The Federal Party in Power under the New Constitution--Agency of
Individuals in the Formation and Ratification of the
latter--Prospects of the Opening Administration of the
Government--Unwise Course of the Federal Party--President
Washington--His Peculiar Relations with the People and with
Parties--His first Cabinet--Character of the Differences between
Jefferson and Hamilton--The latter sustained--Hamilton's Position,
Power, and Influence upon the subsequent Course of Parties--His
Monarchical Views--Various Authorities in Relation to the
latter--Fidelity of Washington to the Republican Form of
Government--Importance of correctly Understanding the Extent of
Hamilton's Influence during the Administrations of Washington and
John Adams--Personal and Official Relations between Washington and
Members of his Cabinet--Evidences of the Spread of Monarchical
Views among Officers and Public Men in Washington's Time--His
Steadfast Adherence to the last to the Republican Form--His
Permanent Hold upon the Affections of the People, even while they
repudiated certain Leading Principles of his Administration.
The period in our political history to which our inquiry has conducted
us, was one of the greatest interest. The successful effort that had
been made to compel Great Britain to acknowledge our Independence; the
government of the Confederation, and the causes that led to its
abandonment; the grave step taken in a better direction by the formation
and ratification of the new Constitution, with the hopes and fears
excited by the last great movement, were well calculated to impress
profoundly the minds of those who had been actors in such important
scenes. The success of the Federal party in the first election held
under the new Constitution was complete. For the first time since its
organization, that party possessed the unrestricted control of the
national legislature. If any thing could have been thought wanting to
insure its permanent success, that was believed to be secured by the
consent of General Washington to be the first President of the new
government about to be organized under a constitution, to the paternity
of which they had established so fair a claim. Neither the formation nor
the ratification of that instrument were altogether the work of avowed
members of that party; but as between the two parties they had clearly
the best title to be regarded as its authors. The merits of individuals
in that great work were various. Alexander Hamilton, the able and
undisputed leader of the Federal party, from its origin to his death,
did comparatively nothing either toward its formation or adoption by the
Federal Convention. His most useful services were rendered in the New
York State Convention, by which it was ratified, and in his
contributions to the numbers of "The Federalist." These were formally
declared as the measure of his services in that regard, in reply to a
direct inquiry long after Hamilton's death, by his best informed and
always devoted friend, Gouverneur Morris, as will be seen hereafter. It
was, beyond all doubt, from Madison that the Constitution derived its
greatest aid in respect as well to its construction as to its passage
through the Convention, and its ratification by the States.
The character and political career of James Madison were _sui
generis_--as much so as though far different from those of John
Randolph. Possessed of intellectual powers inferior to none, and taking
an unsurpassed interest in the course of public affairs, he seemed
invariably to bring to the discussion of public questions a thoroughly
unprejudiced mind. Whilst in the speeches of his contemporaries we
seldom fail to perceive that the argument submitted was framed to
support a foregone conclusion,--to recommend a measure for which the
speaker cherished a personal preference,--it is rare indeed, if ever,
that any such indications are to be found in those of Mr. Madison.
Whilst the former present themselves as advocates, the latter appears in
the attitude of an umpire between rival opinions, who has made it his
business to search for the truth, and is determined to abide the result
of his investigations, uninfluenced in the formation of his decision by
preferences or prejudices of any description. The most acute observer in
reviewing the writings, speeches, and votes of Mr. Madison during the
exciting periods of which we are speaking, when governments as well as
individuals were to an unusual extent in a state of transition, would
find it difficult to place his finger upon any of them in respect to
which the justice of this description would not be manifest.
Mr. John Quincy Adams, in his Jubilee Address, heretofore alluded to,
describes Mr. Madison and General Hamilton as being, at this period,
"spurred to the rowels by ambition."[9] Both of these gentlemen were,
doubtless, ambitious of the fame which is acquired by serving one's
country honestly and efficiently, and we have no sufficient reason for
assuming that Mr. Adams meant more than that. It is, nevertheless, but
justice to those truly great men to add that so far as high-reaching
ambition is indicated by abjuring unpopular opinions and assuming those
which are believed to be otherwise; by professing attachment to
principles not really cherished for their own sake, or by personal
intrigues of any description to acquire or increase popular favor, I
sincerely believe that there were no two men of their day less liable to
the imputation. Mr. Madison's course at the period of which we are
speaking and during his antecedent public life, was, to a remarkable
extent, divested of a partisan character. He supported, ably and
perseveringly, many, if not most of the propositions for the adoption of
which the Federal party was particularly solicitous, whilst representing
one of the most decided Anti-Federal States in the Confederacy, without
losing the confidence of his constituents, or even hazarding its loss.
He was, throughout, in favor of giving to the federal head an
independent right to levy and collect its necessary revenue and to
regulate commerce, and was from the beginning in favor of a convention
to revise the Constitution. In that body he was one of the majority in
favor of the course I have described, and which resulted in the present
Constitution. His successful and brilliant efforts in favor of the new
system of government placed him at the head of its friends; but there
was no time when Mr. Madison can, with truth and fairness, be said to
have belonged to the Federal party; he all the time represented a State
which took the lead in opposition to that school, his political
affinities and associations were in general adverse to that
organization, and, as I have said, he never forfeited the good opinion
of his State. She seems always to have confided in his sincerity and in
the integrity of his motives, and to have been willing to allow him to
follow the dictates of his own judgment in regard to particular
measures.
[9] Mr. Van Buren, in making the above quotation from the Jubilee
Address, doubtless relied upon his memory. "Both spurred to the
rowels by rival and antagonist ambition," are the words used by Mr.
Adams; but they, in fact, refer distinctly to _Jefferson_ and
Hamilton, though Mr. Madison's name is incidentally coupled with
that of the latter in the same sentence. Eds.
The most auspicious prospects beamed upon the opening administration of
the new government, and it is fair to presume that the anticipations
thus inspired would have been triumphantly realized if those who had
been selected to conduct it, and their successors for the ensuing
twelve years, had accepted the Constitution in the sense in which it
was known to have been understood by those who framed it, and by the
people when they adopted it. A course thus right in itself, and thus
acquiescent in the popular will by men, some of whom had been long
suspected by many of their Revolutionary associates of not holding that
will in very high respect, would not have failed to conciliate large
portions of the Anti-Federal party. Their dread of the exercise of
unauthorized power by a general government, of which the responsibility
was, in their estimation, too remote to be safely trusted, and their
apprehensions for the safety of State institutions, always an object of
their greatest solicitude, might have been allayed, if not substantially
subdued. These valuable objects accomplished, the great improvements in
the condition as well of public as of individual affairs, unavoidably
flowing from the reasonably harmonious action of a government which the
Federal party had done so much to establish, and the crowning fact that
these gratifying results were brought about in the name, and with the
active coöperation of Washington, the object of universal respect and
affection, would have secured to that party through the long lapse of
time that has since intervened, at least as large a share in the control
of the government as has been possessed by a party which became its
successful rival, but which can scarcely be said to have then existed.
But the Federal party rashly turned its back upon the only course by
which these advantages might have been secured, and in doing so, showed
itself regardless of considerations which would not have escaped the
attention of more discreet, if not wiser bodies. Its influential and
leading men forgot that the administration did not, in point of fact,
represent the political opinions in respect to the proper uses and
spirit of governments in general of a majority of the people; that
their party had acquired power solely by its wise course in regard to a
single, though doubtless most important measure; and that even in
respect to that large portions of the people felt, as expressed by John
Quincy Adams, "that the Constitution itself had been extorted from the
grinding necessity of a reluctant nation." The Federal party took its
course also in momentary forgetfulness of the characters of those whose
opinions it was about to violate, whose feelings were to be offended,
and whose resentments it must incur. It overlooked what it had the
fullest reason to know, that those whom it was about to drive into
opposition were men, and the descendants of men, who had from the
beginning, and at all times, and under all circumstances, been
enthusiasts in devotion to liberty, and stern and uncompromising in
demanding stringent restrictions upon delegated authority,--as
inflexible in their opinions, and as incapable of being driven from
their support by the hand of power, or seduced by corruption, as human
nature could be made in the schools of fiery trial in which they had
been trained. The Federalists in power, or rather he who, through the
great confidence of his chief, wielded that power, did nothing, if we
except the personal efforts of Washington in favor of conciliation,
absolutely nothing to soothe the feelings of their defeated opponents,
or to allay their apprehensions, but much to exacerbate the former and
to confirm the latter.
The justice of these allegations is fully proved by the acts of the
public men of that day. From the official position of the first
President, and the part he consequently took in the management of public
affairs, a faithful survey of these cannot be made without embracing him
in the review. This is treading upon privileged ground. No American, no
good man, can approach it without feeling that it is such, or without
being embarrassed by the apprehension that, however pure his intention,
he may undesignedly outrage the sentiments of admiration and reverence
by which it is naturally and properly intrenched. General Washington
retired gracefully from his military command, with more true glory than
ever fell to the lot of man. There have, doubtless, at times, appeared
military leaders of more professional genius and science, but never one
better adapted to the high duties to which he was called; never one of
whom it could with more truth be said, to use a modern and comprehensive
expression, that he was "the right man in the right place." Certainly
without his seeking it, and doubtless against his wishes, he was
transferred to the civil service of his country by his election to the
office of President under the new Constitution. The administration, of
which he thus became the constitutional head, adopted certain measures,
proposed others, and set up claims to power under that instrument, of
which many of his countrymen and personal friends could not approve, and
which they felt themselves obliged to oppose; these, in the progress of
time and events, became organized as a political party by which those
objectionable measures and claims of power were perseveringly resisted,
but without any diminution of respect for his character, position, and
feelings. They overthrew the administration of his successor, which
claimed to act upon his principles, succeeded to the control of the
Federal Government, and have kept it ever since, with rare and limited
exceptions, attributable to special causes.
There is, notwithstanding, in this great country, no hamlet, town, city,
or place in which American citizens congregate, where the name of
Washington is ever pronounced without the profoundest reverence, or in
which there does not prevail an undying sense of gratitude for his
public services. The history of the world will be searched in vain for
a tribute of love and gratitude at all comparable to that which the
people of the United States have rendered to him who was the commander
of their armies in the war of the Revolution, and their first republican
chief magistrate--a tribute, in paying which the only contest between
political parties is as to which shall manifest the most zeal, and which
shall attain the highest success.
Was ever before so great and so gratifying reward bestowed, including in
its wide extent the noble, exalted, and well-won title of _Pater
Patriæ_! This, the highest honor that man can receive on earth, was not,
as of old, a title given to an adored chief by victorious soldiers who,
however renowned for their valor, were always open to the influence of
personal and temporary feelings; nor was it obtained through the
instrumentality of a venal senate; neither did it originate in
state-craft or priest-craft, which have in every age paid homage to the
great men of the world for selfish and sinister purposes. The high
honors paid to Washington proceeded from no such sources, nor were they
exposed to the suspicions from which such bestowments are rarely free.
They sprang from the disinterested and deliberate judgment of an
intelligent, virtuous, and free people, who felt that he had, in his
military capacity alone, done incomparably more than any other man for
the establishment of their Independence, and that in all his civil
service he had been actuated by the same upright motives which had
governed his whole previous career, and that in that sphere also, as in
every act of his life, he had placed the performance of public duties
and the advancement of public interests before all other earthly
considerations. Although many of them had differed from him in respect
to some measures which had received his sanction, they were not on that
account the less satisfied that he had, in the exercise of a rightful
discretion, been influenced only by an earnest desire to promote the
welfare of his country. So regarding his whole career, they with one
accord gave him the highest place on the roll of fame and the first in
their hearts.
This spontaneous and ample recognition of a debt of imperishable
gratitude to a public benefactor, whose modesty was equal to his
unsurpassed merit, was the act of a people often misrepresented, and as
often misunderstood, but who have never been found wanting, in the end,
in what was due to faithful public servants, to themselves, or to their
political institutions.
We are, perhaps, yet too near the period of these great transactions to
pronounce safely upon the general justice of their dealings with the
contemporaries of Washington. But when time shall have relieved the
subject more thoroughly from the adverse influences of family
connections and partisan feelings, I have not a doubt that some American
historian, loving his country and admiring the character of his
countrymen, will take pleasure in holding up to the world a picture of
the distribution of popular confidence and popular favors in their case
also, which may safely be compared with that drawn from the history of
any people.
Unbelievers may gainsay, and disappointed aspirants may rail at these
deductions, but they nevertheless do no more than justice to the
character of our people, before whom every public question and the acts
and opinions of every public man, be he whom he may, may be freely
canvassed. All that can be asked of him who seeks to vindicate and
perpetuate the truth of history, is that he shall deal justly and
candidly with his subject. From a scrutiny so conducted, no citizen will
ask or expect that any public transaction, or the course of any public
man shall be exempted.
No man could have accepted office with fewer temptations to depart from
the line of duty than offered themselves to President Washington. His
claims to the admiration of his countrymen and of the world were
complete; reasonable in all his desires and happy in his domestic
relations, he was possessed of property beyond either his wants or his
desires, and was without children to inherit his estate or to succeed to
the glories already attached to his name. The advantages to be derived
by a republican magistrate from the consciousness of occupying such a
position and of its being also appreciated by his constituents, are very
great. The confidence inspired by these considerations was also
strengthened by the fact that in the high and responsible stations in
which he had been placed he had never failed to increase the good-will
and respect of those by whom he had been appointed. But these
circumstances of encouragement did not blind his cautious mind to a
proper sense of the difficulties incident to the new duties he had
assumed and to his want of experience in regard to them. In addition to
the command of all the military force in the country in a more plenary
form than that in which he had before possessed it, he was now intrusted
with the superintendence and direction of large portions of the domestic
and of all the foreign concerns of a great people just taking their
position in the family of nations. First on the list of his responsible
duties stood that of organizing a government constructed upon new and to
a great extent untried principles, at a moment when the tendency of the
French Revolution had been sufficiently developed to threaten political
convulsions more portentous and more difficult to be dealt with than any
that the world had ever witnessed; and he was called to the performance
of this delicate task amidst party dissensions at home of the most
violent nature, which many people apprehended might extend to a
revolution in the character of the government itself. Firm in all his
purposes Washington did not shrink from the application of his
well-balanced mind to a survey of the difficulties that stood in his
way, in making which no exaggerated estimate of his own capacities
prevented him from foreseeing the embarrassments that might arise, and
to some extent must arise, from the difference in the nature of many of
the duties he was now called upon to discharge from those with which his
past public life had made him familiar; and I have always thought that,
among the great transactions of his career, there was scarcely one in
which were exhibited more strikingly the strength of his judgment and
the nobleness of his disposition, than in the formation of his first
Cabinet.
It is difficult for one not particularly conversant with such matters to
realize the obstructions which not unfrequently present themselves in
the work of forming a good cabinet. These are sometimes the consequence
of an overestimate of his own qualifications on the part of the chief
magistrate elect, and a resulting disinclination to bring into the
government men whose prominence before the country and whose great
accomplishments as statesmen may depress his own importance in the
action of the administration. This feeling, when it exists in only a
moderate degree, is certain to be encouraged by the flatteries of
friends, or more often by selfish men for the purpose of promoting their
designs upon the patronage at the disposal of the incumbent. Against the
dangerous influences of these classes President Washington was
effectually guarded by elements in his own character decidedly
unpropitious to both. But he was not so free from embarrassments arising
from another source. He was at the commencement of his government
surrounded by his fellow-soldiers, the officers of the army of the
Revolution,--veterans who had acquired high consideration by their
meritorious services, and were endeared to him by their personal
characters and their past and present sufferings. They were generally
men whose judgments he could not but respect, and who, like their class
in all countries, were not disposed to consider the aid of civilians in
the administration of public affairs as imperatively necessary. The
actual state of the country also, in regard to its party divisions and
dissensions, was, as I have already said, perhaps the greatest source of
perplexity and trouble.
Not discouraged by these difficulties, he proceeded to the formation of
his cabinet in a spirit of patriotism and good sense, manifesting an
anxious desire to allay, if he could not neutralize, the violence of
party spirit, and to enlist in the administration of the new government
and secure to the public service those of highest character and talents
who belonged to, or were disposed to sympathize with, the party which
had opposed the Constitution. With these noble views, he divided his
cabinet equally between gentlemen of that school and members of the
Federal party, and equally also between civilians and military men. For
the two most responsible, as well as most difficult offices, to which
were assigned duties least familiar to himself, he selected two
gentlemen, who from their active patriotism and distinguished talents
occupied high, if not the highest positions in the country, had already
been placed at the head of the rival and conflicting opinions which
divided it, and of whose personal uprightness and political independence
he was well assured.
Down to the period which we have now reached, President Washington had,
to a remarkable extent, kept himself aloof from partisan strife. This
was partly owing to his great self-command and to his perception of the
incompatibility of a participation in that field of action with the
positions he occupied in the public service; and possibly, to some
extent, to anticipations, not unnatural, that the future held in store
for him a fame which would soar above parties. He had seen and known too
much of men to allow himself to hope that the cabinet he had selected
would be entirely free from disunion, or from those distractions likely
to arise from the conflicting materials of which it was composed; but he
did not at first appreciate fully the extent and bearing of the
differences that existed between the opinions and public views of
Jefferson and Hamilton. Hoping that these would be confined to
particular points in the administration of affairs, he doubtless relied
upon his personal influence to soothe the asperities they might produce,
and at least to limit their adverse effect to the measures to which they
might be from time to time applied. His confidence in this regard was
well warranted by his past good fortune in removing obstacles that
threatened injury to the country, by means of the general respect that
was paid to his opinions and wishes by all classes of his countrymen.
His success in allaying the spirit of insubordination that manifested
itself among the officers of the army at Newburgh and for a season
menaced seriously the character of the army and the peace of the
country; in arresting a design which was supposed to be on foot in
Congress, to make the sufferings and consequent indignation of the
troops subservient to the promotion of the financial schemes of
civilians; and in dispersing the storm which threatened to follow the
establishment of the Cincinnati, with its hereditary honors, strikingly
justified his confidence in the efficacy of any future efforts in the
same direction.
More could not have been done, or in a better spirit, than Washington
did to preserve harmony between the two leading members of his cabinet,
and to secure their coöperation in the public service. No steps,
consistent with a proper self-respect, as it now appears, were omitted
on his part. If the differences in their views had been less radical
these friendly efforts and applications must have succeeded, received as
they were by both in the most becoming and grateful spirit.
But these commendable exertions were doomed to an unavoidable and final
disappointment. The President might as well have attempted to combine
the elements of fire and water as to secure a harmonious action in the
administration of the Government between Jefferson and Hamilton. The
antagonistic opinions of these great men upon the subjects of government
and its proper administration were too profoundly planted in their
breasts, and they were both too honest to depart from them without a
corresponding change in their convictions, which there was no reason to
anticipate, to admit of a hope for a different result.
Of the nature and extent of their differences of opinion it is my
purpose to attempt some explanation in another place; but here I will
only say, as I desire to say in advance, that I do not now believe,
whatever my impression may have been, that they originated in any
difference as to the objects at which they aimed, or that those objects,
in either case, were other than the welfare and happiness of those for
whom they were selected to act. They may have differed in opinion in
respect to the condition, social and political, in which the mass of the
people would be most likely to be prosperous and happy; they certainly
did so, and that very widely, in regard to the public measures by which
that prosperity and happiness would be promoted or diminished; and that
diversity in their opinions arose mainly from their conflicting
estimates of the capacity of the people for self-government. Upon that
point they were opposed diametrically, and that opposition produced an
unavoidable antagonism in their views of almost every public question.
In a conversation between these gentlemen in 1791, to which a more
particular reference will be made hereafter, General Hamilton thus
expressed himself:--"For that mind must be really depraved which would
not prefer the equality of political rights, which is the foundation of
pure republicanism, if it can be obtained consistently with order." This
was, I do not in the least doubt, his real sentiment; but unhappily
circumstances, to which we may hereafter recur, had impressed his mind
with a conviction, which was never removed, that the great desideratum
which he mentioned--the preservation of order--could not be secured
where the control of public affairs was largely in the hands of the
people. He very correctly regarded the security of the rights of persons
and of property as an indispensable ingredient in good government; and
distrusting the respect of the people, when acting in masses, for both,
he was adverse to that equality of rights which he truly said was "the
foundation of pure republicanism." These great objects he thought could
in no other way be secured than by a strong government, in which there
would be what he called a "stable will," independent of popular control.
This he endeavored openly, and with a candor that belonged to his
character, to obtain in the Convention, and failing there, he hoped to
realize its advantages, in some degree, by strengthening what he
described as the "organs" of the Government, through the action of a
popular President and a good administration. The most important of the
measures by which he designed to accomplish these objects Mr. Jefferson
regarded as so many violations of the Constitution, and he looked upon
the spirit in which they had their origin as evidence of disaffection
to republican government, the differences in opinion between these
master spirits of the cabinet, who engrossed a share of the attention of
the people inferior only to that paid to the President, were therefore,
not limited as Washington hoped they would be, to particular measures
but presented contradictory and irreconcilable theories for the
administration of the Government, which could not even be discussed in
the cabinet without producing interminable distractions. As was to be
expected from minds like their respective systems left no middle ground,
and required the adoption of the one or the other as a rule of action
for the Government. The unavoidable obligation to make a selection
between them devolved therefore on Washington, and he discharged it, as
he did all his duties, courteously and firmly. He gave the preference to
Hamilton, and sustained him in the measures he proposed to carry out the
policy he recommended.
Mr. Jefferson, sensible that the necessity of his retirement from the
cabinet had thus become absolute, determined to take that step in a way
as little annoying to the President and as little injurious to the
public service as possible. To this end he gave early notice that he
would resign at the expiration of the President's first term of office;
and when that time arrived he retired. This left General Hamilton
without any check from his associates in the administration, save what
might proceed from the Attorney General, Edmund Randolph, who became
Secretary of State on Jefferson's retirement, and of whom the latter
said that his habit was to give his opinions to his friends and his
votes to his opponents.
Thus, next to Washington, Alexander Hamilton became the most powerful
man in the nation, abundantly able to give to party divisions their form
and pressure, and in effect to shape the action of the Government
according to his judgment by the authority with which he was invested,
and which he exerted with less restraint than had ever before or has
ever since been encountered by any minister in this country or in
Europe.
To no quarter, therefore, could our attention be more profitably
directed for instruction in the history and course of parties during his
political career than to the opinions and acts of that remarkable man.
The time has been, I am sensible, when, with vision distorted by
partisan prejudices, which seldom allow both sides of any question to be
seen, I could not have reviewed his course with the impartiality due to
truth and justice; but I am happy to believe that those feelings have
sufficiently lost their force to permit me, while dissenting more
thoroughly than ever from his principles, to do justice to his motives,
and to admit his sincerity and his desire to serve his country in the
very acts which I unreservedly condemn. The most obnoxious of his
opinions have here, thank God, become obsolete and exploded theories,
not at all dangerous as examples, and mainly referred to as historical
marks of our progress. Believing, as I think all liberal minds now do,
that they were honestly formed, we can speak of them without reproach to
their author, and censure them without being suspected of a design to
cast obloquy on his memory. The history of our partisan warfare has
presented, since his time, the anomalous feature of a persevering denial
in his name, by some of his followers, of the political opinions which
he not only did not affect to disclaim, but which he made it his
business on all fitting occasions to publish and advocate, believing
them to be right, and to the last moment of his life confidently
expecting that they would become, at no distant day, the general
sentiment of the country.
I have already referred to contemporaneous declarations, made in April,
1791, by John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, at an informal meeting of
General Washington's Cabinet, to which the Vice-President had been
invited, in favor of monarchical institutions according to the English
model. The terms in which those gentlemen expressed their admiration of,
and preference for, the English system of government, though differing
in particulars, were in no sense equivocal, nor can there be, at this
day, the slightest doubt of their authenticity. On the 13th of August,
in the same year, General Hamilton held another conversation with Mr.
Jefferson, of which the latter leaves the following notes:--
"I own," said Hamilton, "it is my own opinion, though I do not publish
it in Dan or Beersheba, that the present government is not that which
will answer the ends of society by giving stability and protection to
its rights, and that it will probably be found to be expedient to go
into the British form. However, since we have undertaken the experiment,
I am for giving it a fair course, whatever my expectations may be. The
success, indeed, is so far greater than I had expected, and therefore
success seems more possible than it had done heretofore, and there are
still other and other stages of improvement which, if the present does
not succeed, may be tried and ought to be tried before we give up the
republican form altogether; for that mind must be really depraved which
would not prefer the equality of political rights, which is the
foundation of pure republicanism, if it can be obtained consistently
with order. Therefore whoever by his writings disturbs the present order
of things is really blamable, however pure his intentions may be, and he
was sure Mr. Adams's were pure."
"This," Mr. Jefferson adds in his memorandum, "is the substance of a
declaration made in much more lengthy terms, and which seemed to be more
formal than usual for a private conversation between two, and as if
intended to qualify some less guarded expressions which had been dropped
on former occasions. Thomas Jefferson has committed it to writing the
moment of Alexander Hamilton's leaving the room."
The measures described by Hamilton as the stages of improvement already
adopted were doubtless the bank and funding system, and those still in
reserve were such as are recommended in his report on manufactures,
subsequently made.
In the Federal Convention which framed our present Constitution General
Hamilton submitted a series of propositions to be adopted as a basis for
the new government, which he supported in an elaborate and very able
speech. The debates of the Convention were reported by Mr. Madison, who
submitted the notes he had taken of his speech to General Hamilton,
which the latter admitted to be correct, contenting himself with a few
formal and verbal amendments. In the year 1810, before the proceedings
of the Convention were ordered to be published, the Rev. Dr. Mason,
intending to write the life of Hamilton, applied to Mr. Madison, then
President of the United States, for a copy of that speech, which was
furnished to him accompanied by the following note:--
"James Madison presents his respects to Dr. Mason with the promised
copy of Mr. Hamilton's observations in the General Convention on the
subject of a Federal Constitution, as noted at the time."
"WASHINGTON, _January 12th, 1810_."
Dr. Mason abandoned the idea of preparing the life, and a descendant of
his, a few years since, placed in my hands two of the documents
collected by his grandfather, one of which was the above note with a
copy of the speech. The following are extracts from the latter:--
"This view of the subject almost led him to despair that a republican
government could be established over a country of so great an extent. He
was sensible at the same time that it would be unwise to propose one of
any other form. In his private opinion he had no scruple in declaring,
supported as he was in the opinion of so many of the wise and the good,
that the British government was the best in the world; and he doubted
very much whether any thing short of it would do in America."
Speaking of the executive, he said: "As to the executive it seemed to be
admitted that no good one could be established on republican principles.
Was not this giving up the merits of the question, for can there be a
good government without a good executive? The English model was the only
good one on this subject. The hereditary interest of the king was so
interwoven with those of the nation, and his personal emolument so
great, that he was placed above the danger of being corrupted from
abroad," &c. Also, "their House of Lords is a most noble institution.
Having nothing to hope for by a change and a sufficient interest by
means of their property in being faithful to the national interest, they
form a permanent barrier against any pernicious innovation, whether
attempted on the part of the Crown or of the Commons."
On comparing these extracts with the speech, as published in the
"Madison Papers," I find them to accord in all respects. In the life of
Hamilton, by his son, the author indulges in harsh imputation upon the
conduct of Mr. Madison, in this connection, in the justice of which I am
deceived in the general sentiment of the country if he finds many to
agree with him; and through a fatality which often attends similar
demonstrations, he publishes in the same volume Hamilton's plan of
government, the original draft of which Dr. Mason informed Mr. Madison
was yet among the General's papers, and which is, word for word, the
same as the copy published in the "Madison Papers;" and also Hamilton's
own notes for his great speech in the Convention, which indicate the
character of the speech upon the point in question as fully as notes
ever prefigured a speech, and both of which confirm all that Mr. Madison
has said in regard to it.
The following are extracts from the notes:--
"Here I shall give my sentiments of the best form of government--not as
a thing attainable by us, but as a model which we ought to approach as
near as possible." "British Constitution best form." "There ought to be
a principle in the government capable of resisting the popular current."
"No periodical duration will come up to this." "The principle chiefly
intended to be established is this, that there must be a permanent
_will_." "A democratic assembly is to be checked by a democratic senate,
and both these by a democratic chief magistrate: the end will not be
answered; the means will not be equal to the object." "The monarch must
have proportional strength. He ought to be hereditary, and to have so
much power that it will not be his interest to risk much to acquire
more." "The advantage of a monarch is this, he is above corruption,--he
must always intend in respect to foreign nations the true interests and
glory of the people." "Republics liable to foreign corruption and
intrigue. Holland--Athens." "Effect of the British government." "A
vigorous execution of the laws, and a vigorous defense of the people
will result." "Better chance for a good government." "It is said a
republican government will not admit of a vigorous execution." "It is
therefore bad; for the goodness of a government consists in a vigorous
execution."
It thus appears that the opinions avowed to Mr. Jefferson on different
occasions, one of which seems to have been sought for the purpose, were
no more than repetitions of those he had avowed on the floor of the
Convention, and of which he knew that Mr. Madison possessed an authentic
record that would some day see the light; indeed, if such had not been
the fact he would have just as frankly repeated them, for they were the
settled convictions of his mind during his life--as fresh when they were
announced to Mr. Jefferson as when promulgated in the Convention. Nor
had he any motives for concealment of his views, if concealment had
been, as it was not, characteristic of the man, for he was equally
convinced that the government which had been established would prove a
failure, and that the wisdom of his plans and the propriety of adopting
them would thus become apparent to all.
We have here the words of General Hamilton himself--in his declarations
deliberately made and attested in the most solemn and responsible form
by Thomas Jefferson, and in his speech as reported by James Madison,
under still more specific responsibility, confirmed by his own notes for
that speech now published by his son and biographer--all going to the
same end, viz: to show that he was in principle a monarchist, and that
he preferred a monarchical to a republican form of government.
But Jefferson and Madison were politically his opponents. Let us now see
what his oldest and best friend says upon this point. Gouverneur Morris,
his coadjutor in the Convention and in politics through life, and his
eulogist at the grave, gave in 1811 an unreserved _exposé_ of Hamilton's
opinions on this very question, in a letter to Robert Walsh, then
editor of the "National Gazette," written, doubtless, in answer to
inquiries. The reader should procure this letter, and will find in it
much matter of interest. I omit, among other things, what it says in
respect to Hamilton's purity, and his frank and honorable character and
bearing in political matters, having said as much myself, and with no
less sincerity.
"General Hamilton," says Morris, "had little share in forming the
Constitution. He disliked it, believing all republican government to be
radically defective. He admired, nevertheless, the British Constitution,
which I consider an aristocracy in fact though a monarchy in name....
General Hamilton hated republican government because he confounded it
with democratical government, and he detested the latter because he
believed it must end in despotism, and be, in the mean time, destructive
to public morality.... But although General Hamilton knew these things
from the study of history, and perceived them by the intuition of
genius, he never failed on every occasion to advocate the excellence of,
and avow his attachment to monarchical government."
In another part of the letter, "one marked trait in the General's
character was the pertinacious adherence to opinions he had once
formed."[10]
[10] Sparks's _Life of Gouverneur Morris_, Vol. III. p. 260.
In a previous letter, written shortly after Hamilton's death, (December,
1804,) to Governor Aaron Ogden, Morris says: "Our poor friend Hamilton
bestrode his hobby to the great annoyance of his friends and not without
injury to himself. More a theoretic than a practical man, he was not
sufficiently convinced that a system may be good in itself and bad in
relation to particular circumstances. He well knew that his favorite
form was inadmissible unless as the result of civil war; and I suspect
that his belief in what he called _an approaching crisis_[11] arose from
a conviction that the kind of government most suitable, in his, opinion,
to this extensive country, could be established in no other way."
[11] The _italics_ are mine.
Hamilton not only cherished his preference for monarchical institutions
to the very close of his life, but we have good reason to believe that
the expectation that some crisis in the affairs of the country,
encouraged by the weakness of our political system, would yet arise and
would lead to their introduction, was equally abiding. His letters and
writings will be found to contain many intimations to that effect. I
will notice two instances. His letter to Timothy Pickering in 1803, is
the only attempt that I have ever seen, coming from himself, to explain
his course in the Convention. There may have been others, but I would be
surprised indeed by the production of any thing from his pen denying his
preference for the monarchical form of government, although such was the
standing charge of his political opponents. None such, I feel very
confident, ever existed. That letter concludes with the following very
significant remark:--
"I sincerely hope that it may not hereafter be discovered that, through
want of sufficient attention to the last idea," (that of giving adequate
energy to the Government,) "the experiment of Republican Government,
even in this country, has not been as complete, as satisfactory, and as
decisive as could be wished."
The explanation of "his conduct, motives, and views" in accepting the
challenge of Colonel Burr--probably the last paper containing any
allusion to public affairs that he ever wrote--closes with expressions,
italicized by myself, remarkably in harmony with the intimations of
Gouverneur Morris to Aaron Ogden:--
"To those who, with me, abhorring the practice of dueling, may think
that I ought on no account to add to the number of bad examples, I
answer that my relative situation, as well in public as private,
enforcing all the considerations which men of the world designate honor,
imposed on me, as I thought, a peculiar necessity not to decline the
call. The ability to be in future useful, whether in resisting mischief
or effecting good, _in those crises of our public affairs which seem
likely to happen, would probably be inseparable from a conformity with
prejudice in this particular_."
Although not so pointed in expressing it, his disposition toward the
State governments was scarcely more favorable than toward the plan of
the general government. In his letter to Pickering, at a period when
their usefulness and importance to the system were better appreciated,
he says: "Though I would have enlarged the legislative power of the
General Government, yet I never contemplated the abolition of the State
governments, but, on the contrary, they were in some particulars a
part,--constituent parts,--of my plan." But let us see what part it was
that he would have them perform. He said in the Convention: "If they
(the State governments) are extinguished, he was persuaded that great
economy might be obtained by substituting a general government. He did
not mean, however, to shock the public opinion by proposing such a
measure. _On the other hand, he saw no other necessity for declining
it._ They are not necessary for any of the great purposes of commerce,
revenue, or agriculture. Subordinate authorities, he was aware, would be
necessary. There must be district tribunals, corporations for local
purposes. But _cui bono_ the vast and expensive apparatus now
appertaining to the States?"
These were Hamilton's views in respect to the State governments, as
expressed in the Convention, according to Mr. Madison's report. In this
case it is also fortunate for the cause of truth that, from a paper
written by Hamilton just as the General Convention adjourned, and
published by his son, it appears very plainly that his views upon the
subject cannot have been greatly misreported by Mr. Madison. In this
paper he speculates upon the probable fate of the Constitution; after
saying, in confirmation of my suggestion that he doubted the
dispositions of the people in other respects than their intelligence and
capacity, that the Constitution would have in its favor "the good will
of men of property in the several States who wish a government of the
Union able to protect them against domestic violence, and the
_depredations which the democratic spirit is apt to make on property_,"
he adds: "If the Government be adopted, it is probable General
Washington will be the President of the United States. This will insure
a wise choice of men to administer the Government, and a good
administration. A good administration will conciliate the confidence and
affection of the people, and perhaps enable the Government to acquire
more consistency than the proposed Constitution seems to promise for so
great a country. _It may then triumph over the State governments and
reduce them to entire subordination, dividing the larger States into
smaller districts._ The organs of the General Government may also
acquire additional strength." The _italics_ in the above extracts are
all my own except as to the word _organs_. He would not "shock the
public opinion" by proposing to extinguish the State governments, but
there was _no other_ reason for omitting to do so. It would be well if
it were done, but it was not wise to shock the public mind upon a point
in respect to which it was known to be sensitive. But he would reduce
them to entire subordination, triumph over and consequently humiliate
them. It would be a poor compliment to Hamilton's knowledge of men and
of the effect of public measures, to assume that he did not know that
such would be the surest as well as the safest way to extinguish them in
the end.
In a letter to Gouverneur Morris, so late as in 1802, a little more than
two years before his death, and which will be found in "The Works of
Hamilton," edited by his son, (Vol. VI. p. 529,) he thus unbosoms
himself to his friend: "Mine is an odd destiny. Perhaps no man in the
United States has sacrificed or done more for the present Constitution
than myself; and contrary to all my anticipations of its fate, as you
know from the very beginning, I am still laboring to prop the frail and
worthless fabric. Yet I have the murmurs of its friends no less than the
curses of its foes for my reward. What can I do better than withdraw
from the scene? Every day proves to me more and more that this American
world was not made for me."
There would seem to be no force in evidence, however appropriate its
source or credible its character, if that we have produced is not
conclusive in regard to the opinions of General Hamilton upon certain
points. It proves, _first_, that he regarded monarchical institutions,
according to the English model, as being the most perfect government
that ever existed; _secondly_, that he would have preferred the
establishment of such a government here, and was only prevented from
advocating it by a conviction that it was made impracticable by the
adverse public opinion of the time; _thirdly_, that he thought it was
our duty, nevertheless, to approach that model with our Government as
nearly as the prejudices of the people would permit, and that he
introduced into the Convention a plan by which that object might be
reached; _fourthly_, that he regarded the present Federal Constitution,
which, as lately as two years before his death, in a free communication
to his trusted friend, he called "a frail and worthless fabric," as
inadequate to the purposes of a good government; that he had accepted it
at the time as a temporary bond of union, but believed from the
beginning that it would prove a failure and fall into contempt; that he
believed that this result would open the way to popular tumults forcing
intervention, and to convulsions through the evils of which the people
would, at no distant day, become convinced of their error, and consent
to institutions substantially similar to those he favored; and,
_fifthly_, that his preference for monarchical institutions was a fixed
and cherished sentiment; that although at times encouraged by his
success in measures he had no right to hope for under the Constitution
as he knew that instrument was intended to be, he yet invariably
returned to his first opinion adverse to the sufficiency of the
Constitution, and descended to the grave not only without a change in
his opinions, but with increased convictions of their perfect soundness.
It has been a question often mooted whether the idea of using the power
with which he was or might be clothed to overthrow the actual
government, and to introduce the system he so earnestly preferred, was
ever seriously entertained by Hamilton. Such designs were freely charged
upon him by many of the old Republicans, who, under the full influence
of partisan prejudices, doubtless believed that he waited only for a fit
opportunity to attempt them. His repeated and undisguised expressions of
a preference for monarchical institutions, to friends and foes, when the
people of the United States, whose officer he was, had established a
government which they intended should be so widely different from such
institutions, were well calculated to engender the suspicion. Plain men
naturally imagined that a man like Hamilton would do much and incur
high responsibilities for the accomplishment of an object so near his
heart. Mr. Jefferson, who was not a man of a suspicious temperament,
through the fiery and protracted contests of parties, at the head of
which they respectively stood, was evidently at times alarmed by
similar apprehensions. But toward the close of his life, when
partisan asperities had been long since forgotten, in a letter
to myself he virtually exonerated Hamilton from the charge in these
expressions:--"For Hamilton frankly avowed that he considered the
British Constitution, with all the corruptions of its administration, as
the most perfect model of government that had ever been devised by the
wit of man,--professing, however, at the same time, that the spirit of
this country was so fundamentally republican that it would be visionary
to think of introducing monarchy here, and that therefore it was the
duty of its administrators to conduct it upon the principles their
constituents had elected."[12]
[12] See Appendix.
Mr. Charles Francis Adams has placed before us, in his life of his
grandfather, John Adams, a series of facts bearing upon this point with
no ordinary significance. They are not brought forward in support of any
such charge, but as raising a question for the consideration of his
readers, whether it is not possible that in the pains he took to
increase greatly the provisional forces authorized to meet our
difficulties with France, and to convert the whole into a permanent
military establishment; in the readiness with which he fell in with the
scheme of Miranda, to conquer, through the joint operations of Great
Britain and the United States, the Floridas, Louisiana, and the South
American possessions of Spain, in case of a rupture between us and
France; and in his prompt consent to take command of the troops to be
so employed, General Hamilton was influenced by a desire to bring about
the crisis to which he had always looked as one that would present a fit
opportunity for the establishment here of the political institutions he
preferred.
These are grave matters, and of a nature calculated to challenge a new
and stricter examination of one of those critical periods which have
often occurred in our history, and from which we have had so many
providential deliverances. The subject is treated with becoming delicacy
and great caution by the author, whose conclusion, of which we have only
a hint, may possibly have been influenced by family traditions,
tinctured unavoidably with strong personal prejudices but never wanting
in intelligence. I will not undertake to speculate even as to what
General Hamilton might have done or have left undone if he had found
himself at the head of a large and permanent military force, and the
country convulsed by those popular outbreaks, the expectation of which
seems to have been never absent from his mind or from the minds of his
disciples. He might have mounted his "hobby"--as Morris termed his
passion for monarchical institutions--and have struck a blow in their
behalf, acting in the spirit of other "strong minds" who, as Mr. C. F.
Adams well and truly says, "seldom fail to associate with dreams of
their own glory the modes of exercising power for the good of their
fellow-men. Considering their happiness as mainly dependent upon a sense
of security from domestic convulsions, his first aim would have been to
gain that end at any rate, even if it should be done at some expense of
their liberties." But looking at the subject with no other feeling than
a sincere desire to arrive at a correct solution of the circumstances
narrated by Mr. Adams, I cannot bring my mind to the conclusion referred
to.
I can well conceive that Hamilton might have been led to avail himself
of such a state of things for a _coup de main_ of some decided character
if its existence had been brought about by others, or had been the
result of fortuitous circumstances--a contingency which his mind had
doubtless often contemplated. But I do not think that he would have
planned or contributed to bring about such a state of things involving
to so grave an extent the public order and the peace of the country.
Such a course would have been at variance with some of his most
cherished principles and inconsistent with his personal character. The
preservation of order, and a respect for the individual rights of
persons and of property, appeared always to be the objects of his
greatest solicitude. It was only because he did not think that these
could be effectually secured under any other form of government that he
preferred monarchical institutions, acknowledging at the same time that
they were at war with the principles of natural justice, and only
allowable upon that of their absolute necessity to secure society
against the occasional waywardness of a majority of its members. It was
mainly because of the very erroneous opinions he had formed of the
dispositions in this respect of a majority of his adopted countrymen
that he was induced to devote his splendid talents to hopeless efforts
to sustain principles so irreconcilable with those for which he had
periled his life in the war of the Revolution. I say erroneous, not only
because I think them such, but because experience, the only unerring
test, has so proved them. We are, at the moment when I write, a half
century from the transactions which form the subject of our
consideration, and I venture nothing in saying that there is no country
in Europe in which order has, in the interim, been better preserved, or
the rights of persons and property been more secure, than in the United
States; none in which the power of government has been more stable or
more adequate to the purposes of its institution.
But this is a wide field, for which I have neither space nor time. It
becomes me to remember, whilst occupied not without pleasure with these
retrospective investigations and meditations, that I have already passed
by several cheerful years, the allotted threescore-and-ten,--that period
of such solemn import which the undeserved favor of an always kind
Providence has permitted me to pass, not only with life but with the
means and the faculties to enjoy life,--and that if I hope to complete
the work before me I must confine myself more to the highway of my
subject, and leave its by-paths to the explorations of younger men.
I cannot, nevertheless, refrain from a brief reference to transactions
which have more than once occurred in this country, have made a greater
impression on my mind than they seem to have made on others, and which I
think have a strong bearing upon the question of the American love of
order and respect for property and its rights. Although it is not
probable that the facts of these can ever be sufficiently understood
abroad to be correctly appreciated, it is otherwise here, and they are
well worthy of our profoundest meditations. I allude to scenes which
have been presented at San Francisco, which were at the moment of such
thrilling interest, but appear already to have sunk into oblivion amid
the ceaseless bustle and never-halting progress of American life.
Look at that young but already large and flourishing city! Regard her as
she stood at the commencement of the extraordinary steps that were taken
for her relief! Think of the scenes through which she was made to pass,
and the condition to which she has been restored! An active and artful
portion of her population thoroughly steeped in corruption, vice, and
crime; her municipal authorities, the direct offspring of that
corruption, not only regardless of duty but fraternizing with criminals,
deriding the complaints of the injured, and scoffing at their prayers
for official interference; despair succeeding hope, and the opinion that
protection is at an end, and that nature may soon reassert her empire at
length ripening into conviction in the breasts of the good of all
classes; the general meeting of the citizens, and the appointment of the
Committee of Vigilance with unlimited powers and subject to
responsibility to no other tribunal than to the congregated mass of the
people from whom they derive their authority and their power; the
regular military organization adopted by the Committee and forthwith
called into the field of duty, sufficient in men, arms, and equipments
to crush resistance to the authority of the Committee in the city, and
to deter the exercise of any other authority at that remote distance
that might have a right to claim cognizance of the crimes they seek to
suppress; all legal rule superseded by that of the Committee of
Vigilance and put down on the instant of its assertion; criminals who
had been set at large by the former authorities re-arrested on charges
of capital offences, tried before the Committee, informally but honestly
and intelligently, found guilty and executed; the functionaries who had
connived at those offences arraigned at the bar of the same tribunal and
dealt with according to their deserts; crimes detected and felons
dragged from their hiding-places to meet a just punishment; men to whom
no specific offence could be traced, but who were notorious enemies of
order and abettors of crime, banished not to return under penalty of
death, and every effort made to resist or defeat the action of the
Committee crushed by an all-sufficient military force. The power of the
Committee continues in active and constant exercise for nearly three
months, when the purification of the city from crime and from criminals
being accomplished, the authority of the laws is restored, also the use
of the ballot-box which had been desecrated; this restoration is by the
order and in pursuance of the authority and power of the Committee which
are voluntarily laid down with the approbation and consent of a
community consisting of from 25,000 to 30,000 persons.
There is no good reason for saying that during the whole of that period
and in the midst of such stirring scenes the power of the Committee was
in a single instance exercised to divest any innocent man of his
property, or to oppress him in any way, or to interfere with his legal
rights further than to compel submission to the temporary supremacy of
that body, or to punish the innocent, or to enable the guilty to escape,
or to aggrandize the Committee, or to benefit its members, their
friends, or its _employées_, or to do an act of intentional injustice to
any human being. During the government of the Committee the business
concerns of the city and the vocations of its citizens were carried on
with at least as much regularity and success as ever. Since its
resignation and the consequent dispersion of its power not a banished
man has returned contrary to the terms of his expulsion, and no member
of the Committee, nor any one who acted by and within its authority, has
been called to account for his acts within the bounds either of the city
or of the State to which it belongs.
Is it probable that there is any city in Europe of equal size in which
its legally established authorities could have been suspended by the
irregular action of its own people with similar results,--in which the
substituted power could be exercised with equal wisdom and forbearance,
and laid down with so few causes for individual complaint? My
opportunities for observation, although considerable, have been less
than those of some others, and I may be wrong in thinking as I do that
such things could not be done by any other people in the world.
The remedy for the social and political crimes which called the
Committee of Vigilance into existence was a fearful one, and must be so
regarded by all thinking and virtuous minds, and it would seem
paradoxical to set up such a crowning act of disorder--that of the
subversion of all legal authority, for even the shortest period--as an
exhibition of a love of order and respect for the rights of persons and
of property on the part of the actors; but I cannot resist the belief
that the transaction afforded the strongest proof of the existence of
those great principles in their minds, and that a proper sense of them
and a determination to maintain them will seldom be wanting on the part
of those who can act as did the Committee of San Francisco and its
supporters.
But I ask pardon for this digression, and return to my subject. Many
considerations besides those suggested by Hamilton's invariable
solicitude for the preservation of order and by his constant respect for
the individual rights of persons and of property, press themselves upon
my mind against the conclusion intimated by Mr. C. F. Adams, and against
the probability that General Hamilton ever contemplated the creation of
a state of things that would justify or facilitate the employment of
force to establish institutions more congenial with his taste and
judgment than those we possessed. But I forbear to urge them, partly
because I have devoted as much time and space to the subject as I can
afford, and also because I am well satisfied that his knowledge of the
certain opposition of General Washington to any such scheme or design
would have been sufficient to deter him from undertaking either during
the lifetime of the General, even if his own disposition had pointed in
that direction.
It was at no time the intention of President Washington to give his
sanction to the opinions so generally, and as it now appears so justly,
attributed to General Hamilton. Never was man more strongly pledged to
the support of republican government, or more unchangeably determined to
maintain the responsibilities he had incurred in that regard. Embracing
with all his heart the Declaration of Independence, in which its
principles were delineated with the pencil of truth, he did more than
any other man to overthrow the government against which it was hurled,
and to open the way for the establishment of a republic in its place.
None knew better than he that such was the object of the Revolution, and
his resolution was immovable that the sufferings and sacrifices which
had been incurred in support of that object should not fail to
accomplish it through any act of omission or commission on his part.
Every important act in his eventful career shows that he regarded
himself on that point as invested by his country with a sacred trust.
When the bright prospect which he had largely contributed to open to his
countrymen for the realization of their wishes in this respect was in
danger of being obscured, if not forever blasted, by means similar to
those which have so often prevented or subverted free government, by the
violence of an exasperated soldiery, he threw himself into the breach,
and saved at the same time by his heroic and patriotic effort their
interests and the honor of his brothers-in-arms. When the minds of the
earnest and jealous friends of liberty were frenzied by an ill-advised
attempt in the same quarter to introduce hereditary distinctions amongst
us, he was again found at the post of duty; and, though feelingly
indulgent to his military companions, as well as satisfied of the
perfect purity of their intentions, he nevertheless promptly and
successfully employed the great influence he derived from their respect
for his character and their confidence in his friendship to induce them
to abandon their project.
In the full possession of such claims to the esteem, gratitude, and
trust of his countrymen, superadded to those which were due for his
military services, he closed the first great period of his splendid life
by presiding over the Federal Convention, and by assenting to, and
recommending to the favor of the people, a Constitution eminently
republican in its form, and in the principles upon which it was founded.
So far was he from encouraging the spread of opposite sentiments that
there is, on the contrary, much reason to believe that it was by making
his views of the subject known to those about him that the
anti-republican tone which Jefferson found, on his arrival from France,
so prevalent in social and political circles at the seat of government,
was kept in check until public opinion became strong enough to
extinguish it altogether. Speaking to this point, Mr. Jefferson says,
"The truth is that the Federalists, pretending to be the exclusive
friends of General Washington, have ever done what they could to sink
his character by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy
of Republicans, him who of all men is best entitled to the appellation
of the father of that Republic which they were endeavoring to subvert,
and the Republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections
proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the
republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend
to the republican principles of the Constitution. His faith perhaps in
its duration might not have been as confident as mine; but he repeatedly
declared to me that he was determined it should have a fair chance of
success, and that he would lose the last drop of his blood in its
support against any attempt which might be made to change it from its
republican form. He made these declarations the oftener because he knew
my suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet my
jealousies upon the subject."[13]
[13] See Appendix.
Independently of his principles, which were the main source, doubtless,
of the personal solicitude he often manifested upon this point, General
Washington was a man of too much sense and reflection not to know that
the world would in all future time hold him responsible for the
overthrow of the republican principle here, if its extinguishment
occurred in his day, and he was too careful of his well-earned fame, and
anticipated too correctly the elevation it was destined to reach in
connection with the history of his country, not to do all in his power
to guard it from detriment upon a point at once so delicate and so
momentous. Hamilton was the first man to whom he would make his
sentiments known, and I can find nothing in the positions which they
occupied toward each other which would induce me to entertain the
opinion that Hamilton would have ventured on an attempt to shake his
patriotic resolutions on that point through the influence he was
supposed to possess over the actions of Washington in other respects.
There is, I am quite sure, nothing more essential to a right
appreciation of many of the most important incidents in our political
history, than a correct understanding of the relations that existed
between those distinguished men. It cannot fail to shed considerable
light on much that occurred during the government of the Confederation,
and is perhaps the only touchstone by which the measures of government
and many other public transactions between 1789 and 1799--between the
organization of the new government and the death of Washington--can be
safely tested.
I will give my interpretation of the character of those relations, fully
aware of the misrepresentations and misunderstandings to which they have
been subjected, and from which no subject connected with partisan
conflicts can, it appears, be entirely free, but conscious of a single
desire to state things truly, and of an inability to do intentional
injustice to either. It will be for others to judge of my success.
Mr. Charles F. Adams, in the work to which I have referred,[14] says,
"Without much hold upon the judgment or affections of the people at
large, he (Hamilton) had yet by the effect of his undisputed abilities
and his masculine will gained great sway over the minds of the
intelligent merchants along the Atlantic border. His previous doctrines,
in unison with the feelings and interests of the most conservative
class, had drawn to him their particular confidence, whilst his position
in the first administration had facilitated the establishment by him of
a chain of influence resting for its main support on _his power over the
mind of Washington himself_, but carried equally through all the
ramifications of the executive department. _Thus it happened that even
after he ceased to be personally present his opinions continued to shape
the policy of Washington's second administration, and even that of his
successor._" This declaration extending so far would have been deemed
quite credible at the period to which it relates, and, coming from the
grandson of that "_successor_"--himself the undisguised enemy of
Hamilton--was probably called forth by the recent publication of the
private papers of the latter.
[14] _Life of John Adams._ The _italics_ are my own.
As far as Mr. Adams affirms that the policy of Washington's
administration, and also, in many very important respects, that of his
successor, were guided by the opinions of Hamilton, his declaration has
my full concurrence. No candid and intelligent man can, I think, read
the evidence which has recently appeared, in connection with facts
previously known, without acknowledging the undeniable truth of these
positions. But I do not by any means intend to concede the control of
Hamilton over the mind of Washington which is implied by the terms
employed by Mr. Adams without qualifications which limit and very
materially change its character. The policy of both administrations was
guided by the opinions of Hamilton, but those opinions received their
influence through different channels, and were enforced in very
different ways. Hamilton's opinions, when known as his, had very little
weight with the successor of Washington, save, in many cases, to secure
a bad reception for themselves; but that successor had little if any
control over, or influence with, the members of his own cabinet, and not
much with Congress or the Federal party, by whom the policy of his
administration was shaped. With them Hamilton's opinions established the
rule of action. In respect to the two latter, this arose mainly from the
sway he was capable of exerting over them by the force of his great
talents, and from a general concurrence in his views. In respect to the
prominent members of Mr. Adams's cabinet his control arose from the
power he had in part acquired over their minds whilst they were also
members of General Washington's administration. Timothy Pickering, who,
after the retirement of Mr. Jefferson and the brief term of Randolph,
was Secretary of State under both Presidents, was a remarkable man,
sincere and honest, I am willing to believe, in his political opinions,
but savagely bitter in his feelings toward his opponents. It seemed
pretty much a matter of course in him to hate those to whose political
course he was opposed, and, as is usually the case with minds thus
constituted, he was equally bigoted in his devotion to those with whom
he agreed and acted.
General Hamilton was his _beau ideal_ of a politician and statesman, and
it would not have been an easy matter in him to have dissented from any
opinion positively advanced by Hamilton, whatever his own first
impressions on the subject might have been. Mr. McHenry, Secretary of
War in both cabinets, was undoubtedly an honorable and well-disposed
gentleman. He was, in the opinion of those who had the best
opportunities for judging, including Washington and Hamilton, not
entirely competent for the duties of his office, and that circumstance
drove him the more to rely for support on Hamilton, for whom he
cherished an early and ardent friendship. His personal devotion to
Hamilton was such as to prevent Mr. Adams from longer overlooking his
incompetency, as Washington had done, and precipitated his resignation.
Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, the member of his cabinet
most trusted by President Adams because the least suspected, was,
notwithstanding, the one among his official advisers who went the
greatest lengths to testify his entire allegiance to Hamilton, who had
been the artificer of his political fortunes from the beginning and by
whose influence he had been advanced to the high position he occupied.
Throughout he advised with and was assisted by Hamilton in the
performance of his official duties. Such was Hamilton's "power over his
mind" that he was applied to successfully by the former for evidence of
facts to be derived from the treasury archives to sustain an attack that
Hamilton contemplated making upon the President--an attack that he did
make, although he acknowledged to Wolcott that it would not be regarded
as proper that he should have received the evidence at his hands, and
that that fact ought not therefore to be known.
No one can read the correspondence between General Hamilton and Mr.
Wolcott, as recently published with Hamilton's Works, without regretting
that the parties to it should have been so forgetful of the proprieties
due to the occasions to which it relates, or without a disposition to
excuse the strong expression of Mr. Charles F. Adams, in speaking of his
grandfather's cabinet, applied to Mr. Wolcott "as the most venomous
serpent of them all."
Mr. Charles F. Adams places Hamilton's sway over the mind of Washington
upon the same footing with that which he exerted over the executive
department, composed principally of the members of his second cabinet of
whom we have been speaking. From this view I entirely dissent. If
Hamilton possessed any power over the mind of Washington, it was of a
very different character from that which he exercised over those
members. Washington was to an unusual extent free from the weakness of
overrating his own powers; with just conceptions of his capacities for
public service he was always ready to place them at the public disposal,
but he was very far from pretending to qualifications which he did not
possess. No one was more sensible than he that the science of civil
government--the construction of constitutions and the administration of
the civil affairs of the State--were not best learned in the camp, where
so large a portion of his life had been spent. He therefore, as we have
seen, selected two of the ablest statesmen in the country, particularly
versed in those portions of the public business which he devolved upon
them. They differed irreconcilably in respect to the policy of the
administration, and in the performance of his duty he decided between
their conflicting opinions in favor of those of Hamilton. Preferring the
policy of the latter he adopted the measures he recommended to carry it
out, which happened also to appertain principally to Hamilton's
department, and sustained him in their execution. In doing so he but
sustained the measures of his administration and views which were either
originally his own or made such upon conviction. Participating in the
general opinion in favor of Hamilton's remarkable talents, having full
opportunities to judge of his character, and confiding in his integrity,
he extended to him, it is true, but with the purest motives, the degree
of countenance and trust which established his extraordinary power and
influence. Of the consequences, as well to his administration as to the
country, we will have much to say hereafter. But it would be a great
mistake to suppose that there ever was a period at which, or a
transaction between them in which, their relative positions, rights, and
duties were either forgotten or disregarded. It was well understood that
the degree of weight to be attached to Hamilton's advice would depend
upon the unbiased opinion which Washington himself should form of its
soundness, influenced as he naturally would be, and always was, by a
conviction of Hamilton's undoubted integrity, and his superior capacity
for the decision of the question under consideration. There certainly
never was a time when the slightest indication of a desire or design on
the part of Hamilton to sway the mind of Washington in his official acts
through his personal influence, or by any considerations which did not
point distinctly and exclusively to the public good, would not have been
peremptorily and indignantly repelled. It is evident from the whole
tenor of Washington's life that no man ever lived who was more tenacious
of self-respect, or more absolute in his reservation of the right to
judge for himself of what belonged to his individual independence and
personal dignity, or more prompt to resist every attempt to encroach
upon either. No one understood his temperament in that respect better
than General Hamilton, or would have been less likely to bring himself
in conflict with it. Many indications of this understanding and of its
effects are to be found in the accounts of their personal intercourse.
The correspondence between them in regard to the discreditable use that
Washington thought was being made in Congress of the sufferings and
dissatisfaction of the army, already referred to, will be found to throw
much light upon the sense of both as to the nature of their personal
relations.
In June, 1793, Hamilton announced to President Washington, that
considerations relative both to the public interest and _his own
dignity_ had brought his mind to the conclusion to resign his office at
the termination of the close of the next session of Congress, and one of
the reasons he assigned for delaying his final retirement to that period
was to give Congress an opportunity to complete the investigation that
had been instituted in regard to his official conduct. In March
thereafter Hamilton informed the President that the committee charged to
inquire, among other things, "into the authority of the President
respecting the making and disbursement of the loans under certain acts
of Congress," were about to meet. He sent to him at the same time, a
copy of a paper he had presented to the committee, containing his
opinion in relation to the proper limits of a legislative inquiry, but
said that he deemed it expedient to fix in advance, with the President,
on the true state of facts, of which he proceeded to make a statement,
and requested the President to sanction it. General Washington soon
thereafter made a declaration, in the form of a letter to Hamilton, of
his recollections and opinions in respect to the matter. The latter, in
reply, protested vehemently against the sufficiency of the declaration
for the protection of his honor, and in a letter of considerable length,
written with his usual ability, undertook to show that the character of
the President's declaration would enable, his (Hamilton's) enemies to
say that "the reserve of the President is a proof that he does not think
that Hamilton's representations are true, else his justice would have
led him to rescue the officer concerned even from suspicion upon the
point."
The subject of loans and their frequency produced much excitement in
Congress, and not a few calls upon the President and the Secretary of
the Treasury for information in regard to them. It does not appear from
the published works of Hamilton, that any answer was made by General
Washington to his letter, or any other explanation of the subject; and
no one, I think, can read the correspondence without feeling that the
interpretation I give to its abrupt termination is the correct one,
viz.: that Washington intended by his silence to reprove the freedom of
Hamilton's letter. The resignation of the latter was deferred, with the
approbation of the President, till January, 1795, when it was accepted
in a letter from General Washington, containing an approval of
Hamilton's official conduct as full as words could make it.[15]
[15] Hamilton's _Works_, Vol. IV. pp. 436, 510, 516, 562; Vol. V.
pp. 74, 78.
The construction I have placed upon the character of their personal
relations is also sustained by a correspondence between them in May,
1798, after Hamilton's retirement from office, which will be found in
the sixth volume of Hamilton's "Works," at p. 289. Hamilton's object
appears to have been to impress the mind of Washington with a proper
sense of the dangerous crisis which had arrived in the condition of
public affairs. His letter contains the following extraordinary
paragraph: "I am sincere in declaring my full conviction, as the result
of a long course of observation, that the faction which has for years
opposed the government are ready to remodel our Constitution under the
influence or _coercion_ of France, to form with her a perpetual
alliance, _offensive and defensive_, and to give her a monopoly of our
trade, by _peculiar_ and exclusive privileges. This would be in
substance, whatever it might be in name, to make this country a province
of France. Neither do I doubt that her standard displayed in this
country would be directly or indirectly seconded by them in pursuance of
the project I have mentioned."
In such a state of things it was impossible, he said, not to look up to
him, (Washington,) and to wish that his influence might, in some proper
way, be brought into direct action, and he added: "Among the ideas that
have passed through my mind for this purpose, I have asked myself
whether it might not be expedient for you to make a circuit through
Virginia and North Carolina under some pretense of health, &c. This
would call forth addresses, public dinners, &c., which would give an
opportunity of expressing sentiments in answers, toasts, &c., which
would throw the weight of your character into the scale of the
government, and revive enthusiasm for your person which might be turned
into the right channel."
Although Washington himself had been highly excited, by the course of
events, against those to whom Hamilton attributed such treasonable
designs, he was yet enabled by his good sense and by his knowledge of
his countrymen to see at a glance the reckless extravagance of
Hamilton's imputations, and he was doubtless dissatisfied with the uses,
little creditable, which it was proposed to make of himself. His answer
was a truly imposing production. It narrowed Hamilton's description of
the portions of his countrymen whose course he deemed objectionable,
virtually disapproved his charges by giving his own views of the extent
of the danger which was to be apprehended from those whose patriotism
Hamilton so grossly impeached, and placed the objectionable character of
the course recommended to him in a striking light by showing that, his
health never having been better, he would be obliged to commence his
journey with the propagation of a falsehood.
Those who wish to read these letters will do well to look for them in
Hamilton's "Works," as I am sorry to say that in Mr. Sparks's "Writings
of Washington" the above extract from Hamilton's letter, containing his
suggestion of an electioneering tour in the South by Washington, is
omitted, and the whole paragraph in Washington's reply, in which he
rejects and virtually rebukes it, suppressed. Neither is that part of
Hamilton's letter given in which he denounces "the powerful faction
which has for years opposed the government" with fanatical violence,
(for his description of them deserves no other name,) whilst what
Washington says upon that point is set forth with considerable
aggravation. The results of those omissions and suppressions are not
only to conceal the fact that such a proposition was made to Washington,
and the grounds upon which he declined to adopt it, but his remarks,
condemnatory of a portion of his fellow-citizens, are left to stand as
voluntary denunciations of his own instead of, as they in truth were,
modifications of the charges to which Hamilton had called his attention.
I have thus selected a few transactions between these great men,
occurring at long intervals and embracing the entire period of their
intercourse, to show that the influence which it must be conceded
Hamilton exercised over Washington's conduct in the civil service of his
country was not of the character which is commonly understood and
intended by the imputation of it in the case of high official
personages, and which necessarily involves the sacrifice of personal
independence and, at least in some degree, of self-respect on the part
of the person influenced.
Anecdotes of distinguished men are always interesting, although their
accuracy is not so reliable, of course, as that of statements
substantiated by their own writings. I was told of one, several years
since, which struck me as throwing light upon this subject of the
personal relations between Washington and his immediate associates and
friends. So thinking, and especially as General Hamilton was in one
sense a party concerned, I have recently obtained reliable testimony of
its authenticity. Judge Fine, the writer of the following note, is well
known in New York, and not a little in other States; he has been a State
Senator, a Representative in Congress, a State Judge, &c., &c., and is
regarded as a gentleman of the utmost probity and of superior
intelligence. Judge Burnet, with whom I have served in the United States
Senate, was also well known as a gentleman in whose statements entire
confidence might be placed, and was, withal, a Hamiltonian Federalist,
and never, politically, any thing else; in whose eyes, I am very sure,
any statement disparaging to the memory of either Washington or Hamilton
would have appeared a grave offense against morality and truth.
FROM JOHN FINE.
OGDENSBURG, N. Y., _April 30, 1857_.
Hon. M. VAN BUREN:
DEAR SIR,--During the session of the Presbyterian General Assembly
in Cincinnati--May, 1852--I dined twice at the hospitable mansion of
Hon. Jacob Burnet, now deceased. He was born in Newark, New Jersey,
in 1770, and was the son of Dr. William Burnet, who was in the
medical service of his country through the Revolution.
Judge Burnet was acquainted with our early distinguished statesmen,
and his conversation was rich in the recollection of their manners
and characters. He related an anecdote of Washington which he had
from the lips of Alexander Hamilton.
When the Convention to form a Constitution was sitting in
Philadelphia in 1787, of which General Washington was President, he
had stated evenings to receive the calls of his friends. At an
interview between Hamilton, the Morrises, and others, the former
remarked that Washington was reserved and aristocratic even to his
intimate friends, and allowed no one to be familiar with him.
Gouverneur Morris said that was a mere fancy, and he could be as
familiar with Washington as with any of his other friends. Hamilton
replied, "If you will, at the next reception evening, gently slap
him on the shoulder and say, 'My dear General, how happy I am to see
you look so well!' a supper and wine shall be provided for you and a
dozen of your friends."
The challenge was accepted. On the evening appointed a large number
attended, and at an early hour Gouverneur Morris entered, bowed,
shook hands, laid his left hand on Washington's shoulder, and said:
"My dear General, I am very happy to see you look so well!"
Washington withdrew his hand, stepped suddenly back, fixed his eye
on Morris for several minutes with an angry frown, until the latter
retreated abashed and sought refuge in the crowd. The company looked
on in silence.
At the supper which was provided by Hamilton, Morris said: "I have
won the bet but paid dearly for it, and nothing could induce me to
repeat it."
Yours truly,
JOHN FINE.
Better proof of the truth of this statement could not, at this day, be
expected or desired, and assuming it to be substantially true, the
transaction, in my estimation, illustrates the character of the personal
relations that existed between Washington and the two distinguished men,
Hamilton and Morris, who, in respect to the management of public
affairs, enjoyed perhaps his fullest confidence.
It is without doubt true, that in his intercourse with public men
Washington observed an extraordinary degree of dignified reserve, and
there is every reason to believe that this invariable habit was natural
to him, and in no degree assumed for effect. We indeed know nothing of
his character if he was at all capable of practicing the low device of
hiding mental deficiencies under a wise look and a mysterious manner,
which is sometimes the resort of meaner minds; but some such foundation
(or some degree of it) for his habit must have been presupposed by the
very unusual proceeding of Morris and it is quite impossible to believe
that a man was in danger of being unduly influenced by his personal
friends who could thus, by the power of his eye and the solemnity of his
countenance, abash and punish the presumption of a man of Morris's
standing, confessedly the sauciest man in his society, without causing
the slightest confusion or excitement in the surrounding company.
He had nothing to conceal; he never desired to pass for more than he was
worth, and there have been few men who formed a juster estimate of their
own qualifications and capacities. In respect to military affairs he was
evidently self-reliant, but not more so than was justified by his large
experience and by the success which had crowned his efforts; but neither
in that nor in any other department was he above receiving advice. In
the intricate and complex affairs of civil administration, and in grave
questions of constitutional construction and of national law, he felt
that his experience and study had been much less than those of some who
were associated with him in the public service, and he did not hesitate
to recognize the difference. The principal aid he could bring to the
settlement of such questions consisted of a clear head, a sound
judgment, and an honest heart. These he never failed to apply after such
questions had been prepared for decision by the previous examination and
discussions of those of his cabinet whose attention had been more
directed to them than his own. To secure these prerequisites he had, as
I have said before, availed himself of the highest talent which the
country afforded, without reference to distinctions of party.
This was the way in which he dealt with the grave questions that arose
during the early stages of his administration, touching the numerous and
complicated difficulties between us and our old friend and ally France,
the reception and treatment of her ministers, Genet and his successor
Adet, our assumption of a neutral position between European
belligerents, the claims of France under the treaty of alliance and
guaranty, the powers of Congress under the Constitution in relation to a
national bank, and other subjects. In respect to the first of these
matters he went so far as to consult Hamilton by letter on the question
of his own personal demeanor at a Presidential levee toward the French
minister, by whose conduct he had been offended. Whatever may be our
regret at finding the confidential note asking that advice preserved to
so late a period and now recklessly published, we may yet be satisfied
that the step itself only affords additional evidence of the prudence
and manliness of Washington's character. Few men stood less in need of
advice in respect to his treatment of those who had given him offense in
a matter purely personal; but it was natural for him to assume that the
usages of diplomacy had settled rules for the action of the heads of
government in such cases, of which he was not informed and in respect to
which he was not ashamed to ask advice and information from proper
sources. The constancy with which he invoked the aid of his cabinet upon
all questions of the general character to which I have alluded, the
unreserved manner in which he submitted them to their consideration, the
delicacy with which he withheld his opinions until theirs were
pronounced, and the spirit in which these were received, whether
agreeing with or differing from his own, were above all praise. The
information we possess of the details of those interesting proceedings
is principally derived from Mr. Jefferson, and in all that he has
written or in all that we have understood him to have said upon the
subject no word of complaint or allegation at variance with the
description here given of them is to be found. The idea that Washington
ever sought to advance his objects by indirect or exceptionable means,
or that he was actuated in his public measures by any other motive than
an honest desire to promote the good of his country, seems never to have
presented itself to Mr. Jefferson's mind, however erroneous he
considered some of those measures. I spent some days with him, as I have
elsewhere described,[16] two years before his death, and in the course
of our repeated conversations he dwelt long and particularly upon these
early transactions. I attributed the circumstance at the time to a
desire, consistent with his very genial disposition, to gratify my
curiosity, which was strong and not concealed; and it did not occur to
me that he might have had other views, until, after my return home, I
received his long letter avowedly written for the purpose for which I
now use it, "to throw light on history, and to recall that into the path
of truth when he was no more, nor those whom it might offend." In all
that he said--and he spoke with perfect freedom of men and things--there
was nothing inconsistent with the inference I have here drawn from his
writings, but much to confirm it. The President's decisions upon cabinet
questions were generally in favor of Hamilton's views; but that
circumstance, very much to his credit, was not permitted to influence
Jefferson's estimate of motives, but was regarded as the natural result
of Washington's general sympathy with Hamilton's political opinions, and
his confidence in his ability and integrity,--a sympathy, however, that
never even approached the subject of a change in the existing form of
our Government. That was a question as to which we have the best reason
to believe that Washington would have never taken counsel except from
his God and his conscience. He more than once declared to Jefferson
"that he was determined that the republican form of our Government
should have a fair chance of success, and that he would, if necessary,
spill the last drop of his blood in its defense,"--a resolution, and the
likelihood of its being sustained, that no one understood better than
Hamilton.
[16] See Note on page 9.
By these repeated declarations to Mr. Jefferson, Washington only renewed
to a civilian, whose character and position made them the more
significant and impressive, a pledge which he had given to the world at
Newburgh in the presence of the companions of his glory, yet with arms
in their hands--that his name should never be added to the list of those
who, having done much to emancipate a people from thralldom, were the
first to blast their hopes and sacrifice their dearest interests at the
promptings of selfish and unhallowed passions. They only proved that the
flattery of the world during the ten intervening years had not corrupted
his heart nor endangered the observance of a pledge which had derived
its value from the character of the man who gave it, and on whose
continued fidelity to the principle it involved the future liberties and
welfare of his country were in so large a degree dependent.
It has always been believed that if Washington had inclined a favorable
ear to the suggestions of the Newburgh letters, and in due season had
given his name and influence to the counter-revolution they were
intended to promote, it might have been made successful, and the system
which the Revolution had overthrown might have been in some modified
form restored. The disparity between the means which were at his
disposal when propositions looking to such a result were thrown before
the army at Newburgh and those within his reach when the declarations to
Mr. Jefferson were made was not as great as might be supposed. At the
former period it is true that the army of the Revolution was yet in the
field, mortified, irritated, and indeed highly inflamed by the assumed
injustice and ingratitude of their country, and in all probability
prepared to follow his lead in furtherance of any views he might
disclose which did not exceed the proposed limits; and the government to
be overthrown was feeble, distracted, destitute of the sinews of war,
and with but a slight hold upon the confidence and affections of the
people. But it must also be remembered that the fervor and spirit of the
Revolution--that intense hatred of royalty and monarchical institutions
in any shape--which had roused the country to the contest, had as yet in
no sensible degree abated amongst the masses, neither had they
surrendered those sanguine anticipations of the blessings and advantages
of republican government by which their hearts had been fortified and
their arms strengthened for the struggle. That any attempt to bring
about a counter-revolution under such circumstances, however popular the
name and character of him by whom it was sanctioned, or however
imposing the means by which it was sustained, would meet with a
formidable opposition from the great body of the people was certain; and
it was not easy to estimate the nature and extent of the resistance that
might spring from the sources to which I have referred to confront an
army which had so lately been the object of their unalloyed admiration
and affection.
In the lapse of time between that period and the one at which Mr.
Jefferson received the assurances he describes great changes had taken
place in respect to all these matters, but, as I have said, not so
adverse as might on first impression be supposed to the practicability
of an attempt such as Washington referred to. The army of the Revolution
had indeed been dissolved, and, in regard to the elements of which it
was principally composed, beyond recall; but its officers, who, next to
Washington, were capable of giving a tone and direction to the spirit of
the troops, were alive, several of them again under his command, not a
few about his person, and all filled with unabated admiration and
affection for their idolized chief. If the account given us by Mr.
Jefferson of the feelings he found most prevalent in our principal
cities and at the seat of government on his return from France and in
his progress to Philadelphia, to take upon himself the office of
Secretary of State, is to be relied upon,--and many important
contemporaneous occurrences corroborate his statement,--sad changes had
taken place in the public opinion and feeling, of absorbing interest in
this connection. "The President," he says, "received me cordially, and
my colleagues and the circle of principal citizens apparently with
welcome. The courtesies of dinner-parties given me, as a stranger newly
arrived among them, placed me at once in familiar society. But I cannot
describe the wonder and mortification with which the table conversations
filled me. Politics were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly
over republican governments was evidently the favorite sentiment." In
his description of what he heard and saw there can be no mistake; but it
is more than probable that changes among the people at large, upon the
point spoken of, had not occurred to any thing like the same extent as
among those portions of society to which he more particularly refers.
Still it is undeniably true that from the influence of examples set by
men in high places, from the difficulties under which the late
government had labored, and from other causes, there had been at that
moment a falling off from the true faith respecting governments and the
administration of them which could now be scarcely credited. Add to
these favoring circumstances the fact that the man, without whose
countenance or coöperation no reactionary attempt would have been
thought of even by the rankest advocate for monarchical institutions,
was at the head of the Government to be overthrown, and the unquestioned
object of the national confidence and affection, and the scheme, with
his coöperation, was not likely to be then regarded as so impracticable
as it would now certainly be considered. If such a work were at this day
thought of by any man or men, however elevated in position or loved by
the people, they could reap no other harvest than contempt and derision;
but the single fact that Washington, who always handled serious matters
seriously, and who was not liable to be alarmed by "false fires,"
treated the subject as he did, is sufficient to mark the difference
between the condition of the country and of the public mind then and
now.
But happily for us he was the same man in 1793 that he was in 1783. The
principle upon which he acted upon both occasions was maintained through
life without spot or blemish. The world believed, and for the best
reasons, that he had refused to become the master of a people, whose
liberties he had, through the favor of God and the fortitude and bravery
of his countrymen, been made instrumental to establish, because he
deemed it a higher honor to be their servant. It compared his acts with
those of the Cæsars, of Cromwell, and of Napoleon, and glorified his
name above that of any other mortal man. Such has been his reward for
his faithfulness to the most sacred of human trusts--a reward and a
fidelity unparalleled! Services have been rendered in every age which
entitled the actors in them to the gratitude of their country, and to
the thanks of mankind, but lacking the distinguishing feature of
Washington's, their traces have become fainter with the lapse of time,
whilst the remembrance of his unequaled merits grows more distinct and
strong with each revolving year.
That he committed grave errors in giving his sanction, probably with
considerable reluctance, to some of the measures of his administration,
is certain. I say this not merely on the strength of my own poor
opinion, but because such is the unreserved and irreversible judgment of
the country, to which, under a republican government, the acts of all
public men are subjected. But the assent which he gave to these measures
was never, even by those most opposed to them, attributed to him as a
fault, but was regarded only as an honest error of opinion; and hence
the extraordinary political phenomenon of a party having its origin in
the adoption by him of those measures expelling from power his immediate
successor, who claimed to act upon his principles, placing those
principles by protracted and diligent efforts under the ban of public
opinion, and keeping them and their supporters there, in the main, for
more than half a century--and yet being not a whit behind those who
approved them in its respect for his name and character, because its
members, in the eloquent language of Mr. Jefferson, "would not suffer
the temporary aberration to weigh against the immeasurable merits of his
life; and although they tumbled his seducers from their places, they
preserved his memory embalmed in their hearts with undiminished love and
devotion, and there it forever will remain embalmed in entire oblivion
of every temporary thing which might cloud the glories of his splendid
life."