DEBATES ON MADISON'S RESOLUTIONS--THEIR FATE--PROCEEDINGS IN REGARD
TO ALGERINE CORSAIRS--COMMENCEMENT OF A NAVY--FIRST COMMITTEE OF
WAYS AND MEANS--FRIGATES ORDERED TO BE BUILT--NAVAL OFFICERS
APPOINTED--GENET RECALLED--ARRIVAL OF HIS SUCCESSOR--GENET MARRIES
AND BECOMES AN AMERICAN CITIZEN--EXCITEMENT AGAINST GREAT
BRITAIN--APPOINTMENT OF A SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE BRITISH COURT
DISCUSSED--JOHN JAY APPOINTED--BELLIGERENT ACTION IN CONGRESS--JAMES
MONROE APPOINTED MORRIS'S SUCCESSOR IN FRANCE--ADJOURNMENT OF
CONGRESS--WASHINGTON VISITS MOUNT VERNON--REBELLIOUS MOVEMENTS IN
KENTUCKY--WASHINGTON'S COMMENTS THEREON.
Madison's resolutions elicited very warm, and at times, violent debates.
The subject was of a purely commercial nature; but the questions it
involved were so interwoven with political considerations, that the
debates inevitably assumed a political and partisan aspect. The
federalists plainly saw that the recommendations in Jefferson's report,
and in the resolutions of Madison, hostility to England and undue favor
toward France, neither position being warranted by a wise policy, nor
consistent with neutrality. The republicans, on the other hand, regarded
the scheme as equitable in itself, and as absolutely necessary for the
assertion of the rights of neutral nations, and the protection of
American commerce from insult, aggression, and plunder. These debates,
which commenced on the thirteenth of January, continued until the third
of February, with few intermissions; and the house was so nearly equally
divided in sentiment, that the first resolution, authorizing commercial
restrictions, was passed by a majority of only five. This was
subsequently rejected in the senate by the casting vote of the
vice-president, and the further consideration of the whole subject was
postponed until March. When it was resumed, the progress of events had
given such new complexion to the whole matter, that it was indefinitely
postponed.
A new and important subject for legislation was brought up at this time.
Very soon after the close of the Revolution, the piratical practices of
corsairs belonging to the Barbary powers on the southern shores of the
Mediterranean sea, and particularly of Algiers, had suggested the
importance of a naval establishment for the protection of the infant
commerce of the new-born nation. Many American merchant-ships, trading
in the Mediterranean sea, were captured by these corsairs, their cargoes
appropriated by the pirates, and their crews sold into slavery. Toward
the close of 1790, President Washington called the attention of Congress
to the subject, and at the same time Mr. Jefferson, the secretary of
state, who had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the facts when in
France, gave many interesting details in an official report on the
subject.
Colonel David Humphreys was appointed a commissioner to treat with the
dey or governor of Algiers concerning his corsairs; but that
semi-barbarian--proud, haughty, and avaricious--was not disposed to
relinquish his share of the profitable sea-robberies carried on under
his sanction. "If I were to make peace with everybody," he said, "what
should I do with my corsairs? What should I do with my soldiers? They
would take off my head for the want of other prizes, not being able to
live on their miserable allowance!"
This was certainly good logic for the perplexed dey, but it did not
convince Humphreys of the justice of piratical practices; and, at the
close of 1793, he wrote to the government of the United States, "If we
mean to have a commerce, we must have a navy to defend it. Besides, the
very _semblance of this_ would tend more toward enabling us to maintain
our neutrality, in the actual critical state of affairs in Europe, than
all the declarations, reasonings, concessions, and sacrifices, that can
possibly be made."
Washington had communicated to the house on the twenty-third day of
December, in a confidential message, the state of affairs with Algiers;
and its consideration with closed doors brought about a debate as to
whether the public should at any time, or under any circumstances, be
excluded from the galleries of the halls of Congress. This, however,
interrupted the business only for a short time.
On the second of January, a committee was appointed to report the amount
of force necessary to protect American commerce against the Algerine
corsairs, and the ways and means for its support. This was the first
committee of ways and means ever appointed by Congress, questions of
that sort having been hitherto referred to the secretary of the
treasury. It indicated an opposition majority in the house, but, as we
have seen in the case of Madison's resolutions, it was very small.
Finally, in the spring of 1794, Congress passed an act to provide for a
naval armament, because, as the preamble recited, "the depredations
committed by the Algerine corsairs on the commerce of the United States,
render it necessary that a naval force should be provided for its
protection." The bill met with strenuous opposition: first, because the
time required to form a navy would be too long, the pressing exigency of
the case requiring immediate action; and, secondly, because it would be
cheaper to purchase the friendship of Algiers by paying a money-tribute,
as had been done for some time by European nations, or to purchase the
protection of those nations. It appears strange that suggestions so
degrading to the character of a free and independent nation should not
have been met with indignant rebuke.
The bill was passed by a small majority. The president was authorized to
provide four frigates, to carry forty-four guns each, and two to carry
thirty-six guns each, and to equip, man, and employ them. The act also
gave him some discretion about the size and metal of the vessels.
Washington, impressed with the stern necessity that called for this
armament, immediately ordered the six vessels to be built, one each at
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Portsmouth in Virginia, and Portsmouth
in New Hampshire. He also, with the advice and consent of the senate,
proceeded to appoint six naval commanders and other officers; and thus
was commenced the navy of the United States.[64]
[Illustration: AMERICAN NAVAL COMMANDERS]
During the progress of the debates on Madison's resolutions,
Washington communicated to Congress evidences of efforts on the part of
Genet to excite the people of portions of the Union against the Spanish
authorities on its southwestern border, and to organize military
expeditions against Louisiana and the Floridas. It was now determined to
bear with the insolence and mischievous meddling of the French minister
no longer; and, at a cabinet council, it was agreed that his diplomatic
functions should be suspended, the privileges resting thereon to be
denied him, and his person arrested. This was the only course for the
government to pursue for the preservation of its dignity, and perhaps
the safety of the republic. This resolution was about to be put into
execution, when a despatch was received from Gouverneur Morris
announcing Genet's recall. The French minister of foreign affairs had,
as soon as he heard of Genet's misconduct, reprobated it as unauthorized
by his government, and appointed M. Fauchet secretary of the executive
council to succeed him. At the same time the French government asked the
recall of Gouverneur Morris, whose views of democracy, as he saw it
daily in Paris, did not coincide with the doctrines of the Jacobins.
Morris was recalled, and Washington, with a liberal spirit, nominated
James Monroe, a political opponent, as his successor. He knew that
Monroe would be acceptable to the French Convention, and likely,
therefore, to be useful to his government.
Fauchet was a keen diplomatist, and came as the representative of an
administration more radical in its democracy than the one that appointed
Genet. The Girondists had fallen, and the government of France had
passed into the hands of Danton and Robespierre, the leaders of the
Jacobins. The Reign of Terror was now in full force. The republican
constitution had been suspended, and the Convention had assumed despotic
powers with bloody proclivities. Even the warmest sympathizers with the
French Revolution, in America, stood appalled at the aspect of affairs
there; and many began to doubt, after all, whether English liberty was
not preferable to French liberty.[65]
Fauchet arrived at Philadelphia in February, and Genet had liberty to
return to France. But he did not choose to trust his person to the
caprices of his countrymen in that time of anarchy and blood, and he
remained in America. He married Cornelia Tappen, daughter of Governor
Clinton, of New York, and became a resident of that state. He at once
disappeared from the firmament of politics, but was an excellent citizen
of his adopted country, and took great interest in agriculture. His
course as minister has been ably defended; but the verdict of impartial
history condemns it as unwise and unwarrantable, to say the least. He
died at his residence in Greenbush, opposite Albany, in July, 1834.
Another subject now violently agitated the American people. The news of
the British orders in council concerning the French colonial trade had
produced great excitement in commercial circles at Philadelphia and New
York. It was considered a flagrant act of injustice toward neutrals, and
both parties vehemently condemned the British government. In Congress a
resolution was offered for the raising of fifteen thousand men to serve
two years, and for other preparations for war; and it was at this
juncture that Madison's commercial resolutions, as we have observed,
were called up, debated, and indefinitely postponed. While the debates
on these resolutions were pending, the feeling against Great Britain was
further stimulated by the publication, in New York, of a reputed speech
of Lord Dorchester (Carleton), governor of Canada, to a deputation of
Indians of Lower Canada, who had attended a great council of savage
tribes, in the Ohio country, in 1793. In this speech, Dorchester, it was
alleged, openly avowed his opinion that war between the United States
and Great Britain would be commenced that year, and that "a new line
between the two nations must be drawn by the sword." This document was
pronounced a forgery. But it had its intended effect in increasing the
hatred of Great Britain in the hearts of a very large portion of the
American people. Congress, under the excitement of the moment, passed a
joint resolution, laying an embargo for thirty days, and afterward for
thirty days longer, for the purpose of preventing British supply-ships
carrying provisions to their fleet in the West Indies. It was also
proposed to enroll an army of eighty thousand minute-men, to man forts
and be ready for action; also an additional standing army of twenty
thousand men.
War with Great Britain now seemed inevitable. To avert it, was
Washington's most anxious solicitude; and, firm in his purpose of
preserving for his country neutrality and peace, he resolved to make an
experiment for the maintenance of both, by sending an envoy
extraordinary to England to open negotiations anew. It required great
heroism to attempt such a course; for the popular excitement was
intense, and the idea of holding any further intercourse with England
was scouted as pusillanimous. The tri-colored cockade was seen upon
every side, and the partisans of the French regicides appeared again to
rule the popular will for the hour.
While the public mind was thus agitated, the president received
despatches from Mr. Pinckney, the resident American minister in London,
advising him that the offensive orders in council of the previous
November, concerning neutral ships, had been revoked, and that Lord
Grenville, in conversation, had assured Mr. Pinckney that that measure
had not been intended for the special vexation of American commerce, but
to distress France. This intelligence subdued the belligerent tone of
the opposition for a moment; yet they showed no reluctance to an open
rupture with Great Britain, affecting to regard Grenville's words as
insincere. Their vehement opposition to the appointment of a special
envoy was speedily renewed, and unscrupulous partisans kept up the
war-cry. The opposition press and the democratic societies used every
means to inflame the populace and increase the exasperation of their
feelings toward Great Britain; and they declared that the crisis had
arrived when decision and energy, not moderation toward that government,
was demanded.
But these manifestations had no sensible effect upon Washington. His
purpose had been adopted after mature reflection. His sagacious mind
perceived clearly the probability of success, and his moral heroism, as
on all other occasions, was proof against animadversions. He hesitated
only when the question, Who shall be appointed? was presented.
Washington's first preference for the mission was Hamilton; but the
earliest intimation of this preference that reached the public ear
raised a storm of opposition. The proposed mission itself was condemned
as a cowardly advance to the British government; and a member of the
house of representatives addressed an earnest letter to the president,
opposing the mission in general terms, and in an especial manner
deprecating the appointment of Hamilton as the envoy to be employed.
Senator James Monroe also took upon himself the task of remonstrating
with Washington, in writing, against the nomination of Hamilton,
assuring him that it would be injurious to the public interest and to
the interest of the president himself; and proposed to explain his
reasons at a private interview. Washington declined the interview, but
requested Mr. Monroe to submit to him, in writing, any facts he might
possess which would disqualify the secretary of the treasury for the
mission; and added: "Colonel Hamilton and others have been mentioned,
but no one is yet absolutely decided upon in my mind. But, as much will
depend, among other things, upon the abilities of the person sent, and
his knowledge of the affairs of this country, and as I am alone
responsible for a proper nomination, it certainly behooves me to name
such a one as, in my judgment, combines the requisites for a mission so
peculiarly interesting to the peace and happiness of this country."
Nothing more was heard from Mr. Monroe on the subject.
Hamilton, with his usual disinterestedness, relieved the president by
advising him to choose, for the proposed envoy, Chief-Justice Jay. In a
long letter to the president, written on the fifteenth of April, in
which he took a general and comprehensive view of national affairs and
the relative position of the country to England, he recommended him to
nominate, as special minister to England, a person who should "have the
confidence of those who think peace still within our reach, and who may
be thought qualified for the mission," with an observation to Congress
that it was done "with an intention to make a solemn appeal to the
justice and good sense of the British government;" at the same time, to
make an "earnest recommendation that vigorous and effectual measures may
be adopted to be prepared for war."
Hamilton then alluded to the fact that Washington had contemplated
nominating him for the mission; and after saying that he was well aware
of the obstacles that existed, and that he would be "completely and
entirely satisfied with the election of another," he nominated Mr. Jay,
as "the only man in whose qualifications for success there would be
thorough confidence.... I think," he continued, "the business would have
the best chance possible in his hands, and I flatter myself that his
mission would issue in a manner that would produce the most important
good to the nation."
"Let me add, sir," said Hamilton in conclusion, "that those whom I call
the sober-minded men of the country, look up to you with solicitude on
the present occasion. If happily you should be the instrument of still
rescuing the country from the dangers and calamities of war, there is no
part of your life, sir, which will produce to you more real
satisfaction, or true glory, than that which shall be distinguished by
this very important service."
Washington took Hamilton's advice, and, in the following message to the
senate, nominated Mr. Jay for the mission:--
"_Gentlemen of the Senate:_--The communications which I have made
to you during the present session, from the despatches of our
minister in London, contain a serious aspect of our affairs with
Great Britain. But, as peace ought to be pursued with unremitted
zeal before the last resource, which has so often been the scourge
of nations, and can not fail to check the advancing prosperity of
the United States, is contemplated, I have thought proper to
nominate, and do hereby nominate, John Jay as envoy extraordinary
of the United States to his Britannic majesty.
"My confidence in our minister plenipotentiary in London continues
undiminished. But a mission like this, while it corresponds with
the solemnity of the occasion, will announce to the world a
solicitude for a friendly adjustment of our complaints, and a
reluctance to hostility. Going immediately from the United States,
such an envoy will carry with him a full knowledge of the existing
temper and sensibility of our country, and will thus be taught to
vindicate our rights with firmness, and to cultivate peace with
sincerity."
Mr. Jay had recently arrived in Philadelphia from New York, and
consented to accept the nomination. It was confirmed by the senate on
Saturday, the nineteenth of April, by a majority of eighteen to eight;
Aaron Burr being among the few who opposed it, it being his practice to
dissent from every measure proposed by Washington.
Conscious of the urgency of his mission, Mr. Jay made immediate
preparations for his departure; and on the twelfth of May he embarked at
New York, with Colonel John Trumbull, the artist, as his secretary. He
was accompanied to the ship by about a thousand of his fellow-citizens,
who desired thus to testify their personal respect and their interest in
his mission of peace. A few days preceding, the Democratic Society of
Philadelphia issued a most inflammatory denunciation of the mission and
the minister; and the opposition in the lower house of Congress
succeeded in adopting a resolution to cut off all intercourse with Great
Britain. It was lost in the senate by the casting vote of
Vice-President Adams; "not," as Washington remarked in a letter to
Tobias Lear on the sixth of May, "as it is said and generally believed,
from a disinclination to the ulterior expedience of the measure, but
from a desire to try the effect of negotiation previous thereto." Mr.
Monroe, acting under instructions from the Virginia legislature,
proposed in the senate to suspend by law the article of the treaty of
peace which secured to British creditors the right of recovering in the
United States their honest debts. This proposition was frowned down by
every right-minded man in that chamber.
Another delicate matter connected with the foreign relations of the
United States now occupied the mind of Washington. The French
government, as we have observed, on recalling Genet, asked that of the
United States to recall Mr. Morris. Washington was anxious to appoint a
judicious successor--one that would be acceptable to the French, and who
would not compromise the neutrality of his own country. He confided in
Pinckney, and desired Mr. Jay, in the event of his mission being
successful, to remain in London as resident minister. Pinckney would
then be sent to France. But Jay would not consent to the arrangement.
Washington then offered the French mission to Robert R. Livingston,
chancellor of the state of New York, who, with his extensive and
influential family connections, was in politics a republican. Livingston
declined, and the president finally offered it to James Monroe. He
consented to serve, and his nomination was confirmed by the senate on
the twenty-eighth of May. Soon after this, John Quincy Adams, son of the
vice-president, was appointed minister at the Hague in place of Mr.
Short, Jefferson's secretary of legation in France, who went to Spain to
ascertain what Carmichael, the American minister there, was doing, his
government being unable to hear from him except at long intervals.
Mr. Monroe arrived in Paris toward the middle of August, and immediately
sent to the president of the convention the following letter:--
"_Citizen-President:_--Having, several days since, arrived with a
commission from the president of the United States of America, to
represent those states in quality of minister plenipotentiary at
the capital of the French republic, I have thought it my duty to
make my mission known as early as possible to the national
representatives. It belongs to them to determine the day, and to
point out the mode, in which I am to be acknowledged the
representative of their ally and sister republic. I make this
communication with the greater pleasure, because it affords me an
opportunity, not only to certify to the representatives of the free
citizens of France my personal attachment to the cause of liberty,
but to assure them at the same time, in the most positive way, that
the government and people of America take the highest interest in
the liberty, success, and prosperity of the French republic."
Robespierre had lately fallen. His bloody rule was at an end. For some
time he had been hated by the Convention, to which body reason and
conscience were bringing their convictions. On the twenty-eighth of July
the Convention resolved to crush him. Billaud Varennes, in a speech
replete with invective, denounced him as a tyrant; and when Robespierre
attempted to speak, his voice was drowned with cries of "Down with the
tyrant! down with the tyrant!" A decree of outlawry was then passed, and
he and some of his friends were ordered to immediate execution. With
their fall the Reign of Terror ended. The nation breathed freer, and the
curtain fell upon one of the bloodiest tragedies in the history of the
race.
It was at this auspicious moment that Monroe appeared. The sentiments of
his letter were so much in consonance with the feelings of the hour,
that it is said the president of the Convention embraced Monroe
affectionately when they met. It was decreed that the American and
French flags should be entwined and hung up in the hall of the
Convention, as an emblem of the union of the two republics; and Monroe,
not to be outdone in acts of courtesy, presented the banner of his
country to the Convention in the name of his people.
Congress adjourned on the ninth of June to the first Monday in the
succeeding November. The session had been a stormy one. Questions of
national policy had arisen, which called forth some of the most animated
and eloquent discussions ever held upon the floor of the house of
representatives; and when the adjournment took place, questions were
pending, the solution of which caused many an anxious hour to the
president and the friends of the republic.
As soon as Washington could make proper arrangements, he set out on a
flying visit to Mount Vernon. Many persons had predicted that the yellow
fever would reappear in Philadelphia during that summer; and, to guard
his family against the dangers of its presence, he removed them to a
pleasant house at Germantown. On the eighteenth of June he left for the
Potomac; and at Baltimore he wrote a brief letter to Gouverneur Morris,
assuring him of his undiminished personal friendship, notwithstanding
his recall. At Mount Vernon he wrote another, in which Washington
evinced his consciousness that vigilant eyes were upon all his public
movements, and not with friendly intent. "The affairs of this country,"
he said to Morris ironically, "can not go wrong; there are so many
watchful guardians of them, and such infallible guides, that no one is
at a loss for a director at every turn."
Washington did not return to Philadelphia quite as early as he had
anticipated, owing to an injury to his back, received while using
exertions to prevent himself and horse being precipitated among the
rocks at the Falls of the Potomac, at Georgetown, whither he went on a
Sunday morning to view the canal and locks at that place, in which he
felt a deep interest. He was back, however, early in July, and was soon
informed of popular movements in western Pennsylvania and in Kentucky,
which presented the serious question whether the government had
sufficient strength to execute its own laws.
The movement in Kentucky was the result, in a great degree, of Genet's
machinations, and the influence of the Democratic societies. It is true,
there had been dissatisfaction among the people there for several years,
because the Spanish government kept the Mississippi closed against
American commerce. Now, that dissatisfaction assumed the form of menace.
During the recent session of Congress, the people of that region sent a
remonstrance to the supreme legislature respecting the navigation of the
Mississippi. It was intemperate and indecorous in language. It charged
the government with being under the influence of a local policy, which
had prevented its making a single real effort for the security of the
commercial advantages which the people of the West demanded, and cast
aspersions upon the several departments of government. They also
intimated that they would leave the Union if their grievances were not
speedily redressed, and the "great territorial right" of the free
navigation of the Mississippi secured to them.
This remonstrance was referred to a committee by the senate, who
reported, that such rights to the navigation of the great river as were
sought by the western people were well asserted in the negotiations then
going on at Madrid; and on the recommendation of the committee, the
senate resolved that the president should be requested to communicate to
the governor of Kentucky such part of the pending treaty between the
United States and Spain as he might deem advisable, and not inconsistent
with the course of the negotiation. The house of representatives also
passed a resolution, expressing their conviction that the president was
doing all in his power to bring about the negotiation as speedily as
possible.
The demagogues at the West, who hoped to profit by the excitement and
bring about hostilities with the Spaniards in Louisiana, refused to be
soothed by these assurances; and at a convention of a number of the
principal citizens of Kentucky, assembled at Lexington, the following
intemperate and indecorous resolutions were adopted:--
"That the general government, whose duty it is to put us in
possession of this right [free navigation of the Mississippi] have,
either through design or mistaken policy, adopted no effectual
measures for its attainment.
"That even the measures they have adopted have been uniformly
concealed from us, and veiled in mysterious secrecy.
"That civil liberty is prostituted, when the servants of the people
are suffered to tell their masters, that communications which they
may judge important may not be intrusted to them."
These resolutions concluded with a recommendation of county meetings, of
county committees of correspondence, and of a convention when it might
be judged expedient, to deliberate on the proper steps for the
attainment and security of their just rights.
No doubt the leaders in these movements felt indignant because an
expedition, which had been prepared in the West for an invasion of
Louisiana under the auspices of Genet, had been frustrated by the
vigilance of the president, who, when informed of the fact, had ordered
General Wayne, then in the Ohio country, to establish a military post at
an eligible place on the Ohio river, to stop any armed men who should be
going down that stream. This interference with what they had been taught
to believe were their inalienable rights was considered a very great
grievance.
In a private letter, on the tenth of August, Washington referred to
these movements in Kentucky, and said, after expressing a conviction
that there "must exist a predisposition among them to be dissatisfied:"
"The protection they receive, and the unwearied endeavors of the general
government to accomplish, by repeated and ardent remonstrances, what
they seem to have most at heart--namely, the navigation of the
Mississippi--obtain no credit with them, or, what is full as likely, may
be concealed from them, or misrepresented by those _societies_, which,
under specious colorings, are spreading far and wide, either from real
ignorance of the measures pursued by the government, or from a wish to
bring it, as much as they are able, into discredit; for what purposes,
every man is left to his own conjectures."
Washington continued: "That similar attempts to give discontent to the
public mind have been practised with too much success in some of the
western counties in this state [Pennsylvania], you are, I am certain,
not to learn. Actual rebellion against the laws of the United States
exists at this moment, notwithstanding every lenient measure, which
could comport with the duties of the public officers, has been
exercised to reconcile them to the collection of taxes upon spirituous
liquors and stills. What may be the consequence of such violent and
outrageous proceedings is painful in a high degree, even in
contemplation. But, if the laws are to be so trampled upon with
impunity, and a minority, a small one too, is to dictate to the
majority, there is an end put, at one stroke, to republican government;
and nothing but anarchy and confusion are to be expected hereafter. Some
other man or society may dislike another law, and oppose it with equal
propriety, until all laws are prostrate, and every one--the strongest, I
presume--will carve for himself."
Washington alluded to the rebellious movement in western Pennsylvania,
at that time, known in history as "The Whiskey Insurrection."
FOOTNOTES:
[64] The following are the names of the officers appointed by
Washington: John Barry, Samuel Nicholson, Silas Talbot, Richard Dale,
Thomas Truxton, James Sever, _commanders_; Joshua Humphreys, George
Cleghorn, Forman Cheeseman, John Morgan, David Stodder, James Hackett,
_naval constructors_; Isaac Coxe, Henry Jackson, John Blagge, W.
Pennock, Jeremiah Yellott, Jacob Sheafe, _navy agents_.
[65] A striking caricature appeared a little earlier than this, entitled
_The Contrast_. It was in the form of two medallions, one called
_English liberty_, and the other _French liberty_. On the former is seen
Britannia, holding the pileus and cap of liberty in one hand with Magna
Charta, and in the other the scales of justice. At her feet stoops a
lion; and on the placid sea, in the distance, is a British
merchant-vessel under full sail. Under the medallion are the words,
"Religion, Morality, Loyalty, Obedience to the Laws, Independence,
Personal Security, Justice, Inheritance, Protection, Property, Industry,
National Prosperity, Happiness." On the latter medallion is a fury, in
the form of a woman; her hair formed of serpents; flames issuing from
her cestus of snakes; in one hand a bloody sword, in the other a
trident--the head of a man, streaming with blood upon one prong, and a
human heart upon each of the others; while under her feet is a
prostrate, naked, headless man. In the distance is seen a street lamp,
with a man hanging by the neck from its supporting bracket. Under this
medallion are the words, "Atheism, Perjury, Rebellion, Treason, Anarchy,
Murder, Equality, Madness, Cruelty, Injustice, Treachery, Ingratitude,
Idleness, Famine, National and Private Ruin, Misery." Below all is the
significant question, "_Which is best_?"