The Government was seriously concerned. The King expressed his deep regret, and a French war vessel was sent to America with instructions to Serurier the French Minister, to assure Jackson that, as soon after the elections as the charter would permit, the Chamber would be summoned, the appropriation would be pressed, and the President informed of the result in time for him to communicate the facts to the Congress at the beginning of the session of December, 1834. This held Jackson’s impatience in check. But the elections passed, the Chamber convened, nothing was done, and the next session would not convene until three weeks after the Congress would meet.
As the congressional session approached, Livingston informed Forsyth that only a manifestation of strong national feeling in America would force action in Paris. “This is not a mere conjecture,” he wrote. “I know the fact.” And he reiterated that the moderate tone of the President’s Messages had convinced the French politicians that he would not be supported in vigorous measures, and closed with the significant comment that “from all this you may imagine the anxiety I shall feel for the arrival of the President’s Message.”[814]
The indignation of Jackson over this trifling, intensified by the conviction that France would not have dared thus in the case of a European Power, can be imagined. Many of his friends who lived in constant terror of his temper were beside themselves at the prospect.[815] But he had put his hand to the plough, and it was unlike him to turn back. In the preparation of his Message a futile effort had been made to persuade him to the employment of less emphatic language, but the Cabinet members thought to change slightly the phrasing without his knowledge. Forsyth, who was a master in diplomatic wording, made slight changes in a paragraph, and the Message was sent to the “Globe” to be put in type. When the proof reached the White House, John C. Rives[816] was with Jackson, and Donelson, a party to the plan to moderate, began to read as Jackson, with his pipe in his mouth, paced the floor. All went well until the altered paragraph was reached, and Donelson tried so to slur his reading that the change would not be noticed. Vain hope! Jackson stopped short.
“Read that again, sir.”
This time the secretary read distinctly, and Jackson, the lion in him thoroughly aroused, thundered:
“That, sir, is not my language; it has been changed, and I will have no other expression of my own meaning than my own words.”
And then and there he rewrote the paragraph, making it stronger than originally. Then, placing it in the hands of Rives, he forbade him to print anything else “at his peril.”[817]
Reading the Message to-day it seems moderate enough in tone, without a trace of bluster, and, compared with Cleveland’s Venezuela Message, positively mild. The greater part is a calm, accurate, dispassionate recital of the facts, but it closed with the request for authority for making reprisals on French property should the next session of the Chamber fail to make the required appropriation. “Such a measure,” he said, “ought not to be considered by France as a menace. Her pride and power are too well known to expect anything from her fears, and preclude the necessity of a declaration that nothing partaking of the character of intimidation is intended by us.”
The tone of the Message, appealing to the pride and self-respect of the people, was embarrassing to the Whigs, who for a time hesitated as to their course. To support Jackson might only tend to enhance his popularity, already too great to suit; to attack his course would certainly be disadvantageous to the country in an international controversy.[818] Hone, the Whig diarist, however, was quite sure that the Message “will weaken our cause with the lookers on in other nations.”[819] A month later he was still depressed because of Jackson’s “unnecessary threats,” but, being a praying Whig, he had hopes that Congress would still save the country.[820] Justice Joseph Story was quite as mournful. “The President,” he wrote, “is exceedingly warm for war with France if he could get Congress to back him. The Senate, in these days our sole security, it is well known, would steadily resist him.”[821]
Meanwhile, with the Whigs of the Senate laying their plans to repudiate the President’s position in the face of a foreign adversary, events were moving in France. The Chamber met in the midst of excitement, the Ministry successfully putting their popularity to the test of a vote of confidence. Livingston was encouraged.[822] But a very little later his optimism vanished, and he awaited hopefully the arrival of the Presidential Message.[823] Thus concerned over the tone of the Message, he arranged for couriers to hurry it to him on its arrival at Havre. It reached Paris in an American newspaper at two o’clock in the morning. The excitement was intense. Even Livingston was momentarily stunned. “The feeling,” he wrote Forsyth, “is fostered by the language of our Opposition papers, particularly by the ‘Intelligencer’ and the ‘New York Courier,’ extracts from which have been sent on by Americans, declaring them to be the sentiments of the majority of the people. These, as you will see, are translated and republished here, with such comments as they might have been expected and undoubtedly were intended to produce, and if hostilities should take place between the two nations those persons may flatter themselves with having the credit of a large share in producing them.” He felt, however, that “the energetic language of the Message” would “have a good effect.” And contrary to the fear of Hone that it would degrade us in the eyes of the onlookers, he found that “it has certainly raised us in the estimation of other Powers if we may judge by the demeanor of their representatives here.” He was sure that “as soon as the excitement subsides it will operate favorably on the counsels of France.” Already “some of the papers have begun to change their tone.” As soon as the Message was known, “the funds experienced a considerable fall, and insurance rose.”[824]