JEFFERSONIANISM.
There is not a man of intelligence in America or Europe, who has not
heard of the Democratic party in America, that great political
organization which has been in existence almost, if not quite, one
hundred years. Many who claim allegiance to this great party know little
of its tenets, and still fewer know its history. There are orators on
the stump, in the halls of Congress, writers for the press, all
advocating "the glorious principles of Democracy," who have never
thoroughly acquainted themselves with its history. The Democratic party
of to-day was originally known as the Republican party. The warm
discussions on the national constitution engendered party spirit in the
new republic, which speedily assumed definite forms and titles, first as
Federalist and anti-Federalist, which names were changed to Federalist
and Republican, or Democrat.
The Federalist party, headed by Alexander Hamilton, favored much
concentration of power in a national government, but perhaps not more
than we have to-day, and, in fact, not more than is really essential to
the upbuilding of a stable republic like ours. There can be no question
but that Washington held to the same views; but Washington was the only
great man America ever produced who rose so far above political parties
as to absorb them all. He has never been classed as belonging to either
party. The Republican or Democratic party favored State sovereignty and
the diffusion of power among the people.
The American people had had such bitter experiences with monarchs that
they dreaded anything which savored of monarchy, and it was argued that
a centralized government was but a step in that direction. On the other
hand, Federalists pointed out the danger of State sovereignty, which
would surely in the end disrupt the general government. Subsequent
history has proven that the Federalists were right. We have said that
Washington was a Federalist at heart. His enemies, meanly jealous of his
popularity, often declared that he was a monarchist.
Meanwhile, a revolution, violent in its nature and far-reaching in its
consequences, had broken out in France.
It was the immediate consequences of the teachings of the American
revolution. The people of France had long endured almost irresponsible
despotism, and were yearning for freedom when the French officers and
soldiers, who had served in America during the latter years of our
struggles for independence, returned to their country full of republican
ideas and aspirations. They questioned the right of the few to oppress
the many, and the public heart was soon stirred by new ideas, and in a
movement that followed, Lafayette was conspicuous for a while. The king,
like many tyrants, was weak and vacillating, and soon a body called the
states-general assumed the reins of government, while the king was in
fact a prisoner. The terrible Bastile, whose history represented royal
despotism, was assailed by the citizens of Paris and pulled down. The
privileges of the nobility and clergy were abolished, and the church
property was seized. The king's brothers and many of the nobles fled in
affright across the frontier, and tried to induce other sovereigns to
take up the cause of royalty in France and restore the former order of
things. The emperor of Austria (brother of the French queen) and the
king of Prussia entered into a treaty to that effect, at Pilnitz,
in 1791.
When this treaty became known, war at once followed. Robespierre and
other self-constituted leaders in Paris held sway for a while, and the
most frightful massacres of nobles and priests ensued. The weak and
unfortunate king, who had accepted constitution after constitution, was
now deposed and a republic was established. Affairs had assumed the
nature of anarchy and blood, and Lafayette and other moderate men
disappeared from the arena. The king was tried on charge of inviting
foreigners to invade France, was found guilty and was beheaded in
January, 1793. His queen soon shared a like fate. The English troops
sent to Flanders were called to fight the French, for the rulers of
France had declared war against Great Britain, Spain and Holland
in February.
Thomas Jefferson who entered Washington's cabinet in 1789, had just
returned from France, where he had witnessed the uprising of the people
against their oppressors. Regarding the movement as kindred to the late
uprising of his own countrymen against Great Britain, it enlisted his
warmest sympathies, and he expected to find the bosoms of the people of
the United States glowing with feelings like his own. He was sadly
disappointed. Washington was wisely conservative. His wisdom saw that
the cruelty of the anarchists of Paris was not patriotism, but the worst
sort of despotism. The society of New York, in which some of the leaven
of Toryism yet lingered, chilled Jefferson. He became suspicious of all
around him, for he regarded the indifference of the people to the
struggles of the French, their old allies, as an evil omen. Though the
Tories of New York were cool toward the French republic from far
different motives than Washington, yet the same cause was attributed
to both.
Jefferson had scarcely taken his seat as Secretary of State in
Washington's first cabinet before he declared that some of his
colleagues held decidedly monarchical views; and the belief became fixed
in his mind that there was a party in the United States continually at
work, secretly and sometimes openly, for the overthrow of American
republicanism. The idea became a monomania with Jefferson from which he
never recovered till his death, more than thirty years afterward.
Jefferson soon rallied under his standard a large party of sympathizers
with the French revolutionists. Regarding Hamilton as the head and front
of the monarchical party, he professed to believe that the financial
plans of that statesman were designed to enslave the people, and that
the rights and liberties of the States and of individuals were in
danger. On the other hand, Hamilton regarded the national constitution
as inadequate in strength to perform its required functions and believed
its weakness to be its greatest defect. With this idea Jefferson took
issue. He charged his political opponents, and especially Hamilton, with
corrupt and anti-republican designs, selfish motives and treacherous
intentions, and so was inaugurated that system of personal abuse and
vituperation, which has ever been a disgrace to the press and political
leaders of this country. Bitter partisan quarrels now prevailed, in
which Jefferson and Hamilton were the chief actors. The populace was
greatly excited. The Republicans who hated the British intensely, called
the Federalists the "British party," and the Federalists called their
opponents the "French party." The Jeffersonians hailed with joy the news
of the death of the French king, and applauded the declaration of war
against England and Holland, forgetting the friendship which the latter
had shown for Americans during the struggle for independence.
Amid all this uproar which proceeded from his cabinet, only Washington
remained calm. No other American at that day nor since could have
remained neutral and guided the ship of state through such breakers of
discontent. He was the safe middle water between the dangerous reefs of
concentration and State sovereignty.
Had not the Federal party been the victim of many unfortunate
circumstances, it would certainly in time have become popular in the
nation. It was beyond question Washington's party, and, notwithstanding
the false charges of monarchism and British sovereignty, it was
patriotic. Had it existed forty or fifty years longer, until that
incubus which haunted Jefferson's brain had passed away, and the
republic become so firmly established that people would no longer fear
British dependency, the Federal party would have been a firmly fixed
institution. Had Federal ideas been fully inculcated instead of
Jeffersonianism and Calhounism, the rebellion of 1861 would not have
occurred; but Aaron Burr murdered Hamilton, the friend of Washington,
the bright genius of American politics and the hope of the Federal
party, and the Federalists were left without any great leader. When the
war of 1812 came, the Federalists were so embittered against the
Democrats, then in power, that they became lukewarm and threw so many
obstacles in the way of the patriots who were making the second fight
for freedom, as to almost confirm the suspicion that they were the
friends of Great Britain rather than America. This forever blighted the
Federal party.
In the year 1800, Thomas Jefferson was elected the third president of
the United States, and the first of Democratic proclivities.
Although the city of Washington, the great American capital, had been
laid out on a magnificent scale, in 1791, and George Washington, with
masonic ceremonies, laid the corner-stone of the capitol building in
1793, the seat of government was not removed there until the year 1800.
The site for the city was a dreary one. At the time when the seat of
government was first moved there, only a path, leading through an alder
swamp on the line of the present Pennsylvania Avenue, was the way of
communication between the president's house and the capitol. For a
while, the executive and legislative officers of the government were
compelled to suffer many privations. In the fall of 1800, Oliver
Wolcott wrote:
"There is one good tavern about forty rods from the capitol, and several
houses are built or erecting; but I don't see how the members of
congress can possibly secure lodgings, unless they will consent to live
like scholars in a college or monks in a monastery, crowded ten or
twenty in one house. The only resource for such as wish to live
comfortably will be found in Georgetown, three miles distant, over as
bad a road in winter as the clay grounds near Hartford.
"... There are, in fact, but few houses in any one place, and most of
them are small, miserable huts, which present an awful contrast to the
public buildings. The people are poor and, as far as I can judge, live
like fishes by eating each other. ... You may look in any direction over
an extent of ground nearly as large as the city of New York, without
seeing a fence or any object except brick kilns and temporary huts for
laborers. ... There is no industry, society or business."
On March 4, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated and commenced his
first term under favorable auspices. He was then fifty-eight years of
age--a tall, bony man, with grizzled sandy hair and rather slovenly
dress--a man who practised his Democratic simplicity in all things, and
sometimes carried it to extremes. A senator, writing of him in
1802, said:
"The next day after my arrival I visited the president, accompanied by
some democratic members. In a few moments after our arrival a tall,
high-boned man came into the room. He was dressed, or rather undressed,
in an old brown coat, red waistcoat, old corduroy smallclothes, much
soiled, woollen hose, and slippers without heels. I thought him a
servant, when General Varnum surprised me by announcing it was the
president."
In brief, Mr. Jefferson outlined his policy as follows, in a letter to
Nathaniel Macon:
"1. Levees are done made away with. 2. The first communication to the
next congress will be, like all subsequent ones, by message to which no
answer will be expected. 3. The diplomatic establishment in Europe will
be reduced to three ministers. 4. The compensation of collectors
depends on you (Congress) and not on me. 5. The army is undergoing a
chaste reformation. 6. The navy will be reduced to the legal
establishment by the last of the month (May, 1801). 7. Agencies in every
department will be revised. 8. We shall push you to the uttermost in
economizing. 9. A very early recommendation has been given to the
postmaster-general to employ no printer, foreigner or Revolutionary Tory
in any of his offices."
James Madison was Mr. Jefferson's secretary of state; Henry Dearborn was
secretary of war, and Levi Lincoln, attorney-general. Jefferson retained
Mr. Adams's secretaries of the treasury and navy, until the following
Autumn, when Albert Gallatin, a naturalized foreigner, was appointed to
the first named office and Robert Smith to the second. The president
early resolved to reward his political friends when he came to "revise"
the agencies in every department. Three days after his inauguration, he
wrote to Colonel Monroe, "I have firmly refused to follow the counsels
of those who have desired the giving of offices to some of the
Federalist leaders in order to reconcile. I have given, and will give,
only to Republicans, under existing circumstances."
The doctrine, ever since acted upon, that "to the victor belong the
spoils," was then practically promulgated from the fountain-head of
government patronage; and with a cabinet wholly Democratic, when
congress met in December, 1801, and with the minor offices filled with
his political friends, Mr. Jefferson began his presidential career of
eight years' duration. In his inaugural address he said, "Every
difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called
by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all
Federalists--we are all Republicans."
Vigor and enlightened views marked his course, so that even his
political enemies were compelled to confess his foresight and sound
judgment in regard to the national policy.
The administration of Jefferson was not marked with perfect peace
abroad. Napoleon Bonaparte, the outgrowth of the French revolution, had
overthrown monarchy in France and conquered almost all Europe. He was
not a Washington, however, and the French people were only exchanging
one tyrant for another.
The Algerians, those barbarous North African pirates, had been forcing
the Americans to pay tribute. Captain Bainbridge, who commanded the
frigate _George Washington_, for refusing to convey an Algerian
ambassador to the court of the sultan at Constantinople, was threatened
by the haughty governor with imprisonment.
"You pay me tribute, by which you become my slave, and therefore I have
a right to order you as I think proper," said the dey.
Bainbridge was forced to obey the orders of the Barbarian.
[Illustration: Stephen Decatur.]
The Americans resolved to humble the Algerians, and a fleet was sent to
Tripoli in 1803. The frigate _Philadelphia_, while reconnoitering the
harbor, struck on a rock and was captured by the Tripolitans, who made
her officers prisoners of war and her crew slaves.
Lieutenant Decatur, on February 3, 1804, by a stratagem, got alongside
the _Philadelphia_ with seventy-four brave young sailors like himself
and carried the ship by the board after a terrible hand-to-hand
conflict. The Tripolitans were defeated, and the _Philadelphia_ was
burned. The American seamen continued to bombard Tripoli and blockaded
their ports, until the terrified Bashaw made a treaty of peace.
While the Americans were winning laurels on the Mediterranean, the
infant republic was growing in political and moral strength. During Mr.
Jefferson's first term, one State (Ohio) and two Territories (Indiana
and Illinois) had been formed out of the great Northwestern Territory.
Ohio was organized as an independent territory in the year 1800, and in
the fall of 1802, it was admitted into the Union as a State. Long before
the Northwestern Territory had been divided into different territories,
the present limits of Ohio and Kentucky had already become quite
populous. Emigrants like Albert Stevens were pushing out on the frontier
and building up a great commonwealth.
About 1802, there was great excitement in the country west of the
Alleghany Mountains, in consequence of a violation of the treaty made
with Spain in 1795, by the governor of Louisiana in closing the port of
New Orleans against American commerce. There was a proposition before
congress for taking forcible possession of that region, when it was
ascertained that, by a secret treaty, Spain had retroceded Louisiana to
France. The United States immediately began negotiations for the
purchase of that domain from France. Robert R. Livingston, the American
minister at the court of the First Consul, found very little difficulty
in making a bargain with Bonaparte, for the latter wanted money and
desired to injure England. He sold that magnificent domain, stretching
from the Gulf of Mexico northward to the present State of Minnesota, and
from the Mississippi westward to the Pacific Ocean, for fifteen million
dollars. The bargain was made in the spring of 1803, and in the fall the
country, and the new domain, which added nine hundred thousand square
miles to our territory, was taken possession of by the United States.
When the bargain was closed, Bonaparte said:
"This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of the United
States, and I have just given to England a maritime rival that will
sooner or later humble her pride."
It was the prevailing opinion in the country, that the Spanish
inhabitants, who were forming states in the great valley, would not
submit to the rule of American government. Aaron Burr, a wily and
unscrupulous politician, who, having murdered the noble Hamilton in a
duel, was an outcast from society, began scheming for setting up a
separate government in the West. Burr was unscrupulous and dishonest and
at the same time shrewd. The full extent of his plans were really never
known, and the historian is in doubt whether he intended a severance of
the Union, or an invasion of Mexico. Herman Blennerhassett, an excellent
Irish gentleman, became his ally and suffered ruin with Burr. Burr was
arrested and tried, but was found not guilty. His speech in his own
defence was so eloquent, that it is said to have melted his enemies to
tears, though all believed him guilty. Burr's life was a wreck after
that. His fame was blasted, and he was placed beside Benedict Arnold as
a traitor to his country.
With the acquisition of Louisiana, there grew up a powerful opposition
to Jefferson in the North and East. The idea was disseminated that the
purchase was only a scheme to strengthen the south and the southern
democracy. Mr. Jefferson came almost to having a wholesome dose of his
doctrine of State sovereignty exemplified. A convention of Federalists
was called at Boston, in 1804, in which a proposition of secession was
made. Fortunately, however, there was too much patriotism in the body
for the proposition to carry, and the government was saved.