A School History of the United States

by John Bach McMaster

%232. Treaty with Spain.%—About the same time (October, 1795) we made our first treaty with Spain, and induced her to accept the thirty-first degree of latitude as the south boundary of our country, and to consent to open the Mississippi to trade. As Spain owned both banks at the mouth of the river, she claimed that American ships had no right to go in or out without her consent, and so prevented the people of Kentucky and Tennessee from trading in foreign markets. She now agreed that they might float their produce to New Orleans and pay a small duty, and then ship it wherever they pleased.

%233. The Election of Adams and Jefferson, 1796%.—Washington had been reëlected President in 1792, but he was now tired of office, and in September, 1796, issued his "Farewell Address," in which he declined to be the candidate for a third presidential term. In those days there were no national conventions to nominate candidates, yet it was well understood that John Adams, the Vice President, was the candidate of the Federalists, and Thomas Jefferson, of the Republicans. When the votes were counted in Congress, it was found that Adams had 71 electoral votes, and Jefferson 68; so they became President and Vice President.

[Illustration: John Adams]

%234. Trouble with France.%—Adams was inaugurated on March 4, 1797, and three days later heard that C. C. Pinckney, our minister to the French Republic, had been driven from France. Pinckney had been sent to France by Washington in 1796, but the French Directory (as the five men who then governed France were called) had taken great offense at Jay's treaty: first because it was favorable to Great Britain, and in the second place because it put an end for the present to all hope of war between her and the United States. The Directory, therefore, refused to receive Pinckney until the French grievances were redressed.

The President was very angry at the insult, and summoned Congress to meet and take such action as, said he, "shall convince France and the whole world that we are not a degraded people humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear and sense of inferiority." But the Republicans declared so vigorously that if a special mission were sent to France all would be made right, that Adams yielded, and sent John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry to join Pinckney as envoys extraordinary. On reaching Paris, three men acting as agents for the Directory met them, and declared that before they could be received as ministers they must do three things:

1. Apologize for Adams's denunciation of the conduct of France. 2. Pay each Director $50,000. 3. Pay tribute to France.

When the President reported this demand to Congress, the names of the three French agents were suppressed, and instead they were called Mr. X, Mr. Y, Mr. Z. This gave the mission the nickname "X, Y, Z mission."

%235. "Millions for Defense, not a Cent for Tribute."%—As the newspapers published these dispatches, a roar of indignation, in which the Federalists and Republicans alike joined, went up from the whole country. "Millions for defense, not a cent for tribute," became the watchword of the hour. Opposition in Congress ceased, and preparations were at once made for war. The French treaties were suspended. The Navy Department was created, and a Secretary of the Navy appointed. Frigates were ordered to be built, money was voted for arms, a provisional army was formed, and Washington was again made commander in chief, with the rank of lieutenant general. The young men associated for defense, the people in the seaports built frigates or sloops of war, and gave their services to erect forts and earthworks. Every French flag was now pulled down from the coffeehouses, and the black cockade of our own Revolutionary days was once more worn as the badge of patriotism. Then was written, by Joseph Hopkinson of Philadelphia,[1] and sung for the first time, our national song Hail, Columbia!

[Footnote 1: The music to which we sing Hail, Columbia! was called The President's March, and was played for the first time when the people of Trenton were welcoming Washington on his way to be inaugurated President in 1789. For an account of the trouble with France read McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. II, pp. 207-416, 427-476.]

%236. The Alien and Sedition Acts.%—Carried away by the excitement of the hour, the Federalists now passed two most unwise laws. Many of the active leaders and very many of the members of the Republican party were men born abroad and naturalized in this country. Generally they were Irishmen or Frenchmen, and as such had good reason to hate England, and therefore hated the Federalists, who they believed were too friendly to her. To prevent such becoming voters, and so taking an active part in politics, the Federalists passed a new naturalization law, which forbade any foreigner to become an American citizen until he had lived fourteen years in our country. Lest this should not be enough to keep them quiet, a second law was passed by which the President had power for two years to send any alien (any of these men who for fourteen years could not become citizens) out of the country whenever he thought it proper. This law Adams never used.