Jefferson and Hamilton

by Claude G. Bowers

Thus, when in June, Hamilton, under the pretext of disbanding the army in person, fared forth in his carriage on a tour of the New England States, no one doubted the political character of his mission. His purpose was to prevail upon the leaders to give unanimous support to Pinckney and to drop a few Adams votes, or, that impossible, to give Pinckney the same support as Adams. The records of this dramatic journey are meager enough. It is known that in New Hampshire he talked with Governor Gilman, who was the popular leader, and ‘took pains’ to impress upon him ‘the errors and the defects of Mr. Adams and of the danger that candidate cannot prevail by mere Federal strength.’ He urged support of Pinckney on the ground that in the South he would get some anti-Federal votes.[1758] In Rhode Island he evidently encountered a spirited protest from Governor Fenner. The Governor expressed the hope that all the electors would be Federalists, but clearly gave no encouragement to the Pinckney candidacy, according to Hamilton’s own version of the conference.[1759] There were other versions, however, indicative of a stormy interview. The ‘Albany Register’ advised Hamilton, in giving the story of his tour to the ‘Anglo-Federal party which wishes to make Charles C. Pinckney President,’ to ‘forget his interview with the Governor of Rhode Island.’[1760] ‘The Aurora’ followed in a few days with a more circumstantial story. Hamilton had ‘warmly pressed Governor Fenner to support Pinckney’ and ‘the old Governor’s eyes were opened and he literally drove the gallant Alexander out of the door.’[1761] 3

But in Massachusetts, albeit the home of Adams, Hamilton could count upon a cordial reception for his views, since it was also the home of the Essex Junto. This was composed of the Big-Wigs of the party in that State, all ardently devoted to Hamilton, sharing in his hate of democracy and doubt of the Republic. For years these men had met at one another’s homes and directed the politics of Massachusetts. They were men of intellect and social prestige, intimately allied with commerce and the law. There was George Cabot, the greatest and wisest of them all, and one of the few men who dared tell Hamilton his faults. He was a man of fine appearance, tall, well-moulded, elegant in his manners, aristocratic in his bearing, earnest but never vehement in conversation; a man of wealth, and a merchant.[1762] There was Fisher Ames, brilliant, vivacious, smiling, cynical, eloquent, exclusive in his social tastes, and wealthy. There was Theophilus Parsons, learned in the law, contemptuous of public opinion and democracy, reactionary beyond most of his conservative contemporaries, more concerned with property than with human rights. Tall, slender, cold in his manner, colder in his reasoning, he stood out among the other members of the Junto because of his slovenliness in dress. Among his friends, at the dinner table, he was a brilliant conversationalist, for he liked nothing better than to eat and drink, talk and laugh, unless it was to smoke, chew tobacco, and use snuff.[1763] He was the personification of the political intolerance of his class. There, too, was Stephen Higginson, one of the wealthiest and most cultured merchants of his day, a handsome figure of a man who took infinite pains with his toilet and always carried a gold-headed cane. Given to writing for the press, he made ferocious attacks on John Hancock under the nom-de-plume of ‘Laco,’ and the truckmen on State Street whom he passed on his way to business taught a parrot to cry, ‘Hurrah for Hancock; damn Laco.’ So intolerant and bigoted was his household that a child, hearing a visitor suggest that a Democrat might be honest, was shocked.[1764] There also was John Lowell, able lawyer, cultured, ultra-conservative, disdainful of democracy; and there was Christopher Gore, who amassed a fortune in speculation, and held a brilliant position at the Bar. A striking figure he was, when he appeared at the unconventional meetings of the group, tall, stout, with black eyes and florid complexion, his hair tied behind and dressed with powder, courtly in his manners, eloquent in speech, utterly intolerant in his Federalism, and completely devoted to Hamilton’s policies.[1765] These and their satellites were Hamilton’s Boston friends; more, they were the backbone of his personal organization, his shock troops. Thus, when he crossed into Massachusetts on his tour, he was going to his own with the knowledge that they would receive him gladly—and they did.

Reaching Boston on Saturday evening, he conferred with his friends, and on Sunday ‘attended divine services at the Rev. Mr. Kirkland’s.’ On Monday a dinner was given in his honor, where, the party paper insisted, ‘the company was the most respectable ever assembled in the town on a similar occasion.’ General Lincoln presided. Higginson and Major Russell of the ‘Centinel’ were vice-presidents. Governor Strong, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Speaker of the House, Chief Justice Dana, Ames, Cabot, several members of Congress, and members of ‘the Reverend Clergy’ sat about the boards. ‘The tables were loaded with every dainty the season affords and every luxury which could be procured.’[1766] It appears that some Adamsites or Jeffersonians declined to do homage, for we find the ‘Centinel’ commenting that ‘had a certain citizen known that General Hamilton resembled his demi-god, Bonaparte, instead of refusing a ticket to the dinner he would have solicited the honor of kissing—his hand.’[1767] The Hamiltonians were clearly delighted with the occasion; Hamilton himself expanded and talked with freedom in the friendly atmosphere. He talked for Pinckney and against Adams; and in an especially expansive moment, dwelling on the sinister presumption of democracy, said that within four years ‘he would either lose his head or be the leader of a triumphant army.’ The dinner over, the conference concluded, he made an inspection of Fort Independence on Castle Island, and was on his way, accompanied ‘as far as Lynn by a cavalcade of citizens.’[1768] Everything had been carried off with becoming éclat, for had he not stayed at ‘the elegant boarding house of Mrs. Carter?’[1769] Unhappily the carriage in which he rode with the ‘cavalcade’ broke down in the middle of the street,[1770] to the delight of the Jacobins, but his composure gave his followers much satisfaction.

Had not the Adamsites implied that he had received the cold shoulder elsewhere in Massachusetts we might never have known his activities beyond Lynn. He was ‘everywhere welcomed with unequivocable marks of respect, cordiality, and friendship.’ He dined in Salem with Mr. Pickman, ‘drank tea at Ipswich,’ arrived at Davenport’s late in the evening, departed early in the morning for Portsmouth, and reached Newburyport on Sunday. That is the reason there was no demonstration there. But there in the evening he stayed with Parsons ‘in company with some of the most respectable gentlemen of the town.’[1771]

But Hamilton and the Junto were not soon to hear the last of that tour. The Democrats harped incessantly on the promise to lose his head or be the leader of a triumphant army. ‘We have often heard of a French gasconade,’ said ‘The Aurora,’ ‘but we have now to place alongside of it a Creole gasconade in America. Alexander Hamilton leading an army to effect a Revolution! Why, the very idea is as pregnant with laughter as if we were to be told of Sir John Falstaff’s military achievements.’[1772] ‘Manlius’ rushed to the attack, ostensibly in behalf of Adams, in the ‘Chronicle.’ Why this trip to ‘disband the army’? Had Hamilton ever been in the camp before? Had he appeared ‘to plant the seed of distrust in the bosom of the troops? against Adams?’ And what a painful effect upon the great men of Boston! ‘Your personal appearance threw poor Cabot into the shade. Even what had been deemed eloquence in the smiling Ames was soon reduced to commentary; and so petrifying was your power that our District Judge has scarcely since dared to report an assertion from his Magnus Apollo of Brookline, either on politics or banking.’ And lose his head or lead a triumphant army if Pinckney were not elected? ‘Your vanity was more gross than even your ignorance of the characters of the people of the eastern States.’[1773] Two months later, the echoes were still heard. The Reverend Mr. Kirkland, flattered by Hamilton’s cultivation and ingratiation, and young, not content with indiscreetly repeating Hamilton’s observations made in company, rushed into the papers with an attack on Adams and a glorification of Hamilton. What a disgrace to the clergy, wrote ‘No Politician,’ for this flattered youth ‘to vindicate the character of a confessed adulterer, and artfully to sap the well-earned reputation of President Adams.’[1774] Even King heard from a Bostonian that Hamilton ‘in his mode of handling [political themes] did not appear to be the great General which his great talents designate him.’[1775] But Hamilton made his observations and reached his conclusions—that the leaders of the first order were in a mood to repudiate Adams, but that those of the second order, more numerous, were almost solidly for him. He merely changed his tactics.

CHAPTER XX
HAMILTON’S RAMPAGE

I

FINDING that persuasion had failed to shake the fidelity of the second-class leaders, Hamilton bethought himself of coercion. The moment he returned to New York, he wrote Charles Carroll of Carrollton proposing to ‘oppose their fears to their prejudices,’ by having the Middle States declare that they would not support Adams at all. Thus they might be ‘driven to support Pinckney.’ Both New Jersey and Connecticut, he thought, might agree to the plan, since in both places Adams’s popularity was on the wane. In any event, it was not ‘advisable that Maryland should be too deeply pledged to the support of Mr. Adams.’[1776] The effect on Carroll was all that could have been desired. Two months later, an emissary of McHenry’s, sent to interview the venerable patriot, found that he considered Adams ‘totally unfit for the office of President, and would support ... the election of General Pinckney.’[1777] Throughout the summer the leaders in the inner circle of the Hamiltonian conspirators were busy with their pens. Richard Stockton urged on Wolcott the wisdom of making a secret fight. ‘Prudent silence ... get in our tickets of electors ... they will be men who will do right in the vote ... and Mr. Pinckney will be the man of their choice.’[1778]

No one was deeper in the business than Wolcott, who, holding on to his position, and presenting a suave, unblushing front to his chief, was writing feverishly to the leaders of the conspiracy. While Hamilton was receiving the homage of his New England idolaters in June, Wolcott was writing Cabot that ‘if General Pinckney is not elected all good men will have cause to regret the inactivity of the Federal party.’[1779] In July he was writing McHenry that if ‘you will but do your part, we shall probably secure Mr. Pinckney’s election,’[1780] and to Chauncey Goodrich that good men thought Mr. ‘Adams ought not to be supported.’[1781] He was receiving letters from Benjamin Goodhue, presumably Adams’s friend, concerning ‘Mr. Adams’ insufferable madness and vanity,’[1782] and from McHenry that ‘Mr. Harper is now clearly of opinion that General Pinckney ought to be preferred.’[1783] In August he was assuring Ames that ‘Adams ought not to be supported,’[1784] and in September ‘The Aurora’ was charging that during that month he had declared in Washington ‘that Mr. Adams did not deserve a vote for President.’[1785] Clasping Adams’s hand with one of his, this consummate master of intrigue was using the other to wig-wag messages to Hamilton from the window of the fortress.

But Hamilton found much to disconcert him. Albeit Cabot rather boasted that in July he had not yet paid a visit of courtesy to Braintree, and probably would not,[1786] he was writing Hamilton that to discard Adams at that juncture would mean defeat in Massachusetts.[1787] He was opposed, however, only to an open rupture. Noah Webster, having made a New England tour of his own, and lingered a moment under the trees at Braintree, went over to Adams bag and baggage.[1788] All but two of the Federalist papers were supporting Adams with spirit. To prod him more, the Jeffersonian press was pouncing upon Hamilton ferociously. ‘Dictator of the aristocratical party!’ ‘Father of the funding system!’ Working desperately for Pinckney, ‘continually flying through the continent rousing his partisans by the presence of their chief, prescribing and regulating every plan,’ was Hamilton, charged a Jeffersonian editor. Author of ‘a little book’ in which he ‘endeavors to give an elegant and pleasant history of his adulteries,’ he added.[1789] Hamilton began to meditate a sensational stroke.