Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3.

by Benson John Lossing

We have already alluded to the relative position of the Spaniards in the southwest, and their disposition to exclude the Americans from the navigation of the southern Mississippi to its mouth. An attempt to open that navigation by treaty had failed; and there was an almost undefinable boundary-line between the Spanish possessions and those of the United States, about which a dispute had arisen that threatened unpleasant relations with Spain.

France, the old ally of the new republic, was still friendly; but its government was then shaken by a terrible revolution just commenced, in which Lafayette took a conspicuous part. Of this we shall speak hereafter.

Up to the time in question, the representatives of France in America had exhibited the most friendly disposition. Count de Moustier, the successor of the Chevalier de Luzerne, was assiduous in his attentions; and Washington had scarcely commenced the exercise of his executive functions, before that embassador, who had been more than a year in the country, sought a private interview with him, preparatory, as he said, to diplomatic negotiations concerning the commerce between the two nations. He was anxious to secure for his country superior advantages in commercial arrangements, and seemed to feel that France, as an ally, was entitled to more consideration than other nations. Washington reciprocated his expressions of friendship, gave him assurance of the most friendly feeling toward France on the part of the people and government of the United States; but, with a wise caution, did not commit himself to any future policy in regard to commercial or other intercourse with the nations of Europe.

While zealously engaged in his public duties, Washington was prostrated by violent disease, in the form of malignant anthrax or carbuncle boil upon his thigh, and for several days his life was seriously jeoparded. Fortunately for himself and the republic, there was a physician at hand, in the person of Doctor Samuel Bard, by whose well-directed skill his life was spared. While the malady was approaching its crisis, Doctor Bard never left his patient, but watched the progress of the disease with the greatest anxiety. On one occasion, when they were alone in the room, Washington, looking earnestly in the doctor's face, said: “Do not flatter me with vain hopes; I am not afraid to die, and therefore can bear the worst.” Bard replied with an expression of hope, but with an acknowledgment of apprehension. To this the president calmly answered: “Whether to-night or twenty years hence makes no difference—I know that I am in the hands of a good Providence.”

While Washington was so calm under his severe affliction—for his sufferings were intense—the public mind was greatly agitated upon the subject of his illness; for momentous interests were suspended upon the result of the disease. Every hour, anxious inquiries were made at the presidential mansion. People listened with the most intense concern to every word that was passed from the lips of the physician to the public ear; and there was a sense of great relief when his convalescence was announced. But his recovery was very slow. On the twenty-eighth of July he was enabled for the first to receive a few visits of compliment, notwithstanding he had considered his health as restored three weeks earlier. “But,” he wrote to Mr. M'Henry, “a feebleness still hangs upon me, and I am much incommoded by the incision which was made in a very large and painful tumor on the protuberance of my thigh. This prevents me from walking or sitting. However, the physician assures me it has had a happy effect in removing my fever, and will tend very much to the establishment of my general health.” As late as the eighth of September he wrote to Doctor Craik, saying:

“Though now freed from pain, the wound given by the incision is not yet healed.”

Before he had fairly recovered, the president heard of the death of his mother, who expired at Fredericksburg, on the twenty-fifth of August, at the age of little more than eighty-two years, forty-six of which she had passed in widowhood. The event was touchingly alluded to in the pulpits of New York; and at the first public levees of the president, after her death was known, members of the two houses of Congress and other persons wore badges of mourning.

When Washington had fully recovered, he resumed his labors for the public good with the greatest ardor. The Congress had been chiefly employed, meanwhile, in framing laws necessary to the organization of the government. The most important of these, in the senate, was an act for the establishment of a judiciary, and in the house of representatives an act providing a revenue by an imposition of discriminating duties upon imports. The latter subject had received the earliest attention of the house, for, in the condition in which the new government found the national finances, it was an all-important one. Mr. Madison brought it to the attention of Congress, only two days after the inauguration, by a suggestion, in the first committee of the whole on the state of the Union, to adopt a temporary system of imposts, by which the exhausted treasury might be replenished. Upon the questions which this proposition gave birth to, long and able debates ensued, in which the actual state of the trade, commerce, and manufactures of the country were quite fully developed. From the published reports of these debates Washington collated a mass of facts which aided him much in his future labors, and in drawing conclusions concerning public measures. An act for the collection of revenue through the medium of imposts was finally passed, and the principle was recognised of discriminating duties for the protection of American manufactures. The plan then adopted became the basis of our present revenue system.

Another important question that engaged Congress during its first session was the establishment of executive departments, the heads of which should be the counsellors and assistants of the president in the management of public affairs. Hitherto these functions had been performed by those officers who had been appointed, some of them several years before, by Congress under the old Confederation. John Jay had been secretary for foreign affairs (an equivalent to secretary of state) since 1784; General Knox had been at the head of the war department since the close of 1783, when he succeeded General Lincoln; and the treasury department was still managed by a board, at that time consisting of Samuel Osgood, Walter Livingston, and Arthur Lee.

Congress established three executive departments—treasury, war, and foreign affairs (the latter afterward called department of state)—the heads of which were to be styled secretaries, instead of ministers as in Europe, and were to constitute, with the president of the United States, an executive council. In the organization of these departments, the important question arose, in what manner might the high officers who should fill them be appointed or removed? Many believed that the decision of this question would materially influence the character of the new government; and the clause in the act to “establish an executive department to be denominated the department of foreign affairs,” which declared the secretary thereof to be removable by the president, was debated with great warmth. It was contended that such a prerogative given to the president was in its character so monarchical that it would, in the nature of things, convert the heads of departments into mere tools and creatures of his will; that a dependence so servile on one individual would deter men of high and honorable minds from engaging in the public service; and that the most alarming dangers to liberty might be perceived in such prerogative. It was feared, they said, that those who advocated the bestowment of such power upon the president were too much dazzled with the splendor of the virtues which adorned the then incumbent of the office; and that they did not extend their views far enough to perceive, that an ambitious man at the head of the government might apply the prerogative to dangerous purposes, and remove the best of men from office.