It is impossible to reconcile the slurring references of some historians to his manner in debate with the speeches that speak for themselves on the musty pages of the ‘Annals of Congress.’ Here was a man speaking directly to a purpose. No critic need kill off his Roman consuls, for there were none. No craving here for a reputation for erudition. No mere rhetorical flourishes to confuse the sense. No theatrical appeals to the emotions. No verbosity at all—but ‘a clear, nervous expression, a well-digested and powerful condensation of language,’ which could make an impression on the scholarly Story. That great jurist, an unfriendly witness, could not hear him without admiration. ‘He holds his subject always before him,’ he wrote, ‘and surveys it with untiring eyes; he points his objects with calculated force and sustains his positions with penetrating and wary argument. He certainly possesses great strength of mind.’[718]
Having prepared himself to meet all comers, he thus dashed to the combat. Having assimilated all that he had absorbed, his native resourcefulness and ready command of good plain English did the rest. He spoke with the forceful fluency which was the best possible substitute for eloquence. A powerful voice, a virile manner, compelled attention and respect. Did an enemy attack him as he rushed along? He either crushed him with brutal strength, or cleverly ducked the blow—and was on his way again. Instinctively he knew when to strike and when to dodge. When on the floor, he dominated the scene. This was the man, so much belittled, whom Benton wrote down in cold deliberation as ‘the most accomplished debater which his country has ever seen.’ This the man selected in the conferences of Jefferson and Madison to lead the attack on the Secretary of the Treasury.
V
During this period of waiting, with the gossips busy in the taverns and the streets, Freneau was zealously seeking to create the right atmosphere for the attack. With the Hamiltonians ascribing all prosperity to the policies of their chief, Freneau and other editorial enemies were making much of the protest of ‘Patriot,’ who had been ruined through the abuse of these fiscal policies.
The tale is true [it ran]. I loved my country. In 1775, my only son fought on Bunker Hill.... His mother sent the chair down to carry him home. She wiped the blood from his face and dressed the wound in his breast. He died. My neighbor, Smallacre ... said it was the proper reward for rebellion, but that a halter would have been more proper. I persevered in the cause of freedom. Congress wanted money—I called in my debts and sold all my land excepting forty acres. In ... 1778 I had 12,000 in paper. I loaned the whole, and when they were consolidated at forty for one I had a loan office certificate for $300. In 1784 the General Court issued a large tax. As I could obtain neither the interest or principal of my loan office note I was obliged to sell it. My neighbor, Smallacre, saved his property from the waste of a cause to which he was heartily opposed, and he appeared to buy my note at Three Shillings for Twenty. By this means I paid my State tax of Nine pounds, ten shillings and had four pounds left for town and parish taxes. As my son was dead I was content to be poor.... My old chair and horse remained.... My neighbor, Smallacre, has now become rich by purchase of public securities from people distressed as I was. He tells me that our Hancocks and our Sam Adams and those kind of men know how to pull down a government, but do not know how to build one.[719]
Prosperity? Yes, but for whom? demanded the enemies of Hamilton, poking the ‘Patriot’s’ protest under the nose of his defenders. With the Hamiltonians crediting their idol with all the good things that had occurred, Freneau was moved to mirthful verse:
‘Whales on our shores have run aground,
Sturgeons are in our rivers found—
Nay—ships have on the Delaware sailed,
A sight most new.
Wheat has been sown—
Harvests have grown—
On coaches now, gay coats of arms are borne
By some who hardly had a cent before—
Silk gowns, instead of homespun, now are seen,
Instead of native straw, the Leghorn hat,
And, Sir, ’tis true
(Twixt me and you)
That some have grown prodigious fat,
And some prodigious lean.’[720]
This press crusade against Hamilton was carried on along with much laudation of Jefferson, inspired by the report of his decision to retire from the Cabinet. ‘Mirabeau’ heard with distress that ‘the leader of democracy’ wished to ‘seek the peaceful shades’ to ‘solace himself with his favorite philosophy.’ True, the sea had been made tempestuous for him, but ‘the crew are his friends, and notwithstanding the endeavors of the officers to raise a mutiny to supercede him ... his honest labor and firmness has frustrated their wicked intentions and he rides triumphant.’ But with his retirement ‘monarchy and aristocracy would inundate the country.’[721] Right, agreed ‘Gracchus,’ ‘for though he has been in office near four years he has never assumed the insolence of it. His department has been that of a Republican and in no one action or expression has he manifested a superiority over his fellow citizens.’[722]
Hamilton and his followers had frankly sought to drive Jefferson from the Cabinet and failed; the plan was now complete for driving Hamilton himself into private life.