CHAPTER I

JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON

[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON

By Nancy Clifton M. Randolph after Thomas Sully]

JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON

_The Struggle for Democracy

In America_

BY

CLAUDE G. BOWERS

AUTHOR OF ‘THE PARTY BATTLES OF THE JACKSON PERIOD’

_With Illustrations_

[Illustration: colophon]

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

The Riverside Press Cambridge

COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY CLAUDE G. BOWERS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

TENTH IMPRESSION, JANUARY, 1927

The Riverside Press

CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

PREFACE

All American history has since run along the lines marked out by

the antagonism of Jefferson and Hamilton. Our history is sometimes

charged with a lack of picturesqueness because it does not deal

with the belted knight and the moated grange. But to one who

considers the moral import of events, it is hard to see how

anything can be more picturesque than the spectacle of these two

giant antagonists contending for political measures which were so

profoundly to affect the lives of millions of human beings yet

unborn.

JOHN FISKE

It is the author’s purpose, in developing the stirring story of the

Plutarchian struggle of Jefferson and Hamilton, to show that without

belted knights the period was picturesque and dramatic. The

extraordinary men who gave and took lusty blows did not, as some would

have us think, confine themselves to calm academic discussions of

elemental principles. The dignified steel engravings of the

participants, with which we are familiar, give no impression of the

disheveled figures seen by their contemporaries on the battle-field.

This battle-field was rich in movement and color. There was tragedy and

pathos, much of comedy, something of the grotesque. Here we shall meet

marching mobs, witness duels and fist-fights, turbulent mass meetings,

public dinners in groves and taverns, hangings in effigy, and champions

of democracy in the galleries of theaters, pelting the aristocrats in

the pits, and coercing the orchestras into playing ‘La Marseillaise.’ It

was in the midst of such scenes as these that Jefferson and Hamilton

fought the battle of the fundamentals.

The struggle of these two giants surpasses in importance any other waged

in America because it related to elemental differences that reach back

into the ages, and will continue to divide mankind far into the future.

The surrender at Yorktown ended one phase of the Revolution, but it was

not complete until, after twelve years of nationhood, it was

definitively determined that this should be not only a republic, but a

democratic republic. That was the real issue between Jefferson and

Hamilton.

The passions of the period still persist, and much of myth has been

built up by idolaters and enemies about both leaders. It has seemed

possible to the author to tell the story of their struggle with complete

justice to both. The part each played in the creation of the Nation was

essential. It has been the purpose to depict these two men and their

associates as they really were in the heat of controversy, neither

sparing their weaknesses nor exaggerating their virtues; to paint them

as men of flesh and blood with passions, prejudices, and human

limitations; to show them at close quarters wielding their weapons, and

sometimes, in the heat of the fight, stooping to conquer; and to uncover

their motives as they are clearly disclosed in the correspondence of

themselves and friends. This has necessitated the demolishment of some

fashionable myths, when myths have obstructed the view to truth.

The facts as here set forth throw a vivid light on the causes of the

collapse of the Federalist Party, which, in the average of its

leadership, was, perhaps, the most brilliant, and certainly the most

attractive, in American history. Men of wonderful charm they were, but

they were singularly lacking in an understanding of the spirit of their

times and country. They fell, as we shall find, because they neither had

nor sought contact with the average man, and sternly set themselves

against the overwhelming current of democracy.

Even so, we shall find an explanation of their distrust of popular

government in the illiteracy of the times, the exaggerated notions of

freedom that prevailed, and the levity with which so many looked on

financial obligations. It is easier to understand the Hamiltonian

distrust of democracy than to comprehend the faith of Jefferson--a faith

of tremendous significance in history. Quite as remarkable as his faith

was the ability of Jefferson to mobilize, organize, and discipline the

great individualistic mass of the towns, the remote farms along the

Savannah, the almost unbroken wilds of the Western wilderness. With a

few notable exceptions, he was forced to rely for assistance on

lieutenants pathetically inferior to the group of brilliant men who sat

on the Federalist board of strategy. He won because he was a host within

himself, capable of coping single-handed against the combined geniuses

of the opposition in the field of practical politics.

A liberal use has been made of the newspapers of the period; not only of

the descriptions of actual events, but of the false rumors and stories

that entered into the creation of the prejudices that always play their

part in the affairs of men. In determining why a given result was forced

by public opinion, it is no more necessary to know what the truth was

than to know what the people who formed that opinion thought the truth

to be.

Along with the struggles in Congress, the bickerings in streets,

coffee-houses, and taverns, the actions of mobs and mass meetings, it

has been thought important to show the part ‘society’ played in the

drama--for it was a significant part. This was inevitable in a clear-cut

fight between democracy and aristocracy. The elegant home of Mrs.

Bingham was scarcely less identified with the Federalists than was that

of Lady Holland with the English Whigs, or that of Madame Holland with

the party of the Gironde. The pettings which the Otises and Harpers

there received after the battles in the House were very real rewards to

men of their temperament. The part played by men and women of fashion in

the politics of the time will appear in the ostracism of Democrats from

their charmed circle, when even Jefferson, snubbed, was driven for

solace to the solitude of the library of the Philosophical Society.

Throughout the struggle we shall find the forces well

defined--aristocracy against democracy, and sometimes we shall see it

illustrated with theatrical exaggeration, as when the Philadelphia

aristocrats of the army that marched against the Whiskey Boys, on

prancing horses and in broadcloth uniforms, paraded their ragged,

weather-beaten prisoners of the frontier through the fashionable streets

for the delectation of the ladies at the windows.

It is impossible to treat of this period without giving to John Adams a

place apart. He was in some respects a tragic figure, and, though

ludicrously vain and often all but clownish in small things, we shall

have occasion to admire and respect his independence and courageous

subordination of his personal fortunes to the service of humanity and

country in making the peace with France. If at times the mere recitation

of his personal weaknesses seems like ill-natured ridicule, it should be

borne in mind that this is necessary to the explanation of why a

statesman and patriot, so able and deserving, was so unfortunate in his

public career.

The purpose of the author is not to make out a case for or against

democracy, but to show how it came to the Republic, sometimes blundering

and making a fool of itself on the way; to re-create, if possible, an

heroic, picturesque, and lusty age; to make the men of the steel

engravings flesh and blood; to stage the drama of a day when real giants

trod the boards.

CLAUDE G. BOWERS

CONTENTS

I. DAYS OF COMEDY 1

A depressing dawn--Pessimism of Ames and Madison--Petty jealousies and

ambitions--Federal Hall--Caliber of Congress--Adams’s triumphant

entry--His elation--Form and titles--‘Majesty’ or ‘Excellency’?--Adams

scorns ‘President’--‘What shall I be?’--Maclay’s amusement--Ellsworth

puzzled--‘How shall I behave?’--Carroll’s disgust--Debate on

titles--Maclay’s irreverence--Fenno’s plea for titles--Washington’s

arrival and reception--Scene at the inauguration--The inaugural

ball--New York in 1789--Streets, lights, sanitation--Homes of

celebrities--Auction block and gallows--Funeral

bells--Tea-gardens--Taverns--Theater--Washington at the play--Maclay

shocked--The wax-works--Social climbers--Cost of living--Luxury of

society--Its Tory tone--Ball at the French Minister’s--The Court on

Cherry Street--Snobbery and pretense--The Hamiltons entertain--The

dinners of the Pennsylvanians--Robert Morris’s stories--The Wall Street

promenade--The House of Gossip--Richmond Hill--Washington’s

dinners--Madison seeks revenue--Trickery of the merchants--Enter the

‘moneyed class’--Power of removal--Washington and the Senate--Hamilton’s

appointment.

II. HAMILTON: A PORTRAIT 22

Appearance--Elegance--Mystery of origin--Precocity--In Santa Cruz--Early

ambition--At King’s College--Literary brilliancy--His eloquence--Was he

a military genius?--His aristocracy--Love of luxury--Government by

‘gentlemen’--Respect for wealth--Contempt for democracy--Preference for

monarchy--His plan for a Constitution--Distrust of the one

adopted--Never reconciled--Work for its adoption--His genius

analyzed--Methods of work--Fighting qualities--Moral courage--Personal

integrity--Analysis of his strength and weakness--As a party

leader--Lovable traits--His conviviality--Fondness for women--His home

life--Attitude toward religion--Toward Washington.

III. HAMILTON IN THE SADDLE 43

Confidence in Hamilton in commercial circles--_Report on Public

Credit_--Reason not personally presented--Scene when read--Reactions of

a radical--Enthusiasm in commercial quarters--The discords--Hate of

speculators--‘In the interest of the rich’--Plan to bind moneyed

class--Activity of speculators--Public men involved--Rumors of Robert

Morris--Fast-sailing vessels--The gambling mania--Fenno defends

speculators--The debate on Funding--Gallery scenes--Jackson’s

attack--Hamilton turns lobbyist--Organizes his forces--Newspaper

attacks--Portrait of Madison--He proposes

discrimination--Consternation--Gloom at the Knox dinner--Hamiltonians

attack--The debate--Sedgwick--Smith--Ames--The gallery--Madison

replies--Maclay’s plan--An old roué--Madison’s snub--Discrimination

voted down--Abuse of Madison--Reaction in the streets--Assumption--A

caucus of Hamiltonians--Robert Morris’s interest--Opposition

appears--Revolt of Southerners--The cause--Annihilation of

States--Wolcott reveals Hamilton’s motives--The debate--Hamiltonians

‘piped to quarters’--Fear of vote--Rumors of Vining--Activity of the

lobby--Lame and sick carried to House--Morris approaches Maclay--Alarm

of Hamiltonians--Scenes in the Senate--Assumption voted down--Distress

of Sedgwick, Wadsworth, Clymer, Fitzsimons--Scenes in

coffee-houses--Hamiltonian Senate on a strike--Threats of

disunion--Press comments--‘Bastard of Eastern speculators’--Jefferson

reaches New York--Hamilton tries bargaining--Early morning walk on the

Battery--Hamilton and Jefferson barter--Dinner at Jefferson’s--Madison

agrees--Assumption wins.

IV. PREMONITIONS OF BATTLE 69

Hamilton at high tide--Idol of business--Masterful manner in

Cabinet--New fortunes and class feeling--Hamilton’s excise--Welcomes

test of strength--Distillers aroused--Pennsylvania protests--Neutrality

of Jefferson and Madison--Street debates--House debate--Denunciations of

Jackson--Madison’s embarrassment--Liquor and morals--Giles

approves--Revenue agents in elections--Hamilton takes personal charge in

Senate--Meets with committee--Maclay’s rebuff--‘Hamilton fails in

nothing’--Bloodshed predicted--The National Bank--Hamilton’s powerful

following--Maclay notes drift of moneyed men--Debate in House--Madison

attacks monopoly and implied powers--Ames defends--Sectional

significance of vote--Fight in the Cabinet--Madison consulted by

Washington--Asked to reduce views to writing--Fear of veto--Ames

explains Washington’s hesitation--Ugly talk in New York--Hamilton and

Jefferson break--The battle of the press--Hamilton man of the

hour--Given reception in New York--Jefferson and Madison on a

journey--Their intimacy--Their association in the public

mind--Significance of their journey--Pamphlet duel of Burke and

Paine--‘Rights of Man’ and Adams’s ‘Discourses of Davilla’--Jefferson’s

‘preface’ to Paine’s pamphlet--Reference to Adams--British Agent

shocked--Also ‘Society’--Press joins the fray--Burke versus Paine in

country towns--Adams disgusted with Paine--Enraged by Jefferson--J. Q.

Adams attacks Jefferson and Paine--Defends English institutions--The war

in the press--Turmoil pleases Jefferson--Embarrassed by the

‘preface’--Explains to Adams--Friends of democracy aroused--Scandal of

‘scrippomony’--Swindlers’ harvest--Frenzy of speculation--Press

warns--Political phase--Scandal in choice of Bank directors--Hamilton’s

brilliant support.

V. THOMAS JEFFERSON: A PORTRAIT 92

Appearance--A woman’s impressions--His cold first look--Charm of

manner--Maclay’s impressions--His conversation--His frontier

training--Westerner with Eastern polish--Bred in democratic

community--College influences--Fights for democracy in

Virginia--Associations in Paris--Life there--Interest in peasants’

plight--Sympathy with dawning of French Revolution--Chats with

Gouverneur Morris--Consulted by leaders of Revolution--His plan to save

the monarchy--His humanity--Toward Hessian prisoners--Against death

penalty for minor offences--Against degrading prisoners--Relations with

servants--With slaves--Hostility to slavery--Attitude toward

religion--Toward the Constitution--Methods as party leader--His

tact--Persuasions of dinner table--Dislike of quarrels and

separations--Self-control--Justly estimates opponent’s

strength--Relations with Adams--His cunning--The art of

mining--Practical political methods--Serenity in storms--The artistic

phase--Music--Architecture--The scientific phase--Interest in natural

history--Astronomy--Inventions--Passion for agriculture--Life at

Monticello.

VI. THE SOCIAL BACKGROUND 116

Complaints of Philadelphia prices and manners--The physical

city--Streets and gardens--Halls of Congress--Offices of Jefferson,

Hamilton, and Washington--Life in the taverns--In

boarding-houses--Drinking-places--Arrogance of the masses--Their social

life--Public gardens--Streets by night--Shops and shopping--Economic

status of workers--The aristocracy--Vanity of wealth--‘Elegance of

dress’--Entertaining--Heavy drinking--_Risqués_ conversations--Burr’s

wine--A dinner at Clymer’s--Hamilton and Mrs. Church--Portrait of Mrs.

Bingham--The Bingham mansion--Mrs. Bingham’s hectic life--Monroe’s

social blunder--Judge Chase’s boorishness--A reception at Mrs.

Bingham’s--The Morrises--Mrs. Walter Stewart--Mrs. Samuel Powell--Mrs.

Knox--Mrs. Hamilton--Mrs. Wolcott--Mary Ann Wolcott--Pierce Butler--Mrs.

William Jackson--Foreign visitors--A scene at the British

Legation--Country places--The hunt--Dancing Assembly--The

theater--Washington at the play--The players--The circus--Home of

Jefferson.

VII. JEFFERSON MOBILIZES 140

Hamilton’s advantage in organization--Jefferson’s raw material--His

problem--The scattered masses--The disfranchised--Jefferson plans

amalgamation of local democratic groups--Busy with his pen--Hancock and

Sam Adams--Charles Jarvis--Ben Austin--Abraham Bishop--Politics in

Connecticut--Gideon Granger--Ephraim Kirby--John Langdon--Matthew

Lyon--George Clinton--The Livingstons--Aaron Burr--Jefferson approaches

Burr--Tammany--Jeffersonian leaders in Pennsylvania--John Francis

Mercer--The Virginia machine--Willie Jones of Halifax--Nathaniel

Macon--Timothy Bloodworth--James Jackson of Georgia--Charles

Pinckney--Jefferson’s iron discipline--He works on the

masses--Aristocrats shocked at his associations--Uses the press--John

Fenno--His relations with Federalist leaders--Launching of Freneau’s

paper--Its national appeal--Portrait of Freneau.

VIII. THE GAGE OF BATTLE 161

Hamilton’s _Report on Manufactures_--Its reception--Hamilton’s plan for

factories at Passaic Falls--Appears before New Jersey Legislature for

charter--Visits site to select locations--Pamphlet attacks on his

Passaic project--Admirers subscribe for Trumbull portrait of him--He

watches Freneau’s paper--Its early tone--‘Brutus’ attacks funding

system--Attacks on Freneau’s paper--‘Work of foreigners’--Of a

‘junto’--‘Sidney’ assails Hamilton and his policies--Other assaults in

Freneau’s paper--Fenno to the defense--Demolished by Freneau--Scene at

the Morris house--The rivals visit a factory--Washington’s hope for

reconciliation--Fenno regrets lack of King--Fenno versus Freneau--Fenno

again crushed--Hamilton’s rage--His ‘T.L.’ letter--Freneau’s

reply--Hamilton’s anonymous attacks on Jefferson--Seeks affadavit from

Boudinot--Washington appeals for peace--Hamilton’s

reply--Jefferson’s--Hamilton continues--Madison attacks Hamilton’s

letter--Fenno fears duels--Jefferson holds aloof--Attack postpones his

plans to retire--‘It is a Fact’--Collapse of St. Clair’s

expedition--Jeffersonians attack Knox--Bubble of speculation

bursts--Press denounces the gamblers--The Duer failure--Business

paralyzed--Charged to funding system--The Clinton-Jay contest--Bitter

campaign of 1792--Federalist pessimism--Maryland fight--Hamilton

involved--In North Carolina--In Kentucky--In Virginia--Hamilton’s

cultivation of Virginia Federalists--Adams opposed--Hamilton to the

rescue--Carroll for Vice-President--McHenry’s letter--Hamilton orders

Adams to his post--Press battle over Adams--Results.

IX. HAMILTON’S BLACK WINTER 185

A remarkable winter--Jeffersonians aggressive--Hamilton’s methods

challenged--Madison demands report on finances--Hints of

corruption--Threats of Duer--Blackmail of Reynolds--Explanation asked of

Hamilton--Scene in Hamilton’s office--In his home--His confession

concerning Mrs. Reynolds--Jeffersonians attack finances--Fight planned

at Jefferson’s--Portrait of Giles--Freneau creates atmosphere for

assault--First Giles Resolutions--Giles’s speech--Hamilton’s

indignation--His candle-lit office--His prodigious achievement--His

friends’ enthusiasm--Criticism of his enemies--Technical violation of

law--Giles resolution of condemnation--The political strategy--The

caucus at Hamilton’s--The debate--The night session--Madison sums

up--Ames replies--The vindication--Reactions of the press--Toast at

Providence Society dinner--Jeffersonians analyze the vote--‘Parties to

the cause’--Jefferson finds bank directors and speculators did it--A

conference at Port Royal--John Taylor’s pamphlet--End of the fiscal

phase.

X. ÇA IRA 207

The French Revolution--Its appeal to American democrats--A wave of

enthusiasm--At Baltimore--At Boston--At Charleston--Political

significance of the Revolution to America--Americans divide on issue of

democracy--Federalists opposed--Their action in the

Senate--Denunciations of France--Federalist scorn for Louis’s

weakness--Jefferson’s attitude--His instructions to

Ministers--Hamiltonians capitalize execution of King--‘Cato’ revived in

Philadelphia--‘Capet has lost his Caput’--Sorrow at

Providence--‘Cordelia’ urges black rose for mourning--Tide turns against

the French--Jefferson’s disgust--Society mourns--Jefferson and Madison

on right to execute--George III joins coalition--‘Monarchy versus

Democracy’--Masses swing back to France--Under the Bingham

windows--Bitterness against England--Hamilton’s alarm--Summons

Washington from Mount Vernon--Hamilton’s misrepresentation of England’s

action--He usurps Jefferson’s functions--Prepares questions for Cabinet

council--Cabinet struggle--Neutrality Proclamation--Madison’s

anger--Protests of the streets--Genêt--His ovations--Jefferson and

Madison pleased--Hamiltonians plan cool reception in

Philadelphia--Popular protests--False report on Count de

Noailles--Hysterical reception--Washington cold--Press attacks

Neutrality--A French craze--Mobs march--The provocations--Scenes in

theaters--Federalists mock--Democratic clubs--Their political

significance--How Neutrality fared--Genêt’s madness--English

outrages--‘Red Coats’ toasted--‘Pacifist’--Jefferson orders Madison to

reply--Attacks on Hamilton--The ‘Little Sarah’--Jefferson and

Genêt--Reactions against French--Madison meets it--Cabinet confers on

Genêt--Jefferson demands his recall--Society pro-English--Party

bitterness--Jefferson’s social ostracism--He resigns--Washington’s

efforts to dissuade him--A near duel--A scare in Boston--Yellow fever in

Philadelphia--Hamilton stricken--Jefferson’s _Report on Commerce_--A

party document--He retires to Monticello.

XI. HECTIC DAYS 240

Madison’s Commercial Resolutions--Their political purpose--English party

aroused--Hamilton speaks by proxy--Madison avows retaliation--The

debate--Ames’s unfortunate speech--Arraignment of English outrages and

defense--‘An English agent here’--Press attacks on

Madison--Jeffersonians call town meetings--At Boston--At New York--At

Philadelphia--At Portsmouth--Ames and Smith hung in effigy--Vogue of

Smith’s speech in London--Hammond an English Genêt--British Orders in

Council--Seizure of American vessels--Retaliatory measures--Hamiltonians

plead for calmness--A mercenary patriot--English Minister

insulted--Jeffersonian press fans the flames--French outrage in

Charleston--Clamor for war--Hamiltonians plead for negotiations--Prefer

Hamilton to negotiate--His intimacy with British Minister and

Agent--‘No. 7’--Protests against Hamilton--A Federalist caucus--Hamilton

selected--Veer to Jay--His personality and character--His fatal

admission--Fight against his confirmation--Popular protests--Hamiltonian

caucus prepares Jay’s instructions--He sails--The ‘Whiskey Boys’--Their

grievances--Insurrection--Political phase--Hamilton welcomes military

measures--Demanding a law’s repeal is urging its violation--Attacks on

Democratic Societies--Their position--That of the Jeffersonian

press--Hamilton goes to war--‘Why Hamilton?’--‘Where is Knox?’--Hamilton

plans a political effect--Cruelty to prisoners--The chariot wheels of

the conqueror--East versus the frontier--Elections of 1794--Ames’s close

call--Livingston’s triumph--Gives Ames the ‘hypo’--In North

Carolina--Fitzsimons defeated--Jefferson’s summer--Dr. Priestley

arrives--Cobbett’s attack--Life in Philadelphia--Theater

mobs--Washington attacks Democratic Societies--Madison meets and defeats

approval in House--The bitter debate--The press battle--Foreshadowings

of Alien and Sedition Laws.

XII. THE MARCHING MOBS 266

Hamilton resigns--Fenno’s tribute--Bache’s comment--Madison’s--Hamilton

given dinner in Philadelphia--In New York--Greenleaf on the

banquet--Jay’s negotiations--Hamilton’s indiscretion--Jay’s

treaty--Hamilton’s disgust--Jefferson’s--Why Hamilton would not

reject--His reservations--Senate debates in secret--Withholds treaty

from publication--Hamilton doubts wisdom--Senator Mason--He gives treaty

to press--Bache’s comments on the secrecy--Mob at Goldbury’s

wharf--Philadelphia mob on the 4th--Jay burned in effigy--Dinner on

Frankfort Creek--Protest meeting in State House yard--‘Kick it to

hell’--Rival dinners in New York--Letter to ‘Sir John Jay’--Boston

mobs--Charleston mob--Rutledge denounces treaty--Mass meeting at

Richmond--Portsmouth mass meeting--Dinner to Langdon--In Vermont--In

Connecticut--In Rhode Island--In Delaware--Jay burned in effigy in

Georgia--Street brawls--Tavern quarrels--Washington’s hesitation--Cabot

anxious--Ellsworth disgusted--Randolph scandal--Washington signs

treaty--Appeals to Washington to make public plea--Bache attacks

him--Hamilton writes ‘Camillus’--Trouble with editor--British outrages

continue--Jeffersonians use them--Jefferson asks Madison to reply to

Hamilton.

XIII. THE DRAMA OF ‘96 289

Senate rejects Rutledge--Jefferson’s comment--Edward

Livingston--Portrait of Albert Gallatin--The Livingston Resolution--A

constitutional question--The debate--Cobbett’s offensive

action--Gallatin’s speech--Sedgwick’s sneer at the people--Resolutions

adopted--Hamilton’s concern--His advice to Washington--Fight on

appropriations for treaty--Disunion threats--Jefferson and Madison on

Washington’s action--‘Still in leading-strings’--Organizing outside

sentiment during debate--Insurance companies enter politics--Banks

also--Boston mass meeting--Otis’s sneer at Gallatin--Abuse of

Gallatin--Intimidation--Federalist alarm--Portrait of Fisher Ames--His

physical collapse--The invalid’s slow journey to the capital--Warrior

borne on a stretcher--His sensational speech--Hamiltonians’ delight--‘In

the hands of Pitt’--The vote--The effect--Jefferson during treaty

fight--His health--The Mazzei letter--Presidential election--Patrick

Henry sounded by Hamiltonians--They choose Pinckney--Thomas

Pinckney--Adams versus Jefferson--Scurrility--Adet’s letter--Hamilton’s

scheme against Adams--His dislike of Adams--Adams or secession--The

results--Hamiltonian distrust of Jefferson as Vice-President--Jefferson

cultivates Adams--The undelivered letter--Jeffersonian press

complimentary to Adams--Federalist displeasure.

XIV. AN INCONGRUOUS PORTRAIT GALLERY 315

A treacherous Cabinet--Portrait of John Adams--Of Timothy Pickering--Of

Oliver Wolcott--Of James McHenry.

XV. COMEDY AND HEROICS 339

The crisis with France--Portrait of Gouverneur Morris--Compared with

Monroe--Monroe’s difficulties in Paris--Federalist intrigue against

him--Ignored by Pickering--Deceived by Jay--French indignation over

Jay’s treaty--Monroe’s recall--Pinckney refused--Hamilton proposes a

mission--Suggests Madison as one--War party’s opposition--Hamilton

prevails--Adams’s objections to Jefferson for the mission--He confers

with Jefferson--Latter discourages sending Madison--Ames proposes

Cabot--Adams names Gerry--Thinks Hamilton ‘in a delirium’--Adams’s

Message--Harrison Gray Otis--Robert Goodloe Harper--Debate on Reply to

the Message--Livingston attacks English party--Harper’s war speech--It

is popular in London--British Minister conspicuous on floor--Taps Harper

on shoulder--Dayton’s compromise--War party attacks him--Lyon shocks the

formalists--Is attacked--His hot reply--‘Porcupine’ assails him--Mass

attack on Jefferson--His silence--Luther Martin attacks him--Is insulted

at Harvard--‘Porcupine’s’ abuse--Jefferson drops society--English party

jeers memory of Franklin--Hisses Paine--First toast to Women’s

Rights--Abuse of Swanwick--Of Mrs. M’Lean--Of Giles--Press comments on

Hamilton’s Reynolds pamphlet--Brilliant social season for

Federalists--Scene at Adams’s dinner table--_Porcupine’s

Gazette_--William Cobbett--Rival banquets--Discourtesy to Monroe--Dinner

in his honor--He confers with party leaders--Gallatin’s

conclusions--Lyon-Griswold fight--Press comments.

XVI. HYSTERICS 362

Hamiltonians bent on war--Hamilton runs the government--Bitterness of

debates--Harper’s wild war speech--Petitions against arming

ships--Adams’s ‘insane message’--Hamilton in the wings--Sprigg

Resolution--Harper’s blunder--X Y Z papers--Partisan abuse--Jefferson

disheartened--War clouds lower--Jefferson’s view of X Y

Z--Madison’s--Monroe’s--War hysteria--Adams greets young warriors of

capital--A drunken mob--Attack on Bache’s house--Adams alarmed--The

‘terror’ of Fast Day--‘Hail Columbia’--Resented by Jeffersonians--Author

rewarded--War hawks beat tom-toms--Hamilton urges Washington to stir the

country--Ames demands war at once--Return of Marshall--His

ovation--Partisan purpose--Capitalization of Pinckney’s return--Hamilton

writes philippics against France--Jefferson asks Madison to

reply--‘Porcupine’s’ war propaganda--War party keeps presses busy with

Harper’s speech--Other war pamphlets--Clergy joins war hawks--‘Why so

much anger in the heart of a divine?’--Terrorizing

Jeffersonians--Jefferson ready--Bache assaulted--Hamilton goes

gasconading--His amazing letter--Democrats fight for time--Jefferson

insulted--Ostracized--Spied upon--Mail opened--Abusive

toasts--Persecution of Lyon--Of Livingston--Of a Boston editor--The

Alien Law--Hatred of the Irish--Political reason--Jeffersonians and

English Whigs versus Hamiltonians and Pitt--Hamiltonians and Irish

Rebellion--King’s part--Otis’s ‘wild Irish’ speech--Sedition laws

proposed--Hamilton shocked at original bill--Mobbing Democrats in

debate--Livingston’s speech on Alien Bill--Wild talk in Sedition Bill

debate--Yellow fever again--Dr. Rush--Death of Fenno--Of

Bache--Elections of ‘98--Washington an active and extreme

partisan--Marshall’s campaign--Opposes Alien and Sedition

Laws--‘Porcupine’s’ comment--Reign of Terror begins--College degrees for

Federalists--‘Patriot’ mobs--Jeffersonians discharged from jobs--A

Bishop’s sermon.

XVII. THE REIGN OF TERROR 386

Arrest of Matthew Lyon--A ludicrous trial--Cruel treatment--Loathsome

cell--Protest of Green Mountain Boys--Lyon in jail elected to

Congress--Plans to rearrest him--His fine subscribed--Dramatic scene on

release--Ovations en route to Congress--Persecution of the Reverend J.

C. Ogden--Imprisoned--Assaulted by soldiers--Arrest of Anthony

Haswell--His offense--Brutal treatment--Trial--Ovation on release--Case

of David Brown--The comedy case of Richard Fairbanks--Ames’s

plea--Persecution of Adams of the _Chronicle_--Resentment of

public--Trial--Dana’s bitter charge--Adams in jail--Visited by Sam

Adams--William Duane--The Saint Mary’s Church

‘riot’--Arrest--Trial--Dallas excoriation--Acquittal--Rearrest--Case of

Thomas Cooper--Chase on the bench--His conduct--Cooper

imprisoned--Refuses pardon--Dinner on release--The Callender

case--Chase’s boast--His conduct--Lawyers refuse to proceed--Case of

Judge Peck--Public sentiment aroused--Political effect--Case of Charles

Holt--The list of victims--Use of Alien Law--Case of John D. Burk--Of

Moreau de Saint Merys--Toasting Alien and Sedition Laws--Harper’s

jeer--Mass meetings demanding repeal--Congressional speakers for repeal

mobbed--A conference at Monticello--Portrait of John

Breckenridge--Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions--As viewed at the

time--Answers of Legislatures--Fight in Massachusetts--By Senator John

Bacon--And Aaron Hill--Abuse of Bacon--Stoning of Hill’s

house--Porcupine preaches right of secession.

XVIII. ADAMS PULLS DOWN THE PILLARS 412

‘Hamilton’s war’--Hamilton for commander--Adams’s veto--Cabinet

conspired for Hamilton against Adams--McHenry’s trip to Mount

Vernon--The trick turned--Adams’s revolt--Hamilton’s

activities--Wolcott’s--The Essex Junto’s--Working on Washington--His

letter to Adams--Latter’s retort--Exclusion of Jeffersonians from

commissions--Washington in accord--Hamilton’s charge--Adams overruled on

Burr--And Muhlenberg--Moderate Federalists protest

extremes--Jeffersonian sarcasm--Hamilton organizes for war--His

difficulties--Scolds McHenry--Decline of war spirit--Jefferson fears

insurrection over taxes--eight per cent interest--‘Damned army will ruin

the country’--Jeffersonians capitalize eight per cent--Fries

Rebellion--Hamilton in Philadelphia--Soldier outrages--On Jacob

Schneider--On Duane--‘Porcupine’s’ delight--Militarism

rampant--Recruiting lags--Clergy to the rescue--Attempt to revive war

fever--Army for domestic purposes--Desertions--Discussions on

executions--Logan goes to Paris--Federalist alarm--War unnecessary--Why

Otis knew it--Cries of ‘treason’--Logan learns French wish

peace--Snubbed by Pickering--By Washington--The Logan Law--Jeffersonians

fight--Harper exposed--Case of Gerry--The Miranda conspiracy--Hamilton’s

part--His plan to wipe out the States--Adams consults Cabinet on

negotiations--Is ignored--Conspirators frame Message--Adams’s

amendment--Hamiltonians caucus to force declaration of

war--Defeated--Pickering sulks--Adams nominates an envoy--Enemies

caucus--Committee calls--Porcupine attacks--Retreats--Compromise on

mission--Some Hamiltonian letters--An Adams

dinner--Procrastination--Working on Adams--Cabot calls--Adams’s

summer--Adams at Trenton--Talks with Hamilton--With Ellsworth--A Cabinet

meeting--Envoys sail--Rage of Hamiltonians--Dreary winter in

Philadelphia--Marie Bingham’s escapade.

XIX. ‘THE GRAPES OF WRATH’ 440

Enter John Marshall--The Ross Bill--Withheld from public--Duane gets and

prints it--Protests--Marshall’s disaffection--Working on Marshall--He

wrecks the bill in the House--What Jefferson had done--His

platform--Jeffersonian leaders in South Carolina--‘Rye House

Plot’--Jefferson at home--New York election--Aaron Burr--Compared with

Hamilton--Hamilton takes charge--His plan--His caucus and ticket--Burr’s

system of espionage--His personal machine--Tammany--Caucuses at his

home--Plans Assembly ticket of national figures--Labors with Gates,

Clinton, and Livingston--Wins consent--Shock to Hamilton--Attacks on

Clinton and Gates--Merchants mobilized--Burr organizes--His brilliant

work--Campaigning with the lowly--The election--Hamilton’s proposal to

Jay--Burr for Vice-President--Federalist losses in New England--Caucus

agrees on Adams and C. C. Pinckney--Adams’s rage over New York--Scene

with McHenry--Pickering dismissed--Hamilton’s letter to Pickering--His

excitement--Reactions of Hamiltonians--They plan defeat of Adams--Adams

toasts ‘proscribed patriots’--An anti-Adams session of the

Cincinnati--Hamilton’s New England tour--His political purpose--Sees

Governor Gilman in New Hampshire--Meets rebuff in Rhode Island--A

meeting of the Essex Junto--At Salem--At Ipswich--At

Newburyport--Hamilton’s unfortunate statement--Jeffersonian

ridicule--Hamilton grasps the situation.

XX. HAMILTON’S RAMPAGE 464

Hamilton plans coercion of Federalist electors--Letter to

Carroll--Enemies in Adams’s camp--Wolcott’s treachery--Cabot

doubtful--Noah Webster deserts Hamilton for Adams--Attitude of

press--Jeffersonians attack Hamilton--Their campaign--The Dayton

scandal--‘Adams a monarchist’--Langdon’s signed statement--Corroboration

from New Haven--Webster’s slur at the poor--Fenno’s fatal

pamphlet--Secession talk of Federalists--Wolcott’s father--Letters of

‘Pelham’--Those of ‘Burleigh’--Reply of ‘Rodolphus’--Jeffersonian

progress in New England--In Connecticut--Abraham Bishop--His Phi Beta

Kappa oration--Political preachers--The Reverend Cotton Smith’s

slander--Jefferson’s comment--The Reverend Dr. Abercrombie--Duane

attacks--Dr. Lynn electioneers for Pinckney--Rebuked by Jeffersonian

woman--Persecution of Jeffersonian clergymen--Pamphlets on Jefferson’s

religion--Ridicule of Federalists’ religious pose--‘Diary’ of

Fayton--Federalists seek Catholic votes--Hamilton plans personal attack

on Adams--Seeks aid of Adams’s Cabinet--Writes pamphlet--Burr gets and

publishes--Editor of _New York Gazette_ explains--Hamilton’s case

against Adams--Cabot’s criticism--Major Russell’s

floundering--Jeffersonian press attacks Hamilton--Pamphlet

replies--Hamilton eager to answer--Friends dissuade--Election tricks--In

Pennsylvania.

XXI. DEMOCRACY TRIUMPHANT 486

Washington City--Morris’s cynical description--Mrs. Adams’s--The

physical town--Lodgings--Social life--Jefferson calls on Adams--His

lodgings at Conrad’s--Others at Conrad’s--Federalist conspiracy to elect

Burr--Hamilton’s indignation--His attempt to dissuade his party--A drama

in letters--Morris and Jay join Hamilton--Others desert--Harper calls on

Morris--Plan to prevent an election--Burr’s aloofness--He hears from

Harper--Burr’s letter to General Smith--Hamilton wins

McHenry--Pickering’s preference for Burr--Bayard’s

embarrassment--Sedgwick for Burr--Federalist caucus agrees on

Burr--Hamilton makes serious charge--His depression--The serenity at

Conrad’s--Jefferson’s non-political letters--Visitors pack the

town--Federalist press in the contest--Gallatin surveys the

field--Jefferson’s secret plan--He writes Burr--Writes scientific

friends on bones--Hamilton’s final shot at Wolcott dinner--A Washington

snowstorm--Nicholson carried in bed to Capitol--Scenes during all-night

voting--The drama of the struggle--Jefferson during the

voting--Approached by Morris--Conspirators surrender--Adams

notified--Jefferson takes leave of Senate--Morris’s resolutions of

thanks--The die-hards protest--Inaugural crowds--Creating new

judges--Adams rewards Wolcott--Adams’s flight--Sedgwick’s--Breakfast at

Conrad’s--Jefferson sworn in by Marshall--‘All Federalists, all

Republicans’--Mrs. Smith pours tea--Epilogue.

BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, NEWSPAPERS, AND MAGAZINES CITED OR CONSULTED 513

INDEX 519

ILLUSTRATIONS

THOMAS JEFFERSON _Frontispiece_

From a copy of the Thomas Sully portrait, painted by Nancy Clifton M. Randolph,

wife of Thomas Jefferson Randolph IV, a lineal descendant of Jefferson

ALEXANDER HAMILTON 22

From an engraving by E. Prud’homme after a miniature by Archibald Robertson

MRS. WILLIAM BINGHAM 128

From an engraving in Rufus Wilmot Griswold’s _Republican Court_ after the

painting by Gilbert Stuart

FOUR HAMILTONIANS 140

FISHER AMES

From a portrait by Gilbert Stuart

ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER

From a painting

GEORGE CABOT

From a woodcut after a pastel of Cabot at the age of sixteen, the only known

portrait

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS

From an engraving after a portrait by Thomas Sully

FOUR JEFFERSONIANS 148

ALBERT GALLATIN

From a portrait by Gilbert Stuart

EDWARD LIVINGSTON

From an engraving by E. Wellmore after a drawing by J. B. Longacre

WILLIAM BRANCH GILES

From a miniature painted in Washington in 1812, reproduced in heliotype in

_The Centennial of Washington’s Inauguration_, by Clarence Winthrop Bowen

JAMES MADISON

From a portrait by Thomas Sully

FACSIMILE OF HAMILTON’S LETTER TO OLIVER WOLCOTT APPOINTING

HIM AUDITOR IN THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT 332

From the original pasted in George Gibbs’s own copy of his _Administrations

of;

Washington and Adams_

THE GRISWOLD-LYON FIGHT IN THE HOUSE 360

From a contemporary cartoon

‘MAD TOM IN A RAGE’ 384

From a contemporary cartoon typical of the Federalist attacks on Jefferson

JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON

_The Struggle for Democracy in America_

CHAPTER I

DAYS OF COMEDY

I

When Fisher Ames, exuberant over his unhorsing of Samuel Adams, and

eager to try his lance on others, reached New York to take his place in

the House of Representatives, he was disgusted to find few indications

that a new government was about to be established. Wandering about the

narrow, crooked streets he encountered few colleagues. That was the

beginning of his cynicism.

A week after the date set for the opening of Congress but six Senators

had appeared, and a circular letter was sent to the others urging their

immediate attendance. Two weeks more and neither House nor Senate could

muster a quorum.[1] Ames could see little improvement on the ‘languor of

the old Confederation,’ but expected an organization of the House within

a day or two. A Virginian, lingering in Philadelphia with a slight

indisposition, was expected momentarily and the Representatives from New

Jersey were on the way. But there was nothing definite on which to base

such fair hopes of the Senate.[2] The next day Madison wrote Washington

in a similar vein.[3] This seeming indolence or indifference was the

subject of pessimistic conversations among the members in town as they

meandered about the streets. Revenue was being lost--‘a thousand pounds

a day’; credit was going; the spirit of the new experiment was sinking.

‘The people will forget the new government before it is born,’ wrote

Ames. ‘The resurrection of the infant will come before its birth.’[4]

Already petty jealousies and ambitions were manifesting themselves, with

much intriguing for the honor of being messengers to notify the

President and Vice-President of their election.[5] The little city was

overrun with job-hunters. Even before the gavel fell on the first

session, there were discussions of removing the capital elsewhere

because of ‘the unreasonable expense of living,’ in New York.

It was not until April 2d, almost a month late, that a quorum was formed

in the two houses. The following day George Washington was elected

President, John Adams Vice-President, and messengers started for Mount

Vernon and Braintree. Confronted by the most momentous governmental task

in history, the men on whom fell the burden of creating a new nation had

consulted their personal convenience about starting. It was not a

promising beginning.

II

If the lawmakers had been derelict, the people of New York had not. They

at least appreciated the possibilities of a capital. The task of

designing Federal Hall in which Congress was to meet had been entrusted

to L’Enfant--who was to win undying fame by planning the city of

Washington--and he had done his work well--some thought too well. Ames

was rather delighted over the fact that it had cost ‘20,000 pounds York

money,’ but Ames was a lover of luxury, and the more democratic Wingate,

while conceding that the city had ‘exerted itself mightily,’ was afraid

it had done so ‘excessively.’[6] In truth there was dignity and beauty

in the stately arches and the Doric columns, in the lofty vestibule

paved with marble and lighted from an ornate dome, in the design and

decorations of the chambers, with their graceful pilasters and their

crimson draperies. There was richness enough to disturb the republican

souls of members from the rural districts and the small towns.[7] Among

the members who sat down amidst these surroundings were a number who

were nationally known and brilliant, but the majority were comparatively

obscure and mediocre. Looking over his colleagues, the enthusiastic and

impressionable Ames found himself ‘less awed and terrified’ than he had

expected; for while it was ‘quite a republican assembly’ because ‘it

looks like one,’ he could see few ‘shining geniuses.’[8] To the more

experienced Madison, the outlook was not so pleasing. ‘I see on the list

of Representatives a very scanty proportion who will share in the

drudgery of business,’ he wrote.[9]

III

After a triumphant journey, constantly interrupted by ovations and

addresses, by the thunder of artillery, the clatter of cavalry, and the

ringing of bells, John Adams reached the city, took his seat beneath the

canopy of crimson velvet in the Senate and began his reign. The ceremony

and adulation of his progress from Braintree had gone to his head.

Almost immediately he began to mimic the manners and parrot the language

of the Old World court circles, until even the aristocratic Ames was

moved to regret his ‘long absence’ from the country because of which he

had ‘not so clear an idea of the temper of the people as others who have

not half his knowledge in other matters.’[10]

With the approach of Washington, the Senate, partly under the

inspiration of Adams, began to grapple soberly with the problem of form

and titles. Even before the arrival of Adams, when every one was ‘busy

in collecting flowers and sweets ... to amuse and delight the President

... on his arrival,’ the prosaic Roger Sherman had ‘set his head to work

to devise some style of address more novel and dignified than

“Excellency.”’ There was an ominous growl from the skeptics who doubted

the propriety, and some ribald laughter from the wits. A caricature had

even appeared under the caption ‘The Entry,’ representing the President

on an ass, and in the arms of his man Billy Humphreys, who was shouting

hosannas and birthday odes, while the Devil looked on with the comment:

‘The glorious time has come to pass

When David shall conduct an ass.’[11]

It was to require more heroic treatment than this, however, to cool the

senatorial ardor for high-sounding names. Even before Adams had been

elected, he had participated in serious discussions in Boston as to

whether the President should be called ‘Majesty,’ or ‘Excellency,’ or

nothing at all. Of course the Senators and Representatives should be

given the honest English title of ‘Most Honorable’ for Major Russell in

the ‘Centinel’ had been doing that all along. But the time for decision

had come. The President was approaching. It had been decided that on his

arrival at the Senate Chamber for his inauguration, he was to be met at

the door by Adams, conducted to a chair, and informed that both houses

were ready to attend him when he took the oath. But how should he be

addressed? Should it be as ‘Mr. Washington,’ ‘Mr. President,’ ‘Sir,’

‘May it please your Excellency,’ or what? Adams took his troubles to the

Senate. Should it be as ‘Excellency,’ as in the army? Adams was free to

admit that he preferred it to ‘Mr. President,’ which ‘would put him on a

level with the Governor of Bermuda.’

There were Senators who instantly caught the importance of the point.

One proposed the appointment of a committee to determine.[12] But these

troubles came, not singly, but in battalions. What was Mr. Adams to do

when Washington was in the Chamber? He did not know whether the framers

of the Constitution ‘had in view the two Kings of Sparta or the two

Consuls of Rome when they formed it,’ He could not tell whether the

architect of the building, in making his chair wide enough for two, had

the Constitution before him. He was Vice-President--but he was also

President of the Senate. ‘When the President comes into the Senate, what

shall I be?’ he asked plaintively. ‘I cannot be President then. I wish

gentlemen to think what I shall be.’

It was a solemn moment. Adams, with an air of distress, sank into his

chair. The silence was depressing. The leveler from the frontier of

Pennsylvania, Maclay, found ‘the profane muscles of his face in tune for

laughter,’ but controlled himself. Ellsworth, a practical man, was seen

feverishly turning the pages of the fundamental law. At length he rose

to announce the result of his research. It was clear enough that

wherever the Senate was, ‘there, sir, you must be at the head of them.’

But--‘here he looked aghast as if some tremendous gulf yawned before

him’--but ‘further, sir, I shall not pretend to say.’[13]

Thus the great day arrived to find the Senate caught unawares by a new

crisis. Adams had just risen to explain that Washington would probably

address the Congress, and to ask instructions as to ‘how I shall

behave.’ It was a congenial subject for discussion. Lee of Virginia rose

to explain the ways of the Lords and the Commons. Izard of South

Carolina, who had been educated abroad and wished it understood, told

how often he had been in the Houses of Parliament. Lee had observed

that, while the Lords sat, the Commons stood. True, admitted Izard, but

there were no seats for the Commons. Adams here interrupted to tell the

Senate how often he too had been in Parliament. Old Carroll of

Carrollton, who lived like a lord, but did not think like one,

grumblingly suggested that it did not matter what the English did.

And just then--consternation! The Clerk of the House was at the door!

How should he be received? The discussion was feverishly resumed. Lee,

getting his cue from the Commons again, was sure that he should be met

at the door by the Sergeant-at-Arms with his mace on his shoulder.

Confusion worse confounded--the Speaker and members of the House were

now at the door! Members left their seats in their embarrassment, the

doors were opened, the House filed in. Some one had blundered![14]

Meanwhile, with increased animation, the debate over the title for the

President was resumed. Of course there should be titles, said Lee.

Venice, Genoa, Greece, Rome--all had them. Ellsworth began to find

virtue in kings; Izard was impressed with the antiquity of kingly

government. Old Carroll, grumbling--or laughing--as usual, did not care

for kings. But the President’s title--what should it be? Ellsworth

thought ‘President’ common. Adams eagerly added that there were

‘presidents of fire companies and cricket clubs.’

‘Excellency?’--suggested by Izard. ‘Highness?’--proposed by Lee.

‘Elective Highness?’[15]

At length it was settled--‘His Highness the President of the United

States and Protector of the Rights of the Same.’ Adams was disgusted.

‘What will the common people of foreign countries; what will the

soldiers and sailors say to “George Washington, President of the United

States”? They will despise him to all eternity.’[16]

The rabid republicans began to laugh. Speaker Muhlenberg dubbed Maclay,

‘Your Highness of the Senate.’ Maclay himself, usually sardonic, grew

facetious in debate, and thought the title satisfactory if the President

was really high ‘and gloriously greased with a great horn of oil’ to

make him conspicuous. Even Robert Morris complained that the Congress

was also ‘Protector of the Rights of the People.’[17] But alas, it was a

case of love’s labor lost, for when the ponderous title reached the

House, James Madison quietly announced that the Constitution had given

the head of the State a title--‘President of the United States’; and so

it has been from that day to this.

The more thoughtful had witnessed the tempest in a teapot with some

misgivings. Madison thought the success of the Senate plan would have

‘given a deep wound to our infant Government’;[18] and Ames thought it

‘a very foolish thing to risk much to secure’ and wished ‘that Mr. Adams

had been less disguised.’[19] But they who continued for twelve years to

refer to ‘the court’ were not content. A correspondent of Fenno’s

‘Gazette,’ the ‘court journal,’ continued to plead for ‘titles of

distinction’ and to pray piously that Congress would ‘not leave the

important subject to chance, to whim, caprice, or accident.’[20]

IV

In the midst of these acrimonious discussions of the flubdubbery of

ceremonials, and with Adams proposing that the Sergeant-at-Arms be

called ‘Usher of the Black Rod,’[21] Washington reached New York. A

black mass of humanity awaited him in the rain at the water-front,

peered down upon him from roofs and windows. The roaring of cannon and

the pealing of bells apprized the crowd that the ornate barge the city

had provided to ‘waft His Excellency across the bay’[22] had been

sighted. The thirteen pilots in white uniforms who manned the barge were

conspicuous as it moved on to the accompaniment of cheers to the Wall

Street wharf. As it swept alongside the landing, bands on the banks

joined in the noisy welcome of the cannon and the bells. When

Washington, in a plain suit of blue and buff, rose to descend ‘the

stairs covered with crimson trapping, the shouts of the populace drowned

the combined noises of the mechanical devices.’[23]

Declining the use of carriages, he proceeded with his party and the

committee on foot down Wall Street to Pearl, then Queen, and up the

full length of that then fashionable thoroughfare, which boasted a

sidewalk that would accommodate three walking abreast, to the house

prepared for him on Cherry Street. The crowd followed, men, women, and

children, masters and men. There at the house they left him; and a few

moments later he returned down Pearl Street to the home of Governor

George Clinton to dine. That night the houses of the city were

illuminated. The monarch had entered his capital. To the masses he was

the maker of a nation; to the world of fashion he was the creator of a

court.[24]

The day of inauguration found the city fluttering with flags, colorful

with decorations, Wall Street fairly screaming with the spirit of

festivity. Wreaths and flowers hung from windows. A reverential throng

packing Wall, Broad, and Nassau Streets watched the great man enter the

Hall; and a few minutes later he appeared upon the balcony of the Senate

Chamber--a gallant figure in deep brown, ‘with medal buttons, an eagle

on them, white stockings, a bag and sword’[25]--to take the oath.

The keen eyes of Alexander Hamilton surveyed the scene from his home

across the street.

Thence back to the Senate Chamber where the inaugural address, in

trembling hands, was read with difficulty because of the shaking paper.

The erratic but loyal Maclay was pained to find that his hero was not

‘first in everything.’[26] Thence back to the house on Cherry Street.

Never had the little city been so picturesquely and brilliantly

illuminated as on that night of general rejoicing. Transparent paintings

shone all over the town--that at the bottom of Broadway ‘the finest ever

seen in America.’[27] It was a beautiful evening, ‘and no accident cast

the smallest cloud upon the retrospect.’[28]

A few evenings later, an inaugural ball was given by the Assembly in

their rooms on Broadway above Wall Street. The President ‘was pleased to

honor the company with his presence,’[29] and ‘every pleasure seemed to

be heightened’ as a result.[30] There, too, was ‘His Excellency the

Vice-President,’ and members of Congress with their families, officers

of the army, the Ministers of France and Spain. ‘Joy, satisfaction and

vivacity was expressed on every countenance.’[31] Each lady, passing the

ticket-taker, was presented with a fan made in Paris, with an ivory

frame containing a medallion portrait of Washington in profile. ‘A

numerous and brilliant collection of ladies’ it was, according to the

impressionable reporter, all dressed ‘with a consummate taste and

elegance.’[32]

Society awoke that night to the fact that a nation had been created and

a capital established on the Hudson, and it fairly titillated at the

prospect of the gayety of a ‘court.’

V

Now let us take a turn around the city and familiarize ourselves with

the setting of the drama. It will not take long, for the little city of

thirty-five thousand was compactly built. Broadway, the most promising

and pretentious of the thoroughfares, was paved only to Vesey

Street--beyond that, mud. The houses, most of them modest, were

surrounded by gardens. From the west side of Broadway to the west side

of Greenwich, the town was well built up from Bowling Green to Reade.

Beyond that, only the hospital and a few widely scattered houses. On the

east side, building extended as far north as Broome. Were we on a

shopping expedition we should seek Nassau and William, the heart of the

retail district, passing on the former many attractive homes including

that of Aaron Burr. Were we bent on a promenade, to meet the ladies and

the dandies, we should betake ourselves to Wall, where, notwithstanding

the auctioneers, the shoemakers, the grocers, the tailors, the

confectioners, the peruke-makers, we should pass handsome homes. Perhaps

we should jostle the statesmen emerging from the boarding-houses along

the way.

These narrow, crooked streets we should find more tolerable by day than

by night. The street lamps were at wide intervals and frequently

unlighted. If we escaped a highwayman in the night, we should be lucky

to escape the mud of the poorly paved sidewalks, and if we did not

bruise our shins by collision with the town pumps, we should be

fortunate not to stumble over a pig. Off somewhere in the darkness we

should probably hear the curses of some unfortunate wanderer fallen over

an obstruction, the grunting of hogs rooting in the gutters, the

barking of innumerable dogs.[33] The long line of negroes bearing

burdens toward the river might pique our curiosity did we not know that

they were the sewage carriers of the city doing their nightly routine

work.

Even by day we should find traveling not without its risks, for many of

the streets were torn up for improvements.[34] Thus ‘the Hon. Mr.

Huger,’ thrown from his sedan chair and painfully bruised, lays claim to

immortality in the pages of Maclay[35] and in the yellowing sheets of

Fenno’s journal.[36] Faring forth in search of the political

celebrities, we should not have far to go, for most were herded in

boarding-houses. Hamilton lived comfortably at Broad and Wall Streets,

Burr around the corner on Nassau. Jefferson was soon realizing his dream

of comfort on Broadway after living in a little house in Maiden Lane.

Randolph, the Attorney-General, had found a modest place in the country

for two hundred and fifty dollars with ‘an excellent pump of fresh

water.’[37] Knox was living beyond his means on Broadway, and Adams was

at Richmond Hill. But most of the lawgivers found boarding-houses more

congenial to their purses. Thus, within a few steps on Great Dock Street

we should find Robert Morris, Caleb Strong, Pierce Butler, Fisher Ames,

and Theodore Sedgwick; in Maiden Lane, James Madison; on Smith Street,

Charles Carroll, and on Water Street, Oliver Ellsworth.

Turning from the celebrities to the lowly and the base, we could visit

the slave market which was then active, for there were more than two

thousand negroes in bondage in the city. While the orators at Federal

Hall were speaking reverently of liberty, the hammer of the auctioneer

was knocking down negro girls to the highest bidder, and the local

papers were running ‘rewards’ for the capture of runaway slaves.[38]

Were we in the mood to walk to the end of the pavement on Broadway, we

could regale ourselves, in the grove where the City Hall now stands,

with a view of the gallows enshrined in a Chinese pagoda where the

executioners competed successfully at times with the debaters in

attracting the curious. There, too, stood the whipping-post.[39] In the

midst of so much that was grim, little wonder that the statesmen

resented the frequent ringing of funeral bells. ‘The gentlemen from the

country complain exceedingly of this noisy, unmeaning and absurd

custom,’ wrote ‘A Citizen’ to his favorite paper. ‘This is the moment to

abolish it, and give an evidence of a disposition to please them.’[40]

But it is not of record that the ‘gentlemen from the country’ were

permitted to interfere with the privileges of the dead.

Were we to turn from these grim specters to amusement, we could get a

conveyance at one of the city’s six livery stables to carry us into the

country to the Florida tea-gardens on the North River; thence to Perry’s

on the present site of Union Square, or to Williamson’s, near the

present site of Greenwich and Harrison.[41] But were our mood of darker

hue, we could find no dearth of entertainment at the taverns. When

Congress quarreled and struggled at Federal Hall, and Washington dwelt

on Cherry Street, one hundred and thirty-one taverns were licensed in

the city to which flocked all manner of men. There, with liquor or ale,

we could enjoy a cock-fight and pick the winner, or gather about the

table and gamble at cards. Laborers, loafers, sailors, criminals

infested these dives, and if we preferred cleaner company, we might get

an invitation to the Black Friars, the one social club in the city.[42]

Or, if more intellectual entertainment were desired, it could be found

in the wooden building painted red on John Street, a stone’s-throw from

Saint Paul’s Church where Washington had his pew, where the Old American

Company regaled the people of the pit, the boxes, and galleries with the

plays of Shakespeare, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Garrick, and some of

indifferent merit.[43] Here ‘The Father,’ by William Dunlap, the

historian of the American theater, had its first presentation--a notable

event, since Washington, a spectator, was seen to laugh at the

comedy.[44] Indeed, his health permitting, the President was frequently

seen in his box which bore the arms of the United States, and the press

was not amiss in keeping the public informed when the great man went to

the play.[45] He had been in the house on Cherry Street but a few days,

when, disregarding the frowns of the purists, he went to see the

‘School for Scandal.’ Two days before, the ‘Daily Advertiser’ had gayly

hinted of the prospective visit. ‘It is whispered that “The School for

Scandal” and “The Poor Soldier” will be acted on Monday night for the

entertainment of the President,’ it said. And then it added, by way of

gentle admonition to the players: ‘Mrs. Henry ought on this occasion to

condescend to give passion and tenderness to Maria.... Mrs. Henry ought

to act Norah and improve the delightful farce by the melody of her

voice. Mrs. Henry ought to take no offense at the suggestion.’[46] We

may be sure it was a festive occasion, for Fenno’s ‘court journal’ said

that ‘there was a most crowded house and the ladies, who were numerous,

made a most brilliant appearance.’[47] One sour Senator in the

presidential party did not take kindly to the play. ‘I think it an

indecent representation before ladies of character and virtue,’ he

wrote--and there were ladies in the party![48] The President, however,

was pleased to go again quite soon to see ‘The Clandestine Marriage,’

again subjecting ‘ladies of character and virtue’ to temptation, for

Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Knox were with his party when ‘Mrs. Henry and Mrs.

Morris played with their usual naïveté and uncommon animation’ due to

‘the countenance of such illustrious auditors.’[49]

Other forms of entertainment, all too few, were not neglected by the

celebrities. ‘The President and his Lady and family and several other

persons of distinction were pleased to honor Mr. Bowen’s wax-works

exhibit with their company at 74 Water Street’--looms among the

announcements of the ‘court journal.’[50]

VI

Nor were the entertainments dependent wholly upon the residents and

governmental dignitaries. The little city was bravely simulating the

airs of a real capital. The social climbers, hearing of the ‘court’

flocked to town from the four corners with their wives and

daughters.[51] The cost of living mounted alarmingly, and the rental of

suitable houses was prohibitive to many. Oliver Wolcott, hesitating

about accepting a place paying fifteen hundred dollars a year, had been

assured by Ellsworth that a house could be had for two hundred dollars,

wood for four dollars a cord, hay for eight dollars a ton, but that

marketing was twenty-five per cent higher than at Hartford.[52] But soon

after his arrival, the discouraged official was writing his father that

‘the expense of living here will be greater than I had imagined.’[53]

The leading tavern, on the west side of Broadway, near Cedar, was a

modest establishment with immodest prices.[54] And to make matters

worse, ‘society’ had set a giddy pace.

We are especially interested in this society because Jefferson, on his

arrival, was shocked at its unrepublican tone. The inner or select

circle did not number more than three hundred.[55] A French traveler was

impressed with its tendency to luxury, its love of grandeur, and

ostentatious display. ‘English luxury,’ ‘English fashions,’ the women in

‘the most brilliant silks, gauzes, hats, and borrowed hair,’ the men,

more modest as to dress, but taking ‘their revenge in the luxury of the

table’ and in smoking cigars from the Spanish islands.[56] The Loyalist

families were forward in asserting their social prerogatives in the

shadow of the Republican ‘Court.’ Did they not have money and the

prestige of having wined and dined and danced with the officers of His

Majesty in the days of the occupation? None more conspicuous than the

Henry Whites with a fine house on Wall Street, with one son in His

Majesty’s army, another a rear admiral in His Majesty’s navy. About the

Misses White--‘so gay and fashionable, so charming in conversation, with

such elegant figures’--the young blades gathered like moths about the

flame. Giddy were the parties there, the men Beau Brummels in the

extreme of fashion, and out of the few fugitive pictures we catch a

glimpse of Mrs. Verplanck dancing a minuet ‘in hoop and petticoats,’ and

a young beau catching cold from ‘riding home in a sedan chair with one

of the glasses broken,’ after partaking too freely of hot port wine.[57]

Balls and teas there were aplenty, but ‘society’ preferred to dine and

talk. Hamilton in his home on Wall Street gave frequent dinners

insinuating when not boldly proclaiming his doubts of the people. Van

Breckel, the Dutch Minister, entertained lavishly, making his

dining-room the resort of the little foreign circle--and every one tried

to keep up the pace.

It was the pace that killed--financially. The Henry Knoxes then began

their journey toward bankruptcy, living elaborately on Broadway,

maintaining horses and grooms, five servants, and giving two dinners a

month. Almost a ninth of his salary went for wine alone. What with his

own hair-dressing, and that of the expansive Lucy, who wore her hair,

after the extreme fashion, ‘at least a foot high, much in the form of a

churn bottom upward,’ the family account with Anthony Latour,

hair-dresser, was no small matter,[58] and his annual deficit was a

third of his salary.

Nor was the Secretary of War unique. The social life was a hectic swirl

of calls, teas, entertainments. ‘When shall I get spirit to pay all the

social debts I owe?’ wrote one lady of quiet tastes.[59] It was

harvest-time for the dressmakers, the jewelers, the hair-dressers. The

ball given in compliment to Washington by the French Minister called for

special costumes, for there were ‘two sets of Cotillion Dancers in

complete uniforms; one set in that of France and the other in Buff and

Blue,’ while the ladies were ‘dressed in white with Ribbands, Bouquets

and Garlands of Flowers answering to the uniforms of the Gentlemen.’[60]

And so with other functions equally gay.

But after all, the ‘court’ had come to town, and if there was no Majesty

on Cherry Street, it was not because the ‘court set’ did not pretend it

so. The illusion of vanity was fostered by the snobbery of Fenno of the

‘court journal.’ When Madame Washington arrived, ‘conducted over the bay

in the President’s barge rowed by thirteen eminent pilots in handsome

white dress,’ the editor enumerated the ladies who had ‘paid their

devoirs to the amiable consort of our beloved President.’ There were

‘the Lady of His Excellency the Governor, Lady Sterling, Lady Mary

Watts, Lady Kitty Duer, La Marchioness de Brehan, the ladies of the Most

Honorable Mr. Langdon, and the Most Honorable Mr. Dalton ... and a

great many other respectable characters.’[61] This was too much for ‘A

Republican’ who worked off his fury in a scornful letter to the

opposition paper referring to the ‘tawdry phraseology,’ to the ‘titular

folly of Europe’s courts,’ and suggesting that we ‘leave to the sons and

daughters of corrupted Europe their levees, Drawing Rooms, Routs, Drums,

and Tornedos.’[62] It was to require more than this, however, to jar the

high-flying Fenno from the clouds, and his readers were soon informed

that ‘His Excellency the Vice-President, His Excellency the Governor of

the State, and many other personalities of the greatest distinction will

be present at the theater this evening.’ It was not for nothing that the

pedagogue pensman from Boston had launched his paper with the hope ‘that

the wealthy part of the community will become patrons of this

publication.’[63] The ‘inconveniency of being fashionable’ was impressed

upon one Senator on finding a colleague, who, having ‘set up a coach,’

and, embarrassed in his plans by the irregular adjournments, was wont to

sit alone in the Chamber ‘in a state of ennui’ as much as ‘two or three

hours’ waiting for his carriage ‘to take him three or four hundred

yards.’[64]

But while there was much of this ridiculous affectation, society was not

without its charms; for Mrs. Hamilton had her days for receiving, and

her drawing-room was brilliant, and all the more interesting because her

vivacious sister, Mrs. Church, just back from London, bringing with her

‘a late abominable fashion of Ladies, like Washwomen with their sleeves

above their elbows,’ was there to assist.[65] And all the men were not

on stilts, for it is on record that the congressional delegation from

Pennsylvania would occasionally break through the ‘court circle’ to dine

from three to nine, and indulge in ‘a scene of beastial badness’ with

Robert Morris proving himself ‘certainly the greatest blackguard in that

way.’[66] There was the usual small gossip to bring the soarers to

earth. The cream served at the table of Mrs. Washington was not the

best. Mrs. Morris had been compelled to ‘rid herself of a morsel’ of

spoiled food there, but ‘Mrs. Washington ate a whole heap of it.’[67]

Mrs. Knox amused the Mother Grundys because so fat, and her blundering

misuse of words caused much tittering behind fans and much whispering

among her friends.

But it was on the Wall Street promenade that the gossips depended for

their choicest morsels. The Wall Street of that day was just beginning

to displace Pearl as the abode of fashion. True, there were a few

business houses, a tavern, a fashionable caterer, a jeweler, but from

Broadway to Pearl there was a row of substantial residences in which

dwelt people of importance. It was there in the promenade that the

political celebrities were encountered, but more appealing to the

gentlemen of pleasure were the fine ladies who passed in their

finery--gay silks and satins--walking or taking the air luxuriously in

their sedan chairs. The cronies of Dan McCormick, the unsnared and

lordly entertainer, who gazed out of the windows of his House of Gossip

at Number 39, and from his front steps surveyed the parade with the eyes

of connoisseurs, must have been trying to the modesty of the timid--but

perhaps none such passed that way. If they laughed over the latest

blunders of Mrs. Knox as she hove into sight like a huge ship in full

sail, and made merry over the sister of the French Consul as she was

borne luxuriously along in her sedan chair, we may be sure that they

were appreciative of the pretty. And these crowded the narrow street for

the promenade, quite as much bent on amusement and flirtation as the men

about town on the steps of the House of Gossip.

For it was an age of gallantry, the men quite as vain as the women dared

be, and there, in addition to political celebrities, paraded the local

blades of society in their white buzz wigs, their three-cornered hats,

and silver shoe buckles. Here the elegant Hamilton in banter with a

blushing belle, there the courtly Burr bowing over the hand of a

coquette unafraid of the fire, and yonder Dr. John Bard, who prescribed

pills for the fashionable, pounding the pavement with his heavy cane as

he walked along smiling a bit sardonically upon his patients. And,

swinging along like a symphony, a dandy in a scarlet coat with

mother-of-pearl buttons, a white silk waistcoat embroidered with colored

flowers, black satin breeches, white silk stockings, and a cocked hat,

an Irish miniature painter out for an airing and to give the ladies a

treat. Here--on Wall Street--was Vanity Fair.[68]

Albeit the Vice-President had not then become the social head of the

Nation, society liked nothing better than an invitation to Richmond

Hill, the home of Adams, a mile and a half from the city. Even Abigail

was delighted, for her home reminded her ‘of the valley of Honiton in

Devonshire,’ with its avenue of forest trees, its shrubbery, its green

fields, its pastures full of cattle, and the Hudson ‘white flecked with

sails.’[69] Here at the dinner-table statesmen and their wives and the

social leaders contrived to talk like ladies and gentlemen of the court,

and Jefferson thought in a language foreign to a republic. But good talk

it was, and good dinners, we may be sure, even though the French Consul

did take his cook to Richmond Hill with the explanation that he had had

experience with New York dinners.[70] There was enough elegance at

Richmond Hill to encourage the Adams coachman to put on airs that

offended the groundlings as he drove through the streets.

VII

But it was about the ‘court’ on Cherry Street that the interest of

society centered. It was a plain brick mansion with five windows looking

out on Cherry Street and as many on Franklin Square. The furniture was

plain, and Madame Washington had sent by sea from Mount Vernon numerous

articles of luxury and taste--pictures, vases, ornaments presented by

European admirers. Here the first President in the first days of the

Republic received visitors, gave dinners and receptions, consulted with

his Cabinet. The following year he moved to a more commodious house on

Broadway below Trinity Church.

The great man had entered upon his physical decline when he assumed the

Presidency, and many found him changed--‘pale, almost cadaverous,’ his

deportment ‘invariably grave,’ his sobriety barely stopping short of

sadness. Even at Mrs. Washington’s drawing-rooms, when beautiful girls

swarmed about him, his face never softened to a smile.[71] It is more

than probable that he was not a little bored by the artificial

restraints imposed upon him by his advisers on etiquette who had

aristocratic notions of the dignity of his position. Both Hamilton and

Adams were responsible for planning his isolation from the people. Did

citizens seek a meeting? This was a matter for the chamberlain or

gentleman-in-waiting. Should he give public entertainments? Not at

all--only small dinners. Could he make calls? Very guardedly, and with

‘few attendants,’ but formal visits should be reserved for the rare

occasions when ‘an Emperor of Germany or some other sovereign should

travel in the country.’[72] Thus it came to pass that he found himself

with a ‘court chamberlain’ in the flamboyant Colonel Humphreys, who

reveled in ceremony, and on one occasion moved Parson Weems’s perfect

man to profanity.[73] When the erstwhile host of Fraunces Tavern was

selected as the presiding deity of the kitchen, he appeared in the

papers as ‘Steward of the Household.’[74] He too tried the great man’s

patience and outraged his sense of economy by serving a shad early in

the season that had cost two dollars, and the royal fish was devoured by

the ‘Steward of the Household’ in the kitchen.[75]

But on state occasions the highfaluting notions of his advisers

prevailed, and he rode forth in regal magnificence in the finest coach

ever seen in America, a marvelous thing in shape and color, decorated

with cupids and festooned with flowers. Thus he lumbered through the

streets drawn by four horses except when driving to Federal Hall, when

six were necessary.

And so they who dreamed of royal pomp were pleased with the progress

made, and at the dinner tables wagging tongues dwelt ecstatically on the

advantages of monarchical government, and Fenno’s ‘court journal’ began

the publication of ‘The Discourses of Davila,’ by the Vice-President.

Thus, when Jefferson arrived the following spring to meet society at the

dinner tables, he was filled with ‘wonder and mortification’ to find

that ‘politics was the chief topic, and a preference for kingly over

republican government ... evidently the favorite sentiment.’[76]

But we may be sure that no such sentiments were heard at the President’s

dinners, which appear to have been dull, formal, and silent enough. No

fault could be found with the food, drink, or service. Even the

gout-pestered Maclay found one of these dinners ‘the best of the kind I

was ever at,’[77] and the more easily pleased Iredell was immensely

delighted with the wine.[78] But such silence, such solemnity! ‘The most

solemn dinner ever I sat at,’ wrote Maclay. ‘Not a health drank, scarce

a word said until the cloth was taken away.’ Then Washington filled his

glass and solemnly drank to the health of each of his guests by name.

Then ‘everybody imitated him, and such a buzz of “health, sir,” and

“health, madame,” and “Thank you, sir,” and “Thank you, Madame,” never

had I heard before.’ Then another prolonged silence--and the ladies

retired--and the dinner was over.[79] Months later, Maclay dined at the

President’s again. ‘The President seemed to bear in his countenance a

settled aspect of melancholy,’ he wrote. ‘No cheering ray of convivial

sunshine broke through the cloudy gloom of settled seriousness.’ The

great man was evidently bored--much company forced upon him that he

would gladly have shunned. Cold, serious to melancholy, silent, he sat

and ‘played on the table with a knife and fork like a drum stick.’ So it

was at the previous dinner when, retaining his fork as the cover was

removed, he ‘played with the fork, striking on the edge of the table

with it.’[80]

Here we may leave him playing on the table with his fork, and turn to

the proceedings at Federal Hall.

VIII

Madison soon verified his fear that few members of Congress could be

relied upon for constructive work. Then, as ever after, this fell to the

industrious few, of whom Madison himself was by odds the most dependable

and wise. Petty ceremonies and formalities continued to disturb the

serenity of some. When a member took exception to the reference in the

minutes to a Presidential message as a ‘most gracious speech,’ as

imitative of the parliamentary references to addresses from the throne,

Adams was all but shocked to suffocation. As for himself he preferred ‘a

dignified and respectable government,’ but the point was pressed and the

offensive words erased.[81] Receiving a letter addressed to him as ‘His

Excellency,’ Adams took the sense of the Senate on the propriety of

opening it. Robert Morris dryly remarked that their Majesty, the people,

could write as they wished, and that crisis passed.[82] When a Bishop

was mentioned in the minutes as ‘Right Reverend,’ and Maclay snorted his

disapproval, Adams, in righteous wrath, informed him that ‘the

government will never be properly administered until titles are adopted

in the fullest manner.’[83]

But all the while James Madison, constructive, profound, was seeking to

drag his colleagues of the divine afflatus from the clouds to the

working of the untilled field. Money was needed--more even than

titles--and precious time was being squandered. In an earnest appeal, he

begged for the postponement of the consideration of a permanent fiscal

system in the hope of persuading the suppliants for tariff aid to wait

awhile. But it was of no avail. Privilege entered the halls of Congress

in the very beginning. When, at length, a measure was framed, the

merchants of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston made common cause to

hold it back. They had ordered heavily in anticipation of such a law and

were determined to prevent its enactment until their goods arrived. The

whole thing smacked of scandal. The merchants had already added the

amount of the duties to the price of the goods on their shelves,

increasing their profits while depriving the Government of the

necessities of life. With the Government starving for revenue, the

mercantile interest, with the aid of members, held it off until July

4th, and then it was passed with the proviso that it should be

inoperative until August 1st. Many, says a noted historian, thought this

‘the first instance of a series in which the action of government turned

in favor of the moneyed class.’[84]

The creation of the executive departments next called forth acrimonious

discussions. Should the finances be in the hands of a man or a

commission? Where could be found a single man capable of such a task?

The Republic would be endangered were one man to have command of three

or four millions. Then, too, the Cabinet was liable to be looked upon by

the President as of more consequence than the Senate. A system of

favoritism would be established, and oligarchy confirmed, the liberties

of the people destroyed.[85] And the power of removal--who should

possess that? Some wanted to lodge the power in the President, others in

the Senate. Madison favored the former.[86] But others could not see it

that way. What! exclaimed one statesman, give the power to the

President? Why, ‘ministers would obtrude upon us to govern and direct

the measures of the legislature and support the influence of their

master.’ A new Walpole would arise.[87] ‘Good God,’ cried another,

‘authorize in a free republic ... by your first act, the exertion of a

dangerous royal prerogative in your Chief Magistrate!’[88] The result

was the striking out of the authorization of the President to remove on

the ground that it was implied in the Constitution. Madison took this

view, and it was to rise against him in his later battles with Hamilton

over the implied powers.

This jealousy between the executive and legislative departments soon

found some justification in the action of Washington himself. It was

late in the summer of the first year that he appeared in the Senate with

General Knox to get ‘advice and consent’ to some propositions respecting

a treaty with the Southern Indians. With cold dignity he took his place

beside Adams, with Knox near at hand. The latter passed him a paper

which he, in turn, gave to Adams, who began to read. The windows were up

and the purport was all but lost in the rumble of carriages on Wall

Street.

‘Do you advise and consent?’ asked Adams.

A Senator suggested that in a matter of importance new to the Senate, it

was the duty of Senators first to inform themselves. Storm-clouds

appeared on the presidential countenance. Some one moved postponement of

action on the first article, then the second--and third. Finally, the

motion was made that the whole be referred to a senatorial committee.

Up Washington ‘started in a violent fret.’ The motion defeated the

purpose of his coming. He had brought along the Secretary of War who

knew all that it was necessary for the Senate to know. The reference to

the committee would mean delay and time was pressing. Then, making a

virtue of necessity, he agreed to the postponement, and withdrew ‘with

sullen dignity.’

‘I cannot be mistaken,’ wrote a Senator that evening in his

boarding-house, ‘the President wishes to tread on the necks of the

Senate. Commitment will bring the matter to discussion, at least in the

committee, where he is not present. He wishes us to see with the eyes

and hear with the ears of his Secretary only. The Secretary to advance

the premises, the President to draw the conclusions, and to bear down

our deliberations with his personal authority and presence.... This will

not do with Americans.’[89]

This fear, accentuated by the incident referred to, was to grow into a

conviction a little later, when a more domineering and masterful figure

than Washington or Knox appeared upon the scene. By many his advent had

been eagerly awaited. To the leaders his identity was known, for the

genius of Alexander Hamilton as a financier had been established, and

his ambition was surmised.[90] His aspirations were supported by the

mercantile interests generally, and the political forces they

controlled. Even they who were to become his political enemies were

favorable to his selection--preferring him to John Jay, who was

considered. There is something of irony in the letter written to

Jefferson by Madison to the effect that Hamilton was ‘best qualified for

that species of business, and on that account would be preferred by

those who know him personally.’[91]

To most he promised to be a successful administrator of finance, and

only the few among his intimates foresaw his rapid rise to the brilliant

leadership of a powerful party. Certainly there could have been but few

to take alarm on reading in the ‘Daily Advertiser’ on September 12,

1789, the simple announcement of one of the most momentous events in the

political history of the country:

The President of the United States has been pleased to make the

following nominations of Officers for the Department of the

Treasury:

Alexander Hamilton, Esq. of this city, Secretary.

Nicholas Everleigh, Esq. of South Carolina, Comptroller.

And the Senate of the United States having taken the said

nominations into consideration were pleased to advise and consent

to the same.