Mr. Crawford had his wish. Gallatin returned, and was drawn reluctantly

but inevitably into the Presidential contest. No true friend of his

could have desired it, for he had nothing to gain by returning into

public life at a moment when there was not a single element of principle

or dignity involved in the election. Never in the whole course of our

history has any Presidential election turned so exclusively on purely

personal considerations; never has there been one in which all parties

were so helpless. Old association, the prestige of high reputation, and

the long control of Treasury patronage combined to make Mr. Crawford the

first candidate; he had been the selected favorite of the old

triumvirate for many years, and by Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison he was

regarded as the best representative of the Republican party. The same

view was held by Mr. Gallatin, and, on the other hand, Mr. Crawford

needed Mr. Gallatin's active support; thus it was that Mr. Gallatin

became in a manner compelled to allow his supposed influence to be used

for the election of Mr. Crawford as President, and was buffeted about

upon the waves of this stormy and unclean ocean until at length he was

glad to find even a mortifying means of escape.

His first step was to visit Washington, and thence he went to inspect

his new house at Friendship Hill.

GALLATIN TO HIS DAUGHTER.

NEW GENEVA, 17th September, 1823.

... Notwithstanding all my exertions, you will find it hard enough when

you come next spring to accommodate yourself to the privations and

wildness of the country. Our house has been built by a new Irish

carpenter, who was always head over heels and added much to the disorder

inseparable from building. Being unacquainted with the Grecian

architecture, he adopted an Hyberno-teutonic style, so that the outside

of the house, with its port-hole-looking windows, has the appearance of

Irish barracks, whilst the inside ornaments are similar to those of a

Dutch tavern, and I must acknowledge that these form a singular contrast

with the French marble chimney-pieces, paper, and mirrors. On one side

of that mass of stones which Lucien calls "le château," and in full view

as you approach it, is a wing consisting of the gable-end of a log

house, with its chimney in front, and I could not pull it down, as it is

the kitchen and dining-room where are daily fed two masons and

plasterers, two attendants, two stone-quarriers, two painters, a

carpenter (besides three who board themselves), Lucien, Albert's black

Peter, and Mr, Made, Mesdlles et les petits Buffle. The

grounds are overgrown with elders, iron-weeds, stinking weeds, laurel,

several varieties of briers, impenetrable thickets of brush, vines, and

underwood, amongst which are discovered vestiges of old asparagus and

new artichoke-beds, and now and then a spontaneous apple or peach tree.

As to Albert, he has four guns, a pointer, three boats, two

riding-horses, and a pet colt, smaller than a jackass, who feeds on the

fragments of my old lilacs and _althea frutex_. His own clothes adorn

our parlor and only sitting-room in the old brick house; for the frame

house is partly occupied by the Buffle family and partly encumbered by

various boxes and Albert's billiard-table, the pockets of which are made

with his stockings....

NEW GENEVA, 15th October, 1823.

... Notwithstanding all my endeavors, more will remain to be done after

our arrival next spring than I would have wished. It was impossible for

me to attend to anything else for the improvement either of mills, farm,

plantation, &c., all of which are in a most deplorable state.... Amidst

those cares I have been disturbed by political struggles in which I felt

but little interested; but the Federalists, by their repeated assertions

in all the papers of the State that I supported their candidate, have

compelled me, much against my inclination, to come out with a public

declaration intended to show that notwithstanding the occasional

aberrations of democracy and the abuse sometimes poured on me from that

quarter, it was impossible that I should abandon a cause to the support

of which my life has been devoted, and which I think inseparably

connected with that of the liberty and amelioration of mankind in every

quarter of the globe....

* * * * *

Private reasons led Mr. Gallatin to pass the winter in Baltimore. Here

he again met his old enemies the Smiths, and resumed relations with

them, not, perhaps, so cordial as in early days, but at least externally

friendly. The main interest of the winter, however, turned on the

Presidential election. Mr. Crawford had been dangerously affected by a

stroke of paralysis, and his friends found themselves obliged to put by

his side a candidate for the Vice-Presidency who would disarm

opposition and command confidence in case of his chief's death; they

fixed upon Mr. Gallatin, who thus became, in the failure of Mr.

Crawford, their leader. From the time this point was decided, Gallatin

had no choice but to obey the wishes of his party in other respects;

and, as it happened that all Mr. Crawford's chances turned upon the

weight of a nomination by a Congressional caucus, Gallatin was called

upon to take a direct share in urging his friends to the work. Thus he

was in a manner forced to write a letter urging his old friend Macon to

give his support to the caucus; he was also obliged to make a short stay

in Washington.

JEFFERSON TO GALLATIN.

MONTICELLO, October 29, 1823.

[Sidenote: 1824.]

DEAR SIR,--...You have seen in our papers how prematurely they are

agitating the question of the next President. This proceeds from some

uneasiness at the present state of things. There is considerable

dissatisfaction with the increase of the public expenses, and especially

with the necessity of borrowing money in time of peace. This was much

arraigned at the last session of Congress, and will be more so at the

next. The misfortune is that the persons looked to as successors in the

government are of the President's Cabinet, and their partisans in

Congress are making a handle of these things to help or hurt those for

or against whom they are. The candidates, ins and outs, seem at present

to be many, but they will be reduced to two, a Northern and Southern

one, as usual. To judge of the event, the state of parties must be

understood. You are told, indeed, that there are no longer parties among

us; that they are all now amalgamated; the lion and the lamb lie down

together in peace. Do not believe a word of it. The same parties exist

now as ever did; no longer, indeed, under the name of Republicans and

Federalists; the latter name was extinguished in the battle of New

Orleans; those who wore it, finding monarchism a desperate wish in this

country, are rallying to what they deem the next best point, a

consolidated government. Although this is not yet avowed (as that of

monarchism, you know, never was), it exists decidedly, and is the true

key to the debates in Congress, wherein you see many calling themselves

Republicans and preaching the rankest doctrines of the old Federalists.

One of the prominent candidates is presumed to be of this party; the

other, a Republican of the old school, and a friend to the barrier of

State rights as provided by the Constitution against the danger of

consolidation, which danger was the principal ground of opposition to it

at its birth. Pennsylvania and New York will decide this question. If

the Missouri principle mixes itself in the question, it will go one way;

if not, it may go the other. Among the smaller motives, hereditary fears

may alarm on one side, and the long line of local nativities on the

other. In this division of parties the judges are true to their ancient

vocation of sappers and miners....

J. B. THOMAS[157] TO GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON CITY, 5th January, 1824.

DEAR SIR,--Mr. Lowrie returned from Philadelphia three days ago with the

pleasing intelligence that a large majority of both branches of the

Pennsylvania Legislature are in favor of a Congressional caucus, and

that the measure is daily becoming much more popular in Philadelphia.

... Mr. Ingham has lately returned from Pennsylvania, and, finding

public opinion there averse to his wishes, he or some one of the party

has prepared an address to the people of Pennsylvania, for the

delegation from that State to sign, stating that a partial caucus only

could be gotten up, and asking instructions from their constituents. I

understand that the address is ingeniously written, and that it has been

signed by eleven of the Democratic members of Congress. After this

address was signed by all who would act without consulting Mr. Lowrie, a

meeting of the delegation was called to deliberate upon the subject. Mr.

L. attended, and after endeavoring to operate upon the fears of some who

had signed the paper, had the meeting adjourned over till to-morrow

(Monday). He will, if possible, procure a further postponement, in the

hope that you will be here in a few days. Many of your friends are

exceedingly anxious to see you here, and amongst the rest Mr. Lowrie and

Mr. Van Buren, who are both efficient men.

Since my return to Washington I mentioned to those gentlemen the

conversation I had with you in Baltimore, and had the satisfaction to

learn that they approved of all I said.

They are impressed with a belief that your immediate presence here at

the present crisis is all-important. I am convinced that nothing could

be more gratifying to the prominent men of the Republican party than to

receive a visit from you at this time. Mr. Crawford would be delighted

to see you. His physicians, four or five in number, have had a

consultation to-day, and have pronounced him quite out of danger.

... We have not yet been able to devise a plan by which Mr. Jefferson

can be drawn out, nor is it probable that any could be adopted which

would be as likely to succeed as that of your addressing him on the

subject. If nothing more can be obtained, the letter he has already

written you may be of great importance.

In haste, I am, etc.

NATHANIEL MACON TO GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON, 16th January, 1824.

SIR,--The enclosed has been handed to me by Mr. Cobb, a member of the

House of Representatives from Georgia. It is sent to you as the best

mode of communicating its contents. I know not to what it relates.

Tender my good-will to Mrs. Gallatin and to any of your children who may

be with you.

Mr. Crawford is mending slowly; not yet in a condition to write.

God preserve you and all that are near and dear to you many years, is

the sincere wish of

Your old friend.

[Enclosure.]

MR. MACON,--Mr. Crawford requests me to say to you that he wished you

would write to Mr. Gallatin and tell him that it was necessary he

should come on to this city, for that _his_ (Mr. Gallatin's) interests,

as well as those of _others_, were suffering in consequence of his

absence.

THOS. W. COBB.

GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.

WASHINGTON, 24th January, 1824.

... I have been working hard in order to be released as soon as

possible; this morning I terminated the revision and selection of my

correspondence, and hope that my final account will be settled on

Monday.... The idea of sending a special mission to England, which is

indeed quite unnecessary, has been given up.... I was on Wednesday

evening at Mrs. Monroe's evening, where she appeared for the first time

this season. It was as crowded as any Paris rout, and there were several

handsome ladies, but most faces of both sexes were new to me. Ten years

is an age in Washington; the place seems dull to me.... I hear nothing

but election politics, and you know how unpleasant the subject is to

me.... Mr. Crawford is mending slowly. His friends are not perfectly

easy about his final recovery, and Early adduced this to me as a reason

why I should be made Vice-President. My answer was that I did not want

the office, and would dislike to be proposed and not elected.

A. STEWART[158] TO GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON, 6th February, 1824.

DEAR SIR,--A caucus will be held here on the 14th instant to recommend

candidates for President and Vice-President.

About 100 Republican members, it is understood, will attend. Mr.

Crawford and yourself will be unanimously nominated. I know of but one

gentleman unfriendly to your nomination, and he will readily acquiesce

in whatever is done.

The election of the Vice-President nominated is considered certain, be

the fate of the President what it may.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant.

[Sidenote 1824]

WALTER LOWRIE TO GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON, 10th February, 1824.

DEAR SIR,--I have delayed writing till I could write with certainty on

the point we had under discussion when we last parted. You will now be

nominated for the situation contemplated, and with the information and

facts in our possession it does not require the spirit of prophecy to

predict that final success will be the result. In the other office more

uncertainty prevails. We have a hard and arduous struggle to go through,

involving the very existence of the Republican party.

It will be necessary that we should see you before long. At present let

me call your attention to one point in which we want your assistance. We

are very desirous that Mr. Macon should attend the caucus. He has

hitherto resisted all our efforts. A personal interview with you, it is

believed, would have been conclusive; that is now too late; but I submit

to you whether you could not write him a letter. You will receive this

letter to-morrow, Thursday, and on Friday he could receive yours. I know

you have more influence with him than any other man except Mr.

Jefferson. His long course of public life gives him an importance which

he is not otherwise entitled to. The opposition papers boast that he

will not attend. In the present crisis if he do not, he will lose the

respect and esteem of his friends, and instead of doing his friends a

service, he will do himself an injury.

With sincere esteem, yours.

NATHANIEL MACON TO GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON, 18th February, 1824.

[Sidenote 1824]

SIR,--I have your letter of yesterday; it is received with as much

good-will and kindness as it was written. The fatal night which you

mention, and which produced in the end the divisions among the three

Republicans who were so both in theory and practice, I stated to the

meeting they had beaten me by having the cards packed, and that I never

would attend another caucus, nor have I unto this day; and would you

now, my old and much esteemed friend, have me to appear in a company

when and where any person could tell the truth and say, you are not a

man of your word? if I go to the caucus, it would be the first time that

it could be said truly to me in my whole life.

No party, as I have often told you, and as I stated at the caucus at

Marache's, can last unless founded on pure principles; and the minute a

party begins to intrigue within itself is the minute when the seed of

division is sown and its purity begins to decline. There are not, I

imagine, five members of Congress who entertain the opinions which those

did who brought Mr. Jefferson into power, and they are yet mine.

Principles can never change, and what has lately been called the law of

circumstances is an abandonment of principle, and has been the ruin of

all free governments, and if the Republican party fall in the United

States, it is owing to the same cause.

I verily believe that I can render more service toward electing Crawford

by not going to the caucus than by going, but I do not believe that I

have the influence you suppose; but if you are right, what has produced

it? the belief that I follow my own notions.

Two of my friends are here to advise me to attend, and have stopped my

writing. I must conclude to you as I do to them; I cannot go.

I would much rather have talked with you on the subject. Remember me to

Mrs. Gallatin and all your family, and believe me

Truly and sincerely your friend.

Written in great haste for the mail.

NATHANIEL MACON TO GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON, 14th February, 1824.

[Sidenote 1824]

SIR,--- Your letter of the 12th instant was yesterday in great haste

acknowledged. For some time past my situation has been unpleasant

indeed; so much so that I have a thousand times or oftener wished myself

at home. What situation can be more disagreeable than to have repeatedly

to say no to the best friends, and that, too, to the same question! To

me it has been painful in the extreme; no one who has not felt the

sensation can imagine the distress it produces,--the day is tiresome,

and the night tedious; in the morning I desire night, and at night am

anxious for the morning,--and to-day is the most perplexing of all; a

something, I know not what, oppresses my mind, and yet I am certain that

my determination not to attend the caucus is right, and what I ought to

do and must do. The great charge against Crawford is intrigue; add to

what was written yesterday, that if I go the charge will be renewed, and

he said to be the only man who had touched the cord which could move me;

and probably the wicked and false adage applied, that every man has his

price. Time, I know, would prove the application false as regards us

both; but the election might be over first, and the injury done.

Every generation, like a single person, has opinions of its own; as much

so in politics as anything else. This opinion is elegantly expressed in

the book of Judges, 2d chapter. The opinions of Jefferson and those who

were with him are forgot. On reading the chapter the proper and intended

inference will be easily made; I hope, however, we shall not suffer as

did the children of Israel after the death of Joshua.

Tender in your best manner my respects and regard to Mrs. Gallatin and

your family, and believe me

Your unfeigned friend.

GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.

NEW GENEVA, PENNSYLVANIA, 29th July, 1824.

MY DEAR AND OLD FRIEND,--I have delayed much too long answering your

letter of last year. I have ever since been on the wing, uncertain where

I would fix myself. The habits of my wife and children, Albert's

excepted, render this a very ineligible place of residence to them; but

the impossibility of subsisting on my scanty income in one of our

cities, and the necessity of attending to a valuable but mismanaged and

unproductive property, have left me no choice; and we are all now here,

including James's wife. My health and that of my daughter are delicate;

the other members of the family are well. With the exception of James

Nicholson, all my old friends are dead or confined by old age to their

homes; there is not in this quarter the slightest improvement in the

state of society, or indeed of any kind; but my children are good and

very affectionate; neither of my sons, unfortunately, brought up to

business. Albert, with considerable and varied talents and acquired

knowledge, but as yet wanting perseverance and steadiness; James and

Francis more fitted for a court than a wilderness; my wife just as she

was twenty-four years ago.

The last seven years I spent in Europe, though not the most useful, were

the most pleasant, of my life, both on account of my reception in

Geneva, where I found many old and affectionate friends (Hentsch,

Dumont, the Tronchins, Butiri, &c.), and from my standing with the first

statesmen and men of merit in France and England. Where you do not stand

in the way of anybody, instead of collision and envy, you meet with much

indulgence if you can fill with credit the place you occupy; and this

was a disposition to which I had not been accustomed towards me, and the

want of which I now on that account feel, perhaps, more than formerly.

These feelings would and ought naturally to have induced me, and you

expressed the same wish, to withdraw altogether from public life; and my

wife, irksome to her as is her residence here, was of the same opinion.

I will briefly state what has brought my name before the people for the

office of Vice-President.

During the twelve years I was in the Treasury, I was anxiously looking

for some man that could fill my place there and in the general direction

of the national concerns, for one indeed that could replace Mr.

Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and myself. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, only

appeared and died; the eccentricities and temper of J. Randolph soon

destroyed his usefulness, and only one man at last appeared who filled

my expectations. This was Mr. Crawford, who united to a powerful mind a

most correct judgment and an inflexible integrity; which last quality,

not sufficiently tempered by indulgence and civility, has prevented his

acquiring general popularity; but, notwithstanding this defect (for it

is one), I know so well his great superiority over the other candidates

for the office of President, that I was anxious for his election and

openly expressed my opinion. I would not even compare Jackson or Calhoun

to him, the first an honest man and the idol of the worshippers of

military glory, but from incapacity, military habits, and habitual

disregard of laws and constitutional provisions, altogether unfit for

the office; the other a smart fellow, one of the first amongst

second-rate men, but of lax political principles and a disordinate

ambition not over-delicate in the means of satisfying itself. John Q.

Adams is a virtuous man, whose temper, which is not the best, might be

overlooked; he has very great and miscellaneous knowledge, and he is

with his pen a powerful debater; but he wants to a deplorable degree

that most essential quality, a sound and correct judgment. Of this I

have had in my official connection and intercourse with him complete and

repeated proofs, and, although he may be useful when controlled and

checked by others, he ought never to be trusted with a place where

unrestrained his errors might be fatal to the country. Mr. Clay has his

faults, but splendid talents and a generous mind. I certainly prefer Mr.

Crawford to him, although he is far more popular; and yet,

notwithstanding that popularity, I believe that, particularly since the

West is split between him and Jackson, it is impossible that he should

be elected, and that the contest is in fact between Crawford and Adams.

Almost all the old Republicans (Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison amongst

them) think as I do; but they were aware that Mr. Crawford was not very

popular, and that the bond of party, which had with great many produced

the effect of patriotism and knowledge, being nearly dissolved, neither

of the other candidates would withdraw, and they were at a loss whom to

unite to him as Vice-President. I advised to nominate nobody for that

office, or, if anybody, some person from New York or New England. The

last was attached to Adams; there were contentions in New York. The

friends of Mr. Crawford thought the persons proposed there too obscure,

and that my name would serve as a banner and show their nomination to be

that of the old Republican party. I thought and still think that they

were mistaken; that as a foreigner, as residuary legatee of the Federal

hatred, and as one whose old services were forgotten and more recent

ones though more useful were but little known, my name could be of no

service to the cause. They insisted, and, being nominated both by the

members of Congress and by the Legislature of Virginia, I could not

honorably withdraw, though my reluctance was much increased by the dead

opposition of Pennsylvania, which is, and nowhere more than in this

vicinity, Jackson mad. From all I can collect, I think Mr. Crawford's

election (notwithstanding this mistake) nearly certain, and mine

improbable. So much for my apology, which I could not make shorter. I

have now said everything, I believe, respecting me which could interest

you; and I have only to entreat you not to disappoint the hope you gave

me, and to come and spend these unhealthy summer and autumnal months

with us, where at least fevers have not yet penetrated, although they

prevailed last year everywhere east of Cumberland and west of Wheeling.

In summer I must necessarily to preserve health be at rest, and if to

effect an interview, probably the last, so dear to both, it is necessary

that you should have the trouble and fatigue of the journey, it is but

strict justice (if that was any object between us) that the expense

should be defrayed by me. Let not that, therefore, stop you, and come

once more to see your old friend and refresh your old age by

recollections of ancient times. I will add to the stock much that is

pleasing from Geneva. Seventeen years of French yoke have united the

parties as far as union is practicable in a free country. If there are

differences of opinion, they apply to details of administration; the old

distinctions, so odious to the people, are done away. To the general

council and to that of Two Hundred has been substituted a large elective

representative council, where, as far as I could judge, virtue and

talents are almost the only titles for admission, where the most obscure

and newest names are mixed with the oldest of the Republic, where

Dumont, Bellamy, and two Pictets are in opposition to Desarts,

D'Yvernois, and most of the old wigs (which have been, however, set

aside). But what kind of opposition? I have read many of their debates;

and, independent of the interest I felt for questions to others of small

and local importance, any one may admire the train of close and logical

reasoning they display, and must be delighted with the candor and mutual

forbearance which characterize them. They are like discussions

conducted amicably but with perfect freedom by members of the same

family respecting their common concerns. Nor are the ancient manners

much altered. A few amongst the most ignorant and vicious, the remnant

of those who disgraced Geneva in 1794, not above three or four hundred,

hardly any of the old bourgeoisie, have, I am told, been corrupted by

the French whilst in power and their morals have been affected; but

those of the great bulk are better than before the revolutions, and they

are as pure Genevans, as little Frenchified, as you could desire.

Speaking of old bourgeoisie, the distinction does not exist; citoyens,

bourgeois and natifs are in every respect, civil and political, on the

same footing. And here let me observe how powerful is the moral effect

of virtue and knowledge. Whilst Venice, Genoa, Belgium, &c., &c., have

been bartered away without scruple or regard to the wishes of the

people, not only have Holland and Switzerland escaped unhurt, because

they had both a national character and were truly nations, but even

little Geneva has been respected and restored to its independence,

whilst more than forty imperial cities have been left in the possession

of the princes who had usurped them with the permission of Bonaparte. I

might say much more, but must reserve it for the time when we meet. In

that hope, and with my love to all the members of your family, I remain

ever yours.

* * * * *

My wife and James Nicholson send their best compliments. By the by, you

owe me nothing. Your sister was too proud to permit me to join in the

support of your father, and your brother's return in 1818 relieved her

difficulties. I have not heard from them since that time, and was not in

Geneva subsequent to 1817.

* * * * *

Unfortunately for Mr. Gallatin's candidacy, the rapid spread of General

Jackson's party overthrew all ordinary calculation. Mr. Calhoun's

friends, finding their candidate pressed out of the course, made terms

with the Jackson managers, by which Mr. Calhoun received the combined

support of both bodies for the Vice-Presidency. This suggested a

brilliant stroke of political genius to the fertile brain of Martin Van

Buren, who, in those days, was not one of Jackson's followers. As

Jackson's chances were improved by coalescing with Calhoun, who reduced

his claims accordingly, so Mr. Crawford's chances might be improved by

coalescing with Mr. Clay, provided the latter could also be persuaded to

accept the position of candidate for the Vice-Presidency. Mr. Clay was

sounded on this subject early in September, as appears from his private

correspondence, and his reply, dated September 10,[159] seems to have

been considered as not discouraging, for, on the 25th September, Mr. Van

Buren approached Mr. Gallatin with a formal recommendation that he

should withdraw. Mr. Gallatin felt relieved at being permitted to escape

even in this manner. He withdrew from the canvass. The result was that

Calhoun was elected Vice-President by the people; that Jackson, Adams,

and Crawford went before the House of Representatives, and that Mr. Clay

caused the election of Mr. Adams to the Presidency.

WALTER LOWRIE TO GALLATIN.

BUTLER, 25th September, 1824.

MY DEAR SIR,--The subject of which this letter treats has given me the

most severe pain of mind. The bearer, our mutual friend General Lacock,

will inform you of the situation of my family which has prevented me

from accompanying him to see you.

From the most authentic information communicated to me by your friends

in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and New

York, the most serious fears are entertained that Mr. Calhoun will be

elected by the electors. Or if he should not, his vote will be so great

that his chance in the Senate will be almost conclusive in his favor. On

this subject I have not a feeling I would not be desirous that you

should know. No man can desire your success more than I do. Still, my

dear sir, I believe your chance of success is now almost hopeless, and,

assuming that as a fact, what is to be done? The question has been met

by a number of our friends, and they have suggested the arrangement

which Mr. Lacock will make known to you. This plan has the approbation

of as many of our friends as it was possible to consult, all of them

your most decided friends. They are, however, afraid of your success,

and wish, if possible, to have an arrangement made with Mr. Clay, to

which if he would consent, it would go far to secure the election of Mr.

Crawford.

After the most deep and anxious reflection I have been able to bestow on

the subject, I would advise you to withdraw from the contest. How that

should be done, in case you approve of it, I do not know. Your feelings

and views of the best manner of doing it would be conclusive with me.

The arrangement submitted to Mr. Lacock and myself contemplated your

remaining on the ticket till near the election, in case Mr. Clay would

consent; and if he would not consent, then for you to remain on the

ticket to the last. I confess I do not like this conditional

arrangement, and the letter of Mr. Dickinson makes me dislike it more.

These points are all open, and I was most desirous of seeing you and

getting your views upon them. In case you approve of having your name

withdrawn, it occurs to me that the best manner would be in a letter to

Judge Ruggles, which might be published a few days after Mr. Lacock's

departure. In that case Clay would not be informed of it till Mr. Lacock

would have seen him, and his decision might have been different than if

he knew absolutely that you had withdrawn. If you prefer the other,

however, that is, to place your withdrawing on the contingency of Mr.

Clay's co-operation, I am perfectly satisfied. Indeed, I feel quite at a

loss how to advise in the case. Indeed, in this whole communication I

write under the greatest pain and embarrassment. Every step I have taken

in regard to your name being placed before the nation was dictated by

the purest friendship to you and the clearest sense of duty to my

country. To have had any agency in placing you in a situation at all

calculated to wound your feelings or give pain to your mind, is to me a

source of painful reflection. This, added to the perplexed state of

public opinion and the uncertainty of the final result, brings with it a

distress of mind I have never heretofore experienced.

[Sidenote 1824]

I am, my dear sir, with sincere esteem, your friend.

GALLATIN TO MR. LOWRIE.

FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, October 2, 1824.

DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 25th of September, received on the 29th,

has caused me much perplexity, not from any hesitation as to the

principles which should govern my conduct, but from want of sufficient

knowledge of the facts.

It is evident that I ought not to decline from mere personal motives and

in order to avoid the mortification of a defeat, especially if this

should be in any degree injurious to the public cause. There is in a

nomination a mutual though tacit pledge of support, on the part of those

who nominate, of standing a candidate on the part of the person

nominated.

But my withdrawing would be proper in case my continuing to stand should

either appear injurious to the election of Mr. Crawford or prevent the

election of a proper person to the office of Vice-President. On either

the one or the other of those grounds I consider your communications

decisive so far as relates to New Jersey and New York. There may be no

difficulty with respect to Georgia and any other State where the choice

of electors remains with the Legislature. The embarrassment is

principally in relation to Virginia and North Carolina. I am sensible

that my name is in itself of no weight anywhere; but it is not for me,

consulting only my feelings, to decide whether, after the active

exertions of committees and individuals in favor of the two candidates

nominated at Washington, the withdrawing the name of one on the eve of a

popular election and without substituting another in his place, may

prove favorable or injurious to the success of the Republican tickets.

With that view of the subject, my answer to Mr. Lacock was that I would

leave the decision with the central committee of correspondence for the

State of Virginia. To that State I am more particularly bound, as the

only one where, to my knowledge, the nomination of Washington was

confirmed in full by the Republican members of the Legislature. The

committee is their legitimate organ; and from their local situation they

also are best able to form an opinion concerning North Carolina, with

which last State there was hardly time to consult, and whose

arrangements on the subject of the election are not known to me. Our

friends in those districts of Maryland which may be favorable to us

might also be consulted.

I am still of the same opinion; but considering how little time remains

and how much would be lost by corresponding with me, I enclose my

declaration that I wish my name to be withdrawn, not directed to Mr.

Ruggles, since he is not to judge whether and when it must be used, but

intended for publication in the newspapers at the discretion of the

committee for Virginia, who will of course consult, if necessary, with

Mr. Van Buren on the subject.

There will be no necessity for that consultation if they think it

advantageous in the Southern States that my name should be withdrawn

prior to the election of electors. They may at once in that case publish

my declaration, since it is ascertained that the effect will be

favorable in the North. To me that course would be the most agreeable.

The publication must at all events be made before the result of the

election of electors is ascertained, and prior to their being elected by

the Legislature of New York.

In order to avoid delays as far as depends on me, I will enclose copies

of my declining and of the substance of this letter both to Mr. Van

Buren at Albany and to Mr. Stephenson at Richmond, to be communicated by

him to the committee of correspondence, as I do not know their names.

But he may be absent, and it will be necessary for you to write not only

to Mr. Van Buren, but also to Richmond, enclosing copy of my declining

and of such parts of this letter as will put them in full possession of

the subject.

The publication of my declining should be made, as far as practicable,

simultaneously in the National Intelligencer and principal State papers.

I advised Mr. Lacock against negotiating in person with Mr. Clay, as I

thought that it would only encourage him to advise his friends in New

York to make no compromise that would not secure him a part, at least,

of the votes of that State for President. The only way, it seemed to me,

was to convince him, by the choice of the electors there, that he had no

chance for that office. This, however, was an opinion on a subject in

which I can have nothing more to say.

Of your friendship, sincerity, and patriotic motives I am most perfectly

satisfied. My nomination has been a miscalculation, and however painful

the results may be to our feelings, having nothing to reproach ourselves

with throughout the whole transaction, there is nothing in it save the

effect it may have on the public cause that can give us any permanent

uneasiness.

I have but one observation to add. From my experience, both when Mr.

Jefferson was made Vice-President and when, in 1808, Mr. Clinton was

re-elected to the same office, I know that nothing can be more injurious

to an Administration than to have in that office a man in hostility with

that Administration, as he will always become the most formidable

rallying-point for the opposition.

I remain, respectfully and sincerely, your friend and obedient servant.

* * * * *

This chapter of secret political history will hardly stand comparison

with what were at least the earnest phases of party politics in the days

when Mr. Gallatin was really a leader. Parties had no longer a

principle, and it was clearly time for Mr. Gallatin to retire. On the 3d

December, when it was certain that no choice had been made by the

people, he wrote from New Geneva to his son: "The Republican party seems

to me to be fairly defunct. Our principal misfortune was perhaps the

want of a popular candidate. The great defect of our system is the

monarchical principle admitted in our Constitution."

[Sidenote: 1825.]

The election of Mr. Adams took place on February 9, 1825. Rumors in

regard to the new Cabinet were communicated by Mr. Stewart, the

representative of Fayette County, to James Gallatin, at Baltimore, who

wrote them to his father. Mr. Gallatin replied in a letter of February

19. Mr. James Gallatin, who, as a boy at Ghent, had been a favorite of

Mr. Adams, enclosed this letter to the new President without his

father's knowledge. Mr. Adams replied at once, and the correspondence

will serve to close this account of the election of 1824-25,

disappointing and unsatisfactory to every one who shared in it.

ANDREW STEWART TO JAMES GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON, 15th February, 1825.

... Many rumors are afloat on the subject of the new Cabinet. The

Treasury Department has been offered to Mr. Crawford in the most

flattering terms, which he has, however, declined. It is confidently

asserted that it has been or will be offered to your father. Whether he

will be disposed to accept you know best. There is evidently a strong

wish to conciliate the friends of Mr. Crawford to the new

Administration....

ALBERT GALLATIN TO JAMES GALLATIN.

NEW GENEVA, PENNSYLVANIA, 19th February, 1825.

MY DEAR JAMES,--Young Ebert has brought me this evening your letter of

the 16th. I have heard nothing on the subject either from Mr. Adams or

from any other person. The Washington mail for this place, which may

have arrived to-day at Union, will not reach New Geneva before Thursday.

I am sorry to find that you feel so much for me on account of the late

political disappointments. There is much consolation in the reflection

that, having served the country with entire devotion, perfect fidelity,

and to the best of my abilities, the loss of my popularity is not owing

to any improper conduct on my part. We must cheerfully submit to what we

cannot prevent, enjoy with thanks the blessings within our reach, and

not make ourselves unhappy by unavailing regrets. This I mean as advice

to you; for I really do not want it for myself.

As to my accepting the Treasury Department, it is out of question. I

refused it in 1816, when offered by Mr. Madison. To fill that office in

the manner I did, and as it ought to be filled, is a most laborious task

and labor of the most tedious kind. To fit myself for it, to be able to

understand thoroughly, to embrace and to control all its details, took

from me, during the two first years I held it, every hour of the day and

many of the night, and had nearly brought a pulmonary complaint. I

filled the office twelve years, and was fairly worn out. Having lost

sight of the details during the last twelve years would require a new

effort, which, at this time, it would be unjust and cruel to require of

me.

But even with respect to the Department of State, for which I am better

calculated than any other, and as fit as any other person, it appears to

me, considering the situation in which I have been placed, that unless

Mr. Crawford had remained in the Administration, it would not be proper

for me to become a member of it. This is much strengthened by the

surmises to which Mr. Clay's conduct has given birth, and by the

circumstance of his accepting one of the Departments. I must and will at

all events remain above the reach of suspicion.

I do not wish to be understood as speaking or wishing to act in

opposition to Mr. Adams or to his Administration. I wish, on the

contrary, that it may redound to his honor and be beneficial to his

country. I had always stated to Mr. Crawford himself and to our friends

that, next to him, Mr. Adams was my choice among the other candidates.

To receive our support he has only to act in conformity with our

principles.

If you should write to Stewart, enter into no details, and only say that

you are satisfied, from the general tenor of my correspondence, that I

had not as late as this day received the offer of the Treasury

Department, and that, if offered, I could not accept it.

25th February.

I received yours of 19th inst. The information given you by A. Stewart

appears to have been erroneous, as I have received nothing from Mr.

Adams. I am glad of it, as I like better not to be appointed than to

have to decline the appointment....

J. Q. ADAMS TO JAMES GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON, 26th February, 1825.

DEAR SIR,--Conformably to your desire, I return herewith your father's

letter, with my thanks for the perusal of it. I have always entertained

a very high opinion of your father's character and public services, and

am much gratified with the sentiments personal towards me expressed in

his letter. That he will support the Administration so far as its

conduct shall be conformable to the principles which he approves is

what I should have expected from his sense of justice.

My personal feelings towards your father, particularly since we were

associated together in the negotiations for peace and commerce with

Great Britain, have been eminently friendly. They are so still, and it

would have been gratifying to me to have had the benefit of his

assistance in the Administration about to commence. The reasons assigned

in his letter for his declining the Treasury Department were chiefly

those which deterred me from offering him a nomination to it; and those

of them founded upon objections to oppressively laborious duties

applying more forcibly still to the Department of State than to that of

the Treasury contributed to my conclusion that neither of them would

have been acceptable to him. Had I been aware that his acceptance of the

Department of State would have been conditional either upon Mr.

Crawford's remaining in the Administration or upon Mr. Clay's exclusion

from it, or upon both, it would have been to me an additional motive to

refrain from making the offer. Approving altogether of your father's

determination to remain above the reach of suspicion, I should never

make him a proposal by the acceptance of which, even in his own

imagination, a taint of suspicion could attach to his character. It is

my earnest wish that he may to the end of his days remain above the

reach of suspicion; but, as that does not always depend upon ourselves,

if it should prove otherwise I can only hope that every suspicion which

may befall him should be as unjust and groundless as the surmises to

which Mr. Clay's conduct has given birth.

The parental advice in your father's letter is worthy of his firmness

and conscious integrity. These are never-failing supports under the loss

of public favor. This, however, has not been sustained by him to the

extent which he appears to apprehend. The respect for his character and

services continues unimpaired; in my mind at least it remains as strong

as ever, unaffected even by the distrust which I regret to see

entertained by him, of the error of which I have no doubt he will live

to be convinced.

I am, with great regard and esteem, dear sir, &c.

GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.

NEW GENEVA, PENNSYLVANIA, 18th March, 1825.

Your good letter afforded me, my dear friend, great satisfaction, and

would have been long ago answered had it not been for the uncertainty of

my movements this spring. You had designated the month of April as the

time of your intended visit here, and I had made arrangements to be

absent during that and the ensuing month on a visit which I had believed

indispensable to my lands in Ohio and on Kanawha. It has at last been

agreed that James will go in my place, so that I will be here from this

time to the month of October. I expect you, therefore, this spring, and

hope that nothing will intervene to prevent the mutual pleasure of this

meeting.

I see by your letter that you are not perfectly satisfied either with

yourself or the world. As to the first, I may say with truth that you

have less to reproach yourself with than any other person within my

knowledge. But I believe emigration, when not compulsory, to be always

an error, and you are the only person that I ever induced to take that

step; so that even in that respect the blame must at least be shared

between us. As to the world, I have been, like you, disappointed in the

estimate I had formed of the virtue of mankind and of its influence over

others. Every day's experience convinces us that most unprincipled men

are often most successful. In this country there is much more morality

and less of integrity than on the continent of Europe. This we cannot

help; and as to myself, taking everything into consideration, I have had

so much greater share of all that appears desirable than I had any right

to expect, that I have none to complain. Yours has been a harder lot,

yet I doubt whether not as happy....

My general health is good, and I do not look older than I am; but I am

weak and cannot bear any fatigue. This, indeed, is the reason why my

family insisted that I should not take my intended journey.... My old

friends in this country are almost all dead; the few survivors ... quite

superannuated....

* * * * *

The experiment of living at Friendship Hill did not succeed. Not only

was New Geneva an unsuitable place for the advancement of children, but

it was beyond question intolerably dull for Mr. Gallatin himself. He

made the experiment during one winter, and then abandoned it, as it

proved, forever. The Governor of Pennsylvania offered him in May, 1825,

the appointment of Canal Commissioner, a compliment to his well-known

interest in internal improvements, which he declined. America was now

convulsed by the visit of La Fayette, almost the first occasion on which

the people of the United States showed their capacity for a genuine

national enthusiasm. In his triumphal progress, La Fayette passed

through Western Pennsylvania and was publicly welcomed by Mr. Gallatin

in an address delivered before the court-house at Uniontown, in which he

touched with much skill upon the subjects which were then most deeply

interesting the liberals of all nations,--the emancipation of the

Spanish colonies and of Greece. La Fayette was a propagandist of the

Greek cause in America, and Mr. Gallatin had always sympathized with him

on this point, even to the extent of meriting the thanks of the Greek

government while he was minister in Paris. In the address to La Fayette

at Uniontown he spoke with extraordinary earnestness of the critical

situation of the Greeks:

"The cause is not yet won! An almost miraculous resistance may yet

perhaps be overwhelmed by the tremendous superiority of numbers. And

will the civilized, the Christian world,--for those words are

synonymous,--will they look with apathy on the dreadful catastrophe that

would ensue? A catastrophe which they, which even we alone could prevent

with so much facility and almost without danger? I am carried beyond

what I intended to say. It is due to your presence,--do I not know that

wherever man, struggling for liberty, for existence, is most in danger,

there is your heart?"

The address to La Fayette was a last revival of the old flame of

eloquence and of republican feeling which had controlled and inspired

the opposition to Washington and John Adams. It should be read after

reading the great speech on foreign intercourse delivered in 1798, and

taken in that connection it will offer a curious standard for comparing

the movement of parties and of men.

La Fayette was received at Uniontown on the 26th May, 1825, and the next

day he drove with Mr. Gallatin to Friendship Hill, where he passed the

night and resumed his journey on the 28th. His mind was full of his

triumphal progress, and of the fortunes of Greece, but he was allowed

little rest even in the retirement of New Geneva. Crowds of people

thronged Mr. Gallatin's house, and there could be little sensible or

connected conversation in the midst of such excitement.

On the 10th June, Mr. Gallatin wrote to a friend: "We are here very

retired, which suits me and my sons, but is not so agreeable to the

ladies.... The uniformity of our life has been enlivened by the visit of

our friend La Fayette; but he was in great hurry, and the Nation's Guest

had but little time to give to his personal friends, that, too,

encumbered even in my house with a prodigious crowd."

After a summer on the Monongahela, Mr. Gallatin took his family to

Baltimore for the winter. Early in November he received a letter from

Mr. Clay, then Secretary of State, offering him the position of

representative of the United States at the proposed Congress of American

republics at Panama. When Mr. Gallatin declined the post, on account of

the climate and the language, Mr. Clay wrote again urging

reconsideration. He said: "I think the mission the most important ever

sent from this country, those only excepted which related to its

independence and the termination of the late war. It will have objects

which cannot fail to redound to the lasting fame of our negotiators, if

they should be accomplished, as I think there is much reason to believe

they may be." Mr. Gallatin thoroughly sympathized in the policy of

strengthening the relations between the American republics, but

persisted in declining the appointment. The opposition of his family

seems to have been his principal difficulty.

[Sidenote: 1826.]

Towards the spring of 1826, a new demand was made on his services.

President Adams had on assuming office recalled Mr. Rush from England to

take charge of the Treasury Department, and had sent Mr. Rufus King to

London. Mr. King's health gave way immediately after his arrival, and he

was incapacitated for business. The Administration at once summoned Mr.

Gallatin to Washington. The story is told in his own words, in a letter

written on the 12th May, 1826:

"You will have seen by the newspapers that I was appointed minister to

England. There are important negotiations now pending between that

country and the United States, and the state of Mr. King's health was

such that he had requested that, for that purpose, an extraordinary

minister might be united to him. Under those circumstances I was

requested and agreed to go as special minister. Before my nomination was

sent to the Senate, Mr. King resigned altogether his place, and his

resignation arrived to this country and was accepted. The President,

wishing to entrust me alone with the negotiation, and unwilling to

nominate at once a special minister for that purpose and an ordinary

minister as successor to Mr. King, requested that I should go in the

latter character, but with powers to negotiate, and with the

understanding that I should be at liberty to return as soon as the

negotiation was terminated, in same manner as if I had been appointed on

a special mission. With that express understanding I have accepted. But

my nomination has been made merely as successor to Mr. King, and the

circumstances above mentioned are not publicly known. I now mention them

to you in confidence in order to remove your apprehension of another

long absence. This cannot last longer than a twelve-month."

The President appears to have intended that Mr. Gallatin should have

ample discretionary power to act according to his best judgment in the

negotiation; but when the instructions arrived, whether Mr. Clay was not

inclined to allow such latitude, or whether Mr. Adams's ideas of

discretionary power were different from Mr. Gallatin's, the latter found

his position not satisfactory, and before sailing he wrote both to the

President and to Mr. Clay letters of warm remonstrance, with suggestions

of the changes needed to allow of freer action on his part. This done,

he took his departure from New York, on July 1, 1826, accompanied by his

wife and daughter, and arrived in London on the 7th August.

The negotiation now to take place was probably the most complicated and

arduous ever trusted by the United States government in the hands of a

single agent. It embraced not only those commercial questions which had

been so often and so fruitlessly discussed, and which involved the whole

system of British colonial and navigation laws, but also the troublesome

disputes of boundary on our extreme north-eastern and north-western

frontier, in Maine and Oregon; the settlement of a long outstanding

claim for slaves carried away by British troops in contravention of the

First Article of the Treaty of Ghent; and the continuance of the

commercial convention negotiated by Mr. Gallatin in 1815 and extended in

1818 for ten years by him and Mr. Bush. All the principal notes and

despatches which record from day to day the progress of the various

negotiations have been published, and are to be found in the great

collection of American State Papers; to them, students must refer for

details, which belong to the region of history rather than to biography;

here it is enough to describe some of the leading points of the

situation and to give some slight idea of the manner in which Mr.

Gallatin dealt with his difficulties.

Of these difficulties perhaps the greatest was that Lord Castlereagh was

no longer head of the Foreign Office. Lord Castlereagh's political sins

may have been many and dark, but towards the United States he was a wise

and fair man. No one asked or expected friendship from a British

minister of that day; all that America wished was to be treated by the

English government with some degree of respect. Lord Castlereagh humored

this weakness; his manners and his temper were excellent; his commercial

views were much in advance of his time; he conceded with grace, and his

refusals left no sting. When in 1822 he put an end to his own career, he

was succeeded in the Foreign Office by George Canning, doubtless a

greater man, but one whose temper was not gentle towards opposition, and

whose old triumphs over embargo and non-intercourse had not left upon

his imagination any profound respect for American character. Mr. Canning

liked brilliant and aggressive statesmanship. He was not inclined to

admit the new doctrines which had been announced by President Monroe in

regard to the future exclusion of Europe from America; he felt that the

power of the United States was a danger and a threat to England, and he

would have been glad to strike out some new path which should relieve

the commerce of England from its increasing dependence on America.

Unfortunately for Mr. Gallatin, the very moment which Mr. Canning chose

for experimenting on this subject was the moment when Gallatin was on

his way to England in the summer of 1826. The object which he selected

for experiment was the West India trade.

As has been already shown, the British government both in 1815 and in

1818 had declined to accept the American propositions on this subject.

The trade between the United States and the West Indies was therefore

left to be regulated by legislation as suited the interests of the

parties. In proportion as England opened her colonial ports to American

vessels, Congress relaxed the severity of its navigation law, and, in

spite of incessant dispute about details, this process went on with

favorable results as fast as public opinion in England would allow.

There was only one drawback to the policy. In the multiplication of

restrictive and retaliatory laws the intercourse became so embarrassed

that no man could pretend to say what was and what was not permitted or

forbidden.

In 1825 Parliament had undertaken a general revision of the colonial and

navigation system, and several laws were adopted by which considerable

changes had been made and liberal privileges granted to foreign nations

on certain conditions. So far as applied to the United States, the

condition was that she should place British shipping on the footing of

the most favored nation.

The laws were intricate and impossible to understand without

authoritative explanation. Mr. Clay and the committees of Congress

considered the subject with care. The result was a decision to attempt

nothing by way of legislation, but to give Mr. Gallatin authority to

make such concessions as would probably secure a satisfactory

arrangement by treaty. With these powers in his hand, not doubting that

at length this annoying contest would be closed, Mr. Gallatin landed in

England, and was met by the announcement that the British government, in

consequence of the failure of Congress to fulfil the conditions of the

Act of Parliament of July 5, 1825, had withdrawn the privileges

conferred by that act; had prohibited, by order in council, all

intercourse in American vessels between the British West Indies and the

United States; and refused even to discuss the subject further.

In a small way this proceeding was only a repetition of Mr. Canning's

abrupt rupture of negotiation in the case of Mr. Monroe's unratified

treaty twenty years before. Orders in council had a peculiarly

irritating meaning to American ears, and any negotiator would have had

some excuse for losing his temper in such a case, but it must be agreed

that on this occasion the American government in all its branches

appeared with dignity and composure. Mr. Gallatin's notes were excellent

in tone, forbearing in temper, and conclusive in argument; Mr. Clay was

not less quiet and temperate. Between the two Mr. Canning did not appear

equally well. He resorted to what was little better than hair-splitting

on the meaning of the words "right" and "claim" as applied to the

American trade with the colonies. "When it is contended," said he in a

note of November 13, 1826, "that the '_right_' by which Great Britain

prohibits foreign nations from trading with her colonies is the same

'_right_' with that by which she might (if she thought fit) prohibit

them from trading with herself, this argument (which is employed by the

United States alone) implies that the special prohibition is a grievance

to the United States, if not of the same _amount_, of the same _kind_,

as the general prohibition would be. This is a doctrine which Great

Britain explicitly denies."

In short, Mr. Canning was determined upon making one more effort to save

the colonial system, and he preferred to do it in a way that would be

remembered. Possibly his policy was sound; at all events he obtained by

its means for England a very degrading apology from the next American

Administration, although the number of his diplomatic triumphs over

America was by that time no longer a matter of concern to him, and he

and his ambition were then things of the past. His motives, in this

instance, were not quite clear; what he avowed was the determination to

ascertain by experiment whether the West Indies could be made

independent of the United States by opening the colonial trade to all

the rest of the world and prohibiting it to the United States alone. In

the face of this attempt the American government had only one course to

pursue: it must acquiesce and resume its retaliatory prohibition. This

was accordingly done, without irritating language, and in excellent

temper and taste. In regard to this branch of his negotiation, Mr.

Gallatin's task therefore became simple; he had merely to obtain from

the British government a distinct avowal of its determination to

maintain this new policy against a direct offer of negotiation. He

reserved this step until the very close of his mission, and his last

words to Earl Dudley on the subject are worth quoting:

"The right of Great Britain to regulate the intercourse with her

colonies is not questioned, and it is not usual for nations to make any

great sacrifice for the sake of asserting abstract principles which are

not contested. She is undoubtedly the only proper judge of what should

be her commercial policy. The undersigned has not been fortunate enough

to be able to discover what actual advantages she derives from the

measures in which she perseveres in regard to the colonial intercourse.

He has apprehended that considerations foreign to the question might

continue to oppose obstacles to a proper understanding. Nothing has been

omitted to remove those which might have arisen from misconceptions of

the views and proceedings of the American government. It is gratifying

to have received assurances that the decision of Great Britain was not

influenced by any unfriendly feelings towards the United States. Their

sentiments for Great Britain are those of amity and good-will; and their

government is animated by a sincere desire to improve and strengthen the

friendly relations of the two countries."

This sudden and unexpected blow, which instantly put an end to the most

hopeful branch of Mr. Gallatin's intended negotiation, had a very

mischievous effect upon the negotiation as a whole; practically and for

the moment it annulled all his instructions. He had to act for himself,

and he was much perplexed to form any theory of British motives which

would serve to guide his course. He attempted to look at the matter from

the British point of view, and wrote his first impressions to Mr. Clay

on the 22d September, 1826:

"On three points we were perhaps vulnerable. 1. The delay in renewing

the negotiation. 2. The omission of having revoked the restriction on

the indirect intercourse when that of Great Britain had ceased. 3. Too

long an adherence to the opposition to her right of laying protecting

duties. This might have been given up as soon as the Act of 1825 had

passed. These are the causes assigned for the late measures adopted

towards the United States on that subject, and they have undoubtedly had

a decisive effect as far as relates to the order in council, assisted as

they were by the belief that our object was to compel this country to

regulate the trade upon our own terms. But even this will not account

for the refusal to negotiate and the apparent determination to exclude

us altogether hereafter from a participation in the trade of the

colonies. There is certainly an alteration in the disposition of this

government since the year 1818, when I was last here. Lord Castlereagh

and Mr. Robinson had it more at heart to cherish friendly relations than

Mr. Canning and Mr. Huskisson. The difference may, however, be in the

times rather than in the men. Treated in general with considerable

arrogance till the last war, with great attention, if not respect,

during the years that followed it, the United States are now an object

of jealousy; and a policy founded on that feeling has been avowed."[160]

The first part of the above paragraph, down to the words "upon our own

terms," was afterwards paraphrased by Mr. Van Buren as the ground of his

celebrated deprecation to Great Britain, when giving his instructions,

as Secretary of State, to Mr. McLane, as Minister to England. This fact

was discovered by Mr. Benton, who has, in his "Thirty Years' View,"[161]

printed that portion of the above despatch of 22d September, 1826, at

the same time judiciously omitting the remainder, as had been done by

Mr. Van Buren himself. This is not the place for making any comment

either upon Mr. Van Buren's statesmanship or Mr. Benton's merits as a

historian; but it is proper to point out that nothing in Mr. Gallatin's

despatch could honestly be made to support the credit of either the one

or the other.[162]

But Mr. Gallatin's remarks of September 22 were written before receiving

the explanations of his own government, and they did not express a

matured opinion. He was greatly perplexed to understand the real motives

of Mr. Canning. On the 18th October, not one month after this despatch

to Mr. Clay, he wrote a private letter to the President, giving some

interesting information he had obtained on a short visit to Paris.[163]

In this letter he mentioned having received information from a

respectable quarter that "a few days before the publication of the order

in council of July last, one of the King's ministers had complained to a

confidential friend of the general tone of the American diplomacy

towards England, still more as respected manner than matter, and added

that it was time to show that this was felt and resented." Puzzled to

know what could have caused such displeasure, Mr. Gallatin adds that he

had looked through all the published correspondence and could find

nothing with which the British government could have taken offence,

unless it were Mr. Adams's instructions to Mr. Rush, with which that

government had no concern. Even in this supposition, however, it soon

appeared that he was mistaken; for on the 27th November he wrote to Mr.

Clay that he had further ascertained the name of the "King's minister"

before mentioned. It was no less a person than Mr. Canning himself; he

had said that the language used by America was almost tantamount to a

declaration of war; he had used the same language to Mr. Gallatin, and

his grievance was not at all against the President or his officers, but

against a certain Mr. Baylies, a member of Congress from Massachusetts,

who, as chairman of a committee, had made a belligerent report to the

House, which had never even been taken into consideration. "It is most

undoubtedly that report which has given great offence, and I am apt to

think that, though not the remote, or only, it was the immediate cause

of the order in council."

Feeling his way in this tentative manner, always the most difficult task

of a new minister in critical times, Mr. Gallatin approached the other

subjects of negotiation. At the close of the year he wrote to the

President, sketching the state of each disputed point and earnestly

pressing for instructions. This letter closes with the following

unusually severe remarks:

[Sidenote: 1827.]

"Although all my faculties are exerted, and it is far from being the

first time, in trying to accommodate differences and to remove causes of

rupture, it is impossible for me not to see and feel the temper that

prevails here towards us. It is perceptible in every quarter and on

every occasion, quite changed from what it was in 1815-1821; nearly as

bad as before the last war, only they hate more and despise less, though

they still affect to conceal hatred under the appearance of contempt. I

would not say this to any but to you and your confidential advisers, and

I say it not in order to excite corresponding feelings, but because I

think that we must look forward and make those gradual preparations

which will make us ready for any emergency, and which may be sufficient

to preserve us from the apprehended danger.... I must say, after my

remarks on the temper here, that I have been personally treated with

great, by Mr. Canning with marked, civility."

Thus difficulties thickened round him as he advanced. The West India

negotiation could not take place; there was no hope for the navigation

of the St. Lawrence; there was no chance of fixing a definitive boundary

in Oregon; even to make the preliminary arrangements for compromising

the dispute about the Maine boundary would be laborious and arduous; the

only point settled was that of payment in a gross sum for captured

slaves.

ALBERT GALLATIN TO JAMES GALLATIN.

LONDON, 13th January, 1827.

... We continue all well, and I anticipate nothing that can prevent our

taking our departure about the middle of June. All that I can possibly

do here must be terminated by that time, provided the instructions I

have asked on some points be such as not to render another reference to

Washington necessary. I have written to the Department of State

accordingly, and asked for leave to return by that time, to which I

presume no objection will be made, as it was explicitly understood that

I should remain no longer than the pending negotiations required, and

Mr. Adams's conjecture that they would occupy about twelve months is

confirmed. I have written to him a private letter by the last packet,

most earnestly entreating him both to direct the necessary instructions

to be sent and to grant me leave to return. As you know him, and he has

always shown kindness to you, I wish you would join your solicitations

to mine, either in writing or by waiting in person on him. There are

many things which you may say or explain showing the importance of my

return to my family. As to myself, whether it is the result of age (you

know that in a fortnight I will enter my sixty-seventh year) or

increased anxiety about you and your brother, my mind is enervated, and

I feel that a longer absence would have a most serious effect upon me.

As it is, though my health is tolerable, I hardly dare to hope that I

will see you again. Nor will my return be any public loss. The United

States want here a man of considerable talent, but he must be younger

than I am and capable of going through great labor with more facility

than I now possess. This is at all times the most laborious foreign

mission. It is at this time, owing to the negotiations, one of the most

laborious public offices. I cannot work neither as long nor do as much

work in the same time as formerly. To think and to write, to see the

true state of the question, and to state it, not with eloquence, but

with perspicuity, all that formerly was done instantaneously and with

ease is now attended with labor, requires time, and is not performed to

my satisfaction. I believe that Mr. Lawrence will prove a useful public

servant. Yet I have missed and do miss your assistance every day. I did

not like French diplomacy; I cannot say that I admire that of this

country. Some of the French statesmen occasionally say what is not true

(cordon sanitaire); here they conceal the truth. The temper also towards

us is bad. After all, though it is necessary to argue well, you may

argue forever in vain; strength and the opinion of your strength are the

only efficient weapons. We must either shut ourselves in our shell, as

was attempted during the Jefferson policy, and I might say mine, or we

must support our rights and pretensions by assuming at home a different

attitude. I think that we are now sufficiently numerous and rich for

that purpose, and that with skill our resources would be found adequate.

But that is a subject requiring more discussion than can be encompassed

in a letter. I fear that you will find this written in a too desponding

mood; and I do not wish you to despond as relates to yourself.... What

you may, or rather ought to, do about our lands, it belongs to you to

decide. They are yours and Albert's, and you must consider them as such,

keep or sacrifice, since there is no chance of a favorable sale at

present, as you shall think best. It is a troublesome and unproductive

property, which has plagued me all my life. I could not have vested my

patrimony in a more unprofitable manner....

ALBERT GALLATIN TO JAMES GALLATIN.

LONDON, 29th January, 1827.

... I do not understand [in your letter] what relates to Mr. Clay's

letter and mine on colonial intercourse, and why they should be brought

in competition. They were written for different purposes, mine in

defence of the general ground taken by America and of her claims on that

subject, addressed, too, to Mr. Canning, and on that account more

guarded and cautious; that of Mr. Clay principally in defence of the

conduct of the Administration on the subject since he came in office,

and written without apprehension that it might be answered. I was but

indifferently satisfied with my own or with the cause I had to contend

for; and that of Mr. Clay, though too long and too hastily written, was

better than I had expected. He has great talent, and has vastly improved

since 1814. His fault is that he is devoured with ambition, and in all

his acts never can detach himself and their effect on his popularity

from the subject on which he is called to act. But whilst serving in his

Department it is unpleasant to be placed in opposition to him.

J. Q. ADAMS TO GALLATIN.[164]

WASHINGTON, 20th March, 1827.

DEAR SIR,--I have received from you several very kind and friendly

letters, for which the unremitted pressure of public business during the

session of Congress has not permitted me to make the due return of

acknowledgment. The march of time, which stays not for the convenience

or the humors of men, has closed the existence of that body for the

present, and they have left our relations with Great Britain precisely

where they were.

The sudden and unexpected determination of the British government to

break off all negotiation concerning the colonial trade, and the

contemporaneous measure of interdicting the vessels of the United States

from all their ports in the West Indies, as well as many others, has

taken us so much by surprise that a single short session of Congress has

not been sufficient to mature the system by which we may most

effectively meet this new position assumed by the colonial monopoly of

Great Britain....

From the state of your negotiation upon the other subjects of interest

in discussion between the two governments, as exhibited in your latest

despatches and letters, there is little encouragement to expect a

satisfactory result regarding them. There are difficulties in the

questions themselves,--difficulties still more serious in the exorbitant

pretensions of Great Britain upon every point,--difficulties, to all

appearances, insuperable in the _temper_ which Great Britain now brings

into the management of the controversy. For the causes of this present

soreness of feeling we must doubtless look deeper than to the report of

a committee of our House of Representatives or to the assertion by the

late President that the American continents were no more subject to

future colonization from Europe. As the assertion of this principle is

an attitude which the American hemisphere must assume, it is one which

no European has the right to question; and if the inference drawn from

it of danger to _existing_ colonies has any foundation, it can only be

on the contingency of a war, which we shall by all possible means avoid.

As to the report of Mr. Baylies, if Mr. Canning has not enough upon his

hands to soothe the feelings of foreign nations for what he says in

Parliament himself, he would think it passing strange to be called to

account for offences of that character committed by Mr. Brougham or Mr.

Hume. He surely cannot be so ill informed of the state of things

existing here as not to know that Mr. Baylies is not the man by whom the

sentiments or opinions of this or of the last Administration of the

government of the United States were or are wont to be expressed. The

origin, rise, and progress of this "Oregon Territory Committee," of

which Mr. Baylies became at last the chairman, is perhaps not known even

to you; but you may remember it was the engine by means of which Mr.

Jonathan Russell's famous duplicate letter was brought before the House

of Representatives and the nation, and that incident will give you a

clue to the real purposes for which that committee was raised and to the

spirit manifested in the report of Mr. Baylies.

Upon the whole, if the same inflexible disposition which you have found

prevailing upon the subject of the colonial trade, and of which

indications so distinct have been given upon the boundary questions and

the navigation of the St. Lawrence, should continue unabated, our last

resource must be to agree upon the renewal for ten years of the

Convention of 1818. This would probably _now_ obtain the advice and

consent of the Senate for ratification. On the colonial trade question

the opposition here have taken the British side, and their bill in the

Senate was concession unqualified but by a deceptive show of future

resistance. But you must not conclude that the same spirit would be

extended to anything in the shape of concession which you might send to

us in a treaty. One inch of ground yielded on the northwest coast,--one

step backward from the claim to the navigation of the St. Lawrence,--one

hair's-breadth of compromise upon the article of impressment, would be

certain to meet the reprobation of the Senate. In this temper of the

parties, all we can hope to accomplish will be to adjourn controversies

which we cannot adjust, and say to Britain, as the Abbé Bernis said to

Cardinal Fleuri: Monseigneur, j'attendrai.

Your instructions will be forwarded in season that you may be subjected

to no delay in bringing the negotiation to an issue; but I regret

exceedingly the loss to the public of your continued services. The

political and commercial system of Great Britain is undergoing great

changes. It will certainly not stop at the stage where it now stands.

The interdicting order in council of last July itself has the air of a

start backwards by Mr. Huskisson from his own system to the old

navigation laws. His whole system is experimental against deep-rooted

prejudice and a delusion of past experience. I could earnestly have

wished that it might have been consistent with your views to remain a

year or two longer in England, and I should have indulged a hope that in

the course of that time some turn in the tide of affairs might have

occurred which would have enabled us, with your conciliatory management

of debatable concerns, to place our relations with Great Britain upon a

more stable and friendly foundation.

* * * * *

As though to annoy Mr. Gallatin with indefinite difficulties and delays,

a prolonged Cabinet crisis now occurred. Lord Liverpool died suddenly in

February, 1827, and the King had to decide whether his authority was

sufficient to sustain Mr. Canning as Prime Minister against the personal

isolation in which the temper, rather than the social position, of that

remarkable man placed him. On the 28th April, Mr. Gallatin wrote to Mr.

Clay: "At the dinner of the 23d, Mr. Canning came near Baron Humboldt

and me, and told us, 'You see that the opinion universally entertained

abroad, and very generally indeed in England, that this government is an

Aristocracy, is not true. _It is_' said he, emphatically, '_a Monarchy_.

The Whigs had found it out in 1784, when they tried to oppose the King's

prerogative of choosing his Prime Minister. The Tories have now repeated

the same experiment, and with no greater success.' He appears certainly

very confident, and speaks of any intended opposition in Parliament as

if he had no fear of it." Then Mr. Huskisson, who was the chief

commissioner on the English side, was forced to go abroad for his

health. Mr. Grant took Mr. Huskisson's place. Under the steady influence

of Mr. Gallatin's conciliatory course and of his strong arguments, the

British Ministry, pressed as they were by absorbing contests at home,

tended towards a better disposition, and, although they still adhered

with determination to those points upon which they had committed

themselves, they proved more compliant upon others. This tendency was

rather hastened than retarded by the death of Mr. Canning in August, and

the elevation of Lord Goderich to the post of Prime Minister. The tone

of Mr. Gallatin's letters to Mr. Clay became more cheerful. On the 6th

August, after much discussion, a treaty was signed which continued the

commercial convention of 1815 indefinitely, leaving either party at

liberty to abrogate it at twelve months' notice. On the same day another

convention was signed by which the joint use of the disputed Oregon

territory, as defined in the 3d Article of the convention of 1818, was

also indefinitely continued, subject likewise to abrogation at twelve

months' notice. Finally, on the 29th September, a new convention was

signed providing for the reference of the disputed Maine boundary to a

friendly sovereign.

This accomplished, Mr. Gallatin hastened homewards, and, after a passage

of fifty-two days, arrived in New York on the 30th November.

J. Q. ADAMS TO GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON, December 12, 1827.

DEAR SIR,--I have received your obliging letter from New York, and,

although it would give me great pleasure to see you here, I know not

that any material public interest will require your presence. Your three

conventions were sent yesterday to the Senate for their consideration.

In what light they will view them I cannot yet foresee. I wish they may

prove as satisfactory to them as they are to me.

I regret exceedingly for the public interest that you found yourself

under the necessity of coming home. At the time of your arrival in

England, although I do not believe they had a deliberate purpose of

coming to a rupture with us, they were undoubtedly in a waspish temper,

and Mr. Canning had determined to play off upon us one of his flourishes

for effect. He had been laying up a stock of resentments, for which he

was hoping to expose us to public and open humiliation. I believe that

which most rankled in his mind was the disappointment of the slave-trade

convention, though he said perhaps not a word to you about it.

But, whatever it was, your convention upon the slave indemnities first

turned the tide of feeling and soothed irritations on both sides. You

gained an ascendency over him by suffering him to fancy himself

victorious on some points, by the forbearance to expose too glaringly

his absurdities, and his position, from the time of Lord Liverpool's

political demise, warned him that he had enemies enough upon his hands

without seeking this _querelle d'Allemand_ with us.

Nothing can be more preposterous than their obstinacy upon this colonial

trade squabble; and you had not set your foot on board ship before they

began to grow sick of it. A hurricane had already burst upon the island

of St. Kitts and the Virgin Isles. They have now by proclamation opened

the Bahama Islands, for vessels in ballast to go and take salt and

fruit, and on the 31st of October Mr. Grant told Mr. Lawrence that _he

regretted_ you had not settled this affair as satisfactorily as the

others. Lord Dudley also admires the great ability of your _last_ note

on the subject. These are among the indications not only that their

experiment of supplying their islands without us is failing, but that

they begin to feel it. I believe had you stayed over the winter, they

would have come to our terms upon this affair before another summer.

Whether they would promote our own interest so well as the present

condition of things, remains, as it always has been, a more doubtful

point to me.

The North-Eastern boundary question is far otherwise important to us

than that of the colonial trade,--so important as to give me the deepest

concern. I hope your convention will have the approbation of the Senate,

and that the sequel will be satisfactory to us. We shall want the

benefit of your information and of your advice.

There are so many of these breakers close aboard of us that I have lost

some of my concern for the distant danger of impressment. Mr. Canning

was so fond of creating worlds that, under his administration, the turn

of a straw would have plunged Great Britain into a war with any nation

upon earth. His successors will be more prudent, and I hope more

pacific. If they should engage in a war to which we shall be in the

first instance neutral, I doubt whether they will authorize their

officers to impress beyond their own territorial jurisdiction. I would

not lose any opportunity of coming to an arrangement with them to

abolish this odious practice, but I am weary of renewing with them

desperate discussions upon it.

[Sidenote: 1828.]

Altogether, if your conventions are ratified, I shall indulge a strong

hope that our relations with Great Britain generally will become more

friendly than they have lately been. But I know only that I shall feel

most sensibly the loss of your presence at London, and can form no more

earnest wish than that your successor may acquire the same influence of

reason and good temper which you did exercise, and that it may be

applied with as salutary effect to the future discussions between the

two governments.

I remain, with great respect and attachment, your friend.

* * * * *

With this letter of President Adams the story of Mr. Gallatin's

diplomatic career may fitly close. Such evidence leaves nothing to be

said in regard to his qualities as a diplomate. In that career he stood

first among the men of his time. He never again returned to Europe, and

henceforward his public life may be considered as ended.

He had, however, still one duty to perform. The President, unable to

persuade him to remain in London, requested him to prepare on the part

of the United States government the argument in regard to the

North-Eastern boundary, which was to be submitted to the King of the

Netherlands as arbitrator. This excessively tedious and laborious duty

occupied all his time for the next two years, and resulted in a bulky

volume, which may be found among our public documents. While preparing

it he was obliged to pass a portion of his time in Washington, where he

found politics less and less to his taste. The election of 1828

terminated the long sway of the old Republican party, and if what he saw

about him had not convinced Mr. Gallatin that his opinions and methods

belonged to a past era, instinct must have taught him that his career

and that of his party had best close together.

GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.

WASHINGTON, 16th December, 1828.

[Sidenote: 1829.]

... I have used every possible endeavor to terminate our business

earlier than the day on which it must necessarily be concluded; I have

attended to nothing else, and owe now thirty and more visits, yet I do

not expect to have done before the 1st of January. I cannot rise early,

the days are short, the details very complex, new materials coming in to

the last moment, a great mass of papers to read, selections to make,

several transcribers and draughtsmen to direct, and, independent of age,

the whole much retarded by my being obliged to abstain from writing.

Yet, though I have not worked so hard, the use of the pen excepted,

since I was in the Treasury, I continue to enjoy perfect health....

Notwithstanding their triumphant majority, the prospect of the

conquering party is not very flattering. The object which alone united

them is accomplished, and they dare not now approach the tariff or any

other measure of importance on which they would immediately divide and

break off. Nor is there any man around whom they can rally, the

pretensions being numerous and discordant. The state of politics is

better in reference to the external relations of the country than during

the existence of the Federal and Republican parties; but it is truly

deplorable with respect to the internal concerns of the nation....

GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.

NEW YORK, March 26, 1829.

I duly received, my dear friend, your letter of 10th January last, and

it would have been immediately answered had not an accident deprived me

of the use of my right hand. Rest has now partly restored it; but I am

compelled to employ generally an amanuensis, and to write myself only on

special occasions....

I hope that, with your moderate wants, you find yourself now

comparatively at ease. After much anxiety, I find that our children must

be left to cut their own way and to provide for themselves; and I have

no other uneasiness respecting them than so far as concerns their

health, that of Albert and Frances being extremely delicate, so much so,

indeed, as may perhaps compel me to change once more my place of

residence for one more southerly and favorable to their lungs. With

great indolence and an anxious wish to be rooted somewhere, I was

destined to be always on the wing. It was an ill-contrived plan to think

that the banks of the Monongahela, where I was perfectly satisfied to

live and die in retirement, could be borne by the female part of my

family or by children brought up at Washington and Paris, and,

unfortunately for them, in an artificial situation which has produced

expectations that can never be realized. Albert was the only one who was

happy, and I was obliged to break up a comfortable establishment and to

attempt a new one in one of our seaports with means inadequate to our

support. Particular circumstances have made Baltimore, which was my

choice, objectionable in some respects; and on my return from England,

in conformity with the natural wishes of my wife, whose respectable

mother, aged eighty-five, is still alive, I settled here. What I may now

do is quite uncertain. To Washington I must proceed in a few days on the

business of the North-East boundary, which is committed to my care, and

will be detained there till the 1st of July. I must add that my public

engagements in relation to that important question will cease with the

end of this year.

I am not pleased with the present aspect of public affairs, still less

with that of the public mind. Perhaps old age makes me querulous. I care

little what party and who is in power; but it seems to me that now and

for the last eight years people and leaders have been much less anxious

about the public service and the manner in which it should be performed

than by whom the country should be governed. This feeling appears to me

to be growing; and at this moment every movement seems already to be

directed towards the next Presidential election, and that not on account

of any preference of a system of public measures over another, but

solely in relation to persons, or at best to sectional feelings. Amongst

other symptoms displeasing to me, I may count the attempt of the West,

and particularly of your State, to claim the sovereignty and exclusive

right to the public lands. I wish they did of right belong to the

several States and not to the United States. But the claim is contrary

to positive compact and to common justice, any departure from which,

either in our domestic or external policy, is the most fatal injury that

can be inflicted on our political institutions, on the reputation of the

country, and indeed on the preservation of the Union. But we are going

off the scene; I think that we have discharged our duties honestly, and

the next generation must provide for itself....

* * * * *

For one moment, however, it seemed possible that Mr. Gallatin might

again be employed abroad. The King of the Netherlands could not be

expected to arbitrate without assistance and advice, and it was

peculiarly important that Mr. Gallatin should be at hand for that

purpose. Mr. Van Buren's conscience appears to have been somewhat tender

on the subject of Mr. Gallatin since the secret manipulation of the

Vice-Presidency in 1824; and after General Jackson had been chosen

President in November, 1828, and events had marked out Mr. Van Buren as

highly influential with him, that gentleman seems to have intimated that

he considered Mr. Gallatin to have claims upon his good-will. Mr.

Gallatin's eldest son was then eager for a diplomatic position, and his

father authorized him to tell Mr. Van Buren, and later wrote himself to

say, that he would accept the mission to France, if offered to him,

although he was not willing to return to England or even to be Secretary

of State. Unfortunately, Mr. Van Buren soon found that he had no power

to dispose of his patronage as Secretary, and in the frightful chaos

which followed the inauguration of General Jackson the old servants of

the government instantly saw that new principles and new practices left

no place for them in the national service.

GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.

WASHINGTON, 2d May, 1829.

... I have made more progress this week than all the time since my

arrival. I was not very well, and felt dispirited. My cold has now

entirely left me, and I can see as through a vista the end of my

labors.... After next week most of the writing will be over and my hand

may rest; but there will be correcting, altering, collating maps and

evidence, &c. You call me a pack-horse, but I am used to it, and might,

as relates to the public, have taken for my motto, _Sic vos non

vobis_.... I will be more than delighted to see Frances, if she can

come.... As to beaux, I know of none but Van Buren, and he is, I think,

a little crestfallen....

16th May, 1829.

... I have this day finished dictating to Albert our argument,--two

hundred pages of his writing. Mr. Preble promises to return the whole to

me on Monday with his proposed emendations, which will not be either

long or important; and I hope to have it ready for the President's

inspection by Tuesday.... In giving my love to Maria, tell her that she

and Miss Harrison must be out of their senses to think that I can have

any influence in placing a clerk or do anything else here; but ... upon

every occasion I have freely expressed my entire disapprobation of the

system of removal for political opinions, particularly as applied to

clerks, inspectors, &c., of which there had been no instance since the

commencement of this government....

23d May, 1829.

... Our argument is in the press, and I have every reason to believe

that we will have terminated all that remains to be done for the present

by the 1st of next month. I am well, though weak, and you need not fear

for me the effect of the Washington climate either physically or

politically. There are some things to which I am used, and which do not

affect me much or long. Was I not postponed to make room for Robert

Smith, even when in my prime and with Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison to

sustain me? And most certainly, whatever may be the claims of age and

services, I had none whatever on the present Administration. Age, also,

so advanced as mine, is not a recommendation; and we must make room for

younger men....

WASHINGTON, 8th November, 1829.

... We came here without accident.... I work as much as, but not more

than, I can well go through, but my progress is slow; our statement will

be nearly as long as one volume of Frances's novels, and it is no

trifling task to execute a piece of close reasoning and condensed facts

of that length, which is ultimately intended for the public eye and will

be a national and perhaps a public European paper. I do not mean to let

it go to the press till corrected and made as faultless as I can, and am

more afraid of a failure in the style than in the matter.... We dined

yesterday at the President's. He is very cordial, and did unbend

himself entirely. I have avoided every allusion to myself, his Cabinet,

and the removals. I am told, by one who ought to know, that the Cabinet

is divided, Ingham, Branch, and Berrien being the moderate party. I

suppose that the division at present is only as to removals, but with an

eye to the next Presidential election; and I do not know whether we must

not become Jacksonites in preference to intended successors. Van Buren

is gone to Richmond to court Virginia....

29th November, 1829.

... I got a cold last Tuesday.... The weather was so bad that I thought

it best to keep in the house.... I have lost two dinners by my

confinement, one at Mr. ---- and the other at the President's, where

Albert went. This was a splendid affair; the East room, which,

notwithstanding the abuse of Mr. Adams, was but an unfurnished barn, is,

under our more Republican Administration, besides the Brussels carpeting

and silk curtains, &c., adorned with four immense French

looking-glasses, the largest Albert ever saw, and, by the by, not

necessary in a dining-room; three splendid English crystal chandeliers,

&c. Fifty guests sitting at dinner, one hundred candles and lamps,

silver plate of every description, &c., and for a queen, Peggy

O'Neal,[165] led in by Mr. Vaughan as the head of the Diplomatic Corps,

and sitting between him and the President. All which I mention that,

having had with me your share of the vanities and grandeurs of this

world, you may be quite satisfied that we were not indebted for them to

any particular merit of ours; and that the loss of popularity, which we

perhaps regret too much (for as to the vanities I know that you care no

more about them than I do), is no more an object of astonishment than

the manner in which it is acquired....

[Illustration: Portrait of the aged Albert Gallatin with signature]