JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON
The Struggle for Democracy in America
CHAPTER I
DAYS OF COMEDY
I
WHEN Fisher Ames, exuberant over his unhorsing of Samuel Adams, and eager to try his lance on others, reached New York to take his place in the House of Representatives, he was disgusted to find few indications that a new government was about to be established. Wandering about the narrow, crooked streets he encountered few colleagues. That was the beginning of his cynicism.
A week after the date set for the opening of Congress but six Senators had appeared, and a circular letter was sent to the others urging their immediate attendance. Two weeks more and neither House nor Senate could muster a quorum.[1] Ames could see little improvement on the ‘languor of the old Confederation,’ but expected an organization of the House within a day or two. A Virginian, lingering in Philadelphia with a slight indisposition, was expected momentarily and the Representatives from New Jersey were on the way. But there was nothing definite on which to base such fair hopes of the Senate.[2] The next day Madison wrote Washington in a similar vein.[3] This seeming indolence or indifference was the subject of pessimistic conversations among the members in town as they meandered about the streets. Revenue was being lost—‘a thousand pounds a day’; credit was going; the spirit of the new experiment was sinking. ‘The people will forget the new government before it is born,’ wrote Ames. ‘The resurrection of the infant will come before its birth.’[4] Already petty jealousies and ambitions were manifesting themselves, with much intriguing for the honor of being messengers to notify the President and Vice-President of their election.[5] The little city was overrun with job-hunters. Even before the gavel fell on the first session, there were discussions of removing the capital elsewhere because of ‘the unreasonable expense of living,’ in New York.
It was not until April 2d, almost a month late, that a quorum was formed in the two houses. The following day George Washington was elected President, John Adams Vice-President, and messengers started for Mount Vernon and Braintree. Confronted by the most momentous governmental task in history, the men on whom fell the burden of creating a new nation had consulted their personal convenience about starting. It was not a promising beginning.
II
If the lawmakers had been derelict, the people of New York had not. They at least appreciated the possibilities of a capital. The task of designing Federal Hall in which Congress was to meet had been entrusted to L’Enfant—who was to win undying fame by planning the city of Washington—and he had done his work well—some thought too well. Ames was rather delighted over the fact that it had cost ‘20,000 pounds York money,’ but Ames was a lover of luxury, and the more democratic Wingate, while conceding that the city had ‘exerted itself mightily,’ was afraid it had done so ‘excessively.’[6] In truth there was dignity and beauty in the stately arches and the Doric columns, in the lofty vestibule paved with marble and lighted from an ornate dome, in the design and decorations of the chambers, with their graceful pilasters and their crimson draperies. There was richness enough to disturb the republican souls of members from the rural districts and the small towns.[7] Among the members who sat down amidst these surroundings were a number who were nationally known and brilliant, but the majority were comparatively obscure and mediocre. Looking over his colleagues, the enthusiastic and impressionable Ames found himself ‘less awed and terrified’ than he had expected; for while it was ‘quite a republican assembly’ because ‘it looks like one,’ he could see few ‘shining geniuses.’[8] To the more experienced Madison, the outlook was not so pleasing. ‘I see on the list of Representatives a very scanty proportion who will share in the drudgery of business,’ he wrote.[9]