Leaving this as a legacy to his party, Jefferson prepared for his return to his beloved Monticello. The executive branch of the Government was to be turned over to the enemy, for no Jeffersonian considered Randolph, who succeeded Jefferson, as a party man. Better a complete separation and open opposition than a further pretense at an unworkable coalition of the two parties. And home was calling imperatively. His private affairs were in need of attention. His ten thousand acres had been neglected. His hundred and fifty-four slaves had not been properly directed. And there, on his serene hilltop, were his daughters, his grandchildren, his friends the books, the trees, the view over the valley at sunrise.
Bidding farewell to his friends and making ceremonious calls upon his foes, he set forth in his carriage for the southward on January 5th. He was going home. Soon the house he had planned on the hill would be in view, soon the negroes would be running down the hill road to meet the carriage, to touch his clothes, to kiss his hands. Soon he would be sitting at his own fireside—in rooms sacred to the memory of the woman for whom the house was built.
CHAPTER XI
HECTIC DAYS
I
SCARCELY had Jefferson reached his quiet hilltop when Madison submitted the resolutions based upon his chief’s Commercial Report, and the English party was instantly in arms. These resolutions were more political than commercial and were clearly aimed at England in retaliation for her refusal to enter into a commercial treaty. The resentment against the English policy had been increasing rapidly, even John Quincy Adams finding the French ruling powers more favorable to the Western Republic than was the Ministry of Pitt.[871] Only in the commercial centers was there a disposition to suffer long and be kind for business reasons. The Chambers of Commerce were on their toes hissing; the Democratic Societies shouldered arms and marched to the tune ‘Ça Ira.’ The galleries of the House filled.
The Federalists met the Madison attack with a counter-charge from William Smith of Charleston, in an elaborate recitation prepared for his delivery by Hamilton. The Carolinian entered the fray with the breezy confidence born of the knowledge that a master mind was behind his utterances. No one was deceived. ‘Every tittle of it is Hamilton’s except the introduction,’ Jefferson wrote Madison.[872] The strategy of the Smith-Hamilton speech was to divert attention from the political to the commercial phase, by showing that our business relations with England were more valuable than those with France. The next day Madison boldly proclaimed the political purpose of the resolutions.[873] Thereafter, with spectators packing the galleries, and almost suffocating the legislators by crowding onto the floor of the chamber, the forensic gladiators fought with more ferocity than finesse. Ames sowed trouble for himself with the amazing declaration that ‘there is an amicable disposition on the part of Great Britain.’[874]
The English are ‘as angry at us as we are at them,’ said Dexter, warning of war. ‘Ridiculous!’ exclaimed Madison. ‘What would Britain gain by war? Would it employ her starving manufacturers’ or ‘give employment to the vessels that formerly imported luxuries to America?’[875] But why these strange accusations against England? asked Ames. What are the specific facts? Facts? thundered Giles. She has ‘subjected our vessels ... to seizure and search’; she ‘prevents our vessels from conveying to our friends and allies goods not contraband’; she is responsible for ‘letting loose the pirates of the Barbary States upon our commerce.’[876] Tracy, Hamiltonian, could see no advantage we had received from the French treaty. At any rate, added Boudinot, we should ‘not over-value the friendship of France.’[877] What, roared Giles, ‘if a prophet in 1778 had foretold that in 1794 that question would have been triumphantly put in an American Congress ... would not the prophecy have been deemed an imputation on the American character?’
But—blandly from Ames—what are our grievances against England? ‘Is it necessary,’ shouted Nicholas, Jeffersonian, ‘to tell the gentleman of the hostilities of the savages on the frontier, of the murder of our citizens, and the plunder of our settlements?’[878] ‘Only a set of resolutions on paper,’ sneered Dayton. Is that our only or best weapon? Yes, answered Madison, ‘we can make use of none against Great Britain more effectual than commercial weapons.’[879]
Thus day by day the debate dragged on. ‘What recent injuries?’ inquired Samuel Smith of Maryland, merchant. ‘The recent proclamation respecting the stoppage of vessels of neutral nations, with all such excepted but the United States,’ hotly answered Madison. ‘Better accept excuses than fight battles,’ warned Ames. Instantly Giles, whose passions slept with one eye open, was on his feet protesting against the idea ‘that the mere exercise of our rights as an independent government is equivalent to a declaration of war.’
Thus the bitterness intensified, with personalities entering the discussions. One day the venerable Abraham Clark of New Jersey, signer of the Declaration of Independence, sat open-mouthed while Smith of Charleston reiterated his views, and then, trembling with age and infirmities, declared that ‘if a stranger were to come into this House he would think that Britain has an agent here.’ Cries of ‘Order!’ ‘Order!’ Smith replied with a sneer at the old man’s garrulity and years. With passions at white heat, the debate was postponed until the first Monday in March.