ANGLOMEN AND JACOBINS
In January, 1795, Hamilton retired from the Treasury Department. The
moment was well chosen, for his great creative work was done and signs
were not wanting that the initiative in finance was about to pass to the
House of Representatives. As he passed out of office, a young
Representative from Pennsylvania made his appearance in Congress who was
scarcely his inferior in quick grasp of the intricacies of public
finance. Almost the first efforts of Albert Gallatin were directed to
the improvement of the methods of congressional finance. It was at his
suggestion that the first standing Committee of Ways and Means in the
House was appointed, in the expectation that it would assume a general
superintendence of finance. Believing that the Executive could be held
in check only by systematic, specific appropriations, Gallatin became an
insistent advocate of the rule, and in consequence a thorn in the flesh
of the departments. "The management of the Treasury," complained Wolcott
to Hamilton, "becomes more and more difficult. The legislature will not
pass laws in gross. Their appropriations are minute; Gallatin, to whom
they yield, is evidently intending to break down this department, by
charging it with an impracticable detail." "The heads of departments,"
Fisher Ames wrote despondently, two years after Hamilton left office,
"are chief clerks. Instead of being the ministry, the organs of the
executive power, and imparting a kind of momentum to the operation of
the laws, they are precluded even from communicating with the House by
reports." There was no room for a British ministry in the Republican
scheme of politics.
Meantime, Washington's foreign policy had widened the breach between the
political factions and had forced him into a partisan position. From the
Republican point of view, Jay's treaty threw the United States into the
arms of England and gave just cause of offense to France. Knowing the
popular temper, which was undoubtedly hostile to the treaty, the
Republican leaders endeavored to defeat the purposes of the
Administration by refusing to vote the necessary appropriations. Their
first demand was for the papers relating to the treaty, on the ground
that in matters upon which the action of the House was needed, that body
might properly call for information to guide its deliberations. The
President refused this demand, both because he deemed it imprudent to
make the papers public, and because he denied the right of the House to
participate in the treaty-making power.
The debate which followed is one of the most illuminating in the early
history of Congress. The trend of argument may be suggested by two
remarks of opposing partisans. Said Griswold for the Federalists, "The
House of Representatives have nothing to do with the treaty but provide
for its execution." Disclaiming that the House was bent upon impairing
the constitutional right of the President and Senate to make treaties,
Gallatin contended that the power claimed by the House was "only a
negative, a restraining power on those subjects over which Congress has
the right to legislate." In vigorous resolutions the House sustained
Gallatin's position; and the appropriation for the treaty was carried
only by the casting vote of the Speaker, on April 29, two months after
Washington by proclamation had declared the treaty to be the law of the
land.
The consequences of the _rapprochement_ between the United States and
Great Britain were far-reaching. The French Minister, Fauchet, urged his
Government to take immediate steps to acquire a continental colony which
would not only serve France and her West India colonies as a granary and
as a market for their exports, but which would also bring pressure to
bear upon the disaffected border communities of the United States. Such
a colony was Louisiana. With this province in her possession, a power
like France would speedily control the Mississippi and the Western
people who used that highway for their commerce. Throughout the year
1795, the French Government sought by persuasion and threats to secure
Louisiana from Spain as the price of an alliance.
How far the Administration was apprised of these designs is not clear;
but against the background of French intrigue certain passages of
Washington's Farewell Address take on a new significance. The West was
warned that it could control "the indispensable outlets for its own
productions" only by attaching itself firmly to "the Atlantic side of
the Union." "Any other tenure ... whether derived from its own separate
strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign
power, must be intrinsically precarious." And the admission of Tennessee
as a State in the year 1796 may have been hastened by an ill-defined
fear that the people of the West might not be proof against French
machinations.
The purpose of Washington not to accept a re-election was known to his
intimates early in the spring of 1796. Upon whom would his mantle fall?
There was much searching of hearts among Federalist leaders, but by the
end of the summer it was well understood that Federalist electors would
support John Adams and Thomas Pinckney for the Presidency and
Vice-Presidency. The most talented man in the party was unquestionably
Alexander Hamilton; but Hamilton had made too many enemies to be a
popular candidate. By common consent, Thomas Jefferson became the
candidate of the Republicans for President; with him was associated
Aaron Burr, of New York.
The most remarkable aspect of the campaign of 1796 was the undisguised
attempt of Adet, who had succeeded Fauchet, to turn the election in
Jefferson's favor. The treaty with England could not be undone; but
France had much to hope from a Republican administration. In a series of
letters directed to the Secretary of State, but printed in the
Philadelphia _Aurora_, Adet announced that the Directory regarded the
treaty of commerce concluded with Great Britain as "a violation of the
treaty made with France in 1778, and equivalent to a treaty of alliance
with Great Britain." "Justly offended," the Directory had ordered him to
"suspend his ministerial functions with the Federal Government." This
action, however, was not to be regarded as a rupture between the two
peoples, but only "as a mark of just discontent, which is to last until
the Government of the United States returns to sentiments and to
measures, more conformable to the interests of the alliance, and the
sworn friendship between the two nations."
Adet would have had the people believe that the alternatives were
Jefferson or war; and the threat of war, so it was said, was enough to
drive the peace-loving Quakers of Pennsylvania into the Republican
ranks. In more northerly States Adet's manifesto probably had the
opposite effect. "There is not one elector east of the Delaware River,"
declared the Connecticut _Courant_, "who would not sooner be shot than
vote for Thomas Jefferson." Not a Republican elector was chosen in the
States to the north and east of Pennsylvania. On the other hand, Adams
received only two electoral votes south of the Potomac. South Carolina
divided its vote between Jefferson and Pinckney. Only unexpected votes
in Virginia and North Carolina gave Adams the election, for Pennsylvania
was carried by the Republicans. Pinckney lost the Vice-Presidency
through the defection of Federalists in New England.
An incident of the election in Pennsylvania revealed the change already
wrought by parties in the Constitution. The framers of the Constitution
expected that a small number of persons selected by their fellow
citizens from the general mass would deliberately weigh "all the reasons
and inducements which were proper to govern their choice," and in their
mature wisdom choose the individual who met the requirements of the
office. It fell out otherwise. In Pennsylvania, one of the six States to
choose electors by popular vote, each party had put forward a ticket
with fifteen names. Thirteen of the fifteen Republican electors were
chosen. Of the two Federalist electors who were chosen, one broke faith
with his party and cast his vote for Jefferson and Pinckney. The
Federalists were exasperated by this treachery. "What!" expostulated a
writer in the _United States Gazette_: "Do I chuse Samuel Miles to
determine for me whether John Adams or Thomas Jefferson shall be
President? No! I chuse him to _act_, not to _think_."
While Adet was endeavoring to bring what the Federalists called the
French party into power, the Administration was urging the reluctant
Monroe at Paris to make the Jay Treaty as palatable as possible to the
French Government. This was an irksome task for that ardent Republican.
From the outset of his mission he found it difficult to sustain that
detachment from French politics which his position demanded. Moreover,
after having assured the French Government that Jay was negotiating at
London only for the redress of grievances and not for a commercial
treaty, Monroe found it peculiarly humiliating to be obliged to confess
that he had been kept in ignorance of the real trend of negotiations.
Under these circumstances, he temporized and gave only half-hearted
attention to the task of placating the Directory. Hamilton now advised
his recall; and Washington, who had on two occasions expressed his
displeasure with Monroe's conduct, determined to send Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney in his stead.
Trivial as this incident seems, it was not without its effect upon the
course of diplomacy abroad and of politics at home. When Monroe
endeavored to put his successor into touch with the French Foreign
Office, he was told that the Directory was not prepared to receive
another American representative until their grievances had been
redressed. This affront left Pinckney in an embarrassing position, for
until his credentials were accepted, he was liable, like all foreigners
at that time, to arrest as a spy. It was not until February, after many
months of waiting, that he was given his passport. He at once crossed
the border and took up his residence at Amsterdam.
Meantime, Monroe had taken his departure with the warmest expressions of
regard on the part of the French Government. He was assured that his
worth and his efforts in behalf of his country's interests were
understood and appreciated. He returned to the United States with the
firm conviction, which his Republican friends shared, that he had been
made the victim of Federalist chicanery. In the following year he
published an elaborate defense which served admirably as a popular
campaign document in the next presidential elections.
It fell to John Adams on the very threshold of his administration to
deal with what he euphemistically called the misunderstanding with
France. His inaugural address announced unmistakably his intention to
preserve neutrality between the belligerents of Europe, and to treat
France with impartiality but with a sincere desire for her friendship.
Between the lines may be read also an equally sincere desire to placate
the opposition and to free himself from all imputation of a bias toward
Great Britain and a monarchical system. From the first news of
Pinckney's dismissal, President Adams was disposed "to institute a fresh
attempt at negotiation": he even approached Jefferson to see if he would
not persuade Madison to serve on a special commission, believing that
Madison's well-known Gallic sympathies would commend him to the French
nation. At the same time he declared stoutly in a message to Congress,
in special session on May 15, that France had treated the United States
"neither as allies nor as friends nor as a sovereign state." Attempts
which had been made to create a rupture between the people of the United
States and their Government "ought to be repelled with a decision which
shall convince France and the world that we are not a degraded people
humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear and sense of inferiority."
While he therefore recommended measures of defense, he asked the Senate
to confirm the appointment of three commissioners whom he proposed to
send to France. Two of these, Pinckney and John Marshall, were
Federalists, but the third was Elbridge Gerry, a Massachusetts
Republican, who was the second choice of the President, Dana having
declined to serve.
While Congress was acting upon the President's recommendations and
voting appropriations for fortifications and for the completion of the
three frigates which were then on the stocks, disquieting disclosures
came from the West. Spain having declared war upon England in the
previous fall, British emissaries, it was rumored, were concerting plans
for the conquest of New Orleans and West Florida. While expeditions made
up of Western frontiersmen and Indians descended upon the Spanish
strongholds in the Southwest, a British fleet was to blockade the mouth
of the Mississippi. The evidence which President Adams laid before
Congress in July implicated Senator Blount, of Tennessee. In common with
other land speculators, he had become alarmed at the rumor that France
was about to acquire Louisiana, and had agreed to use his influence
among the whites and Indians of the Southwest, where he had formerly
been governor, to assist the designs of Great Britain. He was expelled
from the Senate and impeached. Before his trial could take place, he was
elected a member of the legislature of Tennessee, and from that point of
vantage he successfully defied the federal authorities.
The episode had unfortunate consequences: it aroused the distrust of the
Spanish Government and delayed the surrender of Natchez and other posts
which Spain had agreed to cede in the Treaty of 1795; and it furnished
Talleyrand, who had become Minister of Foreign Affairs under the
Directory, with an additional argument for the cession of Louisiana to
France. France in control of Louisiana and Florida would be "a wall of
brass forever impenetrable to the combined efforts of England and
America."
Early in March, 1797, dispatches arrived from the envoys which were full
of sinister disclosures. On the 19th, President Adams announced gloomily
that he perceived "no ground of expectation" that the objects of the
mission could be accomplished "on terms compatible with the safety,
honor, or the essential interests of the nation." He renewed his
recommendations of measures of defense "proportioned to the danger." The
average Republican regarded this message as tantamount to a declaration
of war. Jefferson spoke of it as "an insane message." The partisan press
held it to be further proof of British bias in John Adams, the old
aristocrat! But when the President sent to Congress the deciphered
dispatches, and the newspapers had printed extracts from them, a wave of
indignation swept over the country. For the moment the wildest partisan
of France was silenced.
The envoys told a sordid tale of French intrigue and greed. It appeared
that they had never been received officially when they made known their
presence on French soil, but had been approached by agents of
Talleyrand, whom they referred to in the dispatches as Mr. X, Mr. Y, and
Mr. Z. They were much mystified by the language used by these gentlemen,
until the evening of October 18, when Mr. X called on General Pinckney
and whispered that he had a message from Talleyrand. "General Pinckney
said he should be glad to hear it. Mr. X replied that the Directory, and
particularly two of the members of it, were exceedingly irritated at
some passages of the President's speech, and desired that they should be
softened; and that this step would be necessary previous to our
reception. That, besides this, a sum of money was required for the
pocket of the Directory and Ministers, which would be at the disposal of
M. Talleyrand; and that a loan would also be insisted on. Mr. X said if
we acceded to these measures, M. Talleyrand had no doubt that all our
differences with France might be accommodated. On inquiry, Mr. X could
not point out the particular passages of the speech that had given
offense, nor the quantum of the loan, but mentioned that the _douceur_
for the pocket was twelve hundred thousand livres, about fifty thousand
pounds sterling."
Unwilling to believe their ears, the astonished envoys asked to have
these proposals put in writing. Mr. X not only complied with this
request, but brought with him Mr. Y, a confidential friend of
Talleyrand, who repeated the terms upon which the envoys would be
received, and pointed out convenient means by which the money could be
secretly transferred.
The American commissioners responded that while they had ample powers to
make a treaty, they had none to make a loan. They offered, however, to
send one of their number to America for further instructions, provided
that the Directory would check the further capture of American vessels.
Nevertheless, the efforts of X and Y to secure the _douceur_ were not
relaxed. Finally, finding the envoys either obstinate or obtuse, Mr. X
exclaimed, "Gentlemen, you do not speak to the point. It is money; it is
expected that you will offer money." The Americans were inexorable.
"What is your answer?" asked X impatiently. "It is," said the envoys,
"no, no; not a sixpence."
On November 1, the commissioners agreed to hold no more indirect
intercourse with the Government, but to prepare a statement of the
American grievances against France and to send it to Talleyrand. Two
weary months passed before they received his answer. Couched in language
which was both contemptuous and insulting, this reply of Talleyrand
terminated the mission. The Directory intimated that in future they
would treat only with Gerry as "the more impartial" member of the
commission. Pinckney and Marshall remonstrated against this
discrimination, but Gerry unwisely consented to deal with Talleyrand
alone. Marshall secured a passport with some difficulty and departed for
home. Pinckney with more difficulty secured permission to retire to
southern France with his invalid daughter.
The war spirit now ran high. President Adams declared that he would
never send another minister to France without assurances that he would
be "received, respected, and honored as the representative of a great,
free, powerful, and independent nation," and the people supported this
declaration with surprising unanimity. Demonstrations occurred in all
the playhouses of Philadelphia and New York; young men formed
associations and donned the black cockade as an emblem of patriotic
devotion; even in the quiet towns of New England, women met to drink tea
and to sing the new song "Adams and Liberty." Cities along the coast
vied with one another in their eagerness to build warships. The
patriotic fervor found expression in original song and verse. "Hail
Columbia" was the happy inspiration of young Joseph Hopkinson, of
Philadelphia. For once in his life President John Adams found himself a
popular hero riding on the crest of public applause.
To the intense disgust of Jefferson, even Republicans caught the war
fever, and joined with the Federalists in putting the country on a war
footing. Among the earliest measures of Congress was an act providing
for the establishment of a Navy Department. In rapid succession followed
acts authorizing the President to permit merchantmen to arm in their own
defense and our warships to seize French vessels which preyed upon our
commerce. On July 7, the existing treaties with France were repealed. In
short, without a formal declaration, the United States was virtually at
war with France. The new navy soon put to sea and gratified national
pride by several gallant victories, the most notable being the capture
of the frigate L'Insurgente by the newly commissioned Constellation, on
February 9, 1799. When peace was restored in 1800, the navy had a record
of eighty-four prizes, most of which were French privateers.
The organization of the provisional army did not move so rapidly, partly
because of the incompetence of the Secretary of War, and partly because
of an unseemly wrangle for precedence among the three major-generals
whom Adams had named. Conscious of his own inexperience in military
affairs, President Adams had persuaded Washington to take chief command
of the army with the distinct understanding that he would not be called
into active service unless an emergency arose. Washington named
Hamilton, C. C. Pinckney, and Knox as major-generals, and the President
sent the nominations to the Senate in this order. Misunderstandings
arose at once as to the relative rank of these three major-generals.
Hamilton and his intimates in the circle of the President's advisers
urged that as his name was first on the list he was the ranking officer.
At this Knox took umbrage, for he had outranked Hamilton in the old
army; and so, too, had Pinckney. Knowing the intrigue in Hamilton's
behalf and not a little alarmed at the prospect of having the direction
of the war pass into the hands of a man whom he regarded as a rival,
Adams determined to sign the commissions in the reverse order, thus
giving Knox precedence. The friends of Hamilton were enraged at this
turn of affairs and prevailed upon Washington to write a letter of
protest to the President. Adams was finally persuaded to date all three
commissions alike and to leave the designation of rank to the
commander-in-chief. Washington promptly named Hamilton as
inspector-general with precedence over Pinckney and Knox; whereupon Knox
refused to serve.
The immediate outcome of this controversy was to widen the rift which
was already separating the President from the faction led by Hamilton.
Adams had taken office in the belief that Washington's cabinet advisers
were loyal to him. "Pickering and all his colleagues are as much
attached to me as I desire," he had written just before his
inauguration. But he speedily found that all were accustomed to look to
Hamilton as the virtual leader of the Federalist party. Moreover, he
found himself thrust into the background in the matter of military
appointments, as soon as Hamilton took over the actual work of
organizing the army. The Constitution made him commander-in-chief;
circumstances seemed to conspire, he complained bitterly, "to annihilate
the essential powers given to the President." He had, too, all the
natural aversion of a civilian for military affairs. "Regiments are
costly articles everywhere," he told McHenry testily, "and more so in
this country than in any other under the sun. And if this country sees a
great army to maintain, without an enemy to fight, there may arise an
enthusiasm that seems to be little foreseen."
It would have been strange, indeed, if under these circumstances the
President had not scanned the horizon anxiously for the faintest
intimations of peace. In October, 1798, definite assurances were given
by Talleyrand, through our Minister at The Hague, that France would
receive a new minister from the United States. On February 18, 1799, the
President confounded both friends and foes by sending to the Senate the
nomination of Vans Murray to be Minister to France. The emotions of the
militant Federalists were too various to admit of description. It would
have been madness, however, not to accept the proffered olive branch.
Swallowing their wrath, they agreed to the mission, but substituted a
commission of three for a single minister.
From Napoleon, the new master of France, the commissioners secured a
convention which not only restored peace, but safeguarded the rights of
neutrals, by restraining the right of search and conceding the principle
that free ships make free goods. Napoleon consented also to the
abrogation of the treaties of 1778, but only upon condition that the new
treaty should contain no provision for the settlement of claims for
indemnity. John Adams was not far from the truth when he accounted this
peace one of the most meritorious actions of his life. "I desire no
other inscription over my gravestone," he wrote fifteen years later,
"than: 'Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility
of the peace with France in the year 1800.'"
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
On the origin and growth of political parties in the United
States, the following books are suggestive and informing: H. J.
Ford, _The Rise and Growth of American Politics_ (1898); C. E.
Merriam, _A History of American Political Theories_ (1910); J. P.
Gordy, _Political History of the United States_ (2 vols.,
1900-03); A. E. Morse, _The Federalist Party in Massachusetts to
the Year 1800_ (1909); J. D. Hammond, _History of the Political
Parties in the State of New York, 1789-1840_ (2 vols., 1850). To
those histories already mentioned which describe the quarrel with
France may be added G. W. Allen, _Our Naval War with France_
(1909), and A. T. Mahan, _Influence of Sea Power on the French
Revolution and Empire_ (2 vols., 1898). A most readable account of
manners and customs in America is given by La
Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, _Travels through the United States,
1795-1797_ (2 vols., 1799). Social life in New York and
Philadelphia is described by R. W. Griswold, _The Republican
Court_ (1864).