“That this government, seeing no propriety in the measure, nor conceiving itself to be under any obligation to communicate to the ministers of the French republic all the unpleasant details of what had passed between it and the British minister here, or with the minister of foreign affairs at the court of London on these accounts, conscious of its fair dealing toward all the belligerent powers, and wrapped up in its own integrity, little expected, under the circumstances which have been enumerated, the upbraidings it has met with; notwithstanding, it now is, as it always has been, the earnest wish of the government to be on the best and most friendly footing with the republic of France; and we have no doubt, after giving this candid exposition of facts, that the Directory will revoke the orders under which our trade is suffering, and will pay the damages it has sustained thereby.”
This allusion to depredations upon American commerce by French cruisers, hinted at a state of things which the United States government could not long endure in silence. According to a report made by the secretary of state toward the close of the session, in which he made a full exhibit of the wrongs inflicted by the French on American commerce, it appears that enormous depredations had been committed in the West Indies. All vessels having contraband articles on board, no matter whither bound, were decreed to be good prizes; and the cargoes of neutral vessels bound to or from British ports, or even to Dutch or French settlements in the possession of the British, or cleared out for the West Indies generally, were seized and confiscated. The crews of American vessels captured were generally treated with indignity, and frequently with cruelty. “Bitter complaints,” says Hildreth, “were made of Commodore Barney, then in the West Indies with his two frigates. He was accused of treating with contemptuous indifference and neglect his fellow-citizens brought in as prisoners by the French privateers, and even of having shown his contempt for his country by hoisting the American ensign union down. Yet, when he arrived in the Chesapeake for the purpose of learning and carrying to France the result of the presidential election, though he boasted of having in his pocket the orders of the French Directory to capture all American vessels, and declared that if Jefferson was not chosen president war would be declared by France within three months, he was not the less, on that account, honored and feasted by infatuated politicians who read the Aurora, and believed Washington to be a traitor!”[111]
The votes of the electoral college for president of the United States were opened and counted in the senate on the eighth of February. The result showed a very close balance of political parties. The whole number of votes was one hundred and thirty-eight, making seventy necessary to a choice. Of these, John Adams, the incumbent vice-president, received seventy-one, and Thomas Jefferson sixty-nine votes. Thomas Pinckney, late minister to Great Britain, received fifty-nine votes, Aaron Burr thirty, Samuel Adams fifteen, Oliver Ellsworth eleven, George Clinton seven, John Jay five, James Iredell three, George Washington two, John King two, Samuel Johnson two, and Charles C. Pinckney, then in France, one. At that time the person who received the highest number of the electoral votes was declared to be president, and the person who had the next highest number was declared to be vice-president.
After reading the result, Mr. Adams sat down for a moment, and then rising, said:—
“John Adams is elected president of the United States for four years, to commence with the fourth day of March next; and Thomas Jefferson is elected vice-president of the United States for four years, to commence with the fourth day of March next. And may the Sovereign of the Universe, the Ordainer of civil government on earth, for the preservation of liberty, justice, and peace, among men, enable both to discharge the duties of these offices conformably to the constitution of the United States, with conscientious diligence, punctuality, and perseverance.”[112]
“The die is cast,” wrote the new president elect to his wife, on the following day, “and you must prepare yourself for honorable trials. I must wait to know whether Congress will do anything or not to furnish my house. If they do not, I will have no house before next fall, and then a very moderate one, with very moderate furniture.” He had written to Mrs. Adams a few days before, saying: “I hope you will not communicate to anybody the hints I give you about our prospects; but they appear every day worse and worse. House-rent at twenty-seven hundred dollars a year, fifteen hundred dollars for a carriage, one thousand for one pair of horses, all the glasses, ornaments, kitchen furniture, the best chairs, settees, plateaus, &c., all to purchase; all the china, delph [Delft] or Wedgewood, glass and crockery, of every sort to purchase.”
Washington now prepared, with feelings of the most exquisite pleasure, to retire from public life. Everything which would be unnecessary at Mount Vernon he offered for sale. “The president,” wrote Mr. Adams to his wife, “has a pair of horses to sell; one nine, the other ten years old, for which he asks a thousand dollars.... He must sell something to enable him to clear out. When a man is about retiring from public life, and sees nothing but a ploughshare between him and the grave, he naturally thinks most upon that. When Charles the Fifth resigned his empire and crown, he went to building his coffin. When I contemplated a retirement, I meditated the purchase of Mr. Vesey's farm; and thought of building a tomb in my own ground, adjoining to the burying-yard. The president is now engaged in his speculations upon a vault which he intends to build for himself, not to sleep but to lie down in.... Our friend says she is afraid President Washington will not live long. I should be afraid, too, if I had not confidence in his farm and his horse. He must be a fool, I think, who dies of chagrin when he has a fine farm and a Narragansett mare that paces and canters. But I don't know but all men are such fools. I think a man had better wear than rust.”
In February, when he could begin to count the days and hours that lay between him and that retirement he so much coveted, Washington wrote to his old and dear friends upon the subject with much feeling; and every day brought him new proofs of the love and veneration in which he was held by the people. His birthday was celebrated in Philadelphia in a manner unequalled before. A grand ball was given at the Amphitheatre, in the evening, at which Washington and his lady were present. Mrs. Washington held a “drawing-room” in the afternoon, at which there was a crowd of people. “It was rendered affecting beyond all expression,” said an eye-witness, “by its being, in some degree, a parting scene. Mrs. Washington was moved even to tears, with the mingled emotions of gratitude for such strong proofs of public regard, and the new prospect of the uninterrupted enjoyment of domestic life: she expressed herself something to this effect. I never saw the president look better, or in finer spirits, but his emotions were too powerful to be concealed. He could sometimes scarcely speak. Three rooms of his house were almost entirely full from twelve to three, and such a crowd at the door it was difficult to get in.
“At the Amphitheatre, at night, it is supposed there were at least twelve hundred persons. The show was a very brilliant one; but such scrambling to go to supper that there was some danger of being squeezed to death. The vice-president handed in Mrs. Washington, and the president immediately followed. The applause with which they were received is indescribable. The same was shown on their return from supper. The music added greatly to the interest of the scene. The president staid until between twelve and one; the vice-president till near two. Both were serenaded with repeated huzzas long after they had been in bed. The latter slept so soundly that he knew nothing of it till next morning, though it is said 'Yankee Doodle' was one of the tunes played.”[113]
The eight years of Washington's administration of public affairs, as chief-magistrate of the republic, were now drawing to a close. They had been years of toil, anxiety, and vexation. They had been stormy years; yet, like a rock in the ocean, or the mountain rising from the plain, he had stood unshaken by the surges or the winds. With that serenity of mind which arises from the consolations of a conscience void of offence toward God and man, he took a retrospective view; and with the eagerness of a prisoner about to be released from his cell, to breathe the free air of heaven and repose in peace in the bosom of his home, he approached the hour when he should bid adieu to the incessant labor and turmoil of political life. To his long-tried and dearly-loved friend, General Knox, he wrote as follows two days before his retirement:—