi
cally asserted (1832-33) in a feeble manner ; while,
thirty years later still, it required a tremendous exer
tion of the whole military and financial power of the
government to put down a slave-holders' rebellion, which

EVENTS OF MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION 269
sought to shelter itself under a pretence of secession.
But we are now talking, not of names, but of things ;
not of written instruments or public declarations, but
of real social and political forces. And if, in this spirit,
it is asked, when the United States became a nation,
the most reasonable answer is, it became so during the
period of which we have been writing.
Many causes contributed to that result in addition to
the mere fact of the States living together for nearly
thirty years, in more or less of harmony, accustoming
themselves to the idea of common interests, common
laws, and a common destiny, becoming familiar with the
signs and emblems of sovereignty — a common flag, a
common money, a national judiciary, a national army,
and a Congress of the United States legislating for
the general welfare and for the protection of the public
honor. If, in spite of adverse conditions, the course of
affairs be, on the whole, more favorable than unfavora
ble, there is, merely in such abiding together, virtue
enough to create in time much of the sentiment of
nationality. It is to be remembered that during the
period covered by this narrative a vast majority of
those who had helped to form the Constitution, with- so
much of doubt and reservation, passed away. At its
close, a still larger proportion of the people were those
who had been born under the government, or who had
first come to understand the meaning of political terms
since the Constitution was formed. To all of these the
existence of the United States appeared a natural and
necessary thing, as it could not possibly have appeared
to any of the previous generation.
Moreover, great social and industrial changes had
been at work. Population had more than doubled in
the time, not only extending itself over new lands at the
West, but growing ever deeper within its familiar seats

270 THE MAKING OF THE NATION
and filling up the vacant spaces upon the Atlantic sea
board of 1783. Transportation had been quickened, al
though the great changes in this respect were yet to
come, for the Erie Canal was not opened throughout its
entire extent until 1825. The beginnings of manufact
ures had appeared even before 1812 ; and the exigen
cies of the war with England caused a great upbuilding
of domestic industries for the supply of a market which
had become as broad as the whole extent of our settled
lands. How strong was the hold of these new interests
upon the American people, we have seen strikingly evi
denced by the tariff of 1816.
Strictly political causes, too, had entered to made a
nation of that which at the beginning was only what
might become a nation. A hundred measures of legis
lation, whatever of opposition or animosity they might
have provoked, had asserted the authority of the United
States. The genius of Hamilton and his co-laborers
had built up a government which was real and vital,
and which made itself felt in all parts of the land.
Acts of executive power, whether against insurgents or
against public enemies, had taught the lesson of obe
dience and respect. A noble judiciary, under a great
Chief- Justice, had taken righteous advantage of the am
ple provisions of the Constitution, to expand the frame
of the government to its proper proportions, and to
fill its veins with the life-blood of a real nationality.
War, too, had come, with its hopes and its fears, with
its triumphs and its reverses, with its pride and its
shame, to create the deep, instinctive feeling of common
interests and a common destiny.
Hardly less than any of these causes operating to
create nationality had been the influence, on which we
have before remarked, of the new States formed upon
the lands across the mountains. Few were the doubts

events of madison's administration 271
and small were the reservations with which these hardy
pioneers rendered their allegiance, after the great ques
tion of the navigation of the Mississippi had been set
tled in their favor. Here no pride of Statehood dimin
ished the affection and devotion of the citizen to the
government under which he held the title of his land ;
to which he looked for protection from the savage
foe ; which opened up the navigation of the rivers to
his clumsy flatboat ; which endowed the school in which
his children learned to read. Constitutional scruples
were at a discount with these rude, strong, brave men ;
and lawyer-like distinctions over the divisions of sover
eignty troubled them little. They wanted a govern
ment, and a strong government ; and in the continually
growing power of the Republic they found the com
petent object of their civic trust and pride and love.
But the greatest, by far, of the causes which, between
1789 and 1817, promoted the growth of nationality, was
the change in the attitude and the relations of the re
publican party, the original trustee and guardian of the
doctrine of States'-rights and "strict construction."
That change itself was in part due to the social and
economic causes we have here enumerated, ameliorating
the original feelings of distrust and dislike with which
the old leaders contemplated federal authority, and con
vincing them, more and more, of the absolute necessity
of a real and efficient government, to provide for com
mon defence and to promote the general welfare. In
part, and in a large part, it was due to the coming-on
of young leaders " who knew not Joseph," who had
grown up under the Constitution, and were men of their
age, ready to apprehend the needs of the time and
prompt to act, with energy and decisiveness, upon ques
tions affecting the country as they found it.
Chiefly, however, it was its own accession to power

272 the making of the nation
and to responsibility which changed the attitude of the
republican party upon all matters relating to the au
thority of the general government. The phenomenon
is a perfectly familiar one ; and such changes are some
times ludicrous in their precipitancy. The republican
party had set out by striving to limit the exercise of
powe pn the part of the United States ; it had de-
nouj \ a national debt, as a sure means of political
cor? /on ; it had complained of the multiplication of
offi /as bribing and overawing the people ; it had op-
pc excises, stamp duties, and direct taxes, as forms of
h Ay ; it had declared the National Bank to be grossly
unconstitutional. When it obtained possession of the
government we find it, after Mr. Jefferson's first virtu
ous impulse was exhausted, increasing expenses, making
changes in the civil service for political reasons ; multi
plying offices, and acting in every way as men do who
have authority and like to exercise it. Then came the
unexpected opportunity for the acquisition of Louisiana.
Mr. Jefferson himself admitted it to be an act beyond
the Constitution. It was, moreover, a measure of such
tremendous scope, of such truly imperial character, one
so profoundly changing the terms and conditions upon
which the States originally entered the Union, as to be
in the fullest sense revolutionary. Fortunately, the
temptation was too great for Mr. Jefferson's constitu
tional scruples ; and the vast empire beyond the Missis
sippi became ours. After such a surrender of the prin
ciple of limited powers, by the only party which had
undertaken to maintain it, what could stay the course
of nationality ?
But this was not to be the end. Mr. Jefferson for
eight years dodged, as well as he could, the stones
flung at him alike by France and by England ; and Mr.
Madison, with quite as little relish for fighting, hoped

events of madison's administration 273
that the cup might pass from his own lips, and that he
would be able to get through his term without resort to
hostilities. But the young men of his party would not
be denied ; war was forced upon him, and, by an inevit
able consequence, his closing years of office witnessed
every act and measure of federal usurpation against
which he had been accustomed to protest. The repub
lican party exercised the coercion it had denounced
when attempted by a federalist administration ; it
learned, by hearing it from the lips of federalist oppo
nents, how hateful is the sound of threatened nullifica
tion and secession. The republican party, in its turn,
created a great national debt and established a sinking
fund ; it excised whiskey and stills ; it laid direct
taxes ; it imposed stamp duties ; it passed a distinctly
protective tariff. To crown all, the republican party
chartered a National Bank, three and a half times as
large as that of Hamilton. AYho, then, was left to pro
test against the United States becoming a nation ?
18

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION 1820

APPENDIX I
THE ELECTORAL VOTE IN DETAIL, 1789-1816

APPENDIX I

277

ELECTORAL

VOTE

DF 1789.

c
ID
d
„;
fl
CD
States.*
« fc>
a »
a "w
•-si? 9«
o C
Mo
*-.g ft t-i
a-2
£ 3
gg 5 o
IS
ft n>
3 ft
** O
ft CM
R °
11
So S'S
o
a'&j- o
us 8"B
g 3
ft «
sa
"3 'bo
H s
"So OJ.HSo
^
>-3
ut
1-3
*T>
O
GO
f-3
•"9
m
H
t>
Connecticut 
7
5
2
n 5
a
2
1
i
1
Georgia 
Maryland 
i;
6
2
Massachusetts 
10
id
New Hampshire . .
b
5
6
l
5
10
8
2
South Carolina . . .
V
6
1
10
5
l
1
3
a
Total 
69
34
9
6
6
4
3
2
2
1
l
1
4
* The New York Legislature failed to agree on the mode of choosing electors.
North Carolina and Rhode Island did not ratify the Constitution in time to take
part in the election. Each elector voted for two persons without designating which
one he wished to make president.
ELECTORAL VOTE OP 1792.
ft
,A
3
a-d
o
J4
Stateb.
3 o
.a
riT O
•8 J
a °
2°
5 1
o°
6 2
u s
,ra o o
o
"3 ft
0
i-s
a
B
-<1
>
934
93
4
Georgia 
4
4
8
8
2
16 6
16 6
7
7
131215
i4
1212 1
48 3
ai
4
73
2i
1
Total 
132
77
50
4
1
3
278

APPENDIX I

ELECTORAL VOTE OP 1796.

J5

o

t»,G
c o

.*'

„ Q>

Ste o °

A

03
,c

ft" 0ft

ft

C^*

States.

to -O

ffi ft
"¦a s>
ja o

CO
Kb
d o
a co
o "*-
J3 o

. o
3 >
ii o

— «

te o
.SIS

o
«£
¦So

¦3*0

bi[>1 0

c >>
« a
1 =

"3
Idd .

thu< .

1-1 9
H
4
¦"1
CO
O
CS
-"3 n
1-3
O
1-3
CO
D
Delaware 
3
3
4
4
Kentucky ....
4
4
Maryland . . .
7
4
4
3
2
Massachusetts 
16
13
1
tf
New Hampshire . .
6
6
New Jersev. „ .
7
7
New York 
12
12
North Carolina . . .
1
11
1
6
3
1
1
1
14
2
13
4
4
South Carolina . .
«
H
Tennessee 
3
3
Vermont 
4
4
1
20
1
1
15
a
1
Total 
71
63
59
30
15
11
7
5
3
2
2
2
1
ELECTORAL VOTE OF 1800.
States.
S 0 d
S n 'B
5§-a
0 .
ft 0
0 g
Is
ft w
0 a
fi ¦¦§
0 >-
s°°b to
eg
•Sa
'i 4
5
i2 88
'8 3
21
4 4
5
ia 88
'8 3
2i
35
16 674
74 "4
9
85
16 67473
4
Vermont 
73
73
65
64
1
APPENDIX I

279

ELECTORAL VOTE OP 1S04.*

President.

Vice-President.

States.

Thomas Jef
ferson, of Vir
ginia.

C. C. Pinck
ney, of South
Carolina.

Geo. Clinton,
of New York.

Rufus King,
of New York.

ti8
9
19 78
1914 3
20 4
10 5
6
24

93
'k

'6 89
19 78
1914 3
20 4
10 56
24

93

2

Massachusetts 

Ohio 
Pennsylvania 
Tennessee 
Total 
162
14 1C2
14
*At the election of 1S04, electors for the first time cast their votes separately for
candidates for the presidency and for candidates for the vice-presidency. This
was the efEect of the twelfth constitutional amendment. See pp. 133, 163-5. 168-9.
ELECTORAL VOTE OF 1S08.
States.
Connecticut 
Delaware 
Georgia 
Kentucky 
Maryland 
Massachusetts 
New Hampshire. . .
New Jersey 
New York 
North Carolina .
Ohio 
Pennsylvania 
Bhode Island 
South Carolina 
Tennessee 
Vermont 
Virginia 
Total 
President.
S o-
i"3 "" -I.
1311 3
2010 56
24
122
I
19 7
Vice-President.
a*
5z
*- c o
1311
20
10 5
24
W£
3^ O
5 OrH
47
¦§•§&!
1 s"«
IS-B
280

APPENDIX I

ELECTORAL VOTE OP 1812.

President.

Vice-President.

States.

James Mad
ison, of Vir
ginia.

De Witt Clin
ton, of
New York.

Klbridge Gerry, of
Massachusetts.

Jared Inger-
soll, of
Pennsylvania.

ft0
>

Connecticut 
Delaware 
Kentucky 
Massachusetts. .
N. Hampshire. .
North Carolina.
Ohio 

*8
12 3 6
is 7
25ii 88
25

9
4
*5
22 8
8
29 "4

'i 1

'8
12 3 6
2 1
15 7
25
ii 88
25

9
4
'5
20 7
8
29 "4

i

Pennsylvania . .
Rhode Island...
South Carolina,

Total 

128

89

131

86

1

ELECTORAL VOTE OP 1816.

States.

Connecticut 
Delaware 
Georgia 
Indiana 
Kentucky 
Louisiana 
Maryland 
Massachusetts ....
New Hampshire . .
New Jersey 
New York 
North Carolina . . .
Ohio 
Pennsylvania... .
Rhode Island 
South Carolina . . .
Tennessee 
Vermont 
Virginia 

Total  183

3 j; a
fl o v.
cs m bo

3
12 3

29 15 8
a.r. 4
11

25

22

Vice-President.

W35

3
12 3

29 15 S
25 4
11

25

appendix n
I.— POPULATION AT THE FIRST FOUR CENSUSES
II.-NET ORDINARY RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES,
AND DISBURSEMENTS ON ACCOUNT OF THE
PUBLIC DEBT, 1790-1817

APPENDIX II

283

POPULATION AT THE FIRST FOUR CENSUSES.

1790

1800

1810

1820

United States.

3,929,214

5,308,483

7,239,881

9,633,822

237,946 59,09682,548
73,677
96,540
319,728
378,787 141,885184,139
340,120393,751
434.373 68,825
249,073 35,69185,425
747,610

251,002 64,273 14,093
162,686 5,641
220,955
' 151^719
341,548 422,845 8,850
1S3,858211,149
589,051478,103 45,365
602.365 69,122
345,591105.602 154,465
880,200

261,942 72,674
24,023
252,433 12,282
24,520
406,511 76,556
228,705"380,546472.040 4,762
40,35220,845
214,460
245.562959,049555,500230,760810,091 76,931
515,115261,727 217,895
974,600

127,901 14,255

275,148

72,749
33,039
340,985
55,162
147,178
564,135
152,923
298,269
407,350
523,159
8,765
75,448 66,557
244.022
277,426
1.372,111 6.38,8295S1.295
Ohio 
1,047,507 83,015
502.741
422,771
235,966
1,065,116
Maine belonged to Massachusetts until 1820, and for all political purposes its pop
ulation was included in that of the parent State. In order to show Maine in its
continuous growth, we have here separated its population from that of Massa
chusetts. To exhibit the further progress of this wonderful career, we give the figures of
the total population at the censuses following :
1820  9,633,822
1830  12,866,020
1840  17,069,453
1850  23,191,876
1860  31,443,321
1870  38,558,371
1880  50,155,783
1890  62,622,250
TABLES SHOWING THE NET ORDINARY RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES, AND ALSO THE DISBURSEMENTS ON
ACCOUNT OF THE PUBLIC DEBT, PROM 1790 TO 1817, INCLUSIVE.
A, — Net Ordinary Receipts, by Calendar Years.

to
CO

Year.

1791. 1792.
1793.1794.
1T95.1796.1797.
1798. 1799.1800.
1801. 1802.
1803.1804. 1805.
1806.1807.1808.1809.1810.1811.1812.1813.1814.1815.1816.1817. 1818.

Customs.

,399,473 09
443,070 85
255,306 56
801,065 28
,588,461 26
567.9S7 94
549,649 65
106,061 93
610,449 31
080,932 73
750,778 93
438,235 74
479,417 61
098,565 33
936, 4S7 04
667,698 17
845.521 61
363,550 58
257,506 62
583,309 31
313,222 73
958,777 53
224,628 25
998,772 08
282,942 22
306,874 88
283,348 49
176,385 00

Internal
Revenue.

$208,942 81
837,705 70
274,089 62
337,755 36
475,289 60
575,491 45
644,367 95
779,136 44
809,396 55
1,048,083 43
621,898 S9
215,179 69
50,941 29
21,747 15
20,101 45
13,051 40
8,190 23
4,034 29
7,430 63
2,295 95
4,903 06
4,755 04
1,662,9S4 82
4,678,059 07
6,124,708 81
2,678,100 77
955,270 20

Direct Tax.

$734,223 97
634,343 38
206,565 44
71,879 20
50,198 44
21,882 91
55,763 86
34,732 56
19,159 21
7,517 31
12,448 68
7,666 66
S59 22
3,805 52
2,219,497 36
2,162,673 41
4,253,685 09
1,834,187 04
264,383 36

Public Lands.

$4,836 13
83,540 60
11,963 11
'443 75
167,726 06
188,628 02
165,675 69
487,526 79
540,193 80
765,245 73
466,163 27
647,989 06
442,252 83
696,548 82
1,040,237 53
710,427 78
a35,655 14
1,185,971 09
1,287,959 28
1.717,986 03
1,991,226 06
2,606,564 77

Miscellaneous.

$10,478 10
9,918 65
21.410 88
53i277 97
28,317 97
1,169,415 98
399,139 29
58,192 SI
86,187 56
152,712 10
345,649 15
1,500,505 86
131,945 44
139,075 53
40,382 30
61,121 86
88,550 42
21,822 85
62,162 67
84,476 84
59,211 22
126,165 17
271,571 00
164,399 81
285,282 84
273,782 35
109.761 08
57,617 71

$S,02S 00
88,600 00
: 803, 472 00
160,000 00
160,000 09
80,960 00
79,920 00
71,040 00
71,040 00
88,800 00
39,960 00

202,426 30
525,000 00

Total
Net Ordinary
Receipts.

$4,409, 3,669. 4,652i
5,431,6,114.8,377;8,688, 7,900,
7,546,
10,848, 12,935,14,995.
11,064! 11,826.
13,660,15,559. 16,308. 17,060. 7,773.9.384!
14,422. 9,801.
14,340,
11.181,15,696 47,676,
83,099.21,585;

951 19
,960 31
923149U4 87
534 59
529 65
780 99
495 80
813 31
74910330 95
,793 95
097 63
307 38
693 20
931 07
019 26
,661 93
473 12
214 28
634 09
132 76
,409 95
625 16
,916 82
9S5 66
049 74
17104

B. — Net Ordinary Expenditures, by Calendar Years.

Year.

War.

Navy.

Indians.

Pensions.

Miscellaneous.

Total
Net Ordinary
Expenditures.

1791

$632,804 03
1,100,702 09
1,130,249 08
2,639,097 59
2,480,910 13
1,260,263 84
1,039,402 46
2,009,522 30
2,466,946 98
2,560,87S 77
1,672,944 08
1,179,148 25
822,055 85
875,423 93
712,781 28
1,224,355 38
1,288,685 91
2,900,834 40
3,345,772 17
3,294,323 94
2,032,828 19
11,817,798 24
19,652,013 02
20,350,806 86
14,794,294 22
16,012,096 80
8,004,236 53
5,622,715 10

$27,000 00
13,648 85
27,282 83
13,042 46
23,475 68
113,563 98
62,396 58
10,470 09
20,302 19
31 22
9,000 00
94,0(10 00
611,1100 00
116,500 00
196,5(10 00
234,200 00
205,425 00
213,575 00
837,503 84
117,625 00
151.875 00
277,845 00
167.35S 28
167,394 86
530,751) 00
274,512 16
319,463 71
505,704 27

$175,813 88
109,243 15
S0,087 81
81,399 24
68,673 22
100,843 71
92,256 97
104,845 33
95,444 03
64,13(173
73,533 37
85,440 89
62,902 10
80,092 80
81,854 59
81,875 53
70,500 00
82,576 04
87,833 54
83,744 16
75,043 88
91,40210 86,989 91
90,164 36
69.656 06
188,804 15
297,374 43
890,719 90

$1,083,971 61
4,672,664 38
511,451 01
750,350 74
1,378,920 66
801.847 53
1,259,422 62
1,139,524 94
1,039,891 68
1,337,613 22
1,114,768 45
1,462,929 40
1,842,635 76
2,191,009 43
3,768,598 75
2.890,137 01
1,697,897 51
1,423,285 61
1,215,803 79
1,101.144 98
1,367.291 40
1,683,088 21
1,729,435 61
2,208,029 70
2,898,870 47
2,989,741 17
3,518,936 76
3,835,839 51

$1,919,589 52
5,896,258 47

1792

1793

1,749,070 73

1794 

$61,408 97
410,562 03
274,784 04
382,631 89
1,381,847 76
2,S58,031 84
3,448,710 03
2,111,424 00
915,561 87
1,215,230 53
1,189,832 75
1,597,500 00
1,649.641 44
1,722,064 47
1.884,007 80
2,427,758 80
1,654,244 20
1,965,666 39
3,959.36515
6,446,600 10
7,311,290 60
8,660,000 25
8,908,278 30
3,314,598 49
2,953,695 00

3,545,299 00

4,362,541 72
1796 
2,551,303 15
1797 
2,836,110 52
1798 
1799 
4,651,710 42
6,480,166 72
1800 
7,411,369 97
1801 
4,981,669 90
1802 
3,737,079 91
4,002,824 24
1804 
1S05 
4,452,85S 91
6,357,234 62
18C6 
1807 
6,080,209 36
4,984.572 89
1808 
6,504,338 85
1809 
7,414,672 14
1810 
1811 
5,311,082 28
5,592,604 86
1812 
17,829,498 70
1813 
28,082,396 92
1814 
30,127,686 88
1815 
26,953,571 00
1816 
23,373,432 58
1817 
15,454,609 92
1818 
13.S08.673 78
>
'-d O
toCOOr
286

APPENDIX II

C. — Disbursements on Account of Public Debt.

Year.

Interest.

Public Debt.

Year.

Interest.

Public Debt.

1791 

$1,177,863 03

$699,984 23

1805 

2,657,114 22 i $4,583,960 63

1792 

2,373,611 28

693,050 25

1806 

3,368,968 26 1 5,572,018 64

2,097,859 17

2,633,048 07

1807 

3,369,578 4S 1 2,938,141 62

1794 

2,752,523 04

2,743,771 13

181)8 

2,557,074 23 i 7,701,288 96

2,947,059 06

2,841,639 37

1809 ....

2,866,074 90 8,586,479 26

1796 

3,239,347 68

2,577,126 01

1810 

3,163,671 09 ! 4,835,241 12

1797 

3,172,516 73

2,617,250 12

1811 

2,585,435 57

5,414,664 43

1793 

2,955,875 90

976,032 09

1812 

2,451,272 57

1,998,349 S8

1799 

2,815.651 41

1,706,578 84

1813 

3,599,455 22

7,508,668 22

1800 

3,402,601 04

1,138,563 11

1814 

4,593,239 04

3,307,304 90

1801 

4,411,830 06

2,879.876 98

1815 

5,590,090 24

6,638,83211

1802 

4,239,172 16

5,294,235 24

1816 

7,822,923 34

17,048,139 59

3,949.462 36

3,306,697 07

1817 

4,536,282 55

20,886,753 67

1804 , ,

4,185,048 74

3,977,206 07

1818

6,209,954 03

15,086,247 59

APPENDIX III
THE CABINETS OF WASHINGTON, JOHN ADAMS,
JEFFERSON, AND MADISON
1789 to March 3, 1817

Note. — In preparing this table it has been an object in view to
present to the eye, approximately, the length of service of each
person named. Hence the repetition of names year after year.
The statements, however, are only intended to be approximate.
For example, if a cabinet officer were appointed on the 27th of
December, he would not appear in these lists until the year follow
ing. The true and just effect is more nearly produced by this
method than it would be by recording such very small fractions of
the year. In several cases, where three persons in succession occu
pied the same office in one year, the exigencies of the types have
caused one of the names to be mentioned in foot-note.

APPENDIX III

289

SECRETARIES OF STATE AND OF THE TREASURY

Year.

Secretaries of State.

Secretaries of the Treasury.

1789 

Jefferson .
JeffersonJefferson .
Jefferson .
JeffersonRandolph .
Randolph.Pickering .
Pickering .
PickeringPickering .
Pickering.Marshall.Madison .
Madison . .
Madison.Smith 

1790 . . .

1791 
1792 
Hamilton.
1793 
1794 
Hamilton.
1795
1796 
Pickering ....
Hamilton. Wolcott,
Wolcott.
1797 
Wolcott.
1798 
Wolcott.
1799 
Wolcott.
18001801.
1802 
Marshall
Wolcott.
Dexter. Gallatin.
1803 
1804 
Gallatin.
1805 
Gallatin.
1806
18071808 1809 
Smith 
Gallatin.Gallatin. Gallatin.Gallatin.
1810 
Gallatin.
1811 
Smith. M
Gallatin .
1812 
Gallatin.
1813
1814...
Gallatin.Gallatin. Campbell.
1815 
Dallas.*
1816 
Dallas. Crawford.
1817 f . . .
Crawford.
¦ Dallas became Secretary of the Treasury in October, 1814. t March 3d.
290

APPENDIX III

SECRETARIES OF WAR AND OF THE NAVY

1789 . .
1790 . .
1791 . .
1792 . .
1793 . .
1794 . .
1795 . .
1796 . .
1797 . .
1798 . .
1799 . .
1800 . .
1801 ..
1802 . .
1803 . .
1804 . .
1805 . .
1806 . .
1807 . .
1808 . .
1809 . .
1810 . .
1811 . .
1812 . .
1813 . .
1814 . .
1815 . .
1816 . .
1817 \ ¦

Secretaries of War.

Knox 
Knox 
Knox 
Knox 
Knox 
Knox 
Pickering 
Pickering. McHenry.
McHenry 
McHenry 
McHenry 
McHenry. Dexter . . .
Dexter.* Dearborn..
Dearborn 
Dearborn 
Dearborn 
Dearborn 
Dearborn 
Dearborn 
Dearborn 
Dearborn. Eustis....
Eustis 
Eustis 
Eustis 
Eustis Armstrong . . .
Armstrong. Monroe f.
Monroe. Crawford. . .
Crawford 
Crawford 

Secretaries of the Navy.

Department not created until
Adams's administration.

Stoddert.Stoddert.Stoddert.Stoddert. Smith.
Smith. Smith.
Smith.Smith. J. Crowninshield.
J. CfWninshield.
J. Crowninshield.
J. Crowninshield.
J. Crowninshield. P. Hamilton.
P. Hamilton.
P. Hamilton.
P. Hamilton.
P. Hamilton. Jones.
Jones. B. Crowninshield.
B. Crowninshield.
B. Crowninshield.
B. Crowninshield.

* Roger Griswold was Secretary of War from February 3d to March 4th.
t In addition to his duties as Secretary of State. X March 3d.

APPENDIX III

291

ATTORNEYS-GENERAL

Year.

Attorneys-General.

Year.

Attorneys-General.

1789..

Randolph.

1804. .

Lincoln.

1790..

Randolph.

1805..

Lincoln. Smith.*

1791 . .

Randolph.

1806..

Breckenridge.

1792..

Randolph.

1807. .

Breckenridge. Rodney.

1793..

Randolph.

1808. .

Rodney.

1794..

Randolph. Bradford.

1809..

Rodney.

1795..

Bradford. Lee.

1810. .

Rodney.

1796..

Lee.

1811..

Rodney. Pinkney.

1797. .

Lee.

1812..

Pinkney.

1798. .

Lee.

1813..

Pinkney.

1799. .

Lee.

1814..

Pinkney. Rush.

1800..

Lee.

1815..

Rush.

1801 . .

Lee. Lincoln.

1816..

Rush.

1802. .

Lincoln.

1817. .

Rush.

1803..

Lincoln.

* Also Breckenridge.

BIBLIOGKAPHY
For an exhaustive bibliography of the period covered
by this volume, see Vol. VII. of Justin Winsor's Narra
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GENERAL HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS, 1783-1817.
George Bancroft : History of the United States. (Vol. VI. of
the author's last revision, 1783-89.)
George T. Curtis : Constitutional History of the United States,
Vol. I. (1783-89). (Originally published in 2 vols., and en
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John Fiske : Critical Period of American History (1783-89).
James Schouler : History of the United States, Vols. I. and II.
(1783-1817).
John B. McMaster : History of the People of the United States,
Vols. I.-III. (1784-1812).
Richard Hildreth ; History of the United States, Vols. III. -VI.
(1773-1821).
George Tucker : History of the United States, Vols. I.-III.
Timothy Pitkin : Political and Civil History of the United States
(1763-1797), 2 volumes.
George Gibbs : Administrations of Washington and John Adams,
2 volumes.
Tench Coxe : A View of the United States of America (1787-
1794).
Adam Seybert : Statistical Annals (1789-1818).
A. Bradford : History of the Federal Government (1789-1839).
H. von Hoist : History of the United States, Vol. I. (1750-1832).
Henry Adams : History of the United States (1801-1817), 9 vol
umes.
Histories of the War of 1812 by C. J. Ingersoll, 4 volumes ; B. J.
Lossing ; Theodore Roosevelt (naval).
Edward Stanwood : History of Presidential Elections.

294 BIBLIOGRAPHY
The articles on American History in Lalor's Cyclopaedia of Polit
ical Science, etc. (3 volumes), especially those by Alexander
Johnston ; most of them are accompanied by bibliographical
references.
WORKS OF A LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL CHAR
ACTER.
John Fiske : Civil Government in the United States (elementary).
T. M. Cooley : Principles of Constitutional Law.
Joseph Story : Commentaries on the Constitution of the United
States, 2 volumes.
J. I. C. Hare : American Constitutional Law, 2 volumes.
H. von Hoist : Constitutional Law of the United States.
J. C. Hurd : Theory of our National Existence.
B. J. Sage : The Republic of Republics.
J. A. Jameson : Treatise on Constitutional Conventions.
J. F. Jameson (editor) : Essays on the Constitutional History of
the United States (1775-1789).
C. E. Stevens : Sources of the Constitution of the United States.
P. L. Ford (editor) : Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United
States (1787-1788).
P. L. Ford (editor) : Essays on the Constitution of the United
States (1787-1788).
And particularly The Federalist (Editions by Dawson, Lodge,
and others).
S. F. Miller : Lectures on the Constitution of the United States.
H. L. Carson : History of the Celebration of the 100th Anniver
sary of the Promulgation of the Constitution, 2 volumes.
H. L. Carson : The Supreme Court of the United States, 2 vol
umes.
Francis Wharton : State Trials of the United States during the
Administration of Washington and John Adams.
Constitutional History of the United States as Seen in the Devel
opment of American Law. Lectures by T. M. Cooley, H.
Hitchcock, and others. WORKS.
George Washington, edited by Jared Sparks, 12 volumes ; by W.
C. Ford, 14 volumes.
Benjamin Franklin, edited by Jared Sparks, 10 volumes ; by John
Bigelow, 10 volumes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 295
Alexander Hamilton, edited by J. C. Hamilton, 7 volumes ; by
H. C. Lodge, 9 volumes.
Thomas Jefferson, edited by H. A. Washington, 9 volumes ; by
P. L. Ford, 10 volumes (now in course of publication).
John Adams, edited by C. F. Adams, 10 volumes.
John Jay, edited by H. P. Johnston, 4 volumes.
Albert Gallatin, edited by Henry Adams, 3 volumes.
Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, edited by Anne C. Mor
ris, 2 volumes.
Memoirs of J. Q. Adams, edited by C. F. Adams, Volumes I.-III.
(12 volumes in all).
Papers of James Madison, 3 volumes.
Letters and other Writings of James Madison, 4 volumes.
Writings of John Marshall (some of his most important opinions
as Chief Justice).
Fisher Ames, edited by Seth Ames, 2 volumes.
BIOGRAPHIES.
George Washington, by John Marshall, 5 volumes ; Washington
Irving, 5 volumes ; Jared Sparks ; H. C. Lodge, 2 volumes.
Alexander Hamilton, by J. C. Hamilton, 2 volumes ; J. T. Morse,
2 volumes ; H. C. Lodge ; W. G. Sumner.
John Adams, by J. Q. and C. F. Adams, 2 volumes ; John T.
Morse.
Thomas Jefferson, by H. S. Randall, 3 volumes ; George Tucker,
2 volumes ; James Parton ; John T. Morse ; James Schouler ;
Sarah N. Randolph.
James Madison, by W. C. Rives, 3 volumes ; S. H. Gay.
Samuel Adams, by W. V. Wells, 3 volumes ; J. K. Hosmer.
Patrick Henry, by W. W. Henry, 3 volumes (including corre
spondence and speeches) ; M. C. Tyler.
Gouverneur Morris, by Jared Sparks, 3 volumes (with selections
from his writings) ; Theodore Roosevelt.
Benjamin Franklin, by Jared Sparks ; James Parton, 2 volumes ;
J. T. Morse ; J. B. McMaster.
John Jay, by William Jay, 2 volumes ; George Pellew ; W.
Whitelock.
Robert Morris, by W. G. Sumner, 2 volumes (Financier and
Finances of the American Revolution).
Timothy Pickering, by O. Pickering and C. W. Upham, 4
volumes.

296 BIBLIOGRAPHY
William Pinkney, by William Pinkney.
John Marshall, by A. B. Magruder.
Aaron Burr, by M. L. Davis, 2 volumes ; James Parton ; Trial of
Aaron Burr, by D. Robertson, 2 volumes.
Elbridge Gerry, by J. T. Austin, 2 volumes.
Albert Gallatin, by Henry Adams ; J. A. Stevens.
James Monroe, by D. C. Gilman.
John Randolph, by H. A. Garland, 2 volumes ; Henry Adams.
George Cabot, by H. C. Lodge.
Josiah Quincy, by Edmund Quincy.
Lives of the Chief -Justices of the United States, by George Van
Santvoord ; Henry Flanders, 2 series.
FOREIGN RELATIONS.
Treaties and Conventions concluded between the United States
and other Powers since July 4, 1776.
Freeman Snow : Treaties and Topics in American Diplomacy.
W. H. Trescot : Diplomatic History of the Administrations of
Washington and Adams.
Theodore Lyman : The Diplomacy of the United States (1778-
1828), 2 volumes.
Francis Wharton : Digest of the International Law of the United
States, 3 volumes. WORKS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY.
F. W. Taussig : Tariff History of the United States.
W. G. Sumner : American Currency.
J. L. Bishop : History of American Manufactures, 2 volumes.
A. S. Bolles : Financial History of the United States, 1774-1789 ;
Financial History of the United States, 1789-1860.
H. C. Adams : Taxation in the United States, 1789-1816.
HISTORIES OF STATES.
New Hampshire, by Jeremy Belknap, Volumes II. and III. ; J.
N. McClintock.
Vermont, by R. E. Robinson.
Massachusetts, by J. S. Barry, Volume III.
Rhode Island, by S. G. Arnold, Volume II.
Connecticut, by G. H. Hollister, Volume II. ; Alexander John
ston.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 297
New York, by E. H. Roberts, 2 volumes.
Pennsylvania, by W. M. Cornell.
Maryland, by J. T. Scharf, Volumes II. and III. ; W. H. Browne.
Virginia, by R. R. Howison, Volume II. ; J. E. Cooke.
North Carolina, by J. W. Moore, Volume I.
South Carolina, by David Ramsay, Volume II. ; W. G. Simms.
Georgia, by C. C. Jones, 2 volumes.
Alabama, by W. Brewer.
Kentucky, by N. S. Shaler.
Ohio, by Rufus King.
Indiana, by J. P. Dunn, Jr.
Michigan, by T. M. Cooley.
The Old Northwest, by B. A. Hinsdale.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Martin Van Buren : Political Parties in the United States.
R. McK. Ormsby : History of the Whig Party.
J. D. Hammond : History of Political Parties in New York, 2
volumes.
E. D. Warfield : The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.
Henry Adams : Documents Relating to New England Federalism
(1800-1815).
Theodore Dwight : History of the Hartford Convention.
Journal of William Maclay (1789-1791), edited by E. S. Maclay.
William Maclay : Sketches of Debate (1789-1791), edited by G.
W. Harris.
William Sullivan : Familiar Letters on Public Characters and
Public Events (1783-1815).
R. W. Griswold : The Republican Court, or American Society in
the Days of Washington.
S. G. Goodrich : Recollections, 2 volumes.
Timothy Dwight : Travels in New England and New York, 4
volumes.
E. S. Maclay : History of the United States Navy, 2 volumes.
Francis A. Walker : The Indian Question.
The American Register (1806-1809), 7 volumes.
Niles's Weekly Register, Volumes I. -XII. (1811-1817).
A large number of valuable historical monographs and papers
may be found in the seventh volume of Justin Winsor's Narrative
and Critical History of America, in the publications of the Amer-

298 BIBLIOGRAPHY
ican Historical Association, the Massachusetts Historical Society,
the New York Historical Society, the Johns Hopkins University,
Columbia College, the Magazine of American History, the
Magazine of Western History, and various other historical and
economic publications.
The following will appeal to the teacher or special student of
history, rather than to the general reader :
Jonathan Elliot (editor) : Debates, etc. , 5 volumes.
Journals of Congress (1774-1788), 13 volumes.
Secret Journals of Congress (1775-1788), 4 volumes.
Annals of Congress, Volumes I. -XXX. (1789-1817).
T. H. Benton : Abridgment of Debates. Volumes I.-V. (1789-
1817).
Journal of the House of Representatives (1789-1815), 9 volumes.
Legislative Journal of the Senate (1789-1815), 5 volumes.
Executive Journal of the Senate (1789-1829), 3 volumes.
Statutes at Large. Volumes I.-III.
T. B. Waite : State Papers and Public Documents of the United
States (1789-1818), 12 volumes.
Edwin Williams (editor) : The Statesman's Manual. Volume I.
United States Supreme Court Reports, by Dallas, Volumes II.-
IV., and by Cranch, 9 volumes (to 1815) ; or, edition by
Curtis, Volumes I.-III.
American State Papers :
Foreign Relations (1789-1828), 6 volumes.
Indian Affairs (1789-1827), 2 volumes.
Finances (1789-1828), 5 volumes.
Commerce and Navigation (1789-1823), 2 volumes.
Military Affairs (1789-1838), 7 volumes.
Naval Affairs (1789-1836), 4 volumes.
Post Office (1789-1833), 1 volume.
Public Lands (1789-1837), 8 volumes.
Claims (1789-1823), 1 volume.
Miscellaneous (1789-1823), 2 volumes.

INDEX

Adams, Charles Francis, quoted,
135.
Adams, John, commissioner to ne
gotiate treaties of commerce,
1784-5, IS ; vice-president with
Washington, 62 ; relations to his
cabinet, 90 ; a leader of the fede
ralists, 95-6 ; renominated as vice-
president, 113 ; quoted, 131 ; rela
tions to Jefferson, 183; elected
president, 134-5 ; his administra
tion, Chapter VIII. ; retains
Washington's secretaries, 137 ; his
conduct of the negotiations with
Prance, 138-44 ; his relation to
Alien and Sedition laws, 149, 151,
166-7; his cabinet officers intrigue
against him, 157-62 ; defeated for
re-election, 163-4 ; causes of that
defeat, 165-6; the "midnight
appointments," 169-70 ; resents
search of a national vessel, 193 ;
the vice-president the natural suc
cessor to the presidency, 211.
Adams, John Quincy, appointed
minister to Prussia, 143-4 ; sup
ports embargo, 201 ; commis
sioner at Treaty of Ghent, 247.
Adams, Samuel, opposes constitu
tion of 1787, 57.
Addison, Judge, impeachment of,
172.
Agriculture, predominant occupa
tion in the United States in 1790,
66 ; reasons for remarkable pro
ductive power, 66-72.
Alabama Territory, 257.
Algiers. See Barbary States.
Alien Laws, the, 149 ; republican
opposition to, 151-5, 166-7.
Amendments to the constitution,
how made, 48-9 ; the first ten,
74-7, 256-7 ; the eleventh, 127-8 ;
the twelfth, 168-9.
American life in 1790, 65-67, 102-3.

American nationality, sentiment of.
See Nationality, American.
Annapolis, commercial convention
at, 19-20.
Armies, right to maintain, confined
to general government, 43, 45 ;
democratic-republican party ad
vocate employment of a militia,
instead of regulars, in the Indian
wars, 106.
Armstrong, General, United States
minister at Paris, 218-20, 225.
Army, U. S. (see Regulars), com
parative inefficiency at beginning
of War of 1812, 232-3.
Assumption of State debts, 80-1.
Attorney-General, office of, 89.
Back - pat scandals (Congress),
256-7.
Bainbridge, Captain, in the Medi
terranean, 186-7 ; in War of 1812,
231.
Baltimore, population in 1790, 64 ;
Hanson riot, 227-9 ; British at
tack upon, 23S.
Bank of the Revolution, 82.
Bank, First National, of the U. S.,
S2-4 ; constitutionality, 82-3 ; the
second re-charter defeated in 1811 ,
253-4, 273; Second Bank char
tered 1816, 261-2.
Bankruptcy laws, authority to en
act, 43 ; first bankruptcy law un
der Adams, 156 ; repealed under
Jefferson, 177 ; opposition of dem
ocratic-republican party to such
legislation, 177.
Baptists settle in Rhode Island, 5.
Barbary States, controversies with,
123, 186-7, 248-9.
Barlow, Mr., United States minis
ter to France, 222.
Barron, Commodore, in the Medi
terranean, 187 ; in command of

300

INDEX

the Chesapeake, when that frig
ate was defeated by the Leop
ard, 193.
Bayard, James A., charges a cor
rupt bargain upon Mr. Jefferson,
170.
Bayonne decree, 197.
Berlin decree, 195-6, 200, 217-21,
225.
Blair, John, associate justice Su
preme Court, 98.
Blockade, 194-6, 219, 225.
Blue Light Federalists, so-called,
243 n.
Bonaparte, his cession of Louisiana,
179-80 ; San Domingo revolt,
185-6 ; his decrees against neu
tral trade, 195-6, 200, 218; his
power in 1812, 234 ; his fall en
ables England to send troops to
America, 236 ; destruction of his
continental system, 256.
Borgue, Lake, on boundary of Flor
ida, as claimed by the Spaniards,
185.
Boston, population in 1790, 04.
Boundary, dispute as to, 185-6.
Bowdoin, Governor James, advo
cates a closer union, 18 ; puts
down Shays's Rebellion, 19.
Bradford, William, 130.
Breckinridge, John, in Jefferson's
cabinet, 211.
Brock, General, commanding Brit
ish forces in Canada, 235.
Brown, General Jacob, commands
United States forces in Canada,
236-7.
Burr, Aaron, his control of New
York politics, 162 ; his intrigue
to secure the presidency over
Jefferson, 164-5 ; becomes vice-
president, 165 ; presides at im
peachment of Judge Chase, 172,
n.\ goes over to the federalists,
188 ; kills Hamilton, 189 ; ar
rested and tried for treason, 206 ;
his plans, 207-S.
Cabinet, not recognized in consti
tution, 89 ; development of this
function under first three presi
dents, 90-1 ; should cabinet offi
cers sit in Congress ? 91 - 3 ;
Washington's cabinet, 93 - 6 ;
breaks up, 128-31 ; decline in

dignity of a cabinet position, 131
Adams's cabinet, 137, 141, 157-02
ethics of cabinet office, 158-9
Jefferson's cabinet, 187-8, 210-11
Madison's, 214-5, 263.
Cabot, George, president of the
Hartford Convention, 244.
Cadore, due de, French minister,
218-19.
Calhoun, J. C. , advocates war with
England, 232 ; advocates tariff of
181(5, 261 ; attitude toward Second
National Bank, 263 ; advocates in
ternal improvements, 262.
Campbell, George W., secretary of
the treasury, 256.
Canada, conquest of, declared to be
the real motive for the War of
1812, 225, 227, 230, 233, 242 ; in
vasion of, 234-7.
Canning, George, English minister,
201.
Catholics settle in Maryland, 5 ; not
allowed to vote in some colonies,
50.
Caucus of members of Congress to
nominate candidates for president
and vice-president 132-3, 224,
264.
Census of the United State's, the
first, 108 ; the second, 156, 174 ;
the third, 233.
Centre of population, so - called,
265-6.
Ceremonial at the Executive Man
sion, 99.
Champlain, Lake, battle of, 237.
Charleston, population of, in 1790,
04 ; federalist in sentiment, 96.
Chase, Judge, impeachment of.
172.
Chesapeake, United States frigate,
attacked by H. M. S. Leopard,
193, 198-9.
Chief Justice of the United States,
the office, 43 ; Jay appointed
97-8 ; Rutledge's confirmation re
fused, 1 27 ; Ellsworth appoint
ed, 126-7 ; Marshall appointed,
167.
Chippewa, battle of, 237.
Chisholm vs. the State of Georgia,
30, 127. #
Cincinnati, the Society of, 125.
Civil service, the, under Mr. Jeffer
son, 169-71, 175.

INDEX

301

Clarke and Lewis, expedition, 210.
Clay, Henry, advocates war with
England, 222; commissioner at
Treaty of Ghent, 247 ; his cham
pionship of protection, 261 ; ad
vocates Second National Bank,
262.
Clinton, George, opposes constitu
tion, 60 ; nominated by democrat
ic-republicans as vice-president,
113 ; elected vice-president, 188-
9 ; his claim upon the republican
nomination in 1808, 212 ; is re
elected vice-president, 213 ; de
feats re-charter of Bank, 254.
Clinton De Witt, candidate for pres
idency, 250-1.
Cobbett, Wm., his political vitu
peration, 148.
Cochrane, British admiral, 238.
Cockburn, British admiral, 238.
Coinage, Congress given sole power
over, 43, 44 ; first coinage law, 81-
2 ; proposition to abolish mint,
176.
Collingwood, Admiral, searches an
American man-of-war, 193.
Collot, editor, 148.
Colonialism in American politics,
103-3.
Columbia, District of, 107.
Commerce, lack of power in Con
federation to regulate, 12-13;
Congress has power to regulate,
43.
Commercial opposed to planting
States in constitutional conven
tion, 35, 36, 53 ; commercial
States oppose embargo, 201-2,
340-3.
Compromises of the constitution,
32-5.
Confederation, the, of 1781-9 ; its
weakness and the causes of its
failure, Chapter I. ; the Confed
eration abandoned by the consti
tutional convention, 37-8.
Congress, Continental, 9.
Congress of the Confederation 8-14,
39-40.
Congress under the constitution,
34 ; organization, 41-3 ; powers,
43-5, 48 ; should cabinet officers
sit in ? 91-3 ; representation of
States in, after first census, 108 ;
after second census, 174; after

third census, 352 ; Back-pay
scandals, 256-7 : supposed case of
an infraction of the constitution
by Congress, 151-5.
Connecticut, its dispute with Mas
sachusetts (1647-50), 3; with
New York, 2-3 ; in constitution
al convention, S'd ; her western
lands, 39, n. ; ratifies constitu
tion, 52 ; presidential election of
1800, 164 ; representation in Con
gress after second census, 174;
election of 1804, 188 ; last strong
hold of federalism, 217 ; oppo
sition to War of 1812, 242-4;
represented in Hartford conven
tion, 244 ; election of 1812, 251 ;
representation after third census,
252.
Constitution, the, framed, Chapter
II. ; ratified, Chapter III. ; sup
posed case of an infraction of, by
Congress, with concurrence of the
judiciary, 151-5 ; influence of the
Supreme Court upon the practi
cal development of the constitu
tion, 97, 167, 173, 270. See
Amendments.
Contraband of war, 192.
Convention, Commercial, at Annap
olis in 1786, 19-20, 36.
Convention, Constitutional, Phila
delphia, 1787, 20, Chapter II. ;
dodged the question of national
ity, 268.
Cooper, J. Fenimore, mutual prej
udices of New York and New
England, 4, n.
Cotton, small export of, in 1790,
64 ; increasing importance of this
crop stimulates demand for slave
labor, 184, 210; influence on the
tariff of 1816, 260-1.
Courts of the United States (see
Supreme Court — Circuit Court),
169, 171-2.
Craig, Sir James, Governor-General
of Canada. 223, 242-3.
Crawford, William H., enters Madi
son's cabinet, 263 ; urged for pres
idency, 263.
Creek Indians, 107, 238-9.
Crowninshield, Jacob, in Jefferson's
cabinet, 211 ; threats against
Canada, 234, n.
Cumberland road, 204.

302

INDEX

Curtis, George Ticknor, u History
of the Constitution," 30, 91, 267.
Cushing, William, associate jus
tice of the Supreme Court, 98 ;
declines chief justiceship, 127.
Customs duties, Congress author
ized to levy, 43 ; first tariff, 84-5 ;
war tariff, 255 ; tariff of 1816, 258-
61.
Cutler, Dr. Manasseh, ordinance
of 1787, 40.
Dale, Commodore, sent to Medi
terranean, 186.
Dallas, A. J., secretary of the
treasury, 256, 261.
Dane, Nathan, ordinance of 1 787, 40.
Davie, Wm. R. , envoy to France,
142.
Dearborn, Henry, in Jefferson's
cabinet, 187 ; invasion of Canada,
236.
Debts, Congress authorized to levy
taxes to pay the debts of the
United States, 43, 48-9 ; funding
of Revolutionary debt, 78-80 ; re
duction of debt under Jefferson,
208 ; increase of debt during War
of 1812 ; interest defaulted, 255-6.
Debts of the Revolution, 10-11, 7S-
80, 208.
Debts (private), ante-revolutionary,
due to British subjects, 12, 144.
Debts, public, natural indisposition
toward payment of, 10-11.
Decatur, Commodore, 187, 231, 24S.
Delaware, its colonial relations to
Pennsylvania, 3 ; settled largely
by non-English people, 4 ; repre
sented at Annapolis convention,
19; ratifies constitution, 52; the
smallest State in 1790, 10S ; its
General Assembly repudiates the
nullification resolutions, 152-3 ;
the presidential election of 1800,
164, 170 ; representation in Con
gress after second census, 174 ;
election of 1804, 188; election of
1812, 351 ; representation in Con
gress after third census, 251.
Democratic-republican party. See
Republican party.
Democratic societies, 117, 125-6.
Deposit, right of at New Orleans,
141, 178.
Detroit, 234.

Dexter, Samuel, enters Adams's
cabinet, 161, 187.
Dickinson, John, in constitutional
convention, 27.
Direct tax, Congress forbidden to
levy, except in proportion to pop
ulation, 44 ; the direct tax in
Adams's administration, 145 ; in
efficiency of this tax in the
revenue system of the United
States, 145-6 ; direct tax under
Madison, 255, 278.
Directory of France, its treatment
of our envoys, 138-9.
Drummond, General, British com
mander, 237.
Duane, editor, 118.
Duplaine, M., French consul at
Boston, rescues vessel from
United States marshal, 117.
Dutch settle in New York and
Pennsylvania, 4.
Dwight, Theodore, secretary of
Hartford convention, 245.
Economic interests became pre
dominant after the War of 1812,
257-8.
Electors, presidential, 45, 133, 163-5,
168-9.
Ellsworth, Oliver, in constitutional
convention, 25 ; appointed chief
justice, 127 ; envoy to France,
142 ; resigns chief justiceship, 167.
Embargo in Washington's second
term, 119 ; in Jefferson's term,
200-3, 240-1 ; as a preliminary to
declaration of war, 1812, 224 ;
proposal of Hartford convention
regarding embargoes, 245 ; em
bargo of 1813-14, 255-6.
England holds our western posts,
12 ; violations of neutral trade,
119; the Jay treaty, 120-1; tem
porary occupation of Florida, 178 ¦
abortive treaty with England
regarding boundary between
Canada and the United States,
186 ; increasing hostility to Eng
land, 1SS ; the war with France
incites England to outrages upon
neutral rights, 190-1 ; dispute as
to repeal of the French decrees,
217-21 ; war against England
declared, 224 - 7 ; comparative
strength of the belligerents, 233-4;

INDEX

303

War of 1812-15, Chapter XH. ;
peace declared, 239 ; terms of
treaty of peace, 247-9.
Erie, Fort, 237.
Erie, Lake, battle of, 235.
Erskine, Mr. British minister at
Washington, 217-18, 226.
Eustis, William, in Madison's cabi
net, 214.
Excise duties, Congress authorized
to levy, 43 ; excise laws, 85-6,
123-5 ; repeal of excise under
Jefferson, 175 ; excise duties un
der Madison, 255, 273.
Executive departments in the con
stitution, 88-9. See Cabinet.
Exports not to be taxed, 34, 44 ;
effects of this prohibition upon
the revenue system of the United
States, 145.
Fauchet, M., French minister, his
letter compromising Edmund
Randolph, 129.
Federal as opposed to national gov
ernment in the United States,
31-2, 59-60.
Federalist party, origin of, 95-6 ;
, election of, 1796-7, 112-14 ; its re
lation to the disputes with France
and England, 115-20, 129 ; taking
shape, 131 ; accessions to, in con
sequence of anti-French feeling,
1798-9, 139 ; its blunder in enact
ing alien and sedition laws, 150-1,
166-7 ; divisions and animosities,
157-62 ; downfall, 163 ; the cause,
165-6 ; remaining federalists op
pose embargo, 201-3 ; at sixth
presidential election, 211 ; rap
prochement of moderate feder
alists with republicans, under
Madison, 215-16 ; the federalists
in Congress oppose War of 1812,
225-6 ; opposition to the war while
in progress, 240-6.
" Federalist," the, 54-5, 90.
Fisheries, Newfoundland, by Trea
ty of Ghent, 247.
Florida, 177-8 ; boundary of, 185 ;
appropriation for purchase of,
203^.
Foreigners (see also Aliens), Fed
eralist distrust of, 176.
France, creditor of the United
States, 78, 100 ; her share in

achieving American independ
ence, 99, 100 ; effect of French
Revolution upon politics of the
United States, 101-3 ; difficulties
with France in Washington's
second term, 115-19, 122-3 ; in
Adams's administration, 138^2 ;
the French treaty, 142-3 ; rela
tions of France to Louisiana, 178 ;
France cedes that territory to the
United States, 179-80 ; her in
terest in San Domingo, 185-6 ;
her war with England incites
France to outrages on neutral
rights, 190-1 ; controversy over
the repeal of the decrees, 217-21.
Franklin, Benjamin, commissioner
to negotiate treaties of commerce,
1784-5, 13 ; in constitutional con
vention, 24-5.
Franklin, or Frankland, proposed
State of, 12.
Frenchtown, action at, 235.
Fries'sriot, 146-7, 161.
Fugitives from justice to be deliv
ered up, 47-8.
Fugitives from slavery, rendition
of, 48 ; first fugitive slave law,
10S.
Fulton, Robert, invention of steam
boat, 206.
Funding system, Hamilton's, 126;
Madison's, 256.
Gaines, General, commanding
United States forces in Canada,
237.
Gallatin, Albert, takes part in op
position to whiskey tax, 124 ; be
comes secretary of the treasury,
187; a patron of the expedition
of Lewis and Clarke, 21 0 ; in Madi
son's cabinet, 214-15 ; commis
sioner at Treaty of Ghent, 247 ;
advocates re-charter of bank in
1811, 254 ; leaves the treasury,
256.
Genet episode, the, 115-17.
Geographical relations of the col
onies, as withstanding a move
ment toward a common govern
ment, 2-4.
George, Fort, 236.
Georgia, in constitutional conven
tion, 32, 35 ; ratifies constitution,
52 ; votes against Bill of Rights,

304

INDEX

53; in 1790 largely occupied by
Indian tribes, 64 ; tonnage dues,
84 ; population in 1790, 108 ; the
Chisholm case, 127 ; the presi
dential election of 1800, 164 ; rep
resentation in Congress after
second census, 174; election of
1804, 188; election of 1812, 251 ;
representation in Congress at the
third census, 252.
Germans settle in New York and
Pennsylvania, 4.
Gerry, Elbridge, in constitutional
convention, 30, 36, n. ; opposes
constitution, 57 ; the power of
removal, 90 ; envoy to France,
138 - 9 ; elected vice - president,
224.
Ghent, Treaty of, 239, 247-8.
Gibbons vs. Ogden, in Supreme
Court, 3, n., 207„
Gibbs, George, Administrations of
Washington, and Adams, quoted
132-3.
Goodrich, Elizur, displaced by
President Jefferson, 171.
Gorham, Nathaniel, in constitu
tional convention, 34.
Gouge, Wm. M., disparaging view
of the Bank of the Revolution,
82.
Graham, Sir James, "Cutting
away the broken mast of the
public credit," 80.
Granger, Gideon, in Jefferson's
cabinet, 188.
Griswold, Roger, enters Adams's
cabinet, 161.
Gunboats, Jefferson's hobby, 204.
Habersham, Joseph, postmaster-
general, 187-8.
Hamilton, Alexander, delegate to
Annapolis convention, 19-20; in
constitutional convention, 25-6,
34 ; chief author of the ' ' Federal
ist," 54 ; in New York convention,
60 ; charged with cutting down
Adams's vote in 1789, 62 ; advo
cates payment of Revolutionary
debt in full, and assumption of
State debts, 79-81 ; advocates
National Bank, 82-3, 254, 273 ;
in Washington's cabinet, 91-6 ;
his Sinking Fund, 126; retires
from the treasury, l30 ; the

third presidential election, 134;
appointed second in command to
Washington, with reference to
anticipated war with France,
140 ; his plans, 141 ; intrigues
with Adams's secretaries, 158-9 ;
tries to substitute C. C. Pinckney
for Adams, in 1800, 161-3; his
pamphlet against the president,
161-2; his tragic death, 189;
greatest of all secretaries of the
treasury, 214 ; his influence on
the development of nationality,
270.
Hamilton, Paul, in Madison's cabi
net, 214.
Hampton, General, invasion of
Canada, 236.
Hancock, John, presides over Mas
sachusetts convention which rat
ified the constitution, 56-7.
Hanson riot, 227-9.
Harmer, General, defeated by In
dians, 104.
Harrison, General William H..
235.
Harrison, Robert H., associate
justice Supreme Court, 98.
Hartford convention, 244-7.
Hartley, Thomas, advocates pro
tection, 85.
Hearn, Professor, machinery in
agriculture, 71.
Henry, John, his mission to New
England, 223-4.
Henry, Patrick, in Revolutionary
Congress, 30; opposes constitu
tion of 1787, 57, 59, 74.
HoUand, creditor of the United
States, 78, 100.
Howick, Lord, Orders in Council,
196.
Hull, Commodore, 231.
Hull, General, 234-5.
Impeachment, 43, 46, 47; im
peachment of judges, 172-3.
Importations prohibited. See Non
importation Act.
Impressment of seamen, 191-3, 197,
224, 226, 239, 247.
Income tax, declared by Supreme
Court not to be a direct tax, 145.
Indian tribes, Congress has power
to regulate commerce with, 43;
treaties with, 105-7.

INDEX

305

Indian wars, 104-6, 123, 224, 247,
249.
Indiana Territory, the, 155 ; State
of, 257.
Indians generally not allowed to
vote in southern colonies, 49.
Indians in Georgia, 64.
Inspection laws (at ports) of States,
45.
Intelligencer, The National, 188.
Internal improvements, issue re
garding, 204^-5 ; Madison vetoes
bill, 263-3.
Inventive genius of American peo
ple, 67-9 ; accounted for, 69-72.
Iredell, James, associate justice
Supreme Court, 98.
Irish, concerned in Whiskey Insur
rection, 124.
Jackson, General Andrew, defeats
Creeks, 239 ; wins battle of New
Orleans, 239 ; his opinion of the
Hartford convention, 244-5.
Jacobins, epithet applied to demo
cratic-republicans, 113.
Jay, John, his decision in Chisholm
vs. State of Georgia, 30 ; his share
in The Federalist, 54; chief jus
tice, 97-8 ; his disposition to sac
rifice the navigation of the Mis
sissippi, 111-12 ; negotiates treaty
with England, 120-1 ; resigns
chief justiceship, 126 - 7 ; the
third presidential election, 134;
refuses to take an improper par
tisan advantage, 163.
Jay treaty, 120-1, 191, 222, 247.
Jefferson, Thomas, commissioner
to negotiate treaties of commerce,
1784r-5, 13 ; his proposition re-
tarding domestic debt of United
tates, 78-9 ; assumption of State
debts, 81, 94 ; opposition to ex
cise duties, 86 ; his relations to
his cabinet, 91 ; in Washington's
cabinet, 91-6 ; " Jeffersonian sim
plicity," 99 ; opposing increase of
regular army, 106 ; vituperative
epithets toward federalists, 113 ;
blames both France and England,
121 ; leaves Washington's cabinet :
his commercial report, 128-9 ; rela
tions to Adams, 132 ; candidate
for the presidency in 1800, 134-5 ;
elected vice-president, 135-6; op

posed to a powerful navy, 148 ;
impotence of political libel, 150 ;
his share in the nullification res
olutions, 151, 153, 155; elected
president, 162-5 ; his administra
tion, Chapters IX. and X. ; his
relations to the civil service,
169-71, 175 ; the charge of a
" corrupt bargain," 170-1 ; his
opposition to excise duties,
bankruptcy laws, and an extend
ed term of naturalization, 175-7 ;
his part in the acquisition of
Louisiana, 179-84, 272 ; his cabi
net, 187-8 ; re-elected, 188-9; Eng
land and France competing in in
juries to the United States, 190-7 ;
the Monroe treaty : Jefferson re
fuses to submit it to the Senate,
197-8 ; the president's proclama
tion regarding the Chesapeake
outrage, 198-9; Jefferson's em
bargo, 200-1 ; his dislike of foreign
commerce, 20l-2, 240-1 ; consents
to repeal of the embargo, 202-3 ;
his gunboat project, 204 ; opposes
internal improvements, 305 ; his
indignation at Burr's acquittal,
207 ; prosperity of the finances in
his administration, 208 ; sets on
foot expedition of Lewis and
Clarke, 210; his later cabinet,
210-11 ; declines re-election, 211 ;
selects Madison as his successor,
212, 264 ; his obligations to Madi
son, 213 ; conquest of Canada,
230, n. ; back-pay scandals, 257 ;
indisposition to war, 272.
Jews, in some colonies not allowed
to vote, 50.
Johnson, Thomas, associate justice
Supreme Court, 98.
Jones, Captain, U. S. N.,-231.
Judiciary, State and national, war
upon, 172-3.
Judiciary of the United States, or
ganization and jurisdiction, 46-7 ;
its office in the development of
the nation, 97, 167, 173, 270 ; its
jurisdiction limited by eleventh
amendment, 127-8 ; suppose the
judiciary joins with Congress in
an infraction of the constitution ?
151-5 ; the Olmstead case, 252-3.
See Courts of the United States
and Supreme Court.

306

INDEX

Kentucky, interested in navigation
of the Mississippi, 58 ; population
in 17(J0, 64 ; admitted to the
Union, 109 ; its nullification res
olutions, 151,153, 252; presiden
tial election of 1800, 164 ; rep
resentation in Congress after
second census, 174 ; election of
1804, 188; election of 1812, 251 ;
representation in Congress after
third census, 251.
King, Rufus, in constitutional
convention, 25 ; negotiates treaty
with England, 186 ; nominated
for vice-presidency, 188 ; again,
213 ; nominated for the presi
dency, 264.
Knox, Henry, in Washington's cab
inet, 93-4; retires, 130; declines
appointment as Hamilton's jun
ior, 140.
Lands, western, an important is
sue in formation of Confederation,
9-10, 12.
Lansing, John, in constitutional
convention, 34 ; opposes consti
tution, 60.
Lee, Charles, attorney-general, 130.
Lee, General Harry, defends Han
son's printing-office, 228-9.
L'Enfant, Major, engineer of the
capital, 156.
Leopard and Chesapeake, battle of,
193.
Lewis and Clarke expedition, 210.
Lincoln, General, puts down Shays's
Rebellion, 18.
Lincoln, Levi, enters Jefferson's
cabinet, 187.
Lingan, General, killed in defence
of Hanson's printing-office, 227-9.
Little Belt, H. M. S. sloop of war,
231.
Livingston, Chancellor, supports
the constitution, 60 ; assists Ful
ton in bringing steamboats into
use, 206.
Lodge, Henry Cabot, Life of Ham
ilton, quoted, 140, n.
Louisiana, the Territory, successive
ownership of, 177-8; Prance
cedes it to the United States,
179-80; political consequences of
the cession, 1S0-4.
The State, admitted, 257 ; elec

tion of 1812, 251 ; representation
in Congress after third census,
251 ; furious opposition from ir-
reconciled federalists to its ad
mission, 257.
Lowndes, William J. , advocates
tariff of 1816, 261.
Loyalists, confiscated estates of,
12.
Lundy's Lane, battle of, 238.
McDonough, Commodore, victory
on Lake Champlain, 231, 237.
McHenry, Port, bombardment of,
238.
McHenry, JameSj secretary of
war, 130 ; retained by Adams,
137; intrigues against the presi
dent, 157-9 ; his resignation de
manded, 160.
McLean, associate justice Supreme
Court, 106.
Madison, James, in constitutional
Convention, 25 ; his share in The
Federalist, 54 ; advocates ratifi
cation in Virginia convention,
59-60 ; dilatoriness of first Con
gress, 62; reference to Patrick
Henry, 74 ; opposes National
Bank, 82 ; first tariff, 84-5 ;
power of removal, 90 ; Jefferson's
lieutenant, 96 ; supports Jeffer
son's commercial report, 129 ;
his share in the Virginia resolu
tions of nullification, 151-5 ; in
Jefferson's cabinet, 187; non-im
portation act, 200 ; chosen to
succeed Jefferson, 212 ; his claims
to the succession, 212 ; elected,
215 ; his administration, Chap
ters XI., XII., and XIII. ; his
cabinet, 21 4 ; conciliates federal
ists, 215; dealings with England
and France, 217-20; carried on
toward war by the extremists of
his party, 222 ; his war message,
224 ; is renominated and re-elect
ed, 224 ; upholds national author
ity in Olmstead case, 252-3 ; his
later cabinet, 256 ; advocates pro
tection in 1816, 258-61 ; vetoes
bank bill of 1814, 262; vetoes
internal improvements bill, 262-3.
Madison's " Journal," 25, 53. -
Maine, District of, attempt to set
up a separate State, 12 ; delegates

INDEX

307

from, oppose constitution in
Massachusetts convention, 56 ;
population in 1790, 64.
Manufactures repressed in the Col
onies, 68-9 ; protection of, 84-5 ;
growth promoted by War of 1812,
258-61, 269-70 ; the real manu
facture of the United States,
during the first fifty years, was
the manufacture of farms, 267.
Marshall, Chief Justice, 105; his
views of the liability of a State
to be sued by a citizen of another
State, 127, n. ; envoy to France,
138-9; enters Adams's cabinet,
161 ; appointed chief justice,
167, 252 ; presides at Burr's trial,
206 ; his chief contributions to
the theory of the constitution,
253, 270.
Martin, Luther, in constitutional
convention, 27 ; opposes consti
tution, 57.
Maryland, its colonial dispute with
Virginia, 3, 19 ; votes against Bill
of Rights, 53 ; Tories, 55 ; ratifies
constitution, 57 ; cedes district
for seat of government, 107-8 ;
presidential election of 1800, 164,
170; representation in Congress
after second census, 174 ; election
of 1804, 188 ; Hanson riot, 227-9 ;
election of 1812, 251 ; represen
tation in Congress after third
census, 251-2.
Mason, George, in constitutional
convention, 25, 36, n. ; opposes
ratification, 58.
Massachusetts, its colonial dispute
with Connecticut, 1647 - 50, 2 ;
Tories, 55 ; convention to ratify
constitution, 55-7 ; second State
in population, 1790, 108 ; presi
dential election of 1800, 164 ; rep
resentation in Congress after sec
ond census, 174 ; election of 1804,
188 ; last stronghold of federalism,
217 ; opposition to the War of 1812,
242-4 ; represented in Hartford
convention, 244 ; election of 1812,
251 ; representation in Congress
after third census, 251.
Maumee River, operations on,
235.
Mechanical genius of American peo
ple, accounted for, 67 - 72 ; in

fluence on naval power, 232-3 ¦
promoting the rapid settling up of
the West, 266-7.
Meigs, Port, 2S5.
Miami Confederation, war with
101-6, 123.
Michigan, base of operations against
Canada, 234-5.
Midnight appointments, so-called,
of President Adams, 169-70.
Milan decree, 196, 217-21, 225.
Military Academv established at
West Point, 174.
Militia of States, relation of general
government to, 44 ; employment
of militia, instead of " regulars,"
advocated by democratic-repub
lican party, 106-7, 233 ; called
out to enforce whiskey tax, 125 ;
to enforce direct tax, 147 ; refusal
of governors of Massachusetts
and Connecticut to allow the mili
tia to march, 233-4 ; Pennsylvania
militia called out to resist execu
tion of decree of United States
court, 252-3.
Mint, established, 81 ; proposition
to abolish it under Jefferson, 176.
Miranda, Francisco de, his Spanish-
American projects, 141.
Mississippi, navigation of, impor
tance of the question, 3-4, 58, 74,
111-12, 141, 178, 208, 270.
Mississippi Territory, 155 ; State
of, 257.
Monocrats, epithet by Jefferson ap
plied to federalists, 113.
Monroe, James, minister to Paris,
recalled, 122 ; his treaty with
England, 177-8 ; his claims to the
succession in 1808, 212, 215 ; be
comes secretary of state under
Madison and " heir - apparent,"
220 ; his correspondence with
British minister following decla
ration of war, 224 ; assumes duties
of secretary of war, 263 ; nomi
nated for presidency, 263 ; elected,
264.
Montreal, expedition against, 236.
Morris, Gouverneur, in constitu
tional convention, 55.
Mosquito fleet, so-called, in Jeffer
son's term, 204.
Murray, William Vans, envoy to
France, 142.

308

INDEX

NiPOLEON. See Bonaparte.
National as opposed to federal gov
ernment of the United States,
31-2, 59-60.
Nationality, American, sentiment
of, 2-9, 102-3 ; influence of west
ern States upon, 109-11 ; influence
of the acquisition of Louisiana,
181-4; steady growth, under a
common form of government, 216 ;
retrospect, 267-73.
Naturalization laws, 176; proposal
of Hartford convention, 246.
Navigation act, question of a two-
thirds vote, 35, 84 ; navigation act
following War of 1812, 262.
Navy, right to maintain, confined
to the United States, 43, 45 ; Navy
Department created, 147-8 ; Pres
ident Adams favors a navy, 148 ;
Jefferson favors gunboats, 204 ;
the navy in the War of 1812, 230-3.
Negroes generally not allowed to
vote in southern Colonies, 49.
Neutral trade, England's violations
of, 119, 191-5 ; France violates
neutral rights, 195-7, 218-20, 239-
40.
Neutrality, Washington's patriotic
position, 101-2, 141 ; general neu
trality law of 1817, 248.
Newark, Canada, burned by Amer
ican forces, 236, 238.
New England Colonies not hospita
ble to foreigners, 49.
New England States generally op
pose embargo, 202-3 ; last strong
hold of federalism, 217; Henry's
mission, 223-4 ; opposition to the
War of 1812, 241-7; election of
1812, 251 ; oppose tariff of 1816,
261.
New Hampshire in constitutional
convention, 22, 31 ; ratification of
constitution, 56-7 ; claims Ver
mont, 109; presidential election
of 1800, 164 ; representation in
Congress after second census,
174; election of 1804, 188; one
county represented in Hartford
convention, 244 ; election of 1812,
251 ; representation in Congress
after third census, 252.
New Haven, protest of merchants
against displacement of Collector
Goodrich, 171.

New Jersey, its dispute with New
York, 2-3 ; represented at Annap
olis convention, 19 ; in constitu
tional convention, 33 ; ratifies
constitution, 52 ; presidential
election of 1800, 164; represen
tation in Congress after second
census, 174 ; election of 1804,
188 ; election of 1812, 251 ; rep
resentation in Congress after
third census, 252.
Newport taxes goods destined for
Massachusetts, 3, n.
New Orleans, right of deposit at,
141, 178; battle of, 239.
New York (City), population in
1790, 64; Congress first meets
under the constitution in, 107 ;
carried by the republicans, under
Burr's management, 162, n.
New York (State), its dispute with
Connecticut and New Jersey,
2-3 ; taxes goods destined for
other States, 3, n. ; settled largely
by Dutch and Germans, 4 ; prej
udices against New England, 4,
«.; refuses assent to revenue
system of 1783, 19 ; sends dele
gates to Annapolis, 19 ; in con
stitutional convention, 34 ; strug
gle over ratification, 56, 60-1 ;
central New York unsettled in
1790, 64; fourth State in popu
lation in 1790, 108 ; claims Ver
mont, 109 ; relations to the
election of 1800, 162-4 ; represen
tation in Congress after second
census, 174; election of 1804,
188 ; election of 1812, 251 ; repre
sentation in Congress after third
census, 251.
Niagara, Fort, 236 ; battle of, 237.
Nicholas, George, presents nulli
fication resolutions in Kentucky
legislature, 151.
Nomination of president, how
made, 132-3, 224, 264.
Non-importation act, 199-200, 217-
20.
Northern opposed to southern
States in constitutional conven
tion, 24, 26-7, 32-3, 34-5, 50,
96-7; sectional lines drawn in
the vote on the first National
Bank, 83 ; in the vote on the
War of 1812, 225.

INDEX

309

North Carolina in constitutional
convention, 32, 5Li ; delays rati
fication, 61, 64; accedes, 73-4;
tonnage dues, 84 ; small stills,
86 ; Tennessee created from, 126 ;
presidential election of 1800, 164 ;
representation in Congress after
second census, 174 ; election of
18C4, 188 ; election of 1812, 251 ;
representation in Congress after
third census, 251-2.
North Point, battle of, 238.
Nullification resolutions, 179S - 9,
151-5, 252; compare with pro
posals of Hartford convention,
256 ; nullification due to eva
sion of the question of national
ity by constitutional convention,
268.
Ohio, settlement of, 104 ; admitted
as a State— its part in the his
tory of the country, 173-4 ; elec
tion of 1804, 188; election of
1812, 251 ; representation in Con
gress after third census, 252.
Olmstead case, the, 252-3.
Orders in Council, British, 195-6,
198-200, 217-20, 225.
Ordinance of 1787, 39-40.
Pakenham, British general, killed
at New Orleans, 239. _
Paper money, Revolutionary, 11,
14-15,78; paper-money craze of
1785-6, 18-19 ; issues forbidden to
States, 44 ; no legal-tender paper
money issued during War of
1812, 254-5.
Patterson, William, in constitu
tional convention, 33.
Peace, Treaty of Ghent, 239, 247-8.
Peasantry, the American agricul
turists not a, 67, 266.
Pennsylvania, its colonial relations
to Delaware, 3 ; taxes products
of other States, 3, n. ; settled
largely by non-English people,
4 ; Quaker settlers, 5 ; repre
sented at Annapolis convention,
19 ; ratifies constitution, 52 ;
small stills, 86; third State in
population, 1790, 108; militia
called out to enforce whiskey
tax, 125 ; to enforce direct tax,

147; presidential election of
1S0U, 1U4 ; war upon the judi
ciary, 172-o ; representation in
Congress after second census,
174; election of 1804, 188; anti-
slavery agitation, 210; election
of 1812, 251 ; representation in
Congress after third census, 251 ;
militia called out to resist execu
tion of decree of United States
court, 252-3.
Percival, Mr., Orders in Council,
196.
Perdido, the river, alleged by the
United States to be the proper
boundary of Florida, 185.
Perry, Commodore, victory on Lake
Erie, 231, 235.
Philadelphia, constitutional con
vention called at, 20 ; population
in 1790, 64 ; mint established, 81 ;
National Bank established, 84 ;
Congress meets for ten years in,
107 ; yellow fever, 126 ; the Olm
stead case, 25:2-3.
Pickering, Judge, impeachment of,
172.
Pickering, Timothy, in Washing
ton's cabinet, 129-30 ; retained
by Adams, 137 ; intrigues against
the president, 157-60 ; his resig
nation demanded, 160.
Pinckney, Charles, in constitution
al convention, 26.
Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, in
constitutional convention, 26, 53;
appointed minister to France,
122 ; ordered out of France, 138 ;
nominated for vice-presidency in
1800, 160, 161, 163; nominated
for presidency, 188 ; again, 213.
Pinckney, Thomas, negotiates
treaty with Spain, 122 ; nominat
ed for vice-president with John
Adams, but defeated, 135-6, IBS.
Pinkney, William, envoy to Eng
land, 197, 221 ; attorney-general,
263.
Pioneer enterprise, effect in pro
moting the settlement of the
West, 264-6.
Pittsburg, the seat of the Whiskey
Insurrection, 124.
Planting opposed to commercial
StateB, in constitutional conven
tion, 35, 36, 53 ; planting inter-

310

INDEX

est demands protection in 1816,
258-61.
Plattsburg, battle of, 237.
Population of the United States,
64, 108, 150, 233,265; westward
extension of population one of
the marvels of history, 264-6.
Porter, Commodore, 231.
Porter, Peter B., report on the in
jurious acts of England, 222-3.
Postmaster-general, office of, 187-8.
Post-offices and post-roads, power to
establish, 43.
Potomac, seat of government es
tablished on, 107, 156.
Preble, Commodore, 187.
President of the United States,
office of, 34, 36, 43, 45-6 ; relations
to the cabinet, 88-91 ; proposed
title of, 98 n. ; candidates, how
nominated, 132-3, 224, 264 ; elec
toral votes, how cast, prior to
twelfth amendment, l33, 163-5 ;
twelfth amendment to constitu
tion changes mode of election,
168-9.
President, United States frigate,
221.
Prevost, Gen., British commander,
defeated at Plattsburg, 237.
Privateers in War of 1812, 231-2.
Property qualifications in Colonies,
50 ; by ordinance of 1787, 40.
Protection in the United States, the
first tariff, 84-5 ; the protectionist
argument of 1816, 258-61.
Prussia, J. Q. Adams appointed
minister to, 143-4.
Putnam, General Rufus, settlement
of Ohio, 40.
Quakers settle in Pennsylvania, 5 ;
not allowed to vote in some col
onies, 50 ; oppose slavery, 210.
Queenstown, Canada, attack on, 235.
Quincy, Josiah, threat of secession
upon admission of Louisiana, 257.
Race, differences of, as withstand
ing movement toward a common
government, 4-5.
Railroads, their introduction re
moves the issue of internal im
provements from American poli
tics, 205-6.
Raisin, river, operations on, 235.

Rambouillet decree, 218, 220.
Randolph, Edmund, in constitu
tional convention, 27, 31, o4, 36,
?/., 37, n., 184; refuses to sign
constitution, but advocates rati
fication, 58-9 ; in Washington's
cabinet, 83, 93-4 ; becomes secre
tary of state, but soon retires,
under a cloud, 129.
Randolph, John, conducts impeach
ment of Judge Chase, 172 ; prop
osition to abolish mint, 176 ; re
fuses to assent to admission of
new States, 181, re. ; the non-im
portation act, 199, n. ; his faction
known as "Quids," 215; opposes
tariff of 1816, 261.
Ratification of the constitution,
nine States sufficient, 36-8, 49,
57 ; struggle over ratification,
eleven States accede, 51-61 ; North
Carolina and Rhode Island join,
73-4.
Regulars vs. militia, 106-7, 233.
Religion, differences of, as with
standing movement toward a com
mon government, 5 ; no rehgious
tests for office under the United
States, 49 ; religious qualifications
in the Colonies, 50 ; any establish
ment of religion forbidden by first
amendment to constitution, 75.
Removal, power of, by the presi
dent alone, 89-90.
Representation in Congress, should
it be equal or proportional ? 32-4 ;
redistribution of representatives,
108, 174, 252.
Representatives, House of, con
stitution of, 34, 41-5 ; asserts a
claim to participate in the settle
ment of international questions
by way of treaties, 121-2 ; chooses
president in default of popular
election, 133-4.
Repression, political, the policy of,
148-50.
Republican form of government
guaranteed to every State, 48.
Republican (democratic-republican)
party, origin of, 96-7 ; opposes
National Bank, 82-4, 254 ; election
of 1796-7, 112-14 ; the party taking
shape, 131 ; opposes internal im
provements, 205 ; rapprochement
of republicans with moderate

INDEX

311

federalists, in Madison's admin
istration, 215-16; "old republi
canism," 216-17, 220, 257; in
fluence of acquisition of Louis
iana upon that party, 180-4; in
fluence of Warof 1812, 255-6;
change in the attitude of the party
toward national authority, 271-3.
Requisitions, failure of the system
of, 8-9.
Revenue bills must originate in the
House of Representatives, Senate
may .amend, 43.
Rhode Island, settled by Baptists,
5 ; not represented in constitu
tional convention, 21-2, 31 ; re
fuses to ratify constitution, 61-4; I
accedes, 73-4 ; legislature repudi
ates the nullification resolutions
of 1798-9, 153 ; presidential elec
tion of 1800, 163-4; representa
tion in Congress after second cen
sus, 174; election of 1804, 188;
represented in Hartford conven
tion, 244; election of 1812, 251 ;
representation in Congress after
third census, 251.
Riall, General, British commander
in Canada, 237.
Richmond, population in 1790, 64.
Rights, Bill of, absence from con
stitution as proposed to States,
53-4, 58 ; supplied by first ten
amendments, 74—7.
Rittenhouse, David, director of the
mint, 81.
Rodney, Csesar A., in Jefferson's
cabinet, 211 ; in Madison's cabi
net, 214, 263.
Rogers, Hon. Horatio, paper on the
relations of Rhode Island to the
constitutional convention, 22.
Ross, British general, burns Wash
ington : killed before Baltimore,
238.
Rush, Richard, in Madison's cabi
net, 263.
Rutledge, John, in constitutional
convention, 26, 34 ; associate
justice Supreme Court, 98 ; Sen
ate refuses to confirm him as
chief justice, 127.
Sackett's Hakbok, defence of, 237.
San Domingo, revolted blacks of,
trade prohibited with, 185-6.

Scott, Colonel, defeated by Miamis,
104.
Scott, General Winfield, in Canada,
237.
Search, right of, 191-2 ; British ex
ercise of, insolent and injurious,
192-3.
Secession, was it threatened by
New England, on account of em
bargo and War of 1812 ? 223-4 ;
1241-7 ; Josiah Quincy's speech
against admission of Louisiana,
257 ; the doctrine rendered pos
sible because the constitutional
convention dodged the question
of nationality, 268. [See N unifica
tion.]
Sedition law, the enactment, 149-50 ;
republican opposition to, 151-5,
166-7.
Senate, United States, 34, 42-3,
45-6, 48, 93 ; its longer term of
service makes its political charac
ter more constant, 114.
Settlement, area of, 264-5.
Shays's Rebellion, 16-18 ; partici
pants in, oppose constitution of
1787, 56.
Sherman, Roger, in constitutional
convention, 25 ; power of re
moval, 90.
Sinking fund, Hamilton's, 126;
Madison's, 256, 273.
Slavery and a Bill of Rights, 53.
Slavery, agitation against, 209-10.
Slaves, Fugitive. See Fugitive
slaves.
Slaves, should they be counted in
apportioning representatives in
Congress ? 32-3, 251 ; see propo
sal of Hartford convention, 245.
Slave trade, domestic : influence of
Louisiana purchase upon the de
mand for slave labor, 184.
Slave trade, foreign, not to be pro
hibited before 1808, 34-5, 44;
abolished, 208-9.
Small, Albion W., The Begin
nings of American Nationality,
268.
Smith, General, the " corrupt bar
gain " charge, 170.
Smith, Melancthon, opposes the
constitution, 60.
Smith, Robert, enters Jefferson's
cabinet, 187, 211 ; in Madison's

312

INDEX

cabinet, 214 ; resigns and appeals
to the country against the presi
dent, 219-20.
Smith, William L., opposes Jeffer-
bou's commercial report, 129.
South Carolina in constitutional
convention, 32, 35, 53 ; Tories,
55 ; ratifies constitution, 57 ; ton
nage dues, 84; small stills, 86;
federalists in, 96 ; its relations to
the presidential election of 1796
and 1800, 163-4 ; representation
in Congress after second census,
174; election of 1804, 188; elec
tion of 1812, 251 ; representation
in Congress after third census,
251.
Southern opposed to northern
States in constitutional conven
tion, 24, 26-7, 32-3, 34-5, 53,
96-7 ; sectional lines drawn in the
vote on the first National Bank,
83 ; in the vote on the War of
1812, 225; southern States sup
port tariff of 1816, 258-61.
Spain, dispute with, regarding Flor
ida and the navigation of the
Mississippi, 100 ; Pinckney's
treaty of, 1795, 122; federalist
designs upon Spanish- American
possessions, 141 ; her relations to
Florida and Louisiana, 177-8 ; an
gered by French cession of Louis
iana to the United States, 184-5 ;
difficulties with, in Jefferson's
term, 203-4.
Spoliation claims, French, 143.
Springfield, Mass., goods destined
for, taxed at Saybrook, 2 ; ar
senal attacked by Shays's insur
gents, 17.
St. Clair, General Arthur, defeated
by Indians, 104.
St. Louis, its acquisition by the
United States, 180.
Stamp duties in Adams's adminis
tration, 144-5 ; repealed under
Jefferson, 175 ; reimposed under
Madison, 255, 273.
State, Department of, organized
89 ; the secretary of state, after
first few terms, becomes "heir-
apparent."
State Revolutionary debts, assump
tion of , 80-1.
States, in national courts, 46-7.

States, indivisible except by their
own consent, 48.
States, new, how admitted, 48 ;
States admitted, 109, 126, 173-4,
181, n.\ proposal of Hartford con
vention regarding admission of
new States, 245.
States, nothing in their constitution
or laws to be allowed to impair
effect of the constitution of the
United States, or of any laws
passed in accordance therewith,
or any treaties made under the
authority of the United States,
49 ; State laws in conflict with
acts of the United States de
clared void — Gibbon vs. Ogden
206.
States, relations between, 47-S.
States' rights, in constitutional
convention, 29, 37-8 ; in the con
stitution, 49, 76-7 ; how to be
vindicated, nullification resolu
tions of 1798-9, 151-5 ; influence
of Louisiana purchase upon the
extreme States' rights doctrine,
180^t ; the Olmstead case, 352-3 ;
the movement of events deprives
this doctrine of much of its
pristine force, 271.
States under the Confederation,
7-14.
Steamboat, the, its invention, ef
fect on national development,
206.
Stoddert, Benjamin, secretary of
the navy, 148, 187.
Story, Judge, his commentaries, 30,
267.
Suffrage, United States, 41, 49-50.
Supreme Court of the United
States, 46-7; the common judge
between State and nation, 151-5 ;
its part in the making of the na
tion, 97, 167, 173, 270.
Talleyrand, French minister of
foreign affairs, 139.
Tariff, first, 84-5 ; war tariff, 255 ;
tariff of 1816, 261.
Taxation, lack of power in Confed
eration, 8-10; power conferred
by the constitution, 43; limita
tions on the tax power of the
United States, 34, 44, 145-6.
Tecumseh, Indian chief, 235.

INDEX

313

Tennessee, population in 1790, 64 ;
navigation of the Mississippi, 74 ;
admitted as a State, 126 ; pres
idential election of 1800, 164 ; rep
resentation in Congress after sec
ond census, 174 ; election of 1804,
188 ; election of 1812. 251 ; repre
sentation in Congress after third
census, 252.
Tenure of the soil in the United
States, popular, 66, 266.
Territory belonging to the United
States, Congress has power to
govern, 48.
Territory, constitutional signifi
cance of the term, 155-6.
Thames River, battle of, 235.
Tohopeka, battle of, 239
Tompkins, D. D. , nominated for
vice-presidency, 263 ; elected, 264.
Tonnage duties, 84.
Tories of the Revolution support
the constitution, 55.
Toronto, Can., burned by Amer
ican forces, 236, 238.
Treason against the United States,
definition and rules of evidence,
47, 147, 207-8.
Treasury Department organized,
89 ; secretary reports directly to
Congress, 145.
Treasury notes during War of
1812, 254-5.
Treaties, States forbidden to make,
44.
.Tripoli. See Barbary States.
Tucker, J. Randolph, his view of
the constitution, 267-8.
Tunis. See Barbary States.
Van Rensselaer, General, 235-6.
Vermont, population in 1790, 64 ;
admitted to the Union, 109 ; pres
idential election of 1800, 164,
170 ; representation in Congress
after second census, 174 ; election
of 1804, 188 ; one county repre
sented in Hartford convention,
244 ; election of 1812, 251 ; repre
sentation in Congress after third
census, 251.
Veto, the, 43.
Vice - president of the United
States, 42, 45-6 ; mode of election,
62, n., 133, 163-5, 168-9; candi
dates, how nominated, 132-3 ;

the vice-president succeeds to the
presidency during the first few
administrations, 211-12.
Virginia, its dispute with Mary-
laud, 3, 19 ; invites other States
to send delegates to commercial
convention at Annapolis, 19 ;
presents national plan of govern
ment, 31 ; representation of
slaves, 32 ; votes against Bill of
Rights, 33 ; her western lands,
39, n.; struggle over ratification,
58-60 ; small stills, 86 ; cedes dis
trict for seat of government, sub
sequent retrocession, 107-8 ; lar
gest State in 1790, 108; nullifi
cation resolutions, 151, 153, 252;
presidential election of 1800, 164 ;
representation in Congress after
second census, 174 ; election of
1804, 188; the "Virginia dy
nasty," 212, 246, 251 ; election of
1812, 251 ; representation in Con
gress after third census, 251.
War Department organized, 89.
War of 1812-15, declared, 224-5;
preceded by Hanson riot, 227-9 ;
its story briefly told, Chapter XH.
War, power to declare, confined to
general government, 43-5 ; pro
posal of Hartford convention
concerning, 246.
Washington, city of, 107-8, 156;
burned by British troops, 238.
Washington, George, in constitu
tional convention, 24, 27, 52 ;
chosen president, 62-3 ; his ad
ministration, Chapters V.-VII. ;
Washington decides in favor of
the constitutionality of the bank,
83 ; his relations to his cabinet, 90,
93 ; his communications with Con
gress, 93, n. ; his taste for cere
monial, 98-9 ; his patriotic policy
regarding foreign powers, 101 ;
selection of the seat of govern
ment, 107 ; his disposition to
sacrifice the navigation of the
Mississippi, 111-12 ; accepts a re-
nomination in 1792, 112-13 ; the
Genet episode, 115-8 ; the Brit
ish mission and Jay treaty,
120-1 ; puts down the Whiskey
Insurrection, 124-5 ; denounces
the democratic societies, 125-6 ;

314

INDEX

his first cabinet falls to pieces :
weakness of the new cabinet,
128-31 ; declines re-election in
1796, 132; his farewell address,
136; accepts lieuten ant-general -
cy, with reference to anticipated
war with France, 140 ; his death,
157; his aristocratic sentiments,
165.
Wayne, General Anthony, subdues
Miami confederation, 104-5.
Webster, Daniel, opposes tariff" of
1816, 261 ; his view of the consti
tution, 267.
West Point. See Military Acad
emy.
Western lands, cession of, 6-7.
Western posts held by British
after treaty of 1783, 12 ; their sur
render, 119-20.
Western Reserve, Ohio, 39, n.
Western States, their influence
thrown in favor of unreserving
nationality, 109-11, 270-1; not
favorable to sound finance, in the
early stages of settlement, 112 ;
fears entertained regarding future
States at the West, by the men
of the constitutional convention,
181.

Westward movement of population
one of the marvels of history,
264-6.
Whiskey tax, 85-7 ; rebellion
against, 123-5; repealed under
Jefferson, 175 ; re-enacted under
Madison, 255, 273.
Whitney, Eli, invention of the cot
ton-gin, 260.
Wilkinson, General, his relations to
Burr, 208 ; invasion of Canada,
236.
Wilson, James, in constitutional
convention, 25, 33, 34, 35, n. , 52.
Winchester, Colonel, defeated at
Frenchtown, 235.
Wolcott, Oliver, Jr., quoted, 96-7;
becomes secretary of the treasury,
130; retained by Adams, 137;
intrigues against the president,
158-60 ; resigns, 161.
aX., Y, and Z.," Messieurs, 139.
Yates, Robert, in constitutional
convention, 34; opposes consti
tution, 60.
Yellow fever epidemic, 126.
York, Canada. See Toronto.

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