The charges were dismissed by Ames, ex-cathedra-wise, with a shrug. What if there had been a juggling of the funds? ‘It is impossible,’ he said unblushingly, ‘to keep different funds, differently appropriated, so inviolably separated as that one may not be used for the object of the other.’ Nothing criminal had been proved.[734]
One by one the resolutions were taken up and overwhelmingly voted down—voted down even where Hamilton had admitted the charge and justified his acts. Before the last vote was reached, many of the members, worn by the excitement, the confinement, and fatigue, and confident of the result, deserted their posts and wandered forth into the winter night.[735]
VIII
Hamilton had sought, through his anonymous letters, to drive Jefferson from the Cabinet—and failed. Jefferson had tried, through this investigation, to drive Hamilton from public life—and failed. The struggle must go on. Each had caused the other some distress, each drawn a little blood, but neither had inflicted a serious wound.
With the adjournment of Congress, the skirmishing was taken up all over the country through the press. The Boston Federalists opened fire upon the ‘Boston Argus.’ It had published the resolutions, but not the Hamilton reports. The resolutions had been carried on the same mail that conveyed the vote of vindication, and the defeat of Giles had not been mentioned. Infamous![736] ‘Marat’ proposed satirical resolutions declaring ‘highly reprehensible’ every official ‘who by integrity, talents, and important services ... conciliates the esteem and affections of the people.’[737] Hamilton had come out pure gold, wrote a Philadelphian to a citizen of Rhode Island. ‘The more it is rubbed, the more it will shine.’[738] A writer in the ‘Connecticut Gazette’ was moved to a frenzy of indignation. ‘Dutch Republicans murdered De Witt and ate his heart. Republicans banished Aristides, the first, and condemned Socrates to Hemlock. And yet we have confined the punishment of eminent services and ability to attempts to degrade them from office by innuendoes, electioneering slanders, and newspaper detraction. This however may be the prelude to eating and banishing.’[739] A traveler in the Southern States wrote of the effect of the investigation in Virginia. It had ‘opened the eyes of many who have hitherto been under the explicit direction of a certain would-be umpire of the United States.’[740] He found that prejudice had been created against Hamilton on the ground that he ‘had not done as much as he ought to assist certain needy men to their claims for services,’ but he was pleased to find that ‘the unjust prejudice against the industrious patriot is decreasing daily.’[741]
Everything possible was done to make Hamilton’s vindication a veritable triumph. When the Providence Society of New York met at Haut’s Tavern for a dinner, the toast, ‘The Secretary of the Treasury—may his distinguished talents and integrity command universal respect,’ was received with shouts and the clicking of glasses.
But the Jeffersonians were unimpressed. ‘After all,’ they said, Hamilton ‘acknowledges the freedom taken with appropriations and strives to work out an apology, rather than a justification.’[742] A week later, the ‘National Gazette’ presented an analysis of the vote of which the Jeffersonians were to make much. Vindication, indeed!—and by whom? Three were directors of Hamilton’s National Bank. Fifteen or twenty were reputed to be stockholders in the same institution. ‘Can these men be admitted as judges—men who in fact are parties to the cause?’[743] All over the land the Jeffersonians were making it uncomfortable for many members who had voted to vindicate, and the Kentuckians soon had Christopher Greenup begging for a suspension of judgment until he could explain.[744] ‘Vindicated!’ cried the Hamiltonians. ‘Yes, and by whom?’ answered the Jeffersonians. ‘By Bank directors, by Bank stockholders who profited, by congressional speculators in the funds.’
IX
Thus the Jeffersonians sought to explain their defeat and even turn it to account. The master mind among them expressed no surprise at the result. He drew up a list of the members who had voted the vindication, indicating which owned Bank stock and which speculated in the funds. When Jefferson journeyed back to renew his strength and courage on his beloved hill, others of his party followed. A little later there was a movement of the leaders to the country home of John Taylor of Caroline at Port Royal, Virginia, where the conferences were continued. Thither went Giles, Senator Hawkins of North Carolina, and Nathaniel Macon. The master of Port Royal was a remarkable character, an ardent Republican, an earnest champion of the agricultural interests, a robust, original thinker with something of the political philosopher, an able writer, a dignified though reluctant Senator. His mind ran much in the same groove with Jefferson’s and Madison’s, both of whom were anxious to enlist him more actively in their fight.
Just what occurred at the conferences that summer is not known. A few months later, however, the probable fruit of the discussions appeared in Philadelphia in the publication of a startling pamphlet, ‘An Examination of the Late Proceedings of Congress Respecting the Official Conduct of the Secretary of the Treasury.’ Here in an analysis of the vote the charge that interested parties had furnished the majority was not only made, but names were given. Of the thirty-five supporters of Hamilton, twenty-one were set down as stockholders or dealers in the funds, and three as Bank directors. Referring to the fervent declaration of Smith of Charleston that Hamilton was as free from taint ‘as the purest angel in Heaven,’ the author of the pamphlet commented that ‘it is well known that [Smith] holds between three and four hundred shares in the Bank of the United States, and has obtained discounts, ad libitum.’ As for Hamilton’s reports, they contained vindications of his conduct ‘in certain particulars relative to which no charge had been brought forward.’ His explanation of the shuffling of appropriations was unimpressive. A deficiency in the appropriation? ‘In such event it becomes his duty to state the fact simply and correctly to the Legislature, that they might, in turn, furnish fresh and additional funds.’ Hamilton had done nothing of the sort. He had treated the House with contempt and violated the law.