CONTENTS OF VOL. III.
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
|---|---|---|
| I. | Internal Improvement | [1] |
| II. | Monroe’s Diplomacy | [22] |
| III. | Cabinet Vacillations | [54] |
| IV. | Between France and England | [80] |
| V. | The Florida Message | [103] |
| VI. | The Two-Million Act | [126] |
| VII. | John Randolph’s Schism | [147] |
| VIII. | Madison’s Enemies | [172] |
| IX. | Domestic Affairs | [197] |
| X. | Burr’s Schemes | [219] |
| XI. | Burr’s Preparations | [245] |
| XII. | Escape past Fort Massac | [268] |
| XIII. | Claiborne and Wilkinson | [295] |
| XIV. | Collapse of the Conspiracy | [318] |
| XV. | Session of 1806–1807 | [344] |
| XVI. | The Berlin Decree | [370] |
| XVII. | Monroe’s Treaty | [392] |
| XVIII. | Rejection of Monroe’s Treaty | [415] |
| XIX. | Burr’s Trial | [441] |
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
CHAPTER I.
A second time President Jefferson appeared at the Capitol, escorted with due formalities by a procession of militia-men and other citizens; and once more he delivered an inaugural address, “in so low a voice that not half of it was heard by any part of the crowded auditory.”[1] The second Inaugural roused neither the bitterness nor the applause which greeted the first, although in part it was intended as a cry of triumph over the principles and vanishing power of New England.
Among Jefferson’s manuscripts he preserved a curious memorandum explaining the ideas of this address. As the first Inaugural declared the principles which were to guide the government in Republican hands, the second should report the success of these principles, and recall the results already reached. The task deserved all the eloquence and loftiness of thought that philosophy could command; for Jefferson had made a democratic polity victorious at home and respectable in the world’s eyes, and the privilege of hearing him reaffirm his doctrines and pronounce their success was one that could never be renewed. The Moses of democracy, he had the glory of leading his followers into their promised and conquered Canaan.
Jefferson began by renewing the professions of his foreign policy:—
“With nations, as with individuals, our interests, soundly calculated, will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties; and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is taken on its word, when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.”