WASHINGTON'S SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE--TREATY WITH THE INDIANS--OTHER
INDIAN RELATIONS--TREATY WITH ALGIERS--TREATY WITH SPAIN--PICTURE OF
NATIONAL PROSPERITY--FORBEARANCE IN CONGRESS RECOMMENDED--RESPONSES
TO THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE--ACTION OF LEGISLATURES ON THE
TREATY--LETTER TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS--WASHINGTON'S POLITICAL
CREED--HE IS PREPARED TO MEET ANY ACTION OF CONGRESS--PRESENTATION
OF THE FRENCH FLAG TO THE UNITED STATES--THE FRENCH CONSTITUTION AND
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION--ACTION IN CONGRESS CONCERNING THE FRENCH
FLAG.
On the eighth of December, 1795, Washington read his seventh annual
address to the assembled Congress. It contained a gratifying summary of
the events of the year in which his government and country were
concerned. He had the pleasure of informing them officially of the
"termination of the long, expensive, and distressing war," in which the
army had been engaged with the Indians of the Northwest Territory, by
the treaty made by Wayne at Grenville, to which we have already alluded.
That treaty was doubtless more easily consummated, after Wayne's
victories, because of the knowledge that the western posts were about to
be given up to the United States. By that treaty, a tract of twenty-five
thousand square miles was ceded to the United States, lying in one body
east of a defined line, and including the eastern and southern part of
the present state of Ohio. They also ceded sixteen detached portions of
territory in the region westward of that line, most of them two miles
square, but several of them much larger. These included the sites of
some of our most flourishing villages and cities in the West. As an
equivalent for these cessions, the Indians were to receive goods to the
amount of twenty thousand dollars in presents, and an annual allowance
of articles to the value of nine thousand, five hundred dollars, to be
distributed proportionately among the tribes who were parties to the
treaty.
"At the exchange of prisoners which took place on this occasion,"
(conclusion of the treaty,) says Hildreth, "many affecting incidents
occurred. The war as against Kentucky had lasted for almost twenty
years, during which period a large number of white people had been
carried into captivity. Wives and husbands, parents and children, who
had been separated for years, were now restored to each other. Many of
the younger captives had quite forgotten their native language, and some
of them absolutely refused to leave the savage connections, into whose
families they had been taken by adoption."[89]
The Indian relations on the southwestern frontier were not so
satisfactory. Former treaties had been confirmed, and there were signs
of permanent peace; but the reckless violence of some of the white
settlers, in perpetrating bloody outrages upon the Indians, kept that
section of the Union in a state of great inquietude.
In his message, the president announced amicable relations with the new
emperor of Morocco, who in a letter had certified his recognition of a
treaty made with his father. "With peculiar satisfaction I add," said
Washington, "that information has been received from an agent deputed on
our part to Algiers, importing that the terms of a treaty with the dey
and regency of that country had been adjusted, in such a manner as to
authorize the expectation of a speedy peace, and the restoration of our
unfortunate fellow-citizens from a grievous captivity."
We have already observed the appointment of Colonel Humphreys as the
agent to Algiers alluded to. He was then diplomatic agent of the United
States at Lisbon. He came home for the special purpose of making
arrangements for his negotiation, and returned to Lisbon deputed to
purchase a peace of the Barbary powers. From Lisbon, Humphreys proceeded
to Paris to confer with Mr. Monroe, and to solicit the mediation of the
French government, leaving discretionary powers with Mr. Donaldson, who
had accompanied him as consul to Tunis and Tripoli; to conclude a peace
upon the best terms to be obtained, when a favorable opportunity should
occur. On the fifth of September, 1795, Donaldson signed a treaty, by
which, in consideration of the release of the American captives and a
guaranty of peace in the future, it was agreed to pay to the dey of
Algiers the sum of seven hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars,
besides an annual tribute in stores, which, at their real value,
amounted to about forty-eight thousand dollars. Besides these sums, a
biennial present of nine or ten thousand dollars was required, and
twenty thousand more on the appointment of a consul.
The president also announced that Mr. Pinckney, who had been sent on a
special mission to Spain concerning the navigation of the Mississippi
river, had been successful, the stipulation being that it should be free
to both parties throughout its entire length. He believed this would
lead the way to the settlement of "a foundation of lasting harmony with
a power whose friendship the United States had uniformly and sincerely
desired to cultivate."
The treaty which had caused so much commotion throughout the Union was
alluded to in a manner almost as if incidental. "Though not before
officially disclosed to the house of representatives," the president
said, "you, gentlemen, are all apprized that a treaty of amity,
commerce, and navigation has been negotiated with Great Britain, and
that the senate have advised and consented to its ratification upon a
condition which excepts part of one article. Agreeably thereto, and to
the best judgment I was able to form of the public interest, after full
and mature deliberation, I have added my sanction. The result on the
part of his Britannic majesty is unknown. When received, the subject
will without delay be placed before Congress."
In contemplation of the general relations of the United States, the
president said: "While many of the nations of Europe, with their
American dependencies, have been involved in a contest unusually bloody,
exhausting, and calamitous, in which the evils of foreign war have been
aggravated by domestic convulsion and insurrection, in which many of
the arts most useful to society have been exposed to discouragement and
decay; in which scarcity of subsistence has embittered other sufferings;
while even the anticipations of a return of the blessings of peace and
repose are alloyed by the sense of heavy and accumulating burdens, which
press upon all the departments of industry, and threaten to clog the
future springs of government, our favored country, happy in a striking
contrast, has enjoyed general tranquillity--a tranquillity the more
satisfactory because maintained at the expense of no duty. Faithful to
ourselves, we have violated no obligation to others. Our agriculture,
commerce, and manufactures prosper beyond example, the molestations of
our trade (to prevent a continuance of which, however, very pointed
remonstrances have been made) being overbalanced by the aggregate
benefit which derives from a neutral position. Our population advances
with a celerity which, exceeding the most sanguine calculations,
proportionally augments our strength and resources, and guaranties our
future security. Every part of the Union displays indications of rapid
and various improvement; and with burdens so light as scarcely to be
perceived, with resources fully adequate to our present exigencies, with
governments founded on the genuine principles of rational liberty, and
with mild and wholesome laws, is it too much to say that our country
exhibits a spectacle of national happiness never surpassed, if ever
before equalled."
With such a picture before them, a picture faithful and true in form and
coloring, how pitiful must have appeared to the wise, and thoughtful,
and generous, those miserable party feuds and personal animosities which
disturbed the peace of the commonwealth--mere loathsome cobwebs, spun by
selfishness, across a piece of gorgeous tapestry--spots upon the sun of
a glorious national career!
Foreseeing the heats of party strife in the national legislature, the
president, after commending to their consideration several important
objects, counselled temperate discussion, "and mutual forbearance where
there may be a difference of opinion." This advice, always timely, was
especially apposite at that time.
The senate gave a cordial response to the message; but the opposition
being in the majority in the lower house, a clause in the response
reported by a committee appointed to prepare it, in which was expressed
"undiminished confidence" in the president, was objected to. The
opposition also desired to strike out from the senate's address the
expression of a belief that the president's foreign policy was an
"enlightened, firm, and persevering endeavor to preserve peace, freedom,
and prosperity." Some members affirmed that their confidence in the
president had been very much diminished by "a late transaction" (signing
the ratification of Jay's treaty); and that they believed such was the
case among the people at large. The address of the representatives was
finally, after much debate, recommitted, and the objectionable clause
was modified so as to read thus: "In contemplating that spectacle of
national happiness which our country exhibits, and of which you, sir,
have been pleased to make an interesting summary, permit us to
acknowledge and declare the very great share which your zealous and
faithful services have contributed to it, and to express the
affectionate attachment which we feel for your character."
Already the legislatures of the different states had taken action on the
treaty. Governor Shelby, in his message to the legislature of Kentucky,
assailed it as containing stipulations that were unconstitutional. The
lower house agreed with him, but the senate would not concur. The
Virginia house of delegates approved of the action of their senators in
voting against the treaty, and rejected a resolution declaring
undiminished confidence in the president. The Maryland legislature
denounced the assaults on the president, and declared their "unabated
reliance on his integrity, judgment, and patriotism." The Pennsylvania
senate took similar action; and the legislature of New Hampshire
denounced the seditious declaimers against the treaty and the
administration. North Carolina would not stand by Virginia in her
action; but the South Carolina legislature declared the treaty "highly
injurious to the general interests of the United States." The matter was
not acted upon by the senate, however, and the subject was not again
taken up. The legislature of Delaware approved of the treaty; while
Governor Samuel Adams, in his address to the general court of
Massachusetts, spoke of the treaty as "pregnant with evil." The
Massachusetts senate considered any action on the subject as an
interference with the powers delegated to the general government; while
the house, by a decided vote, suggested that "respectful submission on
the part of the people to the constituted authorities," was "the surest
means of enjoying and perpetuating the invaluable blessings of our free
and representative government." Rhode Island approved of the action of
the senate and the chief magistrate; and in New York, as well as in
Rhode Island and Massachusetts, a proposition made by resolutions in the
Virginia legislature, that the constitution of the United States should
be so amended as to admit the house of representatives to a share in the
treaty-making power, and otherwise abridging the powers of the
government, was rejected or laid on the table.
The tardiness of the British government in the performance of its acts
of justice toward the United States, and the present apparent hesitation
in ratifying the treaty, perplexed Washington; for this seeming
unfriendliness was used as a weapon by the opposition. Accordingly,
toward the close of the year, he attempted to remind that government of
its duty, in an unofficial way, through Gouverneur Morris, who, having
been succeeded by Mr. Monroe as minister to the French republic, was now
in England, and on quite intimate terms with Lord Grenville and other
ministers, and members of the privy council. In a letter to Morris, on
the twenty-second of December, after giving at much length a narrative
of the causes of complaint against the British government, Washington
said:--
"I give you these details (and if you should again converse with
Lord Grenville on the subject, you are at liberty unofficially to
mention them, or any of them, according to circumstances) as
evidences of the impolitic conduct of the British government
towards these United States, that it may be seen how difficult it
has been for the executive, under such an accumulation of
irritating circumstances, to maintain the ground of neutrality
which had been taken; and at a time when the remembrance of the
aid we had received from France in the Revolution was fresh in
every mind, and while the partisans of that country were
continually contrasting the affections of _that_ people with the
unfriendly disposition of the _British government_. And that, too,
as I have observed before, while _their own_ sufferings during the
war with the latter had not been forgotten.
"It is well known that peace has been (to borrow a modern phrase)
the order of the day with me since the disturbances in Europe first
commenced. My policy has been, and will continue to be while I have
the honor to remain in the administration, to maintain friendly
terms with, but be independent of, all the nations of the earth; to
share in the broils of none; to fulfil our own engagements; to
supply the wants and be carriers for them all, being thoroughly
convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so. Nothing
short of self-respect, and that justice which is so essential to a
national character, ought to involve us in war; for sure I am, if
this country is preserved in tranquillity twenty years longer, it
may bid defiance in a just career to any power whatever; such, in
that time, will be its population, wealth, and resources....
"In a government as free as ours, where the people are at liberty
and will express their sentiments (oftentimes imprudently, and, for
want of information, sometimes unjustly), allowances must be made
for occasional effervescences; but, after the declaration I have
here made of my political creed, you can run no hazard in asserting
that the executive branch of this government never has suffered,
nor will suffer while I preside, any improper conduct of its
officers to escape with impunity, nor give its sanction to any
disorderly proceedings of its citizens.
"By a firm adherence to these principles, and to the neutral policy
which has been adopted, I have brought on myself a torrent of abuse
in the factious papers of this country, and from the enmity of the
discontented of all descriptions. But, having no sinister objects
in view, I shall not be diverted from my course by these, nor any
attempts which are or shall be made to withdraw the confidence of
my constituents from me. I have nothing to ask; and, discharging
my duty, I have nothing to fear from invective. The acts of my
administration will appear when I am no more, and the intelligent
and candid part of mankind will not condemn my conduct without
recurring to them."
Fortified by such conscious rectitude, Washington was well prepared to
meet whatever action the supreme legislature of his country might take
concerning the great question at issue.
We have already observed the cordial reception of Mr. Monroe by the
French government, and the decree of the National Convention that the
respective flags of the American and French republics should be united
and suspended in their hall, as a token of eternal friendship between
the two nations. Mr. Monroe, it will be remembered, reciprocated this
generous feeling, by presenting to the Assembly the flag of the United
States. When, afterward, Mr. Adet came to America as the successor of
Fauchet, the French minister, he bore a letter from the Committee of
Safety to the Congress, and the banner of the French republic for the
government of the United States. He arrived in the summer of 1795, when
the whole country was in a ferment respecting the treaty with Great
Britain; and partly on that account, but chiefly because he supposed his
communication on the subject of the flag must be made to the Congress
direct, he did not announce to the president that complimentary portion
of his mission until late in December. Adet had then been made aware
that the presentation of the colors to the government must be made
through the president only; and as that presentation would be an
occasion for rejoicing, because of a friendly feeling between the two
nations, Washington appointed the first of January, 1796--"a day of
general joy and congratulation"--as the time when he would receive the
token of amity.
The colors of France were presented to the president for his country,
together with the letter of the French Committee of Safety to the
Congress, at Washington's residence, in the presence of a large number
of distinguished characters. Adet, in a speech on the occasion,
presented in glowing colors the position of France as the great
dispensatory of free opinions in the old world--as "struggling not only
for her own liberty, but for that of the human race. Assimilated to, or
rather identified with, free people by the form of her government," he
said, "she saw in them only friends and brothers. Long accustomed to
regard the American people as her most faithful allies, she sought to
draw closer the ties already formed in the fields of America, under the
auspices of victory, over the ruins of tyranny."
A reply to this address, under the peculiar circumstances in which
Washington was placed, required the exercise of much discretion. It was
necessary to express generous feelings adapted to the occasion, without
the utterance of sentiments, concerning the powers then at war,
inconsistent with the position of neutrality which the United States had
assumed. The president accordingly said:--
"Born, sir, in a land of liberty; having early learned its value;
having engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it; having, in a
word, devoted the best years of my life to its permanent
establishment in my own country, my anxious recollections, my
sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes, are irresistibly
attracted wheresoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation
unfurl the banners of freedom. But, above all, the events of the
French Revolution have produced the deepest solicitude, as well as
the highest admiration. To call your nation brave, were to
pronounce but common praise. Wonderful people! Ages to come will
read with astonishment the history of your brilliant exploits. I
rejoice that the period of your toils and your immense sacrifices
is approaching. I rejoice that the interesting revolutionary
movements of so many years have issued in the formation of a
constitution,[90] designed to give permanency to the great object
for which you have contended. I rejoice that liberty, which you
have so long embraced with enthusiasm--liberty, of which you have
been the invincible defenders--now finds an asylum in the bosom of
a regularly organized government; a government which, being formed
to secure the happiness of the French people, corresponds with the
ardent wishes of my heart, while it gratifies the pride of every
citizen of the United States by its resemblance to their own. On
these glorious events, accept, sir, my sincere congratulations.
"In delivering to you these sentiments, I express not my own
feelings only, but those of my fellow-citizens, in relation to the
commencement, the progress, and the issue of the French Revolution;
and they will certainly join with me in purest wishes to the
Supreme Being, that the citizens of our sister-republic, our
magnanimous allies, may soon enjoy in peace that liberty which they
have purchased at so great a price, and all the happiness that
liberty can bestow.
"I receive, sir, with lively sensibility the symbol of the triumphs
and of the enfranchisements of your nation, the colors of France,
which you have now presented to the United States. The transaction
will be announced to Congress, and the colors will be deposited
with the archives of the United States, which are at once the
evidence and the memorials of their freedom and independence. May
these be perpetual, and may the friendship of the two republics be
commensurate with their existence!"
Washington transmitted to Congress the letter from the Committee of
Safety, the French colors, and copies of the speeches of Adet and
himself at the presentation, on the fourth of January; whereupon, the
house of representatives, by resolution, requested the president to make
known to the representatives of the French people "the most sincere and
lively sensibility" which was excited by this honorable testimony of the
existing sympathy and affections of the two republics; that the house
rejoiced "in the opportunity thereby afforded to congratulate the French
nation upon the brilliant and glorious achievements" which they had
accomplished during the present afflictive war; and hoped that those
achievements would be attended with a perfect attainment of their
object, and "the permanent establishment of the liberty and happiness of
a great and magnanimous people."
On the sixth of January, the senate also passed resolutions expressive
of the pleasure they felt on the reception of this evidence of the
continued friendship of the French republic, and of a desire that the
"symbol of the triumphs and enfranchisement of that great people," as
expressed by Washington in his reply to the French minister, might
contribute to cherish and perpetuate the sincere affection by which the
two republics were so happily united. It was at first proposed, in a
resolution offered in the senate, that the president should communicate
the sentiments of that body to the proper organ of the French
government; but this was opposed, because, it was said, the
complimentary correspondence between the two nations had reached a point
where, if ever, it ought to cease. This amendment was carried by a
strict party vote.
FOOTNOTES:
[89] History of the United States, second series, i, 566.
[90] The letter brought by Adet was from the Committee of Safety, which,
under the revolutionary system in France, was the department charged
with foreign intercourse. After his departure a new order of things was
established. On the thirty-first of May, 1795, the revolutionary
tribunal was, by a decree of the National Convention, abolished in
France. On the twenty-third of June, a committee, appointed for the
purpose, presented the draft of a new constitution, modelled in many
respects after that of the United States. The reading of it, which
occupied several hours, was frequently interrupted by the loudest bursts
of applause. At the conclusion, it was decreed that the discussion of
the instrument should be opened on the fourth of July. On the sixth of
September, the people of France met in primary assemblies for the
purpose of accepting or rejecting the new constitution. The armies of
the eastern and western Pyrenees accepted it on that day, and so did a
great majority of the French nation. The result was announced in the
convention on the tenth of September, with information that two thirds
of the members of that body had been re-elected. In consequence of that
acceptance, a dreadful riot broke out in Paris on the sixth of October,
which lasted several days; but the insurgents were finally overpowered
by the convention troops. Many persons were slain on both sides, and
ringleaders of the riot were soon afterward executed.
The French constitution established an Executive Directory, composed of
five members, who ruled in connection with two legislative chambers,
called respectively The Council of Ancients, and the Council of Five
Hundred. The directory were formally installed at the Luxembourg, in
Paris, on the first of November, 1795. On the same day a pen-picture of
the convention was published at Paris, signed REAL. "The convention," he
said, "has terminated its sittings. Where is the Tacitus who shall write
the history of its glorious actions and its abominable excesses? Obscure
men, sent to devise laws, have during a dictation of three years
displayed an energy, a greatness, and a ferocity, which no longer allow
us to envy either the virtues of ancient Rome or the wild atrocities of
the first Cesars. Physicians, lawyers, and attorneys' clerks, became
suddenly professed legislators, and warriors full of boldness. They have
overturned all Europe, and changed its system.
"With a daring hand they have signed the death-warrant of the successor
of an hundred kings, and in one day broken the sceptre for which an
existence of fourteen centuries had procured a religious and fanatical
veneration. On that day they threw down the gauntlet before astonished
Europe; and William the Conqueror, when he burnt his fleet, did not
place himself with more audaciousness between victory and death. Without
money, without credit, without arms, artillery, saltpetre, and armies;
betrayed by Dumorier; Valenciennes being taken by the Austrians; Toulon
in the hands of the English; the king of Prussia under the walls of
Landau, and a country of ninety leagues extent devoured by one hundred
and fifty thousand Vendeans, they published a decree, and on a sudden
all France became a vast manufactory of arms and saltpetre; one million,
four hundred thousand men sprang up ready armed; the king of Prussia was
defeated near Landau, the Austrians repulsed near Maubenge, the English
routed near Hondschoote, the Vendeans annihilated at Lavenay, and the
tri-colored flag was hoisted on the walls of Toulon.
"Their folly disconcerted the wisdom of ancient politics; songs and the
charging step defeated the celebrated tactics of the Germans; generals
just left the ranks--obscure generals, who but a few months before were
simple sergeants--conceived and executed the plan of the campaign of
1795 which will always remain the admiration of military men, and
defeated the most celebrated generals, the pupils and companions of the
great Frederick. Holland was conquered in January by the inexperienced
troops; and what Louis XIV, in the zenith of his glory, did not dare to
conceive, the French, by founding a republic, have carried into effect,
and planted the tri-colored standard on the banks of the Rhine.
"It is amidst this long tempest, amidst proscriptions and scaffolds,
this dreadful convention has opened the road to glory; after having
desolated the world, it has exhausted against itself its devouring
energy. Two parties, by turns victorious and vanquished, have been sent
to the scaffold by a third, which, embracing always the cause of the
strongest, preserved itself by sometimes striking against the mountain,
sometimes against the plain.
"Voracious men! your pernicious versatility has produced all the evils
which have devastated France; your wickedness, which you call wisdom,
has overflowed my native land with blood; and posterity will ask, with
wonder, 'What was the political opinion of those who condemned Danton,
Brissot, Lacroix, and Ducos; who advised with Robespierre and Lanjunais,
Billaud de Varennes, and Barrere?' Voracious men! you will be despised
by the present generation, and detested by posterity. Convention! the
murders and atrocities which thy reign has produced will be handed down
to posterity, and will not be credited."
Such was a life-picture, drawn by a master-hand, of the men and the
government with whose operations the leaders of a strong party in the
United States endeavored with mad zeal, for three years, to involve
their own government; a catastrophe prevented only, so far as human
agency was concerned, by the fearless courage and profound wisdom of
Washington in maintaining neutrality.