FOOTNOTES:
[1] A graceful compliment from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Adams whose competitor he had been in the election, for the President and Vice President were not then voted for separately but the person having the highest number of votes became President, and the next highest the Vice President; and in this election there was only a difference of three votes between the two highest on the list.
[2] The sensibility which was manifested when General Washington entered, did not surpass the cheerfulness which overspread his own countenance, nor the heartfelt pleasure with which he saw another invested with the power and authorities that had so long been exercised by himself.—Marshall.
[3] In this early day, the parliamentary rule was enforced against any reference in one House to what was done in the other.
[4] Valued by a speaker in this debate at £5000 sterling, and afterwards given to the Washington College, Lexington, Va.
[5] Afterwards General and President. This was his first appearance in the national councils—and characteristically—defending with his voice those Western settlers whose defence, with the sword, was afterwards the foundation of his national fame and political elevation.
[6] This is the true ground on which the United States becomes liable to a State for its expenses in suppressing or repulsing Indian hostilities. It turns upon the idea of an actual invasion, or such imminent danger of it as not to admit of delay: then the contingency happens in which the State may engage in war, and all the acts of Congress, and the Government orders give way before a constitutional right. Tennessee, like other new countries in the United States, was settled without law, and against law. Its early settlers not only had no protection from the Federal Government, but were under legal disabilities to pursue the enemy. This arose from the policy of the Government to preserve peace on the frontiers by restraining the advance of settlements, and curbing the disposition of the people to war. The history of all the new settlements, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is the same: people go without law, and against law; and when they can neither be stopped by the Government, nor driven back by the Indians, then the Government gives them protection.
[7] The committee reported in favor of paying the brigade of General Sevier, (300 infantry and two troops of horse,) amounting to the sum of $22,816 and 25 cents—a very small sum for a remote expedition into the country of a formidable Indian tribe, and so efficiently conducted as to secure tranquillity to the frontier. It deserves to be remembered for its promptitude, efficiency and cheapness.
[8] The solution of the enigma was, that those who voted against taxing slaves were opposed to any direct tax whatever, and the members from the slave States who supported the tax, did so because the taxation of lands and slaves went together in the slave States—the people were used to the association—and to omit slaves in the direct tax would be unjust and unpopular, as sparing the rich and making the tax fall heavier upon persons of less property.
[9] Yeas and nays not taken.
[10] The great naval powers of Europe show themselves sensible of this, by proposing to the United States to abolish privateering.
[11] The whole expense of procuring peace from Algiers, and forbearance to prey upon our citizens and commerce, and to redeem the captives, was then about one million of dollars; and the alternative was between paying that amount and carrying on war against her. War preparations had begun, and six frigates had been authorized to be built. A war with Algiers, then a formidable power, (and of course with the rest of the Barbary States,) was a very serious undertaking to the United States at that time—the cost great and certain—the issue uncertain. The greatest powers of Europe paid tribute to these barbaric pirates: it was no disgrace to the infant United States to do the same: and the redemption of the captives was a further inducement, founded in humanity: so that the price of peace became a question of economy.
[12] She was compensated accordingly.
[13] The resolution offered by Mr. Harper contemplated an official interposition in behalf of Lafayette—a grave proceeding, which President Washington had well considered beforehand, and maturely decided against. But unofficially he had been exerting himself to procure the release, or to mitigate the fate of the illustrious captive. A confidential person had been sent to Berlin to solicit his discharge, his first captivity being in Prussia; but before the arrival of the messenger the well-guarded prisoner had been turned over to the Emperor of Germany. Mr. Thomas Pinckney, the American Minister in London, had been instructed to make known the wishes of the President to the Austrian Minister at that place, and the British Ministry had been solicited to take an interest in the application: but all in vain. As a last attempt, and at the moment of ceasing to be President, he addressed a private letter to the Emperor of Austria, couched in noble and feeling terms, in which he solicited that Lafayette might be allowed to come to the United States. The letter said: "I forbear to enlarge upon this delicate subject. Permit me only to submit to your majesty's consideration, whether his long imprisonment, and the confiscation of his estate, and the indigence and dispersion of his family, and the painful anxieties incident to all these circumstances, do not form an assemblage of sufferings which recommend him to the mediation of humanity? Allow me, sir, on this occasion to be its organ; and to entreat that he may be permitted to come to this country on such conditions, and under such restrictions as your majesty may deem it expedient to prescribe." This touching appeal remained without effect; and the romantic effort of Dr. Bollman having failed to save Lafayette, after snatching him from the dungeon of Olmutz, it remained for the glittering sword of the conqueror of Italy to command what the noble letter of Washington failed to obtain. After the Treaty of Campo Formio, an aid-de-camp of the then young General Buonaparte proceeded to Vienna—asked the release of Lafayette—and obtained it. The Emperor, Francis the Second, might have appeared more gracefully in the transaction, if he had yielded the release to the letter of Washington.
[14] The close of the Fourth Congress terminates the presidency of General Washington, and presents, a proper point for a retrospective view of the working of the Government for the first eight years of its existence. Such a view is full of instruction, and deserves to be taken; and first of the finances. Moderate expenses, and moderate taxes were the characteristics of this branch of the service. The support of the Government, called the Civil List, and comprehending every object of civil expenditure, was, for the year 1796, (the last of Washington's administration,) $530,392, and the duties on imports about five millions of dollars—or nearly ten times as much as the support of the Government required—leaving nearly nine-tenths to go to the public debt, the preservation of peace with the Indian tribes, defence of the frontiers, protection of commerce in the Mediterranean; and other extraordinary objects. This amount was produced by moderate duties—the ad valorems, 10, 12-1/2, 15 and 20 per centum—and mainly produced by the two first rates, the two latter chiefly applying to objects of luxury not used by the general mass. Thus: The amount of imports subject to the 10 and the 12-1/2 rates was $28,267,000, while those subject to 15 were $7,850,000; and those subject to 20 per centum only the third of one million. The average of the whole was about 13 per centum. The specific duties were on the same moderate scale; and the cost of collecting the whole was 3.73 per cent. The interest on the public debt was three millions and a quarter; the Military Department, $1,300,000; Naval Department, $440,000; tribute to the Barbary powers, veiled under the name of foreign intercourse expense, was $300,000; while the regular diplomatic intercourse was only about $40,000. The whole expenditure of the Government was about 5-1/2 millions: its whole revenue something more—the excise on distilled spirits producing some $400,000. Thus, order and economy were established in the finances. Abroad peace had been maintained. The proclamation of neutrality, unanimously agreed upon in the Cabinet, saved the United States from the calamity of being involved in the wars of the French Revolution. The commercial treaty with Great Britain stopped the depredations which the British had commenced upon American vessels carrying provisions to France, and obtained indemnity for depredations already committed. With Spain the serious question of the free navigation of the Mississippi was settled; and, in addition to the right of navigation, a place of deposit for American produce and merchandise was obtained at New Orleans—the right to be absolute for three years, and afterwards until an equivalent place should be provided. (It was the subsequent violation of this right of deposit which led to the acquisition of all Louisiana.) Safety to the persons and property of American citizens in the Mediterranean Sea had been obtained, according to the means usual at that time, and upon terms to be endured until strong enough to do better. The formidable Indian war in the North-west, and the troublesome hostilities in the South-west, had been terminated, and peace given to the young communities on the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers which, commencing without authority, were laying the foundations of future great States. A domestic insurrection (that of Western Pennsylvania) had been quelled, and happily without bloodshed—the exhibition of a large force, with Washington at its head, being sufficient to forbid resistance, and a wise humanity sparing all punishment. The new Government was solidly established, and amidst difficulties which might have been insuperable under any other President. Public credit, which had sunk so low under the Confederation, had risen to a high standard under the new Government; and a general commercial and agricultural prosperity pervaded the land.
[15] This was an extra session, called in the early months of Mr. Adams' administration, for the causes stated in his Message to the two Houses.
[16] The following is the speech referred to, Barras being the President of the Directory who addressed it to Mr. Monroe:
"Mr. Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America: By presenting to-day your letters of recall to the Executive Directory, you give to Europe a very strange spectacle.
"France, rich in her liberty, surrounded by a train of victories, strong in the esteem of her allies, will not abase herself by calculating the consequences of the condescension of the American Government to the suggestions of her former tyrants; moreover, the French Republic hopes that the successors of Columbus, Ramhiph, and Penn, always proud of their liberty, will never forget that they owe it to France. They will weigh, in their wisdom, the magnanimous benevolence of the French people with the crafty caresses of certain perfidious persons who meditate bringing them back to their former slavery. Assure the good American people, sir, that, like them, we adore liberty; that they will always have our esteem; and that they will find in the French people republican generosity, which knows how to grant peace, as it does to cause its sovereignty to be respected. As to you, Mr. Minister Plenipotentiary, you have combated for principles; you have known the true interests of your country: depart with our regret. In you we give up the representative to America, and retain the remembrance of the citizen whose personal qualities did honor to that title."
[17] This is a view of those depredations which has been lost sight of. Their injuries are now considered as falling exclusively upon the merchants: it was then agreed that they fell upon the community, the merchant indemnifying himself by insurances and increased profits.
[18] And is still so carried on.
[19] Taxed in Great Britain, with the privilege of commutation for a gross sum.
[20] This sum which amounted to one third of the amount of the notes and disposits, was a general rule for regulating the quantity of cash kept to answer their current demands.
[21] This taxation of bank notes presents the ready mode of regulating the paper currency of the States, and suppressing the mischief of small notes which are a constant source of depredation upon the laboring part of the community, a constant source of crime in the making and passing counterfeit paper, and the constant expeller of the constitutional currency. These small notes were hardly known at the time of this tax, which was so readily imposed, and therefore were taxed lightest: now they are a general circulation, and the most profitable part of a bank's issues; and, therefore, should be taxed highest, both on the principle of being most profitable to the banks and most injurious to the community.
[22] This equilibrium was soon destroyed. The merchants soon got rid of the stamp tax; but the farmers still bear a salt tax.
[23] This extra session having been called on account of expected hostilities with the French Republic, the labors of Congress were consequently limited to the two objects of defence and revenue—preparation for defence, and providing the additional revenue which the defence required. Both objects were accomplished. The three frigates—Constitution, Constellation and United States, which afterwards earned themselves a place in history—were finished and manned. A detachment of 80,000 militia was authorized. A stamp duty was imposed—a loan authorized—and the salt tax increased: the latter as a temporary measure, and with an express clause against continuance, without which it could not have passed, and in contravention of which it was continued. Defence was the great object of the session: invasion the danger: and its repulse by sea and land the remedy. Preparation against invasion was, at that time, a proper policy: the progress of science, and of the arts of peace, has superseded such policy in our day. The electric telegraph, and the steam car, have opened a new era in defensive war. Accumulated masses of volunteers, summoned by electricity and transported by steam, rushed upon the invaded point and giving incessant attacks with fresh arrivals, would exterminate any invading force; and give the cheap, effective and extemporaneous defence which the exigency required.
[24] An illustrious mission, nationally composed of the most eminent citizens, three in number, and taken from different parts of the Union, and from both political parties: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, from South Carolina; John Marshall, from Virginia; Elbridge Gerry, from Massachusetts—the two first federal; Mr. Gerry, republican.
[25] Mr. Gallatin is not accurately reported. The exception extended to all the officers of the Federal Government, and for as long a time as their duties required them to remain in the States, and to all others for the period of six months.
[26] In a subsequent part of this same debate, Mr. Macon retracted this censure upon the Quakers, as being too general.
[27] Acts of limitation have been found necessary in all countries, and in all sorts of claims, to quiet demands, bring things to settlement, and to protect the fair dealer from stale demands, after time and accidents have deprived him of the means of invalidating them. Necessary in the transactions of individuals, they become still more so in the transactions of the Government. Its officers are constantly changing, and the knowledge of transactions continually being lost, and the representatives of the Government without the personal interest which stimulates inquiry and invigorates defence. The Government becomes helpless against claims, even the most unjustifiable, after the lapse of some years; and, without the protection of a statute of limitations, is subject to continual impositions. This was well known to the conductors of our Revolution, and the founders of our Federal Government; and they took care, as they believed, to provide against a danger which they knew to be imminent. Equally solicitous to pay every valid claim, and to avoid the payment of unjust ones, they began even during the war to call upon all claimants to present their demands—to furnish abstracts when the case was not ready to be proved up. These calls were redoubled at the conclusion of peace, were repeated during the existence of the confederation, and reiterated at the formation of the new Government under the constitution. They took the form of law, and barred the claims which were not presented within limited times. The final bar was seven years after the new Government went into operation. The committee, of which Mr. Gallatin was chairman, made an enumeration of these different statutes, and reported in favor of their observance—a report in which the House concurred, and to which Congress then conformed its action. These statutes, and the reasons in which they were founded, seem to have been since forgotten; and stale claims let in upon the Treasury without restraint, and proved without difficulty, which no call could bring forth at the time they were supposed to have originated. It is instructive to look over the list of these statutes, and see the reasons in which they were founded, and the efforts made to call in all valid claims, and the attention paid to them fifty years ago, and the disregard since.
[28] Upon the request of General Washington the Count de Grasse remained in the Chesapeake beyond the time which his instructions allowed, risking all the penalties of insubordination, and by so doing did what was indispensable to the capture of Lord Cornwallis.
[29] This was the first debate on the prohibition of Slavery in a Territory which took place under the Federal Constitution, and it is to be observed that the constitutional power of Congress to make the prohibition, was not questioned by any speaker. Expedient objections only were urged.
[30] The speaker here alludes to the paper called "the second treaty of Pilnitz," which he declares to be a forgery. The first treaty of Pilnitz was a mere conditional agreement between the Emperor and the King of Prussia, that if either of them should be attacked by France, they would unite to repel the attack. This treaty they avowed; and when, on the acceptance of the new Constitution by the King of France, better prospects of a peaceable conduct on the part of that nation were entertained, they suspended this treaty by a formal declaration.
[31] Thus, by a close vote, the Naval Department was created; and, as the proceedings show, by a party vote—the Republicans of that day being against a Navy.
[32] The allusion was to Mr. Liston, the British Minister, accused of complicity with Senator Blount, of Tennessee, in a scheme to send an expedition against the Spanish province of West Florida, in breach of our neutrality, Great Britain and Spain being then at war, and the United States at peace with both. Mr. Blount was expelled the Senate for his part in that affair, but it was only the beginning of the enterprises which ended twenty years afterwards in adding both East and West Florida to the United States. These provinces were geographically appurtenant to the American Union, and their possession essential to its political system. The desire for their acquisition was natural, and efforts to obtain them incessant, until the acquisition was made.
[33] The call was made with a view to the final vote on the Provisional Army Bill, and the way in which the absentees were accounted for—one sick and the rest on leave—was highly creditable to the members.
[34] Whereas, armed vessels sailing under authority, or pretence of authority, from the Republic of France, have committed depredations on the commerce of the United States, and have recently captured the vessels and property of citizens thereof, on and near the coast, in violation of the law of nations, and treaties between the United States and the French nation: Therefore,
Be it enacted, &c., That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, and he is hereby authorized, to instruct and direct the commanders of the armed vessels belonging to the United States, to seize, take, and bring into any port of the United States, to be proceeded against according to the laws of nations, any such armed vessel which shall have committed, or which shall be found hovering on the coasts of the United States, for the purpose of committing depredations on the vessels belonging to citizens thereof; and, also, to retake any ship or vessel, of any citizen or citizens of the United States, which may have been captured by any such armed vessel.
[35] At this period it was the custom of Congress to have the funerals of members in the morning or evening, before the meeting, or after the adjournment of the Houses.
[36] I allude to my painful residence here, as a political cipher.
[37] The general consent with which this answer was voted was honorable to the House, and advantageous to the character of the country. Besides depredations on our commerce, there was, at that time, a course of studied indignities to the United States from the French Government, then having the form of a Directory, of which Barras was President, and Talleyrand Foreign Secretary. These indignities were marked and systematic; of which the speech of Barras to Mr. Monroe when he had his take-leave audience—the refusal to receive his successor, General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and insolent threat to commit him to the police as a mere foreigner in Paris—the subsequent refusal to receive both himself and Judge Marshall, sending them out of the country, and endeavoring to divide the embassy—intriguing to extort a bribe, and to obtain a loan in violation of our neutrality—and not only proclaiming but acting on the assumption that we were a divided people, (French and British,) and that a devotion to one or the other of these powers, and not a sentiment of American nationality, was the sole rule of our policy. The unanimity of the answer to the President's Speech was a proper reply to all this outrage and insult. And the re-echoed declaration of protection "to the sacred rights of embassy," was not only just in itself, and called for by the occasion, but was due to the personal characters, the dignity and decorum of the two repulsed Ministers, (Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall,) as well as to their official station and the nation they represented.
[38] Then in a state of successful revolt against France, but her independence not acknowledged.
[39] A strong expression, but justified by what had been seen in St. Domingo.
[40] This whole debate abounds with valuable information on the condition of the French West Indies—political, commercial and historical—during the period of the French Revolution. Toussaint, Santhonax, Polverel, Victor Hugues, Hedouville, Rigaud, Deforneaux, were household words fifty years ago; and words of portent in their day, and giving shape to events of present import—though hardly known now.
[41] The House was in Committee of the Whole, but still the speakers were held to the point, and hence the force and brevity, and instructive character of these early debates.
[42] It was not the custom then to adjourn the Houses to attend the funeral of a member. The burial took place before, or after, the day's session.
[43] In our service the time has been stated at much less—at every eight or ten years.
[44] The following extract from the celebrated report and resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia, in the year 1799, speak the sentiments of the democratic party of that day on the subject of a Navy: "With respect to the Navy, it may be proper to remind you that whatever may be the proposed object, or whatever may be the prospect of temporary advantages resulting therefrom, it is demonstrated by the experience of all nations who have ventured far into naval policy, that such prospect is ultimately delusive; and that a navy has ever in practice been known more as an instrument of power, a source of expense, and an occasion of collisions and wars with other nations, than as an instrument of defence, of economy, or of protection to commerce." And among the resolutions then adopted, she instructs her Representatives and requests her Senators as follows: "To prevent any augmentation of the navy, and to promote any proposition for reducing it within the narrowest limits compatible with the protection of the sea-coasts, ports and harbors of the United States, and of consequence a proportionate reduction of the taxes."
[45] These assurances were given by the same Directory, and through the same Minister of Foreign Affairs, (Talleyrand,) who had refused to receive Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall; and, on receiving these assurances, another extraordinary mission of three eminent citizens was appointed to proceed to Paris. They were: Oliver Ellsworth, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; William Richardson Davie, late Governor of the State of North Carolina; and William Vans Murray, U. S. Minister Resident at the Hague. Before they arrived at Paris, the Revolution of the 18th Brumaire had occurred—the Directorial Government overturned, the Consulate established, and Buonaparte at the head of affairs. He retained Talleyrand in the Foreign Ministry, and that astute and supple character conformed as readily to the policy of the First Consul, (peace with the United States,) as he had complied with the contrary policy of the Directory.
[46] The allusions were to Mr. Jay and Mr. Ellsworth, appointed to foreign embassies while chief Justices—the former by President Washington, the latter by President John Adams.
[47] This was the famous Judiciary act, passed in the last days of Mr. Adams' administration, and increasing the number of federal judges, which gave so much dissatisfaction at the time, and which was repealed in the beginning of Mr. Jefferson's administration.
[48] The prints referred to by Mr. Trumbull, in his letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, are, first, a representation of the Battle of Quebec, and death of General Montgomery; second, the Battle of Bunker's Hill—both elegant engravings. They are placed on the right and left of the Speaker's chair, and are highly ornamental to the Representatives' Chamber.
[49] This was a skilful movement, and a fair one. It shifted the onus from the friends to the opponents of the President; and besides giving them the advantage of the defensive, impeded the supporters of Mr. Livingston's motion with preliminary and extrinsic questions from the start. It was a great party question in its day, and before the people chiefly turned upon the point that Robbins was an American citizen, while in Congress that point was given up, and the debate turned upon the legal right of the President to advise the judge to give up the man, and especially to giving him up without trying his claim to American citizenship. Though made, in the main, a party question, it was not entirely so in the vote, many of the democracy voting with the federal members in justification of Mr. Adams. It was in this debate that the (afterwards) Chief Justice Marshall made the speech which gained him so much fame.
[50] This speech is not reported.
[51] This speech is not reported.
[52] Not reported.
[53] Not reported.
[54] Son of Mr. James Jarvis, of New York, and midshipman on board the Constellation in the engagement of the 1st of February, who was killed by the falling of the mast.
[55] The First Meeting of Congress at Washington City.
[56] Citizen Talleyrand, retained under the Consulate as Minister of Exterior Relations, was the organ of our Ministers' communications with the First Consul, and his language and deportment on their arrival present a fine contrast to what they were in the time of the Directory, and of the X., Y., Z. subaltern intriguers. Thus, arriving in Paris on the 2d of March, they notify the Citizen Minister of that fact on the 3d, and the same day receive this answer: "The information which you have just communicated of your arrival at Paris, has given me real satisfaction. If you will take the trouble to call upon me at half-past twelve to-morrow, I will be exceedingly glad to have the honor of receiving you." They called as requested, and were treated with all courtesy; and, having expressed a desire to be presented to the First Consul, they received the next day the evidence that he had attended to their request and accomplished it, and giving the hour they were to be "so obliging" as to attend in the Hall of the Ambassadors, in the Palace of the Tuileries. And in notifying them that a commission was appointed to treat with them, he expressed himself with amiable politeness, "to remove a misunderstanding which comports as little with the interests as with the sentiments of the two Governments."
[57] Subject to the disapproval of Congress, and to remain in force until disapproved—this Territory being a copy in its Government of that of the North-west under the Ordinance of the 13th July, 1787, except in the anti-slavery clause.
[58] Nominated Secretary at War, May 7th, 1800. Nomination postponed on the 9th of May. Appointed May 13th Secretary of State, appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Jan. 27th, 1801. Died 1835.
[59] Twenty-two years afterwards this opinion was verified, and the system abolished, after thirty years of injurious existence—so hard is it to get rid of an evil establishment when it has once got foothold.
[60] This result was due, more than to any other, to General Hamilton, as the majority of the federal party were strongly disposed to support Colonel Burr—from doing which, they were impressively and successfully counselled by him. He was personally well with Burr, and ill with Jefferson, but took the public good, and not his own feelings, for his guide. He said of them, and of his own duty between them: "If there be a man in the world I ought to hate, it is Jefferson. With Burr I have always been personally well. But the public good must be paramount to every private consideration." The danger of Burr's election was imminent, as appears from a letter of Bayard's to General Hamilton, wherein he says: "I assure you, sir, there appears to be a strong inclination in the Federal party to support Mr. Burr. The current has already (January 7th) acquired considerable force, and is manifestly increasing. The vote which the representation of a State enables me to give would decide the question in favor of Mr. Jefferson. At present I am by no means decided as to the object of preference. If the Federal Party should take up Mr. Burr, I ought certainly to be impressed with the most undoubting conviction before I separate myself from them." This passage from a letter of Mr. Bayard, (who afterwards decided the election,) shows the imminence of the danger of Burr's election; and the answer to it, (with letters to other federal members,) shows that that danger was averted by General Hamilton. In these letters he depicted Burr as morally and politically a bad man, utterly unfit and unsafe to be trusted with the Presidency, and in circumstances to make crime his necessity as well as his inclination, and implored him to save the country from the "calamity" of his election. The sting of these letters, rankling in the bosom of Burr, produced the duel in which General Hamilton afterwards lost his life. A singularly hard fate! to die for serving his country, and that in the person of an enemy.
This election in the House of Representatives, protracted through four days and to the 36th ballot, produced the most intense excitement throughout the United States, and filled the minds of all good men with alarm for the safety of the Union. The conclusion, however, showing ten States to have voted for Mr. Jefferson, and only four for Mr. Burr, shows that there were many members duly impressed with the solemnity of the crisis, and patriotically coming forward to sacrifice private and political feeling on the altar of public safety. The following detail of the 36 ballotings, all alike but the last, appeared in the National Intelligencer at the time, and shows the name and the vote of the different members in this most arduous and eventful struggle.
[From the National Intelligencer, of Feb. 17 and 18, 1801.]
That the people may know how the votes of their Representatives have been given, we present a statement:
New Hampshire.—4 for Burr, viz: Mr. Foster, Mr. Sheafe, Mr. Tenney, and Mr. Freeman.
Massachusetts.—11 for Burr, viz: Mr. S. Lee, Mr. Otis, Mr. N. Read, Mr. Shepard, Mr. Thatcher, Mr. Wadsworth, Mr. L. Williams, Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Mattoon, Mr. J. Read, Mr. Sedgwick.
Three for Jefferson, viz: Mr. Bishop, Mr. Varnum, Mr. Lincoln.
Rhode Island.—2 for Burr, viz: Mr. Champlin, and Mr. J. Brown.
Connecticut.—7 for Burr, viz: Mr. C. Goodrich, Mr. E. Goodrich, Griswold, Mr. Dana, Mr. J. Davenport, Mr. Edmond, Mr. J. C. Smith.
Vermont.—1 for Jefferson, viz: Mr. Lyon.
One for Burr, viz: Mr. Morris.
New York.—6 for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Bailey, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Elmendorph, Mr. Van Cortlandt, Mr. J. Smith.
Four for Mr. Burr, viz: Mr. Bird, Mr. Glenn, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Platt.
New Jersey.—3 for Jefferson, viz: Mr. Kitchell, Mr. Condit, Mr. Linn.
Two for Burr, viz: Mr. F. Davenport, Mr. Imlay.
Pennsylvania.—9 for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Gregg, Mr. Hanna, Mr. Leib, Mr. Smilie, Mr. Muhlenberg, Mr. Heister, Mr. Stewart, Mr. R. Brown.
Four for Burr, viz: Mr. Waln, Mr. Kittera, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Woods.
Delaware.—1 for Mr. Burr, viz: Mr. Bayard.
Maryland.—4 for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. S. Smith, Mr. Dent, Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Christie.
Four for Mr. Burr, viz: Mr. J. C. Thomas, Mr. Craik, Mr. Dennis, and Mr. Baer.
Virginia.—14 invariably for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Nicholas, Mr. Clay, Mr. Cabell, Mr. Dawson, Mr. Eggleston, Mr. Goode, Mr. Gray, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Jackson, Mr. New, Mr. Randolph, Mr. A. Trigg, Mr. J. Trigg, Mr. Tazewell.
Five for Mr. Burr on the same ballots, (two of whom on the first ballot voted for Mr. Jefferson,) viz: Mr. Evans, Mr. H. Lee, Mr. Page, Mr. Parker, Mr. Powell.
North Carolina.—6 invariably for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Alston, Mr. Macon, Mr. Stanford, Mr. Stone, Mr. R. Williams, Mr. Spaight.
Four for Burr on some ballots, (3 of whom on the first ballot voted for Mr. Jefferson,) viz: Mr. Henderson, Mr. Hill, Mr. Dickson, Mr. Grove.
South Carolina.—Mr. Sumter being sick has not attended, but will attend, at every hazard, the moment his vote can be of any avail. The individual votes of the Representatives of this State are not accurately known, but it is generally believed that Mr. Huger votes for Mr. Jefferson; and Mr. Rutledge, Mr. Pinckney, and Mr. Harper, vote for Mr. Burr. Mr. Nott's vote is doubtful. He has gone home.
Georgia.—1 for Jefferson, viz: Mr. Taliaferro—Mr. Jones, who is dead, would have voted the same way.
Kentucky.—2 for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Davis and Mr. Fowler.
Tennessee.—1 for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Claiborne.
On Saturday last a memorial was presented to John Chew Thomas, representative in Congress for this District, from a respectable number of his constituents, recommending him to vote for Thomas Jefferson, and declaring that at least two-thirds of his constituents were in favor of the election of Mr. Jefferson.
The memorial was signed by the most respectable Federal gentlemen of the City of Washington.
[From the National Intelligencer, of Feb. 18.]
On Tuesday at 12 o'clock the 35th ballot was taken; the result the same with that of the preceding ballots.
At one o'clock the 36th ballot was taken which issued in the election of Thomas Jefferson.
On this ballot there were,
Ten States for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Four States for Mr. Burr, viz: Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
Two States voted by blank ballots, viz: Delaware and South Carolina.
In the instance of Vermont, Mr. Morris withdrew.
In that of South Carolina, Mr. Huger, who is understood previously uniformly to have voted for Mr. Jefferson, also withdrew, from a spirit of accommodation, which enabled South Carolina to give a blank vote.
And in the instance of Maryland, four votes were for Jefferson and four blank.
[61] The administration of Mr. Adams fell upon difficult times, and involved the necessity of measures always unpopular in themselves, and never more so than at that time. The actual aggressions of France upon our commerce, her threats of war, and insults to our ministers, required preparations to be made for war; and these could not be made without money, nor money be had without loans and taxes. Fifteen millions was the required expenditure of the last year of his administration; a large sum in that time, but almost the whole of which went to three objects; the army, the navy, and the public debt. The support of the Government remained at the moderate sum which it had previously presented; to wit, $560,000. The duties still remained moderate—the ad valorems, 10, 12-1/2, 15 and 20 per centum; and the latter more nominal than real, as it only fell upon a few articles of luxury, of which the importation was only to the value of $430,000. The main levy fell upon the 10 and 12-1/2 per centum classes, of which to the value of 26-1/2 millions were imported; of the 15 per centum class only 7-1/2 millions were imported; and the average of the whole was 13 per centum and a fraction. The specifics were increased, but not considerably; and the cost of collecting the whole was 4-1/2 per centum. Direct taxes and loans made up the remainder. The whole amount collected from duties was about 10 millions: to be precise, $10,126,213; that is to say, nearly twenty times as much as the support of the Government (comprehending every civil object) required. The administration of Mr. Adams, though condemned for extravagance, was strictly economical in the support of the Government, and in the collection of the revenue: the army and the navy, those cormorant objects of expenditure, brought the demands for money which injured the administration.
[62] This is the first instance of a Message being sent to the two Houses at the commencement of a session. Though veiled and commended by temporary reasons, founded in the convenience of the members and placed in the fore part of the letter, yet the concluding reasons (which are of a general and permanent nature) disclose the true reasons for the change—which was, to make it permanent: and permanent it has been. It was one of Mr. Jefferson's reforms—the former way of assembling the two Houses to hear an address in person from the President, returning an answer to it, the two Houses going in form to present their answer, and the intervention of repeated committees to arrange the details of these ceremonious meetings, being considered too close an imitation of the royal mode of opening a British Parliament. Some of the democratic friends of Mr. Jefferson doubted whether this change was a reform, in that part of it which dispensed with the answers to the President. Their view of it was, that the answer to the Speech, or Message, afforded a regular occasion for speaking to the state of the Union, and to all the topics presented; which speaking, losing its regular vent, would afterwards break out irregularly on the discussion of particular measures, and to the interruption of the business on hand. Experience has developed that irregularity, and another—that of speaking to the Message on the motions to refer particular clauses of it to appropriate committees, thereby delaying the reference; and, in one instance during Mr. Fillmore's administration, preventing the reference during the entire session.
[63] [From the National Intelligencer of Jan. 8, 1802.]
On Monday last the editor addressed a letter to the President of the Senate, requesting permission to occupy a position in the lower area of the Senate Chamber, for the purpose of taking with correctness the debates and proceedings of that body.
It may be necessary to remark that heretofore no stenographer has been admitted in this area; and the upper gallery, being open to the admission of every one, and very remote from the floor of the House, has prevented any attempt being made to take the debates, from the impossibility of hearing distinctly from it.
The contents of the letter were submitted by the President to the Senate; and a resolution agreed to, to the following effect: Resolved, That any stenographer, desirous to take the debates of the Senate on Legislative business, may be admitted for that purpose, at such place, within the area of the Senate Chamber, as the President shall allot.
On Wednesday the editor had, accordingly, assigned to him a convenient place in the lower area, from which he took notes of the proceedings of the Senate On the adoption of the above resolution, which opens a new door to public information, and which may be considered as the prelude to a more genuine sympathy between the Senate and the people of the United States, than may have heretofore subsisted, by rendering each better acquainted with the other, we congratulate, without qualification, every friend to the true principles of our republican institutions.
[64] This motion gave rise to one of the most extended and earnest debates which had occurred in Congress, involving the interests and passions of party, as well as questions of high constitutional law and of great public expediency; and was brought on in the approved parliamentary form of a resolution to try the principle, unembarrassed with the details of a new bill. The law proposed to be repealed, besides adding sixteen new circuit judges at once to the federal bench, (making 38 in all,) was passed in the last days of an expiring administration, and the appointments made in these last moments, and well confined to one political party: so that many reasons conspired to make it objectionable on one hand and desirable on the other, and to call forth the strongest exertions both for, and against, the repeal.
[65] It was a party vote, and a close one, some changes of members having changed the majority since the last session—then a bare majority on the Federal side.
[66] A debate of great length and earnestness now took place in the House on this repealing bill sent down from the Senate, and passed there by a majority of only one. The two parties seemed to have staked themselves upon it, not before the House, (where the issue was certain,) but before the country, to the arbitrament of which the great appeal was made. Above thirty members delivered elaborate speeches, of which but small parts can be given in an abridgment—the less to be regretted, as the staple of each was, of necessity, much the same—but varied, enlivened and enforced by the peculiar talent, learning and ability of different speakers. Their names were—for the repeal: John Bacon, of Massachusetts; John Clopton, of Virginia; Thomas T. Davis, of Kentucky; John Dawson, of Virginia; William B. Giles, of Virginia; Andrew Gregg, of Pennsylvania; Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina; John Milledge, of Georgia; Thomas Morris, of New York; Joseph H. Nicholson, of Maryland; John Randolph, of Virginia; General Samuel Smith, of Maryland; Philip R. Thompson, of Virginia; James Holland and Robert Williams, of North Carolina.—Against the repeal: James A. Bayard, of Delaware; Manasseh Cutter, of Massachusetts; Samuel W. Dana, of Connecticut; John Dennis, of Maryland; Thomas Plater, of Maryland; William Eustis, of Massachusetts; Calvin Goddard, of Connecticut; Roger Griswold, of Connecticut; Seth Hastings, of Massachusetts; Joseph Hemphill, of Pennsylvania; Archibald Henderson, of North Carolina; William H. Hill, of North Carolina; Benjamin Huger, of South Carolina; Thomas Lowndes, of South Carolina; John Rutledge, of South Carolina; John Stanley, of North Carolina; Benjamin Tallmadge, of New York.
[67] The detail of the vote on the balloting shows this fact, so creditable to South Carolina.
[68] This is the first authentic declaration that Mr. Jefferson's opinion on slavery was an obstacle to his receiving the South Carolina vote.
[69] A double movement was going on at the same time in relation to the violation of the right of deposit at New Orleans: one by the Administration, commencing with an embassy both to France and Spain to negotiate for the desired places; the other by the opposition, who held negotiation to be unworthy of the country in circumstances of such wrong and insult, and preferred the immediate seizure of New Orleans. Mr. Ross, a Pennsylvania Senator, from the west of the State, whose trade went to New Orleans, was the leader of this forcible movement—in which he was well sustained by the feeling of the whole West. It was on Mr. Ross's resolutions that this violation of the right of deposit at New Orleans was publicly debated; and as it concerned the free navigation of the Mississippi, it was called the "Mississippi question."
[70] This is the act which began the movement, which ended in the purchase of Louisiana. At the time it was passed the views of no one extended to the acquisition of that great province. The island on which New Orleans stands, and the two Floridas, were the object. Even this object was veiled by general expressions in relation to foreign intercourse, but its true purpose was made known in a confidential communication from the President to the House of Representatives, and by it communicated to the Senate, when the bill was up for its concurrence. Mr. Bayard and Mr. Nicholson were the committee that carried up the bill, and delivered this message:
"Gentlemen of the Senate:
"We transmit you a bill, which has passed this House, entitled "An act making further provision for the expenses attending the intercourse between the United States and foreign nations," and in which we request your concurrence. This bill has been passed by us in order to enable the President of the United States to commence, with more effect, a negotiation with the French and Spanish Governments, relative to the purchase of the island of New Orleans, and the provinces of East and West Florida. The nature and importance of the measures contemplated, have induced us to act upon the subject with closed doors. You will, of consequence, consider this communication as confidential."
[71] This was spoken before the campaigns of Ulm, Austerlitz and Jena.
[72] The true reason for the non-circulation of gold was the erroneous valuation of that coin, which was not corrected until thirty years afterwards.
[73] This speech, delivered in the Virginia Convention which ratified the Federal constitution, is the only full and perfect account of the transaction to which it refers that has ever been published. It refers to the design in the Congress of the confederation to give up the navigation of the Mississippi for 25 or 30 years in return for some commercial privileges from Spain—a design which Mr. Monroe was mainly instrumental in defeating, and for which he deserved still higher rewards than honor and gratitude. His reluctance to give the history of this transaction arose from its secret nature, the Congress of the confederation sitting upon it with closed doors, and the members being under injunctions not to disclose what was done. Its essentiality to a knowledge of the political history of the times must be apparent to all who read it.
[74] The famous orator.
[75] See ante, under date of December 22.
[76] All the steps and proceedings which led to the acquisition of Louisiana (and the same occurred in the acquisition of Florida) are given in full, that it may be seen that this important negotiation, which was to involve an appropriation of money, had its foundation laid in the authority of the proper appropriating power—the House of Representatives; to which the purse-strings of the Union were specially confided.
[77] Above forty years afterwards, to wit, in 1846, the Virginia part of the District was retroceded to that State.