occurred which entirely changed the situation of affairs and made Mr.
Gallatin's position comparatively easy. The President suddenly
intervened between the two excited parties, and, taking the matter into
his own hands, without consulting his Cabinet, without the knowledge of
any of his friends, on the 19th February, 1799, sent to the Senate the
nomination of William Vans Murray as minister to the French republic.
This nomination fell like a thunder-bolt between the conflicting forces.
At first its full consequences were not understood; only by slow degrees
did it become clear that it meant the expulsion from power of the
Hamiltonian wing of the party and the end of their whole system of
politics. Their war with France, their army, their navy, their
repressive legislation, all fell together. The immediate dangers, which
had threatened civil war, disappeared. A violent schism in the Federal
ranks immediately followed, and the overthrow of that party in the next
election became almost inevitable.
Before these startling changes were fully understood by either party,
the Fifth Congress came to its end, on the 4th March, 1799, and Mr.
Gallatin at once set out for Fayette to rejoin his wife and struggle
with the financial difficulties that now perplexed his mind. After long
hesitation, he had taken on the part of his firm a contract for
supplying arms to the State of Pennsylvania. Like most of his financial
undertakings, this became a source of loss rather than of profit, and it
was probably fortunate that his acceptance of the Treasury Department in
1801 obliged him to dissolve his partnership and wind up its affairs.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
PHILADELPHIA, 7th December, 1798.
... Once more I am fixed at Marache's, and write you from the
fire-corner in my old front room. I wrote you a few lines from
Lancaster, which I hope you have received. I could not make my letter
any longer, and it was with difficulty I could even write at all. I
arrived there after dark, mistook the tavern I intended to have lodged
at, and took my lodgings at an old German Tory who happened to know me.
He was a little tipsy, followed me to my room where I was writing, in
order to have some political conversation with me, and was, at the time
whilst I was writing my letter to you, reading me a lecture to prove to
me that the Hessian fly was improperly so called, that Porcupine had
proven it to be of French extraction, and that it was a just cause of
war against that nation. Saturday night I lodged comfortably at
Downingstown, where many kind inquiries were made about you. The weather
changed during the night, and Sunday we had almost all day a cold,
chilling rain. William Findley joined me in the morning at Downing's,
and we made shift to go that evening as far as Buck. Monday was a fine
day, and at nine o'clock I was at breakfast in Marache's parlor with Mr.
Langdon, who arrived a few minutes after me. Havens joined us the same
day, as did Elmendorf the following and Nicholas yesterday. Dr. Jones is
not yet in town.... The account of my business in Europe is as
followeth: 1st. They have sold my grandfather's estate and paid all his
debts, which (on account of losses of rents, &c.) amounted to about 200
dollars more than what they sold the estate for. The price it sold for
is less than one-half of what it was worth before the French revolution.
But my orders were positive to sell and to pay all the debts, although
they amounted to more than the proceeds of the estate, in order to do
full honor to the memory of my parents. Thus their inheritance has cost
me 200 dollars, instead of leaving me 6000 as they expected, but I could
not have reconciled it to my feelings that any individual had lost a
single half-penny either by me or by them. 2d. My annuities in France,
amounting to about 3000 livres a year (555 dollars), have in four years
produced 369 livres cash (not quite 80 dollars), and the principal,
which at the beginning of the revolution was worth about 5000 dollars,
has been paid off in various species of paper which are worth now
exactly 300 dollars cash. 3d. My share of the Dutch inheritance consists
of 15,000 guilders (6000 dollars) in the Dutch public funds, 333 pounds
sterling in the English South Sea stock, and one-sixth undivided part of
a sugar plantation in Surinam. The effect of the French and Dutch
revolutions on the Dutch funds has been to sink them 60 per cent., so
that my 6000 dollars there are worth only 2000. You may see by that that
the French revolution has cost me exactly 16,000 dollars, to wit: 6000
loss on my grandfather's inheritance, 6000 on the interest and principal
of my annuities in France, and 4000 on the Dutch stock. Yet the Federals
call me a Frenchman, in the French interest and forsooth in the French
pay. Let them clamor. I want no reward but self-approbation,--and yours,
my beloved, too.... On the other hand, my friends' letters are as
affectionate and tender as I could expect, and more than from my long
neglect I deserved. Many things for you. They say that at a former
period they would have insisted on my bringing you to Europe, but think
that Providence has placed us in a better situation. And so do I.... As
to politics, you know the destruction of the French fleet in Egypt. The
news of peace being made by them at Radstat with the Empire and Emperor
is generally believed. That they have found it their interest to change
their measures with all neutrals, and that an honorable accommodation is
in the power of our Administration is, in my opinion, a certain fact. We
are to have the speech only to-morrow (Saturday). I expect it will be
extremely violent against an insidious enemy and a domestic faction.
They (the Federals) avow a design of keeping up a standing army for
_domestic_ purposes, for since the French fleet is destroyed they cannot
even affect to believe that there is any danger of French invasion.
General Washington, Hamilton, Pinckney, are still in town. In their
presence and at the table of Governor Mifflin, Hamilton declared that a
standing army was necessary, that the aspect of Virginia was
threatening, and that he had the most correct and authentic information
that the ferment in the western counties of Pennsylvania was greater
than previous to the insurrection of 1794. You know this to be an
abominable lie. But I suppose that Addison & Co. have informed him that
the people turning out on an election day was a symptom of insurrection.
Pickering says that militia are good for nothing unless they have 50,000
men of regular troops around which to rally. When John Adams was
informed that the Batavian republic had offered their mediation to
accommodate the disputes between this country and France, he answered,
"I do not want any mediation." ...
14th December, 1798.
... The papers will show you the speech of the President more moderate
than we expected. For by offering terms of peace in case France shall
send an ambassador, and I believe they will do it, he has left an
opening to negotiation which was not perhaps desired by all his faction.
If we consider that at the same time he openly disclaims any idea of
alliance with any nation, and if it is also remembered that from the
wisdom of our conduct all our trade now centres in Great Britain, and
that this last nation, being also now the most favored here, derives in
fact greater benefit from our continuing to act in the same manner we
have lately done than from our becoming actually parties to the war; it
will not appear improbable that a refusal on the part of England to
enter into an alliance with us except on such terms as even our
Administration would not or dared not accept, is the true occasion of
the apparent change. I do not enclose the debates, since Bache has
reprinted them from Claypoole. We have thought better to let the answer
to the address go without debate, as we mean, if possible, to avoid
fighting on foreign ground. Their clamor about foreign influence is the
only thing we have to fear, and on domestic affairs exclusively we must
resist them....
21st December, 1798.
... Here government proceeds slowly. We have not yet received the
promised communication of French affairs; we understand that the object
of the Executive party will be to obtain from us the building of six
74-gun ships and something that may increase the number of Federal
volunteers and convert a greater part of the militia into an army. As to
ourselves, we will avoid French questions and foreign ground, and, when
our House is full, make an attempt against the sedition and alien bills.
Resolutions to declare them unconstitutional, _null_ and _void_, are now
before the Legislature of Virginia, and will probably be carried by a
large majority. The amendment to the Constitution (to exclude _me_)
proposed by Massachusetts has also been recommended by the four other
New England States and rejected by Maryland. It will, I believe, be
recommended by Pennsylvania, as the party have got a majority in both
Houses. All that is very ridiculous, for they have nothing to do with it
unless two-thirds of both Houses of Congress shall _first_ recommend it,
and then three-fourths of the States must again take it into
consideration and ratify it. I do not believe it will even be taken
under consideration by Congress, and if it is, it will be rejected.
Poor, weak Governor Henry recommended its adoption to the Legislature
of Maryland in his last speech. They rejected it almost unanimously. The
poor old gentleman is since dead....
4th January, 1799.
... Another year has revolved over our heads, and on a retrospect (how
shall I ever dare to accuse you with want of fortitude or resignation?)
I mark it as one of those in which I have experienced most unhappiness.
Take notice, however, that I do not set it down as one of those in which
I have been least happy.... I think that no man ever felt less
uneasiness from a mere loss of money than I do. The folly of applying a
part of our property to the building of houses, &c., the bad sale of my
lands to Mr. Morris, the final loss of the balance of 3000 dollars he
owed me, the eventual loss of the 1000 dollars I had lent to Badollet in
our company's business and which he has consumed, the almost total
destruction of what I might have called a handsome estate, I mean my
property in Europe, and I may add of my future prospects there,--all
these, although they are losses incurred since our union, have never had
the least effect on my spirits or happiness. To be in debt was at all
times viewed by me with a kind of horror, and that feeling has become so
much the habit of my mind that it has perhaps disarmed me from that
fortitude which is necessary in order to meet any of the accidents of
life; at least I am sure that I cannot exercise it in that particular
instance. Hence the egregious folly, knowing myself as I did, ever to
have entered in business with anybody, so as to put it in the power of
any person to involve me in a situation in which no possible
consideration would have induced me voluntarily to fall. A folly still
more aggravated by the knowledge I had that I could not personally
attend myself, and that the business would be chiefly conducted by a man
whose disposition and turn of mind were unknown to me.... From all these
considerations arises that fluctuation of mind which you cannot but have
observed in my correspondence on the subject of the contract for
arms.... Should I agree to that contract, and should we fail in the
execution from any accident whatever, it is a risk of 26,000 dollars,
that is to say, more than we as a company, and I as an individual, are
worth....
18th January, 1799.
... I begin to think that one of the causes of my opposition to a great
extension of Executive power is that constitutional indolence which,
notwithstanding some share of activity of mind, makes me more fit to
think than to act. I believe that I am well calculated to judge and to
determine what course ought to be followed either in private or public
business. But I must have executive officers who will consult me and act
for me. In that point of view my connection with Bourdillon was
unfortunate.... My eyes are no better. I neither read nor write after
dark, and I go to bed earlier. But every morning when I rise, almost an
hour elapses before I can read without feeling something like fatigue.
In the evening I might read if I chose; it is only out of caution that I
have given it up. Hence I have but very little time to do anything
whatever. For rising at 9, attending Congress from 11 till 3, and, it
being dark almost immediately after dinner, I have literally but one
hour, from 10 to 11, to read or write anything whatever. I have made
this year no statement and have prepared myself for no business in
Congress. As to Congress, we stand on higher ground than during last
session, and can feel that a change of public opinion in the people and
of confidence in the Executive party has taken place....
25th January, 1799.
... I have this day, upon mature consideration, taken the contract for
arms in my own name (this last was necessary, as the application had
been made and reported upon by the quarter-master-general of
Pennsylvania in my name), and have only got inserted as a proviso that I
might deliver the arms either in the western country or in Philadelphia,
so that if any unforeseen accident should prevent a completion of the
contract at home I might be enabled to transfer it to some one person
here, and not run the risk to which I had alluded in my gloomy letter to
you....
1st February, 1799.
... I have very much recovered my spirits, and feel ready to continue my
exertions to extricate ourselves. I think we have well-grounded hopes to
do it within a reasonable time, and your last letter on the success of
the last blast, although it does not dazzle me, induces me to believe
that we may not finally be losers by those glass-works which have caused
me so much anxiety and have so much contributed to involving us in our
difficulties. You ask, "Who _is_ Curtius?" Poor fellow! I am afraid by
this time I can only inform you who he was. For by the last post from
Petersburg, in Virginia, we hear that he was on the point of death by a
pleurisy, and no hopes left of his recovery. His name was John Thompson,
his age only twenty-three, too young to be Giles's successor in the
ensuing Congress, but would have undoubtedly been elected in the
following one. One of the brightest geniuses of Virginia and the United
States; spoke with as much eloquence as he wrote, and remarkable for
extensive information and immense assiduity. His loss will be as severe
to the Republican interest as any we have yet felt. I never saw him, and
he knew me only from report and from my political conduct....
1st March, 1799.
... I have been overwhelmed with business since my last to you. I have
been obliged to correct for the press two speeches on the navy, which I
enclose; you will find, however, that they are not _written_ by me but
by Gales, and although correct in point of sense are not so as to style.
I have also written one on the subject of the alien bill, and in
addition to that I have had our goods to select and sundry political
meetings to attend on the subject of our next election for governor.
Thos. McKean is to be our man, and James Ross the other.... Do you want
a dish of politics till I see you? The President nominated Mr. Murray
minister to France with powers to treat, with instructions that he
should not go from Holland to Paris until he should have received
assurances of being met by a similar envoy; and he sent along with it a
letter from Talleyrand to the secretary of the French legation at the
Hague, in which, referring to some former conversations of the secretary
with Murray, he added that they would lead to a treaty, and that the
French government were ready to admit any American envoy as the
representative of a free, great, and independent nation. Murray, I
guess, wanted to make himself a greater man than he is by going to
France and treating, and wrote privately, it is said, to the President
on the subject. The President, without consulting any of his
Secretaries, made the nomination. The whole party were prodigiously
alarmed. Porcupine and Fenno abused the old gentleman. The nomination
instead of being approved was in the Senate committed to a select
committee. They then attacked so warmly the President that he sent a new
nomination of Ellsworth, P. Henry, and Murray, and none of them to go
until assurances are received _here_ that France will appoint a similar
envoy. Which will postpone the whole business six months at least....
* * * * *
The summer and autumn of 1799 were passed at New Geneva, and when Mr.
Gallatin returned to Philadelphia for the session of 1799-1800, he
brought his wife with him, and they kept house in Philadelphia till the
spring. There were therefore no domestic letters written during this
season, and his repugnance to writing was such that even the letters he
received were chiefly filled with grumbling at his silence. There seems
at no time before 1800 to have been much communication by writing
between Mr. Gallatin and the other Republicans. One or two unimportant
letters from Edward Livingston, Matthew L. Davis, Walter Jones, or Tench
Coxe, are all that remain on Mr. Gallatin's files. The long series of
Mr. Jefferson's notes or letters, most carefully preserved, begin only
in March, 1801. The same is true of Mr. Madison's and Mr. Monroe's. Mr.
Gallatin had no large constituency of highly-educated people to
correspond with him; he was greatly occupied with current business; his
own State of Pennsylvania was the seat of government, and its affairs
were carried on directly by word of mouth. Mr. Jefferson, the leader of
the party, did attempt by correspondence and by personal influence to
produce some sort of combination in its movements, but sharp experience
taught him to remain as quiet as possible, and his relations were
chiefly with his confidential Virginia friends. In this respect the
Federalists were much better organized than their rivals.
[Sidenote: 1800.]
It is unfortunate, too, that the debates of the Sixth Congress, from
December, 1799, to March, 1801, should have been very poorly reported;
indeed, hardly reported at all. Yet the winter of 1799-1800 was so much
less important than those which preceded and followed it, that the loss
may not be very serious. The death of General Washington a few days
after Congress met had a certain momentary effect in diverting the
current of public thought. The attitude of the President occupied the
attention of his own party, and the probability, which approached a
certainty, of peace with France, paralyzed the armaments. Mr. Gallatin
himself was not disposed to press his economies too strongly. "I was
averse," he said in debate, "to the general system of hostility adopted
by this country; but once adopted, it is my duty to support it until
negotiation shall have restored us to our former situation or some
cogent circumstances shall compel a change. At present I think it proper
that the system of hostility and resistance should continue, and I would
vote against any motion to change that system. At the same time I am of
opinion that a naval establishment is too expensive for this country,
but, as we have assumed an attitude of resistance, it would be wrong to
change it at present." His opinion was that a reduction should be made
in the army to the extent of $2,500,000, which would, he thought, still
leave a deficiency of an equal amount to be provided for by a loan.
It was in connection with this motion to reduce the army that Mr. Harper
made a speech, of which the following passage is a portion:
... "Sir, we never need be, and I am persuaded never shall be, taxed as
the English are. A very great portion of their permanent burdens arises
from the interest of a debt which the government most unwisely suffered
to accumulate almost a century, without one serious effort or systematic
plan for its reduction. Her present minister, at the commencement of his
administration in 1783, established a permanent sinking fund, which now
produces very great effects; he also introduced a maxim of infinite
importance in finance which he has steadily adhered to, that whenever a
new loan is made the means shall be provided not only of paying the
interest but of effecting a gradual extinction of the principal. Had
these two ideas been adopted and practised upon at the beginning of the
century which we have just seen close, England might have expended as
much money as she has expended and not owed at this moment a shilling of
debt, except that contracted in the present war. These ideas, profiting
by the example of England, we have adopted and are now practising on. We
have provided a fund which is now in constant operation for the
extinguishment of our debt. This fund will extinguish the foreign debt
in nine years from now, and the six per cent., a large part of our
domestic debt, in eighteen years. I trust we shall adhere to this plan,
and whenever we are compelled by the exigency of our affairs to make a
loan, by providing also for its timely extinguishment, we may always
avoid an inconvenient or burdensome accumulation of debt. We may gather
all the roses of the funding system without its thorns."
This was the theory of the English financiers, of William Pitt and his
scholars, which held possession of the English exchequer throughout the
French war and was only exploded in 1813 by a pamphlet written by a
Scotchman named Hamilton.[47] Mr. Gallatin, however, was never its dupe.
He answered Mr. Harper on the spot; and short as his reply was, it gave
in perfectly clear language the substance of all that fourteen years
later was supposed to be a new discovery in English finance:
... "I know but one way that a nation has of paying her debts, and that
is precisely the same which individuals practise. 'Spend _less_ than you
receive, and you may then apply the surplus of your receipts to the
discharge of your debts. But if you spend _more_ than you receive, you
may have recourse to sinking funds, you may modify them as you please,
you may render your accounts extremely complex, you may give a
scientific appearance to additions and subtractions, you must still
necessarily increase your debt. If you spend more than you receive, the
difference must be supplied by loans; and if out of these receipts you
have set a sum apart to pay your debts, if you have so mortgaged or
disposed of that sum that you cannot apply it to your useful
expenditure, you must borrow so much more in order to meet your
expenditure. If your revenue is nine millions of dollars and your
expenditure fourteen, you must borrow, you must create a new debt of
five millions. But if two millions of that revenue are, under the name
of sinking fund, applicable to the payment of the principal of an old
debt, and pledged for it, then the portion of your revenue applicable to
discharging your current expenditures of fourteen millions is reduced to
seven millions; and instead of borrowing five millions you must borrow
seven; you create a new debt of seven millions, and you pay an old debt
of two. It is still the same increase of five millions of debt. The only
difference that is produced arises from the relative price you give for
the old debt and rate of interest you pay for the new. At present we pay
yearly a part of a domestic debt bearing six per cent. interest, and of
a foreign debt bearing four or five per cent. interest; and we may pay
both of them at par. At the same time we are obliged to borrow at the
rate of eight per cent. At present, therefore, that nominal sinking fund
increases our debt, or at least the annual interest payable on our
debt." ...
The two speeches made by Mr. Harper and Mr. Gallatin on this occasion,
the 10th January, 1800, were very able, and are even now interesting
reading; but they find their proper place in the Annals of Congress, and
the question of the reduction of the army was to be settled by other
events. A matter of a very different nature absorbed the attention of
Congress during the months of February and March. This was the once
famous case of Jonathan Bobbins, a British sailor claiming to be an
American citizen, who, having committed a murder on board the British
ship-of-war Hermione, on the high seas, had escaped to Charleston, and
under the 27th article of the British treaty had been delivered up by
the United States government. At that time extradition was a novelty in
our international relations. The President was violently attacked for
the surrender, and a long debate ensued in Congress. Mr. Gallatin spoke
at considerable length, but his speech is not reported, and although
voluminous notes, made by him in preparing it, are among his papers, it
is impossible to say what portion of these notes was actually used in
the speech. The triumphs of the contest, however, did not fall to him or
to his associates, but to John Marshall, who followed him, and who, in a
speech that still stands without a parallel in our Congressional
debates, replied to him and to them. There is a tradition in Virginia
that after Marshall concluded his speech, the Republican members pressed
round Gallatin, urging with great earnestness that it should be answered
at once, and that Gallatin replied in his foreign accent, "Gentlemen,
answer it yourselves; for my part I think it unanswerable," laying the
stress on the antepenultimate syllable. The story is probably true. At
all events, Mr. Gallatin made no answer, and Mr. Marshall's argument
settled the dispute by an overwhelming vote.
But the coming Presidential election, one of the most interesting in our
history, now cast its shadow in advance over the whole political field.
The two parties were so equally divided that the vote of New York City
would probably decide the result, and for this reason the city election
of May, 1800, was the turning-point of American political history in
that generation. There the two party champions, Hamilton and Burr, were
pitted against each other. Commodore Nicholson was hotly engaged, and
Edward Livingston, Matthew L. Davis, and the other Republican
politicians of New York became persons of uncommon interest. Mr.
Gallatin, as leader of the Republican party in Congress and as closely
connected by marriage with the Republican interests of New York City,
was kept accurately informed of every step in the political campaign. He
himself was in constant communication with Matthew L. Davis, who was
Burr's most active friend then and ever afterwards. Davis's letters are
now of historical importance, and may be compared with the narrative in
his subsequent Life of Burr:
MATTHEW L. DAVIS TO GALLATIN.
NEW YORK, March 29, 1800.
DEAR SIR,--I yesterday saw a family letter of yours developing the views
of the Federal party; with many of the facts contained in that letter I
was previously acquainted, but I was in some measure at a loss to
account for certain proceedings of the supreme Legislature; this letter
completely unmasks the party. Your opinion respecting the importance of
our election for members of Assembly in this city is the prevailing
opinion among our Republican friends. You ask, "What are your
prospects?" All things considered, they are favorable. We have been so
much deceived already that a prudent man perhaps will not hazard an
opinion but with extreme diffidence. At the request of Mr. Nicholson, I
shall briefly state the leading features of our plan.
You are already acquainted with the circumstances which so much operated
against us at the last election: the tale of the ship Ocean, Captain
Kemp; the Manhattan Company; the contemplated French invasion; the youth
of many of our candidates, &c., &c. These things, united with bank
influence and bank jealousy, had a most astonishing effect. The bank
influence is now totally destroyed; the Manhattan Company will in all
probability operate much in our favor; and it is hoped the crew of the
Ocean will not _again_ be murdered; but this is not all: a variety of
trifling acts passed during the session of the former Legislature were
also brought forward and adapted to the purposes of the party. Menaces
from the Federal party had also a great influence. I think they will not
dare to use them at the approaching election.
The Federalists have had a meeting and determined on their Senators;
they have also appointed a committee to nominate suitable characters for
the Assembly. Out of the thirteen that now represent the city, eleven
decline standing again. They are much perplexed to find men. Mr.
Hamilton is very busy, more so than usual, and no exertions will be
wanting on his part. Fortunately, Mr. Hamilton will have at this
election a most powerful opponent in Colonel Burr. This gentleman is
extremely active; it is his opinion that the Republicans had better not
publish a ticket or call a meeting until the Federalists have completed
theirs. Mr. Burr is arranging matters in such a way as to bring into
operation all the Republican interest. He is not to be on our
nomination, but is to represent one of the country counties. At our
first meeting he has pledged himself to come forward and address the
people in firm and manly language on the importance of the election and
the momentous crisis at which we have arrived. This he has never done at
any former election, and I anticipate great advantages from the effect
it will produce.
In addition to this, he has taken great trouble to ascertain what
characters will be most likely to run well, and by his address has
procured the assent of eleven or twelve of our most influential friends
to stand as candidates. Among the number are:
George Clinton (late governor).
Henry Rutgers (colonel).
Sam. Osgood.
Jno. Broome.
Geo. Warner, Sen.
Elias Nexsen.
Philip J. Arcularius.
Thos. Storm.
Ezek. Robbins.
Sam. L. Mitchill.
Jno. Swartwout.
On the whole, I believe we shall offer to our fellow-citizens the most
formidable list ever offered them by any party in point of morality,
public and private virtue, local and general influence, &c., &c. From
this ticket and the exertions that indisputably will be made we have a
right to expect much, and I trust we shall be triumphant. If we carry
this election, it may be ascribed principally to Colonel Burr's
management and perseverance. Hamilton fears his influence; the party
seem in a state of consternation, while ours possess more than usual
spirits. Such are our prospects. We shall open the campaign under the
most favorable impressions, and headed by a man whose intrigue and
management is most astonishing, and who is more dreaded by his enemies
than any other character in our [----]. Excuse, sir, this hasty scrawl;
I have no time to copy....
MATTHEW L. DAVIS TO GALLATIN.
NEW YORK, April 15, 1800.
Tuesday night, 11 o'clock.
DEAR SIR,--Well knowing the importance of the approaching election in
this city, and consequently the anxiety which you and every friend to
our country must experience on the subject, I am highly gratified in
affording you such information on the occasion as will be interesting
and pleasing. The eyes of our friends and of our enemies are turned
towards us; all unite in the opinion that if the city and county of New
York elect Republicans they will most assuredly have it in their power
to appoint Republican electors for President and Vice-President. The
counties of Westchester and Orange have selected the most respectable
and influential advocates for the rights of the people their respective
towns afforded. But of our adversaries in this city. This evening,
agreeably to public notice, a meeting was held; the assembly was small,
and not attended by either Colonels Hamilton or Troup, two gentlemen who
are generally most officious on these occasions. I have already stated
to you in a former letter that jealousies and schisms existed among
them. This fact has not only been evinced in their numerous caucuses,
but they have been doomed to the mortification of bringing the matter
this night before the public. A few of their most active men had
determined on Philip Brazier as a candidate for the Assembly. Mr.
Brazier is a man of very little influence and very limited
understanding; he is, however, a Republican, but composed of such
pliable materials as will enable his leaders to mould him to almost any
form. A large majority of the Federal committee were opposed to him, but
his adherents possessing stronger lungs and being vociferous at one of
their caucuses, he was carried.
A division took place in the same committee on another subject, viz.,
who was the most proper candidate for Congress. Some supported Colonel
J. Morton, while others as furiously supported William W. Woolsey; both
gentlemen consented to stand; as the committee could not agree owing to
their divisions, it was resolved to report both candidates to the
meeting and let them make their election. Accordingly the two names were
publicly brought forward this night, and after much confusion and
litigation it was determined by a majority of only 15 or 20 that Jacob
Morton should be the candidate for Congress, while the adherents of Mr.
Woolsey bawled aloud, "Morton shall not be the man." Next came the
Assembly ticket. It was agreed to without opposition, excepting in the
case of Mr. Brazier. He was again violently opposed, and a large
majority appeared against him; yet the chairman being a military
commander (Brigadier-General Jared Hughes), he decided that it was
carried in favor of Mr. Brazier. In this temper the meeting separated.
So much for the friends of good order and regular government.
FEDERAL TICKET.
_For Congress._
Jacob Morton, Esq.
_For Assemblymen._
Peter Schermerhorn, ship-chandler.
Jno. Bogert, baker.
Gabriel Furman, nothing. The man who whipped the ferryman in Bridewell,
and on account of whom Kettletas was imprisoned.
John Croleus, Jun., potter.
Philip Ten Eyck, bookseller, late clerk, present partner of Hugh Gaine.
Isaac Burr, grocer.
Samuel Ward, a bankrupt endeavoring to settle his affairs by paying 000
in the pound.
C. D. Colden, assistant attorney-general.
James Tyler, shoemaker.
Philip Brazier, lawyer.
N. Evertson, lawyer.
Isaac Sebring, grocer, one of the firm Sebring & Van Wyck.
Abraham Russel, mason.
* * * * *
A private meeting of our friends was held this evening at the house of
Mr. Brockholst Livingston; about forty attended; we determined on
calling the Republicans together on Thursday evening next, and for that
purpose sent advertisements to the different printers. The prevailing
opinion was that we should appoint a committee at that meeting to
withdraw for half an hour, form a ticket, and return and report, so
that on Friday morning we shall most probably publish. Never have I
observed such an union of sentiment, so much zeal, and so general a
determination to be active. Indeed, on presenting the Federal ticket to
our meeting (for we had friends who attended theirs) all was joy and
enthusiasm. Our ticket is complete, and stands as follows:
_Congress._
Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill.
_Assembly._
Geo. Clinton.
Horatio Gates.
Henry Rutgers.
Thomas Storm.
Samuel Osgood.
Geo. Warner, Senior.
John Broome.
Philip J. Arcularius.
Ezekiel Robins.
Brockholst Livingston.
John Swartwout.
James Hunt.
Elias Nexsen.
The late hour at which I write this will be a sufficient apology for the
scrawl....
MATTHEW L. DAVIS TO GALLATIN.
Thursday night, 12 o'clock.
May 1, 1800.
REPUBLICANISM TRIUMPHANT.
DEAR SIR,--It affords me the highest gratification to assure you of the
complete success of the Republican Assembly ticket in this city. This
day the election closed, and several of the wards have been canvassed
for Congress; the result as follows:
For Mitchill. For Morton.
First Ward, majority, -- 76
Second do., do., -- 258
Third do., not canvassed.
Probable majority, -- 250
Fourth do., canvassed majority, 72 --
Fifth do., not canvassed.
Probable majority, 100 --
Sixth do., canvassed majority, 432 --
---- ----
604 584
Seventh do. do. do.
For Van Cortlandt, 312.
Thus, sir, it is probable Mr. Mitchill is elected a member of Congress,
and no doubt can remain but our whole Assembly, ticket is elected by a
majority of three hundred and fifty votes. To Colonel Burr we are
indebted for everything. This day has he remained at the poll of the
Seventh Ward ten hours without intermission. Pardon this hasty scrawl; I
have not ate for fifteen hours.
With the highest respect, &c.
P.S.--Since writing the above I learn from undoubted authority that Mr.
Mitchill is elected by upwards of one hundred majority.
MATTHEW L, DAVIS TO GALLATIN.
NEW YORK, May 5, 1800.
DEAR SIR,--I have already informed you of the complete triumph which we
have obtained in this city,--a triumph which I trust will have some
influence in promoting the rights of the people and establishing their
liberties on a permanent basis. Our country has arrived at an awful
crisis. The approaching election for President and Vice-President will
decide in some measure on our future destiny. The result will clearly
evince whether a republican form of government is worth contending for.
On this account the eyes of all America have been turned towards the
city and county of New York. The management and industry of Colonel Burr
has effected all that the friends of civil liberty could possibly
desire.
Having accomplished the task assigned us, we in return feel a degree of
anxiety as to the characters who will probably be candidates for those
two important offices. I believe it is pretty generally understood that
Mr. Jefferson is contemplated for President. But who is to fill the
Vice-President's chair? I should be highly gratified in hearing your
opinion on this subject; if secrecy is necessary, you may rely on it;
and, sir, as I have no personal views, you will readily excuse my
stating the present apparent wishes and feelings of the Republican party
in this city.
It is generally expected that the Vice-President will be selected from
the State of New York. Three characters only can be contemplated, viz.,
Geo. Clinton, Chancellor Livingston, and Colonel Burr.
The first seems averse to public life, and is desirous of retiring from
all its cares and toils. It was therefore with great difficulty he was
persuaded to stand as candidate for the State Legislature. A personal
interview at some future period will make you better acquainted with
this transaction. In addition to this, Mr. Clinton grows old and infirm.
To Mr. Livingston there are objections more weighty. The family
attachment and connection; the prejudices which exist not only in this
State, but throughout the United States, against the name; but, above
all, the doubts which are entertained of his firmness and decision in
trying periods. You are well acquainted with certain circumstances that
occurred on the important question of carrying the British treaty into
effect. On that occasion Mr. L. exhibited a timidity that never can be
forgotten. Indeed, it had its effect when he was a candidate for
governor, though it was not generally known.
Colonel Burr is therefore the most eligible character, and on him the
eyes of our friends in this State are fixed as if by sympathy for that
office. Whether he would consent to stand I am totally ignorant, and
indeed I pretend not to judge of the policy farther than it respects
this State. If he is elected to the office of V. P., it would awaken so
much of the zeal and pride of our friends in this State as to secure us
a Republican governor at the next election (April, 1801). If he is not
nominated, many of us will experience much chagrin and disappointment.
If, sir, you do not consider it improper, please inform me by post the
probable arrangement on this subject. I feel very anxious. Any
information you may wish relative to our election I will at all times
cheerfully communicate.
With sentiments of respect, &c.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
PHILADELPHIA, 6th May, 1800.
--The New York election has engrossed the whole attention of all of us,
meaning by us Congress and the whole city. Exultation on our side is
high; the other party are in low spirits. Senate could not do any
business on Saturday morning when the intelligence was received, and
adjourned before twelve. As to the probabilities of election, they stand
as followeth:
Adams. Doubtful Jefferson.
New Hampshire 6 -- --
Massachusetts 14 2 --
Connecticut 9 -- --
Rhode Island 4 -- --
Vermont 4 -- --
New York -- -- 12
New Jersey -- 7 --
Pennsylvania -- -- --
Delaware -- 3 --
Maryland 3 5 2
Virginia -- -- 21
Kentucky -- -- 4
N. Carolina 2 4 6
S. Carolina -- -- 8
Tennessee -- -- 3
Georgia -- -- 4
--- --- ---
42 21 60
There are 123 electors, supposing Pennsylvania to have no vote. Of
these, 62 make a majority. We count 60 for Jefferson certain. If we
therefore get only 2 out of the 21 doubtful votes, he must be elected.
Probabilities are therefore highly in our favor. Last Saturday evening
the Federal members of Congress had a large meeting, in which it was
agreed that there was no chance of carrying Mr. Adams, but that he must
still be supported ostensibly in order to carry still the votes in New
England, but that the only chance was to take up ostensibly as
Vice-President, but really as President, a man from South Carolina, who,
being carried everywhere except in his own State along with Adams, and
getting the votes of his own State with Jefferson, would then be
elected. And for that purpose, abandoning Thomas Pinckney, they have
selected General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. I think they will succeed
neither in S. Carolina in getting the votes for him, nor in New England
in making the people jilt Adams. Who is to be our Vice-President,
Clinton or Burr? This is a serious question which I am delegated to
make, and to which I must have an answer by Friday next. Remember this
is important, and I have engaged to procure correct information of the
wishes of the New York Republicans....
JAMES NICHOLSON TO GALLATIN.
May 6, 1800.
DEAR SIR,--My situation and health did not permit my writing you during
our election, but supposed you received information from Mr. Warner, who
I requested would take the task off my hands. That business has been
conducted and brought to issue in so miraculous a manner that I cannot
account for it but from the intervention of a Supreme Power and our
friend Burr the agent. The particulars I have since the election
understood, and which justifies my suspicion. His generalship,
perseverance, industry, and execution exceeds all description, so that I
think I can say he deserves anything and everything of his country; but
he has done it at the risk of his life. This I will explain to you when
I have the pleasure of seeing you. I am informed he is coming on to you.
Perhaps he will be the bearer of this. I shall conclude by recommending
him as a general far superior to your Hambletons;[48] as much so as a
man is to a boy; and I have but little doubt this State, through his
means and planning, will be as Republican in the appointment of electors
as the State of Virginia.
I have not been able since my being here before to-day to visit my
friend and neighbor, Governor Clinton. I understand his health and
spirits are both returning. His name at the head of our ticket had a
most powerful effect. I cannot inform you what either Burr's or his
expectations are, but will write you more particularly about the
governor after my visit....
JAMES NICHOLSON TO GALLATIN.
GREENWICH LANE, May the 7th, 1800.
DEAR SIR,--I have conversed with the two gentlemen mentioned in your
letter. George Clinton, with whom I first spoke, declined. His age, his
infirmities, his habits and attachment to retired life, in his opinion,
exempt him from active life. He (Governor Clinton) thinks Colonel Burr
is the most suitable person and perhaps the only man. Such is also the
opinion of all the Republicans in this quarter that I have conversed
with; their confidence in A. B. is universal and unbounded. Mr. Burr,
however, appeared averse to be the candidate. He seemed to think that no
arrangement could be made which would be observed to the southward;
alluding, as I understood, to the last election, in which he was
certainly ill used by Virginia and North Carolina.
I believe he may be induced to stand if assurances can be given that the
Southern States will act fairly.
Colonel Burr may certainly be governor of this State at the next
election if he pleases, and a number of his friends are very unwilling
that he should be taken off for Vice-President, thinking the other the
most important office. Upon the whole, however, we think he ought to be
the man for V. P., if there is a moral certainty of success. But his
name must not be played the fool with. I confidently hope you will be
able to smooth over the business of the last election, and if Colonel
Burr is properly applied to, I think he will be induced to stand. At any
rate we, the Republicans, will make him.
MRS. GALLATIN TO HER HUSBAND.
7th May, 1800.
... Papa has answered your question about the candidate for
Vice-President. Burr says he has no confidence in the Virginians; they
once deceived him, and they are not to be trusted....
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
12th May, 1800.
... We do not adjourn to-day, but certainly shall to-morrow.... We had
last night a very large meeting of Republicans, in which it was
unanimously agreed to support Burr for Vice-President....
* * * * *
Between the adjournment of Congress in May and his departure for the
western country in July, Mr. Gallatin prepared and published another
pamphlet on the national finances, which was his contribution to the
canvass for the Presidential election of that year. Mr. Wolcott, the
Secretary of the Treasury, in a letter to the Committee of Ways and
Means, dated January 22, 1800, had expressed the opinion that the
principal of the debt had increased $1,516,338 since the establishment
of the government in 1789. A committee of the House, on the other hand,
had on May 8 reported that the debt had been diminished $1,092,841
during the same period. Mr. Gallatin entered into a critical examination
of the methods by which these results were obtained, and then proceeded
to test them by applying his own method of comparing the receipts and
expenditures. His conclusion was that the nominal debt had been
increased by $9,462,264. Two millions of this increase, however, was
caused by unnecessary assumption of State debts. But allowing for funds
actually acquired by government and susceptible of being applied to
reduction of debt, the nominal increase reduced itself to $6,657,319.
And since all these results were more or less nominal, he devoted the
larger part of his work to an elaborate and searching investigation into
the actual receipts and expenditures of the past ten years.
[Sidenote: 1801.]
The summer of 1800 was again passed in the western country; the last
summer which Mr. Gallatin was to pass there for more than twenty years.
With the autumn came the Presidential election, and the dreaded
complication occurred by which Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr, having
received an equal number of electoral votes, became rival candidates for
the choice of the House of Representatives. The session of 1800-1801 was
almost wholly occupied in settling this dispute. The whole Federalist
party insisted upon voting for Burr, and, although not able to elect
him, they were able to delay for several days the election of Mr.
Jefferson. Mr. Gallatin's position as leader of the Republicans in the
House, and in a manner responsible for the selection of Mr. Burr as
candidate for the Vice-Presidency, was one of controlling influence and
authority. His letters to his wife give a clear picture of the scene at
Washington as he saw it from day to day, but there are one or two points
on which some further light is thrown by his papers.
He rarely expressed his opinions of the men with whom he acted. He never
expressed any opinion about Colonel Burr. Yet he knew that the
Virginians distrusted Burr, and even in his own family, where Colonel
Burr was probably warmly admired, there were moments when their faith
was shaken. The following letter is an example:
MARIA NICHOLSON TO MRS. GALLATIN.
NEW YORK, February 5, 1801.
... As I know you are interested for Theodosia Burr, I must tell you
that Mr. Alston has returned from Carolina, it is said, to be married to
her this month. She accompanied her father to Albany, where the
Legislature are sitting; he followed them the next day. I am sorry to
hear these accounts. Report does not speak well of him; it says that he
is rich, but he is a great dasher, dissipated, ill-tempered, vain, and
silly. I know that he is ugly and of unprepossessing manners. Can it be
that the father has sacrificed a daughter so lovely to affluence and
influential connections? They say that it was Mr. A. who gained him the
8 votes in Carolina at the present election, and that he is not yet
relieved from pecuniary embarrassments. Is this the man, think ye? Has
Mr. G. a favorable opinion of this man of talents, or not? He loves his
child. Is he so devoted to the customs of the world as to encourage such
a match?...
* * * * *
Colonel Burr himself overacted his part. For some private reason Mr.
Gallatin was unable to take his seat when Congress met, and it was not
till January 12, 1801, that he at last appeared in Washington, to which
place the government had been transferred during the summer. The
contest, which was to decide the election, took place a month later.
Colonel Burr was at New York, about to go up to Albany to perform his
duties as member of the Legislature. He felt the necessity of reassuring
the minds of his friends at Washington, and he did so from time to time
with a degree of off-hand simplicity very suggestive of ulterior
thoughts. His first letter to Gallatin is as follows:
AARON BURR TO GALLATIN.
NEW YORK, 16th January, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--I am heartily glad of your arrival at your post. You were
never more wanted, for it was absolutely vacant.
Livingston will tell you my sentiments on the proposed usurpation, and
indeed of all the other occurrences and projects of the day.
The short letter of business which I wrote you may be answered to
Dallas; anything you may wish to communicate to me may be addressed this
city. Our postmaster and that at Albany are "honorable men."
Yours, A. B.
The next is written from Albany, in reply to a letter from Mr. Gallatin,
which has not been preserved:
AARON BURR TO GALLATIN.
ALBANY, 12th February, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--My letters for ten days past had assured me that all was
settled and that no doubt remained but that J. would have 10 or 11 votes
on the first trial; I am, therefore, utterly surprised by the contents
of yours of the 3d. In case of usurpation, by law, by President of
Senate pro tem., or in any other way, my opinion is definitively made
up, and it is known to S. S. and E. L. On that opinion I shall act in
defiance of all timid, temporizing projects.
On the 21st I shall be in New York, and in Washington the 3d March at
the utmost; sooner if the intelligence which I may receive at New York
shall be such as to require my earlier presence.
Mr. Montfort was strongly recommended to me by General Gates and Colonel
Griffin. At their request I undertook to direct his studies in pursuit
of the law. He left New York suddenly and apparently in some agitation,
without assigning to me any cause and without disclosing to me his
intentions or views, or even whither he was going, except that he
proposed to pass through Washington. Nor had I any reason to believe
that I should ever see him again. You may communicate this to Mr. J.,
who has also written me something about him.
Yours, A. B.
Mr. Gallatin in the last years of his life came upon this letter, and
endorsed on it, in a hand trembling with age, the following words with a
significant mark of interrogation:
"had thought that Jefferson would be elected on first ballot by 10 or 11
votes (out of 16)?"
Burr's last letter in this connection was written from Philadelphia
after the result was decided:
BURR TO GALLATIN.
PHILADELPHIA, February 25, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--The four last letters of your very amusing history of
balloting met me at New York on Saturday evening. I thank you much for
the obliging attention, and I join my hearty congratulations on the
auspicious events of the 17th. As to the infamous slanders which have
been so industriously circulated, they are now of little consequence,
and those who have believed them will doubtless blush at their own
weakness.
The Feds boast aloud that they have compromised with Jefferson,
particularly as to the retaining certain persons in office. Without the
assurance contained in your letter, this would gain no manner of credit
with me. Yet in spite of my endeavors it has excited some anxiety among
our friends in New York. I hope to be with you on the 1st or 2d March.
Adieu.
These letters from Mr. Burr suggest much more than they intentionally
express; for if they show that Burr still felt the weight of that
Virginia mistrust which had four years previously cost him his place as
next in succession to Mr. Jefferson, they show, too, that his confidence
in Virginia was scarcely greater than when in May, 1800, he told
Commodore Nicholson that the Virginians had once deceived him and were
not to be trusted. There was a sting in his remark about the anxiety
among his friends in New York. In spite of his efforts to the contrary,
they still thought that Mr. Jefferson might have made a bargain with the
Federalists. The letters also show that Mr. Gallatin at the very moment
denied the existence of any such bargain; with his usual disposition to
conciliate, he seems to have coupled together the charges against both
candidates as equal slanders. Whether Mr. Gallatin was admitted so far
into the confidence of his chief as to know all that was said and done
in reference to this election in February, 1801, is a question that may
remain open; but that something passed between Mr. Jefferson and General
Smith which was regarded by the Federalists as a bargain, is not to be
denied. Fortunately, Mr. Gallatin lived to hear all the discussions
which rose long afterwards on this subject, and almost the last letter
he ever wrote was written to record his understanding of the matter:
GALLATIN TO HENRY A. MUHLENBERG.
NEW YORK, May 8, 1848.
DEAR SIR,--A severe cold, which rendered me incapable of attending to
any business, has prevented an earlier answer to your letter of the 12th
of April.
Although I was at the time probably better acquainted with all the
circumstances attending Mr. Jefferson's election than any other person,
and I am now the only surviving witness, I could not, without bestowing
more time than I can spare, give a satisfactory account of that ancient
transaction. A few observations must suffice.
The only cause of real apprehension was that Congress should adjourn
without making a decision, but without usurping any powers. It was in
order to provide against that contingency that I prepared myself a plan
which did meet with the approbation of our party. No appeal whatever to
physical force was contemplated, nor did it contain a single particle of
revolutionary spirit. In framing this plan Mr. Jefferson had not been
consulted, but it was communicated to him, and he fully approved it.
But it was threatened by some persons of the Federal party to provide by
law that, if no election should take place, the executive power should
be placed in the hands of some public officer. This was considered as a
revolutionary act of usurpation, and would, I believe, have been put
down by force if necessary. But there was not the slightest intention or
suggestion to call a convention to reorganize the government and to
amend the Constitution. That such a measure floated in the mind of Mr.
Jefferson is clear from his letters of February 15 and 18, 1801, to Mr.
Monroe and Mr. Madison. He may have wished for such measure, or thought
that the Federalists might be frightened by the threat.
Although I was lodging in the same house with him, he never mentioned it
to me. I did not hear it even suggested by any one. That Mr. Jefferson
had ever thought of such plan was never known to me till after the
publication of his correspondence, and I may aver that under no
circumstances would that plan have been resorted to or approved by the
Republican party. Anti-federalism had long been dead, and the
Republicans were the most sincere and zealous supporters of the
Constitution. It was that which constituted their real strength.
I always thought that the threatened attempt to make a President by law
was impracticable. I do not believe that, if a motion had been made to
that effect, there would have been twenty votes for it in the House. It
was only intended to frighten us, but it produced an excitement
out-of-doors in which some of our members participated. It was
threatened that if any man should be thus appointed President by law and
accept the office, he would instantaneously be put to death. It was
rumored, and though I did not know it from my own knowledge I believe it
was true, that a number of men from Maryland and Virginia, amounting, it
was said, to fifteen hundred (a number undoubtedly greatly exaggerated),
had determined to repair to Washington on the 4th of March for the
purpose of putting to death the usurping pretended President.
It was under those circumstances that it was deemed proper to
communicate all the facts to Governor McKean, and to submit to him the
propriety of having in readiness a body of militia, who might, if
necessary, be in Washington on the 3d of March for the purpose not of
promoting, but of preventing civil war and the shedding of a single drop
of blood. No person could be better trusted on such a delicate subject
than Governor McKean. For he was energetic, patriotic, and at the same
time a most steady, stern, and fearless supporter of law and order. It
appears from your communication that he must have consulted General
Peter Muhlenberg on that subject. But subsequent circumstances, which
occurred about three weeks before the 4th of March, rendered it
altogether unnecessary to act upon the subject.
There was but one man whom I can positively assert to have been
decidedly in favor of the attempt to make a President by law. This was
General Henry Lee, of Virginia, who, as you know, was a desperate
character and held in no public estimation. I fear from the general
tenor of his conduct that Mr. Griswold, of Connecticut, in other
respects a very worthy man, was so warm and infatuated a partisan that
he might have run the risk of a civil war rather than to see Mr.
Jefferson elected. Some weak and inconsiderate members of the House
might have voted for the measure, but I could not designate any one.
On the day on which we began balloting for President we knew positively
that Mr. Baer, of Maryland, was determined to cast his vote for Mr.
Jefferson rather than that there should be no election; and his vote was
sufficient to give us that of Maryland and decide the election. I was
certain from personal intercourse with him that Mr. Morris, of Vermont,
would do the same, and thus give us also the vote of that State. There
were others equally prepared, but not known to us at the time. Still,
all those gentlemen, unwilling to break up their party, united in the
attempt, by repeatedly voting for Mr. Burr, to frighten or induce some
of us to vote for Mr. Burr rather than to have no election. This
balloting was continued several days for another reason. The attempt was
made to extort concessions and promises from Mr. Jefferson as the
conditions on which he might be elected. One of our friends, who was
very erroneously and improperly afraid of a defection on the part of
some of our members, undertook to act as an intermediary, and
confounding his own opinions and wishes with those of Mr. Jefferson,
reported the result in such a manner as gave subsequently occasion for
very unfounded surmises.
It is due to the memory of James Bayard, of Delaware, to say that
although he was one of the principal and warmest leaders of the Federal
party and had a personal dislike for Mr. Jefferson, it was he who took
the lead and from pure patriotism directed all those movements of the
sounder and wiser part of the Federal party which terminated in the
peaceable election of Mr. Jefferson.
Mr. Jefferson's letter to Mr. Monroe dated February 15, 1801, at the
very moment when the attempts were making to obtain promises from him,
proves decisively that he made no concessions whatever. But both this
letter, that to Mr. Madison of the 18th of February, and some others of
preceding dates afford an instance of that credulity, so common to warm
partisans, which makes them ascribe the worst motives, and occasionally
acts of which they are altogether guiltless, to their opponents. There
was not the slightest foundation for suspecting the fidelity of the
post....
* * * * *
This interesting letter also suggests something more than appears on its
surface. Evidently Mr. Gallatin meant to intimate, with as much
distinctness as was decent, his opinion that it was not Mr. Jefferson
who guided or controlled the result of this election, and that
altogether too much importance was attached to what Mr. Jefferson did
and said. The election belonged to the House of Representatives, where
not Mr. Jefferson but Mr. Gallatin was leader of the party and directed
the strategy. The allusion to General Samuel Smith's intervention is
very significant. Evidently Mr. Gallatin considered General Smith to
have been guilty of what was little better than an impertinence in
having intruded between the House and Mr. Jefferson with "erroneous and
improper" fears of the action of men for whom Mr. Gallatin himself was
responsible. This was the first occasion on which the Smiths crossed
Gallatin's path, and when he looked back upon it at the end of fifty
years it seemed an omen.
Mr. Gallatin considered himself to be, and doubtless was, the effective
leader in this struggle. He marshalled the forces; he fought the battle;
he made the plans, and in making them he did not even consult Mr.
Jefferson, but simply obtained his assent to what had already received
the assent of his followers in the House. These plans, alluded to in the
Muhlenberg letter, are printed in Mr. Gallatin's Writings.[49] They were
framed to cover every emergency. If the Federalists, acting on the
assumption of a vacancy in the Presidential office, undertook to fill
that vacancy by law, the Republicans were to refuse recognition of such
a President and to agree on a uniform mode of not obeying the orders of
the usurper, and of discriminating between those and the laws which
should be suffered to continue in operation. In case only a new election
were the object desired, without usurpation of power in the mean while,
submission was on the whole preferable to resistance. An assumption of
executive power by the Republicans in any mode not recognized by the
Constitution was discouraged, and a reliance on the next Congress was
preferred in any case short of actual usurpation. The idea of a
convention to reorganize the government was not even suggested.
The crisis lasted until the 17th February, when the Federalists gave way
and Mr. Jefferson's election was quietly effected. With this event Mr.
Gallatin's career in Congress closed.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
WASHINGTON CITY, 15th January, 1801.
... I arrived here only on Saturday last. The weather was intensely cold
the Saturday I crossed the Alleghany Mountains, and afterwards I was
detained one day and half by rain and snow.... Our local situation is
far from being pleasant or even convenient. Around the Capitol are seven
or eight boarding-houses, one tailor, one shoemaker, one printer, a
washing-woman, a grocery shop, a pamphlets and stationery shop, a small
dry-goods shop, and an oyster house. This makes the whole of the Federal
city as connected with the Capitol. At the distance of three-fourths of
a mile, on or near the Eastern Branch, lie scattered the habitations of
Mr. Law and of Mr. Carroll, the principal proprietaries of the ground,
half a dozen houses, a very large but perfectly empty warehouse, and a
wharf graced by not a single vessel. And this makes the whole intended
commercial part of the city, unless we include in it what is called the
Twenty Buildings, being so many unfinished houses commenced by Morris
and Nicholson, and perhaps as many undertaken by Greenleaf, both which
groups lie, at the distance of half-mile from each other, near the mouth
of the Eastern Branch and the Potowmack, and are divided by a large
swamp from the Capitol Hill and the little village connected with it.
Taking a contrary direction from the Capitol towards the President's
house, the same swamp intervenes, and a straight causeway, which
measures one mile and half and seventeen perches, forms the
communication between the two buildings. A small stream, about the size
of the largest of the two runs between Clare's and our house, and
decorated with the pompous appellation of "Tyber," feeds without
draining the swamps, and along that causeway (called the Pennsylvania
Avenue), between the Capitol and President's House, not a single house
intervenes or can intervene without devoting its wretched tenant to
perpetual fevers. From the President's House to Georgetown the distance
is not quite a mile and a half; the ground is high and level; the public
offices and from fifty to one hundred good houses are finished; the
President's House is a very elegant building, and this part of the city
on account of its natural situation, of its vicinity to Georgetown, with
which it communicates over Rock Creek by two bridges, and by the
concourse of people drawn by having business with the public offices,
will improve considerably and may within a short time form a town equal
in size and population to Lancaster or Annapolis. But we are not there;
the distance is too great for convenience from thence to the Capitol;
six or seven of the members have taken lodgings at Georgetown, three
near the President's House, and all the others are crowded in the eight
boarding-houses near the Capitol. I am at Conrad & McMunn's, where I
share the room of Mr. Varnum, and pay at the rate, I think, including
attendance, wood, candles, and liquors, of 15 dollars per week. At
table, I believe, we are from twenty-four to thirty, and, was it not for
the presence of Mrs. Bailey and Mrs. Brown, would look like a refectory
of monks. The two Nicholas, Mr. Langdon, Mr. Jefferson, General Smith,
Mr. Baldwin, &c., &c., make part of our mess. The company is good
enough, but it is always the same, and, unless in my own family, I had
rather now and then see some other persons. Our not being able to have a
room each is a greater inconvenience. As to our fare, we have hardly any
vegetables, the people being obliged to resort to Alexandria for
supplies; our beef is not very good; mutton and poultry good; the price
of provisions and wood about the same as in Philadelphia. As to rents, I
have not yet been able to ascertain anything precise, but, upon the
whole, living must be somewhat dearer here than either in Philadelphia
or New York. As to public news, the subject which engrosses almost the
whole attention of every one is the equality of votes between Mr.
Jefferson and Mr. Burr. The most desperate of the Federalists wish to
take advantage of this by preventing an election altogether, which they
may do either by dividing the votes of the States where they have
majorities or by still persevering in voting for Burr whilst we should
persevere in voting for Jefferson; and the next object they would then
propose would be to pass a law by which they would vest the Presidential
power in the hands of some man of their party. I believe that such a
plan if adopted would be considered as an act of usurpation, and would
accordingly be resisted by the people; and I think that partly from fear
and partly from principle the plan will not be adopted by a majority.
But a more considerable number will try actually to make Burr President.
He has _sincerely_ opposed the design, and will go _any lengths_ to
prevent its execution. Hamilton, the Willing and Bingham connection,
almost every leading Federalist out of Congress in Maryland and
Virginia, have openly declared against the project and recommend an
acquiescence in Mr. Jefferson's election. Maryland, which if decided in
our favor would at once make Mr. J. President (for we have eight States
sure,--New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia), is afraid about the fate of the
Federal city, which is hated by every member of Congress without
exception of persons or parties; and I know that if a vote was to take
place to-day we would obtain the vote of that State. Even Bayard from
Delaware and Morris from Vermont (this last I suspect under the
influence of Gouv. Morris) are inclined the same way. The vote of either
is sufficient to decide in our favor. And from all those circumstances I
infer that there will be an election, and that in favor of Mr.
Jefferson. If not, there will be either an interregnum until the new
Congress shall meet and then a choice made in favor of him also, or in
case of usurpation by the present Congress (which of all suppositions is
the most improbable), either a dissolution of the Union if that
usurpation shall be supported by New England, or a punishment of the
usurpers if they shall not be supported by New England. In every
possible case I think we have nothing to fear. The next important object
is the convention with France, which hangs in the Senate. The mercantile
interest, Mr. Adams and Mr. Hamilton are in favor of its ratification.
Yet I think it rather probable that either a decision will be postponed
or that it shall be clogged by the rejection or modification of some
articles, an event which might endanger the whole. I understand that
Great Britain does not take any offence at the treaty itself, and that
being the case, although I dislike myself several parts of the
instrument, I see no sufficient reason why we should not agree to it....
22d January, 1801.
... As to politics, you may suppose that being all thrown together in a
few boarding-houses, without hardly any other society than ourselves, we
are not likely to be either very moderate politicians or to think of
anything but politics. A few, indeed, drink, and some gamble, but the
majority drink naught but politics, and by not mixing with men of
different or more moderate sentiments, they inflame one another. On that
account, principally, I see some danger in the fate of the election
which I had not before contemplated. I do not know precisely what are
the plans of the New England and other violent Federals, nor, indeed,
that they have formed any final plan; but I am certain that if they can
prevail on three or four men who hold the balance, they will attempt to
defeat the election under pretence of voting for Burr. At present it is
certain that our friends will not vote for him, and as we cannot make
nine States without the assistance of some Federal, it is as certain
that, if _all_ the Federal will vote for him, there will be no choice of
the House. In that case what will be the plans of the Federalists,
having, as they have, a majority in both Houses? Will they usurp at once
the Presidential powers? An attempt of that kind will most certainly be
resisted. Will they only pass a law providing for a new election? This
mode, as being the most plausible, may, perhaps, be the one they will
adopt. And in that case, as no State has provided for an election in
such cases; as the concurrence of the Legislature of any one State will
be necessary to pass a law providing for the same; as in the five New
England States, Jersey, and Delaware (which give 49 Federal votes), both
branches of the Legislature are Federal, whilst in New York,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South Carolina, where we have a majority,
the State Senates are against us; the consequence might be that the
Senates of these four last States refusing to act, the 49 votes of New
England, Jersey, and Delaware would outweigh the 44 votes of Virginia,
North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee; and they would thus,
by in fact disfranchising four States and annulling the last election,
perpetuate themselves in power, whilst they would in appearance violate
none of the forms of our Constitution. If they shall act so, shall we
submit? And if we do not submit, in what manner shall we act ourselves?
These are important questions, and not yet finally decided. At all
events, no appeal shall be made to the physical strength of the country
except in self-defence, and as that strength is with us, I am not afraid
of an attack on their part. Thus I am confident that we will have no
civil war, and the love of union and order is so general that I hope
that in every possible case we shall preserve both. My opinion is,
however, decided that we must consider the election as completed, and
under no possible circumstance consent to a new election. In that I may
be overruled by our friends, but I think it a miserable policy, and
calculated to break for a length of time the Republican spirit, should
we at present yield one inch of ground to the Federal faction, when we
are supported by the Constitution and by the people. I will every mail
let you know the prospect. At present it is still considered as probable
that Maryland will unite in the vote in favor of Mr. Jefferson....
29th January, 1801.
... Here the approaching 11th February engrosses all our attention. And
opinions vary and fluctuate so much every day, that I will confine
myself to a few general observations in communicating to you what I know
you must be very anxious of understanding as fully as the nature of the
case will admit. If a choice is not made by the House, either the next
House must choose between Jefferson and Burr or a new election must take
place. Which mode would be most constitutional is doubtful with many. I
think the first to be the only truly constitutional way of acting. But
whatever mode be adopted, we are sure of success, provided the election
be fair. The next House will give us a majority of nine States, and,
counting members individually, of more than twenty votes. That House
must be in session at all events before a new election can be completed
in order to count the votes. That House may therefore adopt either the
mode I think right, by choosing between J. and B., or acquiesce in a new
election if it has been fair (that is to say, if the Senates of
Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and South Carolina shall have
permitted those States to vote). But if through trick or obstinacy the
election has been unfair, that House will not acquiesce. That being an
indubitable position, what interest can the Federalists have in
defeating an election? None, unless they mean to usurp government. And
if they do make the attempt, is it possible they would run the immense
risk attending the attempt merely for the sake of keeping government in
their hands till December next, with the certainty of losing it then and
the probability of being punished, at all events annihilated as a party
on account of the attempt? Hence I conclude that if they are in earnest
they must mean something more than a temporary usurpation. The intention
of the desperate leaders must be absolute usurpation and the overthrow
of our Constitution. But although this may be the object of a few
individuals actuated by pride and ambition, it cannot be the true object
of a majority of the Federal men. Many may not indeed see and calculate
all the consequences of their defeating an election. But I am confident
that the true motive of action, which may possibly induce at first a
sufficient number to vote against Mr. J., is an opinion of our
imbecility and a supposition that we will yield ourselves rather than to
run any risk. This is the only rational way to account for their
conduct. It is yet extremely doubtful whether we will not on the first
ballot carry Mr. J.; but if we do not, I am firmly of opinion that by
persevering we will compel a sufficient number of Federals to yield.
Should, however, the election be defeated, I apprehend no very dangerous
consequences. Usurpation will undoubtedly be resisted in a legal and
constitutional way by several of the largest and most populous States,
and I much doubt whether they would find any man bold enough to place
himself in front as an usurper. If, what I think much more probable,
there is no usurpation, we would acquiesce in a kind of interregnum
until the meeting of next Congress, which in that case would probably be
hastened. I conclude on that subject by observing that there is no
appearance of any of our friends seceding. If any do secede, B. may be
elected; if not, I think it is one hundred to one that Jef. will....
Lucius H. Stockton (the indicter of Baldwin) was nominated Secretary of
War. The Senate suspended the appointment and gave him time to decline.
His brother, your friend's husband, writes on this occasion that
although it might be well for Mr. A. to reward those who had written in
his favor, yet he should take care not to offer them appointments which
must render them ridiculous. And to-day Griswold, of our House, has been
nominated for the same Department. He has too much sense not to be
mortified at being rendered ridiculous by that nomination, and I am sure
will not accept. Mr. Marshall is Chief Justice. His Department
(Secretary of State) is not yet filled, so that Dexter is pro temp.
Secretary in chief of all the Departments. He is rather unfortunate; the
auditor's office and all the papers therein were burnt. Malice ascribes
the fire to design, and party will believe it. But I do not. What
renders the thing unlucky is that the very books which had been, through
the infidelity of a clerk, in Duane's hands are burnt. Hence it will be
extremely difficult to remove the suspicion from the minds of many. The
French convention, as I had foretold, has been rejected by the Senate.
But they have contrived to agree that it was not a final determination,
and they are now negotiating amongst themselves on the subject. The
merchants are in favor of the convention; the Senators who voted against
it are rather afraid of the unpopularity of the measure, and some of
them are willing to come in and approve, provided they may have a decent
cover for changing their vote. So that it is not improbable that on the
next trial the convention may be adopted with some immaterial
modifications; but it is far from certain.
I believe I have given you every political and private information that
I can trust to a letter. Much will remain for me to tell when we meet.
Yet, as the newspapers have made me Secretary of the Treasury,
hereafter, that is to say, I may tell you that I have received no hint
of that kind from Mr. J. Indeed, I do not suppose that it would be
proper in him to say anything on the subject of appointments until he
knows whether he shall be elected. The Republicans may wish me to be
appointed, but there exist two strong doubts in my mind on the subject,
1st, whether the Senate would confirm; 2d, what you have already heard
me express, whether my abilities are equal to the office....
5th February, 1801.
... Indeed, I feel more forcibly than ever I did before that you cannot,
that you must not be left alone in that country. The habits of the
people and state of society create difficulties and inconveniences which
you cannot overcome. And it is to similar circumstances that we are to
ascribe the establishment and introduction of slavery in the Middle
States. Under my and your peculiar situation and place of abode, it has
required no uncommon exertion to resist the temptation. And should
imperious circumstances compel a longer residence in the western country
than we now contemplate, some method must be taken to obviate the
inconvenience. At all events, if through any means I can subsist and be
independent on this side the mountains I will attempt it, for from
experience I am fully convinced that you cannot live happy where you
are.... I have had a cold since my last, and nursed myself; have been
out but once to dine at Georgetown with some of our members who lodge
there. I mean to go and stay there all night this evening in order to
have a more full conversation with Dallas in relation to myself and
future plans than can be done by letter.
The Federal party in Senate got frightened at their having rejected the
French treaty, which is certainly extremely popular. And they offered to
recant provided they were afforded a decent cover. To this our friends
agreed, and the treaty was two days ago ratified, with the exception of
the 2d Article (which was a mere matter of form and introduced at the
request of our own commissioners), and a limitation for eight years.
From thence I am inclined to think that the party will also want
perseverance in the execution of the other plan, that of defeating the
election. A variety of circumstances induce me to believe that either
the plan is abandoned or that they know that it will fail. Bayard has
proposed, and a committee of sixteen members, one from each State, have
agreed, that on the 11th February, the day fixed by law for counting the
votes, if it shall appear, as is expected, that the two persons highest
in vote (Jef. and Burr) have an equality, the House shall immediately
proceed (in their own chamber) to choose by ballot the President, and
_shall not adjourn until a choice is made_. I do not know whether the
House will agree; but if they do, and the two parties are obstinate in
adhering, the one to B., the other to Jef., we will have for the last
three weeks of the session to sleep on blankets in the Capitol, and also
to eat and drink there. For the idea is that of a permanent sitting,
without doing any other business whatever until we have chosen. But this
evidently shows that they mean to choose. For if no choice was made,
they could neither pass a law for a new election or usurpation, nor
indeed for any object whatever; and there is as yet no appropriation law
passed; which would leave us on 3d March without any government. I
believe I told you before that we had expectations of Bayard and Morris
joining us on this question. Mr. Adams has very improperly called Senate
for the 4th of March next, at which time the three new Republican
Senators from Kentucky, Georgia, and South Carolina cannot, from their
distance, be here; the new Republican Senator from Pennsylvania instead
of Bingham will not be appointed, our thirteen Senators refusing to
agree; the same with a new Senator from Maryland; Charles Pinckney has
also dislocated his shoulder. The fact is that in December next the
Senate will be 16 to 16, or at worst 15 to 17. And on 4th March only 8
or 9 Republicans against 17 or 18. The secretaries may and probably will
all resign on that day, and the Senate being in session, that will
compel Mr. J. to appoint immediately and submit his appointments to that
_Rump_ Senate. The object is undoubtedly to embarrass him by crippling
his intended Administration....
12th February, 1801.
... Yesterday, on counting the votes, Burr and Jefferson had 73 votes
each, as was already known. At one o'clock in the afternoon we returned
to our chamber and kept balloting till eight o'clock this morning
without making a choice. We balloted 27 times, and on each ballot the
result was the same; eight States for Jefferson, six for Burr, two
divided. At eight o'clock we agreed (without adjourning the House) to
suspend the further balloting till twelve o'clock, and during that time
I went to sleep. We have just returned and balloted once more, when, the
result being still the same, we have just now agreed to suspend the
balloting till to-morrow at eleven o'clock. Still the House is not
adjourned, and we consider this as a permanent sitting; but by mutual
agreement it is a virtual adjournment, as we shall not meet nor do any
business till to-morrow. I must write to Philadelphia, Lancaster, and
New York, to keep them acquainted of our situation, and I want to return
to bed, which must be my apology, with my love, for this short letter.
Our hopes of a change on their part are exclusively with Maryland, but
everything on that subject is conjecture....
GALLATIN TO JAMES NICHOLSON, NEW YORK.
CITY OF WASHINGTON, 14th February, 1801.
3 o'clock, afternoon.
DEAR SIR,--Nothing new to-day; 3 ballots, making in all 33, result the
same. We have postponed balloting till Monday, twelve o'clock.
That day will, I think, show something more decisive, either yielding on
their part or an attempt to put an end to balloting in order to
legislate. We will be ready at all points, and rest assured that _we_
will not yield. It is the most impudent thing that they, with only six
States and two half States, represented on this floor only by 39
members, should expect that a majority of eight States and two half
States, represented on this floor by 67 members, should give up to the
minority, and that, too, against the decided opinion of an immense
majority of the people.
Federal instructions are pouring from this vicinity on Thomas, the
representative of this district, to induce him to make an election by
voting for Mr. Jefferson, but I do not know what effect they may have.
Mr. Joseph Nicholson has been very unwell, but would not desert his
post. A bed was fixed for him in the committee-room, and he lay there
and voted all night the 11th to 12th. He has also attended every day
since, and has recovered amazingly, notwithstanding the risk he ran in
exposing himself to cold.
GALLATIN TO JAMES NICHOLSON, NEW YORK.
CITY OF WASHINGTON, 16th February, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--I am sorry that I cannot yet relieve you from the present
general anxiety. We have balloted for the 34th time this morning, and
the result is still the same.
Mr. Bayard had positively declared on Saturday to some of his own party
that he would this day put an end to the business by voting for Mr.
Jefferson. He has acted otherwise. But it is supposed that the cause of
the delay is an attempt on his part and some others to prevail on the
whole Federal party to come over.
We have agreed to suspend the ballot till to-morrow, twelve o'clock.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
17th February, 1801
... We have this day, after 36 ballots, chosen Mr. Jefferson President.
Morris, of Vermont, withdrew; Craik, Dennis, Thomas, and Baer put in
blank votes; this gives us ten States. The four New England States voted
to the last for Mr. Burr. South Carolina and Delaware put in blank
ballots in the general ballot-box; that is to say, they did not vote.
Thus has ended the most wicked and absurd attempt ever tried by the
Federalists....
19th February, 1801.
... My last letter informed you of our final success in electing Mr.
Jefferson. The Republicans are allowed, even by their opponents, to have
acted on that occasion with a cool firmness which, before the first day
of the contest was over, convinced the wisest of that party that we
would never yield, that we had well ascertained the ground on which we
stood, and that a determination thus formed was not likely to be
changed from fear or intrigue. They were much at a loss how to act;
unsupported even by their party out-of-doors, terrified at the prospect
of their own attempt, convinced that they must give up their untenable
ground, their unsubdued pride stood in the way of any dignified way of
acting on their part. They had but one proper mode to pursue, and that
was for the whole party to come over; instead of which they contrived
merely to suffer Mr. Jefferson to be chosen without a single man of
theirs voting for him. This is construed by some as a symptom of a
general hostility hereafter by an unbroken phalanx. But in this I do not
agree, and I have no doubt of our making an impression on them and
effectually breaking up the party, provided we have patience and
discretion. At present, however, they are decidedly hostile, and as the
Senate has, very improperly indeed, been called by Mr. Adams to meet on
the 4th March next, when three of the newly-elected Republican Senators
cannot attend, and the expected Republican Senator from Maryland is not
yet elected, they will, it is expected, evince that hostility by
thwarting Mr. Jefferson's nominations. Amongst those nominations which,
as communicated yesterday to me by Mr. Jefferson, are intended to be
made, the most obnoxious to the other party, and the only one which I
think will be rejected, is that of a certain friend of yours. That _he_
should be fixed at the seat of government and should hold one of the
great offices is pressed on _him_ in such manner and considered as so
extremely important by several of our friends, that _he_ will do
whatever is ordered. But I will not be sorry nor hurt in my feelings if
his nomination should be rejected, for exclusively of the immense
responsibility, labor, &c., &c., attached to the intended office,
another plan which would be much more agreeable to him and to you has
been suggested not by his political friends, but by his New York
friends. I will be more explicit when we meet....
23d February, 1801.
... From every present appearance I am led to think that it will be
necessary for us (by _us_ I mean you, the children, and me) to remove to
this city about 1st May next; but then there is a chance that we may
leave it next fall if the Senate shall then refuse to confirm. At all
events, I conclude that, however inconvenient that arrangement may be in
other respects, it will be agreeable to you. But I must state one thing.
Remember that whatever may be our station this side the mountains, it
will be essentially necessary that we should be extremely humble in our
expenses. This I know will be found by you a little harder than you
expect, for the style of living here is Maryland-like, and it requires
more fortitude to live here in a humble way than it did in Philadelphia;
but I repeat it, it will be strictly necessary, and on that you must
resolve before you conclude to leave our present home....
26th February, 1801.
... I still calculate upon leaving this city Friday week, 6th of March;
at all events, not before the Thursday. Wednesday, 4th, is the
inauguration day of our new President. I want to stay on that day at
least, and so long as to ascertain how far the Senate will approve or
reject the nominations submitted to them for the intended future
Administration. These will be but few in number and decided on Wednesday
or Thursday at farthest. As I had foreseen, the greatest exertions are
made to defeat the appointment of a Secretary of the Treasury, and I am
still of opinion that if presented the 4th of March it will be rejected.
If not presented, and an appointment by the President without Senate
should afterwards take place, it must be confirmed in December next, and
although it is probable, yet it is not certain, that it would then be
ratified. This would be a serious inconvenience. To have removed to this
place at considerable expense, made, as must necessarily be the case,
some sacrifices in order to close the business at home, and in winter to
be obliged to move again, would not be pleasing nor advantageous.
Indeed, on the whole, a positive refusal to come in on any terms but a
previous confirmation by Senate was at first given; but subsequent
circumstances, which I cannot trust to a letter, but will mention at
large when we meet, induced a compliance with the general wish of all
our political friends. The Federal Senators generally continue very
hostile. They have brought in a bill to prevent the Secretary of the
Navy from being concerned in trade, which is aimed at General S. Smith,
and is the more indecent on their part, as Stoddart has always been in
trade himself. Bingham is quite sincere in his exertions in support of
the intended nomination of Secretary of the Treasury, but in favor of
the bill intended on the subject of the Secretary of the Navy. I speak
to you more on that than on any other subject because I know you feel
more interested in it....
5th March, 1801.
... The President was inaugurated yesterday, and this day has nominated
Messrs. Madison, Dearborn, Lincoln, and Robert R. Livingston for
Secretaries of State and War, Attorney-General and minister to France,
respectively, all of which have been approved of by the Senate. A
majority of that body would, it is supposed, have rejected a nomination
for a new Secretary of the Treasury; whether that be true or not I
cannot tell, but as I could not at any event have accepted immediately,
no nomination was made. Mr. Dexter has with great civility to the
President agreed to stay until a successor shall have been appointed.
Both Smith and Langdon decline. Mrs. Smith is here and hates this place.
But to come to the point: Mr. Jefferson requested that I should stay
three days longer in order to see Mr. Madison and that I should be able
to understand the general outlines which are contemplated or may be
agreed on as the leading principles of the new Administration. As it was
for my convenience that the appointment was delayed, I could not, even
had I thought my presence useless, have objected to his wish.... Mr.
Adams left the city yesterday at four o'clock in the morning. You can
have no idea of the meanness, indecency, almost insanity, of his
conduct, specially of late. But he is fallen and not dangerous. Let him
be forgotten. The Federal phalanx in Senate is more to be feared. Yet
with the people on our side and the purity of our intentions, I hope we
will be able to go on. But indeed, my dear, this is an arduous and
momentous undertaking in which I am called to take a share....
* * * * *
The struggle was completely over. All the dangers, real and imaginary,
had vanished. The great Federal party which had created, organized, and
for twelve years administered the government, and whose chief now handed
it, safe and undisturbed, to Mr. Jefferson and his friends, was
prostrate, broken and torn by dying convulsions. The new political force
of which Mr. Jefferson was the guide had no word of sympathy for the
vanquished. Full of hope and self-confidence, he took the helm and
promised that "now the ship was put on her Republican tack she would
show by the beauty of her motion the skill of her builders." Even Mr.
Gallatin's cooler head felt the power of the strong wine, success. He
too believed that human nature was to show itself in new aspects, and
that the failures of the past were due to the faults of the past. "Every
man, from John Adams to John Hewitt, who undertakes to do what he does
not understand deserves a whipping," he wrote to his wife a year later,
when his tailor had spoiled a coat for him. He had yet to pass through
his twelve years of struggle and disappointment in order to learn how
his own followers and his own President were to answer his ideal, when
the same insolence of foreign dictation and the same violence of a
recalcitrant party presented to their and to his own lips the cup of
which John Adams was now draining the dregs.