the Jay treaty, was soon threatened with war with France. Monroe had
been recalled as American Minister at Paris and Charles Pinckney, who
was sent in his place, had been refused a reception. Some of the
Federalists were so incensed against France that they were eager for
war. Hamilton was opposed to war if it could be avoided, but was in
favor of a resolute policy. Adams, although as far as possible from
sympathy with France, believed every reasonable effort should be made
to preserve peace. It was decided, with the approval of both Adams and
Hamilton, to send a commission of three to Paris, to negotiate. Over
the appointment of this commission new differences broke out between
Hamilton and the President. Hamilton favored the appointment of a
Northern and a Southern Federalist and of a Democrat of the highest
standing, like Madison or even Jefferson. Adams was at first disposed
to make these appointments, but finally took both the Federalists from
the South,--Pinckney of South Carolina and John Marshall of
Virginia,--and selected as the third member a Democrat of
comparatively minor standing, Gerry of Massachusetts.
The commissioners accomplished little good at Paris. They were
insulted and browbeaten and told that only bribery would secure what
they desired. When their treatment became known in the United States,
in the spring of 1798, there was a popular outburst which restored the
Federalists to power in Congress in the following autumn, with a
larger majority than ever before since party divisions became fixed.
Enthusiastic addresses poured in upon President Adams, war vessels
were fitted out by private subscription, and bills were carried at
once for a provisional army, for fortifications, and for the increase
of the navy. Even under this stress of excitement, however, Hamilton
opposed alliance with Great Britain, and persuaded Pickering, the
Secretary of State, to abandon the advocacy of it.
It was over the organization of the new army that the hostility of
Adams to Hamilton became open and bitter. Washington was selected as
commander-in-chief, but only consented to serve upon the condition
that he should have the choice of the officers who were to rank next
him, and should not be called upon to take an active part until the
army took the field. He recommended to the President that rank in the
Revolutionary army be disregarded and that the three major-generals to
be appointed should be Hamilton, Charles Pinckney, and Knox. This gave
the practical command and the work of the organization to Hamilton.
Adams sent the names to the Senate, in the order suggested by
Washington, and they were promptly confirmed. When he came to signing
the commissions, however, he took the ground that Knox was the senior
officer on account of his rank during the Revolution. Hamilton would
not consent to this arrangement, and all the Federalist leaders,
including members of the cabinet, remonstrated with the President
against it. One of the saddest results of the quarrel was the
alienation from Hamilton of Knox, who had been a friend of many years
and when Secretary of War in Washington's first cabinet had stood
loyally by Hamilton against Jefferson in the controversy over the
financial projects.
Adams at first seemed to grow more stubborn with the protests which
were made against his action. The leaders finally turned to
Washington. The latter informed the President that if the original
agreement as to the rank of the officers was not kept, he should
resign. Adams, with all his stubbornness and bravery, did not dare
defy the country by forcing Washington from the service. He gave way,
and appointed Hamilton to the first place, but the good feeling which
might have been promoted if he had done so at first was replaced on
both sides by bitterness which was never softened.
Hamilton, as the practical head of the army, showed the same abounding
energy and capacity for organization which he had shown at the head of
the Treasury. He drafted a plan for the fortification of New York
harbor, made an apportionment of officers and men among the states,
and drew up projects for the organization of the new army, dealing
with the questions of pay, uniforms, rations, promotions, police in
garrisons and camps, and the many other branches of the service. All
these projects received the cordial approval of Washington. When
Congress met, Hamilton was ready with a bill putting the army upon a
basis which would permit its increase or diminution in future without
changing the form of the organization. In the spring of 1799 he was
providing for the defense of the frontiers and planning the invasion
of Louisiana and the Floridas.
The projects of these invasions of Spanish territory justify a
reference to the continental policy of Hamilton. He was among the
first to maintain that the United States should have complete control
of the valley of the Mississippi, and even during his short term in
the Congress of the Confederation the last resolution which he
presented declared the "navigation of the Mississippi to be a clear
and essential right and to be supported as such." It was left for
Jefferson, Hamilton's great opponent, to carry out his conception of
the acquisition of the Mississippi valley by the purchase of
Louisiana. The admirers of Hamilton credit him with a still wider
vision of the future power of the United States, which was eventually
to bear fruit in the Monroe doctrine and in the celebrated declaration
of Secretary Olney in 1895, that "to-day the United States is
practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law upon the
subjects to which it confines its interposition." Hamilton wrote in
"The Federalist," before the adoption of the Constitution, that "our
situation invites and our situation prompts us to aim at an ascendant
in American affairs."
The firm attitude of the United States towards France had its effect
at Paris. Talleyrand sent an intimation indirectly to President Adams
that the French government would be glad to receive an American envoy.
Again the impetuosity of Adams divided his party and intensified his
quarrel with the leaders who stood around Hamilton. The name of Vans
Murray was sent to the Senate by the President for Minister to
France, without even consulting the cabinet. Many doubted the wisdom
of snapping up so promptly the offer made by Talleyrand, and more were
incensed at the President's method of doing it. There was at first a
strong disposition among the Federalist leaders to defeat the
nomination in the Senate. Hamilton, however, checked the indignation
of his friends and suggested a way out of the difficulty by appointing
a strong commission.
The downfall of the Federal party and the retirement of Hamilton from
the active control of national policy were at hand. The passage of the
alien and sedition laws, arrogating to the federal government
intolerable powers of interference with the rights of the press and of
free speech, was one of the causes contributing to the revulsion of
feeling in favor of the party of Jefferson. Hamilton opposed the first
drafts of these laws as cruel, violent, and tyrannical, but he did not
disapprove their final form. The Federalists carried the congressional
elections of 1798, under the impulse of the feeling against France,
but began to lose ground soon after. As the presidential election of
1800 approached, a desperate struggle was made to hold New York for
Federalism as the only hope of defeating Jefferson and reëlecting
Adams. The New York election went against the administration, and
Hamilton pleaded in vain with Governor Jay to defeat the will of the
people by calling the old legislature together and giving the choice
of presidential electors to the congressional districts. It was
perhaps the most discreditable proposal which ever came from Hamilton,
and was promptly rejected by Jay.
Hamilton's motive was a sincere fear that the country would go to ruin
and the Constitution be endangered by the triumph of the political
school of Jefferson. This might have been the case if it had been the
first election under the Constitution, but Hamilton himself had
builded better than he knew. The financial projects, the national
bank, the suppression of the "Whiskey Insurrection," and the other
measures taken under Washington and Adams had built up a Federal
Union, whose strength could not be seriously shaken by the transfer of
power from one party to another.
With the shadow of defeat hanging over them, the course of the
Federalist leaders seemed to justify the maxim, "Whom the gods destroy
they first make mad." With the utmost need for harmony and unity,
quarrels broke out which would have wrecked the party even if there
had been otherwise some prospect of its success. Adams drove McHenry
and Pickering from his cabinet because they had betrayed his secrets
to Hamilton, and denounced Hamilton and his friends as a British
faction. Hamilton asked in writing for a denial or explanation of the
charge, but was treated with contemptuous silence. As the presidential
election approached, Hamilton scarcely concealed his preference for
Pinckney, who was again to be voted for by the electors along with
Adams. Hamilton had been so badly treated by the President that he
announced his purpose to prepare a pamphlet, exposing the failings of
Adams and vindicating his own position.
His best friends stood aghast at the project and labored with him to
abandon it. Hamilton persevered, however, in the preparation of the
pamphlet. He denounced Adams as a man of disgusting egotism, intense
jealousy, and ungovernable temper, and reviewed in a scathing manner
his entire public career, and especially the recent dismissal of the
secretaries who were friendly to Hamilton. After all this criticism,
Hamilton wound up with the lame conclusion that the electors should
vote equally for Adams and Pinckney, in order to preserve Federal
ascendency. He yielded to the protests of his friends so far as to
keep the circulation of the pamphlet within a small circle, but it was
hardly off the press before a copy was in the hands of Aaron Burr, the
Democratic leader in New York, and was used with effect against the
Federalist President.
The downfall of Federalism came with the presidential election of
1800. Jefferson and Burr were the Democratic candidates for President
and Vice-President. Each was voted for by all the Democratic
electors, giving them an equal number of votes and a majority of the
electoral college. This threw the election into the House of
Representatives, which was Federalist but was compelled by the
provisions of the Constitution to decide between the two leading
candidates, Jefferson and Burr. Some of the Federalists were ready to
stoop to any means for striking at Jefferson, the great representative
of Democratic ideals. If the Federalists in Congress could have
effected a combination with the Democrats from states where Burr was
influential, they might have been able to elect Burr President instead
of Jefferson. But the Democrats, even from New York, voted for
Jefferson, and it was evident that he must be chosen or there would be
no election. Feeling in the country ran high, and there were threats
of violence if the election of Jefferson should be defeated by
intrigue.
Hamilton behaved on this occasion with the high sense of public duty
which marked most of his acts. Familiar as he was with the
unscrupulous methods and doubtful character of Burr in New York
politics, he felt that it would be criminal to put him in office. He
had little reason to love Jefferson, who had filled the ears of
Washington with slurs against himself, but he felt that the election
belonged to Jefferson and that his defeat by a political intrigue
would be a greater menace than his election to the system established
by the Constitution. With Bayard of Delaware, the Federalist leader in
the House, Hamilton threw himself strongly into the contest against
Burr. His advice was not at first followed. The House ballotted from
the eleventh to the sixteenth of February without reaching a choice. A
caucus of the Federalists was then held; it appeared that Jefferson
had given some assurances of a conservative policy in office, the
views of Hamilton and Bayard prevailed, and on February 17, 1801, the
Federalist members from several states withheld their votes, and
Jefferson was elected.
The retirement of the Federalists from power substantially ended the
public services of Hamilton. He continued to watch public events with
interest during the remaining five years of his life, and to be
regarded as the leader of the Federalist party, but the party had
shrunk to a corporal's guard in Congress and the long reign of the
Democratic party had begun, which was to be interrupted during only
two presidential terms until the election of Lincoln in 1860.
Hamilton, therefore, at the age of forty-three, had completed his
constructive work and ceased to influence public affairs except by his
writings and speeches. It might almost be said that this work was done
with the close of the administration of Washington in 1797, and that
his great fame would have shone with brighter lustre if he had not
lived to take part in the later differences and quarrels of the Adams
administration. His life was not without service, however, under
Adams, since his influence over members of the cabinet several times
restrained rash policies, and between the conflicting passions of the
champions of France and of the friends of Great Britain, kept the ship
of state steady upon a safe course.
VIII
HAMILTON'S DEATH AND CHARACTER
The death of Hamilton was in a peculiar sense a part of his public
career. He had never hesitated to denounce in strong terms the public
career and some of the private acts of Aaron Burr. The latter, after
losing the presidency, sought the governorship of New York, and
entered into correspondence with the Federalist leaders in New England
with a view to the formation of a Northern confederacy. Hamilton
succeeded in dividing the Federalist vote in New York so as to give
the election to Lewis, Burr's democratic rival. Burr then determined
to force a personal quarrel upon Hamilton in order to obtain revenge
upon the man who had so often thwarted him. Hamilton had no desire to
fight, but he did not feel able to repudiate the code of the duelist
as it was then accepted among gentlemen.
It was on June 17, 1804, that Colonel Burr, through his intimate
friend Judge Van Ness, demanded an apology for a criticism by Hamilton
which had reached Burr's ears. Several letters were exchanged before
it became plain that Burr was bound to force a quarrel or to humiliate
Hamilton to a point which he knew would not be endured. When Burr's
true purpose became plain to Hamilton, he requested a short time to
close up several important cases for his clients, which were then
pending in the circuit court. The circuit having terminated, Colonel
Burr was informed (Friday, July 6, 1804) that Hamilton would be ready
to meet him at any time after the following Sunday. Both men realized
that the meeting might be fatal, and prepared for it in a
characteristic way. Burr, who because of his fascinating manners was a
great favorite with women, destroyed the compromising letters which he
had received and devoted his spare hours to pistol practice. Hamilton
had fewer such letters to destroy, and was determined not to kill Burr
if it could be avoided. He drew up his will, and prepared a statement
of his reasons for fighting. This statement set forth that he was
opposed to the practice of dueling and had done all that was
practicable, even beyond the demands of a punctilious delicacy, to
secure an accommodation. He then said:--
"I have resolved, if our interview is conducted in the usual manner,
and it pleases God to give me the opportunity, to reserve and throw
away my first fire; and I have thought even of reserving my second,
and thus giving a double opportunity to Colonel Burr to pause and
repent."
The arrangements for the duel were made on Monday, and on the
following Wednesday (July 11) the meeting took place at seven o'clock
in the morning at Weehawken, three miles above Hoboken, on the west
shore of the Hudson. Burr and Hamilton exchanged salutations, the
seconds measured the distance, which was ten paces, and the parties
took their respective stations. At the first word, Burr fired.
Hamilton's weapon was discharged in the air, and he almost instantly
fell, mortally wounded. The ball struck the second or third false rib,
fractured it about the middle, passed through the liver and diaphragm,
and lodged in the first or second lumbar vertebra. Hamilton was at
first thought to be dead, but he revived when put on board the boat
which was in waiting, and was able to utter a few words as he was
borne towards his home. He died on the day after the meeting at two
o'clock in the afternoon. Even in his death he rendered a parting
service to his countrymen, by the revulsion of feeling which was
everywhere aroused against the practice of dueling. The news of his
premature taking off caused a wave of grief and indignation to spread
over the country, differing from the chastened sorrow felt over the
death of Washington, because Washington had met his end full of years
and honors, and in the natural order of nature.
The concluding statement made by Hamilton in the paper which he left
regarding his meeting with Burr gives some clue to his reasons for
fighting. This paragraph ran as follows:--
"To those who, with me, abhorring the practice of dueling, may think
that I ought on no account to have added to the number of bad
examples, I answer that my relative situation, as well in public as
private, enforcing all the considerations which constitute what men of
the world denominate honor, imposed on me (as I thought) a peculiar
necessity not to decline the call. The ability to be in future useful,
whether in resisting mischief or effecting good, in those crises of
our public affairs which seem likely to happen would probably be
inseparable from a conformity with public prejudice in this
particular."
This statement has been construed to mean that Hamilton looked forward
to the time when the Constitution would be assailed by extremists and
he would be called by events to put himself at the head of a movement
for a stronger government, and perhaps even to lead an army. Several
passages in his writings, especially after the downfall of the
Federalists, gave color to the view that he feared an outbreak of
Jacobin violence in America, and the failure of the Constitution in
such an event to resist the strain which would be put upon it. In a
letter to Gouverneur Morris (February 27, 1802), he drops into the
following gloomy forebodings:--
"Mine is an odd destiny. Perhaps no man in the United States has
sacrificed or done more for the present Constitution than myself; and,
contrary to all my anticipations of its fate, as you know, from the
very beginning, I am still laboring to prop the frail and worthless
fabric. Yet I have the murmurs of its friends no less than the curses
of its foes for my reward. What can I do better than withdraw from the
scene? Every day proves to me more and more that this American world
was not made for me."
This mood of despondency was not the usual mood of Hamilton. Much as
he abhorred the sympathy with France shown by the Democrats and the
tendency towards French ideas, his habitual temper was for combination
and action rather than surrender. During the three years which
followed the inauguration of Jefferson, he continued, though busy with
his law practice, to keep up in private life an active correspondence
with Federalist leaders throughout the country, and to advise earnest
efforts to defeat Democratic policies. Only the day before the duel,
in a letter to Sedgwick of Massachusetts, he indirectly condemned a
project which was on foot for a combination of the Northern States
into a separate confederacy. He said that "dismemberment of our empire
will be a clear sacrifice of great positive advantages without any
counterbalancing good, administering no relief to our real disease,
which is Democracy."
Hamilton had fears for the future of the Union under the Constitution
which were much exaggerated by his leanings towards a strong,
self-centred government like that of Great Britain. It is not
unreasonable to believe that he felt that he might again be called
upon to play a great part in politics as the leader of his party, and
that under the prejudices then prevailing he would weaken his
personal influence if he refused a challenge. The public man of that
day who could be charged with cowardice or lack of regard for his
personal honor would suffer much with the masses, if not with the
party leaders, who understood his character and abilities. Hamilton
hardly needed to prove his personal courage to any reasonable man
after his services in the Revolution, including his reckless charge
upon the redoubt at Yorktown, but political foes might forget these
evidences of his character if he should tamely submit to insult from a
political opponent. It is doubtful whether his purpose in meeting Burr
went beyond this submission to the general prejudice in favor of
dueling and the belief on his part that his position as a gentleman
and a political leader required him to accept the challenge.
The high abilities and great services of Hamilton to the new Union
have been sufficiently set forth in these pages to make unnecessary
any elaborate estimate of his character and attainments. His essential
merit was that of a constructive and organizing mind, which saw the
opportunity for action and was equal to the opportunity. Hamilton was
governed to a large extent by his intellect, but having reasoned out a
proposition to be sound and wise, he rode resolutely to its
accomplishment, taking little account of the obstacles in the way. He
was not a closet philosopher, pursuing abstract propositions to their
sources, and searching, through the discordant threads of human
destiny, the ultimate principles of all things; but his mind was keen
and alert in seizing upon reasoning which seemed obviously sound,
laboring in behalf of his convictions, and presenting them with force
and simplicity to others. He found the career for which he was
preëminently fitted in the organization of the financial system and
the consolidation of the Union, under the first administration of
Washington. He was less fitted for the career of a politician in times
less strenuous, or when tact and finesse were more useful in securing
results than clear reasoning and strong argument.
Hamilton was cut off when he had only recently resumed his
professional career, but was making a distinguished record at the bar.
Always a great lawyer, he would soon have accumulated a fortune if he
had lived amid the tempting opportunities of to-day. As it was, his
legal fees were modest and his sudden death left large debts. He
bequeathed the request to his sons that they should assume these debts
if his estate was insufficient, but the gratitude of some of the
wealthy Federalists relieved them of this filial obligation. Hamilton
had six sons, but most of them were already approaching a
self-supporting age when he died. His oldest son had fallen a victim
to the barbarous practice of dueling in a petty quarrel at a theatre
three years before the father's death. The fourth son, Mr. John C.
Hamilton, gave much time to the study of his father's career, and
prepared the Life of Hamilton which has been the source of the later
work of historians. Hamilton's widow, the daughter of General
Schuyler, survived until 1854, when she died at the age of
ninety-seven years and three months.