John Adams President--Jefferson and the French Revolution--The French
Directory--Money Demanded from America--"Millions for Defence; Not One
Penny for Tribute"--Naval Warfare with France--Capture of the Insurgent
--Defeat of the Vengeance--Peace with France--Death of Washington--Alien
and Sedition Laws--Jefferson President--The Louisiana Purchase--Burr's
Alleged Treason--War with the Barbary States--England Behind the Pirates
--Heroic Naval Exploits--Carrying War Into Africa--Peace with Honor.
The Jay treaty secured peace with England, but it was accepted as almost
a declaration of war by France. The attitude of the French government did
not become intolerable until after the retirement of Washington from the
presidency. John Adams, who succeeded Washington, belonged to the
Federalist party, which supported a strong central government with
aristocratic tendencies, and was opposed to the Republican party, which
sympathized with the French Revolution, and whose members were,
therefore, known also as "Democrats." Alexander Hamilton was the chief
spirit of the Federalists and Thomas Jefferson of the Republicans. The
intense Jacobinism of Jefferson's views may be judged from some of his
utterances, in which he even defended the terrible September massacres of
the French Revolution. Speaking of the innocent who perished he said: "I
deplore them as I should have done had they fallen in battle. It was
necessary to use the arm of the people, a machine not quite so blind as
balls and bombs, but blind to a certain degree. A few of their cordial
friends met at their hands the fate of enemies. * * * My own affections
have been deeply wounded by some of the martyrs to this cause, but rather
than it should have failed, I would have seen half the earth desolated;
were there but an Adam and an Eve left in every country, and left free,
it would be better than it is now."
The spread of these ideas shocked and alarmed conservative men, including
Washington himself, Hamilton and Adams, and led to measures of
restriction that were injudicious in their severity. The nation, however,
united as one man, irrespective of party, to resent the intolerable
insolence of the French, who assumed that they could crush America with
the same ease that they subdued the petty states of Italy and Germany.
The French Directory, which had succeeded to the Terrorists in the
exercise of power virtually supreme, was composed of men whose depravity
we have seen shockingly illustrated in the recently published memoirs of
Barras. Its foreign policy was managed by the vulpine Talleyrand, who is
accused by Barras of having extorted large sums of money from the lesser
States of Europe as the price of being let alone--although it is
extremely probable that Barras and others of the Directory shared in
these ill-gotten funds. Talleyrand tried to extort similar tribute from
America, demanding that a douceur of two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars be put at his disposal for the use of the Directory, and a large
loan made by America to France. "Millions for defence--not one penny for
tribute!" was the cry that went up from the American people when this
infamous proposition was made known.
Washington was summoned from his retirement to take command of the
American army, a Secretary of the Navy was added to the President's
Cabinet--Benjamin Stoddart, of Georgetown, D. C., being the first--and
the new American navy was authorized to retaliate upon France for
outrages committed upon American shipping. A vigorous naval warfare
followed, in which the new American frigates proved more than a match for
the French. The American Constellation, forty-eight guns, after a sharp
engagement, captured the French frigate Insurgent, forty guns. It is
really amusing to note the tone of injured innocence in which Captain
Barreaut, of the Insurgent, who had himself captured the American cruiser
Retaliation but a short time before, reports to his government his
"surprise on finding himself fought by an American frigate after all the
friendship and protection accorded to the United States!" "My
indignation," he adds, "was at its height." It soon cooled off, however,
under the pressure of broadsides from the Constellation, and Captain
Barreaut was glad to surrender. The second frigate action of the war was
between the Constellation and the Vengeance, the former fifty guns, the
latter fifty-two. The Frenchman, badly beaten, succeeded in making his
escape. The battle between the American frigate Boston and the French
corvette Berceau was one of the most gallant of the struggle, the Berceau
fighting until resistance was hopeless. American merchantmen also showed
the French that they could defend themselves, and one of Moses Brown's
ships, the Anne and Hope, sailed into Providence from a voyage to the
West Indies, bearing in her rigging the marks of conflict with a French
privateer, whom the merchantman had bravely repulsed. During the two
years and a half of naval war with France eighty-four armed French
vessels, nearly all of them privateers, were captured, and no vessel of
our navy was taken by the enemy, except the Retaliation. This was not the
kind of tribute the French government had expected, and a treaty of
peace, which entirely sustained the position of the United States, was
ratified in February, 1801.
* * *
The illustrious Washington, who fortunately had not been required to take
the field against America's ancient allies, died December 14, 1799, at
Mount Vernon, deeply mourned by all his countrymen, and honored even by
the former enemies of American independence. I will only repeat, with
Washington Irving, that "with us his memory remains a national property,
where all sympathies throughout our widely extended and diversified
empire meet in unison. Under all dissensions and amid all the storms of
party, his precepts and example speak to us from the grave with a
paternal appeal; and his name--by all revered--forms a universal tie of
brotherhood--a watchword of our Union."
* * *
While the nation heartily sustained the government in the conflict with
France the enactment of the Alien and Sedition Laws, which abridged
American liberty and the freedom of speech and of the press, was
generally resented by the people. The public indignation which these laws
aroused resulted in the banishment of the Federalist party from power,
and the election of the great Republican--or Democrat--Thomas Jefferson,
as President in 1800, with Aaron Burr as Vice-President. Jefferson was
the first President inaugurated in the city of Washington. The leading
features of his administration were the Louisiana Purchase, the Burr
conspiracy and the war with the Barbary States--the first alone
sufficient to make Jefferson's presidency the most memorable between that
of Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Jefferson's foresight in the Louisiana Purchase appears all the grander
when we consider the ignorance which prevailed regarding the magnificent
Pacific region up to the birth of a generation which is still in middle
life. The Louisiana Purchase was the second great gift of France to
America, and as the first came to us because the French hated and desired
to weaken England, so the second came because Napoleon feared that
Louisiana would fall into the hands of England. It should be remembered
that the Louisiana Purchase included not only the now flourishing State
at the mouth of the Mississippi, but also Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa,
Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and probably the two
Dakotas. It meant the control of the Mississippi and the rescue of that
great artery of American commerce forever from foreign dominion. France
had acquired this vast property from Spain in 1800. The Amiens Treaty of
1802, to which France and England were the principal parties, was short
lived, and for some time before the new rupture Napoleon saw that it
would be his best policy to concentrate his strength in Europe, and not
endeavor to defend distant possessions in America. At the same time it
was evident to President Jefferson that the continued occupation of the
city of New Orleans by a foreign power was a menace to American interests
in the rapidly growing West. The President therefore instructed Robert R.
Livingston, the American Minister to Paris, to propose to Napoleon the
cession to the United States of New Orleans and adjoining territory,
sufficient to secure the free navigation of the Mississippi. James
Monroe, American Minister to England, was associated with Livingston in
the negotiations. The American representatives were surprised and elated
upon learning from M. Barbé-Marbois, Napoleon's Minister of Finance, that
the First Consul was ready to dispose of all Louisiana to the United
States. Barbé-Marbois conducted the negotiations on behalf of France;
both parties were anxious to arrive at a settlement before the English
should have an opportunity to attack New Orleans, and on April 30, 1803,
the treaty was signed by which the United States, for the sum of
$15,000,000, came into possession of an immense territory extending from
the North Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. The loan necessary was
negotiated through the celebrated house of Hope, of Amsterdam, the money
was paid to France, and the United States entered upon its vast estate.
The very next year President Jefferson sent out the expedition of Lewis
and Clark to the headwaters of the Columbia River, and caused a complete
survey to be made to its mouth. This river had been discovered in 1792,
by Captain Robert Gray, a native of Tiverton, Rhode Island, and a famous
navigator, who sailed in a ship fitted out by Boston merchants. Had
Jefferson's energetic action been followed up with equal vigor by his
successors we would never have had the Oregon boundary dispute, and
Marcus Whitman would never have felt summoned to take that famous ride so
worthily chronicled by Oliver W. Nixon.
* * *
With Aaron Burr's alleged treason I will deal very briefly. It will
always be a disputed point whether that restless and unprincipled and yet
gifted person plotted to alienate territory of the United States, or only
to play the part of a Northman in territory belonging to Spain. Admitting
Burr to be innocent of designs against the United States, he was
nevertheless guilty of quasi-treason if he schemed to erect a separate
government within Spanish possessions to which the American Republic was
already heir apparent. The murder of Alexander Hamilton by Burr under the
forms of a duel, which preceded his mysterious expedition in the
southwest, and his subsequent attempt to claim British allegiance on the
ground that he had been a British subject before the Revolution, were
other extraordinary incidents in the career of a man in whom
distinguished talents were utterly without the anchor of morality.
* * *
No war in which the United States has been engaged witnessed more heroic
deeds than that with the Barbary States. It was a struggle in which the
youngest of civilized nations met the semi-barbarous masters of Northern
Africa, the heirs of Mahomet and conquerors of the Constantines. Attended
by the loss of some precious lives, which were deeply mourned and are
gratefully remembered, the chastisement of the corsairs proved excellent
schooling for the more serious war with Great Britain. The struggle with
the pirates was largely due to the hostile influence exerted by England
with a view to the destruction of American commerce. In 1793 the British
government actually procured a truce between Algiers and Portugal, in
order that the Algerians might have free rein in preying upon American
and other merchantmen, and it may be said that piracy in the
Mediterranean was under British protection. The American people for a
time paid the tribute which the pirates demanded, but at length revolted
against the indignity. The war began with disaster. The American frigate
Philadelphia, Captain William Bainbridge, ran on a reef in the harbor of
Tripoli, and all on board were made prisoners. The Bashaw held his
captives for ransom, and treated them sometimes with indulgence and at
other times with severity, as he thought best for his interests. It
should not be forgotten by the American people that Mr. Nissen, the
Danish consul, devoted himself assiduously to the welfare of the
prisoners, and was instrumental in many ways in assisting the American
cause, while Captain Bainbridge also managed to give most valuable
information to Captain Edward Preble, in command of the American
squadron.
One suggestion made by Captain Bainbridge was that the Philadelphia,
which the Tripolitans had succeeded in raising, should be destroyed at
her anchorage in the harbor. The youthful Lieutenant Decatur headed this
perilous enterprise. With the officers and men under his command,
including Lieutenant James Lawrence and others afterward distinguished in
American naval history, Decatur entered the harbor at night in a small
vessel or "ketch" called the Mastico, disguised as a trader from Malta.
The watchword was "Philadelphia," and strict orders were given not to
discharge any firearms, except in great emergency. A challenge from the
Tripolitans on the Philadelphia was met by a statement from the Maltese
pilot that the Mastico had just arrived from Malta, had been damaged in a
gale, and lost her anchors, and desired to make fast to the frigate's
cables until another anchor could be procured. The Turks lowered a boat
with a hawser, intending to secure the ketch to their stern, instead of
to the cables, and the Americans accepted the hawser, intimating in
broken Italian that they would do as desired. At the same time the
Americans made fast to the Philadelphia's fore chains, and a strong pull
by the men, who were mostly lying down in order to remain unseen by the
Turks, swung the ketch alongside the frigate. One of the Turks looking
over the side saw the men hauling on the line, and sent up the
cry--"Americano!"
The Turks succeeded in severing the line, but too late. The Americans
sprang for the Philadelphia's deck and charged upon the astonished enemy.
In ten minutes from the appearance of the first American on deck the
vessel was in our hands. Combustibles were then passed from the ketch,
and the Philadelphia was set on fire. While the Americans safely made
their escape the burning frigate lighted up the harbor, and her shotted
guns boomed warning to the Bashaw of what he might yet expect from
American courage and daring. Of the Tripolitans on board the Philadelphia
many doubtless perished, and some swam ashore. Only one prisoner was
taken, a wounded Tripolitan, who swam to the ketch, and whose life was
spared, notwithstanding strict orders not to take prisoners.
The Bashaw treated his captives more rigorously than ever, after this
splendid exploit, fearing apparently that they might rise and capture his
own castle--a fear not without foundation, as a rising with that object
was for some time contemplated. The ketch in which Decatur made his
daring and successful expedition was christened the Intrepid, and fitted
up as a floating mine with the purpose of sending her into the harbor,
and exploding her in the midst of the Tripolitan shipping. It was an
enterprise likely to be attended by the destruction of all engaged in it,
but volunteers were not lacking. Master-Commandant Richard Somers,
Decatur's bosom friend, was in charge and Midshipman Henry Wadsworth,
uncle of the poet Longfellow, was second in command. Midshipman Joseph
Israel also managed to get on the ketch unobserved, and was permitted to
remain. The crew consisted of ten seamen from the Nautilus and the
Constitution, all volunteers. The fate of these gallant men was never
known, except that it is certain that they all perished upon the
explosion of the Intrepid. Bodies found mangled beyond recognition were
unquestionably the remains of these heroes, and were buried on the beach
outside the town of Tripoli.
The attack was conducted with unceasing vigor, not only on sea, but on
land, the Americans literally carrying the war into Africa by inciting
Hamet, the deposed Bashaw of Tripoli, to attack the brother who had
usurped his throne. William Eaton, the American consul at Tunis, led
Hamet's army, and with the cooperation of the fleet, made a successful
attack upon Derne, the capital of the richest province of Tripoli. The
loss of this important fortress brought the reigning Bashaw to terms, and
he signed a treaty giving up all claims to tribute, and releasing the
American prisoners on payment of sixty thousand dollars. A most
advantageous peace was likewise dictated to the Bey of Tunis, who had
also been induced by English influences to assume a menacing attitude
toward the Americans, and the schemes of Great Britain to prevent,
through the agency of Barbary pirates, the growth of American commerce,
were disappointed.